USA > California > Riverside County > History of Riverside County, California > Part 24
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 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
As soon as the young men of the village found that she was
Digitized by Google
240
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
gone they started after him to take her from him. He had to carry the girl, and so could not travel as fast as the other men, and they found him in the canyon leading up to his valley. When he was sure he could not get away with Amutat he killed her, and then tried to get away himself, but the men of Soboba surrounded him and killed him with their clubs. As he lay upon the ground they danced around him, singing their songs of gladness that he was dead. Then, suddenly, a strange thing happened; his body began to glow like fire, his hair was all separate little flames, his eyes were balls of fire, and fire was dripping from his fingers. Then he slowly rose up in the air, going higher and higher, until he was as high as the great rock that is now called Tauquitz rock. On that rock he sat for a little time, and as they watched him he disappeared with a loud noise that shook the mountain. Ever since he has lived be- neath that rock and has been the Bad Spirit of the San Jacinto mountains.
When the Indian people, even now, hear that noise they listen for a cry, and when it comes they know that Tauquitz has torn the heart from some poor girl that he has caught, and that her spirit has made the cry. The spirit, you know, leaves the body just the moment the heart is out, but in other death it takes a long time. That is the reason the Indian people of long ago burned their dead. Tauquitz always takes girls on a bright night, so the spirit can find its own place in the happy hunting grounds. Sometimes he looks like a great fiery man; sometimes like a bird, and some- times he comes down like a ball of fire or like the wind. He has a large condor and a rattlesnake to keep his house. The condor is too keen of sight for anyone to get very near. When any person does get near a great wind blows and shakes the whole land, and we call it a temblor, but the Americans call it an earthquake. Once in awhile he sits back of Soboba, and then he looks like a man of fire. If you tell the girls of Soboba that Tauquitz is around, they will all run and hide, for each one thinks she is the most beautiful girl in the village, and Tauquitz wants the heart of the most beau- tiful girl.
A happier closing for the legend of Tauquitz is sometimes given, that runs as follows: After Tauquitz disappeared, the young men that had followed him went to their homes without the girl, for he had hidden her. Then in the night, when he came to find Amutat,
Digitized by Google
241
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
she was dying in great suffering. As he loved her he felt so sorry in his heart that he killed a mountain goat and put its warm, live heart in the place of her heart, and she lived many years with Tau- quitz in the mountain.
The Soboba Indians, like the Indians of the other villages, be- lieve that Tauquitz manifests himself sometimes in a ball of fire. On Christmas eve, 1899, a vivid meteor passed directly over the village. This made some of the old people anxious, but not enough so to keep them from attending the Bueno Noche, or Christmas night dance. They danced all night, and about 4 o'clock Christmas morn- ing all the young people started home, leaving the very old and the children asleep near the southern wall of the adobe house. Sud- denly a tremendous roar came from the southeast, and the earth rocked so that several who were in the village street were thrown to the ground. There was the crash of falling walls, and as the heavy adobe wall fell inward the life was crushed out of six of the Indians, one a little child. Five others were maimed for life in the little house where all had been so happy and light-hearted just a few minutes before. That day Philipa, the old captain's widow, came over to warn me. She said Tauquitz had destroyed their village and killed many of their people, and now he had passed over our town and was going to destroy some, it might be many, of the Americanos.
These Indians, under the training of the padres, became suc- cessful raisers of stock, and until the Americans came into the val- ley, they had bands of sheep, goats, horses and cattle that gave them a good income. They were the best sheep shearers in South- ern California, and some years the shearing bands earned $2,000 in the spring and autumn shearing. They raised great fields of beans and peas, and every family had a garden. Some had vineyards and orchards, and many of them raised wheat and barley.
The settling of the valley by a horticultural community wrought great hardship to the Indians, for their cattle were driven back on the mountains, and little by little their source of income slipped away from them. The sheep could not be tolerated in the valley and were taken to Lower California and Arizona, so they lost the sheep shearing. Altogether, the transition time was a hard one for them, as it is for all people. But if it had not been for the danger of
Digitized by Google
242
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
eviction, which came about that time, they would have borne it bravely.
THREATENED EVICTION.
Early in the spring of 1882 I found that the Indians were in danger of losing their land. Mrs. Jackson, who afterwards wrote "Ramona," was visiting me, and the Indians of Soboba. As we went from house to house I told her of the impending misfortune and we discussed various ways of trying to help them keep their homes. At last I asked her what the result would be if I had one of the boys in my school write a letter of appeal for his people to Mr. Teller, Secretary of the Department of the Interior. "Nothing would be gained," she said, "for an under secretary would open it first, find it a letter from an Indian boy, and throw it in the waste basket; Mr. Teller would never see it." I was greatly depressed, for I could see no way to help the Indians. It seemed that they had nothing to look forward to but eviction and a vagrant life.
Soon, however, there was a rift in the cloud of discouragement, for I received a letter from Mrs. Jackson, in which she wrote: "I think your suggestion to have Jesus write a letter to Secretary Teller a capital one. Gather all the facts in the case yourself, and write him, and I will forward both letters to him, with a personal one of my own. In this way they will reach him." As quickly as possible the letters were written and sent on their mission. Very promptly Mr. Teller responded, promising that he would do all he could to secure the lands for the Soboba people. Then we both thanked God and took courage.
As neither agent nor lawyers appeared in the lower court for the Indians when the Soboba case was called, the land went by default to the white claimant. But when the Indian Rights Asso- ciation took the matter up at the request of Mrs. Jackson, on her deathbed, their agent, Prof. C. C. Painter, got the case re-opened. It was given a careful hearing by Judge Patterson of the supreme court, whose decision was in the Indians' favor. The judge then called for a hearing before a full bench, all the supreme judges of the state being present, and after going carefully over the points of law, by which the rights of the Indians to the Soboba lands had been completely established, the five other judges concurred in Judge Patterson's decision, thus making it impossible to reopen the case.
Digitized by Google
243
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
These judges were McFarland, Searls, Sharpstein, McKin and Temple.
THE EVICTION PLOT.
In 1882, Theodore Van Dyke, John McCoy and Surveyor Willy, who was afterwards surveyor general of California, were made com- missioners by the San Diego court of survey to divide the Rancho de San Jacinto Viejo. This was a grant that had been given by the Mexican government to Senor Estudillo, a native of Spain, and the father of Francisco, Antonio and Salvador Estudillo, who were born and lived much of their lives in the San Jacinto valley. As the years passed many unlocated claims in the great grant were sold to dif- ferent parties, and in order to locate the different tracts of land the appeal was made to the San Diego court for a new survey and a division of the grant.
So far as I know, these gentlemen did their work conscientiously and satisfactorily to the people concerned, except to the Indians of Soboba. Seven hundred acres belonging to them were assigned to a white man living in San Bernardino. The Indians claimed that this land, on which were their homes, gardens, fields and never-failing spring, from which irrigating water was obtained for their gardens, orchards and vineyards, had been fraudulently taken into the grant by an earlier survey. They said that the original eastern boundary of the grant only came to the middle of the river. The man to whom the land was given told the commissioners that he only wanted a water right for his sheep and would not disturb the Indians; so they thought this the best they could do under the circumstances.
If the gentleman made such a promise he forgot it very quickly, for some time in 1883 he applied to the San Diego court for an order to evict the Soboba people. I think the order was granted in Decem- ber, 1883, but the eviction papers were not served until sheep-shear- ing time, when the most of the men were away, in the spring of 1884. One beautiful Sunday in April, after this winter of anxiety in Soboba, three men crossed the swollen river and visited every home in the village. They were not welcome visitors, for they brought to each family the order of the court that they must gather up their goods and chattels and leave their pleasant village that they loved more than any other spot on earth, and find rest and new homes some- where else; back on the mountains, out on the desert-anywhere that grasping American greed had not put down its stakes, chiefly because
Digitized by Google
ยท
244
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
there seemed to be nothing of value to grasp. There was mourning in Soboba that day; the beauty of the sky; the glowing sunset; the soft evening lights on the green fields and vineyards; the musical sound of the fast-flowing river, as it lapped its daisy-strewn banks, even the strength of the magnificent mountain, gave no comfort to the hearts of the stricken Indians, for the edict of banishment had come to them with paralyzing effect. And they must leave it all !
But the captain, as he and I went from house to house, gather- ing the papers to take to the lawyers, tried to reassure them in his kindly, brave voice. He said, "Don't grieve so, my people, we have friends among the Americans that are going to help us. Have you forgotten the 'good woman' who is doing so much to save our homes? You must not be sad, but have courage. Do not give up, but trust the good God still, for I am sure He will see that our vil- lage and gardens are not taken from us. Do you know that our friends are going to try to get justice for us in the courts? I will take these papers to the lawyers in Los Angeles, and they will know what to do with them. We must all be brave and go on with our work, as if these papers meant nothing, and, by and by, the man who wants this land will find that the law says it is not his."
THE SOBOBA INDIAN OF TODAY.
A visit to Soboba in this year 1912 would convince any unbiased man or woman that the work of the government and the churches among these people is worth while. Their beautiful Mission chapel, built by the men of the village, assisted by the Reverend Father Hughes, who did work among them for two years, is in the center of the village, with the little cemetery near. The neat, wooden houses cluster about it, and on the long stretch of heights along the one street. The agency and school buildings, tasteful, neat and attractive, surrounded by good fences, lawns, flowers, gardens and orchards, all are a wonderful object lesson. These people are quick to see and imitate the beautiful in such a home, and, as fast as they are able, their own homes and gardens show it. The women have, with infinite patience, carried water up the steep bench, upon which the most of their houses are built, to make the flowers and trees grow that cluster around their doors. The men, with the help of their wives, have fine gardens, fields of corn, beans, squashes and melons, as well as orchards, on the lower lands, while on the table land back of the village they raise much grain.
Digitized by Google
1 1
1
Digitized by
HIGH SCHOOL, SAN JACINTO
Digitized by
245
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
In the summer of 1880 the Indians, through their captain, Roques Jauro, asked the government to give them a school for their chil- dren. The agent urged the organization of one at Soboba as a test, not quite sure it would be a success. In November of that year an old adobe house, 11x18 feet, was prepared by putting desks around the walls. A few benches, and a blackboard at. one end of the room, completed the meager equipment. Not much like the Sherman Institute of today was this mother of schools for the Mis- sion Indians! But it was the beginning of great things for the twentieth century Indians of this coast.
The school has had five teachers in the thirty years since it was opened-Miss Mary E. Sheriff, afterwards Mrs. W. P. Fowler of San Jacinto; Dr. Mary Noble, now a physician in Los Angeles; Superintendent Burton of New Mexico; Edwin Minor, now superin- tendent of Indian schools in Colorado; and Superintendent and Mrs. W. H. Stanley-the present efficient incumbents. If time and space were mine I could give the evolution of this school and village, but it is enough to say that the Soboba school has been active in training pupils for Sherman Institute, the Industrial School at Phoenix, Arizona, and Father Hahn's school at Banning, as well as other parochial schools in Southern California. And every year, under Mr. Stanley's leadership, the homes are becoming more com- fortable and the labor of the Indians more efficient, and the desire of the parents for the best things in life for their children, stronger.
Much of the gain in sobriety, industry and morality, which the Soboba Indians are now exhibiting, is due to the competent and ener- getic work of Mr. Stanley, who was for years an efficient teacher in the day school, and has been their most capable superintendent or agent for the past three years. He has secured the agency build- ing for the little town, persuaded the government to develop more water for irrigation and better water for domestic use, and to put in pumping plants. He has also been the most active force of all the agents in crushing out the illicit sale of liquor to the Indians in the villages under his care.
The children of Soboba are all in school. The day school for the smaller ones is at the agency. Many of the older boys and girls are being trained in the Sherman Institute, Phoenix Industrial School, Haskel Institute, and other institutions. In all of these schools both boys and girls learn not only the subjects taught in our public 16
Digitized by Google
246
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
schools, but some trade or occupation that will enable them to be independent, useful citizens. And they are taught the duties of good citizenship and the helpful truths of Christianity.
Do not all these things answer in the affirmative the question asked so many times, "Is the Indian worth while?"
PRESENT DAY ACHIEVEMENTS.
Present day achievements are all-important in the develop- ment of this great principality, and while the work of the early pioneers has its peculiar fascination that holds the reader with an interest most keen, still it is the accomplishments of today that spell present worth and future possibilities in this rich and fertile portion of Riverside county. For this reason a brief resume of conditions in the different communities, as we find them in 1912, should have space in this article.
At San Jacinto, the oldest town in the valley, the past few years have witnessed remarkable progress along all lines. Land values have increased rapidly and steadily, but, as the actual value is in the soil, the investor finds that here prices are such as to make real estate investments most attractive. The development of an increased water supply; the installation of gasoline pumping plants, and the influx of new settlers have caused to be cultivated many tracts of land, that until the present time were used as natural pasturage. In this work of later development the achievements of the San Jacinto Land Company and the Citizens' Water Company take first place. These two corporations have expended close to a million dollars in and about San Jacinto during the past three years, in land purchases, water development, distributing systems, surveys, etc., and their pay rolls continue to be of great importance to the busi- ness interests of the town. During the past six months the Southern Sierras Power Company has built a high-power line to San Jacinto and has secured a franchise from the city to furnish electricity for light and power purposes within the corporate limits. The advent of this power system into San Jacinto and the San Jacinto valley should mark an epoch in the history of progress. Not only will the different towns be supplied with electricity for light and power, but hundreds of private pumping plants on the surrounding ranches will be put in operation by this power, and thousands of inches of additional water will be furnished for increased acreages of orchards and alfalfa. The Ramona Power and Irrigation Company, that has
Digitized by Google
.
247
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
been operating in the San Jacinto mountains for the past three years, seems destined to play an important part in the further development of all this part of Riverside county. It is announced that capitalists identified with this company have recently sold bonds in England to the amount of $10,000,000, and that this vast sum of money will be used in the purchase of different land and water corporations in this valley, the purchase of a large body of land, and the develop- ment of the different properties. The Cawston Ostrich Farm, located two miles west of town, ranks among the important enterprises of the valley. The farm was established in San Jacinto three years ago. Several hundred acres of land are devoted to the use of the farm, and employment is furnished for a large force of men in the care of the herd of 750 ostriches. The birds are plucked four times a year, and the plumes are shipped to the company's factory at South Pasadena, where they are prepared for market. The San Jacinto Commercial Company, which began business in July, 1910, has become the most important business concern in this part of the county. The stock of the company is owned by local land owners and business men, and the firm enjoys a patronage of from $10,000 to $12,000 a month from a territory within a radius of from ten to twenty-five miles. Within the past year Nat C. Goodwin, the actor, has purchased a 1,000-acre ranch, on which he is expending large sums of money in water development, grading, terracing, and the erection of a costly home.
In and about Hemet substantial growth and prosperity are evi- dent on every hand. The growth of the town during the past ten years has been such as to cause wide comment, even in Southern California, where cities are born in a night. Located in the center of the valley, the town is the natural trading and business point for a wide scope of rich country. But recently incorporated, Hemet has sprung full-fledged into the rank of progressive and wideawake municipalities. Street and sidewalk improvement on a large scale and a sewer system are among the important undertakings now in progress. The business blocks of the town are substantial and modern, while in the residence section the houses are such as would grace the streets of any city of wealth and refinement. Within the past year a $40,000 union high school building has been completed, where pupils from Hemet and six surrounding school districts are prepared to enter the great universities of the state. The Hemet
Digitized by Google
248
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
stock farm is a recent enterprise that is doing much to bring Hemet before the eyes of the outside world. Here have been trained some of the fastest horses on the continent, while on the local track a number of excellent records have been made. It is the intention to make the Hemet track second to none. The splendid water system of the town, the Hemet tract, the Fairview tract, and much adjoin- ing property, is largely responsible for the growth and prosperity of the community. From that source comes the marked success attained in the hundreds of acres of deciduous and citrus orchards that contribute their wealth to the business worth of Hemet. With the water problem so effectively cared for it would seem that Hemet and the Hemet tract have before them only years of unbroken pros- perity in assured annual crop yields from lands whose fertility and productiveness are seldom equaled.
At Winchester there is every reason to believe that an era of greater prosperity is dawning, caused by the development of an underground water supply that apparently is inexhaustible. In the boom that swept over Southern California years ago, Winchester took its place upon the map, and with the formation of the San Jacinto and Pleasant Valley Irrigation District it appeared that the town's future was assured, with the irrigation of the thousands of fertile acres of contiguous territory. But with the collapse of the irriga- tion district desolation threatened the town. Business dwindled until it was represented by a single crossroads store. That concern finally snuffed out, and for years a whistling post and postoffice were only left to remind the passing public of the town's past glories. Now things have changed, because some one had the temerity to dig for the one element which the place lacked-water. Within a few feet of the surface an underground reservoir of inexhaustible capacity has been discovered, from which great quantities of water are now being pumped to supply a surface no longer thirsty, but which is heavy with luxuriant crops of alfalfa, corn, grain and fruit.
Lakeview also has a chapter of gloom, prefaced by a brief page of mirage-like joy. There, also, the lack of water was the town's undoing. Although its recovery is apparently being effected more slowly, it is none the less certain. Here, too, private indi- viduals are sinking wells and obtaining abundant water supplies. Of most importance to the place, however, is the newly inaugurated sugar beet industry in the low lands of the San Jacinto lake. Arte-
Digitized by Google
-
249
HISTORY OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY
sian water has been obtained in abundance, and the several hundred acres of sugar beets, planted this year as an experiment, have dem- onstrated the peculiar adaptability of that section for the successful cultivation of the sugar beet. In this new industry Lakeview's pros- perity will be shared by the entire lower portion of the San Jacinto valley, and land values should be increased from 200 to 400 per cent.
Valle Vista, situated at the head of the San Jacinto valley, is one of the prettiest villages in all California. The tree-bordered streets of the place form many delightfully shady drives that give Valle Vista a distinctiveness peculiar to itself. The place is the center of the valley's orange belt, and miles of groves stretch away from the town to the east and southwest. Among the landowners who have lived there since the early settlement of the colony are D. G. Webster, H. O. Morris, W. G. Phillips, J. C. Huntoon, M. G. Stone and G. H. Johnson.
The Indian village of Soboba, lying two miles east of San Jacinto, is always an attractive point to tourists and sightseers. In Soboba, Helen Hunt Jackson obtained much of the material for her famous novel, Ramona, and the village is rich in Indian legends and romance. The Indians are expert basket makers and do exquisite needlework. Plans now under way by the government contemplate electricity for lighting the village and for power purposes. Eventually the frost- less plateau back of the village will probably be set to orange and lemon groves.
In the mountains surrounding the San Jacinto valley on the east and south are the settlements of Idyllwild, Keen Camp, Ken- worthy, Cahuilla, Aguanga and Sage. It is a peculiar fact that in the settlement of a new country the most remote and inaccessible mountain nooks are the first to be located. Such mountainous spots are usually occupied long before the broad, level, fertile lands of the plain are taken. The reason for the mountain choice with the first pioneers is the abundance of water and pasture the year around, and the supply of timber for building purposes and firewood. Thus it was that the mountainous sections referred to were settled by white people long before the great valley became populated. Among the hardy mountaineers were the Bergmans, Hamiltons, Tripps, Parks, Reeds, Clogstons, Ticknors, Rawsons, Thomases and Thomp- sons. The cattle business is the leading industry of this mountain- ous territory and plays no small part in the wealth of the county.
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.