From a daring teenage stowaway fleeing the Pyrenees to a celebrated rancher whose name now dots Southern California maps, Pierre Agoure’s life is the stuff of modern legend. He built California’s largest sheep empire by sheer grit, weathered deadly droughts, and even hosted raucous fiestas on his sprawling Armaga Ranch. Yet his sudden death by accidental poisoning unleashed an eight-year legal siege by a notorious “refugee attorney” who nearly tore his family apart. Today, Agoura Hills stand as the ultimate tribute to a man whose frontier spirit helped shape Ventura County’s very identity.
A Basque Boy’s Bold Escape
Born May 15, 1853 into a Basque farming family in the French Pyrenees, Pierre Agoure was the second of seven children of Francisco Agoure. With limited prospects for second sons—and wary of conscription during the Franco–Prussian War—17-year-old Pierre stowed away on a ship bound for California. Discovered at sea, he spent six arduous months working below decks, rounding Cape Horn before finally arriving in San Francisco in August 1871. Two months later, he made his way down the coast to Los Angeles.
Pierre Agoure
Adrift in a Frontier Town
Los Angeles in 1871 was home to fewer than 6,000 residents, and mob justice was commonplace. Pierre stumbled into one of the city’s darkest episodes—the October massacre of 17 Chinese laborers on what is now Olvera Street. Terrified and unable to speak English, he found safety only after encountering fellow Basque speakers. Not long after, he secured work with pioneer rancher Bertrand Riviere, herding sheep for $20 a month and later tending dairy cows for $25, tucking away every penny.
Daughter of Pierre Agoure herding sheep
From Shepherd’s Staff to Family Man
By 1873 Pierre had saved enough to buy 400 sheep and began grazing them on the Newhall Ranch (Valencia). In 1878, he purchased the 60-acre Western Avenue parcel where he’d once labored. In January 1883 he married Kate Smith, who lived 40 miles away; they settled at 723 S. Olive Street in Los Angeles and raised six children—Juliette, Angele, Bijou, Beatrice, Lester, and Vivian. Pierre became a U.S. citizen in 1890, and that year’s census lists the family (children ages 5–15) at their Olive Street home.
The Family of Pierre Agoure herding sheep on the ranch.
Riding the Wool Boom
The 1870s–80s were California’s “Era of Wool,” with sheep replacing cattle after disease and drought decimated herds. Ventura County’s sheep numbers peaked at 148,000, and statewide wool production topped 17 million pounds. Pierre capitalized on this surge—at one point buying 12,000 sheep from Thomas R. Bard—and weathered the deadly 1897–98 drought (losing some 8,000 head) by diversifying into cattle and steadily acquiring adjoining lands.
Children of Pierre Agoure hunting on the property.
Master of Armaga Ranch
By 1906, Pierre’s holdings spanned 16,880 acres across Conejo Valley, Rancho Simi, and Rancho Las Vírgenes—including a 1,500-acre tract near Moorpark and 380 acres near Calabasas. His crown jewel was the “Armaga” ranch—15,000 oak-dotted acres eight miles from Calabasas—where he wired over 40 miles of fencing, imported shepherds from the Pyrenees, and ran up to 25,000 sheep at once. Contemporary press praised the “grassy slopes and springs of water” and likened Pierre’s ruddy complexion and genial countenance to Mark Twain himself. Annual New Year’s fiestas for family and hands became a local legend.
Old map of Agoura Hills
Tragedy, Trial, and Tenacity
On November 29, 1912, Pierre died after accidentally ingesting formaldehyde, then used on ranches to treat hoof diseases. Within weeks, opportunist John Lapique—known as the “refugee attorney”—filed suit, questioning Kate’s fitness as executor and even accusing the family of murder. Over an eight-year legal onslaught—claiming forged partnership agreements, libel, and contempt—Lapique lost again and again, even landing 250 days in jail for contempt before a criminal-libel conviction. The courts ultimately protected Kate’s right to administer Pierre’s estate.
Pierre Agoure in his older age.
A Name Carved in California
In 1927, when locals voted on a one-word post office name, they chose a slight misspelling—Agoura—to honor Pierre. That name endures in Agoura Hills (incorporated 1982), a lasting testament to the Basque stowaway whose grit and vision shaped Southern California’s map.
Pierre Agoure's wife on an Agoura Trail
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