The Bells of Mission San Rafael



	The Bells of Mission San Rafael by Lucretia H. Little From the Marin County Historical Society Magazine, vol. XV, no. 1, 1989, pp. 14-18. And every note of every bell Sings 'Rapha-el!', rings 'Rapha-el!' Of those that are left the tale to tell of Rapha-el, the Archangel. The old bells of Mission San Rafael have come home. Lost for far more than a century, their wanderings are being remembered this Christmas Eve by Spanish speaking members of the parish of the modern St. Raphael's, who will attend a "posada" mass at 5 P.M. Sunday, December 24, at the Mission. Just before Christmas, 155 years ago, on December 14, 1817, the little San Rafael asistencia was dedicated. Mass was sung outdoors before a temporary altar under an "enramade" (arbor). As bright as the toyon berries which decorated this arbor were the blouses of the visiting Indian musicians, who had come from the San Jose Mission with Father Narciso Duran. It was Father Luis Gil y Taboada who led the 230 neophytes in reciting the Pater Noster in their own dialect: "Api mace sa lileto manenas..." after which the sermon, preached in Spanish by Father Ramon Abelia of Mission Dolores, was translated for the Indians by Father Gil. Then the Prefect of all the nineteen missions, Father Vicente Sarria, bestowed his blessing on the kneeling converts, as the "dos companillas" (the asistencia's two altar bells) echoed his benediction. Chosen as the first priest of this Mission, honoring the arcangel revered for his healing powers, was Father Gil, of Mission Purisima, because of his knowledge of medicine and of Indian languages. During Father Gil's first year the manufacture of the adobe bricks began for the early building. But Father Gil was transferred, and in 1819 Father Juan Amoros came from Carmel to continue the construction. He was to remain for thirteen years. It was not until 1820 that the asistencia had its own large bell, a "sonora campana" whose deep tones echoed in the health-giving San Rafael valley. Outside the little chapel Father Amoros had the Indians suspending the bell by leather thongs from a beam supported by two redwood posts. In the fall of 1824 it was described as "a bell hung between two pillars" by Otto von Kotzebue, who visited the "little mission peeping from among the oaks." Sixteen inches high and twenty inches at its widest, its clapper lost, this recently found bell, with its decorative cross, has weathered to a soft green patina. It is inscribed, "San Rafael, año de 1820". The acquisition of a second bell is not shown until the mission inventory of 1829. It was described as a "campana de 7 arobas", a bell of 175 pounds. This large dark bell is fourteen inches high and 22 inches across the base. Father Amoros had it suspended on the redwood crossbeam by leather thongs through its "crown". Today the clapper is missing and ropes secure the bell to the redwood beam on the 5th Avenue side of the Mission replica. A third bell seems to have been acquired by 1831, for the 24-year-old soldier, Mariano Vallejo, who was conducting California Governor Victoria on a tour of all the missions, later sketched his memories of the mission as it was in March of 1831. He showed a bell on a fairly high L-shaped support erected between the northerly wing of the mission and the military barracks. In a day of infrequent clocks, and of seasonally unreliable sundials, the life of the mission was geared to the signals of this bell, possibly rung by the Indian "Marino", who gives Marin County its name. This good-toned, smaller bell is nine inches high and fourteen inches at its base, firmly held by two boat-shaped 17 inch curved bars. It had be cast at the Holbrook foundry in East Medway, Massachusetts, and had probably been brought to California on a whaling vessel sometime after 1827. Father Amoros very likely paid for it with hides and tallow from the mission cattle. Today it hangs outside the door of the Mission replica, its clapper silent. The fourth of the San Rafael Mission bells, except for its hp, is more square in shape. It is about 10 inches high and 12 inches at its widest, with a large clapper. Father Amoros died in 1832; either Father Estenega or Father Mercado may have obtained this fourth bell in 1833 before the Mission was secularized, but its acquisition is not recorded in the annual inventories. Today this bell hangs in the upper section of the bell rack outside the Mission replica. In 1845 the Governor of California, Pio Pico, needed funds. The sale of mission properties to Mexican Californians was authorized. (The sale of San Rafael Mission was later declared invalid.) Word went out to the "mayordomos" (overseers) to submit inventories of former mission properties. Timoteo Murphy, at San Rafael Mission, August 28, 1845, listed "cuatro campanas" (four bells) as part of the property of former Mission San Rafael. In June of 1846 the Bear Flag Revolt took place, and by 1849 California was overrun with "foreigners" seeking gold. Soon many a tired or unsuccessful miner decided to settle in the new State of California, where legislation now required the survey of towns and the purchase of lots. In the little town of San Rafael, with its half dozen structures, the tax collector sold lots for $30 in 1850. This was former Mission land whose ownership was vague. The grid map drawn for the tax collector ignored contours and the angel at which the Mission was built. Wanderers used the wing of the Mission as living quarters, when no itinerant priest happened to be living there. Perhaps it was the Mexican-Catholic wives of longtime owners of Marin ranchos who were most disturbed about the unprotected Mission church, for this was true all over California. Many families took church ornaments to preserve them, as the Reed-Sanchez family did. The husbands helped themselves to roof tiles and, apparently, to the Mission bells for their ranches. Possibly (though this is only conjecture) the 1820 bell went to the Saucelito Rancho of William Richardson, married to Maria Antonia Martinez. The 1829 bell apparently was kept by the priest-administrators of St. Vincent's orphanage, who served the San Rafael parish after 1855, for in later years, probably after 1859, the bell was used by the parish. The pre-1831 bell was acquired by James Miller, whose wife was Mary Murphy, Irish Catholics who had arrived in San Rafael in 1845. They eventually settled on their first ranch west of St. Vincent's orphanage. The 1833 bell found its way, after 1852, to the Olompali Rancho of James Black, whose wife then was Maria Agustino Sais. But what happened to these four Mission bells during the next 100 years? How were they rediscovered? And when were the bells returned for display at the Mission replica? In the late 1920s there was an upsurge of interest in California history. A well-to-do young Catholic woman by the name of Marie T. Walsh, began her wide travels to study and locate bells of all the California Missions. The results of her searches are to be found in her 1934 book, "Mission Bells of California". In 1938, Mrs. Fremont Older, in her "California Missions and Their Romances", indicated that Marie Walsh, after publishing her book, had located a former San Rafael Mission bell at the Catholic Church at El Cajon, in San Diego County. Prior to 1967, when the 150th anniversary of the founding of San Rafael Mission was celebrated, the present writer wrote many letters and made two unsuccessful trips to San Diego County to locate the bell. The pastor of St. Raphael's, Father Thomas Kennedy, was equally unsuccessful in 1967. Early in 1972, Mrs. Avanelle Burns of Cambria, California, wrote that she owned a bell formerly at the Mission; that she had purchased it from Robert Dickey, who had bought it in 1963 at the warehouses of nearby San Simeon. The story was that the bell had been obtained in 1928 from a chapel at La Mesa, a few miles from El Cajon. An early pastor of former St. Mary's in El Cajon, the Reverend Leo Da,.is, recalled that the bell had hung on posts in front of the church. A parishioner thought the bell was about 15 inches high and 17 inches across (its actual dimensions are 16x2O). Father Kennedy purchased the bell from Mrs. Burns early in April of 1972 and brought it back to the Mission of San Rafael. This was the last of the missing Mission bells to be rediscovered. How did it get to San Diego County? No one really knows. But Capt. William Richardson of Saucelito owned various vessels and traded up and down the coast, having interest in San Diego. The latter part of his life he was under financial stress and if he had the bell, could have sold it in southern California before 1856, though all of this is purely conjecture! The 1829 bell seems to have remained the longest in possession of parish, the priest-administrators of St. Vincent's orphanage having served St. Raphael's from 1855 to 1884. The old bell probably was placed in the tower of the 1859 wooden church which replaced the Mission, and then in the 1870 church. In 1884 St. Raphael's was declared a separate parish under the builder-priest Hugh Lagan, who constructed the 1885 church which burned in 1919. By 1881 a parish had been established in southern Marin, and in 1885 Father John Valentini of Sausalito was building his little white Star of the Sea church at 431 Litho Street and Bonita, but had no bell to place in its cupola. We know that Father Lagan sent Father Valentini the former 1829 Mission bell, for The Sausalito News in May of 1885 quoted its San Rafael correspondent to the effect that, "The old mission bell has been taken to Sausalito and placed in the belfry of the Catholic church. We are sorry to lose this relic of olden Lime of San Rafael, and hope it is but a loan. Those wicked I 'saucylitans' have need of a large bell and heavier tone to awaken them to a sense of their sinfulness." When a parishioner donated another bell, Father Valentini stored the Mission bell in his sacristy. In 1910 the Sisters of Mercy opened a parochial school, called Mt. Carmel, higher on the hill above that first Star of the Sea church. The entrance was on Locust and the playground paralleled Girard Street all the way to the Litho steps. Father Valentini gave the Sisters the Mission bell for the school. When Mt. Carmel school was razed in 1940 by Barney Madden's company, the bell went into his warehouse, where it lay forgotten and covered by debris. In 1957 Madden was closing his business. Edward Ravizza, a realtor, recalled that a friend, David Langsam had said there was a Mission bell in the warehouse; Langsam had heard the bell's history originally from Father Valentini, before the latter's death in 1915. And so through Edward Ravizza the 1829 bell was brought back to the Mission. But not for display! It was believed too heavy to hang on the bell rack. So it lay on the floor of the unused Mission wing, and then under a table, concealed by a cloth, when the Mission Gift Shop opened. There it stayed until Father Kennedy, in anticipation of the 150th Mission anniversary in 1967, erected redwood beams on the 5th Avenue side and suspended the 175 pound bell for all to see. The 1831 Mission bell was the first of the old bells to be rediscovered. In 1929 Marie Walsh was unsuccessful in learning anything in Marin County about bells of San Rafael Mission. Finally, in 1934, some friends in Petaluma, Ludwig and Florentine Schluckebier, guided her to the old Clark School, in Fallon, near the Sonoma County border of Marin. In its tower she found the Holbrook Mission bell of 1831. Eventually Miss Walsh learned from Minnie Keys, a granddaughter of James Miller who came to San Rafael in 1845, that the bell had long been on the Miller ranch near Tomales. The Millers in 1860 had given the bell to the Tomales Church of Assumption, where Minnie Keys was organist. (This charming white church still stands in Tomales.) About 1901 the Tomales Catholics had decided they needed a modern church, which they proudly constructed of stone, only to have it become rubble in the 1906 earthquake. For some reason the bell in the newly destroyed church was not returned to the 1860 church, but sold by the Sodality to the Clark School at Fallon. And there it was found in 1934 and examined by Marie Walsh. By 1949, it was presented to the new Mission replica, where it hangs outside the entrance, its curved supports so different from most Mission bells. Return of this bell was probably accomplished through the efforts of Florence Donnelly, late I-J historian, a founder of the Marin County Historical Society, and a leader in the campaign to construct the replica of the Mission. There has come to light a little "History of Clark School, compiled in 1937 by three eighth grade pupils of Miss Jean Stover. The children (Beverly Burbank, Harriet Lundy and Thomas Kane) interviewed ten long-time residents of the Fallon area, who believed that the school bell had come from Russia to Fort Ross, where it was first hung in the chapel tower. (John Sutter bought Fort Ross in September of 1841 and transported almost everything movable to his Fort on the Sacramento.) But, according to the children, one of the Fort Ross bells went down to Bodega, where it eventually served as a church bell. A "Mrs. Smith" complained she could not hear it from where she lived, and presented a larger bell to the church. So the first bell lay on the ground outside the Bodega church. One day some mischievous boys were seen appropriating the bell. Their buckboard got as far as the 1872 Clark schoolyard at Fallon, at which time, apparently frightened, the boys dumped the bell. The trustees of the school decided to mount the bell on a platform, until the school bell tower could be reinforced. Then the bell was hoisted into place, where it was still in use in 1937. Miss Stover, who fives in San Anselmo, is of the opinion this Russian bell was ultimately given to the Marin County Historical Society and by them to the 1949 Mission replica. No mention is made of the children ever examining the bell in 1937, nor is any description given by the old timers. Russian bells are identifiable, among other things, by their decorations; the bell which the authority, Marie Walsh, examined in the tower of the Clark School at Fallon in 1934 had no markings. The Holbrook bell is the one now at Mission San Rafael. The 1833 Mission bell had even more varied wanderings. In 1852 County assessor James Black acquired Rancho Olompali from the Indian, Camillo Ynitia. The present driveway to the rancho and its old adobe is about four miles north of Novato. Black's daughter married Dr. Galen Burdell. It was their son's wife, Mrs. James Burdell, who in the early 1930s, told the researchers for "Historic Spots in California" that according to family tradition, a former San Rafael Mission bell was a treasured relic of Rancho Olompali. In 1943 Mrs. Burdell sold the mansion portion of Olompali, and apparently gave the bell to St. Raphael's. On December 31, 1943, the Maritime Commission tanker, "S.S. Mission San Rafael", was launched under wartime excitement at Marinship, opposite Marin City. The ship had been built in 97 days. During the launching ceremonies, Father George A. O'Meara of St. Raphael's gave the invocation, and the Mission bell from Olompali rang its challenge over Richardson Bay. By the December 1949 dedication of the Mission replica, the 1833 bell was hanging outside the chapel with its 1831 partner. In her 1934 book, Miss Walsh said that one of San Rafael's altar bells of 1817 is at Carmel Mission. Bells of the past, whose long forgotten music tinges the sober twilight of the Present, I hear your call, I touch the farther Past, see once again the Cross uplifted. 0 solemn bells! whose consecrated masses, recall the faith of old, your voices now are stilled. (Note: the opening and closing quotations are paraphrases from the poets Charles Warren Stoddard and Francis Bret Harte.) Lucretia Hanson, a resident of Mill Valley, passed away in 1977. She was widely known as a Marin County historian and Mill Valley's official historian. At her urging the Mill Valley City Council, as a Bicentennial project, establish a history room at the Mill Valley Public Library, to which Mrs. Little donated her large personal collection on Mill Valley. Before she passed away, Lucretia had the honor of seeing that room dedicated in her honor. A copy of this monograph was obtained for publication from Monsignor Kennedy, pastor of St. Rafael's Parish, San Rafael.