USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego county, California; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 50
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Ephraim W. Morse was not only one of the earliest American settlers in San Diego, but was one of the most public-spirited and active workers for the build- ing of the new city. He was born October 16, 1823, in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He was a farmer and school teacher until the discovery of gold in California, when he started with a party of one hundred for the Pacific coast. The party purchased the ship Leonora, which sailed February 4, 1849, and after an unevent- ful voyage reached San Francisco on July 5th. Here the ship and cargo were sold and the company dispersed to the mines on the Yuba river. Mr. Morse had for a partner a man by the name of Levi Slack. They found the hot weather and other climatic conditions trying and after four or five months returned to San Francisco to recuperate. Having read reports of San Diego they decided to come to this place, arriving in April, 1850. They built a store room at Davistown in which they put a stock of goods. He later returned to Massachusetts and there married Miss Lydia A. Gray, and while preparing to return to the coast learned of the death of his partner. Leaving his wife to follow, he returned at once, arriving in May, 1852.
By April, 1853, the new town had begun to dwindle and Mr. Morse then formed a partnership with Thomas Whaley at Old Town. They kept a general stock of merchandise in one of the adobe buildings on the plaza. In 1856 this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Morse was then alone in business for three years. He then disposed of his stock and engaged in farming, but in 1861 re- turned to San Diego and again became a merchant. In 1852 he was elected asso- ciate justice of the court of sessions and also served twelve years as secretary of the board of trade. April 21, 1856, he was admitted to the practice of law, and in 1858-9 served as county treasurer, and again in 1861, 1862 and 1863. He also filled other public offices. In 1870 he was a leading spirit in the organization of the first bank in San Diego. At one time he was very wealthy but the collapse of the great boom hit him very hard and he never fully recovered his finances.
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He was also active in the organization of the San Diego & Gila Railroad Com- pany and acted as a director and officer as long as the organization continued. At one time he was a member of the firm of Morse, Noell & Whaley, real-estate dealers, also of the firm of Morse, Whaley & Dalton. He was also connected with many other business ventures of the city. He died January 17, 1906. His first wife died in Old Town in 1856 and he later married Miss Mary C. Walker, of Manchester, Massachusetts, whom he was instrumental in bringing to the coast to teach the Old Town school.
Charles P. Noell was born in Bedford county, Virginia, February 20, 1812. He came to California in November, 1848, and was a merchant at San Francisco until December, 1849, when he lost all he had in one of the great fires. In Febru- ary, 1850, he came to San Diego and put up the first wooden building in the place. In 1850 he was one of the purchasers of the addition known as Middle- town, which eventually proved a profitable investment. He also filled several public offices and with others engaged in the real-estate business. He died De- cember 30, 1887, leaving a valuable estate.
William H. Noyes was at various times editor of the Herald. He eventually moved to Arizona and was there killed in a battle with outlaws.
George Allan Pendleton was born at Bowling Green, Virginia, in 1823. He was appointed to West Point in 1842 and was there at the same time as Grant, Sherman, Stoneman and was also a classmate of Cave J. Couts. He was ap- pointed first lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment, New York Volunteers, August 29, 1846. The regiment was stationed at La Paz more than a year and then came to California, seeing little active service in the Mexican war. Lieutenant Pendleton resigned and settled at Sonora, Tuolumne county, where he engaged in business. In 1849 he represented the San Joaquin district in the state consti- tutional convention. In 1855 he came to San Diego to make this place his home. In the following year he organized the San Diego Guards, was chosen captain, and remained at the head of the organization until it was disbanded shortly be- fore the Civil war. In 1857 he was elected county clerk and recorder, the two offices being combined in one, and continued in the position until his death in 1871. He also held various other offices, being at times the only official in the county.
Charles Henry Poole was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, February 5, 1835. He engaged in newspaper work and surveying in the east, and in 1853 was ap- pointed assistant to Lieutenant Derby in the survey of the river and harbor of San Diego. He was county surveyor several terms. After leaving San Diego he was located in Washington, D. C., as assistant topographer in the postoffice department until his death, January 25, 1880.
Judge James W. Robinson was a native of Ohio, but went to Texas in an early day. In November, 1835, he was a member of a convention which met at San Felipe and was by that body chosen lieutenant governor of Texas. In the following January, as the result of a long quarrel between Governor Smith and his council, Smith was deposed and Robinson became governor of Texas. The independence of Texas was proclaimed on March 2d and the republic organized. In December, 1836, he was commissioned judge of the forty-first judicial district and became a member of the San Antonio bar. A short time after, Santa Ana had the whole court seized and carried away prisoners and confined in the fortress
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of Perote. In January, 1843, tiring of his imprisonment, Robinson sent a letter to the Mexican president proposing to use his good offices in the negotiation of peace between the two countries. His offer was accepted and he was released and sent as a commissioner from Santa Ana to the Texas authorities. There was never any chance of such a proposition being accepted by the Texans, and Robinson knew it, but he had gained his object-his liberty.
In 1850 Governor Robinson came with his wife and son to San Diego, and from the first he took a leading part in public affairs. He was district attorney from 1852-55, was school commissioner in 1854 and filled other public offices. He died in October, 1857.
Louis Rose came to San Diego from Texas in 1850. He was active in the organization of the San Diego & Gila Railroad Company and served as its treas- urer from the time of its organization for many years. He served as postmaster at Old Town for ten years and then resigned. He also took an active part in many other public affairs and filled various public offices. He died February 14, 1888.
Marcus Schiller was born in Prussia, October 2, 1819. He came to America when seventeen years of age and in 1853 came to San Francisco and three years later settled in San Diego. In 1857 he formed a partnership with Joseph S. Mannasse, which has been mentioned in the foregoing sketch of Mr. Mannasse. Mr. Schiller was city trustee in 1860 and 1861 and again in 1868, was superin- tendent of schools in 1868 and 1869 and also served as a director of the San Diego & Gila Railroad Company. He died March 19, 1904.
Joshua Sloane was a native of Ireland. He came to San Diego in the early '50s and worked at various occupations for a livelihood. In 1858 he served as deputy postmaster and in the following year served as postmaster. When his term was about to expire, the people of San Diego, who were nearly all opposed to him in politics, signed a protest against his reappointment. When the letter containing this document was deposited in the postoffice, Sloane's curiosity was aroused by its appearance and address and he opened it and read the enclosure. Having done this, he coolly cut off the remonstrance, wrote on similar paper a petition for his own reappointment, pasted the signatures below it and forwarded the altered enclosure in a new envelope. The people of San Diego were at a loss to understand why their almost unanimous petition passed unheeded and it remained a mystery until Sloane himself told the story years afterward. In the campaign of 1856 Sloane voted for Fremont and is said to have been one of two or three in San Diego who did so. In the campaign of 1860 he was very active, organized a republican club and became known to the party leaders in the east. For this service he was made collector of the port in 1861 and served one term. His greatest service to San Diego was doubtless his work for the park. He was secretary of the board of trustees at the time the question of setting aside the park came up and was one of the earliest, most tireless and most earnest advo- cates of a large park. One of his friends says regarding this: "He was the man who first proposed having a big park here and he urged it upon the trustees till they let him have his way. There were people here who wanted it cut down and it was due to his efforts that this was not done. Mr. Sloane died January 6, 1879.
Albert B. Smith was one of the earliest American settlers in San Diego before
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the Mexican war. In 1856 and again from 1858 to 1859 he was superintendent of schools. He married Guadalupe Machado de Wilder, widow of Peter Wilder and daughter of Jose Manual Machado. They became the parents of several children.
John C. Stewart settled in San Diego in 1838. He died February 2, 1892, at a ripe old age, having been born in 1811. He was a soldier of the Mexican war.
Thomas W. Sutherland was one of the earliest if not the first attorney to set- tle in San Diego. He was alcalde March 18, 1850, was the first city attorney and was district attorney in 1851. He removed to San Francisco in 1852.
George P. Tebbetts was an elector at La Playa, April 1, 1850. He was mayor in 1852, being the last mayor before the abolition of the city's charter. He was associated with the San Diego & Gila Railroad Company from its organization and served as its secretary from 1854 to 1858. He served as an ensign in the Garra campaign and in 1853 was captain of militia under Kurtz. He went to Santa Barbara and for many years was the publisher of the News in that city
Enos A. Wall, born at Freeport, Maine, was an elector at San Diego, April I, 1850. He married Antonia Machado, daughter of Jose Manuel Machado. He died in San Diego, January 2, 1885.
Jonathan T. Warner was born at Lyme, Connecticut, November 20, 1807. He came to California in 1831 and settled at Los Angeles. He was San Diego's first state senator, serving from 1850-52.
Thomas Whaley was born in New York city, October 5, 1823. At the break- ing out of the gold fever he sailed for California in the Sutton, the first ship to leave that port for the diggings, and reached San Francisco July 22, 1849. He was in partnership with Lewis A. Franklin at one time in the conduct of a gen- eral store, and later was a partner of Jack Hinton in the conduct of a general store known as the Tienda General. Later he was alone in business and also engaged in brickmaking in Mission valley-the first burnt bricks made in San Diego county. After various business ventures he returned to New York, his native state, but in 1879 once more settled in San Diego and engaged in the real- estate business with E. W. Morse. Mr. Whaley retired from active business in 1888. He filled some public offices. He died December 14, 1890. In 1853 he wedded Miss Anna Lannay, of New York, who was of French extraction, being a descendant of the De Lannay and Godefrois families.
Peter Wilder was in San Diego in 1845. He married Guadalupe Machado, daughter of Jose Manuel Machado and they had two daughters. Mr. Wilder died and his widow afterward married Albert B. Smith.
Judge Oliver S. Witherby, one of the most important men of the community, was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, February 19, 1815. He received his education at Miami University, from which he graduated in 1836. He studied law in Hamilton, Ohio, and was admitted to practice in 1840. At the breaking out of the Mexican war, he was appointed first lieutenant and served about a year, when he was invalided and discharged. He served as prosecuting attorney of Hamil- ton county and acted as editor of the Hamilton Telegraph. In February, 1849, he came to San Diego as quartermaster and commissary of the United States Boundary Commission, reaching San Diego June Ist. He decided to remain and the people of the city elected him as representative in the first assembly at Monterey in 1850. He was appointed by this legislature judge of the newly
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created district court and served the full term of three years. In 1853 he was appointed collector of customs for San Diego and adjoining counties and filled a term of four years. In 1857 he purchased a ranch and for ten years engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1868 he sold his ranch and removed to San Diego. He was a stockholder and director of the early banks of this city and in 1879, upon the consolidation of the Bank of San Diego and the Commercial Bank, he was chosen president of the new institution and served several years. He was connected with various important enterprises of his day. He died De- cember 18, 1896.
Thomas Wrightington was, with the possible exception of Henry D. Fitch, the first American settler in San Diego. He came in 1833 from Fall River, Massachusetts. He served as a volunteer in the Mexican war. He married Juana Machado de Alipas, widow of Damasio Alipas and daughter of Jose Manuel Machado.
CHAPTER XLIX
PALA INDIAN AGENCY-MINES
Pala, the seat of one of the old auxiliary Franciscan missions, is also the head- quarters of the Pala Indian agency, which includes within its jurisdiction the reservations of Rincon, Panama and La Jolla. The Pala reservation surrounds the grounds belonging to the mission, and the Indians themselves for the most part are devout members of the Catholic church. It is a long hark from the days of the Franciscan fathers, when the ancestors of the present Indians were first Christianized, and many changes have taken place in the customs and habits of these primitive people. It has been urged and is probably true to a great extent that the Indians of southern California belonged to superior aboriginal tribes, due to the supposed kinship existing between them and the ancient Aztecs of Mexico. Their early contact, however, with Spanish civilization and the Chris- tian religion, and their later contact with American progressiveness perhaps ac- counts more than anything else for their present condition. Certain it is that these Pala Indians and the Indians on the subsidiary reservations have taken kindly to the ways of the white man and are absorbing his ideas of industrial and domestic life.
The Pala agency is presided over by Walter Runke, who succeeded Frank Meade about a year ago, the latter being sent as the first superintendent after its establishment. It is situated twenty-six miles inland from Oceanside, and is sur- rounded by acreage, practically all of which is rapidly being rendered arable through government irrigation. An irrigation ditch is being completed from a reservoir supplied from a well in the bottom of the river a mile away. The ditch is on the site of an old irrigation ditch built by the Indians themselves under the direction of the Franciscan fathers in the early days, and was used to render the land productive. There are to be found today olive trees nearly one hundred years old. And it is a noteworthy fact that much of the present work also is being done by the Indians who receive pay for it from the government. This ditch will carry water for both irrigation and domestic purposes. Practically all the Indian cottages are now supplied with water by a pipe line from the reser- voir. The entire cost of the enterprise will approximate $10,000. These Indians are not wards of the government in the strictest sense. They receive their houses and a small plot of irrigated land in connection and a larger area of land for dry farming from the government. They are allowed to sell their crops, however, and a great many after providing for their families, make money in this way. Many also, after cultivating their crops, find time to earn money by hiring out at different occupations. The days when the squaw supported the family have passed.
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In addition to the irrigation enterprise, Mr. Runke is completing plans for an experiment farm which he believes will greatly aid the Indians in their agricul- tural endeavors. At stated intervals, a government expert visits the different reservations under Mr. Runke's jurisdiction and instructs the Indians in farm- ing. At Pala, where the Indians are provided with a public hall and reading room, the government furnishes various reports, magazines and periodicals de- voted to farming. In these, Mr. Runke says, the Indians are deeply interested.
The Indians at Pala are allowed a form of self-government. A council of six members is elected annually, each male Indian twenty-one and over having a right to participate in the election. At the next election it is probable suffrage will be extended to the women. This council has the power to pass upon the various disputes, differences and infractions of law. The reservation is of course directly under federal law and the decisions of the council are reviewed by Mr. Runke, but he says he seldom finds it necessary to reverse one of them The meetings of the council are held in the public hall and are usually well attended. In addition to the reading matter in the hall, a billiard table has been provided and many of the Indians pass their evenings here.
One of the most important institutions connected with the agency is its In- dian school, under the supervision of Miss Ora Salmons, a sister of Frank Sal- mons, of San Diego. Miss Salmons has been in the Indian school work for twenty-five years and one has but to see the wonders she has accomplished at Pala to conclude at once that she is a very successful teacher. She has about thirty children under her charge and the school is a model both in discipline and accomplishment. The course of instruction is practically the same, grade for grade, as the one used in San Diego, and Miss Salmons finds that the Indian children are just as quick to learn and take just as readily to education as white children do. The children are also given instruction in the elements of drawing and manual training. They are as quick to catch an idea and advance very rapidly.
In all the evolution and revolution that is taking place at Pala, the time hon- ored fiest is also coming in for its share of change. It is Mr. Runke's intention to make these fiestas become more like a fair for the display of handicraft and industrial and agricultural products. This feature was introduced at the fiesta held last summer and was a very pronounced success. These fiestas in the olden time were given over almost entirely to merrymaking and were often attended with carousing and debauchery. In striking contrast to the nature of the fiestas now being held is the following account of one at Pala in August, 1882:
"The long, low, white adobe building answered the purpose of hotel, store, postoffice and pretty much everything else. In front of the building a score or more of Mexicans and Indians were talking vociferously, and judging from the amount of gesticulation, all were more or less affected by their morning potations of aguardiente. A low roofed veranda ran along the front of the hostelry. An enterprising photographer had set up his tent and camera and was doing a thiriv- ing trade. On the roadway opening into the plaza, youthful Mexicans, mounted on their broncho ponies, were tearing around, up and down, to and fro. No mat- ter how short the space to be covered, off they started at breakneck speed and reaching the goal, came to a halt with an abruptness that can be best described as a bang. A few steps from the hotel, at one corner of the plaza, a leafy corri-
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dor gave entrance to a bower, covering perhaps an acre and a half of ground. The top and sides of this structure were made of branches, robbed from trees of the neighboring mountains.
"Around the inside of the walls were ranged rows of drinking booths. These booths were thronged by a motley crew of Mexicans and Indians in various stages of intoxication, besotting themselves with the ever present aguardiente. The atmosphere of the arcade fairly reeked with the fumes of the liquor.
"In front of nearly every booth a gambler was seated at a little table on which was displayed his stock in trade, cards, or dice or other device, as the case might be, for entrapping-often attended with carousing-the pennies of the foolish ยท feasters. Around each table a group of holiday attired men and boys watched with breathless interest the particular game being played thereon. Every now and then some poor dupe, encouraged by the persuasive eloquence of the sharper, risked four bits, or a dollar, and anxiously awaited results.
"A sudden commotion outside the bower-laughter, yelling and scampering of many feet, caused us to hurry with many others to ascertain the reason for all this confusion. In the open plaza a young Spaniard, crazed with aguardiente, was challenging one and all of the crowd that surrounded him to personal combat. Failing to obtain a willing foe, he suddenly doubled his body and made a lunge, head first, for the further side of the circle. He leveled to earth an unfortunate Mexican, who was not quick enough at dodging, and then stood off a little dis- tance facing his laughing spectators. Again he shrieked out his warlike challenge. He bellowed and roared, scraped the ground backward with his feet, and grab- bing a handful of dirt, tossed it over his head in the air. Then he charged as before. Two more unfortunates were made to taste the dust before he found a foeman worthy of his mettle. His antagonist was a peaceable looking old ranchero, who had been endeavoring to awaken the madman to his better senses. They may have been relatives for aught we know to the contrary. The infuriated youngster rushed pell mell upon the rancher and they clinched in tight embrace. The two fell together and over and over they rolled and tumbled in the dirt, first one on top and then the other, the spectators cheering and laughing all the while. The old man won the day. Shouts of 'Bravo el viejo!' rent the air and twenty willing hands lent their aid in adjusting the victor's disordered toilet. The last view we had of the poor, discomforted buck was when he was being borne away from the battle ground limp and helpless, one man carrying his head and shoulders, and two others dividing his legs between them. The aguardiente had ended its riot."
Here follows a somewhat rambling account of a bull fight in which seven or eight bulls were baited, not one getting his courage sufficiently elevated to make a charge. There were cock fights, Indian dances, horse races and various other sports, the fiesta continuing for eight days, but the burden of the description ap- peared to be to convey the impression that practically everybody present was more or less intoxicated.
Under the present regime Agent Runke says that intoxication among the In- dians on the reservation is a rare thing. The federal laws regarding the selling or giving an Indian intoxicating liquors are rigidly enforced. Mr. Runke recalls only one instance in which it was known that a Pala Indian was intoxicated, and
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although every effort was made to prosecute the man who sold him the liquor, the evidence was not sufficient.
The Indians have taken to the industrial ways of the white man. They are becoming thrifty, good husbandmen, and the younger generation is receiving a good elementary education.
DESCENDANTS OF ANCIENT AZTECS
The following article on the Indians of San Diego county was contributed to California Topics by Alfred L. Kroeber, who took part in the anthropological expeditions to Oklahoma, Wyoming and Montana for the American Museum of Natural History and who is prominent in ethnological and linguistic research in California :
One of the greatest assets of San Diego, ranking even in a purely business sense with its unparalleled climate and unique harbor, is its Indian population, past and present. Not that the tribesmen in their rancherias in the mountains are especially productive-though with hardly an exception they are now indus- trious citizens ; but it was the Indians that brought to these shores Father Junipero Serra and the long train of makers of history that followed him. It was on ac- count of the Indians that two of California's noblest missions-the earliest at San Diego, and the largest, at San Luis Rey, were founded within the limits of the present county. And it was about a San Diego woman, still alive, that the romance was written that made her name a household word throughout the country. The hardest-headed financier quickly appreciates the enormous draw- ing power, to tourist and settler and investor alike, of the missions and of Ramona.
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