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 34
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 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
Practice made many of the miners expert cooks. New methods of cooking were sought out, and new dishes in- vented. Think of using a dry-goods box for an oven, and baking a pig or shoulder of mutton in it! No trick at all. Drive down a stake or two, and on them make a small scaffold, on which to place your roast; now build a very small fire of hard wood, at such a distance away that a moderate sized dry-goods box will cover it all, and your arrangements are complete. The fire will need replen- ishing once or twice, and in two or three hours, according to the size of the roast, you may take it out, done in a rich gold color, with a flavor unattainable by any other method. Steaks were roasted before a fire, or smothered, when sufficiently fried by the ordinary process, in a stift batter, and the whole baked like a batch of biscuit, mak- ing a kind of meat pie. Game sometimes entered into the miner's bill of fare. Quails, rabbits, hares, coons, squirrels, and hawks, were all converted into food, as well as deer and bear.
126
HISTORY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.
CHAPTER XV.
ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
Election of State Officers-Meeting of the Legislature-The Con- test for Admission-Act of Admission Passed-Great Rejoicing -Birthday of California-The Governmental Organization- Dividing the State into Counties -- Elections Ordered -- Senate and Assembly Districts -- Judicial Districts.
HE Constitution had been adopted, as previously stated, by an almost unanimous vote of the people, and proclaimed the organic law of the land by Gen- eral Riley, the last Military Governor. At the same election State and Legislative officers were voted for, the election being on the 13th of November, 1849. There were no conventions held, but tickets were made up by various processes and agreements, or individuals voted for as it pleased persons and communities. The votes cast for Governor were as follows :---
Peter H. Burnett, 6,716; John A. Sutter, 2,201; Win- field Scott Sherwood, 3,188; James W. Geary, 1,475; Wm. M. Stewart, 619; total vote for Governor, 14,199. San Luis Obispo gave its entire vote, forty-five, for W. S. Sherwood. John McDougal was elected Lieutenant- Governor; Wm. Van Voorhies, Secretary of State; Rich- ard Roman, Treasurer; J. S. Houston, Controller; E. J. C. Kewen, Attorney-General; Charles J. Whiting, Sur- veyor-General; S. C. Hastings, Chief Justice; J. A. Lyon and Nathaniel Bennett, Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. Edward Gilbert and George W. Wright were elected Representatives in Congress. The Constitution had divided the State into Assembly and Senatorial Districts. San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara were united in a Senatorial District to elect one Senator, and San Luis Obispo was allowed to elect one member of Assembly. Capt. Wm. G. Dana, of San Luis Obispo, and Don Pablo de la Guerra, of Santa Barbara, were voted for as Senators, and it has been claimed that Dana received the most votes, but the office was awarded to De la Guerra. Henry A. Tefft was elected to represent San Luis Obispo in the Assembly.
MEETING OF THE LEGISLATURE.
The Constitution provided that, in case of its adoption, the officers chosen should enter upon their duties on the 15th of December, without waiting for the action of Congress. Therefore on that day the Legislature met at San José, and on the 20th, Governor Riley issued an order relinquishing the administration of civil affairs; and thus California took upon herself the character of a State without having passed through the preparatory condition of a Territory. The Legislature consisted of sixteen Senators and thirty-seven Assemblymen. An organiza- tion was effected by the election of E. Kerby Cham- berlain as President pro tem of the Senate, and John Bigler, of Sacramento, Speaker of the Assembly. Wil- liam M. Gwin and John C. Fremont were elected United States Senators and were instructed, and the Representatives, Gilbert and Wright, were requested to
proceed to Washing ton and urge the admission of Cali- fornia as a State in the Union.
THE CONTEST FOR ADMISSION.
The State Government was put in operation, notwith- standing the want of sanction by Congress, and this was declared by the opponents to admission as an act of defiance, and revolutionary. The question of slavery was the exciting one, and California, in her Constitution, had excluded that institution from its limits. This caused a very acrimonious debate in Congress, particularly in the Senate, which, at that time, was equally divided in repre- sentation from the free and slave States, the Union then being composed of fifteen of each. The admission of California as a free State would destroy the equilibrium, and it was therefore op posed by the advocates of slavery with all the energy they possessed. The annexation of Texas, with the proviso that it might be divided into five States, and the acquisition of California, were pro-slavery movements to provide territory for the extension of slavery, in order to maintain the balance as against the extensive territory of the Northwest, which would most probably become free States. By the admission of Missouri in 1820 a compromise had been agreed to, whereby in the territory north of the latitude of 36°30' slavery should be prohibited, and south it should be admitted. This-Missouri compromise line-extended to the Pacific, and California embraced both sides. The leading Senators opposing the admission were John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, Henry S. Foot and Jeffer- son Davis, of Mississippi; and the advocates were Henry Clay, of Kentucky, William H. Seward, of New York, Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. The two Senators from California had such influence as to bear heavily in its favor. Gwin was a native of Ten- nessee and had recently been a member of Congress from Mississippi, both slave States, and Fremont was the son-in-law of Benton, a Southern man, and one of the most powerful men in the Senate. But many Northern Senators professed a desire to preserve the equilibrium and to recognize slavery as a divine institution which the people of the South had inherited and one beyond the control of National legislation. The opposing Senators contended for the right to introduce slavery into all of California, irrespective of the "compromise line." There were many eloquent passages in this debate. Calhoun denounced the Californians as " adventurers," who had no right or authority to make a Constitution. Davis advocated the extension of the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific. Clay responded, saying: "Coming, as I do, from a slave State, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-matured determination that no power-no earthly power-shall compel me to vote for the positive intro- duction of slavery, either north or south of that line." Webster said: "I would not take pains to re-affirm an ordinance of nature nor to re-enact the will of God." The discovery of gold, the great influx of people into the mines, and the determination of all classes in California to labor on an equality, were considered as having settled
127
ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
the question irrevocably. Seward expressed his advocacy in the following beautiful language: "Let California come in-California, that com :s from the clime where the West dies away in the rising East; California, that bounds at once the empire and the continent; California, the youthful Queen of the Pacific, in the robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome. She stands justified for all the irregularities in the method of her coming."
ACT OF ADMISSION PASSED.
The contest continued through the long session of Congress, but, after making combinations with other measures as a compromise, the bill for the admission of California finally passed, and was signed by President Millard Fillmore on the 9th of September, 1850. The Senators and Representatives were sworn and took their seats of office, and California became one of the proud States of the great Republic, the thirty-first in the Union. With the discovery of gold in California and her great wealth of that noble metal, her admission into the Union as a free State and the circumstances attending it, thus breaking the slave-holding equality in the Senate, she exercised an influence that led to all the subsequent rev- olutions in commerce, society, and the Government. The slavery power received its fatal blow from the land it had annexed to be its home and bulwark, and the events of the following decade were foreshadowed in the debate that made that land a free State.
GREAT REJOICING.
The news of this most important event did not reach California until the 18th of the following month. When the mail steamer Oregon entered the bay of San Fran- cisco that day she fired repeated signal guns, which had been preconcerted as the warning to the people of the glorious news. "Immediately," says "The Annals of San Francisco," "the whole of the inhabitants were afoot, and grew half wild with excitement until they heard defi- nitely that the tidings were as they had expected. Busi- ness of almost every description was instantly suspended, the courts adjourned in the midst of their work, and men rushed from every house into the streets and toward the wharves to hail the harbinger of the wel- come news. When the steamer rounded Clark's Point and came in front of the city, her masts literally covered with flags and signals, a universal shout arose from ten thousand voices on the wharves, in the streets, upon the hills, house-tops, and the world of shipping in the bay. Again and again were huzzas repeated, adding more and more every moment to the intense excitement and unprecedented enthusiasm. Every public place was soon crowded with eager seekers after the particulars of the news, and the first papers issued an hour after the appearance of the Oregon were sold by the newsboys at from one to five dollars each. The enthusiasm in- creased as the day advanced. Flags of every nation were run up on a thousand masts, and peaks, and staffs, and a couple of large guns placed upon the plaza were constantly discharged. At night every public thorough-
fare was crowded with a rejoicing populace. Almost every large building, all the public saloons and places of amusement were brilliantly illuminated; music from a hundred bands assisted the excitement; bonfires blazed upon the hills, and rockets were incessantly thrown into the air, until the dawn of the following day."
BIRTHDAY OF CALIFORNIA.
As the news spread throughout the State it was received with universal rejoicing, and days were fixed for celebrating the event. Thus the 9th of September has become adopted as the birthday of California as a State, although she was in fact a State from the date of the organization of the Legislature at San José, or at least from the 20th of December, 1849, when General Riley relinquished control of civil affairs. California never passed through the probationary period of a terri- torial organization, passing at once from the military rule to that of a State, her laws dating, recognized, and governing long anterior to the formality of the recognition by Congress. The only territorial existence was under Mexico and the Military Governors, even if that can be so called under our system of Government, and the application of the term as extending to the 9th of September, 1850, as is done by some persons and societies, is decidedly erroneous.
THE GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION.
The Legislature, after electing the Senators and dis- patching them to the national capital on their embassy of presenting the Constitution and asking admission into the Union, proceeded to the business of organizing a State Government regardless of the discussion so long continued in Congress. The Constitution, although regarded as one of the best of the United States, con- tained some cumbrous provisions, which, at a later date, were in part remedied by amendments, and radically changed in convention in 1878-79. Sessions of the Legislature were required to be held each year, com- mencing on the first Monday in January.
The courts were divided into Supreme, District, County, Probate, Court of Sessions, Justices' Courts, Recorder or Police Courts, and such municipal courts as the Legislature might determine. Three Justices comprised the Supreme Court, the one having the shortest term to be Chief Justice. The State was divided into districts, for each of which a District Judge was elected for terms of six years. The jurisdiction of this court was very large, including civil, chancery, and criminal causes, and original cognizance in all cases in equity, and in civil cases where the amount exceeded $200, causes involving the title to real property or the validity of any tax, and issues of fact joined in the Probate Court. Originally it had power to inquire into all criminal offenses by means of a Grand Jury, and by indictments found by that body. In 1851 the Legisla- ture took from the court its criminal jurisdiction and conferred it upon the Court of Sessions, leaving it the power to hear appeals from that court in criminal mat- ters, and the power to try all indictments for murder,
128
HISTORY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY.
manslaughter, arson, and other cases that could not be tried in the Court of Sessions.
A County Judge was elected in each county for a term of four years. He presided over the County Court, Probate Court, and the Court of Sessions, with two Justices of the Peace as Associate Judges. The Asso- ciate Judges were chosen annually by the Justices of the Peace of the county from the body of Justices. The County Court heard appeals from court of Justices of the Peace. The Court of Sessions had jurisdiction of criminal cases, and was given power as the financial agent of the county, which power was subsequently declared extra-judicial by the Supreme Court, and Boards of Supervisors were created for that purpose. The County Judge presided over the Probate Court, and had charge of all probate matters.
By an amendment to the Constitution in 1863, the Supreme Court was made to consist of five Justices, and the Court of Sessions was abolished, and, by the Consti- tution adopted in 1879, the judicial system was entirely remodeled, the Supreme Court being enlarged to a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices, and the term made twelve years. District and county courts were abolished, and Superior Courts established, there being one for each county, and one or more Judges for each, as busi- ness demanded.
Under the Constitution of 1849 much was left to the discretion of the Legislature in providing officers for the counties, and many changes were made, from time to time, as the representatives of each county demanded, adjoining counties having different systems of county governments.
DIVIDING THE STATE INTO COUNTIES.
The following extracts are from the Act subdividing the State into counties, and establishing the seats of justice therein, approved February 18, 1850 :-
SECTION I. The following shall be the boundaries and seats of justice of the several counties of the State of California until otherwise determined by law.
SEC. 2 created San Diego County.
SEC. 3 created Los Angeles County.
SEC. 4. COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA .- Beginning on the sea-coast, at the mouth of the creek called Santa Maria, and running up the middle of said creek to its source; thence due northeast to the summit of the Coast Range, the farm of Santa Maria falling within Santa Barbara County; thence following the summit of the Coast Range to the northwest corner of Los Angeles County; then along the northwest boundary of said county to the ocean, and three English miles therein; and thence in a northwesterly direction, parallel with the coast, to a point due west of the mouth of Santa Maria Creek; thence due east to the mouth of said creek, which was the place of beginning, including the islands of Santa Barbara, San Nicholas, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and all others in the same vicinity. The seat of justice shall be at Santa Barbara.
Sec. 5. COUNTY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO .- Beginning three English miles west of the coast at a point due west of the source of the Nacimiento River, and running due east to the source of said river; thence down the middle of said river to its confluence with Monterey River; thence up or down, as the case may be, the middle of
Monterey River to the parallel of thirty-six degrees north latitude; thence dne east following said parallel to the summit of the Coast Range; thence following the sum- mit of said range in a southeasterly direction to the northeast corner of Santa Barbara County; thence fol- lowing the northern boundary of Santa Barbara County to the ocean, and three English miles therein; and thence in a northwesterly direction, parallel with the coast, to the place of beginning. The seat of justice shall be at San Luis Obispo.
The counties created by the Act were: San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monte- rey, Branciforte, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Marin, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo, Napa, Mendocino, Sacramento, El Dorado, Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Colusa (attached to Butte), Shasta, Trinity (attached to Shasta), Calaveras, San Joaquin, Tuolumne, and Mariposa.
By a subsequent Act, passed April 5, 1850, the county of Santa Cruz was created out of the territory of Branci- forte, and the section creating the latter was repealed.
The name of "Salinas" was not then adopted as the name of the river now so called, but "Monterey" ap- pears as the official name.
By a strict construction of the statute it would appear that the Santa Barbara line should run east from the source of the Santa Maria Creek, which would give a large additional area to San Luis Obispo County. The Cuyama and Sisquoc unite and form the Santa Maria, but the first, coming from the northeast, has been taken as the boundary, and this assumption has been acqui- esced in by all parties, although United States maps include all the Cuyama country in San Luis Obispo County.
An Act to define the boundaries between the counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo was passed May 13, 1854, reading as follows :-
SECTION I. The rancho of Guadalupe and Oso Flaco, now lying partly in the county of Santa Barbara and partly in that of San Luis Obispo, shall be considered as being and lying wholly in the county of Santa Barbara; and the rancho of Santa Maria, now lying in the county of Santa Barbara, shall be considered as being and lying in the county of San Luis Obispo.
SEC. 2. The boundary line between said counties shall remain as it now exists, excepting as it is disturbed by this Act.
The county boundary, as fixed by the Code adopted March 12, 1872, was as follows :-
Beginning in Pacific Ocean, at northwestern corner of Santa Barbara, as established in Section 3,946; thence easterly on the northern line of Santa Barbara, up the Santa Maria River, to intersection of southern line of Township Ten North, San Bernardino base; thence east on said line to point on summit of Coast Range, form- ing the southeast corner, also northeast corner of Santa Barbara; thence northwesterly on summit line, being western line of Kern, to its intersection with Sixth Standard South, Mount Diablo base, being the common corner of Tulare, Kern, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo; thence west on said standard line and extension thereof to the Pacific Ocean; thence southerly along the shore to the place of beginning. County seat, San Luis Obispo.
The northern line of Santa Barbara was declared to
.
RANCH AND RESIDENCE OF J.D.FOWLER, WILLOW CREEK, SAN LUIS OBISPO CO.CAL.
RANCH & RESIDENCE OF B.F. MAYFIELD, SAN SIMEON CREEK, SAN LUIS OBISPO CO. CAL.
f
129
POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY.
be from where the eastern line intersected the southern line of Township Ten North, San Bernardino base; thence west, on said township line, to the Santa Maria River, thence down said river and down the creek which divides that part of Guadalupe Rancho known as La Larga, from that known as Osc Flaco, to a point in the Pacific Ocean opposite the mouth of said creek.
ELECTIONS ORDERED.
March 2, 1850, an Act was passed providing for the first county election to be held on the first Monday of April, 1850. The Prefects of districts were authorized to designate election precincts and name the officers of election. The Inspectors of Election were ordered to meet at the county seat the next Monday after the elec- tion, with their returns, and as a Board canvass the vote and issue certificates to county officers and report the vote to the County Clerk, who should forward it to the Secretary of State.
March 23, 1850, an Act was passed providing for gen- eral elections, designating the first Monday in October of each year for the election of State and district officers, and the second Monday of April, 1852, and every two years thereafter for the election of county officers. In each county there were to be elected one County Judge, County Clerk, County Attorney, Treasurer, Sur- veyor, Sheriff, Recorder, Assessor, and Coroner. A "Supplementary Act" was passed, ordering the printing in Spanish of 250 copies of the Act, to be sent to the Prefects of the counties of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego.
SENATE AND ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS.
The Constitution provided that until the Legislature should divide the State into counties, and senatorial and assembly districts, the districts of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo should jointly elect one Senator, and the dis- trict of San Luis Obispo elect one Member of Assembly. At that time Santa Barbara elected two Members of As- sembly, as did also Los Angeles, Monterey, and Sonoma; San Diego, one; San José, three; San Francisco, five; Sacramento, nine, and San Joaquin nine, the two latter including all the mining region and the great interior valley. The legislative representation of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara was continued by statute, which pro- vided for sixteen Senators and thirty-seven Assemblymen.
JUDICIAL DISTRICTS.
On the 16th of March, 1850, the State was divided into nine judicial districts, the second district being com- posed of the counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, and court was ordered held in San Luis Obispo, beginning on the first Mondays of the months of March, July, and October of each year.
April 11, 1850, an Act was passed creating the Court of Sessions in each county, the court consisting of the County Judge and two Justices of the Peace as Asso- ciates. To this court, in addition to its judicial powers, was given the administrative and financial power of the county. These duties it exercised until 1852, when, in
several counties, San Luis Obispo being included, all duties not judicial were given to Boards of Supervisors.
The Legislature adjourned April 22, 1850. The two bodies were composed of able men, who performed good service, but from the convivial habits of some, obtained the title of "The Legislature of a Thousand Drinks," by which it is commonly designated.
CHAPTER XVI.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY.
San Luis Obispo a County-Addressed as a Pueblo-The First Election-National Political Parties-California Democratic -The Whig Policy-Politics in San Luis Obispo-County Government Organized-Records of the Court of Sessions- Extraordinary Authority Assumed-The First Sunday Law- Election in 1850-District Court-Judges of the Plains- Board of Supervisors-Election in 1852-Election in 1853- Aspirations of Broderick-Political Duels-The Slavery Ques- tion in California-Election in 1854-A Stormy State Con- vention -Conventions and Nominations-Campaign of 1855 -Native American Party-Efforts to Elect a Senator-Cam- paign of 1856-The Republicans-Nominations Made-Friend- ship for Fremont-Election of Senators-Triumph of Brod- erick.
N the organization of the State Government San Luis Obispo had been made one of the original counties, with boundaries varying but little from the present, having an area of about 3,250 square miles.
The county was but sparsely populated-the census of 1850 reporting a total population of 336-the occupied localities being the large ranchos, with only the resi- dences of the proprietor and family and a few employes, and the missions of San Luis Obispo and San Miguel. At the mission of San Luis Obispo was the only aggre- gation of houses that could be called a village, and that consisted of the mission buildings and three or four crude adobe structures in its immediate vicinity. The mission was the central part of the district, as it was designated before the creation of the county, being the place where elections were held, and the seat of justice for the whole region.
ADDRESSED AS A PUEBLO.
San Luis Obispo is addressed as a pueblo in 1845, in a deed dated November 20th of t hat year, wherein Joa- quin Estrada, Juez Primero, certifies to the sale by Don Vicente Felis to Don Santiago Maquinle (James McKin- ley) of the rancho (un sitio de Ganado Mayor) of San Sebastian, situated on the " Arroyo de los Callucos" (Cayucos), etc., for the consideration of un mil pesos ($1,000). The right to the title of pueblo, however, was not sufficiently established to gain for the town the right to the quantity of land usually granted to pueblos. San Luis Obispo had its Prefecto in W. G. Dana, whose residence was at Nipomo, and Alcaldes in Victor Linares, José de Jesus Pico, John M. Price, Miguel Avila, Joa- quin Estrada, Esteban Quintana, J. M. Bonilla, and oth- ers, whose residences, with the exception of the two last- named, were at some distance from the mission.
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.