The Herald's history of Los Angeles City

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GHNEIALOGY COLLECTION

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THr jnrPHi n'S

HLSTOPY or
LOS ANGELES CITY

Charles Dwight Willard.

December, 1901.

Kingsley-Barnes & Neuner Co., Publishers,

Los Angeles, Cal.

Copyrighted

By CHARI-ES DWIGHT WILLARD,

December, 1901.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO

FLORENCE WILLARD

BY HER FATHER.

table: of conteints.

CHAPTER PAGE

I Sons of the Soil 9

II The Edge of the Spanish Empire 18

III ViaCrucis 28

IV How Governor Portola came to Lios

Angeles 38

V The Banner of the Virgin 48

VI The Pueblo Plan 57

VII How Governor De Neve came to Los

Angeles 66

VIII The Roster of 1781 76

IX The Mission System 87

X Eighteenth Century L<os Angeles 97

XI In the Spanish Province 106

XII Exit Spain 116

XIII The Pueblo Begins to Grow 126

XIV The Epoch of Revolutions 136

XV The Ruin of the Missions 146

XVI The Foreigner Arrives 157

XVII Eocal Events of Mexican Rule 168

XVIII The Pastoral Age in California 179

XIX The Stars and Stripes 190

XX The Americans Enter Eos Angeles 201

XXI The East Revolution in Eos Angeles 212

XXII Eos Angeles Regained 223

XXIII The Pueblo is made American 235

XXIV California Enters the Union 246

XXV The City Takes Shape 257

XXVI The Beginning of Things 268

Contents.

XXVn Ivos Angeles at its Worst 279

XXVIII Between Old and New 289

XXIX In War Times 299

XXX The Coming of the Railway 310

XXXI The Epoch of the Boom 322

XXXII The Reorganization 333

XXXIII The Modern City 344

Index 355

preiface:.

The career of a city contains as much good mate-
rial, out of which an entertaining history may be con-
structed, as does the life of an individual, or the de-
velopment of a nation ; but, for some reason, it has
come to pass in America that the preparation of city,
or "local", history has usually fallen into the hands
of schemers who exploit the "prominent" citizen for
his biography, and throw in something of a narrative,
merely as an apology for the book's existence. The
volume thus produced is a huge unwieldy affair, that
circulates only among the hundred or two victims, and
is not read even by them, except as to the pages where
each one finds the story of his life set forth in a flam-
boyant and patronizing style. It not infrequently
happens that in the history portion of these monstros-
ities there will be found evidence of careful, conscien-
tious work on the part of the (usually anonymous)
writer, but it is buried under such a mass of rubbish,
and the volume itself enjoys such a limited circula-
tion, that the judicious reader grieves to see such good
labor wasted.

The experience of L/OS Angeles in the matter of
local history has been no different from that of other
American municipalities. Of these biographical
albums there has been no lack ; they have come in
cycles of every seven years. Two of these have been
— as far as the history portion is concerned — consider-
ably above the average standard. That of Thompson
& West, written by J, Albert Wilson, and appearing
in 1880, gave subsequent students cause of gratitude
for the amount of valuable material gathered together
and preserved. One published by the Chapman Com-
pany in 1900 contains a history written by that con-
scientious and devoted searcher in the local field, J.
M. Guinn, Secretary of the Los Angeles Historical
Society. Mr. Guinn's portion of the volume is an

Preface.

admirable piece of work, but the 780 pages of biog-
raphy that accompany it contribute to the document a
weight of ten pounds — and very little else.

The present book is an attempt to supply in conven-
ient and portable shape the material facts in the
history of lyos Angeles city. It contains nothing in
the form of paid or biographical matter (strange that
such a statement should be needed !), and it is offered
for sale at the bookshops on its merits as a book. The
writer lays no claim to any great amount of original
research, his work being chiefly that of collecting,
arranging and presenting in logical order the estab-
lished facts. As the volume employs only 80,000
words to cover a period of nearly a century and a half,
there is not much opportunity for detail work. It is,
however, carefully indexed.

The work was undertaken by the writer partly on
the suggestion of Mr. R. H. Chapman of the Ivos
Angeles Herald, and it was published during the
months from July to December (1901) in the Sunday
magazine of that excellent journal. It is for that
reason called the Herald's History of Los Angeles.

The writer desires to express his thanks to the fol-
lowing : Miss Anna B. Picher of Pasadena, who read
the manuscript, and assisted in collecting the pictures,
and whose advice and suggestions were of great value;
Homer P. Darle of the Stanford Faculty, who also
read the manuscript ; Mrs. J. D. Hooker, whose beauti-
ful collection of Mission photographs (never before
published) were placed at the author's service ; Miss
Jones, librarian, and Miss Beckley, her assistant ;
Harry E. Brook, W. S. Hogaboom, Miss Bertha H.
Smith, J. M. Guinn, D. O. Anderson, G. G. Johnson,
C. C. Pierce, and Putnam & Valentine.

CHAPTER I.

SONS OF THR SOII..

HE original name of Los Angeles was
Yang-na, and its population consisted
of about 300 human creatures
barely above the animal plane. They
were called Indians, a general term
bestowed by the discoverers of this continent
upon all aborigines, although those in Los An-
geles bore no more resemblance to the brave
and intellectual Iroquois and Tuscaroras than
the Turk does to his fellow-European in Lon-
don. They were undersized and squat in stat-
ure, of a dingy brown color, with small eyes,
flat noses, high cheek bones and large mouths.
The general cast of their features was Asiatic
rather than Indian, and although the trivial
character of their institutions, and the meager-
ness of their language makes it quite impos-
sible to classify them ethnologically, it is evi-
dent that they are more nearly related to the
Alaskan and Aleutian tribes that crossed from
Asia when the northern rim of the continent
was yet unbroken by the sea, than to the dis-
tinctively American Indian of the eastern
coast and the interior valleys.

The center of Yang-na was somewhere
about the corner of Commercial and Alameda
streets and it straggled south as far as First

10 History of Los Angeles.

street, and north to some point near Aliso.
California Indian villages had a habit of creep-
ing about, due to a peculiar, but, on the whole,
commendable practice of their residents. The
huts were small, insubstantial affairs, con
structed of light poles, bound together and in-
terlaced with twigs and tules. The dwellings
of the more fastidious were sometimes rough-
ly plastered with mud. Now when one of
these habitations was completely overrun
with parasitical insects of all sorts the house-
holder would order his wife to fill the place
with dry leaves and branches, and, having
himself secured a torch from the vanquech, or
temple, where the embers smouldered contin-
ually, but where women were not admitted,
he would then set fire to the house and cre-
mate its many-legged inhabitants. A new
dwelling was presently erected in the vicin-
ity of the old one ; sometimes it was built on
the same spot, as soon as the ashes were
cooled.

There were from 25 to 30 of these Indian
villages scattered about Los Angeles county,
the largest being at San Pedro or Wilmington,
which was said to contain 500 people. Prob-
ably 4000 of the aborigines were to be found in
the district bounded by the mountains, the
sea, and the San Gabriel river, this being one
of the most thickly settled portions of the
state. Each village was a tribe in itself, pos-
sessing its own chief, its specific manners and

Sons of the Soil. 11

customs, and, in many cases, its own individ-
ual language. There were not many of tKe
missionaries that took pains to study the In-
dian tongue, but one who did so declared that
there were seventeen absolutely distinct lan-
guages in Alta California, besides several hun-
dred different dialects, some of the latter be-
ing, in effect, separate languages. A few hun-
dred words comprised the whole of their vo-
cabulary, and their talk seemed to the Span-
iards to be made up of gruntings and slob-
berings.

The people of Yang-na were probably on
friendly terms with the people of the neigh-
boring villages — at Pasadena, San Gabriel,
Cahuenga and Clearwater. They were too
timid and too indolent to fight unless the occa-
sion was urgent. When some foreign tribe or
combination of tribes undertook to enter and
seize their lands, they would fight like rats in
a trap, for to leave their homes meant death.
They had bows and arrows that were well
made, and their marksmanship seemed to the
Spaniards extraordinary, but it was probably
no better than that of most savages. There
were sometimes bitter feuds between adjoin-
ing tribes that lasted for many generations,
but actual conflict seems to have been rare, a
peculiar ceremonial of cursing and extrava-
gant threats being substituted, as less danger-
ous and perhaps quite as gratifying. Captured
enemies after a real battle were put to death
with dreadful tortures.

12 History of Los Angeles.

Chieftainship was hereditary, and carried
with it the power to practice polygamy, which,
considering the extremely fragile nature of
the marriage vow, must have been of little ad-
vantage, even from the savage point of view,
except that it gave the chief more household
drudges, and allowed him to maintain a higher
degree of dignity. The older men of the vil-
lage were the chief's counselors, and met with
him in the temple to discuss questions of
state, which latter consisted, for the most part,
in setting the date for the next general rabbit
hunt, and arranging for the initiation of some
newly grown-up youth into the tribe. Decis-
ion on many of these matters was likely to be
left to the sorcerers, who formed a distinct
aristocratic class, quite as powerful as the
chief himself, and passed down their crude and
disgusting rites from one generation to an-
other. These were the spiritual guides and
physical guardians of the tribe, and it is diffi-
cult to say which was the worse, their religion
or their therapeutics. The primeval curse of
the savage lies not so much in his poverty as
in his superstition — in the unfortunate perver-
sions of his vacant mind.

The head of their scheme of religious be-
lief was a demi-god named Chinigchinich,
from whom the order of priests or sorcerers
was descended. Most of the legends connect-
ed with this being have been transmitted to
us through the memoranda left by Padre Ger-

Sons of the Soil. 13

onimo Boscana, who lived at San Juan Capis-
trano during the first quarter of the nineteenth
century, but the later historic criticism has de-
cided that either the good father drew some-
what on his imagination, or else he was im-
posed upon by the Indians from whom he se-
cured his alleged facts. The close resemblance
of the cosmogony which he outlines to that of
the ancient Greeks does not occur in any other
savage religion, and the delicate strain of
transcendentalism that runs through the leg-
ends, as the padre presents them, is entirely
out of keeping with the known limitations on
the Indians' intellect. The practical worship
of this divinity consisted of dances and slow
rhythmical jumpings about the sacred place or
vanquech. The sick were treated with lugu-
brious incantations, to which were added some
simple remedies. Rheumatism was treated
with blisters made by nettles. Inflammation
was met by blood-letting and the fever patient
received a huge bolus of wild tobacco. The
sweathouse was applied for lumbago, and also
as a general tonic, and to get rid of vermin.

The male inhabitants of Yang-na went en-
tirely naked, when the weather was warm,
and even on the coldest days of the year the
only garment likely to be worn was a cloak of
badly-tanned rabbit skins. The women were
partially covered, and were not without some
sense of modesty. Paint was liberally used on
the bodies of both sexes. As the houses were

14 History of Los Angeles.

not built to withstand the wind and rain, these
people must have suffered to some extent from
inclement weather, although not as severely
as the savages in less favored climates. Mor-
tality among them bore a close approximation
to the birth rate, and the population of Yang-
na varied little in number from year to year,
or, for that matter, from century to century.
The check on increase lay, however, not so
much in death from disease as in prospective
famine, which always operates as a natural de-
terrent on births among savage peoples. It
must be remembered that this region is by no
means luxuriant in its natural state. It does
not teem with animal and vegetable life as the
tropics do. Its rainfall is uncertain, and its
soil not extraordinarily rich. The California
Indian sowed nothing and cultivated nothing.
If, through the graciousness of nature, he was
nevertheless permitted to reap, he had not
even the judgment carefully to bestow what
he gathered, but after gorging himself to re-
pletion, he allowed the remainder to go to
waste. He found various edible seeds, among
them wild barley. He soaked and baked the
roots of the flag. Acorns he dried and ground
to powder, and filtered out the bitter by allow-
ing water to trickle through. This served him
as a kind of flour, but when the Spaniards tried
it, in some of their starving times, it made
them very ill. The Indians killed deer, coy-
otes, squirrels and snakes for food, and they

Sofis of the Soil. IS

caught fish. The flesh was eaten raw, or near-
ly so. Grasshoppers and even grubworms
were devoured in dry years.

The Indian man looked upon himself as
a hunter and warrior ; any other occupation
than these — unless he was a sorcerer and prac-
ticed medicine — he regarded as beneath his
dignity. At rare intervals he would go with
the tribe on a short expedition in search of
seeds and acorns, but that was rather in the
nature of a civic function, and was preliminary
to a special feast. The daily round of food
was supposed to be provided by the women,
who went on long marches over the fields and
through the woods, laboriously hunting where
others had already gleaned before them. She
ground the acorns in a stone mortar, and rolled
the seeds on a metate. She built the fire,
cooked the cakes, and then went to summon
her husband, who was drowsing in the warm
sunshine, or playing "takersia" in the level
plain near the village.

The games and amusements were restrict-
ed to the men, although women participated in
some of the semi-religious dances. The favor-
ite pastime, which is named above, was played
in a space about 30 feet square. One man
rolled a ring about three inches in diameter
across the course, and another, his opponent in
the sport, undertook to throw a wand five feet
long through it, as it rolled. If he succeeded
in doing so, without stopping the ring, he was
given one point. Three points constituted the

16 History of Los Angeles.

game. Another favorite pursuit was to knock
a small, hard, wooden ball several hundred
yards with a stick that had a knob at the end,
which would seem to provide the modern game
of golf with an ancient though none too credit-
able origin. It is said the players grew so ex-
cited at times over this pursuit that they
would even stake their wives on the achieve-
ment of a good score, which, considering the
special utility of the creatures, would indicate
a remarkable degree of enthusiasm for the
game.

The people of Yang-na had no form of
writing nor hieroglyphics. Their artifects are
of limited variety and simple construction, and
are all of the stone age. One of the finest col-
lections of these ever gathered may be seen
in the west gallery of the Chamber of Com-
merce in Los Angeles. It is the work of Dr.
F. M. Palmer, and was obtained, for the most
part, in the Channel islands, where the natives
were more energetic and ingenious than on
the mainland. A careful examination of these
six large cases of artifects, which were gath-
ered and arranged with the trained judgment
of the ethnologist, while it recalls the extreme
simplicity of the life led by our predecessors,
at the same time impresses us with astonish-
ment at their patience and skill in working so
difficult a substance as stone.

Dirty, ignorant and degraded as the Cali-
fornia Indian was, there are still some things
to be said in his favor. His first behavior to-

Sons of the Soil. 17

ward his white visitor was that of the kindly-
host, offering him such food and shelter as he
had at his command. This seems to have
been done not through fear, but in good humor
and admiration. Christianized Indians testi-
fied afterwards that when they first saw the
Spaniards they believed them to be gods. A
rude shock to this idea came when they be-
held the strangers wantonly killing the birds,
for these poor savages argued that no power
which could create life would wish thus to de-
stroy it. Only when driven to extremity by re-
peated outrage did the Indian attack the sol-
diery, and the padres traveled about among
them without fear.

It is interesting to consider to what extent
the condition of these people — degraded even
below the average of their kind — was due to
climatic environment. The California Indian
did not build a warm wigwam, because few
days in the year were inclement ; and he did
not cultivate the soil, nor store away grain, be-
cause there was no season, like the eastern
winter, when nature entirely deserted him.
His immediate successor, the Spaniard, fol-
lowed the same easy and dreamful life, not-
withstanding the many centuries of civiliza-
tion that had been placed to his credit ; and it
yet remains to be seen what effect the eternal
spring softness of this climate will have on
the life and character of the Anglo-Saxon,
when it comes to the test of successive genera-
tions.

CHAPTER 11.

THK BDGE; of the SPANISH EMPIRE.

HEN the fact for which Columbus
had contended — that the earth was
a globe — became finally established
in men's minds, and navigators from
all the leading European nations
were out on the ocean, discovering and claim-
ing strange lands, his hohness the pope, the
senior power of Christendom and the represen-
tative of Peace on Earth, endeavored to settle
all disputes over the titles to new territory by
dividing the world with a great meridian circle
drawn one hundred leagues west of the Azores.
All the globe west of the line was to belong to
Spain, and all the globe east of it was to go to
Portugal. This arrangement, which had at
least the advantage of extreme simplicity, was
somewhat disturbed by the English, Dutch and
French, who took possession of the Eastern
portion of the North American continent, and
of a few islands here and there ; but the pious
and adventurous Spaniards certainly did their
best toward carrying out the pope's program.
During the sixteenth century they overran
nearly all of South America, and the islands of
the Mexican gulf; and on the northern conti-
nent they set up a stable government in Mex-
ico, and by exploration and to some extent by

The Edge of the Spanish Etnpire. 19

actual occupation they secured control of about
two-thirds of the present area of the United
States. Whatever may have been the mistakes
and the misfortunes of that country since those
days, Spain is entitled to rank in history as the
discoverer and the conqueror of the new west-
ern world.

The history of California begins in the his-
tory of Mexico, for, of all the explorers that
visited the state prior to its colonization, only
one, Sir Francis Drake, came from European
waters ; the others came up from Mexico. And
the settlement of the country, which was finally
undertaken with the authority of Spain, was ac-
complished through Mexico, of which country
California, upper and lower together, consti-
tuted a province.

Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico,
landed at Vera Cruz in 15 19, and within a few
years had established a government that was
felt from the isthmus to the Rio Grande. In
1524 he describes California in a report to the
king of Spain, as an island of great wealth,
abounding in pearls and precious gems. It is
inhabited, he says, by women only. The origin
of this strange idea undoubtedly lay in the ro-
mance, "Las Sergas de Esplandian," which was
published in Spain about 1510, and which seems
to have enjoyed a run of popular favor, much as
a successful novel might in these days. It is
purely a work of fiction, and the writer de-
scribes his imaginary island which is called
California, as located somewhere to the right of

20 History of Los Angeles.

India. This island, the story says, is entirely
peopled with black women, having a queen
named Califia. They use no metal but gold.
Copies of this work undoubtedly found their
way across the Atlantic, and formed, at last,
the basis of one of those persistent rumors of
wealth that floated about the ears of the Span-
iards, and led them on into the wilderness. In
the case of California, the story of gold hap-
pened to be true, but it was not for the Span-
iards to profit by it.

Up to the year 1862, the origin of the name
California was the basis of a great deal of
learned discussion. Many explanations were
offered and imaginary etymologies were sup-
plied for the word. It remained for Edward
Everett Hale, the author of "The Man Without
a Country," to set all doubts at rest, and trace
the name to its veritable source in the romance,
"Las Sergas."

In 1534 Cortes sent an expedition in search
of the gold of this wonderful island. The ves-
sels were skirting the mainland, along the gulf
of Lower California, when a mutiny broke out.
A part of the company seized one of the ships,
and, crossing to the peninsula, landed at a point
about ninety miles north of Cape San Lucas,
where afterwards a Spanish settlement was lo-
cated and named La Paz. The leader in this
aflfair was Fortuno Ximenes, who is entitled to
be recorded as the discoverer of Lower Cali-
fornia. A year later Cortes came up the gulf
himself, and, landing at La Paz, formally took

The Edge of the Spanish Empire. 21

possession of the country. Four years later, in

1539, he sent Ulloa with orders to sail around
the island, as it was supposed to be, and to dis-
cover, if possible, the passage, back to Atlantic
waters. Just as the English, French and Dutch
navigators, working along our eastern coast,
were constantly on the lookout for the fabled
"Northwest Passage," which would give them
a shorter way across to India, so the Spaniards
on the Pacific coast made their way into every
bay and river mouth, hoping always to discover
the "Straits of Anian," which were recorded on
all the charts of the time as crossing this con-
tinent somewhere to the north of the limit of
exploration.

Ulloa did not find the desired passage, but
he came to the head of the gulf, and explored
the pearl fisheries, which, for over two hundred
years afterwards, enriched the Spanish court
favorites to whom they were granted as mo-
nopolies. He came back to Cape San Lucas,
and worked north on the western coast to the
middle of the peninsula.

In the year that Cortes returned to Spain,

1540, the viceroy, Mendoza, sent two vessels
under Alarcon to the head of the gulf, and they
managed to sail some distance up the Colorado
river. It is not improbable that Alarcon came
near enough to California to catch a glimpse of
the country, and he is regarded by some writ-
ers as the discoverer of the state.

A great expedition had been planned by
Mendoza and Alvarado to go up the Colorado

22 History of Los Angeles.

in search of the treasure which was supposed
to exist somewhere in the interior, but the re-
turn of some of the people who had explored
this region dissipated the viceroy's hopes in
that direction. He had the fleet that had been
prepared for this scheme still on his hands, and
more to keep it busy than for any definite pur-
pose, he sent Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a navi-
gator whose bravery had been tested in many
shipwrecks and battles on the Spanish Main,
with instructions to sail up the California coast
as far north as practicable, keeping always a
sharp lookout for the "Straits of Anian." He
had two boats, the San Salvador and the Vic-
toria, short, top-heavy affairs, on which no
modern sailor would risk his life. With these
he set sail from Navidad, on the western coast
of Mexico, June 27, 1542, just fifty years after
the discovery of America.

Cabrillo is the Christopher Columbus of
California. When he passed Cedros island,
which is about the middle of the peninsula, he
entered upon a stretch of waters as full of
strange and terrible possibilities as those that
lay before the intrepid Genoese when he went
forth into the broad Atlantic with his three
little boats. For all that Cabrillo knew the sea
on which he sailed might presently terminate
in a huge sink or maelstrom, and the shores
where he was expected to land and make ex-
plorations might be peopled with hideous mon-
sters. The utter commonplaceness of the events
of his voyage makes it seem a small achieve-

The Edge of the Spanish Empire. 23

merit now, but we may be permitted, neverthe-
less, to pause and admire his courage, as he
ventures out into the unknown.

In the month of September he entered the
bay of San Diego, and the soil of California
bore for the first time the impress of a Euro-
pean foot. The record does not inform us who
led the way ashore, but it requires no great
strain on the imagination to suppose that it was
Cabrillo himself.

The Indians at San Diego were friendly, ex-
cept that their suspicions seem to have been
excited by the attempt to land a hunting party
at night, when they fired on the boat and
wounded two sailors. At no place in his many
landings along the coast does Cabrillo seem to
have had much trouble with the natives. After
a short stay at San Diego, he sailed north to
San Pedro bay, which he named the Bay of
Smokes, from the great clouds of smoke that
hovered over the mainland ; the Indians of Wil-
mington were evidently engaged in one of their
great rabbit hunts, in which they burned off the
dry grass, to drive in the game. Here he landed
to obtain water, and he probably climbed the
hills back of where San Pedro now stands, that
he might obtain a view of the country inland.
If he did so, he was able on a clear day to see
the site of Los Angeles. This was over 350
years ago, and more than two centuries were
destined to pass before the white men should
come down into this valley.

24 History of Los Angeles.

Winter was now at hand, and with it came
storms and head winds. He visited the islands
of the channel, and on one of them met with a
fall that broke his arm. The trip further north
was made under hard conditions ; and after
working up the coast as far as San Francisco,
though he did not enter the bay, he returned to
the island of San Miguel, opposite Santa Bar-
bara, where the explorer finally died from the
unsuccessful surgery practiced on his broken
arm. He was buried m the shifting sand of the
harbor afterwards called Cuyler's, in San Mi-
guel, and if any sign was left to mark his grave
it has long since disappeared.

With his latest breath Cabrillo urged his
chief lieutenant, the pilot Ferrelo, to continue
the exploration to the north. His wish was
respected, and the San Salvador and Victoria
under their new commander went up the coast
a second time, but as they passed Cape Mendo-
cino they were driven back by storms. Ferrelo
then returned to Mexico and made his report to
the viceroy. This was in 1543.

In 1579 Francis Drake sailed along the coast
of California in the famous Golden Hind, then
two years out from Plymouth, England.

He had been overhauling the Spanish gal-
leons in the West Indies and on the Mexican
coast, and had taken so much treasure — so his
chaplain says — that he used the silver to ballast
his ship. His fleet of five having been re-
duced to one, he had no desire to meet with

The Edge of the Spanish Empire. 25

any of the Spanish men-of-war that might be
prowhng about in Atlantic waters, so he was
making- his way westward around the globe.

He anchored in the bay north of San Fran-
cisco, now called by his name, evidently failing
to recognize in the Golden Gate the entrance to
a great harbor. As his ship drew only 13 feet,
the upper bay would answer to his description
of "a fit and convenient harborough." Here he
remained 36 days, finding the Indians friendly
and the climate pleasant. He named the coun-
try New Albion, and claimed it for his queen.
Several of the "gentlemen adventurers" of Eng-
land visited Lower California, following in the
wake of the Golden Hind, but they accom-
plished nothing beyond a few successful rob-
beries, and the claims set up by Drake were
allowed to lapse.

It is not impossible that the visit of Drake
and the other Englishmen to this coast may
have stimulated Philip H of Spain to plan to
tighten his hold on the Californias. In 1596,
the viceroy, acting under direct instructions
from the monarch, sent Sebastian Viscaino
with three ships to go on with the work that
Cabrillo had so bravely begun, more than fifty
years before. He sailed from Acapulco to La
Paz, where he became involved in difficulties
with the Indians that caused him to abandon
the expedition. The nature and cause of these
difficulties is indicated by the fact that when
he started again, this time with two vessels in

26 History of Los Angeles,

the year 1602, he ordered the death penalty for
any soldier that should cause a disturbance
among the Indians.

His journey was in a considerable degree a
replica of that of Cabrillo. Like the former
explorer, he met with stormy weather, and was
finally turned back when he had worked his
way a little north of Cape Mendocino. He ex-
plored the port of Monterey, but placed it on
his chart too far north by two degrees. He
changed the names of the islands of the chan-
nel, from those bestowed by Cabrillo to the
ones they now bear, even robbing his prede-
cessor of the poor honor that lay in the title
Rodriguez (Cabrillo's middle name) on his is-
land grave.

Viscaino transmitted to the king an account
of his visit to California, in which he declared
that the country was rich and fertile and admir-
ably adapted to colonization, and he urged that
he be allowed to undertake an expedition for its
permanent settlement. The king hesitated to
grant the required powers, but finally did so,
in 1606. Before the plan could be carried out,
however,' Viscaino died, and it was abandoned.

Now follows a period of one hundred and
sixty years, during which no more white men
came to California. In that time the thirteen
colonies were planted on the Atlantic coast,
waxed strong and were preparing to revolt
from the mother country. England passed
through the revolutions that cost Charles his

The Edge of the Spanish Empire. 27

head and James his throne. Germany endured
the horrid struggle of the thirty-years' war,
and witnessed the rise to power of Frederick
the Great. France was sinking lower and lower
under the rapacious and imbecile line of Bour-
bon, and Spain, once the ruler of the seas, was
priest-governed and impoverished. There was
no more wealth to be wrung from the new
world — therefore it was neglected and almost
forgotten.

CHAPTER III.

VIA CRUCIS.

HILIP II of Spain, whose rule ex-
tended through 40 years of the period
of most active exploration and ac-
quisition in the western hemisphere,
received from the pope the significant
title of "His Most Catholic Majesty"; and all
his successors on the throne down to the pres-
ent have cherished this phrase as part of their
official name. It must be admitted that the
title has not been misplaced, for no country on
the globe has been more rigidly faithful to the
church of Rome than Spain. It was the origi-
nator of the inquisition ; in Spain the church
was the largest owner of property, and the
priesthood outnumbered all other professions
and intelligent occupations combined. It was
natural, therefore, that the colonial system of
this country should be permeated with the re-
ligious idea, and that a large part of the work
of organizing the new territory should be
turned over to the hierarchy.

This work possessed lively attraction for
the young and ardent members of the priest-
hood, because the new country was peopled
with heathen, whose souls seemed to be crying
out for salvation. The order of the Jesuits,
founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540, threw it-

Portrait of Father Junipero Serra Copyrighted by Schumacher

l^ia Cruets. 29

self with boundless enthusiasm into the new-
missionary fields, and no corner of the earth
was too remote, and no tribe of savages too
fierce for the Jesuit to enter, bearing the stand-
ard of the cross. The conquering soldier came
first, it is true, but his act of "taking posses-
sion" was little more than a formality. The
real work of colonization, of controlling and
organizing the Indians and of producing at
least a semblance of civilized order, fell to the
priest.

The Californias, upper and lower, were at
the extreme northwestern edge of the great
Spanish empire, and the tide of colonization,
which flowed slowly across the new world,
reached them last of all. In the first period of
conquest great quantities of wealth were
drawn from the western continents, and poured
into the lap of Spain, and with this increase of
fortune came an undermining of the moral, and
finally of the material, forces of the country.
The energetic and progressive artisan class,
from which colonists for a new country would
naturally come, had died out in Spain.

One viceroy after another was sent out
from the mother country to govern the prov-
ince of Mexico, and at times a "visitador gen-
eral" was delegated to make a tour of the terri-
tory, and transmit a special report to the king.
A long line of mediocre monarchs were occu-
pying the throne. Efforts at colonization by
the government were fitful. The Spanish sol-
diers intermarried with the native women of

30 History of Los Angeles.

Mexico, and the halfbreeds, or mestizos, in-
creased in number. Gradually paganism died
out, and the spiritual rule of the church was
accepted.

A few colonies had been established by the
government in Lower California, but they
were too far frojm the base of supply to con-
tinue successfully. Only those established by
the church, where the natives were controlled
by religious awe, as well as physical force,
managed to survive. It was discovered that
the Jesuits were most successful in establish-
ing permanent locations among the Indians,
and in the last years of the seventeenth century
the whole of the territory of Lower California
was turned over to them to manage as they
saw fit. It was not a very promising piece of
country — dry and sterile, and peopled with a
race of savages quite as degraded as those fur-
ther north on the Pacific coast. By this time
the Spanish government had become impov-
erished, and could afford no funds for the un-
dertaking. In the decree of February 5, 1697,
whereby the plan of the Jesuits for coloniza-
tion was adopted, it was agreed that the royal
treasury was not to be called upon to meet any
of the expense. This led to the establishment
of the famous "Pious Fund," which, within the
memory of the present generation, formed the
basis of some remarkable international litiga-
tion.

The leaders in the movement were two
priests named Kino and Salvatierra. They

Via Cruets. 31

went about Spain enthusiastically describing
this beautiful land, where thousands of heathen
waited to be led into the church. Contribu-
tions to the fund began to flow in, the first one
being $10,000 from the congregation of a
church where Salvatierra had preached, and
the second, $20,000, from an individual Span-
iard. A wealthy nobleman and his wife made
wills, leaving their entire fortune to the fund,
and others followed their example. The money
was well invested, and only the income was
used — after the expense of establishment was
defrayed. It was not long before some of the
missions began to be self-supporting.

Salvatierra and Kino confined thetr work to
Lower California, where they founded a com-
plete system of missions, numbering finally
sixteen in all. One of their fellow-laborers, the
Padre Ugarte, seems to have possessed a ver-
itable genius for what might be called the
worldly portion of the work, teaching the In-
dians all the trades — even to that of ship-build-
ing— and accomplishing marvelous results with
pitifully poor material. By the middle of the
eighteenth century the scheme of organization
had run its course to practical completion ; that
is, the Indians of the peninsula were largely
under the control of the missions ; a full com-
plement of buildings, both for religious and
temporal purposes had been erected at each lo-
cation, and the church was pre-eminent
over the whole system of government. There
were a few rebellions, but on the whole the

32 Histoty of Los Angeles.

Indians were tractable, and were a few steps
nearer civilization.

These matters have a direct bearing on the
history of Alta California in two ways : First,
in the fact that the "Pious Fund" raised by the
Jesuits was used to defray the expenses of the
work in Alta California, and, second, in the
fact that the Franciscans, when they came to
found missions in this state, had immediately
before them, as a model, the institutions al-
ready existing in the lower peninsula.

About this time the feeling against the Jesu-
its, which had been slowly spreading through-
out Christendom, culminated in their expulsion
from several Catholic countries, as they had
already been driven out of Protestant states.
In 1759 Carlos III, the ablest of all the kings
of Spain, came to the throne. During his reign
of twenty-nine years that country made the
first genuine progress it had accomplished
since the days of Ferdinand and Isabella. He
gathered about him wise advisers, and among
these were several that believed the govern-
ment to be too much under the influence of the
priests. The Jesuit played the same part in the
religious system that the party boss does in our
politics, and the wave of reform reached him
first of all. In 1767 an order was promulgated
expelling the Jesuits from Spain and all her
colonies. All temporalities held in their name
were ordered to be seized for the crown. How-
ever justifiable this decree may have been with
reference to the Jesuits of the mother country,

Fia Crucis. 33

it was certainly a harsh and cruel act as applied
to the padres who had labored faithfully for
over half a century on the arid soil of L.ower
California, and who, as they left the missions,
where they had grown old in the service, were
followed by crowds of weeping Indians.

The American religious outposts were to be
placed in the hands of the two orders that were,
next to the Jesuits, most active in missionary
work — the Franciscans and Dominicans. It
was at first proposed that the Lower California
missions should be divided equally between the
two orders, but later — at the suggestion of
Father Junipero Serra — it was decided that, to
avoid all possibility of friction, the Dominicans
should be placed in charge of the Lower Cali-
fornia institutions, while the Fransicans
should be allowed the honor of beginning the
work in the new territory.

The order of St. Francis was one of the old-
est and most popular of the many priestly fra-
ternities. It was founded in 1209 by an Italian
monk, a preacher of extraordinary fervency
and persuasiveness, who was subsequently can-
onized as St. Francis of Assisi. Its adherents
were sworn to poverty and extreme simplicity
of life. The dress was originally a coarse gray
serge robe, tied with a hempen rope. Later on
some portions of the order changed from gray
to brown. The foundation principles Avere hu-
mility, voluntary mendicancy and abhorrence
of controversy. The members desired to be
known as peacemakers, and their influence was

34 History of Los Angeles,

generally for harmony and for the existing or-
der in temporal affairs. In this respect they
differed materially from the Jesuits, who, as we
have seen, had achieved an unenviable reputa-
tion in Europe for intrigue and mischief-mak-
ing.

The Franciscan order grew with great ra-
pidity from its founding, and by the end of the
thirteenth century had over 200,000 members.
At the time the order was placed in charge of
Alta California it had over 8000 colleges and
convents scattered about the world. Their
headquarters on this continent lay at the col-
lege of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico.
Here a great majority of the padres that were
sent to California for service in the missions
received their education, and to this institution
were referred all difficulties and all matters of
serious importance regarding the missions.

Junipero Serra has appropriately been
called the "Eighteenth Century St. Francis."
There is little doubt that had his career fallen
five hundred years earlier his supreme devotion
of purpose and his heroic efforts to advance the
cause of the church which have been rewarded
by canonization. He was born in the island of
Majorca in 1713. His parents were laboring
people, but he was given an education that fit-
ted him for the priesthood ; and because of his
exceptional abilities a professorship of theology
was bestowed upon him. From his early boy-
I'.ood he had yearned to undertake the career
of a missionary; and when, in 1749, word came

Fia Cruets. 35

from the College of San Fernando that recruits
were wanted to work among the savages and
half-breeds of Mexico he enthusiastically vol-
unteered for the service. His friend Palou ac-
companied him, and the two were fellow-work-
ers and intimates through all the California
campaign. 12^ ^v G^'4i

When Serra's ship arrived" af Vera Cruz
there were no pack animals to convey the re-
cruits to the City of Mexico, so he set out on
foot, unwilling, in his fiery zeal, to wait for
proper means of conveyance. During this trip
overland he contracted an ulcer in his leg that
tormented him through the remainder of his
life, but which he endured with the fortitude
of a martyr. During the first nine years after
his advent to Mexico he served at the lonely
mission of Sierra Gordo, where he gathered a
large congregation, and where he built a splen-
did church structure. Without doubt, his ex-
perience with the Indians at this place, both in
spiritual and in worldly affairs, was of great
service to him in his subsequent labors in Cali-
fornia.

The priests of the college of San Fernando
noted the success that Brother Junipero had
achieved at Sierra Gordo, and determined to
try him in a new field. He was summoned to
the City of Mexico and put over a congregation
which was made up not of untutored Indians,
but of the wealthiest and most refined people of
the district. Crowds flocked to hear him, and

36 History of Los Angeles.

his zealous preaching is said to have brought
many to repentance.

In 1768, when the order to expel the Jesuits
from the missions of Mexico was carried
into effect, Junipero Serra was appointed presi-
dent of the California district. This included
Upper and Lower California, although as yet
no establishment had been located north of the
peninsula.

Whether it was the report on the expulsion
of the Jesuits from this region, or the news
that the Russians were working down the Pa-
cific coast from the north that aroused the king,
or whether it was merely the outgrowth of his
natural energy and desire to promote the wel-
fare of his country, is not known, but about
this time Carlos III issued instructions to Mar-
quez de Croix, the viceroy of Mexico, and to
Jose de Galvez, the visitador general, or inspec-
tor, to undertake the colonization of Upper
California, the government to act in conjunc-
tion with the priestly orders. Galvez, who was
entrusted with powers second only to those of
the king himself, went over to Loreto in Lower
California, to direct the expeditions to the new
country, and Father Junipero Serra repaired to
the same spot. They were both men of tireless
energy, and both possessed the same consis-
tency of purpose; therefore they worked well
together. They had at their disposal three ves-
sels, the San Carlos, the San Antonio and the
San Jose, all appropriately named for the pious

Via Crucis. 2i7

work they were about to undertake. There
were available, besides the ships, a couple of
hundred soldiers, a score of artisans and a few
priests. Supplies were to be obtained from the
missions in Lower California. It was decided
that there should be four expeditions — two by
land and two by sea — each independent of the
others, and that all should meet at the port
described by Cabrillo and Viscaino, which we
know now as San Diego. These preparations
were made near the close of the year i/btt.

CHAPTER IV.

HOW GOVERNOR PORTOLA CAME TO
LOS ANGELES.

HE unpleasant task of expelling the
Jesuits from the chain of missions they
had established in Lower California
was committed to Capt. Caspar de Por-
tola, who landed at Cape San Lucas
with a small detachment of soldiers
in October of 1767, to begin the work.
He was made governor of both the Cal-
ifornias, and in the expedition that was
presently begun for the occupation of
the northern territory, he represented both the
military and the civil features of the govern-
ment, subject, of course, to the orders of the
visitador general, Jose de Galvez.

Portola was a good-hearted and popular
man, not without considerable natural shrewd-
ness, and he performed his duty toward the
Jesuits with gentleness and sympathy. There
was no resistance on their part, and no out-
breaks among the Indians. The treasure,
which it was supposed the padres had laid
away, failed to come to light, and Portola re-
ported to Galvez that it was quite impossible
that the simple agricultural pursuits of the
missions should have yielded any great wealth.
Nevertheless, he assured Serra that these es-

How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 39

tablishments were fairly well stocked with cat-
tle and provisions, and that enough could
easily be spared to supply the expedition to
the north. Serra himself, in the year 1768,
made a tour through the missions of the penin-
sula, of which he was now president, and in-
spected their stock of ecclesiastical parapher-
nalia, on which he proceeded to levy for the
new institutions that he was planning to found.

Captain Rivera y Moncada, who subse-
quently filled an important function in the
founding of the pueblo of Los Angeles, was
appointed chief of the commissary department
of the expedition, and was sent out to make a
round of the missions, for the purpose of col-
lecting cattle and stores, and was ordered to
work toward the north, that he might be ready
early in 1769 for the general movement into
new territory. He had been the local com-
mander for several years at Loreto, and was
well posted on the geography and the climatic
conditions of the country. He was therefore
a most valuable man in the work, all the other
leaders being strange to the region.

The headquarters of the undertaking were
at La Paz and Loreto. Here through the last
six months of 1768, Galvez, Serra and Portola
toiled and planned, until by the first of the fol-
lowing year everything was ready. In Janu-
ary of 1769 — the year in which the history of
California begins — the San Carlos put to sea,
loaded with stores and carrying sixty-two peo-

40 History of Los Angeles.

pie. Of these twenty-five were soldiers in com-
mand of Lieutenant Pedro Fages, who later
held the office of governor of California, and
the remainder were, for the most part, sailors
and artisans.

In February the second expedition by sea
started — the San Antonio, which, although it
set sail a month later than the San Carlos, ar-
rived at San Diego three weeks before its pre-
decessor, Galvez's instructions to the com-
manders were that they should keep out to sea
until they sighted the islands of the channel,
and should then work down the coast to the
bay of San Diego. It is difficult to realize that
the San Antonio, which made the best time of
the two, consumed sixty days in doing a dis-
tance that would now seem to call for less than
a week of sailing. In the case of the San Car-
los, however, the delay is easily explained in
the one dreadful word — scurvy. This disease,
which was at that time a common visitor on
shipboard and in prisons and camps, was due
to impure water, monotonous fare, uncleanli-
ness and bad sanitation. It has very nearly
passed out of existence among civilized people
in these days, and it is not easy to appreciate
what a terror it once had for all who followed
the sea. The water casks on the San Carlos
were leaky, and the springs of Cedros island,
where the vessel stopped to replenish, yield-
ed water that proved unwholesome. By the
time San Diego was reached the disease had
taken possession of the crew.

I Sanfa Barbara

)5anBueri3venM-a
SanVernandoo .

^Uj^fNoeuES o5an Bernardino

StiOWINQ LOCATION OF
ALL ThE M135ION3

How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 41

The first of the land expeditions was un-
der the command of Rivera, who had collected
a quantity of horses, cows, mules and general
supplies from the Lower California missions.
He set out for the north in March of 1769, and
arrived at San Diego in the middle of May.
By this time the people from the ships had
constructed a camp and hospital on shore, and
the crew of the San Antonio were taking care
of the crew of the San Carlos, all of whom were
now afflicted with the scurvy. About sixty
deaths occurred, to the great demoralization
of the whole company.

On the first of July the last of the land
forces arrived. Governor Portola in command,
accompanied by Father Junipero Serra. The
delay had been occasioned partly by their stop-
ping to found a new mission in Lower Califor-
nia and partly by Serra's inability to travel,
owing to the condition of his ulcerated leg.
He refused to allow the Indians to carry him
in a litter, because he was unwilling to cause
them such a labor, and he would not be left be-
hind. At last a muleteer applied the same poul-
tice that he would have used on an animal and
the leg was made enough better for the padie
to go on. This incident is set down at full
length in the narrative in much the same way
that a miracle would be recorded.

Galvez had issued instructions to the sol-
diers that the Indians should be treated with
kindness, and he threatened severe punish-

42 History of Los Angeles.

ment to all that failed to comply with this or-
der. It was believed that little gifts of brown
sugar and of cloth and beads would please the
natives and induce them to accept Christian-
ity— that is, submit to the form of baptism, as
their brethren had done in Mexico and Lower
California. The cloth and the beads were
found to be acceptable, particularly the former,
but the sugar was declined, or if taken at all,
was merely carried to the bushes and buried
there. The same treatment was accorded all
other articles of food that were offered to the
Indians, the reason being that they connected
the sickness so prevalent among the first Span-
iards that arrived with their diet ; and this fear
of European food clung to the Indians for
some time, and, with regard to the brown su-
gar, was never entirely removed.

It had been intended that the expeditions
should be reorganized at San Diego, and that
one of the ships and half the land forces should
go north to Monterey, and there found a mis-
sion at the upper end of the territory, with
San Diego as the limit on the lower end. Be-
tween these two points a series of institutions
were to be established. But the havoc wrought
by the scurvy interfered with this plan, and
compelled the immediate return of one of the
ships to Lower California for additional sailors
— there being scarcely enough left to work one
ship — and also for supplies. The San Antonio
started back July 14, two weeks after the ar-

How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 43

rival of Portola. In the meantime Galvez, as
though anticipating the wants of his colonists,
had dispatched the third member of his little
fleet at Loreto, the San Jose, well-filled with
provisions and articles for the use of the set-
tlers, and manned by a complete crew. What
became of it? No one ever knew. No storm
ever washed it ashore on the California coast,
nor was it ever sighted on the high seas. Prob-
ably its crew became infected with the scurvy,
like those of San Carlos, and after drifting
about aimlessly for a time, it may have foun-
dered in some storm and sunk in the open sea.
Immediately after the departure of the San
Antonio southward, Portola started north with
an expedition of sixty-four persons, made up
of soldiers, mule-drivers, a few Lower Califor-
nia Indians, and two priests. One of the latter,
Father Crespi, kept a daily record of the jour-
ney, which has come down to us in the docu-
ments collected and treasured by Serra's
friend, Palou. With the expedition were two
future governors of the territory. Pages and
Rivera. Junipero Serra did not accompany
them, partly because his lame leg rendered
such a trip difficult and dangerous, and partly
because he wished to establish the mission at
San Diego, and begin on the work of convert-
ing the Indians. The good father chafed, no
doubt, under the delay and the interference to
his plans which had been brought about by
the prevalent sickness of the camp.

44 History of Los Angeles.

The purpose of the expedition led by Por-
tola was to find the Bay of Monterey and es-
tablish an outpost there, to be held until Father
Junipero should arrive and found a mission in
due form. The round trip from San Diego to
Monterey consumed over six months. It could
now be made by rail in about three days. The
party averaged from eight to fifteen miles a
day, with frequent rests. Their route lay along
the coast, except where the broadening of the
valleys allowed them to make their way in-
land without the risk of losing their bearings.

On the nineteenth day after leaving San
Diego, to wit, on the second of August, this
party of white people crossed the Los Angeles
river at about the point where the Buena Vista
street bridge is now located, and passed around
the hills of Elysian park, and out into the
Cahuenga valley. It is not improbable that
they came up toward the center of the modern
city, and it was doubtless somewhere near the
Plaza that they met with a party of Indians
from the village of Yang-na. Father Crespi
records the fact that the savages came out to-
ward them with loud howling, but that they
made no really hostile demonstration. On the
contrary, they showed their good will by offer-
ing their visitors handfuls of seeds, which the
latter refused, for the reason, the padre says,
that "they had no place to bestow them," but
perhaps also because they were a little suspi-
cious of the Indians' motives. The savages

Photo by Cr<
Arrangement of Mission Bells at Santa Isabel

How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 45

were evidently displeased at the rebuff, for
when the seeds were refused they threw them
contemptuously on the ground.

Now the second day of August is, in the
calendar of the Roman Catholic church, the
special feast day of Our Lady of the Angels,
that is to say, the Virgin Mary. As the party
passed along through this unknown country,
they made the most of the explorer's privilege
to bestow names on the various features of
the landscape, and also upon each spot in which
they camped. The Spaniard being an individ-
ual who is rarely in a hurry, has a fondness
for long and sonorous titles. The modern
hidalgo, or Spanish gentleman, usually has half
a dozen family names fastened together with a
"Y" or an occasional "De" and in his original
geographical titles he was no less prodigal.
For example, when the party came upon the
Santa Ana river, several days before they
reached Los Angeles, they decided, for some
reason, to name it after the Saviour of men.
Now an American or an Englishman would
have felt this to be somewhat sacrilegious,
but if he had been compelled to do
it, he would probably have called the
stream merely the "J^sus river." The
name bestowed by Father Crespi was
"El Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus,"
the River of the Sweetest Name of Jesus.
While they were encamped on its banks, a
series of light earthquakes took place, and it

46 History of Los Angeles.

was decided to incorporate this fact in the
name, and it was finally called "The River of
the Sweetest Name of Jesus of the Earth-
quakes." Still it is not much of a river. In
the eastern states it would be called a creek —
or worse yet, a "crick." The Los Angeles river
was named the Porciuncula, after a little
stream in Italy that was dear to the heart of
St. Francis ; and the spot which the Indians
called Yang-na was named from the second of
August feast day, Nuestra Senora de Los An-
geles. Twelve years later, when Governor
Felipe de Neve founded a city there, he pre-
fixed the word "Pueblo" to the title already
on record, and it struggled along under that
name, until the Americans took possession
and chopped it down to the last two words;
and now these seem to be in a fair way to be
telescoped into L'sangl's.

Governor Portola and his party continued
their way northward, with the sea on their left
hand, until they came to the bay of Monterey,
which they failed to recognize as the perfect
harbor described by Viscaino. As they ram-
bled about the adjoining country, in the search
for Monterey, a small detachment under the
lead of a lieutenant named Ortega, afterwards
the founder of the Ortega family of Santa Bar-
bara, came in sight of the bay of San Fran-
cisco, which one might suppose would have
satisfied their desire for a harbor ; but they had
been sent out by Galvez to found a settlement

How Governor Portola Came to Los Angeles. 47

at Monterey, and they proposed to obey orders.
At length they abandoned the search, and re-
turned to San Diego, passing for a second time
through the Los Angeles region, this time by
way of Pasadena and over the San Gabriel
river. The party were footsore and almost
without supplies, and Father Crespi records
with gratitude the hospitable treatment ac-
corded them by the Indians of the Hahamog-na
tribe in that vicinity.

CHAPTER V.

THB BANNER OF THK VIRGIN.

HE Mission of San Diego was formally
dedicated on the i6th of July, 1769,
by Junipero Serra and his attendant
priests, just as Portola was leaving
for Monterey. It is, therefore, the
oldest of the establishments founded
by the Franciscans in California. The loca-
tion was in the vicinity of the camp, in what
is now called the Old Town. The beginning
was not auspicious. No Indians presented
themselves to be converted ; on the contrary,
they regarded the ceremonial with suspicion
and disdain. The discharge of musketry,
which had frightened the savages in the begin-
ning, was treated with indifiference when they
found that it brought them no harm ; and they
hung about the camp, incessantly begging for
cloth, and stealing any article that was not
carefully guarded. At last matters came to a
crisis. Several of the Indians entered the camp
where the sick lay, and undertook to tear the
clothing from the beds. They were driven
out by force, whereupon they returned in con-
siderable numbers with bows and arrows and
began open warfare. Obedient to the warn-
ings of Galvez, the soldiers refrained from fir-
ing directly at the Indians, tmtil a volley of

The Banner of the Virgin. 49

arrows killed one European and wounded sev-
eral others. Then they shot into the crowd,
with a slaughter that terrified the savages into
immediate submission.

From their account of the case, the Span-
iards do not appear to have been at all to
blame, but the result of the bloodshed was
disastrous to the kindly intentions of the
padres. It gave the soldiers an excuse to
adopt harsh and often outrageous measures
toward the Indians, and it put off, for an in-
definite period, all possibility of winning them
over to the standard of the church. A whole
year passed before a single conversion was ac-
complished.

Early in 1770 Governor Portola returned
to San Diego, with the disappointing informa-
tion that he had been unable to find the bay
of Monterey, and had effected no settlement in
the north. We may suppose that Serra was
grieved and annoyed, particularly when Por-
tola came to describe the place that he admit-
ted bore some resemblance to Monterey, and
which the mariners who had remained at San
Diego declared must be the spot that was
sought. The distress of the ardent founder of
missions became still more acute, when Por-
tola presently announced that unless relief
came from the peninsula by the middle of
March, he proposed to take the entire com-
pany back to Loreto and abandon the expedi-
tion.

What happened then reads like a leaf from

so History of Los Angeles.

the early days of the Christian era — the days
of saints and of frequent minor miracles. The
exact time for departure was set, and Father
Serra and his fellow priests prayed without
ceasing that something might happen to pre-
vent the governor from carrying out his threat.
Argument, entreaty, and even tears had proved
unavailing to shake his purpose. Finally,
when the last hours of respite were passing,
a sail was seen far out at sea, going
north. Four days later the San An-
tonio came into the bay of San Diego. It
had been laden with stores at Loreto by
Galvez, and dispatched with orders to go north
to Monterey, where the visitador general sup-
posed a settlement had been located. Landing
at the Channel islands for water, they learned
from the Indians that Portola and his party
had returned to the south.

Here was an interesting succession of
chances that might, by the turn of a day, have
completely changed the history of California.
Had the San Antonio passed San Diego in the
night, unseen, or had it delayed at Loreto a
day or two longer, San Diego would have been
abandoned, and Galvez perhaps have reported
to the king that the occupation of Upper Cali-
fornia was difficult and unprofitable. The
Russians were already working down from
Alaska, and a little later the English made fur
settlements around Vancouver. It is not im-
possible that, had the Spaniards retreated from
the country in 1770, some other nation would

The Banner of the Virgin. 51

presently have taken possession, from whose
hold California could not have been so easily-
wrested as it was from that of the Spaniards'
legatee — the Mexicans.

The return of the San Antonio with ample
provisions convinced Portola that Galvez was
thoroughly in earnest about the settlement at
Monterey. Two expeditions were immediately
planned; one by sea, the San Antonio, with
Serra on board, and one on shore with Portola
in command, accompanied by Fages, the future
governor, and Father Crespi, the faithful keep-
er of the diary of travels. Again the natives
of Yang-na turned out to witness the passage
of white men through their domain — and a
very uneasy sort of a person they must have
considered Portola, to be eternally wandering
up and down the coast in this fashion. When
the San Antonio arrived at Monterey, the land
party had been on the ground two weeks, and
a permanent camp was established on the
shore. Here, on the 3rd of June, 1770, the
second California mission was founded in the
name of San Carlos Borromeo, although it was
commonly spoken of as the Mission of Mon-
terey,

The account which is given us in detail of
the ceremonial is probably applicable, with a
few small changes, to all the mission foundings
of the period. A rude altar was constructed,
and several of the bells brought from Lower
California were hung in a framework of
branches erected near by. Then all the Euro-

52 History of Los Angeles.

peans assembled, the Indians surveying the
performance a few hundred yards away.
Chimes were rung upon the bells, and the con-
gregation kneeled. Dressed in complete vest-
ments. Father Serra asked a blessing and con-
secrated the place, while the hymn "Veni
Creator Spiritus" was chanted. The cross was
elevated and adored, holy water was sprinkled
about, and mass was celebrated at an altar
above which hung a banner painted to repre-
sent the Virgin Mary. In the absence of in-
strumental music there were salvos of mus-
ketry. Junipero Serra then preached a ser-
mon, in which he exhorted those to whom the
care of the mission was about to be com-
mitted that they should labor faithfully for
the conversion of the heathen in their juris-
diction, and uphold the noble traditions of the
Franciscan order. Prayers were offered to the
Virgin and the ceremonial closed with the
chanting of the "Te Deum Laudamus."

Messengers were dispatched to report to
Galvez and also to the viceroy in Mexico the
success of the enterprise in the founding of the
two missions of Monterey and San Diego. The
San Antonio presently set sail for San Bias,
then the principal port on the west coast of
Mexico, carrying Governor Portola, who now
turned over to Pedro Fages the charge of af-
fairs in California, as its military governor.
This ends all connection of Portola with the
enterprise of colonizing Upper California.

When the San Antonio returned, it brought

The Banner of the Virgin. 53

ten more priests from the college of San Fer-
nando in Mexico, and a load of fresh supplies.
Orders were sent to Serra to proceed with the
founding of more missions — or perhaps it
would be more correct to say that consent was
given to his wishes in that respect. The new-
comers rested for a time at Monterey with
Serra and Crespi, and were instructed in the
work they were to undertake. It was decided
to select a point midway between Monterey
and San Diego, and locate a mission there.
Again, between that point and San Diego, an-
other should be placed. To this latter. Padres
Somera and Cambon were assigned, and when
the San Antonio went south, it carried them
as far as San Diego.

The third mission to be founded was San
Antonio de Padua, which was situated about
sixty miles south of Monterey, and was another
link in the chain of stopping places on the land
route. The ceremony was performed by Serra
himself, on the 14th of July, 1771.

San Gabriel was the fourth mission to come
into existence. While Father Junipero was
busy founding San Antonio, and advising with
the new padres there, Somera and Cambon
set out from San Diego on the 6th of August,
1771, with a mule train of supplies, fourteen
soldiers, and four muleteers, or helpers.

It had been intended to locate the mission
on the river described in a previous chapter
as the "River of Jesus of the Earthquakes,"
which we now know as the Santa Ana, but the

54 History of Los Angeles.

fathers were not pleased with the site for some
reason, perhaps because they preferred higher
ground. They went on until they came to the
river that Portola had called the San Miguel,
but which we now call the San Gabriel. Here
they selected a site, about three miles south
of the present location, in the midst of a fertile,
well-wooded plain covered with shrubbery
and flowers. Among the latter, the padres
found what they called "wild Castilian roses."

The Indians appeared in great numbers
and with what the padres took to be hostile
demonstrations ; but when the banner of the
Virgin was raised before them, according to
the account given by the priests, it received
immediate homage from the savages, who
knelt and offered their necklaces to the beauti-
ful painted image. The apparent submission,
however, was probably a mixture of astonish-
ment— for they had never beheld a picture be-
fore— with a fear of witchcraft.

The acting governor, Pedro Pages, did not
accompany the expedition, owing to the fact
that a number of desertions had taken place
among the soldiers at San Diego, and general
demoralization and disorder prevailed. He
was engaged in a struggle to re-establish dis-
cipline. The soldiers that acted as a guard to
the San Gabriel party were commanded by
some petty ofiicer, who seems to have exer-
cised very little control over them. The formal
founding of the mission occurred September
8, 1771, and just a month later a serious con-

The Banner of the Virgin. 55

flict took place between the Indians and the
soldiers, owing to the latter's gross maltreat-
ment of the native women. According to the
statements afterwards made by the padres, it
was the custom of the soldiers to ride into the
neighboring Indian villages, lasso the females
and drag them to the camp. The Indians finally
attacked the mission, but their chief being
slain in the fight, they begged for peace. Then
the same condition ensued that existed at San
Diego; the padres were unable to induce the
Indians to come to the church, or to present
themselves for baptism. As the only samples
of the finished product of Christian civilization
shown them were the cruel and licentious sol-
diers, it is not surprising that they hesitated to
accept the doctrine.

Shortly after the breaking out of hostilities,
Fages came up from San Diego with a body of
soldiers and a pack train, on his way north
to assist in the founding of some more mis-
sions. He remained at San Gabriel several
months, during which time things were some-
what reduced to order.

The first building constructed was of wood,
plastered with adobe and roofed with tules. It
measured forty-five feet long by eighteen wide,
and was surrounded by a palisade, the latter
of such weak construction as to be practically
worthless. This building came to be called
the "Mision Vieja," or old mission, when the
modern site was selected a few years later.
The exact spot on which the first buildings

56 History of Los Angeles.

were located is not known with certainty.
There were some adobe ruins on the Garvey
ranch which were for a long time pointed out
as remnants of the first building, but as it was
built of wood, and as Chapman, who came to
San Gabriel in 1818, has declared these ruins
to be from an old ranch house that he remem-
bers there, it may as well be admitted that nq
vestige now remains of the "Mision Vieja,"
and its exact location will probably never be
known. The record gives us no reason for the
change of site, but it is probable that the
padres, who had set up their establishment on
the bank of the San Gabriel in the summer
time when the water was low, were frightened
at the sudden rise during the winter rains, and
thought best to move back a few miles to con-
struct the permanent buildings.

CHAPTER VI.

THK pue;blo plan.
T THE very time that Great Britain
was learning through her experience
with thirteen rebellious provinces
how colonists must be treated to be
held in allegiance, Spain was ma-
turing her plans for the settlement of the pres-
ent state of California, and was falling into
the same set of errors that Great Britain had
made; the only point of contrast being that
"His Most Catholic Majesty" went several de-
grees further to the wrong than did the En-
glish monarch. The saving grace of the Span-
ish system of colonization was that it was
largely a matter of theory. It was never car-
ried out as planned, else it could not have
lasted even as long as it did.

The one purpose that actuated Spain in the
establishing of colonies was to secure some di-
rect and immediate advantage to herself. The
welfare of the colonist was considered, to be
sure, and considered with great care and par-
ticularity, but it was merely with reference to
his producing value for the crown. The new
territory was supposed to belong to the king,
and to be subject to his direct control without
interference from the cortes — the Spanish rep-
resentative body. So far was this theory car-

58 History oj Los Angeles.

ried in the case of the early CaHfornia colonists
that they were given no title to the lands they
obtained, but were treated as mere sojourners
thereon, at the king's pleasure, having no right
to give a mortgage or to transfer the occupancy
without his consent. Right to live in the col-
onies was restricted to the aborigines and to
Spanish subjects, the privilege of the foriner
being of a doubtful and precarious nature.
With reference to California, it was especially
decreed that any foreigner who entered the ter-
ritory did so at the forfeit of his life. The in-
stitutions of the original owners of land in the
Spanish colonies — whether Indians, Aztecs or
Incas — were treated as though they did not ex-
ist. They were absolutely ignored. In this,
Spain differed radically from Rome, whose ex-
ample in most other respects she followed —
for the Romans based their colonial strength
on an adroit mingling of their own laws and
customs with those of the conquered nations.
Although the church was allowed to lead
the way into the wilderness, and bring the sav-
ages to Christian civilization, it was never in-
tended that any temporal advantage should
accrue to that institution in return for its work.
Fundamentally the policy was imperial, not
ecclesiastical. The mission system, as it pres-
ently shaped itself — a scheme of paternal gov-
ernment among the Indians, with all the fruits
of their industrial effort passing into the hands
of the church — was something that the Span-
ish king never contemplated when he sent the

The Pueblo Plan. 59

Franciscans into California, and something
that his successors were taking active steps to
bring to an end at the time when the territory
sHpped out of their control. Although he was*
as faithful a Catholic as any of his subjects,
Carlos III kept a watchful eye on the priest-
hood. He was ready to concede the highest
spiritual authority to the church, but in tem-
poral matters he would brook no infringement
of his imperial power and dignity. The theory
on which the California missions rested was
that they were mere temporary religious out-
posts, whose function it was to bring the sav-
ages to the Christian faith. No definite time
limit was set upon them, but it was generally
assumed that ten years would be sufficient to
carry out the contemplated work, and that
then, the Indians all being baptized as good
Christians, the missions would become paro-
chial institutions, of the same rank and char-
acter as the churches in other portions of the
realm.

The scheme failed to come out in this
shape, because the Franciscans found it neces-
sary in the practical work of Christianizing the
natives to take on some elements of temporal
authority, and having once assumed this, they
never found the exact moment when it seemed
to be possible — or at least desirable — to lay it
down.

Now if the mission was to be a mere acces-
sory of the government, it was evident that
there must be some form of colonial develop-

60 History of Los Angeles.

ment distinct from that ; and this came in two
forms, the pueblo and the presidio. The first
of these was, in theory, purely civil — the town
— and the other purely military — the fort. As
the plan worked out, however, each partook in
some measure of the properties of the other.
The pueblo was under a semi-military rule, for
the reason that one of the purposes of its ex-
istence was to supply provisions for the army ;
the presidio, on the other hand, was finally
surrounded by a town made up of retired sol-
diers and their families, and of people who
sought the safety and the trade that came
through the presence of the military. Monte-
rey, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and San
Diego were the presidial towns; and the three
regularly established pueblos were San Jose,
Los Angeles and Branciforte, or, as it came to
be called later, Santa Cruz. Towns also natu-
rally came into existence in the vicinity of the
missions, but these were regarded as accidents,
not as part of the general plan.

The year after the establishment of the mis-
sion of San Gabriel, 1772, Father Junipero Ser-
ra founded San Luis Obispo, the fifth of the
series, and the work havmg now advanced to a
point where he felt it could be left alone for a
time, the conquerer of the wilderness journeyed
to the City of Mexico, to confer with the new
viceroy, Bucareli. A conflict had already be-
gun between the military authority, represent-
ed by Fages, and the Franciscans ; and Serra
wished to have the lines drawn more closely as

The Pueblo Plan. 61

to their respective powers. Bucareli seems to
have arrived at the conclusion that the difficul-
ty was due in some measure to the bad judg-
ment of his military representative, for he
straightway removed Fages and put in his
place Rivera — the same officer that had taken
charge of the commissary in the first expedi-
tions. A suggestion of Serra's that a new land
route to California be opened by way of So-
nora and the Colorado river was adopted, and
an experienced Mexican officer named Anza
was sent through that way. A mission post
was presently established on the Colorado river
which a few years later met with a tragical fate,

In 1774 Serra returned to California with in-
creased authority and renewed hope and en-
thusiasm, and set about preparing for the
establishment of more missions. He found that
the Franciscans in Lower California were in-
volved in a quarrel with the governor of that
province, De Barri, who possessed a nominal
jurisdiction over Alta California, and it is very
probable that he asked Bucareli to make a
change there as he had in the upper territory.
At all events Bucareli removed De Barri, as he
had Fages, and to him there succeeded one of
the most remarkable and interesting characters
of this whole period, a man second only to
Serra himself in force, energy and foresight,
Felipe de Neve, the founder of Los Angeles.

In 1775 the Indians of the San Diego dis-
trict attacked the mission, and set it on fire.
Father Jaume and two artisans were killed, and

62 History of Los Angeles.

all the buildings were destroyed. There is no
evidence that the Indians had been ill-treated
by the soldiers, nor did the investigation, which
was presently carried on by Rivera, reveal any
special cause for complaint on their part, other
than that the padres were baptizing their breth-
ren. The outbreak seems to have sprung from
the erratic impulse of a crowd. It struck terror
into the hearts of the missionaries all over the
state, and tightened the lines of discipline in
the camps and around the Indian villages.

This affair led to a falling out between Ri-
vera and the Franciscans, in consequence of
which the former was removed from his posi-
tion. He insisted upon entering the church
edifice at San Diego and dragging thence an
Indian who, he asserted, had participated in
the rebellion, but whom the fathers regarded
only as a fugitive seeking the sacred privilege
of sanctuary. For this violation of the laws of
the church Rivera was excommunicated. He
chose to make light of this for a time, but at
last it began to prey upon his mind, until there
was a rumor among his soldiers that he was
going mad. In 1776 the new governor, Felipe
de Neve, was ordered to make his headquarters
at Monterey, and to send Rivera south to Lor-
eto. The next year the change was effected,
with Monterey as the capital of the two Cali-
fornias. It was now only eight years since the
founding of the upper territory, but Galvez,
who was a member of the king's colonial coun-
cil, had come to believe that its development

The Pueblo Plan. 63

would soon surpass that of Lower California,
and for that reason it was given the prefer-
ence.

De Neve came up by land, inspecting the
missions as he passed along, and studying the
needs of the country. He arrived at Monterey
in February of 1777, and the first boat that
went south carried a report to his superior of
what he had seen and what he desired to rec-
ommend. The missions of San Francisco and
San Juan Capistrano had been established in
1776, and that of Santa Clar^. in 1777 just be-
fore the governor's arrival. This made eight
in all. The governor advised that three more
missions be located on the Santa Barbara chan-
nel at the center of the chain, and that one of
these be made also a presidio. The sites se-
lected were those subsequently occupied bv
the missions of Purisima (near Point Concep-
cion), San Buena Ventura and Santa Barbara.
The latter place was, in accordance with the
advice of De Neve, made the militarv head-
quarters for all the central portion of the state.

The new governor was a thoroughly busi-
ness-like individual, and the practice which
prevailed — even after eight years of occupancy
— of bringing all the supplies for the presidios
by vessel from San Bias struck him as absurd,
especially in view of the reported fertility of
the California land. Before leaving Lower
California, he had explained to the viceroy that
the only way to remedy this state of affairs
was to import settlers to till the fields, gather-

64 History of Los Angeles.

ing them into cities for the sake of safety and
to make Hfe in the wild cotmtry more endur-
able. The process of settlement recommended
by De Neve, and subsequently employed, was
entirely different from that followed on the
eastern coast, and throughout the middle
west of America. In California the town or
pueblo was made the unit of settlement ; else-
where in the union, the country received the
pioneers, and the cities did not come into ex-
istence until the farming land was largely tak-
en up. The California system showed the in-
fluence of Rome, coming down through the
ancient province of Spain. The Roman empire
was a city governing the territory that sur-
rounded it, and throughout its provinces a sim-
ilar system was employed ; the city governed
the country. Therefore it did not occur to De
Neve to import settlers to go on farms. He
must bring in people to found cities.

In his tour of the state, he noted two sites
of striking beauty and fertility, each supplied
with plenty of water and surrounded by open,
level country. These were the site called
Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, on the Rio
Porciuncula, and a location near the mission of
Santa Clara, on the river Guadalupe, which has
since become one of the most famous fruit dis-
tricts of the world. At the latter site he found-
ed the city of San Jose, named for Jose de Gal-
vez, the original patron of California, as well
as for the saint of that name. The settlers
numbered sixty-six persons in all — fourteen

The Pueblo Plan. 65

families, the heads of which were, for the most
part, retired soldiers from Monterey and San
Francisco, special care being exercised to se-
lect those that knew something about agri-
culture. The date of the establishment of this
first California pueblo is November, 1777, and
it thus precedes by four years the pueblo of
the south, Los Angeles. The plan pursued in
the allotment of lands, and the treatment of
settlers was very nearly identical with that em-
ployed later at Los Angeles, and the descrip-
tion given in the next chapter will do for both
cities.

CHAPTER VII.

GOVERNOR DK NEVE COMES
TO LOS ANGELES.
ERETOFORE the governor of Califor-
nia had reported to the viceroy direct,
but about the time that De Neve was
^ sent to the capital at Monterey a new
arrangement went into effect, where-
by the northwestern provinces of Mexico, in-
cluding the two Californias, were joined in one
district under a commandant general. The
first to occupy this position was Teodoro de
Croix, nephew of the De Croix who had been
viceroy when Galvez was sending the expedi-
tions into California. He was a man of energy
and progressive ideas, and he seems to have
reposed a large amount of confidence in Colonel
Felipe de Neve — and wisely. The latter was
fitted by natural inclination to be a jurist and a
lawgiver. His state papers are, for the time
and circumstances of their production, models
of fairness, prudence and foresight. He found
the governmental system of California in con-
fusion, with the representatives of the church,
the army and the civil authority continuously
working at cross purposes. During the seven
years of his administration — five of which
were spent in Alta California — he codified the
existing laws and rulings with regard to these

Governor De Neve Comes to Los Angeles. 67

provinces, and drew up a detailed plan for their
military and civil government, touching in
some degree, moreover, on the relation of the
church to other elements of authority.

As w^as stated in the preceding chapter, the
project for the founding of civil settlements
was an important feature of De Neve's plan.
The reason which he set forth in his first com-
munication to De Croix on this subject, viz.,
that of producing supplies for the consumption
of the army, was doubtless not the only ele-
ment in his calculations. While preserving al-
ways a friendly and courteous attitude toward
the Franciscans, he saw far enough along the
line of policy they were pursuing to compre-
hend that it would never produce a legitimate
industrial community, such as the colony need-
ed for permanent prosperity. Being a man
with some education, as well as a high degree
of intelligence, he was probably not unfamiliar
with the development that was taking place on
the Atlantic coast, where the settlements
founded by the English had increased in wealth
and population to such a degree that they
were now demanding for themselves the right
of self-government; and he felt that if Spain
was to hold its own in the final struggle for ter-
ritory it must people the country with some-
thing better than a horde of timid and childish
savages.

Immediately after the founding of San Jose,
the governor set about preparing for the city
in the south. He readily obtained the enthus-

68 History of Los Angeles.

iastic co-operation of De Croix, who transmit-
ted to Galvez the recommendation of De Neve,
and by Galvez they were transmitted to Carlos
III. When they came back from Spain they
were in the form of a royal regulation, or or-
der, and the new ruler of California was com-
mended for his energy and good judgment.
All this consumed time, and it was not until
1781 that the actual founding of Los Angeles
took place. It was, therefore, the first legally
ordained city of California, San Jose being
rather in the nature of an informal, preliminary
experiment.

The greatest difficulty with which De Neve
had to contend — an almost insuperable one, as
the subsequent history of the colony showed —
lay in securing the right kind of material for
citizenship. The whole policy of Spain for
three hundred years had tended to drive out or
destroy the progressive artisan class — the
sturdy, independent yeomanry that had made
England great on land and sea. There is rea-
son to believe that De Neve was not pleased
with the conduct of the ex-soldiers at San Jose ;
at all events when he came to establish Los
Angeles he preferred to experiment in a new
field, and he asked De Croix to send him some
agricultural people from Mexico. Orders were
dispatched to Captain Rivera at Loreto to come
over to the mainland and secure twenty-four
settlers with their families to form the new
city in California. The requirements were that
they should be healthy and strong, and men of

Governor De Neve Comes to Los Angeles. 69

good character and regular lives, that they
might set a good example to the natives. There
must be among the number a mason, a black-
smith and a carpenter. Female relatives
should be encouraged to accompany them, with
a view to marriage with the bachelor soldiers
already in California. The term for which all
were obligated was ten years.

The proposition that Rivera was empow-
ered to make to the possible settlers, in accord-
ance with the plan laid down in the regulations,
was a fairly liberal one — vastly more liberal, in
fact, than any that was ever offered to colon-
ists on the Atlantic coast. Each settler was to
be given enough land to engage his personal
labor, though no extensive land grants were at
this time contemplated. It was not his to mort-
gage or sell, but he owned it through life, and
at death it descended to his children on the
same terms. But this was not all. In addition
to the land, each settler was to receive an al-
lowance of $116.50 per annum, for the first two
years, and $60.00 for each of the next three
years, these sums to be paid in clothing and
other necessary articles at cost prices. Each
one was to receive, moreover, two horses, two
mares, two cows and a calf, two sheep, two
goats, a mule, a yoke of oxen, a plow point, a
spade, a hoe, an axe, a sickle, a musket and a
leathern shield. Breeding animals were to be
provided for the community, and also a forge,
an anvil, crowbars, spades, carpenters' tools,

70 History of Los Angeles.

etc. The cost of all these articles was to be
charged against the recipients, to be paid for at
the end of five years in stock and supplies taken
at the market price for the consumption of the
army.

The regulations drawn up by De Neve pro-
vided that the pueblo which these settlers were
to occupy should contain four square leagues,
or thirty-six square miles ; and the original
boundaries of Los Angeles measured six miles
each way. Near the center of this area there
was to be a plaza, measuring 275 by 180 feet,
around which building lots should be assigned
the settlers, 11 1 by 55 feet in size. About half
a mile from this plaza a series of fields were to
be laid out, each containing about seven acres,
and the settler was entitled to two of these for
cultivation. He had, besides, a community
right in the general area, both within and with-
out the city, for pasturage.

Such were the privileges and the opportun-
ities that Rivera was authorized to present to
the people of Sonora and Sinaloa, along the
west coast of Mexico, to induce them to come
to California. The reputation of the Spanish
government as paymaster not being first-class,
he was advised by De Croix to explain specific-
ally that funds had been set aside out of the
royal treasury to meet these obligations; and
as an earnest of good faith the first payment
was made in advance. By this means, he was
enabled to enter into a final contract with those
who would agree to come, and to punish as de-

Governor De Neve Comes to Los Angeles. 71

serters any that took the king's money and then
failed to respond to the call.

Rivera was, without doubt, an excellent
man for an undertaking of this kind. Having
been in charge of the commissary for several
expeditions, he knew the country and under-
stood its people, and having served eight years
in Upper California, he was probably well
equipped with the usual stock of adjectives
to describe its beauties and the excellence of
its climate. There is, we believe, no case on
record of any one living in California eight
years without becoming enamored of its cli-
mate. Then there was a particular reason
why Rivera should do his best to please De
Croix at this piece of work. De Neve had ac-
cepted the governorship of California rather
under protest, and his resignation was now on
file with the commandant general. He had
cause to hope that his influence at the Span-
ish court would procure him a more exalted
position — a hope that was presently realized.
Rivera was next in rank, and the position was
now, under the new arrangement of provinces,
of much greater importance than when for-
merly held by him.

We may therefore assume that the cap-
tain exerted himself to the utmost to secure
the required number of settlers, and to make
the best possible selection of material. He
consumed nearly a year in the work. Never-
theless, the net result of his labors was not the
twenty-four families demanded, but twelve.

72 History of Los Angeles.

and of these there was one that probably never
came to Los Angeles at all. While the writer
naturally hesitates to say anything that can
be construed as a reflection upon the "first
families of Los Angeles," historical verity re-
quires the fact to be set down that Rivera, at
the end of his search, seems to have taken
what he could get, rather than to have selected
what he desired. A list of these people will
be given presently, together with some partic-
ulars about them, and the reader may judge
for himself.

It was in the beginning of the year 1780
that Rivera crossed over from Loreto to Sina-
loa, and it was not until a year and t vo months
later, March, 1781, that his settlers arrived at
Loreto to undertake the trip to the new coun-
try. They were in charge of Lieutenant Jose
Zuniga; for Rivera was to go north with the
live stock and supplies, accompanied by some
soldiers that he had enlisted, by the new route
across the Colorado river. Zuniga and his
party arrived at San Gabriel on the 18th of
August, and they were quartered some dis-
tance from the mission — probably at the old
buildings — for the reason that one of the col-
onists was just recovering from the smallpox,
and a temporary quarantine seemed advisable.

Now comes the end of poor Rivera. Two
years before this time, a small settlement had
been established by the Spaniards on the Col-
orado river, and two churches were founded
there, under the special patronage of the com-

Governor De Neve Conies to Los Angeles. 73

mandant general, De Croix. These latter were
in the nature of an experiment, for they dif-
fered radically from the missions of the Cali-
fornias, in the respect that padres were forbid-
den to direct the industrial efforts of the In-
dians, or to exercise any form of temporal au-
thority over them. De Croix, like many other
civil and military officers of the provinces,
viewed with mistrust the increasing power of
the priestly orders, and he proposed to try here
a system that was more in accord with what
he considered the legitimate function of the
church. He was most unfortunate, however,
in the locality that he selected for his experi-
ment, the Colorado, or Yuma, Indians being
fiercer and more treacherous than those nearer
the coast.

Letters written to De Croix by the priests
stationed in this district were full of forebod-
ings of disaster, but the commandant trans-
lated these to mean that the restrictions on
the temporal powers of the padres had ruffled
their pride. When Rivera arrived at the set-
tlement with his train of cattle, he laughed at
the fears of the fathers. He judged these In-
dians by those he had known along the coast,
and, as if to show his contempt for the warn-
ings, he sent all his soldiers on ahead, except
a small bodyguard, and even turned back the
detachment that the governor had sent down
from San Gabriel to meet him.

On the 17th of July the Indians attacked
the settlement and the churches, slew all the

74 History of Los Angeles.

men except five, and captured the women and
children, whom they held for ransom. The
number killed is estimated at forty-six, among
whom was Rivera, who died fighting bravely.
Three months later De Neve sent an expedi-
tion into the district headed by Pedro Fages,
now returned to California as a lieutenant-
colonel. The captives were ransomed, as it
was found impracticable to attack the Indians.
The attempt to colonize the Colorado river
district was, however, abandoned.

Much as he regretted the disaster, De
Neve saw in it no reason for postponing the
foundation of the pueblo of Los Angeles. On
the 4th day of September, 1781, therefore, the
expedition set out from San Gabriel, the gov-
ernor leading the way in person, followed by
a detachment of soldiers bearing aloft the
banner of Spain. Then came the settlers,
forty-four persons in all, eleven being men,
eleven women, and twenty-two children of all
ages. The plaza had already been laid out,
and the boundaries fixed for the building lots
that faced it. As they neared the selected spot
a procession was formed, made up of the sol-
diers, with the governor at their head, the
priests from San Gabriel, accompanied by their
Indian acolytes, then the male settlers, and,
lastly, the women and the children, the former
bearing a large banner with the Virgin Mary
painted upon it. We may suppose this banner
to have been loaned by the mission authori-
ties, and it may have been the same one that

Governor De Neve Comes to Los Angeles. 75

had so miraculously brought the natives to
submission when Padres Somera and Cambon
first met them on the banks of the San Gabriel,
ten years before.

The procession marched slowly and im-
pressively around the plaza, followed, no
doubt, by the wondering gaze of the Indians
from Yang-na, who had assembled for the
event. When the circuit was completed the
priests asked a blessing on the new city
that was about to come into existence.
Then Governor Felipe de Neve delivered
a formal speech to the settlers, of which
no report has come down to us, but which we
may safely assume was full of excellent advice
to the citizens, and of glowing prophecy for
the pueblo's future. Prayers and a benediction
from the padres concluded the ceremony,
which was probably the most extensive and
the most impressive that was ever held over
the founding of an American city. The com-
parison is easily made, for the reason that
probably not more than a half a dozen Amer-
ican cities ever enjoyed the distinction of be-
ing really founded. The great majority of
them merely happened.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ROSTER OF 1781.

HE demands of tradition and of imperial
dignity having been satisfied by this
ceremonial, the practical work of city
building was begun. The plaza,
which had been laid out by De Neve's
orders a few days before, was an oblong space,
with its corners turned toward the four car-
dinal points of the compass, the longer sides
runningnorthwest and southeast. The reason
alleged for this apparent violation of the natu-
ral laws of direction was thai, by this arrange-
ment the winds would not sweep directly
through the streets. This would involve a
stupid assumption on the part of the governor
or of some one else in authority, that the winds
were accustomed carefully to consult the com-
pass before they started out to blow. The
present writer does not believe this to have
been the real reason for the plan ; and he may
perhaps be pardoned a slight digression on this
point, as it raises an important issue of archi-
tecture and health.

The streets of the original Los Angeles
ran northeast and southwest, and southeast
and northwest. The modern city has shifted
from this a few degrees, but it is still consid-
erably out of plumb. The city of Santa Bar-

I\

D

sIbIaI \

^ if

G
J

\

M

Original Plan of the Pueblo From Bancroft

P— Plaza. A B C— Public Buildiug-s.

The lots arouud the Plaza are the homes of the first set-
tlers. The lots between the river and the ditch are the culti-
vated lands of the settlers.

The Roster of 1781. 77

bara is exactly "on the bias," and others of the
older cities of Spanish America were laid out
on this same plan, although some sections of
them, built in later years, have grown entirely
away from it. People from the eastern states
are accustomed to speak of this arrangement
as "peculiar" and "awkward," and they point
with pride to their own cities, which are as
severely accurate and regular as a demonstra-
tion in Euclid. It is true that ninety-nine out
of every hundred cities in the eastern states
have their streets running to the cardmal
points, the exceptions being those places — like
Boston — that were never actually laid out, but
that "just grew." To defend and to praise this
plan, however, shows the easy triumph of con-
ventionality over logic and good sense. The
most charming guest that the householder can
ever hope to bring into his home is the sun-
shine, for it drives away disease, and instills
cheerfulness and good health. Now if the
streets are laid out exactly "on the bias," this
glorious visitor can find his way, in his daily
course, to every room in the house. If the
streets are drawn straight with the points of
the compass he is forever shut out from one-
fourth of the domicile. Especially is this true
in the great cities, where the buildings are
huddled together in indecent proximity. Had
the city of Chicago, for example, been orig-
inally planned to lie as Santa Barbara does,
who can say how many thousand lives might
have been saved from the baleful ruin of diph-

78 History of Los Angeles.

theria and pneumonia, and how much suffering
from rheumatism and neuralgia might have
been avoided?

It is not unreasonable to suppose that De
Neve, with his extraordinary grasp of detail
and his keen insight, comprehended this law
of health and sanitation, and planned the loca-
tion of Los Angeles in accordance therewith.

The original plaza must not be confounded
with the existing park called by that name, al-
though the latter grew, in a way, out of the
former. The two tracts would touch, if marked
out on the map, only at one corner, that is, at
the northwest corner of the present plaza. The
latter is an almost square piece of land, lying
between Main and Los Angeles and Marches-
sault and Plaza streets. The ancient plaza be-
gan at the southeast corner of Marchessault
and Upper Main (or San Fernando, as it has
lately been named), near the Church of Our
Lady of the Angels ; its boundary continued
along the east line of Upper Main almost to
Bellevue, thence across to the east line of New
High street, thence to the north line of Mar-
chessault, and thence back to the starting
point.

Most of that area, save what is used for
streets, is at the present time covered with
adobes, and it has been so covered as far as
the memory of man runs back. How did the
first plaza come to be thus occupied, and by
what pecidiar chance have we this modern
plaza near to the other, and yet not of it?

The Roster of 1781. 79

There is no definite record of how this oc-
curred, but it is not difficult to trace a prob-
able course of events leading up to such a re-
sult. When the building lots around the plaza
were assigned to the settlers, the land at the
southeastern end, which is the tract covered
by the modern park, was kept for public build-
ings and for a church. Land was so plentiful
at that time that few people took the trouble
to secure titles, and the boundaries esablished
by such deeds as were executed were often of
the vaguest character. The early adobe build-
ings were not very substantial, and when the
first residences of the settlers around the plaza
went to pieces the new structures were pushed
forward a little into the open space. We know
this was true, for complaint was made from
time to time that the plaza lines were becom-
ing obliterated, and that its land was being
seized by the adjoining owners. The warnings
issued by the ayuntamiento, o ' city council,
were unheeded, and the gradual hitching for-
ward process went ou, each one endeavoring
to outdo his neighbor, until none of the old
plaza was left to tell the tale.

There still remained, however, the space in
front of the southeastern side, which had been
used for the guard house, the granaries, and the
council room. While the house builders did
not hesitate to steal the park, they scarcely
ventured to push the city out of the land it
had in active use. Early in the century the
church was located about where it now is, and

80 History of Los Angeles.

we may suppose that the space directly in front
was kept open from a sense of decent religious
observance. At all events, when people began
to obtain titles from the ayuntamiento — a prac-
tice which did not begin until about 1830 —
that body was careful not to give away the
land to the southeast of the square, and out of
that has grown the little plaza park of today.

There were eleven families to be provided
with building lots about the original plaza, and
at the rate of four locations to the side, three
sides were occupied, leaving the fourth for pub-
lic use, as we have said. We are not told of the
exact process by which these sites were as-
signed, but as the fields for cultivation were
drawn for by lot, it is reasonable to suppose
that the same practice was employed in the
division of the building sites. This being
rather a delicate matter, it was probably at-
tended to before Governor De Neve left the
pueblo that day in September.

A map has come down to us showing the
exact location of most of the settlers. Three
are left in doubt, because they had moved out,
by request, before the map was made.

Beginning at the western corner (New High
and Marchessault), and making a circuit of
three sides of the ancient plaza, let us see how
the homes of the first families were located, and
what sort of people they were that occupied
them.

First, at the corner fronting New High
street came the home of Pablo Rodriguez, an

The Roster of 1781. 81

Indian, twenty-five years of age. His family
consisted of an Indian wife and one child.
Next adjoining was the home of Jose Vanegas,
an Indian, twenty-eight years old, with an
Indian wife and one child. He was the first to
hold the ofHce of alcalde, or mayor, in the
pueblo, being elected to that honor in 1788,
and re-elected in 1796.

Next to the house of Vanegas a narrow
street cut across at right angles to the plaza
front, and then came Jose Moreno, a mulatto,
twenty-two years of age, his wife a mulattress.
This couple had no children. The fourth lo-
cation on that side was taken by Felix or An-
tonio Villavicencio, a Spaniard, aged thirty,
with an Indian wife and one child. Around
the north corner was an L-shaped lot, oc-
cupied originally by one of the expelled set-
tlers. Next came two lots across from and
facing the public side, which were taken by
the two other banished families. The exact
order of these three is not known, but they
are described as follows : Jose de Lara, a
Spaniard, fifty years of age, with an Indian
wife and three children ; Antonio Mesa, a
negro, thirty-eight years of age, with a mulat-
tress wife and five children. At the east cor-
ner was another L-shaped lot, taken by Basilio
Rosas, an Indian, sixty-eight years old, mar-
ried to a mulattress with six offspring.

Coming now to the front that corresponds
to Upper Main street, we have first Alejandro
Rosas, an Indian, nineteen years of age, whose

82 History of Los Angeles.

wife is described as a "Coyote Indian" — which
does not sound very promising — with no child-
ren. Next came a vacant lot, thd- a narrow
street, and then the home of Antonio Navarro,
a mestizo, i. e., Spanish-Indian halfbreed,
whose wife was a mulattress with three child-
ren. Lastly, coming back to the side of the
public land, we have the residence of Manuel
Camero, a mulatto, aged thirty years, with a
mulattress wife and no children. He was
elected regidor, or councilman, in 1789.

Cataloguing this extraordinary collection
of adults by nationality or color, we have:
two Spaniards, one mestizo, two negroes, eight
mulattoes and nine Indians. The children are
even more mixed, as follows : Spanish-Indian,
four ; Spanish-negro, five ; negro-Indian, eight ;
Spanish-negro-Indian, three ; Indian two.
Thus the only people of unmixed Caucassian
race in the whole company were two Spanish
men, on the purity of whose blood frequent
aspersions were cast ; and the only members
of the coming generation with regular an-
cestry were the two Indian children.

There was one more member of this inter-
esting party, a certain Antonio Miranda, who
fell out by the wayside, at Loreto, and who
probably never came to California. This is in
one way regrettable, for we may believe, from
the title bestowed upon him in the original
catalogue, that he out-freaked all the rest. He
is recorded in the list as a "Chino," which
does not signify that he was a Chinaman, as

The Roster of 1781, 83

many writers have erroneously stated, but
that he was a mysterious tangle of all kinds
of available ancestry — "compounded of many
simples," as Jacques says of his melancholy —
and that his hair was curly. He had no wife
extant, so the data is not at hand on which to
form even a rough estimate as to what his one
child was like. However, it suffices for us to
note the facts that Miranda was no: a China-
man, and that he was not of the Los Angeles
party. A very fair ethnological composite was
achieved, without the assistance of a "Chino."
No information has reached us concerning
the trades or lines of business of the various
settlers, save that Navarro was a tailor. If
Rivera obeyed orders in making his selection
there was a blacksmith in the colony, and also
a carpenter and a mason, but we do not know
which members of the party filled these roles,
nor, indeed, are we entirely sure they were
filled. Little else is known of these early set-
tlers beyond the few facts set down above.
If there are any descendants of them now
living in California, they are not known as
such. The Los Angeles directory of 1901 fails
to show anybody by the name of Vanegas, or
Villavicencio, or Rosas, or Navarro, or Ca-
mero, and only one Mesa. The names Rod-
riguez and Moreno, which are common every-
where in Spanish America, occur respectively
five and twenty-six times in the directory.

In the letters of the padres, these early set-
tlers are generally referred to in terms of pity

84 History of Los Angeles.

and contempt. It was originally intended by
De Neve that they should enjoy a form of self-
government by choosing their own mayor and
councilmen (alcalde and regidores), but no
election was held during the first seven years,
the town being under the guidance of a petty
military official, who came afterwards to be
called a "comisionado." Evidently the
founder of Los Angeles and his successors in
the governorship felt that people of such a
sort could not be trusted to look after their
own affairs.

Work began with the building of houses
around the plaza. The regulations required
that within five years each settler must be pro-
vided with a substantial residence built of
adobe ; but the first houses were made of light
stakes driven into the ground, with poles
stretched across for the framework, the whole
thatched with tules and plastered with mud,
much after the fashion of the Indian "wicky-
ups." These were a sufficient protection
against the rains of the first season, and before
the wet months came again a number of adobe
dwellings had been finished.

The next undertaking was a communal one
— the construction of a ditch to supply the
pueblo with water for irrigation and for do-
mestic use. A small dam was run out into the
river at about the point where the Buena
Vista street bridge now stands, and the water
was carried over the line of the modern city
zanja — the "zanja madre" — to the fields, which

E

1

^H|

f > ^

^H

§ '^ -■■■■ '^-

^

^F ■»* "

THh. RuDKlGUKZ Palms Photo by Maude

The Roster of 1781. 85

lay along lower Alameda street, occupying
the ground where the lumber yards and China-
town now are. Here a planting was made of
wheat, maize and vegetables, and a palisade
was constructed to keep off the cattle and the
thieving Indians. This palisade was presently
replaced by an adobe wall, which enclosed
the houses and some of the fields.

During the first few years, those of the
colonists who desired to attend church on Sun-
day were compelled to travel all the way to
San Gabriel ; but in 1784 a chapel was con-
structed near the corner of Buena Vista street
and Bellevue avenue. Other public structures
completed in the first years were the town
house, the guard house, and the granary.

Before the city was six months old it was
discovered that Rivera had made a sad mistake
in some of the settlers he had selected ; and
Jose de Lara, the Spaniard, and the two ne-
groes, Antonio Mesa and Luis Quintero, were
formally expelled on the ground that they
"were useless to the pueblo and to them-
selves." They went out, taking with them
their families, and the number was thus re-
duced by sixteen. Some years later Navarro,
the tailor, was expelled for the same reason.
He took up his abode in San Francisco, but a
descendant of his was living in Los Angeles
in 1840.

In 1785 Jose Francisco Sinova, who had
resided in California several years, applied for
admission to the pueblo, and was taken in on

86 History of Los Angeles.

the same terms as the original settlers. By
this time two of the sons of Basilio Rosas had
grown up to citizenship, and Juan Jose Do-
minguez, a Spaniard, had joined the little col-
ony. The latter was given a special land
grant by Governor Fages, De Neve's succes-
sor, including what was afterwards known as
the San Pedro, or Dominguez rancho, which
has descended through his brother, Sergeant
Cristobal Dominguez, to the heirs of that fam-
ily at the present time. He is, therefore, the
first tangible link between the ancient city and
the modern.

CHAPTER IX.

the; mission system.

T THE time of the founding of Los
Angeles, in the year 1781, there were
eight mission establishments in Cali-
fornia. Within the next four years
three more were added, making
eleven in all that came into existence under
the supervision of Father Junipero Serra. San
Buenaventura was founded in 1782. Santa
Barbara and Purisima (near Lompoc in Santa
Barbara county) were not founded until after
the death of Serra, which took place in 1784,
but as most of the details of their establish-
ment had been planned by him, it is right that
they should be included in the list of the eleven
missions of Junipero Serra. The period cov-
ered by this work was about sixteen years.

In the three decades that followed ten more
missions were founded, making twenty-one in
all. No one of these was farther than a day's
journey from the coast. They covered a
stretch of seven hundred miles, averaging
about an easy day's journey from one another.
Through the first half century of California's
existence these institutions occupy the center
of the historical stage, the other elements —
civil, military, communal or individual — serv-
ing rather as accessories than as independent

88 History of Los Angeles.

actors. To obtain, therefore, a correct per-
spective for the little pueblo of Los Angeles,
whose founding we have just described, it
will be necessary to examine into the unique
social-religious system that was above and
around it.

Although this system was in full operation
from San Diego to San Francisco less than a
lifetime ago, with its long chain of prosperous
institutions involving directly and indirectly
about fifty thousand human beings, no rem-
nants of it now remain, save the half-crumbled
ruins of the buildings. These being, for the
most part, constructed not of stone or of brick,
as are the churches of Europe, but of half-
baked clay, their ultimate complete destruc-
tion is only a matter of a few years' time, un-
less individual or government enterprise inter-
venes to protect them. A local organization of
Southern California, the "Landmarks Club,"
has checked the ruin of San Juan Capistrano
and San Fernando, and is now devoting its en-
ergies to San Luis Rey. Such of the buildings
as are in proper condition and are suitably
located are used for parochial institutions by
the Roman Catholic church. Santa Barbara
and San Gabriel are examples of establish-
ments that have been in almost continuous
use for church purposes since their founda-
tion.

Unfortunately many of the missions
were located in districts that are now too
sparsely settled to support them as churches,

The Mission System. 89

and these have gone into utter ruin. San An-
tonio de Padua, for example, which, not more
than ten years ago was a handsome, sub-
stantial structure, having been preserved for
church use up to that time, is now nothing
but a stretch of ragged clay wall, which the
rain and suit and wind will, in a few years
more, completely obliterate.

Of the human elements that entered mto
the system, the remnants are even fewer. The
original Spanish Franciscans are gone — a few
German Franciscans have taken their places.
The Roman church is here — as it is every-
where— but it holds now only a share ot the
population, where in the mission days it held
all except the few roving Indians oi the foot-
hills. But the thirty thousand savage con-
verts, the neophytes that gathered around
the missions and served the fathers both as
congregation for their spiritual ministrations
and as toilers in the industrial development of
the country — they have disappeared entirely
as a class and almost utterly at a race. In the
prosperous days of San Gabriel it embraced
within the system of its industrial operations
nearly two thousand Indians, and now not
more than half a dozen Indian families can be
found in that vicinity. Not only has the mis-
sion system itself departed, but the elements
that entered into it seem to have been de-
stroyed, root and branch.

Institutions that are planned for perma-
nency and pass away usually rank as failures.

90 History of Los Angeles.

but the Franciscan missions of California
were not as utterly valueless as the wreck of
them would indicate. Their projectors had a
certain purpose in view, viz., the Christianiz-
ing and civilizing of the Indians — a worthy-
purpose, it must be conceded ; and if they man-
aged to accomplish it, or if they came as near
to success as others engaged in the same work
elsewhere, then the mission system is not to
be hastily condemned as a failure, notwith-
standing the fact that it exists no longer, and
its materials have fallen into decay.

The question of the value of the missionSj
and the wisdom and justice of their treatment
of the Indians, has given rise to a great amount
of controversy, with a variety of resultant
opinions. The phrase "to civilize the savages"
is easily written and glibly uttered, but when
its full meaning is considered it will be found
to contain one of the greatest of human prob-
lems. It is of about the same order as the
squaring of the circle, or the achievement of
perpetual motion. The frontier proverb that
"the only good Indian is a dead Indian" puts
into rough and brutal form the experience of
the English-speaking peoples that about the
only way to civilize savages is to put an end
to their existence. This may be done by the
swift and simple process of slaughter, or by
the slower and more complex plan of driving
them from their lands into inevitable starva-
tion. If neither of these plans is available,
there still remain the white man's deadly

The Mission System. 91

vices. Now to make a fair judgment of the
system employed by the padres with the Cali-
fornia Indians — a judgment which with most
of us will labor under the unsympathy of an
alien blood and a different religious belief —
it might be well to use as a basis of compari-
son our own treatment of the Indians during
a similar period of our development. Where
are the Indian tribes that formerly held the
land east of the Mississippi? Are they civil-
ized or are they obliterated? Or, if the matter
be brought nearer home, will the comparison
be more favorable if we inquire into our meth-
ods with the Mission Indians, after California
became part of the union? It is a heart-break-
ing story that has been told only too well by
Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson in "Ramona" and
"A Century of Dishonor." Plainly these com-
parisons are out of the question.. But while
the Anglo-Saxon will plead guilty to his own
failure to civilize the savages, and will even
admit that he and they cannot live in the same
neighborhood without the latter coming to
destruction, yet he does not hesitate to pass
judgment on the efforts of others. The Ameri-
can historians that have handled the mission
question have generally condemned the system
employed by the padres with the Indians, al-
though certainly no one of them would claim
that the Anglo-Saxon has ever done the work
any better.

The process by which the mission system
came into existence was a logical one. A

92 History of Los Angeles.

couple of priests, accompanied by a small
squad of soldiers go into a strange country,
peopled only by savages, but having great agri-
cultural and industrial possibilities. Of these
possibilities the priests are thoroughly cogni-
zant, by reason of the resemblance between
the climate of the new country and that of their
own. The demands of religion must be con-
sidered first, and for that purpose a church
building is to be constructed. Who will do
the work? The soldiers will not; the priests
alone cannot, and there are none others save
the savages. The padres offer the natives
little gifts of cloth and beads, and when their
good will is established ask for their assistance
in the work of erecting the church. This is
frequently offered without the asking. Next
comes the planting of crops for the support
of the padres and of such of the natives as
have worked faithfully at the building, for the
Indian in his native state is always close to
starvation. The cattle which the padres have
brought with them must be cared for, so a
few of the Indians are taught to ride horses and
to serve as vaqueros. In the meantime the
work of baptism and instruction in the rites of
the church goes on, a little slowly at first, but
more rapidly as the Indians learn that no harm
comes of it. A series of buildings are con-
structed, not only for church work and the
use of the priests, but also to harbor the
Christian Indians, the neophytes, as they are
called, who, having lost caste among their own

The Mission System. 93

people for doing the manual labor of the white
man, must be cared for by the padres and kept
from backsliding into savagery. In this way
the industrial system is gradually built up,
each undertaking laid upon its predecessor
with inevitable logic and seeming necessity.

It is to be doubted whether any form of civ-
ilization could have been worked out among
these savages that did not rest upon some sort
of an industrial base. Had the padres con-
fined themselves, as De Croix and other civil
governors advised, to the purely spiritual side
of the work, and had the savages been allowed
to continue in their indolence and degrada-
tion, the religious instruction must have fallen
on ears that would not hear. The Indians
would inevitably have become involved in con-
flict with the soldiers, from whom the padres
with difficulty protected them, even under the
mission regime ; the savages would have grown
fiercer and more crafty, and in the end would
have proved a barrier to the advance of civili-
zation, instead of assisting its progress. The
doctrine that the Evil One is always at hand
to find work enough for the idle, applies as
well to the savages as to the civilized man.
The fathers understood this ; there was plenty
of work to be done, and they could see no
reason why the Indian should not do his share.

In the minds of these simple, earnest sol-
diers of the church a law was a law, and was to
be obeyed. Both religion and worldly wisdom
required that the Indian should be controlled

94 History of Los Angeles.

and made to work ; and the padres did not al-
low any idle question of sentiment to interfere
with this policy. If discipline was necessary
they were prepared to administer it. They
found the savages to be very like children,
and the only form of discipline then in vogue
for the child was the rod. If the Indian would
not work he was starved and flogged. If he
ran away he was pursued and brought back.
His condition was not exactly that of a slave,
as is sometimes charged. He was not sold
from hand to hand, nor separated from his fam-
ily, nor denied a considerable degree of lib-
erty, if he did not abuse it by bad behavior ;
neither was he treated with wanton cruelty,
nor put to death, except for some capital crime.
His condition was rather that of an appren-
tice bound to service for an indefinite period
of years, and subject to the forms of discipline
that were practiced upon apprentices all over
the world at that time. He had stated hours
of labor, usually not exceeding seven in the
day, to which must be added three hours for
religious exercises. His food and clothing
were coarse and none too plentiful, but such as
they were they improved upon the nakedness
and semi-starvation of savagery. The condi-
tions of life for the mission Indian varied, of
course, greatly with the personal characteris-
tics of the padres in charge of the estaolish-
ment. Some of the superiors were hard and
even cruel, and others kind and gentle. Some
were successful in maintaining order without

The Mission System. 95

much punishment, and others beheved in the
lash for all offenses. At worst, the Indian's
lot was somewhat better than slavery; at best
it was happy though not very agreeable.

It happens that on the question of the pad-
res' treatment of the Indians we have plenty
of other testimony than that of the priests
themselves. The civil and military authorities
were ready at all times to criticise the methods
of the padres, and the reports filed with the
viceroy and the commandant general by the
governors show that affairs at the missions
were subjected to a close scrutiny. It was
hardly to be expected that any system of dis-
cipline could be maintained over tens of
thousands of ignorant savages without afford-
ing occasional instances of harsh treatment or
injustice.

The mission system may be properly
charged with the mistake of over-discipline,
which brought two bad results ; the one of oc-
casional cruelty to the Indians and the otTier —
more serious in the long run — of failing to
make the natives independent and self-sup-
porting. It remains to be proved, however,
whether any form of policy would have accom-
plished the latter object. The charge that
there was great mortality among the Indians
under this system is true, but a large death
rate is to be expected whenever savages are
required to change from out-of-door freedom
and nakedness to the civilized form of life.

On the other hand, it must be recorded to

96 History of Los Angeles.

the credit of the mission system that order was
established and maintained among a horde
of degraded savages scattered along six
hundred miles of frontier; that the men were
taught agriculture, irrigation, cattle-raising,
leather-working, carpentry, milling, building,
blacksmithing, the care of horses, and many
other useful pursuits ; and the women were
taught to cook and sew and weave, and were
protected through girlhood and decently mar-
ried to men of their own race or to the Span-
iards ; that an industrial community was cre-
ated in each mission center, to redeem the land
from an otherwise complete worthlessness and
sloth ; that the padres, almost without excep-
tion, led moral lives, setting an example of de-
cency and sobriety not only to the Indians, but
also to the white settlers ; and, lastly, that the
whole mission undertaking was founded in the
beginning on a conscientious devotion to the
teachings of Christ, and was carried on by the
fathers with sincere motives, and according to
their best judgment.

CHAPTER X.

EIGHTEENTH-CEINTURY I^OS ANGELKS.

HE provisions under which each set-
tler received his allotment of a build-
ing site and a piece of farming land
was that within three years he should
have a good adobe house constructed
and the land cleared and that within five years
he should have some chickens, a fair crop of
corn or wheat growing and a good farm equip-
ment. Not until the five years had passed was
he to receive anything like a title to his land,
and even then he would not be allowed to sell
or mortgage, the king being the real owner
and the colonist rather in the nature of a
lessee.

There is reason to believe that these con-
ditions were not entirely complied with by all
the colonists ; nevertheless, De Neve's succes-
sor, Fages, in 1786, thought best to issue the
so-called titles, and he sent Jose Arguello, af-
terwards governor of the province, to perform
this service. Arguello appointed two witness-
es from the guard of soldiers at Los Angeles,
one of them being Corporal Vicente Felix, who
was an important factor in the city's affairs at
this time. Summoning all the settlers to his
presence, Arguello presented each one of the
nine with : First, a deed to his house lot ; sec-
ond, a deed to his farm land; and third, a

98 History of Los Angeles.

branding iron, by which he was to distinguish
his stock from the others'. These nine settlers
were the original eleven, minus De I^ara, Mesa
and Quintero, expelled for general uselessness,
and plus Sinova, the emigrant picked up in
California. Twenty-seven documents were
thus distributed, for a description of each
branding iron went with the implement, all
signed by Arguello and his witnesses, and
adorned with the "X, his mark," of the settler,
for not one of the nine could write. In the
case of the house lots, each location was de-
scribed with reference to the plaza, showing
that a rough survey had been made, and a map
was filed with Arguello's report to the gov-
ernor of the transaction. The location of the
fields is left somewhat vague, the assumption
being that each one knew about where his own
land was, anyhow.

During the next four years considerable in-
crease took place in the population, the new-
comers being chiefly soldiers who had served
out their time. Some of these were married
to Indian wives, but others were attracted to
Los Angeles, no doubt, by the fact that a num-
ber of girls were growing u:p in the families
there, who would in time be ready for mar-
riage. By 1790 the number of households had
increased from nine to twenty-eight, with a
total population of 139. All of the original set-
tlers who had received titles from Arguello re-
mained, except one, Rosas, who had departed
for San Jose. On the other hand, Los An-

Ei^hteenth-Cenhiry Los Angeles. 99

geles had received one emigrant from San
Jose, a certain Sebastian Alvitre, who, for
nearly twenty years, enjoyed the reputation
of being the worst man in the province of Cal-
ifornia. Most of the reports from the com-
isionado at Los Angeles to the governor,
during this period, contain somewhere the in-
teresting item of news that Alvitre is in jail
again.

Among the names of the twenty new set-
tlers there are several that are now common
in Los Angeles ; such, for example, as Figue-
roa, Garcia, Dominguez, Pico, Reyes, Ruiz,
Lugo, Sepulveda and Verdugo.

No selection of an alcalde seems to have
been made prior to 1788. Corporal Vicente
Felix acted as general manager of the colony
and arbiter of all disputes up to that time.
The settlers found fault with him continually,
and on one or two occasions formal complaint
was lodged with the governor, but no change
was made ; on the contrary, Felix was present-
ly given the title of "comisionado," and ad-
vised by the governor to make it his business
to see that the laws were obeyed and good or-
der maintained, although the pueblo had by
this time an alcalde and two regidores, or
councilmen, who were supposed to be the local
administrative, judicial and legislative au-
thority.

Jose Vanegas, one of the original settlers,
was the first alcalde, Jose Sinova the second,
and Mariano Verdugo the third. The list from

100 History of Los Angeles,

1790 to 1800 runs as follows : Francisco
Reyes, Jose Vanegas (re-elected), Manuel
Arellano, Guillermo Soto, Francisco Serrano
and Joaquin Higuera. Through all these ad-
ministrations Felix continued to hold author-
ity, as the real representative of the governor,
and the court of last appeal. Theoretically,
the pueblo was entitled to local self-govern-
ment, but practically it was under military
control — that is, as far as it was controlled at
all.

The records of the pueblo during this epoch
are decidedly meager. In 1790 the fact is
noted in the reports that the colonists of Los
Angeles grew a larger crop of grain than any
of the missions except San Gabriel. The
amount is given as 4500 bushels, which does
not seem large when it is divided by the num-
ber of heads of families — say 150 bushels to
the settler. Most of this was corn. In 1796
it was nearly twice as large. By 1800 the crop
had increased so far beyond local needs that
a proposition was made by the pueblo to sup-
ply 3400 bushels of wheat annually for the
market at San Bias at a price of $1.66 per
bushel. This is especially significant in view
of the fact that De Neve had advocated the
founding of the pueblo because wheat was
being imported from San Bias to supply the
soldiers in California. In 1797 there was a
drought, and only 2700 bushels were grown.
About this time the governor sent down word
that land must be assigned to every head of

Eighteeuth-Century Los Angeles. 101

a family in Los Angeles, and that each one
must be required to do his share of the culti-
vation. Fences were ordered constructed, so
that cattle would not get into the grain, and
each settler was compelled to subscribe three
bushels a year to make up a fund for the city's
improvement.

Horses and cattle increased with consid-
erable rapidity. In 1790 there were 3000, and
in 1800, 12,500. Sheep numbered 1700. A
provision in the original regulations of the
pueblo as drawn up by De Neve forbade the
ownership of more than fifty cattle by any one
person. This was for the purpose of prevent-
ing monopoly. It seems to have suffered the
usual fate of legislation of that order, and was
never observed. It had developed by this
time that a man might have an abundance of
cattle and yet be poor. In the annals of San
Gabriel mission, in the year 1795, it is recorded
that a man who was known to be the owner
of 1000 horses came over from the pueblo to
beg for a piece of cloth to make a shirt, as
there was none to be had in Los Angeles. In
an official price list published by Governor
Fages we find the value of an ox or cow put
at $5; of a sheep, $1 to $2; of a chicken, 25
cents ; of a mule, $14 to $20, and of a well
broken horse at $9. An attempt was made
during Fages' time to arbitrarily fix the price
of wheat at $1 a bushel. The value of horned
cattle could hardly have been so great at this
time as it was a quarter of a century later.

102 History of Los Angeles.

when the Yankee traders began to frequent
the coast to buy up hides and tallow.

During the decade from 1790 to 1800 the
population of Los Angeles increased from
thirty to seventy families, from 140 people to
315. By this time it had become the custom
to send the superannuated and invalided sol-
diers from the various presidios to Los An-
geles to end their days in its mild climate. In
the census of 1790 there is a division of citi-
zens by age, and out of eighty adults nine were
over 90 years old, which is an extraordinary
percentage. This same census gives the divi-
sion of nationality as follows : Spanish, 72 ;
Indians, 7 ; mulattoes, 22 ; mestizos, 30. The
increase in the number of Spanish (which
probably includes those of Spanish descent
born in America) shows the large part now
played by the army in the colonization ; for the
soldiers detailed in California up to this time
were largely brought over from Spain, where-
as the colonists from Mexico were, as we have
seen, of mixed descent.

Los Angeles at the end of the eighteenth
century consisted of about thirty small adobe
houses, twelve of which were chistered around
an open square, and the remainder huddled in
the vicinity, without much system as to loca-
tion. The houses were near together, not be-
cause land was scarce or valuable, but for so-
ciability and for mutual protection against
thieving Indians. Most of the new houses
were to the southwest of the plaza, where are

Eighteenth-Century Los Angeles. 103

now Buena Vista and Castelar streets. To the
north and east lay the lower land, and the
space reserved for the public buildings. These
latter consisted of a town house, where all the
public business was transacted ; a public gran-
ary, a jail, and the barrack, where the small
detachment of the army that was assigned to
Los Angeles : Vicente Felix, the comisionado,
and his three or four men, had their head-
quarters.

The houses were one-story affairs, fre-
quently containing but one room. The roofs
were constructed of poles, thatched with tules,
and at first plastered with mud ; later brea
was discovered in the fields to the west of the
town and used for roofing material, as it is to
this day. As the rafters had but little slope,
considerable rain must have found its way into
the houses in wet weather. Glass was un-
known, the small windows closing with a shut-
ter, if at all. The few pieces of furniture were
crudely constructed of poles and strips of raw-
hide.

No attempt was made to keep the yards
about the houses in decent sanitary condition,
much less to make them beautiful. There
were no flowers nor shade trees, except here
and there a sycamore, that may have escaped
the searchers for firewood, or a few wild blos-
soms in the springtime. Cattle were slaugh-
tered for food right in the house yards, and the
remains of the carcasses thrown about. The
sole scavengers were dogs and chickens and

104 History of Los Angeles.

the birds provided by nature for that purpose.
In the summer time the roads and paths about
the houses were deep in dust, which every
passing horseman stirred up for the wind to
drive through open windows and doors.

There does not appear to have been any
planting of fruit trees until near the end of
the century, when Governor Borica sent word
to the authorities that orchards and vineyards
should be set out and protected from cattle by
fences and walls. The irrigating ditch was
frequently neglected, until there was danger
at one time that everything would dry up and
die ; so the governor ordered extensive and
permanent repairs to be made. A great deal
of the hard labor of the farms and households
was done by Indians, who had been half civil-
ized and half educated at the mission of San
Gabriel, and who found life at the pueblo
easier and more entertaining. Some of these
worked the farms on shares, which gave the
settlers plenty of time to attend cock fights
and play the guitar.

The padres who came over from San
Gabriel to take charge of the religious wel-
fare of the citizens complained bitterly of the
idle and worthless lives led by most of their
parishioners. There was no school in Los An-
geles, nor any attempt at instruction of the
young. In 1784 an ex-soldier named Vargas
opened a school in San Jose, and a few years
later he was summoned to San Diego by a
raise in salary — $250 a year was the improved

Eighteenth- Century Los Angeles 105

figure — but Los Angeles did not put in a bid.
A mail was carried to and from Mexico once
a month, covering a distance of 3000 xTiiles over
the Camino Real or King's Highway, but as
almost none of the settlers could read or write
postal facilities were little used. There was
a good deal of disorder of a mild type —
drunkenness, quarreling and occasional fights
— but murder seems not to have been frequent.
The soldiers acted as policemen, and a guard
was maintained night and day.

Foreign vessels were not allowed to visit
the coast, and there was very little trade or
commerce of any kind. Such as there was
remained largely in the hands of the padres at
San Gabriel, and was carried on through the
port of San Pedro, where some years later a
warehouse was constructed for the use of the
mission.

This description seems to be carrying us
back into the Middle Ages, and yet it was only
one hundred years ago, in the administrations
of Washington and of John Adams, the time of
Pitt and Burke, and of Napoleon and Goethe.

CHAPTER XI.

IN THE SPANISH PROVINCE.

ELIPE DE NEVE was too valuable a
man to be allowed to remain long
in charge of so remote and unimport-
ant a province as California, and with-
in a year from the founding of Los
Angeles, in 1782, he was transferred to a higher
position. He presently succeeded De Croix
as commandant general of the "Internal Prov-
inces," an office independent of and very nearly
equal to that of the viceroy of Mexico. Un-
fortunately, he died a few months after reach-
ing this coveted honor. As the founder of Los
Angeles city, and the first independent gov-
ernor of California, he would be entitled to a
prominent place in the locality's history, what-
ever his attainments ; but the fact that he was
a man of exceptional brilliancy and force,
whose judicial powers and administrative skill
were recognized at an early age by his gov-
ernment, will cause us, more than a century
later, to revere his memory and to regret the
untimely death that ended his career.

In the same year, 1784, died the other great
man of this epoch and region — Father Juni-
pero Serra. He had reached the age of 67,
having labored zealously in California since
1768, during which time he had estabHshed
and thoroughly organized the mission system

In the Spanish Province. 107

of the province. He had many of the quahties
of the soldier, the statesman, and the industrial
leader, as well as those of the evangelist.
When the smaller men — Rivera, De Barri and
Pages — obstructed his path he brushed them
aside ; but in De Neve he had to contend with
an individuality as powerful as his own. In
spite of the guarded language with which De
Neve, in his state papers, handles all matters
relating to the missions, and in spite of the
calm dignity of his demeanor towards the
padres, it is evident that he was entirely con-
scious of the churchman's disposition to en-
croach on the confines of the civil authority,
and his eye was ever on Serra as their leader.
An incident that took place in 1779 with
reference to Serra's exercise of the power of
confirmation illustrates so admirably the char-
acter of these two men, and shows so plainly
the attitude they held towards each other,
that it is well worth relating. The adminis-
tering of the rite of confirmation, i. e., the ac-
ceptance of converts into the church, was lim-
ited, both by ecclesiastical and civil law to the
bishops. Although ranking as president of the
California system of missions. Father Junipero
was not a bishop, but he obtained by special
arrangement through the college of San Fer-
nando, Mexico, and the viceroy, the authority
to confirm ; and he proceeded to exercise it
upon great numbers of Indians. It may have
been that De Neve questioned the wisdom of
receiving these ignorant savages into church

108 History of Los Angeles.

membership, or it may have been that he re-
garded this as a usurpation of power on the
part of Serra, which it was his duty to inquire
into ; at all events, finding no record anywhere
of the granting of such a privilege, he wrote
a courteous letter to Serra, asking him the
source of his authority. Serene in the con-
sciousness that he was well within the law,
and actuated, perhaps, by a very human wish
to humiliate the governor, Serra paid no at-
tention to the summons and continued with the
ceremony of confirmation. Thereupon De Neve
issued an order suspending all future confirma-
tions, and in a letter entirely free from animus
or personal feeling, he reported to De Croix,
the commandant general of the provinces,
what he had done. De Croix learning, in the
meantime, either from the viceroy or from the
College of San Fernando, that Serra had in his
possession the documents showing his right to
confirm, wrote to the ecclesiastic, and in-
structed him to deliver them to De Neve, and
put an end to the controversy. But Serra had
taken occasion to send the documents down to
the College of San Fernando. Why? Our
admiration for this conqueror of the wilder-
ness is so great that we hesitate to accuse him
of a trivial or ignoble act, yei his conduct
through this whole afifair is exactly that of a
man seeking by every small device to put a
conspicuous humiliation upon a rival in power.
If that was his purpose he certamly failed, be-
cause De Neve was too great as a man, and

V. R.BEL V. P. E JUNIPERO SEK^A

, ^^•'Mdr./tHUfmla(Jt!j?H!i£Car/oj-deifl.'Hrl'JiXkenleJ^a2r.<kcfy*fki3^
dffda.idf%.aiSr£4M:haitga/Uul<,iam^dtjufulaauiovrtCd*CK^^ \

Frontispiece from the "Vida,"of Padre Francisco
Venkkablf. Padke Junipero Serra

In the Spanish Province. 109

too dignified as a ruler to notice the effort.
In due course of time the papers were re-
turned and submitted to the governor ; where-
upon he withdrew his order, acting both then
and thereafter with even, unruffled courtesy
toward Serra and the other priests.

De Neve's successor was Pedro Pages, a
frank, good-hearted soldier, of no great intel-
lectual attainments, but conscientious in the
discharge of his duty. He served from 1782 to
1790. It will be remembered that Fages ac-
companied the first expedition sent out by
Galvez to colonize California, and that he suc-
ceeded Portola as military ruler of the upper
province. His removal from that position was
caused through the influence of Serra, and it
was scarcely necessary for De Neve to warn
him, as he did in a formal state document, that
the civil authority must be protected from the
encroachment of the priests. He was, how-
ever, by no means so well qualified to hold his
own in controversy with the padres as was De
Neve, a fact which is well illustrated in the
circumstances that attended the founding of
Santa Barbara and Purisima missions. .

These establishments had been planned by
Serra, and would have been founded before
the close of De Neve's term but for the dis-
agreement between the governor and the pad-
res regarding them. De Neve's estimate of the
mission system shows in his desire to establish
pueblos and permanent fortified camps, and in
his determined efforts at civil colonization.

110 History of Los Angeles.

He seems to have regarded this industrial de-
velopment among the Indians, with its
hierarchical foundation, with suspicion and dis-
trust, and although he manifested no hostility
toward the establishments that already existed
he was loth to assist in the upbuilding of new
ones. He offered no objection to San Buena-
ventura, which was part of the original plan
devised before his administration, but his in-
fluence was felt through the commandant gen-
eral and the viceroy in the arrangements for
the other two missions of the channel — Santa
Barbara and Purisima. The regulations drawn
up for the founding and management of these
two institutions provided that the natives were
not to be brought in from their villages by
force, nor were they to be kept at the mission,
except for a limited term and a few at a time.
This was, in effect, an interdiction on the
whole industrial scheme — which the Francis-
cans would not tolerate, their contention being,
as we have seen in a previous chapter, that un-
less they could control the daily life of the In-
dians it was impossible to civilize them. De
Neve agreed to provide plenty of soldiers to
shield the fathers from harm, and he expressed
some well-bred doubts as to the efficacy of a
conversion that could be achieved only
through material means. In the end, there
was a deadlock, which is possibly what De
Neve anticipated and desired. The padres re-
fused to serve at the new establishments, and

In the Spanish Province. Ill

the governor maintained his position, in spite
of their refusal.

But when Fages was governor, and after
the death of De Neve, the question was re-
opened, and by some means the padres car-
ried the day. In 1786 the two new missions
were founded, and their plan of operation was
exactly like that of the other establishments.
The issue was never raised again, and all of
the ten remaining missions followed the orig-
inal plan.

The successor of Fages, on the latter's res-
ignation in 1790, was Jose Antonio Romeu,
who served as governor only two years, dur-
ing most of which he was an invalid. During
his administration two more missions were es-
tablished, making thirteen in all. The new
establishments were Santa Cruz and Soledad,
the latter situated about thirty-five miles south
of Monterey. On his death, and after a short
interregnum, came Diego de Borica, who held
the office until the beginning of the nineteenth
century. He was a prudent, politic man, fa-
mous for his wit and comradeship, but indus-
trious and capable. His attitude toward the
padres and the mission system, while not par-
taking of the far-sighted doubcs of De Neve,
was no less independent and firm. He was
also an advocate of the pueblo plan of coloniza-
tion, and the Villa of Branciforte was founded
near Santa Cruz mission during his adminis-
tration.

112 History of Los Angeles.

On the death of Serra, Fermin Francisco
Lasuen succeeded to the presidency of the mis-
sions. Point Fermin at San Pedro was named
in his honor, a fact that should set at rest the
question of its spelling, which has been vari-
ously written by map-makers and govern-
ment engineers as Fermin, Firmin and Firmen.
After the death of Serra, mission development
was allowed to flag somewhat during the ad-
ministration of Fages and Romeu, but shortly
after Borica came into office it was taken up
with new vigor. In 1797 three missions were
founded, San Jose, San Juan Bautista and
San Miguel. The following year two more
were added, San Fernando, near Los Angeles,
and San Luis Rey in the San Diego district.
This made a total of eighteen. All of these
institutions were in a fairly prosperous condi-
tion, averaging about six hundred and fifty In-
dians and three thousand cattle to each estab-
lishment. At the end of Borica's term the mis-
sions were producing an aggregate of 75,000
bushels of grain, of which about three-fifths
was wheat. There was much complaint at
this time of the ill treatment of the Indians
by the padres, which, in some cases, was
clearly substantiated, and the necessary reform
followed.

In his effort to found the new pueblo of
Branciforte — named in honor of the viceroy
then administering the government of Mexico
— Borica was confronted by the same difficulty

In the Spanish Province. 113

that beset De Neve, and his enterprise met
with even a poorer degree of success than his
predecessor's. It was one thing to draft ex-
tensive regulations for the governing of a
pueblo, but quite another to find the people to
occupy it. We do not know that Borica ever
paid a visit to Los Angeles, but he certainly
inspected San Jose, which was only a short
distance from the capital at Monterey; and
he was probably not much impressed with the
outlook there, for he announced his purpose
to build adobe houses for the settlers at Bran-
ciforte before they were asked to emigrate
thither, lest they should follow the example
of the colonists at the other pueblos and live
in miserable tule-thatched huts. The mother
country being involved in a war at this time
he was obliged to devote all his energies to the
coast defense, and the projected architectural
greatness of Branciforte failed to come to pass.
A few settlers were secured from Mexico, of
about the same type as those of San Jose and
Los Angeles, but the new pueblo presently be-
came a refuge for transported convicts and
other birds of the same feather, and in the
end achieved the worst reputation of all the
settlements of early California.

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

In the Spanish Provmce. 115

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 Enema 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.

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
182 1 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 Padke Junipero Serra— Ekected at Monterey

Exit Spain. 117

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

Exit Spain. 119

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 tastQ 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 jfirst 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

Exit Spain. 121

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 i8ii, and in spite of a

Exit Spain. 123

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

Exit Spain. 125

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 Cal-'fornia'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.

THK PUEBJLO 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

The Pueblo Begins to Crow. 127

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 oflfenses, 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

The Pueblo Begins to Grow. ' 129

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

The Pueblo Begins to Grow. 131

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 diflficult 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 KerckhofT-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.

In 1812 work was begun on a substantial
and permanent church structure for the city of
Los Angeles, which was located somewhere
east of the Plaza. The formal laying of the
corner stone took place in 1814, but when the
river left its channel in 181 5 the governor ad-
vised that the location be changed to higher
ground, and the site of the present Plaza
church was chosen, it being city ground, ad-
joining the original Plaza, and in close prox-
imity to the other public structures. Here in
1818 the church building was begun, 500 cat-
tle being subscribed by the citizens to defray
the expense. At $5 apiece, this would amount

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The Pueblo Begins to Grow. 133

to $2500 in cash, which, considering the low
price of labor, ought to have carried the work
well toward completion. We note in the rec-
ords, however, that the governor took over
the cattle to be used as supplies by the army,
and agreed in return to include the construc-
tion of the church in his next year's budget of
expense. As the territorial government was
entirely bankrupt, and was dependent on the
missions for support that was half charity and
half blackmail, this plan of Sola's presents in
itself just ground for suspicion ; and the latter
is increased by the fact that operations an the
church came to a sudden standstill the next
year, nor were they renewed until the padres,
in response to an appeal from the president of
the missions, subscribed seven barrels of bran-
dy, worth $575, to the building fund. In 1821
the work halted again, and a second appeal
was made to the padres, and more brandy
was subscribed. A number of cash subscrip-
tions were made by the well-to-do colonists
in all parts of the state, after Governor Sola
had set the example. The conversion of the
brandy into cash, drink by drink, was accom-
plished with the enthusiastic co-operation of
the citizens of the pueblos. December 8, 1822,
the building was dedicated with appropriate
ceremony. The present Plaza church struc-
ture was built in 1861 out of the original struc-
ture.

The change from a royal province to a ter-
ritory in the Mexican republic meant very lit-

134 History of Los Angeles.

tie to the people of Los Angeles. There were
a few slight changes in their political institu-
tions— theoretical, rather than actual. Cali-
fornia was now entitled to a representative in
the Mexican national assemblage, to be elected
by a local legislative body. Sola, who was anx-
ious to be rid of the governorship, was chosen
to represent the state in Mexico, and Luis Ar-
guello was elected to fill the gubernatorial of-
fice. Los Angeles was represented in this —
which we may call the first legislature of Cal-
ifornia— by Jose Palomares. In the second ses-
sion, Jose Antonio Carillo, also of Los Ange-
les, was made a member. Palomares was
probably elected by the people, and Carillo
appointeu by the body itself.

The Los Angeles ayuntamiento was en-
larged by the addition of a syndico — treasurer
and counselor — and a secretary. These, in ad-
dition to the alcalde and the two regidores,
made a deliberative-administrative body of
five. It was to be known hereafter as "Muy
Ilustre" (very illustrious), and was to be sur-
rounded with dignity and ceremonial. A gen-
tle hint was presently thrown out to the comi-
sionado that under the new order of things he
lagged superfluous on the municipal stage, but
it seems to have failed to take with Guillermo
Cota, who was in charge of the local military.
A clash of authority soon took place, the ques-
tion of who was who went up to the governor,
and he proceeded to rap the "very illustrious"
over the knuckles. Order must be maintained

The Pueblo Begins to Grow. 135

ill the pueblo, and the governor's representa-
tive should not be interfered with. A compro-
mise was at last effected, by choosing Cota as
the alcalde. Thus the civil authority finally
absorbed the military.

Whether it was due to the spirit of revolu-
tion in the air, or to the increasing importance
of local offices, about this time Los An-
geles began to have trouble in municipal poli-
tics, with frequent election disturbances. In
1826 the election was ruled illegal, and ordered
to be held over again ; and in 1830 the returns
were thrown out, on the ground that all the
candidates were "vagabonds, drunkards and
worse." Slow and stupid as the government
of Spain had been, it was at least stable and
dignified. That of Mexico, on the contrary,
changed so constantly that it made itself ri-
diculous. In the era of revolution and local
disturbance that was now beginning, Califor-
nia merely followed the example of the home
government.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE EPOCH OP REVOLUTIONS.

ALIFORNIA was a Mexican territory
about a quarter of a century. The
new oath of allegiance was adminis-

tered on the nth of April, 1822, and

on the 7th of July, 1847, the American flag
went up over the old fortress at Mon-
terey. During that period, eight regu-
larly appointed governors administered the
affairs of the territory (not to men-
tion half a dozen irregular and self-
appointed ones), and their terms varied from
six months to six years. If we except the
first of the list, Arguello, who was really in-
herited from the Spanish regime, every one of
these governors had to contend with local re-
bellions during his term, and three were driven
out of the country by revolution. One of the
eight was a usurper, who seized the government
without the shadow of a claim, rebelled from
Mexico, set up an independent state of Cali-
fornia, and was not only pardoned by the Mex-
ican authorities, but, in the end, was regularly
appointed to the position and allowed to serve
out a considerable term.

To understand the disturbed condition of
California during this epoch, it is necessary to
bear in mind the demoralization that prevailed
in the governing country, through its incessant
revolutions and political plotting. Although

The Epoch of Revolutions. 137

California took no direct part in Mexican poli-
tics, but made haste to swear allegiance to
whatever power came out on top, there was a
natural undermining of the respect for author-
ity, and a disposition to follow the bad example
set at headquarters.

Party lines were drawn to some extent in
California. The party division that prevailed
in Mexico was modeled after that of
the United States ; which was logical
enough, considering that the Mexican
constitution was based on the Amer-
ican. The names, however, were not exactly
the same. The opposing parties in Mexico
were the Federalists and Centralists, the
former representing the liberal idea, with a
considerable element of local self-government,
and the latter the conservative, with a strong
central government, a large army, and a lean-
ing to the Roman Catholic church. In Cali-
fornia the great majority of the people were
Federalists. Too far from the capital to par-
ticipate in the home government, they were
naturally in favor of local institutions, and of
the party that would cherish them.

The pueblo of Los Angeles was the storm-
center for revolutions during this period.
Most of the plots for the overthrow of one
governor and the setting up of another had
their birthplace in Los Angeles, and the chron-
ic conspirators who, at irregular intervals,
would work up a new scheme for making trou-
ble, were, with a few exceptions, residents of

138 History of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles. There were two reasons for
this — one was that Los Angeles was the largest
town in the territory, with a population whose
idleness prompted it to mischief ; and the other
was that the southern metropolis was possessed
of an idea that it ought to be made the capital
of the state, and its failure to achieve the
coveted honor kept it discontented and uneasy.
In 1835, it succeeded in obtaining an order from
the Mexican congress that the capital should
be moved from Monterey to Los Angeles, and
the latter place was given the formal rank of
ciudad, or city, but the decree was not carried
out until in 1845.

As we shall have occasion in the story of
Los Angeles to refer to many of the governors
of this epoch, and as the revolutions form an
important part of the local narrative, this
chapter will be devoted to brief enumeration
of the eight Mexican governors, their terms,
and the revolutions thereof.

On the 1st of February, 1825, Arguello was
removed from office by the Mexican govern-
ment, having administered the affairs of the
territory with honesty and good judgment for
nearly three years. He was followed by Jose
Maria Echeandia, a man of small ability, but
apparently possessed of good intentions.
Echeandia undertook to move the capital to
San Diego by the process of residing in that
place himself. At the beginning of his term,
he ordered the archives brought down from
Monterey, and in spite of the opposition of

The Epoch of Revolutions. 139

Arguello, the command was oteyed. He con-
tended that San Diego was the central point
of the territory of the two Californias; but
his real object in making the change was to
live in a warmer climate at the southern end
of the state. This snub to Monterey was re-
sented by the people of that region, and in
1829, when a rebellion was started there by
an embezzling office-holder named Herrera,
and an ex-convict named Solis, it received
some countenance. Governor Echeandia
came up from the south with 150 men and met
the conspirators near Santa Barbara. The
battle was bloodless, as were most of the en-
gagements of this period, and the rebels fled.
The leaders were captured and exiled to
Mexico, and Echeandia served the rest of his
term in peace.

In 183 1 Echeandia was removed, much to his
disgust, to make room for a political adven-
turer from Mexico named Manuel Victoria,
who, in his brief term of one year, succeeded
in getting himself thoroughly hated for his ar-
rogance and cruelty. He began by expelling
Jose Antonio Carrillo and Don Abel Stearns,
two respected citizens of Los Angeles, from the
territory. He refused to assemble the legisla-
ture, or to submit any of his acts to the leading
men for their opinion and advice. In Novem-
ber, 183 1, a manifesto was issued, containing
the names of Pio Pico, Juan Bandini and Jose
Antonio Carrillo, calling upon the people to
rise and dispose of Victoria. About 200 men

140 History of Los Angeles.

from San Diego and Los Angeles marched
northward to meet the governor, who was com-
ing down from Santa Barbara with all the men
he could gather at that place — only thirty. The
little armies met near San Fernando. A per-
sonal altercation took place between Captain
Romualdo Pacheco of the Santa Barbara party
and Jose Maria Avila, a prominent man of Los
Angeles, and in the fight both were killed and
Victoria wounded in the face. The governor
was taken to San Gabriel, where he made a
will, leaving the conduct of affairs to Echean-
dia, who was still living at San Diego. In the
meantime, the legislative body of the territory
had elected Pio Pico to be temporary governor
until the Mexican authorities should be heard
from. To get Victoria out of the state, for he
was now quite ready to go, a fund was raised,
to which Los Angeles contributed $125, on the
understanding that it should be repaid by San
Diego. It never was repaid, however, although
frequent efforts were made by the Los Angeles
ayuntamiento to collect the money.

Pio Pico does not count as a regular gov-
ernor at this time; it was understood that he
was to hold merely during the interregnum.
Nevertheless, the brief period of his adminis-
tration was long enough for two other gov-
ernors to claim the seat — Echeandia on the
south and Zamorano on the north, at Monterey.
There was no actual fighting, although the
armies at one time came within sight of each
other.

Tower of Santa Barbara Mission

The Epoch of Revolutions. 141

In the spring of 1832, Jose Figtieroa was ap-
pointed to succeed the luckless Victoria. He
was the best of all the governors sent up from
Mexico, and he managed to hold the office dur-
ing three years with only one rebellion, and
that a trifling affair. A few gambling vaga-
bonds of the Los Angeles district assembled at
the ranch house of Los Nietos, in the spring
of 1835, and drew up the customary pronuncia-
mento, but they failed to secure a decent fol-
lowing, were seized, thrown into jail, and final-
ly sent out of the country.

In the fall of that year Figueroa died, and
there followed him, after a short interregnum,
the worst governor that California ever had,
Mariano Chico, a Mexican politician who had
to be "taken care of" by the administration
then in power. He was a coarse, ignorant fel-
low, of violent temper, filled with hatred of
foreigners, and contemptuous of local institu-
tions and customs. He began his administra-
tion with a row with the people of Los An-
geles. A citizen by the name of Feliz had been
deserted by his wife, and when he undertook
to bring her back, he was set upon and killed
by the woman and the man with whom she had
eloped. The murderers were captured and
thrown into jail in Los Angeles, but a mob
broke open the place, took them out, and, after
a hasty trial, shot them to death. This is the
first instance in California of the lynching of
white malefactors. Indians were sometimes
treated after this fashion for running off stock.

142 History of Los Angeles.

Now it happened that the man who had been
killed was a fellow countryman of Chico, and
the governor flew into a terrible rage against
the people of Los Angeles. He ordered the
arrest of the principal officers of the city, and
threatened them with death. His courage
seems to have failed him at the critical moment
of the trial, however, and they were all par-
doned with a reprimand.

When Chico had been in office about six
months, and had succeeded in alienating all
classes of society, he had an imdignified alter-
cation with the principal alcade of Monterey, a
very popular man, whom he insulted and then
degraded from office. The next day the capital
began to fill up with armed and mounted men.
Day by day they increased in number, coming
from greater and greater distances, until the
place was invested with a band that seemed
ready to take control at a moment's notice.
Chico understood what it meant ; he came from
a country of revolutions, and when the legisla-
ture suggested that as more soldiers were need-
ed for him to maintain order, perhaps he had
better go back to Mexico and get some, he lost
no time in taking the hint.

Gutierrez, being next in command, under-
took to manage affairs until a new governor
should be appointed ; but the taint of the policy
of Chico hung over his actions, and before two
months had passed a new revolution was under
way. It was led by a young man named Juan
Bautista Alvarado, who, at this time, was an

The Epoch of Revolutions. 143

accountant in the custom house, and was the
idol of the native element. Gutierrez had in-
sulted and threatened the youth, using the
manner of language that he had learned from
Chico — and with the same result as befell
the latter. Alvarado went out among the peo-
ple and soon gathered a small army, with
which he descended upon Monterey and drove
Gutierrez into the presidio. The governor had
removed all the powder from the armory, so he
thought himself free from artillery attack, but
Alvarado's men opened a number of musket
cartridges, and, using the powder thus ob-
tained, they managed to put a ball through the
roof over the governor's head. He promptly
capitulated, and went the way of Chico.

Alvarado was rather a unique character.
He was born in Monterey, and at the time of
his revolutionary experience was 27 years of
age. His success in waging war against the
incumbent seems to have been accepted by all
the Californians as a legitimate title to the gov-
ernorship, and in December, 1836, he formally
entered upon the duties of the office. As he
could not claim to represent Mexico, whose ap-
pointee he had driven from the territory, he an-
nounced himself governor of the "Free and
sovereign state of California." But this effort
at independence proved to be only a flash in
the pan. The people looked askance at it, and
there were immediate mutterings of rebellion
in the direction of Los Angeles. The ayunta-
miento of that city presently came out with a

144 History of Los Angeles.

Statement to the effect that while they were
ready to accept Alvarado as governor,his term
should last only until Mexico could appoint,
and, moreover, that a recent declaration of the
governor in favor of independence and of toler-
ation for other religions than that of the Ro-
man Catholic church was entirely at variance
with their views. ,

Alvarado hastily gathered a force of men
and marched south to San Fernando. A con-
ference was held with the Los Angeles forces,
and Alvarado accepted the conditions laid
down by the rebels. What he wanted at the
time was to get himself firmly seated in the
chair of the governorship, and then the future
might take care of itself. In October of the
same year, 1837, news came that Carlos An-
tonio Carrillo had been appointed governor.
Alvarado refused to turn over the capital to
him, and when Carrillo raised an army at Los
Angeles and San Diego, and started for the
north, the governor sent his chief of staff south
with a considerable force to intercept them.
The battle — so-called — took place at San
Buenaventura; one man was killed and the
southern army was routed. The engagements
of these revolutionary times consisted chiefly
in the discharge of artillery at safe range. Car-
rillo abandoned his claims, and the Mexican au-
thorities seem to have decided that the easiest
way to get rid of Alvarado was to accept him
as governor. Possibly they figured that the
Californians would soon tire of him, and throw

The Epoch of Revolutions. 145

liim out; but if this was their idea, they were
wrong, for he served his term of five years with
credit to himself and advantage to the territory.

Alvarado resigned of his own accord in Jan-
uary, 1842, and was succeeded by Emanuel
Micheltorena, a Mexican general, who was
chiefly noted for the infamous gang of cut-
throats and adventurers that he brought up
with him in the guise of soldiers. They were
popularly known as "Micheltorena's Lambo."
These creatures became at length intolerable,
and a revolution started in the north, with Al-
varado at its head, to drive them out of the
country. This culminated in another of the
bloodless battles, the location being at Ca-
huenga — for Los Angeles had taken an active
part in the final uprising. Micheltorena left
the country, by request, in February, 1845,
having served as governor three years.

The last of the governors under Mexican
rule was Pio Pico of Los Angeles, who held
the ofifice until the American occupation. He
was involved in constant difificulties with Cas-
tro, the commander of the military forces, but
no revolution took place during his brief ad-
ministration, save that of the change of control
from Mexico to the United States.

CHAPTER XV.

THE RUIN OF THE! MISSIONS.

HE MOST important event of the per-
iod of the Mexican governors was the
destruction of the mission system.
This took place in the year 1834, dur-
ing the administration of Figueroa.
The dissipation of the mission properties fol-
lowed hard upon the overthrow of the system,
and by the time of the American occupation
the ruin was complete.

In spite of the demands made upon the
missions for supplies and money for the army,
during the period of the rebellion from Spain,
the establishments continued to prosper, and
when the Mexican governors cast about them
for means to run the territorial government,
they could find no better plan than to follow
the example of their Spanish predecessors.
The Mexican congress was very liberal with
its promises and appropriations, but the treas-
ury was always empty. Government by revo-
lution is an expensive luxury. At one time
every cent that could be raised was required to
put down a rebellion, and a little later, the
other side being then in power, the money was
all needed to pay ofif the patriots who had
just saved the country. So California was left
to look out for itself. There was some revenue
from the customs duties, but it fell far short of

The Ruin of the Missions. 147

the sum required to maintain the army and
the civil list. The missions made up the defi-
cit, which varied in amount from $30,000 to
$50,000 a year.

One would suppose that the authorities,
both in California and Mexico, would be dis-
posed to look with extreme leniency upon an
institution possessed of such hard-cash vir-
tues ; that they would, in other words, hesitate
to kill the fowl that laid the golden Q.gg. Thai
this view was held by the first governors un-
der the Mexican rule is shown in their treat-
ment of the padres who refused to take the
oath of allegiance. When word was sent to
Mexico that Sarria, the president of the mis-
sion system, had declined the oath, orders
came promptly back to send him down to be
tried for treason. In one way and another
this order was evaded, together with the in-
structions that came later from the home" gov-
ernment calling for the expatriation of all
priests who were not loyal to the Mexican re-
public. The priests denied that they were dis-
loyal, in the sense of wishing evil to the exist-
ing government, but they objected to the oath,
on the ground that they were made to promise
to bear arms against the enemies of Mexico,
which was contrary to their clerical vows. And
more than one of them declared that he was
tired of taking so many oaths of allegiance to
the changing forms of government in Mexico,
and that the whole performance seemed friv-
olous and undignified. In the end several of

148 History of Los Angeles.

the padres were sent out of the country, but
only those whose opposition to the new order
of things was open and vehement.

"We cannot send these priests away," said
Echeandia, the second of the Mexican govern-
ors, "because we shall then have nobody to
manage the missions, which are the basis of
our supplies."

But while the padres had this advantage
over the local government, that they were
needed as producers, the governors had on
their part a most effective weapon in the threat
of secularization or the seizure of the temporal
possessions of the missions. In 1813, when the
territory was still under Spanish control, the
cortes, or national assembly of the mother
country, passed an act declaring that the mis-
sions of California should be converted into
parish institutions : that is, mere churches for
spiritual instruction, with no industrial fea-
tures. This decree was never carried out, and
its legality, after the transfer to Mexico, might
be .questioned, but it was a suggestion to the
padres of what would come to pass if they
failed to support the local government.

Arguello, the first of the Mexican govern-
ors, complained, in 1825, in a report to the
Mexican authorities, that the Indians were
practically slaves, and that no progress was
being made in bringing them nearer to civili-
zation. This latter statement was probably
true. The Indians had been living under thfe
mission system now for about half a century.

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The Ruin of the Missions. 149

While they were an improvement over the or-
iginal savages from an industrial point of view,
as they toiled faithfully under the guidance of
the padres, and produced large crops, they
were far from being civilized, and had made
no progress in the last quarter of a century.

Possibly as a result of Arguello's com-
ments instructions were issued to his success-
or, Echeandia, to make a careful study of the
condition of the Indians, and to report to the
home government on the question of seculari-
zation.

Echeandia saw fit to exceed his authority,
and, not content with a mere report, he drew
up and made public in California a plan for
the emancipation — as he regarded it — of the
Indians. In 1830 he had this plan adopted by
the California legislature (diputacion), but as
neither that body nor the governor had any
authority to carry it out, it was never put into
practice. Some of its more important provis-
ions were incorporated in the plan adopted in
1834 by Figueroa, under instructions from the
Mexican congress.

The publication of Echeandia's scheme for
taking the Indians away from the missions
and establishing them in pueblos showed the
padres very clearly what they were to expect.
Several who were then in trouble over the
question of the oath of allegiance hastily left
the country, but the majority determined to
stay and fight it out. It is charged that even
at this early date they began to regulate the

ISO History of Los Angeles. \

affairs of the missions with a view to the prop-
erty uhimately passing into alien hands — that
they sold off stock where they had an oppor-
tunity, or converted it into hides and tallow.
It is certain that they followed this policy to a
considerable extent in the last year or two,
before the decree of secularization finally went
into effect. They would scarcely have been
human had they failed to do so. It is to be re-
corded to their credit, however, that they
made no effort to get the money thus obtained
out of the country, but used it either for the
purchase of supplies for the Indians, or laid it
by against the time they saw was soon com-
ing, when the mission properties would fail to
support them and their wards.

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.

The Ruin of the Missions. 151

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

152 History of Los Angeles.

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,

The Ruin of the Missions. 153

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

154 Historylpf Los Angeles.

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-

The Ruin of the Blissions. 155

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 E. 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-

156 History of Los Angeles.

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.

CHAPTER XVI.

'The; porkigneir arrivks.

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 vears. Gov-
ernor Pedro Pages, who succeeded De Neve,
the founder of Los Angeles, was greatly dis-

158 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 • 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

The Foreigner Arrives. 159

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

160 History of Los Angeles.

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

The Foreigner Arrives. 161

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,

162 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-

The Foreigner Arrives. 163

eral merchandise on the spot where the Dow-
ney block now stands — then the extreme
southern Hmit 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

164 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

The toreigner Arrives. 165

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,
183 1, was Jean Vignes, who owned the AHso
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 i860 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.

166 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-
Hshman, 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 Melius, 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 Melius, Howard & Co. Henry served as
Mayor of Los Angeles in i860.

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-

The Foreigner Arrives. 167

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.

I.OCAL KVEJNTS OF MEXICAN RUI.E.

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 ]\Iaria, 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

Local Events of Mexican Rule. 169

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."

Cosme Pena, who served as prefect of the
southern district of California during part of
the administration of Alvarado, introduced a
new variation of the name. He had a great
deal of trouble with the residents of the city,
who were at that time in a condition of chron-
ic tumult. In his letters to the governor Pena
was accustomed to write the name "Los Di-
ablos" instead of Los Angeles.

The period from 1830 to 1840 does not show
as rapid a growth of population as the two pre-
ceding decades, but there was material im-
provement in a commercial way, and a prom-
ise of future growth in the arrival of active,
enterprising men from the country east of the
Rockies. In 1833 it was estimated that there
were in all about 200 families living in the
pueblo. An approximate census for the whole
district now included in Los Angeles county,
taken in 1833, gives 1675 white and 553 In-
dians. In 1836 there were said to be 40 for-
eigners living in the region, of whom 30 were
Americans. Thus it will be seen that while
the Americans were prominent as a class
through their individual activity they did not,

170 History of Los Angeles.

as yet, contribute much to the increase of pop-
ulation. There was no longer any coloniza-
tion from Spain or Mexico, although extensive
schemes were broached at times for immigra-
tion from the latter country. The elimination
of the missions as an industrial factor de-
creased the local capacity for self-support, and
that probably affected the increase of popula-
tion.

The new-coming Americans seem to have
been brought under the same spell of fascina-
tion that affects visitors to Southern Califor-
nia even to this day, making residents of those
that thought to be merely sojourners. In spite
of their isolated position in the world, and the
foreign language and customs which they met
here, the first Americans in California seem to
have been well satisfied with their lot, and to
have readily accustomed themselves to the sur-
roundings. Almost without exception they
married women of the Spanish-American fam-
ilies, and the marriages proved to be happy
for both parties. The California women dis-
covered that the foreigners — particularly those
from the republic — made good husbands. It is
generally conceded by those that study and
compare national characteristics that the
American man possesses a fair allowance of
what may be called the domestic virtues. He
enjoys his home, and wants it to be livable.
He takes pride in his wife and children, and
sees to it that they have the best his income
will provide.

Local Events of Mexican Rule. I7l

While the original Spanish settlers had
been, many of them, men of force and indus-
try, a new generation was growing up' that
had enjoyed little opportunity for education,
and whose ideas of life had been demoralized
by the ease with which a fair competence could
be obtained through the labor of the Indians.
Instead of devoting their energies to the im-
provement of their estates — for so the great
ranches of the older families may be termed —
they wasted their time in frivolous pursuits,
and in trifling political intrigues. Amiable,
polite and superficially unselfish, they made
delightful companions, but for the serious,
practical affairs of life — of which matrimony
is certainly one — they were not to be com-
pared with the Americans; and the young
women of the best families made this discov-
ery early, and took it to heart.

The newcomers were required to swear al-
legiance to Mexico, and, if they proposed to
marry into a California family, to accept
Catholicism. These demands were usually
fulfilled with cheerful alacrity. The Mexican
government was a shadowy affair, which the
Americans believed would in time fade away
entirely, and be succeeded by the solid reality
of their own republic. As for the religion, by
the time a man had made his way to this far-
off corner of the world, all churches seemed
very much alike to him; and it was the Cath-
olic church or none, for no other existed. As
a rule, the California fathers and mothers were

172 History of Los\ Angeles.

glad enough to secure American husbands for
their daughters, and objection seldom had to
be overcome. One interesting, and rather ro-
mantic, exception was the case of Henry
Fitch and Dona Josefa, daughter of Joaquin
Carrillo of San Diego, which, as it has a bear-
ing on the history of the Church of Our Lad>
at the plaza, may be briefly told here.

Fitch was a dashing young American
sailor, who came to California in 1826, and in
1827 became engaged to Dona Josefa. Her
parents seem to have been in doubt as to the
wisdom of the alliance, but, after two years
of waiting, a reluctant consent was granted,
and preparations were made for the wedding.
At the last moment the uncle of the bride re-
fused to serve as a witness, and interposed
such vigorous objection that the ofiFciating
padre was afraid to proceed. He showed a
very human sympathy for the pair, how-
ever, and suggested that there were other
countries where no such difficulty would be
met. An elopement was planned, in which
Pio Pico, a cousin of the bride, assisted. The
marriage was performed in South America,
and the couple returned to the coast a little
more than a year later, accompanied by a
third party, to wit, an infant son. An ecclesi-
astical court was summoned to meet at San
Gabriel, and Don Enrique was tried for vio-
lating the laws of the church and the terri-
tory; and the question of whether he was
legally married or not was passed upon. The

Local Events of Mexican Rule. 173

case awakened a great deal of interest, as may
be imagined, and the international mar-
riage question was discussed in every
household. The court finally decided
that the marriage was valid, but, "con-
sidering the great scandal which Don
Enrique has caused in this province," he was
condemned "to give, as a penance and repara-
tion, a bell of at least fifty pounds weight for
the church at Los Angeles, which now has
barely a borrowed one." And that is how
the church on the plaza secured its first bell.
During the last half of the decade — after
the year 1835 — Los Angeles enjoyed the
empty honor of being the capital of the terri-
tory. This was accomplished by Jose An-
tonio Carrillo, an active citizen of Los An-
geles, and an indefatigable plotter, who was
serving in the Mexican congress at that time.
The announcement of the proposed change
brought out a fierce protest from the people
of Monterey, in which some very pointed re-
marks were made. Among other things, it
was declared that Monterey was a larger city
than Los Angeles — which was certainly not
true — and that its people were more moral
and better cultured. It was asserted that
Monterey had the better climate, and that its
soil was more fertile ; and in proof of Mon-
terey's general superiority over Los Angeles,
it was said that at the former place "women,
plants and useful animals are more produc-
tive." A much more effective arg^ument than

174 History of Los Angeles.

any comparison of the merits of the two cities
lay in the fact that Monterey was provided
with suitable buildings for the use of the gov-
ernment, whereas Los Angeles had nothing of
the kind. On one or two occasions, when a
governor had visited the pueblo, great diffi-
culty was experienced in finding a place for
him to stay, while he transacted public busi-
ness. And now, as often as the Los Angeles
ayuntamiento demanded to know why the
order of the Mexican congress was not
obeyed, and the seat of government removed,
the territorial authorities always responded
with a polite inquiry as to whether Los An-
geles had provided the necessary public build-
ings. With this retort the discussion usually
came to an abrupt end, for there were no
philanthropists in the pueblo in those days,
and the territorial treasury being always
empty of funds, the dilemma seemed a hope-
less one.

It was not until 1826 that San Pedro was
recognized as a port, and provision made for
the collection of revenue. Prior to that time
all business done between Los Angeles and
the ocean was practically smuggling. Even
after the port was established, as the collector
lived at Los Angeles, more than twenty miles
away from the water front, the temptation to
evade the payment of duties was very strong.
During the years from 1826 to the American
occupation, Catalina was a favorite resort for
smugglers, and some of the most prominent

Local Eveyiis of Mexican Rule. 175

citizens of Los Angeles were believed to take
part in the contraband trade. Don Abel
Stearns built a large warehouse at San Pedro
in the early thirties, and when his political
enemies could find no other convenient
method to annoy him, they would bring in a
charge of smuggling and demand that the
warehouse be torn down. Don Abel managed
to hold his own against them, however, and
invariably escaped with a verdict of "not
proved."

The coming of numerous bands of trappers
through by the southwestern route finally re-
sulted in the opening of trade between Los
Angeles and Arizona and New Mexico. The
blankets made in New Mexico were of a su-
perior quality and much in demand, not only
for bedding, but also for personal wear. The
serape was the overcoat of the period. The
California horses and mules were superior to
those raised further east ; and the exchange of
blankets for stock was advantageous both
ways. Presently the Arizonans found it
cheaper to steal the stock than to trade for it,
and in 1835 the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles
passed some resolutions calling upon the local
alcaldes along the line between the pueblo
and the border to require parti-'S driving
horses and mules out of the territory to show
a bill of sale. By this method the stealing
was diminished but not entirely broken up.

In 1836 the question of titles to town lots
was agitated, chiefly for the reason that dis-

176 History of Los Angeles.

putes as to ownership were becoming more
common. Up to this time no written titles
had been granted except those to the first few
settlers, which were of doubtful value, by rea-
son of their limitations. Anyone who wished
a piece of land, either for building a house or
for cultivation, appHed to the ayuntamiento,
and received oral permission to go ahead and
do whatever he pleased, as long as he did not
interfere with his neighbors. Boundaries were
vague, and, if no fence or wall had been con-
structed, were subject to constant dispute. In
the year 1836 the ayuntamiento began the
practice of giving written titles, and a notice
was issued calling upon all who held land in
the pueblo to file a claim describing the exact
location, and have it accepted and endorsed by
the authorities. As the city was thus far en-
tirely without a plan, its streets being unde-
fined, crooked and irregular, great difficulty
was experienced in locating and describing the
individual boundaries. The people, moreover,
were indolent and neglectful, and, after re-
peated calls, many had failed to respond.

The total of the yearly receipts of the mu-
nicipality in these days was something under
$1000, of which about half came from the tax
on liquors, and the remainder from fines. The
treasury was always empty, and there were
continual complaints that the salary of the
city's officers were unpaid. Practically no at-
tempt was made at municipal im.provement,
except that the irrigation ditch was generally

Local Events of Mexican Rule. 177

kept in order. Indians were punished for
drunkenness by being put to work on the
ditch, and the supply of malefactors of this
kind was inexhaustible. There was no light-
ing of streets at night, except that each
keeper of a tavern or wine-shop was required
to hang a lantern in front of his place. In
1836 the filthiness of the city was so great that
crows and other carrion birds were attracted
to it in vast numbers, constituting a veritable
pest. A voluntary contribution was called for
by the ayuntamiento to pay for the expense of
killing them off. In this same year a decree
was passed that no man should keep more
than two dogs, and that both of these should
be securely tied. What to do with the super-
fluous ones was a question. The treasury
was as usual ; but the second alcalde came for-
ward— limping a little, perhaps — and offered
to provide at his own expense the necessary
poison.

In 1839 an incident took place which,
though trivial in itself, added to the general
unpopularity from which the town suffered
throughout the territory. Don Cosme Pena
had been appointed by Governor Alvarado
prefect of the southern district, with head-
quarters at Los Angeles. There being no
other place offered for his use, he had an of-
fice in the residence of Don Abel Stearns, and
the flag of the Mexican republic fluttered from
the top of a pole in front of the house. One
Sunday, when Pena was out of the city, a

178 History of Los Angeles.

party of fifteen young men pulled down this
flag, and then, by way of added insult, slaugh-
tered a calf at the flag pole. The explanation
offered by the citizens of the affair was that
Stearns was accustomed to use the pole as a
hitching post for cattle that were presently to
be slaughtered, and that the flag was removed
and the calf killed as a mark of their dis-
approval of Pena's choice of headquarters. In
the territory generally it was taken as an in-
sult to the national emblem. Pena resigned in
anger, and the governor fined each member of
the ayuntamiento $io, and compelled twenty
citizens who had signed a letter to him on the
subject to pay $5 apiece for their rashness.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THB PASTORAI, AGK IN CALIFORNIA.

HE EARLY Californian presents the
most picturesque and distinctly
unique type that appears in our na-
tional history; and his life, prior to its
modification by contact with the peo-
ple of the United States, is extraordinarily ro-
mantic and interesting. It is quite probable
that the modern American, if suddenly trans-
planted into the California of 1830, would find
much that was disagreeable, and perhaps also
some things that would excite his horror and
disgust. He would, on the other hand, find
not a little to enjoy, and a great deal to won-
der at and admire. At the root of it all he
would discover a principle so radically dififer-
ent from that on which he endeavors to base
his own life policy, that the whole scheme
would seem to him an almost hopeless puzzle.
Asking himself constantly the question : Why
do these people do these foolish things? he
would see no wisdom in the answer: Because
it is the custom of the country, as it was for-
merly the custom of our ancestors in Spain.

For example, nothing distressed the first
American visitors more than to observe the
way the Californians yoked the oxen for work
in the fields, or for draft purposes on the road.
Instead of the weight being put upon the neck

180 History of Los Angeles.

and shoulders, it was thrown directly upon the
horns. The poor creatures showed by their
lifting and twisting of the head that they were
suffering pain, and the limit of their strength
and endurance was quickly reached ; they were
by no means as efficient as they would have
been if properly yoked. But when the visitor
called attention to the cruelty and the wasted
energy in this system, he received always the
same answer: That it was so done in Spain.

This admiration of the Mexicans for the
mother country, even after they had passed
out from under its control, was almost without
limit. Though not always expressed in words,
it showed in their intense conservatism. They
were totally ignorant of the change that had
taken place in the relative position of Spain
and other European countries, whereby it was
no longer a great and powerful empire, but a
tottering ruin. That country was to them still
the Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella, of Charles
V and Philip II. Those who could read were
an insignificant fraction of the total, but even
for the educated there were no books, news-
papers or periodicals. We may go further, and
say that had all the means been at hand for
enlightenment, it would still have required
many generations of knowledge to have re-
moved the hereditary self-complacency — the
innocent and almost modest pride, that is an
essential part of the Spanish character.

Lacking a word to exactly correspond to
our "civilized," the first Spaniards used th^

The Pastoral Age in California. 181

phrase, "La gente de razon" — people who can
reason — to distinguish them from the Indians,
whom they regarded as little else than brutes.
There were, at the time of the American occu-
pation, about 4000 native Californians of this
order, and about 1500 of these were in Los An-
geles or its vicinity. A very small percentage
were pure-blooded Spaniards, although few
were ready to admit that they were anything
else. Cases were rare in which whole families
emigrated from Spain, or Spanish soldiers sent
back for their wives or sweethearts to come
over, and the extremely small number of wo-
men from the mother country is the clearest
evidence of the mixed character of the popula-
tion. In the early history of Mexico many ne-
groes were brought into that country, and, as
we have seen, there was some element of negro
blood among the first settlers of Los Angeles.
As a rule, however, the mixture was Spanish
and Indian in varying proportions. The com-
bination was not a fortunate one, when to the
haughtiness and conservatism of the Spaniard
was added the ignorance and indolence of the
Indian. That the results were no worse in the
composite character is due partly to the favor-
able influence of the Catholic church, and part-
ly to the natural conditions of the country that
made life simple and easy.

The higher class Californian, whose blood
was nearly if not entirely Spanish, was gener-
ally the owner of a huge ranch, tens of thou-
sands of acres in extent, covered with cattle.

182 History of Los Angelei.

The offices of the territory, and most of those
of the municipalities, were filled from this
class. Their characteristics were the same as
we know them today among the few remain-
ing representatives of the old order. They
were elegant of manner, dignified, hospitable,
generous to a fault, honorable and just, as far
as their limited knowledge of the world admit-
ted. It takes a wise man to be a just one. If,
for example, at the time of the American oc-
cupation, some of the Californians were guilty
of questionable transactions in the matter of
land titles and government claims, it was rath-
er through their failure to understand the tech-
nicalities of our law, and their desire to do
as they thought the Americans did, than from
any actual wish to defraud. But, on the other
hand, the original Californians of the better
class were not lacking in faults. They were
seldom good business men — one might almost
say never — they were utterly unprogressive,
they were given to political plotting and
scheming, they were vain of their personal ap-
pearance, and too often were what in the
south is called "trifling" and in New England
"shiftless." The last characteristic was on so
grand a scale as almost to be invested with a
dignity of its own. From the beginning of the
American invasion it was only too plainly evi-
dent that this class would never be able to
hold its own against the superior shrewdness
and determination of the Anglo-Saxon.

The lower class Californian forms by no

The Pastoral Age in California. 183

means so pleasing a picture. In numbers he
exceeded the others more than ten to one.
He had something of the dignity and the gen-
erosity of his superior, but lacked his self-con-
trol. Indolent, reckless, entirely without edu-
cation, addicted to drink, and purposeless in
his occupations, we can only wonder that his
race continued through half a dozen genera-
tions, down to its improved condition of the
present day.

Although generated from a different set
of causes, the conditions in California before
the American occupation were not unlike those
of the south before the war. The actual labor
of the country was performed by the Indians,
who were held in servitude, and may be com-
pared to the negro slaves of the southern
states. The upper class Spaniards may be
compared in an industrial sense to the slave-
holders of the south (although they regarded
the institution of slavery with abhorrence) ;
and, finally, the lower class Californians may
be likened to the poor whites of the slave
states, despising labor, as the latter did, and
existing somehow on the overflow of the gen-
eral prosperity. The comparison is hardly fair
to the Californian, however, for the poor white
was spiritless and weak, whereas the other
was full of pride, and was not without energy
in certain directions.

Life in California, during this period, is in-
separably bound up with the horse. As soon
as children could walk, they were taught to

184 History of Los Angeles.

ride, and by the time they were grown they
were at home not merely in the saddle, but all
over the horse, whether he were saddled and
bridled, or was naked and wild from the herd.
Horses were so cheap as to be practically val-
ueless. At times it was found necessary to kill
them off in great numbers. No attempt was
made to breed them to any points of excel-
lence, nor were they trained with the skill and
good judgment that horsemen now employ.
The average Californian had so many animals
at his disposal that he paid little attention to
any one in particular. They rode their horses
recklessly, and were thoughtless about matters
of food and drink and care. Fine trappings for
the horse were highly esteemed, and one of the
few manual industries held in great regard in
California, as it had been in Spain, was leather
working, an industry that has been handed
down in improved form to the present genera-
tion.

The industrial pursuits, of these people con-
sisted of agriculture, on a very limited scale,
of the manufacture of a few articles in com-
mon use, and of the raising of cattle for hides
and tallow. The latter was a business that
largely took care of itself, and it was prac-
ticed on a grand scale. Once a year there was
a rodeo, or round-up, when the cattle of a dis-
trict were gathered together by vaqueros, and
new stock was branded with the mark of the
owner. Special officers, called "jueces del
campo," or judges of the plain, were present

The Pastoral Age in California. 185

at these gatherings to decide all disputes of
ownership. This office was continued for a
time even under American rule. The rodeos
usually took place in the spring or early sum-
mer, and were occasions of great merry-mak-
ing, large feeding and deep drinking, so that
even the most indolent were willing to forego
their habitual rest to take part and help. In
the autumn of the year the annual killing took
place. Hides brought an average of $2 apiece,
and tallow sold at from 6 to 8 cents a pound.
On a large ranch there would be perhaps 1000
cattle ready for the slaughter, which would
bring the owner $10,000 to $15,000 in cash or
trade — usually in trade, for coin was scarce.
It has been estimated that when the pastoral
system of California was at its height, there
were 1,200,000 cattle on the ranches. The an-
nual exportations of hides and tallow averaged
over $250,000. The cattle were of an inferior
grade, lean, wild, and of little value for do-
mestic purposes. Butter, cheese, and even
milk, were rarities. The beef from these ani-
mals was tough, stringy and tasteless.

The sheep were a "scrub" breed, with short,
coarse wool, and their flesh was seldom used
for food. Hogs were raised in small numbers,
but the "gente de razon" disdained the use of
pork, except in the form of lard for cooking,
and the Indians regarded it with suspicion.
The early Californians seem to have devoted
very little thought or energy to the pleasures
of the table. Travelers among them speak in

186 History of Los Angeles,

the highest terms of their hospitality, but are
chary of comphments on their cooking. In
most places it was left to Indian women, who
were everywhere the house servants, and their
ideas on the culinary art were decidedly
crude. In spite of the monotonous and indi-
gestible fare, good health seems to have been
the rule among the Californians, and sickness
the exception — which was fortunate, because
doctors were practically unknown.

California agriculture consisted in the rais-
ing of wheat, corn and grapes — the latter for
the making of wine and brandy. Enough grain
was raised for local necessities, but none for
export. The plow was a clumsy wooden aftair,
generally shod with a piece of iron. Wheat
was threshed by driving mares over it, as it
lay heaped upon the ground. The straw was
then raked off, and the grains winnowed out
by hand. There were good vineyards at the
missions and in Los Angeles, but few any-
where else. The missions also had fruit trees
and vegetable gardens, but until the Ameri-
cans came these were not to be found in the
towns — to any extent — nor on the ranches.

Very little manufacturing of any sort was
carried on outside the missions, and the work
at those institutions was only such as could
be accomplished by ignorant savages under
the training of the padres. Coarse blankets,
the simpler articles of leather make (including
a poor quality of shoes), a coarse meal, soap,
tiles for roofing-, brandv and wine about com-

The Pastoral Age in California. 187

plete the list. Nearly all articles of wearing
apparel, furniture, and even the better grade
of leather goods, were imported, at first from
Mexico, later from the United States and for-
eign countries. The only means of convey-
ance, other than the backs of horses, was the
carreta, which was a huge, clumsy creation,
with two immensely thick and solid wooden
wheels that turned on wooden axles, and were
sometimes — but not always — lubricated with
soft soap.

The California man was rather vain of his
personal appearance, and lavished a great deal
of attention and money upon his dress. An
outfit such as would be worn by a wealthy
rancher on any special occasion was likely to
cost anywhere from $500 to $1000. Every ar-
ticle of his dress would be imported, and the
Yankee skipper could be depended upon to
charge him all that the traffic would bear. The
trading business on the coast was expected to
pay several hundred per cent on each transac-
tion. The hats were from South America,
with a stiff, horizontal brim, and a conical
crown. A black silk handkerchief was usually
tied around the head, under the hat. This was
a Spanish custom, and it still prevails in the
mother country. The overcoat was the sarape,
a blanket of fine or coarse grade, according as
the owner was able to pay. It had a hole near
the center, through which the head was in-
serted. As a rule, this garment was striped
with bright colors, and either woven thick like

188 History of Los Angeles.

a blanket, or of double cloth. Those made of
cloth, and provided with a rich embroidered
collar, were called mangas. There was a short
jacket of silk, or figured cloth, a white em-
broidered shirt, tied with a silk handkerchief
for a cravat, a vest of silk or damask, and a
pair of pantaloons, open from the knee down
on the outer seam, which was trimmed with
buttons and gold braid. Sometimes short
breeches of velvet or velveteen, dark blue or
crimson in color, were worn, and below them,
long white stockings. The shoes were of buff-
colored leather. Around the body was a silk
sash of bright hue. When on horseback, the
Californian wore leggings, especially if he had
on knee breeches, and these were bound with
handsome clasps or garters.

The woman's dress was not so elaborate
nor gaudy, although as expensive as her hus-
band's purse would stand. It usually con-
sisted of a bodice of silk, with short embroid-
ered sleeves. A bright silk sash was worn
loosely about the waist, and the skirt below
was elaborately flounced. The shoes were of
satin or velvet. Over the shoulders, and fre-
quently over the head as well, the rebozo, a
long dark scarf of silk or cotton, was worn,
and arranged with a great deal of grace and
expression. The hair of the younger women
was usually plaited in two long braids fast-
ened together at the ends with ribbon ; that of
the older women was more often done up with
a comb.

The Pastoral Age in California. 189

The amusements of these people consti-
tuted a large and an important part of their
life. They came together from great distances
to attend fiestas, which were celebrations ex-
tending through several days and nights, or
fandangos, which were dance parties. Social
life was on an informal basis. No invitations
were issued to these gatherings, other than a
general notice, and almost everyone in the ad-
joining country was expected to come. One
pleasing fact to be set down in this connection
is that there were almost none of those dis-
tressing feuds, or life-long enmities, that are
so often to be found among primitive peoples,
and sometimes, we may add, among those of a
presumably higher civilization. Dueling was
almost unknown, and homicides rare. The
faults of the early Californians were not of the
savage and brutal order, but were rather the
outgrowth of qualities that are not far re-
moved from virtues. It is but a short and
easy step from generosity to prodigality, from
good humor to shiftlessness, and from socia-
bility to indolence.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE STARS AND STRIPES.

HE HISTORY of the United States
prior to 1861 is largely a history of
the slavery question. Not only were
all internal political events affected
in some measure by this issue, but
even the foreign policy did not escape its bale-
ful influence. When the Missouri compromise
set a definite limit, as was supposed, to the
spread of slavery to the north, the acquisition
of more territory to the south and southwest
was necessary to the slave-holding interest, so
that it might maintain an equilibrium with its
opponents. Our relations with the Mexican
republic were controlled, almost from the be-
ginning, by this salient fact, and out of it
finally came the war of 1846-8, and the acqusi-
tion of California, Arizona and New Mexico.
There were, of course, other considerations
that entered into the impulse for war, when
the time came for its actual declaration. A
great majority of the people of the north, as
well as of the south, believed that the "Mani-
fest Destiny" of the republic required that it
should extend through on even lines from
ocean to ocean. In due course of time this
sentiment might have led to the purchase of
this territory, and would certainly have
aroused active and forcible opposition to its

The Stars and Stripes. 191

seizure by any foreign power; but the Union
would scarcely have been drawn into a de-
liberate war for conquest — which the Mexican
war undoubtedly was — on a mere desire for
expansion, nor would the opportunity for that
war have been provided had not a potent
cause existed in the political situation.

The final appeal to arms grew out of the
annexation of Texas to the United States.
While still a Spanish dependency Texas had
been colonized by numerous parties of Amer-
icans ; and during Mexican rule it filled rapidly
with emigrants, chiefly from the southern
states. In 1836, when the Mexican republic
was in the midst of one of its periodic revolu-
tions, the Texans declared themselves inde-
pendent, and asked to be admitted to the
American Union. The proposition was, of
course, declined, as its acceptance would have
constituted an act of deliberate and inexcus-
able aggression ; but Mexico contended that
the Americans constantly gave aid and com-
fort to the rebels. Unable to win back its
revolted province, Mexico, nevertheless, re-
fused to acknowledge its independence.

In the eight years following, the offer of
Texas to come into the American Union stood
open, and was discussed at each session of
congress. It was well understood, both in the
United States and in Mexico, that the accept-
ance of the offer meant war. There was, it
is true, an element in Mexico that favored let-
ting Texas go, because it feared that the out-

192 History of Los Angeles.

come of a conflict with the United States
would be the loss of California and the neigh-
boring territory, but those holding that view
were in the minority.

The continuous strain under which the
two countries rested is revealed in the incident
of the raising of the American flag at Monte-
rey by Commodore Jones in 1842. This oc-
curred four years before actual war broke
out, and while Micheltorena was governor of
California. England was believed to have her
eye on the province, which was to be taken in
exchange for fifty million dollars' worth of
Mexican securities held by British citizens.
France had been sending numerous exploring
parties into the country. The weakness of
Mexico made it possible that California might
easily be wrested from her grasp, and the Eu-
ropean powers were believed to be ready to
seize it on the first opportunity. Instructions
had been issued to the American naval com-
manders of the Pacific, that in the event of
war breaking out over the Texas difficulty,
they were to hasten to Monterey and raise tht
American flag.

Under this condition of affairs, Commo-
dore Jones was lying in the harbor of Callao,
Peru, with the Pacific squadron, when a ru-
mor reached him that hostilities had begun be-
tween the two nations. At the same time the
British squadron lying in the harbor left in
haste, without divulging its course. The
American commander jumped at the conclu-

The Stars and Stripes. 193

sion that the English were about to seize Cal-
ifornia, and promptly sailed for the north.
October 19th he came into the harbor of Mon-
terey, and although he found no British ves-
sels there he proceeded to carry out his de-
sign. Landing a force of 400 sailors and ma-
rines, he took possession of the town, no re-
sistance being offered, and raised the Stars
and Stripes over the fort. There the flag
waved for a day, and then the commodore re-
ceived information that convinced him he had
made a mistake. He promptly withdrew the
American ensign, ran up the tricolo; n its
place, and expressed a willingness to apolo-
gize and make suitable reparation.

Governor Micheltorena was at Los Ange-
les, slowly making his way northward from
Mexico with the ragged, thieving army that
afterward brought him so much trouble.
Thither Commodore Jones repaired, bringing
his fleet to San Pedro. When Micheltorena
heard of the capture of Monterey, he issued a
furious proclamation, in which he declared
that he would shed his last drop of blood in
defense of his country, but his wrath cooled
when he received a letter of apology from
Jones, accompanied by an offer of reparation.
The governor's idea of what was proper and
adequate reparation and the commodore's idea
did not coincide exactly. There was a streak
of thriftiness in Micheltorena's character that
came to light on this occasion. He announced
that the wounded feelings of himself and his

194 History of Los Angeles.

countrymen could be soothed only by a dona-
tion from Jones of 50 uniforms for the army, a
set of band instruments and $15,000 in cash.
The commodore declined to consider this re-
quest, saying that the damages would have
to be settled by the respective governments.
The two principals to the controversy met on
amicable terms at the residence of Don Abel
Stearns, and a grand ball was given in honor
of the Americans. Commodore Jones ordered
a special salute to be given the Mexican flag
at San Pedro, and in this way the incident
came to a pleasant ending.

Four years later, when war was immi-
nent, although not yet declared, Captain John
C. Fremont, of the U. S. Topographical Engi-
neers, entered California overland, with an ex-
ploring party that consisted of 61 men, most
of whom were trappers and experienced
mountaineers. Fremont was a unique figure
on the national stage and his relation to the
affairs of California, during the period of con-
quest, was subsequently made the basis of
so much bitter partisan discussion that it is
difficult, even at this remote period, to arrive
at a just judgment on his conduct. While
there were numerous individual acts commit-
ted by him that are open to criticism, if tried
by modern standards, two material points of
defense may be urged in his behalf : First, his
youth, imbued with an enthusiastic and ag-
gressive Americanism, and, second, the secret
but easily divined instructions under which

The Stars and Stripes. 19S

he worked, coming through his father-in-law,
Senator Benton, direct from the administra-
tion. Without doubt, President Polk and his
cabinet believed that a war with Mexico was
inevitable, and they were ready to welcome
any reasonable excuse that should start the
train. We do not have to assume that Fre-
mont was specifically instructed to pick a
quarrel with Mexico in California. It was
enough that he should have had conveyed to
him, even in vague terms, the administra-
tion's willingness to fight ; his intense and al-
most reckless loyalty would do the rest. The
censure that seems to be his must, therefore,
be passed higher up — it belongs, in fact, with
the majority of the American people, whose
sentiment at this time Fremont most thor-
oughly typified.

It was in the month of January of the
eventful year 1846 that Fremont entered the
state and encamped in the Sacramento valley.
He came immediately in person to Monterey,
and, accompanied by Thomas O. Larkin, the
United States consul, he called on General
Castro, the military head of the California
government, Pico then being governor with
his headquarters at Los Angeles. The nego-
tiation was oral, and its terms afterward a
matter of dispute. Fremont explained that
his purpose was one of scientific exploration,
and Castro seems to have given a kind of con-
sent to his remaining. The commandant was
very much astonished a few weeks later to

196 History of Los Angeles.

find that Fremont had brought his men over
on the coast range, and was encamped near
San Juan Bautista mission, only 30 miles from
the capital at Monterey.

The party was not molested, however, un-
til there were numerous complaints of horse-
stealing, and a charge that several of Fre-
mont's men had behaved in an insulting man-
ner toward the daughter of a prominent Cali-
fornian in the vicinity. There is no evidence
that any of these charges were true, but the
commandant believed them, and he ordered
Fremont to leave the territory. For answer,
the American threw up earthworks around his
camp, and raised the Stars and Stripes. This
was, in effect, an act of war, and one for which
it is quite impossible to find an adequate de-
fense, except on the theory that Fremont had
been sent into the country for the deliberate
purpose of making trouble. It seems to have
occurred to the young captain that perhaps
he was going ahead too fast, for when Castro
assembled an army of 200 men at San Juan
Bautista, Fremont and his backwoodsmen
slipped out in the night and made away to the
north.

Fremont was accustomed to speak with
extreme bitterness of Castro, who, he said,
welcomed him to the state and then expelled
him by force. Some months later, when Com-
modore Stockton, U. S. N., was issuing a proc-
lamation to the Californians, announcing the
American occupation, and was casting about

^^'?--

^J^^^

S^^ag

The Stars and Stripes. 197

for a reasonable cause for this policy, the news
of the war between the nations not having
been received as yet, Fremont suggested that
his expulsion from the territory constituted an
adequate "casus belli," and Stockton incor-
porated a savage reference to it in the docu-
ment. It was indeed a cause of war — but to
Mexico and not to the United States. In
driving out armed and rebellious foreigners,
Castro merely acted as a loyal officer should
act; his mistake, if any, was in allowing Fre-
mont and his party to enter at all.

This took place in the month of March,
1846. In April, Lieutenant A. H. Gillespie ar-
rived at Monterey with private dispatches for
Fremont, and, learning that he was on his
way to Oregon, started off in pursuit. What
the nature of these dispatches was has never
been made public, but their effect on Fremont
was to cause him immediately to return to the
Sacramento valley, and establish a camp neaj
the mouth of the Feather river. This confirms
the theory that Fremont was sustained, and
even urged on, by the administration at Wash-
ington.

By this time the policy of insolence and
aggression on the part of the Americans had
borne its inevitable fruit in a feeling of re-
sentment, suspicion and hatred on the part of
the Californians, and a thousand rumors sped
over the territory, generated out of these sen-
timents, and then in turn increasing them. It
was said that 10,000 American immigrants

198 History of Los Angeles.

were on their way to California with the
avowed purpose of taking possession of the
country; that the CaHfornians were preparing
to rise and massacre the Americans without
mercy; that the British were about to seize
the territory; and that the home government
of Mexico was in a condition of absolute an-
archy. In the midst of this confusion, a hand-
ful of adventurous spirits, living in and
around Sonoma, decided on the impulse of the
moment, that the shortest road to order and
good government lay in following the exam-
ple of Texas — for the Americans of the terri-
tory to revolt from Mexico, set up a republic
of their own, and then ask for annexation to
the United States. They were few in number,
uncertain of purpose, without a competent
leader, and but for the fact that the war be-
tween the Union and Mexico happened in the
very nick of time to extricate l.iem from their
dilemma, they would have paid dearly for
their folly ; but, despite all this, the Bear Flag
incident goes down to history as an important
and exciting chapter of the California narra-
tive.

The conspirators presented their plan to
Fremont, but while he was perhaps willing
enough to see anything done that would widen
the breach between the two countries, as an
officer in the American army he could not par-
ticipate in a movement of active rebellion
against a nation with which the United States
was not yet at war. The leaders in the affair

The Stars and Stripes. 199

consulted with him from time to time, and
when the rebelHon was fairly on its feet, he
allowed himself to become considerably iden-
tified with it. By that time, however, news
had reached him that fighting had begun along
the Texas frontier between the American and
Mexican armies, and that a declaration of war
would soon follow.

On the morning of June 14, 1846, the party
of revolutionists, 32 in number, entered the
little town of Sonoma, took General Vallejo
and several others prisoners, and seized the
fort, which contained cannon, muskets and
other government property. There was no
fighting, either then or at any time during the
affair, although two Americans were captured
and put to death by the Californians, in return
for which three Californians were slaughtered
by the Americans.

When the Mexican ensign was hauled
down from the fort at Sonoma, it was decided
that the new republic must have a flag, and
the bear was used as the central figure of a
hastily constructed design. The name chosen
was "The California Republic."

The absence of any one commanding fig-
ure soon threw affairs into confusion. Wm.
B. Ide, who was nominally the leader, lacked
pretty much everything that enables a man to
direct the actions of others. Finally, early in
July, when the so-called republic had been in
existence less than three weeks, the whole
party placed themselves in the hands of Fre-
mont, on the understanding that he was to

200 History of Los Angeles.

get them out of the difficulty as best he could.
Fortunately, just at this time, the news came
that Commodore Sloat had entered the harbor
of Monterey, and had taken possession of the
entire territory in the name of the United
States. This brought an abrupt end to the
Bear Flag movement, and transformed those
whom the Californians regarded as desper-
ate rebels, and who regarded themselves as
brave revolutionists, into what history regards
as hare-brained enthusiasts.

Actual hostilities between the United
States and Mexico broke out in April, 1846,
but the news did not reach Washington for
nearly three weeks, this being before the days
of transcontinental railways and the telegraph.
On May 13th war was declared, but no
knowledge of that fact reached the Pacific
coast until August 12th. Early in June, how-
ever. Commodore Sloat, lying in the harbor of
Mazatlan, had news of the opening of hostili-
ties from which he knew a declaration of war
must come, and, proceeding in accordance
with general instructions which he had re-
ceived some time before, he hurried north to
Monterey, entering that port on the 2nd of
July. He spent several days inquiring into
the condition of affairs in California, where
he found no news of the fighting had yet pen-
etrated, and on the 7th of July he made up his
mind to go ahead with his plan to seize the
country, deeming it better, as he said, to be
censured for "doing too much rather than too
little."

CHAPTER XX.

THE AMERICANS ENTER LOS ANGELES.

I^^l ASTRO was at Santa Clara at the time
H ^^ ^^ Commodore Sloat's arrival at
Hkli^^ Monterey, engaged in an effort to
w«feB^| raise men to put down the Bear Flag
rebellion. The relations between
Governor Pico and himself were, at this time,
strained almost to the point of civil war. The
former was, indeed, assembling a force, osten-
sibly to assist in maintaining order, but really
for the purpose of attacking Castro, whom he
charged with usurpation of civil power. The
correspondence that passed between the two
becomes almost ludicrous, when read in the
light of subsequent events, but each took his
part with the utmost seriousness, Pico stand-
ing upon his dignity as governor of the terri-
tory, and demanding that Castro take no step
of importance without consulting him, and
Castro bombastically vowing to shed his last
drop of blood in defense of his country, but
wisely keeping out of the way of the Ameri-
cans with his pitiful force of 200 ill-equipped
men. Later in the month the two representa-
tives of Mexican rule came together in the
south, and made a feeble effort to rally their
forces against the Americans, but as each was
suspicious of the other, concert of action was
impossible. A generation of habitual plotting

202 History of Los Angeles.

and revolutions had rendered the CaHfornians
useless to themselves and to one another.

On the 7th of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat
landed his men at Monterey, and raised the
Stars and Stripes over the fort. The local com-
mandant offered no opposition, merely putting
himself on record with the statement that he
was overpowered by a superior force. The
commodore then issued a proclamation,
couched in temperate and conciliatory lan-
guage, in which he declared that California
would henceforth be American territory — al-
though what authority he had to make that
statement does not appear — and that the CaH-
fornians themselves would be the ones most
benefited by the change, as they would come
under a stable government, where revolutions
were unknown and where life, property, and
the right to religious freedom would be se-
cure. He assured them that the limitations on
commerce would be removed, and that the val-
u« of real estate and of all California products
would be advanced. He urged all local officers
to continue with their duties, until the govern-
ment of the territory could be definitely ar-
ranged and he promised that no private prop-
erty should be taken for public use without
just return.

Within the next few days the flag was
raised at Yerba Buena (San Francisco), So-
noma, Sutter's Fort (Sacramento district),
Santa Cruz and San Jose. This completed the
conquest of the northern part of the state, and

The Americans Enter Los Angeles. 203

no difficulty was experienced either then or
later in holding it under American rule. The
real war of conquest in California was all in
the southern portion, with Los Angeles, which
was the capital, as its chief agitator.

About the middle of the month Commo-
dore Stockton arrived ; and as Sloat was in
bad health and anxious to return to Wash-
ington, he placed Stockton in command and
sailed to the south. For some reason Stockton
seemed to feel that it was incumbent upon
him to follow Sloat's example and issue a proc-
lamation, although the latter had said all that
was needed on the subject of the relation of
the Californians to the new authority. Stock-
ton, however, succeeded in saying a good many
things that were better left unsaid ; his missive
contained a violent attack on Castro, whom he
called a usurper that was to be expelled from
the country by force. His threatening, ill-
humored language was well calculated to stir
up disorder rather than to allay discontent.

Fremont's original party had now grown
to such proportions that it was mustered into
regular service as the "Battalion of California
Volunteers," with Fremont as major, and Gil-
lespie as captain. On the 26th day of July, this
command was sent to San Diego with instruc-
tions to work north to Los Angeles, so as to
meet in that vicinity with Stockton's sailors
and marines, who would come up from San
Pedro. The purpose of this movement was to
cut off Castro and his army from escape to the

204 History of Los Angeles.

south. Fremont landed at San Diego July
29th, and on the 13th of August met Stockton
and his men just outside of Los Angeles.

Meantime, what had been transpiring in
the City of the Angels? News of all these
great events — the expulsion of Fremont, the
Bear Flag rebellion, the capture of Monterey,
and the approach of Stockton and the Califor-
nia battalion had been brought to the pueblo,
and now last of all came Castro himself with
his remnant of an army. Through most of
this period the territorial legislature or a
piece of it, had been in session. As fast as new
disasters were reported, this body would pass
resolutions denouncing the authors thereof,
and calling upon the people to rise and arm
themselves and resist to the last. The gover-
nor undertook to do his part by issuing proc-
lamations of the same tenor. But the people
did not rise. There was no money in the treas-
ury to provide arms and uniforms, and no
army organization worthy of the name. More-
over, there was a large element of the popula-
tion made up of Americans and their friends,
and including also many of the shrewdest and
most progressive of the native Californians,
who appreciated that the best thing that could
happen to the territory was for it to be ab-
sorbed by the American republic. While these
men hesitated to declare themselves in favor
of the invaders, they certainly could not be de-
pended upon to resist them.

Just at this juncture there appeared in Los

ThelAmericans Enter Los Angeles. 205

Angeles a Catholic priest named Eugene Mc-
Namara, who had a scheme that he declared
would extricate California from all its trou-
bles ; and the legislature devoted a week's time
to its consideration, clinging to it evidently as
a sort of forlorn hope. He claimed to represent
an English colonization company that was pre-
pared to send 10,000 Irish emigrants into the
territory, provided a land grant of 27,000
square miles be given for their use. The theory
on which the scheme rested was that if an
English company held a grant of this magni-
tude— 270 miles by 100 would be a huge slice
out of the state — it might result in interference
on the part of the British nation with the plans
of the Americans. The hope was futile, for
McNamara represented nothing but a firm of
irresponsible London speculators, who wanted
a land grant to serve as a claim against the
Americans when the latter should take the
country. The deed was given, the land being
a large part of what is now known as the San
Joaquin valley, but it was not signed until a
few days after Sloat raised the flag at Monte-
rey, whereby it was of no value whatever.

In the last days of July a definite plan for
the organization of an army was adopted and
a call was issued for all men of suitable age to
bear arms to assemble in Los Angeles and be
enrolled. Only a few responded. The total
forces of Pico and Castro probably did not
amount to much over 200 men, although the

206 History of Los Angeles.

Americans at the time believed them to be six
or eight times that number.

On the nth of August, 1846, Stockton and
his 400 men started up from San Pedro drag-
ging their cannon by hand. Two days were
consumed in making the march. He encamped
on the mesa, about three miles southeast of
the city, and waited for Fremont. While
here a rumor reached him that Castro and
Pico had fled to the south, accompanied by a
considerable band of horsemen. On the 13th
Fremont and the California battalion came up,
and the combined forces marched into the city.
There was no opposition nor even a manifesta-
tion of ill-will. The officers of the territorial
government went into hiding, but, with the ex-
ception of Castro and Pico, they were either
captured or surrendered themselves within the
next few days. Castro had fled to Mexico.
Pico was concealed at the ranch of his brother-
in-law, Don Juan Forster, and he made his way
over the border about a month afterward.

Permanent headquarters were established
for the American government in an old adobe,
where the St. Charles Hotel now stands, on
North Main street, and Captain Gillespie and
a garrison of fifty men were stationed there.

Stockton remained about two weeks in Los
Angeles, during which time he formulated a
plan for the civil government of California, and
announced his intention of appointing Fremont
as governor. He did not actually put the plan
in force at this time, however. He wrote a

The Americans Enter Los Angeles. 207

long and rather boastful report of his success
in conquering the new territory, and sent it
back to the national authorities by Kit Carson,
the famous scout, who had accompanied Fre-
mont through the whole of his recent adven-
turous course — a conspicuous and interesting
character of this period. Stockton and his sail-
ors then returned to San Pedro, and sailed for
Monterey. Fremont and his battalion went
north by land. Both the commanders were en-
tirely confident that there would be no further
difficulties, and that California was now safely
under the flag of the republic.

They did not appreciate, however, the ca-
pacity of the ancient pueblo for making trou-
ble. Revolution had become a habit with its
residents, and the quiet of good order was
distasteful and fatiguing. It is not improbable
that the rule of Captain Gillespie was some-
what lacking in diplomacy and consideration.
The failure of the Californians to stand for a
conflict had caused them to be rated as cow-
ards by the American soldiers ; and Gillespie
and his men no doubt showed insolent and un-
warranted contempt for the people in their
charge. He refused to allow the Californians
to gather in friendly reunions, such as they
were accustomed to hold, would not allow li-
quor to be sold except on his special permis-
sion ; and on slight pretexts — so it is charged —
he would order leading citizens to be arrested
and brought before him, that he might humili-
ate them by his arrogance. These statements

208 History of Los Angeles.

are no doubt subject to considerable discount,
and it may be that no man, however discjeet
and well-disposed, would have pleased these
people as a ruler — for they did not wish to be
ruled; but the unanimous testimony of the
American residents of Los Angeles, at this
time, was that Gillespie made bad business of
his authority, and that he was largely to blame
for what happened.

There was a band of wild young men in
the pueblo, headed by Serbulo Varela, who
played at revolution and plotted for sport.
They called one of their number "governor,"
and managed to annoy Gillespie and his men,
while they kept discreetly out of reach. On
the night of September 22nd this gang, consist-
ing of perhaps twenty youths, surrounded the
old adobe where the Americans were, and
feigned an attack by beating drums and dis-
charging muskets in the air. The soldiers sup-
posed it was a genuine attack, as perhaps the
Californians intended it should be later, and
they fired into the crowd, wounding one man
in the foot. The next day Gillespie arrested a
number of the leading men of the town, none
of whom had participated in the afifair of the
night before, and threw them into prison;
whereupon a revolt started in good earnest.
Gillespie and his men managed to retreat from
their exposed position in the adobe to one of
the hills above and to the west of the city, and
there they constructed a fort of sandbags. A
courier was dispatched to the north to apprise

The Americans Enter Los Angeles. 209

Stockton of the dangerous position in which
they were placed; for the number of Califor-
nians in arms was increasing daily, and al-
though the Americans had successfully beaten
ofif every attack so far, it was only a matter of
a very short time when their supplies would be
exhausted.

The courier, who was known as ''^yxarv Fla-
co," or "Lean John," his true name being John
Brown, made the trip to Monterey, 462 miles,
in the extraordinary time of fifty-two hours,
changing horses at frequent intervals, but tak-
ing no sleep by the way. One horse was shot
beneath him, as he passed the suburbs of Los
Angeles. This ride was long talked of by the
early American settlers of the state.

Stockton had, before leaving for the north,
organized a local militia company of twenty
Americans under the command of B. D. Wil-
son. They had been scouring the country in
search of Castro, but failing to find him they
were now in the San Bernardino mountains,
hunting for bears. Gillespie sent word to them
to come to his aid, but the Californians, antici-
pating the plan, met them at the Chino ranch,
and a fight ensued which is called the "Battle
of Chino," although little more than a skirmish.
Three of the Americans were wounded, and
one of the Californians, a popular young man
of good family, was killed. Varela, the origi-
nator of the revolt, led the Californians, and
he gave his word to Wilson that if he would
surrender he and his men should not be

210 History of Los Angeles.

harmed. The Americans thereupon gave them-
selves up, but so great was the anger of the
Californians over the death of their compatriot
that they were restrained only with the utmost
difficulty from slaughtering Wilson and the
whole company.

The capture of these men discouraged Gil-
lespie, for there was no hope of succor from
Stockton within two or three weeks. When
General Flores, who had now taken charge of
the military operations of the Californians,
proposed that he leave the city with all the
honors of war, Gillespie gladly accepted the
terms, and on the 30th of September he made
his way to San Pedro.

There was an understanding that he should
be allowed to carry his field pieces as far as the
water front, but that there he was to surren-
der them to the Californians. Gillespie violat-
ed the spirit of this undertsanding, for he
spiked the guns, knocked oflf their breech knobs
and flung them into the water at low tide. Sev-
eral years later these cannon were rescued by
B. D. Wilson, and hauled back to Los Angeles.
Wilson at that time had a large store at the
corner of Main and Commercial streets, where
the Farmers and Merchants' bank now stands ;
he put the cannon in the ground at the corner,
as mementoes of his narrow escape from death
in the war. Two of them are still there, and
the other two are now to be seen in front of the
Broadway entrance of the courthouse.

Gillespie was about to start north on an

The Americans Enter Los Angeles. 211

American merchant ship that was lying in the
harbor, when Captain Mervine arrived, most
opportunely as it seemed, with the frigate Sa-
vannah. On the 7th of October 350 men from
the frigate, together with Gillespie's detach-
ment, undertook to get up from San Pedro to
Los Angeles, and the battle of Dominguez
ranch took place, on the evening of that day
and the morning of the next. The Californians
were not numerous, but they were all mounted,
and they had a fieldpiece, which they used with
good effect. When the Americans charged
and attempted to capture it, the Californians
galloped off, dragging it after them with their
reatas. At length when six of the Americans
had been slain, and a number wounded they
gave up the fight and retired to San Pedro. The
men slain in the battle were buried on Dead
Man's Island, at the mouth of San Pedro har-
bor.

CHAPTER XXI.

THB I.AST RE;vOI.UTION in I.OS ANGEI^ES.

HE rebellion had now gained a good
headway, and had spread all over the
southern portion of California, with
Los Angeles, the ancient home of rev-
olutionary movements, for its head-
quarters. At Santa Barbara the American
force consisted of nine men under Lieutenant
Talbot. Manuel Garfias was sent up from the
pueblo to drive them out, but they, learning of
his approach, contrived to escape into the San-
ta Inez mountains, in order to evade parole.
The Californians set fire to the brush to dis-
lodge them, but they escaped over the ridge,
and, striking out across the desert, came down
finally into the San Joaquin valley. By this
roundabout way, suffering terrible hardships,
and with many exciting adventures, they came
through to Monterey. One of these men was
Elijah Moulton, who still lives, and has a res-
idence in East Los Angeles. San Diego was
also taken by the Californians, but they held
i-. for a short time only.

The sentiment throughout the southern
country in favor of the revolt was practically
unanimous, although a few natives, like. Juan
Bandini of San Diego, and his brother-in-law,
Arguello, favored the Americans, because
they represented a strong government; and

The Last Revolution in Los Angeles. 213

all the resident Americans were doubtless
hopeful that California would become part of
the Union, however wary they may have been
of expressing their sentiments. An army was
mustered, which was at no time larger than
500, the great difficulty being not so much to
secure men as to arm them. The country was
raked over for weapons of every kind. There
were a few old muskets and pistols, and one
ancient four-pounder cannon that had former-
ly stood in front of the guardhouse on the
plaza to be used in firing salutes. When Stock-
ton took Los Angeles, in August, this gun had
been hauled to the garden of Dona Inocencia
Reyes, on Alameda street, and by her it was
ordered buried. While the men were lament-
ing the fact that they had no artillery. Dona
Inocencia produced this cannon, and they in
their gratitude named it the "Woman's Gun."
It is now in the National Museum at Washing-
ton.

But the worst difficulty with which the
revolutionists had to contend was the lack of
powder. There was a small amount of good
powder stored in Los Angeles, of which they
immediately possessed themselves. The pa-
dres at San Gabriel had been accustomed to
manufacture the article, and a knowledge of
the method was supposed to be held there yet.
A quantity of powder was ordered from the
San Gabriel factory, but whether the formula
had been forgotten or whether some one of
the makers was friendly to the Americans and
doctored the compound, is not known, but it

214 History of Los Angeles.

was a failure in the field. Guns that were
loaded with it were altogether too deliberate
about going off.

In the battle of Dominguez ranch, which
was described in the last chapter, the Califor-
nians had just enough good powder for one
charge in the gun that they hauled about with
reatas — the "Woman's Gun." They maneu-
vered for the most favorable opportunity, and
then put in the charge, that shot doing almost
the entire execution that was accomplished
during the battle.

Jose Maria Flores was elected governor
and chief of command, with Jose Antonio Car-
rillo, an habitual revolutionist, second, and
Andres Pico, the late governor's brother, as
third. The legislative body was called togeth-
er, and such officers of the old government as
remained on the ground were reinstated in
their former positions. All of the principal
men — Flores, Carrillo, Pico and others, had
been admitted to parole, and hence were in
danger of being shot if captured. Their justi-
fication, as they claimed, lay in the fact that
Gillespie had thrown them all into prison,
which absolved them from their allegiance and
nullified the parole.

The Flores regime lasted from the middle
of September until the following January —
less than four months — but even that short
period could not be passed without an attempt
at a revolution — a wheel within a wheel — and
this, too, at the time when the Americans were

The Last Revolution in Los Angeles. 215

closing in on the city. In December Flores
was seized, deposed from power, and thrown
into jail as a traitor. The difficulty arose out
of his threat to send the Americans captured
on the Chino ranch to Mexico for safe-keep-
ing. Several of them, particularly B. D. Wil-
son, had powerful friends through marriage
connections. From the interior of the jail
Flores saw things somewhat differently, and
declared his entire willingness to have the
Chino prisoners remain in the country.

A day or two after the affair at the Domin-
guez ranch, Commodore Stockton arrived at
San Pedro with about 800 men. Had he then
made a quick dash for Los Angeles he could
easily have taken it, there being few to op-
pose, and they so badly equipped. The Cali-
fornians, however, led by Carrillo, moved
their cavalry about over the adjoining hiLs
with a rapidity that gave an impression of
great numbers, and this effect was heightened
by the droves of loose horses they urged be-
fore them. In his reports Stockton speaks of
the enemy as having 800 cavalry. Through the
whole rebellion the Americans proceeded un-
der the idea that the Californians had at least
2000 men in arms. Before the occupation the
Americans had been taus^ht to believe that the
Californians were cowardly, and that they
could not be induced to fight. The recent ex-
periences in and around Los Angeles had
opened their eyes to some dangerous qualities
in the native cavalry, and they were presently

216 History of Los Angeles.

to have a much severer lesson in the battle of
San Pasqual. After waiting several days at
San Pedro, with no improvement of the out-
look, Stockton sailed away for San Diego, in-
tending to begin his attack from that place.

The commodore had left Fremont in Mon-
terey, under instructions to follow as soon as
possible, with such recruits as he had secured.
Fremont started south by water, but, learning
that no horses were to be had at San Pedro,
and that the entire country was up in arms, he
thought best to return to Monterey, increase
the size of his command, and go south by land,
taking with him ample supplies and plenty of
animals. This consumed time, and it was not
until the middle of November that he left
Monterey, and he arrived at Los Angeles too
late to be of service in the active part of the
campaign. On his way south he captured
Jesus Pico, a cousin of the late governor, who
had taken the parole, but was discovered in
arms. Fremont ordered him to be put to
death, but finally pardoned him, on the tearful
implorations of his wife and children. This
act of clemency did a good deal to restore bet-
ter feeling between the Californians and the
Americans.

In the meantime a detachment of the
American army was making its way across the
continent under General Stephen W. Kearny,
who had left Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with
1600 men, and a full equipment of animals and
supplies, in the month of June, 1846. As he

The Last Revolution in Los Angeles. 217

came through Arizona and New Mexico Kear-
ny raised the Stars and Stripes at every place
of importance that he passed, and left a num-
ber of garrisons. On his way he had fallen in
with Kit Carson, the famous scout who had
been with Fremont's party, and was now on his
mission to carry the news to Washington.
From him Kearny learned that Stockton had
taken complete possession of California, the
rebellion having broken out since his depart-
ure. Acting on this information, Kearny did
not hesitate to distribute his force along the
line as he came through, until he had only 121
left in the command. He induced Carson to
commit his dispatches to some one else, and
turn back with him. This was a fortunate
move on Kearny's part, for Carson's services
were presently to be in great demand.

Early in December the party crossed the
Colorado river, and presently was met by a de-
tachment of twenty men under Captain Gilles-
pie, whom Stockton had sent out to act as an
escort into San Diego. As they came to a
stream called the San Bernardo they learned
that General Andres Pico was encamped near
the Indian village of San Pasqual. By this
time the soldiers had heard of the rebellion, of
the driving out of the Los Angeles garrison,
and the defeat at Dominguez, and all were
eager for a chance to meet the enemy. Carson
had assured them that the Californians were
cowards and would not stand against a de-
termined attack, and there was probably a dis-

218 History of Los Angeles,

position among Kearny's men to show Gilles-
pie and his following that the rebels would cut
a sorry figure when the regulars fell upon
them.

Early in the morning of December 5, 1846,
as the Americans were riding along in the bed
of the San Bernardo, near the village of San
Pasqual, which is thirty-eight miles northeast
of San Diego, they suddenly came upon Pico
and about eighty Californians, all mounted
and armed with lances. The lance used by the
Californians was about eight feet long, light,
strong and furnished with a sharp blade at the
point. It was a very effective weapon for a
short-range combat.

The Americans were badly strung out, and
in no condition for a fight. Their guns and
pistols were wet with the morning dew, and
refused to discharge. The mounts were tired
and ill-fed, many of them mules that had re-
cently been pressed into service and were hard
tc manage. There was every reason why the
force, if its commander had used average mil-
itary intelligence, should have been kept out of
a battle, and by a little maneuvering it might
easily have been avoided. The moment the
Californians came in sight, however. Captain
Johnson, who led the van, seemed to have lost
all control over himself, and he dashed for-
ward with a yell, followed by the small party
of a dozen men, who were in advance of the
main body of the Americans.

A moment later Johnson lay on the ground.

The Last Revolution in Los Angeles. 219

shot through the head, and several of his men
were wounded. The Americans fell back in
confusion, until the next detachment came up,
which consisted of about fifty dragoons under
Captain Moore. Then the Californians
wheeled and galloped away.

Instantly the whole party of Americans
started in pursuit, and the race lasted for half
a mile of running. By this time the Ameri-
cans were scattered and spread out, owing to
the unevenness of the ground, and to the fact
that those mounted on mules could not keep
up with those mounted on horses. Looking
back and discovering the state of things, Pico
halted his men, turned them about, and the
real battle began.

It proved very serious for the Americans,
and although generally recorded as a victory
for that side, by reason of their holding the
field, while the others finally retreated, it was
in effect a defeat, and a bad one. In an in-
credibly short space of time eighteen Ameri-
cans lay dead, stabbed by lances, and as many
more were severely wounded. Of the enemy
few were hurt, and none were killed. The ex-
traordinary percentage of Americans killed
and wounded, out of the number engaged,
makes the battle unique in the country's his-
tory. Surgeon John S. Griffin, whose account
of the affair was that of an intelligent eye-
witness, declares that not more than fifty of
the Americans ever saw the enemy, and cer-

220 History of Los Angeles.

tainly not more than that number were actu-
ally engaged in the fight, and yet thirty-seven
were either killed or wounded.

Toward the close of the affair an effort was
made to get one of the howitzers into action,
but the mules attached to it became fright-
ened and ran away, and the piece fell into the
hands of the enemy.

Captain Moore, who led the second charge,
was killed, and General Kearny and Captain
Gillespie were both severely cut with lances.
The wounded were in the care of Dr. Griffin,
who afterward became a citizen of Los An-
geles, and was for more than a quarter of a
century its leading physician. He was also a
large land owner, controlling at one time most
of the present site of Pasadena and of East
Los Angeles, and he was one of the founders
of the present water system of the city.

The effect of this engagement was to badly
demoralize the forces of General Kearny.
Their opinion of the valor and the fighting
qualities of the Californians underwent an en-
tire change, and although the number of men
still ready for service probably exceeded those
of the command of Pico, they did not venture
out of the camp which they had hastily thrown
up. It was cold and wet, and the provisions
were p-ivino- out. Then it was fhof Kit Carson
came to the front. Accompanied by Lieuten-
ant Beale of the regular army, and an Indian,

77/1? Last Revolution in Los Angeles. 221

he crept past the enemy by night and suc-
ceeded in getting to San Diego.

Stockton immediately sent reinforcements
to Kearny, consisting of 200 marines, and with
this escort the overland company managed to
get through to the coast.

Stockton had come to San Diego, after his
brief stay at San Pedro, in the last days of
October. He experienced considerable diffi-
culty in getting into the bay with his flagship,
the Congress, and at one time very nearly had
it aground, but finally managed to get over
the bar into the harbor. Although the Amer-
icans still held nominal control of San Diego,
the condition of affairs on shore was not very
promising. The Californian men had all es-
caped into the interior, taking with them the
horses and cattle, and leaving the women and
children for the Americans to support or to let
starve. Numerous foraging parties were at
once dispatched into the country, to bring in
stock, for horses were necessary to Stockton's
plan for an expedition to the north by land.
Some of these were successful, and brought in
not only a plentiful supply of fresh meat, but
also horses enough to fit out a cavalry com-
pany made up of sailors. The efforts of the
latter to ride without putting both arms
around the horses' necks afforded the camp
plenty of amusement.

It was on one of these raids after stock
that the Bandini flag incident took place. Cap-

222 History of Los AngeiCi,.

tain Hensley, who had been sent down into
Lower CaHfornia, was returning in triumph
with 500 cattle and 140 horses and mules,
which he had obtained from Juan Bandini, an
enthusiastic sympathizer with the American
cause. He was accompanied by Bandini and
his family, who were making their way to San
Diego. The American officer was expressing
his regret that he had no flag with which to
march into camp with his booty in proper
style, when Juan Bandini's wife, who was the
daughter of the former governor, Arguello,
oflfered to construct one. Three of her chil-
dren were playing about, one dressed in white,
one in blue, and one in red. Ordering these
dresses changed for others, she hastily cut out
and stitched together the red and white stripes
and the white stars on the blue field. Two of
these children afterwards became residents of
Los Angeles, and many members of the Ban-
dini family in the next generation now live in
and about this city. The story is a pretty one,
and as it is vouched for by credible eye-wit-
nesses, we may believe it to be true. This was
the first American flag ever made in California.

CHAPTER XXII.

I.OS ANGELAS REGAINED.

HE American force which set out from
San Diego to capture Los Angeles
consisted of about 500 men, nine-
tenths of whom were Stockton's sail-
ors and marines, and the remainder
Kearny's dragoons. The commission under
which Kearny had been sent to California
made him military governor of the territory,
thus superseding Stockton, as well as Fre-
mont, whom Stockton had proposed to make
civil governor. The commodore seems to have
understood that Kearny's authority went be-
yond his own, for he offered, as soon as Kear-
ny came into camp from San Pasqual, to turn
over the control of affairs to him. The latter
was, however, suffering from a wound, or he
may have thought it only courtesy to allow
Stockton to continue with the work of prepar-
ation.

At all events he certainly declined the com-
mand at that time. But when the expedition
was ready to start, December 29, 1846, Kearny
asked who was to take charge, and, on being
told by Commodore Stockton that Lieutenant
Rowan had been appointed, he announced that
he would prefer to occupy that position him-
self. Stockton thereupon appointed him to the
command. ,

224 History of Los Angeles.

This was the beginning of an undignified
controversy between the two commanders,
which presently involved many of the officers
stationed in Los Angeles, and at last brought
Fremont to a court-martial in Washington.
There is no doubt that of the two principals to
this affair, Stockton's behavior was the more
reprehensible, for the military governorship
certainly lay with Kearny, and not with the
commodore ; but, on the other hand, there was
a lamentable lack of judgment shown by Kear-
ny in all his acts, and a seeming desire to
make trouble rather than to smooth over diffi-
culties.

When the party had been on the march a
few days they were met by Julian Workman
and Charles Flugge of Los Angeles, who had
been sent out by the Californians to negotiate
for a temporary cessation of hostilities. They
bore a letter from Flores, in which he asserted
that news had been received from Mexico that
the war with the United States was at an end,
and that satisfactory terms of settlement were
now being negotiated. He suggested that un-
der the circumstances it might be well to wait
and see whether bloodshed in California could
not be averted.

When Stockton read this letter — he seems
to have ignored Kearny in the matter, al-
though the latter was theoretically in com-
mand— he returned answer orally that he had
released Flores on a parole of honor, in spite

Los Angeles Regained. 225

of which he was now in arms; therefore if he
caught him he would shoot him, but would
have no further dealings with him.

On the 8th of January, eleven days having
been consumed on the marchj the party came
to the San Gabriel river, and prepared to cross,
just north of the place where the bridge of the
Santa Fe railroad to Orange now spans the
stream. At this spot, which is situated about
ten miles southeast of Los Angeles, the battle
of San Gabriel was fought. The Californians
had mustered all their forces — a total of 500
mounted men — and with four pieces of artil-
lery were posted in an advantageous position
on high ground, a quarter of a mile back from
the river. The Americans sent forward their
artillery, and were about to drag it across the
stream, when some one warned Kearny that
there was quicksand in the river, and that the
cannon would be lost. There was a momen-
tary halt, and some confusion, for the roar of
the enemy's guns was already heard. Stock-
ton rode up, and was told by Kearny what
was the matter. "Damn the quicksand,"
shouted Stockton, *T)ring up those guns."
Kearny fell back, and allowed Stockton to di-
rect affairs. The cannon were hurried across,
and no quicksand was encountered.

A heavy cannonading was begun by the
Americans, under cover of which the troops
waded the river, and, climbing up on the high-
er ground, formed into squares to resist the

226 History of Los Angeles.

attack of cavalry. The Californians charged,
but were unable to stand the fire, and fell
back. Presently the whole line of the enemy
began to give way in a slow and orderly re-
treat. They continued to fire their cannon at
intervals as they fell back, until they were en-
tirely out of range.

The engagement lasted only about an hour
and a half. The Americans lost two killed and
eight wounded. The loss of the Californians
was about the same. Had the latter possessed
powder of any value the American loss would
undoubtedly have been much greater. The
Americans advanced, with their band playing
"Hail Columbia," and took up the ground that
Flores had occupied before the battle opened,
and here encamped for the day and the fol-
lowing night.

On the morning of January 9, 1847, the
Americans advanced toward Los Angeles and
came upon the enemy about noon, three miles
south of the city. There was a long-range ar-
tillery duel, in which neither side effected
much damage on the other. The Americans
formed a large hollow square, with the bag-
gage in the center, and advanced slowly for
about four hours, driving the enemy before
them. Three times Flores ordered his cavalry
to charge, but when they came within a few
hundred feet of the American line they encoun-
tered a fire so severe that they were compelled
to withdraw. Stockton had five men wounded,

Los Angeles Regained. 227

but none killed. At about 4 o'clock the enemy
gave up the struggle and retreated. The
Americans crossed the Los Angeles river, and
encamped for the night within sight of the
pueblo.

Next morning, January loth, a small dele-
gation of citizens waited on Stockton and in-
formed him that the Californian army had fled,
and that the people were prepared to surren-
der the city without resistance, if they could
have an agreement that their lives and prop-
erty would be respected. They were evidently
in fear that the place was to be sacked. Stock-
ton assured tham that no injury would be done
peaceable citizens, and they went away. In
spite of these friendly advances on the part of
the rebellious city, the Americans proceeded
slowly and with great caution. About noon
they came to the plaza. The streets were
filled with people, some few of whom showed
their disapproval by curses and shaking of
fists. The hills above were crowded with
horsemen, who fled at the approach of sol-
diers sent to dislodge them.

The band played its repertoire of national
and popular airs, and the Californians forgot
their anger and crowded to listen. Gillespie
led the way to the old adobe on Main street,
which he had formerly occupied as headquar-
ters, and asked permission himself to run up
the colors which he had been compelled to
haul down some four months before. The per-
mission was granted him, and the men cheered

228 History of Los Angeles.

lustily as they saw the flag restored to its ac-
customed spot. Los Angeles was once more
an American city, and this time it was des-
tined permanently to remain so.

A strong detachment of artillery was
placed on the hill directly above the city, and
the chief topographical engineer of General
Kearny's division was instructed to prepare
plans for a fort in that location. Before this
work had advanced very far Kearny left the
city, and Lieutenant J. W. Davidson of the
First United States Dragoons was ordered to
enlarge the plan and begin the work. This
was finally completed by July 4th of that year,
1847, and was named Fort Moore. It was on
the hill above the present Broadway tunnel.

Looking about for a place in which to es-
tablish his headquarters, as he entered the
town, Stockton discovered a large, well-fur-
nished house, with its doors open and appar-
ently quite unoccupied. It was the residence
of Dona Encarnacion Abila, at 14, 16, 18 Oli-
vera street. This building is still to be seen
standing (1901), although now in very bad re-
pair. Olivera is a small street running out
from the plaza, north of Marchessault. Fear-
ing lest the vengeance of the American sol-
diery might fall upon the inhabitants of the
pueblo, the Senora Abila had left the house in
charge of a young man, and escaped into the
country; and he, attracted by the playing of
the band, had left it unguarded and standing
open. Here Stockton made his headquarters

Los Angeles Regained, 229

during his stay, to the great discomfiture, no
doubt, of the loyalist owner of the property.
General Fremont secured for his use, and that
of the civil government which he established,
a series of low adobes that occupied the space
where the engine-house now stands, on the
southeast corner of the plaza. Adjoining
these to the west was the residence of J. A.
Carrillo, pretentious for its day, on the spot
where the Pico house, now called the National
hotel, was afterward constructed.

On the day that Stockton and Kearny en-
tered Los Angeles, Fremont, coming down
from the north, encamped at San Fernando.
He had made the march slowly, acting on re-
peated messages from the commodore, who
advised the utmost caution. Santa Barbara
was retaken as he passed, and garrisoned
against further attack. Learning that the Cal-
ifornian army was encamped on the Verdugo
lanch, Fremont sent out Jesus Pico, the man
whose life he had spared, to confer with the
rebels.

After the battle on the mesa, on the 9th of
January, the Californians scattered, many of
them laying down their arms and returning to
their homes. Flores, mindful of the threat of
Stockton that he would put him to death if
captured, took a small escort and escaped over
the border into Mexico. The command was
transferred to Andres Pico, with J. A. Carrillo
second in authority, and they were advised by
the escaping leader to yield on the best terms

230 History of Los Angeles.

possible. Two days later Jesus Pico came into
the rebel camp and announced that Fremont
was at hand with a large force; and he urged
the Californians to surrender to him, rather
than to Stockton, in the hope that they might
secure better conditions.

On the 13th of January, 1847, articles of
capitulation were ratified between the Califor-
nians and Fremont, at the Cahuenga ranch
house, only a few miles out of Los Angeles. It
was agreed that the Californians should sur-
render their artillery and "public arms," and
should take the parole not to assist in carry-
ing on war against the United States. Such as
preferred to go out of the territory into Mexico
would be allowed to depart, and those that re-
mained were to be pardoned for their partici-
pation in the rebellion, irrespective of whether
they had been under parole or not. Until a
treaty of peace should be signed between the
United States and Mexico, no resident of Cali-
fornia was to be compelled to take the oath of
allegiance. The "public arms" thus secured
amounted to a handsome total of six muskets,
and two diminutive cannon — the "Woman's
Gun" and one other.

The evidence is clear that Fremont knew
of the occupation of Los Angeles by Stockton
at the time he entered into this agreement
with the Californians ; and it was afterwards
charged by his enemies — of which he had al-
ways a flourishing crop — that he overstepped
the bounds of his authority in making terms

Los Angeles Regained. 231

with the belligerents almost in the very pres-
ence of his superior. It was an infraction of
military etiquette, to say the least, but it did
not displease Stockton, who was, on the con-
trary, rather relieved to have the matter thus
taken out of his hands. He had repeatedly
threatened to put to death Flores and others
who had broken their parole, and such sever-
ity, if actually carried out, would have made
the complete pacification of the country diffi-
cult, if not impossible. Fremont had provided
him a way out of an awkward dilemma.

There may have been another reason why
Stockton was well satisfied with Fremont's
course in this matter. The tendency toward
disagreement and mutual suspicion that had
always been rife among the Californians, and
which was indigenous to the southern pueblo,
seems by this time to have thoroughly infected
the Americans, and the row between Stockton
and Kearny was assuming serious proportions.
The former may have been the more ready
to overlook any seeming irregularity in Fre-
mont's conduct in the hope of obtaining his
support in the controversy.

On the day of the surrender at Cahuenga,
Fremont sent on his second in command to
Los Angeles, with instructions to find out
which of the two — Stockton or Kearny — was
ill authority. He found that each claimed to
be the civil and military governor of the state,
although they each admitted privately that as

232 History of Los Angeles.

soon as peace was restored in the territory
they intended to make Fremont civil governor.
Kearny based his claim on the fact that he
had been commissioned by the national gov-
ernment to take entire charge of affairs, his
instructions bearing a later date than any held
by Stockton. As a matter of fact, this claim
was entirely valid, and Stockton's position was
untenable. The latter held that Kearny's in-
structions were based on a theory that a state
of war existed in California, and that the coun-
try was in alien hands, whereas, before Kear-
ny had come to the state the Americans had
secured complete control, and a civil govern-
ment was practically in operation. To this he
added the argument that when Kearny had
first arrived at San Diego and was offered
the reins of authority by Stockton he had de-
clined to accept them.

Fremont's emissary dodged the whole
question by making his report to both claim-
ants, and when Fremont himself came into the
pueblo the next day he made an official call
upon each of them, and waited for develop-
ments.

On the i6th of January the matter came to
a direct issue upon Kearny's sending instruc-
tions to Stockton to proceed no further in the
formation of a civil government for the terri-
tory. Stockton refused to obey, and issued an
order removing Kearny from command of the
troops. For the purpose of putting Fremont

Los Angeles Regained. 233

on record, Kearny sent word to him not to
make certain contemplated changes in his bat-
tahon. He then sent for Fremont, and urged
him to come over to his side, assuring him
that he would make him governor in return.
But Fremont was loyal to Stockton, to whom
he felt himself indebted, and he refused to be
led away by a bribe. He sent a formal com-
munication to Kearny to the effect that until
the latter and Stockton settled their differences
as to their respective authority he would be
compelled to take his orders, as before, from
Commodore Stockton.

A day or two later, finding himself utterly
ignored in the plans of Stockton and Fremont
for the governing of the territory, Kearny ad-
dressed a note to the commodore, in which he
said that to avoid further discussion and dis-
agreement, which would bring scandal upon
the powers they represented, he would with-
draw for the present to San Diego, and await
further instructions from Washington. On
January i8th he left Los Angeles with his dra-
goons and marched south.

January 19th Stockton issued to Fremont
his commission as civil governor of the state,
a position which he held about fifty days, al-
though his technical right to it is open to ques-
tion. Stockton offered the place of secretary
of state to Gillespie, but the latter preferred
to be major of the battalion. An order was is-
sued, convening a legislative council, which

234 History of Los Angeles.

was to contain, among others, ex-governor Al-
varado, Juan Bandini and his brother-in-law,
Santiago Arguello, and Thomas O. Larkin, the
American consul, who had been captured early
in the rebellion, and was held as a prisoner
in Los Angeles through the whole affair. But
this gathering never came together, for early
in March Colonel Richard B. Mason arrived
with new instructions from the national gov-
ernment that left no doubt as to the pre-emi-
nence of Kearny's military and civil author-
ity. Stockton was no longer in command on
the coast, having been succeeded by Commo-
dore Shubrick, and the latter at once recog-
nized Kearny as governor of the state. Fre-
mont came up to Monterey, whither Kearny
had repaired, and he also admitted the author-
ity of Kearny. About this time Fremont and
Colonel Mason, who was Kearny's chief of
staff, and who was subsequently appointed
governor, became involved in a quarrel, out of
which came a challenge to a duel. The affair
of honor never took place, owing to the inter-
vention of General Kearny. Fremont was or-
dered to Washington, where he was tried be-
fore a court-martial for disobedience and con-
duct prejudicial to good order and military dis-
cipline. After a long and tempestuous trial
he was found technically guilty, and recom-
mended to the clemency of the president. But
Fremont declined to accept the verdict as a
just one and resigned from the army.

CHAPTER XXIII.

the; PUISBLO IS MADIi AMEEICAN.

OS ANGELES was under military rule
from January of 1847, when the
Americans took possession of the
city for the second time, to August,
1848 — a period of nineteen months.
During the time of his quasi-governorship,
Fremont kept his headquarters at Los Ange-
les, because it had been the capital under the
Mexican administration, but as soon as Gener-
al Kearny came to be recognized as governor,
he sent for the archives and had" them brought
up to Monterey. This put a final quietus on
the long-cherished ambition of the southern
city.

On the first of March Kearny sent instruc-
tions to Fremont to muster out his battalion,
and report in person at Monterey. Colonel P.
St. George Cooke, who was in command of a
battalion of Mormon volunteers from Mis-
souri, was appointed to succeed Fremont in
charge of affairs at Los Angeles. Through the
disbanding of the California Battalion, a regi-
ment which Fremont had gathered in Califor-
nia, Los Angeles gained a number of settlers.
The Mormon command came up from San
Luis Rey, in San Diego county, where it had
been stationed, and encamped in Los Angeles.
These were the men that did most of the work

236 History of LoslAngeles.

on the fort. They had it nearly completed
when they were summoned to Monterey, to be
mustered out. Colonel Cooke was succeeded
in the month of May by Colonel J. B. Steven-
son, of the New York regiment of volunteers.
This regiment, like the Mormon battalion, had
been enlisted on the understanding that when
the war came to an end, the men were to be
paid off in California, and allowed to remain
there. Thus the conflict between the United
States and Mexico brought many settlers to
California.

The presence of so large a body of soldiers
in Los Angeles, varying from 300 to 1000, had
the effect not only of finally demolishing all
plans for rebellion against the new authority,
but also of rapidly initiating the Spanish city
into American manners and customs. The up-
per class Californians, those whose blood was
largely or entirely Spanish, and who had ed-
ucation and a property interest, adapted them-
selves in dignified fashion to the new order.
When the state constitutional convention met
in 1849, J. A. Carrillo and Manuel Dominguez
were elected delegates from Los Angeles, as
representing the progressive Spanish-Ameri-
can element. W. M. Gwin, who was afterward
United States senator, happening to remark,
in the course of his argument on some point,
that the constitution of the state was not
framed so much for the original inhabitants of
the territory as for the newcomers of American
birth, Carrillo was on his feet in an instant,

The Pueblo is Made American. 237

declaring that he considered himself and his
fellow-Californians just as true and patriotic
Americans as any members of that body; and
the remark brought out long and enthusiastic
applause. But in the lower class of Califor-
nians the same adaptability to new conditions
did not develop. There were no rebellions, al-
though rumors to that effect were incessant;
but the presence of the Americans, or "grin-
gos," as they came now to be called, was more
and more resented, and, in the end, acting upon
a bad example set by the Americans them
selves, a great amount of lawlessness sprang
up among this class.

Colonel Stevenson found his position by no
means an easy one, although his difficulties
were identical with those of the governor and
all others in authority in the state, who were
attempting to apply American ideas of justice
and civic improvement, through the awkward
medium of old Spanish laws. Mason's instruc-
tions to his subordinates had been to inter-
fere as little as possible with the civil affairs.
They were to keep order and assist in the ad-
ministration of the laws as they existed. Tliis
was by no means as easy as it sounds. Ques-
tions were constantly coming up, as between
the military and civil authorities, and on sev-
eral occasions things came to a complete dead-
lock.

In the year 1847, ^"^ ayuntamiento had been
chosen in Los Angeles that was made up en-
tirely of native-born Californians. They were

238 History of Los Angeles.

informed by Colonel Stevenson that they
might go on with the government of the city,
just as before, with the one limitation that
they were not to give away or sell any of the
pueblo real estate. The "Very Illustrious"
body continued to hold meetings, after its an-
cient custom, observing its traditional formali-
ties with all the more pomp and circumstance
by reason of the fact that the Americans were
looking on. In the month of June of that year
the records show that one of the regidores, or
councilmen, was fined $io for impoliteness to-
ward another member. A month or two later
the second alcalde caused the arrest of Varela,
the same who had raised the tumult and driven
out Gillespie and started the rebellion a year
before. Colonel Stevenson, for some reason,
set him free ; whereupon the alcalde resigned,
and the ayuntamiento left his place vacant as
a standing protest.

This experience and several others of a
similar character led Stevenson to suggest to
the governor that he appoint at least one
American in the next ayuntamiento, and he,
acting upon this advice, notified the people of
Los Angeles that Stephen C. Foster, who had
come to the coast with the New York regi-
ment as their interpreter, and who for nearly
half a century was destined to play an active
part in the city affairs, was to be alcalde. This
was, of course, an assumption of authority on
the party of the governor to which he could
lay no legal claim. It was, in fact, a war

The Pueblo is Made American. 239

measure, and it seems to have been seriously
resented by the citizens of native birth. The
out-going alcalde refused to comply with cus-
tom and swear in his successor, Foster, and
Stevenson cut the Gcrdian knot by swearing
him in himself. The other members of the
ayuntamiento all resigned, and Foster and
Don Abel Stearns, who had been elected
sindico, or city attorney and tax collector, ran
the government for a time.

They seem to have conducted the city's
affairs very successfully. A chain gang was
established and put to work on the dam, or
headworks on the river, and on the irrigating
ditch, both of which had fallen into disrepair.
Several small Indian settlements within the
pueblo, which were haunts of vice and filth,
were demolished, and their inhabitants driven
out — a harsh but probably salutary measure.
Vagrants were brought to time, and some reg-
ulation of the liquor traffic was attempted.

In December of 1848, notice was issued for
an election of a new ayuntamiento, but the
people paid no attention to it ; whereupon the
governor announced that the present officers
would continue to hold until the voters of Los
Angeles made up their minds to elect success-
ors for them. In May of the following year,
1849, the governor learned that the fit of sulks
was over, and he issued another order for an
election. This time a considerable vote was
cast. The ayuntamiento chosen was made up
of Californians, except that John Temple was

240 History nf Los Angeles.

elected sindico. By 1850 the prejudice against
admitting Americans to a share of the local
government seems to have died out, for Abel
Stearns was chosen first alcalde that year,
with D. W. Alexander and B. D. Wilson also
members of the ayuntamiento. Although the
Americans continued for many years to be in
the minority at the polls, they were always,
after this, admitted to more than their propor-
tion of the local offices.

In the year 1847, Los Angeles being still
a military post and full of soldiers, a great cel-
ebration was held of the Fourth of July. This
was the first recognition of Independence Day
in the old Spanish pueblo. Col. Stevenson is-
sued a proclamation, in which he called for a
celebration of the day, to be combined with
the dedication of the fort, now nearly com-
pleted. The troops under his command were
instructed to make ready for the affair, and to
put up the best showing that was possible.
"Circumstances over which we have no con-
rol," says Col. Stevenson in his proclamation,
"have prevented the command at this post be-
ing completely uniformed, but each officer will
appear on the Fourth with the perfect equip-
ments of his corps, as far as he has them ; and
most perfect cleanliness as well in arms and
accoutrements as in person will be required of
all."

At sunrise the national salute was fired
and the colors displayed for the first time at
the fort. At 10 o'clock th^ soldiers marched

The Pueblo is Made American. 241

through the town and up to the summit of the
hill, where they formed a hollow square and
listened to the reading of the Declaration of
Independence. This was translated into Span-
ish by Stephen C. Foster, for the benefit of the
larg-e crowd of Californians who Lad g-atbered
to witness the celebration. Prof. J. M. Guinn
of the Los Angeles Historical Society, who
has written an entertaining description of the
event, suggests that possibly, as the Califor-
nians sat on their horses and listened to the
fierce denunciation of King George in the fa-
mous document, though they were not able to
comprehend quite what it was all about, they
could recognize a pronunciamento when they
heard it, and they knew from experience that
a revolution must follow, and they smiled, no
doubt, at the thought that they would soon
behold the gringos falling upon one another in
a row among themselves.

The fort, or "field works," as the procla-
mation calls it, was then dedicated and named
in honor of Captain Benjamin- D. Moore of the
First United States Dragoons, who fell in the
battle of San Pasqual. Stevenson speaks of
him as "a perfect specimen of an American
officer, whose character for every virtue and
accomplishment that adorns a gentleman was
only equaled by the reputation he had ac-
quired in the field for his gallantry as an offi-
cer and a soldier." The honor of raising the
flag for the first time over the fort was grant-
ed to Lieutenant Davidson, who had taken

242 History of Los Angeles.

charge of the work almost from the beginning.
During the Civil War he attained to the rank
of major general. The flagpole consisted of
two tree trunks brought down from the San
Bernardino mountains by a special expedition
sent out for that purpose, and spliced togeth-
er, making a shaft of about 150 feet in length.
The colors flying from this, on the top of the
high hill, could be seen for miles in every di-
rection. All traces of the fort and the famous
old flagpole have long since disappeared.

Through the whole of the year 1847 there
were frequent rumors of intended attacks by
the Mexicans as well as of rebellious plottings
on the part of Californians, but these do not
appear to have had any substantial basis.
Mexico had its hands full with the Americans
on its own soil, and the appeals of Flores and
Pico received little attention. The native Cal-
ifornians were accustomed to whisper among
themselves about the return of Flores, leading
a great army, and the flight of the Americans ;
but they never seriously contemplated rebel-
lion on their own account. Nevertheless, Col-
onel Stevenson, as was perhaps natural from
his lack of acquaintance with the Spanish
character, and his ignorance of the true state
of affairs in Mexico, gave ear to these rumors,
and, like a careful soldier, was never ofiF his
guard. The construction of Fort Moore was
really due to a fear of attack from Mexico.

On the night of December 7, 1847, a fright-
ful disaster occurred as an indirect conse-

The Pueblo is Made American. 243

quence of these persistent rumors. On the af-
ternoon of that day an old woman resident of
Los Angeles called at the headquarters of Col-
onel Stevenson, which were located on the
spot where the Ferguson livery stable now
stands, nearly opposite the Baker block, and
informed him that there was a plot on foot
to attack the guardhouse that night and cap-
ture the city, slaying or driving out all Amer-
icans. If there was any plot of that descrip-
tion, and if the whole affair was not a fabric of
the old woman's imagination, it certainly did
not involve any number of people nor any citi-
zens of responsibility. However, Colonel
Stevenson thought best to take no chances.
He doubled the sentries at the guardhouse,
which was on the west side of New High
street, in the rear of the St. Elmo site. The
men were all nervous and on the alert, and
when, about midnight, one of them saw a cow
off in the darkness he mistook it for a horse-
man and fired. The guard turned out, and
everything was put in readiness for an attack.
When the mistake was discovered, arms were
restored to the racks, and the men were pre-
paring to return to their beds. Then an ar-
tilleryman, who had lighted a fuse ready to
discharge a fieldpiece, if that should be ne-
cessary, threw it, only half extinguished, into
an ammunition chest. The explosion that fol-
lowed shook the entire city and brought the
population all out of their homes. The guard-
house was blown to fragments, some of the

244 History of Los Angeles.

loof timbers landing clear over into Main
street. Four men were killed outright, and
twelve were seriously injured. The guard-
house was immediately rebuilt of adobe.

The first American legislature of Califor-
nia, which met late in the year 1849, ^"<i con-
tinued in session until April of 1850, divided
the state into twenty-seven counties, one of
which was named Los Angeles. Its boundar-
ies included part of Kern, all of San Bernar-
dino, part of Riverside, and all of Los Angeles
and Orange. Roughly speaking, it included
all north of the old limits of San Diego county
to the Tehachapi range, from the ocean to the
Colorado river, except that the modern coun-
ties of Santa Barbara and Ventura then
formed the county of Santa Barbara. The
first election in this county took place April
I, 1850. Three hundred and seventy-five votes
were cast. Augustin Olivera was elected
county judge. He was originally a resident of
the City of Mexico, but he had been living in
California since 1834. B. D. Wilson was elect-
ed county clerk; Benjamin Hayes, attorney;
J. R. Conway, surveyor; Manuel Garfias,
treasurer ; Antonio F. Coronel, assessor ; Ig-
nacio Del Valle, father of R. F. Del Valle of
Los Angeles, county recorder ; George T. Bur-
rill, sheriff; Charles B. Cullen, coroner. The
preponderance of Americans wil be noted by
the reader.

The first assessment taken in this huge
district showed th^t it contained real estate

The Ftieblo is Made American. 245

to a total value of $748,606; improvements,
$301,947; and personal property valued at
$1,183,898. The disproportionate size of the
last item is explained by the fact that land
was considered of small value, and stock, with
which the county was at this time fairly well
filled, was, of course, included in the personal
property.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CAI^IPORNIA ENTKRS THK UNION.

HHUS far the history of Los Angeles
city has been so intimately connected
with the history of the whole terri-
tory of California that the narrative
has, of necessity, often strayed out-
side the local limits. Los Angeles was not
only the largest and most prosperous city of
Spanish and Mexican California, but it was
also the most considerable political factor of
the territory, a leader in all plots and rebel-
lions, and for a time the capital. But now,
under American rule, the relation of the city
to the state undergoes a change. Los Angeles
presently ceases to be the largest center of
population in the territory. The little town of
Yerba Buena, which had recently been re-
christened San Francisco, and which at the
time of the American occupation contained
perhaps a thousand people, is suddenly flooded
with a great wave of immigration, as a result
of the discovery of gold, so that Los Angeles
becomes little more than a village in compar-
ison. Other towns besides San Francisco
spring up in the northern part of the state,
rivaling the southern city in size, and surpass-
ing it, for the time being, in business activity.
The political center of the state shifts to the
north, where is the largest body of voters and

California Enters the Union. 247

the greatest property interest. Under the
American system, moreover, the city, as such,
has no longer any status in the political affairs
of the territory. Its residents have votes as
individuals, but the municipality exercifecs no
power save in its own local limits.

But before leaving the wide field of the
state for the narrower one of the city, it may
not be amiss to complete the narration in brief
form, down to California's admission into the
Union. Upon the departure of Kearny, as told
in the preceding chapter, Colonel Richard B.
Mason acted as military and civil governor of
the territory, his term extending from May 31,
1847, to April 12, 1849 — a period of about two
years. He made his headquarters at Monte-
rey, the ancient capital. The war in Mexico,
which had begun in 1846, by Taylor's invasion
over the border from Texas, continued
through 1847, with Scott's march from Vera
Cruz across to the City of Mexico, which he
took and occupied on the 14th of September
of that year. This ended the conflict, the re-
public of Mexico acknowledging its hopeless
defeat. A treaty of peace was entered into at
Guadalupe-Hidalgo, a little town near the
Mexican capital, on February 2, 1848, which
finally went into effect May 30th of that year.
In this treaty all of Alta California, New Mex-
ico and Texas were ceded to the United
States, for the sum of $15,000,000, to be paid
in annual installments of $3,000,000 each. By
the payment of this money the United States

248 History oj Los Angeles.

undertook to palliate, in some degree, its of-
fense in waging war of aggression. The sum
paid was, of course, quite inadequate to the
value of the territory even as computed at that
time.

The boundaries of Alta California had nev-
er been accurately defined, either as to the
east, where it touched the other Mexican ter-
ritory, called New Mexico, or to the north and
northeast, where it touched the domain of the
American Union. It included, however, the
whole of the present state of California, Ne-
vada and Utah, the territory of Arizona, and
fragments of Colorado and Wyoming. Its
status, until such time as congress should or-
ganize it under some form of government, or
until it should be accepted as a state, with a
government of its own making, was that of
a conquered province under military rule.

The admission of California to statehood
marks an important milestone in the history
of the nation. It constituted the grand crisis
— the turning point in the struggle between
the slave power and its opponents. Thus far,
through a series of compromises engineered
chiefly by Henry Clay, the number of slave
states taken into the Union exactly equaled
the number of free states. They had come in
as pairs, one from the north and one from the
south, and thus an equilibrium was maintained,
in the senate, at least. The controversy was
growing more bitter with each new phase, and
like the ghost of Banquo, to which it was con-

California Enters the Union. 249

stantly compared, it would not "down." To ad-
mit California as a free state, with no territory
at hand out of which to construct a slave state
meant a serious disturbance of the existing ar-
rangement. Every move in connection with
the territorial government was, therefore,
closely watched by both factions at Washing-
ton, for as the territory was bent so was the
state likely to be inclined.

When congress met in December, 1848,
President Polk called attention, in his annual
message, to the fact that no form of govern-
ment had yet been provided for California,
which was particularly unfortunate in view of
the rapid increase of population following the
discovery of gold. The question had come up
in the previous session, soon after the ratifica-
tion of the treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo, and
the acquisition of the territory. It had arisen
through a resolution introduced into the house
by David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, and known
in American history as the "Wilmot Proviso."
It was an effort to attach to the bill appro-
priating the first installment of the $15,000,000
purchase money, a provision that none of the
territory thus obtained should be open to slave
holding. A fierce struggle had been precipi-
tated. The provision passed the house and
failed in the senate, but the expression of public
sentiment called out by the controversy
showed the slave-holding element in congress
that California, if admitted, would be a free
state. The south, therefore, resisted the effort

250 History of Los Angeles.

to give it a territorial government, hoping to
postpone the day of its entrance to the Union.

President Polk's recommendation of state-
hood immediately reopened the old quarrel,
and it continued with great bitterness through
the session. As March 4th drew near, marking
the end of the administration, the factions be-
came positively hysterical. Regret was fre-
quently expressed that California had ever
been obtained from Mexico, and the suggestion
was made in genuine earnest that it be given
back. The finding of gold, which made a terri-
torial government necessary, was charac-
terized as a misfortune. Secession was threat-
ened by the south, and was received with con-
temptuous taunts by the north. But in the end
nothing was done for California, and the mili-
tary rule continuea.

Mason proved to be an excellent governor
for the territory, through these troublous and
difficult times. He was firm, just, kindly and
discreet. Although possessed of a keen sense
of order, he managed to endure the confusion
and anarchy with philosophic calmness, for the
space of two years. But when the gold excite-
ment was thrown in, as a wild and fearful cli-
max to it all, he begged to be recalled. There
were, of course, no general laws, no state gov-
ernment, and no local institutions save those of
the Spanish-Mexican regime. Hostilities hav-
ing ceased, military rule in the towns was not
practical. It was neither best for the people,
nor likely to insure their good will. The

California Enters the Union. 251

alcaldes and ayuntamientos were therefore
ordered to continue the administration of jus-
tice and of local affairs under the old Span-
ish law. As the Americans began to ar-
rive in larger numbers, these offices were fre-
quently filled from their ranks, and the new-
comers found great difficulty in conducting
affairs under the Mexican laws. Up to this
time there had been no such thing in Califor-
nia as a trial by jury. There was no warrant
for the institution under Spanish or Mexican
law ; but as soon as the Americans took pos-
session, they demanded that this constitutional
right be recognized, and it was recognized in
most cases. On the other hand, when a certain
priest, who was sued for breach of contract,
took refuge behind the Spanish law, which
gave him special privilege as an ecclesiastic,
Governor Mason refused to admit his claim.
The governor's theory of the situation seems to
have been that while the Spanish laws were to
hold in the main, until the national government
should act, the people could not be deprived
of inherent rights they enjoyed under the con-
stitution of the United States. Although him-
self a military man, he would not allow inter-
ference by the soldiers with the local govern-
ments. On one occasion Colonel Stevenson,
who was in command at Los Angeles, under-
took to forbid the carrying out of a decision of
the alcalde ; but Mason ordered him to with-
draw from his position, and allow the city au-
thorities to arrange their own affairs.

252 History of Los Angeles.

In July, 1848, Pio Pico returned to Califor-
nia. Although the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidal-
go had been ratified two months before, no
news of the fact had yet reached the coast, ex-
cept that it was known the document was un-
der consideration. Pico came to Los Angeles,
and Stevenson immediately wrote to Mason
that the former governor was still claiming au-
thority, and asked what was to be done. Pico
also wrote to Mason, saying that "as the Mex-
ican governor of the territory," he would be
glad to co-operate with Mason m establishing
harmonious relations between the Californians
and the Americans. It is quite probable that
his use of the expression "as Mexican gover-
nor"' was merely an awkward way of describ-
ing his former status. It is certain that he had
neither expectation nor desire to make trouble.
There were frequent rumors at this time of
contemplated rebellions, and the language of
the ex-governor was unfortunate. Stevenson
was ordered to arrest and imprison Pico, but
within a few days came nev/s of the final ac-
ceptance by both countries of the treaty, and
on his making suitable explanations and apolo-
gies, Don Pio was set free.

In January of 1848 an event took place in
California which ranks in our national history
in the same class of in\portance with the sign-
ing of the Declaration of Independence and the
firing on Fort Sumter — and that was the dis-
covery of gold at Coloma, on the American riv-.
er, near Sacramento. The stream of wealth that

California Enters the Union. 253

presently began to pour out of the state en-
riched and built up the north, whose free en-
terprises naturally absorbed most of it, until
that section was ready, ten years later, to en-
ter upon a long and frightfully expensive war
for the maintenance of the Union, and exterm-
ination of slavery. This is a great economic
fact that serves as a cornerstone to the unique
fame of California.

The presence of gold in California had been
known for half a century, and the metal had
been obtained in commercial quantities in the
southern part of the state. In 1842 a Califor-
nian named Lopez found some fragments of
the precious metal, when digging foi wild on-
ions in the San Francisquito canyon, about
thirty-five miles northwest of Los Angeles. A
small furore of placer mining then broke out in
Los Angeles, and numbers of claims were
staked out ; Don Abel Stearns estimated that
$6000 to $8000 was secured annually for four
years. After that the work was intermittent,
and finally was abandoned almost entirely.

The real discovery of gold in California was
accomplished by James W. Marshall, a carpen-
ter in the employ of John A. Sutter. The latter
was a Swiss, who had acquired considerable
land in the Sacramento valley, and owned a
store and several mills in that region. He was
constructing a saw mill on the American river,
and Marshall, who was something of a mill-
wright, was in charge of the work. In the tail-
race of this mill, Marshall found some small

254 History of Los Angeles.

fragments of a bright yellow metal, which he
believed to be gold. He showed them to Sut-
ter, who begged him to keep it a secret until
the mill was finished. The story of the dis-
covery soon leaked out, however, and spread
to San Francisco. People began to flock to the
American river, but finding that the Feather,
Yuba, Bear and other streams were quite rich,
they spread out over the Sacramento valley,
finding gold almost everywhere. By the sum-
mer of 1848 San Francisco was very nearly de-
serted, and Los Angeles had lost much of its
American population, and some of its Califor-
nian. Ten million dollars' worth of the pre-
cious substance was taken out in the first year.

In 1849 came the great wave of immigration
from the eastern states, carrying over 80,000
people, and bringing the total population of the
state up to and beyond the hundred thousand
mark. Of these a little more than half came
by land, the remainder by the ocean. In that
year $40,000,000 of gold was taken out, and
the next year, 1850, $50,000,000; then came two
years of $60,000,000 each, and the next year,
greatest of all, $65,000,000.

The ;^ailure of congress to provide any form
of territorial government for California, and
the evidence showing in the debates .hat state-
hood was not to be gained without a hard
struggle, roused the people ot American birth
who had come to live in the region to the ne-
cessity of acting for themselves. It was de-
cided to take the unusual but emphatic course

California Enters the Ufiion. 255

of forming a state constitution, electing officers
and starting off the whole machinery of gov-
ernment, exactly as though the state had been
admitted, and then demanding of congress that
it be allowed a place in the Union. As early
as December, 1848, before the second failure
of congress to act, meetings were held in San
Jose and San Francisco, to agitate this plan,
and when General Bennett Riley, who had
been appointed by President Polk to succeed
Colonel Mason as governor, arrived in Monte-
rey, in April of 1849, the people were ready to
dct. He wisely determined to make the move-
ment an official one, and on June 3rd issued a
proclamation for an election to be held on the
first of August, for delegates to a constitution-
al convention. This gathering came tos:ether
in Monterey September ist. Los Angeles was
represented by four delegates, San Francisco
by eight, and other places in proportion, to a
total of seventy-three delegates. The Los An-
geles men were Abel Stearns, J. A. Carrillo,
Stephen C. Foster, and Manuel Dominguez.
Hugo Reid came from San Gabriel. A state
constitution was adopted, made up of elements
of the constitutions of several eastern states
welded together. The provision that slavery
should not «xist in the state passed unani-
mously, without discussion.thus destroying the
last hope that the slave-holding element in
congress had of establishing that peculiar in-
stitution in California.

An election to ratify this constitution, and

256 History of Los Angeles.

for the choice of national and state officers un-
der its provisions, was called for November 13,
1849. At this election Peter H. Burnett was
chosen governor and Edward Gilbert and Geo.
Wright representatives. On the 15th of De-
cember the legislature met and chose John C.
Fremont and Wm. M. Gwin United States sen-
ators.

These quasi-representatives and senators
started immediately for Washington, where
congress was in session, and where they found
that the admission of California was the chief
topic of discussion. Henry Clay was endeav-
oring to make it the basis of a new series of
compromises. Calhoun was demanding that
the territory be cut in two, and the lower half
kept for slavery. All understood that to admit
California as a free state, without a slave state
to accompany it, meant a disturbance of the
equilibrium so carefully built up in half a cen-
tury of compromising, and each faction braced
itself for a terrible struggle. The fight was
bitter, fierce and determined. The slave-holding
element finally went down, though not without
a formal protest, in which the threat of seces-
sion was made and attempted to be entered
upon the record of the senate. The bill admit-
ting California finally passed, was signed by the
president and became a law September 9, 1850.
News of the event reached California October
i8th, and was received with great rejoicing-.

CHAPTER XXV.

THK CITY TAKES SHAPE.

N IMPORTANT point of difference
between the Spanish made-to-order
city and the American accidental city
is that the former possesses all of its
site on a communal l^asis, while the
latter has no land of its own except such as it
may purchase. The pueblo of Los Angeles
under De Neve's regulations was to own all
the land about the plaza for a distance of three
miles in each direction, making a square six
miles to the side, or thirty-six square miles in
the whole area. The original settlers were
given each a small building lot and a tract of
fourteen acres for cultivation, and the few ad-
ditional settlers that came during the first
year were held to be entitled to the same privi-
lege. Several hundred acres were given out in
this way — scarcely more than one per cent of
the 23,040 acres of the whole tract. The re-
mainder belonged to the city, to dispose of as
it saw fit.

Contrast this situation with that of the
average American city which has its begin-
ning in the natural drawing together of popu-
lation in some spot that is favorable for local
business. The people own the land on which
they build their homes, acquiring by purchase
from those who had formerly held it for farm-

258 History of Los Angeles.

ing or other purposes. The city owns nothing
until it has attained a size that makes the pur-
chase of land for municipal use a necessity;
and then as a rule it buys sparingly, for al-
though the price of land may be low, the city's
finances will not admit of heavy investment.
Thus it happens that many cities of the east
ern states have been compelled to use a large
element of the revenue raised by taxation in
the purchase of land for school, park and other
municipal purposes, and are, nevertheless, al-
ways cramped for room. There are some in-
stances, particularly among cities in the mid-
dle west, where far-sighted officials have urged
the municipality, early in its career, into the
acquirement of large tracts of land, of which
later generations have reaped the benefit. A
notable example of this type is Chicago, which
not only owns a chain of parks running
through the city, but also has large tracts of
so-called "school land," some of which is in the
very heart of the business district, and is occu-
pied by valuable buildings on a 99-year lease-
hold. If that city's affairs were always admin-
istered on an honest and equitable basis, if its
government were made a matter of plain busi-
ness, after the English method, instead of a po-
litical amusement, after the American, Chicago
would be the city that enjoys the lowest taxes
and the highest municipal privileges of any in
the Union.

But to return to Los Angeles and its mag-
nificent patrimony of broad acres. After the

The City Takes Shape. 259

original settlers had received all that their
contracts called for — given them not by the
pueblo, but by the governor — then the city
began giving away building sites to all that
asked them for actual use, and small tracts,
rarely exceeding ten acres, to those that wished
to carry on agriculture. No written title
passed, nor was there any definite marking of
limits. Probably no record was kept of these
transactions — certainly none has descended to
us. A man's title to his property lay in his oc-
cupancy of it, either by actual residence or by
tilling. If he moved ofif, or ceased to cultivate
it, any one could take possession by "denuncia-
tion." This prevented the holding of land for
mere speculative purposes, and tended to con-
centrate the city in a limited area. The out-
lying districts were left intact in the hands of
the city. The time came presently when the
necessity for definite boundaries and written
titles to ownership dawned on the people of
Los Angeles, and, as has been related earlier
in this work, the ayuntamiento required all
owners to present their claims for ratification
by that body. This was the beginning of mod-
ern land titles in Los Angeles, for the titles
granted to the original settlers by the governor
had all been lost by this time, and the owner-
ship of the ill-defined building lots and agri-
cultural fields had passed into other hands,
either by inheritance or through the process of
denunciation. The only case in which a writ-
ten title had been given by the ayuntamiento

260 History of Los Angeles.

was that of J. A. Carrillo, in 1821, who peti-
tioned for "a parcel of land containing forty
varas (11 1 feet) front and sixty (166 feet)
deep, bounded with Dona Encarnacion Urqui-
dez, Don Francisco Sepulveda, and near the
new church which is now in course of erec-
tion." The tract referred to is the one where
the Pico house (National hotel) now stands,
near the plaza. Note the vague character of
the description. No consideration is men-
tioned in the deed. The regular practice of
granting titles by the ayuntamiento did not be-
gin until more than ten years later, and by that
time property began to have some money val-
ue— but not much. For ordinary building lots
— such as those along Main street or Aliso,
the price charged by the ayuntamiento was
"dos reales per front vara." A real was 12;^
cents and a vara 33 1-3 inches, which would
make the value of the property about 8 cents a
front foot. A building site usually had about
100 feet of frontage, and it would not be diffi-
cult to locate many pieces that sold in the
'40s for $8, and are now worth more than $100,-
000.

The phraseology used in defining the city
in the original regulation was a little vague, as
to whether it was to be four leagues square or
four square leagues. The former meant
twelve by twelve miles, or 144 square miles,
the latter six by six, or thirty-six square miles.
Up to the time of the American occupation, no
one had raised the question of the exact boun-

The City Takes Shape. 261

dary, but it came up' now at the same time with
the general question of land titles all over the
territory. The Americans were not satisfied
with the hap-hazard forms of title customary
among the easy-going Californians. They fore-
saw the time when land would have a definite
and an increasing value. No survey of the
state had ever been made by the Spanish or
Mexican authorities, although all grants of
land, outside the pueblos, were supposed tc
emanate from the governor. When a Califor-
nian had obtained his grant of land he went
to the alcalde nearest the tract, who, on the
payment of a small fee, provided a man who
called himself a surveyor^ but whose only tools
were a rope 50 varas long (140 feet) and a
couple of pins which could be stuck in the
ground without dismounting from horseback.
The rope sagged and stretched, and was given
direction merely by a careless sighting. The
deed required that landmarks should be set up,
but that formality was often wai^^ed. When
the measurement was completed, the alcalde
signed the deed, and the title was then regard-
ed as complete.

In 185 1 an act passed the congress of the
United States, providing for a board of three
commissioners, with a secretary and a law
agent, the latter skilled in Spanish, to pass on
all matters of title in the new acquisitions. The
board began its sessions in San Francisco De-
cember, 185 1, and continued for five years. It
held one brief session in Los Angeles, in the

262 History of Los Angeles.

autumn of 1852. Of the 813 claims presented
to this body, 591 were finally confirmed and
203 rejected. The board did not complete the
work of settling ail land claims, but it settled
a large number of them, and it gathered the
material by which they could be finally settled
in the district courts.

It will be readily understood that the work
of this board could not be carried on without
arousing a considerable amount of resentment
among the Californians, who found themselves
dispossessed of property to which they be-
lieved they had a perfectly valid claim. But
the situation was one that called for a day of
judgment some time, and the inevitable con-
sequence of long-continued carelessness in
business matters is that the innocent must suf-
fer as well as the guilty. There had been no
little fraud in the granting of land under the
Mexican regime, and an incredible amount of
inaccuracy. The verdict of history seems to
be that the commissioners were honest men,
who performed a very difficult task with
shrewdness and painstaking care. More than
that; it does not appear that they allowed
themselves to be governed by too great a de-
votion to technicality, but endeavored in each
case to get at the real intention of the author-
ity granting the land, and judge the issue on
its merits in equity. This, however, is not the
estimate of the commission that was formed by
most of the Californians. They and their de-
scendants, even to this day, will maintain that

The City Takes Shape. 263

the whole proceeding was a deliberate plot to
rob them of their lands, to take back into the
public domain hundreds of thousands of acres
that were owned by individual Californians,
many of whom were stripped of their holdings
by the commission.

The pueblo of Los Angeles followed the ex-
ample of many of the ranch owners, and pro-
ceeded to make its claims as wide as possible
in the hope of getting the more in the final set-
tlement. Its demand was put in with the com-
mission for four leagues square, or 144 square
miles. The case of Los Angeles, like many
others, did not receive final settlement before
the board, but when it was at last passed upon
by the courts the area was fixed at four square
leagues or thirty-six square miles.

At the time of the American occupation,
and even down to 1853, more than 80 per cent
of all this great expanse belonged to the city
itself. Pris^ate ownership covered merely the
area in the immediate vicinity of the plaza, and
along the foothills In a narrow strip from
Buena Vista street bridge to First street, and
east as far as the river. Today all that re-
mains in the possession of the city is a few
hundred acres along the river, known as Ely-
sian park, and some arroyo and river wash
land — tracts that were considered of so little
value that they were somehow "left over."
Even the pieces that the city has devoted to
parks, like Westlake and Eastlake and others,
were either purchased by the city or were ben-

264 History of Los Angeles.

efactions — one of the latter being the enor-
mous tract of Griffith park, which lies a little
way beyond the city's limits to the west. The
land in use for school purposes and for public
buildings has, with one or two small excep-
tions, been acquired by purchase. All the
great expanse, where lie now ten thousand
homes, and many blocks of business buildings
was once city property, and was sold for tri-
fling amounts, and much of it actually given
away in large tracts — and this outrage was
committed not during the administration of the
careless Californians, but after the occupation
by thrifty Americans.

It is an almost heart-breaking thought —
the "what-might-have-been." Great foresight
was not required, for the land did not need to
be purchased. It was already owned by the
city. All that was needed was a small frac-
tion of intelligence in the sale of it — the with-
holding of pieces here and there, of every oth-
er lot in favorable tracts, and of occasional ten-
acre divisions for parks. Had this policy been
pursued, Los Angeles might be today the rich-
est municipality of its size in the Union. That
such folly could have been committed as to
save practically nothing out of the whole area
is almost incredible, but it is true.

The first survey of the city, and the making
of a plan of its streets, was accomplished by
Lieutenant E. O. C. Ord (afterward, during
the Civil War, raised to the rank of a major-
general) in August of 1849. Before the Amer-

The City Takes Shape. 265

icans came to Los Angeles the need for a sur-
vey to lay out streets for future growth was
frequently discussed, and the crookedness and
irregularity of the city, as far as it had extend-
ed, was spoken of with regret. Reforms were
attempted at various times, and people were
urged to move back from the plaza, and to
cease stopping up the embryo streets. But
these good efforts came to naught. There
were no competent surveyors in the territory,
and the citizen who had once gained possession
of a prominent place for his house was loth to
move back and surrender it to public use.

The ayuntamiento of 1849, which contained
several Americans, proposed to Governor Ma-
son that he should send down an army engi-
neer to survey the pueblo, in order that the
titles might be perfected and descriptions
made clear before the land commission should
begin its work, for by that time the plan for a
land commission had been bruited about. Ord
was offered $3000 in cash, or his choice of
building sites to the number of ten, and about
160 acres of land in the farming districts of
the city. He took the cash. The land would
now probably be worth several millions of dol-
lars. The area covered in his "Plan de la Ciu-
dad de Los Angeles" is now bounded by Pico
street on the south, by Pearl street and the
hills on the west, by the river on the east, and
by the San Fernando street depot on the north.
He seems to have assumed without question
that the natural growth of the city would be in

266 History of Los Angeles.

a southwesterly direction, as the hills shut it
off to the west and north, and the river and
low lands interfered to the east. Doubtless the
older residents explained to him how, prior to
1825, the river had flowed through Alameda
street.

The two most ancient streets of the city
that are now in existence are Aliso and Spring.
The former was the ending of the road from
San Gabriel, and originally led out into the
Plaza, but was stopped at Los Angeles street
by the enterprising house builders early in the
century. Spring street was the road into the
Cahuenga and to the north, although it did not
follow the route of the present Spring street
beyond First. At the junction by the Nadeau
it started across lots, passing Fourth and Hill,
and skirting the foothills until it reached mod-
ern Ninth street, where it turned to the west,
and then to the north to Cahuenga pass. The
line of the old road is sketched upon Ord's map.
The part which we now call North Spring was
originally called Charity street, because, being
far out of town, it was occupied by poor peo-
ple, dependent upon others for support. Ord
transferred this name to Grand avenue, and
that street continued with this title until 1886,
when the City Council listened to the plaint
of many people who were tired of the incessant
joke about their "living on charity," and the
name was finally banished from the city's
streets.

Broadway was named Fort street, after the

The City Takes Shape. 267

fort built the year before Ord's survey, which
looked down the street from the hill to the
north. The change of name was made in 1889.
Figueroa street appears as the Street of the
Grasshoppers. Buena Vista is Eternity street,
because of the cemetery. Castelar is the Street
of the Bull, for that is where the bullfights
were formerly held. What we call Yale was
then the Street of the Hornets.

The names are given on the Ord plan both
in Spanish and English, and the name Spring
is put into Spanish as Primavera, showing that
it was for the season, and not for any spring of
water. Temple street was not cut through at
this time, and, indeed, there was no public
thoroughfare running west out of Main and
Spring, all the way from the Plaza to Franklin
street.

Note to Chapter XXV. — The exact area of the city
as determined by the appeal from the settlement of the
commission was 17,172.37 acres. The Spanish league
on which the city's claim was based was a variable
quantity (as was also the vara) ranging with the lo-
cality from 2.634 miles to 4.214 miles. The square league
was generally figured at 4428.4 acres. The author
does not attempt to go into the complications of these
varying forms of measurement, and the figures given
in the text are merely approximations.

CHAPTER XXVI.

the; beginning of things.
NEW city was now coming into ex-
istence in Los Angeles — an Ameri-
can growth grafted upon a Spanish
stock. Had it been located in an ac-
cessible part of the nation, the change
from the old order to the new would have been
rapid, for the region presented then, as it does
now, many natural advantages to attract a de-
sirable population. The climate was just as
favorable in 1850 as it is today, and the soil
just as productive; but between Los Angeles
and the eastern states was a great gulf of dis-
tance and danger, that only the most intrepid
would venture to cross. The discovery of
gold, which brought 80,000 people to the north-
ern part of the state in one year, affected the
southern part only in a reflex way. In the dec-
ade from 1850 to i860, several thousand of the
Argonauts drifted down from San Francisco,
some of them with a little capital acquired in
the diggings, but more of them penniless ; and
some of both kinds located permanently in Los
Angeles. Then there were also those who left
the eastern states in the expectation of mining
for gold, but were dissuaded by the bitter stor-
ies of failure that came to their ears, and they
turned their course to the south, where they
were told men grew rich quickly in raising
stock.

The Beginning of Things. 269

But the total number of all that made their
way into this far-off corner of the new terri-
tory was not large, and of those who came
many returned soon to the east, for they found
their hopes of sudden wealth were idle. On a
superficial view, the region had but little to
offer the new-comer. A small amount of com-
merce had sprung up between Los Angeles and
Arizona, and later there was trade with the
mining camps of Nevada and Utah, and across
the mountains to the San Joaquin valley, and
over the desert to Inyo county. The old pue-
blo was a station on the route from Texas and
the southern states into California, and not a
few of the gold-seekers came through that way.
Except for these small sources of revenue,
whatever means the people of Los Angeles en-
joyed came out of the territory that immedi-
ately surrounded them. The extraordinary
producing capacity of the soil under the favor-
ing semi-tropic climate had not yet been dis-
covered. It was known to the padres and a
few others, but rather as a theory than as a
practical fact. The first Americans found that
the Californians grew almost nothing, and they
assumed that the reason must He in the natural
deficiency of the country. It was fit for noth-
ing but the raising of stock, they thought —
for that was the only use to which the Califor-
nians had put it. Now the raising of stock
would not employ great numbers of people, nor
would it support a considerable population.
Hence during the next thirty years of its exist-

270 History of Los Angeles.

ence, from 1850 to 1880, the growth of Los An-
geles was slow. This meant that it remained,
during most of that period, a Spanish-Ameri-
can rather than an American city.

The first American census, taken in 1850,
showed the population of the city to be 1610,
and of the county 3530. The number was, no
doubt, abnormally small, owing to the prev-
alence of the gold excitement, which drew
hundreds of men away to the mines. But for
that, the census would probably have shown
over 30Q0 in the city. The next enumeration
by the government, that of i860, showed 4399
in the city and 11,333 iii the county. The gain
was made for the most part in the first years
of the decade, when the mining excitement had
died down, and the gold-seekers came south in
search of homes. In the next decade, from
i860 to 1870, there was very little increase. The
census of 1870 gave the city a population of
5614, and the county 15,309. This small
growth was not due to the Civil War, which
added rather than subtracted from the popu-
lation. There was but little enlistment from"
Los Angeles on either side in the great con-
flict, so the loss was not great; and on the oth-
er hand, at the close of the war, many ex-Con-
federates whose homes had been destroyed
made their way to the Pacific coast, that they
might begin life anew in happier surroundings.
The failure to advance was due to the apparent
inability of the country to support a larger
population. By this time the Central and Un-

The Beginning of Things. Ill

ion Pacific rail connection with the east had
been established, but the line was not as yet
extended to the southern portion of the state.
A regular system of steamers plied between
Los Angeles and San Francisco, giving the
southern city a part of the advantage of the
new opening to the east. Still it did not grow.
Twenty years after the American occupation
it was in spirit and customs and even in popu-
lation largely a Mexican town. It is now a
thoroughly American city, with a few faint
traces of Spanish origin. The change began in
the latter '70s, and was completed within ten
years.

In the first period of transition, from 1848
to 1855, many of the institutions that make up
the foundation of our American life came into
being in Los Angeles — unknown before that
time. Of trial by jury, and the equality of all
before the law, we have already spoken, as
being decreed by the authorities of the state.
Schools, newspapers, churches and municipal
improvements were purely local matters, for
the people of Los Angeles to settle for them-
selves. The newcomers attacked them with
the traditional energy of Americans ; but
whether it was due to certain qualities of the
climate that it pleases people to term "enervat-
ing," or to the doubtful example set them by
their predecessors, it must be admitted that
the good beginning was but languidly fol-

272 History of Los Angeles.

lowed up, through the period next interven-
ing.

Schools were not unknown during the Mex-
ican regime in Los Angeles, but in the sixty-
six years from the founding of the city to the
American occupation, there was a total of
about ten years of school. These years were
scattered along at irregular intervals, the long-
est stretch of continuous instruction being the
school maintained from 1838 to 1844 by Don
Ignacio Coronel, the father of Mayor Antonio
F. Coronel. The teacher usually received a
small salary from the ayuntamiento, averag-
ing about $15 a month, and in addition was
entitled to whatever fees the pupils were will-
ing to pay for tuition. Most of the teachers
were poorly educated, and their schools at-
tracted few pupils. The teacher was occasion-
ally summoned before the ayuntamiento, to
explain why there had been no school for the
past week or so, and his answer usually was
that the pupils had all run away. Don Ig-
nacio Coronel was a well educated man of ex:-
cellent family, and his school accomplished
good work. His daughter, Soledad, assisted
him at times. The location of this school was
at the Coronel residence on Los Angeles
street, near Arcadia, part of the time, and later
at one of the plaza church buildings.

In 1844 a school was opened under the
patronage of Governor Micheltorena, who
promised $500 from the state funds to its aid.

The Beginning of Things. 273

It was in charge of Ensign Guadalupe Medina,
an officer of the Mexican army, who was said
to be expert in the latest educational methods.
He introduced a plan by which the older
pupils were to teach the younger, and in this
way the membership of the school was
brought up to over loo, with only one regular
this school.

In 1850, after some Americans came into
the ayuntamiento, a school committee was ap-
pointed out of the membership of that body,
but great difficulty was experienced in finding
any suitable teacher. This was at the time
when the city was in the throes of the gold
fever, and men were scarce. Hugh Owens fi-
nally agreed to establish a school for $50 a
month, on the understanding that not more
than six boys were to be sent free by
the city. This school continued a few
months. In November of 1850 Rev.
Henry Weeks proposed to the city coun-
cil that he be assisted in establishing
a school for both boys and girls by a
subsidy of $150 a month. In return for this
sum he agreed to give his own and his wife's
services, and to provide the necessary school
accommodations. This school opened in Jan-
uary, 185 1, and lasted under that arrange-
ment until 1853, when all subsidies ceased, and
schools were made free. In August, 1852, a
tax of 10 cents per $10 of valuation was lev-
ied for school purposes, and the next year three

274 History of Los Angeles.

commissioners of public schools were selected
by the council, one of whom, the chairman,
was made ex-officio superintendent of schools.
In 1855 there were 753 children of school age
in the city, but the average daily attendance
was only fifty-two. Most of the children of
American parentage were sent, but the na-
tive Californians either disapproved of the
school because it was an American institution,
or they were utterly indifferent to the advant-
ages of education.

Stephen C. Foster who was elected mayor
in 1854, was a graduate of Yale college, and
took a lively interest in the education of the
youth. He urged that permanent school build-
ings be erected, and that a regular system,
similar to that used in Eastern cities, be
adopted. The council met this suggestion by
making him superintendent of schools, as well
as mayor, and with his administration the
modern educational system of Los Angeles
had its beginning. The first schoolhouse was
erected in 1855, on the corner of Spring and
Second, where the Bryson block now stands.
It cost about $6000. The second was on Bath
street, a thoroughfare which was afterwards
absorbed by the opening of Main street north
from the plaza.

When the Americans took possession of
Monterey in 1846 they found a font of type
which had been used occasionally by the Cali-
fornia authorities to print official documents.

The Beginning of Things. 275

xA.lthough one letter was lacking in the alpha-
bet of the Spaniard the Americans, nothing
daunted, seized upon the type and began the
publication of a newspaper which they called
"The Californian." It was maintained
throughout the earlier period of the occupa-
tion. The missing letter, W, was produced
by putting two V's together.

The first newspaper in Los Angeles was
called "La Estrella," "The Star," the first
number of which, printed in both Spanish and
English, appeared May 17, 1851. In the pre-
ceding October Theodore Foster had applied
to the city council for a piece of ground suit-
able for a newspaper office, and had suggested
a location near the city jail, on Main street.
He seems to have had a presentiment that a
large amount of news was likely to originate
in that vicinity. The matter of a donation
of a piece of land for such a purpose aroused
a good deal of debate. Few of the Califor-
nians had ever seen a newspaper, and the de-
scription supplied by their American neigh-
bors who had enjoyed some experience with
the institution in Eastern states was not en-
tirely reassuring. Finally the donation was
agreed to, but the words "for this once only"
were attached to the resolution, and the site
selected by Mr. Foster was denied him. He
was given instead a piece no feet square
fronting the zanja on Los Angeles street, be-
tween Commercial and Arcadia, on the spot

276 History of Los Angeles.

where the Foy harness shop now stands.
Here a two-story adobe building was erected
and a four-page, five-column weekly paper be-
gan to appear, bearing the names of John A.
Lewis and John McElroy as publishers. Its
subscription price was $io a year. The press
was a Washington Hoe, which had been
brought around the Horn in the first days of
the gold excitement. This machine was sold
to Phineas Banning in 1864, who took it to
Wilmington to start a paper there. In 1870
it was sold to the "Anaheim Gazette," and
that paper, which is still enjoying a prosper-
ous career, was printed from it until 1878,
when a fire ended the story of the Star press.
The Spanish portion of the "Star" was
presently segregated from the English and
given the name of "El Clamor Publico." In
1851 William H. Rand became a partner in the
"Star," and remained with it for several years.
He subsequently returned East, became the
foreman in the "Chicago Tribune" printing
office and, in company with Andrew McNally,
founded the famous publishing house that
bears their names. Changes too place from
time to time in the firm publishing the "Star" ;
J. S. Waite and William A. Wallace entered
and departed, and the paper finally came to be
owned by Henry Hamilton, an able and prac-
tical newspaper man, who conducted it from
1856 to 1864. He was an ardent sympathizer
with the Confederate cause, and refusing to

The Beginning of Things, 277

moderate his utterances in spite of frequent
warnings from the authorities, he was at last
ordered to cease editorial connection with the
paper. In 1868 he returned to the work and
continued in charge, with one or two inter-
missions, until 1873. In that year the ''Star"
passed into the hands of Major Ben C. Tru-
man, who had been secretary to President
Johnson, and who is now living in Los An-
geles. Hamilton was a man of scientific
tastes and made considerable study of the bot-
any of the country. At his solicitation Hugo
Reid, who had lived among the Californian
Indians, contributed a series of articles to the
"Star" on the latter's habits and customs, con-
taining information of considerable value.
The "Star" continued under Truman's man-
agement until 1877, becoming a daily in 1873.
It finally came into the hands of the Rev. A.
M. Campbell, who was succeeded by the
sheriff, and in 1879 the paper passed out of
existence.

"El Clamor Publico" ceased publication in
1859. No other Spanish paper was attempted
until 1872.

In 1854 the "Southern Californian" ap-
peared. Don Andres Pico was one of the
owners, and its demise, which took place be-
fore it was two years old, is said to have left
him $10,000 poorer in money, whatever gain
he may have made in other directions. The
plant was taken by J. J. Warner to be used in

278 History oj Los Angeles.

publishing- the "Southern Vineyard," which
began in 1858 and ran two years, merging into
the "Los Angeles News." The "News" was
changed to a daily in 1867, and continued until
1873, when it gave up the ghost. Of the more
modern journals, those that are now on the
ground, an account will be given later in this
work.

CHAPTER XXVIl.

I.OS angei.b;s at its worst.

HE people of Los Angeles seem, from
the very beginning, to have adopted
the principle that whatever they under-
took to do they must do thoroughly.
During the Spanish regime their chief
purpose was to avoid work ; and indolence was
practiced until it became almost an art. Prob-
ably there was at that time no city within the
boundaries of the Union where more work was
permanently left undone than at Los Angeles.
In the quarter of a century of Mexican rule
the pueblo leads as the great rallying point for
revolutions. Here again a comparison with
other cities of the United States need not be
feared. When California was brought under
American rule, however, revolutions became
dangerous and impracticable. If the city was
to continue to be pre-eminent, it must be for
some other characteristic than political turbu-
lence.

This brings us to the darkest chapter in
the history of Los Angeles; for, during the
period from 1850 to 1870, it was undoubtedly
the toughest town of the entire nation. Dur-
ing most of this time it contained a larger per-
centage of bad characters than any other city,
and for its size had the greatest number of
fights, murders, lynchings and robberies. This

280 History of Los Angeles.

long era of violence and contempt for law had
its culmination in 1871, in the brutal slaughter
of nineteen Chinamen and the looting of China-
town by a mob of 500 men. The number of
lynchings during this period (not including the
Chinamen) is estimated at thirty-five, which
is more than four times the number credited to
the famous vigilance committees of San Fran-
cisco. In addition to the executions that were
done in the name of order, if not of law, there
were legal hangings about twice a year. As to
the number of killings, it is impossible to make
an estimate, as no record was kept. There is
no complete file of the earliest volumes of the
newspapers, all having been destroyed in a
fire in 1880, but such copies as are still in ex-
istence contain here and there brief items, two
or three lines in length, that show by the very
absence of comment what the state of things
was. A murder which in these days would be
given half a page of newspaper space, with
pictures of the victim and all his family, and
a lurid diagram of the spot and its surround-
ings, was dismissed with a few short sen-
tences, accompanied by no comment. The Los
Angeles News of March 2, 1866, contains these
three items, for example :

"The verdict of the coroner's jury on the
body of Seferino Ochoa returned that he came
to his death by the discharge of a gun loaded
with powder and balls."

"A party of Salt Lake and Montana team-
sters had a lively row in the Monte on Mon-

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Los Angeles at its Worst. 281

day night; several shots were fired, from the
effects of which one man died."

"A shooting affray occurred recently be-
tween Mr. T. Baldwin and Mr. Adam Linn.
Mr. Baldwin was shot through the heart, but
unloaded his pistol before he expired, dying
without speaking. Mr. Linn was uninjured."

The Southern Californian of March 7, 1855,
remarks :

"Last Sunday night was a brisk night for
kilHng. Four men were shot and killed and
several wounded in shooting affrays."

This lawlessness had its beginning in the
years that California was without a regular
government — the interregnum between Mexi-
can and American authority. The semi-mili-
tary government that prevailed through part
of this time served to hold things in check,
but it was withdrawn before the new authority
was firmly in its seat. The changed order
brought inevitable confusion in the effort to
accommodate Spanish law to American cus-
toms and Spanish customs to American law,
and this confusion was suddenly confounded
by the arrival of a hundred thousand new-
comers in the state — the gold hunters. In
such a vast number, coming for such a pur-
pose, it was to be expected that representatives
of the criminal and desperate classes should
be included. When the vigilance committees
of San Francisco and the northern mining
camps began to drive these bad characters out,

282 History of Los Angeles.

many of them drifted south to Los Angeles,
and the latter city soon took on the character
of a frontier town of the toughest type.

The situation was more complicated in Los
Angeles than in most other portions of the
state, because of the presence in that city of
many hundred native Californians of the low-
est class. These were idle, shiftless and ad-
dicted to drink, but up to the time of the Amer-
ican occupation they had not shown contempt
for the law, nor were they given to crimes of
violence. The change of government seemed
to bring a radical change in the character of
many of these men. It may have been that
they were merely imitative, and that they
were undertaking to do as they saw the Amer-
ican frontier outlaws doing; or it may have
been that having lost their country and — many
of them — their vague claims to land, they be-
came desperate, and defied all authority; at
all events, a large percentage of the killings re-
corded for this period, particularly the murders
done for money, are to be charged to the na-
tive Californians, and many of the fiercest and
most reckless highwaymen were of this class.

Another element in the population that
rendered the maintaining of order difficult was
the Indian. About two thousand natives who
had either been brought up at the missions or
had sometime been under their influence, so
that they were not wholly wild, were living in
and around Los Angeles. During the week
they worked on the ranches and vineyards and

Los Angeles at its Worst. 283

on Saturday, having secured their pay, much
of it in brandy, they repaired to the city to in-
dulge in a frantic carouse. Their favorite ren-
dezvous was a small street between Arcadia
and the plaza, where L-os Angeles street now
is. "Nigger alley" — as it was called — was sur-
rounded by low drinking places, and was the
home of crime and disorder. The Indians
fought incessantly among themselves, and
without much interference on the part of the
authorities ; but they seldom raised their
hands against the whites, or if they did they
were shot down without mercy. When they
were all drunk, which happened usually within
twelve hours after their discharge from the
ranches, they were gathered into a corral back
of the present location of the Downey block.
On Monday morning they were sold ofif, like
so many slaves, the employer agreeing to pay
the fine in return for the next period of ser-
vice. The Indian received only a dollar or
two for his week's work, part of that in brandy.
This condition of affairs lasted until the In-
dians were all dead, and they went out rapidly
under such a hideous system.

The city was run on the so-called "wide-
open" plan, no attempt being made to control
the liquor traffic, and gambling accepted as a
matter of course. A law-abiding. God-fearing
element existed, and at times exerted itself ag-
gressively, but the supply of desperate charac-
ters seemed to be inexhaustible ; when one lot
was run out of the place, a new detachment ap-

284 History of Los Angeles.

peared, and permanent reform was deemed
hopeless. The police force of the city was in
charge of an officer known as the city mar-
shal, who had several regular deputies that
were entitled to fees, but in times of special
difficulty he called on the citizens generally
to aid him. When the Star printing establish-
ment came into existence, its first job of print-
ing was to prepare for the use of the marshal
one hundred white ribbon badges, bearing in
Spanish and English the legend "City Police:
Organized by the Council of Los Angeles, July
12, 1851," which were to be used on a law and
order Committee of One Hundred. Two of the
marshals of this period were killed in office,
and those who ventured to do their duty had
plenty of interesting experiences. Companies
of armed vigilantes were formed from time to
time, generally under the name of "Rangers."
The authorities shut their eyes to the lynch-
ings, few of which were unjustifiable. On one
occasion the mayor, Stephen C. Foster, re-
signed to head a lynching party. This was
the extreme case of a murderer, whose guilt
was without question and who was likely to
be freed by a technicality by the supreme
court.

The county was represented in the work of
maintaining order by its sherifif; and three of
these officers were killed during this period.
The circumstances connected with the slaying
of Sheriff Barton show what a deplorable con-
dition of affairs existed at the time, although

Los Angeles at its Worst. 285

his death led to a temporary improvement. A
number of the worst characters in the city had
been driven out by a vigilance committee, but
they remained in the neighborhood, robbing
travelers and committing murder if they met
with resistance. In January, 1857, Sheriff
Barton gathered a posse of five men, and went
to the Sepulveda ranch in search of these ban-
dits. The gang proved to be much larger
than he had supposed, most of them native
Californians, and all well armed and mounted.
There was a fight, in which the sheriff and
three of the posse were killed, the other two
escaping back to the city. This brought mat-
ters to a crisis, and the law and order people
of Los Angeles rose in a body to make a thor-
ough job of clearing the country of the bad
element. They began by hunting through the
city for all suspicious characters, and about
fifty were arrested and thrown into jail. The
country was then scoured in search of the
gang that had killed Barton ; General Andres
Pico led the posse. The robbers scattered, and
some of them took to the mountains, but they
were nearly all captured. Over fifty were
lodged in jail, and eleven were hung, some by
the committee and others through due proces.*?
of law. This cleared the atmosphere for .1
time.

The most terrible page in this dark chap-
ter of the city's history is that on which is re-
corded the massacre of the Chinamen. The
Los Angeles of today is so far removed from

286 History of Los Angeles.

anything like mob sentiment, its population,
90 per cent of which comes from the older
eastern states, is so thoroughly conservative
and law-abiding, that it is hard to understand
how, only thirty years ago, such a horrible
outrage came to be committed in the city.
As a mere exhibition of mob rule, however, it
was no worse than has been seen since that
period in various eastern cities, notably Cin-
cinnati, Pittsburg, Kansas City and St. Louis.
If the number of lives taken was greater than
in any of these latter instances, that may be
accounted for by the fact that in those days
nearly everyone in Los Angeles was accus-
tomed to go armed, and knew how to shoot to
kill, and by the further fact that public senti-
ment at the time placed a very low estimate
on the value of the life of a Chinaman. This
is not offered in extenuation of the crime, but
merely to help explain something that seems
at first sight difBcult of comprehension.

The affair took place on the 24th of Octo-
ber, 1871, and succeeded the great Chicago
fire as a topic of news most under discussion
throughout the country. This was for many
thousand eastern people their first introduc-
tion to Los Angeles, and the incongruity of
the name as the location for such an awful
deed was frequently commented upon. The
riot grew out of a war between rival Chinese
societies — or "tongs" — that had been in prog-
ress for several days, one faction shooting
across "Nigger alley" at the other from time

Los Angeles at its Worst. 287

to time. A city policeman attempting to make
an arrest met with resistance, and summoned
to his aid a well-known citizen, named Robert
Thompson. Some Chinamen concealed in a
building on the corner of Arcadia street and
"Nigger alley" shot through the door and mor-
tally wounded Thompson. He was carried to
an adjoining drug store, and died within an
hour.

The fatal shot had been fired just at dusk.
By night time a great crowd of angry men had
gathered in the alley and surrounded the build-
ing. Several of the Chinamen undertook to es-
cape, but were shot down or captured and
hung. The mob finally broke open the building,
which the Chinamen had barricaded on the
inside, and dragged eight Chinamen out into
the street, where they were beaten and kicked
and pulled about with ropes tied around their
necks, and finally taken over to a corral on
New High street back of the Downey block
and hanged to a high cross-bar above its gate.
This was about 9 o'clock in the evening.

In the meantime a gang of thieves and
toughs who had joined the mob for purposes
of plunder made the most of the confusion to
break open several stores belonging to China-
men who could not be supposed to have had
any part in the murder of Thompson. Some
seized the goods and began to carry them off,
while others wrecked the buildings and the
store fixtures. All Chinamen that came into the

288 History of Los Angeles.

hands of the mob were dragged out into "Nig-
ger alley" and hung or shot to death. The
crowd was beside itself with rage against the
race, and spared neither youth nor old age.
Two of the victims were very young boys, and
one, an old physician, a man of good education,
who begged for his life and offered over $2000
in money to those who had captured him. The
money was taken, but he was hanged with the
rest. The amount of cash taken by the mob
was estimated at $40,000.

There were in all nineteen Chinamen put
to death, some with great cruelty. The affair
lasted only about an hour. News of what was
going on had by this time spread over the
town, and a party of brave and law-abiding
citizens, accompanied by the sheriff, went
down into Chinatown and compelled the mob
to desist. A few arrests were made, and when
the grand jury met, indictments were found
against 150 persons for participation in the
massacre. Only six of these were convicted
in the trial that followed, and they, after a
short imprisonment, were given their freedom
on a technicality. The jury severely censured
the officers of the city and county for neglect-
ing their duty. From the evidence taken af-
terward it was established that only one of the
nineteen Chinamen killed was concerned in
the original conflict between the "tongs." The
guilty parties had all made their escape be-
fore the mob came on the scene.

CHAPTER XXVIIl.

BKTWBKN OIvD AND NKW.

HE Story of Los Angeles from 1850
to 1880 is largely one of slow indus-
trial development, and a narration of
that order is best handled in epochs.
A division into decades may be an ar-
bitrary one, but it is convenient and will be
employed through the next three chapters of
this work.

Many of the principal events of the period
from 1850 to i860 have already been narrated,
for the epoch is one of considerable local im-
portance in marking the commencement of the
new order of things. There were also sundry
happenings of minor note, that have to be re-
corded as part of the city's history, although
their number and variety may make this narra-
tive somewhat disjointed in places.

The year 1850 saw the beginning of the
Protestant church in Los Angeles. The Rev.
J. W. Brier, a Methodist minister, who was
passing through the city on his way to the
northern part of the state, held the first Prot-
estant services that ever took place in Los An-
geles, on a Sunday in June, 1850. It was in a
private residence located where the Bullard
block now stands, and where for many years
afterward the county court house stood. In

290 History of Los Angeles.

1853 the Rev. Adam Bland was sent to Los An-
geles by the California conference of the Meth-
odist Episcopal church to organize a church.
He made use of an adobe building on Main
street near the Baker block. There he preached
for two years, and his wife taught a girls'
school in the same building. Others succeeded
him, but in 1858 the field was abandoned for
eight years.

The next Protestant sect to come to Los
Angeles was that of the Presbyterians. In No-
vember, 1854, Rev. James Woods of that faith,
held services in a little carpenter shop' near the
corner of Main street and the plaza. A year
later a regular church was organized with Mr.
Woods as pastor, and services were held in
the first court house, which stood where the
People's store now is, on Spring and Franklin
— a building that was for many years after
i860 used as the city jail. In 1856 the moral
development of Los Angeles was abandoned
by the Presbyterians as hopeless, and was not
taken up again until 1859, when a movement
started to have Protestant services of a general
character, there not being enough of any one
sect to maintain a church. The Rev. W. E.
Boardman acted as pastor. It was decided to
erect a church structure, and a lot was secured
at the southwest corner of Temple and New
High, where the steps now lead up to the
court house. A brick building was begun, but
before it was finished Mr. Boardman left the
city, and the meetings were abandoned. The

Between Old and New. ' 291

building was finally turned over to the Rev.
Elias Birdsall, an Episcopal clergyman, who
had been officiating for a small body of that
faith that met in Odd Fellows hall in the Dow-
ney block. Episcopal services were first
held in the city in 1857, and a parish was or-
ganized in that year, but it continued only a
short time.

The Baptist church began in the year 1861,
although occasional services were held during
the '50s, the first being by a Mr. Freeman in

1853. The first Jewish services were held in

1854. The first congregation was organized by
Rabbi A. W. Edelman, whose long term of ser-
vice lasted until 1886.

The abandonment of this field by the
clergymen of the various Protestant sects dur-
ing the later '50s, while it may not be entirely
creditable to their devotion to the service,
gives some indication, nevertheless, of the
moral darkness that hung over the city at that
time. The Catholic church continued its min-
istrations, of course, but few of the Americans
attended its services. The "Star" commented
upon the departure of the Presbyterian preach-
er in these terms : "To preach week after
week to empty benches is certainly not en-
couraging, but if, in addition to that, a minister
has to contend against a torrent of vice and im-
morality which obliterates all traces of the
Christian Sabbath — to be compelled to endure
blasphemous denunciations of his divine Mas-
ter, to live where society is disorganized, relig-

292 History of Los Angeles.

ion scoffed at, where violence runs riot, and
even life itself is unsafe — such a condition of
affairs may suit some men, but it is not calcu-
lated for the peaceful labors of one who follows
unobtrusively the footsteps of the meek and
lowly Savior."

The Masonic order came into existence in
Los Angeles in 1854 with Los Angeles Lodge,
No. 42. The next year came the Odd Fellows,
Los Angeles Lodge, No. 35. The Hebrew Be-
nevolent Society was organized in 1854; the
French Benevolent Society in i860. The Teu-
tonia Concordia, afterward Turnverein, was
started in 1859. In that same year there was a
series of lectures given by the Los Angeles
Mechanics Institute; the Library Association
started a small reading-room at the corner of
Court and North Spring street, and an agricul-
tural society came into existence. These three
organizations perished when the Civil War
broke out.

The first hospital for the sick was opened
in 1858 in a private house by some Sisters of
Charity from Maryland. This was the begin-
ning of the "Sisters' Hospital," which now oc-
cupies a large building on Bellevue avenue.
The Catholic Orphan Asylum was founded in
1856. St. Vincent's college for boys began in
1855. The decade was one of considerable de-
velopment in the local Catholic church.

Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in
1851. During this decade the mayors were
elected annually, and the list runs as follows:

Between Old and New. 293

A. p. Hodges, 1850; B. D. Wilson, 1851 ; J. G.
Nichols, 1852; A. F. Coronel, 1853; Stephen
C. Foster, 1854; Thos. Foster, 1855; Stephen
C. Foster, 1856, four months; J. G. Nichols,
1856-7-8; D. Marchessault, 1859; Henry Mel-
ius, i860.

In 1852 the city began to give away the
land in the southwestern section of the city in
35-acre tracts to all who would agree to make
improvements. In 1855 the land south of Pico
street to the western and southern boundaries
of the city was surveyed in 35-acre pieces by
Henry Hancock. Two years later A. Walde-
mar made a similar survey for the portion
north of Pico to the western boundary.

In 1848, of 103 proprietors of farms in the
city, only eight were "gringos," i. e., not native
Californians. Three years later, of the thirteen
principal property owners in the county, six
were Americans and they owned 135,000 out of
500,000 acres, and $306,000 out of $500,000 of
personal property. In 1858, out of forty-five
principal property owners in the county,
twenty-five were American and twenty Cali-
fornian. The two largest individual taxpayers
were Abel Stearns, $186,000, and John Temple,
$89,000. During most of the 50's interest was
5 per cent a month, and the Californians were
easy borrowers. In 1856 the city's real estate
was assessed at $187,582, and the improve-
ments at $457>535-

The average annual income to the people of
the county from the sale of cattle during this

294 History of Los Angeles.

period was between $250,000 and $500,000, the
latter figure being reached only one year, 1856.
Next to cattle raising, the production of grapes
was the most lucrative form of industry. In
1849 and 1850 grapes sold for I2^c a pound
on the vine, to be shipped to San Francisco,
where they retailed at any price. In 1858 there
were loio acres in vines, and a few years later
3000. In 185 1 about a thousand gallons of wine
were shipped from Los Angeles. Soon after
this the northern counties began to grow
grapes and make wine, so the shipments to San
Francisco diminished ; but in 1855 exportation
to the eastern market began. In 1857, 21,000
boxes of grapes, or nearly a million pounds,
and 250,000 gallons of wine were shipped out.
By i860 the shipments of wine had increased
to 66,000 cases.

In 1856 the yield of oranges was estimated
at 400 boxes, or a little more than one carload.
Wm. Wolfskin, who had the principal orchard,
declared that he had received $100 apiece in-
come from several of his trees. By i860 it was
estimated that there were 2500 trees in the
state, of which three-fourths were in and
around Los Angeles.

Iron working and wagon making began in
Los Angeles with John Goller, who arrived in
the city by way of Salt Lake in 1849. The
charge for shoeing a horse at that time was
$16. There was a great scarcity of iron, and
Goller sent out on the roads traveled by the
emigrants for old abandoned tires, and worked

Between Old and New, 295

them up into horseshoes. When he finally
managed, after many difficulties, to construcc
a wagon, he kept it a long time before he found
a purchaser. Compared with the carreta it
looked insubstantial, and was regarded with
suspicion by the Californians.

The making of brick was begun by J. D.
Hunter in 1852, and the first structure built of
them was at Third and Main ; the second was a
jail building. In 1858 over two million brick
were sold for a number of improvements that
were either under way or were projected, such
as the Temple market house, afterward taken
over by the county for $40,000, to be used as a
court house, the southern portion of the Tem-
ple block, the brick flouring mill of Stearns h
Scott, now the Capitol Milling Co., and the Ar-
cadia block on Arcadia and Los Angeles.

In 1854 the first brewing establishment was
set up in Los Angeles, and a tannery started.
In 1855 the first flouring mill began operations,
and in that same year the culture of bees was
undertaken by O. W. Childs, who is said to
have paid $100 for one hive and swarm brought
down from San Francisco. In 1850 the first
drug store was established by Dr. Osborne,
who came to Los Angeles from New York. He
was presently succeeded in the business by
John G. Downey, who afterwards became one
of the wealthiest men of the region and served
as governor of the state.

April 15, 1851, the first child of American
parentage on both sides was born in Los An-

296 History of Los Angeles.

geles: John Gregg Nichols, whose father, a
year later, was elected to the mayoralty.

In 1855 came the Kern river gold excite-
ment. There was a great rush from the north-
ern diggings and from Los Angeles city into
Tulare county, where it was reported that vast
quantities of gold had been discovered. There
was, however, very little gold to be obtained in
the San Joaquin valley, and many of the disap-
pointed miners and adventurers drifted down
to Los Angeles, where they contributed a new
element to the prevailing lawlessness of the
time. Partly as a result of the Kern river ex-
citement a new interest sprang up in the San
Gabriel mines, and at one time Los Angeles
bid fair to have a gold furore of its own.

In 1852 the "Sea Bird" began making reg-
ular trips three times a month between San
Francisco and San Pedro, and in that same
year D. W. Alexander and Phineas Banning
put in a stage line from the coast to the city.
In 185 1 Alexander had brought in from Salt
Lake ten heavy freight wagons, the first ever
seen in Los Angeles. In 1853 a train of four-
teen wagons and sixty-eight mules were
brought in from Chihuahua at a cost of $23,000.
J. L. Tomlinson put in an opposition line to
that of Alexander & Banning in 1853, and for
many years there was active competition in
freight and passenger business, and the teams
raced against each other on the way to the
city.

Between Old and New. 297

The passenger fare from San Francisco to
San Pedro in the early 50's was $45, and freight
was $25 a ton. The fare from San Pedro to
Los Angeles was $10, but competition finally
brought it down to $2.50, and even below that
for a short time. Freight from San Pedro was
from 50 cents to $1 a hundredweight — about
what is now charged from New York to Los
Angeles. In 1855 freighting began between
Los Angeles and Salt Lake, which had in-
creased by 1859 to a considerable business.
This ceased, of course, when the railroad con-
nection was established between the Mormon
city and San Francisco. In 1858 some experi-
ments were carried on by the national govern-
ment in the use of camels for freighting be-
tween Los Angeles and Arizona, but the plan
was not a success.

In 1850 the Bella Union, now the St.
Charles, on North Main street, was the only
hotel. In 1856 the United States (not the mod-
ern building) was constructed on Main and
Requena streets. Shortly afterwards the La-
fayette opened in a building that was the pre-
decessor of the modern St. Elmo. In 1856
Ramon Alexander, an eccentric French sailor,
began the construction of the "Round House,"
a peculiar affair built in imitation of a resi-
dence he had seen in South Africa. It was lo-
cated at the corner of Third and Main streets,
and in the later 50's was transformed into a

298 History of Los Angeles.

saloon, with a garden to the rear of it, run-
ning through to Spring street.

The vote of Los Angeles in 1856 was 522
for Fremont, the Republican candidate, against
722 for Buchanan, Democrat. Much of the
vote that went to Fremont was influenced by-
personal consideration. His residence in Los
Angeles and on the coast had given him many-
friends in the vicinity. Four years later Lin-
coln received only 356 votes, against 703 for
Breckenridge, 494 for Douglas (total Demo-
cratic 1 197), and 201 for Bell.

In 1849 ^ special water department of the
city government was organized, for at that
time the city owned and operated its own wa-
ter system. In 1857 Wm. Dryden was given a
franchise to supply water drawn from the
springs located on the land in the vicinity of
the old Southern Pacific depot on San Fer-
nando street, which was raised by means of a
water wheel in the zanja. A brick reservoir
was constructed in the plaza and some iron
pipe was laid along Main and Los Angeles
streets. This system was maintained until
1861.

CHAPTER XXIX.

IN WAR time;.

URING the period from i860 to 1870
Los Angeles fell back into its Spanish-
American habit of standing still. Some
progress was made ; the city was a lit-
tle larger, and perhaps a little better
behaved at the end of the period than at the
beginning, but the advance was not to be com-
pared with that of the preceding ten years,
nor with what is usually achieved in such a
length of time in an American city. The popu-
lation was increased by about a thousand peo-
ple, but the percentage of gain was scarcely
that of the average throughout the country,
showing that there was not much immigration
from the east. The assessment roll doubled,
rising to a total of over $2,000,000 in 1870, and
there was some enlargement of the city's re-
sources in the adding of new industries. On
the other hand, that which had been from the
beginning of the Spanish occupation of the
territory the chief pursuit of the people — cat-
tle-raising— received a severe setback by
droughts, and, in fact, very nearly ceased to
exist.

California was, before the war, a Demo-
cratic state, and it contained a very consider-
able southern element that favored slavery
and upheld the doctrine of state rights to its

300 History of Los Angeles.

farthest limit. One of the senators of the
state, Mr, Gwin, made the assertion in Wash-
ington that if the South seceded California
would go with it. When called to account for
this utterance he modified it to the extent of
saying that if the Union came to be split up,
California would start a Pacific coast republic
of its own. After the war had begun this man
left the state to enter the diplomatic service of
the Confederacy. When things came to a
straight-out issue, it was discovered that the
Union men. Democrats and Republicans to-
gether, were strongly in the majority in the
state; but during the years 1859, i860 and 1861
there was room for doubt as to which side Cal-
ifornia would espouse. The southern element
was particularly strong in the lower end of
the state, as will be seen from the fact that
Los Angeles county gave Breckinridge twice
as many votes as it gave Lincoln, and nearly
twice as many as it gave Douglas, who repre-
sented the northern or Union democracy.

Just before the war an effort was made to
cut the state in two at the line north of San
Luis Obispo and Kern counties, evidently
with the design of securing another piece of
slave territory. The state legislature of 1859
passed an act authorizing an election to be
held in the southern counties, to vote on the
question of separating from, the rest of the
state and forming a territorial government of
Iheir own, under the name "Colorado." The
election was held, and more than two-thirds

In War Time. 301

of the vote was in favor of separation. Up to
this time no state in the Union had ever suf-
fered a division, and when the plan was
broached in Washington it was found to in-
volve a number of legal and poHtical compli-
cations. Before the separation could be con-
summated the war broke out and the matter
was laid aside, and presently forgotten.

In 1861 the man who afterwards became fa-
mous as Major General W. S. Hancock was
sent to Los Angeles by the national govern-
ment to see that the stores and arms which
had been gathered there met with no misfor-
tunes. The dutiful sons of southern states
were constantly passing through Los Angeles
at this time, on their way to join the Confed-
erate army, and on account of the turbulence
that had always prevailed in that city there
were grave fears that the rebellious element
might get the upper hand. Upon his arrival
in Los Angeles Hancock called upon the Los
Angeles Guards, a local organization of loyal
young men, to protect the government prop-
erty, and they responded in a way to set at
rest all question of how Los Angeles would
stand during the contest. The flag was hoisted
over the court house, Hancock made a stirring
speech to the assembled people, and in the
evening of that day a public banquet was held,
at which patriotic toasts were delivered.

There were occasional expressions of dis-
loyalty during the progress of the war, that the
local representatives of the government found

302 History of Los Angeles.

it necessary to rebuke, although extreme meas-
ures were never employed. At one time
the order was issued forbidding soldiers to en-
ter the Bella Union and the United States ho-
tels, because of the attitude of their proprie-
tors toward the Union cause. In 1863 the au-
thorities became suspicious that the alleged
working of mines on Catalina island was mere-
ly a scheme to establish headquarters there for
Confederate privateers, and the island was
closed to the public for a time. There is no
evidence, however, that this theory rested on
any substantial basis. It was a period of false
mining "booms" — that of Catalina with the
rest. In i860 and 1861 considerable mining
development was undertaken in the mountains
north of Los Angeles, and for a year or two
Wells-Fargo was shipping out nearly $12,000
a month in gold.

The telegraph line which had been con-
structed between San Francisco and the east
was extended to Los Angeles in i860, and $100
a month was subscribed by citizens for daily
dispatches that should keep them posted on
the events of the war. The principal papers
of this period were the "Star" and the "News,"
the latter becoming a daily in 1869, and con-
tinuing publication till 1873, when it suspend-
ed. Both were Democratic in politics, the
"Star" decidedly on the "copperhead" order.
The Republican party made considerable
gains, however, voting 555 for Lincoln in 1864,
as against 744 for McClellan, Four years later

In War Time, 303

the vote in the county was 748 for Grant
against 1236 for Seymour.

The mayors of this period were: D. Mar-
chessault, 1861 to 1864, and again in 1867; Jose
Mascarel, 1865 ; C. Aguilar, 1866, 1868 to 1869,
and Joel Turner, 1869 to 1871. The term was
now lengthened to two years. An important
change in the school system was effected in
1866, when the office of superintendent was
made appointive instead of elective. In 1869
the position was filled for the first time by a
professional and experienced teacher. In 1865
the census showed 1009 children of school age,
but of these only 331 attended the public insti-
tutions. The remainder were divided about
equally between the private schools and the
streets.

The industrial development of this epoch
was affected in a considerable degree by the
erratic behavior of the rainfall. In 1862 the
year opened with one of the greatest floods Cal-
ifornia has ever known, which carried away all
the water service erected by the city and by
private individuals, and damaged many hun-
dred acres of orchard and farms. The period
was, as a whole, however, one of under-average
rainfall. The total for the ten years was only
a little over ninety inches, or an average of
nine per annum. In the season 1862-63 only
four inches fell, and that was badly distributed,
and in the following year there was little more
than a trace. Cattle were slaughtered by the
thousand, and died of starvation by the tens

304 History of Los Angeles.

of thousands. Vast herds were auctioned off
at 37>4 cents a head to be killed. The cattle
industry received a blow from which it never
recovered, and during the first years after the
drought there was nothing to take its place as
a producer of revenue for the country. Gov-
ernor Downey advocated the raising of sheep,
and as the grade of the flocks had been im-
proved since the American occupation of the
country, wool presently became a staple.

In 1868 there was another great flood.
Again all the apparatus for city water ser-
vice was carried away. The San Gabriel river
changed its course from the old to the new
bed, and a great area of good farming country
was utterly ruined. In the seasons 1869-70 and
1870-71 there was very little rainfall — a total
of only ten inches for the whole period. This
succession of floods and of dry times gave very
little encouragement to those who were experi-
menting in horticulture, and small progress
was made. In 1867 there were about 9000 or-
ange trees in bearing. By 1870 the assessment
showed 34,000 fruit and nut trees of all kinds
in the county. A considerable planting of
walnut trees began during the latter years of
this decade.

About 1865 a movement began among the
owners of large grants to cut them up into
small farming tracts and place them on the
market. In 1868-69 there was considerable ac-
tivity in real estate transactions in and around
Los Angeles. The price of good farming land,

/«i War Time. 305

which had been from $3 to $5 an acre, began
to rise a little. After the death of John Tem-
ple, in 1866, a number of real estate transac-
tions took place in closing up his estate which
will give some idea of values at the time. The
Cerritos ranch was sold to the Bixbys for
$125,000, 27,000 acres, including the present
site of Long Beach. Twenty-two lots, 50 feet
each, on Spring street, scattered along from
First street to Fourth, sold for $50 apiece. The
Temple block property, including the southern
part of the building, brought $10,000. In 1863
over 2000 acres, forming the best part of what
is now called East Los Angeles, was sold by
the city authorities for $1014.75, or 50 cents an
acre, to Dr. John S. Griffin.

In 1868 George Hansen made a survey for
the city of the tract now called Boyle Heights,
cutting it up into thirty-five-acre tracts. In
the same year the district along the river now
covered by Elysian park and the adjoining
lands was surveyed by Mr. Hansen. A year
later the section lying to the south of the Ely-
sian hills and west of the Ord survey was sur-
veyed and prepared for occupation.

In 1869 a considerable amount of building
was under way. Up to that time there were no
three-story buildings in the town, and the only
two-story structures were the Bella Union, the
United States Hotel, the Lafayette (now St.
Elmo), Bell's block (or Melius row), Stearns'
block (the Arcadia, which is still standing),
the old court house, a portion of the Temple

306 History of Los Angeles.

block, and several stores on Los Angeles and
Main streets. The Pico house was begun in
1869 on the site of the old Carrillo residence.
J. A. Carrillo, the famous politician and man of
affairs, had passed away in 1862. Work began
on the Roman Catholic cathedral in 1869 at the
location which was first selected on Main
street between Fifth and Sixth. It was after-
wards changed to Main street near Second,
and the present structure was begun there in
1871. St. Vincent's college building on Broad-
way and Sixth was begun in 1866.

The first bank in Los Angeles was opened
in 1868 under the title of Alvinza Hayward &
Co., with a capital of $100,000. John G. Dow-
ney was one of the partners. In the same year
the banking house of Hellman, Temple & Co.
was organized, with a capital of $125,000, In
1871 these two institutions united, forming
the Farmers and Merchants bank of today.
The Temple & Workman bank came into ex-
istence in 1872.

In 1867 the manufacture of gas was begun.

Agitation in favor of the construction of a
railroad from San Pedro to Los Angeles com-
menced early in this decade, and the purpose
was finally achieved, and the railway started
into operation, in the fall of 1869.

The leader in this movement was Phineas
Banning, who owned the stage and freighting
line between Los Angeles and the seashore,
and was largely interested in Wilmington and

In War Time. 307

the land surrounding that place. He served as
member of the California senate from 1865 to
1868. In 1863 a bill passed the legislature au-
thorizing the county of Los Angeles to issue
bonds to the amount of $100,000, and the city
to issue to the amount of $50,000, the proceeds
to be used in subscriptions to the stock of the
proposed railway line. It took about five years
of active missionary work to arouse public sen-
timent to a point where there was any prospect
of carrying such an issue of bonds, and by that
time it had been decided that the amount pro-
posed was insufficient. In 1868 a new bill
passed the legislature raising the figures to
$150,000 for the county and $75,000 for the city,
or a total of $225,000. The unprogressive ele-
ment of the community, including, as is usual
in such cases, some of the heaviest taxpayers,
fought the scheme with great persistence, de-
claring that it would bankrupt the county, and
that about two trains a month would carry all
the freight the railroad would ever secure. The
issue turned on whether the road could be
made to pay expenses, or would prove a con-
stant drain on the county. Within a few years
after the opening of the road it was running
hfty cars of freight and passengers a day in
and out of Los Angeles. The vote on the
bonds stood 397 for and 245 against. The rail-
way went into operation in November, 1869.
Its freight schedule was simple enough, the
principle items being: Dry goods, $6 per ton;

308 History of Los Angeles.

groceries, $5 per ton ; empty pipes, $1 each.
Passengers were charged $1.50 from the ves-
sel to Wilmington and $1 additional to the
city. The road was profitable from the very
beginning.

The frequent floods of this period, with the
consequent destruction of the various city wa-
ter systems, served to discourage the authori-
ties from attempting permanent municipal ope-
ration of the water supply, and propositions
of all kinds looking to private control of this
utility were offered and considered during the
decade. In 1861 water "script" — an easily ne-
gotiable form of municipal obligation — ^was is-
sued to the amount of $15,000, and a year later
the city petitioned the legislature to be al-
lowed to issue bonds to the amount of $25,000
to construct a water system. In 1862 a contract
was let to Jean L. Sainsevain to build a dam,
flume and other works for $18,000. In 1865 the
city leased this system to D. W. Alexander for
four years at a rental of $1000 a year. He
transferred the lease to Sainsevain, who con-
tinued the work for three years, during which
time he put down wooden service pipes as far
as Third street. These were not a success, as
they rotted and leaked at the joints. In 1868
Sainsevain sold out to Dr. John S. Griflin, Pru-
dent Beaudry and Solomon Lazard, and they
made a proposition to the council to lease the
whole system for fifty years, which was pres-
ently changed to a plan to buy the whole plant

hi War Time. 309

for $10,000, on the understanding that they
were to expend $200,000 in betterments, in re-
turn for which they were to have a perpetual
franchise to take ten inches of water from the
river to be sold to the citizens. This proposi-
tion came within one vote of carrying the coun-
cil, in spite of great opposition from the peo-
ple, who were unwilling that the last hope of a
public water system should be destroyed.

Finally in 1868 bids were received on a
thirty-years contract to provide the city with
water ; and Griffin and his associates oiifered
$1500 a year for the privilege, agreeing also to
effect the necessary betterments, to which was
added the construction of an ornamental foun-
tain in the plaza. At the end of the period the
plant was to be bought by the city at a price
to be fixed by arbitrators. There were several
other bids, but this one was the most advan-
tageous to the city. Had the matter ever been
presented to the people, it would probably
have been refused acceptance, as two council-
men, elected just at that time to fill vacancies,
were both avowed opponents of the plan. It
was carried through the council and went into
effect July 22, 1868. The $1500 a year rental
to the city was presently cut to $400 a year
by a compliant council. This contract expired
in 1898, and after much litigation the city pur-
chased the plant for $2,000,000 — a figure which
was doubtless far beyond the wildest imagina-
tion of the council of 1868.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE COMING OF THE RAILWAY.

HE long period of slow growth and of
stagnation for Los Angeles was now
at an end. It had taken ninety years
to accumulate a population of 5000,
and in the next succeeding score
of years a marvelous transformation was
to take place. The changes of the first
decade, that from 1870 to 1880, were not
entirely unexpected. Those of the second,
from 1880 to 1890, exceeded the wildest proph-
ecies. That the building of a railway into
Los Angeles connecting it with the eastern
states should cause its population to increase
100 per cent was not surprising; but that the
building of a second road should cause the in-
creased number to multiply 500 per cent — a
total advance from 5000 to 50,000 in twenty
years, or from 5000 to over 100,000 in thirty
years — that was a marvel that no one could
be expected to foresee.

The immediate success that was achieved
by the railroad from Wilmington to the city,
not only in the freight and passengers it car-
ried, but also in the impetus it gave to numer-
ous lines of industry in the county, encour-
aged the people of this region to cast about
for further opportunities of the same kind.
The famous railway operator, Thomas A.

The Coming of the Railway. 311

Scott, who was pushing out into the southwest
across Texas, had projected a line through
California from Yuma to San Diego. He pro-
posed to bring this north along the coast, if
suitable inducements were offered by Los An-
geles. At the same time the owners of the
Central Pacific were building southward, and
by 1872 were well down into the San Joaquin
valley. That region of the state already con-
tained a number of settlements or towns, some
of which numbered from 500 to 1000 people.
As the road drew near these it demanded a
free right of way and, in most cases, a bonus
of some description. Where this was refused
the line was run some distance from the town,
and a new population center established. Most
of the towns thus abandoned were ruined, or
were compelled to move bodily to the new lo-
cation. Two exceptions to the rule were
Bakersfield and Visalia, which have managed
to hold their own in spite of the snub. It
must not be supposed that the policy of the
road in this matter contained any element of
malevolence. The issue was one of business;
the question for the town to determine being
whether it needed the road, and for the road
whether it needed the town.

The people of Los Angeles had the object
lesson of the San Joaquin valley towns before
Ihem, when the railroad reached the moun-
tains at the southern end of that region and
paused to ask what the ancient pueblo would
do. Did the people of Los Angeles desire the

312 History of Los Angeles.

railway connection with San Francisco and
the east sufficiently to be willing to pay 5 per
cent of the assessed valuation of all land and
improvements in their county, or would they
prefer to see the new road turn to the east
along the mountains and pass Los Angeles
by on the other side?

Five per cent on the assessed valuation of
$12,000,000 would be $600,000. There was
also an item of sixty acres to be given for
depot purposes at some advantageous location
within the city limits. As with the road to
the water front, there was again great diver-
gence of opinion. The Texas Pacific scheme
of Scott was in the air, but had not been pre-
sented as yet in the form of a definite proposi-
tion. The Southern Pacific, on the other hand,
was ready to begin work immediately. An
understanding was reached between represen-
tatives of the railroad and the city that, if the
people would vote to ratify the plan, the city
and county would give the stock that they
held in the San Pedro line, and donate the
necessary sixty acres, and also issue 7 per
cent twenty-year bonds in the sum of $377,000,
making a total of $610,000 of subsidy; and in
return for this the railroad was to build down
through the Soledad canyon into the city and
out to the east to San Bernardino, to connect
ultimately with the Texas Pacific at Yuraa.
To win the concurrence of the people of the
southeastern part of the county, the region
since set off to make Orange county, it was

The Coming of the Railway. 313

agreed that a branch Hne should be construct-
ed to Anaheim.

The matter was put to a vote, after a year's
active discussion, in November, 1872, and it
carried by a good majority. There were many
intelligent men and large taxpayers who de-
clared that the county was hazarding all its
future in this enormous obligation, but the
dismal alternative of being left out of the rail-
way development of the state compelled them
to vote in favor of the bonds. Before half the
period for which the securities were to run
had elapsed, the county asfjessment had in-
creased from $12,000,000 to $35,000,000, and
at the end of the twenty years the valuation
was nearly $100,000,000. The burden, there-
fore, did not prove to be very serious.

The construction of a railway over the
great Tehachapi pass, and through the moun-
tains of San Fernando was a slow and labori-
ous undertaking, and it was not until four
years after the proposition carried that the
trains began running between San Francisco
and Los Angeles. The ceremony of driving
the golden spike was held at Soledad, Septem-
ber 6, 1876. Three hundred and fifty citizens
of Los Angeles went up from the pueblo to
meet fifty residents of San Francisco, who
came down to celebrate the union of the two
cities. San Francisco was than a little larger
than Los Angeles is at present, while Los An-
geles was about the size of Pomona. There
were speeches full of hope and good fellow-

314 History of Los AngeLes.

ship, and then the whole party repaired to
Los Angeles, where a banquet was given at
Union hall in the Jones block, at which a con-
siderable amount of wine was consumed. The
old Spanish pueblo was at last in touch with
the great American system of progress and
activity.

Scarcely was one road out into the world
completed, when agitation was begun for a
second. This was to be known as the Los An-
geles and Independence railroad, with one
terminus at Santa Monica, where it was be-
lieved a good harbor could be constructed, and
the other at the town of Independence in Inyo
county, the center of a district which was then
believed to be of great promise, but which
has never attained the expected development
because of a lack of transportation facilities.
It was confidently hoped that after this much
of the road was built, it would go on to Salt
Lake City. The largest stockholder wai J.
P. Jones, who afterwards became United
States senator from Nevada. Local capital
was interested to some extent The line from
Santa Monica was constructed in 1875, and
a substantial wharf was built at its ocean ter-
minus. The hard times that swept over the
country after the failure of Jay Cooke and
the Black Friday episode made it impossible
to secure funds to carry out the extension to
the north, and the plan was abandoned. The
Santa Monica branch was sold in 1878 to the
Southern Pacific company, which proceeded

The Coining of the Railway. 315

to take down the wharf, as it interfered with
business at San Pedro.

The immediate effect of all this railway
projection and construction, from the San Pe
dro line in 1869 through to the Southern Pa-
cific connections and the Santa Monica line
in 1875 ^"d 1876, was to produce considerable
activity in all forms of industrial development.
As is usual in such cases, anticipation ran
rather ahead of the actual event and was fol-
lowed by depression when the extravagant
hopes were not realized. The dry years and
the unfavorable money conditions in the east
helped to complicate matters. By the year
1875 the bank panic which had been spreading
across the country struck Los Angeles. One
of the banks — the Temple & Workman — was
in an unsound condition, owing to the reckless
and extravagant policy of its chief owner, F.
P. F. Temple, who was a younger brother of
John Temple. The other two were on a solid
basis, but as the railway connection to San
Francisco had not been established, and as
it would take about a week to get word to
the city and bring money back, it was agreed
that all three should close their doors for a
time. For two of the banks this suspension
was of brief duration, but for the Temple &
Workman bank it was permanent, and the
loss of the depositors was complete. This bad
failure wrought serious demoralization to the
development that was just beginning in Los
Angeles, turning confidence and hope into

316 History of Los Angeles.

doubt and discouragement. Nearly half a
score of years passed before the evil effects
of the disaster were entirely dispelled.

There was some agricultural advance dur-
ing the decade, for the growing of wheat be-
gan on a considerable scale in the San Fernan-
do, and the acreage in corn increased greatly.
There was some planting of fruit trees, but
the mistaken idea still prevailed that enormous
quantities of water must be applied to the tree
to make it bear in the dry climate, and only
those nearest to the streams ventured into hor-
ticulture. In 1877 J- De Barth Shorb declared
that he had sold his orange crop from seven
acres for $7000. These went chiefly to the
San Francisco market. In 1877 Wm. Wolf-
skill shipped the first carload of oranges to the
eastern market. They were landed in
St. Louis in good condition after a month in
transit. The carrying charge was $500. The
chief product of the region was now wine, of
which 1,329,000 gallons were shipped in 1875.
In 1874 fruit drying began on a small scale.
In 1878 a pavilion for the holding of horticul-
tural fairs was built on Temple street.

The growing confidence in the future of
the city showed in the establishment in 1873
of a chamber of commerce. The first meeting
was held in the courthouse August i, with
Governor Downey presiding and J. M. Griffith
acting as secretary. One hundred names were
enrolled. Among the first directors chosen

The Coming of the Railway. 317

was M. J. Newmark, who recently served a
term as president of the modern chamber of
commerce. The organization started out
briskly, but was discouraged by the bank fail-
ure and the dry years, and about 1877 it gave
up the ghost. One piece of work to
which it particularly applied itself dur-
ing its existence was the securing of
the first appropriation for the improve-
ment of San Pedro harbor — the sum of
$150,000 — which was used toward a project
devised by Col. G. H. Mendell of the United
States army engineering corps. The indefat-
igable Banning included the building of a
harbor at San Pedro among the labors he had
allotted to himself to accomplish for Los An-
geles, and by long agitation had succeeded in
getting the matter in shape to be acted upon
in congress. The project called for a total
expenditure of $425,000, and contemplated
getting about fifteen feet of water at low tide
on the bar. The appropriation was afterward
doubled, and a total of sixteen feet gained.
Toward the end of this decade the harbor be-
gan to be serviceable for vessels of light draft.
The subdivision of the large Mexican land
grants in the vicinity of Los Angeles contin-
ued actively, and hundreds of small ranches
from forty to two hundred acres in extent
were established in the county. Settlements
began to spring up. One of the most notable
of these was the Indiana colony, which came

318 History of Los Angeles.

to be known as Pasadena a year or two after
its founding. Another was Pomona, which,
as its name indicates, was designed as a fruit-
growing colony. The popularity of Santa
Monica as an ocean resort began shortly after
the building of the Los Angeles and Independ-
ence road. The population of the county as a
whole increased from 15,309 to 33,881 in the
ten years from 1870 to 1880, which was even
a larger rate of growth than was shown by
the city. Its assessed valuation went up from
$7,000,000 to $18,000,000.

The doubling of population in the city led
to the developing of new residence districts,
and the increase of business brought some ac-
tivity in building. In 1873 East Los Angeles
was laid out and a year or two later was
placed on the market and settled up with
homes. In 1876 a similar development began
in Boyle Heights. Small bridges were built
down in the river bottom, one at Downey
avenue, opposite East Los Angeles, and one
at Aliso street, opposite Boyle Heights. Dur-
ing this decade Prudent Beaudry and J. W,
Potts spent nearly $175,000 in improving the
western hill section, grading streets and put-
ting in an extensive water system. The dis-
trict they improved was chiefly along Temple
and Second streets, and is now given up for
the most part to oil derricks, but it was, dur-
ing the '70s and '80s, one of the best resi-
dence districts of the city. In 1874 the first

The Coming of the Railway. 319

city railroad was built, the "Sixth and Spring
street" line, about two and a half miles in
length. A year later the Main street line was
constructed, and that was followed presently
by the line to East Los Angeles.

The assessment of the city's property in-
creased from $2,000,000 to $7,000,000 during
this period. In 1871 the Downey block was
built, and in 1872 the northern portion of the
Temple block, to be used as the Temple and
Workman bank. It was afterward used by the
Los Angeles County bank. In 1874 about
$300,000 was expended for business buildings.
In 1876 the Baker block was built, the most
elegant structure of its time not only for Los
Angeles, but for all the state outside of San
Francisco. This was a period of frequent
fires, but an efficient fire department was
finally organized, with a good steam fire en-
gine.

The newspapers of the city that now ex-
ist began publication during this epoch, the
Evening Express in 1871, with Ben C. Tru-
man and H. C. Austin as its earliest editors,
and the Herald in 1873, under the manage-
ment of C. A. Storke, who now lives in Santa
Barbara. Both of these papers presently
came to be owned and edited by J. D. Lynch,
with whom J. J. Ayres was afterwards asso-
ciated as a partner. In 1875 the Mirror, which
was the weekly edition of the Times daily,

320 History of Los Angeles.

was founded. The Times came into existence
in 1881.

The mayors of this period were C. Agui-
lar, 1871-72; J. R. Toberman, 1873-74, 1879-82;
P. Beaudry, 1875-76; A. F. McDougal, 1877-
78. The county continued to be democratic
in politics, giving, in 1872, Greeley 1227 and
O'Connor 650 against Grant 1312. In 1876
the vote stood Tilden 3616 to Hayes 3040.

In 1873 the high school building was con-
structed on the hill where the courthouse now
stands. The first teachers' institutie was held
in 1870. The percentage of school attend-
ance, which was only 6 per cent in 1865, and
only 20 per cent in 1870, rose to 37 per cent
in 1880. In 1890 it was 63. In 1873 the Li-
brary association raised, by subscription,
funds enough to open a small library and
reading room in the Downey block, which
was supported in its running expenses by a
small city tax. Books were either donated or
were purchased with funds from entertain-
ments and other semi-public sources of reve-
nue.

A considerable moral improvement took
place during this epoch, influenced to some ex-
tent by a reaction after the wild excesses that
culminated in the Chinese riot in 1871. In
1870 there were no drinking places in the city
— to 5000 population. Now, thirty-five years
later, there are 200 drinking places to over
100,000 population. This was the time of the

The Coming of the Railway. 321

greatness of Vasquez, California's most fa-
mous bandit, who ranged the state with his
band from 1863 to 1874, making his headquar-
ters generally in the southern region. His
record of murders and robberies exceeds that
of Jack Shepard or Dick Turpin. He was cap-
tured in the Cahuenga in 1874 and hanged the
next year.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE EPOCH OFi^THK BOOM.

HE word "boom" is a convenient bit of
slang that arrived at the opportune
moment to supply a lack in the lan-
guage, and, having proved its useful-
ness, it is likely to win a permanent
position — just as many other expressions of
similar origin have done, whose dignified
place in the language is now above question.
The word was first used to imitate the sound
of an explosion, then it came to mean an ex-
plosion, and in the later 70's it began to be
used to describe any state of sudden and ex-
^.raordinary activity in a business or, more
often, in a town. It superseded the word
"bubble," which had done service since the
da3's of John Law.

While there is no other expression in the
language that is available to describe the pe-
culiar phenomenon that took place in Los
Angeles and Southern California in the years
from 1885 to 1888, still there is a secondary
meaning to "boom" that does not apply to
the case of Los Angeles city. The word car-
ries with it inevitably a conception of some
form of utter collapse that must follow. An
explosion is supposed to leave ruin in its
wake. No such catastrophe occurred in the

The Epoch of the Boom. 323

case of Los Angeles. There was a cessation of
the unnatural activity, but no general disaster
and no permanent injury to the city. Eastern
people frequently ask the question : "Has Los
Angeles recovered from its boom yet?" as
though the event had been something in the
nature of a misfortune or a disease. There
were many residents of the city who, during
the boom and immediately afterward, were dis-
posed to take this same view of it; but now,
fourteen years after the close of the affair, they
are able to see it in a better perspective, balanc-
ing the small amount of evil it wrought against
the large amount of good, and they generally
admit that the violent shaking up was just
what was needed to bring the old pueblo out
of its natural lethargy, and to recognize it as
a vigorous, progressive and thoroughly Amer-
ican city.

There were two distinct phases of the
boom — the first a development and the second
a craze. The whole movement had its origin
in a sudden influx of population brought on by
a railway war. The arrival of great numbers
of people of a good, industrial class, most of
them provided with some money for invest-
ment, naturally led to a rapid increase in real
estate values, and stimulated building and the
general development of the resources of the
country. Thus far the activity was legitimate
and wholly beneficial. Had the changes been
proportioned on a moderate scale, or had they

324 History of Los Angeles.

come with reasonable speed, all might have
gone well to the very end, without even indi-
vidual misfortune to cloud the record. But
the change was neither moderate nor gradual
— it was enormous, and it came with lightning
rapidity. Men became dazed and staggered at
the sight and many of them completely lost
their bearings. They saw improbable things
happening, and they went on to expect the
impossible. A few of the older residents of
the town were bitten with the madness, but
it affected, for the most part, only the new-
comers. While few men of real wealth or of
large business experience were seriously
attacked, it took entire possession of many
that were of small or imaginary means. This
was the secondary phase of the boom — its
most interesting and picturesque chapter,
perhaps, but not the one that bears on the
real history of the city.

When the Southern Pacific railway was
completed into Los Angeles, that city had its
first transcontinental line to the eastern
states ; when the Southern Pacific was com-
pleted through to Yuma, where it met the
Texas Pacific, Los Angeles had its second line
to the east. Trains over this new connection
began running in 1883, and great things were
expected to follow. There was a feeling that
the southern line belonged to Los Angeles, as
the northern belonged to San Francisco; and
that one would develop the southern city as

The Epoch of the Boom. 325

the other had the northern. During the first
year of the decade of the 8o's there was some
increase of population and considerable de-
velopment of the farming country tributary to
Los Angeles, but the rate of increase was no
greater than it had been in the preceding de-
cade. The Nadeau was built in 1882, the tall-
est and most pretentious structure in the city,
but its location on First and Spring was con-
sidered too far out of town to make it desir-
able for hotel purposes, and it was rented for
offices and apartments. In 1883 the stores
began to creep along Spring street to Second,
and a few went beyond, among the residences.
By 1884 business had become fairly brisk, but
there was no such influx of new people as had
been expected from the building of the sec-
ond railway. The passenger fare one way
from the Mississippi river country was still in
the vicinity of $100, with the round trip at
$150. In 1885 the round-trip' fell to $125, and
early in 1886 to $100. The "personally con-
ducted" excursion began to be popular —
trainloads made up in eastern cities and taken
through Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fran-
cisco and the northern points of interest.

In November of 1885 the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe company completed its line
through the Cajon, and began to operate in-
dependently of the Southern Pacific. This is
the date usually given for the beginning of
the boom. The Santa Fe road began to ad-

326 History of Los Angeles.

vertise their new territory, and the Southern
Pacific, which thus far had not given it spe-
cial attention, presently followed suit. The
display of Southern California oranges at the
Cotton Exposition in New Orleans in 1884
took the premium over Florida fruit, which
was an eye-opener to many Californians, as
well as to easterners, and a great planting of
citrus trees began. In 1886 the shipments of
fruit to the east amounted to 150,000 boxes,
which would be a little over 400 cars, as or-
anges are now measured, or 500 carloads in
those days.

Through the winter of 1885-86 the country
was filled with tourists as it had never been
before, and among them were many who de-
cided to remain and make their homes in Los
Angeles. This was the beginning of a new
element in the population of the city, and one
that was destined to play an important part
in its sudden advance. These people had
come heretofore as isolated specimens, so to
speak, but now they came as a class — people
of means, who sought a place to live where
they could be free from the incessant struggle
with the elements. Frequently there was
some member of the family who was in feeble
health, or who showed a tendency to con-
sumption. These newcomers bought property
on the hills, or to the southwest of the city,
paying prices which seemed preposterous to
the old-timers who had seen those dry acres

The Epoch of the Boom. 327

go a-begging; and they built pretty homes
and planted shade trees and rose gardens and
lawns.

The possibilities of Southern California as
a health resort had been heralded by many
newspaper correspondents and magazine
writers who had visited the country ; and a
book published by the Harpers early in the
70's, written by Charles Nordhoff, set forth in
glowing terms the benefit that the mild cli-
mate wrought in cases of consumption. This
volume had a wide circulation all through the
Eastern states, and many thousand people af-
flicted with that disease were brought to Los
Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego in
consequence. Most of these were far ad-
vanced toward death. The country was ill-
provided with hospitals, and its hotels were
crude affairs, without heated rooms or other
comforts. The invalids who were too far gone
for recovery died, but those with whom the
disease had merely secured a foothold were,
as a rule, saved, and they wrote home advis-
ing others situated as they had been to come
to Southern California.

In constructing its various lines through
Southern California the Santa Fe company
had come into the ownership of considerable
land, and it was interested — and so were some
of its leading officials — in many townsites and
development enterprises along the route. It
was therefore desirous of bringing immigrants

328 History of Los Angeles.

into the country. The settlement of the va-
cant lands was needed to produce freight
along the line, where there was as yet almost
no business to be had. The policy of the com-
pany was to put passenger rates as low as
practicable, and war between it and the
Southern Pacific was not long in beginning.
Through 1886 the rates fell constantly, until
they reached $25 for one way, around which
figure they hovered for nearly a year, and
for a short time they went down to $5, and
for one day to $1. In 1887 they began to go
up again, and in 1888 the war gradually died
out, and the modern rates were established.

In the months when the low rates pre-
vailed, a great flood of people poured through
Southern California. The passenger capacity
of the railroads was stretched to the utmost,
regular trains being divided into numerous
sections, and special excursions running in at
the rate of three to five a day. Hotels and
boarding houses filled to overflowing, and the
demand for houses to rent was far in advance
of the supply. Los Angeles was the center of
this new activity, and the price of city proper-
ty began to go up with great swiftness. Prior
to the boom the best business property was
not valued over $300 per front foot. A good
residence lot could be had for from $400 to
$600, although in a few favored sections it
might cost $1000. Within a space of three
years there was an average permanent ad-

The Epoch of the Boom. 329

vance of about 300 per cent. Many blocks
changed suddenly from residence to business,
and others adjoining them began to have a
speculative value as future business property.
Thousands of acres of farms within the city
limits were laid out in residence tracts, and
sold off to people that proposed to make Los
Angeles their home. In the beginning such
lots were to be had at $200 to $300, which
yielded a handsome profit to the owner, as he
got five city lots out of an acre of ground that
cost him originally perhaps $50. The possi-
bilities involved in the subdivision of farming
land into residence lots presently began to
dawn on the owners of the outer city prop
erty, but, although large tracts were thrown
on the market, the increase of population was
so rapid that the prices steadily advanced.

In addition to the tourists and settlers,
the cheap excursions brought another class,
to wit, the speculators. Some of these were
genuine real estate operators, who had the
capital to make improvements in their pur-
chases, always, however, with a view to re-
tailing at a profit; others — and they consti-
tuted the greater number — were entirely im-
pecunious, but possessed of unlimited assur-
ance, and they had acquired more or less ex-
perience through the booming of other towns.
Many of these came from Kansas and Iowa,
where booms had been in progress for several
years ; and the tactics that had been used with

.■;30 History of Los Angeles.

success-in the middle west were now employed
on the Pacific coast. These were the men
who committed, or were the cause of, most of
the follies and the frauds of the boom. Few
of them achieved any permanent success. The
great majority left the city when the episode
was over, and are now utterly lost to view.

The opportunity for speculation within the
city limits was limited, and there was too
much that was solid and tangible in the ac-
tual advance of values to make the field at-
tractive to the imaginative promoter. The
real absurdities of the boom were not perpe-
trated in Los Angeles city property, which
advanced for the most part in a steady, even
ratio and did not fall back perceptibly when
the influx of new people was checked. One
evidence of this shows in the assessment of
the years during and after the boom. In 1886,
before the advance had well begun, the
city was assessed at $18,000,000. In 1887 it
rose to $28,000,000. In 1888 it was $39,000,-
000, in 1889, $46,000,000. By this time the
boom was at an end, but the next year the
city showed $49,000,000. In 1891 it was $46,-
000,000. A variation of 6 per cent, which is
all that shows between the heights of the
boom and the lowest year following it, may
safely be attributed to a change of assessors.
Such variations frequently occur. The ad-
vance of values halted for a few years, but
there was no "reaction" or falling back.

But the county outside of the city shows a

The Epoch of the Boom. 331

different side to the story. Here, and in
Southern CaUfornia generally, was where the
professional operator and the crazy, irre-
sponsible "boomer" held full sway. Farm
property which had been worth $20 or $30 an
acre, and which under favorable conditions of
improved railway connection and a larger
home market might be worth $100 an acre,
was exploited as orange land that would yield
$1000 an acre per annum in that fruit, and was
sold at from $300 to $500. Some of it was cut
up into "choice villa" tracts, and, with some
trifling improvements, and a good deal of
boasting about its "view," was sold at $800 to
$1000 an acre. But the promoter's swiftest
road to fortune lay in the townsite. From
Los Angeles city to the San BernardiiV) coun-
ty line is thirty— six miles, and in this distance
twenty-five townsites were laid out. As they
averaged over a mile square, it may be said
that the entire distance was one continuous
townsite. It was much the same with other
roads, and branches of roads, and projected
roads. A few of these towns were bona fide
railway stations, or farming district centers,
where there was a bare possibility of a moder-
ate growth with some small value to the in-
side lots, but in the great majority of cases
they were mere paper towns whose lots pos-
sessed no value whatever. The assessment
figures for the county outside the city show
what was happening in those years of folly.
In 1836, $32,000,000; in 1887 it nearly doubled,

332 History of Los Angeles.

$62,000,000 ; the next year $63,000,000. Then
came the awakening; in 1889 it was $47,000,-
000, and in 1890 it fell clear back to a figure
below that with which the boom had started,
$20,000,000. Here was where the only reac-
tion from the boom was to be found.

The money lost in this change of values —
which was not as much as it might seem from
these figures — came chiefly from inexperi-
enced people of limited means, of whom some
had just come to the country to settle, and
were talked into foolish investments, and
others were merely passing through the region
as tourists, and thought to profit in a little
speculation. Incredible as it may seem, the
lots in the silly towns were nearly all sold.
One scoundrel disposed of $50,000 worth of
lots in towns located on the top of the moun-
tains where in all probability no human foot
will ever tread. Many Los Angeles people
were tempted into unwise speculations, but
few of them were permanently injured in the
affair. Enormous amounts of money changed
hands. The recorded real estate transfers of
1887 aggregated $100,000,000, and probably
not more than half the operations of the year
were ever entered up. There is no real estate
boom in history that is to be compared with
this, either in gross magnitude or in sudden
contrasts of values. We have noted in vari-
ous other instances that when Los Angeles
has undertaken to accomplish a thing, it has
done the work very thoroughly.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THK EKORGANIZATION.

HE boom folly touched high-water
mark in the summer of 1887, and it
came to a sudden end late in the fall
of that same year. Some of the real
estate brokers of that period claim to
be able to locate the exact day and almost the
hour when the tide turned, and eagerness to
buy was suddenly replaced by a wild frenzy
to sell at any price. There was, however, no
single event that formed the dividing line be-
tween the rise and the fall. During the latter
months of the boom time, the banks of Los
Angeles, which had — let it be recorded to
their credit — exercised great caution through
the whole episode, began to refuse to loan
money on property outside the city, no mat-
ter what its supposed value, and to use as
their basis of valuation for city property its
price before the boom. Presently it became
almost impossible to obtain money from the
banks for real estate transactions of any kind.
There was no combination among them, but
the leading financier of the city, Mr. I. W.
Hellman, marked out an ultra conservative
policy for the bank over which he presided,
and the others were entirely willing to follow
his lead. Perhaps this of itself and alone

334 History of Los Angeles.

might not have sufficed to smash the boom ;
but as the winter months approached, and the
crowd of easterners that was expected failed
to appear, the courage of those who had been
holding up the market began to ebb, and they
started out quietly to unload. In a short time
everybody was unloading, and then there was
no more boom.

The non-appearance of the eastern tourists,
who had for three years filled the hotels to
overflowing, was a matter of profound aston-
ishment to the Southern Californians. The
latter had made great preparation for the en-
tertainment of their guests by constructing a
number of huge wooden hotels in inaccessible
places all over the region. Finally it began to
dawn on the people of Los Angeles that cli-
mate alone would not permanently attract
people of the tourist class. The entertain-
ment of guests is a business that must be
practiced with shrewdness and diligence. The
first essential is good hotels, of which South-
ern California had none at that time. Other
essentials are facilities for pleasant traveling
about and opportunity for sport and entertain-
ment. Now Southern California at the time
of the boom was not a pleasant place to visit,
although the boom itself was a curiosity well
worth seeing. The climate was on its best be-
havior during the winters of 1886-87 and 1887-
88, and the weather was perfect, but that was
about all there was to be said in favor of the

The Reorganization. 335

country. Tourists are, for the most part, peo-
ple of wealth, and it is their happy privilege
to indulge in fads, which they may change as
often as they choose. Southern California was
for two seasons a fad. The moment it became
common, and "everybody" was going there, it
was dropped and forgotten. Not until nearly
ten years later did the tourists begin to come
again in large crowds. At the present time
their number is probably several times as
great as that of the liveliest year of the boom.
There were, however, others besides tour-
ists who had been coming to Los Angeles.
These were the people that proposed to make
their homes in Southern California. The fail-
ure of the real estate boom was not a matter
that concerned them very deeply. They were
attracted by the climate or by the horticul-
tural possibilities of the region. The south-
ern counties had a population of 64,000 in
1880, which by 1890 had increased to 201,000.
Here were 137,000 new people, mostly from
the states of the middle west, full of energy
and courage, and entirely equal to the task
of conquering the arid wilderness. Irrigation
systems were established, and hundreds of
thousands of fertile acres set to trees. By
1890 the citrus fruit crop had grown to nearly
a million boxes, yielding the growers over a
dollar a box on the tree. Deciduous fruits,
nuts, olives, wine and raisin grapes were
planted, the area in wheat and barley in-

336 History of Los Angeles.

creased greatly, small fruits were grown and
canneries started up, and presently a beet su-
gar factory began operations on a large scale.
Of all this farming country, Los Angeles was
the commercial center and the chief depot of
supplies.

Los Angeles had now suddenly changed
from a very old city to a very young one. Its
population in 1880 was 11,000 and in 1890 was
50,000. Of this latter number, it may safely
be estimated that more than three-fourths had
not been living in the city more than four
years. People who had come to Los Angeles
in the 70's, and had been accustomed to re-
gard themselves as new-comers, suddenly dis-
covered that they were in the class of old set-
tlers, and that they and others of earlier
epochs had shrunk to an insignificant minor-
ity. Just as the Spaniards had wrenched the
country away from the aboriginal tribes, and
as the first Americans had succeeded in shoul-
dering the Californians out of the control of
affairs, so now this overwhelming horde of
new arrivals took possession of the land, and
proceeded to make things over to their own
tastes. There was some confusion at first,
but in a surprisingly short space of time a re-
adjustment was effected, with the new-comers
very completely in the saddle. Their pur-
chases of business and residence property
were largely to the southwest of the center
of the city, and a great building activity be-

The Reorganization. 337

gan in that direction. When the boom was
coming to an end, the paving of streets was
begun; for up to that time the business por-
tion was deep in mud through the winter
months and in dust through the summer.
There had been a small sewer system which
did not extend beyond Fifth street. It was
first extended piece by piece over the business
district, and out to Tenth street, and then by
a huge bond issue it was made to take in near
ly the whole of the residence section as well.
The new city hall on Broadway and the court-
house on the hill were both begun just at the
close of the boom, and a few years later the
federal building was constructed.

Up to 1888 the street car system of the
city consisted of a few decrepit horse cars on
rather rickety tramways. In that year a con-
solidation of most of the independent sys-
tems was effected, and work was begun on
the construction of a cable plant with three
large power houses. In 1890 an electric sys-
tem was built, which was finally consolidated
with the cable and all put under electricity.
The last horse car disappeared from the city
in 1897, when the Main street line, which had
not been part of the consolidation, adopted
the new power. In 1898 the syndicate that
controls the street car systems of San Fran-
cisco purchased the Los Angeles lines, with
the exception of the system owned by W. S.
Hook and the Temple street line, and made

338 History of Los Angeles.

many improvements. The city at present en-
joys the privilege of genuine street car com-
petition, and its residence section is thor-
oughly covered with branch lines, both sys-
tems being admirably managed.

In 1888 the people of Los Angeles became
much elated at the prospect of securing a new
transcontinental line to the east through Salt
Lake City. A franchise was secured for a
railway to run along the east bank of the river,
which, it was announced, was to provide the
Union Pacific with terminal facilities, it be-
ing the intention of that road to build across
Nevada to Los Angeles. The line from Salt
Lake City was begun and carried through
Utah, but a change occurring in the manage-
ment and policy of the Union Pacific, the
plan was abandoned and the hope of a Salt
Lake connection was deferred for twelve
years. The franchise for a road along the
east bank was taken up by a party of St. Louis
capitalists, who built a system running from
Pasadena and Glendale through the city to
San Pedro, which they called the Terminal.
This system was sold in 1900 to Senator W.
A. Clark, who is now constructing the line
from Salt Lake to Los Angeles. It is be-
lieved that the connection will be established
within two years of the present writing
(1901).

During and immediately after the time of
the boom, numerous branch lines were con-

The Reorganization. 339

structed by the Santa Fe and Southern Pa-
cific throughout the whole region of South-
ern CaHfornia. Most important of these were
the direct line to San Diego along the coast,
which was completed by the Santa Fe in 1891,
and the line to Santa Barbara of the Southern
Pacific, which was built in 1887. The latter
has since been made part of a through line
by the coast connecting San Francisco and
Los Angeles. Both these two transcontinen-
tal systems' which, before the boom, were
housed in Los Angeles in wretched little
sheds, are now provided with large, well built
depots ; that of the Southern Pacific was built
in 1888, and that of the Santa Fe m 1893.

Thus the material welfare of the city, from
whatever point it is examined, will be found
to have greatly benefited through the boom.
On the social and moral side, however, there
was at first the appearance of a decided loss.
Among the new people who came to the city
during the height of the boom, the speculative
and adventurous class, while not in the ma-
jority perhaps as far as numbers went, were
always the most conspicuous. They lost no
time in asserting themselves in all public and
social matters, and for a time something like
anarchy prevailed. Here were 40,000 or 50,-
000 people suddenly gathered together from
all parts of the Union, in utter ignorance of
one another's previous history. A great
amount of money was passing rapidly from

340 History of Los Angeles.

hand to hand, and a great city was in embryo.
It was the golden opportunity of the fakir and
humbug and the man with the past that he
wanted forgotten. The native CaHfornian
and the early pioneer were hospitable, large
hearted and unsuspicious. They were for a
time easy prey, but having been repeatedly
imposed upon, they became doubtful of all
new-comers. Commercial and social life in
Los Angeles during the later 8o's was full
of startling uncertainties. The man with
whom you were doing business every day
might be an ex-convict — or he might be one
whom the stripes were destined to ornament
some time in the future. The people who had
bought the house across the street might be
man ied — or they might have neglected that
formality, owing to the existence of prior
partnerships "back east." A man who came
within one vote of being elected chief of po-
lice is now in the California penitentiary for
life. Another, who was concerned in many
of the largest boom enterprises, has since
served two penitentiary terms in other states.
Another who was a bank president and the
owner of a daily paper, recently fled out of
the Union with the police at his heels. One
who occupied a popular pulpit in Los An-
geles during the boom has since become fam-
ous as a professional polygamist — confiding
widows with money being his specialty. The
list of swindlers, embezzlers and confidence

The Reorganization. 341

men of that period would be a long one, if
anybody should undertake to set it forth in
full.

Immediately at the close of the boom the
sifting out process began. The professional
scalawags left of their own accord when the
field was found to be worked out. The un-
professional ones were easily detected and
disposed of. The adventurers and adventur-
esses and the people with the scaly records
met the usual fate of their kind — they be-
trayed themselves and were found out. Grad-
ually a new society was formed, a little colder
and more discriminating, perhaps, than that
of the first pioneers, but felicitous in its com-
bination of the old and new elements. The
morals of the city which had gone back a
few degrees during the confusion of the boom
were brought up to the standard of the best
American cities. In 1889 the gambling houses
were all closed, and a couple of years later a
Sunday closing ordinance for saloons went
into effect. Poker dens, where strangers were
taken in and fleeced, continued for some
years, but they are now so thoroughly under
the ban that they are operated only with
great secrecy and on a small scale. The Sun-
day closing law was evaded for a time, but
at present it is very thoroughly enforced.
During the boom, when the city had a pop-
ulation of 50,000, the county jail averaged 250
to 300 occupants. Ten years later, with a

342 History of Los Angeles.

population twice as large, the jail averaged
less than loo occupants — a most remarkable
contrast.

In the early 8o's the subject of state divis-
ion was agitated anew, chiefly because the
laws that dealt with riparian rights were
suited to the needs of the miners of the north
rather than to the irrigationists of the south.
It was contended that the interests of the two
sections of the state were so radically differ-
ent that a separation must be effected. In
1881 a mass meeting was held in Los Angeles
at which a report was drawn up in the shape
or a series of questions addressed to the leading
attorneys of the city, asking them what steps
were necessary to bring about the division.
The reply, signed by eight attorneys, was to
the effect that the action taken by the legisla-
ture in 1859, followed as it was by the favor-
able vote of the southern counties, was still
in effect, and that the new territory could
proceed to organize and ask for admission to
the Union. A circular was then issued call-
ing for delegates from each county to meet
in convention at Los Angeles, September 8,
1881. This gathering came together on the
appointed date, all of the counties being rep-
resented. Resolutions were passed favoring
state division, but it was decided to take no
active steps until the population of the new
district was large enough to insure its recep-
tion as a state. In 1888 the subject was again

The Reorganization. 343

called up in a mass meeting at Hazard's pa-
vilion in Los Angeles, and General Vandever,
who represented the -Sixth district in con-
gress, introduced a bill attempting a division
of the state. The meeting was slimly attend-
ed, and little enthusiasm was shown. The
Vandever bill was never reported back from
committee.

September 5, 1881, the founding of the city-
was celebrated with a great procession which
circled the plaza, much as the procession of
De Neve had done 100 years before. The
5th was taken instead of the 4th through the
erroi' of a local historian.

The mayors of the period from 1880 to
1890 were: J. R. Toberman, 1879-1882; C. E.
Thorn, 1883-4; E. F. Spence, 1885-6; W. H.
Workman, 1887-8 ; John Bryson, four months
in 1889; H. T. Hazard, 1889-1892.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE MODERN CITY.

HE decade from 1890 to 1900 was one
of steady, even growth and develop-
ment for Los Angeles, the population
increasing from 50.000 to 102,000,
and the assessed valuation of prop-
erty advancing from $50,000,000 to $70,000,-
000. The wave of hard times which swept
over the Union in 1893-6 did not pass by Los
Angeles, but its ravages were not serious.
One advantage that the city derives from its
somewhat isolated position is that of com-
parative independence in its commercial in-
terests. Hard times affected the market value
of some Southern California products and di-
minished the amount of tourist travel ; four
banks in the city closed their doors in the
panic of 1893, one of which failed disgrace-
fully; another retired from business with
honor and credit, and the other two soon re-
sumed with new strength. There were sev-
eral mercantile failures, none of them of any
considerable size. For a time the city was
worried by the presence of a number of un-
employed men, chiefly in the building trades.
In 1895, in spite of the hard times, the build-
ing permits had aggregated $5,000,000, and
great numbers of workmen were attracted to
the only city in the Union that seemed to be

The Modern City. 345

holding its own. The next year the permits
fell to $2,700,000 and in 1898 they were only
$2,100,000. As times were still bad all over
the country, the men thus thrown out of em-
ployment were unable to get away, and pro-
vision had to be made for them. Funds were
raised by public subscription, and the men
w( re put to work on the parks. Business gen-
erally, however, held its own fairly well
through this troublous time. In 1892, before
the panic, the bank clearances for the year
were $39,000,000. In 1893 they were $45,000,-
000. In 1894 they were $44,000,000, in 1895,
$57,000,000; in 1896, $61,000,000. This shows
how the city continued to expand, in spite
of the bad times.

An important event in the industrial de-
velopment of the region was the establish-
ment of the present chamber of commerce of
Los Angeles in 1888. This institution differs
somewhat from those that bear a similar name
in other cities, in the extent and variety of
the work it undertakes. Its membership is
not confined to men in active business, but
includes all who are interested in the advance-
ment of the city. It has 1000 members, and
almost from its inception has been endowed,
through the far-sighted liberality of the
wealthy and progressive men of the city, with
sufficient funds to carry on an active cam-
paign of advertising and of local development.
The chamber's first meetings were held in

346 History of Los Angeles.

the old board of trade building on First and
Broadway, which has since been torn down.
In 1889 a permanent exhibit of Southern Cal-
itornia products was opened over the Mott
market on Main street, between First and
Second. In 1894 the organization moved to
its present quarters at Fourth and Broadway,
in a building designed especially for its use.
i^ecently it purchased a piece of property on
Broadway, between First and Second streets,
where its permanent home will probably be
erected during the coming year.

When the chamber of commerce began
work, which was just at the close of the boom,
the industrial conditions of the region were
in very bad shape. The city had entirely out-
grown the country ; the farming land had been
overrun with townsites ; much of it was in
the hands of non-residents, who were holding
it for speculation instead of for use ; and so
large a percentage of those actually engaged
in husbandry were either ignorant of the
whole 9rt or were utterly inexperienced as
to local conditions of soil and climate, that
the results were far from satisfactory. A
primary object of the chamber in the estab-
lishment of the display of local products was
to enable the farmers to compare their work
and thus gain by one another's experience in
this new strange country. For this same pur-
pose citrus fairs were held during the years
from 1890 to 1895. One of these fairs, that of

The Modem City. 347

1891, was sent to Chicago and exhibited to an
attendance of 120,000 people in the old expo-
sition building" on the lake front. These fairs
and the display made at Chicago in the Co-
lumbian exposition helped to stimulate orange
culture, and to regulate and improve the in-
dustry. Other lines of horticulture and of
farming were encouraged and assisted, and at
the end of a few years the industrial situation
had been reorganized on a substantial basis.
Manufacturing had begun in various lines
that were allied to the agricultural develop-
ment— beet sugar, fruit canning and crystalliz-
ing, making of pipe for irrigation, etc.

A great amount of work was done by the
chamber of commerce in makmg the possibil-
ities of the Southern California region known
in the eastern states with a view to attracting
immigration ; and the extraordinary increase
in population during the decade from 1890 to
1900, an increase that is still actively in prog-
ress, shows how successfully the designs were
carried out. This advertising w^as of all kinds,
the distribution of printed matter, the use of
space in magazines and newspapers, and. most
important of all, the sending of large and
striking exhibits to the great fairs of the coun-
try. At the Columbian exposition in Chicago
in 1893, the Midwinter fair in San Francisco
in 1894, the Cotton expositon in Atlanta in
1896, the Transmississippi exposition at Oma-
ha in 1898 and the Pan-American at Buffalo

348 History of Los Angeles.

in 1901, the chamber had independent exhib-
its that attracted wide attention. It also par-
ticipated on a smaller scale in numerous dis-
plays in Europe and America.

No new railways were constructed into
Los Angeles during this period, but an event
of great commercial significance was the be-
ginning of work on the deep-water harbor at
San Pedro. As the original project for the
improvement of the inner harbor for vessels
of light draft drew toward its completion, ag-
itation began for the construction of a seawall
from Point Fermin out into the exterior bay,
to protect an area which could be used as a
harbor for the largest ocean going vessels.
The total sum expended on the interior im-
provement was about $900,000, and the depth
of water attained would admit vessels draw-
ing seventeen and eighteen feet. It was, and
is, used chiefly for the lumber and coal trade
of the coast, but was not practicable for the
ocean commerce that was seeking outlet and
inlet through this region. There being no
deep-water harbor nearer than San Francisco
on the north — 500 miles — and San Diego on
the south — 100 miles — there was need of a
harbor of refuge and a harbor of naval neces-
sities at this point. The engineering author-
ities of the government conceded the justice
of the claim, and in 1891 a report was sub-
mitted to congress by a board of army en-
gineers appointed to examine the coast from

The Modern City. 349

Orange county to Santa Barbara, with a view
to determining the best point for the construc-
tion of a harbor, and this report was une-
quivocally in favor of San Pedro.

In 1892 the first efifort was made to secure
an appropriation from congress to begin the
work, but it was defeated through the declara-
tion of the chief engineer of the Southern Pa-
cific that no harbor could ever be constructed
at San Pedro. It was decided to appoint a
special commission of five eminent army en-
gineers to review the work of the first board
and report on the comparative merits of Santa
Monica, Redondo and San Pedro. This body
visited the locality and made a thorough in-
vestigation, and their report was in favor of
San Pedro. But the Southern Pacific was
still not satisfied, claiming that the war de-
partment had favored San Pedro chiefly
through a desire to be consistent. All efforts
to secure an appropriation for that place were
resisted, and for several years the commercial
men of the city were divided into two camps,
for Santa Monica with the Southern Pacific,
and for San Pedro against the Southern Pa-
cific.

Finally, in 1896, a bill was introduced in
the house of representatives appropriating
$2,900,000 for a deep-water harbor at Santa
Monica. There was a general feeling among
the people of Los Angeles that the interest of
the Southern Pacific in the Santa Monica

350 History of Los Angeles.

project was because a harbor there would
be exclusively controlled by that corporation,
whereas a harbor at San Pedro would be
open to competition. The Terminal road,
which had extensive holdings at San Pedro,
and the Santa Fe road, which was believed to
be disinterested except in so far as the ques-
tion of location might affect the general wel-
fare of the region, were both determined in
their opposition to the Santa Monica plan, as
were also the two senators of the state and
the congressman of the district. So many pro-
tests from authoritative sources against the
proposed improvement were forwarded to
Washington, accompanied by demands that it
be changed to San Pedro, that the item was
struck out of the house bill, and Los Angeles
was left, as in previous years, with no appro-
priation for deep-water work. When the mat-
ter came up in the senate, Stephen M. White,
who was a resident of Los Angeles, and a
member of the senate committee on commerce,
demanded that the money be appropriated for
San Pedro, and when that was refused, that
the whole question of location be left to a
third board of engineers, one of whom should
be from the navy, one from the coast survey
and the other three from civil life. The com-
merce committee refused this compromise,
and put back in the bill the appropriation for
Santa Monica. The fight was then carried to
the floor of the senate, and at the end of a

The Modern City. 351

long struggle, Mr. White's plan was adopted.
The new board reported in favor of San Pe-
dro, and the work was begun in 1899, after
two years of most extraordinary and unac-
countable delay.

When this work, which is the construction
of a seawall 8500 feet long, is completed, Los
Angeles will have at its ocean gateway a
harbor that is admirably adapted for refuge
and for most naval necessities, and is not with-
out great value for commercial purposes ; but
to make it entirely serviceable for the latter
it will be necessary to dredge out the inner
harbor for several thousand feet along the
docks. When that is done Los Angeles will
possess one of the finest harbors in the coun-
try, and will take its share of the Oriental com-
merce that is destined to come to the Pacific
coast.

The bank deposits of Los Angeles, which
before the boom were $3,000,000 or $4,000,-
000, rose during the boom to $12,000,000; for
a brief time they fell back to $9,000,000, but
since then the rise has been almost continuous,
until now they aggregate about $25,000,000.
Annual clearances are now 400 per cent larger
,than they were ten years ago, which is a strik-
ing evidence of the growth of general business.
The orange industry, which had its start in
the orchard of William Wolfskill in Los An-
geles in the 50's, has grown to mammoth pro-
portions. To deliver the crop in the east a

352 History of Los Angeles.

trainload must start every hour of the work-
ing day through more than half the year. The
gross receipts in the eastern market aggregate
about $15,000,000. The region covered by
this industry extends from San Diego to Santa
Barbara, but most of the area is commercially
tributary to Los Angeles. The oil industry
of Southern California also centers at Los An-
geles, the product averaging three or four
millions per annum, most of which is mined
in the immediate vicinity of the city. In the
years 1899 and 1900 Los Angeles passed
through a veritable oil boom, with a vast
amount of trading in securities of doubtful
value. The sinking of many hundred wells
stimulated manufacturing and business of all
kinds, and although the first enthusiasm of
the discovery has worn off, the industry is
believed to be only in its beginning.

The other principal sources of income to
Los Angeles, besides the two mentioned
above, are : Its wholesale trade, which covers
all Southern California, most of Arizona and
extends well into the San Joaquin valley, the
miscellaneous products of surrounding farms,
such as hay, grain, vegetables, fruits, etc., the
local manufactures, which since oil has been
supplied as a cheap fuel, have undergone a
great increase, the expenditure of travelers,
who are entertained by tens of thousands
every winter, and lastly, a great amount of
money brought in by the never-ending stream

The Modern City. 353

of new-comers. These are people whose pur-
pose it is to make their homes in Los Angeles ;
they buy property and build houses and put
money into new enterprises for the develop-
ment of the country. As long as the climate
holds good, this source of supply seems likely
to be limitless. It must be noted, moreover,
that Los Angeles contains a large element of
the retired class, whose incomes are spent in
the city, but are derived from investments in
the eastern states.

In the midst of the boom Los Angeles
adopted a new charter (1889), but the docu-
ment was faulty in providing too many elec-
tive offices and in failing to definitely locate
responsibility. The city government, while
far from bad, is by no means up to the stand-
ard that the city is entitled to enjoy, consid-
ering the unusual character of its population.
There is no such percentage of foreign ele-
ment as is to be found in most American cities,
neither is there an illiterate or impoverished
element. On the other hand, the exception-
ally large proportion of people of comfortable
means who have the time that they might
devote to the duties of citizenship, gives an op-
portunity such as few cities enjoy for a high
quality of local government. Three attempts
have been made to give the city a new and
adequate charter, but all have been defeated.

The mayors of the city during the latter
period were: T. E. Rowan, 1892-4; Frank
Rader, 1894-6; M. P. Snyder, 1896-8; Fred

354 History of Los Angeles.

Eaton, 1898-1900, and M. P. Snyder at the
present time. On national and state issues tne
city is generally Republican, although througn
a combination of silver Republicans and Dem-
ocrats Mr. Bryan's forces carried the city in
1896, while the county went the other way by
a small majority. In 1900 both city and coun-
ty went heavily Republican. In local elec-
tions. Democrat and Republican alternate in
the office of mayor, while the majority of the
council is almost always Republican.

At the present writing, the summer of 1901,
the city is growing with greater rapidity than
at any time in its history, if we except the one
or two years of the boom, when it added a
hundred per cent every few months. That
the population of 100,000 in 1900 is compound-
ing at the rate of 10 per cent per annum the
school census shows clearly enough, and the
increase of business is on even a greater ratio
than that of population. The southwestern
region of the United States will support at
least one great city, and all doubt as to where
that city will be located is now at an end. The
little pueblo that Governor De Neve founded
120 years ago, in order that grain for the army
might be raised in California instead of im-
ported from Mexico, has at last grown to be
the active, prosperous city of his dreams. That
it should some day become one of the great
metropolitan centers of the nation is not a
dream, but the natural outgrowth of existing
conditions.

I N D e: X .

PAGE

Abila, incarnation 228

Alarcon 21

Alexander, D. W 167, 240, 296, 306

Alexander, Ramon 297

Alvarado, Javier 121

Alvarado, Juan Bautista 142 to 145, 155, 169, 177, 234

Alvitre, Sebastian 97

Anza 61

Arguello, Jose 97, 98

Arguello, Luis 134, 136, 138, 148, 212

Arg-uello, Santiago 234

Arizona 175, 190, 217, 248, 269, 352

Arrillago, Joaquin de 117, 118, 124

Avila, Jose Maria 140

Ayuntamiento 134, 237, 238

Baker, R. S 164

Bandini, Arcadia 164

Bandini, Juan 139, 164, 212, 221, 234

Banning, Phineas 276, 296, 306, 317

Barton, Sheriff 284, 285

Bear Flag Incident 198 to 201

Beaudry, Prudent 308, 318, 320

Boom Times 322 to 342

Borica 104, 111, 112, 113, 129

Boscana 13

Bouchard 124, 125

Bouchette, lyouis 165

Boundaries of Ivos Angeles 70, 257, 267

Boyle Heights 305

Branciforte 60, 111, 112, 113, 117

Bucareli 60

Burnett, Peter H 256

Business Blocks in Los Angeles 163, 165, 243, 283, 287,
289, 291, 295, 305, 319

Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez 22, 24, 26

Cahuenga 11, 44, 121, 145, 230, 266, 321

356 Index,

PAGE

California....l9 to 21, 39, 62, 64, 66, 68 to 71, 87, 100, 102,
106, 113, 114, 116, 125, 127, 131, 135 to 145,
147, 152, 156 to 158, 160, 161, 190, 200, 207,
212, 246 to 256, 300

Cambon 53, 75

Camels for freighting- 297

Camino Real 105

Cannon, The Historic 210

Capital at L,os Angeles 173, 174

Carlos III 32, 59, 68

Carpenter, I^emuel 166

Carrillo, Carlos Antonio 144

Carrillo, Dona Josefa 172

Carrillo, Joaquin 172

Carrillo, Jose Antonio....l34, 139, 173, 214, 215, 229, 236,

260, 305

Carson, Kit 207, 217, 220

Castro 195, 200 to 206

Catalina 119,164,175, 302

Cathedral 305

Cattle Trade 185, 299, 303

Cerritos Ranch 305

Chamber of Commerce of L^os Angeles... 16, 316, 345 to

348

Chapman, " Ijl Ingles" 56, 125, 158, 159, 160

Childs, O.W 295

Chico, Mariano 141, 142, 143

Chinese Massacre 285 to 288

Chinigchinich 12

Chino, Battle of 209

Chino Ranch 166

Church of Our Lady 78, 85, 132, 133, 159, 160, 172

Clearwater 11

Colonial System of Spain 57, 58, 113, 114, 135

Colorado 248

Colorado River 21, 61, 72, 73, 74

Comisionado 84, 99, 121, 134

Constitutional Convention 255

Cooke, P. St, George 245, 236

Confirmation Controversy 107, 108

Coronel, A. F 244, 272, 293

Index. 357

PAGE

Coronel, Ignacio 272

Cortes, Hernando 19 to 21

Cota, Guillermo 134, 135

Crespi 43, 44, 47, 51

Croix, Marques de 36

Croix, Teodoro de 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 73, 93, 106, 108

Dana, R. H 166

Danube, Brig 164

Davidson, J. W 228, 241

Dead Man's Island 210

De Barri 61

Del Valle, Ignacio 244

Del Valle, R. F 244

De Neve, Felipe 46, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69,

70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 80, 84, 86,
100, 101, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110,
111, 343, 354

Division of State 300,342

Domingo, Juan 164

Dominguez, Cristobal 86

Dominguez, Juan Jose 86, 115

Dominguez Ranch Battle 211, 214

Domin guez , Manuel 236

Dominicans 33

Downey, John G 295, 304, 306

Drake, Sir Francis 19, 24, 25

Dress of Californians 187, 188

Dryden, Wm 298

East Los Angeles 305, 318, 319

Echeandia, Jose Maria 138, 139, 148, 149, 162

El Clamor Publico 277

Elysian Park 44, 263

Encina Ranch 115

Explosion in Guard House..... 242 to 244

Fages, Pedro. ..40, 52, 54, 55, 60, 61, 74, 86, 97, 101, 107,
109, 111, 114, 157, 158

Farmers and Merchants Bank 210, 306

Felix, Vicente 97, 99, 100, 103

3S8 Index. "

FAGB

Ferg-usot3, Jesse 162

Fermin, Point 112, 348

Ferrelo 24

Figueroa, Jose 141, 146, 151

Fitch, Henry 172, 173

Flaco, Juan 209

Flag-, First American 222

Floods 132, 303, 304

Flores, General 210, 214, 215, 224, 226, 229, 242

Flugge, Chas 224

Forster, Juan 167

Fort Moore 228, 240, 241, 242, 266

Foster, Stephen C...159, 238, 239, 241, 255, 274, 284, 293

Founding of Ivos Angeles 75

Franciscans.... 33, 34, 48, 59, 60, 61, 62, 67, 87 to 96, 109,
110, 112, 131, 146 to 156

Fremont, John C 194 to 200, 203, 206, 207, 216, 224,

229 to 235, 256, 298

Galvez, Jose de..36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 62, 64

Garfias 212, 244

Gillespie, A. H..197, 206 to 211, 214, 217, 218. 220, 227, 233

Gilroy, John 158

Gold, Discoveries 252, 253, 254, 296, 302

Golden Hind 24

Goller, John 294

Griffin, John S 219, 220, 305, 308, 309

Griffith Park 264

Groningen, John 164

Guinn, J. M, 241 and preface

Gutierrez 142, 143

Gwin, W. M 236, 256, 300

Hale, Edward Everett 20

Hancock, Henry 293

Hancock, W. S 301

Hansen, Geo 305

Hartnell, Wm. E. P 155

Hayward, A. & Co., Bank 306

Hayes, Benjamin 244

Hemp-Growing 119, 120

Index. 359

PAGB

Henley, Capt 222

Herrera 139

Hotels in Lbs Angeles 206, 297, 302, 305, 325

Hunter, J. D 295

Ide, Wm. B 199

Indians ...9 to 17, 23, 42, 44, 47, 48, 49. 51, 54, 55, 62, 67,
73, 89 to 96, 102, 104, 107, 110, 120, 148 to 156,
159, 664, 166, 177. 181, 183, 282, 283
Iturbide 122, 125

Jackson, Mrs. Helen Hunt 91

James, Philip 158

Jesuits 28, 33

Johnson, Capt 218

Johnson, Santiago 166

Jones, Commodore 192, 194

Jones, J. P 314

Judges of the Plain 184

Kearney, Stephen W 216 to 235, 247

Kino 30, 31

Ivandmarks Club 88

Land Titles 79, SO, 97, 114, 176, 182, 259, 260, 261, 262

La Paz 20, 25, 39

Larkin, Thos. 0 194, 234

Las Sergas de Esplandian 19

Lasuen, Fermin Francisco 112

Laughlin, Richard 162

Leandry, J. D 163

Leese, Jacob P 166

Lelia Byrd 118

Loreto 36, 39, 43, 50, 51, 62, 68, 72, 82

Los Angeles & Independence Ry 314

Los Angeles County 244, 318, 331

Los Angeles River 46, 64, 121, 132

Los Diablos 169

Los Nietos 141

Lower California 10, 30, 36, 61, 62, 70

Lynchings 280, 284

360 Index.

FAGS

Marshall, John W 253

Maria Juan 158

Marsh, John 166, 167

Mason, Col. R. B 234, 247, 250, 251, 252, 255

Masonic Order 292

Mayors of Los Angeles 293, 303, 320, 343, 354

McKinley, Santiago 165

McNamara, Eugene 205

Melius, Henry 166, 293

Mendell. G. H 317

Mendoza 21

Mervine 210

Mexico 18, 66, 68, 70, 102, 106, 113, 114, 122 to 125,

134 to 137, 144, 146, 147, 148, 150, 151, 160,
180, 181, 190, 200

Micheltorena, Emanuel 145, 192,193, 272

Merinda, Antonio 82, 83

Mission System 48, 51, 58, 59, 61, 62, 67, 73, 87 to 96,

104, 107, 109, 110, 123, 131, 146 to 156, 170

Moctezuma 169

Monterey. .26, 44, 46, 48, 49, SO, 51, 52, 53, 60, 62, 63, 65,
66, 124, 129, 130, 138 to 143, 158, 173, 174, 192,
193, 195, 196, 197, 200, 701, 202, 209, 212, 216,
235, 247, 255, 274

Moore, Capt 219, 220, 228, 241

Mormon Battalion 235, 236

Moulton, Elijah 212

Name of Eos Angeles 168

Nevada 248,269

New Albion 25

New Mexico 217, 248

" News" 278, 280, 302

Newspapers in Eos Angeles 275 to 278, 280, 281, 284,

290, 302, 319, 320

Nieto, Manuel 114

Nigger Alley 283, 286, 287

Nordhofif, Chas 327

Odd Fellows 292

Oil Industry 352

Index. 361

PAGE

Oran.s^es 165, 294, 304, 316, 326, 336, 351

Ord, E. C. 0 264, 265, 266, 267

Ortega 46, 125, 159

Osborne, Dr 295

Pacheco, Romualdo 140

Palmer, F. M 16

Palomares, Jose 134

Palou 35, 43

Pasadena 11, 47, 318, 338

Pastoral Age 179

Pattee, Sylvester and JamesO 162

Pena, Cosme 169, 177, 178

Phillip II 25, 28

Pico, Andres 214, 217, 229, 277, 285

Pico House 229, 260, 305

Pico, Jesus 216, 229

Pico, Pio...l39, 140, 145, 155, 172, 195, 201, 204, 205, 206,

242, 252

Pina, Maximo 130

Pious Fund 31, 32, 151

Plaza 44, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 84, 102, 132, 162

Polk, President 195, 249, 250

Pomona 313, 318

Population of Ivos Angeles.... 98, 102, 117, 126, 169, 270,

299, 310, 336, 344, 354

Porciuncula 46, 64

Portola, Caspar de 38, 39, 41, 43, 46, 48 to 52

Potts, J. W 318

Prentiss, Samuel 164

Presidential Elections Vote. ..298, 300, 302, 303, 320, 354

Prior, Nathaniel 162

Protestant Churches in Eos Angeles 289 to 291

Prudhomme, Eeon J 166

Puebla, Mexico 168

Pueblo System 57 to 60, 63, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 80, 97,

100, 103, 112, 126, 153, 257
Purisima 63, 87, 109, 110, 111, 131

Ramona 91

Rangers 284

362 Index.

PAGE

Reid, Hugo 166, 277

Revolutions- 136, 145

Reyes, Dona Inocentia 213

Reyes, Francisco 99, 100, 115

Rice, George 162

Riley, D. B 254

Rivera y Moncada 39, 41, 61, 62, 68 to 74, 107

Romeu, Jose Antonio Ill

Rowland, John 167

Round House 297

Russians 36, SO

Sacramento 194, 197, 202

Sainsevain, J. L, 308

Salt Lake 162, 297, 338

Salvatierra 30, 31

San Antonio (boat) 36, 40, 42, 50, 52, 53

San Antonio de Padua 53

San Bernardo 218, 312

San Buena Ventura 63, 87, 144

Sau Carlos (boat) 36, 39, 40, 41, 43

San Carlos Borromeo 51

San Diego... 23, 37, 41, 44, 47 to 50, 52, 53, 54, 60, 61, 62,
88, 104, 138, 139, 140, 144, 162, 204, 212, 216,
217, 218, 221, 222, 223, 232, 233, 235, 244,
325, 327, 339, 352

San Fernando 88, 112, 115, 121, 140, 144, 229, 298

San Fernando College 35, 53, 107, 108

San Francisco... 24, 25, 46, 60, 63, 65, 88, 208, 247, 255,
268, 296, 297, 302, 312, 313, 324, 339

San Francisco Solano 154

San Gabriel 11, 53, 54, 55, 72 to 75, 88, 89, 101, 104,

105, 140, 154, 160, 162, 166, 172, 213, 225

San Gabriel River 10, 54, 304

San Joaquin Valley 269, 296, 311, 452

Santa Inez 119

San Jose 60, 64, 65, 67, 68, 99, 104, 112, 113, 117, 202

San Jose (boat) 36, 43

San Juan Bautista 112, 196

San Juan Capistrano 62, 88, 120, 125, 131, 167

San Ivuis Obispo 60, 300

Index. 363

PAGE

San Luis Rey 88, 112, 235

San Miguel, island » 24

San Mig-uel 112

San Pasqual 216, 220, 241

San Pedro 10, 23, 105, 112, 118, 119, 160, 164, 166,

174, 175, 193. 203, 206, 210, 211, 215, 216,
296, 297, 317, 338, 348, 349, 350

San Pedro & Los Angeles Ry 306, 307, 308, 310

San Rafael 154

San Rafael Ranch 114

San Salvador 24

Santa Ana River 45, 53

Santa Barbara.... 24, 60, 63, 76, 87, 88, 109, 110, 111, 125,
139, 140, 158, 159, 212, 229, 327, 339,
352

Santa Clara 62, 64, 201

Santa Cruz 60, 111, 202

Santa F6 Ry 325, 327, 339, 350

Santa Maria 168

Santa Monica 314, 349, 350

Santiago, Felipe 158

Sarria 147

Schools in Los Angeles... 129, 130, 131, 272 to 274, 303,
320

Scott, Thos. A 311, 312

Seabird 296

Secularization of Missions 146 to 156

Sepulveda 99, 260

Serra, Junipero 34 to 52, 60 to 63, 87, 106 to 112

Serrano, Francisco 100

Settlers of Los Angeles 80 to 83, 85, 86, 98, 99, 128,

129

Ship building 160

Shorb, J. De Earth 316

Shubrick, Commodore 234

Sisters' Hospital 292

Slave labor of Indians 120, 152, 153

Sloat, Commodore 200 to 203

Smith, Jedediah S 162

Sola, Pablo Vicente de 124, 125, 129, 133, 134

Soledad Ill

364 Index.

PAGE

SoUs 139

Somera 53, 75

Sonoma 199, 202

Southern Pacific Railway 270, 271, 324, 328, 339,

349, 350

Spain 18, 25, 27, 29, 30, 45, 57, 64, 67, 70, 74,

106 to 125, 135, 146, 157, 179, 180

Spanish- American character 183

" Star " 275 to 277, 284, 291, 302

Stearns, Don Abel 139, 163, 164, 175, 177, 194, 239,

240, 253, 255, 293

Stevenson, J. B 236 to 240, 242,243, 251, 252

St. Francis of Assisi 33, 34, 46

Stockton, Commodore 196, 203, 204, 206, 207, 210,

213. 215, 216, 217, 221, 223
to 233

Street cars 319, 337

Streets of Los Angeles 9, 76 to 78, 80, 85, 103, 132,

162, 164, 228, 260, 265, 266,
267, 369, 274, 275, 283, 287,
290, 293, 297, 298, 305, 306,
319, 325, 337
St. Vincent's College 292

Telegraph to Los Angeles 302

Temple and Workman Bank 306, 315, 319

Temple, E. P. F 163, 167

Temple, John 162, 163, 239, 293, 306, 315

Terminal Ry 338,350

Texas 191, 247, 269

Texas Pacific Ry 311, 312, 324

Thompson, Robert 287

Tomlinson, J. L, 296

Treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo 247. 249

Trial by jury 251

Turnverein 292

Ugarte 31

UUoa 21

Utah 248,269

Varela, Serbulo 208, 209

Vallejo 199

Index. 365

PAGE

Vanegas, Jose 81, 99, 100

Vasquez, The Bandit 321

Verdugo, Mariana 99, 114

Victoria (boat) 24

Victoria, Manuel 139, 140, 141, 150

Vignes, Jean 165

Villa, Victoria 168

Viscaino, Sebastian 25, 26, 46

Waldemar, A 293

Warner, J. J 165, 166, 277

Water System 121, 298, 308, 309

White, Stephen M 350

Williams, Juan Isaac 166

Wilmington 10, 306, 308

Wilson, B. D 167, 209, 210, 215, 240, 244, 293

Wolfskin, Wm 165, 294, 316, 351

Woman's Gun 213,214, 230

Workman, Julian 224

Workman, Wm 167

Ximenes, Fortuno 20

Yang-na 9, 17, 44, 46, 51, 164

Yerba Buena 202, 246

Yorba, Antonio 114

Zalvidea 159

Zanja Madre 84

Zamorano 140

Zuniga, Jose 72

note:.- POINTS OF HISTORICAL
INTEREST.

The visitor to Ivos Angeles who reads this volume,
and who finds himself interested in the city's history,
should not fail to visit the exhibit room of the Cham-
ber of Commerce. In the gallery he will find the col-
lection of Indian artifects made by Dr. F. M. Palmer.
In a room of the gallery is the Coronel collection,
which is an admirable exposition of early Spanish-
American life. The interesting exhibit of the Pasa-
dena Art Loan Association will be found on the main
floor of the Chamber. At the County Court House
is the admirable collection of the Los Angeles His-
torical Society. It is hoped that some time all these
collections will be gathered into a fireproof library,
museum and art building, a conspicuous lack at the
present time in Los Angeles, that it remains for some
wealthy man to fill.

At the Court House may be seen two of the historic
cannon, near the Broadway entrance ; the other two
may be seen at the corner of Commercial and North
Main streets. The Plaza should be visited, and the
Church of Our Lady, facing the Plaza.

The Missions of San Gabriel, San Fernando and
San Juan Capistrano should be visited by the stranger
who is interested in the city's history. He should, in
conclusion, send a check for any sum from one dollar
up to Mr. Chas. P. Lummis, the President of the
Landmarks Club, the organization that is working
to preserve the old mission buildings from utter ruin.

If «

EXTRA ILLUSTRATION
OF CALIFORNIANA

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s$

«

5 At the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce may 5

9f be seen a number of examples of extra illustration *J

J( of books on California topics by the following au- jf

2 thors : Wm. Henry Bishop, Helen Hunt Jackson, ^

Jf Charles Dudley Warner, Jessie Benton Fremont, Jj

9f Eret Harte, Clarence King, John Muir, Charles tf

«f Frederic Holder, Margaret Collier Graham, Chas. ^^

J F. Lummis, Charles Dwight Willard. *

^ This -work is done with the sanction of the va- it

ff jt

ff rious publishing house*: Harper & Bros., Century j^

*: Co., Chas. Scribners' Sons, Houghton, Mifflin Co., jf

9 Little, Brown & Co., and Kingsley-Barnes & Neoner , 10

% Co. 3

i There are special exhibits of Ramona and of the 5

9f History of Los Angeles City. Jj

y For information concerning extra illustration and if

S binding for the above authors, address ^

» *

t( THE PASADENA EXHIBITION if

9f ASSOCIATION, «

a» Pasadena, Cal. it

' S

424^