On November first at San Jose, David Campbell joined a company of fifty men of Captain Buress who had secured 500 horses and saddles for Fremont. When these had gone as far south as the Salinas plains they fell into an ambush of Spaniards, who killed one of the six advance guards. Twenty men were detailed to run the horses to Gomez's corral two miles away. The rest attacked the Spaniards, discounting to shoot, then mounting to charge. The Spaniards were scattered; but Buress was killed by his horse' running away and taking him into the midst of the enemy who "speared" him. The Americans "held the ground". Both sides recovered and buried their dead: five Americans and eighteen Spaniards. David Campbell returned from Monterey to San Jose with Lieut. Blackburn, who was sent by Fremont with a cannon. On account of sickness in his family he remained at San Jose under Capt. Webber, and was in the Santa Clara battle in January, 1847. 250 Spaniards, who had hoisted their flag "were in rendezvous near what we call Half Moon Bay. They were commanded by Schanres who had been paroled. Captain Webber found where they had been encamped; and they only had sixty men in their company. He notified Lieut. Maddix who had a company of 50 rangers ... He also notified Capt. Mardson, who was captain of the marines at Urbano, which is now called Presidio. He came up with a cannon and 100 men on foot. Mardson ranked in office, so both the officers had to submit to his orders. By this time the Spaniards had moved camp to within three miles of the Santa Clara Mission where the women and children were living. They were guarded by Captain Arom. He could not leave his post; so he put up breast-works to keep them from getting to the houses and for his men to fight behind. The Spaniards were camped in full view of the Mission. The people at the Mission expected every hour to be attacked; but they were there three days when our soldiers came upon them. Capt. Webber came up on the north of them, and Lieut. Maddix on the south and got between them and the Mission. Mardson was behind them with his marines and cannon. The Spaniards advanced toward the Mission across a mud slough which was a half mile wide. When Mardson got into that they commenced firing at him; and he could not use the cannon on account of the mud; and as the Spaniards would not get within 300 yards of his men, they could not hit a man. Capt. Webber and Lieut. Maddix charged on them; but the Spaniards kept too far away; and they could not do them much damage. They killed three Spaniards and wounded several; one American was shot in the leg. The fight lasted three hours; and at night the Spaniards retreated to their camp. The next morning they sent in a flag of truce. Capt. Mardson was the highest in rank; so he had to treat with them. They parleyed for three days trying to come to terms. They had run all of the horses off which they had taken from the Americans and had hidden all of their good guns; then they were willing to come to terms; but they had to stack all of their arms and give up all of the horses they had taken. They were to drive everything in and let the Americans take their pick. They had over 50 head. The Americans gave was the first sawmill built in Santa Clara County. When we finished the mill we went back to the mines. The first of September we went to the place now called Placerville. The gold here was very coarse. The only tools we used in getting it out were a pick, spoon, butcher knife and pan. I stayed there three weeks and averaged $50 per day for that time. "One of our party was taken sick with mountain fever; so I had to put him into a wagon and take him to San Jose. And when I got there I concluded to go to work in my sawmill, instead of going back to the mines. I commenced making lumber and sold it at $50 per thousand. I kept on raising the price; and in 1849 it went up to $300 per thousand at the mill; and everything else was high in proportion. Flour sold at $30 a barrel. In 1849 everything was booming at San Jose. "There were only five houses in San Francisco in 1847: the custom's house, post-office, Leigdoff's store, and a tavern kept by Mr. Bennett. There was not a wharf in the place until the fall of 1847. Mr. Clark, a man who crossed the Plains with me, put up the first wharf, running it out from Clark's Point which was named for him. The first town lots were laid off in 1847. They made the streets only eighty feet wide; but in 1850 they found the streets were too narrow; so they moved the buildings back twenty feet on the main streets. One can hardly believe that there could be such a change made in fifty-two years. San Jose was an old Spanish town. In the fall of 1847 the Alcalde issued a proclamation calling all the citizens together who were living on the town land to survey off the town into lots and to release the remainder of the land that belonged to the town under the Spanish law. So they found there were forty families entitled to land. They surveyed it off in five acre tracts and gave each one a lease for ninety-nine years. This is called the San Jose Forty Thieves; but being done under the Spanish law the title is good. I helped to survey the town in 1847 ... At this time there was not an American living in San Jose except a few who had been there for twenty years and had Spanish families. The Alcalde was a shrewd Englishman and was appointed by the governor.'' As to the first Protestant sermon in California, "in December 1846, there was a local Methodist preacher, who crossed the Plains with us, preached a funeral sermon aver the remains of the daughter of Capt. Arom who had died just before Christmas ... The minister's name was Heacock. The sermon was preached in old Santa Clara Mission." -- Steve Williams [email protected] California Pioneer Project http://www.compuology.com/cpl/ Tulare County GenWeb Page http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/tularcty.htm