Los Angeles County, CA History

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


SAN FERNANDO MISSION.
        The mission of San Fernando was the second established within the 
present limits of Los Angeles County. It was founded September 8, 1797, at a 
place called by the natives Achois Comihavit, on land claimed as a private 
ranch. It was dedicated to San Fernando, King of Spain. The church, of adobes 
with a tile roof, was consecrated in December, 1806. The earthquake of December, 
1812, somewhat damaged the building. From 1816 to 1818 a large number of 
neophites deserted. The greatest population was 1,080 in 1819, after which it 
began to decline. This mission was never nearly so important as that of San 
Gabriel, and its history is therefore much shorter. San Fernando was secularized 
in 1834, with other missions, when Lieutenant Antonio del Valle was commissioned 
to its charge. In 1840 there were still about 400 Indians in the ex-mission 
community. At one period of its history there were nearly one and a half miles 
of buildings connected with this mission, in its various branches of industry. 
The church building, whose ruins are still standing, measured 45 x 150 feet 
within its walls. The total number of baptisms at this mission was 2,839, 1,415 
being Indian adults, 1,367 Indian children, 57 children de razon. The marriages 
were 849, 15 being de razon. Of 2,028 deaths, 1,036 were Indian adults, 965 
Indian children, 12 white adults and 15 white children. The sexes were nearly 
equal; children from one-fourth to one-third. The largest number of cattle was 
12,800 in 1819; horses, 1,320 in 1820; mules, 340 in 1812; sheep, 7,800 in 1819; 
goats, 600 in 1816; swine, 250 in 1814; all kinds, 21,745 in 1819. The total 
product of wheat was 119,000 bushels; yield, nineteen-fold; barley, for only six 
years, 3,070 bushels, fourteen-fold; maize, 27,070 bushels, eighty-three-fold ; 
beans, 3,624 bushels, fourteen-fold. The mission had 32,000 vines and 1,600 
fruit trees in the year 1835.
        In 1846 the California Legislature authorized Governor Pio Pico to sell 
at auction the secularized mission estates, devoting the proceeds to the 
maintenance of the priests, the expenses of public worship, and the surplus, if 
any, to distribution among the Indians. Before this decree was carried into 
effect, an order from Mexico arrived, suspending the sale of all mission 
property. Of the several missions that had already been sold, the title of San 
Fernando, sold to Celis for $14,000, was ultimately confirmed by the United 
States Land Commission; but the Supreme Court decided, in the case of San 
Gabriel, after American occupation, that Pico had no right to make the sale.