![]() The brothers, who had placed part of the land under cultivation and built a house, received the rancho as a land grant from Mexican Governor Pío Pico on July 19, 1845. 17Ībel Stearns had originally purchased Guajome from two Luiseño Indian brothers, Andrés and José Manuel, for $550.00. ![]() 16 It was Stearns who presented Rancho Guajome to Couts and his bride as a wedding present. A child bride of fourteen, Arcadia nevertheless provided a successful match for the forty-year-old Stearns. 14 They settled on a rancho which encompassed the whole of present-day Coronado and North Island.” Arcadia, like Ysidora, married an American-the wealthy Los Angeles merchant and trader Abel Stearns. The eldest, Josefa, became the wife of Pedro Carrillo, grandfather of movie actor Leo Carrillo. 13 His first marriage in 1822 to Doña María de los Dolores Estudillo, a member of another influential local family, had produced five children, including three beautiful daughters-Josefa, Arcadia, and Ysidora. Don Juan, who traced his ancestry back to Spanish and medieval Florentine princes, arrived in California from Peru in the early 1820s. The Bandinis were a prominent family in early San Diego society. 11 Couts married the lovely Ysidora in the Bandini house on April 5, 1851. 10 Not only was Couts taken with the friendliness of Ysidora, he noted in his journal that he enjoyed the “unbounded kindness” of Doña Refugia Bandini, her sons and daughters. In fact, after completion of the boundary survey, Couts entered into business with Ysidora’s father, Juan Bandini, in whose home he had been living since his arrival in San Diego. 9 Though the circumstances of this first meeting are open to question, it is known that the couple continued to see each other. Not unlike a knight of yore the Yanqui soldier Couts reportedly made an abrupt charge, catching his lady in distress just in time. Leaning over the edge to gain a better look, the unsuspecting Ysidora suddenly plummeted earthward. Perched on the roof of her father’s house, Ysidora Bandini, 8 along with her sisters, sat watching as Couts and his men marched into San Diego’s Old Town Plaza. 7 It was here, at least according to legend, that Couts’ destiny literally fell into his lap. In 1849 Couts reported to San Diego with a company of dragoons to assist the operations of the United States Boundary Survey then preparing to map the dividing line between Southern California and Mexico. The valley is separated from the valley of Santa Margarita by a chain or ridge of mountains, now covered with wild oats. Several springs meet the creek, which runs into the Pacific about four and a half miles from the mission. While at the latter post he saw the fertile valley which would be his future home. ![]() Soon after arriving in California, Couts was assigned to Los Angeles and later Mission San Luis Rey. 5 Leaving from Monterrey, Mexico in June, 1848, the men marched across the Southwest for six months. 4 A keen observer and voluminous note taker, Couts recorded every aspect of the trip in a daily journal. 3Īfter the close of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Couts came to California with a troop of soldiers under the command of Major Lawrence P. 2 Not long after graduation in 1843, Second Lieutenant Couts was sent to Fort Jessup, Louisiana and from there to three other frontier posts during the next five years. His appointment to this prestigious institution came through his maternal uncle, Cave Johnson, later Postmaster General under President James K. 1 Several months before his seventeenth birthday, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. Ideally it will reflect the proud heritage and determined ambition of its most notable owners, Cave Johnson Couts and his wife Ysidora Bandini.Ī Southerner, born near Springfield, Tennessee, on November 11, 1821, Cave Couts often has been described as lean and handsome in physical appearance with a vigorous and aggressive personality. Recently acquired by the County of San Diego, Guajome will become a living landmark of California’s colorful rancho period. In past decades, faltering attempts have been made to preserve the steadily decaying ranch house so that it might once again serve as a symbol of united Hispanic and Anglo cultures. Amid a landscape of gently rolling hills, the spacious adobe residence of Rancho Guajome is a visable reminder of an era gone by-a time when much of California was divided into feudal-like estates and controlled by a select minority of Mexican and American rancheros. Some thirty miles north of San Diego, on the outskirts of the city of Vista, stands a beautiful and representative example of Spanish hacienda architecture.
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