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146 Historical Society of Southern California

went north to Monterey
to the neophytes, to talk it over with
Governor Alvarado.1 They were entitled to the privilege
under Mexican law, since they were married to New Mexican
women, and had applied for Mexican citizenship.
Unrestricted fence or barrier, the mingled herds of
by
Rowland and Workman roamed the broad, hilly reaches oí
Rancho La Puente where 150,000 fertile acres had become
theirs by Alvarado's grant. The two new citizens of Cali-
fornia had selected for their homes one of the loveliest valleys
in all the country. Having seen them, who can forget the
in
green hills of Puente, rolling up smoothly, dulcet curves,
against the blue of a rain-washed sky?
Evidently John Rowland took the leadership in obtaining
the grant. Anyway, with their families they established them-
selves as neighbors, a quarter of a mile apart, each one
erecting an adobe house in the style of the country of their
adoption.
Later on, the rancho was formally partitioned between
the two men, John Rowland holding the south and Workman
taking the north half of the vast holding.
-
The Workman Homestead Puente
The adobe house that William Workman built stands firm
situated upon a little rise
and sturdy to this day, beautifully
of ground from which the homestead acres descend gradually
all around to the fertile level of the wide valley. The old
house faces far-off hills to the north, and its background is
glorified by another mountainous guardian circle. It was
very soon after Workman and Rowland obtained the grant of
La Puente, probably in 1843 or '44, that this house was built
whose
by Don Julian. So he was called by the Californians,
vocabulary did not include the name William.
Originally the structure was of the typical California
style, shaped like a U, with parallel wings 75 feet in length
extending to the rear and joined on the extremities an
by
adobe wall which shut in the fourth side of the patio. The
flat roofs were covered with tar from the not-distant Canon
de la Brea, still known by the same name today.
1. Narrative of Benjamin D. Wilson, in Pathfinders, Rotert G. Clelland, Series
California, Appendix, p. 383.