Pioneer Memories: Tom Bonetto

Continuing on with the collected memories of several pioneers that were printed in a 1938 newspaper. I quote the article that paraphrases Tom Bonetto, and my inserted comments are in brackets.

Tom’s parents emigrated from Italy at the turn of the century, initially settling in San Pedro’s Italian community. A few years later they bought 10 acres in the Crescenta Valley, which also had an Italian population. Their land was on the southwest corner of La Crescenta and Montrose avenues. Tom and his brother Bart grew up in a tiny stone house on the corner of La Crescenta and Manhattan. Tom and Bart later established Bonetto Feed and Fuel, which became an early valley icon.

Tom’s memories pick up in 1910: “He [Tom] was 13 and was enrolled in the one-room school building. [La Crescenta Elementary, on the same site as the current school.] Miss Jones was the only teacher and there were about 33 children attending. A few months later Tom was graduated and was the only one in short trousers. [These would have been knickers and long stockings. Boys in knickers transitioned to long pants around puberty, so to have been the only boy still in knickers at 13 must have been an embarrassing memory for Tom.] It was whispered that some of the young men had cigars hidden in their pockets. [Shocking!]

“Lawrence Tibbett hoed weeds with Tom on the Baldridge Ranch [Onandarka Ranch, now the Oakmont Woods neighborhood] and was said to have been a ‘good scout’ and a diligent worker. His [Tibbett’s] wife insisted that he practice often and his voice carried across the countryside. [Tibbett, although largely forgotten today, was the top opera star from the ’20s into the ’50s. In the 1930s, he broke into movies as a star of many musicals.]

“La Cañada and La Crescenta school teams were playing baseball and football and the team members would walk the distance between the two schools. There were dances at the La Crescenta School.

“The first Catholic services were held at the place now known as the Kimball Sanitarium [where La Crescenta Ralphs is today] with Father Catou [a retired priest] in charge. When the place was sold the Catholics attended mass in Tujunga with Father Tonello in charge. [Holy Redeemer Church was not built until 1927.]

“Tom remembers the excitement of the children whenever Harvey Bissell appeared in his high-powered racing car. The youngsters would rush pell-mell just to see it pass by. [Bissell was the wealthy heir to the Bissell Vacuum Cleaner Company. He owned a huge estate at the top of La Crescenta Avenue, the Hi-up Ranch, where Pinecrest is now. Besides his racecar, Bissell owned a yacht, in which he sailed to the South Sea Islands.]

“Le Mesnagers had the vineyard where the Oakmont Country Club now stands [in addition to the vineyard where Deukmejian Park is] and there were Japanese gardeners in Verdugo Canyon. The Bonettos bought their 10-acre tract from the late Fred Young. Cherries, grapes and prunes were some of the fruits grown by them, and they would leave with their produce about midnight with horse and wagon for the market at 6^th Street, Los Angeles, and reach there about 3 a.m. They would return home at noon. [Their destination would have been the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market, a huge open-air exchange, which still exists today.]

“Later a business block was built across the street [from Bonetto Feed and Fuel] at La Crescenta and Montrose Avenues that housed grocery, drug [original site of La Crescenta Pharmacy, now on Foothill], hardware store, a barber shop and library. [All that in the space now occupied by 7-Eleven.]”

Tom and his brother Bart were community leaders, involved in many service organizations. Bonetto Feed and Fuel was torn down for apartments in the ’70s. The little stone house the Bonettos originally lived in was recently demolished. The stones from the little house were reused for the foundations of the three new homes at La Crescenta and Manhattan. Tom Bonetto’s later home is now a Glendale Historical Landmark, beautifully restored and located at 2819 Manhattan Ave.