Rancho San Bernardino

History

In 1810, Padre Francisco Dumetz, a priest from Mission San Gabriel, toured the area and gave it the name San Bernardino. Later emissaries from the mission established the Rancho as headquarters of farming activity in the area, with subsidiary farms such as Jumuba (established at the site of a native rancheria).

In January 1827, the exploring party of Jedediah Smith - first to reach California overland from the United States - spent several days in the area preparing for a return crossing of the Mojave Desert (having missed these settlements on the inbound journey)

After the Mexican secularization act of 1833 in 1841, Antonio Maria Lugo petitioned for a land grant in the name of three of his sons, José del Carmen Lugo, José Maria Lugo, Vicente Lugo, and José del Carmen's friend, Diego Sepulveda. In 1842, the eight square league Rancho San Bernardino was granted to Antonio Maria Lugo, his sons and his nephews, who grazed cattle in the area.

With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho San Bernardino was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to José del Carmen Lugo, José María Lugo, Vicente Lugo, and Diego Sepulveda in 1865.

In 1851, the Lugo family sold the Rancho to a group of almost 500 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) led by Captain David Seely (later first Stake President), Captain Jefferson Hunt and Captain Andrew Lytle, and included Apostles Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich.