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 43
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" Major Geo. H. Bonebrake, president of the Los Angeles Board of Trade, next spoke. He showed from several points of argument that Pasa- dena is the veritable site of the original garden of Eden.
Ist. Philological argument : Pasadena is a euphemistic modernizing of the term Pas d'Eden, or Pass of Paradise of some ancient and lost language.
2nd. The geological argument : When our globe in its gasiform state began to cool and solidify, it commenced at the poles and worked gradually toward the equator ; hence vegetable and animal life commenced in the lowest forms at the north pole and increased and improved as time advanced, so that by the sixth day of creational progress the advance line had pro- gressed as far south as Pasadena, or ancient " Pas d'Eden," and here man was made. "Adam " means red earth, and plenty of this material was found on the Painter & Ball hill. [Monks hill was also called "the red hill."]
3rd. The Bible argument : Sundry quotations from scripture were given in confirmation of this view.
4th. The æsthetic argument : Eden or Paradise was a place of all perfection in beauty and loveliness, including women and flowers and all manner of fruits-and here we have them all, in excellent completeness.
5th. The argument by exclusion : Nobody can show or prove that any other place on earth absolutely is the original Pas d'Eden ; hence no- body can prove that this is not the place, and therefore our proofs stand, that this must be the very spot.
This fine piece of humor seems to have been taken in owlish earnest-
*The first instance of the name Pasadena being used elsewhere is mentioned in the Star of Septem- ber 2, 1891, which says : "A friend hands us a copy of the Stamford, Conn., Herald, which contains an advertisement of town lots for sale in Pasadena, New Jersey. It is a health resort near the sea shore. It was so named, doubtless, because of the fame of our own Pasadena as a healthful city."
In November, 1894, there was a new health-resort town in Florida named Pasadena.
In July, 1894, a pamphlet was issued by Mrs. Cora Bacon Foster, advertising Pasadena, Texas, on Cotton Patch creek, about eight miles from Houston.
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ness for the solemn truth by Bancroft of San Francisco (Railway Guide), Mrs. Cora B. Foster of Texas, and others, and made the basis of their strained efforts to derive the name from the Spanish language, instead of from "somne ancient and lost language," as the witty Major did.
ALTADENA .- The name " Altadena " was coined and first used by Byron O. Clark, to designate his 40-acre nursery and home place at the up- per stretch of the Lincoln Avenue flat. This was in the spring of 1886 ; and the first time the name appeared formally in print was on a stock of en- velopes for his nursery business which he procured about that time. The meaning attached to it was, "the higher Pasadena "; and in regard to its later and larger application Mr. Clark in response to my inquiries, wrote me January 28, 1895, thus :
"When the Pasadena Improvement Company was organized [incorpor- ated February 9, 1887], its president, J. P. Woodbury, asked my permission to use the name for the lands which they were laying out, and which now bear the name of Altadena. He said he liked the name very much and thought it especially suited for their villa sites. I consented, as I had sold my home place to which it was originally applied, and was willing that the name should have a more extended use."
The name Altadena has been borrowed and applied to a tract at Red- lands. And Col. G. G. Green of Woodbury, New Jersey (owner of Hotel Green, Pasadena), had a little daughter born at his elegant winter home in our Altadena, May 15, 1888, and named her Altadena Green.
LARGE LAND TRACTS BY NAME.
Within Pasadenaland there are several large tracts of land bearing some local designation, and with which, both as to namne and land, there are some interesting historic associations that call for record.
THE GROGAN TRACT .- Judge Eaton furnishes me the following ac- count :
"This tract was purchased by James Craig for Alexander B. Grogan, a wealthy capitalist of San Francisco, about 1869, from Griffin and Wilson. It contained 5,000 acres, and was bought for $30,000. No water right went with this sale; and as Mr. Craig wished to make a home for himself on the tract, he entered into negotiations with B. S. Eaton, then owner of the "Fair Oaks " ranch and of three-fourths of the waters of Eaton canyon, for a supply from that source, and at once commenced the improvement of eighty acres - the place where he still resides. From that time onward portions of the tract were occasionally acquired by residents of Pasadena, until now [1894] nearly the whole 5,000 acres are under cultivation."
Mr. Grogan was born in Ireland ; came to California in 1848 ; and died in San Francisco September 19, 1886.
The following article from the Valley Union of April 23, 1886, is of historic interest :
"THE PAINTER & BALL TRACT has been for five years past so import-
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ant a factor of Pasadena as to be little less known than the town itself. Its management has contributed so largely to our growth and prosperity that a brief history of it is in order. J. H. Painter and B. F. Ball, the owners of the tract, are gentlemen whose lives have been intimately blended through- out. Both originally residents of the same town, (Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio,) they both left there long ago and emigrated to the same county, (Cedar,) in Iowa. Mr. Ball left Iowa in '7 and Mr. Painter in '81, both coming direct to Pasadena. A tract of 2,000 acres of land adjoining Pasadena on the north was then owned by Henry G. Monks, of New York city, a former resident here, and from whom Monks hill was named. Mr. Painter and Mr. Ball wanted about 500 acres of this land, and negotiated for it ; but found that they were likely to lose it through the determination of the owner to sell it " all or none,"' and that there were parties in the field willing to buy it all. Mr. Painter reflected upon the situation. Something must be done. Dropping his head upon his breast, he said, "If I had a man to go in with me I'd buy the whole tract." This appealed to Mr. Ball personally. The old friends who had been together so long in Ohio and Iowa, ought not to be separated in interest in California. So he says : " I'll take a third of it, if you will find some man for the other third." "All right," says Mr. Painter ; "I will take two-thirds myself." They immediately bought the whole tract, 2,000 acres, at $15 an acre, aggrega- ting $30,000. They spent about $20,000 more in watering it; and they have sold it to 50 or 60 different purchasers for about $150,000, netting a handsome profit on their venture. The tract with its water supply, has been incorporated as the North Pasadena Land and Water Company. It adjoins the old Pasadena tract on the north, and is now bounded by Villa street on the south and the Woodbury, Banbury and Giddings tracts on the north, while its east and west lines are Lake Avenne and the Arroyo."
MONKS HILL TRACT .- Of this Judge Eaton writes :
" Mr. Monks, a young Bostonian [or New Yorker (?)] came here about 1868, and purchased from Griffin & Wilson about two thousand acres of land, including the "red hill" [Monks Hill] as it used to be called. With this tract he also acquired all the waters flowing in the canyon [Millard's] above its mouth. Griffin & Wilson had already constructed a ditch from the water source to a point back of Monks Hill, with a view of impounding a large supply of storm water there. The work was done by a Frenchman named Dargue, who had previously been tunneling into the hills at Lincoln Park for hydraulic lime-the same place where the old Padres obtained all their lime for their cement masonry at the different Missions. It had such virtues as a cement plaster that it is said the missionaries hauled it in Mexi- can carretas with ox teams even as far north as Monterey."
MARENGO TRACT .- Called also "the Bacon ranch," 800 acres, com- prised what is now the Raymond Hotel grounds, the Raymond Improve- ment Company's lands, and the oak timber lands south of Monterey road and east of lower Fair Oaks Avenue. Its chain of title is a long story, it being parts of Ranchos San Pasqual and San Pasqualita. It was bought in 1855 by J. L. Brent, afterward a General in the Confederate army* and who was
*"At a place called Big Canc [Louisana, February, 1865,] a former citizen of Los Angeles, a Con- federate brigadier, J. L. Brent, commanded a small force of Confederate cavalry," etc .- See "Reminiscences of a Ranger," by Major Horace Bell, page 372.
'78
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still living (at Baltimore, Md.,) in 1894. Brent was a warm admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, and named the ranch from Napoleon's great battlefield of "Marengo." Brent sold it to B. D. Wilson, October 31, 1870. Wilson sold it to H. D. Bacon. [For some earlier points, see pages 71, 72.]
OAK KNOLL TRACT .- This was formed into a home place by Mr. Wil- son and Mr. Shorb in 1872, and named from a large, far-spreading oak tree standing on a very sightly residence spot. The tree is there yet. They sold it as a farm of 100 acres to Bayard T. Smith and brother, in 1883. Then, during the winter of 1886-87 the Smiths sold it to a Mr. Rosenbaum of New York city, chief of a syndicate of real estate speculators,* who sub- divided the place, laying out and grading the winding streets as they stand today, with lots in all sorts of shapes, and varying from one-half acre to seven acres in size. Oak Knoll canyon rises on the west side of this tract and Mill canyon on its northeast border ; and the water from these two can- yons was led by ditches into the old stone mill built by the San Gabriel Mission Fathers in 1810 to 1812. [See Chap. 19, article "Old Mill."]
ALLENDALE TRACT, adjoining Oak Knoll on the southwest, where H. C. Allen bought 20 acres from Mrs. Gov. Stoneman in August. 1891, and improved it in a highly picturesque and artistic manner for choice residence sites.
LOS ROBLES, or the Stoneman Ranch .- This was a tract of about 400 acres, a portion of it being from the old San Pasqualita or "Little San Pas- qual " ranch. It formerly belonged to B. D. Wilson's son John, who died. It was then sold to a Dr. Miles, who was killed in the steamboat explosion at San Pedro, April 29, 1863. In 1872 Gen. George Stoneman bought it from Hon. B. D. Wilson and Ex-Gov. Downey. Stoneman made consider- able improvements on the place, and named it Los Robles [the Oaks].} Its north line forms a part of the south line of Pasadena city, at the end of Los Robles Avenue which took its name from this ranch. Mrs. Stoneman was one of the original members of the Presbyterian church of Pasadena, organized March 21, 1875. Gen. Stoneman was Governor of California from 1883 to 1887. He went east for medical treatment in 1890; and died at Buffalo, N. Y., September 5, 1894. Mrs. Stoneman has sold nearly all the land in small tracts, retaining to herself all underground rights of water, minerals, etc., and has during the past year, 1893-4, done a large amount of tunneling and piping of water in Los Robles canyon and at foot of Oak Knoll canyon.
LAS FLORES RANCH, better known as "the Richardson place." This comprises 70 acres, mostly from the old San Pasqualita or "Little San Pas-
* The Union reported in April, 1884, that Bayard T. Smith had sold his Oak Knoll place for $75,000 to W. H. and H. E. Weston of New York. I found no other mention of the Westons, but suppose they were members of the Rosenbaum syndicate.
+ About Gen. Stoneman, see footnote page 75.
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qual " ranch, with some fractional government lots. It was originally owned or worked as private land by a Frenchman named Flores-hence was called the Flores place. In 1858 a Mr. Hutchinson bought it and went to raising strawberries, for which he soon built up a good paying demand. In 1867 Mr. S. Richardson, a native of New Hampshire, bought an interest in the place, ultimately securing the whole of it, and resides there yet. In order to retain the old name by which it was known 25 or 30 years ago, he calls it " Las Flores," the flowers, or place of flowers. This tract lies next east of the Los Robles or Stoneman place ; and the old ditch by which the Mission Fathers conveyed the waters of Los Robles canyon [or Mill spring creek] along the bluff to their old stone grist mill, crossed the upper end of this Las Flores ranch ; and on its land just below the ditch the priests had a garden of very rich soil, easily irrigated from the ditch. Mr. Richardson himself filled up parts of the old mill ditch; and some portions of it are discernible there yet, especially on the east side of the road that leads down Oak Knoll can- yon between the Oak Knoll and Allendale tracts, nearly at the foot of the hill. There is a row of Eucalyptus trees growing along where the old ditch was, on the east bank of the roadway ; and a few rods below this the road crosses Mill spring creek or Willowdale creek, which is formed by the junc- tion a little way above of the Los Robles and Oak Knoll brooks.
WILLOWDALE was a 17-acre lot at the northwest corner of the Richard- son place on Mill spring creek, owned and named by Capt. J. Elwood Ellis, and as " Willowdale " it is mentioned in early Pasadena history. It was later owned and occupied by the widow of Will J. Bennett of Pasadena, daughter of Mr. Richardson, but is now comprised in the Richardson farm. A dense copse or jungle of willows growing along the creek on the place gave it its name of " Willowdale." [See article on "Oak Knoll canyon."]
EL MOLINO (the Mill) .- This is the historic Spanish name of the ranch now owned by E. L. Mayberry, and from which Pasadena's Moline Avenue was named. It was originally El Molino Avenue, but has been anglicized into the shorter and easier form of Moline, whence many people erroneously think the name was taken from the great manufacturing city of Moline on the Mississippi river, in Illinois. See articles on "The Old Mill," and "The Lake," for further history of this tract.
LAKE VINEYARD RANCH .- This is the old home place of Hon. B. D. Wilson, who gave it this name from the old Mission lake which was partly on his place, and also the extensive vineyards which he himself planted, in addition to what had been planted there during the rule of the Padres. Mr. Wilson's widow still resides here. This was the so-called "Cuati " grant, made by Mexico in 1830, and confirmed by the U. S. commissioners in 1859 to Victoria Reid, the Indian wife of the erudite Scotchman, Hugo Reid. [See page 17.] Mr. Wilson bought it from Mrs. Reid. Lake Ave-
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nue in Pasadena, which was originally "Lake Vineyard Avenue," was named from this ranch. But the original name was too long for this fast age.
SAN MARINO .- This is Hon. J. De Barth Shorb's home place, next east of the old Lake Vineyard home of his father-in-law, Wilson. Mr. Shorb's childhood home, his father's old plantation in Maryland, bore the name San Marino, and he filially applied it to his elegant new home here in California.
WINSTON HEIGHTS .- This is the old Col. W. H. Winston farm of 180 acres, bought from B. D. Wilson in 1868, and lying east of San Marino, along the Santa Anita Avenue road to San Gabriel. The Winston place is specially associated with Pasadena because of the long residence of L. C. Winston, one of the sons, in the city-and the fact that his wife, Mrs. Eliza- beth Winston, has been a prominent teacher in the Pasadena public schools from 1880 till the present time- 1895. [See page 156, and foot-note to page 187.] The Winston farm was a portion of the original Orizaba tract; and San Marino was, also. [See third foot-note, page 53.] Mrs. M. E. Winston, the aged widow, still owns the old farm, and her son, P. H. Win- ston, resides on it - 1894 ; but its superintendent is T. S. White, who came to California in 1852 and to Los Angeles county in 1863. Mrs. Winston herself resides in Los Angeles.
FAIR OAKS RANCH .- Judge Eaton writes : "This name was given to it by its first occupant, Mrs. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, after a place of that name, her childhood home, in Virginia." [See page 120.]
VERDUGO RANCH, same as Rancho San Rafael, and joined Rancho La Canyada, both of which belonged to Mariano de la Luz Verdugo, wlio was in active service as a Spanish soldier and officer from 1766 to 1787, and was with Gov. Portola's expedition to Monterey in 1769-70, therefore crossed this land from west to east in January, 1770 [See page 57], on their return trip. Verdugo is mentioned in the Spanish records as " the retired corporal of the San Diego company." This land was granted to him by Gov. Fages, October 20, 1784, and the title was reaffirmed to him or to his son Jose Maria Verdugo,* by Gov. Diego de Borcia, January 12, 1798. The San Rafael ranch comprised upwards of 50,000 acres and extended nearly to the Buena Vista-street bridge in Los Angeles. It was also called by the Spaniards "La Zanja, across the river four leagues from Los Angeles." This great total of 50,000 acres of land was described in the Spanish records as " bounded on the north by a sycamore tree." The hacienda or patri- monial ranch house was located at the mouth of Verdugo canyon, where the village of Glendale now stands. Verdugo continually borrowed money,
*Jose Maria Verdugo was corporal of the guard at San Gabriel most of the time from its founding till 1798. His father was sergeant in command at Monterey from 1780 to 1787, then retired as an invalid. He had served also at San Diego and other points.
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giving liens on his land for security, until it was nearly all held by the following creditors : Dreyfuss, Beaudry, Glassell, Chapman, Capt. Hunter, Jose Ramirez, Tomas Sanchez, and others. A court commission consisting of Judge B. S. Eaton, Judge A. W. Hutton and Jas. Lander, Esq., was appointed in 1871 to apportion the land equally among these men, according to their several claims. And thus it was that Beaudry received the hills opposite Pasadena now known as the Johnson ranch ; Dreyfuss received the hills and "Indian Flat " now known as Linda Vista ; Glassell received the Eagle Rock and Garvanza region ; Capt. Hunter received the Highland Park land ; and so on. According to law the court commission had to meet on the land for each day's business ; and every time when they came, the old man Verdugo would strike a military attitude and declaim in purest Spanish, with dramatic gestures, "I'm a soldier of the king ! All these hills are mine ! All these valleys and mesas are mine ! All these cattle are mine! I'm a soldier of the king !" After this regular prologue the court commissioners could go on with their business, but not before.
The Rancho La Canyada was the long, narrow valley lying between . the Sierra Madre mountains and the Verdugo hills, from Arroyo Seco up westward to its junction with the San Fernando valley. This grant amounted to 5,000 acres of land, and included what are now called La Canyada and La Crescenta ; but Monte Vista and Glorieta Heights were in the Rancho Tejunga.
THE WOODBURY TRACT .- This was an odd remnant of B. D. Wilson's land up near the mountains, without water, and considered of little worth, which he gave as a present to the original colony association, -in token of his friendly good will, and of his satisfaction with the way they had divided their lands and gone to work making improvements. The colony (San Gabriel Orange Grove Association) sold about 900 acres of this mountain slope body of land, in 1882, to F. J. and John Woodbury for $5 per acre; but by the time these men had secured a water supply and got it developed and distributed to the land, it had cost them about $35 per acre. Other portions of the 1,400 acres were sold to S. P. Jewett and others. F. J. Woodbury had in 1881 bought of Dr. Hall's widow the original Rubio canyon farm and was living there in the same house now owned by the Mount Lowe Railway Company and occupied by their farming tenants. With this farm Mr. Woodbury had acquired the water rights of the Rubio canyon, and ultimately piped this water down over the lands bought from the colony association, where the brothers each built a fine residence, planted vine- yards, orange groves and other fruits, and made extensive improvements. It is now the village of Altadena, and junction of the Los Angeles Ter- minal railroad and of the Pasadena and Pacific Electric railway with the Mount Lowe Electric railway.
OLIVEWOOD TRACT. - This was eighty acres lying between Colorado
5
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
and Villa streets, and between El Molino and Lake Avenues, and a few acres east of Lake Avenue along where the Santa Fe railroad now runs. It was bought in 1880 by C. T. Hopkins of San Francisco, the founder and president of the California Insurance company of that city. He employed C. C. Brown to manage the property and plant it with trees and vines, a large proportion of the land being devoted to olive trees-hence the name. Olivewood station of the Santa Fe railroad is on this tract ; and in 1886-87 a strong effort was made to establish a permanent business and trading center here; but it failed at last, leaving several empty store-rooms as cenotaphs to the dead "boom." In 1894 three of these store buildings were sold and moved up to Colorado street east of Marengo Avenue.
LINDA VISTA TRACT .- In 1883 Prof. J. D. Yocum purchased a body of wild land on the west bank of the Arroyo Seco which had long been known as "Indian flat," where a few families of native Mexicans lived in their miserable shiftless and thriftless way. This tract extended from the foot of Jumbo Knob opposite Reservoir hill up to the Verdugo hills near Devil's Gate, and comprised arroyo bottom and bluff lands, mesa land and mountain land, all densely covered with greasewood and other native chap- paral growths. It was a part of the original Rancho San Rafael. Mr. Yocum cleared the land, developed water upon it, opened streets, planted orchards, and made his home there ; and eventually sold portions of it to other parties who likewise made homes there. The West Pasadena street railway, with its $8,000 suspension bridge across the arroyo, was built and operated several years to connect Linda Vista with Pasadena ; but it failed to pay expenses, was finally sold for debt, torn up, and partly used in con- structing the Mt. Lowe Electric railroad.
LAS CASITAS TRACT .- The land bearing this name is a small bench or plateau forming a tongue between the Arroyo Seco and Millard canyon at their confluence. It was first taken as a 160-acre homestead claim in 1875 by J. H. Gifford, afterward son-in-law to John W. Wilson ; and about 1880, Mr. Wilson filed a claim on water in Negro canyon and made a small ditch to bring water around from the canyon to Gifford's homestead house, who with his young wife then lived there. Gifford afterward sold his land to Thomas Banbury." Banbury traded the land to Preston Hollingsworth ; he sold it to John L. Hartwell, who, assisted by his brother Calvin, piped the water from Negro canyon down to it. Then in 1885-86 Hartwell sold it to James Cambell, H. N. Rust and a Mr. Doyle, and they commenced making further improvements there. Next, John R. Niles bought out the Rust and Doyle interests, and he with Cambell laid it out in lots, graded streets, piped water through them, named it Las Casitas, and put it on the market. The name is Spanish-La Casa, the home ; Las Casitas, the little homes. But Mr. Niles became deranged and had to be sent away to the insane asylum ; this greatly embarrassed the business of giving titles to the lots,
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which could all have been sold at good prices during the "boom " but for this difficulty. Meanwhile Jason Brown had bought from Painter & Ball 80 acres on the Arroyo bluff adjoining the Las Casitas plat on the west, for $400 .* He divided this up and sold it in parcels, making about $2,000 clear, but it took nearly all of it to pay his debts. Then he and his brother Owen took as a homestead some rough mountain land just north of Las Casitas, where they lived several years, and where Owen lies buried. Among those who bought lots from Jason Brown was Miss Adele Gleason, M. D., of Elmira, N. Y., who erected there in 1886-87 a quaint and picturesque sanitarium building, and opened it for guests. But it proved a losing venture ; and in 1890, she offered it to the State Teachers' Association of California as a "home " for sick MISS DR. GLEASON'S STRUCTURE. or disabled teachers. They had no funds to sus- tain such a place, and could not accept the gift. Then in 1894, Dr. O. S. Barnum of Pasadena, re-opened the sanitarium there ; and Las Casitas is now one of Pasadena's established foot-mountain resorts-five miles dis- tant, and 1,800 feet above sea level.
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