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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOG^Y COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 00825 3699
History of Pasadena
COMPRISING
An Account of the Native Indian, the Early Spanish, the Mexican, the American, the Colony, and THE Incorporated City
OCCUPANCIES OF THE
Rancho San Pasoual, and its Adjacent Mountains, Canyons, Waterfalls,
AND Other Objects of Natural, Artificial, Old
/ Historic, or Modern Interest :
Being a Complete and Comprehensive Histo-cyclopedia of all Matters
Pertaining to this Region ; with Copious
Index for Reference.
By Hiram a. Reid, a. M., M. D.
\2/r ILLUSTRATED.
PASADENA, CAL : P.\SADENA History Company, Publishers.
1S9.=>.
Copyright 1W15. By Hiram A. Reid.
Press of
Kin(;slev-Baknes & Nkunek Co.
Los Angeles, Cal.
1S52887
. , THRESHOLD REMARKS.
Genesis. — How it came about that this History was written. — List of books specially examined. — The Bicycle Episode. — Friendly favors acknowledged.
THE START.
Before entering the Hahamog-na doorway to this Pantheon of Pasadena hi.story, the reader will please take a cosy rustic seat in the roseshaded sun- shinyness of our front porch for a few minutes, while I relate the history of the Historj^ — or how this history project originated, and how this book came to be written.
January 14, 1894, I went to lyOS Angeles to deliver before the Science Association of Southern California my report on the Geology of the Pasadena Mountains. In the same car with me was W. H. Knight, Esq., president of the Association, and auditor of the Mount lyowe Electric Railway Co., who was then also secretary of the Pasadena Board of Trade. In conversa- tion as we rode together I pointed out from the car window some places and ;;^iObjects which had interesting historic associations, and some places of scien- \tific interest. These things enlisted his earnest attention ; and finally he said :
' ' There must be a great deal of interesting history connected with Pasa- dena and its vicinity which ought to be preserved. It is passing away, and in a few years will be lost beyond recovery; somebody ought to collect it and write it up in a book."
"Yes," I answered, " that is true ; but it would require so much time
and painstaking labor to do the work reliably that no publisher could afford
^to undertake the enterprise. The work would necessarily be local in its
scope, and hence of such limited sale that he would certainly lose money on
it."
But Mr. Knight thought the financial difficulty could be met by a sub-
. scription plan, and continued : "Why can't you do it? You're just the man
! for it. ' '
'. To this I replied, that I probably knew better than any one else here
what a protracted and arduous undertaking it would be, if done with such thoroughness as to make it worth the doing ; and my health was too feeble and precarious for me to think of entering upon so great a task. But he was still earnest, and urged that it oughl to be done, and that I could do it better than anybody else.
On returning home I told my wife about this conversation with Mr. Knight. She chimed right in with Mr. Knight's suggestion ; said there wasn't anybody else here who could do it as well as I could. "Yes, and I can help you with the typewriter," she added quite enthusiasticall)^
In order to show her how much greater a task it would be than she
4 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
thought of, I penciled a schedule of points and topics that would have to be covered, data to be' gathered, old books and records to be hunted up, pioneer settlers and old Spanish people interviewed, scientific research in and about Pasadena pushed much farther than had ever yet been done, etc. But, nothing daunted, she still said that I could do it all better than anybody else ; and she' d help me ; she'd take care of the chickens herself, and do all the housework, and look after the yard, and attend to the grandchildren alone, etc. , so I could have my time ; and I could have the east bedroom for an office ; and so on, and so on — oh, so easy seems such a job to one who has not delved in its trenches of difficulty.
A few days later I saw my intimate friend, H. N. Fare)-, who has more practical knowledge on the details of book-printing than any other man in this community, and in course of conversation I told him what had been said by Mr. Knight and Mrs. Reid on this matter. He studied a bit, and then said energetically, ''If sago! you're the very man to do it ! Why, you've made a good start on it already ! that schedule of what would have to be done is a first-rate beginning of the work ! Why, you have com- menced the thing already ! And you have more material already on hand, or know where and how to find it, than an}^ half-dozen other men in Pasa- dena ! Yes, siR-R-R, it's a GO ! "
Mr. Farey knew' of my poor health, but said I was tough, and could work along by laying off a day or two at a time when specially severe sick spells overtook me. And the financial part, he thought, could be worked up all right.
Next, I talked with Hon. P. M. Green and B. F. Ball about it. Mr. Green's first thought was that Pasadena was too young a city to have much of a histor}^ yet. Then, as he thought of the Indian occupation here, and the Spanish occupation, and the American occupation prior to the "Indiana Colony, ' ' and the many features of scientific interest, and the rapid succes- sion of notable events here since Pasadena commenced to be a village — he exclaimed, ' ' Wh}-, yes ! it grows upon me as I think of it ! There is, in- deed, a great field of history here." And they two concurred in the idea that a liook of history to cover all the ground ought to be written now, while some of the oldest settlers are still living ; and I was the right man to do it. Then I talked with F. R. Harris, and Henry G. Bennett, and James Cambell, and others about it, and they were very heartily of the same opinion.
I still feared that on account of failing health I would not be able to carry the work to completion. Nevertheless, trusted friends advised the effort, and offered helpful assistance. A stock company was suggested. But I felt that if anybody took stock in it as a financial venture, there would be a pressure upon me to hurry it through — and this would sacrifice the method of slow, plodding, persevering, patient, steady search and research,
THRESHOI.D REMARKS. $
writing and re-writing, to the mere commercial idea of getting our money back with profits, as soon as possible. This latter plan is what has made so many of the ' ' county histories ' ' gotten up all over the country prove to be a fraud, and brought the local historj^ business into disrepute. I said I must be perfectly free and untrammeled to take a// the time I may find necessary to do and undo and re-do the work, till I feel sure that bedrock facts have been reached, on the different matters of historic interest to be set forth — for there will be mistakes enough, even after the best endeavor has been made to avoid them. And if thirty or forty citizens would aid me a little for the necessary incidental expenses, such as explanatory circulars, inquiry blanks, postage, stationery, horse hire for research trips, etc., I would undertake the task. The question was raised, suppose I should not live to complete it ? I replied that those who aided me would have whatever manuscript and material I had accumulated, and could probably then get some one else to complete it. Accordingly, an advance pledge note was prepared, payable in 20 per cent, installments, to aid me in the matters mentioned ; and these notes were signed by P. M. Green, B. F. Ball, F. R. Harris, H. G. Bennett, Henry N. Farey, W. U. Masters, Wm. R. Staats, R. H. Finney, J. A. Jacobs, T. J. Martin, M. D. Painter, P. G. Wooster, James Smith, Benj. M. Page, James Cambell, T. P. lyukens, W. J. Barcus, Ci C. Brown, Geo. T. Downing. Geo. V. Kernaghan, Oscar Freeman, Delos Arnold, John McDonald, C. M. Simpson, Wm. H. Knight, F.J. Woodbury, W. K. Arthur, G. Roscoe Thomas, A. K. McQuilling, D. J. Macpherson, lyUcy F. Wilson, Jeanne C. Carr, J. W. Wood. All amounts thus prepaid were to apply on the price of one or more copies of the book when printed. So that was the origin of this History of Pasadena, and how it came about that I undertook the preparation of the volume. In pursuance of the work I have examined with care the follovving books which con- tained more or less points of incidental linkage with Pasadena history :
LIST OF works consulted.
Centennial History of Los Angeles County. By Col. J. J. Warner, Judge Hayes, and Dr. J. P. Widney. 1876.
Publications of the I^os Angeles County Historical Society.
Lewis's History Los Angeles County and Biographical Register. 1889.
.Southern California. By T. S. Van Dyke of San Diego. Fords, How- ard & Hurlbert, N. Y. 1886.
California of the South. By Drs. Widney and Lindley of Los Angeles. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 1888.
A Southern California Paradise. By Rev. R. W. C. Farnsworth. 1883.
All About Pasadena. By C. F. Holder. 1888.
The Highlands of Pasadena. By C. F. Holder. H. S. Crocker & Co., San Francisco. i88q.
6 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
To and Fro, Up and Down, in Sonthern California. By Emma H. Adams. 1888. [Specially full of errors on historical matters.]
Reminiscences of a Ranger. By Maj . Horace Bell of Los Angeles. 1881.
Mediterranean Shores of America ; Southern California Climatology, etc. By P. C. Redondino, M. D. 1872. [A good work.]
A Tour of Duty in California. By Joseph Revere. Published in Bos- ton. 1849. [Grandson of the famous Paul Revere.]
Two Years Before the Mast. By R. H. Dana. Published in Boston. 1846. [Experiences in California in 1835-36.]
Native Races of the Pacific Coast. By H. H. Bancroft. 1S83.
History of California — with .Pioneer Register. By H. H. Bancroft. Seven volumes. Published in 1883 to 1886.
California Geological Reports, Vol. I. Prof. J. D. Whitney. Pub- lished in 1865.
Elements of Geology. By Prof. Joseph EeConte, of the State Univer- sity of California.
Reports of State Mineralogist. Successive years.
California Blue Book. Edition of 1891.
Archaeological Reports of the Smithsonian Institute. 1S80.
The Mountains of California. By John Muir. Century Co., N.Y. 1894.
Our Switzerland-Italy. By Prof. G. Wharton James. 1892.
Fremont's Memoirs, Vol. I. 1887.
Man and the Glacial Period. By Prof. Geo. Frederick Wright. D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. 1892.
Eife in California. [1829 to 1845.] By Alfred Robinson. Published in New York, 1846.
Annals of San Francisco and History of California. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 1854.
Eife of Col. Fremont. By Bigelow. Derby & Jackson, New York. 1856.
Early Days and Men of California. By W. F. Swasey. San Francisco. 1 89 1. [Capt. Swasey was a member of Col. Fremont's famous California Battalion, and he shows up the meanness, injustice and misrepresentation of Bancroft's history toward Fremont.]
OccidentaE Sketches. By Maj. Ben C. Truman. San Francisco. 1881. [Major Truman was for some years an editor and news reporter in Eos Angeles, then in San Francisco; but in 1895 he is editing a weekly paper called Tlie Capital at Eos Angeles.]
Old Californian Days. By James Steele. Chicago. 1889. [Uses the term South California instead of Southern California. Right.]
History of California. By John Frost. Hurst & Co., New York.
Sixty Years in CaUfornia. [1831 to 1889.] By Wm. Heath Davis. San Francisco. 1889.
THRESHOLD REMARKS. 7
History of Los Angeles County. By J. Albert "Wilson. Published by Thompson & West. 1880. [This is altogether the best " County History" yet gotten up here.]
California. By Josiah Royce. Houghton, Miflin & Co., Boston. 1886. [Partisan against Col. Fremont.]
History of California. Two volumes. By Theodore H. Hittell. San Francisco. 1885. [This is on the whole the fairest and best history of the State yet published.]
Tourists' Guide Book to Southern California. By G. Wharton James, F. R. A. S. Baumgardt & Co., Los Angeles. 1895. [This work uses the name South California instead of Southern California, all the way through — a new feature which I heartily commend.]
Board of Trade pamphlets. Different years.
Bound volumes of the weekly Pasadena Union, 1884-85-86.
Bound volumes of the Pasadena Daily Star.
Stitched volumes of the Pasadena Standard.
Record Books of the City Clerk.
Record Books of the City Recorder.
Record Books of the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, the origi- nal Pasadena colony, or "Indiana colony," as it was commonly called.
Record Books of the Pasadena Land and Water Co.
Special articles local to California, in leading magazines of both the Atlantic and Pacific coast; bound volumes of the Overland Monthly, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Monthly, Popular Science Monthly, Illustrated Califor- nian, the Century Magazine, and others of lesser note.
Notes of a Military Reconnoissance," etc., by Major W. H. Emory, of U. S. topographical engineers, 1846-47. Washington : 30th congress, ist session. Senate. Executive document No. 7. [This gives maps, diagrams, descriptions, etc., of three battles in California ; but I did not find this work until Stephen Foster showed it to me, after my Chapter IV. was printed. [Seepage 102 1^.] Maj. Emory says: "We saw the Mexicans place /^«r pieces of artillery on the hill, so as to command the passage " [at San Gab- riel river.] See forward, page 93.
THE BICYCLE EPISODE. In pursuance of my work I found it necessary to go many times to ex- amine natural objects, to consult old settlers, to procure documents or books, to authenticate localities by name, and for many points and particulars which it was needful I should know from personal investigation and not merely from hearsay, in order to write understandingly about them. I could not afford to keep a horse for making such trips ; and walking proved very soon that it was too slow and tiresome for me. I was past sixty years old, and had never strode a bicycle in my life — but now I needed to learn the new trick.
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
It was ' ' business. " So I procured a bicycle — and then the ' ' wild west ' ' circus commenced. But I conquered the thing in due time, and the follow- ing article from the Daily Star of May 12, 1894, I quote both for the humor of it and because it is a part of the ' ' history of the History ' ' :
" The Star reporter who has been watching Dr. Reid's sexagenarian ex- periments with a fiery, untamed bicycle says "it's ago," at last ; and he won't tell of the hundred or more throws the new rider got — nor of the trees, fences and gutters that might have brought an action for assault and battery ; nor how he ran into a horse and buggy with three ladies in it, when nobody could tell whether the horse, the ladies or the flopped-over doctor were most frightened; nor how he ran into Arnold's milk wagon and scared the milk into curd cheese. Final success wipes out all the little erraticisms of cranky inexperience, even for a man over sixty years old ; and as a con- clusion of the whole matter, our reporter captured the following humorous document recently read before the Fortnightly Club :
SPINNING WHEEI.S.
BY DR. H. A. REID.
[I was in some doubt as to whether this poem s^hould eo to the Historical Society, the Science Aspo- ciation, or the Bicycle Club, but I finally concluded that the Throe p Po yte-chnist> would probably classify it as an evolutional sport in Biocyclology— sub-class Pedo economics. This would account for the ZJaz/y Star's recent squib about my bicycle experiments ; hence I present it here.]
Our grandmas had their spinning wheels And made them spin like fun,
With treadle going up and down To make the spindle run.
But this was in "ye olden time,"
Before the factories came With patent spinning jacks to beat
The women's fast-work fame.
Each spin-wheel then was stored away
In dingy garret room, To wait some new fad of the world
Which might unseal its doom.
And it has come; for now our girls Go spinning through the street
With wheels that run as Grandma's did, By treadles for the feet.
On two wheels now instead of one
The spinning whirl is done ; Their grandmas did it for day's work ;
They do it just for fun.
And likewise, even gray old men Have caught up this new prank ;
From grandma's spin-wheel made a " bike," And learned to pump the crank.
Our grandma's spinned at home, the yarn From their deft fingers twirled :
But now the biker boys and girls Go spinning round the world.
The problem next is, how to save The waste force thus evolved ? —
Put wind-up springs upon the wheels, And lo, the problem's solved.
For when you've springs enough wound up,
Gear them in gangs, and run A motor street car at less cost
Than ever yet t'was done.
Or start a plant to generate
Electric light and heat To serve for evening lamps at home,
And cook your bread and meat.
This scheme will prove our spinning wheels
In true worth not unlike The wheels our grandmas used to tread,
And so commend the " bike."
I found the bicycle wonderfully helpful in ray work, and also of some benefit to my health b}^ the exhilarating exercise it gave me.
On January 24, 1895, Mrs. Reid had the misfortune to get her arm broken. This of course was unavoidably a great hindrance and drawback to our history work — stopping it entirely for a while, and embarrassing it in some measure all the rest of the time. However, we lost no time lamenting, but went on with the task as best we could, to its final conclusion.
THRESHOLD REMARKS. 9
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF FAVORS.
I am under obligation for special favors and assistance to many persons in getting nay work as complete as it is, and I wish to make open acknowledgment in the case. Judge B. S. Eaton has very kindly and gen- erously written out for me many matters of early history which no other living person could tell about. Dr. J. W. Wood loaned me a whole year of his bound volumes of the Pasadena and Valley Union of 1884-85-86 — the only copies in existence ; and it being the only local newspaper here in those years, was the prime authority for dates and data on many historical matters of the transition time from colony to city, that could not to be found elsewhere. I am indebted to H. N. Farey for the valuable table of Pasadena corporations, which he carefully compiled for me from the county records ; besides many other matters in which he generously aided me. Arturo Bandini and wife, and Mrs. Bandini's mother, Mrs. Dr. EUiott, have aided me with loan of books ; with suggestion of books and magazine articles that I needed to see ; with translation of Spanish documents and Spanish terms ; with documents and data of the original " Indiana colony," and of the true origin of the name Pasadena — documents not obtainable but from them. Prof. A. J. McClatchie furnishes me the results of his years of research on the native flora of this region. [See chapter 32, on Botany.] Young Joseph Grinnell gives me the first publication of his complete list of native Pasadena birds. [See chapter 31, on Zoology.] J. B. French has assisted me very much in my researches on the glaciology of this region. James H. Cambell furnished me early in 1894, one of his official record maps of Pasadena city, with all her sub-divisions, streets, city lots, adjacent lands, etc., — a favor exceedingly helpful for identifying streets, land tracts, and other local points. And Byron O. Kendall, from his extensive real estate, insurance, loan and collection agency at 49 E. Colorado street, has furnished as his contribution to the book the very convenient reference map folded in at page 16. P. G. Wooster, Wesley Bunnell and Thomas F. Croft have taken special pains to furnish me with memoranda of events in the colony time, from their diaries ; and Mr. Croft loaned rae for citation the only complete abstract of title of Rancho San Pasqual [after the Garfias patent of 1863] known to be in existence. Mrs. J. De Barth Shorb loaned me the unpublished MSS. autobiography of her father, Hon. B. D. Wilson, which he dictated the year before his death ; besides other historic docu- ments and information furnished by herself and husband. Cha^. A. Gard- ner, Esq., kindly gave me "the freedom of his bailiwick" for frequent research in the bound volumes of the Pasadena Daily Star— a, favor of great value. Messrs. Wood & Church, from their real estate office in the Masonic Temple, furnished me with 300 copies of their valuable and interesting copy- right birdseye map of Pasadena, showing buildings, streets, R. R. lines, fields, mountains, canyons, toll road, etc., as folded in at page 410.
to HISTORY OF PASADENA.
The publishers of the ' ' L,and of Sunshine ' ' generously allowed me the use of many of their half-tones and other plates, some of which they held in special reserve and would neither lend or hire to anybody else for the present. Photographer Geo. L,. Rose of Pasadena and engraver Herve Friend of L,os Angeles made for me without charge the frontispiece picture, showing myself and wife going to church on our wheels. Heman Dyer, city clerk, and Judge J. G. Rossiter, city re- corder, gave me every facility and convenience, for examining the city records and archives. Prof. T. S. C. lyOwe furnished free transportation for myself and wife over his mountain railroads, for any further investigations we might wish to make in that region during the years 1894-95. And many others kindly and cordially loaned me books or documents I needed ; or car- ried me on trips to visit canyons, mines, mills, springs, ancient dams, etc. ; also to visit the aged Spanish women at L,inda Vista bluff and San Gabriel village. These of course were extra long or difficult trips, beyond my strength for bicycle travel ; but for any ordinary run of one, two or three miles, I could go on my wheel.
Everybody seemed pleased to learn of the work I had undertaken apd glad if they could aid me in some way. It was at once pleasant, encourag- ing and helpful to find such a general feeling of confidence and trust that I would do the work well ; and at the same time it bore in upon me a deeper sense of responsibility, and a keener pressure of obligation to spare no pains for making my work of permanent value — the standard reference book and authority on Pasadena matters, for all the years and interests covered by it. Friends, I have done what I could. And now I respectfully submit my work, which will reveal to you how truly Pasadena is a veritable surprise- garden of local history.*
H. A. R.
Pasadena, Cal., 133 Mary street, October 12, 1895.
* The following from the Z)a//r 5/a>- of September 9, 1895, I thought worth preserving as a rare coiucidence in the " history of the History : " " The printing tis being done by the Kingsley-Barnes & NeunerCo., and there are some curious incidents of Pasadenian associations connected with the job. Mr. Davis, president and financier of the printing company, resides in Pasadena, and his son officiates as copyholder for the proof-reading— while the foreman and proofreader Mr. H. K. Moles, formerly resided in Des Moines, Iowa, and knew Dr. Reid there. Mr. Barnes, secretary of the company, is an old-time Pasadena boy, and nephew to Thomas F. Croft. Mr. Fred Lang, vice-president of the company, and who holds high rank as an embossing artist, was formerly a printer with H. N. Farey & Co. of Pasadena. Mr. Blankenhorn, of Pasadena, has his photo-engraving business in the same building; and Wood & Church have their Los Angeles branch real estate office there also. Mr. H. C. OBleness, the assistant foreman, or "make-up," as printers say, who has the responsible task of arranging the type-pages ready for press, is the same man who set the type of the first paper ever published in Pasadena — 7"//^ C/iro«/c/(?— started and edited by Ben E. Ward in 1S83, and printed at the Los Angeles Times office. Mr. O'Bleness also formerly knew Dr. Reid in Des Moines, Iowa— as did also Mr. Al. Binkard, the master pressman in charge of the press-work on this Pasadena History. And young Walter Clapp, son of I. B. Clapp, is in charge of the stock room of this great printing house. Yet when Dr. Reid first planned to go there to get his work done he was not aware of any of these coincidences, except that Mr. Lang was a member of the printing company."
INDEX.
Abbreviations for Botany localities (footnote) . 6og
Abila, Dona Encarnacion 63, 97
Aborigines, Pre-Pasadenian 17
Academy of Sciences 211
Academy, The Pasadena 190
Accident, Railroad, fatal 150
Adventist Church, 7th day 493
Advent Church, ist day 494
African M. E. Church 482
Aftermath of "first things" 659
Alharabra and Pasadena Railway 439
Allendale Tract 344
Alpine Division, Mt. Lowe R. R 453
Alpine Falls 3S5
Altadena, origin of the name 342
Altadena Railroad 432
Altitudes 284, 363, 400, 453
Altruria Association 516
Amphibian Insect 603
Ancient Animals 585
Ancient Townsite on Reservoir Hill 529
Animals herewith Prehistoric Man 533, 542-3
Annals of the Schools 168
Antelope 584
Anti-saloon Agreement 243
A. O. U. W 508
A. P. A 505
Applied Christianity 494
A rchceology Collection 213
Architecture, Pasadenian 226
Army Flag made from Children's Clothes 88
Arnold, Hon. Delos, Collection 212
Arroyo Fire, A notable 153
Arroyo Seco Canyon 387
Artesian Well Borings 568
Astronomical Banquet 325
Athletic Club 526
Authorities on Plants of California 606
Authors, Pasadenian 223
B
Bacon Spring, The 352
Bacteria 608
Badger 580
Baker's Bear 146
Baker's Spring 350
Banbury, Col.'s Deer 148
Bandini, Dona Refugio's Flag 88
Bandini Family, 91 ; Bandini Avenue 353
Baud of Hope.,". 508
Banks 296
Baptist Churches 485, 486
Barley Flats 404
Bassaris, Ring-tailed 578
Battle of Cahuenga 3^3
Battle of Chino 82
Battle of Dominguez 85
Battle of Los Angeles S3
Battles in Los Angeles County, Schedule of.... 104
Battle of San Gabriel Ford 91
Battle of San Pasqual 87
Battle of "The Mesa," or Laguna Ranch 94
Bats 578
Bear Canyon 672
Bears 584, 671-2
Benefits paid by I. O. O. F., table 510
Bennett, Henrj- G 117
Berrj', D M 117
Bicycle Club 527
Bicycle Episode, Poetry, Etc 7 and 8
Birds, native, 587 ; Bird list 595
Black Jack Peak 370
Board of Trade 305, 308, 309
Boom, The Story of. 301, 307, 314
Boulder Clay 558, 570
Breaking Ground for Great Incline 409
Bridges at Devil's Gate 665
PAGE
Brick making 460
Brigden, A., killed by winery explosion 159
Brown's Canyon, 387 ; Trail 373, 671
Brown. Owen's, funeral, 322 ; grave : 373
Brown's Peak 369-70, 373, 671
Builder's Exchange 515
Building and Loan Associations 300
Bulletin, The Daily and Weekly 220
Business College, Williams's 200
Butcher Bird 594
Buzzard Cliff. 374
c
Califoruia Entomology [book] 604
Cannery burned 152
Cannon, The Historic Old 84, 1023^, 335
Cahuenga, Capitulation of 99
Carlton Hotel 471
Carlton Hotel Liquor Case 264
Carr, Mrs. Jeanne C, old Mission mill stone
for doorstep 52
Carson's Trail 406
Carpenter's Union 513
Cart-ride to mountain top 402
Case of AsthjTia, locates Pasadena 123
Castle Canyon 383
Catholic Church 492
Cemetery Association 465
Centennial Inauguration Day 326
Centipede- 601
Change of Climate 562
Chapman's Glen 385
Chapman, Pirate Prisoner in Millard Canyon. 45
Chapman, night fight with Indians 4S
Chapman, Mill at San Gabriel 51
Chapman, Ship built at San Gabriel 52, 54, 56
Chapparal Cock 591
Charily Organization Society 519
Chautauqua Circles 517, 518
Children's homes 521, 522
Children, three burned to death 155
Chiquito Canyon 384
Chinamen mobbed 153
Chosen Friends, Order of. 511
Christian Alliance 501
Christian Church 487
Christian Endeavor Union 500
Churches, four blown down 165
Citrus Fair, The first 112, 318
Citrus Fair, The second 319
City Expense Account 288 to 290
City Officers in Successive years 285
City Officers repel false reports 266
City Property and Values 288
City Railway Co. [Painter Line] 436
City of South Pasadena 650
Civet Cats 57**
Clapp, I. B 119
Classical Schools 200
Coal Mine, Beaudry's 78, 550
CoUaraer, Miss, School 670
College, The Sierra Madre 188
Colony Farms as first chosen 108
Colony Work, how commenced 124
Colored People's Baptist Church 486
Colorado Street R. -n. Line 435
Columbia Hill 39°
Columbus Day 331
Committee disbands 252, 274
Commodore Peak, The 371
Company B, N. G. C 525
Condensed Vegetables Factory 456
Condor Shot [footnote] 129
Concert Extraordinary [jocose] 143
Conchology Collection 212
Conger, Dr. O. H 119
Congregational Church, 1st 488
Coon 579
12/
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
PAGE
Co-operative Kitchen [jocose] 141
Conger, Rev. Dr.'s, anti-wine protest 328
Corona Lodge, F. and A. M 506
Corporations, complete list of. 311
Cottonwood Canyon 388
Cottonwood Canyon Water Co 425
Coyote 582.583
Crematory 466, 673
Cricket. Spanish IJerusalem] 603
Critic, The [Newspaper] 220
Croft, Thos. P., Colony Negotiations 79
Crown Chapter R A M 505
Crown Vista, The [Newspaper] 221
D
Daily Evening News 222
Daily Pasadena Standard 219
Daily Star 217
Daily Union 216
Daily Union and John Gorthy 263
Day, Arthur H 140, 151
Dcadman's Canyon 3S6
Dei isions against Saloons 2si
Deer 583
Degree of Honor, A. O U. W 508
Democratic Meeting 2.^9, 231
Democratic Postmasters' Troubles 236 to 238
Detectives Assaulted .' 267
Devil's Gate 388
Devil's Slide 366
Dog Poetry 140
Dreadful night in Eaton Canyon 151
Dr. Reid's Geological Chart 541
Drunken mob 274
Dry Canyon 379
Dummy R. R. Project 430
E
Eagle Rock 389
Eagles 590
Early Mountain R. R. projects 442
Eaton Canyon, Eaton Fall.s 378
Eaton, Judge's biography [footnote] .. 128
Eaton, Judge's narrative 120
Eaton, Judge on our water basins 561
Echo Mountain, 369 ; Canyon 382
Echo Mountain House 474
Echo Mountain Postoffice 446
Editorial Associaton Day 322
Elections, [see Votes] 22710232
Election Table. City, 1S90 273
Electric Generators, Mt, I,owe 452
Electric Light and Power Co 463
Electric Light and Gas Co 462
El Molino Ranch 345
Elms's Canyon 383
Emendations 669
Encampment, I O. O. F 511
Enforcement Committee, The 257, 670
Enforcement Committee Chairman slandered 262
Enforcement Committee disbands 274
Enforcement Fund Notes, signers 258
Episcopal Church 486
Ethical Culture Society 516
Eulalia Perez, first owner Ro. San Pasqual 21
Exchange Block 472
F
Fair Oaks 120, 346, 355
Fair Oaks Avenue straightened 356
Father Throop Day 193
Favors Acknowledged 9
Fern Canyon 388
Fertilizer Works 462
Fire Department 290
First City Election 282
First City Council Meeting 282, 284
First Citrus Fair 112
First Civil Officers at Pasadena 278
First-class Hotel Clause 248, 2^5
First Electric Car 439
First National Bank 296
First Newspaper, ''The Reservoir" 137
PAGE
First Reunion Colony Picnic in
First Saloon Case 152
First Street R. R. in Pasadena 434
First Things |an aftermath of] 659
First White Race Boys Born Here 65
First White Man on Pasadena Soil 57
First Women on San Gabriel Peak [footnote].. 372
Floral Emblem of Pasadena 16
Flora of Pasadena and Vicinity 605 to 646
Flora of Pasadena, Index to 647 to 650
Flutterwheel Springs 351
Flycatchers [birds] .•. 593
Foresters of America 513
Fortnightly Club 519, 674
Fossil Fish Ledge 551
Fox 582
Frauds in High License Petition 262
Fraternal Aid As.sociation 512
Fraternal Mystic Circle 512
Free Delivery [mail] 238
Free Methodist Church 482
Freewill Ch Idren's Home 522
Fremont's Headquarters 101, 102;^
Fremont's Neeotiations 98
Fremont's Redout 102, 102 J^
Fremont's Trail [?] 68, 406
Frienis Church 483
Friends, Society of. 4X4
Frogs 600
Fruit Crystallizing Works 455
Fruit Diieries 455
Fruit Growers' Association 457
Fun in the Colony 137
Funeral of Owen Brown ,. 322
Furious Cow 155
G
G. A. R., John F. Godfrey Post 502
Garfias Adobe Mansion 66
Garfias Family, The 63, 67
Garfias, Mrs., Visit to Pasadena 97
Garfias Ownership, The 63
Garfias Spring 350
Gas and Electric Light Co 462
Geological Chart 541
Geological Section [from borings] 552, 571
Geology 539
Geology Collection 212
Gen. Sherman's Visit 315
German M. E. Church 481
German Lutheran Church 494
Giddings, E. W 128
Giddings' Peak, 372; trail 386, 404
Gold Discovery in 1842 52
Gold Vein and Mines 457
Gopher 576
Gopher Snake .■ 600
Gospel Union, Pacific 501
Glacial Enainelings 555
Glacial Drift, Glacial Meadows 559
Glacial Period, How Long Ago 534
Glacial Terrace 5"4
Glacial Terrace Canyons 374
Glacial Till 557
Glaciers in Pasadeualand ..: 553
Glacier Marks at Devil's Gate 534
Grace Hill 390
Graham, D. M 130
Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon Falls 385
Grand Opera House 463
Grasshopper Talk 144, 603
Great Incline Cable R. R 446
Green, Hotel 473
Grinnell, Jos. Account of Native Birds 587
Grinnell, J. List of Native Birds 595
Grizzly Bear shot 129
Grogan Tract 342
H
Hahamovic, Chief of Pasadeualand 19 to 21
Harrison, President. Wine Episode 329 ■
Harvard Telescope Point 367 |
Hawks 590 I
Hawk Moths 603]
INDEX.
13
PAGE
Helen Hunt Jackson's Work 30
Heniiiger's Flat 365
Hermi.age Water C o 424
Highland Railroad 437
High School Graduates 183
High School, the Wilson 176, 181
Historic Days 314
History of the History 3 to 15
Hodge's Peak, Hodge's Trail 374
Holder, Professor, List of Native Animals 5ti5
Holiness Church 48S
Holland's Blinds Factory 459
Hollingsworth Store, The 115
Hollingsworth Syndicate, The 113
Hospital 466
Hotel Green 473
How These Mountains Were Made 544
Humane Society 522
Hummingbird's 592
Hurlbut's Artesian Well 570
Hydrology 560
I
Indiana Colony, The 106
Incorporation of Pasadena 278, 281
Incorporating the Mountains 306
Indemnity Pledge Notes, Signers 252
Index of Plants in Pasadenaland 647
Indian Association, Woman's 497
Indian Chief baptized as "Pascual" 60
Indian Graves, Why None Found 31
Indians After Mission Rule Abolished 27
Indian Horse Eaters Kill Two Men 29
Indian Native Food 22
Indian Native Government 20 to 22
Indian Native Medical Practice 21, 22, 26
Indian Native Religion 23
Indian Native Villages, Locations, IJtc 19, 20
Indian Relic;, H. N. Rust's 131
Indian Relics on Giddings Farm 28
Indian Sweat House at Sheep Corral Springs. 26
Indian Trades at San Gabriel Mission 26, 35
Insects 601
lowans in Pasadena 319, 666
Irish Colony and British Protectorate 99
Iron Ore, Bog Iron, Etc 551
Ivy Springs 351
J.
Jack Rabbit 575
Jason Brown Kissed Her 372
Jerusalem Cricket 603
Johnston, Gen. Albert Sidney 75
Jumbo Knob 374
Juvenile Templars 508
K
Kangaroo Rat 575
Kinds of Rocks 543
Kingbirds 594
King's Daughter Circles 520
Knifeblade Ridge ' 368, 407
Kuights of the Maccabees 512
Knights of Labor 514
Knights of Pythias 509
Knights Templar, Masonic 506
Iv
La Canyada Rancho 347
Ladies Aid Society to Sons of Veterans 504
Ladies of the Maccabees 512
Ladies Union Prayer Meeting 496
Ladies Visit the Saloonkeeper 215
Lake Vineyard Ranch 345
Lake Vineyard Colony Tract 112
Lake Vineyard House 466
Land Grants, Old Spanish, Confirmed 349
Land Tracts by Name 342
Las Casitas Tract 348
Las Flores Canyon 383, 549
I^as Flores Ranch 344
Las Flores Water Co 424
PAGE
Leighton's Canyon 384
Leontine Falls. How Named 382
Letter from London A. D. 2000 137
Library Art Loan Exhibition 207
Librarj' Building, 1.S.S3 204
Library Building Sites Offered, 1886 205
Library Citrus Fair 204
Library Expenses in 1893 211
Library Syndicate, |6,ooo Note 207
Library, The Public 202
Lightning Strikes a Barn 166
Linda Vista Gold Mines 550
Linda Vista Peak and Trail 374
Linda Vista Tract 348, 438
Lindsay Mill, The 459
Liquor Attorneys Fight Shy 251
Liquor Cases, First Trials 254
Liquor Scheme for City Election, 1890 268
Liquor Sellers Fined 276, 277, 670
Literary People of Pa.'adena 223
Literary Societies 517
Local Poetry 667
Los Angeles Captured in 1S46 81
Los Robles Canyon 375
LosRobles Ranch, Gov. Stoneman's 344
Lopez Claudio. Major Domo at San Gabriel. 21, 40
Lopez, Claudio's, Descendants 43
Lost in the Mountains 156
Lowe, Mrs., Collection 213
Lowe, Prof, His Inventions 450
Lowe, Prof., Ovation to 331, 448
Loyal Temperance Legion 496
Lugo, Don Antonio, and Joe Chapman 44
Lutheran Church, German 494
Lynx 581
MC
McCIatchie, Prof A. J., Botany.. 605
McQuilling, A. K 130
McQuilling's Collection 535
M
Maccabees, Knightsand Ladies of 512
Macpherson Mountain R. R Survey 442
Macpherson Trestle, The 4,si
Marengo Tract 343
Markham for Congressman 228
Markham, Gov.'s, bear story 451
Martin's Camp . 402
Mammals. List of Native 585
Masonic Bodies 505
Masonic Temple 507
Mass Meeting against Saloons 242, 246, 255
Mass Meeting resolutions, Aug. 6, 1888 256
Mechanics Mill 459
M. E. Church South 488
Medical Association 519
Men chosen to high office 232
Meihodist Churches 478
Millard Canyon and Falls 384
Millard Canyon Water Co 425
Mill Canvon 375
Mill No. 2, or "Chapman's mill" 43
Mill, The Old Stone, or "El Molino" 42, 39i
Mineralogy Collection 212
Miner's inch, 414 ; footnote 421
Mines and Mining 547 to 550
Miscellaneous 664
Missionary Union, Woman's 497
Mission Canyon 377
Mocking Bird 594
Moles 577
Monks Hill Tract S43
Montclair Children's Home 521
Monuments to the founders of the colony 138
Moraines, Terminal and Lateral 558
Mountain Deer 583
Mountain Lion 580
Mountain Peaks by name 36^
Mountain R. R. celebration 447
Mountain View Cemetery 465
Mount Disappointment 37°
Mount Harvard 3^4
H
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
PAGE
Mount Lowe 369, 445
Mount Lowe Echo, The 222, 446
Mount Lowe Electric Railway 440
Mount Markham 372
Mount Vesuvius 369
Mount Wilson 366
Mount Wilson Toll Road 397
Muir's Peak, 369 ; Muir's climb 406
Mule Deer 583
Mutual Protection Association 243
Mystic Circle, Order of. 512
N
Name of Mountain Railroad 447
Naming of Mount Lowe. 445
National G. A. R. Day 320
Nationalist Club 515
Nativity of School Pupils i8i
Negro Canyon 386
New Charter ? — "No " 289
New Education, The 223
Newspapers 214
Newspaper Suspensions. 274
Night Birds 592
" Nine Nobby Niggers " 147
North Congregational Church 491
North Pasadena M E. Church 481
North Pasadena Water Co 422
" No Saloon in the Valley " 218
o
Oak Knoll Canyon 375
Oak Knoil Tract 344
Oak Knoll Water Co 424
Observatory Casino 367
Observatory Peak [?| [San Gabriel Peak] 371
Observatory, The Mount Lowe 454
Odd FellovJs, Orders 509
Ode to "Father Throop" ig6
Ofifice, men chosen to high 232
Old Settlers' Association 116
Old Settler Experiences 116
Old Settlers, where from 133, 136
Oil Company, Southern 464, 552
Olive Industry 456
Olivewood Tract 347
Orange Boom 664
Orange Grove Association organized 107
Orange Grove Colony Day 314
Orange Packing, Shipping, Etc 457, 664
Ordinance No. i 2S3
Origin ol this History 3
Orioles 594
Ostrich Farm 465
Ovation to Capt. Cross 327
Owls 590
P
Pacific Gospel Union 501
Painter & Ball Tract 342
Painter Hotel 472
Painters and Decorator's Union 514
Partridges 587
Pasadena Capitalists 301
Pasadena Chapter, O E. S 506
Pasadena Chronicle, The 214
Pasadena City School District 180
Pasadena City Incorporated 278, 28t
Pasadena and Valley Union 2i,s
Pasadena's Floral Emblem 16
Pasadena Fruit Growers' Association 457
Pasadena Highlands Water Co 425
Pasadena and Los Angeles Electric R. R 439
Pasadena Commandery Knights Templar 500
Pasadena in Politics 227
Pasadena Lake Vineyard L. & W.Co 416
Pasadena Land and Water Co 411
Pasadenalaud first called San Pascual 59
Pasadenaland, why this term is used 341
Pasadena Lodge, F. and A. M 505
Pasadena Lodgel. O. G. T 507
Pasadena Lodge, I. O. O. F ,Sog
Pasadena's Literary People 223
PAGE
Pasadena, Maj. Bonebrake's fun talk 341
Pasadena Manufacturing Co 458
Pasadena National Bank 298
Pasadena, Origin of the name 338, 340
Pasadena's part iu Mexican war 80
Pasadena People of Mexican war connection.. 103
Pasadena Standard 118
Pasadena Star 216
Pasadena Street Railwaj'Co 433
Pasadena Students in Pomona College 202
Pasadena Students in Stanford University 201
Pasadena Students in State University 201
Pasadena Students in State Normal School 200
Pasadena's very first name 20
Pasadena Weekly Journal 221
Patents to Pasadena Geniuses [fun] 139
Petitioners against saloon 247
Petition for "high license' 261
Picnic, first colony reunion in
Pickwick Club 526
Pigeon 589
Pine Canyon 379
Pine Flats 404
Pipeclay 559
Pirate Prisoner in Pasadena Mountains 43
Poem by Chas. A. Gardner 667
Peoples convention and city noininations, 1890 271
Poetry, first ever written in Pasadena 140
Poetry 8, 140, 196, 382, 428, 667
Politics, Pasadena in 227
Pomological Society 517
Poorwills [night bird] 592
Portola, Gov., in Pasadenaland in 1770 57
PostofSce, Story of the 234
Poultry Farm, The 464
Powder made at San Gabriel, 1846 57
Power Generators for Mount Lowe 452
Precipice Canyon Water Co 424
Precipicio Peak 36S
Prehistoric Man in Pasadena 528
Presbyterian Churches •.•475> 478
President Harrison Day 328
President Hayes Day 314
Prize Baby. 667
Prof. Holder's finds 538
Prof Holder's list of native mammals 585
Prof. Lowe Day 448
Prof. Lowe's Inventions 450
Prof Lowe takes hold 444
Progressive League 265
Prohibition Enacted 249
Prohibitory Ordinance changed 276
Prohibitory Ordinance null, till re-enacted 260
Punchbowl Canyon and Falls 384
Puzzles on Calvin P'letcher 126
Pj'ramid Peak 365
Q
Quails 587
Quaker Churches J83, 484
R
Rabbit Hunts : 149
Rabbits 575
Raccoon 579
Ramabai Circle 500
Ramona and Pasadena K. R 440
RanchoSan Pasqual lionded for oil 76
Ro. San Pasqual, complete chain of title 69
Ro. San Pasqual's first house 71
Ro. San Pasqual's first owner 60, 6l
Rathbone Sisters, Order of 509
Rattlesnakes 600, 674
Rattlesnake Spring 371
Kais 575, J76
Kavmond Canyon, Raymond Creek 374
Raymond Chit-Chat 222
Raymond Hill tgo
Raymond Hotel Day 322
Raymond Hotel, 467 ; Burned down 471
Real Estate Exchange 304
Rebekah Lodge, I. O. O. F 511
Red Racer (snake] 600
Reid, Hugo, and Indian wife 17
INDEX.
15
Reid, Hugo, writings 19
Removal of San Gabriel Mission 34
Republican Club 228, 231
Republican anti-saloon convention, 1890 269
Republican Party's anti-saloon plank, 1894 277
Reptiles 599
Resolutions, The [anti-saloon] 256
Revenue Law Violators 259
Richardson Spring, The 351
Rifle Team, The Pasadena 146, 148, 451-2, 523
Roadrunner [bird] 591
Rock Lizards 599
Roller Skating Rink 319, 665
Royal Arcanum, Order of. 513
Rubio Canyon L. & W. Co 425
Rubio Canyon, with nine waterfalls 379, 381
Rubio Farm 451
Rubio Water Trail 406
Ruse de guerre at San Pedro 86
Rust, Maj. H. N 130
Saloon started 241
Salvation Army 498
San Gabriel Mission, When Founded 33
San Gabriel Mission, Successive Padres 33 to 40
San Gabriel Mission, secular Officers 40 to ,S5
San Gabriel Peak 370
San Gabriel Valley Bank 297
San Gabriel Valley Railroad 426
San Gabriel Valley Railroad Day [opening] 320, 428
San Pasqual, How First Named'so 25
San Rafael Canyon, [Johnson's Creek) 388
San Rafael Ranch, 346; Springs 350
San Marino Ranch, 346; Canyon 377
Santa Anita Ranch 17, 18
Santa Anita Avenue 361
Saucer Falls 3S5
Savings Banks 299
School District below California Street, 1877... 171
School House Subscription List, 1S78 170
School Lots, Auction Sale of. 174
School Statistics 178, 184
School Teachers, 1S74 to 1S95 1S5
School Trustees from 1874101895 187
Scorpions 601
Secularization ofthe Mission 54
Sexton, Dan's, Old Adobe Mill 53
Sierra Madre College 188
Signal Peak 368
Simons, Joe's Historic Cart Ride 402
Shakspeare Club 518
Shale Beds 550
Sheep Corral Springs 350
Shorb's Artesian Well ; 571
Shorb Water Scare, The 668
Shrike [Butcher Bird] 594
Skunk 579
Slickensides 555
Sociological Society 516
Soldier Guards at Mission do badly 24
Soledad Trail, The 405
Sons of St. George, Order of. 113
Sons of Temperance 508
Sons of Veterans 504
Southern Oil Co 464, 552
Southern Pacific Railroad 440
South Pasadena Beer Garden 658
South Pasadena Churches 656
South Pasadena City 650
South Pasadena Industries 657
South Pasadena Library and Reading Room.. 654
South Pasadena Literary Societies 655
South Pasadena Newspapers 654
South Pasadena Post-office 655
South Pasadena Schools 653
Spanish Land Grants Confirmed 349
Specialists on Pasadena Native Plants 607
Spinning Wheels [poetry] 8
Squaretop Mountain 372
Squirrels 577
Stage Talent in the Colony 145
State Division Convention, 1849 335
Steil, Peter's Candidacy 277
PAGB
Stockton, Commodore's Headquarters 97, too
Stoneman, Gen. [footnote] 75
Stone Implements found at Reservoir Hill 535
Storms, Floods, Etc. i86i to 1895 160 to 167
Strain's Camp 401
Strawberry Peak [?] 370
Street Altitudes 363
Street Car Smash-up 156
Streets, When. Why, by Whom Named 352 to 363
Summary of Plants Listed 645
Swedenborgian Preaching 494
Switzer's Trail 403
T
Tabernacle, The 480, 481
Table of City Property and Expenses 288
Table of Successive City Officers 285
Tarantulas 602
Tarantula Hawk 602
Technical Catch in Liquor Sale Trial 2f8
Telescope Episode 396
Temperance Orders 507
Temperance Question, The 240
Terminal Railroad Day 327
Terminal Railroad, The Los Angeles 432
Thibbets Springs, The 351
Throop, Hon. A. G., Biography 198
Throop, Hon. A. G., Death and Funeral 198
Throop Institute Scholarships 195
Throop Museum Collection 536
Throop Polytechnic Institute 190, 193, 197
Throop University 191
Tituss Artesian Well 569
Toll Road, The Mt. Wilson 397
Tree Rat 576
Triplets born 666
Tunnel, The Beaudry 389
Twins, Col. Banbury's— [girls] ; 168
Twins, Mayor Cox's — [boys] 232
U
Uncle Bob's Trail 405
Union Prayer Meeting 496
Union Savings Bank 299
Uniform rank K of P 509
United Samaritans 520
Universalist Church 492
V
Vaccination of School Children 180
Valley Hunt Club 524
Vasqiiez, The Robber 150
Vegetables, Condensed, factory 456
Verdugo Ranch 346
Vote, City, 18S8 229
Vote, City, 1892 230
Vote, City, 1S94 232
Vote, Colony, Presidential, 1876 227
Vote, Presidential, 1880, not found 22S
Vote, Presidential, 1884 229
Vote, Presidential, 1888 230
Vote, Presidential, 1892 231
Vulture 589
w
Wages, mechanics 306
Wakeley's Bird Specimens 598
Wakeley's Novelty Works 460
Walking Leaf Insect 603
Wallace, Joseph 131
Wallace's Cannery 152, 454
Washington School 173
Water Beetle 603
Water Carvings 556
Water Measure [state engineer] 414
Water Meter Trial 423
Water Question Settled 420
Water Rates 416
Water Supply, The first 410
Water Supply, Total for Pasadena 573
Water Tunnels 572
Water Works, Expense, Etc 415, 416
i6
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
PAGE
Weasel 580
Wedding Musicians soused 162
Weekly Pasadenian 220
Wells, Artesian borings 568
Wells of Pasadena 564
West Pasadena Railway Co 438
What Geological Age...'. 540
What kinds of Rocks 543
Whisky War, The 255, 670
White Ribbon, The 221
Whitesiders, The 666
Whitelined Sphinx [moth] 603
Who killed Jesse Lee ? 147
Wildcat Canyon 388
Wildcat [lynx] 581
Wildgrape Canyon 377
Williams Business College 200
Williams Hall 669
Willowdale, Willowdale Creek 345, 375
Wilson against the Luges 74
Wilson, Ben's, Spring 351
Wilson, B. D. biographical sketch 332
Wilson Canyon 376
Wilson Ditch, The ..'.69, 114
Wilson High School 174, 176', 181
PAGE
Wilson Lake 394
Wilson's Peak 366
Wilson's report as U.S. Indian agent [footnote] 336
Wilson's Trail 395, 441
Wilson's wine and the preacher 145
Wineglass, The inverted 329
Winery Tank Explo.'^ion, fatal 159
Winston Heights 346
Winston, L. C., lost in mountain snow storm.. 156
Woman's Christian Temperance Union 495
Woman's Relief Corps 503
Wood^^ury Tract 347
Woodpeckers 592
Woollv Spider 604
Wooster, P. G 131, 228
Works consulted in preparing this History... 5, 6, 7 Worms, Visitation of 164
Y
Young Men's Christian Association 499
z
Zalvidea, Padre, 26 years at San Gabriel Mis- sion 34. 61
Zoology 575 to 604
From " Land of Sunshine.' CITY LIBRARY— SOUTH-BY-WEST VIEW. [See page 206.]
Pa.sadena's Floral Kmblfm. — On pages 57 and 59 I have explained how the notably conspicuous profusion of wild poppies on our highland slopes first suggested the idea of " San Pascual '' as a descrip- tive term for the Pasadena region, in April, 1770 — over 125 j'ears ago. This poppy is therefore historically and distinctively the floral emhlem of Pasadena, and is so represented by Mr. Lang in the artistic em- bossing stamp which he made for the covers of this History volume.
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
PAGE
Weasel 5S0
Wedding Musicians soused 162
Weeklj' Pasadenian 220
Wells, Artesian borings , 56S
Wells of Pasadena 564
West Pasadena Railway Co 438
What Geological Age 540
What kinds of Rocks =543
Whisky War, The 255, 670
White Ribbon, The 221
Whitesiders. The 666
Whitelined Sphinx [moth] 603
Who killed Jesse I.ee ? 147
Wildcat Canyon 388
Wildcat [lynx] 581
Wildgrape Canjon 377
Williams Business College 200
Williams Hall 669
Willowdale, Willowdale Creek 345, 375
Wilson against the Lugos 74
Wilson, Ben's, Spring 351
Wilson, B. D. biographical sketch 332
Wilson Canyon 376
Wilson Ditch, The 69, 114
Wilson High School 174, 176, 181
PAGE
Wilson Lake 394
Wilson's Peak 366
Wilson's report as U.S. Indian agent [footnote] 336
Wilson's Trail 395, 441
Wilson's wine and the preacher 145
Wineglass, The inverted 329
Winery Tank Explosion, fatal 159
Winston Heights 346
Winston, L. C., lost in mountain snow storm.. 156
Woman's Christian Temperance Union 495
Woman's Relief Corps 503
Wood^^ury Tract 347
Woodpeckers 592
Woolly Spider 604
Wooster, P. G 131, 228
Works consulted in preparing this History... 5, 6, 7 Worms, Visitation of 164
Y
Young Men's Christian Association 499
z
Zalvidea, Padre, 26 years at San Gabriel Mis- sion 34. 61
Zoology 575 to 604
From '' Land of Sunshine.' CITY LIBRARY— SOUTH-BY-WEST VIEW. [See page '206.]
Pasadena's Floral Emblfm. —On pages 57 and 59 I have explained how the notably conspicuous profusion of wild poppies on our highland slopes first suggested the idea of " San Pascual' as a descrip- tive term for the Pasadena region, in April, 1770— over 125 years ago. This poppy is therefore historically and distinctively the floral emblem of Pasadena, and is so represented by Mr. Lang in the artistic em- bossing stamp which he made for the covers of this History volume.
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SE23EESCZ:
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. I7
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN.
CHAPTER I.
The Pre-Pasadenian Aborigines. Early writers. — Hugo Reid, the Scotchman, and his Indian wife. — Sixteen Indian villages by name and location. — Pasadena's very first name and people — their government, medicine, food, etc. — The Indian re- ligion.— Mission incidents. — Pascual el Capitan and the Pascual Indians. — Indian Sweat House at Sheep Corral Springs. — Indians after the Mission daj^s. — Indian horse-eaters kill two white men in the Arroyo. — Helen Hunt Jackson's work. — Why no Indian graves found.
INDIAN EVENTS IN PASADENALAND.
When the Spaniards first took possession of this region of country, which was in 1769-70, they found it occupied by native Indians who then had twenty-seven or more village settlements within what is now Los Angeles county, and the Spaniards called them rancherias.* Each village had its local chief ; and some clans had a group of villages with one hereditary or patriarchal chief over all, he bearing the clan name with the suffix " ic " to indicate his office. The writings of padres Crespi, Junipero Serra, Boscana, and others of the earliest missionaries here, besides records left by Governor Fages and many officers and soldiers of the first occupancy, give us in- formation of the Indians of South California in general ; but the one writer who devoted himself to local details concerning the Indians of Los Angeles county was Hugo Reid. He wrote from his own studies and investigations, made over sixty years after the Spaniards commenced their rule here, and of course did not get everything — yet he is the chief authority, and most often quoted by later writers in this particular field. Hence I give here a con- densed sketch of his life, as a part of the local history of Pasadenaland.
HUGO REID AND HIS INDIAN WIFE.
Hugo Reid was born in Scotland in 181 1 ; came to New Mexico in 1828 and resided there six years. Came to California in 1834 and engaged in mercantile business at Los Angeles. In 1839 he became naturalized as a Mexican citizen, having married a native Indian woman at San Gabriel and settled on the rancho Santa Anita comprising three leagues of land, which was finally granted to him by Mexican authority in 1841 and 1 845.1 '^^' burcio Lopez (a son of the historic Claudio Lopez of San Gabriel) had lived upon it and claimed it before, but somehow Reid got it; and in 1847 he sold it to Henry Dalton for $2,000. [The same land was sold in 1874
*In July, 1769, Father Junipero Serra wrote : " We found vines of a large size [wUd] and in some cases quite loaded with grapes. * * We have seen Indians in immense numbers they con- trive to make a good subsistence on various seeds, and by fishing. The latter they carry on by means
of rafts orcanoes made of tule (bulrush) All the males go naked ; but the women and temale
children are decently covered from their breasts downward."
t" Hartnell aided him |Reid] in getting the land, against the efforts of J. A. Carrillo in behalf of the Lopez {a.mi\y."—Bis/. Cal. Vol. 5. p. 6gi. This Hartnell was visitador general of Missions, under Governor Alvarado.
1 8 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
for $200,000.] Its original west line ran from the mouth of Eaton canyon southwesterly to the corner of Wilson avenue and San Pasqual street, thence back east along that street to Santa Anita avenue, thence south on that avenue nearly to the Mission. In California he was always known as Hugo Reid. Just when he was married I did not learn, but it appears that in 1839, when he took the oath of Mexican citizenship, he already had his In- dian wife, Victoria, and two children. His wife was an excellent woman, much respected at San Gabriel,* and a cottage which she built and lived in is still pointed out as one of the historic buildings there, since her case was dimly woven into the famous story of " Ramona ". In 1838 a piece of land 128^4^ acres called Huerta [garden] de Cuati was granted to her by Mexican authority, and confirmed by U. S. patent of June 30, 1858 ; but as early as 1852 she had sold it to B. D. Wilson, and it became his I^ake Vineyard home place, so intimately associated with Pasadena's early history. In 1843 Hugo Reid was justice of the peace at San Gabriel; in 1846 he was auxiliary administrator in closing up the business of secularizing the Mis- sion property ; the Mission was heavily in debt, and in June of that 5^ear Governor Pico sold out the whole business — buildings, lands, water rights, and all, to Hugo Reid and Wm. Workman — Reid being then in possession. But in August of same year the country was captured by Stockton and Fre- mont, and they annulled this sale as not valid under Mexican law. In 1849 Reid was elected to and served as a member of the convention which gave California her first constitution, under which she entered the Union as a sovereign state. He died in I^os Angeles December 12, 1852.
A pioneer merchant and coast trader of San Francisco named Wm. Heath Davis published in 1889 a book entitled "Sixty Years in California "; and on pages 196-7 I find this narrative :
"In November, 1844, James McKinlay and myself left San Diego and went overland to Santa Anita. Hugo Reid, a Scotchman, lived at Santa Anita. He was a skillful accountant, and we brought along with us, on a pack animal, a large pile of account books belonging to the business of Paty, McKinlay and Fitch, who were about dissolving their partnership. We remained at Reid's house most of the months of November and Decem- ber, adjusting and settling the books, with his aid. Reid had been dis- appointed in love in his own country, his intended bride having ' thrown him over ', so to speak ; and he left the country in disgust, vowing he would marry some one of the same name as she who had slighted him, even though an Indian woman. He came to California and fell in with a woman of pure Indian blood, named Victoria, the name of his former love, and married her. Upon our visit at Reid's house we found that they were living very happily together. We were surprised and delighted with the excellence and neatness of the housekeeping of the Indian wife, which could not have been excelled. The beds which were furnished us to sleep in were exquis-
*" There are strikinar examples of Indian women married to foreigners and native Californians, exemplary wives and mothers." Hon. B. D. JViUon's report as U.S. Indian Agent iSs2.
" The Indian women of California were far better stock than those of Mexico." — Davis' "Sixty Years in Cat.," p. i<)6.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 1 9
quisitely neat, with cov^erlids of satin, the sheets and pillow cases trimmed with lace and highly ornamented."*
THE INDIAN VILLAGES.
Among Hugo Reid's writings is a list more or less complete of the or- iginal native Indian names of their villages or clan settlements in Los An- geles county. Usually a clan had only one village, a central settlement ; but sometimes the same clan had several villages, with an hereditary clan- chief over all, and an elected sub-chief in each village, thus forming a sort of patriarchal confederacy in government ; and this seems to have been the case with our Arroyo Seco Indians when Governor Portola, the first white man here, was treated kindly by them and their head chief, Hahamovic, in January, 1770, at their village near the Garfias spring in South Pasadena. Reid's writings in regard to the Indians were first published in the Los An- geles Star in 1852, and republished in the California Farmer in January, 1 86 1. A copy of the MSS. was furnished by Judge Hayes, to H. H. Bancroft while preparing his volume on ' ' Native Races of the Pacific Coast", in 1881-82. Considerable portions of the matter were reprinted in Lewis's "History of Los Angeles Co." published in 1889. And from Reid's account of the Indian villages I select a few of the localities best known to Pasadena people, or with which they have some special interest, citing the Indian name, and its location as given by Reid, with my own notes of explanation as to present identity. The suffix "na" was equiva- lent to our word clan, but was also used in a sense the same as our suffixes " ville" or "burg".
Name of Indian I Location as given by I Present occupancy or village. I Hugo Reid. | identity of the site.
Acurag-na — La Presa. [A large tule bog or cienega on the L- J. Rose place, above the winery, where the padres built a stone dam in 1821 and conveyed the water in a ditch to their flouring mill No. 2, across the street in front of the church. The stone dam stands yet ; and the foundation walls, cement flumes, wheel pit, etc., of the mill are still visible as ruins.]
Ahiipquig-na — Santa Anita ranch, where Hugo Reid lived in 1844.
Awig-na — La Puente.
Azucsag-na — Azusa.
Cucomog-na — Cucamonga.
Hahamog-na — Verdugo ranch. [From other sources and circumstances I find that this clan occupied both sides of the Arroyo Seco from Garvanza ford northward ; and when Reid wrote his account the Arroyo hills were called promiscuously the "Verdugo hills", or "San Rafael" hills, all lumped off as pertaining to Don Jose Maria Verdugo' s ranch. These were the Indians who occupied Pasadena's location when white men first visited the country in 1769-70.]
*This Indian woman had been one of the " neophytes" under the training of old Eulalia Perez at the San Gabriel Mission. See Chap. 2 and 3.
20 HISTORY OF PASADENA. ;
I
Isanthcog-na — Mission Vieja. [The place called "Old Mission," at the ; San Gabriel river — the site where San Gabriel Mission was at first estab- lished (September 8, 1771), but afterwards moved to its present location. Some fragments of the adobe walls of the old first church, and other struc- tures, may be seen yet (1895), at " Old Mission."]
Pasinog-na — Chino ranch.
Pubug-na — Alamitos ranch. [The shores of Alamitos bay.]
Sibag-7ia — San Gabriel. [This was at a great alluvial marsh which formerly existed in the washway southwest of the present village, and furn- ished rich crops of vegetables and grain to the Mission while its buildings | were going up at the new location. But that body of rich marsh land has all been washed away, leaving only fields of sand and gravel.]
Sisit Canog-na — Pear Orchard. [The old Mission pear orchard, below the mouth of Wilson, Mission and San Marino canyons — now called the Cooper Place, where Isaac and Thomas Cooper live.]
Sonag-na — Mr. White's place. [Irving A. White of the Sierra Madre colony, near, or a part of the present village of Sierra Madre.]
Siiang-na — Wilmington. [This was the largest or most populous of the Indian villages in the county, on account of the abundance of food, and so easily obtained from the great estuary or bay there — fish and clams, and such roots, berries and native plant seeds as they used for food.] Tibahag-na — Cerritos ranch. [Site near Clearwater.] Toybipet-na — San Jose. [Spadra.] Yang-7ia — lyOS Angeles.
PASADENA'S VERY FIRST NAME AND PEOPLE.
The Hahamog-na clan occupied our Arroyo Seco region, and therefore "Hahamog-na " may be set down as the first name by which Pasadena ter- ritory was ever designated in human speech ; and Hahamovic* was the name or title of the old native chief who smoked the peace-pipe with Gover- nor Portola at South Pasadena, January 17, 1770. In regard to tribal head- ship among the Indians, Bancroft's "Native Races," p. 409, says :
"Each tribe acknowledged one head, whose province it was to settle disputes, levy war, make peace, appoint feasts, and give good advice. Be- yond this he had little power. He was assisted in his duties by a council of elders. The office of chief was hereditary, and in the absence of a male heir devolved upon the female nearest of kin. She could marry whom she pleased, but her husband obtained no authority through the alliance, all the | power remaining in his wife's hands until their eldest boy attained his ma- 1 jority, when the latter at once assumed command."
This old chief, Hahamovic [called by the Spaniards " Pascual el Capi- j tan"], was head chief, and his tribe or clan had several villages at points '
♦•'The chief of each lodge took its name, followed by zc, with sometimes the alteration of one or more final letters. For instance, the chief of Aziicsag-ua was called Azucsavic; that of Sibag-na, Sibapic; etc." — Hugo Reid's Records: Leller i.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 21
convenient to water — one near the Garfias spring which now suppHes lyincoln Park with water ; one on banks of the brook east of Raymond hill ; one on C. M. PhilHps's place, near the head springs of Los Robles brook and Oak Knoll brook ; one near the Ben Wilson and Richardson springs ; one on the Giddings place near the mouth of Millard canyon, far up whose mountain course the tribe obtained their finest and fattest acorns for food ; and per- haps others. Each village had its sub-chief, and these formed the " council of elders " referred to — a sort of cabinet or board of directors, with Hahamo- vic presiding. After the old chief was baptized and named Pascual, his tribe were called the " Pascual Indians;" but later all tribal distinctions were broken up by the Mission authorities and all were blended or mixed to- gether as "neophytes," or "Mission Indians" — and finally called Gabriel- enos, to distinguish this populace from those of other Missions — the term ' ' Mission Indians ' ' having come to be applied to any body of natives who had come under the rule of the padres. Our Pasadena chief, Hahamovic or Pascual, finally married a Spanish white woman named Angelina Sysa, re- sided at San Gabriel, and lived to be very old. Senora Maria Guillen de Lopez, aged 83, and still living at San Gabriel, knew him as a very old man when she was a little girl. Her mother was the famous Kulalia Perez de Guillen, first grantee of the Rancho San Pasqual ; and her husband was a son of the historic Claudio lyOpez who served as major domo (chief overseer) at San Gabriel before and through the masterful administrations of Father Zalvidea and Father Sanchez — or a total period of about thirty-six years, as I was informed by his grandsons Felipe and Theodore Lopez of San Gabriel. Their grandmother, Eulalia Perez de Guillen, was living at San Gabriel and attended as midwife upon the mother of Governor Pio Pico when he was born. May 5, 1801 ; and it was the family tradition that Claudio Lopez was already serving as major domo at that time. Hence he was overseer of Indian laborers for a longer period and in greater numbers probably than any other man in California, and was the first man who ever started any civilized industries on the land now occupied and known as Pasadena. He used it as a Mission stock range.
These primitive people do not appear to have had any sort of domestic animals — not even dogs or cats — nor any sort of agriculture ;* but sub- sisted wholly upon the natural products of the land, both vegetable and animal, including the eggs of quails and other birds in their season. Never- theless, in some respects they seem to have made real advances toward a semi-civilization, as in matters of civil polity, literature, treatment of diseases, etc. Their medical practice was combined with a good deal of superstitious mummery by the "doctor," such as noise of rattles, smoking [incense] to the Great Spirit, singing of songs or incantations, and other
*The native inhabitants found on some of the Santa Barbara islands did have a domesticated variety of coyote or wild dog; but the early Spanish writers do not mention any such creatures in the Pasadena region.
22 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
ceremonial antics ; yet withal they did have some practical and efficient knowledge of the use of sweating or steam baths, of numerous herb decoc- tions, of lobelia emetics, of counter-irritation by nettle blisters and by burn- ing or "moxa," and of blood-letting, etc. Among the herbs which they used medicinally were Nicotiana or wild tobacco, thornapple [jimson weed], marshmallow, tansy, mustard, southernwood ["old man," as it is sometimes called], wild sage, nettles, and some others. They also had knowledge and skill to prepare poisons for making their arrow points more deadly. In re- gard to civil regulations among them I quote this brief extract from Hugo Reid's work :
"The government of the people was in the hands of the chiefs, each captain commanding his own lodge. The command was hereditary in a family, descending from father to son, and from brother to brother. If the right line of descent ran out, they immediately elected one of the same kin nearest in blood. Laws in general were made as they were required, with the exception of some few standing ones. Robbery and thieving were un- known among them ; and murder, which was of rare occurence, was pun- ished by shooting the delinquent with arrows until dead. Incest was held in great abhorrence and punished with death ; even marriages between kins- folk were not allowed. The manner of death was by shooting with arrows. All prisoners of war were invariably put to death, after being tormented in a most cruel manner."
Those occupying the San Gabriel valley he designates by the general name " Gabrielenos, " and the mountain Indians he calls " Serranos." Of their native articles of food he says :
' ' The animal food used by the Gabrielenos consisted of deer meat, young coyotes, squirrels, badgers, rats, gophers, skunks, raccoons, rabbits, wild cats, small crow, blackbirds, hawks, and snakes, with the exception of the rattlesnake.* A few ate of the bear, but in general it was rejected, on superstitious grounds. A large locust or a grasshopper was a favorite morsel, roasted on a stick at the fire. Fish, quails, seals, sea-otter, and shell- fish formed the principal subsistance of the immediate coast range lodges and Islanders. Acorns, after being divested of the shell, were dried and pounded in stone mortars, put into filterers of willow twigs, worked into a conical form and raised on little sand mounds, which were lined inside with two inches of sand ; water added and mixed up, filled up again and again with more water, at first hot and then cold, until all the bitter principle was extracted ; the residue was then collected and washed free of any sand par- ticles it might contain ; on settling, the water was poured oflf ; on being boiled it became a sort of mush, and was eaten when cold.f The next
*Davis, "Sixty Years in Cal." p. 526, tells of a notable trip which he and others made in 1850-51, when Don Ramon Arguello (uncle to Arturo Bandiui, of Pasadena,) officiated as guide. Rattlesnakes were very abundant and Don Ramon was wonderlully expert in killing them ; and Davis says : " He would eat a portion of their bodies after it was broiled over a hot fire, and often remarked to me that it was more nutritious than the meat of a fat chicken.''
fFremont speaks of the Indians bringing him " bread made of acorns to trade," and adds that they " live principally on acorns and the roots of the tule, of which also their huts are made." — Memoirs, page ^60. The " tule " is Scirpus lactistris, variety occidenialis.
Another writer who has lived among these Indians, says : "Pine-nuts, acorns and roots are all pounded up together in a mortar. The flour is then made into a paste and thrown into a hole scooped out amongst the ashes of a hot fire," etc. * * * In case of birds, rabbits, fish, etc., " without remov- ing feathers, hair or scales, they are plastered over with mud, then buried in the fire. When the cook thinks the meat done it is raked out, the baked mud easily dropping off and taking the feathers or hair and skin with '\\.:'— Tourists' Guide to S. Cat., p. i<)2. By G. Wharton James.
DIVISION ON:^ — PRE-PASADENIAN. 2^
favorite food was the kernel of a species of plum, which grows in the moun- tains and islands. It is sometimes called the mountain cherry, although it partook little of either, having a large stone wrapped in fiber and possessing little pulp.* Chia, which is a small, gray, oblong seed, was procured from a plant apparently of the thistle kind, having a number of seed vessels on a straight stalk, one above the other, like sage.f This, roasted and ground, made a meal which was eaten, mixed with cold water, being of a glutinous consistence and very cooling. Pepper seed (chilis) were also used ; likewise the tender tops of wild sage. Salt was used sparingly, as they considered it as having a tendency to turn the hair gray. All their food was eaten cold or nearly so."
In addition to what Hugo Reid says above, it appears from other writers that they also used prickly pears (fruit of the broad-leaved cactus), the suc- culent water cress, the root of some species of flag, wild barley (or wild oats, avena fatua) and various kinds of grass seeds — besides birds' eggs, of which a healthy quail usually lays from twelve to twenty in a season ; and thus it will be seen that the range of their dietary was not so very limited after all. They also used the native wild berries, some varieties of which are passably edible, as I have myself tested. These are, blackberries ; one species of gooseberries ; nightshade berries ; some portions of the elderberry crop ; manzanita berries ; grapes ; canyon bush cherries.
The next historic point in regard to these Pasadenaland Indians is the founding of a Mission among them.
THE INDIAN RELIGION.
The native Indians of Pasadenaland were very religious, in their rude way, and that accounts for their being so early and so easily brought under the religious influence of the Mission Fathers. Several of the pioneer mission- aries, as Junipero Serra, Crespi, Boscana, and others have left some accounts of the religious ideas and customs of these aborigines, besides such secular writers as Gov. Pages, Hugo Reid, etc. In the Thompson & West " His- tory of Ivos Angeles County," on page 15, J. Albert Wilson summarizes the matter in perhaps as fair shape as it can well be done in so brief a space ; and as this summary applies in particular to the Indian predecessors 125 years ago of the church-going people of Pasadena to-day, I make free to quote it :
" They believed in one God, the Creator, whose name — "Qua-o-ar," was rarely spoken, and never save in a low and reverend voice. They usually referred to him by one of his attributes, " Y-yo-ha-ring-nain " — "The Giver of I^ife." They had but one word for life and soul. Their theology knew no devil, and no hell, prior to the advent of the missionaries ; and they have ever since maintained that these, being a foreign innovation,
*This wild cherry grows abuudaiitlj' in the West San Gabriel and intramontane Arroyo Seco canvons ; and during the last week of October, 1S91, myself and wife and H. N. Farey and wife camping there, ate freely of it, both stewed and raw, and found it quite palatable, with a distinct cherrj-ish flavor when fully ripe.
tThis " shafted-ball thistle" I have seen growing abundantly near Monrovia and through the valley eastward ; it is also found about Pasadena. It is the Salvia colnmbariae of botany, a species of sage, although prickly like a thistle.
^4 HISTORY OF* PASADE^NA.
concerned the foreigners only. They looked for no resurrection of the body, but firmly believed in a spiritual existence after death. The souls of wizards were supposed to enter animals — especially bears. — [Hence they would not eat bear meat. — Ed.] And eagles, owls, crows, and porpoises were held sacred. * '* * Each village had its church [worship place], woven of basket-work, and circular in form. This building was sacred ever, yet was consecrated anew whenever used. A similar but unconsecrated building served for rehearsal, and the religious education of youth designed for the priesthood. Only seers and captains, male dancers and female sing- ers (all of whom took part in the service) were permitted to enter the con- secrated church except on funeral occasions, when near relatives of the deceased were also admitted. The services consisted in asking vengeance on enemies, returning thanks for victory, and rehearsing the merits of dead heroes; together with the appropriate dances, songs, and gesticulations."
MISSION INCIDENTS.
The original San Gabriel Mission ["Old Mission"] was founded Sep- tember 8th, 1 77 1, The first baptism was that of a child, November 27th ; and the whole number of baptisms during the first two years was only 73. This was deemed poor success ; and in reporting on it Father Junipero Serra attributed it largely to the bad conduct of the soldiers. He complained that " the soldiers refused to work, paid no attention to the orders of their worth- less corporal, drove away the natives by their insolence, and even pursued them to their rancherias [villages], where they lassoed women for their lust and killed such males as dared to interfere." [See Bancroft, Hist. Cal., Vol. I, p. 181.] And Hugo Reid says of these Indians : "Women used by the soldiers were obliged to undergo a long purification ; and for a long time every child born with white blood in its veins was strangled."* They refused to eat any food given them by white men but buried it in the earth. Brown sugar they thought to be the excrement of these new comers ; and cheese they thought was dead men's brains. The padres wanted to convert the Indians to Christianity as they viewed it, while the soldiers wanted to conquer and enslave them.
Another report at the end of 1773, says : "At San Gabriel the native population is larger than elsewhere — so large in fact that more than one Mission will be needed in that region. [Hence the San Fernando Mission, which was established September 8th, 1797. — Ed.] The difierent rancherias [villages] are unfortunately at war with each other, and that near the Mis- sion [San Gabriel] being prevented from going to the sea for fish, is often in great distress for food.f Here i/ie conduct of the soldiers causes most trouble ; but the natives are rapidly being conciliated." — {Hist. Cal., Vol. /, p. 202.']
*It is related that during Friar Zalvidea's incumbency, from iSo6 to 1826, every woman who had the misfortune to have a miscarriage, or bring forth a still-born child, was presumed to have destroyed it on purpose because it had a white man as its father, and she was therefore severely punished for infanticide. Her head was shaved, she was flogged once a day for fifteen days, compelled to wear iron on her feet, and to sit on the altar steps at church every Sunday for three months holding in her arms a hideously painted wooden image of a child. This was " doing penance'' for her sin.— 5^^ Hisl. Los A- Co., p. S3. Le7vis's, iSSg.
t " The Ahapchingas were a clan or rancheria between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano, and enemies of the Gabrielenos or those of San Gabriel."— Ca/. Farmer, May 11, 1860; ciiedin" Native Races," p. 460.
DIVISION ONK — pre-pasade;nian. 25
That word " conciliated " simply means that the male Indians who had spirit enough to resist the outrages of the soldiers had either been killed or had fled to the mountains ; those remaining were cowed down and passively submitting to their fate. There was indeed an occasional revolt ; and the old records abound in accounts of floggings, shootings, banishments, sen- tence to exceptionally hard labor, recapture of fugitive Indians, shaving of heads, iron on feet, men (and sometimes a man and woman) chained together by the leg, etc. Hence it would appear that these natives were not so tame and unspirited a race as is commonly supposed,* for they did make all the resistance that was possible for them to make with their crude resources against the superior discipline, weapons and intelligence of the Spaniards.
THE NAMING OF SAN PASQUAL RANCHO.
Some time during 1774-75 the San Gabriel Mission was moved from the original site on the banks of the river to its present location ; but some- time before the removal one of the " conversions " or baptisms was that of the old chief, Hahamovic, who had furnished food to Governor Portola's famished party in January, 1770. He was christened by the name of Pascual [spelled with a "c" in Spanish but "q " in Knglish]. This was a name of common occurrence in Spanish usage ; but its special adaptation to him is supposed to have been suggested from the vast and brilliant poppy fields within or bordering on his tribal territory, and which the Spaniards had poetically termed the glorious altar cloth of Holy Easter [San Pascual]. At any rate, he was christened " Pascual," and being the hereditary chief of his clan, he was known to the Spaniards as " Pascual el Capitan," and his people as the " Pascual Indians." Nevertheless, the Rancho San Pas- cual in its distinctive character as a rancho, did not take its name from him, as some writers have supposed — but, as I have narrated elsewhere, it was given as a land grant by the Mission authorities to Eulalia Perez de Guillen ; and as the formal assignment of the land to her occurred on Easter Day [San Pascual in Spanish] therefore this body of land or rancho was called the San Pascual or Easter Day ranch. This was after the Mission lands were threatened to be secularized and Mission rule broken up, in 1826-27 ; but as her claim became forfeited, it does not appear in the official records of title to the ranch. [For full account see Chap. 3.]
The "Tourists' Guide to South California," page 19-20, gives a pretty complete list of civilized occupations in which our San Pasqual Indians, along with others, were trained, many of them becoming voxy skillful work- men This list has a special historic interest as relating to the intelligence and tractability of these Indians, and is at the same time useful to the English reader for explaining the Spanish terms ; hence I quote it here :
" Of this rude, ignorant, useless, savage population the padres made
*This will explain whj' the old stone mill below foot of Lake avenue was built to seiA'e as a fortress, in case of a possible revolt and siege by the Indians.
26 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
silleros (saddlers), herreros (blacksmiths), sastres (tailors), molineros (mill- ers), panaderos (bakers), plateros (silversmiths), toneleros (coopers), carga- dores (freighters), valeros (candle makers), vendemiadores (vintagers), caldereros (coppersmiths), zapateros (shoemakers), sombrereros (hatters), comfeleros de panocha (makers of panocha ), guitareros (guitar makers), arrieros (muleteers), alcaldes (judges), mayordomos (overseers), rancheros (ranchmen), medicos (doctors), pastores (shepherds), cordileros (rope- makers), lenyadores (woodcutters), pentores (painters), esculores (sculptors), albanilos (masons), toreadores (toreadors), acolitos (acolytes), canteros (stonecutters), sacristanos (sacristans), campaneros (bellringers), cocineros (cooks), cantores (singers), musicos (musicians), cazadores (hunters), jabon- eros (soapmakers), curtidores (tanners), tegidores (weavers), tigeros (tile makers), bordodores (embroiderers), piscatores (fishermen), marineros (sailors), vinteros (winemakers), caporales (corporals), habradores (farmers), vaqueros (cattle herders), llaveros (turnkeys), domadores (horse tamers), barberos (barbers), cesteros (basket makers), and carpenteros (carpenters). * * * Such a host of skilled workers and producers were developed by the sagacious training of the savages by the padres."
INDIAN SWEAT HOUSE.
Pasadena's "Sheep Corral Springs" seem to have been a favorite point and place of resort among the Indians. When our colonists first came here there were some remains of a small old adobe house on the flat a short distance above the springs, at the foot of Hanaford's bluff, and an old water ditch ran from the Arroyo bed out toward the house and down through the same rich bottom land that is now in use there by Byron O. Clark as a blackberry orchard, but the ancient adobe and ditch have entirely disappeared. At that time (1874) there were some pumpkin vines and other vegetables still occupying the ground, from seed of former cultivation. John W. Wilson, I. N. Mundell, and others remember noticing the old adobe walls and water ditch, but had no idea when or by whom they were made. And Mr. Wilson says when he first came here, in 1871, there was a similar water ditch on the west side of the Arroyo bottom a short distance above Devil's Gate, and another one a little way above his adobe ranch house opposite the end of Logan street, where he resided about twenty years. These ditches, however, were long ago filled up and obliterated by vegetable growths and by sand wash from rains or overflow. They were only remnants of the improvements made by Carlos Hanewald and John Pine in 1850-51, who had bought from Don Manuel Garfias a mile square of land for ^2,000, at 48 per cent interest. [See article on " Complete Chain of Title of the Ranch. "]
A man known as Don Geo. Walter, who was orderly sergeant in Capt. B. D. Wilson's U. S. company of California soldiers in the Mexican war, (all captured and made prisoners in a fight at the Chino ranch house in Sep- tember, 1846,) told some of our colony people that the Indians formerly had a "sweat house " or Temescal here at the Sheep Corral springs. This was
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADNIAN. 27
a sort of aboriginal Turkish-bath process, peculiar to the South CaHfornia Indians, for the cure of rheumatism and sundry other ailments, and was un- doubtedly the pioneer sanitarium of Pasadena, which has been so prolific of such institutions in these later years. This native sweat-house or hot bath was operated thus: A hole was dug in the ground deep and large enough for a man to sit there in the squat posture and have it filled with water up to his waist. Over this was built a booth or hut of tules, having a small doorway that could be closed with a mat of woven rushes or some animal skin. This hole w^ filled with water, and from a fire outside hot stones were put into it until it was just as hot as the human body could endure, then the patient sat down in it and the door was closed, but an occasional hot stone was added to the water to produce steam and make him sweat freely. The patient was kept there about an hour. After he had been thoroughly sweated and almost par-boiled, he must rush out and dive head foremost in- to a ditch filled with cold water deep enough for him to go entirely under, then get out and take a lively run for a mile or two, when the blood would go rushing through the system like a race horse and the patient would feel as fine as a fresh-tuned piano. Sergeant Walter said he once went through the process there himself with the Indians ; but once was enough for him. This adventure of Walter's was probably before 1846 ; and the Indians may have had a ditch or sluice there for their sweat-house business which was afterward utilized by Hanewald and Pine in 1850, in their search for placer gold deposits in this Arroyo sandwash.
THE INDIANS AFTER MISSION RULE WAS BROKEN UP.
When the Missions were broken up and their lands sold by the Mexi- can government in 1835-36-37, most of these Indians were left landless and helpless, notwithstanding some grants made to them. Some of them worked for white people, and had some sort of a dwelling place and familyhood on the ranch where they worked ; while others huddled together in fragments of tribes among the canyons and mountains, gaining a scant livelihood by stealing, begging, chopping wood, grubbing greasewood, etc. Even as late as 1884-85 the fine body of land now known as I^inda Vista was called " In- dian Flat ' ' because it had been for many years occupied by one of these fragmental Indian settlements ; and there was another one in a little nook or canyon up between I^a Canyada* and Crescenta Canyada ; besides single families occasionally found in out-of-the-way places ; and all living in rude huts made of sticks, bushes, tule stalks, rushes, and perhaps some fragments of boards, old matting, bits of threadbare carpet, and other rubbish which they had picked up.
*An old Spanish Mexican at Pasadena was asked what " Canyada" meant. He put his hands to- gether, then opened them a little at their thumb side, making a narrow trough shape, and said — " can- yone! canyone! " Then opening the trough much wider, he said " canyada! canyada! " So canyada is simply a large wide canyon.
28 HISTORY OF PASADKNA.
Farnsworth's book entitled "A Southern California Paradise," page 17, in speaking of results when the Mission lands were secularized and the civil rule of the priests broken up, says :
"The Indians were given certain portions of land, and remained at the Mission, working for the white settlers, until 1862-63, when the small-pox broke out and spread rapidly among them. The few Indians that escaped were so effectually frightened that they betook themselves to the mountains near San Bernardino, where they have since continued."
As to their peculiar skill in basket work, the American Naturalist, 1875, P- 598, says:
"In Utah, Arizona, Southern California, and New Mexico the Indians depend solely on the Rhus Aromatica, var. tribola (squawberry) for material out of which to make their baskets. It is far more durable and tougher than the willow, which is not used by these Indians. * * Baskets made thus are very durable, will hold water, and are often used to cook in."
Hugo Reid mentions twenty-four principal ranches which had formerly been lands belonging to the San Gabriel Mission, and among them are San Pasqual, Santa Anita, Azusa, Cucamonga, Chino, San Jose and Puente. The domain of this Mission extended from the Arroyo Seco eastward to the desert, and from the mountains to the sea.
Prof. C. F. Holder, in "All About Pasadena," says : "In 1852 a report was made by the Hon. B. D. Wilson to the Depart- ment of the Interior, to the effect that there was then in Santa Barbara, Tu- lare, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties, about fifteen thousand Indians, comprising the Tularenos, Cahuillas, San Luisenos, and Diegenos. Thirty years later another report was made showing a decrease of ten thousand ; the remaining five thousand are fast disappearing."*
In the same work, page 68-69, Prof. Holder again says: ' ' The Giddings ranch [at mouth of Millard canyon] is the site of an ex- tremely old settlement ; and for years objects of various kinds, mostly old and broken, have been plowed up. They were generally flat, shallow mor- tars, [metates] of a dark stone, with short, flat grinding or mealing stones. In following the plow of Mr. Giddings I have seen pieces of mortars or pestles thrown up every few moments, showing that large numbers must have been left here ; and as they were buried a foot or more below the sur- face, it is evident that they were older than many others found upon the sur- face. The old town was situated at what is now the beginning of the road leading down into Millard canyon ; f and the assumption is that the women went up into the canyon to collect acorns, which were brought down to the village to be ground. Ever}' year at plowing time, which comes between November and Christmas, specimens are unearthed. * * * Also on the San Rafael ranch, opposite the west end of California street, many interest- ing specimens have been found ; and the author has picked them up in var- ious parts of the city. Few of the older residents but possess a collection of some size. ' '
*In some streets of this little city [Los Angeles, 1852] almost every house is a grog shop for In- dians."— B. D. Wilson's Report as Indian Agent.
fSee article entitled " A pirate prisoner in the Pasadena mountains."
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. ■ 29
INDIAN HORSE-EATERS IN PASADENA. TWO WHITE MEN KILLED.
Judge Eaton has narrated for this History the following incidents : "When I first came out here Don Manuel Garfias told me that I would be exposed to incursions during the spring, from the Pah ute Indians, who were in the habit of coming in through the mountain passes to steal horses to eat. They employed no skill in catching them, but relied upon such an- imals as they might find at the end of a picket rope ; or slipping quietly upon a band when lying down in the night, and lassoing one while sleeping. I had been at Fair Oaks only long enough to get a pair ot bronchos trained to drive in a buggy, when without any notice whatever, their picket ropes were cut close to the pickets and the horses taken. They were within a hundred yards of my house, but the thing was done so still and sly that they did not alarm the household. I started out a couple of Mexican boys on their trail and in an hour they returned with one animal that they caught by the picket rope. After breakfast I despatched a boy to B. D. Wilson's but on his way down he saw the other three horses coming from the Santa Anita ranch full tilt, with their picket ropes trailing behind them. They did not stop until they got into one of the ranch bands, and the boy drove them all up to my corral. This was Monday. On Wednesday night I took them out after dark and hid them in a belt of oak timber, back of the house. The next morning two of them, a. pair of handsome grays, were gone. I mounted one of the Mexicans on a horse and sent him in pursuit. He traced them into Santa Anita canyon, but having no arms he was afraid to go farther and returned. After a lapse of so much time it was useless to prosecute the search, as the Indians had probably killed the horses when they got fairly into the mountains, and packed off the meat on their backs, [This was in 1865. — Ed.] The summer following there came onto the ranch a band of desert Cahuillas, ten bucks and one squaw. They made head- quarters near the base of the mountains, never showing themselves in the daytime, and making nightly raids on the neighboring settlers, carrying off calves that .they found in the corrals. I saw their tracks occasionally, but apprehended no danger from them, though I felt a little anxiety about my family during the day, when I was absent in the canyon, and not a soul nearer than three miles upon whom they could call for assistance. At that time an old man, Sam Kramer, had charge of Dr. Griffin's stock of brood mares and colts, and lived in the old ranch house. One day, I think it was in May, the man who at the time had charge of the Stoneman place, came along accompanied by a friend of his from I,os Angeles, and asked Kramer if he would not join them in a bee-hunt up the Arroyo Seco. As he could not join them they rode on, and that was the last time they were seen alive. The next day as Kramer was riding over the ranch looking after his stock, he discovered in one of the bands a horse with saddle and bridle on. Driving the band to the corral he fonnd that the horse was the same one ridden by his neighbor the day before, and the saddle was covered with blood. Im- mediately notifying the family and summoning assistance, they commenced a search for the body of the missing man. Following the tracks of the bee- hunters up the bed of the Arroyo, to a point opposite the west end of Cali- fornia street, they found a deserted Indian camp. The occupants had ap- parently left in haste, dropping an old soldier coat, and a small bag of pan- ole, (parched corn ground or pounded into meal.)
"Following the horse tracks which indicated that their riders were
30 . HISTORY OF PASADENA.
making all possible speed, they were led up into the thick brush upon the eastern bank of the Arroyo. Half way up the hill they encountered the body of one of the victims, stark dead. An arrow pierced his heart to the center. Upon withdrawing it they found the arrow head was of glass. They then remembered that they had seen at the camp just left, the rem- nants of a black bottle out of which the Indians had been constructing arrowheads. The body had not been molested in any way. The dead man had a Derringer pistol in his hand which had been recently discharged. The other man could not be found, but on the following day his horse and bloody saddle entered ont of the ranch herds, and the search was continued, with the result that not far from the spot where the first man was found lay the body of his companion. He had been killed by a single arrow piercing the heart, but entering at the back. This arrow was also pointed with a head made of black glass. These are two of the most remarkable arrow shots ever heard of. The body of this man had not been disturbed either. In his hand was a revolver with one barrel freshly discharged, and in his pocket was found nearly $40. It was evident therefore that the object was not robbery. The mystery attending this tragedy was never thoroughly ex- plained. The theory was that these men, coming suddenly upon the band of apparently wild Indians, (for they wore no clothes but breech- clouts, no hats, and were armed with bows and arrows,) attacked them with their pistols. The Indians returned the fire with the results already told. They suddenly left for their homes in the mountains of the desert country. Only one man ever saw them, and irom him I obtained a description of the band but too late to pursue them.
"Two years after the above occurrence the people around the outskirts of San Bernardino were annoyed by frequent thefts of calves from their cor- rals. A party started in pursuit of the marauders, and overtaking them before they reached their mountain home, captured them and gave them a drum-head court-martial and executed them on the spot. Indians, after they find there is no escape from death, boast of the scalps they have taken, so now did the chief of this party boast of having killed two white men in the Arroyo Seco a couple of years before. And that is all we ever learned of this remarkable event."
HELEN HUNT JACKSON'S WORK.
Hon. Abbott Kinney, in the Pasadena Valley Union of September 5, 1885, speaking of the then recent death of Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, who was associated with him on the U. S. Indian Commission, says :
"Helen Hunt Jackson was a woman of warm heart, poetic insight, and large cultivation. Her sympathies were wide enough to have a place for every one in distress whom she knew. She was as much at home and as welcome at the .scanty fireside of the hovel as in the palace of the rich. The Mission Indians of Southern California, for the most part an industrious and much injured people, have much to thank Mrs. Jackson for in the improved condition of their land tenures, their good schools, and the more intelligent course of the government toward them. Her poems, novels and essays have been widely read ; many of them are of a high order of merit, and some of her poems are gems, true to nature, simple and touching, that have in them the qualities of perpetual endurance. "Ramona" is her last great work. It has been well said that it is by far the best novel ever written
DIVISION ONK — PRE-PASADENIAN. 3 1
with the scene laid in California, and it is properly a California novel. It is a poem in prose, and is of universal interest, as it deals with the true and simple feelings of humanity. Every incident in this book is founded on fact. From the ejectment at Temecula to the killing of the husband and acquittal of his murderer, the basis of every statement is susceptible of proof."
WHY NO INDIAN GRAVES AT PASADENA ?
In a letter to me July ii, 1894, Prof. C. F. Holder raised this question, and I quote his remarks :
' ' One question has interested me greatly — where did the San Gabriel Indians bury their dead ? I have never found a skeleton, nor heard of one being found. Graves are common at Catalina and Santa Barbara ; but a Pasadena place of Indian burial has not been found."
The answer is that cremation was practised by our Indians. Taylor's Indianology, cited in the California J^armer of June 8, i860, sa^^s : " From north to south in the present California up to the Columbia river, they burnt the dead in some tribes and in others buried them."
In Schoolcraft's Archaeology, Vol. 3, page 112, Gibbs reports from the Pacific coast Indians : ' ' The body is consumed upon a scaffold built over a hole, into which the ashes are thrown and covered."
Father Geronimo Boscana, who served as a missionary among the Indians of Southern California nearly 30 years, and died at San Gabriel July 5, 1831, left a MSS. account of these Indians in Spanish, which was translated by Alfred Robinson, a Boston man, who was in California as a trade manager and traveler from February, 1829, until 1845 ; and it was published by Wiley & Putnam, New York, in 1846, as an appendix to Rob- inson's own work, entitled " lyife in California." On the matter in question Father Boscana, at page 239, says : " The bodies of their dead were imme- diately burnt." Again, page 268: "The parents of the deceased were permitted afterwards to take possession of the body and perform the accus- tomed ceremony of burning it." And yet again, page 314, he says : "Pre- parations were made for his sepulture or the burning of his body ; * '^ * they bore the corpse to the place of sacrifice, where it was laid upon the faggots. Then the friends of the deceased retired, and the "burner" set fire to the pile, and remained near the spot until all was consumed to ashes."
Hugo Reid gives a somewhat diiferent account. He says :
"When a person died all the kin collected to lament his or her loss. * * * Xhis was continued until the body showed signs of decay, when it was wrapped up in its covering with the hands across the breast and tied from head to foot. A grave having been dug in their burial place, the body was interred according to the means of the family, etc. If deceased was the head of a family or a favorite son, ^/le hut was set fire to, in which he died, and all of his goods and chattels burned with it."
32 HISTORY OP PASADKNA.
Father Boscana was a pioneer missionary among these Indians, while Reid wrote from hearsay long after they had become partly Christianized.
Governor Fages [1771] and various other writers, give varying accounts of burial practice. But taking all the testimony in the case, and the cir- cumstantial evidence besides, I am safe in stating that our Pasadena abo- rigines burned their dead ; and so that is why no graves or skeletons have ever been found, nor any general place of sepulture. The fact is, when the ' 'hut' ' was burned the body was burned with it. And in other cases the body was laid on a hurdle of sticks and brush over a hole in the ground, as Gibbs reports, and as the body and brushwood consumed together they dropped into the hole, and things belonging to the deceased were then thrown in also, and the cavity filled up. This was the grave, and this is how it happens that a metate or some other stone relic is occasionally found " three or four feet down," as Prof. Holder says in his letter given in another chap- ter, while ordinarily these things are covered so shallow with vegetable mould, or drifted sand and dust, that they are turned up by the farmer's plow, which usually cuts only from six to ten inches deep.
"Old Francesca," who was born at lyos Nietos in 1794, and is still living as a resident of Pasadena, told me on September 23rd, 1894, that she had always understood that "the Indians here burned their dead, before they becajne Christians ; " but she had never seen it done herself.
Senora Lopez also related an incident of an Indian coming to life again in the San Gabriel church while they were preparing to bury him, some time during Father Sanchez's administration. He was an old man, a wood- chopper ; his body had been prepared for burial and left in the church over night. The next day at the hour set for the funeral his relatives and the people and priest went in to complete the burial service and lay him away in the graveyard north of the church. But now to their astonishment and fright he raised up, and said faintly in the Indian language, " Mamma, I want some water." He recovered and lived several years afterward. Senora lyopez and old Francesca, then young women together at San Gabriel, once asked him what he saw while he Was dead, and he replied, " Lights, lights — up high — and a pretty road ! — high, too high ! — I was so tired — I couldn't go up, — so I had to come back ! — so tired ! ' '
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN.
33
CHAPTER II.
The San Gabriel MissiON.-Its successive padres.-Its trades and industries.-Claudio Lopez, and other secular officers.-The story of the Mills.-Joseph Chapman the Yankee prisoner, in the Mount Lowe "Grand Canyon "-i8i8.-Secularization of the Mission.— Don Juan Bandini as administrator.— Earthquake in 1812 —Ship built there in 1831; etc., etc.
THE SAN GABRIEL MISSION.
The old Mission church at San Gabriel has so much historic interest to Pasadena people and our tourist visitors, and is so closely connected with the old Rancho San Pasqual, that I must give a few points of its history here in consecutive order :
Photo for "Laud of Sunshine," Sept., IS'.H. OLD STONE CHURCH, SAN GABRIEL,
Which was in process of erection from 1790 to 1808.
On September 8th, 1771, the San Gabriel Mission was first established, by padres Angel Somera and Pedro Cambon, on the west bank of the river which had been up to this time called Rio San Miguel, but from that date was called Rio San Gabriel.* The site was what is still called "Old Mis- sion", and an Indian village called in their language Ismithcog-na, stood close by.
In 1772 Somera and Cambon retired and Padres Paterna and Antonio Cruzado took charge, the latter remaining until October 12, 1804.
c ti- ^y°^^ Wilson in his " History of Los Angeles Co." published in i88o bj- Thompson & West, says this river was first called "Rio de los Temblores", and many other writers have followed him. uuiit IS an entire mistake, for that name was applied only to the Santa Ana river, unless by mistake.
34 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
In September, 1775, padre Francisco Miguel Sanchez took Paterna's place, and remained until July 27, 1803, when he died. Padre Calzada was also here until 1792.
1792-93 : Padre Cristobal Oramas.
1794-96: Padre Juan Martin.
1798-99 : Padre Juan Lope Cortes.
July, 1797 to October, 1802 : Padre Pedro de San Jose Esteban.
In 1775-76 the Mission was removed to its present location, the Indian village of Sibag-na being near this site. An adobe structure was built here for a church at first, but its walls cracked and became unsafe, and the pro- ject of building a stone church was commenced. The records are strangely and stupidly meager ; but it appears that in 1794 the stone church was about half completed: and in 1800 it was still unfinished. {Hist. Cal., Vol. /, p. 664..) Of the present location J. Albert Wilson writes :
' ' The site now occupied by the San Gabriel Mission buildings and the adjacent village, was a complete forest of oaks, with considerable under- wood. The water composing the lagoon of the mill (one and a half miles distant) then lodged in a hollow near the Mission on the Los Angeles road. This hollow was a complete thicket of sycamores, cottonwood, larch, ash, and willow ; and was almost impassable from the dense undergrowth of brambles, nettles, palmacristi, wild rose and wild vines. Cleared of these encumbrances, this land (which then possessed a rich black soil, though now a sandy waste) served to grow the first crops ever produced in Los An- geles county. [Note. — This is a mistake, for some corn, beans, barley, and garden stuff had been raised at Old Mission, before the removal — Ed.] Near by stood the Indian village Sibag-na. Bears innuinerable [?] prowled about the dwellings, and deer sported in the neighborhood." — Thompson & West Hist. Los A. Co., p. 20.
1802 to 1804 : Padre Isidoro Barcenilla.
In 1803-04, and again from 1806 to January 14, 181 1, when he died, padre Francisco Dumetz was here. He had been forty years a missionary, and was the last survivor in California of the original band that came here with Father Junipero Serra.
1803 to 1813 : Padre Jose de Miguel. Then he went to San Fernando Mission, and died there June 2, 18 14.
From August, 1804, to September, 1806 : Padre Jose Antonio Urresti.
In 1806 Padre Jose Maria Zalvidea was placed in charge of this Mis- sion ; and for twenty years he pushed its development and managed its af- fairs with vigor and rigor and masterful ability. He was a severe and rigid disciplinarian ; he worked hard himself and made everybody else work hard ; some of his regulations, both religious and secular, were diabolically harsh, cruel and torturous; the Indians both male and female were reduced to a con- dition of virtual slavery, under taskmasters armed with buUwhips made from strips of rawhide. Any show of resistance was punished with ruthless
DIVISION ONE — PRK-PASADENIAN. 35
severity, until all Indians who had pluck and grit enough to rebel were either killed, or escaped to the mountains or broken in spirit — for it must be remembered that the Indians had only clubs, wooden spears, bows and ar- rows, or stones for weapons, while the Spanish soldiers on guard duty at the Missions had muskets ; and this is why so few could overcome and hold in servitude so many. In fact the Indians at the Mission were not allowed to keep in possession weapons of any sort. Nevertheless, Zalvidea's iron- handed harshness of rule here was no worse than had been carried on by Spanish ecclesiastics against heretics or heathens in Europe and Mexico and South America, or by Americans in the slave-holding portions of the United States prior to i860. Hence it is not for us to throw stones at this austere padre. His policy resulted in a most brilliant and famous commercial suc- cess for this particular Mission ; the blood and sweat of his enslaved "neophytes " (the "converted " Indians were always thus called) was ver- itably coined into money. He finished the stone church ; built the great dam, saw mill and stone grist mill at Wilson lake ; brought water in ditches from the San Gabriel river beyond Monrovia to irrigate field crops, orchards and vineyards ; established numerous distinct mechanical trades to manu- facture or prepare for market the products of flocks, herds, fields, and the chase, and assigned Indians to each kind of work, with a taskmaster over them ; carried on a large trade with ships at San Pedro from Mexico, South America, Spain, United States and other countries, selling them hides, tal- low, soap, candles, wines, grain, peltries, shoes, etc. But the settlers at lyos Angeles, and the ranch people of the region round about, and the people of other Missions, were also large purchasers from the San Gabriel work- shops.* To give an idea of the extent of the business carried on by Zal- videa (with the very efficient aid of his famous major domp^ CJ.^dipXpoez) , I have compiled a schedule of the different trades : X«-i'0'/^OC> #
Butchers — Slaughter men, who killed, skinned and dressed beeves, sheep, etc. , separating the hides, tallow and meat to the different workers in each article. Theodore lyOpez pointed out to me the place on the banks of the Arroyo west of the village where one hundred cattle were slaughtered every Saturday as rations for the 3,000 to 4,000 Indians during the ensuing week, when his grandfather was major domo there.
Hide-dressers — who prepared hides, sheepskins, deerskins, etc., for sale or shipment.
Tallow-workers — who operated vast iron cauldrons procured from whal- ing ships, for trying out tallow by the ton and running it into underground brick vaults, some of which would hold a shipload of it in one solid mass, keeping it there safe from becoming rancid or being stolen until some ship
* " The town of I,os Angeles was formally founded September 4, 1781— just ten years (less four days) after the establishment of Sail Gabriel Mission. * * For many ytars afterward Los Angeles was but a countrj' outpost of San Gabriel Mission ; and its iew people were always fflad enough to visit the Mis- sion, there to purchase its weekly supplies, and witness the Sunday festivities,' — 7. & IV. Hiit Los A. Co., p. 2^.
36 " HISTORY OF PASADENA.
was ready to take a cargo of it ; then it was cut out in great blocks and hauled on carts to San Pedro.* This work was carried on for many- years a few rods south of the present old Mission church just below the S. P. R. R. track. In August, 1894, I found some remaining ruins of these ancient tallow vaults still visible in the Bishop's orange orchard which is enclosed by a high picket fence below the railroad.
Meatdriers — who prepared jerked beef, sun-dried, for local use and to sell or trade. t The Indians preserved their meat in this way before the Spaniards came.
Candlemakers — who made tallow dips for selling to ships and in the general market. These were the staple articles for household or ship-light- ing purposes at that time.
Soap-makers — Hogs were raised chiefly to furnish soap fat, as the In- dians refused to eat hog meat, though the padres ate it,| and the same caul- drons and furnaces were used alternately for tallow rendering and soap boil- ing. The ashes from these furnaces and from the brick and tile works, and bake ovens, were used to leech lye for the soapmakers.
Tanners — who made dressed leather, and also tanned skins and peltries with hair or fur on.
Saddlers — The ranches furnished an immense market for these products and it became an important industry ; for horse-back riding was then the chief method of travel or movement in California.
Shoemakers — Shoes were made for the Mission people, although the Indians mostly went barefooted ; and some were sold to the ranches and town settlements, and to ships at San Pedro.
Sawmill Men — Prior to about 18 10 or 181 2, such lumber as was ab- solutely necessary was provided either by hewing or splitting with axe, or sawing by hand, with two men above and two in a pit below the log to work the saw up and down ; ^ but now Zalvidea had the great dam built at Wilson lake and a water-power sawmill erected below the dam, to provide lumber for buildings, fences, carts, wine vats, candle and soap boxes, coop- erage, etc., etc. And the labor of cutting and fetching logs, operating the mill and delivering the lumber employed many men.
Grist Mill Men — Following or in connection with the building of the
*" The tallow he had laid down in large, arched stone vaults, of sufficient capacitj' to contain several cargoes." — Robinson's "'Life in California" p. 3$. This was at San Fernando Old Mission, in April, 1829 ; and it had to be quarried out and hauled to San Pedro, the same as the San Gabriel stock. Davis in his book, "Sixty Years in California," .says the tallow was sometimes run into bags made of hides that would hold from 500 to 1000 pounds each.
1" The best part of the bullock was preserved by drying, for future consumption."— 5/'.r/j' Years in California p. 36. Another writer of date November 23, 1818, says : " My good mother was in a wagon [cart] which had two hides for a floor and two more for a roof, where after supping on half-roasted ships of dried meat ivithoul salt, she gathered around her her whole family," etc.
|"The Indians, with few exceptions, refuse to eat pork, alleging the whole hog family to be transformed Spaniards. I find this belief current through every nation of Indians in Mexico." — —Hugo Reid.
i," Old men rejoicing in the fame of witchcraft, he made sawyers of them all, keeping them like hounds lu couples [chained], and so they worked, two above and two below in the pit." — Hugo Reid.
Santa Anita Canyon derived its old nickname of " Saw-pit canyon," from this early practice.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 37
dam and sawmill at the lake, the stone grist mill was erected. Prior to this, the Spanish people of the Mission had depended for their breadstuff on In- dians who still used th-eir old primitive metate and raealing-stone imple- ments to supply meal for the entire Mission populace. But now, with a water-power grist mill of their own, the first one ever built in California,* they would be independent of the uncertain ship supplies from L<ower Cali- fornia or Mexico, and would make breadstuff for their own use and some to sell. So hauling and handling the grain, operating the mill and delivering the flour employed a distinct lot of both men and women. The mill pro- duced only coarse unbolted meal, whether of wheat, corn, or barley, and this was carried to store-rooms where Indian women put it through a rude pro- cess of sifting, and so furnished some "sifted flour" for the Mission bakers. [See article entitled "The Story of the Mills," farther on.] General John Bid well, a California pioneer of 1841, writing in the Century Magazine oi December, 1890, describes an Indian harvesting scene thus:
" Imagine three or four hundred wild Indians in a grain field, armed, some with sickles, some with butcher knives, some with pieces of hoop iron roughly fashioned into shapes like sickles, but many having only their hands with which to gather by small handfuls the dry, brittle grain, and as their hands would soon become sore, they resorted to dry willow sticks, which were split to afford a sharper edge with which to sever the straw. But the wildest part was the threshing. The harvest of weeks, sometimes of a month, was piled up in the straw in the form of a mound in the middle of a high, strong, round corral ; then three or four hundred wild horses were turned in to thresh it by treading, the Indians whooping to make them run faster. Suddenly they would dash in before the band at full speed, when the motion became reversed, with the effect of plowing up the trampled straw to the very bottom. In an hour the straw would be thoroughly threshed and the dry straw broken almost into chaff. In this manner I have seen two thousand bushels of wheat threshed in a single hour. Next came the winnowing, which would often take another month. It could only be done when the wind was blowing, by throwing high into the air shovelfuls of the grain, straw and chaff, the lighter materials being wafted to one side while the grain, comparatively clean, would descend and form a heap by it- self. In this manner all the grain in California was cleaned. At that day no such thing as a fanning mill had ever been brought to this coast."
Such scenes as the above were yearly enacted in the grain fields of San Gabriel Mission, under padres Zalvidea and Sanchez.
Carpenters — This trade comprised wheelwrights, cartmakers, boxmakers and fence builders, as well as those who did such woodwork as was necessary about their buildings — laying floors, joists and rafters, putting in doors and windows, making bench seats, and the like. Their "carretas " were great clumsy ox carts with wheels made of blocks sawed or chopped off from the end of a large round log, then abig hole bored, chiseled and burned through
*Davis, " Sixty Years in California," tells of a gristmill built at Verba Buena [San Francisco] in 1839, and calls it Va^ first one in California. Big mistake, by twenty-five years at least.
38 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
its center, enabling it to turn on a rude wooden axle, soap or tallow being sometimes used for lubricants.* The making and repairing of these carts for themselves and ranchers made work for many men, besides the wheel- wright work for the mills.
Blacksmiths — California native horses were tough hoofed, and horse- shoeing was scarcely known at the Mission ; but carts and mill gears, and plows, harrows, hoes, picks, shovels, etc., made business enough for this trade. The blacksmiths had to provide their own coal, and hence this trade included charcoal burners.
Brickyard Men — Making bricks and tiles was an important trade. I found four arched chambers in the old stone mill, besides other parts, where large square bricks were used of their own manufacture ; and also in the ruins of the tallow vaults in the Bishop's orange orchard. The church was originally roofed with thatch ; then with tiles, — but these proved too heavy, broke down the rafters, and had to be changed for shingles ; and the stone mill had a tile roof until Col. Kewen changed it in 1859.! In 1831 there were in Los Angeles four houses roofed with tiles made by the Indians at San Gabriel.
Masons — This included both brick and stone masons, and cement or artificial stone artisans. Much of their artificial stone or cement work stands yet, as hard as bed rock ; and there is a tradition that the old cement ditch south of the church was made by mixing it with beeves' blood, which is said to account for its extraordinary hardness as found by the railroad graders when they had to cut through it. The Spanish, Irish and Chinese workmen on the railroad grade all believed this bloody fable.
Limeburners — This trade was carried on quite extensively at the cement quarry where the Lincoln Park reservoir in South Pasadena is now built, right in the ancient lime pit of Father Zalvidea's "converted " Indian limeburners. The cement for the Mission church, and for the stone dams at Wilson lake and on Rose's ranch, and for the stone mill, the later cement ditch and mill-pit ruins south of the church, and for other works, was all obtained at this Lincoln Park quarry.
Spinners and Weavers — The wom,en were almost entirely assigned to this trade, taking the raw wool and carrying it by hand methods through all the stages of carding, spinning, dyeing, weaving, until it came out as cloth or shawls from the looms.
Tailors and Dressmakers — This was also a trade for women. They
*" The wheels of these carts were a foot wide, made ol sections of oak logs, never quite round or of uniform thickness, running on equally clumsy axles which were never in the center of the wheel, nor at right angles with the sides Age and wear added to these imperfections, and the wheels when in motion made a tortuous track. As for some reason, or perhaps for no reason at all, these wheels were never lubricated, they made a wonderfully plaintive noise as they rolled along. This was the only wheeled conveyance seen on the coast as late as 1840." — Overland Monthly, March, iS<)4, p. 266.
tSorae portion of the old roof was asphalt. The early Spaniards had some kn;wledge of the uses of this material ; and its existence here is mentioned in the reportsof Gov. Portola's first visit, 1769-70.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 39
made all the garments for men, women and children of the work people;* for it must be borne in mind all the time that all these Indian people, num- bering at one period as high as 4,000, were dependent on Father Zalvidea or Father Sanchez, for all their clothing and food, and could only have what he allowed them. This Mission was at this time a perfect ecclesiastical monarchy, or padrearchy.
Vintyiers — This included vinedressers and winemakers.
Coopers — This trade alone was kept in the hands of white men (just why, I do not know), while all the others were carried on by Indians under taskmasters.
Woodsmen — These were wood-choppers, and those who made shakes [split shingles], rived out the undressed staves for wine casks and barrels, hewed building timbers, worked in the sawpits, and all such work as was done in the mountains or canyons where the timber grew.
In addition to the foregoing, there were task classes of cattle herders, horse herders, sheep herders, agriculturists, orchardists, teamsters, besides bakers, cooks, pages, poulterers and other domestic trades. And thus it will be seen that the man who could systematically develop and supervise all these works, govern the entire Mission territory, acquire the Indian language so as to write and preach in it, and at the same time attend to his daily and weekly duties as a priest, was a man of real genius and extraordinary execu- tive talent. And such was Father Zalvidea, who ruled at San Gabriel from 1806 to 1826 ; then he was sent to San Juan Capistrano where he remained until 1842, when he was sent to San L,uis Rey Mission, and died there early in 1846 — probably in February.
1813-14: Padre Luis Gil y Taboada, commonly known as "Father Gil." He is mentioned as going from San Gabriel to dedicate the new church at the Plaza in Los Angeles, December 8, 1822 ; but whether he had been at San Gabriel all this time I did not find out. (Father Gil, in August, 18 14, laid the corner stone for a church at Los Angeles; but that building never was erected any farther.)
From March, 1814, to December 30, 1821 (the date of his death), padre Joaquin Pascual Nuez.
1821 to 1826 thence to 1833, padre Jose Bernardo Sanchez.
From 1826 to July, 5, 1831, when he died, padre Geronimo Boscana, who wrote the account of Indian myths, traditions and religious beliefs that was translated by Alfred Robinson and published under the title of " Chinigchinich," as an appendix to Robinson's own chapters on " Life in California," published in 1846.
*The spinning, weaving and tailoring women were in charge of Eulalia Perez de Guillen, the first owner of Rancho San Pasqual. She instructed them, cut out the garments, and had a general oversight of their work. She was cashier or paymaster of the Mission; she kept the keys of the storehouses and dealt out the weeklj' rations. .She also had charge of the money room where little bags of silver dollars were piled up all around as high as she could reach ; and all disbursements of money were made by her on order of the chief padre ; and she kept the accounts.
40 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
From 1826 to 1833 the Friar Superior at San Gabriel was padre Jose Bernardo Sanchez, a friend of Zalvidea, who had been his colleague since the death of padre Nuez in December, 182 1 ; and he continued the system of task work, of manufactures and trade already established ; and up to 1830 or ' 3 1 he sustained the business prestige and prosperity of the Mission quite to the full — but by this time the disintegrating and demoralizing effects of prospective secularization had begun its work among the Indians. They gradually found out that they were not to be slaves any longer, but free men — and so they would work less and less; get drunk, gamble, or stray oJ0f more and more ; and thus the whole great business steadily declined, and at last went out altogether.*
1832 to '36 : Padre Alexis Bachelot.
January 15, 1833 Padre Sanchez died at San Gabriel, and he was suc- ceeded by Padre Tomas Eleuterio Estenega. In 1843 the entire business of the Mission was put into Estenega's hands, there being no income to sup- port a major domo any more; and in 1844 he was assisted by the presbyter, Antonio M. Jimenez.
June 8, 1846, the Mission property was all sold by Governor Pio Pico to Hugo Reid and Wm. Workman. Reid was then justice of the peace, and also auxiliary administrator of the Mission estate, which was heavily in debt; they bought it subject to debts and other encumbering stipulations, and Reid as administrator already had possession. But when Stockton and Fremont took possession of the country for the United States, in August, 1846, they declared Governor Pico's sale of the property not in accordance with Mexican law and equity in such cases, and thereupon ousted Reid and Workman, and put Manuel Olvera in charge of the property, the same as he had been from October, 1845, to the time of the purchase above men- tioned.
In February or March, '1847, Padre Estenega died; and he was suc- ceeded by Padre Ordaz, who remained, but only as curate or parish priest, until 1850; and I follow the clerical line of officials no further.
SECULAR OFFICERS OF THE MISSION.
But now, to go back again : From the founding of the Mission up to 1798, Jose Maria Verdugo (he of Verdugo ranch fame) was corporal of the guard here ; and he was then succeeded by Pedro Poyorena — but there seems to be no further record on this line. [Records lost.]
The first inajor domo [general overseer] was Jose Miguel Flores. He died in 1796. And the records so far as found do not seem to show by name any successor until Claudio Eopez is named as major domo from 1821 until February, 1836. But I am informed by his daughter-in-law, Senora Maria
*The fatal defect of this whole Spanish system was that no eflfort was made to educate the Indians, or teach them to read, and think and act lor themselves. Hence, as soon as the Mission authority over them was broken they fell back into barbarism again.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 4I
Guillen de Lopez, who is still living at San Gabriel, and also by her son Theodore Lopez, that Claudio Lopez served there as major domo thirty-six years or thereabouts — that is, both before and after and all through the ad- ministration of Padre Zalvidea and Padre Sanchez. This seems hard to be- lieve, yet no records have been found to show anybody else there in that office; and "old Francesca," the hundred-year-old Spanish woman, still living here at Pasadena, told me substantially the same as to Claudio Lo- pez's wonderfully long service at San Gabriel.* Hence I conclude that he was probably the successor of major domo Flores, with perhaps some tem- porary appointee in between for two or three years. The History of Califor- nia, vol. 4., p. yi7, says he settled in Los Angeles in 1811, and that he was alcalde [judge] there in 1826 ; but all this would not hinder his being major domo at San Gabriel at the same time. Rancho San Pasqual was part of the Mission lands; Major Claudio was the overseer or head "boss" of all the agricultural, stock-raising, herding and other industries of the Mission — and thus he was the first man who ever made any civilized use or occu- pancy of these acres where Pasadena now stands. ^
In February, 1836, Lopez was succeeded by Juan Jose Rocha ; and in 1837 Rocha was succeeded by Juan Perezf who served until March i, 1843, when he turned everything over to Padre Estenega. Yet in 1845 Crispin Perez's name occurs as major domo ; and in October in this year he is suc- ceeded by Manuel Olvera, who served until the property was taken in possession by Hugo Reid for himself and Workman as purchasers, July 8, 1846. Then in August or September of this year Stockton and Fremont annulled Reid's purchase and put Olvera in charge again.
The United States Land Commission abrogated all sales that had been made of the church building and its garden and cemetery grounds, and restored them to the church authorities ; but sales of outlying lands were confirmed. However, in 1875, the Commission also confirmed to Bishop Alemany as church property 55^ acres south of the church, where the Chapman mill, and tallow works and other industries formerly stood, and now known as the " Bishop's orchard, or garden," it having a fine orange grove on it, all fenced in.
In 1885 considerable repairs were made on the old Mission church. Its original heavy doors of iron and wood had decayed much, and were renewed, besides other patching and mending, which gave the structure less of the ancientness of appearance than it had before. It is still in regular use every Sunday as a Catholic church.
*Governor Pio Pico was born at San Gabriel May 5, 1801. Eulalia Perez de Guillen officiated as midwife at his birth ; and her family say that Claudio I,opez was there as major domo then.
fBancroft gives this name erroneously as "Jose" Perez. I find that there were four of these Perez brothers, to-wit : Eranio Perez, whose wife was Vicente Lugo, one ol the four daughters of Don Antonio Lugo. Juan Perez, father of our Pasadena 100-year old woman, old Francesca Lugo, whose hus- band, Don Felipe Lugo, was brother to Eranio Perez's wife. Esteban Petez, whose son Jose was the first white man who ever made a home on Rancho San Pasqual, this Jose's vpife being Merced Lugo, sister to his uncle Eranio's wife, but afterwards wife of Stephen C. Foster, a Yankee from New England. Crispin Perez, who was major domo at San Gabriel in 1845. And these four Perez brothers were cousins to Eulalia Perez de Guillen, the first owner of Rancho San Pasqual.
42 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
THE STORY OF THE MILLS.
' 'The Old Mill ' ' is one of the historic spots near Pasadena for romantic people and history hunters to visit, as a relic of the old Spanish Mission days. But it is a fact, though little known, that there are really two old Mission mills partly remaining, besides a private one built by Daniel Sex- ton at East San Gabriel. The history of the two Mission mills has been woefully mixed, confused, transposed ; and I found it necessary to expend a vast deal of time, patience, perseverance, research, personal inquiry of living witnesses, and personal examination of the remaining parts of the structures, before I could unravel the tangled threads of error running through every account of " the old mill " that has appeared in print hitherto. Even some of the attempts at sober history in the matter have been little better than romantic fancy. It is so much easier and pleasanter to imagine how it "might have been " than it is to hunt up facts as to how it really was.
MILL NO. I — THE OLD STONE MILL. This was the first grist mill to be run by water power ever attempted to be built in California, and was erected under the administration of Padre Zalvidea, with Claudio lyopez as major domo — in about 1810 to 1812.* Very little grain had been raised on the Mission lands until after Zalvidea took charge, in 1806 ; and the small amount of corn, wheat and barley pro- duced was made into meal by the Indian women with their old native metates and mealing stones, while the men were kept busy at heavier work, mostly of the building sort, besides looking after the flocks and herds which furnished their principal food supply. But now Zalvidea pushed horticul- ture, viniculture and agriculture forward, and in a short time had large crops of grain to ship away. Then he wanted a mill and built this one. [See full account of its dimensions, structure, and other particulars in Chap- ter 19; articles on "The Old Mill," "Mill Canyon," "Wilson Ivake," etc.] But after all their hard toil and zeal and hope in building it, this mill proved a failure because of dampness. It was built in the hillside. Its west main wall was also the wall of the deep, funnel-shaped cisterns or fore- bays which furnished the water head. The basement arch or water wheel chamber was so low that the powerful jet of water striking the horizontal wheel would splash all over the walls and work up through the shaft hole to the mill stones on the upper floor. So that as fast as the meal was made it had to be carried away to dry store rooms at the Mission, where Indian women bolted or sifted it by a hand process of their own devising. The distance of the mill from the business center at the Mission was also a great drawback. And from this combination of adverse conditions, the mill had
*Wm. Heath Davis in his book, " Sixty Years in California", p. 251, tells of a mill built where is now Clay street, in San Francisco, in 1S39, and adds : " This was the first grist mill in California. It was operated by six mules." Yet Pasadena's old stone mill, run by water power, was built more than a quarter century before that; and the one in front of the San Gabriel Mission church was built at least 17 years before the " mule mill " which he claims to have been first. And Joseph Chapman built one at Santa Ynez in 1820-21. So Davis is widely in error as to " first grist mill in California."
DIVISION ONK — PRE-PASADENIAN. 43
been abandoned and lay idle some time before Maria de Guillen (afterward Mrs. Lopez) came to San Gabriel to live, which was about 1821, she being then nine years old ; and for several years the grain grinding for the Mis- sion had been again done by Indian women on their metates ; though it seems that occasionally a little was still done at the old mill in the way of gristing for Los Angeles and other points, where the meal was taken direct from the millstone.
The little girl above mentioned, Maria de Guillen, was a daughter of Eulalia Perez de Guillen, the first owner of Rancho San Pasqual or Pasa- denaland, who died June 8, 1878 — aged 143 (?) years. [See article headed "Complete Chain of Title," Chap. 3.] And Maria was married in 1829 to Tiburico Lopez, son of Claudio Lopez who served about thirty-six years as major domo at San Gabriel, according to the traditions of the family ; hence, as general overseer of the old Mission business, he was the first white man who ever utilized the lands which afterwards became Rancho San Pasqual, and Pasadena, And I have found descendants of Major Claudio still living in this county, as follows :
Theodore Lopez, San Gabriel — grandson.
Felipe Lopez, San Gabriel — grandson.
Romaldo Lopez, Old Mission — grandson.
Geronimo Lopez, San Fernando — grandson.
Francisco E. Lopez, Los Angeles — great grandson,
Jose Lopez, San Gabriel — great grandson.
Valentine Lopez, San Fernando — great grandson.
Luis Lopez, La Ballona — great grandson.
Jose Lopez, La Ballona — great grandson. All these, besides their families ; while some of the descendants reside out of the county, and some out of the state. [There were fifty-two voters named Lopez in our "great register" of 1892-94.]* Tiburcio Lopez died in 1857 ; but his wife and her two sons, Theodore and Felipe, are still living at San Gabriel, and they have kindly assisted me in correcting the many published errors about the old mill. Old Francesca Perez, who was born at Los Nietos [near Whittier] in 1794, and is still living in Pasadena [June, 1895], was godmother to Theodore Lopez and second cousin to Eulalia Perez de Guillen ; and she too has furnished me some points about the old mills.
A PIRATE PRISONER IN OUR PASADENA MOUNTAINS.
The old Mission Mill No. 2 was commonly called "Chapman's mill"; and therefore I must tell about Chapman. In 18 18 a Buenos Ayres priva- teer landed some men on the Ortega ranch above Santa Barbara to plunder it, and the family fled in terror, one of them being a young daughter named
*Bancroft, Hist. Cal., lists forty persons named Lopez who had figured ia some way in California history.
44 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Guadalupe. The Mission soldiers from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles succeeded in capturing some of these men, one of whom was Joseph Chap- man, a sailor, from the state of Maine.* Corporal Don Antonio Maria IvUgo of lyos Angeles became surety for Chapman so that he need not be executed, and brought him to Los Angeles as a prisoner, riding behind him on the same horse, for the sailor chap couldn't keep his balance on a horse without somebody to hold onto, f Chapman was a tall, strong, bright fellow, with a good deal of Yankee ingenuity, and skillful with tools. He didn't know a word of Spanish, nor Lugo a word of English ; yet in a few days the prison- er had picked up enough Spanish so that with the addition of signs he could make himself understood, and now he went with Lugo to the mountains to help get out timber for building the church, the one which still stands there near the plaza in Los Angeles. X
Stephen Foster, writing from his father-in-law Lugo's statements, says the timbers were being cut in "church canyon, away in the mountains,'' but gives no hint or clue as to whereabouts this particular " church canyon' was located, and I found no written record to help me. However, I remem- bered that in July, 1893, I had noticed in Grand Canyon, about a mile be- low Crystal Springs of the Mount Lowe itinerary, some evidences of timber work done there long ago. There were some large old pine stumps, much decayed ; one big tree chopped down, but never trimmed or hewed ; and some graded spaces that looked like remnants of an old wagon road. Dun- can Cameron and Alex. McDonald were with me. § And taking this for a glue, I followed it steadily for eight months, as a possible chapter in the lost record of the Los Angeles "church canyon," before the links of evidence were all found which made a chain of circumstantial proof strong enough to af- firm. I inquired of the oldest living settlers, both Spanish and American, but they were as blank as the empty records. Old Francesca only knew that
*A row boat in which Chapman and others were rowing ashore was capsized in the surf. Com- niandante Lugo had his men concealed in a clump of willows near by, and shouted to them, •" Now's our time! " They all rushed out and fired their blunderbusses at the struggling men in the water, kill- ing two or three ; then some swam back to a second row boat and returned to ship, while Chapman and a West Indies negro came ashore through the surf. A vaquero now ran down on the beach and lassoed him ; but he, half drowned though he was, jumped up and commenced hauling in the riata hand-over- haud, in sailor fashion, pulling the vaquero along, who yelled with fright and terror, for he had no horse now to help him out ; and two others ran to his rescue, throwing two more lassoes over Chapman before they could hold him. He was a tall, muscular and dextrous man. and pushed the vaqueros around like puppets, which greatly astonished and pleased old Lugo, and made him admire the lusty Yankee.
J. Albert Wilson, Hisl. Los A. Co. iS8o, calls him a native of Pennsylvania ; but Hon. Stephen C. Foster, who knew Chapman personally, says he was from New England; and Bancroft and J. D. Mason say from Maine.
tThe History of Santa Barbara county says : " Lugo, the grandfather of Senora de la Torre and Senora Pico, was the Lugo who assisted in beating off the pirate ship commanded by Bouchard, which made an attack on the Refugio rancho in 1818, and carried John [ Joe] Chapman (who was one of the pirates) on his horse behind him as a prisoner— he being the same man who subsequently married one of the noted beauties of the Ortega family."
tTo aid in building this church, there were donated by citizens, 500 cattle ; by friars, seven bbls. brandy, worth $575 The labor was done by neophytes from San Gabriel and San Luis Rey, at one real [12)4 cents] per day as their wages. — Hist. Cal. VoL II. p. 75/.
§" I was with Dr. Reid and Alex. McDonald in July, 1893, when we saw some remains of grading or terracing which looked like an ancient road, in Grand Canyon, a short distance below Crystal Springs.— We also saw some very old and deca\ed large pine stumps where trees had been chopped down ; and one large old tree chopped down and left lying. And it was a great mystery to us how these things came to be in such an out of the way place. Duncan Cameron.
Echo Mountain, May 28, 1895."
DIVIvSION ONE — PRK-PASADNIAN. 45
the place was ''sojnewhere up in these mountains,''' but as to just which can- yon it was she had no idea ; and the venerable Senora Lopez at San Gabriel could tell me no more ; yet they both knew Chapman. Jose Lugo, old Francesca's son, thought it was Santa Anita Canyon [it was also called ' ' church canyon ' ' while timbers were being gotten out there for the church at San Gabriel]. Arturo Bandini didn't know anything about it. Theodore Lopez believed it was in Canyon el Blanco — now called Millard Canyon.
At last I learned from E. W. Giddings that in 1877-78, when his father and family settled on their Millard Canyon farm, they found up the canyon some broken pieces and chunks of hewed pine timber, all decayed so that only the shell remained to show the axe-marks ; they were from eight to twelve inches square in size, and had been washed down over Millard Falls from some place above. It was a great mystery to them at the time, for neither they nor any of their old-settler neighbors had ever heard even a tradition of any timber work so far up in the mountains ; and no one could offer any explanation as to how, why, when, or by whom such work should have been done in a place so remote and difficult of access as that above the Falls. And when I told him about Joe Chapman's prisonership in "church canyon", and what I had noticed up in Grand Canyon in 1893, and my sur- mise that this was the "church canyon" of the Los Angeles padres, it was the first inkling of a solution of the hewed drift-wood mystery he had ever heard. He then mentioned that at a place perhaps a mile lower down the canyon than where I had noticed the signs of timber working, there were more very old stumps, now all rotted away, and more graded spaces like remnants of an old road, when he first knew this canyon twenty years ago. He also mentioned that when Mr. Millard first settled in this canyon, in 1862 [See article, "Millard Canyon"], there were remnants of a rude old road or dragway up into it along the stream to the Millard Falls, but all signs of that road have since been washed away. J. Reed Giddings also re- membered about their finding fragments of hewed timber among old drift- wood below Millard Falls ; and likewise about the very old stumps and the graded spaces like parts of an old road far up toward the head of the can- yon. And our conclusion was that Chapman and his Indians had dragged their timbers with rawhide ropes down the upper canyon course, and along the mountain sides, and across the spurs, till they reached this old road be- low the falls which was probably only an ox-trail ; and here oxen were hitched to them by means of rawhide ropes lashed around their horns — for the Spaniards had not yet learned or taught the Indians how to hitch up oxen with a yoke on the neck. The hewed fragments which the Giddings people found had most likely been used as blocks for the great logs to rest upon while being hewed, and also as skids on which to slide their hewed tim- bers over difficult places on the way down. This canyon was the nearest point where suitable trees could be reached ; and it gave the most direct and con-
46 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
tinuous down slope for dragging the hewed timbers to Los Angeles. The ox- trail, then, led from Millard Canyon down toward Monks Hill, and then nearly on the present line of Fair Oaks avenue clear down to the old Spanish road from San Gabriel to I,os Angeles, where the Southern Pacific Railroad now runs. On reaching the public road the timbers would be loaded onto heavy carts made with wheels chat were simply round blocks sawed or chopped off from the butt end of a log, and thus they would be conveyed across the Los Angeles river and up to the plaza. And in all this work Chapman managed better and accomplished more, and got more work out of the Indians than anyone had ever done before— all of which greatly endeared him to the padres, and also to the old Don who had sturdily withstood the demand for his ignominious execution only one year before.
The graded spaces in Grand Canyon that have been mistaken for rem- nants of a mysterious ancient wagon road were made by Chapman to get enough straight and level ground for the timber hewers to stand on at their work, with the log resting on blocks. The Indians themselves could only hack a tree down and let it fall where it happened to — and then haggle it into imperfect square shape just where it lay, thus working very slowly and at great disadvantage. But Chapman could chop a tree down and make it fall whichever way he wanted to, which was a marvelous thing to most of the Spaniards as well as the Indians. In their ignorant and superstitious minds it was magic or ' ' black art, ' ' and they called him ' ' Diablo Chapman. ' ' Then by getting his logs up onto blocks along these leveled places, and marking with a bit of burnt wood and a stretched string the lines for the hewers to work by, the work went on easier and better and faster than be- fore. And these were Chapman's Yankee improvements to expedite the work, which won him so much favor with Don Antonio and the padres — for anything that helped along their church enterprises touched their hearts in the tenderest spot ; and all this service was credited to him for pious " good works" — so that on one occasion when others were denouncing and contemning the gringo heretic, old Don Antonio made in his defense this ar- gument: " As to his being a heretic, has not all of his work gone into the church ? How can he get away from that ? * * I know that they [the padres] consider him a good Christian, and a very useful one, too. And then, who can manage the Indians as he can ?"
It was also objected that Chapman couldn't ride a horse, which was an unpardonable deficiency in Spanish eyes. But Lugo replied; " Yes, he can ride a horse now, without falling off more than twice in one day. "
The logs having been hewed square up in the mountains, were dragged on different faces alternately so that all sides might be scoured and smoothed alike. And the special necessity for such heavy pine timbers, that would not sag, was to support the great weight of the tile roofs then in use.* And
*"The rafters, after being cut iu the mountain forests many miles away, were dragged hereby Indians and oxen, each log being occasionally turned upon the way, that all sides might be planed
DIVISION ONK — PRK-PASADENIAN. 47
the term " church canyon " was applied to any such place where timbers were being cut for a church, no matter what other name the place might have borne, if any, before or afterward. So I find that our present Grand Canyon and Millard Canyon was really the " Church Canyon" of the old lyos Angeles Spanish Mission records, and this was the first name the place ever bore in white men's speech, though they afterward called it Canyon el Blanco — the white canyon — from the conspicuous walls of white feldspathic rocks in some of its upper branches.
In the Overland Monthly of March, 1894, J- D. Mason writes a sketch of our Joe Chapman's romantic adventures, and from his article I here quote a few points. Mason says :
' ' He was quite as much of a curiosity to the Los Angelenos as he was to the rancheros. * ^ The captured Yankee was watched with fear and trembling, much as a grizzly bear would be if turned loose. The question of what to do with him was necessarily prominent. Some openly asserted that he ought to have been executed ; and that it was not too late yet to remedy the mistake. Lugo, however, proved his fast friend.
' 'At that time quite a number of men and Indians were employed in the pine woods forty miles away [only about twenty miles], getting out timbers for the church. There was no road leading to the place, only a rough trail over the mountains and through rocky canyons. If he was set to work there, he could not communicate with any enemies nor escape, for the mountains beyond were considered impassable ; he would be lost if he attempted to climb them. So he was sent to the pine woods. Now, Chap- man knew all about timber. Though he could not ride a horse, he could chop down a tree, and make it tall just where he chose. He could line, score and hew it, for he had worked at ship-building ; and when that was done he could hitch a drove of long-horned cattle to it and move it off. * * A year passed, and he became sole manager of the timber squad, and was in high favor not only with Lugo, but with the church fathers as well. He had really become indispensible. Many consultations unknown to Chapman had been held as to the policy of identifying him with the colony by marry- ing him into some Spanish family, and holding him to the coast, as it were, by domestic ties. * * * There was talk of Castilian superiority — noble blood, and all that sort of stuif. * * They finally agreed to state the case to the padre of the Los Angeles Mission. In an hour they received a terse letter, written in a plain hand, on strong paper, as follows :
'My Children: — Lugo's advice is sensible. Let the man Chapman marry.'
" This ended the discussion, as to the propriety of his marrying."*
[scoured] alike. They are as as smooth as though really planed,"^/. Albert Wilson, Hist. Los Ang. Co. [iSSo'\, page los. This was written of the San Fernando old Mission, built in 1795-96-97. But the same plan was used in building the church in Los Angeles, in 1S18-19-20-21-22. I learned from the old Spanish people that pine timbers were brought down the same way from big Santa Anita canyon for building the church at San Gabriel.
*See Overland Monthly, March, 1894 ; article, "One Way to Get a Raucho," by J. D. Mason. He rep- resents events that really extended over four years of time as all occurring within one year; he repre- sents the pirate ship as plundering San Gabriel Mission by mistake for San Juan Capistrano ; he makes Chapman's wedding occur at Santa Barbara instead of Santa Ynez ; and overstates distances sometimes; yet his story of Chapman and his lovely Spanish bride is in the mahi correct. Mason .ceems to have had some points from Chapman's descendants in Ventura county, in addition to what Stephen Foster received from old Don Antonio Lugo, and what H. H. Bancroft had found in the old Mission and Pueblo records.
48 > HISTORY OF PASADENA.
In another place Mason relates how Chapman ' ' whipped a thousand Indians " with a club, in a night attack they made on his corral at mouth of Millard Canyon ;
" The time for the rainy season was near, and Chapman was preparing for his last haul of timber.* The cattle that had been pastured on small patches of grass were lying in the adobe corrals, which had been built to keep them together at night, and secure them from the raids of the wild Indians. Sometimes a dozen or more of "converted Indians," that were not satisfied with their allotted work or rations, or social relations with the females, would break away from the missions, and unite with the wild Indians to plunder the padres' storehouses or drive off their stock. This was a standing danger to the colonists as well as to the missions. During the night mentioned one of the Indian cattle-drivers awoke Chapman, say- ing, ' Senor, Senor ! The wild Indians are cutting the cattle out. ' As Chapman awoke the man urged him to listen. He could distinctly hear a grating sound produced by moving something forward and backward like a saw. The noise was new to Chapman, but the Indian explained that it was the cutting down of the adobe walls, by drawing a rawhide riata across them ; that when a section was cut that way it could be pushed over, mak- ing an opening through which to stampede the cattle with firebrands and a great noise.
" ' How many Indians ?' said Chapman to the vaquero.
" ' Oh ! thousand, Senor !' said the Indian excitedly.
' ' Some Indians had deserted a day or two before, and probably had in- duced others to join them in a raid ; but Chapman knew that a thousand was an impossibility. He had learned that an Indian's estimate of numbers was of little value ; that scarcely one in a hundred could count more than twenty. More than that was a thousand or a miUion to their weak minds. So he concluded that there might be a dozen, the bulk of them stationed near the outer wall, opposite the bars, ready to break over with a wild hurrah when the bisected portion of the wall fell. He knew he could easily drive away the four or five that were sawing the wall with riatas, but the others might attack his men with their bows and arrows, and in the con- fusion kill some of them. He planned a daring way of discomfiting the Indians by a dash among them alone, while the others of the camp should make a great noise ; for noise is a potent factor in all savage warfare. The wild Indians generally ran away at the first explosion of fire-arms, but Chapman chose rather to teach them a lesson. He passed out quietly, and as he expected, saw a number of firebrands ready to be blown into a flame as soon as the wall fell. He rushed into the midst of the lights, his club describing wide circles as it went around his head, occasionally hitting some- thing with a sickening thud. About the same time the others rushed out with loud shouts and the firing of guns.
"The besiegers, when the club began to whack their heads, shouted ' Diablo Chapman ! Diablo Chapman f They were too astonished to make any resistance, and fled with the others as the outcry and firing commenced
*This was in 1819 ; and during that winter uSig 20) he went to Santa Ynez, and there built a flouring mill for the padres. Lugo had often joked Chapman about the pretty girl who saved his life, and hinted that she loved him ; and this was probably the secret of Joe's going to Santa Ynez at this time, for the Ortega family came there to church by a bridle road only 10 miles over the mountains, while it was 30 miles to Santa Barbara ; and thus he could see her and perhaps exchange glances with her almost every Sunday, although they could not speak together. In September the next year, he was ordered by the governor to build another mill at San Gabriel.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN.
49
from the corral. But after getting well out of range of Chapman's club they turned and shot a few arrows towards the adobe walls. Some were sent up into the air, so as to fall inside the corral and wound the cattle.
"Some of the vaqueros, frightened by the apparent numbers of the Indians, mounted their horses and fled toward Los Angeles, which they reached about daylight, with the report that all the men, including Chapman, were killed, and the cattle driven off. lyUgo, who felt responsible for Chapman's safety, raised a few volunteers and started for the pine timber to investigate the matter. He was astonished to meet the train coming down in good order, not a beast lost, nor a man missing except such as had deserted.
"Every one was talking of the American Sampson who put a thousand wild Indians to flight, as a wolf would a flock of sheep. Chapman had no wonderful story to relate. He did not think it much of an affair to rout a few Indians with a good club. When asked how many he had killed, he answered, 'None'; anyhow, he left no dead Indians around the corral; he thought it quite likely that some of them might have sore heads for awhile. But some of the older Spaniards shook their heads, and had doubts about this ' Diablo Chapman,' that could rout a whole tribe of Indians with a club. Lugo, however, insisted that it was ' quite time to make him one of us by marrying him into a Spanish family'."
The camp and corral where this inci- dent occurred must have been at the mouth of Millard Canyon on the Gid- dings farm, or on the bench of land by the creek near where the road crosses leading up to Las Casitas. The principal camp of Chapman's working crew was kept here, because there was pasture for the oxen near by ; and from this point a whole train of drag teams could be started at once for Los Angeles. This accounts, too, for the metates and meal- ing stones plowed up by the Giddings men on their farm, along the creek bank. But it is also supposed that the Indians had a small settlement there before the Spaniards came into the country ; and it was their old familiarity with this canyon which led to the discovery of such good pine timber in its upper section for the church building uses.
After the church was finished* old Don Antonio Lugo took Chapman to Santa Barbara to find a true blood Spanish wife for him ; for Lugo was thoroughly in love with the Yankee, and sought for him an alliance with the best and noblest families in the province. They stopped at San Buena Ventura Mission, June 24, 1822, for Chapman to be baptized, for without this he could not lawfully marry, and Lugo stood god-father to him. As
*A new roof and home additions were built to it in 1841.
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OLD CHURCH AT THE PLAZA.
Built in 1S18 to 1822, with Joe Chapman's
help. Photo taken in 1894, for "Land
of Sunshine."
50 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
the custom then was, the old people attended to the business of match- making, although the lady in the case had the reserved right to say " No " if she wished to, and that would end it ; for the suitor must then try his luck somewhere else. lyUgo introduced Chapman among his Barbareno friends, and vouched for his good character, his skill in useful arts, and his worthi- ness to mate with the best Spanish blood in the province ; so in a short time he and old Captain Ortega arranged that Chapman might marry Ortega's pretty daughter, Guadalupe.* The young lady at first rebelled, but finally consented ; and in proper time the wedding was duly celebrated — and thus she became the Spanish bride of the down-east Yankee, who had only four years before, as a Buenos Ayrean buccaneer, frightened her and the whole family in hasty alarm from their home ; and the first time she ever saw him was that same day, in sailor's garb, a bound and pinioned prisoner subject to death penalty. The men were going to tie Chapman's feet to a wild horse's tail and then turn it loose to drag him to death ; but Guadalupe plead passionately against it as a barbarism unworthy of Chris- tians, or brave soldiers, or Spanish gentlemen, and so saved his life.
After the wedding ceremony and feasting were done with, which lasted some days, he took off his red silk sash, an essential part of the Spanish horseman's costume which he now wore, and made a loop of it to hang over the pommel of his saddle for a stirrup, for a lady to ride side wise ; and on this he seated his bride, then sat himself on the crupper or pillion behind, and thus the two made the journey from Santa Barbara to L^os Angeles, stopping over night, however, at the old Mission San Buena Ventura, where he had a few weeks before been baptized. His cognomen in Spanish was Jose el Ingles (Joseph the Englishman). He was the first English-speaking bojiafide settler in the State of California, as claimed by Col. J. J. Warner and Hon. Stephen C. Foster. In his Historical Sketches, Foster says :
" In 1822, when the first American adventurers, trappers and mariners found their way to California, they found Jose Chapman at the Mission San Gabriel (with fair-haired children playing around him), carpenter, mill- wright, and general factotum of good old Father Sanchez."
Foster must be a little " too previous " with his " fair-haired children," for Chapman was not married until after June, 1822. I have gathered the following date points in his romantic career : Captured in 1818 ; got out timbers for church at plaza in Eos Angeles, 1818-19 [this was in the Mount Lowe "Grand Canyon "] ; 1820-21, built mill at Santa Ynez ; in December, 1820, was pardoned by Gov. Sola, under the king's decree of amnesty ; in
*Don Jose Maria Ortega was one of tlie wealthiest raucheros on the coast. He had 48,000 acres of land along the coast above Santa Barbara [Rancho Neustra Senora del Refugio] granted to him by the viceroy of Mexico in 1797. His second son, Jose Vicente Ortega, who developed and occupied the Refugio ranch, was father of the girl, Guadalupe. Mr. Elwood Cooper informs me that their old ranch house is still standing, near the beach about six miles east of Gaviota landing. There were five sous and two daughters of the original Ortega family who all married and rai.sed families of their own, so that the name has become very numerous. The Bandiuis of Pasadena have a family connection witji the Ortegas. Santiago and Luis Arguello. two brothers of Arturo Bandini's mother, both married Ortega women who were cousins to the one that married Joseph Chapman.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADNIAN. 51
1821-22, built mill at San Gabriel [the one in front of the church] ; on June 24, 1822, he was baptized at San Buena Ventura ; and the same year, probably soon after, he was married at Santa Ynez old Mission to Seno- rita Guadalupe Ortega, and came to San Gabriel again ; in 1824 he bought a house and land from Agustin Machado, in lyos Angeles, and planted 4,000 vines; in 1829 he applied for naturalization as a Mexican citizen, and got it in 1 83 1 ; this same year he built his 60-ton schooner at San Gabriel ; in 1836, lived in Santa Barbara, and by this time had five children;* in 1838, received grant of a sobrante or "remainder " of 5,000 acres of land in the Santa Barbara district; in 1845 to '47, he lived near San Buena Ventura, and died there in 1849. Some of his descendents reside in that region yet. And a grandson of his, John Chapman, now resides on the Aguirre ranch at Ballona, in I^os Angeles county, his wife being a daughter of Francisco Aguirre. This man, John, is said to resemble his grandfather, "Jose el Ingles," in his large stature and great strength.
THE OLD MILL NO. 2, OR CHAPMAN'S MILL.
The old stone mill had proved a failure, as before explained (see page 42), and the following citation is here in point :
"September 25, 182 1, governor orders that the 'pilot prisoner' (Jose Chapman) be sent to build a mill at San Gabriel like that he had built at Santa Ynez. ' ' — Hist. Cal. , Vol. 2. , p. 368. f
So Chapman came to carry out this order. The site chosen was just south of the old Mission church, where the cement ditch forebay, the sluices, the wheel pit, the foundation walls, and other ruins can still be seen [1894]. Water in abundance for domestic uses had been brought by ditch long before, from a stone dam at mouth of Wilson Canyon •,% and the waters of Mission Canyon, San Marino Canyon and the Winston Springs were also trained into the ditch without need of dam. [They were then all three called " Mission Canyon."] But now they wanted more water ; and to meet this need, a stone dam was built at the cienega where the old Indian vil- lage of Acurag-?ia had stood — [the dam and lagoon are still there and still in use, about a quarter of a mile north of the "Sunny Slope " great winery] — and the accumulated waters from this place, afterward called Iva Presa, were also led by a ditch down to the Mission ; this stream and the one from Wil- son Canyon being then both run into the cemented head-storage ditch above the mill.
*The History of Santa Barbara County says : " Joseph Chapman, the hero of the pirate ship, and of the romantic affair with the daughter of the Ortega family, built a house, still standing in the rear of the Episcopal church." Mrs. Reid went and examined this historic old house for me, May 2, 1S95.
fChapman's own statement, as recorded in state documents, was that " he remained here as a prisoner because he was forced, with other persons at the Sandwich Islands, on the expedition of Bou- chard;" sailing: as a privateer of Buenos A5'res, then in revolt against Spain. He had been on a New England whaling ship.
I'" The Mission Fathers built a stone dam at the mouth of the Wilson Canyon, near where the barn stands now, but the earth dam at the head of the Canyon was built by J. De Barth Shorb ; afterwards was rebuilt by Mr. George S. Patton."— A/r. Shorb, in Letter to Dr. Reid, March ig, 1894.
52 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Chapman got his wheel pit as low as he could to advantage, then carried his foundation walls high enough and off to one side enough so that the framed superstructure for grinding room, etc., should be clear from dampness. Col. Warner in his "Historical Sketches," says this mill was built first, and had a horizontal water wheel on the lower end of a vertical shaft and the revolving mill-stone on the upper end, the same as in the stone mill. On both these points he was mistaken. My Spanish inform- ants in telling me about this one called it an "overshot wheel." They knew how it was different from the horizontal wheel in the old stone mill, but of course did not understand the technical terms for different styles of water wheels ; and from my examination and measurements, and tracing of flumes, forebay and tailrace in the ruins, I know it must have been what is called a "breast wheel," as there was not fall enough for an overshot. [Theodore Lopez, who had seen it when a boy, says it was a breast wheel — or at any rate the water went out under the wheel and not over it.] Chap- man made some wooden cogged miter gears to convert horizontal into verti- cal motion ; and this was Mission Mill No. 2, as built in 1821-22.
[Note — The grinding stones of this mill were made from great boulders of gray granite or syenite near the mouth of Santa Anita Canyon, and were laboriously pecked into shape by the Indians. The stones were three feet six inches in diameter and about one foot thick. One of them was broken in two and lay there with the ruins in the Bishop's orchard or garden for many years. In 1889 Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr of Pasadena procured one of the broken halves, and now has it for a doorstep at the west front of her unique residence on Kensington place. The crest of her roof is also laid with tiles made at San Gabriel by the Indians during Padre Zalvidea's administration. I did not learn what became of the other half of the broken mill-stone. Theodore Lopez said the stone that was not broken was taken away to use in a mill somewhere else, but he did not know the place. The grinding stones of the first Mission mill, and also of the Dan Sexton mill, were made from volcanic tufa instead of granite.]
In 1 83 1 Chapman also built a ship (schooner) at San Gabriel, hauled it in parts to San Pedro on ox-carts, then put it together and launched it there. -'= He died in 1849, and in 1876 his descendants were living in Ven- tura county ; but in 1895 his grandson, John Chapman, lives at Ballona, lyos Angeles count5^
GOLD DISCOVERY IN 1 842.
In March, 1842, Francisco Lopez, a grandson of Claudio Lopez, discov- ered gold in a canyon about thirty-five miles northeast from Los Angeles,
*" A launch was to take place at St. Pedro of the second vessel ever constructed in California. She was a schooner ot about sixty tons, that had been entirely framed at St. Gabriel and fitted for subse- quent completion at St. Pedro. Every piece of timber had been hewn and fitted thirty miles from the place, and brought down to the beach upon carts."— /?<?*?«.?j»'i " Life in California," 1832, p. too.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 53
the first that had ever been found by white men in CaHfornia.'*^ It was in the San Fernando valley, on land owned by Ignacio del Valle. And by December, 1843, 2,000 ounces of gold dust had been taken from these mines. Then in 1853-54 gold was found in the foot-hills of the Santa Anita ranch, and in the San Gabriel Canyon, and in our own Eaton, Rubio and Arroyo Seco Canyons. In crossing the old flood-plain of the Baton Canyon outwash above Ivamanda Park, many mysterious-looking deep pits in the sand will be noticed. These were made by the gold-hunters of that period and later time. These were all placer diggings. A quartz mill was put in far up the San Gabriel Canyon some years later. And statistics show that during a period of eighteen years over $2,000,000 worth of gold dust was sold from these San Gabriel, Santa Anita and Eaton Canyon diggings. \Thompson & West Hist. Los A. Co., p. 6/.]
DAN sexton's old ADOBE MILL.
On May 16, 1871, a patent for 22734^ acres of the San Gabriel Mission lands were granted to Daniel Sexton. This man came to California in 1841 in the same company with B. D. Wilson, John Rowland, Wm. Workman Wade Hampton [afterward a famous Confederate General in the war of the Rebellion], and others. f Sexton married one of the Mission Indian women, thus gaining the right under Mexican law to acquire land, and settled at San Gabriel before the United States took California. The old Mission mills were now in ruins, and he thought a mill was needed and might do a good paying business here ; so he put up an adobe structure 1 7x50 feet, with asphaltum roof, expecting to use water from the Ea Presa ditch to drive his mill machinery. His right to this water service was contested ; lawsuits were undertaken ; and finally he lost both the water and the land — and his mill never turned a wheel, t The building still stands, being now used for a dwelling, about one-fourth mile northeast from the East San Gabriel hotel ; the land now belongs to Gov. H. H. Markham, and was occupied in 1894 by Mr. C. M. Smith, as tenant. The millstones had been quarried out from volcanic tufa, the same as those in the old stone mill, and
*Davis, "Sixty Years in Calif," page 222, credits this discovery to "some Mexicans from Sonora who were passing through going north," in 1840. This is a mistake. Lopez showed them some of the dirt in Los Angeles, and they confirmed it as gold-bearing— that is all ; and this was in 1842. Davis also mentions two priests who told him us earlv as 1843-14 that they had knowledge of gold in the Sacra- mento valley from Indians long ago, but they had charged the Indians upon "peril of the wrath of God " not to reveal the secret. Their idea was that if the existence of gold here became known, for- eigners would rush in to hunt for it, and would overrun and take the country. The same charge was made by the priests at San Diego and San Gabriel to Indians who brought them gold dust long before white men had discovered it. And Davis, p. 257-59, relates how in 1850-51 the old chief Zapaje rejected the most tempting bribes that could be ofifered to an Indian, rather than lead them to a gold mine which he had told the priest about 70 years before. In this adventure Davis was accompanied by three Arguellos of San Diego, uncles to our ArturoBandini, and by Gen. Manuel Castro.
fin the official list of the party as recorded at Los Angeles, Feb. 29, 1842, his name is written "Daniel Sinton, carpenter," or at least it has been printed that way from those records. It should be " Sexton ' instead of Sinton. In 1894 he was still living at San Bernardino but died during the year.
JSexton was one of the original owners of the old Orizaba tract, which was not marked on any map that I found, but it included Winston Heights, part of San Marino, and some other lands. He built on his part the very substantial adobe house, now occupied by Mr. N. A. Strain, foreman of Hon. J. De Barth Shorb's San Marino ranch.
k
54 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
were lying there in the house j^ard when I visited it on August 30, 1894, one of them being still unfinished.
Note. — I have taken pains to explain about this " old adobe mill " at San Gabriel, in order to prevent further confusion and misunderstanding from its being confounded with the two old Mission mills.
SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSION,
On January 6, 1831, Governor Echeandia had issued a final decree for secularizing the Missions, and forming them into towns, in accordance with the old Mexican law of September 13, 1823. Elections were ordered to be held on the third and fourth Sundays of January. The twenty-eighth article of this decree said : ' ' With all possible haste a school is to be estab- lished at San Gabriel, in which reading, writing and arithmetic will be taught, as well as the best morals and politics. " * Article 32 said: " Teach- ers to have $40 or $50, according to skill, and to have also $15 for each pro- ficient pupil produced in six months." [See Bancroft, Hist. Cal., Vol. j, p. 306.']
In 1832 there was much civil strife between factions ; and now for the first time Indians were armed, to take part as soldiers in these public quar- rels. In April, Governor Echeandia had a force of soldiers and Indians en- camped at Paso de Bartolo on the San Gabriel river, under Captain Barroso. They marched to Los Angeles ; then in a day or two they went to San Gabriel ; and here they borrowed $20,000 from the Mission treasury, f be- sides forced loans of supplies for men and horses — all which was very gall- ing to the padres, for this was the faction that they were opposed to. Sev- eral writers say there were 1,000 mounted Indians, besides white men.
In 1831-32, while Padre Sanchez was still in control, a schooner of sixty tons burden was framed here at San Gabriel by Joseph Chapman, assisted by an Englishmen named William Antonio Richardson, who claimed to be a carpenter, a shipwright and a pilot. The vessel was hauled in sections on carts to San Pedro, — there put together and launched in 1832, and used in the otter and seal fur trade among the channel islands. A man named Yount was part owner and became captain of this small ship ; and differ- ent accounts have credited each of the three men. Chapman, Richardson and Yount as the builders. But it was Chapman who projected, planned and superintended its building at San Gabriel and cartage to San Pedro. He was the real head and hero of the whole affair until the owners took charge of it at anchor in San Pedro bay.
*This had been the hottest question in Mexican politics for about twenty years, between the Liberal party and the clerical or conservative party. Sometimes one and sometimes the other was in power, so that the padres had never obeyed either the .Sp;inish or the Mexican law in regard to the matter, but held their grip of ecclesiastical dominance till Echeandia finally forced them to obey.
tF.ulalia Perez hid the keys of the money room and refused to give them up, as she was the Mis- sion treasure-keeper ; but the room was broken open, and the |2o,ooothus "borrowed" from the padres, was never returned— for it took all of it and more, too, to pay costs of enforcing the law which they had so long disregarded.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 55
In 1832-33-34 the Mission cattle were slaughtered in droves by con- tract, just to sell the hides — the Mission treasury to receive half and the contractors half.* And Mofras, a French consul here at the time and who wrote a book about this country, says that in 1834, 100,000 hides, 2,500 centals of tallow and several cargoes of soap from San Gabriel were shipped at San Pedro. The fact was simply this : the Mission Fathers were rushing all their portable products into market before the government officers should arrive to take it from tbem.f
In 1834 Colonel Nicolas Gutierrez was sent to San Gabriel as adminis- trator, to take charge of all the property and secular business on behalf of the government, and readjust its affairs.
In 1838 Don Juan Bandini succeeded Gutierrez as administrator. And it is recorded that in June, 1S39, the government visitador general, Hartnell, reported Bandini's accounts all right, and authorized him to "buy $2,000 worth of clothing, to be paid for in brandy." Then on December 31 of same year it appears that Bandini distributed $1,615 worth of clothing among 233 Indians — this being the number then still remaining as neophytes and work people at the Mission. In March, 1840, Bandini reports that he had added 100 trees to the Mission orange orchard, the only one then existing in Cali- fornia. August I, of this year [1840] Bandini retired, the secularization business being about completed; | and all that was left of the Mission prop- erty was placed in charge of the curate. Padre Estenega — but Juan Perez had been major domo since 1837, and he continued to serve under Estene- ga's direction until March i, 1843, when he dropped out, and the padre attended to everything himself for a year or so.
While Don Juan Bandini was administrator his home was at his great Jurupa ranch of seven square leagues which had been granted to him Sep- tember 28, 1838; but part of the time he lived at San Gabriel, occupying one of the padre cottages, as Senora lyopez informs me. In 1841, during his term of office, his father. Captain Jose Bandini died, and was buried under the flagstones of the old church. Then in a few weeks (or months) his daughter Arcadia was married in the church to Don Abel Stearns of Eos
*Gen. M. G. Vallejo, a Mexican commandante, wrote: " In the Missions of San Gabriel, San Fer- nando. San Juan Capistrano, and San Luis Rey, they killed by contract with private individuals, during the years 1830-31-32, more than 60,000 head of cattle, from which they only saved the hides."
tin his MSS. Hist. Southern Cat., Bandini says: "2,000 cattle were killed in a single day atone Mission. [San Gabriel,] the meat and fat being left in the fields " Pio Pico, in his MSS. Hist. Cat., says he " had a contract at San Gabriel, employing ten vaqueros and thirty Indians, and killing over 5,000 cattle." Mrs. Ord, MSS. Occtirances, says she "understood that 30.000 cattle were killed at San Gabriel, and remembers that there were fears of a pestilence from the rotting carcasses."
At that time, as the reader will bear in mind, the rancho San Pasqual or Pasadenaland was a part of San Gabriel. The cattle were killed for their hides only, these being mostly shipped around, Cape Horn to Boston ; they were Mission live stock, and this occurred in the process of secularizing the Mis- sions. Father Gonzales, one of the pioneer missionaries, writing of the Missions as they were in 1833, says: " The richest in population was that of San Luis Key [in San Diego Co.); in temporal things, that of San Gabriel. * * * Twice a year a new dress was given to the neophytes ;" etc.
tin August or September, 1841, Bandini was appointed to manage the temporal affairs of San Juan Capistrano, and to superintend the founding of the pueblo, San Juan de Arguello, as a home place for the now secularized Mission Indians. But on March 7, 1842, he put the whole business into Padre Zalvidea's hands, and on May 30 resigned this commissionership.
I
56 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Angeles, the bride being dressed in mourning,* and having ridden in on horseback from Jurupa [now Riverside], while Don Abel came with his friends from lyos Angeles. And after the nuptial ceremony the whole wed- ding party went to I^os Angeles for the usual social festivities. The youth- ful bride of this occasion, then only sixteen, is now Mrs. Col. R. S. Baker (widow) of L,os Angeles, the wealthiest woman in Southern California. f
SOME SAN GABRIEL ITEMS.
"The earthquake of December 8, 1812, at sunrise, overthrew the main altar, breaking the St. Joseph, the St. Dominic, the St. Francis, and the Christ, damaging the church considerably, bringing down the top of the steeple, and badly cracking the sacristy walls, and injured the friars' houses and other buildings." — Hist. CaL, V^ol. 2, p. j^6.
The wall of the north forebay or water-head cistern at the old stone mill was cracked by this earthquake before a wheel was put in for its spout, and hence the mill never had but one wheel, although built for two. The walls were built so massively solid as they are, in order to withstand earth- quakes, in addition to their possible need as a fortress.
The first orange culture ever attempted in California, was at San Gabriel, from 1820 to '25.
In 1829 the Mission sheep were estimated at 54,000.
Robinson's book, " I^ife in California," written mostly in 1829 to 1835, and published in 1846, gives a picture of this old Mission church as he saw it, and it had a high pointed steeple on it. This was afterward blown down, and the unique five-groined stone belfry, as now seen there, was built in its place. On page 32 Robinson says [1829] :
"There are several extensive gardens attached to this Mission, where may be found oranges, citrons, limes, apples, pears, peaches pomegranates, figs and grapes in abundance. From the latter they make yearly from four to six hundred barrels of wine, and two hundred of brandy ; the sale of which produces an income of more than $12,000. The storehouses and granaries are kept well supplied, and the corridor in the square is usually heaped up with piles of hides and tallow. Besides the resources of the vine- yard, the Mission derives considerable revenue from the sale of grain ; and the weekly slaughter of cattle produces a sufficient sum for clothing and supporting the Indians."
In 1 83 1 Col. J. J. Warner estimated the Mission hogs at 1,000 head — "used chiefly for making soap," he says. The same year the Mission's grape vines were reported to be 50,000. It was this year also that Chapman built a ship here in parts and hauled it to San Pedro in ox-carts. Alfred Robinson, who saw it launched, calls it the Refugio, a schooner of sixty tons burden ; but Bancroft calls it the Guadalupe. This discrepancy is easily explained.
*A Spanish woman who was there at the time told me that the bride not only stood up in mourn- ing attire, but in going to the altar she walked over the flagstone under which her grandfather was buried, and it was talked of as a bad omen for the girl's future, in social gossip.
|-Abel Stearns owned six great ranches in 1868— total 140,000 acres. — Hist. Los Angeles Co.,p.is'i. — Mrs. Baker was assessed in 1S94 on $264,255 valuation in r,os Angeles county.
DIVISION ONK — PRE-PASADENIAN. 57
Guadalupe was the name of Chapman's wife ; and Refugio was the name of her home ranch where he had been captured by the Spanish soldiers, and captivated by the Spanish maiden. This ship was his greatest mechanical achievement; and it bore both names, in romantic commemoration of his wife and her early home.
In December, 1831, Governor Victoria was brought to San Gabriel after being wounded in a battle with insurgents near Cahuenga ; and he was nursed by Eulalia Perez, with Joseph Chapman, the Yankee "pilot prisoner," serving as surgeon pro tern.
In October, 1846, powder was manufactured at San Gabriel for General Flores' army, after Gillespie's U. S. troops had been driven out of lyos Angeles. The powder was poor stuff, but it was all they had in the battles of January, 1847. It was made in an adobe guard-house that stood right where Mr. Silverstein's store is now — 1895.
August 7, 1 85 1, the court of sessions at Los Angeles divided the county into six townships, San Gabriel being one, and Rancho San Pasqual was included in its territory.
July II, 1855, an earthquake made cracks or fissures in the ground at San Gabriel, and threw down the church bells. This accounts for the patched cracks now seen in the belfry walls.
I
CHAPTER III.
Rancho San Pasoual — Gov. Portolo's visit in 1770. — How the ranch was named. — Its first owner a woman in 1827. — The Garfias ownership from 1843. — The Wilson and Griffin ownership, from 1858 ; and sale to the colonists, 1873. — Complete Chain of Title — 1769 to 1874; being the first complete schedule of its various occupancies and ownerships ever written.
FIRST WHITE MAN ON PASADENA SOU..
The initial point of the modern history of Pasadenaland is in January, 1770; and in April of the same year comes the first inkling of the name " San Pascual," as applied to this particular section. In 1769 Gov. Gaspar de Portola, marched overland with an expedition from Loreto in Lower Cali- fornia (the peninsula) to find Monterey bay, then only known from reports made by the navigator Vizcayno, who had discovered it in 1603 — or 166 years previously. Portola's march was made with a total of 64 persons, in- cluding two priests, Crespi and Gomez. Crespi kept a diary. Lieut. Fages, afterward governor of California, was also along, and he wrote accounts of the country and people. On their up trip they crossed the Los Angeles river August ist, 1769, and camped where Los Angeles city now stands. The Indian village of Yang-na was there. August 2d, they staid there to rest, and to prospect their route ahead. In the church calendar it was the
58 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
day of "Saint Mary, Queen of the Angels" ; the two priests celebrated it in due form, and in their diaries they designated that camp by the calendar day. This is how and when the place got its name of " Reina de L,os Angeles." The river they called Rio Porciuncula. August 3d, they marched through the Cahuenga pass to the Indian village of Cabueg-na ; thence on up the south border of the upper Los Angeles valley through Calabasas, and over to Hueneme which was then an Indian village on the beach.* And so on westward. As the company was partly on foot and partly on saddle beasts, they could readily follow the Indian paths from one village to another. All this was of course before any of the California Missions had been established.
In January, 1770, Portola made the return trip eastward over the same route ; but after crossing the Santa Clara river he mistook the trail and wandered farther away from the coast than was intended, finally coming through the Simi pass into the San Fernando valley, near where the village of Chatsworth now stands, and thence across the valley to the region of Pacoima or Dundee on the Southern Pacific R. R., vainly searching for the Rio Porciuncula [Los Angeles river]. He was literally "lost," not knowing how to find his way back to the trail of his outward march ; but he pushed on eastward by way of Glendale and the lower part of Eagle Rock valley, and found the fording place across the Arroyo Seco at Garvanza. The stream was swollen with the winter rains ; he supposed it to be the Rio Porciuncula again, and the priests so recorded it in their diaries. They marched up across the lands where Lincoln Park and South Pasadena are now located, and found there some Indian villages. His men were worn out with hardships of roadless and trackless mountain travel ; their food , supply was exhausted ; and they were indeed in a sorry condition. The Indians here were the Hahamog-na clan and proved to be friendly ; so from them they obtained some dried meat and meal of dried acorns, and halted there a few hours for rest and recuperation. The old chief of this clan, Hahamovic, gave the governor some of their native tobacco {^Nkotiana Begelovii'] axid &vix6k&6i\he " peace pipe " with him. f
In referring to this part of Portola's return march, Bancroft's Hist. Cal., Vol. /, page 16^, foot-note, says : " They finally crossed by the modern stage route via Simi. January i6th to i8th their route through the Los Angeles re- gion was also different but not very clear. On the 17th they crossed the Rio Por-
*■' Ishgua, or Ishguaget, was a rancheria [village] near the mouth of the Saticoy river and not far from the beach. Hueneme was a rancheria on the ocean coast a few miles south of Saticoy river. " — Ventura Mission records, quoted in Bancroft's "Native Races," p. 4S9-
fThis wason January 17th, 1770. " The Capitan, filling his long stemmed pipe with leaves of the wild tobacco, presented it to the Spanish officer, whose supply of the foreign weed had been long ex- hausted. Thus the cousoHug ' Pespihuta,' the Indian name of this plant, became the foundation of a lively traffic between the aborigines and Spaniards, who paid for it in trinkets and hea.<\%."'-.\-Irs.Jeanne C.Carr, tn Hist. Los Ang. Co. [/.ezvis's), p. jij.
"A speciesof tobacco is found on the sandy beaches which the Indians prepare and smoke.'' — Com. IViikes's U. S. Exploring Expd.. Vol. V, p. 202.
" They use a species ot native tobacco of nauseous and sickening odor." — Sc/ioolcraft's Archaeology, Vol. Ill, p. 107.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 59
ciuncula [they thought so at the time but learned better afterward — Ed.], and went on to a valley which they called San Miguel, where San Gabriel Mis- sion afterward stood."
After this rest and refreshment he marched on eastward along the north side of the Mission hills till he came to the Rio San Miguel [the present San Gabriel river], at the point now called Mission Vieja or "Old Mission," where then stood the Indian village of Isanthcog-na, and where the San Gabriel Mission was at first established, about a year and a half later. Here the San Gabriel river makes passage from its upper valley through between the monticle ranges called "Mission hills" westward and " Puente hills" eastward ; and from this point he followed down the river to the place where he had crossed it on his outward march, some distance south of the Mission hills, and so found his lost "old trail " again. Thence southeastward to El Rio Jesus de los Temblores [the Santa Ana river], and so on to San Diego, where the famous Father Junipero Serra was then engaged in starting the San Diego Mission, the first one of the " old Missions " in our California.
In April, 1770, Portola again marched up the coast in search of Mon- terey bay, which he had failed to find [or rather failed to recognize] the year before, but had discovered San Francisco bay instead. This time he went partly over his return route of January, by the line which afterward became the Spanish governmet road from San Diego via San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Fernando (old Mission), San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara and San Euis Obispo to Monterey, and crossing the Arroyo Seco at Lincoln Park or the old Garvanza ford. The poppy fields of Altadena were now all aflame with their redolence of rich golden color spread over thousands of acres ; Easter Sunday was fresh in mind [April], and the pious soldiers called this wonderful poppy field La Sabanilla de San Pascual — the great altar cloth of Holy Easter.*
The original or ' ' Old Mission ' ' San Gabriel was formally commenced Sept. 8th, 1771. This was at the place still known as "Old Mission," or Mission Vieja, near where the San Gabriel river passes through the line of Mission Hills that form the southern boundry of what is called in general terms the ' ' San Gabriel Valley. ' ' There was already an Indian village at this place, called in their language hanthcog-na. The river had before been called Rio San Miguel by the Spaniards, but from this time it was called Rio San Gabriel, and the Indians of the region began to be called the San Gabriel Indians. In 1775 the Mission was removed to the Indian vil- lage of Sibag-na,t where the famous old church still stands, surrounded by the fnodern village of San Gabriel. The church building erected at the
* " La Sabanilla de San Pascual was the name given by Spanish sailors to the vast fields of poppies seen from far out at sea, the same glorious altar cloth, or bridal veil, which adorns the foot-hills of North Pasadena with the return of every spring." — Mrs.Jeantie C. Carr, in Hist. Los Aug-. Co.
t " The village of Sisit Canog-na was only a mile and a half further north, where the Misiion pear orchard afterward stood, and now known as the Cooper place, occupied by Isaac and Thomas Cooper. Two of these old Mission pear trees are bearing yet. I saw them loaded vvith blossoms April 7th, 1895.
6o HISTORY OF PASADENA.
orignal site was of adobe bricks, and some fragments of its walls may be seen there yet. The first church built at the new site was also adobe, a short distance north of the present stone edifice ; but its walls were cracked by an earthquake and made unsafe ; and about 1791 work was commenced on the stone church. In 1797 the stone church was about half finished and partly occupied. In 1800 it was still unfinished. In 1804 foundation was laid for some additional portion of the great structure. These various changes of site, and the long slow progress of work on the present stone edifice, with occasional change of plan and change of priest, gave rise to conflicting reports as to dates in the matter, so that I found variations among different authors amounting to a difference of over twenty years as to when this stone church was built. It was about fifteen or sixteen years being built. Now, the point I was coming at is, that sometime while the Mission remained at the old site, the Indian chief, Hahamovic, who had befriended Gov. Portola and his famished men at South Pasadena [their village being near the Garfias Spring], was baptized at this Old Mission and given the name "Pascual," from the fanciful name " La Sabanilla de San Pascual," which had been given to the vast cloth-of-gold poppy fields within or bor- dering, his tribal domain, that comprised both sides of the Arroyo Seco from South Pasadena to the mountains ; and his tribe were thenceforth known as the Pascual Indians. [Chief Pascual afterward married a white woman named Angela Seise, and lived at San Gabriel to a very old age.] Then, after the Mission was removed to its present site, and the old Mill erected [about i8ioto 181 2], and the Wilson Lake dammed up for irrigation purposes and to run a saw mill, etc. , these Indians were reduced to heavy servitude, and proved a very important factor in producing the wealth for which the San Gabriel Mission became famous, even exceeding all others in California ; but they also specially served as herders and shepherds.* This mill was in- tended to be the source of breadstuff for the San Fernando, San Buenaven- tura and Santa Barbara Missions, and all the outlying settlements ; and the main road leading to the Mill and the Mission from these western localities is still called the Monterey road. It crossed the Arroy Seco at lyincoln Park or Garvanza, where there was always a good fording place, just below the present county bridge at that point. The cement quarry in the Lincoln Park hills, where the reservoir is now, was then worked by Indians and its pro- duct hauled in heavy ox-carts [carretas], to the other Missions — even as far as Monterey, away up the coast almost to San Francisco.
RANCHO SAN PASQUAL's FIRST OWNER.
In 1806 Father Jose Maria Zalvidea was removed from San Fernando to the San Gabriel Mission and placed at the head of its affairs, a position
* "After the removal of Mission San Gabriel toils present site, the San Pascual Indians were employed as herders; the ' bell mare,' fleetest and most beautiful of the padres' stock, ranged in the glades and led the band of wild horses to crop the grasses of the Altadena uplands."— Mrs. Jeanne C Carr, Hist. Los Ang. Co., p. 314.
DIVI.SION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 6 1
which he held with distinguished success for twenty years. It was during his administration that the old stone mill and the great stone dam at Wilson's lake were built ; saw mill, tannery, tallow chandler}^, spinning rooms, weav- ing works, saddle factory, and other industries were established and pushed to success ; large orchards and vineyards planted, and water brought in ditches from long distances to irrigate extensive field crops as well as fruits. All this in addition to what had been done by his predecessors ; and thus he brought the Mission to the highest degree of industrial and commercial suc- cess ever reached by any Mission in California. But in the height of his career, and when he had plans under way for a still farther increase of business and pretige for this Mission, he was in 1826 removed by order of the Friar President to San Juan Capistrano ; * and Friar Jose Bernardo Sanchez was placed in charge of the San Gabriel Mission.
During Zalvidea's administration there had resided at San Gabriel a devout, motherly woman named Eulalia Perez de Guillen, a Spanish lady of purest blood, who had won high repute as a midwife and nurse, and was in attendance upon Senora Pico when her son Pio Pico [afterward twice made Governor of California], was born May 5th, 1801. Eulalia Perez had taken an earnest and practical interest in the welfare of the Indians, especially the women — teaching them the arts, decencies and religious sentiments o^ civilized life as best she could, and was a sort of Mother Superior to them in her devotion and zeal for the church. For several years before Zalvidea's removal from San Gabriel in 1826, the matter of secularizing the Mission lands had been agitated ; for as early as Sept. 13th, 1823, the Mexican Con- gress had passed a law for this purpose, which however was repealed and reenacted, ordered enforced and then countermanded several times, and was not finally enforced until about ten years later. Eulalia had been so helpful and faithful in works of the churchf that Father Zalvidea wished to provide for her in her old age by securing to her a large body of land, before the Mission authority should be entirely broken up ; X accordingly he prepared a deed to her of 3 J^ square leagues of land in the northwest portion of lands belonging to the San Gabriel Mission. This deed was sent to Father San- chez, who also knew right well of Senora Eulalia 's life-long labors for the good of others ; and he approved and ratified it on Easter Day [called ' ' San
* Zalvidea served here until 1842, when he was sent to San Luis Rey Mission, and died there early in 1846.
tEulalia's husband, Antonio Guillen, was one of the King's soldiers stationed at San Diego when that Mission was first founded. But later he was sent to San Gabriel, and was there with his family in 1801. Then, some time before 1812 he was sent back to San Diego, and his daughter Maria de Los Angeles was born there in that year. Later he fell sick; his son Theodore took his place as soldier of the Mission guard ; and about 1821 he returned with his family to San Gabriel [the daughter above meutioned tells me she was nine vears old when they came], and died here. Eulalia had eleven children, as follows :
Peira— daughter. Jose fa— daughter [died young], Jose/a again— daughter. Tomas— son. Domttigo-- son. Theodore— son. Lavreta-d&ui^hter. Maria /1m/o«zo— daughter. Maria de los Atigeles-Aaughter [still living, the widow Lopez of San Gabriel]. Maria del /?oi(zrro— daughter, /fz/a— daughter, stiH living, Senora de la Ossa, at San Gabriel,— and her son Fabricio de la Ossa is deputy sheriff there— 1S95.
X " To secure lands for farming purposes, it was in former years necessary to get the written con- sent of the Missionary under whose control they were, ere the government could give legitimate posses- sion, therefore their acquisition depended entirely upon the good will of the Friar."— Z.i/f in Calijornia; Robinson, p. 218.
62
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Pascual" in the Spanish language], 1827 ; and the ranch thus took its name from the name of the day in the church calendar on which it was first for- mally deeded to individual ownership. Thus Eulalia Perez de Guillen became the first person who ever held civil tenure of the land where Pasa- dena now stands ; and of this worthy woman, Dr. J. P. Widney, in " Cali- fornia of the South," page 154, says :
"In 1878 [June 8] Eulalia Perez de Guillen died here [San Gabriel Mission], aged one hundred and forty-three years, she having been born at Loreto in Lower California, in 1735. The age of Senora de Guillen has been established beyond a doubt."
In May. 1890, Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr wrote a strong article in the Sacra- mento Record- Union advocating state division ; and in it she says incident- ally, that she spent the winter of 1869-70 in L,os Angeles, and sometimes rode out across the rancho San Pasqual to visit B. D. Wilson's place, and the old San Gabriel Mission, — and adds: "I found Eulalia Perez, the first owner of rancho San Pasqual, where Pasadena now stands, who had, in the practice of her profession (midwifery) brought Gov. Pio Pico, and nearly all the venerable persons of local distinction, into the world ; waiting for the hand which should preserve the interesting story of her life."*
She waited in vain for an earthly biog- rapher; but the recording angel's book of life tells how unselfishly she worked more than a hundred years for the good of others.
A daughter of this woman, Senora Maria Guillen de I,opez, is still living at San Gabriel, a widow aged eighty-three years. She was born at San Diego in 181 2,t but was raised at San Gabriel. Her husband was a son of the historic Claudio lyopez who held the ofiice of major domo at San Gabriel for thirty- six years, and superintended the building of the stone mill and the stone dam at Wilson's lake, as well as the stone ditch and water walls of the later one called "Chap- man's mill," which are still visible across the street south from the old Mission church. Her son, Mr. Theodore lyOpez, aged forty- five, also resides at San Gabriel — an intelli- gent and well-informed gentleman, who speaks the English language well, although
*''Another old lady, Senora Kulalia Perez de Guilleu, died here [San Gabriel] in 1S78, at the ripe old age of one hundred and forty [143] years. She was born below San Diego, in Lower California, in 1735, three years after the birth of Georse Washington; in 7S54 she married Francisco Villabobas de Zavin. who died aged one hundred and twelve years." — Prof. C. F. Hnlder, in " All About Pasadfva.'^ p. 4./.
This is all a mistake as to her marrying Villabobas in 1854, or any other time. Her second hus-
EULALIA PEREZ DE GUILLEN
Photo taken in i!S77, less than a year
before she died
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 63
Spanish is his mothers tongue. On August 30, 1894, ^^^ five or six times afterward, I had long interviews with him and his mother in regard to old matters of the Mission. They are frank-hearted, candid people, telling things to the best of their recollection ; and I gathered from them particu- lars about the historic old mills and other information nowhere found in print.
THE GARFIAS OWNERSHIP.
In 1844 Dona Encarnacion, widow of Don Francisco Abila, took the ranch ; put on to it the number of horses, horned cattle and sheep which the Mexican law required to make a claim valid ; built an adobe house at the historic spring on the Arroyo bluff, which had aforetime supplied the aborigines, and now supplies I^incoln Park with pure water ; sent her major domo there to superintend the ranch; paid Jose Perez's family for their im- provements, and used the adobe house which Perez had built for her vaqueros to live in. Thus Dona Encarnacion was the real founder of the rancho, as an industrial enterprise. It had been granted to her new son- in-law, lyieut.-Col. Garfias, November 28, 1843, by Gov. Micheltorena ; and she took it in hand to manage it, while he attended to his soldier business. The Pasadena titles all trace to Garfias's U. S. patent, 1863.
THE GARFIAS FAMILY.
Don Manuel Garfias first came to California in August, 1842, as a young Lieut. -Colonel in Gov. Micheltorena' s army, which stopped at San Diego awhile, but came to Los Angeles in September. Here they remained three months, the Governor's staff and array officers enjoying almost a con- tinual round of feasting and dancing, with bull fights, bear baiting, cock- fighting, and other national sports. And in the midst of it all, young Garfias fell in love with Senorita Luisa, the beautiful daughter of Dona En- carnacion Abila, she being then a belle in the highest circles of Spanish society. And the young couple were married in January or February, 1843. In November, a girl baby was born to Lieut. -Col. Garfias ; and as he was a favorite with the fatherly old governor, Micheltorena, that dignitary now gave him a grant of rancho San Pasqual, which would make a "Don" of him, and put him on a social footing with the family and relatives of his wife. This grant bears date of November 28, 1843, a few months before Garfias's mother-in-law. Dona Encarnacion, took possession of the ranch and stocked
band was Juan Marina, a gentleman from Spain — married about 1832. Eulalia's daughters and grand- sons at San Gabriel had never heard of this Villabobas story until I asked them about it, and they were quite indignant that such a misstatement had been published.
fAccording to Dr. Widney's dates, Eulalia was seventy-seven years old when this daughter was born ; and she had another daughter [now Senora Rita de la Ossa of San Gabriel] born still later; hence I thought Dr. Widney's statement as to Eulalia's age could not be correct. But Mr. T. F. Barnes, of the great printing house oi Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner Co , L,os Angeles, assures me that he knew a Spanish- Mexican woman at Phoenix, Arizona, who had an eight-pound daughter born when she was reputed to be eighty years old. He weighed the baby himself; then took pains to investigate as to the woman's age, and found that she was really seventy- four years old, instead of eighty. So we thought Southern California climate might easily beat Arizona by four or five years on the baby question, without straining the record.
64 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
it. On February 20-21, 1845, occurred the battle of Cahuenga, which resulted in Micheltorena being forced to return to Mexico, with all his im- ported troops, and Pio Pico being again made governor of California. [For account of this battle, see Chap. 17.] Garfias, however, did not return, but remained here with his family. And on May 7, 1846, Gov. Michel- torena's grant to him of rancho San Pasqual was confirmed by the depart- mental assembly, then in session at lyos Angeles, and by Gov. Pio Pico; for by this time Dona Encarnacion had fully complied with the law as to live stock and improvements on the land.
During the military operations of the Mexican war period, 1846-47, Gar- fias took horses from this ranch to mount the soldiers of his own command. And after the defeats of January 8 and 9, 1847, it was from their camp on this ranch that he and Gen. Flores started back to old Mexico, while Gen. Andres Pico made the capitulation with Col. Fremont. When Gen. Scott finally captured the City of Mexico, in September, 1847, the whole Mexican army became prisoners of war, Garfias included. The prisoners were of course paroled ; and Garfias returned to Ivos Angeles, where he became an American citizen under the treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States. In 1850 he was one of the regidores [councilmen] of I^os Angeles ; and in 1850-51 he served as county treasurer. In 1852-53 he built his great and costly adobe house or hacienda on rancho San Pasqual — a sort of country palace according to the fashion of the time — near by where Dona Encarnacion had built a house for her major domo in 1844. In 1853 his son Manuel E. was born here ; and in 1855 his son Mariano Jose al- so— the first white race children ever born on the ranch. In 1858-59 60 he was in Mexico and took part in the contests between Gen. Miramon's faction and President Juarez, for he seems to have still held the rank of Lieut. -Col. in the Mexican army. In 1869 or '70 President Grant appointed him U. S. consul at Tepic, in Mexico ; and the Centennial History of lyos Angeles, county [1876] speaks of him as then living at Tepic. In 1895 tie is living in the City of Mexico, as I learn from his brother-in-law, Theodore Rimpau,of Anaheim.
Mrs. Garfias was a woman of superior mind, like her mother before her, the latter being a Sepulveda, and aunt to Hon. Ignacio Sepulveda, who served with honor, ability and good repute as judge of the Los Angeles dis- trict and county courts from 1870 to 1884 — and had also been assemblyman in 1864-65. As soon as American or English-speaking schools were opened in Eos Angeles she sent her boys to them. This was protested against by her Spanish friends, and especially by the church influence ; but she replied that it was plain enough the Americans were going to fill up and occupy this coun- try; itsbu.siness would be done in the English language ; and she did not want her boys to come up with the disadvantage of not being able to both read and speak the business language of the country. This was at once a moth-
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADKNIAN. 65
erly and stateswomanly view of the case, and she had the force of character to carry it out. While Don Manuel Garfias was serving as U. S. consul in Mexico she put her boys into college there, and lived in the City of Mexico herself for some years to give them her motherly oversight. Wm. Heath Davis of San Francisco in his book " Sixty Years in California," p. 312-13, gives the following narrative :
' ' Dona Luisa Abila de Garfias, a California lady, born in the city of Los Angeles, a relative of two noted families there of great wealth and married to a citizen of Mexico, — was attractive for her remarkably fine personal ap- pearance and superior conversational powers. On Christmas, 1880, she was visiting in San Diego, and I was interested in her account of her life in the City of Mexico, where she had lived for a number of years. Although fifty- six years of age she had not a gray hair in her head. The lady relates that when Juarez was elected president of the Mexican Republic, Miramon with his forces opposed him, and designed effecting his capture, so as to prevent him taking the ofiice. [1858.] Dona Luisa, having large estates in Los An- geles county, plenty of resources and ready money (as had her husband also), proposed to Juarez to furnish him with means, horses, escort, funds — everything needed for him and his family to make a safe retreat to the mountains, where he could remain until such time as his friends should or- ganize a sufficient force to defeat Miramon and his schemes, after which he could safely take the position of president of the Republic. Juarez accepted her proposal, and she actually carried the plans into effect, with entire suc- cess. Subsequently, during the administration of Juarez, her friendly ser- vices in his behalf were duly recognized, and appreciation accorded from Mrs. Juarez also. Don Garfias, the husband, distinguished himself in the engagements of the Californians against Commodore Stockton at San Gabriel [ford] in the winter of 1846-47, having then a command in the native forces. In that fight he behaved bravely. Subsequently he acted as United States consul at Tepic, Mexico."*
PASADENA'S FIRST BOYS.
I will now give a sketch of Mrs. Garfias' two sons — the first white race children ever born on Pasadena soil. In 1 869-70 Byron O. Clark, now of Pas- adena, and his father-in-law, B. F. E. Kellogg, bought a 640-acre farm at Anaheim, and the first man they hired to work for them was Manuel E. Garfias, t then [spring of 1870] about seventeen years old, having been born at the Garfias hacienda of Rancho San Pasqual in 1853. On October 29, 1870, the Anaheim Gazette newspaper was started by a man named G. W. Barter, and young Garfias went there to learn the printer's trade ; and he was at work in the office when Chas. A. Gardner [now of the Pasadena
*It isinteresting to note that our Pasadenaland Garfias family was on Ihe right side iu this contest. Miramon led the anti-liberal or clerical party in rebellion against Juarez, the lawful President, in 1S5S to i860. But he was utterly defeated and made his escape to Europe ; there he aided in workuigupthe Max- imilian scheme of Empire, under patronage of Louis Napoleon ; he came back to Mexico as one of Maxi- milian's chief officers, and was captured and shot with that misguided prince in 1S67. So our Pasadena family bore a part in stirring historic events iu Mexico as well as here. By collating some documents which I specially obtained from the City of Mexico, with other records in California, I gather that Gar- fias was a Lieut. -Colonel in the regular Mexican army when he first came to Los Angeles in 1842 ; and he had a brother who was a Colonel in the army in Mexico.
tHe was then living in the family ;f Theodore Rimpau, whose wife, Francisca, was sister to Mrs. Garfias.
66 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Daily Star~\ bought it in 1871. Young Garfias had attended English schools both in lyos Angeles and Anaheim, and was reckoned the smartest boy in school to "speak apiece" — hence he was much in demand for entertain- ment occasions, and naturally enough was somewhat proud of it. Sub- sequently he attended St. Vincent's college in Los Angeles, and graduated there. Then he went back to Mexico and studied law — but at last drifted into miHtary life, won his way step by step, and finally reached the rank of General. He was killed in battle in Honduras in April, 1893, while com- manding troops in defense of the lawful government of that republic to which he had offered his services against insurgents.
In my researches upon this family I procured documents from the City of Mexico ; and in a Mexican publication called El Universal^ dated Febru- ary 21, 1 89 1, there was a sketch of this Pasadena boy which Arturo Bandini kindly translated for me, and from it I quote this passage :
' ' The love of country and the career of arms is traditional in the Garfias family ; valor also is a hereditary trait. The father of our young Colonel [afterward General] was Lieut. -Col. Manuel Garfias who fought bravely in upper California against the Americans till the end of that war. Another Col. Garfias, an uncle of Don Mariano and his brother our present subject, is well known in our history as having occupied military positions above any other one of equal rank, his probity, valor and talents in military af- fairs being fully recognized. Worthy son and nephew of these military chief- tains is young Col. Garfias, born in the flourishing city of Los Angeles [on rancho San Pasqual — now Pasadena], upper California, thirty-nine years ago [1852]. He was educated in the colleges of that state, receiving his diploma therefrom.* In early youth he devoted himself for some time to the study of law ; but he had missed his vocation ; his love and destiny was the military profession. He had ancestors from whom to inherit it ; and as his father and uncle were called to fill distinguished careers of arms, he determined to follow in their footsteps. ' '
Mariano Jose Garfias, the second boy born on Pasadena soil, is now a reputable lawyer in the City of Mexico ; and he had the distinguished honor of being secretary and sub-delegate of the Mexican Commission to the great Columbian World's Fair at Chicago in 1893.
JUDGE EATON'S ACCOUNT OF THE GARFIAS HOUSE.
" I came onto the San Pasqual Rancho, the present site of Pasadena, in December, 1858. This Rancho was a Spanish grant made to Don Manuel Garfias, a Captain [Lieut. -Col.] in the Mexican army who served in the de- fense of his country when the Americans under Commodore Stockton and Fremont invaded this section. The Mexican grant, which called for three and a half square leagues (about 14,000 acres), was issued during Governor Pico's administration in 1846 — only two years before the treaty of Hidalgo. The only house on the rancho was the hacienda, located on the east bank of
*St. Vincent's college at Los Angeles w».s started in 1S67 ; and Manuel E. Garfias and Arturo Ban- dini were students there together.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 67
the Arroyo Seco, on land now owned by G. W. Glover in South Pasadena, and was occupied by the grantee, together with his wile, Dona Luisa, and a large family of children. =i^ Mrs. Garfias was a niece [sister's daughter] of Don Jose Sepulveda who was the father of Hon. Ignacio Sepulveda, for some years presiding judge of this district.
"The Garfias hacienda was at that time one of the finest country estab- lishments in Southern California. It was a one-and-a-half story adobe building, with walls two feet thick, all nicely plastered inside and out, and had an ample corridor extending all around. It had board floors, and boasted of green bHnds — a rare thing in those days. This structure cost $5,000 — in fact, it cost Garfias his ranch, for he had to borrow money to build it, and the prevailing rates of interest were four per cent per month — to be compounded if not paid when due.f The title of the property passed into the hands of Dr. John S. Grifiin of I^os Angeles, by purchase just before I first came out here; and as my wife's health seemed to be failing in lyos Angeles and the change was recommended, I determined to take up my resi- dence here To prepare for this step I left my wife and two children (Mary, now Mrs. H. M. Johnston, and Fred, late city engineer of Los Angeles) with her sister, Mrs. Dr. Griffin, and came out myself with stock, etc., tak- ing possession of the premises just before Christmas, 1858. [It was in 1858 that Dr. Griffin loaned Garfias $8,000, as he told me. — Ed.]
" No attempt had ever been made to divert the waters of the Arroyo upon the ranch lands, so that cultivation of them was impracticable except for such crops as would mature with the winter rains — chiefly wheat and barley. I had brought with me quite a little herd of American cows which I had been gathering and raising for years, and I did not at that time turn my attention to anything but stock, and dairy produce. My wife did not live to join me here, but lingered until the following May. Her death broke up my plans, and in July following I rented my dairy stock and left the ranch — not returning again until February, 1865."
Some further historic incidents connected with the original San Pasqual ranch house (the "Garfias adobe" as it was familiarly called by Pasadena's early settlers) may here be noted. On the brink of the Arroyo bluff" a few rods from the house a bountiful spring gurgled out under a great spreading oak tree, and this spring was the determining cause for locating the house here. The Indians had one of their villages near here when the Spaniards first came in January, and again in April, 1770. This spring is now closely boxed up and its waters piped to Lincoln Park, where it furnishes the sup- ply for domestic and irrigation purposes in that oak-embowered settlement.
*The Garfias children were six : three hoys— Enrique, born at Los Angeles, was sheriff at Phcenix, Arizona, in 1S94-95, and had been deputy U. S. marshal before. Manuel E., the General, and Mariano Jose, the lawyer, as before explained. Three girls, Angelina Salome — now Mrs Lambeck of San Diego. Manuelita — now Mrs. Alejandro Sabin of Tia Juana. Laura — now Mrs. Lainesse of San Francisco. The girls were all born at Los Angeles.
t"In 1851 a common interest of money wns five per cent, per month often ten per cent. ; a rate that commenced in iS4S-'49, with the loans of John Temple to the hundreds eager to share in the ' bonanza ' atany sacrifice." —YCententiial Hist. Los A. Co., p. 4^.
68 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
During the boom days of 1886-87, G. W. Glover, Sr., laid off hisland, which included the site of the old Garfias hacienda, into town lots, and this made it necessary to pull down all that remained of the heavy adobe walls and grade the ground. This was done in November, 1888. Cottages have been built on each side of it, but the lot where the historic old hacienda stood is still vacant (1894) and now owned by Geo. W. Glover, Jr., editor of the South Pasadenan.
While engaged in building his ranch house, Senor Garfias made a road up over the Arroyo hills nearly opposite the head of Colorado street, to get timber from a fine sycamore grove which then grew on what is now known as the Campbell-Johnson ranch. That old road was quite a con- spicuous object, in plain view from Pasadena for nearly twenty years, and had been facetiously dubbed " Fremont's Trail " by D. M. Berry, the col- ony secretary ; the name stuck, and the majority of early Pasadenians really believed that Gen. Fremont had made that road ; but Fremont never saw nor heard of it. Garfias made it, and the rafters for his house and timbers for the rear veranda, besides poles and posts for corrals and various other uses were all hauled or dragged down that miscalled "Fremont's trail." It is now (1895) almost entirely obliterated by the grading and improve- ments made by Mr. J. W. Scoville on those Arroyo hills. As this " Garfias adobe" was the one historic manor house of Pasadenaland, I quote here an- other account of it published some years ago :
"The wood work was mostly of Oregon pine. The posts which sup- ported the projecting roof were of redwood. The interior was plastered and nicely finished throughout. It was the finest country house in L,os Angeles county, but it cost Garfias the ranch. When interest on the borrowed money amounted to $1,000, and he saw no way to pay it, he went to Dr. Grifiin and told him that if he would give him $2,000 more he would make him a deed for the ranch. Griffin did not want the place,* and he would never have foreclosed the mortgage ; but to oblige Garfias the $2,000 ad- ditional was paid over, and the Doctor received the deed for the ranch, which contained nearly 14,000 acres."
Dr. Griffin informed me in July, 1895, that Garfias built his hacienda in about 1853, and it was not till 1858 that he [Griffin] loaned Garfias $8,000 (not $3,000 as has been commonly reported), taking security on the land. And when the additional $2,000 was furnished Garfias, it was to pay for the personal property — the farm implements, tools, work horses, oxen, etc., that were then on the ranch. It was thought at the time by business men of Los Angeles that he had paid a great price for the place.
*Ex-Mayor Spence of Los Angeles in a public speech at Pasadena's great Citrus Fair in 18S5, said that when he first rode over rancho San Pasqual in the early '6o's he would not have given twentj'-five cents an acre for it~in fact he would have hesitated to take it as a free gift and agree to pay taxes "on it. And in 1S74, when B. D. Wilson made a free gift to the Orange Grove colony of 1400 acres up where Al- tadena now lies, the colony men generallv R^lt that they could not afford to accept it; but on learning that the taxes were all paid they ventured to risk its acceptance.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 69
THE WILSON AND GRIFFIN OWNERSHIP.
The next step in the evolutional progress of San Pasqual Rancho was in 1867, when B. D. Wilson and Dr. Griffin as joint owners had a ditch made to convey the waters of the Arroyo Seco from Devil's Gate up onto the second bottom, with a view to irrigate the land and raise alfalfa hay for summer feeding of their ranch stock. -'^ Judge Eaton had the job of making the ditch, which was at first only a small dirt-bed channel, and extended down to the knoll or rise of ground east of the old Tirrell house where John W. Wilson resided from 1871 till 1890. Judge Eaton also "bossed the job" of building this adobe tenant house, which was for the use of a man named Tirrell, who was then engaged in working the land, while a man named Sam Kramer had charge of the stock ranging on the ranch. The al- falfa land, to keep the stock ofi" from it, was fenced with pickets and posts brought down over the old trail from Wilson's Peak ; and the house was roofed with shakes from the same source, some of which can be seen there yet [1894]. This Wilson ditch was the first attempt made to lead the waters of the Arroyo Seco out upon the summer-desert mesa lands and make them habitable by civilized man ; and it presented to the eye in a most striking manner the famous California illusion of "water running up hill."
COMPLETE CHAIN OF TITLE OF RANCHO SAN PASQUAL, FROM 1 769 TO 1 874.
There has been some variance of opinion and an occasional dispute as to who originally owned the Rancho San Pasqual ; and semi-occasionally a rumor is whispered around that somebody, somehow, somewhere, is going to rip up the title, and play smash generally with the conveyance tenures of its present occupants. I have therefore taken pains to collect and prepare a succinct schedule of dates, names and conveyance of title from the first — a body of most valuable historical matter which has never before been collect- ed or made public.
In 1769 the Spanish crown first took formal possession and made occu- pancy of Upper California, under Gov. Portola, although certain navigators had claimed the country for Spain nearly a century before. (See Chap i.)
In 1 77 1 the Mission San Gabriel was established, and it took possession of the territory now comprised in Eos Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties. Its tenure and jurisdiction of this territory was in ac- cordance with Spanish law, and had the special sanction, confirmation and support of the Spanish sovereign.
In March, 1826, Father Zalvidea was removed from his position as Friar Superior ot San Gabriel, which he had held for twenty years, and sent to San Juan Capistrano. He had overworked himself and everybody else at
*In the county assessment of 185S B. D. Wilson is taxed on $20,648 valuation ; Dr. J. S. Griffin on $15,000 ; and Abel Stearns on $[86,586. But Stearns' assessment included property which rightly be- longed to his father-in-law, Don Juan Bandini, who had trusted him to manage his estates.
70 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
San Gabriel, in his zeal to make it a great success, till he had fallen into a state of exploitive monomania ; for he was then negotiating for an enormous purchase of iron to build iron fences around the gardens and orchards of the Mission — a preposterous and crazy project.* These were reasons enough for his removal, without imagining "jealousy," as Bancroft and other writers have done.f
At San Juan Capistrano he prepared a deed for three and a half square leagues of land to Eulalia Perez de Guillen and sent it to Father Sanchez, his friend and successor at San Gabriel. The Mexican government having become independent of Spain in 1822, had already twice passed decrees for secularizing the Missions ; and although these decrees were not enforced, the work of disintegration and gradual breaking up had commenced — and these two priests wished to provide for this faithful and devoted woman in her old age, for her life had been " full of good works." Zalvidea had ver- bally promised or given her the ranch some time before, but no deed of it was made out until after he went to San Juan Capistrano. Then he sent it to Padre Sanchez, who accordingly [as the story goes] on Easter Day ("San Pasqual" in Spanish), 1826, J confirmed and ratified at San Gabriel the deed to Eulalia Perez de Guillen, of the body of land thenceforth known as " Rancho San Pasqual." This was in due accord with Spanish and Mexi- can law at the time, and was thus a valid title as far as it zvent ; but Eulalia was old, and had no skill or knowledge in matters of law and had no one to act for her who knew any more as to what further steps were necessary on her part than she did herself; and the result was that her deed was never entered on the civil records. Likewise the law required certain buildings to be erected on such land grants, and a prescribed amount of horses, sheep and cattle to be maintained there, etc., in order to complete the title ;§ but she and her family failed to fulfill these conditions, and consequently of course her claim became forfeited. I did not succeed in finding this original deed nor any copy of it, but I did find and talk with people who had seen it while it was preserved in the family, for her death did not occur un- til June 8, 1878, at San Gabriel. Her grandson, Theodore Eopez, told me
*" He purchased large quantities of iron with the intention of railing in all of the vineyards and gardens." — Hugo Heid.
t"Two aged missionary friars resided here [San Juan Capistrano, April, 1S29], Padre Geroninio Bos- caua, and Padre _/oi^ Maria Zalvidea — the latter though at this time secluded and apparentlj' weak in mind, once took an active and laborious part in the management of the Missions." — Robinson's "Life in Cah/ornia," p. z8.
Boscana was afterward sent to San Gabriel, and died there Julys, 1831. Padre Zalvidea was still living in 1840-41, in active service among the Mission Indians of San Juan Capistrano and vicinity. He died at San Luis Rev early in 1846, while still on duty as a missionary to the Indians, especially those of Snn Pasqual village.
IZalvidea was transferred in March, only two or three weeks before Easter Sunday, and he sent the deed up to San Gabriel in time to have it officially ratified by Sanchez on that day, 1826 (1827, in top line of page 62, is a misprintl.
{i At thai lime Monterey was the capital, and the deed would have to be taken there for record, a transaction which of course would involve considerable expense ; and she was very poor, besides being then already verv old. Also, she had no money to buy stock for the ranch, nor to build a house and live there. This explains how it happened that she failed to complete her title and hold the ranch.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 7 1
that the last he heard of the deed was that Felipe Lugo had it. Don Felipe was justice of the peace in 1840 (when the ranch was granted to Knrique Sepulveda and Jose Perez), and again in 1850.
Some years after the ranch had been given to old Eulalia, there came to vSan Gabriel a fine appearing gentleman of straight Castilian blood, recently from Spain, Juan Marine by name, who had held for a while some public office at San Diego. He wooed the aged Eulalia and married her. But they did not get along well together ; so they agreed to divide their property and go apart. Eulalia took his bit of land and house where the San Gab- riel public school now stands, for her portion, and gave to Marine the Rancho San Pasqual, which was solely hers.
[Note. — I made nine unsuccessful trips hunting for documents on this Marine case, to E. Sorabjee, and the district court, and the federal court, and to G. W. Hughes, and to Hervey Lindley ; but a tenth eflfort proved successful after this chapter was in type, ready for press. And I find that in 1833, Don Juan Marine [pronounced Mar-e-7iay] was in possession of "Rancho el Rincon de San Pascual. " December 27, 1833, the governor' made inquiry about it of the City Council of Eos Angeles. They replied : ' ' Juan Marine has all the requisites required by law to be heard in his petition." In February, 1835, Governor Figueroa granted the ranch to Marine. In 1838 Marine died. April i, 1839, Fruto Marine, his son, sold his interest in the ranch to Jose Perez for " six horses and ten head of cattle." In July of same year Antonio Silva and Deciderio Belardi (sons- in-law of Marine) and his two other sons, Filomeno and Rafaela Marine, sold their interests to Jose Perez, — but as to Chino Silvas, another son-in- law, I did not find whether he sold or not. The Marine family had some crops on the ranch, but apparently never built any permanent house on it, nor stocked it according to law. Jose Perez built the adobe house which still stands, and lived there in 1839-40. His heirs finally sold their interest to Dona Encarnacion Abila ; she stocked the place as the law required, being the first person to do this ; and her rights all passed over to her son-in-law, Don Manuel Garfias. — Ed.]
The first white man who ever made a home on Rancho San Pasqual was Jose Perez, a son of Eulalia's cousin, Esteban Perez. Jose's wife was Merced Eugo, sister to his uncle Eranio Perez's wife ; but after Jose's death she married the American, Stephen C. Foster, who was the first alcalde [mayor and judge] of Eos Angeles under American rule — 1847-48-49, and was a member and secretary of the first State Constitutional convention of California, being a graduate of Yale College and a proficient scholar in the Spanish language. Jose Perez built the west E of the old adobe house recently occupied by E. Sorabjee, as manager of the Raymond Improvement Company's large tract south of Raymond Hill, and lived there in 1839.
72
HISTORY OP PASADENA.
HOUSE BUILT BY JOSE PEREZ ON RANCHO SAN PASQUAL IN 1839. Still standing, 1S95.
Senora Maria lyopez told me that he was a favorite violin player for the young people to dance. He was now sick — thought he was going to die, and sent word to her to come up to his house and hear him play on his violin for the last time ; so she walked from San Gabriel up there to visit him. She could not tell what year it was. I asked which one of her children was a baby at that time, and in this way she made out that this incident occurred in 1839. He removed to I^os Angeles for medical treatment soon after, and did not die at once — for in 1840 Gov. Alvarado made a grant of Rancho San Pas- qual to Jose Perez and Enrique Sepulveda. But neither of them ever stocked the ranch with horses, sheep and cattle, as the law required — hence their claim was "abandoned" and the ranch was still public land, open for somebody else to take.
On November 28, 1843, this ranch was granted by Gov. Manuel Micheltorena to Don Manuel Garfias, a young officer of the Mexican army who had come here with the governor. And this grant was confirmed to him by the Departmental Assembly and Gov. Pio Pico on May 7th, 1846. [See lyos Angeles records, Book i, page 14, of Patents.]
March 9, 1850, Manual Garfias conveyed to Carlos Hanewald a body of land " one mile square," with no boundaries given, but simply this vague description : " Commencing where the Arroyo turns upward on the tillable lands there." For this he was to pay $2000 ; but he failed to pay — and on December 3, 1850, one John Pine appears with Hanewald in a new contract for the purchase. They were to pay $600 down, and the balance of purchase money was to draw 4 per cent, per month, (or 48 per cent.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 73
annual interest !) — all to be paid within one year ; or, failing of this, they were to forfeit all payments and improvements they had made, without recourse. It was an iron-clad contract. Their plans failed ; and all their claims, interests and improvements reverted to Garfias.* Thus the Spanish Don was nearly forty years ahead of the Yankees as a " boomer ' ' of these lands. His prices (according to the times) and his rate of interest beat any record of Pasadena's famous "boom" period — so the "boom class" will liave to let this historic old Spaniard go up head.
On April 25, 1854, the United States Board of Land Commissioners passed judgment on the validity of the Garfias claim above mentioned, and confirmed it — and thus the Rancho San Pasqual entered upon its first legal status and recognition under the United States law.f
On September 18, 1858, a document was issued at San Francisco and signed by I. W. Mandeville, United States Surveyor General for California, from which I quote the following points of historic record in regard to this ranch. [Book i, p. 14 of Patents, Los Angeles Co.]
"Whereas, it appears from a duly authenticated transcript, filed in the General Land Office of the United States that, pursuant to the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved the third of March, one thousand eight hun- dred and fifty-one, entitled, " An Act to ascertain and settle the Private Land Claims in the State of California, Manuel Garfias, as claimant, filed his petition on the sixteenth day of September, 1852, with the commisioners to ascertain and settle the Private Land Claims in the State of California, sitting as a Board in the City of Los Angeles, in which petition he claimed the confirmation of his title to a tract of land called San Pasqual, contain- ing three and one-half square leagues, a little more or less, situated in the County of Los Angeles and State aforesaid : said claim being founded on a Mexican Grant to the petitioner, made on the 28th day of November, 1843, by Manuel Michel torena, then Governor of the Department of the Californias, and approved by the Departmental Assembly on the 7th day of May, 1846. And, Whereas, the Board of Land Commissioners aforesaid, on the 25th day of April, 1854, rendered a Decree of Confirmation in favor of the claimant, which Decree or Decision was on appeal affirmed by the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California. And the said Court further adjudged and decreed that the claim of the above mentioned Appellee is good and valid, and the same is confirmed to him, to the exent of three and one-half square leagues within the bound-
*3ome of our pioneer settlers in 1870-74 noticed the crumbling walls of an adobe house on the Arroyo bottom at foot of Hanaford's bluff, a short distance above Sheep Corral Springs ; also remains of old water ditches there and at other places along up the Arroyo. It has always been a great mystery who made them. They were simply relics of work done by Hanewald and Pine, who believed they could wash gold from these Arroyo sand beds.
tAugust 27th, 1852, the United States I,and Commissioners reached Los Angeles. September i6th Garfias filed his petition on his San Pasqual claim. September 23rd, says the Centennial History, p. 44. " there was a grand ball at the dwelling of Don Manuel Garfias, in honor of the Land Commissioners." This of course was a social affair at the very top of the scale in Los Angeles society. The Garfias man- sion was a spacious structure of adobe, and fronted on Main street at corner of First street, where the Lichtenberger block now stands. Mr. G. W. Robinson, now 86 years old, and his wife (of 441 Commercial street), then lived in a part of the Garfias house and were at this grand ball. The commissioners had rooms in the same building. Mr. Robinson was deputy sheriff several years ; and at another time had a lot of his own stock on Rancho San Pasqual, and built tor himself a house made of tules. up against Dona Encarnacion Abila's adobe house, before Garfias ever lived on the ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were the parents of the first child ever born in Southern California whose parents were both Americans.
74 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
aries described in the grant and the Map to which the grant refers, to-wit : On the east of the Rancho of " Santa Anita," on the west by the bluff of the Arroyo Seco, on the north the Sierra, and on the south the range of hills near the road to L,os Angeles, these the said hills being included in the said described premises, provided that should there be a less quantity than three and a half square leagues within the said boundaries, then confirma- tion is hereby made of said less quantity.
"And, Whereas, it further appears from a duly certified transcript, filed in the General lyand Office, that the Attorney General of the United States having given notice that it was not the intention of the United States to prosecute the appeal heretofore taken in this cause, the aforesaid District Court, at the December term, 1856, ordered that the order of appeal heretofore granted in this cause be and the same hereby is vacated, and the Appellee has leave to proceed under the Decree of this Court heretofore rendered in his favor as a final Decree.
"The said tract has been surveyed in conformity with the grant thereof and the said decision. And I do hereby certify the annexed map to be a true and accurate plat of the said tract of land as appears by the field notes of the survey thereof made by Henry Hancock, Deputy Sur- veyor, in the month of August, A. D. 1858, under the direction of this office, which having been examined and approved, are now on file therein. And I do further certify that under and by virtue of the said confirmation and Survey, the said Manuel Garfias is entitled to a Patent from the United States upon the presentation hereof to the General Dand Office for the said tract of land,
Surveyor Hancock's field notes showed 28 different courses in the bound- ary line of the ranch, which illustrates the curiously irregular shape of the body of land described ; and this was equally true of nearly all of the old Mission or Spanish land grants.
On January 15th, 1859, Manuel Garfias and lyuisa Abila, his wife, ex- ecuted a deed to Benjamin D. Wilson,* of " all right, title, interest, claim and demand, both at law and in equity, as well in possession as in expect- tancy of, in and to the real property '^ * known as the Rancho de San Pasqual," etc. Consideration, $1,800. This deed is recorded in Book 4, page 310 of Deeds, I^os Angeles County. That was four years before Garfias had obtained his United States patent for the land, and said patent was the "expectancy" referred to in the above quoted recital of what in- terests were conveyed. In fact, besides monetary interests, Wilson had a special reason of a personal nature for aiding the Garfias claim before the U. S. lyand Commissioners. The rival claim, based on the prior grant of 1840, had become a sort of Lugo family affairf — and the Lugos were
*There is a biography of B. D. Wilson in the Histor3' of Los Augeles County, published by Thomp- son & West in 1880, on pages 36-37.
t As this is an interesting historic episode touching Pasadenlaud, I will make it more clear. Old Don Antonio Lugo originally owned the San Antonio ranch, 2q, 513 acres, and the Chiiio ranch, 16,000 acres. In 1835 to 1840 he was listed as owning 37,000 head of cattle, and 2,400 horses. He had five sons, as (oWows : Jose Maria Lugo. Felipe Lugo, Jose del Cur men Lugo, Vicente Lugo, Jose Antonio Lugo ; an A four daughters — Vicente, wife of Eranio Perez and aunt of Jose Perez to whom (with Enrique Sepulveda) the ranch had been granted in it;4o ; Mrrced, wife of Jose Perez, and after his death wife of Stephen C.
Foster, and claimant of the ranch before the U. S. Commission ; Maria Antonio, wife of Yorba ;
Maria Jesus, wife of Isaac Williams whom B. D. Wilson believed had betrayed him at the battle of
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 75
specially obnoxious to Wilson. In the affair at Chino, in September, 1846, when Wilson and his company of U. S. soldiers were all captured, he al- ways believed that Isaac Williams betrayed him ; and Williams's wife was one of the Lugo women. Then when they were being marched to lyos Angeles as prisoners, it was Capt. Jose del Carmen Lugo who wanted to shoot Wilson and all the rest ; and they were only saved irom this fate by the heroic and soldierly honor of Capt. Serbulo Barelas. Mrs. Merced IvUgo de Perez de Foster, the rival claimant of the ranch against Garfias, was sister to Mrs. Williams and to Jose del Carmen and Felipe Lugo — while Mrs. Garfias was cousin to Wilson's first wife,* so here was a call for him to take a hand in the fight for the ranch, and bring discomfiture upon his old enemies the Lugos. He therefore went into the contest, aided in its management, and won the case.
On December 11, 1862, John S. Griffin and Louisa, his wife, deeded to Benjamin D. Wilson and Margaret S. Wilson, his wife, for the consider- ation of $500 a tract of 640 acres " on the Rancho San Pasqual, out of which said Rancho the herein described lot of land is carved." [Book 6, p. 51.] This conveyance included what was afterward known as the "Fair Oaks" and the Allen property ; and the same day, to- wit :
On December 11, 1862, Benjamin D. Wilson and Margaret S. Wilson his wife made a deed to Kliza G. Johnston of 262 acres of which the docu- ment says: "The said tract hereby conveyed being part of the San Pas- qual Ranch, and the southwesterly half of the land this day conveyed by John S. Grifiin and Louisa his wife, to the parties of the first part herein ;" etc. The consideration was $1,000. [Book 6, p. 53.]
This Mrs. Johnston was sister to Dr. Griffin, and wife of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who was in command of the Department of California when the war of 1861 commenced. Unionists at San Francisco reported to Washington that Gen. Johnston was planning to turn the resources of his command over to the confederate cause, as Gen. Twigg had done in Tex- as ;t and he was thereupon superseded by Gen. Sumner. | Johnston re-
Chino. Don Felipe Lugo, justice of the peace, had the original deed that was made of the land to Eulalia Perez de Guillen by the padres, and was trying to aid his sister Merced Foster, widow of his nephew Jose Perez, in her case. However, their claim had the fatal defect of failure to put such build- ings and such live stock on the ranch as the Mexican law of land grants required, this failure being due to the death of Jose Perez before he could complete his undertaking.
*Dona Vicenta Yorba, widow of Don Tomas Yorba, and then managing the great Santa Ana ranch herself, [January, 1847], " was the aunt of Mr. Garfias, wile of the American Consul at Tepic, Mexico." — See " Sixty years in California, pp 432-3-4.
iGeo. Stoneman was a captain in command of Fort Brown, Texas, and was ordered by Gen. Twigg to surrender the Fort to the secessionists. He refused to obey this order of the commanding General t)ut marched out with his own troops under the old flag and took steamer for New York, and afterward became famons as a Union cavalry officer. And this was our Pasadenaland Gen. Stoneman, Governor of California from 1883 to 1887. Gen. Stoneman first came to California in 1847, arriving at San Diego Jan- uary 29th of that year as L,ieut. in Jst U. S. dragoons and quartermaster of the Mormon battalion,
JGen. Sumner was sent from Washington to San Francisco so secretly that the newspaper :nen did not get hold of it. He went by steamer to the isthmus, then by steamer up the coast The vessel ar- rived off Golden Gate in the daytime but the General held her from running in until after nightfall ; then instead of going directly to her own dock she lauded him and his staff at another wharf a mile nearer the Presidio or fort where Gen. Johnston had his headquarters. Gen. Sumner was met by the U.
76 HISTORY OP PASADENA.
signed instead of reporting at Washington as ordered ; went south and joined the confederacy ; and was in joint command with Gen. Beauregard of the confederate army at the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg I^anding, where he was killed April 6, 1862. Mrs. Johnston occupied the land above men- tioned, built a house on it, and named it " Fair Oaks," after the old planta- tion home of her childhood in Virginia. April 27, 1863, her oldest son, Albert Sidney, was killed in the historic steamboat explosion at San Pedro, his body not being recovered until the 29th. This sad event affected her mind and plans so disastrously that in a few weeks she left the place and never returned to it. Dr. Griffin's wife and Judge B. S. Eaton's first wife were sisters; and Mrs. Johnston's son Hancock married Judge Eaton's daughter Mary ; and out of this interblending familyhood came the fact of Judge Eaton's settling on this " Fair Oaks " place in 1866, where he still resided (and owned it) when the Orange Grove colony settlement was made in 1873-74.
On April 3, 1863, a United States patent for the land comprised in Rancho San Pasqual, was issued to Manuel Garfias, with Abraham Lin- coln's signature attached. [Book i p. 14 of Patents.]
On March 27, 1865, B. D. Wilson and John S. Griffin conveyed to Phineas Banning, John G. Downey, Matthew Keller, George Hansen, and R. W. Heath, trustees of the Los Angeles Pioneer Oil Co., " all their right, title and interest to any and all brea, petroleum, rock oil or other oleaginous substances in the Rancho San Pasqual." But it was stipulated that they must "commence boring or sinking wells for the extraction of oil within six months ;" and the Oil Company was to pay Wilson and Griffin " a roy-
S. naval officer and the postmaster, and a few others known to be loyal unionists, besides a squad of lo- cal militia in citizens' dress, with sidearms only, in command of Capt. D. M. Greene, now of Pasadena. These formed liis escort to the fort, where they arrived after midnight. Gen. Sumner went in alone, and had Johnston called up out of bed. The two Generals had been classmates at West Point, were in- timately acquainted, shook hands cordially, then Sumner delivered the sealed documents from Wash- ington directing Johnston immediately upon the receipt of these orders to turn over his command to Gen. Sumner. Johnston opened and read the papers, and then with a forced smile said, " General, the command is yours." Sumner spent the rest of the night in preparing orders, putting his own staff in command, etc., so that when daylight arose California was saved to the union instead of being (as it would have been in three days more) held in control by open adherents of the pro-slavery rebellion— for this element was strong, boastful and bullying in California at that time. R. H. Williams of Pasadena lived in San Francisco then, and was a member of Co. D Washington I,ight Infantry— a local militia or- ganization, and also vouches for these events. Mr. Williams afterward served in the California Battal- ion of 2d Mass. cavalry. He is adjutant of John F. Godfrey Post G. A. R., in 1S95.
Capt. Greene has a copy of the Mesilla, Arizona, Times[a. secessionist paper] of Augi'st 3, 1861, from which I quote this : " The followiug named gentlemen under command of Capt. Alonzo Ridley, arrived in our city on the 31st ult.. from Los Angeles, Cal. : Gen. A. S. Johnston, a native of Kentucky, late in command of the Department of California," etc. Then follows a list of seven lieutenants with him who had resigned from the U S. army ; and twenty-six volunteer recruits— all on their way to join the con- federate army. The same paper names nine companies of confederate soldiers then holding Arizona ; and publishes the proclamation of John I. Baylor as acting governor on behalf of the Confederate States of America Capt. Greene's force of union troops afterward captured Mesilla. and used the same print- ing office to issue a union paper.
Judge Walter Van Dyke of the superior court, Los Angeles, was a Douglas democrat in i860 ; then in 1861 he was elected to the state senate on the " Union Ticket" by the close majority of fourteen, and bore an important part in saving California from secession. He knew Gea. Johnston ; says he was a man with a fine sense of personal honor ; and he thinks thit Johnston, like Gen. Lee, was struggling with his conscience as to whether his present duty was to thegeueral government, or first to his native state (Kentuckyi according to the state rights doctrine which then prevailed in the South— hence he did not take any decisive stand either for or against the secession movement. But meanwhile some army officers under him, and certain politicians, presuming on his southern sympathies, were plotting and planning to give California over to the Confederacy,— thus implicating him without any direct participa- tion or purpose on his part, yet making his prompt and quiet removal a prime necessity for the Union cause. I make this explanation as due to the feelings of Gen. Johnston's family and relatives who still reside amongst us.
DIVISION ONE — PRK-PASADNIAN. 77
alty of ten per cent, net of all the crude oil extracted from these lands," free of all expense to them except that they must ' ' furnish their own casks." — Wilson and Griffin were themselves members of this Oil Company. The consideration for this grant was only One Dollar, besides the "royalty," and the grant was "limited to the term of twenty-five years." [Book 9 p. 490 of Deeds.] But I have found no evidence that any oil wells or even prospective borings were ever made on the ranch, though "smelling com- mittees ' ' have several times sniffed over the ground and thought they found oil "odor" down around Columbia hill.
September 12, 1866, Eliza G. Johnston conveyed to John S. Griffin all her right of pasturing, herding and grazing 500 head of live stock on the Rancho San Pasqual which had been granted in her deed from B. D. Wil- son and wife on December 11, 1862. Consideration, $2,500. [Book 8, p. 213, of Deeds.]
On March 3, 1869, B. D. Wilson deeded to Phineas Banning all his right, title, interest, share, claim or demand whatsoever in the Rancho San Pasqual. Consideration, $35,000. [Book 12, p. 237.]
On March 10, 1869, Phineas Banning deeded to John S. Griffin, [Book 12, p. 311] all his right and interest acquired by deed from B. D. Wilson, only seven days before. Consideration, $30,000.
On October 13, 1869, Phineas Banning deeded to Benjamin D. Wilson [Book 13, p. 628] the same property rights and interests described in Wil- son's conveyance to Banning on March 3, and in Banning 's conveyance to Griffin on March 10, as above given. But this time it is described as " the Rancho de San Pasqual, in the township of San Gabriel" — this being the first mention of San Gabriel township in any of the deeds. Consideration, $35,000. The explanation of these last three peculiar and apparently con- flicting transactions is this : Banning, Griffin and Wilson were intimate friends and all engaged in very large trading, speculative or business enter- prises. They often borrowed large sums of money or credit from each other, giving a deed or mortgage as ' ' collateral ' ' security — sometimes put on record and sometimes not.
On September 23, 1870, John S. Griffin deeded and quit-claimed to B. D. Wilson [Book 15, p. 482] an undivided half interest in all of the Rancho San Pasqual that had not before this date been sold by deed or contract to third parties. Consideration, $1. It seems that prior to this the Monks tract of 2,000 acres, the Grogan tract of 5,000 acres, and the Raab tract of 30 acres had been sold, besides the " Fair Oaks" tract conveyed to Griffin's sister, and some lesser parcels to relatives of Wilson. There was also a parcel occasionally mentioned as the " Widney tract," but not found of record.
On June 20, 1872, Griffin and Wilson deeded to Prudent Beaudr}^ [Book 21, p. 26] a parcel of hilly land on the west bank of the Arroyo Seco,
78 HISTORY OF PASADENA,
estimated as 30 acres, opposite what is now the junction of West Columbia street and Arroyo Drive. There, in 1875-76, Beaudry, and a man named Carson (son of Gen. Fremont's famous and faithful scout, Kit Carson), worked a shaft into the hill or Arroyo bank 200 feet, seeking for a coal mine. They found carbonaceous shale and a few pockets of lignite, or possibly indurated asphaltum, but no true vein of coal.
In October, 1873, Griffin and Wilson employed Wm. P. Reynolds to survey the remainder of the Rancho into four separate parcels marked as tracts Nos. i, 2, 3 and 4, and to make a map of the whole. Tract No. i contained 2,576.35 acres. No. 2 contained 1,366.03 acres. No. 3 con- tained 693 acres. No. 4 contained also 693 acres. Total 5,328.38 acres.
On December 18, 1873, Griffin and Wilson made an agreement of par- tition, with said Reynolds' map attached as a part of the agreement [Book 27, p. 229], by which Griffin took tracts Nos. i, 3 and 4 for his share, and Wilson took tract No. 2 for his share of the now completely broken up old ranch. The right to burn lime at the kilns on tract No. i (I^incoln Park region) was reserved to Wilson, and an equal share of the waters of the Thibbet's Springs on tract No. 2 was allotted to each party. Thus it ex- hibits that Wilson took 1,366 acres for his share, and left Griffin 3,962.35 acres. But this apparent disproportion was made up in the deed by Griffin to Wilson, September 23, 1870, of a body of choice oak timber land, sur- veyed by J. M. Baldwin, in August, 1870, lying east of this latter tract No. 2 (Fair Oaks avenue being now on its line), and south of the Grogan tract.
On December 26, 1873, John S. Griffin deeded to Thomas F. Croft [Book 27, p. 251] all of the partition tract No. i as marked on the Rey- nolds' map, containing 2,576.35 acres ; and another parcel of land described by metes and bounds, and containing 1.357 acres ; total, 3,933.35 acres, with all waters arising on these lands, or otherwise pertaining to them. Con- sideration, $25,000.
The San Gabriel Orange Grove Association (commonly called " Indiana colony") had been organized Nov\ 13, 1873, and had been negotiating for the purchase of this body of land from Dr. Griffin, with Judge Eaton acting as his agent. At this time [November 13] Griffin and Wilson still owned the land jointly. Griffin was anxious to sell out, but Wilson was not, and some difficulty arose between them in regard to it. This caused delay, and for awhile threatened to break up the colony project entirely. Mr. Croft was one of the original incorporators and trustees of the colony association ; and at this critical time he went to Wilmington [December 13] to confer with Phineas Banning and B. D. Wilson, and succeeded in bringing about an understanding which finally resulted in the agreement of partition between Wilson and Griffin, dated December 18, 1873, as above cited. This enabled Griffin to go on and complete the sale which he desired to make. But now the colony people could not at once raise the amount of money necessary to
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 79
meet his terms. Mr. Croft then privately, at his own expense, procured a complete abstract of title which covered every transaction affecting the ownership or any auxiliary rights connected with this body of land, from November, 1843, to December, 1873 ; and upon this he purchased the land himself under the above cited deed of December 26, in order to secure it beyond further delay or difficulty for the colony association. The abstract referred to is a voluminous document, comprising nineteen sheets of heaviest grade abstract paper, 8}4 x 13 inches, printed in close lines of small type, and cost Mr. Croft over $50. He preserves it yet as a valued relic of the colony's cradle-bed time, and I am indebted to him for its use in preparing this schedule of the many changes of ownership and other rights which have occurred in the history of Rancho San Pasqual.
Mr. Croft's diary shows that he first visited the ranch on October 13, 1873, in company with D. M. Berry and J. H. Baker. Reynolds was then making the tract survey for Griffin and Wilson, and Croft and Berry came out from Dos Angeles frequently to note the progress of the survey and study the lay of the land. Mr. Berry was negotiating on behalf of the colon}" for the land they wanted, and he insisted on having their strip project eastward along where East California street now runs, instead of northward along the Arroyo Seco. Wilson wouldn't have it that way, be- cause it would leave his own land in very inconvenient shape ; and the efforts to coerce him in this matter brought about the anger and hot blood between Wilson and Griffin above referred to, and delayed the colony pur- chase all through November. Mr. Croft saw Mrs. Griffin and got an understanding with her; then on December 13, he went to Wilmington as a peacemaker and colony land- buyer himself, and gained his case succes- sively with Mr. Banning, Mrs. Wilson, and finally Mr. Wilson. Then on December 15, his diary says : " This day, determined stakes and points of satisfactory division of Rancho San Pasqual with B. D. Wilson on the grounds." On December 16, he met Wilson at surveyor Reynold's office in Dos Angeles, and arranged details of boundary to be recited in the con- veyance. December 17, lawyers were at work preparing the articles of agreement on segregation of interests between Wilson and Griffin. Decem- ber 18, Wilson and Griffin signed these articles, without which the colony purchase from Griffin could not be consummated. The question of colony funds, spot cash, now made another balk. So, on December 26, Mr. Croft paid Griffin $6,250 cash himself, and gave his note for the balance, $18,750, in one year, and received the deed as above mentioned.
On December 29, 1873, three days after Griffin's conveyance of the entire colony tract to Croft, Thomas F. Croft deeded all his right, title and interest therein to the "San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, a corpora- tion duly organized under the laws of California," etc. Consideration, $25,000 [Book 27, p. 267], the same as he paid. The association then
8o HISTORY OF PASADENA.
assumed all of Mr. Croft's notes and obligations, according to an agreement which he had made with Dr. Griffin beforehand, and paid them by quar- terly assessments on the shareholders, or by sale of lands when it could be done.
On January 27, 1874, the colonists assembled on Reservoir Hill, and each made selection of his own choice of lots in the tract as platted by the colony's surveyor, equal to his number of shares of stock in the association. A complete list of these original selections is given in another place, with explanation of where each one lies now [1894] in the present city of Pasadena. [See Chap. 5.]
CHAPTER IV.
Pasadena's Part in the Mexican War. — Capture of Los Angeles in 1846. — Lieut. Gillespie driven out. — ^ Battle of Chino. — Battle of Los Angeles. — Battle of Do- mingnez ranch. — Carrillo's hippodrome strategy at San Pedro. — Army flag made from children's dresses. — Battle of San Gabriel ford. — Battle of Laguna ranch. — Mexican army encamped at South Pasadena. — Plans made there for their final surrender to Col. Fremont. — List of Pasadena families correlated with these not- able events.
HOW PASADENA FIGURES IN THE CALIFORNIA BATTLES.
Don Manuel Garfias, the first patentee owner of Rancho San Pasqual, and B. D. Wilson its second recorded owner, and Dr. John S. Griffin its third owner, all bore a part or had deep concern in the battles of San Gabriel and the Mesa, or I^aguna Ranch, fought between the American and Mexican forces on January 8 and 9, 1847. A portion of the Mexican troops under Garfias' command took horses and cattle from this ranch for their march back to Mexico. And from his camp on this ranch Gen. Andres Pico appointed commissioners who made and signed the final terms of sur- render to Col. Fremont, known in history as the "capitulation of Cahuen- ga," and which was the last official act, and in fact the only one, of Mexic- Californian authorities for turning the vast territory of California over to the United States. But besides these, there are other Pasadenian families that have historic association with the stirring events, battles and marches of 1846-47 ; and therefore I devote a chapter to this part of our local his- tory.
The name of note in Pasadena history which first appears in connectign with the military movements for .securing California to the United States is that of Don Juan Bandini, after whom Bandini avenue was named (mis- called " Michigan" avenue in part of its course.) This man's son, Arturo Bandini, married a daughter of Dr. T. B. Elliott, the first president of the original "Indiana colony," out of the ashes of which Pasadena arose, and
DIVISION ONE — PRK-PASADENIAN. 8 1
he gave to the world the now famous name of " Pasadena." Mr. and Mrs. Arturo Bandini have been prominently identified with Pasadena's sporting, social and literary life for twenty years. Every book written about Califor- nia by any citizen of the United States prior to the Mexican war, such as Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," Robinson's "Life in California," Davis' "Sixty Years in California," etc., make frequent mention of Don Juan Bandini, because he was a man of note and influence at San Diego, lyos Angeles and Santa Barbara. But his first connection with U. S. mili- tary affairs is explained in Gen. Fremont's "Memoirs," pages 563-64-65, as follows:
THE TAKING OF LOS ANGELES IN 1 846.
"The ship [sloop Cyane] entered the land-locked bay of San Diego, where the still waters reflected the quiet of the town. Here no enemy was found. On the contrary, we were received on the footing of friends by Don Juan Bandini, the chief citizen of the place, and by Don Santiago Arguello [father to Mrs. Bandini], the Captain of the port. [This was July 27, 1846. — Ed.] Senor Bandini was a native of Spain ; of slight and thin person, sarcastic and cynical of speech, often the shape in which a keen intelligence, morbid because without outlet, expresses itself. * * One of Don Juan's daughters was married to Don Abel Stearns, whose residence was at lyos Angeles. ' '
Fremont's troops could not move a mile from their ship without horses and beef cattle for their subsistence and transportation ; and speak- ing of this matter, he writes :
' ' There were not enough horses at hand to mount a party to send after animals to distant places through an enemy's country. In the midst of these difficulties, the aid which Bandini and Arguello were willing to give us was most fortunate. * * * After little more than a week occu- pied in this way [collecting horses and beef cattle] with the aid of Don Juan, a sufficient number of animals were obtained to enable me to move ; and on the 8th of the month [August] we moved out on the road to Los Angeles. * * Just before leaving the town an uncommonly beautiful sorrel horse, thoroughly trained, was brought me from Senor Bandini. * * It was a gift from the family."
With Fremont on this march was his famous scout, Kit Carson, whose son Sam, nicknamed " Kit," afterward lived a while at Pasadena, and in 1876-77 dug the entrance shaft for the Beaudry coal mine opposite the foot of Columbia street. He had formerly worked for Don Juan Bandini at San Diego.
• While Fremont was in San Diego, in 1846, Commodore Stockton had arrived at San Pedro, and on Aug. nth he commenced his march from there towards Los Angeles, being joined on the 13th by Fremont's troops, and they marched into the city together without any armed resistance, hoisted the America flag and took possesion of the country in the name of the
6
82 HIvSTORY OF PASADENA.
United States.* August 28th, Stockton sent Kit Carson as bearer of des- patches to Washington, reporting all his proceedings here, and Carson started on horseback across the country to Santa Fe. Ivieutenant A. H. Gillespie with about fifty men was left in command at Los Angeles ; Fre- mont marched north overland to Sacramento, and Stockton returned to his ship and sailed north. But before leaving. Commodore Stockton had commissioned B. D. Wilson as a Captain in the U. S. Army, and authorized hira to raise a company to guard the frontier. At this time Wilson owned the great Jurupa ranch which he had bought from Don Juan Bandini, and his ranch house, with gardens, orchards, etc. , was located near where the City of Riverside now stands, f Gillespie proved entirely in- competent for the position he was placed in. He exercised his authority in a way to exasperate the intelligent Spanish citizens who were peacefully disposed. He arrested some of the Spanish "Dons" and held them re- sponsible for a drunken mob attack on his quarters on the night of Sep- tember 16, Mexican " Independence Day," when in fact his own men were as much to blame for the carouse as the Mexican revelers, and over half of his soldiers were lying locked up in the guard-house for drunkenness at the very moment when the drunken Mexicans assailed the barracks. His unwise course in the matter so outraged and incensed the better class of citizens that they raised a revolt to drive him out of the country. He then sent a courier to Captain Wilson for help.
THE BATTIvE OF CHINO.
Wilson got twelve of his company together as quickly as possible and started for lyos Angeles. They went to the Chino ranch house, a large adobe structure, in hope to find a supply of powder there for them, and while there they were surrounded and attacked by a body of Mexicans in command of Serbulo Barelas of Los Angeles, and Jose del Carmen Lugo of San Bernardino. A sharp battle ensued here at daylight of September 27, 1846. The Americans were sheltered in the adobe house of Isaac Williams;
*Governor Pio Pico and Gen. Castro fled the country, and have been accused of cowardice for it. That is a mistake. Pico had issued a patriotic address appealing to the Mexicans to rise in arms and repel the American invaders. But Gen. Castro reported to the Governor, and to the Legislative Assem- bly then in session at Los Angeles, that from lack of powder and firearms he was utterly unable to cope with the well armed, well equipped and disciplined American troops. Governor Pico then advised that the legislature adjourn sine die, and that he and the commanding general should get away, so that the Americans should not find any man or body of men in aulhoritj' to transfer the government to them. This was " good politics " on their part and the plan was followed out ; and this was why he fled. Fre- mont tried hard to entice Pico back but he was too shrewd to come, still hoping that either Mexico or Kngland would yet overturn the American occupancy. Don Juan Bandini and his brother-in-law, San- tiago E. Arguello were members of this legislative a'ssemblv, though not present at the adjournment. They were anti-Pico men. Governor Pico died at Los Angeles, September ii, 1894, aged 93.
fFrom Robinson's "Life in California," pp. 203, 204, I quote a few passages that have a Pasadena interest. They were written in early spring time of 1842.
" We resumed our saddles and soon reached Santa Ana. * * At sunset entered upon the
plains of the Ranchode San Juan del Rio, the dwelling place of Sen or Bandini. We found our friend Yorba [grandfather of Mrs. J. de Barth Shorb I here. * * We visited the planting grounds of
Bandini, which were beautifully laid out on the side of the river. [Hence the name. Riverside.] On our route back to the Pueblo |Los Angele.s] we passed through a long valley [San Gabriel Valley] which was the scene of destruction during the slaughter of the Mission cattle in 1835. Its devastation was still visible, for skulls and bones were lying about in every direction."
DIVISION ONE — PRK-PASADNIAN.
83
but it had an asphaltum roof, and the Mexicans succeeded in setting this on fire, so that Wilson and his men were now at their mercy ; and on promise of protection as prisoners of war they surrendered. They were marched to I.OS Angeles and turned over to Gen. Jose Maria Flores, who had been chosen commander-in-chief of the Mexican troops. While on their march to I.0S Angeles, some of the victors, led, as B. D. Wilson afterward claimed, by Capt. Jose del Carmen Lugo, concluded to end all this trouble at once by shooting the prisoners right there.* And of this episode the 1880-History of Los Angeles County, page 43, says : "The treacherous Mexicans had drawn their prisoners up in file on one side of the road, and were about to massacre the whole lot. Barelas bravely dashed between, and swore he would run his sword through the first of his command who dared to fire a shot. He said he had pledged his honor as a man and as a commander for the safety of the prisoners, and only over his dead body might they suffer harm."
THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES.
When Gillespie sent to Capt. Wilson for help, the latter was off" in the mountains with most of his company, on a bear hunt, and there was a de- lay of some days in finding him. Meanwhile, as Hittell's History relates, the Mexicans made a dashing assault on Gillespie's barracks, September 23 ;t but as the Americans were well armed, had plenty of ammunition, and were sheltered within adobe walls, the assailants were defeated with a loss of eight killed and many wounded. [See J. G. Parson's " Life of John W. Marshall."] This was four or five days before the Mexicans had found their own hidden-away cannon which afterward became famous as the "Woman's Gun." Notwithstanding their defeat the Mexicans kept Gil- lespie in a state of siege and he probably could not hold out another week. September 27-28 the Chino prisoners were turned over to Gen. Flores. There had been a sort of guerilla fight going on every day. And on the 29th, Flores, with a view to save further bloodshed, sent B. D. Wilson to tell Gillespie that he might march out unmolested if he would go to San Pedro and there embark his troops. Now, before Stockton and Fremont left in August, Gillespie had dug up and brought into his barracks some old Mexi- can cast-iron cannon which had been spiked and buried in a field east of Boyle Heights, when Gen. Castro and Gov. Pico fled the country on Stockton and Fremont's approach ; and now, to shade off the ignominy of retreat, he asked permission to take these cannon along on his march. This was
*Bancroft says there was "a young man named Sepulveda " who joined with Lugo in this scheme to shoot the prisoners. I learn from Jesus Rubio and E. S. Hereford that the man referred to was En- rique Sepulveda, who with Jose Perez had received a grant of Rancho San Pasqual in 1840.
. . t"The assailants, according to Marshall's biographer, were forced to retreat, with a loss of eight k.\ned."—Leztfis' HiU. Los A. Co. p. 72. [Pub. 18S9.]
"On September 23, under the leadership of Jose Maria Flores, the Californian forces attacked and beseiged Gillespie and his handful of men. * * He, however, made a determined resistance, until finally on September 30, finding the odds too great against him, he capitulated."— //zV^«//'j History Cal., Vol. 2, p. 599.
84 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
finally agreed to, on his promising to restore the guns to them at San Pedro. [John Marshall, he of gold discovery fame, who was one of Gillespie's sol- diers in Los Angeles, had unspiked one of the cannon and used it against the Mexicans on Fort Hill, after their unsuccessful assault on the barracks below.] But when Gillespie reached San Pedro, instead of restoring these guns as he had promised to do, he broke off all their breech knobs, had them packed tight with small gravel stones, and then rolled into the surf at low tide.*
This act of bad faith and over-smart strategy further incensed the Mex- icans against him, and greatly increased the peril of B. D. Wilson and his fellow-prisoners ; and they would have been killed but for the faithful watch kept over them by Serbulo Barelas, who had at the battle of Chino given his word of honor to protect them as prisoners of war, which he repeatedly did at the risk of his own life. The next January B. D. Wilson learned from Gen. Andres Pico just where these cannon were ; and as they were of no use to the government. Commodore Stockton gave him permission to se- cure them as relics. Three of them were old Mexican guns which Gov, Micheltorena had hauled down from Monterey and used against the Los Angeles revolutionists at the battle of Cahuenga, February 20-21, 1845. Micheltorena sent them back to Los Angeles by Mauricio Gonzalez, after his embarkation at San Pedro to return to Mexico.
Wilson eventually hired some Mexican cartmen [in 1849 or '50] to haul them up from San Pedro, where tbey had lain in the salt water until that time and were badly "pock-marked." He planted them, muzzles down, in front of his store on corner of Main and Commercial streets, and two of them remain there yet, just as he put them ; but at the centennial celebration of the "^ - founding of Los Angeles city
The historic cauuou at corner of Main and Comiuercial
streets. -Photo 1S95. (1881) two oi them Were placed
on corners at the old court house ; and in 1892 these two were removed to west front of the new court house, where they may now be seen.
As soon as Gillespie had been driven out, as above noted, Don Manuel Garfias (our Pasadena first patentee) was sent with a small troop of mount- ed menf to retake Santa Barbara, where a garrison of ten men had been
*" There is a Reneral agreement that Gillespie promised to deliver his field pieces at San Tedro, but broke his promise."— //^«/. Cal., Vol. 5^ p. 31$.
t" Manuel Garfias, one of the Californiau leaders, marched with two hundred men to Santa Bar- bara," eic — HitlcU's Hist. Cal.. Vol. ^. p. hoo. This is a big exaggeration, for Garfias had not to exceed fifty men — but nearly all our Americau writers magnify the Mexican numbers.
DIVISION ONK — PRE-PASADKNIAN. 85
left by Commodore Stockton or Fremont to hold the place. They heard of his approach, and escaped in the night. Garfias left a small Mexican gar- rison there, and one also at San Buena Ventura, and then returned to Los Angeles with forty or fifty recruits for Gen, Flores' army, but did not ar- rive until after the battle of Dominguez. He brought in as a prisoner from Santa Barbara an American named George Nidever, who refused to give his parole ; but Nidever escaped from Garfias at Los Angeles, succeeded in reaching Stockton's army, and was in the battles ot January 8 and 9, 1847. This Nidever was the same man who afterward in 1853 discovered and res- cued the native Indian woman who had lived on San Nicholas island en- tirely alone for eighteen years. He was offered $1,000 to sell her for a traveling show ; but he was opposed to slavery, and refusing the golden bribe, he gave her protection and a home in his own family till she died,
THE BATTLE OF DOMINGUEZ.
On reaching San Pedro, lyieut. Gillespie embarked with his troops Oc- tober 4, for safety, on the merchant ship Vandalia, which chanced to be ly- ing there. October 6 Capt. Mervine arrived there from San Francisco with the U. S. frigate Savannah. On the 7th he landed 350 of his men, who were then joined by Gillespie's men, but without horses or cannon, for Gil- lespie told Mervine that the Mexicans had no artillery, as he had brought away and destroyed all their cannon, and therefore he would need none. This force of 400 men marched to the Dominguez ranch house and camped there for the night. The next morning, October 8, they formed in march- ing order and started for Los Angeles, but were immediately attacked by a force of ninety men under Don Jose Antonio Carrillo, one of the Spaniards whom Gillespie had so indiscreetly arrested only three weeks before. Car- rillo had a small brass cannon, [the historic "Woman's gun "], which his men manoeuvered by hauling it about with rawhide ropes tied to the pom- mels of their saddles. They would dash forward and fire it at Mervine 's marching column, then gallop off with it out of musket range and reload, then back to the front, discharge it, and off again. They fired four times in this way during a running fight of about three miles, and had loaded again with their last ball ; but by this time six Americans had been killed and six or seven wounded, and Mervine retreated to San Pedro, buried his dead on Deadman's Island, and re-embarked his crestfallen troops.
On his retreat, Mervine stopped at the ranch house again, and com- pelled an old workman there to hitch up an ox-cart and haul the dead bodies to the beach at San Pedro. During these operations some accoutre- ments of killed or wounded men and a flag were carelessly left behind. These were gathered up by Carrillo's men as trophies of their victory. During the next month, November, Don Antonio F. Coronel started as a commissioner to Mexico to obtain funds and other aid for Gen. Flores'
86 HISTORY OF PASADKNA.
army ; and carried with him the American flag captured at Dominguez as a proQf of their patriotic prowess. But he did not succeed in reaching Mexico.
Different writers have given somewhat varying accounts of this battle, but I have relied chiefly on that written by Stephen C. Foster, who came to L,os Angeles with the Mormon Battalion, (as did also our Gen. Stoneman,) in March, 1847, and served as government interpreter two years there, and also as alcalde or district judge ; then was elected to the first constitutional convention, where his services were exceedingly valuable, because he was a proficient Spanish scholar and familiar with the old Spanish archives. * From various writers I gather that no Mexicans were killed or seriously wounded in the battle of Dominguez. They had no cannon balls, onl}- some rude ones that were hammered out by a blacksmith, and no powder except some very inferior stuff which they made themselves at San Gabriel. After his account of this battle, Foster continues :
RUSE DK GUKRRE AT SAN PEDRO.
"The next day Commodore Stockton arrived [from Monterey] with the remainder of his ships, [another writer says, October 23, on the ship Con- gress.— Kd.] and landed 800 men and six light guns, to march on the town [lyOS Angeles] next day.f But Carrillo manoeuvered his force of 400 men [he had been reinforced by ranchmen and others from Temple's ranch, Sepul- veda's ranch, and other points. — Ed.] by forming them in a circle in columns of fours, so that some eighty men could be seen at once from the ships' mast-heads marching toward the beach and disappearing in a hollow. The middies were in the topmasts with their spy-glasses, counting the enemj^'s force, and by dark they had counted more than two thousand ; and they were still marching when night fell. Stockton re-embarked the next day and proceeded to San Diego. "|
Stockton had found that there was no chance for him to get a supply of horses at San Pedro necessary to mount a portion of his troops and haul the artillery ; and he knew of the friendly aid Don Juan Bandini had given to Fremont six months before. These were reasons for his going to San Diego, where there was also safe harborage for his ships — which there was not at San Pedro at that time of year ; and he arrived there about Novem- ber I. Bandini was away at his Guadalupe Rancho in L,ower California, and the Mexican adherents had driven all cattle and horses to inland points
*Foster married Jose Perez's widow, who was the first white woman that ever lived on Raucho San Pasqual. [See Chap. 3.]
t ' Carrillo now assembled a vast cavalcade of wild horses from the plains, and dispersing his mounted troop>< among them, the whole body was kept constantly in motion, passing and repassing a gap in the foothills plainly discernible from the roadstead. Owingto the dust raised by this cavalcade it was impossible to discern that all the horses had not riders, when it was seen that some had." — Hist. L. A. Co.,(iSSu'> t>- ./f.
JB. D. Wilson was then at Temple's ranch (Cerritos) as a prisoner, and saw Carrillo's strategic dis- play of men and horses ; and he wrote in his memoirs that Stockton did not land any troops ; but Stock- ton himself made official report that he did la?id t/iem. And I explain Wilson's mistake in this way : While Carrillo was performing his hip])()diome strategy, Gillespie wastrjiug to land fifty marines but was signaled back, and all returned to ship; and this part Wilson saw, but ilid not see the rest. Yet the next day Stockton himself put 800 men and six cannon ashore ; but not being able to get any horses or o.\;en to haul the artillery, nor any horses to mount skirmishers or scouts, he re-embarked and sailed to San Diego.
DIVISION ONE — PRK-PASADKNIAN. 87
beyond the reach of the Americans.* While awaiting events here, Stock- ton learned that Gen. S. W. Kearny was marching overland from Santa Fe.
THK BATTLK OF SAN PASOUAI,.
On December 6, 1846, Gen. Kearny had reached the Indian village of San Pasqual in San Diego county, f with 160 men and three cannon; and here he attacked a force of eighty Mexicans who had no cannon, under Don Andres Pico, another of the Spaniards whom Gillespie had unwarrantably arrested and locked up in his guard house at lyos Angeles on September 17. A hot battle was fought, in which Kearny himself was wounded, and also I^ieut. Gillespie who had been .sent by Stockton to join him. Dr. John S. Griffin of Pasadena fame, was surgeon on Gen. Kearny's .staff; and in his journal he reported the American loss as eighteen killed, three mortally wounded, sixteen wounded who recovered, one missing and never accounted for. In addition to this, three were taken prisoners by the Mexicans, and they also captured one brass cannon. The Mexicans had none killed, but eleven were slightly wounded, and one of them had to have a leg amputated .j; One of their men was taken prisoner. Commodore Stockton got word of the affair the next day, and immediately dispatched a force of 200 men to Kearny's relief. By this aid Kearny arrived at San Diego December 12, with his wounded and the remnant of his command. The San Diego residence of Don Juan Bandini was Commodore Stockton's headquarters, and that of Bandini's brother-in-law, Santiago E. Arguello, was used for a hospital. ^5 Dr. Griffin of course had charge of the wounded in their improvised hos- pitals at San Diego. Another man in the battle was Kit Carson, whose son afterward figured in Pasadena, and whose cousins and a nephew reside here yet.
Bandini was a man of superior intelligence and culture. He had be- come heartily tired of the continual revolutions and changes of government in Mexico and California ; he had always been friendly to Americans as traders here ; he believed the United States could give them a stable gov-
*"Rancheros must at once remove their live stock from the coast beyond reach of the naval forces ; whoever refuses is a traitor." — Order of Gov.-Gen. Flores, October 77, 1S46.
t" San Pasqual of battle memory is thirty-four miles northeast from the city of San Diego, close to the foot of the mountains." — Tourists' Giiide to S. Cat., p. 61.
|In his report to the Secretary of War, Gen. Kearny said ; " The enemy succeeded in carrying off all their dead except six " This was such a brazen and ludicrous false pretense on his part that the sol- diers dubbed him ' BJxcept-Six Kearny" — aud this uickuame stuck to him through life. Sergeant Falls, who was in the battle, spoke at a meeting of Mexican War Veterans at San Francisco in June, 1885, and said the Mexicans captured the cannon by lassoing its lead horses ; but Kearuj' had tried to belittle the prowess of the Mexicans b5' claiming that his artillery horses merely took fright and ran away iuto the enemy's lines. I have learned that the man who did that historic job of lassoing was Manuel Kubio of San Gabriel, uncle to our Jesus Rubio ; aud Manuel's uncle Casimiro was wounded at the same time, as mentioned by Bancroft. Then Manuel's brother, Francisco Rubio, was fatally wouuded in the battle at I<aguna ranch, was hauled home from the battle field in a cart by his nephew, Jesus Rubio of ubio can- yon fame, aud died the next day at San Gabriel.
fiStockton had taken Bandini's house for army use. His headquarters mess was there, aud the band from his flag-ship " Congress " ; and the commodore would often invite the Bandini family and oth- ers to dine with him, and would have the band play during the dinner hour. See Davis' " .Sixty Years in Cal.," p. 418. This Davis's wife was niece to Bandini's first wife, aud cousin to Mrs. Col. Baker of Los Angeles, owner of the Baker block, the Laguna ranch, and other great properties.
88 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
ernment, and he preferred it to any English protectorate. With these views, he and his brother-in-law, Arguello, had espoused the American cause. The Mexican government had ordered all the ranchers to drive their cattle, horses, hogs and sheep to the mountains, beyond reach of any American troops that might land along the coast. Bandini then owned two great ranches, Guadalupe and Tecate, in lyower California,* and he refused to obey this order, but instead had armed all his tenants and employes, ready to fight if any Mexican troops attempted to enforce that order on his lands. This was the situation in November and December. Stockton's army was literally " out of meat ;" and now he sent an expedition down in- to lyOwer Caliiornia, which became very famous by reason of " a woman in the case," Dona Refugio Bandini, who made from her children's garments the first American flag ever made on the Pacific coast, and thus at the time met a serious emergency for an American army officer marching without a flag.
THE ARMY FLAG MADE FROM CHILDREN'S DRESSES.
During the winter of 1882-83 Mr. H. C. Dane learned from Col. R. S. Baker and wife, and Dona Refugio Bandini and her daughters, Mrs. Dr. Winston and Mrs. Charles R. Johnson the particulars of the first American flag ever made on the Pacific coast. Mr. Dane wrote out the story and it was published in The Home Guardian magazine of Boston, for April, 1883. And from its pages, 154 to 157, (Vol XLV, No. 4,) I make the following extracts :t
" Cut off" from all other sources of supplies, the Commodore despatched a vessel down to Todos Santos Bay, [now called Ensenada] opposite the San Guadalupe rancho, with 200 men under command of Major Hensly, with orders to land and proceed to Guadahipe, and there obtain the neces- sary supplies of Don Juan Bandini. When the vessel arrived at Todos San- tos Bay, Don Juan was there, secreted among the rocks, awaiting them. With Major Hensly and his men Don Juan returned to his rancho, where he gave to him 500 cattle, 200 horses, and eight carretas, or long, narrow carts, usually drawn by four, six, or eight yokes of oxen each.
"As the Mexican forces were hovering about Bandini's ranches, es- peciall}^ about the San Guadalupe, in great numbers, and realizing that he and his family would no longer be safe in their vicinit}^ Don Juan, with all his family, left the rancho with Major Hensly and started overland for San Diego, where he had a very large house — a kind of Spanish palace.;}:
" In due time the party arrived at I^a Punta, fifteen miles below San Diego, where they went into camp for the last night. In the morning Major Hensly, wishing for a flag to head his column, to his chagrin and dis- gust discovered that none had been brought with them from the vessel.
*He had previously owned the Jurupa ranch [Riverside] and the Rincon de Santa Ana'ranch in the San Gabriel district.
fin the Centennial History of Los Angeles Co., pp. 32-33, Col. J. J. Warner gives some account of this Bandini flag incident ; but there is no other accoxuit of it so full and authentic as this one by Mr. Dane.
I" Our adminislrador, Don Juan Bandini's mansion, then in an unfinished state, bade fair when completed to surpass any other in the country." — "/.;'/;' in California.^' f>. iS, March, 1S29. Bv Alfred Robinson, who is still living (18941, and now a banker in San Francisco, although blind.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 89
This placed him in a very unpleasant condition, for to enter the town with no colors flying, would seem to denote that he dared to carry none ; and a still more distressing consideration was that Commodore Stockton, upon see- ing a heav}' column entering the town with such an array, and displaying no flag, might very naturallj' take them as a band of the enemy, and open his broadsides on them.
"In his distress. Major Hensly made known his mortifying condition to Don Juan, and very naturally that gentleman communicated the fact to his devoted wife. And now occurred a wonderful display of woman's wit, and but for the attending circumstances, it might also be denominated humor. Approaching the crest-fallen Major, the smiling lady said :
" 'Why, Major, I will furnish you with a flag.'
' ' ' You will furnish me with a flag ? Pray tell me how ! ' replied the surprised ofiicer.
"'Oh, leave that to me,' rejoined the lady. 'When the column is ready to move there shall be a United States flag at its head, to guide and herald our entree to San Diego, mj^ hoine by the sea.'
" Dona Refugio immediately called to her side her three children, Do- lorosa, aged ten, who was dressed in red satin; little Margarite, aged eight, clad in spotless white ; and tiny Juan de la Cruz, seven years of age, who wore a suit of navy blue. The three suits were exchanged for others ; and while the stock was feeding and breakfast being served, the garments from her little ones were cut into stripes and stars, and by the mother's cunning fingers formed into as perfect a star-spangled banner as ever was kissed by the breath of heaven sweeping in from the broad Pacific ; and when Major Hensly was ready to take up his line of march. Dona Refugio presented to him the first starry flag that ever floated over lower California, or the city of San Diego, and with it at the head of the column, they marched proudly and safely into the town, while the vessels at anchor roared their hearty salutes of welcome.
' ' That same evening the bands of the frigates Congress and Savannah came on shore and gave the beautiful Dona Refugio a grand serenade in honor of her kind devotion to the glorious flag ; and the following evening Commodore Stockton, attended by his officers, waited upon the fair Dona to tender his thanks in person for her marked attention to his command. And when the gallant Commodore was presented to Dona Refugio, he took her right hand into both of his, saying with deep emotion : 'And this is the hand that made that flag. In the name of my country and my government, I say to you, madam, that whatever the owner of this hand shall ever ask of them shall promptly be granted. I shall take that flag to Washington, and tell my Government that it was the first American flag to wave over California and was made by a native lady.'
" When the war was over, and peace between Mexico and the United States restored, Don Juan Bandini found himself deprived of his five ranchos in lyower California, because he was listed as a traitor to Mexico. And to- day his widow and children are deprived of them because of the kindness of himself and family to our officers.
" During all that war, and long after, the house of Don Juan, in San Diego was a constant hotel and hospital for our naval and military officers, where his beautiful wife and lovely daughters* served and ministered unto
*" The ladies were mostly quite haudsome, particularly those of the families of our friends. Ban- dini and Carrillo. The daughters of the former were, though very j'oung, yet very beautiful " — Life in Cali/orni, p. 20, by A. Robinson, March, 1829.
90 HISTORY OP PASADENA.
them more as mothers and sisters than as strangers. Of this many officers bear witness.
"To that house Gen. S. W. Kearny was taken from the battle-field when struck down, and he found in Dona Refugio the kindest and most attentive nurse. Within that home Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Grant, Hancock, Stevenson, Stoneman, Magruder, Johnston, Lee, Stuart, and many others who subsequently wrote their names high on the pillar of fame, ever found a warm-hearted welcome and free-hearted hospitality.
" Years have passed ; and now Dona Refugio in her old age finds her- self dependent upon her relatives, and simply because of the self-sacrificing devotion of herself and husband to the American flag.* The fingers that made the first flag in the growing dawn of that far-off day have lost their cunning, but the noble heart that inspired the act has lost none of its love for the starry banner. As Dona Refugio and her two daughters. Do- lorosa and Margarite, both mothers now, related to me the incidents of those days, the eyes that had so often greeted with sparkling smiles the great chieftains, when they were young officers winning for us the Golden Land, filled with blinding tears, and the lips that had so often cheered them on to heroic deeds, quivered with pain and sorrow as they spoke of the neg- lected vow, and the matron's dependency in her old age. [1882-83.]
"When the Walker filibustering expedition passed through California on their way to Central America,! they robbed the store of Don Juan Bandini, literally clearing it oiit of $60,000 worth of property, leav- ing him and his family penniless. After the death of her noble husband, remembering the solemn vow of Commodore Stockton to her. Dona Refugio prayed the United States Government to recompense her, at least, in part for her loss sustained at the hands of American citizens ; but to that prayer no reply has ever been made."']:
This is the story of the flag, as gathered from three of the women themselves, besides other members of the family, by Mr. Dane. And from various sources I learn that Commodore Stockton deposited that flag among the historic relics of the Navy Department, and it is preserved there yet. He did what he could to have Bandini reimbursed, as did also Col. Fremont, and his father-in-law, Senator Benton of Missouri ; and at a later period Gen. Beale, and also Gen. Sherman tried to have justice done in the matter. The claim was lumped in with many others, and has been several times before Congress, with favorable recommendation ; and yet the family say to this day [1894] even the cattle and horses which Bandini furnished to Commo-
*Wheii Bandini was in the Mexican Cong:ress he opposed the State-church party and supported the final and niaudatory act to secularize the Missions, which was passed August 17, 1S33. This act was simply to separate church and state, and establish religious freedom, the same as in the United States — a contest which had been going on hotly in Mexico tor ten years. He steadily and faithfully favored the United States, as against the Slate-church party of Mexico, and against any scheme for turning Calilor- nia over to England. I take pains to mention these matters here, because he was "black listed" by the State-church party as a traitor to Mexico, and his large estates thus confiscated ; and because of this par- tizan record against him in Mexico, many superficial or careless American writers have done him gross injustice. And even in Pasadena a street that was first named Bandini avenue in honor of this worthy man and wife as true-hearted and original Spanish-Americans, was perversely changed to Michigan avenue. Such a historic disgrace ought not any longer to stand against Pasadena's fair name.
fMr. Dane was mistaken here. Walker had taken Lower California ; and then with some recruits from San Francisco in March, 1H54, he set out to march around the head of the ,gu!f of California into Sonora and capture that province al.so, and this was the time his men looted Bandiui's st(jre. His Cen- tral America expedition was later — 1''^56-57. Sef Cvclo/iedhi Americana, Article ^' IValker , ll'm."
JThe roljbing ol the store might be grounds for a claim against the local authorities of county or state, but could not be against the United States.
DIVISION ONK — PRE-PASADKNIAN. 9I
dore Stockton at this time, and to Fremont in July previous, and without which they could not have reached Los Angeles at all, have never been paid for.*
Wm. Heath Davis, who was an intimate friend of the Arguello and Bandini families, in his book, "Sixty Years in California," p. 438, says:
" Don Santiaguito Arguello furnished large quantities of army supplies to Stockton from his extensive rancho eleven or twelve miles from San Diego — several hundred head of cattle and horses, and for which he had a claim against the government amounting to $14,000. The claim was sent to Washington by Major Lee, commissary-general for the Pacific coast. Stock- ton's attention being called to it [he was then U. S. Senator from New Jersey] he exerted himself effectually in its settlement, and in a few months Arguello received his money."
The ranch referred to by Davis was that of Tia Juana, which had been granted to Arguello's father in 1829.
Of this Bandini family, Don Juan died at Los Angeles, November 2, 1859. Dona Refugio died there June 28, 1891. The little Dolorosa whose dress furnished the red for that historic flag, is now [1894] Mrs. Charles Robinson Johnson of 433 South Main street, Los Angeles ; little Margarite whose dress furnished the white for that flag, is now Mrs. Dr. James B. Winston (widow) of Los Angeles ; and little Juan de la Cruz, whose 7-year old boy suit furnished the blue for the flag, is now engaged in the cattle trade between the United States and Mexico. Mrs. Col. R. S. Baker, (wid- ow) of Los Angeles, was an older sister, and not with the family on that occasion ; and Arturo, so well known in Pasadena, was a younger brother, not born until 1853. t Three of the Bandini girls married American hus- bands ; and one of the boys, Arturo, married an American wife.
BATTLES OP SAN GABRIEL FORD, AND "THE MESA."
On December 29, 1846, Commodore Stockton marched out from San Diego with an army numbering in all 607 men, six cannon, 87 mounted riflemen, ten ox carts to carry the baggage, and a band of beef cattle from Bandini for army rations. Among Stockton's officers were Capt. Santiago E. Arguello and Lieut. Luis Arguello, brothers of Dona Refugio Bandini who made the famous flag, and therefore uncles to our Pasadena Bandini family. Kit Carson, though not an officer, had charge of a squad of mounted riflemen who served as scouts and skirmishers. [For full list of
*August 31, 1852, Congress finally authorized the appointment of three armj' officers as a board ot commissioners, to examine and report on the California war claims; and their final report was made April 19. 18s5. In this I find that Arguello, [Bandini's brother-iu-law,] made, claim for f2i,68.S, and was allowed J6,Soo. The total of these California claims before the commission was fgSy.iSs; and $28,570 more were filed after April 19, making over a million in all. The commission allowed a total of 1157,365 ot these claims, and Congress provided for their payment. A total of $157,317 were rejected ; and the rest were suspended, to wait further evidence. One claim of $10,000 was cut down 200 per cent., and just $50 was allowed the man. — See Bancroft, //^zj/. Cal., Vol. s, P- l^J'l-
tMr. Arturo Bandini has now [1894] a silver cup presented to his father, and bearing the following inscription : " To Don Juan Bandini, from Captains H. Day, S. Casey, H. W. Wessels, H. S. Burton, and G. C. Westcott, r S. Army, as a token of friendship and high esteem." These were officers with Com- modore Stockton. They procured the cup and had their names engraved upon it in Washington, and then shipped it around Cape Horn to Don Juan, in 1850.
92 HISTORY OF PASADKNA.
officers and troops, see Bancroft, Hist. Cal., Vo/.s, A 385-86.] The main public road leading to Los Angeles was followed. The niarch was slow, at ox-cart pace only ; and although they met with no armed resistance until they reached the San Gabriel river, it was not till January 8, 1847, — ten days — when they arrived there. And now they were confronted b}^ the Mexican army under Gen. Jose Maria Flores,* another of the honorable Spanish Dons whom Lieut. Gillespie had rashly imprisoned because of a drunken mob with which Flores had no more to do than father Adam. Gov. Pio Pico and Gen. Castro had fled the country rather than surrender or be captured when Stockton and Fremont took possession of Los Angeles in August, 1846. Gillespie's wrongful imprisonments occurred on September 17. The men he arrested bad been put on parole of honor by Commodore Stockton ; and the Lewis History says : ' ' The Californians arrested were furious at their seizure, and at the attempt to hold them responsible for the acts of a few drunken vagabonds ; and as Gillespie had violated the promise made them of personal liberty when they gave their parole, they declared they would be no longer bound by it." This was the view of the matter taken by the intelligent and cultivated portion of the Spanish citizens ; and on October 26, 1846, the remaining members of their former legislature assembled in special session and elected Gen. Flores to be Governor ad interim and commander-in-chief. Stockton knew nothing of these reason- able views of the Spanish-Mexican citizens. He only knew of Gillespie's expulsion from Los Angeles ; of Mervine's severe defeat at Dominguez ranch ; of his own discomfiture by Carrillo's shrewd and successful strategic display of imaginary troops at San Pedro ; of Kearny's disastrous battle at San Pasqual. He was here to conquer and take possession of the country, and was attending strictly to business. The foregoing digression was necessary, as a clue for the reader in understanding some later events.
On his march, January 4, Stockton was met by three commissioners — Wm. Workman representing the American settlers ; Charles Flugge repre- senting the foreigners ; and Domingo Olivasf representing the Spanish or Mexican citizens — asking terms of conciliation. But he was smarting im- der the defeats above mentioned, was in no mood to conciliate anything, and would hear to nothing but unconditional surrender — asserting at the same time that Flores and others who had violated their parole would be shot il captured.
Stockton's army reached the San Gabriel river on January 8, and at-
*"They are formed between the American army and the Rio San Gabriel, apparently waiting to give battle, and are estimated at 1,000 to 1,200 — almost wholly cavalry."' — Report oj Commodore Stockton's Scouts am! Spy, on m'g/it of January y.
Cue of Stockton's officers wrote: "The enemy had fortified themselves to the number of five hundred men, with four pieces of artillery," etc. This was a mistake, for the Mexicans had only two small cannon, while Stockton had six cannon and plenty of good ammunition. The same writer speaking of the battle of the Mesa the next day, says; "They made a bold and resolute stand; tried our lines on every side ; and manceuvered their artillery with much skill."
jThis was the grandfather of Jose D. Olivas, who resides on Cypress avenue in Pasadena.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN.
93
tempted to cross it at the ford ou the old stage road leading out by Aliso street from lyos Angeles. But here he was attacked by troops under Gen. Flores, Gen. Andres Pico, Capt. Carrillo, and lyieut.-Col. Manuel Garfias — all of whom the American commander had foredoomed to be shot if cap- tured. The Mexicans had two small brass cannon, one of which is known in history as the "Woman's gun ; "* it bore a part in six battles of the Mex- ican war, and is still preserved in Washington as a relic, marked "Trophy 53, No. 63, Class 7." Their other cannon was the mountain howitzer which Pico had captured from Gen. Kearny at San Pasqual. A battle ensued in the afternoon which lasted about two hours and resulted in the Americans crossing the stream and driving the Mexicans from their position. f
Dr. John S. Griffin [still living, July, 1S95, on Downey avenue. East lyos Angeles,] was chief Medical officer. American loss, two men killed and eight wounded. The I,os Angeles County History says: "The chief reas- on that the loss of life was so small appears to have been the poor quality of
the Mexican home-made gunpowder." It was made at vSan Gabriel in an old adobe guard house that stood where Mr. Silverstein's store is now [1895], and was a very inferior article. The Spanish writers never mentioned but three killed and two severely wounded on their side ; but Stockton reported their loss as between seventy and eighty, besides many horses. Of course he could only guess at it. One of the three Spaniards killed was Francisco Rubio, a brother to the mother of Jesus Rubio, after whom our Rubio canyon was named. The Mexican troops in this battle have been variously estimated from 350 to 500 men. [Some exaggerate it up to 1200.] They withdrew up the Los Angeles road to Aliso canyon and took position again. The Americans did not pursue, but camped for the night
^
Dr. JOHN S. GRIFFIN — 1895
*'rhiswasa brass camion which had long been kept at the old church near the plaza in Los An- geles for use on certain festival days. When Stockton and Fremont took the city, in August, JS46. this gun was hidden by the Mexicans in a patch of canes growing in the garden of Dona Clara Cota de Reyes Then when Stockton learned where the four old iron cannon had been buried and sent Lieut. Gillespie to dig them up, Mrs Reyes and her daughter dragged the brass cannon out from the canes, and buried it themselves, to keep the Americans from finding it ; and thus it got its historic name of the "Woman's gun."
t" Half way across, Kearny sent a message to Stockton that it would be impossible to cross on ac- count of the quicksands ; but Stockton jumped off his horse and seized the ropes, .saying. " Quicksands be damned.! " Kearny suppressed his anger ; and the two nine-pounders, drawn by officers and men as well as by mules, soon reached the opposite bank, where they were immediately placed in battery.' — Lewis' Hisl. Los A. Co., p. 76.
94 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
on the battle ground. If a passenger on the Santa Fe railroad going from Los Angeles toward Orange and San Diego, will look out of the car window on the north side as the train approaches and crosses the San Gabriel river, he will be gazing on the ground where this battle of January 8 was fought.
BATTLE OF THE MESA, OR " LAGUNA RANCH." The next morning, January 9, Stockton learned where the Mexican army had taken position, and then he moved by the left flank away from the main road and out across the open plain toward the city, on what is now known as the Laguna ranch, owned by Mrs. Col. R. S. Baker, a daughter of Don Juan Bandini. But at the time of the battle it was owned by Don Felipe Lugo. Here Gen.- Flores again opposed his advance ; and another battle was fought, resulting in defeat for the Mexicans and their retreat to Rancho San Pasqual [Pasadena]. Wm Heath Davis in his " Sixty Years in California," says: " Twenty-five or thirty of the Cali- fornians were killed and a great many wounded ; while Stockton's loss did not exceed ten killed, with a few wounded." In this I understand Davis to include the battles of both days. Again he says :
"Forcing their horses forward, in approaching Stockton's line, every horseman in their ranks threw himself over to one side, bending far down, so that no part of his body, except one leg, appeared above the saddle. When the columns met and the horseman was required to use the lance or do other effective service, he remained but a few seconds in the saddle, and in the retreat he threw himself over along the side of the horse, and rode rapidly in that position, guiding the steed skillfully at the same time. By these tactics the cavalry of the enemy avoided presenting themselves as con- spicuous marks for the American riflemen."
Lieutenant Joseph W. Revere* of the troop-ship Congress, was in this battle ; and in 1873 a book of his entitled " Keel and Saddle " was publshed by James R. Osgood & Co., of Boston. In his chapter 18 he describes the battle, and I quote from page 145 to 147 his graphic account of the oppos- ing forces and the action :
"Commodore Stockton, having completed his preparations, set forth towards the Pueblo at the head of four hundred seamen, .sixty dismounted dragoons of Kearny's escort, fifty California volunteers, and a light battery. He first encountered the enemy — about five hundred cavalry, with artillery —at the ford of the river San Gabriel, not far from the Angelic capital, on the Sth of January, and celebrated the day by a spirited little fight. Having forced the passage of the San Gabriel, our little column debouched upon the " Mesa," a table-land some four leagues in extent, through which runs the road from San Diego to the Pueblo de Los Angeles. As we came in sight of its white walls in the afternoon [January 9,] we saw a long proces- sion of horsemen issuing from the town, and directing their march towards us. It .<5oon became evident they meant to oppose our progress ; and our jolly tars were in high spirits as they formed in square, the artillery at the
*Crandsoii of Paul Revere, the famous Boston hero who helped to throw the British tea into Boston harbor, and who:u Longfellow has immortalized in his poem of '• Paul Revere's Ride."
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIx\N. 95
angles, to receive them. The ground was a perfectly level, treeless plain, and thus admirably fitted for the evolutions of both infantry and cavalry. The enemy's cavaliers were about two thousand strong [?] principally rancheros, and the best horsemen probably in the world. [Stockton esti- mated them at 1,000 to 1,200; but the Mexicans say they never had more than 400 to 500 men, though their extra horses, amounting to something over 100, made the troop look larger. — Ed.]* They were dressed in the Mexican costume, in gay scrapes of all colors, and divided into bands, or squadrons, each of which had some kind of music, — trumpets, bugles, and even guitars and fiddles. They were armed with the escopeta (a clumsy carbine,) a few with pistols and rifles, and some with sabres, and machetes ; but by far the larger part had only a short lance, with a long blade, that could be used with one hand. Many flags streamed over the column ; some troopers having gaily colored handkerchiefs fixed to their lances, which, fluttering in the breeze, gave a festal aspect to the concourse. Confidently approaching our little force, they sent their led horses to the rear under charge of their vaqueros, and began their dispositions for an assured vic- tory, forming in two columns with a squadron front, opposed to two faces of our square.
" Meanwhile, our men stood firm, as it had been thought best to with- hold our fire until the charge was made. Orders were issued to wait until the enemy came within pistol-shot ; but our sailors, seeing a tumultuous, noisy crowd of men and horses rushing upon them with cries and waving flags, opened fire at half-musket range rather prematurely. Our cartridges, being an ounce ball and three buck-shot, proved very destructive. Men and horses tumbled over in considerable numbers, and the six-pound field-guns completed their discomfiture. They retired, however, in tolerable order, carrying off the wounded — those who had lost their horses hanging by the stirrups of the more fortunate — and again formed for another charge. Three times they essayed to shake our square ; but, being steadily met with the same withering fire, they at last desisted, and rode off towards the moun- tains, leaving open to us the road to their capital, which we entered on the same evening. The force which attacked us on this occasion consisted of native Californians, superior to Mexicans in physical power and military spirit, and far better horsemen ; while all the conditions of the action were favorable for cavalry in attacking infantry. These men were not only finely mounted on well-trained horses, but had also remounts on the field. Yet not one of them got within twenty yards of our square, in the face of that steady rolling file-firing ; nor was a single bayonet or lance on either side reddened with the blood of horse or man. It was a fair test of the respec- tive merits of fiery and chivalrous cavalry opposed to steady and disciplined infantry ; and the former was, as the sportsmen say, "nowhere."
" Their leader, Flores, attacked our sailor battalion in preference to the volunteer force of Fremont, which had the prestige of long frontier experi- ence that had habituated them to Indian warfare, and made them unerring marksmen. I think he committed a serious blunder ; and that had he en- gaged Fremont's force — which had no knowledge of infantry drill, or dis- cipline, and no bayonets — he must have been successful. This affair ended
*In a private letter to Fremont, dated Jan. 10th, the very next day after the battle. Gen. Kearny wrote ; " Their force does not exceed four hundred — perhaps not more than three hundred." And again on the 12th he wrote: "We met and defeated the whole force of the Californians on the 8th and gth. They have not now to exceed 300 men concentrated." — Bigelow's '' Lije of Fremont,^' p. 265.
96 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
the struggle for the possession of Upper California, and our squadron sailed soon after for the coast of Mexico, where a part of it was emploj^ed in blockading Mazatlan and San Bias, while my ship [sloop Cyafie] was sent with the frigate Congress to Guaymas. ' '
In regard to Flores' attacking the "sailor battalion " in preference to Fremont's troops. Revere was greatly mistaken ; for the Mexican army had waited at Cahuenga and San Fernando Old Mission to intercept Fremont and give him battle there, till they heard on January 7 that Stockton was advancing from San Diego.* Then they moved hastily down the Monterey road across Rancho San Pasqual to the San Gabriel river, and Garfias sup- plied his company with extra horses as they passed through his ranch ; and some food supplies for the army were obtained at San Gabriel while passing through that village. A woman who has resided in Pasadena for nine or ten years past, and known as "Old Francesca," galloped about the country on horseback gathering provisions for the Mexican troops, although she was then 53 years of age, having been born at lyos Nietos in November or December, 1794.! (I visited her September 23, 1894, [also three other times,] and her grandsons, Frank lyUgo and Jose lyUgo, Jr., acted as inter- preters for me.) When Col. Fremont marched into Los Angeles after the capitulation of Cahuenga, he took Gov. Pico's house for his quarters. This Pasadena woman, Francesca de Luga, was then occupying the house to take care of it : and she delivered its keys to Fremont.;];
The battle of the Mesa (Laguna ranch) closed about 4 o'clock p. m., when the Mexicans " rode off toward the mountains," as Revere puts it. They had made three brave but unsuccessful charges upon the American artillery, it being supported by a hollow square of well-armed, well-drilled and well-ofhcered marines. The California Spaniards showed as much dash and bravery and skill in manoeuvering and charging as the Americans ever did ; but the advantage of good powder, good firearms, good training and actual fighting numbers, was all against them ; and the fact that they main- tained this unequal contest for two days, or that they engaged in it at all, showed a degree of patriotic devotion in fighting for their own flag and
*B. D. Wilson used to tell with much humor, au incideut of tliis time. He aud other Americans were held as prisoners of war. and Don Andres Pico, the (".eneral. had always been very kind to them, so that they really felt a friendly concern for his safelj-. When he was starling out with the expectation of meeting Col. Fremont in battle, Mr. Wilson, Wm. Workman, and others, told him of their feeling toward him — told him that Fremont's men were all expert riflemen, and they feared if Don Andrese.x- posed himself on the field he would be shot. The General naively replied ; "Don't he anxious about me, gentlemen. I would rather have history record where Don Andres lan than where Don Andres fell." This I have from Hon. J. De Barth Shorb.
tThe lyos Nietos [or Santa Gertrudis] ranch was granted to Manuel Nieto by Gov. Fages in 1784 — the first land grant ever made in I,os Angeles county
I" I lived alone, after a short time, in the ancient capital of the governors general of Los Angeles, without guards or military protection ; the cavalry having been sent off nine miles to the Mi.ssion San Gabriel. I lived in the midst of the people in their ancient capital, administering the government as a governor lives in the capital of any of our states." — Exh act from FtcmoiiVs anS7uer to "Specification 7," in General Kearny's disgraceful conspiracy to ruin Fremont through a preprejudiced court martial at Washington, in 1847-4S. This Kearny gained military prestige by falsifying records within his control, and claiming achievements which were none of his. He died at .St. Louis, Oct. 31, 1S4S. Gen. Phil. Kearny, who won honorable distinction in the war of the rebellioti, and after whom "Phil Kearny Camp S. of V." in Pasadena was named, was a very different sort of man.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN.
97
country which nearly all American writers have unjustly ignored. After the battle they retreated to Rancho San Pasqual, making their camp on the south slope of what is now Raymond hill ; this hill was then 34 feet higher than at present, and had a stream of water, and Jose Perez's old adobe house [still standing, 1895,] and a fine oak grove on its south slope, extend- ing down to and beyond the Monterey road. Sentinel horsemen were kept posted on the peak of that hill', and also on the hills below South Pasadena, to watch for an expected pursuit by the American cavalry.* But Stockton paid no further attention to the Mexican army ; it was Los Angeles city he was after, and there he went, marching in with flags flying and bands play- ing, and took formal possession again on the morning of January 10.
On September 6, 1894, Dona Luisa Garfias, who now resides at San Diego, visited Arturo Bandini's family. It was the first time she had been
on the old ranch since it was sold from her, about thirty years ago ; and as soon as she came in sight of it, on the cars at South Pasadena, her feelings overcame her and she wept until she reached Bandini's house. In course of conversation she told Mrs. Bandini how she re- membered seeing the Mexican horse- men on top of Raymond hill, and on the South Pasadena hills, watch- ing for the American cavalry to pursue them, after the battles of January 8, and 9, 1847. She was then at the house of her mother's major domo, Camacho, near the Garfias spring.
Commodore Stockton took and used as his headquarters the adobe DONA ENCARNAcioN SEPULVEDA DE ABiLA house whicli is Still Standing, Nos.
14, 16, 18, Olvera street, north of the plaza. It was the city home of
*"The insurgent force under Flores, failing to make any impression upon the Americans in an at- tack upon the marching column on the gth, was moved to San Pasqual, some five or six [8] miles north- east of Los Angeles. * * On the night of the i ith, about midnight, Don Jose Jesus Pico came into the camp of the Californians, at San Pasqual, and gave them the information that Col. Fremont had reached San Fernando. * * After having met Col. Fremont at San Fernando, Messrs. Rico and Dela Guerra returned to San Pasqual early in the morning of the 12th. [About noon.] Immediately after their return to camp, Don Jose Antonio Carrillo and Don Augustin Olvera were appointed and commissioned by General Pico, to meet and negotiate terms ol capitulation with commissioners to be appointed by Col. Fremont. Gen. Pico immediately broke up his camp at San Pa.squal, and with his entire command accompanied his commissioners to Providencia."— [Co/, y. y. IVarner, lu Cen/ennml Hiitoryof Los Angeles County, p. 16.
Providencia was a southwest portion of the San Raf.iel or Venluco ranch, on the Monterey road, where Flores and Pico had stationed a small force to watch and report Fremont's movements.
98 HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Dona Encarncion Abila (Mrs. Garfias's mother,) who had fled with her family to the home of the old Frenchman, Ivouis Vignes, for safety.
FRKMONT'S NEGOTIATIONS.
Colonel Fremont, after a stormy winter march of extraordinary hard- ship down the mountainous coast from Monterey,* arrived at old Mission San Fernando, on the evening of January ii.f With him was Don Jesus Pico, [a cousin of Governor Pio Pico and Gen. Andres Pico] whose life Fremont had saved after he was condemned by a court-martial to be shot for violating his parole. Don Jesus immediately rode down to the Mexican camp at Raymond hill, and reached it a little before midnight, having been detained awhile at the picket camp on Verdugo ranch. He informed them of Fremont's arrival and of his fighting strength, which made their cause evidently hopeless ; and he urged them to seek terms of capitulation or sur- render from Fremont. A council was at once called, of such leading men as Gen. Flores, Andres Pico, Carrillo, Garfias, Olvera, La Guerra, Manuel Castro, etc., and the surrender plan was agreed upon. Gen. Flores and Lieut. Col., Garfias approved of it, though they would not themselves re- main but would depart for Mexico, as they were commissioned officers in the regular Mexican army. Flores had been elected Governor and commander-in- chief of California by the Legislature in special session at Los Angeles in the October previous ; and he now formally appointed Don Andres Pico to the chief command. Gen. Pico then appointed Francisco de la Guerra and Francisco Rico (two more of the Dons whom Gillespie had imprisoned) to go with Don Jesus and see what terms, if any, Fremont would make. By daylight they set off on this errand. And about the same time Flores and Garfias, with forty or fifty men, started for Mexico by way of San Gabriel, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio pass and Sonora. The two men who had been sent as a preliminary committee to see Fremont returned about noon with a favorable report. Fremont had ordered a suspension of hostilities foi the day, and given the Mexicans permission to bring their wounded to San Fernando Mission for care and treatment. Upon this. Gen. Pico ap- pointed Captain J. A. Carrillo, who had defeated Mervine at the battle of Dominguez ranch, and Hon. Agvjstin Olvera who was a member and sec- retary of the last legislative session, to be commissioners representing the people of California, and who would meet a similar commission to be ap-
*The start was made in the winter. The weather being very severe, manv hardships were suffered by the troops on the march, and when they arrived at Santa Barbara many of them were in a very weak condition. * * I told Col Fremont I could si'pplv them with flour, tea, coffee, sugar, and clothing. * * Upon order of his quartermaster and commissarv, goods amounting to about |6,ooo were land- ed for them from my vessel the next day."— K^m. Heath Davis, " Si-vly years in Califoi nia." pp. 7/5-/6.
" The passage was made with great difficulty. Both men and horses suffered exceedingly. Be- tween 150 and 200 horses were lo.st. The men were obliged to pull the cannon over the roughest places by hand."— //zV/W/'j A^?j/. Cal., yol. 2, p. 6oj. Our B. f" K. Kellogg was one of these men. This was the same severe winter in which the terrible Donuer Lake disaster occurred.
tWhile Fremont was encamped in the willows just acro.ss the creek west of Ventura, after march- ing down the beach road from Carpeuteria which is only passable at low tide, he was met bv a messen- ger with despatches from Stockton; and this messenger, who had reached Fremont's camp through hardship and peril was Dan Sexton. [See Article " Dan Sexton's Old Adobe Mill," in Chap. 3. J
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 99
pointed by Col. Fremont. All these stirring, historic events occurred with- in a few hours, in the Mexican camp within the borders of South Pasadena, on the South slope of Raymond hill ; and now Gen. Pico moved his camp about six miles over on the Verdugo [San Rafael] ranch.* along the old Monterey road toward San Fernando Mission, which place was then his own property! but occupied by Fremont's troops. In Fremont's Memoirs, page 601, he says : " The next morning, [13th] accompanied only by Don Jesus, I rode over to the camp of the Californians, and in a conference with Don Andres the important features of a treaty of capitulation were agreed upon."
The same day both armies marched to the old Cahuenga ranch house, on the most direct road to lyos Angeles. | There the terms of surrender were completed in form, and signed by the commissioners and commanders on both sides. The Mexicans agreed to turn over all arms, equipments and war materials in their possession, and to assist in restoring peace and order among the people of California, under United States authority ; and on com- plying with this, they were "guaranteed protection of life and property, whether on parole or otherwise.'" Here was the vital point ; for Stockton had doomed Flores, Carrillo, Pico, Garfias, and others to be shot, who had violated their parole after Gillespie had, as they thought, violated the terms on which they had given such parole, but which they had scrupulously ob- served up to that time, Fremont's idea and mission had not been to "con- quer " and subdue the Californians ; but to secure the territory to the United States before England could take it under her protectorate control in accord- ance with Rev. M'Namara's great Irish Catholic colonizing scheme — a pro- ject which came within a few days of being consummated. The plan had been favored by President Santa Ana and his council in Mexico ; and on July 7, 1846, the Departmental Assembly of California at L,os Angeles, under Gov. Pio Pico, had formally granted to M'Namara one square league apiece for 8,000 Irish Catholic immigrant families, to be colonized in California^ — that measure of land being equal to 13,500,000 acres. [Fremont's Memoirs, p. 553.] M'Namara was then at Santa Barbara, fresh from Mexico ; and on the i6th
*The Mexicans had a small force encamped here before to watch Fremont's movements. And be- cause of these two camps, ard because Gen. Pico was visited hy Gen. Fremont here, much confusion has arisen, and manv erroneous statements have been published in regard to the whole matter of Fremont's negotiations. Hence I have taken extra pains to identify localities and to trace the rapidly occurring incidents in their chronological order. That sub-camp was near the old Verdugo ranch house, about where the village of Glendale now stands.
fin December, 1S45, Andres Pico and Juan Manso had leased San Fernando old Mission and ranch for $1,120 per year.
jGen. Pico's camp at Provideiicia [near Glendale] was only five or six miles from Cahuenga : but Fremont's troops had to march sixteen or seventeen miles, as the road then ran by way of rancho f;i En- cino to a ford and thence down the west bank of the Los Angeles river to Cahuenga pass.
<;Gov Pico and the Spanish consul both urged the assembly to make the grant. On July 6 it was referred to Bandini and his brother-in-law Arguello as a committee. They put in 'stipulations" which in practical working spoiled it alike for an ecclesiastical scheme, a speculation scheme, or a Brit- ish government scheme, and then recommended its passage. And it was passed without noticing that Bandini had sawed off its teeth so it couldn't feed itself or anybody else However, if the British had succeeded in getting a protectorate foothold under that grant, they would have found a way to make it stick.
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
of that month the British Admiral, Geo. F. Seymour sailed into Monterey Bay for the purpose of hoisting the British flag and proclaiming a British protectorate.* But the Americans had got ahead of him and had hoisted their flag and taken possession on the 7th of the month. (For official docu- ments, debates in congress, etc., on this matter, see Fremont's Memoirs, Vol. I, pages 547 to 549, and on to 559). The initial and preparatory steps which resulted in the country being thus taken before the British got hold of it were distinctly those of Fremont. And here from Pasadena com- menced the negotiations with him which secured to the Spaniards an honor- orable treaty of peace instead of a galling submission to mere brute force, when he thus wisely pacified the country by the terms given in the only formal surrender of California that was ever made by any California officials to any United States officer. It was the white hand of Destiny enforcing the law of poetic justice, by awarding to Fremont this indefeasible seal to
■ Lund of Sunshine" Photo, Islir, HOUSE TAKEN BY COMMODORE STOCKTON FOR HIS HEADQUARTERS, JAN. 10, 1847.
himself as the one central figure of the California conquest, but which in later years narrow-minded, envious men most persistently sought to pluck from his plume of honors all heroically and worthily won.f When other men stood halting and haggling about precedents, he made a precedent by going ahead and doing the thing which needed to be done, right now. Fre- mont recognized that these Spanish soldiers had fought bravely, with patri- otic devotion to their own flag, and should not be treated as outlaw mis-
*Rodmati Price, afterward governor of New Jersey, was purser of Commodore Sloat's squadron at this time, and he wrote: "The l<',uglish admiral arrived a few days afterward, and the first thing he said on meeting the commodore was, ' Sloat,if your ilag was not flying on shore, I should have hoisted mine there.' "
tUeut. Walpole of the Knglish flag ship CoUingwood, who saw Fremont's troops at Monterey, wrote about them, and among other things said : " They are allowed no liquor; tea and sugar only. This uo doubt has much to do with their good conduct."— See "Early Days and Men of Cali/otnia," />.
DTVTSTON ONK — PRK-PASADKNTAN. lOI
creants. They appreciated this chivalric sentiment and courtesy on his part, and became true and loyal citizens of the United States, many of them afterward holding important offices under the new order of government.
In his report to the Navy Department at Washington, Commodore Stockton wrote: "By the capitulation we have recovered the gun taken bj^ the insurgents at the sad defeat of Gen. Kearny at San Pasqual." The other historic cannon called the "Woman's gun," was also delivered up to Fremont at this time, and afterward used in three other battles of the United States against Mexico to-wit : Mazatlan, Urios Palos Prietos, and San Jose in Lower California. A document produced in evidence at the trial of Fre- mont in Washington, in November, December, January, 1847-48, spoke of Fremont arriving at Los Angeles January 13, 1847, "with 400 mounted riflemen, and six pieces of artillery, including among the latter two pieces lately in possession of the Californians.'' These were the only cannon the Californians had for use in any of the battles, while Stockton had six and Fremont four to use against them. These two cannon were with the Mexi- cans in their camp at South Pasadena ; and in the ensuing month of March Fremont's battalion was on duty at San Gabriel, occupied the old Mission court as barracks, and had their six cannon, including these two, there. [See Bigelow's Life of Fremont, pp. 311-12-13].
While Fremont served as Governor of California under Commodore Stockton's appointment, he occupied Gov. Pio Pico's residence fronting the plaza ; and in regard to this I have a letter from Mrs. Fremont dated Los Angeles, November 14, 1894, in which she says :
"Don Abel Stearns had his lien on that Pico mansion used by Gen. Fremont as headquarters. I wish you could identify and fix the place ; for other houses in a then unbuilt part of the town, southwest, have been pho- tographed and sold to tourists as the old ' headquarters ' — especially one on Main street, a one-story adobe with a fine pepper tree, a kind of tree un- known here forty years ago.* Gen. Fremont himself had trouble identify- ing the old Pico house when he showed it to me in 1888. But it was then converted into a great granary and its upper floor built out over what had been a surrounding gallery. It was almost in line with the old church at the plaza ; in line with his fort on the hill ; ' ' etc.
As Mrs. Fremont requested, I have learned positively from old Spanish people who were here at the time, and also from Americans who have lived here ever since 1847, just where Gov. Pico's residence was. It stood on the south side of the Plaza, fronting north, and extended from Los Angeles street west to Sanchez street, at rear of the old Pico hotel, now called "Na- tional." The fire engine house there occupies part of the ground, the old Pico adobe having been torn away. All that still remains of the old walls occupied by Pico as the last Mexican governor, and by Col. Fremont as the
*The house referred to was away out at Thirteenth street, nearly two miles " out of town " at that time — a house that Fremont probably never saw at all. I have seeu those pictures myself, with their false label, and denounced it as a fraud.
I02
HISTORY OF PASADENA.
first American governor, is a few feet of adobe frontage occupied bj^ ^ Chinese store ; and adjoining this on the west is a board shanty occupied as Chinese lodgings. [See plate.]
The "Fort," which was a mere earthwork, and after 1847 was gen- erally called "Fremont's redout,"* was commenced by Gov. Micheltorena in 1844 ; was occupied and improved a little by I,ieut. Gillespie in September,
1846 ; was occupied and further improved by Col. Fremont's troops in January'
1847 ; was enlarged and further strengthened by Col. Stevenson in 1847-48, after Fremont had been taken east for court martial under Gen. Kearny's infamous conspiracy.! Among the soldiers in Fremont's battalion in 1847
"Land of Sunshine" Photo, 1S95.
SITE OF COL. FREMONT'S HEADQUARTERS AS MILITARY GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA, IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1847.
was B. F. E. Kellogg, father of Mrs. Byron O. Clark of Pasadena. Mr. Kellogg and a brother had the contract and built the United States fort at Fort Laramie, Nebraska, in 1844. Then in 1846 he came across the moun- tains with ox teams to California, arriving in Napa county in November. Fremont was then recruiting his battalion at Monterey for the march to Los Angeles, and Mr. Kellogg immediately joined it. He was with them on the march, and at San Fernando, and the capitulation of Cahuenga, and in lyos Angeles, and at San Gabriel where they waited some weeks to be final- ly di.scharged. Mr. Kellogg died at Anaheim December 16, 1890, but was buried at Mountain View cemetery, Pasadena ; and his grave is one of those that are annually decorated there on Memorial day.
*In December, I .SS3, I several times visited this old fort or redout, examining its barbettes, its salient angles, rampart walls, sally ports, etc., some parts of which were then still traceable; but it has all since been obliterated by street grading and other improvements.
f'Gne of the howitzer.i which Owens was ordered to give up had been captured from Kearney at San Pasqual and given up to Fremont at Cahuenga.'' — His.1 . Cal., Vol . •;, />. ././6.
This order occurred at San (".abriel, while our B. K. Kellogg was therewith Kremonl's battalion under Capt. Owens. Kearuy had always chafed under what had hav>pened with his howitzer, and hated Fremont accordingly ; and this was one step in his plot to insult and aggravate F'remont into some tech- nical insubordination. He refused to let Capt. Owens obey the sinister order, and that refusal was one of the trumped-up charges against him for court martial.
DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN.
I02%
CORRECTION MAP.*- Historic points in January, 1847.
1. — Commodore Stockton's headquarters, January 10 to 14, 18-t7. [See page 100.]
2. — Stockton's troops encamped on the plaza.
3. — Col. Fremont's headquarters while Governor of California, in a two-story adobe house owned by Alexander
Bell, uncle to Maj. HoraceBell, editor of the Los Angeles " Porcupine." 4. — An old one-story adobe house owned by Pio Pico, whose son-in-law, Jose Moreno, lived there. House still standing. Pico himself had lodgings and an office there in later years, and hence many