Los Angeles County, CA History

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format 
for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or 
organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial 
purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, 
OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating 
to this site retain the rights to their own work.

 
An Illustrated History of Southern California - The Lewis Publishing Company, 
Chicago - 1890


THE EARLY SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND MISSION SETTLEMENTS. 
 
SAN GABRIEL.
        The first white man who ever saw, if he did not tread, the soil of Los 
Angeles County, was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator in the 
service of Spain, who in 1542 sailed up the coast of California. Leaving San 
Diego bay on October 3, three days later he discovered the islands of San 
Clemente and Santa Catalina, and a few days after, he was at San Pedro bay, 
which he named "The Bay of Smokes or Fires," from what he saw thereabouts. He 
described this as a good port, with good surrounding plains, groves, and 
valleys. On October 9 he anchored in Santa Monica bay, and the next day sailed 
on, northward; but before the conclusion of the voyage he died, and was buried 
on the island of San Miguel. The expedition was continued as far north as 
latitude 42.
        In 1603 came sailing hither Sebastian Vizcayno, who staid at San Diego 
bay from November 10 to 20, and then went to San Pedro, which he named for the 
Bishop of Alexandria. At that time, Catalina Island had a large Indian 
population, who lived with some degree of comfort.
        As it is not known positively whether Cabrillo or Vizcayno actually set 
foot on the soil here, the credit of that achievement must be given to Gaspar de 
Portol� and his party, who arrived within the present limits of this county on 
July 30, 1769.
        Partly to guard against the encroachments of the Russians, on the north, 
and the possible attempted occupation of it by the English, the Spanish 
Government had at last decided to occupy Alta California, and so instructed the 
viceroy, who put the management of the matter into the hands of Don Jose de 
Galvez, the Visitador-General. This official, from the peninsula of Baja 
California, arranged for two expeditions to go to Monterey, one by sea, the 
other by land. Accordingly, the two detachments duly set out, and in July they 
were united at San Diego, whence, leaving Padre Serra to found a mission, 
Portol� pushed on by land, northward, to rediscover, if possible, the bay of 
Monterey, described by Vizcayno, 166 years earlier. Following the shore, they 
turned inland at about the present town of San-Juan-by-the�Sea, and came along 
the way where now is the Santa F� Railway. On July 28 they passed the Santa Ana 
river, which they named Rio Jesus de los Temblores, from several sharp shocks of 
earthquake felt there. They came on the first day of August, to the place where 
now stands the city of Los Angeles. The next day was the feast of the church 
dedicated to " Nuestra Se�ora Reina de Los Angeles " (Our Lady of the Angels), 
and accordingly mass was celebrated, and the place named in her honor. Such was 
the origin of the name of the present city. On August 3 Portol� continued his 
journey in search of Monterey bay (which he then failed to find, it may be 
remarked, en passant). In 1771 two of the projected missions, San Diego and 
Monterey, had been established, and on the reception of the news in Mexico, it 
was immediately determined that five more than the three originally contemplated 
should be established at once. A re-enforcement of missionaries was sent to 
Monterey, and on June 7, Friars Angel Somera and Pedro Benito Cambon, chosen by 
President Serra for the San Gabriel mission, sailed for San Diego, whence, after 
some delays the party, comprising twenty persons, set out for San Gabriel. 
Instead of stopping at the Santa Ana (Rio Jesus de los Temblores), as at first 
intended, they went on twenty-five miles farther, to a spot near an Indian 
village called Sibagna, whose inhabitants received them with most hostile 
demonstrations, which were presently checked in what seemed to them a miraculous 
manner. For no sooner did the Indians behold a banner on which was painted the 
Virgin Mary�a Dolorosa�than they threw down their weapons and ran to lay their 
ornaments at the feet of her whom they called a "beauti�ful queen," while the 
women brought nuts and seeds in offering to her. On September 8, 1771, the cross 
was raised, and the formal ceremonies performed which solemnly founded the 
mission of San Gabriel Arcangel. The Indians had willingly assisted in building 
the houses and stockades for the mission, being perfectly friendly and pacific 
in their behavior. But the outrageous conduct of the soldiers, here as 
elsewhere, provoked the savages to retaliation, and brought on a conflict which 
kept the Indians aloof from the mission for a long time thereafter. The first 
Indian child baptized here received the rite on November 27, being, strangely 
enough, a son of the chief killed in the first combat. The first attempts at 
farming here were not successful, the first year's crop being drowned; but the 
second yielded heavily, and at the end of the second year this mission had also 
a very considerable increase of cattle. About 1775 the mission was removed to 
another site not far away, which was much more desirable. In 1797 the present 
stone church was begun, although it was not finished until after 1800. In 1774, 
and again in 1776, San Gabriel was visited by " the Spanish Pathfinder," Captain 
Juan Bautista Anza. The second time he brought with him over 200 immigrants for 
the
northern district, who, with their stock, made sad inroads upon the resources of 
the mission.
        In 1777 the abuses of the soldiery caused an uprising of the Indians, 
which, the fathers said, was subdued by a sight of the image of the Virgin. Here 
as elsewhere in the province, there was not a little friction caused by 
disagreements between the clergy and the military. In 1785 there was an Indian 
revolt, promoted by a woman, which was promptly subdued, however. In 1806 there 
came to this mission from San Fernando Father Jose Maria Zalvidea, whose wise 
administration brought it to its highest degree of prosperity. He it was who 
planted large vineyards, orchards, and gardens; built a mill and a darn, a 
fence, and other material improvements. He remodeled, too, the system of 
administration, and revised, so to speak, the code of morals. System, order, 
method,�such were the forces he brought to bear upon his flock; and he taught 
them various industries that added vastly to their comfort and the wealth of the 
mission. At this period San Gabriel had dependent ranchos at San Pasqual, Santa 
Anita, Azusa, San Francisquito, Cucamonga, San Antonio, San Bernardino, San 
Gorgonio, Yucaipa, Jurupa, Guapa, Rincon, Chino, San Jose, Ybarras, Puente, 
Mission Vieja, Serranos, Rosa Castillo, Coyotes, Jaboneria, Las Bolsas, 
Alamitos, and Cerritos. In 1830 occurred at San Gabriel the trial of Henry D. 
Fitch, of San Diego, for "scandalizing the church" by eloping with the Se�orita 
Josefa Carrillo; this was a cause c�l�bre, and the penance imposed for the 
offense was that Fitch should give a bell of at least fifty pounds weight to the 
church at Los Angeles.
        In 1830 or 1831 the minister at San Gabriel bought a brig to trade with 
South America and Mexico; and in 1831 he encouraged five Americans to build at 
San Pedro a schooner for the hunting of sea-otter. The general statistics of San 
Gabriel mission for its period of existence, of sixty-three years, are as 
follows: Total number of baptisms, 7,854, of which 4,355 were Indian adults, 
2,459 Indian children, and 1 adult and 1,039 children of gente de razon, that 
is, Spaniards and their descendants. Total of marriages, 1,955 of which 241 were 
gente de razon.
        Total deaths, 5,656, Indian adults being 2,896, Indian children 2,363, 
adults 211, and children 186, of gente de razon. The annual average was 
eighty-eight; the annual average death rate, 7.61 per cent of the population. 
The largest population was 1,701 in 1817. The males were in excess, notably 
after 1803. The proportion of children varied from one-eighth per cent at first 
to one-tenth per cent at the last. The largest number of cattle was 26,300 in 
1828; of horses, 2,400 in 1827; mules, 205 in 1814; asses, 6 in 1794; sheep, 
15,000 in 1829; goats, 1,380 in 1785; swine, 300 in 1802; also in 1822; all 
kinds, 40,360 animals in 1830. The total product of wheat was 225,942 bushels; 
yield, 16-fold; barley, for eleven years only, 1,250 bushels, yield, 10-fold; 
maize, 154,820, yield, 145-fold; beans, 14,467 bushels, yield, 28-fold. In the 
year 1834, at the time of secularization, there were 163,579 vines, in four 
vineyards, and 2,333 fruit trees. After the initiatory movement toward the 
secularization of this mission in 1834, there was no further keeping of 
statistics.