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 29

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

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SUMMERLAND, six miles below Santa Bar- bara, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, is the principal petroleum district of Santa Barbara county. Oil was struck here in 1893. The oil belt is about a quarter of a mile wide and a mile long. Most of the wells are sunk in the ocean beyond low-water mark. Wharves are run out and the wells bored beside the wharves. Some of these wharves are 1,500 feet long. The output of the oil wells, of which there are about 300, is about 15,000 barrels a month. A railroad station, post-office, several business places, boarding houses and residences of oil operators constitute the village of Summerland.

CARPINTERIA VALLEY is about fifteen miles due east from Santa Barbara. It is sheltered by mountains on three sides and opens to the sea. Its area is about ten square miles, and its width between the mountains and the ocean varies from one to three miles. It is one of the oldest settled valleys in the county. It bears the name given it by the soldiers of Portola's expedition in 1769. They found the Indians here manufacturing canoes, and they named the place Carpinteria (carpenter shop). The village is located near the center of the valley on the Southern Pacific Railroad.

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Three of the Channel islands are included in the area of Santa Barbara county, namely San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz. These islands are mainly devoted to sheep and cattle- raising.

SAN MIGUEL, the most westerly of the group,

is seven and one-half miles long, with an average width of two and one-half miles. The principal landing place is Cuyler's Harbor. At this land- ing Cabrillo, the discoverer of California, is buried. The island is now owned by the San Miguel Island Company.

SANTA ROSA ISLAND is nine and three-fourths miles long, with an average width of seven and one-half miles, and contains 53,000 acres. It was granted by the Mexican government to Don Carlos Carrillo after his failure to secure the governorship of California in 1837. He gave it in 1842, as a marriage portion, to his two daughters, who were married on the same day, one to J. C. Jones, United States consul to the Sandwich Islands, and the other to Capt. A. B. Thompson. It now belongs to the heirs of A. P. More.

SANTA CRUZ ISLAND is twenty-two and one- half miles long by five and one-half wide, and contains 52,760 acres. It lies almost opposite the city of Santa Barbara and twenty-five miles distant. The surface is uneven, the hills at one point rising to the height of 1,700 feet. The Mexican government at one time attempted to utilize the island for a penal colony. About a dozen convicts were landed on the island with live stock and provisions, with the expectation that they would become self-supporting. They remained on the island long enough to eat up the provisions and the live stock. Then they constructed a raft, crossed the channel to Santa Barbara and quartered themselves on the Mis- sion fathers. They served out their sentences in irons. The island once had a large Indian population. It is a favorite hunting ground for Indian relic hunters. It is now owned by the Santa Cruz Island Company.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The first public school opened in Santa Bar- bara was taught by a young sailor named José Manuel Toca. He taught from October, 1795, to June, 1797. José Medina, another sailor of the Spanish navy, succeeded him and trained the young ideas until December, 1798. Manuel de Vargas, a retired sergeant of the army, who, in 1794 taught at San José the pioneer public school of California, was teaching at Santa Bar- bara in 1799. How long he continued to wave the pedagogical birch, or, rather, ply the cat- o'nine-tails, which was the schoolmaster's in- strument of punishment then, is not known. With the departure of Governor Borica, the schools of California took a vacation. During the closing years of Spanish rule, it seems to have been mostly vacation in them.

The first school under Mexican rule in Santa Barbara that we have any report of was in 1829,

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when a primary school of sixty-seven pupils was conducted at the presidio. Governor Echeandia was a friend to education, and made a vigorous effort to establish public schools. But "unable," says Bancroft, "to contend against the enmity of the friars, the indifference of the people and the poverty of the treasury, he accomplished no more than his predecessors. Reluctantly he abandoned the contest, and the cause of education declined." And it might be added, the cause of education continued in a state of decline during the remaining years of Mexican rule. The curriculum of the Spanish and Mexican schools was like the annals of the poor-"short and simple." To paraphrase Pete Jones' alliterative formula, it consisted of "lick- in' and no larnin'." The principal numbers in the course were the doctrina Cristiana and Fray Ripalda's Catechism. These were learned by rote before the pupil was taught to read. If there was any time left him after he had commit- ted to memory these essentials to his future spiritual welfare, he was given a little instruc- tion in reading, writing and numbers for his earthly advantage.

The invalid soldiers, the schoolmasters of early days, were brutal tyrants, who ruled with- out justice and punished without mercy. Gov- ernor Micheltorena attempted to establish a public school system in the territory; but his scheme failed from the same causes which had neutralized the efforts of his predecessors. Un- der his administration in 1844, a primary school was opened in Santa Barbara, but was closed after a few months for want of funds. Pio Pico, the last governor under Mexican rule, under- took to establish public schools, but his efforts were fruitless. The old obstacles, an empty treasury, incompetent teachers and indifferent parents, confronted him and put an end to his educational schemes.

During the first two or three years of Ameri- can rule in Santa Barbara, but little attention was paid to education. The old indifference re- mained. The discovery of gold had not greatly increased the population nor wrought any change in social conditions.

When the common council in April, 1850, took control of the municipal business of the newly created city, it inherited from the ayun- tamiento a school taught by a Spanish school- master, Victor Vega. The school was in part supported by public funds. The council sent a certain number of poor pupils, i. e., pupils who were unable to pay tuition, for whom they paid a certain stipulated sum. March 26, 1851, "the committee appointed to examine the school, reported, and the president was ordered to pay the schoolmaster, Victor Vega. $64.50, and to

draw $64 for every month." This is the first recorded school report of the city.

Evidently there was considerable truancy. At the meeting of the council, November 8, 1851, José M. Covarubias was appointed a com- mittee to examine the school once a month and to report precisely the number and names of pupils who absent themselves and the time of their absence. Any pupil absent over a day lost his seat.

In November, 1852, three school commission- ers were elected in each of the three townships of Santa Barbara county. Each township was a school district. After their election the con- trol of the schools in Santa Barbara passed front the council to the schools commissioners of the district. In 1854 a tax of five cents on the $100 was levied for the support of the public schools. Previous to this the school revenues had been derived from liquor licenses, fines, etc.

At the election in 1854 Joaquin Carrillo, dis- trict judge, was elected county school superin- tendent. He did not qualify, and A. F. Hinch- man was appointed to fill the vacancy. The Gazette of December 20, 1855, says: "According to the school census there are 453 white children between the ages of four and eighteen years in Santa Barbara district, which is sixty miles long and forty wide. There is one school in it, in charge of a schoolmaster."

December 24, 1855, George D. Fisher, county school superintendent, reported a school taught in the first district (San Buenaventura) by John Rapelli, and one in the second (Santa Barbara), taught by Pablo Caracela. Both of these schools were taught in the Spanish language. American residents had no place to send their children except to a school kept by George Campbell at the Mission Santa Inez (third dis- trict), a distance of fifty miles from the bulk of the people.

February 4, 1856, two teachers were employed in the Santa Barbara city schools. Owen Con- nolly teaching the English school in "the house adjoining the billiard saloon," and Victor Mon- dran teaching the Spanish school in "the house of the late Pedro Diablar."

In 1857 it was decided "that instruction in the public schools shall be in the English language." The native Californians had opposed this, but the aggressive Anglo-Saxon won. It was the ringing out of the old, the ringing in of the new.

The schools had now passed the experimental stages, and had become an institution of the land. Although no school district in the county owned a school house, yet public education had been systemized. Teachers were required to pass an examination in the subjects taught in

TEEN

SANTA BARBARA MISSION, FOUNDED IN 1786

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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the schools, and their compensation was no longer subject to whims of the parents.

Although public schools had been established and somewhat systemized, the people were slow to avail themselves of the educational facilities offered. In 1867, fifteen years after the public school system of California had been inaugu- rated, there were but three school districts and five teachers in Santa Barbara, which then in- cluded all of what is now Ventura county. Of the 1,332 census children, only 305, or 23 per cent of the whole, attended any school, public or private, during the year.

The next decade showed a great change in

educational conditions. Ventura county had been cut off from the parent county in 1873, but taking the territory as it stood in 1867, there were in it in 1877, 33 districts and 53 teachers. Of the 4,030 census children, 2.782 had been enrolled in the schools.

In 1890 there were 4,429 census children in Santa Barbara county, 3,439 of whom attended school. In 1900 there were 5,617 census chil- dren and 66 districts.

Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Santa Maria and Santa Ynez each have a high school. Santa Bar- bara recently voted $60,000 bonds to build a new high school building.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA.

S ANTA BARBARA was incorporated as a city by an act of the legislature approved April 9, 1850. The early mu- nicipal records were kept very carelessly. There is no record in the archives of the first city election. The first record of any official action taken for the organization of a city is the min- utes of the meeting of the common council held August 26, 1850. A mayor and members of the council had been elected at some previous date, and the councilmen-elect met to organize. The minutes of their proceedings were kept on sheets of foolscap stitched together. Either record books could not be obtained then in Santa Barbara, or the members of the council did not consider their acts of municipal legislation worth preserving in any better form. The minutes of the first meeting are as follows: "In the city of Santa Barbara, on the 26th day of August, 1850, the persons elected to the com- mon council assembled and proceeded to elect a president. Lewis T. Burton having received a majority of the votes, was declared elected. Luis Carrillo was then elected clerk.

Luis Carrillo (Rubica), Tenio" (Clerk).

From the subsequent minutes we learn that Francisco de la Guerra was the first mayor, and "the persons elected to the common council" were Isaac J. Sparks, Anastasio Carrillo, Luis Carrillo, Lewis T. Burton and Antonio Rod- riguez. Having elected a president and clerk, or secretary, the council took a vacation for nearly three months. Evidently municipal busi- ness was not pressing. The record of the next meeting reads: "November 21, 1850. At the

house Anastasio Carrillo, Common Council of Santa Barbara. Present, Isaac J. Sparks, Anas- tasio Carrillo and Luis Carrillo. Lewis T. Bur- ton and Antonio Rodriguez sent in their resig- nations as members of the council, which were accepted. Isaac J. Sparks was elected president of the council. An election was ordered to be held on the second day of December next for two members of the council, a treasurer and a marshal; the election to be held in one of the corridors of the house of Lewis T. Burton. Nicolas A. Den was appointed inspector. Augustus F. Hinchman was chosen clerk of the common council.

(Signed) Luis Carrillo, Secretario."

At the special city election, held December 2, 1850, Samuel Barney and Edward S. Hoar were elected councilmen; Carlos Antonio Carrillo, treasurer, and Juan Ayala, marshal. At the next meeting of the council, a committee, con- sisting of Isaac J. Sparks, Antonio Maria de La Guerra and Nicolas Den was appointed to re- ceive proposals for a survey of the city and report thereon to the council within six weeks. At the meeting of December 14, 1850, a demand was made on the members of the late ayunta- miento for all papers and documents belonging to the old pueblo of Santa Barbara and an ac- counting for all funds in their hands on April 9, 1850, the date of the city's incorporation.

At the meeting of January 8, 1851, the com- mittee appointed at a previous meeting to ascer- tain what had become of the papers, documents and moneys in the hands of the officers of the late ayuntamiento reported that the moneys were in the hands of the late prefect, Joaquin

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Carrillo. From subsequent minutes it seems they remained there. What became of the papers and documents of the ayuntamiento the records of the council do not show.

A contract was made by the council, January 29, 1851, with Salisbury Haley, "To make a complete survey of all that part of the city bounded on the southeast by the shore of the sea; on the northwest by a straight line running parallel to the general direction of said shore boundary directly through the southwest corner of the Mission Garden and from hill to hill on either side; on the southwest by a line running along the foot of the mesa; and on the northeast by a line beginning at the Salinitas and follow- ing the city boundary to the foot of the hills, then to the said northwest line; to divide said tract into squares of 150 yards by streets which shall be sixty feet wide, except two streets to be designated by the council, which shall be eighty feet wide; to make an accurate map of said city." For making the survey and map, Haley was to receive $2,000, to be paid in installments of $500 each. April 5, 1851, Haley presented to the council a map of his survey of the city and a demand for the first installment of $500 on the contract.

October 23, 1852, Vitus Wrackenrueder was given a contract to survey the central part of the city and make a new map. His survey is now regarded as the official survey of the city. These surveys in some places ran streets through the houses and in others left the resi- dences without street frontage. It was many years before all the streets were opened through the central or thickly inhabited portion of the city. Those whose land was taken for streets, were given equivalent tracts in the squares be- longing to the city.

At the municipal election held in May, 1851, Joaquin Carrillo was elected mayor; he was also county judge. Raymundo Carrillo was chosen treasurer; Thomas Warner, marshal and assessor; Esteban Ortega, John Kays, Antonio Arellanas, José Lorenzano and R. W. Wallace, members of the council. Although the flag of the United States had been waving in California for four years and the constitution had arrived more recently to keep it company, yet the people of Santa Barbara had not become accustomed to the new order of things. At the meeting of the council, May 26, 1851, Samuel Barry, Esq., sent a communication to the coun- cil informing that body that he had been ap- pointed United States revenue officer at the port of Santa Barbara. Whereupon the council by resolution agreed to grant him official recog- nition as an officer of the United States. Had the council considered him a persona non grata

and refused him recognition, it is hard to say what the consequence might have been-to Santa Barbara.

The early ordinances of the common council give us glimpses of conditions existing then that have long since become obsolete. The Indian question, fifty years ago, was one that worried the municipal officers of Santa Barbara. as it did those of all other cities and towns of Southern California. The ex-neophyte of the missions was a pariah. He was despised and abused by the whites. His one ambition was to get drunk, and there were always high caste whites, or those who considered themselves such, ready and willing to gratify poor Lo's ambition. To imprison an Indian and give him regular rations was no punishment. He enjoyed such punishment. In Los Angeles, Indian con- victs were auctioned off every Monday morning to the highest bidder for the term of their sen- tence. In Santa Barbara, an ordinance passed June 4. 1851, reads: "When Indians for viola- tions of city ordinances are committed to prison, the recorder shall hire them out for the term of their imprisonment."

One of the most singular decisions ever an- nounced by a court of justice was given in a case of liquor selling to Indians. A certain festal day in the early '50s had been celebrated with a great deal of hilarity and imbibing of wine and aguardiente. The noble red man had vied with his white brothers in celebrating and in getting drunk. This was an offense to the white man, and as there was a heavy fine for selling liquor to Indians, some of the whites instigated the arrest of certain liquor dealers. Among the accused was a scion of one of the most influential families. He was charged with having sold liquor to a Yaqui Indian. The evidence was very clear that the liquor had been sold by the defendant to the Yaqui, but to con- vict a member of that family, the justice very well knew, would be his political undoing for all time. So in the trial the ethnological ques- tion was sprung as to whether a Yaqui was an Indian or a white man. The race question was argued at great length by the attorneys on both sides, and the judge, after summing up the evi- dence, decided that the prominent cheek bones, yellow skin, straight black hair and dark eyes of the Yaqui were the effects of climate and not of heredity, and inside the Yaqui was a white man. The saloon-keeper was declared not guilty and discharged.

The city government was administered eco- nomically in the early '50s, and taxes were light. According to Ordinance No. 30, adopted June 29, 1852, the mayor, acting as recorder or police judge, received $2 for each conviction, which

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amount he was required to pay into the city treasury. It does not appear that he was allowed to draw anything out of the treasury for salary. The city clerk received $35 per month, the city marshal $20, the city treasurer three per cent on all moneys paid in; the city tax collector six per cent on all collections and the city attorney ȘIo per month.

The lighting of the city was accomplished in a very economical manner. An ordinance passed in 1852 required "every head of a family in that part of the city bounded north by Santa Barbara street, east by Ortega, south by Chapula and west by Figueroa, to cause a lantern containing a lighted lamp or candle to be suspended every dark or cloudy evening in front of his house from dark to ten o'clock; neglecting to do so he will be fined not less than 50 cents or more than $1 for each offense."

Fifty years ago Santa Barbara was, to use an expressive slang phrase of to-day, a "wide open town." Saloon keeping was the most popular industry. Of fifty licenses granted be- tween August, 1850, and February, 1851, thirty- two were for permission to retail liquors. Sun- day was a gala day, and dissipation reached high tide then.

Before the conquest, the Californians were moderate drinkers. Although using wine freely, they seldom drank to excess. When they wished to indulge in a social glass, and some one stood treat for the crowd, they all drank not standing, but sitting on their horses. A squad of three or four, or half a dozen may be, would ride up to a pulperia and, without dismounting, one of the party would order the drinks. The mercader de vino (wine merchant) would bring out a cup or glass filled with wine or aguardiente; each one would take a sip and pass it to his neighbor. One cup served all the party; it was a sort of loving cup. It is said that once, when a crowd of American miners bestowed their patronage for the first time upon a native vinatero, and each called for a separate glass, the wineseller, who had but one glass in his shop, had to send out and borrow enough glasses from his neigh- bors to supply the demand. When each one of his patrons poured out a full glass of fiery aguardiente and gulped it down, the astonished saloonkeeper crossed himself and implored the saints to protect him from the American di- ablos.

In 1855, a spasm of virtue seems to have seized the city council. It passed a Sunday closing ordinance: "All stores, shops, taverns and groceries shall close from 12 o'clock Satur- day night to 12 o'clock p. m. the following Sunday, except butcher, baker and apothecary shops," so read the ordinance. For a violation

of this municipal law the penalty was a fine of not less than $10 or more than $50.

The early councils did business very care- lessly. The office of councilman was not a lucrative one. The members took their pay in honors, and honors were not always easy. The office sought the man, but the man dodged it when he could. Resignations were frequent, and as vacancies were not promptly filled, the membership of the council was not often full. The council elected in May, 1853, held no meet- ing between May 5 and August 27 for want of a quorum. When a quorum was obtained, the disgusted clerk offered his resignation, and it was found that the mayor and two council- men-elect had failed to qualify. An election was ordered to fill vacancies. Whether they were filled or what that council did afterwards does not appear. When a new council was elected in May, 1854, the minutes of the old council had not been engrossed. The new council ordered them written up, and blank pages were left in the record book for their entry, but the pages are still blank.

The members of the new council instituted an investigation to find out whether the old council could grant its members city lands at lower rates than the appraised value; and also to ascertain whether the land laws of the old ayuntamiento were still in force. What they found out is not written in the record.

CITY LANDS.

Shortly after the organization of the United States land commission in California, Santa Barbara presented her claim for eight and three- fourths leagues of pueblo lands. In May, 1854, the council allowed a bill of $700 for prosecuting the city's claim. December 23, 1854. a public meeting was called to consider the advisability of prosecuting the city's claim to its pueblo lands in the United States courts. The land commission had rejected the city's claim to eight and three-fourths leagues. March 10, 1855, Hinchman & Hoar were given a fee of $500 "for prosecuting the city's claims to her lands before the United States District Court." After a long drawn out contest in the courts, the city's claim was finally allowed in 1861 for four leagues, or 17,826 17/100 acres, extending from the Rancho Goleta to the Arroyo de La Carpinteria. It was surveyed by G. H. Thomp- son, May, 1867, and a patent signed by Presi- dent U. S. Grant, May 25, 1872.

Under the Spanish and Mexican regimes, there was no survey made of the pueblo lands and no map or plat of the town. The ayunta- miento granted house lots on the application of any one desiring to build. The only survey

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made was to measure so many varas from some previous grant. Streets in those days were not made, but, like Topsy, they "just growed," and in growing many of them became twisted. It took years after the Haley survey was made to untwist some, or rather to adjust the houses to the new street lines. The street names given were mostly in Spanish. The mixed population of the early '50s so bungled the spelling of these that in 1854 the council appointed a committee "to correct the orthography of certain streets."

In the nomenclature of its streets, Santa Barbara has remembered many of the famous men of the Spanish and Mexican eras of Cali- fornia. Not only have famous men been remem- bered, but local historical incidents, too, have been commemorated. The historic event that gave Cañon Perdido street its name, gave names also to two other streets and a design for a city seal. Briefly told, the story runs about as fol- lows: In the winter of 1847-48, the American brig Elisabeth was wrecked near Santa Bar- bara. Among the articles saved was a six- pounder brass cannon. It was brought ashore and lay on the beach for some time. One dark night in April, 1848, a little squad of Califor- nians stole down to the beach, hauled it away and buried it in the sands on the banks of the Estero. What their object was in taking the gun no one knows, probably they did not know themselves. Several days passed before the gun was missed. Capt. Lippett of Company F, Stevenson's Regiment of New York Volunteers, was in command of the post. He was a nervous, excitable man. In the theft of the cannon, he thought he had discovered preparations for an uprising of the natives. He dispatched a courier post laste to Col. Mason, the military governor of the territory at Monterey, with a highly colored account of his discovery. Mason, plac- ing reliance in Lippett's story and desiring to give the Californians a lesson that would teach them to let guns and revolutions alone, levied a military contribution of $500 on the town, to be paid by a capitation tax of $2 on every male over 20 years, the balance to be assessed on the real and personal property of the citizens, the money when collected to be turned over to the post quartermaster. The promulgation of the order in Santa Barbara raised a storm of indig- nation, and among those whose wail was the loudest were the American-born residents of the town, who had become Mexican citizens by naturalization. Col. Stevenson, commander of the southern military district, who had been ordered to collect the pueblo's ransom by tact, by the soothing strains of a brass band and the influence of Pablo de la Guerra, all exerted on the nation's birthday, July 4, succeeded in col-

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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 29

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