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 12
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The government of the native Californian was as primitive as him- self. There were neither law-books nor lawyers, while laws were mostly to be found in the traditions of the people. The head officer in each village was the Alcalde, in whom was vested the judicial function, who received on the enactment of a new law a manuscript copy, called a bando, upon the obtaining of which a person was sent round beating a snare drum, which was a signal for the assemblage of the people at the Alcalde's office, where the Act was read, thus promulgated, and forthwith had the force of law. When a citizen had cause of action against another requiring the aid
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of Court, he went to the Alcalde and verbally stated his complaint in his own way, and asked that the defendant be sent for, who was at once sum- moned by an officer, who simply said that he was wanted by the Alcalde. The defendant made his appearance without loss of time, where, if in the same village, the plaintiff was generally in waiting. The Alcalde commenced by stating the complaint against him, and asked what he had to say about it. This brought about an altercation between the parties, and nine times out of ten, the Justice could get at the facts in this wise, and announce judgment immediately, the whole suit not occupying two hours from its beginning. In more important cases three " good men" would be called in to act as co-justices, while the testimony of witnesses had seldom to be resorted to. A learned American judge has said that "the native Californians were, in the presence of their Courts, generally truthful. What they know of false swearing or perjury they have learned from their association with Ameri- cans. It was truthfully said by the late Edmund Randolph, that the United States Board of Commissioners to settle private land claims in California, had been the graves of their reputations."
They were all Roman Catholics, and their priests of the Franciscan Order. They were great church-goers, yet Sunday was not the only day set apart for their devotions. Nearly every day in the calendar was de- voted to the memory of some Saint, while those dedicated to the principal ones were observed as holidays ; so that Sunday did not constitute more than half the time which they consecrated to religious exercises, many of which were so much in contrast to those of the present day, that they deserve a short description.
The front door of their churches was always open, and every person passing, whether on foot or on horseback did so, hat in hand ; any forget- fulness on this head caused the unceremonious removal of the sombrero. During the holding of services within, it was customary to station a num- ber of men without, who at appointed intervals interrupted the proceedings with the ringing of bells, the firing of pistols, and the shooting of muskets, sustaining a noise resembling the irregular fire of a company of infantry.
In every church was kept a number of pictures of their saints, and a triumphal arch profusely decorated with artificial flowers ; while, on a holi- day devoted to any particular saint, after the performance of mass, a picture of the saint, deposited in the arch, would be carried out of the church on the shoulders of four men, followed by the whole congregation in double file, with the priest at the head, book in hand. The procession would march all round the town (if in one), and at every few rods would kneel on the ground while the priest read a prayer or performed some religious cere- mony. After the circuit of the town had been made, the train returned to the church, entering it in the same order as that in which they had de- parted. With the termination of these exercises, horse-racing, cock-fighting,
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gambling, dancing, and a general merry-making completed the work of the day. A favorite amusement of these festivals was for thirty or forty men on horseback, generally two, but sometimes three on one horse, with their guitars, to parade the towns, their horses capering and keeping time to the music, accompanied with songs by the whole company, in this manner visit- ing, playing and singing at all the places of business and principal resi- dences ; and it was considered no breach of decorum for men on horses to enter stores and dwellings.
Some of their religious ceremonies were very grotesque and amusing, the personification of "The Wise Men of the East " being of this character. At the supposed anniversary of the visit of the wise men to Bethlehem, seven or eight men would be found dressed in the most fantastic styles, going in company from house to house, looking for the infant Saviour. They were invariably accompanied by one representing the devil, in the garb of a Franciscan friar, with his rosary of beads and the cross, carrying a long rawhide whip, and woe to the man who came within reach of that whip-it was far from fun to him, though extremely amusing to the rest of the party. The chief of these ceremonies, however, was the punishment of Judas Iscariot for the betrayal of his Master. On the supposed periodicity of this event, after nightfall, and the people had retired to rest, a company would go out and prepare the forthcoming ceremonies. A cart was procured and placed in the public square in front of the church, against which was set up an effigy made to represent Judas, by stuffing an old suit of clothes with straw. The houses were then visited and a collection of pots, kettles, dishes, agricultural implements-in fact, every conceivable article of personal prop- erty was scraped together and piled up around Judas, to represent his effects, until in appearance he was the wealthiest man in the whole coun- try. Then the last will and testament of Judas had to be prepared, a work which was accorded to the best scribe and the greatest wit of the com- munity. Every article of property had to be disposed of, and something like an equal distribution among all the people made, each bequest being accompanied by some very pointed and witty reason for its donation. Among a more sensitive people, some of these reasons would be regarded as libelous. The will, when completed and properly attested, was posted on a bulletin board near the effigy, and the night's work was performed. As soon as sufficiently light, the entire population, men, women and children, congregated to see Judas and his wealth, and to hear read, and discuss the merits of his will and appropriateness of its provisions. Nothing else was talked of ; nothing else was thought of, until the church bell summoned them to mass; after which, a wild, unbroken mare was procured, on the back of which Judas was firmly strapped; a string of fire-crackers was then tied to her tail, they were lighted, she was turned loose, and the ultimate fate of the figurative Judas was not unlike that which we are told occurred to his perfidious prototype.
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The native Californians were a temperate people, intoxication being almost unknown. Wines and liquors existed in the country, but were sparingly used. In a saloon, where a " bit's worth" was called for, the de- canter was not handed to the customer, as we believe is now the case, but was invariably measured out, and if the liquor was a potent spirit, in a very small dose ; while a " bit's " worth was a treat for a considerable com- pany, the glass being passed around from one to the other, each taking a sip. The following amusing episode in this regard, which occurred in the Pueblo de San José, in 1847, may find a place here. Juan Soto, an old gray- headed man and a great friend to Americans-for everyone who spoke English was an American to him-had come into possession of a "bit," and being a generous, whole-souled man, he desired to treat five or six of his friends and neighbors. To this end he got them together, marched them to Weber's store, and there meeting -- , who tho' hailing from the Emerald Isle, passed for an American, invited him to join in the symposium. The old Spaniard placed his " bit" upon the counter with considerable éclat, and called for its value in wine, which was duly measured out. As a mark of superior respect he first handed it to -, who, wag that he was, swal- lowed the entire contents, and awaited the denoument with keen relish. Soto and his friends looked at each other in blank amazement, when there burst out a tirade in their native tongue, the choice expressions in which may be more readily imagined than described.
There was one vice that was common to nearly all of these people, and which eventually caused their ruin, namely, a love of gambling. Their favorite game was monté, probably the first of all banking games. So passionately were they addicted to this, that on Sunday, around the church, while the women were inside and the priest at the altar, crowds of men would have their blankets spread upon the ground with their cards and money, playing their favorite game of monté. They entertained no idea that it was a sin, nor that there was anything derogatory to their charac- ter as good Christians. This predilection was early discovered and turned to account by the Americans, who soon established banks, and carried on games for their amusement especially. The passion soon became so de- veloped that they would bet and lose their horses and cattle, while to pro- cure money to gratify this disposition, they would borrow from Americans at the rate of twelve and a half per cent. per day ; mortgaging and selling their lands and stock, yea, even their wives' clothing, so that their purpose should be gratified, and many unprincipled Westerns of those days enriched themselves in this manner at the expense of these poor creatures.
Before leaving this people, mention should be made of their bull and bear fights. Sunday, or some prominent holiday, was invariably the day chosen for holding these, to prepare for which a large corral was erected (in San José) in the plaza, in front of the church, for they were witnessed by priest
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and layman alike. In the afternoon, after divine service, two or three good bulls (if a bull-fight only) would be caught and put in the inclosure, when the combat commenced. If there is anything that will make a wild bull furious it is the sight of a red blanket. Surrounded by the entire popu- lation, the fighters entered the arena, each with one of these in one hand and a knife in the other, the first of which they would flaunt before the furious beast, but guardedly keeping it between the animal and himself. Infuriated beyond degree, with flashing eye and head held down, the bull would dash at his enemy, who, with a dexterous side spring would evade the onslaught, leaving the animal to strike the blanket, and as he passed would inflict a slash with his knife. Whenever by his quickness he could stick his knife in the bull's neck just behind the horns, thereby wounding the spinal cord, the bull fell a corpse and the victor received the plaudits of the admiring throng. The interest taken in these exhibitions was intense; and, what though a man was killed, had his ribs broken, was thrown over the fence, or tossed on to the roof of a house ; it only added zest to the sport, it was of no moment, the play went on. It was a national amusement. When a grizzly bear could be procured, then the fight, instead of being between man and bull, was between bull and bear. Both were taken into the corral, each being made fast to either end of a rope of sufficient length to permit of free action, and left alone until they chose to open the ball. The first motion was usually made by the bull endeavoring to part com- pany with the bear, who thus received the first " knock-down." On finding that he could not get clear of Bruin, he then charged him, but was met half-way. If the bear could catch the bull by the nose, he held him at a disadvantage, but he more frequently found that he had literally taken the bull by the horns, when the fight became intensely interesting, and was kept up until one or other was killed, or both refused to renew the combat. The bull, unless his horns were clipped, was generally victorious.
The custom of bull and bear fighting was kept up by the native Cali- fornians, as a money-making institution from the Americans, until the year 1854, when the Legislature interposed by " An Act to prevent Noisy and Barbarous Amusements on the Sabbath."
The following anecdote in regard to it has been related to us, and may serve to vary the tedium of the reader. Shortly after the foregoing enact- ment became a law, great preparations were made for having a bull fight, on the Sabbath as usual, at the old Mission of San Juan Bautista. They were notified by the officers of the existence of the new law, and that they must desist from the undertaking. Doctor Wiggins, a Mission pioneer in California since 1842, was then residing at San Juan ; he spoke Spanish fluently, and was looked upon as a great friend by the native Californians. He never smiled, nor appeared to jest-yet, he was the greatest tale-teller, jester and punster on the Pacific coast. In sallies of genuine wit he stood
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unequaled. In their perplexity about the new law, the Californians took counsel with the doctor ; he examined the title of the Act with much seriousness and an air of great wisdom : " Go on with your bull-fights." was the doctor's advice ; " they can do nothing with you. This is an Act to prevent noisy and barbarous amusements on the Sabbath. If they arrest you, you will be entitled to trial by jury ; the jury will be Americans ; they will, before they can convict you, have to find three things ; first, that a bull-fight is noisy ; this they will find against you ; second, that it is barbarous ; this they will find against you ; but an American jury will never find that it is an amusement in Christ's time. Go on with your bull-fights." They did go on and were arrested, to find that the doctor had been practising a cruel joke on this long-cherished institution. They were sentenced to pay a fine, and it was the last of the bull-fights. Thus passed away the only surviving custom of a former civilization.
The history of the settlement of any county of California follows so sequentially, and is so closely allied to the history of the Pacific Coast in general, and this State in particular, that to commence the chronicling of events from the beginning naturally and properly takes us back to the early discoveries in this portion of the globe, made by the hardy old voyageurs who left the known world and charted seas behind them and sailed out into an unknown, untraversed, unmapped and trackless main, whose mysteries were to them as incomprehensible as are those of that " undiscovered country" of which Hamlet speaks.
In the year 1728 a Dane named Vitus Bering, was employed by Catha- rine of Russia to proceed on an exploring expedition to the northwest coast of America and Asia, to find, if possible, an undiscovered connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. On this voyage he solved the riddle and gave to the world the straits which now bear his name. On his return he tendered to the Empress the handsome skins which he had procured on his cruise, and so delighted was she, and so excited was the cupidity of capital- ists from other countries, that soon settlements were established on the coast, and the collection of furs commenced. In 1799 the Russian Ameri- can Fur Company was organized and located in what is now known as Alaska ; Sitka was founded in 1805 ; and for many years the neighbors of the Russ were the Austrians and Danes. Now came the British. An association known as the King George's Sound Company was organized in London in 1784, for the purpose of making a settlement on the Pacific Coast, whither many of their vessels found their way up till 1790. Be- tween the years 1784 and 1790, the coast was visited by ships of the East India Company, and about the last-named year craft of the United States were first seen in these waters.
The ship Columbia, Robert Gray, Captain, arrived at the Straits of Fuca, June 5, 1791, and traded along the coast, discovering the Columbia
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River, which he named after his vessel, May 7, 1792. In 1810, a number of hunters and trappers arrived in the ship Albatross, Captain Smith, and established the first American settlement on the Pacific Coast. In the same year, under the leadership of John Jacob Astor, the Pacific Fur Company was organized in New York, and in 1811, they founded the present town of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River. The British, however, soon after wrested it from their hands and drove all the Americans out of the country, many of whom found their way into California. Between the years 1813 and 1822, save deserters from vessels, and those connected with trading-posts, there were no Americans on the coast.
In his "Natural Wealth of California," Titus Fey Cronise informs us that from 1825 until 1834 the whole of the California trade was in the hands of a few Boston merchants. A voyage to this coast and back, during that time, was an enterprise of very uncertain duration, generally occupy- ing two or three years. The outward cargo, which usually consisted of groceries and coarse cotton goods, had to be retailed to the missionaries and settlers, as there were no "jobbers" in those times, and neither newspapers, telegraphs, nor stages through which to inform customers of the ship's ar- rival. The crew had to travel all over the country to convey the news, which occupied considerable time. It was this portion of their duties that caused so many of them to desert their ships. They saw so much of the country, became so charmed with the freedom, ease and plenty that pre- vailed everywhere, that they preferred to remain on shore. Each of these vessels generally brought several young men as adventurers, who worked their passage out for the privilege of remaining. Many of the early settlers, whose children are now among the wealthiest citizens of the State, came to California in this manner.
The outward cargo being disposed of, the homeward one had to be pro- cured. Sometimes, when the season had been too dry, or too wet for the lazy vaqueros to drive the cattle into the Missions to kill, there were no hides nor tallow to be had. On such occasions the vessel was obliged to remain till the next season, when a sufficient number of cattle would be slaughtered to pay for the goods purchased, as there was no "currency" used in the country, except hides and tallow.
First in California of an alien race to settle was John Cameron, but who had assumed his mother's maiden name of Gilroy, and was thus after- wards known. He was born in the County of Inverness, Scotland, in the district of Lochaber, in the year 1794, and in the year 1813 arrived in Monterey, in one of Her Britannic Majesty's ships, on board of which he was rated as coxswain of the captain's gig. From here he deserted, with a comrade known as "Deaf Jimmy," and waiting, carefully hidden, until the vessel had departed, the two friends, in their search for employment, found their way into the Santa Clara Valley. Gilroy established himself at the
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little town of San Ysidro, now generally called Old Gilroy, in contradistinc- tion to the new town of Gilroy, where he married and remained till his death, which occurred in July, 1869. His confrere came to the north of the Bay, and died in Sonoma County. At this time there were not half-a-dozen foreign settlers in the whole country, save the Russians, who, it will be re- membered, then occupied Bodega and Fort Ross, on the coast, while from San Francisco to Los Angeles there were only eight ranchos, the property of Mexican colonists.
Prior to the year 1820 the manner of living was most primitive, and had it not been that horses were plentiful the mode of locomotion would have, of a necessity, been confined to pedestrianism, for, as there were no roads, there were no vehicles, while the wheels of those which existed were inno- cent of fellah, spoke, hub and tire. Not a hotel nor house of public entertain- ment was to be found throughout the length and breadth of the land, while there was no sawed timber, that used for building being hewn with axes by Indians. A fire-place or stove was unknown in a dwelling, nor did these come into use until 1846, after the American occupation.
In the year 1823 application was made by Francisco Castro to the Mexican authorities for the San Pablo Rancho, and by Ignacio Martinez for that of Pinole, each to the extent of four leagues. In the following year these gentlemen, the actual pioneer settlers in what is at present Contra Costa county, constructed adobe residences, planted vineyards and orchards, erected corrals for their stock and otherwise commenced the work of re- claiming and improving. How few were the settlers then. Their nearest neighbors were the Peralta family at San Antonio, and the Castros at San Lorenzo. In 1826, José Maria Amador acquired and settled upon the San Ramon Rancho, but either of these were within the confines of which we write. The next accession to the strength of the little coterie was in the year 1828 when Valencia occupied the Acalanes Rancho, (at Lafayette), Felipe Briones the rancho which bears his name, and Moraga the Redwood Rancho, or Lagunas Palos Colorados. Soon after locating, however, Briones was slain near where now stands the town of Clayton by some Indians, who had made their way from the San Joaquin plain on a predatory ex- pedition for horses, some of which they were driving away. Salvio Pacheco, during this year, came to the Rancho Monte del Diablo, and es- tablished himself near where the village of Concord has since sprung, where he resided until his death on August 9, 1876, at the ripe age of eighty-five years. About the same time application was made by Doña Juana Pacheco, a widow, for the Rancho San Miguel, and having acquired it dispatched her nephew Ygnacio Sibrian to occupy it, while she maintained her residence in the Pueblo de San José, Sibrian building an adobe residence near Wal- nut Creek, not far from the present home of William Rice. These persons afterwards obtained grants of four leagues each. Upon the San
8
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Ramon Rancho Mariano Castro, and Bartolo Pacheco settled during the year 1832, near where Leo Norris resides ; while about the same period, William Welch, a Scotchman by birth, petitioned for and obtained the tract of land known as the Welch Rancho, on which a portion of the county seat, Martinez, is located. Welch did not long reside on his property in consequence of the hostility of the Indians ; he therefore removed his family to San José, and afterwards established a head-quarters at the place near Walnut Creek, now known as the Welch Homestead. In this year, or in 1833, the Romero brothers settled in Tice valley and made application for a grant to the sobrante, or vacant land, which lay between the Ranchos of San Ramon, Welch, Acalanes and Moraga, a prayer which was denied many years after.
In the year 1835 thirty citizens, styling themselves as of the Ranchos of the north, that is of districts to the north of the Bay, presented the fol- lowing petitions to the Governor, which are produced as being a portion of history connected with Contra Costa. It is a desire on their part to be- long to the jurisdiction of San José, rather than that of San Francisco :
" To His Excellency the Governor :
" The residents of the adjoining ranchos of the north, now belonging to the jurisdiction of the port of San Francisco, with due respect to your Ex- cellency, represent: 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 aban- doning of their families for a year by those who attend the judiciary func- tions 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 traveling 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 ayuntamiento is likely to detain them, and, should they take their families, incurring heavy expenses for their trans- portation 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.
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