PLOUGHSHARE & PRUNING HOOK
Volume 2 Number 3
June 1997
June 1997Winchester and Valle Vista....Part III
The year, 1891 was significant to a great many people living in Winchester and Florida who increasingly needed more and more water. Finally, after building a road, gathering men and supplies, and constructing various buildings to hold equipment, supplies, animals,
and workers, the Lake Hemet Water Company started its monumental task of building a dam in Hemet Valley in the San Jacinto Mountains in order to hold back winter water for summer use. Everyone in Winchester and Florida, and for that matter the people in the town of San Jacinto, believed that the Hemet Valley reservoir water would be shared by all. The local newspapers reported this, and even one of the directors of the Lake Hemet Water Company announced the great extent of the water usage. On June 19, 1890, Hancock M Johnston's statement to a San Jacinto Valley Register reporter was printed: "Florida, San Jacinto, Winchester, Perris, and even Lake Elsinore would get water from the mountain reservoir". All this positive information only increased the need to prepare to deliver and receive more water.
After a series of rousing meetings and numerous newspaper articles touting the need and importance for an irrigation district, the San Jacinto and Pleasant Valley Irrigation District was formed on August 3, 1891. The District covered over 18,000 acres, but none of those included the 6,000 acres owned by the Lake Hemet Water Company Directors, the absence of which should have been significant to the Irrigation District's Board of Directors. The first Board of Directors consisted of W M Casterline and Fred W Swope of San Jacinto and William Haslam, Peter Milliken, and F T Lindenberger of Winchester with Casterline named president and Lindenberger secretary.
In February 1892 the irrigation district purchased the San Jacinto Valley Water Company, taking over the finished and unfinished Cienega, flume, and ditch works started by Griffin. Sometime after this take over, the consulting engineer hired by the district, George Manual, issued a report that not enough water could be harvested from the Cienega. Other sources must be found, and he recommended that the district purchased either the Fairview Land and Water Company's water scheme or the Lake Hemet Water Company scheme. Even if the district had a great deal of money, which it did not have, it would have never been able to purchase the Lake Hemet scheme because the two men who owned the majority of the Lake Hemet stock had no wish to sell and would have fought any eminent domain attempts. Furthermore, they knew that the district could not produce sufficient water to irrigate 18,000 acres.
The Fairview Land and Water Company Directors, on the other hand, were more than willing to sell their water scheme, i.e. the Florida Water Company. On March 15, 1892, all water rights, title, and interests of the Fairview Land and Water Company were conveyed to the Florida Water Company, and on March 27, 1892 the Florida Water Company was sold to the San Jacinto and Pleasant Valley Irrigation District, paid for with irrigation district bonds supposedly worth $101,750. Everything was sold to the irrigation district except the water rights owned by the people who purchased their Fairview/Florida lands before March 15, 1892, which totaled about 1400 acres. These people were eventually referred to as the 3/20ths.
By selling their water scheme to the irrigation district, the Fairview Directors and stockholders thought they were in a better position to sell the remainder of their lands. On August 5, 1893, G W Griffith from Colorado in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Reverend Rueben Van Pelt, bought an option to sell all the unsold Fairview lands, houses, town lots, and water rights for $33,000. These two men subsequently formed the Valle Vista Land Corporation. Prior to their purchasing the option, Griffith and Van Pelt were told that plenty of water would be available either from the irrigation district or from the Lake Hemet Water Company.
Before and after the irrigation district officially took control of the Fairview/Florida Water Company scheme, a ditch was run from the Fairview tract to the Cienega, further attempting to put more water in Griffin's flume. The district also advertised for bids to be submitted to bore wells at the Cienega, dig a twelve mile dirt ditch on the north side of the district, and lay lumber for flumes. In addition to the bids, notices were placed in the Winchester Recorder announcing
