USA > California > Alameda County > Washington Township > History of Washington Township, Alameda County, California > Part 3
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The pupils generally have reflected credit upon the school and teachers, a good proportion of them have taken college work in California or Stanford, and were known as good students; several have been graduated from the Normal Schools and are teaching successfully in the township or elsewhere. Some have been dis- tinguished on the foot-ball and base-ball 'varsity teams.
In 1902, Alvarado joined the union, so that at present all dis-
22
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
tricts except Stony Brook belong to the high school district. The rate of taxation for the support of the school has varied, but for 1903 and 1904 it was .07 on the hundred; the State aid received, according to the new law, for the first year is about $1,100. The first president of the Board of Trustees was H. A. Mayhew, Niles, and the first secretary was L. F. Jarvis, of Newark, who resigned upon removing to Oakland; to his untiring care much of the beauty of the grounds is due.
There are no incorporated towns within the limits of the town- ship, but the several villages are thriving business places. Two lines of the S. P. R. R. run through, about five miles apart, and surveys have been made, presumably for a competing road. It is likely but a question of time when the different villages will be connected with electric roads. Telephone and electric light lines run everywhere.
The Portuguese population was represented early in the '50s. The first comers were four sailors, in 1852, who were immediately employed in the harvest fields on the Naile place, now Mrs. Kate Overacker's. Two of these made permanent homes very soon; Frank Rose buying land near the hills on the mountain road, and Frank Silva Joulin eventually purchasing near Mowry's; another Frank Rose remained two or three years working in the vicinity then returned to the Azores, married, went to New England and finally returned here. The fourth left after the harvest was over. Many more have settled in the valley since then and own some of the best small farms. They are an industrious and thrifty people, taking pride in building neat homes and cultivating their farms.
Situated near Decoto, on the foothills of the Contra Costa range and commanding a superb view, is the Masonic Home, a prominent landmark, seen from most points in the valley. The buildings, considered architecturally, and with the site, are not surpassed by any like institution in the United States. They stand for an expression of what the fraternity feels that it owes to aged and unfortunate brethren, their mothers, wives, widows and orphans; this is not thought of as a charity, but rather as a duty gladly performed for the amelioration of hardships in the lives of old and less fortunate members of the masonic order. Certainly no more beautiful or practical manifestation of this sentiment could have been planned.
Few of the buildings of early days remain now-one only of those built by the Mission priests-this is the old adobe which was used as a store. The tiled roof has been replaced by shin- gles and a framed addition attached to the end, which detracts from an otherwise picturesque appearance. It is hoped that the Church will restore and preserve this link which connects us with
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INTRODUCTION
the venerable past of the padres. In Niles is a part of Vallejo's Mills, fast crumbling away, an adobe house standing in the Cali- fornia Nursery's grounds, and another at Warm Springs are perhaps the only adobes left.
On the Niles-Irvington road, the house built by J. M. Horner still stands, doing duty as a barn and dove-cote; the old "Horner's School House" is not far from the warehouse in Irvington. A part of the zinc-roofed house brought by Timothy Rix "around the Horn," can still be seen near the same village. The Torry house in Centreville; the ranche house built by E. L. Beard, on what is now the Eugene Stevenson place, an interesting reminder of the primitive ranching days, these and a few others are all that remain of the old-time buildings.
The Indian burying ground, belonging to the Mission church, where the remnant of a once numerous people is buried, and which will soon receive the last one, lies on a sunny hillside, between the Mission and Irvington, forlorn and neglected-typical of the race.
This spot should be fenced and cared for. There are in different parts of the township several natural landmarks of interest. The low line of softly-rounded, undulating hills already mentioned as lying next the Bay, called Los Cerritos by the Spaniards, by the Americans less euphoniously dubbed Coyote Hills, and again the Lone Hills, are worth noting. They are quite different from the high hills on the other side of the valley, and seem to be of the same formation as a portion of San Francisco; whether there is a dip under the Bay or not, there appears on this side, first, an is- land, and then these hills composed of a red rock which rapidly disintegrates on exposure to the elements. Apparently they stop rather abruptly near Jarvis' Landing, with upstanding rocks along the slope, but after quite a sweep of marsh and tide-water ditches, two or three little knobs rise up in succession and these are the end.
From the center of the township and farther west one can see, looking easterly, Mt. Hamilton and the white globe of Lick Obser- vatory; in the far northwest, Mt. Tamalpais; on the north side of Alameda Canon, Sunol Peak, over two thousand feet high, and beyond Mission Peak range, the Calaveras Mountains, frequently white with snow in winter.
Directly above Warm Springs is an extinct volcano. Although in plain sight from the valley, one should visit it to see the peculiar appearance of the old crater, (which has two mouths)-the geological formation of rocks at its western rim and the never-failing cone- shaped hill in the center. Near one of the crater's openings is a group of wild cherry trees about sixty in number, not growing in a thicket as elsewhere, but as individual trees, which is quite un-
MISSION PEAK
25
INTRODUCTION
usual. In the mouth of the crater giant red clover grows rank and lush. In 1860, fifty tons were mowed there with a scythe by Mr. Wm. Barry. South of this crater is Monument Peak, mark- ing the boundary of the township and county, and so designated in the acts creating them.
The landmark that dominates the whole region, however, is Mission Peak, with its scarred front, the result of ancient and more recent landslides. It has been variously estimated to be from 2275 to 2900 feet high, and although the former estimate appears in several histories, the authority for it seems unknown. Whitney gives the height as 2566 feet, and Dr. Lorenzo Yates, a noted scientist, formerly resident of the township, measuring with a barometer made it 2750. He also found at the base fossil ele- phants, mastodons, llamas, tigers, wolves, etc., and at the top rare land shells and fossils. The rounded point just south he computed to be about 300 feet higher than the peak, although from its posi- tion it is not so noticeable. There is a big flat stone on the top of this point, and upon it is carved the initials of a name with a date. Ten years later, cut by the same hand, appears the same lettering, the date only changed. It is told that the man who fashioned this inscription had made a vow to return every ten years as long as he lived and repeat his work. The years have come and gone, but no later record has been added. Who was this stranger? Is he living, or has he passed over the great divide?
Perhaps the denizens of this valley are so accustomed to the sight of Mission Peak that they fail to appreciate the dignity and individuality which it gives to the landscape. Whether the out- lines, snow-capped may be, are sharp and distinct on a clear, frosty morning in winter, or overspread with the purple afterglow of a summer sunset; whether rising grim and rugged against black storm clouds, or emerging into sunlight from unwinding fogwreaths, the mountain has a majesty of its own. The rain torrents of winter have for ages beaten upon it, the scorching heat of summer suns have fallen upon it, but unmindful of the elements, of changes wrought by men, this grand old peak stands overlooking the entire valley, a giant sentinel forever on guard. It is a singular fact that many living in the township, even some born and reared here, have never ascended this mountain. They have gone to Tamal- pais, tramped to Diablo, and to other mountains farther off, ignor- ant of the vast and wonderful landscape to be seen from their own. Standing on the top, when the day is clear, we can see far in the east the shining summits of the high Sierras to Pyramid Peak, and beyond the Yosemite the snow peaks of the Lyell group. Spread out between is the great plain of the San Joaquin, and the smaller valleys of San Ramon, Livermore and Sunol. The canon
26
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
immediately in front drops down 2,000 feet into Rosedale, and on the other side are the serrated crags of the Calaveras. Far and faint in the south is the huge bulk of the Gabilans, while nearer is flat-topped Loma Prieta, and closer still the silver dome and clustered dwellings of Lick Observatory, with the higher top of Mount Hamilton behind. Due north rise the splendid double peaks of Monte Diablo, the giant of the Coast Range. Turning, the great valley, our own, stretching north and south and full of busy life, lies at our feet a variegated patchwork of orchards, gardens, farms, meadows, marshes and meandering streams. The Santa Cruz mountains, topped with their giant redwood forests, are in the southwest, and climbing over their foothills just where the narrow gauge railroad plunges into the mountains, is the beau- tiful village of Los Gatos. So near, that we look into the streets and see with a glass the trolley cars, which appear like toys as they speed back and forth from San Jose and Santa Clara. On the other side of the lower arm of the bay backed by the blue Palo Alto hills, and showing amidst magnificent groves of live oaks, are Palo Alto, Stanford University, Redwood City, Menlo Park and San Mateo. The trains running from Monterey to San Fran- cisco and touching at these points are distinctly seen. Faint, yet plainly outlined away off in the northwest, is the superb solitary mass of Mt. St. Helena, and between it and San Francisco, the sleeping beauty, Mount Tamalpais. Between San Francisco on the far side, and Oakland and Alameda on this, dotted with specks of sails, numerous steamers, and ferry boats crossing and recrossing, are the shimmering waters of the great Bay of San Francisco, curving out to the Golden Gate. Here and there throughout the valley are the little towns not only of Washington tonwship, but also of Eden. The old padres have moldered into dust, gone are the teepes of the Indians, the adobes of the Spanish-Americans, and their herds of grazing horses and wild cattle. The stage- coaches of the pioneer days have given place to electric lines, and the numerous railroad trains that steam up and down the valley and out through the mountains trailing airy ribbons of smoke --- while scattered over the plain, nestling among the foothills, or built on natural terraces of the mountain sides, are pretty cottage homes and more pretentious country houses, where live an industrious and contented people.
It is not within the scope of this article to write fully of the varied interests of the township, which is fortunately situated on the continental side of the bay, and has great resources. The products include almost everything grown in the temperate zones, and many semi-tropical productions. Land is not cheap, because, when the owner can make from fifty to two hundred dollars per
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INTRODUCTION
acre it enhances in value. In educational, social and religious respects the inhabitants fare well. Aside from the excellent grammar schools, the high school and Anderson's academy, there are in close proximity the State University and Stanford, Mills' college for girls, Santa Clara for boys and men, and the technical and business schools of Oakland and San Francisco. There are good roads, and all of the modern requirements of good living can easily be obtained. Oysters, clams and fish are abundant in the waters, wild geese and ducks are in the marshes, quail, rabbit and sometimes deer are found in the plain and upland, stock and poultry thrive well, our dairy products are excellent, our manu- factures are equal to any, and the climate is never extreme. But the greatest natural advantages are of little avail unless there are men to make them serve the beneficial purposes of mankind. Such men were the pioneers. Whether we and those who come after shall reap the profits of the future depends upon the energy and enterprise of our people.
The Mission of San Jose.
N February, 1697, three hundred years ago, two Spanish Jesuit fathers, Juan Maria Salvatierra and Francisco Ensebro
Kino, asked permission of the King of Spain "to attempt the spiritual conquest of the Californias." Their request was granted, upon the distinct understanding that the country should be taken possession of in the name of the Spanish crown, and that the king should never be called upon for any of the expense at- tending the enterprise.
Lower California had been discovered some two hundred and fifty years before, and was supposed to be an island. Upper California, also supposed to be an island, directly adjoining Greenland, was well known to many Spanish navigators, who claimed to have sailed around it. These priests found no diffi- culty in collecting funds to an "aggregate of sufficient import- ance to find much mention from time to time thereafter, in both Spanish and Mexican history, as the 'Pious Fund of the Californias.'"
Thirteen missions were established in Lower California within seventy years, when in 1768, all Jesuits being banished from all Spanish possessions by the king, the Viceroy of Mexico was ordered to pass the work of the Jesuit missionaries over into the hands of the Franciscans. He appointed the marvellously en- dowed Father Junipero Serra of the convent of Zacatecas, Mexico, president of the missions. In 1769, a full century after the Pious Fund was started, the establishment of the missions in Upper California began, and it took forty years to complete this chain of twenty-two missions.
" Missionaries were to give place, as need of missionary work ceased, to secular clergy, and the mission churches were then to become parish churches."
As is well known, the missions were for the civilization of the Indians, but the colonization of California began at the same time. The missions were under ecclesiastic rule, but the govern- ment furnished soldiers and presidios to protect them and the pueblos, or towns, which it was hoped would spring up about them. To this end goodly grants of land were given to all who chose to come to the new land, and immigration, especially of the educated class of Spanish-Mexican people, was encouraged by the Mexican government. Therefore, at every mission were to be found a half dozen or more soldiers, and a few Spanish fam- ilies with their Mexican retainers. As the Indians worked well
29
THE MISSION OF SAN JOSE
they were taken as servants by the Spanish families, hence the mixture of the Mexican and Indian races that began early in the century.
The first mention made of any governing body in California is of Gov. Senor Don Felipe Neve, in 1777. Twenty years later the Mission of San Jose was founded. On June 11th, 1797, Father de Luzuen came up from Santa Clara, placed the cross and chanted the litanies. This cross for many years marked the burial place of the dead, a small sacred enclosure, still close under the northern wing of the old church. Quaint old stones, illegible with age, with historic names all blurred, are clustered within, where to be on sacred ground, tier upon tier, one over the over, the dead lie buried.
With wonderful foresight these padres, reared in a vine-clad land, where fig and olive and fruits abound, saw the riches of these acres, and so obtained from the great San Jose pueblo (or town) lands, a mission site, some twelve miles to the north of San Jose and well up on the beautiful slopes of the peak, hence the name of Mission San Jose.
Fathers Ysidro Barcenilla and Augustine Merino were ap- pointed the first missionaries, and with ten soldiers under com- mand of a sergeant, laid the foundations of the mission. Acres upon acres of ripening grasses were waiting for the cattle portioned to them, villages upon villages of Indians were near, wood was plentiful, game everywhere, and workers at hand to be taught to harvest and to plant. Springs were near, and were soon walled in ready for use, and still supply water in abundance. So began, immediately, the building of the church, the necessary living rooms and courts. This work seems to have taken some ten years, not being finished until 1808. The work of christian- izing the Indians also began immediately, for within a year, in September, 1797, one baptism is recorded. The dimensions of the old church were "one hundred and twenty-five feet long, and forty feet wide, with four foot walls twenty-four feet high." The rest of the bulidings were one story, fifty feet wide, room after room continuous about an enclosed court two hundred feet square, into which each room opened. Some were for guests, some for the monastery, others for school rooms, and living rooms for the unmarried Indians, and for the serape factory. where the clothes were woven. Within the courts were the priests' houses, which formed three sides of a smaller court. Within the outer court the Spanish and Indian population were wont to assemble to celebrate great holidays with immense feasts and barbecues. Fifteen acres were enclosed about the court by an adobe wall some ten feet high. The church facing the west met
30
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
the walls upon either side. Within and against the walls was a hedge of prickly pear-the Mexican nopal or tuna. Long rows of these hedges remained as late as 1853. Various needed build- ings were afterward built within this enclosure. A portion of one old house, a small section of the wall, and a cactus here and there may still be seen.
In some of these buildings the fathers and mothers of some of our club members found shelter when, a half century later. they crossed the trackless plains seeking homes in a new land.
The enclosed land was laid out with much taste and judgment. To quote from Miss Vallejo, "apples, pears particularly, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, figs, olives, oranges and pomegranites" were growing in these gardens, being planted before 1800; and grapes everywhere. So while Washington still lived, enjoying the peace but just proclaimed on our eastern shores, in 1797, the civilization and colonization of this valley began.
To secure their portion of the Pious Fund, careful reports had to be sent by the fathers each year to the president of the missions and to the governor of the territory. We need to but glance at these to see the success of the work. The first year there were five marriages and thirty-three baptisms; the second year twenty-nine marriages and one hundred and sixty-two bap- tisms, one hundred and fifty-four Indians were under instruction. There were also one hundred and fifty head of cattle, one hun- dred and eighty head of sheep and goats, twenty-one horses and six mules. The harvest that year-1800-was thirty-three fane- gas of wheat, twelve of beans, one of barley, and two of corn. A fanega is about two bushels.
The Indians were "persuaded to come to the Mission where possible, but when necessary"-one smiles at the word neces- sary. the soldiers were sent out and gathered them in, even going as far as Suisun and San Joaquin. Hundreds were thus brought in in the first few years, but many came willingly, as the race was a peaceful one, fond of community life. They were taught the trades, farming and gardening. Tallow and soap, and pottery were made, and salt also, as early as 1830, on the site of the present salt works. Weaving, housework and sewing were taught the women,-all were given thorough religious train- ing, and a crude schooling. They were given plain woven cloth- ing, though their clothing had been of rushes and skins before the advent of the padres. The unmarried men and maidens lived in the rooms off the court, but had their own individual huts outside when married. They were given their portion of beef, which they cooked in the crudest manner. They gathered acorns, nuts and grasshoppers, ground them into a paste, mixed
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THE MISSION OF SAN JOSE
with suet or "montego," which they baked in small cakes between hot stones.
When the fathers entered upon their work in this valley they found some seven villages or rancherias, with from two to four hundred people in each village, making a total of about two thous- and Indians in the valley. Each rancheria had its own language or idiom, though many of the inhabitants were familiar with that of the others, owing to frequent intermarriages. They did not practice polygamy, although Bancroft asserts that they did in some parts of the state. They are described as "stoutly built and heavy limbed, with short, broad faces, wide mouths, thick lips, broad noses and extremely low forheads." They were poor hunters of large game, but skillful in making nets for fish and small animals. They lived on clams, sturgeon and other fish from the salt water sloughs, while from the mountains they se- cured acorns and pine nuts, from which they made flour. They caught wild ducks and geese in nets, removed the bones and dried them. They also made a mush from the buckeye, and sometimes used the deadly nightshade. So closely did these people live to nature that they knew just when and how to use these poison- ous plants without any ill effects.
The women made very beautiful baskets from grasses, and wove into them colored feathers from the wild ducks or gay-plum- aged birds. Some few very fine specimens are to be found today in the possession of members of some of the old settlers' families. It was the custom when any one died to burn or destroy, or bury with them all of their valued possessions, so very few relics of any kind are to be found extant today.
The men were the only dancers, and they wore gay and fan- tastic headdresses of feathers and skins. One or two such pieces have been purchased by white people, and are greatly valued by t eir owners.
In winter these people wore a garment of skins, and in summer a fringe of tules hanging from the waist. Their dwellings in sum- mer were merely a "lean to" of branches; in winter a hut, or a "wickiup," of branches and tules, plastered with mud. Each hut sheltered a whole family related by blood or marriage, the size of the hut being dependent upon the size of the family.
The Indians around San Francisco Bay had no canoes, but used bundles of tules lashed together, cigar-shaped. Some were long enough and strong enough to hold half a dozen persons astride. These they propelled with flat sticks.
It was the custom of these people to bury their dead in a sitting position close to their wickiups, and this practice resulted in making a mound about which their huts were built, and upon which they
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
built their fires for burning the possessions of the dead, and for other purposes.
In reading of the details of the building of the Mission, it is interesting to learn of the burning of the tiles, the making of the adobe bricks, and of the cutting and carrying by hand of the heavy timbers from the redwoods of San Antonio, thirty miles away. Each of these materials took months to prepare, so it is not aston- ing that ten years elapsed before the Mission was completed. The windows were brought from Spain at great expense. The five bells also came from Spain, being Spanish gifts. Of these bells, three remain in the church today ; one is supposed to be in Father King's church in East Oakland ; the other cannot be traced.
In 1800 there were brought from Spain several religious paint- ings and two wooden figures, all of considerable merit. The figures are about life size. One is of the Christ ; the other a Spanish saint. The paintings still hang in the church, but the figures have been given to the sisters in the Josephineum Orphanage, where they are highly prized. A few rare, worn vestments, a piece or so of old altar silver, and the four vellum books filled with rare records, of names famous in our land, and of deeds worth telling are about all that remain of the belongings of the old church. These books are now most carefully treasured in the archives of St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco.
The earthquakes of 1812 and of 1822 did some injury, which the earthquake of 1868 completed. The church was soon rebuilt, more modern in architecture, on the old site. A section of the rooms opening upon the court, which was rented for years for various purposes, and is now a storage room belonging to the priests; the old tiled steps at the entrance to the church; the tiled floor (now covered with wood) and the three bells are all that are left of an old, distinctly Spanish type of structure, a type so suitable to our country, so desirable for our climate, so capable of artistic development, that it is coming into use, in its modified form, all over our state.
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