Mormons
"Three Troublesome Children," a cover illustration from The Wasp magazine, 1881; courtesy the Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley. Here Columbia, the representation of America, tries to juggle the Chinese, Mormon, and Indian questions, while the figure of Law sits in the corner, reading a newspaper printed with the headline "Politics."
Mormon Settlements in San Bernardino County
Not all Mormons traveled to California to prospect for gold. One group, for example, was sent west in 1851 by Brigham Young to establish a new colony. The colonists, led by Amasa Lyman and Charles Rich, eventually settled in San Bernardino. The group, which numbered several hundred, established a thriving and growing settlement that eventually grew into the city of San Bernardino. The Mormons built the first roads in the area and practiced agriculture and cattle ranching.
The great distance between the California settlement and the church leadership in Utah led to suspicion and difficulties. Brigham Young questioned the loyalty of the settlers, and Lyman was frustrated by the his meddling. The conflict resulted in Lyman's excommunication from the church. Troubles between Mormons and the U.S. government in Utah made the church leadership even more wary of the California settlements. Ultimately Young demanded that the settlers leave San Bernardino and return to Utah. Most of them agreed, selling their land and abandoning the colony.
After the Mormons left, the nearly deserted town of San Bernardino attracted a variety of schemers, criminals, and pro-slavery Southerners. The city existed as a rural backwater until connected to Los Angeles by rail in the 1880s.