San Diego County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter VIII Under The American Flag 1922
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Book Title: City Of San Diego And San Diego County

CHAPTER VIII
UNDER THE AMERICAN FLAG

    The battle of San Gabriel on Jan. 9, 1847, ended the Mexican war in
California, and from that date San Diego has been an American settlement. It is
fitting therefore that at this point there should be given an account of the
celebration which was held on the plaza at Old Town on July 29, 1906, to mark
the sixtieth anniversary of the day when Fremont hoisted the nation's flag on
the staff at Old Town.

    Some 4,000 persons gathered at the Old Town plaza to participate in and view
the ceremony. One who took part in the exercise was Miss Fremont, daughter of
the pathfinder. The address of the day was made by William E. Smythe, part of
whose remarks is given herewith:

    "One of the first and most difficult problems forced upon the people of San
Diego by the declaration of war in 1846 was the question of which flag should be
chosen by the native born Americans who had been so fortunate as to marry
daughters of Spain. It is a hard thing to ask a man to choose between his
country and his wife. But in this case the choice was made easy by the action of
the women themselves. In every instance those Spanish women had their husbands
follow the Stars and Stripes, and in every instance the women followed their
husbands. Blood is thicker than water, as is the love which those Americans bore
their native land and which those women bore their husbands.

    "But it was not only the Spanish wives of the native Americans who espoused
the cause of the United States-the same was true of some of the most conspicuous
who were Spanish through and through. High on the role of American patriots of
1846 are the names of Arguello, of Pedrorena, and of that tireless and
invaluable friend of our country's cause, Juan Bandini. It was Bandini's best
saddle horse that carried General Fremont from San Diego to Los Angeles, and it
was the ever memorable daughters of Bandini- Josefa, Ysabel and Arcadia-whose
willing hands made one of the first American flags ever unfurled in San Diego.
The demand for the flag at the outbreak of the war exceeded the supply, and the
Bandini girls made one of red and blue flannel and white muslin sheet. There is
a tradition in Old Town that it was this flag that was officially raised here
fifty years ago today, but Sherman tells us that this could not have been so,
because a thorough search of the archives of Washington shows us that it was a
national flag that was used on this famous occasion. However, there is no doubt
that the national colors, fashioned by the patriotic young girls of the Bandini
family was one of the first, if not the very first, of American flags raised in
San Diego.

    "All honor to those of Spanish name and blood who took sides with the United
States in the troublous days of '46! Their traditions and, in many cases, their
own memories, went back to days when this land belonged to Spain, and their
sympathies were with the mother in Europe, rather than with the robust daughter,
Mexico, whose unwilling subjects they had become. As between Spain and Mexico,
or as between Spain and the United States, they were irresistibly borne, alike
by inclination and by interest, to the side of that mighty power whose dominion
over the Pacific Coast they clearly saw to be inevitable. If Mexico had won, men
like Arguello, Pedrorena and Bandini would have been prosecuted as traitors: as
the event transpired, it is our privilege to crown them with the deathless
laurel of patriotism. Presented with a difficult choice, they fought for the
country which they craved an opportunity to love and serve-the country they
believed best fitted to rule the destinies of California.

    "On the forenoon of July 29, 1846, the American sloop-of-war, Cyane, stood
in for the harbor of San Diego. At 11:30 a. m. she dropped anchor and prepared
to take formal possession of the town in the name of the United States. The
sloop-of-war was in the command of Capt. Samuel F. Dupont and brought eighty men
belonging to the California battalion, eighty marines, four Delaware Indians and
Kit Carson. The soldiers were in command of Major John C. Fremont, then in the
midst of his dramatic career, and on his way to high military and political honors.

     "At 4:40 p. m. a party was sent ashore under Lieutenant Rowan, accompanied
by a marine guard under Lieutenant Maddox, to take possession of the town and
hoist the American flag. The records show that twenty minutes later Major
Fremont left the ship with a detachment of his men, and he tells us in his own
memoirs that no opposition was encountered. Thus, at the very spot where we are
now assembled, and almost at the hour, sixty years ago today, the starry flag
was given to the breeze and San Diego became a part of the United States. J. C.
Fremont was in command of the land forces, though he came upon orders of a
superior, who, as it happened, was much more closely identified with subsequent
events in San Diego during the war. This superior officer was Commodore Robert
F. Stockton, who was in supreme command, and who played a noble part in the
conquest of California."

    The raising of the flag was by Major Woodworth, U. S. A., assisted by Mayor
John L. Sehon.

     Following the raising of the flag was the unveiling of the monument-a
granite boulder, surrounded with galvanized iron chains, attached to granite
posts, and bearing this inscription on a copper plate:

                  ON THIS SPOT
             The United States Flag
                Was First Raised
             In Southern California
             By Col. John C. Fremont
                 July 29, 1846.

    The stone had been covered with an old flag. Advancing to the monument under
escort of Mayor Sehon and U. S. Grant, Jr., and surrounded by Major Sherman,
Colonel Blackmer, Col. Joseph Dexter and others who were to take part in that
feature of the program, Miss Fremont removed the flag from the stone.

    After peace with Mexico was declared San Diego was guarded by American
forces for more than a year and a half, but the troops had practically no
trouble with Mexicans or Indians. The first troops here were the Mormon
battalion, under Capt., Jesse D. Hunter, which on its way into San Diego camped
for a time at the old Mission, then sadly dilapidated. They arrived here when
the winter rains made fuel necessary and this was obtained with some difficulty.
Captain Hunter's wife accompanied the expedition, and gave to him while here a
son said to be the first child of American parents born in San Diego. He was
named Diego Hunter and lived here for several years, dying in recent years at
San Luis Rey, in this county. The Mormon troops were followed by Company I of
the Stephenson regiment of New York. It was mustered out Sept. 25, 1848. Troops
were quartered at the old Mission for several years after that.

    In 1849 California's constitutional convention was held at Monterey, and the
preliminary steps were taken by which the Golden State was soon added to the
Union. The next spring the Legislature created the county of San Diego and
included in its broad expanse what later became Imperial County, thereby making
the eastern boundary of San Diego County run to the Arizona line. Yet this vast
domain, according to the first Federal census taken in San Diego, contained only
798 residents and of these 650 lived in the little town.

    It was at this period that the first attempt was made to establish a town on
the site of the present city. This attempt naturally was opposed by many
residents of Old Town and also drew opposition from La Playa, across the bay on
the Point Loma shore. La Playa's claim to attention was based largely on the
fact that, unlike Old Town, it was near deep water, but so was the new site, and
for a time it appeared that the effort to build a city on that new site would be
successful. Support to the venture was given by the Government authorities who
established here a base of military supplies not only for what troops were left
at or near San Diego but also for Fort Tejon, Fort Yuma and other points. Fort
Yuma for a time was supplied by small steamers which ran from San Francisco down
the coast and up around into the Gulf of California. In 1851, however, pack
trains began to take supplies to Yuma from San Diego, William H. Hilton having
the contract for that work, dangerous because of the hard trip across the desert
section of Imperial Valley.

    The site for the new city was selected by Andrew B. Gray, who came here in
1849 as surveyor for the boundary commission appointed to fix the line between
the United States and Mexico. Gray quickly saw the natural advantages of the
site, its nearness to deep water and its climatic charm. The officers of the
survey party had established a camp near the site of the Government barracks on
what is now Market Street, near the Coronado ferry entrance, and the merits of
the plan were soon firmly established in Gray's mind. So, early in 1850, Gray
told William Heath Davis about it, and Davis agreed to go in with him. The two
took in Jose Antonio Aguirre, Miguel de Pedrorena, two prominent Spanish
residents, and William C. Ferrell, who became San Diego's first district
attorney. While they were considering ways and means, a vessel arrived at La
Playa with material for the building which the Government had decided to build
here to house army supplies. Lieut. Thomas D. Johns was in charge of this task,
and to him the planners of the new city went in haste, held earnest conversation
with him and convinced him that La Playa was not the place but that the new
town, not yet laid out, was. Lieutenant Johns was convinced and had the building
materials shipped across the bay. Davis, who had most of the necessary capital,
agreed to build a wharf and warehouse which he was to own, with the land they
occupied. Within a month the plan had progressed so well that application for
the land for the new town site was made. It was granted on March 18, 1850, by
Thomas W. Sutherland, an attorney who was then alcalde of San Diego and who soon
after became city attorney. The site contained 160 acres and ran from Front
Street on one side and Broadway on another to the waterfront. The partners paid
$2,304 for it. In a short time they had lumber and bricks for buildings, as the
brig Cybell had arrived at San Francisco with a large cargo made up of those
building materials. The vessel also carried several small buildings ready to be
put together. Davis bought the whole cargo and had it brought to San Diego,
where the ''portable" houses were later used to a considerable extent. The first
was put up for Davis, on what is now State Street, between G and Market; later
it was moved to Eleventh Street, between K and L, where it still stands. Davis
completed the warehouse and wharf in the summer of 1851. It stretched 600 feet
out from Atlantic Street, with a turn in it. The old barracks were built in the
same year. At about that time John Judson Ames started his Herald, San Diego's
first newspaper, in the new town, having been induced to do so by Davis, who
lent him $1,000 to get a start. There were many other indications that the new
San Diego would be a success, but there was one serious problem, that of water.
It was not possible, with the mean's then at hand, to construct a system for the
storage of water from mountain streams, and the supply had to be obtained from
wells. One well was put down near the site of the present courthouse, and
several others which gave a fair supply were soon dug. It looked bright for the
new town. Yet, with all the help given by the presence of a Government
establishment and despite the fact that several merchants were in business
there, the venture did not succeed. The town simply did not grow. It was soon
derisively called "Gray-town" or "Davis' Folly" by those who pinned their faith
to the supremacy of Old Town. John Russell Bartlett, who came here early in
1852, said there was "no business to bring vessels here, except an occasional
one with Government stores," referred to the scarcity of water and fuel and
added, "without wood, water or arable land, this place can never rise to
importance."

    Only a few months after Davis and Gray started the new town, another tract,
known as Middletown and containing 687 acres, was opened up. On May 27, 1850,
Alcalde Joshua H. Bean granted this to a group of men including Oliver S.
Witherby, who had come here as quartermaster and commissary of the boundary
commission and who was elected to the first assembly at Monterey; William H.
Emory; Col. Cave Johnson Couts, who later married Ysidora Bandini and in 1853
went to live on the famous Guajome ranch; Thomas W. Sutherland, who as alcalde
of the town had granted the new town tract to Davis and his associates; Agostin
Haraszthy, who was San Diego County's first sheriff and who later was elected
assemblyman; Don Juan Bandini, Jose M. Estudillo, Charles P. Noell, who had come
to San Diego only a short time before and who put up, it is said, the first
wooden building in the new town, and Henry Clayton, who had come here as
surveyor of the boundary commission and remained here to do similar work as city
and county surveyor. The Middletown project languished along with Davis' Town,
although the property became immensly valuable in later years, as did that
included in the Davis-Gray tract.

    While the new town was striving for supremacy, there was at one time
considerable anxiety among the people of the whole bay section over an Indian
outbreak, known as the Garra uprising, the most serious of several which
threatened the safety of the white inhabitants of San Diego County. There had
been one serious outbreak in 1837, resulting in the murder of a rancher named
Ybarra and two of his vaqueros, the burning of their home on the San Ysidro
rancho and the abduction of the two Ybarra girls. The Garra uprising, however,
was of much larger proportions.

    The outbreak took its name from Antonio Garra, an Indiana from San Luis Rey,
who had received some education at the mission of that place and who become
chief of the Cupeno Indians at Warner's ranch. Living with the tribe then was
William Marshall, a renegade sailor from Rhode Island, who had deserted from a
whale ship at San Diego some six or seven years before and had reverted to
savagery, marrying an Indian girl. Smythe credits the renegade Marshall with
furnishing the "brains" of the uprising and filling Garra's head with dreams of
conquest, in which he proposed that several thousand Indians living in and about
San Diego County should be amalgamated into a fighting force to overwhelm the
whites. Warner's ranch had been occupied in 1848 by Col. Jonathan J. Warner
known as Don Juan Warner, a Connecticut man who came to California in 1831 and
settled at Los Angeles, marrying Anita Gale, daughter of William A. Gale. He was
San Diego's first state senator and during his residence in the county a man of
considerable importance. In the attack on his ranch he did valiant service of
defence, being an excellent marksman, but was unable to save it.

    Some of the incidents of this affair are graphically told in the columns of
the San Diego Herald. In the issue of Nov. 20, 1851, the editor voiced
disappointment that news was scarce, a fact often weighing heavily upon the
editor of a small town newspaper, and devoted some of his more or less valuable
space to an account of some brandy which he had sampled. Apparently it was of as
bad a quality as some of the so-called liquor illegally made and sold since the
days of national prohibition. His comment thereon was that "for over an hour we
could not tell whether we had swallowed a cocktail or a torchlight procession."
Ames' lament of the lack of news may have encouraged the making of some, for the
very next week he had something of importance to tell, as set forth in the issue
of Nov. 27:

    "Our city," said the newspaper, "was thrown into a high state of excitement
by the arrival of an express from Agua Caliente, the residence of the honorable
J. J. Warner [later called Warner's Hot Springs, and, more recently, just
Warner's], state senator conveying the intelligence that the Indians, who are
numerous in that vicinity, had arisen and attacked his ranch, destroying all of
its household property and driving away his stock, consisting of large and
valuable bands of cattle and horses. On the 20th instant Mrs. Warner was warned
by a friendly Indian that his people designed against the Americans and that the
initiative on their part would be an attack upon her house. Alarmed at this, Mr.
Warner immediately dispatched his family for this place and proceeded to put his
house in a state of defence. He caused his cattle to be corraled, and had four
horses saddled and tied to his door, to be use to convey intelligence to his
neighbors in case the Indians appeared.

    "The following night about 2 o'clock Mr. Warner's house was surrounded by a
party of Indians, 100 strong, who deliberately drove away his cattle and
attacked his premises. Mr. Warner, aided by two employes, opened fire upon the
enemy, who returned, it, killing one of his party. Ammunition soon becoming
scarce, Mr. Warner deemed it prudent to retire; not, however, until he had
satisfied himself that he had killed four of the enemy. The Indians rifled the
house of everything it contained and are now in arms in the mountains, defying
the whites and boldly proclaiming their intention to massacre every white in the
state.

    "The Indians have since killed four Americans at the Springs, making a total
of nine men murdered since the commencement of this unhappy outbreak.

    "The family of Don Santiago Arguello in the valley of Tejuan have abandoned
their rancho and are on their way to this city, fearing an outbreak on the part
of the numerous Indians resident in that valley. It is known that Chief Antonio
has invited them to join in the war."

    The outbreak assumed such proportions that Ames, desiring to get the latest
news for his paper, delayed publication on the following week by one day. Even
then, however, he had little to print in his paper and, as he quaintly remarked,
"nobody to read it if it were printed," as most of the male population of San
Diego seemed to have set forth for the mountains to quell the outbreak. The next
issue, dated December 11, contained the real news, set forth in part as follows:

    "The company of volunteers which left this city on Thursday the 27th ultimo,
under the command of Major Fitzgerald, camped at the Soledad that night and the
next day pushed on toward Agua Caliente, where they arrived on Tuesday and
proceeded to burn the town,- the Indians having abandoned it. Warner's ranch,
three miles this side of Agua Caliente, they found totally ruined-cattle driven
off, agricultural implements burned and the whole place made completely
desolate. The dead bodies of two Indians were found near the ruins.

    "In the meantime Col. Haraszthy went out with a small party and captured the
notorious Bill Marshall, who is said to have ordered the murder of Mr. Slack and
three others at Agua Caliente. [The Mr. Slack was Levi Slack, partner of E. W.
Morse.] This Marshall is said to be from Providence, R. I., and came out to this
country in 1844 in a whale ship, from which he deserted. He married a daughter
of one of the chiefs of this tribe which has committed these depredations, and
is believed to be the chief agent in banding together these hostile tribes of
Indians. He is now undergoing a court-martial trial at Old Town which is not yet
concluded. They have engaged some three days in examining witnesses and have not
yet decided whether they will hang him or not. Colonel Haraszthy is the
presiding judge and the prisoner is defended most ably by Major McKinstry-Judge
Robinson in behalf of the State. The testimony thus far has been very
conflicting, and many persons believe Marshall to be innocent, although the
great majority are for hanging him."

    The next issue, December 18, told of Marshall's fate:

    "The trial of Bill Marshall and Juan Verdugo was concluded on Friday evening
last, and on Saturday morning it was announced on the Plaza that they would be
executed at 2 o'clock the same day. The Fitzgerald volunteers were ordered to be
on duty at that time to conduct the prisoners to the scaffold, which had been
erected a short distance out of town, near the Catholic burying grounds.

    "The graves were dug and all preparations made during the forenoon, for
carrying out the sentence of the court-martial. At about 2 o'clock the
volunteers were under arms and the people began to gather in considerable
numbers about the Plaza and courthouse. A priest was with the prisoners most of
the forenoon and accompanied them to the gallows, where they received final
absolution.

    "Marshall said he was prepared to die and hoped to be pardoned for his many
transgressions. He still insisted that he was innocent of exciting the Indians
to murder the whites, the crime for which he was about to die.

    "Verdugo spoke in Spanish. He acknowledged his guilt and admitted the
justness of the sentence passed upon him; said he was ready to yield up his life
as a forfeit for his crimes and wickedness.

    "The ropes were then adjusted-the priest approached them for the last
time-and said some consoling words to them-repeated a final prayer-extended the
crucifix, which each kissed several times, when he descended from the wagon,
which immediately moved on, leaving the poor unfortunate wretches about five
feet from the ground. Marshall struggled considerable, but Verdugo scarcely
moved a muscle. Both of them were in their shirt sleeves, and neither of them
hoodwinked.

    "After being suspended about an hour and a half, the bodies were cut down
and interred in the Catholic burying ground."

    Antonio Garra, the Indian chief of the tribe which had been in the vicinity
of Warner's was captured soon after this, was tried and convicted by
court-martial on charges of murder and theft growing out of the uprising. The
Herald in somewhat vivid words describes his execution in its issue of January
17, 1852. The execution was at Old Town, "the sun's last rays were lingering on
the hills off Point Loma" as the firing squad did its work, and "in an instant
the soul of the 'brave' winged its flight to the regions of eternity,
accompanied by the melancholy howling of dogs, who (sic) seemed to be aware of
the solemnity of the occasion-casting a gloom over the assembled hundreds."

    The Fitzgerald Volunteers were a company so named in honor of its commander.
Major G. B. Fitzgerald, an army officer. With him served Cave Johnson Couts as
Captain, Agostin Haraszthy, Robert D. Israel, Philip Crosthwaite, Henry Clayton,
George P. Tebbetts and other well known San Diegans of the time; as Editor Ames
has said, nearly all the men from San Diego went out with this force, determined
to strike a punishing blow on the Indians. Col. J. Bankhead Magruder was in
command of the American troops quartered at the old Mission, but he had only a
few men, and the equipment of guns was poor. He lent some guns to the
volunteers. Marshall was caught by a scouting party. Garra was given up by an
Indian chief, whom he tried to win over from sympathy with the whites. Manv
Indians were killed in this "cleaning-up" work of the volunteers and regular
troops, and this retaliation had such an effect that after that time there was
no other serious outbreak in this section. There were murders, marauding and
pillaging, but no real warfare. In and near San Diego the Indians sometimes got
intoxicating liquor, with the usual results, and there were many stabbing and
cutting affrays. Vigilante parties took care of the situation from time to time,
official authority being apparently slow in action.

    The business center of the new town of San Diego was at about where
California and G streets now cross. That at the time was near the high tide
line. By the northeast corner there was a large two-story building of frame
construction. On the ground floor were the offices of Hooper & Co., while above
were the offices of the Herald. Across the street were the old barracks, which
remain today, in a remarkable state of preservation and still used for the
troops of the nation after some 70 years. The first issue of the Herald, which
was largely devoted to publication of San Francisco advertisements, contains
notice which give some idea of the business life of the new town in May of 1851.
The leading firm was Hooper & Co., whose advertisements contained this information:

    "Hooper & Co., Wholesale, Retail and General Commission Merchants, Corner of
Fourth and California streets, New San Diego. Keep constantly on hand a large
assortment of General Merchandise, consisting in part, of Chile Flour, rice,
butter, chocolate, sardines, assorted meats, oysters, lobsters, pickles,
assorted sauces, hams, cheese, mead syrup, lemon syrup, cider in cases, brandy,
'cognac,' Stoughton hitters, saleratus, almonds, coffee, sugar, candy, pork,
bacon, hams, dried peaches and apples, sperm and adamantine candles, boots and
shoes, brooms, double bedsteads, black currants, English pearl barley, mackerel,
pickled salmon, etc., wooden pails, tin ware, tubs, clocks, shirting and
sheeting, flannels, calico, clothing, wool hats, socks, drawers, shirts, table
covers, ribosas, handkerchiefs, candle wick, cambric, combs of all kinds,
muslins, fancy soaps, hooks and eyes, tapes, nails, hardware, potatoes, lumber,
etc., etc."

    Ames and Pendleton, wholesale, retail and general commission merchants had a
store on California Street and advertised drygoods, hardware, cooking stoves and
rough lumber for sale. George F. Hooper advertised 400 tons of coal, 12 good
mules, 30,000 feet of Maine lumber which had been shipped in and, last but not
least, a number of valuable books.

    On the east side of what is now New Town Park, then called Plaza Pantoja,
after Don Juan Pantoja, a Spanish pilot who was in San Diego in 1782, was the
Pantoja House. Charles J. Laning was its proprietor, and his advertisement
announced that he had fitted up the hotel in the best style and could provide
for guests the very choicest of wines and liquors. Also, the Pantoja House had
what was set forth in print as a very fine billiard room, containing a
remarkable table, and this room was kept lighted until midnight every night for
those who cared to test their skill with ball and cue.

    Another hotel on the Plaza Pantoja was the Colorado House, run by H. J.
Couts, who advertised that he had recently added to the structure, "a spacious
and airy dining saloon," that he had put up "an elegant billiard table" and that
his bar was stocked with "the best wines, liquors and cigars to be had in San
Francisco."

    Up at Old Town was the old Gila House, kept by Charles R. Johnson, who also
ran the Playa House at La Playa. Both these hotels had advertisements in the
Herald's first issue. So did the Exchange Hotel of Old Town, of which G. P.
Tebbetts & Co. were managers.

    The columns of the Herald in its first year, 1851, contain so many items of
historical interest and so many other items which give the color of those days
that the following selections have been made.

    The issue of July 10, 1851, tells of the death at the age of 17 years of
Senorita Maria Josefa Zamorano, daughter of the late Captain Augustin Vicente
Zamorano, and a grand-daughter of Don Santiago Arguello, at the Arguello
residence at La Punta. She was regarded by many as the most beautiful of the
many beautiful young Spanish women of the San Diego of those days. The old
Arguello home, built in 1836, is still in fair condition, is occupied and stands
as a remarkable landmark near the head of San Diego Bay.

    Editor Ames in his issue of Aug. 8 refers to the excellent fishing in San
Diego Bay, to the size of the fish and the number of crawfish, "not a whit
inferior to the lobster and scarcely less in size." To the fishing in this
section Editor Ames made another reference of some interest on Dec. 4, 1852, as
follows: "The schooner Emeline. Captain Osborn, has been in our bay for the last
two weeks, taking fish and curing them for the San Francisco market. One day
last week they took 20 tons at one haul, each fish averaging some 3 pounds in
weight. They are of a "delicious flavor much resembling that of the turbot; the
epicures in San Francisco may soon look out for a treat. Fishing is by no means
an insignificant item in this bay, and if carried on extensively we could more
than amply supply the demand for the up-country markets. There are immense
shoals of mackerel just by the Point Loma, averaging in weight from 2 to 4
pounds, fishing for which insures to any enterprising party a speedy and ample
fortune."

    Ames in one of the early issues of the Herald pokes some good-natured fun at
the San Francisco editors who at the time were boasting and smacking their lips
over some Baldwin apples which had been sent, all packed in ice, by boat from
Boston, by way of Cape Horn. In San Diego, wrote Ames, were much better
fruits-"grapes, figs, apricots, etc."-and Ames declared that if the San
Francisco newspaper men could taste some of these California fruits they would
soon cease "to make such a fuss over a few frozen apples." Thus he made clear
the fact that in San Diego County the ranchers were then producing many
delicious fruits, and he later directed attention to the fact that Slack &
Morse, (Levi Slack and E. W. Morse), were "very enterprising" in getting such
fruits and the best of vegetables to the local market.

    The Herald of July 10, 1851, gives ample evidence that the spirit of
American patriotism was strong in the new town of San Diego. That issue contains
a long account of the first formal celebration held in the new town of the
Fourth of July. In part it is as follows:

    "The celebration of the 4th passed off very pleasantly, and the only
accident we heard of during the day was that of a few patriotic individuals
being shot-in the neck! The day dawned, as all Independence days should do, in
all its glory, and as a special favor the charming Goddess got up a little
earlier than usual and put on a new calico frock, with a laconic skirt, after
the new fashion, and then took a little drive in her chariot, over the hills
just back of the city. She came into, town just after daylight, 'with rosy
fingers dropping gentle dew,' and was startled by a big brass gun from the
ordnance department, which blew her up 'sky high.' It being steamer day, we were
not able to be present at the forming of the procession, but arrived just in
time to hear the oration, by John G. Brown, Esq., of San Francisco, and we must
say that it has been a long time since we have listened to anything of the kind
which gave us more satisfaction, or have seen a mixed audience, such as is
usually assembled on an occasion like this, evince so much gratification.

    "Mr. Brown's effort was a truly happy one, written with great purity of
diction, and replete with eloquent sentiments and genuine patriotism. After the
oration an ode was sung by the whole assembly, during the singing of which a
salute was fired by a part of Col. Magruder's battery, under the direction of
Lieut Eddy.

    "The procession was then reformed (the charming Miss Caroline hanging
lovingly upon our arm) and marched to the Plaza, where they were dismissed.

    "Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, chief marshal of the day, deserves great praise for
the perfect manner in which all the arrangements for the occasion were made, and
the order with which everything was conducted.

    "There was a ball at Old Town in the evening, at which we dropped in for a
few moments, but there were so many 'nice young men' present as to render our
chances to a flirtation rather dubious, so we vamosed. The ladies were
lovely-the gentlemen in high spirits, and all seemed to enjoy themselves amazingly.

    "Among the beautiful dark-eyed maids of California, we noticed particularly
Senoritas D-s, L-e, F-o, M-y, T-a, and we must add that we were almost seduced
from our allegiance to Miss Caroline, while gazing upon the lovely face and form
of Mrs. B-r.

    'There was also a private dance at New San Diego, where they no doubt all
enjoyed themselves, as they 'didn't go home till morning.'

    "Thus ended a day which, in the language of Old General Hastings, 'will long
be remembered by our ancestors.' "

    There is ample evidence that the reason why Ames came to San Diego then such
a small town that it could hardly support even an unpretentious weekly newspaper
such as the Herald was in size at least, was that he aimed to establish an organ
for United States Senator William M. Gwin of California, who hoped to bring
about a division of the State of California, to annex Lower California if that
could be brought about, and to join the building of a transcontinental railway
over the southern route into San Diego. Smythe writes that he obtained evidence
regarding Ames' plans from men to whom Ames had told them in confidence in the
early years. The Herald of Aug. 28, 1851, gives striking evidence of this in the
following:

    "A suggestion was made, about a year ago, in reference to the severance of
this state, and the formation of a territorial government for the southern
portion thereof. To the accomplishment of this object it is necessary that a
united action be had by the advocates of the measure, and that a full and candid
statement of the many grievances we suffer be set forth, that the people at the
north may see the justice of our request for a division, and that we are
impelled by necessity to this movement."

    The very next issue of the Herald, that of Sept. 4, tells thus of a meeting
held to discuss state division:

    "At a public meeting of the citizens of the city and county of San Diego,
held in the court house on the evening of Saturday, August 30, J. W. Robinson,
Esq., was called to the chair and Dr. F. J. Painter appointed secretary. The
object of the meeting being explained by the chairman, viz: to take into
consideration the propriety of petitioning Congress for a territorial form of
Government in the southern portion of the state, the following gentlemen were
appointed a committee of correspondence: Messrs. A. Haraszthy, Joaquin Ortega,
C. J. Couts, G. F. Hooper, Pedro Carrillo, Wm. C. Ferrell, and Charles P. Noell."

    Gwin's scheme failed, and the favors which Ames expected from him were not
forthcoming. Yet for a time many San Francisco advertisements, doubtless a part
of Gwin's patronage, appeared in the Herald and helped to keep that paper alive
even when the new town venture failed and the Herald had been moved to Old Town
about two years after the first issue.

    The breaking up of the new town seems to have been general by April of 1853,
for in that month, it is recorded, E. W. Morse, whose former partner, Levi
Slack, had been killed by the Indians at Warner's as already noted, moved to Old
Town. There he went into partnership with Thomas Whaley, that arrangement
lasting about three years. The Herald moved at about the same time. The new
wharf built by William Heath Davis at the new town, fell more or less into
disuse. In the cold winter of 1861-2 much of it was cut down for fuel to keep
the volunteer troops stationed here warm. Nearly 25 years later Davis obtained a
few thousand dollars-a mere fraction of its cost-from the Government in damages.

    Davis in a newspaper interview in 1887 gave some interesting information
about his wharf and his other efforts to start the new town of San Diego.

    "Of the new town of San Diego, now the city of San Diego," he said, "I can
say that I was the founder. In 1850 the American and Mexican commissions,
appointed to establish the boundary line, were at Old Town. Andrew B. Gray, the
chief engineer and surveyor for the United States, who was with the commission,
introduced himself to me one day at Old Town. In February, 1850, he explained to
me the advantages of the locality known as Punta de los Muertos' (Point of the
Dead), from the circumstance that in the year 1787 a Spanish squadron anchored
within a stone's throw of the present site of the city of San Diego. During the
stay of the .fleet, surveying the bay of San Diego for the first time, several
sailors and marines died, and were interred on a sandpit adjacent to where my
wharf stood, and was named as above. The piles of my structure are still
imbedded in the sands, as if there had been premeditation to mark them as the
tomb-marks of those deceased early explorers of the Pacific Ocean and of the
inlet of San Diego, during the days of Spain's greatness. I have seen 'Punta de
los Muertos' on Pantoja's chart of his explorations of the waters of the Pacific.

    "Messrs. Jose Antonio Aguirre, Miguel de Pedrorena, Andrew B. Gray, T. D.
Johns and myself were the projectors and original proprietors of what is now
known as the city of San Diego. All my co-proprietors have since died, and I
remain alone of the party, and am a witness of the marvelous events and changes
that have transpired in this vicinity during more than a generation.

    "The first building in new San Diego was put up by myself as a private
residence. The building still stands, being known as the San Diego Hotel. I also
put up a number of other houses. The cottage built by Andrew B. Gray is still
standing, and is called 'The Hermitage.' George F. Hooper also built a cottage,
which is still standing near my house in new San Diego. Under the conditions of
our deed, we were to build a substantial wharf and warehouse. The other
proprietors of the town deeded to me their interest on Block 20, where the wharf
was to be built The wharf was completed in six months after getting our title in
March, 1850, at a cost of $60,000. The piles of the old wharf are still to be
seen on the old wharf site in Block 20. At that time I predicted that San Diego
would become a great commercial seaport, from its fine geographical position and
from the fact that it was the only good harbor south of San Francisco. Had it
not been for our civil war, railroads would have reached here years before
Stanford's road was built. For our wharf was ready for business."

    Davis wrote that there were very heavy rains in San Diego in the winter of
1861-2 and that the fuel for the several hundred soldiers at the military depot
in San Diego ran out as already told.

    "My wharf and warehouse were still in existence near the depot," wrote
Davis, "and earning me several hundred dollars per month for wharfage and
storage. The commanding officer of the post decided to use my property for
firewood, as a military necessity. Being wartime, it was demolished for that
purpose, and I lost my income.

    "A few years after the occurrence I went to work and collected evidence in
connection with the destruction of the wharf and warehouse. I appealed to
congress with the facts I had obtained for compensation for my loss. The senate
passed a bill unanimously, appropriating $60,000 as my pay; but it was defeated
in the house. At last, congress enacted a law creating General Saxton
(quartermaster-general of the Pacific coast) as a commissioner to take testimony
in California. Several sessions were held in San Francisco: also three or four
at San Diego, where the property was located. The testimony before the
commissioner was overwhelmingly in my behalf. After these proceedings, the claim
was before the house, congress after congress, asking the body to appropriate a
just and equitable amount, under the commissioners investigation and report, for
my reimbursement. In 1884-85 I was voted $6,000 in full paymen [sic] for the
$60,000 which the senate had allowed."

    The history of San Diego from 1853 to the coming of Alonzo E. Horton, father
of the new town which lasted, is not filled with events of great importance. Yet
the period was not without interesting incidents. One which made San Diego well
known elsewhere in the nation was the arrival here of Lieut. George H. Derby,
who became famous, not as an engineer-for as such he came to San Diego-but as a
writer of the "Phoenixiana" and temporary editor of Ames" paper, the Herald. As
"John Phoenix" Derby saw more fun in San Diego than any other person could
discover, and his quaint witticisms not only made the Herald a widely quoted
paper but gave the author a fame which has endured unto this day. When Derby saw
nothing particularly humorous in the events of the time, he let his fertile
imagination supply the necessary details for a humorous story, and he kept
dignified citizens somewhat anxious. Derby, came to San Diego to turn the San
Diego River back into its course into False or Mission Bay. It had cut into San
Diego Bay and in time would have filled up a large area of valuable harbor area.
Derby turned the river, using Indian labor on his earthworks, and also turned
the politics of the Herald topsy-turvy in a very short time. But that is getting
ahead of the story.

    Derby had written in San Francisco under the pen names "John Phoenix" and
"Squibob." He was born in Dedham, Mass., in 1823, served in the Mexican war and
was, it is recorded, continuously in the service of his country for 14 years. He
died in New York City in 1861 at the age of 38 years. A son, Lieut.-Col. George
McClellan Derby, was retired from the army at his own request in 1906, having
served more than 30 years. Like his son, George H. Derby was a graduate of West
Point. He was married in Trinity Church, San Francisco, on Jan. 14, 1854, to
Miss Mary A. Coons of St. Louis, as duly recorded in the columns of the San
Diego Herald by Editor Ames, friend of the Lieutenant Derby, and lived in San
Diego for several years.

    Derby and Ames seem to have been acquainted before Derby came to San Diego.
At any rate, soon after Derby's arrival here, Ames, who wanted to make one of
his frequent trips to San Francisco, prevailed upon Derby to "sit in" as editor
of the Herald. The rollicking Derby did it gleefully and characteristically.
Derby had been here in the preceding year, and knew something about the town.
Perhaps he knew something about its politics, but if he did it apparently did
not worry him, for as soon as Ames was well on his way to the north he changed
the politics of the Herald from Democrat to Whig. He poked fun at Bigler, the
Democratic nominee for governor; he took a rap at Editor Ames; he even made fun
of himself and his Whig tendencies. When Ames came back to town, Derby wrote for
the Herald an account of a purely imaginary fight between himself, a small man,
and the gigantic Ames, whose frame towered some six feet and six inches above
his shoe-soles. He later wrote many other articles for Ames' newspaper.

    In 1855 Ames collected a lot of Derby's writings and issued them as the
first edition of "Phoenixiana." This includes a reproduction of a famous
"illustrated" edition of the Herald which Derby got out. It was filled up with a
lot of advertising cuts which Derby used in humorous fashion.

    The volume also contains an interesting description of San Diego, written
largely in jovial and burlesque style, but largely, also, along the lines of
fact. For instance, he described the harbor as shaped like a boot, told of the
three villages then here-the Playa, Old Town and the New Town, or "Davis'
Folly." He told also of the "long, low one-storied tenement, near the base of
the hills," once held by Capt. Magruder and his officers, but then the place
where Judge Witherby "sits at the receipt of customs." But, added "Phoenix," the
judge had little trade, for the Goliah and Ohio, little coasting steamers which
ran to the town, and the fortnightly mail steamers were about the only crafts
coming in. There were the barque Clarissa Andrews and "two crazy old hulks" at
the Playa. Ashore there were the Ocean House, a store "marked Gardiner &
Bleeker;" a little building on stilts out in the water where a man employed by
the U. S. Engineers made "mysterious observations on the tide;" three small
buildings, a fence and a graveyard; these, said the jovial writer, were the only
"improvements" that had been made at the Playa. He also visited two old
hide-houses mentioned by Dana in his "Two Years Before the Mast." Despite the
gradual growth of the place, Derby believed that, "should the great Pacific
Railroad terminate at San Diego, an event within the range of probability, the
Playa must be the depot, and as such will become a point of great importance."
In those early days, it will be seen, there were growing hopes of a railroad
running directly from the east into San Diego, and the spirit of potential
progress was strong. "Phoenix," indeed comments on the fact that there was a
real estate boom of some importance a-booming at the time and that lots of 150
feet frontage were selling for $500 each; he hazarded the opinion, however, that
he would prefer the cash to the lots. The chapter contains also an amusing
description of Derby himself, written by himself, and mention of "Judge" Ames,
editor of the Herald, whom Derby described as "talented, good-hearted, but
eccentric." The editor is quoted as telling "Phoenix" that the town contains 700
inhabitants, two-thirds native born, that it had seven stores, two public houses
and two churches, Catholic and Protestant, to the latter of which came every
week Rev. Reynolds, chaplain of the military post six miles distant. "Phoenix"
also attended a ball, visited New Town and rode out to the Mission and attended
a fiesta, he relates in the same article.

    A chapter which gives a fair sample of Derby's humor is that in which as
"Phoenix" he describes a Fourth of July celebration in San Diego. This was
"reported expressly for the Herald." He notes that at 2 a. m. all citizens
except "those who had retired in a state of intoxication" were awakened by the
"soul-stirring and tremendous report of the Plaza artillery, which had been
loaded the previous evening with two pounds of powder and a half a bushel of
public documents." There was a parade later in the day, moving to the "sound of
an excellent military band, consisting of a gong and a hand-bell," and still
later "the San Diego Light Infantry," a small boy, fired a national salute with
his fire-crackers and nearly lost his shirt-tail in the act.

    The first edition of "Phoenixiana" was issued by Ames in 1855. On Feb. 9,
1856, he announced that the book had reached a sale of 4,000 copies and was
"highly spoken of by the critics."

    "Phoenixiana" has had more than 30 editions since then, and the sales have
reached many thousands of copies. One edition de luxe produced by the Caxton
Club of Chicago is priced at $50 and has an introduction by John Vance Cheney of
San Diego. Another recent edition has a characteristic introduction by John
Kendrick Bangs. D. Appleton & Co., the original publishers, have issued this,
with pictures by E. W. Kemble.

    Derby was prominent during his residence here in organization of the first
Masonic lodge in San Diego. He was a man of marvelous memory, and, it is
declared, could recite chapter after chapter from the Bible. His story of San
Diego, then a place of small consequence, resulted in extensive advertising of
the town as well as of himself. By a curious coincidence his death in. 1861 was
followed within two months by that of his old friend Ames, who passed away,
broken in fortune and health, at San Bernardino as the Civil war was beginning
to rage.

    From the city assessment roll for 1851, now in the possession of the city
government, it appears that the whole amount of taxable property in the city of
San Diego in 1851 was $203,206. The tax was collected at the rate of one-half of
one per cent, and the total tax was only $1,019.03-quite a difference from the
1921 figure of about $1,750,000.

    The 1851 assessment roll as certified to by Frederick J. Painter, clerk of
the common council, includes some interesting items. Jose A. Aguirre, who was a
partner with Gray, Davis and others in the attempt to found the new town of San
Diego, paid a tax of $39.07. The first two and a half pages of the roll are
devoted to his holdings; they included eighteen beach lots, so-called, seven
lots in Old Town and fifty-five parcels in "New San Diego," as it was officially
designated. He was assessed on a valuation of $8,035. The clerk notes that "the
court of equalization deducts from the whole amount $220," leaving Aguirre's
total $7,815.

    Thomas D. Johns, who was the army lieutenant responsible for building the
barracks at the new town and who appears to have been admitted to the new town*
partnership group, paid taxes upon twenty-seven parcels in New San Diego. His
net assessed valuation for those was $1,410, and his tax $7.05. In addition he
paid $5 for property at La Playa.

    William Heath Davis, head of the new town movement, paid a city tax of
$68.25, his net assessment being on a valuation of $13,651. Here are the items
of his assessment:

Real estate                         $ 7,151
Wharf                                 4,000
Lumber                                1,000
Residence                             1,000
Hotel and billiard table              1,000
                                   ________
                                    $14,151

    From that sum the board of equalization deducted $500, leaving a total of
$13,651. Davis & Hooper paid a tax of $20.75.

    Andrew B. Gray, another of the new town advocates, paid a tax of $29.50 on
property valued at $5,940, nearly all of it in the new town.

    Thomas W.  Sutherland, first city attorney, paid $18.57.

    William C. Ferrell's tax was only $3.50.

    Henry D. Fitch, who died in 1849, was taxed $2.25, Mrs. Fitch $7.50 (her
assessment being cut $1,000 as "widow's portion off"), while the estate of Henry
Fitch paid a tax of $26.25.

    J. P. Keating paid a tax of $2 for a pilot boat. The estate of Miguel de
Pedrorena, who died in 1850, paid a tax of $33.75. The total assessed valuation
was $7,755, from which was deducted an orphans' portion of $1,000. The Pacific
Mail Steamship Company paid $38.75.

    Jose A. Estudillo was assessed as follows: "1 lot 50 varas 25c" in La Playa,
the total for that being $25, and for six corners in Old San Diego with
improvements assessed at $3,000. His personal property was set at $100. His
total assessment was $5,125, and his city tax for 1851 was $25.62.

    The manner in which the four settlements about the bay were described is of
interest. They were four: La Playa, which the clerk-wrote down as "Playa;" Old
Town, to which he referred as "Old San Diego;" Middletown, which several times
he put down as "Middle San Diego," and the new town of Davis and Gray, which was
officially designated as "New San Diego."

    One entry was made under the heading "Steam Boat Company," for lots at La
Playa, valued at $4,000, the lots being described as Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Block
No. 57. After it was written into the book, however, this entry was made in red
ink: "Error. This is City Property." All tax totals are written in the same red
ink.

    Cave J. Couts had city property for which he was taxed $41. Juan Bandini's
tax was $68.75. John Foster's was $31.25.

Other names in this interesting tax list are as follows:

    William Arrington, the Artesian Well Company, F. M. Alvarez, Julian Ames,
Ames & Pendleton, Santiago E. Arguello, Daniel Barbee, Thomas A. Budd, Bandini &
Davis, John Barker, Joshua H. Bean, Arthur Blackburn, Henry Clayton, S. P.
Heintzleman, Agostino Haraszthy, Charles Haraszthy, William Leaney, Bonifacio
Lopez, C. W. Lawton, several members of the Machado family for Old Town
property, J. B. Magruder for New San Diego property, Charles P. Noell, Juan M.
Ossuna, Richard Rust, E. W. Rust, J. W. Robinson, Louis Rose, Jose Serrano,
Maria Snook, Abel Stearns, San Diego Herald office in New San Diego ($7.50),
William H. Tiffany, G. P. Tebbetts, Louis Veal, Edward Vischer, Thomas
Wrightington, O. S. Witherby, Raimond Yorba, Maria Ybarros.

    Political organization of San Diego after the Americans took charge was
effected without any trouble, but the records of that accomplishment form an
interesting section. The city now (in 1921) has 122 voting precincts, but at the
first election held on April 1. 1850, there were only two, one at Old Town and
the other at La Playa. There were only 157 voters on the poll lists. County
officers were elected as follows:

    William C. Ferrell, district attorney; John Hays, county judge; Richard
Rust, county clerk; Thomas W. Sutherland, county attorney; Henry Clayton, county
surveyor; Agostin Haraszthy, sheriff; Henry C. Matzell, county recorder; Jose
Antonio Estudillo, county assessor; John Brown, coroner; Juan Bandini, county
treasurer.

    The legislature appointed Oliver S. Witherby the first district judge, his
district including San Diego and Los Angeles counties. The court was formally
organized on Sept. 2, 1850, jurors were summoned and six cases were heard. The
first grand jury was composed of the following: Charles Haraszthy, Ramon Osuna,
James Wall, Loreta Amador, Manuel Rocha, J. Emers, Boniface Lopez, Holden Alara,
Seth B. Blake, Louis Rose, William H. Moon. Cave J. Couts, Jose de Js. Moreno,
Cristobel Lopez and Antonio Aguirre. Attorneys enrolled at the first term of the
court were James W. Robinson, Thomas W. Sutherland, John B. Magruder and William
C. Ferrell.

    The legislature of 1850 incorporated San Diego as a city, and the first city
election of the new town was held June 16, 1850. Joshua H. Bean was elected San
Diego's first mayor; the following council was elected: Charles Haraszthy,
Charles R. Johnson, William Leamy, Charles P. Noell and Atkins S. Wright. Other
city officers chosen at the first election were: Treasurer, Jose Antonio
Estudillo; assessor, Juan Bandini, who declined to serve and was succeeded by
Richard Rust; city attorney, Thomas W. Sutherland, and marshal, Agostin
Haraszthy. The recurrence of names in the lists of city and county officers
already set forth in this chapter is easily accounted for; the county and city
were so small that it was not easy to find offices enough to go around or,
conversely, enough different and competent men to fill all of the offices.
Evidence of this is found in the fact that several San Diegans at various times
in the early years actually held two or three offices apiece. Among such were
George A. Pendleton and Philip Crosthwaite. Some of those elected at about this
time declined to serve, administration of the county was loosely run at times as
far as calendars are concerned, and some of those who were in local offices gave
none too much attention to their duties. This was somewhat to be expected in a
small community, many of whose residents had business which called them away
from time to time: but it appears that no great harm resulted anyway. In 1852
the city's charter was repealed, and San Diego went back to the town form of
government, the administration being in the hands of a board of five trustees.
The president of the board was called mayor by courtesy. That form of government
continued for more than thirty-five years. The local officials of the early days
inherited from their predecessors something of the love of entertainment, and in
the records of the first board are two entries showing appropriations for balls,
one for the coast survey officials who had been sent to San Diego and the other
to celebrate the admission of California into the Union.

    Mention has already been made of the movement supported by Editor Ames of
the Herald for state division. The six southern counties of California in a
referendum vote in 1859 showed a two-thirds majority for division, but the
legality of this action was questioned, and the project was given up, although
it has recurred in California politics to some extent since that time.

    Between 1850 and 1860 San Diego county population grew from 800 to 4,300.
Between 1860 and the end of the Civil war the community practically marked time.
Ames discontinued his Herald in 1860 and went to San Bernardino, where he died
July 28, 1861.

    Most of the travel to and from San Diego in that period was by steamer. The
first line to San Francisco was started in 1850. It later became the California
Steam Navigation Company and later was sold to the Pacific Coast Steamship
Company. Among the early boats putting into San Diego were the Ohio and Goliah,
which already have been referred to in Derby's impressions of San Diego; the
Fremont, Southern, Senator and Thomas Hunt. Pacific Mail liners from Panama
slipped in about twice a month. For a time packets were run from San Diego to
the Hawaiian Islands. The mail service provided in those early days of American
control was very poor, as can be seen from the files of Ames' Herald, in which
he frequently voiced snorting complaint. Richard Rust was the first postmaster
in 1850. He held the place only a year; then Henry J. Couts took it for a year,
being succeeded by George Lyons in 1853. Rust took the office again in 1856. W.
B. Couts had it in 1858 and Joshua Sloane in 1859. The Herald, however, said
with some force in September, 1851, that for two years there had been "no
regularly appointed postmaster at San Diego," and declared that as only a
pittance was allowed for the office, the service was very poor. Ames put most of
his dependence on pursers of the steamers which put in at San Diego, and the
columns of the Herald contain frequent references to the courtesies extended by
the pursers to him. The first overland mail arrived in the city in August, 1857,
having taken thirty-four days to come from San Antonio. That same year the
Government made its contract with John Butterfield and his associates to carry
the mails to the Pacific Coast from St. Louis, and the company sent coaches over
the southern route to San Diego. The opening of the Civil war closed this route,
and it was not reopened to San Diego until 1867. John G. Capron, San Diego
pioneer, had the contract.

    "Ranching," in the modern California usage of the word, amounted to little
in those early days. Yet some few good beginnings were made in the growing of
fruits in advantageous places. E. W. Morse, who saw the town in 1850, said,
according to Smythe, that there "was literally no agriculture" in San Diego at
that time. There were large ranches then, but they were cattle ranges, and Morse
said the largest fenced field in this section was in the San Luis Rey valley and
belonged to Indians. "Some years later," said Morse, "we had an assessor who was
a cattle raiser, and in his report to the state comptroller he said that no part
of the country was fit for agriculture. That was what people honestly thought,
at the time." It must be remembered that the first success of any extent in
agriculture in this section followed the storage of water by artificial means
for use in the dry seasons which come with certain regularity in Southern
California. In later years A. E. Horton and other progressive citizens used
windmills to pump water for gardens in which they took much pride as "show
places," but real commercial success in agriculture in this part of California
has been achieved principally by use of water from dams such as were not built
at San Diego in the '50s or '60s or '70s. The Mission Fathers, building their
dam at Mission Gorge in the San Diego River's course, had pointed the way, but
that way was not taken for many a year by those who followed them.

    Mention has been made of some of the Americans who were early residents of
San Diego-the San Diego of Old Town. All of them of course have passed away;
comparatively few of them have left direct descendants of their names in San
Diego. Those who seek genealogical information on this line will find an
excellent chapter on "American Families of the Early Time" in Smythe's history;
he missed a few of the old settlers, but catalogued nearly all of them carefully
and with a pleasing degree of accuracy. He provided also a similar chapter on
the prominent Spanish families of the time, and data for this chapter, as he
says, were obtained from a great variety of sources. Many of these Spanish names
still survive in San Diego, and many of the beautiful daughters of these Spanish
families are wives of Americans living in and about San Diego. These Spanish men
and women have done much to preserve here the atmosphere of the early days and
to keep warm the love which all residents hold of the romantic charm of that
period.

    There were few more striking figures in the early history of San Diego under
the American flag than was Col. Cave Johnson Couts, for many years administrator
of the famous Guajome ranch, where Helen Hunt Jackson is said to have obtained
much of her material for her novel "Ramona." Nephew of Cave Johnson, Secretary
of the Treasury under President Polk, member of a well known Tennessee family,
educated at West Point and possessing a fine military record, he came to San
Diego in the course of the Mexican war and on April 5, 1851, married Ysidora
Bandini, daughter of the illustrious Don Juan Bandini, and in the fall of that
year left the army. For two years after that he lived at Old Town, serving a
term as county judge, but in 1853 removed with his family to the Guajome ranch.
This was an Indian grant of more than 2,000 acres, and was presented to Mrs.
Couts as a wedding present by her brother-in-law, Don Abel Stearns of Los
Angeles. A sketch of Colonel Couts in the "History of Southern California"
issued by the Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago in 1890, gives an interesting
account of the work he did there. It credits Colonel Couts with being among the
first to foresee that the climate of the section was adapted to agriculture and
with having been the first to plant an orchard on a large scale with the
improved varieties of fruits.

    "When Colonel Couts went out there in 1852 to take possession and inaugurate
his improvements," says this sketch, "there was not the sign of a tree of any
kind where now are immense orchards, vineyards and willow thickets; he carried a
few boards from San Diego, and with them and willow poles, hauled from the river
bottom two miles away, he put up a little shed sufficient to cook and sleep in.
There was a damp piece of land, a small cienega, but no running water, and in
order to water his mules it was necessary to dig a hole in the ground with a
spade, and with a small dipper dip up enough water to fill up a bucket and thus
water his mules. Where that was done in 1852, there is now a large pond, sixty
feet in diameter and seven feet deep, full all the time and running over in a
large stream, which is used for irrigation. At that time there was a great
number of Indians in and around San Luis Rey, and it was an easy matter for
Colonel Couts, as he was an Indian agent, to command the services of enough
laborers to do his work. It was not long before the result of the patient labor
of 300 Indians took the form of an immense adobe house, built in a square,
containing twenty rooms, a fine court-yard in the center, well filled with
orange and lemon trees and every variety of flower; immense barns, stables,
sheds and corrals were added, after extensive quarters for the servants were
built; then to finish the whole a neat chapel was built and formally dedicated
to the worship of God. His military training enabled him to control and manage
the Indians, as only he could. Everything in and about the ranch was conducted
with such neatness and precision that a stranger would at once inquire if 'Don
Cuevas,' as he was generally called, was not from West Point. By strict
attention to business he accumulated thousands of cattle, hundreds of horses and
mules, a large band of sheep, and added to his landed interest by the purchase
of the San Marcos, Buena Vista and La Joya ranches, besides some 8,000 acres of
Government lands adjoining the homestead; in all some 20,000 acres. But the
passage of the 'no-fence law' almost ruined him financially, as he was compelled
to dispose of his cattle at a fearful sacrifice, and he was just recovering from
the crash when he died."

    Colonel Couts passed away at the old Horton House in San Diego on June 10,
1874. Both he and Mrs. Couts were members of large families of children, and the
couple had ten children who with their children have helped to keep the family
name prominent in California. Dona Ysidora managed the vast estate for many
years after her husband's death and did it with marked ability. She is said to
have aided two of her sisters in making one of the first American flags hoisted
in Southern California.

    Another prominent American resident of the early days of San Diego was Henry
D. Fitch, who for many years kept a "general" store at Old Town. Like many
another who came to California at that period, he was a New England man, hailing
from New Bedford. For several years he was in command of a small Mexican vessel
which went to California ports and in 1833 became a Mexican citizen. He was
baptized in San Diego in 1829 as Enrique Domingo Fitch and in 1834 was elected
"cyndico procurador," or pueblo attorney, at the first election held at San
Diego under civil rule. Fitch had fallen in love with the beautiful Josefa
Carrillo, daughter of Joaquin Carrillo and had promised in 1827 to marry her,
and his baptism and becoming a Mexican citizen were steps taken to carry out
that promise; but legal difficulties were imposed by a ruling of the Mexican
governor, so Fitch and his fiancee decided upon an elopement, in which Pio Pico,
a cousin of the beautiful Spanish girl, assisted. Fitch made well advertised
preparations to leave on an ocean voyage on the Vulture, said good-bye to his
friends and to the charming girl and then went aboard. The Vulture, however, did
not sail far away; instead, it hugged the shore, and at night, when suspicions
had been calmed, Miss Carrillo was taken on horseback by her cousin to a spot
where a small boat was waiting. Soon the couple were united, and at Valparaiso
they were married by a curate. When the bride and bridegroom returned to
California the next year, bringing an infant son, there was some trouble with
the church authorities, but the marriage at last was declared valid. The affair,
however, was a topic of conversation and gossip along the Pacific Coast for many
years and is mentioned by several writers who were here at the period. Fitch
died in 1849 and it is said that he was the last to be buried on old Presidio
Hill. Fitch in 1841 received a large grant in Sonoma county, and Fitch Mountain
in that county is named for him. Fitch will long be remembered in San Diego for
a survey and map which he made of San Diego in 1845; legal arguments concerning
property in San Diego contain many a reference to his survey.

    Then there was John Forster, who was known as "Don Juan" Forster, who
married one of the Pico girls. Another was Captain Robert D. Israel, who married
Maria Machado de Alipas, a daughter of Damasio and Juana Machado de Alipas; he
was a blacksmith and contractor and served in various offices in early American
days. Mr. Israel died several years ago; his wife died Oct. 7, 1921. There was
Philip Crosthwaite, who came over to the United States from Ireland when a child
and who came to California for "a lark" and landed at San Diego. Here he took an
active part in early activities of the Americans, served at the battle of San
Pasqual and in the Garra insurrection and held several public offices in later
days. He was first master of San Diego Lodge No. 35, F. & A. M. Crosthwaite,
like many other Americans of his day in San Diego, married a Spanish girl; she
was Josefa Lopez.

    Andrew Cassidy, who died Nov. 25, 1907, was one of the most beloved of old
residents of San Diego. He came here in 1853, and it is believed that he lived
longer in San Diego than did any other man of his period except possibly two.
Cassidy, who was a native of County Cavan, Ireland, came to the United States as
a boy of seventeen years, became an employe of the coast survey office and in
1853 came to the Pacific Coast with a party which established a tidal gauge at
La Playa. Cassidy was left in charge of that gauge and took observations for
seventeen years. In 1864 he became the owner of the great Soledad rancho of
1,000 acres where the town of Sorrento, now a small city precinct, was
established, and engaged in cattle-raising. He sold the property in 1887. His
first wife was Rosa Serrano, daughter of Jose Antonio Serrano of Old Town. She
died on Sept. 10, 1869. His second wife was Miss Mary Smith, daughter of Albert
B. Smith, a hero of the Mexican war. Cassidy held several public offices
including that of supervisor and member of the old board of public works. To
quote an admirer, one of many, he lived "a long life of usefulness" in a humble,
kindly, loveable way.

    Richard Kerren, with his family of six boys and four girls, was one of the
prominent citizens of old San Diego. He came to San Diego at about 1847, with
one of the infantry detachments sent to relieve Commodore Stockton. He held the
grade of sergeant. Sergeant Kerren was killed, several years after his coming to
San Diego, by being thrown from a horse as he was riding out to his home near
the Old Mission. Two of his sons, Richard, Jr., and Frank, were noted as
musicians in the early days. They played entirely by ear, but mastered music so
well that they were much in demand throughout the county, and, later, through a
much wider territory. They were taken to Fort Yuma to play for festivities
there, several times, and once were sent for to go to the town of Real del
Castillo-at that time the capital of Baja California. His other sons were named
James, John and William. Three of his four daughters, Maggie, Mary, Jennie and
Katie, are still living. Richard, Jr., married Esther Smith, daughter of one of
the town's earliest residents. She is still living at Old Town.

[photo] SOME RUINS AT OLD TOWN, WHERE SAN DIEGO HAD ITS BEGINNING

    Ephraim W. Morse came here in 1849. A sketch of him appears later in this
volume, as do sketches of Thomas Whaley and others. Louis Rose's name is
perpetuated in Roseville and Rose Canyon. He laid out Roseville, which at one
time was believed to be the probable site of the City of San Diego. In Rose
Canyon he started a tannery in 1853. Then there were Joshua Sloane, at one time
postmaster and for years an earnest advocate of San Diego's great city park, now
Balboa Park; Capt. George A. Pendleton, for years county clerk; James W.
Robinson, who came to San Diego as a former governor of Texas and was district
attorney for several years; Henry Clayton, the surveyor; William C. Ferrell,
attorney, who became a recluse in Lower California and lived alone for many
years in a mountain retreat; Dr. David B. Hoffman, early a coroner, later a
district attorney, and another American who took a Spanish wife one of the
Machado girls; James McCoy, who came to San Diego with Col. J. Bankhead
Magruder's troops and who several times was elected sheriff of San Diego County;
Charles P. Noell, a storekeeper at Old Town, later a state assemblyman from San
Diego and always a highly respected and trusted citizen; Thomas Wrightington,
who was one of the first Americans to settle at San Diego and who married one of
the Machado girls. The list is long, and no attempt has been made here to have
it complete; yet, short as it is, it tells a story of the intermarriage of
Americans and Spanish and something of the men who came out to these shores from
the east.

    Those who would absorb in a short visit the romantic atmosphere which
pervades the little settlement, much of it in ruins or in decay, at Old Town,
the beginning of California,-and who would not be glad to take such a trip of
the fancy into such a past?-may travel that way by entering the old Estudillo
home in Old Town.

    Built by Don Jose Antonio Estudillo at about 1825, it stands there today
practically as it was in the days of Spanish and Mexican rule and in the times
of Stockton and Kearny. The original structure crumbled into sad ruins many
years ago, but was restored in a truly patriotic and architecturally faithful
way in 1909. In this work several had a part. Principal among them was William
Clayton, vice-president and managing director of the Spreckels companies, who
regarded the work of restoration not only as one that ought to be done to afford
pleasure to residents and tourists but as one which was due to the memories
surrounding the quaint settlement. He requested Mrs. Hazel W. Waterman, talented
daughter-in-law of the late Robert W. Waterman, former governor of California,
to direct the task. No happier choice could have been made, for she performed
the task with a zealous attention to detail and a cultured artistic sense, which
has been reflected indeed in other work with which she has been identified in
San Diego. As Edwin H. Clough has related in his charming booklet, "Ramona's
Marriage Place, the House of Estudillo," she found little but a pile of ruins,
practically nothing but the north end having been left in the shape of a house;
tiles, adobe, wood and hardware had been carried away by memento-grabbing
tourists, and the rest had fallen through neglect into a mere mockery of a home.
From those small beginnings, aided by a close study of what was left in the
vicinity of the old settlement and by visits afar to get what was lacking in
information Mrs. Waterman went to work. Preliminary to the actual construction,
she visited the Guajome ranch of the Couts family near San Luis Rey, where Helen
Hunt Jackson got many of her ideas for the book "Ramona;" Don Juan Forster's
Santa Margarita, and the Rancho Pinaquitos. She made trips to the famous Pico
house at Whittier, the De la Guerra mansion at Santa Barbara and obtained
details from Monterey and other places where still remained traces and relics of
early Spanish days in California. Wherever possible the. old work was retained
in the restored building. The adobe walls of the front and main part of the
house, and many of the tiles which are now on the roof were a part of the
original structure. Those tiles used on the floor of the veranda were brought
from the Old Mission Aqueduct below the celebrated dam which was built a few
years after the Mission was moved from Old Town to its later site up the Mission
Valley. For the restoration in 1909 adobe brick, roof tiles, and floor tiles
were made by hand in the field nearby by Mexican workmen assembled for the task;
those living in and near old San Diego brought others from Lower California for
special knowledge or skill in the work. Oine old Mexican boasted that he had
laid adobe for Father Ubach (the Father Gaspara of the "Ramona" story); all were
eager to assist, and to use the old primitive methods. The east and the west
wings of the building were almost entirely reconstructed, the veranda is all
new, and the walls of the outer court were built at this time. The old timbers
even in the main part of the building had decayed to such a stage that they had
to be replaced to support the adobe and the tiles, so that the new timbers, hewn
from telephone poles and railroad ties, were soaked in the waters and mud of the
bay shore to "age" them, and when placed were bound with rawhide thongs as in
the olden days when nails and spikes were not to be had but houses had to be built.

    A striking yet characteristic feature of the restored structure is the
patio, a square about seventy-five feet each way. The front of the house is 110
feet long and faces on the plaza; each wing is ninety-seven feet long. The
fireplace and oven are similar to those found in the old houses and descriptions
of the early writers; the doors are like those noted in the Missions; and the
hardware is either actually from some of the old places, or are anvil-hammered
replicas. The veranda was roofed with tule, or "carisso," bound with rawhide,
over which the large hand-molded tiles were laid. Mud plaster covered the
adobes, after the manner of the old builders, while cactus juice glue was used
for the wash over the walls which have the sun browned tint as of many returning
years. So successfully has the work been accomplished that it is difficult to
distinguish the new from the old parts of the building. The height of the
building is twenty feet to the ridge. The original intention was to add to the
reconstruction work a double-deck veranda similar to that which was added to the
?original structure by the Estudillos, partly to serve as sun-decks, as the
modern phrase has it, and partly as a vantage point from which the Estudillos
and their guests might watch what was going on in the plaza-perhaps a gay fiesta
or a thrilling bullfight. This plan, however, was abandoned, or at least
postponed, and has not been carried out.

    The reconstruction task was started and carried out with two ideas in mind:
that there should be preserved here "a typical early Californian manor house and
a local habitation for a heroine of Californian romance whose memory will last
in the hearts of men and women as long as it shall be true that all the world
loves a lover." Here again is quoted the gifted Edwin H. Clough, who by marriage
had come into an intimate relation with all that is beautifully romantic of Old
Town. And he referred, of course, to Helen Hunt Jackson's story of ''Ramona,"
whose little white heroine and whose Indian Alessandro came, in fiction, to- be
married by Father Gaspara at Old Town. It has been related that Father Gaspara
was in real life Father Ubach, beloved San Diego priest, and that the marriage
incident was based on fact. However that may be, the fact of history and the
fiction of the woman writer, whose chief aim was relief of the Indians of
California, have almost hopelessly intertangled until their threads are hard to
follow. Yet, as has been said, that after all it is a matter of small
consequence to those seeking the beautiful.

    The old Estndillo property was bought for Mr. Spreckels' street car company,
through Harry L. Titus, from Salvador R. Estudillo, a son of the builder, Don
Jose Antonio, in 1905. It is said that the reconstruction work was not viewed by
Mr. Spreckels until it was finished and that he actually was kept in ignorance
of it by Mr. Clayton and his associates until it was ready to be viewed.
Naturally, he was charmed with it, as have been all who have seen it.

    Since the reconstruction, the Estudillo house has been occupied and presided
over by Thomas P. Getz, who there welcomes the tourists and other visitors and
tells them in an entertaining "lecture" the story of Ramona and her Indian
suitor. And if he too mingles fact and fiction, he is forgiven, for his purpose
is to spread the charm that surrounds all this spot. Incidentally, Mr. Getz has
done much in his years of stewardship to build up a community spirit at Old
Town-a spirit which has borne fruit in a hundred little ways and helped to keep
a pride burning there.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY

THE BIRTHPLACE OF CALIFORNIA
BY
CLARENCE ALAN McGREW
SAN DIEGO

Assisted by a Board of Advisory and Contributing Editors

WITH SELECTED BIOGRAPHY OF ACTORS AND WITNESSES IN THE PERIOD OF THE CITY AND
COUNTY'S GREATEST GROWTH AND ACHIEVEMENT

VOLUME I
ILLUSTRATED

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 
1922

Copyright 1922 
The American Historical Society


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