Elijah Moulton

Elijah Moulton (1820–1902) was a pioneer settler in Los Angeles, California, after the Mexican-American War, and became one of its wealthiest citizens. He was a member of the city's governing body, the Common Council.

Moulton was born in Montreal, Quebec, on November 26, 1820, the son of Elijah Moulton of Massachusetts and Jane O'Farrell of Connecticut.

Moulton in 1845 joined a westward-bound expedition organized by mountain man Jim Bridger and arrived in Los Angeles on May 12 of that year. After settling in Los Angeles, he bought land near that of William Wolfskill, and in 1855 he took charge of Wolfskill's property, and later he married one of Wolfskill's daughters. She had one child, both she and the baby dying in 1861.

Moulton's will at probate stated that he was not married, but that he had three living children—two daughters, Marie L. (later Rodriguez) and Sacramenta, and a son, Manuel. The mother of the children, named Juana, died in 1899.

In 1898 he became a member of the Pioneers of Los Angeles, which limited its membership to those who were born outside of California and who had lived in Los Angeles for at least twenty-five years.

Moulton, by this time considered "wealthy," died on January 28, 1902, at the age of 81; he was labeled the "oldest pioneer in Los Angeles in point of residence." Mourners gathered in the home he had built sixty years previous at the corner of Alhambra Avenue and Daly Street (Alhambra Avenue formerly ran along the right-of-way now used exclusively by Southern Pacific, from Main & Alameda to approximately Mission and Main. The location of the adobe is now underneath the 5 freeway, near the corner of Daly & Luisa Sts.).

Even with the brick addition, which is larger than the original adobe, the rooms could hold but a small part of the sorrowing friends. . . . The late pioneer had just about completed building a fine residence a block away, but he did not live to occupy it, and yesterday he was borne from the scenes of his life for over half a century.

"The services were spiritualistic, in accordance with the belief of the deceased," and the address and prayer were made by Maude L. Freitag. A procession which followed the bier to the cemetery was two blocks in length.

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