10 - The Territory (updated August 31, 2014)

The first paragraph below glosses over events elsewhere in the state that didn't have much effect on Santa Cruz. January 13, 1847 was the date of the Treaty of Cahuenga - the surrender of Mexican forces. After that, however, the Californios rebelled and forced a second U.S. military campaign to pacify San Diego, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

Another interesting saga concerns the marriage of Vardamon Bennett's daughter Catherine to grizzled mountain man Isaac Graham. The marriage was not a happy one, and led a to a family feud in which Graham's son shot and killed one of Catherine's brothers. Maybe we'll come back to that story another time.

Names on the Signs: The Territory (originally published Sep. 30, 2011)

Although the Mexican-American War didn’t officially end until 1848, it ended in California on January 13, 1847, only six months after it began. From that time until statehood in 1850, California was a U.S. Territory under a military governor. These somewhat unsettled conditions were not ideal for attracting settlers, but the steady stream of new arrivals to the Santa Cruz area continued. Some of the men continued the pattern of the earlier 1840’s, finding work at Isaac Graham’s sawmill and Joseph Majors’ gristmill, or at Paul Sweet’s tannery. Others came to build new mills. These mills were powered by running water turning a wheel, so they had to be located on a good-sized year-round stream. Fortunately, our county has quite a few of those.

The Daubenbiss house in Soquel

Two of these early millwrights were John Daubenbiss, a native of Bavaria, and John Hames of New York. In 1846, the two were contracted by Michael and Martina Castro Lodge to build a sawmill at Rancho Soquel, on Soquel Creek. These two stayed on to become leading citizens of Soquel village. Twenty years later, Daubenbiss built the home on the hill that remains one of Soquel’s prominent landmarks. Hames’ brother Benjamin later followed John to California, settling in the Pleasant Valley neighborhood of Corralitos. His name is remembered on today’s Hames Road.

The redwood forests of the San Lorenzo Valley also saw new sawmills, as demand for construction lumber increased. Graham built a second mill in 1845, and newcomer Vardamon Bennett came south from Oregon in 1847, with his wife Mary Amanda, to build one farther upstream, near the mouth of what later became known as Love Creek. Bennett Creek, which flows into the San Lorenzo at Felton, was named for Eben Bennett (apparently no relation), a New Yorker who arrived in 1866 to become a lime-manufacturer.

Another New Yorker came to Santa Cruz in 1847. Elihu Anthony was not a miller, but an ironworker who saw a local need for the manufacture and repair of metal mill machinery, agricultural tools and other metal items. The only town land he found for sale, however, was down in the flood-prone flats on the west bank of the San Lorenzo. Undeterred, he built a foundry/blacksmith business there, near where the Post Office is today. That construction began the town center’s move down from Mission Hill. We’ll hear more about Elihu Anthony’s activities in coming years, as he became one of the most important early commercial/industrial builders of Santa Cruz. Anthony is remembered today with a street on the Westside.

 The Santa Cruz area was growing, although still somewhat slowly. At the beginning of 1848, the leisurely pace of life on the Ranchos was only slightly disturbed by the noise of a few sawmills and other early industrial operations. That quiet life was soon to change forever, as news arrived of a momentous discovery in the far-off Sierra Nevada foothills – gold!

Further Reading:

• Soquel Pioneer and Historical Association. Soquel: Images of America (2011). 
• Rowland, Leon. Santa Cruz: The Early Years (1980).