336 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



dent, and Daniel Webster, secretary of state.* In 1855 he was elected state 

 senator and served the term. Also again in 1869-70. 



In 1853 he married for his second wife Mrs. Margaret Hereford, widow 

 of Dr. Hereford of San Pedro. His first wife, Ramona Yorba, had died 

 March 21, 1849. 



In 1852 Mr. Wilson bought the I^ake Vineyard property from the 

 Indian wife of Hugo Reid, and in 1854 he built there a dwelling house 

 with a vast wine cellar under it and a very costly roof of tiles — the total 

 cost of the structure and appurtenances being reported over $20,000, the roof 

 alone taking nearly half of it. His widow, Mrs. Margaret Wilson, resides 

 there in the same house yet — 1895. 



In 1864 he constructed the historic and famous burro path to the top 

 of the mountains, known as " Wilson's Trail," and this is reported to have 

 cost him about $6,000 before he finally dropped it. His object was to have 

 shakes, pickets, barrel staves, orange boxes, etc., made from the cedar, oak 

 and pine trees which grew so plentifully on the mountain top, and then 

 transport them down on burros, for which purpose he collected a band of 

 about sixty of these hardy little animals. But the timber proved unfit for 

 wine barrels, which was the most important item ; pickets and other lumber 

 to fence in his orchards were brought down, besides shakes for roofing pur- 

 poses, till he had enough and quit. [See Chapter 20; article "Wilson's 

 Trail."] 



In 1867 Mr. Wilson and Dr. Griffin built the open ditch which first 

 brought the waters of the Arroyo Seco from Devil's Gate out onto the 

 alfalfa lands of the Rancho San Pasqual. The job was done by Judge B. 

 S. Eaton ; and this was the waterway know in colony days as the " Wilson 

 ditch." 



In 1869 Mr. Wilson was sent to Washington by the winegrowers of 

 lyos Angeles county, to ask from the revenue department some concession 

 or relief in regard to the internal revenue tax on California wines. But it 

 availed nothing. The law was general, and must apply in all states, 

 counties and territories equally. 



In 1 87 1 Mr. Wilson laid out the original Alhambra tract of about 300 

 acres, with water piped to each five-acre lot — the first subdivision ever made 



* "In 1S52 the late Hon. B. D. Wilson, an old resident of Los Angeles county, made a report to the 

 United States government, showing the great injustice which had been done the Indians by the Ameri- 

 cans In iSSi Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson had her attention specially directed toward these lougsuffering 

 people, and that winter she made a visit to their reservation and spent several weeks among them."— 

 Calijotnia of the South, p. 795. 



Mr. Wilson's report was printed in the Los Angeles Star of 1S52, and again in same paper in 1S68 ; 

 and much of it is copied in J. Albert Wilson's Hist. Los Ang. Co., iSSo, pp. S7 to go. This report is a 

 monument to Mr. Wilsons painstaking fidelitv as a public" officer and to his good sense and kind- 

 heartedness toward the Indians. He does not palliate their faults and vices as a class ; but he plainly sets 

 forth the wrongs, abuses, injustice and evil examples to which they had been subjected by white people, 

 and then remarks : " What marvel that eighteen years of neglect, misrule, oppression, slaverv and in- 

 justice, and every opportunity and temj^tation to gratify their natural vices withal, should have given 

 them a fatal tendency downward to the very lowest degradation. « * * In .some streets of this little 

 city almost every other hou.se is a grog-.shop for Indians." Yet he gives many instances of true noble- 

 ness of character and sterling fidelity among them ; and in this official report alone Mrs. Jackson found 

 ample warrant for all that she pictured of Indian life, and wrongs done them, in her famous story of 

 " Ramona." 



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