History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 3

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928

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1034 Yocco, Edward Clement. 1498 1625 Young, Col. Carl J. 1282

Engene J. Sawyer,

History

CHAPTER I.

Unrivaled Climate and Situation-Story of the Early Days-The Founding and Growth of the Missions-Founding of San Jose-Secularization of the Missions-Life on the Early Ranchos-Early Government-The First Americans-The Ill-Fated Donner Party.

T HERE is no county in California so rich in material, romantic, progressive and adventurous, as the County of Santa Clara. It absorbs about the whole of the Santa Clara Valley, rightly proclaimed the richest valley in the state, and in respect of size, the richest in the world. It is located at the south- ern end of San Francisco Bay and the county, itself, embraces 1355 square miles.

The climate is famed for its evenness and salubrity. The Mt. Hamilton Range on the east and the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west protect the valley from the heat of the San Joaquin plains and direct coast influences. The Bay has a modifying effect, its cool breezes which sweep through the valley, mak- ing the summers cooler and the winters warmer. The mean summer temperature is seventy-five degrees ; winter, about sixty de- grees. The average rainfall is sixteen inches for the valley and nearly twice that amount for the mountains. There is an alternation of storm and sunshine between October and May. During this period there are from thirty to forty days in which more or less rain falls ; from sixty to seventy that are cloudy ; the rest are bright and pleasant. These estimates vary with particular seasons, but taking the aver- age of a series of years, it will be found that from October to May one-half the days are cloudless and fully three-fourths such that any outdoor vocation can be carried on with- out discomfort or inconvenience.

Cyclones and terrific windstorms are un- known and thunder is heard only at rare in- tervals. With the month of March the rains are practically over though showers are ex- pected and hoped for in April. Summarizing, it may be said that in any part of the year, days too hot or too cold for the comfort of those engaged in ordinary occupations are rare. It may be added that the fears and fore- bodings with which the seasons are elsewhere greeted, are here unheard of. Coming with no rigors, they bring no terrors and are alike wel- comed as a change. In these conditions health and comfort are largely subserved and also in 3

them the great horticultural possibilities, and these, the elements of present and prospective prosperity, are as constant as the ocean cur- rents in which they have their origin, as permanent as the mountain ranges which bound the field of their exhibition.

Santa Clara County is the banner fruit sec- tion of the state. In 1919 there were 98,152 acres planted in fruit trees and 2,850 acres in vines. The total acreage of cereals, vegetables and berries was 86,695 acres. The livestock numbered 62,248; value $1,288,175. It is the prune center of America. More prunes are raised in the valley than are raised in the whole United States outside. In 1919 the or- chardists of the county received $45,000,000 from the product of their trees. This was ir- respective of the money received from the packers and canners. In the season ending in . the winter of 1919 the Southern Pacific Rail- way handled about 153,000,000 pounds of prunes in the territory between Hollister and San Francisco. The crop was by far the larg- est ever raised in the Santa Clara Valley. In 1921 the canneries of the valley paid out nearly $50,000,000 for orchard products.

Though called the "garden spot of Califor- nia," this phrase should not be interpreted to make gardening more important than fruit raising, for fruit raising is the prime industry. Timber, cattle raising, dairying and sundry in- dustries have played and still play an import- ant part in the business life of the population, though the days of wheat raising, grazing and timber culture are passing rapidly. Lands so fertile and so adaptable to fruits and vege- tables cannot, in a section that is being rapidly populated, be given over to any industry other than one that is intensive. Within the limits of the county there is practically no waste land. It is interesting to bear in mind that much of the poorer and rougher land com- pares more than favorably with some of the best acreage in the Eastern states.

A graphic and beautiful picture of the valley appeared in the April (1920) issue of the

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

Southern Pacific Bulletin. It was from the pen of R. F. Wilson and is here reproduced :

"One of California's great out-of-doors treats is a trip through any of the orchard regions around the Bay of San Francisco during blos- som time-the end of March and the begin- ning of April. The visitor to San Francisco or Oakland during this period should devote a day at least to seeing one of these mountain- rimmed fruit valleys nestling among their rounded, oak-clad foothills. The beautiful val- ley of Santa Clara-Queen of Blossom Festi- vals-lies directly south of San Francisco, its northern gateway being at l'alo Alto, twenty miles distant. It is fifty miles in length and from five to twenty iniles in width, its level floors inlaid with a thousand tinted squares and rectangles of orchards, dotted with coun- try homes and interlaced with hundreds of miles of auto roads, electric lines and railways. It is a veritable Eden, a gorgeous garden of fruit and flowers, walled in on the east by the Mt. Hamilton Range, on the south and west by the Coast Range and the Santa Cruz Moun- tains. This garden wall is two to three thou- sand feet high and 'over the garden wall' is all California, a natural setting for this wonderful valley, one of the thousand wonders on the Southern Pacific lines. In early spring you can here behold over 100 square miles of trees in snow-white blossoms-prune, plum, cherry, olive, almond and with a dash of pink and red for the peach and apricot. Over 8,000,000 with billions of blossoms-Santa Clara County's great White Milky Way, twinkling in the California sunlight like myriad heavenly constellations, with honey bees buzzing in the perfumed air. Have you ever seen such a sight? You may hear the Song of Spring all over the world but nowhere on earth can you duplicate the Santa Clara Valley in blossom time. You cannot match this wealth of bril- liant blossom even in Japan, and Japan's cherry blossom trees are barren while Cali- fornia's trees bring forth luscious fruit. In late March and early April the Santa Clara Valley is a dazzling, billowy sea of foaming white caps rolling toward us from the far- away horizon. From June to November this ocean of blossom is formed into a tempting basket of assorted fruits. The valley then puts on a regal mantle, purple with prunes and plums, bright yellow with the colorful peach and apricot giving it full right to the happy title, "The Field of the Cloth of Gold'."

The origin of the name which the county bears is thus described in a report made to the Senate under date of April 16, 1856, by Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then senator from the district of Sonoma entitled, "Report of Mr. Vallejo on the Derivation and Defini-

tion of Names of the Several Counties in Cali- fornia." In that report, he says of Santa Clara : "According to the Roman Book of Martyrs, or Martyrology, as Hortalana, the pious mother of Santa Clara, was once kneeling before a crucifix. praying earnestly that being with child she might be happily delivered, she heard a voice whispering : 'Fear not, woman, thou shalt safely bring forth'; whereupon a brilliant light suddenly illumed the place and the mother, inspired by the mysterious predic- tion, baptized her child Clara, which is the feminine of clear or bright. Clara was after- ward sanctified, on account of her many emi- nent virtues and accordingly venerated by the Catholics in all Roman Catholic churches. The Mission of Santa Clara, from which the county derives its name, was founded on the twelfth day of January, 1777."

The people who inhabited the Santa Clara Valley prior to its occupancy by the whites were a race of mild-mannered, ignorant and generally inoffensive Indians. They were sometimes called Diggers and subsisted on the spontaneous fruits of the soil and the small game which they killed or captured with their rude weapons. Like nearly all the natives of the Pacific Coast they worshiped the sun. They believed in an evil spirit and their re- ligious rites and ceremonies were devoted, principally, to its propitiation rather than to the adoration of a Supreme Being with power to protect them from the anger of their evil god. They had no villages, but at certain sea- sons of the year they would herd at certain fixed places which the Spaniards called ranch- erias. They had no prominent men or noted chiefs whose names survive. Their existence in the county served as a motive for the estab- lishing of the Mission of Santa Clara, which was the beginning of civilization in the valley.

Founding of the Missions

In 1768 Franciscan friars, under the guid- ance of Father Junipero Serra, left Lower California for the conquest and conversion of Upper or Alta California. The first mission was established in San Diego on July 16, 1769. In September 1776, the Viceroy of Mexico penned a communication to Don Fernando Rivera, the officer commanding at San Diego, informing him that he had received the intelli- gence that two missions had been founded in the vicinity of the Bay of San Francisco and as the Commandante had been provided with military guards for these he would be pleased to have his report. On the arrival of the mes- sage Don Fernando, without loss of time, made arrangements for visiting the places desig- nated and placing the guards in their proper places. After a journey, covering many days,

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

he, with his twelve soldiers, arrived at Mon- terey, where he learned that only the mission at San Francisco had been founded. Accom- panied by Father Tomas de la Pena, who with another priest, had been appointed to perform the religious duties of the expedition, he started north. On their journey they came to the spot afterwards occupied by the Santa Clara Mission and being captivated by its many charms and advantages resolved to lo- cate a mission there.

Toward the last days of the year, 1776, the soldiers and their families, who were to take part in the establishing of the new mission, arrived in San Francisco, and on January 6, 1777, Father Pena, the soldiers and their fami- lies, took up the march for the chosen loca- tion. Their first duty on reaching their des- tination was to erect a cross, which, with all solemnity, was blessed and adored. On Jan- uary 12, 1777, an altar was raised and the first mass ever celebrated in the valley was said by Father Pena. In a few days Father Mur- guia joined them, with the necessary para- phernalia for a settlement, and on January 18, 1777. the formal ceremony of founding Santa Clara Mission took place. This was the first white settlement in the county. From this time the valley, which had hitherto been known as San Bernardino, became the Valley of Santa Clara. A general description of the settlement is thus given by Father Gleeson in his work entitled "The History of the Cath- olic Church in California": "The buildings were generally quadrilaterals, inclosing a court ornamented with flowers and trees, the whole containing the church, the fathers' apartments, storehouses, barracks, etc. The entire man- agement of each establishment was in the hands of two religieux ; the elder attended to the interior, the younger to the exterior ad- ministration. One portion of the building which was called the 'monastery' was inhab- ited by the young Indian girls. There, under the care of approved matrons, they were care- fully instructed and trained in those branches necessary for their condition in life. They were not permitted to leave till of an age to be married-this with a view of preserving their morality.

"In the schools those who exhibited more talent than their companions were taught vocal and instrumental music, the latter consisting of flute, horn and violin. In the mechanical departments the most apt were promoted to the positions of foremen. The better to pre- serve the morals of all, none of the whites, except those absolutely necessary, were em- ployed at the Mission. The daily routine was as follows: At sunrise they arose and pro- ceeded to the church, where, after morning

prayer, they assisted at the Holy Sacrament of the mass. Breakfast next followed, after which they proceeded to their respective em- ployments. Toward noon they returned to the Mission and spent the time from then on till 2 o'clock between dinner and repose, after which they repaired to their work and re- mained engaged until evening angelus, about an hour before sundown. All then betook themselves to the church for evening devo- tions, which consisted of the ordinary family prayers and the rosary, except on special oc- casions, when other devotional exercises were added. After Supper, which immediately fol- lowed, they amused themselves in divers sports, games and dancing until the hour of repose. Their diet consisted of an abundance of beef and mutton, with vegetables in sea- son. Wheaten cakes and puddings or por- ridges, called atole and pinole, also formed a portion of the repast. The dress was, for the males, linen shirts and pants and a blanket to be used as an overcoat. The women received each, annually, two undergarments, a gown and a blanket. In years of plenty, after the Missions became rich, the Fathers distributed all the surplus money among them in clothing and trinkets."

The natives were teachable, willing to learn and reasonably industrious. The land was fer- tile and each year saw a gratifying increase in the numbers of those who relinquished heath- enism for Christianity and habits of savagery for the arts of civilization. Having a care over the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of their charges the Fathers soon saw the Santa Clara Mission become a flourishing in- stitution.

About seven years after the foregoing events, Father Junipero Serra, president of the Mis- sions of California, feeling that old age was overtaking him, and, having some spare time, resolved to visit some of the missions and hold last confirmation. He had also been in- vited to dedicate the Santa Clara Mission. About the first of May he visited the selected spot, and then went on to San Francisco. He had been in that place but a few days when he received the distressing news of the serious illness of Father Murguia. On May 11, 1784, the illness terminated fatally. Father Serra was too enfeebled to attend the funeral. He was able, however, to go to the Mission for the dedicatory ceremonies, which took place on May 16, 1784. Assembled to witness the imposing scene were the troops, many citizens and a large number of unchristianized Indians. On the succeeding Sunday mass was chanted

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

by the aged priest in a solemn and impressive manner. On that day he held his confirmation.

Founding of San Jose

Don Felipe de Neve, the third Spanish gov- ernor of California, was in office from Decem- ber, 1774, to September, 1782. On June 3, 1777, he suggested to the central government in Mexico the establishment of three settlements, one of them being on the banks of the Guada- lupe River, seventy-eight miles from Monte- rey, forty-eight from the presidio at San Fran- cisco and two and a quarter miles from the Mission of Santa Clara. At that time, Lieu- tenant Don Jose de Moraga, commanding at San Francisco, was directed to detach nine soldiers of known agricultural skill, two set- tlers and three laborers to form a settlement on the margin of the Guadalupe, which they effected on November 29, 1777. The name they gave it was San Jose de Guadalupe, the approval from Spain being dated March 6, 1789.

On December 24, 1782, Lieutenant Moraga was directed to partition off the land to the settlers, a duty he effected between the thir- teenth and nineteenth of May, 1783, the recip- ients of the land being Ignacio Archeluta, Manuel Gonzales, Jose Tiburcio Vasquez, Manuel Amesquita, Antonio Romero, Ber- nardo Rosales, Francisco Avila, Sebastian Al- vitre and Claudio Alvires.

The first location was made nearly a mile and a quarter from the center of the present city of San Jose, about where a bridge spanned a little stream on the road to Alviso. The ground was too low at this point and the first settlers were the victims of yearly recurring floods and thieving Indians : therefore, permis- sion was asked to remove to higher land and a more advantageous site. It takes long, how- ever, to move the wheels of official machinery. In the year 1785, the question of the transfer was mooted, but it was not until 1797 that the removal was accomplished-the center of the new site being near the corner of Market and San Fernando streets.

Captain Vancouver, who visited Santa Clara Valley in 1792, thus describes it: "We con- sidered our course from San Francisco parallel to the sea coast, between which and our path the ridge of mountains extended to the south- eastward. As we advanced, their sides and summits exhibited a high degree of fertility, interspersed with copses of various forms and magnitudinous and verdant open spaces en- circled with stately fruit trees of various de- scriptions. About noon we arrived at a very pleasant and enchanting lawn, situated amid a grove of trees at the foot of a small hill, by which flowed a very fine stream of excellent

water. We had not proceeded far from this delightful spot when we entered a country I little expected to find in these regions. For almost twenty miles it could be compared to a park which had originally been planted with true old English oak. The underwood, which had probably attained its early growth, had the appearance of having been cleared away and had left the stately lords of the forest in complete possession of the soil, which was covered with magnificent foliage and beau- tifully diversified with pleasing eminences and valleys, which, with the lofty ranges of moun- tains, that bounded the prospect, required only to be adorned with neat habitations of an in- dustrious people to produce a scene not in- ferior to the most studied effect of taste in the disposal of grounds."

Frederic Hall, a pioneer lawyer of San Jose, says in his history that nearly all the Indians in the region described by Captain Vancouver were in the habit of visiting the hill on which the New Almaden mine was first opened and worked to obtain the red paint to adorn their faces and bodies. The cinna- bar is of a reddish hue, and easily produces a red pigment when moistened and rubbed. While the color of the pigment was pleasing to the eyes of the Indians its effect on their system was by no means agreeable. It sali- vated them- a result as mysterious and ninex- plainable to them as the setting of the sun. Although a little painful, they seemed to for- get their illness as they witnessed the lustre of their skins, for they were as resolute in their pride of dress as the proud damsel groan- ing in tight corsets and tight shoes.

The Alameda, that renowned avenue that links San Jose with Santa Clara, is known and admired the world over. The planting of the trees was started in 1799 by Father Maguin de Catala, for the benefit of the way- farer journeying between the two towns. Two hundred Indians were employed to do the work. The eastern limit of the grove was at the Guadalupe River, but in time the march of progress necessitated the removal of many of the trees to make way for houses and streets.

The original Mission of Santa Clara stood near where now are seen the structures of the Southern Pacific Railway station. Its walls were cracked by an earthquake in 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 it became necessary to take it down rather than attempt to repair it. A site for a new Mission was chosen a short distance to the southwest, and in 1825-26 the new Mission Church was completed. In later years, so great was the

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

decay that it was found advisable to encase the walls, remodel the facade and ereet two towers: each served for the purpose of a lookout. The face of the structure was paint- ed in a rude fashion with biblical scenes in- tended to attract the eye of the aboriginal, while within were tableaux and allegorical pictures. In 1884, as a sanitary measure, the old Mission was torn down under the super- vision of Father Robert E. Kenna, president of Santa Clara College. One adobe wall was left standing to show the original construc- tion and a number of pictures and relics were allowed to remain.

Secularization of the Missions

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 benefit of the Missions. At that time the possession yielded an annual revenue of $50,000, $25,000 of which were expended in the stipends of the Franciscan and Dominican missionaries and the balance for the mainten- ance of the missions generally. Father Glee- son says: "The first inroads made upon these pious donations was about the year 1806, when to relieve the national wants caused by the wars of 1801 and 1804 between Portugal on the one hand and Great Britain on the other, His Majesty's fiscal at Mexico scrupled not to confiscate and remit to the authorities in Spain as much as $200,000 of the Pious Fund." By this means the Missions were de- prived of most substantial aid and the Fathers left upon their own resources. Two years after Mexico had been formed into a republic the government authorities began to interfere with the rights of the Fathers and the exist- ing state of affairs. In 1826 instructions were forwarded by the Federal Government to the authorities in California for the liberation of the Indians. This was followed a few years later by another act ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the religieux to withdraw. The ostensible object assigned by the authors of the measure was the execu- tion of the original plan formed by the gov- ernment. The Missions, it was alleged. were never intended to be permanent establish- ments ; 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 un- doubtedly a perfect understanding between the government at Mexico and the leading men of California, and in such a condition of things the Supreme Government might absorb the Pious Fund 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 and sure process of ad- ministering their temporalities." And again : "These laws whose ostensible purpose was to convert the missionary establishments into Indian pueblos, their churches into parish churches, and to elevate the Christianized In- dians 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 Chris- tianized Indians."

Immediately upon the receipt of the decree the then-acting Governor of California, Don Jose Figueroa, commenced the carrying out of its provisions to which he added certain rules and in accordance ,therewith the alteration in the missionary system was begun, to be imme- diately followed by the absolute ruin of both Missions and country. Within a very few years the work of the Fathers was entirely destroyed ; the lands which had hitherto teem- ed with abundance were handed over to the Indians to be by them neglected and permit- ted to return to their primitive wildness, while the thousands of cattle were divided among the people and the administrators.

In 1836 the number of Indians cared for in the missions amounted to over 30,000. They were peaceful, happy and contented, strang- ers to those cares, troubles and anxieties com- mon to higher and more civilized conditions of life. At the same time that their religious condition was one of thankfulness and grate- ful satisfaction to the Fathers, their worldly position was one of abundance and prosper- ity. Divided among the different missions from San Lucas to San Francisco close upon one million head of livestock belonged to the people. The united annual return of the cer- eals, consisting of wheat, maize, beans and the like, was upwards of 120,000 bushels, while at the same time throughout the different mis- sions the preparation and manufacture of soap, leather, wine, brandy, hides. wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, tobacco, salt and soda was extensively pursued. And to such perfection were these articles brought that some of them were eagerly sought for and purchased in the principal cities of Europe.

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History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 3

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846- Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1928

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928