Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853-1913: Containing the Reminiscences of Harris NewmarkNewmark, Harris
History
Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853-1913: Containing the Reminiscences of Harris Newmark
Newmark, Harris
California, Southern; Los Angeles (Calif.)
Due to glowing accounts of the prospects for conquest and fortune
given out by Henry A. Crabb, a Stockton lawyer who married a Spanish
woman with relatives in Sonora, a hundred or more filibusters gathered
in Los Angeles, in January, to meet Crabb at San Pedro, when he
arrived from the North on the steamer _Sea Bird_. They strutted about
the streets here, displaying rifles and revolvers; and this would seem
to have been enough to prevent their departure for Sonita, a little
town a hundred miles beyond Yuma, to which they finally tramped. The
filibusters were permitted to leave, however, and they invaded the
foreign soil; but Crabb made a mess of the undertaking, even failing
in blowing up a little church he attacked; and those not killed in the
skirmish were soon surrounded and taken prisoners. The next morning,
Crabb and some others who had paraded so ostentatiously while here,
were tied to trees or posts, and summarily executed. Crabb's body was
riddled with a hundred bullets and his head cut off and sent back in
_mescal_; only one of the party was spared--Charley Evans, a lad of
fifteen years, who worked his way to Los Angeles and was connected
with a somewhat similar invasion a while later.
In January, also, when threats were made against the white population
of Southern California, Mrs. Griffin, the wife of Dr. J. S. Griffin,
came running, in all excitement, to the home of Joseph Newmark, and
told the members of the family to lock all their doors and bolt their
windows, as it was reported that some of the outlaws were on their way
to Los Angeles, to murder the white people. As soon as possible, the
ladies of the Griffin, Nichols, Foy, Mallard, Workman, Newmark and
other families were brought together for greater safety in Armory
Hall, on Spring Street near Second, while the men took their places
in line with the other citizens to patrol the hills and streets.
A still vivid impression of this startling episode recalls an
Englishman, a Dr. Carter, who arrived here some three years before. He
lived on the east side of Main Street near First, where the McDonald
Block now stands; and while not prominent in his profession, he
associated with some estimable families. When others were volunteering
for sentry-work or to fight, the Doctor very gallantly offered his
services as a Committee of One to care for the ladies--far from the
firing line!
On hearing of these threats by native _bandidos_, James R. Barton,
formerly a volunteer under General S. W. Kearny and then Sheriff, at
once investigated the rumors; and the truth of the reports being
verified, our small and exposed community was seized with terror.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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