Luis Rubidoux (1796 - 1868)

Born 31 Jul 1796 in Florissant, St. Louis County, Missouri, United States of America

Ancestors

Husband of Guadalupe (Garcia) Rubidoux — married 1834 in New Mexico

Descendants

Died 24 Sep 1868 at age 72 in Riverside, California, USA

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Luis Rubidoux is Notable.

Luis Rubidoux was involved in the westward expansion of the USA. See Westward Ho!.

Biography

Luis Rubidoux was born on July 7, 1796 in St. Louis Missouri. He was the son of successful Missouri business owner Joseph Robidoux III and Catherine Marie Rollet. He later became one of the first European settlers in the area which is now Riverside, California.

Mount Rubinoux

In his youth Louis Rubidoux made his living alongside many other French Canadians as fur trappers and mountain men in northern New Mexico. During the 1930s Louis made several treks between New Mexico and California in order to trade. In 1834 Louis married Guadalupe Garcia in Sante Fe.

Luis Robidoux is mentioned by Charlotte Matheny in her memoir Into the Eye of the Setting Sun as a part of the Great Emigration of 1843.

According to family tradition Luis won $50,000 in a card game which funded the moving his new family to California across the Sonoran desert. Louis arrived in Agua Mansa near today's Colton, in the Riverside-San Bernardino in 1844. After a brief stay in Agua Mansa, Louis moved his family further west to a town and mountain near Riverside that now bear his name (Rubidoux).

Rubidoux Adobe

He was a participant in the U.S.- Mexican War referring to himself as a "prisoner of war" in a letter he wrote in the fall of 1846 to U.S. Consul Manuel Alvarez.

By 1849 Luis had become quite a successful rancher and business owner. He built the first grist mill for grinding wheat, owned cattle and several orchards including a vineyard and winery. He became one of San Bernardino County's first of three supervisors. The town of Rubidoux and Mount Rubidoux in Riverside County, California are named after him.

World Peace Bridge

Louis died on September 24, 1868 in Riverside, California. He is buried in the Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery in Colton, California.

Luis Rubidoux Grave marker

Sources

• Year: 1850; Census Place: Los Angeles, California; Roll: M432_35; Page: 37B; Image: 80
• Year: 1860; Census Place: San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California; Roll: M653_64; Page: 639; Family History Library Film: 803064
• California State Library; Sacramento, California; 1852 California State Census; Roll #: 2; Repository Collection #: C144:2; Page: 42; Line: 37
• Heritage Consulting. Millennium File [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003.
• Quebec, Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families (Tanguay Collection), 1608-1890 [database on-line]Volume: Vol. 6 Sect. 2 : Per-Rob; Page: 608
• U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28739125&ref=acom