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 49
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In 1859 Col. E. J. C. Kewen, a soldier of the Mexican war and ex- attorney-general of California, purchased the old mill property, the building being then still just as the padres had left it, although a family had been living in it for several years. He made sundry additions and alterations to fit it for a genteel dwelling ; and his family resided there until his death, November 25, 1879 .¿ Since that time it has only been used as a wine-cellar
* This was true of the first or stone mill, but not of the one built at the church. See page 52. War- ner is also mistaken about these being " the only mills," etc., for Chapman had built one at Santa Ynez in 1820-21. See page 51.
+" The old mill stones in front of our home, now used as a horse-block, are the identical ones placed in the ' Old Mill by the Lake' by the Mission Fathers."-Letter of Hon. J. DeBarth Shorb to Dr. Reid, March 29, 1894.
The Hist. Ios A. Co. published by Thompson & West, 1880, at page 107, says : "1858. In February, Col. Kewen of Walker filibustering fame; settled in Los Angeles to practice law."
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
below, and the up-stairs part as a storehouse for products of the ranch, and bunk-room for the workmen. The place is now owned by E. L. Mayberry, who has made extensive improvements, and built a fine new residence on a bluff above the mill.
WILSON LAKE .- This is marked on the official map of Pasadena as "Kewen Lake," and the maker of the map informs me that it has that name in the county records. But it had been known as " Wilson's Lake " for six or seven years before Kewen bought the old mill property, which em- braced the lower end, the dam and the outlet of the lake. And before Wilson's time it was called the Mission lake. The dam was built in 1810 to 1812. Father Zalvidea commenced his thrifty but iron rule in 1806, and immediately went about establishing his system of taskwork for every one under his control, in order to increase the agricultural, vinicultural, live- stock and manufactured products of the Mission ; and a heavy stone dam was built to enlarge this lake. Then just below the dam he established a saw mill, a tannery, a wool-washery, etc., where the water could be conveyed by wooden troughs for the use of the work people, who were the neophytes or " converted " Indians. The water was also conveyed in ditches to irrigate additional vineyards and increase the wine and brandy products, these being prime articles of commerce at that time. For building the lake dam, heavy cobblestones or boulders were hauled in great clumsy ox-carts from Lincoln Park, this being the nearest point where large enough ones could be gath- ered in quantity ;* this I verified by special examination of the wall, and then of the wash channels near by. And cement for the work, a sort of water lime, was dug out of the hillside and burned where the Lincoln Park reservoir now stands in the old lime kiln pit. There had been a large bog or cienega at the lake place ; and by building the dam the area of the lagoon or lake was more than doubled, and its water storage four or five times in- creased by depth. The mill stood on ground higher than the lake, and the mill stream flowed into the lake by a cement gutter after doing duty on the miller's wheel. The solid stone wall of the dam is from 6 to 7 feet thick, with reinforcing ledges and buttressed flume cheeks on lower side; 10 to 12 feet high at outlet ; and 70 paces or over 200 feet entire length at top of wall.
*" Old-timers will remember that all along on the banks of the Arroyo about where the Lincoln Park depot now stands, were any quantity of small mounds, built of boulders, and these were said to be Indian graves. In 1858 I had the curiosity to examine some of them. I was soon satisfied that no bodies had ever been buried beneath them. It is probable that during the construction of the Mission Sau Gabriel, or some of their water dams that still exist in the neighborhood, Indians were sent there to gather them in piles to be hauled away for building purposes. This theory seems probable, since each pile would just about make a carreta load. These heaps were over and above what they needed, and were left."-Judge B. S Eaton's Reminiscences. .
WILSON LAKE. Photo, 1894, for Pasadena Art Loan Association.
MED ENCLA-NY
SCENE ON OLD WILSON TRAIL-BELOW HALF-WAY HOUSE. Before the trail was changed for getting the Harvard telescope up to Telescope Point.
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CHAPTER XX.
MOUNTAIN TRAILS, ROADS, ETC .- The Wilson Trail .- The Telescope Episode .- John Muir's Mountain Climb in Pasadenaland .- The Mount Wilson Toll Road.
MOUNTAIN TRAILS, ROADS, ETC.
WILSON'S TRAIL .- Many erroneous and more or less fanciful accounts have been put forth about this now famous and historic first travel-way ever made to the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains. I sought correct infor- mation from Mrs. Shorb and Mrs. Wilson, and they kindly furnished me a letter from Mr. Wm. McKee of San Francisco, written to Mrs. Wilson, August 28, 1887, in which he mentions the first trip ever made up that trail on horseback ; and I here quote his account of the matter. Mr. McKee says:
" Wilson's Trail up the mountains-when was it built? It was com- menced early in 1864. In April of that year, Mr. Wilson invited me to go with him to see the trail, and to see the men at work on the road. I was living in town then .* On the day appointed we started for the mountains : took blankets with us, intending to stay there all night. About 1 o'clock we got to where the men were at work, near the place now called the Half- Way House.
" I was anxious to go on up to the top of the mountains. Mr. Wilson inquired of the men if they thought we could go to the top of the mountains with the horses. One of the men said he had been there, and that there was a spring of water on the very top of the mountains. At 2 o'clock we started, leading the horses ; we soon got to the ridge of the mountains, and there found a well beaten bear trail leading to the spring. I thought then, and do still, that that water was the best I ever tasted in my life. We camped there that night. Oh, how beautiful ! Next day we found the relics of the two houses. They were two parallelograms, well marked by a pile of what appeared to be ashes. Removing the ashes, we found the lower logs of the cabins not de- cayed. Americans must have built them. Mr. Wilson said so. Michael White, who came to San Gabriel in 1825, knew nothing of them. ; We were the first who ever visited that Wilson Peak on horseback. In referring to this, I shall always remember it as one of the most pleasant trips I ever had with Mr. Wilson ; and we had many. Yours very truly,
WILLIAM MCKEE.
Some writers have treated this story of the "old cabins" as imaginative; but Mr. McKee, and B. D. Wilson and his stepson, E. S. Hereford, all cor- roborated their existence. Mr. Hereford had charge of the first pack train that ever brought a load of shakes or pickets down that trail, in July or August, 1864. He is still living, and resides at San Gabriel - 1895.
For ten or twelve years after Pasadena was settled it was reckoned a
*Mr. McKee resided in Los Angeles at that time and had been employed by Mr. Wilson as private tutor to his children.
+Of course not. Robbers and horse thieves would keep their own secrets. The historic records of this region of country show that from 1835, or down to as late as 1874, it was almost continually infested by gangs of white men outlaws, whose robberies were often charged to Indians. In December, 1840, Gov. Alvarado reported " that a party of adventurers from the United States had stolen three thousand horses belonging to the Missions of San Luis Obispo and San Gabriel, and various private ranches."-T. H. Huttell in Overland Monthly, November, 1885, page 463.
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
great adventure to go up the Wilson Trail, and stay on the summit over night. And on June 23-24-25, 1885, the largest party that had at that time ever made the ascent, spent three days on the trip, having a right jolly time of it. This historic company consisted of the following persons :
"Mrs. S. E. Merritt, Mrs S. P. Jewett, Mrs. Charles A. Gardner, Misses Olive Eaton, Carrie D. Hill, Maria B. Vischer, Helen Hill, Una Robinson, Flora Conger, Lucille Robinson, Dr. O. H. Conger, Prof. E. T. Pierce, George W. Howard, Charles L. Turner, Howard W. Conger, George Eaton, George Frost, Edward Mosher, William Watson, Hubert Winston, Roy Lanterman, Lester Lippincott, Frank Warner, Master Frank Ogden, Charles A. Gardner, seven burros, and one Mexican. At dark they lighted the usual signal fire, and had the pleasure of seeing it responded to from Pasadena."
THE TELESCOPE EPISODE.
The most important historic event connected with this Trail in all the years was that of conveying the Harvard telescope up over its nar- row line to the summit, in April, 1889. The task was undertaken by the Pasadena Board of Trade, with Judge Eaton as manager-in-chief. [See page 326.] He found it necessary at some points to widen the trail, and at some points to change its line and make a totally new path. The entire material was over three tons weight, to be trans- ported about eight miles from nearest railroad station, making in that distance an ascent of over 4,000 feet along a winding or zigzag don- key path mostly from six to twelve inches in width, on the steep mount- ain sides. Of course some of the stuff could be put into detached par- cels and packed on the backs of mules or burros; but a large iron frame of nearly half a ton weight must go up solid. To meet this contingency, Judge Eaton devised a trundle-car that was made strictly on Scripture prin- ciples, for it was not a graven image, nor a "likeness of anything in heaven above, nor the earth beneath, nor the waters under the earth." It was a heavy-framed wooden platform two and one-half feet wide and three feet long, with a solid cast-iron roller seven inches in diameter and two feet one inch long serving as the front wheel, and being axeled a little forward of the middle of the platform ; while at the rear there was a castor-wheel with a tail-bar or lever to steer the vehicle. Across the front was a stout iron bail, to which one or two mules could be attached in Indian file fashion for pulling ahead. On each side at the corners were heavy iron rings by which the freight was lashed with ropes or chains to the car platform, so that if the car should go off the track down a slope or over a precipice the load would still stay on it. At some points where there was a sharp angle in the trail, they had to pick and drill and blast out rock to widen it before they could make the turn safely ; and at some places where there were a series of sharp angles constituting a zig-zag traverse, they had to drill into the mountain side for a secure anchorage at the upper lap of the traverse, and
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then with heavy ropes and pulleys hoist the car and its load bodily up the steep declivity till a new stretch of trail was reached, where the trundle-car could be rolled along again. Just think of a solid half-ton's weight of freight- age being thus transported six miles in distance and 4,000 feet in elevation, and you get some idea of what a job it was at that time (for, remember, this was long before the toll road was built, but was really what led to it,) to get the Harvard telescope into place for its historic and famous astronomical work on Mount Wilson.
For further particulars about this telescope, and the special scientific work which it did here, see page 367 -"Harvard Telescope Point.'' (In 1894 Dr. Reid took pains to secure this historic trundle-car for preserva- tion in the Throop Polytechnic collection of relics pertaining to Pasadena history.)
At a public meeting, April 2, 1889, for the purpose of raising $100,000 to aid in establishing a 40-inch telescope (biggest in the world) on Mt. Wilson, Judge Eaton gave the following points on distances and altitudes :
" Pasadena is just four miles south of Mt. Wilson, and four miles west. The distance from the foot of the mountain to the top is 8.7 miles, and he would make the grade not greater than one in ten. He estimated the alti- tude of Mt. Wilson to be 5,560 feet. Plenty of granite is available near the summit, and the Henniger flat (2,200 feet) afforded a splendid site for a hotel. He thought Pasadena was big enough and able enough to build a wagon road to the summit.
"As to the transportation of the 23-inch telescope to the summit, the Judge said, 'It is all there!' (applause). The work had been laborious, but the people of Pasadena had redeemed their word, and put it on the mnoun- tain, at a cost of a little less than $1,000, the greater part of which had been spent in improving the trail."
The Star of April 3, 1889, said : " A big blaze on the summit of Mt. Wilson last night announced that Judge Eaton had succeeded in placing all the boxes containing the Harvard telescope on the spot where the observa- tory is to be built."
Star photographing was commenced here about May 1, 1889, and con- tinued some eighteen months, in charge of Prof. King. Hence the local name thereof, " Harvard Telescope Point ;" but it had previously been known as Signal Peak or point ; and the old telescope building has been converted into a mountain-top hotel annex called "The Casino." See page 367.
THE MOUNT WILSON TOLL ROAD.
For nearly twenty years after Pasadena was settled, it was deemed a great adventure to go up Wilson's trail and spend a night on the mountain ; and this trip gradually became so popular that in 1885 and 1886, various schemes were talked of for making some shorter, easier, safer and more direct travel-way to the mountain tops. One plan set forth early in 1885, was for a hack line from Pasadena up into Las Flores canyon, where it was then expected a large sanitarium, or hotel, would soon be built ; and from
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
there a burro trail up the great dividing ridge between Las Flores and Mil- lard canyons to the top of the range. There was a foot trail up this route, and Dr. B. A. Wright, who then owned the Las Flores house, followed it up on horseback to a point nearly or quite as high as Echo Mountain, just to test the feasibility of the plan. But the sanitarium scheme failed, and this mountain bridle road plan died with it. Another scheme was to make a bridle road up around Millard Falls and on into what is now called Grand canyon-thence up over the dividing ridge now called the "Mount Lowe saddle "-thence down across Grand Basin to the Eaton Canyon pass, and thence on to Wilson's peak. This would have made an intramontane trip excelling in picturesque beauty and grandeur the old Wilson Trail and the Switzer Trail; and it was designed to be worked as an adjunct to the Painter Hotel, for the benefit of its winter tourist guests. The parties inter- ested in it were A. J. Painter, Calvin Hartwell, E. W. Giddings, L. W. Gid- dings. Byron O. Clark .* However, the project was never carried through; yet partly under its inspiration a good pack-trail was made clear up into Grand canyon, for the uses of water development work in the upper sources of Mil- lard canyon. There was talk of making a wagon road clear to Wilson's peak by this route; but that was a preposterous idea, for it would have cost $100,000 to make a road of passage there for four-wheeled vehicles.
It was in 1885 that C. P. Switzer, a carpenter from Los Angeles, con- structed his trail up the Arroyo Seco canyon to a romantic place of cabins and tents, waterpools and falls, baths, etc., known to fame for a few years as "Switzer's Camp." But this was only a sort of half-way house to any part of the mountain top, and from here there were only difficult footpaths or burro trails to Mount Disappointment, Strawberry peak, and other lofty summits, and to Barley Flats.
In 1886 Owen and Jason Brown, sons of the famous "Old John Brown," commenced constructing a bridle road from their mountain home- stead above Las Casitas to a point at the top of the front range, which they christened " Brown's peak." After building about two miles of their road they had to give it up for want of funds ; and Owen's death in January, 1889, totally ended the project.
Yet, in spite of all these different schemes, Wilson's Peak still had the call .¡ People mostly seemed to think and talk as if that was the only place
*As early as 1883-84, Byron O. Clark and his brother-in-law, H. C. Kellogg, a civil engineer, while prospecting and surveying for mountain springs to supply the Painter & Ball tract, noticed the fine parks of oak timber on the west slopes of Oak Mountain (now called Mt. Lowe), and they applied to Washingtou for privilege to survey it at their own cost and buy a section of it as timber land. They got answer that it had been officially reported and recorded as "unsurveyable." They tried further to get it. but without success. Mr. Kellogg at that time projected levels and grades and detours for a road to Wilson's Peak by the Millard canyon route ; and Clark planned for a landscape paradise and half-way station in the same timber slopes where the Alpine Club house and Crystal Springs station of Mt. Lowe Railroad are now located. H. C. Kellogg is now [1894] county surveyor of Orange county. Clark resides at Linda Vista, Pasadena.
+"The Signal Peak Hotel Co. has made arrangements with Mr. Fox. Abbot Kinney and Col. Mayberry for right-of-way across their mountain side lands ; and on Wednesday Clarence Martin and Mr. Rockwood located the route for their new horseback road to the mountain top," etc .- Union, June 11, 1886.
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where there was any mountain top worth going to, or at all accessible ; and in 1886, a cog-wheel railroad similar to the one on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, was talked up-till finally R. Williams, Byron W. Bates and C. S. Martin formed a company, and took steps to secure rights for land, water, wood and stone on the unsurveyed government lands at the Mount Wilson summit .* Their idea was to make a good bridle-road first, and then enlist eastern capitalists to build a hotel up there, and build a cog-wheel railroad from the mouth of Eaton canyon up to it. They did secure some land claims, though from various causes their railroad and hotel project failed. But the locating of the Harvard photographing telescope on Mount Wilson in 1889 gave a new measure of fame and interest centering at this mountain ;; and the difficulties which Judge Eaton had to overcome in get- ting that telescope, besides the heavy timbers, irons, etc., necessary for its proper housing and mechanical control, up over the old trail, led him to think seriously of trying to build a better road right up from the mouth of Eaton canyon, ¿ and thus connect Pasadena with this mountain top in the shortest and most direct way, instead of having to go ten miles around, by way of Sierra Madre town and the Santa Anita canyon.
Accordingly, Judge Eaton called a meeting June 18, 1889, at the Presi- dent's room of the First National Bank, "to consider steps necessary to be taken to build a wagon road to Mount Wilson." The men who atttended this meeting were: J. A. Buchanan, P. M. Green, L. C. Winston, George A. Greeley, H. H. Rose, M. E. Wood, A. J. Painter, C. S. Martin, George F. Kernaghan, Charles Copelin, J. R. Riggins, W. U. Masters. P. M. Green was chosen for chairman of the meeting and Mr. Masters secretary. Judge Eaton fully explained the feasibility of the project, from a preliminary survey which he had made of the entire series of mountain slopes to be traversed ; and ended by moving that they should proceed to organize a com- pany to build such a road. The motion prevailed, and a preliminary organ- ization was effected by electing Kernaghan for president, Martin vice-presi- dent, Wood secretary and First National Bank treasurer ; and for directors, Martin, Kernaghan, Buchanan, Greeley and J. W. Hugus. The organiza- tion was incorporated as "The Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road Company," July 12, 1889, with the following named shareholders:
P. M. Green, A. J. Painter, Charles Copelin, J. A. Buchanan, James R. Riggins, Benjamin S. Eaton, C. S. Martin, George F. Kernaghan, G. E.
*" Mr. J. M. Willard, the surveyor. with four assistants, has been at work the last week surveying for the new mountain-top company who have planned to make a good horseback road, with telephone line to the sunmit camp, starting up at the mouth of Precipicio canyon."-[ Pasadena Valley Union, May 14, 1886.
"" A good wagon road will bring it within ten miles of Pasadena, while the Lick observatory is twenty- three miles from San Jose. A mountain railroad will undoubtedly reduce the ten miles to five, and bring the observatory within an hour of the Carlton."-C. T. Hopkins, public address on Library Interests .- Feb- ruary 18, 1889
#" Four men are at work this week running barometric levels to test for a possible wagon road, rising one foot in ten, from the mouth of Eaton canyon to the top of Mount Wilson direct."-[ Pasadena Stand- ard, February 23, 1889.
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Prosser, George A. Greeley, W. E. Arthur, H. H. Rose, M. E. Wood. The capital stock was fixed at $50,000, divided into 500 shares of $100 each.
The company secured a right-of-way 100 feet wide from the Precipicio Canyon Water Company (Eaton canyon) across their lands, and from the county board of supervisors for the rest of the distance-this latter includ- ing "Henniger's flat," which Capt. Henniger held at that time only by squatter's right, not by patent. Their first step was to determine just where their roadway should be located at the mouth of Eaton canyon, and its position relative to the tunnels, pipes, check valves, etc., of the water company ; and Engineer J. E. Place was employed to survey this part of the roadway territory and prepare a detail map of the same. But no grad- ing was done for more than a year ; and the project seemed to have died before it was born. Debts had accumulated for various services and inci- dental expenses, and remained unpaid.
December 10, 1890, a meeting was held to consider the situation, and decide what should be done further. At this meeting Mr. Kernaghan pro- posed a reorganization of the company, on condition of having assigned to him all the shares held by the various stockholders ; and as the outstanding debts for which each stockholder was liable under the law about equalled the value of the stock held, the proposition was readily accepted, many of them being glad to thus let themselves down easy and get out of further responsibility in the matter. The reorganization was effected, and under it, George F. Kernaghan, C. S. Martin, J. W. Vandevort, R. T. Vande- vort and George A. Greeley became the sole owners of the corporation and its franchises. And from this time on things began to move. Mr. Kerna- ghan as president and manager devoted most of his time to forwarding the enterprise. Engineer J. W. Sedwick was employed to survey the route from mouth of Eaton canyon to the summit, set the grade stakes and prepare esti- mates of all grading, filling, bridging and rock work to be done. The origi- nal wagon road theory had been boiled down to the more practical and feasible plan of a bridle-road ; and a contract was let to Thomas Banbury to grade and construct such a road for the company. He pushed the work to completion as rapidly as possible ; but the blasting and rock work around some of the granite spurs and crags proved a more difficult and costly job than had been anticipated.
The length of road constructed, four feet wide, is nine and one-eighth miles, extending from the mouth of Eaton canyon, about 1,575 feet above sea level, to the summit of Mount Wilson, where the Harvard telescope stood for a year and a half, 5,565 feet above the sea ;* and the grade nowhere
* Judge Eaton's aneroid barometer gave different altitude registers at foot of the road, varying from 1,500 to 1,575 ; and at the summit it varied more than 100 feet at different times, owing to wind currents of different degrees of moisture or dryness, or electrical tension ; but an average of twenty observations gave 5,550 feet as the altitude. Engineer Sedwick, who surveyed the Toll Road, gave 5,560 feet as the altitude. And Prof. Pickering of Harvard University, with his superior instruments and expert scien- tific tests, made it 5.565 feet elevation. So I take that as scientific authority. But it should be noted that Judge Haton's result only varied fifteen feet from that of the great scientific expert; and Sedwick's actual survey only varied five feet.
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exceeded a rise of one foot in ten. The total cost of surveying, grading, building telephone line to foot of road, and incidental expenses, footed up about $5,000.
This construction work was going on during the early months of 1891. Meanwhile Mr. Kernaghan was president of the Pasadena Packing Co., and also both president and manager of the Daily Star Publishing Co., and on the Ist of May he became postmaster of Pasadena. These varied cares and labors proved too heavy a strain upon him, and about the last of May he relinquished his interest in the toll road, being succeeded by H. W. Magee as president and manager. The grading work was then still in progress. On his retiring, the Company, as a souvenir of the past and a token of their kindly regard, presented Mr. Kernaghan with a "life pass" over the road-the only one ever issued.
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