José María de Echeandía
José María de Echeandía | |
---|---|
4th Governor of Alta California | |
In office 1832–1833 | |
Preceded by | Pío Pico |
Succeeded by | José Figueroa |
Personal details | |
Died | 1871 |
José María de Echeandía (?–1871) was the Mexican governor of Alta California from 1825 to 1831 and again from 1832 to 1833. He was the only governor of California that lived in San Diego.[1]
Personal life
He was a Lieutenant-Colonel connected with a college of engineers in Mexico. He moved to Mexico at appointment, leaving his wife and four daughters in Mexico with an
Governor
In 1825, Echeandía was appointed Governor of both lower
In 1826 Governor Echeandía had Jedediah Smith and his men "arrested", interviewed, released and ordered to depart California, as he was fearful that Smith's reports would open the area to Americans.
Echeandía reduced the area and time span of Russians sea otter hunting off the coast of California, that his predecessor Luis Antonio Argüello had licensed to the Russians.[6]
In 1827, Echeandía did not deport Father José Barona a priest of the Mission San Juan Capistrano. Barona supported Independence of Mexico; but would not swear an oath of allegiance to the republic of Mexico. The Mexican government passed legislation on December 20, 1827, that mandated the expulsion of all Spaniards younger than sixty years of age from Mexican territories; Governor Echeandía nevertheless intervened on Barona's behalf in order to prevent his deportation once the law of took effect in California.[7]
In 1828, Echeandía issued the first truancy law of California. It ordered the commanding officers to compel parents to send their children to the schools which he had established. In 1829, throughout Alta California, there were 339 students in 11 primary schools. During this time a noted educator in San Diego was Friar Antonio Menendez and his 18 pupils. Private schools operated throughout this time in California also.
After Victoria's removal Echeandía started serving as provisional governor of the south part of California from 1832 to 1833.
In 1829, soldiers who had not been paid for years marched south starting in Monterey. Echeandía heard about the unrest and had his troops stop them just before Santa Barbara.
In 1829,
Governor José Figueroa arrived from Mexico in 1833, resolving the north–south political struggle and replaced Echeandía on January 14, 1833. Figueroa continued the secularization of missions and giving out of Mexican land grants.
Proclamation of Emancipation
Echeandía as the first native Mexican elected Governor of Alta California issued a "Proclamation of Emancipation" (or "Prevenciónes de Emancipacion") on July 25, 1826.
New immigration of both Mexican and foreigners, increased pressure on the Alta California government to seize the mission properties and dispossess the natives in accordance with Echeandía's directive.
In 1830 as Governor he had Father Martinez arrested on charge of treason, and banished the Father from the Mexican territories.[18]
Mission secularization
Echeandía supported the Mexican secularization act of 1833 put on the Alta California missions. The act started the redistribution of the land holdings of the church to land grant ranchos.[19] Echeandía did not take any Ranchos for himself.
While the secularization act was passed after Echeandía departed office. In 1827, one of his sub lieutenant José Antonio Sánchez, who was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco, was granted permission by Echeandía to occupy the a rancho, Rancho Buri Buri, for "grazing and agricultural purposes" on the Mission San Francisco de Asís's Mission Dolores lands. The land later was granted to him in 1835, by Governor José Castro.
In 1827 Rancho Jamul to Pío Pico, land of 4,439-acre (17.96 km2) [20][21]
In 1827 he made a land grant of Rancho El Rosario on Baja California, to Don José Manuel Machado, one of the first soldiers stationed at the Presidio of San Diego.
In 1828 he granted
In 1829 Echeandía made a land grant of
In 1829 Echeandía gave a land grant to
Even though Echeandía had already been replaced as governor, he still appointed Alvarado to oversee the secularization of Mission San Miguel. The new governor, Manuel Victoria rescinded the order and wanted Alvarado and Castro arrested. The pair fled and were hidden by their old friend Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who was now adjutant at the Presidio of San Francisco. However, Victoria's rule proved to be unpopular and he was overthrown by Echeandía, then replaced by Pío Pico at the end of 1831.
In 1829 he grants land of Rancho Tecate to Juan Bandini. The grant was for 4,439 acres (18 km2) of land in the valley of Tecate in Baja California, near San Diego.[28] A grant to Juan Bandini is recorded as being completed for Rancho Cañada de Tecate on July 12, 1834 under governor José Figueroa.[29]
He granted Rancho Temescal in present-day Riverside County, California to Leandro Serrano.[27]
The
See also
- List of pre-statehood governors of California
- List of Ranchos of California
- Rancho Suey
- Henry D. Fitch
- William Edward Petty Hartnell
- Agustín V. Zamorano - Secretary of State to Governor José María Echeandía.
References
- ISBN 0-405-09538-4
- ^ Testimonios: Early California Through the Eyes of Women, page 220, 1815-1848, By Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz
- ^ sandiegohistory.org, San Diego History, José María Echeandia (?-1871)
- ^ A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush, edited by Joshua Paddison
- ^ Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846, By Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz
- ^ Married to a Daughter of the Land: Spanish-Mexican Women, page 100, By Maria Raquel Casas
- ^ Engelhard 1922, p. 223: On June 7, 1829, Echeandía wrote, "Fr. José Barona; age, sixty-six years; broken in health; decided to take the oath in 1826 as far as compatible with his religious profession and as long as he remained in the Mexican Republic."
- ISBN 0-930349-01-6.
- ISBN 0-9763091-2-2.
- ISBN 1-892622-09-2.
- ^ Engelhardt 1922, p. 80, San Diego Mission, "The military district of San Diego embraced the Missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel."
- ^ Bancroft, vol. i, pp. 100–101: The motives behind the issuance of Echeandía's premature decree may have had more to do with his desire to appease "...some prominent Californians who had already had their eyes on the mission lands..." than with concern for the welfare of the natives.
- ^ Stern and Miller, pp. 51–52: Catholic historian Zephyrin Engelhardt referred to Echeandía as "...an avowed enemy of the religious orders."
- ^ nps.gov, National Park Service, Chapter 8. Secularization and the Rancho Era, 1834-1846
- ^ Kelsey, p. 21: Settlers made numerous false claims in order to diminish the natives' stature: "The Indians are by nature slovenly and indolent", stated one newcomer. "They have unfeelingly appropriated the region", claimed another.
- ^ Bancroft, vol. iii, pp. 322; 626
- ^ Engelhard 1922, p. 223
- ^ missionsanluisobispo.org, San Luis Obispo Mission History
- ^ factcards.califa.org, Mexican Congress secularized the missions (removed them from the Catholic Church)
- ^ San Diego: California's Cornerstone, Page 65, By Iris Wilson Engstrand
- ^ Page 3.0–8 sandiegocounty.gov, History
- ^ Diseño del Rancho La Brea
- ^ 1900 USGS topographic map[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County". Archived from the original on 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2015-07-26.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rancho La Brea
- ^ "The Rancho Tía Juana (Tijuana) Grant" by Antonio Padilla Corona, The Journal of San Diego History Vol.50, (Winter/Spring 2004)
- ^ a b Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco
- ^ Historia Baja California, Capítulo XXV, Tecate, p.384 Archived 2005-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ California Surveyor General's Office, Biennial Report of the Surveyor-General of the State of California, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1881, p.519, Recorded in Book of Titles, No 2 p.22.
- Internet Movie Database. Retrieved September 2, 2018.