Statewide County CA Archives History - Books .....Spanish Colonization 1891
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

SPANISH COLONIZATION.

  Echeandia had become Governor of California by appointment of the Mexican
Government. He was ordered as. early as 1827 to establish a fort on the northern
frontier, either at San Rafael or San Francisco Solano. The presence of the
Russians at Ross doubtless inspired this order, and then such a post would not
only be a notice to those Muscovites that they must not venture further south,
but would be a source of security and protection to the newly founded missions
as well. The Governor had no funds to put in successful execution the order. The
next year he seems to have ordered a reconnoissance for a suitable place for a
military station, but nothing further was done at that time.

  The years had sped; California was rent with internal discord; the old
missions had been looted until they were fast going to ruin, and on the 14th of
January, 1833, Figueroa arrived at Monterey, the newly appointed Governor. To
evolve order out of chaos seemed to be his high resolve. Figueroa had received
special instructions from the Mexican Government to push occupation and
settlement of the northern frontier with energy. In obedience to these
instructions Alferez Vallejo was ordered to make an exploration, select a site,
and offer land to settlers. To aid in this work the old missions were expected
to bear the principal expense. Either through inability or flagging zeal in
behalf of a government that was always impecunious, the padres did not respond
to this new levy upon their resources. Vallejo, in obedience to orders, made a
tour to Bodega and Ross. That fall Vallejo made an attempt to establish
settlements at Petaluma and Santa Rosa. Bancroft bays: "Ten heads of families,
fifty persons in all, agreed to settle at the former place (Petaluma), hitherto
unoccupied; but the padre at San Francisco Solano, hearing of the project, sent
a few men to build a hut and place a bund of horses at rhat point in order to
establish a claim to the land as mission property. Two or three of the settlers
remained and put in crops at Petaluma, Vallejo himself having ten bushels of
wheat sown on his own account. The padre's representatives also remained, and
the respective claims were left to be settled in the future. Much the same thing
seems to have been done at Santa Rosa, where a few settlers went, and to which
point the padre sent two neophytes with some hogs as the nucleus of a mission
claim. All this before January 8, 1834. In his speech of May 1st to the
deputacion, Figueroa mentioned the plan for northern settlement, but said
nothing to indicate that any actual progress had been made. The 14th of May,
however, he sentenced a criminal to serve out his term of punishment at the new
establishment about to be founded at Santa Rosa. In June the rancho of Petaluma
was granted by the Governor to Vallejo, and the grant approved by the
deputacion, this being virtually an end of the mission claim. Respecting
subsequent developments of 1834-'35 in the Santa Rosa Valley, the records are
not satisfactory; but Figueroa, hearing of the approach of a colony from Mexico,
resolved to make some preparations for its reception, and naturally thought of
the northern establishment, which he resolved to visit in person. All that we
know positively of the trip is that he started late in August, extended his tour
to Ross, examined the country, selected a site, and having left a small force on
the frontier, returned to Monterey the 12th of September. To these facts there
may be added, as probably accurate, the statements of several Californians, to
the effect that the site selected was where Vallejo's settlement and Solano
neophytes had already erected some rude buildings, that the new place was named
Santa Ana y Farias, in honor of the President and Vice-President of Mexico, and
that the settlement was abandoned the next year, because the colonists refused
to venture into a country of hostile Indians."

  The scheme of founding a frontier post at or near Santa Rosa seems to have
proved a failure; at least the next move with that end in view was in the
direction of Sonoma, where the mission San Francisco Solano had already run its
course under ecclesiastical rule, and was then in process of secularization
under the management of M. G. Vallejo as comtnissionado. This failure of the
attempted establishment of a settlement at Santa Rosa by Governor Figueroa, in
the face of the fact that eleven years previous Altimira, taking his life in his
hand, had established a mission at Sonoma, inclines us to take off our hat in
reverence to that padre, although his zeal may, at times, have befogged his
better judgment. History should be both impartial and just, and the records
unmistakably show that the Catholic missionaries had occupied the field
embracing the main portion of Sonoma County at least ten years before the
military and civil authorities exercised dominion here. Figueroa still adhered
to his policy of establishing a frontier settlement and garrison north of San
Francisco Bay.

  The following, the letter of instruction to Gen. M. G. Vallejo from Governor
Jose Figueroa in relation to the locating and governing of "a village in the
valley of Sonoma," was transmitted only a few months before that governor's death:

POLITICAL GOVERNMENT OF UPPER CALIFORNIA. 
COMMANDANCY-GENERAL OF UPPER CALIFORNIA:

                                   MONTEREY, June 24, 1835.

   In conformity with the orders and instructions issued by the Supreme
Government of the Confederation respecting the location of a village in the
valley of Sonoma, this commandancy urges upon you that, according to the
topographical plan of the place, it be divided into quarters or squares, seeing
that the streets and plazas he regulated so as to make a beginning. The
inhabitants are to he governed entirely by said plan. This government and
coramandancy approves entirely of the lines designated by you for
outlets—recognizing, as the property of the village and public lands and
privileges, the boundaries of Petaluma, Agua Caliente, Ranchero de Iluertica,
Lena de Sur, Salvador, Vallejo, and LaVernica, on the north of the city of
Sonoma, as the limits of property, rights and privileges—requesting that it
shall be commenced immediately around the hill, where the fortification is to be
erected, to protect the inhabitants from incursions of the savages and all
others. In order that the building lots granted by you, as the person charged
with colonization, may be fairly portioned, you will divide each square
(manzana) into four parts, as well for the location of each as to interest
persons in the planting of kitchen gardens, so that every one shall have a
hundred yards, more or less, which the government deems sufficient; and further,
lots of land may be granted, of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards,
in openings for outlets, for other descriptions of tillage, subject to the laws
and regulations on the subject, in such manner that at all times the
municipality shall possess the legal title.

  This government and commandancy-general offers you thanks for your efforts in
erecting this new city, which will secure the frontier of the republic, and is
confident that you will make new efforts for the national entirety.

  God and liberty.
                                   JOSE FIGUEROA.

  Don M. G. VALLEJO, Military Commandante and Director of Colonization of the
Northern Frontier.

   Under these instructions Vallejo proceeded to lay out and found the pueblo,
giving to it the Indian name of Sonoma. From this act virtually dates the real
Mexican occupancy of Sonoma County under military and civil rule. There is but
little of record during the balance of 1825, and for 1826 the most important
mention is that Vallejo, in conjunction with Chief Solano, went on an expedition
to punish the rebellious Yolos. And right here it is in place to record the fact
that this Chief Solano seems to have been a ruler among the Indian tribes in
every direction. General Vallejo's language to us was, "Solano was a king among
the Indians. All the tribes of Solano, Napa and Sonoma were under tribute to
him." Vallejo made a treaty with Solano and seems to have found in him a
valuable lieutenant in all his future dealings with neighboring Indians. Now
that a pueblo had been established at Sonoma with Vallejo as comrnandante of
this northern district, it had become an important factor in the Territorial
government of California. Vallejo was then in the fall vigor of young life,
fired with the ambition of those who believed that to them belonged a liberal
share of the management and rule in Territorial government, and his somewhat
isolated position, which necessitated his exercise, at times, of almost
autocratic power, placed him in a position to be courted by those even, in
higher authority. That he should use his power for self-aggrandizement, within
certain limits, was but natural. His complicity in the revolutions and
counter-revolutions that in rapid succession were making and deposing California
governors, forms no part of the scope of this history, and we shall only follow
his acts in their bearings upon the future of Northern California. With Vallejo
there seems to have been two dominant ideas, and both had foundation in good,
practical sense. The first was that the Indians had to be subjected to a strong
hand, and when so subjected, they were to be the subjects of protection and
justice. The second was that the greatest danger to continued Mexican supremacy
in California was from the eastward. While there may have been a degree of
selfishness and jealousy to inspire it, he was none the less correct in his
judgment that the Sutter establishment at New Helvetia was a center around which
clustered dangers not properly appreciated by the California government at
Monterey. While he failed to arouse the authorities to the magnitude of the
danger, he at least discharged his duty as an officer of that government. The
truth was that Sutter, after he transferred to Helvetia the armament of Ross,
was becoming a "power behind the throne greater than the throne itself," and
Vallejo could not be blind to the fact that it was liable to prove a "Trojan
horse with belly full of armed destruction" to the future rule of Mexico in
California. In the waning days of the rule of Micheltorena, Sutter had been
clothed with power which almost rendered him potentate of the Sacramento Valley,
and as his establishment was the first to be reached by immigration from the
East, that year by year was increasing in volume, he did not fail to improve his
opportunity to add to the strength of his surroundings.

  Although somewhat out of chronological order it is in place to follow the
mission of San Francisco Solano to its end. Bancroft says: "Father Fortuni
served at Sari Francisco Solano until 1833, when his place was taken by the
Zacutecan Jose de Jesus Maria Gutierrez, who in turn changed places in March,
1834, with Padre Lorenzo Quijas of San Francisco. Quijas remained in charge of
ex-mission and pueblo as acting curate throughout the decade, but resided for
the most part at San Rafael. Though the neophyte population, as indicated by the
reports, decreased from 760 to 650 in 1834, and 550 in 1835, yet there was a
gain in live-stock and but a slight falling off in crops; and the establishment
must be regarded as having flourished down to the date of secularization, being
one of the few missions in California which reached their highest population in
the final decade, though this was natural enough in a new and frontier mission.
Mariano G. Vallejo was made commissionado in 1834, and in 1835—'36, with Antonio
Ortega as major-domo, completed the secularization. Movable property was
distributed to the Indians, who were made entirely free, many of them retiring
to their old rancherias. A little later, however, in consequence of troubles
with hostile gentiles, the ex-neophytes seem to have restored their live-stock
to the care of General Vallejo, who used the property of the ex-mission for
their benefit and protection, and for the general development of the northern
settlement. The General claimed that this was a legitimate use of the estate;
and he would have established a new mission in the north if the padres would
have aided him. Doubtless his policy was a wise one, even if his position as
guardian of the Indians in charge of their private property put by them in his
care was not recognized by the laws. Moreover, there was a gain rather than a
loss in live-stock. Thus the mission community had no real existence after 1836,
though Pablo Ayula and Salvador Vallejo were nominally made administrators. The
visitador made no visits in 1839, and apparently none were made in 1840. I
suppose there may have been 100 of the ex-neophytes living at Sonoma at the end
of the decade, with perhaps 500 more in the region not relapsed into barbarism."
And here ends the career of the mission San Francisco Solano. If its sanguine
founder, Padre Altimira, could revisit it, and the old San Francisco mission
that he thought was "on its last legs," he would learn how fallible is human
judgment.

  Sonoma was now a pueblo and General M. G. Vallejo, as commandante of the
northern district, the most conspicuous personage in this latitude until the end
of Mexican rule. As such it is in place to introduce him more fully to the
reader. According to Bancroft:

   He was the son of the "Sargento distinguido" Ignacio Vallejo and of Maria
Antonia Lugo, being, on the paternal side at least, of pure Spanish blood, and
being entitled by the old rules to prefix the "Don" to his name. In childhood he
had been the associate of Alvarado and Castro at Monterey, and his educational
advantages, of which he made good use, were substantially the same as theirs.
Unlike his companions, he chose a military career, entering the Monterey company
in 1823 as a cadet, and being promoted to be alferez of the San Francisco
company in 1827. He served as habilitado and as commandante of both companies,
and took part in several campaigns against Indians, besides acting as fiscal or
defensor in various military trials. In 1830 he was elected to the deputacion,
and took a prominent part in the opposition of that body to Victoria. In 1832 he
married Francisca Benicia, daughter of Joaquin Carrillo, and in 1834 was elected
deputado suplente to Congress. He was a favorite of Figueroa, who gave him large
tracts of land north of the bay, choosing him as commissiouado to secularize San
Francisco Solano, to found the town of Sonoma, and to command the frontier del
norte. In his new position Vallejo was doubtless the most independent man in
California. His record was a good one, and both in ability and experience he was
probably better fitted to take the position as commandante general than any
other Californian.

  This latter position was conferred upon Vallejo by Alvarado, who by a turn of
the revolutionary wheel had become governor. General Vallejo was unquestionably
the right man in the right place when he was placed in control at Sonoma after
the secularization of the mission San Francisco Solano. As a military man he
would not brook any insubordination to his will or commands, but in dealing with
the Indians he seems to have pursued a policy wise and just beyond anything ever
before attempted in California. In the Indian Chief Solano he saw the ready
means to acquire easy control of all other Indians occupying a wide sweep of
country. In making Solano his friend and coadjutor in keeping distant tribes in
respectful submission, he seems not to have compromised himself in any manner so
as not to hold Solano himself subject to control and accountability. Having been
speaking of the turbulence of southern Indians for the years from 1886 to 1840
Mr. Bancroft says:

  Turning to the northern frontier we find a different state of things. Here
there was no semblance of Apache raids, no sacking of ranches, no loss of
civilized life, and little collision between gentile and Christian natives. The
northern Indians were more numerous than in the San Diego region, and many of
the tribes were brave, warlike, and often hostile; but there was a comparatively
strong force at Sonoma to keep them in check, and General Vallejo's Indian
policy must be regarded as excellent and effective when compared with any other
policy ever followed in California. True, his wealth, his untrammeled power, and
other circumstances contributed much to his success; and he could by no means
have done as well if placed in command at San Diego; yet he must be accredited
besides with having managed wisely. Closely allied with Solano, the Suisun
chieftain, having always—except when asked to render some distasteful military
service to his political associates in the south— at his command a goodly number
of soldiers and citizens, made treaties with the gentile tribes, insisted on
their being liberally and justly treated when at peace, and punished them
severely for any manifestation of hostility. Doubtless the Indians were wronged
often enough in individual cases by Vallejo's subordinates; some of whom, and
notably his brother Salvador, were with difficulty controlled; but such reports
have been greatly exaggerated, and acts of glaring injustice were comparatively
rare.

  The Cainameros, or the Indians of Cainama, in the region toward Santa Rosa,
had been for some years friendly, but for their services in returning stolen
horses they got themselves into trouble with the Satiyomis, or Sotoyomes,
generally known as the Guapos, or braves, who in the spring of 1836, in a sudden
attack, killed twenty-two of their number and wounded fifty. Vallejo, on appeal
of the chiefs, promised to avenge their wrongs, and started April 1st with fifty
soldiers and one hundred Indians besides the Cainamero force. A battle was
fought on the 4th of April, and the Guapos, who had taken a strong position in
the hills of the Geyser region, were routed and driven back to their ranches,
where most of them were killed. The expedition was back at Sonoma on the 7th
without having lost a man, killed or wounded. On June 7th Vallejo concluded a
treaty of peace and alliance with the chiefs of seven tribes—the Indians of
Yoloytoy, Guilitoy, Ansatoy, Liguaytoy, Aclu-toy, Chumptoy and the Guapos, who
had voluntarily come to Sonoma for that purpose. The treaty provided that there
should be friendship between the tribes and the garrison, that the Cainameros
and Guapos should live at peace and respect each other's territory; that the
Indians should give up all fugitive Christians at the request of the
commandante, and that they should not burn the fields. It does not appear that
Vallejo in return promised anything more definite than friendship. Twenty days
later the compact was approved by Governor Chico. A year later, in June, 1837,
Zampay, one of the chieftains of the Yoloytoy—town and rancheria of the Yoloy,
perhaps meaning, "of the tules," and which gave the name to Yolo County—became
troublesome, committing many outrages and trying to arouse ths [sic] Sotoyomes
again. The head chief of the tribe, however, named Moti, offered to aid in his
capture, which was effected by the combined forces of Solano and Salvador
Vallejo. Zampay and some of his companions were held at first as captives at
Sonoma, but after some years the chief, who had been a terror of the whole
country, became a peaceful citizen and industrious farmer.

  In January, 1838, Tobias, chief of the Guilicos, and one of his men were
brought to Sonoma and tried for the murder of two Indian fishermen. In March
some of the gentile allied tribes attacked the Moquelumnes, recovered a few
stolen horses and brought them to Sonoma, where a grand feast was held for a
week to celebrate their good deeds. In August fifty Indian horse-thieves crossed
the Sacramento and appeared at Suseol with a band of tame horses, their aim
being to stampede the horses at Sonoma. Thirty-four were killed in a battle with
Vallejo's men, and the rest surrendered, the chief being shot at Sonoma for his
crimes. On October 6, Vallejo issued a printed circular, in which he announced
that Solano had grossly abused his power and the trust placed in him, and broken
sacred compacts made with the Indian tribes by consenting to the seizure and
sale of children. Vallejo indignantly denied the rumor that these outrages had
been committed with his consent, declaring that Solano had been arrested, and
that a force had been sent out to restore all the children to their parents.

  Vallejo's statement in regard to this backsliding of Chief Solano is that
evil-disposed persons have plied him with liquor until he was so dazed as not to
be master of his actions, and that after being sobered up in the guard-house he
was both ashamed and penitent.

  In this year, 1838, there came a terrible pestilence, the small-pox, which
made sad havoc among the Indians. It is said that a Corporal named Ygnacio
Miramontes contracted the disease at Fort Ross, and returning to Sonoma the
disease was soon broadcast among the Indians. General Vallejo is our authority
that the Indians died by the thousands. He thinks that not less than 75,000 died
in the territory north of the bay and west of the Sacramento River. In some
cases it almost blotted tribes out of existence. The Indian panacea for all ills
was resort to the sweat-house, supplemented by a plunge in cold water. Such
being their remedy, it may well be believed that the small-pox left desolation
in its track. John Walker, of Sebastopol, states that when he reached the Yount
rancho, Napa County, in 1846, Mr. Yount pointed out to him an Indian girl, the
sole survivor of her tribe after the small-pox had run its course. Yount stated
that he visited the rancheria and that dead Indians were lying everywhere, and
the only living being was the girl referred to: she, an infant, was cuddled in
an Indian basket. At Mr. Walker's ranch is a very aged Indian, and through an
interpreter he recently informed us that during the prevalence of the small-pox
his people at Sebastopol for a long time died at the rate of from ten to twenty
a day. In 1888, while excavating earth with which to grade a road near
Sebastopol a perfect charnel of human bones was found, doubtless where the
small-pox victims of 1838 were buried. As stated elsewhere, that pestilence
paved the way for peaceable occupation of this territory by immigrants. There
were not enough Indians left to offer any serious resistance to the free
occupancy of their former hunting grounds by civilized man.

  In 1839, as an evidence that colonization was advancing northward, it is
recorded that twenty-five families had cast their lot in the northern frontier.
Some of these families, doubtless, came with the Hijar-Padres colony that came
from Mexico in 1834. Many of those colonists visited Sonoma—then San Francisco
Solano— but owing to political complications Hijar was looked upon with
suspicion, and his scheme of founding a colony came to naught. It is said that a
few of his people remained north of the bay, but most of them returned south to
the older settlements. We find a record of a young Irishman named John T. Reed
locating in Santa Rosa Township, near the present place of Robert Crane, in
1837, but who was driven out by the Indians. And also the location near Santa
Rosa, in 1838, of Senora Maria Ygnacia Lopez de Carillo. Of the first attempt to
found a settlement at, or near Santa Rosa, there is evidence that it proved
futile, and yet we find little of authentic record as to the reasons why the
enterprise was abandoned, other than that settlers did not feel secure in so
advanced a position among untutored savages. We find, also, an accredited rumor
that the mission San Francisco Solano was destroyed by the Indians a few years
after it was founded. This story must be founded on uncertain tradition, for we
have found no authentic record of such an occurrence.

  We have thus far, up to 1840, found little difficulty in tracing the lines of
reliable history. But the nearer we get to the epoch which culminated in
American occupancy the more we are befogged and in doubt of the dividing line
between facts and fiction. What the intelligent reader will most want to know
will be as to the actual settlement and occupancy of Northern California by
Californians prior to the raising of the Bear Flag at Sonoma. If we take as our
guide the various Spanish grants and the dates of their reputed occupancy there
was but little of the arable land of the county that was not already the
habitation of civilized man; and yet we find but little tangible evidence of
such advanced conditions of civilization. Vallejo had, with great enterprise and
labor, reared an establishment on the Petaluma grant that even yet stands as a
monument to his energy and enterprise. The Carrillos had made lasting
improvements at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. Mark West had established himself at
the creek that bore his name, and had erected substantial adobe buildings. Henry
D. Fitch had reared buildings of permanency on Russian River, near the present
site of Healdsburg; Captain Stephen Smith had established a residence and mill
at Bodega, and Jasper O'Farrell had made a good show of permanent occupancy at
his place in the red woods. Fort Ross had now passed into the hands of William
Bennitz, and was an establishment of comparative ancient date. Outside of the
evidence of occupancy thus enumerated, except those of Sonoma Valley, there were
only a few, and they so transitory and ephemeral in character as almost to have
passed from the memory of our pioneer American inhabitants. For a time Sonoma
had been regarded as an important frontier military station by the California
government, and seems to have received some fostering care and assistance, but
during later years the government seems to have acted on the principle that, as
Vallejo had all the glory of defending the frontier, he could do it at his own
expense. He seems to have, in time, tired of this expensive luxury. Bancroft
says: "The presidial company in 1841-'43, and probably down to its disbandment
by Vallejo in 1844, had between forty and fifty men under the command of Lieut.
Jose Antonio Pico; and there were besides nearly sixty men fit for militia duty,
to say nothing of an incidental mention by the alcalde of 100 citizens in his
jurisdiction. Captain Salvador Vallejo was commandante of the post and no civil
authority was recognized down to the end of 1843, from which time municipal
affairs were directed by two alcaldes, Jacob P. Leese and Jose de la Rosa,
holding successively the first alcaldia." Thus it will be seen that there was
virtually only two years of civil rule here previous to the Bear Flag
revolution. While Vallejo still had an armament embracing nine cannon of small
caliber, and perhaps two hundred muskets, yet the whole military establishment
seems to have been in a condition of "innocuous desuetude." The only notable
event of local importance in 1845, was a raid, seem ingly made by Sonoma
rancheros, upon the Ross Indians to secure laborers. Several Indians were killed
and 150 were captured. William Bennitz complained of outrages committed on the
Indians at his rancho. That such matters were made the subject of court
investigation shows that civil authority was beginning to assert itself. The
leading offenders in this last instance of Indian mention under Mexican rule,
were Antonio Castro and Rafael Garcia. We have now reached the beginning of the
end of Mexican rule, the conclusion of which will be found in the next section.


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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