4IO HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



DIVISION SIX — BUSINESS. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Water Companies. — The colony's water supply. — Ditches, pipes, and reservoirs. — 

 The water war. — Water measurements and adjustments. — Votes and equities. — 

 Sketch of ten different water companies. 



THE SAN GABRIEL ORANGE GROVE ASSOCIATION. 



The original colony association that settled Pasadena was in fact a 

 mutual land and water company, and the water interests, plans and pros- 

 pects claimed earnest attention from the beginning. When Calvin Fletcher, 

 A. O. Porter and Judge Eaton were appointed as an executive board for the 

 Association, they agreed that Fletcher should take special charge of the 

 work of subdividing and platting the land ; Eaton should take special 

 charge of the water supply work; and Porter stood as coadjutor to both. 

 The Association was formally organized November 13, 1873 ; but it took 

 time to bring about all the requisite preliminaries for actual work, and it did 

 not have existence as a corporation under the laws of California until De- 

 cember 13, 1873, the date of its state certificate. Then on December 20, 

 they voted to authorize their proper officers to purchase tracts One, Two^ 

 Three, Four, of Rancho San Pasqual, from John S. GriiTin. The Associa- 

 tion office was then at No. 32 Main street, Los Angeles. [For particulars 

 of the purchase, the incidental difficulties, etc., see pages 78 to 80, 107-08, 

 124, etc.] 



The first transaction I found recorded in regard to the water business 

 was January 17, 1874, when Miles & Holbrook of Eos Angeles offered the 

 lowest bid to make and lay for the Association an 11 -inch water pipe, from 

 Devil's Gate to the reservoir on Orange Grove Avenue ; and Eaton, Porter 

 and Gibson were authorized to make the contract. Reservations had been 

 made of reservoir sites at five different points, but this on Orange Grove 

 Avenue was the main one. On February 4th B. S. Easton was formally 

 appointed as superintendent of construction of bed or ditch for the water 

 pipe, and he went on with the work. Meanwhile the settlers themselves 

 did some work toward excavating for the reservoir. On May 4th a bill of 

 $585.47 " for work done on the reservoir and water pipe " was ordered paid. 

 But the early records are very meager and incomplete with regard to the 

 Association's business transactions. On May 23d I found this record : 

 "The charge of the reservoir till further action of the board, was confided 

 to the care of Judge Eaton." 



On March 20th A. O. Bristol and Calvin Fletcher had resigned from the 

 board of directors, and Col. J. Banbury and N. R. Gibson were elected in 

 their steads. Then on June 27th Col. Banbury was appointed on the water 



