Tag Archives: colonization

Evergreen of the Mexican Period

1750Evergreen was home to Ohlone Natives before Franciscan Missions would disassociate them from their lands.  This vacuum created room for new residents without hesitation.

The first explorers of Northern California, or Alta California, were the Spanish.  In 1542, less than a year after Columbus’s voyage, exploration of California would begin.  Spanish would explore and conquer Mexico and an explorer and conquistador would pass the “Baja Point” into uncharted waters.  Cortes sent Francisco de Ulloa to explored the coastline in 1539.  In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo would do some more extensive investigation and like Monterey for a naval base and well-suited to sustain itself.

300px-Franciscan_missionaries_in_CaliforniaSpanish and English vessels would reach the Coast of California but only the Spanish would begin colonization from a Mexican base.  It was believed that Baja California was an island.  California was named after a mythical Amazonian island.

cabrillo_mapIn 1602, Spain would begin developing naval forts at Monterey and San Diego.  Serious colonization would begin as missionaries and soldiers explored California over land.  This route would become the El Camino Real, Monterey Road and the Alameda through modern San Jose, marked with Mission Bells.  Missions would begin to appear in Modern Day Mexico in 1519, however the threat of Russian settlements would hasten the efforts to colonize New Spain.  The Spanish Empire would control the coastline for over 300 years.

New Spain would be separated into two parts, Alta California, modern day California, and Baja, modern day Mexico.  Gaspar de Portola, in 1768, would lead settlers of New Spain with a land and naval campaign, looking for Monterey but establishing Southern California Missions.

anza_mapJuan Bautista DeAnza would lead two expeditions into California.  New Spain and the Spanish Empire expanded into New Mexico and Arizona, naturally.  DeAnza left Tucson on this first journey and encountered agitated native populations.  This made for a short trip to LA and home.  Another expedition into Alta California in 1768 established the port at San Francisco and would introduce the Spanish intimately with the Santa Clara Valley as the route to San Francisco from Monterey over land.  The chain of Missions would lengthen through the 19th century but not in order.  It would not extend in the a numerical, chronological order.  Santa Clara de Asis would be the 8th Mission opened and the Pueblo of San Jose would be founded in 1777.  Mission de San Jose wouldn’t open until 1797 and the latest Mission would open in the Mexican Period.

tf0w1007sn-FID3Mexican Independence would be won in 1819, and include all territories of New Spain.  A couple of things brought on the revolt.  Napoleon would conquer France and invade Spain.  The Spanish Empire didn’t want to be ruled by another monarchy.  New Spain had Old Rome’s, the Roman Catholic Church, approval to break away from the Spain crown.  The War for Mexican Independence would end with the signing of the Treaty of Hidalgo in 1821.  Mexico would set up its own monarchy, but opt for a republic constitution less than 2 years later.  With 3,200 settlers at the time California, Alta and Baja, would need settlement to create growth.

bay%20drawingIt’s this California that Antonio Chaboya would move to in 1821.  Native Americans coming to Missions would make up a lot of the economy in the Spanish Period of California’s History.  Mexico would inherit these struggles.  Mexico had a lot of problems in the upcoming years stabilizing the government and economy.  Alta California wasn’t well settled and had no tax revenue coming in.  Mexico was able to step up trade out of California by 25%, doing business with Russian on the West Coast for the most part.  Monterey was the only port at the time and the capital of the Alta California Territoy.  The Mexican Government applied at 100% tariff to pay for the Territory’s expenses.  What does that look like?  One for trade and one for the government.  Tariffs like these made up approximately 90% of government income at the time, no matter where you lived.  In 1827, the Mexican Government would dismiss their Spanish born residents.  The Government would change formats too many time to really stabilize the area.

7314695aa182d79feff3ee9377d8dca3So California, as we know it today, was expensive to operate without the strength in numbers to hold it steady. 87,000 indigenous people would be baptized by the Missions in 1800.  Outbreak of disease in 1805-6 would decimate Native populations across California’s Missions.   The Native American coverts would be treated like free labor, though they were promised land after a certain amount of service.  Soldiers would retrieve people who fled the Missions.  Those who hadn’t died due to new diseases were difficult to contain.  In 1826, the Governor of Alta California would release the indigenous people of their commitment to the Missions, working the land for food and shelter.  The Mexican Government would find lessening Native populations also making the Missions a burden also now that they had to provide them land like other citizens and no one stayed to operate the Mission farmlands.  The indigenous people would leave and assimilate to their new surroundings.  The emancipation would make California a sympathizer and welcome member of the Union Army during the Civil War, 1861-1865.  In 1833, the Missions would be secularized by the Government.  In 1832, less than 18,000 survived.  Mexico couldn’t afford to fund the churches.  Acres of Mission lands would be sold off and granted to others.

ranchosMapThere were thirty preexisting ranchos granted by the Crown of Spain to friends and families of Government leaders, but none in Santa Clara County by Mexico’s Independence.  Land Regulations would open up in 1824, allowing Mexican citizens to petition for land pretty easily and inviting Catholic immigrants to create new homesteads.  In 1827, Spanish born citizens, including priests, would have to leave the Mexican Territory.  This is when Mexican born Antonio Chaboya would’ve begun making his way to the Santa Clara Valley and eyeing the land.

hb896nb4gd-FID3In order to obtain your land grant in California of the 1820’s-30’s, you would need to work your land for 5 years so you had a claim to it.  The grants were often untracked with conflicting boundaries.  The disorganized manner in which grants were issued is the reason why this land grant to the right has a rectangular shape like the paper and no outlines.  The land was cheap and there was practically no tax or dues on the property.  Ranch owners would enjoy a barony type status, providing work and limited land to rand workers.  Without the Missions farming the land, Ranch owners would step in, fill in that gap and reap the profits.  Through the Mexican Period, forty-one grants would be made in Santa Clara County alone.

Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 5.59.57 PMIn 1831, the Missions would record over 24,000 inhabitants of California- native, immigrant and Mexican.  Rancho Yerba Buena would be granted to Chaboya in 1833.  Santa Clara County’s first Ranchos would be granted in present day Gilroy, closer to Monterey.  Chaboya’s would be the first recorded in present day San Jose.

hb267nb0kh-FID7Neighboring Rancho Santa Teresa would be granted to the Bernal Family in 1834.  The Higuera Family would be granted Rancho Pala in 1835, selling it shortly afterwards to Englishman, Mr. Charles White.  Rancho Milpitas would be sold to the Alviso Family.  The Berryessa Family would be granted land in East San Jose in 1842.  Are we recognizing any of these names?

Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 6.06.18 PMAntonio Chaboya would’ve heard about cinnabar in the hills, but probably didn’t mine even after hearing about nearby Almaden quicksilver mines.  The Chaboyas enjoyed vast grazing lands on Rancho Yerba Buena.  The largest of Santa Clara Ranchos, Rancho Yerba Buena was over 24,000 acres.  The Mexican Period was an awesome time to be Mexican landowner in Santa Clara Valley.

The beginning of the end of the Mexican Period was a land grant made to a Catholic American immigrant, John Sutter, in 1839.  Colonization is what Alta California needed and asked for.  However, American immigrants to California would begin making their dissatisfaction with the Mexican Government known by 1840, staging various incidents.  By 1844, Californios, native born Mexican citizens, would also revolt against disorganized Mexican Rule.  By 1846, California as we know it has approximately 12,000 inhabitants.

Gold Rush - Public DomainCalifornia’s Statehood would get underway a little before that discovery of gold, but the Gold Rush allowed California to become a State from a Territory very quickly.  Before Gold, Texas broke away from Mexico in 1836 and didn’t want to be a part of the United States until 1846.  War between Mexico and the United States would ensue over these territories with Americans, Catholics invited by the Roman Church, living in them.  That same year, California would rise under the Bear Republic, neutralizing Mexican garrisons without violence or bloodshed.  Less than a month later with the capture of Mexican Presidios, Alta California would succumb to US governance.  John Sutter’s grant near present day Sacramento would discover gold in 1848.

san_jose_2The end of the Mexican American War in 1848 would see the United States paying $15,000,000.00 for the territories of Alta California – present day California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.  This would essentially wipe out the Mexican Government’s debts with the colonization costs.  The Compromise of 1850 would see California to Statehood.  The Pueblo of San Jose, New Spain’s first non-secular settlement, would become the first State Capital with the help of some Evergreen players.  Other Evergreen notables like the Pellier Family and Coe Family would move into Evergreen shortly thereafter.  By 1850, there would be over 100,000 people living in California.  That’s quite a boom.  Here’s our artwork discussing this period of time.

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The way to San Felipe

We’re going way back in time for this one.  The 1700’s in fact to discuss San Felipe Road’s origins.  Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe was a large property that encompassed all of Evergreen down to Casa De Fruta and was an extension of Mission San Juan Bautista.

Originally, the land was granted to Francisco Perez Pacheco and that land got passed down through the family.  Have you ever gone over Pacheco Pass?  In fact, the Pachecos, as landowners, gained wealth and power quickly, buying adjacent ranchos until it spanned from Santa Clara County to Monterey and Merced counties.

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 4.01.24 PMSo, when I found this awesome map, provided by the UC Berkeley Bancroft Libraries, I didn’t find it familiar and nothing on the map besides the hills made any sense to me.  I didn’t recognize the names of the landmarks.  Sanjon?  Llanitos?  What’s that?

If you can find it on the map, that’s actually the area we’re discussing, Evergreen.  Tierras de labor were homes of ranch workers, and would later become the pueblo tract.  Those hills in the center of the map following the road are the Evergreen hills and behind the Diablo Mountain range.  Ausaymas, also known as Animas, is the Morgan Hill area.  Sanjon del Tequesquida is the path to the next Rancho over, to another Pacheco family member.

This giant road through the center of our Evergreen Ranchos is the Arroyo de San Felipe or Road to San Felipe.  Wait a second.  Sound familiar?  Certainly does.  With a lake and a larger road nearby?  Hm…

So, let’s think on this.  1700’s map making wasn’t perfect.  No planes for aerial or overhead shots.  Only roads, known geographical features and lengths get noted on a lot of these maps.  Directions we not exact.  Having said that, I laid out the entire length of San Felipe Road into Gilroy and here’s what I saw.

Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 4.05.22 PMThis is modern Google day San Felipe Road and the little yellow line is the 101 and where they make a y, 85 splits off at Bernal Rd.  I have removed the topography and background.

It’s feeling familiar, but is this the same road?  The shape is similar.  Let’s test it out.

san felipe roads 1Here was my first pass overlapping the 2 images without changing anything about the Google version.   This wasn’t enough to convince me though.  Close, but no cigar.  It’s close, but there’s something else here.  I started all over again considering what I know about the accuracy of the cartography of the time.

So, I rotated, blew it up, then skewed it.  Much better.  At least this makes sense.san felipe roads

This is the majority of San Felipe road ending around Morgan Hill.  Where there’s an obvious tear in the page it approximately where White Road and San Felipe Road split. Now, there’s been a little rerouting (straightening) and paving over the last 250 years.  The difference in the 2 overlaps is the scale and direction.  What should’ve pointed North on the map actually points East.

Mount Hamilton is featured in the upper left hand corner of our map.  The Laguna is Lake Cunningham.  The Llanito are little waterways or creeks.   Sanjon del Tequesquida is currently the same path as the 101, not yet known as the El Camino Real or Mission Trail.  Ausaymas is Animas just above Lake Anderson.

Rancho San Felipe passed down to Maria Ysidora Pacheco, but with Mexican Independence, the Spanish family lost their holdings.  The Pachecos were first granted the land in exchange for governing the people.  The next family from Mexico to own Rancho San Felipe would do the same thing.  Rancho San Felipe would soon become the property of lawmen and cattle herder Antonio Chabolla’s.

Here’s our send up to the Pachecos and Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe.

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