A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 37

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

USA > California > A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 37

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The Southern Pacific Railroad company of California was incorporated in December. 1865. It was incorporated to build a railroad from some point on the bay of San Francisco through the counties of Santa Clara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Los Angeles to San Diego and thence easterly through San Diego to the eastern boundary of the state there to

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

connect with a railroad from the Mississippi river.

"In July, 1866, congress granted to the At- lantic and Pacific Railroad company to aid in the construction of its road and telegraph line from Springfield, Mo., by the most eligible route to Albuquerque in New Mexico and thence by the thirty-fifth parallel route to the Pacific, an amount of land equal to that granted to the Central Pacific. By this act the Southern Pa- cific Railroad was authorized to connect with the Atlantic and Pacific near the boundary line of California, at such point as should be deemed most suitable by the companies and should have therefore the same amount of land per mile as the Atlantic and Pacific."

In 1867 the Southern Pacific company de- cided to change its route and instead of build- ing down through the coast counties to go east- ward from Gilroy through Pacheco's pass into the upper San Joaquin valley through Fresno, Kern and San Bernardino to the Colorado river near Fort Mojave. This contemplated change left the lower coast counties out in the cold and caused considerable dissatisfaction, and an at- tempt was made to prevent it from getting a land subsidy. Congress, however, authorized the change, as did the California legislature of 1870, and the road secured the land.

The San Francisco and San José Railroad came into possession of the Southern Pacific company, San Francisco donating three thou- sand shares of stock in that road on condition that the Southern Pacific company, after it se- cured the San José road, should extend it to the southeastern boundary of the state. In 1869 a proposition was made to the supervisors of San Francisco to donate $1,000,000 in bonds of the city to the Southern Pacific company, on condition that it build two hundred miles south from Gilroy, the bonds to be delivered on the completion and stocking of each section of fifty miles of road. The bonds were voted by the people of the city. The road was built to Soledad, seventy miles from Gilroy, and then stopped. The different branch roads in the San José and Salinas valley were all consolidated

under the name of the Southern Pacific. The Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific, al- though apparently different organizations, were really one company.

The Southern Pacific built southward from Lathrop, a station on the Central Pacific's line, a railroad up the valley by way of Tehachapi Pass to Los Angeles. While this road was in course of construction in 1872 a proposition was made to the people of Los Angeles through the county board of supervisors to vote a subsidy equal to 5 per cent of the entire amount of the taxable property of the county on condition that the Southern Pacific build fifty miles of its main line to Yuma in the county. Part of the subsidy was to be paid in bonds of the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, amounting to $377,000 and sixty acres of land for depot purposes. The total amount of subsidy to be given was $610,- 000. The proposition was accepted by the people, the railroad company in addition to its original offer agreeing to build a branch road twenty-seven miles long to Anaheim. This was done to head off the Tom Scott road which had made a proposition to build a branch road from San Diego to Los Angeles to connect with the Texas Pacific road which the year before had been granted a right of way from Marshall, Tex., to San Diego, and was preparing to build its road. The Southern Pacific completed its road to Los Angeles in September, 1876, and reached the Colorado river on its way east in April, 1877. It obtained the old franchise of the Texas Pacific and continued its road eastward to El Paso, Tex., where it made connections with roads to New Orleans and other points south and east, thus giving California its second transcontinental railroad. This road was com- pleted to El Paso in 1881.

The Atlantic & Pacific road with which the Southern Pacific was to connect originally, suffered from the financial crash of 1873 and suspended operations for a time. Later it en- tered into a combination with the Atchison, To- peka & Santa Fe and St. Louis & San Francisco railroad companies. This gave the Atchison. road a half interest in the charter of the Atlantic & Pacific. The two companies built a main line jointly from Albuquerque (where the Atchison

* Bancroft, VII., p. 594.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

road ended) west to the Colorado river at the Needles. Their intention was to continue the road to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The California Southern and the California Southern Extension companies were organized to extend the Atlantic & Pacific from Barstow to San Diego. These companies consolidated and completed a road from San Diego to San Bernardino September 13, 1883. The Southern Pacific interfered. It attempted to prevent the California Southern from crossing its tracks at Colton by placing a heavy engine at the point of crossing, but was compelled to move the en- gine to save it from demolition. It built a branch from Mojave station to connect with the At- lantic & Pacific in which it had an interest. This gave connection for the Atlantic & Pacific over the Southern Pacific lines with both Los Angeles and San Francisco. This was a serious blow to the California Southern, but disasters never come singly. The great flood of January, 1884, swept down through the Temecula Cañon and carried about thirty miles of its track out to sea. It was doubtful under the circumstances whether it would pay to rebuild it. Finally the Southern Pacific agreed to sell its extension from Barstow to the Needles to the California Southern, reserving its road from Barstow to

Mojave. Construction was begun at once on the California Southern line from Barstow to San Bernardino and in November, 1885, the road was completed from Barstow to San Diego. In October, 1886, the road passed un- der control of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. In the spring of 1887 the road was ex- tended westerly from San Bernardino to meet the San Gabriel valley road which had been built eastward from Los Angeles through Pasa- dena. The completed line reached Los Angeles in May, 1887, thus giving California a third transcontinental line.

After many delays the gap in the Southern Pacific coast line was closed and the first trains from the north and the south passed over its entire length between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the 31st of March, 1901, nearly thirty years after the first section of the road was built.

The Oregon & California and the Central Pacific were consolidated in 1870. The two ends of the road were united at Ashland, Ore., in 1887. The entire line is now controlled by the Southern Pacific, and, in connection with the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Railway & Navigation Road at Portland, forms a fourth transcontinental line for California.

CHAPTER XXXIII. THE INDIAN QUESTION.

I T IS quite the fashion now with a certain school of writers, who take their history of California from "Ramona" and their infor- mation on the "Indian question" under the rule of the mission padres from sources equally fic- titious, to draw invidious comparisons between the treatment of the Indian by Spain and Mex- ico when mission rule was dominant in Cali- fornia and his treatment by the United States after the conquest.

That the Indian was brutally treated and un- mercifully slaughtered by the American miners and rancheros in the early '50s none will deny; that he had fared but little better under the rule

of Spain and Mexico is equally true. The tame and submissive Indians of the sea coast with whom the mission had to deal were a very different people from the mountain tribes with whom the Americans came in conflict.

We know but little of the conquistas or gentile hunts that were occasionally sent out from the mission to capture subjects for conversion. The history of these was not recorded. From "The narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Berings strait with the Polar expedition; performed in his majesty's ship Blossom, under command of Capt. F. W. Beechey. R. N .. in the years 1825-26-27-28, we have the story of one of these

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conquistas or convert raids. Captain Beechey visited California in 1828. While in California he studied the missions, or at least those he vis- ited, and after his return to England published his observations. His observations have great value. He was a disinterested observer and gave a plain, straightforward, truthful account of what he saw, without prejudice or partiality. His narrative dispels much of the romance that some modern writers throw around mission life. This conquista set out from the Mission San José.

"At a particular period of the year also, when the Indians can be spared from agricultural con- cerns of the establishment, many are permitted to take the launch of the mission and make ex- cursions to the Indian territory. All are anx- ious to go on such occasions. Some to visit friends, some to procure the manufactures of their barbarian countrymen (which, by the by, are often better than their own) and some with a secret determination never to return. On these occasions the padres desire them to induce as many of their unconverted brethren as possible to accompany them back to the mission; of course, implying that this is to be done only by persuasion; but the boat being furnished with a cannon and musketry and in every respect equipped for war, it too often happens that the neophytes and the gente de razon, who super- intend the direction of the boat, avail them- selves of their superiority with the desire of in- gratiating themselves with their master and re- ceiving a reward. There are besides repeated acts of aggression, which it is necessary to pun- ish, all of which furnish proselytes. Women and children are generally the first objects of cap- ture, as their husbands and parents sometimes voluntarily follow them into captivity. These misunderstandings and captivities keep up a per- petual enmity amongst the tribes whose thirst for revenge is insatiable."

We had an opportunity of witnessing the tragical issue of one of these holyday excursions of the neophytes of the Mission San José. The launch was armed, as usual, and placed under the superintendence of an alcalde of the mission, who appears from one statement (for there are several), converted the party of pleasure either

into an attack for procuring proselytes or of revenge upon a particular tribe for some ag- gression in which they were concerned. They proceeded up the Rio San Joachin until they came to the territory of a particular tribe named Consemenes, when they disembarked with the gun and encamped for the night near the vil- lage of Los Gentiles, intending to make an at- tack upon them next morning, but before they were prepared the gentiles, who had been ap- prised of their intention and, had collected a large body of their friends, became the assail- ants and pressed so hard upon the party that, notwithstanding they dealt death in every direc- tion with their cannon and musketry and were inspired with confidence by the contempt in which they held the valor and tactics of their un- converted countrymen, they were overpowered by numbers and obliged to seek their safety in flight and to leave the gun in the woods. Some regained the launch and were saved and others found their way overland to the mission, but thirty-four of the party never returned to tell their tale.

"There were other accounts of the unfortu- nate affair, one of which accused the padre of authorizing the attack. The padre was greatly displeased at the result of the excursion, as the loss of so many Indians to the mission was of great consequence and the confidence with which the victory would inspire the Indians was equally alarming.

"He therefore joined with the converted In- dians in a determination to chastise and strike terror into the victorious tribe and in concert with the governor planned an expedition against them. The mission furnished money, arms, In- dians and horses and the presidio troops, headed by Alferez Sanches, a veteran, who had been frequently engaged with the Indians and was acquainted with that part of the country. The expedition set out November 19, and we heard nothing of it until the 27th, but two days after the troops had taken to the field some immense columns of smoke rising above the mountains in the direction of the Cosemmes bespoke the conflagration of the village of the persecuted gentiles; and on the day above mentioned the veteran Sanches made a triumphant entry into

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the Mission of San José, escorting forty miser- able women and children. The gun which had been lost in the first battle was retaken and other trophies captured.

"This victory, so glorious according to the ideas of the conquerors, was achieved with the loss of only one man on the part of the Chris- tians, who was mortally wounded by the burst- ing of his own gun; but on the part of the enemy it was considerable, as Sanches the morning after the battle counted forty-one men, women and children dead. It is remarkable that none of the prisoners was wounded and it is greatly to be feared that the Christians, who could scarcely be prevented from revenging the death of their relatives upon those who were brought to the mission, glutted their brutal passions on all who fell into their hands.

"The prisoners they had captured were imme- diately enrolled in the list of the mission, except a nice little boy whose mother was shot while running away with him in her arms, and he was sent to the presidio and, as I heard, given to the Alferez as a reward for his services. The poor little orphan had received a slight wound in his forehead ; he wept bitterly at first and refused to eat, but in time became reconciled to his fate.

"Those who were taken to the mission were immediately converted and were daily taught by the neophytes to repeat the Lord's prayer and certain hymns in the Spanish language. I hap- pened to visit the mission about this time and saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed in blankets and arranged in a row before a blind Indian, who understood their dialect and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names of the persons composing the trinity and they were to repeat in Spanish what he dictated. The neophytes being ar- ranged, the speaker began: 'Santisima Trini- dad, Dios, Jesu Christo, Espiritu Santo,' paus- ing between each name to listen if the simple Indians, who had never before spoken a word of Spanish, pronounced it correctly or anything near the mark. After they had repeated these names satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a

pause, added 'Santos' and recapitulated the names of a great many saints, which finished the morning's lesson.

"They did not appear to me to pay much at- tention to what was going forward and I ob- · served to the padre that I thought their teachers had an arduous task, but he said they had never found any difficulty; that the Indians were ac- customed to change their own gods and that their conversion was in a measure habitual to them.

"The expenses of the late expedition fell heav- ily upon the mission and I was glad to find the padre thought it was paying very dear for so few converts, as in all probability it will lessen his desire to undertake another expedition and the poor Indians will be spared the horrors of being butchered by their own countrymen or dragged from their homes into captivity."

This conquista and the results that followed were very similar to some of the so-called In- dian wars that took place after the American occupation. The Indians were provoked to hos- tilities by outrage and injustice. Then the military came down on them and wiped them out of existence.

The unsanitary condition of the Indian vil- lages at some of the missions was as fatal as an Indian war. The Indian was naturally filthy, but in his native state he had the whole country to roam over. If his village became too filthy and the vermin in it too aggressive, he purified it by fire-burned up his wigwam. The adobe houses that took the place of the brush hovel, which made up the early mission villages, could not be burned to purify them. No doubt the heavy death rate at the missions was due largely to the uncleanly habits of the neophytes. The statistics given in the chapter on the Franciscan missions show that in all the missionary estab- lishments a steady decline, a gradual extinction of the neophyte population, had been in prog- ress for two to three decades before the mis- sions were secularized. Had secularization been delayed or had it not taken place in the course of a few decades, at the rate the neophytes were dying off the missions would have become de- populated. The death rate was greater than the birth rate in all of them and the mortality among

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the children was greater even than among the adults. After secularization the neophytes drifted to the cities and towns where they could more readily gratify their passion for strong drink. Their mission training and their Chris- tianity had no restraining influence upon them. Their vicious habits, which were about the only thing they had acquired by their contact with the whites, soon put an end to them.

During the Spanish and Mexican eras North- ern California remained practically a terra in- cognita. Two missions, San Rafael and San Francisco Solano, and the castillo at Sonora, had been established as a sort of protection to the northern frontier. A few armed incursions had been made into the country beyond these to punish Indian horse and cattle thieves. Gen- eral Vallejo, who was in command of the troops on the frontera del norte, had always endeavored to cultivate friendly relations with the gentiles, but the padres disliked to have these near the missions on account of their in- fluence on the neophytes. Near the Mission San Rafael, in 1833, occurred one of those In- dian massacres not uncommon under Spanish and Mexican rule. A body of gentiles from the rancherias of Pulia, encouraged by Figueroa and Vallejo, came to the Mission San Rafael with a view to establishing friendly relations. The padre put off the interview until next day. During the night a theft was committed, which was charged to the gentiles. Fifteen of them were seized and sent as prisoners to San Fran- cisco. Padre Mercado, fearing that their coun- trymen might retaliate, sent out his major doma Molina with thirty-seven armed neophytes, who surprised the gentiles in their rancheria, killed twenty-one, wounded many more and captured twenty men, women and children. Vallejo was indignant at the shameful violation of his prom- ises of protection to the Indians. He released the prisoners at San Francisco and the captives at the mission and tried to pacify the wrathful gentiles. Padre Mercado was suspended from his ministry for a short time, but was afterward freed and returned to San Rafael .*

There was a system of Indian slavery in ex-

istence in California under the rule of Spain and Mexico. Most of the wealthier Spanish and Mexican families had Indian servants. In the raids upon the gentiles the children taken by the soldiers were sometimes sold or disposed of to families for servants. Expeditions were gotten up upon false pretexts, while the main purpose was to steal Indian children and sell them to families for servants. This practice was carried on by the Americans, too, after the conquest.

For a time after the discovery of gold the In- dians and the miners got along amicably. The first miners were mainly old Californians, used to the Indians, but with the rush of '49 came many rough characters who, by their injustice, soon stirred up trouble. Sutter had employed a large number of Indians on his ranches and in various capacities. These were faithful and hon- est. Some of them were employed at his mill in Coloma and in the diggings. In the spring of '49 a band of desperadoes known as the Mountain Hounds murdered eight of these at the mill. Marshall, in trying to defend them, came near being lynched by the drunken brutes.

The injustice done the Indians soon brought on a number of so-called Indian wars. These were costly affairs to the state and in less than two years had plunged the young common- wealth into a debt of nearly $1,000,000. In a copy of the Los Angeles Star for February 28, 1852, I find this enumeration of the wars and the estimated cost of each: The Morehead ex- pedition, $120,000; General Bean's first expedi- tion, $66,000; General Bean's second expedition, $50,000; the Mariposa war, $230,000; the El Dorado war, $300,000. The Morehead war orig- inated out of an injustice done the Yuma In- dians. These . Indians, in the summer of 1849. had obtained an old scow and established a ferry across the Colorado river below the mouth of the Gila, and were making quite a paying business out of it by ferrying emigrants across the river. A Dr. A. L. Lincoln, from Illinois, had estab- lished a ferry at the mouth of the Gila early in 1850. Being short handed he employed eight men of a party of immigrants, and their leader, Jack Glanton, who seems to have been a despera- do. Glanton insulted a Yuma chief and the In- dians charged him with destroying their boat

* Bancroft's History of California, Vol. III.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and killing an Irishman they had employed.

Watching their chance the Yumas killed eleven of the ferrymen, including Lincoln and Glanton. Governor Burnett ordered Major-Gen- eral Bean to march against the Yumas. Bean sent his quartermaster-general, Joseph C. More- head. Morehead, on Bean's orders, provid- ed necessaries for a three months' campaign at most extravagant prices, paying for them in drafts on the state treasury. Morehead started out from Los Angeles with forty men, but by the time he reached the Colorado river he had recruited his force to one hundred and twenty- five men. The liquid supplies taken along doubt- less stimulated recruiting. They reached the Colorado in the summer of 1850, and camped at the ferry. The Indians at their approach fled up the river. After two months' services they were disbanded. William Carr, one of the three ferrymen who escaped, was wounded and came to Los Angeles for treatment. The doctor who treated him charged the state $500. The man who boarded him put in a bill of $120; and the patriot who housed him wanted $45 for house rent. Bean's first and second expeditions were very similar in results to the Morehead cam- paign. The El Dorado expedition or Rogers' war, as it was sometimes called, was another of Governor Burnett's fiascos. He ordered Will- iam Rogers, sheriff of El Dorado county, to call out two hundred men at the state's expense to punish the Indians for killing some whites who had, in all probability, been the aggressors and the Indians had retaliated. It was well known that there were men in that part of the country who had wantonly killed Indians for the pleas- ure of boasting of their exploits.

Nor were the whites always the aggressors. There were bad Indians, savages, who killed without provocation and stole whenever an op- portunity offered. In their attempts at retalia- tion the Indians slaughtered indiscriminately and the innocent more often were their victims than the guilty. On the side of the whites it was a war of extermination waged in many in- stances without regard to age or sex; on the part of the Indian it was a war of retaliation waged with as little distinction.

The extermination of the aborigines was fear-

fully rapid. Of over ten thousand Indians in Yuba, Placer, Nevada and Sierra counties in 1849 not more than thirty-eight hundred re- mained in 1854. Much of this decrease had been brought about by dissipation and disease engen- dered by contact with the whites. Reservations were established in various parts of the state, where Indians abounded, but the large salaries paid to agents and the numerous opportunities for peculation made these positions attractive to politicians, who were both incompetent and dishonest. The Indians, badly treated at the reservations, deserted them whenever an oppor- tunity offered.

A recital of the atrocities committed upon each other in the northwestern part of the state during a period of nearly twenty years would fill a volume. The Indian with all his fiendishness was often outmatched in cruelty by his pale faced brother. The Indian Island massacre was scarcely ever equaled in the annals of Indian cruelties. Indian Island lies nearly opposite the city of Eureka in Humboldt Bay. On this island, fifty years ago, was a large rancheria of inoffensive Indians, who lived chiefly by fish- ing. They had not been implicated in any of the wars or raids that had disturbed that part of the country. They maintained many of their old customs and had an annual gathering, at which they performed various rites and cere- monies, accompanied by dancing. A number of the Indians from the mainland joined them at these times. Near midnight of February 25, 1860, a number of boats filled with white men sped silently out to the island. The whites landed and quietly surrounded the Indians, who were resting after their orgies, and began the slaughter with axes, knives and clubs, splitting skulls, knocking out brains and cutting the throats of men, women and children. Of the two hundred Indians on the island only four or five men escaped by swimming to the mainland. The same night a rancheria at the entrance of Humboldt Bay and another at the mouth of Eel river were attacked and about one hundred Indians slaughtered. The fiends who commit- ted these atrocities belonged to a secret or- ganization. No rigid investigation was ever made to find out who they were. The grand

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 37

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184