Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 10

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 10

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Some of the ordinances for the government of the pueblo, passed by the old regidores, were quaint and amusing, and illustrate the primitive modes of life and thought sixty and seventy years ago.

The regidores were particularly severe on the idle and improvident. The "Weary Willies" of that day were compelled to tramp very much as they are to-day. Ordinance No. 4, adopted Jan- uary 28, 1838, reads: "Every person not having any apparent occupation in this city, or its juris- diction, is hereby ordered to look for work within three days, counting from the day this ordinance is published; if not complied with he will be fined $2 for the first offense, $4 for the second offense, and will be given compulsory work for the third."

If the tramp only kept looking for work, but was careful not to find it, it seems, from the read- ing of the ordinance, there could be no offense, and consequently no fines nor compulsory work for the "Weary Willie."

The ayuntamiento of 1844 passed this ordi- nance: "Article 2. All persons without occu- pation or known manner of living, shall be deemed to come under the law of vagabonds, and shall be punished as the law dictates."

The ayuntamiento ordered a census of the vag- abonds. The census report showed 22 vagabonds -eight genuine vags and fourteen ordinary ones. It is to be regretted that regidores did not define the difference between a genuine and an ordinary vagabond.

The regidores regulated the social conditions of the people. "Article 19. A license of $2 shall be paid for all dances except marriage dances, for which permission shall be obtained from the judges of the city."

Here is a trades union regulation more than a half century old:

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

"Article 7. All grocery, clothing and liquor houses are prohibited from employing any class of servants foreign to the business without pre- vious verbal or written stipulations from their former employers. Anyone acting contrary to the above shall forfeit all right to claim re-im- bursement." Occasionally the regidores had lists of impecunious debtors and dead beats made out and published, and the merchants were warned not to give these fellows credit.

Sometimes the ayuntamiento promulgated legal restrictions against the pastime and pleasures of the people that seem to be almost as austere as were the old blue laws of Connecticut.

Ordinance 5 (passed January 20, 1838): "All individuals serenading promiscuously around the streets of the city at night without first having obtained permission from the alcalde, will be fined $1.50 for the first offense, $3 for the second, and for the third punished according to law."

Ordinance 6 (same date). "Every individual giving a dance at his house, or at any other house, without first having obtained permission from the alcalde, will be fined $5 for the first offense, and for the second and third punished according to law."

What the penalty of "punished according to law" was the ordinances do not define. It is safe to say that any serenader who had suffered for a first and second offense without law, was not anxious to experience a punishment "according to law" for the third.

The old pueblo had its periodical smallpox scares. Then the regidores had to act as a board of health and enforce their hygienic regulations; there were to physicians in the town then. In 1844 the disease became epidemic and the ayıin- tamiento issued a proclamation to the people and formulated a long list of hygienic rules to be observed. The object of the proclamation seemed to be to paint the horrors of the plague in such vivid colors that the people would be frightened into observing the council's rules. The procla- mation and the rules were ordered read by guards at the door of each house and before the Indian huts. I give a portion of the proclamation and a few of the rules:

"That destructive power of the Almighty, which occasionally punishes man for his numer- ous faults, destroys not only kingdoms, cities and towns, leaving many persons in orphanage and devoid of protection, but goes forth with an ex- terminating hand and preys upon science, art and agriculture-this terrible plague threatens this unfortunate department of the grand Mexican nation, and seems more fearful by reason of the small population, which cannot fill one-twentieth part of its territory. What would become of lier

if this eminently philanthropic ayuntamiento had not provided a remedy partly to counteract these ills? It would bereave the town of the arms dedicated to agriculture (the only industry of the country ), which would cease to be useful, and, in consequence, misery would prevail among the rest. The present ayuntamiento is deserving of praise, as it is the first to take steps beneficial to the community and the country.'

Among the hygienic rules were orders to the people to refrain from "eating peppers and spices which stimulate the blood;" "to wash all salted meats before using;" "all residents in good health to batlie and cleanse themselves once in eight days;" "to burn sulphur on a hot iron in their houses for fumigation." "Saloon-keepers shall not allow gatherings of inebriates in their saloons, and all travelers on inland roads must halt at the distance of four leagues from the towns and wash their clothes."

The alcaldes' powers were as unlimited as those of the ayuntamiento. They judged all kinds of cases and settled all manner of disputes. There were 10 lawyers to worry the judges and no juries to subvert justice and common sense by anomalous verdicts. Sometimes the alcalde was judge, jury and executioner, all in one. In the proceedings of the ayuntamiento, Marchi 6, 1837, José Sepulveda, second alcalde, informed the members "That the prisoners, Juliano and Tim- oteo, had confessed to the murder of Ygnacio Ortega, which was deliberated and premeditated." "He had decided to sentence them to capital punishment and also to execute them to-morrow, it being a holiday when the neighborhood assem- bles in town. He asked the members of the Illustrious Ayuntamiento to express their opin- jon in the matter, which they did, and all were of the same opinion. Señor Sepulveda said he had already solicited the services of the Rev. Father at San Gabriel, so that he may come to- day and administer spiritual consolation to the prisoners."

At the meeting of the ayuntamiento two weeks later, March 20, 1837, the record reads: "Second alcalde, José Sepulveda, thanked the members for acquiescing in his decision to shoot the pris- oners, Juliano and Timoteo, but after sending his decision to the governor, he was ordered to send the prisoners to the general government to be tried according to law by a council of war, and he had complied with the order." The bluff old alcalde could see no necessity for trying prison- ers who had confessed to a deliberate murder; therefore he proposed to execute them without a trial.

The prisoners, I infer, were Indians. While the Indians of the pueblo were virtually slaves to

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the raucheros and vineyardists, they were allowed certain rights and privileges by the ayuntamiento, and white men were compelled to respect thei. The Indians had been granted a portion of the pueblo lands near the river for a rancheria. They presented a petition at one time to the ayunta- miento, stating that the foreigner, Juan Domingo (John Sunday), had fenced in part of their land. The members of the council examined into the case. They found that John Sunday was guilty as charged, so they fined Juan $12 and compelled him to set back his fence to the line. The Indians were a source of trouble to the regidores, and there was always a number of them mnider sen- tence for petty misdemeanors. They formed the chain gang of the pueblo. Each regidor had to take his weekly turn as captain of the chain gang and superintend the work of the prisoners.

The Indian village, down by the river between what are now First street and Aliso, was the plague spot of the body politic. Petition after petition came to the council for the removal of the Indians. Finally, in 1846, the ayuntamiento ordered their removal across the river to the Aguage de Los Avilas (the Spring of the Avilas) and the site of their former village was sold to their old-time enemy and persecutor, John Sun- day, the foreigner, for $200, which was to be expended for the benefit of the Indians. Gov. Pio Pico borrowed the $200 from the council to pay the expenses of raising troops to suppress Castro, who, from his headquarters at Monterey, was supposed to be fomenting another revolution, with the design of making himself governor. If Castro had such designs the Americans frustrated them by promptly taking possession of the coun- try. Pico and his army returned to Los Angeles, but the Indians' money never came back any inore.

The last recorded meeting of the ayuntamiento under Mexican rule was held July 4, 1846, and the last recorded act was to give Juan Domingo a title to the pueblito-the lands on which the Indian village stood. Could the irony of fate have a sharper sting? The Mexican, on the birthday of American liberty, robbed the Indian of the last acre of his ancestral lands, and the American robbed the Mexican that robbed the Indian.

The ayuntamiento was revived in 1847, after the conquest, but it was not the "Most Illustrious" of former days. The heel of the conqueror was on the neck of the native, and it is not strange that the old-time motto, Dios y Libertad (God and liberty), was sometimes abbreviated in the later records to "God and etc." The secretary was sure of Dios, but uncertain about libertad.

The revenues of the city were small during the

Mexican era. There was 110 tax on land, and the municipal funds were derived principally from taxes on wine and brandy, from fines and from licenses of saloons and business houses. The pueblo lands were sold at the rate of 25 cents per front vara, or about 8 cents per front foot, for house lots. The city treasury was usual- ly in a state of financial collapse. Various ex- pedients for inflating were agitated, but the people were opposed to taxation and the plans never matured.

In 1837 the financial stringency was so pressing that the alcalde reported to the ayuntamiento that he was compelled to take country produce for fines. He had already received eight colts, six fanegas (about 9 bushels) of corn and 35 hides. The syndic immediately laid claim to the colts on his back salary. The alcalde put in a preferred claim of his own for money advanced to pay the salary of the secretary, and besides, he said, he had "boarded the colts." After con-

siderable discussion the alcalde was ordered to turn over the colts to the city treasurer to be appraised and paid out on claims against the city. In the meantime it was found that two of the colts had run away and the remaining six had demonetized the corn by eating it up-a contraction of the currency that exceeded in heinousness the "crime of '73."

The municipal revenue was small; between 1835 and 1845 it never exceeded $1,000 in any one year, and some years it fell as low as $500 a year. There were but few salaried offices, and the pay of the officials sinall. The secretary of the ayuntamiento received from $30 to $40 a month; the schoolmaster was paid $15 a month while school kept, but as the vacations greatly exceeded in length the school terms, his compen- sation was not munificent. The alcaldes, regi- dores and jueces del campos (judges of the plains ) took their pay in honors, and honors, it might be said, were not always easy. The church ex- penses were paid out of the municipal funds, and these usually exceeded the amount paid out for schools. The people were more spiritually in- clined than intellectually.

The form of electing city officers was similar to our plan of electing a president and vice-presi- dent. A primary election was held to choose electors; these electors met and elected the city officials. No elector could vote for himself. As but few of the voters could read or write, the voting at the primary election was by viva voce, and at the secondary election by ballot. The district was divided into blocks or precincts, and a commissioner or judge of election appointed for eachı block. The polls were usually held under the portico or porch of some centrally located

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, RECORD.

house. Judge of the election was not a coveted office, and those eligible to the office (persons who could read and write) often tried to be ex- cused from serving; but, as in Pantoja's case, the office usually refused to let go of the man.

Don Manuel Requena was appointed judge of a certain district. He sent in his resignation on the plea of sickness. The ayuntamiento was about to accept it when some one reported that Don Manuel was engaged in pruning his vine- yard, whereupon a committee of investigation was appointed, with Juan Temple, merchant, as medical expert. The committee and the impro- vised doctor examined Don Manuel, and reported that his indisposition did not prevent him from pruning, but would incapacitate him from serving as judge of the election. The mental strain of a primary was more debilitating than the physical strain of pruning. The right of elective franchise was not very highly prized by the common peo- ple. In December, 1844, the primary election went by default because no one voted.

The office of jueces del campos, or judges of

the plains, outlived the Mexican era and was continued for a dozen of years at least after the American conquest, and was abolished, or rather fell into decadence, when cattle-raising ceased to be the prevailing industry. The duties of the judges were to hold rodeos (cattle gatherings) and recojedas (horse gatherings) throughout the district; to settle all disputes and see that justice was done between owners of stock.

From 1839 to 1846 the office of prefect existed. There were two in the territory, one for northern California and one for the southern district. The prefect was a sort of sub or assistant governor. He was appointed by the governor with the ap- probation of the departmental assembly. All petitions for land and all appeals from the de- cisions of the alcaldes were passed upon by him before they were submitted to the governor for final decision. He had no authority to make a final decision, but his opinions had weight with the governor in determining the disposal of a question. The residence of the prefect for the southern district was Los Angeles.

CHAPTER XIII.

· HOMES AND HOME LIFE OF LOS ANGELES IN ITS ADOBE AGE.

ITIES in their growth and development pass through distinctive ages in the kind of ma- terial of which they are built. Most of the cities of the United States began their ex- istence in the wooden age, and have progressed successively through the brick and stone age, the iron age and are now entering upon the steel age. The cities of the extreme southwest-those of New Mexico, Arizona, Utalı and Southern California- like ancient Babylon and imperial Rome-began their existence in the clay or adobe age. It took Los Angeles three quarters of a century to emerge from the adobe age. At the time of its final con- quest by the United States troops (January 10, 1847) there was not within its limits (if I am rightly informed) a building built of any other material than adobe, or sun dried brick.

In the adobe age of the old pueblo every man was his own architect and master builder. He had no choice of material, or, rather, with his ease-

loving disposition, he chose that which was most easily obtained, and that was the tough black clay out of which the sun dried bricks called "adobes" were made.

The Indian was the brick-maker and he toiled for his task-masters like the Hebrew of old for the Egyptian, making bricks without straw-and without pay. There were no labor strikes in the building trades then. The Indian was the builder as well as the brick maker and he did not know how to strike for higher wages, for the very good reason that he received no wages. He took his pittance in food and aguardiente, the latter of which often brought him to enforced service in the chain gang. The adobe bricks were molded into form and set up to dry. Through the long summer days they baked in the hot sun, first on one side, then on the other; and when dried through they were laid in the wall with mud mortar. Then the walls had to

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

dry, and dry perhaps through another summer before the house was habitable.

When a new house was needed-and a house was not built in the adobe age until there was urgent need for it-the builder selected a site and applied to the ayuntamiento for a grant of a piece of the pueblo lands. If no one had a prior claim to the lot he asked for, he was granted it. If he did not build a house on it within a given time- usually a year from the time the grant was made- any citizen could denounce or file on the property and with permission of the ayuntamiento take possession of it; but the council was lenient and almost any excuse secured an extension.

In the adobe age of Los Angeles every man owned his own house. No houses were built for rent nor for sale on speculation. The real estate agent was unknown. There were no hotels nor lodging houses. When travelers or strangers from other towns paid a visit to the old pueblo they were entertained at private houses, or if 110 one opened his doors to them they camped ont or moved on to the nearest mission, where they were sure of a night's lodging.

The architecture of the adobe age had no freaks or fads in it. Like the laws of the Medes and Persians it altered not. There was, with but very few exceptions, but one style of house-the square walled, flat roofed, one story structure --- looking, as a writer of early times says: "Like so many brick kilns ready for the burning." Al- though there were picturesque homes in Cali- fornia under the Mexican régime and the quaint mission buildings of the Spanish era were massive and imposing, yet the average town house of the native Californian, with its clay-colored adobe walls, its flat asphaltum-covered roof, its ground floor, its rawhide door and its wooden or iron barred windows, was as devoid of beauty without as it was of comfort and convenience within.

Imaginative modern writers speak of the "quaint tiled roofs of old Los Angeles" as if they were a prominent feature of the old pueblo. Even in the palmiest days of its Mexican era tiled roofs were the exception. Besides the church and the cuartél, the other buildings that obtained the dis- tinction of being roofed with tiles were the Car- rillo House that stood on the present site of the Pico House; the house erected by José Maria Avila on Main street, north of the church; Don Vicente Sanchez' house, a two story adobe on the east side of the plaza; the Alvarado house, on First street, between Main and Los Angeles streets, and the house of Antonio Rocha on the present site of the Phillips Block, southwest corner of Franklin and North Spring streets. All these residences were erected between 1822 and

1828. The old cuartel (guard house) was built about 1786 and the Plaza Church was begun in 1814. At the time of the American conquest tile making was practically a lost art. It died out with the decadence of the missions. It is to be regretted that the tiled roof of the Church of Our Lady of the Angels was replaced by a shingled one when the building was remodeled in 1861. The fitness of things was violated when the change was made. It was only the aristocrats of the old pueblo who could afford to indulge in tiled roofs. The prevailing roofing material was brea or crude asphaltum.

James O. Pattie, a Kentucky trapper, who vis- ited Los Angeles in 1828, and wrote a narrative of his adventures in California, thus describes the buildings in the pueblo and the manner of roofing them: "The houses have flat roofs covered with bituminous pitch brought from a place within four miles of the town, where this article boils up from the earth. Asthe liquid rises, hollow bubbles like a shell of large size are formed. When they burst the noise is heard distinctly in the town. The large pieces thus separated with an ax are laid on the roof previously covered with earth, through which the pitch cannot penetrate when it is ren- dered liquid again by the heat of the sun."

This roof factory that Pattie describes seems to have ceased operations of late years, possibly be- cause there is no demand for its product. These boiling springs were still in operation, but prob- ably not manufacturing roofing material, when Fremont's battalion passed them in 1847. Lieu- tenant Bryant in his book, "What I Saw in Cali- fornia," says: "On the march from Cahuenga Pass to the City of Angels we passed several warm springs which throw up large quantities of bitumen or mineral tar." These springs are located on the Hancock rancho west of the city.

The adobe age of Los Angeles was not an æsthetic age. The old pueblo was homely al- most to ugliness. The clay-colored houses that marked the lines of the crooked and irregular streets were, without, gloomy and uninviting. There was no glass in the windows. There were 110 lawns in front, no sidewalks and 10 shade trees. The streets were ungraded and un- sprinkled and when the dashing Caballeros used them for race courses, dense clouds of yellow dust enveloped the houses.

There were no slaughter houses and each family had its own matanza in close proximity to the kitchen and in time the ghastly skulls of the slaughtered bovines formed veritable golgothas in back yards. The crows acted as scavengers and when not employed in the street department removing garbage sat on the roofs of the houses

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and cawed dismally. They increased and multi- plied until the "Plague of the Crows" compelled the ayuntamiento to offer a bonnty for tlieir destruction.

But even amid these homely surroundings there were æstlietic souls, that dreamed dreams of beauty and saw visions of better and brighter things for the old pueblo. The famous speech of Regidor Leonardo Cota, delivered before the ayuntamiento nearly sixty years ago, has been preserved to us in the old pueblo archives. It stamps the author as a man in advance of the age in which he lived. It has in it the hopefulness of boom literature, although somewhat saddened by the gloom of uncongenial surroundings. "The time has arrived," said he, "when the city of Los Angeles begins to figure in the political world, as it now finds itself the capital of the de- partment. Now, to complete the necessary work that, although it is but a small town, it should proceed to show its beauty, its splendor and its magnificence in such a manner that when the traveler visits us he may say, 'I have seen the City of the Angels; I have seen the work of its street commission, and all these demonstrate that it is a Mexican paradise.' It is not so under the present conditions, for the majority of its buildings present a gloomy, a melancholy aspect, a dark and forbidding aspect that resembles the catacombs of Ancient Rome more than the liab- itations of a free people. I present these proposi- tions:

"First, that the government be requested to enact measures so that within four months all house fronts shall be plastered and whitewashed.

"Second, tliat all owners be requested to re- pair the same or open the door for the denun- ciator. If you adopt and enforce these measures, I shall feel that I have done something for my city and my country."

Don Leonardo's eloquent appeal moved the de- partmental assembly to enact a law requiring the plastering and whitewashing of the house fronts under a penalty of fines, ranging from $5.00 to $25.00, if the work was not done within a given time. For awhile there was a plastering of cracked walls, a whitening of house fronts and a brightening of interiors. The sindico's account book, in the old archives, contains a charge of twelve reals for a fanega (one and a-half bushels) of lime, "to whitewash the court."

Don Leonardo's dream of transforming the "City of the Angels" into a Mexican paradise was never realized. The fines were never col- lected. The cracks in the walls widened and were not filled. The whitewash faded from tlie honse fronts and was not renewed. The old pueblo again took on the gloom of the catacombs.

The manners and customs of the people in the adobe age of the pueblo were in keeping with its architecture. There were no freaks and fads in their social life. The fashions in dress and living did not change suddenly. The few wealthy people in the town and country dressed well, even extravagantly, while the many poor people dressed sparingly-if indeed some were dressed at all. Robinson describes the dress of Tomas Yorba, a wealthy ranchero of the upper Santa Ana, as he saw him in 1829: "Upon his head he wore a black silk handkerchief, the four cor- ners of which hung down his neck behind. An embroidered shirt; a cravat of white jaconet taste- fully tied; a blue damask vest; short clothes of crimson velvet; a bright green cloth jacket, with large silver buttous, and shoes of embroidered deerskin composed his dress. I was afterwards informed by Don Manuel (Dominguez) that on some occasions, such as some particular feast day or festival, his entire display often exceeded in value a thousand dollars."

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Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present, Part 10

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996