Badillo – Badilla – or Eaton

...by guest author Glenn Reed

Frederick Eaton (1856-1934), surveyor of the Phillips Tract and the townsite of Covina.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A couple of years ago we, of the Historical Society, were surprised and honored by a visit from some of the descendants of the Badilla brothers. As most of you know the Badilla brothers were Costa Rican coffee growers who came to California about 1875 and, with the intention of raising coffee, bought the land where Covina is now not knowing that this area was far too arid for the cultivation of that crop. In 1882, Joseph Swift Phillips purchased most of that land, decided to subdivide it, and established the town of Covina near its center. He hired Fred Eaton to survey the land and lay out the town site. This was completed, the site map was filed, and maps published in 1885. The map had street names written on it, including "Dexter," the name of Phillips's newborn son, and to honor the previous owners, "Badillo" street. But on the map the Costa Ricans' name was spelled Badillo, with a terminal "o" rather than "Badilla" the the last letter "a" as the brothers' name was spelled.

Detail of Eaton's map of the Phillips Tract, showing his spelling of "Badillo" Street alongside a label marking Antonio Badilla's 100-acre plot.
Courtesy Glenn Reed and the Covina Valley Historical Society.

The Badilla descendants pointed the error out, much to our chagrin. Some time later, I noticed an item on Facebook where one of the Badilla descendants suggested that the error was caused by the historical society. This was impossible, of course, as the error occurred in 1885 and the Society was not founded until 1969. But who was responsible for the misspelling? Mr. Phillips? Looking at his cash ledger from 1885-1886, I found more than twenty places where he entered the name Raphael or Vincent Badilla for work they performed on the water ditch from the San Gabriel River. Raphael and Vincent were two of the thirteen children of Antonio Badilla, one of the Costa Rican brothers. There entries were in Joseph Phillips's own hand and the name "Badilla" was written clearly with the "a" as the last letter. So apparently it was not Mr. Phillips as he used the proper spelling. It must have been Fred Eaton or someone in his office. In any event Fred Eaton must bear the responsibility.

Incidentally, Mr. Phillips's Cash Ledger for 1885-1886 is one of the prize treasures of our historical society's collection.

Mr. Fred Eaton made a couple of other mistakes in his lifetime and is remembered more for those than for his many accomplishments. He was born in 1855 in Los Angeles. He became superintendent of the Los Angeles Water Company when he was only 19 years old. Of course his uncle owned the company. Eaton hired William Mulholland as a zanjero and quickly moved him up in the company. Eaton opened his own engineering office in 1881 and did the survey of Covina in 1884-1885. He was appointed city surveyor and then elected city engineer of Los Angeles in 1887 (he was the only candidate).

Eaton designed 6th Street Park (now knwon as Pershing Square), Elysian Park, Westlake Park (now named MacArthur Park), Eastlake Park (now known as Lincoln Park), and the Plaza. His major achievement was the design of a new sewer system for the city of Los Angeles with an outfall to the ocean.

In 1898, he was elected mayor of Los Angeles for a two year term. While mayor he ensured strict enforcement of civil service laws in the city, desegregated the fire department (it was segregated again under the next mayor), created the Los Angeles Water Department, and announced his plan to appoint William Mulholland as superintendent. It was he who convinced William Mulholland that the need for water in Los Angeles could best be satisfied by an aqueduct from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. For these accomplishments, and many more, he deserves much credit.

But later, acting on behalf of the City of Los Angeles, Eaton bought water rights from Owens Valley land owners while letting them believe that he was an agent for the federal government's reclamation program that was for the farmers' benefit. When it was discovered that he was acting for Los Angeles he was considered a villain and is still remembered for the deception.

Fred Eaton also bought, for his own account, an area called Round Valley near the Owens River. Some years later, after the aqueduct from Owens Valley to Los Angeles had been completed, William Mulholland felt it would be necessary to build a storage reservoir in Round Valley and asked Eaton to sell it to the city. Eaton asked for an amount that Mulholland felt was exorbitant. Their disagreement destroyed a close friendship of 35 years. Mulholland chose instead to build a reservoir on the Santa Clara River behind a new dam – the Saint Francis Dam.

References:
1885 Covina Townsite map
Joseph Swift Phillips's 1885-1886 Cash Ledger
"Fred Eaton, a Second Look," by Anna Sklar
"In Memoriam; Fredrick Eaton," Ramona Parlor
Fred Eaton, Wikipedia
Conversation with Barbara Ann Hall, Ph.D.

This article was originally published in the October, 2016 issue of "The Covina Citrus Peal," the official newsletter of the Covina Valley Historical Society, and is reproduced here with the permission of the author, Covina historian Glenn Reed.

Covina On the Rails

Long before Metrolink, rail transportation played a vital role in Covina's history. In 1876, the Southern Pacific Railroad became the first to connect Los Angeles to a transcontinental rail system, but the line passed through Spadra and Puente to the south. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway arrived in L.A. in 1887, but it, too, bypassed Covina: this time to the north, via Alosta, Glendora and Azusa. It wasn't until September, 1895, that the Southern Pacific opened a spur through Covina (today's Metrolink San Bernardino Line), offering service to Los Angeles and points beyond.

The S.P.'s primary purpose was transporting freight, however, so consequently, people who wished to travel by rail had very limited choices in terms of departure and arrival times. Conveniently-scheduled passenger service wouldn't be available to Covinans for another dozen years, when Henry Huntington's Pacific Electric Railway Company came to town.

The first spike was driven for the P.E. tracks on Badillo Street on November 5, 1903, but the little trolley shown below only ran between Hollenbeck and Barranca Streets. The Covina segment was opened to the rest of the Pacific Electric system on June 5, 1907.

Intersection of Citrus and Badillo, circa 1905. Courtesy USC Digital Library.

An early interurban Pacific Electric train on Badillo Street (below), circa 1910. The original round-trip fare to Los Angeles was 90¢. (Sounds like a bargain, but that's about $25 in today's money.) Ticket in hand, then, a one-way trip to the big city took just under an hour.

Courtesy USC Digital Library.

Pacific Electric's Covina station, circa 1937. It was located on the north side of East Badillo Street a short distance east of Second Avenue. It was Covina's commuter connection to the P.E. network from 1915 until regularly-scheduled service was discontinued in 1947.

Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.

Covina, 1894

This is the oldest-known photograph of Covina. It was taken in winter, 1894, when the town was only 9 years old. The vantage point is the roof of the home of Mr. Lambert L. Ratekin at 237 South Fourth Avenue. The view is to the northeast, showing Fourth Avenue and the alley between Center and Dexter Streets in the foreground, and in the middle distance, Badillo Street passes from left to right just past the young orange groves.

Courtesy California State Library. Click on image for enlargement.

The photo is also noteworthy for depicting the very first house ever built in Covina.

The Samuel Allison residence (1885), at 160 West Badillo Street.

The image can be dated precisely because the school that we know was built in 1894 (at left, below) can be seen here currently under construction.

Historically-important buildings from l. to r.: the Covina Public School (1894), the Methodist Church (1888) on College Street, and the Episcopal Church (1893) at Badillo and Third.

What the school looked like upon completion:

Earliest Views of Citrus Avenue

Some time ago, Covina historian Glenn Reed sent me this old photograph of Citrus Avenue, looking south from a vantage point near Italia Street.

Photo courtesy Glenn Reed. Click image for enlargement.

Although the photo bears no date, it can be said with certainty that it was taken in 1898. It can't be any later, because the First National Bank of Covina was built on the northwest corner of Citrus and College (where the flag pole stands) in 1899, but it can't be earlier because I can just barely see the T. E. Finch Block a few doors down, and that was erected in 1898.

Then, only a few days ago, reader Brian Solar sent me this illustrated newspaper article from 1897 that features an even earlier view of Citrus Avenue. Although a simple drawing in its details, I have confidence in its historical accuracy. Look at the eucalyptus tree at right. It's a close mirror image of the same tree in the 1898 photo above.

From the article "Azusa, Covina, Glendora" in the the Sunday, December 5, 1897 edition of the Los Angeles Herald. Source: Newspapers.com, courtesy Brian Solar. Click image for enlargement.

Interesting to note that the flag pole is not depicted in the 1897 illustration, so that must have gone up the following year, too. At left is the then-brand-new Chapman-Workman Building (1897), still standing today at the northwest corner of Citrus and Badillo. Across the street, however, the lot appears vacant. The Reed Block (and what later generations would know as the Covina Theater) would be built on that site in 1900.

 

The complete newspaper page:

The Naming of Covina

...by guest author Glenn Reed

Recently Karl Blackmun, one of our new members gave us a copy of his great grandmother's memoirs of her life in Covina in the early days. Her name was Clara Margaret Eckles (1874-1966). She married Carl Warner, best known in Covina as the younger brother of Elwin Perle Warner, long time prominent Covina grocer. Her memoirs paint a picture of life in this area before 1900 and relates some of her contacts with such early residents as Antonio Badilla, Lucky Baldwin, and Joseph Phillips.

Of particular interest is her account of how Covina received its name. Most of us have heard that the name came from the location, as a cove between the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Jose Hills at least partly filled with vines. After all, Baldwin Park was for many years called Vineland until the residents changed the name in order to curry the favor of Lucky Baldwin.

Here is the story in the words of Clara Eckles:

The Dunkard Brethren were colonizing Covina, only that wasn't its name yet. One day Phillips called father over to do some surveying and to give some advice. It seemed the colony of Brethren wanted to name their section, "Los Covinas." They thought it was Spanish for "The Little Cove." "Los" was the only Spanish part of it, and Mr. Phillips didn't want to hurt their feelings by pointing out their mistake. Besides, there wasn't any cove present! So a compromise name was suggested, that of "Covina," the leaders were consulted, and the town named before it had time to catch its breath.

I think that is a better story for the naming of Covina than any that I have heard, and besides, it is an account from someone alive at the time; I am accepting it. More of Clara's memoirs later.

This article was originally published in the June, 2018 issue of "The Covina Citrus Peal," the official newsletter of the Covina Valley Historical Society, and is reproduced here with the permission of the author, Covina historian Glenn Reed.

German Baptist Brethren church on Third at Puente, circa 1920.

 

The Ruddock Mansion

In 1887, Chicago lumber tycoon Thomas Sanderson Ruddock¹ purchased 120 acres² of land from the widow of J. Edward Hollenbeck, just east of Phillips's tract. There, Ruddock commenced to build his new winter home, which he named "Mountain View."^3,4

In pioneer times, the extravagant 3-storey Queen Anne-style mansion² was the showpiece of the entire Azusa Valley (as the Eastern San Gabriel Valley was called back then).⁴ According to Covina historian Barbara Ann Hall, Mountain View...

...had 11 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and 7 fireplaces of Belgian tile and rosewood. A stained-glass window looked down upon the staircase. There were stained-glass chandeliers in the ballroom. Surrounding the mansion were stables, a carriage house, a bunkhouse, servants' quarters, and a caretaker's cottage. The 800-foot drive was lined with palm trees and roses.²

Unfortunately, Thomas Ruddock died suddenly in Los Angeles on January 17, 1890, at the age of 71, a year before Mountain View was completed. The property was left to his widow, Maria Nancy Newell Ruddock (born 1827),¹ and when she died in 1905, son Charles Homer Ruddock (1848-1929) inherited the estate.

Ironically, for all its local fame in bygone days, few photographic images of Mountain View were known to have survived. Recently, however, I made the acquaintance of Mary Elarton Kidd – whose great aunt was one of the last residents of Mountain View – and she has shared with me many photos of the ranch which have never before been seen by the public.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the most detailed picture in existence of Covina's lost Victorian treasure. It shows Mountain View not long after Mary Chrastka acquired the ranch in the early 1930s.⁵

The Ruddock Mansion, 1886-1950. Photo courtesy Mary Kidd. Click image to enlarge.

The entrance to Mountain View, formerly located at 522 North Grand Avenue⁵ at the eastern end of San Bernardino Road. The mansion itself was located immediately east of the intersection of today's East Wingate Street and South Westridge Avenue.

Photo courtesy Mary Kidd.

Planted over 130 years ago, the Washingtonia filifera fan palms that still stand today along East Wingate Street are among the oldest trees in Covina (together with the palms that line Hollenbeck Street). Here they are in the 1940s, when they were already six decades old.

Photo courtesy Mary Kidd.

A Ruddock Company citrus crate label. At its peak – just before the turn of the last century – approximately 9,000 orange and 3,000 lemon trees¹ grew on the estate.

Image courtesy Calisphere.

Continuing on:

Covina Banknotes

Most people today don't know this, but from 1863-1935, local National Banks could issue their own banknotes, which were legal tender anywhere in the United States.

Here are some examples of U.S. currency produced by the two National Banks in Covina in the early years of the 20th century. (The first two are the old, large "horse blanket" banknotes; the third is the same size as our bills are today.)

$5 note, Series of 1882, Charter date 1901. Portrait depicts the late President James Garfield. Click image to enlarge.

$10 note, Series of 1902, Charter date 1921. Portrait depicts the late President William McKinley. Click image to enlarge.

$20 note, Covina National Bank, Series of 1929. Image courtesy seller jscabani1988 on eBay.

Below are some historical photos of Covina's two chartered National Banks.

Old Covina High, 1961

Recently added this Kodachrome transparency to my Covina ephemera collection. It's likely one of the last photos ever taken of the old Covina Union High School building on Citrus at Puente before it was demolished.

click image for enlargement

If you look closely, you can see several windows have been broken, and even though the place was abandoned at this time, the grass looks like it's still being mowed regularly.

Note the date impressed on the slide: AUG 61.

The gymnasium of the old high school was burned down by child arsonists on the night of June 10, 1962. It was a spectacular fire. We could see the flames all the way from our house in the Covina hills. The Pasadena Independent reported that the presence of over a thousand spectators on the surrounding streets hampered efforts to contain the blaze. The entire campus was subsequently sold, razed and redeveloped.

 

Strapping Youth

Unknown Covina Union High School Colt varsity baseball player from the 1930s. Photo attributed to Burton O. Burt, who was active in California and the Southwest in the early 20th century.

Image courtesy of seller tobeacat66 on eBay.

Some people I showed this to thought it might be a picture of a young "Doc" Sooter – the semi-legendary CHS sports coach – but one of them asked his surviving brother about it and it turns out Doc was still living with his family in Missouri at the time this photo was taken. So the young man's identity remains a mystery.

Anyway, regardless of who it is, this is a great image of a pre-War Covinan! His face really lights up the room, doesn't it?