Early Days in Corralitos and Soquel: Santa Cruz County
"In the month of April, 1929, a copy of the Watsonville Register was sent to me at Nipoma, San Luis Obispo county, which contained a story titled,
"Corralitos, Gem of the Pajaro Valley."
"As my father, Ben Hames, was the founder of Corralitos and I spent mychildhood days there, I wish to contribute wha my sister, Mrs. Lucretia Mylar, and I remember of those early days."
Benjamin F. Hames, the founder of the town of the town of Corralitos, Santa Cruz county in 1855 or possibly earlier, was the son of Benjamin Hames and Rebecca Harding or Hardin. The elder Hames was a native of New york and a millwright by trade, who came west in the early days when Michigan was being settled and located at Battle Creek, Calhoun county, where he built the first flour mill in what was destined to become one of the greatest milling and cereal manufacturing centers of America.
The elder Hames resided in Battle Creek until his death, which occurred in 1850.
Benjamin Hames Jr., who was born in Rochester, New York, June 1st, 1823, left his father's home before the latter migrated west to Michigan. The young man took passage for California, evidently in the early forties, on the bark "Mazeppa". En route to South America he made the acquaintance of a minister who was a fellow passenger, and the clergyman presented him with a bible, which his daughter Rebecca still treasures as a valuable keepsake.
After a cruise that took him as far as the Hawaiian Islands, Hames came back to South America and went to Santiago, Chile, where he erected another flour mill.
After living in Chile for some time he married a cultured and refined young lady, Mary Carmen Laing, the daughter of an Englishman, Capt. George Foster Laing and his wife, Francisca Joffre Laing. Mrs. Hames was born in Valparaiso, July 8th, 1832.
Two daughters, Frances and Lucretia, were born to them and in 1852 they took ship for California, accompanied by the children's nurse, Mariquita, also by Mrs. Hames' youngest sister, Andrea Laing.
Capt. Laing, his wife, their young son William and Mrs. Laing's daughter, Mrs. Rosa Post and her son Henry, preceded the Hames family to California also making the trip with her husband and Mrs. Hames and her children were allowed to make the trip because the two families were friends and because they would be company for her.
The passage required about two months and such heavy storms were encountered that most of the cargo was thrown overboard to prevent the ship from foundering.
Mother brought orange trees and several varieties of flowering garden plants with her, managing to save many of them, including some Calla Lillies, Fuchsia, Pinks, etc., and they were the first plants of their kind in California.
They landed at Yerba Buena, which is now San Francisco, lived there for a time and then moved to Oakland, where Capt. Laing and his family were living.
About this time Hames heard that his brother, John Hames, was living in Soquel, Santa Cruz county.
John Hames, who was born in Orange County, New York, March 22nd, 1811, had left his home many years before Benjamin started his travels, and the two brothers had lost touch with one another.
Ben Hames therefore moved with his family to Soquel, where there was a happy re-union. Another brother, David, who had left home early in life, was never heard from.
John Hames had, like his brother, led an adventururous life which had taken him to South America. In 1842 and 1843 he had been in Peru and Ecuador, where he had worked at his trade of millwright, and he had traveled extensively before he reached California, going first to Niles where he built a saw mill, then a flour mill at Soquel, a comfortable home at that place and a saw mill a little further up the Soquel canyon.
Ben Hames built a flour mill at Haywards and then built the Cascade Flour Mill at aptos, which is now called Rio Dl Mar. This mill has long since been destroyed, but a small portion of the foundation is still to be seen.
Ben Hames afterward built a flour mill at Chorro creek, a few miles northwest of San Luis Obispo. It was called the Eagle Mill, and was owned by Sam Pollard and Mr. Childs. Ben and John Hames were partners in a mill built by them at Corralitos.
Mrs. Hames moved back to Oakland for a time, staying with her mother, Mrs. Laing, where her daughter Rebecca was born on December 9, 1854. A son, Benjamin, was born at Corralitos April 26, 1856.
The next year the babies were taken to Santa Cruz to be christened at the Holy Cross Church by Father Rouselle. A few weeks later Ben Hames moved back to Soquel and lived for a short time in a house that belonged to his brother John.
In 1855 he bought several hundred acres of land in a beautiful place surrounded by hills and called it "Corralitos", meaning little corrals.
He built a mill there and it was leased to O.P. Wilson of Soquel, so the wilson family moved to Corralitos and lived in a house near the store kept by Fischer & Schwartz of Santa Cruz. Ben Hames then moved his family into the Wilson house at Soquel.
While we were living in the Wilson house at Soquel Grandfather and Grandmother Laing came from Oakland to live with us. Grandfather had learned the ship carpenter's trade when a youth at Newscastle-on-Tyne, and shipped aboard a vessel when a young man. Years had passed and he never returned home, but after a year or so at Soquel he decided to visit England again and settle his affairs at Newscastle, then return to California for his permanent home.
In those days ships visited Santa Cruz only on rare occasions, though they came frequently to San Francisco. Grandfather decided to take passage on the first boat that came to Santa Cruz, and when he learned that a vessel wa in the harbor, hurriedly prepared for his trip.
There were no stage coaches or other means of conveyance and he had to walk the few miles to Santa Cruz. I can see him now, with his grey beaver high hat which he always wore on special occasions, and which he was so proud of, and his clothing tied up in a red bandana handkerchief. It was before the day of the carpet bags and suit cases were undreamed of.
But his preparations were in vain for when he reached Santa Cruz the ship had sailed. Almost sick with disappointment, he walked back to Soquel and the voyage was postponed.
A few months later Grandmother became sick and after a lingering illness, died February 4th, 1856, I believe. She was buried in Soquel.
I was a little girl at that time but remember many things about her. She was always kind and good to us. One of her cherished belongings was a large yellow pitcher with a blue band around it and with the handle broken off. She always kept it full of doughnuts