History of Hemet
The area in which Hemet is located was first inhabited by members of the
Cahuilla Indian tribe. Then, in the early 1800's, it became a cattle
ranch for Mission San Luis Rey and was called Rancho San Jacinto. When
the missions were broken up by the Mexican government, the land was
awarded to Jose Antonio Estudillo in 1842.
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The City of Hemet owes its
inception and initial growth to two ironic events and the dedication of
two wealthy men. The first event was the visit that Ramona author Helen
Hunt Jackson made to the San Jacinto Valley in 1883 in order to gather
material on the Sobobas, a group of Mission Indians living on the east
side of the San Jacinto River. Mrs. Jackson was accompanied to the
valley by her interpreter, Abbot Kinney.
During their visit, Jackson
and Kinney stayed at various ranches and met numerous valley and
mountain residents, notably Charles Thomas and Hancock McClung Johnston.
Thomas and Johnston owned ranches in the San Jacinto Mountains where
they raised race horses in what was then called Hemet Valley.
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Helen Hunt Jackson
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From these two men and
others, Kinney undoubtedly learned about the 1882 court case wherin the
lands of the Rancho San Jacinto Viejo were partitioned to various
individuals, some of whom envisioned making a profit from their holdings
if a sufficient water supply could be developed. Kinney also learned
about and saw a potential reservoir site in Hemet Valley if a dam was
constructed across the South Fork of the San Jacinto River.
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The next day, October 15, 1886, Estudillo sold the 3,000
acres to three other men, Edward L. Mayberry, Albert HH. Judson and
Peter Potts, under the same terms as those with the Lake Hemet Company.
Originally conceived by Abbott Kinney and Hancock M. Johnston, the town
of Hemet would now evolve under the watchful eye and ready money of E.L.
Mayberry and later, W. Whittier.
By December of 1886, Mayberry, Judson and
Potts had sold some of their interests in the Estudillo tract to
Hancock M. Johnston. Also in that same month, the four men and a San
Francisco capitalist friend of the Mayberry's, William Whittier,
acquired another 3,000 acres adjacent to and east of the Estudillo tract
from H.T. Hewitt, who owned a hotel and some shops in San Jacinto,
about a mile north of Park Hill. The Hewitt agreement included a
stipulation that a townsite would be located on or near Park Hill.
The Hewitt property provided the basis
for the formation of two companies. On January 27, 1887, the Lake Hemet
Company and the Hemet Land Company were formed by Johnston, Judson,
Mayberry and Whittier, the latter two holding the majority of stock in
both companies.
The original plans were to build a dam in
the mountains to form a reservoir in order to supply water to the lands
of the Hemet Land Company, the Estudillo tract and two townsites, Hemet
and South San Jacinto.
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S/E from Latham and State
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During 1887 plans were made to lay the
first railroad tracks into the San Jacinto Valley. Mayberry and Whittier
wanted the Santa Fe Company to run the tracks through the Estudillo
tract, to the east line of the Hemet Land Company lands, and then north
and west to the town of San Jacinto, thus providing railroad access to
Hemet and South San Jacinto land buyers. Instead, the first official
train into the valley came in April 1888 to Mayberry's townsite and then
turned north, ending at a spot one-half mile from the town of San
Jacinto.
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During the years 1891 - 1895, while the
Great Hemet Dam was being built to 122-1/2 feet, the town of Hemet
started to take on a look of prosperity. Mayberry built his three-story
brick Hotel Mayberry on Florida Avenue between Harvard and State
Streets; Whittier built a warehouse, his opera house, and business shops
on North Harvard. In 1893, 39 families and businesses in the town of
Hemet were buying domestic water from the Lake Hemet Water Company, and
farmers were using irrigation water on their alfalfa fields, fruit
orchards and row crops, particularly potatoes.
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Despite a severe drought in 1898-1900 and
a major 1899 Christmas Day earthquake, the town of Hemet continued to
prosper. In 1899 Whittier sued Mayberry for monies owed him, taking
control of all of Mayberry's interests in Hemet and in the two
companies. Whittier, however, continued to improve the town's position.
He started the Bank of Hemet,, built rental cottages and a stock farm
with a half-mile race track, established and supplied by the town
residents and electricity, a water filter system, and a stage line to
Idyllwild.
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On November 14, 1909, the San Jacinto
Valley Register printed a synopsis of a speech by T.S. Brown, a Hemet
real estate agent, in which he urged that the town residents vote for
incorporation. On January 11, 1910, residents voted to incorporate as a
city, and Brown was elected Hemet's first mayor. The Order of
Incorporation was certified by the County of Riverside on January 17,
1910, and filed with the with the State of California on January 20,
1910...."That on the 20th day of January 1910, there was filed in my
office a copy of the Order of the Board of Supervisors of Riverside
County, in said State, duly certified by the County Clerk of said
County, whereby certain territory was declared a municipal corporation
of the 6th class under the name and stye CITY OF HEMET." Secretary of
State, State of California.
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Hemet Trustees Elected January 11, 1910
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T.S. Brown
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J. M. Clayton
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J. M. Frazier
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John Isle
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P.F. Witter
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City Clerk
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C. G Hamilton
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City Marshal
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E. C. Warner
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City Treasurer
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J. H. Scales
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Since 1923, one of the valley's chief
claims to fame has been the annual Ramona Pageant. The incident which
inspired Helen Hunt Jackson to write Ramona occurred in the valley, and
the production of a pageant based on the story was discussed for a
number of years as a method of promoting the valley. From 1923 onward,
with only brief interruptions during the Depression and during World War
II, the people of Hemet and San Jacinto have joined to stage this
outdoor pageant each spring.
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Hemet was also noted for the 46th
Agricultural District Farmer's Fair of Riverside County, which had its
beginning in 1936 as the Hemet Turkey Show, and for the Ryan School of
Aeronautics, which trained about 6,000 fliers for the Army Air Force
between 1940 and 1944. Hemet Ryan Airport exists today at the site of
the original Ryan Flight School.
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The character of Hemet began to change
dramatically in the early 1960's with the development of Sierra Dawn,
the country's first "mobile home subdivision" in which individual lots
were sold. Other mobile home parks and retirement housing developments
followed, and Hemet became well known as a retirement community.
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Hemet today retains much of its
retirement orientation but is also becoming home to significant numbers
of younger families who provide services to the senior population or who
are simply fleeing the more urbanized areas of Southern California. The
economy is based primarily on service to the senior community and
ancillary services such as financial institutions and the health care
professions.
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