It’s said that Pomona pioneer Cyrus Burdick (1834-1905), known for his humility, refused a namesake street when the town was founded. So developers honored him with Burdick Drive three years after his death. Born in Ohio and raised in Iowa, Burdick and his family wagoned out to San Gabriel in 1853; his father Thomas (1796-1877) was that town’s postmaster before joining the County Board of Supervisors. In 1859, the younger Burdick married Amanda Chapman (1844-1924) at the Mission. He spent the 1860s running businesses ranging from a general store in San Gabriel to a cattle ranch in Chino before finally deciding to grow citrus, whereupon in 1870 he bought forty acres of Rancho San José from Francisco Palomares for his first orchard. As partners, Burdick, Palomares, and P.C. Tonner would soon amass some 3,000 acres of land from Louis Phillips. They sold three quarters of it to Pomona’s founders in 1875. The Burdicks’ first house was where Burdick Drive now lies; they built their permanent home at Holt and Garey around 1885.
Find it on the map:
