Battle of Olompali

Infobox Military Conflict
partof=The Bear Flag Revolt


caption=
date=June 24 1846
place=Olómpali, California Republic, present-day California, USA
territory=Alta California
result=Pyrrhic Bear Flag Victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
flagicon|Mexico Mexican Empire
commander1=Henry Ford
commander2=flagicon|Mexico Joaquin de la Toree
strength1=20 Sonoman Bear Flaggers
strength2=50 Mexicans
casualties1=0 killed 0 wounded
casualties2=1 killed 1 wounded

The Battle of Olómpali was fought on June 24, 1846 in present day Marin County, California. It was the first battle of the Mexican-American War fought in California. The skirmish began when Mexican Colonel José Castro’s forces from Monterey, under the command of Joaquín de la Torre, headed north reacting to the declaration of an independent California Republic in Sonoma ten days earlier. Near Olómpali (north of present day Novato) they met up with American General John Frémont’s troops who had come from Sonoma in support of the revolt.

History of Olómpali

The name Olómpali comes from the Coast Miwok languagecite web|url=http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/california/miwokindianhist.htm|publisher=Access Genealogy|title=Miwok Indian Tribe|accessdate=2008-01-13] and likely meanssouthern village or southern people [Olómpali State Historical Park brochure] . It is estimated to have been in existence since 500 A.D. It was a major Miwok center in 1,200 A.D. and is believed to have been one of the largest settlements in present day Marin County. There were bones found at the site that were dated six thousand years, so the estimated time is controversial. The modern history of Olómpali began with the arrival of Sir Francis Drake's freebooters in 1579 [Bear Flag Rising - The Conquest of California , 1846 by Dale L. Walker, A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1999] .

Settlement

In 1828, expansion of Mission San Rafael Arcángel, just ten miles (16 km) south ofOlómpali, was underway. It is reasonable to believe that the Miwoks at Olómpalilearned adobe construction methods at this time. In a letter from Padre Amoros,dated 1828, a small house is noted at Olómpali. This is the first of twoadobes on the village site. It was the home of the hoipu, or head man, ofOlómpali and the father of Camillo Ynitia, who was to be the last hoipu of thevillage. It is disputed whether the first adobe was dismantled to providebricks for Camillo's adobe at about 1837. The second adobe, whose remains arestill visible, measured 24 x 16 feet, convert|8|ft|m high with convert|3|ft|m|sing=on thick walls. Ithad a thatch roof of salt marsh tulles. Its long axis is north-south. Anadobe addition was made in 1840. The addition is at right angles and isattached on the west wall to form an "L" -shaped structure of three rooms.This is the only adobe home in Marin county; its remains are protected within Olompali State Historic Park.

In October 1843, General Mariano Vallejo petitioned the governor of the Mexicanprovince of Alta California, Manuel Micheltorena, to grant convert|8900|acre|km2 to CamilloYnitia, who had become a Christian. The site of the village became known asRancho Olómpali.

Ynitia traded wheat with the Russians at Fort Ross and livestock withthe Mexicans at Sonoma. He was the only native American holding both Mexicanand U.S. government land grants in northern California. Ynitia was a culturallink between the California Indians and the Californios. He was respected asbeing "fine, intelligent, shrewd, clean-cut, capable, and punctual".

The Battle Itself

During the "Bear Flag Revolt", on June 24 1846, the "Battle of Olómpali"occurred when a violent skirmish broke out between a troop of American BearFlaggers from Sonoma led by Henry Ford, and a Mexican force of 50 from Monterey, under the command of Joaquin de la Torre, at Ynitia's adobe. The only engagement of the Bear Flag Revolt between Bear Flaggers attempting to seize horses from a corral of Californios, who in turn were planning to recapture Sonoma from the Mexicans who had taken it earlier that week. One man was wounded and one Californio was killed, the only fatality associated with the brief California revolution.

United States

After California was annexed by the United States following the Mexican War,many land grant holders were forced off their lands by the new government. In1852 Ynitia sold most of his land to James Black, who later became one of thelargest landowners in Marin county. Ynitia faded into history, and died a fewyears later.

The history of Rancho Olómpali then became entangled in the lives of JamesBlack, his daughter, Mary, and his daughter's husband, Dr. Galen Burdell.Herein is their tale:

James Black was born in Scotland. At 20 he shipped out on a Hudson Bayvessel, but at Monterey he was put ashore with typhoid fever. He was married,had a child, and was widowed; he brought home a fortune of gold from the goldfields; he was elected tax assessor of Marin County in 1852; and he became oneof the most influential men in the county.

Mary was the only child of James Black, who later married Maria Pacheco.Maria's first husband, Ignacio Pacheco, had married three times. "He rode ina saddle encrusted with silver and gold," Jack Mason tells us in Early Marin.James had been an acquaintance of Maria's for 22 years. The interesting thingabout the marriage was that it took a dispensation from Father Lootens, becauseBlack had been court-appointed guardian to her three minor children.

The marriage was ill-fated from the start. Black could read but barely writeand he was not his bride's social equal, for she was a Durante and had beenbrought up in wealth.

Mary's marriage to Galen Burdell in 1863 introduced new tensions into Black'sand Mrs. Pacheco's marriage. Dr. Burdell had reached San Francisco the longway around (via Cape Horn). He had first been trained in New York City andwent to Brazil, but he had been lured north by the Gold Rush. He had sailedinto San Francisco as ship's surgeon on the Dunsbury, which later had a reefnamed after it. He was well to do, having invented a tooth powder.

Sometime after their marriage a tragedy occurred. Mrs. Pacheco died in Dr.Burdell's dental chair. Although the dentist was absolved of blame, Mary'sfather could not forgive him. He said, "I don't want Dr. Burdell's name orMary's included in my will," according to Mason. However, he had given MaryOlómpali Ranch on her wedding day in 1863.

Black then started drinking. Visits to Mary's father were an ordeal. Mary'spregnancy seemed to make him worse. "Black continued to ride about hisproperty on horseback, often too inebriated to sit in the saddle," wrote Mason."Late in 1869 he took a particularly bad spill, suffering a two-inch wound atthe base of his skull. Softening of the brain followed, but he was still ableto get about." Later, he died in convulsions so terrible an onlooker thoughthe had been poisoned.

The 1880 History of Marin said of him, "The leaves of the great book of lifeclosed and another of California's oldest pioneers has passed from time toeternity."

Black's death brought family passions to the surface. Dr. Burdell had gone tothe reading of the will at the Pacheco House, while Mary stayed outside. "Laterthat evening, he brought an attorney to read the will in a private suite of aSan Rafael hotel. When the attorney left the room, Mary tore her father'ssignature off with her teeth, apparently swallowing it, since it was neverfound. She was arrested but quickly released, a story that was givensensational treatment in the San Francisco press," Mason wrote.

Retribution was only possible in a court of law. Mary hired three topattorneys and filed her contest in probate court in 1870. She claimed herfather's mind had been influenced by his drinking, and he had been under theinfluence of his wife, Mrs. Pacheco. Mary asked for a jury trial and got it.Persons known to Mary testified against her father, and she won her case.

Mrs. Pacheco turned to good works after the trial, and built the San Josedistrict's first school house. She spent her winters in San Francisco. One ofher children, Qumesido Pacheco, was Marin County supervisor for more than nineyears. He built a house on Highway 101 just south of the main gate to HamiltonField. It still stands.

Galen and Mary now concentrated on Olómpali. The convert|20000|acre|km2, ranging fromTomales Bay to San Pablo Bay, included large portions of Novato and Nicasio."Here the retired dentist found ample outlets for his inventive mind. On theSan Pablo Bay he ran his own soil reclamation project. His orchards were ofmany kinds of fruit: apple, pear, quince, fig, pomegrante, persimmon, apricot,peach and plum. Fifty acres were planted in 30 varieties of grapes, a kind ofexperimental vineyard with "a hint of noble wines to come." Dr. Burdell'sbanana trees did poorly, but his 200 orange trees were the equal of any inLos Angeles, Jack Mason wrote.

Mary's property was hers alone, convert|950|acre|km2 at the head of Tomales Bay, onceknown as the Stocker Ranch. It soon became Point Reyes Station once the NorthPacific Coast Railway came into being. Dr. Burdell managed the ranch.

"Mary Burdell, an energetic as her husband, planted the first ambitious gardenin the county," wrote Mason. When she traveled to Japan, Mary brought home thefirst planting of exotics to the county. Mary was a perfectionist in socialetiquette. The tablecloth had to be of the finest linen, the silverwarepolished to the nth degree. She and her husband played lady and lord of themanor. Every Christmas they would deliver turkeys to their friends, and Galenwould leave a gold watch at every home they visited.

Mary suffered with gallstones. In 1900, an operation could be put off nolonger. She made out her will. Her estate was to be divided three waysbetween her husband Galen, her son James, and daughter Mabel. She died duringthe operation.

Son James made major renovations at Olómpali, transforming it into a palatialcountry estate, including a 26-room mansion and a Victorian formal gardencomplete with fountains, brick walkways and gazebos. The estate remained inthe Burdell family until it was sold to Court Harrington in 1943. Shortlythereafter Harrington sold the property to the University of San Francisco as a Jesuit retreat.

During the 1960s, the University of San Francisco sold Olómpali several times.Each time, the buyers defaulted and the property reverted back to theuniversity. The most famous tenant was the rock band Grateful Dead, who livedhere in 1966. During the Dead's brief stay it became a gathering place forSan Francisco's rock musicians, including Janis Joplin and Grace Slick.

Don McCoy leased Olómpali in 1967 and turned it into a hippie commune calledThe Chosen Family. The mansion was destroyed by a fire caused by faulty wiringin 1969, exposing the remains of the old adobe walls. The remnants of threeearlier buildings are contained within the remains of the mansion - theoriginal Camillo Ynitia Adobe, an adobe add-on from the 1850s, and the 1866Galen Burdell clapboard ranch house. Camillo Ynitia's Adobe was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1973.

In 1977, the State of California purchased Rancho Olómpali and made it into a state historical park. The Burdell two-story frame house, built in the 1870sserves as the Ranger Station. Associated ranch buildings include barns, a blacksmith shop, a saltbox house and a ranch superintendent's house.

An Elizabethan silver sixpence minted in 1567 was discovered in the park byarcheologists, indicating that villagers had contact with Sir Francis Drake orwith people who had traded with the early English explorer. Many Miwokcultural artifacts have been identified during archaeological studies withinthe area of the present-day park, indicating this may have once been an important trade and cultural crossroads.

References

*"Olómpali Park Filled With History" by Joan Reutinger, The Coastal Post - September, 1997
*"Historic Spots in California" by Mildred Brooke Hoover, Hero Eugene Rensch and Ethel Grace Rensch, Stanford University Press, Stanford California, 1966