Lemuel Carpenter

Lemuel Carpenter
Born	c. 1808 Kentucky, U.S.
Died	5 November 1859 Los Angeles, California
Residence	Kentucky, Missouri, California
Occupation	Entrepreneur, rancher
Known for	Early California pioneer
Parent(s)	Jonathan and Nancy (née Shouse) Carpenter

Lemuel Carpenter (c. 1808 in Kentucky – November 5, 1859 in California) was one of the first Anglo-American settlers of what is now the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area.

Lemuel Carpenter was born c. 1808 in Kentucky. He migrated to Missouri about 1828, where he served in Searcy's Company of Missouri Militia in 1829.

Carpenter was in southern California by January 1833, arriving in the company of trappers Cyrus Alexander, William Chard, Joseph Paulding, and Albert Toomes. Early California settler John Bidwell includes him in this recollection of people he knew in the Pueblo de Los Angeles: "Los Angeles I first saw in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple (Jonathan Temple), Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter, David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pío Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others".

Carpenter started a soap manufacturing business on the San Gabriel River in present-day El Monte that profited sufficiently for him to purchase Rancho Santa Gertrudes, on the site of Tongva Nacaugna and present-day Downey, California, southeast of what is now downtown Los Angeles.

He was among the first of the Americans to plant a vineyard for the making of wine.

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