Indiana Colony
The Indiana Colony refers to a group of Indiana residents who settled the area known today as Pasadena, California. The group was incorporated on January 31, 1874, by Indiana residents who sought warmer weather after the exceptionally cold winter of 1872–73. The settlers met in the home of Thomas Elliott, and Daniel Berry was selected to visit Southern California with a direction to find suitable land at a suitable price.
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.
The midwest of 1873 had been hit by the hardest winter in up-to-date history which had many of those in Indianapolis longing for warmer climate and an environment where they could live among citrus groves and perennial flowers. With the laying of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, the idea of moving west became more possible and affordable. It was at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Elliott that a group of neighbors including Mrs. Elliot's brother, Daniel M. Berry, that the idea of going west was first discussed...adamantly.
Berry was a former teacher become journalist who also had a great interest in his brother-in-law's granary. He was also an asthmatic and the midwest weather went hard on him. He contacted Harris Newmark who had recently purchased Rancho Santa Anita and was able to get pertinent information on the southland. Newmark even stopped by Indianapolis and gave a first-hand account of California to the Elliotts et al. From that meeting the Hoosiers formed "The California Colony of Indiana". It took little time to fill the limited roll of the organizations membership.
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