Tales of Old Fort Tejon

Hello, my name is James Winters. I was born in Scotland in 1837. My father was a crofter, a person who farmed, and he also raised sheep. I decided to follow in his footsteps. When I was fifteen I became an apprentice to a man who raised sheep and cattle on a ranch near San Pedro, California. He paid my way to America.

I left Scotland in the spring of 1852. I arrived in New York a couple of months later. Then I crossed the United States by train, stagecoach, and on foot. I finally arrived in San Pedro in the summer of 1852.

I began working as a shepherd, but after I served my time as an apprentice I became a foreman. This was mainly because I was one of the few workers who could read and write. A few years later I decided to move to the Fort Tejon area.

Fort Tejon

The Army was just beginning to build the fort, and since I had learned to make adobe bricks in San Pedro, I applied for a job. While at the fort I met General Edward Beale, who I later went to work for.

In 1859 1 returned to Scotland. This time I traveled from Fort Tejon to St. Louis on the Butterfield Stage Line. From there I went by train to New York, where I boarded a ship to Scotland.

In February of 1860 I married my wife, Jane. That December we had our son James, who we named after me. In late 1861 we decided to return to America.

This time the trip was harder because the Civil War was raging. We sailed from Scotland to New York, but could not go overland to California. So we took a ship from New York to Panama, crossed the Isthmus, and sailed to San Pedro. We finally arrived in December.

Our first daughter, Jennie, was born in San Pedro in 1862. Our second daughter, Mary, was born there in 1863. Early in 1863 I decided that I wanted a ranch of my own. Since I liked the mountains of Kern County, I decided to go there.

I walked from San Pedro to Fort Tejon. All I carried with me was a large shawl. At night I stopped to sleep, using the shawl for a blanket. I also had a small supply of water, but it did not last long. I became so thirsty that my tongue swelled. I found out later that I had walked for several miles just above a stream of good water.

Sheep grazing

Once I arrived at Fort Tejon, I was given a job as superintendent of General Beale's sheep ranch. Grizzly bears were a problem so we built platforms in the trees to store our supplies, and to sleep on. We also had to carry guns with us for protection. Early the next year, I brought my family to the fort.

Hello, my name is Jane Winter. You have already met my husband, James. In 1864, James came back to San Pedro to get the family. We traveled with the supply wagons. It took us three weeks to get to Fort Tejon, and it rained and snowed almost all the way. We were delayed for many days on two different occasions.

In 1868 our daughter Ellen was born at the fort, and our son Alex was born two years later. I enjoyed living at the fort. While we lived there, General Beale brought camels to the fort. I would gather camel hair from fences and trees and use it to make small pillows and pincushions. I also remember how frightened the Army mules and horses were of the strange, new animals.

After a while James decided to start his own ranch. He bought 160 acres of land near the fort. He built our house out of adobe in a canyon, near a spring of good water. It was nice to look out across the hills and see deer and cattle grazing. We had four more daughters and another son in the following years.

Cooking over the hearth

Life on the ranch wasn't easy. We would work from sun up until sun down, even the children. My daughters and I would cook over an open fire in the fireplace. We would use large Dutch ovens to bake bread. The water we used had to be carried from the nearby spring.

Finally, in about 1680, James bought me a large woodburning kitchen stove. That made cooking for our large family much easier. I also made all the soap for the family, and all the candles used for lighting.

Hi! I'm James Winter Jr. I'd like to tell you what life was like for my brother, sisters, and me. We helped our parents do most of the work. At planting and harvesting time my father would hire extra help. The rest of the year we only had one hired hand.

There was no school near our home, so my parents taught us at home. Our subjects were reading, writing, math, Spanish, and English. By the time my brother, Edwin, was old enough to go to school, one had been built at Joaquin Flats. For eight years he rode a horse back and forth to school.

Wagon and mule

My father loved good books. In the evening he would read to us. He really enjoyed reading books by Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. History was also one of his favorite subjects. By the time we had all grown up he had read the history of every country except Russia.

Hi, my name is Ellen Winter. I was the first Anglo child born at Fort Tejon, and I was named for Colonel Baker's daughter. One of the things that I looked forward to as a child was the rare trips to Bakersfield, because they gave me a chance to see other people. We would go to Bakersfield twice a year to buy groceries and other supplies. The round trip was 82 miles, and it took us four days to travel that distance.

We would get to spend the first night at the Towne Ranch. Then we would get up early the next morning and be in Bakersfield in time to do most of the shopping. We would finish the shopping early the next morning, and drive our wagon back to the Towne Ranch. We would again spend the night there. The next day we would arrive at home.

Arlington Hotel

On occasion we would take the buckboard into Bakersfield. On these trips only one child was allowed to go. It would only take two days by buckboard, and we would get to stay at the Arlington Hotel. This was a special treat and very seldom ever happened.

Hello, my name is Alex. I was the last Winter child born at Fort Tejon. The rest of them were born on the family's ranch. I would like to tell you about the bandits who lived in the valleys near my home.

The most famous was Joaquin Murrieta. He is often known as the " Robin Hood" of California. The state offered a reward of $5,000 for his capture, dead or alive. Captain Harry Love gathered a force of rangers together, and captured him at Tejon Pass.

Since the bandits made Tejon Pass dangerous, very few people homesteaded there. The government decided to send troops to the area, and they settled at what is now Fort Tejon. Peace came to the area for a while, but was short lived when a band of outlaws escaped from San Quentin.

Vaqueros

The outlaws were led by Pancho Daniel. They started murdering settlers in the area. The sheriff who was sent to stop them was also murdered. General Pico caught them and hung them from a nearby tree. From that time on little crime took place around Tejon Pass.

One outlaw who lived in the area, but did his crimes in other places, was a bandit named Vasquez. He was famous for a number of holdups he pulled along the coast. He hid out from the law in Tejon Pass.

He stayed friendly with the people in the Tejon area so that they would not turn him in. This worked until he was joined by a bandit named Francisco Gomez. Gomez had shot a sheriff in a gunfight. A posse caught them, and they were hung.

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