USA > California > Nevada County > History of Nevada County, California; with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and manufactories > Part 4
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 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
DAILY UNION OFFICE
DAILY UNION OFFICE
DAILY UNION OFFICE
DAILY UNION OFFICE.
GRASS VALLEY DAILY UNION, CHAS. H. MITCHELL, PROPRIETOR, BUILDINGS SOUTH WEST COR. MAIN & MILL STS.
19
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
CHAPTER V.
THE MISSIONS OF ST. FRANCIS.
Their Moral and Political Aspect Domestic Be momy- The Establishments Described Secular and Religious Occupations of the Neophytes Wealth and Productions Liberation and Dispersion of the Indians - Final Decay.
CERTAIN writers npon the carly history of California have taken an unfavorable view of tho system under which tho missionary Friars nchioved their wonderful success in rednc- ing the wild tribes to a condition of semi-civilization. The venerable Fathers are accused of selfishness, avarice, and tyranny, in compelling the Indians to submission, and forci- bly restraining them from their natural liberty, and keep- ing them in a condition of servitnde. Nothing could be moro unjust and absurd. It were as well to say that it is cruel, despotie, and inhuman to tame and domesticate the wild cattlo that roam the great plains of the conti- nont. The system of the Fathers was only our modern reservation policy humanized and christianized; inasmuch as they not only fod and clothed the bodies of the im- provident natives, but. likewise cared for their imperishable souls. The cure of Indian souls was the primary object of the Friar enthusiasts; the work required of the Indians was of but few hours' duration, with long intorvals of rest, and was only incidental to the one great and holy purposo of spiritual conversion and salvation. Suroly, " No greater " love hath auy man than that he lay down his life for his " friend:" and it is a cruel stretch of sectarian nucharity to charge selfishness and avarice to the account of self-devoting mon who voluntarily went forth from the refinements, pleas- ures, and honors of European civilization, to traverse the American wilderness in sandals, and with only one poor gar- ment a year, in order to uplift the degraded and savage tribes of Paganism from tho regions of spiritual darkness, and lead thom to the heights of salvation; nay, even to starve and die on the "coral strand " of California in helpless and deserted ago. In 1838, the Rov. Father Sarria actually starved to death nt the Mission ef Soledad, after having labored there for thirty years. After the Mission had been plundered through the perfidy of the Mexican Government, the old man, broken by age and faint with hunger, lingered in his little church with the few converts that remained, and one Sunday morning foll down and died of starvation before the altar of h's life-long devotion. O, let not the Christian historinn of California, who is yet to write for all time to come, stain and distort his pages by such cruel and unworthy charges against the barefooted paladins of the Cross.
To entirely comprehend the system and proceedings of the Friars, it will be essential to know the meaning of certain descriptive terms of their institutions of settlement. These were-
1st. Presidios.
2d.
Castillos.
31.
Pueblos.
4th. Missions.
'Tho presidios were the military garrisons, established along the coast for the defense of the country and the pro- tection of tho missionaries. Being the headquarters of the military, they became the seats of 1 cal government for the different presidencies into which the country was divided. There were four of these presidios in Upper California-at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. They were uniform in structure, consisting of adobe walls twelve or fourteen fect high, inclosing a square of three hundred feet on each side, defended at the angles by small bastions mounting eight twelve-pounder bronze cannon. Within were the barracks, storehouse, a church for the sol- diers, and the commandant's residence. On the outside they were defended by a trench twelve feet wide and six deep, and were entered by two gates, open during the day, and Tho entire management of each mission was under tho care of the Friars; the elder attended to tho interior, and the other the out-doors administration. One large apart- ment, called the monastery, was occupied exclusively by Indian girls, undor tho watchful care of the matron, whore they were instructed in such branches as were deemed nocos- sary for their future condition in life. They were not per- mitted to leave the monastery till old enough to be married. In the schools, such children as manifested adequate capac- ity, were tanght vocal and instrumental music, the latter consisting of the flute, horn, and violin. In the various closed at night. The number of soldiers assigned to each presidio was limited to two hundred and fifty; but there were rarely so many at any one station. In addition to the duty of guarding the coast, small details of four and five men, under a sergeant, acc. mpained the Fathers when they went abroad to establish missions, or on other business. A certain number of troops was also assigned to each mission, to keep order and defend the place against the attacks of hostile natives. They dressed in buckskin uniform, which was supposed to be impervious to arrows, and the horses, too, were incased in leathern armor, like those of the mechanical departments, the most ingenions and skillful knights of old. were promoted to the foremanship.
The castillo was a covered battery, near the presidio, which it was intended to gnard. It was manned and mounted with a few guns, and thongh bnt a slight defense against a power- ful enemy, it served to intimidate and keep off the feeble and timorons Gentiles.
The pueblo was a town, inhabited originally by discharged soldiers who had served out their time at the presidios. It was separate from the presidio and mission, the lands hay- ing been granted by the Fathers. After a while other per- sons settled there, and sometimes the inhabitants of the pueblo, or independent town, outnumbered those of the neighboring mission. There were only three of those
pueblos in Upper California-Los Angeles, San Jose, and Branciforte, the latter near Santa Cruz. San Francisco was ut a pueblo. There were threo classes of these settlements, in later times-the pueblo proper, tho presidiol, and the mission pueblo. The rancherias were King's lands, sotnpart for the use of the troops, to pasture their cattle and horses.
The mission was the parent institution of the whole. Thero the natives resided, under religious treatment, and others were not allowed to inhabit the plavo, except for a very brief time. This was to prevent the mingling of whites and natives, for it was thought that the former would contami- nato and creato discontent and disorder among the nativos. The missions were all constructod on the same general plan. They were quadrangular adobe structures, two stories high, enclosing a court-yard ornamented with foun- tains and trees; the whole consisting of a church, Fathers' apartments, storehouses, barracks, ote. The four sides of the building were each about six hundred foot in length, one of which was partly occupied by tho church. Within the quadrangle, or court, a gallery, or porch, ran round the second story, opening npon the workshops, storerooms, nud other npartments.
The daily routine of the establishment was usually as fol- lows: At sunrise they all arose and repaired to the church, where, after morning prayers, they assisted at the Mass. The morning religions exercises occupied about an hour. Thence they went to breakfast, and afterwards to their re- spective employments. At noon they returned to the mis- sion, and spent two hours at dinner and in rest; thence to work again, continning nutil the evening angelus, abont an hour before sundown. Then, all betook themselves to church, for evening devotious, which consisted usually in ordinary family-prayers and rosary, but on special occasions other devotional exercises were added. After supper, they
20
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
amused themselves in various games, sports, and dances till bedtime, when the unmarried sexes were locked up in sepa- rate apartments till morning. Their dict consisted of good beof and mutton, with vegetables, wheateu cakes, puddings, and porridges, which they called atolo and piuole. The men dressod in linen shirts, pants, and a blanket, the latter sery- ing for an overcoat; the women had each two undergarments, a new gown, and a blanket every year. When the missions had grown rich, and in times of plenty, the Fathers distrib- nted mency and trinkets among the muore exemplary, as re- wards for good conduct.
Tho Indians lived in small huts grouped around, a couple of hundred yards away from the main building; some of these dwellings wore made of adobes, and others were of rough peles, conical in shape and thatched with grass, such as the people had been acenstomod to in their wild state. Here the married Indians ro ided, with their families. A tract of Innd, about fifteen miles squaro, was apportioned to each mission, for cultivation and pasturage. There is a wide distinction between the signification of the terms " Mission " and " Mission lands; " tho former referred to the houses, vineyards, and orchards, in tho immodiato vicinity of the churches, and also included the cattle belonging to the establishment; while mission lands, assigned for grazing and agriculture, were held only in fief, and were afterwards claimed by the Government-against tho loud remonstrance of tho Fathers, howover. Tho missions were originally in- tended to be only temporary in duration. It was coutem- platod that in ton years from the time of their foundation thoy should ceaso, as it was then supposed that within that period the Indians would be sufficiently prepared to assumo tho position and character of citizens, and that the mission settlements would become pueblos, aud the mission churches parish institutions, as in older civilizations; but having been . neglected and nndisturbed by the Spanish Government, they kept on in the old way for sixty years, the comfortable Fa- thers being in no hurry to insist on a change.
From the foregoing, derived chiefly from Gleeson's valn- able werk, " History of the Catholic Church iu California," it will be inferred that tho good Fathers trained up their young neophytes in the way in which they should go. Alexander Forbes, and other historians, say that during church-time a sort of beadle weut around with a long stick, aud when he perceived a native inattentive to the devo- tions or inclined to misbehave, gave him or her an ad- monitory prod, or a rap ovor the cabesa ! But all authorities, both Catholic and Protestant, agree conceruiug the gentle-
ness and humanity of the Fathers, who were absolute in anthority and unlimited in the monarchy of their little king- doms. Not that there was never any application of severe and necessary discipline; there were among the Indians, as well as in civilized society, certain vicious and turbulent ones, incapable of affection and without revereuce for au- thority, and these were soundly whipped, as they no doubt deserved, and as such crooked disciples now are at San Quentin. Occasionally some discontented ones ran away to the hills, and these were pursued and brought back by the mission cavalry. They generally returned without much trouble, as they had an idea that, having been baptized, something dreadful would happen to them if thoy staid away.
While modern sentimentalists may lament that these poor people were thus deprived of their natural liberty and kept in a condition of servitude, it must be admitted that their moral and physical situation was even better than the aver- age poor in the European States at that time. Their yoke was easy, and their burdens were light; and if, in the Christian view of things, their spiritual welfare be taken into account, the Fathers, instead of being regarded as despots and task- masters, must be viewed as the substantial benefactors of the swarthy race.
The wealth created by some of the missions was enormous. At its era of greatest prosperity, the mission of San Gabriel, founded in 1771, numbered three thousand Indians, one hundred aud five thousand cattle, twenty thousand horses, forty thousand sheep; produced, annually, twenty thousand bushels of grain, and five hundred barrels of wine and brandy. Attached to this mission were seventeen extensive ranches, farmed by the Indians, and possessing two hundred yoke of oxen. Some of the old fig and olive trees are still bearing fruit, and one old Iudian woman still survives who is said to have reached the incredible age of one hundred and forty years. In 1836, the number of Indians at the mission of Upper California was upwards of thirty thousand. The number of live stock was nearly a million, including four hundred thousand cattle, sixty thousand horses, and three hundred thousand sheep, goats, and swine. One hun- dred thousand cattle were slaughtered annually, their hides and tallow producing a revenue of nearly a million of dol- lars, a revenue of equal magnitude being derived from dif- ferent other articles of export. There were rich and exten- sive gardens and orchards attached to the missions, orna- mented and enriched with a variety of European and tropical fruit trees, including bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, to
which were added productive and highly cultivated vine- yards, rivaling the richest grape-fields of Europe. When the missions were secularized and' rnined by the Mexican Government, there were above a hundred thousand piasters in the treasury of San Gabriel.
But, evil times were coming. In 1826, the Mexican Cougress passed an act for the liberation of the mission Indians, and the demoralization and dispersion of the people soon ensued. Eight years thereafter, the number of Chris- tian Indians had diminished from thirty thousand six hun- dred and fifty to four thousand four hundred. Of the eight hundred thousand head of live stock only sixty-three thon- sand remained. Everything went to rack and ruin, and what had been a land of a bounding life and generous plenty, reverted to sileuce and desolation. At the mission of St. John Capistrano, of the two thousand christian population only one hundred remained; of the seventy thonsand cattle, but five hundred were left; of the two thousand horses, only one hundred survived, and of the ten thousand sheep, not one remained.
And then, after sixty years of cheerful and successful labor, and from happy abundance in which they had hoped to die at last, went forth the downcast Fathers, one after another; some in sorrow to the grave, some to other and rougher fields of missionary labor, an.l others to be dis- persed among the widespread retreats of the Brothers of St. Fraucis. And the swarthy neophytes-the dark-eyed maid- eus of San Gabriel, whether went they ? Back to the savage defiles of the mountains, down to the depths of barbarism. to wander in the lonely desert, to shiver in the pitiless storm, and to perish at last under the ponderous march of a careless and unfeeling civilization.
Print CHAPTER VI.
DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS.
Results of Mexican Rule-Confiscation of the Pious Fund -- Revolution Begun -- Events of the Colonial Rebellion-The Americans Appear and Settle Things-Annexation at Last.
IN 1822 Mexico declared independence of Spain, and in :- mediately the old missions began to decline. Four years afterwards the Christian Indians were removed from under the control of the Fathers, their mann- mission having been ordered by the Mexican Government. They were to recoive certain portions of land, and to be entirely independent of the Friars. The annual salaries of
TRANSCRIPT PRINTING OFFICE
NEN
TR
ISCRIPT BTING - TOFFICE
PP
TRANSCRIPT
OFFICE OF THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT, NEVADA CITY, NEVADA COUNTY, CAL'A.
21
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
the Fathers, which had been derived from interest on the Pions Fund, were withheld and appropriated by the Govern- ment, aud soon after the fund itself was confiscated by the Mexican Congress, and used for the purposes of state. The Pious Fund was the aggregated donations of the Cath- olio world for the maintenance of missions in Lower and Uppor California, the interest being abont fifty thousand dollars aumnally, which went for the support of the Fathers. This large som, principal and interest, the beggarly Mex- ican Goverment meant to steal, amounting in 1817 to one million two hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars. Professor Gleeson, writing in defence of the Fathers, makes out n fearful bill of damages against the perfidions Government, amounting to no less than twelve millions two hundred thousand dollars, which will probably never be paid by that rather shaky republic. The missions were thus practically ruined. Following the rapacious ex- amplo set by Government, the white settlers laid violent hands on the stoek and lands belonging to the missions, and, having returned to their mountain fastnesses, tho Indians in- stitntod a prodatory warfaro against the settlers, carrying off their goods, cuttlo, and sometimes their wives and children. The whites retaliated in kind, villages were destroyed, nud the whole country, highlands and lowlands, was kept in a state of apprehension, rapine, and spoliation, resembling tho condition of Scotland in the times of the Jacobites.
ยท
/ In the meantime, in 1836, a revolt against the Mexican Government was projectod by the white settlers, who soized npon Monteroy, the capital, and declared the country inde- pendent. Thirty American rifleman, under Isaac Graham, frem Tennessee, and sixty mounted Californians, under General Castro, composed the entiro insurgent army, Alva- rado being the generalissimo. They advanced on nnd took tho territorial capital in Novomber, Governor Gutierrez and his seventy mon having valiantly shut themselves up in the fort, where thoy ignominiously surrenderod at the very first gun. Gutierrez with his officials was deported to Lower California, and Alvarado had himself appointed Governor in his stead. Don M. G. Vallejo was appointed military Com- mandant-Genoral, and Don Joso Onstro was created Prefect of Police. The country was then formally declared a free and independent State, providing that in the case the then oxisting central Government of Mexico should be over- thrown and a federal constitution adopted in its stead, California should enter the federation with the other States. The people of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara refused to acknowledge the new territorial administration, but Alvarado
marched upon Los Angeles, where he was met by Castello, and, instead of a bloo ly battle, it was agreed that Alvarado should recognize the existing central Government of Mexico, and be proclaimed political chief of California, pro tem., while Castello was to proceed to Mexico as deputy to Con- gress, with a salary of three thousand piasters a year. The Government of Mexico deelined to confirm the arrangement, and appointed Don Carlos Carillo Governor of the Terri- tory. Alvarado again went to war, and, with a small eom- pamy of Americans and Californians, marched against Carillo, the new Governor, at Santa Barbara. The valiant Carillo, having a wholesome dread of the American sharp- shooters, retired from the fieldl withont a battle, leaving Alvarado master of the situation. The pusillanimons char- acter of the then existing Mexican Government is illustrated by the fact that Alvarado was confirmed as Constitutional Governor of California, notwithstanding he had been the leader of the rebellion.
Then ensued a succession of spoliations which destroyed the laborious enterprise of sixty years, and left the ohl missions in melancholy rnins.
Alvarado bestowed upon his English and American fol- lowers large grants of land, money, and stock eonfiseated from the missions. Graham, the captain of the band, obtained a great landed estate and two hundred mnles. To tho commandant, General Vallejo, fell the goods and chattels of the missions of San Rafael and Solano; Castro, the Pre- fect of Monterey, received the property of the San Juan B.mutista, while Governor Alvarado himself appropriated the rich spoil of the missions of Carmelo and Soledad.
In the meantime a conspiracy against Alvarado was set on foot by certain of his English and American compatriots, the objeet being the admission of California to the American Union. The conspirators were forty-six in number, twenty- five English and twenty-one Americans, nnder command of Graham. Alvarado soon heard of the design, and sent a party of soldiers, under Castro, to Monterey, surprised the revolutionists in their hut, and ponred in a volley of mns- ketry, disabling many of them ; the balance were taken prisoners, and afterwards deported to San Blas and thence to Tepic, where they were treated as convicts. The Ameri- cans and English in California appealed to the Mexican Government, and President Bustamente became alarmed at the danger of war with England and the United States, and ordered the exiled prisoners to be sent back to California, and that they should be indemnified for their loss of time at the rate of three piasters a day. The returned prisoners, im-
mediately on their arrival, resumed their design with greater energy than before, having determined to be revenged on Castro and Alvarado for the ontrages they had intheted.
In 1841 other Americans arrived, and the revolutionary party was considerably increased. Alvarado demanded ro- inforcements from Mexico, but the only assistance ho received was that of three hundred convicts from the Mexi- can prisons. At this jnneturo, Santa Anna, the now Prosi- dent, removed Governor AAlvarado from offico, appointing Micheltorena in his stead, and when the latter arrived, Mon- terey, tho capital, bad previously fallen into the hands of the American Commodore JJones, although then in the posses- sion of the Mexicans. Commodore Catesby Jones, having heard that war had been declared between the United States and Mexico, hastened to Monterey, took possession of tho city, and hoisted the American colors; but learning his serious mistake on the following day, ho lowered his flag und made a becoming apology. This extraordinary incident oc- cnrred on the twontieth of October, 1812, and it was then obvious that the distraeted country must soon fall into the hands of the United States, or some other foreign nation.
One of the first acts of the new Governor, Micheltorena, was the rostoration of the missions to the Friars, after a turbulent interregnum of six years. But this net of policy and justice camo too late; the missions were ruined beyond the possibility of resuscitation. The Indians had been dis- persed, many of them living by hrigandage, and others hud beeome wandering vagabonds. After two years' exertion by the Fathers things began to improve; some of the Indians had returned, and the lands were being recultivated, when the Government again interfered, and ordered Gov- ernor Pio Pieo, in 1845, to dispose of the missions, either by sale or rental, to the white settlers. Thus, at length, the last of the property which the Fathers bad created by sixty years of patient labor, passed into tho posses- sion of private individuals; many of the Fathers were re- duced to extreme poverty, humiliation, and distress, and the missions went down, never to rise again. The destruc- tion of the missions was almost immediately sneceeded by the war between the United States and Mexico, and the long vexed territory passed to the American Union.
22
HISTORY OF NEVADA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Print CHAPTER VII.
PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE.
Extent of the Mission Lands-Varieties of Product Agricultural Imple- ments and Means of Working -A Primitive Mill-Immense Herds and Value of C'attle- The First Native Shop.
Up to tho time of tho American conquest the productive lands of California were chiefly in the hands of the mission- arios. Each of the missions included abont fifteen miles square, and the boundaries were generally equi-distant. As the science of agriculture was then in a very primi- tive condition in Spain, the Monks of California could not be expected to know much about scientific farming. They know nothing about the ntility of fallows, or the alternation of crops, and their only mode of renovating exhausted soil was to let it lie idle aud under the domin- ion of native weeds until it was thought capable of bear- ing crops again. Land being so abundant there was no occasion for laborious er oxpensive processes of recupera- tion.
The grains mostly cultivated were Indian corn, wheat, barley, and a small bean called frijol, which was in general nse throughout Spanish America. The beans, when ripe, were fried in lard, and much esteemed by all ranks. of people. Indian corn was the bread-staple, and was culti- vated in rows or drilis. The plow nsed was a very primitivo affair. It was composed of two pieces of wood; the main piece formed from a crooked limb of a tree of the proper shape, constituting both sole and handle. It had no mould-board or other means for turning a furrow, and was only capable of scratching the surface of the ground. A small share, fitted to the point of the sole, was the only iron abont the implement. The other piece was a long beam, like the tongne of a wagon, reaching to the yoke of the cattle by which the plow was drawn. It consisted of a rongh sapling, with the bark taken off, fixed into the main piece, and con- nected by a small npright on which it was to slide np or down, and was fixed in position by two wedges. When the plowman desired to plow deep the forward end of the tongne was lowered, and in this manner the depth of the furrow was regulated. This beam passed between the two oxen, a pin was pnt through the end projecting from the yoke, and then the agricultural machine was ready to run. The plowman walked on one side, holding the one handle, or stilt, with his right hand, and managing the oxen with the other. The yoke was placed on the top of the cattle's heads close be- hind the horns, tied firmly to the roots and to the forehead by thongs, so that, instead of drawing by the shoulders and
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.