SAN FERNANDO, REY DE ESPAGNA
On September 8, 1797, the seventeenth of the California Missions was
founded by Padre Lasuen, in the Encino Valley, where Francisco Reyes had
a rancho in the Los Angeles jurisdiction. The natives called it _Achois
Comihavit_. Reyes' house was appropriated as a temporary dwelling for
the missionary. The Mission was dedicated to Fernando III, King of
Spain. Lasuen came down from San Miguel to Santa Barbara, especially for
the foundation, and from thence with Sergeant Olivera and a military
escort. These, with Padre Francisco Dumetz, the priest chosen to have
charge, and his assistant, Francisco Favier Uría, composed, with the
large concourse of Indians, the witnesses of the solemn ceremonial.
On the fourth of October Olivera reported the guard-house and storehouse
finished, two houses begun, and preparations already being made for
the church.
From the baptismal register it is seen that ten children were baptized
the first day, and thirteen adults were received early in October. By
the end of 1797 there were fifty-five neophytes.
Three years after its founding 310 Indians were gathered in, and its
year's crop was 1000 bushels of grain. The Missions of San Juan
Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, and Santa Barbara had
contributed live-stock, and now its herds had grown to 526 horses,
mules, and cattle, and 600 sheep.
In December, 1806, an adobe church, with a tile roof, was consecrated,
which on the 21st of December, 1812, was severely injured by the
earthquake that did damage to almost all the Missions of the chain.
Thirty new beams were needed to support the injured walls. A new chapel
was built, which was completed in 1818.
In 1834 Lieutenant Antonio del Valle was the comisionado appointed to
secularize the Mission, and the next year he became majordomo and served
until 1837.
It was on his journey north, in 1842, to take hold of the governorship,
that Micheltorena learned at San Fernando of Commodore Jones's raising
of the American flag at Monterey. By his decree, also, in 1843, San
Fernando was ordered returned to the control of the padres, which was
done, though the next year Duran reported that there were but few cattle
left, and two vineyards.
Micheltorena was destined again to appear at San Fernando, for when the
Californians under Pio Pico and Castro rose to drive out the Mexicans,
the governor finally capitulated at the same place, as he had heard the
bad news of the Americans' capture of Monterey. February 21, 1845, after
a bloodless "battle" at Cahuenga, he "abdicated," and finally left the
country and returned to Mexico.
In 1845 Juan Manso and Andrés Pico leased the Mission at a rental of
$1120, the affairs having been fairly well administered by Padre Orday
after its return to the control of the friars. A year later it was sold
by Pio Pico, under the order of the assembly, for $14,000, to Eulogio
Célis, whose title was afterwards confirmed by the courts. Orday
remained as pastor until May, 1847, and was San Fernando's last minister
under the Franciscans.
In 1847 San Fernando again heard the alarm of war. Frémont and his
battalion reached here in January, and remained until the signing of the
treaty of Cahuenga, which closed all serious hostilities against the
United States in its conquest of California.
Connected with the Mission of San Fernando is the first discovery of
California gold. Eight years before the great days of '49 Francisco
Lopez, the _mayordomo_ of the Mission, was in the canyon of San
Feliciano, which is about eight miles westerly from the present town of
Newhall, and according to Don Abel Stearns, "with a companion, while in
search of some stray horses, about midday stopped under some trees and
tied their horses to feed. While resting in the shade, Lopez with his
sheath knife dug up some wild onions, and in the dirt discovered a piece
of gold. Searching further, he found more. On his return to town he
showed these pieces to his friends, who at once declared there must be a
placer of gold there."
Then the rush began. As soon as the people in Los Angeles and Santa
Barbara heard of it, they flocked to the new "gold fields" in hundreds.
And the first California gold dust ever coined at the government mint at
Philadelphia came from these mines. It was taken around Cape Horn in a
sailing-vessel by Alfred Robinson, the translator of Boscana's _Indians
of California_, and consisted of 18.34 ounces, and made $344.75, or over
$19 to the ounce.
Davis says that in the first two years after the discovery not less than
from $80,000 to $100,000 was gathered. Don Antonio Coronel, with three
Indian laborers, in 1842, took out $600 worth of dust in two months.
Water being scarce, the methods of washing the gravel were both crude
and wasteful. And it is interesting to note that the first gold "pans"
were _bateas_, or bowl-shaped Indian baskets.
The church at San Fernando is in a completely ruined condition. It
stands southwest to northeast. The entrance is at the southwest end and
the altar at the northeast. There is also a side entrance at the east,
with a half-circular arch, sloping into a larger arch inside, with a
flat top and rounded upper corners. The thickness of the walls allows
the working out of various styles in these outer and inner arches that
is curious and interesting. They reveal the individuality of the
builder, and as they are all structural and pleasing, they afford a
wonderful example of variety in adapting the arch to its necessary
functions.
[Illustration: SHEEP AT MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF OLD ADOBE WALL AND CHURCH, MISSION SAN FERNANDO
REY.]
[Illustration: MONASTERY AND OLD FOUNTAIN AT MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF RUINED CHURCH, MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY.]
The graveyard is on the northwest side of the church, and close by is
the old olive orchard, where a number of fine trees are still growing.
There are also two large palms, pictures of which are generally taken
with the Mission in the background, and the mountains beyond. It is an
exquisite subject. The remains of adobe walls still surround
the orchard.
The doorway leading to the graveyard is of a half-circle inside, and
slopes outward, where the arch is square.
There is a buttress of burnt brick to the southeast of the church, which
appears as if it might have been an addition after the earthquake.
At the monastery the chief entrance is a simple but effective arched
doorway, now plastered and whitewashed. The double door frame projects
pilaster-like, with a four-membered cornice above, from which rises an
elliptical arch, with an elliptical cornice about a foot above.
From this monastery one looks out upon a court or plaza which is
literally dotted with ruins, though they are mainly of surrounding
walls. Immediately in the foreground is a fountain, the reservoir of
which is built of brick covered with cement. A double bowl rests on the
center standard.
Further away in the court are the remnants of what may have been another
fountain, the reservoir of which is made of brick, built into a singular
geometrical figure. This is composed of eight semicircles, with V's
connecting them, the apex of each V being on the outside. It appears
like an attempt at creating a conventionalized flower in brick.
Two hundred yards or so away from the monastery is a square structure,
the outside of boulders. Curiosity prompting, you climb up, and on
looking in you find that inside this framework of boulders are two
circular cisterns of brick, fully six feet in diameter across the top,
decreasing in size to the bottom, which is perhaps four feet
in diameter.
In March, 1905, considerable excitement was caused by the actions of the
parish priest of San Fernando, a Frenchman named Le Bellegny, of
venerable appearance and gentle manners. Not being acquainted with the
_status quo_ of the old Mission, he exhumed the bodies of the Franciscan
friars who had been buried in the church and reburied them. He removed
the baptismal font to his church, and unroofed some of the old buildings
and took the tiles and timbers away. As soon as he understood the matter
he ceased his operations, but, unfortunately, not before considerable
damage was done.