EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA
DURING THE PRE-STATEHOOD PERIOD
BY J. ANDREW EWING

EDUCATION IN CALIFORNIA DURING THE PRE-STATEHOOD PERIOD

BY J. ANDREW EWING

 

Historical Society of Southern California

Vol. XI: Part I: 1918

 

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A Study of the conditions of education in California before it

became one of the sisterhood of States, leads us at once to the im-

pression that there was not much education going on of the sort

with which we are familiar today. We are tempted to draw a

comparison with the condition of education on the eastern shore

of our continent at the same time. Ordinarily it would be better

for us to reserve our comparisons until later, but in this case it

will serve as an introduction to the more detailed study of the actual

conditions on this coast.

 

First of all, we must remember that California; was Spanish

territory until 1823, and then Mexican until 1846. So for much

of the period before statehood we are dealing with a civilization

which was very different from our own. It was that of Spain,

with its Latin interweaving of church and state, which has persisted

in that country down to the present day ; it was the civilization of a

nation which recognized exploitation of men and' land as the funda-

mental principle of colonial expansion. Spain used the church as

one of her most powerful agencies.

 

The education of the natives to ideas of freedom and liberty

was not on the program. There was, rather, a well defined policy

of keeping the Indian as ignorant as possible, that they might be

the more completely subject to the will of the Spanish masters. The

natives became proficient in repeating the services of the Church,

but beyond this the padres did not care to lead them. Most students

are agreed that the condition of the neophyte Indian was of a

servile nature — very little removed from slavery. The policy was

much the same as that followed in the Southern States toward the

negro, before the Civil War, and indeed, the situation was quite

comparable. It was not a lack of opportunity, neither was it a lack

of ability, as many of the padres were finely educated men from

the seminaries of Spain, but they were not willing to impart their

knowledge to their lowly slaves and thus endanger the servile system.

 

Compare this condition, if you please, with that on the eastern

coast of our country, where about the first thing thought of after

the settlement of a colony was the establishment of schools and

colleges. While ignorance prevailed on the western coast, the eastern

colleges, like Harvard and Yale and others, were graduating large

classes of students, and education was the rule rather than the exception.

 

Charles Howard Shinn, in an article entitled, "Spanish Cali-

fornia Schools", says that "fiction covers the Spanish period with

a dreamy, mysterious, Andalusian atmosphere. It substitutes for

the ignorant, simple-hearted, Spanish-California senorita, a complex

creature of the imagination, beautiful, passionate, semi-refined, a

mingling of the nineteenth century with the sixteenth. This is the

Spanish California of the poets". He states further that the esti-

mates of the essayist and the historian are very different from those

of the poet.

 

Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there were no

schools in California other than the missions. With the expulsion

of the Jesuits from North America in 1767, the control of religious

education — there was no other worthy of the name — was given to

the Franciscans. Their first representative in Alta California was

Father Junipero Serra, who established a chain of nine missions,

which was later increased to over twenty. The system of education

which he established at his missions, if it could be called a system

at all, consisted entirely of oral instruction in the services of the

Church and in teaching the Indians to till the soil for the fathers

and to wait upon them.

 

It is probably true that some of the priests contributed to the

education of some of their wealthier parishioners. Money was a

powerful influence in those days as well as now. But the greater

number of the Spanish pioneers were of the lower class of the

European Spaniards, came from ignorant stock, and were content

to remain in the same state as their fathers. These, with the

Indians and half-breed whites, constituted the population of the

California of those days. It is reported that in 1781, the alcalde of

San Francisco was not able to read or write. In 1785, only fourteen

men out of the fifty who comprised the Monterey presidial company

could read or write. At the same time the ratio was seven out of

thirty in San Francisco. In 1798, only two out of twenty-eight,

and in 1794, none of the soldiers of San Francisco could' write,

and they were compelled to ask the commandant of Santa Barbara

to send them a soldier who could keep the records, as none of them

could write.

 

We may well ask why the Spanish Government did not take

more interest in the welfare of its colonists. It did take an

interest . Did not the colonists have the Fathers to teach them the

forms of the Church? Having that, what more did they need?

Then the Spanish Government was itself in a weakened state and

was fast losing its hold on its colonies, and why should it send

good money after bad?

 

Not until the second generation was any attempt made to provide

education, in a systematic way, and even then we shall find that it

was not very effective. The first school of which we are able to

find a record was in Santa Barbara. It was a private school, estab-

lished and taught by one Manuel Lucca, and was open to the sons

and daughters of good famihes, who could pay the tuition of $125

a year. This school was taught during a few months, some time

between 1784 and 1787. The pupils were taught reading, writing,

history and grammar. It was an aristocratic school and was evi-

dently not of a permanent character.

 

In 1793, the Viceroy, Gigedo, issued an order, urging that schools

be established. Borica, who was the Provisional Governor at that

time, was only feebly interested, but in 1794 he had evidently

found that education had a commercial value, so he made a list

of those who could read and write. It would be manifestly easier

to take that kind of a census than to number those who could not

do so. He and Father Lasuen, the most enterprising priest on the

coast at that time, were able to start a few private schools. One of

these, and the second school of which we have any record, was

started by Manuel Vargas in a barn or granary at San Jose, in

1794. Senor Vargas was a Spanish gentleman who had been in

military service, and he is the first one of a long line of ex-soldiers

who taught in various parts of the province during the next fifty

years. We may doubt the efficiency of these men, whose training,

would doubtless better fit them for the work of war than the more

peaceful occupation of the pedagogue. This first school in San

Jose was opened before the founding of the mission by that name.

 

Vargas was followed in 1795 by Ramon Lasso. He charged

a tuition of $25 for a term of three months. Some of the families

of his pupils had a few histories, volumes of verse or old novels,

which the children took to school to learn to read from, but most

of the texts were from manuscripts written by the teacher. Mr. J.

M. Guinn tells us that Vargas went from San Jose to San Diego,

where he secured a better position at $250 a year, and that author

remarks that the seeking of a better job was characteristic of the

profession. He also tells us of a school started in Santa Barbara

in 1795 by Jose Manuel Toca, a ship boy. He taught for two

years for $125 a year, and was then recalled to his ship. He was

followed by Jose Medina, another ship boy, but Toca returned in

1798 and taught again for two years.

 

The schools which we have mentioned were the results of the

efforts of Governor Borica. In 1797, he issued an order that wher-

ever schools were not properly supported by tuition, a tax of money

or grain should be levied upon all the residents of the Presidios.

This was to apply to bachelors as well as to the citizens who were

married. At that time there were six schools in operation, — at San

Jose, San Diego, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Santa

Cruz. Borica ordered that all children between seven and ten

years should attend school. In addition to these, all non-commis-

sioned officers of the Presidios, who could not read or write, were

also compelled to attend. The learning of the Christina Doctrina

was the first requirement, and after that came reading and writing.

But the parents of the children gradually withdrew them from the

schools because of the inefficiency of the old soldier teachers, so

that by the end of Borica's term, in 1800, the schools had deteriorated

to the point where many of them met only once a week.

 

In 1800, Governor Arillaga came into office, and as he took

things very easy where they affected education, the schools "took a

vacation for fifteen years". In other words, they were gradually

abandoned. The Governor was of the ultra-conservative class who

thought that the Church Schools, which were taught by the priests

at the missions on Sundays, were quite sufficient for all of the

needs of the people. A few printed text-books were sent out from

Mexico during this period and were distributed among the wealthier

families and were looked upon as great treasures. Manuscript copies

of elementary grammar, geography and universal history were made

by some of the young people who were so inclined, and by some

of the former teachers in the schools of Borica, but this practice

was discouraged by the costliness of paper.

 

The next Provincial Governor was Sola, and it is said in the

Herald's History of Los Angeles, that there was something of a

revival of learning under his administration. He ordered that no

one should hold the office of Alcalde or Town Councilman unless he

could read and' write. He visited the religious schools and the

so-called Colleges of the Padres, and also the one or two private

schools which were still in existence. He purchased books and

paper from his private funds and distributed them to the schools.

He issued orders that the parents should send their children to the

schools and promised that more supplies should be forthcoming. It

is also ofi interest that he issued orders on the conduct of the

schools, in which he advocated the unsparing use of the rawhide.

He established schools for both boys and girls at Monterey, and

it is in this period that we read of the first schools in Los Angeles.

In fact, that is true of schools in many parts of the Province.

 

The first school in Los Angeles was taught by Maximo Pifia,

a retired invalid soldier. It was organized in 1817 and lasted for

only about one year. It was probably held in the public granary,

on the east side of the Old Plaza, and the salary of Senor Pifia

was the munificent sum of $140 per year. After his term there

was no school for nine years. There is no detailed description of

the school, but General M. G. Vallejo gave Bancroft a general

description of the schools of that time, which we quote :

 

"The teacher was almost invariably an old soldier, brutal,

drunken, bigoted, and except that he could read and write, ignorant.

The school room was dark and dirty, and the pupils all studied

aloud. The Master's ferule was in constant use, even for blots on

the writing paper or for mistakes in the reading. Serious offenses,

such as laughing aloud, or playing truant, or failure to learn the

Doctrina, were punished by use of the scourge, a bundle of hempen

cords, sometimes having iron points fastened to the ends of the

lashes. It was a horrible instrument, that drew blood, and if used

with severity, left a scar for life. The only volumes used for

reading were the books of religious formulae, which the pupils

used cordially to hate all through their later life, for the torments

of scourging were recalled." "The Escuela Antigua was a heaping

up of horrors, a torture for childhood, a punishment for innocence.

In it the souls of a whole generation were inoculated with the virus

of a deadly disease. ..."

 

Bancroft states that the text-books of the time were all of a

religious nature and taught servility to the Alcalde. He names the

following as being most popular. (1) Catecismo de Ripalda. (2)

Canon Cristiano. (3) Novena de la Virgen.

 

Care was taken to exclude any text which was not friendly to

the Divine Right of Kings. There was a long list of proscribed

books which the authorities did not consider suitable for the instruc-

tion of the young in the tenets of autocracy.

 

Sola seems to have been deeply interested in education, as it is

said that he started the schools of Monterey out of his own private

funds. He also attempted to start a college in Monterey, which was

to have been modelled after the College of San Gregorio de Mejico,

but little attention was paid to his suggestion. The reason for the

.apathy may doubtless be traced to the fact that he planned to have

the expense bourne by the Mission Fathers.

 

After Sola there followed two Governors who did little for edu-

cation. Education was at a low ebb in Los Angeles at this time.

It was the close of the Spanish period and the beginning of the

Mexican regime. There was some disorder and civil strife accom-

panying the transition, and at such times the pioneer finds it easier

to sacrifice education than other things, — such was the case in Cali-

fornia. How different from the attitude of the nations concerned

in the Great War of 1914-18, during which all struggled to preserve

the efficiency of their schools.

 

Commencing with 1827, there was school in Los Angeles at

varying intervals for four years. The teacher was Luciano Valdez.

His term of service would indicate that he must have been a good

teacher or there must have been difficulty in getting any other old

soldier to do the work. The following will show the changes in

personnel of the teachers of Los Angeles up to the American period :

1831 — ^Joaquin Botiller.

1832 — Vicente Moraga; received $15 a month.

1833— Cristoval Aguilar; $15 a month.

1834 — Francisco Pontoja ; received $15 a month, but asked for $20 a

month, and was discharged.

1836 — They tried to get an army officer to teach, but for a time no

one qualified. Finally, Ensign Guadalupe Medina was granted

leave of absence to act as preceptor. He appeared to have

been a very efficient teacher, but civil war was raging between

Monterey and Los Angeles and school was very irregular.

1838-42 — Ignacio Coronel and daughter opened a school on the

Lancastrian plan of using pupil teachers to assist in the

instruction. The teachers were still receiving only $15 a

month.

1842-4-1 — Guadalupe Medina was again employed, but he now re-

ceived $500 a year.

184^1 — Luis Arguello taught for $40 a month.

 

1845 — Guadalupe Medina again taught for $500 ai year, but the

 

school lasted only a few months. The American conquest

 

was on, and there were other things to think of for the next

 

five years.

 

In the Herald History of Los Angeles, Willard says that in the

 

sixty-six years from the founding of the city to the American

 

occupation, there were only ten years of school in all, and the

 

longest continuous period was from 1838 to 1844. The other four

 

years were scattered over sixty years of time. The teachers

 

usually received $15 a month and were very poorly prepared for

 

their work. 'They were frequently summoned before the City

 

Council to explain why there had been no school for the last week

 

or so, and the answer was usually given that the pupils had all run

 

away".

 

C. H. Shinn remarks that Governor Alvarado was one of the

best educated of the native Californians, and was deeply interested

in education, but that he had many political difficulties, and the

schools suffered accordingly. Governor Micheltorena, the last Span-

ish Governor, did what he could to encourage education. In a

single year he gave many silver medals and a gold medal to the

most deserving pupils. Some of the medals and the exercises which

won them are still in existence. He visited all the schools, and

imported several teachers on contracts of $1200 a year. These

were supposed to be experts, and they received much more than

the ordinary untrained teacher who did most of the teaching.

 

Bancroft gives a list of fifty-four teachers who were imported

between 1794 and 1846, indicating! where they taught and what

salaries they received. Most of them remained only a short time,

evidently becoming discouraged with the prospects or dissatisfied

wdth life on the frontier. It was a hard life, and there was little

to repay them for the sacrifices demanded. The people showed

little interest in education, and that was discouraging. At one time

Monterey provided for its school fund by a tax on liquors, but the

merchants would not pay the tax, and the schools had to close.

 

There was occasionally a successful school during the Mexican

period, and a description of one such school will serve to show

what the difficulties of the pedagogue were in those days. In 1839,

General Jose Castro imported two "excellent teachers", Sefior En-

rique Cambuston, a Frenchman of long Spanish training-, and Don

Jose Campina, a Cuban. They opened a school in Monterey in

1840, and soon had the best school north of Los Angeles and the

most advanced one in the Province. It was held in an old adobe

building near the Presidio, and had about one hundred pupils, some

of whom came twenty miles on horseback every day. Their text-

books were mostly manuscript, made by the teachers and their pupils.

C. H. Shinn tells us that the Castro family of Monterey County

had in an attic an old rawhide sack strapped to a rafter, and that

among the old papers found in this sack were some fragments of

manuscript texts, written between 1835 and 1845. Most of them

had been prepared under the direction of Cambuston. In the set

were found three classes of school work, roughly classified as

follows :

 

1. Drawing.

 

Parts of faces and hands.

 

Drawing of statuary from some classical dictionary.

 

Simple architectural forms.

 

2. Maps.

 

Of Europe, Spain and Mexico in outline.

 

3. Text-books.

 

Grammar, definer, arithmetic, geography and Ancient and Mod-

ern history.

 

The most interesting of these text-books was the Historia, which

in thirty pages gave accounts of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar

and other celebrities. The geography was a catalog of gulfs, rivers,

bays, lakes, mountains, islands, countries and cities. They were

mostly South American and Mexican names, as we would be led

to expect. The author states that the maps from which they were

compiled must have been very old and meagre, as the mountains

of Africa were given as Luna, Kong, Atlas, Lupata, Camerons and

"Los Montes del Sol". The oceans were given as : Pacific — El

Grande Oceano ; Arctic — Mar Glacial del Norte ; Antarctic — Mar

Glacial del Sur.

 

Among the countries, Canada was spoken of as Nueva Bretana.

 

The definer contained a few hundred words and' their translations

into English. Just why this should be does not seem clear, as

English was not the familiar language of the people. There were

no sentences in the definer, and the definitions were very crude.

 

General Castro, in whose home these remnants of school books

were found, had whole rooms full of scraps which he had saved.

This, according to the above author, was a Spanish custom, brought

down from the days of necessity, when even wrapping paper was

very precious. Every small fragment of paper was saved, and

manuscripts were frequently written on scrap paper and on the fly

leaves of books.

 

Pupils were frequently given the task of copying the text-book

of some other pupil ; and they would copy the mistakes as well as

the correct portions of the books, and there would thus be perpetuated

many childish blunders which should never have seen light. The

writing on these old manuscripts is fair. Each name has a "rubrica"

or flourish, the same being considered necessary to the legality of any

document which the individual signed. This "rubrica" would some-

times be characteristic of a whole family.

 

We have to pass over the years 1845-46 as being practically

barren of organized effort along educational lines in California.

The war with the United States was on and the uncertainty of the

future deterred the people from launching any new venture, or even

supporting the old. After the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, there

was still an uncertainty. The United States waited four years

from the conquest to make California an integral part of the Union,

and during all that time there was a corresponding waiting on the

part of the people. They were anxious to know what the plans of

the future were to be.

 

We are told that one Marston, a Mormon, started a school in

San Francisco in 1847, but he did not continue at his task very

long. Everybody was going to the ''diggings" in those exciting

days, and he, could not be blamed for joining with the others.

Monroe tells us that the Town Council of San Francisco ordered

a school house to be built in that year, but we have no record of

the work having been) done. However, in 1848, they elected a

School Board and employed a teacher. They began with six pupils,

but the school soon increased to thirty-seven. Then came the gold

strike. The school dwindled to eight and was soon closed. This

school, like that of Marston, was private. The teacher was a Mr.

Douglas, and the school was conducted in the Baptist Church.

 

In 1849, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Pelton arrived from Boston and

opened a school in San Francisco on the New England plan. In

a few months this was taken over as the first free public school

of the city. They received a salary of $500 a month, it being

during the gold excitement, and they conducted the school for about

two years.

 

In 1850, a school, committee was appointed from among the

members of the City Council of Los Angeles, who were to act as a

School Board. They found it very difficult to find a teacher, owing

to the disturbances of the times, but finally a Mr. Hugh Owens

agreed to teach the school, but we have no record of the kind of

school he conducted. Earlier in the same year, there had been a

school conducted by Francesco Bustamente, the last to be conducted

in the Spanish language. His contract was with Don Abel Stearns,

and he agreed to teach the scholars to read and count, and so far

as he was capable to teach them orthography and good morals. He

was to receive $60 a month and $20 a month for the rent of a school

room.

 

With the exception of the primitive schools of which we have

written, there was very little opportunity for education in California

during the pre-statehood period. These constituted the only educa-

tional facilities of the people of the middle class, and the poorer

classes were quite neglected. Private tutors were employed by the

more wealthy people when they could be found, and then there was

always the possibility of such parents sending their sons abroad to

be educated. Many were sent to Mexico City or to the Sandwich

Islands, and a few found their way to the schools in the eastern

part of our country. Among the families of Los Angelesi who

were able to employ tutors are mentioned the Sepulvedas, the

Yorbas, and the Dominguez families. These must have been indeed

the aristocracy of the land, and their lot, poor at the best, must

have been far easier than that of their neighbors. Those days are

gone and better and happier ones have come. Who could wish

them back?

ANNUAL PUBLICATIONS

Historical Society

OF

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

1918

LOS ANGELES, CAL.

 

 

 

Organized November I, 1883 Incorporated February 12, 1891

 

PART I. VOL. XI.

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ANNUAL PUBLICATIONS

 

 

 

 

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Historical Society

 

 

 

OF

 

 

 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

 

 

 

1918

 

 

 

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LOS ANGELES, CAL.

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