Menifee Valley History - William Newport

William Newport was one of the earliest pioneers of Menifee. Yes, he's the guy whom Newport Road was named after. I found an entry in an old book entitled, "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", is a paragraph describing William Newport:

Another pioneer to be mentioned in the history of the valley is William Newport, rancher in Menifee. Mr. Newport was born in England in 1856. He came to this country in 1876, and came to Perris valley in 1885 and purchased 2,000 acres of land. When he moved to Menifee, although a young man, he resembled the patriarchs, as there were twelve wagons in his train, loaded with implements, provisions, lumber, and his cook-house on wheels was a bulding 9x18 feet. He found the valley very dry, and inhabited only by a few poor people; but poor as they were pitied the young man who, as they thought, was to make a failure of farming. After unloading the caravan he built a good ranch house and two large barns, and began farming his 2,000 acres, nearly every foot of which was tillable. Could you see this same ranch today you would find a beautiful home presided over by a dignified, queenly wife, who was Miss Katherine Lloyd, also a native of England. There are four fine, manly boys, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Newport, and one daughter, Katherine. The house is filled with many luxuries and interesting curios, and the grounds about the place is large and beautiful. Mr. Newport has been a most valuable factor in showing what can be done with land in that section when properly handled.

Further into the same chapter, William Newport is mentioned again, this time in the subject of water:

In 1904 William Newport brought action against the Temescal Water Co. to prevent them from pumping water from the Perris valley into the Corona valley, for he believed the water level in the Perris valley was being lowered. He was defeated in the courts, however, and the Temescal Water Co. still operates at Ethanac.

To shed some light on this subject, the Perris valley had been supplied with water from Bear Valley reservoir, a dammed lake up in the San Bernardino Mountains. Water was delivered via steel pipe. But by the middle 1890's, that water supply dwindled, and the farms of the Perris Valley died, and the farmers packed up and left.

Then in 1895, a farmer by the name of Dr. W. B. Payton, moved in with the intent of digging a well, and using a gasoline engine to pump out water to irrigate lands. It worked. Soon, farmers everywhere were digging wells to irrigate their crops. Then the Temescal Water Co. began digging wells and piped the water north to Corona. This brought the ire of William Newport, who filed the lawsuit.

But also note that the Temescal Water Co. had its pumping station at "Ethanac". The same history book also explains the origins of that unusual name:

The Temescal Water Co. has its station at Ethanac, on the Santa Fe, a few miles southeast of Perris. Ethanac was named in honor of Ethan Allen Chase of Riverside, and is a pretty little town, the inhabitants being chiefly the employes of the Temescal Water Co.