Courtesy of:
Azusa Chamber of Commerce
240 W. Foothill Blvd.
Azusa, CA 91702
Tel. (626) 334 1507
The first recorded reference to Azusa was found in the diary of Fr. Juan Crespi,
diarist and engineer with Portola Expedition in 1769, then on its way northward from San
Diego in search of Monterey Bay.
Having come northward through Brea Canyon, Crespi, while camping in the vicinity of
Bassett remarked of the river and the valley to the north, "The valley is three
leagues wide and paralleled by a tall mountain range running east and west." This
stream and valley he named the San Miguel Archangel after the Patron Saint of the day, as
was their custom. However, he also referred to this area as the The Azusa" in his
diary.
Here roamed the Shoshonean Indian, locally known as the Gabriena when the area of Azusa
was first inhabited by white emigrants and homesteaders. Their community was known as
Asuksa-gna. Supposedly Azusa was derived from the Indian name.
An area of land some three miles square was given to Luis Arenas by the Mexican
Government as a Mexican land grant in 1841. Arenas built an adobe home on the hill in the
eastern part of the City, did farming and stock raising and called his newly acquired
possession E1 Susa Rancho. In 1944 Arenas sold his holdings to Henry Dalton, an Englishman
who acquired his wealth in buying and shipping goods from Peru to Wilmington Harbor, now
Los Angeles Harbor, and San Francisco. Mr. Dalton, after paying $7,000.00 to Arenas for E1
Susa Rancho, changed the name to Azusa Rancho de Dalton.
On the Azusa Rancho, Mr. Dalton planted a vineyard extending northward from the Dalton
Hill to the Sierra Madre Mountains. He built a winery, a distillery, a vinegar house, a
meat smokehouse and a flour mill, importing the mill stones from France in 1854 and
erecting his mill on a ranch ditch which delivered water to the south portion of his
property.
During the great flood years of 1861 and 1862, the flour mills along the various
canyons from San Bernardino were washed out and most of the people brought their grain to
the Asusa Dalton for grinding.
During 1854, gold was discovered in the San Gabriel Canyon and a town named E1
Doradoville was built at the fork of the San Gabriel to take care of some 2,000 miners who
had filed on gold claims along the east fork of the canyon. During the next twenty years,
it is estimated that $12,000,000.00 in gold was mined and shipped to various mints
throughout the United States. The town of E1 Daradoville was destroyed by flood waters in
1861 and 1862.
In 1860 the United States land Office sent an engineer from Washington, D.C. who
surveyed the Dalton's Azusa Rancho, taking a mile and one-half from his southern boundary
and a mile and one- half from his eastern boundary, making the property taken by the
Federal Government subject to homesteading. An influx of people began streaming into the
area, filing usually on forty, eighty or one hundred and twenty acre lands for their
homesteads. This, Mr. Dalton considered unfair. He had not the money to fight the case
through the courts and borrowed money from Jonathon S. Slauson, one of the early Los
Angeles bankers. Mr. Dalton had to make several trips to Washington, D.C. The courts
decided against him after 24 years of litigation. Consequently, Mr. Dalton turned the
Azusa Rancho over to Mr. Slauson who deeded a 55 acre homestead to Mr. Dalton at the head
of Azusa Avenue and Sierra Madre Avenue.
In 1874, Henry Dalton and Captain J. R. Gordon imported from Italy fifteen stands of
Italian honey bees, considered the first honey bees imported into the United States. This
developed into a large industry in the production of honey throughout the United States.
In 1868, the Azusa Valley had grown considerably and schooling for the children was
getting to be a problem. A meeting was called on Dalton Hill and a citizens' committee was
formed to take the necessary steps to provide a Provisional School for the community. The
following excerpts from Henry Dalton's diary should be of interest:
"Monday, May 11, 1868: In the afternoon the people met at Williamson's to
determine about the erection of the Provincial School and it was determined to meet on
Friday with wagons, tools, etc. to haul logs and brush necessary and on Saturday to raise
the brush school house." "Friday, May 15: My man Burns was hauling brush for the
school house. After a long debate it was decided to build the school house between the
Dalton Hill and Williamson's (which would now be located on the east side of the old
squatter's ditch and 3rd Street)."
"Wednesday, May 20: The schoolhouse was finished. Beckman and others prepared the
stools, desks, etc, and prepared to hire a teacher."
Thursday, June 11: Went with Williamson to take a census of the children along the
mountains as far as San Dimas. (A distance of eight miles). A School Board was appointed
by the committee, consisting of Oliver Justice, President; Dutcher, Secretary; and
Williamson."
This first school built of logs and brush was the first public school built in the
Upper San Gabriel Valley, then called Azusa Valley. In 1891 the first Union High School,
named Citrus, was built at the southwest corner of Citrus near Broadway.
During 1887, Mr. Slauson laid out the town of Azusa, and it is a matter of information
that when the date was set for the sale of lots, people stayed up all night and some of
them paid as much as $500.00 for front places inline for first purchase of lots. When the
streets were being graded, there were unearthed many Indian mortars which proved that
Indians did inhabit this area in the early days before the white man.
On December 29,1898, the City was incorporated as a city of the 6th class. The
population in 1890 was 800; in 1899 it was 865.
There is ample and abundant proof of Indian activity in the Azusa (San Gabriel) Valley.
It can be presumed that many a ranchero existed for both short and long periods of time.
Many artifacts and other implements have been found in varied places.
Near the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon, southerly from the Duarte Ditch, near where
it crosses the wash, are to be found stones in a long rambling line which, no doubt, had
some important significance to the Indians. These stones are still fairly well established
as placed at some remote period by a race long since gone.
At the Forks there is an old burial ground. Seven bodies were uncovered a number of
years ago. Each body had a cairn of stone placed over the abdomen, at the top of which was
a stone mortar.
In the West Fork of the San Gabriel Canyon near Camp Rincon are to be found several
huge rocks, the largest weighing some 75 or 80 tons. These are covered with Indian
markings yet quite distinct, though no doubt having weathered the storms of several
generations. Another of these was to be found in the East Fork above Camp Bonita though it
has been moved to make way for the road. Many of these markings have been noted several
hundred feet above the canyon bottom in the vicinity of Rattlesnake Gulch. Pine Flats also
gave evidence of their activity in the early days. In the vicinity of Iron Fork, mortars
were found in large rocks which goes to show that the Indian activities were somewhat
varied. That the canyon was used as a bypass to the desert there is no doubt, and the mute
evidence found, it must have been of more than passing interest to while away their
abundance of unoccupied time or as a retreat from an enemy. Whether right or wrong in the
latter assumption, there is ample evidence of their activities.
This history has been taken from the files of the last Azusa City Historian, Mr.
Comelius Smith. Mr. Smith served as President of the Azusa Chamber of Commerce for twelve
years. He was Secretary of the Chamber for nineteen years and a member of the Azusa School
Board for twenty years.
City of Azusa Historical Events and Dates
Information Supplied by: AZUSA HISTORICAL SOCIETY & AZUSA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
We find several dates given for some of these events. We have put down the ones that we
have found most often.
1769 - Frey Juan Crestipi's diary mentions San Gabriel River and Valley as
"The Azusa."
1838 - Gold first discovered.
1842 - Louis Arenas got Azusa Rancho land grant.
1844 - Dalton acquired Azusa Rancho.
1845 - Mexican War. Dalton sent one man to fight in Mexican Army as his
contribution.
1854 - Mining begun in San Gabriel Canyon.
1854 - Dalton built a flour mill.
1860 - Dalton built his large adobe on Dalton Hill.
1861 - Dalton brought first oranges from Mexico.
1864 - First squatters on Dalton's property, where Citrus is now.
1867 - Dalton planted his first oranges.
1868 - Brush School first in area, built.
1873 - Baptist Church organized.
1874 - Dalton and Captain Gordon Imported 15 stands of bees from Italy.
1875 - Mr. Preston gave two acres for Fairmont Cemetery.
1878 - Dalton tried to start Mound City at corner of Vernon and Foothill
Boulevard. Failed.
1881 - Dalton lost title to his lands.
1884 - Slauson legally got possession of Dalton's land.
1884 - Henry C. Rogers became first orange shipper.
1886 - First lots sold in Azusa.
1887 - First Presbyterian Church organized.
1887 - First grocery store. Williams' bought it next year.
1887 - Azusa Herald started in corner of Williams' grocery store.
1888 - Water problems with Covina.
1889-90 - Vigilantes organized to stop horse thieves.
1891 - Azusa Valley Bank formed.
1891 - First Union High School in the state. Corner of Azusa Avenue and
Gladstone.
1893 - Improvement Club formed. Forerunner of Chamber of Commerce.
1894 - A.C.G. Deciduous Association formed.
1898 - Azusa incorporated.
1898 - First mayor - H.A. Williams.
1899 - San Gabriel Electric Co. put a power plant in operation in Canyon.
1900 - Population of Azusa - 863
by 1900 - 500 acres of land planted to citrus.
1902 - Azusa-Foothill Citrus Company formed.
1906 - First National Bank and Azusa Valley Savings Bank.
1907 - Pacific Electric completed.
1912 - YMCA formed in Azusa.
1918 - Kate Vosburg founded free clinic.
1920 - World War I monument put at intersection of Center St. (Foothill Blvd.)
and Azusa Ave.
1934 - Morris Dam.
1937 - Dam No. 1.
AFTER WORLD WAR II
1944 - Aerojet comes to Azusa.
1949 - Miss Azusa Pageant initiated.
1954 - Azusa Chamber of Commerce incorporated.
1961 - Road connecting Crystal Lake and Angeles Crest Hwy. completed.
1966 - Azusa/Zacatecas Sister Cities established.
1979 - Miss Azusa, Deanna Rea Fogarty becomes Miss California.
1981 - Azusa Pacific receives University status.
1984 - City Fire Service goes county.
1987 - Azusa celebrates centennial.
1987 - Azusa Senior Center dedicated.
