USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 8
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This convention, consisting of forty-eight
members, representing all parts of the Terri- tory, and including natives of nearly every State in the Union, assembled at the time and place designated. As part of the delega- tion spoke only the Spanish language, it was found necessary to have a translator, and William E. P. Hartnell was appointed to that position. After six weeks of delibera- tion, during which the constitutions of New York and Iowa were taken as models, a con- stitution was framed, reported and signed, October 13, 1849. This constitution was sub- mitted to the people for ratification on the 13th of November following, when 12,064 votes were polled in favor, 811 against it, and 1,200 were set aside on account of in- formality.
The following is a list of the names, na- tivity, residence and age, of the members of the first constitutional convention of Califor- nia, signed in triplicate by each member. Of the three original documents containing these autographs, one copy went to Dr. Semple, one to Consul Larkin, and the third to Milton Little, which his widow still has in her pos- session:
NAMES. NATIVITY.
RESIDENCE. AGE.
John A. Sutter,
Switzerland,
D Sacramento, 47
H. W. Halleck,
New York,
Monterey, 32
Wm. M. Gwin, Tennessee,
Wm. M. Stewart,
Maryland,
San Francisco, 49
Joseph Hoborn,
Maryland,
San Francisco, 39
Thos. L. Vermeule, New Jersey,
San Joaquin,
35
O. M. Wozencraft, Ohio,
B. F. Moore,
Florida,
San Joaquin, 29
27
Wm. F. Shannon,
New York,
Sacramento. Sacramento, 32
W. S. Sherwood,
New York,
San José,
52
Joseph Aram,
New York,
San José, 39
J. D. Hoppe,
Maryland,
San José, 35
John McDougal,
Ohio,
Sutter,
32
San Francisco, 44
San Joaquin, 34
Elam Brown,
New York,
62
MONTEREY COUNTY.
Elisha O. Crosby,
New York,
Vernon, 34
H. K. Dimmick,
New York,
San José,
34
Julian Hanks,
Connecticut,
San José,
39
M. M. McCalver,
Kentucky,
Sacramento,
42
Francis J. Lippitt,
Rhode Island, San Francisco, 37
Rodman Price,
Massachusetts, Monterey,
Thos. O. Larkin,
New York,
San Francisco,
Louis Dent,
Missouri,
Monterey,
Henry Hill,
Virginia,
Monterey,
33
Chas. T. Betts,
Virginia,
Monterey,
40
Myron Norton,
Vermont,
San Francisco, 27
James M. Jones,
Kentucky,
San Joaquin,
25
Pedro Sainsevine,
Bordeaux,
San José,
26
J. M. Covarrubias,
France,
Santa Barbara, 41
Antonio M. Pico,
California,
San José,
40
Jacinto Rodriguez, California,
Monterey,
36
Stephen C. Foster,
Maine,
Los Angeles,
28
Henry A. Tefft,
New York,
San LuisObispo 26 San Joaquin, 25
Abel Stearns,
Massachusetts, Los Angeles,
51
Hugh Reid,
Scotland,
San Gabriel,
38
B. S. Lippincott,
New York,
San Joaquin,
34
Joel P. Walker,
Virginia,
Sonoma, 52
Jacob R. Snyder,
Pennsylvania, Sacramento,
34
L. W. Hastings,
Ohio,
Sacramento,
30
Pablo de la Guerra,
California,
Santa Barbara, 30 Sonoma, 42
José A. Carrillo,
California,
Los Angeles,
53
M. Dominguez,
California,
Los Angeles,
46
Robert Semple,
Kentucky,
Benicia,
42
Pacificus Ord,
Maryland,
Monterey, 33
Edward Gilbert,
New York,
San Francisco, 27
A. J. Ellis,
New York,
San Francisco, 33 San Diego, 41
M. de Pedrorena,
Spain,
The occupations of the members of the convention is given as follows: Fifteen were rancheros or farmers, fourteen were lawyers, nine were merchants, two printers, and there was one engineer of the army, one naval officer, one physician, etc.
In December, 1849, Peter H. Burnett was elected governor of California under this constitution, and application was made in due form for the admission of California into the Union, which application, after a long and stormy debate in Congress, turning mainly on the provision forever prohibiting
slavery within the State, was finally granted, on the 9th of September, 1850. The con- stitution formulated in 1849 served as the charter of the State for about thirty years.
The house in which this constitutional convention was held, a large two-story stone building, called "Colton's Hall," was the most pretentious and fitting structure for the purpose in California at that time. It had been erected by Rev. Walter Colton, the alcalde of Monterey, with funds raised by subscription, by fines imposed in his court, and by prison labor; and it still stands in a good state of preservation, having been used for many years as a public schoolhouse and public hall. It is the property of the Monterey school district, as is the public library founded in 1849.
Evidently Chaplain Colton was a very use- ful citizen at this time, when the services of intelligent, full-fledged, reliable citizens were in demand. He was first appointed alcalde by Stockton, and then, on September 15, 1846, he was duly elected to the office, by the people. The office of alcalde of Mon- terey was a very important one. “ It in- volved jurisdiction," says Colton, " over every breach of the peace, every case of crime, every business obligation, and every disputed land title within a circut of 300 miles. To it there was an appeal from the court of every other alcalde in this district, but there was none from it to any higher tribunal. There was not a judge on any bench in the United States or England whose power was
M. G. Vallejo,
California,
47 36 26
J.M. Hollingsworth, Maryland,
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MONTEREY COUNTY.
so absolute as that of the alcalde of Mon- terey."
The following interesting account of the convention, and of the experiences of the delegation from one of the distant dis- tricts of the Territory, and of the difficulties they encountered in their journey to the capital, is here inserted as giving a fair pict- ure of the Californian of forty-odd years ago. It was written in 1878, by Stephen C. Foster, a graduate of Yale College, class of 1840, who came to California in 1847, with Cook's battalion, as interpreter, was afterward alcalde and mayor of Los Angeles and a member of the delegation from that district to the convention. He is still a resident of Los Angeles county, being the only surviving member of the Los Angeles delegation. A similar sketch of the delegates from all the other districts to that historic convention, if obtainable, would be of exceeding inter- est, not only to citizens of Monterey but also to all the people of the commonwealth, for whom they builded so wisely.
Mr. Foster says: "The war with Mexico had ended with the acquisition of California and New Mexico, but Congress, instead of giving them at once a Territorial govern- ment, entered into a fierce fight on the eternal slavery question, and the Cabinet took steps to force Congress to do something to secure a government for the newly acquired Terri- tories. How, after a delay of two sessions, the whole matter was settled by the famous ' Omnibus Bill,' the last work of Henry Clay, is a matter of history.
"The writer, who had acted as alcalde of Los Angeles from January, 1848, to May, 1849, had just been relieved by the election of an ayuntamiento by the people, when the proclamation (of Governor Riley for the election of delegates to a constitutional con- vention) was received, and at the same time came a private letter from H. W. Halleck, captain of engineers, United States Army, and Secretary of State, urging the paramount necessity of southern California being fully represented in the convention, as the parallel of latitude 36° 30', the Missouri compro- mise line of 1820, south of which slavery might be established, ran just below Monterey; and requesting me to use my influence to have the people hold the election, and saying that the United States propeller Edith would be sent down to bring up the delegates from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. I acted as he requested, and saw that due notice was given to the different precincts, but so little interest was felt that the only election held was in Los Angeles, and only forty-eight votes were polled and there was but one ticket in the field. The discovery of gold had deranged everything in California. Va- queros and others, who had worked for their $15 per month, were off to the mines. I knew that everything was at a fabulous price at the North, and although I knew that one conld travel from one end of California to the other, and stop at a place among the Spanish-speaking population as long as he wished. I knew no one in Monterey, and as we had no idea where the money was to come
64
MONTEREY COUNTY.
from to pay our expenses, I was at first dubi - ous about going, hardly considering that the honor to be acquired, by helping the adminis- tration out of its difficulties, would be a fair consideration for the money to be paid out of my own pocket. Not one of us dreamed that our constitution would stand, but supposed that it would force Congress to give us a Territorial government, to save the country from anarchy. The permanent population of California did not then exceed 25,000, nearly all ignorant of our laws and language. There were between one and two hundred thousand more, but nine out of every ten had come to get what gold they could, and then go home.
" I then had a consultation with my old father-in-law (Don Antonio Maria Lugo) on the subject. He said: 'So the Mexicans have sold California to the Americans for $15,000,000, and thrown us natives into the bargain. I don't understand how they could sell what they never had, for since the time of the king we sent back every governor
they ever sent here. With the last they sent 300 soldiers to keep us in order, but we sent him with his ragamuffins back too. How- ever, you Americans have got the country, and must have a government of your own, for the laws under which we have lived will not snit them. You must go, and you can stop with my sister, Doña Maria Antonia, the widow of old Sergeant Vallejo.'" " But you must give me a letter to her." " A letter,' was the quick reply; ' I can't write and she can't read, for we had no schools in California when we were young. They tell me the Americans will establish schools where all can learn. I tell you what I'll do: I will make José loan you ' El Quacheno'; the name of a notable horse which had been used by Lugo's sons to lasso grizzly bears that had attacked their stock on their San Bernardino ranche, and whichi besides the brand had the marks of a griz- zly's claws .* 'My sister knows the horse,
*In 1842, the cattle-owners of the district of Los Angeles began to complain of Don A. M. Lugo, that he owned more stock thau his ranchos, San Antonio and El Chino could support, and that they were en- croaching on their lands. As the old Don had already granted to him all the land the law allowed, he pro- cured a grant of eight leagues in San Bernardino val- ley to be made to his sons, and moved on it a portion of his immense herds. The adjoining mountains then abounded in grizzly bears, and they at once com- menced their depredations on the cattle. To guard against them the vaqueros were sent out every evening to drive the stock away from the timber on the creeks and the foot of the mountains, into the open plains, and some of them kapt watch all night; during the night there was often heard the bellow of some unfortuna te bullock followed by the rush of his companions. By daybreak all hands were in the saddle, aud bruin gorged with his feast, was overtaken before he could
reach shelter, by some four or five vaqueros, and would soon be stretched out with a riat around his neck, and each foot, when one of the riders making fast his riata to the horn of his saddle, and trusting to the horse to keep it taut, would dismount and with his knife dispatch the helpless baar. Three or four were sometimes the result of one morning's sport, and sev- eral hundred were killed before they were driven back into the mountains, and no longer molested the cattle. This business required skill and coolness on the part of the rider and horse, as the failure of any one would lead to fatal accidents.
Among the most dextrous in this dangerous sport was one of old Lugo's sons, and his favorite horse was a stout hay, on the brand of Ygnacio Sepulveda, nicknamed " El Quacheno, " who was killedJanuary 8, 1847, charging the American square at the " Paso de Bartolo," on the San Gabriel river. Besides the brand the horse was marked with the scars of wound 3
65
MONTEREY COUNTY.
for I rode him to Monterey three years ago, and she knows my son would lend that horse to no man in California except his old father.
" I will tell you how I happend to ride to Monterey at my time of life: In 1845, when Don Pio Pico became governor, and es- tablished the seat of government in Los Angeles, as the Mexican Government had directed in 1836; but there was no govern- ment house, so I made a trade for a house for $5,000, for which drafts were given on the custom house in Monterey, and like an old fool I went security for their payment. The house and lot occupied the ground from Main to Los Angeles streets, and from Com- mercial street to the county bank. The owner was pushing me for the payment; so I had to go to Monterey to see if that hopeful grandson of my sister, Governor J. B. Alva- rado, then in charge of the custom house would pay them. I found him and Castro preparing to come down and deprive Pio Pico of the governorship, and they had use for all the money they could get; so I had my ride of 300 leagues for nothing! Plague take them all, with their pronunciamentos and revolutions, using up my horse and eat- ing up my cattle, while my sons, instead of taking care of their old father's stock, were off playing soldier! The Americans have put a stop to all this, and we will now have peace and quiet in the land, as in the good old days of the king. When you get to Mon-
inflicted by a grizzly's claws, caused by the awkward- ness of one of the vaqueros, but he held his ground unflinchingly until the monster was secured and dis- patched.
terey, you go to my sister and tell her for me, by the memory of our last meeting, to treat you as I have ever treated her sons and grand- sons, when they visited me. '
"The next step I took was to go to Don Louis Vignes, old 'Aliso,' as the people called him, one of our few moneyed men and borrow $100. ' El Quacheno.' the horse so-called from . Quacho ' Sepulveda's brand, was good for my transportation, and my board and lodging in Monterey, and I was now in a position to act as an independent delegate from the district of Los Angeles.
" We had no news of the promised steamer, the Edith (she was lost off Point Concep- tion): so, on August 20, 1849, Stearns, Do- minguez, Carrillo and Foster, natives re- spectively of Massachusetts, California and Maine, started from Los Angeles together, on horseback, for Monterey. Hugo Reid, a native of Scotland, was already in Monterey, and completed the full delegation. The com- mon mode of making long journeys here then, was to take four or five horses to each rider. The loose horses were driven along, and whenever any horse showed signs of fa- tigue, a fresh horse was caught, the saddle was shifted, and the tired horse turned into the band, and the rate of traveling was sixty or seventy iniles a day. The scarcity of serv- ants, caused by the gold fever, was the reason that the two Californians and myself started each with one horse. Don Abel Stearns, as "El Rico" (the rich man) of the delegation, took along a vaquero, with six spare horses; but since, if he rode California fashion, he
66
MONTEREY COUNTY.
would have to go alone, he concluded to jog along with the rest. There were no hotels from San Diego to Monterey then, and each night we lodged at some private house gratis. No greater insult could have been offered to a ranchero than to offer to pay for one's ac- commodation.
" On the road from Santa Barbara to Santa Ynez, there accompanied us an old soldier, named Olvera. He pointed out to us a live- oak, beneath which they found the body of Don José Dolores Sepulveda, the great- grandfather of the Misses Lanfranco, of Los Angeles, who was killed in 1822, when the Indians of the missions La Purísima and Santa Ynez revolted. He was coming from Monterey to Los Angeles, and ignorant of danger, arrived at Santa Ynez the morning of the outbreak. He was pursued by some Indian vaqueros, and he had no arm except a short sword, a useless weapon against the riata in the hands of men who could throw it fifty feet with the accuracy of a rifle, and his only hope of safety was to reach Santa Barbara, distant some fifty miles. He succeeded in crossing the Santa Ynez mountain, and had ridden some seven leagues when the foremost vaquero overtook and lassoed him, but before the riata could be tightened, he cut it with his sword. A second vaquero overtook him, and this time dragged him from his horse; but he again cut the riata and remounted his steed; but the third time his pursners dragged him off, and then sharp knives did the rest; and when the soldiers from Santa Barbara, of whom Olvera was one, went out to rescue the
little garrison, besieged in the guard-house of Santa Ynez, they found only his naked disfigured, corpse.
" The sight of the old Mission of Santa Ynez recalled to my mind an incident that occurred there at the time of the outbreak. When the Indians rose, there were two Span- ish priests in the mission. One of them fell into the hands of the Indians, and was put to death, under circumstances of the most atro- cious cruelty. The other, a powerful man, succeeded in breaking away and escaped to the guard-house, where, as in all missions, a guard of four soldiers, commanded by a cor- poral, were always kept as a sort of police force. The Indians were destitute of fire- arms, but their overwhelming numbers and the showers of arrows they directed against the port-holes had demoralized the garrison, when the priest took command. It must have been a singular scene; the burly friar, with shaven crown and sandaled feet, clad in the gray gown, girt with the cord of St. Francis, wielding carnal weapons, now encouraging the little garrison, now shouting defiance to the swarmning assailants.
"' Ho! Father,' cried a young Indian aco- lyte, ' is that the way to say mass ?'
" ' Yes! I am saying mass, my son; here (holding up his cartridge box) is the chalice; here (holding up his carbine) is the crucifix, and here goes my benediction to you, you -- ,' using one of the foulest epithets the Spanish language could supply, as he leveled his carbine aud laid the scoffer low.
" There was a large force collected from the
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MONTEREY COUNTY.
different towns, the Indian converts were fol- lowed into the Tulare valley and captured, the ringleaders shot, and the others brought back to their missions; and things in Cali- fornia were again quiet, when my informant had occasion to go to Monterey, and on his way arrived at the Mission of San Luis Obispo, where he found the hero of Santa Ynez. 'Welcome, countryman!' was his greeting. The same to you, Father!' was the reply, " but father, they tell me you are in trouble.' 'Yes, my son; the president of the missions has suspended me from the ex- ercise of clerical functions for one year, for the unclerical . language I used in that affair at Santa Ynez. The old fool, he knew I was a soldier before I became a priest, and when those accursed Indians drove me back to my old trade how could I help using my old language?' Then, taking out a couple of decanters from a cupboard, he continued, ' Here, countryman, help yourself; here is wine; here is aguardiente. The old fool thinks he is a punishing me; I have no mass to say for a year, and I have nothing to do but to eat, drink and sleep.'
" We stopped over night at the ranch of Santa Margarita, and from there to the Oji- tos (small springs), some fifty miles, there was not a single residence. On our way that day we stopped at the San Miguel Mission, the scene of the massacre of the Reed family, eleven in number, in December, 1847, the first, as it was the most atrocious, of all the crimes that auri sacra fames, the accursed thirst for gold, brought upon California. We
entered the once hospitable hall and looked at the dark-red stains on the floor where the assassin had piled up their victims, with the intention of firing the building; and on the wall was another dark stain, where one of the fiends had caught up poor Reed's baby-girl by the feet and dashed out its brains against the wall. We visited the churchyard and stood by the long grave where were buried the eleven victims, the jovial, hospitable English sailor, his pretty California wife, with her infant and unborn child, the old motherly midwife, Olvera, two grown up daughters, and all the servants. Not one escaped to tell the tale, but it was afterward told by the murderers, who were arrested, tried and shot in Santa Barbara.
" The second night after, we stopped at the San Antonio Mission, and from there we rode to the Soledad. We had got along peaceably together so far, but that day oc- curred the only difficulty among us that hap- pened on the trip. Two of the party got into an animated discussion as to whether the world was round or flat. The first main- tained that it was round, that all the scien- tific men and books maintained and proved it to be so. The second insisted that it was flat, that he had traveled from San Diego to San Francisco, and saw it was flat; and the sailors that came from Boston and China found the ocean always flat, and he would believe the evidence of his own eyes in pref- erence to all the books and scientists in the world. In leaving the question to the third member of the party, who had traveled all
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MONTEREY COUNTY.
the way from Maine to California by an ir- regular route by land, amounting to over 4,000 miles, was, as far as he could tell by the size had all seemed level to him, but he could ' not decide between them. The first one used such sarcastic language that the second be- came sullen, and, spurring his horse, rode ahead of the others in silence. The third member told the first that that would never do; that they were delegates from the oldest and most substantial section of Cali- fornia, aud that their business was to see that the interests of their section were protected, and it would never do for them to quarrel among themselves; that they should have all those Yankees from San Francisco and the mining districts to contend with, and that the matter in dispute between them had nothing to do with making a constitution. ' You are right,' he said, ' and I will make it up,' and spurred his horse to overtake his countryman and make friends with him. From that time on, we had no further diffi- culty.
" Our last day's ride was from Soledad Mis- sion to Monterey, down the west bank of the Salinas river. About half way, Carrillo pointed out a large oak tree, where, in 1846, was found the dead body of his uncle, Don José Ygnacio Lugo, the grandfather of the Wolfskills of Los Angeles, who are his only descendants. He was over eighty years of age, and all his life had been eccentric, and as old age came on this eccentricity became more marked until it bordered on insanity. He owned a few cattle and horses, which he
tended himself, permitting no assistance from others, and which he kept under complete control. He had been in the habit of travel- ing from Los Angeles to Monterey and back again, as the whim took him.
" He always drove his cattle with him, and wherever he unsaddled to pass the night they were trained to come up and remain quiet all night near him, and not leave until he gave the signal in the morning. He started for Monterey on his last trip, and a vaquero, about sunset, returning from his rounds, found him lying beneath the oak ap- parently asleep. He was a handsome old man, with long, snow-white locks. His cat- tle were lying down near him, chewing their cud, while the horses were near by, and his saddled horse stood mutely gazing on his master. He had evidently stopped to rest at noon, and the vaquero, after speaking to him and receiving no answer, dismounted and found he had died apparently without a strug- gle or groan. The spirit of the old soldier had gone to meet his God!
"We arrived at Monterey near sunset, after a warm, dusty day's ride. Stearns stopped with Don David Spence, an old resident like himself. Carrillo and Dominguez rode on to the house of Doña Augustias de Jimeno, a niece of the former. Carrillo pointed out to me the house of the Señora Vallejo. I asked him to introduce me to his aunt, but he shrugged his hnge shoulders and said: ' She gave me a good scolding the last time I met her, and I don't care to face her now.' I rode on to the house, where I found my
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MONTEREY COUNTY.
hostess seated on the porch. I recognized her at once from her resemblance to her brother. She was over seventy-five years of age, and must have been a handsome woman in her prime. She politely rose to return my salutation. I gave her her brother's mes- sage, while she fixed on me her keen black eyes, from beneath the heavy eyebrows. Two of her daughters had long been married to Americans, who had come to California in early times (Captain Cooper and Mr. Leese), and she liked the old residents well enough, but could not bear the newcomer. When the Bear Flag was raised in Sonoma, by the newly arrived American immigrants in 1846, before news of the declaration of war had reached California, they had imprisoned two of her sons, and made free use of their cattle and horses. When I finished she asked me to dismount, and gave me a warm welcome for her brother's sake. There were tears in the eyes of the aged woman, caused by the memories recalled by my message, and there were tears in the writer's eyes, as he remem- bered the warm embrace of the New Eng- land mother when she parted from her first born, long years before, far off on the rock-bound coast of Maine.
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