Oral Histories
Interview of Samuel Butler
Early resident of Southern California and carpenter on Catalina Island.
- Subtitle:
- Recollections of Samuel Butler
- Series:
- Interviews not in a series, part one
- Topic:
- Community History
- Biographical Note:
- Early resident of Southern California and carpenter on Catalina Island.
- Interviewee:
- Butler, Samuel
- Place Conducted:
- Palmer's home in Pasadena, California.
- Supporting Documents:
- Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
- Interviewer Background and Preparation:
- The interview was conducted by Elizabeth I. Dixon, Head, UCLA Oral History Program; B.A., international relations, University of Southern California: M.L.S., UCLA School of Library Service.
- Processing of Interview:
- The tapescript was edited by Donald J. Schippers and indexed by Adelaide G. Tusler.
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
- Abstract:
- Family's arrival by boat in Los Angeles, 1872; boyhood on ranch between El Monte and Lexington (now Rosemead); sight of surveyors for Southern Pacific Railroad Company coming through property; importation of lemon and orange seeds from Spain; description of early Pasadena and Monrovia; work as well digger on Rancho Santa Anita for Elias I. "Lucky" Baldwin; Lucky Baldwin and H. A. Unruh; Abbot Kinney's development of Ocean Park and Venice; arrival of Benjamin D. Wilson (first mayor of Los Angeles) and George Patton in Pasadena area, 1871; Wilson's vineyards in Pasadena and San Gabriel; employment as superintendent of Arrowhead Hot Springs Hotel, 1889-95; operation of mud baths; hotel burns, 1895; Henry E. Huntington and Huntington Hotel; installation of Pacific Electric railroad along Fair Oaks Avenue to South Pasadena and into Los Angeles; employment by William Wrigley, Jr., as carpenter in building many early Santa Catalina Island structures; notable events and people of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Los Angeles; Wrigleys and baseball in California; playing minor league baseball.