Bellflower Movers

The original legal title to the land on which Bellflower now stands dates back to 1784 with one of the first Spanish land grants in California. Several Spanish soldiers petitioned Pedro Fages, the Governor of California and a former commander in the Spanish military, for land on which to graze their herds of livestock. The largest of these grants went to soldier Manuel Nieto, who received all the land between the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. In 1832, after the Spanish were ousted in the Mexican Revolution, the new Mexican Governor, Jose Figueroa, divided the land into five smaller ranchos to be distributed among Nieto’s heirs. Bellflower developed on a piece of land bordered by three of the ranchos: Santa Gertrudes, Los Coyotes, and Los Cerritos. During this time, vast amounts of cattle sustained the economy and beef was cheaper than salt.

In 1869, the area known as Somerset Ranch, roughly from Alondra Boulevard to Artesia Boulevard, and from Lakewood Boulevard to Cornuta Avenue, comprised 4,000 acres of what would later become Bellflower. A few scattered parcels had been sold and the open fields were used for grazing dairy cows.

Open fields were great for cattle, settlers soon found that the land could all be washed away. The entire area was subject to annual flooding when the tramp river (San Gabriel) would swell from winter rains or spring thaws and travel down the middle of what is now Bellflower Boulevard. A dense growth of willow, bamboo, and underbrush, wild grape, blackberry, and rose bushes earned the vicinity along the river the name of The Willows and The Wilderness. Early residents recall sometimes rowing from island to island in Bellflower during the rainy season.