THE SANCHEZ FILE, Chapter One
THE STORM
The Alta California
December 25, 1852
San FranciscoEFFECTS 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?