Kern County CA Archives History - Books .....The White Man Comes 1934
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Book Title: Where Rolls The Kern

CHAPTER II. 
The White Man Comes.

   PRESENT-DAY historians appear to be quite generally agreed that the first
wbite man cast eyes on the area we now know as Kern County in 1772, when Don
Pedro Fages, Acting Governor of Alta California, came from the South in search
of soldiers who had deserted from the Spanish Army; but there is a possibility
that this is at variance with the facts. There is no question about Fages having
made the trip, but there is a question in regard to him having been the first
white man to enter the territory.

   Mr. Jesse Stockton, teacher of history in the Kern County Union High School
in Bakersfield, who has devoted long and pains-taking study to the history of
this particular period, states that comparatively recently he has unearthed what
he regards as satisfactory-evidence that at least two of the deserters sought by
Fages actually did invade the area in question, and located, one of them taking
unto himself an Indian wife and establishing a family. Assuming this to be the
case, Fages was not the first white visitor, as has been generally supposed for
some years past.

   In any event, Don Fages' arrival is worth more than passing comment, and to
him must go the honor of bestowing the first Spanish place name in the valley.

   According to what appears to be the best information obtainable, Fages came
through what we today know as Grapevine Canyon, and as he emerged from the
canyon, he was amazed and delighted with the view that met his gaze, and
exclaimed, "Buena Vista!79 Thus he bestowed the first Spanish place name in the
entire San Joaquin Valley, and a name that continues to adhere to the county's
largest still body of water, and which in the meantime has been even more
importantly employed, as future chapters will reveal.

   The next visitor of whom we have any record was Francisco Garces, Spanish
Priest and Franciscan Friar, who was noted both as a missionary and as an
explorer. He arrived in 1776, and visited practically all sections of the
county, for both ecclesiastical and geographical purposes. He gave to what we
today know as the Kern River the name Rio de San Felipe.

   The next exploration expedition came in 1806 from Santa Barbara, via the
Cuyama Valley, and was headed by Fray Zalvidea. This expedition skirted Buena
Vista and Kern Lakes and traveled on up the Kern River, visiting all the Indian
rancherias en route, and departing via the Tehachapi Pass.

   The same year—1806—saw another expedition, headed by Moraga, pass through the
Buena Vista Basin. This expedition came from the North and kept to the foothills
of the Sierra Nevada.

   In 1815 Grandes Expediciones were sent from San Francisco and Santa Barbara
into the San Joaquin to capture fugitives from the various missions.

   In 1824 what is known as the First Expedition was sent to capture Indians who
had revolted and fled from the missions of Purisima, Santa Inez, Santa Barbara
and San Fernando. These Indians were located at San Emidio, South of Buena Vista
Lake. It is reported that a Russian was there instructing them in the use of
firearms. On April 9th and 11th battles were fought between the Spaniards and
the refugees—one near San Emidio and the other near Buena Vista Lake. The
casualties were few.

   There is a report that about this time the Indians killed an American in the
district, but there appears to be but little, if any, authenticity to this
report, for there is no record, apparently, of any American having invaded the
district at this early date.

   In the same year—1824—a second expedition was dispatched to the district.
This expedition was led by Portilla and apparently came from Santa Barbara via
Ventura, the Santa Clara River and the Tejon Pass to San Emidio, where he joined
the first party which had come in from San Miguel. Both parties returned via the
Cuyama Valley. The refugees whom they sought were reported to be comfortably
situated at San Emidio with plenty of cattle. From this time on to the present,
cattle raising has been an industry far from one of minor importance in Kern
County.

   Prior to this time an effort had been made by the Fathers of the mission at
Santa Barbara to establish an outpost in the San Joaquin Valley, and work had
been begun on a mission to be known as San Emidio Mission, in the canyon of the
same name, but their plans never came to full fruition. The remains of the
foundation for the proposed mission are still to be seen in the canyon.

   It was more than half a century from the time the first white man cast eyes
on the Kern County district before an American set foot on the same soil.

The first American to invade the area was that noted trapper, trader and
explorer, Jedediah Strong Smith, who came at the head of a small band in 1827,
the trip having been made up from San Gabriel Mission, in what is today Los
Angeles County.

   Some historians fix the year of the Smith party's arrival in the Southern San
Joaquin Valley as 1826; but this appears to be clearly in error. Harrison
Rogers, the clerk of the Smith party, kept a faithful and detailed daily journal
of the expedition's travels, and while portions of the journal are not to be
found, that for the latter part of 1826 is still in existence, and shows that
the party celebrated the dawn of the new year of 1827 at San Gabriel Mission,
and remained there several days thereafter before beginning the Northward journey.

   Smith was a fine, upstanding type of American citizen, and an able and
fearless trail blazer, whose story of adventures is well known to all lovers of
California history.

   Ewing Young, the head of a trapping party which numbered among its personnel
that celebrated scout, Christopher ("Kit") Carson—then a youth of little more
than twenty years of age—arrived in Kern County in 1830, arriving after a brief
sojourn at San Gabriel Mission, after making the trip overland from Toas, New
Mexico, where the party had been organized.

   In the chronicles of this party it is reported that men of the Hudson's Bay
Company were found trapping in the district. Reference is made to the scarcity
of beaver, but the abundance of elk, antelope, deer and other wild game, and
wild fowl are noted.

   The Young party spent considerable time trapping on what was then known to
the Mexicans as Rio Bravo, and what had been originally christened by Francisco
Garces as Rio de San Felipe, and what we today know as Kern River.

   The next trapper and explorer of note to head a party into the area not only
contributed his name to the list of place names, but discovered anew pass into
the district. He was Joseph Raddeford Walker—the discoverer of the well known
Walker Pass. He first came in 1833.

   Zenas Leonard, a member of Walker's party, gives an interesting account of
the terrible hardships and difficulties attending the discovery and first
negotiation of Walker Pass in a work entitled Narrative of the Adventures of
Zenas Leonard, of which 200 copies were printed and published by D. W. Moore, in
1839, in Clearfield, Pa., Leonard's native town. Both a photostatic copy and a
reprint of this highly interesting narrative are preserved in the Henry E.
Hungtington Library at San Marino. A reprint of this narrative is also to be
found in the library of the Kern County Union High School at Bakersfield.

   In commenting on Walker's selection as the head of the party to explore the
country toward the Pacific, Leonard says: "Mr. Walker was a man well calculated
to undertake a business of this kind. He was well hardened to the hardships of
the wilderness—and understood the character of the Indians very well—was kind
and affable to his men, but at the same time at liberty to command without
giving offence."

   In 1837 Buena Vista Basin seems to have been afflicted with an epidemic of
horse stealing, the thieving bands being composed jointly of Indians and
renegade Spaniards, who congregated the stolen animals from all parts of the
South in the Kern area, prior to driving them down across the border into Old
Mexico, where they were disposed of.

   It was in this same year of 1837 that Peter Lebec, a Hudson's Bay Company
trapper, was killed by a grizzly bear. His name survives as a place name in the
county today.

   In a history of Fresno, Tulare and Kern Counties, published in 1891, of which
Myron Angell was the author, he has the following to say in regard to the death
of Lebec:.(It will be noted that Angell spelled the name Lebeck.)

   Near Fort Tejon, on an oak tree about thirty inches in diameter, was found
some years since the following description then nearly grown over: "I. H. S.
Peter Lebeck killed by a+ bear October 17, 1837."

   At the time the letters were carved, the tree was perhaps less than half the
present size. Recently investigators found that the inscription had grown over,
and on cutting in and removing the growth, they got an exact reprint on the
portion removed, leaving the original plain on the tree. Further curiosity led
to excavate at the root of the tree and to their surprise they found the remains
of a man, perfect in all parts except one hand, which could not be found. The
remains were evidently those of the man, Peter Lebeck, and the tree was a
growing monument to the unfortunate pioneer.

A more detailed reference to the death of Lebec is made in the chapter dealing
with the founding of Fort Tejon.

   James Walker made his second visit in 1843. This time he piloted the Chiles
emigrant party through Walker Pass. This was the first wagon train to enter
California from the East.

   A little prior to Walker's second visit, somewhere about 1840, we find
records of Buena Vista Basin being used as a grazing ground for the vast cattle
herds of the Dons, who, though continuing to reside at their haciendas nearer
the coast,, sent their herds and their vaqtieros into the Southern San Joaquin
in great numbers.

   The year 1845 witnessed the visit of the man who was to give his name to the
principal stream, a lake, the county and a city—Lieutenant Edward R. Kern,
topographer for Captain John C. Fremont's expedition, which arrived in that
year. It was Fremont himself who bestowed Kern's name on the river. The detailed
story of Fremont's first visit to the San Joaquin is well known to all those who
enjoy the narratives of the early pathfinders.

   Fremont was later to become a property owner in the district, when he
acquired a half interest in the San Emidio Ranch, which was granted to Jose
Antonio Dominguez, in 1842.

   The first permanent white settler appears to have located on the South Fork
of the Kern River in 1846. He was a man by the name of Seibert, but beyond that
there seems to be little available information as to him or to his subsequent
activities in the district.

   Lieutenant G. H. Derby, with a party, came over from San Miguel, in 1850, and
visited the Indian settlements around Buena Vista and Kern Lakes. He reported an
over-abundance of misquitoes, of which he appeared to be not overly fond.

   The year 1850 brings up to the creation of Mariposa County, of which the Kern
area became a part, the granting of statehood to California, and to a point
where events in the history of Kern begin to move with greater and
ever-increasing rapidity, even up to the present day.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Where Rolls the Kern

A History of Kern County, California
By Herbert G. Comfort

MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA:
The ENTERPRISE Press
1934


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