Santa Clara 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. 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. DISCOVERY OF GOLD. In January, 1848, came the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. The excitement caused by this event has been described both in prose and verse. It spread like a conflagration throughout the coast, and, over�leaping the Sierras, swept over the continent, and thence across the Atlantic to the Old World. It came to the Santa Clara Valley after the annual grain crops had been planted. All business was suspended and everybody rushed to the mines. Many succeeded in securing a good supply of the precious metal, but many more did not. The grain in the fields grew and ripened, but waited in vain for the reaper, and was finally wasted or devoured by the grazing herds. Each report of a rich find intensified the excitement, while the numerous stories of disappointment seemed not to allay the fever. The town and country were deserted. There being no crops, for lack of harvesters, all food supplies went up to fabulous prices. The flour used was brought chiefly from Chili and sold for $20 per barrel. Everything else in the way of food, excepting meat, was proportionately high. Labor, when it could be procured, was from $10 to $18 per day. Lumber cost $100 per thousand feet for the hauling alone. For two years the onions raised on about six acres of ground near where the Southern Pacific Railroad depot now stands yielded a net profit of $20,000 per year. It has gone into history that the first discovery of gold was made in January, 1848, by Marshall, in the race at Sutter's Mill. Mrs. Virginia Murphy, daughter of James F. Reed, and one of the Donner party, says that gold was discovered at Donner Lake in the winter of 1846-47. She says: "We were seated around the fire when John Denton, a gunsmith by trade, while knocking off chips from the rocks on which the wood was placed, saw something shining. He examined it and pronounced it to be gold. He then knocked off more chips from the rock, and hunted in the ashes for more of the shining particles until he had gathered a tablespoonful. He wrapped the gold in a piece of buckskin and put it in his pocket. When the first relief party came in he went out with it, but died on the way, and the gold was buried with him. When I saw my father, Mr. Reed, I told him of the circumstance, and he said: 'If John Denton says that that is gold it is gold, for he knows.' My father intended to go back to Donner Lake to search for the precious metal, but before he started, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill; hence, he did not return to the lake. I have been told that the rocks used for the fireplace had been washed down from a mountain where gold was, but this mountain was probably many miles away." In the latter part of 1848 some of the citizens of San Jose who had gone to the mines returned. Some had made fortunes, others a few hundred or a few thousands of dollars, and others had made nothing, and, having become disgusted with their luck, came home to engage in other pursuits. Up to this time the immigration to California had been made up of those who were seeking homes for agricultural and other business purposes, but its character was entirely changed by the discovery of gold, and for several years all classes of people poured into the State. They came by land and by water in search of the glittering metal. They were from all countries and were of all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest, and met here on a common level. Some of the most talented, educated, and refined men of the nation worked with pick and pan with nothing in their outward appearance to indicate the sphere in which they had been reared. There was the usual proportion of thieves, gamblers, and "knights of industry," and crime became rampant. Judge Lynch presided at many of the extemporized courts, and "miners' law" was the law of the land. A very large number came with the intention of quickly acquiring a fortune and returning home. But few of these anticipations were realized. Many of the successful ones, charmed with the climate and fertile soil of California, became permanent residents. Many of those who were unsuccessful in the mines became successful in other pursuits, and made their homes here. Of both of these classes San Jose received a large portion, and agriculture and other industries began to be developed. Better buildings were constructed, business enterprises inaugurated, the Mexican inhabitants with their grazing herds were gradually pushed aside by the rustling American from across the mountains, and the vast pastures transformed into fields of grain. The fertile soil of the valley, when excited by the industry and improved implements of the immigrant, developed a mine of wealth no less valuable than the rich placers of the mountains. THE FIRST CAPITAL. The large increase in population, and the number of different business enterprises that were inaugurated, created a demand for a government different from that administered by the military department, and for a code of laws other than the traditions of Mexican jurisprudence. The matter was represented to General Riley, then military governor, who called the people to meet in convention and frame a constitution preliminary to asking Congress for admission as a State of the Union. This, the first Constitutional Convention, met at Monterey on the first day of September, 1849. The delegates sent from San Jose were Joseph Aram, Kimble H. Dimick, J. De Hoppe, Antonio M. Pico, Elam Brown, Julian Hanks, and Pedro Sansevain. The people of San Jose, even at this early day, did not lack the spirit of enterprise which has since distinguished them. At a public meeting held for that purpose, a committee consisting of Charles White and James F. Reed was appointed for the purpose of attending the convention and urging upon that body the advisability of selecting San Jose as the future capital of the new State. This committee was met by representatives from other localities, each on the same errand. San Jose, however, carried off the prize, but in order to accomplish this, they were compelled to enter into an agreement that suitable buildings for the accommodation of the State government should be furnished in time for the meeting of the Legislature, which was the fifteenth of the ensuing December. As there were no such buildings in the town, this was a rather bold undertaking on the part of the committee. During the year, a large adobe house had been built by Messrs. Rochon and Sansevain, on the east side of Market Plaza, about opposite where the new City Hall now stands. This was the only building in the town that anyways approached the requirements of the State. The Ayuntamiento, or Town Council, resolved to rent this house for the accommodation of the Legislature. But the rent asked was $4,000 per month, and after further consideration, it was concluded to purchase the property for $34,000, that sum being less than would have to be paid for a year's rent. It was easy enough to resolve to purchase; but to provide the means was a matter of considerable difficulty. There was no money, and the owners of the building would not take the pueblo for security. At this juncture, a number of public-spirited citizens came forward and executed a promissory note for $34,000, with interest at eight per cent per month, and thus solved the difficulty. The names appended to the note were: R. M. May, James F. Reed, Peter Davidson, William McCutcheon, Joseph Aram, David Dickey, Charles White, F. Lightston, R. C. Keyes, Peter Quivey, J. D. Hoppe, J. C. Cobb, K. H. Dimick, Benjamin Cory, W. H. Eddy, Grove Cook, Isaac Branham, J. Belden, and P. Sansevain. The deed was taken in the names of Aram, Belden, and Reed, as trustees for the purchasers, with a condition that the property should be conveyed to the pueblo when it should pay for the same. The State issued bonds to the amount of $50,000, to pay for the property. These bonds were sold for forty cents on the dollar, leaving the original purchasers considerably out of pocket on the investment. To recover the balance, suits were instituted against the city, and the litigation continued for a number of years in different forms. A history of this dispute will be found in the chapter on " Land Titles," further on in this work. From Mr. Hall's history of San Jose, we take the following description of this building: " It was sixty feet long, forty feet wide, and adorned with a piazza in front. The upper story contained but one room, with a stairway leading thereto. This room was occupied by the Assembly. The lower story was divided into four rooms. The largest one was forty by twenty feet, and was the Senate chamber. The other rooms were used by the secretary and various committees. In front of it stood a liberty pole, the top splice of which was the same that stood before the juzgado, bearing the ample folds of the first United States colors which wafted in this valley. This same top splice forms the upper part of the pole now in front of the engine house on Lightston Alley. The gilt ball at the top contains a written history of the facts pertaining thereto." This splice, with its gilt ball, was afterwards removed and placed on the top of the old City Hall, on Market Street. The election to ratify the Constitution was held November 13, 1849, the San Jose District casting five hundred and sixty-seven votes, all for its adoption. Peter H. Burnett was at the same time elected Governor, his opponent being W. S. Sherwood. The condition of affairs in San Jose at that time was very crude, both socially and commercially. It is well illustrated by " Grandma Bascom's Story," from the graceful pen of Mrs. M. H. Field, of San Jose, and which was published in the Overland Monthly, for May, 1887, and from which we quote:� "We reached Sacramento on the last day of October. Then we took a boat for San Francisco. Our fare was $132, and we were eight days in getting to San Francisco. It rained and rained. I remember at Benicia we paid $1.50 for a candle. At San Francisco we had hoped to find a house all ready to be put together, which Doctor had bought in New York and ordered sent round the Horn. He had also sent in the same cargo a great lot of furniture and a year's supply of provisions, but they never came till the next April, and then everything was spoiled but the house. We had also bought in San Francisco two lots at $1,700 each. The best we could do was to camp on them. The first night in San Francisco Mr. Bryant came to take supper with us, and the Doctor, to celebrate, bought $5.00 worth of potatoes. We ate them all for supper, and didn't eat so very many either! " We had intended from the first to come to the Santa Clara Valley, for Doctor said that wherever the Catholic Fathers had picked out a site must be a good location. The children and I stayed in the city while Doctor came on horseback to San Jose and bought a house for us. Then he came back, and we started for San Jose with Professor Jack, while Doctor stayed in the city to buy and ship furniture and provisions to us. We came to Alviso in the boat and paid another $150 in fare, just for me and the children. From Alviso we came to San Jose by the Pioneer stage, through fearful mud and pouring rain, paying an `ounce' each for fare. On the boat I got acquainted with two nice gentlemen, both ministers, whose names were Blakeslee and Brierly. They two were coming to San Jose; also a Mr. Knox. "'We haven't any place to lay our heads when we get there,' one of them said. " Well, I've got a house,' said I, 'just as if I was in Kentucky, and if you can put up with what I'll have to, you can come with me and welcome.' So we were all driven straight to my house, on the corner of Second and San Fernando Streets. It was just dark, and the tenth of December. "The house had been bought of a Mrs. Matthews, and she was still in the house. Doctor had paid $7,000 for the house and two fifty-vara lots. I expected to see at least a decent shelter; but, oh, my ! it was just as one of the children said, `Most as good as our old Kentucky corn-crib.' It had two rooms and a loft, which was climbed into by a kind of ladder. The roof was of shakes and let the rain right through, and the floor was of planks, laid down with the smooth side up, and great cracks between that let the water run out. I was thankful for that! There was a chimney in the house, and fireplace, but hardly a bit of fire, nor any wood. It was rather a forlorn place to come to and bring visitors to, now, wasn't it ? Yet we had been through so much that the poorest shelter looked good to me, and besides it was our new home. We must make the best of it. Mrs. Matthews had a good supper for us on a table spread with a white cloth, and the children were overjoyed to see a real tablecloth once more. " `Will you tell me where I can get some wood?' I said to Mrs. Matthews, thinking that a fire would be the best possible thing for us all. " You can buy a burro load in the morning,' she answered. 'I've used the last bit to get supper with.' Well, the end of it was we took our supper and went to bed-- not on our nice Kentucky feather-beds, but on buffalo skins spread on the floor, and without any pillows. Mr. Knox and Mr. Blakeslee and Mr. Brierly climbed up into the loft, and turned in as best they could. Mr. Knox was sick, too, but I could not even give him a cup of hot tea. I said to Mrs. Matthews that I wished I could heat a stone to put to his feet. "Stone !' said she ; `there are no stones in this country.' "We slept as if we were on downy beds, we were all so tired. The next morning I bought a `burro' load of wood for an `ounce.' Everything cost an 'ounce.' I soon got used to it. Wheat was 75 cents a pound, butter $1.00 a pound, eggs $3.00 a dozen. A chicken cost $3.00, milk $1.00 a quart. But their prices matched all around. Doctors charged $5.00 for drawing a tooth, and other things in proportion. I don't know as it made any difference. I divided my mansion into four rooms, with curtains. Doctor came and brought us furniture and all the comforts money would buy. He paid $500 to get shingles on our roof. Mr. Blakeslee and Mr. Brierly stayed with us. We all seemed to get on well together. It was not till spring that doctor found a black man who could cook. He paid $800 for him. Folks said he wouldn't stay�for, of course, he was free in California�but he did. He lived with us for four years. " People began to ask if they couldn't stay with us just for a few days till they found some other home; and then, somehow, they stayed on. Everybody had to be hospitable. The Legislature was in session and the town was more than full. The first thing I knew I had thirteen boarders�senators and representatives, and ministers, and teachers. Nobody who came would go away. I could always manage to make people feel at home, and they would all say that they would put up with anything, and help in all sorts of ways, if I would only let them stay. It was as good as a play to see them help me. Mr. Leek (he was the enrolling clerk in the Legislature) was a wonderful hand to make batter-cakes. We got up a reputation on batter-cakes, and our house was dubbed Slapjack Hall, by my boy Al. It stuck to us. Mr. Bradford, from Indiana, could brown coffee to perfection. "Mr. Orr and Mr. McMullen always brought all the water. They were senators. I used to think they liked the job because there was a pretty girl in the house where they got the water. And that reminds me, several families got water from the same well. It was just a hole in the ground, about eight or ten feet deep, and no curb around it. Once a baby was creeping round on the ground and fell into it. The mother saw it and ran and jumped in after it. Then she screamed, and I ran out. There she was in the well, holding the baby upside down to get the water out of its lungs! 'Throw me a rope !' she screamed, and I ran for a rope. Then she tied it around the baby, and I drew it up. Meanwhile, our cries brought men to the rescue, and they drew up the poor woman. We tried to keep the well covered after that. " It seemed impossible to get a cook. We even had a woman come down from San Francisco, but she didn't stay when she found we really expected her to cook. She said she was a niece of Amos Kendall's, and wasn't going to cook for anybody. Professor Jack helped me steadily, and, as I said, everybody lent a hand. We had a very gay time over our meals, and everybody was willing to wash dishes and tend baby. I used to go up to the Legislature and enjoy the fun there as much as they enjoyed my housekeeping. The March of that winter was something to remember. People used to get swamped on the corner of First and Santa Clara Streets. A little boy was drowned there. It was a regular trap for children. "Oh, did I tell you I built the first church and the first school-house in San Jose ? I did. I built it all alone, with my own hands, and the only tool I had was a good stout needle. It was the famous 'Blue Tent' you have heard of. Mr. Blakeslee asked me if I could make it, and I told him of course I could. He bought the cloth and cut it out. It was of blue jean, and cost seventy-five cents a yard. The Presbyterian Church was organized in it, and Mr. Blakeslee had a school in it all winter. " We had a good deal of party going, and gave entertainments, just as if we had elegant houses and all the conveniences. The Spanish people were, some of them, extremely stylish. The ladies had dresses as rich as silk and embroidery could make them, and in their long, low adobe houses there were rich carpets and silk curtains trimmed with gold lace. I went to the first wedding in one of these houses. Miss Pico married a Mr. Campbell. It was very grand, but the odd dresses and the odd dishes upset my dignity more than once. Governor and Mrs. McDougall lived in an adobe house on Market Street, and they had a grand party there. I had a party, too, one day, and asked all the ladies of my acquaintance. Mrs. Branham had given me six eggs, and I made an elegant cake, which I was going to pass around in fine style. I began by passing it to one of the Spanish ladies, and she took the whole cake at one swoop, wrapped it up in the skirt of her gorgeous silk dress, and said, Mucha gracias. I was never so surprised in my life, but there was nothing I could do. The rest of us had to go without cake that time. " Cattle and horses ran about the streets, and there were no sidewalks. We had to just pick our way round as best we could. " In the spring my piano came. It was sent by way of the Isthmus. It was the first piano in San Jose. It made a great sensation. Everybody came to see it and hear my little girl play. Indians and Spanish used to crowd round the doors and windows to hear the wonderful music, and many a white man, too, lingered and listened because it reminded him of home. " We moved into a better house in the spring, very near where the Methodist Church South now stands. We paid $125 a month for it. But when I look back it seems to me that I never had such an intellectual feast as in old Slapjack Hall. The gentlemen who figured as cooks in my kitchen were the most intelligent and agreeable men you can imagine. They were all educated and smart, and they appeared just as much like gentlemen when they were cooking as when they were making speeches in the Legislature. I don't believe we ever again had such a choice set of folks under our roof here in San Jose. Doctor and I felt honored to entertain them, and yet they paid us $20 a week for the privilege. " Of course you know General Fremont and his wife were here that winter, and I knew them both. Mrs. Fremont's sister, Mrs. Jones, and I were great friends. Yes, indeed, there never were finer people than my boarders and neighbors in '49. Let me see; there were the Cooks and Hoppes, and Cobbs and Joneses, the Branhams and Beldens, and Hensleys and Williams, the Bralys, the Hesters and Crosbys, Murphys, Dickinsons, Hendersons, Kincaids, Campbells, Reeds, Houghtons, Tafts and Moodys. Then amongst the Spanish were the Picos and Sunols. Very likely I have forgotten a great many, just telling them off in this fashion, but I never forget them really. Many of the best citizens of San Jose now, with wives and children, yes, and grandchildren, were slim young fellows then, who had come to California to seek their fortunes. Fine, enterprising boys they were too. Some of them boarded with me. C. T. Ryland and P. O. Minor were inmates of 'Slapjack Hall,' and Dr. Cory and the Reeds will remember it well. " In 1852 we moved out on the Stockton ranch, and bought our own farm in Santa Clara, on which we built our permanent home, Somerville Lodge. I remember we paid our head carpenter $16 a day. The house cost us $10,000. It would not cost $1,000 now. We bought seeds to plant a garden, and an ounce of onion seed cost an ounce of gold ! We paid $6.00 each for our fruit trees. A mule cost $300; a horse, $400. But doctors' services were just as high-priced, and so we kept even." THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. The first Legislature met December 15, 1849, and on the 20th the first civil Governor was inaugurated. Representatives from other districts who had been disappointed in not securing the capital at the Constitutional Convention, renewed their efforts in the Legislature. About the first bill introduced into the Assembly was by George B. Tingley, providing for the removal of the capital to Monterey. The State House was not well adapted to the use of the Legislature, nor were all the conveniences of life to be had in San Jose at that early day. The people of the city, however, exerted themselves to make the condition of affairs as pleasant as possible. They kept open house and entertained the law-makers to the best of their ability. This Legislature passed the act which gave San Jose its first legal incorporation under the United States rule. The act was passed in March, 1850, and on the eleventh of April the Ayuntamiento held its last meeting, and the new Common Council held its first meeting under the charter on the 13th. The anniversary of national independence was gratefully remembered in this first year of American civil administration in California. Mr. Hall says " there was a grand celebration, and much more interest felt than on such occasions in the Eastern States. The isolation from the other States made the feeling of national pride increase. We felt as though we were in a foreign land, and the tendency was to brighten and vivify the love of the whole country in every American. On that occasion the Hon. William Voorhies delivered the oration; James M. Jones also delivered one in Spanish for the benefit of the Mexicans present. Mr. Sanford, a lawyer from Georgia, read the Declaration of Independence. Thirteen young ladies dressed in blue spencers and white skirts rode on horseback, followed by the 'Eagle Guards,' commanded by Capt. Thomas White; also five hundred citizens, some on horseback, some in carriages, and some afoot, made up the national pageant that wound its way to the south of the town, a mile or more, in the grove near the Almaden road ; and there the ceremony was performed, to the great pleasure and pride of the American settlers in this new country." UNDER STATE GOVERNMENT. On the ninth day of September, 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a State, and on the sixth day of January following the State Legislature assembled at San Jose. On the eighth Governor Burnett tendered his resignation, and John McDougall was sworn in as his successor. The overwhelming question was the removal of the capital from San Jose. The citizens did all in their power to retain it, offering large grants of valuable real property and funds for the construction of public buildings. The State scrip which the members were compelled to receive as pay for their services was worth only forty cents on the dollar, but was taken at par by the citizens of San Jose. In short, every honorable effort was made to retain the capital, but in vain. General Vallejo exerted a greater influence, and an act was passed February 14 removing the State government to Vallejo. With this Legislature the boundaries of Santa Clara County, as a political subdivision of the great State of California, were defined. It originally included Washington Township, of Alameda County, but this was afterwards cut off, and the county reduced to its present limits, which are as follows: Beginning at a point opposite the mouth of the San Francisquito Creek, being the common corner of Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties; thence easterly to a point at the head of a slough, which is an arm of the San Francisco Bay at its head, making into the mainland in front of the Gegara rancho ; thence easterly to a lone sycamore tree that stands in a ravine between the dwellings of Flujencia and Valentine Gegara; thence easterly up said ravine to the top of the mountains, as surveyed by Horace A. Higley ; thence on a direct line easterly to the common corner of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Alameda, and Santa Clara Counties, on the summit of the Coast Range ; thence southeasterly, following the summit of the Coast Range to the northeast corner of Monterey County; thence westerly, following the northern boundary of Monterey County to the southeast corner of Santa Cruz County; thence northwesterly, following the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the head of San Francisquito Creek ; thence down said creek to its mouth ; thence in a direct line to the place of beginning, containing about one thousand three hundred square miles.