USA > California > Santa Barbara County > History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 30
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10,000
10,000 30
750
18,000
Nicolas Den. .
71,027
18,800 200
2,250
44,475
Francisco Vidal
5,000
5,000 60
550
11,700
Luis Arrellanes.
24,000
20,000 300
2,610
500
54,700
M. Elisalde
10,000
5,000 100
840
15,800
Thomas W. Moore.
14,500
10,000
50
168
600
14,000
John Kays.
7,000
5,000
21
240
9,000
Octaviano Gutierrez
25,000
12,000
25
800
22,000
Lean Iro Saing.
...
10
1,500
17,000
Ygnacio Ortega.
8,000
6,000
25
60
3,000
14,000
Victor Cota.
2,000
1,000
20
920
14,000
Romaulda Cuerta. .
2,000
1,500
16
36
3,500
12,500
Ulpiano Yndart. .
6,000
3,000 100
1,025
15,000
Pacifico Ortega ....
150
800
11,000
José M. de la Guerra
48,000
27,000
25
55
200
34,000
José Auto. Estrada
4,J00
3,000
30
625
50
9,800
Juan Hartnell. ...
35,000
12,000
25
75
2,000
19,000
Antonio Arrellanes
48,500
35,000 260 14,120
3,000 190,000
Diego Olivera . . . ..
13,200
15,000 100 2,030
36,200
Francisco Elisalde.
7,350
6,000 200
3.054
9,250
José A. Camarillo. .
14,500
12,000 30
17,000 100
2,000
42,000
Juan Cordero. .
1,000 50
175
500
7,600
Rafael Leira. .
2,500 200
800
14,500
Mignel Valencia.
10,000
5,000 100
429
11,700
Benjamin Foxen.
24,000
10,000 100
325
15,000
Rafael Gonzales
6,412
2,000 300
2,060
27,000
Pedro Carrillo ..
60
1,500 67
200
5,500
Josefa Gonzales.
10,000
5,000 150
524
250
14,000
John Nidener
4,000
3,000
40
650
10,800
Juan Sanchez
40,000
20,000
70
400
200
26,000
Pacifico Sanchez.
5,000
2,500
40
170
250
6,500
Juan Camarillo. .
10,000
10,000
2,030
1,500
40,000
José Moraga
10,000
3,000
20
240
'500
6,000
José Arnaz.
34,000
30,000
60
454
1,500
42,000
Crisogono Ayala. ..
8,000
6,000
25
45
500
8,300
Manuel Reyes. . .
4,000
8,000 200
2,570
38,000
José Sanchez.
100
2,000 40
55
400
6,000
Alex. Cameron*
145
1,000 40
85 150(hg's) 7,000
Rafael Gonzales
500
2,000 300
2,060
29,000
Isabel Yorba
44,000
22,000 70
925
35,000
Jnan Rodrignez. . .
8,000
4,000 100
270
400
11,000
Anto. M.de la Guerra 70,000
30.000 50
4,220
60,000
Madalina Ortega. ..
24,000
24,000
50
306
28,125
Gaspar Oreña .. ...
70,000
35,000
5
1,502
1,500
50,325
José Manuel Ortega
8,000
12,000
44
240
16,000
N. C. Peters
1,000
1,000
5
36
3,000
14,000
John Miller
10
75
2,000
7,000
THE SEASON OF 1861-62.
Like the rest of the State, Santa Barbara had an excess of rain. The rivers of Santa Barbara County are comparatively short, and cannot collect such vast amounts of water as the Sacramento and San Joa- quin, with their tributaries, that overflow farms and cities, and bring destruction to so much of the pro- ducts of industry; but the results, though different, are quite as striking. The soft rock of the mount-
ains, so easily disintegrated and converted into soil, furnish material for changing the beds of rivers, fill- ing up estuaries and otherwise changing the face of the country. Until 1862 the estuary of the Goleta (so called because a schooner was constructed there in the early fifties by L. T. Burton and others) was a kind of harbor, accessible to light craft, and, pos- sibly, if attended to in season, might have been made into a safe harbor in any kind of storm at a reasonable expense. The freshets of 1861 and 1862, however, put a negative on any such project by fill- ing it with gravel and sand from the mountains beyond redemption. Formerly the streams termi- nated in miry places, or balsas, as they were some- times called, with no regular channel to the ocean. This season the streams swept out a channel with the result stated. Immense slides of earth and rocks took place in the mountains, resulting in considerable change in the appearance of the country. At San Buenaventura the face of the hill, along which the aqueduct was carried, nearly all slid more or less, nearly destroying the canal, which had to be recon- structed. Many cattle were caught in the rapid · streams and drowned, and the losses in some in- stances were considerable; but cattle were plenty and land was abundant; there was little farming to be affected, no fences to be swept away, and the trifling disasters were forgotten in a year.
THE MATANZA.
The extraordinary price of beef, ten to fifteen cents a pound on foot, had stimulated the growth of cattle in every part of the State. In 1850 the San Joaquin and Sacramento plains were entirely desti- tute of cattle, except where an immigrant had com- menced a home with the few cattle that survived the trip across the plains. From 1852 to 1854 large herds were driven over the plains, and the business of stock raising was entered into by thousands besides the native Californians. A cow could be bought in Mis- souri for $10.00, which was worth $100 in California, and a single herd of cattle driven over the plains would make quite a fortune for its owner. In 1860 not only the great plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin were covered with cattle, but even the mountain valleys were hunted out, and it was said that every acre of grass from the ocean to the Sierra Nevada was grazed during some portion of the year. The counties of Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa, Klamath, and Trinity were swarming with cattle. The assessment roll of 1858 showed nearly a million head of cattle in the State. Many perished in the hard winter of 1861-62, but the abundance of grass the following year re-established the prosperity of the business and the increase of the herds was but little retarded.
For many years only the male portion of the increase was slaughtered, and thus the abundance of cattle was not manifest until the herds had acquired a size that necessitated a reduction. From
*He early commenced farming, raising in 1860, 1,000 bushels of wheat and 1,500 of oats.
33,985
T. Wallace More
83,670
18,185
. .
80
50
350
5,000
Raymundo Olivas. .
Estate Ramon Malo 35,000
123
STATISTICS OF SANTA BARBARA.
$100 per head breeding eows fell, in the course of ten years, to 825, or even less, for in 1862 beef was sold in the mines, in quantity, at two cents per pound on foot. There was little sale for Spanish cattle at any price. The distance from the market of the southern counties, the long drives over a country closely grazed before a market could be reached. and the unavoidable shrinkage incident to a long journey, the inferiority of the beef after a market was reached, together with the extra trouble of handling the wild steers, all served to depress the value of the herds in Santa Barbara and the other southern counties. A reduction of the herds in some way became absolutely necessary, and the matanza was the result. The word signifies more than a place for killing cattle for beef, it means a wholesale mas- sacre; and in this instance it was wholesale, for the slaughter was well into, according to some authorities, a hundred thousand. 85.00 per head was the usual price. The hides were salted and dried, and the car -. cass was put into a steam bath, where it was subjected to such a heat that the flesh fell from the bones and became a mass of jelly and fat, which was put in a powerful press and every partiele of tallow extracted -
the jelly going to the manufacture of glue, the horns being sent East to be manufactured into combs and other useful articles. The cake or pressed meat was fed to hogs, so that every particle of the beef was utilized. The works were situated between Santa Barbara and Carpenteria on the seashore, where the refuse might be swept away at high tide. It is said that notwithstanding the low price paid for eattle, the enterprise was unprofitable to the projectors. The result might have been different but for the unparalleled destruction of cattle in the winter of 1863-4, hereafter to be described, which rendered a matanza entirely unnecessary; but as it was, a great loss was suffered by the projectors.
CHAPTER XXI.
STATISTICS OF SANTA BARBARA.
Statistics for 1862, 1863, and 1864-Misfortunes Beginning- The Great Drought-Native Cavalry-Hon. Russet Heath -Oil Springs and Mining-Thomas R. Bard-Purchase of a County Safe-Statistics of 1865-More Dignified Conduct of the Supervisors-New Election Law-Precincts Estab- lished-Trouble with the District Attorney-Statistics for 1857-Fruit Farming Tried.
1862-ASSESSMENTS raised by a Board of Super- visors acting as a Board of Equalization :-
Luis Arrellanes, $4,000; A. Salony & Co .. 82.000; S. B. Brinkerhoff, $2.000; E. Straelswitch, 82.700; Francisco Cota, $2,500; Weil Bros., $3,500; Cook Bros., $4,600; A. Arrellanes, $18,000; Juan C'amarillo. $2,400; T. W. More, 812,000; Gaspar Oreña, 833.378; Joaquin Ormark, $ -; Andres Pico, 84.040; Ramon Herederas Malo, $2,000; Waterman, Vassault &
Gould, 813,200; besides some thirty others, whose assessments were raised in sums from $1,000 up.
ELECTION RETURNS, 1862.
For State Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Swett, 235; J. D. Stevenson, 135.
Proposed amendments to the Constitution; Articles 4, 5, 6, and 9 received 353 votes, with no opposition.
County officers elected: Member of the Assembly, Ramon Hill; County Treasurer, Alfred Robinson; Sur- veyor, Thomas Sprague; Superintendent of Schools, Pablo de la Guerra; Supervisors-First District, Juan Camarillo, Second District, Gaspar Oreña, Third Dis- trict. Felipe Puig.
Pablo de la Guerra did not qualify, and J. F. Ma- guire was appointed to fill the vacancy. August 7, 1863. A. B. Thompson was appointed to fill a vacancy of the same office.
TAX RATES FOR 1863.
State Tax. 80 cents on each one hundred dollars: Insane Asylum. 5 cents; State Capitol. 5 cents; County (General Fund), 40 cents; School, 10 cents; Hospital, 5 eents; Road, 5 cents; Funded Debt, 50 cents; Sinking 50 cents; Volunteer, 2 cents. Total, $2.52.
ELECTION RETURNS FOR 1863.
For Governor-F. F. Low (Republiean), 481; J. G. Downey (Democrat), 143.
Lieutenant-Governor-F. A. Machin (R.), 505; E. W. Mckinstry (D.), 113.
Members of Congress-T. B. Shannon (R.), 522; Wm. Higby (R.), 521; C. C. Cole (R.), 521; John B. Weller (D.), 102; John Bigler (D.), 101; N. E. White- sides (D.), 101.
Officers elected-State Senator, Juan Y. Cota, Member of Assembly, Ramon J. Hill; Sheriff, José R. de la Guerra; County Clerk. F. A. Thompson; County Treasurer, J. M. Yndart; District Attorney; S. R. I. Sturgeon; Surveyor, Thomas Sprague; Assessor, Augustin Janssens; Superintendent of Schools. A. B. Thompson; Coroner, W. B. Streeter. A marked difference is seen in the number of voters, showing a steady increase of the population.
RETURNS FOR JUDICIARY ELECTION, 1863.
Superintendent of Publie Instruction-John Swett, 524; A. J. Moulder, 70; - Wozencraft, 5.
Justices Supreme Court-O. L. Shafter, 581; S. Sawyer. 581; John Curry, 4; A. L. Rhodes, 74; S. W. Sanderson, 86; R. Sprague, 55; W. T. Wallace, 55; T. R. Ilall, 55.
District Judge-Pablo de la Guerra. 431; Benjamin Hayes, 161; Joaquin Carrillo. 45.
J. F. Maguire was elected County Judge.
The Records of the Supervisors show frequent orders to pass money from the Sinking into the Con- tingent Fund.
COMMISSIONS APPOINTED.
Almost every meeting of the Board witnessed the
124
HISTORY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
appointment of commissioners for some purpose or other; sometimes to examine the county records; to examine the bonds of officials; to ascertain whether a certain stock of goods had been given in at a correct or an approximate value. J. F. Maguire, Alfred Robinson, and Charles Fernald were appointed a commission to examine the store of Schiappapietra, of San Buenaventura, and report upon its probable value.
Charles Fernald, Alfred Robinson, Miguel Smith, Russel Heath, and J. B. Shaw were appointed a commission to consult with the Supervisors in regard to the condition of the county for the payment of taxes.
A. Robinson, E. J. Goux, and Charles Fernald were appointed a commission to examine the store of A. Cohn and report on its value.
These commissioners were appointed in the course of one week, and were expected to serve withont pay. In accordance with the report of one of these commissions, Burton's assessment was raised $10,300; Gaspar Oreña's, $17,800; Schiappapietra's, $2,000. James B. Shaw's assessment was raised $6,000.
February 6, 1864, the salary of the County Judges was fixed at $1,000 per annum; County Clerk, $500, and Sheriff, $1,000. The County Clerk also received a salary for acting as clerk to the various boards.
TAX RATES FOR 1864.
State, $1.25; County (General Fund), $1.25; School, 10 cents; Hospital, 5 cents; Road, 5 cents; Funded Debt; 50 cents; Sinking Fund, 50 cents. Total, $3.08.
MISFORTUNES BEGINNING.
The fact of an excess of cattle and low prices of beef has been referred to as occurring even before the dry season. Titles to land had begun to change; numbers of mortgages were on record in different parts of both counties. In some instances merchants had furnished goods at enormous prices, to be paid with interest at a future date. These goods in many instances were luxuries which might have been dis- pensed with without interfering with the comforts of
the family. When the sum of indebtedness had accumulated to a figure that would justify it, a mort- gage of a rancho was usually asked and obtained as security. In most instances these were never redeemed. As land was held at about twenty-five cents an acre, a few thousand dollars indebtedness was a sufficient reason for a mortgage on a full ranch, eleven leagues or 44,000 acres. In this way the Santa Clara del Norte, the Las Posas, Simi, and other ranches were alienated from the original own- ers. Taking one instance of mortgages as an illus- tration: Gaspar Oreña had in 1862 the following on the assessment roll :-
VALUE.
Rancho Simi, 92,341 acres $11,542
House and orchard on same 3,000
Rancho Las Posas, 26,600 acres 3,325
Improvements 400
Rancho Conejo, 24,400 acres 4,880
Rancho San Julian, 48,210 acres 9,644
Improvements_ 800
Rancho La Espada, 8,800 acres 1,760
Improvements 240
Rancho Pedernales, 8.800 acres 2,200
Rancho Cuyamas, 13,200 acres 1,320
Town property 6,520
5,000 beef cattle. 10,000
5,000 sheep 2,500
250 mares 1,250
50 horses 600
Other property 500
Total valuation of all kinds $60,435
Several of the ranches were assessed to him as being under foreclosure of mortgage. The original indebtedness was incurred by purchase from him of the Espada for 850,000 on time, a mortgage on sev- eral other ranches being taken for security of pay- ment.
In 1864, after the foreclosure of the mortgage, but while it was subject to redemption, the matter of the taxation of the mortgage came up before the Board of Supervisors, of which Oreña was a member. He declined acting in the case, being interested. By a vote of the Board, it was referred to District Attor- ney Sturgeon, who reported as follows :-
" The mortgage referred to is personal property, properly assessed to the mortgagee, under the ruling of the Superior Court in the case of the People vs. Parks. The mortgage under consideration has been merged in a decree of foreclosure, and a sale for the same in the sum of $50,000, and a Sheriff's certifi- cate given in pursuance of such sale. This certificate can be redeemed at any time during six months, by the payment of the aforesaid sum of $50,000 in legal tender notes, which would be the sum at which it ought to be assessed if our taxes were payable in currency. As they are, however, payable in gold or silver, which at forty cents on the dollar will leave the sum of $20,000 subject to taxation, at which it should be put by the Board of Equalization.
" S. R. I. STURGEON, " District Attorney."
The total assessment was reduced $41,100, and subsequently $12,000 more.
It will be seen that the sum of $20,000 or less would have saved from loss to the mortgagor the ranches Simi, Las Posas, Conejo, San Julian, and Espada, numbering in the aggregate 200,000 acres or more.
GENERAL REDUCTION IN ASSESSMENTS.
Nearly all the rancheros of note asked and ob- tained reductions on assessments. Among others were Estudillo. $ 1,900
De la Guerra, Antonio José 8,750
Noriega, estate of
6,800
De la Guerra Pablo, Francisco, Miguel and Antonio. 1,200
JOHN S. BELL.
Nor far from the town of Los Alamos, on a site overlooking the valley, amid a cluster of gigantic oaks, is the elegant residence of John S. Bell, the patron and founder of the town. Mr. Bell was born on the island of Tahiti, June 27, 1842, of Scottish parents. His father was a merchant and sugar planter, owning the island of Moria, called by the uatives " Obenhoo." When he was six years old he left the island of Tahiti for the Sandwich Islands in charge of a preceptor, from which place they drifted to San Francisco with the crowd that came on the discovery of gold, arriving in San Francisco on Christmas day, 1849. His mother, who was an invalid, went to the Navigator Islands for her health, where she soon after died. His father, in a few years, followed the mother to the grave, leaving John an orphan. From this time until his majority he was under the guardianship of his uncle, Thomas Bell, a banker of San Francisco. He remained in San Francisco until 1862, when he went to Europe to finish his education. While there his health failed, and at the solicitation of his unele he returned to California. The question of restoring his health being the first consideration, all plans available were canvassed. An active, out-door life in one of the salubrious valleys of California was determined on, and the Los Alamos Valley selected as the best point for operations. A tract of' four leagues, containing 17,760 acres, was purchased for $12,000 of the orig- inal proprietor, one of the de la Guerras. At that time the country was as wild as the imagination could conceive. The freebooters, Solomon Pico and Jaek Power, had hardly left the place. There was not a house, save the old Los Alamos homestead, within miles, excepting the adobe of Dr. Shaw's on the Laguna. But Bell, now in his majority, went in the stoek business with a will and soon achieved a marked success, carrying as high as 12,000 sheep on the ranch, which he gradually stocked with cattle. Grain-raising was cautiously tried and found to be successful, and in 1878 he resolved to change the system to that of raising grain. This was the begin- ning of the town, as it involved the employment of large numbers of men. The rancho was subdivided into convenient tracts and rented on terms that induced many people to come to the valley. A flour- mill was erected, which enabled the farmers to utilize their grain and realize a price beyond what it would bear for shipment. The crops proved enormons, wheat reaching as high as seventy-eight bushels to
* It is currently reported that wheat has reached one hundred bushels to the acre.
the acre .* The flour made at this mill has taken several premiums at county fairs, owing in a great measure, it is believed, to the extraordinary good qualities of the wheat, which ranks in quality with that of the valleys of the Jonata, College Ranch, Ojai, and others of that character.
It is hardly possible to conceive the existence of a pleasanter location than the Los Alamos, or one combining more valuable resources with natural beauty. The valley is rather tortuous in its course, so that the sea breeze, which usually sweeps too strongly for comfort through the coast valleys gen- erally, here gets baffled and confused, bringing only a gentle reminder of its origin, although there is health and vigor in its freshness and purity. The thermometer rises high enough in the summer to mature the grape and fig, and in sheltered places the orange and lemon. The long, gentle slopes of sandy loam bordering the valley that now produce such crops of corn and wheat are finely adapted to the raisin grape, and undoubtedly in the years to come will be famous for the immense well-matured clusters. The higher portions of the surrounding hills will also produce the olive in perfection. If one can but consider the farms reduced to forty acres and divided into patches of grapes and orchard, the hill- tops erowned with the dark green of the olive, and cottages here and there peeping out of the foliage, and the voices of children making everything glad, he will only have anticipated the sure march of events for a few years. The main part of the valley is moist enough to produce any kind of vegetables through the summer without irrigation, the natural grasses remaining green all the year. The natural formation of the country makes it quite certain that artesian water in flowing wells may be obtained with- out cost; but, as Mr. Bell says, they would not know what to do with the water if it was brought to the surface; have no use for it. If there is a pleasanter and better spot in the world than where Mr. Bell is located, the writer has never seen it.
He married Catherine, the accomplished daughter of Dr. Den, mentioned more fully on page 47 of this volume. She is not only well versed in general topics, but is a writer of considerable merit, having had. the advantages of thorough training in belles- lettres at one of our best institutions.
As a business man Mr. Bell is considered above reproach, justice and liberality marking all his trans- actions. His portrait and a view of the house accom- pany this article.
C
125
STATISTICS OF SANTA BARBARA.
anssens, Augustin 1,000
Armat, Joaquin. 1,900
Ialo, estate of. 2,000
parks, Isaac J. 12,000
The reduction amounted to fully ten per cent. of nie total assessment, and even with all the reductions, venty names were struck from the delinquent tax st as unable to pay.
ELECTION RETURNS FOR 1864.
Whole number of votes cast, 429; for Republican electors, 342, for Democratic electors, 81.
Congressman-D. C. McRuer, (R.), 303; J. D. Crockett, (D.), 83.
THE GREAT DROUGHT.
The average rain-fall of Santa Barbara is about twelve inches, some seasons being as low as four inches, in others rising to twenty. When the latter condition occurs, as it did in 1861-62, grass is pro- duced in great abundance; when but four inches fall, the grass is scant, and many cattle perish. The winter of 1861-62 was a season of excessive rains all over the State. The destruction of property was enormous. Many towns were overflowed, the State capital among the rest, and in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, steamboats left the channels of the rivers, and traversed the farming lands with a depth of fifteen feet of water. A steamboat was swept through the city of Sacramento, lodging near where the Crocker residence was afterwards erected. The face of the country in many places was consider- ably changed. The rivers sought new channels, destroying entirely some valuable farms, and injur- ing all more or less. In the mining portions of the State the vast masses of dirt and gravel that had been moved by hydraulic mining and lodged in the upper branches of the rivers, was again turned loose, and sent down by the floods by the million cubic yards, burying beyond recovery some of the most productive land in the State. So serious was the danger considered that engineers were called upon to propose plans for future security. Varions plans were proposed, such as impounding the waters by means of dams in the upper Sierras, and one man proposed to widen the Straits of Carquinez so as to afford better egress for the floods. Sacramento, ambitious and energetic, went to work and filled the business portion of the city above high-water mark. The fear of floods was entertained by all through- out the State. A year or two served to repair the damages, which, however, were trifling com- pared to those of the great drought, which came two years after, and was general through the State, though much severer in the southern counties than elsewhere.
A little rain fell early in December, and the usual fears of a hard winter were aroused, but there was not enough rain to more than lay the dust in Sinta Barbara. As has been mentioned before, the
county was overstocked with cattle, and the dried grass was eaten to the ground before the usual time for rains. December and January passed without clouds. The hills, brown and bare, had not a mouthful of feed to the aere. The cattle and horses wandered listlessly around with dazed eyes and gaunt forms, with a presentiment of impending mis- fortunes. The weaker portion were daily falling to rise no more. Still there was hope of spring rains. There was no tradition of an entire winter without rain. If the usual spring rains came, grass would grow, and some portions of the herds could be saved; but the rains came not. Day after day the sun rose in a brassy sky, that seemed of molten heat, ready to settle down and extinguish all animal and vege- table life.
There was no available grass within 400 miles. On the opposite side of the Sierra Nevada were some valleys watered by the melting snows centuries old, that had not felt the drought, where grass was grow- ing fresh and green. But a rainless desert lay be- tween, and the staggering cattle were not equal to a day's march without food, and there was no relief from that quarter. Even the lowlands around the Tulare Lake were destitute of feed, though when summer came without rain, the cattle in that vicinity were capable of moving by easy stages to N evada where there was feed enough to sustain life, and thus many herds were saved. The cattle along the coast were utterly incapable of a long march. Some were saved by feeding upon the foliage of oaks that were cut down for this purpose. Even now, near twenty years later, one may see. from the trunks of the fallen trees and the bleaching bones around, where the last stand was made to save the cattle, the only source of wealth to the Shepherd Kings. As the summer progressed this poor resource was exhausted, for the trees were suffering for moisture, and the leaves fell prematurely, leaving the naked skeleton limbs reaching upwards as if begging for life at any cost. The carcasses, or rather the dry shells of the animals. for the dry dessicating atmosphere hardly permitted decay, strewed the plains and valleys in every direction. There was little fretting or lament- ing by the owners who seemed to look on it as an unavoidable, Providential dispensation. The same stoicism that characterized the Castilian in other adversities, marked his demeanor now. Trust in Providence and hope for the future were taught in a hundred households, when disaster was sweeping away their means of comfort, respectability, and influence.
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