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 42
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Along with Micheltorena's ex-convicts and other Mexican troops was a company of Americans who had been induced to join him, under the' famous John Sutter as captain, by false representations, and by giving them deeds for land which were not in accordance with the Mexican law - hence utterly worthless. Mr. Wilson was personally acquainted with some of the
* One member of Wilson's company was Dan. Sexton. About him and his adobe mill, see page 53.
+ Another of Micheltorena's better men was Don Ignacio Francisco de la Cruz Garcia, a native of Spain, who remained and settled in Los Angeles. I visited this old man myself on Angust 19, 1895, and examined official documents which showed that he was that day 114 years, 3 months and 18 days old - yet he was able to see, hear, talk, and answer questions readily. G. W. Robinson, aged 86, was with me as interpreter.
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leading men of this American company ; and he managed early the next morning to approach their camp by crawling up a ravine with a flag of truce, accompanied by one James Mckinley. They were discovered and fired upon with grape shot from Micheltorena's camp, but escaped unhurt ; and when the Americans saw the white flag, three leaders came to them - one of these being Gen. John Bidwell of Chico, who was the Prohibition candidate for president in 1892 .* Wilson soon succeeded in showing them that they were on the wrong side of this fight; and after this better under- standing they withdrew from Micheltorena's support. Later in the day, or the next day, he accepted terms of capitulation .; His offensive troops were required to march to San Pedro without passing through Los Angeles at all, and be shipped at once back to old Mexico.}
In 1846, when the war occurred between the United States and Mexico, and American troops were on their way to capture Los Angeles, Gov. Pico called upon Mr. Wilson to raise a company of men to help repel the in- vaders ; but Wilson was still a citizen of the United States, not of Mexico, and declined to obey the summons, though at the same time assuring the governor that he would remain quietly on his ranch, and not take part in any movement to oust Pico from the governorship. He therefore remained unmolested ; and he was resolved and ready to resist if the governor should make any attempt to arrest him. But after Commodore Stockton had cap- tured Los Angeles, in this same year, and established Lieut. Gillespie there with a small force to maintain the United States authority, the Commodore urged upon Mr. Wilson a commission as captain in the U. S. army, with power to raise and equip a company of any number he might think best to guard the frontier. For account of the battle of Chino, and Wilson's cap- ture, and other adventures, see page 82, and following.
Mr. Wilson watched the battle of San Gabriel ford [see page 91] with intense anxiety from the hills of the Coyote ranch, where he had gone for the purpose -for he was still a prisoner on parole, and had spent the previ- ous night at his father-in-law Yorba's place in Santa Ana, his wife then being there. Of course the American prisoners were free after Stockton entered Los Angeles.
* "On his way back to Micheltorena's position he [Capt. John Sutter] and Bidwell, his aide, were captured, and after a brief detention were sent as prisoners under parole to Los Angeles."-Hist. Los .Ang. Co., p. 66.
+ Baucroft, Hist Cal., Vol 4, p. 503, says: " Not a drop of human blood was spilled on the battle- field of Cahuenga." This brusque and reckless assertion has been accepted by other writers, and used to cast ridicule on the Mexic-Californians as fighters. The improbability of its being true is shown by his own statement in regard to the battle, for he says : "It was kept up all the afternoon on both sides, Micheltorena's gunners using grape, and firing over a hundred times ; while the others fired less shots, using ball, and in some cases perhaps small stones." This was on Friday afternoon ; and on Saturday forenoon there was more fighting. Gen. Vallejo gave a report that " twelve cholos [convict soldiers]. one foreigner, one Indian, and one officer were killed." And eight others make varying reports of numbers of men and horses killed.
Win. Heath Davis, in his book, " Sixty Years in California," says these troops were not so bad as they are represented in history. Stealing chickens was their chief rascality ; but all sorts of evil re- ports were made up against them by the Californians." Davis was part owner of the ship that carried them away, and he accompanied them on the voyage.
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DIVISION FIVE -NAMES.
THE FOUR OLD CANNON.
In 1877, less than a year before his death, Mr. Wison prepared a sketch of his life, which has never been published in full. In this he mentions that he was present when Don Andres Pico, the Mexican general, first met Com- modore Stockton after having surrendered to Fremont, and remarks :
"Don Andres Pico manifested his good faith by telling the Commodore where the cannon were concealed with which he had fought at the action of the 8th and 9th. The Commodore asked me what kind of cannon they were. I told him they were common short heavy cast-iron guns ; to which he answered, they were not worth looking after, and he would not send for them .* I told him then that if he would give them to me I would make of them posts to keep the carretas [clumsy Mexican ox-carts] off from the entrance to my store + He therefore gave them to me ; and being told by Don Andres just where they were, I hired a man with a carreta [nearly three years afterward] to bring them in, and placed them at the head of Commercial street in Los Angeles." [See page 84.]
When the centennial of Los Angeles city was celebrated, in 1881, two of these historic old cannon were placed on trucks at the north corners of the old court house ; but now, 1895, they are preserved at the west main entrance to the magnificent new court house.
In 1849 Mr. Wilson was a delegate to a convention of South Califor- nians at Santa Barbara which petitioned Congress that the southern part of the proposed new state might be made a territory by itself, and not be in- cluded in the state of California as planned by the politicians of San Fran- cisco. [A mass meeting for the same purpose was held at Los Angeles in Feb- ruary, 1850.] Their plea was not heeded ; but it is interesting to note that the struggle for "state division" commenced thus early -and it ought never to cease until accomplished. The state was admitted to the Union the same year [September 9, 1850], and Mr. Wilson was elected the first county clerk and clerk of the courts of Los Angeles county, April 1, 1850. From January 2d to July 3d, 1850, he was a leading member of the city council, still under Mexican law; but on the latter date a new and full board of city officers was installed under the American charter passed and approved April 4th of the same year. The "Centennial History " says Mr. Wilson was mayor of Los Angeles in 1854, and adds : "Mayors Hodges and Wilson through tempestuous times held the helm with firmness and foresight."
September 1, 1852, he was appointed U. S. Indian Agent for the southern district, his commission being signed by Millard Fillmore, presi-
* Mr. Wilson wrote this sketch 30 years after the events, and his memory failed him as to the par- ticular cannon in question. The only cannon which the Mexicans had in the battles of the 8th aud 9th were the two brass howitzers which Gen Pico had surrendered to Col. Fremont at Cahuenga on the 13th ; and the ones that Pico told Commodore Stockton about were the four old guns lying in the surf at San Pedro, utterly unserviceable, but the only pieces of artillery remaining within reach of the Mexicans. See page 84. At the battle of Cahuenga, in 1845, Micheltorena's troops had three of these old iron can- nons, and Pico's men had the other one.
+ "During all this time he [Wilson] had been heavily engaged in merchandising in Los Angeles, as well as in cattle ranching at Jurupa."-Lewis's Hist. L. A. Co., p. 118.
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
dent, and Daniel Webster, secretary of state .* In 1855 he was elected state senator and served the term. Also again in 1869-70.
In 1853 he married for his second wife Mrs. Margaret Hereford, widow of Dr. Hereford of San Pedro. His first wife, Ramona Yorba, had died March 21, 1849.
In 1852 Mr. Wilson bought the Lake Vineyard property from the Indian wife of Hugo Reid, and in 1854 he built there a dwelling house with a vast wine cellar under it and a very costly roof of tiles-the total cost of the structure and appurtenances being reported over $20,000, the roof alone taking nearly half of it. His widow, Mrs. Margaret Wilson, resides there in the same house yet-1895.
In 1864 he constructed the historic and famous burro path to the top of the mountains, known as " Wilson's Trail," and this is reported to have cost him about $6,000 before he finally dropped it. His object was to have shakes, pickets, barrel staves, orange boxes, etc., made from the cedar, oak and pine trees which grew so plentifully on the mountain top, and then transport them down on burros, for which purpose he collected a band of about sixty of these hardy little animals. But the timber proved unfit for wine barrels, which was the most important item ; pickets and other lumber to fence in his orchards were brought down, besides shakes for roofing pur- poses, till he had enough and quit. [See Chapter 20; article "Wilson's Trail."]
In 1867 Mr. Wilson and Dr. Griffin built the open ditch which first , brought the waters of the Arroyo Seco from Devil's Gate out onto the alfalfa lands of the Rancho San Pasqual. The job was done by Judge B. S. Eaton ; and this was the waterway know in colony days as the " Wilson ditch."
In 1869 Mr. Wilson was sent to Washington by the winegrowers of Los Angeles county, to ask from the revenue department some concession or relief in regard to the internal revenue tax on California wines. But it availed nothing. The law was general, and must apply in all states, counties and territories equally.
In 1871 Mr. Wilson laid out the original Alhambra tract of about 300 acres, with water piped to each five-acre lot-the first subdivision ever made
* "In 1852 the late Hon. B. I). Wilson, an old resident of Los Angeles county, made a report to the United States government, showing the great injustice which had been done the Indians by the Ameri- cans. In 1881 Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson had her attention specially directed toward these longsuffering people, and that winter she made a visit to their reservation and spent several weeks among them."- California of the South, p. 195.
Mr. Wilson's report was printed in the Los Angeles Star of 1852, and again in same paper in 1868 ; and much of it is copied in J. Albert Wilson's Hist. Los Ang. Co., 1880, pp. 87 to 90. This report is a monument to Mr. Wilson's painstaking fidelity as a public officer and to his good sense and kind- heartedness toward the Indians. He does not palliate their faults and vices as a class ; but he plainly sets forth the wrongs, abuses, injustice and evil examples to which they had been subjected by white people, and then remarks : "What marvel that eighteen years of neglect, misrule, oppression, slavery and in- justice, and every opportunity and temptation to gratify their natural vices withal, should have given them a fatal teudency downward to the very lowest degradation. * * * In some streets of this little city almost every other house is a grog-shop for Indians." Yet he gives many instances of true noble- ness of character and sterling fidelity among them ; and in this official report alone Mrs. Jackson found ample warrant for all that she pictured of Indian life, and wrongs done them, in her famous story of " Ramona."
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in California with water con- veyed in iron pipes ready for use at each colony set- tler's own door. Before that only open ditches had been used, or wooden pipes. This scheme was projected and superintended by Mr. Wil- son's son-in-law, J. DeBarth Shorb, who had done the first iron piping of water for irrigation purposes ever done in California, at Camulos in 1864, while he was superin- tendent of the oil works started there by Col. Thomas Scott, the great railroad king of that time. And Mr. Shorb further extended and devel- oped the same idea in the HON. B. D. WILSON. Alhambra and the Pasadena- Lake-Vineyard colony tracts. The Alhambra tract was school land without water, and Mr. Wilson bought it from the State for $2.50 per acre. It was commonly deemed worth- less, but the water-piping scheme jumped it at once into great value and ready sale- and a large addition was soon made to the original colony tract.
In 1876 Mr. Wilson and Mr. Shorb projected the "Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company," and laid out 2,500 acres* into 5- and 10-acre lots, east of Fair Oaks Avenue, and piped water to the lots from the reservoir (now known as No. 1) at the end of the original Wilson and Griffin ditch. This land was sold at first for $55 per acre ; but very soon the price advanced to $65, $75, $80, $100 per acre. In 1877 an association called the Mutual Orchard Company bought 200 acres from the east part of this Lake Vine- yard Company, and planted on it 14,000 orange trees, the largest orange orchard in the world. This was an Oakland, Cal., company.
March 11, 1878, Mr. Wilson died, at his Lake Vineyard home place, in the 67th year of his age. He had done more to develop and improve and open up for American settlement the region now known as Pasadenaland than any other man before or since his time ; and that is why there are so many different points and objects hereabouts that bear his name.
*It was 1,500 acres at first, and then Mr. Wilson repurchased 1,000 acres from the Grogan tract.
22
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
CHAPTER XVIII.
NAMES .- The name Pasadena .- The name Altadena .- Large Land Tracts by name .- Old Spanish Land Grants .- Springs and Water Sources by name .- Who named the Streets, and why.
THE NAME PASADENA.
Much misrepresentation and idle guesswork has been printed and sent abroad concerning the origin of the name or word "Pasadena." Paso de Eden (Gateway of Paradise) is often given as the original form of the word, Anglicised into its present euphonious usage. But the climax of absurdity in this matter is reached by "Bancroft's Railway Guide," San Francisco, for August, 1890. On page 48, under the head of "Spanish Words," it says :
" PASADENA (pas-alı-day-nah). A Spanish phrase pronounced " Pah-so-deh-dain" would mean "Gate of Eden," poetically. Many Spanishi words have been contracted, wrongly spelled, mispronounced and misunderstood as badly or worse than this, supposing this to be the real meaning of a name very probably first used by the California padres, and afterwards mispronounced, by ear, by the Americans."
Now, the fact is, "the California padres " never heard of the word, for it is a Chippewa Indian word, and not a Spanish word or phrase at all .* Neither is it an Algonquin word, as is so commonly stated, only in so far as the Chippewa tribe of Indians was a branch or offshoot of the great Algon- quin family. Upon my inquiry as to the real origin of the name " Pasadena," Judge B. S. Eaton writes :
" It came about in this way. The winter of 1875-76 found the In- diana colony so far advanced as to require mail facilities. Thus far, Los Angeles had been the address of the colonists ; but this community was as- suming importance ; and as the Washington authorities would never consent to such a name as "Indiana Colony" for a postoffice, Calvin Fletcher, one of the largest stockholders, and the man who laid out the plan of the settlement and directed the subdivision of the lands, appealed to me to know if there was not some Spanish name that had been applied to the ranch, descriptive of its location or general characteristics. He thought a name that smacked a little of the language of the country would sound bet- ter than any name imported from the Eastern States. All the good and pretty names had already been monopolized, and he would like something that was a little out of the common. I could remember but one thing that could possibly fill the bill for him, and that was found in the answer given ine by Don Manuel Garfias when I asked him why he located liis house in such (as seemed to me) an impractical place. It afforded him no avenue to overlook his vast domain, or see what his flocks and herds were doing. His reply was, " Porque es la llave del Rancho."
"Yavvy what ?" says Fletcher, catching on to the main word [llave].
" Oh, that gives no clue to a name," I said, "for no Yankee would ever try to pronounce a name that commenced with two consonants."
"Well," he said, "what does it mean ? Give it to us in English."
*In 1884 a pamphlet was issued from a new town and health resort in Texas named " Pasadena," and pretending to derive the name from some mongrel combination of Spanish words or parts of words.
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DIVISION FIVE - NAMES.
I gave the translation, " Because it is the Key of the Ranch." "You see," said Garfias, " the south side of the ranch from here to the Santa Anita is all improved property, and enclosed with fences. On the north side is the Sierra, and on the west is the Arroyo Seco. The little stretch be- tween my house and the Marengo (the Bacon tract) is the gateway through which outside stock must come, to ever get on my range, or my own stock to escape ; and that is why I call this the 'Key of the Rancho.' "
So far, Judge Eaton's account.
Dr. T. B. Elliott, the original projector and president of the "Indiana Colony" scheme as organized at Indianapolis, was a man of books, and of some general scholar- ship beyond the technical field of medicine. He now took the matter up with a good deal of zeal to carry out Mr. Fletcher's idea, as the latter was also one of the original Indiana Colony men. Dr. Elliott searched all his own books to find some- thing which would fit the case, but with- out success. He then remembered that when he was a student in Hamilton Col- lege, New York, he had an intimate friend and college mate who afterward went west as a missionary among the Indians ; and to him he wrote, explaining what Mr. DR. T. B. ELLIOTT. Fletcher wanted, and what Judge Eaton had told about the "key of the ranch " or entrance to the upper part of the valley - and asking the missionary for some Indian word of pleasant sound which would serve as an appropriate and significant name for the new settlement. In reply he received the following list of words which I have copied verbatim from the original slip as written by the missionary himself, and never before published :
" Weoquân Pâ sâ de ná - Crown of the valley.
Gish kâ de ná Pâ sê de ná - Peak of the Valley.
Tape Dâegun Pâ sâ de ná- Key of the Valley.
Pe quâ de na Pâ sâ dena - Hill of the Valley. Accent last syllable of each compound word. Chippewa dialect."*
* After writing this article I showed it to Theodore Coleman, who has been city editor of the Daily Star ever since June, 1886. He formerly lived at Chippewa Falls, Wis., had some knowledge of the language of those Indians, and thus becoming deeply interested in this matter, he wrote there for fur- ther information ; and in reply received letters from Chas. Allen, Esq., of Chippewa Falls, and Rev. Casimir Vogt, a Catholic priest of Bayfield, Wis., long time missionary among the Ojibway [same as Chippewa] Indians. Mr. Allen is a half-blood of that race, and a reputable lawyer in his town. Rev. Vogt says : "The root for Pasadena can be found in passa-an - I split something. Passadena is a space formed by intersecting a range of hills or mountains"; etc. The letters received contain fifteen or twenty different words and explanations ; and from it all Mr. Coleman writes in regard to the different words preceding Pasadena in Dr. Elliott's document : "One of these was weo-quan [hat] ; another was gish-ka-dena [peak in a valley] ; a third was tape-da-egun [key] ; and the fourth was pequa-dena [hill in a valley]. The word for hat is the nearest synonym for crown the language contains ; and the term for key signifies nothing but the metal article. The Chippewa word for valley, or plain, is passa-ka-miga ; that for hill is pig-wa-dena. Pasadena was therefore formed by combining the first half of one of these . words with the last half of the other, giving to it the signification of valley in the hills, or between the hills. Another Chippewa word " wanadena " is also used to signify a valley between mountains, but ' passadena ' bears almost exactly the same interpretation."
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
uroquânlê de no
-
Crown of the Valley.
Sich kâde ná Pa se dená . Drax of the illay
Ja pa kônegen câ câ de ná. Key of the valley De grâ de na la si dera -
Hill of the rating
Accent hosts sellable of each compound word --
Chifferra dialect
E
Original Notes for name Pasadena.
The friendly personal letter accompanying this document was accidentally destroyed since Dr. Elliott's death, but this historic slip chanced to be preserved. Mrs. Elliott had never seen or known personally the man who wrote it, and cannot recall his name, nor the place where he was then located ; but she vouches for this document as the original slip or memorandum which came enclosed in the missing letter. Hence, here we have the true genesis of the name "Pasadena."* And now arises the question of how the name came to be formally adopted.
Hon. P. M. Green wrote a brief historic sketch for the Farnsworth pamphlet entitled " A Southern California Paradise," which was printed at Oakland, Cal., in 1883 ; and in this Mr. Green relates :
"At a meeting of the stockholders of the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association held on the 22d day of April, 1875, the question of selecting a permanent name came up for consideration. A number of names were suggested, and among them Indianola, Granada, and Pasadena. A lengthy discussion ensued as to which should be adopted. Those in favor of Indianola argued that the change from "Indiana Colony" to Indianola would be most easily effected, and that the name would retain a hint of the origin of the settlement. Those in favor of Granada argued that our productions and climatic conditions were similar to those of the region of that Granada which the genius of an Irving had immortalized, and therefore would be appropriate.
"The late Dr. T. B. Elliott presented the name Pasadena, and stated that it was an Indian name, the meaning of which was 'Crown of the Valley,' and argued its appropriateness for the reason that our location was at the extreme end, and in the most beautiful and romantic portion, of the famous San Gabriel valley, and therefore was entitled to assume a name which was so descriptive of the locality, besides being beautiful, musical, and euphonious. A motion to adopt the name 'Pasadena' prevailed by a vote of more than four to one of those present. So, to Dr. Elliott the community is indebted for the name Pasadena, so dear to every inhabitant of these peopled valleys, slopes, and plains which now bear that name."
Dr. Elliott died August 13, 1881.
The name Pasadena has heretofore been used in a comprehensive way to include all the territory from the Arroyo Seco to Eaton canyon, and from Lincoln park to the numerous mountain resorts which are connected by trail, toll-road or railroad with Pasadena. But now, in order to distinguish this
*"In family conclave we discussed the list, but my father at once settled upon the Chippewa name of Pasadena as his choice, it being euphonious, of fitting length, and easily spelled, so Pasadena it was decided should be the one name of the list put before the meeting. It seemed to please the majority, and being put to a vote, became the choice. Thus 'Pasadena' came into legal existence among civilized peoples."-Mrs.Helen Elliott Bandini, in Pasadena Daily News, Dec. 24, 1894.
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DIVISION FIVE - NAMES.
larger district from the corporation limits of Pasadena city, I have adopted the term Pasadenaland, and used it throughout this volume .*
MUSCAT .- As early as October, 1873, D. M. Berry had named the colony tract "Muscat," because raising muscat grapes was then expected to be the chief industry of the colonists ; and Mr. Croft's diary all through October, November and December speaks of it by the name of "Muscat." But when the name "Orange Grove Association " was adopted, that put oranges ahead of grapes, and "Muscat" as a name for the settlement went out entirely.
MAJOR BONEBRAKE'S "GENESIS OF PASADENA."
In 1885 a great Citrus Fair was held in the roller skating rink, for the benefit of the public library, for an account of which see Chapter 16. Then on March 23, 24, 25, 26, 1886, another similar Fair was held in Williams hall for the same object ; and on the 25th Major Bonebrake of Los Angeles, just purely as a matter of fun, gave a learned discussion on the genesis of Pasadena's location and name, which I myself reported for the Valley Union of March 26, 1886, and from which I here quote :
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