Lemuel Carpenter

Lemuel Carpenter was born c. 1808 in Kentucky. He migrated to Missouri about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.{{Cite book |last=White |first=Virgil D. |title=A-K |publisher=National Historical Publishing Company |year=1994 |series=Index to Volunteer Soldiers in Indian Wars and Disturbances, 1815-1858 |volume=I |location=Waynesboro, Tennessee |pages=217}}

File:CSUMB digital commons plan Diseño Rancho San Antonio LUGO California Los Angeles.jpg

Carpenter was in the Alta California Territory of Mexico by January 1833, arriving in the company of trappers Cyrus Alexander, William Chard, Joseph Paulding, and Albert Toomes.{{Cite book |last=Bancroft |first=Hubert Howe |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_14171 |title=History of California |publisher=A.L. Bancroft & Company |year=1885 |isbn=978-0-665-14171-3 |series=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft |volume=III, 1824-1840 |location=San Francisco, California |pages=388, 408 |ol= |quote=In the winter of 1832-3 another party arrived from New Mexico, under circumstances nowhere recorded, so far as I have been able to learn. This party, the exact date of whose arrival is not known, included [...] Samuel Carpenter. |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=David J. |author-link=David J. Weber |title=The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=1971 |location=Norman, Oklahoma |pages=152 |quote=In 1833 another group, which included trappers Cyrus Alexander, Lamuel Carpenter, William Chard, Joseph Paulding, Albert Toomes, and a Mr. Turk, entered California via the Gila route. In October, 1832, these men had taken out passports in Santa Fe to travel south to the "Internal States," which usually meant Chihuahua or Sonora. Instead, they took the liberty of moving on into California. (Hafen, Mountain Men, V, 28)}}{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Iris Higbie |title=Lemuel Carpenter |publisher=Arthur H. Clark Company |year=1972 |editor-last=Hafen |editor-first=LeRoy Reuben |editor-link=LeRoy R. Hafen |series=The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West |volume=IX |location=Glendale, California |pages=33–40 |author-link=Iris Engstrand}}{{Cite book |last=Bancroft |first=Hubert Howe |author-link=Hubert Howe Bancroft |url=https://archive.org/details/californiapionee0000banc/page/82/ |title=California Pioneer Register and Index 1542-1848 |publisher=Regional Publishing Company |year=1964 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |pages=82 |lccn=64-17723 |quote=C. (Lemuel or Samuel), 1832, Amer. from N. Mex. iii. 388,408; accredited to '31 and '33 in two lists of '36; prob. came in winter of '32-3; 22 years old in '36, 28 in '40; had a soap-factory on the S. Gabriel River and a vineyard in co. with Chard; one of the vigilantes '36, and not arrested '40; served '45 against Micheltorena. iv. 495; in '48 had an orchard near S. Buen. Claimant for Sta Gertrudis '53. iii. 634; where on account of financial troubles he committed suicide '59. |access-date=7 September 2024 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |last=Quinn |first=Charles Russel |title=History of Downey, The Life Story of a Pioneer Community, and of the Man who Founded it – California Governor John Gately Downey – From Covered Wagon to the Space Shuttle |publisher=Elena Quinn |year=1973 |location=Downey, California |pages=12, 20–22, 32, 104–105}} He later arrived in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles with the Ewing Young party of trappers along with Isaac "Julián" Williams and Moses Carson.{{Cite journal |last=Layne |first=J. Gregg |date=1934 |title=Annals of Los Angeles: Part I. from the Founding of the Pueblo to the American Occupation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160525 |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=195–234 |doi=10.2307/25160525 |jstor=25160525 |issn=0008-1175|url-access=subscription }}

Upon his arrival, Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business and set up his jabonería (soap factory) at Chokishgna, a Tongva-Gabrieleño village{{Cite news |last=Dyson |first=Verne |date=December 18, 1927 |title=The Old Ranchos That are Buried in Los Angeles |pages=12–13, 23 |work=Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25458857/ |access-date=June 28, 2023}}{{Cite journal |year=1907 |editor-last=Webb Hodge |editor-first=Frederick |editor-link=Frederick Webb Hodge |title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico |url=https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/bulletin3011907smit |journal=Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin |location=Washington, D. C. |publisher=Government Printing Office |volume=30 |issue=1 |page=290}} west of the San Gabriel River, in Rancho San Antonio. The location of the jabonería was near the present-day crossing of the Interstate 5 and the Río Hondo in Bell Gardens.{{cite journal |last=Beherec |first=Marc A. |year=2020 |title=Ethnohistoric South Gate? |url=http://scahome.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/7_Beherec_final.pdf |journal=Society for California Archaeology Proceedings |volume=34 |pages=90}} He followed the practice of the California missions' indigenous people and used the abundant native amole plant as an alkali to produce hard soap.{{Cite journal |last=Warner |first=J. J. |date=1907 |title=Reminiscences of Early California from 1831 to 1846 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41168638 |journal=Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California |volume=7 |issue=2/3 |pages=176–193 |doi=10.2307/41168638 |jstor=41168638 |issn=2162-9145|url-access=subscription }} The Historical Society of Southern California would later credit him as the first commercial soap manufacturer in Southern California.{{Cite journal |last=Layne |first=J. Gregg |date=1936 |title=The First Census of the Los Angeles District: Padron de la Ciudad de Los Angeles y su Jurisdiccion Año 1836 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41168947 |journal=The Quarterly: Historical Society of Southern California |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=81–99 |doi=10.2307/41168947 |jstor=41168947 |issn=2162-9358|url-access=subscription }} His business profited sufficiently for him to purchase Rancho Santa Gertrudes,{{Cite book |last=Bancroft |first=Hubert Howe |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_14171 |title=History of California |publisher=A.L. Bancroft & Company |year=1885 |isbn=978-0-665-14171-3 |series=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft |volume=III, 1824-1840 |location=San Francisco, California |page=634 |quote=Santa Gertrudis, 5 [leagues], [confirmed] in 1834 to widow of Manuel Nieto, S. Carpenter [claimant]. 48 (?) men in 1835; 10 voters in 1839. Report on this rancho in 1833 in Cota, Doc., MS., 1. |via=Internet Archive}} which included the Tongva village of Nacaugna, now Downey, California, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles.{{Cite book |last1=Brooke Hoover |first1=Mildred |url=http://archive.org/details/historicspotsinc00rens |title=Historic spots in California |last2=Rensch |first2=Hero Eugene |last3=Rensch |first3=Ethel Grace |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1966 |editor-last=Abeloe |editor-first=William N. |edition=3rd |location=Stanford, California |pages=153, 163; 20, 56, 401}}{{Cite journal |year=1910 |editor-last=Webb Hodge |editor-first=Frederick |editor-link=Frederick Webb Hodge |title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico |url=https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/bulletin3021910smit |journal=Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin |location=Washington, D. C. |publisher=Government Printing Office |volume=30 |issue=2 |page=5}}

By the late 1830s, was among the first of the Americans to plant a vineyard for the making of wine.{{Cite book |last=Pinney |first=Thomas |url=http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft967nb63q/ |title=A History of Wine in America, From the Beginnings to Prohibition |publisher=University of California Press |year=1989 |location=Berkeley, California |pages=245 |quote=As California began to draw Americans both by sea and overland, others took up vine growing: Richard Laughlin, [...]; so did William Logan in 1831 and, later in the decade, William Chard and Lemuel Carpenter.}}

In the 1836 padrón or census of Los Angeles, he was listed as Samuel Carpenter and was one of fifty foreigners living in the pueblo. Early California settler John Bidwell first saw the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in March 1845 and, years later, would list Lemuel Carpenter as one of the settlers of the pueblo who he recalled out of about 250 residents.{{Cite journal |last=Bidwell |first=John |author-link=John Bidwell |date=1890 |title=Life in California Before the Gold Discovery |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000544996 |journal=The Century |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=175, 179}}

His original settlement was known as "Carpenter's Farm" from 1837 until it was destroyed by a flood in 1867.Susanna Bryant Dakin: A Scotch Paisano in Old Los Angeles, University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., 1939, p. 220. He tried gold mining, and in general prospered in his new home. A popular travel guide notes: "Rancho Santa Gertrudes…was sold to Lemuel Carpenter, a Kentuckian, who married the beautiful María de los Angeles Domínguez. ... The Carpenters [were] happy and prosperous under Mexican rule".{{Cite web |last=Carpenter |first=Terry |date=April 8, 2001 |title=Lemuel CARPENTER, Anglo L.A. Pioneer |url=http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CALOSANG/2001-04/0986744501 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 3, 2009 |archive-date=October 13, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013043620/http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CALOSANG/2001-04/0986744501 }}

Carpenter was active in revolutionary activities and sided with the Americans during the Mexican–American War.{{Cite book |last=Bancroft |first=Hubert Howe |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_14172 |title=History of California |publisher=A.L. Bancroft & Company |year=1885 |isbn= |series=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft |volume=IV, 1840-1845 |location=San Francisco, California |page=495 |ol= |quote=The following men are named by one witness or another as having served in this campaign: [...] Sam. Carpenter, [...] |via=Internet Archive}} He was held as a prisoner of war and on September 30, 1846, he was received by American forces during a prisoner exchange between Californio forces and detachments of Companies B and D of the California Battalion and Los Angeles volunteers under the command of Archibald H. Gillespe.{{Cite journal |last=Kurutz |first=Gary F. |date=2003 |title="The Entire Southern Country Abandoned by the American Arms": An Eyewitness Account of the Siege of Los Angeles, 1846 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41172160 |journal=Southern California Quarterly |volume=85 |issue=2 |page=135 |doi=10.2307/41172160 |jstor=41172160 |issn=0038-3929|url-access=subscription }}

Rancho Santa Gertrudes was owned by Lemuel Carpenter until 1859. In 1859 the rancho was sold at sheriff's auction to John G. Downey and James P. McFarland. "Samuel", actually "Lemuel" but misspelled by the recorder, Carpenter was recorded as the legal possessor as late as 1862.{{Cite web |title=Plat of the Rancho Santa Gertrudes [Calif.] : finally confirmed to Samuel Carpenter as located by the U.S. Surveyor General in accordance with decree of U.S. Dist. Court, October 4th, 1862, May 1868 |url=http://oac-upstream.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb1m3nb064/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=oac-upstream.cdlib.org}}

Image:LosAngeles-Plaza-1869.jpg, The Plaza and "Old Plaza Church" (Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles) in 1869.]]Lemuel's father is believed to be Jonathan Carpenter (c. 1785 Virginia-c. 1853 Missouri) and grandson of Matthew Carpenter (c. 1761 Virginia-c. 1798 Virginia).[http://www.carpentercousins.com/generallineage.htm#twva Lineage for #17908], [http://www.carpentercousins.com/carpdna.htm#table1 Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project] – see Table 1, Group 8, 17908.

In the 1850 census,1850 US Census of Los Angeles county, California. Reel No: M432-35 Sheet No: 27B, February 8th, 1851 by J. R. Evertsen, Asst. Marshal. Cited from http://www.rootsweb.com/~cenfiles/ca/losangeles/1850/pg0023a.txt Lemuel Carpenter is listed as age 42, with a real estate value of $8,000, a farmer. His wife, Maria, is listed as age 22 — she was his second wife. His children, all born in California, are listed as:

• Susana Carpenter, age 11.
• José Antonio Carpenter, age 9 (born November 20, 1837; descendants still live in Los Angeles[http://www.carpentercousins.com/ Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, record number 139492.])
• Refugio Carpenter, age 6.
• Francisco Carpenter, age 3.

Carpenter's prosperity took a precipitous downturn when a $5,000 loan from John G. Downey taken out in 1852 ballooned into a $104,000 debt by 1859.{{Cite book |last=Thrapp |first=Dan L. |title=Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography |publisher=Arthur H. Clarke Company |year=1990 |location=Spokane, Washington |pages=228}} Unable to repay the debt, he eventually killed himself.{{Cite book |title=On the Old West Coast; Being Further Reminiscences of a Ranger-Major Major Horace Bell |publisher=William Morrow & Company, Incorporated |year=1930 |editor-last=Bartlett |editor-first=Lanier |location=New York |pages=10–12}}

The diary of Lemuel Carpenter's daughter Mary Refugio Carpenter includes this entry written on January 2, 1861: "I have been thinking so much of my father tonight. It made me weep."{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=John |date=December 5, 1997 |title=Loss of her father casts shadow over her diary |work=Downey Eagle |location=Downey, California |via=Downey Historical Society}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Los Angeles}}

{{California history}}

{{Portal| Biography }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Lemuel}}

Category:People of Alta California

Category:1800s births

Category:1859 deaths

Category:People from Los Angeles

Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:Suicides by firearm in California