Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. HE name “California.” is untranslatable, being coined by a Spanish writer of fiction =) in the fifteenth century. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator in the Spinish service, was the first white man to set fot on California soil, at San Diego, September 28, 1542. He died the next year, on an island off the coast of Santa Barbara. Other visitors followed, but of them little is known until Sir Francis Drake puts in appearance at Drake’s or Bodega bay, in July, 1579. Juan Vizzainv discovered Monterey Bay in 1603. The next events of importance did not occur until a century and a half afterward, namely, the founding of Catholic missions in 1769 and afterward at San Diego, Monterey, ete. by Fathers Crespi, Gomez and Junipero Serra, under the explorer Portold. The latter visited poiuts around San Francisco Bay. In 1792 Captain George Vancouver touched upon this coast. In 1805 the Russians from Sitka, under the leadership of Razanof, established themselves at Ross and Bodega, in the fur trade, and prospered there until they sold out to Captain Sutter in 1841, having by that time a considerable amount of live stock. Dk THE SPANIARDS NORTH OF TIE BAY. Forty years had come and gone since the presidio and mission were founded at Yerba 1 Buena, and yet no fruitful attempt had been made to establish a settlement on the north side of the bay; and the first movement in that direction seems to have been impelled by a seeming necessity. At the mission Dolores were many hundred neophytes who had been gathered in froin the many Indian tribes south of the bay. Among these existed an increasing and alarming mortality from pulmonary disease. The padres, as a sanitary measure, determined upon the founding of a branch mission in some more sheltered and genial clime on the north side of the bay. The present site of San Rafael was the location determined upon. The establishment was to be more in the nature of a rancho, with chapel, baptistery and cemetery, than a regularly ordained mission. Padre Luis Gil y Taboada was detailed to take charge of this branch establishment of the church. In reference to this branch mission Bancroft says: «The site was probably selected on the advice of Moraga, who had several times passed it on his way to and from Bodega, though there may lave been a special examination by the friars not recorded. Father Gil was accompanied by Derran, Abella and Sarria, the latter of whom, December 14, with the same ceremonies tha; usually attended the dedication of a regular mission, founded the assistencia of San Rafael Arcangel, on the spot called by the natives Nanaguani. Though the establishment was at first only a branch of San Francisco, an assist-