USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Hon. Antonio F. Coronel.
surrounded by wide verandas and tropical shrubbery. In- side are many interesting curios. Señora Coronel said re- cently, with tears in her eyes, that she well remembered Mrs. Jackson sitting in this room, with her hands folded, looking up with intense earnestness to the picture of Father
197
MISSION INDIANS.
Junipero, and saying : "Ah ! faithful, noble, dear old face ; what an unselfish, devoted life you led ! All I ask, is to be permitted to meet you in the other world." During her visits to Los Angeles she would every day drive from her hotel to this hospitable home.
"Near the western end of Don Antonio's porch is an orange-tree, on which were hanging at this time twenty-five hundred oranges, ripe and golden among the glossy leaves. Under this tree my carriage always waited for me. The señora never allowed me to depart without bringing to me in the carriage farewell gifts of flowers and fruit ; clusters of grapes, dried and fresh ; great boughs full of oranges, more than I could lift. As I drove away thus, my lap filled with bloom and golden fruit, canopies of golden fruit over my head, I said to myself often, ' Fables are prophe- cies. The Hesperides have come true.'" *
The information that Mrs. Jackson received from the Coronels was so full and complete that she gives an ac- curate description of the Camulos Ranch,t the home of Ramona, although she only spent two hours there.
The following letter describes Mrs. Jackson's only visit to this noted Spanish home :
" SANTA BARBARA, CAL., January 30, 1882.
" MY DEAR FRIENDS, MR. AND MRS. CORONEL. : . . . I have now been one week in Santa Barbara, and am still homesick for Los Angeles. I have not as yet seen anything so fine as the San Gabriel Valley, and San Bernardino Mountains with the snows on the tops, and I have not found any one to tell me the things of the olden time so eloquently as you did.
" I have seen Father Sanchez, Father O'Keefe, and Father Fran- cis, at the mission, and have obtained from their library some books
* " Echoes in the City of the Angels," p. 205, vol. v, "Century Maga- zinc."
t " Ramona," p. 19.
198
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
of interest. From the west window of my room I look out on the mission buildings. The sun rests on them from sunrise to sunset, and they seem to me to say more than any human voice on record can convey. You will perhaps have heard that I was so unfortunate as not to find Mrs. Del Valle at home, so I only rested two hours at her house and drove on to Santa Barbara that night. I saw some of the curious old relics, but the greater part of them were locked up, and Mrs. Del Valle had the keys with her.
"The most interesting part of my journey was San Fernando. There I could spend a whole day, and I must tell you of a mistake I made ; perhaps if you see Mr. Pico you can rectify it for me. He said to me, when he was showing me some of the relics they have, 'Now, if you like, you can take some one of these things.' Of course I desired very much to have some of them; but I replied, merely out of the wish not to seem greedy or ungrateful : 'Oh, you are too kind to think of such a thing. I am afraid you ought not to give away any of them. Do you not rather prefer to keep them for the Church ?' And then he did not again offer them to me, and I was all the rest of the time waiting and hoping that he would ; but I came away without having the opportunity again to take any- thing. I suppose you will think I was very stupid. Indeed, I think so myself; but it is partly that I do not understand the cus- toms of the Spanish people in regard to such things.
" If it should happen that you see any of the family, you can tell them of my regret for having made such a mistake, and that I would be very glad to have anything they would like to part with. One of the old candlesticks I would very much like to have, or one of the old books of St. Augustine I had in my own mind decided that I would choose.
"I also wanted very much to have a piece of one of the old olive-trees if I could have found one that had blown down-a straight section of the trunk sawed across, about six inches thick, to make a round block, polished, to set my stone-bowl on. The driver promised to take two of the old palm-leaves to you to keep. I thought you would like one; the wind had strewed the ground with them. But I think it rained so hard the days he went back he did not stop to look for palm-leaves.
" When I come again with the artist we will go to San Fernan- do. It is one of the places I desire to see twice.
199
MISSION INDIANS.
" I send to you also by to-day's mail a copy of my little volume of poems. I thought that you would like that volume better than any other I have written. In a little more than four months I hope to see you again.
"Truly yours, and with many thanks for all your kindness, " HELEN JACKSON."
Mrs. Jackson rapidly became enthusiastic in her work for the Mission Indians, and succeeded in securing the ap- pointment of herself and Abbot Kinney, Esq., of Los An- geles, as special agents of the United States Government to investigate the condition of the Mission Indians. The following copy of a letter from Mrs. Jackson to the Com- missioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, lucidly outlines the work she desired to perform :
" To the Commissioner of Indian Affairs:
"DEAR SIR: I thank you for the expressions of confidence in your letter of the -. I hope the results of my work may not disappoint you. I do not undertake the mission without misgivings; but I trust that my earnest intent in the matter will stand me instead of knowledge and experience, and I am sure that Mr. Kinney's clear- headedness and familiarity with the region will be an invaluable assistance.
"Since the receipt of your letter, I have given the subject much thought, and will now outline to you what I understand to be the scope and intent of our investigations :
"1. To ascertain the present number of Mission Indians, where they are living, and how.
"2. What, if any, Government lands remain in Southern Cali- fornia which would be available for homes for them.
"3. If there is no longer left enough Government land fit for the purpose, which I strongly suspect, what land or lands can be bought, and at what prices ?
"4. What the Indians' own feelings are in regard to being moved onto reservations.
"So far as I can judge from what I saw and heard last winter, I believe that those Indians now living in villages would almost
200
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
rather die than be removed. Yet, in many instances, the lands on which the villages stood have been already patented to white men, and I understand that, in such cases, there is no possible redress for the Indians.
" Again, I am entirely sure that, to propose to those self-sup- porting farmers that they should be subjected to the ordinary reservation laws and restrictions, would be not only futile, but in- sulting. There is no more right or reason in an Indian agent, with the Indian agent's usual authority, being set over them, than there would be in attempting to bring the white farmers in Anaheim or Riverside under such authority.
" If this statement of what we are to do meets your views, will you kindly have it put into shape in form of a letter of specific in- structions, such a letter as will give me full authorization under all circumstances, both with the Indians and at the land-offices of the different counties? There should be also a separate letter, author- izing Mr. Kinney joining me in the work, and guaranteeing his ex- penses. One item of expense has occurred to me since my letter to Mr. Teller, and that is of an interpreter. In visiting the Indian villages, we should be obliged to take an interpreter with us. This should be provided for. My own expenses I will rate, as I told Mr. Teller, at twelve hundred dollars. This will cover my going out and returning. If it takes longer and costs more, I will defray the remainder myself.
"I would like these letters in duplicate, to guard against acci- dents."
Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney made their report, and the following letter tells how it was received, and gives us a glimpse of her passionate fondness for Indian relics ; but it also shows, which is of still greater interest, her method of getting material for "Ramona," and proves that, in writing this story, she was actuated by a philanthropic impulse similar to that which impelled Harriet Beecher Stowe to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
" COLORADO SPRINGS, November 8, 1883.
" MY DEAR FRIENDS, MR. AND MRS. CORONEL: I send you here- with the very bad picture of myself, which I think you will wish
201
MISSION INDIANS.
you had never seen. If you do, you are quite at liberty to burn it up.
" I had forgotten that I paid you the five dollars for the work done by the Indian woman. Keep it, if you please; there may be something to come from Father Ubach to pay expressage on, or there may be a box to be made to hold all my stone mortars, etc., which Mr. Bliss is going to get for me one of these years. It may be well for you to have a little money of mine on hand to meet these possible charges. I have asked Father Ubach to send to me to your care the old looking-glass frame which I forgot to put into the box he sent here; it was really one of the things I cared most for of all the relics promised me, and I was exceedingly sorry he forgot it. He, however, did much to atone for this by putting into the box a piece of one of the old olive-trees from the San Diego Mission. I shall present part of it to Archbishop Corrigan. I think he will value a piece of one of the fruit-trees planted by Father Junipero. I am sure you will have rejoiced at the removal of Lawson from the agency of the Mission Indians. I hope the new man will prove better ; he hardly can prove worse. I wish we could have selected the new agent ourselves; but it was a political appointment, of which we knew nothing until it was all settled. Our report has bren favorably received, and its recommendations will be incorpo- rated in a bill before Congress this winter. I hope the bill will pass. But I know too much of Washington to be sanguine. However, if we had accomplished nothing more than the securing the appoint- ment of Brunson & Wells, Los Angeles, as United States attorneys, to protect the Indians' rights to lands, that would be matter of gratitude. I suppose you have heard of that appointment. I hope through their means to save the Saboba village, San Jacinto, from being turned out of their home. Now, I am as usual asking help. I will tell you what my next work for the Indians is to be. I am going to try to write a novel, in which will be set forth some Indian experiences in a way to move people's hearts. People will read a novel when they will not read serious books. The scenes of the novel will be in Southern California, and I shall introduce enough of Mexicans and Americans to give it variety. The thing I want most, in way of help, from yon, is this: I would like an account, written in as much detail as you remember, of the time when you, dear Mr. Coronel, went to Temecula and marked off the boundaries
202
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
of the Indians' land there. How many Indians were living there then ? What crops had they ? Had they a chapel? etc. Was Pablo Assis, their chief, alive? I would like to know his whole his- tory, life, death, and all, minutely. The Temecula ejectment will be one of the episodes in my story, and any and every detail in con- nection with it will be of value to me. I shall also use the 'San Pasquale Pueblo History,' and I have written to Father Ubach and to Mr. Morse, of San Diego, for their reminiscence. You and they are the only persons to whom I have spoken of my purpose of writ- ing the novel, and I do not wish anything said about it. I shall keep it a secret until the book is about done.
" I hope very much that I can succeed in writing a story which will help to increase the interest already so much aroused at the East in the Indian question.
"If you think of any romantic incidents, either Mexican or In- dian, which you think would work in well into a story of Southern California life, please write them out for me. I wish I had had this plan in my mind last year when I was in Los Angeles. I would have taken notes of many interesting things you told me. But it is only recently, since writing out for our report the full accounts of the different bands of Indians there, that I have felt that I dared undertake the writing of a long story.
" I am going to New York in a few days, and shall be busily at work there all winter on my story. My address will be, 'The Berkeley,' corner Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street.
" I hope you are all well, and enjoying the same sunshine as last year. Mr. Jackson is well, and would send his regards if he were at home. Yours, always cordially,
" HELEN JACKSON."
Charles Dudley Warner, in a letter recently written from Los Angeles to the "Critic," says : ". . . It was my good fortune to see Mrs. Jackson frequently in New York, when she was writing 'Ramona,' which was begun and perhaps finished at 'The Berkeley.'
"The theme had complete possession of her ; chapter after chapter flowed from her pen as easily as one would write a letter to a friend. .. . When she became in-
203
MISSION INDIANS.
terested in the Indians, and especially in the hard fate of the Mission Indians in California, all her nature was fused for the time in a lofty enthusiasm of pity and indigna- tion, and all her powers seemed to be consecrated to one purpose. . . . I am certain that she could have had no idea what the novel would be to the people of Southern California, or how it would identify her name with all this region, and make so many scenes in it places of pilgrimage and romantic interest for her sake."
Every reader of "Ramona " remembers the birth, chris- tening, and death of "Blue-Eyes," and the following letter will show how Mrs. Jackson tried to get an Indian synonym for this name, but her efforts were in vain :
"NEW YORK, February 13, 1884.
"DEAR MR. AND MRS. CORONEL: I am glad you gave me my choice of the pictures; for the two I have taken I like, and the other two I think very bad. Mr. Sandham can have them. I have taken the two which show the side-view of your faces.
"I hope you are having better weather in Los Angeles than we have here. For three weeks we have scarcely seen the sun. Snows, rain, fogs, sleet, ice, have been our daily diet. It is far the worst winter I ever saw.
" Mr. Jackson returned to Colorado last month. I look for himn here again in March.
"I am still at work on my story. It is more than half done.
"I wish you would ask those Indian women, who made the lace for me, what would be in their Pala or San Luis Rey dialect, the words for blue-eyes. I want to have a little child called by that name in my story-if the Indian name is not too harsh to the ear. I often wish myself in Los Angeles, I assure you, in this horrible weather. Did you receive the copy of our report on the Mission Indians? I ordered it sent to you.
. "With many thanks for the pictures, and warm remembrances to you both and to Miss Mercedes,
"I am always, yours truly,
"HELEN JACKSON."
Ramona's Home, Camulos Ranch.
205
MISSION INDIANS.
The following letter is the beginning of the end. Mrs. Jackson never recovered from the accident here recounted.
Mrs. Jackson in this letter also pronounces for Cleve- land and Hendricks and the Democratic party, although she had received her appointment and allowance for ex- penses from a Republican administration, and speaks of Senator Dawes as the Indian's friend :
" COLORADO SPRINGS, September 4, 1884.
" MY DEAR FRIENDS: I am sorry to tell you that the bad news you heard of me was true. On the 28th of June I fell from the top to the bottom of my stairs, and broke my left leg-a very bad break; the large bone crushed in for about two inches, and the small bone snapped short. When they found me the leg was doub- led at right angles between the knee and ankle. Mr. Jackson thought when he saw it I would never walk again; but, on the con- trary, I am going to have as good a leg as ever. A great triumph for a woman of my age and weight. I am on crutches now, and very bad work I make with them, I assure you. I am too heavy and too much afraid. But I have a wheeled chair, in which I can go all about the house, and on the veranda, and I have had an exceedingly comfortable and pleasant summer in spite of the broken leg, and by New-Year's the doctor thinks I will be walking well.
"The message from the Rincon Indians made my heart ache. I shall send it to the Indian Commissioner at Washington; but, as you say, we can not hope for much result from it. The firm of Brun- son & Wells, lawyers in Los Angeles, were appointed last year, by our request, as United States attorneys, to act in all cases relating to Indian lands. It is a long time since I have heard from them. When I last heard, they hoped to save the Saboba lands for those Indians. It might be well for you to see them, and lay the case of these Rincon Indians before them. Say to Mr. Wells that I asked you to do so. You know that the time of the presidential election is now near, and at such times no man cares for anything but poli- tics. If Blaine and Logan are elected, I shall fear a sad four years for the Indians. Logan is an Indian-hater. I do not know what the Democratic party would be on the Indian question. It could not be worse than the other, and it might be better. The only mes-
206
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
sage you can give to those Indians from me, is that I have sent a copy of their message to Washington, and that is all I can do. That my heart aches for them, and has never ceased to ache since the day I was in their village. That many good people are interested for their race, and are trying to accomplish something for their help ; but the men in power in the Government change so often, it is hard to get anything done. And Congress (the great Council) will not give the money we ask for. If they could once be made to understand that everything depends on Congress voting the money for their relief, they would realize more that the officers of the Government are powerless to keep their promises. There are Indians starving to-day in Montana, because Congress last winter cut down the appropria- tions which the Indian Commissioner asked for for the year. You see when that is done, the Secretary of the Interior and the Indian Com- missioner are utterly helpless. They have no way of getting money except by Congress voting it. I sometimes wonder that the Lord does not rain fire and brimstone on this land, to punish us for our cruelty to these unfortunate Indians.
" Another Commission is coming out to California this autumn to look after the Round Valley Indians. One member of it is Sena- tor Dawes, who is a good friend to Indians. I have begged him to go down also into Southern California and see the Mission Indians. If he does, he will call on you. I have given him a letter to you. I never received the portraits of Father Junipero you speak of having sent me. Did you send them to this place, or to New York ?
" Mr. Jackson is very well, and would desire his remembrances to you both if he were at home. But he is in Denver at present. With many thanks for your letter, and warm regards to you both, also to your niece, I am always, truly yours,
" HELEN JACKSON."
Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson is dead, but her work goes vigorously on.
As a result of her efforts, a law was passed providing for a division of the reservation lands among these Indians, so that each one will have in his individual right one hun- dred and sixty acres, not subject to liens, mortgages, or debts of any nature for twenty-five years. There are in
207
MISSION INDIANS.
this law various other important points. In June, 1887, an agent from Washington and several members of the Indian Rights Association from Los Angeles and Pasadena, had a great conference with the Indian chiefs, or captains, as they are now called, at the celebrated Pala Mission, to explain the provisions of this bill. These philanthropists went to Temecula, one hundred and three miles from Los Angeles, by the California Central Railroad, and from this historic point went with teams over an interesting mountain-road to the Pala Mission, twelve miles away.
This mission is situated in a fertile valley, surrounded by a stupendous wall of mountains. Only a small portion of the valley now belongs to the Indians. Even the old mission itself has passed into the possession of others. Here, where but a few years ago were Indians following almost every honorable industrial avocation, under the benignant rule of the Franciscan Fathers, all is now silence, ruin, and desolation.
But, while the mission and its immediate surroundings are thus neglected, there are around it several fruit and grain ranches in a high state of cultivation. At the date of this conference, the apricots and peaches were just ripe, and the orchards were radiant with luscious fruit, that bent many of the boughs almost to the ground. Early on the morning of the conference, the Indian chiefs began coming in from the various reservations ; the majority on horse- back, others in spring-wagons, but all well-dressed in the American style. There were captains and generals, quite a number of whom spoke English, Spanish, and three or four Indian dialects fluently.
There were among them several who might have been Allessandros but no Ramonas. The agent mounted a step of the old mission, and the Indians gathered anxiously around. Each one had hat in hand, and they all stood there in the hot sun, with bared heads, watching the agent closely
208
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
as he spoke, and then listening attentively to the Hon. A. F. Coronel, of Los Angeles, as he interpreted the agent's remarks. There were in this audience some noble faces, to whom the term " noble red man" could be fittingly ap- plied.
One noticeable feature was their serious earnestness. They all remembered Mrs. Jackson, who made prolonged visits among them, and when the agent told them that he had promised Mrs. Jackson on her death-bed that he would go on with her work, they were visibly affected. Mrs. Jackson's name is familiar to almost every human being in Southern California, from the little three-year- old tot, who has her choice juvenile stories read to him, to the aged grandmother who shed tears of sympathy for Ramona.
At about the same time the Indians of the Pala Mission in San Diego County, one hundred miles south of Los An- geles, were talking of Mrs. Jackson's work and death, there was in progress the annual fiesta of the Del Valle family at Camulos, their beautiful ranch home, forty-five miles north of Los Angeles, in Ventura County.
Camulos is probably the only typical Spanish ranch now remaining in Southern California, and was wisely se- lected by Mrs. Jackson as the home of Ramona. Her de- scription of this place is delightful reading, and prepares the visitor to some extent for the treat in store for him. The large, picturesque, adobe house is encircled by im- mense vineyards, miles of tall and shapely olive-trees, and beautiful orange-groves, with their bright-green foliage, half covering their golden treasures.
Mrs. Del Valle, a stately, entertaining widow lady, is surrounded by a retinue of servants, so large that, to care for them, she requires all the appurtenances of a village.
Here is the school for her servants' children, the store- house where all supplies are doled out, the beautiful little
209
MISSION INDIANS.
chapel in the garden where she has daily prayers, and the post-office through which their correspondence is sent and received.
Here is the primitive mill for crushing the olives to make the oil, the wine-press making the healthful claret for which the place is noted, the still where grape-brandy is manufactured, the long cellars in which the wine and bran- dy are stored, the warehouses in which are housed enough grain and bacon to withstand years of famine, and the ex- tensive stables where are dozens of horses.
The annual fiesta is a gathering of the Del Valle family and a few invited guests that takes place in July, and lasts four days. The train from Los Angeles arrived about noon of the first day with twenty-five of the family and friends. Señora Del Valle stood at the entrance to the garden and welcomed each guest. The visitors were quickly conducted to their rooms, where water, comb, and brush soon removed all trace of the midsummer car-ride. Dinner was then an- nounced, and Senator Reginald F. Del Valle, a prominent Los Angeles attorney, sat at the head of the table, which was under a shady arbor in the garden but a few steps from the chapel. Two barbecued pigs, done to perfection, formed the principal meat of this meal, but there were olives, cooked and pickled, various Spanish dishes, contain- ing almost invariably chilis (red peppers) and olives, de- licious dessert, claret and white wine ad libitum, and the regulation black coffee. Surrounding this table were mem- bers of numerous distinguished Spanish-American families. The two features that attracted the particular attention of an American were the gallantry of the men and the beauty and vivacity of the ladies.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.