USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 4
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In passing up the coast to the northward, they came to Fort Ross, where they found everything they desired. Vast meadows stretched to the east- ward, affording pasture to flocks without number.
"This is the forest primeval; the murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms, Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep voiced neighboring ocean Speaks and in accents disconsolate, answers the wail of the forest."
There was a beautiful little cove in which vessels might lie in safety from the fury of northern storms; near at hand was an ample stretch of beach, on which their rude yet staunch argosies could be constructed and easily launched upon the mighty deep; no more propitious place could have been found for the establishment of the Russian headquarters. The location once chosen
they set to work to prepare their new homes. A site was chosen for the stockade near the shore of the ocean, and in such a position as to protect all their ships lying in the little cove, and prevent any vessel inimical to them from landing. The plat of ground inclosed in this stockade was a parallelo- gram, two hundred and eighty feet wide and three hundred and twelve feet long, and containing about two acres. Its angles were placed very nearly upon the cardinal points of the compass. At the north and south angle there was constructed an octagonal bastion, two stories high, and furnished with six pieces of artillery. These bastions were built exactly alike, and were about twenty-four feet in diameter. The walls were formed of hewed logs, mortised together at the corners, and were about eight inches in thickness.
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The roof was conical shaped, having a small flag-staff at the apex. The stockade approached these towers in such a way that one-half of them was within the inclosure and the other half on the outside, the entrance to them being through small doors on the inside, while there were embrasures both on the inside and outside. They were thus arranged so as to protect those within from an outside enemy, and to also have all within, under the range of the cannon, so that in case of an internal eruption the officers could readily quell the emute. The stockade was constructed as follows: A trench was excavated two feet deep, while every ten feet along the bottom of the trench a hole was dug one foot decp. In these holes posts about six by ten inches were inserted, and between the posts and on the bottom of the trenches there was a strong girder firmly mortised into the posts, and fastened with a strong wooden pin. Slabs of varying widths, but all being about six inches thick, were then placed in an upright position between the first posts and resting on the girder in the trench, being firmly fastened to them. At a distance up the posts of twelve feet from the lower girder, there was run another girder, which was also mor- tised into the posts and made fast with pins. These girders rested on the tops of the slabs mentioned as being placed between the posts. The slabs were slotted at the top, and a piece of timber passed into the slots, then huge wooden pins were passed down through the girders and the piece in the slots, and well into the body of the slab. The main posts extended about three feet higher, and near the top a lighter girder was run along, and between the last two mentioned there was a row of light slabs, two inches thick and four inches wide, pointed at the top like pickets. It may well be imagined that when the trench was filled up with tamped rock and dirt, that this stockade was almost invulnerable, when we remember the implements of war likely to be brought against it in those days of rude weapons. All around the stockade there were embrasures suitable for the use of muskets or carronades, of which latter, it is said, there were several in the fortress.
On the northern side of the eastern angle there was erected a chapel which it is said was used by the officers of the garrison, alone. It was twenty-five by thirty-one feet in dimensions, and strongly built, the outer wall forming a part of the stockade, and the round port-holes for the use of carronades, are peculiar looking openings in a house of worship. The entrance was on the inside of the fort, and consisted of a rude, heavy wooden door, held upon wooden hinges. There was a vestibule about ten by twenty-five feet in size, thus leaving the auditorium twenty-one by twenty-five feet. From the vestibule a narrow stairway led to a low loft, while the building was sur- mounted with two domes, one of which was round, and the other pentagonal in shape, in which it is said the muscovites had hung a chime of bells. The roof was made of long planks, either sawed or rove from redwood, likewise the side of the chapel in the fort. Some degree of carpenter's skill was displayed in the construction of the building, for a faint attempt at getting out mouldings
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for the inner door and window casings was made, a bead being worked around the outer edge of the casing, and mitered at the corners.
On the west side of the northern angle there was a two-story building, twenty-eight by eighty feet in dimensions, which was roughly constructed and doubtless used as the barracks for the men of the garrison. On the northern side of the western angle there was a one-story building, twenty-nine by fifty feet, constructed in a better style of workmanship and evidently used as officers' quarters. On the southern side of the western angle was a one-story building twenty-five by seventy-five feet, which was probably used for a working house, as various branches of industry were prosecuted within its walls, and on the eastern side of the southern angle there was a row of low shed build- ings, used, it is presumed, for the stabling of stock and storing of feed. The frame work of all the buildings was made of very large, heavy timbers, many of them being twelve inches square. The rafters were all great, ponderous, round pine logs, a considerable number of them being six inches in diameter. The above includes the stockade and all its interior buildings.
We will now draw attention to the exterior buildings, for be it known that there was at one time a colony numbering two hundred and fifty souls at Fort Ross. In 1845, there were the remains of a village of about twenty-five small dwelling houses on the north side of the stockade, all of which were in keeping with those at Bodega. They were probably not over twelve by fourteen feet in dimensions, and constructed from rough slabs riven from redwood. These hardy muscovites were so rugged and inured to the cold of the higher latitudes that they cared not for the few cracks that might admit the fresh, balmy air of the California winter mornings. Also, to the northward of and near this village, situated on an eminence, was a windmill, which was the motor for driving a single run of burrs, and also for a stamping machine used for grind- ing tan-bark. The wind-mill produced all the flour used in that and the Bodega settlements, and probably a considerable amount was also sent with the annual shipment to Sitka. To the south of the stockade, and in a deep gulch at the debouchure of a small stream into the ocean, there stood a very large building, probably eighty by a hundred feet in size, the rear half of which was used for the purpose of tanning leather. There were six vats in all, constructed of heavy, rough redwood slabs, and each with a capacity of fifty barrels; there were also the usual appliances necessary to conduct a tannery, but these implements were large and rough in their make, still with these, they were able to manufacture a good quality of leather in large quantities. The front half of the building, or that fronting on the ocean, was used as a work- shop for the construction of ships. Ways were constructed on a sand beach at this point leading into deep water, and upon them were built a number of staunch vessels, and from here was launched the very first sea-going craft constructed in California. Still further to the south, and near the ocean shore, stood a building eighty by a hundred feet, which bore all the marks of
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having been used as a store-house; it was, however, unfortunately blown down by a storm on July 16, 1878, and soon there will be nothing to mark its site.
Tradition says that to the eastward of the fort and across the gulch, there once stood a very large building, which was used as a church for the common people of the settlement, near which the cemetery was located. A French tourist once paid Fort Ross a visit, and arriving after dark asked permission to remain over night with the parties, who at that time owned that portion of the grant on which the settlement was located. During the evening the conversation naturally drifted upon the old history of the place. The tourist displayed a familiarity with all the surroundings, which surprised the resi- dents, and caused them to ask if he had ever lived there with the Russians. He answered that he had not, but that he had a very warm friend in St. Petersburg, who had spent thirty years at Fort Ross as a Muscovite priest, and that he had made him a promise, upon his departure for California, about a year before, to pay a visit to the scenes of the holy labors of the priest, and it was in compliance with this promise that he was there at the time. Among the other things inquired about was the church close to the cemetery mentioned above. All traces of this building had long since disappeared, and the settlers were surprised to hear that it ever stood there. The tourist assured them that the priest had stated distinctly that such a building once occupied that site, and also that a number of other buildings stood near it, used by the peasants for homes. Ernest Rufus, of Sonoma, who went to Fort Ross in 1845, tells us that when the land went into disuse after the Russians had left, that wild oats grew very rank, often reaching a height of ten feet, and that the Indians were accus- tomed to set it on fire, and that during these conflagrations the fences and many of the smaller houses of the Russians were consumed, and that he well remembers that there were a number of small houses near the cemetery, and that the blackened ruins of a very large building also remained, which the half-breed Russo-Indians told him had been used for a church. The tourist mentioned above stated that his friend, the priest, was greatly attached to the place, as had been all who had lived in the settlement. They found the climate genial, the soil productive, and the resources of the country great, and, all in all, it was a most desirable place to live in.
The Russians had farmed very extensively at this place, having at least two thousand acres under fence, besides a great deal that was not fenced. These fences, which were chiefly of that kind known as rail and post, as stated before, nearly all perished in the wild fires. Their agricultural processes were as crude as any of their other work. Their plow was very similar to the old Spanish implement, so common in this country at that time and still extant in Mexico, with the exception that the Muscovite instrument possessed a mold-board. They employed oxen and cows as draft animals, using the old Spanish yoke adjusted to their horns instead of to their necks. We have no account of any attempt of constructing either cart or wagon, but
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it is probable that they had vehicles the same as those described as being in use among the Californians at that time, while it is supposed they used to a great extent sleds for transporting their produce when cut to the threshing floor, which was constructed differently from those then common in the country. It was simply a floor composed of heavy puncheons, circular in shape, and elevated somewhat above the ground. Between the puncheons were inter- stices through which the grain fell under the floor as it was released from the head. The threshing was done in this wise: A layer of grain, in the straw, of a foot or two in thickness, was placed upon the floor. Oxen were then driven over it, hitched to a log with rows of wooden pegs inserted into it. As the log revolved, these pegs acted well the part of a flail, and the straw was expeditiously relieved of its burden of grain. It was, doubtless, no hard job to winnow the grain after it was threshed, as the wind blows a stiff blast at that point during all the Summer months.
The Russians constructed a wharf at the northern side of the little cove, and graded a road down the steep ocean shore to it. Its line is still to be seen, as it passed much of the way through solid rock. This wharf was made fast to the rocks on which it was constructed, with long iron bolts, of which only a few that were driven into the hard surface now remain; the wharf itself is gone, hence we are unable to give its dimensions, or further details concerning it.
These old Muscovites, doubtless, produced the first lumber with a saw ever made north of the San Francisco bay, for they had both a pit and whip- saw, the former of which can be seen to this day. Judging from the number of stumps still standing, and the extent of territory over which they extended their logging operations, they evidently consumed large quantities of lumber. The timber was only about one mile distant from the ship-yard and landing, while the stumps of trees cut by them are still standing, and beside them from one to six shoots have sprung up, many of which have now reached a size sufficient for lumber purposes. This growth has been remarkable, and goes to show that if proper care were taken, each half century would see a new crop of redwoods, sufficiently large for all practical purposes, while ten decades would see gigantic trees.
As stated above, the cemetery lay to the eastward of the fort, about one- fourth of a mile, and across a very deep gulch, and was near the church for the peasants. There were never more than fifty graves in it, though all traces are obliterated now of more than a dozen; most of them still remaining had some sort of a wooden structure built over them. One manner of construct- ing these mausoleums was to make a series of rectangular frames of square timbers, about six inches in diameter, each frame a certain degree smaller than the one below it, which were placed one above another, until an apex was reached, which was surmounted with a cross. Another method was to con- struct a rectangular frame of heavy planking about one foot high and cover
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the top with two heavy planks, placed so as to be roof-shaped; others had simply a rude cross; others, a cross on which some mechanical skill was displayed, and one has a large round post, standing high above the adjacent crosses. They are all buried in graves dug due east and west, and, presumably, with heads to the west. There are now no inscriptions to be seen upon any of the graves, and it is not likely that there ever were any, while from their size some of them must have contained children. Silently are these sleeping in their far- away graves, where the eyes of those who knew and loved them in their earthly life can never rest on their tombs again, and while the eternal roar of the Pacific makes music in the midnight watches will they await the great day that shall restore them to their long-lost friends. Sleep on, brave hearts, and peaceful be thy slumber !
In an easterly direction, and about one mile distant from the fort, there was an enclosure containing about five acres, which was enclosed by a fence about eight feet high, made of redwood slabs about two inches in thickness, these being driven into the ground, while the tops were nailed firmly to girders extending from post to post, set about ten feet apart. Within the enclosure there was an orchard, consisting of apple, prune and cherry trees. Of these fifty of the first and nine of the last-named, moss-grown and gray with age, still remain, while it is said that all the old stock of German prunes in Cali- fornia came from seed produced there.
The Russians had a small settlement at a place now known as Russian Gulch, where they evidently grew wheat, for the remains of a warehouse are still to be seen.
There were several commanders who had charge of the Russian interests on the Pacific coast, but the names of all save the first, Alexander Koskoff, and the last, Rotscheff, have been lost to tradition. General William T. Sherman relates a pleasing incident in his "Memoirs," which is called to mind by the mention of the name of Rotscheff : While lying at anchor in a Mediterranean port, the vessel on which Sherman was traveling was visited by the officers of a Russian naval vessel. During the exchange of courtesies and in the course of conversation, one of the Russian officers took occasion to remark to Sher- man that he was an American by birth, having been born in the Russian col- ony in California, and that he was the son of one of the Colonial rulers. He was doubtless the son of Rotscheff and his beautiful bride, the Princess de Gargarin, in whose honor Mount St. Helena was named. The beauty of this lady excited so ardent a passion in the breast of Solano, chief of the Indians in that part of the country, that he formed a plan to capture, by force or strategy, the object of his love, and he might have succeeded had his design not been frustrated by General M. G. Vallejo.
We have thus set forth all the facts concerning the Russian occupancy, and their habits, manners, buildings, occupations, etc .; we will now trace the causes which led to their departure from the genial shores of California:
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It is stated that the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine caused them to leave; but that is hardly the fact, for they remained seventeen years after this policy was announced and accepted by the nations of Europe; it is, how- ever, probably true that European nations had something to do with it, for both France and England had an eye upon this territory, and both hoped some day to possess it. As long as the Russians maintained a colony here, they had a prior claim to the territory; hence they must be got rid of. The Rus- sians also recognized the fact that the Americans were beginning to come into the country in considerable numbers and that it was inevitable that they would soon overrun and possess it. The subsequent train of events proved that their surmises were correct; one thing, however, is evident, and that is, that they did not depart at the request or behest of either the Spanish or Mex- ican governments. It is almost certain that the Russians contemplated a per- manent settlement at this point when they located here, as this section would provide them with wheat, an article much needed for the supply of their sta- tions in the far north. Of course as soon as the Spanish authorities came to know of their permanent location, word was sent of the fact to Madrid. In due course of time reply came from the seat of government ordering the Mus- covite intruders to depart, but to this peremptory order, their only answer was that the matter had been referred to St. Petersburg.
We have shown above that an interview had taken place between Koskoff and the Spanish authorities on board the "Rurick," when anchored in the Bay of San Francisco, to consult on the complaints of the latter, but that nothing came of it. The commandants under the Mexican regime, in later years, organized several military expeditions for the purpose of marching against the intruders, but none in that direction was ever made. For more than a quar- ter of a century they continued to hold undisturbed possession of the disputed territory, and prosecuted their farming, stock-raising, hunting, trapping and ship-building enterprises, and, whatever may have been the causes which led to it, there finally came a time when the Russian authorities had decided to withdraw the California colony. The proposition was made first by them to the government authorities at Monterey, to dispose of their interest at Bodega and Fort Ross, including their title to the land, but, as the authorities had never recognized their right or title, and did not wish to do so at that late date, they refused to purchase. Application was next made to Gen. M. G. Vallejo, but on the same grounds he refused to purchase. They then applied to Captain John A. Sutter, a gentleman at that time residing near where Sacramento city now stands, and who had made a journey from Sitka, some years before, in one of their vessels. They persuaded Sutter into the belief that their title was good, and could be maintained; so, after making out a full invoice of the articles they had for disposal, including all the land lying between Point Reyes and Point Mendocino, and one league inland, as well as cattle, farming and mechanical implements; also, a schooner of one hundred
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and eighty tons burthen, some arms, a four-pound brass field piece, etc., a price was decided upon, the sum being thirty thousand dollars, which, how- ever, was not paid at one time, but in cash instalments of a few thousand dollars, the last payment being made through ex-Governor Burnett in 1849. All the stipulations of the sale having been arranged satisfactorily to both parties, the transfer was duly made, and Sutter became, as he thought, the greatest land-holder in California-the grants given by the Mexican gov- ernment seemed mere bagatelles when compared with his almost provincial possessions; but, alas for human hopes and aspirations; for in reality he had paid an enormous price for a very paltry compensation of personal and chattel property. It is apropos to remark here that in 1859 Sutter disposed of his Russian claim, which was a six-eighths interest in the lands mentioned above, to William Muldrew, George R. Moore and Daniel W. Welty, but they only succeeded in getting six thousand dollars out of one settler, and the remainder refusing to pay, the claim was dropped. Some of the settlers were inclined to consider the Muldrew claim, as it is called, a blackmailing affair, and to cen- sure General Sutter for disposing of it to them, charging that he sanctioned the blackmailing process, and was to share in its profits, but we will say in justice to the General, that so far as he was concerned, there was no idea of black- mail on his part. He supposed that he did purchase a bona fide claim and title to the land in question, of the Russians, and has always considered the grants given by the Mexican government as bogus, hence on giving this quit- claim deed to Muldrew et al., he sincerely thought that he was deeding that to which he alone had any just or legal claim.
Orders were sent to the settlers at Fort Ross to repair at once to San Francisco bay, and ships were dispatched to bring them there, where whaling vessels, which were bound for the north-west whaling grounds, had been chartered to convey them to Sitka. The vessels arrived at an early hour in the day, and the orders shown to the commander, Rotscheff, who immediately caused the bells in the chapel towers to be rung, and the cannon to be dis- charged, this being the usual method of convocating the people at an unusual hour, or for some special purpose, so everything was suspended just there- the husbandman left his plow standing in the half-turned furrow, and unloosed his oxen, never again to yoke them, leaving them to wander at will over the fields; the mechanic dropped his planes and saws on the bench, leaving the half-smoothed board still in the vise; the tanner -left his tools where he was using them, and doffed his apron to don it no more in California. As soon as the entire population had assembled, Rotscheff arose and read the orders. Very sad and unwelcome, indeed, was this intelligence, but the edict had emanated from a source which could not be gainsaid, and the only alternative was a speedy and complete compliance, however reluctant it might be-and thus four hundred people were made homeless by the fiat of a single word. Time was only given to gather up a few household effects, with some of the
.
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choicest mementoes, and they were hurried on board the ships. Scarcely time was given to those whose loved ones were sleeping in the grave yard near by, to pay a last sad visit to their resting place. Embarcation was commenced at once.
" And with the ebb of the tide the ships sailed out of the harbor Leaving behind them the dead on the shore."
And all the happy scenes of their lives, which had glided smoothly along, on the beautiful shores of the Pacific, and in the garden spot of the world. Sad and heavy must have been their hearts, as they gazed for the last time upon the receding landscape which their eyes had learned to love, because it had been that best of places-HOME.
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