USA > California > Riverside County > History of Riverside County, California > Part 2
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HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
Alarcon, who was to co-operate with him on the line of the Colorado river, which he ascended for quite a distance, landing at several points and having intercourse with the Indians who lived upon its shores.
Cabrillo continued his explorations along the northern coast and returned to winter at the island of San Miguel, one of the Santa Barbara islands, where, as the result of an accident, he died and was buried in 1543. His successor in command, Bartolome Ferrolo, con- tinued the explorations, during the following season, as far north as the Oregon line, and as a result the Spaniards claimed all the ter- ritory up to the forty-second degree of north latitude, which claim they maintained for fully three hundred years, notwithstanding the fact that Sir Francis Drake landed upon the California coast in 1579 and claimed sovereignty over it for Queen Elizabeth. The Spaniards attempted no further explorations until Viscayno led an expedition, some sixty years later, over virtually the same route as that followed by Cabrillo. It was he who gave most of the present names to our channel islands and the prominent points along the southern coast.
It was Viscayno's party which first came in close contact with the Southern California Indians, who appear to have been very numerous at that time. It is evident that at first these people looked with favor upon the strange white race, if we may judge by the offer of a chief of one of the large rancherias to give ten wives to each Spaniard of the party who would become a resident of his village. Viscayno seems to have been the original California "boomer," for he was so enthusiastic over the California climate and productions that in his official report to the Spanish king he commends every- thing most highly. The people were reported of a gentle disposition, of good stature and fair complexion, the women being of somewhat larger size than the men and of pleasing countenance. The object of Viscayno's boom literature was to promote a scheme for the found- ing of a settlement at Monterey bay, but before the expedition was organized Viscayno died, and the scheme died with him. Had he lived, the settlement of California would undoubtedly have ante- dated the settlement of the English in Virginia.
It is difficult to realize the long period of time elapsing between the first visit of the Spaniards and their first attempt to make a permanent settlement. Nothing more clearly indicates the deterior-
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ating influence of the vast wealth so wrongfully acquired in their conquests, upon the character of the Spanish people. Corruption among the rulers demoralized her armies and prostrated her indus- tries. Religious bigotry had driven into exile the most intelligent and enterprising of her people, and palsied the bravery and spirit of adventure which had formerly characterized them. Other nations showed a desire to take advantage of the situation, and the only way in which to retain the grand territory of Alta California seemed to be by colonization; but her illiberal treatment of foreign emi- grants shut the door of progress. Her sparse settlements in Mexico could spare few colonists. The only way left was to convert the California Indians and make them citizens.
The Jesuits had long held absolute control of affairs in Lower California-much more populous then than in recent years-but when, in 1767, the Spanish king ordered their expulsion from Spain and all her colonies, the decree of perpetual banishment compelled their immediate removal. Governor Portola, to whom was intrusted the enforcement of the decree, turned over all the missions in that colony to the Franciscans. At the head of the Franciscan contingent given charge of these missions was Father Junipero Serra, a man of indomitable will and great missionary zeal. He had had much successful experience in Mexico in teaching agriculture to the In- dians. Following his assumption of the care of the missions in a territory seven hundred miles in extent in Lower California, he undertook the occupation and colonization of Alta California, this work to be done by the joint effort of the church and state. It was decided to proceed to San Diego by land and sea. The vessels were to carry the heavier articles and the land party to take along the horses and stock required. The journey by land proved one of great hardship, and when Portola arrived at San Diego in July, 1769, only one hundred and twenty-six remained of the party of two hundred and nineteen who started.
It is a matter of some interest to know that the first expedition sent overland from San Diego shortly after, under Portola, to estab- lish the northern missions, took a course very nearly that upon which the Santa Fe railroad is now located, and that it camped upon the banks of the Santa Ana river, which stream the commander named
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the "Rio Jesus de Los Temblores," because of the sharp earthquake experienced there. This party, however, did not touch this county.
The first white people absolutely known to have crossed the ter- ritory which is now Riverside county were members of an exploring party which was sent out from Mexico under the command of Lieu- tenant Colonel de Anza, its destination being San Gabriel. It crossed the Colorado river in the latter part of December, 1775, and after a hard journey across the desert reached the San Gorgonio Pass, only to encounter there severe cold and a heavy fall of snow, accom- panied with several severe earthquakes. They forded the Santa Ana river not far from our present county line on the 4th of Janu- ary, 1776, and reached San Gabriel a day or two later, from which point, after a few days' rest, seventeen of their number were hur- ried to San Diego to assist in quelling a serious Indian outbreak that threatened the safety of that mission .?
It seems proper to give at this point a brief outline of what is known concerning the Indian people who occupied this section before the coming of the whites. J. M. Guinn, in his valuable and very in- teresting history of the Southern California coast counties, says re garding them: "Whether the primitive California Indian was the low, degraded being that some writers represent him to have been admits of doubt. A mission training, continued through three gen- erations, certainly did not elevate him in morals, and when, later, he was freed from mission restraint and brought in contact with the white race he lapsed into a condition more degraded and more de- based than that in which the missionaries found him. Whether it was the inherent fault of the Indian or the fault of his training it is useless to discuss. If we are to believe the accounts given of him by Viscayno and others who saw him before he had come into con- tact with civilization he was not inferior in intelligence to the normal aborigines of the country east of the Rocky mountains. He wore clothing made of skins better tanned and made than those of Cas- tile, and made fishing lines and nets of excellent quality. The coast and island Indians constructed canoes larger and better than those of the eastern Indians, which they handled with wonderful dexterity and courage. They obtained shells and coral, from which they made beads for use as money. As hunters and fishers they seem to have been fully the equal of the Eastern tribes, but in the art of war they were inferior. It is believed that the Indians of the interior
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valley and those of the coast belonged to the same general family." The most numerous of the tribes known to have lived in Riverside county were the Cahuillas and the Serranos, but these in recent years seem to have so intermingled as to be practically of one family. It is unfortunate, remarks Mr. Guinn, that the old padres were too intent on driving out the old religious beliefs of the Indians and instilling new ones to care much for what the aborigines had for- merly believed or what traditions or myths they had inherited from their ancestors.
There are in the possession of the Historical Society of Southern California a number of letters, published in 1851-2, which give quite elaborate information concerning these people. The writer was Hugo Reid, a Scotchman who came into this country in 1834 and married a neophyte of the San Gabriel Mission, the daughter of an Indian chief. It is claimed that Reid was the putative father of Helen Hunt Jackson's heroine, Ramona. He says that the Southern California Indians were practically one great family, but under many distinct chiefs, speaking nearly the same language. When war was waged against outside tribes of no affinity it was made a common cause, the hereditary captain of each commanding his own lodge. Robbery was never known among these people. Murder was of rare occurrence, and punished with death. Marriage between kinsfolk was not allowed, and incest was punished with death. In quarrels between the Indians the chiefs acted as judges, and if they could not agree an impartial chief was called in. There was no appeal from his decision. Whipping was never resorted to as a punishment. The chiefs had one, two or three wives, as their inclinations dictated, the subjects only one. Of their religious notions, Mr. Reid says :
"They believed in one God, the Maker and Creator of all things, whose name was held so sacred as hardly ever to be used, and then in a low voice. They had no bad spirits connected with their creed, and never heard of a devil or hell until the coming of the Spaniards. They believed in no resurrection whatever. The world, they believed, was at one time in a state of chaos, until God gave it its present formation, fixing it on the shoulders of seven giants made expressly for this end. When they move themselves an earthquake is the consequence. Animals were then formed, and lastly men and women were made separately from earth, and ordered to live together."
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The Cahuilla tribes, inhabiting the mountain districts in River- side county, had this tradition of their creation: The primeval Adam and Eve were created by the Supreme Being in the waters of a northern sea. They came up out of the water upon the land, which they found to be soft and miry. They travelled southward for many moons in search of land suitable for their residence, and where they could obtain sustenance from the earth. This they found at last upon the mountain sides in Southern California. Mr. Reid says that some of the Indian myths, divested of their crudities, and with the ideas clothed in fitting language, are as poetical as are those of Greece or Scandinavia.
The common notion that peace and happiness were the uni- versal condition during the mission era seems hardly justified. Out- breaks were not uncommon, and were usually due to the lawless and brutal conduct of the worthless adventurers who gathered about the settlements. The record of those turbulent years of the first half of the last century is an interesting one to the student, and we con- dense from Bancroft's, Guinn's and other histories a few points of local interest.
Many a Riverside orchardist has turned up with his plough evi- dences that his orange grove was planted upon the site of an Indian village, of which there is no other record, and the rocks along the river banks bear unmistakable evidence that years ago the Indian women used them to grind the acorns and grain they had gathered. ! Along the sides of "Little Rubidoux," since the settlement of River- side, there existed an Indian rancheria, and the bones of the dead buried there were recently uncovered in preparing that section for modern improvements. It is reasonable to conclude that it was from these people that recruits were gathered to make a settlement of Indian neophytes in the San Bernardino valley proper. It seems that the friars at San Gabriel decided that it was necessary to estab- lish a station on the direct line of travel between that mission and Mexico, through the San Gorgonio Pass. They accordingly selected an ideal spot for the purpose, near what has been known as Bunker Hill, between Colton and San Bernardino. The Indian name of the valley was Guachama, which is said to have signified "a place of plenty to eat." The station was called Politana, after a trusty In- dian who was placed in charge. All the Indians were friendly, and
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everything seemed prosperous. But the year of the earthquakes- 1812-closed with the ruin of Politana. The year had opened with many conversions, but the strange rumblings beneath the earth and the frequent severe earthquake shocks roused the superstitious fears of the Indians. And when, finally, a hot mud spring burst out at Politana (now the popular resort known as Urbita), and the tem- perature of the waters greatly increased, the Indians believed these strange phenomena to be a manifestation of some powerful spirit dis- pleased at the presence of the Christians, and proceeded to appease this malevolent deity by killing the most of the converts and destroy- ing the buildings. It is said that for a time a few Indians lingered around the spot, but, excepting an occasional relic which the white man's plow turns up, no evidence of the former village exists.
( It is probable that there was no mission of which so little is known as that organized later near the border of this county as a branch of the San Gabriel Mission, the ruins of which could very recently be seen near the old road between Riverside and Redlands. Almost nothing exists to commemorate the events of the brief period of Franciscan rule over. this region. It is said, as evidencing the considerable Indian population existing along the Santa Ana river at that time, that in 1830 no less than four thousand cattle were killed for their hides and tallow, which were conveyed to San Gabriel for purposes of trade. It is known that the native tribes grew rest- less under the control of the padres in 1832, and, revolting, destroyed the original mission buildings. Stronger and better ones were con- structed, and it is the ruins of these which existed near old San Bernardino in recent years.' This mission was abandoned soon after in consequence of the edict of secularization.
! The Indians seemed to have retained for a considerable period a partial control of their rich rancherias in the Temecula, San Jacinto and other valleys, and were very numerous even until the disastrous years of flood and drouth in the early sixties, when smallpox and other diseases sadly decimated the aborigines throughout the entire southland.
The part which some of these Indians played in the destruction of a band of white desperadoes deserves mention here, since the bloody conflict probably took place within the limits of Riverside county. In 1851 the owners of the immense ranches, granted by the
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Spanish government, employed a large number of Indians to care for the great herds of cattle and horses owned by them. Though dispossessed of their heritage and therefore justified in holding re- sentment, the Indians were not the only thieves who raided the ranches. Renegade white men stole cattle, and too often the red men got the punishment. In the instance referred to the Indians, unas- sisted, exterminated the band of white thieves. The whole southern country had been long terrorized by a band of white men under the leadership of an old Texan ranger named John Irving. The authori- ties at Los Angeles had issued warrants for their arrest, and sent a posse out to capture them. The sheriff sought them at Temescal and at Rubidoux's ranch at Jurupa, and learning the gang had gone north followed in pursuit, only to find that the robbers had broken into and stolen from several ranch houses near San Bernardino. Irving had threatened to kill the owners, but failed to find them, and struck off in a road which was supposed to lead to San Jacinto. The Indians employed upon the ranches followed, and, harassing the gang, forced them into the San Timoteo canyon. Here, where the horses were useless because they could no longer charge the attack- ing force, the Indians shot them down with bows and arrows and then mutilated them with stones. Only one badly wounded member of Irving's band escaped alive. One Indian chief was killed and two others of the attacking party were wounded during the fight. It is believed that the captors secured some thousands in gold, which they distributed among themselves.
Few Americans can read without a feeling of shame the history of the treatment given the American Indians by the white races, and they are gratified that in these later years our government is giving to the surviving remnants .of the aboriginal race the training and opportunity necessary to place them on an equality with the whites. It was inevitable that this half of the earth should not remain sparsely populated and undeveloped while the older continents were over- crowded; and though we may, in the light of present advancement, regret the brutality of our ancestors in the past, we know that the world is infinitely better for the Christian civilization which has developed here, and in the process made serviceable for man's use the wonderful natural resources of the continent-substituting for a wilderness, where warring savages kept the population at a stand- still the greatest and grandest democracy the world has ever known.
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There is still, in spite of the ravages of disease among them dur- ing many decades, a considerable Indian population in Riverside county. It is probable that in the early times the Cahuillas were the most numerous. They made their home principally in the ele- vated valleys of the San Jacinto mountains, where the remnant of the tribe still occupy a government reservation. A branch known as the Saboba Indians occupy a reservation near the city of San Jacinto, and another, the Pechangos, who formerly occupied the fer- tile and well-watered section about Temecula, are located upon a two hundred-acre reservation near their old home. The Serrano tribe, which once lived in the San Bernardino mountains and along the Santa Ana river in this county, are now located in the San Gor- gonio Pass and along the base of the big mountains on the desert side. Away at the extreme eastern edge of the county, along the Colorado river, there are some seven hundred Yuma Indians, whose children to the number of about one hundred and forty are being taught in the government school near them. There is a Catholic school for Indians, maintained by that church, at Banning, and there are day schools for the young Indian children at Banning, Coachella, Thermal and at the various other reservations. With these schools and the great government training school-the Sher- man Institute at Riverside, where the Indian youth are given prac- tical training in agriculture and the trades, to fit them for self-sup- port and qualify them for citizenship, these people are at last being given the chance for advancement which is their due.
While we deplore and seek to find justification for the course pursued by our ancestors, when taking possession of the continent, we may at least congratulate ourselves that they did not enslave the people they supplanted. But it was otherwise with the Spanish con- querors. They saved the souls of the natives by getting them to accept the dogmas of their church, but even the generally kindly disposed priests made them virtually slaves, teaching them to work, and allowing them only scant food and clothing in recompense for labor which enriched only their conquerors. Ignoring entirely the Indian's right, acquired by centuries of possession, the Spanish and Mexican authorities coolly gave to the prominent among their own people immense tracts of land, including always the choicest, best watered spots, upon which the Indian villages were located. /Within
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the comparatively small portion of the county, which lies upon the western slope of the mountain range, fifteen such large grants were made, the titles to which were subsequently confirmed by the United States, the aggregate area included amounting to over 333,546 acres.
It is a fact worthy of note that most of those who obtained these grants were either of pure Spanish blood, or Americans who had married into their families, and that they were practically all friendly to the Americans and aided heartily in organizing California as an American state. In the convention held to organize the state gov- ernment there were many delegates from this class, headed by that splendid type of the Spanish gentleman, General Vallejo of Sonoma, whom many of us had the pleasure of meeting in the pioneer River- side days. Pedrorena, a son-in-law of the original Estudillo, and a large land owner in the San Jacinto valley, is said to have been the youngest delegate in the convention; and Abel Stearns, whose name is so prominently associated with this section, was another promi- nent man among the Southern California representatives.
Few of the original grantees obtained possession of a larger territory than did Bernardo Yorba, although of his vast estate only the Rincon grant and the Sierra (Yorba) rancho, aggregating over 22,000 acres, were located within the borders of the county_ He, however, owned the Rancho Canyon de Santa Ana, granted to him directly, and also a large interest in that magnificent tract of 62,000 acres known as the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, which the Span- ish government had in 1810 given to his father and Juan Pablo Peralta. Thus did Don Bernardo Yorba's acres extend from the Temescal, in this county, to the ocean near Newport Beach. His big adobe ranch house was located on the Canyon de Santa Ana rancho, and views of its ruins, together with the little old chapel and the family cemetery, can still be seen from the Santa Fe trains. Here he ruled a tract as large as some European states. His great flocks and herds and vast fields of grain brought him a most princely income, which enabled him to extend to all a liberal hospitality. Tra- dition says that he nailed gold coin as ornaments around the door- ways of his home. In 1849 he purchased the right to take brea from a thousand acres in the heart of the present Fullerton oil fields, which he used as fuel. He died in 1858, leaving a family of seventeen chil- dren, and a widow who died only a few years ago.
Abel Stearns was confirmed in the ownership of the Jurupa and
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La Laguna ranchos, containing about 46,000 acres, and he at one time owned some 200,000 acres in what is now San Bernardino, Riv- erside, Orange and Los Angeles counties. His wife was Arcadia Bandini, whose father, Juan Bandini, was one of the first of the Spanish people to welcome the Americans, and Mrs. Stearns and her sister made the first American flag to be flung to the breeze in California.) Mr. Stearns also purchased La Sierra grant of 17,774 acres, which had been confirmed to Vicente Sepulveda. He also laid claim to a Mexican grant called Rancho Temescal, but this claim was not allowed.
Another family which was given a large acreage in this county was that of Don Jose Antonio Estudillo-the grandfather of our ~~ present state senator, Miguel Estudillo-whose duty it was, as pre- fect at the time of the formation of San Diego county in 1850, to divide the new county in election precincts. At the first election Mr. Estudillo was chosen county assessor; Juan Bandini, treasurer, and John Brown of San Bernardino coroner. Mr. Estudillo died in 1852, his will being the first one filed in the new county. The Rancho San Jacinto Viejo of 35,503 acres was granted to his widow and heirs in 1880.
The Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo and the Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo y Protrero, containing together nearly 49,000 acres, were granted to Thomas W. Sutherland, guardian of the minor children of Miguel Pedrorena and his widow, Maria Antonia Estudillo de Pedrorena, the latter being the daughter of Senor Estudillo.
The name of Louis Rubidoux appears as the grantee of the Rubidoux rancho and the San Gorgonio grant, with the total acreage of 11,189 acres. Luis Vignes, well known in the early history of Los Angeles, was grantee of the Temecula and Pauba ranchos, contain- ing some 53,000 acres, and the heirs of Pablo Apis became the owners of the Little Temecula rancho with its 2233 acres.
The Santa Rosa rancho, containing about 47,000 acres, was con- firmed to Juan Moreno. Later this became the property of Parker Dear, who married the daughter of Mrs. Couts, who was a grand- daughter of Juan Bandini.
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