THE MISSION CHAPELS OR ASISTENCIAS
The Mission padres were the first circuit riders or pastors. It is
generally supposed that the circuit rider is a device of the Methodist
church, but history clearly reveals that long prior to the time of the
sainted Wesley, and the denomination he founded, the padres were "riding
the circuit," or walking, visiting the various rancherías which had no
settled pastor.
Where buildings for worship were erected at these places they were
called chapels, or asistencias. Some of these chapels still remain in
use and the ruins of others are to be seen. The Mission of San Gabriel
had four such chapels, viz., Los Angeles, Puente, San Antonio de Santa
Ana, and San Bernardino. Of the first and the last we have
considerable history.
LOS ANGELES CHAPEL
As I have elsewhere shown, it was the plan of the Spanish Crown not only
to Christianize and civilize the Indians of California, but also to
colonize the country. In accordance with this plan the pueblo of San
José was founded on the 29th of November, 1776. The second was that of
Los Angeles in 1781. Rivera was sent to secure colonists in Sonora and
Sinaloa for the new pueblo, and also for the establishments it was
intended to found on the channel of Santa Barbara.
In due time colonists were secured, and a more mongrel lot it would be
hard to conceive: Indian, Spanish, Negro, Indian and Spanish, and Indian
and Negro bloods were represented, 42 souls in all. The blood which
makes the better Spanish classes in Los Angeles to-day so proud
represents those who came in much later.
There was nothing accidental in the founding of any Spanish colony.
Everything was planned beforehand. The colonist obeyed orders as rigidly
executed as if they were military commands. According to
Professor Guinn:
"The area of a pueblo, under Spanish rule, was four square
leagues, or about 17,770 acres. The pueblo lands were divided
into _solares_ (house lots), _suertes_[5] (fields for
planting), _dehesas_ (outside pasture lands), _ejidos_
(commons), _propios_ (lands rented or leased), _realengas_
(royal lands)."
[5] _Suerte_. This is colloquial, it really means "chance" or
"haphazard." In other words, it was the piece of ground that fell to the
settler by "lot."
On the arrival of the colonists in San Gabriel from Loreto on the 18th
of August, 1781, Governor Neve issued instructions for founding Los
Angeles on the 26th. The first requirement was to select a site for a
dam, to provide water for domestic and irrigation purposes. Then to
locate the plaza and the homes and fields of the colonists. Says
Professor Guinn:
"The old plaza was a parallelogram too varas[6] in length by
75 in breadth. It was laid out with its corners facing the
cardinal points of the compass, and with its streets running
at right angles to each of its four sides, so that no street
would be swept by the wind. Two streets, each 10 varas wide,
opened out on the longer sides, and three on each of the
shorter sides. Upon three sides of the plaza were the house
lots, 20 by 40 varas each, fronting on the square. One-half
the remaining side was reserved for a guard-house, a
town-house, and a public granary. Around the embryo town, a
few years later, was built an adobe wall--not so much,
perhaps, for protection from foreign invasion as from
domestic intrusion. It was easier to wall in the town than to
fence the cattle and goats that pastured outside."
[6] A vara is the Spanish yard of 33 inches.
The government supplied each colonist with a pair each of oxen, mules,
mares, sheep, goats, and cows, one calf, a burro, a horse, and the
branding-irons which distinguished his animals from those of the other
settlers. There were also certain tools furnished for the colony as
a whole.
On the 14th of September of the same year the plaza was solemnly
dedicated. A father from the San Gabriel Mission recited mass, a
procession circled the plaza, bearing the cross, the standard of Spain,
and an image of "Our Lady," after which salvos of musketry were fired
and general rejoicings indulged in. Of course the plaza was blessed, and
we are even told that Governor Neve made a speech.
As to when the first church was built in Los Angeles there seems to be
some doubt. In 1811 authority was gained for the erection of a new
chapel, but nowhere is there any account of a prior building. Doubtless
some temporary structure had been used. There was no regular priest
settled here, for in 1810 the citizens complained that the San Gabriel
padres did not pay enough attention to their sick. In August of 1814 the
corner-stone of the new chapel was laid by Padre Gil of San Gabriel, but
nothing more than laying the foundation was done for four years. Then
Governor Sola ordered that a higher site be chosen. The citizens
subscribed five hundred cattle towards the fund, and Prefect Payeras
made an appeal to the various friars which resulted in donations of
seven barrels of brandy, worth $575. With these funds the work was done,
José Antonio Ramirez being the architect, and his workers neophytes from
San Gabriel and San Luis Rey, who were paid a real (twelve and a half
cents) per day. Before 1821 the walls were raised to the window arches.
The citizens, however, showed so little interest in the matter that it
was not until Payeras made another appeal to his friars that _they_
contributed enough to complete the work. Governor Sola gave a little,
and the citizens a trifle. It is interesting to note what the
contributions of the friars were. San Miguel offered 500 cattle, San
Luis Obispo 200 cattle, Santa Barbara a barrel of brandy, San Diego two
barrels of white wine, Purísima six mules and 200 cattle, San Fernando
one barrel brandy, San Gabriel two barrels brandy, San Buenaventura said
it would try to make up deficits or supply church furniture, etc. Thus
Payeras's zeal and the willingness of the Los Angeleños to pay for wine
and brandy, which they doubtless drank "to the success of the church,"
completed the structure, and December 8, 1822, it was formally
dedicated. Auguste Wey writes:
"The oldest church in Los Angeles is known in local American
parlance as 'The Plaza Church,' 'Our Lady,' 'Our Lady of
Angels,' 'Church of Our Lady,' 'Church of the Angels,'
'Father Liébana's Church,' and 'The Adobe Church.' It is
formally the church of Nuestra Señora, Reina de los
Angeles--Our Lady, Queen of the Angels--from whom Los Angeles
gets its name."
That is, the city gets its name from Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels,
not from the church, as the pueblo was named long before the church was
even suggested.
The plaza was formally moved to its present site in 1835, May 23, when
the government was changed from that of a pueblo to a city.
Concerning the name of the pueblo and river Rev. Joachin Adam, vicar
general of the diocese, in a paper read before the Historical Society of
Southern California several years ago, said:
"The name Los Angeles is probably derived from the fact that
the expedition by land, in search of the harbor of Monterey,
passed through this place on the 2d of August, 1769, a day
when the Franciscan missionaries celebrate the feast of
Nuestra Señora de los Angeles--Our Lady of the Angels. This
expedition left San Diego July 14, 1769, and reached here on
the first of August, when they killed for the first time some
_berrendos_, or antelope. On the second, they saw a large
stream with much good land, which they called Porciúncula on
account of commencing on that day the jubilee called
Porciúncula, granted to St. Francis while praying in the
little church of Our Lady of the Angels, near Assisi, in
Italy, commonly called Della Porciúncula from a hamlet of
that name near by. This was the original name of the Los
Angeles River."
The last two recorded burials within the walls of the Los Angeles chapel
are those of the young wife of Nathaniel M. Pryor, "buried on the
left-hand side facing the altar," and of Doña Eustaquia, mother of the
Dons Andrés, Jesus, and Pio Pico, all intimately connected with the
history of the later days of Mexican rule.
CHAPEL OF SAN BERNARDINO
It must not be forgotten that one of the early methods of reaching
California was inland. Travelers came from Mexico, by way of Sonora,
then crossed the Colorado River and reached San Gabriel and Monterey in
the north, over practically the same route as that followed to-day by
the Southern Pacific Railway, viz., crossing the river at Yuma, over the
Colorado Desert, by way of the San Gorgonio Pass, and through the San
Bernardino and San Gabriel valleys. It was in 1774 that Captain Juan
Bautista de Anza, of the presidio of Tubac in Arizona, was detailed by
the Viceroy of New Spain to open this road. He made quite an expedition
of it,--240 men, women, and Indian scouts, and 1050 animals. They named
the San Gorgonio Pass the Puerto de San Carlos, and the San Bernardino
Valley the Valle de San José. Cucamonga they called the Arroyo de los
Osos (Bear Ravine or Gulch).
As this road became frequented San Gabriel was the first stopping-place
where supplies could be obtained after crossing the desert. This was
soon found to be too far away, and for years it was desired that a
station nearer to the desert be established, but not until 1810 was the
decisive step taken. Then Padre Dumetz of San Gabriel, with a band of
soldiers and Indian neophytes, set out, early in May, to find a location
and establish such a station. They found a populous Indian ranchería,
in a region well watered and luxuriant, and which bore a name
significant of its desirability. The valley was _Guachama_, "the place
of abundance of food and water," and the Indians had the same name. A
station was established near the place now known as Bunker Hill, between
Urbita Springs and Colton, and a "capilla," built, dedicated to San
Bernardino, because it was on May 20, San Bernardino's feast-day, that
Padre Dumetz entered the valley. The trustworthiness of the Indians will
be understood when it is recalled that this chapel, station, and the
large quantity of supplies were left in their charge, under the command
of one of their number named Hipolito. Soon the station became known,
after this Indian, as Politana.
The destruction of Politana in 1810 by savage and hostile Indians, aided
by earthquakes, was a source of great distress to the padres at San
Gabriel, and they longed to rebuild. But the success of the attack of
the unconverted Indians had reawakened the never long dormant predatory
instincts of the desert Indians, and, for several years, these made
frequent incursions into the valley, killing not only the whites, but
such Indians as seemed to prefer the new faith to the old. But in 1819
the Guachamas sent a delegation to San Gabriel, requesting the padres to
come again, rebuild the Mission chapel, and re-establish the supply
station, and giving assurances of protection and good behavior. The
padres gladly acceded to the requests made, and in 1820 solemn chants
and earnest exhortations again resounded in the ears of the Guachamas in
a new and larger building of adobe erected some eight miles
from Politana.
There are a few ruined walls still standing of the chapel of San
Bernardino at this time, and had it not been for the care recently
bestowed upon them, there would soon have been no remnant of this once
prosperous and useful asistencia of the Mission of San Gabriel.
CHAPEL OF SAN MIGUEL
In 1803 a chapel was built at a ranchería called by the Indians
_Mescaltitlan_, and the Spaniards San Miguel, six miles from Santa
Barbara. It was of adobes, twenty-seven by sixty-six feet. In 1807
eighteen adobe dwellings were erected at the same place.
CHAPEL OF SAN MIGUELITO
One of the vistas of San Luis Obispo was a ranchería known as San
Miguelito, and here in 1809 the governor gave his approval that a chapel
should be erected. San Luis had several such vistas, and I am told that
the ruins of several chapels are still in existence in that region.
CHAPEL AT SANTA ISABEL (SAN DIEGO)
In 1816-19 the padres at San Diego urged the governor to give them
permission to erect a chapel at Santa Isabel, some forty miles away,
where two hundred baptized Indians were living. The governor did not
approve, however, and nothing was done until after 1820. By 1822 the
chapel was reported built, with several houses, a granary, and a
graveyard. The population had increased to 450, and these materially
aided San Diego in keeping the mountainous tribes, who were hostile,
in check.
A recent article in a Southern California magazine thus describes the
ruins of the Mission of Santa Isabel:
"Levelled by time, and washed by winter rains, the adobe
walls of the church have sunk into indistinguishable heaps of
earth which vaguely define the outlines of the ancient
edifice. The bells remain, hung no longer in a belfry, but on
a rude framework of logs. A tall cross, made of two saplings
nailed in shape, marks the consecrated spot. Beyond it rise
the walls of the brush building, _enramada_, woven of green
wattled boughs, which does duty for a church on Sundays and
on the rare occasions of a visit from the priest, who makes a
yearly pilgrimage to these outlying portions of his diocese.
On Sundays, the Captain of the tribe acts as lay reader and
recites the services. Then and on Saturday nights the bells
are rung. An Indian boy has the office of bell-ringer, and
crossing the ropes attached to the clappers, he skilfully
makes a solemn chime."
The graveyard at Santa Isabel is neglected and forlorn, and yet bears
many evidences of the loving thoughtfulness of the loved ones who
remain behind.
CHAPEL OF MESA GRANDE
Eleven miles or so from Santa Isabel, up a steep road, is the Indian
village of Mesa Grande. The ranchería (as the old Spaniards would call
it) occupies a narrow valley and sweep of barren hillside. On a level
space at the foot of the mountain the little church is built. Santo
Domingo is the patron saint.
A recent visitor thus describes it:
"The church was built like that of Santa Isabel, of green
boughs, and the chancel was decorated with muslin draperies
and ornaments of paper and ribbon, in whose preparation a
faithful Indian woman had spent the greater part of five
days. The altar was furnished with drawn-work cloths, and in
a niche above it was a plaster image of Santo Domingo, one
hand holding a book, the other outstretched in benediction.
Upon the outstretched hand a rosary had been hung with
appropriate effect. Some mystic letters appeared in the
muslin that draped the ceiling, which, being interpreted,
proved to be the initials of the solitary member of the altar
guild, and of such of her family as she was pleased to
commemorate."
CHAPEL OF SANTA MARGARITA (SAN LUIS OBISPO)
One of the ranches of San Luis Obispo was that of Santa Margarita on the
north side of the Sierra Santa Lucia. As far as I know there is no
record of the date when the chapel was built, yet it was a most
interesting and important structure.
In May, 1904, its identity was completely destroyed, its interior walls
being dynamited and removed and the whole structure roofed over to be
used as a barn.
It originally consisted of a chapel about 40 feet long and 30 feet wide,
and eight rooms. The chapel was at the southwest end. The whole building
was 120 feet long and 20 feet wide. The walls were about three feet
thick, and built of large pieces of rough sandstone and red bricks, all
cemented strongly together with a white cement that is still hard and
tenacious. It is possible there was no _fachada_ to the chapel at the
southwest end, for a well-built elliptical arched doorway, on the
southeast side, most probably was the main entrance.
It has long been believed that this was not the only Mission building at
Santa Margarita. Near by are three old adobe houses, all recently
renovated out of all resemblance to their original condition, and all
roofed with red Mission tiles. These were built in the early days. The
oldest Mexican inhabitants of the present-day Santa Margarita remember
them as a part of the Mission building.
Here, then, is explanation enough for the assumption of a large Indian
population on this ranch, which led the neighboring padres to establish
a chapel for their Christianization and civilization. Undoubtedly in its
aboriginal days there was a large Indian population, for there were all
the essentials in abundance. Game of every kind--deer, antelope,
rabbits, squirrels, bear, ducks, geese, doves, and quail--yet abound;
also roots of every edible kind, and more acorns than in any other equal
area in the State. There is a never failing flow of mountain water and
innumerable springs, as well as a climate at once warm and yet bracing,
for here on the northern slopes of the Santa Lucia, frost is
not uncommon.
CHAPEL OF SANTA ISABEL (SAN MIGUEL)
I have elsewhere referred to the water supply of Santa Isabel as being
used for irrigation connected with San Miguel Mission. There is every
evidence that a large ranchería existed at Santa Isabel, and that for
many years it was one of the valued rancheros of the Mission. Below the
Hot Springs the remains of a large dam still exist, which we now know
was built by the padres for irrigation purposes. A large tract of land
below was watered by it, and we have a number of reports of the annual
yield of grain, showing great fertility and productivity. Near the
present ranch house at Santa Isabel are large adobe ruins, evidently
used as a house for the majordomo and for the padre on his regular
visitations to the ranchería. One of the larger rooms was doubtless a
chapel where mass was said for the neophytes who cultivated the soil in
this region.
CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA
The chapel at Pala is perhaps the best known of all the asistencias on
account of its picturesque campanile. It was built by the indefatigable
Padre Peyri, in 1816, and is about twenty miles from San Luis Rey, to
which it belonged. Within a year or two, by means of a resident padre,
over a thousand converts were gathered, reciting their prayers and
tilling the soil. A few buildings, beside the chapel, were erected, and
the community, far removed from all political strife, must have been
happy and contented in its mountain-valley home. The chapel is a long,
narrow adobe structure, 144 by 27 feet, roofed with red tiles. The walls
within were decorated in the primitive and singular fashion found at
others of the Missions, and upon the altar were several statues which
the Indians valued highly.
Pala is made peculiarly interesting as the present home of the evicted
Palatingwa (Hot Springs) Indians of Warner's Ranch. Here these
wretchedly treated "wards of the nation" are now struggling with the
problem of life, with the fact ever before them, when they think, (as
they often do, for several of them called my attention to the fact) that
the former Indian population of Pala has totally disappeared. At the
time of the secularization of San Luis Rey, Pala suffered with the rest;
and when the Americans finally took possession it was abandoned to the
tender mercies of the straying, seeking, searching, devouring
homesteader. In due time it was "home-steaded" The chapel and graveyard
were ultimately deeded back; and when the Landmarks Club took hold it
was agreed that the ruins "revert to their proper ownership,
the church."
[Illustration: CAMPANILE AND CHAPEL, SAN ANTONIO DE PALA.]
[Illustration: ANOTHER VIEW OF THE CAMPANILE AND CHAPEL, SAN ANTONIO DE
PALA.]
[Illustration: MAIN DOORWAY AT SANTA MARGARITA CHAPEL.]
Though all the original Indians were ousted long ago from their lands at
Pala, those who lived anywhere within a dozen or a score miles still
took great interest in the old buildings, the decorations of the church,
and the statues of the saints. Whenever a priest came and held services
a goodly congregation assembled, for a number of Mexicans, as well as
Indians, live in the neighborhood.
That they loved the dear old asistencia was manifested by Americans,
Mexicans, and Indians alike, for when the Landmarks Club visited it in
December, 1901, and asked for assistance to put it in order, help was
immediately volunteered to the extent of $217, if the work were paid for
at the rate of $1.75 per day.
With a desire to promote the good feeling aimed at in recent dealings
with the evicted Indians of Warner's Ranch, now located at Pala, the
bishop of the diocese sent them a priest. He, however, was of an alien
race, and unfamiliar with either the history of the chapel, its
memories, or the feelings of the Indians; and to their intense
indignation, they found that without consulting them, or his own
superiors, he had destroyed nearly all the interior decorations by
covering them with a coating of whitewash.
The building now is in fairly good condition and the Indians have a
pastor who holds regular services for them. In the main they express
themselves as highly contented with their present condition, and on a
visit paid them in April, 1913, I found them happy and prosperous.