San Benito County Courthouse
Completed 1888
San Benito's third courthouse was a lavishly decorated building with an exterior modeled on the Farnese Palace in Rome and elaborate balustrades of polished red cedar within. The Hollister landmark withstood many earthquakes but was structurally damaged in a 1961 quake. The courts were moved into a quickly remodeled library while a new courthouse was constructed. The old courthouse was razed the following year |
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A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.
Early History.
But little was known of the interior of California prior to the commencement of the mission era, or 1769, although various navigators had sailed along the California coast, as recounted elsewhere in this volume, during the period intervening between the time of its discovery by Cabrillo, in 1642, and the advent of the Franciscan missionaries.
The Indians had roamed through the mountains and plains of this western coast for unknown ages, living a degraded life, but little above the level of that of the wild animals indigenous to this region. Of their origin or history there is no record. Aside from the story of the rocks, and the vague lesson taught by the topography of the country, we know absolutely nothing of Alta California prior to 1642; nor indeed but very little until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The historical period, therefore, may be said to commence with the founding of the missions.
Daring Father Junipero Serra's able administration, nine missions had been founded in Alta or Upper California. These missions had gathered many Indians into their folds, or had brought them under their control; and they had also acquired considerable wealth in the form of cattle, horses, sheep and other useful animals, and in grail), etc.; and also, four presidios or military appendages of the missions had been established by the government for the protection of the latter; so that the missionary establishments may be said to have had the territory along the coast, at least, practically under their control.
After the death of the pioneer president of the missions, Father Junipero Serra, in 1784, Father Palou, the senior priest in California, who had filled Father Junipero's place during his absence, became acting president till the appointment of a successor in the person of Father Fermnin Francisco Lasuen of San Diego, in honor of whom Point Fermin was named.
The policy of establishing missions in eligible localities was continued under the presidency of Father Lasuen, in accordance with orders of Governor Borica. Expeditions were sent out from different missions, for the purpose of finally fixing the locations for these new missions.
In November, 1795, Friar Danti and Lieutenant Sal and party set out from Monterey to explore the San Benito valley, and they found two suitable places,-----one on the San Benito river, and the other near the site of the present town of Gilroy. President Lasuen reported these to Governor Borica, who embodied the same in his report to the viceroy. As two sites had been recommended for the mission between San Carlos and Santa Clara, a further examination was ordered, and the site on San Benito river was chosen.
Here, on St. John's day, June 24, 1797, was founded the mission of San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist), so named to distinguish it from the mission already established, of San Juan Capistrano, which was named after an entirely different personage or saint.
President Lasuen appointed, as the first ministers of the new mission, "Los B. H. P. P., Pred'res, App. cos, Fr. Jesef de Mortearena, y Fr. Pedro Adriano Martines;" i.e., the reverend prelates, preachers apostolical, friars, etc., etc.
A few years after, or on the 13th of June,. 1803, the corner-stone of a church building was laid. Among the names of the persons who took part in the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of this church, almost ninety years ago, were Padre Viader, conductor of ceremonies, José de la Guerra, padrino, and Captain Font and Surgeon Morelas. A record of the proceedings and a few coins were deposited in the corner-stone. An image of the patron saint of the mission, St. John the Baptist, was placed on the high altar in 1809; and on the 25th of June, 1812, or nine years after the corner-stone was laid, the church was dedicated, the records of the mission, noting the contemporary facts, of "Fernando VII (whom God preserve!) being king of Spain; Don Fernando Venegas, viceroy of New Spain (Mexico); José Joaquin Arrillaga, governor of California; Esteban Tapis, president of the missions in California, and Fr. Felipe de la Cuesta, minister at the mission."
Probably the buildings, including the church, warehouses, etc., as they exist at the present day, afford a fair idea of the mission establishment as it appeared during the early part of the century, less the busy and numerous neophyte actors and the missionary fathers under whom they labored. These buildings, of course, show the effects of time and the action of the elements; nevertheless, they are still in a fair state of preservation, and they show plainly, even to this late day, that their designers and builders were wise managers in temporal affairs, as well as faithful and devoted teachers of the spiritual doctrines which they believed in.
Some distance from the church were two rows of buildings, about 300 feet in length, under a common roof, with a passage-way between them, divided into many rooms, each entirely separate from the others, in which the neophytes were shut up nights, separately. These indian abode quarters long ago dissolved into earth mounds, which now are all that is left to mark their locality. The church buildings were so planned as to enclose an area some 200 feet square, in which the friars and their wards were safe from all outside enemies. A story is~ told that beneath the fallen wall on the west side of this square, sixty Spanish silver dollars of ancient dates were found. The San Juan church was built of adobes and slack-burnt bricks -- the latter being twelve inches by eight inches, by two inches thick, and being baked in a slow fire were very durable. The plan of the building is in the form of a cross; being 140 feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty feet to the ceiling, with a tile roofing. There are three altars, the principal one dedicated to St. John the Baptist, with a life-size statue of this titular saint, at the end of the nave of the church, and an altar on each side of the transept. The walls are four feet thick, braced with brick abutments outside when over twenty feet long, and plastered with lime mortar.
The church formerly had a chime of nine very fine-toned bells, cast in Peru, only one of which is now remaining in the building.
Of the venerable ten-acre mission orchard, only the old pear trees still live and bear fruit; and but a very few hardy olive trees are left of the olive orchard about a mile south of the church; while the vineyard disappeared many years ago.
According to the church records, over 4,000 bodies are buried in the cemetery adjoining the north wall of the church. Friar Esteban Tapis, who labored as a missionary in Alta California thirty-five years, died at this mission, November 4, 1825, and was buried under the chancel floor of the church. He had been in charge, successively, of the missions of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, San Cárlos and San Juan Bautista. The books of the church show that the number of Indians baptized amounted in all to 3,981.
Humboldt reports that at the time of his visit to California, in 1802, there were at the mission 530 male and 428 female Indian neophytes, or 958 in all. As a center of activity of nearly 1,000 human beings, we can imagine that it presented a vastly different scene from what it does now. As indicating the number of Indians in that neighborhood, at that period, it may be mentioned that within three and a half years after the founding of San Juan Mission, nearly 650 indians had been baptized, and that there were twenty-three rancherias, or Indian villages, within that jurisdiction.
The numerous Indian tribes of the district annoyed the mission by various unfriendly acts from time to time; and Sergeant Castro was sent out by Governor Borica with sufficient force to chastise them, and to partially check their depredations.
The prosperity and fertility of the country around San Juan are shown by the fact that during the first three years the increase of ganado mayor (large cattle or animals) belonging to the mission amounted to over 700 head, and the ganado menor, or smaller animals, exceeded 2,000 head; while 2,700 bushels of grain were produced in the year 1800.
In October, 1800, numerous earthquake shocks were felt; and especially on the eighteenth of that month, a very severe one occurred, causing considerable damage to the adobe buildings standing at the time, an account of which, are noticed at San Juan Bautista, is given in a letter of the Captain of the presidio of Monterey to Governor Arrillaga, on October 31, 1800: "I have to inform your Excellency that the mission of San Juan Bautista, since the 11th inst., has been visited by severe earthquakes; that Pedro Adriano Martinez, one of the Fathers of said mission, has informed me that during one day there were six severe shocks; that there is not a single habitation, although built with double walls, that has not been injured from roof to foundation, and that all are threatened with ruin; and that the fathers are compelled to sleep in the wagons to avoid danger, since the houses are not habitable. At the place where the rancheria is situated, some small openings have been observed in the earth, and also in the neighborhood of the river Pájaro, there is another deep opening, all resulting from the earthquakes. These phenomena have filled the fathers and inhabitants of that mission with consternation.
"The lieutenant, Don Raymundo Carrillo, has assured me the same, for on the eighteenth he stopped for the night at this mission (San Juan) on his journey from San José and being at supper with one of the fathers, a shock was felt, so powerful, and attended with such a loud noise, as to deafen them, when they fled to the court without finishing their supper; and that about 11 o'clock at night the shock was repeated with almost equal force.
"The fathers of the missions say that the Indians assure them that there have always been earthquakes at that place, and that there are certain cavities caused by earthquakes, from which salt water has flowed.
"All of which I communicate to you for your information.
"May our Lord preserve your life many years.
"Hemenegildo Sal.
"Monterey, October 31, 1800."
Old records recite that in 1800 the San Juan Indians sent three carts, nine yoke of oxen, nine horses and fifteen Indians to Monterey, when an attack from foreign vessels was feared, for which they were remunerated by order of the viceroy to encourage or stimulate zeal in the future in like cases.
Disagreements between the missions and settlers, and eventually between missions and the government, commenced early and from time to time caused more or less friction. It is recorded that in 1802 the clerical authorities of San Juan Bautista were directed to remove their stock from land claimed under a grant, Mariano Castro; but the matter being appealed to the viceroy, that officer decided in favor of the mission. In the year 1806, an exploring party, consisting of twenty-five men under lieutenant Moraga, was sent out from San Juan Bautista to explore the Tulare country, and incidentally to find suitable sites for new missions. Friar Pedro Muños accompanied the expedition, and kept a diary of the same. Leaving San Juan September 21, in an easterly direction, Moraga crossed the San Joaquin river and went north down the valley of that name, and continued his explorations twelve or fourteen days; and then turned about and traveled south on the east side of the valley, and finally, about November 1, reached the mission of San Fernando.
The report of this and other expeditions, by Father Tapis, for the year 1805 and 1806, says, twenty-four rancherias, with an aggregate of over 5,000 indians, had been visited; and that but four or five sites were found between San Miguel and San Fernando suitable for the location of new missions, which, if established would require a new presidio.
The mission church at San Juan Bautista was finished and dedicated June 23, 1812; Manuel Gutierrez, of Los Angeles, standing as sponsor (padrino), aided by the padres of San José and Santa Clara.
The next ten years were apparently uneventful ones at San Juan. Occasional expeditions were sent out to punish neighboring, unfriendly or thieving Indians, or to bring in converts. According to the archives, in 1815 or '16, Corporal José Dolores Pico, of San Juan, who went out with a small force after runaways, was badly wounded in a fight with the indians.
Mention is also made of an expedition under one Soto against the Mariposas, which brought in to the San Juan Mission some 300 Indians.
The estimated population of this mission, San Juan Bautista, at the beginning of this century, was about 1,000, mostly Christianized Indians.
Humboldt, who visited California in 1802, estimated the population of Alta California, whites and mulattoes, 1,300; converted Indians 15,560.
Dwinelle tells us that in 1834, or 65 years after the founding of San Diego, over 30,000 Indian converts were lodged in the buildings of the twenty-one missions of California; over 700,000 head of cattle of various species, besides 60,000 horses, pastured on the plains; 180,000 bushels of grain, mostly wheat, were produced annually, besides large quantities of wine, brandy, wool, oil, etc.
The mission of San Juan Bautista owned in 1820 over 40,000 head of cattle, nearly 1,400 tame horses, 4,800 mares, fillies and colts, and about 70,000 head of sheep. Indians, under the control of this mission, employed more than 300 yoke of work oxen in carrying on its extensive farming operations.
In 1813, and again in 1828, the Spanish Cortez decreed the secularization of missions in all Spanish Colonies. The Mexican Congress, August 17, 1833, passed a secularization law, which was effectually enforced within two or three years thereafter.
Mexican Land Grants.
The following is a list of confirmed land grants wholly or partly in San Benito county, with names of confirmés, dates and numbers of acres each.
| NAME OF GRANT |
Date |
Acres |
Grantees |
| Aromitas y Agua Caliente, |
1835 |
8,659 |
F. A. Mac Dougall, et al. |
| Ansaymas y San Felipe, |
1833 |
11,744 |
F. P. Pacheco |
| Bolsa de San Felipe, |
1840 |
6,795 |
F. P. Pacheco |
| Cienega del Gabilan, |
1843 |
21,874 |
J. D. Carr |
| Cienega de los Paicines, |
1842 |
8,917 |
A Castro, et al |
| Los Carneros, |
1842 |
236 |
F. A. Mac Dougall, et al. |
| Liano del Tequisqaite, |
1835 |
16,016 |
Sanchez heirs |
| Lomerias Muertas, |
1842 |
6,660 |
Sanchez heirs |
| Los Vergeles, |
1835 |
2,085 |
James Stokes |
| Mission S. Juan Bautista, |
1797 |
55 |
Bishop, etc. J. S. Alemany |
| Real de los Aquilas, |
1844 |
31,052 |
F. A. Mac Dougall, et al. |
| San Antonio, |
1846 |
4,493 |
M. Larios |
| Santa Ana y Qaien Sabe, |
1839 |
48,822 |
M. Larios, et al. |
| San Joaquin, |
1836 |
7,425 |
C. Cervantez |
| San Justo, |
1839 |
34,619 |
F. P. Pacheco |
| San Loreuzo, |
1846 |
2,384 |
R. Sanchez |
| Tract near Mission S. Juan |
1839 |
401 |
P. Breen |
| The status of Panoche Grande, about 17,000 acres, 1844 to V. P Gomez is given elsewhere. |
| Total area of Mexican grants, |
232,100 |
acres |
| Total area of public lands, |
442,900 |
acres |
| Total area of S Benito county, |
676,000 |
acres |
Change of Government.
The quiet of San Juan Bautista Mission was disturbed by the events attending and immediately succeeding the change from Mexican to United States rule. Shortly after the raising of the American flag at Monterey, July 7, 1846, and at the other important points a few days later, Castro, with such disaffected forces as he could save from the general demoralization that began to set in, withdrew to San Juan; but he did not remain there long as, on the 17th of July, Frémont and his battalion arrived there from the north, and the same day Fauntleroy and a squad of dragoons reached there, where upon the American flag was raised, thus completing the conquest of this portion of California.
On the 19th, the battalion started for Monterey, leaving a small force at San Juan. A little later Captain Fauntleroy with fifty men was sent from Monterey to relieve the force left at San Juan by Frémont. While stationed there an expedition was sent out against Indian horse-thieves, with whom it had a fight, in which several Indians were killed and the horses stolen were recovered. In October, Fauntleroy's men having been called elsewhere, a small force under Maddox was sent to San Juan, where they spiked the iron cannon which had been left there, and took away the brass cannon to keep them from falling into the hands of the Californians.
About the middle of November several recruiting parties for Frémont's battalion arrived with men and horses at San Juan Bautista. Consul Larkin, while on his way from Monterey to San Francisco, was captured at Gomez ranch, Los Verjeles, where he stopped for the night, by a band of Castro's Californians led by Chavez, and taken to Castro's camp, the object evidently being to use him as an exchange for some of their own patrolled men who had been captured. The Californians entertained a plan of attacking San Juan) and they endeavored, but of course to no avail, to get Larkin to aid them in the scheme. Their plan, it would seem, contemplated a feigned attack on San Juan by a few men for the purpose of drawing out the garrison in pursuit, which they then thought they could overcome with their principal force. A severe fight ensued at the Natividad ranch, in which several men were killed and more wounded on both sides. In the meantime word was sent to Monterey, and Frémont immediately hastened to the rescue; and the Californians having withdrawn, he gathered his varones at San Juan, where the battalion's organization was completed and preparations were made for a march south against the foe. The course taken was up the San Benito and over into the Salinas valley, and thence to Sari Luis Obispo, which latter place was captured without opposition.
Here Jesus Pico, who had been captured at Wilson's ranch, was tried by court martial for having broken his parole in the San Juan and Natividad campaign. He was found guilty and sentenced to be shot. But the pathetic appeal of his wife and fourteen children, and of many other women, her neighbors and of some of Frémont's own officers who had been formerly befriended by Pico, caused Frémont to relent and to grant him a pardon. Pico thereafter became the grateful and sincere friend of the man who had thus saved his life. Pico died quite recently.
American Settlement of San Benito Valley.
One of the first American settlements in the San Benito valley was begun by Jacob Watson in 1854, near the site of the present town of Hollister. Prior to that time the valley was occupied as a stock range by the owners of Mexican land grants. The neighboring foot-hills and mountain ranges were the home of deer, antelope and bear. From 1861 to 1870 much of the valley now used as a sheep range, the Hollisters and Flint, and Bixby & Co., having engaged in breeding improved sheep in this section, which was then a portion of Monterey county.
County Division.
The rapid settlement of the extensive and fertile San Benito valley and the valleys tributary thereto, which were separated from the rest of Monterey county by the Gabilan range of mountains, developed interests which centered in the new communities, and out of which grew, very naturally, a desire by the people to manage for themselves their own local affairs. The first attempt to divide Monterey county, by having San Benito set oft by itself as a separate political division, was made in the legislature of 1869 --'70; but the opposition interposed by the resident portion of the present old county caused the movement to fail at this time. Nevertheless, it continued to gain strength from many and legitimate causes. The contest became a very heated one for the time being, swallowing up all other issues. The people living east of the Gabilan insisted that they were entitled to a division, and they were almost unanimously determined to have it. The election of a representative in the legislature turned on this one issue. The question was division or no division, Republicans and Democrats forgetting their party affiliations. But though the "new-county" people were still in the minority, they did not give up the fight. They returned again to the charge in the next election, and won by a small majority. The contest was carried to the Assembly and then to the Senate, in each of which houses the divisionists won, and then to the governor, who after some hesitation signed the bill, and thus, finally, in March 1874, the act creating the new county became a law. By this act the governor was authorized and directed to appoint five commissioners who were charged with the organization of the new county. The names of the commissioners appointed were: T. S. Hawkins, Jesse Whitton, Mark Pomeroy, John Breen and H. M. Hayes. This commission met at the town of Hollister, February 18, 1874, and organized by electing John Breen as president, and H. M. Hayes as secretary. The new county was subdivided into four townships, viz.: Hollister, San Juan, San Benito and Paicines. and three supervisorial districts, numbered one, two and three. District number one, comprised Hollister township; number two, San Juan township; and number three, San Benito and Paicines townships. The new officers were to be appointed by the governor or filled by special election. James F. Breen, who had resigned the judgeship of Monterey county was appointed by the governor to the same position in San Benito county, while the commissioners, under provisions of the organic act, ordered a special election on the 26th day of March, 1874, whereat the required county officers were to be chosen, and the county seat was to be permanently located by popular vote.
At this election the following officers were elected, viz.: Sheriff and ex officio tax collector, Benjamin F. Ross; clerk and recorder, H. M. Hayes; district attorney, N. N. Briggs; treasurer, T. McMahon; assessor, Hayden Dowdy; surveyor, F. P. McCray; school superintendent, H. Z. Morris; coroner and public administrator, J. M. Black; supervisors: district No. 1, Mark Pomeroy; district No. 2, Thomas Flint; district No. 3, D. J. Watson. Under the provisions of an amended act of the Legislature, approved March 10, 1876, the boards of supervisors of the old and new counties jointly selected a commission of five members, -- two by Monterey, two by San Benito, and the fifth by the judge of the twentieth judicial district court, -- which met at Salinas city, inventoried and appraised the property and assets of each county, ascertained the amount of indebtedness of Monterey county, on the 12th day of February, 1874, the date on which the act creating San Benito county became a law. The commissioners deducted the total value of assets of both counties from the total indebtedness, which exceeded the assets, and ascertained the pro. portion of the debt due from San Benito county to be $5,808.56, for which amount bonds bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum, and payable in five years, were issued, and made payable to the order of Monterey county. The principle is sound in the division of a partnership or of a county, that each partner shall assume his or its proportion of the existing indebtedness.
San Benito County in 1892.
An Benito county constitutes one judicial district, of which Hon. James F. Breen is the superior judge. The other county officers are: John L. Hudner, district attorney; C. C. Cargill, assemblyman; E. E. Holbrook, sheriff and ex officio tax collector; Rody Shaw, county clerk, ex officio recorder, and auditor; D. F. McPhail, assessor; E. B. Montgomery, treasurer; J. N. Thompson, school superintendent; W. K. Brown, surveyor; D. McCarty, public administrator and coroner.
The county is now divided into five supervisor districts, and the following are the present supervisors: D. Snibley, district No. 1; Luis Raggio, district No. 2; G. S. Nash, district No. 3; A. J. Chaney, district No. 4; M. F. Finch, chairman, district No. 5.
The county courthouse at Hollister, the county seat, was erected in 1887, and cost about $45,000. It is a two-story edifice with basement and tower; the walls are of brick, stuccoed; its site is on a lot 300x200 feet, fronting on Monterey street, between Fourth and Fifth streets. The courthouse has entrances on three sides, by fourteen granite steps, with columned porches. In the northwest rear corner of the grounds stands a substantial one-story brick jail, costing about $10,000, which, though neatly and carefully kept, appears (to the credit of the community be it said) to be poorly patronized.
The grounds of the courthouse are surrounded by an ornamental iron fence; and on three sides, outside the cement walks, are some thirty beautiful bright-green, ever graceful "umbrella trees," which, with the grass plat surrounding the building, give the San Benito courthouse and grounds a unique appearance during a greater portion of the year, which is as rare as it is beautiful. There are also a few palm and other ornamental trees interspersed within and around the yard, but not of such numbers or size as to interrupt the view from within or without the grounds. The county has built three bridges, costing in the aggregate about $25,000.
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