Cybersecurity in Vernon, CA

Vernon is the site of the Battle of La Mesa on January 9, 1847, when General Stephen W. Kearny again defeated General José María Flores the day after the Battle of Río San Gabriel. Accepting defeat, General Flores fled southeast to Sonora, while Major Pico headed north into the San Gabriel Mountains with a hundred Californios. This ended hostilities in Alta California during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. By the dawn of the 20th century, it was a stretch of unincorporated grassland near Los Angeles’ flourishing downtown.

In 1905, Vernon was incorporated by ranchers James J. and Thomas J. Furlong and John B. Leonis, a merchant. Vernon was incorporated to promote industrial development along the railroads in the area. John Leonis, of Basque origin, had come to Southern California in 1880 to work for his uncle, Miguel Leonis, and later established his own ranch on unincorporated county land southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Recognizing the importance of the three major railroads running through the area, he persuaded railroad executives to run spur tracks off the main lines and incorporated the adjacent three miles (4.8 km) as the first “exclusively industrial” city in the southwestern United States. He named the new city after a dirt road, Vernon Avenue, that crossed its center.

In 1907, on land leased from Leonis, the founders of the city marketed Vernon as a “sporting town”. Jack Doyle, an entrepreneur, opened the Vernon Avenue Arena, where 20-round world championship fights were held starting in 1908. Shortly thereafter, the Pacific Coast League built a baseball park. The Vernon Tigers, a minor league baseball team in the Pacific Coast League, played from 1909 through 1925. The team won back-to-back PCL pennants in 1919 and 1920. The ballpark also housed two 1910 Southern California Trolley League teams, the Los Angeles Maiers and the Los Angeles McCormicks.