Menifee Valley History - The Aikin Family

If any of you are interested in studying the history of Menifee, I came across a scanned and imaged copy of "History of Riverside County, California", written by Elmer Wallace Holmes, originally published in 1912, by the Historic Record Company.

In the Chapter 18, entitled, "The Perris Valley", there is the story of the Aikin Family, which describes the trip they made when travelling to their permanent home in the Menifee Valley:

Mining and "dry farming" now began to attract the outside world to this section, and people began to come in and settle on claims. In 1882 came Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Aikin and settled on a 160-acre tract in Menifee. Mr. Aikin is a native of Wisconsin Mrs. Aikin is a native daughter. They are the oldest pioneers living in the valley. When they staked their claim not a tree was to be seen growing in the valley. In November, 1882, they left their home in Los Angeles county for Menifee, the party consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Aikin, a year old babe, Mrs. Aikin's sister, Miss Mary Lee, and a young man by the name of Shoemaker. They traveled with a canvas-covered wagon, bring what farming implements they could. They were two days making the trip, camping over night on the plains between Pomona and Riverside.

The next morning, they drove a few miles to the river, where the horses were watered and the party breakfasted. While preparing breakfast, Mrs. Aikin climbed up to get something out of the wagon, and in stepping backward to the ground she took hold of an iron rod and in some way her wedding ring was broken. No doubt this was taken by the young wife as a peculiar omen.

When they started on again, a hard north wind was blowing, so Mr. Aikin fastened the canvas curtain down in front of the wagon, and they saw nothing of the country through which they were passing until they reached the top of Box Springs grade. The wind had ceased blowing, so the curtain was raised, and the San Jacinto plains stretched away before them, a barren plains with rocky hills. You can imagine the disappointment of the young wife, who had pictured a valley, surrounded by rolling hills, covered with live-oak trees. To her it seemed hardly fit for a sheep pasture.

When the party neared the Copeland ranch, a man came running toward them beckoning. When they had driven near enough, he told them an old man had been killed in a well thye had been digging, a large bucket of rock and dirt having fallen on the old man while working down in the well. Mr. Aikin and Mr. Shoemaker went at once to his assistance. Mr. Aikin took half of the windlass rope and by means of it climbed down into the well, which was about forty feet deep. The old man, whose name was Abe Reed, was not killed, but very badly hurt. They brought him out of the well and put him on a moving machine, which Mr. Aikin was trailing behind his wagon, and after making him as comfortable as possible they took him to his own cabin a few miles farther on. He asked them to drive to Pinacate station and tell his sister-in-law, a Mrs. Reed, about his accident.

When they reached Pinacate they found the Hickey and Reynolds families celebrating the wedding of Prico Hickey and Miss Mattie Reynolds. Miss Mattie Reynolds was the sister of A. W. Reynolds, who still lives in the Perris Valley. Leaving Pinacate they drove on a few miles farther south, and on the close of Thanksgiving Day reached the place that for many years was to be their home.

The writer can well imagine the loneliness of the days and nights that followed their coming into this seemingly desert land. No doubt the young wife bore it bravely, all for love's sweet sake - love for her husband and the baby boy. That baby now is a successful business man in Los Angeles - the city of his mother's birth.