USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 17
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
For a year and a half the northern terminus of the road was at Tomales, fifty-four miles from Saucelito. The entrance to Sonoma county was barred as it were, by a wall of solid rock, through which it was necessary to cut a tunnel seventeen hundred feet in length. The men who formed this com- pany were not to be deterred by obstacles even as formidable as this rocky barrier; they pierced it, and soon the hills which enclosed the fertile valleys of southwestern Sonoma echoed the steam-whistle of the approaching locomotive.
The road was finished to its destined terminus on Russian river in the winter of 1876-7. Just before reaching Valley Ford the road crosses the Estero Americano, and enters Sonoma county, passing Valley Ford, a pretty village; but just why its church should have been built across the line in Marin county, is beyond our ken. Steaming north, we pass Bodega Corners depot, and next Freestone. Just beyond Freestone the road enters the redwood timber belt, ascends Salmon creek by a steep grade to Howard's Station, crossing there the summit of the divide between the waters which fall, on the south, into Bodega bay, and on the north, into Russian river. Just before reaching Howard's the road passes over one of the highest bridges west of the Mississippi river. The bridge is one hundred and thirty-seven feet high. At Howard's we have fairly entered the redwood timber fields, and begin to realize the ultimate aims of the projectors of this enterprise, and the business it is destined to develop. Up to the fall of 1876 there were only three small saw-mills on or near the line of the road, and the great expense of hauling made them available only for the local trade. It has been but nine months since the road was completed, and there are now (1877) on the line of the road six large saw-mills, sending to market daily one hundred and seventy-five thousand feet of lumber, besides great quanti- ties of shingles, laths, pickets, cord-wood, tan-bark, and charcoal.
Streeten's mill is owned by Latham & Streeten; has a capacity of fifteen thousand feet per day; has about one thousand acres of land ; employs forty men. The Russian River Land and Lumber Company is owned by Governor M. S. Latham, the largest owner of timber-land in this section, having ten thousand acres in one body. From Streeten's mill to Duncan's, with the exception of two miles, the road passes through its land. It owns all the timber-land on the old Bodega Rancho that lies in Ocean township. Its two
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GENERAL HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
mills-the Tyrone mill and the Moscow mill (at Moscow)-have each a capacity of forty thousand feet per day. Each mill employs from eighty to ninety men, and in the logging for both mills about sixty cattle are employed. The logs are hauled to mill on small locomotives, or tramways laid with railroad iron. The lumber, as at all the six saw-mills, is loaded directly on the cars, and not rehandled until delivered at the wharf in San Francisco. The saving of labor, expense and breakage, from this fact alone, will at once be appreciated by any one familiar with the lumber business.
The next mill below is one of the mills of the Madrona Land and Lumber Company, near the intersection of Howard creek with Russian river. This company has about one thousand acres of land, and the mill has a capacity of twenty thousand feet per day, employing fifty men. A branch track runs three-fourths of a mile up the Russian river to another mill of this company, having a capacity of twenty-five thousand feet per day, and employing sixty mnen.
Following down the Russian river we pass the Moscow mill (already mentioned), and cross the river on the four-hundred-foot bridge to Duncan's mill. Mr. A. Duncan, the senior proprietor, is the oldest lumberman on this river. He owns four thousand acres of land, principally on Austin creek, which empties into Russian river opposite of Moscow. Duncan's mill has a capacity of thirty-five thousand feet per day, and employs seventy-five men.
It is estimated that the lands owned by these parties will produce six hundred million feet of lumber.
Immediately upon the completion of the road, the southern terminus of the northern coast stages for Stewart's Point, Valhalla, Mendocino City, Point Arena, and Navarra Ridge, was changed to Duncan's mill, making a great saving in time for all the north west coast.
A description of this road would be incomplete without referring to the great inducements it offers to pleasure-seekers and sportsmen. It is not a sufficiently strong assertion to say that no route of eighty miles out of San Francisco offers such a variety of beautiful scenery. Moscow and Duncan's mill (opposite the river), are two charming spots, and as picturesque as any in the State. The ocean winds, tempered by the distance of seven miles up the Russian river, prevail all through the Summer. Here are to be found . the finest fishing and shooting. Austin creek is one of the notable trout streams in the State ; quail abound; deer are still in the forests and glades. Salmon can be caught in large numbers in the river.
We now conclude this portion of our work, and for any matter which may not be found in the foregoing pages, would refer the reader to the histories of the townships farther on. We have endeavored not to rob county history for the benefit of township history; in many cases, however, it has been impossible to follow the rule, therefore the annals of some of the latter are much fuller than others; this may or may not be a fault; at any
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
rate when certain portions have been omitted in one place they will be found in another. We append the following beautiful lines by Bayard Taylor, as fully portraying the past, present, and future of Marin county :-
O FAIR young land, the youngest, fairest far Of which our world can boast, - Whose guardian planet, Evening's silver star, Illumes thy golden coast, -
How art thou conquered, tamed in all the pride Of savage beauty still ! How brought, O panther of the splendid hide, To know thy master's will !
No more thou sittest on thy tawny hills In indolent repose ; Or pour'st the crystal of a thousand rills Down from thy house of snows.
But where the wild-oats wrapp'd thy knees in gold, The ploughman drives his share, And where; through canyons deep, thy streams are rolled, The miner's arm is bare.
Yet in thy lap, thus rudely rent and torn, A nobler seed shall be :
Mother of mighty men; thou shalt not mourn Thy lost virginity !
Thy human children shall restore the grace Gone with thy fallen pines : The wild, barbaric beauty of thy face Shall round to classic lines.
And Order, Justice, Social Law shall curb Thy untamed energies ; And Art, and Science, with their dreams superb, Replace thine ancient ease.
The marble, sleeping in thy mountains now, Shall live in sculptures rare ; Thy native oak shall crown the sage's brow,- Thy bay, the poet's hair.
Thy tawny hills shall bleed their purple wine, Thy valleys yield their oil ; And Music, with her eloquence divine, Persuade thy sous to toil.
Till Hesper, as he trims his silver beam, No happier land shall sec, And Earth shall find her old Arcadian dream Restored again in thee !
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MEXICAN GRANTS.
MEXICAN GRANTS.
CORTE MADERA DEL PRESIDIO-SOULAJULLE-ANGEL ISLAND- LAGUNA DE SAN ANTONIO-ARROYO DE SAN ANTONIO-NOVATO-OLOMPALI-SAN PEDRO-SANTA MARGARITA-LAS GALLINAS-TINI- CACIA-CANADA DE HERMA-SAUCELITO-TOMALES-BOLINAS-SAN JOSE-BOLSA DE TOMALES- CORTE DE MADERA DE NOVATO-NICASIO-MISSION SAN RAFAEL-TAMALPAIS-LAS BOLINAS-BUA- COCHA-PUNTA DE LOS REYES-SAN GERONIMO.
THE subject of the tenure of land in California is one which is so little- understood, that it has been deemed best to quote at length the following report on the subject of land titles in California, made in pursuance of instruc- tions from the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior, by William Carey Jones, published in Washington in the Year 1850,-a more exhaustive- document it would be difficult to find:
On July 12, 1849, Mr. Jones had been appointed a "confidential agent of the Government, to proceed to Mexico and California, for the purpose of pro- curing information as to the condition of land titles in California." Pursuant to these instructions, he embarked from New York on the 17th July; arriv- ing at Chagres on the 29th, he at once proceeded to Panama, but got no op- portunity, until that day month, of proceeding on his journey to this State. At length, on September 19th, he arrived at Monterey, the then capital of Cali -- fornia. After visiting San José and San Francisco, he returned to Monterey, and there made arrangements for going by land to Los Angeles and San. Diego, but finding this scheme impracticable on account of the rainy season, he made the voyage by steamer. On December 7th he left San Diego for- Acapulco in Mexico, where he arrived on the 24th; on the 11th he left that city, and on the 18th embarked from Vera Cruz for Mobile.
We now commence his report, believing that so able a document will prove. of interest to the reader :-
I. " TO THE MODE OF CREATING TITLES TO LAND, FROM THE FIRST INCEPTION" TO THE PERFECT TITLE, AS PRACTICED BY MEXICO WITHIN THE PROVINCE. OF CALIFORNIA :
All the grants of land made in California (except pueblo or village lots, and except, perhaps, some grants north of the Bay of San Francisco, as will be hereafter noticed), subsequent to the independence of Mexico, and after the establishment of that government in California, were made by the different political governors. The great majority of them were made subsequent to January, 1832, and consequently under the Mexican Colonization Law of August 18, 1824, and the government regulations, adopted in pursuance of the law dated November 21, 1828. In January, 1832 General Jose
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Figueroa became Governor of the then territory of California, under a con - mission from the government at Mexico, replacing Victoria, who, after having the year before displaced Echandrea, was himself driven out by a revolution. The installation of Figueroa restored quiet, after ten years of civil commotion, and was at a time when Mexico was making vigorous efforts to reduce and populate her distant territories, and consequently granting lands on a liberal scale. In the act of 1824, a league square (being 4,428.402-1000 acres) is the smallest measurement of rural property spoken of; and of these leagues square, eleven (or nearly fifty thousand acres) might be conceded in a grant to one individual. By this law, the States composing the federation, were authorized to make special provision for colonization within their respective limits, and the colonization of the territories, "conformably to the principles of law " charged upon the Central Government. California was of the latter descrip- tion, being designated a Territory in the Acta Constitutiva of the Mexican Federation, adopted January 31, 1824, and by the Constitution adopted 4th October of the same year .*
The colonization of California and granting lands therein, was, there- fore, subsequent to the law of August 18, 1824, under the direction and control of the Central Government. That government, as already stated, gave regulations for the same November 21, 1828.
The directions were very simple. They gave the governors of the terri- tories the exclusive faculty of making grants within the terms of the law -- that is, to the extent of eleven leagues, or sitios, to individuals; and coloniza- tion grants (more properly contracts)-that is, grants of larger tracts to empresarios, or persons who should undertake, for a consideration in land, to bring families to the country for the purpose of colonization. Grants of the first description, that is, to families or single persons, and not exceeding eleven sitios, were "not to be held definitely valid," until sanctioned by the Terri- torial Deputation. Those of the second class, that is, empresario or coloniza- tion grants (or contracts) required a like sanction by the Supreme Govern- . ment. In case the concurrence of the Deputation was refused to a grant of the first mentioned class, the Governor should appeal, in favor of the grantee, from the Assembly to the Supreme Government.
The "first inception " of the claim, pursuant to the regulations, and as practiced in California, was a petition to the Governor, praying for the grant, specifying usually the quantity of land asked, and designating its position, with some descriptive object or boundary, and also stating the age, country and vocation of the petitioner. Sometimes, also, (generally at the commence- ment of this system) a rude map or plan of the required grant, showing its
*The political condition of California was changed by the Constitution of 29th December, and act for the division of the Republic into Departments of December 30, 1836. The two Califor. nias then became a Department, the confederation being broken up and the States reduced to Departments. The same colonization system, however, seems to have continued in California.
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MEXICAN GRANTS.
shape and position, with reference to other tracts, or to natural objects, was presented with the petition. " This practice, however, was gradually disused, and few of the grants made in late years have any other than a verbal description.
The next step was usually a reference of the petition, made on the margin by the governor, to the prefect of the district, or other near local officer where the land petitioned for was situated, to know if it was vacant, and could be granted without injury to third persons or the public, and sometimes to know if the petitioner's account of himself was true. The reply (informe) of the prefect, or other officer, was written upon or attached to the petition, and the whole returned to the governor: The reply being satisfactory, the governor then issued the grant in form. On its receipt, or before, (often before the petition, even.) the party went into possession. It was not unfrequent, of late years, to omit the formality of sending the petition to the local authorities, and it was never requisite, if the governor already possessed the necessary infor- . mation concerning the land and the parties. In that case the grant followed immediately on the petition. Again, it sometimes happened that the reply of the local authority was not explicit, or that third persons intervened, and the grant was thus for some time delayed. With these qualifications, and cover- ing the great majority of cases, the practice may be said to have been: 1. The petition; 2. The reference to the prefect or alcalde; 3. His report, or informe; 4. The grant from the governor.
" When filed, and how, and by whom recorded."
The originals of the petition and informe, and any other preliminary- papers in the case, were filed, by the secretary, in the government archives, and with them a copy (the original being delivered to the grantee) of the grant; the whole attached together so as to form one document, entitled, col- lectively, an expediente. During the governorship of Figueroa, and some of his successors, that is, from May 22, 1833, to May 9, 1836, the grants were likewise recorded in a book kept for that purpose (as prescribed in the "regu- lations" above referred to) in the archives. Subsequent to that time, there was no record, but a brief memorandum of the grant; the expediente, how- ever, being still filed. Grants were also sometimes registered in the office of the prefect of the district where the lands lay; but the practice was not constant, nor the record generally in permanent form.
The next, and final step in the title was the approval of the grant by the Territorial Deputation (that is, the local legislature, afterward, when the terri- tory was created into a Department, called the "Departmental Assembly.") For this purpose, it was the governor's office to communicate the fact of the grant, and all information concerning it, to the assembly. It was here referred to a committee (sometimes called a committee on vacant lands, sometimes on
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
agriculture), who reported at a subsequent sitting. The approval was seldom refused; but there are many instances where the governor omitted to commu- nicate the grant to the assembly, and it consequently remained unacted on. The approval of the assembly obtained, it was usual for the secretary to deliver to the grantee, on application, a certificate of the fact; but no other record or registration of it was kept than the written proceedings of the assem- bly. There are no doubt instances, therefore, where the approval was in fact obt. 'ned, but a certificate not applied for, and as the journals of the assembly, now remaining in the archives, are very imperfect, it can hardly be doubted that many grants have received the approval of the assembly, and no record of the fact now exists. Many grants were passed upon and approved by the assembly in the Winter and Spring of 1846, as I discovered by loose memo- randa, apparently made by the clerk of the assembly for future entry, and referring to the grants by their numbers-sometimes a dozen or more on a single small piece of paper, but of which I could find no other record.
" So, also with the subsequent steps, embracing the proceedings as to sur- vey, up to the perfecting of the title."
There were not, as far as I could learn, any regular surveys made of grants in California, up to the time of the cessation of the former government. There was no public or authorized surveyor in the country. The grants usually contained a direction that the grantee should receive judicial posses- sion of the land from the proper magistrate (usually the nearest alcalde), in virtue of the grant, and that the boundaries of the tract should then be desig- nated by that functionary with " suitable land marks." But this injunction was usually complied with, only by procuring the attendance of the magis- trate, to give judicial possession according to the verbal description contained in the grant. Some of the old- grants have been subsequently surveyed, as I was informed, by a surveyor under appointment of Col. Mason, acting as Governor of California. I did not see any official record of such surveys; or understand that there was any. The "perfecting of the title " I suppose to have been accomplished when the grant received the concurrence of the assembly; all provisions of the law, and of the colonization regulations of the supreme government, pre-requisites to the title being " definitely valid," hay- ing been then fulfilled. These, I think, must be counted complete titles.
" And if there be any more books, files or archives of any kind whatso- ever, showing the nature, character and extent of these grants."
The following list comprises the books of record and memoranda of grants, which I found existing in the government archives at Monterey:
1. "1828. Cuaderno del registro de los sitios, fierras y señales que poscan los habitantes del territorio de la Nueva California." [Book of registration
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MEXICAN GRANTS.
of the farms, brands, and marks (for marking cattle), possessed by the inhabi- tants of the territory of New California. ]
This book contains information of the situation, boundaries and appurte- nances of several of the missions, as hereafter noticed; of two pueblos, San José and Branciforte, and the records of about twenty grants, made by various Span- ish, Mexican and local authorities, at different times, between 1784 and 1825, and two dated 1829. This book appears to have been arranged upon infor- mation obtained in an endeavor of the government to procure a registration of all the occupied lands of the territory.
2. Book marked " Titulos."
This book contains records of grants, numbered from one to one hundred and eight, of various dates, from May 22, 1833 to May 9, 1836, by the suc- cessive governors, Figueroa, José Castro, Nicholas Gutierrez and Mariano Chico. A part of these grants, (probably all) are included in a file of expe- dientes of grants, hereafter described, marked from number one to number five hundred and seventy-nine; but the numbers in the book do not corres- pond with the numbers of the same grants in the expedientes.
3. "Libro donde se asciertan los despachos de terrenos adjudicados en los años de 1839 and 1840."-(Book denoting the concessions of land adjudicated in the years 1839 and 1840.)
This book contains a brief entry, by the secretary of the department of grants, including their numbers, dates, names of the grantees and of the grants, quantity granted, and situation of the land, usually entered in the book in the order they were conceded. This book contains the grants made from January 18, 1839, to December 8, 1843, inclusive.
4. A book similar to the above, and containing like entries of grants issued between January 8, 1844 and December 23, 1845.
5. File of expedientes of grants-that is, all the proceedings (except of the Assembly) relating to the respective grants, secured, those of each grant in a separate parcel, and marked and labeled with its number and name. This file is marked from No. 1 to No. 579 inclusive, and embraces the space of time between May 13, 1833, to July 1846. The numbers, however, bear little relation to the dates. Some numbers are missing, of some there are duplicates-that is, two distinct grants with the same number. The expedi- entes are not all complete; in some cases the final grant appears to have been refused; in others it was wanting. The collection, however, is evidently intended to represent estates which have been granted, and it is probable that in many, or most instances, the omission apparent in the archives is supplied by original documents in the hands of the parties, or by long permitted occu- pation. These embrace all the record books and files belonging to the territo- rial, or departmental archives, which I was able to discover.
I am assured, however, by Mr. J. C. Fremont, that according to the best of
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
his recollection, a book for the year 1846, corresponding to those noticed above, extending from 1839, to the end of 1845, existed in the archives while he was Governor of California, and was with them when he delivered them in May, 1847, to the officer appointed by General Kearny to receive them from him at Monterey.
II. " CHIEFLY THE LARGE GRANTS, AS THE MISSIONS, AND WHETHER THE TITLE TO THEM BE IN ASSIGNEES, OR WHETHER THEY HAVE REVERTED, AND VESTED IN THE SOVEREIGN ?"
I took much pains both in California and Mexico, to assure myself of the situation, in a legal and proprietary point of view, of the former great establishments known as the MISSIONS of California. It had been supposed that the lands they occupied were grants, held as the property of the church, or of the mission establishments as corporations. Such, however, was not the case. All the missions in Upper California were established under the direc- tion and mainly at the expense of the Government, and the missionaries there had never any other rights than the occupation and use of the lands for the purpose of the missions, and at the pleasure of the Government. This is shown by the history and principles of their foundation, by the laws in rela- tion to them, by the constant practice of the Government toward them, and, in fact, by the rules of the Franciscan order, which forbids its members to possess property.
The establishment of missions in remote provinces was a part of the colo- nial system of Spain. The Jesuits, by a license from the Viceroy of New Spain, commenced in this manner the reduction of Lower California in the year 1697. They continued in the spiritual charge, and in a considerable degree of the temporal government of that province until 1767, when the royal decree abolishing the Jesuit order throughout New Spain was there enforced, and the missions taken out of their hands. They had then founded fifteen missions, extending from Cape St. Lucas nearly to the head of the sea of Cortez, or Californian gulf. Three of the establishments had been suppressed by order of the Viceroy; the remainder were now put in charge of the Fran- ciscan monks of the college of San Fernando, in Mexico, hence sometimes called "Fernandinos." The prefect of that college, the Rev. Father Junipero Serra, proceeded in person to his new charge, and arrived with a number of monks at Loreto, the capital of the peninsula, the following year (1768). He was there, soon after, joined by Don José Galvez, inspector general (visitador) of New Spain, who brought an order from the King, directing the founding of one or more settlements in Upper California. It was therefore agreed that Father Junipero should extend the mission establishments into Upper Cali- fornia, under the protection of presidios (armed posts) which the government would establish at San Diego and Monterey. Two expeditions, both accom- panied by missionaries, were consequently fitted out, one to proceed by sea,
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