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 9

Author: Reid, Hiram Alvin, 1834-; McClatchie, Alfred James, comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Pasadena, Cal., Pasadena History Co.
Number of Pages: 714

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 9

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Petra-daughter. Josefa-daughter [died young], Josefa again-daughter. Tomas-sou. Domingo-

son. Theodore-son. Laureta-daughter. Maria Antonio-daughter. Maria de los Angeles-daughter [still living, the widow Lopez of San Gabriel]. Maria del Rosario-daughter. Rita-daughter, still living, Senora de la Ossa, at San Gabriel,-and her son Fabricio de la Ossa is deputy sheriff there-1895.

Į" To secure lands for farming purposes, it was in former years necessary to get the written con- sent of the Missionary under whose control they were, ere the government could give legitimate posses- sion, therefore their acquisition depended entirely upon the good will of the Friar."-Life in California; Robinson, p. 218.

HISTORY OF PASADENA.

Pascual" in the Spanish language], 1827 ; and the ranch thus took its name from the name of the day in the church calendar on which it was first for- mally deeded to individual ownership. Thus Eulalia Perez de Guillen became the first person who ever held civil tenure of the land where Pasa- dena now stands ; and of this worthy woman, Dr. J. P. Widney, in “ Cali- fornia of the South," page 154, says :

"In 1878 [June 8] Eulalia Perez de Guillen died here [San Gabriel Mission], aged one hundred and forty-three years, she having been born at Loreto in Lower California, in 1735. The age of Senora de Guillen has been established beyond a doubt."

In May. 1890, Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr wrote a strong article in the Sacra- mento Record-Union advocating state division ; and in it she says incident- ally, that she spent the winter of 1869-70 in Los Angeles, and sometimes rode out across the rancho San Pasqual to visit B. D. Wilson's place, and the old San Gabriel Mission,-and adds: "I found Eulalia Perez, the first owner of rancho San Pasqual, where Pasadena now stands, who had, in the practice of her profession (midwifery) brought Gov. Pio Pico, and nearly all the venerable persons of local distinction, into the world; waiting for the hand which should preserve the interesting story of her life."*

EULALIA PEREZ DE GUILLEN Photo taken in 1877, less than a year before she died

She waited in vain for an earthly biog- rapher ; but the recording angel's book of life tells how unselfishly she worked more than a hundred years for the good of others.

A daughter of this woman, Senora Maria Guillen de Lopez, is still living at San Gabriel, a widow aged eighty-three years. She was born at San Diego in 1812,1 but was raised at San Gabriel. Her husband was a son of the historic Claudio Lopez who held the office of major domo at San Gabriel for thirty- six years, and superintended the building of the stone mill and the stone dam at Wilson's lake, as well as the stone ditch and water walls of the later one called "Chap- man's mill," which are still visible across the street south from the old Mission church. Her son, Mr. Theodore Lopez, aged forty- five, also resides at San Gabriel-an intelli- gent and well-informed gentleman, who speaks the English language well, although

*"Another old lady, Senora Eulalia Perez de Guillen, died bere [San Gabriel] in 1878, at the ripe old age of one hundred and forty [143] years. She was born below San Diego, in Lower California, in 1735, three years after the birth of George Washington; in 1854 she married Francisco Villabobas de Zavia, who died aged one hundred and twelve years."-Prof. C. F. Holder, in " All About Posadena," p.44.

This is all a mistake as to her marrying Villabobas in 1854, or any other time. Her second hus-

DIVISION ONE- PRE-PASADENIAN.

Spanish is his mothers tongue. On August 30, 1894, and five or six times afterward, I had long interviews with him and his mother in regard to old matters of the Mission. They are frank-hearted, candid people, telling things to the best of their recollection ; and I gathered from them particu- lars about the historic old mills and other information nowhere found in print.

THE GARFIAS OWNERSHIP.

In 1844 Dona Encarnacion, widow of Don Francisco Abila, took the ranch ; put on to it the number of horses, horned cattle and sheep which the Mexican law required to make a claim valid ; built an adobe house at the historic spring on the Arroyo bluff, which had aforetime supplied the aborigines, and now supplies Lincoln Park with pure water ; sent her major domo there to superintend the ranch; paid Jose Perez's family for their im- provements, and used the adobe house which Perez had built for her vaqueros to live in. Thus Dona Encarnacion was the real founder of the rancho, as an industrial enterprise. It had been granted to her new son- in-law, Lieut .- Col. Garfias, November 28, 1843, by Gov. Micheltorena ; and she took it in hand to manage it, while he attended to his soldier business. The Pasadena titles all trace to Garfias's U. S. patent, 1863.

THE GARFIAS FAMILY.

Don Manuel Garfias first came to California in August, 1842, as a young Lieut .- Colonel in Gov. Micheltorena's army, which stopped at San Diego awhile, but came to Los Angeles in September. Here they remained three months, the Governor's staff and army officers enjoying almost a con- tinual round of feasting and dancing, with bull fights, bear baiting, cock- fighting, and other national sports. And in the midst of it all, young Garfias fell in love with Senorita Luisa, the beautiful daughter of Dona En- carnacion Abila, she being then a belle in the highest circles of Spanish society. And the young couple were married in January or February, 1843. In November, a girl baby was born to Lieut .- Col. Garfias ; and as he was a favorite with the fatherly old governor, Micheltorena, that dignitary now gave him a grant of rancho San Pasqual, which would make a "Don" of him, and put him on a social footing with the family and relatives of his wife. This grant bears date of November 28, 1843, a few months before Garfias's mother-in-law, Dona Encarnacion, took possession of the ranch and stocked

band was Juan Marina. a gentleman from Spain-married about 1832. Eulalia's daughters and grand- sons at San Gabriel had never heard of this Villabobas story until I asked them about it, and they were quite indignant that such a misstatement had been published.

According to Dr. Widney's dates, Eulalia was seventy-seven years old when this daughter was boru ; and she had another daughter [now Senora Rita de la Ossa of San Gabriel] born still later; hence I thought Dr. Widney's statement as to Eulalia's age could not be correct. But Mr. T. F. Barnes, of the great printing house of Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner Co , Los Angeles, assures me that he knew a Spanish- Mexican woman at Phoenix, Arizona, who had an eight-pound daughter born when she was reputed to be eighty years old. He weighed the baby himself ; then took pains to investigate as to the woman's age, and found that she was really seventy- four years old, instead of eighty. So we thought Southern California climate might easily beat Arizona by four or five years on the baby question, without straining the record.

HISTORY OF PASADENA.

it. On February 20-21, 1845, occurred the battle of Cahuenga, which resulted in Micheltorena being forced to return to Mexico, with all his im- ported troops, and Pio Pico being again made governor of California. [For account of this battle, see Chap. 17.] Garfias, however, did not return, but remained here with his family. And on May 7, 1846, Gov. Michel- torena's grant to him of rancho San Pasqual was confirmed by the depart- mental assembly, then in session at Los Angeles, and by Gov. Pio Pico; for by this time Dona Encarnacion had fully complied with the law as to live stock and improvements on the land.

During the military operations of the Mexican war period, 1846-47, Gar- fias took horses from this ranch to mount the soldiers of his own command. And after the defeats of January 8 and 9, 1847, it was from their camp on this ranch that he and Gen. Flores started back to old Mexico, while Gen. Andres Pico made the capitulation with Col. Fremont. When Gen. Scott finally captured the City of Mexico, in September, 1847, the whole Mexican army became prisoners of war, Garfias included. The prisoners were of course paroled ; and Garfias returned to Los Angeles, where he became an American citizen under the treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States. In 1850 he was one of the regidores [councilmen] of Los Angeles ; and in 1850-51 he served as county treasurer. In 1852-53 he built his great and costly adobe house or hacienda on rancho San Pasqual- a sort of country palace according to the fashion of the time-near by where Dona Encarnacion had built a house for her major domo in 1844. In 1853 his son Manuel E. was born here ; and in 1855 his son Mariano Jose al- so-the first white race children ever born on the ranch. In 1858-59-60 he was in Mexico and took part in the contests between Gen. Miramon's faction and President Juarez, for he seems to have still held the rank of Lieut. - Col. in the Mexican army. In 1869 or '70 President Grant appointed him U. S. consul at Tepic, in Mexico; and the Centennial History of Los Angeles, county [1876] speaks of him as then living at Tepic. In 1895 he is living in the City of Mexico, as I learn from his brother-in-law, Theodore Rimpau, of Anaheim.

Mrs. Garfias was a woman of superior mind, like her mother before her, the latter being a Sepulveda, and aunt to Hon. Ignacio Sepulveda, who served with honor, ability and good repute as judge of the Los Angeles dis- trict and county courts from 1870 to 1884- and had also been assemblyman in 1864-65. As soon as American or English-speaking schools were opened in Los Angeles she sent her boys to them. This was protested against by her Spanish friends, and especially by the church influence ; but she replied that it was plain enough the Americans were going to fill up and occupy this coun- try; its business would be done in the English language ; and she did not want her boys to come up with the disadvantage of not being able to both read and speak the business language of the country. This was at once a moth-

DIVISION ONE- PRE-PASADENIAN.

erly and stateswomanly view of the case, and she had the force of character to carry it out. While Don Manuel Garfias was serving as U. S. consul in Mexico she put her boys into college there, and lived in the City of Mexico herself for some years to give them her motherly oversight. Wm. Heath Davis of San Francisco in his book " Sixty Years in California," p. 312-13, gives the following narrative :

" Dona Luisa Abila de Garfias, a California lady, born in the city of Los Angeles, a relative of two noted families there of great wealth and married to a citizen of Mexico,-was attractive for her remarkably fine personal ap- pearance and superior conversational powers. On Christmas, 1880, she was visiting in San Diego, and I was interested in her account of her life in the City of Mexico, where she had lived for a number of years. Although fifty- six years of age she had not a gray hair in her head. The lady relates that when Juarez was elected president of the Mexican Republic, Miramon with his forces opposed him, and designed effecting his capture, so as to prevent him taking the office. [1858.] Dona Luisa, having large estates in Los An- geles county, plenty of resources and ready money (as had her husband also), proposed to Juarez to furnish him with means, horses, escort, funds- everything needed for him and his family to make a safe retreat to the mountains, where he could remain until such time as his friends should or- ganize a sufficient force to defeat Miramon and his schemes, after which he could safely take the position of president of the Republic. Juarez accepted her proposal, and she actually carried the plans into effect, with entire suc- cess. Subsequently, during the administration of Juarez, her friendly ser- vices in his behalf were duly recognized, and appreciation accorded from Mrs. Juarez also. Don Garfias, the husband, distinguished himself in the engagements of the Californians against Commodore Stockton at San Gabriel [ford] in the winter of 1846-47, having then a command in the native forces. In that fight he behaved bravely. Subsequently he acted as United States consul at Tepic, Mexico."*

PASADENA'S FIRST BOYS.

I will now give a sketch of Mrs. Garfias' two sons-the first white race children ever born on Pasadena soil. In 1869-70 Byron O. Clark, now of Pas- adena, and his father-in-law, B. F. E. Kellogg, bought a 640-acre farm at Anaheim, and the first man they hired to work for them was Manuel E. Garfias, t then [spring of 1870] about seventeen years old, having been born at the Garfias hacienda of Rancho San Pasqual in 1853. On October 29, 1870, the Anaheim Gazette newspaper was started by a man named G. W. Barter, and young Garfias went there to learn the printer's trade ; and he was at work in the office when Chas. A. Gardner [now of the Pasadena

*It isinteresting to note that our Pasadenaland Garfias family was on the right side in this contest. Miramon led the anti-liberal or clerical party in rebellion against Juarez, the lawful President, in 1858 to 1860. But he was utterly defeated and made his escape to Europe ; there he aided in working up the Max- imilian scheme of Empire, under patronage of Louis Napoleon ; he came back to Mexico as one of Maxi- milian's chief officers, and was captured and shot with that misguided prince in 1867. So our Pasadena family bore a part in stirring historic events in Mexico as well as here. By collating some documents which I specially obtained from the City of Mexico, with other records in California, I gather that Gar- fias was a Lieut .- Colonel in the regular Mexican army when he first came to Los Angeles in 1842 ; and he had a brother who was a Colonel in the army in Mexico.

+He was then living in the family :f Theodore Rimpau, whose wife, Francisca, was sister to Mrs. Garfias.

HISTORY OF PASADENA.

Daily Star] bought it in 1871. Young Garfias had attended English schools both in Los Angeles and Anaheim, and was reckoned the smartest boy in school to " speak a piece"-hence he was much in demand for entertain- ment occasions, and naturally enough was somewhat proud of it. Sub- sequently he attended St. Vincent's college in Los Angeles, and graduated there. Then he went back to Mexico and studied law -- but at last drifted into military life, won his way step by step, and finally reached the rank of General. He was killed in battle in Honduras in April, 1893, while com- manding troops in defense of the lawful government of that republic to which he had offered his services against insurgents.

In my researches upon this family I procured documents from the City of Mexico ; and in a Mexican publication called El Universal, dated Febru- ary 21, 1891, there was a sketch of this Pasadena boy which Arturo Bandini kindly translated for me, and from it I quote this passage :

"The love of country and the career of arms is traditional in the Garfias family ; valor also is a hereditary trait. The father of our young Colonel [afterward General] was Lieut .- Col. Manuel Garfias who fought bravely in upper California against the Americans till the end of that war. Another Col. Garfias, an uncle of Don Mariano and his brother our present subject, is well known in our history as having occupied military positions above any other one of equal rank, his probity, valor and talents in military af- fairs being fully recognized. Worthy son and nephew of these military chief- tains is young Col. Garfias, born in the flourishing city of Los Angeles [on rancho San Pasqual-now Pasadena], upper California, thirty-nine years ago [1852]. He was educated in the colleges of that state, receiving his diploma therefrom .* In early youth he devoted himself for some time to the study of law ; but he had missed his vocation ; his love and destiny was the military profession. He had ancestors from whom to inherit it ; and as his father and uncle were called to fill distinguished careers of arms, he determined to follow in their footsteps."

Mariano Jose Garfias, the second boy born on Pasadena soil, is now a reputable lawyer in the City of Mexico ; and he had the distinguished honor of being secretary and sub-delegate of the Mexican Commission to the great Columbian World's Fair at Chicago in 1893.

JUDGE EATON'S ACCOUNT OF THE GARFIAS HOUSE.

" I came onto the San Pasqual Rancho, the present site of Pasadena, in December, 1858. This Rancho was a Spanish grant made to Don Manuel Garfias, a Captain [Lieut .- Col.] in the Mexican army who served in the de- fense of his country when the Americans under Commodore Stockton and Fremont invaded this section. The Mexican grant, which called for three and a half square leagues (about 14,000 acres), was issued during Governor Pico's administration in 1846-only two years before the treaty of Hidalgo. The only house on the rancho was the hacienda, located on the east bank of

*St. Vincent's college at Los Angeles was started in 1867 ; and Manuel E. Garfias and Arturo Ban- dini were students there together.

DIVISION ONE-PRE-PASADENIAN.

the Arroyo Seco, on land now owned by G. W. Glover in South Pasadena, and was occupied by the grantee, together with his wife, Dona Luisa, and a large family of children .* Mrs. Garfias was a niece [sister's daughter] of Don Jose Sepulveda who was the father of Hon. Ignacio Sepulveda, for some years presiding judge of this district.

"The Garfias hacienda was at that time one of the finest country estab- lishments in Southern California. It was a one-and-a-half story adobe building, with walls two feet thick, all nicely plastered inside and out, and had an ample corridor extending all around. It had board floors, and boasted of green blinds-a rare thing in those days. This structure cost $5,000-in fact, it cost Garfias his ranch, for he had to borrow money to build it, and the prevailing rates of interest were four per cent per month- to be compounded if not paid when due .; The title of the property passed into the hands of Dr. John S. Griffin of Los Angeles, by purchase just before I first came out here ; and as my wife's health seemed to be failing in Los Angeles and the change was recommended, I determined to take up my resi- dence here To prepare for this step I left my wife and two children (Mary, now Mrs. H. M. Johnston, and Fred, late city engineer of Los Angeles) with her sister, Mrs. Dr. Griffin, and came out myself with stock, etc., tak- ing possession of the premises just before Christmas, 1858. [It was in 1858 that Dr. Griffin loaned Garfias $8,000, as he told me .- ED. ]

"No attempt had ever been made to divert the waters of the Arroyo upon the ranch lands, so that cultivation of them was impracticable except for such crops as would mature with the winter rains-chiefly wheat and barley. I had brought with me quite a little herd of American cows which I had been gathering and raising for years, and I did not at that time turn my attention to anything but stock, and dairy produce. My wife did not live to join me here, but lingered until the following May. Her death broke up my plans, and in July following I rented my dairy stock and left the ranch-not returning again until February, 1865."

Some further historic incidents connected with the original San Pasqual ranch house (the "Garfias adobe" as it was familiarly called by Pasadena's early settlers) may here be noted. On the brink of the Arroyo bluff a few rods from the house a bountiful spring gurgled out under a great spreading oak tree, and this spring was the determining cause for locating the house here. The Indians had one of their villages near here when the Spaniards first came in January, and again in April, 1770. This spring is now closely boxed up and its waters piped to Lincoln Park, where it furnishes the sup- ply for domestic and irrigation purposes in that oak-embowered settlement.

*The Garfias children were six : three boys-Enrique, born at Los Angeles, was sheriff at Phoenix, Arizona, in 1894-95, and had been deputy U. S. marshal before. Manuel E., the General. and Mariano Jose, the lawyer, as before explained. Three girls, Angelina Salome-now Mrs Lambeck of San Diego. Manuelita-now Mrs. Alejandro Sabin of Tia Juana. Laura-now Mrs. Lainesse of San Francisco. The girls were all born at Los Angeles.

+"In 1851 a common interest of money was five per cent. per month often ten per cent .; a rate that commenced 111 1848-'49, with the loans of John Temple to the hundreds eager to share in the ' bonanza ' at any sacrifice." -[ Centennial Hist. Los A. Co., p. 43.

HISTORY OF PASADENA.

During the boom days of 1886-87, G. W. Glover, Sr., laid off hisland, which included the site of the old Garfias hacienda, into town lots, and this made it necessary to pull down all that remained of the heavy adobe walls and grade the ground. This was done in November, 1888. Cottages have been built on each side of it, but the lot where the historic old hacienda stood is still vacant (1894) and now owned by Geo. W. Glover, Jr., editor of the South Pasadenan.

While engaged in building his ranch house, Senor Garfias made a road up over the Arroyo hills nearly opposite the head of Colorado street, to get timber from a fine sycamore grove which then grew on what is now known as the Campbell-Johnson ranch. That old road was quite a con- spicuous object, in plain view from Pasadena for nearly twenty years, and had been facetiously dubbed "Fremont's Trail " by D. M. Berry, the col- ony secretary ; the name stuck, and the majority of early Pasadenians really believed that Gen. Fremont had made that road ; but Fremont never saw nor heard of it. Garfias made it, and the rafters for his house and timbers for the rear veranda, besides poles and posts for corrals and various other uses were all hauled or dragged down that miscalled "Fremont's trail." It is now (1895) almost entirely obliterated by the grading and improve- ments made by Mr. J. W. Scoville on those Arroyo hills. As this " Garfias adobe" was the one historic manor house of Pasadenaland, I quote here an- other account of it published some years ago :

" The wood work was mostly of Oregon pine. The posts which sup- ported the projecting roof were of redwood. The interior was plastered and nicely finished throughout. It was the finest country house in Los Angeles county, but it cost Garfias the ranch. When interest on the borrowed money amounted to $1,000, and he saw no way to pay it, he went to Dr. Griffin and told him that if he would give him $2,000 more he would make him a deed for the ranch. Griffin did not want the place,* and he would never have foreclosed the mortgage ; but to oblige Garfias the $2,000 ad- ditional was paid over, and the Doctor received the deed for the ranch, which contained nearly 14,000 acres."

Dr. Griffin informed me in July, 1895, that Garfias built his hacienda in about 1853, and it was not till 1858 that he [Griffin] loaned Garfias $8,000 (not $3,000 as has been commonly reported), taking security on the land. And when the additional $2,000 was furnished Garfias, it was to pay for the personal property-the farm implements, tools, work horses, oxen, etc., that were then on the ranch. It was thought at the time by business men of Los Angeles that he had paid a great price for the place.

*Ex-Mayor Spence of Los Angeles in a public speech at Pasadena's great Citrus Fair in 1885, said that when he first rode over rancho San Pasqual in the early '60's he would not have given twenty-five cents an acre for it-in fact he would have hesitated to take it as a free gift and agree to pay taxes on it. And in 1874, when B. D. Wilson made a free gift to the Orange Grove colony of 1400 acres up where Al- tadena now lies, the colony men generally felt that they could not afford to accept it; but on learning that the taxes were all paid they ventured to risk its acceptance.

DIVISION ONE - PRE-PASADENIAN.

THE WILSON AND GRIFFIN OWNERSHIP.

The next step in the evolutional progress of San Pasqual Rancho was in 1867, when B. D. Wilson and Dr. Griffin as joint owners had a ditch made to convey the waters of the Arroyo Seco from Devil's Gate up onto the second bottom, with a view to irrigate the land and raise alfalfa hay for summer feeding of their ranch stock .* Judge Eaton had the job of making the ditch, which was at first only a small dirt-bed channel, and extended down to the knoll or rise of ground east of the old Tirrell house where John W. Wilson resided from 1871 till 1890. Judge Eaton also "bossed the job" of building this adobe tenant house, which was for the use of a man named Tirrell, who was then engaged in working the land, while a man named Sam Kramer had charge of the stock ranging on the ranch. The al- falfa land, to keep the stock off from it, was fenced with pickets and posts brought down over the old trail from Wilson's Peak ; and the house was roofed with shakes from the same source, some of which can be seen there yet [1894]. This Wilson ditch was the first attempt made to lead the waters of the Arroyo Seco out upon the summer-desert mesa lands and make them habitable by civilized man; and it presented to the eye in a most striking manner the famous California illusion of "water running up hill."

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Author: Reid, Hiram Alvin, 1834-; McClatchie, Alfred James, comp Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Pasadena, Cal., Pasadena History Co. Number of Pages: 714

Author: Reid, Hiram Alvin, 1834-; McClatchie, Alfred James, comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Pasadena, Cal., Pasadena History Co.
Number of Pages: 714