Chapter I: Front Matter

The Old Franciscan Missions of California

BY

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES

Author of "In and Around the Grand Canyon," "Heroes of California," "Through Ramona's Country," Etc.

_With Illustrations from Photographs_

1913

Dedication

To those good men and women, of all creeds and of no creed, whose lives have shown forth the glories of beautiful, helpful, unselfish, sympathetic humanity:

To those whose love and life are larger than all creeds and who discern the manifestation of God in all men:

To those who are urging forward the day when profession will give place to endeavor, and, in the real life of a genuine brotherhood of man, and true recognition of the All-Fatherhood of God, all men, in spite of their diversities, shall unite in their worship and thus form the real Catholic Church:

Especially to these, and to all who appreciate nobleness in others I lovingly dedicate these pages, devoted to a recital of the life and work of godly and unselfish men.

Foreword

The story of the Old Missions of California is perennially new. The interest in the ancient and dilapidated buildings and their history increases with each year. To-day a thousand visit them where ten saw them twenty years ago, and twenty years hence, hundreds of thousands will stand in their sacred precincts, and unconsciously absorb beautiful and unselfish lessons of life as they hear some part of their history recited. It is well that this is so. A materially inclined nation needs to save every unselfish element in its history to prevent its going to utter destruction. It is essential to our spiritual development that we learn that

"Not on the vulgar mass
Called 'work,' must sentence pass,
Things done, that took the eye and had the price;
O'er which, from level stand,
The low world laid its hand,
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice."

It is of incalculably greater benefit to the race that the Mission Fathers lived and had their fling of divine audacity for the good of the helpless aborigines than that any score one might name of the "successful captains of industry" lived to make their unwieldy and topheavy piles of gold. With all their faults and failures, all their ideas of theology and education,--which we, in our assumed superiority, call crude and old-fashioned,--all their rude notions of sociology, all their errors and mistakes, the work of the Franciscan Fathers was glorified by unselfish aim, high motive and constant and persistent endeavor to bring their heathen wards into a knowledge of saving grace. It was a brave and heroic endeavor. It is easy enough to find fault, to criticize, to carp, but it is not so easy to _do_. These men _did_! They had a glorious purpose which they faithfully pursued. They aimed high and achieved nobly. The following pages recite both their aims and their achievements, and neither can be understood without a thrilling of the pulses, a quickening of the heart's beats, and a stimulating of the soul's ambitions.

This volume pretends to nothing new in the way of historical research or scholarship. It is merely an honest and simple attempt to meet a real and popular demand for an unpretentious work that shall give the ordinary tourist and reader enough of the history of the Missions to make a visit to them of added interest, and to link their history with that of the other Missions founded elsewhere in the country during the same or prior epochs of Mission activity.

If it leads others to a greater reverence for these outward and visible signs of the many and beautiful graces that their lives developed in the hearts of the Franciscan Fathers--their founders and builders--and gives the information needed, its purpose will be more than fulfilled.

In most of its pages it is a mere condensation of the author's _In and Out of the Old Missions of California,_ to which book the reader who desires further and more detailed information is respectfully referred.

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, April, 1913.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

II. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA (MEXICO) AND ALTA CALIFORNIA (UNITED STATES)

III. THE MISSIONS FOUNDED BY PADRE JUNIPERO SERRA

IV. THE MISSIONS FOUNDED BY PADRE FERMIN FRANCISCO LASUEN

V. THE FOUNDING OF SANTA INÉS, SAN RAFAEL AND SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO

VI. THE INDIANS AT THE COMING OF THE PADRES

VII. THE INDIANS UNDER THE PADRES

VIII. THE SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS

IX. SAN DIEGO DE ALCALÁ

X. SAN CARLOS BORROMEO

XI. THE PRESIDIO CHURCH AT MONTEREY

XII. SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

XIII. SAN GABRIEL, ARCÁNGEL

XIV. SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA

XV. SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS

XVI. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

XVII. SANTA CLARA DE ASIS

XVIII. SAN BUENAVENTURA

XIX. SANTA BARBARA

XX. LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN

XXI. SANTA CRUZ

XXII. LA SOLEDAD

XXIII. SAN JOSÉ DE GUADALUPE

XXIV. SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

XXV. SAN MIGUEL, ARCNGEL

XXVI. SAN FERNANDO, REY DE ESPAGNA

XXVII. SAN Luis, REY DE FRANCIA

XXVIII. SANTA INÉS

XXIX. SAN RAFAEL, ARCÁNGEL

XXX. SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO

XXXI. THE MISSION CHAPELS OR ASISTENCIAS

XXXII. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MISSION INDIANS

XXXIII. MISSION ARCHITECTURE

XXXIV. THE GLEN WOOD MISSION INN

XXXV. THE INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF THE MISSIONS

XXXVI. HOW TO REACH THE MISSIONS

List of Illustrations

MISSION SAN Luis KEY......_Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE

JUNIPERO SERRA

MAP OF THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA

SERRA MEMORIAL CROSS, MONTEREY, CALIF

SERRA CROSS ON MT. RUBIDOUX, RIVERSIDE, CALIF

SERRA STATUE ERECTED BY MRS. LELAND STANFORD, AT MONTEREY

STATUE TO JUNIPERO SERRA, THE GIFT OF JAMES D PHELAN, IN GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO

EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE UNDER SERRA CROSS, MT. RUBIDOUX

MEMORIAL TABLET AND GRAVES OF PADRES SERRA, CRESPI AND LASUEN, IN MISSION SAN CARLOS BORROMEO

MISSION SAN CARLOS AND BAY OF MONTEREY

JUNIPERO OAK, SAN CARLOS PRESIDIO MISSION

STATUE OF SAN LUIS REY, AT PALA MISSION CHAPEL

FACHADA OF THE RUINED MISSION OF SAN DIEGO

OLD MISSION OF SAN DIEGO AND SISTERS' SCHOOL FOR INDIAN CHILDREN

MAIN ENTRANCE ARCH AT MISSION SAN DIEGO

THE TOWER AT MISSION SAN CARLOS BORROMEO

PRESIDIO CHURCH AND PRIEST'S RESIDENCE, MONTEREY, CALIF

MISSION SAN CARLOS

MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

PRESIDIO CHURCH, MONTEREY

RUINS OF MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

DUTTON HOTEL, JOLON

RUINED CORRIDORS AT SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

INTERIOR OF MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

REAR OF CHURCH, MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

RUINS OF THE ARCHES, MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

MISSION SAN GABRIEL, ARCÁNGEL

MISSION SAN GABRIEL, ARCÁNGEL

SAN LUIS OBISPO BEFORE RESTORATION

RUINED MISSION OF SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

THE RESTORED MISSION OF SAN LUIS OBISPO

FACHADA OF MISSION SAN FRANCISCO

RUINS OF MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

ARCHED CLOISTERS AND CORRIDORS AT SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

CAMPANILE AND RUINS OF MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

ENTRANCE TO SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO CHAPEL

INNER COURT AND RUINED ARCHES, MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

BELLS OF MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

ONE OF THE DOORS, SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

IN THE AMBULATORY AT SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

MISSION SANTA CLARA IN 1849

CHURCH OF SANTA CLARA ON THE SITE OF OLD MISSION OF SANTA CLARA

SIDE ENTRANCE AT SAN BUENAVENTURA

FACHADA OF MISSION SAN BUENAVENTURA

STATUE OF SAN BUENAVENTURA

RAWHIDE FASTENING OF MISSION BELL, AND WORM-EATEN BEAM

MISSION SANTA BARBARA

MISSION SANTA BARBARA FROM THE HILLSIDE

INTERIOR OF MISSION SANTA BARBARA

DOOR INTO CEMETERY, SANTA BARBARA

MISSION BELL AT SANTA BARBARA

THE SACRISTY WALL, GARDEN AND TOWERS, MISSION SANTA BARBARA

FACHADA OF MISSION LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN

RUINS OF MISSION LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN

MISSION SANTA CRUZ

RUINED WALLS OF MISSION LA SOLEDAD

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE WALLS OF MISSION LA SOLEDAD

MISSION SAN JOSÉ, SOON AFTER THE DECREE OF SECULARIZATION

FIGURE OF CHRIST, SAN JOSÉ ORPHANAGE

RUINED WALLS AND NEW BELL TOWER, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

FACHADA OF MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, FROM THE PLAZA

THE ARCHED CORRIDOR, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

DOORWAY, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

STAIRWAY LEADING TO PULPIT, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA

MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL, FROM THE SOUTH

MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL AND CORRIDORS

SEEKING TO PREVENT THE PHOTOGRAPHER FROM MAKING A PICTURE OF SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL

OLD PULPIT AT MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL

RESTORED MONASTERY AND MISSION CHURCH OF SAN FERNANDO REY

CORRIDORS AT SAN FERNANDO REY

SHEEP AT MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY

RUINS OF OLD ADOBE WALL AND CHURCH, SAN FERNANDO REY

MONASTERY AND OLD FOUNTAIN AT MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY

INTERIOR OF RUINED CHURCH, MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY

HOUSE OF MEXICAN, MADE FROM RUINED WALL AND TILES OF MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY

THE RUINED ALTAR, MORTUARY CHAPEL, SAN LUIS REY

ILLUMINATED CHOIR MISSALS, ETC., AT MISSION SAN LUIS REY

BELFRY WINDOW, MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY

GRAVEYARD, RUINS OF MORTUARY CHAPEL, AND TOWER, MISSION SAN LUIS REY

SIDE OF MISSION SAN LUIS REY

THE CAMPANILE AT PALA

MISSION SANTA INÉS

MISSION OF SAN RAFAEL, ARCÁNGEL

MISSION SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO, AT SONOMA

CAMPANILE AND CHAPEL, SAN ANTONIO DE PALA

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE CAMPANILE AND CHAPEL, SAN ANTONIO DE PALA

MAIN DOORWAY AT SANTA MARGARITA CHAPEL

HIGH SCHOOL, RIVERSIDE, CALIF

WALL DECORATIONS ON OLD MISSION CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA

ARCHES AT GLENWOOD MISSION INN, RIVERSIDE, CALIF.

TOWER, FLYING BUTTRESSES, ETC., GLENWOOD MISSION INN

ARCHES OVER THE SIDEWALK, GLENWOOD MISSION INN

RESIDENCE OF FRED MAIER, LOS ANGELES, CALIF

WASHINGTON SCHOOL, VISALIA, CALIF

THE OLD ALTAR AT THE CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA

ALTAR AND INTERIOR OF CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA AFTER REMOVAL OF WALL DECORATIONS PRIZED BY INDIANS

ALTAR AND CEILING DECORATIONS, MISSION SANTA INÉS

INTERIOR OF MISSION SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS

INTERIOR OF MISSION SAN MIGUEL, FROM THE CHOIR GALLERY

ARCHES, SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY DEPOT, SANTA BARBARA, CALIF

FACHADA OF MISSION CHAPEL AT Los ANGELES

THE CITY HALL, SANTA MONICA, CALIF

MISSION CHAPEL AT LOS ANGELES, FROM THE PLAZA PARK

RESIDENCE IN LOS ANGELES, SHOWING INFLUENCE OF MISSION STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE

The Old Franciscan Missions of California