Hugo & Victoria Bartolomea ReiD

Rancho Santa Anita Owners 1841/45 - 1847 (Mexican Period)

Hugo Reid was born Hugh Reid on April 18^th, 1811 in Cardness, Dunbarton, Scotland. He attended Cambridge University, but left before completing his studies. At age 18, Hugh decided to see the world and departed from the port of Liverpool, England in search of his fortune. He arrived in San Pedro, then a primitive landing serving the pueblo of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mission. In Los Angeles, he opened a tienda, or a general store, facing the main plaza of the pueblo of Los Angeles.

In 1839, Hugh filed an application for the Rancho Santa Anita grant. According to Historian Charles C. Baker, Reid was refused: “In 1839 Hugo Reid made his first petition for the Santa Anita, but the committee of the Ayuntamiento reported that ‘the place is filled with young cattle of San Gabriel Mission and with Indian plantations of the same place,’ and Reid’s petition was denied.” The rancho that would become Rancho Santa Anita was part of mission lands and was being used for these purposes.

Bartolomea (the name given to her by the San Gabriel Mission), was an Gabrieliño-Tongva Native American, born around 1808 in an indigenous town called Comigranga, which was located around today’s Santa Monica. She was taken away from her parents to live at the San Gabriel Mission in the guarded dormitory at around the age of six.

At thirteen, according to the custom, the padres chose a husband for her and gave her in marriage to forty-one year old Pablo Maria, a Native American vaquero who worked at the mission’s Yutucubit Rancheria. Bartolomea bore three children: Felipe, Jose Delores and Maria Ygnacia. Bartolomea and her husband, were slated to receive claim to Huerta de Cuati, a 128.6 acre portion of land located two miles northeast of the current San Gabriel Mission church. It was one of the few Mexican grants given to an indigenous person in southern California. Sadly, Pablo died around 1837, probably from smallpox. Bartolomea received the land for her past service to the mission.

She lived the end of her life at the San Gabriel Mission and died there on December 23, 1868 from smallpox. She is buried in the mission cemetery.

Hugo and Victoria

Hugo Reid was naturalized as a Mexican citizen in 1839, one year after he and Bartolomea, thereafter called Victoria, were wed. On his naturalization from a Scotsman to a Californio, he took the name Don Perfecto Hugo Reid. As citizen of Mexico, he had the right to claim vacant public land in California. Hugo again petitioned for the Santa Anita Rancho and received it with some resistance, as there were others who wanted the beautiful lands also. Being the husband of Victoria, a connected mission Indian and well-respected, was helpful to him in this regard. Reid also indicated in his application that his wife's family did much in the past to improve the area. After two years of filing petitions and writing letters Reid received a provisional grant to Rancho Santa Anita on April 16, 1841. Four years later, in 1845, Reid was granted a formal title to the Rancho by Governor Pio Pico.

With Indian labor, Reid built a three room house on a bluff overlooking the valley. After completion of the adobe, Reid continued to live at the larger house, Uva Spina, on his wife's property. Victoria's oldest son, Felipe, lived at the adobe on Rancho Santa Anita and served as ranch manager. The original mission cultivation of the Ranch flourished under Felipe and Hugo’s care. They grew wheat, planted fruit trees, and had over 10,000 vines of grapes. They raised herds of cattle and kept a stable of mares.

Shortly after Reid received the provisional title to his cattle ranch, he became restless and felt the yearning to travel again. In 1842, he left Victoria at home to Master the Mexican schooner, the Esmeralda. The Esmerelda was a trading ship that he sailed up and down the California coast and to Asia. This business was unsuccessful, even losing him money.

Reid returned from his voyages in 1844. Upon his return from his adventures, he expressed to his friend, Abel Stearns, a desire to sell Rancho Santa Anita, even though it was thriving. By June 1844, probably under the supervision of Victoria's son Felipe, the vineyard had doubled to 22,730 vines, including dark grapes, white grapes, and maroon grapes. They had over 430 fruit trees, including peaches, lemons, pomegranates, oranges, pears, figs, blood oranges, plums, olives, apples and walnuts. Reid spent most of the 1840s away from the Rancho, eventually selling it in 1847.