EASTVALE INDEX
Version 2012 May 6

To know nothing of what happened before you were born
is to remain forever a child. – Cicero (BC 106 –BC 43)

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*** HIDDEN HISTORY – during Eastvale’s first 150 years (1838 to 1988):

1. Click here if you never heard of an ancient trail along the Santa Ana River between Prado and Redlands: Rincon-Jurupa Trail.

2. Click here if you never heard of Don Juan Bandini.

3. Click here if you never heard of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Transition.

4. Click here if you never heard of the San Fernando Tunnel or the Tehachapi Loop: Coming of The Railroads.

5. Click here if you never heard of Fuller Ranch.

6. Click here if you never heard of the existence of East Vale Elementary School before 1900.

7. Click here if you never heard of farms at Eastvale that were not dairies: Diversified Farming.

New development, April 2012: An 1857 map shows a house on Rancho Jurupa that MIGHT HAVE BEEN Juan Bandini’s 1838 residence – on the bluff north of Santa Ana River, along the “road from Jurupa to Guapa” very close to where the road crosses a survey line that later became the alignment of Hamner Ave. See First Bandini Adobe.

HISTORIC AERIAL VIEWS OF EASTVALE 1938 to present
(Note: These may take a minute or two to download)

“Downtown” Eastvale including Eldridge-Harada and Harvey-Iseli ranches

East Vale Elementary School #2 (1913-1958) on 4-acre site, now known as NW corner of Sumner & Schleisman.
See also reference to East Vale School District history in River Walks ( indexed below), in the essay “How Did Eastvale Get Its Name?”

Imbach Ranch at Archibald & Cloverdale (Limonite)

Fuller Rancho (1880-1950) with headquarters at Harrison & Chandler

Eastvale Area History before 1900

Before and during the Spanish era – up to 1836, including the California Mission era when the Eastvale area was part of Mission San Gabriel’s Jurupa Rancho

Mexican era – Mexican independence from Spain. Secularization of the Missions. Land grants to gentry. Fate of the Mission Indians

JUAN BANDINI – Biography with map

Landowner (“Rancho de San Juan del Rio” in Santa Ana River valley, combining Jurupa and Rincon Ranchos) after 1838.

Historic sites of two residences near Eastvale:

First Bandini Adobe, on Hamner Ave (Rancho Jurupa), with 1933 newspaper article

Second Bandini-Cota Adobe (Rancho El Rincon) including 1936-1939 photos and 2011 satellite map

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Transition from huge Mexican Land Grant Ranchos to subdivided farms, usually less than one square mile

Reasons:

Mexico ceded the southwestern US including CA to the US by the 1848 “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.”

The grantee “Dons” encountered difficulty and expense in confirming land titles.

Just before titles were “patented,” several years of disastrous weather made Ranchos impractical.

Irrigation was introduced, to permit diversified farming.

Meanwhile, population pressure from the east boomed when railroads crossed the US in the 1880s

HOW THE EASTERN US WAS LINKED TO SOUTHERN CA BY RAIL.

RANCHO JURUPA History and map. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, applied to Rancho Jurupa.

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Fuller Ranch

Corona Independent, 3 May 1907: Visit to Fuller Ranch in East Vale, “over five thousand acres,” in 1907. Water sources, crops grown, the Santa Barbara ranch, horse breeding (including mares imported from France), ranch buildings and employees, hay machinery, manager WW Cochran.

Email correspondence with William Hollister, who located records of Charles, Ortus, and Ernest Fuller, working alongside Hollister family members, on cattle and horse ranches at Santa Barbara, near Lompoc, and in Chihuahua Mexico. The records include imprisonment of Charles in Mexico and his release due to past friendship with Pancho Villa; also how Muriel Fuller (daughter of Ortus) helped with the capture of an “outlaw steer” at the ranch near Lompoc.

Fuller family genealogy with extensive notes about the family background. For Fullers at East Vale, scroll to Charles Henry Fuller and Ortus Benton Fuller in Fourth Generation, or Olive Ransom Fuller in Fifth Generation.

Fuller Rancho Aerial views, 1938 to present

The Fuller Ranch in East Vale History

Role of Fuller family in “How Eastvale Got Its Name” (speculation?)

RIVER WALKS – Essays by LPM:

1947 ESSAYS: “My River” and “Dog Street” (essays I wrote at Chaffey Community College in 1947.)

Some Things Never Change: Views of Santa Ana River Valley from Riverdale Acres; Political rallies, Wishbone Mountain, Swimmin’ Hole

A Tale of Two Houses: Our family of four in six hundred square feet; A house built from surplus concrete blocks.

Blowing in the Wind: Santa Ana Wind patterns; Sand; Effects of urbanization; Two vivid memories.

EASTVALE IMAGES:
Santa Ana River: Peaceful stream or raging torrent?
A “slide show” running backward: Incorporated city; The dairy era; Diversified farms (My first job); Eastvale 1880 to 1940s (East Vale School District; Fuller Ranch); Butterfield Stage 1860; John C Fremont 1849; Don Juan Bandini; Shoshoni Indians; Prehistoric artifacts from bluffs above Prado Dam

How Did Eastvale Get Its Name? Nobody knows, but here’s my “best guess.”
(BUT FIRST – a Feb 2012 addendum: Was the new 1893 school district the “East Campus of nearby Valley School”)
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East Vale School District before 1900; Eastvale, Pennsylvania; The Fuller family; Fuller Ranch; Speculation.

Boundaries
East Vale School District (Temescal Township north of Santa Ana River); Eastvale City Boundaries.

Herr Doktor Professor Meissner.

Back to Meissner Family Web Site