Santa Clara County, CA History

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888.
 
        From the founding of the two original colonies up to the American 
occupation, the Santa Clara Valley has no history of importance, and, in fact, 
no records from which history could be written, except the mission archives. The 
population increased as the fertility of the soil became known, and in a very 
few years the Spaniards had taken possession of all the then desirable land 
without reference to the rights of the natives. In fact, the Indians were not 
considered to have any rights, unless they had placed themselves under the 
protection of the mission. The herds increased more rapidly than the population, 
and it was but few years until the entire plain was covered with cattle, horses, 
and sheep. The latter were grown principally for their wool, from which the 
people manufactured their clothing; the horses were used for transportation and 
in the care of their herds, while their chief dependence was their cattle. Money 
was exceedingly scarce, and its substitute was hides and tallow.
        Outside of the pueblo all was grazing land, and any citizen of good 
character, who had cattle, could have assigned to him a tract of any reasonable 
extent. These grants were called ranchos, and the grantees, rancheros. There 
were no regular lines dividing the ranchos, their boundaries being determined by 
certain permanent landmarks. The grants usually ran for a specified number of 
leagues, which were measured in a very primitive manner. Two men on horseback, 
with a measuring line of rawhide, would ride around the boundaries, accompained 
by a judge and witnesses. In addition to the impossibility of horsemen making 
accurate measurements, the rawhide rope would either stretch or shrink according 
to the state of the atmosphere. But this was a matter of little consequence at 
that time. The land was worth nothing to the Government, and if the measurements 
varied a few leagues from the amount specified in the grant it made no 
particular difference so long as it did not conflict with previous grants. There 
were generally no improvements except some rough buildings and corrals, many of 
the rancheros residing at the pueblo. There were no fences, the cattle roaming 
at will through the country, the owners relying on their brands and ear�marks 
for identification. At a specified time each year, generally about the middle of 
March, earlier or later according to the peculiarities of the season, all of the 
cattle were brought up, the proper brands and marks placed on the calves, and 
returned to their respective ranchos.
        These annual segregations were termed rodeos, and were attended by all 
the rancheros and their vaqueros, or herdsmen, in the district. This was 
necessary, for the reason that cattle would sometimes stray for a distance of 
fifty or sixty miles, and owners of large herds would find some of their 
property on nearly every rancho in the country. Notice of a rodeo would be given 
by sending messengers to all the cattle owners in the district, and these, with 
their vaqueros, would assemble on the appointed day at the designated place. All 
the cattle on the rancho were gathered in one place, where each ranchero would 
take out those bearing his brand, including unbranded calves which followed 
their mothers. What was left belonged to the owner of the rancho. It often 
happened that calves would escape the rodeo and reach maturity without branding. 
These were termed orejana, and belonged to no one, or, more properly, they 
belonged to any ranchero, who, finding them on his rancho, would take them up 
and mark them. The party would move from rancho to rancho until all the cattle 
in the district had been through the rodeo. The rodeo season was one of 
festivity. On each rancho entertainment was furnished for all, and evenings 
devoted to music, dancing, and feasting would follow each day's work.
        Some idea of the number of cattle in this district may be had from the 
statement that one ranchero, Joaquin Bernal, who occupied the Santa Teresa 
Rancho, about eight miles south of San Jose, branded about five thousand head of 
calves each year. This cattle business developed the settlers into the best 
horsemen in the world. They lived in the saddle, and it was said that any one of 
them would walk two miles for the purpose of catching up a horse, in order that 
he might ride half a mile. In fact, it was unsafe for a pedestrian to be outside 
the pueblo. The wandering cattle would often attack a man on foot, while they 
would make no demonstration against one who was mounted. Some of the feats of 
these horsemen seem incredible. They would, at full gallop, ride down a wild 
bull, seize it by the tail, pass it under his legs, and throw him on his back 
without slacking speed. Placing a Mexican dollar between each knee and the 
saddle, they would leap hurdles without displacing the coin. They could pick up 
any article from the ground with their horses running at the top of their speed. 
Their animals were trained so that they hardly needed the rein for their 
control. The young men especially took great pride in the education of their 
horses, and it was not an unusual thing to see a party of these caballeros with 
guitars in their hands and mounted on their gaily-caparisoned steeds, marching 
through the streets of the pueblo, playing on their instruments, and at the same 
time controlling their animals so that they kept perfect time to the music. 
Their dexterity with the lasso or riata, as it was more frequently called, was 
no less astonishing. As an offensive weapon it was more effective in their hands 
than knife or pistol. With it they could, without dismounting, catch, throw 
down, and tie the wildest and fleetest steer on the plains; and there are many 
stories now current of the same exploit having been performed on the fierce 
grizzly of the mountains.
        After the rodeo came the butchering season, or matanza, as they called 
it. This was the annual slaughtering of cattle for their hides and tallow, and 
usually occurred in May, or at a time in the spring when the season was far 
enough advanced to predict with sufficient certainty as to the amount of feed 
that would be produced; and on this depended the number of cattle slaughtered, 
as their object was to keep only as many as they could furnish pasturage for. 
The matanza, from an esthetic point of view, is not nearly so attractive as the 
rodeo, but it was fully as necessary, for this was, practically, the gathering 
of the annual crop. The beeves were killed and skinned and the hides dried in 
the sun; the best of the tallow was removed and placed in bags made of hides; 
the other fat was made into soap. The best pieces of meat were cut into thin 
strips or torn into shreds and dried in the sun, thus making what the Mexicans 
called came seta, and which was known to the Americans as "jerked beef." The 
hides and tallow were sold either to the vessels at San Francisco or to local 
dealers at the pueblo, and these two articles were all that these primitive 
people had to export from this fertile valley, the "Garden of the World." What a 
change has half a century wrought ! The average market price of the hides was a 
dollar and a half in cash or two dollars in trade, while tallow brought three 
cents per pound in trade. These prices were within the recollection of the 
"oldest inhabitant," and they must have been much less before the advent of the 
Americans.
        The old records of Eastern commercial houses show that their vessels 
were sometimes compelled to remain a full year on this coast before they could 
obtain sufficient quantity of hides and tallow to pay for the goods brought out 
for barter with the rancheros. This, however, was only when the season was 
unfavorable for stock. The dwellings of these people, although lacking in 
architectural adornment, were solidly built and very convenient. The material 
used was the black soil of the lowlands, which was mixed with straw and moulded 
into bricks eighteen inches square and three inches thick. These bricks were 
dried in the sun and laid in the walls with a mortar made of the same material. 
The rafters were rough poles denuded of bark, while the roof was of rushes, 
called tales, and fastened with rawhide thongs. In later days the tule roof, in 
the more pretentious buildings, gave place to the tile, a heavy, cumbrous 
arrangement, but less impervious to water and not so susceptible to fire. The 
bricks were called adobes, and they gave their name to the soil from which they 
were made.
        Their agricultural products were limited, and their implements rude. 
They cared to raise no more than was necessary for their own subsistence. Wheat, 
beans, maize, melons, and pumpkins constituted nearly their entire crop, 
although the different fruits were cultivated to some extent at the mission. 
Stewed beef and beans, well seasoned with red peppers (chili colorado) was their 
principal dish, while for bread they used the tortilla, a flat, wafer-like cake 
made generally of wheat flour, but frequently of corn meal, and was baked on 
flat irons before the fire. This was a rude sort of diet, but, with their skill 
in preparation, it was very palatable and wholesome; dyspepsia was an unknown 
disease among them. Their plows were constructed from branches of trees, where a 
proper crook could be found, the portion representing the point and share being 
sometimes shod with a bullock's horn or iron. An oak branch served the purpose 
of a harrow. Their beasts of burden were oxen; horses, although numerous, were 
hardly ever used for this purpose. The yoke was placed across the foreheads and 
fastened with rawhide thongs. Their vehicles had but two wheels, and these were 
sections of a log with holes bored through the center for the insertion of the 
axles, which were held in place by hard-wood pins on each side. There was no 
lubricator known that would modify the unearthly screeching emitted from these 
rude carts when in motion. A good representation of these rude vehicles will be 
found in the picture of the Santa Clara Mission on the following page.
        The crops were cut with a sickle or any other implement that would serve 
the purpose. The grain-fields were protected from invasion by the wandering 
herds of horses and cattle by means of rows of brush, or ditches. Their methods 
of threshing were still more rude. The process is thus described by Judge R. F. 
Peckham, a pioneer of 1846 :�
        " The floor of the corral, into which it was customary to drive horses 
and cattle in order to lasso them, from constant use had become hardened. Into 
this inclosure the grain would be piled, and upon it, the manatha, or band of 
mares, would be turned loose to tramp out the seed. The wildest horses, or 
mayhap the colts that had been driven but once, and then to be branded, would be 
turned adrift upon the straw, when would ensue a scene of the wildest confusion, 
the excited animals being urged, amidst the yelling of vaqueros and the cracking 
of whips�here, there and everywhere, around, across, and length�wise�until  the 
whole was trampled and naught was left but the grain and chaff. The most 
difficult part, however, was the separating of these two articles. Owing to the 
length of the dry season there was no urgent haste to effect this; therefore, 
when the wind was high enough, the trampled mass would be tossed into the air 
with large wooden forks cut from the adjacent oaks, the wind carrying away the 
lighter chaff and leaving the heavier grain. With a favorable breeze several 
bushels of wheat could thus be winnowed in the course of a day; while strange as 
it may appear, it is declared that grain so sifted was much cleaner than it is 
now."
        From the same source, also, we have the following description of an 
old-time Spanish mill:�        
        " The mill in which their grain was ground was made of two stones, as 
nearly round as possible, of about thirty inches in diameter, and each being 
dressed on one side to a smooth surface. One was set upon a frame some two feet 
high, with the smooth face upwards; the other was placed on this with the even 
face downwards, while through an inch hole in its center was the wheat fed by 
hand. Two holes drilled partly through each admitted an iron bolt, by means of 
which a long pole was attached. To its end was harnessed a horse, mule, or 
donkey, and the animal being driven round in a circle caused the stone to 
revolve. We are informed that these mills were capable of grinding a bushel of 
wheat in about twelve hours!"
        The people themselves were of a light-hearted, joyous temperament, best 
described by our word "jolly." They never made a toil of a pleasure, nor 
permitted labor to interfere with their amusements. With all this they were 
reverent in religious matters, the women in particular being very devout in 
their observance of all the church ordinances. The men always uncovered in 
passing the church door, which was always open. Their principal amusements were 
competitive trials of horsemanship, music, dancing, bull-fighting, and gambling. 
Bull-fighting was abolished by law in 1854, but no legislative enactment could 
ever restrain the Spaniard's passion for gambling. They would gamble on 
horse-races, cock-fights, bull and bear-fights, but their principal game was 
monte, and at this they would wager money, horses, cattle, and even the clothing 
from their backs. Within the memory of some of the older pioneers are the names 
of many rich families who were reduced from affluence to poverty by this vice: 
To obtain money with which to gratify this passion, lands would be pledged or 
sold, and, in this manner, vast domains were lost to the original holders. With 
all this, they were a temperate people, intoxication being almost entirely 
unknown prior to the American occupation. Their disputes were few and easily 
adjusted. The administration of justice was simple and effective, and the 
results generally satisfactory, the more so because cases were decided on their 
merits and not on technicalities. Judge Peckham says of the administration of 
justice under the Mexican regime:
        "There were neither law books nor lawyers, while the laws were mostly to 
be found in the traditions of the people. The head officer in each village was 
the Alcalde, in whom was vested the judicial function, who received, on the 
enactment of a new law, a manuscript copy called a bando, upon the obtaining of 
which a person was sent round beating a snare drum, which was the signal for the 
assemblage of the people at the Alcalde's office, where the act was read, thus 
promulgated, and forthwith had the force of law. When a citizen had cause of 
action against another, requiring the aid of court, he went to the Alcalde and 
verbally stated his complaint in his own way, and asked that the defendant be 
sent for, who was at once summoned by an officer, who simply said that he was 
wanted by the Alcalde. The defendant made his appearance without loss of time, 
where, if in the same village, the plaintiff was generally in waiting. The 
Alcalde commenced by stating the complaint against him, and asked him what he 
had to say about it. This brought about an altercation between the parties, and, 
nine times out of ten, the Alcalde could get at the facts in this wise, and 
announce judgment immediately, the whole suit not occupying two hours from its 
beginning. In more important cases three `good men' would be called in to act as 
co-justices, while the testimony of witnesses had seldom to be resorted to. A 
learned American judge has said that the native Californians were, in the 
presence of their courts, generally truthful. What they know of false swearing 
or perjury they have learned from their associations with the Americans. It was 
truthfully said by the late Edmund Randolph, that the United States Board of 
Commissioners to settle private land claims in California had been the graves of 
their reputations."
        Until 1803 the only church in the jurisdiction was the mission church at 
Santa Clara. In that year the population of the pueblo and surrounding country 
had increased to such an extent that it was considered necessary that a place of 
worship should be erected nearer home.
        The petition for the establishment of a chapel within the limits of the 
pueblo set forth not only that the mission church was too distant for the 
poblanos to attend regularly, but that the journey was fraught with too many 
dangers. What constituted the hazard in passing this short distance we are not 
informed by the petitioners, and whether it was the danger of being gored by 
wild cattle or of being drowned by the high waters of the Guadalupe, is left to 
conjecture. Whatever criticisms might have been made on the petition, they did 
not amount to serious objections, and the building of the new church was agreed 
to. An invitation was sent to Don Jose de la Guerra, commandante at San Carlos 
or Carmel, near Montery, to act as sponsor. He replied that, while he felt 
flattered by the invitation, his daily walk was so full of errors, or, as he put 
it, so full of impiety, that he did not feel himself fit for the duty; but he 
appointed Don Jose Estudillo, a cadet, to officiate in his place. The 
corner-stone was laid on the twelfth day of July, with appropriate ceremonies. 
The following statement, written in the Spanish language, was deposited,among 
other things, in the stone, and gives a full account of the proceedings:‑
        " In the pueblo of San Jose de Guadalupe, the twelfth of July, 1803, 
Senor Don Carlos IV. being King of Spain, Don Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, 
Governor ad interim and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Army; the retired 
sergeant, Macario de Castro, Commissioner of the Pueblo; Ignacio Archuleta, 
ordinary Alcalde, and Bernardo Heridia and Francisco Gonzales, regidores, at six 
o'clock on the evening of said day was made the consecration of the first stone 
and mortar of the church, which was commenced in the said pueblo, dedicated to 
the patriarch Senor St. Joseph and the virgin Guadalupe; which ceremony was 
celebrated with much solemnity by the Reverend Friar, Joseph Viader, minister of 
the Santa Clara Mission; Don Jose Maria Estudillo, cadet, acting as god-father, 
by proxy, from Alferez de Jose Antonio de la Guerra y Noriega, commandante at 
the presidio at Monterey, and who placed under the first stone money of every 
sovereign, and a duplicate of this document, in a bottle sealed with wax, for 
its preservation in the future; and for the present we sign it in the said 
pueblo, the day, month, and year aforesaid.
"FR. JOSE VIADER.
" JOSE MARIA ESTUDILLO, "As proxy for Alferez de la Guerra y Noriega. "MACARIO 
DE CASTRO, Commissioner."
        In the first quarter of the present century two important events 
occurred which had a marked effect upon the country. We refer to the throwing of 
by Mexico of the yoke old Spain and the establishment of the Mexican republic, 
and the secularization of the missions. The independence of Mexico was 
acknowledged in 1821, and the practical destruction of the missions followed 
soon after. As early as 1813 it was suggested by the home government that the 
missions, as a distinct institution, had accomplished their work and could be 
turned over to the secular clergy, and the services of the Fathers be dispensed 
with. It is thought that this suggestion was animated by a desire on the part of 
the government to absorb the " pious fund," a revenue which had been set aside 
for the support of the missions. Whether or not this suspicion was true, it had 
that effect. Some idea of the work accomplished by the Fathers up to this period 
may not be uninteresting. Between the years 1802 and 1822 seven thousand, three 
hundred and twenty-four Indians were baptized at Santa Clara Mission, two 
thousand and fifty-six were married, six thousand five hundred and sixty-five 
had died, and one thousand three hundred and ninety-four still lived. It is 
estimated that there were four thousand Indians in the surrounding rancherias 
who had not succumbed to the influence of the Fathers, and were what were called 
"wild."
        The proposition to confiscate the pious fund was a menace which tended 
to unsettle affairs at the mission. As Father Gleeson says : "It was not to be 
expected that with such a resolution before their eyes the Fathers would be as 
zealous in developing the natural resources of the country as before, seeing 
that the result of their labors was, at any time, liable to be seized on by the 
government and handed over to strangers." The converts soon perceived this lack 
of zeal and became imbued with the same spirit. The new republic showed as much 
hostility to the missions as the Spanish crown had done, and finally, in 1826, 
the Federal government issued an order to the authorities in California 
directing the liberation of the Indians, and a few years later an act was passed 
by the Legislature ordering the whole of the missions to be secularized and the 
religious to withdraw. To justify this act, it was stated that the missions were 
never intended to be permanent establishments, but were to give way, after a 
time, to the regular ecclesiastical system, when the people would be formed into 
parishes, attended by a secular clergy. The decree was passed in 1833 and put in 
force in 1834. The lands were handed over to the Indians to work or to abandon, 
and they generally chose the latter.
        When the decree went into effect there were eighteen hundred Indians at 
the mission of Santa Clara, while the mission owned seventy-four thousand two 
hundred and eighty head of cattle, four hundred and seven yoke of working oxen, 
eighty-two thousand five hundred and forty sheep, one thousand eight hundred and 
ninety horses broken to the saddle, four thousand two hundred and thirty-five 
brood mares, seven hundred and twenty-five mules, and one thousand hogs. Eight 
years later there were only four hundred Indians at this mission, with fifteen 
hundred head of cattle, two hundred and fifty horses, and three thousand swine. 
This decrease continued until in a few years the work of the missions was only a 
matter of history. The original cross erected by Father Pena still stands as a 
monument to the memory of the fathers whose religious zeal led them into the 
wilderness of the new world for the purpose of teaching to the benighted natives 
the doctrines of Christianity and the arts of civilization. Some remnants of the 
orchards planted by them are still in existence, and show how, at the very 
commencement of the history of this country, its future destiny was indicated.
        The first enumeration of the inhabitants of the pueblo was taken in 
1831, and showed one hundred and sixty-six men, one hundred and forty-five 
women, one hundred and three boys, and one hundred and ten girls, making a total 
of five hundred and twenty-four. This would not seem, now, as a very great 
increase of population for a period of forty years, but when we consider that 
this was drawn principally from colonies which were themselves sparsely peopled, 
the growth of the pueblo of San Jose de Guadalupe will be more justly estimated. 
The colonists had nearly the whole Pacific Coast from which to select their 
locations, and the fact that so many chose the Santa Clara Valley shows that 
even then its wonderful fertility and magnificent climate were duly appreciated.
        While these events were transpiring in this locality, other portions of 
the Pacific Coast were being looked over by a different class of people. 
Adventurous navigators had visited the different natural ports, while Vancouver 
had made his survey of the coast along the present California line. The Russian 
fur traders had founded Sitka, and extended their operations even to California. 
Ships from the East India Company visited here in the latter part of the last 
century, at which time American vessels began to make their appearance. The 
British fur companies came in later, and in 1811 John Jacob Astor, the organizer 
and leader of the Pacific Fur Company, founded the town of Astoria near the 
mouth of the Columbia. This colony, however, soon succumbed to the British 
traders, and many of the colonists came to California. It was from the ships 
that visited this coast that the first foreigners came to this valley. Overland 
travel to California did not commence until the forties. The first foreigner to 
locate in this valley was John Gilroy, who was a sailor on board a vessel 
belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, that touched at Monterey in 1814. He was a 
Scotchman and the causes for his abandoning his ship are differently stated. One 
report is that he had a quarrel with one of his officers and deserted, while it 
is just as positively stated that he had a severe attack of the scurvy and was 
left on shore to be cured. However that may have been, it is well authenticated 
that, in that year, he found his way into this valley from Monterey, and stopped 
at San Ysidro, which was afterwards named Gilroy from him.
He was hospitably received and finally married into the wealthy family of the 
Ortegas. He was a man of considerable force of character, and accumulated a 
large property in lands and cattle, but at last died poor in 1869. His real name 
was said to be John Cameron, but he was always known here as Gilroy. He was 
accompanied, on his advent into this valley, by a comrade whom he called "Deaf 
Jimmy," who tarried but a short time and then went north of the bay.
        Prominent in the history of California is the name of Robert Livermore, 
also a native of Scotland, who came here in 1816, but remained only a short 
time, when he went north and settled in the valley which now bears his name. In 
those early days every person was called a foreigner who was not a Spaniard or a 
Mexican, and there was a distinction made even between these. The Spaniards, or 
Castilians, as they insisted on calling themselves, were those whose families 
came from Spain and whose descendants had never intermarried with the natives of 
the New World. They were very proud of the purity of their blood. The Mexicans 
were the descendants of those who had mixed with the native races of Mexico, and 
into whose language had crept many of the old Aztec words and phrases.
        In 1818 there came here a man whose name is historic in this community, 
Don Antonio Sunol. He was a native of Barcelona, Spain, but had served in the 
French navy under the First Empire. He was an officer of distinction and was 
present when Napoleon surrendered after Waterloo. He then sought the New World 
and settled in this valley, where he achieved distinction, wealth, and respect. 
He died in San Jose in 1865, after an experience here of nearly half a century. 
The first citizen of the United States to settle in the Santa Clara Valley was 
Philip Doak. He was a block and tackle maker employed on a whaling vessel. He 
left his vessel in 1822 at Monterey and came here, settling near Gilroy. He 
located himself on the ranch of Mariano Castro, afterwards known as the "Las 
Animas," and finally married one of Castro's daughters. Matthew Fellom came here 
in the same year and located near San Ysidro, or Old Gilroy, as it is now called 
Fellom was a Dane, and also belonged to a whaler, which he left at one of the 
northern ports and made his way overland to San Jose. The land on which he made 
his location is now owned by W. N. Furlong. He lived until 1873.
        These were the only foreigners that we have any record of as living here 
up to 1830, if we except one William Willis, an Englishman, who was known to be 
in the pueblo in 1828, but whose antecedents or subsequent history are unknown. 
It has been estimated that, at this time, the number of foreigners in the whole 
of California did not exceed one hundred. From this time on the arrivals in this 
valley became more frequent. John Burton came here in 1830; he was afterwards 
Alcalde of the pueblo. Harry Bee, the oldest living inhabitant of the county, 
came to this valley in 1833, but he had been on the coast for six years prior to 
that time. He had passed most of the intervening time at Monterey, where he had 
come in 1827 with a Dr. Douglas, a naturalist. He was quite active during the 
Mexican War, performing valuable services for General Fremont as scout and 
courier. At the same time came William Gulnac, James Alexander Forbes, James 
Weekes, Nicholas Dodero, John Price, William Smith, nicknamed "Bill the Sawyer," 
George Ferguson, Thomas Pepper, who the Californians called "Pimiento," William 
Welsh, a man called "Blind Tom," Charles Brown, and a person called "Moche Dan." 
Thomas Bowen and William Daily came in 1834. Of these, several were prominent, 
either in the early days or in the later history of the county. Gulnac was for 
many years mayor domo at the Mission San Jose. He married into the Cesena. 
family. Forbes was vice-consul for Great Britain. Weekes served as Alcalde in 
1847. In 1838 Henry Woods and Lawrence Carmichael arrived.
        These people all came by vessel and chance decided their location. They 
affiliated with the Spanish population, in many instances marrying into their 
families and adopting, to a great extent, their customs and methods of living. 
Overland travel commenced about 1841. Even before this time settlements had been 
made in Oregon, and that country was much better known than California. For this 
reason, and because California was a foreign country, nearly all the overland 
trains were pointed to Oregon. Some of these having reached the Sierras and 
hearing something of California, came here instead. In 1841 Josiah Belden, 
Charles M. Weber, and Grove C. Cook came overland, as did also Henry Pitts, 
Peter Springer, William Wiggins, and James Rock. In 1843 Major S. J. Hensley, 
Julius Martin, Thomas J. Shadden, and Winston Bennett made the trip across the 
plains. The advent of this party was an important incident, as with it came 
three ladies, wives of Martin, Shadden, and Bennett, the first foreign ladies to 
settle in the district. The next year, 1844, came the Murphy party. The history 
of these people is important, from the fact that they were the first to cross 
the mountains with wagons, and that from their advent to the present time they 
have been an important factor in the development of the State.