History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 11

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1070

USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 11

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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Slack's ad lition to San Luis Obispo. Mr. Slack plowed and sowed wheat, and as land stock roamed all over the country, he found it necessary to drive off cattle . ml threaten to shoot them if they were not kept off. He was in offense by most of the inhabitants. His wife was, like himself, an Ameri- um. The wor ih, more properly the Mexicans, wanted this county for a @ttk curity MI resented the wheat-raising and the call for fencing ; so, dleMeyern @hw attempts to torment Slack into leaving, they set a price 41-5280 41 be ffe "Any 'Mex' who could get me was to get $250," said the ul & en Wlien talking to the writer.

Thethe Og - gambling was as legitimate a business as raising cattle ne wiht expwler Murray had a gambling house in town, and he struck hare m with the "big American," who was afraid of nothing on earth and . bild des "bagatelle" as well as he could do other things-shoot, if it vom 1h & -low down, and never miss. So Murray agreed to pay Slack $20 A poh. Fre dy. to play for the house: if he won a big stake, he only got 33% if die I-t He got $20.

ITin Ne teuwe had tried various schemes to obtain that reward of $250, Tini an far had failed. Early one morning Slack was going home from Murray - "dare." He says: "Something told me not to follow the trail at do lead of the hill. I called myself a coward and tried to go on, but I eriildiet wo I took off my shoes and went around up above the trail and got Todofor the rock. Looking over, I saw three Mexicans laying for me, one abuse Th Tenl lying behind a rock, and two down below behind rocks. I momrai Them with my gun, then picked up little stones and began pelting theme Ties spring up, and when they saw me ( I was higher than the rock I amcal html:, they saw my gun, too, and they just tumbled down the lill 1 Mwegy them"-he gave the names here -- "and that afternoon I got on iny livremmenl rade to where I knew I would meet He was on his Trest, we Fail to him: 'You meant to get me this morning; now one ujte- Lar anga be shot. I won't shoot you on your horse. Get off, and dany wore gon' Ile slid off his horse and held up his hands, gun and all. UT TI om pumeasure the ground and take his place, for we were going to from AT Last Wie fell on his knees, fairly groveled, and said he'd leave the Trold tom if he were here the next day I would shoot him, and U wgown - we low again. I corralled the other two and told them what I [& d 1000] - - - ml they agreed to go to Sonora, and did. At any rate, they Man. 6 th p moded the shooting business." This is just what another old- tomy bb me about Mr. Slack. In concluding, he said: "Slack was a wwwweert www .. aid not afraid of the devil himself."

Mis to accuse Slack of having shot a man named Sinoles Mission. The Mexicans got word sent to the sheriff, Moss, SMIT Hs Obispo lived John Wilson, alias Slack, the man who Tomat Wilson took up government land that Sinoles claimed -4. fm 00. 1 Tel cian of title to. He harried Wilson in many ways, at Twee . Im citer. tore off the door and with his reata dragged it off. Ite goss 16, s &h o at Wilson, and then attempted to throw his reata over (Cair On aime "fragged to death" at the end of a reata, while the MIL &.JE Mos ell -purred his horse over rocks and brush. Sinoles missed ju hi utenti et Tie woadded Wilson in the arm. Wilson went to a friend you get the wound me-el; then went on and met Sinoles coming from

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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

his house on horseback. He shot Sinoles and disappeared. Moss, the Ala- meda sheriff, came down to arrest Wilson, alias Slack, and lined up the sheriff of this county, de la Guerra, to go with him. Mr. Slack was going into town on horseback carrying some plowshares to be sharpened. Just about where the old "Pavilion" now stands in San Luis Obispo, Slack came face to face with the posse. Moss, the Alameda county sheriff, stepped out and said to Slack, "You are my prisoner." Slack demanded an explanation, and the local officials urged him "not to make a fuss." \ "fuss" with Slack was no funny thing-especially when the "fuss" had no foundation.

Slack at last agreed to talk things over, but refused to have "irons" put on him, and suggested that the Alameda man go with him to the jail and there tell him what he was arrested for. To cut the story short, Slack agreed to go to Oakland for trial. Othar Kamp warned the outfit that if they tried to take Slack away in "irons," handcuffed, he would shoot them. When the time came to go, they did put on the "irons." Slack said he wanted them to do all they could, for he knew his day was coming. True to his word, Kamp was on hand and ready to shoot, but his friends overpowered him and took his gun until the stage got off. With Mr. Slack went Mr. Kamp, his father-in-law. The Cuesta grade was wet and slippery and all hands were ordered to get out and help push the stage uphill. Slack and kamp refused to get out. Mr. Slack said to the officers: "You are taking me to Oakland on a false charge, and you know it ; I'm going, but I ride," and ride he did, as well as did Kamp, while the officials pushed.

At Gilroy a number of Slack's friends from in and about Slack's canon had gathered, were armed and let him understand that they were there to take him from the officers if he would go, but Mr. Slack said he had no desire to go. He wanted to be entirely cleared of the Sinoles affair. The handcuffs were taken off while he ate dinner, and he refused to have them put on again. He told Moss not to interfere with him, for he would take no more indignities from him. In San Francisco, Moss refused to let Alr. Slack get a witness he wanted, William Morrell, who had mined with him. Twenty-one "greasers" were introduced as witnesses by Moss, and each swore that Slack was John Wilson. In the jail, when Moss brought one in to identify Slack as Wilson, he overheard Moss tell him in Spanish that he had got to swear that this man was Wilson. "But Wilson had lost a front tooth, and this man has all his teeth," said the greaser. Slack later told Moss that he thought it only fair to tell him that he both understood and spoke Spanish. Moss slunk off ; but $4,000 reward was offered for Wilson, and lie though he must have known it to be, he went on trying to turn Slack into Wilson. For three weeks the farce went on. Men of the best-known probity came voluntarily from San Jose, also in time came Morrell, and testified that Slack was Slack, and no one else. Also, it turned out that Mr. Slack was in St. Louis, just ready to start across the plains, thirteen years before, when Sinoles was killed. At last the judge addressed the court, saying : "This thing shall go no farther. That man is not Wilson, and you all know it. I declare him a free man." Mr. Slack came back to San Luis Obispo, and thereafter was unmolested.

His wife, Ellen Kamp Slack, died of pneumonia and her death is reported in the first issue of the Tribune, August 7, 1869. There were five little children to be taken care of, and Mr. Slack went with them to their mother's

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

people in San Jose. Later he returned and went on ranching. Some time after this false arrest, the real John Wilson saw an account of the matter in a paper and wrote to Mr. Slack from Arizona, saying he was married, had children, and shot Sinoles in self-defense, but left, for he knew that among the greasers at San Jose Mission he stood no chance for fair play. Mr. Slack sent the letter on to Moss.

On his ranch at San Luis Obispo he continued to farm. He says he always managed, during the awful drought, to keep salt on hand to use in seasoning the beans. Many others did without salt, and almost everything else. During the dry years, when no cultivated crops can be grown, the oak trees bear great crops of acorns, and many bushes yield abundance of berries. The bears were rolling fat during 1862-63-64, when cattle died of starvation ; and men hunted the bears for meat. When it became possible to raise wheat again, many sowed it, and it was threshed out by flails or trampled out by bands of horses, and then tossed in the air to be winnowed. It was ground, or pounded in a mortar ; or one stone was made to fit into an- other slightly hollowed, and was turned by hand to crush the wheat. Later the first mills were built. The Mexicans used a forked stick to scratch the ground, but the Americans, as soon as possible, introduced plows. The first reaper in the county was brought in by Mr. Slack, and he also ran the first threshing machine around San Luis Obispo.

In 1875, Mr. Slack was farming near Morro bay, and from the Tribune we copy this item, dated October 11, 1875: "J. W. Slack brought in a cabbage the other day grown at the head of Morro bay and tried to put it on our office table. It measured three feet nine inches in circumference, ten inches from top to stem, and weighed twenty-nine and one-half pounds. It was solid and fine, although of great size." There were no bridges in those days, and Augustus Slack tells of going with his father and the family to attend a celebration held on Old creek, the Fourth of July celebration referred to in writing of Cambria, and of how his father had to take one of the horses and go across the mouth of the creek first on horseback to see if it would be possible to drive the wagon over, then come back and drive over. All went well until they tried driving up the cañon to the picnic grounds. On the slanting grade the wagon upset and "Gus" went into the creek. He was just a little boy, his picnic clothes were sadly mussed, and the first part of his celebration was being set behind a bush while his clothes were dried out; but the rest of it was exciting, all that a Fourth of July should be, and it occu- pied at least three days-one to go, one to celebrate and one to get back home.

Mr. Slack not only farmed, but worked in the Tribune office binding books, and his son, Augustus, worked there for years setting type and gather- me up information which later he worked up into interesting stories for publication. Some very good poems also came from his pen.

In 1882, Mr. Slack married Miss Mary J. Dunning, and by this marriage there were three children, two daughters and one son. This son, David, was killed in an automobile accident near Stockton in July, 1911, when eighteen years of age. The other children are all living and are: Mrs. Maggie Oaks of Los Angeles, Mrs. Carrie Priest of Alameda, Mrs. Annie Pool of Arroyo Grande, Benjamin of San Jose, Augustus of San Luis Obispo, Mrs. Venona Englander of the Huer-Huero, and Miss Arley Slack, who resides with her parents on their pleasant ranch five miles south of Creston.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Mr. Slack was eighty-three on June 12, 1916. He is a hale, handsome old gentleman, drives his own team to San Luis Obispo or anywhere else he wishes to go, steps off as spry as his son, carries himself as straight and tall as ever. His splendid, big, dark eyes shadow forth a soul clean and brave. In looking at Mr. Slack, one is bound to apply to him Kipling's words, ".1 gentleman unafraid."

Major William Jackson and Mrs. Mary Jackson

Among the men and women who pioneered San Luis Obispo and are well worth a place in its history, are Major William Jackson and his wife, Mrs. Mary Francis Jackson. Major Jackson, of the Third Missouri Cavalry Volunteers, was born in Tennessee, June 5, 1828. He enlisted on the first call to arms for the Civil War and served two years. At the expiration of two years, broken health compelled him to retire from the service. In the fall of 1863 he married Mary Francis in Missouri, and in the spring of 1864, they left from White Cloud, Kansas, just across the Missouri line, by wagon train, crossing the plains to California.

Mrs. Jackson was even then a remarkable woman, and drove a mule team the entire distance. The journey lasted four months, and in September the party reached Sebastopol, Sonoma county. With the party were George and William Downing. Robert Coon, who had crossed the plains three times already, acted as guide, else the time would have been longer ; but he knew just where the water holes and pastures were, and what Indians to avoid, and how ; so the train made a quick, safe trip.

Mrs. Jackson's father and three brothers had started across the plains for California in 1849, but the father and two brothers had died of cholera and were buried somewhere on the road. This much Mrs. Jackson and her mother knew, also that one brother had reached California. The party camped on a flat below Fort Laramie, and were told several men were buried there who had died while crossing. Arrived in California, Mrs. Jackson found her brother, and from him learned that her own father and two brothers were buried there on Laramie flat, where she had camped. . All the way, she says, she wondered where they lay, and yet camped beside their graves without knowing it.

Before telling the rest of her story, this incident should be given: It is known to all students of the history of our Civil War that Missouri was the scene of a terrible struggle between the Union and Confederate forces, cach trying to save the state for its own side.

At Springfield, where Mary Francis was then a schoolgirl, the Union men were trying to keep "Old Glory" floating until General Sigel and his ten thousand men, many of them Germans, should arrive. Several times the Confederate men tore down the flag and tramped it under foot. At last they shot the Union men who tried to guard it at night. Sigel was coming. Should the Stars and Stripes greet him or not? One day, the day before he was expected, the principal of the school said, "Will any one here volunteer to guard the flag tonight?" Mary Francis arose and said, "I will." Girl after girl arose until twelve girls had said, "I will."

At home she told what she was going to do. and a brother, the last one remaining, said, "If you do that, I will enlist in the Confederate army to

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

morrow morning." The twelve girls went to the public square and the flag was run up. There they stayed all night dancing, singing, but always circling the flag pole. About ten the next morning a glad shout went up from the Union men and women, who, at dawn, began to collect about the brave girls that had guarded the flag all night and whom no man had molested ; for listen, faint and far away, sounds of fife and drum; and then as on a sea of glass, the sun flashed on ten thousand glistening bayonets. In a little while Gen- eral Sigel and his men swept around the square. The bands surrounded the girls and serenaded them and the flag, while General Sigel shook hands with each and thanked them for this service to their country.

True to his word, the brother enlisted in the Southern Army, and Mrs Jackson recalls how her mother stood at the gate one evening while romeral Lyon, on his fine dappled gray charger, rode past on his evening ride. She questioned him, saying, "Do you think there will be a battle?" "Yes, Madam, there will be a battle, probably tomorrow." At break of day, the red of artillery began. Five miles away a son and brother were fighting mainst the flag that the sister had guarded : lut so it was all through those mamul years-son against father, brother against brother, on the battlefield, Male the women wept, worked and prayed at home with no drums, no fifes, un Rolling hardes, to cheer them on; and so it will ever be while the hell of war is allowed by so-called civilized nations.

In the fall of 1863, Mary Francis married her soldier lover and, as stated, started for california the next spring. The husband and wife had brought little cash with them, but great store of pluck and energy. Mrs. Jackson sos she grew tired of living without butter and milk, so urged Major Jack- w to offer her fine gold watch and chain to a man who owned some good- Tonno cows, for one of them. At first the Major demurred, but she finally had wer way, and in exchange for watch and chain, the man gave her two rogue del cons. Each cow had a heifer calf; and when, in 1867, the family amplia! to remove to Santa Barbara county, those cows and young heifers Tung Tung, following the wagon in which the family rode. It took two wadbe for iln trip, but it was spring and feed was fine, so cows and folks arrived in good condition. Mrs. Jackson says as long as they ranched, the Pige were always hers, as she started the herd with her gold watch and chain. Www.thes went to Lompoc valley, some years later, sixty head of fine cattle Tollbored Ilu wagons. With the Jacksons came the Downing boys, also. Wo Jowon say- San Luis Obispo was just a little huddle of adobe huts. The narrow Birty street ran past the Mission, and it was littered with old Gal atea Towhomne, hats, shirts, etc.

Wh compor bowl started for Santa Barbara county and passed through the (ou 1, 00 0 06- San Luis creek at the end of what is now Dana street, in algo xr -- the creek from the end of it. The men in the party went bok on Trovo po tre the sights. Walter Murray, who without doubt was the wow e formal e | Afted man of those days in San Luis Obispo, got into He urged them to stay there and not go on, saying, WKI ,Taxit forwndomme is rich government land. Stay here and I will locate Vin ny -roma" \197 .wo days of talk and seeing the country. Major Jackson decuba du -sake disi Matter Murray located him on 160 acres where a big old adobe bogse wood what had been owned by the Mission. Later he bought

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

forty acres more. This land he sold in 1875, to J. H. Orcutt, and it was known for forty years as Laurel Ranch, or the J. H. Orcutt ranch.

In the old adobe, Mrs. Jackson set up housekeeping. Its crumbling walls still stand. All the great eucalyptus trees now on that ranch were set out by Mr. Orcutt, but in 1867 no tree obstructed the view down the valley ; Mrs. Jackson says she stood at her kitchen door every morning and looked down the valley to an old adobe, once Mission property, on land now owned by Peter McMillan, and remembered the story told her of some Mexicans who rode up to the cabin door of a family asking for a drink of water. The husband was away; when the woman turned to go into the house, the Mexicans followed and attacked her, and she died as a result of her injuries. Mrs. Jackson says she shuddered as she looked, and wondered about her own future. Major Jackson started selling milk, using at first one horse and a light wagon. Later he put on a big wagon and a spirited team. One day the hired driver got too much "hot stuff" and his team ran away. Mrs. Jackson says she saw them heading up the hill scattering milk cans as they came.

On what is now the Goldtree place, adjoining the Orcutt ranch, a Spanish family lived. A brother was sick and died. One night at midnight, one of them came to Major Jackson's house and begged him to buy their two cows. They said they wanted the money to pay for a mass for the repose of their brother's soul. The Major bought the cows. Mrs. Jackson says the other brothers carried the coffin on their shoulders to the Mission. The priest said the mass, but would come no farther than the Mission door with them ; but she and the Major went with the brothers still carrying the coffin on their shoulders to the cemetery. There was only one cemetery in those days.

Well, the Steeles had just started up their big dairy at Corral de Piedra, and were the nearest neighbors of the Jacksons on the south : and the families visited back and forth. Also Major Jackson bought a number of fine cows from Steele Bros. Mrs. Jackson showed the writer a little old album con- taining pictures of Judge Walter Murray, a very handsome man ; his brother, Alexander Murray ; Mr. and Mrs. Morris, who ran the old Cosmopolitan Hotel, the "Casa Grande" of pioneer days; and other quaint old photographs. Years after Mr. Orcutt bought the ranch, a Spaniard came and requested permission to dig in one corner of the old adobe house. It was refused. but that night some one did "dig," and in the morning, in one corner of the deep adobe walls, was a hole showing where a vessel, a kettle-shaped one, had been removed. It had been embedded in the walls and plastered over. No doubt it con- tained valuables. It might have been a kettle full of Spanish coins, jewels. or treasures from the Mission, but it went as mysteriously as the Spaniard came, and no doubt went with him. Our county is plastered thick with romance that has never been written, and there are still hidden treasures to be dug up.

In 1874, Major Jackson was one of a hundred men who bought seventy- two thousand acres of land in Lompoc valley, the Downing boys being mem- bers of the company. Hither the Major and his family removed : and here they lived for about twenty-eight years. In 1902 Major and Mrs. Jackam removed to Orange.

Major Jackson was an officer and charter member of King David's Lodge of San Luis Obispo, which was instituted in November, 1870. Mrs.

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

Jackson was a charter member of the Mothers' and Daughters' Degree of Masonry, which later became the Eastern Star of San Luis Obispo. Irvin McGuire installed the members.

Major Jackson died, June 12, 1912, and is buried at Orange. Mrs. Jackson, a very bright, interesting woman, active in social and benevo- lent duties, still resides in Orange. The children are: Judge Grant Jackson of Los Angeles ; Mrs. Hattie M. Ross of Santa Barbara ; Mrs. Louisa Meyers, deceased ; Mrs. Julia Stafford of Santa Barbara; Fred Jackson, a conductor on the Southern Pacific, who lives at Santa Barbara; Robert and Adeline, twins; and Logan, the youngest son, who resides in Orange. Adeline died at the age of thirteen. Robert lives in Pomona.

CHAPTER IX Products of the Soil, Dairying, Grazing and the Great Landholdings Wheat and Barley

While a few of the thousands who dug for gold won and kept fortunes, many who "lost out," and some who did not, saw in the great level floors of the valleys certain gold mines if sown to wheat. The Sacramento valley and the smaller valleys about San Francisco bay had produced bountiful crops. when in 1865, after the loss of the cattle, the men of this county had to seek other means of income than grazing. Surely some tales of the great crops of wheat harvested by the padres must have reached them. The means of transportation were so poor that they no doubt were a drawback even after these men began to think of cultivating the land. From 1850 to 1860 steamers anchored out from San Simeon and Port San Luis twice a month ; but the means for loading grain were so poor, much loss and expense would have been incurred had there been wheat to ship. After the Vigilantes had cleaned out the criminals and the drought had ruined many of the cattlemen, the people turned to agriculture, especially when, about 1867, Americans began coming in to settle on the government land. In 1868, Mr. Rome G. Vicars issued the first newspaper published in the county, the Pioneer. In it he published many articles advocating wheat-raising and urging the people to take advan- tage of the splendid opportunity the country offered. They must have lis- tened, for five years later the assessor's crop reports state that 5,000 acres had been sown to wheat and 100,000 bushels harvested; 30,000 acres were sown to barley and produced 750.000 bushels. In 1876 the report is: wheat 120,000 bushels, barley 1,500,000 bushels. In 1879 there were 7.000 acres in wheat and 40,000 acres in barley. For 1881-82 the report is 36.384 acres in wheat, 8, 154 acres in barley and 2,932 acres in oats. This is interesting, for when is on the increase and barley decreasing. By this time the Estrella had been settled and found to be a fine wheat-growing country ; also wheat was being raised in some other sections of the county, as at Pozo, then called San Jose valley.

In 1286 the whistles of the Southern Pacific gladdened the waiting people of the country as far south as Templeton. This meant better means of ship- ment as well as many other things. The Paso Robles ranch was subdivided

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS

and sold off in farming tracts by the West Coast Land Co. Over about Shandon, government land was rapidly taken up. Four brothers, D. C., James, Peter, and Alec McMillan, all took up land in what is now known as McMillan canon. They have all grown well-off raising wheat, even though it must still be hauled over twenty miles to a market. Others haul as far as forty miles to the same warehouses, yet they make money, especially in "good years." In McMillan canon, this year of 1916, there has been a fine crop of wheat, although in most other sections it has been light or a total failure.

We have already mentioned that in 1873, 5.000 acres produced 100,000 bushels of wheat. From the State Board of Agriculture report for 1915, we learn that this county seeded 33,608 acres to wheat and harvested 428,636 bushels. By these figures the 1873 erop averaged twenty bushels to the acre, while the 1915 crop was not quite an average of fourteen bushels to the acre. The season of 1882-83 yielded a bumper crop in some sections. From an old crop report we learn that Frank McCoppin, on a farm of four hundred acres near San Luis Obispo, raised 20,000 bushels, or fifty bushels per acre. C. Fairbanks, near Morro, raised 1,000 centals from forty acres. Judge Steele of the Corral de Piedra reported an average of forty bushels to the acre. For the last thirty years the writer has resided in the county and knows that the wheat erops have varied greatly. The yield depends so much upon the season, upon summer-fallowing, and good or bad preparation of the land and seed. Barley has decreased in acreage but the yield is the same. Almost invariably the quality is unsurpassed.

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History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches, Part 11

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837- Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1070

Author: Morrison, Annie L. Stringfellow, 1860-; Haydon, John H., 1837-
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1070