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 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
Mission of San Juan Bautista, orchard and vineyard; date of foundation of mission, 1797; J. S. Alemany, Archbishop of Monterey and Los Angeles, confirmee; 55 acres.
Real de Las Aguilas; F. A. MacDongall, et al., confirmees; granted in 1844; 31,052 acres.
San Joaquin; Cruz Cervantez, confirmee; granted in 1836; 7,425 acres.
San Antonio; Manuel Larios, confirmee; granted in 1846; 4,493 acres.
Tract near San Juan Mission; P. Breen, confirmee; granted in 1839; 401 acres.
San Justo; F. P. Pacheco, contirmee; granted in 1839; 34,619 acres.
San Lorenzo; Rafael Sanchez, confirmee; granted in 1846; 23,843 acres. (This rancho is partly in Monterey county.)
Santa Ana and Quien Sabe; Manuel Larios and heirs of Anzar,
confirmees; granted in 1839; 48,822 acres in the aggregate.
Los Vergeles; James Stokes, confirince ; granted in 1835; 2,085 acres. (This rancho is partly in Monterey county.)
Total area of San Benito county, 676,000 acres.
Total area of private grants, 233,100 acres.
Total area of public land, 442,898 acres.
The foregoing data and information are in part obtained from the report of Hon. J. W. Shanklin, State Surveyor-General, for the year 1879-80.
141
ACCOUNTS AND DATES OF THE FIRST MISSIONS.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA MISSION.
The Mission of San Juan Bautista is perhaps, by reason of its comparative antiquity, its highly favored situation and picturesqueness, and the memories that cling around its decaying walls and silent cloisters, entitled to more than a passing notice. It seems to be a natural impulse of the human miud to revere age in man, and to be awed by the presence of ancient and crumbling ruins.
When we stand in the presence of crumbling ruins, unused and going to decay, but which, we know, were peopled in past ages by onr own kind-by men who, like ourselves, were sub- ject to the changes and chances of life; who were swayed by or inastered passions identical with ours; who had survived or were fostering life's ambitions as we are-we feel that we are standing on stepping-stones in the swift stream of ages, by which we may descend to the past, and again ascend from the past to the present, to commune-not with the actors, for they are long since dead, and we, perhaps, are standing on their very dust -- but with their spirits, which in conceit, we think, may still come flitting around their former haunts.
Under such circumstances, and in sach a presence, we natur- ally and without effort, turn to Volney, dreaming amidst the ruins of Palmyra, and join in his invocation: " Hail, solitary ruins! holy sepulchres and silent walls! To yon I address my invocation ! While your aspect averts with secret terror the vulgar regard, it excites in my heart the charm of delicious sentiments-sublime contemplations. What useful lessons ! what affecting and pro"ound reflections you suggest to him who knows how to consult you!"
He is indeed eold and indifferent, whose heart does not warın, and go out in sympathy and admiration for the tribulations and triumphs of the early Franciscan Friars, the founders of the missions in Upper California, who were the architects and builders of those " mud temples " that dot the valleys of our California, from San Diego to Sonoma, many of which are ruins, scarcely distinguishable from the mounds that mark the habitations of the early inhabitants of this continent-the " mound builders," whose very name is lost to us. But the majority of the missions are still standing, silent, but truth- ful and incorruptible witnesses to the energy, skill, and zeal of the friars of St. Francis.
FORBES' ACCOUNT OF THE MISSIONS.
Mr. Alexander Forbes, the first English historian of Califor- nia, who, as is well known, was not over friendly to the friars in California, either from a political or religious stand-point is constrained to speak of the early California missionaries as follows: "It is indeed impossible to read the accounts of the settlement of the two Californias, by the Spanish missionaries, without feeling the greatest admiration and reverence for the
bold and pious men who undertook and accomplished the most arduous task of civilizing and Christianizing these savage coun- tries. It may be true that the means they adopted to accom- plish their ends, were not always the wisest; that the Chris- tianity they planted, was often more of form than substance, and the civilization in some respeets, an equivocal good; still it cannot be denied, that the motives of these excellent men, were most pure; their benevolence, their industry, zeal, and courage, indefatigable and invincible."
Something more than ordinary zeal and self-denial, was necessary to prompt those men, reared in monasteries, and unused to manual toil, to forego the comforts of civilization, even as the comforts were found in the cloister, and plung into a wilderness to " preach the word," and spiritually subjugate the savages of California. Before speaking of the Mission of San Juan Bautista and its founders, it will not be out of place to glance hastily at the social and political history of California, from the time of the first settlement down to the time when the missions were secularized.
DATE OF FIRST MISSIONS.
The priests of the Jesuit order, were the first to establish missions in what is now known as Arizona and Lower Califor- nia. This was as early as 1697. Before their labors were com- pleted, they were, by royal edict, banished from the Spanish dominions, and the care of the missions was transferred to the Franciscan Friars. The Jesuits were expelled from Lower California in 1767. In the following year Junipero Serra, a Franciscan Friar of great zeal and learning, and whose labors and life are interwoven into the history of the California mis- sions, was appointed missionary president of the Californias.
Friar Serra entered upon his ministry with determination and spirit. Not satisfied with the work accomplished by his predecessors in Lower California, he determined to civilize the natives of Upper California.
With this end in view he embarked from one of the gulf ports in Lower California, carrying a supply of cattle, imple- ments and seeds, to cultivate and seed the soil. The first mis- sion established in Upper California was San Diego, theni fol- lowed San Carlos, near Monterey. These two points were probably used by the friars as bases of supplies, and thereafter the missions lying intermediately, were established as time and circumstances permitted. The last missions established in Upper California, are those of San Rafael and Sonoma. These were founded by the civil authorities, and were intended more as strategetic points, to guard against the encroachiuents of the Russians, who had establishel a trading-point at Bodega, than as eivilizers of the Indians.
Under the administrations of Friar Serra, and his successors in office, twenty-one missions were established in Upper Cali- fornia. Their names, and chronological order of foundation,
142
THE SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS.
are as follows: San Diego, 1769; San Carlos, 1770; San Gabriel, 1771; San Antonio, 1771; San Luis Obispo, 1772; San Francisco (Yerba Buena), 1776; San Juan Capistrano, 1776; Santa Clara, 1777; San Buenaventura, 1782; Santa Bar- hara, 1786; La Purissima, 1787; Santa Cruz, 1791; Soledad, 1791; San Jose, 1797; San Juan Bautista, 1797; San Miguel, 1797; San Fernando Rey, 1797; San Luis Rey, 1798; Santa Ynez, 1804; San Rafael, 1819; Sonoma, 1823. The last named is the only mission that was established after the date of Mexican independence, September 27, 1821.
SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS.
By secularization, as used in this connection, is meant the appropriation of church property, or property under the con- trol of a church, to secular or common use; and the transfer of the civil government of a place, from a monastic or religious, to a secular or political government.
The first attempt to secularize the missions of California, was made by the Governor and territorial deputation of California, on January 6, 1831, under the preteuse of ameliorating the condition of the natives. To that end a bando or decree was issued, designating the mode of parceling out the lands and property of the missions. The attempt was abortive in conse- quence of not having the countenauce of the Home Government. The question was again agitated, and the Congress of Mexico, on the 17th of August, 1833, passed an Act of secularization, which received the executive sanction. By this law, the title to the mission property passed to the Government. The missions were converted into parishes, and each parish was placed in charge of a priest, of the secular clergy. The churches of the several missions, with their sacred vessels, ornaments and vestments, and such adjacent huildings as were necessary for habitations, were assigned for the use of the parish. The expense of enforcing this law, was to be defrayed out of "the estates and revenues, at present recognized as the pious fund of the missions of California."
FREE PASSAGE AND DONATIONS OF LAND.
It heing the purpose of the Mexican Government to increase the population of California, a colonization scheme was inaug- urated. Free passage, and liberal donations of the Government domain (the lands of the ex-missions), were offered to all who would emigrate to California, settle there with their families, and assist in establishing local, self-sustaining governments. The offer was accepted by many. Hijar was commissioned Governor of California, and director of colonization. He was authorized to take charge of all the mission property, esti- mated at that time to be of the value of four million dollars, in grain, cattle, hides, and specie. Hijar left Mexico with a motley crew for California, traveling overland. On reaching
his destination, he was informed that his commission had been revoked, and Governor Figueroa, with the advice and consent of the territorial deputation, decreed that the mission lands, and all the personal property of the late missions, belonged to the converted Indians, aud that they were the only owners thereof. Regulations were accordingly promulgated by Governor Figueroa, and the territorial deputation, for distributing the mission lands to every adult Indian, married or single; and likewise to equitably distribute one-half of the personal property among the pueblo Indians; the other half to remain at the disposal of the general Government. Hijar and his chief fol- lowers were subsequently arrested by the California authorities, and returned to Mexico, and that was the end of the Mexican colonization schemes in California.
SAN ANTONIO MISSION.
The plans of Governor Figueroa did not fare any better. Very few of the Indians availed themselves of the offer. A grant of a small tract for gardening purposes was made in 1838 to Ygnacio Pastor, a former shepherd of the mission flocks, at San Antonio. This title, which was originally a " garden spot," as the name milpitas indicates, grew in extent as it progressed to final confirmation, uutil the judgment of the United States Supreme Court, in Atherton vs. Fowler, decreed that the holder of the Milpitas title was entitled to eleven square leagues-forty-three thousand two hundred and eighty and ninety one-hundredths acres of land. By this judgment, fifty families were ejected from their homes, where they had lived and toiled, many of them for a quarter of a century, in the belief that their homes were part of the Govern- inent domaiu. Doubtless the courts reached an honest con- clusion, governed as they must have been by the testimony and by well established principles and precedents. But it is to be regretted that such precedents were ever established in Cal- ifornia, with respect to Mexican or Spanish grants of land.
Figueroa was honest and patriotic, and hoped to accomplish some good for the Indians under the secularization laws, but his efforts were futile in consequence of not being seconded by the leading men of California. Figueroa died at Monterey, on September 29, 1835, and was succeeded by General Castro. After Castro, the following were the Governors of California, in the order named: Nicolas Gutierrez, Mariano Chico, Nicolas Gutierrez, Juan B. Alvarado, Manuel Micheltorena, and Pio Pico. Pico was governor at the time of the conquest hy the United States. If any one of these several governors was anxious to accomplish the reformis coutemplated by the secularization laws, it is to be remarked, and regretted, that each sigually failed.
When the secularization laws were passed in 1833, the mis- sions of California were in a flourishing and prosperous con- dition. Up. the coast. from San Diego to Sau Francisco, and
POST OFFICE
EMMET POST OFFICE, RESIDENCE OF G.W. TOWLE. SAN BENITO CO. CAL.
CINNABAR POST OFFICE AND RES.OF C.Y.HAMMONO, SAN BENITO CO.CAL
RESIDENCE AND FARM OF S.F. WATSON, TRES PINOS, SAN BENITO CO. CAL.
"ROME RANCH RES. OF LUIGI RAGGIO, NEAR SAN JUAN, SAN BENITO CO.CAL.
143
FOUNDATION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA MISSION.
thence across the bay to San Rafael, was a complete chain of missions; the Indians had all been reclaimed and subjected to missionary control; they tilled the soil, gathered the harvests, and worked in the shops as suithis and carpenters, but always under the guiding hand of the padres. This sustaining hand heing removed, it was natural that the Indian, with rare exception, should relapse into a state of semi-harbarisnı. This relapse was hastened by the inconsiderate conduct of the "political chiefs " of California. The entire control of the temporal affairs of the missions being committed to the civil and military authorities, an indecent scramble for the spoils at once began, and the padres heing powerless to stay the retro- grade movement, the accumulations of half a century were soon dissipated, and the unfortunate Indians werc relegated to a condition infinitely worse than their savage state.
FOUNDATION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA MISSION.
The Mission of San Juan Bautista was the fifteenth in order of establishment, in Upper California. The following extract from the mission records, tells the simple story of the founda- tion. The extract is a literal copy of an entry in Book One of Baptisms, San Juan Mission Records :--
VIVA JESUS.
" Libro primero de Bautismos, de la mision de San Juan Bautista, precursor de Jesus Christo.
FUNDADA
A expensos del Católico Rey de las Españas, Carlos IV. (Dios le guarde), y de orden del Exmo. Sor Marques de Branciforte virey de N. E. en el paraje llamado por los naturales Popu- lusium, y por los nuestros, desde la primer descubrimiento, San Benito.
COMENZADO
El dia proprio del Santa Patrono Titular, 24 de Junio de 1797. En el que yo, el infrascrito Presidente de las Misiones de la Nueva California, encargados por su magestad al apostolico colegio de Propaganda Fide de San Fernando de Mexico; con asistencia de los R. R. P. P. Pred'res App.cos Fr. Magin Catala y Fr. Josef. Manuel de Mortearena; de la tropa destinada a guarnacer el Establecimiento, presentes muchos Gentiles con- tornos, que se mostraron muy placenteros: bendije agua, el lugar, y una Cruz grande, que adoramos y enarbolamos. Enton'e inmediatamente la letania de los Sautos, y cante la misa en que predicé, exortando a cooperar a tan Santa obra, solemnemente el Te Deum. Todo sea para mayor honor y gloria de Dios Nuestro Señor Amen.
Queda asi. el parage constituido en Mision, dedicada al glorioso precursor de Jesu Christo Sor Nuestro, el Señor San Juan Bau-
tista, en su proprio dia, y con facultad del App'co Colegio de San Fernando de Mexico de Proproganda Fide, Nombré para sus primeros ministros misioneros a los R. R. P. P.Pred'res App.cos Fr. Josef. Manuel de Mortearena y Fr. Pedro Adriano Martines.
FR. FERMIN FRANCISCO DE LASUEN."
From the foregoing it will be seen that the corner-stone of the mission church was laid ou June 24, 1797. Excatly fifteen years and one day thereafter, the structure was completed and dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, as appears from an entry in Book One of Baptisms, page one hundred and twenty-six, of which the following is an epitomized tarnslation ---
"On this 25th day of June, 1812, Fernando VII. (whom God preserve), being King of Spain ; Don Fernando Venegas, Vice- roy of New Spain ; Jose Joaquin Arrillaga, Governor of Cali- fornia; Esteban Tapis, President of the missions in California, and Fr. Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, minister at the mission, was celebrated the henediction (dedication) of the new church at San Juan Bautista."
FIFTEEN YEARS CONSTRUCTING THE CHURCH.
Fifteen years seems a long time to devote to the erection of the church, even when we consider the character of the laborers and the rude tools and appliances used in its construction. But it is manifest that work on the church building, as we find it to-day, was not steadily prosecuted till its completion. It is likely that that part of the present church now used as a vestry, was first constructed, and occupied as a temporary place of worship until habitations for the civilized Indians and neophytes, and store-houses could be preparedl. I doubt if a huilder of our day would care to bind himself to finish the present church at San Juan and the adjacent buildings, in less time than fifteen years, having no other or better mechanical' appliances, and resources, tban were at the command of the padres. Sce view on page 17.
THE MISSION BUILDINGS.
The mission buildings proper at San Juan consisted of the church, and the adjacent buildings occupied as habitations by the friar in charge and his assistants, and used as store-honses for the tallow, hides, grain, and mission stores. These build- ings are still, in the main, in an excellent state of preservation. A short distance from these, say five hundred yards, stood the buildings allotted to the neophytes for dwelling-places. These latter consisted of two rows of buildings three hundred feet long, under a common roof, and separated by an aisle or hall- way. Each apartment w 's provided with a single door and window; the door opened from the hall-way, and the window to the outside, to give light and ventilation. There was no means of intercommunication between the apartments. Into these
144
HOW THE MISSION CHURCHES WERE CONSTRUCTED.
apartmeuts, it is said, the unmarried of botb sex, adult as well as children, were separately locked at night, the key being in charge of the friars, or the major-domo, generally an Indian of reliable character, corresponding, we may believe, to the " trusty " in the modern jail.
These buildings were standing, roofless, in 1850, but there is now notbing to mark their place, save the mounds made by the crumbling walls. The church and adjoining buildings were so constructed as to form an inclosure or court, two hun- dred feet square. This court served the double purpose of a recreation ground for the padres, and as a protection against sudden raids of bostile Indians, which sometimes occurred in the early days of the mission, Two sides of this court are still standing, and are well preserved; the other sides are long since gone to decay. In clearing away the rubbish of adobes, brieks and tiles, left by the falling of the west wall of this inelosure, wbich obstructed what is now known as Third street in San Juan, the road master found a roll of sixty silver dollars, all coin of the Spanish realm, and mostly of very early dates in the seventeenth century. Perhaps some neophyte of the mission, who bad not profited by the teachings of the padres, bad appropriated the coins from the mission funds, and secreted tbem in a erevice of the adobe wall, wbere they were forgotten and remained till the wall crumbled, and the piek and spade of modern improvement brought thein to light again.
Many of the mission churches of California were of excellent arebitectural design, well constructed and finely ornamented, with cornices, niches and capped pillars. This was particularly the case where a stone found in many parts of California, and well adapted to building purposes, was accessible; as was the case at tbe missions of Carmelo and San Luis Rey. The latter is said to have been the most cominodious, substantial and ornate church structure in Upper or Lower California.
HOW THE BUILDING MATERIAL WAS PREPARED.
None of this building stone was found in the vicinity of San Juan Bautista, so that its church is built entirely of adobe (sun- dried briek) and ladrillo, a species of briek that was baked in a subterranean kiln. Tbe adobe was made out of a species of soil, common to most parts of California. The material was mixed with straw, thoroughly kneaded by hand and foot, moulded into the desired dimensions, and afterwards spread upon the carth to dry in the sun, being turned twice in the process of drying, to prevent eracking. The regulation adobe was about thirty inebes long by sixteen wide and four thick, and weighed fifty pounds. The bricks were made of clay, mixed and kneaded like the adobe, and baked in subterranean kilns, with a slow fire. These briek were twelve inches long, by eight wide and two thiek, and are wonderfully durable, as may be seen in the mission church and corridor; the floors of which (being laid with this briek) are hardly abraded by the wear and tear of three-quarters of a century.
ARRANGEMENT OF INTERIOR OF MISSION.
The mission church proper at San Juan, is plain, externally, and in the interior-but not unseemly. The walls are of adobe, wbile the arches are sprung with briek. The building is one hundred and ninety feet long, from the entrance door to the altar. It is forty feet high, from floor to ceiling, and thirty feet wide. The plan of the interior is in the form of a cross. The ebancel is separated from the nave by a railing, over which is sprung an arch spanning the full width of the church. Tbe nave is subdivided, on either side, into seven sections, by as many arches, now filled up, but so constructed as to be easily opened, and so to treble the standing and kneeling capacity of the church. (Pews were unknown in the old times. The worshipers stood and kneeled alternately, as the devotional exercises required.) There are three altars in the church : at the end of the nave, in the sanctuary, is located the principal one, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, tbe titular saint of the mission ; behind this altar is a wooden structure, or wall, extending as high as the ceiling, eut into niches, and gaudily painted and freseoed. These niches are occupied by statues representing various saints ; the place of honor being held by a life-size image of St. Johu, of strikingly fine conception and execution. The transept contains two altars, one on either side. These are less pretentious than the one just referred to, and are painted and decorated in true Mexican style.
The buildings adjacent to the church, and which were for- merly used as habitations and store-houses, were so built as to form, with the church, the two sides of the court spoken of before. These buildings front on a corridor, wbieb is sup- ported by twenty arches, resting on pillars of brick.
CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS AND ROOF.
All the walls are built of adobe, while the arches and pillars are constructed of brick. The whole is roofed with tejas, or Mexican tiles, which are kiln burnt and shapedl with the hand into the form of a longitudinal section of a truncatedl cone. These tiles were laid in the following manner: Redwood sapplings, of convenient length and about six inches at the butt, were used for rafters; these were sceured to a ridge-pole with thongs of soaked rawhide; on the rafters was then spread a layer of willow boughs, and the whole was covered, to the depth of about two inches, with a layer of soft mud; the tiles were then laid on this bed side by sidle, convex side down, aud overlapping at the ends. Adown a row of tiles so placed, another row was laid, so as to present an unbroken surface to the wind, and effectually shed the rain. The tiles were kept in place by their owu weight, and the mud which held them fast. Being laid in mud which soou hard- ened, there was no danger of a erack or break in the tile, whiel had an equal bearing on all its parts ; nor was it possible that
145
DEATH AND BURIAL OF A NOTED MISSIONARY.
the tiles could ever slide from their place, on account of the flat- ness of the roof, the angle of its inclination being seldom more than ten degrees-barely sufficient to shed the rain.
It is manifest that the projectors of these buildings had in view the ravages of Time's decaying hand, as well as the earth- quake shock, and accordingly, made due provision for their permanency.
The walls throughout are massive, being of a uniform thick- ness of four feet, and provided, in all cases where the wall is over twenty feet high, with exterior supports or abutments of brick; these walls were covered with a thick coat of lime mortar, which, as is the case with the Mission of San Juan, has resisted the encroachments of the wind and rain down to the present time. Not until now have the most exposed parts given any sign of yielding to the merciless and continued pelting of the rain and wind, than which there is nothing more trying to work of this kind,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.