l6o HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



new building which the company had just erected. Mr. Brigden was 

 directly over the first of these tanks, engaged in trying some stop-cocks, 

 the cooper standing some feet away, nearer the central cask. The engin- 

 eer, on the ground below, was engaged ii! turning into the cask a pressure 

 of steam, indicated on the boiler's gauge as fifty pounds, for the purpose of 

 heating the water in the vessel. Suddenly, with a loud report, the upper 

 end of the cask blew upward in a cloud of steam and a deluge of boiling 

 water, .striking and enveloping both the men on the platform, carrying them 

 to the roof, Mr. Brigden falling to the ground, a distance of .something like 

 twenty feet, and Mr. Schumann lodging on the staging. Mr. Brigden, 

 scalded all over and stunned by his terrific fall, had yet sufficient strength 

 to run to the office, where he called for help to take off his clothing. When 

 this was finally done, and by his direction he had been bathed in oil and 

 wrapped in blankets, the flesh falling from his hands and back, he was 

 carried to his home, over a mile away, where physicians ministered to him 

 up to the hour of his death. " 



Mr. Brigden was a member of John F. Godfrey Post G. A. R. of Pasa- 

 dena, and his burial was conducted by the Post, at Mountain View ceme- 

 tery. He had resided here about fifteen years, and was brother-in-law to, 

 and business partner in the winery with, Hon. J. F. Crank. 



The other man, Adam Schumann, suffered great agony from his injur- 

 ies and lay in a critical condition several weeks, but finally recovered. 



A long list of minor accidents, shootings, fires, etc., I had to omit, be- 

 cause they would overload my pages with their numerousness. 



STORMS, FLOODS, CLIMIATE, ETC. 



There have been some storm periods, and incidents connected with 

 them, besides occasional extremes of weather, which form historic way- 

 marks in the course of years. And I have gleaned what I could that 

 seemed of enough celebrity at the time to be worth preserving for reference 

 when similar freaks of weather shall occur hereafter. The Centennial His- 

 tory of lyos Angeles County, page 52, says : 



1861-62. 



" At Los Angeles, the flood of 1 861 62 began with the rain on Christ- 

 mas eve, 1 86 1, and continued almost without intermission until January 17, 

 1862, on which last day, 3 o'clock p. m., fell tremendous torrents of water, 

 accompanied by loud claps of thunder and vivid lightning." 



The Historical Society's pamphlet, published in 1890, page 36, makes 

 mention of the same storm, thus : 



"The Arroyo Seco, swollen to a mighty river, brought down from the 

 mountains and canyons great rafts of drift-wood that, lodging here and 

 there in the channel of the Los Angeles, formed dams that turned the cur- 

 rent hither and thither, tearing away the low banks, and spreading the 

 waters .still further over the valley, then, breaking away, the drift was 

 carried down and spread over the plains below the city. The drift-wood 

 brought down by that flood furnished fuel for the poor people of the city for 



