Arcadia Historical Society

09/02/2026

Tune into the Arcadia City Counsel Meeting at 7:00pm.
Our Honorable Mayor, Paul P. Cheng, Mayor of Arcadia will honor our beloved Gene Glasco.

08/31/2026

08/30/2026

This is a beautiful photo! Our hearts are broken, yet we are so proud that such a wonderful man has found a way to leave such a beautiful legacy for us all to cherish. Rest in Peace Gene. You are very loved.

Today, Arcadia lost a true public servant, a veteran, a neighbor, and a dear member of our community.

It is with a very heavy heart that I share the passing of our longtime retired City Clerk, Gene Glasco.

For nearly 70 years, Gene’s life was deeply woven into the story of Arcadia. He graduated from Arcadia High School, where he played football and performed as a trombonist in the school’s award-winning marching band. But his commitment to service would eventually take him far beyond his hometown.

Gene proudly served six years in the United States Navy, including 14 months in Vietnam as a radioman supporting Navy riverboat operations in the Mekong Delta. After returning home, he attended San Jose State University, studying public relations and Asian American history, built a career in the private sector, and ultimately devoted an extraordinary portion of his life to serving the community he loved.

For 12 years, Gene served the people of Arcadia as our elected City Clerk. But a title could never fully describe his contribution to our city.

He served as a Commissioner and Chairman of the Arcadia Senior Citizens Commission, President of the Arcadia Historical Society, Vice President of the Arcadia Highlands Homeowners Association, and a Volunteer in Patrol with the Arcadia Police Department. He was recognized as Arcadia’s Citizen of the Year and received numerous honors for his military and community service.

Perhaps one of Gene’s most enduring legacies stands today at Arcadia County Park.

As a Vietnam veteran, Gene carried with him the memory of fellow Arcadians who never came home. He became the driving force behind the creation of the Arcadia Vietnam War Monument, ensuring that the 14 young men from our community who gave their lives in Vietnam would always be remembered. For Gene, remembrance was not simply about looking backward, it was about making sure future generations understood the meaning of service, sacrifice, and freedom.

That tells you so much about who Gene was.

Public service is not measured only by the years someone holds an office. It is measured by the people they help, the institutions they strengthen, the history they preserve, and what remains after their service is finished.

By that measure, Gene Glasco gave Arcadia a lifetime.

As Mayor, and as someone who had the privilege of knowing Gene through our shared service to this city, I am deeply grateful for everything he gave to Arcadia and to our country. There are people who live in a community, and then there are people who become part of its history. Gene became part of Arcadia’s history.

On behalf of the City of Arcadia and our entire community, I extend my deepest condolences to Gene’s family, loved ones, friends, fellow veterans, and all those whose lives he touched.

Today, we mourn his passing. But we also celebrate a remarkable life, a life defined by duty, patriotism, volunteerism, and an enduring love for Arcadia.

Thank you for serving our country.
Thank you for serving Arcadia.
And thank you for showing us what a lifetime of public service looks like.

Your legacy will remain a part of Arcadia for generations to come.

Fair winds and following seas, Gene. Until we meet again.

08/30/2026

08/18/2026

Was “Lucky” really lucky?
There are a number of theories why E. J. Baldwin was branded with the nickname “Lucky”. Baldwin disliked the idea that he had built his fortune on happenstance, by being in the right place at the right time. “By gad, luck had nothing to do with it!”, he would say. But a closer examination of Baldwin’s life reveals that “Lady Luck” was indeed part of his story.

Perhaps owing to his well-developed self-image, E. J. always demonstrated uncommon courage in the face of adversity. Once, on his westward journey, he got separated from the wagon train for several days, and in desperation rode straight into the heart of an Indian village. The Indians, while not particularly friendly to white settlers, admired Baldwin’s hutzpah and escorted him back to rejoin his party.

Then, in late 1859 on a trip to the Comstock, Baldwin and two associates were trapped by a sudden snowstorm and were freezing to death. The trio was rescued just in the nick of time by Snowshoe Thompson, the famous mail carrier of the Sierra Nevadas.

The most widely known tale of Baldwin’s good fortune goes like this: E. J. sold most of his mining holdings prior to an extended hunting trip to India and Japan in 1867. He retained his stock in the Hale & Norcross mine in the Comstock Lode, instructing his broker to sell the stock if it reached $800 per foot (the original purchase price). However, “Lucky” neglected to leave the broker with a key and the shares were still in his safe when he returned. Meanwhile, a rich vein of ore was discovered in the Hale & Norcross mine and shares skyrocketed to $12,000 per foot—a handsome 1400 percent profit on his investment. If that’s not luck, then what is? Below is a photograph of the Hale & Norcross Mine in Virginia City, Nevada (c. 1880’s).

08/11/2026

“Lucky” Baldwin and the Comstock Lode!
E. J. Baldwin knew just about every key citizen and businessman in the Bay Area. One man in particular played a key role in Baldwin’s rise to fame and fortune. His name was Adolph Sutro, a German Jewish immigrant who had arrived in San Francisco in 1850 and who shared E. J.’s ambition and business acumen. Sutro was something of a metallurgist and encouraged E. J. to invest in the placer mines of Nevada and California. Sutro was already heavily invested in the Comstock Lode in Virginia City and he became known as “King of the Comstock.”

In 1862, Baldwin sold his livery business, packed his wagons with supplies, and headed to Gold Hill and Virginia City. There he purchased a plot of land, where he and his men set up a lumber yard. E. J. began supplying miners with necessary timber and other supplies and equipment. Before long, E. J. began investing in the mines, becoming one of the richest men in the West. The photograph below was taken around 1875, when Baldwin was at the height of his financial prowess.

While in San Francisco, E. J. Baldwin received persistent reports of gold and silver discoveries in the San Gabriel Mountains to the south. In 1875, after some on-site investigation, he purchased the Gold Mountain Mine near what is now Big Bear, California. He built a state-of-the-art mine, which turned out to be one of the most unprofitable business decisions Baldwin ever made. The mine produced very little ore and by October 1875 it was shut down completely. Baldwin’s successors later tried to restart operation of the mine, but it never lived up to “Lucky” Baldwin’s optimistic investment.

08/04/2026

California or Bust!
When he arrived with his family in San Francisco in the summer of 1853, E. J. Baldwin saw opportunity at every corner of the city. He promptly visited the Wormer Brick Company, which was headed by one of his old Wisconsin friends, and before long old “Lucky” was an investor in the making of bricks. Baldwin bricks built several important structures, including the United States Mint, Fort Point, and the military installation at Alcatraz Island. Below is an archway at Alcatraz from 1866, presumably constructed from bricks fired at E. J. Baldwin’s refinery.

Needing a permanent place to stay, Baldwin purchased the Pacific Temperance Hotel on Pacific Street. He also invested in a livery stable and other property. When he sold the livery operation, the new owner neglected to get a “non-compete agreement”, and before long Baldwin had run him out of business with a second livery of his own. E. J Baldwin was recognized around the city as a cutthroat negotiator and businessman, and for good reason!

During these San Francisco days, two children were born to Elias and Sarah Ann. Elizabeth arrived on August 25, 1854, followed by Elias Jackson Baldwin, Jr. in March of 1857. Elias, Jr. lived for only two weeks and “Lizzie”, a sickly child, soon followed her brother in death. The loss of two children was too big a blow for the marriage to recover from, and in 1862 E. J. and his wife divorced. In 1869, Elias married his second wife, Mary Cochrane of New Orleans. Although the marriage lasted for ten years, it was not a particularly happy one for either of them. E. J. Baldwin was simply too deeply absorbed in his business interests to be a model husband or father.

08/02/2026

We believe that our followers might be interested in this event, which will be held on Saturday!

Saturday, August 8 at 2:00
Cay Mortenson Auditorium.
Free. No registration needed.
While in the Korean War, Al Martinez dispatched letters, some with pen-and-ink drawings, almost daily to his bride Joanne. These letters reveal Martinez as a budding professional writer, capturing his experiences eloquently and with depth of understanding as they express the dangers, hardships, fear, friendships, and even humor, of life at the front.
Join us for an illuminating afternoon, one week from today!

Saturday, August 8 at 2:00
Cay Mortenson Auditorium.
Free. No registration needed.

While in the Korean War, Al Martinez dispatched letters, some with pen-and-ink drawings, almost daily to his bride Joanne. These letters reveal Martinez as a budding professional writer, capturing his experiences eloquently and with depth of understanding as they express the dangers, hardships, fear, friendships, and even humor, of life at the front.
Join us for an illuminating afternoon, one week from today!

07/28/2026

The Baldwins Journey West
The term Manifest Destiny was coined in the 1840’s, promoting the idea that Americans would inevitably settle the continent from “sea to shining sea.” E. J. Baldwin could not have been a more shining example of a man destined to manifest his bold ambitions far to the west in California. In April 1853 at Council Bluffs in Nebraska, the Baldwin party joined a corps of settlers, eager to reach California before the winter snows that had doomed the ill-fated Donner Party seven years earlier.

After encountering the typical difficulties of terrain, weather, and hostile Indians, the Baldwin wagons rolled wearily into Salt Lake City, which had been founded by the Mormons only six years earlier. Baldwin managed to trade his worn-out horses for better ones, and pocketed several thousand dollars through the sale of brandy, to***co, tea, and coffee. He was a dinner guest of Bringham Young, where he met one of Young’s four brothers, a man who would figure prominently in an event that occurred a few days later.

Baldwin was advised by the brother in question to take a short cut, which purportedly could save a week or more on the trail to California. The Baldwins took the recommended route, and on the second day out Indians attacked the caravan. The party fought back, driving their assailants off and escaping with no casualties and very little collateral damage. To his dying day, Baldwin maintained that Bringham Young’s brother was among the attackers.

The image below is entitled “Baldwin Wagon Train Under Attack” by Henry H. Cross (1898).