USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs : also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 8
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The mission was fairly prosperous. In 1800 the cattle numbered 6,960 and the agricultural products amounted to 2,600 bushels. From 1769 to 1834 there were 6,638 persons baptized and 4,428 buried. The largest number of cat- tle possessed by the mission at one time was 9,245 head in 1822. The old building now stand- ing on the mission site at the head of the valley is the third church erected there. The first, built of wood and roofed with tiles, was erected in 1774; the second, built of adobe, was com- pleted in 1780 (the walls of this were badly cracked by an earthquake in 1803); the third was begun in 1808 and dedicated November 12, 1813. The mission was secularized in 1834.
SAN CARLOS DE BORROMEO.
As narrated in a former chapter, Governor Portolá, who with a small force had set out from San Diego to find Monterey Bay, reached that port May 24, 1770. Father Serra, who came up by sea on the San Antonia, arrived at the same place May 31. All things being in readi- ness the Presidio of Monterey and the mission of San Carlos de Borromeo were founded on the same day-June 3, 1770. The boom of ar- tillery and the roar of musketry accompani- ments to the service of the double founding frightened the Indians away from the mission and it was some time before the savages could muster courage to return. In June, 1771, the site of the mission was moved to the Carmelo river. This was done by Father Serra to re- move the neophytes from the contaminating in-
fluence of the soldiers at the presidio. The erec- tion of the stone church still standing was be- gun in 1793. It was completed and dedicated in 1797. The largest neophyte population at San Carlos was reached in 1794, when it num- bered nine hundred and seventy-one. Between 1800 and 1810 it declined to seven hundred and forty-seven. In 1820 the population had de- creased to three hundred and eighty-one and at the end of the next decade it had fallen to two hundred and nine. In 1834, when the de- cree of secularization was put in force, there were about one hundred and fifty neophytes at the mission. At the rate of decrease under mission rule, a few more years would have pro- duced the same result that secularization did, namely, the extinction of the mission Indian.
SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA.
The third mission founded in California was San Antonio de Padua. It was located about twenty-five leagues from Monterey. Here, on the 14th of June, 1771, in La Canada de los Robles, the cañon of oaks beneath a shelter of branches, Father Serra performed the services of founding. The Indians seem to have been more tractable than those of San Diego or Mon- terey. The first convert was baptized one month after the establishment of the mission. San Antonio attained the highest limit of its neophyte population in 1805, when it had twelve hundred and ninety-six souls within its fold. In 1831 there were six hundred and sixty- one Indians at or near the mission. In 1834, the date of secularization, there were five hundred and sixty-seven. After its disestablishment the property of the mission was quickly squandered through inefficient administrators. The build- ings are in ruins.
SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL.
San Gabriel Arcángel was the fourth mission founded in California. Father Junipero Serra, as previously narrated, had gone north in 1770 and founded the mission of San Carlos Bor- romeo on Monterey Bay and the following year he established the mission of San Antonio de Padua on the Salinas river about twenty-five leagues south of Monterey.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
On the 6th of August, 1771, a cavalcade of soldiers and musketeers escorting Padres Somero and Cambon set out from San Diego over the trail made by Portolá's expedition in 1769 (when it went north in search of Monterey Bay) to found a new mission on the River Jesus de los Temblores or to give it its full name, El Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de los Temblores, the river of the sweetest name of Jesus of the Earthquakes. Not finding a suit- able location on that river (now the Santa Ana) they pushed on to the Rio San Miguel, also known as the Rio de los Temblores. Here they selected a site where wood and water were abundant. A stockade of poles was built inclos- ing a square within which a church was erected, covered with boughs.
September 8, 1771, the mission was formally founded and dedicated to the archangel Gabriel. The Indians who at the coming of the Spaniards were docile and friendly, a few days after the founding of the mission suddenly attacked two soldiers who were guarding the horses. One of these soldiers had outraged the wife of the chief who led the attack. The soldier who committed the crime killed the chieftain with a musket ball and the other Indians fled. The soldiers then cut off the chief's head and fastened it to a pole at the presidio gate. From all accounts the sol- diers at this mission were more brutal and bar- barous than the Indians and more in need of missionaries to convert them than the Indians. The progress of the mission was slow. At the end of the second year only seventy-three chil- dren and adults had been baptized. Father Serra attributed the lack of conversions to the bad conduct of the soldiers.
The first buildings at the mission Vieja were all of wood. The church was 45x18 feet, built of logs and covered with tule thatch. The church and other wooden buildings used by the padres stood within a square inclosed by pointed stakes. In 1776, five years after its founding, the mis- sion was moved from its first location to a new site about a league distant from the old one. The old site was subject to overflow by the river. The adobe ruins pointed out to tourists as the foundations of the old mission are the debris of a building erected for a ranch house
about sixty years ago. The buildings at the mission Vieja were all of wood and no trace of them remains. A chapel was first built at the new site. It was replaced by a church built of adobes one hundred and eight feet long by twenty-one feet wide. The present stone church, begun about 1794, and completed about 1806, is the fourth church erected.
The mission attained the acme of its impor- tance in 1817, when there were seventeen hun- ? dred and one neophytes in the mission fold.
The largest grain crop raised at any mission was that harvested at San Gabriel in 1821, which amounted to 29,400 bushels. The number of cat- tle belonging to the mission in 1830 was 25,725. During the whole period of the mission's exist- ence, i. e., from 1771 to 1834, according to sta- tistics compiled by Bancroft from mission rec- ords, the total number of baptisms was 7,854, of which 4,355 were Indian adults and 2,459 were Indian children and the remainder gente de razon or people of reason. The deaths were 5,656, of which 2,916 were Indian adults and 2,363 Indian children. If all the Indian children born were baptized it would seem (if the sta- tistics are correct) that but very few ever grew up to manhood and womanhood. In 1834, the year of its secularization, its neophyte popula- tion was 1,320.
The missionaries of San Gabriel established a station at old San Bernardino about 1820. It was not an asistencia like pala, but merely an agricultural station or ranch headquarters. The buildings were destroyed by the Indians in 1834.
SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA.
On his journey southward in 1782, President Serra and Padre Cavaller, with a small escort of soldiers and a few Lower California Indians, on September 1, 1772, founded the mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (St. Louis, Bishop of Tolouse). The site selected was on a creek twenty-five leagues southerly from San An- tonio. The soldiers and Indians were set at work to erect buildings. Padre Cavaller was left in charge of the mission, Father Serra continu- ing his journey southward. This mission was never a very important one. Its greatest popu- lation was in 1803, when there were eight
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
hundred and fifty-two neophytes within its juris- diction. From that time to 1834 their number declined to two hundred and sixty-four. The average death rate was 7.30 per cent of the pop- ulation-a lower rate than at some of the more populous missions. The adobe church built in 1793 is still in use, but has been so remodeled that it bears but little resemblance to the church of mission days.
SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS.
The expedition under command of Portolá in 1769 failed to find Monterey Bay but it passed on and discovered the great bay of San Fran- cisco. So far no attempt had been made to plant a mission or presidio on its shores. Early in 1775, Lieutenant Ayala was ordered to ex- plore the bay with a view to forming a settle- ment near it. Rivera had previously explored the land bordering on the bay where the city now stands. Captain Anza, the discoverer of the overland route from Mexico to California via the Colorado river, had recruited an expedition of two hundred persons in Sonora for the pur- pose of forming a settlement at San Francisco. He set out in 1775 and reached Monterey March 10, 1776. A quarrel between him and Rivera, who was in command at Monterey, defeated for a time the purpose for which the settlers had been brought, and Anza, disgusted with the treatment he had received from Rivera, aban- doned the enterprise. Anza had selected a site for a presidio at San Francisco. After his de- parture Rivera changed his policy of delay that had frustrated all of Anza's plans and decided at once to proceed to the establishment of a pre- sidio. The presidio was formally founded Sep- tember 17, 1776, at what is now known as Fort Point. The ship San Carlos had brought a num- ber of persons; these with the settlers who had come up from Monterey made an assemblage of more than one hundred and fifty persons.
After the founding of the presidio Lieutenant Moraga in command of the military and Captain Quiros of the San Carlos, set vigorously at work to build a church for the mission. A wooden building having been constructed on the 9th of October, 1776, the mission was dedicated, Father Palou conducting the service, assisted by
Fathers Cambon, Nocedal and Peña. The site selected for the mission was on the Laguna de los Dolores. The lands at the mission were not very productive. The mission, however, was fairly prosperous. In 1820 it owned 11,240 cat- tle and the total product of wheat was 114,480 bushels. In 1820 there were 1,252 neophytes attached to it. The death rate was very heavy- the average rate being 12.4 per cent of the pop- ulation. In 1832 the population had decreased to two hundred and four and at the time of secularization it had declined to one hundred and fifty. A number of neophytes had been taken to the new mission of San Francisco So- lano.
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.
The revolt of the Indians at San Diego de- layed the founding of San Juan Capistrano a year. October 30, 1775, the initiatory services of the founding had been held when a messenger came with the news of the uprising of the sav- ages and the massacre of Father Jaume and others. The bells which had been hung on a tree were taken down and buried. The soldiers and the padres hastened to San Diego. Novem- ber 1, 1776, Fathers Serra, Mugartegui and Amurrio, with an escort of soldiers, arrived at the site formerly selected. The bells were dug up and hung on a tree, an enramada of boughs was constructed and Father Serra said mass. The first location of the mission was several miles northeasterly from the present site at the foot of the mountain. The abandoned site is still known a la Mision Vieja (the Old Mission). Just when the change of location was made is not known.
The erection of a stone church was begun in February, 1797, and completed in 1806. A master builder had been brought from Mexico and under his superintendence the neophytes did the mechanical labor. It was the largest and handsomest church in California and was the pride of mission architecture. The year 1812 was known in California as el ano de los tem- blores-the year of earthquakes. For months the seismic disturbance was almost continuous. On Sunday, December 8, 1812, a severe shock threw down the lofty church tower, which crashed through the vaulted roof on the congre-
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
gation below. The padre who was celebrating mass escaped through the sacristy. Of the fifty persons present only five or six escaped. The church was never rebuilt. "There is not much doubt," says Bancroft, "that the disaster was due rather to faulty construction than to the violence of the temblor." The edifice was of the usual cruciform shape, about 90x180 feet on the ground, with very thick walls and arched dome-like roof all constructed of stones imbed- ded in mortar or cement. The stones were not hewn, but of irregular size and shape, a kind of structure evidently requiring great skill to en- sure solidity. The mission reached its maxi- mum in 1819; from that on till the date of its secularization there was a rapid decline in the numbers of its live stock and of its neophytes.
This was one of the missions in which Gov- ernor Figueroa tried his experiment of forming Indian pueblos of the neophytes. For a time the experiment was a partial success, but even- tually it went the way of all the other missions. Its lands were granted to private individuals and the neophytes scattered. Its picturesque ruins are a great attraction to tourists.
SANTA CLARA.
The mission of Santa Clara was founded Jan- uary 12, 1777. The site had been selected some time before and two missionaries designated for service at it, but the comandante of the terri- tory, Rivera y Moncada, who was an exceed- ingly obstinate person, had opposed the found- ing on various pretexts, but posititve orders coming from the viceroy Rivera did not longer delay, so on the 6th of January, 1777, a detach- ment of soldiers under Lieutenant Moraga, ac- companied by Father Peña, was sent from San Francisco to the site selected which was about sixteen leagues south of San Francisco. Here under an enramada the services of dedication were held. The Indians were not averse to re- ceiving a new religion and at the close of the year sixty-seven had been baptized.
The mission was quite prosperous and be- came one of the most important in the territory. It was located in the heart of a rich agricul- tural district. The total product of wheat was 175,800 bushels. In 1828 the mission flocks and
herds numbered over 30,000 animals. The neophyte population in 1827 was 1,464. The death rate was high, averaging 12.63 per cent of the population. The total number of bap- tisms was 8,640; number of deaths 6,950. In 1834 the population had declined to 800. Secularization was effected in 1837.
SAN BUENAVENTURA.
The founding of San Buenaventura had been long delayed. It was to have been among the first missions founded by Father Serra; it proved to be his last. On the 26th of March, 1782, Governor de Neve, accompanied by Father Serra (who had come down afoot from San Carlos), and Father Cambon, with a convoy of soldiers and a number of neophytes, set out from San Gabriel to found the mission. At the first camping place Governor de Neve was re- called to San Gabriel by a message from Col. Pedro Fages, informing him of the orders of the council of war to proceed against the Yumas who had the previous year destroyed the two missions on the Colorado river and massacred the missionaries.
On the 29th, the remainder of the company reached a place on the coast named by Portolá in 1769, Asuncion de Nuestra Señora, which had for some time been selected for a mission site. Near it was a large Indian rancheria. On Easter Sunday, March 31st, the mission was for- mally founded with the usual ceremonies and dedicated to San Buenaventura (Giovanni de Fidanza of Tuscany), a follower of St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscans.
The progress of the mission was slow at first, only two adults were baptized in 1782, the year of its founding. The first buildings built of wood were destroyed by fire. The church still used for service, built of brick and adobe, was completed and dedicated, September 9, 1809. The earthquake of December 8, 1812, damaged the church to such an extent that the tower and part of the façade had to be rebuilt. After the earthquake the whole site of the mission for a time seemed to be sinking. The inhabi- tants, fearful of being engulfed by the sea, re- moved to San Joaquin y Santa Ana, where they remained several months. The mission at-
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
tained its greatest prosperity in 1816, when its neophyte population numbered 1,330 and it owned 23,400 cattle.
SANTA BARBARA.
Governor Felipe de Neve founded the presidio of Santa Barbara April 21, 1782. Father Serra had hoped to found the mission at the same time, but in this he was disappointed. His death in 1784 still further delayed the founding and it was not until the latter part of 1786 that every- thing was in readiness for the establishing of the new mission. On the 22d of November Father Lasuen, who had succeeded Father Serra as president of the missions, arrived at Santa Barbara, accompanied by two missiona- ries recently from Mexico. He selected a site about a mile distant from the presidio. The place was called Taynagan (Rocky Hill) by the Indians. There was a plentiful supply of stone on the site for building and an abundance of water for irrigation.
On the 15th of December, 1786, Father Lasuen, in a hut of boughs, celebrated the first mass; but December 4, the day that the fiesta of Santa Barbara is commemorated, is considered the date of its founding. Part of the services were held on that day. A chapel built of adobes and roofed with thatch was erected in 1787. Sev- eral other buildings of adobe were erected the same year. In 1788, tile took the place of thatch. In 1789, a second church, much larger than the first, was built. A third church of adobe was commenced in 1793 and finished in 1794. A brick portico was added in 1795 and the walls plastered.
The great earthquake of December, 1812, de- molished the mission church and destroyed nearly all the buildings. The years 1813 and 1814 were spent in removing the debris of the ruined buildings and in preparing for the erec- tion of new ones. The erection of the present mission church was begun in 1815. It was com- pleted and dedicated September 10, 1820.
Father Caballeria, in his History of Santa Barbara, gives the dimensions of the church as follows: "Length (including walls), sixty varas; width, fourteen varas; height, ten varas (a vara is thirty-four inches)." The walls are of stone
and rest on a foundation of rock and cement They are six feet thick and are further strength ened by buttresses. Notwithstanding the build- ing has withstood the storms of four score years, it is still in an excellent state of preservation. Its exterior has not been disfigured by attempts at modernizing.
The highest neophyte population was reached at Santa Barbara in 1803, when it numbered 1,792. The largest number of cattle was 5,200 in 1809. In 1834, the year of secularization, the neophytes numbered 556, which was a decrease of 155 from the number in 1830. At such a rate of decrease it would not, even if mission rule had continued, have taken more than a dozen years to depopulate the mission.
LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION.
Two missions, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, had been founded on the Santa Bar- bara channel in accordance with Neve's report of 1777, in which he recommended the founding of three missions and a presidio in that district. It was the intention of General La Croix to con- duct these on a different plan from that prevail- ing in the older missions. The natives were not to be gathered into a missionary establishment, but were to remain in their rancherias, which were to be converted into mission pueblos. The Indians were to receive instruction in religion, industrial arts and self-government while com- paratively free from restraint. The plan which no doubt originated with Governor de Neve, was a good one theoretically, and possibly might have been practically. The missionaries were bitterly opposed to it. Unfortunately it was tried first in the Colorado river missions among the fierce and treacherous Yumas. The mas- sacre of the padres and soldiers of these mis- sions was attributed to this innovation.
In establishing the channel missions the mis- sionaries opposed the inauguration of this plan and by their persistence succeeded in setting it aside; and the old system was adopted. La Purisima Concepcion, or the Immaculate Con- ception of the Blessed Virgin, the third of the channel missions, was founded December 8, 1787, by Father Lasuen at a place called by the natives Algsacupi. Its location is about twelve
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
miles from the ocean on the Santa Ynez river. Three years after its founding three hundred converts had been baptized but not all of them lived at the mission. The first church was a temporary structure. The second church, built of adobe and roofed with tile, was completed in 1802. December 21, 1812, an earthquake de- molished the church and also about one hundred adobe houses of the neophytes. A site across the river and about four miles distant from the former one, was selected for new buildings. A temporary building for a church was erected there. A new church, built of adobe and roofed with tile, was completed and dedicated in 1818.
The Indians revolted in 1824 and damaged the building. They took possession of it and a battle lasting four hours was fought between one hundred and thirty soldiers and four hundred Indians. The neophytes cut loop holes in the church and used two old rusty cannon and a few guns they possessed; but, unused to fire arms, they were routed with the loss of several killed. During the revolt which lasted several months four white men and fifteen or twenty In- dians were killed. The hostiles, most of whom fled to the Tulares, were finally subdued. The leaders were punished with imprisonment and the others returned to their missions.
This mission's population was largest in 1804, when it numbered 1,520. In 1834 there were but 407 neophytes connected with it. It was secular- ized in February, 1835. During mission rule from 1787 to 1834, the total number of Indian children baptized was 1,492; died 902, which was a lower death rate than at most of the southern missions.
SANTA CRUZ.
Santa Cruz, one of the smallest of the twenty- one missions of California, was founded Septem- ber 25, 1790. The mission was never very pros- perous. In 1798 many of the neophytes de- serted and the same year a flood covered the planting fields and damaged the church. In 1812 the neophytes murdered the missionary in charge, Padre Andrès Quintana. They claimed that he had treated them with great cruelty. Five of those implicated in the murder received two hundred lashes each and were sentenced to work in chains from two to ten years. Only
one survived the punishment. The maximum of its population was reached in 1798, when there were six hundred and forty-four Indians in the mission fold. The total number bap- tized from the date of its founding to 1834 was 2,466; the total number of deaths was 2,034. The average death rate was 10.93 per cent of the population. At the time of its secularization in 1834 there were only two hundred and fifty In- dians belonging to the mission.
LA SOLEDAD.
The mission of our Lady of Solitude was founded September 29, 1791. The site selected had borne the name Soledad (solitude) ever since the first exploration of the country. The location was thirty miles northeast of San Car- los de Monterey. La Soledad, by which name it was generally known, was unfortunate in its early missionaries. One of them, Padre Gracia, was supposed to be insane and the other, Padre Rubi, was very immoral. Rubi was later on ex- pelled from his college for licentiousness. At the close of the century the mission had become fairly prosperous, but in 1802 an epidemic broke out and five or six deaths occurred daily. The Indians in alarm fled from the mission. The largest population of the mission was seven hundred and twenty-five in 1805. At the time of secularization its population had decreased to three hundred. The total number of baptisms during its existence was 2,222; number of deaths 1,803.
SAN JOSE.
St. Joseph had been designated by the visita- dor General Galvez and Father Junipero Serra as the patron saint of the mission colonization of California. Thirteen missions had been founded and yet none had been dedicated to San José. Orders came from Mexico that one be estab- lished and named for him. Accordingly a de- tail of a corporal and five men, accompanied by Father Lasnen, president of the missions, pro- ceeded to the site selected, which was about twelve miles northerly from the pueblo of San José. There, on June 11, 1797, the mission was founded. The mission was well located agricul- turally and became one of the most prosperous in California. In 1820 it had a population of
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