There was a period of rest after the founding of Santa Cruz and
La Soledad. Padre Presidente Lasuen was making ready for a new and
great effort. Hitherto the Mission establishments had been isolated
units of civilization, each one alone in its work save for the
occasional visits of governor, inspector, or presidente. Now they
were to be linked together, by the founding of intermediate
Missions, into one great chain, near enough for mutual help and
encouragement, the boundary of one practically the boundary of the
next one, both north and south. The two new foundations of Santa
Cruz and Soledad were a step in this direction, but now the plan
was to be completed. With the viceroy’s approval, Governor Borica
authorized Lasuen to have the regions between the old Missions
carefully explored for new sites. Accordingly the padres and their
guards were sent out, and simultaneously such a work of
investigation began as was never before known. Reports were sent
in, and finally, after a careful study of the whole situation, it
was concluded that five new Missions could be established and a
great annual saving thereby made in future yearly expenses.
Governor Borica’s idea was that the new Missions would convert all
the gentile Indians west of the Coast Range. This done, the guards
could be reduced at an annual saving of $15,000. This showing
pleased the viceroy, and he agreed to provide the $1000 needed for
each new establishment on the condition that no added military
force be called for. The guardian of San Fernando College was so
notified August 19, 1796; and on September 29 he in turn announced
to the viceroy that the required ten missionaries were ready, but
begged that no reduction be made in the guards at the Missions
already established. Lasuen felt that it would create large demands
upon the old Missions to found so many new ones all at once, as
they must help with cattle, horses, sheep, neophyte laborers, etc.;
yet, to obtain the Missions, he was willing to do his very best,
and felt sure his brave associates would further his efforts in
every possible way. Thus it was that San José was founded,
as before related, on June 11, 1797. The same day all returned to
Santa Clara, and five days elapsed ere the guards and laborers were
sent to begin work. Timbers were cut and water brought to the
location, and soon the temporary buildings were ready for
occupancy. By the end of the year there were 33 converts, and in
1800, 286. A wooden structure with a grass roof served as a
church.
In 1809, April 23, the new church was completed, and Presidente
Tapis came and blessed it. The following day he preached, and Padre
Arroyo de la Cuesta said mass before a large congregation,
including other priests, several of the military, and people from
the pueblo and Santa Clara, and various neophytes. The following
July the cemetery was blessed with the usual solemnities.
In 1811 Padre Fortuni accompanied Padre Abella on a journey of
exploration to the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. They were
gone fifteen days, found the Indians very timid, and thought the
shores of the Sacramento offered a favorable site for a new
Mission.
In 1817 Sergeant Soto, with one hundred San José
neophytes, met twelve soldiers from San Francisco, and proceeded,
by boat, to pursue some fugitives. They went up a river, possibly
the San Joaquin, to a marshy island where, according to Soto’s
report, a thousand hostiles were assembled, who immediately fell
upon their pursuers and fought them for three hours. So desperately
did they fight, relying upon their superior numbers, that Soto was
doubtful as to the result; but eventually they broke and fled,
swimming to places of safety, leaving many dead and wounded but no
captives. Only one neophyte warrior was killed.
In 1820 San José reported a population of 1754, with 6859
large stock, 859 horses, etc., and 12,000 sheep.
For twenty-seven years Padre Duran, who from 1825 to 1827 was
also the padre presidente, served Mission San José. In 1824
it reached its maximum of population in 1806 souls. In everything
it was prosperous, standing fourth on the list both as to crops and
herds.
Owing to its situation, being the first Mission reached by
trappers, etc., from the east, and also being the nearest to the
valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, which afforded good
retreats for fugitives, San José had an exciting history. In
1826 there was an expedition against the Cosumnes, in which forty
Indians were killed, a ranchería destroyed, and forty
captives taken. In 1829 the famous campaign against Estanislas, who
has given his name to both a river and county, took place. This
Indian was a neophyte of San José, and being of more than
usual ability and smartness, was made alcalde. In 1827 or early in
1828 he ran away, and with a companion, Cipriano, and a large
following, soon made himself the terror of the rancheros of the
neighborhood. One expedition sent against him resulted
disastrously, owing to insufficient equipment, so a determined
effort under M.G. Vallejo, who was now the commander-in-chief of
the whole California army, was made. May 29 he and his forces
crossed the San Joaquin River on rafts, and arrived the next day at
the scene of the former battle. With taunts, yells of defiance, and
a shower of arrows, Estanislas met the coming army, he and his
forces hidden in the fancied security of an impenetrable forest.
Vallejo at once set men to work in different directions to fire the
wood, which brought some of the Indians to the edge, where they
were slain. As evening came on, twenty-five men and an officer
entered the wood and fought until dusk, retiring with three men
wounded. Next morning Vallejo, with thirty-seven soldiers, entered
the wood, where he found pits, ditches, and barricades arranged
with considerable skill. Nothing but fire could have dislodged the
enemy. They had fled under cover of night. Vallejo set off in
pursuit, and when, two days later, he surrounded them, they
declared they would die rather than surrender. A road was cut
through chaparral with axes, along which the field-piece and
muskets were pressed forward and discharged. The Indians retreated
slowly, wounding eight soldiers. When the cannon was close to the
enemies’ intrenchments the ammunition gave out, and this fact and
the heat of the burning thicket compelled retreat. During the night
the Indians endeavored to escape, one by one, but most of them were
killed by the watchful guards. The next day nothing but the dead
and three living women were found. There were some accusations,
later, that Vallejo summarily executed some captives; but he denied
it, and claimed that the only justification for any such charge
arose from the fact that one man and one woman had been killed, the
latter wrongfully by a soldier, whom he advised be punished.
Up to the time of secularization, the Mission continued to be
one of the most prosperous. Jesus Vallejo was the administrator for
secularization, and in 1837 he and Padre Gonzalez Rubio made an
inventory which gave a total of over $155,000, when all debts were
paid. Even now for awhile it seemed to prosper, and not until 1840
did the decline set in.
In accordance with Micheltorena’s decree of March 29, 1843, San
José was restored to the temporal control of the padres, who
entered with good-will and zest into the labor of saving what they
could out of the wreck. Under Pico’s decree of 1845 the Mission was
inventoried, but the document cannot now be found, nor a copy of
it. The population was reported as 400 in 1842, and it is supposed
that possibly 250 still lived at the Mission in 1845. On May 5,
1846, Pico sold all the property to Andrés Pico and J.B.
Alvarado for $12,000, but the sale never went into effect.
Mission San José de Guadalupe and the pueblo of the same
name are not, as so many people, even residents of California,
think, one and the same. The pueblo of San José is now the
modern city of that name, the home of the State Normal School, and
the starting-point for Mount Hamilton. But Mission San José
is a small settlement, nearly twenty miles east and north, in the
foothills overlooking the southeast end of San Francisco Bay. The
Mission church has entirely disappeared, an earthquake in 1868
having completed the ruin begun by the spoliation at the time of
secularization. A modern parish church has since been built upon
the site. Nothing of the original Mission now remains except a
portion of the monastery. The corridor is without arches, and is
plain and unpretentious, the roof being composed of willows tied to
the roughly hewn log rafters with rawhide. Behind this is a
beautiful old alameda of olives, at the upper end of which a modern
orphanage, conducted by the Dominican Sisters, has been erected.
This avenue of olives is crossed by another one at right angles,
and both were planted by the padres in the early days, as is
evidenced by the age of the trees. Doubtless many a procession of
Indian neophytes has walked up and down here, even as I saw a
procession of the orphans and their white-garbed guardians a short
time ago. The surrounding garden is kept up in as good style under
the care of the sisters as it was in early days by the padres.
The orphanage was erected in 1884 by Archbishop Alemany as a
seminary for young men who wished to study for the priesthood, but
it was never very successful in this work. For awhile it remained
empty, then was offered to the Dominican Sisters as a
boarding-school. But as this undertaking did not pay, in 1891
Archbishop Riordan offered such terms as led the Mother General of
the Dominican Sisters to purchase it as an orphanage, and as such
it is now most successfully conducted. There are at the present
time about eighty children cared for by these sweet and gentle
sisters of our Lord.
Two of the old Mission bells are hung in the new church. On one
of these is the inscription: “S.S. José. Ano de 1826.” And
on the upper bell, “S.S. Joseph 1815, Ave María
Purísima.”
The old Mission baptismal font is also still in use. It is of
hammered copper, about three feet in diameter, surmounted by an
iron cross about eight inches high. The font stands upon a wooden
base, painted, and is about four feet high.
