Los Angeles socialite and patron of the arts during the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Born Gertrudis Zoila (Tulita) to Connecticut-born Captain Alfred Henry Wilcox (1823-1883), a Colorado River steamboat captain and director of the California and Mexican Steam Ship Line and his wife, Maria Antonio Arguello (1835-1909), great-granddaughter of one of the last Spanish colonial governors of California, José Darío Argüello who also founded the Pueblo de Los Angeles. Her grandfather, Santiago Argüello, was commandant of the Presidio of San Diego and alcalde (mayor) of Pueblo de San Diego.
Her father brought the first lighthouse to California on his ship in 1848 and in 1849 as master of the U.S. Invincible army transport carried the engineering crew that attempted to turn the San Diego River into False Bay, now know as Mission Bay. The Wilcox shipping business grew from initially supplying the Army fort in Yuma, Arizona with supplies from San Francisco and San Diego via side-wheel steamboats and later providing supplies and transportation between towns in Arizona along the Colorado River. Capt. Wilcox's steamboats and others, navigated up from the Gulf of California, or took on cargo that was transported overland from San Diego to the mouth of the Colorado River.
On April 16, 1863, in a double-wedding at Rancho Guajome, Vista, the property of noted San Diego pioneer rancher and businessman, retired Army lieutenant Cave Couts, Capt. Wilcox married Maria Antonio Arguello one of the daughters of Guadalupe and Santiago E. Arguello, while another daughter, Refugio, married Couts' brother, William. Purportedly the wedding party lasted for more than a day.
After their wedding, the Wilcoxes built their own wooden home in La Punta within 100 yards of the Arguello Adobe that in its early years, had been the sole structure between the Pueblo de San Diego and the Mexican border. While growing up at La Punta in the Otay Valley, one of Tulita Wilcox's fondest memories was of sailing in her father's yacht "Ariel" from La Punta to San Diego. She was also raised in San Francisco, where her father owned a house at 912 Bush St.
In 1869, Wilcox and partners bought the Rancho Santa Ysabel in the mountains near Julian, California and established the largest sheep herd in San Diego. In 1872 he built a toll road from Julian to San Diego which saved many miles and enabled heavy equipment to be brought into the canyon mines being worked there. Wilcox was also active in banking. He organized and was president of Commercial Bank of San Diego later called First National Bank. The Wilcox residence on G Street in San Diego was one of the finest homes in the city. The Wilcox family also owned a residence in the fashionable West Adams district of Los Angeles at 818 West Adams. In 1888, the Wilcox family constructed the Yuma Building, named for their shipping connection to Arizona. The distinctive building survives today as a landmark in the San Diego Gaslamp District.
Tulita Wilcox married U.S. Navy Lieutenant Randolph H. Miner on September 12, 1888 at the Archbishop's Palace in New York City. Accompanying Miner on his Navy assignments, she lived in several countries, including a couple of years in Asia, prior to Miner's retirement from the Navy in 1894. The couple settled in Los Angeles, where Miner quickly established himself as an astute visionary with various successful business ventures, including development of the San Pedro harbor, establishing early gas and water companies, and managing construction of the five-story Wilcox Bldg at the southwest corner of 2nd and Spring Streets, one of Los Angeles' earliest brick buildings.
Tulita Wilcox Miner was equally adept at establishing herself as one of the young city's premier social mavens of culture and refined living, known for her philanthropic and entertaining graces. Their large Tudor residence and gardens at 649 W. Adams Blvd. designed by noted architects Sumner Hunt and Wesley Eager was from 1904 through the mid-teens a focal point of the Los Angeles social scene for the influential in business and finance. In 1904, as part of a southwest preservation project, she recorded on Edison phonograph wax cylinders several native Indian and Spanish folk songs that she recalled from her youth on her family's rancho, La Punta.
With the outbreak of World War I, while her husband returned to active duty in the Navy at the age of 59, Mrs. Miner was placed in charge of navy relief for the Red Cross for the entire state of California. Following the War, the Miners moved to Europe, where they owned villas in Italy and France. In March 1933 Randolph Miner died at Monte Carlo at age 75 and 64-year old Tulita returned to the United States, where she lived in California and Washington, DC. During World War II, she again did work for the Red Cross as a translator.
The Miners had no children and following the war, she moved to Pasadena, California to be nearer her nieces and nephews. She died there in 1957 at the age of 88. In the late 1940's, she had recorded oral histories of her memories of early pioneer days at La Punta and San Francisco. At the time of her death, she had been working on an autobiography that she had hoped to complete within a few weeks.
She was "truly California's Grand Dame of society" as the Los Angeles Times wrote in her 1957 obituary. "Mrs. Miner was one of the world's most gracious and most famed hostesses. She had a vast knowledge of foreign languages speaking fluent Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, which she used in translating and interpreting for the American Red Cross in Washington."
In 1933, shortly after her husband's death, she had reminisced about the days of her youth, "The world was ours. And, oh, dear, we felt so advanced, so naughty, doing things that would be the pink of old-fashioned propriety today. . . We thought ourselves so daring, but oh, how good we really were!"
Her father brought the first lighthouse to California on his ship in 1848 and in 1849 as master of the U.S. Invincible army transport carried the engineering crew that attempted to turn the San Diego River into False Bay, now know as Mission Bay. The Wilcox shipping business grew from initially supplying the Army fort in Yuma, Arizona with supplies from San Francisco and San Diego via side-wheel steamboats and later providing supplies and transportation between towns in Arizona along the Colorado River. Capt. Wilcox's steamboats and others, navigated up from the Gulf of California, or took on cargo that was transported overland from San Diego to the mouth of the Colorado River.
On April 16, 1863, in a double-wedding at Rancho Guajome, Vista, the property of noted San Diego pioneer rancher and businessman, retired Army lieutenant Cave Couts, Capt. Wilcox married Maria Antonio Arguello one of the daughters of Guadalupe and Santiago E. Arguello, while another daughter, Refugio, married Couts' brother, William. Purportedly the wedding party lasted for more than a day.
After their wedding, the Wilcoxes built their own wooden home in La Punta within 100 yards of the Arguello Adobe that in its early years, had been the sole structure between the Pueblo de San Diego and the Mexican border. While growing up at La Punta in the Otay Valley, one of Tulita Wilcox's fondest memories was of sailing in her father's yacht "Ariel" from La Punta to San Diego. She was also raised in San Francisco, where her father owned a house at 912 Bush St.
In 1869, Wilcox and partners bought the Rancho Santa Ysabel in the mountains near Julian, California and established the largest sheep herd in San Diego. In 1872 he built a toll road from Julian to San Diego which saved many miles and enabled heavy equipment to be brought into the canyon mines being worked there. Wilcox was also active in banking. He organized and was president of Commercial Bank of San Diego later called First National Bank. The Wilcox residence on G Street in San Diego was one of the finest homes in the city. The Wilcox family also owned a residence in the fashionable West Adams district of Los Angeles at 818 West Adams. In 1888, the Wilcox family constructed the Yuma Building, named for their shipping connection to Arizona. The distinctive building survives today as a landmark in the San Diego Gaslamp District.
Tulita Wilcox married U.S. Navy Lieutenant Randolph H. Miner on September 12, 1888 at the Archbishop's Palace in New York City. Accompanying Miner on his Navy assignments, she lived in several countries, including a couple of years in Asia, prior to Miner's retirement from the Navy in 1894. The couple settled in Los Angeles, where Miner quickly established himself as an astute visionary with various successful business ventures, including development of the San Pedro harbor, establishing early gas and water companies, and managing construction of the five-story Wilcox Bldg at the southwest corner of 2nd and Spring Streets, one of Los Angeles' earliest brick buildings.
Tulita Wilcox Miner was equally adept at establishing herself as one of the young city's premier social mavens of culture and refined living, known for her philanthropic and entertaining graces. Their large Tudor residence and gardens at 649 W. Adams Blvd. designed by noted architects Sumner Hunt and Wesley Eager was from 1904 through the mid-teens a focal point of the Los Angeles social scene for the influential in business and finance. In 1904, as part of a southwest preservation project, she recorded on Edison phonograph wax cylinders several native Indian and Spanish folk songs that she recalled from her youth on her family's rancho, La Punta.
With the outbreak of World War I, while her husband returned to active duty in the Navy at the age of 59, Mrs. Miner was placed in charge of navy relief for the Red Cross for the entire state of California. Following the War, the Miners moved to Europe, where they owned villas in Italy and France. In March 1933 Randolph Miner died at Monte Carlo at age 75 and 64-year old Tulita returned to the United States, where she lived in California and Washington, DC. During World War II, she again did work for the Red Cross as a translator.
The Miners had no children and following the war, she moved to Pasadena, California to be nearer her nieces and nephews. She died there in 1957 at the age of 88. In the late 1940's, she had recorded oral histories of her memories of early pioneer days at La Punta and San Francisco. At the time of her death, she had been working on an autobiography that she had hoped to complete within a few weeks.
She was "truly California's Grand Dame of society" as the Los Angeles Times wrote in her 1957 obituary. "Mrs. Miner was one of the world's most gracious and most famed hostesses. She had a vast knowledge of foreign languages speaking fluent Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, which she used in translating and interpreting for the American Red Cross in Washington."
In 1933, shortly after her husband's death, she had reminisced about the days of her youth, "The world was ours. And, oh, dear, we felt so advanced, so naughty, doing things that would be the pink of old-fashioned propriety today. . . We thought ourselves so daring, but oh, how good we really were!"
Los Angeles socialite and patron of the arts during the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Born Gertrudis Zoila (Tulita) to Connecticut-born Captain Alfred Henry Wilcox (1823-1883), a Colorado River steamboat captain and director of the California and Mexican Steam Ship Line and his wife, Maria Antonio Arguello (1835-1909), great-granddaughter of one of the last Spanish colonial governors of California, José Darío Argüello who also founded the Pueblo de Los Angeles. Her grandfather, Santiago Argüello, was commandant of the Presidio of San Diego and alcalde (mayor) of Pueblo de San Diego.
Her father brought the first lighthouse to California on his ship in 1848 and in 1849 as master of the U.S. Invincible army transport carried the engineering crew that attempted to turn the San Diego River into False Bay, now know as Mission Bay. The Wilcox shipping business grew from initially supplying the Army fort in Yuma, Arizona with supplies from San Francisco and San Diego via side-wheel steamboats and later providing supplies and transportation between towns in Arizona along the Colorado River. Capt. Wilcox's steamboats and others, navigated up from the Gulf of California, or took on cargo that was transported overland from San Diego to the mouth of the Colorado River.
On April 16, 1863, in a double-wedding at Rancho Guajome, Vista, the property of noted San Diego pioneer rancher and businessman, retired Army lieutenant Cave Couts, Capt. Wilcox married Maria Antonio Arguello one of the daughters of Guadalupe and Santiago E. Arguello, while another daughter, Refugio, married Couts' brother, William. Purportedly the wedding party lasted for more than a day.
After their wedding, the Wilcoxes built their own wooden home in La Punta within 100 yards of the Arguello Adobe that in its early years, had been the sole structure between the Pueblo de San Diego and the Mexican border. While growing up at La Punta in the Otay Valley, one of Tulita Wilcox's fondest memories was of sailing in her father's yacht "Ariel" from La Punta to San Diego. She was also raised in San Francisco, where her father owned a house at 912 Bush St.
In 1869, Wilcox and partners bought the Rancho Santa Ysabel in the mountains near Julian, California and established the largest sheep herd in San Diego. In 1872 he built a toll road from Julian to San Diego which saved many miles and enabled heavy equipment to be brought into the canyon mines being worked there. Wilcox was also active in banking. He organized and was president of Commercial Bank of San Diego later called First National Bank. The Wilcox residence on G Street in San Diego was one of the finest homes in the city. The Wilcox family also owned a residence in the fashionable West Adams district of Los Angeles at 818 West Adams. In 1888, the Wilcox family constructed the Yuma Building, named for their shipping connection to Arizona. The distinctive building survives today as a landmark in the San Diego Gaslamp District.
Tulita Wilcox married U.S. Navy Lieutenant Randolph H. Miner on September 12, 1888 at the Archbishop's Palace in New York City. Accompanying Miner on his Navy assignments, she lived in several countries, including a couple of years in Asia, prior to Miner's retirement from the Navy in 1894. The couple settled in Los Angeles, where Miner quickly established himself as an astute visionary with various successful business ventures, including development of the San Pedro harbor, establishing early gas and water companies, and managing construction of the five-story Wilcox Bldg at the southwest corner of 2nd and Spring Streets, one of Los Angeles' earliest brick buildings.
Tulita Wilcox Miner was equally adept at establishing herself as one of the young city's premier social mavens of culture and refined living, known for her philanthropic and entertaining graces. Their large Tudor residence and gardens at 649 W. Adams Blvd. designed by noted architects Sumner Hunt and Wesley Eager was from 1904 through the mid-teens a focal point of the Los Angeles social scene for the influential in business and finance. In 1904, as part of a southwest preservation project, she recorded on Edison phonograph wax cylinders several native Indian and Spanish folk songs that she recalled from her youth on her family's rancho, La Punta.
With the outbreak of World War I, while her husband returned to active duty in the Navy at the age of 59, Mrs. Miner was placed in charge of navy relief for the Red Cross for the entire state of California. Following the War, the Miners moved to Europe, where they owned villas in Italy and France. In March 1933 Randolph Miner died at Monte Carlo at age 75 and 64-year old Tulita returned to the United States, where she lived in California and Washington, DC. During World War II, she again did work for the Red Cross as a translator.
The Miners had no children and following the war, she moved to Pasadena, California to be nearer her nieces and nephews. She died there in 1957 at the age of 88. In the late 1940's, she had recorded oral histories of her memories of early pioneer days at La Punta and San Francisco. At the time of her death, she had been working on an autobiography that she had hoped to complete within a few weeks.
She was "truly California's Grand Dame of society" as the Los Angeles Times wrote in her 1957 obituary. "Mrs. Miner was one of the world's most gracious and most famed hostesses. She had a vast knowledge of foreign languages speaking fluent Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, which she used in translating and interpreting for the American Red Cross in Washington."
In 1933, shortly after her husband's death, she had reminisced about the days of her youth, "The world was ours. And, oh, dear, we felt so advanced, so naughty, doing things that would be the pink of old-fashioned propriety today. . . We thought ourselves so daring, but oh, how good we really were!"
Her father brought the first lighthouse to California on his ship in 1848 and in 1849 as master of the U.S. Invincible army transport carried the engineering crew that attempted to turn the San Diego River into False Bay, now know as Mission Bay. The Wilcox shipping business grew from initially supplying the Army fort in Yuma, Arizona with supplies from San Francisco and San Diego via side-wheel steamboats and later providing supplies and transportation between towns in Arizona along the Colorado River. Capt. Wilcox's steamboats and others, navigated up from the Gulf of California, or took on cargo that was transported overland from San Diego to the mouth of the Colorado River.
On April 16, 1863, in a double-wedding at Rancho Guajome, Vista, the property of noted San Diego pioneer rancher and businessman, retired Army lieutenant Cave Couts, Capt. Wilcox married Maria Antonio Arguello one of the daughters of Guadalupe and Santiago E. Arguello, while another daughter, Refugio, married Couts' brother, William. Purportedly the wedding party lasted for more than a day.
After their wedding, the Wilcoxes built their own wooden home in La Punta within 100 yards of the Arguello Adobe that in its early years, had been the sole structure between the Pueblo de San Diego and the Mexican border. While growing up at La Punta in the Otay Valley, one of Tulita Wilcox's fondest memories was of sailing in her father's yacht "Ariel" from La Punta to San Diego. She was also raised in San Francisco, where her father owned a house at 912 Bush St.
In 1869, Wilcox and partners bought the Rancho Santa Ysabel in the mountains near Julian, California and established the largest sheep herd in San Diego. In 1872 he built a toll road from Julian to San Diego which saved many miles and enabled heavy equipment to be brought into the canyon mines being worked there. Wilcox was also active in banking. He organized and was president of Commercial Bank of San Diego later called First National Bank. The Wilcox residence on G Street in San Diego was one of the finest homes in the city. The Wilcox family also owned a residence in the fashionable West Adams district of Los Angeles at 818 West Adams. In 1888, the Wilcox family constructed the Yuma Building, named for their shipping connection to Arizona. The distinctive building survives today as a landmark in the San Diego Gaslamp District.
Tulita Wilcox married U.S. Navy Lieutenant Randolph H. Miner on September 12, 1888 at the Archbishop's Palace in New York City. Accompanying Miner on his Navy assignments, she lived in several countries, including a couple of years in Asia, prior to Miner's retirement from the Navy in 1894. The couple settled in Los Angeles, where Miner quickly established himself as an astute visionary with various successful business ventures, including development of the San Pedro harbor, establishing early gas and water companies, and managing construction of the five-story Wilcox Bldg at the southwest corner of 2nd and Spring Streets, one of Los Angeles' earliest brick buildings.
Tulita Wilcox Miner was equally adept at establishing herself as one of the young city's premier social mavens of culture and refined living, known for her philanthropic and entertaining graces. Their large Tudor residence and gardens at 649 W. Adams Blvd. designed by noted architects Sumner Hunt and Wesley Eager was from 1904 through the mid-teens a focal point of the Los Angeles social scene for the influential in business and finance. In 1904, as part of a southwest preservation project, she recorded on Edison phonograph wax cylinders several native Indian and Spanish folk songs that she recalled from her youth on her family's rancho, La Punta.
With the outbreak of World War I, while her husband returned to active duty in the Navy at the age of 59, Mrs. Miner was placed in charge of navy relief for the Red Cross for the entire state of California. Following the War, the Miners moved to Europe, where they owned villas in Italy and France. In March 1933 Randolph Miner died at Monte Carlo at age 75 and 64-year old Tulita returned to the United States, where she lived in California and Washington, DC. During World War II, she again did work for the Red Cross as a translator.
The Miners had no children and following the war, she moved to Pasadena, California to be nearer her nieces and nephews. She died there in 1957 at the age of 88. In the late 1940's, she had recorded oral histories of her memories of early pioneer days at La Punta and San Francisco. At the time of her death, she had been working on an autobiography that she had hoped to complete within a few weeks.
She was "truly California's Grand Dame of society" as the Los Angeles Times wrote in her 1957 obituary. "Mrs. Miner was one of the world's most gracious and most famed hostesses. She had a vast knowledge of foreign languages speaking fluent Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, which she used in translating and interpreting for the American Red Cross in Washington."
In 1933, shortly after her husband's death, she had reminisced about the days of her youth, "The world was ours. And, oh, dear, we felt so advanced, so naughty, doing things that would be the pink of old-fashioned propriety today. . . We thought ourselves so daring, but oh, how good we really were!"
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Randolph Huntington Miner, Commander USN, His Wife
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