Rubidoux Tutors

About Rubidoux

Rubidoux is named after Louis Rubidoux. Mount Rubidoux in Riverside County is also named after him. Rubidoux was a successful rancher, he built the first flour mill in the area and he operated a winery. Rubidoux was born a Mexican citizen, and became major of Santé Fe in 1839. It is written that he was “shrewd, aggressive and an ambitious man of high intellect.”

Accompanied by his family, Rubidoux moved to California in 1844, and initially settled into an abode in what now is Riverside. He sold parcels of land in his ownership to others relocating to the area. Louis saw a business opportunity in driving his cattle to the gold fields to supply meat to the miners who were feverishly panning for gold during the California Gold rush of 1849-1850. In 1850 California officially became a state, resulting from a compromise in the United States Congress to stave off the Civil War. Rubidoux tutors note that there was a great deal of unrest at this time. Rubidoux fought on the side of the Americans and was wounded and captured in the “Bear Flag Revolt” He faced severe punishment for being a traitor to Mexico and was almost executed. His loyalty proven, Louis who had already had experience in local politics, was a strong choice to be up for election for government, as California began to piece together a statewide infrastructure of local political units. He was the only non-Mormon member of the original San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

San Bernardino County came into existence in 1853 by a legislative act in Sacramento, which separated the area from Los Angeles County. An important consideration by Rubidoux tutors is that at this time San Bernardino County also encompassed Riverside County. The sheer size of the county afforded Judge D. M. Thomas to split the county into three townships: Chino, San Salvador and San Bernardino. The first district supervisor was Daniel Stark, the second William Crosby, and Louis Rubidoux was elected as the supervisor of the third district in 1855. In 1857 almost half of San Bernardino’s residents left to return to Salt Lake City to defend their Mormon Church, their families and their way of life. They paid homage to Mormon Leader, Brigham Young. They abandoned their settlements and all the toiling they had done to make improvements, and followed Young’s edict as news circulated that the U.S Army, under James Buchanan’s leadership, was marshaling it’s forces for an attack on Salt Lake City. In this exodus San Bernardino lost more than two thirds of its skilled laborers, artisans and craftsmen. Despite this, the area continued to grow and flourish.