Dr. Benjamin Bennett Briggs (c. 1827-1893) founded La Crescenta but wasn’t the only Briggs to dwell in these hills: see Castle Road for the saga of his niece. Born in New York and eventually based near Medina, Ohio, B.B. Briggs began his first of four California sojourns in 1849 – for the Gold Rush, naturally. His brothers George and John rode out with him, but whereas they remained and got into agriculture, Briggs returned to Ohio to marry his first wife Abby and have a daughter: Irene. It’s said that he accepted George’s offer to manage his Santa Paula ranch in 1862 because he hoped – in vain – that the climate would cure Abby’s tuberculosis. After her death, Briggs went off to study medicine in Europe and Michigan before marrying Abby’s sister Caroline in 1870 and settling in Crawfordsville, IN. Yet voting records showed him in San Jose in 1875-1876 – his third thwarted attempt at California life. Finally, in 1882, Briggs moved to this area and purchased 2,500 acres for development and 160 acres for a home. His nephew Asahel “A.E.” Briggs, a successful raisin grower in Winters, CA, came down to partner with him on the subdivision, yet Briggs alone is credited with coining the “Crescenta” name in 1884 – the year Caroline, Irene, and Irene’s husband joined him here. (A.E. later departed to become a physician himself.) Briggs excelled as fruit grower and beekeeper but his dream of building a health resort was never fulfilled: obsessed as he was with curing tuberculosis, he apparently died from it. Briggs Avenue was named by 1889.
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