History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 15

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206

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In the year 1835, thirty citizens, styling themselves as of the Ranchos of the North, that is of districts situated to the north of the Bay of San Francisco, presented the following petitions to the Governor, which are produced as being a portion of history

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connected with Alameda County. It is an expression of the desire on their part to belong to the jurisdiction of San José, rather than that of San Francisco, and has been quaintly described as the "first of our county seat quarrels."

To HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR :-

" The residents of the adjoining ranchos of the north, now belonging to the juris- diction of the port of San Francisco, with due respect to your Excellency, repre- sent: That finding great detriment, and feeling the evils under which they labor from belonging to this jurisdiction, whereby they are obliged to represent to your Excellency that it causes an entire abandoning of their families for a year by those who attend the judiciary functions and are obliged to cross the bay. Truthfully speaking, to be obliged to go to the port by land, we are under the necessity of travel- ing forty leagues, going and coming back; and to go by sea we are exposed to the danger of being wrecked. By abandoning our families, as above stated, it is evident that they must remain without protection against the influences of malevolent persons; they are also exposed to detention and loss of labor and property, and injury by animals. There is no lodging to be had in that port, where, for a year, an ayunta- miento is likely to detain them, and, should they take their families, incurring heavy expenses for their transportation and necessary provisioning for the term of their engagement, there is no accommodation for them. Wherefore, in view of these facts, they pray your Excellency to be pleased to allow them to belong to the jurisdiction of the town of San José, and recognize a commission of justice that will correspond with the said San José as capital for the people in this vicinity; wherefore, we humbly pray your Excellency to favor the parties interested by acceding to their wishes.

· ANTONIO MARIA PERALTA,

YGNACIO PERALTA,

JOAQUIN YSIDRO CASTRO, BLAS NARBOLS.

BRUNO VALENCIA,

JOAQ'N MORAGA,

Z. BLAS ANGELINO,

RAMON FOVERO,

SANNAGO MESA,

JOSÉ DUARTE,

JUAN JOSÉ CASTRO,

FRANCISCO PACHECO,

CANDELARIO VALENCIA,

BARTOLO PACHECO,

JOSÉ PERALTA,

MARIANO CASTRO,

FERNANDO FELES,

FELIPE BRIONES,

ANTONIO AMEJAI,

JULIAN VELES,

RAFAEL VELES,

JUAN BERNAL, MARCANO CASTRO, ANTONIO YGERCE,

FRANCISCO SOTO,

FRANCO AMEJO.

" San Antonio, San Pablo, and the adjacent ranchos north, May 30, 1835."

Will the reader permit us to ask him to dwell upon the changes rung by time since that date. Seven and forty years ago the bay was indeed a veritable "sea of trouble " to those rancheros; it is now crossed in half the number of minutes that years have elapsed. Where there were no accommodations, the finest and best con -. ducted hotels in the world have sprung up as if by magic, while travel by land has been rendered secure, inexpensive, comfortable, and expeditious. Such a wonderful transformation is hard to realize, but the facts speak for themselves ..

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In due course of time the document was received at Monterey. Let us follow it: Under date August 12, 1835, it was indorsed: "Let it be kept to be reported to the deputation." September Ist, it was docketed: "On this day the same was reported and referred to the Committee on Government," who, September 5th, reported as fol- lows :---

"MOST EXCELLENT SIR : We, the Committee on Government, being required to report upon the memorial, with the parties subscribed thereto, made to the Politi- cal Chief on the 30th day of May last, find that the said memorial is grounded upon good reasons and public convenience; but as the subject should be considered upon proper reports for a due determination, the Committee is of opinion that the reports of the Ayuntamientos of the towns of San José and San Francisco are required for that purpose. Therefore, the Committee offers, for the deliberation of the most Excellent Deputation, the following propositions: Ist-that this expediente be referred to the Ayuntamientos of the towns of San José and San Francisco, in order that they report upon said memorial. 2d-That after which, the same be returned for determination.

" MAN'L JIMENO, " SALVIO PACHECO."

" MONTEREY, September 10, 1835 .- At the session of this day the most Exalted Deputation has approved the two propositions made in the report of the Committee on Government. " MANUEL JIMENO."

" MONTEREY, September 28, 1835 .- Let this expediente be forwarded to the Ayun- . tamiento of the town (pueblo) of San José Guadalupe, for a report upon the prayer of the foregoing memorial, and to that of San Francisco for the like purpose. The Ayuntamiento of the latter town will, moreover, give a list of the residents of the vicinity of the same. Don José Castro, senior member of the most Excellent Terri- torial Deputation, and Superior Political Chief of Upper California, thus commanded, decreed, and signed this, which I attest. "JOSÉ CASTRO.

" FRAN'CO DEL CALSELLO NEGRETE, Sec'y.

" In pursuance of the foregoing Supreme Order of Your Excellency, this Ayun- tamiento begs to state the following: That with regard to the residents on the north- ern vicinity, now under the jurisdiction of San Francisco, and who in their memorial prayed to be exempted from belonging to that jurisdiction, having indispensably to cross the bay, or to travel upwards of forty leagues; while on half their way they can come to this town (pueblo), under the jurisdiction of which they formerly were, which was more suitable and less inconvenient to them; this Ayuntamiento thinks that their prayer should be granted, if it is so found right. " ANTONIO MA. PICO,

" JOSÉ BERRYESSA, Secretary.

" IGNACIO MARTINEZ.

" Town of San Jose Guadalupe, November 4, 1835."

In a response, or rather a remonstrance, the complaints of the petitioners were treated as frivolous by the Ayuntamiento of San Francisco, who rebuked them for their want of patriotism; and were asked if their service of having traveled a paltry forty leagues could bear the slightest comparison with those of others who had jour- neyed hundreds of leagues in the interior, and some who had gone on public service from San Francisco to San Diego.

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With much indignation it asks: "Which are those Peraltas and Castros that have been wrecked on attending to their business affairs every time that any vessel comes to anchor in the Bay of Yerba Buena ?" This document, which was signed by FRANCISCO DE HARO, and dated, Port of San Francisco, December 20, 1835, utterly repudiates that any such catastrophe had ever occurred, denies the lack of accommodation at the presidio, and strenuously urges the jurisdiction of San Francisco.

We now desire to note the arrival of another, and well-known pioneer, to the Contra Costa, as the whole of this region was then called.

Doctor John Marsh left the United States in the year 1835, proceeded to New Mexico, and after traversing a portion of Old Mexico, crossed the Colorado at its junction with the Gila, and entered Southern California. He afterwards traveled northward, and in 1837 purchased the Los Meganos Rancho, which has since been popularly known as the Marsh Grant. This tract of land, which he describes as being about ten miles by twelve in extent, he designated the Farm of Pulpunes, whence, in 1846, he indited a letter to Hon. Lewis Cass, which was first published in 1866 by the Contra Costa Gazette, to whose columns we refer the reader. In that communication he informs Mr. Cass that it had been usual to estimate the popula- tion of California at five thousand persons of Spanish descent, and twenty thousand Indians. This is declared to be an error, the actual number being, in round numbers, seven thousand Spaniards, ten thousand civilized or domesticated Indians, and about seven hundred Americans, one hundred English, Irish, and Scotch, with about a like number of French, Germans, and Italians. The Doctor further remarks: "Within the territorial limits of Upper California, taking the parallel of forty-two degrees for the northern and the Colorado River for the southeastern boundary, are an immense number of wild, naked, brute Indians. The number of course can only be conjec- tured. They probably exceed a million, and may perhaps amount to double that number. The far-famed missions of California no longer exist. They have nearly all been broken up, and the lands apportioned out into farms. They were certainly munificent ecclesiastical baronies, and although their existence was quite incompati- ble with the general prosperity of the country, it seems almost a pity to see their down- fall. The immense piles of buildings and beautiful vineyards and orchards are all that remain, with the exception of two in the southern part of the territory, which still retain a small remnant of their former prosperity." He goes on to inform his friend of of the salubrity of California's climate; its topographical beauties and advantages; its agricultural possibilities; its then commerce; its government, and the manners and customs of the Indians, all a valuable addition to the early history of California.

The Doctor established his residence in a small adobe building, not far from where he built the famous " Stone House," where he lived a most solitary life, having but few neighbors, whose homes averaged a distance from his of from twelve to forty miles.

In the first five years of the decade commencing with 1840 there began to settle in the vast California valleys that intrepid band of pioneers who, having scaled the Sierra Nevada, with their wagons, trains, and cattle, began the civilizing influences of progress on the Pacific Coast. Many of them had left their homes in the Atlantic

Gray

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and Southern States with the avowed intention of proceeding direct to Oregon. On arrival at Fort Hall, however, they heard glowing accounts of the salubrity of California's climate and the fertility of its soil; they, therefore, turned their heads southward and steered for the wished-for haven. At length, after many days of toil and anxiety, fatigued and footsore, the promised land was gained. And what was it like? The country, in what valley soever we wot, was an interminable grain field; mile upon mile, and acre after acre, wild oats grew in marvelous profusion, in many places to a prodigious height-one great, glorious green of wild, waving grain-high over head of the wayfarer on foot, and shoulder high with the eques- trian; wild flowers of every prismatic shade charmed the eye, while they vied with each other in the gorgeousness of their colors, and blended into dazzling splendor. One breath of wind and the wide emerald expanse rippled itself into space, while, with a heavier breeze, came a swell whose rolling waves beat against the mountain sides, and, being hurled back, were lost in the far-away horizon; shadow pursued shadow in one long merry chase. The air was filled with the hum of bees, the chirrup of birds and an overpowering fragrance from the various plants weighted the air. The hill-sides, overrun as they were with a dense mass of tangled jungle, were hard to pen- etrate, while, in some portions, the deep, dark green of the forest trees lent relief to the eye. The almost boundless range was intersected throughout with divergent trails, whereby the traveler moved from point to point, progress being, as it were, in darkness, on account of the height of the oats on either side, and rendered dan- gerous in the valleys by the bands of untamed cattle sprung from the stock intro- duced by the mission fathers. These found food and shelter on the plains during the night; at dawn they repaired to the higher foot-hills to chew the cud and bask in the sunshine. At every yard coyotes sprang from beneath the feet of the voyageur. The hissing of snakes, the frightened rush of lizzards, all tended to heighten the sense of danger, while the flight of quail and other birds, the nimble run of the rab- bit, and the stampede of antelope, which abounded in thousands, added to the charm, causing him, be he whosoever he may, pedestrian or equestrian, to feel the utter insignificance of man, the "noblest work of God."

The overland journey at the period of which we write was one more of dis- covery than certainty, the only well-ascertained points being then the Great Salt Lake and Humboldt River, known as St. Mary's. Of the two parties that left Inde- pendence, Missouri, May 6, 1841, the first was under the leadership of Robert H. Thomes, of Tehama, and traveled by St. Mary's, Ogden, and the Humboldt River; the second came by Santa Fé and the middle route to Los Angeles, and had as its chief William Workman, who died in Los Angeles in 1876. In the former, which numbered about thirty men, we find the names of Josiah Belden, Charles M. Weber (who died in Stockton in May, 1881), John Bidwell, and Grove C. Cook. In the year 1843 another party crossed the plains, among them being the late Major S. J. Hensley (who died in 1865), Julius Martin, Thomas J. Shadden, and Winston Bennett, the last three of whom brought their wives, the first foreign ladies to settle in the district comprised in the counties of Contra Costa, Alameda, and Santa Clara. In 1844 the Murphys came to the Santa Clara Valley; in 1845 William M. Mendenhall, now a resident of Livermore; and in 1846 John M. Horner and Hon. Elam Brown, of Con- 8

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tra Costa, who was a delegate to the Convention which framed the first State Consti- tution, in September, 1849, and is one of the few surviving members of the " Legisla- ture of a Thousand Drinks" --- the first of the State of California, which had its session in San José.

No history of a section of the Pacific Coast would be complete without some relation of the tragic fate of Donner's party; we have, therefore, taken the liberty of reproducing, from Tuthill's "History of California," the following graphic description of their sufferings :-

"Of the overland emigration to California in 1846, about eighty wagons took a new route from Fort Bridger around the south end of Great Salt Lake. The pio- neers of the party arrived in good season over the mountains; but Mr. Reed's and · Mr. Donner's companies opened a new route through the desert, lost a month's time by their explorations, and reached the foot of the Truckee Pass, in the Sierra Nevada, on the 31st of October, instead of the ist, as they had intended. The snow began to fall on the mountains two or three weeks earlier than usual that year, and was already so piled up in the pass that they could not proceed. They attempted it repeatedly, but were as often forced to return. One party built their cabins near the Truckee Lake, killed their cattle and went into winter quarters. The other (Donner's) party still believing that they could thread the pass, so failed to build their cabins before more snow came and buried their cattle alive. Of course they were soon utterly des- titute of food, for they could not tell where the cattle were buried, and there was no hope of game on a desert so piled with snow that nothing without wings could move. The number of these who were thus storm-stayed, at the very threshold of the land whose winters are one long spring, was eighty, of whom thirty were females, and several children. The Mr. Donner, who had charge of one company, was an Illi- noisian, sixty years of age, a man of high respectability and abundant means. His wife was a woman of education and refinement and much younger than he.

" During November it snowed thirteen days; during December and January, eight days each. Much of the time the tops of the cabins were below the snow level.

"It was six weeks after the halt was made that a party of fifteen, including five women, and two Indians who acted as guides, set out on snow-shoes to cross the mountains, and give notice to the people of the California settlements of the condition of their friends. At first the snow was so light and feathery that even in snow-shoes they sank nearly a foot at every step. On the second day they crossed the 'divide,' finding the snow at the summit twelve feet deep. Pushing forward with the courage of despair, they made from four to eight miles a day.

" Within a week they got entirely out of provisions, and three of them, suc- cumbing to cold, weariness, and starvation, had died. Then a heavy snow-storm came on, which compelled them to lie still, buried between their blankets under the snow, for thirty-six hours. By the evening of the tenth day three more had died, and the living had been four days without food. The horrid alternative was accepted- they took the flesh from the bones of their dead, remained in camp two days to dry it, and then pushed on.

"On New Year's, the sixteenth day since leaving Truckee Lake, they were toiling up a steep mountain. Their feet were frozen. Every step was marked with

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blood. On the second of January their food again gave out. On the third they had nothing to eat but the strings of their snow-shoes. On the fourth the Indians eloped, justly suspicious that they might be sacrificed for food. On the fifth they shot a deer, and on that day one of their number died. Soon after three others died, and every death now eked out the existence of the survivors. On the seventh all gave out, and concluded their wanderings useless, except one. He, guided by two stray friendly Indians, dragged himself on till he reached a settlement on Bear River. By midnight the settlers had found and were treating with all Christian kindness what remained of the little company that, after more than a month of the most terrible sufferings, had that morning halted to die.

" The story that there were emigrants perishing on the other side of the snowy bar- rier ran swiftly down the Sacramento Valley to New Helvetia, and Captain Sutter, at his own expense, fitted out an expedition of men and of mules, laden with pro- visions, to cross the mountains and relieve them. It ran on to San Francisco, and the people, rallying in public meeting, raised fifteen hundred dollars and with it fitted . out another expedition. The naval commandant of the port fitted out still others.

" The first of the relief parties reached Truckee Lake on the 19th of Feb- ruary. Ten of the people in the nearest camp were dead. For four weeks those who were still alive had fed on bullock's hides. At Donner's camp they had but one hide remaining. The visitors left a small supply of provisions with the twenty-nine whom they could not take with them, and started back with the remainder. Four of the children they carried on their backs.

" Another of the relief parties reached Truckee Lake on the first of March. They immediately started back with seventeen of the sufferers; but, a heavy snow-storm overtaking them, they left all, except three of the children, on the road. Another party went after those who were left on the way; found three of them dead, and the rest sustaining life by feeding on the flesh of the dead.

" The last relief party reached Donner's camp late in April, when the snows had melted so much that the earth appeared in spots. The main cabin was empty, but some miles distant they found the last survivor of all lying on the cabin-floor smoking his pipe. He was ferocious in aspect, savage and repulsive in manner. His camp- kettle was over the fire, and in it his meal of human flesh preparing. The stripped bones of his fellow-sufferers lay around him. He refused to return with the party, and only consented when he saw there was no escape.

" Mrs. Donner was the last to die. Her husband's body, carefully laid out and wrapped in a sheet, was found at his tent. Circumstances led to the suspi- cion that the survivor had killed Mrs. Donner for her flesh and her money, and when he was threatened with hanging and the rope tightened around his neck, he produced over five hundred dollars in gold, which, probably, he had appropriated from her store."

Apropos to this dreary story of suffering, we conclude it by the narrative of a prophetic dream of George Yount, attended, as it was, with such marvelous results.

At this time (the winter of 1846-47), while residing in Napa County, of which he was the pioneer settler, he dreamt that a party of immigrants were snow-bound in

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

the Sierra Nevada, high up in the mountains, where they were suffering the most dis- tressing privations from cold and want of food. The locality where his dream had placed these unhappy mortals he had never visited, yet so clear was his vision that he described the sheet of water surrounded by lofty peaks, deep-covered with snow, while on every hand towering pine trees reared their heads far above the limitless waste. In his sleep he saw the hungry human beings ravenously tear the flesh from the bones of their fellow-creatures, slain to satisfy their craving appetites, in the midst of a weird and gloomy desolation. He dreamed his dream on three successive nights, after which he related it to others, among whom were a few who had been on hunting expeditions in the Sierras. These wished for a precise description of the scene fore- shadowed to him. They recognized the Truckee Lake. On the strength of this recognition Mr. Yount fitted out a search expedition, and with these men as guides, went to the place indicated, and, prodigious to relate, was one of the successful reliev- ing bands to reach the ill-fated Donner party.

We now come to the eventful year of the discovery of gold, but in introducing the reader to the circumstances attending the finding of the precious metal, we would first desire to put him in possession of the fact, that the prevailing opinion that the first discovery of gold in California was that made at Sutter's Mill is an erroneous one, and must therefore give way to the evidence furnished by Mr. Able Stearns of its. earlier discovery by some six years, in the vicinity of Los Angeles. Mr. Stearns has now been a resident of California nearly, if not quite, forty years, and is widely known as a man of unquestionable veracity. The following letter, stating some of the facts relating to the early discovery of gold, was furnished in response to a request of the Secretary of the California Pioneers :-

" LOS ANGELES, July 8, 1867.

" LUIS R. LULL, Secretary of the Society of California Pioneers, San Fran- cisco-Sir: On my arrival here from San Francisco, some days since, I received your letter of June 3d, last past, requesting the certificate of the assay of gold sent by me to the mint at Philadelphia in 1842. I find by referring to my old account books that November 22, 1842, I sent by Alfred Robinson (who returned from California to the States by way of Mexico) twenty ounces California weight (eighteen and three- fourths' ounces mint weight) of placer gold, to be forwarded by him to the United States Mint at Philadelphia, for assay.

" In his letter to me, dated August 6, 1843, you will find a copy from the Mint assay of the gold, which letter I herewith inclose to you to be placed in the archives of the society.

" The Placer Mines, from which this gold was taken, were first discovered by Francisco Lopez, a native of California, in the month of March, 1842, at a place called San Francisquito, about thirty-five miles northwest from this city (Los Angeles).

" The circumstances of the discovery by Lopez, as related by him, are as follows: Lopez, with a companion, was out in search of some stray horses, and about mid- day they stopped under some trees and tied their horses out to feed, they resting under the shade, when Lopez, with his sheath-knife, dug up some wild onions, and in the dirt discovered a piece of gold, and searching further found some more. He brought these to town and showed them to his friends, who at once declared there

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must be a placer of gold. This news being circulated, numbers of the citizens went to the place and commenced prospecting in the neighborhood and found it to be a fact that there was a placer of gold. After being satisfied most persons returned; some remained, particularly Sonorenses (Sonorians), who were accustomed to work in placers. They met with good success.

"From this time the placers were worked with more or less success, and prin- cipally by Sonorenses (Sonorians), until the latter part of 1846, when most of the Sonorenses, left with Captain Flores for Sonora.

"While worked there were some six or eight thousand dollars taken out per annum. Very respectfully yours, ABEL STEARNS."

It is also a fact fully established that the existence of gold was known to the aborigines long prior even to this date. Let us turn however, to that epoch which has earned for California the name of the Golden State.

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History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 15

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood Number of Pages: 1206

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206