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Our friend Barbara Harris of the Morongo Basin Historical Society is giving a First Wednesdays lecture at the Hi-Desert Nature Museum on Wednesday. If y'all are in that part of the desert, you're going to want to check it out.
Giant Rock is the world's largest monolith and the Chemheuvi's most sacred site, so you know that it makes my blood boil to see it vandalized, shot at, pissed on and grafittied. We were out at the rock with the Harrises over Christmas, and it's in a pretty sorry state. I'll save that for another post. HOWEVER - Barb's lecture is not about vandalism, radical environmentalism, or removing the index finger of convicted taggers. She's talking about the folklore of the rock - ancient and modern - and you might be suprised to know that it factors into the creation myths of both the Chemhuevi and the UFO Contactees.
Here's the press release:
First Wednesday History Program Giant Rock and Frank Critzer Speaker: Barbara Harris Wednesday, January 6 Starting at 5:30 p.m. $5 donation to MBHS Start the year with a new look into the local legends of Giant Rock! Think you've heard all the stories? Barbara shares surprising new insights into the life of Frank Critzer, the hermit miner who lived under the rock. She'll also explore the stories of hidden underground tunnels and the Native American connection to the "big rock" and surrounding area.
Michael White's Oral History Continues: I had all my movements set down in my log book and kept it in my house at the place now called Compton on the way to Port San Pedro, when the freshet came 1839 in January, and ruined it.
The water was in the house waist-deep for 6 weeks.
My family was there when it began to rain in the latter part of December 1838. Two days before Christmas, I sent them off to Los Angeles and remained in the house and then never had a chance of getting away till February. The two rivers, San Gabriel and Los Angeles, met and overflowed the whole country.
Nothing worthy of mention happened during my stay in Los Nietos until 1836.
In the mean time, General Figueroa had been Gefe Político [Political Chief, or Leader] and Comandante General from the early part of 1833 to latter part of 1835, when he died and was buried in the Church of Santa Barbara Mission.
In the year 1836, I was still Alcalde in Los Nietos, and José Sepúlveda [Jose Antonio Andres Sepulveda 1803 – 1875] was the Juez de Paz [Justice of the Peace] in Los Angeles. I got from him a letter directing me to meet him next the day at Los Angeles with every man capable of bearing arms residing in my jurisdiction. [The] next day I could only get together three brothers named Alvitre out of a population of 100 men.
We four rode into town to the court house; the brothers got off their horses, went in and were talking to Judge Sepúlveda—then came out with the Judge. I was still sitting on my horse. He said to me, "Miguel, ya estas aqui?" [Are you here already?] I answered, “Yes. What do you want with me?”
He directed me to alight and go in. There were sitting in the office (I think it was in the latter part of February 1837) Don José Castro, Don Juan Bautista Alvarado and my brother-in-law, the Alferez [ensign or second lieutendant] Isidoro Guillen.
The first words Sepúlveda uttered to me were if I was ready to go and die with him in San Diego. I answered that I had no idea of dying. He then explained that he had not meant to convey the idea that I had about dying. He grumbled about the people of San Diego having fooled them, and taken away the piece of artillery they had. He wanted me to go and help take it away from the Dieguinos, and I refused.
Then he said, "Why, you are a citizen." I answered, "Yes, I am a citizen of Mexico, but not a citizen of revolutions." He then repeated two or three times the question "So you won't go?" and I repeated my answer that I would not, each time in a more peremptory tone, then he broke out, "Pues, va´yase a su casa." [Well, then go on home.]
I thanked him, and told him that was precisely what I wanted to do. Castro, Alvarado and Guillen had a good laugh. Alvarado said " Que´ clase de Ingle´s es ese tan chala´n ?" [What kind of Englishman is this smart horse-trader?] Castro replied, " Ese es mi viejo Capita´n, y mi disci´pulo, pero el disci´pulo ha llegado a saber ma´s que su maestro ." [That's my chief and my pupil, but the pupil has come to know more than the master.]
A day or so after, Castro came to my house at Los Nietos and asked me to go with him to Las Flores, where the San Diego and Los Angeles troops were encamped. I declined to go, but went with him as far as Santa Ana at his own request. Carried a demijohn of aguardiente [moonshine] and 4 case bottles, two in each saddle bag, and the demijohn slung on the head of the saddle.
He tried hard to induce me on the road to go with him to Las Flores, assuring me there would be no fight as he felt he could talk the Southerners out of it. I answered him that one reason why I wouldn't go was that Macedonio Gonzalez, an own cousin of my wife and my compadre [a name used to express kinship between father and godfather] (I had been godfather to his son) was among the abejeños [those from down below, Southerners] in Las Flores, belonging to the Mission San Luis Rey, where the mission had a Chapel, and a priest would go there to celebrate mass every two Sundays. (The Mission had, besides the principal church at San Luis, another chapel in Pala. Las Flores and Pala were ranches of that mission occupied by Indians of different tribes.)
I gave Castro the demijohn of liquor at Santa Ana and returned to Los Nietos. The four flasks I gave to an old woman living at the Coyotes, nearly halfway between Santa Ana and Los Nietos.
Now, I need some clarification on just where Los Nietos is. There’s a community in Whittier that seems like the most likely spot – near the San Gabriel Mission, Pio Pico’s place and all, but there’s also Rancho Los Alamitos which was part of the 300,000 acre land grant given to Manuel Nieto – hence the name. Abel Sterns comes up again as one of the owners of Rancho Los Alamitos, which would add another layer of intrigue if indeed that was the location of Michael White’s store.
By the way, remember when you look up at that line-up over there at the right that in the 1830s they were only on their ways to becoming prominent citizens, they weren't there quite yet. At the time this whole fiasco was shaping up they were all 20 years younger. (However, they were well on their ways to developing burly muttonchops even then)
“I forgot to mention that when I was in San Diego in the latter part of 1831, on the point of going to sea, I received a letter from Father José Sanchez, missionary of San Gabriel, informing me of the events connected with the revolution against Commandante General Victoria.”
Presumably, White was down at San Pedro at this point and ready to debark with the Guadalupe. Manuel Victoria, who was half-Indian, was Governor of Alta California from 1 February, 1831 to 9 December 1831. After the fiasco with Commandante General Echeandia and the Solis revolt, the central government in Mexico split California into the “Alta” and “Baja” sections for governance. Victoria was put in to “lay down the law” made some pretty heavy-duty enemies and had a
doomed 10-month career. Some of the guys who wanted him out are pictured at right: Juan Bandini, Abel Sterns and Pio Pico.
His first act in office prevented Mexican citizens from using foreign otter boats and that probably has everything to do with the Guadalupe being built under the auspices of the mission fathers, and the strictures against foreign trade generally made life difficult for everybody. Another account lays the blame here “The revolt leading to his twelve month abbreviated tenure and subsequent exile were due to his nullifying the order of his predecessor, José María de Echeandía, to secularize the missions of California. Secularization resumed with the new Governor Pío Pico.”
White continued “that Captain Romualdo Pacheco had been killed in a fight between Los Angeles and Cahuenga, [remember that White knew Pacheco from Santa Barbara] and Victoria severely wounded, and that my mother in law, Mrs. Eulalia Perez de Guillen, was
nursing him.
Victoria brought me letters from home and delivered them to me at San Blas [White did not hear from his family in England until eighteen years after he left home, according to H.D. Barrows]. He [Victoria] was taken there by American ship, [the] California, [by] Captain Bradshaw from San Diego. [Another account said that Victoria sailed on American ship Pocahontas and on January 17 1832 set sail for San Blas.] By the bye the old lady married, during my absence, an old Spanish artilleryman named Juan Mariné, a Catalan.”
And that’s it!
It must be nice when the ex-governor brings you letters from home! Eulalia must’ve been one heck of a nurse. Her second marriage, which we’ll be getting to in a bit, was arranged by Father Sanchez to increase her chances of getting a land grant approved. Widows didn’t usually get land, so they often had to take a husband they didn’t want as part of the deal. Remember poor Dona Casilda Soto de Lobo and all the trouble she had as the first owner of Rancho La Merced.
Strangely enough, Victoria won the battle (sort of) but knew it was over and had the sense to get out. As soon as he could go anywhere, he was on the next boat to San Blas.
Here’s a list of the Mexican governors. The main problem is that the governors were appointed by the “Supreme Government” in Mexico. There wasn’t any voting in California, which made the administration even more out of touch, and the central government in Mexico was pretty unstable itself. Into this whole mix, the Mexican government wanted to undercut the power of the missions by secularizing them. The Californians, anticipating the biggest real estate grab in human history, were all for it. Needless to say, it was a complete nightmare to administrate and this is where the great fortune and the terrible losses of the Michael White saga begin to make themselves felt.
1822-1825: Luis Antonio Argüello (born in San Francisco, he was the first native-born Californian to govern Alta California)
1825-1831: José María de Echeandía
1831-1832: Manuel Victoria
1832: Pío Pico
1832-1833: Agustín V. Zamorano (north) and José María de Echeandía (south)
1833-1835: José Figueroa
1835: José Castro (acting)
1836: Nicolas Gutierrez (acting)
1836: Mariano Chico
1836: Nicolas Gutierrez (acting)
1836-1837: Juan Bautista Alvarado
1837-1838: Carlos Antonio Carrillo
1838-1842: Juan Bautista Alvarado
1842-1845: Manuel Micheltorena
1845-1846: Pío Pico
1846-1847: José Mariá Flores (in opposition to the United States in Los Angeles)
1847: Andrés Pico (in opposition to the United States in Los Angeles)
1848: Pio Pico
Shout out to the descendents of Eulalia Perez de Guillen - Celeste Valverde (who is also a Michael White descendent), David Chambers and the rest of you guys who have voiced your support for saving the Michael White Adobe. I hope that these posts enhance your knowledge base about the life and times of your forbearers and maybe even get you in touch with some of your folk.
In 1877, Michael White made this simple statement to Thomas Savage: “I believe I have had 13 [children] of whom nine are living.”
He assumed that the kids he had with Rosario were all the ones he needed to account for, but the “I believe” part does kind of nod at the “girl in every port” period of his early life. Since no one has come forward to contradict his 13/9 count in the last 133 years, let’s just assume that we need only concern ourselves with nine descendents from that line.
In Glen Dawson’s notes from the 1956 edition, he wrote: This apparently in answer to a question as to the number of his children. Eight children were living in 1907:
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Michael
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James
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Jennie (Mrs. Andre Courtney)
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Sarah (Mrs. Ygnacio Alvarado)
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Frances (Mrs. Joseph Heslop of Pasadena)
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Alvira (Mrs. Louis Marshall)
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Jane (Mrs. Luis Capevielle)
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Esther (Mrs. Castillion)
And he gave as his reference: (Guinn, J. M., A History of California and an Extended History of its Southern Coast Counties, Los Angeles, 1907, v. II, p. 2149.)
Dawson continued: Another son, Joseph, was the one murdered at El Monte prior to White's dictation.
On September 6, 1954, I [Dawson] interviewed Mrs. Florinda Plaisance at her home at 137 North Parkwood Ave., Pasadena. She is a granddaughter of Michael White, a daughter of Frances White Heslop. Being then 89 years old she was, as a child and young lady, a frequent visitor to her grandfather, Michael White, both when he was in San Marino and in Los Angeles.
She lives with her sister, Julia Heslop de la Guerra. There are no living children of Michael White, but a number of grandchildren and great grandchildren. Mrs. Plaisance is in possession of a fine portrait of her grandmother, Mrs. Michael White. Guinn gives the date of the death of Mrs. White as 1892. Records of Mrs. de la Guerra give the date as January 26, 1895.
Raven Jake’s challenge to the White-Perez clan: Can you name the missing kids and account for the whereabouts, dates etc. of the others? And does anybody know what happened to the portrait of Rosario that was passed through the Heslop-Plaisance line?
A few days ago, I posted about goin' to the Amargosa Opera House to see Sandy Scheller's solo piece "If These Walls Could Talk," inspired by Marta Becket's paintings and performance. The premise is that Marta's paintings come to life and dance out their stories so you have a world peopled with generous kings, jealous gypsies, territorial cats, earnest clowns and the whole shebang. I don't want to give it away,
and now that I've met Sandy, I'll bet she switches it up every so often simply to amuse herself. She's driving up from Las Vegas every weekend, and could use some amusing. Sandy don't get a day off. Just know that if you're ever miles from anywhere in the middle of the desert, you can still see a good show, have a meal (if you act quickly) and stay in a truly unique hotel - 'cause Marta didn't stop painting when she finished the opera house.
http://ravenjake.vox.com/library/post/if-these-walls-could-talk.html
Now on our trip out to Death Valley Junction, we had Tecopa Tom's dog, Sam, along for the ride (pictured in the photo - Sam, Chris Caplan, Tecopa Tom, and Raven Jake). Sam had a great time but didn't get to go into the hotel or opera house, which suited him fine, but make
sure you call first for the dog storage policy because
you don't want to leave your pup in the car on a hot day - which this was not.
There's something about Death Valley Juction that really represents what I consider one of the better aspects of humanity - the do-it-yourself, humorous, non-corporate, art-for-art's sake vibe that
surely came in with Marta and not the Pacific Coast Borax Company. It also boasts some stark and lovely scenery and makes for a very nice roadtrip.
http://www.amargosa-opera-house.com/
Now there ain’t anything cuter than an otter, and I sincerely hope that there is a lower rung in hell for otter killers. But that being said, that’s how things were done back then and that’s why we’ve got laws protecting those furry little critters now. It’s just too bad that they almost needed to go extinct before folks came to their senses.
Fort Ross (Rus, for “Russian”) was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America and was established in 1812 wasn’t terribly successful,
and fizzled out in 1841. The Spanish moved up to San Francisco to keep a wary eye on them, but weren’t able to expel them.
The Raven Jake Conspiracy Theory on that is that they probably didn’t want to. What H. D. Barrows kept euphemistically referring to as “the coasting trade,” and Michael White just called “smuggling” probably kept things afloat, so to speak, on both sides.
As stated by the Wikipedia page: Fort Ross is an interesting landmark in the history of European imperialism. The Spaniards expanded west across the Atlantic and the Russians east across Siberia. In the early nineteenth century the two waves of expansion met on the opposite side of the world along the coast of California.
Fort
Ross itself was the hub of a number of smaller Russian settlements comprising what was called Krepost Ross ("Fortress Ross") on official documents and charts produced by the Company itself. Colony Ross referred to the entire area where Russians had settled. Thesesettlements constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America, and were spread over an area stretching from Point Arena to Tomales Bay. The colony included a port at Bodega Bay, which was called Port Rumyantsev, a sealing station on the Farallon Islands, 18 miles out to sea from San Francisco, and a number of small farming communities, called "ranchos" including Chernykh, near present day Graton, and Khlebnikov, a mile north of present day Bodega Bay in the Salmon Creek valley, and Rancho Kostromitinov on the Russian River.
The communities were supposed to be growing produce and grain for the Russian colonies in Alaska as well as de-ottering the Pacific Ocean, but neither enterprise went all that well. For starters, they’d already managed to kill just about every marine mammal they could find and there weren’t many left.
Remember how Michael White said he traded a barrel of whiskey for two fine otter skins? That oughtta tell you something about the value of otter skins.
In 1841, the Russians threw in the towel and sold the whole works to John Sutter, THE John Sutter of Sutter’s Mill Gold Rush fame.
An interesting little factoid was that one Russian guy, Il'ya G. Voznesensky, spent more than four years in Russian America (just prior to 1841) drawing, painting, and collecting specimens. A prodigious collector, he sent more than 40 trunks with more than 6,000 zoological specimens to St. Petersburg. His collections can still be found at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, in St. Petersburg. The Russians actually did a lot more to advance the study of the science and natural history of California than did the Spanish (who could care less).
Alright, I ain't even gonna pretend that anyone who isn't a rabid fan of early California ship building or Michael White (and that's even a stretch) is gonna wanna read this post. But for the true hard-core researchers, this one's a gem. Here are some of the highlights: Frank Polley was totally unaware of Michael White (which might have provoked H.D. Barrows into making his presentation to the historical society the following year). Another possibility is that he knew him as Miguel Blanco and assumed that he was Mexican-born. Polley's research is a little shakey anyway - this looks like a two- or three- source document to me. Still, there are clues...
Polley wrote "It is said a launch was constructed in 1824 at San Francisco by an Englishman." Could that be William Richardson, who took charge of the Guadalupe? Polley also wrote that Father Sanchez had been charged with smuggling - Did Michael White have a hand in that? Polley wrote that one of the restrictions placed on the Guadalupe was that she was to have a crew of six and "more than half were to be Mexican" -
was that a contributing factor for Miguel Blanco's (Michael White) participation and the perhaps there was a "hurry up" on his marriage and naturalization? When Blanco built the Santa Barbara, it was at the behest of Capt. José de la Guerra y Noriega, who was the commander of the presidio at Santa Barbara, although White did not mention whether this was a private interest or if it was done for the millitary. What led Father Sanchez to hire the same crew at the mission? Finally - Polley's description of Chapman isn't exactly flattering - did White consider Chapman to be a real rube, or is there more to the story we don't know?
Ship Building at the San Gabriel Mission
By Frank J. Polley
Read March 4, 1895
The fact that a ship was constructed at San Gabriel and carried in pieces to San Pedro, there placed in position and properly launched, is generally overlooked
in treating of the achievements by the mission fathers. The historians have almost nothing on the subject and the data left by old pioneers is distressingly meager. The construction of this ship marked the beginning of a new era in Southern California's prosperity which later on many circumstances conspired to defeat.
The first ship ever constructed on the southern shores of the Pacific was built by the Jesuit Father Ugarte in 1719. A ship was needed for the coast survey. After traveling many miles in the mountains, suitable timber was found at last. Its transportation to the coast presented difficulties considered almost insurmountable.
Father Ugarte's ship, for a time, became a matter for joke. But his energy overcame all obstacle.s He had the timber felled, hewn, and dragged to the coast and there built a ship which he named the Triumph of the Cross. The recollection of this fact may have stimulated the priests of San Gabriel to a like achievement.
Father Sanchez was a priest of great executive ability. When called to San Gabriel, the lowering clouds of secularization were in the sky, but the revenues and assets of the mission were still prosperous, and in the present, the probabilities of the future were dismissed. The lands were well-tilled, the stock had multiplied, and the trade with coasting vessels had furnished a handsome profit for all concerned. The energy and executive ability of Father Salvidea, his predecessor in office, had given an impetus to the work at the San Gabriel Mission and Father Sanchez, if he was desirous of perpetuating his own fam,e must have realized that it would be incumbent upon him to divide the honors by the origination of some plan that would direct a new channel of wealth to the mission coffers.
The mission fathers, by means of the coasting vessels and travelers, kept well-informed of occurrences on the coast. There were large numbers of otter and they knew the business had already proven profitable at Clemente and Catalina Islands. In the journals of Father Pena and Crespi, the Indians are described as dressing in the skins of the otter and the pelts seem to have been put to many uses by the Indians.
The old adobe owned by the mission fathers and situated on the San Pedro bluffs was then in a good state of preservation and was used as a warehouse. It would be a source of great financial gain to the mission if the warehouse could be filled with otter skins instead of hides and tallow. There was no question but that the supply of otter would not last long. Reports were current at Monterey, and in the North, of the reckless slaughtering of these valuable animals.
About this time a small vessel had been built and launched near Santa Barbara for the purpose of engaging in this trade. Little is known of her. Practical shipwrights were exceedingly scarce on the Pacific Coast in the thirties. The Indians had no knowledge of the details of ship building. Many Indians were then on the main land who had formerly lived upon the islands. The early missionaries report them as possessing large canoes capable of holding a dozen or more, but though clever in many things, they had not yet acquired the skill of constructing sailing vessels.
For nearly a year, the matter of the ship must have been in abeyance at the San Gabriel Mission. Joseph Chapman was then living there, doing odd jobs as a man of all work. He, alone of all men there, seems to have been the only practical shipwright. Alter a remarkable career and an adventurous life, he had apparently settled down to steady employment. He was married, had a family, and was especially fitted for the work in hand.
It is said a launch was constructed in 1824 at San Francisco by an Englishman. The Russians certainly brought their own boats, and what the Californians had used previous to this time came from Mexico or were purchased from the Russians and Americans. Los Angeles had a population of 1,300, and ranked among the first towns in the state, but as a rule, the people did not belong to the working class.
The Spanish colonists did not come here with a desire to work. The Indians could do only menial tasks, and the soldiers very seldom engaged in labor. The Indians regarded both them and their guns with a superstitious reverence, and it was hardly consistent with their role of superior beings to be seen engaged in daily toil. Dana's indictment of the California people is well-known to be true. He says as a rule they were shiftless; they had grapes and paid high prices for Boston wines, they had hides and paid exorbitantly for shoes made from California skins that had twice been around the Horn.
Robinson, and in fact all other travelers, bear testimony to substantially the same facts. At the missions, the priests produced some remarkable results though in the line of manufactured articles but little of the Indian work has come to us of any special value. The American element was just making itself felt at this time. They were slowly settling on large tracts of land, were marrying into good families, and becoming of social and political importance.
Joseph Chapman especially seems to have fallen into good hands. From the time of his capture among the Bouchard pirates, he had had friends in the state. He was a favorite with Father Sanchez, who kept him quite regularly employed at the mission posts. Being a sailor, he was a jack of all trades and was the very man for the priest's purposes. Father Sanchez was doubtless stirred to renewed activity from the fact that shortly before this there had been much talk about secularization. The trading instinct in him had led to some peculiar transactions as the result of which, he had been charged with smuggling. Though not convicted, he had felt chagrined and had asked for a pass to retire from the country only to be refused. All these matters made his tenure at the mission of uncertain duration, and meanwhile the slaughter of the otter meant their ultimate extermination, the small vessel built at Santa Barbara also meant opposition to the plans of the friar, so from now on the project of a vessel to be used in otter hunting was pushed with all his characteristic energy.
Timber was available in the mountains. The priests were thoroughly conversant with every cañon and trail for miles around the mission. Indians were to be had in plenty for the labor of transportation, but it was important that the vessel, when built, should be manned by men experienced both as mariners and sailors. Prior Laughlan and Yount, who had recently come to Los Angeles, answered these requirements. The exact place from which the timbers were taken will perhaps always be a source of uncertainty. Tradition points to a number of such, but strict investigation is apt to dispel all theories. It was certainly a custom to cut large sticks of timbers in the mountains, haul them overland, and by turning the logs from time to time, partially smooth and plane them during the hauling.
Some of the rafters in the San Fernando Mission were treated in this manner. It is also on record that, on Christmas Eve in 1828 or 9 the brig Danube of New York, with a party of twenty eight men, dragged her anchors in San Pedro Bay during a southeaster and went ashore a total wreck. The party were taken to the house of Antonio Rocha, and doubtless some of these men were available for the project of Father Sanchez. It is certain that Samuel Prentice afterwards was in the otter hunting scheme, and at his death was buried on Catalina Island. Some of the fishermen now engaged at the island remember the otter hunting in the times, but the grave of Prentice is lost forever.
The timbers and derelict the brig Danube must have afforded material for Chapman and Father Sanchez. The most careful gleaning of history memoirs and manuscripts only yield vague rumors and isolated facts about the San Gabriel ship, but it seems certain that the vessel was not completed for more than a year, and perhaps two, after this storm. It is also in evidence that parties from Santa Barbara visited San Pedro to gather material from the wreck.
Merchants who visited the coast in these years noted the schooner's construction and the widespread interest it excited. Such an event would doubtless attract much attention. The men were a nation of riders who thought nothing of a trip from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, and doubtless there was not an idle cavalier in Southern California who had not interested himself in the acts of these Americans and the project of the Mission fathers.
Invitations were issued long before the expected launch took place. There is nothing in the California records about the license to trade, but it was a necessary prerequisite and if the difficulties experienced by those in Santa Barbara be a criterion, it dispels the mysterious delay in the construction and launching of the San Gabriel ship. The elaborate studies by Blackman in relation to the new institution of Spain, have opened up a maze of errors, difficulties and senseless rules by which Spain crippled the domestic commerce of her colonies. Smuggling was fast becoming so fashionable that stringent measures were necessary for protection of revenue. As before intimated, Father Sanchez being there under the ban of suspicion and former associations, doubtless experienced all the vexatious trials and delays of the law.
At Santa Barbara, the governor stopped work on the vessel until a proper permit was obtained. After several weeks delay, this was granted, then more delays and by the end of the year a license to trade was issued but with the restriction that it be only for one year, six men to constitute a crew, and more than one half of these must be Mexicans. Before even this permit could be granted, it required several months’ correspondence with the authorities in Mexico. Our historians seem to have overlooked data for Father Sanchez’s vessel.
Bancroft does not know her name, and in the three places she is mentioned, the tonnage is given as 6 60 and 99 tons. Colonel Warner has about three lines devoted to its history. It is all the more surprising since it was a cause célèbre as the first vessel of any importance to be launched in the Southern California waters. Father Sanchez did not live to see the vessel launched. Mission troubles bore heavily upon the old priest and his sudden death cut short his ambitious plans, but as the time drew near for the launch the vessel was taken to pieces and great carts were prepared for its overland transportation to the water.
Invitations had been sent far and wide to guests. The carts used by the Californians were drawn by oxen, and were rough heavily made structures. The ordinary ones in use at the tim, consisted of a frame or platform about five feet by twelve set on a rough axle and a pair of wheels. These wheels were sawn from a solid block of wood two or three feet in diameter. They were about ten inches in thickness at the centre and tapered down to about five inches at the rim, where they were sometimes bound with tires but more generally not. The yoke was fastened across the foreheads of the animals by means of raw hide thongs placed below the horns. There were generally outriders to such carts. The men mounted their fiery horses swung their reatas and beat and urged on the oxen with loud cries. Probably in this manner the long dusty miles from San Gabriel to the port were accomplished.
The details of the launch rest upon the authority of Alfred Robinson, who had received an invitation, and was present. In his Life in California 1, he says “A launch was to take place at San Pedro; the second vessel ever constructed in California. She was a schooner of about 60 tons that had been entirely framed at San Gabriel and fitted for subsequent completion at San Pedro. Every piece of timber had been fitted thirty miles from the place and brought down to the beach on carts. She was called the Guadalupe in honor of the patron saint of Mexico, and as the affair was considered quite an important era in the history of the country, many were invited from far and near to witness it. Her builder was a Yankee named Chapman, who had served his apprenticeship with a Boston ship builder.
He was one of a piratical cruiser that attacked Monterey, at which time he was taken prisoner and had lived in the country ever since. From his long residence, he had acquired a mongrel language English, Spanish and Indian being so mingled in his speech that it was difficult to understand him. Although illiterate, his ingenuity and honest deportment had acquired for him the esteem of the Californians, and a connection in marriage with one of the first families of the country. Father Sanchez of San Gabriel used to say Chapman could get more work out of the Indians in his unintelligible tongue than all the majordomos put together. I was present on one occasion, when he wished to dispatch an Indian to the beach at San Pedro with his ox wagon charging him to return as soon as possible. His directions ran somewhat in this manner ‘Ventura Vamos trae los bueyes go down to the playa and come back as quick as you can puede.’”
San Pedro today is not so lively a place as it must have been at the time of this launch. On all important occasions, crowds flocked to the beach and Robinson describes the busy scenes both on sea and shore when vessels were in the harbor. “Boats flying to and fro, men, women and children crowding the docks, lining the bluffs, and all taking in the general excitement, there were loaded crafts along the beach men and Indians busily employed in their various duties, groups of individuals seated around little bonfires upon the ground, there were horseman racing their animals over the plains. Thus the hours were spent some arriving and some departing. Until long after sundown, the dusty road leading across the plain to Los Angeles appeared a living panorama. After the launch had been successfully accomplished the vessel made a number of trips for otter.”
Colonel Warner saw her [the Guadalupe] many times lying in the roadstead, but it is not known where she was finally wrecked, although the event happened only a few years after her launch. The festivities at San Pedro and the first vessel of any importance ever constructed on the California coast have passed away and a cause célèbre is now almost a myth in our local annals.
The facts supposed to be known are: The vessel was named Guadalupe, she was owned by the San Gabriel mission built under the supervision of Joseph Chapman, constructed at San Gabriel, and about 1831 launched at San Pedro. Everything connected with this curious event in our forgotten local annals when severally studied is strongly dramatic.
The advent of Chapman from Bouchard's pirate ship, his subsequent marriage, naturalization, and employment as utility man at the mission, the wreck of the brig Danube, the struggle of Father Sanchez with mission troubles and shipbuilding, the enlisting of the American pioneers in the labor of construction, the cartage to the beach and festivities among the populace, and last scene of all the wreck of the boat.
Every one of the pioneers from Chapman to Prentice made his mark on the history of our country, and although the historians have sadly neglected this abortive attempt at domestic shipping, it is certain that its many scenes lingered long in the memories of our old pioneers, and by piecing together such narratives as are accessible, the faint outline of the story has been presented in the hopes that later research and more general interest in these matters may lead to the discovery of live matter with which to rehabilitate this antique historic skeleton.
http://ravenjake.vox.com/library/post/the-anchor-of-the-guadalupe.html
Now we're getting into an area of personal interest to me, which is ship building. Y'all will remember that we talked about the Guadalupe in an earlier post: http://ravenjake.vox.com/library/post/the-anchor-of-the-guadalupe.html and her anchor is still at the San Gabriel Mission. Michael White continued to build ships and sail them; the Santa Barbara and then the Guadalupe, from about 1829-1832. He manages to get through this account without once mentioning Joseph Chapman, clearly not an accident, and also mentions letter writing, which implies that he was literate (and not just getting someone else like Fr. Martinéz to write for him) and that Rosario could read and write as well.
Michael White's oral history continues: After finishing that job, we built another schooner for the Mission San Gabriel in 1830, that was named the Guadalupe, and put under command of William Richardson, an Englishman, who in after years owned Sausalito and was Captain of the port of San Francisco.
She [the Guadalupe] made a trip to San Blas and came back, and then I took charge of her myself some eight days after I was married [November 22, 1831] to Maria del Rosario Guillen, daughter of the famous centenarian Eulalia Perez, and Miguel Antonio Guillen.
This next paragraph is out-of-order in the narrative, but chronologically it fits here:
I forgot to mention that when I was in San Diego in the latter part of 1831, on the point of going to sea, I received a letter from Father José Sanchez, missionary of San Gabriel, informing me of the events connected with the revolution against Commandante General Victoria; that Captain Romualdo Pacheco had been killed in a fight between Los Angeles and Cahuenga, and Victoria severely wounded, and that my mother in law, Mrs. Eulalia Perez de Guillen, was nursing him.
Victoria brought me letters from home and delivered them to me at San Blas [White did not hear from his family in England until eighteen years after he left home, according to H.D. Barrows]. He [Victoria] was taken there by American ship, [the] California, [by] Captain. Bradshaw from San Diego. By the bye, the old lady married, during my absence, an old Spanish artilleryman named Juan Mariné, a Catalan.I went in her [the Guadalupe] to Mazatlán and San Blas. Richardson and another man named Manuel Somali went with me as super cargoes. The cargo consisted of dry tongues, olives, wine, dried beef, soap, Mission aguardiente [moonshine] and other trifles, and two priests, not of the missionaries here. One of them was Father Jesus Martinéz who married me [to Rosario].
The Guadalupe measured 99 90/100 tons--was a topsail schooner, and carried about 150 tons of cargo.
I was away less than one year and came back in a hermaphrodite Brig called the Eagle, the same one I had charge of some years before in the Gulf of California. I was engaged in trading, working, carpentering and one thing and another during my absence. I wrote to my wife (who thought I must be dead), but got to California before my letters did. I was here about one month before my letters. This brings me to 1832.
Note on ship styles: A hermaphrodite brig, or brig-schooner, is a two-masted sailing ship with square sails on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged sails on the mainmast. It combines the two main types of sail plan, hence the term hermaphrodite.
Now it ain't all that surprising that Michael White's take on things is somewhat different than from how those same events are recorded by "history" - which is what we call it now. We have access to information he might not have been aware of, and he was there on the spot. And then there's personality.
Now I would'a figured that he and Joseph Chapman must've been good friends. They came from similar backgrounds, became Mexican citizens and married a couple of lovely senoritas, and worked on the same projects together.
And yet, Michael White, who never forgot a name, never once mentioned Joseph Chapman in his interview with Thomas Savage. Even H.D. Barrows wrote about Chapman in conjunction with White - but not White. White even mentioned the folks he didn't like (and named names) but not Chapman. So what happened? Raven Jake has got to conclude that their relationship went beyond dislike to the area of "dead to me," which is a complete surprise, but then ol' Michael White was full of surprises. This is his very brief take on building the Santa Barbara (at San Pedro):
The building of the schooner was discontinued. An American Brig called the Danube was wrecked at San Pedro on Christmas Eve and Captain de la Guerra bought her.
I had a cousin named Henry Paine whom I had seen once in La Paz and met in Santa Barbara when I got there in 1828. He was my chief carpenter in constructing the schooner. The Captain, prior to buying the Danube, had sent him to San Pedro to survey the wreck, get her off, and put such repairs on her as might be necessary. He went to San Pedro and she proved to be a splendid vessel, but could not be got off. I went afterward to San Pedro; started on 30 December and got there on New Year's Eve.
We had everything ready to get her off, and were waiting for the tide to rise, when a gale came on and brought her high and dry. She got on the top of the bank so that I could walk off her bowsprit on the shore. She was knocked all to pieces, and we saved all the materials and built a schooner out of them. She was named the Santa Barbara, and was the first vessel ever built in California. She was placed under command of a man called Thomas Robinson, a Nantucket man [Thomas M. Robbins came to California in 1823. In 1846 he was granted Santa Catalina Island.]
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