338 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Names. — The name Pasadena. — The name Altadena. — Large Land Tracts by name. — 

 Old Spanish Land Grants. — Springs and Water Sources by name. — Who named the 

 Streets, and why. 



THE NAME PASADENA. 



Much misrepresentation and idle guesswork has been printed and sent 

 abroad concerning the origin of the name or word "Pasadena." Paso de 

 Eden (Gateway of Paradise) is often given as the original form of the word, 

 Anglicised into its present euphonious usage. But the climax of absurdity 

 in this matter is reached by "Bancroft's Railway Guide," San Francisco, 

 for August, 1890. On page 48, under the head of "Spanish Words," it 



says : 



" Pasadena (pas-ah-c^ay-nah). A Spanish phrase pronounced " Pa/i-so-deh-da/n " would 

 mean "Gate of Eden," poetically. Many Spanish words have been contracted, 

 wrongly spelled, mispronounced and misunderstood as badly or worse than this, 

 supposing this to be the real meaning of a name very probably first used by the 

 California padres, and afterwards mispronounced, by ear, by the Americans." 



Now, the fact is, " the California padres " never heard of the word, for 

 it is a Chippewa Indian word, and not a Spanish word or phrase at slW.-^ 

 Neither is it an Algonquin word, as is so commonly stated, only in so far as 

 the Chippewa tribe of Indians was a branch or offshoot of the great Algon- 

 quin family. Upon my inquiry as to the real origin of the name " Pasadena," 

 Judge B. S. Eaton writes : 



" It came about in this way. The winter of 1875-76 found the In- 

 diana colony so far advanced as to require mail facilities. Thus far, lyos 

 Angeles had been the address of the colonists ; but this community was as- 

 suming importance ; and as the Washington authorities would never consent 

 to such a name as "Indiana Colony" for a postoffice, Calvin Fletcher, 

 one of the largest stockholders, and the man who laid out the plan of the 

 settlement and directed the subdivision of the lands, appealed to me to 

 know if there was not some vSpanish name that had been applied to the 

 ranch, descriptive of its location or general characteristics. He thought a 

 name that smacked a little of the language of the country would .sound bet- 

 ter than any name imported from the Eastern States. All the good and 

 pretty names had already been monopolized, and he would like something 

 that was a little out of the common. I could remember but one thing that 

 could possibly fill the bill for him, and that was found in the answer given 

 me by Don Manuel Garfias when I asked him why he located his house in 

 such (as seemed to me) an impractical place. It afforded him no avenue 

 to overlook his vast domain, or see what his flocks and herds were doing. 

 His reply was, " Porque es la Have del Rancho." 



"Yavvy what?" .says Fletcher, catching on to the main word [Have]. 



" Oh, that gives no clue to a name," I said, "for no Yankee would ever 

 try to pronounce a name that commenced with two consonants." 



"Well," he said, "what does it mean ? Give it to us in English." 



*In IHiil a pamphlet was issued from a new town and health resort in Texas named " Pasadena," 

 and pretending to derive the name from some mongrel combination of Spanish words or parts of words. 



