USA > California > Santa Barbara County > History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 72
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A ton may be carried at one time by the traveler, and altogether the apparatus has proved a great success.
The Chinte Landing is partially sheltered by Point Sal, and is, hence, a mueh safer anchorage than the latter point, which is exposed to a greater degree.
The first grain received for shipment was on July 21, 1880, and the first vessel shipped was the sehooner Golden Fleece, on the 28th of the following September. Thirteen thousand tons of grain were shipped the first two years, 8,000 of which was in 1881. One million feet of lumber is received annually. There is storage capacity for 100,000 sacks of grain.
It is said that the Chute in its first two years of operation saved the farmers in freight and wharfage its full first cost. Freight to San Franeiseo is fifty eents a ton cheaper by this route than by the Point Sal Wharf. H. A. Averill is the present manager of the Chute.
No serious accidents have happened at the landing or in connection with the shipping. The engineer, Ezra de Liere, fell from the wharf, eighty feet, into the water. He could not swim, but a boat from the
vessel picked him up, none the worse for his involun- tary tumble and bath.
Two or three cottages, several store-houses, a boarding-house, and a post-offiee near the landing, constitute the town of
MORRITO.
A 14,000-gallon tank supplies all needed water, being itself refilled through galvanized iron pipes from a spring two miles away. There is a flourish- ing sehool near at hand. The roads are usually in good condition. The distance from the landing to the neighboring points are: Point Sal, one and one-half miles to the west and up the coast; Guada- lupe, ten and one-half miles; Central City, fifteen miles; Los Alamos, twenty-two miles; and Lompoc, nineteen miles.
THE UPPER SANTA YNEZ VALLEY.
This district, comprising the country lying within the eentral and upper portions of the Santa Ynez Valley, is treated here by itself, as contradistin- guished from the Lower Santa Ynez, or Lompoc Distriet, elsewhere discussed. Coming out into the valley from the Gaviota Pass, one is most agreeably surprised at its extent, richness, and beauty. Viewed from the top of some high point, the valley is found to be made up of a vast extent of rolling hills, that merge in the dim distanee into the cloud-tipped sum- mits of the Sierra de San Rafael. The immediate valley consists of the winding eañon of the Santa Ynez, to which lateral canons and valleys of varying size contribute, creating in places considerable stretches of rich bottom-land. Farther up the river these tributary valleys become shorter and narrower, with less, and finally, no bottom-lands on the main stream, the eanon closing up until, toward the head of the valley, its walls, the foot-hills, come elose together, withholding all but the meager channel which the stream has forcibly torn from them. In a dry sum- mer its arid bed is used as a narrow roadway, but in the winter a mountain torrent booms down between its rocky walls, difficult and dangerous to cross. There is an abundance of tree growth, which adds greatly to the vivid pietnresqueness of the valley. There are the sturdy live-oak and white oak and the sycamore; the tall, slender cottonwood, with its shin- ing leaves; the graceful willow; the beautiful and fragrant balm of Gilead, and the historie bay. Higher up on the hills the madrona shows its glistening, dark-green foliage and unsheathes its new, glossy coat. The glossy manzanita, the savory sage, and the pestiferous poison oak, also abonnd. Cattle and horses kept in these upper regions speedily assume the Gothie architecture of the hills from which they seek their sustenanee. Sheep thrive better, but the depredations of the coyotes, bears, and mountain lions are serious embarrassments in the business.
The roeks in the Santa Ynez Canon are composed of marine shells and detritus. There are numerous abandoned rancherias where arrow-heads, pestles,
CENTRAL CITY HOTEL
CENTRAL CITY HOTEL, CROSBY BROS. PROPR$, CENTRAL CITY, SANTA BARBARA CO.CAL.
RESIDENCE AND RANCH OF C. H. CLARK. POINT SAL SANTA BARBARA CO CAL
H. WATKIN'S
GEN, STORE
CA LEWIS
VIEW OF THE TOWN OF BALLARD, WITH RESIDENCE OF MR. G. W. LEWIS, STA BARBARA CO. CAL.
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THE WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
ollas, etc., are found. Relie-hunters have opened some of the graves, leaving the bones exposed.
Upon the San Marcos Rancho and about the head- waters of the Santa Ynez there are excellent hunting- grounds for deer, bear, quail, and pigeon, while swarms of nimble trout temptingly expose their beautiful, speckled sides to the eager gaze of the disciples of Izaak Walton.
The names of the ranchos included in this district are, San Carlos de Jonata, Corral de Cuati, La Zaca. extension of La Laguna (treated of under the head of Los Alamos Valley), Cañada de los Pinos (Col- lege Ranch), San Marcos, Tequepis, Los Prietos y Najalayegua, Las Lomas de la Purificacion, Nojoqui, Las .Cruces, and Government lands, i. e., lands ac- quired from the Government at Mission Santa Ynez, comprising an area altogether of about 223,185 acres. Of this large area not less than 50,000 acres are adapted to agricultural and fruit-raising pursuits. The narrow valleys, of which there are many, are especially adapted to the raising of hogs there being plenty of excellent water, and the yield of corn and barley exceptionally large. Some of the best lands for grazing are also found in this district. On March 1, 1881, this district (ineluding no part of the La Laguna Raneho), of 200,000 acres, or more, sup- ported about 338 horses, 4,129 cattle, and 21,750 sheep.
Only a small portion of the tillable land is culti- vated. Wheat and barley of the finest quality are raised, averaging thirty bushels to the acre. No rust or blight has been perceived.
The fruit-raising capabilities of this district are said to be equal to those of any other portion of the county. Apples, pears, peaches, quinces, and the small fruits thrive well, and on the foot-hills grapes are a perfect suecess. But there must be thorough and persistent cultivation of the soil. The points of shipment are Gaviota Wharf, an average distance of from seventeen to eighteen miles from the wheat- fields, and the San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria Valley Railroad terminus at Los Alamos. The pro- posed future terminus of this road is Santa Barbara City.
It will probably not be long before some of the large ranchos of this district will be subdivided and offered for sale. Rumor mentions La Zaea, Corral de Cuati, and Jonata Ranchos. The great adapta- bility of much of the grazing lands for grain-raising and fruit culture is becoming more generally known. Experts in wine-making rank the Jonata and Col- lege Ranchos as first-class vine land. The soil and climate seem well adapted to grapes.
THE TOWN OF LAS CRUCES
Is situated three and a half miles from Gaviota Wharf, to the north of the pass. It is forty-two miles from Santa Barbara and eighteen from Lom- poc. It contains a post-office, school house, store, blacksmith shop, four families of Spanish-speaking
people, and one American, J. R. Broughton, a resi- dent for six years, who is hotel and store-keeper, Postmaster, etc. A radius of six miles from Las Cruces embraces a rare combination of attractions for the health-seeker, tourist, and sportsman.
LAS CRUCES HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS
Are situated only about three-quarters of a mile to the southeast, in a very pleasant, sheltered situation, under the shade of large live-oaks and sycamores, with good camping grounds near by, often utilized by invalids and by pleasure-seekers. The principal spring flows a volume of about ten inches and has a temperature of ninety degrees. It is walled up about nine feet in diameter, and provided with a seat and towel-rack for bathers. A fine spring of good cold water flows out close alongside.
Then there are the beautiful falls of Nojoqui, five miles to the northeast (described under the head of Nojoqui Rancho), a good bathing beach at Gaviota, picturesque scenery, and excellent hunting and fishing.
As late as 1846 the Tulare Indians used to fight desperate battles with the Coast Indians. On one occasion they made a raid on the adobe house of Las Cruces, in which were sixteen Californians. They shot arrows into the walls and carried off the horses of the besieged. They were, however, after- wards followed, the horses retaken, and all the Indians, but one, killed.
LAS CRUCES RANCHO,
A tract of about two leagues (8,888 acres), lies north of the summit upon the main county road to Gaviota Landing. Stock-raising is the leading industry, its floeks and herds numbering about 50 horses, 100 cattle, and 5,900 sheep, March 1, 1881.
GEORGE W. LEWIS,
Of the pleasantly located village of Ballards, in Santa Barbara County, was born at Lockport, New York, in 1830, remaining in that city of locks by the great canal until he was ten years of age. In 1840, his father, with the family, moved to Illinois, a bold pio- neer of the West, and in that grand State the subject of this sketch grew to manhood. In 1852, he contin- ued his westward journey so early begun, and crossed overland to Oregon. In that Territory, as it then was, he remained four years, coming to California in 1856. After engaging in various vocations Mr. Lewis, in 1880, settled upon the ranch where he now resides, where has since been built the town of Bal- lards, a birds-eye view of which is given in this volume. When he located here, the place was known as El Alamo Pintado (the painted cottonwood), from a tree of that species growing there-a conspicuous landmark. This was made a stage station, and so re- mained for several years. In 1862, Mr. Lewis went to the State of Sonora, in Mexico, leaving his place in charge of W. N. Ballard, the Superintendent of the stage line. Mr. Lewis remained eight years in
39
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HISTORY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
Mexico, and during this time the place took the name of Ballard's Station. Soon after the return of the owner from Mexico, Mr. Ballard died, and in due time Mr. Lewis married Mrs. Ballard. Since his rc- turn, he has continually lived on his rancho, which comprises an area of 800 acres of excellent land, well supplied with water, there being facilities for irrigat- ing 70 or 80 acres. Irrigation, however, is not neces- sary for field crops, except in seasons of excessive drought, and is resorted to only for the garden and for flowers. Wheat and barley are the chief products, but good crops of all kinds are raised.
The fertility of the soil, the healthful climate, the accessibility of location, the pleasant scenery, and the many attractive points in the vicinity, induced Mr. Lewis, in 1881, to lay out a town, to which he gave the name of his old friend, Ballard. The first building constructed in the new town, after the resi- dence of the proprietor, was a blacksmith shop, erected shortly after the survey, in April, 1881. The town is situated in the Santa Ynez Valley, three miles from the old Mission of Santa Ynez, the Col- lege of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commonly known as Santa Ynez College, being four miles distant. South is the Gaviota Pass of the Santa Ynez Mount- ains, through which a good road leads to Gaviota Landing, fourteen miles distant, and to Santa Bar- bara. The Zaca Lake, fourteen miles distant, is a very attractive resort in summer, the visitors making Bal- lards their central station. During the summer, many people, including numerous invalids-asthmatics and consumptives particularly, visit this place, drawn hither by the grand scenery, the pure air, the excel- lent water, the hunting and fishing in the neighbor- hood, and other attractions. A fine wheat-growing region surrounds the town; a large irrigating canal runs through it; and, with its many advantages for trade and pleasure, bids fair to grow into importance.
Four hundred acres of wheat were harvested in 1881, yielding an average of about twenty centals to the acre. The grain is equal to any on the coast.
The town has already made a good start. Henry Watkins keeps a store, selling dry goods and gro- ceries, and A. F. Hubbard has a blacksmith shop. A suitable lot is offered to any one who will build a hotel.
SAN CARLOS DE JONATA RANCHO,
Comprising 26,634.31 acres, is an approximately square tract of land, lying upon the north bank of the Santa Ynez. The patent to this rancho was issued December 2, 1872. To the west lics the Santa Rosa Rancho; to the north the La Laguna and Corral de Cuati Ranchos; to the east a strip of Government land about a mile wide, and beyond it the Cañada de los Pinos Rancho; to the south, across the river, the Nojoqui Rancho, and Government lands. It belongs to R. T. Buell, and is estimated to contain 10,000 acres of arable land. It is well watered by the Santa Ynez and numerous creeks. The soil is a fine, rich
sandy loam. The rancho is quite a typical one, pos- sessing extensive farm buildings, miles of fencing, and costly farm machinery. The proprietor is a large grain-raiser and dairyman. Some account of his op- erations may be interesting. Selecting the year 1876, it is found that 1,000 acres were cultivated to barley, and yielded 45 bushels to the acre; wheat, 2,000 acres, yielded 15 bushels to the acre. He had then 1,200 dairy cows, 3,500 stock cattle, 700 hogs, 150 horses, and 1,700 sheep. The same year, 1,400 or- chard trees and 800 vines were set out, and 50 miles of fencing built. Fifty men and thirty teams are ordinarily required to conduct the business. Of the products of the dairy, there were at one time on hand 4,500 pounds of cheese. On March 1, 1881, he had upon his rancho 100 cattle, 100 horses, and 1,500 sheep.
R. T. BUELL.
The struggles and triumphs of a man who rises to wealth and prominence by the force of his own energy and ability, always constitute an interesting theme to those who admire manliness and courage, and rejoice in another's success.
The gentleman whose name heads this paragraph, and a view of whose pleasant home adorns these pages, is one who has made his own way in the world, and, from toiling on his father's small New England farm, now counts his broad acres by the thousand.
R. T. Buell was born in Essex, Chittenden County, Vermont, November 10, 1827, his parents being Linus and Hannah Buell. He traces his lineage far back through the Puritan Fathers to their old Eng- lish homes, a descent that all New Englanders claim as their purest and best.
At an early age he manifested a desire to acquire a liberal education, but the scanty means supplied by the small and rocky farm of his father was a serious obstacle to his ambition, and partly blocked the classic and collegiate avenue; but the thirst was insa- tiable, and the coveted literature at times was snatched from old books and pinned to the coat-sleeves for reference, while he was holding the old-fashioned plow handle; but when his majority came he brooked no poverty restraint and at once.entered the prepara- tory department at Oberlin College, Ohio, leaning upon his buck-saw and common-school teaching in winter, for board and tuition, and rapidly read up Virgil, Cicero and Xenophon; but the Oberlin peo- ple, professors and students, had, at that time, the everlasting darkey on the brain, and before he had finished his course he broke for the Southern States, to see the other side of the picture and judge for him- self of the dread issue being drawn between the two sections.
When first on that new soil south of Mason and Dixon's line, he saw and felt the sweeping tide of the patriots' tears of Ashland and the genial manly kind- ness of his new Kentucky home, in an overflowing
RESIDENCE & RANCH OF W. T. MORRIS, CENTRAL CITY STA MARIA VALLEY, STA BARBARA CO. CAL.
SAN CARLOS DE JONATA RANCHO & RESIDENCE OF R T BUELL, CHILDS STATION SANTA BARBARA CO. CAL.
303
THE WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
school and warm congratulations and solicitations to remain with them; but no, he did not and could not stay there long, but wanted to become better ac- quainted with the Mississippi swamps, the Red River alligators, and the lowest wail of the institution of slavery itself, which was amply afforded in teaching school in various places. At last, at the Pine Grove Academy, near Columbia, on the Wachita River, in the fall of '53, he wound the sight-seeing on the other side all up, and left the land of cotton bales and warm sunshine for his snow-clad, evergreen hills of Vermont. But there was an ever-present vivid pic- ture of the pending conflict between the two sec- tions, a prophetic appalling presentiment.
R. T. BUELL.
In the latter part of December, of that year, Mr. Buell took the steamer Yankee Blade, in New York, bound for San Francisco, through the Straits of Magellan. After a voyage of over a hundred days, full of the vicissitudes of society generally in the community compact, the little isolated and floating kingdom that had had murder and almost everything else on it, that is in society generally, entered the Golden Gate, and rested in the beautiful barbor of San Francisco.
Mr. Buell then, like all other emigrants to these mineral shores, struck out for the mines and went directly to Bidwell's Bar; when there he found that he had only a two-bit piece left, and petitioned Messrs. Hess & Larcomb to trust him for a rocker and a gold-dust washing-pan, which he soon paid up, and loaned some money to Peter Freer.
In the summer of '56 he started in the malarious bottoms of Feather River and bound grain until late in the summer, as far as Bloomfield, in Sonoma County. Athletic and vigorous, no hardship or miasmatic exposure could dampen a youthful ardor for an honest gain.
By the next year he had saved a few hundred dol- lars and bought thirteen cows and started a dairy on Point Reyes, in Marin County. By constant labor by day and by night, in wet or in cold, he increased his herd to 200 cows.
In the summer of '65 he moved into Monterey County, near Salinas, and there increased his dairy to 800 cows.
In the fall of '67 he purchased a one-fourth inter- est in the San Carlos de Jonata Rancho, in Santa Barbara County, and then immedietely left for Ver- mont, where he married, and soon returned with his wife
On April 13, 1872, he bought the entire outside interests in said rancho, and on the 27th of June, 1874, moved on it, and in about two years put on over $100,000 worth of improvements, and increased his dairy to about 1,200 cows, built a large cheese factory, slaughter-house, barn, sheds, dwelling-house, out-houses, and laid down about four miles of gal- vanized iron water-pipe, built forty miles of board and post fence, and also farmed some 4,000 acres of the choicest lands of the Jonata, which proved to be unsurpassed anywhere in the State for No. 1 wheat, having a cool and delightful climate in sum- mer, soft whispering evening zephyrs in the fall, and bracing air and sparkling frosts in winter, being completely outside of the rusting fog belt. Here Ceres revels in her rustling, golden dress, and shakes her rich, ample folds in jubilant profusion into the toil- er's lap. It is also God's own garden for fruit and flowers. Nature lavishes her choicest gifts over all the Santa Ynez Valley. But Mr. Buell, as well as thousands of others in California, was doomed to be a victim to a black, financial cloud-burst. The win- ter of 1877 opened fair, but ended in a devastating drought. Crops were ruined and stock swept off. The heavens were brass overhead and the earth a crisped and withered parchment. Debts accumulated and interest ran up; but to burden and aggravate all, our circulating medium was lessened and money rendered scarce and high. Mr. Buell, with al- most superhuman efforts, bravely met the catas- trophe and swept down a large moss-covered forest, his cattle feeding upon the mosses and twigs, and thus bridged over the calamity in part and carried through quite a stock of horses and cattle.
The year following, 1878, was a good year, and the result was a speedy reinstatement and complete recuperation from the shock of the drought, the farmer's most dreaded enemy, excepting perhaps " Shylock " interest.
The Rancho Jonata, of 27,000 acres, was mort- gaged to a San Francisco bank for $65,000 a few years before, but the interest was kept paid up, until that unfortunate drought swept over the State of California. He has now made arrangements with all his creditors, and amicably settled up every claim, and will soon put about 12,000 acres of his rancho upon the market, into the hands of actual settlers,
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HISTORY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
and rejoices in the prospect of being able to create many happy homes for many now landless, renting farmers in this State. Mr. Buell is a thorough-going, earnest man, who asserts his opinions without regard to fear or favor. He is well-read in political matters, and is decided in his proclivities, having an utter abhorrence for the limber-backed politician who
"Lets the candied-tongue lick absurd pomp. And crooks the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning."
He hates still more the financial parasites of society that sit, like the envenomed spider, at all the gates of industry to entangle in their meshes the victims of financial reverses. If he was ruler he would sweep money brokers and extortionate usurers into that futurity that knows no awaking.
Los Alamos is abont ten miles to the northwest. Gaviota Landing, thirteen miles to the south, is reached by the main county road, which traverses the strip of Government land, forming the eastern boundary, from north to south.
CORRAL DE CUATI RANCHO
Was granted to Augustine Davilla, and confirmed to Maria Antonio de la Guerra y Lataillade; 13,300.24 acres-United States patent 13,322.29 acres. It is bounded on the south by the Jonata Rancho; on the north by the La Laguna and Zaca Ranchos, and on the east and west by the La Laguna Rancho. The main county road runs through the easterly portion from north to south. Its surface is rolling hills, for the most part cultivable, but mainly used for stock- raising. In connection with the La Zaca Rancho (4,458.10 acres) it carried March 1, 1881, 20 horses, 1,114 cattle, and 3,400 sheep. It is about twenty miles to the Gaviota Landing by the county road, while Los Alamos is only about eight miles distant.
LA ZACA RANCHO
Was a grant of 4,480 acres to Maria Antonio de la Guerra y Lataillade in 1838,-United States patent, 4,458.10 acres. It is bounded on the west, north, and east by the La Laguna Rancho, and on the south by the Corral de Cuati Rancho. Its chief industry is stock-raising, the figures of which are given with those of Corral de Cuati above. Gaviota Landing is about twenty-four miles to the south, and Los Alamos about eight miles to the west. Zaca Lake is a bean- tiful sheet of water of about a hundred acres area, at the head of La Zaca Creek. The water is clear and cold; elevation between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the sea.
RANCHO CANADA DE LOS PINOS, OR COLLEGE RANCHO, Is owned by the Catholic Church, and controlled by its bishops for its benefit. It was a grant from the Mexican Government, of 35,499 acres. It is the site of the old Santa Ynez Mission, now fallen into disuse except for an occasional service. One mile from the old mission is the College of Our Lady of the Guada- lupe, organized to educate missionaries for the con-
version of the Indians. Father Lynch has charge of the school and the old mission. (For further descrip- tion of this school see the chapter headed "Schools").
Captain Moore, father of T. W. Moore, of the Rancho Las Lomas de la Purificacion, for many years before his death was intrusted by the church with the care of the College Rancho, which he grazed in common with his own.
The rancho is a nearly square tract of land lying on the north bank of the Santa Ynez. Across the river is the Rancho Las Lomas de la Purificacion and a part of the Nojoqui Rancho; to the west a strip of Government land about a mile wide separates it from the Jonata Rancho; on the east a triangular strip of Government land separates it from the ranchos San Marcos and Tequepis, the latter touching its south- eastern corner; on the north are Government lands, the extension of the La Laguna Rancho, and a cor- ner of the Corral de Cuati Rancho. The San Marcos Toll-road to Santa Barbara crosses the ranch, and near its western boundary line the main county road from the Santa Maria Valley to the Gaviota Landing passes. Fifteen thousand acres of the rancho are rich, arable lands, especially adapted to wheat. The Santa Agata and Cañada de los Pinos, both living streams, flow through it. The elevation is about 596 feet above the sea. Good well water is obtained at a depth of from twenty to eighty feet. Cornelius Mur- phy, formerly of San Francisco, has farmed here with satisfactory results. He purchased 675 acres from the College Grant, 500 of which are arable. In 1881 he raised from fifty acres 538 sacks of wheat, averaging about 146 pounds each. It brought the highest price paid for wheat in the San Francisco market. He also keeps sixty head of fine fat cattle, and twelve horses. Fifty horses, 300 cattle, and 2,000 sheep grazed upon this rancho on March 1, 1881.
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