USA > California > Los Angeles County > Pasadena > 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 Pasqual, and its adjacent mountains, canyons, waterfalls and other objects of interest: being a complete and comprehensive histo-cyclopedia of all matters pertaining to this region > Part 21
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CHINAMEN MOBBED.
In 1885 there was a Chinese wash-house on Fair Oaks Avenue below Colorado street, in a rough board building owned by Jacob Hisey ; and one or two houses back of it on Mills street, owned by A. F. Mills, were rented to Chinamen for a store, employment office, lodging-rooms, etc. There were then a great many transient day-laborers in Pasadena, and a good deal of rough talk was indulged in against Chinamen. During the evening of November 6, a large number of men and boys were loafing, smoking, and talking "Chinaman " along the street in front of the wash-house. Three or four Chinamen were at work ironing, with kerosene lamps for light. Finally two of the crowd outside threw stones in at the door or window, one of which hit an ironer at his work, and one struck a lamp, breaking it. The oil was thus spattered over the clothes piled up on the ironing table, and in- stantly the room was all ablaze with flame. The Chinamen fled for their lives out the back way to Mills street, being pursued by a mob hurling stones and sticks and vile imprecations after them. The building was then looted from the rear before the flames got entire control ; and threats were freely made of setting fire to the Mills street building also, into which the Chinamen had fled for refuge and locked the doors and windows. Demand was made that every Chinaman in town should leave that night or be hung ; and some even began trying to tear down the buildings they were in, so as to get at them. For the rest of the story I here quote from the Union of November 13:
"After the fire, November 6, a number of men and boys went to the China houses on Mills street, and considerable talk was made of raiding them, but cooler-headed citizens succeeded in quieting the crowd and in giving the Chinese twenty-four hours to leave town. Chief among those
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whose efforts were valuable in preserving order and averting acts of violence were Deputy Sheriff Thomas Banbury, B. F. Ball, George A. Greeley, and I. N. Mundell, who exerted themselves manfully and courageously in favor of law and order, and happily with success. No buildings were torn down, other than the one referred to, to save the Mullins Block. Of the buildings destroyed Mr. Mills owned only one, and that was the meat market. All these Chinese tenants, both of Mr. Mills and Mr. Hisey, were soon to leave anyway, having made arrangements to go by December I. Mr. Banbury had, ten days before the fire, leased them ground for a store and a wash-house, these premises being away outside the town center, and out of the way of annoying anyone. Mr. Clark, the carpenter, had made arrangements with the other Chinese tenants to erect places for them immediately in the same neighborhood ; thus removing the entire lot of Chinamen from the center of the town. Next morning a citizens meeting was held at T. P. Lukens, office, at which C. B. Ripley presided and Charles A. Gardner was Secretary. The following resolutions were adopted :
"Resolved, That it is the sentiment of this community that no Chinese quarters be allowed within the following limits of Pasadena : Orange Grove and Lake Avenues, California street and Mountain Avenue.
"Resolved, That the Chinamen now within said limits be given reason- able time to depart ; and that if any have paid rent in advance for premises within said limits, the persons receiving such advance payments be requested to refund same.
"Resolved, That it is the sentiment of this meeting that no mob-law be allowed in Pasadena, but that everything be done decently and in order ; that the good name of our community depends upon its law-abiding character, and that we will use all necessary ineans to preserve such character.
"Signed by P. M. Green, R. Williams, A. Cruickshank, E. C. Webster, W. O. Swan, Jr., James Clark, T. P. Lukens, A K. McQuilling, Byron O. Clark, T. Banbury, I. S. Goldman, Charles A. Gardner, W. E. Cooley, C. B. Ripley, J. W. Wood, Thomas Rigg, M. D., C. Ehrenfeld, S. H. Doolittle, Wm. Pierce, A. F. Mills, W. P. McCoy, T. H. Arthur, J. Hisey, M. Mul- lins, J. H. Fleming, E. T. Dearth, G. A. Greeley, W. W. Doolittle, Wesley Bunnell, Charles Legge, John Ball, D. Galbraith, E. Turner, S. H. Lowe, J. C. Kerr, M. D.
"The above were fully carried out, the Chinamen have gone, and order reigns."
RAILROAD ACCIDENT.
In September, 1886, freight conductor M. E. Griffith was thrown from his train in the Raymond cut and four cars passed over him. The Union of September 11, said :
" The head was severed completely from the body, all but a small piece of skin at the back of the neck ; the left arm also severed from the body, all but a small piece of skin above the elbow ; the right leg below the knee the same; the left leg crushed through the thigh, rather than severed. As for the face, it was calm and serene, not in the least disfigured, showing con- clusively how terribly sudden his agony was over. The jury rendered their verdict that the deceased came to his death 'by reason of striking a water pipe across the line of the L. A. & S. G. V. R. R. accidentally.' "
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A FURIOUS COW .- The Star of May 18, 1889, says :
" A cow having a calf broke away from a band that was being driven to the Union market slaughter-house, and charged eastward at full speed, bent on mischief. On Summit Avenue a child was saved from being run down by runuing into the house, and on reaching Marengo Avenue the maddened animal saw a crowd coming from the Friends church, where a meeting had been held. She first made for Wilson Kirk (whose wife was hurt by another cow a short time ago), knocked him down, then directed her fury against Mrs. Williams, a lady of Modena who was attending the meeting, catching her on her horns and throwing her high in the air. Mr. Kirk was but slightly hurt, but Mrs. Williams was cut in the face and in- jured about the limbs. The next person in the path of the bovine hap- pened to be Jonathan W. Bailey, one of our venerable and well-known citizens, whom she knocked down and gored, breaking his collar bone, bruising his face, and probably injuring him internally. Mr. Kirk and oth- ers beat off the cow with clubs, when she made for a buggy, but was stopped by a shot fired by the herder. Two charges of shot and a bullet from a Winchester were required to bring the animal down. Mr. Bailey was taken into O. Burlingame's residence, and Drs. Grinnell and Dixon called, who dressed his wounds."
THREE CHILDREN BURNED TO DEATH.
The Pasadena Standard of September 21, 1889, reports :
" Wednesday night about half after ten o'clock a house occupied by Mrs. Beaton on Orange Grove Avenue below California street caught fire and burned to the ground. Three little boys, aged three, five and ten years, were burned to deathı.
"Little Johnny and his sister Mary were asleep in one room, while Willie and the baby were in their mother's bed in the adjoining room. The children had all retired about half past seven o'clock. The mother sat up sewing till after ten, then went up-stairs with a large kerosene lamp, nearly full of oil. She set it down on a box, and went to see if the children were all right in the other room, when somehow not known the lamp fell to the floor and broke, spreading the oil, and instantly the room was all ablaze. She grasped a quilt from the bed and tried in vain to smother the fire with it, getting badly burned herself in the effort. Little Mary, only seven years old, jumped up, called to Johnny, then ran to the window and broke it out with her bare feet and hands, getting them severely cut, climbed out on the little porch roof, and from there into an orange tree and down to the ground. The up-stairs rooms were low, half-story attics, and the blaze of the oil reached to the roof slopes, and caught quickly into curtains, bed- clothes, and hanging-garments. Mrs. Beaton finding it impossible to reach the younger children through the doorway, got out on the porch roof to try to break through the other window and so get to them ; but the room was a mass of flame, and she was in extreme agony both from having drawn flame and smoke into her throat and lungs, and mental anguish for her children, so that she sank powerless, and jumped or fell from the roof into Mr. John Withiel's arms, he being the only person who had yet reached the scene. In a few minutes Rev. Geo. P. Kimball got there, then Rev. D. D. Hill and others. But ere this the three little boys were suffocated, and en- tirely beyond reach of human aid, the whole up-stairs of the house being
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one volume of intense flame. Mrs. Beaton was carried to Rev. Kimball's temporary residence and has had to have night and day watchers continu- ally. At last accounts she was not expected to live."
However, the woman did recover. The children had been members of the Congregational Sunday School, and were there in their classes the Sun- day before. The Sunday after, a funeral service was held for them at the church, their charred remains, burnt and crisped beyond all possible recog- nition, having been buried on Saturday. Much censure and reproach was vented upon the fire company in connection with this calamitous fire. The city council therefore appointed a day and sat as a court of inquiry upon the case. It was then proved that the fire company had done all that they possibly could under the circumstances, and were in nowise at fault or justly blamable for any part of the dreadful affair. However, it resulted in some additional facilities being provided for fire protection.
STREET CAR SMASH-UP.
May 30, 1892, the street car line up Fair Oaks Avenue to Mountain View Cemetery engaged to carry the G. A. R. men and their friends attending the decoration ceremonies of Memorial Day. In the afternoon two cars were loaded full of people at the cemetery, then coupled together and started to run as far down as the Painter Hotel by gravity, without any horses attached. But when about half way down the cars jumped the track, the forward one rolling over down the embankment westward, while the other one was smashed and racked but not turned over. Yet, marvelous to tell, while nearly every man, woman and child on the two cars were hurt in some way, none were killed, and only two cases of broken bones or serious injury occurred.
LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS.
November 18, 1893, L. C. Winston, Esq., was lost in the mountains north of Pasadena during a snow storm, and perished alone, his body not being found, nothwithstanding the best efforts of experienced search parties, until by merest accident about nine months afterward. Mr. Winston was one of the earliest settlers here, even before the colony, and had been a lawyer and notary public in Pasadena for many years; while his wife had been a teacher in the public schools much longer than any other person. Hence his loss and death in the mountains was perhaps the most notable calamity in the entire history of the settlement ; and I glean from newspaper reports at the time a resumé of particulars of the dreadful case. He was out on a hunting and health trip, in company with Charles Brown of Pasadena and Palmer Reed of Sierra Madre. And now I quote from the Pasadena Star of November 23, 1893 :
"The facts regarding the affair, as related by Messrs. Brown and Reed, are as follows: About three weeks ago these two gentlemen and Mr. Win- ston went over into the mountains on a hunting and pleasure trip, taking
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along plenty of provisions and other supplies, packed on three burros. They made their main camp in a cabin at a point about six miles east of Pine Flats, called Chillao, but after a time moved on six miles farther east- ward and camped in Buckhorn Canyon, one of the tributaries of Rock creek, which runs into the desert north of the Sierra Madre range. Mr. Reed, who is a resident of Sierra Madre, took one or two carrier pigeons with him and one of thein arrived home a week ago to-day, bearing the message that all the party were in camp in Buckhorn Canyon, and all well.
"The next morning (Friday) it began to snow and blow, and the three men immediately made preparations to pack up and start for home. While Reed got breakfast, Winston and Brown went out to hunt up the burros. They kept together for a short distance and then separated, the former going west and the latter southeast. Brown soon found the animals and accord- ing to agreement gave a signal by hallooing. He kept this up until he came back to camp, but there was no response. The two men then fired their guns and blew a tin horn they carried, keeping the signals going until about eleven o'clock, but getting no response.
"They then concluded that Mr. Winston had kept on in the direction he had started, expecting to find the burros at Chillao cabin, so they packed up and left for that point, arriving about six o'clock in the evening. When they pulled out of Buckhorn Canyon the snow was still falling and had already attained a depth of nearly two feet. Farther west, however, the fall had been lighter and did not obscure the trail.
"No signs of Winston were found at the cabin and the two men spent an anxious night. Saturday and Sunday they spent in searching for their lost companion, but to no avail, and Monday morning they packed up and started for home, arriving at Sierra Madre Tuesday night at II o'clock, all worn out and distressed. Brown was hardly able to return this morning with the rescuing party, but he did go.
"Mr. Brown says that on Tuesday night last Mr. Winston became con- fused as to his location while out hunting and was obliged to remain out all night and wait for daylight to get his bearings. It is a very rough country, and in a blinding storm it is easy to lose all ideas of place and distance. Mr. Winston had a narrow escape some years ago not far from the same camp, when he was out two days and two nights without food."
That was Thursday. Then Friday's paper said :
"Two of the best mountaineers in town, Jud Blick and Lew Newcome, started up the toll trail immediately upon the return of Mr. Winston's com- panions, Messrs. Brown and Reed, yesterday morning ; and this morning another party composed of Palmer Reed, Charley Winston, Charley Brown, Cal Hartwell, Mart. Weight and Frank Grant, left for the summit in one of Wiley & Greely's teams, proposing to take pack animals at the foot of the trail."
The next week the paper reported :
"Two of the men who have been in the mountains since last Wednes- day and Thursday hunting for L. C. Winston returned about noon today after more provisions. They are Charley Winston, a half brother of Lang, and Jud Blick. The returned mien bring no tidings of Winston that affords the least reliable clue as to his whereabouts or his condition. Charley Winston went on home soon after arriving, to prepare several pack loads of
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supplies, with which he will start back tonight. Jud will go back in a couple of days with another supply."
Then the Star of December 14, said :
"Messrs. Chas. Brown, Jos. and Grant Griswold, John Hartwell, A. Leffler and Reney returned yesterday afternoon from their expedition up the Arroyo Seco in quest of L. C. Winston, bringing no encouraging news what- ever. They made a very thorough search of the main and tributary can- yons as far up as the divide between the headwaters of the Arroyo and the Tejunga, with side trips down the Tejunga and west branch of the San Gabriel, but absolutely no trace of the missing man could be found. The region about Barley Flats was explored also Another small party, headed by one of Mr. Winston's brothers, has gone over to Chillao and beyond, and they will continue the search in that direction."
The next report is of date December 20, and says :
"Another party has been made up to go in search of L. C. Winston, consisting of John Hartwell, Joe and Grant Griswold and Charley Brown. Lou Newcombe is already over on the Tejunga and the others will join him there and all will establish a camp at Chillao, where there is a cabin. They have all been in former searching parties and know the mountains thoroughly. They will go well prepared with provisions and clothing, so that they can weather storms. Those who are not familiar with the trails and canyons of the range should by no means venture into the mountains at this time of year. It is dangerous work for experienced mountaineers, and for others the danger is vastly increased."
These brief quotations from long articles will show what deep interest was felt and great effort made to find the missing man, dead or alive. Yet not the least clue was found, or heard of him, until the following account appeared, dated Los Angeles, August 16, 1894 :
" On Tuesday a young man who was hunting in the Little Rock Creek Canyon found the body of the lost man, L. C. Winston. Little Rock Creek Canyon runs into the Sierra Madre mountains up to Mount Waterman, which is the divide between the San Gabriel Canyon and the Little Rock Creek Canyon. A party consisting of J. B. Martin, W. A. Pallette, R. B. Burns, C. E. Meiggs, Fred Lees and Charles Brossart were camping; and on Tuesday Meiggs took his rifle and went up a little tributary canyon looking for deer. Losing his bearings, he climbed upon a high rock and looked about. As he clambered down he saw what appeared to be a man in an overcoat sleeping alongside a log. As he approached he was horrified to see that the man was dead, the legs being detached from the body, both being some distance away. The bones of the feet were still encased in the shoes. The trunk was wrapped in a heavy overcoat, which was closely buttoned and belted. The hat was on the skull, the hair and beard still clinging to the tightly drawn parchment-like skin. An investigation showed that the remains were undoubtedly those of Winston, for a cob pipe bearing his name, a bowie knife, also engraved, his watch, a match box and other articles were found in the pockets of the clothes. The body is twelve miles from the nearest house and can only be reached by pack-train in about two days' travel. The campers left the body where it was found, marking the locality so that it could be easily found again, and started at once for the city,
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arriving early this morning and going at once to Pasadena, where the Win- ston family was notified. A party of friends of the dead man started at once for the Little Rock Creek Canyon, and will bring back the remains as soon as possible."
On Tuesday morning, August 16, about eight o'clock, policeman A. O. Bristol was informed by Ernest Meiggs of East Los Angeles that he had found Winston's body, and had come to report the matter. Bristol at once went with him to the residence of W. S. Wright, Esq., and Mrs. Winston with the information. And by noon train Mr. Wright, Mr. Meiggs and Peter Steil started to recover and bring in the body. They had to go by S. P. Railroad to Palmdale, thence by team twenty-two miles to Pallette ranch on the north side of the mountains, thence by pack mules about twenty miles up Rock Creek Canyon. The spot where the body lay was five or six miles from the camp that Winston had started from, when he got be- wildered and lost in the snow storm ; and it is likely that some of the search parties sent out eight or nine months before had passed within fifty yards of the body without discovering it. August 20, Messrs. Wright and Steil returned to Pasadena with the remains. August 21, Coroner Cates held an inquest, with the following jurymen : Ed. Lockett, Thos. Banbury, Samuel Weight, E. A. Mote, B. A. Sparks, Thos. Grimes, Geo. Swerdfiger, S. O. McGrew, and G. W. Benedict, foreman. In his testimony before the jury, W. S. Wright said : "The range on which the body was found is es- timated to be next highest to Baldy in the Sierra Madre range. It is two or three miles north of Waterman range, and is in section 18, township 3, north, of range 10 west." They built a cairn or monument of stones to mark the place, and named it Winston mountain.
Mr. Winston had long been an honored member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and they conducted his burial. They also paid his life certificate of $2,000 to his widow.
WINERY TANK EXPLOSION.
October 8, 1894, occurred at Lamada Park one of the most horrible catas- trophes that fall within the province of this history to record. Workmen were engaged at re-arranging some old and putting in some new apparatus at the winery there. The manager, Albert Brigden, was standing on an old tank, three of which had just been newly placed, testing a stop-cock while the engineer was letting in steam. Adam Schumann, the company's cooper, had warned Brigden that those tanks were not safe ; but he insisted that they were all right, and must be tested to adjust the gauge points for the uses they were to serve. So both men were on the tanks at four o'clock p. m. when the explosion occurred. The Los Angeles Times report of the event said :
" Brigden and Schumann were upon a platform over a series of three large wooden casks, or tanks, used in the process of distilling, situated in a
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new building which the company had just erected. Mr. Brigden was directly over the first of these tanks, engaged in trying some stop-cocks, the cooper standing some feet away, nearer the central cask. The engin- eer, on the ground below, was engaged in turning into the cask a pressure of steanı, indicated on the boiler's gauge as fifty pounds, for the purpose of heating the water in the vessel. Suddenly, with a loud report, the upper end of the cask blew upward in a cloud of steam and a deluge of boiling water, striking and enveloping both the men on the platform, carrying them to the roof, Mr. Brigden falling to the ground, a distance of something like twenty feet, and Mr. Schumann lodging on the staging. Mr. Brigden, scalded all over and stunned by his terrific fall, had yet sufficient strength to run to the office, where he called for help to take off his clothing. When this was finally done, and by his direction he had been bathed in oil and wrapped in blankets, the flesh falling from his hands and back, he was carried to his home, over a mile away, where physicians ministered to him up to the hour of his death."
Mr. Brigden was a member of John F. Godfrey Post G. A. R. of Pasa- dena, and his burial was conducted by the Post, at Mountain View ceme- tery. He had resided here about fifteen years, and was brother-in-law to, and business partner in the winery with, Hon. J. F. Crank.
The other man, Adam Schumann, suffered great agony from his injur- ies and lay in a critical condition several weeks, but finally recovered.
A long list of minor accidents, shootings, fires, etc., I had to oniit, be- cause they would overload my pages with their numerousness.
STORMS, FLOODS, CLIMIATE, ETC.
There have been some storm periods, and incidents connected with them, besides occasional extremes of weather, which form historic way- marks in the course of years. And I have gleaned what I could that seemed of enough celebrity at the time to be worth preserving for reference when similar freaks of weather shall occur hereafter. The Centennial His- tory of Los Angeles County, page 52, says :
1861-62.
"At Los Angeles, the flood of 1861-62 began with the rain on Christ- mas eve, 1861, and continued almost without intermission until January 17, 1862, on which last day, 3 o'clock p. m., fell tremendous torrents of water, accompanied by loud claps of thunder and vivid lightning."
The Historical Society's pamphlet, published in 1890, page 36, makes mention of the same storm, thus :
"The Arroyo Seco, swollen to a mighty river, brought down from the mountains and canyons great rafts of drift-wood that, lodging here and there in the channel of the Los Angeles, formed dams that turned the cur- rent hither and thither, tearing away the low banks, and spreading the waters still further over the valley, then, breaking away, the drift was carried down and spread over the plains below the city. The drift-wood brought down by that flood furnished fuel for the poor people of the city for
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several years. It began raining on December 24, 1861, and continued for thirty days, with but two slight interruptions."
1865.
Of a severe storm this year Judge Eaton writes : -
"About once a year-generally in the month of February, but certainly during the winter months-we are visited with an electric storm that comes directly over the mountains, but loses its force rapidly as it leaves the base and spreads over the plains. The first of these I ever saw came the day I arrived at Fair Oaks, February 3, 1865. It commenced at sundown, at the close of one of the most perfect days I ever saw. There had been heavy rains and the earth was thoroughly soaked with water. The result was, many of the stalwart old oaks scattered about the ranch were prostrated. This storm lasted about 48 hours and was the worst one I have ever seen in this section. Once since then the storm has repeated itself on the same day and date, but was not so violent. Since the settlement of Pasadena, twenty years ago, there have been but one or two storms that did enough damage to be worthy of notice.
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