History of California, Volume XXII, Part 58

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816

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42 Jan. I, 1847, Brannan to the brethren from the Star extra in Millen. Star, ix. 306-7. He expects another shipload of immigrants, 2 vessels being reported as having sailed, one from N. Y. and the other from Boston. (The Xylon to leave in N. Y. in April with Mormons. Or. Spectator, Aug. 20, IS46.) .A few of the passengers on our arrival endeavored to make mis- chief and trouble by complaints of the bad treatment they had received during the passage, which induced Capt. Montgomery to institute a court of inquiry, before which the larger portion of the company were cited to appear for private examination. But the truth was mighty and prevailed !' Tuthill, Hist. C'al., 214-15, says the first jury trial in Cal. was won by Brannan on this occasion. In Ryan's Judges and Criminals, 59-60, is a burlesque account of the controversy, implying that the quarrel was about funds. The Mon- terey Calif., Oct. 10, 1846, contains a brief notice of a split in the Mormon ranks, which by scattering them will be good for the country. The Mor- mons are spoken of as a plain, laborions, frugal people, not meriting the op- probrium cast upon them. Aug. 19th, justice of the peace at S. Diego nses the 'Mormon invasion' as an incentive to patriots to furnish 100 horses for the troops. Hayes' Doc., MS., ISS. Glover states that only two of the Mor- mons enlisted in the California battalion, and this mainly through his own opposition, many of them having been willing to enlist at first.

43 Millen. Star, ix. 306. According to Solano Co. Hist., 312, a site was selected by L. W. Hastings at Montezuma, where H. resided for several years; but the place did not suit the brethren, and they went elsewhere.

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553

THE SETTLEMENT AT NEW HOPE.

Hope was on the north bank of the Stanislaus, about a mile and a half from the San Joaquin. William Stout was in charge of the party that went in a launch from Yerba Buena to found the first settlement in San Joaquin county. A log-house was built and a saw-mill, eighty acres were seeded and fenced, and in April the crops promised well, but not much more is known of the enterprise, except that it was abandoned in the autumn. The company is said to have had trouble with Stout, who soon left the place, as did others." The reason for abandoning the enterprise was not, however, these dissensions, but the receipt of news that the church had decided to settle at Salt Lake. Brannan went east to meet President Young and the main body, leaving New Helvetia late in April, reaching Fort Hall on June 9th,45 and meeting the saints at Green River about July 4th, to come on with them to Salt Lake Valley. He was not pleased with the decision to remain there and found a city, and soon started back sorrowful with the news. In the Sierra he met the returning members of the battalion on September 6th, giving them a dreary picture of the chosen valley, and predicting that Young would change his mind and bring his people to California the next year.46

The members of the Brooklyn company were like-

44 In S. Joaq. Co. Hist., 100-1, the settlement is called Stanislaus City. It is said that after the planting and fencing was done Stout claimed the farm, and advised the others to select farms for themselves ! This made trouble, Brannan was summoned, and it was decided that the house and farm must be reserved for the twelve apostles, whereupon Stout soon de- parted. A meagre crop of potatoes and a flood are mentioned. Buckland, the last to quit the place, went to Stockton in Nov., the rest of the company having gone to the south. The land was abandoned until 1851. See also S. J. Pioneer, June 23, 1877. Glover, Mormons in Cal., MS., says 'the com- pany was broken up and every one went to work to make a fit-out to go to the valley as best we could. The land, the oxen, the crop, the houses, tools, and launch, all went into Brannan's hands, and the company that did the work never got anything.'

+3 June 19th, Brannan writes to a friend in N. Y. from Fort Hall. Will start next day with 2 men and part of the horses. Mill. Star, ix. 305. Glover says B. was accompanied by Charles Smith. Meeting with Young. Tullidge's Life Young, 166.

46 Tyler's Ilist. Morm. Bat., 315. Brannan's return is announced in the S. F. Cal. Star. Sept. 18, 1847.

554

PIONEERS-DONNER PARTY-THE MORMONS.

wise disappointed to learn that the new home of their people was to be in the far interior. Some declined to leave the coast region; the rest, giving up their dreams of a great city at New Hope, devoted them- selves half regretfully to preparations for a migration eastward. The discovery of gold in the spring of 1848 reunited most of them at the mines of Mormon Island; but their experience as miners belongs to a later volume. Nearly one hundred adults, with some forty children, found their way in different parties, chiefly in 1848-50, to Utah, where many of them are still living as I write." The rest, forty-five adults and sixty-five children, according to my lists, remained be- hind. Most of them, like the leader, apostatized from the true faith; a few in later years joined Mormon communities at San Bernardino or in Arizona, while a few either died in the faith, or living, retain something of their former theories. Probably about a dozen of all who came on the Brooklyn are still residents of California.

Pioneers of 1847, according to my register, were 1,900, or about twice as many as those of the preced- ing year, 48 They may be classified in round number as follows: Overland immigrants, not including females, and in reality only a small part of the whole number, 50; volunteers of the Mormon battalion, 350; a total of 400 known by name to have come by land routes. The regiment of New York volunteers, or soldier im- migrants, 950; officers and men of the artillery con- pany, U. S. regulars, 120; other known arrivals by sea, 70, including 20 in the navy; making a total of 1,140 who came by water. Men whose coming is ascribed to 1847 in records of later years, 60; those whose presence at some point in California is shown by records of the year, 300; or a total of 360 to be

47 Glover, Mormons in Cal., MS., describes the journey of himself and a few others across the Sierra in the spring of 1849, and names most of those still living.

48 See beginning of this chapter.

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555

IMMIGRANTS OF 1847-S.

divided in unknown proportions between arrivals by sea and land.

My register for 1848 contains 520 names. Classi- fied as above, they included 35 overland immigrants, 25 from Oregon, 140 known to have come by sea, 100 whose arrival merely is ascribed to this year, 50 mentioned for the first time as being in the mines, and 170 found at other places without any definite record respecting the manner of their coming. To this number of 520 there should be added, however, 480 men-dragoons, teamsters, mechanics, and servants-who came under Graham from Mexico, arrived in southern California late in December, and with few exceptions are not named in my lists. Thus the total number of regis- tered new-comers for the year was 1,000, though necessarily the record is less accurate than for earlier times. For later years even an approximately correct register is an impossibility.

The overland immigration to Oregon in 1847 was very large; that to California much smaller than had been expected, though it was understood in advance that prevalent uncertainty in the east respecting the political situation, together with reports of the Don- ner disasters of the past year, would have an unfavor- able effect. Oregon agents at forts Hall and Laramie also did much to discourage those who had California in view, not adhering more strictly to the truth in their statements than had Californian agents at the same points a few years earlier. Yet a party of about fifty came down from Oregon, arriving in June or earlier.49 The regular immigration by the Humboldt and Truckee route may have numbered two hundred

49 S. F. Calif., July 10, 1847; Or. Spectator, June 10, 1847. Charles Ben- nett and Stephen Staats, who later returned to Or., are named as members of this party. The S. F. Cal. Star, Feb. 13, 1847, predicts a large immigration in the autumn and an immense one the next. In the Monterey Calif., Aug. 29, 1846, is an extract from the Little Rock Gazette, announcing the coming of an Arkansas company in 1847. See letters in praise of Cal., though mingled with doubts on the actual state of affairs, in Niles' Reg., Ixxiii. 111; Cutts' Conq., 263-4; S. F. Bulletin, June 16, 1877; Belfast (Me.) Repub. Jour., in Eureka West Coast Signal, May 24, 1871; Newark (N. J.) Advertiser (letter of June 17tli from Monterey).

556

PIONEERS-DONNER PARTY-THE MORMONS.

souls, though, as we have seen, only about fifty names are known. The parties were met by Kearny and later by Stockton, and were passed by Brannan on his return from Salt Lake, news from these sources being published in the papers. They had no remark- able experience on the way, and arrived with seventy wagons at New Helvetia in the first half of October. Charles Hopper, a pioneer of 1841, now returning with his family, was in charge of the main company as guide or captain. There was another small party that attempted a northern cut-off to the upper Sac- ramento, but was obliged to take the Appleton route to Oregon.50 As far west as Salt Lake Valley the Mormon trains formed a prominent element in the year's immigration.

Of the overland parties of 1848 still less is known, but the immigration was perhaps not less numerous than in 1847, though there are only about thirty-five names on the records. The only narrative of the trip extant is that written from memory by J. P. C. All- sopp, who came with a small party from New Orleans by way of St Louis and Independence. Several of the number stopped at Salt Lake to become Mor- mons, and seven, crossing the Sierra by the Carson Valley route, arrived at San Francisco in December.51 James T. Walker with a party of eight started in 1847, but, being belated, was obliged to spend the winter in the Green. River country, and came on to

50 Aug. 23, 1847, Hunsacker and Smith arrive at the fort with news of the immigration. N. Helv. Diary, MS., 100. Sept. 4th, news from Ft Hall in extracts from a diary kept perhaps by Brannau's companions. 1,500 wagons turned aside to Or. S. F. Cal. Star. Sept. 18th, Brannan's report. 25 wagons probably at Truckee; others farther back. Id. Oct. 3d-9th, arrival of immigrants at Sutter's. Gerke, Fairchild, Fourgeaud, and Beston named. N. Helt. Diary, MS., 118-20. See also Sutter's Diary, 9. Oct. 16th, Capt. Hopper's company of 60 wagons crossing the S. Joaquin on the way to S. José. Also mention of the party (Wiggins) which took the northern route. S. F. Cal. Star; also Ilist. Or., 1. 623, this series. Oct. 21st, Sutter to Va- llejo. Immigration very small, only 70 wagons. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xii. 315. See also Honolulu Polynesian, iv. 51, 137, 146. James Findla, Statement, MS., was a member of Hopper's company, and gives a brief account of the journey. In Dec. a caravan of about 212 New Mexicans arrived at Los Angeles to trade. S. F. Californian, Dec. 29, 1847.

31 Allsopp's Leaves from my Log, MS., 34-45.

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537

HENSLEY AND CHILES.

California this year.52 Bigler of the returning Mor- mons gives some information of parties met by the way. On August 15th at the sink of the Humboldt they met eighteen emigrant wagons from Fort Hall. Ten more were met on the 26th; and next day Cap- tain Hensley came up with a party of ten men on mules, who, after failing to follow the Hastings cut- off, had discovered a new and better route. Three days later appeared Captain Chiles with forty-eight wagons, claiming to have found a better way than Hensley's, but the latter's was taken by the Mormons, since Chiles' trail could not be found.53

52 Contra Costa Co. IFist., 686.

53 Bigler's Diary of a Mormon, MS., 89-93. In the Oregon Spectator, Sept. 7th, is a report from advance immigrants that there were 600 wagons on the way, 300 of which would probably go to Cal.

CHAPTER XXI.

MISSIONS-INDIAN AFFAIRS-COMMERCE.

1846-1848.

SALE OF MISSION ESTATES-ACT OF THE ASSEMBLY IN APRIL-THE MON- TESDEOCA ORDER-PICO'S SALES FROM MAY TO JULY-PURCHASERS AND TERMS-THE TORNEL ORDER-EVIDENCES OF FRAUD-ACTION OF FLORES' GOVERNMENT-DECISION OF THE COURTS- POLICY OF KEARNY AND MASON, 1847-8-ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS-BISHOP AND FRIARS- VICARS-INDIAN AFFAIRS-SUTTER, VALLEJO, AND HUNTER AS SUB- INDIAN AGENTS-LOCAL ITEMS-COMMERCE AND MARITIME AFFAIRS- MEAGRE DATA FOR 1846-STATISTICS-MASON'S COMMUNICATIONS- COLLECTORS-REMOVAL OF BURDENS-FREE-TRADE-NEW TARIFF FROM WASHINGTON-WAR CONTRIBUTIONS-MODIFICATIONS BY MASON AND SHUBRICK-GOLD-DUST FOR DUTIES-U. S. REVENDE LAWS INTRODUCED WITH THE TREATY-THE FIRST STEAMER IN CALIFORNIA WATERS- LIST OF VESSELS, 1846-8.

IN accordance with Governor Pico's regulations of October 28, 1845, authorized by the territorial junta in its resolution of May 28th, three missions were sold and four rented to private individuals before the end of the year, as has been recorded in the preceding volume.1 Six other establishments were to be sold in January, but a purchaser was found for only one, that of Soledad, bought by Feliciano Soberanes for $800 on the 4th. The sale of San Francisco was in later years ascribed to February 10th, but Santillan's title was doubtless fraudulently antedated. There

1 See vol. iv. p. 546-53. The establishments sold were S. Juan Capistrano to Forster and MeKinley for $710, Purísima to Temple for $1,110 (bnt tlie title was made ont on Dec. 6th to J. R. Malo), and S. Luis Obispo to Scott, Wilson, and Mckinley for $510. Those rented were Sta Bárbara to N. A. Den and Dan. Hill at $1,200, S. Bnenventura to Arnaz and Botello at $1,630, Sta Inés to Covarrubias and Carrillo at $580, and S. Fernando to Pico and Manso at $1,120.

(558)

559

THE MISSION ESTATES.

were also six missions remaining to be rented under the regulations, as soon as obstacles arising from their debts could be removed, but these obstacles proved insuperable. Respecting the governor's legal right with the junta's approval to sell the mission estates at this time, doubts were expressed by able men in the litigation of later years; but the wisdom of the policy and the good faith of the sales cannot be questioned. The titles acquired by the purchasers of the four missions named were finally confirmed.2

In his address to the assembly on March 2d, Gov- ernor Pico explained the condition of affairs, and called upon that body to devise some means of saving the missions from total ruin. The debts were large, creditors clamorous, and products limited. If leased, the amount of rent that could legally be applied to the payment of debts would be insignificant; if not rented, the expenses of administration would eat up all the revenue.3 The result was a resolution intro- duced by Juan Bandini4 on March 23d, approved by the assembly on the 30th, signed by the president and secretary on the 3d, and published in a bando by Pico on the 4th of April. It authorized the govern- ment to "carry into effect the object of the decree of May 28, 1845," and if necessary for that purpose, to sell the mission estates at auction, distributing among the Indians any surplus of funds that might exist, and in any case providing for the maintenance of the padre and the expenses of public worship. It was to have no effect on what had already been done under the earlier decree. I append a translation.5

2 Land commission, no. 224, 410, 476, 526, in Hoffman's Repts.

3 March 2, 1846, Pico to assembly. Olvera, Doc., MS., 17-18. See also St. Pap. Miss., MS., xi. 64.

4 In Bandini, Doc., MS., 66, are blotter copies, with erasures, interlineations, etc., showing the development of the measure. Also in Dept. St. Pap., MS., viii. 89-95, as presented on March 23d, with a preamble explaining the neces- sity of such action. March 28th, Figueroa writes to Pico on the project. He was probably one of the committee.

5 March 30, 1846, decree of assembly on missions, published by the gov- ernor on April 4th:

Article 1. The government is authorized to carry into effect the object

560

MISSIONS-INDIAN AFFAIRS-COMMERCE.

Before anything had been done to carry this de- cree into effect, there arrived from Mexico, dated November 14th and submitted to the assembly on April 15th, an order of the national government sus- pending all proceedings for the sale of mission prop- erty. This, without recorded comments, was referred on May 13th to the committee on missions, and noth- ing more is heard of it for several years.6 In original

of the decree of 28th May last, published by this honorable assembly, re- specting missions; to which end, seeing the impracticability of renting, mentioned in article 3 of said decree, the departmental government will act in the manner which may appear most conducive to obviate the total ruin of the missions of San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, San Diego, and the remainder, which are in similar circumstances.

Art. 2. As most of these establishments are owing large amounts, if the property on hand should not be sufficient to satisfy their acknowledged debts, attention shall be had to what the laws determine respecting bankruptcies, and steps shall be taken accordingly.

Art. 3. Should government, by virtue of this authority, find that, in order to prevent the total ruin which threatens said missions, it will be necessary to sell them to private persons, this shall be done at public auction, the customary notice being previously given.

Art. 4. In case of sale, if, after the debts be paid, any surplus should remain, this shall be divided among the Indians of the premises sold, govern- ment taking care to make the most just distribution possible.

Art. 3. In any case, care must be taken to secure a sufficient amount for the maintenance of the padres and the expenses of public worship, the gov- ernuient being at liberty to separate a part of the whole establishments, whether in lands for cultivation, landed or other property, at its discretion, which will be sufficient to secure both objects, the respective priests being previously heard and attended to.

Art. G. The premises set apart according to the foregoing article shall be delivered as a sale at a perpetual interest of four per cent; and the pro- ceeds shall be applied precisely to the objects mentioned in said article 5.

Art. 7. What has been done agreeably to what was ordained in the decree of the honorable assembly of the 28th May, before cited, remains in full force; and these presents shall in no manner alter the contracts made and measures taken by government, in accordance with said decree of May 1845; nor shall they in future put any obstacle in the way of what may be done in accordance thereto.

Art. 8. The government will remove any obstacles not foreseen in this decree; and within six months at furthest will notify this honorable assembly of the result of its fulfilment.

Halleck's Rept., 166-7; Leg. Rec., MS., iv. 325-8; Dept. St. Pup, Angeles, MS., x. 88-9. The original bando is also in my possession. Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., iii. 135; and it has often been reprinted in Spanish and English. In later litigation, the lawyers attempted to show that Pico's reference to the date of this document as April 3d was an evidence of fraud, but there is no foundation for such a theory.

6 Nov. 14, 1845, Minister Montesdeoca to gov. of Cal. 'It has come to the knowledge of the president that the departmental govt has made arrange- ments to sell at public auction all the property belonging to the missions, which your predecessor had ordered to be returned to the respective mission- aries for the mauagement and administration of their temporalities; there- fore, he lias seen fit to notify me that that govt must report on those particu-

501

MONTESDEOCA ORDER.

archive records of later months of 1846, there is found but little to indicate that the Montesdeoca order was not obeyed, at least to the extent of suspending the sales.7 Yet in later years there were produced title deeds signed by Pico, showing the sale at different dates between May 4th and July 4th of twelve mis- sions, including the four which had been rented in 1845. I append a list, referring the reader to local annals for more particulars." These titles vary con- siderably in form. In none is there any allusion to a sale by auction, and it has never been claimed that the sale was of that character as required by the de- cree. The consideration, even where a definite sum is named, was in most cases an amount already due from the government for past advances, and in the other cases there is no evidence respecting the payment or use made of the money.9 Most of the titles require

lars, suspending at once every proceeding connected with the alienation of the property in question pending the resolution of the supreme govt.' St. Pap., Mis. and Col., MS., ii. 404-5; Hartman's Brief, 49-50; Leg. Rec., MS., iii. 329-30, 341, and often reproduced. This order had no bearing on the gover- nor's power to grant in regular form ranchos that had formerly been used by the missions, but referred only to buildings, cattle, lands in use, etc. Hoffman's Opinions, passim. It was also claimed that the order referred only to the 13 missions restored to the padres in 1843, and not to S. Juan Bautista. Holli- day's Brief, in Panaud v. U. S., Hayes' Miss. B., 366, p. 14.

7 May 13th, Pico calls upon all creditors of the missions to present their claims and proofs. C'astro, Doc., MS., 84; S. Luis Ob., Arch., MS., 8; Dept. St. Pap., Pref. y Juzg., MS., ii. 117. There are also, in St. Pap. Mis., MS., xi. 61-6, and Unb. Doc., MS., some records on the sale of S. Diego, S. Fernando, S. Buenaventura, and Soledad.

8 Missions sold by Pico in 1846: May 4th, S. Juan Bautista to O. Deleis- sèques for a debt; May 5th, S. José to Andres Pico and J. B. Alvarado for $12,000; May 18th, S. Luis Rey to Cot and Jose Ant. Pico for $2,437; June Sth, S. Rafael to Ant. Suñol and A. M. Pico for $8,000, S. Buenaventura to José Arnaz for $12,000, S. Diego to Santiago Argüello for past services to govt, and S. Gabriel to Reid and Workman for debt; June 10th, Sta Bárbara to Rich. Den for $7,500; June 15th, Sta Ines to Covarrubias and Joaquin Car- rillo for $7,000; June 17th, S. Fernando to Celis for $14,000; June 30th, orchard of Sta Clara to Castaneda, Arenas, and Diaz for $1,200; July 4th, S. Miguel to P. Rios and Wm Reed; June 4th, Soledad to Soberanes for $800.

The three sold in 1845, as already recorded, were Purísima, S. Luis Obispo, and S. Juan Capistrano. A fraudulent title to S. Francisco was dated Fcb. 10th. Respecting the disposition of S. Carlos, Sta Cruz, S. An- tonio, and Solano nothing appears, except that at the latter a house was granted by Castro to Prudon on June 3d.

9 Pico has been accused of carrying away large sums to Mex., but there is nothing to support the charge. In his ITist. Cal., MS., 133-4, 171-2, he speaks of the mission sales, without throwing much light on the subject. He says he sold iu 1846 only five missions; that the sales of S. Gabriel and S. Luis Rey HIST. CAL., VOL. V. 36

562

MISSIONS-INDIAN AFFAIRS-COMMERCE.

the purchaser to pay the mission debts, and to provide for the padre's support and the expenses of public worship, also reserving from the sale the church and priest's residence. Some of them make provision for remnants of the community Indians. Nearly all re- fer to the assembly's act as the grantor's authority,10 and also to a general authorization from the supreme government, without naming any definite order or date, or alluding in any way to the Montesdeoca order. In later years a Mexican order of March 10th, declaring the governor and general 'facultados ampliamente' to defend the country, was produced as legalizing the sales.11 I regard the document in itself as sufficient, although the courts did not take this view of it.12 But the date of receiving this order is not known ; it is im- probable that it arrived before May 4th, when the sales began, or before the middle of June, when most of them had been effected; had it been in his posses- sion, Pico would almost certainly have cited it; and during the period between the reception of the Mon- tesdeoca order on April 15th and the unknown date when the Tornel order came to hand the governor had no right to sell the mission estates.13

In the case of several missions, it was proved clearly enough that the titles and corroborative papers in pri-

did not go into effect; that the sale of S. Fernando was virtually a mortgage to secure sums contributed to the govt (it is true the deed contained a provision that the property might be redeemed within 8 months); S. Diego was given to Arguello for past services; and the consideration for S. Buenaventura was merely nominal. Not a dollar ever came into Pico's hands.

10 Copies of most of the titles are printed in Spanish and English in Hart- man's Brief, in Miss. Cases, appendix. A noticeable peculiarity is that the date of this act is generally given as April 13th, instead of 3d (trece for tres).

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History of California, Volume XXII, Part 58

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885-1890 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 816

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816