General Meetings

The San Gabriel Historical Association holds five (5) general meetings every year. They are held the second Monday of the month (January - March - May - September - November) at 7:30 p.m. at the San Gabriel Senior Center, Grapevine Room, 324 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel, CA 91776. The meetings include a speaker or speakers on local history. The programs are free and open to the public.   For transportation call: 626.282.0749

Please Join us at our next General Meeting on May 17th.

Enchilada Dinner ($10/plate) - Tour of Church of Our Saviour  - Don Benito Wilson: From Mountain Man to Mayor

When: Monday, May  17, 2010 ~ 6:00PM
   Dinner Starts at 6:00PM
   Stained Glass Tour at 6:40PM
   Program Starts at 7:15PM 

Where: The Church of Our Saviour <-(Please note we are not meeting at the San Gabriel Senior Center)
                     535 West Roses Road , San Gabriel, CA 91775

Cheese Enchilada Dinner Catered by Lunas Mexican Restaurant‎
Dinner cost is $10/plate. It comes with cheese enchiladas with rice and beans, tossed green salad, drink and dessert. Reservations for the dinner are required.  Please make your reservations by calling 626-286-0565 or emailing to SG.HISTORICAL@GMAIL.COM by Friday, May 14th.

Speaker: Nat B. Read, Author

Program: "Don Benito Wilson: From Mountain Man to Mayor – Los Angeles 1841 – 1878"

 This book tells the early history of Los Angeles, and more generally California and the West through the life of Benjamin Davis Wilson, one of the most significant Los Angeles pioneers.  Most Southern California natives have never heard of him … because no one has written the book, until now.    Thus, this book that fills a gap in the academic record, as well as a gap in the wider public’s curiosity about the early days of what is today the second largest city in the U.S.  He:

Owned what is today Beverly Hills, UCLA, large parts of downtown Los Angeles, the City of Riverside, Culver City, Wilmington, Pasadena, Altadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Alhambra and parts of other cities and was one of the wealthiest persons in early Los Angeles

Set up American Government locally, was the second mayor of Los Angeles, sat on the first year’s Los Angeles city council, was an L.A.  County supervisor and state senator.

Was in the first party of overland settlers to reach Southern California, was one of the Alta California cattle ranching "dons" and led Americans in the first battle of the Mexican War, as a captain in the U.S. Army

Owned gold and silver mines in Southern (yes, Southern) California

Was president of the first railroad in Los Angeles and on the board of the first oil company in L.A.

Was one of the largest vintners and citrus growers in the U.S.

Played an important role in the development of the Los Angeles port.

Started the predecessor college to USC

In Nat Read’s three years of research on Wilson’s life, he read every scrap in the collected papers of the subject and virtually every newspaper that Wilson would have read during his life in Southern California.  His research took me to dozens of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies in California and as far away as Tennessee, the state of Wilson’s birth.

Don Benito Wilson: Mountain Man to Mayor tells the story of the West and Los Angeles through a single notable figure, who was born during the lifetimes of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and who died in a Los Angeles that present-day citizens would begin to recognize.  Wilson lived to see an urban core of telegraph lines, street lamps, brick buildings and street car rails in the street.   Through this remarkable life we see the existence of fur trappers and Indians in the vast, vaguely-mapped West and we learn of life in the tiny, dusty Mexican pueblo called Los Angeles, with its roving packs of dogs and its bull and bear fights.  We see a post-Gold Rush American village that was the wildest of wild West towns, the most dangerous city in U.S. history, a town whose murders among its few thousand souls were roughly the same number as for today’s Los Angeles County of ten million people. 

 The Historic Church of Our Saviour Church

The Church of Our Saviour has a long and illustrious history. It was the first protestant church in the San Gabriel Valley, founded in 1867, and the family-church of World War II hero, General George Patton Jr. A life-sized bronze stature of Patton as Commander of the U.S. 15th Army stands in the church courtyard. The church is also known for its beautiful stained glass windows, which reflect the history of the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church (Info taken from the City of San Gabriel Website).

Added BONUS! - Tour the Beautiful Stain Glass Windows!

The church is known for its beautiful stained glass windows, which reflect the history of the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. Of all the colorful windows in the Church of Our Saviour, perhaps the most outstanding is the General George S. Patton Memorial window.

The Tour will last for approximately 30 minutes and begin at 6:45pm. Meet at the entrance to the Church at 6:40pm. Please RSVP if you intent to take the tour. Please call (626) 308-3223 or email us at SG.HISTORICAL@GMAIL.COM with your RSVP. Thanks.

The General George S. Patton, Jr.
Memorial Window at
The Church of Our Saviour

We hope to see you there!