USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 49
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Having possessed himself of this information, it matters not how, Under- sheriff Hall, who had been on his track, placed spies upon the roads leading to the premises, who watched for two days and two nights. On the 8th August, Grant came, and after spending the evening with his female acquaintance, went to the house of a neighbor to pass the night. About midnight (the 8th and 9th) Hall, accompanied by Charles Potter and John Ward, started for the place, and surrounding the house quietly waited the break of day. As soon as it was light enough to make sure of their game, the outside door was opened from within by one of the family friendly to the Sheriff's posse, and who knew of their presence. Mr. Hall, followed by Potter and Ward, rushed in and seized their man while in bed and yet asleep Two revolvers and a bowie-knife were taken from under his head. He was then ordered to get up and dress, after which he was handeuffed. Suppos- ing all further resistance or danger over, the officers relaxed their vigilance. Hall, on entering the prisoner's sleeping-room, had a double-barreled shot- gun in his hands, but observing the condition of things, instantly set the gun dow. and pinioned the sleeper as has been stated. As the party were preparing to leave, Grant, with the quickness of thought, although hand- cuffed, seized the gun and rushed for the door, with Hall after him, the for- mer in the meantime endeavoring to raise the gun and fire backward over
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his shoulder at his pursuer, which he found it difficult to do with his mana- eled wrists. As he reached the outer door, after passing from the bed-room and through a hall, the officer seized him by the collar of his coat, and swung him partly round. At this instant he was shot by some one of the party in the house firing both barrels of a shot-gun simultaneously ; the charge taking effect in the lower part of the back brought the prisoner to the ground. He was then placed in a carriage, brought to San Jose and lodged in jail.
On the 19th August, Under-sheriff R. B. Hall, accompanied by Messrs. Hawkins and Anderson of San Jose and Constable Miller of San Juan, arrested R. F. Hall, at his ranch in the San Juan mountains below Gilroy. He was charged with being an accessory of the San Juan stage robbers, and admitted that he had secreted Grant and his confederate on the night of July 5th, when they committed the first robbery, until the 9th, when they robbed the second stage. Hall was examined before a Justice of the Peace in San Juan, and in default of bail was sent to the Monterey jail. His wife, an intelligent woman, who was aware of these facts, on being questioned by the the Sheriff, aside from her husband, as to the offense against the laws for harboring robbers, is said to have observed: " Suppose you, Mr. Sheriff, knew of a band of two hundred and fifty desperate men, bound together by the most solemn oaths, sworn to take the life of any person who should disclose their purposes, or betray any of their number into the hands of the officers of the law; and suppose two of their number should seek the shelter of your roof, as did those men who robbed the stages, what would you do in the premises ?"
On August 28, 1864, the new Presbyterian church was dedicated, the sermon being preached by the Rev. Mr. Walsworth, of Oakland.
It only remains for us to observe, in regard to the year 1864, that the prosperity of the city was still on the increase, while she had assumed an air of elegance which was fast making her become the glory of her citizens.
1865 .- The first item of interest in this year was the opening of the Auzerais House to the public on March 16, 1865, since which time it has maintained its standard of rare excellence.
April 10, 1865, the charter election was held with the following result: Mayor, John A. Quimby; Common Council, D. J. Porter, L. Wagenheimer, C. W. Pomeroy, and three others holding over; Clerk, John T. Colahan; Treasurer, Chapman Yates ; Superintendent of Schools, D. S. Payne.
Upon his resuming the Civic Chair, His Honor Mayor Quimby addressed the following most interesting message to the Common Council which we reproduce as showing the effective services rendered to the city by that gentleman and his confrères :-
"On entering again upon our second and third terms of municipal office,
CHahael. Ca halan
-
LIEDART
ASTO
-EX AND
AATIONS.
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.it is not unfitting, even in our humble spheres of duty, to acknowledge our gratitude to that protective Providence which has again permitted us to commence another official year; trusting that the harmony of thought and action, centered upon the welfare of a municipality whose interests we were elected to serve and secure, may be unbroken through the year to come, so that when your official terms shall have ended the people by whom you were elected shall not be made to feel that their confidence in your integrity and ability to serve them was misplaced or unmerited.
"Two years ago the executive and administrative affairs of this city were intrusted to the care of most of us now present. Let us make a brief review of the then existing, and our now present condition, in order that the people and the tax-payers may know what was, and now is, that condition. Finan- cially, the situation was almost inexplicable, and utterly deplorable. The General Fund, for which the current expenses of our city government should have been promptly paid as soon as incurred was burdened with a debt amounting to nine thousand five hundred and forty-four dollars and eighty cents, and anxious creditors drawing their warrants on the Treasury, in the order of their issuance, were thankful, if after months of waiting, their time and turn of payment luckily arrived. In my previous message to you, the great wrong and illegality of this condition was fully discussed. It needs no argument now to justify you to the people, that your interpretation of the law as well as your adhesion to the rules of good sense and utility, for- bade the 'creation of debts,' and directed you to incur no liabilities beyond the means of liquidation in the Treasury. You have done more than this. Not only has every liability incurred during your administration been promptly paid, but the Floating Debt, amounting to the sum before men- tioned, has been nearly half liquidated, there only remaining unpaid in cer- tificates of indebtedness against the city, five thousand three hundred and thirty-five dollars. Of the Funded Debt, there remained at the commence- ment of your administration outstanding bonds amounting to ten thousand five hundred dollars, and the full amount of the interest due on these bonds in July next is now set apart in the Treasury. It will be seen, then, by the accurate reports of the City Clerk and Treasurer, together with his summary, that every department of our city government has been kept in a solvent, healthy, prosperous and progressive condition, notwithstanding the constant and large expenditure of money on our streets, and squares, and bridges-not- wishstanding the large amount of money used, and being used, in the payment of our predecessor's debts, every fund in our Treasury is more than equal to the demands against it. It will also be seen by the forthcoming Report of the Treasurer of the Commissioners of the Funded Debt that with the amount of money they have now on hand, together with the individual obli- gations for the payment of money for city lands sold, that before this fiscal
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
year shall have ended every dollar of our Funded Debt can be paid, there only remaining for the city to pay, the outstanding certificates of the Float- ing Debt, amounting to little more than five thousand dollars. An amount greater than this has yearly been set apart in the Treasury for payment on our Funded Debt and interest thereon. So that, with the present rates of taxation, we have most positive assurance in less than one year our city will occupy a most anomalous, yet gratifying position of being free from all debt.
" And now, occupying the place of the Chief Executive office of the city, perhaps for the last time in my life, I feel it my duty to enter my protest against any and all schemes which may now or hereafter involve the neces- sity of issuing bonds or other evidence of debt, for any object whatever. No greater argument in favor of this proposition is necessary than to refer to the large amount of interest paid on our Funded Debt. The amount now paid on the gross principal of this debt is forty-three thousand three hun- dred dollars; the interest paid up to date, inclusive of Treasurer's commis- sions is twenty-eight thousand three hundred and nineteen dollars. The amount of gross principal yet to pay is ten thousand and five hundred dollars. Add to this sum at least one thousand dollars for interest and commissions, and we find the total amount now nearly paid, directly and indirectly, from the tax-payers of the city is over eighty-three thousand dollars. It will be seen then that a large per centage of this money, raised mainly by taxes from the people, has been a continued drain upon our resources, to the ben- efit of capitalists; and resulting in municipal impoverishment. And what has our city now to show for this large amount of money expended? A City Hall whose crumbling walls hourly threaten destruction to its occupants. A houseless Fire Department only effective in men, with out-of-time and worn-out engines, and defective implements. Our streets and squares hereto- fore neglected, except only to the extent of individual expenditure for improvement. And yet with the amount of money absolutely drawn from the people, we should have had good Public Buildings, the Fire Department supplied with engines, and implements worthy of men willing to use them, well-graded streets, and improved and beautiful squares. It has all, or nearly all, gone to pay the principal and interest of debts created for objects of very questionable utility at the time, and which to-day are comparatively worthless to the city.
" I congratulate you, members of the Common Council, on your efforts in inaugurating a new condition in the management of the city government, never departing from the organic law of our charter. You have 'created no debts.' By your prudence, forecast and economy the old debts are nearly paid. By a just appreciation of your duties as guardians of the best inter- ests of the city, and with energy you have commenced the work of great
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improvements, and, so far as completed, paid for-and not a dollar wasted. Our squares-Washington and St. James-have been fenced; the Plaza nearly graded and ready for fencing. With your energy directed to their complete improvement, according to your adopted plans, but a short time will elapse before they will be pleasant and enticing places of resort. I know you are determined that this must and shall be done.
" The drainage of the city also demands your immediate attention. Accurate surveys should be made to ascertain the best locality for the con- struction of such sewerage as will most speedily allow the accumulating water from all the streets to pass away. It is now a subject of daily and just complaint that much of this water is allowed to flow, to settle and stagnate on the property and in the vicinity of many of the residents of the city. Efficient sewerage can only remedy this evil.
" The condition of our Fire Department also demands your earnest attention. With the heavy burden of debt heretofore resting upon us, it was impossible to make appropriations of money requisite for an effectual department; but with the city soon to be freed from existing liabilities, larger yearly appropriations should be made, in order that those on whom we rely for the safety and protection of our property and homes may not for a long time to come be made to feel, as they now know, the entire inadequacy of mechanical appliances for the prompt and speedy extinguishment of fire; . and which, if furnished, would place this Department in grade second to none in the State.
" I would also direct your attention to the necessity of a change in the City Charter, under which streets are now graded and improved. By it two-thirds of the property-holders fronting on any given section of streets must petition the Common Council for improvements, before any work can be commenced. The results are, outside of the business portions of the city, where individuals own large and small frontage, and not feeling it to their interest to have the street improved, they have become disgracefully bad, and in the rainy season absolutely impassable. Our prosperity, as well as our growing reputation of soon becoming the second city in California, in wealth and population, and first in all the surroundings which make it the most desirable place of residence, require that all of our streets should be well gradel and drained. To this end, the law should be so amen led that where the Common Conneil determine the best interest of any locality, or of the city generally, calls for the grading or improving of any street or streets, it could at once be done. Otherwise, through the parsimony, caprice or indifference of individuals, our city will be left for years to come with deep-rutted muddy streets, stagnant pools, the noisome depositories of the city's sewerage.
" The matter of the proposed bridge across the Coyote, at the foot of Santa
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Clara street, if built this season, also claims your immediate attention. It is a subject in which the city and county are mutually interested. A large, populous and producing portion of our county is, in time of flood, entirely cut off from communication with the city and other parts of the county from want of a bridge. In consideration of this fact, the Board of Super- visors have agreed to pay one-half of the whole cost of the construction of a bridge-provided the total amount does not exceed six thousand five hun- dred dollars-leaving an amount of three thousand two hundred and fifty dollars for the city to raise by tax or subscription, in order that the work may be commenced and completed. Not having this amount in the Treas- ury not otherwise prospectively appropriated, it becomes necessary, by the provisions of our charter, to call a special election and submit to the people of this city the question of Tax, or no Tax. With the amount probably to be raised by individual-subscriptions, a small per centage on the assessable property of the city of less than one-fifth of one per cent. will be sufficient. I recommend the calling of this election at the earliest possible moment.
" Another subject claiming your most earnest attention is the condition of our public school. It is an imposed requirement on the part of the city to raise by tax a sufficiency of money, in addition to the amount received from the State and county funds, to keep our schools free through the year. Identified, as public schools have been, are, and must always be, with the vitalizing influences of educational equality of all the children of our com- mon country, to give to the millions of youth who are soon to take our places a moral unity of thought, intelligence and devotion to freedom and free institutions, constitutes a subject of immeasurable importance, and one not wholly neglected by your city. Under the direction of efficient superintend- ence and with the earnest co-operation of the Board of Education, our schools, by the employment of the best of teachers, have made rapid progress toward that degree of excellence which entitle them to a rank equal to the best in the State. Our two public school-houses have long since been filled with scholars. The Grammar Department in Brohaska's building is also full ; and at least enough of children are now waiting to fill another room, which we have not. What shall be done ? We must either build or rent, to meet our present wants. I would advise an early consultation with the Board of Education in relation to this matter. There are six school lots belonging to the city. It has been suggested that four of these be kept for the location of a school building, two to be sold and the money applied to the erection of a small building. But it is a question of very doubtful utility and economy, if detached school buildings afford the cheapest, most approved, and effectual means of education. With the system of grades of classes lately adopted in our city schools, but as yet very imperfect from want of large and contig- uous rooms, double the number of scholars now attending our schools could
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be taught with little additional amount to that now being paid to our teach- ers-a saving of at least two hundred dollars per month. And as public schools have become a necessity, and their full support a certainty, strict economy in the use of money can only be attained by the adoption of such methods of education as will give to the pupils the best possible means of improvement with the least possible expenditure of public money. To place scholars in small and detached buildings, or rooms, and employing teachers for each department, is not only a waste of money but a most unmethodical means of education. But in large and contiguous rooms, with conveniently arranged recitation apartments, you have combined, the utmost economy in the use of money with the most approved facilities for education. I have called your attention to this subject more with reference to future than pres- ent action. Prospectively, the School Fund will soon be ample to furnish such a school building as our city ought to have. With the Funded Debt paid, all the surplus of money derived from the sale of city lands can be applied to this object. In the meantime, if not otherwise advised or directed by you, the Board of Education must supply themselves with adequate room for school purposes, as they, under existing circumstances, deem most advis- able.
" I would call your attention to the condition of our city lands. All indi- vidual opposition to the confirmation of these lands to the city is withdrawn, and all litigation in relation thereto, except with the Government, is at an end. I would advise a more speedy and certain way of obtaining our rights to this land than by the tardy and uncertain action of courts. By a full showing of the facts in the case, by petition to Congress through our Repre- sentatives-which for some reason has been neglected-our title ought to be confirmed, and all litigation brought to an end. The amount of land claimed now by the city can be of little importance to our Government, yet it is a mat- ter of vast importance to the settler on these lands, and the prosperity and growth of our city-depending upon agriculture entirely for its commerce- that the title to these lands be at once settled. Our Representatives ought to labor effectually in our behalf in this matter. If they fail to do so, our wide-spreading and populous valley may speak to those who will more cor- rectly represent our true interest at Washington, after our next Congressional election.
"I have in brief called your attention to some of the wants and interests of the city. Through the past year almost entire harmony has prevailed in our Common Council. I feel confident you have left nothing undone you could have done for the true interests of the city. Another year of diligent labor lies before us. With harmony of thought and energy of action, you will inscribe your individual acts upon the fast-improving condition of our prosperous and yet-to-be beautiful city."
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
On March 16, 1865, Martin Murphy, Senior, was gathered to his fathers, at the advanced age of eighty years. He came to California in the year 1844, and settled in the Santa Clara valley, where he resided until the time of his death. A more extended notice of this pioneer gentleman will be found elsewhere in this volume.
The event of greatest moment that occurred in the year 1865 was unques- tionably the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater, Washing- ton, District of Columbia, by John Wilkes Booth, on the evening of the 14th April. Perhaps no calamity of a like nature had ever occurred before to any nation; is it any wonder then that the whole land was flooded with tears, and each mourned as if a father had been taken; and was not he a father to the people ? In him was vested the rule and safeguard of the people, at a juncture when a wise head and a pure heart, above all, were needed; he had labored indefatigably in their behalf, was even then toiling to bring about an honorable peace, honorable to friend and foe alike, and then to be cut off in the very zenith of his power ; is it any wonder, we say, that the Nation, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, wept as one household for him who had led them through the uncertain quicksands of Statecraft? In San Jose the intelligence of the deed was received with every public demonstration of grief. A funeral procession was held, orations made, and the following beautiful dirge from the pen of Miss Annie A. Fitzgerald was read :-
Has he fallen, our Country's Ruler ? Has he fallen, our Country's Chief ? 'Mid the gloom of a Nation's mourning, And the wail of a Nation's grief.
Has he fallen, our Country's Ruler ? O hearts that have bled and must bleed. Has he fallen in the hour of his triumph, And the hour of our sorest need ?
Has he fallen, whose hand hath guided Our ship through the raging waves, Till the roar of the battle's tempest Died low o'er its mound of graves;
Till the clouds from our skys seemed sweeping, Droop lower. O sacred banner! And the seething billows to cease, And the light of a happier future Dawned bright on the shores of peace ?
Has he fallen, our Country's Chieftain ?- Aye, Patriot souls, to-day, The heart in his generous bosom Lies cold as the pulseless clay.
Oh! the ban of a Nation's hatred, And the blight of a Nation's woe, And the curse of a Nation's vengeance On the hand that has laid him low.
On the hand with its fiend-like malice, On the heart that the crime hath nursed, On the life of the base assassin, Let the lowering tempest burst.
Shame, shame on the soul and manhood Of even his veriest foe, That grudges his deadliest scorning To the dastard that dealt the blow.
Aye, the wrath of a widowed Nation Be poured on the guilty head ;- But shame not the name of the millions With the blot of a crime so dread.
With the blot of so dark a murder, With the curse of the hearts that bleed. Nay, even the cheek of treason Must blush at so foul a deed.
Droop lower, thy folds to-day ;- For the crimsoning blood of our Chieftain Hath hidden thy stars away.
Droop lower, O mourning banner, Droop low o'er our Country's breast ;- O'er the North in its widowed glory, And the orphaned East and West.
Droop low o'er the wrongs and sorrows, And the hopes that are passing away ;- Toll drearily, bells, your sad dirges, Toll drearily, bells, to-day.
Pour out the deep voice of your tidings, O sonorous cannon's deep mouth! Weep, weep o'er our loss and thy future, Thy bitterest tears, O South.
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For never a kindlier foeman, And never a truer chief,
Hath passed from a Nation's anguish
'Mid the wails of a Nation's grief.
Weep, North, in thy widowed glory, For the heart that hath loved thee best,
And wail o'er your martyred father, O, orphaned East and West.
Wail, wail for the clouds that gather So dark o'er our stormy way ;- He has fallen, our Country's Ruler, He has fallen, our Country's Stay.
In the month of June, 1865, a proposition was mooted to construct a horse- railroad from San Jose to Alviso, so as to avoid the exorbitant rates charged by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company. Such a track, it was thought, might prove a wholesome corrective of the evils complained of. On June 17th, the special election held for the purpose of having the voice of the people in regard to the payment of a half share of the expenses in building the Coyote bridge, and providing the Department with a new fire-engine, was carried by a majority. The vote stood-Ayes, one hundred and forty- eight; Noes, forty-four. On September 11th, the right-of-way was granted to the Western (now the Central) Pacific Railroad Company, to run a track through certain streets; and November 6th, precautionary measures in regard to cholera were ordered by the Common Council.
The magnificent grounds of General Naglee, situated on the south side of Santa Clara street, were commenced to be beautified in this year. They are devoted to a private park, residence, brandy distillery, vineyard, etc., and embrace an area of about one hundred and forty acres. Of this demesne Mr. Hall, writing more than a decade since, says: "The orchard and vineyard were set out in 1858, but the greater part of the labor and improvements have been bestowed upon the grounds since the General returned from the war. The premises are tastefully divided into fields, parks, and beds, where vegetation is seen springing forth in every form. A pleasant drive winds for a mile and a half through a vineyard of an infinite variety of grapes and gracefully-hanging trees. Here and there sparkling fountains feel this little vegetable world, and give it life and continued freshness. The capacity for irrigation is large. There are seven artesian wells, which can discharge one hundred thousandl gallons daily. Their full volume is not permitted to run, unless so much be needed. One of these wells feeds an artificial pond, and waters all the vegetables. It furnishes probably two hundred and fifty gallons per day.
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