Italia

You're about to make the acquaintance of a most remarkable woman who, as you'll see, deserves a far more prominent place in Covina history than the mere footnotes she's been relegated to in the past...

As has often been the case, my initial inspiration for an article started with a postcard. This particular specimen first attracted my interest because of the handwritten inscription indicating the house owned by Mr. Clapp, the druggist, from whose store came this antique medicine bottle, the subject of one of my earliest posts here.

View looking southwest along the west side of the 200 block of North Second Street, Covina, c.1908. "Rose" mailed this hand-colored Rieder postcard from Lordsburg (La Verne) on January 2, 1908. Click image to view an enlargement.

The Clapps were an important family in early Covina, and I'll have more to say about them later, but the actual main character in my present story is Mrs. Clapp's mother—Mrs. Italia Cook—who lived in the big house at far right.

The published histories barely mention Italia, but she was easily the most propertied and most philanthropic woman in Covina at the turn of the last century, and now here, at long last, this pioneer-era force of nature is going to get the full recognition she's due.

However, I really can't tell Italia's story without first talking about her father, who was completely written out of local history by past authors. Which is a rather remarkable omission, because it could be argued that Edwin R. Richmond (b.1818) had the keenest eye for Covina real estate of anyone who bought land here in the earliest days of the Phillips Tract.

Mr. Richmond and his second wife, Harriet, first came to Los Angeles from Denver in April, 1882.¹ Richmond was a "gentleman of means"² who made his fortune in flavored extracts,³ and in his first four years living in in L.A., he bought and sold multiple downtown properties of considerable value.

We can only guess how E. R. Richmond happened to hear about Covina, but he evidently saw great potential in the budding agricultural settlement. In his first purchase here in April, 1886, he bought all of the land north of the Covina townsite up to the San Bernardino Road, and east from Citrus Avenue to First Street: a tract comprising 22.62 acres for which he paid J. S. Phillips $2,262.⁴

Official map of the Richmond Tract. Courtesy Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Works.

The following month, in May of 1886, Richmond bought the two townsite lots at the northeast corner of Citrus Avenue and East College Street, and most of the two townsite lots at the northeast corner of Citrus and East Badillo:⁵ both of which would eventually become two of the most commercially important street corners in the young town.

The Richmond-Cook place fronted on East College Street,⁶ and was located 70 feet east of Citrus Avenue.⁷ Mr. and Mrs. Cook are standing at left.⁸ Comparison with a similar photo taken in 1897⁹ suggests a date circa 1890 for this shot. Photo courtesy of Mrs. Ed Prather.

Within two months thereafter, Edwin Richmond built a cottage on East College and opened what one pioneer old-timer claimed was the very first store in what would develop into the new town's business district.¹⁰ His Covina Agricultural Company sold farm equipment, and was located on the east side of Citrus Avenue north of Badillo Street and just south of the mid-block alley.^10,11

Then, on November 15, 1886, tragedy struck, when Harriet Chamberlain Richmond died of "cerebral apoplexy" at her Covina home.¹² In the wake of this sudden loss, Richmond evidently sent an urgent "come at once" message to his eldest daughter in Iowa, because only 22 days after her stepmother died, Italia Cook and her two younger children set foot in Covina for the first time.¹³ And not long after that, her husband followed the call west, as well.¹¹

An ad for Richmond's store, an account of his wife's death, and an arrival announcement welcoming his daughter—Italia Cook—to Covina.
San Gabriel Valley Exponent: July 10, November 20 and December 11, 1886.

A previous account¹¹ cites weather as the reason the Cooks settled here, but the circumstances and timing suggest the real reason for the family's move west was business. A Los Angeles County directory shows E. R. Richmond still selling agricultural implements in Covina in 1887,¹⁴ and it only makes sense to conclude that he put his trusted daughter and son-in-law to work helping run the place.

In 1888, however, E. R. Richmond pulled up stakes yet again and moved to Santa Monica, remarried, and resumed dealing in real estate.¹⁵ Only one year later, though, Richmond himself died suddenly,¹⁶ whereupon Italia inherited her father's properties here and became the most land-rich woman in pioneer-era Covina.

Italia Isabella Richmond Cook began life May 5, 1844, in Livonia, New York. She was the eldest of three daughters born to Mary Chappell, Edwin Richmond's first wife. Italia married Benjamin Franklin Cook (b.1837) on March 28, 1866, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,¹⁷ where Mr. Cook engaged in the wholesale and retail drug business.¹⁸ During the years prior to their move to Covina, the Cooks lived in Lyons (now Clinton), Iowa, with their three daughters: Mary (b.1868), Frances ("Fanny," b.1869) and Alice (b.1874).^17,19

After her father's death, Italia and her husband continued to expand their land holdings. Back in 1886, E. R. Richmond had also purchased two townsite lots at the southwest corner of Badillo and Second,²⁰ and in October, 1890, Italia traded those lots to Phillips Trustee J. F. Houghton for two other lots of identical size on East College Street immediately adjacent to and east of the corner lots that her father had owned.²¹ After that, Mr. Cook bought more lots on East College,^21,22,23 such that as of June, 1894, the Cooks together not only owned the whole north side of East College from Citrus to Second, they owned 26 acres total between East Badillo and San Bernardino Road.

The Cooks and elder daughter, Fanny (left),⁸ on the Richmond Tract. I note that Fanny is wearing the same dress as in the previous family photo (it looks like her parents may be identically-dressed, as well), so I surmise that the two pictures were taken the same day. Photo courtesy of Mrs. Ed Prather.

In 1895, the Southern Pacific Railroad announced plans to open a spur line through Covina and locate its station on Front Street at the top of Second Street.²⁴ In September of 1895, anticipating the railroad coming to town would turn Second Street into a busy thoroughfare, the two families that owned the land abutting Second—Mr. & Mrs. Charles E. Bemis and Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin F. Cook—deeded strips of land to the county to widen Second from 50' to 100'.²⁵ (Click here to see the wording of the recorded deed.)

The widened North Second Street in Covina, c.1908. This photo was taken within minutes of the postcard image but from a slightly different POV.
Courtesy California Historical Society, USC Digital Library.

Pflueger (1964)²⁴ writes that B. F. Cook surveyed both sides of Second street for building lots in 1885, and by extension I assume that the Richmond Tract as a whole was laid out and the streets named at that time. The official tract map would be recorded June 12, 1901, but a Sanborn fire insurance map, depicted below, corroborates that Italia Street already existed and was so named as of the map's publication date of October, 1899.⁷

Sanborn fire insurance maps for Covina, 1899 (top) and 1906 (bottom).^7,26 The rambling structure on East College east of Citrus in both maps is the old Cook place. The four houses in the postcard headlining this article are on the west side of Second Street in the map for 1906. Library of Congress. Click image to view an enlargement.

Legend has it that the city of Covina named Italia Street after Mrs. Cook in gratitude for her gift of the land to widen Second Street, but for one thing, there was no city government yet prior to 1901, and in any case we now know that it was four people (the Bemises and Cooks together) and not Italia Cook alone who donated that land to the county. In any case, if I had to guess who the actual person was who named the street "Italia," it would of course be her husband, the surveyor, Ben.

This is probably a good time to introduce Italia's two younger daughters—Fanny and Alice—who would also become lifetime residents of Covina. Both girls got to know their future husbands better through the Covina Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars: a temperance organization for young people.^27,28 Each Cook sister went on to marry into notable pioneer Covina families. Fanny Cook married Edwin Prather on October 17, 1891.²⁹ The Prathers took up residence at their grove home on the south side of West Rowland, just east of Hollenbeck, and Fanny lived there for the rest of her life.

Alice married young pharmacist Carlton F. Clapp on May 18, 1898.³⁰ In April of 1899, father Eri Garfield Clapp bought the easternmost four townsite lots on East College Street³¹ and built his family a new house there on the northwest corner with Second Street. That same year of 1899, young Carl opened up his own drug store on Citrus Avenue.³² And, after Covina incorporated as a city in 1901, E. G. Clapp was elected chairman of the City Board of Trustees.³³ So, it turns out the Clapp house at 201 North Second in our postcard was actually the home of Covina's first mayor.

For the Cooks, 1899 was another year for big land deals, the most historically significant of which was their sale of the northeast corner of Citrus and East Badillo to Dr. James D. Reed,³⁴ where in 1900 he erected the landmark office block familiar to everyone who called Covina home in the 20th century.

After a year's illness, Ben Cook passed away at the family cottage on East College Street on November 14, 1903, at the age of 66.³⁵ One might think that Italia would be on her own from that point on, but as you'll soon discover, that wasn't to be the case at all...

If Italia Cook is remembered by anyone today for anything, it's that she "donated the land for the Covina Public Library." As with most of "accepted" Covina history, however, that's only partly true. Initially, Mrs. Cook did offer to gift the city two parcels in her Richmond Tract for the purpose of building a library, but they desired more land than that, so she offered to sell the city three more adjacent parcels for $225 apiece, and that was the deal that was agreed upon. So the library property in toto sold for $675,³⁶ which while not "free" was still significantly less than the land's actual market value. (In 1909, Mrs. Cook similarly discounted the four Richmond Tract lots she sold to the Presbyterians for their church across Italia street from the library.³⁷)

View looking northeast from the Thorne property at 205 North Second. Both the church and the library were built on land previously owned by Italia Cook.
Postcard from my personal collection.

In 1906, the year after the Covina Carnegie Library was constructed, Mrs. Cook contracted with architect James F. Langston to build her a two-story, nine-room house³⁸ at 217 North Second Street, directly across from the new library, as seen at right in our original postcard. But why did "Rose" write "Librarian" there, when that wasn't Mrs. Cook's profession at all? Well, you're about to find out!

In past write-ups, Italia Cook has been credited for being a generous humanitarian, but none of those accounts mentioned what might have been her first and greatest charitable act of all: coming to the aid of a suddenly-widowed young mother, and giving her a permanent place to live. That young widow was Mrs. Henrietta Faulder—who became Covina's first City Librarian—and from 1890 to 1923, Mrs. Cook made sure that Mrs. Faulder and her daughter, Vyvyenne, had a safe and secure home with her.

A fruit packer³⁹ in her early years in Covina, Mrs. Faulder became Librarian in 1902⁴⁰ when the city assumed management of the Covina Reading Room and Library Association. After the Carnegie Library opened in 1905, Mrs. Faulder would continue to serve in her leadership role there for the next 29 years.⁴¹

After its founding in 1897,⁴² the reading room was located in a commercial building on the northeast corner of Citrus and Badillo,⁷ on land which perhaps not coincidentally was owned at the time by none other than Mrs. Italia Cook.

Besides building her new home, Mrs. Cook also sold a lot of real estate in 1906. In one month,⁴³ she sold the Presbyterians their land for $1200, and across Second Street on the northwest corner with Italia she sold two lots to a private party for $1050. But the biggest deal of January, 1906, was finally selling the commercial property at the northeast corner of Citrus and East College for $7,000. Not bad for a single month of land deals!

In 1909,⁴⁴ the city government completed their purchase of the two lots on East College Street that Italia Cook acquired in trade in 1890, and there, in 1911, the city built a new fire station and jail,⁴⁵ which today is the Covina Valley Historical Society's Firehouse Museum. In 1930, the present City Hall was built on those same two lots. And, in a final connection to the past, today's Covina Police HQ and City and County Fire Station on Second Street were also built on land once owned by Mr. E. R. Richmond and Mrs. I. I. Cook.

The subject of my long elegy passed away on August 10, 1923 at the age of 79. Italia was buried next to her Ben three days later at Oakdale Cemetery.⁴⁶ So, now that you've gotten to know the real Italia, and learned the full scope of her influence on her community, I think you'd agree that "Mother Cook," as she was called,¹¹ was far from a minor figure in Covina's history. To the contrary, this woman deserves a statue here as far as I'm concerned.

Photo by Randy on Find a Grave.

Postscript: I did solve the mystery of who "Rose" was! It was easy, actually. I just searched the newspaper archive for "rose lordsburg" in January, 1908, and voilà!⁴⁷ The sender of our postcard was Rose Violet Hepner (1886-1976), daughter of another early Covina pioneer, and she'd attended Lordsburg College since 1906.⁴⁸

I wonder what Rose would think about what happened to her postcard and the story it would inspire in the 21st century, 118 years after she mailed it. Her little 5-minute scribbling ended up making history, quite literally! A pretty profound set of circumstances if you really ponder them...

Grateful thanks to Michael Schoenholtz, Dave Armbruster, Glenn Kennedy, Mario Luis Sobalvarro and Mark Tapio Kines for help with my research for this article.

References:

¹ The Daily Commercial, April 22, 1882, p.3.
² Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1882, p.2.
³ United States Census, Denver, Arapaho County, Colorado, 1880.
⁴ Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1886, p.3.
⁵ Los Angeles Herald, May 29, 1886, p.4.
⁶ Covina Argus, December 23, 1905, p.5.
⁷ Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Covina, California, October, 1899, Sheet 3.
⁸ Hall, B. A. 2007. Covina: Images of America. Arcadia Publishing, San Francisco, California, 127pp.
⁹ Covina Argus, Happy New Year 1898 Supplement, p.10.
¹⁰ Covina Argus, October 18, 1935, p.1.
¹¹ Broadwell, M., n.d., Italia Richmond Cook. Covina Valley Historical Society website.
¹² San Gabriel Valley Exponent, November 20, 1886, p.3.
¹³ San Gabriel Valley Exponent, December 11, 1886, p.3.
¹⁴ Maxwell's directory of Los Angeles city and county for 1887-1888. G. W. Maxwell, Los Angeles, California, 773pp.
¹⁵ Los Angeles Herald, August 23, 1888, p.2.
¹⁶ Los Angeles Herald, January 12, 1889, p.3.
¹⁷ Italia Isabella Richmond, FamilySearch.org.
¹⁸ Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1903, p.11.
¹⁹ United States Census, Lyons City, Clinton County, Iowa, 1850.
²⁰ Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1886, p.3.
²¹ The Daily Journal, October 18, 1890, p.3.
²² The Daily Journal, February 7, 1891, p.3.
²³ Los Angeles Herald, June 6, 1894, p.7.
²⁴ Pflueger, D. H. 1964. Covina: Sunflowers, Citrus, Subdivisions. Castle Press, Pasadena, California, 372pp.
²⁵ Grant deed recorded in Book 1034, Page 243 of Deeds, November 22, 1895. Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder.
²⁶ Library of Congress, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Covina, California, December, 1906, Sheet 3.
²⁷ The Pomotropic, August 13, 1891, p.4.
²⁸ The Pomotropic, January 14, 1892, p.2.
²⁹ Los Angeles Times, October 15, 1891, p.9.
³⁰ Los Angeles Herald, May 17, 1898, p.9.
³¹ Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1899, p.15.
³² Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1899, p.13.
³³ Los Angeles Times, August 22, 1901, p.15.
³⁴ Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1899, p.10.
³⁵ Covina Argus, November 14, 1903, p.1.
³⁶ Covina Argus, May 13, 1905, p.1.
³⁷ Covina Argus, January 20, 1906, p.13.
³⁸ Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1906, p.48.
³⁹ United States Census, Rowland Township, Los Angeles County, California, 1900.
⁴⁰ Covina Citizen, July 28, 1932, p.8.
⁴¹ Covina Citizen, January 19, 1934, p.1.
⁴² Covina Argus, October 5, 1907, p.15.
⁴³ Covina Argus, January 20, 1906, p.1.
⁴⁴ Covina Argus, July 31, 1909, p.1.
⁴⁵ Covina Argus, November 18, 1911, p.1.
⁴⁶ Italia I. Cook, Standard Certificate of Death #2814, California State Board of Health, filed September 10, 1923, Los Angeles County Recorder.
⁴⁷ Covina Argus, November 18, 1908, p.5.
⁴⁸ Covina Argus, September 15, 1906, p.16.