The Indiana Colony is the first white settlement of the area known today as Pasadena, California. It was incorporated as such on January 31, 1874, by a settlement of Hoosiers seeking fairer weather following the exceptionally cold winter of 1872–73. The settlers met in the home of Dr. Thomas Elliott, and Daniel Berry was selected to visit the California southland with the express intent of finding suitable land at suitable prices.
Berry visited San Diego, Anaheim, San Fernando, Rancho Santa Anita and Rancho San Pascual. After meeting Judge Benjamin Eaton and Benjamin Davis "Don Benito" Wilson, he was able to negotiate the purchase of lands in the eastern part of Rancho San Pascual near the Arroyo Seco. The recession of 1873 caused a few initial investors to withdraw from the settlement plans. Berry immediately reincorporated the company into the Southern California Orange Grove Association enlisting any interested party and salvaging the purchasing power of the settlement.
The nearly 4,000-acre (16 km2) property would become The Indiana Colony, the genesis of present-day Pasadena, California.
Read more about Indiana Colony: Reason For Moving, Selection of Territory, Southern California Orange Grove Assoc., Renaming The Colony
Famous quotes containing the words indiana and/or colony:
“The Statue of Liberty is meant to be shorthand for a country so unlike its parts that a trip from California to Indiana should require a passport.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
““Tall tales” were told of the sociability of the Texans, one even going so far as to picture a member of the Austin colony forcing a stranger at the point of a gun to visit him.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)