Pg. 4-17 Condensed
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- Published on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00
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The grant amounted to 25.000 acres and covered much of the land known as the Centinela Valley. He called his rancho El Sausal Tedondo. or in English, the Round Clump of Willows.
Don Jose Sepulveda, the owner of a 30,000-acre rancho called El Rancho de Los Palos Verdes, would stop off at the Rancho Sausal Redondo on his way to the Pueblo of Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, in the northern part of California, a man from Tennessee, Peter Butnett, became active in California politics and eventually became the first American governor of the state. This took place in 1850 during the time Don Antonio was the owner of the land.
When the Civil War Broke out in 1861, the united States established a fort in Redondo Beach named Fort Latham. Since several cannon balls have even found in the fields of the district, it is presumed that this shore came from the Redondo Beach Fort. Don Antonio used his land for a cattle ranch for about thirty years, then financial trouble plagued the Avilas so that it became necessary to sell. On May 5, 1868, Sir Robert and Lady Marilda Butnett, of Scotland, purchased the 25,000 acres for $32,5000 or about $1.28 and acre. They were not directly related to Peter Burnett who became governor eighteen years earlier.
When Sir Robert Burnett purchased El Sausal Redondo, he also acquired a small rancho called Rancho Aguaje de Centinela, or in English, the Water of the Sentinel. The adobe ranch house was located in Centinela park for the small rancho. The rancho had originally been a part of Ranch Sausal Redondo, but squatter named Don Ygnacio Machado acquired it, much to the dissatisfaction of Don Antonio.
The Spanish and the Mexican government both failed to conduct land surveys. Because the boundaries were declared not clear enough, Don Ignacio Machado was able to acquire the lands around Centinela Park in 1844.
After managing the 25,000 acres as a sheep ranch for thirty years, Sir Robert Burnett returned to Scotland in 1873. His successor to the ranch was Dan Freeman, a Canadian who came to California for the health of his wife. Eh leased the land and then purchased it for $140,000, receiving title in 1885.
Dan Freeman became a great benefactor and was responsible for the development of inglewood and the surveying of the Redondo Beach area. EH planted more than 13,000 trees on the rancho. Most of these trees died, however, due to a lowering of the water level.
The year after Dan Freeman acquired the rancho, a prolonged drought of two years git the area and many of the sheep died. That was from 1874 to 1876. The ranch was faced with financial ruin. It was decided to turnout to dry farming instead of livestock. The area was then converted into an enormous 25,000-acre barley ranch. Four years later, in 1880, the ranch was producing a million bushels of barely a year which was shipped all over North America.
THE RAILROAD COMES TO WISEBURN
It was not the original intention of the railroad company to have the route pass through Wiseburn from Inglewood. This route was used as an alternate, since the original route did not satisfy the railroad. The Ballona area was initially planned as the terminal for the Santa Fe Railroad. Redondo Beach seemed to show much moor promise as an industrial and commercial center, so the change was made.
The principal industry was the salt worlds of Redondo. It was a thriving industry between 1850 and 1890. The early aborigines obtained the salt by shoveling it off the bottom of the Redondo salt lake. The works were abandoned after the railroad built lines into the desert regions sheer before refining costs were much cheaper.
Before the railroad arrived in Wiseburn,salt trails led across the area. Ships and railroads took over as the industry of the area expanded. Completion date of the railroad line from inglewood to Redondo Beach was in 1888.
The railroad opened the area up for further development. It was the railroad station itself that was to provide one of the basic requirements for a school--a classroom.
EARLY SETTLERS
In order to be of service to the farmers in the area, a railroad station was built near the intersection of 120th Street and the middle of Aviation Boulevard. It was called the Burwell Station. Later, the name of the station was changed to Wiseburn. The name Wiseburn was a compound of the names Burwell and Wise.
Mr D.D., a farmer, referred to by his neighbors as "Doc" Wise, lived in the vicinity of 119th Street about 300 feet back from Aviation Boulevard. He owned two large warehouses north of the depot where farmers stored their produce before shipping it by rail. The school district that was later formed in this area took its name from the Wiseburn Depot.
Mr. H.S. Vosburg owned the southerpart of the district and Mr. B.C. Wtight owned the northern half.
At the southeast corner of Ballona Road and the Wiseburn-Redondo Road lived a man named Adolph Leuzinger. He was a Swiss immigrant who arrived in this country at the age of seven. He first settled in kansas and came to California by watt of Colorado. At one time he farmed over one thousand acres.
Mr. Leuzinger could well be called the father of the Wiseburn School District. Few people have contributed as much thought the years to keep the district operating.
CHAPTER II
WISEBURN BECOMES A SCHOOL DISTRICT, 1896
THE DEPOT SCHOOLHOUSE
Many years ago, a small group of children and a teacher huddled around an old iron stove in a small ticket office of a Santa Fe Railroad station in the western part of Los Angeles County. The teacher left the children occasionally to sell tickets to the passengers. Little did these children and the teacher realize that many years later they would be remembered as pioneers in the educational history of the western Hawthorne area.
The teacher, Miss Mable Close, was also the ticket agent for the Santa Fe Railroad. Miss Close used her ticket office, the Wiseburn Station, as the schoolroom.
The students attending Miss Close's school were all farm children and came from farm children and came from scattered over a wide area. It was not uncommon to see the children coming to school on horseback and riding buckboards.
It was from this primitive beginning that the Wiseburn School District developed into the present (1960) entailment of nearly 3,000 children, five schools, and a district with a population of 20,000.
COUNTY APPROVES DISTRICT
The year 1896 marked a time whine the old Wiseburn farmers banded tougher and decided it was time for a public school to be established. The Wiseburn School District was formed on March 5, 1896, by the acceptance of a petition by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. This petition was signed by no fewer than fifteen people in the area who had children between the ages of five and fifteen. The petition declared that the children lived at a greater distance than two miles from the nearest schoolhouse by a traveled road.
CLASSES MOVE FROM DEPOT TO SCHOOLHOUSE
Classes were held in the Wiseburn depot until the school district was organized. Official organization of the district brought about the employment of a professional teacher and the construction of a schoolhouse as well.
The school did not remain in one location. It was located in a temporary structure on the (Adolph) Leuzinger land between 120th and 124th Streets near Aviation Boulevard when classes were no longer held in the Wiseburn depot. The one acre of land was leased to the district for $4 by the leuzingers. After a short time, the schoolhouse was relocated to the site at 135th Street and Aviation Boulevard, which had been purchased for $75.
The building was portioned into two rooms:one of which was the living quarters of the teacher, and the other served as the classroom.
HIRE FIRST TEACHER FOR WISEBURN SCHOOL
The little one-room school was staffed by one teacher until the year 1925. The first teacher of the district was Miss Alice Bixby. She was the only employee of the district during that first year, except for the children who were hired to do janitorial work for $2 a month. Her employment started on September 14, 1896. Bessie Miles, one of the students, served as a volunteer librarian.
At the end of her first year of teaching, Miss Bixby resigned to marry Bert Cloe, the older brother of Erma Close, one of the students in the first class.
The teacher of the school earned $50 a month in 1896 compared to about three times that amount in 1925. Most of the teachers stayed between one and three years. Many of them boarded in the farm homes in the community.
The first principal of the school was Mrs. Marieum Tuck. She became the teacher--principal in 1926, and remained in that position until 1929 when Mr. Don Smith became the teacher--principal. Mr. Smith held that position until 1944 when the board designated him as the superintendent--principal of the Wiseburn School District. By 1949, a new principal was hired for the school and Mr. Smith became a full--time superintendent.
SHIFTING WISEBURN DISTRICT BOUNDARIES
Wiseburn was formed from parts of two other school districts, the Redondo Beach district and the Ocean District which was formed in 1876. The name of the Ocean District was later changed to Moneta. By 1907, the Ocean District joined the Los Angeles system. The Redondo Beach District was formed in the late eighteen eighties.
Ten years after the Wiseburn District was formed, Redondo Beach decided to take some of its original property back. This marked a series of nine district boundary adjustments to Wiseburn. Each adjustment rested in a loss in size for Wiseburn. Today, the district occupies about one--fourth of the original area.
Many present--day cities and school districts fall within the old boundaries of the district. Some of the cities are El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale and Los Angeles.
PARENTS SERVE AS TRUSTEES
School service as a trustees was looked upon as a civic responsibility by the farmers. These men from an agrarian society were up at four--thirty in the morning working in the fields. After many hard hours behind a plow, they would devote their time rendering service to the district. The courage, unselfishness, and devotion to their fellow men are attributes that we like to think oh as the foundation of our American heritage. The development of the public school system under their guidance is truly a symbol of that American heritage.
Five numbers of the seven families represented by the first class also served on the board at some time during the district's history.
One board member particularly stands out from all the others in his devotion to the education of the children of the area. This man is Adolph Leuzinger. He served the community for over two decades, and could be well described as the father of the Wiseburn District. It was Mr. Leuzinger who kept the district form floundering in the early days when enrollment was lost. It was Mr. Leuzinger who was Wiseburn's representative in the high school district and served on that board at the same time.
Mr. Leuzinger met with representatives from other school districts. As a result of this meeting, the first high school in the Centinela Valley was established in 1905. This new district was known as the Inglewood Union High School District.
Thus Began Mr. Leuzinger's service on the high school board that was to last some twenty--seven years, and ended with the naming of the Leuzinger High School after the trustee.
CHAPTER III
SCHOOL FACILITIES EXPAND
SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
The Oakland Bank of savings mad the highest bid for school bond passed in June, 1897. On August 11, 1897, $2,130 was deposited with the County Treasurer to the credit of the Wiseburn School District building fund. Four bids were received for the construction of the new school. The low bid of $882.50 was accepted.
