History of Humboldt County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, etc., from original drawings, including biographical sketches, Part 5

Author: W.W. Elliott & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: San Francisco : W.W. Elliott
Number of Pages: 344


USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, etc., from original drawings, including biographical sketches > Part 5


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Der'r


+In the Santa Inez river.


On the San Juan river, San Benito co.


MAXCATION.


26


DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST MISSIONS.


In 1819 tbe major-domo of this mission gathered 3,400 busbels of wheat from thirty-eigbt bushels sown. Its secularization bas been followed by decay and ruin .- Walter Colton.


The mission possessed a fine orchard of 1,000 trees, but very few were left in 1849. There was also a vineyard about six miles from the mission in a gorge of the mountains.


MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA .*


1794 .- This mission looms over a rich valley ten leagues from Monterey-founded 1794. Its lands swept the broad interval and adjacent hills. In 1820 it owned 43,870 hend of cattle, 1,360 tame horses, 4,870 mares, colts and fillics. It had seven sheep farins, containing 69,530 sheep; while the In- dians attached to the mission drove 321 yoke of working oxen. Its store-house contained $75,000 in goods and $20,000 in specie.


REIGN OF DESOLATION AT SAN JUAN.


This mission was secularized in 1834; its cattle slaughtered for the hides and tallow, its sheep left to the wolves, its horses taken by the dandies, its Indians left to liunt acorns, while the wind sighs over the grave of its last padre .- Walter Colton.


This melancholy picture is not too highly colored. Doubtless the secularization laws were intended to benefit the Indians of the mission, nor does it seem that they were conceived in a spirit of unfriendliness to the padres.


HOW THE BUILDING MATERIAL WAS PREPARED.


None of this building stone was found in the vicinity of San Juan Bautista, so that its church is built entirely of adobe (sun-dried brick) and ladrillo, a species of brick that was baked in a subterranean kiln. The adobe was made out of a species of soil, common to mnost parts of California. The ma- terial was mixed with straw, thoroughly kneaded by band and foot, moulded into the desired dimensions, and afterwards spread upon the earth to dry in the sun, being turned twice in the process of drying, to prevent cracking. The regulation adobe was about tbirty inches long by sixteen wide and four thick, and weighed fifty pounds. The bricks were made of elay, mixed and kneaded like tbe adobe, and baked in subter- ranean kilns, with a slow fire. These brick were twelve inches long by eight wide and two thick, and are wonderfully dura- ble, as may be seen in the mission cburch and corridor; the floors of which (being laid with this brick) are hardly abraded by the wear and tear of three-quarters of a century.


DESCRIPTION OF MISSIONS.


The missions were usually quadrilateral buildings, two stories high, inclosing a court-yard ornamented with fountains and trees. Tbe whole consisting of the church, father's apartments, store- houses, barracks, etc. Tbe quadrilateral sides were eacb about 600 feet in length, one of which was partly occupied by the church.


And so they began their work, surrounded by beautiful scenery, but in seclusion and loneliness. They lived under the shadow of the hills. The sun rose bright and the air was mild, as now, and the music of the surf, and the roar of the ocean in times of storm-these things must have been as familiar to them as they are now to us.


But there must have been something of sublimity about tbem when all around was in a condition of nature, that we miss in our more artificial life.


They go about their work. They get together the Indians as soon as possible, to communicate with them. They teach them some rude approach to the arts of civilized life. Tbcy teach the men to use tools, and the women to weave.


TABLE SHOWING POPULATION OF THE MISSIONS IN YEAR 1802. MOSTLY CHRISTIANIZED INDIANS.


DATE OF FOUNDING.


NAME OF MISSION.


MALES.


FEMALES.


TOTAL.


1769


San Diego.


737


822


1559


1798


San Luis Rey de Francia


256


276


532


1776


San Juan Capistrano.


502


511


1013


1771


San Gabriel


532


515


1047


1797


San Fernando .


317


297


614


1782


San Buenaventura


436


502


938


1786


Santa Barbara


521


572


1093


1787


La Purissima Conception


457


571


1028


1772


San Luis Obispo.


374


325


699


1797


San Miguel


309


305


614


1791


Soledad .


296


267


563


1771


San Antonio de Padua.


568


484


1052


1770


San Carlos de Monterey


376


312


688


1797


San Juan Bautista


530


4.28


958


1794


Santa Cruz


238


199


437


1777


Santa Clara


736


555


1291


1797


San Jose


327


295


622


1776


San Francisco.


433


381


814


1804


Santa Inez


. .


...


1817


San Rafael Archangel.


...


...


1823


San Francisco de Solano


...


...


Totals


7945


7617


15562


BUILDING MISSION CHURCHES.


Time passes away and we find them with a great work on their hands. It is nothing less than the building of a church. We think that to be no small undertaking even now, with all our facilities. But it is not easy for us to imagine what it was to them, with nothing but hand labor; and that of a very rude sort.


Fifteen years seems a long time to devote to the erection of a church, even when we consider the character of the laborers and the rude tools and appliances used in its construction.


But they set about it. They make adobes. They cut down the trees. They hew out the timber. By some means they get it up to the spot. No small undertaking that as we can see now by examining those very beanis, in what remains of those old churches.


Nor did the hewing lack in skill and accuracy, as you can


*An extended history of these missions will be found in the " History of San Benito County," by Elliott & Co.


27


DESCRIPTION OF THE MISSION CHURCHES.


alsu see, and the solid adohe walls, you can measure them, and you will find them to be five feet thick. It took often several years to buildl a church. And so life at the mission began in earnest. Other buildings were erected as they came to be needed.


MISSION DAILY LIFE.


The daily routine at all the missions was very inuch alike and was about as follows :--


They rose at sunrise and proceeded to the church, to attend morning prayers. Breakfast followed. Then the day's work.


Towards noon they returned to the inission and passed the time till two o'clock in the afternoon, between dinner and repose.


After that hour they resumed work and continued it till ahout sunset. Then all hetook themselves to the church for evening devotions, and then to supper.


After supper cawe amusements till the hour for retiring.


Their diet consisted of beef and mutton, with vegetables in the season. Wheaten cakes and puddings or porridge, called atole and pinole, formned a portion of the repast.


Government Order No. 6, issued from: Monterey July 20, 1798, is " to cause the arrest of Jove Arriola, and send him, under guard, so that he he at this place during the coming Sunday, from there to go to Santa Barbara, there to comply with his promise he urale a young woman of that place to marry her."


The records do not inform us whether Jose fulfilled his agreement with the young lady or not!


Extract from a letter dated Monterey, June 3, 1799 :- * "I send you by the wife of the pensioner, Josef Brabo, one piece of cotton goods and one ounce of sewing


VIEW OF MISSION BUILDINGS AT SAN JUAN.


The dress was, for the males, linen shirt, trousers, and a | blanket. The women had each two undergarments a year, a gown and a blanket.


What a dreamy secluded life it must have heen, with com- munication with the outer world only at intervals.


LAWS FOR THE COLONISTS.


We make the following extracts from laws sent the colonists and bearing date Monterey, March 23, 1816 :-


" All persons must attend mass, and respond in a loud voice, and if any person should fail to do so, without good cause, they will he put in the stocks for three hours."


"Living in adultery, gaming and drunkenness will not be allowed, and he who commits such vices shall be punished."


Another order required every colonist to possess "two yoke of oxen, two plows, two points or plowshares (see engraving of plow), two hoes for tilling the ground, and they must pro- vide themselves with six hens and one coek."


silk. There are no comhs, and I have no hope of receiving any for three years. HERMENEGILDO SAL, 1


" Military Governor."


Just think of the colonists heing without comhs for three years !


DESCRIPTION OF MISSION CONVERTS.


Captain Beechey, in 1826, visited the missions, and says :-


"If any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to con- version, it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then allow them to breathe a little fresh air in a walk around the missions, to ohserve the happy mode of life of their con verted countrymen; after which they are again shut up, and thus continue incarcerated until they declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their fathers."


" In the aisles and passages of the church, zealous headles of the converted race are stationed, armed with sundry weapons of potent influence in effecting silence and attention, and which


28


DECLINE OF THE VARIOUS MISSIONS.


are not sparingly nsed on the refractory. These consist of showing that the entire number of stock owned by fourteen sticks and whips, long goads, etc., and they are not idle in the | wealthy Spaniards, was 115 cattle, 298 sheep and 17 mares. hands of the officials."


"Sometimes they break their bonds and escape into their original haunts. When brought back to the mission he is always floggedl and then has an iron clog attached to one of his legs, which has the effect of preventing his running away and marking him out in terrorem to others." Notwithstand- ing this dark picture, it must not be imagined that life was ono of muchi hardship, or that they even thought so.


THE FIRST INDIAN BAPTISM.


1770 .- Of those who came oftenest among them at San Diego, was an Indian about fifteen years of age, who was at last induced to eat whatever was given biin without fear. Father Junipero had a desire to teach him, and after under- standing a little of the language he desired him to try and bring some little one for baptism. He was told to tell the parents that by allowing a little water to be put on the head the ehild would become a son of God, be clothed and become equal to the Spaniards. He returned with several Indians, one of whom brought the child for baptism. Full of joy the child was clothed, and tbe venerable priest ordered the soldiers to attend this first baptism. The ceremony proceeded, and as the water was about to be poured the Indians suddenly snatched away the child and made off in great haste, leaving the father in amazement, with the water in his hands unused.


It was not, however, until the 26th of December, 1770, that tbe first baptism of the Indians was celebrated at Monterey, which turned out better than the first attempt at San Diego. But at the end of three years only 175 were baptized, showing tbat the Indians received civilization slowly.


MISSION OF SAN FRANCISCO.


1776 .- On September 17, 1776, the presidio and mission of San Francisco were founded, on what was then the extreme boundary of California, the former in a manner being a front- ier command, having a jurisdiction which extended to the farthest limits of Spanish discovery.


In its early day the whole military force in Upper California did not uumber more than from two to three hundred men, divided between the four presidios of San [Diego, Santa Bar- bara, Monterey, and San Francisco, while there were but two towns or pueblos, Los Angeles and San Jose.


When Junipero Serra and his band of missionaries entered Upper California from the lower territory, they brought with them a number of horses, mules, and cattle, wherewith to stock the proposed missions. These were duly distributed, and in time asses, sheep, goats, and swine were added.


RICH MEN OF 1793.


1793 .- An inventory of the rich men of the presidio of San Francisco, bearing date 1793, was discovered some years since,


These are the men who laid the foundation of these itninense


: hordes of cattle which were wont to roam about the entire State, and who were the fatbers of those whom we now term native Californians.


As year succeeded year so did their stock increase.


They recieved tracts of land " almost for the asking."


Vast bands of cattle roamed about at will over the plains and among the mountains. Once a year these had to be driven in and rodeod, i. e., branded, a work of considerable danger, and one requiring much nerve. The occasion of rodeoing, how- ever, was the signal for a feast; a large beeve would be slaugh- tered, and all would make merry until it.was consumed. The rule or law concerning branded cattle in those early days was very strict.


If any one was known to have branded his neighbor's cattle with his own mark, common usage called upon him to return in kind fourfold.


Not only did this apply to cattle alone, but to all other kinds of live-stock.


TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF MISSION INDIANS BETWEEN 1802 AND 1822.


NAME OF MIBBION.


BAPTIZED.


MARRIED.


DIED.


EXISTING.


San Diego.


5,452


1,460


3,186


1,696


San Luis Rey


4,024


922


1,507


2,663


San Juan Capistrano.


3,879


1,026


2,531


1,052


Santa Catarina.


6,906


1,638


4,635


1,593


San Fernando ..


2,519


709


1,505


1,001


San Gabriel


3,608


9731


2,608


973


Santa Barbara


4,917


1,288


3,224


1,010


San Buenaventura.


1,195


330


896


582


Purissima Conception


3,100


919


2,173


764


San Luis Obispo.


2,562


715


1,954


467


San Miguel ..


2,205


632


1,336


926


San Antonio de Padua


4,119


1,037


317


834


San Carlos.


3,267


912


2,432


341


San Juan Bautista.


3,270


823


1,853


1,222


Santa Cruz ..


2,136


718


1,541


499


Santa Clara


7,324


2,056


6,565


1,394


San Jose.


4,573


1,376


2,933


1,620


San Francisco


6,804


2.050


5,202


958


San Rafael.


829


244


183


830


Totals


74,621 20,412 47,925 20.958


DECLINE OF THE MISSIONS.


1803 .- In this year one of the inissions harl become the scene of a revolt; and earlier still, as we learn from an unpub- lished correspondence of the fathers, it was not unusual for some of the converted Indians to abandon the missions and return to their former wandering life. It was customary on those occasions to pursue the deserters, and compel them to return.


1813 .- The extinction of the missions was dlecreed by act of the Spanish Cortez in 1813, and again in 1828; also, by the


Our Lady of Soledad.


1,932


584


1,333


532


.


VIEW OF THE VILLAGE OF TRINIDAD, HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.


TIMES


STEAM


PRINTING


OFFICE


DAILY


HUMBOLDT


TIMES


OFFICE OF THE DAILY HUMBOLDT TIMES, W. H. WYMAN, PROPRIETOR.


29


SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS.


Mexican Congress in 1833. Year, after year they were despoiled of their property, until their final overthrow in 1845.


Each successive revolution in Mexico had recourse to the rich California missions for plunder.


In 1813, when the contest for national independence wa- being waged on Mexican territory, Spain resolved upon dis- pensing with the services of the fathers, by placing the mis- sions in the hands of the scenlar clergy. The professed object of this seculnrization 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 passed by the cortes, wherein it is stated that one-half of the land was to he hypothecated for the pay- ment of the national debt. This decree of the Government was not carried out at the time, yet it had its effect on tlie state and well-being of the missions in general.


REIGN OF DISORDER BEGINS.


1826 .- In 1826 in- structions were for- warded by the Fed- eral Government to the authorities of Cal- ifornia for the liber- ationof the Indians. This was followed a few years later by an- other Act of the Leg- islature, ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized aud the religious to with- draw. The ostensible object assigned by the authors of this measure, was the execu- tion of the original plan formned hy the Government. The missions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent establishments.


Meantime, the internal state of the missions was becoming more and more complex and disordered. The desertions were more frequent and numcrous, the hostilities of the unconverted more daring, and the general disposition of the people inclined to revolt. American traders and freebooters 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.


In 1802, when Humboldt visited California, he estimated the whole population of the upper country as follows: Converted Indians, 15,562; whites and mulattocs, 1,300; total, 66,862. Wild Indians, or bestias (beasts), as they were called, were


MISSION CHURCH AND BUILDINGS AT SONOMA.


quite numerous, but being unbaptized were considered beneath the notice of reasonable beings.


ATTACKS ON SEVERAL MISSIONS.


Their hostile attack was first directed against the mission of Santa Cruz, which was captured and plundered, when they directed their course to Monterey, and, in common with their American friends, attacked and plundered that place. Fromu 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 tlie villages was of frequent and almost constant occurrence.


SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS.


1833 .- The Mexican Congress passed a bill to secularize the missions in Upper and Lower California, August 17, 1833. This took away from the friars the control of the mission prop- erty, placing it in charge of administra- tors; it. gave the civil officers predominance over the priestly class. The President of the Republic issued his instructions to Gov- ernor Figueroa, of --- California, who in turn, August 9, 1834, issued a decree that in August, 1835, ten of the missions would be converted into pueblos or towns. A portion of the mission property was then divided among the resident Indians, and the decree issued for the liberation of all the Indians was immedi- ately put in force. The dispersion and demoralization of the people were the immediate results. Released from all restraint, the Indians proved idle, shiftless, and dissipated, wholly incap- able of self-control, and a nuisance hoth to themselves and to every one with whom they came in contact. Within eight years after the execution of the decree, the number of Chris- tains diminished from 30,650 to 4,450!


A REVIEW OF THE MISSIONS.


At the end of sixty-five years, Hon. John W. Dwinelle tells us, in Centennial Memoirs, page 89, that the missionaries of Upper California found themselves in possession of twenty-one prosperous missions, planted upon a line of about 700 miles, running from San Diego north to the latitude of Sonoma. More than 30,000 Indian converts were lodged in the mis-


30


REIGN OF DESTRUCTION AND DESOLATION.


sion buildings, receiving religious culture, assisting at divine worship, and cheerfully performing their easy tasks. Over 700,000 cattle of various species, pastured upon the plains' as well as 60,000 horses. One hundred and twenty thousand bushels of wheat were raised annually, which, with maize, beans, peas, aud the like, made up an annual crop of 180,000 bushels; while, according to the climate, the different mis- sions rivaled each other in the production of wine, brandy' soap, leather, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt and soda.


Of 200,000 horned cattle annually slaughtered, the mis- sions furnished about one-half, whose hides, hoofs, horns and tallow were sold at a net result of $10 each, making $1,000,000 dollars from that source alone; while the other articles of which no definite statistics can be obtained, doubt- less reached an equal value, making a total production by the missions themselves of $2,000,000.


RAPID DECLINE OF CONVERTS.


It will thus be observed that out of the 74,621 converts re- ceived into the missions, the large number of 47,925 had suc- cumbed to disease. What the nature of this plague was it is hard to establish; the missionaries themselves could assign no cause. It was, in all probability, caused by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence, to'a state of settled quietude.


EARLY COLONIZATION PARTY.


1834 .- During the year 1834, one Jose Maria Hijar was dis- patched from Mexico with a colonization party, hound for Up- per California. The ship touched at San Diego, and here a portion of the party disembarked. The remainder proceeded to Monterey, and, a storm arising, their ship was wrecked upou the beach. Hijar now presented his credentials, and was as- tonished to find that a messenger overland from Mexico had already arrived bringing news of Santa Ana's revolution, to- gether with dispatches from the new president revoking his (Hijar's) appointment; and continuing to keep Figueroa in office.


In the bitter discussion that followed, it came ont that Hijar had heen authorized to pay for his ship, the Natalia,* in mis- sion tallow; that the colonists were organized into a company, duly authorized to take charge of the missions, squeeze out of them the requisite capital, and control the business of the ter- ritory. The plan had miscarried by a chance, but it showed the missionaries what they had to expect.


With the energy horn of despair, eager at any cost to outwit those who sought to profit by their ruin, the mission fathers hastened to destroy that, which through more than half a cen- tury, thousands of human beings had spent their lives to accu- mulate.


TABLE EXPLAINING THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRA- TION OF THE MISSIONS BY THE FATHERS IN 1834 AND THAT OF THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES IN 1842.


NUMDEIL


NUMBER OF HOANED CATTLE.


NUMBER or Honses.


NO. OP SHEEP, OOAT8 AND SWINE


HARVEST


BUSHELO.


1834.


1842.


1834.


1842.


1834. 1842.


1834.


1842.


1834.


San Diego ..


2,500


500


12,000


20 1,800


1001 17.000


200


13,000


San Louis Rey


3,500


650


80,000


2,800 10 000


400|100,000


4,000


14,000


San Juan Capistrano


1,700


1.00


70,000


600


1,900


150


10,000


200


10,000


San Gabriel ..


2,700


500 105,000


700 20,000


500


10,000


3,500


20,000


San Fernando.


1,500


400


14,000


1,500


400


7,000


2,000


8,000


Sun Buenaventura.


1,100


300


4,000


200


40


6,000


400


3,000


Santa Barbara,


1,200


400


6,000


1,800


1,200


180


5,000


400


3,000


Santa Inez ...


1,370


250


14,000 10,000


1,200


500


12,000


4,000


3,500


La Purissima Conception


900


00


15,000


800


2,000


300


14,000


3,500


6,000


San Luis Obispo


1.250


80


9,000


300


4,000


200


7.000


800


4,000


San Miguel. .


1,200


80


4,000


40


2,500


60


10,000


400


2,500


San Antonio.


1,400


150


12,000


80€


2.000


14,000 2,000


3,000


Nostra Senora de la Soledad. Mission del Carmel ..


600


40


3,000


700


7,000


1,500


San Juan Bautista. ..


1,450


80


9,000


1.200


9,000


3,600


Santa Cruz


6001


50


8,000


800


10,000


2.500


Santa Clara


1,800


300


13,000


1,50€


1,200


250


15,000 3,000


6,000


San Jose ..


2,300


400


2.400


8,001


1,100


200


19,000


7,000 10,000


Dolores de San Francisco.


500


50


5,000


1.600


60


4,000


400


2,500


San Rafael.


1,250


20


3,000


600


4.500


1,500


San Francisco Solano


1,300


3,000


700


4,000


8,000


Patala


:0,650 4,450 390,400 20,020 32,600 3,620 321,500 31,000 123,000


GREAT SLAUGHTER OF CATTLE.


Hitherto, cattle had been killed only as their meat was needed for use; or, at long intervals perhaps, for the hides and tallow alone, when an overplus of stock rendered such action necessary. Now they were slaughtered in herds. There was no market for the meat, and this was considered worthless. The creature was lassoed, thrown, its throat cut; and wbile yet writhing in the death agony its hide was stripped and pegged upon the ground to dry. There were no vessels to contain the tallow, and this was run into great pits dug for that purpose, to he spaded out anon, and shipped with the hides to market.


Whites and natives alike revelled in gore, and vied with cach other in destruction. So many cattle were there to kill, it seemed as though this profitable and pleasant work must last forever. The white settlers were especially pleased with the turn affairs had taken, and many of them did not scruple un- ceremoniously to appropriate large herds of young cattle where- with to stock their ranches. Such were the scenes being en- acted on the plains.


MISSION BUILDINGS DESTROYED.


At all the missions a similar work was going on. The outer buildings were unroofed, and the timber converted into fire- wood. Olive groves and orchards were cut down; shrubberies and vineyards torn up. Where the axe and vandal hands failed, fire was applied to complete the work of destruction. Then the solitary bell left hanging on each solitary and dis- mantled church, called their assistants to a last session of praise and prayer, and the worthy padres rested from their labors.


When the government administrators came, there was but little left; and when they went away, there was nothing.


MISSIONS ORDERED ABANDONED.


1845 .- A proclamation of Governor Pico, June 5, 1845, provides :-


"The identical vessel in which Napoleon escaped from the Isle of Elba-1815.


700


20


6,000


1,200


7,000


2,500


5,000


1,000


NAMES OF THE MISSIONS.


INDIANA.


31


FINAL DISPOSITION OF THE MISSIONS.




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