Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 3

Author: Foote, Horace S., ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844

USA > California > Santa Clara County > Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California > Part 3

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The great and increasing extent of the fruit pro- duction, the fact that over much of the State it is being prosecuted with energy, suggests the frequent inquiry, "Where is the future market for all this to be found? This is the inquiry that, at some stage of development, confronts every form of industrial enter- prise, whether the product of the soil or the result of manufacture. The subject is too extensive and too intricate to here receive but the briefest consideration. The fruit product of this State is the result of special climatic conditions existing within restricted limits. Unlike manufactures, this form of production cannot

PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

be extended by either art or enterprise. Upon the other hand, the consumers will be found wherever any industry can be maintained, or men can exist. If, then, fruit production shall increase in geometrical ratio, nature has fixed the limits within which this progression must cease, while no such bounds exist to the range of consumption.

Farther than this, experience and invention are constantly diminishing the cost of production and thus enlarging the class of consumers. If wheat and wool, staples of the world, and everywhere grown, are rarely found in excess of profitable production, it may fairly be assumed that these special products of Cali- fornia, thus limited to an area and restricted as to conditions, will be always a profitable industry. The question, however important, is at present but one of speculation, and time alone can give the full solution. Dependent as this region is upon the regular rains of winter, the knowledge that these sometimes fail makes the subject of rainfall one of much anxious consider- ation. There is a theory that the seasons move in cycles of twelve years, passing, by regular gradation, from a maximum to a minimum rainfall in that period and culminating in a season of floods and of drought at the other. The observations of the last few years do not fully support this theory of gradual transition, although records extending back to the year 1805 seem to indicate that the twelfth year is deficient in rain. Should these dry years recur in the future, the disastrous and destructive consequences of the past are not likely to follow. The industry of the State was then cattle raising and the country was stocked to its fullest capacity. With a drought the short-lived natural grasses failed; the water courses dried up, and, as no provision had been made for supplying either, the cattle perished by thousands.

At present, the land is more profitably utilized in other pursuits, and cattle are comparatively few, and for these, some provision can be made. Trees and vines, though their product may be diminished, are not de- stroyed by a drought, however severe. Large areas of irrigated lands will furnish vast supplies of forage food, and the reclaimed sections contribute in the same direction, while railroads transport these prod- ucts as needs may require. A further consideration -the possible effect of artificial conditions upon rain- fall-may be worth estimating. It has been often asserted that the cutting off of the forests of the Sierras and the Coast Range would diminish the rain- fall, and in other ways prove detrimental to the moisture supply. If this, as a consequence of denu-

dation, follows anywhere, it may be doubted whether it does here. In almost every instance the removal of the timber is followed by a dense growth of young trees or of thicket, and the effect of this, either as in- ducing precipitation or retaining moisture, must be fully equal to that of the larger but scattering trees thus replaced.

Further than this, in the valley of the San Joaquin, hundreds of square miles of prairie and plains are now, by irrigation, thoroughly saturated, and from waters that had their former evaporation surface in the area of a comparatively small lake. On the slopes of the Sierras the same causes are at work. Water stored in immense reservoirs is conducted in canals to thousands of acres of orchards and vineyards. These causes, large at present and constantly enlarg- ing, cannot but produce some effect upon the rainfall of this coast. Regions that before absorbed the moist- ure, now, by their own evaporation, contribute to it and induce precipitation. If it be argued that these causes are inadequate to the results suggested, it may be replied that forest and prairie fires, the burning of cities, the firing of cannon, are known to be followed by copious rains. The meteorological conditions that accompany a saturated atmosphere, are often very nearly in equilibrium, and a very slight disturbing cause may determine for or against precipitation. The causes I have indicated are neither transitory nor insignificant. They embrace areas equal in ex- tent to States, and are affecting, in a marked degree, the temperature and climate of these extensive re- gions. If any consequences shall follow from these changes, every reason seems to indicate that they will be found in an increased rainfall and against the re- currence of drought. * *

In this description of the capabilities and climate of the Santa Clara Valley, I have substantially de- scribed San Jose-for this is her environment, these are her resources, this the rich setting of which the "Garden City" is the central gem. * *

The roads of San Jose and vicinity are wide, well- graded and ballasted with gravel and rock, of which there is an inexhaustible supply in the immediate vicinity. Unaffected by frost or flood, they improve with use and require but little attention to maintain them in the finest condition.

Each year adds many miles to the hundreds of miles now in use, while the trees with which most of them are bordered are rapidly developing them into stately avenues. These roads, as they extend into the country, are little affected by either the rains

PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

of winter or the droughts of summer, and delightful drives, free from either mud or dust, are to be found in every direction and at all times. The residents thoroughly appreciate and fully avail themselves of this attractive feature of the county, and probably in no place in the country are so many teams to be found driven with perfect confidence, not only by women, but often by the merest children. To the visitor who drives at random over these roads, every turn brings a new surprise, reveals a new beauty. Now the road is through an avenue of stately trees ; then comes a succession of gardens; and again it is the abandoned channel of a former stream, where giant and gnarled sycamores and old oaks shade the way, and then for miles a bewildering succession of vineyards, orchards, and fruitful fields; while every- where, half hidden in the orchards, nestling among the vines, 'embowered amid the roses, stately man- sions and beautiful cottages bespeak alike the thrift and refinement of their occupants.

When the stranger thus finds each day, and for months, a new avenue, with new beauties before and about him, he will give credence to the assertion that here are to be found more delightful drives than in any other city of the State, and will declare it fitly named the "Garden City." Of the hundreds of miles of these drives, which lead in every direction, some are deserving of more than this general mention. The Alameda, a broad and beautiful avenue leading to Santa Clara, is three miles in length, as level as a floor, and shaded by trees planted by the Mission Fathers a hundred years ago. Bordered throughout its whole extent with beautiful residences, it puzzles the passer-by to know where San Jose ends and her sister city begins. Another notable drive is to Alum Rock, a distance of seven miles over a road as perfect as art can make it, through a deep gorge with a prattling stream keeping company, to a natural park of four hundred acres owned by the city. Here, in a sheltered nook, a comfortable hotel, shaded by mighty oaks, is kept, with mineral springs of every quality and every temperature bubbling up in every direction. Scarce a day in the summer that a party is not found picnicking in this park, and making the hills ring with music and merriment. To the west, within a dozen miles, is the Almaden quicksilver mine, em- ploying three hundred laborers, and supporting a population of a thousand; a place interesting as being the richest deposit of cinnabar on the continent, or perhaps in the world, and also for the thorough system and scrupulous neatness exhibited on every hand.

Another drive is to the Guadalupe, second only to the Almaden; another to Los Gatos, where all the zones and all the seasons seem to have combined to crown this favored spot with the choicest treasures of them all; another to Saratoga, with its soda spring, unsurpassed in the State, gushing from the hill-side; to Lexington, last of this triad of mountain beauties ; and everywhere-in the little valleys, garlanding the hill-sides, climbing to the very summit of the mount- ains-orchards, orange groves, and vineyards. The drive into these hills is always delightful ; but it is in the spring, when everything is in bloom, that it ap- pears in all its glory. Then, as far as the eye can reach, hill-side and plain are decked in all the splendors of the rainbow. Here the white blossoms of the prune sway in the breeze like drifting snow, while, beside these, the valley is blushing with the dainty hues of the apricot, the peach, and the apple, and the vineyards are upon every side, in their delicate green. It is, in fact, one vast parterre of floral beauty-its coloring by acres-and stretching away for miles, until the distant hills frame in the gorgeous picture. In all these mountain villages are to be found hotels, cozy and pleasant, and as the guest sits in the evening upon the porches and sees the lamps of the distant city twinkling like fireflies below him, with the electric lights gleaming like planets above them, with the soft, dry air that stirs but in zephyrs, he can but feel that this is indeed an earthly elysium.

In the morning a striking sight sometimes awaits the visitor. The sky is blue and cloudless as ever, but the valley has disappeared. A fog has crept in during the night and engulfed the plain, as though the ocean was asserting its old dominion. Upon every hand the hills, that held the ancient sea in their long embrace, now clasp this fleeting phantom as though in its shadowy image there were cherished memories of the past. Above it, like islands, rise hills and peaks. As still as fleccy wool sleeps this soft white sea. But cven while you look and wonder, the sun asserts his power and the still lake swells in waves and rolls in billows. Through rifts, you catch glimpses of houses, of forests, and of fields, and then -you know not how, you see not where-the fleecy mantle is gone, and the valley, in sheen and sunshine, is again before you.

Eighteen miles east of San Jose, upon the summit of Mount Hamilton, is the Lick Observatory. The road by which it is reached is twenty-four miles in length, was built by the county at a cost of $85,000, and is as complete as money and skill can make it.

PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

It connects with the Alum Rock Avenue, about four miles from San Jose, and from this point is carried up the western slope of the hill. As the road ascends, the valley comes into view, each turn of the road dis- closing some new charm. Seven miles of this and the road passes to the eastern side; the valley is no longer in sight. But with this change comes a new attraction. You are now in the mountains, and deep gorges upon the one hand, and the steep hill-side on the other, make the landscape; again, and the road is traversing valleys gorgeous with wild flowers or roll- ing hills dotted with stately oaks. Ten miles of this and Smith Creek is reached. Here, in a charming nook of the mountain half encircled by a sparkling stream, a comfortable hotel is found. Near as the summit appears from this point, there is yet fifteen hundred feet of sheer ascent and the road winds three times round the peak and is seven miles long in as- cending it. As the summit is approached the valley unrolls before you like a vast panorama, and the picture that was left behind is again in view; until, at last, at a height of four thousand two hundred and fifty feet, you are at the observatory.

From here, the view is grand and impressive. At your feet, dotted with villages and rimmed with a cordon of protecting hills, sleeps the valley in all its loveliness, and, beside it, the Bay of San Francisco, flecked with the sails of commerce. To the east, the snow-clad peaks of the Sierras bound the distant horizon, while south, the valley stretches away till hid by the misty hills. Upon the west are the forest slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with lakes and reservoirs that gleam in the sunlight like burnished silver; while, upon the more distant horizon, a lighter shade tells where sea and sky meet and mingle in the blue Pacific. North, if the day is clear, you are pointed to a dim shadow scarce outlined on the dis- tant sky, and, as you strive to fix the wavering, doubt- ful image, you are told that this is Shasta, which, four hundred miles distant and fourteen thousand four hundred and forty feet high, is enthroned in undis- puted majesty over the great valley. As you note this horizon stretching away on every hand, you can readily accept the statement of Professor Whitney, that from the summit of this mountain, more of the earth's surface is visible than from any other known point upon the globe; and the blue sky and trans- lucent atmosphere attest the assertion that there are here twice the number of nights that are favorable to observations than are anywhere else to be found. Upon this height stands the observatory, which the

founder decreed should have the most powerful glass and thorough equipment that skill and ingenuity could produce; and most thoroughly have those assigned to this duty executed their trust.

If ycars have been employed for the erection of these buildings, it is because they are to remain for the centuries, and they are as massive and as durable as the rock of which they seem but a part. In the equipment, the scientific knowledge and mechanical ingenuity of the world were called into requisition, and this is the grand result. Nor are the appoint- ments of this place, perfect and ample as they are, better adapted to its purposes than are the natural surroundings. Elsewhere, observatories are erected amid the busy marts of trade, and among the haunts of men. Here, the rugged mountain forbids all other companionship, and sterility and solitude keep sen- tinel watch at the portals of this temple of science. It is fitting that this be so, for what, to the watcher of the skies, are the aspirations of life, the ambitions of men? What to him are the boundaries of nations or the measures of time? The field of his explorations is illimitable space, the unit of his line, the vast orbit of the earth. The centuries of Egypt, hoary with age, are scarce seconds on his dial. The Pharaohs are to him but men of yesterday. He gauges the nebulous mist that enwraps Orion, that veils Andro- meda, and proclaims the natal day of systems yet to be. He notes the changing hues and waning light of blazing stars, and declares when, rayless and dark, with retinues of dead worlds, they shall journey on in the awful stillness of eternal night. Well may he who deals with these, the problems of the skies, dwell alone and apart from other men.

In the central pier, which supports the great tele- scope, is the tomb of James Lick. Lonely in this life, alone in his resting-place; this seems indeed his fit mausoleum, and the visitor reads, though it be un- written, as his epitaph, the inscription in England's great cathedral on the tomb of its architect : "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice."

The return trip is much more agreeable than the ascent. As the carriage sweeps down the mountain road, with its many curves, the landscape again un- folds with scenes and shades that come and go like the figures of a kaleidoscope; and, in three short hours, the traveler is again in San Jose, with recol- lections of the mountain road, the marvelous prospect, the lofty mountains, and the lonely tomb, that can never be effaced. * * * * *

Much of the happiness of a community depends upon

PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

the social habits of its people. In San Jose, social gatherings and festivities, picnics and excursions, are more frequent than in most Eastern communities. The weather permits, and the disposition of the people encourages them; and those relaxations which, in most places, are the privilege of the few, are here the practice of the many. In the summer, many families resort to the hills or to the shores of Monterey Bay. Here, in cottages readily hired, in tents or booths, they remain for weeks, relieved of much of the formality, as well as the drudgery, of ordinary domes- tic life. Others, more adventurous, make up expedi- tions to the Sierras, Yosemite, or even Shasta. They take their own teams, and in capacious wagons store the bedding and supplies required for a month or more of nomadic life. Of the weather they take no heed, for that is assured.

Wherever night overtakes them they camp, and

remain or move on as inelination or faney may prompt. From the farm-houses they replenish their larder and procure feed for their teams. And they return after weeks of this gypsy life, with bronzed cheeks, to re- sume with vigor the duties of life, to live over their past wanderings, and to plan new expeditions for the future. * * * * * * * * *

In this paper I have endeavored to represent to the visitor the surroundings he will here find; to the settler, the conditions with which he will have to deal. I shall make no attempt to forecast even the near future; it is proclaiming itself. The tramp of a coming host is upon every hand-the tide of a human sea, impelled by forces that permit no ebb. It comes, and between the desert and the sea it finds the prom- ised land-Egypt in its fertility ; Sicily in its fruits and flowers; Italy in its beauty; America in its free- dom, its enterprise, and its energy.

THE

GARDEN OF THE

WORLD

m AS IT WAS

THE NATIVE RACES.

T HE reader will have acquired a good idea of the topography of climate and general character- istics of Santa Clara County from the foregoing sketch from the pen of the Honorable D. Belden. In regard to the people who inhabited this lovely spot prior to its occupancy by the whites, we have very little knowledge either by record or tradition, nor is it necessary that we should have. They were a race of mild-mannered, ignorant, and generally inoffensive Indians, without language, customs, or history, that would be either instructive or entertain- ing to the general reader. The only interest we have in them is that they were the immediate predecessors of the white race in this beautiful valley. They were called the Olhones, sometimes Costanes, and subsisted on the spontaneous fruits of the soil, together with small game which they were enabled to kill or capture with their rude implements or weapons. Like nearly all the natives of the Pacific Coast, both of North and South America, they worshiped the sun, but this was about the only point in which they resembled their Southern neighbors. While Cortez and Pizarro found in Mexico and Peru a sort of civilization, the natives of California had nothing that redeemed them from absolute barbarism. They believed in an evil spirit, and their religious rites and ceremonies were principally devoted to its propitiation rather than to the adoration of a Supreme Being, with power to protect them from the anger of their evil god. In this they seem to have resembled the Chinese.

Their religious idea of rewards and punishments appertained to their material existence. If they had any belief in a future state they had nothing to indi- cate it except, perhaps, in their funeral ceremonies, in which they decorated the corpse with feathers, flowers, and beads, and, placing his bows and arrows beside the remains, burned them amid shouts and cries. They had one custom which was common to all the Indians along the coast, but whether it was a religious

ceremony, a sanitary measure, or a recreation, we are not informed. It was called the temescal. An adobe house, in the shape of a dome, was built on the banks of a creek. It had a hole in the top for the escape of the smoke, while an aperture at the side served the purpose of a door. The ceremony, if it can properly be called such, consisted in packing the interior of the hut with people, raising the temperature by means of fires to as high a degree as possible. When the heat became unendurable they would rush from the hut and with cries and shouts plunge into the waters of the creek.

They had no villages, in the ordinary sense of the term, but at certain seasons of the year they would herd together at certain fixed places, which the Spaniards named rancherias. They were generally peaceable. We have no record of any wars in which they were engaged, nor have any relics of pre-historic battle-fields been found by their successors. After the secularization of the missions there was at one time a rumor that the Indians were on the war-path and were making threatening demonstrations toward this valley; but it was only a rumor, and we can find no authentic account of any overt act that could be logically construed into organized hostility.

They had no prominent men or noted chiefs whose names survive. The Seminoles had their Osceola, the Shawnees had Tecumseh, the Pokanokets had King Philip, the Sacs and Foxes had Blackhawk, the Cayu- gas had Logan, but the Olhones have left not even a ripple on the sea of oblivion into which they have so recently passed. Not much can be said of these natives that would be interesting-nothing that would be instructive. Our history begins where theirs ended. Their existence here served as a motive for the estab- lishment of the Mission of Santa Clara, which was the beginning of civilization in Santa Clara Valley, and the real starting-point for our history.

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PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

SPANISH OCCUPATION.

In 1776, the natal year of our republic, Califor- nia was a province of Spain and was governed through the viceroy of Mexico, whose headquarters were established at the city of Mexico. The Span- ish monarch at that time was Don Carlos III., and the Mexican viceroy was Felipe de Neve. The banner of the Holy Church had been carried in the van of the Spanish forces in all their military opera- tions in the Western Hemisphere, and all their con- quests had been made in nomine Dominis. The introduction of the arts of civilization into the con- quered provinces proceeded on the same principle. The first step was to afford religious instruction to the natives, and to this end missions under the control of the church were established at such points as were deemed advisable. At the time of which we write, seven of these missions had been established in Upper or Alta California, to wit: The Mission San Diego, at San Diego, July 16, 1769; the Mission Car- mel, or San Carlos, at Monterey, June 3, 1770; the Mission San Antonio, at San Luis Obispo, July 14, 1771; the Mission San Gabriel, at Los Angeles, September 8, 1771; the Mission San Luis Obispo, at San Luis Obispo, September 1, 1772; the Mission Dolores, at San Francisco, October 9, 1776; the Mission San Juan Capistrano, at Los Angeles, November 10, 1776.

At this time the Spaniards had a military post, called a presidio, at San Francisco, which was then known as Yerba Buena. It seems that in all the enterprises undertaken by the Spaniards in the New World, the church had concurrent jurisdiction with the military authority. In fact, almost all the com- mands issuing from the crown placed the church first, and the military force was treated simply as an auxiliary in the work of introducing the Christian religion to the heathen inhabitants of New Spain. These two powers generally acted in harmony. There was no restriction of the Holy Fathers in their selec- tion of sites for their missions, and no hesitation on the part of the military authorities in granting a guard of soldiers for their protection when asked for. Official information in regard to the founding and conduct of the missions was conveyed to the headquarters of church and State through two distinct channels, that is to say, the church received its report through the priesthood and the State through the commandants of the districts furnishing the military support.

In 1776 the viceroy of Mexico learned, unofficially,

that two new missions had been established near the Bay of San Francisco, and in September of that year he sent a communication to Don Fernando Riviera, who was at that time commanding at San Diego, conveying this intelligence and asking him to make an inspection and return a full report. This meant, for Don Fernando, a march of several hundred miles through a wild country and over rugged mountains, but military discipline did not permit him to hesitate. Accompanied by twelve soldiers, intended as guards for the new missions, he proceeded northward. After a long and tiresome journey the party arrived at Monterey. Here Don Fernando learned that the viceroy had been misinformed; that, instead of two new missons, only one had been established, and that one at San Francisco (Dolores). Father Tomas de la Peña, and another priest, who had been appointed to perform the religious duties of the expedition, joined the party at Monterey, and together they started on their journey to San Francisco. Their route was nearly identical with that now occupied by the South- ern Pacific Railroad. During the march the party made a halt near the present town site of Santa Clara, and being impressed with the salubrity of the climate and the wonderful fertility of the soil, as evidenced by the natural vegetation, they determined to there locate a mission for the instruction of the mild- mannered natives, whose curiosity was barely sufficient to conquer their timidity.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 3

Author: Foote, Horace S., ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 844

Author: Foote, Horace S., ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844