Career
He developed the city of Ramona, California, and served several terms on the Los Angeles Common Council. Eastern United States
Santee was a lieutenant from Pennsylvania in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Missouri
During his early career as a surveyor, Santee made surveys of Dixon, Missouri, and also laid out the town of Richland, Missouri in 1869.
California
Santee was elected to two consecutive terms to represent the 4th electoral district on the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of the city, the first beginning December 9, 1884, and the second ending December 13, 1886.
In 1887 he opened the Ramona Hotel in Julian, California. a hostelry that was later renamed the Kenilworth Inn. In 1888, Santee had mines in San Diego County, "30 miles from Dos Palmos and three miles from the line surveyed for the Cuyamaca Road." In January of that year he was one of the incorporators of the Lower California Mining Company (Mexico), which was capitalized at $5 million.
When everything is in full working order we expect that there will be about 1,000 Mongolians taken down there, all of whom will come out of this State, and thereby greatly decrease the unwelcome resident population. According to the Scott Exclusion Acting they will not be able to return, although if they want to I have no doubt that they could manage it, for there are only a handful of men guarding the western 1,000 miles of Mexican frontier.
But I do not think that they will want to come back, for they will get better wages down there and will not be looked upon with the aversion they are here.
Santee headed a San Diego group that had platted Coronado, California, as a site for a resort community, but the endeavor failed. He then bought 6,000 acres of Rancho Santa Maria, "halfway between the coast and the San Diego Gold Country, and surveyed it for sale into small farms and ranches." This area originally had the name Nuevo, but Santee changed it to Ramona, to capitalize on the success of Helen Hunt Jackson"s book Ramona, and he began a nationwide sales campaign to sell property there. In 1893 Santee donated land in Nuevo for a park and library.
He also laid out the grounds for the park.
Santee was born in Pennsylvania in 1835. 9, Knights Templar. 135, Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Milton Santee died in Los Angeles on October 16, 1901, at the home of his mother, V. Santee, at 210 West 28th Street in today"s Historic South Central area. Legacy
A "reluctant vote of the citizens" approved the idea in 1893, Wade said.