USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 2
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THE MERCED RIVER.
The Merced River is the principal loeal stream, running through the county from east to west, and emptying into the San Joaquin. It rises in the high Sierras and in its course passes through the far-famed Yo Semite Valley.
It is perennial in its flow. The lofty mountains in which it rises, stores away the snow which in summer never wholly
disappears, thus giving down a steady and unfailing supply for watering the thirsty plains below.
Tho Merced bottom-lands are without doubt some of the finest and most valuable in the State. They have been in eultivation extensively sinee farming operations begau, and are as valuable for erops now as they were theu. Besides pro- ducing the finest wheat and barley, cotton, eorn, potatoes and all kinds of vegetables ean be easily raisedl. Fruit trees flourish remarkably well. There has never been a complete failure of crops on these bottoms.
KINDS AND QUALITIES OF TIMBER.
The rivers are skirted on either side with a heavy growth of timber, averaging in some places a unile iu width. This tim - ber consists principally of large oaks, interspersed here and there with sycamore, cottonwood, willow, and ash. Wild grape and blackberry vines are found growing in 'Inxuriance along the river banks. Very little of the timber is valuable except for fire-wood; but the foot-hills and mountains afford an unlimited supply of the best building material.
RICH AND PRODUCTIVE SOIL.
The valley is covered with a dilnvium from 400 to 1,500 feet deep, and this deposit of superficial loam, sand, gravel, ete., constitutes the soil of this eounty. Most of this soil is a rich, sandy loam, but there are districts of deep black loam, almost free from sand; also districts of a red soil, and of an earth that wheu dry looks like fine ashes, works well under the plow, and is very fertile when supplied with moisture.
The surface is level and generally rich, and produces heavy crops of wheat and other cereals, without irrigation, save in exceptionally dry seasons, when there is almost a total lack of rain-fall during the winter months. The sandy and other light soil sections are easily cultivated and produce remunerative crops of small grain. Two crops in a season are frequently raised with irrigation, it being nothing uncommon to raise a crop of barley following one of corn, on the same ground.
12
GLANCE AT EARLY HISTORY.
A GLANCE AT EARLY HISTORY.
Before entering more fully upon the history of the county it would seem appropriate to take a glance at the early history of the State. and note a little of its progress during a short decade : including the first establishment, rise and decline of the mis- sions ; the rapidity and grandeur of its wonderful rise and pro- gress ; the extent of its home and foreign commerce ; the dis- covery and astonishing produce of gold. No county history therefore coukl be complete unless it included some account of the circumstances which brought each county into existence, and from whence came the men who organized and set the machinery of State and local governments in operation. It would thus be well, then, that posterity should know something of the carly history of the State as well as of their own immedi- ate neighborhood; and by placing these scenes npon record they will remain fresh in the minds of the people that otherwise, in the lapse of years, mnst gradually fade away.
RAPID SETTLEMENT AND PROGRESS.
One hundred years ago-almost within the memory of men now living-but very little of California's soil had been trodden by the foot of civilized mnan. Up to the discovery of goldl in 1848, it was an afar-off land, even to those on the western bor- der of civilization. School-boys then looked upon their maps aud wondered if they might ever be permitted to traverse the ".unexplored region " marked thereon. About that time, when Thomas H. Benton said the child was then born that would see a railroad connecting ocean with ocean, most people smiled, and thought that the day-dream of the old man had somewhat unsettled his hitberto stalwart intellect. No dream of forty years ago, no matter how bright the colors that inay have been placed before the imagination, ever pictured the California of to-day-our own, our loved California.
PACIFIC OCEAN FIRST SEEN.
1513 .- The Pacific ocean was given to the world by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who looked down from the heights of Panama upon its placid bosom on the 25th day of September, 1513, the same year in which Mexico was conquered by Hernando Cortez. To Balboa therefore belongs the credit of first seeing the Pacific ocean.
DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA.
1534 .- Cortez fitted out two ships for discovery of the Pacific coast. One was commanded by Becarra, who was murdered by his crew, led on by his own pilot Ortun, or Fortuño Zinnenes.
Zimenes afterward continned the voyage of discovery, and
appears to have sailed westward across the gulf, and to have touched the peninsula of California. This was in the year 1534. Hc therefore was the first discoverer of the country.
FIRST EXPLORING EXPEDITON.
1542 .- On the 27th of June, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who had been one of Cortez's pilots, left Navidad, in Mexico, under instructions from Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of Spain, on a voyage of discovery. On the 5th of July he landed at Cape St. Lucas, in Lower California, and following the coast, he finally entered the delightful harbor of San Diego, in Upper California, on September 28th. This place he named San Mignel, which was afterwards changed by Viscaiño to that which it now bears.
He passed by the Golden Gate and reached latitude 44° on the 10th of March, 1543. The cold became so intense that he healed his ship again for Navidad. Cabrillo landed at Cape Mendocino, which he called Mendoza, in honor of the Viceroy. Whatever discoveries may have been made by this navigator, were followed by no practical results.
SECOND EXPLORING EXPEDITION.
1579 .- The next expedition along the coast seems to have been that of the English buccaneer, Francis Drake, afterwards knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his success in capturing and destroying the rich Spanish ships. There long existed a popu- lar belief that Drake sailed into the harbor of San Francisco, and that the bay was named for him ; but it is now well settled that the bay he entered was that of Tomales, on the coast of Marin county. This once bore the name San Francisco.
This noted English voyager, Sir Francis Drake, sailed along the coast in 1579. It is said his Spanish pilot, Morera, left him in Oregon, and thence found his way overland to Mexico, a distance of three thousand five hundred miles. The name of New Albion was given to the country by Drake, with the evident intention of securing it for the British crown.
On the 22d of July, after repairing his ship and doubtless taking on board a goodly supply of fresh meat and water, Drake set sail for England, going by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and arriving in Plymouth November 3, 1580, having been gone about two years and ten months. He was the first Englishman who circumnavigated the globe, and was the first man who ever made the entire voyage in the same vessel. He was gra- ciously received by Queen Elizabeth, and knighted. She also gave orders for the preservation of his ship, the Golden Hind, that it might remain a monument to his own and his country's glory.
At the end of a century it had to be broken up, owing to lecay. Of the sound timber a chair was made, which was presented by Charles II. to the Oxford University.
yours Truly A.g. Meany SHERIFF.
6 0
SUPT, SCHOOLS.
Yours for Mark Howl, SURVEYOR.
John W. Bost ASSEMBLYMAN.
N. BIBBY, SUPERVISOR.
W. L.MEANS, SUPERVISOR.
ASSESSOR.
COUNTY OFFICERS, MERCED.
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DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
Sir Francis Drake diedl on board ship, at Nombre de Dios. in the West Indies, January 28, 1595.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
1579 .- The natives bringing the admiral (Drake) a present of feathers and canls of net-work, he entertained them so kindly and generously that they were extremely pleased, and soon afterwards they sent him a present of feathers and bags of tobacco. A number of them coming to deliver it, gathered themselves together at the top of a small hill, from the highest point of which one of them harangued the admiral, whose tent was placed at the bottom. Wlien the speech was ended, they laid down their arins and came down, offering their presents, at the same time returning what the admiral had given then. The women remaining on the hill, tearing their hair and mak- ing dreadful howlings, the admiral supposed them engaged in making sacrifices, and thereupon ordered divine service to be performed at his tent, at which these people attended with astonishment.
The arrival of the English in California being soon known through the country. two persons in the character of ambassa- dors came to the admiral and informed him, in the best manner they were able, that the king would visit him, if he might be assured of coming in safety. Being satisfied on this point, a minerous company soon appeared, in front of which was a very comely person, bearing a kind of sceptre, on which hung two crowns, and three chains of great length. The chains were of hones, and the crows of net-work, curiously wrought with feathers of many colors.
A MAJESTIC INDIAN KING.
Next to the sceptre-bearer camne the king, a handsome, majestic person, surrounded by a number of tall men, dressed in skins, who were followed by the common people, who, to make the grander appearance, had painted their faces of varions colors, and all of them, even the children, being loaded with presents.
The men being drawn up in line of battle, the admiral stood ready to receive the king within the fences of his tent. The company having halted at a distance, the sceptre-bearer made a speech, half an hour long, at the end of which he began sing- ing and dancing, in which he was followed by the king and all the people, who, continuing to sing and dance, came quite up to the tent; when sitting down, the king took off his crown of feathers, placed it on the admiral's head, and put on him the other ensigns of royalty; and it is said that he made him a solemn tender of his whole kingdom; all of which the admiral accepted in the name of the queen, his sovereign, in hopes that these proceedings might, one time or other, contribute to the advantage of England.
Then there is another silence concerning this region, of twenty-four years, when Viseniño comes, exploring more care- fully, andl searching for harbors.
ATTEMPT TO POSSESS THE COUNTRY.
1602 .- It was not until 1602, that the Spaniards took any actual steps to possess and colonize the continent. In that year Don Sebastian Viscaino was dispatched by the Viceray of Mex- ico, acting under the instructions of his royal master, King Phillip III., on a voyage of search in three small vessels, He visited various points on the coast, among them San Diego.
BAY OF MONTEREY FOUND AND NAMED.
1602 .-- It is he who finds Monterey Bay. He gets there. December 16, 1602. His object was to find a port where the ships coming from the Phillipine Islands to Acapulco, a trade which had then been established some thirty years, might put in, and provide themselves with wood, water, masts, and other things of absolute necessity.
Viscaiño gave the name of Monterey to that bay. On the next lay after he anchored near the site of the present town of Monterey, religious worship was held "under a large oak hy the sca-side."
FIRST VESSEL ENTERING THE GOLDEN GATE.
The description they give of the harbor says: "Near the shore is an infinite number of very large pines, straight and smooth, fit for masts, and yards, likewise oaks of a prodigious size for building ships. Here likewise are rose trees, white thorns, firs, willows and poplars; large clear lakes and fine pastures and arable lands."
Viscaiño leaves on the 3d of January, 1603, and then follows a long silence of more than a hundred and sixty years, during which no record speaks of this region of country.
FOUNDING OF FIRST MISSION.
1763 .- A great zeal for missions had sprung up, and then prevailed in Mexico for Christianizing the regions at the North. The glowing descriptions of the old navigators who touched here more than a hundred and fifty years before were revived, and
14
EXPLORERS NAME THE RIVERS AND TREES.
now came into existence a desire both in Spain and Mexico, to enter into and possess the land. Two divisions of the expedi- tion reached San Diego nearly at the same time. One by sca and the other by land, up the peninsula of Lower California.
They were there togetber and founded the first of the mis- sions of Upper California on the 16th day of July, 1769. But their zeal was too great to allow them to wait at the southern- most border of the promised land. They set their faces north- ward.
MONTEREY SEARCHED FOR AFTER 167 YEARS.
1769 .- They had read of Viscaiño, and his glowing description of the country around the bay he named " Monterey." They pro- posed to set out at once to find it by land.
The expedition left San Diego July 14, 1769, and was com- poscal of Governor Portala, Captain Revera, with twenty-seven soldiers with leathern jackets, and Lieutenant P. Fages with seven volunteers of Catalonia, besides Engineer Constanzio, and fifteen Christian Indians, from Lower California.
Fathers Crespi and Gomez accompanied them for their spirit- ual cousolation, and to keep a diary of their expedition. Owing to Father Crespi's diary, the principal incidents of this first journey by land up this coast are known to us. They kept near the sea-shore most of the way. They were .constantly passing rancherias of Indians, whom they greeted as well as they knew how, and they were not molested by them. It was late in September when they came in sight of the Bay of Monterey, the very bay they were in search of, but they did not recognize it!
Father Crespi and the Commandant, ascended a hill and looked dowu upon it.
THEY FIND BUT DO NOT RECOGNIZE IT.
They recognized Point Pinos, and New Year's Point as describ- ed by Cabrera, but they did not recognize the bay as Viscaino's Bay of " Monterey !" It is certainly very strange that they did not, but for some reason they did not seem to have thought of its being the very spot they were in search of :
The description of it by which they were guided was of course one given by those coming into the bay by water. It may not have been detailed or definite, or suited to guide those seeking it by land.
At any rate, the soldiers explored Point Pinos on both sides and yet never recognized tbe place.
They were all half of a mind to give up the search and go back.
But the resolution to proceed still further prevailed, and so they resumed their march. We trace them now step by step. They crossed the Salinas river. They passed several lagoons. They descended into the Pajaro valley and camped near the bank of the river.
INDIANS ABOUT MONTEREY.
Moreover, in this valley they meet with an eneampment of Indians, numbering, as they said, five hundred.
The Indians had no notice of the arrival of strangers in their land and were alarmed. Some took to their arms; some ran to and fro sbouting. The women fell to weeping bitterly. Sargent Ortega alighted from his horse and approached them, making signs of peace.
He picked up from the ground, arrows and little flags which they had set, and they clapped their hands in signs of appro- bation.
They were asked for something to eat. The women hast- ened to their huts and began to pound secds and make a kind of paste.
But when the father's returned to the same spot the next day, they found only smoking remains of the Indian's camp, tbe Indians themselves having set fire to it and gone away.
THESE EXPLORERS NAME THE RIVERS AND TREES.
1769 .- They named the river " Pajaro " because they found here an immense bird killed,stuffed with hay, measuring nine feet and three inches from tip to tip of the wings spread out. Here too, not far from the river they made note of finding deer.
They described the banks of tbe Pajaro river as they found them in the fall of 1769, thickly covered with trees. They spoke partieularly of the redwood, calling it " palo colorado" on account of its color. Father Crespi says the trees are very higb, and think they resemble tbe eedar of Lebanon, save that the wood has no odor. The leaves, too, he says, are different, and the wood is very brittle.
They stopped near a lake where there was a great deal of pasture, and they saw a number of cranes. They rested there three days, on account of the sick.
On the 17th of October, they moved on again, walking all the time through good land, at a distance of some three miles from the sea.
At the end of that day's journey, they eame to the river known as San Lorenzo. They proposed to cross it, not far from the sea. They found the banks steep. They were thiekly grown with a forest of willows, cotton-wood and sycamore, so thick that they had to cut their way through.
" It was one of the largest rivers," Father Crespi says, " that we met with, on our journey." The river was fifty-four feet wide at the point where they forded, and the water reached the belly of their horses.
" We camped," says Father Crespi, " on the north side of the river, and we had a great deal of work to eut down trees to open a little passage for our beasts." "Not far from the river we saw a fertile spot where the grass was not burnt, and it was pleasure to see the pasture, and the variety of herbs and rose
RES.OF S.K.SPEARS, 2 MILES WESTOF MERCED FALLS, MERCED CO. CAL.
FITZHUGH RANCH. RES. OF GEN!'J. W.BOST, /2 MILE EAST OF SNELLING, MERCED CO. CAL.
15
CONTINUED DISCOVERIES BY LAND AND SE.A.
bushes of Castile. We did not see near the river, nor dur- ing our journey, any Indians."
The next day about eighto'clock in the morning they moved on again.
"After proceeding about five hundred steps, " Father Crespi says, " we passed a large stream of running water which hal its source among high hills, and passing through a table-land, furnishies ample facility for irrigation." This creek they called " Santa Cruz." And so the little stream gave its name to the city.
Perhaps Justiniano Roxas' saw this first party of white men that ever visited this region. He must have been tben about sixteen or seventeen years old.
The company remained some sixteen days near the Bay of Monterey. Long enough to get a very fair idea of the climate. The sky was clear and there was no fog.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AT TIME OF DISCOVERY.
They pushed on northward until they discovered San Fran- cisco bay and reached the Golden Gate itself.
BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO FOUND AND NAMED.
1769 .- On the Ist of November, 1769, they sent a party to Point Reyes. On the 2d of November, several hunters of the expedition ascended the high mountains more towards the east; and, although we have no correct information as to the names of those hunter», it is certain that they were the first white inhabitants who saw the large arm of the sea known at present as the Bay of San Francisco.
The portion that was seen by them was that which lies between the San Bruno mountains and the estuary or creek of San Antonio (Oakland). They discovered the bay, unless the honor is accorded to the exploring party that returned on the 3d of November, who also had discovered the branch of the sea, by which they were prevented from reaching Point Reyes, and the primitive Bay first called San Francisco.
On the 4th of November the whole of the expedition saw the newly discovered bay, aud they tried to go around it by the south ; but not being able to do so, they returned to Monterey. And so, by the merest accident, they came upon the world- renowned Bay of San Francisco.
Finding it a place answering every requirement he named it after San Francisco de Asis; and seven years later, Juue 27, 1776, possession was taken of the spot and a presidio estab- lished, the mission being located on the site of the present church.
MONTEREY BAY VISITED AGAIN BUT NOT RECOGNIZED.
1769 .- Towards the end of November, we find them tarrying around Monterey again, not even now knowing that they were looking on tbe very harbor they were in search of! They even think it possible that the harbor that Viscaiño found a hun- dred and sixty-six years before, aud described in such glowing terms, may be filled with sand, and for that reason they can- not find it. They erect a large cross near Point Pinos and place a writing at the foot of it, describing their hardships and disappointments, in case the vessel called the San Jose should anchor in that vicinity, and any of those on board should dis- cover the cross and find the writing.
Finally, after many hardships, on the 24th day of January, 1770, half dead with hunger, they arrive at San Diego, after an absence of six months.
They have accomplished that long and exceedingly laborious journey ; they have twice passed and looked upon the very bay they were in search of, not knowing it!
MONTEREY BAY FOUND AT LAST.
1770 .- The next time Monterey bay was scarcbed for it was found. It was in that same year, 1770. Tbe two parties set out from San Diego to find it, one by land, the other by water. They find the bay this time, reaching it very nearly together.
On the 3d day of June, 1770, they tako possession of the land in the name of the King of Spain.
On the same day Father Junipero begins his mission by erecting a cross, hanging bells from a tree, and saying mass under the same venerable rock where Viscaiño's party celebrated it in 1602, one hundred and sixty-eight years before.
OBJECT OF THE MISSIONS.
The missions were designed for the civilization and conver- sion of the Indians. The latter were instructed in the mys- teries of religion (so far as they could comprehend them) and the arts of peace. Instruction of the savages in agriculture and mannfactures, as well as in prayer's and elementary educa- tion, was the padre's business.
At first the Indians were exceedingly cautious about approaching or connecting themselves with this new style of
. Justiniano Roxas died at Santa Cruz, March 10, 1575, aged 123 years. His portrait and biography were inserted in our history of Santa Cruz County. From that article we learn he was for years about as destitute of flesh as a skeleton. His skin was yellow, hard and full of creases, and looked like parchment. Age had taken all expression from his countenance. llis eyes were nearly closed. He walked with a staff. His last year's were spent in trying to keep warm. At night he spread his blanket by the hearth. with his head toward the fire. He would not use a hed. He was cared for by the Sisters of Charity, aided by the county He was baptized 4th of March, 1792. by the record.
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16
FOUNDING OF THE VARIOUS MISSIONS.
civilization, but gradually their fears and superstitious were overcome, and they began to cluster about the fathers. Their old habits and manner of living were thrown off; aud they contented themselves with the quiet life and somewhat labori- ous iluties of the missions.
INDIANS NOT EASILY CIVILIZED.
The California Indiau was anything but an easy subject for civilization. Knowledge he had none; his religion or morals were of the crudest form, while all in all he was the most ‹legraderl of mortals. He lived without labor, and existed for naught save his ease and pleasure. In physique he was unpre- possessing; being possessed of much endurance and strength; his features were nuattractive, liis hair in texture like the inane of a horse, and his complexion as dark as the Ethiop's skin.
His chief delight was the satisfying of his appetite and lust, while he lacked courage enough to be warlike, and was devoid of that spirit of independence usually the principal characteristic of his race. The best portion of his life was passed in sleeping and dancing; while iu the temperate Califoruia climate the fertile valleys and hill-sides grew an abundance of edible seeds aud wild fruits, which were garnered, and by them held in great store.
Such means of existence being so easily obtained is, per- haps, a reason for the wonderful disinclination of Indians to perform any kind of labor. Indeed, what need was there that they should toil when nature had placed within their reach an unlimited supply of food?
MISSION RANCHOS SET APART.
Besides the missions, presidios, castillos, and pueblos, it may be remarked that there were certain public farms, called ranchos, set apart for the use of the soldiers. They were gen- erally four or five leagues distant from the presidios, and were under the control of the different commandants. Little use, however, seems to have been made of these farms, aud they commonly were left in a state of nature, or afforded only grazing to the few cattle and horses belonging to the pre- sidios.
In the establishment of missions the three agencies brought to bear were the military, the civil, and the religious, being each represented by the presidio, or garrison; the pueblo, the town or civic community; and the mission, the church, which played the most prominent part.
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