Pioneer ranch family left a lasting legacy
By Nicholas R. Cataldo, Correspondent
Posted: 12/31/69
As you drive up Lone Pine Canyon on your way to Wrightwood, you can't help but notice an enchanting settlement midway up the canyon on the left, distinguished by an old gas station in front. This nearly 150-year-old home is known as the Clyde Ranch.
According to the late Robert B. "Bob" Clyde, his grandparents Almon Davis and Priscilla (Singleton) Clyde purchased the 160-acre cattle ranch in 1862 from George Swarthout, one of the original Mormon settlers who arrived in the San Bernardino Valley from Salt Lake City.
At first, the family lived inside a tent, but with the help of his boys, Almon brought a line cabin that was used by Swarthout about a quarter-mile down the canyon up to the present site by rolling it on logs - some time between 1870 and 1872.
During one of several interviews, Bob Clyde recalled family members telling him about the cabin's expansion. "The east room of the building was the original `shack.' They eventually added three rooms which are still left, including a kitchen and living room," he said.
Almon and Priscilla Clyde spent winters in their home in San Bernardino on Sterling Avenue with their nine children - eight boys (Edward, Albert, Orion, Charles, Rupert, Hubert, Harry and Fred) and one girl (Bessie)- while the threshing on the ranch was done in the fall and cattle herding in the summer.
According to Bob Clyde, his family was close friends with the famed Earp brothers, especially Virgil. The Earps lived a few miles east of San Bernardino from 1864 to 1868 and, after heading back to their previous home in the Midwest for a few years, returned to Southern California and settled in Colton during the 1880s.
No doubt, during family visits, Wyatt Earp would ride up with Virgil through the Cajon Pass and on to Lone Pine Canyon to visit his brother's friend. They would often camp out a couple weeks at a time while hunting deer with Almon and his boys.
Virgil also loaned his hay baler to Almon, and the Earp boys helped cut and bale hay on the ranch. Virgil, who died in 1905, never did take the baler home with him and the Clyde family still has it today.
As was common in those days, much hard work and tough living conditions took Priscilla Clyde's life in 1885 at the age of 51. By the turn of the century, four of their sons also passed away; Edward in 1891, Harry in 1892, Orion in 1893 and Charles in 1901. Almon Clyde died in 1898 at the age of 64.
The surviving brothers planted 70 acres of apple trees in 1910, creating a very successful orchard and fruit business.
Fred married Maude Parsons and lived in the original homestead on the ranch. Later he built the red house you still can see today from Lone Pine Canyon Road and also a little gas station, which was built when the advent of the automobile created a need for gasoline and water for motorists.
The Clyde Ranch became famous for its apples. And, as the Earp brothers already knew, the area also was known as a haven for deer.
In an audiotaped oral history interview, Harold Beck, great nephew of Almon Clyde, once shared his recollections of family lore surrounding the early ranch days:
"The boys, after Uncle (Almon) died, got that ranch and put in apple trees (around 1910) and they had a real good apple orchard there and had some wonderful apples. Sometimes they'd have an awful heavy crop and the deer would come in there so heavy and so many of them in there at pickin' time they'd ruin at the rate of 20 boxes of apples a night when there was a good crop on the trees. I have myself seen nine deer standin' on their hind legs pulling apples at the same time."
The apple orchards are still there but no longer produce enough apples to continue selling to the public. But the family legacy lives on.
A century and a half after Almon and Priscilla Clyde bought out George Swarthout, the Clyde Ranch still is owned by the family today.
