The Characters, Pioneers and Legacies of The Crescenta Valley
Their names run deep through local history and lore, adorning street signs, canyons, historical buildings, homes and ranches in the swath of suburbia between Pasadena and Tujunga, where the towns of La Crescenta and La Cañada took shape, along with the unique community of Montrose. Profiled in the pages of Crescenta Valley Pioneers and Their Legacies by author Jo Anne Sadler, a researcher and frequent writer for the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, are such singularly important local characters as Theodor Pickens, the first permanent settler; Dr. Benjamin B. Briggs, the founder of La Crescenta; Jacob L. Lanterman and Adolphus W. Williams, the original developers of Rancho La Cañada; and the Le Mesnager family, whose historic wine barn still stands in Deukmejian Wilderness Park.
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Anne Sadler started doing family history research in the late 1970s and has always been interested in local history and the lives of what some consider "ordinary" people. She has written family history and research articles since the 1980s and has given and/or participated in several presentations in recent years about people who lived in the Crescenta Valley. A Minnesota native, she has resided in the Glendale area for over thirty-five years.