USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 3
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SAN CARLOS DE MONTEREY ESTABLISHED .*
1770 .- The third attempt to establish a settlement at Mon- terey proved successful, as heretofore noticed. The following extract from a letter of the leader of the expedition to Father
Francisco Palou, gives a graphic account of the ceremonies attending the formal founding of the Missiou of San Carlos de Monterey, by Padre Junipero Serra, on that memorable day, June 3, 1770.
" On the 31st of May, 1770, by favor of God, after rather a painful voyage of a month and a half, the packet Sun Antonio, commanded by Don Juan Perez, arrived and anchored in this beautiful port of Monterey, which is unadulterated in any degree from what it was when visited by the expedition of Don Sebastian Viscaiño, in 1620. It gave me great conso- lation to find that the land expedition had arrived eight days before us, and that Father Crespi and all others were in good health. On the 3d of June, being the holy day of Pentecost, the whole of the officers of sea and land, and all the people, assembled on a bank at the foot of an oak, where we caused an altar to be erected, and the bells raug; we then chanted the veni Creator, blessed the water, erected and blessed a grand cross, hoisted the royal standard, and chanted the first mass that was ever performed in this place; we afterwards sung the Salve to Our Lady before au image of the illustrious Virgin, which occupied the altar; and at the same time preached a sermon, concluding the whole with a Te Deum. After this the officers took possession of the country in the name of the King, (Charles III.) our Lord, whom God preserve. We then all dined together in a shady place on the beach; the whole ceremony being accompanied by many volleys and salutes by the troops and vessels."
THE MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO .*
1771 .- This mission was founded by Padre Junipero Serra, July 14, 1771, and is situated about twelve leagues south of Soledad, in Monterey county, on the border of an inland stream upon which it has conferred its name. The buildings were inclosed in a square, twelve hundred feet on each side, and walled with adobes. Its lands were forty-eight leagues in cir- cumference, including seven farms, with a convenient house and chapel attached to each. The stream was conducted in paved trenches twenty miles for purposes of irrigation; large crops rewarded the husbandry of the padres. In 1822 this mission owned fifty-two thousand eight hundred head of cattle, eighteen hundred tame horses, three thousand mares, five hundred yoke of working oxen, six hundred mules, forty-eight thousand sheep and one thousand swine. The climate here is cold in winter and intensely hot in summer. This mission on its secu- larization fell into the hands of an administrator who neglected its farms, drove off its cattle, and left its poor Indians to starve. -Walter Colton's Three Years in California.
The mission grapes were very sweet; wine and aguardiente were made from them in early days, and the, grapes were brought to Monterey for sale. The vineyard and garden walls
' An extended history of these missions will be found in the "History of Montoroy County."
RES. OF ADAM KAHL, I MILE
NOR NES
.........
THWEST OF PLAINSBURG, MERCED CO, CAL.
17
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST MISSIONS.
are now gone, and the cattle have destroyed the vines; wany of the buildings are down and the tiles have been renvel to roof honus on some of the adjoining ranches. The church is still in good repair. There was formerly a good grist-mill at the mission, but that also, like the mission, is a thing of the past .- Pioneer M. S.
THE MISSION OF SOLEDAD."
1791 .- Mission Soledad was founded October 9, 1791, and is situated fifteen league, south- west of Monterey on the left bank of the Salinas river, in a fertile plain known by the nature of the " Llano del Rey." The priest was an indefatigable agri- | culturist. To obviate the summer drought, he constructed,
from Monterrey founded 1794 Its lands swept the broad interval ail aljacent bills. In 1s20 it ownel forty- three thousand eight hundred and seventy head of cattle, are thet- sand three hundred and sixty tame horses, four thon-and eight
VIEW OF MISSION BUILDINGS AT SAN JUAN.
through the labor of his Indians, an aqueduct extending fiftecu miles, by which he could water twenty thousand acres.
IMMENSE BANDS OF CATTLE.
In 1826 the mission owned about thirty-six thousand head of cattle, and a greater number of horses and mares than any other mission in the country.
So great was the reproduction of these animals that they were not only given away but also driven in bands into the bay of Mouterey in order to preserve the pasturage for the cattle. It had about seventy thousand sheep and three hundred yoke of tame oxen. In 1819 the major-domo of this mission gathered three thousand four hundred bushels of wheat from thirty-eight bushels sown. Its secularization has been followed by decay and ruiu .- Walter Colton.
The mission possessed a fine orchard of a thousand trees, but very few were left in 1849. There was also a vineyard about six miles from the mission in a gorge of the mountains.
MISSION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA .*
1794 .- This mission looms over a rich valley ten leagues
* An extended history of these missions will be found in the " History of Monteres County."
hundred and seventy mares, colts and fillies. It had seveu sheep farms, containing sixty-nine thousand five hundred and thirty sheep ; while the Indians attached to the mission drove three hundred and twenty-one yoke of working oxen. Its store-house contained $75,000 in goods and 820,000 il specie.
REIGN OF DESOLATION AT SAN JUAN.
This mission was secularized in 1834; its cattle slaughtered for the hides and tallow, its sheep left to the wolves, its horses taken by the dandies, its Indians left to hunt acorns, while the wind sighs over the grave of its last padre .- Walter Colton.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MISSIONS.
The missions were usually quadrilateral buildings, two stories high, enclosing a court-yard ornamented with fountains and trees. The whole consisting of the church, father's apart- ments, store-houses, barracks, etc. The quadrilateral sides were each about six hundred feet in length, one of which was partly occupied by the church.
And so they begin their work, surrounded by beautiful scenery, but in seclusion and loneliness. They lived under
or
DESCRIPTION OF MISSION CHURCHES.
the shadow of the hills. The sun rose bright and the air was mikl, as now, and the music of tbe surf, and the roar of the ocean in times of storm-these things must have been as familiar to them as they are now to us.
But there must have been something of sublimity about then when all around was in a condition of nature, that we iniss in our more artificial life.
They go about their work. They get together the Indians as soon as possible, to communicate with them. They teach thein some rude approach to the arts of civilized life. They teach tho men to use tools, and the women to weave.
BUILDING MISSION CHURCHES.
Time passes away and we find them with a great work on their hands. It is nothing less than the huilding of a church. We think that to be no small undertaking even now, with all our facilities. But it is not easy for us to imagine what it was to them, with nothing hut hand labor ; and that of a very rude sort.
But they set ahout it. They make adobes. They cut down the trees. They hew out the timher. By some means they get it up to the spot. No small undertaking that as we can see now by examining those very heams, in what remains of those old churebes.
Nor did the hewing lack in skill and accuracy, as you can also see, and the solid adobe walls, you can measure them, and you will find them to he five feet thick. It took often several years to build a church. And so life at the mission began in earnest. Other buildings were erected as they came to be needed.
MISSION DAILY LIFE.
The daily routine at all the missions was very much alike, and was abont as follows :---
They rose at sunrise and proceeded to the church, to attend morning prayers. Breakfast followed. Then the day's work.
Towards noon they returned to the mission and passed the time till two o'clock in the afternoon, between dinner and repose.
After that hour they resumed work and continued it till ahout sunset. Then all betook themselves to the church for evening devotions, and then to supper.
After supper came amusements till the hour for retiring.
Their diet consisted of heef and mutton with vegetables in the season. Wheaten cakes and puddings or porridge, called atole and pinole, formed a portion of the repast.
The dress was for the males, linen shirt, trousers, and a blanket. The women had each two undergarments a year, a gown and a blanket.
What a dreamy secluded life it must have been, with commu- nication with the outer world only at intervals.
BEECHEY'S DESCRIPTION OF MISSION CONVERTS.
Captain Beechey, in 1826, visited the missions and says :- " If any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to con- version, it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then allow them to hreathe a little fresh air in a walk around the missions, to observe the happy mode of life of their con- verted countrymen; after which they are again shut up, and thus continue incarcerated until they declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their fathers."
" In the isles and passages of the churchi, zealous beadles of the converted race are stationed arined with sundry weapons of potent influence in effecting silence and attention, and which are not sparingly used on the refractory. These consist of sticks and whips, long goads, etc., and they are not idle in the hands of the officials."
"Sometimes, they hreak their bonds and cscape into their original haunts. When brought back to the mission he is always flogged and then has an iron clog attached to one of his legs, which has the effect of preventing his running away and marking him out in terrorem to others." Notwithstand- ing this dark picture, it must not be imagined that life was one of much hardship, or that they even thought so.
FIRST INDIAN BAPTISM AT MONTEREY.
1770 .- Of those who came oftenest among them at San Diego, was an Indian about fifteen years of age, and was at last induced to eat whatever was given him without fear. Father Junipero had a desire to teach him, and after understanding a little of the language he desired him to try and bring some little one for baptism. He was told to tell the parents that by allowing a little water to be put on the head, the child would become a son of God, he clothed and hecome equal to the Spaniards. He returned with several Indians, one of whom brought the child for baptism. Full of joy the child was clothed and the vener- able priest ordered the soldiers to attend this first baptism. Tbe ceremony proceeded, and as the water was about to he poured the Indians suddenly snatched away the child and made off in great haste, leaving the father in amazement, with the water in his hands unused.
It was not, however, until the 26th of December, 1770, that the first baptism of the Indians was celebrated at Monterey, which turned out better than the first attempt at San Diego. But at the end of three years only one hundred and seventy- five were baptized, showing that the Indians received civiliza- tion slowly.
MISSION OF SAN FRANCISCO.
1776 .- On September 17, 1776, the presidio and mission of San Francisco were founded, on what was then the extreme boundary of California, the former in a manner being a front-
DECLINE OF THE VARIOUS MISSIONS.
ier communnl, having a jurisdiction which extended to the farthest limits northward of Spanish discovery.
In its carly day the whole military force in Upper California lid not number more than from two to three hundred men. divided between the four presidios of San Diego, Santa Bar- hara, Monterey, and San Francisco, while there were but two towns or pueblos, Los Angeles aud San Jose.
When Junipero Serra amt his band of missionaries entereil Upper California from the lower territory, they brought with them a number of horses, mules, and cattle, wherewith to stock the proposedl missions. These were duly distributed, and in time asses, sheep, goats, and swine were added.
1
RICH MEX OF 1793.
1793 .- An inventory of the rich men of the presilio of San Francisco, bearing date 1793, was discovered some years since, show- ing that the entire number of stock owned by fourteen wealthy Spaniards, was one hundred and fifteen cattle, two hundred aud ninety-eight sheep and seventeen mares.
These are the men who laid the fouuda- tion of these immeuse hordes of cattle which were wont to roam nbout the entire State, aud who were the fathers of those whom we now term native Californians.
As year succeeded year so did their stock increase. 'They received tracts of land " almost for the asking."
VAST BANDS OF WILD CATTLE.
Vast bands of cattle roamed about at will over the plains and among the mountains. Once a year these had to be driven in and rodcod, i. e. branded, a work of cousiderable danger, and oue requiring much nerve. The occasion of rodeoing, how- ever, was the signal for a feast; a large beeve would be slaugh- tered, and all would make merry until it was consumed. The rule or law concerning branded cattle in those early days was very strict.
If any one was kuowu to have branded his neighbor's cattle with his own mark, common usage called upon him to return in kind fourfold.
Not only did this apply to cattle alone, but to all other kinds of live stock.
DECLINE OF THE MIS-
SIONS.
1813,-The extine. tion of the missions was ilecreed by act of the Spanish Cortez in 1813, and again in 1828; also, by the Mexican Congress in 1833. Year after year they were despoiled of their property, until their final overthrow in 1845.
Each successivo rev- olution in Mexico had recourse to the rich California missions for phmder.
-
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Navr 1, 1176
San Juan Capistrano ..
Jan's 18, 1177
Santa clara
March 31, I'M?
Man Imenas cutura
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1in the santa Iner river.
10
La Puriminus L'unceptimm .
Aug't 2%, lini
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La Soledad .
June 11, lini
Un the San Juan river, San Benito co.
14
Man JomU
June 14. 170i
on the Salinas river, Monterey cimmity .
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Sefit'r 8. 170i
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TABLE OF THE CPPFR CALIFORNIAAN MISSIONS.
DITE US ESTAR
Septy 1. 117: Ik't'r D. 1inl
Almut mutuas between Ism Anych .
Where tuun uf santa M'lara miW statul .. South-east of and neut Santa Barbara. On the Santa Barbara channel,
9
Santa Barbara
11
Santa Cruz
Where the city of San Imve mw H.
13
Kın Juan Bautista ..
July 25, 150i
Twenty miles N. W. Irum Law Angeles
115
: Thirteen anita half fragnes Itum Svn
17
San 1.mx Rey ile Francla
Twelve leagues Irınn &mta Barhara.
San Rafael
July 10. 1;2)
June
San Antonlo de Falus ,
Negil'e 8, 1111
Where town of Santa Cruz now stamily.
1in the Salinas river, Monterey cunnily.
MISSION CHURCH AND BUILDINGS AT SONOMA.
In 1813, when the contest for national independence was being waged ou Mexican territory, Spain resolved upon dis- pensing with the services of the fathers, by placing the mis- sions in the hands of the secular elergy. The professed object of this secularization scheme was, indeed, the welfare of the Indians and colonists; but how little this accorded with the real intentions of the Government, is seen from the seventh section of the ilecree passed by the cortes, wherein it is stated that one-half of the land was to be hypothecated for the pay- ment of the national debt. This decree of the Government was not carried out at the time, yet it had its effect on the state and well-being of the missions in general.
In 1803 one of the missions had become the scene of a revolt; anıl earlier still, as we learn from an unpublished correspon- ilence of the fathers, it was not unusual for some of the converts to abandon the missions and return to their former wandering life. It was customary on those occasions to pinsue the desert- ers, anıl compel them to return.
20
SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS.
REIGN OF DISORDER BEGINS.
1826 .- In 1826 instructions were forwarded hy the federal government to the authorities of California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed a few years later by another act of the Legislature, ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the religious to. withdraw. Tbe ostensible objeet assigned by the authors of this measure, was the exeeu- tion of the original plan formed by the Government. The inissions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent establishments.
Meantime, the internal state of the missions was becoming more and more complex and disordered. The desertions were more frequent and numerous, the hostility of the uneonverted more daring, and the general disposition of the people inclined to revolt. American traders and freebooters had entered the country, spread themselves all over the province, and sowed the seeds of diseord and revolt among the inhabitants. Many of the more reckless and evil minded readily listened to their suggestions, adopted their counsels, and broke out into open hostilities.
TABLE SHOWING POPULATION OF THE MISSIONS IN YEAR 1802. MOSTLY CHRISTIANIZED INDIANS .*
DATE OF FOUNDING.
NAME OF MISSION.
SALES.
FEMALES.
TOTAL,
1769
San Diego
737
822
1559
1798
San Luis Rey de Francia
256
276
532
1776
San Juan Capistrano.
502
511
1013
1771
San Gabriel.
532
515
1047
1797
San Fernando
317
297
614
1782
San Buenaventura
436
502
938
1786
Santa Barbara
521
572
1093
1787
La Purissima Conception
457
571
1028
1772
San Luis Obispo.
374
325
699
1797
San Miguel
309
305
614
1791
Soledad
296
267
563
1771
San Antonio de Padua .
568
484
1052
1770
San Carlos de Mouterey.
376
312
688
1797
San Juan Bautista
530
428
958
1794
Santa Cruz.
238
199
437
1777
Santa Clara
736
555
1291
1797
San Jose
327
295
622
1776
San Francisco.
433
381
814
1804
Santa Inez
1817
San Rafael Arehangel
1823
San Francisco de Solano
Totals
7945
7617
15562
ATTACK ON MONTEREY MISSION.
Their hostile attack was first direeted against the mission of Santa Cruz, wbieh they captured and plundered, when they directed their eourse to Monterey, and, in eouimon with their American friends, attacked and plundered that place. From
iliese and other like occurrences, it was clear that the condition of the missions was one of the greatest peril. The spirit of discord bad spread among the people, hostility to the authority of the fathers had become common, while desertion from the villages was of frequent and almost constant occurrence.
SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS.
1833 .- The Mexican Congress passed a bill to secularize the missions in Upper and Lower California, August 17, 1833. This took away from the friars the control of the mission prop- erty, plaeing it in charge of administrators; it gave the civil officers predominance over the priestly class. The President of the Republie issued his instructions to Governor Figueroa, of California, who in turn, August 9, 1834, issued a decree that in August, 1835, ten of the missions would be converted into pueblos or towns.
A portion of the mission property was divided among the resident Indians, and the decree for the liberation of the Indians was put in foree. The dispersion and demoralization of the people was the immediate result. Released from all restraint, tbe Indians proved idle, shiftless, and dissipated, wholly incap- able of self-control, and a nuisance both to themselves and to every one with whom they came in contact. Within eight years after the execution of the decree, the number of Chris- tians diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and fifty to. four thousand four hundred and fifty !
DESCRIPTION OF THE MISSIONS.
At the end of sixty-five years, Hon. John W. Dwinelle tells us, in Centennial Memoirs, page 89, that the missionaries of Upper California found themselves in possession of twenty-one prosperous missions, planted upon a line of about seven hun- dred miles, running from San Diego north to the latitude of Sonoma. More than thirty thousand Indian converts were lodged in the mission buildings, receiving religious culture, assisting at divine worship, and cheerfully performing their easy tasks. Over seven hundred thousand cattle of various speeies, pastured upon the plains, as well as sixty thousand horses. One hundred and twenty thousand bushels of wheat were raised annually, which, with maize, beans, peas, and the like, made up an annual crop of one hundred and eighty tlion- sand bushels ; while, according to the. elimate, the different missious rivaled each other in the production of wine, braudy, soap, leather, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt and soda.
ANNUAL REVENUE RECEIVED.
Of two hundred thousand horned cattle annually slaughtered, the missions furnished about one-half, whose hides, hoofs, horns and tallow were sold at a net result of about ten dollars each, making a million dollars from that source alone; while the other
. In 1802, when Humboldt visited California, he estimated the whole population of the upper country as follows: (Smiverted Indians, 15,562; whites and mulattoes, 1,300 ; total, 60,202. Wild frediants, ur bexfits (beasts), as they were called, were probably quite numerous. but he's; unbaptized were considered beneath the notice of reasonable beings.
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"HOME RANCH' RES. OF HON. H. J. OSTRANDER, 6 MILES EAST OF MERCED, MERCED CO. CAL.
RESIDENCE OF H. C.HEALEY 7 MILES EAST OF MERCED, MERCED CO.CAL.
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REIGN OF DESTRUCTION AND DESOLATION.
articles, of which no definite statistics can be obtained, donbt- les reached an equal vali, making a total production by the missions themselves of two million dollar -. Ganlens, vineyard-, aml orchards surrounded all the missions, except the three northernmost - Dolores, San Rafael, and San Francisco Solano -the climate of the first being too inhospitable for that pur- pove, and the two latter, born near the advent of the Mexican revolution, being stitle in their infancy.
The other missions, acconbng to their latitude, were orna- mented and rurichel with plautitions of pahn trees, bananas. oranges and figs, with orchards of European fruits; and with vast and fertile vineyards, whose products were equally valu- able for sale and exchange, and for the diet and comfort of the inhabitants of the missions. Asble from these valuable proper- ties, and from the mission buildings, the live stock of the missions, valued at their current rates, amountel to three million dollars of the most active capital, bringing enormous ammual returns upon its aggregate value, and, owing to the great fertility of animals in California, more than repairing its aminal waste by slaughter.
TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF MISSION INDIANS BETWEEN 1802 AND 1822.
BAPTIZED.
MARRIKD.
DIED.
EMIATING.
San Diego. . .
5,452
1,460
3,186
1,69G
San Luis Rey
4,024
922
1,507
2,663
San Juan Capistrano
3,879
1,026
2,531
1,052
Santa Catarina.
6,90G
1,638
4,635
1,593
San Fernando ..
2,519
709
1,505
1,001
San Gabriel
3,608
973
2,608
973
Santa Barbara.
4,917
1,288
3,224
1,010
San Buenaventura
1,195
330
896
582
Purissima Conception
3,100
919
2,173
764
San Luis Obispo
2,562
715
1,95+
+67
San Miguel .
2,205
632
1,336
926
San Antonio de Padua
4,119
1,037
317
834
Our Lady of Soledad ..
1,932
5841
1,333
532
San Carlos.
3,267
912
2,432
341
San Juan Bautista ..
3,270
823
1,853
1,222
Santa Cruz.
2,13G
718
1,541
499
Santa Clara
7,324
2,036
6,565
1,394
San Josc. ..
4,573
1,376
2.933
1,620
San Francisco
6,804
2,050
5,202
958
San Rafael
829
24+
183
$30
Totals
74,621 20,412 +7,925 20,958
RAPID DECLINE OF CONVERTS.
It will thus be observed that out of the seventy-four thousand six hundred and twenty-one converts received into the mis- sions, the large number of forty-seven thousand nine hun- dred and twenty-five had succumbed to disease. Of what nature was this plagne it is hard to establish; the missionaries themselves could assign no cause. In all probability, by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence, to a state of settled quietude.
TABLE EXPLAINING THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRA- TION OF THE MISSION' BY THE FATHERS IN 1834 AND THAT OF THE CIND. AUTHORITIES IN 1842.
NAMES OF THE MISS.UNS.
INDI4%.
1t.+
AND SHINE
TRANSLAT
-
1834. '1$12.
1-31. 1-t⑆
1X34
-
San Diego
2.4 WD
19,101}
.9210.000
( 1,900
fiel.
5,000
S BCDAYelituIra
2(mg| 1,1%)u
10
3.000
1_ l'unolma l'oprestlon
1,24.
ובא
1.900
=
1,40%
Vontra Senum de la Soledad
. .
...
. .
San Juan Bautista ...
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