USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume I > Part 3
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Don Josef Arguello, Commandante, age 39; Don Ramon Laro de la Neda, Alferez de Campo, age 34; Pedro Amador, Sergeant. Spaniard from Guad- alaxara, age 51, wife, Ramona Noriega, Spanish, age 30, seven children; Nicolas Galindo, mestizo, Durango, 42; Majio Chavoya, City of Mexico, 34, wife, a Bernal; Miguel Pacheco, 30, wife, a Sanchez; Luis Maria Peralta, Spaniard, Sonora, 32, wife, Maria Loretta Alviso, 19; Justa Altamarino, mulatto, Sonor, 45; Ygnacio Limaxes, Sonora, 49, wife, Maria Gertruda Rivas, Spaniard, 38; . Ygnacio Soto, 41, wife, Barbara Espinoza; Juan Bernal, mestizo, Sonora, 53, wife, Maxima I. de Soto; Jph. Maria Martinez, Sonora, 35, wife, Maria Garcia, mulatto, 18; Salvador Iguera, L. C., 38, wife, Alexa Marinda, Sonora, 38; Nicolas Berryessa, mestizo, 25, wife, Maria Gertrudis Peralta, 24; Pedro Peralta, Sonora, 26, wife, Maria Carmen Grisalva, 19; Ygnacio Pacheco, Sonora, 30, wife, Maria Dolores Cantua, mestizo, age 16; Francisco Bernal, Sinaloa, 27, wife, Maria Petrona, Indian, 29; Bartolo Pacheco, Sonora, 25, wife, Maria Francisco Soto, 18; Apolinario Bernal, Sonora, 25; Joaquin Bernal, Sonora, 28, wife, Josefa Sanchez, 21; Josef Aceva, Durango, 26; Manuel Boranda, Guad- alaxara, 40, wife, Gertrudis Higuera, 13; Francisco Valencia, Sonora, 22, wife, Maria Victoria Higuera, 15; Josef Antonio Sanchez, Guadalaxara, 39, wife, Maria Dolora Moxales, 34; Josef Ortez, Guadalaxara, 23; Josef Aguil, Guad- alaxara, 22, wife, Concellaria Remixa, 14; Alexandro Avisto, Durango, 23; Juan Josef Higuera, Sonora, 20; Francisco Flores, Guadalaxara, 20; Josef Maria Castilla, Guadalaxara, 19; Ygnacio Higuera, Sonora, wife, Maria Micaelo Bor- jorques, 28; Ramon Linare, Sonora, 19; Josef Miguel, Saens, Sonora, 18; Carto Serviente, San Diego, Indian, 60; Augustin Xirviento, L. C., 20; Nicolas Presi- dairo, Indian, 40; Gabriel Peralta, invalid, Sonora; Manuel Vutron, invalid, Indian ; Ramon Borjorques, invalid, 98; Francisco Romero, invalid, 52.
A recapitulation shows that the inmates of the presidio consisted altogether of 144 persons, including men, women and children, soldiers and civilians. There were thirty-eight soldiers and three laborers; of these one was a European other than Spanish, seventy-eight Spaniards, five Indians, two mulattoes, and forty-four of other castes. An inventory of the rich men of the presidio, bearing date 1793, was discovered some years since, showing that Pedro Amador was the proprietor
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
of thirteen head of stock and fifty-two sheep; Nicolas Galindo, ten head of stock; Luis Peralta, two head of stock; Manuel Boranda, three head of stock; Juan Bernal, twenty-three head of stock and 246 sheep; Salvador Youere, three head of stock; Aleso Miranda, fifteen head of stock; Pedro Peralta, two head of stock; Francisco Bernal, sixteen head of stock; Bartol Pacheco, seven head of stock; Joaquin Bernal, eight head of stock; Francisco Valencia, two head of stock; Berancia Galindo, six head of stock; Hermenes Sal (who appears to have been a secretary, or something besides a soldier), five head of stock and three mares. The total amount of stock owned by these men was 115 cattle, 298 sheep and seventeen mares-the parent stem apparently from which sprang the hundreds of thousands of head of stock which afterwards roamed over the Californian mountains and valleys.
The native Californians were for the most part a half-caste race between the white Castilian and the native Indian, very few of the natives retaining the pure blood of the old Castile; they were consequently of all shades of color and development-the women especially a handsome and comely people. Their wants were few and easily supplied; they were contented and happy; the women were virtuous and great devotees to their church and religion, while the men in their normal condition were kind and hospitable, but when excited they became rash, fearless and cruel, with no dread for either knife or pistol. Their gener- osity was great, everything they had being at the disposal of a friend or even a stranger, while socially they loved pleasure, spending most of their time in music and dancing; indeed such was their passion for the latter that their horses were trained to cavort in time to the tones of the guitar. When not sleeping, eating or dancing the men passed most of their time in the saddle and naturally were very expert equestrians. Horse-racing was with them a daily occurrence, not for the gain which it might bring, but for the amusement to be derived therefrom; and to throw a dollar upon the ground, ride at full gallop and pick it up, was a feat that almost any of them could perform. Horses and cattle gave them their chief occupation. They could use the riata or lasso with the utmost dex- terity ; whenever thrown at a bullock, horseman or bear it rarely missed its mark. The riata in the hand of a Californian was a more dangerous weapon than gun or pistol, while, to catch a wild cow with it, throw her and tie her without dis- mounting was most common and to go through the same performance with a bear was not considered extraordinary. Their only articles of export were hides and tallow, the value of the former being about one dollar and a half in cash, or two in goods, and the latter three cents per pound in barter. Young heifers of two years old, for breeding purposes were worth three dollars; a fat steer, de- livered to the purchaser, brought fifty cents more, while it was considered neither trespass nor larceny to kill a beeve, use the flesh and hang the hide and tallow on a tree, secure from the coyotes where it could be found by the owner.
Lands outside of the towns were only valuable for grazing purposes. For this use every citizen of good character having cattle could for the asking and by paying a fee to the officials and a tax upon the paper upon which it was written, get a grant for a grazing tract of from one to eleven square leagues of land. These domains were called ranchos, the only improvements on them being usually a house and a corral. They were never inclosed; they were never surveyed, but extended from one well defined land mark to another and whether they contained
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
two or three leagues more or less was regarded as a matter of no consequence, for the land itself was of no value to the government. It was not necessary for a man to keep his cattle on his own land. They were ear-marked and branded when young and these established their ownership. The stock roamed whitherso- ever they wished, the ranchero sometimes finding his animals fifty or sixty miles away from his ground. About the middle of March commenced the rodeo season, which was fixed in advance by the ranchero who would send notice to his neighbors around when all with their vaqueros would attend and participate. The rodeo was the gathering in one locality of all the cattle on the rancho. When this was accomplished the next operation was for each ranchero present to part out from the general herd all animals bearing his brand and ear-mark and take them off to his own rancho. In doing this they were allowed to take all calves that fol- lowed their mothers; what was left in the rodeo belonging to the owner of the rancho, who had them marked as his property. On some of the ranchos the num- ber of calves branded and marked each year appears enormous. Joaquin Bernal, who owned the Santa Teresa Rancho, in the Santa Clara valley, branded not less than five thousand head yearly. In this work a great many horses were employed. Fifty head were a small number for a ranchero to own, while they frequently had from five to six hundred trained animals, principally geldings, for the mares were kept exclusively for breeding purposes. The latter were worth a dollar and half per head; the price of saddle horses was from two dollars and fifty cents to twelve dollars.
By the time the rodeo season was over, about the middle of May, the matanza, or killing season commenced. The number of cattle slaughtered each year was commensurate with the number of calves marked and the amount of herbage for the year, for no more could be kept alive than the pasture on the rancho could support. After the butchering the hides were taken off and dried; the tallow fit for market was put into bags made from hides; the fattest portions of the meat were made into soap, while some of the best was cut, pulled into thin shreds, dried in the sun and the remainder thrown to the buzzards and the dogs, a number of which were kept-young dogs were never destroyed-to clean up after a matanza. Three or four hundred of these curs were to be found on a rancho and it was no infrequent occurrence to see a ranchero come into town with a string of them at his horse's heels.
The habitations of these people were fashioned of large, sun-dried bricks made of that black loam known to settlers in the golden state as adobe soil, mixed with straw, measuring about eighteen inches square and three in thickness, these being cemented with mud, plastered within with the same substance and whitewashed when finished. The rafters and joists were of rough timber with the bark simply peeled off and placed in the requisite position, the thatch being of rushes or chap- arral, fastened down with thongs of bullocks' hide. When completed these dwell- ings stood the brunt and wear of many decades of years. The furniture consisted of a few cooking utensils, a crude bench or two, sometimes a table and the never failing red camphor-wood trunk. This chest contained the extra clothes of the women-the men wore theirs on their backs-and when a visit of more than a day's duration was made the box was taken along. They were cleanly in their persons and clothing; the general dress being for females a common calico gown of plain colors; blue grounds with small figures being most fancied. The fash-
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
ionable ball dress of the young ladies was a scarlet flannel petticoat covered with a white lawn skirt, a combination of tone in color which is not surpassed by the modern gala costume. Bonnets there were none, the head-dress consisting of a long, narrow shawl or scarf. So graceful was their dancing that it was the ad- miration of all strangers; but as much cannot be said for that of the men for the more noise they made the better it suited them. The dress of the men was a cotton shirt, cotton drawers, calzonaros, sash, serape and hat. The calzonaros took the place of pantaloons in the modern costume, and differed from these by being open down the sides or rather the seams on the sides were not sewed as in pantaloons but were laced together from the waistband to the hips by means of a ribbon run through eyelets; thence they were fastened with large silver bell- buttons. In wearing them they were left open from the knee down. The best of these garments were made of broadcloth, the inside and outside seams being faced with cotton velvet. The serape was a blanket with a hole through the center through which the head was inserted, the remainder hanging to the knees before and behind. These cloaks were invariably of brilliant colors and varied in price from four to one hundred dollars. The calzonaros were held in their place by a pink sash worn around the waist while the serape served as a coat by day and a covering by night.
The principal articles of food were beef and beans, in the cooking and pre- paring of which they were unsurpassed; while they cultivated, to a certain extent, maize, melons and pumpkins. The bread used was the tortilla, a wafer in the shape of the Jewish unleavened bread, which was, when not made of wheaten flour, baked from corn. When prepared of the last named meal it was first boiled in a weak lye made of wood ashes and then by hand ground into a paste between two stones; this process completed, a small portion of the dough was taken out and by dexterously throwing it up from the back of one hand to that of the other the shape was formed, when it was placed upon a flat iron and baked over the fire. The mill in which their grain was ground was made of two stones as nearly round as possible of about thirty inches in diameter and each being dressed on one side to a smooth surface.
The government of the native Californian was as primitive as himself. There were neither law-books nor lawyers, while laws were mostly to be found in the traditions of the people. The head officer in each village was the alcalde, in whom was vested the judicial function, who received on the enactment of a new law a manuscript copy they called a bando, upon obtaining which a person was sent around beating a snare drum, which was a signal for the assemblage of the people at the alcalde's office where the act was read, promulgated and forthwith had the force of law. When a citizen had cause of action against another requiring the aid of court he went to the alcalde and verbally stated his complaint in his own way and asked that the defendant be sent for, who was at once summoned by an officer simply saying that he was wanted by the alcalde. The defendant made his appearance without loss of time, and, if in the same village, the plaintiff was generally in waiting. The alcalde commenced by stating the complaint against him, and asked what he had to say about it. This brought about an altercation between the parties and nine times out of ten the justice could get at the facts in this wise and announce judgment immediately, the whole suit not occupying two hours from its beginning. In more important cases three "good men" would be
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
called in to act as co-justices, while the testimony of witnesses had seldom to be resorted to.
They were all Roman Catholics and their priests of the Franciscan order. They were great church-goers, yet Sunday was not the only day set apart for their devotions. Nearly every day in the calendar was devoted to the memory of some saint, while those dedicated to the principal ones were observed as holidays ; so that Sunday did not constitute more than half the time which they consecrated to religious exercises, many of which were so much in contrast to those of the present day that they deserve a short description. The front door of their churches was always open and every person passing whether on foot or on horseback, did so hat in hand; any forgetfulness on this score caused the unceremonious removal of the sombrero. During the holding of services within, it was customary to station a number of men without, who at appointed intervals interrupted the pro- ceedings with the ringing of bells, the firing of pistols and the shooting of muskets, sustaining a noise resembling the irregular fire of a company of infantry. In every church was kept a number of pictures of their saints and a triumphal arch profusely decorated with artificial flowers; while on a holiday devoted to any particular saint, after the performance of mass, a picture of the saint, deposited in the arch, would be carried out of the church on the shoulders of four men, followed by the whole congregation in double file with the priest at the head, book in hand. The procession would march all round the town (if in one), and at every few rods would kneel on the ground while the priest read a prayer or performed some religious ceremony. After the circuit of the town had been made the train returned to the church, entering it in the same order as that in which they had departed. With the termination of these exercises, horse-racing, cock- fighting, gambling, dancing and a general merrymaking completed the work of the day. A favorite amusement of these festivals was for thirty or forty men on horseback, generally two, but sometimes three on one horse, with their guitars to parade the towns, their horses capering and keeping time to the music, accom- panied with songs by the whole company, in this manner visiting, playing and singing at the places of business and principal residences; and it was considered no breach of decorum for men on horses to enter stores and dwellings.
There was one vice that was common to nearly all of these people and which eventually caused their ruin, namely, a love of gambling. Their favorite game was monte, probably the first of all banking games. So passionately were they addicted to this that on Sunday around the church while the women were inside and the priest at the altar, crowds of men would have their blankets spread upon the ground with their cards and money, playing their favorite game of monte. They entertained no idea that it was a sin, nor that it was anything derogatory to their characters as good Christians. Mention should be made of their bull and bear fights. Sunday, or some prominent holiday, was invariably the day chosen for holding these, to prepare for which a large corral was erected in front of the church, for they were witnessed by priest and laymen alike. In the afternoon, after divine service two or three good bulls (if a bull-fight only) would be caught and put in the inclosure, when the combat commenced. If there is anything that will make a wild bull furious it is the sight of a red blanket. Surrounded by the entire population, the fighters entered the arena, each with one of these in one hand and a knife in the other, the first of which they would flaunt before the
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
furious beast, but guardedly keeping it between the animal and himself. In- furiated beyond degree, with flashing eye and head held down the bull would dash at his enemy, who, with a dexterous side spring would evade the onslaught, leaving the animal to strike the blanket and as he passed would inflict a slash with his knife. Whenever by his quickness he could stick his knife into the bull's neck just back of the horns, thereby wounding the spinal cord, the bull fell a corpse and the victor received the plaudits of the admiring throng. The interest taken in these exhibitions was intense; and what though a man was killed, had his ribs broken, was thrown over the fence or tossed on the roof of a house; it only added zest to the sport ; it was of no moment ; the play went on. It was a national amusement. When a grizzly bear could be procured, then the fight, instead of being between man and bull, was between bull and bear. Both were taken into the ยท corral, each being made fast to either end of a rope of sufficient length to permit of free action and left alone until they chose to open the ball. The first motion was usually made by the bull endeavoring to part company with the bear, who thus received the first "knock-down." On finding that he could not get clear of bruin, he then charged him, but was met half-way. If the bear could catch the bull by the nose, he held him at a disadvantage, but he more frequently found that he had literally taken the bull by the horns, when the fight became intensely inter- esting and was kept up until one or the other was killed, or both refused to renew the combat. The bull, unless his horns were clipped, was generally victorious. The custom of bull and bear fighting was kept up by the native Californians, as a money-making institution from the Americans, until the year 1854, when the legislature interposed by "An Act to prevent Noisy and Barbarous Amusements on the Sabbath."
Father Barcenilla served in San Jose until 1802, and left California in 1804. Father Merino continued there until obliged by ill health to retire in 1800, his successor being Father Luis Gily Tabada, who was succeeded by Pedro de la Cueva in 1804. Father Jose Antonio Uria had served in San Jose since 1799. Both he and Cueva left it in 1806. The latter served until 1825. Duran continued there alone-besides being from 1825 to 1827 president of all the missions-until 1833; he then went off to Santa Barbara, where he remained until his death in 1846. Duran's successor was Father Jose Maria de Jesus Gonzalez, from 1833 to 1842. The next minister was Padre Miguel Muro, 1842-5, who probably left the country in 1845. Padre Lorenzo Quijas officiated in 1843-4, and Jose de J. M. Gutierrez in 1845. In 1846-7 Jose M. Suarez del Rael had charge of the ex-mission as well as Santa Clara.
In 1850 more than half of Alameda county's population consisted of Digger Indians. Several thousand lived within a radius of a few miles of Mission San Jose. The Livermore, Sunol, Moraga and other valleys were almost entirely peopled by them. Many of their children were Mexican half-breeds, from which mixture came the most villianous desperadoes the county ever knew. The brutish, sottish nature of the Digger, blent with the cruel, cunning, thievish Mexican, formed a race of criminals unredeemed by scarcely a commendable quality. The advent of the Americans soon put an end to their depredations, though a few remained as sly as a grizzly bear and as cowardly as a coyote. The few remaining Diggers in the end relapsed into the same state in which the Spaniards originally found them. A Digger rancheria in Alameda county in early days had few char-
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
acteristics worth recalling. A few earth and brush tents were their homes. They were built near fresh water and near the oaks, the latter furnishing the acorns which constituted their steady diet. Their religion consisted in their efforts to escape annihilation by grizzly bears and mutilation by horned. cattle. Their only ceremony was the sweat dance-a wild, naked orgy of sweating and drinking by both men and women. As late as 1865 rancherias of the Diggers were to be seen in the San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Dry Creek, Alameda, Sunol and Calaveras canyons. The half-breeds made a pretense of planting beans and corn. The men were occasionally herdsmen, but generally proved inefficient and untrust- worthy. The squaws were the lowest type of human femininity. Their only virtues were that they bore few children to perpetuate the miserable race and died young.
CHAPTER II
SPANISH AND MEXICAN LAND GRANTS
All the tract of country bordering on the bay of San Francisco and on San Pablo bay was divided in 1841 into five great ranches: San Antonio, San Pablo, El Pinole, La Boca de la Canada de Pinole and Acalanes bordering on the Straits of Carquinez. North of Rancho El Pinole was a strip of land known as the north- ern part of the Canada del Hambre las Polsas Rancho and directly south was the Rancho de los Palos Colorados, embracing all the land between what became known as San Leandro creek on the south and San Pablo bay on the north and the bay of San Francisco on the west and the Cuchilla de los Trampas or Coast Range on the east, being the greater part of what is now Alameda county and the northwestern portion of Contra Costa county. Encircled by the five ranchos named above was an unclaimed or surplus tract (sobrante) which the Castros wished as grazing ground for their vast herds of cattle. Governor Alvarado gave them only a provisional grant to this tract, because the forms of law had not been wholly complied with. In 1852 the Castros employed H. W. Carpentier and John Wilson to perfect their claim to this tract. The board of land commissioners decided that the grant was valid. This decree was issued in 1855 and stood until 1863 when Mr. Carpentier inserted in the decree after the word "between" (the ranchos) the words "or within the exterior boundaries of" (the ranchos above named). This insertion vastly increased the lands of the grants from about 20,000 acres in the sobrante proper to about 75,000 acres and involved the title to the Contra Costa Water Company's water sheds. Many suits and contentions grew out of this case. In August, 1879, the surveyor general decided that the lands applied for by the Castros and provisionally granted by Alvarado and finally confirmed to them by the board of land commissioners was a piece of vacant land between the five ranchos above named. The del Hambre claimants appealed on the ground that the land granted was the surplus which should result from all the five ranchos on the final determination of their boundaries, whether lying between them or some of them, or entirely outside of their respective finally ascertained limits and within the exterior boundaries. In February, 1881, the commissioner of the general land office decided in favor of the del Hambre claimants.
This decision gave the confirmees land granted by Mexico and patented to other parties, absorbing about 69,000 acres of the public lands, besides lands listed to the state, portions of which were patented to third parties. There was great resistance to this decision of the commissioner. In February, 1882, Secretary Kirkwood decided the case so that the sobrante was confined to about 20,000 acres between the five ranchos. About this time Judge Crane in the case of Leroy, et al., vs. Hebard, et al., decided that the title of settlers to 2,200 acres in the marsh on the Alameda Encinal was not good, the land having been previously sold by Antoine M. Peralta to Chipman and Ougenbaugh.
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