Looking south over orchard (Photo – Crandall)
What a surprise!
By Bridget Flanagan
My aunt, Margaret Flanagan, was a private duty nurse in the San Gabriel Valley from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. For much of the 1960’s she was one of the nurses who cared for Anne Patton in San Marino.
Anne was the granddaughter of Don Benito Wilson, daughter of George Patton, Sr. and sister of General George Patton, Jr. She lived on the family estate in San Marino and never married. As she aged and became frail, she was surrounded by people who took care of her, including around-the-clock nursing, a cook and housekeeper, and an old faithful family retainer, John Callanan, who took care of the grounds and did repairs and odds jobs. The Patton family had lived on the estate for multiple generations, and – as one might expect – there were basements, sheds, and many rooms filled with ephemera from previous times.
Occasionally, Miss Patton or someone in her family would decide that a room or shed needed to be cleaned. Often, John Callanan was given the instruction to empty the room and get rid of everything in it. John and his family had been part of the estate since the days of Don Benito Wilson, and he had a fondness for everything on the estate. It upset him to throw things away that he thought had value.
“Saving” some of the objects
John would discuss things with my aunt, and they would decide to “save” some of these objects. The saved objects usually ended up at my house, as my dad, Patrick, was Margaret’s only brother and we lived just a few miles from the Patton estate. Among the “treasures” that we acquired were several reed-wrapped gallon jugs. These had been wine bottles from the Lake Vineyard owned by Don Benito Wilson in the 19th century. One was full of wine with a label written in pencil which was readable at the time. Unfortunately, none of us thought to take a picture, and the pencil has faded, so we no longer have the date that the wine was bottled.
Two or three of the reed coverings were complete and the rest were partially unravelling. My mom, Lois Flanagan, turned some of the bottles into lamps (without destroying the bottle, just inserting a lamp kit into the opening). The rest of the bottles sort of kicked around our house for the next 40 years, sometimes in the basement, sometimes on the patio, but none of us was allowed to dispose of them “because they came from the Pattons.”
Wine jugs from Lake Vineyard (Photo – Pasadena Museum of History)
Early 2000s
In the early 2000’s, I belonged to an investment club. Our December gatherings were dinner parties rather than business meetings and included an often-hilarious white elephant gift exchange. Since our gifts were supposed to be something we already had, I thought it would be funny to give away one of these bottles that was unravelling. I packed it up nicely, put a lovely wrapping on it and presented it as my gift. I was ready for everyone to giggle when they saw the crazy, falling-apart jug. However, the package was chosen by Jeannette Bovard, who works for Pasadena Museum of History. She recognized that this funky jug was potentially something of value. Much to our amazement, researchers discovered that the reed covering on these historic jugs were woven by the indigenous peoples of the San Gabriel Valley in the 19th century!
My sister and I donated the full bottle of wine and some of the other bottles to the Pasadena Museum of History after discovering their historical significance. They are now in climate-controlled storage and have been on display in exhibitions at both PMH and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Bridget Flanagan is a third generation Sierra Madrean who is very interested in the history of Southern California.
Leave a Reply