Named in 1946 for landowners Dr. Clarence Robert Forbes (1896-1974) and Hazel Olive Forbes (née Sturgeon, 1900-1987). Clarence, an optometrist, was born in Iowa but grew up in Whittier; Hazel was a Kansan who moved to Los Angeles while in her teens. They were wed in 1922 and had two sons. It appears their Montebello land was just investment property – the Forbeses lived in El Monte. Weirdly, an unrelated Forbes was once tied to this area: Agustin Henry “Gussy” Forbes (c. 1867-1909), grandson of Agustín Olvera and second husband of Matilda Bojorquez (1860-1891). Matilda’s elderly first husband was Juan Matias Sánchez, the hapless former owner of Rancho La Merced. He had given her his last 200 acres here shortly before his death; she sold half of it to Gussy’s father Charles, then married Gussy in 1889. Matilda died in childbirth and Gussy perished from an unknown illness. In a macabre twist, news of Gussy’s failing health shocked his older brother Charles so much that he died mere hours before Gussy. Theirs was a double funeral.
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