DIVISION ONE — PRK-PASADENIAN. 8 1 



he gave to the world the now famous name of " Pasadena." Mr. and Mrs. 

 Arturo Bandini have been prominently identified with Pasadena's sporting, 

 social and literary life for twenty years. Every book written about Califor- 

 nia by any citizen of the United States prior to the Mexican war, such as 

 Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," Robinson's "Life in California," 

 Davis' "Sixty Years in California," etc., make frequent mention of Don 

 Juan Bandini, because he was a man of note and influence at San Diego, 

 lyos Angeles and Santa Barbara. But his first connection with U. S. mili- 

 tary affairs is explained in Gen. Fremont's "Memoirs," pages 563-64-65, as 

 follows: 



THE TAKING OF LOS ANGELES IN 1 846. 



"The ship [sloop Cyane] entered the land-locked bay of San Diego, 

 where the still waters reflected the quiet of the town. Here no enemy was 

 found. On the contrary, we were received on the footing of friends by 

 Don Juan Bandini, the chief citizen of the place, and by Don Santiago 

 Arguello [father to Mrs. Bandini], the Captain of the port. [This was July 

 27, 1846. — Ed.] Senor Bandini was a native of Spain ; of slight and 

 thin person, sarcastic and cynical of speech, often the shape in which a 

 keen intelligence, morbid because without outlet, expresses itself. * * 

 One of Don Juan's daughters was married to Don Abel Stearns, whose 

 residence was at lyos Angeles. ' ' 



Fremont's troops could not move a mile from their ship without 

 horses and beef cattle for their subsistence and transportation ; and speak- 

 ing of this matter, he writes : 



' ' There were not enough horses at hand to mount a party to send after 

 animals to distant places through an enemy's country. In the midst of 

 these difficulties, the aid which Bandini and Arguello were willing to give 

 us was most fortunate. * * * After little more than a week occu- 

 pied in this way [collecting horses and beef cattle] with the aid of Don 

 Juan, a sufficient number of animals were obtained to enable me to move ; 

 and on the 8th of the month [August] we moved out on the road to Los 

 Angeles. * * Just before leaving the town an uncommonly beautiful 

 sorrel horse, thoroughly trained, was brought me from Senor Bandini. 

 * * It was a gift from the family." 



With Fremont on this march was his famous scout, Kit Carson, whose 

 son Sam, nicknamed " Kit," afterward lived a while at Pasadena, and in 

 1876-77 dug the entrance shaft for the Beaudry coal mine opposite the foot 

 of Columbia street. He had formerly worked for Don Juan Bandini at San 

 Diego. 



• While Fremont was in San Diego, in 1846, Commodore Stockton had 

 arrived at San Pedro, and on Aug. nth he commenced his march from there 

 towards Los Angeles, being joined on the 13th by Fremont's troops, and 

 they marched into the city together without any armed resistance, hoisted 

 the America flag and took possesion of the country in the name of the 



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