USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California, including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description; together with a record of the Mexican grants also, incidents of pioneer life; and biographical sketches of early and prominent settlers and representative men > Part 10
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We will now turn for a moment to the Mission of San Jose. This was established June 11, 1798, while Diego de Barica was the Governor of Cali- fornia. The site chosen was ten miles to the north of the Pueblo de San José and forty to the east of San Francisco, on a plateau indenting the Contra Costa Range, and facing the southern extremity of the Bay of San Francisco. Behind it were the beautiful Calaveras and Suñol valleys. Mission Peak arose immediately in its rear like a giant sentinel indexing its location, while in its vicinity, nature had abundantly supplied every want. Here was a pellucid stream of sweetest water perennially running from never-failing springs ; here, too, were the paramount advantages of climate ; wood was abundant; pasturage was luxuriant ; killing frosts were unknown; an embarcadero was not far distant; and within an hour's walk were warm springs, possessed of potent healing qualities. What more was needed ?
They who had charge of the founding of Mission San José were Friars Ysidro Barcilano and Augustine Merin. At first the chapel was a small adobe edifice, which was extended seven varas in the second year of its existence. A wall forty-seven varas long, five high and six wide, thatched with tules, was constructed, water flumes laid, and being in the presidial jurisdiction of San Francisco, soldiers were sent from there to keep guard over it and to bring the natives in for education.
What was the State of the Missions in the early part of the present century ? We shall see. In the year 1767 the property possessed by the Jesuits then known as the Pious Fund, was taken charge of by the Govern- ment, and used for the benefit of the Missions. At that time this possession yielded an annual revenue of fifty thousand dollars, twenty-four thousand of which were expended in the stipends of the Franciscan and Dominican Missionaries, and the balance for the maintenance of the Missions generally. Father Gleeson says : "The first inroad made on these pious donations was about the year 1806, when to relieve the natural wants of the parent country, caused by the wars of 1801 and 1804, between Portugal in the one instance and Great Britain in the other, His Majesty's fiscal at Mexico scrupled not to confiscate and remit to the authorities in Spain, as much as two hundred thousand dollars of the Pious Fund." By this means the Mis- sions were deprived of most substantial aid, and the Fathers left upon their own resources; add to these difficulties the unsettled state of the country
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between the years 1811 and 1831, and still their work was never stayed, to demonstrate which let us here state that between the years 1802 and 1822, in all of the eighteen Missions which then existed in Upper California, there were baptized seventy-four thousand six hundred and twenty-one Indians ; twenty thousand four hundred and twelve were married; forty-seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five had died; and there were twenty thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight existing. No fewer than six thou- sand five hundred and sixty-five had succumbed at Santa Clara, and two thousand nine hundred and thirty-three at Mission San José-the greater number to disease.
Of what nature was this plague it is hard to establish ; the missionaries themselves could assign no cause, syphilis, measles, and small-pox carried off numbers, and these diseases were generated, in all probability, by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence, to a state of settled quietude.
Father Gleeson further informs us: " In 1813, when the contest for national independence was being waged on Mexican territory, the Cortes of Spain resolved upon dispensing with the services of the Fathers by placing the missions in the hands of the secular clergy. The professed ob- ject of this secularization scheme was, indeed, the welfare of the Indians and colonists; but how little this accorded with the real intentions of the Government, is seen from the seventh section of the decree by the Cortes, wherein is stated that one-half of the land was to be hypothecated for the pay- ment of the National Debt. The decree ordering this, commences : The Cortes, general and extraordinary, considering that the reduction of common land to private property is one of the measures most imperiously demanded for the welfare of the pueblos, and the improvement of agriculture and industry, and wishing at the same time to derive from this class of land aid to re- lieve the public necessities, a reward to the worthy defenders of the country and relief to the citizens not proprietors, decree, etc., without prejudice to the foregoing provisions, one-half of the vacant land and lands belonging to the royal patrimony of the monarchy, except the suburbs of the pueblos, is hereby reserved, to be in whole, or in part, as may be deemed necessary, hypothecated for the payment of the National Debt, etc. .
" This decree of the Government was not carried out at the time, yet it had its effect on the state and well-being of the missions in general. It could not be expected that with such a resolution under their eyes, the Fathers would be as zealous in developing the natural resources of the country as before, seeing that the result of their labors was at any moment liable to be seized on by the Government, and handed over to strangers. The insecurity thus created naturally acted upon the converts in turn, for when it became apparent that the authority of the missionaries was more nominal than real, a spirit of opposition and independence on the part of
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some of the people was the natural result. Even before this determination had been come to on the part of the Government, there were not wanting evidences of an evil disposition on the part of the people; for as early as 1803 one of the missions had become the scene of a revolt ; and earlier still, as we learn from an unpublished correspondence of the Fathers, it was not unusual for some of the converts to abandon the missions and return to their former wandering life. It was customary on those occasions to pur- sue the deserters, and compel them to return. * *
" Meantime, the internal state of the Missions was becoming more and more complex and disordered. The desertions were more frequent and numerous, the hostility of the unconverted more daring, and the general disposition of the people inclined to revolt. American traders and free- booters had entered the country, spread themselves all over the province, and sowed the seeds of discord and revolt among the inhabitants. Many of the more reckless and evil-minded readily listened to their suggestions, adopted their counsels, and broke out into open hostilities. Their hostile attack was first directed against the Mission of Santa Cruz, which they captured and plundered, when they directed their course to Monterey, and, in common with their American friends, attacked and plundered that place. From these and other like occurrences, it was clear that the condition of the Missions was one of the greatest peril. The spirit of discord had spread among the people, hostility to the authority of the Fathers had become common, while desertion from the villages was of frequent and almost con- stant occurrence. To remedy this unpleasant state of affairs, the military then in the country was entirely inadequate, and so matters continued, with little or no difference, till 1824, when, by the action of the Mexican Gov- ernment, the Missions began rapidly to decline.
" Two years after Mexico had been formed into a Republic, the Govern- ment authorities began to interfere with the rights of the Fathers and the existing state of affairs. In 1826 instructions were forwarded by the Federal Government to the authorities of California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed, a few years later, by another act of the Legislature, ordering the whole of the Missions to be secularized and the Religious to withdraw. The ostensible object assigned by the authors of the measure was the execution of the original plan formed by Government. The Missions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent estab- lishments ; they were to give way, in the course of some years, to the regu- lar ecclesiastical system, when the people would be formed into parishes, 4* attended by a secular clergy." 4* * *
" Beneath these specious pretexts," says Dwinelle, in his Colonial Histo- ry, " was undoubtedly a perfect understanding between the Government at Mexico and the leading men in California, and in such a condition of things the Supreme Government might absorb the Pious Fund, under the pretense
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that it was no longer necessary for missionary purposes, and thus had re- verted to the State as a quasi escheat, while the co-actors in California should appropriate the local wealth of the Missions, by the rapid and sure process of administering the temporalities." And again: "These laws (the secularization laws), whose ostensible purpose was to convert the missionary establishments into Indian pueblos, their churches into parish churches, and to elevate the christianized Indians to the rank of citizens, were, after all, executed in such a manner that the so-called secularization of the Missions resulted only in their plunder and complete ruin, and in the demoralization and dispersion of the Christianized Indians."
Immediately on the receipt of the decree, the then acting Governor of California, Don José Figueroa, commenced the carrying out of its provisions, to which end he prepared certain provisional rules, and in accordance there- with the alteration in the missionary system was begun, to be immediately followed by the absolute ruin of both missions and country. Within a very few years the exertions of the Fathers were entirely destroyed ; the lands, which hitherto had teemed with abundance, were handed over to the Indians, to be by them neglected and permitted to return to their primitive wildness, and the thousands of cattle were divided among the people and the administrators for the personal benefit of either.
Let us now briefly follow Father Gleeson in his contrast of the state of the people before and after secularization. He says: "It has been stated already that in 1822 the entire number of Indians then inhabiting the dif- ferent Missions amounted to twenty thousand and upwards. To these others were being constantly added, even during those years of political strife which immediately preceded the independence of Mexico, until, in 1836, the number amounted to thirty thousand and more. Provided with all the necessary comforts of life, instructed in everything requisite for their state in society, and devoutly trained in the duties and requirements of religion, these thirty thousand Californian converts led a peaceful, happy, contented life, strangers to those cares, troubles and anxieties common to higher and more civilized conditions of life. At the same time that their religious condition was one of thankfulness and grateful satisfaction to the Fathers, their worldly position was one of unrivaled abundance and pros- perity. Divided between the different Missions from St. Lucas to San Francisco, close upon one million of live-stock belonged to the people. Of these, four hundred thousand were horned cattle, sixty thousand horses, and more than three hundred thousand sheep, goats and swine. The united annual return of the cereals, consisting of wheat, maize, beans, and the like, was upwards of one hundred and twenty thousand bushels; while, at the same time, throughout the different Missions, the preparation and manu- facture of soap, leather, wine, brandy, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt and soda, were largely and extensively cultivated. And to
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such perfection were these articles brought, that some of them were eagerly sought for and purchased in the principal cities in Europe.
"The material prosperity of the country was further increased by an annual revenue of about one million of dollars, the net proceeds of the hide and tallow of one hundred thousand oxen slaughtered annually at the dif- ferent Missions. Another hundred thousand were slaughtered by the set- tlers for their own private advantage. The revenues on the articles of which there are no specific returns, are. also supposed to have averaged another million dollars, which, when added to the foregoing, makes the annual revenue of the California Catholic Missions, at the time of their supremacy, between two and three million dollars. Independent of these, there were the rich and extensive gardens and orchards attached to the Missions, exquisitely ornamented and enriched, in many instances, with a great variety of European and tropical fruit trees, plums, bananas, oranges, olives and figs, added to which were the numerous and fertile vineyards, rivaling in the quantity and quality of the grape those of the old countries of Europe, and all used for the comfort and maintenance of the natives. In a word, the happy results, both spiritual and temporal, produced in Up- per California by the spiritual children of St. Francis, during the sixty years of their missionary career, were such as have rarely been equaled and never surpassed in modern times. In a country naturally salubrious, and it must be admited fertile beyond many parts of the world, yet presenting at the outset numerous obstacles to the labors of the missionary, the Fathers succeeded in establishing, at regular distances along the coast, as many as one-and-twenty missionary establishments. Into these holy retreats their zeal and ability enabled them to gather the whole of the indigenous race, with the exception of a few wandering tribes, who, it is only reasonable to suppose, would also have followed the example of their brethren, had not the labors of the Fathers been dispensed with by the civil authorities. There, in those peaceful, happy abodes, abounding in more than the ordinary enjoyment of things spiritual and temporal, thirty thousand faithful, simple- hearted Indians passed their days in the practice of virtue and the improve- ment of their country, from a wandering, savage, uncultivated race, uncon- scious as well of the God who created them as the end for which they were made, they became, after the advent of the Fathers, a civilized, domestic, Christian people, whose morals were as pure as their minds were simple. Daily attendance at the holy sacrifice of the mass, morning and night prayer, confession and communion at stated times-the true worship, in a word, of the Deity, succeeded the listless, aimless life, the rude pagan games, and the illicit amours. The plains and valleys, which for centuries lay un- cultivated and unproductive, now teemed under an abundance of every species of corn ; the hills and plains were covered with stock ; the fig tree, the olive and the vine yielded their rich abundance, while lying in the har-
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bors, waiting to carry to foreign markets the rich products of the country, might be seen numerous vessels from different parts of the world. Such was the happy and prosperous condition of the country under the mission- ary rule ; and with this the reader is requested to contrast the condition of the people after the removal of the Religious, and the transfer of power to the secular authorities.
" In 1833 the decree for the liberation of the Indians was passed by the Mexican Congress, and put in force in the following year. The dispersion and demoralization of the people was the immediate result. Within eight years after the execution of the decree, the number of Christians diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and fifty to four thousand four hundred and fifty ! Some of the Missions, which in 1834 had as many as one thousand five hundred souls, numbered only a few hundred in 1842. The two Missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solano (Sonoma) decreased respectively within this period from one thousand two hundred and fifty, and one thousand three hundred, to twenty and seventy ! A like diminution was observed in the cattle and general products of the country. Of the eight hundred and eight thousand head of live-stock belonging to the Missions at the date above mentioned, only sixty-three thousand and twenty remained in 1842. The diminution in the cereals was equally striking; it fell from seventy to four thousand hectolitres. * * By descending to particular instances this (the advantage of the Religious over the civil administration) will become even more manifest still. At one period during the supremacy of the Fathers, the principal Mission of the country (San Diego) produced as much as six thousand fanegas of wheat, and an equal quantity of maize, but in 1842 the return for this Mission was only eighteen hundred fanegas in all."
That the Fathers who had charge of the Missions in Upper California, before the advent of the Americans, paid strict attention to the duty of Christianizing the native race, is evidenced by documents still in existence. The following report and order, dated Monterey, May 6, 1804, addressed to the Commissioner of the Village of Branciforte, though belonging to the chronicles of another county, is now produced to exemplify the stringency with which religious observances were carried out :
" In accordance with the rules made by the Governor, requiring a monthly report from the Commissioner of Branciforte, showing who of the colonists and residents do or do not comply with their religious duties, the official report for the month of April, 1804, certified by the reverend minis- ter, has reached its destination. The Indian, Toribio, at some time past was derelict, but now has been brought to a proper sense of the requirements of a Christian era, and is absolved from further stricture upon his failures, and the reverend Fathers are to be so notified. The rebellious Ignacio Acedo, for failure to comport himself outwardly as a devotee, is to be ar-
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rested and turned over to the Church authorities, where flagellation and confinement in the stocks will cause him to pay a proper respect, and to be obedient to the precepts and commandments of the church, of which he has been a contumacious member. The Governor is to be informed of the punish- ment to which Acedo will be sentenced ; and requires the information in writing, that it may be used by him, if he requires it, as an example of what those under his command may expect should they fail in the observ- ance of the requirements of the Church."
Then follows Government Order No. 29, signed by José M. Estudillo, Secretary of José J. de Arrillaga, Military Commander of Alta California, and which is to this effect:
"I am in receipt of the list, certified by the reverend minister of the Mission of Santa Cruz, of those who have observed the rules of religion, in having confessed and received the sacrament. The Indian, Toribio, has complied herewith, having done both, and I will send word to such effect to the Fathers. You will cause Ignacio Acedo to be arrested, and notify the reverend Fathers when you have done so, that they may do with him as they think proper, and inform me what the pastors of the church do to its members who fail to conform to the precepts of the holy religion, and have the reverend Fathers put it in writing. May God protect you many years."
In its early day the whole military force in Upper California did not number more than from two to three hundred men, divided between the four presidios of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Francisco, while there were but two towns or pueblos, Los Angeles and San José, the latter of which was established, November 29, 1777. Another was subse- quently started in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz, which was named Branciforte, after a Spanish Viceroy. It may be conjectured that the garrisons were not maintained in a very effective condition. Such a suppo- sition would be correct, for everywhere betokened the disuse of arms, and the long absence of an enemy. The cannon of the presidio at San Francisco were grey with mould, and women and children were to be seen snugly located within the military lines. The soldiers of the San Francisco dis- trict were divided into three cantonments-one at the presidio, one at Santa Clara mission, and one at Mission San José. We here append a list of the soldiers connected with the presidio in the year 1790, which has been copied from the Spanish archives in San Francisco. Here will be found the names, positions, nativity, color, race, age, etc., of the soldiers, as well as those of their wives, when married :
Don Josef Arguello, Commandante, age 39.
Don Ramon Laro de la Neda, Alferez de Campo, age 34.
Pedro Amador, Sergeant. Spaniard from Guadalaxara, age 51; wife, Ramona Noriega, Spanish, aged 30; seven children.
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Nicolas Galindo, mestizo, Durango, 42.
Majio Chavoya, City of Mexico, 34; wife, a Bernal.
Miguel Pacheco, 36 ; wife, a Sanchez.
Luis Maria Peralta, Spaniard, Sonora, 32; wife, Maria Loretta Alviso, 19. Justa Altamarino, mulatto, Sonora, 45.
Ygnacio Limaxes, Sonora, 49 ; wife, Maria Gertruda Rivas, Spaniard, 38. Ygnacio Soto, 41; wife, Barbara Espinoza.
Juan Bernal, mestizo, Sonora, 53; wife, Maxima I de Soto.
Jph. Maria Martinez, Sonora, 35 ; wife, Maria Garcia, mulatto, 18.
Salvador Iguera, L. C., 38; wife, Alexa Marinda, Sonora, 38. Nicolas Berryessa, mestizo, 25; wife Maria Gertrudis Peralta, 24.
Pedro Peralta, Sonora, 26: wife, Maria Carmen Grisalva, 19.
Ygnacio Pacheco, Sonora, 30 ; wife, Maria Dolores Cantua, mestizo, age 16.
Francisco Bernal, Sinaloa, 27; wife, Maria Petrona, Indian, 29.
Bartolo Pacheco, Sonora, 25; wife, Maria Francisco Soto, 18.
Apolinario Bernal, Sonora, 25.
Joaquin Bernal, Sonora, 28; wife, Josefa Sanchez, 21. Josef Aceva, Durango, 26.
Manuel Boranda, Guadalaxara, 40; wife, Gertrudis Higuera, 13.
Francisco Valencia, Sonora, 22; wife, Maria Victoria Higuera, 15.
Josef Antonio Sanchez, Guadalaxara, 39; wife, Maria Dolora Moxales, 34. Josef Ortez, Guadalaxara, 23.
Josef Aguil, Guadalaxara, 22; wife, Conellaria Remixa, 14. Alexandro Avisto, Durango, 23.
Juan Josef Higuera, Sonora, 20.
Francisco Flores, Guadalaxara, 20.
Josef Maria Castilla, Guadalaxara, 19. .
Ygnacio Higuera, Sonora ; wife, Maria Micaelo Borjorques, 28.
Ramon Linare, Sonora, 19.
Josef Miguel, Saens, Sonora, 18.
Carto Serviente, San Diego, Indian, 60.
Augustin Xirviento, L. C., 20.
Nicolas Presidairo, Indian, 40.
Gabriel Peralta, invalid, Sonora.
Manuel Vutron, invalid, Indian.
Ramon Borjorques, invalid, 98.
Francisco Romero, invalid, 52.
A recapitulation shows that the inmates of the presidio consisted alto- gether of one hundred and forty-four persons, including men, women and children, soldiers and civilians. There were thirty-eight soldiers and three laborers. Of these one was a European other than Spanish, seventy- eight Spaniards, five Indians, two mulattos, and forty-four of other castes.
An inventory of the rich men of the Presidio, bearing date 1793, was dis-
tenbach
yours Study Harrows Bongliss
Early History and Settlement of Contra Costa County. 97
covered some years since, showing that Pedro Amador was the proprietor of thirteen head of stock and fifty-two sheep ; Nicolas Galindo, ten head of stock ; Luis Peralta, two head of stock ; Manuel Boranda, three head of stock ; Juan Bernal, twenty three head of stock and two hundred and forty- six sheep ; Salvador Youere, three head of stock; Aleso Miranda, fifteen head of stock ; Pedro Peralta, two head of stock ; Francisco Bernal, sixteen head of stock ; Bartol Pacheco, seven head of stock ; Joaquin Bernal, eight head of stock ; Francisco Valencia, two head of stock ; Berancia Galindo, six head of stock ; Hermenes Sal (who appears to have been a secretary, or something besides a soldier), five head of stock and three mares. Comput- ing these, we find the total amount of stock owned by these men was one hundred and fifteen cattle, two hundred and ninety-eight sheep, and seven- teen mares-the parent stem from which sprung the hundreds of thousands of head of stock which afterwards roamed over the Californian mountains and valleys.
We have thus far dwelt chiefly upon the establishment of the Missions; let us now briefly take into consideration the attempt made by another European nation to get a foothold on the coast of California.
The Russians, to whom then belonged all that territory now known as Alaska, had found their country of almost perpetual cold, without facilities for the cultivation of those fruits and cereals which go a great way towards maintaining life ; therefore ships were dispatched along the coast in quest of a spot where a station might be established, and those wants supplied. In a voyage of this nature, the port of Bodega, in Sonoma County, was visited in January, 1811, by Alexander Koskoff, who took possession of the place on the fragile pleas that he had been refused a supply of water at Yerba Buena (San Francisco), and that he had obtained, by right of purchase from the Indians, the land lying between Point Reyes, and Point Arena (Mendocino County), and for a distance of three leagues inland. Here he remained for a while, and to Bodega gave the name of Romanzoff, calling the stream now known as Russian River, Slavianka.
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