Michael White

The Michael White A dobe Also known as Casa de Miguel Blanco

Introducing Michael White  This is Michael White, sometimes known by his Spanish name, Miguel Blanco.  His home, the oldest residence in San Marino, became San Marino High School - and it still is right in the center of campus.

Michael White was born in England  He came from a town called Margate, in Kent.  His dad and his grandfather were both named James White and they were farmers.  Michael White would go on to lead a very exciting life filled with adventure, but he didn’t know that yet.

 Michael White’s first job was working on a whaleboat. He was 13 years old. Before he was 17, he had made the dangerous voyage around Cape Horn and gone to Hawai’i, then known as the Sandwich Islands. More importantly, he learned how to sail a boat and manage a crew - skills he would need later in life.

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In 1817, Michael White was on his way home to England. He got a day off in San Jose del Cabo, the bottom point of Baja California, and thought it it would be fun to rent a horse and go for a ride in the countryside.

He fell off, dislocated his ankle, and had to spend the next 15 months living with the Marquez family (who rented him the horse); fortunately, they liked each other.

He learned Spanish and quickly assimilated into Mexican culture.

Mexico was bigger than the United States at that time and included most of the Midwest and the western states including California.

This map shows Mexico in 1829.

California All the Way Back to 1828 

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The reason we know so much about Michael White is because in 1877, White dictated his memoirs to Thomas Savage, acting on behalf of historian H. H. Bancroft. This oral history was transcribed exactly as he said it and later became “California All the Way Back to 1828.”

Similarly, Eulalia Perez gave her oral history to Savage several days before, and this became “An Old Woman and her Recollections.”

We’ll find out more about Eulalia later on, but the important thing is that Michael White was able to share his story while he was still alive.

This gives us the unique opportunity to know all about the history of San Marino from the man who was here first.

Back to Michael White  

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Michael White went back to being a sailor. He was homesick and wanted to get back to England. He never made it.

When he was on his way home, he recaptured a ship from some pirates.

When he was offered $5 for the recovery of the ship, a sum he considered insulting, he told the American consulate to “stick it up his fundament.”

For several years after that he was a trader, and sometimes a smuggler, in Baja California.

Eventually he got into trouble for smuggling and had to get out of town. He went to Hawai’i and became the First Lieutenant on Kamehameha III’s tax collection ship. Pictured at right is Boki, White’s boss, with his favorite wife.

In 1828, Michael White came to Alta California to buy horses to send to Hawai’i. California became his permanent home.

The Santa Barbara and the Guadalupe   

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Michael White settled in Santa Barbara and worked for Captain Jose de la Guerra y Noriega building ships.

One of his co-workers was Joseph Chapman, another, his cousin Henry Paine.

The first ship they built was the Santa Barbara at Goleta Point, the second was the Guadalupe at the San Gabriel Mission.

Guadalupe was built in San Gabriel then taken to San Pedro in large carts and reassembled.

The remains of the Guadalupe’s anchor are still at the San Gabriel Mission.

Michael White found another reason to stay in San Gabriel. He fell in love with Maria del Rosario Guillen, the daughter of Eulalia Perez de Guillen, the greatly beloved old matron who managed the mission for 14 years.

Maria del Rosario Guillen 

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In order to marry a Mexican citizen, you had to be a Mexican citizen, so Michael White was baptized Miguel Maria Blanco and became a Mexican citizen in 1831.

Spanish-speaking people always called Michael White “Miguel Blanco,” so that would be his name for the next 10 years.

We don’t really know what Maria del Rosario looked like, but she may have looked like her granddaughter Florinda Heslop Plaisance, right.

One of the benefits of being a Mexican citizen was being able to own land.

Unfortunately, Miguel Blanco was just a sailor - he didn’t own any land. Rosario was the 17-year-old daughter of the mission caretaker - she didn’t own any land either.

Miguel sailed off to Mexico on the Guadalupe and wouldn’t be back for a year. In that year, a lot changed.

Eulalia Perez de Guillen Marine 

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Eulalia Perez, Rosario’s mother, was arguably the most influential woman in Southern California because she ran the most successful mission.

Her husband Antonio was a Mexicanborn Spaniard from Loredo, as was she.

He was a soldier who was stationed in Alta California. Sadly, he died when their youngest child, Rita, was very young.

Eulalia was a single mom, and she needed a job. Fortunately, the padres at the San Gabriel Mission knew this, and arranged for her to become their cook.

An elaborate cooking contest ensued.

She won, and impressed them so much with her competence that she soon became the “keeper of the keys.”

She lived under four flags - the Spanish, the Mexican, the California Republic and the American.

But that’s not all…

Eulalia Perez de Guillen Marine 

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We know a lot about Eulalia Perez because she also dictated an oral history to Thomas Savage. It became “An Old Woman and her Recollections,” and she was actually at the Michael White Adobe, right here on campus, when she talked to him in 1877.

The records of the San Gabriel Mission also support her story.

Eulalia was a local celebrity, known as the world’s oldest woman. Many prominent people believed that she was 140 years old - including her son-in-law Michael White. She was old, just not as old as she said, and was probably 108 (some say 112) when she died, not 143!

When the missions secularized in the early 1834, the padres wanted to help the people that had helped them, so they found a new husband for Eulalia , a widower named Juan Marine, and helped her get a land grant.

She became the first owner of Rancho San Pasqual, the land grant that later became Pasadena, South Pasadena and San Marino.

You might think that this made her very wealthy, but that wasn’t the case. The Marines could not afford to keep enough livestock on the property to keep their claim.

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Eulalia Perez did not want to get remarried anyway, so she continued to live in a small house by the mission.

Juan Marine died a short time later and the grant went to his sons, who soon lost it.

It is common to look back at this period in California history and blame poor management and gambling for the loss of so many ranchos, and to an extent these were factors.

However, the underlying problems were far greater. Few of these new property owners had any cash, they were “land poor,” and so they had to borrow money with a huge interest rate attached. The value of livestock was such that cattle cost more to buy than to sell (a down economy). The missions were basically dependent on what amounted to slave labor, which the ranchos of the 1830s were not able to duplicate. Finally, it was customary to repay the whole loan at once instead of in installments, and most of the Ranchos were not able to meet the balloon payment at the end. Think about that the next time you hear that a land grant was lost to a horse race or a hand of cards!

Eulalia died in 1878, a greatly beloved member of the community, and was given the honor of being buried with the priests next to the mission wall.

In the 1930s, this bench was erected in her memory - a fitting tribute for a lady who never had the time to sit down.

Michael White in the 1830s    

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Michael White was keeping busy through all this.

He became a shopkeeper in Los Nietos, near Whittier.

He also was appointed Alcalde, which is a regional judge.

There is some evidence that he continued to make sea voyages along the coast, grazed sheep on Catalina Island, and that White’s Point near San Pedro was named for him.

He was also making a lot of political connections, although he stayed well clear of all the small rebellions and revolutions that shaped California Politics at this time.

He joined the Lugo Colonists in the Bakersfield area.

He left for New Mexico in 1839.

The Spanish Trail

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The Spanish Trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles was new when Michael White left with Tomas Salazar in 1839.

He tried to stop Salazar’s murder of unarmed Native Americans along the way, at the risk of his own life.

He went to work for William Workman in Taos, and returned to California with the Rowland-Workman Party of 1841.

Rancho Muscupiabe

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In 1843, White was granted Rancho Muscupiabe by Governor Manuel Micheltorena. It was a single league of land located near the Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains. It was named for a Serrano Indian village (Rancho Amuscupiabit) in the vicinity. On the remote rancho, White built a heavily fortified log house, but it was subjected to frequent raids by “Desert Indians” (displaced Mission Indians, the Paiutes, the Utes and the Mojave) and their allies. Michael White's rancho was just a little bit south of the X.

Rancho Muscupiabe

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Michael White only lasted nine months at Rancho Muscupiabe before raiders took all of his stock.

He and Maria del Rosario had a large family - at least 11 children, of whom nine survived early childhood. They stayed with him in the Cajon Pass for only six weeks before he decided it was too dangerous.

These three may have had something to do with it. Walkara, Chief of the Utes, James Beckwourth, an African-American Mountain Man, and Thomas “Peg-leg” Smith, comprised a gang of ruthless horse thieves who terrorized the pass throughout the 1840s.

Rancho San Ysidro

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In 1845, White received a concession to 500 square varas (77.23 acres) of land north of the San Gabriel Mission from Governor Pio Pico. This was the start of San Marino.

Pio Pico, and his brother Andreas, were California’s mixed-race governors, being partly Black, Indian, and Spanish.

White received this grant because of his wife’s and mother-in-law’s service to the San Gabriel Mission (Eulalia was the midwife who delivered the Pico brothers). He was also very good friends with the Picos and supported Pio Pico against Manuel Micheltorena.

The White family probably moved to San Ysidro (named for the patron saint of farmers and day laborers) in 1843, before it became “official.”

Michael White continued in his capacity as Alcalde.

Sonangna

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The Spanish were not the first people to live in San Marino, in fact, right where San Marino High School is now, was a Tongva Indian village called Sonangna. It had a spring, so people could live there year-round.

When the San Gabriel Mission was built in the 1770s, the Tongva people were forced to move there to live and work. Many of them died from infectious diseases like smallpox.

Some of them led rebellions with greater and lesser degrees of success, and all of them learned new skills. It was a very challenging period in history.

The Tongva, then called “Gabrielinos,” did most of the hard work - including building the church and all the other structures. When you read “Michael White built,” it really means “Michael White supervised the building of…”

By the time that the White family moved to Sonangna, there hadn’t been any Tongva there for a while, but there were still plenty of Tongva people at the mission.

Casa Blanca

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When the Whites moved to San Marino, there was an adobe there already. The padres at the mission, with Tongva labor, had built a number of ancillary buildings. One of these was the Old Mill, El Mollino Viejo, that is so famous now. Another of these was a building called “Casa Blanca” or “Dona Eulalia’s House.” Later, it was called “La Ramada Inn.” This photo, probably taken in the 1870s, shows the White family in front of this adobe.

Michael White built the adobe that is still on the San Marino High School campus around 1845, as his primary residence, and added another large section to it that was made of wood. That house is now at 704 El Monte Street in San Gabriel, where it was moved sometime between 1935 and 1947.

Casa Blanca QuickTime™ and a decompressor are needed to see this picture.

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Casa Blanca went through several owners, including L. H. Titus, San Gabriel Valley Land and Water Company, L.L. Bradbury and a sub-divider called Gainsborough Heath. In 1939, the Archbishop of Los Angeles purchased the second Michael White Adobe, "Casa Blanca," at Huntington Drive and San Gabriel Boulevard, for Saints Felicitas & Perpetua church. It was used as the primary church until 1947, then used as a rectory, and it was demolished in 1962, effectively destroying 130 years of local history.

Michael White in the 1840s

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In the 1840s, Michael White went from not being politically involved to being an active participant in the Yankee takeover of California through his friends from New Mexico; William Workman, John Rowland, and Benjamin Davis Wilson.

It may be that he came to regret his military service and the changes that came to California as a result.

He fought in the Battle of Cahuenga to protest the regime of Micheltorena, then in the Mexican-American War [18451846] at the Battle of Chino, under Wilson. He was taken prisoner, and after he “escaped,” maintained a neutral position throughout the rest of the conflict.

Michael White in the 1850s

 In 1848, Michael White joined the Gold Rush in Northern California. He had mixed success.  He drove a wagon from Sacramento to San Gabriel in 1849, and was probably one of the first to do so.

Later it would become common, but in those days there were few roads.  Michael White’s world was changing, and the groundwork that he had laid for his retirement was slipping away.

Michael White in the 1850s  When Michael White initially moved to California, it was a frontier backwater. The Mexican culture that he loved so much was renowned for being “laidback,”offering easy prosperity (unfortunately, on the backs of the Native Americans) and hospitality.  The government that Juan Bandini, Pio Pico, Jose Castro, Juan Sepulveda and others of White’s friends always seemed to want to overthrow, was appointed by a Supreme Government in Mexico City. They wanted an autonomous republic for the people of California.  With the conquest of California by the United States, and the rampant greed engendered by the Gold Rush, White and his friends found themselves on the receiving end of racism for the first time in their lives.  One of the White’s sons, Joseph, was murdered in El Monte. Crime was on the rise everywhere in Southern California.

Joaquin Murrieta 

In the 1850s, Mexican-Americans were prosecuted for the slightest pretext and lynching was common. Many Latinos had a hard time making ends meet with a legal system that was stacked against them. “Joaquin Murrieta” was a legendary character who was probably a composite of several individuals, an outlaw who sought revenge on the gringos who had ruined his life. Many people thought he was real, including Michael White, who believed that he had served dinner to Murrieta and his gang on one occasion in the 1850s. Undoubtedly, he did serve dinner to some gang of banditos, but whether it was Joaquin Murrieta or another (there were at least five Joaquins) is open to debate. Michael White never had a problem with Mexican bandits, but he had tremendous problems with American thieves (and his mounting debts) which caused his fortunes to turn in the 1850s.

Rancho Muscupiabe

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Michael White wasn’t living at Rancho Muscupiabe, but no one else had come forward to challenge his claim. It was still his. Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to improve it, but he didn’t want to see it go either.

In 1853, a claim was made to the United States Land Commission; White to receive half the land and his attorney the other half. in 1856 White sold a half-interest to Isabel Granger and Charles Crittenden, and the other half was sold in 1857 to Henry Hancock, a surveyor, who subsequently obtained the balance of the tract. The fact that this valuable piece of real estate slipped through White’s fingers undoubtedly made him bitter in later life, but there was nothing he could do about it at the time.

The Old Mother Grapevine

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Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, Michael White remained on Rancho San Ysidro, selling pieces of it off, as his financial situation demanded.

He sold the Casa Blanca adobe to Luther Harvey Titus in 1871, and in the depression of 1876 mortgaged the Casa de Miguel Blanco, the Michael White Adobe. Titus bought it too - the land anyway - at a sheriff's auction in 1878. White was unable to pay back the loan with the accrued interest.

It is believed that the one part of his once lush vineyards that remains is the Old Mother Grapevine in San Gabriel near the mission, a mighty vine that once covered several acres.

The School 

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Michael White died penniless in Los Angeles on February 26, 1885. He was 84 years old. Maria del Rosario passed in 1892. They were survived by eight of their children and many grandchildren. Rosario is buried in the mission cemetery.

According to K. L. Carver, in 1878, Francesca Heslop, the White’s daughter, and her husband Joseph, donated the adobe for use as a school and until 1890, the children of San Marino attended classes there.

1890 -1935 

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Still, the old adobe stood as it always had, right in the center of San Marino. It was owned by the school district and rented to various tenants, including a flower farm.

In 1935, it was added to the Historic American Buildings Survey by Henry F.Withey, who believed that the adobe portion of the house was constructed between 18301850, with 1843 as the most likely date, and the wooden portion between 1860 -1880.

1947-1952 

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The wooden portion of the house was moved to 704 El Monte Street in San Gabriel. It is still there today.

In 1952, the adobe was restored by K.L. Carver and a group of public-spirited citizens of the San Gabriel Valley. The restoration was done solely through donations.

K. L. Carver ‘s project then became San Marino High School in 1955, with the addition of a swimming pool, science wing and a large auditorium.

By June 1956, the first commencement exercises were held at San Marino High School.

The restored adobe was the center of campus, tucked in by the pool, as it still is 55 years later.

San Marino  Part of the success of the adobe restoration was that San Marino residents saw the value of having an asset like the adobe available for students to learn about the history of California and gain a sense of pride in the continuance of a community tradition.  Numerous newspaper clippings of the period attest to the optimism of the community that Michael White’s unique place in history would not be forgotten and that San Marino’s students would have the benefit of an on-campus history lab - perhaps the only one in America!

1956 - Present  

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The Native Sons of the Golden West erected a historic marker for the Michael White Adobe in 1956.

From 1956-present, the adobe has been used variously by the high school and the San Marino Historical Society.

It had renovations done in 1983, and is in good structural condition, as attested to be the National Register of Historic Places, California’s Office of Historic Preservation.

The opinion of the Getty Buildings Survey of 1994 is that it suffered no significant damage in the Northridge Earthquake.

The next 165 Years

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The challenge for the future of the Michael White Adobe is to restore the adobe so that it can be enjoyed and utilized by both the public and by the students of San Marino High School, as envisioned by K.L. Carver 60 years ago.

The Friends of the Michael White Adobe believe that this is possible and that this historic building is not a campus liability, but an asset of incalculable value. Find out more at https://sites.google.com/site/michaelwhiteadobe/home