Back to 4th Grade: A Brief History of La Purisima Mission

Part 2 in a series about the proposed closure of La Purisima State Historic Park.


Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Founding Fathers

Founded on December 8, 1787, by Father-President Fermin Lasuén, Mission La Purísima Concepción de María Santisima (“The Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Most Pure”) became the 11th of the 21 California missions.

The location for the new mission seemed perfect: the valley was fertile, the Chumash Indians were friendly and intelligent, and everything seemed to bode well for the success of their project.

Construction had to be delayed, however, until the end of the rainy season. In April 1788, Father-President Lasuén and two padres arrived to take charge of the operations, and within four months had baptized seventy-five neophytes (neophytes were “Christianized” Indians).

Within three years, the mission was flourishing. The crops were successful, the herds were growing, and the Indians were happy with their new home. Father Mariano Payeras began his nineteen-year service at the mission, four of which he served as Father-President and La Purísima was the seat of government for all of the missions.

Several years of prosperity followed. A report dated December 31, 1798 indicated that there was insufficient room for the 920 mission residents. New buildings, including a church, were necessary immediately, and were completed in 1802.

Earthquake!


Courtesy of UCR/California Museum of Photography

On December 8, 1812, twenty-five years to the day after the founding of La Purísima, several small tremors occurred. On December 21, 1812, a huge earthquake lasting four minutes badly damaged the walls of the church.

An aftershock, about a half-hour later, destroyed most of the remaining buildings. As if that weren’t enough, the hillside behind the mission opened in a huge fissure, allowing floods from the prolonged, drenching rains that followed to completely devastate whatever remained. Adobe bricks melted back into mud, and stores of food floated away.

1812 would be known in California as “El Ano de los Temblores,” or “The Year of the Earthquakes.”

For many reasons, the mission would not be rebuilt at the same site. Father Payeras was given permission to relocate the mission about four miles northeast, across the river, in La Cañada de los Berros (The Canyon of the Watercress). This new site had several advantages, including better access to El Camino Real, the main road between the missions.

A ten-year period of prosperity followed construction of the new mission. La Purísima became entirely self-supporting, and the community of approximately a thousand neophytes thrived.

The Beginning of the End

Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821, leaving the missions with no supplies and the soldiers without pay. The declining Indian population was forced to support the soldiers, who used them for military construction projects for little or no pay. Father Payeras died in 1823, leaving the mission without his guidance.

By 1824, tensions were exploding, and the Indians revolted. The immediate cause was the flogging of a La Purísima neophyte by soldiers at Mission Santa Inés. When the news reached La Purísima, the Indians seized possession of the mission and fortified the grounds. They held the mission for almost a month.

The revolt ended when 109 soldiers were sent down from the presidio in Monterey. The battle lasted less than three hours, leaving sixteen Indians dead and many wounded. Only one soldier was killed, and three wounded.

For their part in the rebellion, seven Indians were put to death and eighteen others were sentenced to imprisonment and hard labor.

Secularization and Saving Graces


Historic American Buildings Survey, Photographed by Henry F. Withey, May 1937

La Purísima Mission never recovered after the Indian uprising. The Indians vanished, the padres moved to Santa Barbara, and in 1834, an administrator took control. In 1845, the mission, with all of its lands and historical treasures, was sold to Don Juan Temple of Los Angeles for $1,100.00.

The Union Oil company bought the property in 1903, and in the early 1930’s, deeded several parcels to the State. The National Park Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, soon came to the rescue of the crumbling mission complex.

After nearly a year of study, restoration finally began in 1935 using original tools and techniques whenever possible. The mission was dedicated as a State Historical Monument on December 7, 1941.

La Purísima remains the most completely restored of all the California missions. It was considered one of the finest historic restorations of its time.

____________________

SOURCES:

Krell, Dorothy (ed.) 1979. California Missions (Sunset Pictorial). Sunset Publishing Corporation, Menlo Park, CA.

Nelson, Bob (ed.) 1994. Sagas of the Central Coast. RJ Nelson Enterprises, Inc., Santa Maria, CA.

About.com: California Travel – La Purísima Mission, <http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/missioncalifornia/a/purisima_hist.htm>, accessed March 4, 2008.

La Purísima Mission State Historic Park, <http://www.lapurisimamission.org/>, accessed March 3, 2008.

The California Mission Site, Ed, The Civic Group, <http://www.californiamissions.com/cahistory/lapurisima.html>, accessed March 3, 2008.


FOR FURTHER READING:

La Purísima Mission State Historic Park
La Purísima Mission SHP
Wikipedia: Mission La Purísima Concepción
A Virtual Tour of the California Missions
California Missions: A Virtual Tour
California Missions Study Association