USA > California > Monterey County > History of Monterey County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, and mines : with biiographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 12
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Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to buy tickets for the land of gold. Some insured their lives and pledged their poli- cies for an outfit. The wild boy was packed off hopefully. The black sheep of the flock was dismissed witba blessing, and the forlorn hope that, with a change of skies, there might be a change of manners. The stay of the happy bousehold said, " Good-bye, but only for a year or two," to his charge. Unhap- py husbands availed themselves cheerfully of this cheap and reputable method of divorce, trusting time to mend matters in their absence. Here was a chance to begin life anew.
THE MINERS' LAWS.
" The ininers found no governmental machinery competent to protect their lives or their property, and hence each mining
60
REVIEW OF THE GOLDEN ERA OF 1849.
camp made a law unto itself. The punishment, of course, was sure and swift, and, as a consequence there was but little of it. Gold was left in deep canons with no one to watch it, and every opportunity was afforded for theft; but if there were any dis- posed to take what did not belong to them, the knowledge that their lives would pay the forfeit if detectedl, deterred them from it. The excitement of the times led to gambling. It seemed that almost everybody, even those who had been lending church inembers at the East, were seized with the mania for gambling. Tables for this purpose were set out in every hotel, and one corner of many of the stores, both in mines and cities, were set apart for the monte table.
SAN FRANCISCO ON SUNDAY.
"Sunday in the time of the mining excitement differed little from other days. Banks were open; expresses were running; stores were open for the most part; auctioneers were crying their wares, and the town was full of business and noise. Gambling saloons were thronged day and night. The plaza was surrounded with them on two sides, and partly on a third. Music of every sort was heard from them, sometimes of the finest kind, and now and then the noise of violence and the sound of pistol shots. The whole city was a strange and almost bewillering scene to a stranger."
THE ERA OF 1849.
" The 'fall of '49 and the spring of '30' is the era of Cali- fornia history, which the pioneer always speaks of with warmth. It was the free-and-easy age when everybody was Hush, and fortune, if not in the paho, was only just beyond the grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or in cabins scarcely more durable, and behaved themselves like a genera- tion of bachelors. The family was beyond the mountains; the restraints of society had not yet arrived. Men threw off the masks they had lived behind and appeared out in their true character. A few did not discharge the consciences and con- victions they had brought with them. More rollicked in a perfect freedom from those bonds which good men cheerfully assume in settled society for the good of the greater number. Some afterwards resumed their temperate, steady habits, but hosts were wrecked before the period of their license expired.
" Very rarely did men, on their arrival in the country, begin to work at their oll trade or profession. To the mines first. If fortune favored, they soon quit for more congenial employ- ments. If she frowned, they might depart disgusted, if they were able; but oftener, from sheer inability to leave the busi- ness, they kept on, drifting from bar to bar, living fast, reck- less, improvident, half-civilized lives; compratively rich tu-day, poor to-morrow; tormented with rheumatismus and agnes, remembering dimly the joys of the old homestead; nearly weaned from the friends at home, who, because they were never heard from, soon became like dead men in their memory ;
seeing little of women and nothing of churches; self-reliant, yet satisfied that there was nowhere any 'show' for them; full of enterprise in the direct line of their business, and utterly lost in the threshold of any other; genial companions, morbidlly craving after newspapers; good fellows, but short- lived."
A REVIEW OF EVENTS.
At this day it seems strange that the news of this great dis- covery did not fly abroad inore swiftly than it did. It would not seem so very strange, however, if it could he remembered how very improbable the truth of the gold stories then were. And it appeared to be most improbable, that if gold was really found, it would be in quantities sufficient to pay for going after it. People were a little slow to commit themselves, at first, respecting it. Even as late as May 24, 1848, a corre- spondent writing in the Californian, a paper then published in San Francisco, expressed the opinion of some people, thus ;- " What evil effects inay not result from this mania, and the consequent abandonment of all useful pursuits, in a wild-goose chase after goll ?"
A good many people, far and near, looked upon the matter in this light for some time. The slowness with which the news traveled in the beginning, is seen in this :-
Monterey, then the seat of government, is not more than four or five days' travel from the place where gold was dis- covered. The discovery took place not later than the first of February, 1848. And yet Alcalde Walter Colton says, in his journal, under date, Monday, May 29th, "Our town was startled out of its quiet dreams to-day by the announce- ment that gohl had been discovered on the American Fork."
If it took four months for the news of the discovery of gold to travel as l'ar as Monterey, the capital town of the country, it is not smprising that it hardly got over to the Atlantic States within the year 1848. There was then an express that advertised to take letters through to Independence, Mis- souri, in sixty days, at fifty cents apiece.
If the gold news had been thoroughly credited here, it might have been published all through the East by the first of May; but it was not. In the early full of 1845, however, the rumor began to get abroad there, through private sources. At first it was laughed at, and those who credited it at all had no idea that gold existed here in sufficient quantities to be worth digging.
COLTON'S VISIT TO THE MINES.
Walter Calton, the alcalde of Monterey, and writer of " Three Years in Californin," hearing of the discovery of gohl, visitexl the mines. From his descriptions we obtain an insight into the scenes of those days, Wo copy his journal for a few days :-
MINING ON THE STANISLAUS.
" 1848. Oct. 12,-We are camped in the centerof the goll
-
61
SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE GOLD MINES.
mines, in the heart of the richest deposits, where many hun- dreds are at work. All the gold-diggers were excited by the report that a solid pocket of gold had been found on the Stanislaus. In half an hour a motley crowd, with crow-bars, pick-axes, spades, and wash-bowls went over the hills in the direction of the new deposit. I remained and picked out from a small crevice of slate rock, a piece weighing a half-ounce.
" Oct. 13 .- I started for the Stanislaus diggings. It was an uproarous life; the monte-table with its piles of gold, glimmer- ing in the shade. The keeper of the bank was a woman. The bank consisted of a pile of goldl weighing, perhaps, a hundred pounds. They seemed to play for the excitement, caring little whether they won or lost.
" It was in this ravine that, a few weeks since, the largest lump of gold found in California was discovered. Its weight was twenty-thrce (23) pounds, and in nearly a pure state. Its discovery shook the whole mines. (Qnery-Does any one know the name of the finder?)
A BATH IN THE STANISLAUS.
" Oct. 14 .- A new deposit was discovered this morning near the falls of the Stanislaus. An Irishman had gone there to bathe, and in throwing off his clothes, had dropped his knife which slipped into a crevice, and in getting it picked up gold- dust. He was soon tracked out, and a storm of picks were splitting the rocks.
" Oct. 15 .- Quite a sensation was produced by the arrival from Stockton of a load of provisions and whisky. The price of the former was :- flour, $2 per pound; sugar and coffee, $4. The whisky was $20 per quart. Coffee-pots and sauce-pans were in demand, while one fellow offered $10 to let him suck with a straw from the bung. All were soon in every variety of inebriety.
" Oct. 16 .- I encountered to-day, in a ravine some three miles distant, among the gold washers, a woman from San Jose. She was at work with a large wooden bowl, by the side of a stream. I asked her how long she had been there, and how much gold she averaged per day. She replied: "Three weeks, and an ounce."
"Oct. 18 .- A German, this morning, picking a hole in the ground near our camping tree, struck a piece of gold weigh- ing about three ounces. As soon as it was known, some forty pieks were flying into the earth, but not another piece was found. In a ravine, a little girl this morning picked up what she thought a curious stone, and brought it to her mother, who found it a lump of gold, weighing six or seven pounds.
"Oct. 20 .- I encountered this morning, in the person of a Welchman, a marked specimen of the gold-digger. He stood soine six feet eight in his shoes, with giant limbs and framc. A slender strap fastened his coarse trowsers above his hips, and confined the flowing bunt of his flannel shirt. A broad-rimmed
hat sheltered his hrowny features, while his unshorn beard and hair Howed in tangled confusion to his waist. To his back was lashed a blanket and bag of provisions; on one shoulder rested a huge crow-bar, to which was hung a gold- washer and skillet; on the other rested a rifle, a spade, and a pick, from which langled a cnp and a pair of heavy shoes. He recognized me as the magistrate who had onee arrested him for breach of the peace. " Well, Alcalde," said he, " I am glad to see you in these diggings. I was on a burster; you did your duty, and I respect you for it; and now let me settle the difference between us with a hit of gold; it shall be the first I strike under this bog." Before I could reply, his traps were on the ground, and his pick was tearing up bog after hog. These removed he struck a layer of clay. "Here she comes," he ejaculated, and turned out a piece of gold that would weigh an ounce or more. " There, Aclakle, accept that, and when you reach home have a bracelet made for your good lady." He continued digging
THE ALCALDE MEETS THE MINER.
around the same place for the hour I remained, hut never found another piece-not a particle. No uncommon thing to find only one piece and never another near it."
THE DESERTED CLAIMS.
Scattered all up and down through the mining districts of California are hundreds of such spots as that represented by Colton. Time was when the same place was full of life and activity; when the flume ran; when the cabins were tenanted; when the loud voices of men rose, and the sounds of labor kept the birds away that now fly so fearlessly around the tumbling ruins. But the claim gave out, and the miners, gathering their tools together, vamosed for some other spot, and desolation set in. The unused Hume dropped to pieces, ownerless huts became forlorn, and the debris only added to the dismalness of the place. Or who knows, some dark deed may have led to the abandonment of the claim, for surely the spot looks uncanny and gloomy enough for twenty murders,
62
ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
LIST OF CALIFORNIA GOVERNORS.
The Governors of California since its settlement to the pres- ent time were as follows :-
SPANISH RULE.
INAUGURATED.
NANE.
Gaspar de Portala 1767-1771
1771-1774
Felipe de Barri.
1774-1782
Felipe de Neve.
1782-1890
Pedro Fajes
1790-1792
Jose Antonio Romea. 1792-1794
*Jose J. de Arrillaga
.1794-1800
Diego de Borica.
1800-1814
Jose J. de Arrillaga
1814-1815
*Jose Arguello.
1815-1822
Pablo Vincente de Sola.
MEXICAN RULE.
Pablo Vincente de Sola . 1822-1823
Luis Arguello. 1823-1825
Jose Maria de Echeandia.
. June, 1825-Jan., 1831
Manuel Victoria.
Jan., 1831-Jan., 1832
*Pio Pico Jan., 1832-Jan., 1833
Jan., 1833-Aug., 1835
Jose Figuerra.
*Jose Castro .. Aug., 1835-Jau., 1836
Nicolas Gutierrez. .Jan., 1836-Apr., 1836
Mariano Chico. .Apr., 1836-Ang., 1836
Nicolas Gutierrez.
. Aug., 1836-Nov., 1836
Juan B. Alvarado.
.Dec., 1842-Feb., 1845
.Feb., 1845-July 1846 Pio Pico.
AMERICAN RULE-TERRITORIAL.
Com. John D. Sloat. July 7, 1846-Aug. 17. 1846
Com. R. F. Stockton.
. Aug. 17, 1846-Jan. - , 1847
Col. John C. Fremont . Jan. - , 1847-Mar. 1, 1847
Gen. S. W. Kearny. . Mar. 1, 1847-May 31, 1847
Col. Richard B. Mason. May 31, 1847-Apr. 13, 1849
. Apr. 13, 1849-Dec. 20, 1849 Gen. Bennet Riley
STATE-GOVERNORS.
Dec. 20, 1849
+Peter H. Burnett.
John. McDongal. .Jan. 9, ISốI
John Bigler . .Jan. 8, 1832
John Bigler .Jan. 8, 1854
J. Neely Johnson Jan. S, 1856
John B. Weller. Jan. 8, 1858
Jan. 8, 1860
+Milton S. Latham
John G. Downey Jan. 14, 1860
Leland Stanford. Jan. 8, 1862
+Frederick F. Low .Dec. 2, 1863
Henry II. laight. Dec. 5, 1867
+Newton Booth. Dec. 8, 1871
.Feb. 27. 1875
Romualdo Pacheco.
Dec. 9, 1875
William Irwin.
Jan. 5, 1880
George C. Perkins.
· Ad interim. 1 Resigned.
1 Term luvrearusl frmut two to four years.
Organization of the Government.
1846 .- Thomas O. Larkin, the American Consul at Mon- terey, who under instructions had gained a great amount of influence among the leading native Californians, suggested and caused the issuance of a circular by Governor Pico, in May. 1846, calling a convention of thirty of the more prominent men in the country. This assemblage was to discuss the condition of affairs and to petition the Mexican authorities for an improved government; if the request met with a refusal, the territory was to be soll to some other power. The tend- ency of this discussion would be towards the transfer of the territory to the United States. The convention did not meet, however, as events transpired which precluded the possibility of a peaceful transfer. Lieut. Jolin C. Freinont arrived in that year, and soon became embroiled in a wordy conflict with the authorities, and Ide and his party declared a revolution at Sonoma as heretofore mentioned.
The more intelligent settlers of California saw at an early day the urgeut necessity of a regular constitution and laws. The provisional government existing since the conquest of 1847 was but a temporary affair aud by no means able to satisfy the wants of a great, growing and dangerous population, which had now so strangely and suddenly gathered together. The inhab- itants could not wait the slow movements of Cougress. Attempts were made by the citizens of San Francisco, Sonoma, and San Jose to form legislatures for themselves, which they invested with supreme authority. It was quickly found that these independent legislative bodies came into collision with each other, and nothing less than a general constitution wouhl be satisfactory to the people.
Great meetings for these purposes were held at San Jose, San Francisco, Monterey, Sonoma. and other places, in the months of December and Jannary, 1848-9. It was resolved that delegates be chosen by popular election from all parts of the State to meet at San Jose. These delegates were to form a Constitution. These movements were general on the part of all citizens and no partisan feeling was shown in the matter.
CONVENTION CALLED AT MONTEREY.
While the people were this working out for themselves this great problem, the then great Military Governor, Gen. Riley. saw fit to issue on the 3d of June, 1849, a prochunation calling a Convention to meet at Monterey on the Ist of September, to frame a Constitution.
These delegates were forty-eight in number, and while they representedl all parts of the State, they were also representatives of every State in the Union. They were men not munch nserl to those deliberations expected of such a body, but they determined to do their staty in the best possible manner.
Nov., 1836-Dec., 1842
Manuel Micheltorena
-
حمه
SHOP. AND RESIDENCE .OF E. FENTON. 2 MILES
SOUTH OF SALINAS.
MONTEREY
C.O. CAL.
911804 .7.2
63
MEETING OF THE FIRST LEGISLATURE.
The delegates, at their first regular meeting on the 4th of September, chose by a large majority of votes, Dr. Robert Semple as President of the Convention; Captain William G. Marcy was then appointed Secretary, and the other necessary offices were properly filled up. After rather more than a month's constant labor and discussion, the existing Constitution of California was drafted and finally adopted by the Conven- tion.
This document was formed after the model of the most ap- proved State constitutions of the Union, and was framed in strict accordance with the most liberal and independent opin- ions of the age.
On the 13th of October, 1849, the delegates signed the in- strument and a salute of thirty-one guus was fired.
The house in which the delegates met was a large, handsome two-story stone erection, called "Colton Hall," and was, perhaps, the best fitted for their purposes of any building in the country. It was erected by Walter Colton, who was the Alcalde of Monterey, having been appointed by Commodore Stockton July 28, 1846. The building is still standing in a good state of preservation, and we here present a view of it as it looked at that time.
FIRST CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE.
On Saturday, the 15th of December, 1849, the first Legisla- ture of the State of California met at San Jose. The Assembly occupied the second story of the State House-a cut of which is on page 65-but the lower portiou, which was designed for the Senate Chamber, not being ready, the latter hody held their sittings, for a short period, in the house of Isaac Branham, on the south-west corner of Market Plaza. . The State House proper was a building sixty feet long, forty feet wide, two stories high, and adorned with a piazza in front. The upper story was simply a large room with a stairway leading thereto. This was the Assembly Chamber. The lower story was divided into four rooms; the largest, twenty by forty feet, was designed for the Senate Chamber, and the others were used by the Secretary of State, and the various committees. The build- ing was destroyed by fire on the 29th of April, 1853, at four o'clock in the morning.
SOLONS DISSATISFIED WITH SAN JOSE.
On the first day of the first Legislative session only six Sen- ators were present, and perhaps twice as many Assemblymen. On Sunday, Governor Riley and Secretary Halleck arrived, and by Monday nearly all the members were present. Num- ber of members: Senate, 16; Assembly, 36. Total 52. No sooner was the Legislature fairly organized than the members began to growl about their accommodations. They didn't like the Legislative building, and swore terribly between drinks at the accommodations of the town generally. Many of the
solons expressed a desire to move the Capital from San Jose immediately. On the 19th instant Geo. B. Tingley, a member of the House from Sacramento, offered a bill to the effect that the Legislature remove the Capital at onee to Monterey. The bill passed its first reading and was laid over for further action.
FIRST STATE SENATORS ELECTED.
On the 20th Gov. Riley resigned his gubernatorial office, and by his order, dated Head-quarters Tenth Military Department, San Jose, Cal., Dec. 20, 1849 (Order No. +1), Captain H. W. Halleck, afterwards a General in the war of the Rebellion, was relieved as Secretary of State. On the same day Governor Peter Burnett was sworn hy K. H. Dimick, Judge of the Court of First Instance.
The same day, also, Col. J. C. Fremont received a majority of six votes, and Dr. M. Gwin a majority of two for Senators of the United States. The respective candidates for the United States Senate kept ranches, as they were termed; that is they
COLTON ITALL, MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA.
kept open house. All who entered drank free and freely. Under the circumstances they could afford to. Every man who drauk of course wished that the owner of the establishment might be the successful candidate for the Senate. That wish would be expressed half a dozen times a day in as many dif- ferent houses. A great deal of solicitude would be indicated just about the time for drinks.
FIRST INAUGURAL BALL.
On the evening of the 27th, the citizens of San Jose having become somewhat alarmed at the continued grumbling of the strangers within their gates, determined that it was necessary to do something to content the assembled wisdom of the State, and accordingly arranged for a grand ball, which was given in the Assembly Chamber. As ladies were very scarce, the country about was literally "rakcd," to use the expression of the historian of that period, "for señoritas," and their red and yellow flannel petticoats so variegated the whirl of the dance that the American-dressed ladies and in fact the solons them- selves were actually bewildered, and finally captivated, for, as the record further states, " now and then was given a sly wink
64
ACTS AND AMUSEMENTS OF EARLY LEGISLATURES.
of the eye between some American ladies, and between them and a friend of the other sex as the señoritas, bewitching and graceful in motion, glided by with a captured member." But, notwithstanding this rivalry, the first California inaugural ball was a success. "The dance went on as merry as a mar- riage bell. All were in high glee. Spirits were pleuty. Some hovered where you saw them not, but the sound thereof was not lost."
THE NOTED LEGISLATURE.
Speaking of the appellation applied to the first body of Cal- ifornia law-makers, i. e., "The Legislature of a thousand drinks," the same quaint writer says, "with no disrespect for the members of that body, I never beard one of them deny that the baptismal name was improperly bestowed upon them. They were good drinkers -they drank like men. If they could not stand the ceremony on any particular occasion they would lie down to it with becoming grace. I knew one to be laid out with a white sheet spread over him, and six lighted candles around him. He appeared to be in the spirit land. He was really on land with the spirits in bim-too full for utterance. But to do justice to this body of men, there were but a very few among them wbo were given to drinking habit- ually, and as for official labor, they performed probably more than any subsequent legislative body of the State in the same given time.
In the State House there was many a trick playedl, many a joke passed, the recollection of which produces a smile upon the faces of those who witnessed them. It was not infrequently that as a person was walking up-stairs with a lighted candle, a shot from a revolver would extinguish it. Then what shouts of laughter rang through the building at the seared individual. Those who fired were marksmen; their aim was true and they knew it."
THE FANDANGO.
Speaking of the way in which these gay and festive Legis- lators passed their evenings, a writer says: " The almost nightly amusement was the fandango. There were some respectable ones and some which at this day would not be called respect- able. The term might be considered relative in its signification. Il depended a good deal on the spirit of the times and the the notion of the attendant of such places. Those fandangos, where the members kept their hats on and treated their part- ners after cach dance, were not considered of & high-toned character (modern members will please bear this in mind).
There were frequent parties where a little more gentility was exhibited. In truth, considering the times and the country, they were very agreeable. The difference in language, in some degree prohibited a free exchange of ideas between the two sexes when the Americans were in excess. But then, what one could not say in so many words he imagined, guessed, or
made signs, and on the whole, the parties were novel and inter- esting.
AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MEMBERS.
The grand out-door amusements were the bull and bear fights. They took place sometimes on St. James, and some- times on Market Square. Sunday was the usual day for bull- fights. On the 3d of February the Legislators were enter- tained by a great exhibition of a fellow-man putting himself ou a level with a beast. In the month of March there was a good deal of amusement, mixed with a good deal of excitement. It was reported all over the Capital that gold had been dis- covered in the bed of Coyote creek. There was a general rush. Picks, shovels, crow-bars, and pans had a large sale. Members of the Legislature, officials, clerks, and lobbyists, concluded suddenly to change their vocation. Even the sixteen dollars per day which they had voted themselves, was no inducement to keep them away from Coyote creek. But they soon came back again, and half of those who went away would never own it after the excitement was over. Beyond the above interesting, and presumably prominent facts, history gives us very little concerning the meeting of our first Legislature, except that the session lasted one hundred and twenty-nine days, an adjournment having been effected on the 22d of April, 1850.
SECOND SESSION OF LEGISLATURE.
The second Legislature assembled on the Gth of January, 1851. On the 8th the Governor tendered his resignation to the Legislature, and Jolin MeDougal was sworn in as his successor. The question of the removal of the capital from San Jose was one of the important ones of the session, so much so that the citizens of San Jose were remarkably active in cater- iug to the wishes of the members of the Legislative body. They offered extravagant bids of land for the capitol grounds, prom- ised all manner of buildings and accommodations, aud eveu took the State serip in payment for Legislators board. But it was of no use.
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