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Captain Joseph S. Garcia
Picture taken
from
"Etiwanda the
First 100 Years."
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Captain Joseph S. Garcia
Taken from Ingersoll, 1769-1904
Annals of San Bernardino Country
As presented in
The History of Etiwanda
Pages 16-21
*Pictures below from the
Chaffey-Garcia House Grounds.
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| One of the first settlers of Cucamonga, Etiwanda and
Ontario was Captain Joseph S. Garcia, a man of unusual character, who had passed
through a long life of adventure. He was born in Fayal, one of the Azores Islands, June 9, 1823,
the son of Monwell and Ann Garcia. His father was founder and president of the
College of Fayal. Later he became an attorney-at-law, and was finally a
judge.
His parents were Catholic, and, as was the custom of
the country, the father desired his only son to become a priest. But the boy was
of a restless, venturesome nature, and in consequence, his father yielded to his
entreaties, and when he was thirteen bound him for four years to Captain James
Wooley, of Lynn, Massachusetts.
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On the first voyage to Boston, Joseph went as cabin
boy. The ship, after unloading at Boston, went south for a cargo of cotton. On
its return to Massachusetts, the boy was sent to school for six months in Lynn.
He next shipped in a vessel bound for India. During this voyage, the vessel was
shipwrecked, and the crew spent seven days upon a desert island with no food but
scant rations of hardtack and water. |
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| They were rescued by a whaler which had been out for a
year, but, on account of the inefficiency of the crew, had secured but one
whale. With the addition of the Indiaman's crew, the vessel's luck changed and
in three months it was well loaded, and Joseph realized quite a sum for his
share of the profits upon reaching shore at Cape Ann. |
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He next sailed from New York on the brig, George Otis, for
Manila, where they loaded with hides for South Africa, and on the return voyage
took a cargo of horn to Manila, and then loaded with rice, vanilla and tobacco,
and returned to Boston. During this trip, Mr. Garcia gained a knowledge of the
Boers of South Africa, and the natives of Manila.
Again he voyaged from Boston to Manila, and thence to
Zanzibar, Africa. Here he visited the ruins of the ancient palace of Zanzibar,
and saw something of the slave trade. Upon the voyage from Zanzibar, the ship
met with a gale that drove them ashore. For twenty-four hours they wrestled with
the breakers, while their doom seemed certain.
One member of the crew was a man of prayer, and he
prayed for salvation with all his power. He finally announced that the crew
would be saved, but would be endangered by cannibals on the shore. The vessel
struck and one sailor managed to make his way through the breakers to the shore
with a rope, and thus the crew was saved.
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| They began gathering up the wreckage, when they heard
the yells of savages, and were soon approached by a party of natives whom they
believed to be cannibals. One of their number knew a little of a dialect of the
country, and by means of signs, managed to communicate with them. While he was
parleying, a lizard, which the natives knew to be of a poisonous species, the
bite of which was fatal, ran out of the fire and bit the hand of the ship's
doctor, who was standing near. |
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The doctor had brought a few of the most necessary
remedies with him, and applied some simple antidote, which was effective. The
savages watched in wonder, and when they saw none of the symptoms of the bite,
which they expected, they were so impressed that they declared the man must be a
supernatural being. Naturally the "interpreter" encouraged the idea,
and they fell down before the doctor with cries and homage. |
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They asked if he could heal others, and soon afterwards
brought a man on a litter. The doctor was able to relieve the fever from which
he was suffering, and the natives, completely won, gladly supplied the sailors
with fruit and such food as they had. Nevertheless, it was with great joy that
the little party sighted a ship in the distance. Signals of distress were made
and seen, and the men were taken on board of what proved to be a merchantman
enroute to Hong Kong.
In the port of Hong Kong, Mr. Garcia shipped on what
was supposed to be a merchant vessel, but which proved to be a slaver
bound for Zanzibar, then the center of the slave trade. Here Mr. Garcia again
saw the horrors of the slave market. The vessel was loaded, but had not
proceeded far when she floundered on the African coast. The departure from the
ship was here more dangerous than in the former shipwreck, for 300 Negroes were
penned up in the hull of the vessel.
The officers did not dare to set them free, for fear
they would overpower and murder the ship's crew. The hatches were fastened down,
and with one exception, the entire cargo of slaves went down with the vessel.
The crew reached land and were picked up by a passing vessel bound for Malaga
and then for Boston. In 1844, Mr. Garcia sailed for Port Au Prince, Haiti, where
he found a revolution in progress and aided in saving some of the refugees. In
1847, he sailed to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River for a cargo of
molasses.
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| During his twelve years of seafaring life, Mr. Garcia
had visited many countries, gained much experience, and acquired the fluent use
of English, French, Spanish and Italian. His father had thoroughly grounded him
in Latin in his boyhood days, which had greatly assisted him in the acquisition
of other languages.
In 1849 he arrived in the port of San Francisco. He had
been an attendant at the mission of Father Taylor in Boston, and in the new port
he sought out the Presbyterian Church, where he found a congregation of fifteen.
His first occupation in California was running a produce boat up and down the
Sacramento River, carrying produce and freight to Sacramento and returning with
wood. |
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Desiring to see something of the mines, which were then
the center of all life in the state, he left the vessel in 1850 and joined a
prospecting party. He was fortunate enough to make about $5,000 during his six
months' experience as a miner, and on his return to San Francisco purchased a
share in the ship, Hooker. With this vessel he made several trips to Santa Cruz,
handling provisions, etc. At this time, flour was selling at $27 a barrel, sugar
and beans at a dollar a pound, and other provisions in proportion.
Two years later he entered into a partnership with
Captains Pierce and Norton in the ownership of a number of vessels -- the ships:
S. D. Bailey, Laura Bevley and W. L. Rice; the schooners: Arms, Alert and Julia
Pringle; and the brigs: Boston, Curlew and Pride of the Sea. Some of these
vessels made trips to foreign ports; others were kept in the coast trade,
carrying passengers and freight from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara,
San Buenaventura, San Pedro and San Diego. The passengers were conveyed inland
by stage and private conveyances. This line brought down from San Francisco all
the original Anaheim settlers.
In 1800, Captain Garcia bought the block of land in Los
Angeles, bounded by First and Second, Main and Los Angeles Streets, and also a
lot 50 by 200 facing on Aliso and running back to Garcia Street -- named in his
honor. This property he disposed of in the seventies. In 1861 he made a voyage
to Fou Chow, China, in the service of Macondry and Company. He made this voyage
in the "Pride of the Sea," in five months and three days -- then the
quickest trip on record -- bringing back a cargo of tea on which the firm
cleared thirty thousand dollars.
On the return voyage, a hundred miles out from port
they began to meet houses, trees, stock and human bodies -- in one case a horse
and a buggy, containing a man, woman and child -- all dead for days. This was
the result of the great flood of January, 1862, which carried all before it on
the Sacramento River.
In 1862 he made a voyage to Fort Yuma, carrying
provisions for the government. It took five months to unload, as there was only
one small steamer to carry the freight from the mouth of the Colorado to
Yuma.
While carrying on the coast trade, he became interested
in an asphaltum mine at Santa Barbara. The asphaltum was obtained along the
beach at low tide and was sold in San Francisco. While engaged in loading this
product, his favorite vessel, the Pride of the Sea, was lost by drifting ashore.
She was built for a yacht but because of some fault in construction was
considered unfit for this purpose and was sold. She was a sister ship to the
America, which won the cup from England in 1854, and was a very fast vessel and
finely fitted up.
In 1868 Captain Garcia decided to leave the sea and
pass the remainder of his days upon terra firma. He had already become
interested with Pierre Sansevaine in the Cucamonga vineyard and he went down
from the mountains and camp during the season. Captain Garcia was the first
America settler in the Cucamonga settlement there to live. In those days
Indians were employed during the vintage season and sometimes a hundred families
would come
In 1875, he sold the vineyard property to the Hellmans,
ex-Governor Downey and Benjamin Dreyfus. He had already located on lands*
that he later sold to the Chaffey Brothers and which were included in the colony
sites of Etiwanda and Ontario.
*[The lands referred to here were the 560 acres
on which he built the Chaffey-Garcia
House.] After disposing of his Etiwanda property he built the first
residence in the colony of Ontario. [House was built at 1790 North Euclid
Avenue.]
During the remainder of his life he took a deep
interest in Ontario and all that pertained to her welfare. He was always active
in public affairs and served as school trustee in both Cucamonga and Ontario
districts for a number of years. He was eight times called upon grand juries and
did effective service for the county in this capacity. He was a member of the
Presbyterian Church and aided in starting the first church in Ontario. He was
also a member of the Masonic order and of the Pioneer Society of California.
He was three times married. In 1856, he married Miss
Belinda Baird, who survived but a few months. In 1858 he wedded Miss Evalina
Boomhower, who bore him one son that died in infancy. She died in February 1860.
April 2, 1861, he married Miss Elizabeth L. Ford, who still lives in Ontario.
Captain Garcia died on Christmas morning, 1902, at
Ontario, and was buried in Laurel Hill cemetery in San Francisco. |
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