Santa Ysabel Asistencia
Payomkowishum Diegueño, Luiseño | |
Native place name(s) | Elcuanan [2] |
---|---|
Governing body | Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego |
Current use | Chapel / Museum |
Reference no. | #369 |
The Santa Ysabel Asistencia was founded on September 20, 1818, at Cañada de Santa Ysabel in the mountains east of San Diego (near the village of Elcuanan), as a asistencia or "sub-mission" to Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and to serve as a rest stop for those travelling between San Diego and Sonora. The native population of approximately 450 neophytes consisted of both Luiseño and Diegueño peoples. Based on historical records, Santa Ysabel enjoyed a higher-than-average conversion rate when compared to the other California missions. Given its remote location, the facility was visited infrequently by the padres after secularization of the missions in the 1830s.
History
Mission era (1769–1833)
Father Juan Mariner first visited the site in 1795. In 1816, mission fathers in San Diego formally requested permission from the Spanish Governor to establish the asistencia. Fray Martin presided over the inaugural mass on the last day of September 1818. By 1821, a chapel, granary, several adobe houses, and a cemetery had all been constructed on the site.[3] In September of that same year Father Mariano Payeras, "Comisario Prefecto" of the California Missions, visited the area as part of a plan to establish an entire chain of inland missions, with Santa Ysabel as the "mother" mission. The plan never came to fruition, however.
Rancho era (1834–1849)
The missions were secularized in 1834, and Jose Joaquin Ortega and Edward Stokes received the
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea, camped at the Mission in 1847 after guiding the Mormon Battalion from New Mexico to San Diego. In 1849, U.S. Army Lieutenant A.W. Whipple visited the site during the course of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey and documented the Mission's condition as being "in ruins."
California statehood (1850–1900)
In 1850, the roof caved in and shelters were erected against one wall in order to allow religious services could continue. John Russell Bartlett, an American traveller who passed by the Mission proper in 1852, noted that the facility consisted of little more than a roofless church and a few simple huts; nothing remains of the original structures due to neglect over the years.
By 1857 there were some American settlers there, and a way station for the coaches of the
In 1898 The Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation was established.
The 20th century and beyond (1901 – present)
After three acres of the original Mission compound are returned to the
LaPointe died in 1932 and was buried next to the chapel.
The "Mystery of the Lost Bells"
Bells were vitally important to daily life at any mission. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, during births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing the mission bells. In 1846, two bells, the oldest in Alta California, were purchased from
In 1993, a local molder named Ed Schwaesdall and his son John struck a new bell (made mostly of brass and copper) and donated it to the Mission in honor of the installation's 175th anniversary.
In 2012, a piece of one of the mission's original two bells was recovered after the unearthing of an anonymous account of them in an oral history transcription.[5]
See also
- List of Spanish missions in California
- Mission San Diego de Alcalá
- Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
- Mission San Juan Capistrano
Notes
- ^ a b c d Ruscin, p. 17
- ^ Ruscin, p. 195
- ^ Schlesinger, Nancy (1992-10-29). "Cemeteries Alive With History". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
- ^ San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line Stations and Mileage between them, derived from the newspaper article by a traveler to the Gadsden Purchase printed in the Sacramento Daily Union, January 11, 1858, p.4, "A Trip to the Gadsden Purchase"
- ^ Gonzalez
References
- Jones, Terry L. and Kathryn A. Klar (eds.) (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Altimira Press, Landham, MD. )
- Paddison, Joshua, ed. (1999). A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 1-890771-13-9.
- Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, CA. ISBN 0-932653-30-8.
- Gonzalez, Ricardo (14 May 2012). "Historic bell piece recovered". The Daily Titan. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
External links
- Missiontour.org: Santa Ysabel Asistencia — information and photos.
- Information and photos