gushistory

Gustine Historical Society

Gustine, California

As described by Frank Latta in his book Handbook of Yokuts Indians, the Indians living in the Gustine area “were a tall, well built people of open outlook: frank, upstanding, casual and unceremonious, optimistic and friendly, fond of laughter, not given to cares of property or too much worry about tomorrow; and they lived in direct relation to their land and world, to its animal spirits, and gods, and to one another.”

Their number before the coming of the Spaniards was over 25,000 on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley. In our area they lived on the Orestimba, Garzas and Quinto creeks.

Near Salt Slough, east of Gustine, there are abandoned village sites with saucer-shaped depressions over which stood structures. Grinding holes, still seen today along the creek beds west of Gustine, provide evidence of Indian life.

The Yokuts lived in a paradise brimming with wildlife. Without a horse or gun, they hunted and fished with a bow and arrow, dart, spear, blind, snare, trap and poison weeds. They hunted tule elk, prong horned antelope, deer and grizzly bear. In the fall of the year the sky was blackened with flight of ducks and geese, providing another food source. Ground squirrels, seeds, roots and acorns all formed a large part of their diet. Coyotes and jackrabbits were everywhere.

Due to the abundance of tules, they were used for clothing, housing, boots, in making weapons and even diapers.

Many California highways of today follow the old Indian trading trails. Pacheco Pass and Highway 680 across the Altamont Pass are on old Indian trails. Interstate 5 follows the historic trail used by the Yokuts and later the Spaniards along the foothills on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

Since about 1790, there have been no Yokuts Indians along the West Side plains and foothills. Indians along the West Side plains and foothills. They had been forcibly removed from the area and taken by the Spanish to the missions on the coast, by the way of the “Trail of Tears.”

Those who were brave enough to remain along the west bank of the San Joaquin River perished from the dreaded “Spanish Influenza” which swept the area in 1833. The pestilence, brought in by the Hudson Bay traders, killed the Indians so rapidly that few were left to bury the dead. The ones that were still alive were too weak or were dying themselves. Contrary to their normal ceremonial rites, the bodies were either cremated or buried in mass.

Several grave sites are situated south of Gustine, on the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. One mound contains over 200 remains and is counted as the largest common burial site in the state.

Frank Latta described the Yokuts as the most tolerant, most unresentful, most forbearing, patient people the world had known. “From the smallest child to the most ancient tribesman, all have been proud to be called Indian.”

Return to Top

Spanish Influence in Gustine

The first recorded Spanish expedition into the West Side was that led by Gabriel Moraga in 1806. Moraga had pursued a band of Indians which had run off horses from Mission San Juan Bautista. While here, he looked for sites for missions and presidios, but none were every built.

From the Spanish, we have numerous place names, four large Mexican land grants and several ancient adobe buildings.

All four Gustine Creeks bear Spanish names: El Arroyo de Romero (named after a Spaniard who was killed there by Indians), El Arroyo Seco de Las Garzas (dry creek of the herons), Mustang (wild horse) and El Arroyo de Quinto (fifth creek).

Some historians say the Quinto Creek was the fifth watering hole north of Ortigalita Creek in the Los Banos area. However, Bill Jorgensen reports a different version of the naming as related to him by Frank Latta. “The Spanish did not have title by land grant to the Quinto region. There was good feed in that area so people negotiated with the Mexican government for permission to graze cattle. The name Quinto came from the word ‘cinco’ meaning five. It was the price for allowing a herd of cattle to graze on the land, one-fifth of the herd.”

Today, the ranches which had their origin as Mexican land grants, are located partly or wholly in western Merced County. The Santa Rita Grant was the first and was made in 1841 by Juan B. Alvardo. It later came to belong to Miller & Lux. The San Luis Gonzaga Grant was filed in 1843 by Juan Perez Pacheco, son of Don Francisco Pacheco for whom Pacheco Pass is named. The Orestimba y Las Garzas Grant was made by Sebastian Nunez and the Rancho Panoche de San Juan y Los Carrisalitos Grant was filed in 1853.

Numerous adobe dwellings were built in the Gustine area. The walls were made of large sun-dried bricks, made of adobe soil, mixed with straw, measuring 18 inches square and three inches in thickness. They were cemented and plastered with mud and whitewashed when finished.

One adobe, probably built before 1840, stood on the plains among the cottonwoods of Quinto Creek as late as 1925. Another was built on Garzas Creek, at Wehe Gate, west of Gustine. Only a mound remains of it today.

As late as the 1850s there were two small tuleroofed adobes on the west bank of Salt Slough, directly east of Gustine, which were then occupied by Mexican families. Both looked as if they had been built many years before.

Rancho Centinela (Santa Nella) was originally a part of the San Luis Gonzaga land grant. It is thought that it was occupied in 1810 or earlier, when the father of Tiburicio Vasquez, the bandit, brought the first horses into this region. A one-story adobe stood at Centinela for many years, but it is not known if it was built by Vasquez. A two-story adobe was erected by Basque sheep-herders, who occupied the rancho during the 1860s and the 1870s. This adobe, which had walls four feet thick, was torn down in 1890 and a frame structure was erected in its place by Miller & Lux.

One adobe remains in Gustine today, as an occupied dwelling. It is located on the Linora Ranch, three miles south of Gustine, on Hunt Road. The walls are three feet thick and the building is about 20s56 feet. The walls are now covered with boards.

Return to Top

How the Romero Area Received Its Name

About 1845, two Spanish brothers from San Juan Bautista, named Romero, ran cattle in the foothills of this area. One of them, Antonio, was killed at the head of Romero Creek, at his summit cow camp, by a band of renegade Indians from Chowchilla. The Chauchela Indians were the fiercest of the Yokuts tribes. They filled him so full of arrows that the arrows held his body off the ground. Spanish soldiers cut the arrows off and carried Romero’s body to Mission San Jose, where he was buried. The creek surrounding this area bears his name today.

Return to Top

Centinela Gold

Santa Nella was originally named Rancho Centinela (sentinal). Located on Highway 33, at the crossing of San Luis Creek, it is one of several places in California where legends of buried treasure still persist. Basque sheep-herders occupied the rancho during the 1860s and 1870s.

Rumor had it that one of the Basque had gone insane after receiving a large sum of money in payment for some of his sheep. It was said that he had buried this wealth only to forget the spot where he had placed it. This led many treasure-hunters to dig up the entire yard and portions of the fields nearby in a vain search for the gold.

Possibly there never was any gold buried at Centinela, or perhaps it still remains there waiting for discovery.

Return to Top

Mustang Horses

The Name “mustang” comes from the Spanish word “mestengo” which means unbranded wild horse. These horses roamed the hills and plains of the Gustine area by the thousands and were attracted to Mustang Canyon by the water at Mustang Springs.

These horses were small and wiry and did not weigh over 700 pounds. Although nervous and high strung, they were tough and durable. In their wild state they would kick, bite and strike with their fore feet when caught or approached by man. But, when broken to the saddle or harness and not abused, they became very gentle animals. They made excellent work horses and as saddle animals for the Spanish vaquero, they were indispensable.

The horses were rounded up regularly by the Spanish and driven into Mexico. Early settlers also captured the wild mustangs. During the time Joaquin Murrieta operated his horse gangs, the West Side pioneers often participated with him in capturing the horses.

The last of the mustangs, in the hills west of Gustine, were captured in the late 1880s.

Return to Top

Henry Miller

Gustine’s founder was born Heinrich Alfred Kreiser in Brackenheim, Germany on July 21, 1827. There he spent seven years as an apprentice butcher.

In a dream he saw seas of grain and herds of cattle with the HH brand, he never forgot this dream.

In 1847, at the age of 19, he landed in New York City with only $5 in his pocket. A friend in New York, named Henry Miller, had purchased a ticket for passage from New York to San Francisco and the ticket was marked “Not Transferable.” When the friends decided not to go, Henry bought the ticket and thus took the name. Later, in 1858, he had the Legislature of the State of California legally change his name to Henry Miller.

In 1850 he arrived in San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama with $6 in hand. His first job was as a dishwasher and then again as a butcher. Soon he had his own shop and earned a reputation for selling good meat.

Originally, he dealt with the wild, skinny, long horned Mexican cattle. Then turning his attention to the production of a better breed of cattle, he purchased 300 prime American cows. It was said to be the first band of American cattle ever driven into San Francisco.

He bred Devon and Hereford bulls with Durham cows to produce an animal with red color and white face. Anyone could tell Miller & Lux stock without looking at the brand.

One day while sorting hides, he saw the HH brand on a hide from the San Joaquin Valley. He decided to visit this vast 50 mile wide, 200 mile long valley. As he came across from the Santa Clara valley, he stopped at “The Baths” on Los Banos Creek. Traveling on closer to the San Joaquin River, he saw the HH brand.

The Hildreth brothers, who owned the brand, were from Minnesota, where they had engaged in floating logs down rivers. They were using the same brand on their cattle as they had used to mark their logs. Miller then bought from the Hildreth brothers 8,835 acres of the Mexican Land Grant named the Santa Rita, together with the “Double H” brand. Henry Miller now had the beginning of his empire.

In 1858, he formed a partnership with Charles Lux, his chief competitor, under the name of Miller & Lux. This game him a man to attend to the city business, where he had the market cornered, while he was in the country tending to the actual operation of the ranches.

For the next 30 years there was a veritable orgy of land and cattle buying. “Wise men buy land, fools sell it.”

Dressed in black or dark clothes, his dusty figure on horseback became a familiarly sight for miles around. Guiding the cattle drives to market, moving supplies, getting water, building canals, buying hay and employing men was a continuous process. The “Double H” brand was seen in every valley, on every plain and in every ravine.

When Charles Lux died in 1887, he gave half his property to his wife and the other half to relatives in Alsace, the “German Heirs.” The estate was in the courts for 20 years.

In 1907, when lots were first sold in Gustine, it was in compliance with a court order to sell off his land holdings in a gradual orderly fashion. This was a result of a suit filed by the “German Heirs.”

Henry Miller said, “I have made three fortunes; one for myself, one for my partner and one for my lawyers.”

When, after many years of litigation, he finally purchased all the interests of the Lux heirs, his empire was complete. Over a million acres of land, fully stocked in California, Oregon and Nevada was owned by Henry Miller. It was the largest private piece of real estate in the United States.

Henry Miller was instrumental in getting the railroad to come through the West Side in 1888. Formerly he had to drive his cattle across the Pacheco Pass. Now he could ship his cattle by train.

When he retired in January of 1916, he was 88 years old. Passing away Oct. 14, 1916, he left a legacy of colonies and towns, thousands of miles of canals, banks, stores and lumber yards. His introduction of alfalfa, rice and cotton were now big industries in the state.

Henry Miller left many monuments to his memory in various parts of the state. However, the city of Gustine, named for his beloved daughter, Sarah Alice “Gussie”, stands today as living testimony to one of the most powerful and picturesque figures of the old west.

Return to Top

Gussie

Sarah Alice Miller was born in 1871 and delighted her father by dressing frilly dresses. He nicknamed her “Gussie” which was the term for dressing or “gussying up.”

Very much like Henry Miller himself, she always wanted to be out among the cattle. Her one delight was to ride horseback. Henry Miller idolized her. Gussie was Henry Miller all over again.

On June 13, 1879, Gussie, age 8, and her older sister Nellie were riding horseback near their Bloomfield ranch near Gilroy. Her galloping horse suddenly broke his stride as a foreleg sank in a gopher hole. She was pitched headfirst to the ground and instantly killed.

After the tragedy Henry Miller’s mind was constantly on his little girl. Blaming himself, he would stand in the road where the tragedy occurred and curse at the top of his voice. Finally, he suffered a nervous breakdown, which necessitated a complete rest. This was obtained by a trip to Europe, back home to the land of his birth.

All the rest of his life, wherever he went, he carried with him a picture of Gussie. Once Henry Miller was held up and robbed. He had a find engraved watch that contained Gussie’s picture. Miller told the robber, “Just let me take that picture out.” The robber let Miller remove the picture. Miller told him he could have the watch and his money and “I’ll never bother you.”

He also had a small portrait framed and glassed and kept on his bureau. Before going to bed, he would kiss the photo good night. From time to time, his housekeepers were said to have to wash tear stains from the glass. Henry Miller had lost forever his greatest treasure.

The mortal remains of Sarah Alice Miller, beloved daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Miller, were conveyed here on Saturday last by train for interment in a private cemetery at the home farm. The day after the late lamentable accident which deprived this blooming and affectionate girl of life, her body was sent to San Francisco and placed in the family vault at Laurel Hill cemetery. The dismal precincts of the cemetery however seemed to be no place for the repose of her young form and this beautiful rural spot on the Bloomfield ranch where she had gamboled and spent many happy hours in play, seemed to her fond parent to be the most appropriate place for their buried love to rest.

The afflicted parents and members of the family in mournful sadness, with hundreds of sympathizing citizens in carriages followed the hearse bearing the cherished form that only a few days before bloomed in youth and beauty, and moved in gaiety and smiles in the presence of those who are now heartbroken over her early and sudden death.

The funeral procession finally reached the grave where the solemn Christian services were conducted by Reverends J. L. Drum and T. M. Oviatt, of the Presbyterian Church. Friends gathered round with flowers, “emblems of the beauty and purity of the deceased and the crown of glory which she has received in heaven.” The scene was impressive as the beauties of nature were strewn about the grave in the presence of uncovered heads while the plaintive hope-inspiring words of the song “The Sweet By and By” echoed on the hillsides. The crowd left the melancholy scene touched with sympathy over the sad event.

Gilroy Advocate June 28, 1879

Return to Top

Bull’s Head Draft

This Miller & Lux draft was a familiar sight and was made distinctive by the “Bull’s Head” drafts that all bills for the materials were discharged. Money itself was often scarce in small communities, banks were far distant, and coveted “Bull’s Head” drafts. They were cashed over every bar, accepted in every store, and passed at every hotel.

Return to Top

Dirty Plate Route

Many hobos found their way into the San Joaquin Valley to spend their winters on the Miller & Lux ranches.

As told by Edward Treadwell in his book, The Cattle King, Henry Miller established a policy relating to tramp early in his career. He said, “Don’t let the tramps sleep in the hay stacks. Let them know that they can always have one night’s lodging in the barn. If they fall asleep in the hay stack they may stay there several days, break it down, probably go to smoking and set it on fire. If you give them a bed in the barn they will appreciate it, stay just one night, won’t use any matches and then be on their way.

When told to feed all hobos a meal, the Chinese cook complained about washing dishes for them. Henry Miller said, “All right, we’ll have the plates. They will clean them for you. “The cook thought this was a good joke and did not press his point further, so these became the rules for the hobo hotels on the Henry Miller ranches.

1. Never refuse a tramp a meal, but never give him more than one meal. A tramp should be a tramp and keep on tramping.

2. Never refuse a tramp a night’s lodging. Warn him not to use any matches, and let him sleep in the barn, but never let him stay more than one night.

3. Never make a tramp work for his meal. He won’t thank you, if you do. Anyhow he is too weak to work before a meal and to lazy to work after a meal.

4. Never let the tramps eat with the men. Let them wait until the men are through, and then make them eat from the same plates. The cook should not be made to do extra work for tramps.

Under these humanitarian rules, which soon came to be well understood, the Miller ranches became a Mecca for the tramps and thus was born the “Dirty Plate Route”.

Return to Top

Henry Miller Letters

A prolific letter writer to his superintendents and foremen, Henry Miller directed the operation of his ranches in minute detail. The following excerpts, taken from Treadwell’s book, The Cattle King, illustrate his philosophy.

Unbranded calves on the ranges is bad business, as it might induce some of our neighbors to be dishonest.

A friendly neighbor is a great asset.

There is always hope for a drunkard, but more for a lazy, slovenly man.

A man can’t do justice to his employer on an empty stomach.

The best way to hold good men on a farm is to keep their sleeping quarters clean.

Some men are worth a great deal more than others. Some men go around but don not want to see things. They are indolent; do not care, and when they cut a hide they cut it all to pieces and make it worthless, or when they bring it home they do not take care of it.

If a man is sensible he will not run his horse to death to get back a calf that runs away, but will let it come back of its own accord.

In opening stacks of hay, open them on the south end.

Please go and see how those people are fixed, and if you think they are worthy of assistance, give them what they need most. I am sending you a letter from a Mexican woman. Please buy something for her so as to make her comfortable during the winter. I hope you patronize all the merchants and bought such presents as will give there best satisfaction.

Do not let the men ride colts which they are breaking, into town, under any condition.

If the horses have sore or blistered backs, I want their backs taken care of and I do not want them ridden. From time to time you will examine the men’s saddles and blankets. See that the men have good s

Gustine Historical Society

Gustine, California

by

Mrs. Patricia Carson Snoke

Click on a topic and it will link to that section in the book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS