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Pasadena's
Native American, Spanish and Mexican Heritage
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The land now famous for the Tournament of
Roses,
the Rose Bowl, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and California Institute of Technology,
was once occupied by the Hahamogna Tribe of Native Americans. Subsisting on
local game and vegetation, the Hahamognas lived in villages scattered along
the Arroyo Seco and the canyons from the mountains down to the South
Pasadena area. With the arrival of the Spaniards and the establishment of
the San Gabriel Mission on September 8, 1771, most of the Native Americans
were converted and provided labor for the mission.
The San Gabriel
Mission, the fourth in
California, grew to be prosperous, with abundant orchards, vineyards and herds. The vast
lands which it administered for the Spanish Crown were divided into ranchos. After the
rule of California passed from Spain to Mexico, the Mexican government in 1833 secularized
the mission lands and awarded them to individuals. The northeast corner of San Gabriel
Mission, consisting of the 14,000 acres known as Rancho el Rincon de San Pascual, had
previously been gifted  in 1826 by the padres to Doña Eulalia Pérez de
Guillen, noted for
her advanced age as well as her devoted service to the mission. On February 18, 1835, it
was formally granted by the Mexican government to her husband, Don Juan Mariné. He and
his sons subsequently lost the land which changed ownership a few more times before being
granted on November 28, 1843, by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to his good friend, Colonel
Manuel Garfias, son of a distinguished Mexican family.
In 1852, two years after California was
admitted as a state to the Union, Garfias built an adobe hacienda on the east bank of the
Arroyo, where he and his family proceeded to live in grand style, until he could not meet
the interest payment due on a loan. Title to the land was then transferred in 1859 to his
lenders, Dr. John S. Griffin and Benjamin "Don Benito" Wilson. Portions of the
Rancho San Pasqual were thereafter sold, leaving Griffin and Wilson with 5,328 acres in
1873.
All photographs courtesy of the Pasadena
Public Library unless otherwise noted.
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