San Bernardino County destinations – Welcome to San Bernardino County

This week’s San Bernardino County destination is the María Merced Williams and John Rains House in Rancho Cucamonga.

In 1856, Rains, a businessman, married Merced, the daughter of Chino Rancho owner Isaac Williams and granddaughter of Don Antonio María Lugo, owner of the San Bernardino Rancho.

Rains invested in three ranchos and the Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles. He purchased a 13,000-acre rancho in Cucamonga for $16,500 and constructed a brick house on the property at a cost of about $18,000.

The house was built by Ohio brick masons using red clay bricks made by Joseph Mullaly, a renowned brickmaker. The roof was waterproofed by tar from the Brea Pits in Los Angeles. An open flume carried water from springs through the kitchen, into the patio, and under the house to the orchard, thereby providing cooling for the structure. The original house had an entry hall, a parlor, three bedrooms, a patio area flanked by a dining room, a kitchen, a padre’s room, and two guest rooms.

Rains and Merced moved from Chino to the new brick house with their children in spring of 1861. By that time, Rains was widely recognized as a rich and influential man, generous and well-liked, who provided abundant hospitality at his strategically located Cucamonga home.

In 1859, Rains planted 160 acres of vines. At the time, wine and brandy made in Cucamonga gained wide popularity. An earlier small vineyard and winery is said to date back to 1839, thus establishing the claim that Cucamonga has the oldest commercial winery in the state.

After running into some financial difficulty, Rains and Merced were forced to borrow anywhere between $15,000 to $16,000 from Los Angeles merchants. Five days later, Rains left his wife and children in Cucamonga and rode off in a wagon toward Los Angeles. En route, he was lassoed, shot and dragged into the bushes near San Dimas. His body was discovered eleven days later. He was 33 years old, and his murder was never solved.

In June 1864, Merced married José Carrillo. Merced and Carrillo continued to live in Cucamonga. She had nine children in all including five with Rains and four with Carrillo. The first school in Cucamonga reportedly began in her home in 1870.

In 1871, Isais W. Hellman, a Los Angeles banker, acquired a portion of Rancho Cucamonga for $49,000. Sometime after 1876, Merced and her family (nearly penniless) moved to Los Angeles. In 1907, Merced died at the age of 68.

Additional County Update News – July 18, 2024