USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 18
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RUNS FROM THE SHIP.
Young Price had agreed with another apprentice who had been subjected to ill-treatment to run from the ship at the first opportunity. Here was the promised chance. All had to go ashore for wood and water. A large river enters the bay on the north side. To this the Captain went with a boat, taking Price with him. They had to fight alligators to get up the stream, and then, finding the water bitter and the alligators so numerous, they left it for another stream on the eastern side of the bay. This was favorable for the project of desertion. As many men and boys as could be spared were put on shore to cut wood and carry it to the boats, and others took water to the ship.
After working very hard for several days, and the wood all on board, Price and his mate concluded their time to run had arrived, and so slipped away unobserved and hid themselves in the dense thickets of brush that covered the neighboring hills. Night was approaching and the Captain could not wait to hunt for the deserters, who lay concealed until the ship sailed away. The two boys then made their way toward the interior, and soon were over- taken by the customs officer on his way to Colima. He gave them directions, and they afterwards fell in with a party of Indians who provided them with an abundance of food and assisted them on their way.
KIND TREATMENT AT COLIMA.
In due time they arrived safely at Colima and were taken in charge by the people, who expressed the utmost solicitude for their health and comfort. Mr. Price says: "They made babies of us. They couldn't do too much for us. My hands were, like sailors', well covered in the palms with tar, and from handling tarry ropes were as hard as leather. This excited their pity, and they would take hold of our hands and examine them, constantly saying, 'Pobre muchachos; pobre ma nos!' until I got tired of being so pitied and petted. It was a thing I wasn't used to. I never can forget how kind the people were to us, wanting us to stay with them forever. I could talk a little Spanish, and here learned to talk better. I had been on the coast before, and in sailing up touched at Valparaiso and other ports, and the Captain called on me to interpret for him in doing his business, so I was a little acquainted with the ways of the people."
AN OPPORTUNITY TO GO TO CALIFORNIA.
Mr. Price remained at Colima, enjoying the hospitality of that kind people for nearly a year, when a German
gentleman came there on a visit. He had a vessel at the port and was going to Monterey, in California. Thither Price wished to go, and his newly-formed acquaintance was glad to take him as a sailor and as an interpreter familiar with the country.
While at Colima the cholera prevailed to an alarming extent. The city had a population of about 3,000, and the dead cart was going constantly. Those most subject to the attacks of the disease were the young people from fifteen to twenty-five years of age, and seldom survived the attack more than twenty-four hours. Mr. Price suffered from an attack of cholera, but after a severe struggle, aided by good care and a strong constitution, he recovered.
SAFE AT MONTEREY IN 1830.
The vessel on which he sailed for Monterey arrived safely at her point of destination in the year 1830, and since that date California has been his home. About the ancient capital and in the Salinas Valley, riding horses and herding cattle, and doing such other work as the rancheros of that period required, the ci-devant sailor remained for six or seven years, and then came to San Luis Obispo and engaged as vaquero for Capt. W. G. Dana on the Nipomo, receiving $15.00 per month wages. There he was peacefully engaged, excepting an occasional skirmish with the raiding Indians from the Tulare Valley, until, in 1840, he was one day surprised by a party of soldiers riding up to him and
MAKING HIM THEIR PRISONER.
For what cause he did not know. He had never taken any part in politics, or in the question of who should bear the high-sounding titles, or divide the revenue exacted from the ships that came to Monterey. Little did he care whether Gutierrez, Carrillo, Castro, Vallejo, or Alvarado bore the titles or gathered the customs duties, so that he was left alone with his horses and cattle in the oak-cov- ered hills and grassy valleys of quiet Nipomo.
But he was soon made aware that the foreigners in the north had risen in insurrection, and that he was one and must go as prisoner. The great story of the valiant Gov- ernor Alvarado was told him; how the treacherous for- eigners had arisen and had been put down and captured after a terrific struggle, and were now prisoners en route from Monterey to Mexico for trial and execution. The vessel taking them would stop at Santa Barbara to take others who would be arrested. Price was charged with being a revolutionist, although he protested he knew nothing of what had occurred. His protestations were unavailing and he was taken along to Santa Barbara, no other foreigner in this region being disturbed.
As this so-called insurrection formed so important an episode in the life of Mr. Price, and is also a noted chap- ter in the early history of California, we will interpolate the story in this biographical sketch of the veteran pioneer.
THE GRAHAM INSURRECTION.
The name of Graham has been mentioned in the pre- ceding chapter, and the part he took in overthrowing the
SAN FRANCISCO PUBLNE ADRARY
RANCH & RESIDENCE OF G. W. PROCTOR, NEAR SAN MIGUEL. SAN LUIS OBISPO CO. CAL.
PISMO. RANCH, RESIDENCE & HOTEL OF JOHN M. PRICE, SAN LUIS OBISPO CO. CAL.
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BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN M. PRICE.
Government of Gutierrez and placing Alvarado in power. For this service Alvarado had promised him and the other foreigners that he would cause the repeal of the laws prohibiting their holding land without naturalization, and would make them grants of land. Graham had also become offensive from his familiarity, and exacting the fulfillment of his promises. For these offenses Alvarado determined to get rid of all by a coup de main, at the same time accomplishing a coup d'etat.
Whether anything like an insurrection was contem- plated is extremely doubtful; that none was attempted is quite certain, but as the affair was generally known as the Graham insurrection, it may as well be described under that name. The reader will recollect that when Alvarado was threatened with arrest, he fled to the cabin of Isaac Graham, and with him planned the affair which termi- nated in making Alvarado the recognized Governor of California.
SKETCH OF GRAHAM.
Graham was one of those characters that could have been raised nowhere except on a frontier. He was a native of Tennessee, and at a very early age left the civ- ilized part of the United States and struck into the vast wilderness which formed the western half of the Ameri- can Continent. He was of immense physical strength, with endurance and persistence that knew no failure. Whether making his way across lofty mountains, trackless deserts, or fighting a horde of Indians, he was always the same self-reliant and persistent character, destitute of fear. Thrown in early life into scenes where his own prowess was his reliance for the protection of his life and property, he had come to regard his own notions of right and wrong as his guide, and the law as a mere cobweb to be brushed aside as of little account; hence Alvarado had little difficulty in inducing him to engage in a revolution.
When that revolution was accomplished, and Alvarado was Governor, Graham had as little reverence for the man he had assisted to office, or his authority, as for any other. It is said that, forgetting the high and mighty title with which Alvarado decorated his name, Graham would slap him familiarly on his back and pass some joke, as he would to a fellow-trapper who slept under the same bear- skin in the cleft in the rocks, in the Sierra Nevada. He had accumulated considerable property in distilling grain and raising cattle. He had a famous race-horse which had won for him many thousands of dollars, much of which was still due him from those who had matched their horses with his. Alvarado had promised him land for the services he had performed, which promise he had neglected to fulfill, though repeatedly reminded of it. Graham and his friends were getting persistent, imperti- nent, and troublesome.
ARRESTED BY ALVARADO.
Alvarado conceived the plan of getting rid of the "whole tribe" at one swoop. He charged them with hav- ing formed a conspiracy to overturn the Government, and ordered the arrest of nearly all the Americans in and around Monterey, or within several hundred miles of the place. The arrest had to be done quietly or the sturdy
old hunters would get alarmed and put themselves on the defensive, and Alvarado well knew their fighting qualities. They were, by twos and threes, privately informed that Alvarado wanted to see them, and, when confronted with him, were charged with conspiracy and chained up to be shot. So quietly had this been carried on that 160, nearly the whole number, were inveigled into town before the alarm was raised.
They did not try to entrap Graham in this way, how- ever. He was too wary to be caught that way, and would be likely to make a big fight when they attempted to put chains on him, even if the Governor was present. They undertook to kill him outright. Six of them went to his bedside in the night, when he was asleep, and he was awakened by the discharge of a pistol so near his head that the flash burned his face, the ball passing through the collar on his neck. As he arose to his feet, six other pistols were discharged so near him that his shirt took fire in several places. One shot only hit him, that passing through his arm. After this firing, the party fell back to reload, for old Graham was on his feet, and no one cared to meet the old man, who was now thor- oughly aroused. He had concluded that discretion was the better part of valor when the assailants were six to one, and commenced retreating, which so encouraged the arresting party that they made a rush and succeeded in overthrowing him. One of them undertook to stab him, but the dirk passed into the ground between Graham's arm and his body. Before the assassin could repeat the blow, Graham was dragged away to where José Castro, who was the leader of the party, was standing, whereupon Castro struck him on the head with the flat of his sword so severely as to bring him to the ground, at the same time ordering him to be shot, which, however, was not done. The whole party connected with Graham in farm- ing and distilling were carried in chains to Monterey and thrown into the adobe prison on the mnd floor, which, as it was during the rainy season, April, 1840, was in reality a mud floor.
THE PRISONERS SENT TO SAN BLAS.
Here the whole number were detained several days with insufficient food and water, while the authorities de- bated the question of shooting all of them. At this juncture a merchant vessel, the Don Quixote, came into the harbor, and succeeded, by some pretensions of author- ity, in inducing the authorities to send the prisoners to San Blas for trial. Some of the names of the parties arrested and the localities from whence taken were, Lewis Pollock, John Vermillion, William McGlone, Daniel Sill, George Frazer, Nathaniel Spear, Capt. James McKinley, Jonathan Fuller, and Captain Beechay, of San Francisco; William Blirkin, George Fergusson, Thomas Thomas, William Langleys, Jonathan Mirayno, William Weeks, Jonathan Coppinger, William Hauts, Charles Brown, Thomas Tomlinson, Richard Westlake, James Peace, Robert McAlister, Thomas Bowen, Elisha Perry, Nathan Daily, Robert Livermore, William Gulenack, Jonathan Marsh, Peter Storm, Job Dye, William Smith, Jonathan Warner, and two Frenchmen, of San Jose; Wm. Thomp-
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HISTORY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.
son, James Burnes, F. Eagle, Henry Knight, Jonathan Lucas, Geo. Chapel, Henry Cooper, Jonathan Herven, James Lowyado, Francisco La Grace, Michael Lodge, Joseph Whitehouse, and Robert King, of Santa Clara; Isaac Graham, Daniel Goff, WVm. Burton, Jonathan Smith, and Henry Niel, of Natividad (Graham's neighborhood); Wm. Chard, James O'Brien, Wm. Bronda, Wm. Malthas, Thos. Cole, Thos. Lewis, WVm. Ware, Jas. Majous, of Sali- nas; Leonard Carmichael, Edward Watson, Andrew Wat- son, H. McVicker, H. Hathaway, Henry Bee, Wm. Trev- avan, Jonathan Maynard, Wm. Henderson, Jas. Meadows, Jonathan Higgins, Mark West, George Kenlock, Jeremiah Jones, Jonathan Chamberlain, Daniel-, Joseph Bowles, James Kelley, James Fairwell, Walter Adams, Mr. Hor- ton, James Atterville, Mr. Jones, Jonathan Christian, Wm. Chay, Wm. Dickey, Charles Williams, and Alvan Willson, from Monterey, and John Michael Price was arrested as above stated, and added to the prisoners aboard the ship Roger Willams, of Boston, which had been chartered for the purpose of taking them from Monterey to San Blas. Forty-five prisoners were taken to that port, of about one hundred and sixty arrested.
ALVARADO'S CRUELTY.
While at Monterey the treatment of the prisoners was most inhuman. Mr. Thomas J. Farnham, an American traveler who happened to arrive in Monterey at the time, and wrote a book on California, gives a most vivid ac- count of the affair. The prison, a dungeon with a mud floor and one small hole for air, was crowded to suffoca- tion. No bedding or seats were provided, and not much provision was made for food. Thomas O. Larkin, the American Consul, was permitted to feed the prisoners oc- casionally, otherwise they would have suffered for food. Some could not stand up, and all were emaciated and pale. No conspiracy could be proven against them, ex- cept by the testimony of a worthless character, whose name does not deserve to be remembered.
Nevertheless a number were condemned to be shot, but this sentence was suspended through the energy of Mr. Farnham and the action of the vessel, the Don Quixote, on which he came, which, instead of anchoring, would sail out and in, leading Alvarado to fear that an American fleet was outside, and it was concluded to send the prisoners to San Blas for trial.
The result of the whole matter was that forty-four were retained for trial at San Blas, and the rest liberated. The forty-four were placed on board a ship, and started south with the intention of putting in at Santa Barbara, where Price was added to the list, José Castro being in charge.
THE PRISONERS AT SANTA BARBARA.
The bark Don Quixote, the merchant vessel spoken of, followed the course of the vessel containing the prisoners. They had a most disagreeable trip, being treated much as they were in the prisons of Monterey. Farnham gives the following account of the prisoners coming from Monterey to Santa Barbara :-
THE PRISONERS AT SANTA BARBARA.
On the first day of May, 1840, the American (Farn- ham) made application to see the prisoners and was re- fused. He had heard that they were in want of food, and proposed to supply them, but was forbidden by José Cas- tro, t1 e officer in charge. The prison-ship had arrived at Santa Barbara on the 25th of April, and landed forty- one of the prisoners. Four others were retained on board to work. These forty-one men, during the whole passage from Monterey, had been chained to long bars of. iron, passing transversely across the hold of the ship. They were not permitted to go on deck, nor even to stand on their feet. A bucket was occasionally passed about for particular purposes, but so seldom as to be of little use. They were furnished with a mere morsel of food, and that of the worst quality. Of water they had scarcely enough to prevent death from thirst, and so small and close was the place in which they were chained that it was not uncommon for the more debilitated to faint and lie some time in a lifeless state. When they landed, many of them had become so weak that they could not get out of the boat without aid. Their com- panions in chains assisted them, though threatened with instant death if they did so. After being set ashore they were marched, in the midst of drawn swords and fixed bayonets, dragging their chains around bleeding limbs, one mile and three-fourths, to the mission of Santa Bar- bara. Here they were put into a single room of the mis- sion prison, without floor or means of ventilation. The bottom of the cell was soft mud. In this damp dungeon, without food or water, these poor fellows remained two days and nights. They had not even straw on which to sleep.
At the end of this time it came to the ears of the friar in charge of the mission that one of them was dying of hunger and thirst. He repaired to the prison and in- quired of Pinto, the Corporal of the guard, if such were the fact. The miniature monster answered that he did not know. The friar replied: "Are you an officer and a Catholic, and do not know the state of your prisoners ? You, sir, are an officer of to-day, and should not be one of to-morrow." The good man entered the cell, and found one of the Englishmen speechless; administered baptism and removed him to the house of a kind family, where I found him on my arrival, still speechless, and in- capable of motion. The friar extended his kindness to the other prisoners. He ordered Castro to furnish them food and water, but, evading the direction so far as was possible, he gave them barely enough of each to tanta- lize them, until the arrival of the American in the Don Quixote. From the first of May, therefore, they had plenty of food and water.
On the fourth the American was permitted to see the prisoners. They had been scrubbing themselves at the great tank, and were allowed, at his suggestion, to take their dinner in the open air. They had been suffering exceedingly since they left Monterey, for their counten- ances had lost the little color which the dungeons of that place had left them. Their hands looked skeleton-like; their eyes were deeply sunken in their sockets. They tottered as they walked. Poor men! For no other fault than their Anglo-Saxon blood, they fared like felons. They had a long voyage and slavery in the mines of Mex- ico before them, and were sad. They asked the Ameri- can if he would lead them in an attack against the guard. He pointed out the hopelessness of such an at- tempt in their enfeebled condition, and comforted them with the reiterated assurance that he would meet them at San Blas.
The Englishman before spoken of, died with his last
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BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN M. PRICE.
wants administered by some of the hospitable and kind ladies of the town.
ALVARADO'S SHORT-LIVED TRIUMPH.
For the time being Alvarado had triumphed, as the prisoners had been sent onward to San Blas, in Mex- ico. There was great rejoicing among his friends, and of so much importance was it considered that a general thanksgiving was ordered in May, 1840. Two months later a French ship and the American ship-of-war St. Louis entered the harbor of Monterey to inquire into the circumstances. Alvarado left immediately to attend to some Indian disturbances in the interior, and as Castro was in Mexico with the prisoners, there was no military man or person in authority to hold responsible for the affair, and after a few days the ships sailed away, and Al- varado returned to his post.
Mr. Price says the prisoners were well used after leav- ing Santa Barbara. After arriving at San Blas they were sent to Tepic and consigned to the quartel.
ALVARADO'S INCENTIVE.
The true incentive of Governor Alvarado's treacherous conduct was now made apparent. His accusation against the foreigners in California and their arrest and deportation to Mexico for trial was to proclaim his devotion to the authorities in power-a penitential offering. Alvarado, a few years previously, had rebelled against the central Government, deposed, or defied, Carrillo, who had been appointed to the office of Governor, and assumed the position himself. He now wished to make an exhibtion of his zeal in his country's cause, to show his great valor and the mighty power that he wielded in that distant Mexican Territory, and how he had grasped in his hand all the foreigners in his dominions who had assisted him to gain office on that former occasion, and now offered them as a sacrifice.
The country was then at war with Texas, which State had seceded, and, winning some battles, had sent an expe- dition to New Mexico which Governor Armijo had capt- ured and sent in chains to the central capital. Alvarado thought this a good occasion to conciliate the Govern- ment of Mexico, to gain great applause, and emulate the grand feat of the Governor of New Mexico. For this he fabricated the charges against Graham and the for- eigners, seeking in the most ungrateful and treacherous manner the one who had been the most useful to him, first attempting his death, then causing him every possi- ble suffering and indignity, thus to the better exhibit his deep repentance and devotion to the superior Govern- ment. Under the pretense of a threatened uprising which had no foundation whatever, and in the name of patriotism, he committed the foulest of crimes, exhibit- ing a treachery of the most contemptible character, and a cruelty consistent with a low order of manhood in a semi-civilized people.
JUSTICE ACCORDED THE PRISONERS.
At Tepic the prisoners appealed to the American Con- sul to present their case and obtain release and re- dress. But that official appeared to be of very little
force and availed them nothing, and they therefore asked the aid of Mr. Barron, the British Consul. Through that gentleman's influence the condition of the prisoners was at once ameliorated, and steps were at once taken to repair, as far as possible, the wrong done. They were re- leased from the quartel, and an allowance of $3.50 a week was given them to pay their current expenses. This was much more than necessary, as living was very cheap at Tepic, ten cents a day being sufficient to purchase all the food required.
Negotiations were continued to settle the difficulties to the satisfaction of the prisoners. These had con- tinued for several months when $400 was offered each as liquidated damages, and all to be set free at San Blas. All but fifteen of the party accepted these terms. These fifteen, among whom were Price and Graham, de- clined, but demanded to be returned to their homes in California, and to be compensated in the full amount of their losses and sufferings.
Price had been peaceably engaged at what were re- garded as high wages, and was the owner of 200 or 300 head of cattle and horses in California. At last satisfac- tory terms were agreed upon, and a Mexican vessel carried the released prisoners back to Monterey, where they landed in high glee after an absence of six months. Those who accepted the $400 and liberty at San Blas scattered to various parts of the world, and but a part of them returned to California.
Mr. Price returned to his old place on the Nipomo, and soon thereafter engaged as major-domo of the Hu- asna Ranch for Mr. Isaac J. Sparks, at $20.00 a month, in which position he continued for several years.
FREMONT APPEARS.
In 1846, he was residing on the Arroyo Grande, at the old ranch house, a short distance below the site of the present village, and had in his service eight Indians. The Mexican War was in progress, and it was understood that California had been taken by the Americans, but all was quiet on the Arroyo Grande, save the lowing of the cattle, the neighing of the horses, the excitement of the rodeo, and the occasional slaughter of a beef for the consumption of the people. Suddenly, about the last of the year, he was surprised by the appearance of an armed body of Americans, who quickly surrounded his house and demanded his surrender. Mr. Price, in his bluff manner, asked what they wanted him to surrender; they had everything already and were welcome to what they wished.
This was the American battalion under Fremont, en route to Los Angeles to co-operate with Commodore Stockton and General Kearny. The valley of the Ar- royo Grande was then a dense monte of willows, and into this the Indians had fled and concealed themselves. Fremont ordered his men to arrest them. Price asked, "Why do you want to arrest them, they are but a few un- armed Indians who are working for me." Still Fremont insisted on having them caught, and Price said, "Go ahead, but you might as well try to arrest a lot of quail as to find them in that monte." Fremont at last seeing the futility
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HISTORY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.
of the search and the uselessness of the capture, desisted, and went on his way. That was about all Mr. Price saw of the war which transferred the country from the domain of Mexico to that of the United States.
In the harbors of San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego, ships of war came and went. Sailors and soldiers were seen on the streets and plazas, and garrisoned the castillos and presidios of the larger towns, but the quiet of San Luis Obispo was not disturbed, and the war passed and the great revolution was consummated, while the cattle grazed over the hills of Nipomo and the vaqueros sought their herds through the monte of Arroyo Grande.
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