(FIFTEEN)

The Adobe in early years

5

  On February 10, 1908, Pearl wrote to the Riverside Title & Trust Company (“Certificates of Title a specialty”), making certain inquiries about her land in Section 15, most of which included the McCallum Ranch.  On February 13, the Company responded [emphasis added]:

Dear Madam:- We have received your letter of the 10^th inst., and have made a preliminary search of the title to your land in the East half of Section 15, Township 4 south Range 4 East.  The description you gave us is designated by metes and bounds some of the points and lines of which are not shown upon the map; it is there­fore impossible from the records to trace out exactly what land you wish us to include in the Certificate; but in locating your holdings in Palm City, we notice that there seems to be nothing standing in your name North of Spring Street; but your description includes a portion of Block 30, and possibly a portion of Block 9 which blocks lie North of Spring Street.

  We would suggest that you authorize us to make a Certificate on all of your holdings in Palm Springs which Certificate would include a plat showing the streets, distances, and points marked on the map, and from that you could easily designate what portion you desire this particular Certificate on.  The expense of a Certificate on your entire holdings in Palm Springs would be but very little more than a Certificate on a small portion, because the title runs practically the same; and with this Certificate as a base we can make Certifi­cates hereafter on any particular part which you may designate at small cost.

  We notice that the Deed from Emily McCallum to yourself [signed originally in Chicago on October 28, 1901] recorded Nov. 2^nd 1901, in Book 129 page 326 of Deeds, records of Riverside County, described the East half of Blocks 17 and 18, but it should read the North half of these blocks.  This Deed also excepts from Block 1 the “Hillside House” and we cannot determine from the records whether it is intended to except simply the building or a part of the land; possibly the West 250 feet of Lot 4 Block 1 was intended because this was deeded to F. J. Porter in 1900 [by Harry McCallum].  Please give us what information you can on this point.

  We have not completed the search because there are some old tax sales in San Diego County which we must check out to see if properly redeemed since the division of the County [from Riverside County]; and the Probate of the Estate of John G. McCallum, deceased, was had in Los Angeles County, but we can have the Certificate ready in 3 or 4 days after hearing from you.

  If Emily McCallum is still living you should get a Quit Claim Deed from her to correct the errors above mentioned:  if not, and you have the old Deed in your possession, it would probably be all right to make the corrections and re-record the Deed since it is plainly a clerical error.

Kindly let us hear from you at once, and oblige.

Yours very truly,

Riverside Title and Trust Company,

D.W. Lewis, Manager.

To reply please refer to Order No. 19449.

  In reference to a portion of Block 30, and possibly a portion of Block 9 which blocks like North of Spring Street , Pearl had included 182,070 square feet “of a southern portion of Block 30 and 79,458 square feet of Block 9” none of which had been included in the 1897 inventory of John Guthrie’s estate, and therefore had not been cross-deeded in the 1898 family partition.  This meant that 261, 528 square feet, or approximately six acres of the ranch, according to the court propor­tion of 1898 before the partition, was owned by Emily (one-half), May (one-fourth) and Pearl (one-fourth), and had not been cross-deeded in the partition.  If so, would the title search reveal there were other “blocks” and “lots” in Section 15 to which Pearl didn’t have clear title, in which May would have a one-fourth interest after Harry’s death?  To avoid this, Pearl decided to work from the 1897 inventory of her father’s estate, ignoring the 1898 court distribution and the family’s cross-deed partition­ing, asking the title company to discover and secure certificates of title to all her father’s land, as well as from any unrecorded deeds not in the inventory of John Guthrie’s estate.  The “Complete and Final Accounting and Distribution of Estate of J.G. McCallum” June 24, 1908 was issued by the title company in “Order No. 19449.”  Pearl made sure that neither her mother nor May would ever see this final account­ing and distribution because in effect, May now had no vested interested in any property from her father’s estate.  Clearly, Pearl had committed fraud in collusion with the title company.

  November, 1908, five months after “Order No. 19449” was issued, found May sinking into more frequent periods of depression.  She couldn’t sleep and asked Hamilton to give her barbiturates.  In mid-November, she developed a condition known as uremia, caused by an excess of barbiturates in the system which poisons the kidneys.  Saturday afternoon, November 20, the children were asked to come to her bedside.  Jane recalls the moment:

  “I was six years old.  My father told us to go one at a time up the long stair­case of our rambling house to see my mother.  Jack, being the oldest, was first—then Katherine, then me.  Marjorie was only three years old, so was kept away.  My mother said to me, “Be a good little girl, Jane.”  As I grew, I remembered very little about my mother.  I remember her playing the piano and singing.  My father played the piano too, “by ear,” as they say.  I recall being lost in a department store in Redlands and my mother finding me.  I remember her soft features and flowing chestnut hair.  I do not remem­ber loving her as most children love their mothers.  I don’t believe she was an affectionate woman.  The next morning she was gone.  Aunt Pearl and my grandmother Emily had come in from Los Angeles or Palm Springs, I don’t know which, and later they buried my mother in Rosedale Cemetery on Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles alongside her father and her two brothers, Johnnie and Wallace.  Katherine, Marjorie and I were not allowed to go to my mother’s funeral.  Grandmother Emily stayed behind to watch us.  Only my father, Aunt Pearl, and our brother Jack attended.  Jack was thirteen.

  “At Christmas time, after my mother died, Aunt Pearl and my grandmother Emily came to visit.  I had written a letter to Santa Claus, and when my grand­mother saw it, she threw it in the fireplace. . . .”

  May died just after Saturday midnight on November 21.  After the holidays, the first month of 1909, Hamilton moved to Los Angeles with his son Jack, now thirteen.  Pearl and Emily took Katherine and Marjorie in Palm Springs, six year old Jane to live with her father’s parents in Tustin. Emily often requesting Jane visit in Palm Springs.

This concludes Chapters/May and Hamilton.  Next - Emily and Pearl