62 



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 L,os 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."* 



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 I,opez, is still living at San Gabriel, 

 a widow aged eighty-three years. She was 

 born at San Diego in 181 2,t but was raised 

 at San Gabriel. Her husband was a son of 

 the historic Claudio lyopez who held the ofiice 

 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 lyOpez, 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 Kulalia Perez de Guilleu, died here [San Gabriel] in 1S78, 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 Georse Washington; in 7S54 she married Francisco Villabobas de 

 Zavin. who died aged one hundred and twelve years." — Prof. C. F. Hnlder, in " All About Pasadfva.'^ 

 p. 4./. 



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



EULALIA PEREZ DE GUILLEN 



Photo taken in i!S77, less than a year 



before she died 



