THE SANCHEZ FILE, Chapter One
THE STORM
The Alta California December 25, 1852
San Francisco
EFFECTS OF THE STORM--- We learn that all communication
between San Jose and this city by land is cut off at present, the late
severe rains have swollen the streams to such an extent as to make them
impassable. Bridges have been swept away on the different streams, and
considerable damage has been done. On Saturday the stage which leaves here
every morning did not reach there, and yesterday none attempted the journey.
The stages will not commence running again until the weather moderates
and the waters subside. The mail is now carried by horseback.
It was a storm everyone in San Juan Bautista would remember
because of what happened to Jose Maria Sanchez on Christmas Eve, 1852 and
the events that followed. They would tell the story for years to come. It was in
all the newspapers; the San Francisco Placer Times, The Alta California,
The Pajaro Times, The Monterey Sentinel; even the New York Times had written
about the case.
Here are the facts:
Sanchez, the wealthiest man in Monterey County was coming
back home to his Rancho Lomerias Muertas. He had been in the Sierra selling
cattle to American miners and left his majordomo, Jesus Figueroa, in charge.
Because of the storm there was no work Jesus could give
his Mexican and Indian vaqueros. The nearby Pajaro River had flooded everything.
The valley below Mission San Juan Bautista looked like a lake.
If Jesus had tried to send out a vaquero, his horse would
have bogged down in the mud after a few steps. The thousands of Mexican
cattle would have to fend for themselves. At least with the violent wind
and rain, they would be less likely to roam over the 44,000 acres as they
usually did.
Blacksmith William Clark stayed busy in his shop, hammering
out horseshoes and repairing harness. He wished he were in one of San Juan's
saloons having a few drinks with his buddies, but he knew what could happen
if he did. He'd go off on a toot and be gone for weeks or months.
Sanchez had always taken him back but the last time this
happened, early in 1852, he had promised Sanchez he wouldn't leave him
again. Sanchez was a great man to work for and Clark knew he had to watch
himself. Beside he owed Sanchez money and had to work the debt off.
In the main house, Dona Encarnacion Sanchez, looked out
at the pouring rain and tried to think up new ways to amuse her five young
children, who had not been outdoors since the storm began. She was thankful
that Jesse Overton, the carpenter, had finished some major work on the
Rancho de Sanchez. Just before the rainy season began he had put on a new
roof and weather boarded the house.
It was a dismal Christmas Eve, 1852; the wind and rain
and dark clouds fitting her mood exactly. Encarnacion was not happy, but
for the sake of her children she was determined to make Christmas the best
she could for them.
As the hours passed Encarnacion wondered why her husband
had not arrived. If she had looked out towards the Pajaro River she
would have seen men running along its willow choked banks.
Then a worker rushed in with the horrible news; while
trying to cross the swiftly moving river at the place called the Malpaso, the evil path, Jose Maria Sanchez had drowned. He became one of
the victims of the flood of 1852.
His death would lead his widow to a tragic life; his only
son would squander a fortune, and die alone, a pauper. Many men would be
murdered.
The Sanchez Treasure
In 1919, the San Francisco Call ran a serialized story
about Sanchez and his wife that ran for a month. It was called the Sanchez
Treasure. It described the widow's reaction to the death of her husband;
"Encarnacion had gone down under the brutal shock of her
husband's death."
The truth is that Encarnacion Sanchez was not grief stricken
by the death of her husband. The love she once had for Sanchez when she
was sixteen and he a dashing caballero of thirty-six had long vanished.
For years she had put up with his beatings and drunken
rages, fearful for her life. Now at twenty-eight she wanted a better life
and hoped she might meet an American man.
More of them were coming into Monterey County every day;
the gold rush was over and they now sought their fortune in cattle and
land. Spanish women liked these handsome newcomers with their open and
friendly ways and courteous treatment of women; they were favored as husbands.
This was one of the reasons for the animosity against
Americans. Jose Castro had once said "a California cavallero cannot woo
a senorita if opposed in his suit by an American sailor and these heretics
must be cleared from the land."
In February of 1852 Encarnacion Sanchez had decided to
leave her husband and filed for divorce. Her attorney detailed her grievances
in a document filed in Monterey.
PETITION
The complaint of Maria Encarnacion Ortega of Monterey County,
wife of Jose Maria Sanchez of Monterey County, respectfully states that
she is the lawful wife of the said Jose Maria Sanchez; that she has been
married to the said Sanchez about twelve years, that there are five children
of the marriage living with the father. That she has faithfully discharged
the duties of a wife until compelled by the extreme cruelty and habitual
intemperance of the said Sanchez to leave his domicile which she did on
or about the 23rd of December 1851.
Your complainant alleges that she has been for
a long time previous to her leaving his domicile, living very unhappily
with her said husband in consequence of his bad treatment and habitual
intemperance, which said habit has been gradually growing upon him, until
she fears it has been inveterate; that during his fits of intoxication
he has often threatened her life, and otherwise acted towards her in a
most undutiful manner. That on or about the 8th of February, 1852, she being
in the house of her brother-in-law in San Juan, Monterey County, and her
said husband came to the said house, her place of refuge, when she left
the matrimonial domicile, and then and there commenced a cruel attack upon
her person, by beating her with his hands and striking her with a sword, threatening
to take her life and thoroughly abusing her, that she fled from this house
to that of the justice of the peace of the township of San Juan for safety,
where she stayed several hours, until she left for Monterey where she now
is.
That for this extreme cruelty and for other causes she
is driven to the hard reality of asking for a divorce from the bands of
matrimony.
Wherefore she prays that the said Jose Maria Sanchez may
be cited to answer this complaint and after defendant answers that she
may have judgment of divorce from the bands of matrimony with the said
Jose Maria Sanchez and further your complainant prays that she may be allowed
such further and general relief as law allows and justice of the case may
require.
In duty bound,
P. Ord, attorney for complainant
Monterey County Courthouse, clerk’s office microfilm file 76, 1852, civil and criminal actions. P.Ord is Pacificus Ord, member of a distinguished Monterey County family.
Encarnacion was only the second Spanish woman in the county
to initiate a divorce action. It was because California was now part of
the United States that a woman could seek a divorce. Under Mexican law
unhappy wives who left their husbands were treated as criminals. One had
been put in prison, "to learn obedience." Another woman refused to go back
to her husband, and the order given by the alcalde was, "to have her taken
from her house, and putting handcuffs on her shall deliver her to her husband,
charging him with her care and responsibility."
Sanchez was given ten days to respond to his wife's complaint,
but did not do so. For some reason Encarnacion Ortega dropped her divorce
action and returned to the Sanchez Rancho. A bill from a San Juan doctor
shows he called on her at the rancho on April 15, 1852.
How did Sanchez drown?
Chapter Two