PowerPoint Presentation - ISAAC JENKINSON FRAZEE

A YOUNG MAN IN CALIFORNIA

nAt 19, Isaac attended Southern Pacific College in Downey before it burned down in 1879.
nBriefly studied law with an attorney in San Bernardino.
nAlthough intelligent and well-read, Isaac preferred the outdoors to academics. His favorite sport was “coursing”.
nAs a young man, Isaac worked the many cattle, sheep, and wheat ranches in the Southland. He also enjoyed writing poems and sketching pictures.
nHe grew tired of the rough life on the ranches and, in 1881, decided to travel north to Yosemite.

Isaac worked on the Kester Ranch, now Van Nuys.

Isaac’s sketch of his hunting dogs.


	• Southern Pacific College was founded by the Christian Church. In 1878 it was one of four colleges in California--two of them were founded by the Christian Church. His father--an elder in the Church--helped found the college. It burned down after two years in operation and was never rebuilt.
	• The attorney he studied under was John Brown, Jr.--a friend of his father’s and the son of John Brown Senior--one of the Mormon founders of San Bernardino.
	• Isaac would meet the Lugo Boys (part of the historic Lugo family whose Rancho covered most of what is now East L.A.) in La Puente and chase jackrabbits down to Long Beach.
	• During his trip to Yosemite, he works at the Kester Ranch in the San Fernando Valley. His diary gives a great glimpse into the life of farmhand and cowboy during that time.
	• He became such a proficient cowboy that when he later went to Louisville to study art he saw Buffalo Bill’s wild west show. He was not impressed with Cactus Jack’s work with the lariat. He went back the next day and put on a show for him. Cactus Jack offered him a job with show!