SAN JOSÉ DE GUADALUPE
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.