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 18

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 18

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Colonel P. St. George Cooke, commander of the

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Mormon battalion, but an officer of the regular army, was made commander of the military district of the south, with headquarters at Los Angeles. Fremont's battalion was mustered out of the serv- ice and Fremont himself ordered to report to Gen- eral Kearny at Monterey and turn over the pa- pers and accounts of his governorship. He did so, and passed out of office. He was nominally governor of the territory about two months. His jurisdiction did not really extend beyond Los Angeles. He accompanied General Kearny east, leaving Los Angeles May 12 and Monterey May 31. At Fort Leavenworth General Kearny placed him under arrest and preferred charges against him for disobedience of orders. He was tried by court-martial at Washington and was ably defended by his father-in-law, Colonel Ben- ton, and his brother-law, William Carey Jones. The court found him guilty and fixed the penalty -dismissal from the service. President Polk remitted the penalty, and ordered Colonel Fre- mont to resume his sword and report for duty. He resigned his commission in the army.

Col. Richard B. Mason succeeded General Kearny as commander-in-chief of the troops and military governor of California. Col. Philip St. George Cooke resigned command of the military district of the south in May and went east with General Kearny. Col. J. D. Stevenson, of the New York volunteers, suc- ceeded Cooke. His regiment, the First New York, had been recrnited in eastern New York in the summer of 1846 for the double purpose of conquest and colonization. It came to the coast well provided with provisions and implements of husbandry. It reached California via Cape Horn. The first transport, the Perkins, reached Yerba Buena March 6, 1847; the second, the Drew, March 19; and the third, the Loo Choo, March 26. Hostilities had ceased in California before their arrival. Two companies, A and B, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Burton, were sent to Lower California, where they saw hard service and took part in several engagements. The other companies of the regiment were sent to dif- ferent towns in Upper California to do garrison duty. Companies E and G were stationed at Los Angeles.

Colonel Stevenson had under his command a force of about 600 men, consisting of four con- panies of the Mormon battalion, two companies of U. S. Dragoons and the two companies of his own regiment. The Mormon battalion was mustered out in July, 1847; the New York volunteers remained in service until August, 1848. Most of these volunteers remained in Cali- fornia and several became residents of Los Angeles.

Auother military organization that reached California after the conquest was Company F of the Third U. S. Artillery. It landed at Mon- terey January 28, 1847, under command of Capt. C. Q. Thompkins. With it came Lieuts. E. O. C. Ord, William T. Sherman and H. W. Halleck, all of whom were prominent afterwards in Cali- fornia and attained national reputation during the Civil War. Lieutenant Ord made what is known as Ord's survey of Los Angeles. After the treaty of peace was made, in 1848, four com- panies of U. S. Dragoons, under command of Maj. L. P. Graham, marched from Chihuahua, by way of Tucson, to California. Major Graham was the last military commander of the south.

Under Colonel Stevenson's administration the reconstruction, or rather it might be more appro- priately called the transformation, period really began. The orders from the general govern- ment were to conciliate the people and to make no radical changes in the form of government. The Mexican laws were continued in force. In February an ayuntamiento was elected. The members were: First alcalde, José Salazar; second alcalde, Enrique Avila; regidores, Miguel N. Pryor, Julian Chavez, Rafael Gallardo and José A. Yorba; sindico, José Vicinte Guerrero; secretary, Ignacio Coronel.

The council proceeded to grant house lots and perform its various municipal functions as formerly. Occasionally there was friction be- tween the military and civil powers, and there were rumors of insurrections and invasions. There were, no doubt, some who hoped that the prophecy of the doggerel verses that were de- risively sung by the women occasionally might come true :

" Poco tiempo Viene Castro Con mucho gente Vamos Americanos."

But Castro came not with his many gentlemen, nor did the Americans show any disposition to vamos; so with that easy good nature so char- acteristic of the Californians they made the best of the situation. "A thousand things," says Judge Hays, "combined to smooth the asperities of war. Fremont had been conrteous and gay; Mason was just and firm. The natural good temper of the population favored a speedy and perfect conciliation. The American officers at once found themselves happy in every circle. In suppers, balls, visiting in town and country, the hours glided away with pleasant reflections."

There were, however, a few individuals who were not happy unless they could stir up dis- sensions and cause trouble. One of the chief of these was Serbulo Varela-agitator and revolu-

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tionist. Varela, for some offense not specified in the records, had been committed to prison by the second alcalde, or judge of the second instance. Colonel Stevenson turned him out of jail and Varela gave the judge a tongue lashing in refuse Castilian. The judge's official dignity was hurt. He sent a communication to the ayuntamiento saying, "Owing to personal abuse which I re- ceived at the hands of a private individual and from the present military commander, I tender my resignation."

The council sent a communication to Colonel Stevenson, asking why he had turned Varela out of jail and why he had insulted the judge.

The colonel curtly replied that the military would not act as jailers over persons guilty of trifling offenses while the city had plenty of per- sons to do guard duty at the jail. As to abuse of the judge, he was not aware that any abuse had been given, and would take no further notice of him unless he stated the nature of the insult offered him.

The council decided to notify the governor of the outrage perpetrated by the military com- mander, and the second alcalde said, since lie could get no satisfaction for insults to his authority from the military despot he would resign; but the council would not accept his resignation, so he refused to act and the city had to worry along with one judge.

When the time came around for the election of a new ayuntamiento there was more trouble. Stephen C. Foster, the colonel's interpreter, sub- mitted a paper to the council stating that the government had authorized him to get up a register of voters. And the ayuntamiento voted to return the paper just as it was received. Then the colonel made a demand of the council to assist Mr. Esteban Foster in compiling a register of voters. Regidor Chavez took the floor and said such a register should not be gotten up under the auspices of the military, but since the government had so disposed, thereby outraging this honorable body, no attention should be paid to said communication. But the council decided that the matter did not amount to much, so they granted the request, much to the disgust of Chavez. The election was held and a new council elected. At the last meeting of the old council, December 29, 1847, Colonel Stevenson addressed a note to it, requesting that Mr. Stephen C. Foster be recognized as first alcalde and judge of the first instance. The council de- cided to turn the whole business over to its suc- cessor, to deal with as it sees fit.

Colonel Stevenson's request was made in accordance with the wish of Governor Mason,

that a part of the civil offices be filled by Ameri- cans. The new ayuntamiento resented this inter- ference.

How the matter terminated is best told in Stephen C. Foster's own words: "Colonel Stevenson was determined to have our inaugura- tion done in style. So on the day appointed (January 1, 1848) he, together with myself and colleague, escorted by a guard of soldiers, pro- ceeded from the colonel's quarters (which were in the house now occupied as a stable by Fergu- son & Rose) to the alcalde's office, which was where the City of Paris store now stands on Main street. There we found the retiring ayun- tamiento and the new one awaiting our arrival. The oath of office was to be administered by the retiring first alcalde. We knelt to take the oath, when we found they had changed their minds, and the alcalde told us that if two of their 111111- ber were to be kicked out they would all go. So they all marched out and left us in possession. Here was a dilemma; but Colonel Stevenson was equal to the emergency. He said he could give us a swear as well as the alcalde. So we stood up and he administered to us an oath to support the constitution of the United States and admin- ister justice in accordance with Mexican law. I then knew as much about Mexican law as I did about Chinese, and my colleague knew as much as I did. Guerrero gathered up the books that pertained to his office and took them to his house, where he established his office, and I took the archives and records across the street to a house I had rented, where Perry & Riley's build- ing now stands, and there I was duly installed for the next seventeen months, the first American alcalde and carpet-bagger in Los Angeles."

"The late Abel Stearns was afterwards ap- pointed syndic. We had instructions from Gov- ernor Mason to make no grants of land, but to attend only to criminal and civil business and current municipal affairs. Criminal offenders had formerly been punished by being confined in irons in the calaboose, which then stood on the north side of the plaza, but I induced the Col- onel to loan me balls and chains and I had a chain gang organized for labor on the public works, under charge of a gigantic old Mexican soldier, armed with a carbine and cutlass, who soon had his gang under good discipline and who boasted that he could get twice as much work out of his men as could be got out of the sol- diers in the chain gang of the garrison."

The rumors of plots and impending insurrec- tions was the indirect cause of a serious catas- troplie. On the afternoon of December 7, 1847, an old lady called upon Colonel Stevenson and

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informed him that a large body of Californians had secretly organized and fixed upon that night for a general uprising, to capture the city and massacre the garrison. The information was sup- posed to be reliable. Precautions were taken against a surprise. The guard was doubled and a strong reserve stationed at the guardhonse, which stood on the hillside about where Beau- dry's stone wall on the new High street is now. A piece of artillery was kept at the guardhouse. About midnight one of the outpost pickets saw, or thought he saw, a horseman approaching liim. He challenged, but receiving no reply, fired. The guard at the cuartel formed to repel an attack. Investigation proved the picket's horse- man to be a cow. The guard was ordered to break ranks. One of the cannoneers had lighted a port fire (a sort of fuse formerly used for firing cannon). He was ordered to extingnish it and return it to the arm chest. He attempted to ex- tinguish it by stamping on it, and supposing he had stamped the fire out, threw it into the chest filled with ammunition. The fire rekindled and a terrific explosion followed that shook the city like an earthquake. The guardhouse was blown to pieces and the roof timbers thrown into Main street.

The wildest confusion reigned. The long roll sounded and the troops flew to arms. Four men were killed by the explosion and ten or twelve wounded, several quite seriously. The guard- honse was rebuilt and was used by the city for a jail up to 1853.

This catastrophe was the occasion of the first civil marriage ever celebrated in Los Angeles. The widow of Sergeant Travers, one of the sol- diers killed by the explosion, after three months of widowhood, desired to enter the state of double blessedness. She and the bridegroom, both being Protestants, could not be married in the Catholic Church, and there was no minister of any other denomination in the country. In their dilemma they applied to Alcalde Foster to have a civil ceremony performed. The alcalde was doubtful whether his powers admitted of marrying people. There was no precedent for so doing in Mexican law, but he took the chances. A formidable legal document, still on file in the recorder's office, was drawn up and the parties signed it in the presence of witnesses, and took a solemn oath to love, cherish, protect, defend and support on the part of the husband, and the wife, of her own choice, agreed to obey, love, serve and respect the man of her choice in accordance with the laws of the State of New York. Then the alcalde de- clared James C. Burton and Emma C. Travers man and wife, and they lived happily ever after-

wards. The groom was a soldier in the service of the United States and a citizen of the State of New York.

The treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a hamlet a few miles from the City of Mexico, Feb- ruary 2, 1848; ratifications were exchanged at Queretaro, May 30 following, and a proclamation that peace had been established between the two countries was published July 4, 1848. Under this treaty the United States assumed the pay- ment of the claims of American citizens against Mexico, and paid in addition $15,000,000 for Texas, New Mexico and Alta California-an area of nearly half a million square miles. Ont of what was the Mexican territory of Alta Cal- ifornia there has been carved all of California, all of Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and part of Col- orado and Wyoming. The area acquired by this territorial expansion equaled that of the thir- teen colonies at the time of the Revolutionary War.

. Pio Pico arrived at San Gabriel July 17, 1848, on his return from Sonora. From San Fernando he addressed letters to Colonel Stevenson and Governor Mason, stating that as Mexican Gov- ernor of California he had come back to the coun- try, with the object of carrying out the armistice which then existed between the United States and Mexico. He further stated that he had no desire to impede the establishment of peace be- tween the two countries; and that he wished to see the Mexicans and Americans treat each other in a spirit of fraternity. Mason did not like Pico's assumption of the title of Mexican Gov- ernor of California, although it is not probable that Pico intended to assert any claim to his for- mer position. Mason sent a special courier to Los Angeles with orders to Colonel Stevenson to arrest the ex-governor, who was then at his Santa Margarita ranch, and send him to Monterey, but the news of the ratification of the treaty of Guad- alupe Hidalgo reached Los Angeles before the arrest was made and Pico was spared this humilia- tion.

In December, 1848, after peace was restored, Alcalde Foster, under instructions from Governor Mason, called an election for choosing an ayun- tamiento to take the place of the one that failed to qualify. The voters paid no attention to the call and Governor Mason instructed the officers to hold over until the people chose to elect their successors. In May a second call was made under Mexican law. By this time the voters had gotten over their indignation at being made American citizens, nolens volens. They elected an ayun- tamiento which continued in power to the close of the year. Its first session was held May 21,

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1849. First alcalde, José del Carmen Lugo; sec- oud alcalde, Juan Sepulveda; regidores, José Lopez, Francisco Ocampo, Thomas Sanchez; syndic, Juan Temple; secretary, Jesus Guerado. All of these had been citizens of Mexico, Juan Temple having been naturalized twenty years be- fore. The Governor's wish to have Americans fill part of the city offices was evidently disre- garded by the voters. Stephen C. Foster was appointed prefect October 29, 1849, by Governor Bennett Riley, the successor of Governor Mason.

In December, 1849, the last ayuntamiento was elected. The members were: First alcalde, Abel Stearns; second alcalde, Ygnacio del Valle; reg- idores, David Alexander, Benito D. Wilson, José

L. Sepulveda, Manuel Garfias; syndic, Francisco Figueroa; secretary, Jesus Guirada. The legisla- ture of 1849-50 passed an act incorporating Los Angeles (April 4, 1850) as a city. In the act of incorporation its area is given as four square miles. During its probationary state, from Jan- uary, 1847, until its incorporation as a city by the legislature, it sometimes appears in the official records as a pueblo (town) and sometimes as a ciudad (city). For a considerable time after the conquest official communications bore the motto of Mexico, Dios y Libertad (God and Liberty). The first city council was organized July 3, 1850, just four years, lacking one day, after the closing session of the ayuntamiento under Mexican rule.

CHAPTER XXII.

A CITY WITHOUT A PLAN-ORD'S SURVEY-HISTORIC STREETS.

IFTY years after its founding Los Angeles was like the earth on the morning of Crea- tion-"without form." It had no plat or plan, no map and no official survey of its boundaries. The streets were crooked, irregular and undefined. The houses stood at different angles to the streets and the house lots were of all geometrical shapes and forms. No man held a written title to his land and possession was ten parts of the law; indeed it was all the law he had to protect his title. Not to use his land was to lose it.

With the fall of the missions a spasm of ter- ritorial expansion seized the colonists. In1 1834, the Territorial Legislature, by an enactment, fixed the boundaries of the pueblo of Los Angeles at "two leagues to each of the four winds, measur- ing from the center of the plaza." This gave the pueblo an area of sixteen square leagues or over one hundred square miles. Next year (1835) Los Angeles was made the capital of Alta California by the Mexican Congress and raised to the dignity of a city; and then its first real es- tate boom was on. There was an increased de- mand for lots and lands, but there were no maps or plats to grant by and no additions or subdivi- sions of the pueblo lands on the market. All the unoccupied lands belonged to the municipality,

and when a citizen wanted a liouse lot to build on he petitioned the ayuntamiento for a lot and if the piece asked for was vacant he was granted a lot-large or small, deep or shallow, on the street or off it, just as it happened.

With the growth of the town the confusion and irregularity increased. The disputes arising from overlapping grants, conflicting property lines and indefinite descriptions induced the ayuntamiento of 1836 to appoint a commission to investigate and report upon the manner of granting house lots and agricultural lands. The commissioners reported "that they had consulted with several of the founders and with old settlers, who declared that from the founding of the town the conces- sion of lots and lands had been made verbally without any other formality than locating and measuring the extent of the land the fortunate one should occupy."

"In order to present a fuller report your com- mission obtained an 'Instruction' signed by Don José Francisco de Ortega, dated at San Gabriel, February 2, 1782, and we noted that articles 3, 4 and 17 of said 'Instruction' provides that con- cession of said agricultural lands and house lots must be made by the Government, which shall issue the respective titles to the grantees. Ac- cording to the opinion of the city's advisers said

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'Instruction' or at least the three articles re- ferred to, have not been observed as there is no property owner who can show a legal title to his property."

"The commissioners can not do otherwise but call attention of the Most Illustrious Aynn- tamiento to the evil consequence which may re- sult by reason of said abuses and recommend that some means may be devised that they may be avoided. God and Liberty.

"Angeles, March 8, 1836. ABEL STEARNS, BACILIO VALDEZ, JOSE M. HERRERA, Commissioners."

Acting on the report of the commissioners the ayuntamiento required all holders of property to apply for written titles. But the poco tiempo ways of the pobladores could not be altogether overcome. We find from the records that in 1847 the land of Mrs. Carmen Navarro, one of the founders of the town, was denounced (filed on) because she conld not show a written title to it. The ayuntamiento decided "that as she had al- ways been allowed to hold it her claim should be respected because she was one of the founders," "which makes her entitled to a lot on which to live."

March 17, 1836, "a commission on streets, plazas and alleys" was appointed to report a plan for repairing the monstrous irregularity of the streets brought about by ceding house lots and erecting houses in this pueblo."

The commission reported in favor of "formulat- ing a plat of the city as it actually exists, on which shall be marked the names of the streets, alleys and plazas, also the house lots and com- mon lands of the pueblo." But nothing came of the report, no plat was made and the ayun- tamiento went on in the same old way, granting lots of all shapes and forms.

In March, 1846, another commission was ap- pointed to locate the bounds of the pueblo lands. All that was done was to measure two leagues "in the direction of the four winds from the plaza church" and set stakes to mark the boundary lines. Then came the American Conquest of California, and the days of poco tiempo were numbered. In 1847, after the conquest, another attempt was made to straigliten and widen the streets. Some of the Yankee spirit of fixing up things seems to have pervaded the ayuntamiento. A street commission was appointed to try to bring order out of the chaos into which the streets had fallen. The commissioners reported July 22, 1847, as follows: "Your commissioners could not but be amazed seeing the disorder and the manner how the streets run. More partic-

ularly the street which leads to the cemetery, whose width is out of proportion to its length, and whose aspect offends the sense of the beanti- ful which should prevail in the city. When discus- sing this state of affairs with the syndic (city at- torney) he informed us that on receiving his in- structions from the ayuntamiento he was ordered to give the streets a width of fifteen varas (about 41 feet). This he found to be in conflict with the statutes. The law referred to is in Book 4, Chapter 7, Statute 10 (probably a compilation of the "law of the Indies" two or three centuries old, and brought from Spain). The laws reads: "In cold countries the streets shall be wide, and in warm countries narrow; and when there are horses it would be convenient to have wide streets for purpose of an occasional defense or to widen them in the form above mentioned, care being taken that nothing is done to spoil tlie looks of the buildings, weaken the points of de- fense or encroach upon the comfort of the people."

"The instructions given the syndic by the ayuntamiento are absolutely opposed to this law and therefore illegal." It probably never oc- curred to the commission to question the wisdom of so senseless a law; it had been a law in Spanishı America for centuries and therefore must be venerated for its antiquity. A blind unreason- ing faitlı in the wisdom of church and state has been the undoing of the Spanish people. Ap- parently the commission did nothing more than report. California being a warm country the streets perforce must be narrow.

The same year a commission was appointed to "square the plaza." Through carelessness some of the lionses fronting on the square had been allowed to encroach upon it; others were set back so that the boundary lines of the plaza zigzaged back and forth like a Virginia rail fence. The neighborhood of the plaza was the aristocratic residence quarter of the city then, and a plaza front was considered high-toned. The commis- sion found the sqnaring of the plaza as difficult a problem as the squaring of a circle. After many trials and tribulations the commissioners succeeded in overcoming most of the irregularities by reducing the area of the plaza. The houses that intruded were not torn down, but the prop- erty line was moved forward. The north, south and west lines were each fixed at 134 varas and the east line 112 varas. The ayuntamiento at- tempted to open a street from the plaza north of the church, but Pedro Cabrera, who had been granted a lot which fell in the line of the street re- fused to give up his plaza front for a better lot without that aristocratic appendage which the council offered him. Then the city authorities

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

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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 18

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