Little Known History of Slavery in California

Child captives (who became child slaves)

I was honored recently to be able to participate in the TedX Eureka  event where I presented on the History of Slavery (indenture) in California. That video is now posted on youtube:

Link to TedX Video

If you would like me to give a presentation similar to that in the video to your civic group or classroom, please email me at lynette.mullen@gmail.com.  

It is not pleasant history, but it is important and has been lost and forgotten too many times.

~Lynette

Bucksport, c. 1858

Bucksport, c. 1858 (County of Humboldt Collection)

So many things make this cool that it is really a wonder I haven’t posted this picture before.

I love Table Bluff in the background. And the pennisula to the right. The rider on the horse and someone walking on the road. This photo does make me wonder, though, where the Indian Village was located.

Two years after this painting was done, it was believed that all who lived in that village were killed…  I may enjoy the tangents, but the original driver for this blog, the murder that began an obsession.  is never far from my thoughts.

Short Hair-In keeping with advancement

I have to admit that I sometimes wondered if stories of the white’s attempts to wipe out the Indian culture were a bit exaggerated.

This is one area where I can openly admit I wish I was right–because the proof below that I am wrong also reveals a more recent cultural genocide that is hard to comprehend…

“Dept. of the Interior OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington January 13, 1902 The Superintendent, Greenville School, CaIifornia, Sir;

This office desires to call to your attention to a few customs among the Indians which, it is believed, should be modified or discontinue. The wearing of long hair, by the male population of your agency is not in keeping with the advancement they are making, or will soon be expected to make, in civilization. The wearing of short hair will be a great advance and will certainly hasten their progress toward civilization. The returned male student far too frequently goes back to the reservation and falls into the old custom of letting his hair grow long.

He also paints profusely and adopts all the old habits and customs which the education in our Industrial schools has tried to eradicate. The fault does not lie so much with the schools as with the conditions found on the reservation. Those conditions are very often due to the policy of the Government toward the Indian and are often perpetuated by the superintendent’s not caring to take the initiative in fastening any new policy on his administration of the affairs of the agency. On many of the reservations the Indians of both sexes paint, claiming that it keeps their skin warm in winter and cool in summer; but instead, the paint melts when the Indian perspires and runs down into the eyes. The use of this paint leads to many disease of the eyes among those Indians who paint. Persons who have given considerable thought and investigation to the subject are satisfied that this custom causes the majority of the cases of blindness among the Indians of the United States.

You are therefore directed, to induce your male Indians to cut their hair and both sexes to stop painting. With some of the Indians this will be an easy matter; with others it will require considerable tact and perseverance on the part of yourself and your employes to successfully carry out these instructions. With your Indian employes and those Indians who draw rations and supplies it should be an easy matter as a non-compliance with the order may be made a reason for discharge or for withholding rations and supplies. Many may be induced to comply with the order voluntarily, especially the returned student. The returned students who do not comply voluntarily should be dealt with summarily. Employment, supplies, etc., should be withdrawn until they do comply and if they become obstreperous about the matter a short confinement in the guard-house at hard labor, with shorn locks, should furnish a cure. Certainly all the younger men should wear short hair, and it is believed that by tact, perseverance, firmness, and withdrawal of supplies the Superintendent can induce all to comply with this order.

The wearing of citizen’s clothing, instead of the Indian costume and blanket, should be encouraged. Indian dances and so-called Indian feasts should be prohibited. In many cases these dances and feasts are simply subterfuge to cover degrading acts and to disguise immoral purposes, you are directed to use your best efforts in the suppression of these evils. Very respectfully, WL (W) “

Illegitimate children expose illicit relations

Researching Lucy has given me an opportunity to learn many, many things about our history, including the court’s attitude toward illegitimate children in the early 1900s.   The following came from the Superior Court of California (County of Humboldt) probate record for Charles Mulberg (Lucy’s son) , who died “on or about March 23, 1928″.

Inheritance in all other cases is eliminated on account of public policy founded upon a moral reason.  If every illegitimate child could claim inheritance from his brothers and sisters, public scandal would be placed upon the head of many otherwise decent and respectable citizens.  The legislature therefore evidently considered it a better policy to lessen public scandal and deny inheritance to an illegitimate, than to throw open the doors of public scandal and gossip, subject many persons to questionable ridicule and permit an illegitimate to expose the  illicit relations of his or her ancestors, merely for the purpose of sharing the estate of his parent’s kindred.   It therefore left the right of inheritance of an illegitimate to these cases where the parents themselves had exposed such illicit relations by admitting parentage. …

 Sucks for the poor bastards (literally) whose parents didn’t want to claim them.

Now the Probate Record, which revealed much about Lucy and her children

Founding of the Klamath (now Yurok) Indian Reservation, 1855

   

Klamath Modoc Indians, 1860

  

Hello everyone,

To those who enjoy regular posts I must apologize.  Work and … life have gotten the better of me lately.  Hopefully I’ll get back into regular postings.

I do want to keep on the thread/topic of Lucy and plan to continue discussing her limited options and the dangers she and her children faced during the settlement period.  The focus of the next (this) post was going to be the risks inherant to those on reservations but… but, as often happens with me, I’ve gotten distracted.  Sort of.

Looking through my notes regarding reservations I found the following, which discusses the founding of the Klamath (which is now the Yurok) Indian reservation.  It may be dry reading for some, but I chose not to edit any of it.

It was very surprising …. well, Please also be sure to catch the newspaper editor’s response to the founding of the reservation which follows the letters–his perspective is very different from how reservations are viewed today.

Klamath River Reserve.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Office of Indian Affairs, November 10, 1855.

SIR: Referring to your communication of the 8th of August last to the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, advising him of the approval by the President of the United States of the recommendation of the Department that it was expedient to expend the money appropriated on the 3rd of March last for removing the Indians in California to two additional military reservations, I have the honor now to make the following report:

Killing babies should haunt you forever

Continued from Previous Post …

Indian children faced risks when living in white households as servants, but staying in villages with their families was even more dangerous.

The other day  I went wandering (in my car, so not as primitive as it sounds, but still pretty great) onto the Wildcat and into Petrolia  ( a tiny northern California coastal town for those who are unfamiliar), where I found the Pioneer Cemetery.

I really had little thought of posts for my blog until after I’d followed a road,

Road to Petrolia Cemetery

 

In Memory of an Indian boy

Shasta Cemetery

In the Inquest Record, Lucy is quoted as expressing fear over the well-being of her children.  She had good reason.

During the “Indian Wars” of the 1850s and 1860s in Humboldt County, Indian children were quite vulnerable.  Many were purchased or taken as pets or servants, but even then, they weren’t fully protected.

1861, June 22, Humboldt Times-Outrageous—An Indian boy, in the service of Mr. Swain, Elk river, aged about fifteen years, was murdered while at work in the garden of his employer on Wednesday.  He was shot through the body with a rifle ball and died almost instantly.  The boy had lived with Mr. Swain, we are told, for several years; indeed, had been brought up by him almost from infancy, and is said by the neighbors to have been a good servant and an unoffensive lad.   Although this deed was committed in the daytime and but a short distance from the house, it is not known who was the perpetrator; but whoever it was we trust he may be known and have justice meted out to him.  A man who will kill an Indian boy in this manner, without adequate cause, but merely because he belongs to that race of human beings, is not exalted above the savage.  It is cowardly acts like this that casts a foul stain upon the reputation of this county, and paralyzes the efforts of those who endeavor to secure aid from Government to protect the lives and property of her citizens from the attacks of hostile bands in the mountains.

Local homeless camps

Today I took a “tour” of some of our local homeless camps, where I saw ragged tents that served as homes tucked into the brush, tarps stretched over the worn canvas as extra protection from any rain.  I saw nylon cords strung through the trees where faded shirts washed who-knows-where hung to dry on this incredibly sun-shiny day.  I also overheard a woman say she was cleaning up her camp, but was keeping the one ugly tarp hung up in the corner of the clearing because it provided privacy when she “piddled”.

I heard people with beautifully sweet smiles and no teeth explain what they were doing to try to get indoors. To pull their lives together.

I met a woman named Iris with a beautiful dog (that scared the shit out of me at first but turned out to be a love) who explained that she could get shelter IF she gave up her dog. The dog she loved that kept her safe.  Then she described where her camp lie deep in the marsh.

After this I drove back to Arcata and watched a Crabs baseball game.

Lucy’s Children

After finding the inquest,  I became compelled to learn more about Lucy and began hunting for information where ever I could find it.  Fortunately members of the Preston family wrote a book about their history and included information about Lucy…  

From The Preston/Lindsey Trail, 1995 ( Rosaline Preston and Carol Huber) [A copy of this book is in the Humboldt Historical Society]

page 105

“The eldest girl was named Carrie and the old pioneers Bowls raised her. She married and came to Blue Lake about six years ago, where she died.”

“The other girl was named Annie and my father and mother Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Preston, took her to raise and she grew womanhood with my father’s family and when she was about nineteen years old she was married to a man by the name of James … at my father’s ranch, known as Blue Slide, in 1876, by L Foster. Soon after Annie and her husband move to Covelo, Mendocino County. Some time ago Mr. … died and Annie married a man by the name of Arthur … and they were living at Covelo the last time I heard from them.”

…

“Some stories told of only one baby surviving the massacre, others of two or three but actually there were several survivors who stayed hid for fear of also being killed. The three children that were known about were two sisters and a brother. In an article in the Arcata Union, 12 Apr 1928, under the title of “Pioneer Makes A Correction” Mrs. Sarah Jane Preston Bates tried to clarify some of the confusion after the death of Charles Muhlberg when his obituary said he was the lone survivor of the island massacre. She says the obituary was not entirely correct as the Indian mother was found murdered in a cabin which stood on the old Preston ranch north of Arcata, about where the Twin Park building addition is now located. The Preston family took one of the three children, a girl, which they named Annie Preston and raised’

1928, March AU (29 March 1928) Death Recalls Tragic Incident-Charles Muhlberg, a painter and paper’ hanger, who has made his home in Arcata and Blue Lake for many years past, died at a hospital in Eureka Thursday from heart trouble from which he had been suffering for some time past.

Muhlberg was born in Arcata in 1860 and was 68 years of age. His mother was an Indian woman and from Mrs. Marie Todd, one of our early day pioneers, is learned a tragic incident connected with his childhood. The mother lived in a small cabin on the edge of the old Preston ranch which is now Twin Parks Addition, north of town, with three small children, two girls and an eight months old infant son, who was Charles. The mother was found murdered in the cabin, Charles being at her breast. Gustav Muhlberg took the boy and girl to raise, the other daughter being taken into the home of the pioneer Bowles family. Who killed the mother always remained a mystery.

One of the sisters grew to womanhood and became the wife of Jack Wright, passing away some years ago. As near as can be learned, a half sister, whose name was Mrs. Minnie … survives, her last known address being Sacramento. A niece whose first name was Emily, at one time lived in San Francisco.

The funeral was held from the Dolson-Devlin Funeral Parlors on Monday afternoon, Rev. C.P. Hessel officiating

Murder that began an obsession

I was “talking” with a friend over email today about how frustrating it can be when folks have historical information and don’t share.  

Fortunately it only took me a few minutes to realize what a hypocrite I am.

I started this blog, and my obsession with our local history, because I found the record of an inquest that occurred after a Native American woman was brutally murdered in our county in 1862.

And while I’ve shared some of the details of Lucy’s murder  and the stranger-than-fiction fact that I found her son’s 1928 obituary on the wall of our new (very old) house two years AFTER I found the transcript,   I’ve never posted the transcript itself.  Perhaps because of my (maybe never to be realized) desire to write a book.  To tell Lucy’s whole story.  Whatever.  I have yet to write a book.  And may get hit by a bus tomorrow.

 And so here is the transcript.

There may be typos (ignore ‘em please).  There will also be some weird grammatical errors as the handwritten record is difficult to read in places but I wanted to keep my transcription as true to the original document as possible.

 Today I’ll just post the whole document and hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll add what I’ve learned about Lucy and her children in the years since I discovered the transcript.

  

Humboldt County Courthouse

Transcript of microfilmed records of Inquisition  into Lucy’s Murder-Union, 1862                                                                

 12 January 1862

Murder of Squaw in Arcata

Lucy (Indian woman) Coroner Inquest held 15 to 17, January 1862.

Ordered

 

Inquest held before Byron Deming Coroner of Humboldt on the 15^th day of January 1862 to inquire as to the cause of death of an Indian woman found dead on the premises of John Preston in the Township of Union, County of Humboldt, State of California, Sunday morning, January 12^th, 1862.