Table of Contents
THE SANCHEZ FILE, Chapter Sixteen
The Secret Society
Roach had been a member of an notorious Irish Secret Society
called the Fenians, (the stone carver had mistakenly added an extra 'n".)
The society, headquarters in Malone, New York, had been founded in 1858.
Their goal was to free Ireland from British rule. Unable to do anything
to help the cause in Ireland the Fenians staged some armed raids into Canada
in 1865 seeking to destabilize the British government.
Upwards of a thousand men, mostly Union and Confederate
veterans, took part in the raids. Although the raiders withdrew without
causing too much mischief, there was friction between the United States
and Great Britain over the Fenians.
How important were the Finians to Roach and, more importantly,
what role did Roach play in its activities?
First of all, he would have been a prominent member, even
a leader in the society. The expensive tombstone is evidence; the Finians
had paid for it..."We place this stone o'er thy grave".
Had Roach helped finance the Canadian raids from the money
taken from the Sanchez family?
The Finians had their opposition and it is possible that
Roach made enemies. Because of his outspoken support for the Fenians did
some of the opposition decide to shut up William Roach once and for all?
There is another theory on his death that has been printed
over the years; that Roach was killed to keep him quiet about others who
may have been involved in the Sanchez affair.
One man who believed that Roach had been murdered was
Franklin Foote, Roach's jailer in Stockton. Foote spent the next four years
searching for clues to the mystery of his friend's death, coming back to
Watsonville to report to Mrs. Roach. In 1868 Foote died in the small pox
epidemic.
In the 1960's the Pajaro Valley Historical Association
issued a report on Roach's death. The society claimed that Roach had earned
the hatred of the Mexican and Indian workers on his farm by refusing to
give them potatoes, beans, and bacon to carry them over the winter when
they were not working. According to the association, the men waylaid Roach,
dragged him from his horse, beat him up and threw him in the well.
Finally, is it possible that Roach took his own life?
In a twelve day period one year earlier three of his children had died.
He had been the cause of the murder of his brother-in-law. He had cheated
the Sanchez children.
Did Roach feel that God was punishing him?
Could this have made Roach so despondent that he went
to the well, looked down and decided to end it all? Throwing yourself down
a well is not an easy way to end your life. Why didn't he shoot himself?
Roach knew that as a Catholic he would be denied the rites
of the church if it became known he had killed himself. Catholics committing
suicide sometimes made it appear to be an accident or murder.
This theory may be strengthened at Roach's grave. He is
not buried next to three children who had died the year earlier, nor did
his wife choose to be buried by his side when she died. He is alone.
Had Margaret Roach never forgiven her husband for the
death of her brother Jerry McMahon in the gun battle with Henry Sanford?
Did she believe the death of three of their children was God's retribution
for her husband's wicked life?
How did he die? Was it suicide, an accident, his
enemies in the Sanchez case, the farm workers, or the Fenian opposition?
We will never know.
Life in San Juan
The Daily Alta California
San Francisco
September 11, 1860
Five miles north of San Juan is the stock ranch of George
W. Crane, who with heirs of Jose Maria Sanchez, owns two ranches, about
18,000 acres. On one is Lake of San Felipe, about three square miles in
dry season."
George W. Crane and Encarnacion Ortega
In San Juan the memories of the battles with Roach, Head
and Merritt began to fade for Encarnacion Crane as she and Crane begin
a new life on the rancho.
Probate files provide facts and figures on the Sanchez
estate, but give no hint of the personality of Encarnacion Crane or George
W. Crane. San Juan resident, Dorothy Coyle, was able to provide this through
a letter her
great-grandmother, Francis Bowers Canfield, wrote to
her sister Julia on November 9, 1857. It related the problems she and her
husband, Robert, were having getting settled in California. Francis was
thirty-four years old when she wrote the letter. Part of it reads:
Nov. 9, 1857
...two years ago Robert came across one of his earliest
California friends, with whom he had been quite intimate in his first experiences
here. He now informed him that he had just married a wealthy Spanish lady,
and was living on a large ranch 40 miles south of San Jose. He was very
anxious to have Robert move down in his vicinity and told him he would
be able to assist him and promised him a deed to a piece of land.
Robert made a trip down to the ranch, was absent about
a week and came back with the tidings that with Mr. Crane's assistance
he had bought a farm for $1200 and we were to move as soon as we could
"pack up our duds and away."
So in the ten days from the time of Robert's return, we
started for our new home... the distance is but 55 miles, and we made it
easily in one day, in a light spring wagon...
We arrived there at eight in the evening, and drove up
to a large adobe mansion, built originally in the old Spanish style but
recently modernized and fitted up so as to be very comfortable. Mr. Crane
received us with genuine hospitality, and after some delay and hesitation,
his wife presented herself. She talks English very imperfectly, and is
a good deal shy of Americans, which makes her seem reserved, but she is
kind at heart and I have no doubt she and I will be excellent friends.
Mr. Crane promises us assistance in purchasing fruit trees
next winter and the use of as many cows as we want for dairy purposes.
Altogether, we have a better prospect before us than we have had in California.
The Cranes and Canfields did remain friends, and in death
are buried a few feet apart in the San Juan Bautista cemetery.
The Rancho
Crane and Daniel Willson had land to spare and took out
the following ad in the Monterey Sentinel on May 3, 1856.
PASTURAGE
The undersigned will take from 1000 to 2000 head of cattle
and horses to pasture upon the ranchos of Lomos Muertes and Llano del
Tequisquite, or now commonly known as the Sanchez ranchos, near San Juan.
The grass is good and abundant. Favorable arrangements can be made upon
the application at the rancho, or at San Juan.
George W. Crane
Dan'l Willson
The Crane rancho was crowded with children from three of
Encarnacion's marriages. There were the four Sanchez children; Fidella,
the daughter she had by Sanford and three children by Crane: William, who
died as an infant and Virginia and Lilly.
In addition to having different fathers the Sanchez children
came from a Spanish background and each were worth an estimated $10 thousand
from their father's estate.
Fidella and the Crane sisters had an American heritage
and no money.
In 1857 the children began to marry.
The Marriages
First, Candelaria married George Castro; then in 1860,
Refugia and Thomas McKnight; in 1863, Guadalupe and James Roche; and in
1865, Jose Gregorio and Margaret Breen. In 1868, Fidella married James
S. Breen. The uncle of the two Breens was Patrick Breen, noted survivor
of the Donner Party.
The Assembly
In 1858, Crane was elected to the state assembly from
Monterey County. One of the first bills he introduced was for the creation
of a new county from a portion of Monterey County. Residents around San
Juan were tired of making the long trip to the city of Monterey to transact
legal business.
Dealing with the Sanchez probate no one made the trip
more often than Crane. The bill died in committee, however, and sixteen
years would pass before San Benito County would be formed.
Crane also introduced a bill in 1858 allowing "certain
parties" to build a toll bridge across the Pajaro River at the place called
the Malpaso, the site where Sanchez had drowned. Crane was one of the "certain
parties" owning the property known as "The Ferry." He had purchased it
from Joseph R. Beals a few years earlier along with the right to build
a toll bridge if authorized by the legislature. Crane's bill was vetoed
by the governor.
Another attempt was made in 1862 when a bridge bill was
passed. Crane, along with James P. Sargent, and others had the right to
build the bridge after incorporating as the Malpaso Bridge Company. The
company had taken Malpaso as its name in spite of the negative aspect of
the word as an evil passage. The bridge was built under very favorable
terms; the company could charge tolls that would provide an annual return
of 20 percent of the value of the bridge. After five years the counties
of Santa Clara and
Monterey could buy the bridge at an appraised value set
by the bridge company and the two counties.
Crane's income as an attorney in San Juan was not large
and for a time he kept an office in Monterey at the United States Hotel.
To add to his troubles he began to go into debt, owing
at one time over $8 thousand to some well known Monterey County men: James
McMahon, David Jacks, Daniel Murphy, and Florence Spitts. There have always
been rumors that Crane borrowed the money to finance his gambling habit.
In 1857 he lost his half of Rancho Llano del Tequisquite
and Lomerias Muertas for failing to pay $200 in property taxes. Although
both ranchos were sold by the sheriff, Crane was able to redeem the properties
before the sales became final. After getting them back he borrowed $8,500
from Martin Murphy, putting the land up as security. The interest rate
was two percent a month, but he managed to pay it back.
In spite of being frequently in debt, Crane continued
to buy other real estate. He bought a seven acre lot in San Juan, a lot
in Monterey, and a one tenth interest in the 4,000 acre Rancho San Antonio
from Maria Larios for $3,000 in gold coin. She was the widow of Manuel
Larios who donated the land for the present San Juan Cemetery; a plaque
commemorates his generosity. He and his family are buried in their own
section of the cemetery.
Chapter Seventeen