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76 Historical Society of Southern California

any man to collect revenues from them. And so far as
deponent sayeth no one ever tried it!
Having an empty wagon and a down hill road to travel
homeward, the horses feeling gay, Warren sped along, not
feeling entirely sure that a bullet might not come whistling
from his deceived customers in the Tehachepi. He hustled
along to Willow Springs, a station on the Mojave desert,
where he rested the horses a bit, then hastened to Elizabeth
Lake, where he arrived early in the afternoon.
He made an astonishing record for the trip and was re-
ceived as a hero, his speed being as highly praised then
as Lindbergh’s is now. He spent the night at Elizabeth
Lake, breathing easily again.
He was received with honors by the Marshal and the
citizens of Los Angeles when he arrived at dusk the follow-
ing day with the cheering news that the warm-hearted
Southerners were not planning any attack, were hard-work-
ing and honest, and all that they wanted was to be left
strictly alone to live as they pleased.
About a hundred feet south of the house was a sixty
foot room where wine casks containing several kinds of
wine, manufactured on the premises, were kept. Close by
was a shoemaker’s shop where a Mexican made shoes,
chamois leather shoes being his specialty. The working-
men’s quarters were next; the stable followed and the cor-
rals and dairy were at the southeast end, quite a distance
from the house. A large number of cows were milked
and the product distributed or used in cheese making.
There were several pigs of the finest stock penned back of
the corrals and fowls of all kinds were had in abundance
—turkeys, geese, ducks and guinea hens.
On the hills between Pleasant Avenue and Evergreen
Cemetery grazed a band of horses and hundreds of sheep
and some goats. A boy and two shepherd dogs tended the
sheep, which were brought to their fold at dusk.
In the year 1863, Don Francisco took a band of horses,
mules and cattle to sell in San Francisco, which brought
him good profit. While there he purchased a carriage and
set of silver-trimmed harness of French manufacture, just