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Showing Flint & Bixby Allotment in Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana
Hand finished map of Orange County, bearing the signature of Warren K. Hillyard, Chief Orange County Surveyor from 1921-1955. The map was signed by Hillyard during the year he served as President of the County Engineers Association of California.
The map is a blue line map of Orange County. An early owner, almost certainly Hillyard or someone working for him, has drawn in the names and locations of the principal orange county ranchos and colored the map by Ranchos. The map includes the inscription "Compliments of W.K. Hillyard 5/20/47".
The one exception to the annotations is a reference to the Flint and Bixby Allotment, a strip of land running along the southeast part of Rancho Santiago de Santa Anita. Extending from Newport Beach to the Santa Ana River, it includes most of Costa Mesa and the Orange County Airport, covering an area partially bounded to the northwest by Newport Avenue and partially centered on Red Hill Avenue. The Allotment traverses the entire county and nearly dissects it into two equal parts on either side.
Flint and Bixby
The map illustrates a large tract of land referred to as the Flint and Bixby Allotment. The name appears on in real estate records in the 20th Century, as well as various government reports on Water and the Railroads.
Flint and Bixby's land companies date back to Benjamin and Thomas Flint and their cousin Llewellyn Bixby, who left Maine for California in 1851. They turned from mining to ranching, and in 1852-53, the three cousins drove more than 2,000 sheep from Ohio to California, launching an long running ranching enterprise. With Llewellyn's brother Jotham they went into business as Flint, Bixby & Company.
Beginning in 1855, Flint, Bixby & Company and its various enterprises would acquired over 100,000 acres in Central and Southern California, including large parts of
- Rancho Los Cerritos
- Rancho Los Alamitos
- Rancho San Justo
- Rancho Palos Verdes
- Rancho San Joaquin
- Rancho Lomas de Santiago
- Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana
James Irvine was a partner in the purchase of over 100,000 acres of contiguous lands in Rancho San Joaquin, Rancho Lomas de Santiago Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. In the 1870s, Irvine purchased the interests of Flint and Bixby.
Warren K. Hillyard was born at Mount Union, Henry County, Iowa on September 27, 1885 and moved to Orange County, California in 1900.
Warren Hillyard graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in Engineering in 1911. After college, he worked 3 years in Mexico doing irrigation work for the Culiacan Land Company. In 1914, he as appointed Orange County chief deputy county surveyor.
During World War I, Mr. Hillyard enlisted and was commissioned as first lieutenant and assigned to the Twenty-seventh Engineers, a mining regiment.
Mr. Hillyard then served as chief deputy in the Orange County Surveyor’s Office from 1919 until 1921. In 1922, he was elected County Surveyor, and was subsequently re-elected numerous times. Mr. Hillyard retired as County Surveyor in 1955.
![[ Climatology ] Map of California Illustrating Its Climatology -- Comparative Area -- Rail Lines -- Compiled From Official and Authentic Sources By The Southern Pacific . . . 1903](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/82610.jpg)
