USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles County, California, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, fine blocks and manufactories > Part 29
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The party were armed with rifles, shot guns (loaded with sings) and revolvers.
At 1:30 A M. they started, and by 4 o'clock had arrived at Major Mitchell's bee ranch, situated up a small eanon not far from the house of Greek George. Here Mr. Johnson left ; portion of his party, while with the rest he climbed the mount- ains to reconnoitre. A heavy fog at first obscured all objects, but as this lifted, they could discern a horse, answering in appearance to that usually ridden by the bandit, picketed near the house: Twice a man resembling Vasquez came ont of the dwelling, ant led this horse to the spring, then back again and re-picketed him. Soon a second man, believed to be the bandit's lientenant (Chaves) went in pursuit of another horse, and then Mr. Johnson prepared for action.
His two companions ( Mitchell and Smith) went in pursuit of the man last seen, while he returned to the bee rane', mar- shallel his forces, and prepared to attack the house. Just at this moment (providentially it would almost seem) a high box wagon drove up the canon from the direction of Greek George's house. In this were two natives, and the Sheriff's party at once elamibered into the wagon and lay down, taking with them one of these men. The driver they commanded to turn his horses and proceed back to Greek George's house, driving as close thereto as possible, and promising bim that on the least sign of treachery they would shoot him dead. He obeyed his instructions, and in a short time the house was reached and surrounded.
As the party advanced npon the door leading into the din- ing-room, a woman opened it partially, then, as she caught sight of them, slammed it to with an exclamation of affright. They burst in just in time to see Vasquez spring from the table, where he had been eating breakfast, and through the narrow kitchen window, in the end of the house facing south. As he went through officer llarris fired on him with his Henry rifle, and as he rushed for his horse shot after shot showed him the utter hopelessness of escape. Throwing up his hands he advanced toward the party and surrendered, saying: " Boys, you have done well; I have been a d-d fool, but it is all my own fault. I'm gone up." Two other men were arrested at the same time (the one Mitchell and Smith went after, and another). A large number of arms, all of the latest pattern and finest workmanship, were found in the honse. "Greek George " (George Allen) was arrested in Los Angeles
Vasquez was conveyed to Los Angeles and placed in jail. Here he received the best of medical treatment, and as his injuries were only flesh wounds, soon recovered. Much maudlin sympathy was expended on him by weak-healed women while he remained in Los Angeles jail.
His last victim, Mr. Repetto of San Gabriel, called to see him. After the usual salutations, Repetto remarked: " I have
ealled, Signor, to say that so far as I am concerned you can settle that little account with God Almighty. I have no hard feelings against you, none whatever." Vasquez returned his thanks in a most impressive manner, and begin to speak of repayment, when Repetto interrupted him, saying, "1 do not expect to be repaid. I gave it to you to save further trouble, but I beg of you. if you ever resume operations, not to repeat your visit at my house."
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" Ah, Señor." replied Vasquez, If I am so unfortunate as to suffer conviction. and am eompelle ? to un lergo a short term of imprisonment, I will take the earliest opportunity to reim- Imirse you. Señor Repetto, I am a cavalier, with the heart of a cavalier ! Yo soy un caballero, con el corazon de un caballero! This with the most impressive gesture and laying his hand upon his heart.
He was tiken to Sm José, anl tried for murder. Being found guilty, he was there hangel March 19, 1875.
Several others of the band were captured and sent to San Quentin. Some were shot by officers, an } the whole band was thoroughly broken up.
WALLER -- FOUCK.
October 10, 1877, Victor Fouck was shot in the leg by C. M. Waller, keeper of the Lant Company's bath-hous? at Santa Monica. The latter elaimed to be acting un-ler instructions from-Parker, agent of the land company. At the time of the shooting, Fouck was erecting a private bath-house on the beach, in defiance of warnings not to do so. Hr diedl two days afterward from the effect of the wound.
Waller was found guilty of involuntary homicide, and was sentenced January 25, 1878, to one year in the penitentiary. Parker was found guilty of murder in the see nul degree ( March 8th), and was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. This had such an effect on himself and wife, that they both died broken-hearted before the sentence coull be execute l.
C. M. PHELPS.
On the morning of March 25, 1878, it was discovered that the safe of Mr. G. E. Long, assignee of Temple & Workman's bank, had been robbed of ten thousand five hundred dollars in gold and silver coin. The burglary was proclaimed by Mr. C. M. Phelps, book-keeper to Mr. Long, and examination showed that the onter door of the vault had been opened by working the combination, while the padlock fastening the inner door had been broken.
The ease was worked up by Chief Harris, Detective Stone and others, and suspicion at last fastened upon the book-keeper, Phelps, who confessed his crime and made restitution. He was sentenced to one year in the State Prison
FERNHEIM. RESIDENCE & VINEYARD OF JULIUS GUENTHER WEYSE, ONE MILE SOUTH OF LOS ANGELES CITY , LOS ANGELES C9 CAL.
PURITENTO OF THOMPSON & WOST
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY CALIFORNIA.
MIGUEL SOTELO.
This man, supposed to be one of the noted Vasquez band, had followed robbery from his youth up. On the evening of June 17, 1878, Sheriff Mitchell and Deputy Adolph Celis, armeil with a bench-warrant for his arrest, discovered him at the door of a small groggery in the Verdugo canon. He mounted his horse and lled, and being pressed by the officers firedl on them. A running fight was kept up for two miles, when Sotelo fell from his horse mortally wounded. He died the following morning.
. A. J. HAMILTON.
December 4, 1879, the city of Los Angeles was thrown into considerable excitement by the disappearance of A. J. Hamil- ton, city Tax-collector. It was finally discovered that he hal abscondel to Mexico with some eight thousand dollars of city funds. He was traced to that country and arresteil, about one thousand live hundred dollars being recovered, but the prisoner succeeded in again escaping on the return trip, from the officer having him in charge, and was never re-captured. He left a wife and family in Los Angeles, wholly destitute. His bonds- men were obliged to meet the deficit.
COUNTERFEITERS.
The passing of a number of bogus five-dollar pieces in Los Angeles during the fall of 1879, le I to the capture of a gang of counterfeiters, who operated in Dalton canon, Azusa township. The lealer of the ging (C. A. Matloek) escaped from jail December 6th following his arrest. Other members were sen- tenced to the State Prison, among whom were Graham, fiveyears; O'Rourke, six years.
CRIME IN 1880.
On the morning of February 18, 1880, the boily of A. Peries, proprietor of a junk shop on Aliso street, was found in the shop, bearing evident marks of foul play. The murdered man was said to have had considerable money about the place. This was missing.
About eight o'clock in the evening of March 4th, six masked men came up to the store of Mr. Crowder at Orange, and taking possession, tied all the occupants. They seeured sonne three hundred dollars and left on horseback.
On the evening of March 31st, the store of Mr. Nathan Tuch, at San Gabriel, was entered and robbed by disguised inen. The clerk, Pedro Estra la, resisted, firing upon the robbers, but was shot in both arms, they making gool their escape witli about two hun lred and fifty dollars cash.
About the middle of April, officers Celis and Borham attempted to arrest two desperadoes, named Rafael Miran lo and Ciou lis Carrizosa, at Anaheim. The former was secured, but the latter escape 1, supposed to be badly wounded.
SAMUEL R. HOYLE.
On March 26, 188"), a man who gave the name of Ewing was arrested in Los Angeles on a dispatch from the Chief of Police of San Francisco. He turned out to hr Sunnel R. Hoyle, a defaulting Tax-collector from Atlanta, Georgia. In time, requisition papers duly arrive ] from that Stite, and after considerable delay had been caused on technical objections interposed, it seemed certain that he would be delivered over to the officer who hal come for him. On the evening of April 20th, he shot himself through the heart in his cell, while lying in bed, in the presence of Deputy Sheriff Huber, who had him in charge.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DECADENCE OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. (1850-1880 )
Extracts From the Report of the Late Hon. B. D. Wilson, Indian Agent for Southern California, 1932-Present Status of the Southern Tribes.
IN a former chapter on THE ABORIGINES, we have treated quite fully of the early history of the " Cahuilla" Indians, extending from the first settlement of Upper California by the Spaniards (1769), to the secularization of the missions (1830- 1835). In the year 1852, the late Hon. Benjamin Davis Wilson, of Los Angeles, was appointed by President Fillmore Indian agent for the Southern District of California, and the following notes are extracted from his very voluminous reports upon the then condition of the Indians in his district, published in the Los Angeles Star of 1852, aud re-published in that paper, 1868.
Mr. Wilson classed the Indians of that section of country embracing the counties of Tulare (in part), Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego, as follows :-
Tulareños, Cahuillas, San Luiseños, Dieguiños-all of these were attached to the missions, more or less.
Yumas, Mojaves-never much under mission influence, if at all.
Mr. Wilson then continues :--
These six nations (40 to call them) inhabit a territory between lati- tudes 32° 30' and 35° (or thereabout4). with an area of about forty-five thousand square miles. Two thirds of it is mountain and desert, and not oue-half of the rest olfers any very strong inducements to attract a dense white population of agriculturists. There are the advantages of neither wood uor of soil and water to tempt American settlers in large numbers further than sixty or seventy miles from the ocean, even in the most favored county of Los Angeles. +
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1 .- TULARENOS.
The Tularenos live in the mountain wilderness of the Four creeks. Porsiuncula (or Kern, or current) river, and the Tejon, and wander thence towards the head-waters of the Mojave and the neighborhood
of the Cahuillas. Their present common name belongs to the Spanish anıl Mexican times and is derived from the word tofre ta swamp with fag-). They were formerly utached to the mi-sams of Santa Yars, Santa Barbara, La Purissima, and San Buenaventura, in Santa Bar. bara conaty, and san Fernando, in las Angeles county. They are all of me family: there is very little difference in the languagespoken by the several rancherias (villages).
According to the State ceasus, just completed, there remmin six bun- dred and six Indians " ilmestrrated" in Santa Barbara county ; male, three hundred and twenty-four: females, two hundred and eighty. two; males aud feinile, over twenty noe years of age, three hundred and sixty-tour, all, probally, claiming alli iation with the Tularenos. From the same source, we learn that in Tulate county there are tive thousand, eight hundred domesticated Indians ( male=), aml tou thuus- sand six hundred females; over twenty-Que years of age, thiru thousand seven hundred and eightyseven; under twenty one yrars, four thousand six hundred and thirteen, the white inhabitants of this county numbering only one hundred and seventy Bair. They speak The Sunia Ynes tongur. In all, two thousand might be brought at first within the plan I will propose hereafter-to be divided into two pueblos (1RWns).
There is buc one " Mexican claim" upon their laml-at The Tejon, of Messrs. Ignacio del Valle and Jose Antoum Agnice, to eleven square leagues; at least I have no knowledge of any other.
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They often descend upon the ranchos (farms) of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, carrying trick droves of hur-es, chiefly lur hood. Samme. times they are caught and shut, or hung on the sjon, us Jongopened in last July to one of their rapitan s (chiefs); but the same might his men drove off all the horses of a valuable ranche and, in luct, nearly ruined it, for it is not easy to repair the loss of sixty odd luumlred horses fit to drive catthe (the loss. I believe, in that recension). 'The people suffer severely from this quarter, in the boys of all kinds of stock, and without redress, as these mountin fasttiesit's almost ile l'y pursuit.
The main southern emigrant ronte to the San loquin, passes through tins nation; and is the principat thoughtarr of our rancheros aml the upper country drovers during a great part of the year. Their expurtie tu depredations, in their passage, and even tu massacre, is familiar () the Government, in some eventsid' the past two years. In une instance, a citizen of this county, who had been compelled to make an unusual delay at or near Four Creeks, had a thousand head of ratile tuken ky the Indians, all of which he lost. It must be understood. however, that they were then excited to a temporary outbreak-fatal to lon many citizens-by Indians who had Ard from the north, in conve. quence of the wars there waged against them by the State Government .. With the exception of their frequent forages into the farming country of the lower coast, and an occasional restiveness which they show along the emigrant and traveled route, they get a ong peuce fifty of late.
But these are serious evils, uml prove that they demand strict atten- tion, and a respectable military force stationed somewhere between the Tejon and Four Creeks, to keep them in order; even it it be thought that they cannot yet participate in plans that would le expedient with the other nations, an opinion to which I cannot assent.
Under judicious treatment, they will not exhibit fewer of the better qualities of human nature than their neighbors, whether Cahuiltas, San Luisenos, or Dieguinos.
11 .- CAHUILLAS.
The Cahuillas are a little to the north of the San Luis- enos, occupying the mountain ridges and intervening valleys to the east and south-east of Mount San Bernardino, down towand the Mojave niver and the desert that borders the river Coloradu- the natten of the Mojaves living between them and these rivers. I am unable, just now. to give the number and names of their villages. Sau Gorgonio, San Jacinto, Coyote, are among those best known, though otbers, eveu nearer the desert, are more populous, Agua Caliente was latterly a mixture of Cahuillas and San Lumenos -the connecting link between the two nations, as San Ysidro is consider d to be between the former and the Dieguinos, The last chiel (proper; of Agua Caliente, named Antanto Garra, is said to have been a Yuma by birth. rducated at the mission of San Luis Rey, for he could read aml write. Flis appearance was not that of a Yuma, but there would be nothing strange
88
HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
in finding hun " a man of power" among the Calinillas or San Luisenos. The village of San Felipe, about fifteen miles from Agua Caliente, and always recognized as one of the Dieguino nation, still claims to be elosely related to, or a branch of Yumas; it uses, however, the Dieguino language. Agua Caliente, on the whole, may rather be considered as out of the domain of the ('ahnillas, since its chief was shot and the vil- Inge destroyed, about a year ago. I will speak of it in another connection, hereafter, as it is of some consequence to these Indians.
I'l.e Cahilla chiefs, and many of the people speak Spanish. Many still claim to he " Christians," the majority of them are not, while the reverse is the case with the Sun Luisenos and Dieguinos. A great part of the neophytes of San Gabriel, the wealthiest of the missions, were ('ahuillas. Their name means " master," in our language, or, as some of them render it, " the great nation." Their entire number now scurcely exceeds three thousand souls.
Sao Gabriel Mission possessed a valuable establishment on the pres. ent runcho of San Bernardino, the ruined walls of which, and the rows of lufty cottonwoods, with the olives, and traces of zanjas, and fields, remain to attest the noble plans which the Fathers' formed for the benefit of this projde. A large number of them had been gathered kere between the years 1825 and 1834. In the latter year it was de- stroyed by the unconverted, and the last tie severed that bound them to their spiritual conquerors. In the end it might have proven the golden chain of charity, drawing them to a loftier sphere of moral and intellectual existence.
Sometime afterwards, Juan Antonio ( whose sombrignet is " General"> removed and kept his village oo the rancho until its purchase last year by a Mormon settlement. He then went fifteen mites further hack iato the mountains to San Gorgonio, another old dependency of San Ga- briel, leaving the Mormons in quiet possession of almost a principality, cupable of sustaining a working population of fifty thousand souls. They employ and cultivate the kindliest relations with all the In- diuns, and I'um happy to state, never permit ardent spirits to be sold or given to them.
At San Gorgonia the Indians are brought into contact with Mr. l'anline Weaver, who claims to have a Mexican title, but, notoriously. withont nny regular, written grant. The heirs of Jose Antonio Estu- dillo claim the rancho of San Jacinto, the site of an ther of their vil. lages. The first claims three square leagues ; the last eleven square Jeagnes more or less. Both were minor mission establishments. They are about eighty miles from the city of Los Angeles, In Monnt San Bernardino there is a single mill site claimed by Mr. Luis Vignes, as lessre of the Mexican Government l'or five years, I believe ; now occu- pieil in his name by Mr. Daniel Sexton.
The Cahnillas have not had a head-chief, I believe, since the death af the one they called " Kazon " (white). lle died within two or three years past, nt an advanced age. They gave him this name. as they told me, from his always arting so much like n white man, in staying ut home und tending Ins fiells and flocks, for he had both. When a young man, he went off to Sonora, (under what circumstances is not known.) and returned a farmer-which is all the carly history we have of him. He was always a quiet, good, industrious man, and remlered materinl service to the authorities, in arresting the half-civilized In- dian ontlaws who have sometimes fled with stolen horses to the mes- quit wilds of his village. Cabezon, ton, is a good old Iudian chief, as also another maimed Juan Bautista.
Juan Antonio , however, has a more conspicuous figure among them. by n sort of iron energy which he often displays, and is better knowu to the whites. A passing comment upon some of his acts may not be out of place, as they touch the present sabjeet.
In the summer of 1851, the local authorities deemed it expedient to conciliate him with a hundred dollars' worth of ebih, hats, and hand- kerchirfs - not heads-jaid for ont of the county treasury. This pres- ent seems to have been the winding up of the following incident. A while before he had killed eleven Americans, who were accused of robbing the aforesaid rancho of San Bernardino, where he then had his village. He clauned to he justitied by an order of a Justice of the Pence, one of the proprietors of the rancho, whose house, it was alleged, the Americans were rithing at the time of the Indian attack. A ver- fect uproar ensued in the county, and the Indians tled to the mountains, not, however, without offering battle to a company of lifty volunteers then stationed near the scene, who were equally anxious to punish the urassucre of their countrymen in this unauthorized manner. The
exertions of their commanding officer, the late Major-General J. 11. Bean, restrained them (not without difficulty) and thus prevented a general war, which must have proved for a time disastrous to the set- tlements. Such a precedent is too dangerous for repetition. Douket- less the Indians thought they were only acting in obedience to the authorities, it having been the custom in the Mexican times to employ them in services of this kind; and, I have reason to believe, something like it has been done recently, in killing two Sonoranians, undoubtedly horse thieves. The necessity for correcting their ideas on this subject is evident. I mean, of course, that they ought never to be allowed to meddle with the punishment of whites for public offenses.
Juan Antonio gained a less perilous celebrity in the winter of 1831, for his successfulstratagem in capturing the Antonio Garra afore-men- tioned, and jeutting an end to his conspiracy for the general massacre of the American inhabitants along the coast. This gave rise to a treaty of peace. Permit me to observe that this document means something or nothing-in the latter case, is worse than idle, The Indians, in their own unsophisticated logic, have ascribed some effect to it. On the part of the State, it is at least a guarantee of their title to a very large territory.
Like a " treaty " made since, purporting to be with a large number od' the same and other Indians, and aiming at a wider scope of opera- tions (and not yet fulfilled). it may have given them the most errone. olle notions of themselves, aml of their trne relations to the people and the Government. Vanity may do them a while, but anon they will clamor for the promised bref ! Seriously, there should be no tampering with these, nor any Indians, by promises of bigh sound, that cannot be executed to the Jetter. This last-mentioned appears to have bren hurried through in a spirit of wind speculation, wholly regardless of the interests eitber of the Government or the Indians,
ItI .- SAN LUISENOS AND DIEGUINOS.
For the purposesof this report, the San Luisenos and the Dieguinos may be considered as one nation, understanding and speaking habitually each other's language, having been more generaly Christianized than the other nations, and more intimately connected with the whites They forin a large majority of the laborers, mechanics, and servants of San Diego and Los Angeles counties, Obviously, their present dis- tinctive names are derived from their respective missions, namely, San Luis Rey aud San Diego. Nearly all speak the Spanish language, and some of the chiefs read and write it. The two nations together are esti - mated at five thousand souls, a majority of whom are within the limits of the State.
The villages of the San Lnisenos are in a section of country adjacent to the Cahnillas, between forty and seventy miles in the mountainous interior from Sau Diego. They are known as Los Floras, Santa Marga- rita, San Luis Rey Missiou, Wahoma, Pala, Temecula, Alhuanga (two villages), La Joya, Potrero, and Brugos and Pedros villages, withiu five or six uniles of Agua Caliente; they are all in San Diego county. The villages of the Dieguinos, wherever they live separately, are a lit- tle further to the south. Indeed. under this appellation, they extend a hundred miles into Lower California, in about an equal state of civi- lization, and thenee are scattered through the Tecate valley, over the entire descent on the west side of New river. Far oo the eust side, notbing can live, except bugs and insects, among the dreary sand-hills that form the harrier there for the wilder Yumas. Until very lately the Dieguinos have suffered much from the hostility of a populous and warlike village called Yacum, near the mouth of the river Colorado. They are thought to be diminisbing in numbers more rapidly than the other nations.
Their villages (known to me) are San Dieguito (about twenty souls). San Diego Mission Itwenty ), San Pasqual (seventy five), Camajal (two villages, one hundred), Santa Ysabel (one hundred), San Juse tone hundred), Matahuay (seventy-five), Lorenzo (thirty), San Felipe (one hundred ), Cajou (forty ), Cuyamaca (fifty ). Valle de los Viejos (fifty ). These numbers are given from information believed to be correct.
Pablo Assis, chiel of Temecula, claims one and a half leagues at that place under a written grant; and a claim to the rancho of Temecula is preferred by Mr. Luis Vignes. Eight other of their village sites are claimed by different persons-San Jose, if I mistake not, by two oppo- site "claims," that of Mr. J. J. Warner and - Portilla, amounting to four square leagues. The claim of Mr. Vignes, at Temecula, amouuts
to eight square leagues. Agua Caliente is also claimed by Mr. J. J. Warner.
From the City of Los Angeles to Temecula is eighty miles; thence to Agua Caliente, thirty-five mike's.
The languages of the Dieguinos and Yumas bear a strong analogy to enel otber, il, indeed, they are not one and the same language. The opinion of Don Juan Bandini, whose opportunities of knowing them have been ample, is that their language is the same.
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