From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Workman-Temple family
Workman-Temple family
The Workman-Temple family relates to the pioneer in- in Nuevo México, having been forced to swear loyalty to
terconnected Workman and Temple families that were rebels in the Taos Revolt who assassinated the depart-
prominent in: the history of colonial Pueblo de Los An- mental Spanish governor in 1837. After a counter-revolt
geles and American Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Basin squashed the Taoseño rebellion, Workman and his part-
and San Gabriel Valley regions; and Southern California ner Rowland were arrested for smuggling. A few years
— from 1830 to 1930 in Mexican Alta California and the later, when the independent Republic of Texas and its
subsequent state of California, United States.[1] president, Mirabeau B. Lamar, sought to extend its
boundary to the Rio Grande, thereby annexing the prin-
William Workman cipal towns of New Mexico, Workman and Rowland were
named agents of the Texans in New Mexico. Although
England it is unclear whether they sought the position and were
soon replaced, they decided to leave for Alta California
William (’Don Julian’) Workman (November 17,
early in 1841.
1799–May 17, 1876) was born in Temple Sowerby, West-
morland, now Cumbria, England, to Thomas Workman
Southern California
(1763–1843) and Nancy Hook (1771–1830). When William
was eleven years old, his father inherited a substantial In September of that year, a group of up to sixty-five or
home and property in nearby Clifton from a childless so members, including Americans, Europeans and New
aunt and uncle and relocated his family there. In 1814, Mexicans left New Mexico and took the Old Spanish Trail
the Workmans issued cash bequests upon their three to the Los Angeles pueblo. The 1,200-mile (1,900 km)
sons, with the eldest, David Workman, using half his journey was completed by late fall and John Rowland pre-
money to migrate to America in 1817. David settled in the sented a letter of recommendation from New Mexico’s
new town of Franklin, Missouri, the virtual western end American consul and a list of expedition members to the
of the country, in 1819, opened a saddlery and returned authorities in Los Angeles.
to England three years later to retrieve the remainder of The Workman-Rowland Party was long considered
his bequest. In the process, David convinced William to the "first wagon train of Americans to travel overland
join him and the two brothers sailed from Liverpool and to Los Angeles," but the party could not use wagons be-
landed at Philadelphia in September 1822. cause of the difficult Old Spanish Trail route, nor were
they solely Americans.,[2] Workman commemorated his
New Mexico arrival in Southern California with a glass plaque (still in
William stayed in Franklin for three years, working for family hands) that dated his landfall as November 5, 1841,
his brother, before joining an early caravan on the Santa which was a British national holiday called Guy Fawkes’
Fe Trail, which opened in Franklin, Missouri in 1821, to Day.
Santa Fe de Nuevo México-New Spain in the spring of
Rancho La Puente
1825. He then settled in Taos where he did some fur trap-
ping, opened a store, and, in partnership with American Early in 1842, John A. Rowland obtained a Mexican land
John A. Rowland, manufactured liquor. grant to the Rancho La Puente, at that time 18,000 acres
(73 km2), from Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado in the
eastern San Gabriel Valley about twenty miles (32 km)
Workman family from Los Angeles. William Workman was not officially an
William Workman had a common-law marriage with owner at that time, though he received an official docu-
Maria Nicolasa Urioste de Valencia (April 19, ment allowing him the privileges of an owner in settling
1802–February 4, 1892), a Taos Native American, for more on the rancho. In July 1845, Governor Pío Pico amend-
than a decade, having a church marriage at Mission San ed the La Puente grant, adding Workman’s name offi-
Gabriel Arcángel near the Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1844. cially as owner and expanding the rancho to the maxi-
He and Nicolasa had two children, Antonia Margarita mum allowable under Mexican land law, eleven square
(1830–1892) and Joseph Manuel Workman (ca. leagues, or almost 49,000 (48,790.55) acres, 48,790-acre
1833-1901.) (197 km2) Rancho La Puente, out of a portion of which
While a success as a merchant and distiller, Workman was later carved the city of La Puente. Workman occu-
was embroiled in the difficult local politics of the period pied the western portions of the rancho and built an
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Workman-Temple family
adobe home on the property in 1842 that was subse- When the last battle of the war on California soil was
quently expanded by 1856 and then significantly remod- fought in the San Fernando Valley in Cahuenga Pass on 9
eled by 1870. January 1845, Workman and two others brought out the
flag of truce the following morning at Campo de Cahuen-
Mexican American War ga. Notably, Pío Pico had been ordered by the legislature
of Alta California to go to Mexico and request assistance.
When Pico returned to Los Angeles in 1848, he spent
some time at Workman’s residence. When the ex-gov-
ernor refused to present himself to the military com-
mander at Los Angeles, Jonathan D. Stevenson, Stevenson
raged that Workman was complicit in this defiance, an-
grily stating that Workman was "ever hostile to the
American cause."
Nine days before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was
ratified by the Mexican Congress, James W. Marshall dis-
covered gold at Sutter’s Mill on 24 January 1848. The re-
sulting California Gold Rush brought a huge economic
windfall to Workman, whose hide-and-tallow trade activ-
ities with his cattle ranching paled to the need for fresh
The Workman House courtyard, at the Workman and Temple beef in the gold regions. The wealth generated allowed
Family Homestead Museum. Workman to expand his ranching enterprises, enlarge his
house, build a cemetery and chapel on his grounds, and
In early 1845, William Workman was appointed captain acquire real estate.
of a cadre of Americans and Europeans serving with
Governor Pío Pico in his standoff with appointed Gover- Expansion and agriculture
nor Manuel Micheltorena at the battle at Cahuenga Pass One such acquisition came in 1850 when William Work-
of the Mexican American War, northwest of Los Angeles. man, who had loaned money to grantee Casilda Soto de
Although the battle that ensued was limited to minimal Lobo, foreclosed on the Rancho La Merced and then gave
gunfire and no casualties, Workman, his lieutenant John it to his ranch foreman, Juan Matias Sanchez, and his
Rowland, Benjamin D. Wilson, and James McKinley from daughter, Margarita, and her husband, P. F. Temple, Fran-
the Pico side worked out a surrender option with Amer- cisco P. Temple - F.P.T. Subsequently, with his son-in-law
icans and Europeans on the Micheltorena side and the F.P.Temple and with Juan Sanchez, Workman acquired
governor was allowing to leave California by ship. Pico neighboring ranchos, including Rancho Potrero Grande,
assumed the governorship, but his relocating of the Alta Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo, and Rancho Potrero
California capital to Los Angeles from Monterey and his Chico, in the area generally known as Misión Vieja or Old
plan to move the customs house to San Pedro Bay, among Mission, around the first site of Mission San Gabriel at
other issues, led northerner José Castro to mount a chal- Whittier Narrows. Workman later had interests in to-
lenge to Pico’s authority. Workman was appointed to day’s Beverly Hills and Glendale and also had a claim to
lead the defense of Los Angeles against an incursion by the Lytle Canyon area near Rancho Cucamonga and Cajon
Castro’s forces, when news came that the American army Pass.
was ready to invade the department of Alta California. Although the cattle industry was buffeted by the de-
William Workman played an important role in sub- cline of the Gold Rush and battered by the importation
sequent events during the Mexican-American War. After of better breeds of cattle from Texas, the death knell of
a group of Americans, including Wilson and Rowland, the industry as the backbone of the regional economy
were seized in late summer 1846 at the Rancho Santa Ana was the dual disaster of flood in 1861-62 and drought
del Chino house of Isaac Williams, Workman and neigh- from 1862-65. Fortunately for Workman, a friend, Wil-
boring ranchero Ignacio Palomares worked to free the liam Wolfskill, found water and grass in, of all places, the
prisoners, who were held at Paredon Blanco (later Boyle Mojave Desert in today’s Apple Valley area and invited
Heights.) After the native Californios, in the Siege of Los Workman and John Rowland to send their herds there.
Angeles, were successful in expelling the American force With only a 25% loss in his cattle herd population, Work-
left to guard the town after the initial conquest by U.S. man still maintained an inventory of thousands of head
forces and another American invasion was being led by into the 1870s.
Commodore Robert F. Stockton, Workman met Stockton Still, he moved quickly into expanding his agricultur-
at Mission San Juan Capistrano just after New Year’s Day al production after 1865. A raiser of wine grapes since
1847 and arranged an amnesty for all Californios who the 1840s, Workman built three wine-making and storing
would resist the American retaking of Los Angeles.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Workman-Temple family
structures of brick and had some 60,000 vines on about the borrowed funds and Temple and Workman closed on
100 acres (0.40 km2) of vineyards. He also had 5,000 acres 13 January 1876.
(20 km2) of wheat on the "Wheatfield Ranch" north of his The resulting inventory of the bank’s affairs by the
home and built a grist mill near the San Gabriel River. He assignees revealed an unmitigated management disaster.
even experimented successfully with cotton during the Though Temple and Workman were worth several mil-
Civil War when the southern states were losing crops and lion dollars, most of that wealth was tied to land mort-
market share, but transport proved to be too difficult and gaged to Baldwin. Workman, bewildered by events he
the crop was abandoned. had no hand in shaping, was visited by a court receiver
named Richard Garvey, also an associate of Baldwin, on
Land development and banking 17 May 1876. That evening, an ailing Workman took his
By 1870, Los Angeles was growing rapidly and Workman own life at his home on his beloved rancho. He was 76
joined his ambitious son-in-law, F. P. F.(Francis Pliny years old.
Fisk) Temple, in the emerging business arena of the Workman’s death was a shock to a jittery community
nascent city. The two men invested in real estate subdivi- unnerved by the economic paralysis that plagued the
sions, notably: Lake Vineyard in today’s Alhambra and San community for the remainder of the decade and well
Marino in the San Rafael Hills; and Centinela near the Cen- into the next and the population of the city and county
tinela Adobe area in Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela-Ran- dropped for the only time since 1865. As a failed banker,
cho Sausal Redondo, in the present day Los Angeles In- Workman is little known today, though his home at the
ternational Airport-LAX area; some of the first oil spec- Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum is
ulating in the Santa Susana Mountains near present day open for vistation by those who want to know more
Santa Clarita, and others. about the remarkable life he lived in the Los Angeles area
The two men invested in early railroads too, such as from the 1840s to the 1870s.
the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad project from
Santa Monica to Panamint City and the Panamint Range Temple family - the next gen-
mines. To finance these projects, the two joined forces
with young merchant Isaias W. Hellman and formed the eration
second bank in Los Angeles: Hellman, Temple and Com- The first marriage in Los Angeles city history in which
pany (1868-71.) When Temple and Hellman split over dis- both persons had "Anglo" surnames was in September
agreements, Workman being a silent partner, Hellman 1845, of William Workman’s daughter Antonia Margarita
formed Farmers and Merchants Bank with ex-Governor Workman (July 26, 1830–January 24, 1892) to Pliny Fisk
and pioneer L.A. banker John G. Downey, while Temple Temple (Francisco P. Temple or F.P.T ) - February 13,
and Workman went on their own. 1822–April 27, 1880.) The Temples had eleven children,
The banking house of Temple and Workman eight living into adulthood.
(1871–1876) was popular, but largely for the wrong rea- Pliny Fisk Temple-F.P.T was named for a Congrega-
sons. Temple’s lending policy was liberal and the bank tionalist missionary in Palestine, was born to Jonathan
was poorly managed by head cashier Henry S. Ledyard. Temple and Lucinda Parker in Reading, Massachusetts,
Further, the bank’s investments in a wide range of pro- near Boston. After completing his education, he took ship
jects were dangerously depleting cash reserves, especial- around Cape Horn to California in January 1841, hoping
ly after the state economy collapsed in a silver mining to meet his half-brother, Jonathan Temple, who was
stock speculation fever at the Comstock Lode in Virginia twenty-six years older. Jonathan had left for the Sand-
City, Nevada in late August 1875. When news of the crash wich Islands-Hawaiian Islands in the early 1820s before
at San Francisco reached Los Angeles by telegraph, a pan- Pliny was born, then relocated to Pueblo de Los Angeles
ic broke out. Unable to meet the demand for cash by in 1828 and opened the town’s first store. He became a
customers, Temple and Workman suspended business for prominent citizen. After six months sailing around the
thirty days and desperately needed an infusion of cash horn of South American to Monterey and then traveling
to stay open and stave off bankruptcy. After over three south, Pliny arrived at Los Angeles around the first of July
months, the bank finally reopened with a loan from Elias 1841. A visit with Jonathan turned into a permanent re-
J. "Lucky" Baldwin, a San Francisco capitalist who precip- location and Pliny returned home just once, in summer
itated the Virginia City crisis by selling off huge amounts 1870, to enroll two sons at Harvard and M.I.T. in Boston.
of stock and who was investing in Los Angeles area real Pliny worked as a clerk in his brother Jonathan’s store
estate. Baldwin’s demands for the loan were vitually im- and, when the first small discovery of gold in California
possible to meet, but Temple and Workman accepted was made in Placerita Canyon in the San Gabriel Moun-
nonetheless. With confidence in the bank irrevocably tains north of Los Angeles in Spring 1842, he shipped gold
shaken, depositors quietly drained the institution dry of dust to a brother in Reading who then sent it on to the
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Workman-Temple family
national Philadelphia Mint. Perhaps it was at the Temple Later generations
Store that Pliny met Margarita Workman. The tenth child of F. P.F. Temple and Margarita Work-
The Antonia and Pliny Temple family lived in Los An- man, Walter P. Temple (June 7, 1869–November 13, 1938)
geles until 1849, while Pliny worked in Jonathan’s store, brought a resurgence of his family in regional affairs
and then left his employ for a brief sojourn in the north- through oil, real estate, construction, and philanthropy
ern gold fields. This was followed by F.P.Temple’s return in the 1920s. In 1903, Walter Temple married Laurenza
to Los Angeles, around which time William Workman Gonzalez, a member of an early Californio family, who
granted them half of the 2,363-acre (9.56 km2) Rancho La was born and raised just a stone’s throw away from Tem-
Merced in the Whittier Narrows near today’s South El ple in the Misión Vieja (Old Mission) community in pre-
Monte, California. The Temples built a single-story adobe sent Whittier Narrows. The two had five children, four
house, said to have measured an 70 x 110 feet (34 m), living to adulthood, and the family lived on a 50-acre
and which later had a second floor of wood and was ac- (200,000 m2) parcel inherited from Walter’s mother after
companied, by the 1870s, by a two-story French Second her death in 1892. With longtime friend, Milton Kauff-
Empire (architecture)-style brick dwelling. The Temple man, however, Temple acquired 60 acres (240,000 m2) to
ranch had vineyards, orchards, a grist mill, and was the west at the corner of the Montebello Hills that had
stocked with cattle, horses and other animals. Temple al- belonged to his father before the 1876 failure of the bank
so was among the first in Los Angeles County to raise of Temple and Workman and sold the former Temple
thoroughbred horses, starting in the early 1860s. He also Homestead. Living in an 1869 adobe built by Rafael Basye,
was the owner of much property outside the county, in- the Temples ranched and farmed on their new holdings
cluding: horse grazing land in Alameda County, Califor- when their eldest child, Thomas, discovered oil in Spring
nia; thousands of acres in Madera County and Fresno 1914. After leasing the tract to Standard Oil Company of
County, California; lumber mills in San Antonio Canyon California, which brought in the first producing well in
in the San Gabriel Mountains above modern Claremont, June 1917, the Temples were the beneficiaries of some
California and at Rancho San Jacinto y San Gorgonio near two dozen wells drilled over the next several years, in-
today’s Idyllwild, California; and cattle ranch lands, a cluding a few major gushers.
slaughterhouse and a butcher shop in Springfield, Cal- William Workman’s son José Manuel Workman (Fe-
ifornia and Columbia, California in Tuolumne County’s bruary 10, 1833–March 13, 1901) married Josephine Belt
famed gold centers. (December 19, 1851 – July 1, 1937), a native of Stockton
F.P.Temple was also politically involved, serving as in January 1870 in San Francisco. Joseph and his wife had
Los Angeles City Treasurer in 1851-52, on the first Los seven children. Their daughter Josephine Workman be-
Angeles County board of supervisors in 1852-53 and as came silent movie actress Mona Darkfeather (January 13,
Los Angeles county treasurer in 1876-77. He was a rare 1883–September 3, 1977), who portrayed American Indi-
Whig/Republican in a county political world completely an women in films.
dominated by Democrats - specifically, Southern Democ-
rats.
By the time Los Angeles experienced its first signifi- Legacy
cant growth after the United States Civil War, F.P.Temple The historic "Workman House", the original adobe from
dove headlong into business projects that were intended 1842, with brick additions and a thorough remodel by
to ride the wave of the boom. As discussed above in the 1870; "La Casa Nueva," the 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival
section on William Workman, the silent partner in the architecture residence of Walter Temple and Laura Gon-
partnership Temple spearheaded, the wave eventually zalez,; the 1850s "El Campo Santo Cemetery" Cemetery, a
crashed and ruined the fortunes of the Temple and Work- private family burial ground. All are at the Workman and
man families by 1876. Temple’s personal popularity Temple Family Homestead Museum.[1]
among his fellow citizens spared him the wrath that
might otherwise have been directed to the president of Workman and Temple Family Homestead Mu-
a failed bank, although he suffered the first of a series seum
of strokes within months after the closure of the bank. The historic Workman and Temple Family Homestead
Largely confined to a small portion of his Rancho La Museum, city owned and funded, is located in the City of
Merced, Temple died at age 58 of another stroke, then Industry, a mile north of the Pomona Freeway — SR-60 at
called apoplexy, though claims by some writers seeking 15415 East Don Julian Road, just west of Hacienda Boulevard.
to romanticize the story further than warranted claimed It has the:
he died in a "rude sheepherder’s hut" on a corner of the
rancho. • The Workman House - adobe -[3]
• La Casa Nueva -[4]
• El Campo Santo -[5]
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Workman-Temple family
Free public guided tours are given Wednesday through • Homestead Museum’s history Blog
Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. There are large festivals, week- • Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County: The Adobes
end living history tours, and other public events year- of Rancho La Puente
round: Info & events [6] and Museum history Blog [7]. • El Campo Santo Cemetery at Find A Grave
• William Workman at Find A Grave
See also • Nicolasa Urioste Workman at Find A Grave
• Workman and Temple Family
• Jonathan Temple
References
• Pliny Fisk Temple (Francisco P. Temple or F.P.T ) [1] ^ http://www.homesteadmuseum.org/
(February 13, 1822–April 27, 1880) who_we_are . accessed 7/17/2010
• Josephine M. Workman–Mona Darkfeather [2] Los Angeles Times, Dec. 25, 1952, "Workmans Recall
(January 13, 1883–September 3, 1977) Yule of 1900s --- Family Gathering for Christmas at
• Boyle-Workman family Lorraine Blvd. Home," p. B1.
• William H. Workman (January 1, 1839–February 21, [3] http://www.homesteadmuseum.org/
1918) WorkmanHouse . accessed 7/17/2010
• Boyle Workman (September 20, 1868–December 25, [4] http://www.homesteadmuseum.org/La CasaNueva
1942) . accessed 7/17/2010
• Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum [5] http://www.homesteadmuseum.org/
• El Campo Santo Cemetery ElCampoSanto . accessed 7/17/2010
• Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles [6] www.homesteadmuseum.org . accessed 7/17/2010
[7] http://homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/ .
External links •
accessed 7/17/2010.
"The City That Grew", by Boyle Workman; (a history
• Official of Los Angeles)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workman-Temple_family"
Categories: History of Los Angeles, California, History of Los Angeles County, California, American people of the Mexi-
can–American War, People from Los Angeles County, California, People from Los Angeles, California, Californios, Mex-
ican California, San Gabriel Valley
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