Statewide County CA Archives History - Books .....Spaniards North Of The Bay 1891
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

THE SPANIARDS NORTH OF THE BAY.

  Forty years had come and gone since the presidio and mission were founded at
Yerba Buena, and yet no fruitful attempt had been made to establish a settlement
on the north side of the bay; and the first movement in that direction seems to
have been impelled by a seeming necessity. At the mission Dolores were many
hundred neophytes who had been gathered in from the many Indian tribes south of
the bay. Among these existed an increasing and alarming mortality from pulmonary
disease. The padres, as a sanitary measure, determined upon the founding of a
branch mission in some more sheltered and genial clime on the north side of the
bay. The present site of San Rafael was the location determined upon. The
establishment was to be more in the nature of a rancho, with chapel, baptistery
and cemetery, than a regularly ordained mission. Padre Luis Gil y Taboada was
detailed to take charge of this branch establishment of the church. In reference
to this branch mission Bancroft says: "The site was probably selected on the
advice of Moraga, who had several times passed it on his way to and from Bodega,
though there may have been a special examination by the friars not recorded.
Father Gil was accompanied by Derran, Abella and Sarria, the latter of whom,
December 14, with the same ceremonies that usually attended the dedication of a
regular mission, founded the assistencia of San Rafael Arcangel, on the spot
called by the natives Nanaguani. Though the establishment was at first only a
branch of San Francisco, an assistencia and not a mission, with a chapel instead
of a church, under a supernumerary friar of San Francisco, yet there was no real
difference between its management and that of the other missions. The number of
neophytes transferred at first is supposed to have been about 230, but there is
but very little evidence on the subject, and subsequent transfers, if any were
made in either direction, are not recorded, By the end of 1820 the population
had increased to 590. In 1818 an adobe building eighty feet long, forty-two feet
wide and eighteen feet high had been erected; divided by partitions into chapel,
padre's house and all other apartments required, and furnished besides with a
corridor of tules. Padre Gil y Taboada remained in charge of San Rafael until
the summer of 1819, when he was succeeded by Juan Amoros."

  That even the southern end of what is now Sonoma County was yet a comparative
terra incognita to the Spaniards, is evidenced by the fact that as late as May,
1818, on the occasion of a visit of President Payeras with Commandante Arguello
to San Rafael, they made quite an exploration of the surrounding country and
reported having seen from the top of a hill "the Canada de los Olompalis and the
Llano de los Petalumas." Thus, as Moses viewed the promised land from the summit
of Mount Pisgah, did priest and commandante from the summit of a Marin County
hill look down upon Petaluma Valley in the year of grace 1818. The commandante
referred to in this connection was Captain Luis Arguello. Governor Arrillaga
having died in 1813, Arguello filled the position of acting governor until Sola
was appointed to that position. Arguello was a man of considerable energy and
dash, and it was but natural that Governor Sola should select him for a
hazardous enterprise. Late in the summer of 1821 the Governor determined to send
an exploring expedition up north. As this was one of the most consequential
explorations ever undertaken under Spanish rule, and as it has an intimate
connection with Sonoma County, we give place to Hubert Howe Bancroft's narration
of the meanderings of the expedition, which is as follows:

  "Thirty-five soldados de enera and twenty infantes, part of the force coming
from Monterey, were assembled at San Francisco. Horses and much of the supplies
were sent from Santa Clara and San Jose up to the strait of the Carquinez. The
officers selected were Captain Luis Arguello, Alterez Francisco de Haro, Alferez
Jose Antonio Sanchez, and Cadet Joaquin Estudillo, with Padre Blas Ordaz as
chaplain and chronicler, and John Gilroy, called the 'English interpreter Juan
Antonio.' Some neophytes were also attached to the force, and all was ready for
the start the 18th of October. The company sailed from San Francisco at 11 A. M.
in the two lanchas of the presidio and mission, landing at Ruyuta, near what is
now Point San Pedro, to pass the night. Next day they continued the voyage to
the Carquinez, being joined by two other boats. Saturday and Sunday were spent
in ferrying the horses across the strait, together with a band of Ululatos and
Canucaymos Indians, en route to visit their gentile homes, and in religious
exercises. Monday morning they started for the north.

  "The journey which followed was popularly known to the Spaniards at the time,
and since as "Arguello's expedition to the Columbia." The Columbia was the only
northern region of which the Spaniards had any definite idea, or was rather to
them a term nearly synonymous with the northern interior. It was from the
Columbia that the strange people sought were supposed to have come; and it is
not singular, in the absence of any correct idea of distance, that the only
expedition to the far north was greatly exaggerated in respect to the distance
traveled. The narratives in my possession, written by old Californians, some of
whom accompanied Arguello, are unusually inaccurate in their versions of this
affair, on which they would throw but very little light in the absence of the
original diary of Father Ordaz, a document that is fortunately extant.

  "Starting from the strait on the morning of October 22. Arguello and his
company marched for nine days, averaging little less than eight hours a day,
northward up the valley of the Sacramento, which they called the Jesus Maria,
The name of rancherias I give in a note. There is little else to be said of the
march, the obstacles to be overcome having been few and slight.

  The natives were either friendly, timid or slightly hostile, having to be
scattered once or twice by the noise of a cannon. The neophyte Rafael from San
Francisco had but little difficulty to make himself understood. The most serious
calamity was the loss of a mule that fell into the river with two thousand
cartridges on its back. There were no indications of foreigners.

  “On the 30th, to use the words of the diary, 'the place where we are is
situated at the foot of the Sierra Madre, whence there have been seen by the
English interpreter, Juan Antonio, two mountains called Los Cuates—the twins— on
the opposite side of which are the presidio and river of the Columbia. The
rancherias before named are situated on the banks of the Rio de Jesus Maria,
from which to-morrow a different direction will be taken.' Accordingly the 31st
they 'marched west until they came to the foot of a mountain range, about
fifteen leagues from the Sierra Nevada, which runs from north to south,
terminating in the region of Bodega.' Exactly at what point the travelers left
the river and entered the mountain range, now bounding Trinity County on the
east, I do not attempt to determine, though it was evidently not below Red
Bluff. The distance made up the valley, allowing an average rate of three miles
an hour for sixty-eight hours, the length of the return march of ninety-six
hours through the mountains, at a rate of two miles an hour, and the possible
identity of Capa, reached in forty-four hours from Carquinez, with the Capaz of
modern maps opposite Chico, would seem to point to the latitude of Shasta or
Weaverville as the northern limit of this exploration.

  "For nine days, the explorers marched southward over the mountains. No
distances are given, and I shall not pretend to trace the exact route followed,
though I give in a note the names recorded in the diary. Like those in the
valley, the savages were not, as a rule, hostile, though a few had to be killed
in the extreme north; but their language could no longer be understood, and it
was often difficult to obtain guides from rancheria to rancheria. The natural
difficulties of the mountain route were very great. Many horses died, and four
pack-mules once fell down a precipice together. The 3d of November, at Benenue,
some blue cloth was found, said to have been obtained from the coast, probably
from the Russians. On the 6th the ocean was first seen, and several soldiers
recognized the 'coast of the Russian establishment at Bodega.' Next day from the
Espinazo del Diablo was seen what was believed to be Cape Mendocino, twenty
leagues away on the right. Finally, on the 10th, the party from the top of a
mountain, higher than any before climbed, but in sight of many worse ones,
abandoned by their guides at dusk, with only three days' rations, managed to
struggle down and out through the dense undergrowth into a valley.

  "And down this valley of Libantiliyami, which could hardly have been any other
than that of the Russian River, though at what point in the present Sonoma
County, or from what direction they entered it I am at a loss to say. The
returning wanderers hastened; over a route that seem to have presented no
obstacles— doubtless near the sites of the modern Healdsburg and Santa Rosa—and
on November 12th, at noon, after twenty hours' march in three days, arrived at
San Rafael. Next day, after a thanksgiving mass, the boats arrived and the work
of ferrying the horses across to Point San Pablo was begun. The infantry
soldiers, who were mounted during the expedition, also took this route home,
both to Monterey and San Francisco. Thus ended the most extensive northern
expedition ever made by the Spaniards in California."

  By reference to the notes referred to by Mr. Bancroft in the above, it is
quite certain that Arguello and his companions reached Russian River at or near
the present site of Cloverdale. Be that as it may, it is beyond cavil that they
were the first Spaniards to traverse the central valleys of Sonoma County. While
the expedition was not fruitful of far-reaching results, yet it furnishes an
important leaf to local history. Being the first of civilized race to traverse
the territory of the county its whole length, entitles that little band of
explorers to kindly remembrance and honorable mention in her annals.

  But the time was close at hand when Sonoma County, which had lain fallow all
these years, except that portion of seaboard under occupancy by the Russians,
was to come under Spanish domination. The establishment of a new mission was
determined upon. The causes which impelled this movement northward will seem
strange to the readers of the present generation. In the language of Bancroft,
"In 1822 at a conference between Canon Fernandez, Prefect Payeras, and Governor
Arguello, it had been decided to transfer the mission of San Francisco from the
peninsula to the 'northeastern contra costa on the gentile frontier,' a decision
based on the comparative sterility of the old site, the insalubrity of the
peninsula climate, the broadness of the field for conversion in the north, the
success of the experimental founding of the San Rafael branch, and not
improbably a desire on the part of two of the three dignitaries to throw the few
fertile ranches south of San Francisco into the hands of settlers. The matter
next came up just before the death of Payeras, who seems to have had nothing
more to say about it. March 23, 1823, Padre Jose Altimira, very likely at
Arguello's instigation, presented to the deputacion a memorial in which he
recommended the transfer, he being a party naturally interested as one of the
ministers of San Francisco. On April 9th, the deputacion voted in favor of the
change. It was decreed that the assistencia of San Rafael should be joined again
to San Francisco, and transferred with it,and the suggestion made that the
country of the Petalumas or of the Canicaimos, should be the new site. The
suppression of Santa Cruz was also recommended. The governor sent these
resolutions to Mexico next day, and Altimira forwarded copies to the new
prefect, Senan, on April 30th, but received no response.

  "An exploration was next in order, for the country between the Suisunes and
Petalumas was as yet only little known, some parts of it having never been
visited by the Spaniards. With this object in view, Altimira and the deputado,
Francisco Castro, with an escort of nineteen men under Alferez Jose Sanchez,
embarked at San Francisco on the 25th of June, and spent the night at San
Rafael. Both Sanchez and Altimira kept a diary of the trip in nearly the same
words. * * * The explorers went by way of Olompali to the Petaluma, Sonoma,
Napu, and Suisun valleys in succession, making a somewhat close examination of
each. Sonoma was found to be best adapted for mission purposes by reason of its
climate, location, abundance of wood and stone, including limestone as was
thought, and above all for its innumerable and most excellent springs and
streams. The plain of the Petaluma, bread and fertile, lacked water; that of the
Suisunes was liable, more or less, to the same objection, and was also deemed
too far from the old San Francisco; but Sonoma, as a mission site, with
eventually branch establishments, or at least cattle ranches at Petaluma and
Napa, seemed to the three representatives of civil, military and Francisian
power to offer every advantage. Accordingly on July 4th, a cross was blessed and
set up on the site of a former gentile rancheria, now formally named New San
Francisco. A volley of musketry was fired, several songs were sung, and holy
mass was said. July 4th might, therefore, with greater propriety than any other
date be celebrated as the anniversary of the foundation, though the place was
for a little time abandoned, and on the sixth all were back at Old San Francisco."

  We cannot give the reader a more correct idea of this first exploration of the
southern end of Sonoma County than is given in the language of Padre Altimira's
diary, which is epitomized as follows in Alley, Bowen & Co.'s History of Sonoma
County: "The Padre and his party left San Rafael, where a mission had been
already founded, on the 25th of June, 1823, and during the day passed the
position now occupied by the city of Petaluma, then called by the Spaniards,
'Punta de los Esteros,' and known to the Indians as 'Chocuale,' that night
encamping on the 'Arroyo Lema,' where the large adobe on the Petaluma Rancho was
afterward constructed by General Vallejo.

  "Here a day's halt would appear to have been called, in order to take a glance
at the beautiful country and devise means of further progress. On the 27th they
reached the famous 'Laguna de Tolly,' now, alas! nothing but a place, it having
fallen into the hands of a German gentleman of marked utilitarian principles,
who has drained and reclaimed it, and planted it with potatoes. Here the
expedition took a northeasterly route, and entering the Sonoma Valley, which
Father Altimira states was then so called by former Indian residents, the party
encamped on the arroyo of 'Pulula,' where J. A. Poppe, a merchant of Sonoma, has
a large fish-breeding establishment, stocked with carp brought from Rhinefelt,
in Germany, in 1871. The holy father's narrative of the beauties of Sonoma
Valley, as seen by the new-comers, are so graphically portrayed by himself that
we cannot refrain from quoting his own words: 'At about 3 P. M.,' (June 23,
1823) 'leaving our camp and our boat on the slough near by, we started to
explore, directing our course northwestward across the plain of Sonoma, until we
reached a stream (Sonoma Creek) of about five hundred plumas of water,
crystalline and most pleasing to the taste, flowing through a grove of beautiful
and useful trees. The stream flows from some hills which enclose the plain, and
terminate it on the north. We went on, penetrating abroad grove of oaks; the
trees were lofty and robust, affording an external source of utility, both for
firewood and carriage material. This forest was about three leagues long from
east to west, and a league and a half wide from north to south. The plain is
watered by another arroyo still more copious aid pleasant than the former,
flowing from west to east, but traveling northward from the centre of the plain.
We explored this evening as far as the daylight permitted. The permanent
springs, according to the statement of those who have seen them in the extreme
dry season, are almost innumerable. No one can doubt the benignity of the Sonoma
climate after noting the plants, the lofty and shady trees —alders, poplars,
ash, laurel, and others—and especially the abundance and luxuriance of the wild
grapes. We observed, also, that the launch may come up the creek to where a
settlement can be founded, truly a most convenient circumstance. We saw from
these and other facts that Sonoma is a most desirable site for a mission.'

  "Let us here note who are now located on the places brought permanently
forward by Padre Altimira. The hills which inclose the valley and out of whose
bosom the Sonoma Creek springs, is now occupied by the residence and vineyard of
Mr. Edwards. The forest mentioned covered the present site of the Leavenworth
vineyards, the Hayes' estate, and the farms of Wootten, Carriger, Harrison,
Craig, Herman, Wohler, Hill, Stewart, Warfield, Krous & Williams, La Motte,
Hood, Kohler, Morris, and others. The second stream mentioned as flowing
northward from the center of the plains, is 'Olema,' or flour-mill stream, on
which Colonel George F. Hooper resides, while the locality in which he states
are innumerable springs is the tract of country where now are located the
hacienda or Lachryma Montis, the residence of General M. G. Vallejo and the
dwellings and vineyards of Haraszthy, Gillen, Tichner, Dressel, Winchell,
Gundlach, Rubus, Suyder, Nathanson, and the ground of the Buena Vista
Vinicultural Society. The head of navigation noted is the place since called St.
Louis, but usually known as the Embarcadero."

  Of this first exploration of the country round about Petaluma and Sonoma,
every incident will be of interest to the reader. In Padre Altimira's diary,
note is made of the killing of a bear on the Petaluma flat. Mention is also made
that their first night's camp (probably near where the old Vallejo adobe now
stands) was with eight or ten Petalumas (Indians) hiding there from their
enemies, the Libantiloquemi, Indians of Santa Rosa Valley. As already stated,
the exploration extended as far east as Suisun Valley, and Altimira mentions
that on the 30th of June they killed ten bears. On returning they gave the
Sonoma Valley a more complete examination and crossed the mountain back into the
upper end of Petaluma Valley and back to where they camped the first night. From
there they seem to have taken a pretty direct route back to Sonoma, probably
about the route of the old road leading from Petaluma to Sonoma. This was on the
3d of July, and the next day the mission location was formally established at
Sonoma.

  The prelate upon whose decision the Altimira enterprise depended for a full
fruition had not yet been heard from. Altimira represented to him, and with a
great deal of apparent truth, that "San Francisco was on its last legs, and that
San Rafael could not subsist alone." But the desired sanction from the prelate
had not yet come. Governor Arguello seemed impatient of delay and ordered
Altimira to proceed with the work of founding the new mission, an order that
Padre Altimira seemed to be only too ready to obey, for he seemed to have been a
fiery, impetuous mortal, with more zeal than prudence. On the 12th of August he
took possession of the effects of the San Rafael mission by inventory, and by
the 23d he was on his way to New San Francisco with an escort of twelve men, and
an artilleryman to manage a cannon of two-pound caliber. Be was also accompanied
by quite a force of neophytes as laborers. By the 25th all hands were on the
ground and the work of planting a mission commenced. At the end of a week the
work had so far progressed that it could be said of a surety that Sonoma Valley
had passed under the dominion of civilized man. But Altimira was destined to
have his Christian forbearance tested. The prelate refused to sanction the
wiping out of the San Rafael mission. While he did not express a decided opinion
on the propriety of the removal of the San Francisco mission, he expressed
amazement at the hasty and unauthorized manner in which the deputacion had acted
in the premises. On the 31st of August this decision reached the Padre at New
San Francisco, and for the time put an end to his operations. That this
interruption did not put Altimira in a very prayerful frame of mind is evidenced
by the vinegar and gall apparent in his epistolary record in connection with the
subject. In a letter to Governor Arguello in reference to the prelate's
decision, Altimira says: "I wish to know whether the deputacion has any
authority in this province, and if these men can overthrow your honor's wise
provisions. I came here to convert gentiles and to establish missions, and if I
cannot do it here, where, as we all agree, is the best spot in California for
the purpose, I will leave the country." As a plain missionary proposition Padre
Altimira was right; but as an ecclesiastical fact he was restive under a harness
of his own choosing, and was wrong. Sarria was then president of the California
missions. The sequel to the prelate's decision is thus recited by Bancroft:

  A correspondence followed between Sarria and Arguello, in which the former
with many expressions of respect for the governor and the secular government not
unmixed with personal flattery of Arguello, justified in a long argument the
position he had assumed. The Governor did not reply in detail to Sarria's
arguments, since it did not in his view matter much what this or that prefect
had or had not approved, but took the ground that the deputacion was empowered
to act for the public good in all such urgent matters as that under
consideration, and that its decrees must be carried out. During fifty years the
friars had made no progress in the conversion of northern gentiles or occupation
of northern territory; and now the secular authorities proposed to take charge
of the conquest in the temporal aspect at least. The new establishment would be
sustained with its escolta under a major-domo, and the prelate's refusal to
authorize Altimira to care for its spiritual needs would be reported to the
authorities in Mexico.

  Yet, positive as was the Governor's tone in general, he declared that he would
not insist on the suppression of San Rafael; and, though some of the
correspondence has douhtless been lost, he seems to have consented readily
enough to a compromise suggested by the prefect, and said by him to have been
more or less fully approved by Altimira. By the terms of this compromise New San
Francisco was to remain as a mission in regular standing, and Padre Altimira was
appointed its regular minister, subject to the decision of the college; hut
neither old San Francisco nor San Rafael was to be suppressed, and Altimira was
to be still associate minister of the former. Neophytes might go voluntarily
from old San Francisco to the new establishment, and also from San Jose and San
Rafael, provided they came originally from the Sonoma region, and provided also
that in the case of San Rafael they might return if they wished at any time
within a year. New converts might come in from any direction to the mission they
preferred, but no force was to be used.

  Under these conditions and restrictions the fiery Altimira entered upon the
task of Christianizing Sonoma County heathen. While he did not let pass an
opportunity to inveigh against the perverse and narrow-gauge methods of the old
missions, he seems to have entered with the zeal of a Paul into his missionary
work. Bancroft, who has all the data to enable him to speak with absolute
certainty, says: " Passion Sunday, April 4, 1824, the mission church, a somewhat
rude structure 24x105 feet, built of boards and whitewashed, but well furnished
and decorated in the interior, many articles having been presented by the
Russians, was dedicated to San Francisco Solano, which from this date became the
name of the mission. Hitherto it had been properly New San Francisco, though
Altimira had always dated his letters San Francisco simply, and referred to the
peninsula establishment as Old San Francisco; but this usage became
inconvenient, and rather than honor St. Francis of Assisi with two missions it
was agreed to dedicate the new one to San Francisco Solano, 'the great apostle
of the Indies.' It was largely from this early confusion of names, and also from
the inconvenience of adding Asisi and Solano to designate the respective Saints
Francis and Solano that arose the popular usage of calling the two missions
Dolores and San Solano, the latter name being replaced ten years later by the
original one of Sonoma."

  Elsewhere we have said that right here in Sonoma County the Catholic and the
Greek Cross met, and it but lends luster to the page s of history to record that
though coming by different roads they met in friendship; for, with deft hands,
the communicants of the Greek church at Ross shaped gifts for ornamentation and
decoration of the Catholic mission of Sonoma. Altimira remained in charge at
Sonoma until 1826, when he was superseded by Buenaventura Fortuni. Altimira had
displayed considerable energy in his field of labor, for at Sonoma he had
constructed a padre's house, granary and seven houses for the guard, besides the
chapel, all of wood. Before the year 1824 closed there had been constructed a
large adobe 30 x 120 feet, seven feet high, with tiled roof and corridor, and a
couple of other structures of adobe had been constructed ready to roof, when the
excessive rains of that season set in and ruined the walls. A loom was set up
and weaving was in operation. Quite an orchard of fruit trees was planted and a
vineyard of 3,000 vines was set out. Bancroft says: "Between 1824 and 1830
cattle increased from 1,100 to 2,000; horses from 400 to 725; and sheep remained
at 4,000, though as few as 1,500 in 1826. Crops amounted to 1,875 bushels per
year on an average, the largest yield being 3,945 in 1826, and the smallest 510
in 1829, when wheat and barley failed completely. At the end of 1824 the mission
had 693 neophytes, of whom 322 had come from San Francisco, 153 from San Jose,
92 from San Rafael and 96 had been baptized on the spot. By 1830, 650 had been
baptized and 375 buried; but the number of neophytes had increased only to 760,
leaving a margin of over 100 for runaways, even on the supposition that all from
San Rafael retired the first year to their old home. Notwithstanding the
advantages of the site and Altimira's enthusiasm, the mission at Sonoma was not
prosperous during its short existence." Thus far we have followed the fortunes
of the church in its missionary work north of the bay. While it was not as
fruitful of results as the church probably expected, it at least paved the way
for secular occupation. As it had been in the south, so too in the north an
attempt at colonization was sure to follow in the paths made easy by the pluck
and perseverance of the padres.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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