54 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



were lying there in the house j^ard when I visited it on August 30, 1894, 

 one of them being still unfinished. 



Note. — I have taken pains to explain about this " old adobe mill " at 

 San Gabriel, in order to prevent further confusion and misunderstanding 

 from its being confounded with the two old Mission mills. 



SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSION, 



On January 6, 1831, Governor Echeandia had issued a final decree for 

 secularizing the Missions, and forming them into towns, in accordance with 

 the old Mexican law of September 13, 1823. Elections were ordered to be 

 held on the third and fourth Sundays of January. The twenty-eighth 

 article of this decree said : ' ' With all possible haste a school is to be estab- 

 lished at San Gabriel, in which reading, writing and arithmetic will be 

 taught, as well as the best morals and politics. " * Article 32 said: " Teach- 

 ers to have $40 or $50, according to skill, and to have also $15 for each pro- 

 ficient pupil produced in six months." [See Bancroft, Hist. Cal., Vol. j, 

 p. 306.'] 



In 1832 there was much civil strife between factions ; and now for the 

 first time Indians were armed, to take part as soldiers in these public quar- 

 rels. In April, Governor Echeandia had a force of soldiers and Indians en- 

 camped at Paso de Bartolo on the San Gabriel river, under Captain Barroso. 

 They marched to Los Angeles ; then in a day or two they went to San 

 Gabriel ; and here they borrowed $20,000 from the Mission treasury, f be- 

 sides forced loans of supplies for men and horses — all which was very gall- 

 ing to the padres, for this was the faction that they were opposed to. Sev- 

 eral writers say there were 1,000 mounted Indians, besides white men. 



In 1831-32, while Padre Sanchez was still in control, a schooner of sixty 

 tons burden was framed here at San Gabriel by Joseph Chapman, assisted 

 by an Englishmen named William Antonio Richardson, who claimed to be 

 a carpenter, a shipwright and a pilot. The vessel was hauled in sections 

 on carts to San Pedro, — there put together and launched in 1832, and used 

 in the otter and seal fur trade among the channel islands. A man named 

 Yount was part owner and became captain of this small ship ; and differ- 

 ent accounts have credited each of the three men. Chapman, Richardson and 

 Yount as the builders. But it was Chapman who projected, planned and 

 superintended its building at San Gabriel and cartage to San Pedro. He 

 was the real head and hero of the whole affair until the owners took charge 

 of it at anchor in San Pedro bay. 



*This had been the hottest question in Mexican politics for about twenty years, between the Liberal 

 party and the clerical or conservative party. Sometimes one and sometimes the other was in power, 

 so that the padres had never obeyed either the .Sp;inish or the Mexican law in regard to the matter, but 

 held their grip of ecclesiastical dominance till Echeandia finally forced them to obey. 



tF.ulalia Perez hid the keys of the money room and refused to give them up, as she was the Mis- 

 sion treasure-keeper ; but the room was broken open, and the |2o,ooothus "borrowed" from the padres, 

 was never returned— for it took all of it and more, too, to pay costs of enforcing the law which they had 

 so long disregarded. 



