The Americans marched to within 600 yards of the east bank of the river, just out of range of the Californio cannons. Suddenly they veered to the north and raced to reach the Paso de Bartolo crossing of the river. In Forster’s judgment: This movement entirely disconcerted the Californian forces. They became disorganized and in that condition rushed to meet the commodore at the upper crossing and only succeeded in having a small scattered portion to face the Americans at the ford.

That afternoon the Californios and the American forces fought the Battle of the Rio San Gabriel. Don Bernardo Yorba of Santa Ana rode to a high point in the hills to watch the engagement. Yorba wrote: I saw there had been nothing decisive except the Californians rather gave way, a portion of the Californians made a charge that seemed for a time to have broken the American line. But as soon as the dust cleared I saw the Californians retreating, and from what I learned afterward, had the charge been simultaneous of all Californian forces, the American lines would have been broken, and there is no telling what the end might have been.

The battle ended abruptly when the Americans gained the high ground on the west bank of the river. The Californios abandoned the field. The victory cost seaman Frederick Strauss his life. The Americans fought a brief action the following day, and Los Angeles capitulated on January 10. The success at the Rio San Gabriel proved the key to re-establishing American control of southern California. John Forster’s information, as he later noted, had proved crucial in gaining the victory: I had not then, and have not now any doubt that if the American force had passed by the road they were traveling upon, they would have been fallen upon by the Californians in force and perhaps utterly annihilated, for there was no room there where they could protect or defend themselves from a sudden attack of cavalry. Aware that any further resistance by the Californios would be futile, Forster returned to San Juan Capistrano.

Forster anticipated that both he and California would prosper under the United States. He was not disappointed. The California Gold Rush created a demand for southern California cattle, and Forster profited by supplying that demand. Steers, previously worth only the value of their hides (about $2), soon brought $50 and more in San Francisco. The gold rush also fostered demand for statehood among the swelling population of the mother lode country. Typical of the residents of sparsely populated southern California, Forster opposed statehood but would support territorial status. Forster was selected as one of San Diego County’s two delegates to the 1849 convention at Monterey, but on learning that the northern California delegates vastly outnumbered his southern colleagues, he chose not to attend. Northern Californian delegates sought statehood, and in 1850, California secured it.

At the beginning of the 1860s, Po Pico, Forster’s quixotic brother-in-law, was in financial trouble. Burdened with debt from bad investments, gambling and a decline in cattle prices, the former governor sought Forster’s assistance. Forster loaned money to meet Pico’s property taxes. Po’s brother Andrés, the California general at San Pasqual, suffered similar monetary shortcomings. In 1862, to thwart collectors, Andrés conveyed all of his land in California, including a half interest in the family’s Rancho Santa Margarita, to brother Po. Alas, the former governor and the ex-general could gamble money away at a remarkable rate. In February 1864, Forster purchased Po’s 133,000-acre Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores y San Onofre, which included Andrés’ prior interest. He paid $14,000 and assumed the $42,000 mortgage in favor of the San Francisco firm, Pioche and Bayerque. The ranch adjoined Forster’s own Rancho Misin Vieja y Trabuco of 79,000 acres; Forster thereafter ruled over a vast 212,000-acre empire, the largest single-owner ranch in southern California.

By late 1864, Forster had spent an additional $30,000 improving the ranch. He brought floor brick and roof tiles from his adobe at the former mission of San Juan Capistrano. Spanish remained the official language at the ranch, as his wife could speak no other. The ruddy-complected patron operated the ranch as a feudal barony, though his rule was paternal. The Santa Margarita ranch-house was of adobe, very thick walled, a visitor remarked. It was approached by a terrace, and had an interior court-yard. The waiting at the table was done by a broad-faced Indian woman in calico. All the domestic service was performed by those same mission Indians, except the cooking, for which a Chinaman had lately been secured, with the view of having meals on time. A white cross on a nearby hill displayed a sign of welcome: Anyone who escapes from that hospitable roof in time to keep an appointment has to be very peremptory indeed.

In the 1860s and 1870s, John (Don Juan) Forster stood as a splendid anachronism-an example to travelers, near and far, of what the life of the dons had been. He also took the first steps to diversify the productivity and income of the Santa Margarita ranch. America’s Civil War created an increased market for horses, and Forster began breeding them. On the negative side, the 1860s also brought a smallpox epidemic to the region, along with an infestation of squatters. Forster was twice arrested for what was described as killing and slaying squatters, tearing down [their] fences and playing the dickens generally. One case was dropped for lack of evidence, and the other was ruled justifiable homicide.

In the early 1870s Forster sent his agent, Max Strobel, to Europe to advertise the colonization potential of the Rancho Santa Margarita, patterned upon the Anaheim colony. Strobel also sought buyers for Santa Catalina Island, in which Forster owned a share. Strobel’s untimely death in London required Forster to sail for England. In 1873, he returned to Liverpool after a 43-year-absence and enjoyed a reunion with several of his nieces.

Forster traveled on to the Netherlands, where he sought to recruit settlers for the ranch by offering household heads 160 acres of land, five cows, two horses and sundry supplies, with rent forestalled for the first two or three years. The Dutch government ordered an inspection of the Rancho. Santa Margarita before it would approve of the plan. Forster returned to California in July 1873, unsuccessful in selling Santa Catalina Island but still hopeful for the colonization of the ranch. The inspectors arrived during the heat of August and were unimpressed. Forster’s colonization scheme failed. He then tried to establish the town of Forster City on the north coast of his property Three families settled there by 1876, and some 35 voters were registered in the village in 1882. The town, however, survived for only a few more years. Forster’s dreams of a real estate boom remained only dreams.

The potential for railroad development across the Rancho Santa Margarita also captured Forster’s imagination. In December 1880, the California Southern Railroad, in close cooperation with the Santa Fe, began laying a line from National City to San Bernardino, which would be an eventual fink with the Topeka road. North of Oceanside, the tracks turned east and followed the Santa Margarita River across Forster’s ranch. Early in 1882, from his home near the river, he could hear the sounds of track being laid. Sadly, he did not live to see the line’s completion.

John Forster died at his beloved Rancho Santa Margarita on February 20, 1882, following a long bout of erysipelas. His funeral was the largest held in southern California up to that time. Some 3,000 mourners met the train at Los Angeles. During the Mass, a small finch flew into the church and, after circling the nave several times, lit on the foot of the coffin. It then flew to the top of the organ, where it perched during the service. Following the funeral, the body of one of the last of the California dons was interred in the Pico family vault.

Don Juan Forster’s death marked the end of southern California’s pastoral era. Within three years, the rate war between the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads launched southern California’s land boom of the mid-1880s. The arrival of tens of thousands of new citizens completed the Americanization of California; her Hispanic-era personalities and traditions slipped into California’s romantic past.

---

This article was written by Karen Holliday Tanner and John D. Tanner, Jr, and originally appeared in the December 2000 issue of Wild West.

For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Wild West magazine today!

Pages: 1 2