Book review: Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization

That's the title of a very well-researched and clearly written 1995 book by Robert H. Jackson and Edward Castillo (available at SCPL). As the title indicates, the research looks at how Spanish colonization began the rapid decline of the native peoples of California. The best thing about the Spanish/Mexican occupiers, from the native point of view, is that there never were very many of them.

Over the previous 200+ years of colonial occupation and exploitation of the Americas, The Spanish empire had developed a brutal but effective system for dealing with aboriginal peoples. The mission system was a key component of that system, its job being to turn the natives into Spain's labor force. The paucity of colonists moving from Spain to the New World made that conversion of the indigenes essential if the Spanish Empire was to maintain a hold on its conquests.

The system worked reasonably well in areas of settled, agricultural peoples used to a central government authority. The Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas had authoritarian systems that Spanish conquistadors were able to take over simply by supplanting the native leaders.

In California, the soldiers and missionaries found a very different situation. Small numbers of native peoples lived in small, decentralized tribal arrangements, and the people were unaccustomed to strict authority, regimentation and close-quarters living conditions. When brought into the missions, attrition rates from disease were horrific, and runaways were a constant problem.

At Mission Santa Cruz, Jackson and Castillo document the effects of these twin forces. Within 25 years of the mission's 1791 founding, most of the local natives had either died or run away to areas farther inland. To make up for the lost labor, expeditions were sent far into the interior - as far as the Central Valley - to 1) catch and return runaways, and 2) to compel new tribal groups to relocate to the mission.

The last structure built at Mission Santa Cruz (1820s), and the only one still standing (now the centerpiece of the State Historic Park), was a dormitory for these new arrivals. They had to be kept under guard and separated from the earlier local neophytes, who spoke a different language and were at least partly acclimated to mission life.

The mission system gradually declined until mission secularization dealt the final blow in the 1830s. No longer possessing vast tracts of pasture land, and stripped of authority to requisition native labor, Mission Santa Cruz crumbled away, to be replaced by the Holy Cross parish church we know today. Native neophytes who were supposed to be the eventual beneficiaries of the mission's stewardship were left with very little, and very few fellow natives to share it with.

Things got even worse for native Californians when the 1848 Gold Rush brought tens of thousands of fortune hunters from all over the world to the Sierra foothills. Very few of the newcomers showed much consideration for the people already present, whether Indian or Mexican. Less than two years later, California became the 31st state in the US of A, sealing the fate of native Californians. The second half of the 19th century produced anti-Indian campaigns some have called genocide.

A recent article asks, "On the 140th anniversary of Custer's well-remembered demise, why is California genocide forgotten?" While "genocide" may be too strong a word, it's not far from the truth. Not much more than 200 years ago, the southern and central California coast had the densest indigenous population of any area in all of North America (north of central Mexico).

It's not hard to understand why Californians don't want to talk about the less pleasant parts of the state's history, but we need to be reminded frequently that less-than-noble behaviors are never far below the surface of human nature. There has been social progress in the last 150 years, but we're not out of the cave yet.

Electricity in Santa Cruz: Timeline

As this chronological study of Santa Cruz County history moves into the 1890s, a few topics cross multiple years and decades. A handy way to begin with those broader topics is with a text timeline, as with the Santa Cruz water system timeline.

Local use of electricity is another story that developed over many decades. See the page Santa Cruz electricity timeline  for an expansion of this summary:

1860s: The electric telegraph came into our county from the wider world and remained important for three decades or more.

1880s: Developments in electrical lighting, and in dynamos to produce electrical current enabled the first electric light and power enterprises, including hydroelectric generation.

1890s: Electric-powered trolleys replaced horse-drawn streetcars. Residential electric lighting and telephones become common.

 

Sandy Lydon on Chinese (and other) immigrant history in Santa Cruz

For those who haven't yet read Sandy Lydon's Chinese Gold, there's a new short piece on his website, titled Hate Speech, Santa Cruz Style (1879), that gives some concise but broad perspective on the history of anti-immigrant politics in Santa Cruz County and beyond. The Chinese who came to California to mine for gold and stayed to build railroads and work the farms were just one of many immigrant groups to feel the wrath of scapegoaters, nativists, exploiters and political opportunists.

Lydon's brief survey gives a wider historical and political setting to Santa Cruz Once Had a Chinatown.

Trescony

An original source of inspiration here (and the blog's original title) was "Names on the Signs". Street names, in particular, are a rich source of local history connections. Just found some new info on one such: Trescony. A side-street off of Mission Street, the name commemorates an Italian immigrant named Alberto Trescony, who moved to Santa Cruz around 1870 (in a UC Davis oral history interview, son Julius says it was 1876), and remained for several years before returning to Monterey County, where he died in 1892 (while staying at a hotel in Salinas). Clark (Santa Cruz County Place Names) mentions that Trescony lived in Monterey as early as 1841, but I hadn't followed up on that tease until today.

While looking for something else, I found a short bio of Trescony on the Monterey County Historical Society site. Turns out he had quite an extensive career in the Monterey-Salinas-Salinas Valley area, including ownership of Rancho San Lucas, and later other ranchos in the same area - the upper end of the Salinas Valley. Today, there's a turnoff from Hwy 101 to the small town of San Lucas. The Sentinel mentioned that, in 1891, Trescony donated land for a cemetery in San Lucas, where he was buried the next year.

It appears that Alberto Trescony's small farm/estate on the Westside (which was still rural in those days) was perhaps originally intended at least partially as a semi-retirement move. The drawing shown above of the Trescony place (from Elliott's 1879 Santa Cruz County Illustrations) shows what looks like an enclosed orchard, so it's fitting that some of the estate is now a community garden at Trescony Park.

Either by design or because of changed circumstances, much of Trescony's Santa Cruz land was soon subdivided. Sentinel real estate transaction notices of the 1880s and 90s contain numerous references to "Trescony's Addition" or "Trescony Building Lots".

Note: this post has been added to a page titled The Italians.

Important dates in the early history of the City of Santa Cruz

Update 3/5: links added to additional information for each date

(This post is a copy of a list composed in response to a solicitation by Santa Cruz Mayor Cynthia Mathews. Collected lists are presumably to be used in preparations for celebration of the City of Santa Cruz sesquicentennial.)  

Detail from 1853 U.S. Coast Survey map

Although I’m perhaps biased toward the earlier history of our area, it does seem undeniable that most of the defining characteristics of the city of Santa Cruz were determined long before city incorporation.

1769 – On October 17, the Portola expedition crossed the river that Franciscan missionary priest Juan Crespi named for “San Lorenzo” (Saint Lawrence). The next day, the party forded the river and, “500 steps” farther on, came to a tributary stream, which was given the name “Arroyo de Santa Cruz” (Creek of the Holy Cross). The expedition’s trail became the main road from Watsonville, and the ford is now the Soquel Avenue bridge.

1791 – On September 26, Mission Santa Cruz was dedicated, transferring the name from the creek.

1794 – On May 10, the relocated mission was rededicated at its new location up on the bluff, where it remained – out of danger from river flooding.

1797 – On July 24, eight settlers arrived from Guadalajara (via Monterey) to found the Villa de Branciforte, a secular pueblo settlement across the river from the mission. In the next year, six retired soldiers came with their families and more followed in following years. Mission and pueblo together formed the basis of today’s City of Santa Cruz.

1824 – On October 4, the first Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States was ratified. The laws of newly-independent Mexico allowed, for the first time, private property ownership in California.

1833 – On August 17, the Mexican Congress passed “An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California”. The act took away most of the vast land holdings of the twenty-one California missions, transferring it to private ownership. The “rancho” system grew from that privatization, still the basis of land ownership mapping in much of California, including most of Santa Cruz County. Disposition of much of the remaining Santa Cruz mission land was put in the hands of a civilian alcalde (a sort of strong mayor), who was authorized to sell or grant “town lots” to the earliest Santa Cruz settlers. Most of today’s downtown Santa Cruz, originally part of the mission farm and pasture lands, passed to private ownership between 1833 and 1850. 

1848 – Two events in that year radically changed everything forever in Santa Cruz (as in all of California). On January 24, gold was discovered at Sutter’s mill. The resulting “gold rush” increased the non-native population of northern California tenfold within ten years.

On February 2, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding California to the United States.

1850 – On September 9, as part of the “Compromise of 1850”, California was admitted to the union as a “free” (no slavery) state.

1851 - On April 5, the name “County of Santa Cruz” was adopted, replacing the original name - “County of Branciforte” - within two months of its approval by the state legislature.

1866 – On March 31, the state legislature approved An Act to Incorporate the Town of Santa Cruz. The town corporation was run by an elected, three member Board of Trustees.   

1874 – The first wide-span bridge over the San Lorenzo River into Santa Cruz was completed at the location of today’s Soquel Avenue bridge. Earlier bridges were built at the Water Street ford with piles and short spans (a construction method similar to the Municipal Wharf) and couldn’t survive many winter floods. This first and only covered bridge inside the city limits remained in service until 1922.

1876 – On March 11, the state legislature approved An Act to Reincorporate the City of Santa Cruz, by which Santa Cruz became a charter city. The first publicly-owned City Hall was built on Front Street, where the Museum of Art and History stands now. 

On May 13, the first railroad connection to locations outside the county was completed, and the first narrow-gauge steam locomotive of the Santa Cruz Railroad crossed the San Lorenzo River into Santa Cruz. Today’s trestle and tracks remain in the same locations, at the river mouth and along today’s Beach Street in front of the Beach Boardwalk.

1885 – On June 3, after months of public meetings, the city council approved issuance of $80,000 worth of bonds for the purpose of buying a municipal water system. Although legal challenges held up the process for several years, this was the beginning of the Santa Cruz Municipal Water District.

1905 – On January 17, a special election decided that East Santa Cruz (aka Branciforte) would be annexed to the City of Santa Cruz. Results were announced in the Morning Sentinel of February 7.

Note the Note

The recently added page, Santa Cruz water system timeline, has been updated after fact-checking by Melanie Mayer (thanks!). I'm looking forward to the publication of Melanie's book, which will explore this subject in much greater depth.

New page - 11a

Why "11a"? It's an "infill" page, coming chronologically after page 11, The Gold Rush. Page 11a is Pioneer German-Speakers of Santa Cruz County. (see "History Pages - Table of Contents" link at left)

Another "Birds Eye" View of Santa Cruz: 1888-89

Progressing through an examination of "Six panoramic views of Santa Cruz", produced between 1870 and 1906, a new page 52 (see also "History Pages - Table of Contents" link at left) looks at the fourth of those six. The "birds eye view" was published as a color lithograph in February 1889, purporting to show Santa Cruz (not very accurately) as it looked in the fall (or late summer) of 1888. It is useful, however, in showing some of the many changes since the previous such panoramic view was published in 1877.

It's Just 'History Pages'

Now that the first page in the post-Santa-Cruz-Patch sequence is online (51 - Downtown Moved South in the 1880s), it seemed appropriate to shorten the name of the Table of Contents (with apologies to Boris of MIB3 for paraphrasing his line).

Up to date

The work of updating and re-posting the Santa Cruz Patch blog articles, at least the chronological history series, is completed with number 50 - a survey of Victorian-era residential development on Beach Hill. Those pages can be found in the Table of Contents at left. This research odyssey is now well into the 1880s and lots of new subjects are awaiting attention, so on we go.