USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 9
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" I did not know until months afterward that that mother was in her grave, and that the last news she ever had of her wayward son was a catalogue issued in 1845 of the alumni of Yale College of the class of 1840, where opposite my name, was the entry, ' Last heard from in northern Mexico. Reported to have been killed by Indians.'
"I will here insert the circumstances of the ' last meeting' mentioned in the message I bore. In March, 1846, Doña Maria Antonia was seated in the porch of her house, which commanded a full view of the town and the Southern road, accompanied by one of her granddaughters. Three horsemen were seen slowly turning the point where one coming from the south can first be seen. The old lady shaded her eyes and gazed long and ex- claimed, 'There comes my brother!' O, grandmother, yonder come three horsemen, but no one can tell who they are at that dis- tance.' 'But, girl,' she replied, 'my old eyes are better than yours. That tall man in the middle is my brother, whum I have not seen for twenty years. I know him by his seat in the saddle. No man in California rides like him. Hurry off, girl; call your mother and aunts, your brothers, sisters and cousins, and let us go forth to welcome him. The horsemen drew near and a little group of some twenty women and children stood waiting with grandmother at their head, her eyes fixed on the tall horseman, an old white-haired man, who flung himself from the saddle, and, mutually exclaiming ' Brother!' 'Sister!' they were locked in a warm em- brace.
" We met at the time appointed in Colton hall and organized.
" We finished our work in the early part of October, for Governor Riley's proclamation calling upon the people to vote on the con- stitution is dated October 12, 1849. Whether we did our work well or ill is not for the
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writer to say; but, under that constitution, California, from a state of anarchy in 1849 has become a prosperous and well-organized State in 1878.
"In regard to our compensation it was fixed by ourselves, and paid out of a fund arising from duties on foreign goods, in virtue of a tariff established during the war, for Mexican ports occupied by the United States forces, as Congress, in its first session after the acquisi- tion of California, failed to extend the reve- nue laws over California.
"Another convention is now (March 1878) to be called, and when the Los Angeles delegation go up to attend it, they can have their choice of the steamer or the palace car; and if compensation is allowed, they have the treasury of a rich and powerful State; while the writer, thirty years ago, had to go depend- ent on old Lugo's bear horse as his means of transportation and letter of recommendation, and the old Frenchman for funds to defray his necessary expenses."
Dr. Robert Semple was made president of the convention, William G. Marcy, secre- tary; J. Ross Browne, official reporter; W. E. P. Hartnell, interpreter, etc. The convention having finished its work October 13, the new constitution, together with Governor Riley's proclamation, and an address to the people, signed by all the delegates, was printed and circulated throughout the Territory, with all dispatch; and preparations were at once made to hold an election, for the purpose of adopt- ing the new instrument, and the election of officers, etc., as provided for in the same.
Governor Riley allowed the members of the convention, from the money collected from customs since the conquest, $16 per day, and $16 for each twenty miles traveled, counting each way. Ross Browne was paid $10,000 for 1,000 bound copies in English, and 250 copies in Spanish of his official report of the proceedings.
At the election held November 13, 1849, the Constitution was adopted by a vote of 12,064 for and 811 against. The population at the time was estimated at a little over 100,000 souls. At the same time Peter H. Burnett was elected governor: John Mc- Dougal, lieutenant-governor; Edward Gil- bert and G. W. Wright as Congressional representatives, etc.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STATE ORGANIZED.
N December 20, 1849, the governor elect Burnett was duly installed; Gov- ernor Riley and his secretary of State, Halleck, at the same time resigning their re- spective offices. Governor Riley remained at Monterey until July of the next year. Be- fore his return to the Atlantic States, the city of Monterey voted him a medal of gold, weighing one pound, as a token of respect, the same being presented to him in behalf of the city, at a large banquet given in his honor, by P. A. Roach. One side of the medal bore the arms of the city; the other the legend, "The man who came to do his dnty and who accomplished his purpose."
The first legislature (which consisted of
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sixteen senators and thirty-six assemblymen) inet at San José, December 15, 1849, thongh a quorum failed to appear on the first and second days of the session. As there were yet no county organizations, the members of the legislature had been elected, as were the delegates to the constitutional convention, by districts. The senator from the Monterey district was Selim E. Woodworth, son of the author of "The Old Oaken Bucket;" and the assemblymen were T. R. Per Lee and J. S. Gray.
E. K. Chamberlain of the San Diego dis- trict, was elected president of the Senate pro tem, and Dr. Thomas J. White of the Sacra- mento district was elected speaker of the assembly.
John C. Fremont and William M. Gwin were elected United States Senators; Richard Roman, state treasurer; J. S. Houston, comptroller; E. J. C. Kewen, attorney-gen- eral; C. A. Whitney, surveyor-general; S. C. Hastings, chief justice and H. A. Lyons and Nathaniel Bennett, associate justices of the Supreme Court, and thus a constitutional State government was set in motion. The legislature established nine judicial districts Monterey being included in the third dis- trict; the territory of the newly organized State was divided into twenty-seven counties. Monterey county including the present county of San Benito, was one of the original number.
The act of Congress admitting California as a State into the Union was signed on September 9, 1850, after a prolonged and
bitter contest in each House on the question of the perpetual prohibition of slavery in the new Territory, in which contest the cause of freedom triumphed. The news of the ad- mission caused great joy to Californians, when received by them, on October 18. The 9th of September has become a State legal holiday.
SUPPRESSION OF DISORDER.
The tremendous influx of adventurers into California after the discovery of gold, from all parts of the world, of course, resulted in much disturbance to public order. Many vicions, lawless characters roamed about the State, singly and in bands, committing rob- beries and murders, till citizens were com- pelled to defend their lives and property by summary, and sometimes irregular, methods, inasmuch as the legal machinery of the State often proved altogether inadequate to meet the extraordinary emergencies as they arose.
Governor McDougal authorized Selim E. Woodworth to raise a military company in 1851, to pursue marauders, who were steal- ing stock in Monterey county. But neither ordinary nor extraordinary legal methods, nor even vigilance committees, could entirely ex- terminate the evil. A conglomerate pop- ulation, suddenly gathered together from the four quarters of the world, could hardly be expected to assume, all at once, the customs and the decorous appearance of old-established communities; and a long time elapsed before these disturbing causes disappeared in Cali- fornia. " Healthy hangings" of murderers,
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outlaws, and highway robbers, etc., by vigilance committees, when legal remedies failed, tended powerfully to clarify the moral and social atmosphere. The alternative was forced on people in many localities in California in early times, whether cut-throats and murder- ers should be hung by the people or not at all; all other remedies failing, the simple issue was: Shall a murderer be hung by the people, or shall he go unhung?
When corrupt political gamblers and ballot- box stuffers, throngh chicanery and violence get control of the government, and paralyze the normal workings of its machinery; when the dominance of gamblers and blacklegs, and the presence of the vicious in overwhelming numbers, aided by shyster lawyers, make the administration of justice by regular, or by le- gal methods, impossible, the question may be fairly asked by philosophical students of history,-as it has often been asked by Cali- fornians themselves, when actually confronted by exigencies which required an immediate answer. Is it not in fact an evidence of the highest moral virtue in a community that it summarily puts a stop to a state of affairs which have become intolerable, rather than let it continue indefinitely, with all the ruin- ous, demoralizing influences which inevitably attend such indefinite continuance of crime unchecked ?
Did not the great vigilance movement of San Francisco in 1856 rise to the dignity of a revolution? Was the "sacred right of rev- olution" ever more justly invoked than on that occasion? Of course vigilance commit-
tees, great or small, can only be vindicated by their results and by the justness of their cause on precisely the same principles as are revolutions; for they are in fact quasi-rev- olutions. When people, whether in large or small bodies, with good and high motives and for justifiable ends, to save the life of the State, or their own liberties, go back to first principles, and take political power into their own hands, they thereby become responsible for the proper nse of that power. If they use it wisely, for the best good of all, then they justfy their acts; if not, not.
Better, sometimes, is aggressive revolution, if wisely directed, than is imbecile submission to the murder of liberty; better vigilance committees than stark anarchy! At least so think many old-time Californians, who have so often seen both the necessity and the prac- tical wisdom of these much-disputed maxims exemplified.
Many, many times, when the law failed, have the people themselves suppressed crim- inals who, but for the uprising of the people, would not have been suppressed.
The first Mayor of Monterey, under the State organization, was Philip A. Roach, who had been judge of the first instance, under the military rule of Governor Riley. In 1851, Roach was elected to the State Senate from Monterey. The assemblyman this year was A. Randall, and for 1852 Isaac B. Wall. In the legislatures of 1854-'55, Monterey's senator was B. C. Whiting, after- ward United States district attorney for the southern district of California, D. R. Ashley
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being the assemblyman. In 1856, Ashley was senator (holding for two years); and R. L. Matthews was assemblyman for this year, and E. Castro for the succeeding year; and José Ábrego was elected to the assembly in 1858; and Mariano Malarin in 1859-'60; A. W. Blair in 1861; Juan W. Cot, in 1862; J. H. Watson was senator in 1860-'61, and G. K. Porter for Monterey and Santa Cruz, in 1862-'63; Estevan Castro was assembly- man in 1863.
CHAPTER XIV.
MONTEREY UNDER AMERICAN RULE.
HE removal of the capital from Monte- rey, the residence of the governors else- where, the superior attractions for commerce of the harbor of San Francisco, all tended to lessen the relative social, politi- cal and commercial importance of the ancient capital. The changes in the town itself, or in its outward appearance, during the last forty years, have been comparatively few. Changes in its surroundings, and in the county of Monterey, have occurred. That portion of the county lying east of the Gabilan range of mountains was set off in 1874, forming the county of San Benito.
Although the old town presents much the appearance that it did thirty and forty years ago, and the houses and most of the streets have changed but little, the building of the railroad and of the magnificient Hotel del Monte, and of the adjacent town of Pacific Grove, have brought bustle and business to the town in spite of itself. The combination of his- 5
toric associations, running back to a different civilization, which cluster around the ancient Spanish and Mexican capital, in close juxta- position with the luxuries and gayeties of a modern grand caravansary, like the Hotel del Monte, and the building up, close by, of a religious, social and literary sea-side resort, all make Monterey and its environs a very attractive center, to which, in recent years, thousands annually flock, as to a modern Mecca. There is no other town in the State, which retains, in the appearance of its houses and streets, its Mexican characteristics, to any- thing like the extent that Monterey does, though improvement and Americanizing changes have been going on around it. The old Catholic church, built and completed in 1794, as is indicated by these figures on its front, and the rectory near by, still stand; the old custom house, and " Colton Hall," built under early American rule; and many of the old adobe or stone residences, still en- dure; the old "Cuartel " has been entirely demolished within the last few years. The venerable oak on which it is supposed Father Junípero hung a bell (as a large iron spike has, during the present year, 1892, been cut out of it), and under which he first said Mass after landing, is still green as it was 122 years ago. The cross marked "June 3, 1770," still stands near this tree, symbolizing the locality and date of the "landing" of the heroic Franciscan and his party, which is appropriately and finely typified by the ideal- ized monument on the hill hard by. And the actors of the early years of American
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rule, Sloat, Larkin, Colton, Frémont, the bright, youthful, but afterward illustrious Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord; Cooper, Spence, Hartnell, Ábrego, Little, Leese, and many others have passed away, and their places have been taken by their descendants, or by strangers, who knew them not. Of the survivors of that era, compara- tively few remain; and most of them were children then: of those who were adults at that time, Mrs. Captain Cooper, Mrs. Little, Mrs. Ábrego, Mr. David Jacks, Mr. Thomas Bralee, Mr. John A. Swan, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work, and perhaps one or two others, still, in 1892, survive. During the succeeding era, and until the coming of the railroad, the annals of Monterey town were comparatively uneventful. The United States district court used to hold its sessions alternately here and at Los Angeles for a number of years. The southern United States judicial district of California, under the first law establishing the southern dis- trict, included Monterey, and provided that sessions should be held here as well as at Los Angeles. The judges were: Mr. Jones, who died soon after appointment; I. S. K. Ogier, who served till his death, May 21, 1861; and Fletcher M. Haight, who died about the year 1866. The attorneys for the first southern district were: Alfred Wheeler, I. S. K. Ogier, afterward judge; Pacifious Ord, J. R. Gitchell, Kimball H. Dimmick, and B. C. Whiting. The marshals were: Pablo Noriega, Edward.Hunter, and Henry D. Barrows; and the clerks were: Alexander S.
Taylor, James C. Pennie, and John O. Wheeler. Many very impotant land cases came before both Judge Ogier and Judge Haight. Among the most important was that of the Mexican grant of the ranche, " Panoche Grande," to Vicente Gomez, men- tioned elsewhere. After the death of Judge Haight the two districts were consolidated in one. Under the new Federal law dividing this State into two districts again, passed in the '80s, Monterey remains in the northern district. The only members of the old court now living, are ex-Clerk Wheeler and ex- Marshal Barrows, who reside in Los Angeles.
CHAPTER XV.
PIONEER REMINISCENCES-THE ORD BROTHERS IN CALIFORNIA.
HE following interesting account of the Ord brothers, who were prominent in the early annals of California, is de- rived from one of their number, Dr. James L. Ord, at present a resident of Santa Bar- bara.
The brothers, Pacificus, born in 1816, Ed- ward O. C., afterward the General, born 1818, and James L., born in 1823, were sons of James Ord, of Washington, D. C., a native of England, who was supposed to have been a son of George IV, by Mrs. Fitzgerald. (See Lord North's Life of Mrs. Fitzgerald.) While an infant he was sent to Spain, and two years later to the United States, where he was placed in charge of a man named Ord, whose name he took, and at the age of ten
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he was placed in Georgetown College. He was later in the navy, being two years on the frigate Congress, during the war of 1812. After that he resigned and entered the army. He married Miss Rebecca Cresap, daughter * of Colonel Daniel Cresap, of Revolutionary fame, whose house in Cumberland, Maryland, was Washington's headquarters when he was a young surveyor in that country.
Both Lieutenant and Doctor Ord came to California as members of Company F, Third Artillery, on the United States ship Lexing- ton, arriving at Monterey, January 26, 1847. Lieutenant Ord was in command a portion of the time at Monterey till 1850, when he returned East, where he was made a captain and stationed at Boston Harbor. In 1854 he came again to California-served at Fort Miller, then in Oregon. He was in the fight with the Nez Perces; General George Wright, who commanded, said the battle was saved by Captain Ord's battery, which he unlim- bered on the top of a hill and with it raked the Indians with canister and grape, killing large numbers of them. He was also at Rogue river, where he saved the lives of Ballard and the settlers, who were sur- rounded in a log-house by Indians, when he with his company came to their rescue.
A CURIOUS INCIDENT.
Dr. Ord gives this curious incident in the life of his brother, in connection with the precipitation of the Mexican war, and the far- reaching issues which grew out of it, includ- ing the taking of California, etc. At a
meeting of President Polk and his Cabinet, it was decided to send Lieutenant Ord as a bearer of dispatches to General Taylor, order- ing him to cross the Nueces river and occupy the disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande.
At a later meeting of the Cabinet the previous determination was reconsidered and a courier was sent to countermand the pre- vious order, but he was delayed by heavy rains and bad roads, and failed to overtake Ord till it was too late, and till after the battle of Palo Alto had been fought.
While the American fleet on this coast was lying at Mazatlan, Surgeon Wood, be- ing in poor health, went East, and he learned somewhere in Mexico that General Taylor had crossed the Nueces river, and he sent back a courier with the news to the American consul, and through him to Commodore Sloat, who thereupon set sail for Monterey, where he arrived July 1, 1846, and some two weeks ahead of the English fleet under Ad- miral Seymour of the Collingwood. The latter vessel arrived at Monterey on the 16th of July, one day after the arrival of the Congress, and anchored right between the Congress and Savannah, and Sloat supposing that Seymour had later news from the seat of war, and also not knowing that the Oregon boundary question had been settled, ordered his guns double-shotted, with directions to aim at the water line of the Collingwood. But whatever sinister appearance Seymour's act of anchoring between the two American men-of-war may have had, no other move-
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ment indicating possible hostilities on the part of the English admiral was made, and the subsequent intercourse between the offi- cers of the two fleets was very friendly till not long after Seymour sailed away.
Later (in December, 1846) Seymour met the Lexington, which was on its way to Cal- ifornia with Company F of the Third Ar- tillery, at Valparaiso. The British Admiral, in a friendly interview in Captain Tomp- kins' cabin on board the Lexington, Captain Bailey, Lieutenants Sherman, Ord and Hal- leck being present, said, "The Yankees were two weeks ahead of us in the taking of Cal- ifornia."
Lieutenant Ord was stationed at the pre- sidio of San Francisco, in command of Ord's battery, at the commencement of the Civil war, when he received the appointment of brigadier-general. He was with Grant at the siege of Vicksburg; and at its capitu- lation he was second in command. Later in the war, he relieved General Butler, and be- came commander of the Army of the James, and his army made a forced march and headed off Lee; and he was one of the few officers present at Lee's surrender at Appo- mattox; and he afterward purchased the table of MeLain, on which the surrender was signed. He was afterward placed in com- mand at Richmond. Subsequent to the close of the war, he was military governor of Arkansas and Missouri; and later in com- mand of the department of the Lakes, with headquarters at Detroit. He then came to California, and relieved General McDowell.
After being successively in command of the Platte, and in Texas, he was retired as full major-general, by special act of Congress.
After a visit to Mexico General Ord went to Havana, where in 1884 he died of the yellow fever. His remains were brought home and interred in the National Cemetery by special resolution of Congress.
Pacificus Ord, the eldest of the three Californian Ords, after the adoption of the constitution (he being a member of the con- stitutional convention), was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court.
Afterward he was United States District Attorney for the southern district of Cali- fornia.
Judge Ord's first wife, whom he married in New Orleans, died in Monterey. His second wife he married in San Francisco. They went East and to Europe, where she died. On his return he lived in New York, where he married his third wife, who also has since died. He now lives in the city of Washington, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He has a daughter living who mar- ried a Colonel Preston; and a son, an attor- ney who lives in New York.
Doctor Ord, after serving a year at Mon- terey, was ordered to Santa Barbara, where he was attached to Captain F. J. Lippitt's company.
In '56, he married Doña Angustias de la Guerra de Jimeno, widow of Secretary Jim- eno, under Governor Micheltorena, and Mrs. Hartnell, and of Judge Pablo de la Guerra. In '57 or '58 they went to Santa Barbara to
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live. In 1871 he went to the city of Mexico, where he was made consul-general of the United States; he also for a time represented England and France, in that capital.
In '73 he returned to San Francisco, and again entered the army, and served twelve years in Arizona, resigning in November, 1891. Doctor Ord has interests in Santa Barbara, and he makes that his home as much as any place.
Doctor Ord's further reminiscences of per- sons and events, in the early times in Mon- terey, are exceedingly interesting, and no excuses are needed for inserting them here.
He says his company landed in January, '47, and was stationed on the hill where the earthworks still exist. As they occupied tents and the weather was quite cold, they moved down in February to the old custom house. Lieutenant Sherman and Doctor Ord occupied the north end of the building, and the south end was used as a hospital, some three months. Spence had a store then: so had Larkin and Green, and also Watson.
Among the old residents were: Amesti, from Spain, who had married a Vallejo; and Cooper and Leese and Del Valle, all of whom had married Vallejos; and Abrego, who mar- ried an Estrada, etc.
Dr. Ord says that the officers of his com- pany were received by the people of Monte- rey, not as enemies, but as friends. Among the ladies of influential families were Señora Vallejo (mother of the general) Señoras Amesti and Ábrego, and Mrs. Larkin, who was the first American woman to come to
Monterey to live. Dr. Ord thinks the Lark- ins have a son, who is still living; and that he (the son) has several children. The de- scendants of the Vallejos, the Coopers, the Leeses, the Spences, the Ábregos, etc., are quite numerons, and live, some still in Mon- terey, some in Santa Clara, and some in San Francisco, or Sonoma, or elsewhere. The father of the Russ' brothers, who built the Russ House in San Francisco, was a mason, and he built, or helped to build Colton Hall. The newspaper, The Californian, was pub- lished while Dr. Ord was in Monterey.
Dr. Ord was in the mines awhile in '49, and Sherman, and Mason, and Colton, came to his camp at Jamestown, and stayed over night.
Dr. Ord relates this curious incident: The officers of Company F gave a party, or baile, with supper and champagne, etc., at Mr. Hartnell's house on the hill, on the 6th of July, 1847; and, although the Californians were very friendly, they got the idea errone- ously that the ball was purposely given on the anniversary of the taking of California, and they would not come. Nevertheless the officers had a good time: Sherman, Halleck, Ord, etc., were there; also Mr. Hartnell's family and a few others.
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