Coffee Ranch Days

When I first read Donald Pflueger's "Covina" at age 12, I thought the most interesting parts were the author's descriptions of the valley before and during its settlement. One statement in particular captivated me: how, in the early 1880s, when the Methodist Church in the foothills at the top of Citrus Avenue rang its bell on Sunday mornings, "its clear notes could be heard all over the valley."¹ That same valley when I first knew it was already home to a quarter-million people, so a stillness of that sort was almost incomprehensible to me. Like another world, it seemed...

Perhaps the best-known settlers from those early times were the families of José Julián and Pedro Antonio Badilla (aka Badillo), who emigrated from Costa Rica to America in 1876. The brothers had high ambitions. They wanted a coffee plantation big enough to supply the whole United States!² So what was their new land like when they arrived here?

Wheat harvest on Baldwin land in Rancho La Puente. Although best known for their coffee venture, the Badillas were famously successful raising wheat in 1878.³
Photo courtesy Covina Valley Historical Society and Powell Camera Shop.

What was then called the Azusa Valley had already been settled by people of European and Latin descent a generation or more before the Badillas' arrival. To the south, Don Juan Rowland and Don Julián Workman were granted ownership of Rancho La Puente in 1842 and 1844 respectively, and to the north, Don Enrique Dalton purchased his Rancho Azusa also in 1844. Additionally, after 1860, the southern portion of Dalton's rancho that lay north of the San Bernardino Road had been occupied by numerous squatters of various nationalities.¹ So although it's technically true that the Badillas were the first settlers on the specific section of land that would soon become the town of Covina, they were hardly alone when they established their coffee ranch there in 1876.

Comparatively speaking, though, the Azusa Valley at that time was still quite sparsely populated. The 1880 U.S. Census for "Azusa Township" counted only 669 souls: 448 (67%) of European descent, and 221 (33%) of Latin descent. Take those figures back four years to 1876 and there were probably just shy of 600 people in the whole valley. In the squatter section between today's Arrow Highway and San Bernardino Road lived about a hundred men, women and children, and about half that number would have been in close enough proximity to call the Badillas their neighbors.

Speaking of neighbors, Julián and Antonio Badilla were fortunate to have two Spanish-speaking families living to their immediate west. Closest to them right across San Bernardino Road were the biracial and bilingual family of Marion and Ellen Miller.⁴ They grew grapes, oranges and potatoes.⁵ Beyond the Millers to the west lived the large clan of José Maria and Geneveve Aguayo.⁴ Their home was only 3/4 of a mile west of the Badilla place, and located almost precisely where the Covina post office on Rimsdale is today. The Aguayos also grew potatoes and wine grapes, in addition to apples, alfalfa and tobacco.⁵ They had 8 children, most of them grown, and most of those were men,⁴ so I imagine the Aguayos could have provided some assistance to the Badillas on their ranch. Proof that the families were close was that the Aguayos' eldest son, Gabriel, married Antonio Badilla's daughter, Maria Pascuala, in May, 1882,⁶ so she literally married "the boy next door." And, rounding out the neighborhood, just east of the Badillas lived the young family of Robert and Sue Pollard, who also had a vineyard, apples, oranges and alfalfa.^4,5

The Badillas' home base on old San Bernardino Road was wisely-chosen in terms of location. Even though it was at the extreme northern boundary of Rancho La Puente, all of the conveniences of civilization at the time were relatively close at hand.

In coffee ranch days, the San Bernardino Road was the main stage and freight route through the Lower Azusa Valley, and by various other roads connected more or less directly to Los Angeles.¹ If the Badillas were churchgoing Catholic folk, as I assume they were (eldest brother Pbro. Pedro Maria was a priest, after all),⁷ they could also take San Bernardino Road to attend Mass at Mission San Gabriel, which was about 11 miles to the west as the crow flew. Maybe too long a wagon ride every Sunday, but close enough for Mass on Easter and holy days.

For supplies and sundries, there was a general store called Four Corners (Quatro Esquinas) about 2-1/2 miles west on San Bernardino Road, which also served as the area's first post office. In 1877, the local community (and a certain avenue we're all familiar with) got its name when Eugene Griswold opened the "Citrus" Post Office in his own general store on nearby Azusa Cañon Road (today's Cypress Street).¹

To get harvested crops to market, the depot of the Southern Pacific Railroad (which came to Los Angeles the same month the Badillas bought their land) was an easy 6-mile wagon ride to the south, as was the town of Puente: the headquarters and population center of Rancho La Puente itself. To the north, Azusa was actually 2-1/2 miles closer to the Badillas than Puente. Finally, the Badillas would have had access to irrigation water from the Azusa Ditch which ran east/west along the line of today's Edna Place, less than 800 yards from their land.⁵

The Badilla children probably attended Lower Azusa School, which was only a mile-and-a-half northwest of their home; 10 minutes tops by horseback. It's been said elsewhere that the Badillas hired tutors, but I don't think that's plausible. For certain, tutors were available in Los Angeles and other cities, but the Azusa Valley of the 1870s was essentially a frontier area lacking luxury service workers like private tutors. The Badillas had enough difficulty finding basic agricultural labor to work their land (one of the main reasons their coffee venture failed).⁸

The residents of the valley were largely law-abiding golden-rule types, but when crime did occur, the public was pretty much on its own. Azusa Township did have a County Constable and Deputies, but more generally the rule of law was enforced by citizen posse. Highway holdups, home burglaries and horse thievery were the main criminal offenses. The Badillas reportedly had several horses stolen over the years. In one instance, it was their neighbor, Marion Miller, who located the stolen horses and returned them home. (Miller was later named Constable, himself.)¹

Although the farmers and ranchers of the Azusa experienced hardships, overall their lives were blessed and bonded by ties of family and fellowship. No basic need went unmet. The soil was rich, harvests were bountiful, and wild game like deer and jackrabbit were never in short supply. It was a time and a place I would have loved to visit, and hear that church bell toll across the valley myself.

References:

¹ Pflueger, D. H. 1964. Covina: Sunflowers, Citrus, Subdivisions. Castle Press, Pasadena, California, 372pp.
² Eckles, C. M. 1960. Memoirs of Clara Margaret Eckles (1874-1966), Unpublished manuscript, Karl W. Blackmun, ed., Covina Valley Historical Society, 16pp.
³ San Luis Obispo Tribune, August 31, 1878, p.2.
⁴ United States Census, 1880. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC.
⁵ Map of the Phillips Tract, Rancho La Puente, Los Angeles Co., Cal., Renshaw Lithographic, 15 Downey Block, Los Angeles, December, 1884.
⁶ Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1882, p.3.
⁷ The Passing of a "Padre," The Tidings, The Tidings Company, Vol. 7, Nos. 31-32, August, 1901.
⁸ Santa Barbara Morning Press, March 5, 1878, p.1.