844 Laurel Ave.
Pacific Grove
California
August 26,1946
Rev Eric O Brian O.P.M
The Old Mission
Sante barbara
California
Dear Father O'Brian:
As per your request after our talk last night, I am sending you the following information:
In 1932 Dr C Hart Merriam, authority on Indian dialects for the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, came to my husband at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. He Wanted to find Isobel Meadows who was the lest Carmel Indian who know the Carmel Indian dialect. He had interviewed her several years before and found her very intelligent and cooperative in every way, and he wanted additional information.
I went with Dr. Merriam to see Isobel - a most unusual woman in her late eighties, very keen and comparatively well educated. She spoke to Dr. Merriam in good English and Spanish and told him much about the Carmel Indians and their language.
I became most interested in Isobel and felt that the information she has should be put down on paper before it was too late, as she could remember much that her mother (a neophyte at Carmel Mission) had told her.
It took many trips before I secured Isobel's confidence as she had suffered at the hands of people who called her a half-breed. She was most cautious in what she said. After months of work I received the following:
Isobel Meadows was born in Carmel Valley July 6, 1846. Daughter of Loreta Meadows (Carmel Indian) and James Meadows, an English cabin boy who had deserted ship in Monterey and married Loreta because he had land which had ben given to her when the padres left Carmel mission.
Loreta Onesemo, was the daughter of Juan Antonio Onesemo, Carmel Indian and convert to the Carmel Mission, and one of the Indians who helped build the adobe structure there.
Loreta was born in 1819 and spent her young days at the Mission compound. She was very devout.
She married James Meadows in 1834.
Isobel was one of a number of children, the only surviving daughter and also very devout. She was baptized at the Presidio Church in Monterey, since in 1846 there was no priest at the Carmel Mission.
The follow is from my notes made at the time of interviews with Isobel during the period from 1932 until she left for Washington in 1938. (She died the Fall if 1939 and was brought back and buried from Carmel Mission.)
She told me that her mother (Loreta Onesemo) told her that after the Franciscan padres left the Carmel Mission and it was to be deserted, some Spanish people who didn't want to stay after the Mexicans really took over, were going back to Spain on a sailing vessel, and since they loved Padre Serra they did not want to leave him alone among the Mexicans. There was a meeting about this matter and her grandfather (Juan Onesemo) along with the other faithful Carmel Indians attending this meeting.
It was decided to exhume Padre Serra, substitute another body from the hill above the Mission, and place Serra's clothes on his body and rebury (to fool the Mexicans).
Her mother (Loreta) described this performance and said that Juan Onesemo helped top do it. They then place the bones in a small wooden box and nailed it up. Juan with the other Indians carried it over the hill to Monterey on a rawhide litter and place it on the boat at Monterey. They were told that their beloved padre Serra was to be buried at Majorca where he was born.
Nothing more was heard of the vessel or the people who has sailed on it. Loreta thought it had gone down at sea.
The Carmel Indians kept quiet about the because they didn't want Mexicans to know what they had done.
In 1856, when Isobel was 10 years old, and Father Sorrentine, the priest at Monterey, dug up the grave of Serra, Loreta Onesemo told Isobel what had happened and told her to keep quiet.
The mission went down to ruins but Loreta and Isobel were faithful and went there to pray among the rubble to Padre Serra because they had great faith in their beloved Padre and nearly ever time their prayers were answered. Loreta and Isobel with a few faithful Indians always celebrated San Carlos Day even when there was no priest --- because they wanted Padre Serra to know they still remembered.
Loreta had books and a few other things from the mission which she took when padres left. She took two statues out of the ruins because passing hunters used them for target practice.
After the Del Monte Hotel was built in 1882 there was a great interest in the ruined Mission and tally-hos with parties of rich people came from the hotel.
Father Casanova, the priest at Monterey, started work to get money to restore the mission and make it a shrine to Serra, which pleased Loreta and Isobel.
Isobel was present when Serra's grave was opened in 1882 by Father Casanova and said she saw only some bits of bones and cloth. When Father Casanova talked about Father Serra's bones she wanted her mother to tell what she knew. Loreta refused because she had given her word to not to tell.
Isobel, then a mature woman, wanted proof of the story, and her mother then produced a rawhide bound book with sheepskin paged in which some Spaniard had written the detaios of the taking up of the bones and carrying them to Monterey, with the names of those who carried the litter. Juan Onesemo's name was there. Loreta gave the book to Isobel at the time.
When Father Casanova raised the money to restore the roof, this matter bothered Isobel, and since she had not promised, she told Father Casanova. He was not interested and did not care to see the book. He wanted to restore the mission.
The legend still persisted.
Shortly after Isobel talked to Father Casanova, Mrs. Thomas Field of Monterey (I think she was Danglada) came to Isobel and told her that if the Indians would keep still and let the rich white people think Serra's bones were still there, the beloved Mission would be restored for them and perhaps a priest sent there. They kept still but the knowledge still bothered Isobel.
Not long after that a priest came to her from the Salinas Valley or San Antonio Mission and said he had heard that she has a book telling about Serra being taken away. Could he see the book?
Isobel let him borrow the book and he took it away. He didn't bring it back, and after a year had passed, she and her brother Thomas Meadows drove over to Jolon, looked up the priest and asked for the book, but he said it has been burned by mistake with some other things.
--> Inserted note Mar 1, 1948. I _____ om looking over the hills that the priest was Fr. A___. the Indian priest.
When Father Mestres came to Monterey, the restoration went on. Again Isobel was bothered by Serra's bones when the priest gave sermons about him being there on San Carlos Day, and since her mother was now dead, she told Father Mestres her story. But because she had no boo -- no proof now except what she could tell him, Father Mestres paid no attention.
When the sarcophagus was being designed and planned, this preyed on Isobel's mind and she spoke to him again. She said had told Father Mestres and he said it didn't matter because no bones at all were going in there anyway.
In the meantime I had enquired around Monterey and Carmel Valley and the district; asked other old Spanish families, and found them hesitant to speak about it. Some merely said they had "Heard about it". One, Angela Coe, Nee Pomber, whose mother was a Boronda said that her mother and grandmother told her Serra's bones had been taken away.
Antonio Onesemo (great grandson of Juan Onesemo) said the same thing to Isobel. He was an old man and it had come down to him by word of mouth. He had no proof, but he did know about the rawhide book and what happened to it.
Thomas Meadows, Isobel's brother said practically the same thing.
A Mrs. Mary Hall who lived in San Francisco and was related to the Cantuas, said she had a dairy in which her great great grandmother wrote of the taking up of Serra's bones at the time, but she was unable to locate the dairy and died before I could get it.
The matter of the sarcophagus was progressing and Jo Mora had finished the design. I pointed out to Isobel the seriousness of the matter, and talked to her about her faith and her church and Father Serra, and asked her if she as a Catholic would put her hand on the Bible and tell me she had seen the book and read it about the exhumation and carrying of the bones over the hill. She got out her Bible and did this.
Just yesterday I learned that Mrs. Elsie Martinez of Piedmont wife of Xavier Martinez, now living in Carmel heard the same story in 1907 when she came down here. It seemed common knowledge then, she said.
George Sterling had written a poem about the "empty tomb", This of course could have referred to the present Jo Mora sarcophagus.
Please understand I have not colored anything to make a case in the matter, but merely report the information I obtained.
There is a Mrs. Peace of Pacific Grove who is some relative of Isobel's and knew her well. She may know something, as might Ernest Meadows of Pacific Grove, a nephew of Isobel) but I find the present generations are either not interested or don't know anything about it, since they have no information to give.
I hope this account will be of help. Anything further I can do, please let me know. I shall be most interested to know your findings when the time comes.
Sincerely,
(left blank but most likely Harriet Dean typed this letter)
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Confirming the Legend
The Record-Union, Sacramento, California · Wednesday, February 01, 1882:
Father Casanova says he is fully convinced that it is the grave of Junipero Serra, as its location coincides exactly with the document mentioned. A thorough examination and disinterment of the remains was not attempted at the time of the discovery, as Mr. Casanova intends to go on with the work and to have the entire floor of the Mission cleared of dirt, when the other graves will be opened and the names of each silent sleeper ascertained. When this is accomplished, notice will be given, and the public will be admitted to view the remains of the immortal Junipero Serra. It was reported at the time of his death, and believed by many to this day, that the remains of the eminent Father were taken to Spain and there buried. But Mr. Casanova disputes this, and has many reasons for his belief that Junipero Serra was buried in the sanctuary of the Mission his own energy and perseverance had caused to be built. The report that his body had been sent to Spain was circulated at the time, to deceive the Indians, who desired his body, and who would have taken it by force had they believed it was buried in the Mission.
Santa Cruz Surf in Santa Cruz, California · Saturday, May 17, 1884:
A legend, which for many years was currently believed by the Spanish, was it then originated, to the effect that the remains had been taken on board of a man-of-war back to Spain. The exact locality of the padre's grave was, in truth, not disclosed until the winter of 1882, when it was ascertained to be at the altar end of the church. It is said that the discovery was due to the information given by an Indian to Padre Casanova, now of the parish of Monterey, that all padres were buried in a vault, where the masses for the repose of their souls were also repeated, and that the vault was so deep that it was always entered with candles in silver candle-sticks, six feet in hight. Many of the early Governors of California are also buried at San Carlos.
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How many times has his body been exhumed?
#1, 1882
Exhuming and reinterring ceremony of the remains of Friar Junipero Serra at the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmel, Monterey, July 3, 1882 [Source: USC]
Description: Photograph of the exhuming and reinterring ceremony of the remains of Friar Junipero Serra at the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmel, Monterey, July 3, 1882. A priest at center stands over an open tomb, with a workman sitting on its edge. They are surrounded by a large crowd of people in formal dress, a group of marching bandsmen in their uniforms, and a collection of soldiers, also in uniform. The adobe mission wall shows a window above them just left of center. The picture file card reads: "Mr. Machado is sitting at the edge of the vault, and Friar Angelo Casanova is standing with book in his hand.". According to Ms. Joan King, Mr. Machado's great-granddaughter, Christiano Machado was from Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores. He traveled to Massachussetts, like so many -- as a teenager, working on a whaling ship. He settled in California the second time he came to the USA, with his new wife. Christiano lived on Mission lands and farmed, and was caretaker of the Mission. He was believed to discover the remains of Father Serra, thanks to information from the Indians/Mexicans(?) who lived around there. His children and some of his grand and great-grandchildren were baptized at Mission San Carlos Borromeo".
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#2, 1943
Franciscan Friar, St Junipero Serra carried a “mission cross” in his mission to California. In 1943 When Serra’s remains were exhumed his mission cross was found. It was a copy of a miraculous doubled barred cross known as the Cross of Caravaca, named for the town in Spain where it is located. Serra’s mission cross was in the form of a reliquary. It contained the relics of Blessed Raymond Llull a native of Serra’s Mallorca to whom Padre Serra had a special devotion.
#3, 1987
The LA Times in 1987 wrote about his remains being exhumed for Sainthood. But if they were not his remains what does that say about his sainthood?
Father Serra’s Remains Exhumed on the Complex Road to Sainthood BY MARK I. PINSKY NOV. 14, 1987 12 AM PT
CARMEL — Officials of the Roman Catholic Church have exhumed the 200-year-old remains of Father Junipero Serra as part of the complex process that may result in sainthood for the Franciscan missionary known as “the apostle of California.”Serra, who founded this mission in 1771 and died here in 1784, was declared “venerable,” the first of three steps to sainthood, by Pope John Paul II in 1985. It was widely expected that the Pope would declare Serra “beatified,” the second step, when he visited Serra’s grave--below the stone floor of the Carmel Mission Basilica, in front of the altar--on Sept. 17 of this year.
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Could this be true? From https://www.mayohayeslibrary.org/uploads/2/5/3/9/25392173/vol_40_num_3_september_1995.pdf:
The life of the Indian was hard although he gave his full devotion to the Mission. This life is vividly described in the novel by Anne Fisher, Cathedral in the Sun. This story is based on the memories of Isabella Meadows, daughter of James and Loretta Meadows. Isabella was found to be the last to know the Costanoan language and was taken to Washington by the Smithsonian Institute where she spent the final years of her life compiling a dictionary of the language.
---> Just bought the book - will read it and post summary here
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