Haggin Museum

 

Within Victory Park in downtown Stockton stands the red brick Haggin Museum.  The museum houses an extensive collection of American and European art as well as displays covering the history of California, the growth of manufacturing and agriculture in the Central Valley and in Stockton in particular.  There are displays dedicated to Charles Weber, the founder of the City of Stockton, an entire gallery dedicated to Benjamin Holt and the development of the Caterpillar Tractor, to Tillie Lewis, who introduced tomato production and canning to San Joaquin County, to Sperry Flour Mills, one of the oldest milling companies in California.  The museum also has an exhibit dedicated to Stephens Brothers boats and houses the company’s archives.  There are is also a reconstructed 1900’s “Main Street” and various exhibits of local interest.

In 1928, the San Joaquin Pioneer and Historical Society was founded with the following objectives: “to develop educational facilities for the study of history, to collect documents and articles of historical interest, and to establish and maintain a museum where such items could be stored and displayed”.  In April 1929.  Mr. Robert T. McKee made an offer to the San Joaquin Pioneer and Historical Society on behalf of his wife, Eila: if an art wing was added to the purposed history museum and named in honor of her late father, Louis Terah Haggin, she would donate thirty thousand dollars towards construction of the building as well as an unspecified number of paintings from her father's collection.

With this gift, the museum opened on June 14, 1931.  The museum has been expanded and renovated several times since then; the latest renovation being completed in 2017.  The several galleries gold pieces from the Haggin collection of European and American art, a significant collection of the works of J.C. Leyendecker, who was, before Norman Rockwell, one of America’s best known commercial artists, and the archives, not only of the San Joaquin Pioneer and Historical Society, but of the Stephens Brothers Boat Works, material from the Holt Manufacturing Company, the Sperry Flour Company, and the Tillie Lewis Food Company.

In it’s American Gallery, the Haggin displays some of the finest works from the Hudson River School including paintings by George Inness, William Bradford, Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt.  In the Haggin and McKee Galleries, there are many European Realist and Impressionist works to view including works by William Merritt Chase, Rosa Bonheur, Jean Beraud, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and many others, all dating from the mid-19th to the early 20th century.  There is also some small statuary and ornamental pieces on display.  There is also the Jeanie Hunter Rooms, which give a glimpse into how a prosperous farmhouse was furnished at the turn of the 20th century.

The museum also has an extensive collection of Indigenous American artifacts, including a recreated Miwok dwelling, and various historic vehicles on display including a WWII jeep that was one of 275 funded by the donations from the students and faculty of Stockton High School. One of the oddest artifacts is the “Death Trunk” of Emma LeDoux, the first woman sentenced to death for murder in California.  Emma poisoned her third husband, stuffed him in the trunk while he was alive and had the trunk sent to the train depot in Stockton.  Her husband died in the trunk.  The murder was discovered after the baggage master noticed a foul smell emanating from the trunk and called the authorities.  Emma was sentenced to death, but upon retrial she was sentenced to life in prison.  The trunk is a grisly artifact of an at the time scandalous crime.

For me, the jewel of the Haggin Museum, besides the collection of Bierstadt paintings is the collection of illustrations by J.C. Leyendecker.  From the early 1900’s though the 1930’s Leyendecker was one of the best known commercial illustrators in the country.  His clients included Arrow shirts, Hart-Shaffner & Marx, Amoco, the Boy Scouts of America, Ivory Soap, Karo Syrup, Palmolive, Cream of Wheat, Kellog’s, the Saturday Evening Post, the Timken Company, Willys-Overland, Collier’s Weekly, the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.  His illustrations helped define the style and look of the 1910’s-1930’s.  Some of his illustrations remain recognizable today.  He was Norman Rockwell before Norman Rockwell became famous.  His sister donated many of his works to the Haggin Museum upon her death.  The Haggin  museum now holds the largest museum collection of his works.  

GETTING THERE: The Haggin Museum is located at 1201 N. Pershing Avenue, Stockton, CA 95203.  From 414 Mason Street take I-80 East across the Bay Bridge to I-580 East.  From I-580 East, take I-205 East towards Tracy/Stockton.  Merge onto I-5 North.  Take Exit 473 for the University of the Pacific/North Pershing Ave.  Turn Left on to Picardy Drive and then right into Victory Park.  The museum will be on the right.  

San Juan Bautista State Historic Park

 

South of Gilroy, east of US-101, located near the mouth of San Juan Canyon on CA-156, lies the city of San Juan Bautista. Founded on June 24, 1797 with the establishment of Mission San Juan Bautista by Fermin Lasuen; the site for what would become California’s fifteenth mission was chosen due its proximity to a large population of the indigenous Mutsun people. Soon after the mission’s founding over 1,000 Mutsun were living, working, and worshiping at the mission. As with most of the missions, a Spanish settlement developed and the town of San Juan Bautista was born.

By 1803, the congregation had outgrown the original adobe church and construction began on the present mission which was completed in 1812. This construction and expansion made it the largest of the twenty one missions. Mission San Juan Bautista remained an active church after secularization in 1835. In 1859, the mission buildings and fifty five acres of land were returned to the Catholic Church. Today, the mission remains an active parish church in the Diocese of Monterey. Besides being an active house of worship for 226 years, the mission also was a location in Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Vertigo”, starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. It sits on the western edge of the last remaining intact Spanish plaza in California and on the northern edge of the plaza is a remaining section of the original El Camino Real which linked all of the missions in California.

The mission has a gift shop and a museum which has displays of Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, and American era artifacts including handwritten choir books by Padre Esteban Tapis using the system of colored notation he developed and the Breen family bible. The Breens temporarily lived in a storeroom of the mission, which is now the gift shop, after surviving the ordeal of the Donner Party and before moving into, and eventually purchasing an adobe from General Jose Antonio Castro. The Breen family lived in the adobe until 1933 when it was donated to the state. It is now known as the Castro-Breen Adobe. It houses exhibits on the Breen family and life during the early American Era.

The Castro-Breen Adobe is but one of several buildings preserved or restored in the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. Also included are the Plaza Hotel, the ground floor of which was originally constructed in 1792 as a barracks for indigenous converts and laborers. It became the barracks for Spanish soldiers in 1813. It was also a private residence and a commercial building before being remodeled into the current hotel in 1853 by Angelo Zanetta. It currently serves as the park entrance and museum. Several rooms are furnished as they would have been in the 1860’s.

On the plaza is the Plaza Hall/Zanetta House, originally built in 1815 as a home for the unmarried indigenous girls of the mission, purchased, torn down and rebuilt as a home and community hall in 1868 by Angelo Zanetta. It has exhibits of period furnishings and early children’s toys. Next to it is the Plaza Stable with exhibits of stages, wagons, and fire wagons. Behind the stable is the blacksmith’s shop. Across the street are the original town jail and a restored settler’s cabin.

The downtown area of San Juan Bautista has been designated a National Historic District and the San Juan Historical Society, along with other organizations, has designated 49 buildings and sites on a historic walking tour. Many of the buildings date from the late 1700’s through the 1920’s and are still in use. Examples are the Anza Adobe, the Texas Masonic Lodge, the San Juan Bautista Cemetery and the Carl Luck Museum. Most of the historic buildings are clustered along Third Street, a block south from the mission.

During the Gold Rush, San Juan Bautista benefited from a boom as it was along the route from Los Angeles to San Francisco and then to the gold fields. Notables like William T. Sherman visited the town. When the Southern Pacific railroad bypassed San Juan Bautista in favor of Hollister the town’s fortunes declined. The building of the San Juan Pacific Railway and the San Juan Cement Company plant, beginning in 1906, revived the local economy. When the cement plant closed in 1973 due to increasingly tighter environmental regulations, the city turned to agriculture and tourism. San Juan Bautista calls itself, “The City of History”, and not without some justification.

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street: Take US 101 South to Exit 345 to CA-156 East. Follow CA-156 East to The Alameda. Turn left onto The Alameda. Turn right onto Franklin St. Turn left onto 2^nd St. The park entrance is in the Plaza Hotel on you left. The Mission is on your right. The entrance fee for the park is $3.00 per person. The Mission charges a $10.00 entrance fee. ($7.00 for Seniors over 60) It is a 1 hour and 40 minute, 94 mile, drive from 414 Mason Street.

San Juan Bautista SHP is open every day from 10am to 4:30pm. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day.

The Mission Gift Shop, Museum and Garden are open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Wednesday through Sunday.

Admission: Self-Guided Tour

$10.00 adults

$7.00 seniors – 60 years and over

$5.00 – vets

Under 5 years of age – FREE

Mission San Juan Bautista admission is separate from the State Park admission.

For the walking tour, please visit: https://historicwalkingtrail.com/

French Camp

 

        In front of an elementary school in an unincorporated community near Stockton; there is a California State Historic Marker, placed by the California State Parks Commission, partially in cooperation with the Native Daughters of the Golden West.  It recognizes the community of French Camp as a historic place as the terminus of the Oregon-California Trail and as a camp used by traders and trappers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, at one time one of, if not the largest fur trading corporation in the world. 

The text of the plaque reads: 

“Here was the terminus of the Oregon-California Trail used from about 1832 to 1845 by the French-Canadian trappers employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. Every year Michel La Framboise, among others, met fur hunters camped with their families here. In 1844 Charles M. Weber and William Gulnac promoted the first white settlers' colony on Rancho del Campo de los Franceses, which included French Camp and the site of Stockton.”

As early as 1493, Spain laid claim to all the lands 100 leagues west of the Azores based on the Papal Bull “Inter Caetera” issued by Pope Alexander IV.  This bull gave Spain a monopoly to colonize the lands west of the 100 league line.  In the next year, Pope Alexander VI mediated the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal which moved the demarcation line between the two countries’  respective spheres of colonization to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, granting Brazil to Portugal and the rest of the “New World” to Spain.  With Balboa’s sighting of the Pacific Ocean in 1513,  Spain had a solid claim to the west coasts of North and South America.  It wasn’t until Cabrillo and Bartolome Ferrelo’s  voyages in 1542-43 that Spain made any attempt to see how far their claim actually went and what it might contain. Later voyages in the 1700’s by Juan Perez and Bruno de Hecta kept Spain’s claims viable. 

Spain was not alone in laying claim to the Pacific Coast.  England based it’s claims to parts of the Pacific Coast on the voyages of Sir Francis Drake and George Vancouver.  Russia claimed parts of the Pacific Coast too, based on the 1728 and 1741 voyages of Vitus Bering.  The United States also claimed parts of the area based on the 1792 voyage of Robert Grey and the overland expedition of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery as well as John Jacob Astor’s establishment of Fort Astoria in 1811.  With all these competing claims, conflict was inevitable.  When the Spanish captured four British ships in 1789 in Nooka Sound near Vancouver Island, Great Britain threatened war, leading to what what was called the “Nootka Crisis”.  Spain quickly negotiated a settlement and relinquished its exclusive claims to the Pacific Coast.  By 1824, both Russia and Spain had given up their claims to the Pacific Northwest.

Why did these counties all want a piece of the Pacific Coast?  Well, for trade with the native tribes, for a harbor on the Pacific to facilitate trade with China and the rest of Asia, and most importantly, for the vast natural resources of the region one of the most valuable of which were the pelts of fur bearing animals.  Before the Gold Rush, the main impetus for coming to California was trade.  The Russian American Company established Fort Ross as both a trading and agricultural supply post for its outposts in Alaska.  John Jacob Astor established Fort Astoria and an outpost for his Pacific Fur Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River.  American, British, and French-Canadian trappers and mountain men combed the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Coast Ranges, Willamette, and Central Valleys for otter and beaver which were becoming scarce further east. Meanwhile, at sea, seals and sea otters were hunted from the Aleutian Islands to Baja California.  

With the absorption of the North West Company in 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company had a monopoly on the fur trade in British North America.  Its agents roamed from the Rockies to the Pacific, from the Arctic Ocean to California’s San Joaquin Valley searching for beaver and otter and trading with the Native tribes.  Fort Umpqua was established in Southern Oregon in 1836 and, in 1841, the Hudson’s Bay Company opened a store in Yerba Buena.  French Camp arguably was the southernmost extent of the Company’s activities in California.  Beginning in about 1832, Michel La Framboise, a French-Canadian “voyageur” hired by the Hudson’s Bay Company made annual visits to French Camp as the leader of several fur hunting expeditions.  In fact La Framboise had been warned against taking beaver in California in 1834 and in 1835; General Mariano Vallejo warned him to leave and stay out of California altogether.  Eventually, the activities of the “Spanish Brigade” as the company of Hudson’s Bay men were called, became bothersome not only to Vallejo, but to John A. Sutter and Dr. John Marsh, both of whom complained to the government and demanded that something be done.  As a result, the governor placed a duty on furs taken in California and by 1842, the HBC trappers withdrew.

The fur trade was one of the major impetuses for the westward expansion of the United States and the early exploration as settlement of the Pacific Coast.  However, it was not to last.  By 1846, the Hudson’s Bay Company withdrew from California and the Oregon Treaty was signed ending the dispute between Great Britain and the United States over their competing claims.  In the treaty, the HBC was allowed to continue operating Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, but the Company abandoned the fort in 1860.  By the late 1800’s many of the fur bearing animals had been hunted to near extinction.  Due to the decline of fur bearing mammals, the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911,  which was the first international treaty concerned with wildlife conservation.  This led to the Fur Seal Act of 1966 which extended protection to sea otters and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which prohibits the taking of any marine mammal in United States waters and by any US citizen on the high seas, with a very few permitted exemptions. Today, the Hudson’s Bay Company continues as a retail company in Canada and in 1943, the HBC renamed its fur trading division as the “Northern Stores Division”, and in 1987 the “Northern Stores Division” was sold and became a new “North West Company” and operates stores in northwest Canada and Alaska.  The “California Fur Rush” only lasted a few short years, but it is remembered in a few places, like French Camp, and it’s legacy are some of the first wildlife protection laws in history.

GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street:  Get on I-80 East.  Take exit 8B onto I-580 East. After 45 miles stay left onto I-205 toward Tracy and Stockton.  Merge onto I-5 N.  Take exit 467A onto Eldorado Street.  Turn right onto East Mathews Road, continue onto Ash Street.  Turn left onto French Camp Road and then right onto Elm Street.  The marker will be on your right.  It is about a two hour drive from San Francisco.

Fort Humboldt

Sitting on a windswept bluff above Eureka sit the remains of one of the most important military outposts on the west coast.  There isn’t much there today, a couple of buildings, one of which is a reconstruction, some informational signs and an outdoor exhibit of logging equipment; but in it’s heyday, Fort Humboldt played an important part in the military history of the west coast and of the United States.

The end of the Mexican War and the discovery of gold brought sweeping changes to California.  Before the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, emigration to California had all but come to a standstill, partially due to the press reports of the ill-fated Donner-Reed Party and the start of the Mexican War.  Yet, the situation changed with President Polk’s announcement in his December 5th State of the Union address that: 

It was known that mines of the precious metals existed to a considerable extent in California at the time of its acquisition. Recent discoveries render it probable that these mines are more extensive and valuable than was anticipated. The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service who have visited the mineral district and derived the facts which they detail from personal observation.

Argonauts from around the world began making their way to California.  These individuals fanned out across the state, looking for gold in every stream and river.  Before long, the prospectors, miners, gold seekers, traders, and con-men who rushed into California came into conflict with the Californios and Indigenous People who already lived here.  More importantly, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed that the United States would respect the “property, language, and culture” of Mexicans now living in the United States.  As a result, many of the United States army troops who had fought in Mexico now found themselves being sent to California to perform garrison duty and to shore up United States control of the land at the edge of the continent.

The discovery of gold on the Trinity River by Major Pierson B. Reading, for whom the City of Redding is named, in July of 1848 opened what had once been a remote area of California to non-indigenous settlement and in 1849 and 1850 thousands of gold seekers entered the area.  With the influx of new people came inevitable conflict.  The Europeans and others who flooded the area soon had a multitude of gold claims almost entirely without Indigenous permission or consideration for the traditional boundaries of tribal settlement.  There were violent clashes between the Indigenous peoples and the interlopers.  The devastation wreaked upon the Indigenous people of the area is well documented and is deserving of a more detailed telling than I have room for here; suffice to say that depending on the tribe and the estimate, 75 to 95% of the Indigenous population died through a combination of disease, competition for resources, starvation, and outright murder.

In January 1853,  Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan and the 4th US Infantry arrived to establish Fort Humboldt and mediate between the native and settlers in the region.  By 1857 there were 14 buildings situated on the bluff overlooking Humboldt Bay.  The Army’s mission to bring peace between the European settlers and Indigenous tribes was hampered from the beginning.  The settlers in the area wanted the Native Peoples removed to reservations and did not support the idea of the military authorities negotiating with the tribes.  Seven treaties were negotiated and signed with the tribes who lived between Clear Lake and the Klamath River.  None of those treaties were ever ratified and the Natives never received any of the land nor any other considerations which were contained in the treaties.

While unsuccessfully trying to maintain a sustainable peace between the settlers, gold seekers and the native peoples, Fort Humboldt also served as a supply depot for many other forts and outposts in Northern California and Southern Oregon.  On January 5, 1854, Captain Ulysses S Grant arrived at Fort Humboldt to serve as the Quartermaster and take command of Company F, 4th Infantry.  Grant and Buchanan did not get along and the tedium of garrison duty did not sit well with Grant.  He was a newly wed and missed his wife and he felt very isolated and depressed.  He often rode to a nearby tavern and found solace in drink. After being reprimanded, Grant resigned his commission effective July 31, 1854 and went home.  Grant was not the only soon to be famous officer to be stationed at Fort Humboldt,  Gabriel Rains, who became a Confederate Brigadier General, George R. Crook who rose to fame during the Civil and Indian Wars, and Dr. Lafayette Guild, who became Medical Director of the Army of Northern Virginia, all served at Fort Humboldt.  

On February 26, 1860, one of the darkest incidents in the History of California occurred, one that the garrison of Fort Humboldt was supposed to prevent.  On that day, a goup of “vigilantes”, calling themselves the “Humboldt Volunteers, Second Brigade” attacked and massacred 80-250 Wiyot people who lived on Tuluwat Island in Humboldt Bay.  Called the “Indian Island Massacre”, this event showed just how ineffective the US Army was at protecting the native people.  The many of the survivors  of the massacre were put in “protective custody” at Fort Humboldt and eventually transferred Klamath River Reservation.  The island was then owned and ranched by European settlers.  It was also the site of a shipyard. In 2019, the City of Eureka deeded the island back to the Wiyot people.

With the coming of the Civil War, the regular US Army troops were withdrawn from Fort Humboldt.  The fort was garrisoned by units of the California Volunteers.  In 1866, the US Army re-garrisoned the fort and it was abandoned in 1867.  As surplus land it was sold to WS Cooper in 1893, the Cooper family owned the site of the fort and it’s one remaining building until 1923, when Mrs. Laura Cooper donated the land to the City of Eureka as a public park.  In 1955, Eureka deeded the site to the state and Fort Humboldt became a state historic park in 1963.  The park is open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily.

Hamilton Field

Nestled on the eastern edge of Novato, along the Marin Country shore is a bit of aviation history.  During the First World War it became apparent that not only did nations need to have navies and armies to win wars, they were also going to need air forces.  Since the Civil War, the United States Army had used balloons for artillery spotting and reconnaissance but with the advent heavier than air flight, the role of military aviation began to rapidly change.  The US Army Signal Corps established an Aeronautical Division in 1907.  At that time, the Army only had eight balloons, used for observation and reconnaissance.  During that year, the Signal Corps purchased two more balloons and, in 1908, a small dirigible, bringing the total number of Army aircraft to eleven.

In 1909, the Army acquired its first airplane from the Wright Brothers and in 1910 it made its first flight.  In 1911, Congress appropriated $125,000 for the Army’s Aeronautical Division.  By the end of 1911, the Army Signal Corps had a total of six aircraft, and had conducted trials to prove the feasibility of aerial bombing.  Still, the fledgling Air Corps only had a handful of pilots including 2nd Lt. Henry “Hap” Arnold, who was one of the Army’s first flight instructors.  In 1913, the “1st Provisional Aero Squadron” was created, alter renamed the “1st Aero Squadron” and saw service in Mexico in 1916, becoming the first United States air combat unit.  It still exists as the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron and is headquartered at Beale Air Force Base.  With the outbreak of World War I, the European powers rapidly increased the size of their air forces and aeronautical technology rapidly advanced.  

By the time the United States entered the war in 1917, it was far behind the other warring nations in air strength.  By the end of the war, the US Army Air Service only made up 10% of the aeronautical strength of the Allied Powers and after the war, the Air Service, like the rest of the United States military, was rapidly reduced in size from 19,168 officers and 178,149 enlisted men in November 1918 to just 1,168 officers and 8,428 enlisted men by the end of June 1920.

During the late 1920’s the Army Air Corps began looking for a suitable location on the West Coast for an air base.  The Army settled on a location known as “Marin Meadows” and Marin County transferred the 937 acre site for $1.00.  Originally known as Air Corps Station, San Rafael, construction began on the airfield in 1932, the airfield was renamed “Hamilton Field” after 1st Lt. Lloyd Hamilton who received the Distinguish Flying Cross, posthumously, during World War I and was completed in 1935.  Upon completion, the airfield was officially dedicated on May 12, 1935 and ceremonially “handed over” to Brigadier General Henry, “Hap” Arnold who commanded the Army Air Corps’ 1st Wing.  Hamilton Field was to be primarily a bomber base and it was before the addition of pursuit (fighter) units.

During World War II, Hamilton Field was part of the Western Defense Command and served primarily as a training and transshipment base.  It was on December 7, 1941 that the six B-17 bombers of the 38 Reconnaissance Squadron from Hamilton Field arrived at Hickam Field in Hawaii while the Japanese attack was ongoing.  The personnel at Hickam was expecting the squadron and early in the attack radar operators confused the Japanese attack with the incoming squadron.  After the war was over and the Air Force was created in 1947, Hamilton Air Force Base remained in service, serving as the home for several units of the Air Defense Command were stationed at Hamilton including the 325th Fighter Wing, the 78th Fighter Wing,  the 556th Air Defense Group, the 1st Fighter Wing and the 26th Air Division all called Hamilton Air Force Base home.  NORAD’s Western Region Command was stationed at Hamilton until 1969.

By the early 70’s, the usefulness of Hamilton Air Force Base was declining.  Urban encroachment, lack of land to expand and an increasingly ambivalent, if not hostile, political climate all led to the deactivation of Hamilton as an active base in 1973.  In 1973, the base was transferred to the Army, the Navy used some of the housing and the Coast Guard used two of the hangars.  In 1976, the base was closed and placed in “caretaker status”.  In 1980 to 1983 a few of the barracks and other buildings were used as a refugee processing center.  From 1983-1990, Hamilton Field was the venue for the “Wings of Victory” air show, an annual event produced by the non-profit Hamilton Field Association. In 1993, the Army transferred its remaining portion of the base to the “New Hamilton Partnership” and redevelopment began.  In 1996, the Navy vacated the housing on base and the military presence on Hamilton Field ended, nearly sixty years after it began.

Today, several of the historic Spanish Revival style buildings and hangars have been restored and repurposed.  The developer had built several housing developments on the former base.  The former runway is no more, the levee that protected it having been intentionally breached and the area allowed to revert to marshland.  The Hamilton Field History Museum, a small but impressive museum housed in the former base fire station and staffed by volunteer docents who are more than eager to spend time explaining the history of the base to you is worth a visit, there are excellent displays covering the entire history of the base.

GETTING THERE: Take US101 N to exit 458 Nave Drive in Novato.  Merge onto Nave Drive.  Turn Right onto Main Gate Road, and continue on to Palm Drive and make a slight right onto South Palm Drive.  Then turn right onto Hangar Avenue.  The museum will be on your right at 555 Hangar Avenue.  The museum is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Noon to 4:00 pm.  (415) 382-8614

 

Henry Clay and California

 

    On September 9, 1850, California was admitted into the United States. For years, Americans had been settling in the Mexican territory, many to trade, some to begin new lives. Men like Jedidiah Smith, Dr. John Marsh, Robert Semple, John Bidwell, John Bartleson. and others made the long and arduous trek to the Mexican territory. Even before Mexican Independence, there were men, like Andrew Jackson, who believed that the United States should rightfully possess all of “Spanish North America”. By the time of the discovery of gold, fewer than 1000 Americans lived in California. The entire population of Alta California was around 160,000, the vast majority of whom were native peoples. The United States expressed interest in California, primarily as a point of access to the Pacific Ocean as early as 1844, yet until the end of the Mexican War nothing much came of the dreams of the proponents of “Manifest Destiny”.

    Of course, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill and the subsequent events changed all of that. An estimated three hundred thousand of gold seekers, the “49ers”, the “Argonauts” flooded the newly acquired region in search of wealth and adventure. The flood of gold stabilized the US economy and drove the desire that California should enter the Union. There were issues however, the United States was unraveling. Missouri entering as a slave state in 1820, the tariff and nullification crisis of 1828 and the annexation of Texas had all caused threats of disunion and civil war. Each of these resulted in a compromise which delicately held the Union together. In 1849, President Zachary Taylor urged leading Californians to write a constitution and apply for statehood as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, California, New Mexico, and the Latter Day Saints in the Great Salt Lake area all applied for statehood nearly simultaneously. There was almost no chance that three free states would be admitted to the Union at once and there were issues surrounding New Mexico’s boundary with Texas and with the practice of polygamy in the proposed state of Deseret. There was one man who could possibly get California admitted to the Union, the man who, as Speaker of the House, had crafted the Missouri Compromise, who had ended the Nullification Crisis, who had crafted the American System of internal improvements and that was Henry Clay of Kentucky.

    Henry Clay was born in 1777 in Virginia, the son of a Baptist minister. His father died in 1781 and his mother remarried. Clay learned how to read and write and his hand writing caught the attention of Virginia jurist George Withe, who was Thomas Jefferson’s mentor. Clay read law under Withe’s tutelage and was admitted to the Bar in Kentucky and Virginia in 1791. Clay began his political career in 1803 in the Kentucky legislature and eventually become a US Representative, Senator, Secretary of State and presidential candidate. He would be known as “The Great Compromiser” and play an important part in the three major compromises of the 1800’s that delayed the Civil War.

    To solve the issues surrounding the admission of California into the Union, Clay originally proposed eight resolutions. Eventually, the Compromise of 1850 consisted of five separate statutes, one admitting California into the union, one settling Texas’s debts and settling the boundaries of Texas, one establishing a new fugitive slave law, one ending the slave trade in Washington DC, and finally one creating two new territories, New Mexico and Utah and allowing the territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery. The bills were signed into law by President Millard Fillmore on September 9, 1850. There was jubilation, not only in California, but in the whole United States as many thought that the disputes that had led to threatened civil war had finally been put to rest; but in reality the crisis had only been forestalled.

    In 1806, Henry Clay purchased a 672 acre estate he named Ashland for the many ash trees on the property. Located near Lexington, conveniently close to his law office it has been preserved as a memorial to Henry Clay and his family who lived on the estate until 1950. Clay himself died in Washington DC in 1852 believing that his final compromise has saved the country from civil war. While Clay was alive, he took an active role in the running of the estate, introducing new breeds of cattle, horses, and donkeys. Many race horses can trace their ancestry to Henry Clay’s stock today. Hw as also a gambler who once famously waived $40,000 he has once won after asking for $500 of it from the loser. His greatest gamble however, was the compromise that brought California into the Union and delayed the Civil War for ten years. Henry Clay, the statesman responsible for California’s statehood never once visited California, yet he, with some help from Stephen A. Douglas, can be considered the person who brought California into the United States.

    Ashland is located in Lexington, Kentucky at 120 Sycamore Road. For more information about tours, exhibits and hours please visit their website at: www.henryclay.org

Mangels Adobe

                       

    Located in the parking lot of a business park in Fairfield sits a building which might be one of the oldest and most historically significant structures in Solano County. Known as the Mangels Ranch Adobe, it used to be in the middle of a field as recently as 2005. That field has been paved and built upon and now is the “Pony Express Office Park”. The adobe sits, preserved by the developer, surrounded by the automobiles of workers and customers, under a large live oak tree. So, why was this building preserved when so many historically significant buildings and sites have fallen to the bulldozer and the wrecking ball? That is a story of Spanish colonization, native resistance, religion, the mail, and a healthy dose of local speculation.

    Beginning in 1768, the Spanish began to colonize the land they called “Alta California”. In May, Jose de Galvez planned an expedition to begin colonization, led by Gaspar de Portola. In 1769, both the Presidio and Mission of San Diego were established, becoming the first European settlement in what is now California. As Portola, Crespi, Serra and others continued northward, a series of Presidios, Pueblos, and Missions were established from San Diego to north of the San Francisco Bay, with the aim of consolidating Spanish control over “Las Californias”. While the Presidios of San Diego, Monterey and San Francisco are well known, it was the missions which have become the symbol of the Spanish era of California’s history. Many see the twenty one missions as stand alone churches as they exist today. In fact, each mission was the centerpiece of a large agricultural holding, worked by native “acolytes” and many had assistencias, or submissions like San Antonio de Pala, an assistencia of San Luis Rey or Santa Ysabel, an assistencia of San Diego de Acala. The final mission to be founded was San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma in 1823. There was an attempt to start a mission in Santa Rosa in 1827, but it was soon aborted especially after the native “neophytes” of Mission San Francisco de Solano revolted and burned the mission in 1826.

    Mission San Francisco de Solano had an assistencia known as Santa Eulalia in what is now Solano County, near Cordelia or Fairfield. Santa Eulalia was founded in 1824 to serve the Suisunes and Patwin tribes and was located on the rancho granted to Francisco Solano. The Mangles Adobe is said to be one of the original buildings for the assistencia which was in existence from 1824 until 1832, when the missions began to be “secularized” and sold off by the Mexican government. Some locals call it the “lost mission” with a bit of hyperbole.

    There is a sign, now badly faded, which stated that the structure “possibly” dates to 1836, still making it one of the oldest structures in Solano County but not of an age to be part of the Santa Eulalia assistencia. It has also been rumored that the building was used as a Pony express stop, or as a resting place for those going to catch the Benicia Ferry. Whether or not the Mangels Adobe is any of these things is open to interpretation, but there is scant documentary evidence for any of these theories. Still, it stands, preserved as allegedly one of the oldest building in Solano County and a possible assistencia, Pony Express stop, or just an old farm building, in a parking lot.

    GETTING THERE: From 414 Mason Street take I-80 East. Take exit 41 and turn left onto Pittman Road/Suisun Valley Road. Turn left onto Mangels Drive and then right on to WestAmerica Drive. The adobe is in the parking lot behind 4610 WestAmerica Drive, Fairfield, CA.