By
and
Reprinted
from the Evening Free Lance
Hollister, California
During the
months of July, 1929, the Hollister, California "Evening Free Lance" published
another highly interesting chapter of early central California history - one
that has never been told before, the early history of Corralitos and Soquel,
these two picturesque places in Santa Cruz county which are familiar to almost
every resident of the Central Coast Counties.
The story of
the beginning of these communities is told by Mrs. Rebecca Deleissegues and her
sister Mrs. Lucretia Mylar, whose father and uncle erected the first flour
mills and saw mills in these towns, and thereby gave them their start as California
communities.
Benjamin
Hames, millwright, surveyor, builder and adventurer, founded Corralitos in 1854
or possibly a little earlier. John Hames, also a millwright and adventurer,
founded the town of Soquel several years prior to that date.
How these two
typical American pioneers left their boyhood home in New York, lost touch with
one another for years, and were finally re-united in Santa Cruz county after
lives of adventure in South America and other strange places, and the story of
their activities in the Corralitos-Soquel section, makes an interesting story
and a valuable contribution to California's historical records.
Santa Cruz
County
"In the month
of April, 1929, a copy of the Watsonville Register was sent to me at Nipoma,
San Luis Obispo county, which contained a story entitled, 'Corralitos, Gem of
the Pajaro Valley.' "
"As my
father, Ben Hames, was the founder of Corralitos and I spent my childhool [sic]
days there, I wish to contribute what my sister, Mrs. Lucretia Mylar, and I
remember of those early days."
___________
Benjamin F.
Hames, the founder of the town of Corralitos, Santa Cruz county in 1855 or
possibly earlier, was the son of Benjamin Hames and Rebecca Harding or Hardin.
The elder Hames was a native of New York and a millwright by trade, who came
west in the early days when Michigan was being settled and located at Battle
Creek, Calhoun county, where he built the first flour mill in what was destined
to become one of the greatest milling and cereal manufacturing centers of
America.
The elder
Hames resided in Battle Creek until his death, which occurred in 1850.
Benjamin
Hames Jr., who was born in Rochester, New York, June 1st, 1823, left his
father's home before the latter migrated west to Michigan. The young man took
passage for California, evidently in the early forties, on the bark 'Mazeppa'.
En route to South America he made the acquaintance of a minister who was a
fellow passenger, and the clergyman presented him with a bible which his
daughter Rebecca still treasures as a valuable keepsake.
After a
cruise that took him as far as the Hawaiian Islands, Hames came back to South
America and went to Santiago, Chile, Here he built a flour mill and then moved
to Valparaiso, Chile, where he erected another flour mill.
After living
in Chile for some time he married a cultured and refined young lady, Mary
Carmen Laing, the daughter of an Englishman, Capt. George Foster Laing and his
wife, Francisca Joffre Laing. Mrs. Hames was born in Valparaiso, July 8th, 1832.
Two
daughters, Frances and Lucretia, were born to them and in 1852 they took ship
for California, accompanied by the children's nurse, Mariquita, also by Mrs.
Hames youngest sister, Andrea Laing.
Capt. Laing,
his wife, their young son William and Mrs. Laing's daughter, Mrs. Rosa Post and
her son Henry, preceded the Hames family to California also making the trip
aboard a clipper ship, and took up their residence in Oakland, then a small
village.
The trip was
made aboard a clipper ship, laden with lumber. The wife of the captain of the
vessel was making the trip with her husband, and Mrs. Hames and her children
were allowed to make the trip because the two families were friends and because
they would be company for her.
The passage
required about two months and such heavy storms were encountered that most of
the cargo was thrown overboard to prevent the ship from foundering.
Mother
brought orange trees and several varieties of flowering garden plants with her,
managing to save many of them, including some Calla Lillies [sic], Fuchsia,
Pinks, etc., and they were the first plants of their kind in California.
They landed
at Yerba Buena, which is now San Francisco, lived there for a time and then
moved to Oakland, where Capt. Laing and his family were living.
About this
time Hames heard that his brother, John Hames, was living in Soquel, Santa
Cruz, county.
John Hames,
who was born in Orange county, New York, March 22nd, 1811, had left his home
many years before Benjamin started his travels, and the two brothers had lost
touch with one another.
Ben Hames
therefore moved with his family to Soquel, where there was a happy re-union.
Another brother, David, who had left home early in life, was never heard from.
John Hames
had, like his brother, led an adventurous life which had taken him to South
America. In 1842 and 1843 he had been in Peru and Ecuador, where he had worked
at his trade of millwright, and he had traveled extensively before he reached
California, coming from to Niles where he built a saw mill, then a flour mill
at Soquel, a comfortable home at that place and a saw mill a little further up
the Soquel canyon.
Ben Hames
built a flour mill at Haywards and then built Cascade Flour Mill at Aptos,
which is now called Rio Del Mar, This mill has long since been destroyed but a
small portion of the foundation is still to be seen.
Ben Hames
afterward built a flour mill at Chorro creek, a few miles northeast of San Luis
Obispo. It was called the Eagle Mill, and was owned by Sam Pollard and Mr.
Childs. Ben and John Hames were partners in a mill built by them at Corralitos.
Mrs. Hames
moved back to Oakland for a time, staying with her mother, Mrs. Laing, where
her daughter Rebecca was born on December 9, 1854. A son, Bennie, was born at
Corralitos April 26, 1856.
The next
year the babies were taken to Santa Cruz to be christened at the Holy Cross
Church by Father Rouselle. A few weeks later Ben Hames moved back to Soquel and
lived for a short time in a house that belonged to his brother John.
In 1855 he
bought several hundred acres of land in a beautiful place surrounded by hills
and called it 'Corralitos', meaning little corrals.
He built a
mill there and it was leased to O. P. Wilson of Soquel, so the Wilson family
moved to Corralitos and lived in a house near the store kept by Fischer &
Schwartz of Santa Cruz. Ben Hames then moved his family into the Wilson house
at Soquel.
While we
were living in the Wilson house at Soquel Grandfather and Grandmother Laing
came from Oakland to live with us. Grandfather had learned the ship carpenter's
trade when a youth at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and shipped aboard a vessel when a
young man. Years had passed and he never returned home, but after a year or so
at Soquel he decided to visit England again and settle his affairs at
Newcastle, then return to California for his permanent home.
In those
days ships visited Santa Cruz only on rare occasions, though they came
frequently to San Francisco. Grandfather decided to take passage on the first
boat that came to Santa Cruz, and when he learned that a vessel was in the
harbor, hurriedly prepared for his trip.
There were
no stage coaches or other means of conveyance and he had to walk the few miles
to Santa Cruz. I can see him now, with his grey beaver high hat which he always
wore on special occasions, and which he was so proud of, and his clothing tied
up in a red bandana handkerchief. It was before the day of the carpet bags and
suit cases were undreamed of.
But his
preparations were in vain for when he reached Santa Cruz the ship had sailed.
Almost sick with disappointment, he walked back to Soquel and the voyage was
postponed.
A few months
later grandmother became sick and after a lingering illness, died February 4th,
1856, I believe. She was buried at Soquel.
I was a
little girl at the time but remember many things about her. She was always kind
and good to us. One of her cherished belongings was a large yellow pitcher with
a blue band around it and with the handle broken off. She always kept it full
of doughnuts and was very liberal with them and other goodies. And she always
kept my hair curled.
Grandmother's
father was Jean Pierre Joffre, brother of the great-grandfather of the famous
French General of that name. Her mother was Mercedes Covarrubia, who was born
in Spain.
Jean Pierre
Joffre died at 'El Almendral' their home near Valparaiso, Chile, at the age of
88 years.
After
Wilson's lease of the Corralitos flour mill was up, some two or three years
later, he moved back to Soquel and Hames moved to a new house Wilson had built
beside the Corralitos Mill.
Grandfather
Laing made his home with us after we moved back to Corralitos. He was very much
attached to us children and the first time he opened his trunk he gave my
sister Lucretia Grandmother's sewing basket, with her scissors, thimbles and needles.
He also gave her grandmother's bonnet trimmed with flowers and berries and with
the wide ribbons to tie it with.
One day he
went to Watsonville with some one who was hauling a load of wood on a big
wagon. In those days the roads were very rough, dusty and full of chuck holes
and a heavy jolt threw him from the wagon, the fall causing paralysis of his
left side, arm and leg. He lived bed ridden for the remaining eight years of
his life.
In the
meantime Ben Hames had been elected county surveyor of Santa Cruz county, and
he held that office for many years, in fact, until he died, making a reputation
himself not only as an expert mechanic and builder of mills, but as a civil
engineer, a great reader and an accountant of marked ability.
A son,
George, was born to Mrs. Ben Hames July 28, 1861, and another daughter, Carmen,
was born August 31, 1864.
Robert Orton
was employed in the mill for some time after Wilson gave up his lease and Hames
again took charge of it. It seems that the mill had been mortgaged and about
this time the mortgage was foreclosed, Orton becoming the owner.
Hames and
his family then moved to some property he owned in the town of Corralitos and
resided there continuously thereafter, although he spent much of his time away
from home on surveying trips and at one time was called to Mazatlan, Mexico, to
erect some ore mills, as the country around Mazatlan at that time was rich in
gold, silver and other metals and mining was flourishing in the district.
We will now
turn our attention to the Corralitos mill and water system.
The flour
mill was run by water power, the water being brought down from a dam in Eureka
Canyon, through a flume which was about two feet wide and three or four feet
deep. The water ran very swiftly through this and poured into the buckets of
the immense wooden mill wheel at such speed that it kept it revolving at a
lively rate. When the mill was not operating the water was shut off by a gate.
The question
of a water supply for the town was quite a problem, as there were no iron or
steel pipe available, but Ben Whipple found a way. He had a lot of Redwood
saplings cut and hauled into town, then bored holes through them from end to
end. He laid a line of these wooden pipes, joining them together in some way,
and connected the line to the big flume, at a point much higher than the town
so that the flow was speedy and the pressure ample.
It was a
crude pipe line and water system but it proved very satisfactory and amply met
the needs of the little community.
In those
days no one ever through of digging a well, as no well boring machiney [sic]
had been devised and sinking a shaft by manual labour was a tedious and
difficult job.
About this
time Frank Aldrich took a turn at running the mill. He was a Christian
minister, working week days and preaching on Sundays.
Frank
Aldrich's brother, Wesley Aldrich, also lived in Corralitos at this time, with
his wife and children.
Pruitt
Sinclair was another early resident of the village, and like quite a few of the
early residents of that part of Santa Cruz county, was interested in milling as
he built a saw mill at Eureka Canyon.
In those
days bear were quite common and were often seen prowling around the outskirts
of the town. Old Man Lindsey, who lived across the creek opposite the mill frequently
trapped them and took them to Whiskey Hill (now known as Freedom), where one of
the favorite early day sports was bear and bull fights.
Whiskey Hill
at that time was perhaps one of the 'wildest and wooliest' spots in this part
of the State and its name was quite appropriate. The bear and bull fights and
other similar attractions were very popular with a large percentage of the
habitues and visitors, and often these entertainments were augmented with a
little impromptu shooting and stabbing affairs.
Some years
later Jerome B. Post lived in the house old man Lindsey had occupied. Post
engaged in the manufacture of chairs at this site, but during the winter of
1861-62, there came a big flood which washed away houses and trees and hundreds
of acres of land and the Post house was carried away, chairs and all.
Post's
little son, Jerome Jr., was caught by the angry waters and but for the presence
of mind of his elder brother George, who lives in Hollister, who grabbed him by
the hair and pulled him out of the swollen creek, he would have drowned.
The old
flour mill was later made into a paper mill. This was in the year 1880, but I
do not remember the name of the company which bought it and made the change.
Afterward it burned to the ground and gone were the hopes, aspiriations [sic]
and labors of many years.
Near where
this mill once stood now grows a tall fir tree that was planed [sic] by George
Post when a boy, marking what was once a beautiful spot when the flour mill was
running, a comfortable home nearby, with a flower garden and an orchard where
each of us picked our favorite fruit - the dear home of our childhood - now a
tangle of brush, briars, weeds and old shacks. Such is the end of our once
happy Corralitos home.
Up in
Brown's Canyon was a saw mill owned by Brown and Wliliamson [sic]. The tan
yards up Eureka Canyon were owned by Jack and Henry Kern. A man named Reder
also had a saw mill up Eureka Canyon.
In October,
1864, one very hot Sunday morning, there was a very severe earthquake in
Corralitos, which lasted for several seconds, and every little while throughout
that day and the following night there were slight shocks. Chimneys were shaken
down, cupboards overturned, dishes broken, etc., and the big wheat bins in the
mill burst open and the wheat was spilled in the pit under the mill wheel and
was ruined as the pit was full of water.
Old Uncle
Johnnie Matthews had the job of mending all the broken and cracked chimneys.
Dr. Hart, an
eccentric Englishman, was a frequent visitor at the Ben Hames home in the early
days. He would come to visit with his countryman, Capt. Laing (Mrs. Hames'
father).
Other people
who lived in Corralitos in the early times, who we remember, were the
Halsteads, Browns, Riders, the Ben Whipples, the George Jenkins, Martins, Whismans,
the Pruitt Sinclairs, Bickmores, Huntsmans, Malcolms, Henry Kearns, Jack Kearns
and family, Fisher & Swartz who ran the store, Pete Ortons, John Hurts, the
Rich family, Bradleys, DeWitts, Stingleys, Swarthhouts, McGuires, Curtis,
Pratts, Wrights, Deans, Sanfords, Moss, Stewarts, Bozemans, Clapps, Giffords,
Mr. Searles, Sol Diller, Andersons, Zolands, Bordenhamers, Matthew, Taylors,
Tanners, Wesley Aldrich, Roberts, McLaughlins, Maddox, Boyds, Frank Mylars,
Steve Breece, Posts, Lindseys, Pattersons, Prathers, Moores, Scotts, Bowdens.
Grandfather
Laing's youngest daughter, Andrea, was living in San Luis Obispo and he had not
seen her since she had married M. Baratie, a wealthy Frenchman, while they were
living in Oakland, who afterward moved to his large sheep ranch near San Juan
Capistrano, about 40 miles west of San Luis Obispo.
He became
very anxious to see his daughter again and determined to visit her, but in his
helpless state it was a problem to get him there. The roads were rought [sic]
and infested with outlaws. There were no stages or any public means of
conveyance, and the only vehicle owned by the settlers were crued [sic]
hard-riding wagons.
Before the
time arrived to attempt the trip south with the old gentleman, we received the
tragic news that outlaws had raided the Baratie ranch, killed Baratie and
carried off my aunt.
Bartola
[sic] Baratie, his wife and his partner, M. J. Borel, and their two servants,
Ysidro Silva and Luis Morillo, had been on their Rancho San Juan Capistrano, 45
miles from San Luis Obispo only ten days, and at the time the Frenchman [sic],
new to the country, did not know there was any town near them, and also were
ignorant of the fact that bandits had been committing depredations throughout
the surrounding country.
On the
morning of May 10th, eight men came along, representing themselves as horse
hunters, and stating they wished to buy food. The open-hearted Frenchman
refused to sell any provisions but gave them food, and that night the men
remained at the rancho, sleeping in the small house occupied by the two
servants.
On the
morning of the 11th they went away at an early hour, but on the next day, one
of the men, Miguel Blanco, came back alone, saying his comrades were away
running horses. He asked permission to unsaddle his horse and rest awhile, and
this was given him.
The two
partners then went to a nearby cluster of willows and started cleaning out a
spring which was the source of their household water supply, and Mrs. Baratie
accompanied them. The two servants were a short distance away, cutting hay, but
were hidden from their view.
Miguel
Blanco stood on a small hill, where he could see both parties, and was
evidently keeping a lookout for his companions, for the other men of the gang
suddenly appeared on the scene, capturing both the servants and the owners of
the rancho. The servants hands were tied and they were driven into the house by
two of the gang, Friolan and El Misteno [sic]. They were then placed on horses
and taken some distance away, but the outlaws finally agreed to spare their
lives on the condition they remain were [sic] they were until dark.
When the
bandits attacked Baratie, his wife and Boret [sic], they pleaded for their
lives. Mrs. Baratie implored them to spare her husband and herself, and they
promised they would do so. The gang then looted the house of a good supply of
clothing, a great deal of valuable jewelry and several thousand dollars they
had concealed in the bottom of a trunk. They also drove off their horses and
cattle. Despite their promises, after the gang had robbed the place they shot
down her husband and started to kill her, but one of the robbers, called El
Misteño (the wild man), said he would take her as his share of the booty.
Mrs. Baratie
knelt by her husband’s body, and covered it with her cape before the robbers
seized her and tied her on a horse.
When the
frightened servitors ventured back to the house about 5 o'clock that afternoon
they found Borel lying dead beside the spring, with three bullets in his body,
but were unable to find any trace of the body of Baratie. The house was in
confusion and had been rifled of almost every thing of value that could be
easily carried away. Only two horses had been taken, however, one handsome
black animal that had been appropriated by El Misteño, and the other the mare
on which Mrs. Baratie had been taken away a prisoner.
They
detailed Luciano, a youthful member of the gang, to take her to a cave in the
mountains used by Misteño as a hiding place, the other members of the robber
band going away in another direction with their booty.
As the youth
led the horse bearing the unhappy captive through trails that wound among the
underbrush which tore her clothing, scratched her skin and dragged off one of
her slippers, she pleaded with him to take her to a place of safety, finally
prevailing upon him to do so. The boy removed the raw-hide thongs that bound
her and started in a roundabout way toward San Juan, far to the north.
En route
they spent one night at a ranch called Pulvaderas, and run by a man called
Hernandez, who was believed to be a friend of the outlaws, and she dared not
speak to him of her plight.
They finally
arrived at San Juan, going to an old adobe house not far from the center of the
town, which was occupied by a man named Chavez. (This was undoubtedly Cleodovio
Chavez, who a short time later became a member of the notorious Vasquez gang
and right hand man and lieutenant of Tiburcio Vasquez, its leader.)
Mrs. Baratie
was by this time in a pitiful condition; weary, scratched and bruised by briars
and brush, her clothing in shreds, and heartbroken over the fate of her
husband. Furthermore she was in fear of her life as she knew that the occupants
were accomplices of the murderous outlaws who had killed her husband and his
partner and robbed their rancho.
At first she
was afraid to talk to any of them but finally prevailed upon them to permit her
to go to town long enough to get herself some decent clothes and shoes, when
she at once made her way to the office of the Flint, Bixby & Company stage
line, told what had happened to her, and was furnished with transportation to
Oakland to join her husband's people.
The robbery
and murder at the Baratie ranch created much excitement and almost the entire
populace of the central coast section armed and joined in a search that
extended far into southern California.
After
several months the outlaws were finally rounded up and brought to San Luis
Obispo. Judge Murray, an Englishmen, sent to Oakland for Mrs. Baratie and she
identified all of the prisoners except one as members of the gang that had
killed her husband and abducted her. This unidentified man was also later
identified as one of the robbers. All of them were convicted and publicly
hanged as a warning to others who might be tempted to emulate them.
The names of
the robbers who were executed were: El Mesteño [sic], Miguel Blanco, Santos
Peralta, Rafael, El Hilero, Froilan and Desiderio Grijalva. The eighth member
of the gang was the boy who helped Mrs. Baratie to escape and he was permitted
to go free.
Migual [sic]
Blanco, it developed, was the murderer of one of the Frenchmen and wounded the
other before he was killed.
The old
adobe building in San Juan, where Mrs. Baratie was brought, and which was known
to be a rendezvous of bandits and their sympathizers, is still standing in that
town. Mrs. Baratie, heroine of this story, was a very beautiful and
accomplished young woman, then in her early twenties.
Judge Walter
Murray who sentenced the outlaws to death, was a married man with a family, his
wife being a countrywoman of Mrs. Baratie. In time Mrs. Murray invited Mrs.
Baratie to visit her at her home in San Luis Obispo.
Judge Murray
and his brother Alexander, a bachelor, for several years were the publishers of
the San Luis Obispo Tribune, and Alexander Murray was postmaster and Wells
Fargo Express agent. After several years he married Mrs. Baratie.
After things
quieted down, Grandfather Laing became anxious to visit his daughter, and as
father decided it would be safe to send him to San Luis Obispo, he made a top
for his spring wagon, as a protection from the sun's rays and evening's chill.
Father and mother fixed a mattress and pillows in the back of the wagon, with
plenty of blankets, quilts, and provision, and the trip was begun, with Uncle
William Laing and Henry Post (brother of George W. Post of Hollister) a
grandson whose mother was Rosa Laing Post, taking turns in driving, sleeping
and caring for the old gentleman.
I remember
how we all cried when they left the house and mother was heart broken because
she knew she would never see him again. Grandfather reached San Luis Obispo
safely and lived about three years with his daughter, Mrs. Murray, dying April
16th, 1864. He was buried by the Masons, with high honors.
Alexander
Murray died in San Luis Obispo May 16, 1870. He was born in London, October
1st, 1834. His wife, who was born February 9th, 1837, died May 10th, 1920, at
the home of her niece, Mrs. Albert Deleissegues, in Nipoma.
Albert
Oliver Deliessegues, husband of Rebecca Hames, died May 8th, 1921, at his home
in Nipoma. He was born in Monterey on February 6th, 1847, where he was
christened by Father Ambris, his godparents being Dona Modesta Castro, wife of
General Castro and J. A. Marenhout, French consul at Monterey, who afterward
became vice-consul at Los Angeles, where he died in 1879.
Grandfather
Laing's affairs in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, were never settled and his
inheritance may be in Chancery to this day.
Benjamin F.
Hames, founder of the town of Corralitos, died there August 30, 1866, and was
buried in the little village graveyard. His wife died at San Luis Obispo on
February 14, 1901, and was buried at that place.
John Hames
finally, in 1883, went into the sheep business on a large scale on his ranch in
Hames Valley, Monterey county.
William
Laing, brother of Mrs. Hames, died and was buried at Corralitos. Sarah Hunt
died and was buried there. Charlie Orton died and was buried there. All these
deaths were in the early days and all were left to sleep in peace and quiet in
the same graveyard, under the shade of the same friendly oak trees, where the
wild flowers grew and the bird [sic] sang sweetly all day.
On a visit
to our childhood home after an absence of fifty years, the town seemed
beautiful, but when we wen [sic] to visit our loved ones' graves in the old
cemetery we found the stately oaks were gone and in their place grew an apple
orchard.
It seems a sacrilege and lack of reverence for
the dead that this little quarter of an acre of ground should have been plowed
up:
The years the [sic] swept o'er these acres,
The memories deep as the heart
Shall increase the worth of these treasures
From whom we have seemed to depart.
Do we tread these soft acres in sorrow
Do our tears bathe the flowers and grass?
Hidden from view these fair treasures
Regard not our grief as we pass.
The children
of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hames were: Frances, born in Chile, Dec. 3, 1847. Married
Levi Hunt at Watsonville, 1864. Lucretia, born in Chile, May 20, 1850, married
Enoch Mylar at Santa Cruz, 1866. Rebecca, born in Oakland, Dec. 9, 1854,
married Albert Deleissegues, San Luis Obispo, 1875. Bennie, born in Corralitos,
April 26, 1856, married Lottie Knoth in San Jose. George, born in Corralitos,
July 28, 1861, married May Rodrigues, San Luis Obispo. Carmen, born in
Corralitos, Aug. 31, 1864, married J. G. Munoz, San Luis Obispo.
Bennie died
July 25, 1898, at San Jose, and George died May 29, 1913, at San Luis Obispo.
Thirty-seven
grandchildren are living at this time, they are: Ed, George, Ida, Alice, Fannie
and Albert Hunt. Walter, Hattie, Eva, Carmen and Clyde Mylar. Oliver, Eleanor
R., Benjamin P., Winton C., Lucretia, Albert H., Rebecca E., George B., and
Francis J. Deleisseugues [sic]. Eva, Ramon, Rebecca, Lupe, Alice, McInley,
John, Frances, Lucretia, Edward, Milton and Mildred Munoz. Edna, Bennie, and
Herbert Lorentz. Carmelita Rios. Eddie Hames.
There are
also numerous grandchildren [sic] living, nine grandsons having honorably
served their country during the World War.