Through various companies, they controlled at one time or another large swathes of California real estate, much of it derived from Mexican land grants.
Parts of the towns of Long Beach, Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Lakewood, and Los Alamitos emerged from former Bixby-held lands.
The key members of the family connected to California real estate are the brothers Llewellyn and Jotham Bixby, their first cousins Thomas and Benjamin Flint, and a cousin of the next generation, John William Bixby.
Jotham's daughter Fanny Bixby Spencer was a philanthropist and anti-war activist who was also one of the nation's earliest policewomen.
Jotham and Margaret Bixby founded the First Congregational Church in 1888 and later contributed to the construction of the 1914 building.