The Spanish Colonial Era in Emeryville and the East Bay (1772-1848)

The Spanish Colonial Era in Emeryville and the East Bay (1772-1848)

By Richard D. Ambro. Ph.D.

Europeans got their first glimpse of what would later become Emeryville on a Spring day in March, 1772. They were Captain Pedro Fages and Father Juan Crespi who were leading an exploratory expedition to determine whether or not a mission could be founded in the San Francisco area, and their accounts record their observations of the journey. They left a base camp at Monterey on March 20, 1772, camping north of Milpitas on March 24. and continued northward along the east side of San Francisco Bay hugging the base of the hills as they went. They crossed many creeks lined with willows. cottonwoods. sycamores. bay trees and oaks. and they saw trees that they called “savtnes” or redwoods in the area of southern Oakland. They saw grizzly bears. deer. and very large animals with large antlers that had cow-like feet and which were described as “no mean leapers” because they could jump across creeks six yards wide. These were elk. They also saw Indians or “gentiles” along the way in villages or out hunting.

East Bay Explored

After camping in the vicinity of today’s Mills College, the party set out on the morning of March 27 going over several small grassy hills to skirt an estuary of the bay (Oakland Estuary and Lake Merritt). They tried to kill a bear but it escaped. They continued on across a grassy plain studded with California poppies which they called “linos” or lilies fragrant pink wild roses that they likened to the “rosa de Castilla” of their homeland, and an herb they called sweet marjoram. The party paused at or near the head of Ashby Avenue and could see the island studded bay, the Golden Gate, and the Farallon Islands beyond. In doing so, they gazed at the eastern shore where Emeryville would develop a century later! Moving on, they later camped along EI Cerrito Creek where they finally succeeded in killing a bear for food. Going on, they passed San Pablo Creek in north Richmond and Pinole on March 28 where they found Indian villages where they were given food. They then continued along the shoreline to Carquinez Straits and the Martinez area, and then turned south along the east side of the East Bay hills.

Uninhabited?

One of the things noted by this expedition was the apparent lack of inhabitants in the Oakland-Berkeley area. Fages recorded that: “Vimos pocos gentiles, que discurro sera por los muchos ossos que abitan por aquellos parajes.” Fages suggested that this was perhaps due to the numerous bears in the area. Perhaps their route was too far from the shoreline where major villages might have been located, although smoke from their fires or individuals out hunting should have been visible. Milliken, in reviewing baptismal records for Mission San Francisco saw some evidence that Miwok-speaking Sadan may have held central Oakland. If such an intrusion had occurred. Ohlone (Costanoan) sites previously occupied might have been abandoned. However. Milliken also noted that Temescal creek was known as the “Arroyo del Temescal o Los Juchiunes” [Ohlonean-speaking Huchiunes] on a historic sketch map of the area, suggesting that Ohlone still held that area in early historic times. Just why Fages and Crespi did not see much evidence of native inhabitants in the Oakland-Berkeley area remains unexplained.

San Francisco de Asis

The San Francisco Presidio was founded in 1776 and Mission San Francisco de Asis was also founded in 1776 on the San Francisco Peninsula. Mission Santa Clara was founded in 1777, and Mission San Jose was founded in 1797 on Mission Creek in today’s Fremont. These Missions soon gathered most of the Bay Area Costanoans for instruction in Christianity, and to serve as laborers at the missions. Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) baptized its first East Bay neophyte in 1778 and the first reference to a Huchiun baptism there was in 1787. Large groups of Huchiunes were first brought into Mission Dolores in the fall of 1794, and ultimately 384 Huchiunes were baptized there. Another three hundred Costanoans from the Fremont Area and the “estero”, and another thirty-one Bay Miwok-speaking Sadan or “palos colorados” [“redwoods”] from the Oakland Hills were missionized by the Mission San Jose between 1797-1802.

Neophytes

The Indians were given instruction in Christianity, and trained in a variety of skills that helped make the mission relatively self-sufficient. Wheat was grown and fruit trees were tended in the orchard. Neophytes were taught to make adobe bricks and fired clay floor and roof tiles, soap, and salt. Men also worked as carpenters, tanners, and laborers. Women were taught weaving, sewing, cheese making, and “housework” so that they could serve as servants. Cattle were slaughtered for meat and hides for local consumption, and increasingly for the hide and tallow trade, first with the Russians c. 1822, and later with the Americans and British. Children and parents were kept together, although unmarried adolescent girls and youths were segregated and housed in adobe dormitories under the strict supervision of the padres. Native marriages were recognized by the padres, but secondary wives were separated from their husbands and married to others. Cohabitation, adultery, and traditional religious beliefs and practices were strictly, often harshly discouraged. However, contemporary drawings of neophytes made by visitors show them decked in traditional beads, feathers, and other ornaments. Although native religious practices were forbidden, gambling and performance of “secular” dances were permitted in spare hours, Sundays, and holidays. However, there was a darker, cruel side to mission life.

Epidemic

In March, 1795 an epidemic believed to be typhus struck the Mission Dolores and death rates among the neophytes climbed so drastically that some were permitted to return to their homes for a visit, and they failed to return. By summer, many more had fled. A military investigation of conditions at the mission concluded that the Indians fled due to food shortages, overwork, and punishment. Deaths of loved ones and fear of the diseases were clearly factors as well. Interviews with Christian Huchiun and other East Bay groups who were returned to the mission were reported by Jose Arguello and others in 1797. Selected summary excerpts of their responses clearly documented the hardships they had endured and the reasons they ran away:

Tiburcio Obmusa [Huchiun ], age 55, “…after his wife and daughter died, on five separate occasions Father Dantí ordered him whipped because he was crying.”

Marciano Muiayaia [Huchiun ], age 43, ”He offered no other reason for fleeing than he had become sick.”

Macario Uncatt [probably Huchiun ], age 33, ”…he fled because his wife and one child had died.”

Magin Llucal [probably Huchiun ], age 43, “…he left due to his hunger and because they put him in the stocks when he was sick, on orders of the alcalde.”

Homobono Sumtpocse [from Josquizara, an unlocated East Bay village], age 42, ”…his brother had died on the other shore and when he cried for him at the mission they whipped him. Also, thealcalde Valeriano hit him with a heavy cane for having gone to look for mussels at the beach with Raymundo‘s permission.”

Milan Alas [probably Huchiun ], age 27, “…he was working all day in the tannery without any food for either himself, his wife, or his child. One afternoon after he left work he went to look for clams to feed his family. Father Dantí whipped him. The next day he fled to the other shore, where his wife and child died.”

Orencio Caustole [Huchiun ], age 33, ”…his father had gone several times with a little niece of his to get a ration of meat. Father Dantí never gave it to him and always hit him with a cudgel. Because his niece died of hunger, he ran away.”

Magno Cuegila [Huchiun ], age 39, “He declared he ran away because, his son being sick, he took care of him and was therefore unable to go out to work As a result he was given no ration and his son died of hunger…His son Benedicto died and was buried at age four on February 17, 1795.”

Before being taken to the mission, some of these desperate Huchiun men and women had possibly hunted or collected at the mouth of Temescal Creek where Emeryville would someday arise. Although several said they went to visit relatives, the vast majority left due to the harsh conditions. The cruel insensitivity of Father Dantí and the opportunistic Indian alcaldes is shocking and reflects the apparent view that the Indians were like children who could only listen and be instructed through their backs. In 1797, a group of pagan Sadan and Huchiun rebelled at the Mission Dolores and were later tracked down in Napa and captured by Lieutenant Jose Arguello of the San Francisco Presidio. When they were recaptured, the rebels were sentenced to flogging and periods of up to a year in chains.

Population Decline

The results of missionization of the Huchiunes and other peoples of the San Francisco Bay region were devastating. By 1810, there were no Ohlone villages maintaining a traditional lifeway. Many neophytes died from European diseases, poor food and abuse. Some dispirited mothers resorted to abortion or infanticide in a world that no longer made sense. It has been estimated that from a total precontact population of about 10,000 people, by 1832 the Ohlone had been reduced to less than 2,000. Christianized Indians were at times allowed to return home to establish outposts, or slipped away as the mission system broke down and was finally abandoned. A map of the Mission San Jose and its neighboring areas made in 1824 which noted Christian Indian villages spotted one at the Rancho San Pablo in Richmond (Rancho San Ysidro de los Juchiunes), three in the south Oakland-San Lorenzo area, but none in the area between where Oakland and Berkeley stand today. Whatever the situation really was in 1772 when Fages and Crespi passed through the area, there were apparently no Huchiun villages populated or repopulated by mtsslontzed Indians in Emeryville or nearby areas.

The Mission Dolores was unable to support itself with the fields and pastures around it and they therefore established other holdings farther south on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the East Bay. About 1817, the Mission founded the Rancho San Ysidro de los Juchiunes, a ranch three leagues long (north-south) and one-half league wide (east-west) which extended along the east shore of San Francisco Bay from the Richmond-San Pablo area south to at least Temescal Creek or perhaps even farther south. 13 The Mission used this area until the early 1820’s for grazing cattle and sheep. after which time the mission withdrew due to declining numbers of neophytes. This area later became the Rancho San Pablo, Rancho Pinole, and Rancho San Antonio.

The Rancho San Antonio

Sergeant Luis Maria Peralta was given a grant of ten square leagues of land in the East Bay on August 3, 1820 in recognition of forty years of military service in California. Luis Maria Peralta was born at the presidio of Tubac in Mexico in 1758. At age 17, he arrived at Monterey in Alta California in 1776 with his parents, sister and three brothers who were part of the party of colonists led north by de Anza.14 When he was 24, Luis enlisted in military service at the Presidio at Monterey and within two years was transferred to the Presidio at San Francisco where he served throughout the remainder of his military career. 15· Sadly, some of his military exploits included attacks on Indian villages to return runaways or punish attacks. Sgt. Luis Peralta. while stationed at Mission San Jose, led a retaliatory expedition from the town of San Jose against an “eastern rancheria” of pagan Luechas or Miwok in January, 1805 for attacking and killing the Mission mayordomo and three neophytes who against the advice of others were out missionizing with a priest in the hinterland around today’s Livermore. Here is an account of the expedition drawn from Luis Peralta’s report:

“On the twenty-second [of January] he arrived at the point where the criminals had committed the crime. They did not find a single soul. They looked for bodies. finding Christianized ‘Indian villages, the “Rancho del Sangto Luis” opposite the Mission Dolores and the “Rancho de Cann” that were apparently at the southern end of the Rancho San Antonio. and farther south the “Rancho de San Lorenzo.” These could have served as a source of labor for the Rancho San Antonio in its early years, as well. As late as 1859, there was still an Indian rancheria on the lower part of San Leandro Creek on Ignacio Peralta’s portion of the Rancho San Antonio. Vaqueros and servants would have lived at the house compound or . in simple houses or shacks scattered throughout the rancho.

Self-Sufficient in Food

Most of their food, and much of what they wore or used on the rancho would have been produced on their own land. De Veer wrote about such self-sufficiency at the Rancho San Antonio in this way:

“The greater part of their clothing was homemade. too. for they grew some flax and hemp and raised sheep for wool; and Indian servant women had learned at the Missions how to spin and weave cloth…The ranchers had hides tanned at home to make leather for boots. shoes. saddles and clothing such as coats and breeches for the workmen. They ground wheat in rude mills run by oxen. and crushed grapes for wine and olives for oil; they made soda. soap and tallow candles; also salt out of the waters of the bay. Then they made adobe bricks. and tiles of baked clay for roofs. and the redwoods furnished them wood for frame’ work of buildings. for furniture and carts and such crude machinery as they used in farming. When you have named all the things they have here in California. what can you name that they really must buy from the outside in order to be comfortable?”

This picture may have been fairly accurate during the first lonely years of the Rancho San Antonio, but historic accounts reveal that there were necessities and many luxuries that could not be obtained from the rancho and were out of necessity and even eagerly sought from traders,’ as will be discussed later.

Cattle Butchered

There were fenced-in gardens along the banks of Temescal Creek in the vicinity of the Peralta home where vegetables. melons. and other plants were raised for home consumption, under the watchful eye of Senora Peralta. There were certainly fruit trees somewhere near the house and wheat was planted elsewhere on the rancho. Meat was primarily beef from cattle slaughtered throughout the year as needed. Davis describes the butchering technique as follows:

“…if a beef was required for family use two vaqueros were detailed by the ranchero to go out and bring in a fat creature. They selected the best they could from cattle in the field. lassoed him and brought him in to the side or rear of the house, about a hundred feet distant. and convenient to the kitchen. where the steer was lassoed by the hind legs. thrown over, and killed…”

“…the man on foot stuck a knife in his neck….This mode of slaughter of cattle-lying flat upon the ground-preserved a great deal more of the blood in the meat than the method in use by Americans. The meat was therefore sweeter and more nutritious than if the blood had been drained as much as possible. as is the custom with us, though the slaughtering in this way seemed somewhat repugnant to a stranger at first. I have heard Americans express this feeling and have experienced it myself. but we soon became accustomed to it and were convinced that the mode of the Californians was superior to ours.“

“The skin was laid back on the ground as it was taken off, and the creature was cut up on the skin. At this time nearly the whole of the meat was used. not merely the choicest parts as at the matanza [summer slaughtering time). In cutting up the animal they first took off in a layer the fresada (literally. blanket), that is, the thick portion covering the ribs, which, though tough, was very sweet and palatable; and as the Californians, both men and women. old and young. were blessed with remarkable sound teeth, the toughness was no impediment to its being eaten.”

The meat would then be cut up in the kitchen with a cleaver and prepared into broiled meats (asados) or the savory caldos (soups) and guisados (stews) of Spanish cooking. Davis also recorded that the ranchos made little use of milk cows for m11k.. butter, or cheese. but that in spring, when the grass was green and the cows were born, the wives would make small flat cheeses (asaderas ) which were eaten immediately.

Davis recalled how the visits of whalers in the early 1840s led Vicente Peralta and other rancho owners to plant foreign and familiar vegetables to trade with the whaling ships:

“In making my usual trading expeditions (in 1842) the rancheros whom I met would ask me if I thought as many of the whalers would come another year as were there then. I told them I thought even more would come, as they had been encouraged by finding good supplies of vegetables and would probably come again and advise other ships to come. They asked my advice as to what to plant for sale to the ships another year. I told them to plant Irish potatoes. cabbages, pumpkins and onions, as these were the vegetables the vessels mainly depended upon.”

“Among those who were most active and energetic in furnishing supplies of this kind. and interested in planting for the purpose, were Don Vicente Peralta. the Castros of San Pablo. Don Antonio Maria Peralta. Don Ygnacio Peralta. and Don Jose Joaquin Estudillo, all on the east side of the bay. The Californians. although mainly engaged in cattle raising. were fond of agriculture and would have engaged in it extensively had there been a market for their products. When an opportunity presented itself, as in the case of supplying the whaleships. they availed themselves of it and commenced planting.”

Care of Livestock

The breeding, care. sale of livestock, especially cattle were the main occupations of ranchos like Vicente Peralta’s Encinal de Temescal. As early as 1828, the 25 Rancho San Antonio had 1,300 head of cattle, 140 horses, and 20 mules. and by the late 1840s there were 5,000 head of cattle on the ranch.41 The horses of the Californios were descendants of Arabian horses and every rancho had its herd complete with breeding mares. They were divided into caponeras or groups of about twenty-five, each with a tame bell mare that was generally a yegua pinta (calico mare) to lead them. One of the caponeras would be composed of the very best horses reserved for the exclusive use of the ranchero and his family. The rest were work and breeding horses. The vaqueros rode wildly and were constantly breaking in three year-olds to replace worn-out mounts.42 Davis recorded that the tails and manes of the breeding mares on ranchos were closely cropped but that those of the stallions were left unshorn. The horse hair was used to make bridles and hair ropes or reatas . When he asked Don Vicente’s brother. Don Domingo Peralta, why the stallions were not shorn. the gentleman replied “Las yeguas los abotrecen” that is to say. that the mares would reject and abandon them otherwise. and no longer recognize them as their stallions.43 Mares were also used to thresh grain. The grain would be placed in a clean prepared area and seventy-five to a hundred yeguas (mares) would be driven round and round in a circle over the grain by mounted vaqueros cracking whips, shouting Yeguas! Yeguasl Yeguas!” The threshed grain would then be tossed repeatedly in the air so that the wind would carry the chaff away. leaving the cleaned grain to fall to the ground to be collected and stored for later use.

The cattle and horses roamed the unfenced flats and hills of the rancho freely to graze, and often wandered beyond the boundaries of the rancho of their owner. Annually the herds were gathered together during the rodeo. In spring, the vaqueros assisted by those of neighboring ranchos would gather the herds and sort them by their markings. Each ranchero had his distinctive brand and ear notching pattern for both cattle and horses, and the unmarked calves ioreianes ) were known from the marks of their mothers and any unaccompanied orejanes were claimed by the ranch and marked accordingly. Periodic roundups through the year picked up animals missed earlier and the herds close to home. Cattle and horses were castrated during the rodeo as well. Animals slated for slaughter were then selected and taken to the slaughtering pens.

Matanza

Cattle were slaughtered for the hide trade in summer in California, beginning in May, June, or July after the rains had stopped and the rodeo completed. The fattest cattle, usually three-year-old steers were selected to be slaughtered and were driven from the rodeo corrals to the slaughtering corrals for the matanza or slaughtering. Don Vicente Peralta’s slaughtering corrals were located on both sides of Temescal Creek. near its mouth and they extended from just north of today’s Park Avenue northward all the way to the vicinity of today’s 65th Street-Peabody Lane. and eastward nearly to today’s San Pablo Avenue.46 More large enclosures. also probably cattle corrals extended farther east nearly to modem Martin Luther King Way.

The skins were stripped off the carcasses and cuts made around the edge of the hide which were then stretched and staked out flat to day. When dry. they were folded in half skin-out, and stacked to await the hide traders. The manteca or fat was melted in cauldrons and poured into hide bags called botes for storage and ease of carrying. Two kinds of fat were distinguished and used in different ways. The interior fat or sebo was the fat rendered and poured into sacks for tallow and set aside for the traders. The true manteca was the fine delicate fat found next to the hide which was tried separately. was also poured into hide sacks, but this fat was saved for use at home. It was preferred to hog’s fat in cooking. although they might be mixed at times.

Sometimes, when a family had more manteca than it could use, it would sell the surplus. A small portion of the meat. perhaps only 200 pounds of the best parts, was saved and dried for future use by the family. The rest of the meat was discarded to be eaten by the wild beasts and vultures. Other items prepared for trade were dried meat and horns. the last for the manufacture of buttons and combs on the East Coast. The accumulated hides, tallow bags and other trade goods would be waiting for the traders when they came later in the summer. Traders would come by boat and the hides and other goods would be brought in carts and loaded for transport to ships or middlemen in Yerba Buena. It might take two years of trading along the California coast before the 40-50,000 hides needed to fill a ship were collected and it sailed back around the Horn to its home port.

Grizzly Bears

The offal and carcasses were discarded at the matanza site; the stench and sight of hundreds of carcasses and skulls must have made the area unpleasant. The areas where cattle were slaughtered drew flies and scavengers. and flocks of soaring vultures circling above the slaughtering grounds would have been visible from the Peralta home. More frightful were the grizzly bears from the hills which were attracted to the discarded carcasses. On moonlit nights, Don Vicente Peralta and his vaqueros would saddle up and ride down to the slaughtering pens. with. the thudding of horses hooves and their spurs jingling, to chase and lasso bears for sport. an amusement they enjoyed immensely. Bear stories abounded in the accounts of early East Bay explorers and settlers. and two stories about the Peraltas merit repeating here. In one, William Heath Davis recalled his own encounter with grizzly bears as follows.

“At one time I was encamped at the embarcadero of Temescal, a place south of the creek of the same name not far from the depot at Sixteenth Street, Oakland. in order to receive hides and tallow from the cattle slaughtered on the bank of the stream. which articles I was collecting for my employer Nathan …The matanza ground was about a half mile from my tent. and Peralta and his vaqueros had come down in the night to lasso bears for sport. Some of them got away from their enemies and made for my tent. probably being attracted to it as a strange object looming up white in the darkness: with the curiosity with which such animals are known to possess. they proceeded to investigate it. I sat in my tent and heard these animals circling round. and round outside for several hours. going off at times and returning. I was in constant fear they might push their noses under the canvas, work themselves into the tent and devour me, and had they not been full from feasting on the matanza meat I should probably have fallen victim.

As I sat there quietly and listened to their deep breathing and movements outside, I was filled with fear and anxiety, and it may easily be imagined how much I was relieved when finally the beasts went off for good and left me alone. I attribute my prematurely gray hairs to the alarm I felt on that occasion.

On giving Don Vicente Peralta a narrative of my narrow escape from being devoured by the bears which he and his vaqueros had stampeded to my tent, he laughed heartily, but became serious when he realized the gravity of my situation, and remarked that there were not enough men at the place that night to lasso all the bears, and three of them had escaped, as he supposed to the mountains. He said they were not hungry, having made a hearty supper from the slaughtered cattle, but he thought it was best to be on the safe side; that they were not to be trusted at any time, and a youth of my fine appearance might be tempting to them.

After this occurrence whenever I had occasion to stop overnight there, he wouLd send a vaquero with a horse, and a kind message from himself and wife to be their guest for the night, which invitations I gladly accepted. He asked me once or twice to accompany him on his bear hunting expeditions. but I always declined. preferring the company of his handsome wife for the evening to the possible danger of being devoured by the osos, taking warning from my past critical experience.

Imagine, grizzly bears in Emeryville! Another such encounter concerned Señora Peralta, and William Heath Davis recorded that:

“Doña Encarnacion…resided at Temescal, where she had a beautiful home. one of the handsomest in the country. In 1840…she lived a quarter of a mile from her later residence in a northeasterly direction. About where her home was she had a large vegetable garden, or milpa, and cultivated watermelons. On a day in the month of August she walked down from her house at midday to look at her garden and see how her melons and vegetables were getting on. As she was about to return to the house. just as she had left the garden, she saw a short distance off five or six horsemen, among them. her husband, gathered about an immense bear which they had just Lassoed. It was the matanza season, and the animal had been attracted to the spot by the smell of the meat. He had come down from the mountains to feast upon the carcasses of the slaughtered cattle, but, contrary to the usual custom. had boldly approached in the broad light of day instead of at night. He was a monster. the largest that had ever been seen there. strong. and savage, having broken one of the reatas. It required the strength of all the men to manage and hold him. Doña Encarnación was a good deal startled at the sight of the struggling beast. Her husband made a motion to her to go back to the milpa, which she did, staying until the bear was fully secured and subdued. This was in the open country with no concealment of woods or shrubbery.”

Californian Women

Food was abundant if simple, and Davis attributed the apparent good health and longevity of the rancheros to their diet of beef slaughtered in the nutritious Spanish way. He observed that they kept their teeth into old age in part due to “an extremely simple mode of hvmg and their temperate habits.” They rose early. and the men worked hard all day on the land while the women, like Señora Peralta, managed the household, kitchen, and gardens. Bancroft described how Californian women spent much of their time with their needles:

“Needlework was in constant demand, and in every form. They [women] made their own garments. as well as those of their fathers. husbands. and brothers, all calling for embellishments in the way oj embroidery, fine stitching, etc. The utmost care and taste were displayed in the beds and bedding, the linen being embroidered, or otherwise adorned…The well-to-do of both sexes used the best material they could procure, silk. wool, velvet, etc. The poorer classes, while dressing in the same style, had to be content with inferior goods.”

Rancho life was not all hard work and isolation. The Peraltas were remembered as gracious hosts to traders like Davis, and to their neighbors. Mission San Jose and Mission Santa Clara were too far for weekly attendance at Mass. and Mission Dolores lay across the Bay to the west, so the Vicente Peralta family, being good Catholics, prayed at home and eventually built their own chapel there. Weddings and religious holidays broke the everyday routine and were celebrated by either holding festivities or travel to gatherings of people with feasting, music and dancing, horse races, bull fights with mounted riders, and occasionally bull and bear fights. These were the times the Peraltas and their neighbors would dress up and travel to the rancho or the Mission San Jose where the celebration was being held, a welcome opportunity to see friends and acquaintances, and enjoy themselves. They would take the trail that led from San Pablo to Domingo’s house in north Berkeley then ran past Vicente’s home on Temescal Creek, then south along modern East 14th Street to his brothers’ homes in the southern part of the Rancho San Antonio, and then on to the Mission San Jose.

William Heath Davis describes Vicente Peralta and his entourage on just such a journey:

“I have ridden in company with him going to the Feast of San Jose. when he was attired in a costly suit trimmed with gold and silver lace. sitting with ease and grace on his horse, which was equally equipped. followed by two mounted and well dressed mozos twenty feet in the rear and his wife about two or three hundred yards distant with her splendidly mounted cavalcade. the whole forming a picture worthy of admiration.”

Señora Peralta would have been dressed in holiday clothing, and at the festival she and the other women would be: “…dressed according to their tastes and temperaments. They wore silks and satin, laces and spangles, shawls and high-heeled slippers, lace mantillas and ivory combs. Richard Henry Dana described the dress of women of Monterey in the early 1830s in this way:

“The women wore gowns of various textures-silks, crape. calicoes, etc-made after the European style. except that they were loose about the waist. corsets not being in use. They wore shoes oj kid or satin. sashes or belts of bright colors. and almost always a necklace and earrings….They wear their hair (which is almost invariably black. or a very dark brown) long in their necks. sometimes loose. and sometimes in long braids, though married women often do it up on a high comb.”

Spanish Gentlemen

On special occasions, the taste for finery among the Spanish gentlemen was even more dazzling than that of their women:

“The men enjoyed bright colors. especially yellows and greens. They wore yellow vacuña [sic] woolen hats, the under part of the brim covered with silver lace. The jacket, easy set, of green satin with large flaps oj the same material, its buttons being Mexican coins with the eagle stamp on the exterior. The waistcoat of yellow satin, with pocket flaps buttoned up with gold dollars. Broad knee breeches of red velvet color fastened with silver buckles. A buckskin boot of natural color bound. to the knees where the breeches ended with green silk ribbon forming a flower, and with tassels from which depended little figures of cats, dogs. and puppets made of glass beads. interpolated with embellishments of gold and silver thread. Where the legging ended the shoe began. This was sharp-pointed and turned upward with tinsel ornaments. For shelter from the elements. the Californian wore a manga of sky blue lined with black velvet and silver galoons. They wore their hair dressed in three braids falling upon the jacket.”

Traders

Much of this finery was obtained from traders on ships, and from stores located across the bay in Yerba Buena. Opportunities to shop must have been welcome and exciting breaks from the routine of daily life. Dana said that in the early 1830s, the Californian women of Monterey would spend whole days on board ship examining and making purchases of clothing and ornaments“ … at a rate which would have made a seamstress or waiting-maid in Boston open her eyes.” He said that “for a week or ten days all was life on board. The people came off to look and to buy-men, women, and children, …if only to buy a paper of pins…” The ship he was on carried many luxuries:

“We had spirits of all kinds (sold by the cask), teas, coffee. sugar, spices, raisins. molasses, hardware, crockery-ware. tin-ware, cutlery, clothing of all kinds, boots and shoes from Lynn, calicoes and cottons from Lowell, crapes, silks; also shawls, scarfs, necklaces, Jewelry, and combs for the women; furniture; and in fact everything that can be imagined, from Chinese fireworks to English cartwheels…”

Joseph-Yves Limantour arrived on the California coast in the fall of 1841 on his schooner Ayacucho laden with brandy and other trade goods from France. He missed the entrance to San Francisco Bay and was wrecked near Point Reyes, and Davis recalled:

“Limantour established himself for a time at Yerba Buena, where he sold much of his merchandise, and then proceeded in a small schooner of forty or fifty tons down the coast and disposed oj the remainder. Nathan Spear [of Yerba Buena] purchased some of the goods. The muslins and calicoes were offline texture and fast colors and sold readily to the California women, who came from their ranchos purposely to obtain the choice French fabrics. The silks of this cargo were French and Italian, of the finest: quality. as intended jor the markets of the wealthy interior cities and towns of Mexico. Silk was largely used by the California ladies. the wealthier class dressing in that material. The rich men of the department were generous to their wives and daughters. never refusing them what they required in dry goods and other materials. Limantour‘s silks therefore found ready purchasers.”

An American who arrived in Verba Buena in the early 1840s had among his stock many items of interest to these wealthy gentlemen:

“In early 1840 or ’41 there arrived at Yerba Buenafrom Mazatlcm two Americans, one named Hiram Teal. a merchant. and Rufus Titcomb. his clerk. Teal brought on a vessel about $20,000 worth of Mexican goods, such as silk and cotton rebozos, serapes, ponchos, mangas. costly and ordinary, silver-mounted and gilt spurs; saddles, ornamented and ordinary, armas de pelo, or riding robes for protecting the legs and body up to the waist; silver headstalls for horses, hair bridle reins, and other fancy and ornamental goods; an assortment of Mexican products. Teal opened a store and sold these goods to the hacendados principally…Teal was here about two years disposing of his merchandise, and he made probably $30,000 out of the venture, and had also bought some of Limantour’s goods, which he sold with his own.”

These and other luxuries obtained from traders were paid for in silver, which Dana said was in circulation in surprising amounts, or in “California banknotes,” the dried hides from their herds which had a standard value.

Embarcadero de Temescal

In order to travel across the bay to the Presidio, Mission Dolores, or the Yankee village of Verba Buena opposite the rancho, the Peralta family would have ridden from their home down along Temescal Creek through matanza grounds and its horrors to reach the beach where their boats were moored. This beach was the Embarcadero Temescal or “the wharf or landing” of Temescal. The shoreline of that time was approximately where Shellmound Street is now located. Maps of the area from the 1850s would lead us to believe that only the shore just north of the mouth of Temescal Creek was the “embarcadero”. However, William Heath Davis‘ account of camping in a tent and his encounter with the bears suggests that the “Embarcadero de Temescal” may have extended from as far south as the vicinity of modem 16th Street northward all the way to the north bank of Temescal Creek and perhaps even as far north as modem Powell Street. If so, the horrors of the matanza corrals could have been avoided, or a least passed at some distance. Nonetheless, the trip across the bay in an open boat was probably rough and at times even dangerous. Yankee traders like Davis would also land at the embarcadero.

The town of Yerba Buena was founded by an Englishman named W. A. Richardson who in 1835 built a shack above Yerba Buena Cove to the west of both the Presidio and the Mission Dolores.63 The following year, Jacob Leese built the first permanent structure there, and by 1844, it had fifty residents, in 1846 two hundred and had become a mixed Yankee and Spanish community. It was a port of call for whalers and traders and soon saw its own resident merchants and traders arrive. On the eve of the Gold Rush in 1848, this thriving town had reached eight hundred and fifty souls! This was the beginning of the city of San Francisco. At their home on Temescal Creek, Vicente Peralta and his Wife would have been able to see the ships . sail through the Golden Gate and enter San Francisco Bay.

Military Service

The Spanish gentlemen and their sons were expected to serve their communities and government. Old Don Luis Peralta had been in the military and had been posted at Monterey, San Jose, and San Francisco. His son Ignacio had also served as a soldier and spent a number of years in the Yerba Buena Company, had served as a “Juez” or “Justice of the peace” for his region of “Contra Costa” between 1839-1851, and served a term as a member of the Provincial Assembly in Monterey. His son Domingo served as sindico at San Jose. One of the things most resented by the rancheros was the levy for military service. By law, the Mexican Commanding General had the power to levy as many men as he needed, and from time to time selected the unmarried sons of different families to serve. Some sons were sent away when word of such a levy reached them, while many young men, some only sixteen or seventeen years old, married early to avoid conscription. Married men were left to care for their families. As families and herds grew many rancheros found these military and civil obligations irksome and costly. A group of East Bay inhabitants petitioned for a change of jurisdiction from San Francisco to the one in San Jose. which they felt was closer and offered more accommodations:

“TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.”

The residents of the adjoining ranchos of the north, now belonging to the jurisdiction of the port of San Francisco. with due respect to your Excellency. represent: That finding great detriment and feeling the evUs under which they labor from belonging to this jurisdiction. whereby they are obliged to represent to your Excellency that it causes an entire abandoning of their families for a year by those who attend the judiciary functions are obliged to cross the bay. Truthfully speaking. to be obliged to go to the port by land. we are under the necessity of traveling forty leagues. going and coming back; and to go by sea we are exposed to the danger of being wrecked. By abandoning our families. as above stated. .it is evident that they must remain without the protection against the influences of malevolent persons; they are also exposed to detention and loss of labor and property. and injury by animals. There is no lodging to be had in that port, where. for a year, an ayuntamiento is likely to detain them. and. should they take their families. incurring heavy expenses for their transportation and necessary provisioning for the term of their engagement. there is no accommodation for them. Wherefore. in view of these facts. they pray your Excellency to be pleased to allow them to belong to the jurisdiction of the town of San Jose. and recognize a commission of justice that will correspond with the said San Jose as capital for the people in this vicinity; wherefore. we humble pray your Excellency to favor the parties interested by acceding to their wishes.

Although the town of San Jose supported their petition, it was refused by the Ayuntamiento of San Francisco who observed that others had traveled hundreds of leagues to the interior or San Diego for public service. In his refusal, Francisco de Haro denied the lack of accommodations at the Presidio or that any such catastrophe had ever occurred, and noting how willingly they crossed the bay to trade, indignantly asked:

“Which are these Peraltas and Castros that have been wrecked on attending to their business affairs every time that any vessel comes to anchor in the Bay of Yerba Buena?” The Jose Peralta who signed the petition of 1835 was either Jose Domingo Peralta or his brother Jose Vicente Peralta of the Encinal de Temescal. However, both Domingo and Vicente Peralta were public spirited men. Domingo’s service has been noted above, and Don Vicente served with General Vallejo in Sonoma, and was jailed with him and Salvador Vallejo at Sutter’s Fort during the Bear Flag Rebellion of 1846.

Mexican War

The Bear Flag Rebellion of 1846 was only the first, premature effort by Americans to take over California. The Mexican War broke out on May 12, 1846, and on July 6 the American sloop of war Portsmouth anchored in Yerba Buena Cove. Captain John B. Montgomery led a party of men ashore and raised the American flag in the plaza of the town and claimed California for the United States, and on July 9, Commander Sloat performed the same ceremony in Monterey. Despite military defenses by the Californios and Mexican forces, the Americans prevailed. The Cahuenga Capitulation was signed on July 13, 1847 which ended hostilities, and California was thereafter part of the United States.70 The Americans guaranteed the property rights and personal freedom of the Californios, and in return the Californios agreed to obey the laws of the United States and not support Mexico in the war. The Mexican War ended on February 2, 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. However, by then, an event that proved even more momentous to California had already occurred. The first flecks of gold were discovered at Sutter’s Mill on January 24, 1848, and very soon the “Golden Age of the Californios” would be swept away, and the lives of Vicente Peralta and his countrymen would never be the same again.

Feature Image: Luis María Peralta via alchetron.com.

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This story originally published in 1996 for the Emeryville Centennial Celebration and compiled into the ‘Early Emeryville Remembered’ historical Essays book.