Lemuel Carpenter

Lemuel Carpenter (c. 1808 in Kentucky – November 5, 1859 in California) was one of the first Anglo-American settlers of what is now the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area.

Lemuel Carpenter was born c. 1808 in Kentucky. He migrated to Missouri about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.

Carpenter was in southern California by January 1833, arriving in the company of trappers Cyrus Alexander, William Chard, Joseph Paulding, and Albert Toomes. Early California settler John Bidwell includes him in this recollection of people he knew in the Pueblo de Los Angeles: "Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple (Jonathan Temple), Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pío Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others".

Dating from the era of the Pueblo de Los Angeles, The Plaza and "Old Plaza Church" (Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles) in 1869.

Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business on the San Gabriel River in present-day El Monte that profited sufficiently for him to purchase Rancho Santa Gertrudes, on the site of Tongva Nacaugna and present-day Downey, California, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles.

He was among the first of the Americans to plant a vineyard for the making of wine.

His original settlement was known as "Carpenter's Farm" from 1837 until it was destroyed by a flood in 1867. He was active in revolutionary activities, sided with the Americans in the Mexican War, tried gold mining, and in general prospered in his new home. A popular travel guide notes: "Rancho Santa Gertrudes…was sold to Lemuel Carpenter, a Kentuckian, who married the beautiful María de los Angeles Domínguez. ... The Carpenters [were] happy and prosperous under Mexican rule".

Rancho Santa Gertrudes was owned by Lemuel Carpenter until 1859. In 1859 the rancho was sold at sheriff's auction to John G. Downey and James P. McFarland. "Samuel", actually "Lemuel" but misspelled by the recorder, Carpenter was recorded as the legal possessor as late as 1862.

Lemuel's father is believed to be Jonathan Carpenter (c. 1785 Virginia-c. 1853 Missouri) and grandson of Matthew Carpenter (c. 1761 Virginia-c. 1798 Virginia).

In the 1850 census, Lemuel Carpenter is listed as age 42, with a real estate value of $8,000 dollars, a farmer. His wife, Maria, is listed as age 22 — she was his second wife. His children, all born in California, are listed as:

• Susana Carpenter, age 11.
• José Antonio Carpenter, age 9. (born 20 Nov 1837 in California; his descendants still live in Los Angeles)
• Refugio Carpenter, age 6.
• Francisco Carpenter, age 3.

• Lineage for #17908, Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project – see Table 1, Group 8, 17908.
• 1850 US Census of Los Angeles county, California. Reel No: M432-35 Sheet No: 27B, February 8th, 1851 by J. R. Evertsen, Asst. Marshal. Cited from http://www.rootsweb.com/~cenfiles/ca/losangeles/1850/pg0023a.txt
• Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters. He is number 139492 in that record

Carpenter's prosperity took a precipitous downturn when a $5,000 loan from John G. Downey taken out in 1852 ballooned into a $104,000 debt by 1859. Unable to repay the debt, he eventually killed himself.

The diary of Lemuel Carpenter's daughter Mary Refugio Carpenter includes this entry written on January 2, 1861: "I have been thinking so much of my father tonight. It made me weep."