History of Sonoma 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 time, Part 10

Author: Gregory, Thomas Jefferson
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1190

USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma 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 time > Part 10

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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER XVI.

FREMONT THE MAN OF THE HOUR.

After the insurgents found themselves with a victory on their hands they were confronted with the question of what to do with it. Fremont was con- siderable distance away and fleet vaqueros would soon carry the news of the capture around the territory. There was a discussion as to the disposal of the prisoners and it was finally decided to remove them to Sutter's Fort. As very friendly relations existed between captors and captives the General took part in these discussions and was in favor of the removal as he wished to be more in touch with a United States officer. He advised his people in the pueblo to remain quiet, that they would not be molested and he would soon return from Sutter's Fort. In Sonoma and while enroute he was secretly approached by Californians with the suggestion that they organize themselves into a strong force, attack the Americans and rescue the captives. Vallejo strongly disap- proved of this. He knew such action would only cause needless bloodshed in the district and he knew what even many American officers in California did not know-that this was the beginning of the end of Mexican dominion in the terri- tory. He was not obsessed with the madness that would send his simple vaqueros against those rifles whose discharge was the prelude of death. But he immediately communicated with Commander John B. Montgomery of the United States Sloop of War Portsmouth, in San Francisco, requesting that officer to use his authority or exert his influence to prevent the commission of acts of violence upon the inhabitants of Sonoma by the insurgents in that community. By order of Commander Montgomery the following reply was written by Lieu- tenant W: A. Bartlett, U. S. N., to Don Jose de la Rosa, Vallejo's representative : "Sir: You will say to General Vallejo, on my part, that I at once and entirely disavow this movement as having proceeded under any authority of the United States, or myself as the agent of my Government in this country, or on this coast. It is a movement entirely local, and with which I have nothing to do; nor can I in any way be induced to take part in the controversy which belongs entirely to the internal policies of California.

"If they are Americans, as they avow themselves, they are beyond the laws and officers of the United States, and must now take all the responsibilities in which they have placed themselves, being answerable to the laws of Mexico and California.

"I have now for the first time heard of this movement and in making the most positive disavowal, for myself and for my Government, as having in any wise instigated or aided this, I also disavow the same on the part of Captain Fremont, United States topographical engineer, now in the country for seien- tifie purposes.

"If my individual efforts can be at any time exercised to allay violence or prevent injury to innocent persons, it shall be exerted; but as an officer of the

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

Government of the United States I cannot have anything to do with either party. They must take the responsibilities of their own acts. From what has already transpired I think it clear that no violence will be committed on any one not found with arms in their hands. You will assure General Guadalupe Val- lejo of my sympathy in his difficulties; but I positively cannot interfere in the local policies of California."

ALL DISAVOWED FREMONT.

Commander Montgomery was clearly within the scope of his official duty -as he had not been sought by Gillespie-but his disavowals gratuitously re- peated, showed an interest strongly personal. At that period there was con- siderable disavowing of Fremont's work, on the part of United States officers. Sloat had to stir himself and follow the Pathfinder's lead and take Monterey, then he disavowed, and resigned his naval command in the Pacific, which did not save him from the departmental reprimand. he received for his delay. Stockton took his place, and in the intervals between some tough fights with the Californians in the southern portion of the state, did his share of the dis- avowing. General Phil Kearny, the conqueror of New Mexico, marched into California late, but early enough to disavow Fremont's action. Shubrick, another commodore, had his ship on the coast long enough to also do some dis- avowing. Colonel R. B. Mason came last and disavowed, but as he was inspec- tor of troops possibly this was somewhat along the line of his duty. However, they all did more or less disavowing of each other. At one time during the conflict, California had two military governors, and as they were antagonistic to one another, the territory appeared to be back in its normal condition under Mexican rule. Colonel Philip Cooke, one of the latest arrivals, amusingly de- scribes that prevailing condition : "Colonel Kearny is supreme somewhere up the coast. Colonel Fremont is supreme at Pueblo de los Angeles, Commodore Stockton is supreme at San Diego. Commodore Shubrick the same at Mon- terey ; and I at San Luis Rey; and we are all supremely poor, the government having no money and no credit, and we hold the territory because Mexico is the poorest of all."

Commander Montgomery, who had not been schooled in the "secret work" of the administration, might better have remained aboard the Portsmouth and "attended to his knitting," instead of questioning without knowledge the action of an officer in another branch of the service; as it was he assumed an unten- able position, and so places biniself on the general record of official error. As his government and that of Mexico were then busily at war,-and he should have been in the "trouble"-his technically-blameless inactivity. his caution, assumption, and hurried proclamation of his government's California policy, show weakly before Fremont's soidierly activity and unerring judgment. The Pathfinder found a broad path by which California walked into the American Union while his brother officers were disavowing him. Yet to Montgomery's credit he supplied the Bear Flag people with United States powder from the "Portsmouth."

To more fully acquaint himself regarding the situation in Sonoma, Mont- gomery sent one of his officers, Lieutenant John S. Missroon, to that town. His observation on conditions appears in the following portion of his report :

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

"It only remains, sir, for me to add that, so far as I eould judge and observe, the utmost harmony and good order prevail in the eamp, and that I have every reason to believe that the pledges of kind treatment toward all who may fall into their hands will be faithfully observed. I also enclose copy of a letter which I addressed to the Alcalde while I was at Sonoma, which copy is as follows :

"'Sonoma, June 17, 1846.

'Sir: As you were informed yesterday, through my interpreter, my visit to this place is of a strictly mediatorial character, and was induced by the appli- cation of General Vallejo to Captain Montgomery, requesting him to adopt measures for the protection of the females and peaceable inhabitants of Sonoma.

'I have the pleasure to assure you of the intention of the foreigners now in arms and occupying Sonoma, to respect the persons of all individuals and their property, who do not take up arms against them, and I leave with you a copy of the pledge which the commander of the party has voluntarily given to me, with a view to the pacification of all alarm.' I also enclose copy of Commander William B. Ide's pledge :

TO THE ALCALDE OF SONOM.I.

'I pledge myself that I will use my utmost exertion to restrain and prevent the men in arms under my command. all of whom present acknowledge my authority and approve the measure of forbearance and humanity, from per- petrating any violenee, or in any manner molest the peaceable inhabitants, in person or property, of California, while we continue in arms for the liberty of California. (Signed) Wm. B. Ide, Commander.'"

While the naval commander at Yerba Buena in an unofficial way sought to counsel kindness and moderation on the part of the Americans toward the peo- ple of the pueblo, there was not at any time the slightest danger that the Sono- mans would be ill-treated. William B. Ide, a man of sterling worth and con- siderable culture, seemed to shape and control thie conduct of those under his command. And this was no simple task, as his foree largely included men unaccustomed to restraint and not sufficiently posted as to the eanse and object of the movement and consequently often disposed to oppose measures they did not understand. Ide was a native of Ohio, came across the plains, reaching Sutter's Fort in October, 1845. Military Governor R. B. Mason, June 7, 1847. appointed him land surveyor for the northern district of California and in addi- tion he was Justice of the Peace at Cache Creek. He received the grant of the Rancho Barranea Colorado, in Coluisa county. Ide practiced law and was elected County Judge of Colusa county, September 3. 1851. He died at Mon- roeville. December 18, 1852, aged fifty years.

COUNTRY WITHIOUT A FLAG.

After General Vallejo and the other captured officers had been dispatehed to Sutter's Fort under the escort of Captain Ide, Merritt, Grigsby, Hargrave, Kit Carson and several others, the "squatters" as General Vallejo might have called them, started out to look over their claim. They were new at State- making-that is when the fabric is built up in a night, or in a morning-before breakfast. It was an accomplishment somewhat larger than stocking a rancho or furnishing a farm. As to her defensive properties Sonoma was not a

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

Gibraltar, and the several hundred shelf-worn muskets and other weapons in the place, seemed anything but dangerous to the Americans whose long rifles, many of them, had been tested in places where a miss meant the finish of the shooter. The chief government building in a Spanish town is called a citadel - castillo; a Spaniard may run shy on many accomplishments but he may be trusted to fill in on names. The investigators found the battery-nine or ten old brass cannon, each piece lying prone across the adobe wall as if the soul of war within the gun was dead. Vallejo almost to the tear-point had pleaded for better armament for Sonoma and the northern frontier, as protection against undesirable immigration, and the Supreme Government of Mexico had ordered him to shoot pronunciamientos at the invading strangers. But out on the plaza this board of inspection found something more alive-the national ensign of Mexico. A soldado viejo of the southern republic had stolen out in the half- light and hoisted the bit of bunting to the top of the staff. For hours, unno- ticed by the strangers passing below. the little flag, still faithful to the cause it served but could not save, saucily flaunted its cagle and its red, white and green in their faces.

This reminded them that they were yet without a government standard. They were North Americans and would have raised their red, white and blue when they lowered the red, white and green, but Fremont had advised them not to do so, fully knowing that as they were not acting under the formal authorization of the United States government, such action would raise the ever-ticklish question of neutrality. Mexico had fiercely complained of the raising of the American flag at Monterey, four years before, and Commodore Ap Catesby Jones, U. S. N., had been made the convenient scapegoat-faithful government servants frequently are-to appease the Mexican minister at Wash- ington. So the Pathfinder, when he induced the historical Thirty-three to visit Sonoma that June day-dawn knew,-even though he was obeying a secret order, its official existence not to be revealed, the office and the honor of the scapegoat for him was a strong possibility. But he anticipated the interference of the United States naval forces on this coast and again his judgment averted what would have been to the revolutionists an awkward international situation. This does not infer that their situation apparently was not tending in that direc- tion, or that Captain Fremont in his surveyors' camp on the American river was not anxiously listening for a gun-salute to an American flag waving over Yerba Buena. If the expected war had not taken place it is possible that pres- ently the rough-riders of the Bear, with their cub-republic, born at break o' day. would have been moving out of the pueblo with President Santa Ana's Mexican cavalry in the vicinity. Not only is all's well that ends well, but, at least in this case, all's well that begins well, for an American army was then fighting its way toward the City of Montezuma. The insurgents, revolutionists, filibusters of whatever they may be called, had "guessed" aright, and the California grizzly, strolling (en passant) leisurely along the folds of their flag, was umpired in -safe.

Yet this movement, new and in advance of the wisdom of the period, this forerunner of the change that was to awake the sleeping territory to progress, came in for adverse judgment from the politicians orbing around the national capital. The inconsistency of this decision can be seen in the receptions of the

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

two states that came to the northern republic during that decade. Texas, not menaced by a foreign power, and barely justified in her action, won complete independence from Mexico and then almost immediately offered herself to the Union. She was admitted, a slave state, by a whig administration whose cen- tral creed was anti-slavery. California, a ripe plum falling to a British squad- ron, her long length of ocean-shore to become a line of foreign fortifications whose guns would train eastward toward the American frontier and her then miserable system of government promising to be a constant thorn in the side of her neighbor over the wall of the Sierras, was encouraged to separate from the southern republic by a democratic administration in the face of a strong pro- test from these same whigs. The protesting statesmen, after the war, pro- posed that California be sold back to Mexico for $12,000,000, and if agreeable to the other party, the United States to retain San Francisco, shore and bay, allowing Mexico $3,000,000 on account. As this government by the treaty had assumed a Mexican debt of fifteen millions of money due American citizens, these diplomats of finance considered that they were proposing a highly profit- able real estate deal. Shortly after this, Marshall, digging a sawmill ditch in Coloma creek, struck his pick into a nest of nuggets and next day California's market value went up to nearer twelve hundred millions in gold, and to a moral figure that can never be estimated.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER XVII.

PAINTING THE BANNER OF THE BEAR.

When the Thirty-Three Immortais in Pueblo Sonoma, June 14, 1846, found themselves-a full-grown state with no flag to fit it, they made one, as they had made their commonwealth,-immediately and with the material at hand. The result was the Bear Flag. It was a domestic production, and it was not inglorious, if home-made. It was a symbol,-in the rough, but the true article, of liberty, justice and peace. And it readily gave place to its proto- type, the Stars and Stripes, when the little Sonoma republic was merged into the Great Republic of the North American States. In fact the Bear Flag's single red bar and star is one of the thirteen stripes and one of the thirty-one stars that shone on the national flag after California had been admitted to the Union. And this fact which Native Sons may remember: California's star now on the blue field of the American ensign, first appeared on the Bear Flag. This rudely-fashioned standard of a small state that lived but a brief period beyond its inception, is more than the mere caprice of a leaderless band of American immigrants. It arose over the plaza in Sonoma at a critical time. and it cleared the air for the other flag, and the way for American occupancy. Commodore Sloat with his squadron bad beaten Admiral Seymour's British fleet in the sea-race from Mazatlan, but the Yankee naval officer was lying at anchor in the harbor of Monterey hesitating to take possession of the port, and the entire territory. He had heard rumors of war being on between Mexico and the United States, but he feared to move before he had received official con- firmation of the news. And well he might hesitate. His predecessor, Com- modore Ap Catesby Jones, four years previous placed in a like position, had raised his flag over the old adobe custom house in that city, and had to haul the colors down next day, learning that he had been too rapid. His indiscretion had brought about his recall, to appease angry Mexico; hence Sloat's timidity. The two republics were then at war, though this was unknown on the Pacific coast. Captain John Charles Fremont, surveying across the continent, had re- ceived secret instructions from the administration-instructions that were ver- bal and have never been filed or published-to use his own judgment, taking all responsibility, even concealing the participancy of the national government, and forestall any occupancy of California by France or Great Britain. He sent the Bear Flag party to Sonoma, and when Sloat heard of the work in that pueblo and of Fremont's actions in other portions of the territory, he con- cluded that the "Pathfinder" was acting officially. Then he took possession of Monterey and directed Montgomery in the "Portsmouth" to possess Yerba Buena, also to raise the American ensign at Sonoma. It is a matter of history that Sloat afterwards acknowledged that he made his first move only when he had become convinced that Fremont was working under department orders which he ( Sloat) had not yet received. And as additional evidence of the

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

important part played here by the Pathfinder, by the Bear Flaggers and their flag. Sloat was severely reprimanded by the Navy Department, the administra- tion holding that his timidity with the British fleet in the vicinity ready to work in conjunction with the annexation-scheme of the Mexican government, jeopar- dized the claims and intentions of the United States. Alas, poor Sloat. He was punished for doing too little, while Jones received the same punishment for doing too much, on the same job.

THE GRIZZLY PASSANT.

In the knightly diction of heraldry the Bear Flag is: A grizzly passant on field argent : star at right dexter point; legend "California Republic" in lower half; horizontal bar gules from base to base. As an armorial bearing the bear is a suitable choice. Often he has been met on his eminent domain, and as a true native son-representative of the wild west, he has qualified. His ordi- narily mild manner and willingness to be let-alone, also his latent prowess in argument when driven to the battlepoint, are well known. His high moral and physical standing in the animal settlements of the American continent make him socially fit for a place on anybody's flag. Though a carnivora, he has no objection to a huckleberry meal, but only dire famine will drive him to a diet of Digger Indian. And it is true that no Digger has ever eaten him. The single star is a reflex of the lone luminary that lighted Texas in the night of her deadly struggle, and the red colonial bar along the lower edge of the white; cloth represents the California Republic's single colony. Mrs. John Sears fur- nished the square of white sheeting and Mrs. John Matthews, the Mexican wife of an American, contributed a flannel petticoat for the red stripe. Some unchivalrous historian has tried to establish the version of the various Bear Flag stories that one of the hunters of the party donated his only shirt for this purpose, but as the nameless patriot never acknowledged the honor and the sacrificial red shirt, the alleged incident must be left out of the record. Chiv- alry, modesty and self-denial are the cardinal characteristics often found in heroes, so possibly he was a life-sufferer from all three of these virtues. and died unknown, unhonored and unsung.

Here it may not be inappropriate to insert the inspiring verse of George Homer Meyer, a native of Sonoma county, and the first President of Santa Rosa Parlor, N. S. G. W. It was read on the occasion of the Admission Day celebration held in Santa Rosa, September 9, 1885, and attended by repre- sentatives from every Parlor in the State :

THE STRIPES AND THE STARS. With the flag of all others we love and revere. And whose stars float above us today, Let us blend the Bear Flag of the brave pioneer, While we wreathe them with laurel and bay. With the names of our fathers its white folds engrave, No dishonor its history mars.

And today do we hold it as fitting to wave By the side of the Stripes and the Stars.

Unseemly and rude on that far June-day morn

Was the banner they lifted in air,

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

Yet the deed marked the hour when an empire was born, And the Spirit of Freedom was there. So they raised up that flag by the westernmost sea- The flag of the grizzly, the star and the bar. Its sponsors were Men and its folds floated free-

The Flag of the Stripe and the Star.

AND GENERAL VALLEJO SAID "BUENO."

The immediate need of a flag was borne in upon them by the following incident : Early that morning after General Vallejo had been notified by his captors that he, his sword, the old brass guns on the wall, the rusty muskets in the castillo and everything else possessed by Mexico in Sonoma, were prisoners of war, the old Don batted his eyes once or twice, said "bueno," and invited the fierce Americanos to stay for breakfast. Señora Vallejo stirred up her Indian cooks, and soon the General's dining hall-that was never closed to a stranger, especially to an American, was thrown open, and on the tables were loads of chile con carne, frijoles, tortillas, and wine from the mission grapes growing out by the old church of San Francisco de Solano. Needless to say that banquet given by the Premier Native Son of the Golden West was a notable one. It has been reported that during the latter part of the feasting some of the invaders were swearing "Viva la Mexico," and that General Val- lejo was offered the Presidency of the new republic. During the festivities an old Spanish soldier had stolen out into the plaza and raised the Mexican flag. He could not annihilate the hated gringos, but he could flaunt his country's ensign in their faces. This they found it doing when they issued from the banquet room.

William Lincoln Todd, nephew of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, was the artist of the Bear Flag. Henry Ford, one of the party, carefully outlined the general appearance of the grizzly, and then Todd insisted that he was an animal- painter, in fact a Landseer. His comrades told him to go ahead, and hurry. With a pen and ink he laboriously drew the figure of the bear on both sides of the white sheeting. By that time the "committee on flag" scouting around town had found and commandeered some linseed oil, lampblack and a can of red paint. These the "Landseer" of the republic mixed and spread on the cloth. In color the result was more cinnamon than grizzly, but the new state was not seeking mere color and the work was accepted. Various art-writers have tried their pens on that result. It has been called a bear rampant .- meaning, possi- bly, on the rampage: also a bear regardant,-regarding the landscape in an effort to locate a dinner. But these heraldic descriptions were not so practical as the criticisms of the curious town-people who looked, laughed and said it was "el porcino;" and an English sailor present voiced in his natal vernacular that idea when he said that it was "nothing so like a bloomin' red 'og."

Todd had no difficulty getting on what passed for a five-point star, but when he came to the inscription he found his first snag. This is recorded in a letter written from Los Angeles, January 11. 1878, in which he says: "Mine was a grizzly bear passant, painted red: the flag mentioned by Hittell, the his- torian, with the bear rampant, was made. I believe, in Santa Barbara, and was painted biack. The flag I painted will be known by a mistake I made in tint-

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

ing in the words 'CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC.' The letters were first lined out with a pen, and I forgot the 'L' and put the 'C' in its place. Afterwards I put the 'I' over the 'C,' which made the last part of 'REPUBLIC' look as if the final two letters were blended."

LONG MAY THE RED FLANNEL PETTICOATS WAVE.

Red flannel petticoats have an honored place on American flags. The seven red stripes of the first national ensign flung to the winds were donated by the wife of an American soldier, who sacrificed her petticoat for that patri- otic purpose. James McChristian of Sebastopol, the survivor of the Bear Flag party, saw the "flag committee" at their work. He says that Jack Randsford, Peter Storm and John Kelly were told off by Captain Ezekiel Merritt to do the "heavy" work. These three men, being sailors and necessarily sea-tailors. were supposed to know much about sails, flags and other fabrics. In their cruisings around the pueblo they found Mrs. John Matthews, a native of Cali- fornia, and the wife of the American express-rider between Sutter's Fort and Sonoma. She provided the flannel band and Randsford sewed it on the white sheeting below the bear passant. That bear may be a "native son," but the red petticoat-stripe is more distinctly "native daughter," and the N. D. G. W. may logically plead their stronger claim to the Bear Flag as an emblem of their order. Josefa Matthews-woman of Spain-wife of an American-is the Bear Flag daughter of the golden west.

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History of Sonoma 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 time, Part 10

Author: Gregory, Thomas Jefferson Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1190

Author: Gregory, Thomas Jefferson
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1190