Rivera delayed the founding of San Francisco and Santa Clara for
reasons of his own; and when, in September, 1776, he received a
letter from Viceroy Bucareli, in which were references clearly
showing that it was supposed by the writer that they were already
established, he set to work without further delay, and went with
Padre Peña, as already related. The Mission was duly founded
January 12, 1777. A square of seventy yards was set off and
buildings at once begun. Cattle and other Mission property were
sent down from San Francisco and San Carlos, and the guard
returned. But it was not long before the Indians developed an
unholy love for contraband beef, and Moraga and his soldiers were
sent for to capture and punish the thieves. Three of them were
killed, but even then depredations occasionally continued. At the
end of the year there had been sixty-seven baptisms, including
eight adults, and twenty-five deaths.
The present is the third site occupied by Santa Clara. The
Mission was originally established some three miles away, near
Alviso, at the headwaters of the San Francisco Bay, near the river
Guadalupe, on a site called by the Indians So-co-is-u-ka (laurel
wood). It was probably located there on account of its being the
chief rendezvous of the Indians, fishing being good, the river
having an abundance of salmon trout. The Mission remained there
only a short time, as the waters rose twice in 1779, and washed it
out. Then the padres removed, in 1780-1782, and built about 150
yards southwest of the present broad-gauge (Southern Pacific)
depot, where quite recently traces were found of the old adobe
walls. They remained at this spot, deeming the location good, until
an earthquake in 1812 gave them considerable trouble. A second
earthquake in 1818 so injured their buildings that they felt
compelled to move to the present site, which has been occupied ever
since. The Mission Church and other buildings were begun in 1818,
and finally dedicated in 1822. The site was called by the Indians
Gerguensun—the Valley of the Oaks.
On the 29th of November, 1777, the pueblo of San José was
founded. The padres protested at the time that it was too near the
Mission of Santa Clara, and for the next decade there was constant
irritation, owing to the encroachments of the white settlers upon
the lands of the Indians. Complaints were made and formally acted
upon, and in July, 1801, the boundaries were surveyed, as asked for
by the padres, and landmarks clearly marked and agreed upon so as
to prevent future disputes.
In 1800 Santa Clara was the banner Mission for population,
having 1247. Live-stock had increased to about 5000 head of each
(cattle and horses), and crops were good.
In 1802, August 12, a grand high altar, which had been obtained
in Mexico, was consecrated with elaborate ceremonies.
Padre Viader, the priest in charge, was a very muscular and
athletic man; and one night, in 1814, a young gentile giant, named
Marcelo, and two companions attacked him. In the rough and tumble
fight which ensued the padre came out ahead; and after giving the
culprits a severe homily on the sin of attacking a priest, they
were pardoned, Marcelo becoming one of his best and most faithful
friends thereafter. Robinson says Viader was “a good old man, whose
heart and soul were in proportion to his immense figure.”
In 1820 the neophyte population was 1357, stock 5024, horses
722, sheep 12,060. The maximum of population was reached in 1827,
of 1464 souls. After that it began rapidly to decline. The crops,
too, were smaller after 1820, without any apparent reason.
In 1837 secularization was effected by Ramon Estrada. In
1839-1840 reports show that two-thirds of the cattle and sheep had
disappeared. The downfall of the Mission was very rapid. The
neophyte population in 1832 was 1125, in 1834 about 800, and at the
end of the decade about 290, with 150 more scattered in the
district.
ONE OF THE DOORS, SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.
IN THE AMBULATORY AT SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.
MISSION SANTA CLARA IN 1849.
CHURCH OF SANTA CLARA.
On the site of old Mission of Santa Clara.
The total of baptisms from 1777 to 1874 is 8640, of deaths
6950.
The old register of marriages records 3222 weddings from January
12, 1778, to August 15, 1863.
In 1833 Padre Viader closed his missionary service of nearly
forty years in California by leaving the country, and Padre
Francisco García Diego, the prefect of the Zacatecan friars,
became his successor. Diego afterwards became the first bishop of
California.
In July, 1839, a party called Yozcolos, doubtless after their
leader, attacked the neophytes guarding the Santa Clara
wheat-fields, killing one of them. The attackers were pursued, and
their leader slain, and the placing of his head on a pole seemed to
act as a deterrent of further acts for awhile.
In December of the same year Prado Mesa made an expedition
against gentile thieves in the region of the Stanislaus River. He
was surprised by the foe, three of his men killed, and he and six
others wounded, besides losing a number of his weapons. This Indian
success caused great alarm, and a regular patrol was organized to
operate between San José and San Juan Missions for the
protection of the ranches. This uprising of the Indians was almost
inevitable. Deprived of their maintenance at the Missions, they
were practically thrown on their own resources, and in many cases
this left them a prey to the evil leadership of desperate men of
their own class.
Santa Clara was one of the Missions immediately affected by the
decree of Micheltorena, of March 29, 1843, requiring that the
padres reassume the management of the temporalities. They set to
work to gather up what fragments they could find, but the flocks
and herds were “lent” where they could not be recovered, and one
flock of 4000 sheep—the padre says 6000—were taken by M.J.
Vallejo, “legally, in aid of the government.”
Pio Pico’s decree of June 5, 1845, affected Santa Clara.
Andrés Pico made a valuation of the property at $16,173.
There were then 130 ex-neophytes, the live-stock had dwindled down
to 430 cattle, 215 horses, and 809 sheep. The padre found it
necessary to write a sharp letter to the alcalde of San José
on the grog-shops of that pueblo, which encouraged drinking among
his Indians to such extent that they were completely
demoralized.
March 19, 1851, the parish priest, who was a cultivated and
learned Jesuit, and who had prepared the way, succeeded in having
the Santa Clara College established in the old Mission buildings.
On the 28th of April, 1855, it was chartered with all the rights
and privileges of a university. In due time the college grew to
large proportions, and it was found imperative either to remove the
old Mission structure completely, or renovate it out of all
recognition. This latter was done, so that but little of the old
church remains.
In restoring it in 1861-1862 the nave was allowed to remain, but
in 1885 it was found necessary to remove it. Its walls were five
feet thick. The adobe bricks were thrown out upon the plaza behind
the cross.
The present occupation of Santa Clara as a university as well as
a church necessitated the adaptation of the old cloisters to meet
the modern conditions. Therefore the casual visitor would scarcely
notice that the reception-room into which he is ushered is a part
of the old cloisters. The walls are about three feet thick, and are
of adobe. In the garden the beams of the cloister roofs are to be
seen.
The old Mission vineyard, where the grapes used to thrive, is
now converted into a garden. A number of the old olive trees still
remain. Of the three original bells of the Mission, two still call
the faithful to worship. One was broken and had to be recast in San
Francisco.
On the altar, there are angels with flambeaux in their hands, of
wooden carving. These are deemed the work of the Indians. There are
also several old statues of the saints, including San Joaquin,
Santa Ana, San Juan Capistrano, and Santa Colette. In the sodality
chapel, also, there are statues of San Francisco and San Antonio.
The altar rail of the restored Santa Clara church was made from the
beams of the old Mission. These were of redwood, secured from the
Santa Cruz mountains, and, I believe, are the earliest specimens of
redwood used for lumber in California The rich natural coloring and
the beauty of the grain and texture have improved with the years
The old octagonal pulpit, though not now used is restored and
honored, standing upon a modern pedestal.
Santa Clara was noted for the longevity of some of its Indians.
One of them, Gabriel, who died in 1891 or 1892 at the hospital in
Salinas, claimed he was a grandfather when Serra came in 1767. He
must have been over 150 years old when he died. Another, Inigo, was
known to be 101 years of age at his death.
In a room in the college building is gathered together an
interesting collection of articles belonging to the old Mission.
Here are the chairs of the sanctuary, processional candlesticks,
pictures, and the best bound book in the State—an old choral. It
rests on a stand at the end of the room. The lids are of wood,
covered with thick leather and bound in very heavy bronze, with
bosses half an inch high. Each corner also has bronze
protuberances, half an inch long, that stand out on the bottom, or
edge of the cover, so that they raise the whole book. The volume is
of heaviest vellum and is entirely hand-written in red and black;
and though a century or more has passed since it was written it is
clear and perfect, has 139 pages. The brothers of the college have
placed this inscription over it: “Ancient choral, whose wooden
cover, leather bound and covered in bronze, came, probably,
originally from Spain, and has age of some 500 years.”
In a case which extends across the room are ancient vestments,
the key of the old Mission, statuary brackets from the ancient
altar, the altar bell, crown of thorns from the Mission crucifix,
altar card-frames, and the rosary and crucifix that once belonged
to Padre Magin Catalá.
Padre Catalá, the good man of Santa Clara, is deemed by
the leaders of the Catholic Church in California to be worthy the
honors and elevation of sainthood, and proceedings are now in
operation before the highest Court of the Church in Rome to see
whether he is entitled to these posthumous honors. The Franciscan
historian for California, Father Zephyrin Englehardt, has written a
book entitled The Holy Man of Santa Clara, in which not only
the life of Padre Catalá is given, but the whole of the
procedure necessary to convince the Church tribunal of his worth
and sainthood. The matter is not yet (1913) settled.
On the walls are some of the ancient paintings, one especially
noteworthy. It is of Christ multiplying the loaves and fishes (John
vi. II). While it is not a great work of art, the benignity and
sweetness of the Christ face redeem it from crudeness. With
upraised right hand he is blessing the loaves which rest in his
left hand, while the boy with the fishes kneels reverently at his
feet.
The University of Santa Clara is now rapidly erecting its new
buildings, in a modified form of Mission architecture, to meet its
enlarging needs The buildings, when completed, will present to the
world a great institution of learning—the oldest west of the Rocky
Mountains—well equipped in every department for the important
labor in the education of the Catholic youth of California and the
west that it has undertaken.
