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The Native American cultures of southern
California had stabilized some three thousand years ago, thriving until almost
eliminated by European invasion. Over twenty linguistic families with close to
one hundred thirty-five different languages characterized this culture. By about
1200 A.D. the Kucamongan Native Americans established a village-like clustering
around the land mass we know as Red Hill. The Kucamongan people were part of the
Gabrielino culture, and anthropologists believe that, at their peak, the
Gabrielinos existed as one of the largest concentrations of indigenous peoples
on the North American continent.
Eager to expand its empire, Spain set out to
explore North America in the eighteenth century. In 1769, Captain Gaspar de
Portola led a group of soldiers and Franciscan monks, supervised by Father
Junipera Serra, to Baja California in a colonization effort. The Mission System
established by Serra supported a loosely-constructed social system of ranchos,
primarily cattle producing, ordered by a feudal and kinship way of life.
 The
nineteenth century brought with it profound change and expansion. By 1833, the
amount of control held by Spain diminished and as Mexico won its independence
from the Crown, all land in southern and Baja California was opened up for
granting from the new governor of Mexico. A dedicated soldier, smuggler and
politician, Tubercio Tapia was granted 13,000 acres of land around the area
called Cucamonga by governor Juan Bautista Alvarado on March 3, 1839. Using
Indian labor, Tapia constructed a well-fortified adobe home on Red Hill and
raised great herds of cattle. Unlike many who had gone before him, Tapia began a
successful winery, portions of which stand today known to us as the
Thomas Winery.
 American
forces invaded California in 1846, annexed it in 1848, and made it a state in
1850. Unlike the northern portion of our state during that era, southern
California, and specifically Los Angeles, was described as a "random collection
of adobes rimmed by sandy wastes, wild mustard, and willow trees."
This mid-nineteenth-century mixture of
cultures and lives is well represented in the estate developed by Alabama-born
John Rains and his wife
Maria Merced Williams de Rains. Dona Merced was the
great-granddaughter of Francisco Lugo and granddaughter of Antonio Lugo, and
daughter of Isaac Williams of the famous Rancho Santa Ana del Chino. The Rains
purchased the Rancho de Cucamonga from Tapia's daughter and her husband Leon
Victor Prudhomme in 1858. Before his murder in 1862, Rains greatly expanded the
vineyards Tapia had planted and imported brick masons from Ohio, via Los
Angeles, to construct the family home, now listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
The Rancho period came to a close and changing
land ownership and debates over water rights determined the American settlement
of this region. When combined with transportation, the availability of water
shaped the nature of development. The wagon trail over Cajon Pass to the Mission
San Gabriel in 1826, the Butterfield Stagecoach line in 1858, the Union Pacific
Railroad in 1887, and the Pacific Electric Railway Line in 1913 all brought
supplies men, women, hopes and dreams to this area while men like George Day
captured the water as it emerged on its path from the San Bernardino Mountains
above us.
 Cucamonga's
history stretches back further than most of the other regional communities.
President Abraham Lincoln signed into existence a post office located at the
base of Red Hill in 1864 the first in the western portion of San Bernardino
County. After John Rains' death and Dona Merced's departure, the Rancho went
into foreclosure, and in 1870 it was sold to Isaias Hellman and other San
Francisco businessmen who later formed the Cucamonga Company. In 1887, both
water and access were provided to the Cucamonga colony, as irrigation tunnels
were dug into Cucamonga canyon and the Santa Fe Railroad extended through the
area. Although early settlers planted and cultivated citrus, olive, peach, and
other crops, vineyards and wine making characterized the Cucamonga community.
Alta Loma was carved from the original Rancho
de Cucamonga. The banker, Hellman, formed the Cucamonga Homestead Association,
but could not get water to the subdivision, and the town's development was
curtailed until Adolph Petsch and four other investors opened up the Hermosa
tract in 1881 just outside of the Rancho lands. Spurred on by the competition,
Hellman established the Iowa tract in 1882 and brought needed water to the tract
via Cucamonga Canyon. Dug by Chinese laborers, some of these water ways are
still in use. The two colonies combined to form Ioamosa in 1887 and when in 1913
the Pacific Electric Railway came through, supported by
Captain Peter Demens, a Russian nobleman, and other citrus
growers looking to improve crop transportation, the town became Alta Loma.
 The
City's eastern community of Etiwanda has the distinction of being the first town
planned by
George and William Chaffey who purchased the land in 1881
from
Joseph Garcia, a retired Portuguese sea captain. The
innovations in city planning, subdividing, promotion, beautification, and most
significantly irrigation for which the Chaffeys would become famous, were first
tested in the Etiwanda colony. George Chaffey, an experienced engineer, created
a mutual water company and pipe system of irrigation that became the standard
for water system management in southern California. Not set on just bringing
water to the arid chaparral, Chaffey also harnessed hydro-electric power and on
December 4, 1882, the first electric light glowed from Etiwanda; and four months
earlier the first long distance call in southern California was completed
between San Bernardino and Etiwanda.
 By
1913, the community boasted of paved streets, rock curbs, and streetlights quite
a list of accomplishments for a small town.
Men and women from many cultures have shaped
Rancho Cucamonga's history. Many Mexican families labored in the vineyards and
groves, often living in small, quickly constructed camps, located away from the
other centers of settlement. Later, they created a thriving community of their
own, known as North Town, in which a dance hall, theater, markets, restaurants,
and a church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, was founded and bound them together. Much
of the heritage and built environment of North Town exists today. Likewise,
Italian immigrants like the Nosenzos, Guideras, DiCarlos, and Campanellas
established a community out along Foothill Boulevard in southern Etiwanda,
consisting of homes, wineries of all sizes, and Sacred Heart church.
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