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David K Re: Comondu
David,
Thinking about making the trip when I drive home from the holidays in CSL. I'd like to get some information and unfortunately, lost your email
address. Would you mind contacting me at dwhite@whitenoonoliver.com.
Thanks, Dan White.
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David K
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I will contact you from my personal email, however I can always be reached from the email contact given in my web site (davidk@davidksbaja.com)... I
just don't check that one as frequently.
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jimmy smith
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Dan
I'v gathered a bit of research on Comondu pueblo, if you'd like to see it.
Jimmy
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Mike Humfreville
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Jimmy--
Is your information on Comondu something you can post here? With as much history and archeology lately, it would be interesting reading.
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David K
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Jimmy, your story about why the largest California mission church (Comondu) was demolished in'37, I think, is priceless... History books say it was to
make room to build a school (which has since been torn down, too!).
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
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bajalera
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Jimmy, add me to those who'd like to read your Comondu stuff.
bajalera
\"Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest never happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.\" -
Mark Twain
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jimmy smith
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O.K. Guys
It's a little long and windy. Maybe Doug will tolerate it:
VICTIMS OF PARADISE
GIA FAMILIAR DE BAJA CALIFORNIA (Family Guide of Baja California) by the peninsula's foremost savant, Pablo L. Martinez is a record of about
12,000 births, baptisms, marriages and deaths that ocurred here between 1700 and 1900. This rare old book, while deficient in certain areas, is
remarkably well done considering the communication and transportation facilities available at the time it was written. To the casual reader, it is
about as fascinating as a telephone directory, however, for those of a historical bent it becomes an essential tool. Browsing reveals that there were
187 Anglo-saxton surnames registered, seventeen in the hamlet of Comondu. Whatinhell were seventeen gringos doing a highland village of 800 people?
Wouldn't you know it started with a dude named Smith!
Prof. Martinez tells it like this: "SMITH, - Founder James Wilcox Smith. He was not a whaler but an English gentleman to all appearances, who
brought with him some economic resources. He arrived in Loreto by 1817 or 1818. He made great efforts to marry Concepcion Arguello, the governor's
daughter, (Jose Dario Arguello was governor of California from from 1814 to 1822) but being a very disillusioned young lady because of an earlier
romance with the Russian, Rezanoff, she turned him down. He married a Miss Verdugo , whose complete name I have not found. This man was the trunk of
those who use his surname at Comondu and outskirts."
Richard F. Pourade in his TIME OF THE BELLS smears egg on Prof. Martinez's face with the following passage: "One of the most curious and for a
time suspicious visitors to the (Pacific) coast was Capt. James Smith Wilcox, on the American Ship TRAVELER, identified in Spanish reports as THE
CAMINANTE. When his ship was sighted off Monterey (presently in the state of California) , all guns were manned, soldiers marched to battle stations,
and Gov. Sola himself donned his uniform and prepared for action. Ordered ashore, Capt Wilcox said he merely wanted to engage in trade. He was dressed
in black with a swallowtail coat and tall fur hat. Thus there was every indication he was some kind of a spy. However, he managed to establish
friendly relations and eventually, September of 1817, picked up a cargo of grain at San Diego and carried it to Loreto, the first such shipment from
this port. At Loreto his ship was seized by a Mexican treasury officer and stripped of Valuables. It was finally released.' It would appear that Prof.
Pablo got some surnames transposed here.
The mystery of Comondu begins in San Jose del Cabo on the last day of 1808. Thomas Smith, a crewman on the Yankee trading ship DROMO, stayed on
the beach and watched the China bound vessel depart. He elected to live among the palm shaded villages and brown skinned maidens rather than face the
harsh life on the winter seas. Harry W. Crosby relates in THE LAST OF THE CALIFORNIOS: "Thomas Smith's decision made him the first citizen of the
United States to settle permanently in greater California. The sergeant in charge of local Spanish troops reported to the governor that on August 20,
1809 at the mining center of San Antonio south of La Paz " the American, Thomas, was baptized, having shown a great desire to enter our company and
submit to our laws.His godfather, a local hero, Ensign Javier Aguilar, was a sixty-six-year-old veteran soldier and a native of the peninsula. Smith
took the baptismal name of Javier Aguilar and used it for the rest of his life. Subsequent Baja California documents show that Smith/Aguilar was paid
as a sailor serving the Presidio of Loreto, married Maria Meza, (Maria Meza was the daughter of Miguel Meza and Luz Arce. Meza was mayor of Loreto and
temporally governor of California. He appropriated a vast ranch in Comondu while in office), volunteered as a soldier and finally settled down to
raise a large family in the peninsular hamlet of Comondu, where his children eventually resumed the Smith name." (Evidence located in Doyce Nunis's
MEXICAN WAR IN BAJA CALIFORNIA indicates that Thomas Smith found it convenient to use his original name during the war.JPS)
Apart from Thomas Smith, 17 other English surnames appear in the vital statistics of Comondu between 1859 and 1896:
Horace Sherman confessed before marrying Soledad Real Dec. 8. 1859 .
John Cooper confessed before marrying Juana Osuna Aug. 21, 1859
Jose O. Belismelis (obviously spelling error) was born to Francisco Belismelis and Leonides Vidaurrazaga Apr. 4, 1877
Andrew Olsen married Susanna Aleja Robinson Dec 20, 1875
Andrez Filiberto Olson was born to Andrew Olson and Susanna Mesa Apr 19, 1877 (It is probable that the bride/mother's complete name was Susanna Aleja
Robinson Meza)
Guillermo Pedro Robinson was baptized in Comondu 21 Jan 1883 born 9 Jan 1829
This was probably the father of Susana Aleja Robinson Meza.
William Robbins married Guadalupe Lieras Mar. 5 1867
David Chonce (Shawnesy mispelled?) married Petra Baltierra Aug 7, 1867.
Maria Carmen Davis born to Lucas Davis and Beniga Cleiton Nov 2, 1879
Fredrico Taylor married Adela Garayzar Sep 26, 1896
William Osborns married Maria Meza Nov 5, 1862.
William Robinson baptized in Comondu at age of 54 years Jan 9, 1829
Ysabel Filcher was born to Robert Filcher and Salvadora Aguilar (Smith definitely daughter of Tom) Sep 27, 1860
Antonio Osben was born to Andrew Osben and Nieves Aguilar (Smith) Sep. 18. 1860 .
William Cunningham born to Stuart Cunningham and Emigdia Verdugo Jan 19, 1896 .
Seth Morton confessed before marrying Rosalia Romero 4 June 1860
Henry Luther and Elena Cunningham baptized a number of children the oldest being born in 1867
Margret Culleton and her husband Jacinto Rondero baptised a son 27 December 1883.
In his pamphlet entitled: BAJA CALIFORNIA ILUSTRADA, J. R. Southworth related that the population of Comondu in 1899 was 809 souls.
The people of the district devote themselves principally to agricultural pursuits and cattle grazing. Large crops of dates, figs and grapes are also
raised and a fine grade of grape wine is made. The following is a correct estimate of the crops raised in the district last year; 45,000 pounds of
grapes, value $1,600 ($.0355 per pound?), 112,500 pounds of figs, value $2,000 ($.0177 per pound?), 27,000 pounds of dates, value $960 ($.0355 per
pound?) and the wine manufactured was worth $3,750. As a rule the crops are much heavier than this, but the season of 1898, because of rains, was not
a good one."
Assuming that all 809 residents of Comondu were dependant on agriculture, excluding cattle ranching, the per capita income would be only $10.27
per annum. The 18 English Surnamed families would have certainly represented a considerable percentage of the population. There was no mining nor
fishing. It must be assumed that the bread winners had other sources of income.How did these people sustain themselves?
MEN AND WHALES; Henderson PP 126
"Local Mescal, which sometimes found its way aboard ship, must have been welcomed by the thirsty and boisterous crews of the whaling vessels.
Among the inhabitants of the villages and ranchos inland from Estero Santo Domingo the distillation of mescal from the juices of agave or maguey
plants of the desert appears to been an important occupation.(Southworth reports 45,000 pounds of grapes harvested in 1898, He also states that 3,750
dollars of wine was made that year, another report in 1751 reports a harvest of 7,000 pounds of sugar.)
After the Jesuit expulsion in 1767, the inoming Franciscian priests inventoried the property found at the San Jose de Comondu mission. This
inventory included: two wine presses, one large and one small and an assortment of large containers used in the preperation, fermentation and storage
of wine. These included tubs and vats as well as seventeen barrels and 140 tinajas (casks of about 11 gallons capacity to facilitate transport on
pack burros). In addition, San Jose had two stills for producing brandy.
It seems reasonable to believe that some of this equipment yet existed when the Gringo whalers arrived there 100 years later.
Mike Werner, winemaker, informs us that 1,000 pounds of grapes will yield about 90 gallons of wine. When distilled, this wine will produce about
18 gallons of brandy per each 1,000 pounds of grapes, based on Southworth's figure of an annual yield of 45,000 pounds of grapes Comondu produced
about 810 gallons or 72 tinajas of brandy anualy. This would amount to 36 burro loads of brandy for the thirsty whalers at Boca de Santa Dominga.
It seems reasonable that the still was used to produce rum from the sugar cane crop as well as mescal from the maguey which grows in profusion on
the mesas above the village.
Some Mexicans came to Magdalena Bay to be employed as hands on the whaling vessels. Others some times working with their entire families,
rendered the remains of whales which the whalers had finished flensing and had cast away. The rendering of the abandoned whales, called "stinkers,"
was termed "carcassing". A few days after being cast aside the bloated carcasses towered out of the water like giant bladders which were covered with
gulls and attacked by sharks. From the "stinkers" , which were driven ashore by the sea breeze, the Mexicans and RESIDENT FOREIGNERS extracted three
or four barrels of oil by trying-out the fat about the intestines, lungs and hearts. The whalers furnished casks for the oil rendered by the local
folk who sold the oil to the whalers for high priced trade items. Pots for trying-out the oil were apparently sometimes also supplied by the whalers,
for Prentice Mulford wrote that when the San Francisco Schooner HENRY departed Estero Santo Domingo in 1857, the natives were left a dozen iron
vessels the richer. Mulford commented that some of the Mexicans also profited from the whalers visits by coming aboard at mealtime and eating
everything in sight, including all of the butter and sugar placed on the table.
At Comondu, inland from the northern reaches of Estero Santo Domingo, lived a group of Englishmen and Americans who carried out "carcassing" in
the winter gray-whaling season. Comondu supplied hands for the whaling vessels. Most of the whalers at Comondu must have deserted whale-ships at
Magdalena Bay, as did the boat crew of the CONGRESS of New Bedford in 1862.
Desertion by crew members of whaleships was not uncommon, even along peninsular shores where success was much more likely than at Magdalena Bay,
where nearby ranches and towns of the Cape District of southern Baja California offered refuge for the deserters."
It would seem that our Victims of Paradise were ex-whalers who found the best of two worlds. They lived with brown skinned maidens in the lush
tropical valley of Comondu.They Made and sold grog to the whalers and carcarssed when not employed as whalers. Not a bad way to go!
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Skeet/Loreto
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Jimmy: thanks for the story. I printed it out and filed it away with the rest of your Words.Skeet/Loreto
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Anonymous
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Jimmy,
Great information. Please excuse the tardy thank you. A busy, busy day.
My best to all for a joyous Thanksgiving.
Dan.
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academicanarchist
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Comondu Mission
If you want info on Comondu Mission, you can visit my paper on the subject on Tim's web site: http://www.timsbaja.com/rjackson/sanjosedecomondu.htm
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bajalera
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Interesting read, Jimmy. Thanks.
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