Eduardo “Edward” R Stokes

Male 1847 - 1930  (83 years)


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  • Name Eduardo “Edward” R Stokes  [1, 2, 3
    Born 18 Jan 1847  San Diego, California Find all individuals with events at this location  [4, 5, 6
    Gender Male 
    Died 28 Sep 1930  Los Angeles, California Find all individuals with events at this location  [4, 5, 6
    Buried 1 Oct 1930  Woodlawn Cem., Santa Monica, CA Find all individuals with events at this location  [6
    Person ID I1102  Bishir Family
    Last Modified 2 Oct 2016 

    Father Capt. Eduardo “Edward” R. Stokes,   b. London, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1846, California Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Maria del Refugio Ortega,   b. 8 Mar 1823, San Diego, California Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 12 Jun 1842  San Diego, California Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Family ID F628  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Catherine E. Robinson,   b. Sep 1851, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1922, California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 70 years) 
    Married 28 Jul 1869  Catholic Church, San Diego, CA Find all individuals with events at this location  [5, 7
    Children 
    +1. Edward C. Stokes,   b. Jul 1873, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 3 Dec 1948, Los Angeles Co., CA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 75 years)
     2. Grace Caroline Stokes,   b. 1875, California Find all individuals with events at this location
    +3. George Washington Stokes,   b. 22 Feb 1876, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 3 Feb 1963, Ventura, California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 86 years)
     4. Jennie Rosamond Stokes,   b. 1881, California Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Catherine “Katie” R Stokes,   b. 1883, California Find all individuals with events at this location
     6. Maud L. Stokes,   b. 1885, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1964, Tulare Co., California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 79 years)
     7. Charles Alfred Stokes,   b. 1887, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 24 May 1973, Los Angeles, California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 86 years)
     8. Joseph Alfred Stokes,   b. 1889, California Find all individuals with events at this location
    +9. Alice L Stokes,   b. 13 Mar 1890, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Feb 1973, California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 82 years)
     10. Walter Alfred Stokes,   b. 1891, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 14 May 1986, Placer Co., California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 95 years)
    Last Modified 2 Dec 2014 
    Family ID F589  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • From: Preliminary Determination of Eligibility Gillette-Brown Ranch, California, 2007

      José Dominguez filed his claim for Las Virgines with the U.S. Land Commission in 1852. The commission confirmed his claim within two years— in 1854—and the U.S. District Court for Southern California approved this decision in 1857. An appeal was dismissed in 1858, but for unknown reasons the grant was not actually surveyed until 1882, significantly delaying the official patent. This was finally issued in 1883 on a total of 8,878.76 acres. Although still sizeable, the total area was considerably less than the original land grant and no longer included the lower Las Virgenes Canyon and the area around Talepop. The apparent reason for the change was due to a misinterpretation of the 1837 diseño which José Dominguez had drawn.As a result of this error, the United States considered the land excluded by the county part of the public domain and allowed private claimants to settle. This surplus land was surveyed and opened to homesteading in 1896. Many settlers may have already moved into the area by that time, in anticipation of the courts' decision, but their claims could not be documented formally until they filed for patent after 1896. Among these early homesteaders were Edward R. and Edward C. Stokes, who first assembled and then developed the parcel that would become the Gillette-Brown Ranch.

      Edward C.’s application for homestead (no. 8168) was filed on October 29, 1896. Edward R. Stokes said that he had established residence on the site in October 1882. By 1898, he had built a 24 by 24 foot, 4 room frame house (or houses), a barn, fencing, a well, and an orchard just north of the dirt road leading up Stokes Canyon, not far from where this road met the Las Virgenes Road. The Las Virgenes Schoolhouse stood about 2000 feet further north up Las Virgenes Canyon. Both Edward R. and Edward C. Stokes filed formal claims for approximately 160 acres each, the standard quarter section allowed by the Homestead Act of 1862. Both claims were patented in 1899, Edward C.'s on July 11 and Edward R.'s on September 29 of that year. At that time, Edward R. Stokes was 53 years old, married and had eleven children. In 1901 Edward R. Stokes formally bought out Edward C. and acquired the combined 320 acres. Five years later he increased his acreage by another forty acres when he patented government lot #2 in Section 7, adjacent to his original quarter section. He now owned just under 360 acres at the foot of Stokes Canyon. This parcel would remain essentially unchanged through the subsequent ownership of King Gillette and Clarence Brown. (Fig. 6)

      Little is known about Edward R. Stokes, but it appears he remained in residence at his Stokes Canyon Ranch for at least a few years after receiving patent on it. By 1907 he was living in Sawtelle, just east of Santa Monica and apparently leasing the ranch. One of his daughters married George Nash, one of the witnesses who supported both Edward R.’s and Edward C.’s homestead applications. Nash was a rancher who owned land around Calabasas not far from Stokes Canyon. George Nash went missing in 1907 while traveling through the Stokes Canyon area. He may have been killed. "Scour Country for Rancher", Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1907. This extended Stokes family controlled a sizeable quantity of land in the Calabasas area. In 1921 Edward R. Stokes signed a lease to a partnership of three men for the right to drill for oil on his ranch. The partnership dissolved five months later when apparently no oil was found. No other activity is recorded in connection with Stokes' ranch until August 25, 1926, when Stokes sold the entire 360 acres to a millionaire businessman named King Gillette, who was looking for a rural location to build the retirement home of his dreams.

      Edward C. Stokes later appears in 1904 as a defendant before the Los Angeles deputy district attorney after participating in a horse-dealing con. He was working as a teamster on John Street at the time. "Greatest of Horse Grafts", Los Angeles Times, August 20, 1904.

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      From “How the Californio Girls (and Boys) Lost Their Accents”. The book lists correspondence between members of the Stokes family who descend from Don Edwardo Stokes of San Diego. A letter from Eduardo R. Stokes, written to his brother, is from “Las Vergenes”.

      http://books.google.com/books?id=XfjZbowKjQ8C&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=don+eduardo+stokes&source=bl&ots=E6hYi7YCEC&sig=--mqyXWNx-cYMOippvDvdyHGEmA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RkJ6VN6eFNLroASY-oDQCw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=don%20eduardo%20stokes&f=true

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      Per Gary Liss:

      Homesteader, Calabasas, 160 acres
      Purchased his son’s homestead about 1901, giving him an additional 160 acres. Had an additional 40 acre homestead. Owned 360 acres in all, which he sold to King C. Gillette in 1926, eventually becoming King Gillette Ranch today. [4]

  • Sources 
    1. [S1534] .

    2. [S576] .

    3. [S1601] .

    4. [S401] .

    5. [S1539] .

    6. [S1632] .

    7. [S1535] .