Joseph Lancaster Brent
| Joseph Lancaster Brent | |
|---|---|
Joseph Lancaster Brent
|
|
| Born |
November 30, 1826 Pomonkey, Maryland |
| Died | November 27, 1905 (aged 78) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Buried | Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland |
| Allegiance |
 Confederate States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 Confederate States Army
|
| Years of service | 1861-1865 |
| Rank |
 Brigadier General
|
| Unit | Los Angeles Mounted Rifles |
| Commands held |
 Louisiana Cavalry Brigade (1864-1865) |
Joseph Lancaster Brent (November 30, 1826 – November 27, 1905) was a lawyer and politician in California, Louisiana and Maryland and a brigadier general in the Confederate army.
Joseph Lancaster Brent was born on November 30, 1826, in Pomonkey, Charles County, Maryland. His parents were Louisiana's U.S. Congressman William Leigh Brent (a Maryland lawyer) and Maryland heiress Marie Fenwick Brent. The large family included several brothers and sisters, and had many slaves.
He was educated by private teachers and received his legal education at Georgetown University.
In 1870 Brent married Roselle Kenner of Louisiana.
He died on November 27, 1905 in Baltimore, Maryland, and was survived by his wife and two children, Nannie M. and Duncan K. He was buried at Green Mount Cemetery, in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1850 he went to California from Baltimore on a sailing ship bringing his law library with him, the first in Southern California. As an attorney in Los Angeles he "was employed by many rancheros to present and prosecute their Spanish and Mexican land titles." In 1856 he was elected to the State Legislature. He owned Rancho San Rafael, which included the present city of Pasadena, California. The land was located across the Los Angeles River from what is now Griffith Park. He named his property Santa Eulalia Ranch. He was also a school commissioner and a leader of the movement to create a public school system in Los Angeles.
Brent took part in a "Convention of the Delegates from the Southern Counties, in favor of a Division of the State" and was appointed to a committee to draft a concluding resolution, along with Benjamin Hayes, J.S.K. Ogier, Antonio F. Coronel, Ignacio del Valle, Pio Pico and John A. Lewis. The resolution, issued in February 1852, stated that "The fact that each inhabitant of the agricultural sections of the State contributes three dollars to the State Treasury, while the inhabitants of the mining counties, (constituting sixty-five per cent of the entire population of the State) contributes only seventeen cents, portrays in startling colors the oppressive injustice of our present organization."
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