USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 7
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"Our way was barren of interest till we came suddenly to an almost perpendicular descent of some thirty or forty feet into a
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deep and broad ravine, where formerly some river had flowed, but its bed was now filled with bushes and shrubs. Previous to this we passed a small shanty in an unfinished state, which had been erected some time before as a Custom-House, but owing to its incapacity and situation, had been abandoned. We saw also the commencement of a new Presidio, that, on account of the difficulty of procuring water, had also never been completed. These two monuments of the imprudence and want of foresight of the Governor, served as very good evidence to me of the want of sagacity and energy of the Government.
"A short ride further brought us to the house of our friend Don Manuel. We rode into the 'patio', or courtyard, where a servant took the horses. At the threshold of his door we were met by Don Manuel, who embraced us cordially, and presented us to the family, his mother, wife and sister. This was to be our home during the ship's detention, and though its coarse mud walls and damp ground floor did not altogether coincide with the idea I had previously formed of it, yet if their walls were cold, and their floors damp, their hearts were warm, and the abundance of their luxurious en- tertainment more than compensated for any disappointment.
"After dinner we called on the Gen. Don José Maria de Echeandia, a tall, gaunt personage, who received us with true Spanish dignity and politeness. His house was located in the centre of a large square of buildings occupied by his officers, and so elevated as to overlook them all, and command a view of the sea. On the right hand was a small Gothic chapel, with its cemetery, and immediately in front, close to its principal entrance, was the guard-room, where the soldiers were amusing themselves; some seated on the ground playing cards and smoking, while others were dancing to the music of the guitar ; the whole was surrounded by a high wall, originally intended as a defence against the Indians. At the gate strode a sentinel, with slouched hat and blanket thrown over one shoulder, his old Spanish musket resting on the other : his pantaloons were buttoned and orna- mented at the knees, below which, his legs were protected by leggins of dressed deer-skin, secured with spangled garters.
"On the lawn beneath the hill on which the Presidio is built stood about thirty houses of rude appearance, mostly occupied by retired veterans, not so well constructed in respect either to beauty or stability as the houses at Monterey, which with the exception of that belonging to our 'Administrador,' Don Juan Bandini, whose mansion, then in an unfinished state, bade fair, when completed, to surpass any other in the country.
"The climate of St. Diego is milder than that of any other part on the coast, and not so much subject to dense fogs as Monterey and St. Francisco. The soil presents a barren and uncultivated appear- ance, and although several spots dignified by the name of gardens are found upon the bank of a river which flows from the mountains during the rainy season, in which they cultivate a few vegetables, vet nothing can be seen of any agricultural importance except in places at some distance from the town. The hills and glens abound with many kinds of cactus, among which the rabbit and quail find shelter when pursued by the sportsman. These are both very numerous,
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the latter frequently rising in flocks of two or three hundred. Hares are abundant and here also, as at all other places on the coast during the rainy season, the plains and ponds are crowded with ducks and geese, while thousands of brant cover the extensive bay.
"Our accounts with the Custom-House were soon adjusted, and we were prepared to commence our trade. Visitors were numerous, both male and female, who came on board to purchase. Amongst others, the Rev. Padre Antonio Peyri, of the Mission of St. Luis Rey, had ex- pressed a wish to visit his many friends on shipboard for . besides our own, there were two other vessels in port, the English brig Vulture, under charter by H. D. Fitch, of Massachusetts (whose matrimonial adventures I shall presently relate) and the Mexican brig Maria Ester, from Acapulco. The good old priest was accordingly invited, and the last day of his visit was to be passed with us; other friends came also, and dinner was prepared for the occasion.
"As the old gentleman was held in universal respect upon the coast, not only as a founder of the Mission over which he presided, but also as a man of great mental energy and capacity ; high in favor with the government because of these qualities, and being dearly loved by the people for the extreme benevolence of his disposition, we were prepared to receive him with 'all the honors.' Accordingly as the Reverend Padre descended the gangway, we thundered forth a salute and proceeded to show him the different parts of the vessel. Parti- cularly did we call his attention to our trade-room, which had been fitted up with shelves and counters, resembling in appearance a country variety store. The amount of his purchase testified how vastly he had been pleased.
"On the following morning he departed, and when the boat had reached a short distance from the ship, the men laid upon their oars whilst our guns sounded a parting salute. As the smoke cleared off I beheld the old man standing in the boat, and gazing toward us with apparent delight, and I thought I could perceive from the glisten- ing of his eye that future patronage would be the result of this reception."
Another interesting account of San Diego at this period is given in William Heath Davis' "Sixty Years in California." Davis came here in 1831, two years after the time of which Robinson wrote. Gover- nor Echeandia's term of office had ended, but conditions at San Diego were not changed to any great extent, of course. Davis' account makes it plain that the military headquarters was still maintained at the presidio, which, wrote Davis, was placed so as to protect the citizens of the "miniature city" from "the ferocious and savage In- dians." He estimates that the citizens and soldiers at that time numbered from 400 to 500. "Quite a large place," remarked the writer. Davis also observed that at San Diego in those days there was much gaiety and refinement, the people being, according to his account, "the elite of this portion of the department of California." Old Town had been laid out, but the people had not yet become satisfied that they would be entirely safe in leaving the protection of the presidio for houses on the level land below Presidio Hill. Mon- terey by that time had been designated as the port of entry for
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California and also the seat of Government, and vessels which came from the Atlantic coast were obliged to go to Monterey and enter that port before they could come to San Diego for trading : but, after paying the necessary duties at Monterey, they could enter any other California port.
Echeandia's term ended in December, 1830, when Col. Manuel Victoria, the new governor, arrived in San Diego. His headquarters was established at Monterey. Pio Pico, Juan Bandini and several others started a little revolution at San Diego and organized a force which went to Los Angeles and seized it. Victoria was badly wounded in a battle which followed and left the country. The months that followed were full of plots and threatened revolutions. Echeandia went to Mexico in 1833 to remain. Pico became governor in 1832.
The pueblo of San Diego was formed on December 21, 1834. Juan Maria Osuna was the first alcalde, or mayor. In 1838 the population had fallen off to such an extent that San Diego was not entitled to a town council or ayuntamiento, as the Californians called it, and from that time until the United States stepped in. San Diego was under Los Angeles jurisdiction.
The last years of California rule were filled with petty political disputes among the various leaders, "revolutions" with "armies" of 100 men and "battles" which were sometimes wholly bloodless. In the political affairs of the time the following were some who were prom- inent : Juan Bandini, Pio Pico, who became governor : Andres Pico, who had command of the Californians at the battle of San Pasqual in 1846: Santiago E. Arguello and Francisco Maria Alvarado. Of these by far the most noted in San Diego annals was Bandini, a slightly built yet impressively, dignified, typically graceful Spanish gentle- man. On one side of the plaza in Old Town he erected a mansion, then very fine, at least in comparison with many of those around it. and its walls still stand, although they bear the additional burden of another story, in less romantic times, to serve as part of a hotel. In this mansion, as in the Estudillo home across the way, there was many a gay dance or ball. When Commodore Robert F. Stockton arrived at San Diego and took the port it was Bandini himself who. siding with the Americans, as did many of his kind, offered the residence to Stockton for the American headquarters. Exquisitely polite, well educated, known far and wide as one of the most gracious and hospitable of all residents of California, a fluent writer, a good speaker, with a biting sarcasm, the father of several beautiful daugh- ters, Bandini indeed was a notable figure of the period and easily the foremost citizen of San Diego at the time. Just before the United States went to war against Mexico, Bandini was secretary to Governor Pico, but he soon espoused the American cause without hesitation and became one of its most loyal and valuable supporters in this part of California. He died at Los Angeles in 1859 leaving a family, several branches of which are still prominent in California.
Pio Pico, in the last few months of his rule, made a name for himself by giving away land to his friends and followers. He did it lavishly and almost up to the last minute before the Americans took control of California. And he thereby built up a puzzle which it took the American courts many a long day to solve. John Steven
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McGroarty, the gifted California writer, in his "Los Angeles, From the Mountains to the Sea," refers to Governor Pico's action thus :
"It appears from the records, not to speak of the memory of men still living, that no governor of California even remotely ap- proached in openhanded generosity Don Pio Pico."
The truth of the matter is, as McGroarty says, that Governor Pico and his close associates saw that California was certain to fall into the hands of the United States and that it would be a fine thing to apportion as much of this land as possible to his friends and supporters. So he kept at the task of conveying property up to the very last and made a legal tangle which went up to the Supreme
O'NEILL RANCH HOUSE (LOOKING SOUTH) BUILT BY PIO PICO IN 1820.
Don Juan Forster lived in this house from 1870 to 1882. Since that time it has been occupied by Richard O'Neill and his son, Jerome O'Neill.
Court of the United States. This court, after many years of effort in American courts to decide between valid and fraudulent titles to the vast expanse of land claimed by virtue of Pico's grants, said :
"No class of cases that come before this court are attended with so many and such perplexing difficulties as these are. The number of them which we are called upon to decide bears a very heavy dis- proportion to the other business of the court, and this is unfortunately increasing instead of diminishing. Some idea of the difficulties that surround these cases may be obtained by recurring to the loose and indefinite manner in which the Mexican Government made the grants which we are now required judicially to locate. That Govern- ment attached no value to the land, and granted it in what to us appears magnificent quantities. Leagues instead of acres were their
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units of measurement, and when an application was made to the Government for a grant which was always a gratuity, the only ques- tion was whether the locality asked for was vacant or public property. When the grant was made, no surveyor sighted a compass or stretched a chain. Indeed, these instruments were probably not to be had in that region. A sketch, called a diseno, which was rather a map than a plat of the land, was prepared by the applicant. It gave, in a rude and imperfect manner, the shape and general outline of the land desired, with some of the more prominent natural objects noted on it, and a reference to the adjoining tracts owned by individuals, if there were any, or to such other objects as were supposed to con- stitute the boundaries. Their ideas of the relation of the points of the compass to the objects on the map were very inaccurate; and as these sketches were made by uneducated herdsmen of cattle, it is easy to imagine how imperfect they were. Yet they are now often the most satisfactory and sometimes the only evidence by which to locate these claims."
Literally hundreds of these cases were reviewed by the United States Supreme Court. Many celebrated attorneys took part in the preparation and argument of these cases. Among them were Jeremiah Sullivan Black, at one time Attorney-general of the United States; Caleb Cushing, Edwin M. Stanton, Reverdy Johnson, William M. Everts, John J. Crittenden, Judah P. Benjamin, Charles O'Conor, Titian J. Coffey, and Hall McAllister.
The United States Land Commission, to which was intrusted the task of investigating these grants, reported that a greater variety of subjects or a wider field of inquiry had rarely if ever been put before any tribunal. In connection with this the work of Col. J. D. Steven- son of the U. S. Army is of interest. In the spring of 1847 he was put in command of the southern military district of this state and instructed to investigate the Mexican land grants.
"Colonel Stevenson," writes McGroarty, "said that soon after he got his district in order he began to make inquiries as to who were the civil officers under Pico, and learned from Abel Stearns and others that he (Stearns) was either the prefect or subprefect, and an intimate and confidential friend of Pico, and from him and others he learned that grants were made after it was known that the Americans had taken possession of California, which were antedated, and especially those made in this section of the county from San Jose this way, and that a very large portion of them were signed by Pico on the day and night preceding his start for Mexico, which was about the 8th or 9th of August, 1846: Stearns told him that he was present on the day and night referred to, especially the night those grants were executed, and that Pico left him (Stearns) in charge as next officer in command. These grants were frequently the subject of conversa- tion : and on one occasion a party to whom a valuable grant was made, confessed to him that the grant was executed that night. and he knew nothing of it until he was sent for to accept the grant. He availed himself of every opportunity to obtain information about these grants, both by conversation and otherwise.
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"And that was the way things went in those days-the good old days now long since gone, when a few thousand acres of land between friends was a small matter; and not as it is now, when they mea- sure it off by the inch to you, and every foot of it in Los Angeles is worth a king's ransom."
CHAPTER V
IN THE MEXICAN WAR
Viewed in the light of modern warfare, with its powerful guns, torpedoes, its gas, its tremendous naval and military equipments and its great sea and land forces, San Diego's part in the Mexican war now seems to have been a puny affair. It doubtless was serious enough for those who had part in it in this section. Yet even they lived in an atmosphere strikingly different from that of the present day San Diegan. The romanticism and chivalrous nature of the Spanish families of California gave to the picture a tone all itsown. For San Diego was never wholly Mexican, even when Mexico ruled, and this distinction became more apparent when the course of the United States seemed bound to triumph in the fight against the new and politically unsettled republic below the Rio Grande. Then, too, Americans had begun to settle in this section and to marry into the families they found here. Some of these had become Mexican citi- zens, and their Spanish wives were loyal to their husbands. Some of the best known Spanish families indeed sided with the Americans as soon as the war started. Such were the Bandinis and Arguellos. When the war actually came to San Diego it came in a softened fashion, bringing days more filled with apprehension than carnage, episodes more dramatic than important from a military viewpoint.
So it was when Captain Samuel F. Dupont sailed into San Diego harbor on July 29, 1846, in the sloop Cyane, bringing John C. Fre- mont and his band of eighty, about as many marines and a party of scouts headed by the redoubtable Kit Carson of "the terrible eye." All formed the "California Battalion." Fremont wasted no time in hoisting the American flag at Old Town and in leaving a marine guard there to see that it stayed at the top of the staff, floating over the southernmost settlement in California. Apparently Fremont feared little trouble here : certainly he did not experience much. The Cvane remained here until August 9, and having left the troops ashore, beat out to sea again. Fremont's plan was to use San Diego as a base for a movement upon Los Angeles, then an important point, so as soon as he could prepare for the march north, he left, departing the day before the Cyane sailed out. Only a small garrison was left at San Diego. Near Los Angeles Fremont joined forces with Com- modore Robert F. Stockton, and they seized that city. The Cali- fornians in that section, however, soon organized a force formid- able in numbers, took Los Angeles back again and determined on an attempt to wrest San Diego from the Americans. The garrison at San Diego had been cut down to a very small number of men, and the defenders, hearing that the Californians were coming in force,
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decided on a retreat. So aboard the whaler Stonington, then in the harbor, they went, taking with them their sympathizers and their families. The next morning the Mexicans had raised their flag at Old Town. American reinforcements were called from Los Angeles by boat, and a member of the American party, who was sent ashore, got to the old cannon on Presidio Hill and spiked them. Then the Americans landed, taking two cannon, and marched on the town. It was then time for the Mexicans to absent themselves, and after making a nice picture of battle array, they departed. The Mexican flag was then hauled down and replaced with the Stars and Stripes. The honor of raising the American colors was given, so tradition has it, to Albert B. Smith, to whose able hands had been entrusted the task of spiking the Mexican guns. A girl, Maria Antonia Machado, kept the Mexican flag from falling to the dust and carried it off loyally and lovingly.
Thereafter San Diego was American territory, although it was besieged with a fair degree of success by the Mexicans, whose course of action compelled Stockton to come here and start a vigorous cleaning up of the territory around San Diego. In this task the Spanish fighters who had joined the Americans did valiant service, Captain Santiago Arguello and Captain Miguel de Pedrorena taking their men in a brave assault on the Mexican trenches wherein was a cannon with which they were peppering the Americans. The as- sault was a dashing exploit and was successful. the gun being cap- tured and the Mexicans being driven away. Stockton then built a strong fort which has borne his name ever since and whose earth- works have lasted through many years. Also he brought together a force of considerable size and drilled his men with great care for a new movement upon Los Angeles. San Diego thus acquired real military importance. With it came a social importance, for the American officers were glad of a chance to participate in social ac- tivitv, and their feelings were well matched by those of the Spanish residents. Commodore Stockton at this time made his headquarters in the Bandini residence at the request of its illustrious owner, and there were many gay dances and parties in the little town. For the Spanish loved this kind of life and welcomed men who fitted into it. Meanwhile the Mexicans, now under Gen. Andres Pico, were in the vicinity of San Bernardo and about eighty strong. Such was the situation when Commodore Stockton heard of the unexpected approach of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearney and his little army, march- ing from the East. That brings the story to the battle of San Pasqual.
CHAPTER VI
BATTLE OF SAN PASQUAL
The battle of San Pasqual was not an important engagement in a military way and certainly was not of importance because of num- bers involved, but it deserves a place in American history because it signalizes in a manner the seizure of Alta California from the Cali- fornians, or Mexicans. Examination of the available records and accounts, too, does not provide any great reason to heap laurels upon the American commander on this occasion ; to the contrary the verdict would seem to be that, although he won a technical victory because the leader of the Californians fled with his troops at the end, it was a costly victory, decidedly not one to try to repeat. To San Diego, however, the battle, so-called, has a special significance be- cause it was the only real battle ever fought in this county. As this volume is being prepared steps have been taken to mark the battle field with a memorial, for which the state of California will contribute a fund.
The battle was fought in the little San Pasqual valley, in the Northern part of San Diego County, not very far from Escondido. To this valley, in 1920, came Owen C. Coy, Ph. D., director of the California Historical Survey Commission, to whom had been delegated the task of preparing a narrative of the events connected with the engagment, with special reference to its location and to determine a way in which the state could suitably mark the site. He came in connection with a gift received by the state from William G. Henshaw and Ed. Fletcher of an acre of ground supposed to be the site of the battle and accepted by California in 1919. in an act which contained a recommendation that the site be marked in a fit manner. Dr. Cov collected a wealth of material concerning the fight, and from his able report, printed in 1921. the writer has drawn extensively.
The American commander at the battle of San Pasqual was Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, for whom Camp Kearny, training ground near San Diego of thousands of young Americans in 1917 and 1918 for service in the Great war, was named. When the Mexican war began, General Kearny, then a colonel in rank, was made brigadier- general and placed in command of an expedition composed of volun- teers from various Southwestern States and called the "army of the west." although, as a matter of fact, it is said that it never contained more than about 400 men. The leader on the Mexican side was Cap- tain Andres Pico, under orders of General Flores, commandante of the Californians.
In July Commodore John D. Sloat had raised the American flag at Monterey and during the few months immediately following the
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supremacy of the United States troops on California soil was gen- erally recognized, except by rather small and rather scattered bands of native Californians. Pico led one of those bands, which was hovering at the time not far from San Diego, and to the north of the city. In its preparations for the war with Mexico the Government had arranged a plan whereby General Kearny should push overland with his force, take possession of New Mexico, and then to go ahead with sufficient force to California, there to co-operate with the United States naval forces in occupation of the coast. Large discretion in all matters was left to General Kearny, the letter of instructions from William L. Marcy, Secretary of War, laying emphasis on this point, one made doubtless with full realization that General Kearny and his men would have to traverse a country about which, of course, comparatively little was then known at Washington. In it wild sec- tions and desert areas abounded and in it at any time the American soldiers might be confronted by hostile forces. Through such a country, however, these American troops were trained to go for fight- ing business, and it appears also that they were as brave a band as ever started out on a mission of the kind.
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