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 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119
UNDER THE WHITE DEATII.
It was death in the camp under the snow or death out in the mountains on the snow and there was no particular preference. so a party was made up to
100
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
break their way over the chain into California. This band of last resort was composed of eight men, five women, and two Indians who had been caught with the whites, to guide them through the Pass and down on the other side below the snow line. The horrors of that struggle are almost indescribable. They wore snowshoes, but often into the soft, feathery mass they sank at every step, making their progress difficult and slow. On the highest point of the great mountain chain the snow lay twelve feet deep, but they pushed on. Exhaustion and starvation were dropping them by the way, and within the first week three of their number were left with the pines standing sentinel over their snow-graves. For days during the heavy snow storms they would lie in their blankets under the snow. By the evening of the tenth day they had been four days without food and three more bodies were dead on the snow. The feet of the living were frozen and every step as they limped on their way was marked with blood. Only the buckskin strings of their snowshoes were left to eat, and to devour these was to sink in the snow and die. Then was the final resort of starving humanity -they stripped the flesh from the frozen bodies of the dead and dragged on up the interminable steeps. January first they were again without food. On the fourth the Indians having seen the ravenous and significant glances of the whites often resting upon them, wiscly deserted the party. Next day a deer was shot but the small, thin carcass was little relief to the starving people. one of whom died while trying to eat his meager share. Then the deaths occurred more fre- quently and the wretched survivors fed oftener on their hideous rations. Finally this no more tended to sustain life in their over-burdened bodies and they laid down on the snow to await the end. One, however, of a little more heroic mold than his fellow-heroes, would not die. Dragging onward alone he fortunately met two Indians who almost carried him down the mountains, reaching a settle- ment on Bear river that evening. By midnight a relief party had found the few survivors, sent them down to the settlement, and were hurrying on to the camp at Truckee Lake.
IN DONNER'S DREARY GLEN OF DENTII.
Quickly the news flew down the valleys to New Helvetia, and soon as a mule train could be packed Captain Sutter was in the saddle. This was a labor just to the hand of the gallant Swiss officer and he was off for his dash over the snowy mountains and down to the perishing immigrants on the other side. Other expeditions with food from San Francisco and the naval vessels in the harbor were hurriedly dispatched to the scene. At the two camps ten were found dead, the survivors having lived by eating hides during the last days of their starva- tion. The relief party left with the immigrants, too weak to travel, all the pro- visions they could spare and started back with the others, the relievers carrying the children on their backs. Indeed, through all that awful period even as they perished, the women and chikiren fared best, such was the nobility-the true knighthood-of the men of the golden age circling around the Storied Forty- Nine. The second relief party reached Truckce Lake March 1, and started back with seventeen of the rescued, but a fierce mountain snow storm forced them to temporarily abandon their charges on the way. Days after, when they were re- lieved, three had died and the remainder had again reverted to cannibalism. The last relief train reached Donner's camp in the latter part of April and all except a solitary survivor were dead. They had not only prolonged life in the hideous
107
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
alternative, but there was evidence that some had been killed that the wretched survivors for a brief period might lengthen life. Mrs. Donner, who was a woman of culture and native refinement, had carefully wrapped her husband's body in a sheet before she died-it is believed a victim of the semi-starved, half-insane. wolfish appearing man who met the party at the door of the hut where in a kettle he was then cooking his gruesome meal. Twenty-two males, twenty-two females were saved, and thirty-six perished. General Kearny on his way east in 1847 collected and buried the mummied remains and burned the cabins with their contents. Under the auspices of the Native Sons of the Golden West the place of this mountain tragedy has been marked by a monument telling for all time the story of Donner's dreary glen of death.
There where the wild gales of the Nevadas boom their deep organ-bass through the pines, they lie, these lost argonauts who perished within sight of the garden of the golden fleece they sought. And around their common grave stand the eternal-sentinel peaks that barred them back to a doom that thrills and saddens when its tale is told. In Homeric verse Joaquin Miller, the "Poet of the Sierras", that noble minstrel of the western peaks and pines, has written of the first Overland Train :
"The plains, the shouting drivers at the wheel ; The crash of leather whips; the crush and roll Of wheels : the groan of yokes and grinding steel And iron chain, and lo! at last the whole Vast line that reached as if to touch the goal, Began to stretch and stream away and wind Towards the west, as if with one control :
Then hope loomed fair; and home lay far behind; Before, the boundless plain, the fiercest of their kind.
"The dust arose, a long dim line like smoke From out a riven earth. The teams went by,
The thousand fect in harness and in yoke, They tore the ways of ashen alkali, And desert winds blew sudden, swift and dry.
The dust, it sat upon and filled the train. It seemed to fret and fill the very sky.
Lo! dust upon the beasts, the tent, the plain, And dust, alas! on breasts tliat rose not up again.
"My brave and unremembered heroes, rest : You fell in silence, silent lie and sleep. Sleep on unsung-forgotten, this is best, The world today has hardly time to weep ; The world today will hardly care to keep In her plain and unpretending brave; The desert winds, they whistle by and sweep
Above you, browned and russet grasses wave
Along a thousand leagues that lie one common grave."
108
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
CHAPTER XXIV.
JOHN A. SUTTER AND HIS FORT.
It is the constant effort of the history-writer to bring his readers face to face with other days, that they will readily understand in detail the conditions then existing. As time continues its work of obliteration the past grows more difficult to recall. The living figures of the once lively motion picture are dim, and blank spaces show where was life and action. The mountains and the val- leys and the seas of a locality are only an early result of its far past, not a living record. The records of a land are in its men and their works. What they thought, said and did, is a revelation thrown forward through the years. Among the stalwart California characters none are just like John A. Sutter. A soldier of fortune, he had adventured over two continents, an enthusiastic servant alike of king, emperor and president, and finally settling down in the broad vale where the Rio Sacramento ran silvery to the sea, ere the miner muddied its waters. A Mexican citizen and loyal to that government, he dis- obeyed his orders-as did Vallejo-to discourage and check the coming of American immigrants into the valley. He was told to force them back over the Sierra Nevada, but he took them into his fort and fed them. The Russians at Fort Ross, having cleaned the wealth-producing otter out of the coast-waters, weary of the constant nagging of the Spanish-Mexican officials-whom they did not fear, and knowing from the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine and the trend of American territorial acquisition that no foreign government could acquire a claim on the California coast, offered to sell out. Sutter bought, and lost money in the deal. But he took the junk up to New Helvetia and used it trying to make the place more attractive. The following letter written by the Captain to a correspondent in Sonoma, not only pictures the true conditions of the time and place, but shows that the writer was fully awake to those conditions :
New Helvetia, Jan. 1, 1845.
Sir and Dear Friend :- My reason for not writing sooner is that I lacked an opportunity, since your man was afraid of bad weather.
"I was in hopes all the time that perhaps I might have the pleasure of see- ing you at Yerba Buena.
"I spoke to Mr. Snyder and Alamans, who both promised to go to Sonoma and pay you a visit. The representation, etc., for Mr. Castillero, I have left in the hands of Mr. Forbes, and hope that the former will have received them before his departure from California to Mexico. I was astonished to hear over there the news that I had sold iny establishment to the government, and in fact, Mr. Estudillo told me that you had gone to see those gentlemen at the Moque- lumne river, so that it seems that they have not kept the matter secret. What is your opinion about it, sir? Do you think that the government will buy it? I wish I was certain of that, so that I might take the necessary measures. In case the government decided about this purchase, do you think it would be pos-
109
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
sible to obtain a part of the sum on account, enough to pay a part of my debts? "I could put them in possession of the establishment at the end of the harvest. It seems to me that the government ought not to neglect that affair ; for next autumn many immigrants are bound here from the United States, and one thing confronts me, that there will be many Germans, French and Swiss amongst them. I have received letters to that effect from a few friends, through the last little party of ten men.
(Sutter was in debt from bad deals and speculations and he was particularly anxious to sell New Helvetia to the Mexican Government and clear himself financially. He knew that sooner or later American troops would be marching up and down the valleys of California, and they, if not the California forces, might not use the property as its owner desired. But knowing the hungry condition of the Mexican treasury and the sparseness of that country's re- sources, he was anxious regarding payments.)
"Among the immigrants who intend coming are gentlemen of great means, capitalists, etc., by some letters I have received from New York, I see that one will bring over all the machinery fit for two steamers; one is destined to be a coaster, while the other will sail the bay to Sacramento. The Russians will also bring a little one for the Captain Leidesdorff, and the Russian Captain Leinderberg, my friend, has made me a present of a little machine large enough for a sloop, which he had made for his pleasure; that will be very nice for the river. The Dr. Mclaughlin, at Vancouver, has retired from the Hudson Bay Co., and intends to come and live here. He will give a new impulse to busi- ness ; he is a great protector of agriculture. A ship is going to bring us print- ing material, and I intend to have a newspaper published, half Spanish half English. Such progress is made throughout civilization, and here we are so much behind. Even in Tahiti, there is lithography, and a newspaper is pub- lished-L'Oceanic Francaise.
"We expect a ship from New York in the course of about a month; it will bring us all the necessary implements of agriculture selected on purpose for our valleys, comprising many plows, with farmers' garments, etc. The ship would enter without paying the custom house duties, if the thing was possible, or, at least pay them at a moderate rate; cr do you think that arrangements could be made with Mr. - by paying him four or six thousand dollars. that he might let the ship enter for the benefit of the inhabitants of Sacra- mento. This would render him quite popular among us; the advantage derived for the country would be great; the inhabitants of would have the same advantage as we. In April will arrive another ship with another cargo well suited for our valley. The proprietors of these two ships are very rich, and form one of the wealthiest firms in New York and London. They contem- plate buying a lot near the Bay or Sacramento River, to open warehouses, and keep a stock of articles we may need. They would sell on credit to all the farmers who would desire their trust, and take in payment, wheat or any other product of the country, as well as a great quantity of salted salmon. The other merchants who transact business in this unfortunate country refuse to receive anything but leather and tallow. This is the rule of the country. If there was such a market and such a competition open, you would soon see a great differ- ence.
110
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
( The reader will doubtless note how practically the writer reasons. Had there been more such in California, her dash towards prosperity would have taken place sooner than it did.)
"I hope you will find some means of having that ship enter ; perhaps Mr.
- can assist you in the matter ; indeed I have heard that he was on very good terms with the jovial captain, and that affair ought to have as much inter- est for his as for us.
"I regret very much being so far from you, and not having more oppor- tunities of corresponding, which is especially the case this winter.
"I wish you could write to me as soon as possible, for I feel convinced that you could easily settle these affairs, since your position as secretary to
-, and your friendly terms with Captain - are advantages which would soon lead us to enrich ourselves, with good management.
"The Captain Fremont of the United States Army, has gone to meet his other company, commanded by Captain Walker (under his orders) who had been sent after the discovery of another passage through the mountains, more to the south ; I expect them daily. They will spend the winter here, and depart again in the spring for the Columbia.
"Another small party of ten men has arrived since from the United States : this will be the last; they were fortunate in escaping the snow which fell in great abundance in the mountains at their arrival.
"Samuel Smith has been here during my absence in Yerba Buena, and un- fortunately I forgot to leave orders for his arrest. They told him that I had orders to detain him as prisoner, and he answered that he did not care to be a prisoner. Since then he has not returned.
HE FORGOT TO ARREST SMITH.
(The captain does not appear to be a fierce martinet. Some one in author- ity-Fremont, Vallejo or Castro-had ordered him to arrest one Samuel Smith whenever that "gringo" found it convenient to visit Sutter's Fort; but Sutter, when he set out for Yerba Buena had forgotten to make the necessary arrange- ments for Mr. Smith's reception. Somebody kindly acquainted Samuel of Sut- ter's intention, but he declined to remain, and he departed saying he would come some other time and be arrested with the captain present to enjoy the entertainment. The writer reports: "since then he has not returned," which omission on the part of Samuel Smith does not seem very remarkable. Other men have declined to be arrested. What he had done is not known, but as the Smith race is noted for the mildness of its generie disposition, it cannot be that Sam's offense was of a more desperate character than imbibing more aguadiente than he could carry like a gentleman and a soldier. But the incident is evidence of John A. Sutter's kindly nature. He declined to mistreat the newly arrived immigrants, and he forgot to arrest a petty offender.)
"Among the people in the upper valley are a few bad characters who stole some of my horses, and some mares and cows of Mr. Corelua's. They are dis- posed to steal a great deal more, and intend coming near Sonoma before their departure, to steal as many cattle as possible. We must try to imprison some of the principal ones, and I hope I can depend on Capt. Fremont and his men. He will doubtless enable me to make his countrymen prisoners, for. to look over such aets, would be the worst influence for the future. However, in case
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
Mr. Fremont refuses to assist in the capture of the worst of his countrymen. I shall try to do it alone; and if I have not sufficient power to succeed, 1 shall write to Mr. Vallejo for an auxiliary, etc.
(From this leaf of unwritten history we learn that not all of the country- men of Mr. Fremont in California were of the highest order of respectability, and not all the sinners of the territory were among the natives. There is no doubt that Sutter and Vallejo were constantly annoyed by the bands of Amer- ican stock and other brands of thieves drifting over the country. The danger- ous criminals of early California were not the Californians, but were the Amer- icans, English and French adventurers that had floated in from all points of the compass. Joaquin Murietta has been written up in all shades of red tint as a sample of bloody California bandit, but this ordinary Mexican took up that role only after he had been maltreated, robbed, his brother lynched and his wife . outraged by Americans to whom he was only "a greaser.")
"It is with the greatest displeasure that I heard from Mr. Wolfskill. who came here from Los Angeles, of that bad rascal Fluggs not being dead, but hope you will do your best to secure that lot of ground which will prove, no further than next year, a fortune to you. I hope that Mr. Covarrubias will assist you.
"In a few weeks the launch will come to Sonoma with some of Beaulieu's garments, and will bring at the same time some tanned leather for Mr. Vallejo. I therefore beg you that you would deliver the ten fanegas of wheat to Main- top (captain of the launch). If you have any corn I shall buy some. As for the deer skins which you have, I shall write by the same means and tell you whether I shall take them or not.
"How inconvenient it is for us in the north, that the capital ( Mexico) should be so far dstant. It takes at least four or five months before receiving an answer; it would almost be as well not to write at all, for it tires one so much.
"I make no more reports to the government, except to Mr. Castro, as he is the nearest, and he can make his statement to the government if he judge it necessary.
"I have not yet received an answer from the Padre Real about the letter that you were kind enough to write for me about fruit trees and vines. You know that Mr. Castro has given me the permission of receiving as much as I needed. Advise me, if you please, on what I can do. Will it be possible to receive some vine trees in Sonoma? If you could have them ready in about three weeks, something like 2,000 of them, I would pay as much as they cost. If I have vines here, you can have them quite near your farm.
(The Sacramento Valley is practically one great orchard, and summer after summer her million trees stand fruited full, and here is read the letter of the pioneer orchardist pleading for young trees and vines wherewith to plant the first orchard on that great plain.)
OFFICIAL LOCUSTS THAT DEVOUR THE EARTHI.
"Leidesdorff is appointed agent of the company ( American-Russian) to receive the products from me and buy from them. I had the pleasure to see the Captain de Lion. Mr. Bonnet, who told me the troops alone in Marquesas and Tahiti, leaving out the inhabitants, consume 650 arobas of flour a day, and
112
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
that the government would prefer to send here for provisions, if we can sell them at the same price, as in Chile, $4 the quintel; we could very well compete at that price if this cursed custom house ceased to exist. If this country derived any utility from the custom house one would not complain so much, but it is only good to provide for a lot of useless officers who devour the very marrow of the country. If at last a paper could be published that would unseal the blind men's eyes. I trust that you may take a part and interest in that affair of printing.
(In the foregoing paragraph is heard the cry of ages-"How long, how long, will the official locust devour the earth?" At that period California virtually produced nothing for trade but what grew on the carcass of a steer, and no foreign horns, hide and tallow were competing with any domestic sale or export of these. Yet she had her custom house, to stand in the way of commercial progress and give her imported officials something to squabble over. But there were no public papers then to tell the truth-and be abused for so doing-and "unseal the blind men's eyes." While Captain Sutter was writing this letter his plows were preparing the pioneer wheat fields of the Pacific coast for the coming summer, and this thrifty farmer was looking out over the world for a market, for which his successors are still looking.)
"I am now constructing a mill with two pairs of mill-stones, for a great quantity of flour will be needed next autumn when the Immigrants arrive.
(Castro had ordered him to drive the immigrants back over the Sierras, but instead, he was grinding flour for them. John A. Sutter shows up better the more one sees of him, or reads of him.)
"A much better road, some four hundred miles shorter, has been discovered, and the Captain Fremont has also found in the last chain of mountains a much easier passage than the one known so far: every trip they make some new dis- covery. I can assure you that in five years more there will be a railroad from the United States here. I can see that. Already the Rocky Mountains com- mence to be peopled. where eight years ago I could see nothing but deserts with Indians, and where now stand considerable cities. The crowd of immi- grants now arriving in the United States increase the population to such an extent that it will find its way even to the Pacific shores. A year or two more and no power will be able to stop this immigration."
(The railroad was slower than the time of the Captain's prediction, but his prophecy regarding the immigration was even then coming to pass. With Fremont finding paths, Sutter finding a safe place to camp after their long journey across the plains, and they, themselves, finding a goodly land unfenced and free, with climate made to order, what power could stop their coming. In the hundreds of ages, what has ever stopped the westward immigrating Aryan?)
113
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
CHAPTER XXV.
WHEN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA WAS NOT A STATE.
For Sonoma war was over. Lieutenant Revere, who had been of great assistance to the Bear Flag republic, was placed in charge of the garrison, and John H. Nash assumed the civil portion of the government by being appointed alcalde. The Vallejos, Jacob Leese, Julio Carrillo and other Californians re- leased from Sutter's Fort returned to their homes and peace became an ever- lasting settler in the Valley of the Moon. General Vallejo easily transferred his allegiance from one republic to the other and from the first was a good American citizen, even as he had been a citizen of Mexico. His paternal influence among the Indians was strong, and the United States authorities placed him in charge of the natives of this section of the territory. This gave him a semi-military position under the government and often in the absence of the commander, the General would again be the Comandante, exercising authority over the northern frontier. Whenever the Californians became disposed to resent the sometimes too dictatorial manner of their conquerors, the Americans, and trouble was in the air, General Vallejo's methods of dealing with the questions, his advice and counsel of moderation generally cleared away the difficulty, and smoothed the way for order and good government. He afterwards served as a member of the first constitutional convention, which met at Monterey; and was Sonoma's Senator in the pioneer Legislature of the country, the historic "Legislature of a Thousand Drinks." The nickname did not come from the bibulous practices of the members, in fact, it was an unusually sober body, the majority of the mem- bers being above the average in intelligence, temperance and patriotism. They were not there for pay or political preferment, but for their adopted state and they labored conscientiously for her benefit. However, if they drank well they worked well, and no later legislature in California holds their record -the record of these stalwart lawmakers of '49. Senator Green from Sacra- mento, a roystering fellow who had been elected in the spirit of a joke, con- tinued a joke through the session. He was a most hospitable chap and kept a full supply of liquors at his quarters, and when they would adjourn he would call, "Come boys, let us take a thousand drinks."
California was a nondescript-a civic problem-but members of the Legis- lature of the "Drinks" were equal to the occasion. They organized a state gov- erument and put it into successful operation without permission from Wash- ington. Officials, state, county and town, were elected and sworn to support the constitution of the state of California, and yet there was no state of California. This was "nervy" but dangerous. There had been no new state admitted into the Union. Governor Burnett advised them to go ahead, and they did, though for nine months they were running only a state de facto. California went to housekeeping without a cent. She didn't have a quire of paper, a pen or a bottle of ink. After worrying along debating the perplexing financial problem the legislature passed an act authorizing a loan of $200,000
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.