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 13
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"San Antonio, San Pablo, and the adjacent ranchos north, May 30, 1835."
It is unnecessary here to produce the names of the signers of the docu- ment ; rather permit us to dwell upon the changes rung by time since then.
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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 accomodations, the finest and best conducted hotels in the world have sprung up as if by magic, while travel by land has been rendered secure, inexpensive, comfortable and ex- peditious. Such a wonderful transformation is hard to realize, but the facts speak for themselves.
In due course of time the document was received at Monterey. Let us follow it : Under date August, 12, 1835, it was endorsed : " Let it be kept to be reported to the deputation." September 1st, it was docketed : " On this day the same was reported and referred to the Committee on Government," who, September 5th, reported as follows :
" Most Excellent Sir :- We, The Committee on Government, being re- quired to report upon the memorial, with the parties subscribed thereto, made to the Political 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 : There- fore the Committee offers, for the deliberation of the most Excellent Deputation, the following propositions : 1st-That this expediente be re- ferred to the Ayuntamientos of the towns of San Jose 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 Ayuntamiento 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 Territorial Deputation, and Superior Political Chief of Upper California, thus commanded, decreed, and signed this, which I attest.
" JOSE CASTRO.
" FRAN'CO DEL CALSELLO NEGRETE, Sec'y.
" In 'pursuance of the foregoing Supreme Order of Your Excellency this Ayuntamiento begs to state the following: That with regard to the residents on the northern vicinity, now under the jurisdiction of San Fran-
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cisco, and who in their memorial prayed to be exempted from belonging to that. jurisdiction, having indispensably to cross the bay, or to travel up- wards 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 most suitable and less inconvenient to them ; this Ayuntamiento thinks that their prayer should be granted, if it is so found right.
" ANTONIO MA. PICO,
" IGNACIO MARTINEZ.
" JOSE BERRYESSA, Secretary.
" Town of San José 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 re- buked them for their want of patriotism ; and were asked if their service of having traveled a paltry forty leagues could bear the slightest compari- son with those of others who had journeyed hundreds of leagues in the interior, and some who had gone on public service from San Francisco to San Diego.
About the year 1836 José Miguel and Antonio Mesa, two brothers, settled near Kirker's Pass, on the New York Rancho, and were granted two leagues under the name of Los Medanos ; and at the same period Miranda Higuera and Alviso made application for and obtained three square leagues of land, known as the Cañada de los Vaqueros. José Noriega also, at this epoch, had granted to him the Rancho Los Meganos, which, in 1837, he sold to. Doctor John Marsh. This brings us to the first American settler in Contra Costa county.
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 ex- tent, 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 communica- tion he informs Mr. Cass that it had been usual to estimate the population 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 farther remarks: " Within the territorial limits of Upper California, taking the parallel of forty-two degrees for the north- ern and the Colorado River for the southeastern boundary, are an immense
C
FR Forman
Early History and Settlement of Contra Costa County. 117
number of wild, naked, brute Indians. The number of course can only be conjectured. 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 incompatible with the general prosperity of the country, it seems almost a pity to see their downfall. 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 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.
The owners of the ranchos usually employed a few vaqueros to herd and take care of their stock, who were generally mission or christianized Indians ; the rancheros themselves being very hospitably inclined, although that extended was of a most primitive nature, yet, though deprived of society and comparatively alone they were uniformly contented and apparently happy.
But little attention was given to tilling the soil, further than the culti- vation of the necessary beans, corn, potatoes, and melons necessary for home consumption, while nearly all the rancheros on locating planted small vineyards and orchards, many of which bear fruit to this day. What are termed "improvements" were rare; an adobe house and a corral seemed all that was desirable.
In 1846 the war between the United States and Mexico broke out, and at its close in the following year, the persons above enumerated possessed, within the present boundaries of Contra Costa county, no less than forty- six leagues of land, embracing an area of about three hundred and twenty square miles.
No history of a county in California would be complete without some relation of the tragic end of the Donner party; we have therefore taken the liberty of reproducing the excellent description of their sufferings from Tuthill's History of California :
" 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 pioneers of the party arrived in good season over the mount- ains ; but Mr. Reed's and Mr. Donner's companies opened a new route
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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 1st, as they had intended. The snow began to fall on the mountains two or three weeks earlier than usual, that year, and was al- ready 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 believed that they could thread the pass, and so failed to build their cabins before more snow came and buried their cattle alive. Of course they were soon utterly destitute 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 those 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 Illinoisian, sixty years of age, a man of high respectability and abundant means. His wife was a woman of edu- cation 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, in- cluding 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 succumbing 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 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 that day one of their number died. Soon after three others died, and every death now eked
Early History and Settlement of Contra Costa County. 119
out the existence of the survivors. On the seventh, all gave out, and con- cluded 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 mnost terrible sufferings, had that morning halted to die.
" The story that there were emigrants perishing on the other side of the snowy barrier 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 provisions, to cross the mountains and relieve them. It ran on to San Francisco, and the people, rallying in public meet- ing, 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 nineteenth of February. Ten of the people in the nearest camp were dead. For four weeks those who were still alive had fed only on bullocks' 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 suspicion that the survivor had killed Mrs. Donner for her flesh and her money, and when he was threatened with hanging, and the rope tight- ened 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 narra- tive of a prophetic dream of George Yount, attended as it was, with such marvelous results.
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At this time (the Winter of 1846-7), while residing in Napa county, of which he was the pioneer settler, he dreamt that a party of emigrants were snow-bound in the Sierra Nevada, high up in the mountains, where they were suffering the most distressing 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 appe- tites, 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 foreshadowed 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 relieving bands to reach the ill-fated Donner party,
And now there began to settle in the vast California valleys that in- trepid 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, West- ern 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 the California climate and the fertility of its soil ; they therefore turned their heads southward and steered for the wished-for haven. At length, after weary days of toil and anxiety, fatigued and foot- sore, the promised land was gained. And what found they ? 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 corn -high over head of the wayfarer on foot, and shoulder-high with the equestrian ; wild flowers of every prismatic shade charmed the eye, while they vied with each other in the gorgeousness of their color, and blended into dazzling splendor. One breath of wind, and the wide Emerald ex- panse 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 a 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, over-run as they were with a dense mass of tangled jungle, were hard to penetrate, while in some portions the deep dark gloom of the forest trees lent relief to the eye. The almost boundless range was inter-
Early History and Settlement of Contra Costa County. 121
sected 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 dangerous in the valleys by the bands of untamed cattle, sprung from the stock introduced by the Mis- sion Fathers. These found food and shelter on the plains during the night ; at dawn they repaired to the higher grounds 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 lizards, all tended to heighten the sense of danger, while the flight of quail and other birds, the nimble run of the rabbit, and the stampede of elk and 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."
On the tenth day of October, 1846, there arrived in California a family whose name is indelibly associated with the history of Contra Costa. The Hon. Elam Brown and his family can never be forgotten in the chronicles of the county.
After being present during the seige of Santa Clara by the mounted Californians under Colonel Sanchez, when he served in its defence, Mr. Brown passed the Summer of 1847 in the redwoods lying between Moraga valley and San Antonio, now in Alameda county, and finally purchased the Acalanes Rancho in that year, where he settled and still resides, with his wife, who came to California in the same year. The Honorable Elam Brown was a delegate from the district of San José to the Convention which orga- nized in Monterey on September 1, 1849, and is one of the few surviving members of the Legislature that held their first session in San José.
Among the names of those who arrived in California in 1846, besides Mr. Brown, and who afterwards became interested in Contra Costa, were : Nathaniel Jones, the first Sheriff of the county, J. D. Taber, James M. Allen, Leo Norris, John M. Jones and S. W. Johnson. Most of these gentle- men are still alive and look good for many more years of usefulness.
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. Abel 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 :
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" LOS ANGELES, July 8, 1867.
" LOUIS R. LULL, Sec'y of the Society of California Pioneers, San Francisco :
" Sir-On my arrival here from San Franciseo, some days since, I re- ceived 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 discov- ered 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, were 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 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 principally 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.
Who does not think of '48 with feelings almost akin to inspiration ?
The year 1848 is one wherein was reached the nearest attainment of the discovery of the Philosopher's stone which it has been the lot of Chris-
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tendom to witness. On January 19th gold was discovered at Coloma, on the American River, and the most unbelieving and cold-blooded were, by the middle of Spring, irretrievably bound in its fascinating meshes. The wonder is the discovery was not made earlier. Emigrants, settlers, hunters, practical miners, scientific exploring parties had camped on, settled in, hunted through, dug in and ransacked the region, yet never found it; the discovery was entirely accidental. Franklin Tuthill, in his "History of California," tells the story in these words : "Captain Sutter had contracted with James W. Marshall in September, 1847, for the construction of a saw- mill in Coloma. In the course of the Winter a dam and race were made, but when the water was let in the tail-race was too narrow. To widen and deepen it, Marshall let in a strong current of water directly to the race, which bore a large body of mud and gravel to the foot.
" On the 19th of January, 1848, Marshall observed some glittering par- ticles in the race, which he was curious enough to examine. He called five carpenters on the mill to see them; but though they talked over the possi- bility of its being gold, the vision did not inflame them. Peter L. Weimar claims that he was with Marshall when the first piece of ' yellow stuff' was picked up. It was a pebble weighing six pennyweights and eleven grains. Marshall gave it to Mrs. Weimar, and asked her to boil it in saleratus water and see what came of it. As she was making soap at the time, she pitched it into the soap kettle. About twenty-four hours afterward it was fished out and found all the brighter for its boiling.
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