MILEPOSTS #1034

By Ken Brafman, Image from ROWHS Collection

TITLE: Francis Lebaron Talmadge – Pioneer: Early explorers and mountaineers were a special breed of rugged, courageous, adventuresome and determined men. One of these men, Francis Talmadge, would become patriarch to a logging and cattle ranching dynasty that would last some 80 years. In 1853, at age 23, Talmadge came west from St. Louis on a wagon train with an ox team and a drove of sheep. After working a farm and handling freight in Los Angeles he became employed by the James-Rowland sawmill and settled in the San Bernardino Mountains. His wife, Nettie Jane, gave birth to their second son, John, who became the first non-native child born in Little Bear Valley (present-day Lake Arrowhead). Tension between the native Indians and the new settlers increased throughout the 1860s, as the Indians considered this new occupation to be an invasion of their ancient hunting and gathering grounds. In early 1867 Indians were seen looting cabins, burning sawmills, and letting cattle loose into the snow. Talmadge, along with a half dozen others, caught up with eight of the renegades at the location where Willow Creek Tunnel stands today. After the skirmish, the group went to Talmadge’s homestead to get their wounds dressed. This week’s image is a real photo of the house, which is now under 150 feet of Lake Arrowhead water. Talmadge kept his eyes on his goals and bought 320 acres of land in Little Bear Meadow at $1.25 per acre. He soon acquired an interest in a sawmill and 980 acres of pine and cedar timberland. By 1886 all three of Talmadge’s sons were grown and were taking an active part in the booming lumber business. But in 1891 the Arrowhead Reservoir Company moved in and took a sizeable portion of land. Now in his 60s, Talmadge retired to Victorville, while the sons partnered together for 50 years running a successful cattle enterprise in Big Bear Valley. Pioneer Francis Talmadge died in 1918 at the age of 88.

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