HENRY JOHNSON DALLY
Henry Johnson Dally married Felicita Rodriquez in 1846 in San Luis Obispo. She was the grandaughter of Teodoro Arellanes who had the grant to Guadalupe and also Ygnacio Rodriquez who was given the Conejo land grant (present day Thousand Oaks-Newbury Park).
Henry J. Dally arrived in Monterey, California on a whaling boat in 1843. He worked as a carpenter. Later he helped build two boats for the alcalde (mayor) of Monterey and for lack of manpower he sailed one in search of otter. After months of failure they landed at Piedras Blancas where he and one other made their way to San Luis Obispo.
Henry and Felicitas had two children while living in San Luis Obispo. The first born, a son, must have died there as he is no longer listed in the 1860 SLO census. The daughter Maria Rafaela Aldegunda Dally, is listed in that census. They eventually had 6 children who lived to adulthood. Henry was a native of New York City, born in 1815. He gave up his first language (English) and joined the Catholic Church after moving to San Luis Obispo.
When the U.S. decided to conquor California they called upon Colonel John C. Fremont. When Fremont’s army arrived in SLO it was raining terribly. Fremont was searching for “Totoi” Pico a leader of the Mexican Californios who lived in SLO. Pico was hiding out at Wilson’s ranch and Henry Dally was sleeping in “Totoi’s” house. He was awakened soon after going to sleep by banging on the door. He opened a small window in the door and found several muskets aimed at his face. He ratted on “Totoi” and led the army to Wilson’s ranch to capture Pico. They captured Pico and sentenced him to death. Upon the pleadings of the townspeople, Fremont spared Pico and earned a life-time friend. It was Pico who accompanied him on his conquest of the rest of California.
Henry J. Dally became the first sheriff of San Luis Obispo in 1850 under American rule. He lasted two years in the job. He dictated his story to one of Bancrofts historians in 1878.
Note: This is a fascinating, never published, account of his life. A copy can be obtained from the Bancroft Library at Berkeley California. Thank you to Inez for sharing this story with us. For more information on Henry J. Dally, see his Islapedia page.
JOHN FRANCIS DANA
Was born in Santa Barbara June 22, 1837, his parents being William G. and Maria Josefa Carrillo Dana, whose biographies have been previously given. In 1839 the family moved upon the Nipomo Rancho, where John Francis Dana grew to manhood and has since resided—except when away at school, in his youth—occupying the position of farmer and ranchero on a large scale.
Upon the death of his father he was appointed Trustee of the estate, which trust he faithfully executed for twenty years, until the ranch was divided among the family. Mr. Dana was married December 25, 1860, in Santa Barbara, to Miss Frances Caroline Thompson, a native of Santa Barbara, and they have seven living and lovely children, of whom there are three daughters and four sons.
The business qualifications of John F. Dana have been shown in the successful management of the great estate through the periods of great excitement, droughts, depressions in business, and other changes which have wrecked so many of the great landed proprietors of California. While some of the great ranchos have been sold at rates of less than a dollar to one dollar and a half per acre, John Dana held to more than 30,000 acres of the best of the Nipomo, which would in 1883, readily command a half million dollars. Of this great property there was in 1883, about 14,000 acres planted in wheat. The Pacific Coast Railway runs through the property, the brothers donating for the purpose, a strip for the track ten miles in length and sixty feet in width, asking, and receiving in complimentary return, only the freedom of the mother to ride in the cars during her life. A depot was located on the rancho and the village plot of Nipomo laid out, with streets bearing the name of California pioneers contemporary with the father, Captain Dana.
In the division of the estate so well preserved by John Dana, it would seem appropriate that he should have the choice of farms, but whether he did or not we do not know, but his place is one of the most pleasant possible, near the banks of a small stream and surrounded by a broad area of nearly level and exceedingly fertile land. A view of his residence is herewith published.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County, California, p107. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
WILLIAM CHARLES DANA
Is the eldest son of Capt. Wm. G. Dana and Maria Josefa Carrillo Dana, a sketch of whose biographies precedes this. William C. was born at Santa Barbara, California, May 6, 1836, his father soon thereafter removing to the Nipomo Rancho, where he has passed the greater part of a pleasant life.
Mr. Dana was educated at Santa Ynez College and at the Benicia Institute, Benicia. Being reared upon the great rancho of his father, he grew up as a farmer and stock-raiser, which has constituted his chief business through life. But he has not always confined his energies to the rancho. In 1857, then but twenty-one years of age, he was elected to the office of County Clerk of San Luis Obispo County, that being a great compliment to one so young. Having some doubts of his qualifications, and not being as familiar with the English as the Spanish language, he appointed Mr. Peter A. Forrester his deputy, while he went to the Benicia Institute to complete his education. In 1869 he was elected County Treasurer, holding the position through the term of two years. In political life Mr. Dana has acted with the Democrats, exerting a strong influence in the party. His public offices, however, have not been solely of a political nature, as he has served five years as a School Trustee, always exerting himself in the social advancement of the people.
Mr. Dana was married, May 26, 1861, to Miss Modesto Castro, only daughter of General Castro, and like her husband a native of California. By this happy marriage there have been born eleven children of whom five are sons and six daughters. Their residence is on his farm of Los Berros, a portion of the Nipomo grant, containing 1,600 acres of valuable land, inherited from his father. A view of this very pleasant home is given in this book.
The rancho takes its name from the little stream, Los Berros—meaning the water cresses—which runs through the land. A few hundred yards in front of the house runs the Pacific Coast Railway, having a depot on the rancho, thus giving ready access to market, and an easy line of travel.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County, California, p107. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
CAPT. WM. G. DANA
To New England, among the commercial people of the United States, belongs the honor of developing trade and making explorations among the islands of the great “South Sea” and along the “Northwest Coast,” as the Pacific Ocean and the western shore of North America were called in the early part of this century. Boston, Salem, New Bedford, and Nantucket were the localities known to the people in this quarter of the globe; and “Boston men” became, and remains to this day, the designation of all Americans, as contradistinguished from “King George’s men,” by which the English are known, among the Indians of the far north. The whalers, the missionaries, the hide-gatherers, and traders were from New England, and those who wrote pleasant descriptions of their travels came in Boston ships. Then the Boston mariner could say: —
“Where’er the breeze can bear the billows’ foam,
Survey our empire and behold our home.”
From such a people and with such enterprise came the late William Goodwin Dana, of Nipomo; whose signature we find often repeated in the archives of San Luis Obispo County, in the land and language of his adoption, as Guillermo G. Dana, but to Americans was best known as Capt. Wm. G. Dana.
HIS BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.
This gentleman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 5, 1797, his father bearing the same given name, and his mother, Elizabeth, being a daughter of Gen. Robert Davis of Massachusetts. His lineage traces back to early colonial times, Richard Dana, the progenitor of the family, settling at Cambridge in 1640. From that patriarch has descended a numerous family, and clustering about that great center of learning many have attained distinction as jurists, poets, scientists, divines, doctors, and writers of every class. Among them were Richard, grandson of the first, a great lawyer; Francis, Chief Justice of Massachusetts; Richard H., distinguished as one of the most pleasant of American poets and essayists; Richard H., Jr., author of “Two Years before the Mast,” and an authority on maratime law; Samuel Luther, M. D., LL.D., a distinguished chemist; James Dwight, LL.D., who accompanied Wilkes’ exploring expedition to the Pacific in 1838-42, as geologist and mineralogist; James, D. D., a prominent minister in New England; James Freeman, M. D., mineralogist and author, and Danas in every rank of life. The spirit of Richard of 1640, could look over a long and numerous line of descendants, and probably find as many representatives of his name on the roll of honor as any of the Puritan Pilgrims of that day.
YOUTH AND EARLY TRAVELS.
The youth of William G. was spent in Boston, where he acquired a good education, but at the early age of eighteen, just after the close of the last war with England, he was sent in the service of his uncle, a Boston merchant, to Canton, China, where he remained nearly two years. From thence he went to Calcutta, India, remaining there one year and returning to Boston. That was a long and venturesome journey for one so young, and sufficient to fill the enthusiastic youth with the unquenchable spirit of unrest. He appears to have been an observing and studious young man, learning the art and qualifications of a sailor, as is shown by his obtaining a first-class certificate as a navigator.
CAPTAIN OF THE BRIG WAVERLY.
His stay in Boston was short. He had learned the business of the China trade, and, being full of enterprise, determined to engage in it. Taking a vessel (probably the schooner or brig Waverly, as we find him Captain of that vessel a few years afterwards) he sailed to China to engage in trade between that country, the Sandwich Islands, California, and Boston. In 1820 he established a large commercial business and erected an extensive warehouse at Oahu (Honolulu), in the Sandwich Islands, making that place his headquarters during a period of five years. From Oahu he made several voyages to Canton, to Russian America, California, and the South American Coast.
HIS ANCESTRAL ESTATE.
During that period Captain Dana appears to have become acquainted with the California Coast and impressed with its advantages for business, as in 1825 he located at Santa Barbara and established a store, placing it in charge of Capt. C. R. Smith, while he continued in command of the Waverly, continuing the circle of voyages on the Pacific to Canton, Sitka, the islands, California ports, and elsewhere. Something of his business and his voyages we learn from old bills of lading, powers of attorney, letters, etc., which have survived the vicissitudes and ravages of time. Among these old papers is one showing something of the ancestral estate of his mother, and also the difficulties attending business transactions in the days before regular mails, steam, and the telegraph. This is a power of attorney to Joshua Davis, of Boston, to sell and dispose of Captain Dana’s interest in a “piece of land, or flats, in the southerly part of the city of Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in the rear of land of Mary Davis, and about 100 feet westerly from Washington Street, extending about 35 feet along the land of Mary Davis, and about 1,000 feet toward the mill-dam,” etc. This was prepared in Boston in 1825, sent to the Sandwich Islands, thence to Santa Barbara, where Captain Dana drew up a copy and carried it to Oahu, where he executed it before the American Consul in March, 1827, probably reaching Boston in about two years from the time it was sent out. No large sum was expected from the property, which would probably represent a good fortune at the present time; but whatever it might have been, Captain Dana very honorably expressed his doubts about his right to receive anything from the property, as he thought it had been omitted by “mistake from the will of the late Gen. A. Davis, and reverted to the heirs of my grandfather—Robert.” He says: “If I am not one of the rightful heirs, I feel no disposition to retain that which is the property of another contrary to the rules of equity and justice.”
AFFECTIONATE CORRESPONDENCE.
In the first ten years immediately succeeding his departure from Boston he maintained a correspondence with his relatives, a number of well-expressed and very affectionate letters appearing from his sister Adeline E. and his cousin Sarah, whose heart he seems to have taken with him, but at a later date the correspondence appears to have ceased, as in January, 1849, his sister, then Mrs. Darling, of New York, writes that she has seen his name favorably mentioned in Fremont’s reports and in Bryant’s “What I Saw in California,” the latter describing him as a native of Massachusetts and a “gentleman whose unbounded liberality and hospitality is known throughout California.” Those were times when everybody was talking of “the land of gold,” and Mrs. Darling receives many compliments of the praise of her brother and inquiries of California; but she writes: “I am constrained, dear William, despite my mortification, to say that I have not received a letter from you for 18 years!” Oh, how many young wanderers there have been in California, leaving hearts full of love at home waiting and watching for letters and the return, wearily watching in vain!
INHERITS PROPERTY.
Several members of the Davis family appear in his correspondence, in Boston, Hartford, the West Indies, and Sandwich Islands, showing them prominent merchants and men of wealth and enterprise. In 1822, William H. Davis, then of Oahu, makes his will, dying soon after, in which his nephew, William G. Dana, is bequeathed the sum of $5,000. The same will gives to the friends of the testator, Thomas Meek $5,000, John C. Jones $5,000, Eliab Grimes $5,000, John Gowen $2,000, and the remainder of his property to his son Robert G. Davis.
GOLD IN THE CARGO.
The following bill of lading is reproduced as a relic of olden time, and showing the existence of gold as an article of commerce in 1826: —
Shipped in good order, and well conditioned, by J. R. Cooper, in and upon the brig called the Waverly, whereof Wm. G. Dana is Master, for this present voyage; now lying in the harbour of St. Barbara, and bound for Oahu, as follows: Fourteen hundred and twenty-eight guilders; two thousand Spanish dollars; four bars silver, weight five hundred and twenty-six marks and five oz., more or less; three casks con’g one hundred and thirty-eight otter skins, more or less; one cask con’g two hundred and twelve black pup fur-seal skins, more or less; and one lump gold, weight unknown, being marked as in the margin (no mark); and are to be delivered in like good order, and well-conditioned, at the aforesaid port of Oahu (the danger of the seas only excepted), unto said Wm. G. Dana, or to S. Reynolds, or their assigns, they paying freight for said goods at one-half per cent., without primage and damage as accustomed. In witness whereof, the master of said brig hath affirmed to them bills of lading of this tenor and date, one of which being accomplished, the others to stand void.
WM. G. DANA.
Santa Barbara, October 22, 1826.
Where the gold and silver came from is not stated, but as neither the weight nor the value of the gold is given, it was probably from the mines of California, the placers of the Santa Clara, or Piru, in the region contributory to Santa Barbara, being known at that time.
In a document vouching for the good intentions and character of Jedediah S. Smith, dated December 20, 1826, previously published, Wm. G. Dana is recorded as Captain, and Thomas M. Robbins as Mate of schooner Waverly, but elsewhere this vessel is called a brig.
A CARGO TO SITKA.
At a later date Captain Dana sends a cargo of wheat, beef, salt, etc., to Sitka, by the smack William Little, Capt. Henry Carter, with instructions to dispose of to the best advantage, receiving in payment cash, furs, or such goods as will pay a profit. Seal skins were usually taken at “$1-6 each;” $1-6 probably meaning one dollar and six reales, or $1.75. In selling the cargo it would be by weight, the Russian pood being equal to thirty-six English pounds. Captain Carter was also instructed to use all possible efforts to procure a lot of hunters and “fifteen or sixteen bydarkies” (skin boats), and to land them on Santa Rosa Island. “Boards, planks, etc.,” all he could stow, were desirable cargo for him to bring back.
OPPOSITION TO AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA.
From a letter from John B. R. Cooper, dated Monterey, July 22, 1828, we see that even at that early date there was great dissatisfaction with the existing Government, and the hope was expressed that some disturbance could be created whereby the United States might intervene and take possession of the country. Cooper was very indignant on account of the trouble given Dana in relation to his marriage, it being necessary first to become naturalized as a citizen, and be married in the Catholic Church. Allusion is made to the “great man,” whom Cooper calls the “American hater,” and, referring to his own wrongs, says, “There is not one jot of honesty, truth, honor, or principle in the country, but a set of the most shameless, swindling, deceitful rascals that ever dwelt on earth. Oh! ‘Home,’ Dana,‘ sweet, sweet home, there is no place like home.’ This country, I fear, will never do for you nor me. The only hope I have is that they will kick up a dust with the United States and we may have a different Government here.” The state of affairs probably ran smoother afterwards, as both remained in the country, which did well for them, as they lived happily and prospered. The “sweet home” of the distant East was forgotten in the new home in the far West. William G. becomes Guillermo G. Dana, and John is changed to Juan B. R. Cooper, de la profesion maritima, and licensed to employ ten boats in hunting sea otter between the latitude of San Luis Obispo and Bodega. While the old, or rather young merchants and hunters became attached to the country—and to its fair daughters—naturalized under its laws, rearing large families and acquiring great wealth, they never lost their love for their native land and Government, as they gladly accepted the change of flag and aided in the establishment of the new order.
PERPLEXING LAWS.
The “great man,” as Dana wites, or the “American hater” as Cooper calls him, appears to have been Gen. José Maria de Echeandia, to whom Dana presents a petition written on stamped paper, dated Santa Barbara, March 22, 1828, addressed Senor Gefe Superior Politico, praying for the authorization of his espousal with Doña Maria Josefa Carrillo, daughter (hija legitima) of Don Carlos Antonio Carrillo, resident of the presidio of Santa Barbara.
To this the worthy Political Chief replies from San Diego, under date of May 1, 1828, that the application could not be acted upon as yet, since the Mexican authorities had not replied to Señor Dana’s application for citizenship, forwarded some time in January ultimo.
In this case, he said, proceedings would necessarily be delayed for at least five months in accordance with the law, in which time, if nothing happened to the contrary, the question would be definitely settled.
After waiting the allotted five months from March, or at least till August 20, 1828, the marriage was celebrated. Mr. Dana did not, however, get his certificate of naturalization until February 18, 1835. The certificate is signed by José Figueroa, whose title was General of Brigade of the Mexican Republic, Commandant General Inspector, and Political Chief of the Territory of Alta California. It is attested by Agustin P. Zamorano, Secretary.
CLOSES BUSINESS IN OAHU.
Having in 1825 established business at Santa Barbara, he soon after becomes a permanent resident and closes out his affairs in the Sandwich Islands. His property there he left in charge of Stephen Reynolds. In his instructions to Reynolds making him his agent, while being precise in details, he shows a very generous and friendly spirit toward his debtors, among whom is the King, saying he is in no hurry to present them unless some accident happens to himself. One account is against Boki, who appears to be one of the owners of the brig Waverly, amounting to $2,274.34 for advances on the brig more than his proportion. Captain Rutter is in command of the Waverly at that time, but the date is not given. It is at a time, however, when he is about to leave the islands for a voyage in different parts of the Pacific Ocean.
LETTER FROM HIS AGENT.
From a letter to Captain Dana, from Stephen Reynolds, dated Oahu, Thursday, March 17, 1836, 5 p. m., we are given an insight into the manner in which news was received in this country from the East, also of the society and business on the Sandwich Islands. From this letter we quote:—
New York had a tremendous fire 16th December; $26,000,000 were destroyed, buildings, property, etc. It was so cold the water froze in the engine hose. They used kegs of gunpowder and blew up (or down) the buildings to stop the flames.
We are almost overrun with the missionaries, seamen’s preachers, and train of native hypocrites. I hope I have charity for all men; if I have not, the mission wretches have the least of any class.
The bachelors here were given a ball on the 4th of March evening. Fourteen foreign ladies, some thirty or forty males present.
The poor simpleton, the seamen’s preacher, took upon himself to say to some of the ladies who partook of the supper: “If you go to the party you cannot go to the table next Sabbath!”
The times are bad here; little doing; money all gone to Canton; what we are to do is hard to tell. Send us a good lot of hides. Stick to your farm, so when hunger drives me hence I may find you with a spare loaf for a poor old friend. I am truly glad your prospects are good for becoming a wealthy farmer. Stick to it! Stick, stick, stick, stick, stick to it. Go slow, go sure; you have nothing to fear.
The Don Quixote will be on the coast this summer. If I can get a barrel of “sweet taters” I will send you one. We do not get enough to eat now.
I wish you would come among us and look into all your old affairs, not that I think you will be more fortunate than we who live here in getting old debts from Government. Remember the China saying, “Short account, long friend.”
CAPTAIN DANA BUILDS A SCHOONER.
In 1828 Captain Dana built a schooner on the coast of Santa Barbara, the locality still bearing the name, Goleta, the Spanish word for schooner, from that fact. This is claimed as the first sea-going vessel ever launched in California, and exhibited a spirit of enterprise quite astonishing to the natives of the country. This was a valuable vessel, and the labor and expense of construction were large. She was named the Santa Barbara and placed under the command of Capt. Thomas M. Robbins, the former mate of the Waverly, who sailed her for some years and afterwards sold her at Acapulco. Captain Robbins subsequently married Encarnacion Carrillo, sister of Mrs. Dana, became a resident of Santa Barbara and one of its wealthy citizens, owner of Las Positas Rancho, and the grantee of Santa Catalina Island.
OBTAINS THE NIPOMO GRANT.
In 1835, having become a naturalized citizen of the Mexican Republic, and thereby entitled to hold land, he applied for and obtained the grant of the Nipomo Rancho, comprising 37,887.91 acres. The grant to Dana was one of the earliest made, and he had his choice in a very extended area of country as lovely as the sun shines upon, and he made a selection which, for the purpose of grazing or tillage, exhibited a profound judgment. This grand body of land is now included in the southern part of San Luis Obispo County, extending from near the shore of the Pacific to the base of the Santa Lucia Mountains. The name is derived from an expression of the Indians of the locality, saying ne-po-mah, meaning it was at the foot of the hill, or mountain. In their guttural language the first two syllables were only slightly sounded, the accent being on the last. From this the grant was designated as the Nipomo.
After obtaining the grant Mr. Dana continued in business in Santa Barbara, also carrying on the rancho, until in the fall of 1839 he moved to the Nipomo and became thereafter heavily engaged in stock-raising, farming, and manufacturing. He erected a large adobe house of thirteen rooms , which continues to be the residence of members of the family, some of whom, with their wives, or husbands, and children have become too numerous for the shelter of the parental roof and dwell in modern structures on allotted farms on the great rancho, or in the neighboring towns. The venerable casa de Dana stands a conspicuous object on an elevation overlooking a large area of the grant, a monument in the history of the county second only to the old missions, and around it cluster many pleasant and interesting reminiscences. In the period of the ranchero days, when the great landholders were the lords of the country and the patrone of all the people, this was the headquarters of the region and the stopping-place of all travelers, where hospitality was unbounded. In nearly all the books upon California in the early days, in Government reports and orders, frequent mention is made of Captain Dana, his pleasant home, and his hospitality.
THE HOSPITALITIES OF NIPOMO.
The rancho of Nipomo was a pleasure resort, a recuperating place, for all Americans traveling through the country, and the guests entertained and welcomed there were numerous, including many names of important personages in the history of California. Among them have been noted Colonel Fremont, and Edwin Bryant, who wrote so complimentary of the generous host. The late Mayor Teschmacher and General (then Captain) Halleck made it their home for long periods. In 1848 the United States steamship Edith went ashore between Point Arguello and Point Sal, and the officers and crew were taken by Captain Dana to his home, where they were kindly entertained for two or three weeks, until he could perfect arrangements to transport them to Monterey, which he did by providing horses and saddles and sending men to guide them on the way and return with the animals. Several of the officers remained some months at the rancho. At that time it was customary to provide travelers with meals, lodging, and a relay of horses free of charge, and, if unacquainted with the country, a guide was sent to accompany them to the next place. All this was without charge, and at times, it is said, if the traveler was thought to be in need, money would be placed near his bed that he might supply himself without the indelicacy of asking his condition or openly making the tender of a gift. Such was the hospitality of the Californians, of which the rancho of Captain Dana was a conspicuous example, known and availed of by all travelers.
The only places on the road between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara were Nipomo, twenty-four miles from San Luis, thence twenty-one miles to Los Alamos, thence twenty miles to Santa Ynez Mission, thence to Refugio, and thence to Santa Barbara. These distances were the regular jornadas between the stopping-places named.
The house was located upon an elevation, in order that a more extended view could be had of the surrounding country, to observe the approach of the marauding Indians, and the better protection from them. Also there was presented thereby a panoramic view of the most picturesque and enchanting character, the broad and fertile valley of Nipomo spreading in front many miles to the north and south and east, with the precipitous range of the Santa Lucia beyond. The Indians from the Tulare Valley frequently made raids upon the great stock ranchos of the coast, and often from the house they have been seen gathering the horses and cattle in the valley or upon the bordering hills. Then it was necessary to arm and mount all the men of the place and speed to the attack of the marauders. Some fierce conflicts have occurred, and constant vigilance was required to protect the stock.
ENGAGES IN MANUFACTURES.
Considerable manufacturing was also carried on. Captain Dana had not been born and brought up in thrifty New England to rest quiety with the semi-civilized systems of the native Californians. Although but a lad of eighteen when he left Boston for a life of the sea and adventure, he retained some ideas of his early home. He established at Nipomo a soap factory, looms for makingcloth, turning lathe and furniture factory, blacksmith shop, and other means for making agricultural implements, and also made many other articles. With his manufactures he supplied his own people, the neighboring ranchos, and the missions of La Purissima and Santa Ynez. With his looms he made coarse cloths for clothing, serapes, and blankets, of the latter some being in existence at a late date, after constant use since their manufacture. While a ship-owner and in trade with the coast and islands of the Pacific, and in settling up his business, he dealt much in sandal and other valuable woods. Of these he made elegant furniture, and some beautiful bedsteads and wardrobes are still among the most admired ornaments of the old home at Nipomo, and other places, at the present day. At his blacksmith shop he made such improvement in plows as quite astonished the Californians, creating a revolution in agriculture in that quarter of the country; but, singularly enough, it did not spread to any great extent. The people were accustomed to the arada, usually a section of a small tree, having a limb of sufficient length for a pole reaching to the yoke of the oxen drawing it, one end of the body sharpened to scratch the ground and the other fixed for the handle. Dana made such plows as he had seen in his youth, which, though very crude, were a great improvement upon the pointed stick of ancient Biblical times used by the Californians, and were in use until the Americans brought in the new styles of modern times.
POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES.
In the political controversies of the country Captain Dana took but little part. We presume he was in favor with the party of the south, supporting his father-in-law, Carrillo, for Governor when legally appointed by the President of Mexico, as against the revolutionists, Alvarado and Castro, of the north. Governor Nicolas Gutierrez, in October, 1836, writes him a letter addressing him Mi estimado ainigo (my esteemed friend), showing the probability of his friendship for the party represented by Gutierrez. In 1840 the armed forces ot Alvarado arrested John M. Price, then in the service of Captain Dana, but did not disturb the principal. This was probably as far as they thought prudent to go against so powerful a man in resenting his adherence to the opposite party. That he was favorable to the American cause is shown by the warm friendship of Fremont and other prominent officers. His health at the time, however, did not permit him to take a very active part in military operations, he being a victim to acute rheumatism for many years.
OFFICES HELD.
Captain Dana was tendered many political offices, and held several. Under Mexican rule he was Prefecto of the district, the highest office in the gift of the Governor. At the first election for officers under the Constitution of the State of California, in 1849, he received the largest vote for the Senate, but, owing to informalities in the election, the office was accorded to Don Pablo de la Guerra, of Santa Barbara. He was afterwards urged to accept the nomination for another term, but declined to run. In 1851 he was elected Treasurer of San Luis Obispo County.
BUSINESS ENTERPRISES.
The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada, in 1848, and the impetus given thereby and the American occupation to business, opened a field for greater enterprise to Captain Dana. San Luis Obispo County was created, including Nipomo within its boundaries, and the mission of San Luis Obispo was made the county seat. There he established a large business for those days, erecting the first frame building in the town or county. This pioneer evidence of progress was erected in 1850, fronting the road leading past the mission to Monterey, now called Monterey Street, and near the palm tree which was even then a large tree, of age contemporary with the mission. This building, or a portion of it, still occupies its original position. In 1851 he constructed the “Casa Grande,” a large adobe structure, on the land now occupied by the bank of San Luis Obispo and other buildings. This was a famous building for a period, serving for hotel, saloons, stores, Court House, etc. The walls were of adobe and the roof of iron. The timbers used in it were hauled from the pine forests near Cambria, at great labor and expense, oxen being the motive power, and no roads worthy of the name. The building is reported to have cost over $5o,ooo, and was the great hotel of the south. At that time there was a great deal of travel through San Luis Obispo, and the town, with its limited means transacted a large and profitable business. But it is not believed that Captain Dana ever realized a fortune from his “Casa Grande.” The building was at one time used as a Court House, and the collection of the rent involved the owner in a long and very annoying controversy and law suit. Mr. Dana had been County Treasurer, and in settling his accounts with the Court of Sessions, retained the amount due for rent. The Court refused to allow it, and after much correspondence finally ordered suit to be commenced, which was finally decided by the supreme court in favor of Dana.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY OF MRS. DANA.
The marriage of Captain Dana has been mentioned. This was solemnized at Santa Barbara, August 20, 1828. Señora Dana, Maria Josefa Carrillo, was the eldest daughter of Don Carlos Antonio Carrillo and Maria Josefa (nacio Castro) Carrillo, sister of General Castro. Her grandfather was Don Raymundo Carrillo, one of the first commanders of the posts of San Diego and Santa Barbara, and the founder of the family in California. He married Tomasa Lugo, a daughter of one of the oldest soldiers stationed at Santa Barbara. Their children were Don Carlos Antonio, Anastacio, Domingo, José Antonio, and a daughter, who married José de la Guerra y Noriega. The sons of Don Carlos Antonio Carrillo were José, who married Catarina Ortega; Pedro, who married Josefa Bandini, and José Jesus, who married Tomasa Gutierrez. There were five daughters, Maria Josefa, who married Capt. William G. Dana; Encarnacion, who married Capt. Thomas M. Robbins; Francisca, who married Capt. A. B. Thompson, an American shipmaster and merchant of Santa Barbara; Manuela, who married John C. Jones, Consul of the United States at the Sandwich Islands, and afterwards married M. C. Kettle, a merchant and banker of Boston, and Maria Antonia, who married Don Luis Burton, or Lewis T. Burton, an American merchant. All became wealthy, establishing large families, and are prominent in the history of California.
REMINISCENCE OF EARLY HISTORY.
As Doña Manuela recenty returned to visit the place of her birth, we will introduce a personal notice from the San Luis Obispo Tribune on May 18, 1883.
Mr. M. C. Kettle and wife, who are stopping with the Danas in this county, bring to mind a very interesting scrap of the early history of this State. Mrs. Kettle is one of five daughters of Don Carlos Antonio Carrillo, formerly Governor of Alta California, and also a Departmental Delegate to the Mexican Congress. His five daughters married Americans, the respective husbands being John C. Jones, United States Consul to Honolulu; Capt. Alpheus B. Thompson, commander of a Boston merchantman; Thomas M. Robbins, also a merchant; Don Luis Burton, merchant, and Wm. G. Dana, of the Nipomo Rancho. The first two mentioned were married on the same day at Santa Barbara, Mrs. Kettle being then the bride of the first named in the list. On the day of the marriage the father and uncle of the brides endowered them with the island of Santa Rosa, a princely domain, containing 60,000 acres of land, now the property of A. P. Moore. Mr. and Mrs. Jones removed to Boston and lived in the vicinity for many years, residing at Jamaica Plains and West Newton, in the enjoyment of a princely income. Mr. Jones dying some years since, Mrs. Jones married her present husband, M. C. Kettle, a banker of great wealth. Since then she has resided alternately in London, Paris, and Vienna, visiting most of the capitals of Europe. She has moved in the best society, and is an accomplished lady, speaking fluently several languages. After an absence of thirty-eight years she has returned to the scenes of her youth to find all her sisters, excepting Mrs. Dana, dead. The meeting between the two sisters is said to have been very affecting.
It may interest our young lady readers to know that, in the long ago, Santa Barbara had the reputation of having the most lovely women in all California, and that the Señoritas Carrillo were pre-eminent for their beauty.
THE FAMILY.
Captain and Mrs. Dana were the parents of twenty-one children, of whom eight died in infancy, and one, Mrs. S. A. Pollard (Maria Josefa Dana), died in 1878. Living are Charles W., residing in the town of San Luis Obispo; William C. of Los Berros; John F., Henry C, Frank, Edward G., Fred A., Adelina E., David A., Eliseo C., and Samuel A., all on the Nipomo estate. With several marriages and children growing the family is sufficienty large to constitute not only a very delightful home circle, but a pleasant village, and in the valley near the old mansion, the village plot of Nipomo has been surveyed, and the town is growing. For the venerable and venerated mother an elegant home of modern architecture has been constructed, which is a conspicuous object as the traveler passes in the rapidly flying train. The modern overtakes the lingering ones while yet they link the past, present, and future in a living chain.
AFFLICTION AND DEATH.
During many of the later years of his life Captain Dana was a great sufferer from rheumatism. The hardships and exposure to which his energy, travels, and business subjected him, told heavily in that insidious and painful affliction, for which no satisfactory cause can be given nor cure provided. After his trials at sea and his journeys in China and India, when prepared to enjoy his ease and dignity on his pleasant Nipomo, he was attacked with the disease, relieving him, and returning at intervals, but growing more painful from year to year. This so incapacitated him from active physical exertion that he could not take that part in the public affairs at the time of the change of flag that his energies and wishes prompted. Shortly thereafter he became entirely confined to his house, paralyzed and helpless, and so continued until his death, February 12, 1858. His remains lie buried in the Catholic cemetery of San Luis Obispo, where a handsome monument marks his grave.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County, California, pp101-107. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
Messrs. S. A. Pollard and George E. Long built the first store in Cambria on the lot where now stands the store of Ramage & Conway. This was the first building in town, and as such of considerable historical value. At about the time these events were occurring several gentlemen who were destined to exercise an influence upon the affairs of the county had begun to arrive. Of these one of the best known is
WILLIAM H. DE NISE
Who was born in Montgomery County, New York, May 23, 1829. In that region where the thrifty Dutch settlers of two centuries ago made their homes and extended the Christian civilization along the valley of the Mohawk, the subject of this sketch grew to manhood, receiving his education at the common schools, and training in the habits of industry and self-reliance so characteristic of his ancestors. In 1854, lured by the grand prospects opening on the Pacific Coast for the enterprise of young men of health and vigor, he came to California, and here engaged in various occupations. His first four years in this State he spent in Yolo County, then in Sacramento, where he engaged in teaming to the mines, and upon the development of the silver mines of Nevada transferred his teaming operations to Gold Hill, in hauling quartz from the mines to the mills, and this he continued very profitably for six years. Then leaving the mining regions of our sister State he sought the pleasant valley of Santa Clara, and, for two years, as a farmer, cultivated its fertile soil. From his farm he moved into the city of San José, where he dwelt two years, and in 1871 came to San Luis Obispo County. Here he has since lived, engaged in farming and dairying. His farm contains 456 acres, and is situated about one mile from Cambria, a view of the pleasant home , its surroundings and the buildings required for the dairy, being given on another page.
Mr. De Nise was married January 30, 1867, to Miss Carrie Brown, a native of New York. They have three children, one son and two daughters.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County, California, p336. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
H. H. DOYLE
The senior partner of the firm of Doyle & Crenshaw, and founder of the Mirror, is Hugh Hanks Doyle, a native of Tennessee, born in Dyer County in that State in 1851. When but a lad he entered the office of the Memphis Appeal, one of the most prominent newspapers of the Southwest, and there learned the trade of printer. That was in the time of the great War of the Rebellion, and the Appeal was a powerful advocate of the Confederate cause. But Memphis yielded to the Federal arms, and such of the printers as could escaped to Vicksburg, young Doyle being of the number. Not being of sufficient age to render much service in the trenches when that city was attacked by the forces under Grant, he labored in the printing office to supply the people with the encouraging news of continued Yankee disasters, of which the following is a relic and a sample, from the Vicksburg Citizen, of July 2, 1863, printed on wall-paper, on the reverse side of a sheet seventeen by nine inches in size:—
ON DIT.—That the great Ulysses—the Yankee Generallissimo, surnamed Grant—has expressed his intention of visiting Vicksburg and celebrating the Fourth of July by a grand dinner and so forth. When asked if he would invite General Joe Johnson to join, he said “No! for fear there would be a row at the table.” Ulysses must get into the city before he dines in it. The way to cook a rabbit is “first to catch the rabbit,” etc.
The Yanks outside of our city are considerably on the sick list. Fever, dysentery, and disgust are their companions, and Grant is their master. The boys are deserting daily, and are crossing the river in the region of Warrenton, cursing Grant and the abolitionists generally. The boys are down upon the earth, sick from the delving, the burrowing, the bad water, and the hot weather.
We are indebted to Major Gillespie for a steak of confederate beef, alias meat. We have tried it and can assure our friends, if it is rendered necessary, they need have no scruples at eating the meat. It is sweet, savory, and tender, and so long as we have a mule left we are satisfied our soldiers will be content to subsist on it.
GOOD NEWS.—In devoting a large portion of our space this morning to Federal intelligences, copied from the Memphis Bulletin of the 25th, it should be remembered that the news in the original truth is whitewashed by the Federal Provost Marshal, who desires to hood-wink the poor Northern white slaves. The former editors of the Bulletin, being rather pro-southern men, were arrested for speaking the truth when truth was unwelcome to Yankeedom, and placed in the chain-gang, working at Warrenton where they now are. This paper at present is in distress, and edited by a pink-nosed, slab-sided, toad-eating Yankee, who is a lineal descendant of Judas Iscariot, and a brother germain of the greatest Puritanical, sycophantic, howling scoundrel unhung—Parson Brownlow. Yet with such a character, this paper cannot cloak the fact that Gen. Robert E. Lee has given Hooker, Milroy & Co. one of the best and soundest whippings on record, and that the “galorious Union” is now exceedingly weak in the knees.
That was the last of the type the printers could get into their sticks on that eventful 3d of July, as the Union Army poured in and took possession of the city. Some printers among the Federal troops found the incomplete forms of the paper, and adding the following put it to press, preserving the numbers as relics.
NOTE.—July 4, 1863.—Two days bring about great changes. The banner of the Union floats over Vicksburg. General Grant has “caught the rabbit;” he has dined in Vicksburg, and he did bring his dinner with him. The Citizen lives to see it. For the last time it appears on “wall-paper.” No more will it eulogize the luxury of mule meat, and fricasseed kitten—urge Southern warriors to such diet nevermore. This is the last wall-paper edition, and is, excepting this, from the types as we found them. It will be valuable hereafter as a curiosity.
Mr. Doyle was conquered with Vicksburg, and has been a good Union man—and a consistent Democrat—ever since. His reminiscences of the great siege are quite vivid, and the preceding extracts are given as a contemporary statement of the condition of affairs and sentiments, the remembrance of which are rapidly fading from the memories of most people.
As Doyle grew into manhood he developed the talents and ambition that have made him a prominent and successful publisher, his first individual enterprise being the publication of the Larned Optic, in the shire town of Pawnee County, Kansas. His next venture was the Monitor in Canton, McPherson County, Kansas. In 1880 he became a resident of California and of San Luis Obispo, where he established the Mirror, in October of that year. In the November following he was joined in the enterprise by Mr. J. H. Crenshaw, making the firm of Doyle & Crenshaw. Mr. Doyle has been the editor of the Mirror since its beginning, and has won for himself many friends and the respect of all.
While residing at Larned, publishing the Optic, on the 26th of March, 1878, he married Miss Jennie Long, and, with wife and children, is now among the prominent residents of San Luis Obispo.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County, California, pp279-280. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.