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 20

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

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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 al- calde 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, pro- tect, defend and support on the part of the hus- band, 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 declared James C. Burton and Emma C. Travers man and wife, and they lived happily ever afterwards. 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, February 2, 1848; ratifications were exchanged at Queretaro, May 30 following, and a proclama- tion 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-all area of nearly half a million square miles. Out of what was the Mexican territory of Alta Cali- fornia there has been carved all of California,

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all of Nevada, Utali and Arizona, and part of Colorado and Wyoming. The area acquired by this territorial expansion equaled that of the thirteen colonies at the time of the Revolution- ary War.

l'io Pico arrived at San Gabriel, July 17, 1848, on his return from Sonora. From San Fernando hie addressed letters to Col. Stevenson and Gov- ernor Mason, stating that as Mexican Governor of California he had come back to the country, 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 Governor of California, although it is not prob- able that Pico intended to assert any claim to his former position. Mason sent a special cour- ier to Los Angeles with orders to Col. Stevenson to arrest the ex-governor, who was then at his Santa Margarita ranch, and send him to Mon- terey, but the news of the ratification of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reached Los An- geles before the arrest was made and Pico was spared this humiliation.

In December, 1848, after peace was restored, Alcalde Foster, under instructions from Gov- ernor Mason, called an election for choosing an ayuntamiento 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 clected an ayuntamiento which continued in power to the close of the year. Its first session was held May 21, 1849. First alcalde, José del Carmen Lugo; second alcalde, Juan Sepulveda ; regidores, José Lopez, Francisco Ocampo, Thomas Sanchez; syndic, Juan Temple; secre- tary, Jesus Guerado. All of these had been citi- zens of Mexico, Juan Temple having been nat- uralized twenty years before. The Governor's wish to have Americans fill part of the city offices was evidently disregarded by the voters. Stephen C. Foster was appointed prefect Oc- tober 29, 1849, by Governor Bennett Riley, the sticcessor of Governor Mason.

In December, 1849, the last ayuntamiento of Los Angeles was elected. The members were : First alcalde, Abel Stearns; second alcalde, Yg- nacio del Valle; regidores, David Alexander, Benito D. Wilson, José L. Sepulveda, Manuel Garfias; syndic, Francisco Figueroa; secretary, Jesus Guirada. The legislature 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 January, 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 offi- cial 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 had been held.

PART SECOND.

THE COUNTIES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER XXII.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

ORGANIZATION.

N THE act dividing the state into counties, approved February 18, 1850, San Diego is the first county described; and in number- ing the senatorial and judicial districts of that time, San Diego was number one. The county included the whole southern end of the state, and was then bounded on the north by Los Angeles county ; on the east by the Colorado river; on the southi by Lower California; on the west by the Pacific Ocean and part of Los Angeles county. Its area was 14,969 square miles. Its population was 798, of which 650 were residents of the town of San Diego. I

The first county election was held April I, 1850. The officers elected were as follows: Wil- liam C. Ferrell, district attorney; John Hays, county judge; Richard Rust, county clerk; T. W. Sutherland, county attorney ; Henry Clay- ton, county surveyor; Agostin Harazthy, sher- iff; Henry C. Matsell, recorder; José Antonio Estudillo, county assessor; John Brown, coro- ner, and Juan Bandini, treasurer. Bandini did not qualify, and Philip Crosthwaite was ap- pointed by the court of sessions to fill the va- cancy. The first term of the district court was held in San Diego, May 6, 1850; O. S. With- erby, judge, and Richard Rust, clerk.

THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.

The year 1851 was marked by an Indian war, or rathier an Indian scare, for it could scarcely be called a war. The Cohuilla Indians, at that time quite numerous, inhabited the valleys of the San Bernardino mountains, from San Gor- gonio south to the Mexican line. For some time they had been stealing horses and cattle and an- noying the settlers. Their chief was Antonio Garra. He was an egotistical fellow. He con- ceived the idea of a general uprising of the red men and the extermination of the whites. He was even vain enough to boast that he would capture

the fort at Yuma and with the cannon taken there attack Los Angeles and San Diego. The first outbreak was at Warner's ranch, about 60 miles easterly from San Diego.

J. J. Warner, a Connecticut Yankec, came to California in 1831, as a trapper. He became a naturalized citizen and obtained a grant from the Mexican government of about 26,600 acres. This he had stocked with cattle and horses and was living there at the time of the American conquest. The Agua Caliente, or Hot Springs, in the neighborhood of Warner's rancho, was a favorite camping place of the Indians. War- ner, besides his cattle and horses, kept a stock of goods amounting to about $6,000. This was partly to supply his vaqueros and other retainers and partly to trade with the Indians. This dis- play of wealth tempted the cupidity of the In- dians and they plotted to massacre him and his people to obtain plunder. He received warning of their designs and sent his famliy under an escort to San Diego. The morning after the departure of his family he was awakened by the yells of the Indians. Several horses, saddled and bridled, were tied near the house, ready for any emergency.

On hearing the cries of the Indians, Warner, seizing his arms, rushed to the rear door to se- cure the horses. They were all gone except one, and an Indian was trying to unfasten it. Warner shot the horse thief dead; and two of his companions who tried to get the horse were sent to the happy hunting ground to join their friend. Taking advantage of the temporary panic into which the Indians had been thrown by the shooting of three of their number, War- ner seized a crippled mulatto boy, servant of an army officer who had sent him to the hot springs to be treated for rhenmatism, and, pla- cing him in front, mounted his horse and rode away amid a shower of arrows from two hun- dred Indians. He made his escape unharmed, but the Indians killed one of his servants.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Reaching the camp where his vaqueros made their headquarters, he rallied a small force of these and returned to the rancho, where he found the Indians reveling in his stock of goods. They stood on the defensive when attacked and the cowboys, finding themselves so greatly out- numbered, retreated. Warner was compelled to follow suit, as he was not equal to a whole tribe of Indians. He went to San Diego, where Major Heintzelman was stationed with a force of regulars, to procure assistance.

The alarm of an Indian uprising spread all over the southern district. A company of vol- unteers was raised at San Diego, of which Cave J. Couts was made captain. It was called the Fitzgerald Volunteers. Major Fitzgerald had command of all the militia at San Diego. A com- pany of 35 men was raised at Los Angeles for field service and another, of which B. D. Wilson was captain, for home guards to protect the city in case Antonio Garra should undertake to carry out his threats. The officers of the field company were: George B. Fitzgerald, captain ; John Jones, first lieutenant, and Roy Bean, sec- ond lieutenant. The volunteers were under the command of Gen. J. H. Bean. The regulars and the San Diego volunteers drove the Indians into the mountains and killed about 40 of them. The Los Angeles volunteers, reinforced by five men from the Mormon camp at San Ber- nardino and 20 from Temecula, did considerable scouting, but did not kill any hostiles.

Antonio Garra, chief of the Cohuillas, was captured by the strategy (or perhaps it would be more in accordance with the facts, by the treachery) of Cabazon, chief of the White Water Indians. He was sentenced to be shot. Stand- ing on the edge of his open grave, he met his deatlı with stoical firmness. An American, Bill Marshall, and a Californian named Juan Ver- dlugo were found to have been implicated in the said on Warner's ranch. They were tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be hanged. Ver- dugo confessed his guilt, but Marshall died pro- testing, to the last, his innocence. In the year 1852 four Indians implicated in the uprising were captured and shot. This settled the Indian ques- tion in San Diego for some time.

Col. Warner and his family returned to his ranch after the Indian troubles were over. He lived there until 1857, when he moved to Los Angeles. He died in 1893, at the age of 87 ycars.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY AND COUNTY IDENTICAL.

In 1850 and for a number of years after there was no settlement in San Diego outside of the city that could be called a town. At each of the

large ranchos there was a small settlement inade up of the servants and vaqueros and their fami- lies. Some of these were designated as pre- cincts when a general election was called, and at a few some one acted as a justice of the peace.

The history of the county and of the city are identical for nearly two decades. The back country so often spoken of was undeveloped and the very few events that happened at points back from the bay are unimportant. The early history of Old San Diego, or Old Town, as it is usually called, has been given in the chap- ter on the Founding of the Presidios.

The pueblo of San Diego was organized Jan- uary I, 1835. It is not, as some writers have claimed, the oldest municipality in California. The pueblos of San José and Los Angeles ante- date it many years. Los Angeles having passed beyond the pueblo stage was made a ciudad (city) the same year (1835) that the pueblo of San Diego was organized. The first ayunta- miento or town council, elected December, 1834, was composed of an alcalde, two regidores and a sindico procurador.

The first survey of the pueblo lands was made by Henry D. Fitch in 1845. The Mexican gov- ernment granted the pueblo eleven leagues or 47,234 acres. This grant to the pueblo was confirmed by the United States Land Commis- sion in 1853. San Diego was more fortunate than Los Angeles, whose claim of sixteen square leagues was cut down to four, or Santa Bar- bara, which claimed eight, but had to be content with four. San Diego in area, fifty years ago, was the largest town in the United States. Its boundary lines inclosed about 75 square miles ; its population, however, was less than ten to the square mile.

ORIGIN OF NEW TOWN.

March 18, 1850, the ayuntamiento of San Diego sold to William Heath Davis, José A. Aguirre, Andrew B. Gray, Thomas D. Johns and Miguel Pedrorena, 160 acres of land a few miles south of Old Town, near the army bar- racks, for the purpose of creating a "new port." William Heath Davis, one of the oldest living pioneers of California, and author of "Sixty Years in California," in an interview published in the San Diego Sun some fourteen years ago, gives the following account of the origin of New Town :

"Of the new town of San Diego, now the city of San Diego, I can say that I was its founder. In 1850, the American and Mexican commis- sions appointed to establish the boundary line were at Old Town. Andrew B. Gray, the chief engineer and surveyor for the United States, who was with the commission, introduced him-

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self to me one day at Old Town, In February, 1850, he explained to me the advantages of the locality, known as 'Puenta de los Muertos' (Point of the Dead), from the circumstances that in the year 1787 a Spanish squadron anchored within a stone's throw of the present site of the city of San Diego. During the stay of the fleet, surveying the bay of San Diego for the first time, several sailors and marines died and were interred on a sand spit, adjacent to where my wharf stood, and was named as above. The piles of my structure are still imbedded in the sands as if there had been premeditation to mark them as the tomb-marks of those deceased early explorers of the Pacific ocean and of the inlet of San Diego during the days of Spain's great- ness. I have seen Puenta de los Muertos on Pantoja's chart of his explorations of the waters of the Pacific.

"Messrs. José Antonio Aquirre, Miguel de Pedrorena, Andrew B. Gray, T. D. Johns and myself were the projectors of what is now known as the city of San Diego. All my co-proprietors have since died, and I remain alone of the party and am a witness of the marvelous events and changes that have since transpired in this vicin- ity during more than a generation.

"The first building in new San Diego was put up by myself as a private residence. The build- ing still stands, being known as the San Diego hotel. I also put up a number of other houses ; the cottage built by Andrew B. Gray is still standing and is called 'The Hermitage.' George F. Hooper also built a cottage, which is still standing near my house, in New San Diego. Under the conditions of our deed we were to build a substantial wharf and warehouse. The other proprietors of the town deeded to me their interest in block 20, where the wharf was to be built. The wharf was completed in six months after getting our title, in March, 1850, at a cost of $60,000. The piles of the old wharf are still to be seen on the old wharf site in block 20. At that time I predicted that San Diego would become a great commercial seaport, from its fine geographical position and from the fact that it was the only good harbor south of San Francisco. Had it not been for our Civil war, railroads would have reached here years before Stanford's road was built, for our wharf was ready for business."

The fate of this wharf of high anticipations and brilliant prospects was prosaic and com- monplace. In 1862, some six hundred Union troops en route to Arizona were quartered at the army barrack near the wharf. The great flood of that year cut off for a time all comnitt- nication with the back country and detained the troops there most of the winter. The supply

of firewood ran out and the weather was cold- so the "gallant six hundred," led by the quarter- master, charged the wharf and warehouse, and when they were through charging all that was left of that wharf was a few teredo-eaten piles. The soldiers burned the wharf and warehouse for fuel. Davis filed a claim against the gov- ernment for $60,000 damages on account of the destruction of his wharf and warehouse by the soldiers. But the government did not "honor the charge he made." After many delays his claim was finally pared down to $6,000 and al- lowed for that amount.

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPER.

The pioneer newspaper of San Diego was the Herald. The first number was issued May 29, 1851, only twelve days later than the first issue of the Los Angeles Star, the pioneer newspaper of Southern California. The San Diego Herald was published by J. Judson Ames, a recent arrival from Boston. His printing plant met with a number of vicissitudes before it was finally set up in Old Town. Ames, failing to secure printing material in San Francisco, took passage to New Orleans, where he bouglit an office outfit. On his return the boat in which his stock was stored upset in the Chagres river. He fished ont the greater part of his material, but at Panama was attacked by the Chagres fever and delayed some time. He finally reached San Francisco just before the great fire of May, 1851. In that conflagration a part of his plant was consumed. With the remnant that had escaped fire and flood he reached San Diego and established his paper. He must have been a man of indomitable courage to have persevered through all discouragements.

The outlook was not encouraging for the building up of a great newspaper. The town was small and non-progressive; a large portion of its inhabitants were native Californians whose early education had been neglected. There did not seem to be a pressing need for a newspaper, yet with all its uncongenial surroundings the paper attained a widespread fame; not, how- ever, through its founder, but through a substi- tute to whom for a time Ames entrusted the editorial tripod, scissors and paste pot of the Herald.

Lieut. George H. Derby, of the United States Topographical Corps, had been sent down by the government in August, 1852, to superin- tend the turning of the channel of the San Diego river into False bay, to prevent it from carrying sand into the bay of San Diego. Derby was a wit as well as an engineer, and a famous cari- caturist.

The Herald was intensely Democratic, and

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was supporting with all its strength John Big- ler for governor; the Whig candidate in the contest was William Waldo. Ames had a call to San Francisco to see the Democratic leaders, and no doubt hoped to be seen by them with much needed coin for his influence. Lieut. Derby, better known by his nom de plume, John Phoenix, was entrusted with the editorial man- agement of the paper during Ames' absence. He could not let slip so good an opportunity for a practical joke. Derby was a Whig, or at least became one for the time being. He changed the politics of the paper and turned the shafts of ridicule against Bigler and the Demo- cratic party. Bigler was dubbed Wigler and Waldo, Baldo. Ames was confronted in San Francisco by his party managers with the evi- dence of his paper's recreancy, and his hopes of subsidy vanished.

He returned to San Diego. Derby thus de- scribes the meeting: "The Thomas Neunt (stcamer Thomas Hunt) had arrived and a rumor had reached our ears that 'Boston' was on board. Public anxiety had been excited to the highest pitch to witness the result of the meeting between us. It had been stated publicly that 'Boston' would whip us the moment he ar- rived, but though we thought a conflict probable, we had never been very sanguine as to its ter- minating in that manner. Coolly we gazed from the window of the office upon the New Town road; we descried a cloud of dust in the distance; high above it waved a whip lash, and we said, 'Boston' cometh, 'and his driving is like that of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously.' Calmly we seated ourselves in the arm chair and continued our labors upon our Magnificent Pictorial. Anon a step, a heavy step, was heard upon the stairs, and Boston stood before us. * * * We rose and with an unfaltering voice said, 'Well, Judge, how do you do?' He made no reply, but commenced taking off his coat. We removed ours, also our

* * The sixth and last round is cravat. *

described by the pressmen and compositors as having been fearfully scientific. We held Bos- ton down over the press by our nose (which we had inserted between his teeth for that pur- pose), and while our hair was employed in hold- ing one of his hands we held the other in our left and with the 'sheep's foot' brandished above our head shouted to him, 'Say Waldo!' 'Never !' he gasped.

"'Oh! my Bigler!' he would have muttered, But that he dried up ere the word was ut- tered.

"At this moment we discovered that we had

been laboring under a 'misunderstanding,' and through the amicable intervention of the press- man, who thrust a roller between our faces (which gave the whole affair a very different complexion), the matter was finally settled on the most friendly terms, and without prejudice to the honor of either party." He closes his de- scription with the statement that "the public can believe precisely as much as they please ; if they disbelieve the whole of it, we shall not be at all offended."

Lieut. Derby's caricatures very nearly got him into serious trouble. When Jefferson Davis was secretary of war (1853 to 1857) he was continually intermeddling in the small affairs of army life and was very generally disliked by army officers, with the exception of a few per- sonal favorites. He tried to direct everything from "a review down to the purchase of shoe blacking." He changed the patterns of uni- forms, arms and equipments several times. It was after one of these changes that Lieut. Derby, then stationed at Fort Yuma, sent Davis a suggestion for a new uniform, illustrated by a series of drawings. The principal improve- ment in the new uniform was a stout iron hook, which was to be sewed to the rear of the trousers of each private soldier. The illustrations showed the uses to which this hook could be put. In one a soldier was shown on the march carry- ing a camp kettle, tin cup and other effects sus- pended from this hook; in another, a row of men were hung by their hooks on a fence fast asleep; they were thus prevented from taking cold by sleeping' on the damp ground. In a third a company was shown advancing in line of bat- tle, each man having a rope attached to his hook, the other end of which was held by an officer in the rear, who could restrain him if he advanced too rapidly, or haul him back if lic was wounded. When Secretary Davis received these he was in a towering rage and he an- nounced that day at a cabinet meeting that he in- tendedto have Lieut. Derby tried before a court- martial "organized to convict," and summarily dismissed. But the other secretaries, who en- joyed the joke, convinced him that if the affair became public he would be laughed at. Davis, who was utterly devoid of the sense of humor, reluctantly abandoned his court-martial scheme.

Derby published a book under the title of Phoenixiana. It contained a number of his San Diego articles and his famous military uniform drawings. It had an immense sale for a time, but has long been out of print. He died a few years later of softening of the brain.

The Herald, after Phoenix's departure, ceased to be a magnificent pictorial. It suspended pub- lication in 1858 and never resumed.

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

STEAMSHIPS AND OVERLAND MAIL.

During the decade between 1850 and 1860 the town made but little growth. There was considerable travel between it and the other ports of the coast. In 1851 and for six or seven years later, "the fast-sailing United States mail steamer 'Ohio,' Captain Haley, will run as a regular packet, making her trip once in every two weeks between San Fran- cisco and San Diego, touching at the in- termediate points of Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and San Pe- dro," so says an advertisement in the Los Angeles Star of May 31, 1851. In 1853 and 1854 the "Southerner," of the Southern Accom- modation Line, was making regular semi- monthly trips between San Francisco and San Diego, stopping at intermediate points. The steamer "Sea Bird," of Goodwin & Co.'s line, was making trips three times a month, leaving San Francisco the 4th, 14th and 24th of each month. The "Thomas Hunt" also was running between San Francisco and San Diego. Once a month the Panama steamer put into the port with the eastern mail. In 1851 a semi-monthly mail by land was established between Los An- geles and San Diego.

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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 20

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