DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADENIAN. 63 



Spanish is his mothers tongue. On August 30, 1894, ^^^ 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 I^incoln 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, lyieut.-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 array 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. 



fAccording to Dr. Widney's dates, Eulalia was seventy-seven years old when this daughter was 

 born ; 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 oi Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner Co , L,os 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. 



