San Luis Obispo County History Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 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. Source: A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California by Yda Addis Storke Published in 1891 in Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Co. SAN MIGUEL. The Mission of San Miguel Arcangel was established July 25, 1797, being the sixteenth in order of date in Alta California. Its site was in the midst of wide reaches of grazing land, on the west bank of the Salinas, just below where this river receives the Estrella. The two streams here run through broad valleys, where flourish willows, cottonwoods, sycamores, oaks and other trees. This Mission is thirty-four miles north of the city of San Luis Obispo, and some four miles south of the county line between this and Monterey. San Miguel, like most of the twenty-one mission establishments, is the site of a flour- ishing settlement of later times. This place was never quite abandoned, and even during the unsettled times of the American occupation a few Mexican settlers kept their abode in the decaying habitations of the mission buildings. Its position on the main � if not the only� road, between the northern and the southern settlements, gave San Miguel a certain importance as a station, where an eating-house, etc., were established. The population was of course small for many years. On the vote upon the new constitu- tion, in 1879, San Miguel precinct cast thirty-four votes. About 1876 a certain degree of activity began here; the old mission buildings were fitted up for a hotel, and various shops and other enterprises were opened. In 1877 the population was reckoned at thirty, and there were fifteen buildings, including a school-house, postoffice, express office, store, blacksmith shop, carriage shop, and two saloons. This year was a "dry season," and two-thirds of the sheep and cattle from this grazing country either died or were driven away to more favorable pastures, and a brief revival of prosperity the following year was followed by drouths again in 1879. An excitement arose here in 1881, over the expectation of the immediate building of a portion of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway through the district. Since the actual advent of a railroad, San Miguel, which is the most northerly town on the line in this county, has taken an important rank hereabouts, standing as the second point in the county, before it fell behind Arroyo Grande. The population is now between 400 and 500; there is a money-order postoffice, a $10,000 school-house, a news-paper � the Weekly Messenger � and a very full complement of business houses, stores, shops, professional men, etc. The Bank of San Miguel, on October 26, 1889, reported its assets and its liabilities each as $87,966.51. The Episcopal church at San Miguel, completed in 1884, cost $1,200, and is a hand- some Gothic structure, with a seating capacity of 100. It is said to be the handsomest church building in the county. The Mission church still stands, � an immense structure, 230 feet long, forty-four wide, with a height to the eaves of forty-five feet, and walls seven feet thick of concrete. There remains a portion of the wing, once 400 feet long, and until about a year since there still existed the ruins of the former dwelling-houses of the neophytes, which covered an area of more than forty acres. The quaint old church on its adjacent ruins constitutes a very picturesque feature of the village, a vivid contrast of the medieval period with the present. The floor of the church is of brick, or tile, as is a broad front porch. The inner walls are plastered and frescoed, to represent a gallery with pillars, the colors now appearing as fresh as when newly painted. The sacred ornaments of this church have survived all the vicissitudes and spoliations which the venerable pile has suffered. Over the altar in the western end stands the patron saint, Michael the Arch- angel, life size and handsomely depicted, gorgeously arrayed in gold and crimson, hold- ing aloft his sword of light, beneath a broad banner on which is emblazoned the all-seeing eye from which radiate rays of light. To the right of the altar stands the brightly- painted statue of St. Joseph, holding the infant Jesus in one arm and bearing on the other the shepherd's staff. Opposite stands the statue of St. Francis de Assisi, the founder of the order of Franciscan monks, under whose charge were established the missions of California. Beside the altar is a painting of St. John the Evangelist, with one foot resting upon a skull. There are also other paintings of various sacred sub- jects, generally in bright colors, and these, with the bright altar ornaments, form a vivid contrast with the neglect, decay and ruin seen elsewhere about the old mission. The many small pictures hung on the walls are dimly seen in the faint light, and the thick- ness of the walls keeps the atmosphere generally in a chilly, cellar-like condition; the windows are few, small and high out of reach. Services are held fortnightly in this church.