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 30
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1. The Government shall proceed to secularize the missions of Upper and Lower California.
2. In each of said missions shall be established a parish, served by a curate of the secular clergy, with a dotation of two thousand to two thousand five hundred dollars, at the discretion of the Government.
4. The mission churches, with the sacred vessels and ornaments, shall be devoted to the use of the parish.
5. For each parish the Government shall direct the construction of a cemetery outside of the village.
7. Of the buildings belonging to each mission, the most fitting shall be selected for the dwelling of the curate, with a lot of ground not exceeding two hundred varas square, and the others appropriated for a municipal house and schools.
On December 2, 1833, a decree was published to the following effect :
" The Government is authorized to take all measures that may assure the colonization and make effective the secularization of the missions of Upper and Lower California, being empowered to this effect to use, in the manner most expedient, the de fincas de obras pias (property of the piety fund) of those territories, to aid the transportation of the commission and families who are now in this capital destined thither."
The commission and emigrants, spoken of in this circular, were a colony under the charge of Don José Maria Hijar, who was sent out the following Spring (of 1834) as director of colonization, with instructions to the follow- ing effect : That he should " make beginning by occupying all the property pertinent to the missions of both Californias," that in the settlements he
18
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History of Contra Costa County.
formed, special care should be taken to include the indigenous (Indian) population, mixing them with the other inhabitants, and not permitting any settlement of Indians alone; that topographical plans should be made of the squares which were to compose the villages, and in each square building lots to be distributed to the colonist families; that outside of the villages there should be distributed to each family of colonists, in full dominion and ownership, four caballerias* of irrigable land, or eight, if dependent on the seasons, or sixteen, if adapted to stock raising, and also live stock and agri- cultural implements ; that this distribution mnade, (out of the movable property of the mission) one-half the remainder of said property should be sold, and the other half reserved on account of government, and applied to the expenses of worship, maintenance of the missionaries, support of schools, and the purchase of agricultural implements for gratuitous distribution to the colonists.
On April 16, 1834, the Mexican Congress passed an Act to the following effect :
1. That all the missions in the Republic shall be secularized.
2. That the missions shall be converted into curacies, whose limits shall be demarked by the governors of the States where said missions exist.
3. This decree shall take effect within four months from the day of its publication.
November 7, 1835, an Act of the Mexican Congress directed that "the curates mentioned in the second article of the law of August 17, 1833, (above quoted), should take possession, the government should suspend the execution of the other articles, and maintain things in the condition they were before said law."
I have, so far, referred to these various legislative and governmental acts in relation to the missions, only to show, beyond equivocation or doubt, the relation in which the government stood toward them, and the rights of ownership which it exercised over them. My attention was next directed to the changes that had taken place in the condition of those establishments, under the various provisions for their secularization and conversion into private property.
Under the act of the Spanish Cortes of September, 1813, all the missions in New Spain were liable to be secularized ; that is, their temporalities de- livered to lay administration ; their character as missions taken away by their conversion into parishes under charge of the secular clergy ; and the lands pertinent to them to be disposed of as other public domain. The question of putting this law in operation with regard to the missions in California was at various times agitated in that province, and in 1830 the then Governor, Echandrea, published a project for the purpose, but which
* A caballeria of land is a rectangular parallelogram of 552 varas by 1,104 varas.
Joseph Boyd
267
Mexican Grants.
was defeated by the arrival of a new Governor, Victoria, almost at the in- stant the plan was made public. Victoria revoked the decree of his prede- cessor, and restored the missionaries to the charge of the establishments, and in their authority over the Indians.
Subsequent to that time, and previous to the act of secularization of August, 1833, nothing further to that end appears to have been done in California. Under that act, the first step taken by the Central Govern- ment was the expedition of Hijar, above noticed. But the instructions delivered to him were not fulfilled. Hijar had been appointed Governor of California, as well as Director of Colonization, with directions to relieve Governor Figueroa. After Hijar's departure from Mexico, however, a revo- lution in the Supreme Government induced Hijar's appointment as political Governor to be revoked ; and an express was sent to California to announce this change, and with directions to Figueroa to continue in charge of the governorship. The courier arrived in advance of Hijar, who found himself on landing (in September, 1834,) deprived of the principal authority he had expected to exercise. Before consenting to cooperate with Hijar in the latter's instructions concerning the missions, Figueroa consulted the Territorial Deputation. That body protested against the delivery of the vast property included in the mission estates-and to a settlement in which the Indian pupils had undoubtedly an equitable claim-into Hijar's posses- sion, and contested that his authority in the matter of the missions depended on his commission as Governor, which had been revoked, and not on his appointment (unknown to the law) as Director of Colonization. As a con- clusion to the contestation which followed, the Governor and Assembly sus- pended Hijar from the last-mentioned appointment, and returned him to Mexico .*
Figueroa, however, had already adopted (in August, 1834,) a project of secularization, which he denominates a " Provisional Regulation." It pro- vided that the missions should be converted partially into pueblos, or villages, with a distribution of lands and movable property as follows : To each individual head of a family, over twenty-five years of age, a lot of ground, not exceeding four hundred nor less than one hundred varas square, in the common lands of the mission, with a sufficient quantity in common for pasturage of the cattle of the village, and also commons and lands for municipal uses ; likewise, among the same individuals, one-half of the live stock, grain, and agricultural implements of the mission ; that the remainder of the lands, unmovable property, stock, and other effects, should be in charge of mayor domos, or other persons appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the general government; that from this common mass should be provided the maintenance of the priest, and expenses of religious
* Manifesto a la Republica Mejicana, que hace el General José Figueroa, comandante general y gefe politico de la Alta California. Monterey, 1835.
.
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History of Contra Costa County.
service, and the temporal expenses of the mission ; that the minister should choose a place in the mission for his dwelling; that the emancipated In- dians should unite in common labors for the cultivation of the vineyards, gardens and field lands, which should remain undivided until the determina- tion of the Supreme Government ; that the donees, under the regulation, should not sell, burthen, or transfer their grants, eitber of land or cattle, under any pretext ; and any contracts to this effect should be null, the property reverting to the nation, the purchaser losing his money ; that lands, the donee of which might die without leaving heirs, should revert to the nation; that rancherias (hamlets of Indians) situated at a distance from the missions, and which exceeded twenty-five families, might form separate pueblos, under the same rules as the principal one. This regula- tion was to begin with ten of the missions (without specifying them) and successively to be applied to the remaining ones.
The Deputation, in session of the 3d of November of the same year (1834), made provision for dividing the missions and other settlements into parishes or curacies, according to the law of August, 1833, authorized the missionary priests to exercise the functions of curates, until curates of the secular clergy should arrive, and provided for their salaries and expenses of worship. No change was made in this act, in the regulations established by Governor Figueroa, for the distribution and management of the property.
Accordingly, for most or all of the missions, administrators were ap- pointed by the Governor ; and in some, but not all, partial distributions of " the lands and movable property were made, according to the tenor of the regulation. From this time, however, all tracts of lands pertinent to the missions, but not directly attached to the mission buildings, were granted as any other lands of the territory, to the Mexican inhabitants, and to colonists, for stock farms and tillage.
The act of the Mexican Congress of 1835, directing the execution of the decree of 1833 to be suspended until the arrival of curates, did not, as far as I could ascertain, induce any change in the policy already adopted by the territorial authorities.
On January 17, 1839, Governor Alvarado issued regulations for the gov- ernment of the administrators of the missions. These regulations pro- hibited the administrators from contracting debts on account of the mis- sions ; from slaughtering cattle of the missions, except for consumption, and from trading the mission horses or mules for clothing for the Indians ; and likewise provided for the appointment of an inspector of the missions, to supervise the accounts of the administrators, and their fulfillment of their trusts. Article 11 prohibited the settlement of white persons in the estab- lishments, " whilst the Indians should remain in community." The estab- lishments of San Carlos, San Juan Bautista and Sonoma were excepted from these regulations, and to be governed by special rules.
269
Mexican Grants.
On March 1, 1840, the same Governor Alvarado suppressed the office of administrators, and replaced them by mayor domos, with new and more stringent rules for the management of the establishments ; but not making any change in the rules of Governor Figueroa regarding the lands or other property.
By a proclamation of March 29, 1843, Governor Micheltorena, “ in pur- suance (as he states) of an arrangement between the Governor and the prelate of the missions," directed the following named missions to be re- stored to the priests " as tutors to the Indians, and in the same manner as they formerly held them," namely, the missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynes, La Purisima, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San José. The same act set forth that " as policy made irrevocable what was already done," the missions should not reclaim any lands thitherto granted, but should collect the cattle and movable property which had been lent out either by the priests or administrators, and settle in a friendly way with the creditors ; and likewise regather the dispersed Indians, except such as had been legally emancipated, or were at private service. That the priests might provide out of the products of the missions for the necessary ex- penses of converting, subsisting and clothing the Indians, for a moderate allowance to themselves, economical salaries to the mayor domos, and the maintenance of divine worship, under the condition that the priests should bind themselves in honor and conscience to deliver to the public treasury one-eighth part of all the annual products of the establishments. That the Departmental government would exert all its power for the protection of the missions, and the same in respect to individuals and to private prop- erty, securing to the owners the possession and preservation of the lands they now hold, but promising not to make any new grants without consul- tation with the priests, unless where the lands were notoriously unoccupied, or lacked cultivation, or in case of necessity.
Micheltorena's governorship was shortly after concluded. There had been sent into the Department with him a considerable body of persons called presidarios, that is, criminals condemned to service --- usually, as in this case, military service on the frontier-and their presence and conduct gave such offense to the inhabitants that they revolted, and expelled himn and the presidarios from the country. He was succeeded by Don Pio Pico, in virtue of his being the " first vocal" of the Departmental Assembly,* and also by choice of the inhabitants, afterward confirmed by the Central Gov- ernment, which at the same time gave additional privileges to the Depart- ment in respect to the management of its domestic affairs.
+ According to act of the Mexican Congress of May 6, 1822, to provide for supplying the place of provincial governors, in default of an incumbent.
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The next public act which I find in relation to the missions is an act of the Departmental Assembly, published in a proclamation of Governor Pico, June 5, 1845. This act provides : 1. "That the Governor should call together the neophytes of the following-named missions: San Rafael, Dolores, Soledad, San Miguel and La Purisima ; and in case those missions were abandoned by their neophytes, that he should give them one month's notice, by proclamation, to return and cultivate said missions, which if they did not do, the missions should be declared abandoned, and the Assembly and Governor dispose of them for the good of the Department. 2. That the missions of Carmel, San Juan Bautista, San Juan Capistrano and San Fran- cisco Solano, should be considered as pueblos, or villages, which was their present condition; and that the property which remained to them, the Governor, after separating sufficient for the curate's house, for churches and their pertinencies, and for a municipal house, should sell at public auction, the product to be applied first to paying the debts of the establish- ments, and the remainder, if any, to the benefit of divine worship. 3. That the remainder of the missions to San Diego, inclusive, should be rented, at the discretion of the Governor, with the proviso, that the neophytes should be at liberty to employ themselves at their option on their own grounds, which the Governor should designate for them, in the service of the rentee, or of any other person. 4. That the principal edifice of the mission of Santa Barbara should be excepted from the proposed renting, and in it the Governor should designate the parts most suitable for the residence of the bishop and his attendants, and of the missionary priests then living there ; moreover, that the rents arising from the remainder of the property of said mission should be disbursed, one-half for the benefit of the church and its ministry, the other for that of its Indians. 5. That the rents arising from the other missions should be divided, one-third to the maintenance of the minister, one-third to the Indians, one-third to the government."
On the 28th October, of the same year (1845), Governor Pico gave public notice for the sale to the highest bidder of five missions, to wit : San Rafael, Dolores, Soledad, San Miguel and La Purisima; likewise for the sale of the remaining buildings in the pueblos (formerly missions) of San Luis Obispo, Carmel, San Juan Bautista, and San Juan Capistrano, after separating the churches and their appurtenances, and a curate's municipal and school houses. The auctions were appointed to take place, those of San Luis Obispo, Purisima and San Juan Capistrano, the first four days of December following (1845); those of San Rafael, Dolores, San Juan Bautista, Carmel, Soledad and San Miguel, the 23d and 24th of January, 1846 ; meanwhile, the government would receive and take into considera- tion proposals in relation to said missions.
In the same proclamation Pico proposed to rent to the best bidder, for a period of nine years, and under conditions for the return of the property
271
Mexican Grants.
in good order and without waste, the missions of San Fernando, San Buena- ventura, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynes; the rentings to include all the lands, stock, agricultural tools, vineyards, gardens, offices and whatever in virtue of the inventories should be appurtenant to said missions, with " the exception only of those small pieces of ground which have always been oc- cupied by some Indians of the missions ;" likewise to include the buildings, saving the churches and their appurtenances, and the curate's, municipal and school-houses, and except in the mission of Santa Barbara, where the whole of the principal edifice should be reserved for the bishop and the priests residing there. The renting of the missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Gabriel, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San José, it was further an- nounced should take place as soon as some arrangement was made con- cerning their debts. It was also provided that the neophytes should be free from their pupilage, and might establish themselves on convenient parts of the missions, with liberty to serve the rentee, or any other person ; that the Indians who possessed pieces of land, in which they had made their houses and gardens, should apply to the government for titles, in order that their lands might be adjudicated them in ownership, “ it being under- stood that they would not have power to sell their lands, but that they should descend by inheritance."
On March 30, 1846, the Assembly passed an Act-
1. Authorizing the Governor, in order to make effective the object of the decree of 28th May previous, to operate, as he should believe most ex- pedient, to prevent the total ruin of the missions of San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, San Diego and others found in like circumstances.
2. That as the remains of said establishments had large debts against them, if the existing property was not sufficient to cover the same, they might be put into bankruptcy.
3. That if, from this authorization, the Governor, in order to avoid the destruction to which the said missions were approaching, should determine to sell them to private persons, the sale should be by public auction.
4. That when sold, if, after the debts were satisfied, there should be any remainder, it should be distributed to the Indians of the respective establishments.
5. That in view of the expenses necessary in the maintenance of the priest, and of Divine worship, the Governor might determine a portion of the whole property, whether of cultivable lands, houses, or any other de- scription, according to his discretion, and by consultation with the respec- tive priests.
6. The property thus determined should be delivered as by sale, but subject to a perpetual interest of four per cent. for the uses above in- dicated.
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History of Contra Costa County.
7. That the present Act should not affect anything already done, or contracts made in pursuance of the decree of 28th May last, nor prevent anything being done conformable to that decree.
8. That the Governor should provide against all impediments that might not be foreseen by the Act, and in six months, at farthest, give an account to the Assembly of the results of its fulfilment.
Previous to several of the last-mentioned acts, that is on August 24, 1844, the Departmental Assembly, in anticipation of a war breaking out, passed a law authorizing the Governor, on the happening of that contin- gency, either " to sell, hypothecate, or rent, the houses, landed property and field lands of the missions, comprehended in the whole extent of the country from San Diego to Sonoma," except that of Santa Barbara, " reserved for the residence of the bishop."
These comprise all the general acts of the authorities of California which I was able to meet with on the subject of missions. Of the extent or man- ner in which they were carried into execution, so far as the missions proper -- that is, the mission buildings and lands appurtenant-are concerned, but little information is afforded by what I could find in the archives. A very considerable part, however, of the grants made since the secularization of 1833 (comprising the bulk of all the grants in the country) are lands · previously recognized as appurtenances of the missions, and so used as grazing farms, or for other purposes. In some cases the petitions for such grants were referred to the principal priest at the mission to which the land petitioned for was attached, and his opinion taken whether the grant could be made without prejudice to the mission. In other cases, and generally, this formality was not observed. This remark relates to the farms and grazing grounds (ranchos) occupied by the missions, and some titles to Indians, pursuant to the regulation of Governor Figueroa, and the proclama- tion of Governor Pico, on record in the file of expedientes of grants before noticed. '
What I have been able to gather from the meager records and memo- randa in the archives, and from private information and examination of the actual state of the missions, is given below. It is necessary to explain, however, still farther than I have, that in speaking of the missions now, we cannot understand the great establishments which they were. Since 1833, and even before, farms of great (many leagues) extent, and many of them, have reduced the limits they enjoyed, in all cases very greatly, and in some instances into a narrow compass; and while their borders have been thus cut off, their planting and other grounds inside are dotted to a greater or less extent by private grants. The extent to which this has been the case can only be ascertained by the same process that is necessary everywhere in California, to separate public from private lands-namely, authorized
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Mexican Grants.
surveys of the grants according to their calls, which though not definite, will almost always furnish some distinguishable natural object to guide the surveyor .* The actual condition of the establishments, understanding them in the reduced sense above shown, was, at the time the Mexican Government ceased in California, and according to the best information I could obtain, as follows :
MISSIONS.
WHERE SITUATED.
San Diego.
32° 48'
Sold to Santiago Arguello, June 8, 1846.
San Luis Rey
33
03
Sold to Antonio Cot and Andres Pico, May 13, 1846.
San Juan Capistrano.
33
26
Pueblo, and remainder sold to John Foster and James Mckinley, December 6, 1845.
San Gabriel
34
10
San Fernando
34
16
Sold to Julian Workman and Hugo Reid, June 18, 1846. Rented to Andres Pico, for nine years from December, 1845, and sold to Juan Celis, June, 1846.
San Buenaventura
34
36
Sold to Joseph Arnaz.
Santa Barbara.
34
40
Rented for nine years, from June 8, 1846, to Nicholas Den.
Santa Ynes.
34
52
Rented to Joaquin Carrillo.
La Purisima.
35
00
Sold to John Temple, December 6, 1845.
San Luis Obispo.
35
36
Pueblo.
San Miguel.
35
48
Uncertain.
San Antonio.
36
30
Vacant.
Soledad.
36
38
House and garden sold to Sobranes, January 4, 1846.
Carmel
36
44
Pueblo.
San Juan Bautista.
36
58
Pueblo.
Santa Cruz.
37
00
Vacant.
Santa Clara.
37
20
In charge of priest.
San José
37
30
In charge of priest.
Dolores.
37
58
Pueblo.
San Rafael.
38
00
Mission in charge of priest.
San Francisco Solano.
38
30
Mission in charge of priest.
The information above given concerning the condition of the missions at the time of the cessation of the former Government is partly obtained from documents in the archives, and partly from private sources. What is to be traced in the archives is on loose sheets of paper, liable to be lost, and parts quite likely have been lost; there may be some papers concerning them which, in the mass of documents, escaped my examination. I have no doubt, however, of the exactness of the statement above given as far as it goes.
It will be seen, then, that the missions-the principal part of their lands cut off by private grants, but still, no doubt, each embracing a considerable tract-perhaps from one to ten leagues-have, some of them, been sold or granted under the former Government, and become private property ; some converted into villages, and consequently granted in the usual form in lots to individuals and heads of families; a part are in the hands of rentees, and at the disposal of the Government when these contracts expire, and the re- mainder at its present disposal.
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