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Victoria, who succeeded Echeandia, was friendly to the padres and the mission system. He denounced the proposed plan of seculariza- tion as a scheme to despoil these useful estab- lishments and dissipate their property.
There is little doubt that when Figueroa was sent to California by the Mexican author- ities he understood what was expected of him, and that he was himself a sincere advocate of the plan of secularization. He was an honor- able man, however, and, as a rule, clear- headed, and it is safe to say that if he could have foreseen the rascality this plan would bring into play-the destruction of the In- dians and the demoralization of the forces of the church-he would never have given it countenance.
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The Ruin of the Missions.
The Mexican congress passed the first for- mal decree of secularization in 1833. The missions were to become parish churches, their property, with the exception of a small tract, 600 feet square, to be divided among the Indians and any other settlers that might choose to take it up. Provision was made for a bishop for the territory. The expense of maintaining these churches and the bishopric was to be met by drafts on the "Pious Fund."
It will be remembered that when the Jesuits founded the missions of Lower Califor- nia, in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury, they raised a considerable fund for their maintenance. The investments of this fund passed into the hands of Mexico, with the suc- cess of the rebellion from Spain. The annual income of the fund at this time was about $50,- 000, but no payments had been made to the California missions since about 1810. To draw on a fund originally subscribed for missionary work to pay for parish establishments was evi- dently illegal, but not more so than the fre- quent borrowing from this fund by the Mexi- can government, and its ultimate complete confiscation.
Figueroa transmitted the decree of the Mexican congress to the local legislature with a message in which he declared his belief that the missions were "intrenchments of monastic despotism." The governor had a strong humanitarian sentiment, and was pos- sessed, moreover, of some Indian blood; and
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the stories he had heard of the harsh treat- ment of the neophytes by the padres aroused in him a bitter prejudice. He little suspected how much worse a fate he was preparing for the unhappy Indians.
The first decree was found to be incom- plete, and a year later the Mexican congress acted again, and the California legislature fol- lowed. Commissioners were appointed for each of the missions, whose duty it was to take an inventory of the stock, utensils and real estate of each, to inform the Indians that they were free, to distribute the land among the neophytes much after the manner in which it was distributed to the settlers of the pueblos, and to appoint in each establishment a major-domo, who should see that the Indians were kept in order, and their rights respected by the padres. Seed corn and farming uten- sils were to be given to the Indians, and they were to be urged to go to work and support themselves.
The commissioners set out in the month of August, 1834, and, under their stupid, and fre- quently corrupt, mismanagement, the mar- velous mission system of California, which it had taken half a century of industry, self- sacrifice and pious devotion to build up, was, within an incredibly short period of time, thrown down and broken to fragments. It is perhaps questionable whether any plan could have been devised by which the Indians,
MISSION OF SAN RAFAEL
From an Old Print
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The Ruin of the Missions.
whose daily life and occupation had been con- trolled by the padres as though they were chil- dren, could have been made independent and self-reliant, but scarcely any policy could have been worse than the one adopted. The
commissioners, instead of asking the advice and co-operation of the padres, treated the lat- ter as though they were a band of robbers, whose booty was about to be wrenched away. The Indians were called together, and in- formed with dramatic gusto that they were free, and might go where they pleased-a privilege which they translated to mean idle- ness and debauchery. Thousands of them ran away to the mountains and relapsed into savagery. Others wandered about from one mission to another, and finally brought up in the towns or on the ranches, where they worked for small pay, part in cash and part in brandy. The effort to form them into pueblos was an almost complete failure. If land was given them they made haste to sell or mort- gage it, and to put the proceeds into liquor. And all this was due not so much to the innate depravity of the race, nor to the teaching of the padres-incomplete and impolitic as that may have been-as it was to the shock of the sudden release from all bonds of restraint, and to the poverty and wretchedness that fol- lowed.
The property of the missions, the stock, lands, utensils, and finally the buildings them- selves, all melted away through the combined
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incompetency and corruption of the adminis- trators. The cattle were slaughtered in great numbers, or were driven off to neighboring ranches; the lands were sold at low figures or given out in grants. The industrial buildings were looted, and then left to fall into decay.
The census of the later years of mission rule showed for the twenty-one establishments (San Rafael, 1817, and San Francisco Solano, 1823, are now to be added to the list) a total of 30,000 neophytes, 420,000 cattle, 60,000 horses and mules, 320,000 sheep and hogs, and an annual product of about 40,000 bushels of grain. At San Gabriel, which was one of the richest of the missions, there were nearly 100,- 000 cattle, and in two years none were left. The plain for miles in every direction was cov- ered with the rotting carcasses, so that a pesti- lence was feared.
Left to themselves, and utterly dazed at the fall of the establishments in which they had been reared, the Indians planted no crops; and the government, which had come to depend upon the mission supplies, found itself in an awkward case. The commissioners declared that nothing could be done with the Indians except through coercion, and thus presently there came to be a tacit understanding that the major-domos, or overseers, were somehow to bring the neophytes back to their industrious ways. This meant a renewal of the flogging practices at which the authorities had mani- fested so much horror when the mission sys-
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The Ruin of the Missions.
tem was in force. Then came dreadful stories of Indians beaten to death, and of women and children allowed to starve, of the frequent shooting down of Indians by the white colon- ists, and of misery and degradation all along the line of the once prosperous establish- ments.
In 1839 Governor Alvarado appointed Wil- liam F. P. Hartnell, an American, to make the round of the missions, report on their condi- tion, and advise what should be done. His report is a sorrowful document. Barely one- eighth of the Indians are left, he estimates, liv- ing in or about the missions-which means that 25,000 of them had disappeared. While he makes no direct charges of corruption against the commissioners, it is plainly evident that he understands what wholesale robbery had been committed. In the matter of the flogging he suggests that the curates, or resi- dent padres, be allowed to take charge of that -an interesting admission. His investiga- tion finally brought him to such utter dis- couragement that after a year and a half of service he begged the governor to relieve him from the work.
A few years later, when Pio Pico, the last of the Mexican governors, was beginning his short and troubled term, an order was issued for the sale of the last remnants of the mission properties, to meet, in most cases, the demands of creditors-for, in addition to robbing them of everything that was tangible, the commis-
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sioners had actually brought the establish- ments out in debt-and all the buildings, ex- cept those in active use for church purposes, were sold to the highest bidder. With this last melancholy flicker the mission system of California, which was one of the most unique and remarkable institutions ever founded on the American continent, went out in the dark- ness of utter ruin.
MISSION OF SOLEDAD
Photo by Vroman
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FOREIGNER ARRIVES.
C HE SPANISH theory of the colony : that it existed solely for the use and benefit of the mother country, was ex- emplified in the laws respecting for- eigners. Neither China nor Japan, in the years of their greatest exclusiveness, was more tightly closed to outsiders than was Cali- fornia in the years of Spanish rule. This pol- icy did not prevail in Spain itself. Strangers possessed of satisfactory passports from their own countries might travel at will within her boundaries. The dependencies, however, were guarded with a jealous eye, evidently in the fear that they might be enticed from their al- legiance to the mother country.
Little difficulty was experienced in main- taining this policy with regard to California during the first forty or fifty years of Spanish occupancy, for the reason that there was no inducement for foreigners to attempt to visit the country. It was entirely out of the regular line of ocean travel, and great deserts and hostile tribes of Indians shut it off from the people of the new republic to the east. At rare intervals an American vessel would be seen along the coast-about once in ten years. Gov- ernor Pedro Fages, who succeeded De Neve, the founder of Los Angeles, was greatly dis-
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History of Los Angeles.
turbed in 1787 by the presence of a boat which he thought was "owned by General Waugh- engton"-such being his idea of the spelling of our first president's name. English and French explorers, coming ยท with the official recognition of the home government of Spain, were afforded every courtesy, but all traders were warned to keep away from the coast.
This rule of absolute exclusion was broken at last in 1814, when John Gilroy, an English- man, landed from a trading vessel and an- nounced his intention of remaining. He was little more than a boy, and perhaps for that reason his presence was not regarded with much apprehension. He declared himself a Catholic, and asked to be entered as a citizen of the country. In 1820 his request was for- mally granted, and he married into a Califor- nia family. Shortly afterward Philip James, an American, was received under the name of Felipe Santiago; and an Irishman was entered with the very un-Irish name of Juan Maria. In 1816 an American schooner was driven into Santa Barbara, and the captain and five sailors, after a brief period of imprisonment, were re- ceived as citizens.
The first American to settle in the vicinity of Los Angeles was Joseph Chapman, whom the native Californians called "Jose el Ingles." He came with Bouchard, the privateer, whose capture of Monterey has been described in an earlier portion of this narrative. He was at first treated as a prisoner of war, but, proving
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The Foreigner Arrives.
himself useful-for he was a man of extraordi- nary ingenuity and resource-he was freed and accepted into citizenship. He married Guada- lupe Ortega, of the Santa Barbara family, whose ranch house was destroyed by Bouch- ard. Stephen C. Foster, who was a promi- nent man in Los Angeles at the time the Amer- icans took possession of California, and who died recently in this city, was accustomed to tell an interesting and romantic story of the capture of Chapman at Santa Barbara, and of his rescue from death by Guadalupe, but this was pure imagination with the person that originated it, for Chapman left the Bouchard party of his own accord at Monterey. Padre Zalvidea of San Gabriel, who was one of the cleverest industrial managers developed by the mission system, early recognized the possibil- ities of the versatile stranger, and made a friend and co-worker of him. He built for Zalvidea the first successful water power grist- mill to be operated in California. Attempts had been made before, but the water wheel al- ways threw moisture all over the grist. The Yankee Chapman introduced the bevel gearing to get around this difficulty. The mill was slow, but it was a great improvement over hand grinding, or the mill which the horse turned.
Chapman and the Indians, working under his direction, prepared most of the timbers that were used in the construction of the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, on the Plaza, and as
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these same timbers were used in the remodel- ing of 1861, his work still stands for the service of the present generation. In 1831 Chapman took charge of the construction of a schooner for the padres at San Gabriel, to be used in the business of otter hunting. With the aid of the Indians he prepared various parts and fitted them together in the workshops of the mission. They were then carried down to the ocean at San Pedro, put together again, and the boat was launched amid great rejoicing. While this craft was scarcely suitable in ap- pearance and speed for international racing, perhaps, it served well the purpose for which it was constructed, and was the second boat to be built in California. Chapman died in 1849, after thirty years of active and serviceable life. A descendant of his still resides in this county. The Americans who now occupy this region are entitled to pride themselves on the fact that the first one of their people to come on the ground was a man who exemplified in his energy, skill and integrity, the very best qual- ities of the national character.
When the republic of Mexico assumed con- trol of California it adopted, without much change, the Spanish rule with regard to for- eigners. But a new factor had entered in the shape of foreign trade, which, during the latter years of the revolution, had be- come a necessity, all Spanish trade hav- ing ceased, and there being none from Mexico to take its place. Presently the
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The Foreigner Arrives.
American trading companies that bought the hides and tallow from the missions found it necessary to establish local agencies at Mon- terey, the capital; and in the decade from 1820 to 1830 a number of Americans became settlers on this basis, with no one seemingly disposed to object.
During this same period there came into California the first overland travelers-the advance guard of the great army of immigra- tion that was presently to overwhelm and take possession of the country. Although this was only 75 years ago, there was at this time a great strip of country beginning a short dis- tance back from the Pacific coast and running nearly a thousand miles to the east, covering more than one-fourth of the present area of the United States, that was practically unex- plored. There were no maps nor charts for the traveler's guidance, and no protection from the attack of warlike savages, save in one's ability to defend himself. On that side the Californians had thought themselves im- pregnable, and when the first overland par-
ties arrived, the shock of astonishment and anger was to them almost like a presentiment of the inevitable. They had become entirely accustomed to the foreigners entering by the sea. They welcomed them as traders and tol- erated them as citizens. But the foreigners creeping in over the mountains were enemies, whose advent was fiercely resented.
The first party consisted of fifteen trappers,
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History of Los Angeles.
under the command of Jedediah S. Smith, who came down the Colorado river from Salt Lake to San Gabriel and Los Angeles in 1826. They were promptly ordered out of the country, but became scattered, and several of them re- mained, although their leader went back. In 1828 a party of eight, led by Sylvester Pattie, a Kentuckian, and later by his son, James O. Pattie, came into California by way of New Mexico and Arizona, arriving first at San Di- ego. Three members of the party settled in Los Angeles, Nathaniel Prior, Richard Laugh-
lin and Jesse Furguson.
They had passports
from the American authorities, but Governor Echeandia received them with great harsh- ness. According to the account given by the younger Pattie, and subsequently published in book form, he tore up the passports and threw the trappers into prison. The elder Pat- tie died while in confinement, and the younger was liberated after nearly a year in jail, when it was discovered that he knew how to per- form vaccination. The other members of the party were also freed. Prior, a silversmith, married one of the Sepulveda family, and was for many years active in Los Angeles affairs. Laughlin, a joiner, owned a vineyard east of Alameda street. Furguson had a store on Main street, near the Plaza, during 1828 and 1829, and then went to Lower California to live.
About this time came George Rice and John Temple. They opened a store for gen-
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The Foreigner Arrives.
eral merchandise on the spot where the Dow- ney block now stands-then the extreme southern limit of the town. Temple was a leading commercial and financial man of Los Angeles-an older brother of F. P. F. Temple of the Temple & Workman bank. His part- nership with Rice ceased in 1831, and from that time until 1845 he conducted the store alone. In 1857 he built the southern portion of the Temple block. Two years later he built on the site where the Bullard block now stands a building which he intended for a market house and theater, but which was finally pur- chased by the county to use as a court house. He died in San Francisco in 1866. John Tem- ple was a native of Massachusetts; he mar- ried Dona Rafaela Cota in 1830.
In 1827 came J. D. Leandry, who for a time conducted a store on the south side of the Plaza. He afterwards purchased the "Los Coyotes" ranch, dying in 1842.
The famous Abel Stearns-universally called "Don Abel Stearns"-came in 1828. The title "Don" was bestowed by Americans, as well as Californians, upon a few of the earl- iest immigrants who had married into the fam- ilies of the country, and who were so thor- oughly identified with the Spanish population as to seem to the later comers to be like na- tives. Don Abel was a man who would have made his mark at any time and in any com- munity. He began with merchandising in a store located where the Baker block now
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History of Los Angeles.
stands, and where later he erected a home so large and elegant that it was called by the people of the town "the palace of Don Abel Stearns." He had a natural talent for making money, and there was no line of business in which he did not, at one time or another, take a hand. At his death he was the largest indi- vidual landowner-not in number of acres, but in valuation-in the southern half of the state. He married Dona Arcadia, daughter of Don Juan Bandini. After the death of Don Abel she married Col. R. S. Baker, who died several years ago. She is still living and in control of large property interests in and around Los Angeles.
On Christmas day, 1828, the American brig Danube was wrecked at San Pedro, and Los Angeles received several settlers from the crew. One of these was Samuel Prentiss, who afterward engaged in otter hunting on Cata- lina island, and died there in 1856. Another was John Groningen, or Juan Domingo, as he was generally known among Californians who found difficulty with the pronunciation of his German name. He married a Feliz, and ac- quired a large vineyard at the corner of First and Alameda streets. He purchased from the city the original site of Yang-na, the Indian vil- lage, and expelled the few savages that still remained in that vicinity. The place had be- come a sink-hole of filth and iniquity, and its clearance was a necessity.
As Groningen was the first German, so
RUINS OF OLD PURISIMA
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The Foreigner Arrives.
Louis Bouchette was the first Frenchman. He had a vineyard on Macy street, and a house near the site of the Baker block. Another Frenchman coming at about the same time, 1831, was Jean Vignes, who owned the Aliso vineyard.
William Wolfskill, a Kentucky trapper, ar- rived in Los Angeles overland in 1831. He married into the Lugo family, and, securing a large tract of land to the southeast of town- since known as the Wolfskill ranch, or Wolf- skill tract-he set it out to vines. There were at this time a few orange trees at each of the missions in the southern part of the state, and Wolfskill determined to raise the fruit on a larger scale. He therefore laid out two acres of his ranch in 1841 to oranges, and is entitled to be known as the pioneer American orange grower of California. In 1860 he had over 100 acres in oranges.
James, or Santiago, Mckinley, a Scotch- man, came in 1831, and engaged in business until 1846. He took a hand in several of the revolutions.
Jonathan Trumbull Warner, known as Juan Jose Warner, arrived in Los Angeles in 1831, overland. He was a native of Connecti- cut, and for a space of over sixty years he holds an important place in the history of this region, not only because he was active in poli- tical and industrial affairs, but also because he was an observant man, and possessed the faculty of recording what he saw and heard.
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History of Los Angeles.
In 1840 he returned to the east for the purpose of urging the construction of a railway to the Pacific coast. He was one of the earliest ad- vocates of that project. He lived for many years on his ranch in San Diego county, but the latter part of his life was spent at his resi- dence in this city, located on the site of the Burbank theater. He died in 1895.
The pioneers of 1832 were Juan Isaac Wil- liams, a trapper, who married into the Lugo family, and for a long time owned the Chino ranch; and Lemuel Carpenter, who established a soap factory on the road to San Gabriel. Those of 1833 were Santiago Johnson, an Eng- lishman, who conducted a ranch in the vicin- ity of San Pedro, and Jacob P. Leese, who car- ried on a merchandise business in Los Ange- les for several years and then went north.
In 1834 came Hugo Reid, a Scotchman, who married an Indian woman of the San Ga- briel mission. In 1852 he contributed to the Los Angeles Star an important series of arti- cles on Indian manners and customs. In 1835 Henry Mellus, who appears in Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," settled in Los Ange- les, whither he was followed, four years later, by his brother Francis. Both were in the firm of Mellus, Howard & Co. Henry served as Mayor of Los Angeles in 1860.
In 1835 came Leon I. Prudhomme, a Frenchman, who acquired the Cucamonga ranch. In 1836 John Marsh, a physician, set- tled in Los Angeles. His letters on the coun-
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The Foreigner Arrives.
try were published in Missouri and Michigan newspapers, and stimulated immigration. In the same year came John Forster, an English- man, who married the sister of Pio Pico, and who purchased the ex-mission ranch of San Juan Capistrano. He died in 1884.
In 1841 the first notable immigration party arrived in Los Angeles, starting from Pennsyl- vania. Among its 40 members were several who were afterward active in local affairs. John Rowland, who settled at Puente; Wm. Workman, B. D. Wilson and D. W. Alexan- der. F. P. F. Temple came in this same year. From this time on Americans began to come in by the overland routes in considerable num- bers.
CHAPTER XVII.
LOCAL EVENTS OF MEXICAN RULE.
0 URING this period of its history Los Angeles was generally known as "The Pueblo"-its full title, El Pu- eblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles-being used only on official documents. There was a short time during which an effort was made to change the name to Santa Maria, as the theory seems to have prevailed that the name of the saint, as well as her title, was used in the original name of the town-thus, El Pueblo de Nuestra Se- nora, Santa Maria, la Reina de Los Angeles. There may have been a feeling that the origi- nal name was not quite long enough for the dignity to which the place was now attaining as a revolutionary center. In 1827 Los Ange- les had a narrow escape from an official change of name, but not to Santa Maria, however. The Mexican authorities complained that the name of the California city was frequently con- fused with that of the Puebla de Los Angeles, the capital of the Mexican state of Puebla, and the California legislature reported back advis- ing that the name be changed to Villa Victor- ia de la Reina de Los Angeles, the purpose evi- dently being to call it Victoria in everyday use. At the same time it was proposed to change the name of the territory from California to
LOS ANGELES
4
Photo by Crandall
INTERIOR OF CHURCH OF OUR LADY, AT THE PLAZA-MAY FESTIVAL DECORATIONS
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Local Events of Mexican Rule.
Moctezuma. The reason for this does not ap- pear. Fortunately the whole proposition was pigeon-holed in Mexico, and Los Angeles was allowed to hold its unique title. There are plenty of Victorias in the country, but only one Los Angeles. The first American settlers had the habit of calling the place "Angeles"- without the "Los."
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