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 5

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

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The explorers returned from their Petaluma camp reporting that no for- eign fleet could reach Yerba Buena from Bodega by way of San Pablo Bay, and for forty-eight years the Spanish seemed to have forgotten this portion of their territorial claim. In 1821 Governor Sola sent a large expedition under command of Luis Arguella up to the Sacramento, which he called "Rio Jesu Maria." Near the Oregon line they turned west to the coast, thence south through Cloverdale and the Russian River valleys which they called the "Val- ley of the Libantiliyami." This is probably the longest piece of travel the Spanish ever made in California, and it certainly awoke them to the value of the terra incognito north of the great central bays. Not long after this Padre Altimira and his company, seeking a new mission site, entered Sonoma Val- ley. The route through the range of hills was by way of the Arroyo Pulpula, the site of the J. A. Poppe fish ponds. What he saw in the valley can best be told in his own words: "Leaving our camp and boat on the slough nearby, we started to explore, directing our course northwestward across the plain of Sonoma, until we reached a creek of about five hundred plumas of water, crystalline, and most pleasing to the taste, flowing through a grove of beau- tiful and useful trees. We went on, penetrating a broad grove of oaks; the trees were lofty and robust, offering an external source of utility, both for firewood and carriage material. The forest is about three leagues long from

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

east to west and a league and a half wide from north to south. The plain is watered by another arroyo still, more copious and pleasant than the former, flowing from west to east, but traveling northward from the center of the plain. The permanent springs, according to the statement of those who have seen them in the extreme dry season, are almost innumerable. No one can doubt the benignity of the Sonoma climate after noting the plants, the lofty and shady trees-alders, poplars, ash, laurel and others-and especially the abundance and luxuriance of the wild grapes. We observed also that the launch may come up the creek to where a settlement can be founded, truly a most convenient circumstance. We saw from these and other facts that Sonoma is a most desirable site for a mission."

That the padre chose wisely the years have fully shown, for that level plain is now one of the famous vineyard places of the world and contains such splendid properties as Carriger. Wratten, Herman, Leavenworth, Craig, Hayes, Wohler, Hill, Stewart, Warfield. La Motte, Hood, Kohler, Hooper, Morris, Haraszthy, Tichner, Dressel, Gundlach, Snyder, Rufus, Nathanson, the hacienda of Lachryma Montis owned by the Vallejo family and the Buena Vista Vinicultural Society. July 4. 1823, the first services were held on the site of Mission San Francisco de Solano, and thereafter no time was lost in building. Altimira seems not only to have been a practical manager, but a fiery-zealed worker as well. He reports to the Governor at Yerba Buena: "In four days we have cut one hundred redwood beams with which to build a granary." The first church was 105 feet long. 24 feet wide, built of boards, whitewashed and decorated. many articles having been donated by the Russians at Ross. This was succeeded by a larger adobe church which was destroyed in 1826 by the Indians : the padre making good use of his energies, escaped with his life. While he was doing wonders constructing and converting alone in the midst of war- ring savages who only tolerated him and his little company because of the mild curiosity with which they then regarded him and the object of his presence there, he had quite a collection of other troubles. In his Paul-like impetuosity to get his new mission which was virtually to absorb the establishments at San Rafael and San Francisco, he easily procured Governor Arguello's acquies- cence, and went ahead while the matter was pending with Sarria, the president of the missions. The head of the order refused to discontinue the mission at San Rafael and the padre and his president locked horns over the matter with the governor, a very much interested spectator. Altimira brought to a standstill at Sonoma, insisted that "Mission Dolores was on its last legs and San Rafael could not stand alone," and that San Francisco de Solano was the best place in California for the purpose, and if he could not do his work there he would leave the country. However, the question was settled by the retention of the three establishments.

PLANTING THE FAITH AND THE GRAPES.

The Sonoma mission thrived during the first ten years, the pioneer vines of those great vineyards being planted and a large tract of the valley sown in grain. To keep the Indians from stampeding the stock and making bonfires of the mission buildings when they wanted a feast and pyrotechnic entertain- ment, a garrison from the presidio at Yerba Buena was stationed at Sonoma.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

Altimira was succeeded by Padre Fortuni, followed by Padre Guiterrez, who was in charge till 1834, the year of secularization, which may be said to. have ended the mission system. Always in need of money the Mexican government locked with longing gaze at the great herds and countless acres attached to the missions, and the officials never hesitated to call on the padres for supplies to eke out their wretched commissary, and it is likely innumerable government "I O U's" are yet outstanding. While the mission management outwardly took no part in the political feuds and changes and internal discords that passed California from a kingdom to a republic, to an empire, then back to a republic, with several brief independencies between the regimes, it was well known that the padres, for the most part natives of Spain, were in sympathy with the mother country. To the Mexican republicans this was not in accord with the proper revolutionary spirit towards the ancient monarchy over the Atlantic. The Mexican Congress had passed a general colonization act which was so liberal and so wise in its pro- visions that it caused wonder as to its motives. Governors were authorized to grant vacant lands to foreigners as well as citizens, the grants not conflicting with prior rights. The lands claimed by the missions were exempt until it should be determined whose property they were. All grants must have the approval of the territorial legislature. After the colonization act the seculariza- tion came as a matter of course. Yet this stripping of the missions, though it threw open to settlement practically the State of California, had its precedent in the "borrow"-to express it mildly-of the Pious Fund by the Mexican govern- ment the year before. This money, grown to $78,000, had reverted to the Fran- ciscans when the Jesuit missions were suppressed, and was the desire of all the (political) ages of Mexico. It was farmed for the benefit of the always empty national treasury, and the monks of St. Francis, who were each to receive four hundred dollars annually, got their money only occasionally. However, the idea of turning these lands again to government control goes farther back than Mexico, as the Spanish Cortes in 1813, burdened with a huge Napoleonic war debt, was in favor of secularization of the missions.

The foregoing in reference to the change in mission management is here given because it marks the change of Sonoma from the comparatively quiet existence of the priest and his band of neophytes to active life as an integral part of a great political state. The padre is the true Spanish pioneer of the Pacific wilderness, for alone he blazed the way and others followed. When it became known that under the colonization act a company was coming from Mexico destined for the Sonoma territory, an effort was made to prepare places for their location. Governor Jose Figueroa, who had received special instruc- tions from Mexico, came from Monterey to personally direct the establishing of "a village in the valley of Sonoma." Ten families of the coming colonists had agreed to settle at Petaluma and a house was erected at that point and occu- pied by several persons. After examining a number of proposed sites the Gov- ernor selected a location on Mark West creek in the Santa Rosa valley. The land is now owned by Mrs. Harrison Finley. The new town was marked off into lots. a plaza laid out in the center, and a title for the coming frontier city debated upon. These locators all agreed on the name of the president of Mex- ico, but they were not sure who then occupied that exalted position. Gomez Farias, last accounts, was in the chair, with Santa Ana vice-president, and that

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

the arch revolutionist of the much-troubled republic was so menacing to the executive that the energetic conspirator might be termed the "near-president." So to be safe they called the village in the valley Santa Ana y Farias, and the next news from Mexico told of the change they had expected and provided for. A number of neophytes from Sonoma were quartered in the rude build- ings for a short time, but the place was so unprotected that they refused to remain, and "Potiquiyomi," as the Indians originally called it, was abandoned.

Under the governor's instructions of June 24, 1834, M. G. Vallejo, whose title translated into English was Military Commandant and Director of Colo- nization on the Northern Frontier, laid out the "Pueblo of Sonoma," the first official use of its Indian name, the place heretofore being known by its mission title; and by this act virtually passes Sonoma from the ecclesiastical to the military and civil rule, although Vallejo did not complete the secularization of the Solano Mission property until the following year. In October the Sonoma colony under the command of Hijar and Padrez, respectively governor and director general of the "Cosmopolitan Company," as the colonization co-opera- tion was called, reached Monterey. Misfortune followed closely in their wake, for their vessel was wrecked during a violent storm in that bay a few days after. She was the historic Natalia, the little brig in which Napoleon escaped from Elba, coming back to jar the world again after its hundred days of peace. It was afterwards learned that this company was a sort of chartered monopoly formed to handle the commerce of the country, and its revenue was to be what it could squeeze out of the missions. Even the Natalia was to cost $14,000, and be paid for with mission tallow. As is usual in such schemes the colonists had been more or less deceived by the promoters, and moreover few of the people were fitted for a settlement on the frontier. There were artists, printers and music teachers for a land where farmers were in demand; goldsmiths in a country where there was no gold in use; blacksmiths where there was very little iron required; carpenters where adobe and tile were the principal building material needed; painters where nothing was painted; shoemakers where people wrapped their feet in rawhide, and tailors where they wore blankets.

SECULARIZATION.

And the missions knowing that their hour was striking declined to furnish the price. Instead of turning their property over to the so-called commission- ers or agents of the company the padres proceeded to realize all they could on the mission chattels. Thousands of heads of cattle were slaughtered only for the hides, and over the wide plains the coyotes feasted on the carcasses. Admin- istrators were appointed for the secularized property and these officials swin- dled all parties concerned. What with collected taxes and revenues that never got out of the hands of the collectors, neither Spain nor Mexico ever received any material profit from California. The territory was a political bull-pen where the governor and his officers generally baited one another from one adminis- tration to another, with the easy-going, shiftless population caring little for the outcome. Spain was disappointed with the country because she found no gold therein, and Mexico because of national pride held on to the territory till Scott and Taylor had beaten her armies to a standstill. Governor Figueroa conscientiously tried to do his duty and died while in office with no dishonor

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

attached to his name. Opposed by the missionaries whose property was pass- ing from their possession, worried by the Indians who free from the severe discipline of the padres were slipping back into savagery and threatening to become a menace to the white people, harassed by gangs of thieving speculators who were taking advantage of the general confusion and alighting on every- thing that promised loot, he grew sick and disheartened and his death took place at Monterey, September 29. 1835.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PREMIER CALIFORNIAN-VALLEJO.

The passing of San Francisco de Solano after a decade of mission life to the Pueblo of Sonoma with its ten years of military and civil government pre- ceding the raising of the Bear Flag over the plaza, introduces a man whose splendid personality is stamped on every league of these vegas and mesas- Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Hijo del Pais-son of the soil-was he, and alike under king, emperor or president was true to the land of his birth. Though a Californian and sharing with other natives a natural distrust of strangers Val- lejo possessed an admiration and sincere friendship for the Americans, and received them kindly even when his superiors demanded the expulsion of the dangerous foreigners. Though his patriotism was never doubted he coun- seled annexation to the United States when he saw that Mexico had no gov- ernment nor protection for California. His appointment in 1835 as military comandante and civil commissionado of the northern district proved to be a selection so wise that it stands out in relief from among the official blunders of early California's history, and during his ten years of almost autocratic rule at Sonoma it is seen that he governed with rare justice and practical common sense. Vallejo was born in Monterey, July 7, 1808, the eighth in a family of thirteen children, his father being Don Ignacio Vincente Vallejo, and the mother Maria Antonia Lugo, both members of distinguished Spanish families. During his youth he was a cadet in the territorial army and a friend and comrade of General Castro and Governor Arguello. He was an earnest student and early acquired a fund of knowledge that fitted him to take a prominent part in and to a considerable extent, shape political affairs of the territory, especially during the critical time just prior to the American occupation. When California passed away from Mexico M. G. Vallejo was in all probability the first and best Mex- ican citizen within her borders; and when the red, white and blue of America took the place of the red, white and green of Mexico he was still of the best of California's citizens. Tall and erect, with a distinguished military bearing, and with grace of gesture and manner inherent from birth and breeding, an easy and fluent speaker in English, though learned late in life, charming with the strength of purpose and the seriousness of diction, filled with the chivalry of the past day when Spanish knighthood was in flower, was General Vallejo. While at Sonoma. 1840 and 1845, large companies of American immigrants came through the pueblo, and though he was constantly "nagged" by his gov- erminent to drive the foreigners out of the country the comandante disobeyed orders and humanely treated the strangers. There is no doubt that Vallejo's gentle methods in dealing with the savage Indians surrounding him, his discre- tion in the management of his military affairs and his practical statesmanship making for the much-needed change of fiags, proved him to be a greater man, a man more deserving of appreciation than any other within the limits of the territory-and it may be said in truth-deserving of more appreciation than

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

he received. The following summary of his speech before the junta at Mon- terey, April, 1846, when affairs were approaching such a crisis that even Gov- ernor Pio Pico advocated annexation to France or England as an escape from "that mock republic Mexico," as he rather disloyally called his political mother- superior, or "that perfidious people," the Yankees, may be given here as it shows the sterling make-up of the man :

ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES. 1152320

"I cannot, gentlemen, coincide with the military functionaries who have advocated the cessation of our country to France or England. It is most true that to rely any longer on Mexico to govern and defend us would be idle and absurd. To this extent I fully agree with my colleagues. It is also true that we possess a noble country, every way calculated, from position and resources, to become great and powerful. For that reason I would not have her a mere dependency on a foreign monarch, naturally alien, or at least indifferent to our interests and our welfare. It is not to be denied that feeble nations have in former times thrown themselves upon the protection of their powerful neigh- bors. The Britons invoked the aid of the warlike Saxons and fell an easy prey to their protectors who seized their lands and treated them like slaves. Long before that time, feeble and distracted provinces had appealed for aid to the all-conquering arms of imperial Rome, and they were at the same time pro- tected and subjugated by their grasping ally. Even could we tolerate the idea of dependence, ought we to go to distant Europe for a master? What pos- sible sympathy could exist between us and a nation separated from us by two vast oceans? But waiving this insuperable objection, how could we endure to come under the dominion of a monarchy. For, although others speak lightly of a form of government, as a freeman I cannot do so. We are republicans- badly governed and badly situated as we are-still we are all, in sentiment. republicans. · So far as we are governed at all, we at least do profess to be self-governed. Who, then, that possess true patriotism will consent to subject himself and his children to the caprices of a foreign king and his official min- ions? But it is asked, if we do not throw ourselves upon the protection of France and England, what shall we do? I do not come here to support the existing order of things, but I come prepared to propose instant and effective action to extricate our country from her present forlorn condition. My opin- ion is made up that we must persevere in throwing off the galling yoke of Mexico, and proclaim our independence of her forever. We have endured her official cormorants and her villainons soldiery until we can endure no longer. All will probably agree with me that we ought at once to rid ourselves of what may remain of Mexican domination. But some profess to doubt our ability to maintain our position. To my mind there comes no doubt. Look at Texas and see how long she withstood the power of united Mexico. The resources of Texas were not to be compared with ours, and she was so much nearer her enemy than we are. Our position is so remote, either by land or sea, that we are in no danger of Mexican invasion. Why, then, should we hesitate still to assert our independence? We have indeed taken the first step by electing our own governor, but another remains to be taken. I will mention it plainly and distinctly-it is annexation to the United States. In contemplating this con-

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

summation of our destiny, I feel nothing but pleasure and I ask you to share it. Discard old prejudices, discard old customs, and prepare for the glorious change that awaits our country. Why should we shrink from incorporating ourselves with the happiest and freest nation in the world, destined soon to be the most wealthy and powerful? Why should we go abroad for protection when this great nation is our adjoining neighbor? When we join our fortunes to hers, we shall not become subjects, but fellow-citizens, possessing all the rights of the people of the United States, and choosing our own federal and local rulers. We shall have a stable government and just laws. California will grow strong and flourish, and her people will be prosperous, happy and free. Look not, therefore, with jealousy upon the hardy pioneers who scale our mountains and cultivate our unoccupied plains ; but rather welcome them as brothers, who come to share with us a common destiny."

Here stood this young California patriot and in his plea for his country he uttered the sentiments of Patrick Henry so often heard around the world; and while the junta did not act upon the suggested annexation to the United States, the proposed European protectorate matter was heard no more and the French and English representatives perforce accepted Vallejo's answer as the answer, and in a few months Commodore Sloat's guns were commanding Mon- terey and virtually all California. This digression and advancement out of chronological order to a period when the internal dissension and mismanage- ment of Mexican officials were ending, exhibits General Vallejo's part in the last act of that discordant drama. The final ten years of Mexico in Sonoma- and in California as well-must necessarily be largely of his acts as the coman- dante of that most important military post. Three times he took part in revo- lution against Mexico, in 1832-36-45, and the revolutionists won each time, but the successive governors they recognized always managed to get themselves in turn recognized by the Mexican government, in consequence of which mat- ters would drop back into the old rut. There is little wonder that Vallejo at Sonoma found his grandiloquent title of Military Comandante and Director of Colonization on the Northern Frontier, burdensome and occasionally asked to be relieved. And when the Bear Flag people did relieve him of further participation in Mexican affairs it was likely to him a relief indeed.

General Vallejo began his official duties at Sonoma under the following order of Governor Figueroa :

POLITICAL GOVERNMENT OF UPPER CALIFORNI.1.

Monterey, June 24, 1835.

Don M. G. Vallejo, Military Comandante :

In conformity with orders and instructions issued by the Supreme Con- federation respecting the location of a village in the Valley of Sonoma, this comandancy urges upon you that, according to topographical plan of this place, it be divided into quarters or squares, seeing that the streets and plazas be regulated so as to make a beginning. The inhabitants are to be governed entirely by said plan. This government and comandancy approves entirely of the lines designed by you for outlets-recognizing as the property of the vil- lage and public lands and privileges, the boundaries of Petaluma, Agua Cal- iente, Rancho de Huichica. Lena de Sur, Salvador, Vallejo and La Vernica,

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

on the north of the city of Sonoma, as the limits of its property, rights and privileges-requesting that it shall be commenced immediately around the hill, where the fortification is to be erected, to protect the inhabitants from incur- sions of the savages and all others. In order that the building lots granted by you, as the person charged with colonization, may be fairly portioned, you will divide each square (manzana) into four parts, as well for the location of each as to interest persons in the planting of kitchen gardens, so that everyone shall have a hundred yards, more or less, which the government deems suffi- cient ; and further, lots of land may be granted of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards, in opening for outlets, for other descriptions of tillage, subject to the laws and regulations on the subject, in such manner that at all times the municipality shall possess the legal title.

This government and comandancy-general offers you thanks for your efforts in erecting this new city, which will secure the frontier of the republic, and is confident that you will make new efforts for the national entirety.

"God and Liberty."

JOSE FIGUEROA.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY

CHAPTER IX.

MEXICAN STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

After laying out Pueblo Sonoma in accordance with the governor's care- ful instructions, Vallejo completed the secularization of the Mission Solano. With the distribution of the movable property to them, the Indians generally returned to their rancherias, and the mission community having no legal exist- ence settled down into the status of a parish, though administrators were ap- pointed by the governor to attend to the disposal of the lands claimed by the institutions. Presently the ex-neophytes, in consequence of troubles with the hostile Indians, or "gentiles," as they were distinguished from the christianized natives, placed much of their livestock in the care of General Vallejo. Though the comandante's position as custodian of private property was not recognized by law it seems that he accepted that duty and faithfully cared for the herds of his red proteges for their benefit and protection and for the common good of the community. As this resulted in gain rather than loss to the livestock the wisdom of the choice and management is manifest. The comandante not only cared for the property that had been distributed to the Indians, but he tried to keep them in some kind of order and government around the mission, knowing that only within the influence of that institution backed by the mili- tary for emergencies could the natives be kept under that mild discipline that would make them useful to the community and useful to themselves. Gen- eral Vallejo would have established another-the twenty-second-mission farther north, as he was wealthy and powerful enough to have endowed it with a good-sized rancho, but the ecclesiastical powers of the territory were discour- aged, and the military man's missionary plan got no further than a plan.

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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 5

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