DIVISION TWO — COLONIAL. 1 19 



When the opening of the S. G. V. railroad to Pasadena occurred, Sep- 

 tember i6, 1885, Mr. Berry was city editor of the I,os Angeles Daily Herald, 

 and of course came out to report the great historic event. And from an in- 

 terview with him the Pasadena Union gave a graphic account of his first ex- 

 periences in the colony, which I here condense : 



' ' As soon as the colony was started I hired a man to go out from Los 

 Angeles and build me a little house. He got the walls up, floor laid, etc., 

 but no roof, then he got dry, and went to Los Angeles and got drunk — and 

 forgot to come back and get my roof on. Meanwhile I came out, supposing 

 my house was all ready for me, but found it roofless and no carpenter at 

 work. I rolled in my blankets, lay down on some .shavings, and dreamed 

 that I slept. Before morning there was a pouring rain and I was soaked to 

 the marrow. It seemed as if my house would become the first reservoir of 

 the colony, from the amount of wetness that filled up around me." 



I, B. CLAPP. 



I arrived here in September, 1876, by railroad to San Francisco, and 

 boat thence to San Pedro. Came from Hartford, Conn. The first of the colony 

 men I met was Dr. T. B. Elliott, who brought me out from Los Angeles. My 

 first lodging was on top of a pine box, softened a little with some hay borrow- 

 ed from a neighbor's stack. I bought a 23-acre lot and built on it the first 

 two-story plastered house that had a solid concrete fou7idation in Pasadena. 

 It was located on Orange Grove Avenue south of California street — now 

 owned by James North. Building stone and fuel we hauled up from our 

 Arroyo lot ; but lumber, provisions, hardware, etc., had to be procured from 

 Los Angeles. The eatable wild game was deer, ducks, rabbits, and quail ; 

 and for want of turkeys or chickens, we made our Thanksgiving dinner of 

 rabbits that year. There was no rain until January, 1877, and my house- 

 hold goods had lain out doors until then. The first crops we raised were 

 corn, wheat and barley. A year or two after we built our house a rattle- 

 snake attempted to crawl in at the back door •; but we captured him, and 

 found that he was an older settler than we were, for he had seven rattles 

 and a button. None have been seen thereabouts, however, for many years. 



DR. O. H. CONGER. 



Mrs. Conger writes : "We arrived here August 24, 1874, by steamer 

 from San Francisco. We had lived two years in Salt Lake City, but form- 

 erly in New York City. The first colony people we met were Judge Eaton 

 and D. M. Berry; and we first lodged in Mr. Berry's board shanty on 

 Orange Grove Avenue. Fuel was hauled from the mountains [canyons]; 

 but provisions, building material, laundry work and mail, were procured 

 from Los Angeles. Our first house was on the site of our present home, 

 and consisted of one long room built of matched redwood boards, with a 

 sash door in each end ; and we moved into it on September 28, 1874. The 

 first crops we raised were potatoes, white beans, lettuce and onions. The 



