USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 36
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De Sebastian Albitre
De Claudio Albires
De Yden Albires
De Manuel Gonzales
Rio
de
De Yden Albitre
De Bernardo Rozales
De Yden Rozales
De Yden Gonzales
la Saca
De Franeo Abila
De Yden Abila
De Josef Tiburcio Basquez
Agua.
De Anto Romero
De Yden Romero
De Yden Basquez
Nota.
De Ygnacio Archuleta
Realengo
Todo lo so- brante en es- ta me dida este muchos bajos porto que qd. do realengo.
De Yden Arehuleta
Aota aquies la malida de la Croá purta de camino à la mision.
La reparticion de tierras de- marcadas se hiso pormi el tente. y comte del Presd. de S'n Fran'co con arreglo à la orden del Señ Gov'r y se entos garon à sus deseños el dia 23 de Abril de 1781. Sn Fran'co 7 de Junio de dho año. JOSEPH MORAGA,
de
Nota.
Rubrica.
Acequia Madre.
Gravi
Albert Ohextern
1
A. T
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SAN JOSÉ TOWNSHIP.
On the 19th, the action conferring possessory rights having been effected, the Commissioner, with the two assisting witnesses and the founders, crossed the Guadalupe to its western bank, and measured from the dam to the boundary line separating the lands of the Santa Clara Mission and those of the pueblo, and found it to be nineteen hundred and fifty-eight varas. One-half of this survey was assigned to the pueblo, for propios (common lands with pasturage and fields rented for the purpose of raising a revenue for municipal purposes), the other half being looked upon as vacant, excepting, always, such portions as were intended for house-lots and out lots-solars and suertes; that the ejidos -- vacant suburbs intended to be used for house-lots as the pueblo increased -- had been assigned near the buildings, where the ground was high, the dimensions being fifteen hundred varas in length, and seven hundred wide. We are told that this report is somewhat vague as to the exact boundaries of the ejidos ; a great fault, indeed, inas- much as under the Spanish and Mexican laws it was absolutely necessary to elearly define every class of pueblo lands, and particularly the ejidos, as they were laid off around the town expressly for building lots, and could not be granted for any other purpose. Prescription did not run against them.
Thus it will be seen who the actual fathers of the present prosperous city were. Let us, for the sake of conciseness, re-enumerate them. There were: Ignacio Archuleta, Manuel Gonzales, José Tiburcio Vasquez, Manuel Armes- quita, Antonio Romero, Bernado Rosales, Francisco Avila, Sebastian Alvitre, and Claudio Alvires. This is a fact, the value of which can not be over- rated, yet there is another matter of as much importance, and which is of deep interest, and that is, the relative position of each man's land, and the general idea of the situation. To bring this elearly to the mind of the reader, we here produce a copy of the original plan of the pueblo, as allotted by Commissioner Lieutenant Moraga, still it is a vast pity that a complete plan of all the lots he handed over to the pobladores was not made, and if made, not kept in the archives, for, owing to the insufficiency of the plan, and there being no monuments, it is next to impossible to designate their exact location.
We have already said the first houses stood about a mile and a quarter from the center of the present city; that is, the precise locality in which they were erected, is about where the first bridge, on the road to Alviso, is built. Here, however, they were not to remain, or rather, it was not long before the settlement was to be moved.
Up till the year 1785, the little band of settlers were the victims of all the vicissitudes attendant on stormy, cold and wet winters, indeed, the end of 1778 and beginning of 1779 saw them flooded alnost out of house and home. These discomforts, added to hostile demonstrations by predatory bands of 21
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Indians, caused them to talk over the matter of translocation, and seek a remedy at the hands of the Government. With this end in view, a formal petition was drawn up and transmitted to the Governor, in which permission was asked to remove the pueblo to higher ground, a little distance south of the position it then occupied, but that official not having the necessary power to issue such an order, he made a full report of the subject-matter, under date August 5, 1785, to the Commandante-General of the Intendencia, at Arispe, Sonora. In those days, though, it took much time to move the wheels of official machinery, delay followed delay, the last more vexatious than the preceding; form and ceremony went hand in hand to balk the desire of the little band of pioneers; day followed day, weeks grew into months and these into years, and yet no reply came to hand, nor was any received until well on into the third year after the petition was sent. At long last a decree was issued by the Commandante, June 21, 1787, authorizing the settlers to move to the "adjacent loma (little hill) selected by them as more useful and advantageous, without changing or altering, for this reason, the limits and boundaries of the territory or district assigned to said settle- ment and to the neighboring Mission of Santa Clara, as there is no just cause why the latter should attempt to appropriate to herself the land." Still, this dictum would appear to have been without effect, for ten years later it is on record that Don Diego de Borica, who was Governor between the years 1794 and 1800, requested Don Gabriel Moraga, as to what means could be devised, to free the inhabitants from their periodic martyrdom. Moraga replied, January 8, 1797, that the only resources whereby the pueblo could be freed of this annual flood, were: " To move and build houses on the other side of the river, where there is a sitio aproposito (an appropriate site), about two gunshots distant, in front of which are oaks, in the same plain that extends to the Mission. This paraje, place or site, is the property of the pueblo and within its territory, and without any controversy in relation to its bounda- ries. This place possesses great advantages and security against the rising of the water, and the principal one is the facility of traveling to the Mission ; although the water may be high the passing will not be inconvenient, and there will be no detention from mass or confession (which at present the people are deprived of), and the traveling will not be disagreeable; but in weather like the present there is no alternative (although a sudden death or accident should occur), except to carry on one's shoulders the sick person ; and this, with a thousand difficulties they would meet, would not be an easy task, nor one to which the Reverend Fathers should be exposed. These are the reasons, sir, which the inhabitants, except four individuals, have made known to me. Indeed, Ygnacio Vallejo is of the same opinion." In this report Moraga embodied the views of the said Vallejo, given in these words: " At the time I obtained command as Commissioner of the pueblo, the water
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raised so high that a little more would have carried off our houses. Some of them were much injured, and we were deprived of going to mass and con- fession, not being able to pass to the Mission without going round circuitously a distance of three leagues, to avoid the bad places which were so numerous in such weather. And in the bad places many were left afoot without being able to use their horses; nor could they look after their cacallado (band of horses grazing), nor use them to notify each other in case of any trouble or accident. Already in the pueblo and in the adjoining Mission, on such occa- sions, the wild, unchristianized Indians have committed depredations. Finally, for sowing wheat, corn and other grains, the carrying of the mails, and the passage of pack-trains, it offers great advantage, as well as for timber and wood; everything is nearer and more convenient, and I fully approve of the view of the citizens."
The above would appear to have been good and sufficient reasons why the pueblo should be relocated, and to be such they were proven, for the fiat went forth that the prayer of the petitioners be granted, but effect was not given to the decree until full a dozen years later. What was the cause of the delay is purely suppositions-there may have been fair reasons and there may have been none, unhappily the precise date on which the removal was effected, is veiled in obscurity, nor are there any records extant, we believe, which go to show that there was a redistribution of house-lots (solars), and out-lots (suertes), similar to that performed, in 1783, by Lieutenant Moraga, but this we do know, that the removal was accomplished in the year 1797, the cen- tral point of the new location being near the corner of Market and San Fernando streets.
At this period there arose a dispute between the Fathers at the Mission and the pueblo residents as to the boundary line dividing the two conces- sions, which, after several appeals to the authorities at Mexico, was finally settled; this subject will, however, be found more fully gone into, in another portion of this volume.
We have thus far seen the first village of San José established, its subse- quent removal to a more advantageous locality, and its inauguration on ground with which we are all more or less familiar. It is to be presumed that in the old pueblo there had been a Town Council House, for we find the lot on which stood the Ayuntamiento designated in 1783 as a boundary to certain solars then granted, what became of the building no one now knows, it has probably mixed with the clay from which it was originally fashioned; in 1783, however, that Ayunatimiento or Juzgado, so well remembered by many pioneers of our own day, was erected on Market street near the corner of El Dorado street. It was one story high, contained three rooms, while the gable ends faced east and west. The central apartment was occupied by the Court; that to the east was the room of the Alcalde; while the western division was
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
used as a jail. The building was torn down in the year 1850, and the adobe bricks from its walls, after sixty-seven years' usage, went towards the con- struction of a fine house on the north-east corner of Market and Santa Clara streets for J. D. Hoppe.
The next two decades did not bring much of interest to the pueblo, in fact, were it not for the excitement fermented by boundary disputes, theirs' was a dull time indeed; at length it dawned upon them that the Mission of Santa Clara was too distant, and the way thither too dangerous for them to attend the religious exercises with any degree of regularity, therefore, in the advance- ment of Roman Catholicity, and a part of their national functions as well, it was considered expedient to erect a chapel within their own precincts, and, trusting to the Mission Fathers for an officiating clergyman, whose dangers were unconsidered when traveling between the two points of the Mission and pueblo, there might worship according to their own devices. The measure having advanced through its preliminary stages, Don Macario Castro indicted an epistle to Don José de la Guerra, Commandante at San Carlos, near Mont- erey, July 1, 1803, begging him to come to San José and act as Sponsor at the consecration of the corner-stone of the new place of worship; the reply received was dated July 7th, and went on to relate that his daily acts of impiety would preclude the possibility of his taking advantage of the gracious request, but, seeing that he was permitted to name a substitute, he had deputed Don José Maria Estudillo, a cadet, a person in whom he had the most implicit reliance, to perform the duties, knowing full well that to him they could be trusted. On the 12th of July the ceremony took place with becoming pomp; coins of the reigns of different Spanish sovereigns were . placed beneath the corner-stone, and a statement of the ceremonies placed in a sealed bottle, so that the memory thereof should be perpetuated. Thus reads the translation of this document :-
" In the Pueblo of San Jose de Guadalupe, the 12th day of July, 1803, Señor Don Carlos IV., being King of Spain, Don Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, Governor ad interim, and Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Army; the retired Sergeant Macario de Castro, Commissioner of the Pueblo; Ignacio Archuleta, ordinary Alcalde; and Bernado Heridia and Francisco Gonzales, Regidores; at six o'clock of the evening on said day, was made the consecration of the first stone and mortar of the church which was commenced in the said Pueblo dedicated to the Patriarch Señor St. Joseph, and the Virgin Guadalupe; which ceremony was celebrated with much solemnity by the Reverend Father Friar, Joseph Viader, minister of the Santa Clara Mission; Don Jose Maria Estudillo, Cadet, acting as god-father, by proxy, from Alferez de José Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega, Commandante at the presidio at Monterey, and who placed under the first stone, money of every sovereign, and a duplicate of this document, in a bottle sealed with wax, for its preservation in the
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future; and for the present, we sign it in the said Pueblo, the day, month and year aforesaid.
" FR. JOSÉ VIADER.
" JOSÉ MARIA ESTUDILLO, As proxy for Alferez de la Guerra y Noriega. " MACARIO DE CASTRO, Commissioner."
This chapel was composed of adobe walls and covered with a roof of tules; within, was ornamented with a few simple pictures of Saints, and Biblical scenes; it stood until the year 1835, when it gave place to another and fitter edifice, while the present noble structure standing at the corner of Market and San Fernando streets, and built in the shape of a cross, has in its main body the site of the original St. Joseph's Church, the first place of worship erected in San José. We doubt not for the thirty years and more which it stood, many submissive hearts have knelt in deep devotion before its prim- itive altar, and many rebellious spirits been soothed within its sacred walls. We can almost now hear the impressive service commenced, the praises chanted, and the benediction pronounced, and see the happy few return to their homes relieved in mind, and for the present with all feuds forgotten ; indeed it is a pleasant solace to conjecture the earlier citizens of this lovely city, though rough in exterior, still child-like in spirit, fearing the Lord, for if there is ever one time when prayer may be more beneficially asked than at another, it is when deep solitude surrounds us, when the dark future appears to be yet more dark, when thankfulness is to be divided among only a small community, and when deep love binds man and woman, youth and maiden, old and young, then and then only, do the hardened pray with fervor, and the wicked seek to be reclaimed.
In our day unhappily the growth of a city may be guaged by the number of saloons in force; that such was not the case in the earliest times of San José is a fact to be remembered, yet we are informed that not more than the half of a dozen years had elapsed since its foundation than permission was sought from the Government by an enterprising citizen to manufacture peach brandy. Then as now the valley was prolific, probably more so in those times than at the present; fruit trees, vegetables and cereals flourished with prodigious success where they had been planted, and such was the prodigal out-come of one erop of peaches, that the owner, Manuel Higuera, found his way to Monterey, solicited the boon to turn his surplus erop of peaches into brandy, and received the august authorization, dated August 19, 1805, to make one barrel of the cherished tipple, which no doubt he performed with becoming zeal in what may be called the first distillery in San José.
During these years it is only natural to suppose that the community throve in the genial climate of the valley, and that the youth of the pueblo flour- ished as a green bay tree; still there are no records extant as to any first step being taken towards the establishment of a system of public tuition.
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
In the San Jose Records, there is preserved a Spanish document bearing on this subject, and from which the following information may be gleaned: It would seem that in the year 1811 a contract had been entered into by the Commissioner of the pueblo, acting on behalf of the families thereof, and an infirm corporal named Rafael Villavicencio, to instruct the children of the settlement. This covenant was transmitted to Monterey for approval, but the Commander, considering the document defective, made the accompany- ing reply to the Commissioner :----
"I return to you, that the same may be placed in the archives, the obligation which the inhabitants of the neighborhood have made with the infirm corporal, Rafael Villavicencio, who transmitted it to me by official letter of the 30th of last September, in which he obligated himself to teach the children of this pueblo and vicinity, to read, write, and the Doctrine; and to be paid therefor at the rate of eighteen reales per annum, by every head of a family, in grain or flour. As in this obligation of both parties, the conditions are not expressed, which I consider ought to be, I have thought proper to dictate them ; that you may make it known to both parties in public, with their consent; and that it be signed by you, the Alcalde, Regidores, and the teacher, and registered in the archives.
"Firstly .- The pay of eighteen reales annually by each and every head of a family, I think is quite sufficient for the teacher; and as it is all they can give, in virtue of which, the Commissioner will be obliged to collect the same at the proper time, in order to deliver it to the teacher. The teacher, in virtue of the pay which is to be made to him, will also be obliged to perform his obligation with the greatest vigilance and strictness, without giving his attention to anything else but the teaching. As the hours are not expressed in which the attendance of the children ought to be at school, they will be these: six in a day ; three in the morning and three in the afternoon; in the morning from eight o'clock until eleven, and in the afternoon from two until five; it being the duty of the Commissioner to compel the fathers to make their children attend; and to see that the teacher in no instance fails.
" Every Thursday and Saturday afternoons, the children will not write or read, but explanations will be given them these two afternoons, of the Doc- trine (faith); at which times the Commissioner will attend, and advise the teacher that he must answer for the little or much explanation which he may make.
" When the teacher observes the absence of any of the scholars at the school, he will notify their fathers, who will give some satisfactory reason why they were absent on that morning or afternoon; and if they should be absent a second time, then he will notify the Commissioner, who will compel the fathers to send their children, without receiving any excuse or pretexts, particularly from the mothers, because they will be frivolous, since the chil- dren have sufficient time to do all that they are required to do.
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" Lastly .- During the time in which the children are at school, their fathers will be exempt from being responsible to God for them, and the teacher will be the one who is thus responsible; as he will, also, in consideration of his pay, be responsible for the education and teaching of the holy dogmas of the religion; and the teacher is he who must be responsible to God, the parish priest, and to their authority. It is also understood that the fathers are obliged to examine their children at home, as to the advancement which they may make, and to complain to the Commissioner when they see no advance- ment, in order that he may remedy the matter, if necessary.
" As the teacher is responsible in the Divine presence for the education and good examples of his scholars, and as he must answer to the State for the fulfillment of his obligations, he has the right to correct and punish his scholars with advice, warning, and lashes, in case of necessity ; and particu- larly he ought to do it for any failure to learn the Doctrine, for which he ought not to accept any excuse, nor to pardon any one from punishment who fails to learn it, or who does not commit to memory the lesson which may be given him.
" Having made known that it should be registered as I command : God preserve you many years. JOSÉ MA. ESTUDILLO."
A true and correct copy of this curious document was placed in the corner-stone of the State Normal School, when it was laid, October 20, 1870, and after the destruction of that building by fire February 10, 1880, was brought to light in a state of remarkable preservation, to be again hidden from view, on the occasion of a like ceremony for the edifice which has since arisen from the ashes of the last grand structure.
Up till the year 1814, the Santa Clara valley had been free from the presence of the Anglo Saxon. The Spanish denizens had been left in undisputed possession of their pueblo, and the Mission Fathers of their vast tracts of land. California was then almost an undiscovered country, the delights of its wonderful climate were unknown, save to those stray voya- gers, like Drake, Vancouver, and others, the healthful influences of its mountains and valleys, its springs and rivulets were unappreciated by the sons of the soil, nor was the fruitfulness of the earth made known to any but the few agriculturists who cultivated the cereals in a disconnected fashion. The only communication with the outside world was by those vessels con- cerned in the whaling trade, and others which came to the coast for hides, tallow, and different commodities then commencing to be produced at the Missions; in one of these arrived John Cameron alias Gilroy in 1814, and two years later Robert Livermore. The last-mentioned gentleman, who was · an Englishman by birth, deserted from a whaling vessel in Santa Cruz in the year 1816, and thence finding his way into this valley became the first foreigner who dwelt in the Pueblo de San Jose, where remaining but four years, he
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
moved to another part of the country, and finally, in connection with José Noriega, got possession of the Las Positas Rancho, of two square leagues in Alameda county; and, in his own name, of the Cañada de los Vaqueros, Contra Costa county, both now forming a portion of what is generally known as the Livermore 'valley. Mr. Livermore married into the Higuera family, amassed an ample fortune, and died in the year 1857. Next in point of seniority we have the intelligent and refined Antonio M. Suñol, a native of Barcelona, Spain, who, arriving at Monterey in 1818, afterwards found his way to the pueblo. This accomplished gentleman died in San Jose March 18, 1865, at the age of sixty-nine, leaving a vast estate to be divided among his heirs. We find in the year 1828 there was a resident named William Willis in San Jose, for it is on record that the Britisher had had some difficulty with the Mexican authorities in regard to a certain tract of land called the Laguna de los Bolbones, but what became of this individual we do not know.
We should here observe that in the year 1821 Mexico passed from under the Spanish crown, and in 1822 was constituted an Empire under Iturbide, who was forced to abdicate in the year following; in 1824 the Republic of Mexico formed a federal constitution, wherein the establishment of different courts was authorized, and on August 18th the Mexican Congress passed a decree for the colonization of the territories, which was newly defined and regulated November 21, 1828, and though these changes were of much political significance, they were not of sufficient moment to affect the resi- dents of this locality.
In the year 1831 the population of the pueblo numbered five hundred souls, while the crops amounted to six hundred and fifty-seven fanegas of wheat ; one thousand five hundred and sixty fanegas of corn; one hundred and ninety- one fanegas of beans, and the stock, the property of the inhabitants, totaled six thousand nine hundred and sixty-three head.
In the year 1833 there came to the Pueblo de San Jose, Harry Bee, a native of London, England. He left the shores of Old Albion January 7, 1830, in company with Doctor Douglas, a botanist, and arrived at Mont- erey in the following October. Here he remained until the Fall of 1833, when he drove the family of William Watts, who had married a Spanish lady, to this town, and first resided in the house of Juan Alvirez, which stood on the site now occupied by the handsome building of the Farmers' Union, at the corner of Santa Clara and San Pedro streets.
Harry Bee is still a resident of this city, and from him we have derived the following information: Of the foreigners who were residents of the pueblo when he arrived, there were Captain John Burton, an American inerchant, who had a store that stood somewhere near the south-west corner of the Plaza. He arrived about 1830, in the following year he married a
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