Early Days in Corralitos and Soquel

By

Rebecca Deleissegues

and

Lucretia Mylar

Reprinted from the Evening Free Lance

Hollister, California

Introductory

During the months of July, 1929, the Hollister, California "Evening Free Lance" published another highly interesting chapter of early central California history - one that has never been told before, the early history of Corralitos and Soquel, these two picturesque places in Santa Cruz county which are familiar to almost every resident of the Central Coast Counties.

The story of the beginning of these communities is told by Mrs. Rebecca Deleissegues and her sister Mrs. Lucretia Mylar, whose father and uncle erected the first flour mills and saw mills in these towns, and thereby gave them their start as California communities.

Benjamin Hames, millwright, surveyor, builder and adventurer, founded Corralitos in 1854 or possibly a little earlier. John Hames, also a millwright and adventurer, founded the town of Soquel several years prior to that date.

How these two typical American pioneers left their boyhood home in New York, lost touch with one another for years, and were finally re-united in Santa Cruz county after lives of adventure in South America and other strange places, and the story of their activities in the Corralitos-Soquel section, makes an interesting story and a valuable contribution to California's historical records.

Early Days in Corralitos and Soquel

Santa Cruz County

"In the month of April, 1929, a copy of the Watsonville Register was sent to me at Nipoma, San Luis Obispo county, which contained a story entitled, 'Corralitos, Gem of the Pajaro Valley.' "

"As my father, Ben Hames, was the founder of Corralitos and I spent my childhool [sic] days there, I wish to contribute what my sister, Mrs. Lucretia Mylar, and I remember of those early days."

___________

Benjamin F. Hames, the founder of the town of Corralitos, Santa Cruz county in 1855 or possibly earlier, was the son of Benjamin Hames and Rebecca Harding or Hardin. The elder Hames was a native of New York and a millwright by trade, who came west in the early days when Michigan was being settled and located at Battle Creek, Calhoun county, where he built the first flour mill in what was destined to become one of the greatest milling and cereal manufacturing centers of America.

The elder Hames resided in Battle Creek until his death, which occurred in 1850.

Benjamin Hames Jr., who was born in Rochester, New York, June 1st, 1823, left his father's home before the latter migrated west to Michigan. The young man took passage for California, evidently in the early forties, on the bark 'Mazeppa'. En route to South America he made the acquaintance of a minister who was a fellow passenger, and the clergyman presented him with a bible which his daughter Rebecca still treasures as a valuable keepsake.

After a cruise that took him as far as the Hawaiian Islands, Hames came back to South America and went to Santiago, Chile, Here he built a flour mill and then moved to Valparaiso, Chile, where he erected another flour mill.

After living in Chile for some time he married a cultured and refined young lady, Mary Carmen Laing, the daughter of an Englishman, Capt. George Foster Laing and his wife, Francisca Joffre Laing. Mrs. Hames was born in Valparaiso, July 8th, 1832.

Two daughters, Frances and Lucretia, were born to them and in 1852 they took ship for California, accompanied by the children's nurse, Mariquita, also by Mrs. Hames youngest sister, Andrea Laing.

Capt. Laing, his wife, their young son William and Mrs. Laing's daughter, Mrs. Rosa Post and her son Henry, preceded the Hames family to California also making the trip aboard a clipper ship, and took up their residence in Oakland, then a small village.

The trip was made aboard a clipper ship, laden with lumber. The wife of the captain of the vessel was making the trip with her husband, and Mrs. Hames and her children were allowed to make the trip because the two families were friends and because they would be company for her.

The passage required about two months and such heavy storms were encountered that most of the cargo was thrown overboard to prevent the ship from foundering.

Mother brought orange trees and several varieties of flowering garden plants with her, managing to save many of them, including some Calla Lillies [sic], Fuchsia, Pinks, etc., and they were the first plants of their kind in California.

They landed at Yerba Buena, which is now San Francisco, lived there for a time and then moved to Oakland, where Capt. Laing and his family were living.

About this time Hames heard that his brother, John Hames, was living in Soquel, Santa Cruz, county.

John Hames, who was born in Orange county, New York, March 22nd, 1811, had left his home many years before Benjamin started his travels, and the two brothers had lost touch with one another.

Ben Hames therefore moved with his family to Soquel, where there was a happy re-union. Another brother, David, who had left home early in life, was never heard from.

John Hames had, like his brother, led an adventurous life which had taken him to South America. In 1842 and 1843 he had been in Peru and Ecuador, where he had worked at his trade of millwright, and he had traveled extensively before he reached California, coming from to Niles where he built a saw mill, then a flour mill at Soquel, a comfortable home at that place and a saw mill a little further up the Soquel canyon.

Ben Hames built a flour mill at Haywards and then built Cascade Flour Mill at Aptos, which is now called Rio Del Mar, This mill has long since been destroyed but a small portion of the foundation is still to be seen.

Ben Hames afterward built a flour mill at Chorro creek, a few miles northeast of San Luis Obispo. It was called the Eagle Mill, and was owned by Sam Pollard and Mr. Childs. Ben and John Hames were partners in a mill built by them at Corralitos.

Mrs. Hames moved back to Oakland for a time, staying with her mother, Mrs. Laing, where her daughter Rebecca was born on December 9, 1854. A son, Bennie, was born at Corralitos April 26, 1856.

The next year the babies were taken to Santa Cruz to be christened at the Holy Cross Church by Father Rouselle. A few weeks later Ben Hames moved back to Soquel and lived for a short time in a house that belonged to his brother John.

In 1855 he bought several hundred acres of land in a beautiful place surrounded by hills and called it 'Corralitos', meaning little corrals.

He built a mill there and it was leased to O. P. Wilson of Soquel, so the Wilson family moved to Corralitos and lived in a house near the store kept by Fischer & Schwartz of Santa Cruz. Ben Hames then moved his family into the Wilson house at Soquel.

While we were living in the Wilson house at Soquel Grandfather and Grandmother Laing came from Oakland to live with us. Grandfather had learned the ship carpenter's trade when a youth at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and shipped aboard a vessel when a young man. Years had passed and he never returned home, but after a year or so at Soquel he decided to visit England again and settle his affairs at Newcastle, then return to California for his permanent home.

In those days ships visited Santa Cruz only on rare occasions, though they came frequently to San Francisco. Grandfather decided to take passage on the first boat that came to Santa Cruz, and when he learned that a vessel was in the harbor, hurriedly prepared for his trip.

There were no stage coaches or other means of conveyance and he had to walk the few miles to Santa Cruz. I can see him now, with his grey beaver high hat which he always wore on special occasions, and which he was so proud of, and his clothing tied up in a red bandana handkerchief. It was before the day of the carpet bags and suit cases were undreamed of.

But his preparations were in vain for when he reached Santa Cruz the ship had sailed. Almost sick with disappointment, he walked back to Soquel and the voyage was postponed.

A few months later grandmother became sick and after a lingering illness, died February 4th, 1856, I believe. She was buried at Soquel.

I was a little girl at the time but remember many things about her. She was always kind and good to us. One of her cherished belongings was a large yellow pitcher with a blue band around it and with the handle broken off. She always kept it full of doughnuts and was very liberal with them and other goodies. And she always kept my hair curled.

Grandmother's father was Jean Pierre Joffre, brother of the great-grandfather of the famous French General of that name. Her mother was Mercedes Covarrubia, who was born in Spain.

Jean Pierre Joffre died at 'El Almendral' their home near Valparaiso, Chile, at the age of 88 years.

After Wilson's lease of the Corralitos flour mill was up, some two or three years later, he moved back to Soquel and Hames moved to a new house Wilson had built beside the Corralitos Mill.

Grandfather Laing made his home with us after we moved back to Corralitos. He was very much attached to us children and the first time he opened his trunk he gave my sister Lucretia Grandmother's sewing basket, with her scissors, thimbles and needles. He also gave her grandmother's bonnet trimmed with flowers and berries and with the wide ribbons to tie it with.

One day he went to Watsonville with some one who was hauling a load of wood on a big wagon. In those days the roads were very rough, dusty and full of chuck holes and a heavy jolt threw him from the wagon, the fall causing paralysis of his left side, arm and leg. He lived bed ridden for the remaining eight years of his life.

In the meantime Ben Hames had been elected county surveyor of Santa Cruz county, and he held that office for many years, in fact, until he died, making a reputation himself not only as an expert mechanic and builder of mills, but as a civil engineer, a great reader and an accountant of marked ability.

A son, George, was born to Mrs. Ben Hames July 28, 1861, and another daughter, Carmen, was born August 31, 1864.

Robert Orton was employed in the mill for some time after Wilson gave up his lease and Hames again took charge of it. It seems that the mill had been mortgaged and about this time the mortgage was foreclosed, Orton becoming the owner.

Hames and his family then moved to some property he owned in the town of Corralitos and resided there continuously thereafter, although he spent much of his time away from home on surveying trips and at one time was called to Mazatlan, Mexico, to erect some ore mills, as the country around Mazatlan at that time was rich in gold, silver and other metals and mining was flourishing in the district.

We will now turn our attention to the Corralitos mill and water system.

The flour mill was run by water power, the water being brought down from a dam in Eureka Canyon, through a flume which was about two feet wide and three or four feet deep. The water ran very swiftly through this and poured into the buckets of the immense wooden mill wheel at such speed that it kept it revolving at a lively rate. When the mill was not operating the water was shut off by a gate.

The question of a water supply for the town was quite a problem, as there were no iron or steel pipe available, but Ben Whipple found a way. He had a lot of Redwood saplings cut and hauled into town, then bored holes through them from end to end. He laid a line of these wooden pipes, joining them together in some way, and connected the line to the big flume, at a point much higher than the town so that the flow was speedy and the pressure ample.

It was a crude pipe line and water system but it proved very satisfactory and amply met the needs of the little community.

In those days no one ever through of digging a well, as no well boring machiney [sic] had been devised and sinking a shaft by manual labour was a tedious and difficult job.

About this time Frank Aldrich took a turn at running the mill. He was a Christian minister, working week days and preaching on Sundays.

Frank Aldrich's brother, Wesley Aldrich, also lived in Corralitos at this time, with his wife and children.

Pruitt Sinclair was another early resident of the village, and like quite a few of the early residents of that part of Santa Cruz county, was interested in milling as he built a saw mill at Eureka Canyon.

In those days bear were quite common and were often seen prowling around the outskirts of the town. Old Man Lindsey, who lived across the creek opposite the mill frequently trapped them and took them to Whiskey Hill (now known as Freedom), where one of the favorite early day sports was bear and bull fights.

Whiskey Hill at that time was perhaps one of the 'wildest and wooliest' spots in this part of the State and its name was quite appropriate. The bear and bull fights and other similar attractions were very popular with a large percentage of the habitues and visitors, and often these entertainments were augmented with a little impromptu shooting and stabbing affairs.

Some years later Jerome B. Post lived in the house old man Lindsey had occupied. Post engaged in the manufacture of chairs at this site, but during the winter of 1861-62, there came a big flood which washed away houses and trees and hundreds of acres of land and the Post house was carried away, chairs and all.

Post's little son, Jerome Jr., was caught by the angry waters and but for the presence of mind of his elder brother George, who lives in Hollister, who grabbed him by the hair and pulled him out of the swollen creek, he would have drowned.

The old flour mill was later made into a paper mill. This was in the year 1880, but I do not remember the name of the company which bought it and made the change. Afterward it burned to the ground and gone were the hopes, aspiriations [sic] and labors of many years.

Near where this mill once stood now grows a tall fir tree that was planed [sic] by George Post when a boy, marking what was once a beautiful spot when the flour mill was running, a comfortable home nearby, with a flower garden and an orchard where each of us picked our favorite fruit - the dear home of our childhood - now a tangle of brush, briars, weeds and old shacks. Such is the end of our once happy Corralitos home.

Up in Brown's Canyon was a saw mill owned by Brown and Wliliamson [sic]. The tan yards up Eureka Canyon were owned by Jack and Henry Kern. A man named Reder also had a saw mill up Eureka Canyon.

In October, 1864, one very hot Sunday morning, there was a very severe earthquake in Corralitos, which lasted for several seconds, and every little while throughout that day and the following night there were slight shocks. Chimneys were shaken down, cupboards overturned, dishes broken, etc., and the big wheat bins in the mill burst open and the wheat was spilled in the pit under the mill wheel and was ruined as the pit was full of water.

Old Uncle Johnnie Matthews had the job of mending all the broken and cracked chimneys.

Dr. Hart, an eccentric Englishman, was a frequent visitor at the Ben Hames home in the early days. He would come to visit with his countryman, Capt. Laing (Mrs. Hames' father).

Other people who lived in Corralitos in the early times, who we remember, were the Halsteads, Browns, Riders, the Ben Whipples, the George Jenkins, Martins, Whismans, the Pruitt Sinclairs, Bickmores, Huntsmans, Malcolms, Henry Kearns, Jack Kearns and family, Fisher & Swartz who ran the store, Pete Ortons, John Hurts, the Rich family, Bradleys, DeWitts, Stingleys, Swarthhouts, McGuires, Curtis, Pratts, Wrights, Deans, Sanfords, Moss, Stewarts, Bozemans, Clapps, Giffords, Mr. Searles, Sol Diller, Andersons, Zolands, Bordenhamers, Matthew, Taylors, Tanners, Wesley Aldrich, Roberts, McLaughlins, Maddox, Boyds, Frank Mylars, Steve Breece, Posts, Lindseys, Pattersons, Prathers, Moores, Scotts, Bowdens.

Grandfather Laing's youngest daughter, Andrea, was living in San Luis Obispo and he had not seen her since she had married M. Baratie, a wealthy Frenchman, while they were living in Oakland, who afterward moved to his large sheep ranch near San Juan Capistrano, about 40 miles west of San Luis Obispo.

He became very anxious to see his daughter again and determined to visit her, but in his helpless state it was a problem to get him there. The roads were rought [sic] and infested with outlaws. There were no stages or any public means of conveyance, and the only vehicle owned by the settlers were crued [sic] hard-riding wagons.

Before the time arrived to attempt the trip south with the old gentleman, we received the tragic news that outlaws had raided the Baratie ranch, killed Baratie and carried off my aunt.

Bartola [sic] Baratie, his wife and his partner, M. J. Borel, and their two servants, Ysidro Silva and Luis Morillo, had been on their Rancho San Juan Capistrano, 45 miles from San Luis Obispo only ten days, and at the time the Frenchman [sic], new to the country, did not know there was any town near them, and also were ignorant of the fact that bandits had been committing depredations throughout the surrounding country.

On the morning of May 10th, eight men came along, representing themselves as horse hunters, and stating they wished to buy food. The open-hearted Frenchman refused to sell any provisions but gave them food, and that night the men remained at the rancho, sleeping in the small house occupied by the two servants.

On the morning of the 11th they went away at an early hour, but on the next day, one of the men, Miguel Blanco, came back alone, saying his comrades were away running horses. He asked permission to unsaddle his horse and rest awhile, and this was given him.

The two partners then went to a nearby cluster of willows and started cleaning out a spring which was the source of their household water supply, and Mrs. Baratie accompanied them. The two servants were a short distance away, cutting hay, but were hidden from their view.

Miguel Blanco stood on a small hill, where he could see both parties, and was evidently keeping a lookout for his companions, for the other men of the gang suddenly appeared on the scene, capturing both the servants and the owners of the rancho. The servants hands were tied and they were driven into the house by two of the gang, Friolan and El Misteno [sic]. They were then placed on horses and taken some distance away, but the outlaws finally agreed to spare their lives on the condition they remain were [sic] they were until dark.

When the bandits attacked Baratie, his wife and Boret [sic], they pleaded for their lives. Mrs. Baratie implored them to spare her husband and herself, and they promised they would do so. The gang then looted the house of a good supply of clothing, a great deal of valuable jewelry and several thousand dollars they had concealed in the bottom of a trunk. They also drove off their horses and cattle. Despite their promises, after the gang had robbed the place they shot down her husband and started to kill her, but one of the robbers, called El Misteño (the wild man), said he would take her as his share of the booty.

Mrs. Baratie knelt by her husband’s body, and covered it with her cape before the robbers seized her and tied her on a horse.

When the frightened servitors ventured back to the house about 5 o'clock that afternoon they found Borel lying dead beside the spring, with three bullets in his body, but were unable to find any trace of the body of Baratie. The house was in confusion and had been rifled of almost every thing of value that could be easily carried away. Only two horses had been taken, however, one handsome black animal that had been appropriated by El Misteño, and the other the mare on which Mrs. Baratie had been taken away a prisoner.

They detailed Luciano, a youthful member of the gang, to take her to a cave in the mountains used by Misteño as a hiding place, the other members of the robber band going away in another direction with their booty.

As the youth led the horse bearing the unhappy captive through trails that wound among the underbrush which tore her clothing, scratched her skin and dragged off one of her slippers, she pleaded with him to take her to a place of safety, finally prevailing upon him to do so. The boy removed the raw-hide thongs that bound her and started in a roundabout way toward San Juan, far to the north.

En route they spent one night at a ranch called Pulvaderas, and run by a man called Hernandez, who was believed to be a friend of the outlaws, and she dared not speak to him of her plight.

They finally arrived at San Juan, going to an old adobe house not far from the center of the town, which was occupied by a man named Chavez. (This was undoubtedly Cleodovio Chavez, who a short time later became a member of the notorious Vasquez gang and right hand man and lieutenant of Tiburcio Vasquez, its leader.)

Mrs. Baratie was by this time in a pitiful condition; weary, scratched and bruised by briars and brush, her clothing in shreds, and heartbroken over the fate of her husband. Furthermore she was in fear of her life as she knew that the occupants were accomplices of the murderous outlaws who had killed her husband and his partner and robbed their rancho.

At first she was afraid to talk to any of them but finally prevailed upon them to permit her to go to town long enough to get herself some decent clothes and shoes, when she at once made her way to the office of the Flint, Bixby & Company stage line, told what had happened to her, and was furnished with transportation to Oakland to join her husband's people.

The robbery and murder at the Baratie ranch created much excitement and almost the entire populace of the central coast section armed and joined in a search that extended far into southern California.

After several months the outlaws were finally rounded up and brought to San Luis Obispo. Judge Murray, an Englishmen, sent to Oakland for Mrs. Baratie and she identified all of the prisoners except one as members of the gang that had killed her husband and abducted her. This unidentified man was also later identified as one of the robbers. All of them were convicted and publicly hanged as a warning to others who might be tempted to emulate them.

The names of the robbers who were executed were: El Mesteño [sic], Miguel Blanco, Santos Peralta, Rafael, El Hilero, Froilan and Desiderio Grijalva. The eighth member of the gang was the boy who helped Mrs. Baratie to escape and he was permitted to go free.

Migual [sic] Blanco, it developed, was the murderer of one of the Frenchmen and wounded the other before he was killed.

The old adobe building in San Juan, where Mrs. Baratie was brought, and which was known to be a rendezvous of bandits and their sympathizers, is still standing in that town. Mrs. Baratie, heroine of this story, was a very beautiful and accomplished young woman, then in her early twenties.

Judge Walter Murray who sentenced the outlaws to death, was a married man with a family, his wife being a countrywoman of Mrs. Baratie. In time Mrs. Murray invited Mrs. Baratie to visit her at her home in San Luis Obispo.

Judge Murray and his brother Alexander, a bachelor, for several years were the publishers of the San Luis Obispo Tribune, and Alexander Murray was postmaster and Wells Fargo Express agent. After several years he married Mrs. Baratie.

After things quieted down, Grandfather Laing became anxious to visit his daughter, and as father decided it would be safe to send him to San Luis Obispo, he made a top for his spring wagon, as a protection from the sun's rays and evening's chill. Father and mother fixed a mattress and pillows in the back of the wagon, with plenty of blankets, quilts, and provision, and the trip was begun, with Uncle William Laing and Henry Post (brother of George W. Post of Hollister) a grandson whose mother was Rosa Laing Post, taking turns in driving, sleeping and caring for the old gentleman.

I remember how we all cried when they left the house and mother was heart broken because she knew she would never see him again. Grandfather reached San Luis Obispo safely and lived about three years with his daughter, Mrs. Murray, dying April 16th, 1864. He was buried by the Masons, with high honors.

Alexander Murray died in San Luis Obispo May 16, 1870. He was born in London, October 1st, 1834. His wife, who was born February 9th, 1837, died May 10th, 1920, at the home of her niece, Mrs. Albert Deleissegues, in Nipoma.

Albert Oliver Deliessegues, husband of Rebecca Hames, died May 8th, 1921, at his home in Nipoma. He was born in Monterey on February 6th, 1847, where he was christened by Father Ambris, his godparents being Dona Modesta Castro, wife of General Castro and J. A. Marenhout, French consul at Monterey, who afterward became vice-consul at Los Angeles, where he died in 1879.

Grandfather Laing's affairs in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, were never settled and his inheritance may be in Chancery to this day.

Benjamin F. Hames, founder of the town of Corralitos, died there August 30, 1866, and was buried in the little village graveyard. His wife died at San Luis Obispo on February 14, 1901, and was buried at that place.

John Hames finally, in 1883, went into the sheep business on a large scale on his ranch in Hames Valley, Monterey county.

William Laing, brother of Mrs. Hames, died and was buried at Corralitos. Sarah Hunt died and was buried there. Charlie Orton died and was buried there. All these deaths were in the early days and all were left to sleep in peace and quiet in the same graveyard, under the shade of the same friendly oak trees, where the wild flowers grew and the bird [sic] sang sweetly all day.

On a visit to our childhood home after an absence of fifty years, the town seemed beautiful, but when we wen [sic] to visit our loved ones' graves in the old cemetery we found the stately oaks were gone and in their place grew an apple orchard.

It seems a sacrilege and lack of reverence for the dead that this little quarter of an acre of ground should have been plowed up:

The years the [sic] swept o'er these acres,

The memories deep as the heart

Shall increase the worth of these treasures

From whom we have seemed to depart.

Do we tread these soft acres in sorrow

Do our tears bathe the flowers and grass?

Hidden from view these fair treasures

Regard not our grief as we pass.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hames were: Frances, born in Chile, Dec. 3, 1847. Married Levi Hunt at Watsonville, 1864. Lucretia, born in Chile, May 20, 1850, married Enoch Mylar at Santa Cruz, 1866. Rebecca, born in Oakland, Dec. 9, 1854, married Albert Deleissegues, San Luis Obispo, 1875. Bennie, born in Corralitos, April 26, 1856, married Lottie Knoth in San Jose. George, born in Corralitos, July 28, 1861, married May Rodrigues, San Luis Obispo. Carmen, born in Corralitos, Aug. 31, 1864, married J. G. Munoz, San Luis Obispo.

Bennie died July 25, 1898, at San Jose, and George died May 29, 1913, at San Luis Obispo.

Thirty-seven grandchildren are living at this time, they are: Ed, George, Ida, Alice, Fannie and Albert Hunt. Walter, Hattie, Eva, Carmen and Clyde Mylar. Oliver, Eleanor R., Benjamin P., Winton C., Lucretia, Albert H., Rebecca E., George B., and Francis J. Deleisseugues [sic]. Eva, Ramon, Rebecca, Lupe, Alice, McInley, John, Frances, Lucretia, Edward, Milton and Mildred Munoz. Edna, Bennie, and Herbert Lorentz. Carmelita Rios. Eddie Hames.

There are also numerous grandchildren [sic] living, nine grandsons having honorably served their country during the World War.