USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Pomona Valley, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the valley who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 3
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vital experiences. Here, where the first explorer Cabrillo had landed in 1542, was born the life of California Missions and with it that of the State itself. Here were united, after journeys of months, the four expeditions (two by land and two by water) which the Visitador General of Mexico, Don Jose Galvez, had sent out in January, 1769, with great plans for the occupation of California and for christianizing the Indians. Here the leaders of the expedition, Junipero Serra, the Father of the Missions, and Don Gaspar de Portola, civil and military governor of the new territory, on arriving with the second land party, planned together for the work they were to do. Hence Portola and his party set out upon his long but fruitless search for Monterey, to be rewarded nevertheless by the discovery of the Bay of San Francisco. Here for a day the future of all California hung in the balance, when Portola upon the return of his expedition, discouraged by the apparent failure of all their plans, and with starvation facing them, had ordered the party on board the San Carlos to return to Mexico, and Father Serra, having begged for a little delay-even a day-prayed with all his soul for the coming of the relief ship that Galvez had promised,-and watched for it from sunrise until with the setting sun his anguished vision discovered the tiny sail of the long sought ship. "And what does that day mean" asks McGroarty "to California and the world? It means that, had it never been, the wonderful Franciscan Missions of California had never risen. Came never that day on Presidio Hill with Junipero Serra on his knees, there would have been no Mission San Diego de Alcala in the Mission Valley, no Pala in the mountain valley, no San Luis Rey, no San Gabriel or Santa Barbara's towers watching above the sea, no San Luis Obispo or Dolores or any of the twenty-one marvelous structures that dot El Camino Real-The King's Highway-between the Harbor of the Sun1 and the Valley of the Seven Moons, and which to see, untold thousands of trav- ellers make the pilgrimage to California every year."
The Mission of San Carlos at Carmel will always be associated most inti- mately with Father Serra ; it was his favorite,-beautiful above all in his eyes and most beloved, and here in 1784, when his great and blessed work was done, the founder of the Missions rested from his labors.
But every Mission had its own peculiar charm, each had its own strong indi- viduality, and each accomplished its own important work. Certainly this was true of the Mission of San Gabriel. The story of its founding in September, 1771, though well known to all its followers, may not be so familiar now. Father Palou, associate and friend of Junipero Serra and his successor in charge of the Mis- sions, whose story of the Missions is the most direct and authentic, gives the following account: "On the aforesaid sixth of August there set out from San Diego the fathers, Fr. Pedro Cambon, and Fr. Angel Soméra, with a guard of ten soldiers, and muleteers with the supply of provisions. They journeyed toward the north by the road which the Expedition traveled; and having made some forty leagues, they arrived at the River of Earthquakes, Rio de los Temblores, (so called since the first Expedition) and being in the act of selecting a place, there appeared a great crowd of natives (una numerosa multitud de Gentiles), which, armed and commanded by two captains, attempted with frightful shouting to prevent the work of foundation. The fathers believing that a battle was imminent, and that they should suffer misfortune, one of them brought forth a banner bearing the picture of Our Lady of Sorrows, and held it in view of the savages; but no sooner had he done this than, overcome with the sight of an image so beautiful, they all flung upon the ground their bows and arrows, the
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two captains running swiftly to place at the feet of the Sovereign Queen what- ever of value they wore about their necks, as pledges of highest esteem ; manifest- ing by this act the peace which they desired with our people. They summoned all the neighboring rancherias, and great numbers of men, women and children came to see the Holy Virgin, laden with various kinds of seeds, which they left at the feet of the most sacred Lady, believing that she would eat them like the rest. "The native women of the port of San Diego made similar demonstrations after some of the inhabitants were pacified. When shown another picture of Our Lady the Virgin Mary, with the Child Jesus in her arms, as soon as they learned of it in the near by rancherias, they ran to see it, and as they could not enter because prevented by the stockade, they called to the Padres and pressed between the pickets their full breasts, expressing vividly by signs, that they came to offer to nurse the Child, so tender and beautiful, which the Padres had. Having seen the likeness of our Lady, the natives of the Mission of San Gabriel were so changed that they were allowed frequent visits to the missionaries, and as they did not know how to manifest their pleasure in having the latter come to live in their land, they sought to make returns to them in caresses and gifts. They proceeded to lay out a large tract, and 'gave a beginning to the Mission' in the place which they judged suitable, with the same ceremonies which are related in the former account. The first mass was celebrated under a shelter of boughs (enramada), the day of the Nativity of our Lady, the 8th of September, and the following day they began to build a chapel which should serve temporarily for a church and likewise a house for the padres, and another for the troops, all with a palisade and with stakes encircling for defense in any event. The greater part of the timber for the buildings, these same natives cut and uprooted, helping to construct the smaller houses; for which reason the padres remained with the expectation of a happy outcome, and that soon there would be no reluctance to accept the easy yoke of our evangelical law. When these natives were become quite contented, in spite of this good feeling, one of the soldiers did a wrong to one of the chiefs of the rancherias, and what is worse, to God our Lord. The native chief seeking vengeance for the offense done to him and to his wife, gath- ered together all the neighbors of the rancherias near by, and inviting those wlio were able to bear arms, he appeared with them before the two soldiers who, at a distance from the Mission, were guarding and pasturing a band of grazing horses, and one of whom was the wrongdoer. When these saw so many coming armed they put on their leather shields to protect themselves from the arrows and armed themselves, there being no way to give warning to the guard, which did not know of the act of the soldier. Just as soon as the natives arrived within shooting dis- tance, they began to fling their arrows, all making for the insolent soldier; the latter aimed his gun at the foremost, supposing him to be the chief, and firing a ball, killed him. As soon as the others saw the effect and force of our weapons, which they had never experienced before, and that their arrows did no harm, they fled in haste, leaving the unfortunate chief, who though wronged was the one who had to die. From this event it came about that the Indians were intimidated. There arrived, a few days following this, the commandant with the padres, and made preparations for the Mission of San Buenaventura, and fearing that the natives might make some attempt to avenge the death of their chief, he resolved to increase the guard of the San Gabriel Mission to the number of sixteen soldiers. For this reason and because of their small confidence in the rest, in view of repeated desertions, they had to postpone the founding of the Mission of San
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Buenaventura, until the outcome of that at San Gabriel could be seen, wherefore its two ministers remained, with all their belongings, until further notice. The commandant left with the other soldiers for Monterey, carrying away the one who had killed the native, so as to remove him from sight of the others, notwith- standing the scandal which he had committed was hidden both from the com- mandant and from the padres. There remained in this way four missionaries in the curacy of San Gabriel, but the two ministers of this curacy having fallen ill, they had to retire shortly to Lower California, and the two destined for San Buenaventura remained to administer this, and sought with all the gentleness possible to attract the natives, who little by little were forgetting the deed of the soldier and the death of their chief, and began to give some of their children to be baptized, the child of the unfortunate one who was killed being one of the first, whom the widow gave with much joy; and by her example others were giving theirs, and the number of Christians was increased, so that, two years after the founding of the Mission when I was there, they had baptized seventy-three, and when our Venerable Padre died, there were reckoned a thousand and nineteen neophytes."*
The miraculous saving of the founders and the sudden conversion of the Indians augured well for the Mission, and these good auguries were abundantly fulfilled. If the real purpose of the work was the civilizing and christianizing of the Indians, turning them from savagery, ignorance and vice to ways of peace and happiness, training them in the arts and trades of civilization, while at the same time maintaining the material life of the whole community, and contributing also largely to the Spanish government, both provincial and crown; then surely the work of the San Gabriel Mission was fully justified by its results. Only the Mis- sion San Luis Rey surpassed it at any time in material prosperity. East, north and south its cattle by the thousands and its sheep by the tens of thousands ranged the plains as far as the mountains and west to the sea. Thousands of Indians came to live by the Mission, and many more came under its influence. Hundreds at a time were domiciled at the Mission, some of them as neophytes, each with his duties to perform and lessons to learn. In 1817 the population of the Mission itself was 1,701. Far removed from the manufacturing and industrial centers of the modern world, they were so far as possible sufficient to themselves in the production of materials to meet their needs. Under the direction of the fathers the fertile fields yielded all they required and more in food and clothing. Under their direction also, and that of a few skilled artisans who came from Mexico or Spain, the needed trades were taught and plied. Wool was carded, spun and woven into cloth for garments. Leather was made from the hides, and from it shoes and saddles ; a saw mill and carpenter shop worked up the logs hauled down from the mountains. There was a soap factory and a gristmill, "El Molino," whose ruins may still be seen.
Nor was the prosperity of the Mission a material prosperity alone. During the sixty years from its founding in 1771 to 1831 the records of the church show 7,709 baptisms, 5,494 burials and 1,877 marriages. Simple, plain figures these, but what a world of throbbing life the imagination conjures up from these figures ; and the spiritual life to which these padres ministered, who can measure?
* Translated from an original copy of a work in the Mason collection of the Pomona College library, entitled "Relacion Historica de la Vida y Apostolicas Tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra -- escrita por el R. P. L. Fr. Francisco Palou * * * La Isla Mallorca. (1787)
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As the years passed, certain of the old Indian trails through the valley, fol- lowed later by the padres and their workers, became well traveled roads. Two of these roads leading from the Mission eastward, one north of the Puente and San José Hills, the other south, joined in one east of the San José Hills and not far from the Ygnacio Palomares place. Eastward the road ran by way of Cucamonga and the Indian camp there to the Cajon Pass and San Bernardino. Over this road at times teams of oxen and mules hauled loads of logs, for the dearth of timber in the valley suitable for lumber made it necessary to look to the mountains for their supply; and thus a hundred years ago began the cutting of pines on the slopes of the mountains north of San Bernardino and shooting them down the mountain side to the valley below. Over this road too, on their way to and from the Mission, passed the Indians of the San Bernardino and San Gorgonio tribes. Less often, and less often in the forties than earlier, rode or tramped, like Father Serra before them, the brown-clad monks journeying between the Mission and the settlement at San Bernardino.
This settlement had its beginning, according to Caballeria,* in a little station called Politana opened by Captain Juan Batista de Anza of the Presidio of Tubac, in 1774, when he came ; from the Colorado River by way of Yuma to San Diego, passing through the San Gorgonio Pass and resting to feed his company and cattle in the meadows of this valley. A large company, two hundred and forty persons and over a thousand animals, were in this expedition which arrived in the valley that March, but of the beginnings of the settlement and its early history little is known. More than thirty years later, when the activity of the Mission was greatest, the difficulty of caring for the people in this valley remote from the church became so great that it was decided to establish an asistencia, or branch, of the San Gabriel Mission here. It was the 20th of May, 1810, when the band of missionaries from San Gabriel laid the foundations of the chapel. As the day was the festival of San Bernardino, the name of San Bernardino was given to the asistencia. Yet now, after three or four decades, its brief life was over and little was left to show for it. All the buildings were destroyed and only a handful of the native tribe of Indians remained. In 1810 there had been a large village of these natives, which was called Guachama, the "place of abundant food and water." Among them the life of the Mission had begun to thrive as in fertile soil. But the Indian tribes of the mountains and desert, the Coahuillas and Serranos, always hostile to the valley tribes, soon became more fierce than ever. After the great earthquake of 1812, when fresh springs of hot water charged with sulphurous gas boiled up from the bowels of the earth, these hostile tribes, be- lieving that the Great Spirit was displeased with the invasion of the newcomers, combined in an attack upon the rancheria and asistencia, burning and tearing down the buildings and massacring the Indians of the Mission. But the Guachamas rallied and the Missionaries renewed their work among them, rebuilding the church in 1820. Then for another decade the work prospered in spite of repeated raids by the desert Indians, when they plundered the Mission stores and drove off the best of their stock. Yet in 1830, says Caballeria, 5,000 head of cattle belonging to the herds of this branch were killed and their hides taken to the Mother Mission. Its prosperity, however, was short-lived. In the following year, 1831, the desert Indians came again and completely destroyed the buildings, carrying off all the cattle. From this blow the Guachamas never recovered; and while the Mission at
* Caballeria-History of San Bernardino.
* This was probably the first expedition of white men to cross the mountains to the Pacific Coast.
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San Gabriel still ministered for a time to the little group which remained, the church was never rebuilt, and the asistencia as a branch of the Mission was abandoned.
Moreover, the best days of the Missions were over. The days of power and expanding growth were passed. During his life Junipero Serra had been the energizing force of the whole Franciscan order. Following his plans, guided by his counsel, thrilled by his masterly sermons, inspired by his enormous sacrifices and courage, the fathers had accomplished their marvelous achievements. And long after his death they had continued the beneficent service, with this inspiration living in their hearts and urging them to carry on the work for which he had given his life. Throughout the Spanish era, whatever the rivalry or conflict between the authority of the Franciscans and that of the military, in the Mission field there had always been the sympathetic backing of the Crown with its ultimate authority. With the separation of Mexico from Spain in 1822, this royal support was cut off, and the new government regarded the chain of Missions primarily as an important source of income, little valuing its importance in the industrial and educational development of the province, or even as a factor in maintaining order. But for a time the Franciscans continued their work under the Mexican regime, without active support from the government, yet without interference beyond the exaction of heavy revenues.
August 17, 1833, is called by one historian the darkest day in the history of California, -- "the beginning of the end of the Mission era in California." On this day the Decree of Secularization was issued by the Congress of the Mexican Republic. By this decree the government took possession of the great holdings of the Missions,-buildings, stock and stores,-selling them at auction to who- ever would buy, and at their own ridiculous prices. The explanation of this most unrighteous confiscation is given by McGroarty as follows :
"The Spanish Crown, and later the Mexican Government, which succeeded the Spanish Crown, had successively on their hands military establishments in California which subsisted on the industry of the Missions. The soldiers did not work, but had to be fed just the same. Both Spain and Mexico, in the course of time, came to owe the Missions a great deal of money for the food and supplies which were furnished to the various presidios and garrisons. Looking the matter over coonly and calculatingly, after the manner of thrones and nations in the pain of poverty resulting from criminal waste and extravagance, they decided that it would be easier to boldly confiscate the Mission establishments, with all their fruittut nelds, orchards, flocks and herds, than to pay the debts they owed them."
One after another the Missions were abandoned, the Franciscan friars scat- tered and the neglected buildings began to crumble in decay. What might have been the fate and future of the Missions if California had become a State of the Union before the Secularization can only be conjectured. The earlier treatment of Indians by our government does not furnish a hopeful analogy. Very com- mendable are the movements recently inaugurated for the restoration of the Mis- sion buildings, but these are entirely of a private nature, and aim only to preserve in artistic beauty the monuments of a life whose heart and soul have passed away. By the time when California was admitted to the Union, the chain of Missions which had stretched along the "King's Highway" from San Diego to San Fran- cisco, was a scattered train of deserted ruins. Yet not all were abandoned.
In several of the Missions the padres stayed on, ministering to the faithful who remained. In the beautiful old buildings of the Santa Barbara Mission, the
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Franciscans still live their monastic life, sleeping on the bare cots of the cloistered cells, their sandaled feet still treading the paths of the beloved garden. At San Gabriel especially the Mission was not deserted, though its entire life was revolu- tionized. There were no longer hundreds of Indians going out to their work after early mass, some to till the fields, some to work in the orchards or mills and others to herd the cattle. The organization of a great institution with its throbbing complex life complete in itself was broken up, its members as well as its machinery and material all scattered.
But surrounding the Mission buildings, outside the walls of its immediate authority, had grown up a considerable village dependent upon the Mission, con- tributing something to its life and directly or indirectly tributary to it. Not only the immediate environs but the whole great valley, over which the Mission herds had roamed, was 110 less Mission territory. Indians and Mexicans alike still looked to the Mission at San Gabriel as the heart of the region, pulsating with its life streams.
With this entire change in its organization, there were three different courses open to the padres; they might abandon the Mission and return to Mexico or other Spanish provinces ; they might remain and live a secluded hermit life within the old walls; or they might turn, though sorrowfully, from the direction of the inner life of a great institution now dead, and give themselves as priests to serve the people in the new field around them. The very magnitude of its former work and the extent of its field made the opportunity and need of this new service peculiarly pressing for the Mission of San Gabriel. To this labor the padres now directed their attention with heart and soul.
Thus, briefly enough from the standpoint of one who is interested in their story for its own sake, but at some length, it may seem, for a local history, we have endeavored to sketch the rise and fall of the Missions, especially that of San Gabriel ; for only with this as its background can one see in anything like its proper perspective the figures of the early days in the San José Valley. The San José ranch was in fact a part of this Mission field, not only during the forties but for a generation later.
INDIANS OF THE VALLEY
Long before the Spaniards came to the Valley there were the Indians, here, as everywhere else in America, the aboriginal natives. What were their tribes? Were they peaceable or warlike? Where did they live and how? And what became of them?
One historian says that when the explorers discovered this coast, and during the century following, "The hills and valleys of California were more thickly peopled than was any other part of the continent."* That this Valley held its share is evident from the quantities of relics, arrowheads, wampum, and pottery turned up by the plow. But the Mexicans who first built their adobe homes on the Rancho San José found no large villages nor populous tribes. What they did find were little bands of Indians, families and groups of families, making their camps by the cienegas and streams, and moving from place to place as their whim or need prompted them.
Very different are the pictures which different writers have given us of these Indians. One writes: "They had no names for themselves, no traditions and
* Norton-Story of California.
Others estimate the number of Indians in California before the Americans came as about 100,000.
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no religion. They were lazy and indolent to a degree and made no attempt what- ever to till the soil. In their dealings with the white men they were much given to petty thieving and treachery. On occasion they committed murder. The lives they led subjected them to many diseases. Such a thing as a marriage relation appears to have been almost wholly unknown among them and there was no such thing as morals." Helen Hunt Jackson, on the other hand, in her charming story of Ramona, has so idealized the Indian in Alessandro that one finds little likeness to the real native of California at any time or place. While some idealization may be permitted in a romance of this sort, with its evident and worthy purpose, still the same author in her "Glimpses of California and the Missions" writes, "The San Gabriel Indians seem to have been a superior race. They spoke a soft musical language, now nearly lost. Their name for God signified 'Giver of Life.' Robbery was unknown among them, murder was punished by death, and marriage between those near of kin was not allowed."
Somewhere between these extremes lies the real truth about the Indians found on the Rancho San José in the forties, and it is probably much nearer to the impression given by the first of our historians quoted than that of the latter, if we may judge from our conversation with the older Mexicans, from our early knowledge of the Indians still remaining and from the pictures of their life which one may sketch considering anthropologically the relics in the way of implements and apparel which have been collected. Certainly the natives of Southern Cali- fornia, like those of Arizona and New Mexico, were an inferior race as compared with those of the North, East and Middle West. Physically they were not strong, lithe and active like the Cheyenne or Sioux, but squat, fat and unattractive. Treacherous and untrustworthy they were, and ready to kill on provocation or for gain, but not brave or fierce. While groups living not far apart could not understand each other, so different were their dialects, yet they were not separated into sharply distinct tribes with well-defined tribal characteristics. There is little doubt that these natives were less advanced than those of the Channel Islands, whose very habitat had compelled them to learn many things and to be able to do many things unknown and unnecessary to the natives of the mainland. They were also less vigorous and active than the mountain Indians in whom the breath of the pines, the cold water and snows of the summits and the climbing over range and canyon, as they hunted mountain sheep, wildcat and bear, had developed a more rugged physique. Here in the Valley, amid milder surroundings, the natives were lazy and dirty, living on a low plane both physically and mentally.
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