USA > California > Los Angeles County > Pasadena > History of Pasadena, comprising an account of the native Indian, the early Spanish, the Mexican, the American, the colony, and the incorporated city, occupancies of the Rancho San Pasqual, and its adjacent mountains, canyons, waterfalls and other objects of interest: being a complete and comprehensive histo-cyclopedia of all matters pertaining to this region > Part 12
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Wilson eventually hired some Mexican cartinen [in 1849 or '50] to haul them up from San Pedro, where they had lain in the salt water until that time and were badly "pock-marked." He planted them, muzzles down, in front of his store on corner of Main and Commercial streets, and two of them remain there yet, Trissier Photo just as he put them ; but at the centennial celebration of the founding of Los Angeles city The historic cannon at corner of Main and Commercial streets. - Photo 1895. (1881) two of them were placed on corners at the old court house; and in 1892 these two were removed to west front of the new court house, where they may now be seen.
As soon as Gillespie had been driven out, as above noted, Don Manuel Garfias (our Pasadena first patentee) was sent with a small troop of mount- ed inent to retake Santa Barbara, where a garrison of ten men had been
*" There is a general agreement that Gillespie promised to deliver his field pieces at San l'edro, but broke his promise."-Hist. Cal., Vol. 5, p. 315.
+" Manuel Garfias, one of the Californian leaders, marched with two hundred men to Santa Bar- bara," etc .- Hitlell's Hist. Cal., Vol. 2. p. 600. This is a big exaggeration, for Garfias had not to exceed fifty men-but nearly all our American writers magnify the Mexican numbers.
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left by Commodore Stockton or Fremont to hold the place. They heard of his approach, and escaped in the night. Garfias left a small Mexican gar- rison there, and one also at San Buena Ventura, and then returned to Los Angeles with forty or fifty recruits for Gen. Flores' army, but did not ar- rive until after the battle of Dominguez. He brought in as a prisoner from Santa Barbara an American named George Nidever, who refused to give his parole ; but Nidever escaped from Garfias at Los Angeles, succeeded in reaching Stockton's army, and was in the battles of January 8 and 9, 1847. This Nidever was the same man who afterward in 1853 discovered and res- cued the native Indian woman who had lived on San Nicholas island en- tirely alone for eighteen years. He was offered $1,000 to sell her for a traveling show ; but he was opposed to slavery, and refusing the golden bribe, he gave her protection and a home in his own family till she died.
THE BATTLE OF DOMINGUEZ.
On reaching San Pedro, Lieut. Gillespie embarked with his troops Oc- tober 4, for safety, on the merchant ship Vandalia, which chanced to be ly- ing there. October 6 Capt. Mervine arrived there from San Francisco with the U. S. frigate Savannah. On the 7th he landed 350 of his men, who were then joined by Gillespie's men, but without horses or cannon, for Gil- lespie told Mervine that the Mexicans had no artillery, as he had brought away and destroyed all their cannon, and therefore he would need none. This force of 400 men marched to the Dominguez ranch house and camped there for the night. The next morning, October 8, they formed in march- ing order and started for Los Angeles, but were immediately attacked by a force of ninety men under Don Jose Antonio Carrillo, one of the Spaniards whom Gillespie had so indiscreetly arrested only three weeks before. Car- rillo had a small brass cannon, [the historic " Woman's gun "], which his men manœuvered by hauling it about with rawhide ropes tied to the pom- mels of their saddles. They would dash forward and fire it at Mervine's marching column, then gallop off with it out of musket range and reload, then back to the front, discharge it, and off again. They fired four times in this way during a running fight of about three miles, and had loaded again with their last ball; but by this time six Americans had been killed and six or seven wounded, and Mervine retreated to San Pedro, buried his dead on Deadman's Island, and re-embarked his crestfallen troops.
On his retreat, Mervine stopped at the ranch house again, and com- pelled an old workman there to hitch up an ox-cart and haul the dead bodies to the beach at San Pedro. During these operations some accoutre- ments of killed or wounded men and a flag were carelessly left behind. These were gathered up by Carrillo's men as trophies of their victory. During the next month, November, Don Antonio F. Coronel started as a commissioner to Mexico to obtain funds and other aid for Gen. Flores'
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army ; and carried with him the American flag captured at Dominguez as a proof of their patriotic prowess. But he did not succeed in reaching Mexico.
Different writers have given somewhat varying accounts of this battle, but I have relied chiefly on that written by Stephen C. Foster, who came to Los Angeles with the Mormon Battalion, (as did also our Gen. Stoneman,) in March, 1847, and served as government interpreter two years there, and also as alcalde or district judge ; then was elected to the first constitutional convention, where his services were exceedingly valuable, because he was a proficient Spanish scholar and familiar with the old Spanish archives .* From various writers I gather that no Mexicans were killed or seriously wounded in the battle of Dominguez. They had no cannon balls, only some rude ones that were hammered out by a blacksmith, and no powder except some very inferior stuff which they made themselves at San Gabriel. After his account of this battle, Foster continues :
RUSE DE GUERRE AT SAN PEDRO.
"The next day Commodore Stockton arrived [from Monterey] with the remainder of his ships, [another writer says, October 23, on the ship Con- gress .- ED.] and landed 800 men and six light guns, to march on the town [Los Angeles] next day .; But Carrillo manœuvered his force of 400 men [he had been reinforced by ranchmen and others from Temple's ranch, Sepul- veda's ranch, and other points .- ED.] by forming them in a circle in columns of fours, so that some eighty men could be seen at once from the ships' mast-heads marching toward the beach and disappearing in a hollow. The middies were in the topmasts with their spy-glasses, counting the enemy's force, and by dark they had counted more than two thousand ; and they were still marching when night fell. Stockton re-embarked the next day and proceeded to San Diego."}
Stockton had found that there was no chance for him to get a supply of horses at San Pedro necessary to mount a portion of his troops and haul the artillery ; and he knew of the friendly aid Don Juan Bandini had given to Fremont six months before. These were reasons for his going to San Diego, where there was also safe harborage for his ships-which there was not at San Pedro at that time of year ; and he arrived there about Novem- ber I. Bandini was away at his Guadalupe Rancho in Lower California, and the Mexican adherents had driven all cattle and horses to inland points
*Foster married Jose Perez's widow, who was the first white woman that ever lived on Rancho San Pasqual. [See Chap. 3.]
+ 'Carrillo now assembled a vast cavalcade of wild horses from the plains, and dispersing his mounted troops among them, the whole body was kept constantly in motion, passing and repassing a gap in the foothills plainly discernible from the roadstead. Owing to the dust raised by this cavalcade it was impossible to discern that all the horses had not riders, when it was seen that some had."-Hist. L. A. Co., (1880) p. 43.
įB. D. Wilson was then at Temple's ranch (Cerritos) as a prisoner, and saw Carrillo's strategic dis- play of men and horses ; and he wrote in his memoirs that Stockton did not land any troops ; but Stock- ton himself made official report that he did land them. And I explain Wilson's mistake in this way : While Carrillo was performing his hippodrome strategy, Gillespie was trying to land fifty marines but was signaled back, aud all returned to ship ; and this part Wilson saw, but did not see the rest. Yet the next day Stockton himself put 800 men and six cannon ashore ; but not being able to get any horses or oxen to haul the artillery, nor any horses to mount skirmishers or scouts, he re-embarked and sailed to San Diego.
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beyond the reach of the Americans .* While awaiting events here, Stock- ton learned that Gen. S. W. Kearny was marching overland from Santa Fe.
THE BATTLE OF SAN PASQUAL.
On December 6, 1846, Gen. Kearny had reached the Indian village of San Pasqual in San Diego county, ; with 160 men and three cannon; and here he attacked a force of eighty Mexicans who had no cannon, under Don Andres Pico, another of the Spaniards whom Gillespie had unwarrantably arrested and locked up in his guard house at Los Angeles on September 17. A hot battle was fought, in which Kearny himself was wounded, and also Lieut. Gillespie who had been sent by Stockton to join him. Dr. John S. Griffin of Pasadena fame, was surgeon on Gen. Kearny's staff ; and in his journal he reported the American loss as eighteen killed, three mortally wounded, sixteen wounded who recovered, one missing and never accounted for. In addition to this, three were taken prisoners by the Mexicans, and they also captured one brass cannon. The Mexicans had none killed, but eleven were slightly wounded, and one of them had to have a leg amputated .¿ One of their men was taken prisoner. Commodore Stockton got word of the affair the next day, and immediately dispatched a force of 200 men to Kearny's relief. By this aid Kearny arrived at San Diego December 12, with his wounded and the remnant of his command. The San Diego residence of Don Juan Bandini was Commodore Stockton's headquarters, and that of Bandini's brother-in-law, Santiago E. Arguello, was used for a hospital.§ Dr. Griffin of course had charge of the wounded in their improvised hos- pitals at San Diego. Another man in the battle was Kit Carson, whose son afterward figured in Pasadena, and whose cousins and a nephew reside here yet.
Bandini was a man of superior intelligence and culture. He had be- come heartily tired of the continual revolutions and changes of government in Mexico and California ; he had always been friendly to Americans as traders here ; he believed the United States could give them a stable gov-
*"Rancheros must at once remove their live stock from the coast beyond reach of the naval forces ; whoever refuses is a traitor."-Order of Gov .- Gen. Flores, October 17, 1846.
+" San Pasqual of battle memory is thirty-four miles northeast from the city of San Diego, close to the foot of the mountains."-Tourists' Guide to S. Cal., p. 61.
#In his report to the Secretary of War, Gen. Kearny said : "The enemy succeeded in carrying off all their dead except six " This was such a brazen and ludicrous false pretense on his part that the sol- diers dubbed hit "Except-Six Kearny"-and this nickname stuck to him through life. Sergeant Falls, who was in the battle, spoke at a meeting of Mexican War Veterans at Sau Francisco in June, 1885, and said the Mexicans captured the cannon by lassoing its lead horses ; but Kearny had tried to belittle the prowess of the Mexicans by claiming that his artillery horses merely took fright and ran away into the enemy's lines. I have learned that the man who did that historic job of lassoing was Mannel Rubio of San Gabriel, uncle to our Jesus Rubio ; and Manuel's uncle Casimiro was wounded at the same time, as mentioned by Bancroft. Then Manuel's brother, Francisco Rubio, was fatally wounded in the battle at Laguna ranch, was hauled home from the battle field in a cart by his nephew, Jesus Rubio of ubio can- you fame, and died the next day at San Gabriel.
¿Stockton had taken Bandini's house for army use. His headquarters mess was there, and the band from his flag-ship " Congress"; and the commodore would often invite the Bandini family and oth- ers to dine with him, and would have the band play during the dinner hour. See Davis' "Sixty Years in Cal.," p. 418. This Davis's wife was niece to Bandini's first wife, and cousin to Mrs. Col. Baker of Los Angeles, owner of the Baker block, the Laguna ranch, and other great properties.
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ernment, and he preferred it to any English protectorate. With these views, he and his brother-in-law, Arguello, had espoused the American cause. The Mexican government had ordered all the ranchers to drive their cattle, horses, hogs and sheep to the mountains, beyond reach of any American troops that might land along the coast. Bandini then owned two great ranches, Guadalupe and Tecate, in Lower California,* and he refused to obey this order, but instead had armed all his tenants and employes, ready to fight if any Mexican troops attempted to enforce that order on his lands. This was the situation in November and December. Stockton's army was literally "out of meat ;" and now he sent an expedition down in- to Lower California, which became very famous by reason of " a woman in the case," Dona Refugio Bandini, who made from her children's garments the first American flag ever made on the Pacific coast, and thus at the time met a serious emergency for an American army officer marching without a flag.
THE ARMY FLAG MADE FROM CHILDREN'S DRESSES.
During the winter of 1882-83 Mr. H. C. Dane learned from Col. R. S. Baker and wife, and Dona Refugio Bandini and her daughters, Mrs. Dr. Winston and Mrs. Charles R. Johnson the particulars of the first American flag ever made on the Pacific coast. Mr. Dane wrote out the story and it was published in The Home Guardian magazine of Boston, for April, 1883. And from its pages, 154 to 157, (Vol XLV, No. 4,) I make the following extracts :+
" Cut off from all other sources of supplies, the Commodore despatched a vessel down to Todos Santos Bay, [now called Ensenada] opposite the San Guadalupe rancho, with 200 men under command of Major Hensly, with orders to land and proceed to Guadalupe, and there obtain the neces- sary supplies of Don Juan Bandini. When the vessel arrived at Todos San- tos Bay, Don Juan was there, secreted among the rocks, awaiting them. With Major Hensly and his men Don Juan returned to his rancho, where he gave to him 500 cattle, 200 horses, and eight carretas, or long, narrow carts, usually drawn by four, six, or eight yokes of oxen each.
"As the Mexican forces were hovering about Bandini's ranches, es- pecially about the San Guadalupe, in great numbers, and realizing that he and his family would no longer be safe in their vicinity, Don Juan, with all his family, left the rancho with Major Hensly and started overland for San Diego, where he had a very large house-a kind of Spanish palace.}
"In due time the party arrived at La Punta, fifteen miles below San Diego, where they went into camp for the last night. In the morning Major Hensly, wishing for a flag to head his column, to his chagrin and dis- gust discovered that none had been brought with them from the vessel.
*He had previously owned the Jurupa ranch [Riverside] and the Rincon de Santa Ana ranch in the San Gabriel district.
+In the Centennial History of Los Angeles Co., pp. 32-33, Col. J. J. Warner gives some account of this Bandini flag incident ; but there is no other account of it so full and anthentic as this one by Mr. Dane.
*" Our administrador, Don Juan Bandini's mansion, then in an unfinished state, bade fair when completed to surpass any other in the country."-"Life in California." p. 13, March, 1829. By Alfred Robinson, who is still living (1894), and now a banker in San Francisco, although blind.
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This placed him in a very unpleasant condition, for to enter the town with no colors flying, would seem to denote that he dared to carry none ; and a still more distressing consideration was that Commodore Stockton, upon see- ing a heavy column entering the town with such an array, and displaying no flag, might very naturally take them as a band of the enemy, and open his broadsides on them.
"In his distress, Major Hensly made known his mortifying condition to Don Juan, and very naturally that gentleman communicated the fact to his devoted wife. And now occurred a wonderful display of woman's wit, and but for the attending circumstances, it might also be denominated humor. Approaching the crest-fallen Major, the smiling lady said :
"' Why, Major, I will furnish you with a flag.'
"' You will furnish me with a flag ? Pray tell me how !' replied the surprised officer.
"'Oh, leave that to me,' rejoined the lady. 'When the column is ready to move there shall be a United States flag at its head, to guide and herald our entree to San Diego, my home by the sea.'
" Dona Refugio immediately called to her side her three children, Do- lorosa, aged ten, who was dressed in red satin; little Margarite, aged eight, clad in spotless white ; and tiny Juan de la Cruz, seven years of age, who wore a suit of navy blue. The three suits were exchanged for others ; and while the stock was feeding and breakfast being served, the garments from her little ones were cut into stripes and stars, and by the mother's cunning fingers formed into as perfect a star-spangled banner as ever was kissed by the breath of heaven sweeping in from the broad Pacific ; and when Major Hensly was ready to take up his line of march, Dona Refugio presented to him the first starry flag that ever floated over lower California, or the city of San Diego, and with it at the head of the column, they marched proudly and safely into the town, while the vessels at anchor roared their hearty salutes of welcome.
" That same evening the bands of the frigates Congress and Savannah came on shore and gave the beautiful Dona Refugio a grand serenade in honor of her kind devotion to the glorious flag ; and the following evening Commodore Stockton, attended by his officers, waited upon the fair Dona to tender his thanks in person for her marked attention to his command. And when the gallant Commodore was presented to Dona Refugio, he took her right hand into both of his, saying with deep emotion : 'And this is the hand that made that flag. In the name of my country and my government, I say to you, madam, that whatever the owner of this hand shall ever ask of them shall promptly be granted. I shall take that flag to Washington, and tell my Government that it was the first American flag to wave over California and was made by a native lady.'
" When the war was over, and peace between Mexico and the United States restored, Don Juan Bandini found himself deprived of his five ranchos in Lower California, because he was listed as a traitor to Mexico. And to- day his widow and children are deprived of them because of the kindness of himself and family to our officers.
"During all that war, and long after, the house of Don Juan, in San Diego was a constant hotel and hospital for our naval and military officers, where his beautiful wife and lovely daughters* served and ministered unto
*" The ladies were mostly quite haudsome, particularly those of the families of our friends, Ban- dini and Carrillo. The daughters of the former were, though very young, yet very beautiful "-Life in Californi, p. 20, by A. Robinson, March, 1829.
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them more as mothers and sisters than as strangers. Of this many officers bear witness.
"To that house Gen. S. W. Kearny was taken from the battle-field when struck down, and he found in Dona Refugio the kindest and most attentive nurse. Within that home Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Grant, Hancock, Stevenson, Stoneman, Magruder, Johnston, Lee, Stuart, and many others who subsequently wrote their names high on the pillar of fame, ever found a warm-hearted welcome and free-hearted hospitality.
" Years have passed ; and now Dona Refugio in her old age finds her- self dependent upon her relatives, and simply because of the self-sacrificing devotion of herself and husband to the American flag .* : The fingers that made the first flag in the growing dawn of that far-off day have lost their cunning, but the noble heart that inspired the act has lost none of its love for the starry banner. As Dona Refugio and her two daughters, Do- lorosa and Margarite, both mothers now, related to me the incidents of those days, the eyes that had so often greeted with sparkling smiles the great chieftains, when they were young officers winning for us the Golden Land, filled with blinding tears, and the lips that had so often cheered them on to heroic deeds, quivered with pain and sorrow as they spoke of the neg- lected vow, and the matron's dependency in her old age. [1882-83.]
"When the Walker filibustering expedition passed through California on their way to Central America, ; they robbed the store of Don Juan Bandini, literally clearing it out of $60,000 worth of property, leav- ing him and his family penniless. After the death of her noble husband, remembering the solemn vow of Commodore Stockton to her, Dona Refugio prayed the United States Government to recompense her, at least, in part for her loss sustained at the hands of American citizens ; but to that prayer no reply has ever been made."
This is the story of the flag, as gathered from three of the women themselves, besides other members of the family, by Mr. Dane. And from various sources I learn that Commodore Stockton deposited that flag among the historic relics of the Navy Department, and it is preserved there yet. He did what he could to have Bandini reimbursed, as did also Col. Fremont, and his father-in-law, Senator Benton of Missouri ; and at a later period Gen. Beale, and also Gen. Sherman tried to have justice done in the matter. The claim was lumped in with many others, and has been several times before Congress, with favorable recommendation ; and yet the family say to this day [1894] even the cattle and horses which Bandini furnished to Commo-
*When Bandini was in the Mexican Congress he opposed the State-church party and supported the final and mandatory act to secularize the Missions, which was passed August 17, 1833. This act was simply to separate church and state, and establish religious freedom, the same as in the United States- a contest which had been going on hotly in Mexico for ten years. He steadily and faithfully favored the United States, as against the State-church party of Mexico, and against any scheme for turning Calitor- nia over to England. I take pains to mention these matters here, because he was "black listed" by the State-church party as a traitor to Mexico, and his large estates thus confiscated ; and because of this par- tizan record against him in Mexico, many superficial or careless American writers have done him gross injustice. And even in Pasadena a street that was first named Bandini avenue in honor of this worthy man and wife as true-hearted and original Spanish-Americans, was perversely changed to Michigan avenue. Such a historic disgrace ought not any longer to stand against Pasadena's fair name.
+Mr. Dane was mistaken here. Walker had taken Lower California ; and theu with some recruits from San Francisco in March, 1854, he set out to march around the head of the gulf of California into Sonora and capture that province also, and this was the time his men looted Bandini's store. His Cen- tral America expedition was later-1856-57. See Cyclopedia Americana, Article "Walker, Wm."
#The robbing of the store might be grounds for a claim against the local authorities of county or state, but could not be against the United States.
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dore Stockton at this time, and to Fremont in July previous, and without which they could not have reached Los Angeles at all, have never been paid for .*
Wm. Heath Davis, who was an intimate friend of the Arguello and Bandini families, in his book, "Sixty Years in California," p. 438, says :
"Don Santiaguito Arguello furnished large quantities of army supplies to Stockton from his extensive rancho eleven or twelve miles from San Diego -several hundred head of cattle and horses, and for which he had a claim against the government amounting to $14,000. The claim was sent to Washington by Major Lee, commissary-general for the Pacific coast. Stock- ton's attention being called to it [he was then U. S. Senator from New Jersey] he exerted himself effectually in its settlement, and in a few months Arguello received his money."
The ranch referred to by Davis was that of Tia Juana, which had been · granted to Arguello's father in 1829.
Of this Bandini family, Don Juan died at Los Angeles, November 2, 1859. Dona Refugio died there June 28, 1891. The little Dolorosa whose dress furnished the red for that historic flag, is now [1894] Mrs. Charles Robinson Johnson of 433 South Main street, Los Angeles ; little Margarite whose dress furnished the white for that flag, is now Mrs. Dr. James B. Winston (widow) of Los Angeles ; and little Juan de la Cruz, whose 7-year old boy suit furnished the blue for the flag, is now engaged in the cattle trade between the United States and Mexico. Mrs. Col. R. S. Baker, (wid- ow) of Los Angeles, was an older sister, and not with the family on that occasion ; and Arturo, so well known in Pasadena, was a younger brother, not born until 1853.1 Three of the Bandini girls married American hus- bands ; and one of the boys, Arturo, married an American wife.
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