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Note: Death Notice of Vincente Fernandez South Riverside Bee Newspaper 1894 Article recovered from Ocie Songer's Unpublished notebook, Corona Public Library Heritage Room
Fernandez-At Ontario, California at 8:30 A.M. June 15, 1894 Vincente Fernandez age 75 years died.
Mr. Fernandez was a native of Santiago, Chile. He came to California in 1849, settling in Santa Clara. In 1853 he married Mr. Joy, whose maiden name was Rodriguez. The issue of this marriage was twenty-six children, four of whom are living. In 1869 Mr. Fernandez moved to Rincon where he lived in the patriarchal style of the wealthy Spanish settlers of early days. One September of 1892, he moved to South Riverside. The family fortunes have suffered of late years and the widow and the children are not left as well provided for as the lamented father and husband could have wished.
Mr Fernandez was ill for a year and for the last six months was confined to his bed. His ailment was dropsy. Some time ago he went to his daughter. Mrs Mc Carty of Ontario, California, where he died. The funeral took place on Saturday last , June 16, at 1 o'clock. Mrs. Fernandez wished to thank the people of South Riverside and of Ontario for the kindness that has been shown herself and family in their troubles.
Notes from the South Riverside Bee, Microfilms at the Corona Public Library
August 23, 1888 Vincente Fernandez owns the first place containing 130 acres besides a stock range of 87 acres. He has a large and comfortable residence, considerable Fruit and about 80 acres of Alfalfa as well as some fine stock. Mr. Fernandez also keeps a store and saloon. (This ranch was sold to Ira Ashcroft later)
Christena Fear account of the Rincon area written in a book at the Corona Public Library Heritage Room. This is an account of the Fernandez family by Christena Fear:
Vincente Fernandez of Santiago, Chile came to California in the gold rush days. In 1869 he bought this ranch from Bernardo Yorba heirs. He lived here until he retired in south Riverside (Corona) in 1892: dying two years later. The older Serranos knew him; they thought of him as Un Hombre rico. (Translation Rich Man) They were particularly impressed by his elegant furniture and the expensive clothes worn by his wife. B. Vincente and Maria Antonia Fernandez were credited with fathering twenty-six children.
Saloon and Stagecoach Stop: "Old-time Saloon Discovered Carved in Sandstone Cliff" was news in the Corona Daily Independent during preliminary excavations for the Prado Dam. Since Ira Ashcrof last owner of the property had long ago sealed, as well as concealed, the entrance to the cave: the paint and pictures on the walls still had a trace of color.
Vincente Fernandez came to Rincon in 1869. Besides ranching, he operated a store which was crowded up against the sandstone cliff across Rincon Road from his home. He may have originally dug the cave (entered through the store) as a wine cellar for his own use. Soon, however, it became a well patronized saloon. Dan Arce recalls his grandfather saying: that the Spanish and Mexican men, of the early days, habitually played cards in the cave as they sipped their drinks.
From the unpublished memoirs of Mrs. Mary Walinshaw Kroonen, we learned that fights often took place in the cave. Her mother has a silk shawl with long fringes. (It has purchased from Slaughter's store when it first opened about 1869.) Bill Roberds, Mary's stepfather, was deputized to break up fights: especially on Saturday nights in the cave saloon. On such occasions, he always took the shawl along. When there were gun or knife wounds: he would cut off pieces of the fringe: heat a needle; and use the silk thread to sew up the injuries.
Stagecoach Stop: As children, we old-timers heard rumors that a number of stagecoach companies traveled our Rincon Road. It was the Butterfield Mail we thought of as fording the Santa Ana river; stopping at the Fernandez saloon; even changing horses there. The Butterfield fired our imaginations: A line so well known that travelers from Europe bought their stagecoach tickets in London; a line so long that only the ancient Moscow to Peking route came close to matching it.
Recent research makes it questionable that the Butterfield ever used the Rincon Road. All modern historical accounts, written by professionals, give their souther route as far as Corona, then they skip to Chino. In other words, they simply do not know where the Santa Ana was forded, nor which roads were used while crossing Rancho El Rinco. My own research discloses: that if the Butterfield Overland Mail had traveled the Rinco Road, their passengers could not have had a drink in the cave. Because of the Civil Was, the company was forced to relinquish their southern route in 1861. This was eight years before Fernandez came to Rincon and opened his Saloon. (There go our childhood fantasies.)
Rinco History from Christena Fear: 1839: The Rancho was in the southern part of the Department of California a Mexican possession.
1852: Two years after the Department became a state, the Rancho was listed as in Los Angeles County.
1856: San Bernardino County was formed and took in the Rancho. 1893: Riverside County was formed. The rancho was about equally divided between San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
1939: Denouement. At the origin of Orange County, the Rancho and surrounding territory, known as the Rincon, became the Prado Flood Control Basin. (The county had frequently experienced heavy flooding from the Santa Ana River.)
Rancho El Rincon: Juan Bandini: The grant got its name from the Spanish word "rincon." The primary definition of rincon is "corner". Little imagination was required to see Rancho El Rincon as a Corner: bordered as it was with hills and streams. Governor Alvarado Granted Juan Bandini the seven square league Rancho Jurupa in 1838. (A portion of the large grant later became part of the city of Riverside.)[Broderbund Family Archive #354, Ed. 1, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Date of Import: Sep 16, 1998, Internal Ref. #1.354.1.28642.16]
Individual: Vincent Fernandez
Place: California
Year: 1848
Primary Individual: Fernandez, Vincent
Source Code: 7702
Source Name:
ROSE, CHRISTINE. Declarations of Intention for Naturalization, Santa Clara County, California. San Jose, CA: Rose Family Association, 1474 Montelegre Drive, San Jose, CA 95129, 1990. 76p.
Source Annotation:
Date and port of arrival or date and place of declaration of intention. Extracted from records in "Declarations of Intention, Santa Clara County, California," vols. A, B, and E located at the Santa Clara County Courthouse.
Source Page #: 6
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