About
Attorney and California land surveyor who became the owner of the Mexican land grant, Rancho La Brea, in 1860.
Before Fame
He obtained Rancho La Brea, a strip of land that includes important districts and landmarks of modern-day Los Angeles (notably, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Miracle Mile museum district), as an estate gift from members of the Rocha family whom he had earlier served as an attorney.
Trivia
He was a Union sympathizer during the American Civil War; for a time, he even commanded the Los Angeles Confederate watch dog site, Camp Drum.
Family Life
He married Ida Haraszthy in 1863, and the couple had two sons.
Associated With
He and Delaware-born U.S. Senator, Anthony Higgins, both attended Harvard Law School during the mid-19th Century.
