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Ultimately the mission
of San Bernardino was established at the place now called "Old San Bernardino,"
or Cottonwood Row," as a branch of the mission of San Gabriel. The place
selected for the necessary buildings was in the southern portion of the valley,
on the last of the slopes by which the foothills descend to the plains. The
surrounding lands were unexcelled in fertility. Here was constructed, with the
aid of the natives, who here as else-where lent their labor, an adobe building
some 240 x 80 feet of ground space, with walls a yard thick, with floors of
kiln-burnt brick, and roofs thatched with tules. So substantial was this
structure that, after years of disuse and abandonment, it was still habitable,
and was tenanted for years by later settlers, and the lower portions of its
walls are still utilized as enclosures for domestic animals. Probably there was no other mission or dependency of the missions of which so little survives in the way of records as of this at San Bernardino. Almost nothing in the way of detail exists to commemorate the events of the brief period of Franciscan rule in that fair valley. It is known that the native tribes proved restive under the control of the padres, and in 1832 they revolted, and destroyed the mission buildings. But others were then constructed, stronger and better adapted for defensive purposes, the ruins of which are still to be seen. In this decade the mission was abandoned, in consequence of the edict of secularization. The great agricultural
possibilities of this district received practically no attention at this period.
Here, as elsewhere at the mission establishments, fruits and vegetables were
cultivated in small quantities, for supplies for home consumption; but the
revenues of these establishments were derived from the produce of livestock,
hides and tallow. |
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