Pioneer Notes from the Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875
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Pioneer notes from the diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875 PIONEER NOTES MRS. EMILY MARTHA HAYES AND SON CHAUNCEY For whose entertainment the Notes were written . PIONEER NOTES FROM THE DIARIES OF JUDGE BENJAMIN HAYES 1849-1875 Privately Printed at Los Angeles 1929 Copyright, 1929, by Marjorie Tisdale Wolcott Edited and Published by Marjorie Tisdale Wolcott Text by the McBride Printing Company Los Angeles, California v CONTENTS Page Foreword ix I THE PIONEER COMES WEST 13 II THE END OF THE EMIGRANT TRAIL 48 III Los ANGELES IN THE FIFTIES 75 IV SAN DIEGO AND SAN BERNARDINO, 1856-1857 110 V THE DEATH OF MRS. HAYES JUDICIAL NOTES 166 VI SAN DIEGO IN 1860-1861; LOWER CALIFORNIA AFFAIRS 191 VII THE JOURNEY OF LIFE 250 VIII LATER SAN DIEGO NOTES 285 INDEX 303 vii ILLUSTRATIONS Pioneer notes from the diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875 http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.026 MRS. EMILY MARTHA HAYES AND SON CHAUNCEY Frontispiece Facing Page BENJAMIN HAYES 16 ONE OF THE NOTEBOOKS 32 LAS FLORES RANCH HOUSE 64 TEMECULA 64 THE ORIGINAL PLAZA CHURCH, LOS ANGELES 80 FATHER BLAS RAHO 96 THE HOME OF DON JUAN ABILA, SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO 112 SAN GABRIEL MISSION CHART OF RANCHOS HAVING CHAPELS 160 LOS ANGELES IN 1857 176 CAMPAIGN HANDBILL OF 1858 192 SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO MISSION IN 1865 208 SAN LUIS REY MISSION IN 1865 208 LOS NOGALES RANCH HOUSE 256 SAN JOSE DE ABAJO RANCH HOUSE 256 BENJAMIN HAYES 288 ix Foreword Benjamin Ignatius Hayes was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 14, 1815. He graduated from St. Mary's College, Baltimore, and Was admitted to the Maryland bar at the age of twenty- four. Shortly afterwards he Went to Missouri, practising law at Liberty during the early forties. With Two associates he then commenced the publication of a temperance journal at St. Louis. Many years were to pass before the Eighteenth Amendment, and the little fledgling seems to have died of malnutrition. Friendships were formed, howeVer, during the Missouri days with many men who later attained national prominence. Arriving in Los Angeles in February, 1850, Mr. Hayes was elected County Attorney, a prosecuting officer then provided by law. A month after his arriVal he formed a partnership with Jonathan R. Scott, resigning as County Attorney in September, 1851. At the election of 1852, he was elected the first Judge of the Southern District of California, including Los Angeles and San Diego counties. He held the office until January 1, 1864, when he was succeeded by Don Pablo de la Guerra, and when Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties were added to the district. There were three towns in Southern California at that time, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino. The district Court convened on the third Mondays of March, July, and November in Los Angeles, of April, August, and December in San Diego, and of February, May, and October in San Bernardino. There were no railroads, and the District Judge journeyed about by carriage, on horseback, or on Pioneer notes from the diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875 http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.026 the steamer Senator . It was his duty to administer justice during the difficult transition period following the years in which Mexican authority had broken down completely. He remained a highly respected jurist after leaving the bench, spending much of his time at San Diego during his later years, but eventually returning to his former home at the Hotel Lafayette in Los Angeles, where he died at the age of sixty-two, On August 4, 1877. Judge Hayes was married on November 15, 1848, at x St. Louis, Missouri, to Emily Martha Chauncey, daughter of John and Cordelia F. Chauncey. Mrs. Hayes was born in Harford County, Maryland, and was taken when a small child to Missouri, where her father resided for many years. She died in Los Angeles on September 12, 1857, at the age of thirty-six. They were the parents of two children. A little daughter, Sarah Louisa, born on April 22, 1855, lived only a few hours. John Chauncey Hayes, born in Los Angeles on April 27, 1853, is now residing at Oceanside, where he has been City Judge for many years. He married Doña Felipa, a daughter of Don Sylvester Marron of Rancho Agua Hedionda, and they have a large family. Two of Judge Hayes's sisters also came to Los Angeles. Helena J. Hayes married Benjamin S. Eaton at Liberty, Missouri, in 1848, and died in Los Angeles in 1859. Mr. Eaton was the first District Attorney of Los Angeles County and shared with B. D. Wilson the title Father of Pasadena. Their son Fred is a former Mayor of Los Angeles. After teaching in the first public school in the city, Louisa Hayes became the wife of Dr. John S. Griffin, another prominent pioneer. On August 2, 1866, Judge Hayes and Doña Adeleida Serrano were married at Old San Diego by the Rev. Father N. Duran. Doña Adeleida was a daughter of Don José António Serrano and Doña Nievas Aguilar de Serranò. Their only child, Mary Adeleida, survived her parents but died in early womanhood. The notebooks from which these Notes are taken are in the possession of J. Chauncey Hayes, Jr. The mind of Judge Hayes was an encyclopedia of information about California history. He made upwards of a hundred scrapbooks, none of which deals with any one period of time and all of which contain interesting material, although many are clippings only. The collection was secured by H. Pioneer notes from the diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875 http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.026 H. Bancroft, including some of the material in these Notes , which Judge Hayes rewrote at Mr. Bancroft's request. To study, edit, and publish the entire collection will be an arduous and expensive task. Everything of possible interest in the notebooks mentioned is included. There is considerable repetition in the xi Notes , as there was in the life of their author. Although they contain only a small part of his vast knowledge of California, they clearly reflect the nature of the man who wrote them. He turned from scenes of violence to transplant yellow violets from the hills to his little garden and to admire the sunset on the mountain tops. A marked simplicity of character was combined in him with one of California's most brilliant legal minds. It was Judge Hayes's habit to make rough notes and to rewrite them at the first opportunity. After several years he frequently reread them and added a date or a name, occasionally a paragraph. When there was a possibility that an unfavorable opinion might be formed of the person mentioned, the name was omitted; this was almost never necessary, so amiable was his attitude towards humanity. The notebooks were commenced to entertain Mrs. Hayes, who was an invalid. After her death, they were continued for Chauncey, and later their historical value became apparent. The text is reproduced as it was written. It will be noted that there is some variation in the spelling of names and the use of italics and accents in Spanish words. At the time of Judge Hayes's death, Judge Ygnacio Sepúlveda said of him: “I saw him in the early days, manfully struggling with adversity, until fate smiled upon him and he reached the District Court bench and then for many years I saw him preside in the District Court, which then embraced nearly all of Southern California. I see him now, the frail form, patient, quiet, indefatigable, pursuing his vocation uncomplainingly and in silence, treating his friends with rare attachment and villifying not his enemies. Charitable and gentle, his overworked mind is at rest, passing away in the full vigor of his faculties. Many, many will miss the friend whose patient labors were always freely bestowed for the benefit of others. To him the sordid acquisition of means was nothing. With the poor he was sympathetic and liberal. His heart ever beat responsive to every Pioneer notes from the diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875 http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.026 noble appeal. He made an upright judge. As a lawyer he was learned. As a man he was unassuming, gentle, and good.” —MARJORIE T. WOLCOTT. 13 PIONEER NOTES FROM THE DIARIES OF JUDGE BENJAMIN HAYES THE PIONEER COMES WEST The Clay company started from Liberty on August 12, 1849, and left the line of the State on the 15th. They reached Council Grove on the 21st. This was the place of rendezvous. Here they united with the Daviess County company, and with the Platte City company at Diamond Spring. Jeffreys was wounded on September 12th at the Lower Spring, in consequence of which they stayed there three days. They then moved fifteen miles further and stayed three days, for the same reason. At the Middle Spring they remained nine days, and again afterward, from the same cause. They reached Galisteo on the 12th October. Between the line and Council Grove, they had a great deal of rain; again at Lost Spring, and at Lower Spring. At the upper crossing of the Cimarron, they had a tremendous storm, with thunder and lightning; same at Ash Point, 2 miles from Pawnee Fork, and on the Cottonwood; a light snow on Red River the first frost at Rabbit Ear Creek, near the Round Mound. These rains made the road very heavy for them. They notice that they have had about as much rain as is common in Upper Missouri, at this season.