USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > The Herald's history of Los Angeles City > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
One of the chief difficulties in the coloniza- tion of California was the absence of women. Men came as soldiers and adventurers, but no women came, save those that were already married to the settlers of the pueblos. Gov-
114
History of Los Angeles.
ernor Borica repeatedly urged the viceroy to send a shipload of healthy, respectable young women to become the wives of the male set- tlers. The request was never complied with, whence we may infer either that women were scarce in Mexico or that they were unwilling to experiment with this extra hazardous form of the matrimonial lottery.
The Spanish land grant system in Califor- nia had its beginning about the time of the founding of Los Angeles, and the first tracts taken up were in the vicinity of that city. Shortly after Fages became governor, appli- cation was made to him for a grant of land to be used for stock-raising, and he applied to the commandant general for instructions. He was told that he might give land to individ- uals in areas not to exceed three leagues square, so located as not to interfere with the rights of any existing mission or pueblo. The grantee was obliged to improve the place and put stock upon it, and to set up landmarks showing its extent. Under this arrangement, in 1784, the San Rafael ranch was granted to Jose Maria Verdugo, a tract which was de- scribed as across the river and four leagues distant from Los Angeles. In the same year Manuel Nieto received all the land between the Santa Ana and the San Gabriel rivers, from the sea to the hill land. The adjoining tract on the east side of the Santa Ana was given to Antonio Yorba in 1810. In 1784 Fages
115
In the Spanish Province.
ยท granted to Juan Jose Dominguez the tract along the ocean at San Pedro and up the es- tuary half way to Los Angeles. Lastly, at about the same time, the Encina ranch, a tract northwest of the city, was granted to Fran- cisco Reyes, but this was later, in 1797, taken away from him and given to the new mission of San Fernando, founded at that time. The fact that the Encina grant was revoked with- out any apparent protest on the part of its owner, notwithstanding that he had made im- provements upon it, evidences the uncertainty of the tenure as well as the small value at- tached to land at that time.
CHAPTER XII.
EXIT SPAIN.
C HE FIRST decade of the nineteenth century, which was for Europe a time of storm and stress, was for California a period of complete calm and quiet, and for Los Angeles-as far as the record shows-almost utter oblivion. During the second decade of the century, when peace and order were restored in Europe, the troubles of California began, culminating in 1821 in the revolution that made this a Mexi- can, instead of a Spanish province.
The Napoleonic wars, which tore the map of Europe to tatters, were scarcely noticed in this far-off corner of the world, and yet some of the effects that followed those wars bore heavily upon California. Although Napoleon was for a considerable period in complete con- trol of Spain, with his brother Joseph on the throne, the performances of the Corsican were regarded only with horror and aversion by the Spaniards in California, and prayers were regularly offered for the restoration of Fernando to his rightful possessions. But when the monster was safely caged, and the frightened monarchs were creeping back to their seats, the king of Spain returned to find the ancient colonial empire undermined by neglect and tottering to its fall. By 1810 the
Photo by Pierce
STATUE OF PADRE JUNIPERO SERRA-ERECTED AT MONTEREY
117
Exit Spain.
rebellion of Mexico was well under way, and by 1815 the spirit of revolt had spread up and down the South American coast. At the end of the second decade of the century it was practically all over, and Spain's American pos- sessions were reduced to Cuba and a few smaller islands.
On the resignation of Borica in 1800, Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga succeeded him as gov- ernor of California, and his rule extended through to 1814. He was a man of fair abili- ties and good intentions, but he lacked in en- ergy and perseverance. It is charged against him by some writers on this period that he was dominated by the padres, but this does not seem to be borne out either by his deeds or his utterances, although he exerted himself some- what more than his predecessors to keep on good terms with the mission authorities. There was ample justification for this policy in the conditions that had now come to pre- vail, for the wealth, energy and industry of the whole province seemed to center in these insti- tutions. The pueblos had been in existence a quarter of a century, and their development seemed to have come to a dead halt. In the ten years from 1800 to 1810 the population of Los Angeles increased only from 315 to 365. Its flocks and herds diminished during that period, and its crops showed no particular im- provement. Conditions at San Jose were even less promising, and as for Branciforte, it would
118
History of Los Angeles.
appear from the accounts that come down to us from all sources that the more it gained in population the more disreputable and worth- less it became. The pueblo plan of coloniza- tion apparently was not a success.
The missions, on the other hand, continued to increase in people and in the fruits of their toil. There were now about 20,000 Indians at work in these establishments under the guid- ance of padres who were as thrifty and intelli- gent in temporal matters as they were devout and conscientious in spiritual. Each mission was a veritable hive of industry, and the com- bined products of the whole system, small at first but presently increasing, represented whatever of wealth and prosperity there was to the credit of the province. The time was now almost at hand when this was to be demon- strated by an unquestionable form of proof : viz., the missions were to support the govern- ment of the province. Possibly Arrillaga fore- saw this contingency, and was preparing for it. At all events he interfered but little with the affairs of the padres, and in all his acts seemed to favor the mission plan of government for the natives.
The events of the decade, 1800 to 1810, that are of record relating to Los Angeles, are so brief and meager as easily to be told. In 1805 the first American ship, so far as known, came to San Pedro. It was the Lelia Byrd, Captain Shaler, which in previous years had
119
Exit Spain.
hovered about the coast, and after a trip to the Hawaiian islands now returned to California and ran into the harbor of Avalon, in Catalina. In his account of the voyage Shaler says that he found the island inhabited by about one hundred and fifty Indians, who were very friendly. After repairing his vessel he came across to San Pedro, where he obtained sup- plies in the shape of hogs and sheep, paid for in Yankee manufactured products. This was probably the first taste the people of Los An- geles had of the contraband trade, for all trade with foreign ships was contrary to law. But from this time forth Yankee traders came often to San Pedro, at first in search of otter skins-an animal that has since been practi- cally extermniated in this region-and later for hides and tallow.
Another mission was founded in 1804, this being the nineteenth. It was located at Santa Ines, in Santa Barbara county. About this time there was some discussion over the estab- lishment of a mission on Catalina island, but a severe attack of the measles among the In- dians of the channel left Catalina almost with- out population, and the project was abandoned.
In 1806 a new form of agricultural industry was taken up, in the growing of hemp, an ar- ticle for which there was a good demand from Spain. It was found that the labor required for its culture could be readily obtained from the Indians, and many of the colonists at the pueb-
120
History of Los Angeles.
los and presidios abandoned wheat and took up hemp. The product rapidly increased from only 1850 pounds in 1806 to 12,500 in 1807, 89,000 in 1808 and 120,000 in 1810. By this time the crop was paying the growers over $20,000 a year, which was an enormous sum for the time and the region. Suddenly the demand ceased and nearly 100,000 pounds of the last crop was thrown back on the hands of the growers. The revolution had broken out in Mexico; Spanish trade was interrupted, and the colonists lacked the energy and intelligence to open new opportunities for its transporta- tion. In the midst of the furore over hemp- growing, which prevailed more actively at Los Angeles than anywhere else in the province, an interesting question of the legal status of the neophyte as a laborer developed-a sort of a California Dred-Scott case. The settlers had obtained one hundred neophytes from the mis- sion of San Juan Capistrano to labor in their hemp fields, but they were, for some reason, recalled by the mission authorities. The Los Angeles people thereupon besought their al- calde to issue a writ commanding that the neo- phytes be turned over to them, and the affair thus came up to the governor and the presi- dent of the missions. It was held that the col- onists had no right to the labor of the neo- phytes, if it was against their will to work at Los Angeles, which it must have been assumed was the cause of their return to San Juan. It
MISSION OF SANTA INES
Photo by Pierce
121
Exit Spain.
was furthermore held that the neophytes were entitled to religious instruction and care, which they could not receive at the pueblo.
During this decade there was some trouble between the San Fernando padres and the peo- ple of Los Angeles on the question of the use of the water of the Los Angeles river. The padres were accused of diverting some of the water by means of a dam above the Cahuenga. It was held by the governor that all the water in the river belonged to the colonists, and that if the dam constructed by the padres interfered with the pueblo's supply it must be removed.
In 1805 there was a pest of locusts that de- stroyed a large part of the crop; and in 1807, and again in 1809, there was a dry season. Al- though weather reports were sent in from vari- ous parts of the province to the governor, and were made matters of record, it is impossible to say what the actual rainfall was, because rain guages were then unknown in this region.
Through most of this period Sergeant Ja- vier Alvarado acted as comisionado and main- tained order as best he could. His reports show that gambling, drunkenness, and all forms of bad behavior were largely on the in- crease. Each year an alcalde and two regi- dores were elected, the three forming a sort of a town council that enjoyed considerable dig- nity, but not much power.
We come now to the period from 1810 to 1820, which was the era of the rebellion in
122
History of Los Angeles.
Mexico, culminating at last in the overthrow of the Spanish power and the establishment of the Mexican empire with Iturbide at its head, this to be followed almost immediately by the Mexican republic. Through this long contest California sided with Spain against the rebels, giving the mother country, however, no as- sistance, save an insubstantial moral support. The yoke of Spain had never rested very heavily upon the Spanish province. The sup- pression of commerce and of business enter- prise brought about by Spain's antiquated and illiberal methods, while it strikes the modern reader as quite intolerable, was a matter of small consequence to these idle and thriftless people. The higher officials and the padres were, almost without exception, Spaniards by birth, and conservatives by training and incli- nation. A few seditious documents found their way into the province, but they were promptly seized and destroyed; and until the official announcement finally reached Mon- terey that the revolution was complete, no one of consequence in California believed that the rebels could succeed.
There was, however, one very tangible piece of evidence presented, by which these far-off loyalists might have known that some- thing serious was happening. The pay and supplies for the army, for the padres and for the governor and his civil staff came to a sud- den end with the year 1811, and in spite of a
123
Exit Spain.
vast amount of hoping and longing and pray- ing, they never came again. The annual pay roll of the army and civil list in California footed up to nearly $80,000, to which must be added supplies sent each year, or purchased from the missions with drafts on the Spanish authorities at Mexico, at a cost of $20,000 more. The total sum, therefore, was over $100,000. The revenues of the country amounted to barely $12,000, which was used in its entirety for other forms of local expense. The province was still on the wrong side of the ledger, as far as Spain was concerned.
This was the beginning of an era of hard times for California, and they grew harder and more desperate as the years passed with no relief. Even the Spanish trading vessels failed to come to the coast, fearing the Mexi- can and South American privateers, and the only chance for Californians to sell their pro- ducts, or to buy what they needed, was through contraband trade with foreigners. This was the commencement of open com- merce with American ships.
Something had to be done to supply the army with food, and the local government with cash, so the governor turned to the mis- sions. They had plenty of wheat and live stock, and not a little coin put away in their strong boxes. He would pay for everything with drafts on Spain through the Mexican of- fice, to be presented whenever this war with
124
History of Los Angeles.
the rebels was over. The padres objected and complained a good deal at first, but in the end they came to regard it as a proper sacrifice to their patriotism and their veneration for "His most Catholic majesty." At the close of the epoch, the good padres held over $400,000 worth of drafts-utterly valueless save as me- mentoes of a duty bravely performed.
In 1814 Arrillaga died and was succeeded by Pablo Vicente de Sola, a Spaniard and an officer of the royal army. Although Spain could not afford to pay her soldiers nor pro- vide supplies, she was still able to fill the of- fices of the province. Of all the Spanish gov- ernors of California, Sola was the one least qualified for the work, and the position came to him at a time when it was surrounded by difficulties. He was ill-natured, peevish and fussy, and was possessed of an exalted idea of his own importance.
In 1818 a hostile movement was under- taken against California, coming not from the rebels of Mexico, but from a privateer of Buenos Ayres, where also there was a rebel- lion in progress against Spain. The expedi- tion, which consisted of two vessels, was led by a Frenchman named Bouchard, who was generally spoken of by the Californians as a pirate. He attacked Monterey, which he cap- tured and destroyed. Three of his men were there taken prisoners, one of whom was Joseph Chapman, the first American resident
Photo by Pierce
MISSION OF SAN JOSE
125
Exit Spain.
of the Los Angeles region. Bouchard then came south, landing near Santa Barbara, where he sacked the Ortega ranch house, and at San Juan Capistrano, where he visited the mission and captured some wine and brandy. This ended the episode, which was California's only active experience with the rebellion.
In the month of March, 1822, a vessel ar- rived from Mexico, bringing official notice to the governor that the Spanish power was at an end in Mexico, and that Iturbide was on the throne as emperor. Sola immediately summoned a gathering of the principal offi- cers of California, including the president of the missions. It was decided to take the oath of allegiance to the new government, and await further developments. Spain had been practically dead, as far as California was con- cerned, for ten years, and the change of gov- ernment involved no disturbance in material affairs, and probably but little shock to the sentiments of the people of the province.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PUEBLO BEGINS TO GROW.
OTWITHSTANDING the hard times inflicted upon California by the Mexi- can rebellion, the pueblo very nearly doubled its population in the decade from 1810 to 1820, and in the next decade very nearly doubled again. In 1810 there were about 350 people in and around Los Angeles, and by 1830 this number had grown to over 1200. The holders of land grants in the vicinity of the pueblo regarded themselves as citizens, and, indeed, they were under the jurisdiction of the town council, or ayun- tamiento, with reference to their local affairs. In this respect Spain and Mexico followed the ancient Roman custom, whereby the town governed the surrounding country.
This growth came largely from the natural increase of families. Life in the pueblo, al- though primitive, and without many elements of luxury, or even of comfort, from a modern point of view, had the one great advantage that starvation was well nigh impossible, even to the most improvident. There was an abund- ant supply of land for cultivation, and Indian laborers were cheap and plentiful. Cattle roamed over the plains in such vast numbers that the price of meat was almost nothing. On the ranches it was not required of a man
127
The Pueblo Begins to Grow.
that he should actually work to obtain sub- sistence; all that was necessary was that he should "hang around." Under such easy con- ditions of life there would be a natural ten- dency toward a rapid increase of population, and large families, or at least a large birth rate, was the rule in California during this pe- riod. This was, however, partially offset by the extremely unsanitary methods of living that prevailed, the absence of medical knowl- edge, and the frequent incursions of smallpox and other malignant disorders.
Los Angeles still continued to serve as the "Soldiers' Home" of this military district, al- though, as the army was now recruited largely from the province, there was no gain of Span- ish population from this source. The only im- migration received from Mexico was of a most unsatisfactory character. A shipload of foundlings and orphaned children from the asylums in the City of Mexico was accepted in Los Angeles without any serious objection, but when the viceroy, and afterwards the Mexican republic authorities undertook to make this region a dumping ground for crim- inals, and introduced "transportation to the Californias" as a form of punishment for the worst offenses, the various governors pro- tested with great vigor; and while they were not able to prevent the occasional shipment of a few undesirable characters, the practice was never carried out on a wholesale scale. Those who did come, however, devoted their perni-
128
History of Los Angeles.
cious energies to the work of demoralizing the whole community, and the success they achieved must have given them a high degree of satisfaction.
Land for actual cultivation, either in or near the pueblo, was to be had almost for the asking, and yet a list of land owners and of landless persons in Los Angeles district made out by the local authorities in 1816 shows that a considerable element of the population was entirely willing to get along without assuming the burden of ownership. Out of a total of ninety-one heads of families seven were own- ers of large ranches or grants in the vicinity of the city; twenty were bona fide land own- ers in the pueblo, and twenty-four worked the commons. The latter had claims which, in due course of time, matured into ownership. This left forty to be entered as landless. Of these, twenty-five are said to work for others on their land, and the remaining fifteen sim- ply existed. They are oppressed by no acres of their own, neither will they toil for anyone else. Happy fifteen! It is a hard commen- tary on the character of the city's poulation at that time that four-ninths, or nearly one- half, lacked the energy to attempt farming on their own account, even under such favorable conditions, and that one-sixth had to be classed as no account at all.
Among land owners at this time we find only one of the original settlers of Los An- geles, Manuel Camero, the mulatto. There
129
The Pueblo Begins to Grow.
is a son of Navarro, the tailor, and a descend- ant of Basilio Rosas. The names of the other original colonists fail to appear anywhere in the list. This is only thirty-five years after the founding of the pueblo.
The instructions issued by Borica, near the close of the century, that the colonists should set out vines and fruit trees, seem to have been obeyed, at least as far as vines were concerned, for by 1817 there were over 100 acres of vineyard in and about the pueblo, and the manufacture of wine and brandy had begun on a considerable scale. Indeed, a few years later, the mission authorities complained to the governor that the citizens were being demoralized by this pursuit, as their local pa- triotism and their desire to patronize home in- dustry caused them to consume a large part of the product, and drunkenness was in a fair way to be set up as a civic virtue.
In the year 1817 appears the first record of a school in Los Angeles city. It is possible that instruction may have been attempted for a short period prior to this time, but evidently not with much success, or some one would have made note of the fact. Governor Sola believed in education, and promoted the es- tablishment of schools in all parts of the province. Not content with organizing a boys' school at Monterey, he even established a school for girls, which was a radical depart- ure that must have caused a vast amount of wonder and foreboding.
130
History of Los Angeles.
The school at Los Angeles lasted only about a year, to be followed by a vacation of ten years. It was in charge of a retired sol- dier named Maximo Pina, who received $140 a year for his services. We have no detailed description of the school or of its master, but it is reasonable to suppose that it was of the same general character as the schools in the other towns at this time. Those at Monterey were fully described by some of the scholars after they had grown to manhood. The pic- ture they present is a horrible one, but there is no reason to suppose it overdrawn. The teacher was almost invariably an old soldier, brutal, drunken, bigoted, and, except that he could read and write, ignorant. The school room was dark and dirty, and the pupils all studied aloud. The master's ferule was in constant use, even for blots on the writing pa- per or mistakes in reading. Serious offenses, such as laughing aloud or playing truant, or failure to learn the doctrina (catechism), were punished by use of the scourge, a bundle of hempen cords, sometimes having small iron points fastened into the ends of the lashes. It was a horrible instrument, that drew blood, and, if used with severity, left a scar for life. The only volumes used for reading were the books of religious formulae, which the pupils used cordially to hate all through their later life, for the torments of scourging they re- called.
In most of the Roman Catholic countries
131
The Pueblo Begins to Grow.
of Europe, schools were first organized through the church, and throughout the middle ages the clergy were almost the only learned class. It is a matter for natural com- ment and surprise that in the half century of mission activity in California nothing was done by the Franciscans for the cause of edu- cation. Why were no schools for the colon- ists opened at any of the misions, or, if that were not feasible, why did not the padres, who were, for the most part, fairly well educated, exhibit some interest in the schools opened by the settlers in the pueblos? Their attitude on this important question seems not only repre- hensible, but it is even difficult to explain. We may suppose that the padres considered their undivided energies were due to the Indians, for whose conversion the order had set up these establishments in the wilderness; but such reasoning does not, of course, justify their attempt to ignore the thousands of peo- ple of their own race and nationality that had come into the province.
The year 1812 was signalized by a series of earthquakes all over California. The roof of the principal church building at San Juan Capistrano fell in, crushing forty neophytes. This structure, although large and imposing, was probably not built to stand much of a strain. The buildings at Purisima were de- stroyed, and at San Gabriel some small damage was done. Los Angeles escaped uninjured, there being no two-story buildings as yet.
132
History of Los Angeles.
In 1815 there was an excessive rainfall and a flood. The Los Angeles river left its bed and moved over toward the pueblo, running along San Fernando street to Alameda, and thence past the town. In 1825 came a still greater flood, when the river returned to its original channel-its present course-leaving an un- derground flow that came up in marshy springs on the Avila place, near the present site of the Kerckhoff-Cuzner mills. The worst part of the freshet came in the night time, and the roar of the water so terrified the people that they left their homes and went up on the hills above Buena Vista street. Prior to 1825 there had been considerable woodland between the city and the ocean, which the flood de- stroyed by cutting a definite channel for the river and draining the marshland where the trees grew.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.