Charles Maclay (1822-1890), founder of the city of San Fernando, was originally a Methodist pastor from Pennsylvania. In 1851, he and his new bride Catherine Paxton Maclay moved to Santa Clara, CA to build a church. (It was the Wild West: Maclay allegedly shot a heckler to death during a San Francisco street sermon.) A flair for fundraising led Maclay into politics and he served on the California state legislature from 1861 until 1872. Two years later, he came to the San Fernando Valley and purchased 56,000 acres from the heirs of Eulogio de Celis. Borrowing money from Leland Stanford to seal the deal, Maclay recouped it by selling some of the land to farmers George and Benjamin Porter. At the core of his remaining acreage was his own city: San Fernando. In 1885, Maclay sold 20,000 acres around it to a syndicate that included Judge Robert M. Widney, Hugh L. Macneil, John K. Alexander, and George C. Hagar. That same year, Maclay established what would ultimately become the Claremont School of Theology. But for all his piousness, his legacy is tainted by his forced evictions of local Tataviam (a.k.a. Alliklik) tribespeople, in spite of their ancient claims to “his” land. For this reason, some have demanded this street be renamed.
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