Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 15

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366

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The functions of the various departments of the city government were most economically performed. Street cleaning and the lighting of the city were provided for on a sort of automatic principle. There was an ordinance that required each owner of a house, every Saturday, to sweep and clean in front of his premises to the middle of the street. His neighbor on the opposite side met him half way and the street was swept without expense to the city. There was another ordinance that required each owner of a house of more than two rooms on a principal street to hang a lighted lantern in front of his door from twilight to eight o'clock in winter and to nine in summer. So the city was at no expense for lighting. There were fines for neglect of these duties. The crows had a contract for removing the garbage. No garbage wagon with its aroma of decay scented the atmosphere of the brown adobe fronts in the days of long ago. There were no fines imposed upon the crows for ne- glect of duty. Evidently they were efficient city officials. Similar ordinances for lighting and street sweeping were in force at. Santa Barbara and San Diego. At Santa Barbara they were continued for at least a decade after the Amer- ican occupation.

It is said "that every dog has his day." There was one day each week that the dogs of Los Angeles did not have on which to roam about ; and that was Monday. Every Monday was dog catcher's day, and was set apart by ordinance for the killing of tramp dogs. Woe betide the unfortunate canine which on that day escaped from his kennel, or broke loose from his tether. A swift flying lasso encircled his neck and the breath was quickly choked out of his body. Monday was a "dies irae," an evil day to the

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

youthful Angeleno with a dog, and the dog catcher was abhorred and despised then as now by every boy who possessed a canine pet.

There was no fire department in the old pueb- los. The adobe houses with their clay walls, earthen floors and rawhide doors were as nearly fireproof as any human habitation could be made. I doubt whether any muchacho of the old régime ever saw a house on fire. The boys of that day never experienced the thrilling pleas- ure of running to a fire. What boys sometimes miss by being born too soon! There were no paid police departments. Every able-bodied young man was subject to military duty. A vol- unteer guard or patrol was kept on duty at the cuartél, or guard house. These guards policed

the pueblos, but they were not paid. Each young man had to take his turn at guard duty.

Viewed from our standpoint of high civiliza- tion, life in the old pueblo days was a monoton- ous round of wearying sameness-uneventful and uninteresting. The people of that day, how- ever, managed to extract a great deal of pleasure from it. Undoubtedly they missed-by living so long ago-many things that we in this highly enlightened age have come to regard as necessi- ties of our existence; but they also missed the harrowing cares, the vexations and the excessive taxation, both mental and municipal, that pre- maturely furrow our brows and whiten our locks.

CHAPTER XVI.

ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA BY THE UNITED STATES-CAPTURE OF LOS ANGELES.

T HE acquisition of California by the United States was the result of one of those spasms of territorial expansion that seem at certain periods to . take hold of the body politic. It had been for several years a fore- gone conclusion in the minds of the leading poli- ticians of the then dominant party that the manifest destiny of California was to become United States territory. The United States must have a Pacific boundary, and those restless no- mads, the pioneers of the west, must have new country to colonize. England or France might at any time seize the country ; and, as Mexico must eventually lose California, it were better that the United States should possess it than some European power. All that was wanting for the United States to seize and appropriate it was a sufficient provocation by the Mexican government. The provocation came, but not from Mexico.

Capt. John C. Fremont, an engineer and ex- plorer in the services of the United States, ap- peared at Monterey in January, 1846, and applied to Gen. Castro, the military comandante, for permission to buy supplies for his party of sixty- two men who were encamped in the San Joaquin Valley, in what is now Kern County. Permis- sion was given him. There seems to have been a tacit agreement between Castro and Fremont that the exploring party should not enter the settlements, but carly in March the whole force was encamped in the Salinas valley. Castro re- garded the marching of a body of armed men through the country as an act of hostility, and ordered them out of the country. Instead of

leaving, Fremont intrenched himself on an emi- nence known as Gabilian Peak (about thirty miles from Monterey), raised the stars and stripes over his barricade and defied Castro. Castro maneuvered his troops on the plain be- low, but did not attack Fremont. After two days' waiting Fremont abandoned his position and began his march northward. On May 9, when near the Oregon line, he was overtaken by Lieut. Gillespie, of the United States navy, with a dispatch from the president. Gillespie had left the United States in November, 1845, and, dis- guised, had crossed Mexico from Vera Cruz to Mazatlan, and from there had reached Monterey. The exact nature of the dispatches to Fremont is not known, but presumably they related to the impending war between Mexico and the United States, and the necessity for a prompt seizure of the country to prevent it from falling into the hands of England. Fremont returned to the Sacramento, where he encamped.

On the 14th of June, 1846, a body of American settlers from the Napa and Sacramento valleys, thirty-three in number, of which Ide, Semple, Grigsby and Merritt seem to have been the lead- ers, after a night's march, took possession of the old castillo or fort at Sonoma, with its rusty muskets and unused cannon, and made Gen. M. G. Vallejo, Lieut .- Col. Prudon, Capt. Salvador Vallejo and Jacob P. Lcese, a brother-in-law of the Vallejos, prisoners. There seems to have been no privates at the castillo-all officers. Exactly what was the object of the American settlers in taking Gen. Vallejo prisoner is not evident. Gen. Vallejo was one of the few emi-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

nent Californians who favored the annexation of California to the United States. He is said to have made a speech favoring such a move- ment in the junta at Monterey a few months before. Castro regarded him with suspicion. The prisoners were sent under an armed escort to Fremont's camp. William B. Ide was elected captain of the revolutionists who remained at Sonoma, to "hold the fort." He issued a pro- nunciamento full of bombast, bad English and worse orthography. He declared California a free and independent state, under the name of the California Republic. A nation must have a flag of its own, so one was improvised. It was made of a piece of cotton cloth, or manta, a yard wide and five feet long. Strips of red flannel torn from an old petticoat that had crossed the plains were stitched on the manta for stripes. With a blacking brush, or, as another authority says, the end of a chewed stick for a brush, and red- berry juice for paint. William L. Todd painted the figure of a grizzly bear rampant on the field of the flag. The natives called Todd's bear "co- chino"-a pig; it resembled that animal more than a bear. A five-pointed star in the left upper corner, painted with the same coloring matter, and the words, "California Republic," printed on it in ink, completed the famous bear-flag.

The California Republic was ushered into ex- istence June 14, 1846, attained the acme of its power July 4, when Ide and his fellow-patriots burnt a quantity of powder in salutes, and fired off oratorical pyrotechnics in honor of the new republic. It utterly collapsed on the 9th of July, after an existence of twenty-five days, which news reached Sonoma that Commodore Sloat had raised the stars and stripes at Monterey and taken possession of California in the name of the United States.

Commodore Sloat, who had anchored in Mon- terey Bay July 2, 1846, was for a time undecided whether to take possession of the country. He had no official information that war had been de- clared between the United States and Mexico; but, acting on the supposition that Capt. Fre- mont had received definite instructions, on the 7th of July he raised the flag and took possession of the custom-house and government buildings at Monterey. Capt. Montgomery, on the 9th, raised it at San Francisco, and on the same day the Bear flag gave place to the stars and stripes at Sonoma.

Gen. Castro was holding Santa Clara and San José when he received Commodore Sloat's proc- lamation informing him that the commodore had taken possession of Monterey. Castro, after reading the proclamation, which was written in Spanish, formed his men in line, and, addressing them, said : "Monterey is taken by the Ameri-

cans. What can I do with a handful of men against the United States? I am going to Mex- ico. All of you who wish to follow me, 'About face!' All that wish to remain can go to their homes"* A very small part of his force followed him.

Commodore Sloat was superseded by Commo- dore Stockton, who set about organizing an ex- pedition to subjugate the southern part of the territory which still remained loyal to Mexico. Fremont's exploring party, recruited to a bat- talion of 160 men, had marched to Monterey, and from there was sent by vessel to San Diego to procure horses and prepare to act as cavalry. * *

Let us now return to Los Angeles, and learn how affairs had progressed at the capital.

Pio Pico had entered upon the duties of the governorship with a desire to bring peace and harmony to the distracted country. He appointed Juan Bandini, one of the ablest statesmen of the south, his secretary. After Bandini resigned he chose J. M. Covarrubias, and later José M. Mo- reno filled the office.

The principal offices of the territory had been divided equally between the politicians of the north and the south. While Los Angeles be- came the capital, and the departmental assembly met there, the military headquarters, the ar- chives and the treasury remained at Monterey. But notwithstanding this division of the spoils of office, the old feud between the arribaños and the abajeños would not down, and soon the old- time quarrel was on with all its bitterness. Cas- tro, as military comandante, ignored the gov- ernor, and Alvarado was regarded by the sureños as an emissary of Castro's. The departmental assembly met at Los Angeles in March, 1846. Pico presided, and in his opening message set forth the unfortunate condition of affairs in the department. Education was neglected; justice was not administered ; the missions were so bur- dened by debt that but few of them could be rented ; the army was disorganized and the treas- ury empty.

Not even the danger of war with the Ameri- cans could make the warring factions forget their fratricidal strife. Castro's proclamation against Fremont was construed by the sureños into a scheme to inveigle the governor to the north so that the comandante-general could de- pose him and seize the office for himself. Cas- tro's preparations to resist by force the encroach- ments of the Americans were believed, by Pico and the Angelenians, to be the fitting out of an army to attack Los Angeles and overthrow the government.

* Hall's History of San Jose.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

On the 16th of June, Pico left Los Angeles for Monterey with a military force of a hundred men. The object of the expedition was to op- pose, and, if possible, to depose Castro. He left the capital under the care of the ayuntamiento. On the 20th of June, Alcalde Gallardo reported to the ayuntamiento that he had positive informa- tion "that Don Castro had left Monterey and would arrive here in three days with a military force for the purpose of capturing the city." (Castro had left Monterey with a force of 70 men, but he had gone north to San José.) The sub-prefect, Don Abel Stearns, was authorized to enlist troops to preserve order. On the 23d of June, three companies were organized-an ar- tillery company under Miguel Pryor, a company of riflemen under Benito Wilson, and a cavalry company under Gorgé Palomares. Pico called for re-inforcements, but just as he was preparing to march against Monterey the news reached him of the capture of Sonoma by the Americans, and next day, June 24, the news reached Los An- geles just as the council had decided on a plan of defense against Castro, who was 500 miles away. Pico, on the impulse of the moment, issued a proclamation, in which he arraigned the United States for perfidy and treachery, and the gang of "North American adventurers," who had cap- tured Sonoma "with the blackest treason the spirit of evil can invent." His arraignment of the "North American Nation" was so severe that some of his American friends in Los Angeles took umbrage at his pronunciamento. He after- wards tried to recall it, but it was too late ; it had been published.

Castro, finding the "foreign adventurers" too numerous and too aggressive in the northern part of the territory, determined, with what men he could induce to go with him, to retreat to the south ; but before so doing he sent a mediator to Pico to negotiate a treaty of peace and amity between the factions. On the 12th of July the two armies met at Santa Margarita, near San Luis Obispo. Castro brought the news that Commo- dore Sloat had hoisted the United States flag at Monterey and taken possession of the country for his government. The meeting of the gov- crnor and the comandante-general was not very cordial, but in the presence of the impending danger to the territory they concealed their mu- tual dislike and decided to do their best to defend the country they both loved.

Sorrowfully they began their retreat to the capital; but even threatened disaster to their common country could not wholly unite the north and the south. The respective armies- Castro's numbering about 150 men and Pico's 120-kept about a day's march apart. They reached Los Angeles, and preparations were be-

gun to resist the invasion of the Americans. Pico issued a proclamation ordering all able- bodied men between 15 and 60 years of age, na- tive and naturalized, to take up arms to defend the country ; any able-bodied Mexican refusing was to be treated as a traitor. There was no enthusiasm for the cause. The old factional jealousy and distrust was as potent as ever. The militia of the south would obey none but their own officers; Castro's troops, who considered themselves regulars, ridiculed the raw recruits of the sureños, while the naturalized foreigners of American extraction secretly sympathized with their own people.

Pico, to counteract the malign influence of his Santa Barbara proclamation and enlist the sym- pathy and more ready adhesion of the foreign element of Los Angeles, issued the following circular : (This circular or proclamation lias never before. found its way into print. I find no allusion to it in Bancroft's or Hittell's Histories. A copy, probably the only one in existence, was donated some years since to the Historical So- ciety of Southern California. I am indebted to Prof. Carlos Bransby for a most excellent trans- lation.)

SEAL OF

Gobierno del Dep. de Californias.

"CIRCULAR .- As owing to the unfortunate condition of things that now prevail in this de- partment in consequence of the war into which the United States has provoked the Mexican Nation, some ill feeling might spring up between the citizens of the two countries out of which unfortunate occurrences might grow, and as this government desires to remove every cause of friction, it has seen fit, in the use of its power, to issue the present circular.

"The Government of the department of Cali- fornia declares in the most solemn manner that all the citizens of the United States that have come lawfully into its territory, relying upon the honest administration of the laws and the ob- servance of the prevailing treaties, shall not be molested in the least, and their lives and prop- erty shall remain in perfect safety under the pro- tection of the Mexican laws and authorities le- gally constituted.

"Therefore, in the name of the Supreme Gov- ernment of the Nation, and by virtue of the au- thority vested upon ine, I enjoin upon all the inhabitants of California to observe towards the citizens of the United States that have lawfully come among us, the kindest and most cordial

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

conduct, and to abstain from all acts of violence against their persons or property ; provided they remain neutral, as heretofore, and take no part in the invasion effected by the armies of their nation.

"The authorities of the various municipalities and corporations will be held strictly responsible for the faithful fulfillment of this order, and shall, as soon as possible, take the necessary measures to bring it to the knowledge of the people. God and Liberty. Angeles, July 27, 1846.

"PIO PICO.

"JOSÉ MATIAS MARENO, "Secretary pro tem."

When we consider the conditions existing in California at the time this circular was issued, its sentiments reflect great credit on Pico for his hu- manity and forbearance. A little over a month before, a mob of Americans, many of them in the country contrary to its laws, had without cause or provocation seized Gen. Vallejo and several other prominent Californians in their homes and incarcerated them in prison at Sutter's Fort. Nor was this outrage mitigated when the stars and stripes were raised. The perpetrators of the outrage were not punished. These native Cali- fornians were kept in prison nearly two months without any charge against them. Besides, Gov- ernor Pico and the leading Californians very well knew that the Americans whose lives and prop- erty this proclamation was designed to protect would not remain neutral when their country- men invaded the territory. Pio Pico deserved better treatment from the Americans than he re- ceived. He was robbed of his landed posses- sions by unscrupulous land sharks, and his char- acter defamed by irresponsible historical scrib- blers.

Pico made strenuous efforts to raise men and means to resist the threatened invasion. He had mortgaged the government house to de Celis for $2,000, the mortgage to be paid "as soon as or- der shall be established in the department." This loan was really negotiated to fit out the ex- pedition against Castro, but a part of it was expended after his return to Los Angeles in pro- curing supplies while preparing to meet the American army. The government had but little credit. The moneyed men of the pueblo were averse to putting money into what was almost sure to prove a lost cause. The bickerings and jealousies between the factions neutralized to a considerable degree the efforts of Pico and Cas- tro to mobilize the army.

Castro established his camp on the mesa across the river, near where Mrs. Hollenbeck's residence now is. Here he and Andres Pico un- dertook to drill the somewhat incongruous col-

lection of hombres in military maneuvering. Their entire force at no time exceeded 300 men. These were poorly armed and lacking in dis- cipline. * *

We left Stockton at Monterey preparing an expedition against Castro at Los Angeles. On taking command of the Pacific squadron July 29, he issued a proclamation It was as bombastic as the pronunciamento of a Mexican governor. Bancroft says : "The paper was made up of false- hood, of irrelevant issues and bombastic ranting in about equal parts, the tone being offensive and impolitic even in those inconsiderable portions which were true and legitimate." His only ob- ject in taking possession of the country was "to save from destruction the lives and property of the foreign residents and citizens of the territory who had invoked his protection." In view of Pico's humane circular and the uniform kind treatment that the Californians accorded the American residents, there was very little need of Stockton's interference on that score.

Commodore Sloat did not approve of Stock- ton's proclamation or his policy.

On the 6th of August Stockton reached San Pedro and landed 360 sailors and marines. These were drilled in military movements on land and prepared for the march to Los Angeles.

Castro sent two commissioners-Pablo de La Guerra and José M. Flores-to Stockton, asking for a conference and a cessation of hostilities while negotiations were pending. They asked that the United States forces remain at San Pedro while the terms of the treaty were under discussion. These requests Commodore Stock- ton peremptorily refused and the commissioners returned to Los Angeles without stating the terms on which they proposed to treat.

In several so-called histories, I find a very dra- matic account of this interview. "On the arrival of the commissioners they were marched up to the mouth of an immense mortar shrouded in skins save its huge aperture. Their terror and discomfiture were plainly discernible. Stockton received them with a stern and forbidding coun- tenance, harshly demanding their mission, which they disclosed in great confusion. They bore a letter from Castro proposing a truce, each party to hold its own possessions until a general pacifi- cation could be had. This proposal Stockton rejected with contempt, and dismissed the com- missioners with the assurance that only an imme- diate disbandment of his forces and an uncon- ditional surrender would shield Castro from the vengeance of an incensed foe. The messengers remounted their horses in dismay and fled back to Castro." The mortar story, it is needless to say, is a pure fabrication, yet it runs through a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

number of so-called histories of California. Cas- tro, on the 9th of August, held a council of war with his officers at the Campo en La Mesa. He announced his intention of leaving the country for the purpose of reporting to the supreme gov- ernment, and of returning at some future day to punish the usurpers. He wrote to Pico: "I can count on only 100 men, badly armed, worse sup- plied and discontented by reason of the miseries they suffer ; so that I have reason to fear that not even these few men will fight when the necessity arises." And this is the force that some imag- inative historians estimate at 800 to 1,000 men.

Pico and Castro left Los Angeles on the night of August 10 for Mexico; Castro going by the Colorado river route to Sonora, and Pico, after being concealed for a time by his brother-in-law, Juan Froster, at the Santa Margarita and nar- rowly escaping capture by Fremont's men, final- ly reached Lower California and later on crossed the gulf to Sonora.

Stockton began his march on Los Angeles, August II. He took with him a battery of four guns. The guns were mounted on carretas, and each gun drawn by four oxen. He had with him a good brass band.

Major Fremont, who had been sent to San Diego with his battalion of 160 men, had, after considerable skirmishing among the ranchos, secured enough horses to move, and on the 8th of August had begun his march to join Stockton. He took with him 120 men, leaving about 40 to garrison San Diego.

Stockton consumed three days on the march. Fremont's troops joined him just south of the city, and at 4 P. M. of the 13th the combined force, numbering nearly 500 men, entered the town without opposition, "our entry," says Ma- jor Fremont, "having more the effect of a parade of home guards than of an enemy taking posses- sion of a conquered town." Stockton reported finding at Castro's abandoned camp ten pieces of artillery, four of them spiked. Fremont says he (Castro) "had buried part of his guns." Cas- tro's troops that he had brought down with him took their departure for their northern homes soon after their general left, breaking up into small squads as they advanced. The southern troops that Pico had recruited dispersed to their homes before the arrival of the Americans. Squads of Fremont's battalion were sent out to scour the country and bring in any of the Cali- fornian officers or leading men whom they could

find. These, when found, were paroled. The American troops encamped on the flat near where the Southern Pacific Railroad crosses the river.

Another of those historical myths like the mortar story named above, which is palmed off on credulous readers as genuine history, runs as follows: "Stockton, while en route from San Pedro to Los Angeles, was informed by a cou- rier from Castro 'that if he marched upon the town he would find it the grave of himself and men.' 'Then,' answered the commodore, 'tell the general to have the bells ready to toll at eight o'clock, as I shall be there by that time.'" As Castro left Los Angeles the day before Stock- ton began his march from San Pedro, and when the commodore entered the city the Mexican general was probably 200 miles away, the bell tolling myth goes to join its kindred myths in the category of history, as it should not be writ- ten.

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Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century, Part 15

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co. Number of Pages: 1366

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman pub. co.
Number of Pages: 1366