DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. ■ 29 



INDIAN HORSE-EATERS IN PASADENA. TWO WHITE MEN KILLED. 



Judge Eaton has narrated for this History the following incidents : 

 "When I first came out here Don Manuel Garfias told me that I would 

 be exposed to incursions during the spring, from the Pah ute Indians, who 

 were in the habit of coming in through the mountain passes to steal horses 

 to eat. They employed no skill in catching them, but relied upon such an- 

 imals as they might find at the end of a picket rope ; or slipping quietly 

 upon a band when lying down in the night, and lassoing one while sleeping. 

 I had been at Fair Oaks only long enough to get a pair ot bronchos trained 

 to drive in a buggy, when without any notice whatever, their picket ropes 

 were cut close to the pickets and the horses taken. They were within a 

 hundred yards of my house, but the thing was done so still and sly that 

 they did not alarm the household. I started out a couple of Mexican boys 

 on their trail and in an hour they returned with one animal that they caught by 

 the picket rope. After breakfast I despatched a boy to B. D. Wilson's but 

 on his way down he saw the other three horses coming from the Santa 

 Anita ranch full tilt, with their picket ropes trailing behind them. They 

 did not stop until they got into one of the ranch bands, and the boy drove 

 them all up to my corral. This was Monday. On Wednesday night I took 

 them out after dark and hid them in a belt of oak timber, back of the house. 

 The next morning two of them, a. pair of handsome grays, were gone. I 

 mounted one of the Mexicans on a horse and sent him in pursuit. He 

 traced them into Santa Anita canyon, but having no arms he was afraid to 

 go farther and returned. After a lapse of so much time it was useless to 

 prosecute the search, as the Indians had probably killed the horses when 

 they got fairly into the mountains, and packed off the meat on their backs, 

 [This was in 1865. — Ed.] The summer following there came onto the ranch 

 a band of desert Cahuillas, ten bucks and one squaw. They made head- 

 quarters near the base of the mountains, never showing themselves in the 

 daytime, and making nightly raids on the neighboring settlers, carrying off 

 calves that .they found in the corrals. I saw their tracks occasionally, but 

 apprehended no danger from them, though I felt a little anxiety about my 

 family during the day, when I was absent in the canyon, and not a soul 

 nearer than three miles upon whom they could call for assistance. At that 

 time an old man, Sam Kramer, had charge of Dr. Griffin's stock of brood 

 mares and colts, and lived in the old ranch house. One day, I think it was 

 in May, the man who at the time had charge of the Stoneman place, came 

 along accompanied by a friend of his from I,os Angeles, and asked Kramer 

 if he would not join them in a bee-hunt up the Arroyo Seco. As he could 

 not join them they rode on, and that was the last time they were seen alive. 

 The next day as Kramer was riding over the ranch looking after his stock, 

 he discovered in one of the bands a horse with saddle and bridle on. Driving 

 the band to the corral he fonnd that the horse was the same one ridden by 

 his neighbor the day before, and the saddle was covered with blood. Im- 

 mediately notifying the family and summoning assistance, they commenced 

 a search for the body of the missing man. Following the tracks of the bee- 

 hunters up the bed of the Arroyo, to a point opposite the west end of Cali- 

 fornia street, they found a deserted Indian camp. The occupants had ap- 

 parently left in haste, dropping an old soldier coat, and a small bag of pan- 

 ole, (parched corn ground or pounded into meal.) 



"Following the horse tracks which indicated that their riders were 



