In 1810, Don Antonio Lugo, received a grant to a tract of land of some 29,514 acres. He named it Rancho San Antonio, probably after his birthplace, El Mission San Antonio de Padua, in 1775.
Rancho San Antonio lay just north of Juan Jose Dominguez Rancho San Pedro, the borderline approximately of today’s Rosecrans Avenue in Compton, and ran north parallel with and adjacent to, the pueblo de Los Angeles. The eastern boundary lay somewhere along the ever changing Los Angeles river or as it was called the San Gabriel river.
Lugo maintained a home in the pueblo de Los Angeles, near the plaza and across from the church. He was alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles, from 1816 to 1819, and a leader in most of the social functions of the time. Antonio Lugo received a patent from the United States government on July 24, 1847, which made him undisputed owner of Rancho San Antonio, which was Lynwood’s birthplace.
After Lugo’s death in 1860, the rancho was divided among his children, five boys and three girls. Guadalupe Lugo inherited the area now known as Lynwood. She later deeded the land to a man named Heldman, who later deeded it, in 1871 to M.A. Shields, the wife of J.H. Shields. It is not known whether Mrs. Shields was any relation to the Lugo’s. Later, she deeded her interest to Slauson, a Los Angeles banker and a prominent figure in the early history of the Los Angeles area. Slauson Avenue, dividing the south Los Angeles industrial belt, was named for him.
In 1902, C.H. Sessions had acquired title of about 400 acres and established a dairy and creamery. His wife’s maiden was Miss Lynne Wood and they all agreed to call the place “the Lynwood Dairy and Creamery” and it was located at what is now Sanborn and Long Beach Blvd. Later the Southern Pacific Railway had a siding here, which they called the ‘ Lynwood siding’. Henry Huntington organized another railroad company called the Pacific Electric Railroad in 1902. One of the lines, built in 1904 to 1905, ran from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, passing directly through the middle of Lynwood. In 1929 Pacific Electric installed a P.E. Depot on the corner of Long Beach Blvd. and Fernwood Avenue. That building still exists and plans are to make it into a historical monument. The PE Railway took up the Lynwood name from the dairy and creamery.
Later, seven gentlemen formed the Lynwood company and they brought excursions of potential buyers to Lynwood. They opened up 800 acres for ‘suburban’ home sites in 1913. The biggest attraction for lot buyers, who came on excursions and had lunch in a circus tent was free water. Residential lots, 100 x 800, were sold for $500 to $800 and the promoters promised to furnish buyers water free and to turn over to any city that might be formed, the entire debt-free water system.
H.V. Copeland was one of the seven members of Lynwood company and he built the first residence in Lynwood at Long Beach Blvd. and Imperial Hwy. The water pump the Copeland’s used was near Court and Platt.
At the time of the dairy, there was not even a country road where Long Beach Blvd. is now. Many years later, Long Beach Blvd. was paved and became a main street in Lynwood.