USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 6
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EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
vivid conception ; and commerce has planted cities on sea-coast, lake and rivers, where the product of effective labor is borne to every clime and country, and responsive mountain and valley pour forth their wealth of metals, where naught erst a while were found but lion, bear and panther. Oh, were these trees able to talk, what a chapter they could relate, what experiences of the past they could narrate. Let us not attempt to put action in their crooked limbs, nor speed into their gnarled trunks, rather do we leave it to the imagination of the contemplative reader to picture the scenes which have been enacted beneath their umbrageous boughs, not only in by-gone days, but in the present, when the fashionable world is abroad, and the even- ing shades countenance the Byronic couplet, that
"Soft love looked love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell."
Let us now, for a moment, turn to the Santa Clara Mission. The original Mission of Santa Clara stood near where now are erected the stations of the Southern Pacific and South Pacific Coist Railroads in that city. Its walls were cracked by an earthquake in the year 1812, but no portion of it fell at that time. In 1822, however, another and more severe shock caused so much injury to the building, that, though it was not thrown down, the damage done was so great that it became necessary to take it down, rather than that any attempt should be made to repair it. A site for a new mission was chosen a few hundred yards to the south-west, and in 1825-6, the present mission church was completed. Of late years, so great had been the decay, it became necessary to encase its walls, while, dur- ing the work of renovation, the front façade was remodeled, and two towers substituted for the single tower, which, in the first instance, was the only ornamentation which the edifice boasted. This served the purpose of a look- out. The face of the structure was painted in a rude fashion with biblical scenes intended to attract the eye of the aboriginal, while within were like tableaux and allegorical pictures. Time has sped along with unswerving strides, yet no change has been worked in the interior embellishments. What has been effected needs no comment at our poor hands; the magnifi- cent college adjoining it is the best exponent of its unerring progress.
We will now glance at the state of the mission in the early part of the present century. In the year 1767, the property possessed by the Jesuits, then known as the Pious Fund, was taken charge of by the Government, and used for the the benefit of the missions. At that time this possession yielded an annual revenue of fifty thousand dollars, twenty-four thousand of which were expended in the stipends of the Franciscan and Domin- ican missionaries, and the balance for the maintenance of the missions gener- ally. Father Gleeson says: "The first inroad made on these pious dona- tions was about the year 1806, when to relieve the national wants of the
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
present country, caused by the wars of 1801 and 1804, between Portugal in the one instance and Great Britain in the other, His Majesty's fiscal at Mex- ico scrupled not to confiscate, and remit to the authorities in Spain, as much as two hundred thousand dollars of the Pious Fund." By this means the missions were deprived of most substantial aid, and the Fathers left upon their own resources; add to these difficulties the unsettled state of the country betwen the years 1811 and 1831, and still their work was never stayed. To demonstrate this let us here state that between the years 1802 and 1822, in all the eighteen missions which then existed in California, there were: baptized, seventy-four thousand six hundred and twenty-one Indians; twenty thousand four hundred and twelve were married; forty-seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five died; and there were twenty thousand nine hun- dred and fifty-eight existing. Of these, seven thousand three hundred and twenty-four were baptized in the Santa Clara Mission; two thousand and fifty-six were married; six thousand five hundred and sixty-five had suc- cumbed-the greater number to disease; and one thousand three hundred and ninety-four were existing.
Of what nature was this plague it is hard to establish; the missionaries themselves could assign no cause. Syphilis, measles and small-pox carried off numbers, and these diseases were generated, in all probability, by a sudden change in their lives from a free, wandering existence to a state of settled quietude.
Father Gleeson, in his valuable work, says: " In 1813, when the contest for national independence was being waged on Mexican territory, the Cortes of Spain resolved upon dispensing with the services of the Fathers, by plac- ing the missions in the hands of the secular clergy. The professed object of this secularization scheme was, indeed, the welfare of the Indians and colon- ists; but how little this accorded with the real intentions of the Govern- ment, is seen from the seventh section of the degree by the Cortes, wherein it is stated that one-half of the land was to be hypothecated for the payment of the National Debt. The decree ordering this commences as follows: 'The Cortes, general and extraordinary, considering that the reduction of common land to private property is one of the measures most imperiously demanded for the welfare of the pueblos, and the improvement of agriculture and in- dustry, and wishing at the same time to derive from this class of land aid to relieve the public necessities, a reward to the worthy defenders of the coun- try and relief to the citizens not proprietors, decree, etc., without prejudice to the foregoing provisions one-half of the vacant land and lands belonging to the royal patrimony of the monarchy, except the suburbs of the pueblos, is hereby reserved, to be in whole or in part, as may be deemed necessary, hypothecated for the payment of the National Debt,' etc.
" This decree of the Government was not carried out at the time, yet it
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EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
had its effect on the state and well-being of the missions in general. It could not be expected that with such a resolution under their eyes, the Fathers would be as zealous in developing the natural resources of the coun- try as before, seeing that the result of their labors was at any moment liable to be seized on by Government, and handed over to strangers. The inse- curity thus created naturally acted upon the converts in turn, for when it became apparent that the authority of the missionaries was more nominal than real, a spirit of opposition and independence on the part of some of the people was the natural result. Even before this determination had been come to on the part of the Government, there were not wanting evidences of an evil disposition on the part of the people; for as early as 1803 one of the missions had become the scene of a revolt; and earlier still, as we learn from an unpublished correspondence of the Fathers, it was not unusual for some of the converts to abandon the missions and return to their former wandering life. It was customary on those occasions to pursue the deserters, and com- pel them to return.
" Meantime, the internal state of the missions was becoming more and more complex and disordered. The desertions were more frequent and numerous, the hostility of the unconverted more daring, and the general disposition of the people inclined to revolt. American traders and freebooters had entered the country, spread themselves all over the province, and sowed the seeds of discord and revolt among the inhabitants. Many of the more reckless and evil-minded readily listened to their suggestions, adopted their counsels, and broke out into open hostilities. Their hostile attack was first directed against the Mission of Santa Cruz, which they captured and plundered, when they directed their course to Monterey, and, in common with their American friends, attacked and plundered that place. From these and other like occurrences, it was clear that the condition of the missions was one of the greatest peril. The spirit of discord had spread among the people, hostility to the authority of the Fathers had become common, while desertion from the villages was of frequent and almost constant occurrence. To remedy this unpleasant state of affairs, the military then in the country was entirely inadequate, and so matters continued, with little or no differ- ence, till 1824, when by the action of the Mexican Government, the missions began rapidly to decline.
".Two years after Mexico had been formed into a republic, the Govern- ment authorities began to interfere with the rights of the Fathers and the existing state of affairs. In 1826, instructions were forwarded by the Fed- eral Government to the authorities of California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed a few years later by another act of the Legis- lature, ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the Reli- gious to withdraw. The ostensible object assigned by the authors of the
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
measure, was the execution of the original plan formed by Government. The missions, it was alleged, were never intended to be permanent estab- lishments; they were to give way in the course of some years to the regular ecclesiastical system, when the people would be formed into parishes, attended by a secular clergy." *
" Beneath these specious pretexts," says Dwinelle in his Colonial History, " was undoubtedly, a perfect understanding between the Government at Mexico and the leading men in California, an l in such a con lition of things the Supreme Government might absorb the pious fun 1, under the pretense that it was no longer necessary for missionary purposes, and thus had reverted to the State as a quasi escheat, while the co-actors in California should appropriate the local wealth of the missions, by the rapid an l sure process of administering their temporalities." And again: "These laws (the secularization laws), whose ostensible purpose was to convert the missionary establishments into Indian pueblos, their churches into parish churches, and to elevate the Christianizel Inlions to the rank of citizens, were, after all, executed in such a manner that the so-called secularization of the missions resulted only in their plunder and complete ruin, and in the demoralization and dispersion of the Christianize | Indians."
Immediately on the receipt of the decree, the then acting Governor of California, Don José Figueroa, commenced the carrying out of its provisions, to which end he prepared certain provisional rules, an'l in ascor lines there- with the alteration in the missionary system was begun, to be immediately followed by the absolute ruin of both missions anl country. Within a very few years the exertions of the Fathers were entirely destroyed; the lands which had hitherto teemed with abun lance, were hanled over to the Indians, to be by them neglected and permitted to return to their primitive wildness, and the thousands of cattle were divided among the people and the administrators for the personal benefit of either.
Let us now briefly follow Father Gleeson in his contrast of the state of the people before and after secularization. He says : " It has been stated already that in 1822 the entire number of In lians then inhabiting the differ- ent missions, amounted to twenty thousandland upwards. To these others were being constantly addlel, even during these years of political strife which immediately preceded the independence of Mexico, until, in 1833, the num- bers amounted to thirty thousand an'l more. Provided with all the necessa- ries and comforts of life, instructed in everything requisite for their state in society, and devoutly trained in the duties and requirements of religion, these thirty thousand Californian converts led a peaceful, happy, contented life, strangers to those cares, troubles and anxieties common to higher and more civilized conditions of life. At the same time that their religious con- dition was one of thankfulness and grateful satisfaction to the Fathers, their
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EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
worldly position was one of unrivaled abundance and prosperity. Divided between the different missions from St. Lucas to San Francisco, close upon one million of live-stock belonged to the people. Of these four hundred thousand were horned cattle, sixty thousand horses and more than three hundred thousand sheep, goits and swine. The united annual return of the cereals, consisting of wheat, maize, beans and the like, was upwards of one hundred and twenty thousand bushels; while at the same time throughout the different missions, the preparation and manufacture of soap, leather, wine, brandy, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt and soda, was largely and extensively cultivated. And to such perfection were these articles brought, that some of them were eagerly sought for and purchased in the principal cities of Europe.
" The material prosperity of the country was further increased by an annual revenue of about one million of dollars, the net proceeds of the hides and tallow of one hundred thousand oxen slaughtered annually at the differ- ent missions. Another hundred thousand were slaughtered by the settlers for their own private advantage. The revenues on the articles of which there are no specific returns, is also supposed to have averaged another mil- lion dollars, which, when added to the foregoing, makes the annual revenue of the California Catholic missions, at the time of their supremacy, between two and three million dollars. Independent of these, there were the rich and extensive gardens and orchards attached to the missions, exquisitely ornamented and enriched, in many instances, with a great variety of Euro- pean and tropical fruit trees, plums, bananas, oranges, olives and figs; added to which were the numerous and fertile vineyards, rivaling in the quantity and quality of the grape those of the old countries of Europe, and all used for the comfort and maintenance of the natives. In a word, the happy results, both spiritual and temporal, produced in Upper California by the spiritual children of St. Francis, during the sixty years of their missionary career, were such as have rarely been equalled and never surpassed in mod- ern times. In a country naturally salubrious, and it must be admitted fertile beyond many parts of the world, yet presenting at the outset numer- ous obstacles to the labors of the missionary, the Fathers succeeded in estab- lishing at regular distances along the coast as many as one-and-twenty mis- sionary establishments. Into these holy retreats their zeal and ability enabled them to gather the whole of the indigenous race, with the exception of a few wandering tribes who, it is only reasonable to suppose, would also have followed the example of their brethren, had not the labors of the Fathers been dispensed with by the civil authorities. There, in those peace- ful, happy abodes, abounding in more than the ordinary enjoyment of things, spiritual and temporal, thirty thousand faithful, simple-hearted Indians passed their days in the practice of virtue and the improvement of
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
the country. From a wandering, savage, uncultivated race, unconscious as well of the God who created them as the end for which they were made, they became, after the advent of the Fathers, a civilized, domestic, Christian people, whose morals were as pure as their lives were simple. Daily attend- ance at the holy sacrifice of the mass, morning and night prayer, confession and communion at stated times-the true worship, in a word, of the Deity, .succeeded the listless, aimless life, the rule pagin games and the illicit amours. The plains and valleys, which for centuries lay uncultivate l and unproductive, now teemed under an abundance of every species of corn; the hills and plains were covered with stock; the fig tree, the olive and the vine yielded their rich abundance, while lying in the harbors, waiting to carry to foreign markets the rich products of the country, might be seen numerous vessels from different parts of the world. Such was the happy and prosper- ous condition of the country under the missionary rule; and with this the reader is requested to contrast the condition of the people after the removal of the Religious, and the transfer of power to the secular anthorities.
"In 1833, the decree for the liberation of the Indians was passed by the Mexican Congress, and put in force in the following year. The dispersion and demoralization of the people was the immediate result. Within eight years after the execution of the decree, the number of Christians diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and fifty to four thousand four hundred and fifty ! Some of the missions, which in 1834 had as many as one thou- sand five hundred souls, numbered only a few hundred in 1842. The two missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solano decreased respectively within this period from one thousand two hundred and fifty and one thou- sand three hundred, to twenty and seventy ! A like diminution was observed in the cattle and general products of the country. Of the eight hundred and eight thousand head of live-stock belonging to the missions at the date above mentioned, only sixty-three thousand and twenty remained in 1842. The diminution in the cereals was equally striking; it fell from seventy to four thousand hectolitres. * By descending to particular instances, this (the advantage of the Religious over the civil administration) will become even more manifest still. At one period during the supremacy of the Fathers, the principal mission of the country (San Diego), produced as much as six thousand fanegas of wheat, and an equal quantity of maize, but in 1842 the return for this mission was only eighteen hundred fanegas in all."
In 1823, the Mission of Santa Clara branded twenty-two thousand four hundred calves as the increase of that year; while in 1825 the mission is reported to have owned seventy-four thousand two hundred and eighty head of cattle, four hundred and seven yoke of working oxen, eighty-two thou- sand five hundred and forty sheep, one thousand eight hundred and ninety
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EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
horses broken to the saddle, four thousand two hundred and thirty-five breeding mares, seven hundred and twenty-five mules, and one thousand hogs. In 1834, at the time of the secularization of the missions, the number of Indians belonging to the Santa Clara Mission was eighteen hundred. In 1842. there were but four hundred. In a like manner did everything decrease. In 1842, there were but fifteen hundred head of cattle, two hundred and fifty horses, and three thousand swine.
That the Fathers who had charge of the missions in Upper California, before the advent of the Americans, paid strict attention to the duty of Chris- tianizing the native race, is evidenced by documents still in existence. The following report and order, dated Monterey, May 6, 1804, though belonging to the chronicles of an adjoining county, is now produced to show the strin- gency with which religious observances were carried out: "In accordance with the rules made by the Governor, requiring a monthly report from the Commissioner of Branciforte, showing who of the colonists and residents do or do not comply with their religious duties, the official report for the month of April, 1804, certified by the reverend minister, has reached its destina- tion. The Indian, Toribio, at some time past was derelict, but now has been brought to a proper sense of the requirements of a Christian era, and is absolved from further stricture upon his failures and the reverend Fathers are to be so notified. The rebellious Ignacio Acedo, for failure to comport himself outwardly as a devotee, is to be arrested and turned over to the church authorities, where flagellation and confinement in the stocks will cause him to pay a proper respect, and to be obedient to the precepts and commandments of the church, of which he has been a contumacious member. The Governor is to be informed of the punishment to which Acedo will be sentenced, and requires the information in writing, that it may be used by him, if he requires it, as an example of what those under his command may expect should they fail in the observance of the requirements of the church." Then follows Government Order No. 29, signed by José M. Estudillo, Secre- tary of José J. de Arrillaga, Military Commander of Alta California, and which is to this effect: "I am in receipt of the list, certified by the reverend minister of the Mission of Santa Cruz, of those who have observed the rules of religion, in having confessed and received the sacrament. The Indian, Toribio, has complied herewith, having done both, and I will send word to such effect to the Fathers. You will cause Ignacio Acedo to be arrested, and notify the reverend Fathers, when you have done so, that they may do with him as they think proper, and inform me what the pastors of the church do to its members who fail to conform to the precepts of the holy religion, and have the reverend Fathers put it in writing. May God protect you many years." The order is addressed to the Commissioner of the village of Branciforte.
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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
In its early day the whole military force in Upper California did not number more than from two to three hundred men, divided between the four presidios of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco, while there were but two towns, or pueblos, Los Angeles and San Jose. Another was subsequently started in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz, which was named Branciforte, after a Spanish Viceroy. It may be conjectured that the garrisons were not maintained in a very effective condition. Such a supposition would be correct, for everywhere betokened the disuse of arms and the long absence of an enemy. The cannon of the presidio at San Francisco were grey with mould, and women and children were to be seen snugly located within the military lines. The soldiers of the San Francisco dis- trict were divided into three cantonments-one at the presidio, one at Santa Clara Mission, and one at the Mission of San Jose. We here append a list of the soldiers connected with the presidio in the year 1790, which has been copied from the Spanish archives in San Francisco. Here will be found the names, positions, nativity, color, race, age, etc., of the soldiers, as well as those of their wives, when married :-
Don Josef Arguello, Commandante, age 39.
Don Ramon Laro de la Neda, Alferez de Campo, age 34.
Pedro Amador, Sergeant, Spaniard, from Guadalaxara, age 51; wife, Ramono Noriega, Spanish, aged 30; 7 children.
Nicolas Galindo, mestizo, Durango, 42.
Majio Chavoya, City of Mexico, 34; wife, a Bernal.
Miguel Pacheco, 36; wife, a Sanchez.
Luis Maria Peralta, Spaniard, Sonora, 32; wife, Mario Loretta Alviso, 19. Justa Altamarino, mulatto, Sonora, 45.
Ygnacio Limaxes, Sonora, 49; wife, Maria Gertruda Rivas, Spaniard, 38. Ygnacio Soto, 41; wife, Barbara Espinoza.
Juan Bernal, mestizo, Sonora, 53; wife, Maxima I de Soto.
Jph Maria Martinez, Sonora, 35; wife Maria Garcia, mulatto, 18.
Salvador Iguera, L. C., 38; wife, Alexa Marinda, Sonora, 38.
Nicolas Berreyessa, mestizo, 25; wife, Maria Gertrudis Peralta, 24. Pedro Peralta, Sonora, 26; wife, Maria Carmen Grisalva, 19.
Ygnacio Pacheco, Sonora, 30; wife, Maria Dolores Cantua, mestizo, age 16.
Francisco Bernal, Sinaloa, 27; wife, Maria Petrona, Indian, 29.
Bartolo Pacheco, Sonora, 25; wife, Maria Francisco Soto, 18. Apolinario Bernal, Sonora, 25.
Joaquin Bernal, Sonora, 28; wife, Josefa Sanchez, 21. Josef Aceva, Durango, 26.
Manuel Boranda, Guadalaxara, 40; wife, Gertrudis Higuera, 13.
Francisco Valencia, Sonora, 22; wife, Maria Victoria Higuera, 15.
Josef Antonio Sanchez, Guadalaxara, 39; wife, Maria Dolora Moxales, 34.
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EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT.
Josef Ortiz, Guadalaxara, 23.
Josef Aguila, Guadalaxara, 22; wife, Conellaria Remixa, 14.
Alexandro Avisto, Durango, 23.
Juan Josef Higuera, Sonora, 20.
Francisco Flores, Guadalaxara, 20.
Josef Maria Castilla, Guadalaxara, 19.
Ygnacio Higuera, Sonora, 23; wife, Maria Micaelo Borjorques, 28.
Ramon Linare, Sonora, 19.
Josef Migu 1 Saens, Sonora, 18.
Carto Serviente, San Diego, Indian, 60.
Augustin Xirviento, .L. C. 20.
Nicolas Presidairo, Indian, 40.
Gabriel Peralta, invalid, Sonora.
Manuel Vutron, invalid, Indian.
Ramon Borjorques, invalid, 98.
Francisco Romero, invalid, 52.
A recapitulation shows that the inmates of the presidio consisted alto- gether of one hundred and forty-four persons, including men, women and chil- dren, soldiers and civilians. There were thirty-eight soldiers and three labor- ers. Of these one was an European, other than Spanish, seventy-eight Span- iards, five Indians, two mulattoes, and forty-four of other castes.
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