Monterey County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter XV Pioneer Reminiscences 1893
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of The Coast Counties Of Central California.

CHAPTER XV.
PIONEER REMINISCENCES - THE ORD BROTHERS IN CALIFORNIA.

THE following interesting account of the Ord brothers, who were prominent in the
early annals of California, is derived from one of their number, Dr. James L.
Ord, at present a resident of Santa Barbara.

  The brothers, Pacificus, born in 1816, Edward O. C., afterward the General,
born 1818, and James L., born in 1823, were sons of James Ord, of Washington, D.
C., a native of England, who was supposed to have been a son of George IV, by
Mrs. Fitzgerald, (See Lord North's Life of Mrs. Fitzgerald.) While an infant he
was sent to Spain, and two years later to the United States, where he was placed
in charge of a man named Ord, whose name he took, and at the age of ten he was
placed in Georgetown College. He was later in the navy, being two years on the
frigate Congress, during the war of 1812. After that he resigned and entered the
army. He married Miss Rebecca Cresap, daughter of Colonel Daniel Cresap, of
Revolutionary fame, whose house in Cumberland, Maryland, was Washington's
headquarters when he was a young surveyor in that country.

  Both Lieutenant and Doctor Ord came to California as members of Company F,
Third Artillery, on the United States ship Lexington, arriving at Monterey,
January 26, 1847. Lieutenant Ord was in command a portion of the time at
Monterey till 1850, when he returned East, where he was made a captain and
stationed at Boston Harbor. In 1854 he came again to California-served at Fort
Miller, then in Oregon. He was in the fight with the Nez Perces; General George
Wright, who commanded, said the battle was saved by Captain Ord's battery, which
he unlimbered on the top of a hill and with it raked the Indians with canister
and grape, killing large numbers of them. He was also at Rogue river, where he
saved the lives of Ballard and the settlers, who were surrounded in a log-house
by Indians, when he with his company came to their rescue.

A CURIOUS INCIDENT.

  Dr. Ord gives this curious incident in the life of his brother, in connection
with the precipitation of the Mexican war, and the far-reaching issues which
grew out of it, including the taking of California, etc. At a meeting of
President Polk and his Cabinet, it was decided to send Lieutenant Ord as a
bearer of dispatches to General Taylor, ordering him to cross the Nueces river
and occupy the disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande.

  At a later meeting of the Cabinet the previous determination was reconsidered
and a courier was sent to countermand the previous order, but he was delayed by
heavy rains and bad roads, and failed to overtake Ord till it was too late, and
till after the battle of Palo Alto had been fought.

  While the American fleet on this coast was lying at Mazatlan, Surgeon Wood,
being in poor health, went East, and he learned somewhere in Mexico that General
Taylor had crossed the Nueces river, and he sent back a courier with the news to
the American consul, and through him to Commodore Sloat, who thereupon set sail
for Monterey, where he arrived July 1, 1846, and some two weeks ahead of the
English fleet under Admiral Seymour of the Collingwood. The latter vessel
arrived at Monterey on the 16th of July, one day after the arrival of the
Congress, and anchored right between the Congress and Savannah, and Sloat
supposing that Seymour had later news from the seat of war, and also not knowing
that the Oregon boundary question had been settled, ordered his guns
double-shotted, with directions to aim at the water line of the Collingwood. But
whatever sinister appearance Seymour's act of anchoring between the two American
men-of-war may have had, no other movement indicating possible hostilities on
the part of the English admiral was made, and the subsequent intercourse between
the officers of the two fleets was very friendly till not long after Seymour
sailed away.

  Later (in December, 1846) Seymour met the Lexington, which was on its way to
California with Company F of the Third Artillery, at Valparaiso. The British
Admiral, in a friendly interview in Captain Tompkins' cabin on board the
Lexington, Captain Bailey, Lieutenants Sherman, Ord and Halleck being present,
said, "The Yankees were two weeks ahead of us in the taking of California."

   Lieutenant Ord was stationed at the presidio of San Francisco, in command of
Ord's battery, at the commencement of the Civil war, when he received the
appointment of brigadier-general. He was with Grant at the siege of Vicksbnrg;
and at its capitulation he was second in command. Later in the war, he relieved
General Butler, and became commander of the Army of the James, and his army made
a forced march and headed off Lee; and he was one of the few officers present at
Lee's surrender at Appomattox; and he afterward purchased the table of McLain,
on which the surrender was signed. He was afterward placed in command at
Richmond. Subsequent to the close of the war, he was military governor of
Arkansas and Missouri; and later in command of the department of the Lakes, with
headquarters at Detroit. He then came to California, and relieved General
McDowell. After being successively in command of the Platte, and in Texas, he
was retired as full major-general, by special act of Congress.

  After a visit to Mexico General Ord went to Havana, where in 1884 he died of
the yellow fever. His remains were brought home and interred in the National
Cemetery by special resolution of Congress.

  Pacificus Ord, the eldest of the three Californian Ords, after the adoption of
the constitution (he being a member of the constitutional convention), was
elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court.

  Afterward he was United States District Attorney for the southern district of
California.

  Judge Ord's first wife, whom he married in New Orleans, died in Monterey. His
second wife he married in San Francisco. They went East and to Europe, where she
died. On his return he lived in New York, where he married his third wife, who
also has since died. He now lives in the city of Washington, in the
seventy-seventh year of his age. He has a daughter living who married a Colonel
Preston; and a son, an attorney who lives in New York.

  Doctor Ord, after serving a year at Monterey, was ordered to Santa Barbara,
where he was attached to Captain F. J. Lippitt's company.

   In '56, he married Dona Augustias de la Guerra de Jimeno, widow of Secretary
Jimeno, under Governor Micheltorena, and Mrs. Hartnell, and of Judge Pablo de la
Guerra. In '57 or '58 they went to Santa Barbara to live. In 1871 he went to the
city of Mexico, where he was made consul-general of the United States; he also
for a time represented England and France, in that capital.

  In '73 he returned to San Francisco, and again entered the army, and served
twelve years in Arizona, resigning in November, 1891. Doctor Ord has interests
in Santa .Barbara, and he makes that his home as much as any place.

  Doctor Ord's further reminiscences of persons and events, in the early times
in Monterey, are exceedingly interesting, and no excuses are needed for
inserting them here.

  He says his company landed in January, '47, and was stationed on the hill
where the earthworks still exist. As they occupied tents and the weather was
quite cold, they moved down in February to the old custom house. Lieutenant
Sherman and Doctor Ord occupied the north end of the building, and the south end
was used as a hospital, some three months. Spence had a store then; so had
Larkin and Green, and also Watson.

  Among the old residents were: Amesti, from Spain, who had married a Vallejo;
and Cooper and Leese and Del Valle, all of whom had married Vallejos; and
Abrego, who married an Estrada, etc.

  Dr. Ord says that the officers of his company were received by the people of
Monterey, not as enemies, but as friends. Among the ladies of influential
families were Senora Vallejo (mother of the general) Senoras Amesti and Abrego,
and Mrs. Larkin, who was the first American woman to come to Monterey to live.
Dr. Ord thinks the Larkins have a son, who is still living; and that he (the
son) has several children. The descendants of the Vallejos, the Coopers, the
Leeses, the Spences, the Abregos, etc., are quite numerous, and live, some still
in Monterey, some in Santa Clara, and some in San Francisco, or Sonoma, or
elsewhere. The father of the Russ' brothers, who built the Russ House in San
Francisco, was a mason, and he built, or helped to build Colton Hall. The
newspaper, The Californian, was published while Dr. Ord was in Monterey.

  Dr. Ord was in the mines awhile in '49, and Sherman, and Mason, and Colton,
came to his camp at Jamestown, and stayed over night.

  Dr. Ord relates this curious incident: The officers of Company F gave a party,
or baile, with supper and champagne, etc., at Mr. Hartnell's house on the hill,
on the 6th of July, 1847; and, although the Californians were very friendly,
they got the idea erroneously that the ball was purposely given on the
anniversary of the taking of California, and they would not come. Nevertheless
the officers had a good time: Sherman, Halleck, Ord, etc., were there; also Mr.
Hartnell's family and a few others.

  In The Monterey New Era of July 28, 1892, Dr. Ord furnishes the following
correction of history:

FORT HALLECK.

  We were favored with a very pleasant call yesterday from Dr. James L. Ord, the
only surviving officer of the company of Third Artillery (of which he was
surgeon) that came in '47 with the expedition of American occupation. From his
interesting reminiscences of early days in Monterey, we learn that the old fort
on the Government reservation is misnamed in the Southern Pacific maps, being
designated Fort Fremont. It is really Fort Halleck, so named in honor of
Lieutenant (afterward Major-General) H. W. Halleck, of the corps of engineers,
by whom it was laid out. The fort was built by Lieutenant E. O. C. Ord and
Lieutenant W. T. Sherman, in 1847, and the earthworks were thrown up by Colonel
J. D. Stevenson's command, the New York Volunteers and the regulars then
stationed on the hill. How the error of attributing the erection of the fort to
Fremont came to be made it is hard to determine.

  Dr. Ord has retired from active service and is taking life easy now. He spent
the winter in Santa Barbara, and is now staying for a time at the El Carmelo
Hotel, Pacific Grove, revisiting, with much pleasure, the scenes of former days
in old Monterey.

REMINISCENCES OF MRS. LITTLE.

  Mrs. Milton Little, still living in 1892, in the enjoyment of excellent health
and with a perfect memory, gives this very rational and without doubt perfectly
true account, based on her personal knowledge, of the establishment of the first
public library in California, at Monterey. She says a joint-stock company, with
forty shares, was formed, for the purpose of founding a public library, and her
husband took two shares; and each share was assessed $40 (Mr. Little paid $80,
his assessment on the two shares); and $1,500 was thus raised, and sent to Rev.
Walter Colton, in Philadelphia, or New York, who selected the books and sent
them round the Horn. When the books arrived, another assessment of $8 a share
was made to pay the freight and expenses; and she remembers that Mr. L. had to
pay this assessment on his two shares, of $16. The stockholders were the
prominent citizens of Monterey. Mrs. Little thinks that probably not more than
one-half the original number of books are now in the collection, as many of the
stockholders, after a while, did not return them often when they drew them out;
and thus in the course of years many of the books have disappeared.

  This valuable and unique library, or what remains of it, is now in the
possession of the Monterey City School District. It is kept in the upper story
of the new public-school building. It still includes full sets of very valuable
and very rare works, as for example, the proceedings of Congress from the
foundation of the Government in 1789, and many other very scarce volumes. It
ought to be kept in a fire-proof building, as its loss would be irreparable.

  In a catalogue issued by the directors, dated Monterey, June 1, 1853, those
officials say, among other things: "The Monterey Library Association was
organized at Monterey in the year 1849, and, it is believed, is the first
established public library in California."

  "The greater part of the library was purchased in New York," "and contains
about 1,000 volumes of well-selected American, English and Spanish books,
treating upon the various subjects of human knowledge," etc.

  "The officers of the association are:
               MILTON LITTLE, President.
               J. B. KNAPP, Vice-President.
               WM. S. JOHNSON, Treasurer.
               D. R. ASHLEY, Secretary and Librarian."

   Mrs. Little, whose reminiscences of early times and persons in California are
invaluable, furnishes the following bit of history concerning a file of The
Californian, the first newspaper published in California, by Colton & Semple, in
1846. Mr. Little, as a regular subscriber of the paper, saved a complete file of
the same during the whole time it was published in Monterey. This file he
preserved with great care, as he naturally prized it very highly. But some time
in the '50s, Editor McElroy was publishing a paper in Monterey, and he borrowed
this file of Mr. Little to copy items from, and he never returned it. Afterward,
when asked for it by Mr. Little in San Francisco, he said he had donated it to
the "Society of California Pioneers." "When asked in whose name he had done
this, he replied, in his own! Mr. Little was exceedingly angry, although if he
had been accorded the credit of the gift, as was his just due, he doubtless
would have been entirely satisfied to have had it gone into the keeping of the
historical association, in whose possession it is now supposed to be. But it is
due to Mr. Little that these facts should be known, even after the lapse of
forty years, than that they should not be known at all, by the pioneers and by
the world.

REMINISCENCES OF MRS. ABREGO.

  One of the most interesting personages now (1892) living in Monterey, is Dona
Josefa Estrada de Abrego, widow of Don Jose Abrego. Although Mrs. Abrego was
born in 1814, in Monterey, and has borne eighteen children; and although her
eyesight fails her, so that she is only able to recognize her acquaintances by
the sound of their voices, she is still as fair and youthful in her appearance
as though she were only fifty-eight or less, instead of seventy-eight; and she
moves about the various rooms of her spacious home in which she has lived ever
since her marriage, fifty-six years ago, with the ease and precision of a maiden
of twenty.

  Her husband, Don Jose Abrego, was born in the city of Mexico, in 1813, and
came to Monterey in 1835, with the colony, on the Natalia, a portion of the
timbers of which historic vessel he had built into his house. Mrs. Abrego's
father, Raimundo, and a brother, Mariano Estrada, were brought from Mexico when
mere boys, by Governor Luis Arrillaga, who reared and educated them. Mr. and
Mrs. Abrego were married in 1836, and moved at once into a part of the house
(which he had built, and to which additions were afterward made), in which she
has ever since lived, and in which all her children were born. Don Jose died
some fifteen years ago. Of their children, only four sons and one daughter are
still living. One daughter, the beautiful and accomplished Mrs. Bolado, died
within the present year, 1892.

  Mrs. Abrego has in her home one of the first pianofortes ever brought to
California. A paper on the inside of it, written by Mr. Abrego, says:

  "In 1841, Captain Stephen Smith arrived with his vessel in Monterey, and I
engaged him to bring me a piano on his next trip to this country.

  "In March, 1843, he returned to this city in a brigantine; he had three pianos
on board. I bought this one of him for $600. He then sailed to San Francisco,
where General Vallejo purchased another of the pianos. The third one was
afterward sold by Captain Smith to E. de Celis at Los Angeles."

  The Abrego piano is a six-octave, made by "Beitkopt & Harrtel," "Leipzig;"
"imported by Brauns & Focke, Baltimore."


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."—Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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