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To accommodate the herds, the company purchased Rancho San Justo in 1855. The demand for wool increased during the Civil War years and Flint, Bixby & Co. prospered. The land holdings expanded with the 1866 purchase of Rancho Los Cerritos in Southern California.
Jotham Bixby, who had been managing Los Cerritos, exercised a purchase option in 1869. His firm, J. Bixby & Co., operated the property and was half owner along with Flint, Bixby & Co. A year later another adventurous cousin, John Bixby, came west to help Jotham.
John Bixby worked with Jotham at Los Cerritos until he leased a ranch of his own—the adjacent Rancho Los Alamitos-and moved there with his family in 1878. At the death of the lessor, the heirs sold the land to John Bixby and the partners he had assembled, including J. Bixby & Co. and Isias Hellman, president of Farmers & Merchants Bank in Los Angeles. Each partner owned one—third of the ranch, and John lived there with his family and managed the property under the name of J. W. Bixby & Co.
[ History Continued ]
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