A Malibuite keeps up on her ancestry through a unique organization whose members are descendants of pioneers that came to Southern California before or during the first hundred years of the founding of Los Angeles, on Sept. 4, 1781.
By David Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times
Most of us know that many of the neighborhoods and communities as well as the streets we traverse daily-streets like Sepulveda Boulevard, Wilcox Avenue and Franklin Avenue-are named for someone or something. Few of us, however, give much thought to who or what is being memorialized.
But for the more than 320 people who paid $65 a plate last week to lunch on chicken and tarte tatin in the faux-baroque surroundings of the Beverly Hills Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom, those names are living reminders of who they themselves are.
The event was the 64th annual gathering of members of the First Century Families organization-descendents of the pioneers who came to Southern California before or during the first hundred years of the founding of Los Angeles, on Sept. 4, 1781. The group includes Rindges (who once owned all of Malibu), Dockweilers (as in beach at the end of LAX), Bandinis (a cardinal and a pope in that family tree), Bannings and a Malibuite who will chair the luncheon for the next two years. She is Teresa Earle Cloete, a ninth-generation descendant on her mother’s side of Don Francisco Sepulveda who was granted the Rancho San Vicente, running from today’s Santa Monica to Beverly Hills, in 1828. His son, Don Jose Andres Sepulveda, who owned the San Joaquin Rancho (now part of Orange County’s gigantic Irvine Ranch), and the Avilas (Don Jose Andres’ wife) descended from the kings of Spain.
As is their tradition, the First Century Families’ luncheon program included historic anecdotes of early Los Angeles presented by members whose ancestors played a significant part in the development of the region. This year, the Hellman, White and Banning families spoke about I.W. Hellman and his Pacific Electric railway (which operated the much-missed Red Cars), Sen. Stephen White’s crusade to make San Pedro the port of Los Angeles, and Phineas Banning’s stagecoach line that became the railroad to San Pedro.
Last year, a spirited defense of the career of William Mulholland, the L.A. Municipal Water Company’s notorious chief engineer in the early 1900s, was presented by his granddaughter, Catherine Mulholland.
Born in San Francisco and raised in West Los Angeles, Cloete says, “I’ve been involved with the organization for many years, originally because of my mother’s, (Chonita) passion for the group.
“The First Century Families was started by Mary Foy, the first woman to be Los Angeles’ librarian (1880-84) and whose parents arrived with the Gold Rush. It was just a simple gathering of friends who would get together every year and reminisce about their families,” Cloete adds.
Today, that original social impetus has been supplemented with a mission to assure the preservation of family records and memories for the use of scholars studying Southern California’s roots and growth. Many of the group’s archives have already been transferred to USC’s library as part of their historic families initiative.
A few years ago, while working as a marketing director in London, Teresa Earle met and eventually married Scully Cloete, a South African native who was about to return to his native Johannesburg and is now the general manager of Malibu’s Granita Restaurant. Three years ago, she moved to an old cottage in Malibu, both as an antidote to crowded London and because of its proximity to her sisters: Maggie Pierson, who lives in Paradise Cove, and Molly Avery who lives in Woodland Hills.
Although Teresa is somewhat worried about the responsibility of mounting the next First Century Families’ annual events, the one thing that doesn’t concern her is her family’s commitment to keeping alive memories of old California. Next May, Teresa and Scully’s first child will be born. He or she will be a rare person, indeed: a tenth generation heir to an amazing, uniquely Southern California tradition, and, one day, possibly another family member to join the roster of the First Century Families.