The Journal of San Diego History - San Diego History Center

Charles C. Painter
Edward H. Davis, photographer, with his children. © SDHS #OP 15362-479.
he ran a store for many years. For a brief biography and a sketch of his store, see History of San
Bernardino and San Diego Counties (San Francisco: Wallace W. Elliott & Co., 1883), 180, 200. Major
Lee H. Utt, a Civil War vet, purchased the Agua Tibia Ranch, upstream from Pala, in the 1870s.
His family continued to own it long after his death in 1895.
63. In “Land in Severalty: The Mission Indians Confer About It,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 1887, the
Pala Valley was described as “a beautiful place, well watered and containing some of the finest
soil in Southern California.” The reporter described the two hundred Indians who attended as
“peaceably looking,” and as “intelligent,” and “as well-dressed as any of the ranchmen in the
neighborhood.”
64. A reference to the March 3, 1875, Indian Homestead Act which extended to any Indian born in the
United States and who was either the head of family or twenty-one years of age the right to select
land from the public domain under the provisions of the May 20, 1862, Homestead Act. Unfortunately
the Indian homesteader had to have abandoned his tribal affiliation and “adopted the
habits and pursuits of civilized life.” Henry Norris Copp, Public Land Laws passed by Congress from
March 4, 1869, to March 3, 1875 (Published by the compiler, 1875), 188.
65. Reverend Francis Mora owned the Pauma Ranch, located between Rincon and the Pala Reservation.
On May 14, 1883, he offered it to the government for $31,000 in gold. Three days later he
wrote Jackson thanking her for her interest in the Mission Indians. He explained he would let
his offer stand but preferred to have the purchase closed during the spring or summer of 1884. In
Jackson, “The Report,” 472, 512-13, she strongly recommended the purchase of this ranch. In 1891,
Painter was able to arrange for the government to acquire some of Bishop Mora’s land at Pauma
for the Indians and a small reservation was established.
66. Rincon, La Peche, and La Jolla were Luiseño villages along the upper San Luis Rey River.
67. La Jolla was one of several small land grants given to former Mission Indians after the secularization
of Mission San Luis Rey in 1834. The Pablo Apis who received this grant in 1845 was perhaps
the son of Pablo Apis, the former mission alcalde, who received a similar grant at Temecula that
same year. See Phil Brigandi, Temecula at the Crossroads of History (Encinitas: Heritage Publishing,
1998), 30-33. Cave Couts (1821-1874) came to California as a soldier in 1849, and two years later
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