The group was incorporated on January 31, 1874, by Indiana residents seeking warmer weather after the exceptionally cold winter of 1872–73.

Berry immediately reincorporated the company into the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, enlisting any interested parties and salvaging the purchasing power of the settlement.

[4] In 1873 the Midwest had been hit by its hardest winter in history, leading many of those in Indianapolis to long for a warmer climate and an environment where they could live among citrus groves and perennial flowers.

He contacted Harris Newmark, who had recently purchased Rancho Santa Anita, and was able to get pertinent information on the southland.

From a committee of four it was Daniel Berry who was left to set off to scout land in Southern California for the group of Indianapolis investors.

Rancho Santa Anita was the collective lands of today's Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, El Monte, and Baldwin Park.

He fell in love with Rancho San Pascual, and to keep his find a secret, he attached a cryptic name to the place as "Muscat" for the grapes that were grown so abundantly over the hillsides.

Berry turned promoter and selectively enlisted more investors into the company under a new California incorporation, "The San Gabriel Orange Growers Association".

As Griffin and Wilson settled their land divisions, the association negotiated for a strip of 2,576 acres (10 km2) near the Arroyo Seco.

He mentioned that the saddle of land the Indiana colony occupied was the "key to the valley" inasmuch as it was the point of easiest entry, and thus made it simple to control traffic in and out of it.

With this in mind, Elliott wrote to a friend who was fluent in Chippewa and asked him for suggestions that sounded pleasant but also indicated the special relationship the spot had to the surrounding terrain.