USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 12
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" I examined other graves, resembling those described of Point Sal. These
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others are known by the name of Temeteti. They lie about fourteen miles north of the Point Sal graves, and are situated on the right bank of the Arroyo de los Berros, opposite to the traces of former settlements about. seven miles inland. These tombs only differed from those of Kesmali in not being lined with the thick burnt, brick-like crust mentioned above, but with a thin, light-colored crust, slightly burned, and not more than a quarter of an inch thick.
"In company with the well-informed and industrious antiquaries, Doctor Hays and Judge Venabel, I explored another aboriginal settlement known by the name of Nipomo. It is situated on a large rancho of like name, and distant about a mile and a half from the Nipomo Ranch House, occupied by the hospitable Dana brothers. Lastly I examined the Walekhe settlement. About twenty-five miles from the mouth of the Santa Maria river, there empties into it the Alamo creek, bringing down rather a large amount of water. Following the wide bed of the Santa Maria for about seven miles farther up stream, one reaches a smooth elevation, which at this place rises about sixty feet above the bend of the creek, and which trends in a curve toward the mountains on the right bank. At the farthest end of this, at place where a fine view over the whole valley is had, we find the traces of the ancient village now known as Walekhe. A short distance from the former dwellings on the highest point of the ridge, a small excavation marks the spot where once a house stood, probably that of a chief. And here, indeed, I voluntarily imagined that I saw with my bodily eyes the strange primeval race that once called this place home. I saw the mothers of the tribe, lying with children at their breasts, or bending above the wearying mortar, while the sweat rolled over their dusky skins, painted with the colors and decked with the pearls that we at this day find lying beside them in those silent graves whose secret we have caught. Under the neighboring oaks-old oaks now, but young enough then-I saw the squatted men smoking their strange stone pipes; while, in the creek below, the youth cooled their swarthy bodies, or dried themselves in the sun, lying sweltering on its sandy banks. I heard the cry of the sentinels, as they, ever watching warily for an approaching possible enemy, caught sight of the returning hunter, loaded with elk and rabbits. And now-their graves lie there.
" With regard to the general character of the domestic utensils, arms, and ornaments which I found in the digging down to, and examining of, about three hundred skeletons in the graves of Kesmali, Temeteti, Nipomo and Walekhe, these things from the different localities named resemble each other very closely, seeming to show that all their possessors belonged to the same tribe. First of all, the large cooking-pots draw one's attention-hol- low globular or pear-shaped bodies, hollowed out of magnesian mica. The circular opening, having a small and narrow rim, measures only five inches in diameter in a pot with a diameter of eighteen inches. Near the edge of
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the opening, this vessel is only a quarter of an inch thick, but it thickens in . a very regular manner toward the bottom, where it measures about one and a quarter inch through. Made of the same material, I found other pots of a different shape -- namely, very wide across the opening, and narrowing as they grow toward the bottom. With these I have also now in my posses- sion many different sizes of sandstone mortars of a general semi-globular shape, varying from three inches in diameter and an inch and a half in height, up to sixteen inches in diameter and thirteen inches in height-all external measurements-with pestles of the same material to correspond. There were, further, quite an assortment of cups, measuring from one and a quarter to six inches in diameter, neatly worked out of polished serpentine. The smallest of these that I found was inclosed, as in a doubly covered dish, by three shells, and contained paint; traces of which, by the by, were found in all these cups, from which we may suppose that they were not in use for holding food.
"Neither spoons nor knives were found in these graves. I got, however, three beautiful cigar-holder-like pipes of serpentine, much stronger than, but similar in shape to, those dug out in Oregon. But few arms were picked up here-only a few arrow-heads and spear-heads; these, however, mostly of exquisite workmanship. A spear-head of obsidian, five and a half inches long, was the only object I found of this material; another lance point of chalcedony, nine and a half inches long, and one and a quarter inch wide, was beautifully shaped and carefully made.
" Many of these objects were found perfect, and those that were broken had been broken by the shifting and pressure of the soil, as could easily be seen from their position. It is, therefore, certain that the bulk of the prop- erty buried with a person was not purposely broken or destroyed-the same thing holding true in my investigations in Oregon. I even found mortars and pestles which had been repaired and cemented with asphaltum. The richer occupants of these graves had shell beads in great numbers, sickle- shaped ornaments of the abalone shell, and an ornament resembling the dentalium but made of a large clam-shell within or strewed about their heads-striving, though they brought nothing into the world, at least to carry something out."
That the mounds to be found in Marin are identical with these described above, there is no doubt. In leveling that at Olompali, many relics have been unearthed, while within the corporate limits of the town of San Rafael one is to be seen in a fair state of preservation; it is now being gradually removed, for the mixture of shell and soil of which it is composed has been found particularly useful in the grading of streets and suburban thorough- fares.
We have shown that the first settlement in the county was made at Olompali. The second was the establishment of the mission.
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The Mission San Rafael was founded by Father Ventura Fortuni on the eighteenth day of December, 1817. It flourished until the year 1834, as the following numbers will show: Between the years 1802 and 1822, the num- ber of proselytes baptized were eight hundred and twenty-nine; two hundred and twenty-four were married; one hundred and eighty-three died, and eight hundred and thirty were still alive. These numbers augmented and the wealth of the mission increased; until we find in the year 1834, San Rafael had one thousand two hundred and fifty Indians on its establishment; three thousand head of cattle, five hundred horses, four thousand five hundred sheep, goats, and swine, and a harvest yield of fifteen hundred bushels of grain. In that year came the decree of secularization, consequent on which was the overthrow of the authority of the Fathers, the liberation and dispersion of the Indians, and the partition of the mission lands and cattle, with a resuit disastrous in the extreme to the aboriginals, whatever it may have been to the Mexican population.
It is stated, and with every semblance of historical correctness, that of some of the missions, which, in the year 1834, numbered fifteen hundred souls, in 1842 counted only a few hundreds. Let us show what havoc was made in the Mission San Rafael during these short eight years. Of the twelve hundred and fifty Indians but twenty remained, while of cattle they had all ceased to belong to the Fathers. There are those, the favorers of the secularization scheme, who contend that the diminution in numbers was the result of a combination of complicated diseases, among others small-pox, said to have been contracted from a subordinate Mexican officer who had caught the disease at the Russian settlement at Fort Ross in 1837. Be this as it may, the officer recovered, and sixty thousand Indians are said to have perished in what are now known as Marin, Sonoma, Solano and Napa. So rapidly did they die, that it was found necessary to entomb the victims in huge pits, while others of them abandoned the land, which to them had become accursed by the presence of the foreign intruder. Thus have the. aboriginal Californians passed away, and now live only in the memory of the few pioneers who were their contemporaries.
The tribe of Indians at San Rafael were called Jouskionmes. The mission premises were built of the never-failing adobe, in the shape of an L and roofed with tiles made on the spot, the excavations for the clay for which are still extant, while the position occupied was that of the site of the present Catholic Church in San Rafael, the old altar being on the precise spot now occupied by the new one. The wing used by the church ran parallel with Fifth street for about eighty feet, and about thirty feet from its present line, while that at right angles went back one hundred feet and was divided into a kitchen, situated next to the church; the Juzgardo, or Justice Cham- ber, a room of forty by twenty feet; and next, the apartments of the Fathers. There was no second story, still the space between ceiling and roof
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was utilized as a granary or grain-loft. Of other buildings, there was an adobe belonging to the mission, and occupied by Indians, on the site of W. T. Coleman's private residence, while there was another, mentioned elsewhere, in the Court House grounds. There was nothing particularly fine in regard to the ecclesiastical paraphernalia of the church, and we have failed to learn that there were any handsome ornaments or grand paintings. The Holy Fathers would appear to have mainly trusted to wise teachings, firm faith and good example, to attain the christianizing of their flock, while they encouraged just enough of out-door labor, to secure a desire to work, and instil a feeling of satisfaction into the breast of the native at being able to earn his bread by the sweat of his own brow, and the toil of his own hands. Contiguous to the mission there was a vast orchard and garden which extended from the Wilkins' place down to the thoroughfare known as Irwin street, and from thence to the marsh land. Several of the pear trees and grapevines still remain, but save that they are memories of the past, have no particular attraction, few of the rising generation knowing little, and caring less, about their strange and eventful history.
In a pamphlet published by George W. Gift in 1875, wherein the resources of Marin county, its health and wealth are briefly set forth, we find the following :
" It so happens that we are in possession of a most excellent account of this first settlement, translated from a letter written by ex-Governor Juan B. Alvarado, dated January 5, 1874, and which we here insert as better and more authentic than anything we know of on the subject.
"' The Mission of San Rafael was founded in 1824,* under Don Luis Anto- nio Arguello, Captain and Commandante of the Presidio of San Francisco, and Governor interim of California, under the unfortunate Iturbide. Friar Juan Amoroso, from San Carlos, undertook the office of converting the heathen Indians, and teaching them the practices of Christianity and the arts of civilization. This good Father was a noted personage. He was one of those missionaries who dared everything in behalf of the cross. Earnest, faithful and bold, he preached the story of his Master without fear. Being a most excellent mechanic he needed no assistance in teaching the neophytes the arts. The Governor saw at the Mission of San Rafael in 1831 an ingenious water-clock constructed by Father Juan, and which was a most excellent time-keeper. Fifty years ago the Indians hereabouts were very savage and hostile, and it was thought prudent to station a small guard at the mission for protection. This guard of three or four soldiers was com-
* This is evidently a mistake, for all authorities agree on the year of the founding of the Mission San Rafael being 1817. The last of the missions established, namely, that of San Francisco Solano, at Sonoma, was founded August 23, 1823, one year before Governor Alva- rado says that of San Rafael came into existence.
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manded by Corporal Rafael Garcia. The Friar and the Corporal held out the olive branch to the savages, but were not met in the same spirit. The Caynameros, a Marin county tribe, made a descent on the mission with a purpose to surprise and massacre the inhabitants. Our corporal was not surprised, however, but made a gallant defense. When the Indians appeared in sight, with hostile demonstrations, he embarked the Friar Juan, his own wife Loreto, and two or three children upon a balsa or raft made of tules, and despatched them with the tide to go elsewhere for safety. Strange to say this frail float and its precious cargo landed safely near the Presidio. The corporal having freed himself of the non-combatants made a stubborn fight and repulsed the assailants, or, as the Governor has it, 'Garcia en este caso defundio la mision y devidio a su valor y resignacion, los Indios fueron rechazados y espulsados de las immediaciones del establecimiento.'" It will thus be remarked that the family of Garcia were the Spanish pioneers of Marin county.
To Saucelito township is the credit due of having been first settled by an English speaking people. John J. Read, to whom may be aptly given the sobriquet of the Father of Pioneers, was born in Dublin in the year 1805, and left Ireland in 1820. When but a mere lad, his unele, who was a sailor, took him on a voyage to Mexico, from thence to California, sailing from Acapulco, arriving in the State in the year 1826, just after attaining his twenty-first year, and, after staying a short time in Los Angeles, proceeded northward until he reached Saucelito, and there took up his residence. In 1826 he made application to the authorities for a grant of the Saucelito Rancho, but was refused it on the plea that it was held for Government purposes. He next, in 1827, removed to Sonoma county, and tilled a portion of the Cotate Rancho, at the same time making application for the grant, but here he was not permitted to remain, for the Indians drove him off, destroyed his crop and buried his implements. At this juncture he was recommended by Father Quijos to proceed to San Rafael, where he was given the position of Mayor-Domo to the mission, and there tarried until he came to Saucelito to reside in 1832, erecting for his accommodation near the old town a wooden shanty, from whence he plied a small boat regularly to the opposite shore of Yerba Buena, and established the first ferry on the Bay of San Francisco. In 1834 he received a grant of the rancho "Corte . Madera del Presidio," where he erected a saw mill-the first in the county- while he was also the first to take soundings in the Bay. On his ranch he made inany improvements, such as fencing, planting orchards, and introduc- ing imported cattle, all of which this energetic young Irishman accom- plished, while he was a single man, and before he had reached thirty years of age. Mr. Read married October 13, 1836, at the Church of the Mission Dolores, the Senorita Hilarita, the youngest daughter of Don José Antonio Sanchez, Commander of the Presidio at San Francisco. He
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died of a fever at the early age of thirty-eight years, in 1843, and his remains repose in the Catholic Cemetery of San Rafael.
The distinction of being the second settler in Marin county belongs to Captain William Antonio Richardson, an Englishman, who was born in the year 1795. In 1822, he arrived in San Francisco bay ; in 1824, he was granted a lot in the Pueblo of Yerba Buena ; on May 12, 1825, he married Senorita Maria Antonia Martinez; in 1828, he made application for the Saucelito Ranch, which was not granted to him until February 11, 1838; in June, 1835, he was appointed Captain of the Port of San Francisco. It was not, however, until April, 1836, that Captain Richardson came to reside on the Saucelito Rancho, where he eventually built himself a residence. He died April 22, 1858.
Of all the old pioneers of the county none perhaps has left so cherished a name behind as Don Timoteo Murphy. He came by sea from South America as early as 1828, was born in the year 1800, in the town of Coolaneck, parish of Edermine, county of Wexford, Ireland. In early life Timothy Murphy received a good commercial education, and having finished his schooling, obtained a position in a firm in Dublin, but soon exchanged it for a better appointment in an English house in Lima. Here he remained for a short time, when he was sent by Hartnell & Co. to superintend an establishment of theirs for packing and exporting beef at Monterey; accord- ingly in the year above named he started for California. Dr. Quigley, in the "Irish Race in California," says: "Murphy was a man of commanding appearance, stood six feet two and one-half inch high, muscular and straight, with a fair, florid complexion and an acquiline nose. He was a famous ' shot.' Even up to the day of his death, he could kill a deer or antelope at a distance of one-fourth of a mile with his rifle. He also kept a large kennel of beagles and greyhounds, thirty-five of which he had at one time sent to him, by sea, by his cousins, the Conroys of Callao. Besides hunting for sport, he used to pursue other game, such as otters, which abounded in Marin county at that early time, and whose pelts he used to sell for forty dollars each." Soon after locating in this section he received from Micheltorena a grant of three leagues of land at Point San Pedro, Santa Margarita and Las Gallinas, near San Rafael, and after the secularization of the missions he was made Indian Agent and Commissioner of the Nicasio tribe of Indians, while, besides giving a hundred-vara lot in San Francisco -the site of the Palace Hotel-for church purposes, he deeded a tract of land near San Rafael for an orphan institution. Of this gift Father Gleeson in his "History of the Catholic Church in California," says: " Moved by a laudable desire of providing for the moral and intellectual culture of the Catholic youth in the vicinity of San Rafael, once the site of a flourishing mission in the time of the Fathers, Mr. Timothy Murphy, whose name has been already mentioned in connection with the city asylum,
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donated to the church for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a school, three hundred acres of land in Marin county. The charge of establishing and conducting the school was entrusted by the Bishop to the Sisters of Charity, as the reader may see from the following:
"St. Vincent's Seminary, Las Gallinas, near San Rafael, Marin county, California, A. D. 1855, January 1st.
"The Sisters of Charity of this city of San Francisco, California, are appointed to take charge of the school of St. Vincent, at Las Gallinas U Marin county, California, to carry out the intentions of Mr. Timothy Murphy.
" + JOSEPH S. ALEMANY, " Archbishop of San Francisco."
The accompanying extract from the register of the institution, in the Sister Superior's hand, tells of the commencement of the work :
" The Sisters of Charity from St. Joseph's House, Emitsburgh, Maryland, whose mother house is in Paris, founded a branch of their order in Las Gallinas, on a tract of land donated to the Most Rev. Archbishop Alemany by Don Timothy Murphy."
" The Sisters erected a wooden building, the cost of which amounted to five thousand dollars. Sister M. Corsina McRey, Donna Barbara, Miss Glover and four children, took possession of it January 7, 1825, and on the same day opened a school for the maintenance and education of children in the neighboring district.
" The above institution we organized under the name of St. Vincent's Seminary. Subsequent to the above-mentioned period, we added other improvements, viz., fencing, etc.
" SISTER FRANCES McENNIS, " Directress of St. Vincent's."
By the foregoing the reader is put in possession of the origin of the Catholic institution of San Rafael, of which we shall speak more at large in a subsequent page.
Don Timoteo Murphy died in the year 1853, having devised his estate to his nephews, one of whom, John Lucas, now resides on the Santa Margarita. ranch.
As far back as the year 1834, we find that Rafael Garcia had located on the Baulinas rancho. He was followed soon after by Gregorio Brories, his brother-in-law, to whom he disposed of the Bolinas rancho, and located that adjoining it, named the Tomales y Bolinas, in 1837. Here he built a large adobe residence for himself, and some time later two more were constructed for the use of his servants and numerous retainers. But of what manner were these regal establishments? In front of the house was a court-yard of considerable extent, and part of this was sheltered by a porch ; here, when
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the vaqueros had nothing to call them to the field, they would pass the day, looking like retainers on a rude court; a dozen or more wild, vicious-looking horses, with wooden saddles on their backs, stood ever ready for work; while lounging about the vaqueros smoked, played the guitar, or twisted a new riata of hide or horse hair. When the sun gets lower they go to sleep in the shade, while the little horses that remain in the sunshine do the same apparently, for they shut their eyes and never stir. Presently a vaquero, judging the time by the sun, gets up and yawns, staggering lazily towards his horse, gathers up his riata, and twists it around the horn of his saddle- the others, awaking, rise and do the same, all yawning, with eye half open, looking as lazy a set as ever were seen, as indeed they are when on foot. 'Hupa ! Anda !' and away they go in a cloud of dust, splashing through the river, waving their lassoes around their heads with a wild shout, and disappearing from sight almost as soon as mounted. The vaquero wants at all times to ride furiously, and the little horses' eyes are opened wide enough before they receive the second dig of their rider's iron spurs. In the year 1834, there dwelt on the southern portion of Point Reyes a man named Smith, while three years later another, called Blaisdle or Blaisdell, took up his residence there, but what their occupations were we have been unable to trace.
In the first five years of the decade commencing with 1840, there began to settle in the vast California valleys that intrepid band of pioneers who, having scaled the Sierra Nevadas 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 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 south- ward 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 was it like ? The country, in what valley soever we wot, was an interminable grain field ; mile upon mile, and acre after acre, wild oats grew in marvellous 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 colors, and blended into dazzling splendor. One breath of wind and the wide' emerald expanse 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 hillsides, overrun as they were with a dense mass of
. 8.
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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 intersected 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 mission 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 cayotes sprang from beneath the feet of the voyager. 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.'
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