Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-05-16
A scaap or nIsroRy.
Interesting Letter from Hon. Stephen
C. Foster-The Mexican Archives
of the City.

of the City.
We have been permitted to publish
the following interesting letter. written
by Hon. Stephen c. Foster to the
United States Surveyor General for the
State of California, in regard to the cap
ture of Los Angeles and the disposi ion
and whereabouts of the archives of the
Pueblo. The letter is an answer TO one
received by MIR. Foster, asking for in.
formation on the subjects named, fol use
in the Surveyor Generals office:
"Los ANGELES, CAL, May 18th, 1884.
"DEAR SIR:-Your favor Of April 9,
1884, directed to c. 4. Miles. Esq,
County Recorder of Los Angeles county,
has been handed to me to give what in
formation l possess relative to any old
Spanish records there may be in his
office that might be important to your
office.
''To begin: August, 1916, the town Of
Los Angeles, then the capital of the
Department of the CALIFORNIA;, was taken
by tho United States forces under Com,
modore Stockton. The archives of the
town, and those Of the Departmental
government were deposited by the Mexi-
can authorities, in the house of ]. l..
vignes, French citizen, for safety.
stockton Withdrew his forces, leav.
ing small garrison who surrendered the
town to the insurgent Californians, Sep.
tember, lS46, and it was retaken Janu.
ary 10, lS47. After the treaty Of peace.
and the cession OF California, Capt tiu
H. W. Halleck. who had been appointed
Secretary Of State, by Colonel r. B.
Mason, Military Governor of the De.
partment. wrote to Colonel s. ID. Steven.
son then in command of this post,
inquiring for the archives Of the De-
partmental Assembly, and the matter
was referred to the writer. then Alcalde
and interpreter, to investigate. vignes in.
formed me that Commodor Stock ton had
taken sundry boxes, containing papers
from his house and that, after the evacu.
alton in September, Captain Flore',
commanding the CALIFORNIA;, had taken
the remainder. Meanwhile Commodore
Stockton had been relieved by Shu-
brick, and he in turn by Jones. When
in the convention at Monterey, lS49.
Captain Halleck informed me that on
the receipt Of tho information given by
Vignes, thorough search was made of
the flag ship Congress. and the boxes
were found in her hold, no one aboard
having any idea of their contents or
value. The frigate was then under sail
ing orders and left for New York few
days after. About two thirds of Los
Angeles archives were delivered by
parties unknown. june ls49. to the
Curate, and the remainder are believed
to be still concealed in the city.
"About 1858, the late Major Henry
Hancock, then Deputy United States
Surveyor. acting under authority of some
United States officers, demanded and
received all the Spanish records in
the possession Of the Los Angeles City
and County authorities, and took them to
the United States Surveyor General
Of California, in San Francisco, they be-
ing delivered without inventory or in
dex. About year afterwards there
were returned to the County Clerk nine
bound volumes of civil cases, and six of
criminal cases, and sundry loose pages,
and some stitched together, said not to
be worth binding, and three volumes to
the City Clerk. In 1872 the writer was
employed to index the city records, and
there is nothing in them that can in any
way pertain to your Office. In 1878 the
minutes Of the Ayuntamiento of the
city, which had not been seen since
1916, were found by the writer among
the loose papers in the SUPERVISOR
room, where they had been put by some
party unknown. between Friday and the
succeeding Monday. On this being re.
ported to the Supervisors, l was en-
ployed to have bound and indexed all
the loose papers in three volumes, one
book A containing public instruments in
which is bound the Erpediente of Yorba
of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana,
which was among the papers returned as
not worth binding. The other two vol
umes, containing many letters addressed
to the Project and his Secretary. were
labelled Prefecture. simply indexed
it as official correspondence. decrees.
&C., by years"