Founded December 22, 1933. Incorporated 1955. P.O. Box 3576, Salinas, CA 93912. (831) 757-8085.

The MontereyCounty Historical Society

News from

July 2003

The next phase of construction at the Mon-terey County Historical Society’s Boronda His-tory Center is about to begin.

This phase will start with landscaping, roadand parking lot installation, and construction ofa perimeter fence.

The next part of this construction phasewill take place inside the museum building, andwill include portions of the front wing and themezzanine. This will allow us to begin storingour collections in the museum building, and toreopen the Lagunita School to visitors.

Museum Construction Set to Resume

The State of California, and Monterey County espe-cially, is rich in material for the study of local history.Hilltown ferry crossing from earliest California begin-nings to the present has been associated in some degreewith most of the historic developments of the Statethrough the many individuals, great and not so great, fa-mous and infamous, who made use of this link in the lo-cal transportation system.

Hilltown Ferry CrossingWhat and where is Hilltown? At the point where the

Monterey Highway (the extension of Salinas’ SouthMain Street) curves to the right for a few hundred yardsbefore crossing the steel bridge, a general store and motelstand on the site of a very small community that has ex-isted for slightly over a hundred years, serving the travel-er crossing the Salinas River on his way to Monterey.Hilltown itself is located near the southeast corner ofRancho Nacional. Directly across the river is the north-east corner of Rancho del Toro. This rancho extended ina southwesterly direction up the little valley of El ToroCreek, which flows between low hills at the foot of amountain of the same name. Hilltown almost marks acorner common to four ranchos established along theSalinas under Spain and Mexico -- Buena Vista andLlano de Buena Vista joining El Toro and Nacional alongtheir eastern boundaries. No doubt even before the firstwhite man came to the valley, the Indian hunter crossedat this natural fording place. It was been known succes-sively as El Paso del Quinto, Estrada Crossing (after oneof the rancheros), Salinas-Monterey Crossing, Hilltown(after one of the first American farmers to locate here),and Riverside. The earliest Spanish explorers followedthe Salinas River along the bank opposite Hilltown by aroute which hugs the feet of the Santa Lucia Mountainsfrom Soledad to its junction with the crossing at Hill-town. This is the River Road of today.

Gaspar de Portolá, first governor of California, and acourageous but half-starved company of forty to fifty sol-diers and devoted Franciscan padres, looking more like“skeletons” than courageous explorers, rode their mulesor walked down the Salinas Valley in late September,1769. These first white men to view the future “SaladBowl of the Nation” were not in the mood for singinghymns of praise. They sought the elusive but marvelous

port of Monterey. Fathers Crespi and Gomez hoped theriver would be named El Rio Eleazerio after the saint;but the soldiers, dreaming of the luxury they might nevertaste again, suggested El Rio de Chocolate. A compro-mise led to naming this erratic waterway El Rio de SantaDelfina. Other late comers called it El Rio de Montereyand El Rio de San Buenaventura before Salinas (after thesalt flats near the mouth) became the common and last-ing choice.

On the evening of September 30, 1769, Portolá andhis men camped along the river between Hilltown andBlanco. Father Serra and others undoubtedly used thecrossing at Hilltown before 1774, for Serra seems tohave passed by here on two historic treks by mule train.In mid-July, 1771, the enthusiastic Franciscan proceededup the Salinas Valley to the Valley of the Oaks nearJolon to found Mission San Antonio de Padua. A littlemore than a year later, Serra set out up the Salinas Val-ley by mule and on foot to reach Mexico City and reportto the authorities. En route, he stopped one day, Septem-ber 1, 1772, to found the Mission San Luis Obispo deTolosa. Governor Pedro Fages had followed this pathonly a few months before to the Canada de los Osos for“the most celebrated bear hunt in the history of Califor-nia.” Fages and Father Crespi were the first to open theroute of the present-day highways from Monterey to SanJuan Bautista and on to the San Francisco Bay by way ofthe site of Salinas, and they may have been the first touse a river crossing at or near Hilltown.

Captain Juan de Anza, Founder of San Francisco, in1774 and again in 1776 when arriving on his greatmarches from Mexico to Monterey, followed the trail ofPortolá down the Salinas Valley but turned from the riv-er at Buena Vista before reaching Hilltown crossing. OnSunday, March 10, 1776, Anza’s colonists rode their lastday into Monterey from near Somavia along the westbank of the Salinas in “almost continuous rain” aftereighty-eight days of actual traveling, covering almostfourteen-hundred miles. Governor Rivera and grey-robedFather Palou, and later Captain Anza with his leather-jackets, crossed the Salinas plain, passing the sites ofSalinas and Natividad on their way from Monterey tosearch for suitable locations for the mission and the pre-sidio of San Francisco. From this time forth, thousandswould cross the Salinas by one or another ford near Hill-town on foot, on horseback, in ox-cart, in wagon andcarriage, threading their way through the willow-growndry bed, splashing through the yellow water, or riding theflatbottom, cable-guided ferry boat, though at times allcrossings were blocked by high water.

Between 1776 and 1797 (from the year of the Dec-

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Hilltown Ferry CrossingBy Robert B. Johnston

Note

This essay was written in approximately 1958 anddonated to the Society with Robert B. Johnston’s re-search collection.

laration of Independence to the end of George Washing-ton’s second term as President of the United States), thesix most important missions north and east of Carmelwere established, including San Francisco, Santa Clara,Santa Cruz, Soledad, San José del Guadalupe, and SanJuan Bautista. These settlements, destined to grow intoprosperous communities and cities, had determined forthe most part the transportation patterns across the Sali-nas plain from Monterey before 1800. Fermin Franciscode Lasuen was second only to Junípero Serra as presi-dents of the missions of New California. They eachfounded nine missions out of twenty-one. The year 1797was an especially busy one for Lasuen as four stationswere dedicated from San José, San Juan to San Migueland San Fernando. The Salinas crossing must have seenmany Grey Robes coming and going to and from head-quarters at Carmel.

Meanwhile, Monterey was visited three times be-tween 1792 and 1794 by George Vancouver, leader of anEnglish expedition sent to negotiate the Nootka dispute.November 19, 1794, Vancouver joined “in a party to thevalley through which the Monterey River [Salinas]flows.” He turned aside at Corral de Tierra to view “themost extraordinary mountain I have ever beheld.” Pro-ceeding on by way of the Salinas [Hilltown] crossing, heobserved the “extensive valley…composed of luxuriantsoil” to be “a natural pasture, but the long…dry weatherhad robbed it of its verdure.”

Rancho Nacional from its southeast corner at Hill-town extended from the river onto the plain coveringmost of the present site of Salinas. This was originallyone of the Ranchos del Rey where the San Carlos Mis-sion at Carmel and the presidio of Monterey pastured“herds of cattle, bands of horses, and flocks of sheep.”Extending upstream along the river, the Buena Vista

Rancho was held by José Maria Soberanes and JoaquinCastro under an “occupancy permit” issued by GovernorBorica in 1795. The rancheros and vaqueros crossed andrecrossed the Salinas, driving their stock before them.San Carlos Mission “supplied the cattle for the new SanJuan Bautista Mission.” Violence and dissension some-times interrupted the peaceful scenes near Hilltown.Grizzly bears destroyed many cattle in the ChamisalRanch and Toro Creek area across the river from RanchoNacional; and in 1795, Indians wiped out four ranchosalong the Salinas though Buena Vista escaped.

In late November, 1818, Monterey was evacuated byGovernor Sola, and all the civilians and troops, except“one Molina—too drunk to flee” from the maraudingfreebooters led by Hypolite Bouchard, the Frenchmansailing under the rebel flag of Buenos Aires. Therefugees, including all four-legged animals, no doubtcrossed the river near Hilltown, some turning up the val-ley to Soledad, while the troops, stock, and a few civil-ians went to the headquarters of the Rancho del Rey(Nacional). By early 1819, most of the inhabitants wereback rebuilding the capital.

With the inception of the Mexican regime in 1822,the pastoral or “golden age” of the ranchos began. Nu-merous grants of land were made in the Salinas Valleyduring the twenty-five years before the American con-quest. Trade in hides and tallow and the sea otter andbeaver attracted many foreigners to seek fortunes and ad-venture in the land of the easy-going Californians. Tripsfrom the Salinas to Monterey by way of Hilltown ornearby crossings increased as ox-carts creaked under theloads of smelly hides (the “California banknotes”) of-fered in exchange for merchandise aboard the Yankeeships in the Port of Monterey. The ladies of therancheros frequently made the journey to inspect the

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goods the “Boston men” had for trade.In the middle 1830s, events took place on the Alisal

and Natividad ranchos which stimulated the course ofcommunications between Monterey and the Salinas Val-ley. Isaac Graham, Tennessee rifleman, fur trapper, andsoldier of fortune, leased a tract of land in 1836 on theNatividad Rancho near the site of the village of the samename. Graham and two partners erected a distillery formanufacturing aquardiente (distilled wine). This com-munity was later to become for several years the impor-tant stop in the Salinas Valley for travelers between SanJuan Bautista, Monterey, and other points north andsouth. During the 1830s Natividad attracted outlawtrappers and deserters from ships at Monterey who in-sulted the rancheros and their wives while stealing thatwhich was not nailed down.

A short horseback ride southeast of Natividad, Gra-ham’s neighbor, Guillermo (William) Eduardo PettyHartnell, the former English hide and tallow trader, hadestablished on the banks of Alisal Creek his Seminariode San Jose. This school for boys had opened first inMonterey. Hartnell tutored several young men destinedto become famous leaders of California before his schoolwas started. One of his former pupils, Juan Bautista Al-varado, led a successful revolt to become governor andappointed another, Guadalupe Mariano Vallejo, as co-mandante general.

After confirmation as a Roman Catholic and mar-riage to Maria Teresa del la Guerra y Noriega, daughterof a leading California family of Santa Barbara, Hartnellbecame a naturalized citizen of Mexico in 1830. This laststep made him eligible to own land in California. Ar-rangements were made early in 1831 with the Soberanesfamily for a share in Rancho del Alisal. Hartnell enlistedthe assistance of his cousin by marriage, Jose Antonio

Carrillo, in driving 500 head of cattle from Montereyacross the Salinas to pasture on the Alisal. By the springof 1832, Don Guillermo began building his ranch houseon his portion of the Alisal, El Patrocinio de San Jose, asconfirmed in an outright grant from Governor Figueroain mid-1834.

Hartnell’s school, California’s first institution oflearning above the elementary level, moved to “thisParaiso delicioso” in the late spring of 1835 for a briefyear’s existence. Hartnell had been compelled to closedown the school earlier in the summer of 1836 becauseof lack of attendance. The demands of his new positionmeant leaving Dona Teresa and the children at the ranchwhile he made numerous trips over the Salinas to Mon-terey where they joined him occasionally. Never werepeaceful and quiet days to return to El Patrocinio de SanJose.

Monterey, Natividad, and Hartnell’s Alisal were tiedtogether by events stemming from a flight from the capi-tal across the Salinas to San Juan Bautista by the ambi-tious custom’s house clerk, Juan Bautista Alvarado, inthe latter part of 1836. Alvarado stopped overnight atthe Natividad cabin of Isaac Graham where he plottedwith the Tennessean to overthrow the Mexican govern-ment and give land to foreigners. Next day, Graham soonrallied fifty land-hungry characters as tough and rough ashimself. These frontiersmen, as they forded the rivernear Hilltown, were little aware that less than ten yearswould elapse before Fremont and his men passed thissame way as part of the band of conquering Americans.With Graham’s help, Alvarado engaged in two days ofcomic revolution California style; and then the former,becoming impatient, gave the governor in power just twohours to surrender. Receiving no white flag, Grahamfired a ball from a small brass piece through the gover-

nor’s roof. Alvaradobecame the new gov-ernor in a few hourstime. Don Guillermoreceived an appoint-ment to three postscombined in one—ad-ministrator of cus-toms, commissarytreasurer, and tax col-lector in the capital of“the free andsovereign state of Cal-ifornia” as declared byAlvarado.

The Californianswere soon regrettingthe acceptance of aidfrom the Americansat Natividad whenthey awoke to a tardy

realization that theWest coast was a prizeon which the British,French, and Russians,as well as the aggres-sive Gringos, lookedwith envy. Moved byfear, patriotic pride,and the misdeed ofthe lawless trappersand deserters at Na-tividad, Alvarado or-dered his uncle, Gen-eral Vallejo, to roundup all suspicious for-eigners living unlaw-fully in California in1840. About the samenumbers of Ameri-cans and British sub-jects were taken toMonterey to be shipped to Tepic, Mexico, for trial. Thusbegan the Graham Affair. This time the Tennessean andhis friends rode through the yellow waters of the Salinasin disgrace. A little more than a half-dozen years andWalter Colton, Alcalde of Monterey, asked Hartnell toserve on the first jury trial in California, the case of IsaacGraham vs. Charles Roussillon. The Americans had re-turned to rule California.

Before the Americans came to stay in the SalinasValley, the Hartnells were hosts to many important visi-tors. Don Davido Esteban Spence, the Scot meat packerand ranchero; Don Alfredo Robinson, the Yankee traderand author; Sir James Douglas, chief factor of the Hud-son Bay Company; and the insolent French diplomat,well-known writer and world traveler, Count EugeneDuflot de Mofras, were among those who rode throughthe Valley of Toro Creek and over the Salinas betweenMonterey and the house on the Ranch of the Sycamore(Alisal).

In early March, 1846, a series of messages followedeach other in rapid succession past Hilltown, changingrapidly in tone from friendship to bitter hatred, as theCastros ordered Captain John C. Fremont and his “scien-tific expedition” of sixty-two well-armed men to leave theSalinas Valley. Fremont’s men had abused their welcomewhile their leader was entertained at the Hartnell ranch.Fremont claimed the valley “lay outside the more occu-pied parts of the country” which he was by agreement toavoid. After he had spent three days in a fortified campatop Gabilan Peak, Fremont retreated into Oregon butreturned to the Salinas and Monterey to participate instill more controversy.

The conquest of California, begun with the flag rais-ing at Monterey July 7, 1846, was not an especiallybloody affair; but Hilltown was a military objective in

the one skirmish or battle at Natividad November 15-16,1846. Thomas O. Larkin, former American Consul atMonterey, left Monterey on horseback November 15,1846, to join his family in San Francisco. After crossingthe Salinas, he stopped overnight at the house of DonJoaquin Gomez near Natividad. Fremont at Montereyhad ordered a party of about sixty men under CaptainBurroughs to drive a band of several hundred horsesfrom Sutter’s Fort to Monterey where the California Bat-talion was organizing. The American were in San JuanBautista on November 15. Awakened in the middle ofthe night by native Californian forces, Larkin was re-turned to a camp on the Salinas River (Monterey Riverby Larkin). Here the Californians endeavored to forceLarkin to assist them in laying an ambush for the Ameri-cans at the river. Failing in this, they proceeded towardSan Juan on the 16th to intercept the Americans on theplain before they could reach the crossing at Hilltownwith the horses. Although Captain Burroughs and Fosterand two other Americans were killed with a like numberwounded, the Californians, in spite of fewer casualties,could only delay the Americans who returned to SanJuan. Fremont joined them there in a few days, and theCalifornia Battalion soon received marching orders to setout down the coast to Los Angeles.

Edwin Bryant, a member of the Battalion and laterAlcalde of San Francisco, returned by horseback in com-pany with Captain Hastings from Los Angeles to SanFrancisco in January and February, 1847. After ridingand camping for several days in heavy rains, he “reachedthe Monterey road just at daylight” on February 9 in-tending to visit Monterey, “but the Salinas being unford-able, and there being no ferry, it is not possible.” Theyrode across the plain to the rancho of Don JoaquinGomez, and eating a slim breakfast of quesadilla

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(cheese), reached San Juan Bautista about noon.Walter Colton, Alcalde of Monterey (1846-1849),

in Three Years in California gives a colorful descriptionof two crossings at Hilltown during 1848. On being in-vited to visit a ranchero of the Salinas Valley in August,he tells of riding past beautiful lakes, many waterfowl,deer, and a grizzly bear, until “we were now on the bankof the Salinas, through which we dashed, allowing ourhorses a taste of its yellow waters, then up the oppositebank, and away over the broad plain, which stretches invernal beauty beyond.”

Returning from a visit to the gold mines by wagon inNovember, 1848, Colton writes, “It was midday whenwe rumbled from the hills of San Juan upon the plain ofSalinas and near sunset when we reached the river,which rolls its yellow wave fifteen miles from Monterey.”

The party camped there but were “roused in [the]night by screams from the river; an ox-cart, with threewomen in it, had tumbled down the opposite bank. Thecattle seemed as much frightened as their passengers, andfared better.”

Colton and his friends plunged into the cold streamwhich “lowered the thermometer of our enthusiasm.”Finding it too difficult to lift the women from the ox-cartbecause of their great size and weight, they drove theteam out.

Less than a year later, several leading men of thenew state-to-be rode through the Salinas en route to Cal-ifornia’s first constitutional convention in Colton’sschool house and public hall at Monterey.

An agricultural revolution was soon to transform theSalinas Valley. By the 1860s, it was being “cut up intosmall ranches and farms; and thriving settlements andextensive fields of grain are now to be seen where for-merly ranged wild bands of cattle, mustang, and innu-merable herds of antelope.” In reporting on the fertilityof the valley, the Pacific Railroad Reports stated that:

At Mr. Hill’s farm near the town of Salinas, six-teen miles east of Monterey, sixty bushels ofwheat have been raised off the acre and occa-sionally eighty-five bushels. Barley, one-hundred

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bushels running up to one-hundred and fortybushels, and vegetables in proportion.

Mr. J. B. Hill farmed near the crossing and served aspostmaster for the community which soon bore his name.This was in the 1850s, the years which marked the ar-rival of a number of pioneers of the valley who were in-terested in its agricultural and commercial resources.Among these pioneers were the “canny Scotsman,”David Jacks; Jim Bardin, “the Democratic hypocriticalsecessionist from Mississippi”; Deacon Elias Howe,whose tavern in the mustard fields became the nucleus ofSalinas City; George L. Davis, Canadian by birth; theMartins, McDougalls, and many others.

According to Paul Parker,

Before the ferry was installed, it [Hilltown] wasthe Salinas-Monterey ford crossing. I have heardDan Martin and Harvey Abbott tell when theywere young how they assisted in driving cattleand horses to and fro across the river at thisspot in order to pack down the quicksand. Alsoin cutting willow branches to cover the ap-proaches to the water’s edge.

The ferry at Hilltown began operating at Hilltownabout 1852; and a shack, saloon, and blacksmith shopcomprised the settlement. High water often closed thecrossing, for “in those early days…in the winter time,even when there was but an ordinary rainfall, it [theSalinas] was a much more torrential stream than it isnow…”

Hilltown’s ferryboat was designed and powered ac-cording to basic principles used at many other locationsin early California. A wire cable or stout rope of hawser-like size was stretched across the stream either from onetree or stump to another or between “dead men,” heavyposts set firmly in the ground. The ferry itself was of thescow or large type, flat-bottomed, twenty-five to fortyfeet long by at least ten feet wide. Passengers and vehi-cles were protected by side railings. On each bank of thestream, landing platforms were usually constructed.

At either end, on the upstream side of the ferry-boat, were ropes running in blocks or pulleys,which slanted upward and were attached to twoenclosed sheaves or wheels, which ran freely onthe [overhead] cable-like trolley rollers.”

The bow of the ferry was always pointed upstream atan angle between twenty-five and thirty-five degrees bytaking in or slackening the rope at either end. The cur-rent then acted as a beam or side wind in sailing to propelthe ferry across the river.

Regular stagecoach service came to the Salinas Val-ley in the summer of 1851 with the extension of the Halland Crandall Line from San Jose to Monterey, thoughthe Pacific Coast Stage Company may have been in oper-

ation through the Salinas Valley as early as 1850. Ac-cording to J. M. Guinn, State Senator Selim E. Wood-ward rode the stage from Monterey to a session of thelegislature at San Jose in twelve hours during April,1851; “…it was considered very fast time.” The stage toMonterey crossed the Salinas River by ferry at Hilltown.Between the river and Salinas, the road “followed thepresent course, but…was then little more than a wagontrail with turnout places at intervals for traffic to pass.”If the stage succeeded in making the river crossing, therewas another challenge in the so-called “slough of de-spond” which during wet weather threatened to bog itdown on Main Street in Salinas between San Luis andJohn Streets.

But in 1851, there was no Salinas City. For anothertwenty or twenty-five years, Natividad was the stage stopbetween San Juan Bautista and Monterey as well as forlines extending on up the Salinas Valley toward MissionsSan Miguel and San Luis Obispo. The story of Hilltownand its ferryboats is a part of a larger one on communitydevelopment, road building, and stagecoaching. Both fer-ryboating and stagecoaching were but passing throughvery important phases; for in a short thirty-five to fortyyears, they were gone from the scene but not from thememory of men in the Salinas Valley. During the fifties,a new, aggressive spirit of business enterprise came to thevalley, pushing and elbowing across the sloughs and mus-tard fields.

Between 1851 and 1855 through a series of mergers,at least 5/6 of the stage lines of California came underthe management of the California Stage Company withheadquarters at Sacramento. In January, 1855, this com-pany extended its service south of San Francisco throughthe purchase of the Dillon, Hedge and Company. Thelatter company, about two years before, had bought outHall and Crandall. Direct connections were now well es-tablished between Los Angeles and San Francisco via SanLuis Obispo, San Juan Bautista, and San Jose.

Wells Fargo and Company, who contracted with theCalifornia Stage Company to carry its express, reportedoffices in Monterey and Santa Barbara as the only onesbetween San Jose and Los Angeles in 1855; but fiveyears later, as of December 31, 1860, there were officesat Gilroy, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, San Juan Bautista,Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara. And yet,there was no Salinas City.

Flint, Bixby and Company of San Juan Bautista andHollister also ran the Coast Line Stage Lines through theSalinas Valley and on to Los Angeles. Included in thissystem was the former William E. Lovett Stage Line be-tween San Francisco and Paso Robles.

The Pacific Express Company, founded on the ruinsof Adams and Company, advertised in the CaliforniaFarmer during March, 1855, “Expresses” leaving “theoffice at the Northwest corner of Washington and Mont-gomery streets daily for Sacramento and the Northern

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Mines, Stockton and the Southern Mines, San Jose, SanJuan and Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Pedro, and theSouthern Coast generally…”

Roads and bridges or ferries were necessary for effi-cient operation of stagecoaches. However, neither statelegislature nor Congress appropriated money for roadbuilding in California until 1855. After that, limitedfunds were available from these and private sources. In1859, the state authorized the counties to retain a largeportion of the poll tax for road building. “By 1860,”Winther says, “practically all of the towns in the statewere knitted together by a network of passable roads.”

It is not surprising that a fever of town building be-came epidemic between 1855 and 1875 in the lower Sali-nas Valley. Here the farmers and merchants lookedacross the Salinas past Hilltown to Monterey, the “ OldSpanish Capital,” for there was the traditional seaportand the seat for the county offices. Northward theylooked to the commerce of the great bay of San Franciscoand first to San Jose and then to Sacramento for theState Capital. Sacramento was especially important sinceit was a principal gateway to the gold mines. To thenortheast lay the rich Pajaro Valley and nearby, the Portof St. Paul or Moss Landing, which one day might pro-vide a very convenient route for valley products to reachthe mines. Some dreamed of the day when railroadswould replace the stagecoach.

If Deacon Elias Howe hadn’t erected his tavern atthe crossroads in 1856 and offered drinks as prizes tofast-driving stagecoach drivers, surely a town would havesoon been born here. Hilltown supported the lower endof one of several routes across the plain which intersect-ed rather naturally, if inconveniently, in the vicinity ofthe Alisal Slough.

Some of the cities in embryo eager to be born, allwith ambitious sponsors, were Pajaro, Blanco, SantaRita, Castroville, Springtown (“Confederate Corners”from 1860), Chualar, Natividad, Salinas City (laid out in1868 by Riker, Jackson, and Sherwood), and Hilltown(suggested as a terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroadat one time).

Monterey County’s Assessor, W. Lovett, reported in1858 that there were three ferries in the county (SanBenito was then a part of Monterey County). Onecrossed the Pajaro River on the route from San JuanBautista to Gilroy, established at a cost of $1,200. Theother two were over the Salinas at “Paul’s and Hill’scrossing,” each costing $1,000. The cost figures seem toindicate that improvements had been made. Lovett fur-ther explained how the recent dry season made the Sali-nas ferries almost useless. The great flood of 1861-62 nodoubt rendered them useless also. Jim Bardin made plansfor operating a ferry boat at a new crossing following thisflood, which is reputed to have carried the water level tothe top of the wainscoating in Deacon Howe’s tavern andbrought stagecoach travel across the plain to a halt.

Three years of drought in 1863, ‘64, and ‘65 greatlyreduced the sheep and cattle of Monterey County; but by1867, there was need for a ferry once more at Hilltown.George L. Davis was licensed “to keep and construct aferryboat across the Salinas River at Hilltown…for a pe-riod of five years, beginning December 1, 1867.” He wasrequired to post $250 as bond and pay $3 per month forhis license. The rates were set at: footman, .50; buggy,$1.50; man and horse, $1; two horses and wagon, $2;four horses and wagon, $2.50; sheep @ .02; and cattle @.10.

Mr. Davis came to California from Canada in 1852.He located at Hilltown in 1858 where he was postmasterfor several years before Salinas City was laid out. Twoyears before beginning operation of the ferry, he formed apartnership with his brother to engage in dairy farmingon the Chamisal Rancho directly across the Salinas Riverfrom Rancho Nacional and a mile or two west of Hill-town along the river, the common boundary of the tworanchos. About 1875, Davis bought 500 acres of RanchoNacional and went into business for himself.

Hiram Corey seems to have succeeded Davis as pro-prietor of the Hilltown ferry under similar terms thoughthe rates were reduced; for example, horse and buggywas .25; 2 horses and buggy, .37 1/2; footman, .12 1/2.Corey was also a Canadian and came to California in1852, the same year that Davis arrived. In 1872, heleased over 7,000 acres on the Buena Vista Rancho topasture his dairy cattle. After leasing for about twelveyears, he became the owner in 1889, the year the Hill-town bridge replaced the ferry. It is doubtful that eitherDavis or Corey personally operated the ferry, althoughthey held the license, since they were both very activeand successful farmers and businessmen.

Hilltown was the scene of many incidents whichseem strange and humorous as viewed from the age ofthe automobile and airplane. William H. Brewer, scien-tist from Yale University, with a survey party, campedMay 18, 1861, in the valley just beyond Hilltown. Asthe stage stopped to water the horses, Brewer approachedthe driver to ask that a letter be carried to the next postoffice. In shirt sleeves, buckskin pants, bowie knife andcolt revolver in belt, and bronzed from sun and exposure,he was recognized by a lawyer friend from New Yorkaboard the stage who claimed the Yale scientist “fulfilledhis beau ideal” of a stagecoach bandit. During July,1861, Brewer rode muleback from San Juan to Montereywith Professor Whitney. Though they arose at dawn andleft by five-thirty, it was noon when they reached Salinasfor food and rest. After passing Hilltown, they left thefog-cooled, though dusty plain and encountered “hotterair but not so much dust.”

About ten years later, a writer for the OverlandMonthly, Miss Josephine Clifford, rode the Coast LineStage and told of being shown the spot where robbershad attacked another driver at the Salinas Crossing. Per-

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haps by this time (1871), Charley Parkhurst, “toughestof the West’s stage drivers,” had already retired to hisfarm near Watsonville where he died December 28,1879. Undoubtedly, Charley, who was never suspectedof being a woman until “his” death, had crossed at Hill-town since he knew all of the runs of the CaliforniaStage Company “like the palm of his hand.”

One of the pioneers of the Salinas Valley tells ofmishap which might have proved fatal to a mother whotook the stage across the Salinas by way of the ferry tovisit her daughter. The stage ran off the ferryboat in mid-stream and upset; but the alert lady grasped hold of pro-jections in the interior of the stage to hold herself out ofthe water until rescued.

Robert Louis Stevenson in his essay on Monterey,written during his short stage there, explains how DavidJacks was almost murdered on the stage run to Salinasnear Hilltown:

His life has been repeatedly in danger…the stagewas stopped and examined three evenings in suc-cession by disguised horsemen thirsting for hisblood. A certain house on the Salinas road, theysay, he always passes in his buggy at full speed,for the squatter sent him warning long ago.

High water in the Salinas River sometimes causedthe overhead cable to break leading to diverse results.Heavy rains in March, 1876, broke the cable, and it wasnecessary to carry passengers and the mail across the“Hill’s ferry” in small boats. This was not efficient

enough for one imaginative businessman in Montereywho leased the narrow gauge Salinas-Monterey Railroad.Operating a hand car on each side of the river assisted bya small boat, he transported fresh fish and other fastfreight to Salinas. This was considered “infinitely superi-or to struggling through the mud on the stage road.” Itmay have been at this time that “one Starke,” pilot of theferryboat and an avowed atheist, experienced a suddenconversion, praying with great enthusiasm as he took anunscheduled trip down the Salinas.

Progress came to Salinas in the 1870s. Salinas Citywas incorporated in 1874, shortly after becoming twiceblessed by the transfer of the county seat from Montereyand becoming the terminus of the Southern Pacific Rail-road. Elias Howe, the founder, registered to vote in theelection of 1882 giving his age as sixty and occupation asexpressman.

Plans for steel bridges across the Salinas River werebegun in 1886, ad the voters approved a $150,000 bondissue for construction at Hilltown, King City, Bradleyand Soledad in 1888. A contract for the bridges wasawarded to the California Bridge Company allotting$35,085 for the Hilltown crossing, which was officiallyaccepted as completed February 9, 1889. The SalinasBoard of Trade published a brochure on Monterey Coun-ty, Resources, History, Biography the following year toadvertise the advantages and opportunities of doing busi-ness in this modernized community. “The Hilltownbridge is already completed.” The Hilltown ferry is nomore.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

August 9, 2003 — Boronda Family Reunion

September 21, 2003 — Society’s 70th An-niversary Celebration, Membership Meeting &BBQ

Announcements and information will beforthcoming on all events.

MEMORIALS

Donor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .In Memory OfBeverly Silliman & Family . . . . . . . . . .Neville SillimanNick G. Cominos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Laurine JenkinsonNick G. Cominos . . . . . . . . . . . .Aline “Scotty” HusserCarl Reich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Marie CosseboomMarie Cominos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dian KrilingNick & Theodore N. Cominos . . . .Stanley C. SeedmanCarl Reich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Robert HamiltonJean Rudolph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Iona LangComgro Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ray MaschmeyerComgro Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis V. LaniniNick G. Cominos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stella KokorisNick G. Cominos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cathy PetroutsasCarl Reich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Elmer MachadoMatsuye Shingai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Isaac ShingaiCarl Reich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .James HughesCarl Reich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Eugene FrassettoJoyce McBride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jo Fanning

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

David Wynne Catherine H. ArpJohn Sanchez Marvin J. Henderson

George Peabody Dr. Harold E. Raugh, Jr.Donna J. Starr Stephen McShane

IN HONOR OFMrs. Ed (Joan) Lowry . .Dr. Marjorie Belknap

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THENEWSLETTER WELCOMED

The editors of the Newsletter are alwaysseeking photographs, historical recipes, articles,and other items for these pages. Please contactus if you have any appropriate materials.

NEW ASSISTANT

The Society has just hired Evelyn Escolanoto assist our Executive Director part time in theoffice. Evelyn previously had worked for BruceChurch and then the John Pryor FertilizerCompany in their offices. She is a long timeresident of Salinas whose roots are deep. Dropby and meet her we are sure you will be de-lighted with her warm smile and welcome.

CALVARY CEMETERY

The Monterey County Historical Society ispresently sitting on a committee to assist in therestoration and preservation of the CalvaryCemetery. The committee was organized byJohn Futini, Esq. and his wife Melba of NapaCalifornia, whose family was one of the earlypioneers of the Salinas Valley. Members of thecommittee consist of: Clancy D’Angelo, Direc-tor of Cemeteries, Diocese of Monterey; Mr.and Mrs. Roy Frontani of Salinas; Dick andMary Lou Zechentmayer of King City, andWayne Gularte of Gonzales.

The Calvary Cemetery was established in1870, the cemetery land originally belonged toGeorge Graves, a prosperous farmer who set-tled in the valley in 1855. Graves set aside landfor private burial of some of his family and thenrealizing the need for a community cemeterydeed a 2-acre site for this purpose to theCatholic Church. The cemetery is located onCastroville Highway just off of Market Street.

Ornate headstones and markers, smallwooded crosses, and mausoleums bear thenames of many well known pioneers and someof their descendants. Names such as BaronessVon Ende, Zabala, Fontes, Vosti, Geil, Lanini,Pedroni, McFadden, Boronda, Vierra, Sgeiza,Soberanes, Martella, Breschini, and Futuni…

Over the years the cemetery has become anesting place for gophers digging and raising thegrounds into mounds of dirt, and headstoneshave become defaced or have tilted or fallenover. The committee will be working to togeth-er to seek means of restoration along with re-

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searching the possibility that the cemetery beplaced on the National Register of HistoricPlaces and state historical registries.

The Society has a listing of those who areburied in the cemetery. Anita Mason has spenthours putting the names and pertinent ge-nealogical information obtained from the listinto a data base. The list will eventually beplaced on the Diocese of Monterey web site,and hopefully the Society’s. Anyone interestedin our goals or wish to assist please call the So-ciety at 831/757-8085.

PINNACLES NATIONAL MONUMENT

The National Park Service has requestedthe assistance of the Society in compiling the"human" history of the Chaparral Area of Pin-nacles National Monument—homesteaders,tenant farmers, and prospectors. The NPS isplanning to build a Visitor Contact Center,maintenance, and employee housing on thewest side to compliment the existing facilitieson the east side. The Chaparral Area is ac-cessed by Highway 146 just south of Soledad.

The Society has identified Henry FrederickMelville and George Washington Root as theleading prospectors in the area, and are inter-ested in learning more about them or any other

individuals who were involved in mining activi-ties in the area.

Likewise, the Society has identified Harri-son Lyons, Andrea Raggio, Robert Eggebrecht,Electa Lyons Pura, George Washington Root,Allen Blaine; and Forest Rangers Daniel King,Herman Hermanson, and Zotic Marcott as hav-ing received federal patents for land within thePinnacles. The Society is interested in learningmore about any of the above individuals, aswell as any other individuals who lived orworked in the area.

The Society is also interested in any person-al stories of life in that area during the 1870s-1930s. Anyone who can help please call theSociety at 831/757-8085.

WEBSITE

If you haven’t visited the Society’s Websitelately, please do so. Gary Breschini continuesto upgrade, add new material and thus far sinceFebruary 25, 1997 we have had over 208,000visitors. The site has generated researchers,new members and many donations of artifactsfor our archival vault.

The website address is:

http://www.dedot.com/mchs.

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Monterey Public School #1. Mon-terey Soda Works across street.

Esselen Indian rock paintings near Tas-sajara. Photograph by T. Haversat andG.S. Breschini. All rights reserved.

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage Paid

Salinas, CAPermit No. 240

Monterey County Historical SocietyP.O. Box 3576Salinas, CA 93912831/757-8085

Contents copyright 2003 by the Monterey County Historical Society.