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 73

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 73

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"Not finding the Lugos at home, Irving left the premises and struck into a road leading into the mountains. He must have supposed that he could gain the valley beyond or he would never have allowed himself to be surrounded in the manner which he was. The Cowies, many of whom are domiciliated at' Lugo's, followed up Irving's party and attacked them with bows and arrows and lances. Irving followed a road into a ravine, the steep banks of which prevented his egress and here it was the whole party was slain. Not one was left to tell the tale. The Indians first shot them down with bows and arrows and beat in their skulls with stones. Persons who have · seen the dead bodies describe them as being mangled in a manner shocking to behold.

"Those who are known to be killed are John Irving, Frank Wilson, Perley, Jack Hitchcock, Charles Lovelle, and George Clarke. Besides these men there were known to be with Irving when he left here, William O'Donnell, Peter (supposed to be a brother of O'Donnell), Alfred Spencer, Mason Bozet, and three men called Mac, Sam and Pat. It is possible that the three last named are included among the foregoing. whose Christian names are not given. Only one Indian was killed and two or three wounded. The Indian known to have been killed was an alcalde of the Apolitans and was cut off from the main body and shot, as it is said, by Irving. The Indians were headed by Ricardo, a native Californian and one who has been in many af-

frays. There were from three to four hundred Indians.

"The Indians say that Irving fought very bravely. He was mounted on a superb horse and was conspicuous throughout the engage- ment, encouraging his men and charging into the very midst of his opponents. He was found with five arrow wounds in the region of the heart. It is supposed that Irving's men had about $5,000 with them, all of which fell into the hands of the Indians. They exhibit their booty freely to all who visit the rancheria. The bodies were found entirely naked, the Indians having stripped them of their clothes, which, to- gether with the arms and horses, they carried off to the rancheria as spoils of war. As long as Irving's men kept upon the plains they could offer resistance, but the moment they entered the cañada their doom was sealed; the Indians eas- ily gained access to the hills above them and shot them to death with their arrows."

MORMON IMMIGRANTS.

Whatever was the real design of Brigham Young in sending a colony of Mormons to set- tle in California will never be known. The os- tensible purpose "of the establishment of this colony was (according to Brigham's own state- ment ) that the people gathering in Utah from the Sandwich Islands and even from Europe might have an outfitting post." One ship did land Mormon immigrants from Honolulu at San Pedro in 1855.

It was no doubt part of his design to secure a winter route to Salt Lake. The Rocky moun- tains on the east and the Sierra Nevadas on the west, on account of the deep snows, were im- passable in winter. If a southern route could be opened supplies could be obtained for Salt Lake in the winter. The distance too from the sea coast for the converts to travel to the new Zion would be shortened and they could be sent to their destination without running the gaunt- let of the Gentiles, which they would encounter in crossing the continent from the east.

A company was organized at Salt Lake in March, 1851, to go to California to form a set- tlement in the neighborhood of the Cajon pass. The original intention was to send a company of

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twenty under command of Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, but so popular was the scheme that 500 enlisted. The emigrants were divided into three divisions. The first com- manded by Rich, the second by Lyman and the third by Lytle. Jefferson Hunt, late captain of Company A of the Mormon Battalion, piloted the advance division. He had been over the route several times, and in 1849 had guided a large company of immigrants from the states who had reached Salt Lake City too late to cross the Sierra Nevadas. Andrew Lytle, the commander of the third division, had also been an officer in the Mormon Battalion.

The advance division arrived at the Cajon pass late in May. The Los Angeles Star of May 31, 1851, gives this notice of the arrival :

"We learn that 150 Mormon families are at Cajon pass sixty miles east of this city on their way here from Deseret. These families, it is said, intend to settle in this valley and to make it their permanent home. We cannot yet give full credit to these statements because they do not come to us fully authenticated-but if it be true that Mormons are coming in such numbers to settle among us we shall, as good industrious citizens, extend to them a friendly welcome."

THE STATE OF DESERET.

In the above extract the editor of the Star states that the Mormons are on their way here from "Deseret." The word Deseret, once in common use as the name of the Mormon settle- ment at Salt Lake, is now almost obsolete and needs a few words of explanation in regard to the origin and use of the term as applied to Utah. When the Mormons located at Salt Lake July 24, 1846, all the territory now included in L'talı and Nevada was part of Upper California. On the 4th of March, 1849, a convention met at Salt Lake City to form a state government. A provisional government was organized under the name of the state of Deseret. The word "des- eret" occurs in the book of Mormon and is translated honey bee : "No pent-up Utica" con- tracted the powers of the makers of that com- monwealth. The southern line of Deseret was the northern boundary of Mexico. Its western boundary followed the 118° 30" longitude west

from Greenwich northward to where said line intersected the Sierra Nevadas and along the crest of the mountains to Oregon. Its eastern boundary was the Rocky mountains. Had the state of Deseret materialized it would have had a seaport at San Diego. All of the sea coast from the Mexican line to the port of San Pedro, as well as the greater part of Southern Califor- nia, would have been a part of the state of the Honey Bee. Brigham Young was elected gov- ernor. Three of the apostles were made supreme judges and a delegate to congress elected.

Six months before the Californians had aroused themselves to form a state government, the state of Deseret was knocking at the doors of congress for admission into the Union ; but the doors would not open, the delegate to con- gress from the state of Deseret was not admit- ted, nor the state either. A year later, when California was admitted into the Union, the self- constituted state of Deseret, shorn somewhat of its proportions, became the territory of Utah. The Mormons still clung to the name Deseret. The territorial seal adopted in 1850 contained a cut of a bee hive with a swarm of bees ram- pant, and one of Brigham Young's harems was known as the bee-hive house. The Deseret Veres is still the official organ of the Mormon church.

That the San Bernardino valley was once in- cluded in the inchoate state of Deseret may have had some influence in directing Brigham Young's attention to it. I take the following ex- tract from the Los Angeles Star of July 5, 1851. It gives a description of the San Bernardino valley as it was fifty-five years ago when the Mormons settled there. The story of the won- derful snow storm of 1848 is new history, but whether true or not I cannot say. If a snow storm severe enough to destroy thousands of cattle swept the valley in 1848 the climate must have changed since then.

THE MORMONS.

"A body of this people, numbering five hun- dred souls, are now encamped in the neighbor- hood of the Cajon pass in this county. We learn that they are negotiating for the purchase of the rancho of San Bernardino from the fam-

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD).

ily of Don Antonio Maria Lugo, by whom it is held. This rancho is about 65 miles from Los Angeles on one (and the best) direct road to Sonora. It will, without doubt, one day be a point of no inconsiderable importance. There is soil, water, timber, everything abounding to sus- tain a large and prosperous population. Though lying right under the snow capped mountain of San Bernardino the temperature is pleasant enough generally-even in winter.

"The year 1848 was a remarkable exception, for snow fell to the depth of several feet and covered the plains a long time. Several thou- sand head of cattle were destroyed. The rancho now, after scarcely three years, is supposed to have from eight to ten thousand head in spite of such severe visitation. The river Santa Ana takes its rise here and even before it leaves the rancho affords quite a strong body of water.

"This is the former site of the old mission of San Bernardino; and the drafts of a thousand mills for many years would not exhaust the tim- ber of the mountains of the same. Here prob- ably this interesting people will make the first establishment on the shores of the Pacific. They profess the best intentions towards the old set- . tlers of the county and show no disposition in the slightest degree to interfere with the rights of others. Thus acting they deserve a kindly consideration and every encouragement in their plans of settlement."

From the above extract it will be seen that the Mormon leaders immediately after their ar- rival began negotiations with Lugos for the pur- chase of the San Bernardino rancho. Before deciding to purchase it they examined several other ranchos, but finally decided to buy the San Bernardino. The contract for its purchase was made in September. 1851, but the deed did not go on record until February 27. 1852. The purchase price was stated to be $77,500. The settlers obtained from the Lugos seventy-five head of cattle for beef. The great herds of cat- tle belonging to the Lugos were removed during the following winter. The rancho was pur- chased on credit. The Mormons had plenty of faith but little cash. It is said that the aggre- gate wealth of the whole band in money was only $700, and this had to suffice to buy food

until they could raise crops. While negotiations were pending they had remained encamped near the mouth of the Cajon pass. In September they removed their camp to the present site of the city of San Bernardino.

During 1851 and the early part of 1852 the mountain and desert Indians were on the war path. Warner's ranch had been plundered, emi- grant trains attacked, and Antonio Garra had boasted he would exterminate the white race in California. A military post had been established at Chino and a guard kept there. I find this item in the Los Angeles Star of March 2, 1852: "The military post at Chino, under command of Captain Lowell, has recently received the ac- cession to its members of sixty men who have been ordered there from San Diego."

In December, 1851, a company of thirty-five men was raised in Los Angeles to quell the In- dian disturbances. The Star of December 6, 1851. says : "It is supposed that all the southern Indians are in a plot to massacre the whites."

The Mormons, fearing raids from the Indians, proceeded to erect a stockade. It was made of the split trunks of cottonwood trees and large willows. The palisades were set about three feet in the ground and stood about twelve feet high. The inclosure was in the form of a par- allelogram, three hundred feet wide and seven hundred feet long. Inside of this log cabins and adobe houses were erected. The southern end of the stockade was just below what is now the intersection of C and Third streets and the northwest corner was intersected by Fourth street near C street. The settlers lived in the fort for nearly a year. After the Indians had been subjugated, the colonists settled on their individual possessions and the development of the colony was rapid.

In 1852 a large flour mill was built "with two sets of burr stones and a race-way one mile in length." The wheat raised was converted into flour. The farmers of the southern coast coun- ties did not produce flour enough for their own consumption. It cost $10 freight on a barrel of flour from San Francisco to San Pedro. The Mormons found wheat growing very profitable. but the crop was uncertain.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER LXIV.

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY-Continued.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.

X 1853 the county of San Bernardino was created. It was cut off from the eastern part of Los Angeles county. The act creat- ing the county was approved April 26, 1853. There seems to have been no opposition to its creation ; Los Angeles had territory enough left. The area of San Bernardino county was 23,472 square miles.

The town site of San Bernardino was laid out in 1853. The plan was copied from that of Salt Lake City. The town was a mile square, the streets crossing each other at right angles. Each block contained eight acres. Irrigating ditches ran along the streets, the same as in Salt Lake City. San Bernardino was incorporated as a city by a special act of the legislature, approved April 13, 1854. The council house built by Lyman and Rich was used as the court house after the organization of the county. It was located on the southeast corner of Third and what is now C streets.

The land was surveyed into tracts of various sizes to suit purchasers. Prices ranged from $10 to $20 per acre. There were some non- Mormons among the settlers. These were known as independents. Many of these were immigrants who came to California by the south- ern routes. Attracted by the cheapness of the land and the fertility of the soil in the San Ber- nardino valley they located there. They were not in accord with the Mormons in religion nor in many of the social customs. Congress, in 1854, appropriated $50,000 for the survey and location of a wagon road between San Ber- nardino and Salt Lake City. May 1, 1855. Gil- bert & Co.'s Great Salt Lake Express was estab- lished. It made monthly trips, stopping at the following stations: Coal Creek, Parowan, Red Creek, Fillmore City, Nephi City, Summit Creek, Provo City, American Fork and Great Salt Lake

City. It carried letters, parcels, packages and treasure. It was at first a pony express, but later on the mail and express were carried in wagons.

In 1855 there was a failure in the wheat crop in the valley on account of a dry year. There were hard times in the colony. Elders Thomas, Jackson, Daley, Hopkins and Rich started out on a missionary and business tour through the state to explain their doctrines and to influence capitalists and others to purchase lots in their new city, or farming lands adjoining. The Los Angeles Star of August 4. 1855, says: "Our Mormon neighbors have to make their last pay- ment, amounting to some $35,000, on their ranch on the 7th of October next, and they are dis- posed to hold out great inducements to specu- lators and all those who may wish to settle per- manently among them.

"The failure of the wheat crop has placed our Mormon friends under great pecuniary embar- rassments, which have forced them to ask re- lief from saints and those who are friendly to their cause and to whom they will give good and sufficient titles to land as an equivalent for aid furnished." Centrally located city lots, con- taining an acre, were offered at $125, and five- acre suburban lots at $25 per acre. It seems to have been alternately feast and famine in the colony. The year of 1856 was a season of plenty. The Star of January 21, 1856, gives this report of the prosperity of the colonists :

A PROSPEROUS COLONY.

"From the settlement of San Bernardino we have received favorable reports. The people are engaged in securing their crops, which are very abundant and in prime condition. It is esti- mated that the harvest will produce one hundred thousand bushels of wheat, and fifty thousand bushels of barley. The grass is so plentiful on the ranch that Don Bernardo Yorba has placed

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

a band of 5,000 head of cattle to remain there nine months. There are already belonging to the community 10,000 head on the ranch, which is capable of sustaining 50,000 head of cattle.

"The grist mill has been repaired and very much improved and flour has already been ground from this year's wheat. The saw-mills have ceased operation for want of water, but there is an abundance of lumber. The schools are in a prosperous condition, there being 165 children in attendance at the two schools with four teachers, three males and one female. The abundant harvest of the present year will make up for the heavy losses of the previous years."

POLITICAL.

San Bernardino county was strongly Demo- cratic. At the presidential election of 1856, Bu- chanan received 314 votes, Fillmore 7 and Fre- mont 93. Evidently the denunciation in the Re- publican platform of that year of the "twin relics of barbarism-polygamy and slavery"-was not acceptable to the Mormon voters. Their votes (lid Buchanan no good. Either through the county clerk's neglect or the mail's delay the re- turns did not reach Sacramento in time to be counted in the official vote of the state.

THE RECALL OF THE SAINTS.

For ten years after the organization of the territory of Utah, Brigham Young had been its governor. Through all that time there had been more or less friction between him and the of- ficials appointed to represent the United States government in Utah. Brigham Young and the hierarchy were supreme in the territory. Some of the officials sent out by the government were unfit for their positions and the Mormons had good reasons for objecting to them. President Buchanan determined to remove Brigham from the governorship of the territory. Brigham de- fied the government. He had said in one of his Sunday harangues in the tabernacle, "I am and will be governor and no power can hinder it until the Lord Almighty says: 'Brigham, you need not be governor any longer.'" When the news reached him that the president had deter- mined to appoint another governor and that the laws would be enforced in Utah even if an army

had to be sent there to enforce them, Brigham issued his mandate recalling all the saints to Zion. Apostles Lyman and Rich, who also

military titles and were in charge ofondMore saints at San Bernardino, were order and break up their settlement and rally to the def of Zion. THE EXODU'S BEGINS. mont Stades

The Los Angeles Star of May 204857, con- tains this notice of the departure of Lyman and Rich, the founders of the colony: "Our corre- spondent informs us that on Saturday Gen. C. C. Rich and Colonel Lyman, with thirty more members of the Mormon church, started from San Bernardino for Great Salt Lake City. The train consisted of about thirty wagons. The party was escorted by a large number of the citi- zens as far as Cajon pass, where they encamped and passed the night. Next morning the friends separated and the pilgrims proceeded on their journey to the Mecca of the Great Prophet."

RIVAL FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS.

The Mormons and Independents did not be- come more harmonious as time went by. In all their social functions they kept apart. The cele- bration of the 4th of July always stirred in them not so much a spirit of patriotism, as a feeling of animosity. There were usually two celebra- tions. In 1856 each tried to outdo the other in noise. The Independents imported a cannon from Los Angeles and won out on boom, but lost on flag pole, the church party erecting one a hundred feet in height against the Independ- ents sixty feet.

In 1857 there were rival celebrations. The Mormons built a bowery on the Plaza to ac- commodate one thousand persons. There was a procession of all the young Mormon ladies in the colony. They were dressed in white with wreaths of flowers on their heads and marched in twos to the bowery. Prayer, reading of the Declaration of Independence and an oration by Jefferson Hunt filled out the literary program ; while a dinner to which everybody was invited filled out the individual, dancing to sundown completed the celebration.

The Independents held their celebration at Fort Benson. This fort had been built by a

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

man named Benson in 1854. Benson claimed that he was located on government land, a claim the ranch owners disputed. To defend his claim Benson built the fort. It became a rallying point for the Independents. The rivals tried to excel each other in the numbers attending their respective celebrations. The Independents se- cured the attendance of Cabezon and his tribe of Cahuilla Indians. They won out on the con- sumption of viands, for every Indian brought along an aching void. The day ended with a shooting scrape. A young Mormon assailed a crippled Independent, who shot him in self-de- fense, so a jury afterwards decided. This was the last rival 4th of July celebration. Next year the Mormons were in Salt Lake.

In August, 1857, a large sale of cattle was made for the purpose of liquidating the debt that still encumbered the ranch. The cattle had been contributed as tithes by the members of the Mormon church. The amount realized was about $13,000.

HASTENING AWAY.

When the reports of the Mountain Meadows Massacre were received in California they aroused the indignation of the people to the highest pitch against the Mormons. A mass meeting was called at the Plaza in Los Angeles and Brigham Young and his followers roundly denounced. Resolutions were passed calling upon the governor to enforce the laws against the "community of Mormons residing in the adjoining county of San Bernardino, many of whom are living in open violation of one of the most sacred laws of our state." The animosity engendered against the Mormons on account of the massacre hastened their departure from San Bernardino. They were compelled to sacrifice their property to get means to take them away.

The Star of December 5. 1857, "gives some items of sales recently made; one tract of 82 acres that cost $10.50 an acre, fenced with a good picket fence which cost $2 per rod, the entire tract under cultivation, with good ditches for irrigation, was sold for $500. Another tract containing 600 acres, under fence, on which there were 7.500 vines, assessed last year at $10,000, sold for $1,500. Another property con-

taining a flouring mill, distillery, saw-mill and 300 acres of land that cost in all $75,000, sold for $6,000."

On December 7, 1857, a meeting was held in Los Angeles for the purpose of preventing the sale of arms and ammunition to the Mormons returning to Salt Lake City. The Star of De- cember 26th estimated that 250 wagons and 1,200 people "fitted out for Utah at San Ber- nardino. These took with them not less than fifteen tons of powder and between two and three thousand guns and revolvers." At a pub-

lic meeting held in Los Angeles, December 12, it was decided to ask Gen. N. S. Clark, command- ing the Department of the Pacific, to station 500 troopers at the Cajon pass to prevent an inva- sion of Southern California by Brigham Young's army.

THE LAST TRAIN.

The last detachment of the Mormons gathered in camp on the Mojave. There were about 100 wagons in the encampment. The Star of Janu- ary 16, 1858, says: "The camp on the Mojave cannot be so devoid of the comforts of life after all as it might be supposed. We have heard it stated by several that since the camp was estab- lished there has been no less than fifty marriages, the young men of the party agreeing to take charge of all the young ladies, to which the lat- ter freely consented, thus securing protection through the long journey. There have been no less than twenty-five births in the camp."

At the time of the exodus there were remain- ing of the San Bernardino rancho in the posses- sion of the firm of Rich, Lyman, Hanks & Co. about 25,000 acres; on this there was a mort- gage held by Pioche, Bayerque & Co. This mort- gage was purchased in January, 1858, by Conn, Tucker. Allen & Coopwood and the ownership of the magnificent estate was transferred to them. The original purchase by Lyman, Rich & Co. was 38,000 acres. The difference between that and the purchase by Conn and his partners represented the amount sold to settlers. Some of the Mormon colonists refused to obey the call of the prophet and were cut off from the fellowship in the church. The farms sold, most- ly passed into the possession of people from

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Texas, the Monte and Los Nietos ; and San Ber- nardino ceased to be distinctively a Mormon colony.

However opposed to the Mormon religion any- one may be, it must be admitted that as colonists no people have been more successful. The Pil- grim Fathers had no more hardships and afflic- tions to contend with than had the Mormon apostles and their followers of Salt Lake. Pov- erty and persecution and famine drove them from Missouri and Illinois; destitution, suffer- ing and death marched with them in their mi- gration to Salt Lake, and hunger came to their chosen land. During the famine years of 1855 and 1856 many a family never knew what it was to have a full meal. Through all they perse- vered and built a prosperous empire in a desert.

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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 73

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