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 71

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

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At the meeting of January 8, 1851, the com- mittee appointed at a previous meeting to ascer- tain what had become of the papers, documents and moneys in the hands of the officers of the late ayuntamiento reported that the moneys were in the hands of the late prefect, Joaquin Carrillo. From subsequent minutes it seems they remained there. What became of the papers and docu- ments of the ayuntamiento the records of the council do not show.

A contract was made by the council, January 29, 1851, with Salisbury Haley, "To make a complete survey of all that part of the city bounded on the southeast by the shore of the sea ; on the northwest by a straight line running

parallel to the general direction of said shore boundary directly through the southwest corner of the Mission Garden and from hill to hill on either side; on the southwest by a line running along the foot of the mesa : and on the north- east by a line beginning at the Salinitas and fol- lowing the city boundary to the foot of the hills, then to the said northwest line; to divide said tract into squares of 150 yards by streets which shall be sixty feet wide, except two streets to be designated by the council, which shall be eighty feet wide; to make an accurate map of said city." For making the survey and map, Haley was to receive $2,000, to be paid in installments of $500 each. April 5, 1851, Haley presented to the council a map of his survey of the city and a demand for the first installment of $500 on the contract.

October 23, 1852, Vitus Wrackenrueder was given a contract to survey the central part of the city and make a new map. His survey is now regarded as the official survey of the city. These surveys in some places ran streets through houses and in others left the residences without street frontage. It was many years before all the streets were opened through the central or thickly inhabited portion of the city. Those whose land was taken for streets, were given equivalent tracts in the squares belonging to the city.

At the municipal election held in May, 1851, Joaquin Carrillo was elected mayor ; he was also county judge. Raymundo Carrillo was chosen treasurer ; Thomas Warner, marshal and asses- sor ; Esteban Ortega, John Kays, Antonio Arel- lanas, José Lorenzano and R. W. Wallace, mem- bers of the council. Although the flag of the United States had been waving in California for four years and the constitution had arrived more recently to keep it company, yet the peo- ple of Santa Barbara had not become accustomed to the new order of things. At the meeting of the council, May 26. 1851, Samuel Barry, Esq., sent a communication to the council informing that body that he had been appointed United States revenue officer at the port of Santa Bar- bara. Whereupon the council by resolution agreed to grant him official recognition as an officer of the United States. Had the council

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considered him a persona non grata and refused him recognition, it is hard to say what the con- sequence might have been-to Santa Barbara.

The early ordinances of the common council give us glimpses of conditions existing then that have long since become obsolete. The Indian question, fifty years ago, was one that worried the municipal officers of Santa Barbara, as it did those of all other cities and towns of South- ern California. The ex-neophyte of the mis- sion was a pariah. He was despised and abused by the whites. His one ambition was to get drunk, and there were always high caste whites, or those who considered themselves such, ready and willing to gratify poor Lo's ambition. To imprison an Indian and give him regular rations was no punishment. He enjoyed such punish- ment. In Los Angeles, Indian convicts were auctioned off every Monday morning to the highest bidder for the term of their sentence. In Santa Barbara, an ordinance passed June 4, 1851, reads: "When Indians for violations of city ordinances are committed to prison, the recorder shall hire them out for the term of their im- prisonment."

One of the most singular decisions ever an- nounced by a court of justice was given in a case of liquor selling to Indians. A certain festal day in the early '50s had been celebrated with a great deal of hilarity and imbibing of wine and aguardiente. The noble red man had vied with his white brothers in celebrating and in getting drunk. This was an offense to the white man, and as there was a heavy fine for selling liquor to Indians, some of the whites instigated the arrest of certain liquor dealers. Among the ac- cused was a scion of one of the most influential families. He was charged with having sold liquor to a Yaqui Indian. The evidence was very clear that the liquor had been sold by the defendant to the Yaqui, but to convict a member of that family, the justice very well knew, would be his political undoing for all time. So in the trial the ethnological question was sprung as to whether a Yaqui was an Indian or a white man. The race question was argued at great length by the attorneys on both sides, and the judge, after summing up the evidence, decided that the prominent check bones, yellow skin, straight

black hair and dark eyes of the Yaqui were the effects of climate and not of heredity, and in- side the Yaqui was a white man. The saloon- keeper was declared not guilty and discharged.

The city government was administered eco- nomically in the early '50s, and taxes were light. According to Ordinance No. 30, adopted June 29, 1852, the mayor, acting as recorder or police judge, received $2 for each conviction, which amount he was required to pay into the city treasury. It does not appear that he was allowed to draw anything out of the treasury for salary. The city clerk received $35 per month, the city marshal $20, the city treasurer three per cent on all moneys paid in; the city tax collector six per cent on all collections and the city attorney $10 per month.

The lighting of the city was accomplished in a very economical manner. An ordinance passed in 1852 required "every head of a family in that part of the city bounded north by Santa Barbara street, east by Ortega, south by Chapula and west by Figueroa, to cause a lantern containing a lighted lamp or candle to be suspended every dark or cloudy evening in front of his house from dark to ten o'clock; neglecting to do so he will be fined not less than fifty cents or more than $1 for each offense."

Fifty years ago Santa Barbara was, to use an expressive slang phrase of today, a "wide open town." Saloon keeping was the most popular industry. Of fifty licenses granted between Au- gust, 1850, and February, 1851, thirty-two were for permission to retail liquors. Sunday was a gala day, and dissipation reached high tide then.

Before the conquest, the Californians were moderate drinkers. Although using wine freely, they seldom drank to excess. When they wished to indulge in a social glass, and some one stood treat for the crowd, they all drank, not standing, but sitting on their horses. A squad of three or four, or half a dozen may be, would ride up to a pulperia and, without dismounting, one of the party would order the drinks. The mercader de vino (wine merchant) would bring out a cup or glass filled with wine or aguardiente; each one would take a sip and pass it to his neighbor. One cup served all the party ; it was a sort of loving cup. It is said that once, when a crowd

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of American miners bestowed their patronage for the first time upon a native vinatero, and each called for a separate glass, the wineseller, who had but one glass in his shop, had to send out and borrow enough glasses from his neigh- bors to supply the demand. When each one of his patrons poured out a full glass of fiery aguardiente and gulped it down, the astonished saloon-keeper crossed himself and implored the saints to protect him from the American diablos.

In 1855, a spasm of virtue seems to have seized the city council. It passed a Sunday clos- ing ordinance: "All stores, shops, taverns and groceries shall close from 12 o'clock Saturday night to 12 o'clock P. M. the following Sunday, except butcher, baker and apothecary shops," so read the ordinance. For a violation of this mu- nicipal law the penalty was a fine of not less than $10 or more than $50.

The early councils did business very careless- ly. The office of councilman was not a lucrative one. The members took their pay in honors, and honors were not always easy. The office sought the man, but the man dodged it when he could. Resignations were frequent, and as vacancies were not promptly filled, the membership of the council was not often full. The council elected in May, 1853, held no meeting between May 5 and August 27 for want of a quorum. When a quorum was obtained, the distinguished clerk offered his resignation, and it was found that the mayor and two councilmen-elect had failed to qualify. An election was ordered to fill vacancies. Whether they were filled or what that council afterwards did does not appear. When a new council was elected in May, 1854, the minutes of the old council had not been engrossed. The new council ordered them writ- ten up, and blank pages were left in the record book for their entry, but the pages are still blank.

The members of the new council instituted an investigation to find out whether the old council could grant its members city lands at lower rates than the appraised value; and also to ascertain whether the land laws of the old ayuntamiento were still in force. What they found out is not written in the record.

CITY LANDS.

Shortly after the organization of the United States land commission in California, Santa Barbara presented her claim for eight and three- fourths leagues of pueblo lands. In May, 1854, the council allowed a bill of $700 for prosecuting the city's claim. December 23, 1854, a public meeting was called to consider the advisability of prosecuting the city's claim to its pueblo lands in the United States courts. The land commission had rejected the city's claim to eight and three-fourth leagues. March 10, 1855, Hinchman & Hoar were given a fee of $500 "for prosecuting the city's claim to her lands before the United States Court". After a long- drawn out contest in the courts the city's claim was finally allowed in 1861 for four leagues, or 17,826.17 acres, extending from the Rancho Goleta to the Arroyo de La Carpinteria. It was surveyed by G. H. Thompson, May, 1867, and a patent signed by President U. S. Grant, May 25, 1872.

Under the Spanish and Mexican régimes there was no survey made of the pueblo lands and no map or plat of the town. The ayunta- miento granted house lots on the application of any one desiring to build. The only survey made was to measure so many varas from some pre- vious grant. Streets in those days were not made, but, like Topsy, they "just growed," and in growing many of them became twisted. It took years after the Haley survey was made to un- twist some, or rather to adjust the houses to the new street lines. The street names given were mostly in Spanish. The mixed population of the early '50s so bungled the spelling of these that in 1854 the council appointed a committee "to correct the orthography of certain streets."

In the nomenclature of its streets, Santa Bar- bara has remembered many of the famous men of the Spanish and Mexican eras of California. Not only have famous men been remembered, but lo- cal historical incidents, too, have been commem- orated. The historical event that gave Cañon Perdido street its name, gave names also to two other streets and a design for a city seal. Briefly told, the story runs about as follows: In the winter of 1847-48, the American brig Elizabeth

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

was wrecked near Santa Barbara. Among the articles saved was a six-pounder brass cannon. It was brought ashore and lay on the beach for some time. One dark night in April, 1848, a little squad of Californians stole down to the beach, hauled it away and buried it in the sands on the banks of the Estero. What their ob- ject was in taking the gun no one knows, prob- ably they did not know themselves. Several days passed before the gun was missed. Cap- tain Lippett of Company F, Stevenson's Regi- ment of New York Volunteers, was in command of the post. He was a nervous, excitable man. In the theft of the cannon he thought he dis- covered preparations for an uprising of the na- tives. He dispatched a courier post haste to Colonel Mason, the military governor of the territory at Monterey, with a highly colored ac- count of his discovery. Mason, placing re- liance in Lippett's story and desiring to give the Californians a lesson that would teach them to let guns and revolutions alone, levied a military contribution of $500 on the town, to be paid by a capitation tax of $2 on every male over twenty years, the balance to be assessed on the real and personal property of the citizens, the money when collected to be turned over to the post quarter- master. The promulgation of the order in San- ta Barbara raised a storm of indignation, and among those whose wail was the loudest were the American-born residents of the town, who had become Mexican citizens by naturalization. Colonel Stevenson, commander of the southern military district, who had been ordered to col- lect the pueblo's ransom by tact, by the soothing. strains of a brass band and the influence of Pablo de La Guerra, all exerted on the nation's birthday, July 4. succeeded in collecting the money without any more dangerous outbreak than a few muttered curses on the hated gringos.

After peace was declared, Governor Mason ordered the money turned over to the prefect of the pueblo to be used in building a jail. When the city survey was made in 1850, three street names commemorated the incident, Cañon Per- dido (Lost Cannon) street, Quinientos (Five Hundred) street, and Mason street. When the council, in 1850, chose a design for a city seal they selected the device of a cannon statant, en-

circled by the words "Vale Quinientos Pesos -- Worth Five Hundred Dollars." The members of the city council made repeated demands on the ex-prefect for the $500, but he refused to turn it into the city treasury, claiming that it was en- trusted to him for a specific purpose, and until a jail was built no money would the city get. The city built a jail, but the ex-prefect still held on to the money. The council began legal pro- ceedings to recover the money, but as the judge of the district and the ex-prefect were very closely related the case was transferred to San Francisco. In some unaccountable way the pa- pers in the case were lost, and as no new suit was begun the city never recovered the money. The council chose a new design for its seal and all the city has left for its $500 is some street names.

One stormy night in 1858 the Estero cut a new channel through its banks. Some citizen next morning, viewing the effects of the flood, saw the muzzle of a cannon protruding from the cut in the bank. Unearthing the gun, it proved to be the lost cannon. It was hauled up State street to Cañon Perdido, where, mounted on an improvised carriage, it frowned on the passers by. Ten years had wrought great changes in the town and the people. The cannon episode was ancient history. Nobody cared to preserve the old gun as an historic relic, and as finders in this case were keepers, they sold it to a city merchant for $80, and he disposed of it in San Francisco at handsome profit to a junk dealer for old brass.

Santa Barbara in early days had her squatter troubles, in common with other parts of the state covered by Spanish grants. The most noted of these was what is known as the Arroyo Bur- ro affair. I give the following account of it taken mainly from Mason's History of Santa Barbara : John Vidal, an ex-member of Steven- son's Regiment of New York Volunteers, had for some time rented a piece of land from Dr. Den. When the lease expired he laid claim to the land under the United States pre-emption laws. The court adjudged the land to Dr. Den, and Sheriff Twist was ordered to evict Vidal. A number of gamblers, among whom was the

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notorious Jack Powers, rallied to the assistance of Vidal.

Vidal and his friends were reported to be for- tified at his ranch house. Sheriff Twist sum- moned a posse comitatus of two hundred men, and secured a small cannon that stood on the Plaza to batter down the fortifications. The Twist party assembled at the Egirrea house, then used for a court house. Vidal and his compan- ions came riding up as if to begin the fight. Some say their intentions were to effect a com- promise. As Vidal rode up two of his men, "Little Mickey" and a Spaniard, lassoed the cannon and tried to drag it away. Twist fired upon them, and the firing became general. Vidal was shot and fell from his horse. The Spaniard of the cannon episode stabbed Twist with a knife. A running fight ensued, but without any further casualties. Vidal lingered fourteen days before death relieved him of his sufferings. Pablo de La Guerra went out to the fort next day and induced the Powers gang to submit to legal authorities. The disputed tract was after- wards declared by the courts to be government land.

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPER.

The pioneer newspaper of Santa Barbara was the Santa Barbara Gazette. The first number was issued Thursday, May 24. 1855. It was a four-page, five-column weekly, size of page 12x 18 inches. One page was printed in Spanish. W. B. Keep & Co. were the proprietors. The names of the members of the company were R. Hubbard, T. Dunlap, Jr., and W. B. Keep. Later on the firm was Hubbard & Keep. In their salutatory the publishers say: "After tak- ing into consideration the fact that there are now in California more newspapers than in any three states in the Union, the doubt of future suc- cess of one more might naturally arise in the minds of some wisacres of our county. A field is undoubtedly open for enterprise and energy in this portion of the state. The counties of Los An- geles and San Diego have for some time sup- ported papers, and without boasting we believe that the county of Santa Barbara possesses many advantages over these."

The Gazette was vigorously edited. It made

strenuous efforts to arouse officials and the citi- zens of the sleepy old city to make improve- ments, but it was labor in vain. If it did not arouse them to put forth efforts, it did excite their wrath. In the issue of October 4, 1855, the editor draws this picture of existing condi- tions within the city: "There are deep, uncov- ered wells, pit-falls and man-traps in various parts of the city, rendering it extremely hazard- ous to traverse the streets at night, not only for horses and teams, but foot passengers as well. There are unsightly gorges and gullies through which the water flows into the street in winter. The slaughter houses reek with filth, and the horrid stench from them pollutes the atmos- phere." In another issue the editor appeals to the citizens "to tear themselves away from the blandishments of keno, billiards and cards long enough to examine the route for a post road over which the mail could be carried through the coast countries to and from San Francisco."

The Gazette in its issue of May 1, 1856, thus inveighs against the want of public spirit in the city officials and citizens : "It does not sound well to hear it said that since the incorporation of this city, more than six years ago, not a sin- gle improvement of general utility has been made, if the survey and maps be excepted. Not a street has been graded at the public expense, nor an artesian well nor a public edifice of any kind even projected. nor a wharf at the landing attempted or planned or even its cost estimated." These plain statements of facts were not relished by the old fogies of the town, and they resolved to crush the paper. Its principal revenue had been derived from the public printing. A bill was passed by the legislature (at the instiga- tion, it is said, of a scion of one of the ruling families whom the Gasette had castigated) au- thorizing the county officials to publish legal notices by posting tliem on bulletin boards. The public patronage was not sufficient to support a newspaper. The plant was sold in 1858 to two Spaniards, who removed it to San Francisco, where the paper was printed in Spanish as the Gaceta de Santa Barbara. It lingered out an existence of several years, being edited and printed in San Francisco and published in San- ta Barbara. Then it died.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Through the first decade of its existence as an American city, Santa Barbara grew in a leisurely way. It was in no haste to become a great city. Old customs prevailed. The Span- ish language was the prevailing form of speech. Trade and travel came and went by sea as in the old hide drogher days. Twice a month a steamship landed the little budget of mail, some- times water-soaked in passing through the surf from ship to shore. Passengers were carried ashore from the surf boats on the backs of sail- ors, for there was no wharf. If there was no tip offered the sailor there might be a dip prof- fered the passenger. The sailor was already soaked ; if he toppled over with his burden when a breaker struck him a little more salt water did not disturb him. It was different with his bur- den. Those acquainted with the bucking pro- pensities of the sailors always tipped before they left the boat.

The feudal lords of the old régime still ruled. They had cattle on a thousand hills and an army of retainers. The retainers had votes and the cattle kings controlled their dependents' ballots. The second decade-tlie decade between 1860 and 1870-saw the beginning of the end of the old-time manners and customs. The story of the dethronement of the cattle kings more prop- erly belongs to the history of the county at large than to that of the city.

THE NEW ERA.

The terrible dry years of 1863 and 1864, which destroyed cattle raising, the dominant in- dustry of the county, disastrously affected the city. Destitution prevailed and everybody was discouraged. There was no advance, no build- ing, no progress during the early '6os. It was not until immigration began to drift southward about 1867 that the city shook off its lethargy and aroused itself to action. The Santa Barbara wharf was constructed in the summer of 1868. This greatly facilitated commerce. Previous to this vessels anchored a mile or two from shore, and all freight to and from the ship was taken on surf boats. In early times the only road be- tween Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura was along the beach around Punta Gorda and Rincon Point. In high tide it was often impas-

sable, and it was rendered dangerous on account of the masses of earth falling from the cliffs. A new road was constructed that avoided the dangers of Rincon Pass, and a stage line up the coast gave increased mail facilities and regular communication by land between Los Angeles and San Francisco without waiting for low tide. Increased steamship communication with San Franicsco brought tourists and visitors, and the city began to fix up to receive its guests. June 2, 1870, a franchise was granted to Thomas R. Bard, S. B. Brinkerhoff, Charles Fernald and Jarrett T. Richards to lay gas pipes in the streets and light the city with gas. Several large hotels were erected, among them the famous Arlington. Property values advanced. Blocks that in 1870 sold for $100 in 1874 changed hands at $5,000.

The Santa Barbara College was founded in 1869 by a joint stock company, of which El- wood Cooper was a leading member. The col- lege building was erected in 1871. The college suspended in 1878 for want of support.

The corner-stone of the new court house was laid October 5, 1872. The building was com- pleted in 1873, at a cost of $60,000.

The First National Bank of Santa Barbara was organized in 1873. In 1876 its building was completed and occupied. The Santa Bar- bara National Bank was organized in July, 1875, as the Santa Barbara County Bank.

The Natural History Society was organized December, 1876, with a list of twenty-one mem- bers. For the first two years of its existence the society met in the Santa Barbara College building. It had but a small collection. In 1883 about 1,200 volumes of government publica- tions that had been in charge of the Santa Bar- bara College was transferred to it. Funds were donated for furniture and bookcases.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

The first movement looking towards the founding of a public library for Santa Barbara originated with the Odd Fellows. That organi- zation along in the later 'zos had a considerable collection of books which were loaned out to readers. The time and trouble involved in loan- ing the books and looking after them was too

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great to be done gratuitously, and the association The same afternoon came one from San Fran- after a time discontinued loaning, and the books were stored away. cisco via Saugus. The city turned out en masse to celebrate the event. There was a banquet Under the state law of 1880 for establishing free libraries, the city council, February 16, 1882, adopted a resolution to establish a free library and reading room. At the next city election T. B. Dibblee, James M. Short, O. N. Dimmick, W. E. Noble and S. B. P. Knox were elected li- in the evening and a grand ball. The boom in real estate was on 111 earnest and prices expand- ed, but the railroad before the end of August stopped building, and the real estate bubble col- lapsed. While the boom lasted, some large sales were made. The recorded transfers for seven months aggregated over $5,000,000. As many of the contracts were not recorded, the sales really reached about $7,000,000. A number of substantial improvements were completed. State street was paved with bituminous rock for two miles at a cost of $180,000. Other streets were graded and miles of sidewalk laid.

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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 71

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