County Histories
A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California - Chicago, Lewis Publ. Co., 1891
HISTORY OF
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
THE name "California," is untranslatable, being coined by a Spanish writer of fiction in the fifteenth century.
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator in the Spanish service, was the first white man to set foot on California soil, at San Diego, September 28, 1542. He died the next year, on an island off the coast of Santa Barbara. Other visitors followed, but of them little is known until Sir Francis Drake puts in appearance at Drake's or Bodega bay, in July, 1579. Juan Vizcaino discovered Monterey Bay in 1603.
The next events of importance did not occur until a century and a half afterward, namely, the founding of Catholic missions in 1769 and afterward at San Diego, Monterey, etc., by Fathers Crespi, Gomez and Junipero Serra, under the explorer Portolá. The latter visited points around San Francisco Bay. In 1792 Captain George Vancouver touched upon this coast.
In 1805 the Russians from Sitka, under the leadership of Razanof, established themselves at Ross and Bodega, in the fur trade, and prospered there until they sold out to Captain Sutter in 1841, having by that time a considerable amount of live stock.
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 Argüello to San Rafael, they made quite an exploration of the surrounding country and reported having seen from the top of a bill "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 Argüello. Governor Arrillaga having died in 1813, Argüello filled the position of acting governor until Sola was appointed to that position. Argüello 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 cuera 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 Argüello, 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 "Argüello's expedition to the Columbia." The Columbia was the only northern region of which the Spaniards had any definite idea, or was tither 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 Argüello, 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. Argüello 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 Benenne, 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 Argüello 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 Argüello, 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 ranchos 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 Argüello'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, Napa, 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, broad 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 ranchos 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 Lima,' 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 newcomers, 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 a broad 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 and 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, Snyder, 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 Argüello 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 scented 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. He 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 Argüello in reference to the prelate's decision, Altimira says: "I wish to know whether the deputation 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 Argüello, in which the former with many expressions of respect for the governor and the secular government not unmixed with personal flattery of Argüello, 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 deputation 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 doubtless 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; but 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 ease 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, 1821; the mission church, a somewhat rude structure 24 x 105 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 pages 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.
SPANIARDS PRESS UPON THE RUSSIANS.
By the year 1830 the influx of the Spanish had so encroached upon the territory occupied by the Russians that the latter began to entertain serious thoughts of withdrawing from California altogether. There was no motive for the Russians to hold an occupancy limited by Bodega Bay on the south and the Gualala River on the north. At best, there was but a narrow bench of seaboard available for either farming or grazing purposes. True, there was a wealth of forest back of this mesa, but they had already learned that this timber was not durable as material for shipbuilding. They had pretty well exhausted the supply of timber from which pine pitch could be manufactured. Tan bark for the carrying on of their tanneries was their most promising continuing supply for the future. The agents of the Alaska Fur Company had already signified to the California authorities a willingness to vacate Fort Ross upon payment for improvements. Through the intricate evolutions of red tape this was transmitted to the viceroy of Mexico, and as that functionary took it as an evidence that the Russian colony at Ross was on its last legs, refusal was made on the ground that the Russians, having made improvements on Spanish territory, with material acquired from Spanish soil, they ought not to expect payment for the same. While this is not the language, it is the spirit of the view the viceroy took of the subject. As a legal proposition this was doubtless true, but as a matter of fact, at any time after 1825 the superintendent at Ross had at his command sufficient of the armament and munitions of war to have marched from Ross to San Diego without let or hindrance, so far as the viceroy of Mexico was concerned. These Dons and Hidalgo seemed, however, to consider their rubrics to be more powerful than swords or cannon. As their overtures for sale had been thus summarily disposed of, the cold, impassive Muscovites pursued the even tenor of their way, and as the lands around Fort Ross became exhausted by continuous farming they extended their farming operations southward between the Russian River and Bodega Bay, and ultimately inland to the neighborhood of the present village of Bodega Corners. At the latter place there were several Russian graves, in the midst of which there stood a Greek cross, long after the Americans came into occupancy. The earliest American settlers in that neighborhood aver that the Russians had a grist-mill some two or three miles easterly from Bodega Corners. Certain it is that the authorities at San Francisco had notification that the Russians contemplated occupation for farming purposes as far inland as the present site of Santa Rosa. These rumors, whether true or not, doubtless accelerated the movement of Spanish colonization in that direction.
Governor Wrangell, now having control in Alaska, seems to have taken an intelligent view of the whole situation, and realized that unless the company, of which he was head representative, could obtain undisputed possession of all the territory north of the Bay of San Francisco and eastward to the Sacramento, it was useless to attempt a continuance at Ross. To achieve this end the Alaska company was willing to buy the establishments already at San Rafael and Sonoma. The fact that the California authorities submitted these propositions to the Mexican government, now free from the yoke of Spanish rule, would indicate that by them such a proposition was not considered in the light of a heinous offense. Alvarado was then at the head of the California government, and no doubt he looked with great distrust, if not alarm, upon the number of Americans who were beginning to find their way into California. But General Vallejo, who was now almost autocrat on the north side of the Bay of San Francisco, was not, probably, so averse to Americans, as he had already three brothers-in-law of Yankee blood. Through these kinsmen, who were all gentlemen of good intelligence and education, Vallejo had become well informed in reference to the push and energy of the American people, and hence it is quite certain that he did not favor any permanent occupancy here by any European power. In truth, while the California government had confided itself to wordy pen remonstrances with the occupants of Ross, in 1840 Vallejo seems to have made quite a show of calling Rotchef, the then superintendent at Ross, to accountability for having allowed the American ship Lausanne to land and discharge passengers at Bodega as though it were a free port. Some of these passengers, who went to Sonoma, were incarcerated by the irate Vallejo, and he even sent a file of soldiers to Bodega to give warning that such infractions would lead to serious consequences if persisted in. This was the nearest to an open rupture of amicable relations that ever occurred between Spaniard and Muscovite on this coast that we find any record of: and this could not have been of a very sanguinary nature, for it seems that Vallejo and Rotchef were on social good terms afterward.
The proposed acquisition of territory by Governor Wrangell met with no encouragement from the Mexican Government. In reference to this matter Bancroft says: "The intention of the Russians to abandon Ross and their wish to sell their property there, had, as we have seen, been announced to Alvarado, and by him to the Mexican government, before the end of 1840. In January, 1841, Vallejo, in reporting to the minister of war his controversy with Rotchef and Krupicurof, mentioned the proposed abandonment, taking more credit to himself than the facts could justify, as a result of that controversy. The Russians had consulted him as to their power to sell the buildings as well as livestock to a private person, and he had been told that 'the nation had the first right,' and would have to be consulted. The fear that impelled him at that time to answer thus cautiously was that some foreigners from the Columbia or elsewhere might outbid any citizen of California, and thus raise a question of sovereignty, which might prove troublesome in the future to Mexican interests. Vallejo also urged the government to furnish a garrison, and authorize the planting of a colony at the abandoned post. In February, however, Kostromitinof, representing the company, proposed to sell the property to Vallejo himself for $30,000, payable half in money or bills of the Hudson Bay Company, and half in produce delivered at Yerba Buena. The General expressed a willingness to make the purchase, but could not promise a definite decision on the subject before July or August. Pending the decision, the Russian agent seems to have entered, perhaps secretly, into negotiations with John A. Sutter, who at that time was not disposed to buy anything but movable property. Meanwhile a reply came from Mexico, though by no means a satisfactory one; since the government—evidently with some kind of an idea that the Russian officials had been frightened away, leaving a flourishing settlement to be taken possession of by the Californians—simply sent useless instructions about the details of occupation and form of government to be established. In July Kostromitinof returned from Sitka, and negotiations were recommended. Alvarado was urged to come to Sonoma, but declined, though he advised Vallejo that in the absence of instructions from Mexico the Russians had no right to dispose of the real estate. An elaborate inventory of the property offered for sale at $30,000 was made out, but Vallejo's best offer seems to have been $9,000 for the live stock alone."
In a foot note Bancroft gives the inventory of property offered for sale which is as follows: "Square fort of logs, 1,088 feet in circumference, twelve feet high, with two towers; commandant's house of logs (old), 36x48 feet, double boarded roof, six rooms with corridor and kitchen; ditto (new) of logs, 24x48 feet, six rooms and corridor; house for revenue officers, 22x60 feet, ten rooms; barracks, 24x66 feet, eight rooms; three warehouses; new kitchen; jail; chapel, 24x36 feet, with a belfry, and a well fifteen feet deep. Outside of the fort: blacksmith shop, tannery, bath-house, cooper's shop, bakery, carpenter's shop, two windmills for grinding, one mill moved by animals, three threshing floors, a well, a stable, sheep-cote, hog-pen, dairy house, two cow stables, corral, ten sheds, eight baths, ten kitchens, and twenty-four houses, nearly every one having an orchard. At Kostromitinof rancho, house, farm buildings, corral, and boat for crossing the river Slavianka. At Khlebnikof rancho, adobe house, farm buildings, bath, mill, corral. At Tschernich, or Don Jorge's rancho, house, store, fences, etc. At Bodega, warehouse 30x60 feet, three small houses, bath, ovens, corrals. As this list of improvements was made out by Russian hands it may be accepted as a true statement of the conditions at and in the neighborhood of Ross in the last year of Russian occupation there. The only omission of consequence seems to have been the orchard some distance back of the fort, on the hillside, and a vineyard of 2,000 vines at what is designated 'Don Jorge's rancho.' In reference to this rancho, Belcher in his notes of travel in 1837, mentioned a rancho between Ross and Bodega claimed by a ci-devant Englishman (D. Gorgy), yielding 3,000 bushels of grain in good years."
Governor Alvarado as well as Vallejo evidently thought that they had Kostromitinof in a corner so far as his ability to sell the Ross property was concerned, and their only real fear was that he would make a bonfire of the buildings rather than leave them for Mexican occupation. But in this they were mistaken, for a purchaser was found in Captain John A. Sutter. In reference to the sale thus consummated Bancroft says: "Sutter, like Vallejo, had at first wished to purchase the live-stock only; but he would perhaps have bought anything at any price if it could be obtained on credit; at any rate, after a brief hesitation a bargain was made in September. The formal contract was signed by Kostromitinof and Sutter in the office of the sub-prefect at San Francisco, with Vioget and Leese as witnesses, December 13. By its terms Sutter was put in possession of all the property at Ross and Bodega, except the land, as specified in the inventory, and he was to pay for it in four yearly installments, beginning September 1, 1842. The first and second payments were to be $5,000 each, and the others of $10,000; the first three were to be in produce, chiefly wheat, delivered at San Francisco free of duties and tonnage; and the fourth was to be in money. The establishment at New Helvetia, and the property at Bodega and the two ranchos of Khlebnikof and Tschernich, which property was to be left intact in possession of the company's agents, were pledged as guarantees for the payment. It would seem that Alvarado, while insisting that the land did not belong to the company and could not be sold, had yielded his point about the buildings, perhaps in the belief that no purchaser could be found; for the Russians say that the contract was approved by the California government, and it is certain that there was no official disapproval of its terms."
It will be borne in mind that Kostromitinof, who executed this contract with Captain Sutter, was the head officer of the Alaska government while, at the time, Rotchef was manager at Ross. When it came to a delivery of the property Sutter seems to have induced Manager Rotchef to give him a writing ante-dating the contract above referred to one day, in which Rotchef certified that the lands held by the company fur twenty-nine years was included in the sale to M. Le Capitaine Sutter of the other effects of the company for the sum of $30,000. It was upon the shadowy title to land thus acquired by certificate of a subordinate officer who had no power to confirm any such sale, that Russian title to land along the coast became a stalking spectacle among American settlers in after years.
Previous to this sale of the Ross and Bodega property to Sutter, a portion of the former occupants there had been transferred to Alaska stations. Manager Rotchef, together with the remaining employés of the company, took their departure from Ross in the late days of 1841 or early in January of 1842, on board the Constantine, bound for Alaska. While all of them, doubtless, had cherished associations and memories of the land to which, they returned, we imagine that it was not without sore and sad hearts many of them watched the receding outlines of Fort Ross and the evergreen forests that forms its enchanting background. Thus, in a day, where for nearly a third of a century had been heard the ringing of hammer and anvil, the noisy labor of ship-carpenters and calkers and the din of coopers, a sudden silence fell, seemingly like that which hovered over that quiet spot just south of the fort where a Greek cross marked the last resting place of those who had ended their life-work there. Even the stock that had been reared there were gathered together and driven to the Sacramento valley ranch of Captain Sutter. And as if the hand of fate had turned entirely against Ross, Sutter, by means of a schooner he had acquired in the purchase from the Russians, even carried away from Ross several buildings with which to adorn the inner court of his fort at New Helvetia. This will account for the absence at Ross of many buildings enumerated in the catalogue at the time of sale by the Russians.
In reference to the departure of the Russians from Fort Ross, Bancroft says: "One Russian, and perhaps several, remained on the ranches to look out for the company's interests. Sutter sent Robert Ridley to assume charge for him at first; but John Bidwell took his place early in 1842, and was in turn succeeded by William Bennitz late in 1843. Meanwhile most of the movable property, including the cannon, implements, and most of the cattle, was removed to New Helvetia. The few hundred cattle left behind soon became so wild that if meat was needed it was easier to catch a deer or bear. The Californians made no effort to occupy the abandoned fortress; since having virtually consented to the sale of everything but the land, the government had no property to be protected there."
As already stated William Bennitz took possession of the Ross property as Sutter's agent in 1843. He subsequently leased the property, in about 1845, and still later purchased the buildings and fort and became possessor of the Muniz or Fort Ross grant, extending along the coast from the Russian River northward to a point just above the present Timber Cove.
Mr. Bennitz, with his family, lived at Fort Ross until 1867, when he sold the property and removed to Oakland. In 1874 he went to the Argentine Republic, and died there in 1876.
In 1861 the palisade walls of the enclosure at Fort Ross were still in good preservation, as also the buildings within, together with the Greek chapel and hectagonal block-houses described above by Duhant Cully. Said Mr. Bennitz, in 1861:
At the time I purchased the Fort Ross property there were around and in the neighborhood of the Fort a large number of Indians. Voluntarily they have become almost a part of the estate and as obedient to my orders as if mind, soul and body. I then raised a large amount of grain, and had thousands of head of cattle, which gave me ample opportunity to utilize the labor of these untutored aborigines. As my influence over them mainly depended on the kindness and consideration with which they were treated, I let no opportunity pass to give them evidence of my regard for their pleasure and welfare. They, like all Indians I know of, were passionately fond of personal decoration, and for ornamentation prized nothing more highly than the plumage of birds. One day my Indians were noticing some vultures, or California condors, on the pine trees some distance up the mountain side back of the Fort, and I overheard them expressing a wish that they had some of the feathers.
Saying nothing I quietly took my gun and sallied forth, determined if possible to gratify their desire. By tacking backward and forward along the mountain side I gradually worked my way up to the trees where the vultures were. The heavy foliage of the pines prevented my getting a ready view of the game I was seeking. With my gun cocked and the muzzle pointing up I was moving quietly sidewise with eyes peering into the canopy of boughs, when I was startled by the breaking of a stick close to my right.
One look was enough to set every hair of my bead on end! Not much over the length of my gun from me stood, erect on its hind feet, a grizzly bear of monster size—at the time he seemed to me ten feet high! By impulse I wheeled, brought my gun to a level, and without any attempt at taking aim fired. The bear pitched forward upon me and we fell together, my gun flying out of my hands, and some distance away. I was frightened beyond he power of language to express. The bear and I had fallen together, but I had given myself a rolling lurch down the mountain which, for the moment. took me out of the reach of his dreaded jaws. This advantage was not to be lost; and I kept going over and over without any regard to elegance of posture, until I had got at least two hundred yards from where I fell; and when I stopped rolling it was a problem with me which I was most, dead or alive.
I ventured upon my feet and looked cautiously around, but could see no grizzly. To borrow a miner's expression, 'I began prospecting around.' I had an earnest desire to get hold of my gun, but still retained a dislike to the neighborhood in which we hbad parted company. With the utmost caution I worked my way up to a position overlooking the spot where I and the grizzly together fell. To my surprise, and gratification as well, there lay the bear stretched at lull length, and dead. My random shot had proved what seldom occurs to grizzly bears, a dead shot. That was the biggest scare of my life.
As already stated, William Bennitz sold the Ross property in 1867, Charles Fairfax and a man named Dixon being the purchasers. They managed the property for a few years, when Fairfax died. In winding up the estate and business of the firm it became necessary to sell the property. J. W. Call became the purchaser of the upper and much the larger proportion of the ranch, on which stands the old Fort Ross buildings ; and of the southerly end Aaron Schroyer bought a large tract. These gentlemen are practical in their ideas of business and the property is now so handled as to yield a profit. At present, through the very center of the grounds once enclosed by a heavy stockade, now a county road runs. The Bennitz residence is converted into a public hotel, and a building once used as quarters for Russian officers is now a saloon. In an outside building is a store and postoffice. The towers in what was the diagonal corners of the fortress are now roofless, and, in consequence of the worm-eaten condition of the logs are canting over, and it is only a question of time when they will topple to the ground. The Greek chapel yet stands erect with roof and belfry in fair preservation, but is no longer used for holy purposes. Even the Russian cemetery to the south of the fort, that was quite plainly visible twenty-seven years ago, is now nearly obliterated. Accompanied by Mr. Call we visited the old Russian orchard half a mile back from the fort. The fence made of heavy split boards by the Russians is still in fair preservation. We entered and plucked Spanish bellflower apples from trees planted by the Russians back of 1820. The twenty or thirty apple, plum and prune trees yet standing are moss-covered and their bark honey-combed by the busy bills of birds. We went back still further and took a walk through the redwood forest of new growth that has sprung up from stumps of trees first cut by the Russians when they settled at Ross. Not over half a dozen of the old redwood forest trees are standing in the grove, and, but for the fact that the stumps are there yet from which the present forest sprang, we should not have recognized it as a forest growth of the present century. The trees have made marvelous growth. Having a pocket rule with us we measured a tree that was four and a half feet in diameter; and we were assured by Mr. Call that there were trees in the grove full five feet in diameter. This grove is, doubtless, of from sixty to seventy-five years' growth. We are thus exact and explicit in reference to this forest of new growth because we know there is a wide-spread fear that in consequence of the rapidity with which our redwood forests are being converted into lumber, that species of timber will ultimately become extinct. Right there, overshadowing old Fort Ross, is the refutation of such fallacy.
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 says: "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 band of horses at that 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 commissionado. 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 José 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 be regulated so as to make a beginning. The inhabitants are to be governed entirely by said plan. This government and commandancy 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 Huertica, 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 commandante of this northern district, it had become an important factor in the Territorial government of California. Vallejo was then in the full 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 San Francisco Solano until 1833, when his place was taken by the Zacutecan José 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 be 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. Be 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 commissionado to secularize San Francisco Solano, to found the town of Sonoma, and to command the frontier del forte. 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 1836 to 180 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, Aclutoy, 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 the 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 Solanobut 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 Sénora 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 redwoods. 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. José 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 José 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, seemingly 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.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.