Cajon Pass brought first black pioneers to San Bernardino Valley

Bridget “Biddy” Mason (1818-1891) traveled through the Cajon Pass and arrived in San Bernardino as a slave belonging to Robert Smith. Automatically freed in California, she fought for her freedom in the courts when Smith tried to take her and other blacks back to the slavery state of Texas.

By Nicholas R. Cataldo
San Bernardino Sun

The Cajon Pass has played a prominent role in Southern California since prehistoric times. Indians, explorers, trappers, settlers, rail passengers and early motorists have all passed through on their way to or from the desert.

This well-used passageway also brought the first African-American pioneers into San Bernardino County.

In 1826, 27-year-old Jedediah Strong Smith (1799-1831) and his fur trapping party from northern Utah became the first Americans to make an overland journey to California. Anxious to explore the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, the party traveled southerly to the Mohave villages and then followed what has become known as the Mohave Trail, a footpath used as a trade route by Indigenous tribes for centuries. Among his expedition of 15 men was Peter Ranne, the first black man to enter San Bernardino County.

During the 1830s and ’40s long pack trains of mules making their way between Santa Fe and Los Angeles clomped through the narrow, twisting east canyon of the Cajon Pass along the Old Spanish Trail. Men brought blankets and manufactured goods from New Mexico in exchange for southern California’s much prized horses and mules. It is highly probable that among these traders were African-Americans, whose presence was not recorded.

In 1851, a wagon train made up of 437 Mormons from Salt Lake destined to develop the future city of San Bernardino came through the Cajon Pass.

This caravan followed the Salt Lake Road (which evolved from the Old Spanish Trail) as far as Baldy Mesa before detouring through West Cajon Canyon after hearing about a longer, but less steep and rocky route developed by a Banning teamster named William T. Sanford a year earlier. Sanford’s route was smoother than the trail through the east canyon. However, it was seven miles longer and so steep of a ridge at one point that wagons had to be lowered with ropes.

Among this group entering the “free” state of California were 26 soon-to-be ex-slaves who helped get the wagons down that ridge — and became the first black pioneers to make their homes in the San Bernardino Valley.

According to Byron R. Skinner, author of Black Origins in the Inland Empire, published by the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society in 1983, the names of these individuals that made the trek were:

1. Harriet
2. Hark
3. Charly
4. Jane
5. Nelson
6. Lawrence
7. Ann
8. Harriett
9. Anna
10. Ellen
11. Biddy
12. Hannah
13. Tennessee
14. Fluleman
15. George
16. Nancy
17. Rose
18. Henderson
25. Liz
26. Green
19. Mary
20. Nelson
21. Oscar
22. Grief
23. Toby
24. Vilote

While the life stories for many of these individuals have seemingly fallen into oblivion because of the lack of documentation, here is testimony to a few who we know of who played major roles in the area’s development.

Lizzy Flake Rowan (1834-1908) traveled with the wagon train to San Bernardino with James and Agnes Flake and after they died, took care of their children for a while in addition to her own.

Lizzy later married another ex-slave, Charles Rowan, and together built a home for their three children and also acquired some land on D Street near downtown San Bernardino, where she worked as a laundress. Charles ran a barbershop inside the Southern Hotel, approximately where the American Sports University stands near the corner of D and Fourth streets.

Their daughter, Alice Rowan Johnson, became the first black student at the Los Angeles Normal School, was one of 16 graduates in 1888 and was possibly the first black teacher of white children in California when she taught in Riverside.

Bridget “Biddy” Mason (1818-1891) traveled through the Cajon Pass and arrived in San Bernardino as a slave belonging to Robert Smith. Automatically freed in California, when Smith tried to take her and other blacks back to the slavery state of Texas, she fought for her freedom in the courts.

On January 19, 1856, Biddy petitioned the court for freedom for herself and her extended family of 13 women and children. Los Angeles District Judge Benjamin Hayes took three days before handing down his ruling in favor of Mason and her extended family, citing California’s 1850 constitution that prohibited slavery.

Biddy eventually became a nurse, a California real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was also founder of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles.

Grief (1812 or 1813-1873) and Toby Embers arrived with Bishop Crosby, who also owned Grief’s wife, Harriet. What little is known of Toby Embers concerns his immediate family.

Toby’s wife, Hannah, who had been the “property” of Robert Smith before her freedom, was an expert horse rider who became the unofficial midwife of the new settlement, answering any call to help deliver a newborn baby day or night. Toby’s daughter, Martha, married an ex-slave named Israel Beal, who became an esteemed member of the valley’s early history.

In fact, the Beals became the first black residents in the Redlands area when the community was still known by the name of Lugonia.

Of the two siblings, much more is known about Toby’s younger brother.

As roughly 60 percent of the Mormon community answered Young’s urgent recall with strict orders to sell their homes and property for whatever they could get in late 1857, Grief bought some land at what is now I Street just south of Mill, as well as in the vicinity of the Carousel Mall, thus becoming the first African-American owner of real-estate in the Inland Empire.

California Gold cameraman Luis Fuerte recalls life with Huell

Luis Fuerte, award-winning cameraman for the late Huell Howser, of the California Gold television show, recounted his travels and fond memories of his employer and friend for the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society on Thursday, July 2. (Paul Prado Photography)

By Paul Prado
Special to Highland Community News

On Thursday, July 2, the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society hosted a lecture by cameraman Luis Fuerte. Fuerte was the editor, lighting director, sound engineer, on air operations person, and cameraman for the late Huell Howser, who hosted KCET’s California Gold.

Fuerte spoke of his travels and times filming with the ever-curious, effervescent, and spontaneous Huell Howser.

“One day, Huell said, ‘Luis (pronounced Louie), I have an idea for a show called California Gold,’” Fuerte said. Fuerte said the format of the show came about during a four-day shoot at a train festival in Sacramento. “That is the first actual California Gold as we see it today.”

Having the privilege to work with a dynamic personality, Fuerte said, “I could tell when he (Howser) needed a break or when things weren’t working out. I could read Huell real well. We worked well as a team. I learned to read him so well, with the tone of his voice”.

Someone asked if the shows were scripted. Fuerte said, “He (Howser) always wanted to be surprised, you remember his famous, ‘Golleeey’ or ‘Reeeeally!’ He knew about the story, but not a lot. He would stop at flowers in a field, and do a story. He was easy going. He could get people to talk to him. He could do a story on a door knob (implying that Howser was that interested in what he saw). He loved working.”

In 2001, after many instances of telling Howser that he wanted to retire from the show, Fuerte gave his last notice to leave California Gold and started his own business.

Howser’s entire collection of his California Gold series was given to Chapman University. The university constructed a replica of his office and has every episode cataloged in a newly constructed building in Howser’s honor. There are pictures of Fuerte, with Howser, in the exhibit that is free to the public.

“The program was good. It was very well done,” said Charles Kiel of the Highland Area Historical Society. “It’s great to meet the guy behind the camera. He contributed a lot to the show California Gold. We’re grateful to Huell and Luis for their part in preserving history. The show was a good documentary about things.”

“We can now put a face to the name when Huell would always say, “Hey, Luis (Louie) get a shot of this!’ He brought to us things that we didn’t know about in California. Those little things; like a “door knob,” commented Kathy Toy of Highland.

Fuerte is scheduled to have a book of his memories, travels, and work experience with Howser published in the near future. The book is aptly titled, “Hey, Louie Take a Look at This!”

John Brown Sr., A True San Bernardino Pioneer

Five of the most prominent founding members of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society are immortalized in this classic western portrait taken circa 1895. Left to right: W.F. Holcomb, John Brown Jr., John Brown Sr., George Miller, B.B. Harris. (From the collection of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society)

By Mark Landis
San Bernardino Sun

The amazing life story of mountain man John Brown Sr. wasn’t glamorized in a movie or a television show like some of his fellow trailblazers from the 1840s, but his real-life adventures were so remarkable — they read like chapters from an Old West dime novel.

Unlike many of the famed mountain men of the early 1800s, Brown Sr. used his later “civilized” years in San Bernardino to distinguish himself as a respected pioneer, and civic leader.

In his older years, Brown chronicled some of his life’s experiences in a book, “Mediumistic Experiences of John Brown; The Medium of The Rockies.”

In the book, Brown describes his extensive travels from childhood, to his years in California. Brown was a devout spiritualist, and much of the book is filled with odd ramblings about his spiritual adventures and experiences as a medium, which he claimed, began in his youth.

John Brown Sr., was born in Worcester, Mass., Dec. 22, 1817. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and he was orphaned at an early age.

According to his biography in L.A. Ingersoll’s “Century Annals of San Bernardino County, California,” Brown began his travels as a young boy rafting down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. He survived a shipwreck while traveling to Galveston, Texas, and later continued to Fort Leavenworth.

In 1836, Brown was at the famed battle of San Jacinto, and saw Mexican president Santa Anna taken prisoner. From Texas, he joined a group of mountaineers and trappers, and spent 14 years in the Rocky Mountains, hunting, trading, and exploring.

While in the Rockies, Brown and his hunting companions helped build some of the early frontier forts that served as outposts for the great western migration. Brown’s companions read like a “who’s who” of mountain men, including Kit Carson, Alexander Godey, Joseph Bridger, and William and Charles Bent, founders of Bent’s Fort, Colorado.

According to his biographies, John Brown and his companions acted as guides for Gen. John C. Fremont’s crossing of the Rocky Mountains.

Around 1844, John Brown traveled to Taos, New Mexico, which had become an outpost for fur traders. It was here that Brown met and married Maria Louisa Sandoval, his lifetime partner. John and Louisa’s first child, Mary Matilda was born in 1844, in Taos. Louisa gave John 5 more daughters, and 4 sons, for a remarkable total of 10 children. She proved to be John’s equal as she endured years of frontier life, while raising small children in the most rugged conditions.

In 1849, John Brown and his fur trading companions were struck with gold fever. Brown packed up his young family and headed to the gold fields at Sutter’s Fort, California, arriving in September 1849.

Like most of the 49ers who swarmed into California, Brown and his friends had little success panning for gold. Within months, they struck out for Monterey and opened a small boarding house named the St. John’s Hotel. Louisa and the children were finally indoors, but John began to suffer with health problems from the cool sea air.

In April of 1852, Brown took the advice of his physician to leave Monterey, and reside in the warmer, drier climate of Southern California. Brown moved his family to the newly founded Mormon settlement of San Bernardino, where he purchased a small log cabin within the San Bernardino Fort for $50.

Brown quickly began developing friendships with many of the pioneers who had traveled from Salt Lake City to build the Southern California outpost. According to his “Medium of The Rockies,” Brown became the “resident spiritualist” of the town, and was called upon as a medium, and for spiritual insight and healing.

Apparently still not ready to settle, John Brown moved his family to nearby Yucaipa in 1854, and went into the stock business. The Browns moved back to San Bernardino in 1857, and by this time, John and Louisa had 8 children.

As if the Brown household wasn’t full enough, John took in a boarder named David Noble Smith in the fall of 1857. D.N. Smith was also a spiritualist, and a lasting friendship was struck.

John Brown transferred a piece of land he had homesteaded at Arrowhead Springs to Smith who went on to establish the first sanitarium on the property. This early sanitarium for treating tuberculosis patients evolved into the famed Arrowhead Springs resort that occupies the site today.

In 1860, gold was discovered in Holcomb Valley, in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains.

Brown was once again tempted by gold fever, but his business sense took over. Sensing the need to transport materials to the new gold fields, Brown petitioned the state Legislature for a franchise to build a toll road through the Cajon Pass.

In spring of 1861, Brown’s crew of 30-40 men carved out the first graded wagon road through the pass, and built upper and lower toll booths to manage the route.

With the Cajon Pass toll road built, Brown set his sights on furthering the development of trade routes and built a ferry to cross the Colorado River at Fort Mohave in 1862.

John Brown’s business success allowed him to donate funds and materials to improve public areas in San Bernardino. Brown also took an active role in local politics, and he served in several public service positions.

In January of 1888, the San Bernardino Society of California Pioneers was organized by a noteworthy group of pioneers who helped establish the city in the early 1850s. John Brown Sr. was later elected president of the society, and he served in that position until his death.

This group has since become the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society, which is still very active in the community today.

Louisa Brown passed away suddenly on May 16, 1891, at the age of 66, at the family home in San Bernardino.

John Brown Sr. died April 20, 1899, at the age of 81, in San Bernardino. Brown’s funeral was held at the family home at the corner of D and Sixth Streets, in San Bernardino.

Holding true to his spiritualistic beliefs to the end, Brown’s funeral service was conducted by Mrs. J. A. Marchant, superintendent of the First Spiritual Society of San Bernardino.

Reverend A.J. White, of the Presbyterian Church of Colton also performed duties at the service.

John Brown Sr.’s lasting contributions to the region were carried on by his extensive family, most notably, John Brown Jr. who went on to become a successful lawyer, and a leading citizen of the area.

For more information on mountain men, visit the “Mountain Men in San Bernardino County 1826 – 1850” display at the San Bernardino County Museum, at 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands.