Life in California

Rancho Jurupa

Wilson came to California in 1841 seeking passage to China. He eventually became a naturalized Mexican citizen when he settled in what is now Riverside, California, and married first, Ramona Yorba, whose father Don Jose Antonio Yorba, was the prominent Spanish (Mexican) landholder of Rancho Jurupa and Rancho Santa Ana. In 1843 he bought a portion of Rancho Jurupa (Riverside) from Juan Bandini. Wilson became one of the first Anglo ranchers of great esteem and was often asked to assist with Indian affairs. Wilson accepted by becoming Justice of the Peace of the Inland Territory.

Big Bear Lake

In 1845 he was asked to pursue a band of marauding Ute Indians, led by Chief Colorow Walkara, who stole horses from the local ranchers. The Indians drove the horses, numbering in the thousands, up to the high desert near Lucerne. In his pursuit Wilson sent 22 men through the Cajon Pass and lead another 22 into the depths of the San Bernardino Mountains where he came upon a natural game reserve teeming with black bear. He named the place Big Bear Lake. The lake today is known as Baldwin Lake, after Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin, while the name Big Bear Lake was re-applied to a reservoir built nearby in 1884. At Big Bear Wilson sent his 22 men in pairs on a bear hunt gathering 11 pelts. On their return trip to Jurupa, they gathered another 11 pelts. No more was made of the story concerning the Indian pursuit.

Political activities

In 1851 Wilson became the second elected Mayor of Los Angeles after California was made a State. He also served as a Los Angeles County Supervisor and was elected to three terms of the California State Senate.

Rancho San Pascual

In 1854 Wilson established Lake Vineyard, his own ranch and winery near modern-day San Gabriel, California. He came into possession of adjoining Rancho San Pascual (present day Pasadena) through a series of complicated land deals, which began with his lending money to the Rancho's owner Manuel Garfias in 1859. In 1863 Wilson and Dr. John Strother Griffin, who had also loaned Garfias money — and with whom Wilson undertook many business deals in early Los Angeles, including railways, oil exploration, real estate, farming and ranching — bought the entire rancho property outright, and diverted water from the Arroyo Seco up to the dry mesa via an aqueduct called the "Wilson Ditch."

In 1864 Wilson took the first white man's expedition to a high peak of the San Gabriel Mountains that would be named Mount Wilson. He hoped to harvest timber there for the making of wine vats, but he found the wood inadequate. The Wilson Trail became a popular one or two-day hike to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains by local residents for years to come.

In 1873, Wilson and Griffin subdivided their land (with Griffin getting almost 2/3 of the property, but Wilson retaining some better land (east of current Fair Oaks Avenue), near his Lake Vineyard property. Griffin then sold 2,500 acres (10 km²) of his property to the "Indiana Colony," represented by Daniel M. Berry. In 1876, after the Colony had sold most of its allotted land and established what would become the City of Pasadena, Wilson began subdividing and developing his adjacent landholdings which would become the eastern side of the new settlement.

Legacy

A younger Wilson ca. 1850.

Wilson lived out his days in present-day San Gabriel. He gave several acres of property to his son-in-law James de Barth Shorb which he named San Marino. Other parts developed as Alhambra. Wilson's first wife died in 1849 after which time he married the widow Margaret Hereford. They would have four children of which one daughter Ruth would marry George Patton, Sr. and have a son who would become the WWII General George S. Patton, Jr. The Pattons would later purchase Lake Vineyard. Wilson died at the ranch in 1878 and was buried in San Gabriel Cemetery. The last of his land holdings in the downtown Pasadena area were bequeathed to Central School on South Fair Oaks Avenue.

Mount Wilson, a metromedia center for the greater Los Angeles area, is the most famous monument to Benjamin Wilson. Wilson Avenue in Pasadena and Don Benito School of the Pasadena Unified School District also honor his name