DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 53 



the first that had ever been found by white men in CaHfornia.'*^ It was in 

 the San Fernando valley, on land owned by Ignacio del Valle. And by 

 December, 1843, 2,000 ounces of gold dust had been taken from these mines. 

 Then in 1853-54 gold was found in the foot-hills of the Santa Anita ranch, 

 and in the San Gabriel Canyon, and in our own Eaton, Rubio and Arroyo 

 Seco Canyons. In crossing the old flood-plain of the Baton Canyon outwash 

 above Ivamanda Park, many mysterious-looking deep pits in the sand will 

 be noticed. These were made by the gold-hunters of that period and later 

 time. These were all placer diggings. A quartz mill was put in far up 

 the San Gabriel Canyon some years later. And statistics show that during 

 a period of eighteen years over $2,000,000 worth of gold dust was sold from 

 these San Gabriel, Santa Anita and Eaton Canyon diggings. \Thompson 

 & West Hist. Los A. Co., p. 6/.] 



DAN sexton's old ADOBE MILL. 



On May 16, 1871, a patent for 22734^ acres of the San Gabriel Mission 

 lands were granted to Daniel Sexton. This man came to California in 1841 

 in the same company with B. D. Wilson, John Rowland, Wm. Workman 

 Wade Hampton [afterward a famous Confederate General in the war of the 

 Rebellion], and others. f Sexton married one of the Mission Indian women, 

 thus gaining the right under Mexican law to acquire land, and settled at 

 San Gabriel before the United States took California. The old Mission 

 mills were now in ruins, and he thought a mill was needed and might do a 

 good paying business here ; so he put up an adobe structure 1 7x50 feet, 

 with asphaltum roof, expecting to use water from the Ea Presa ditch to 

 drive his mill machinery. His right to this water service was contested ; 

 lawsuits were undertaken ; and finally he lost both the water and the 

 land — and his mill never turned a wheel, t The building still stands, being 

 now used for a dwelling, about one-fourth mile northeast from the East San 

 Gabriel hotel ; the land now belongs to Gov. H. H. Markham, and was 

 occupied in 1894 by Mr. C. M. Smith, as tenant. The millstones had been 

 quarried out from volcanic tufa, the same as those in the old stone mill, and 



*Davis, "Sixty Years in Calif," page 222, credits this discovery to "some Mexicans from Sonora 

 who were passing through going north," in 1840. This is a mistake. Lopez showed them some of the 

 dirt in Los Angeles, and they confirmed it as gold-bearing— that is all ; and this was in 1842. Davis also 

 mentions two priests who told him us earlv as 1843-14 that they had knowledge of gold in the Sacra- 

 mento valley from Indians long ago, but they had charged the Indians upon "peril of the wrath of 

 God " not to reveal the secret. Their idea was that if the existence of gold here became known, for- 

 eigners would rush in to hunt for it, and would overrun and take the country. The same charge was 

 made by the priests at San Diego and San Gabriel to Indians who brought them gold dust long before 

 white men had discovered it. And Davis, p. 257-59, relates how in 1850-51 the old chief Zapaje rejected the 

 most tempting bribes that could be ofifered to an Indian, rather than lead them to a gold mine which he 

 had told the priest about 70 years before. In this adventure Davis was accompanied by three Arguellos 

 of San Diego, uncles to our ArturoBandini, and by Gen. Manuel Castro. 



fin the official list of the party as recorded at Los Angeles, Feb. 29, 1842, his name is written "Daniel 

 Sinton, carpenter," or at least it has been printed that way from those records. It should be " Sexton ' 

 instead of Sinton. In 1894 he was still living at San Bernardino but died during the year. 



JSexton was one of the original owners of the old Orizaba tract, which was not marked on any map 

 that I found, but it included Winston Heights, part of San Marino, and some other lands. He built on 

 his part the very substantial adobe house, now occupied by Mr. N. A. Strain, foreman of Hon. J. De 

 Barth Shorb's San Marino ranch. 



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