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Published: Sunday, Jul. 12, 2009

Dan Krieger: Times Past

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It was the social event of 1850 in our part of the world, a real “fandango,” celebrating the union of the beautiful Josefa Dana and Judge Henry Tefft.

Tefft was a delegate to California’s first Constitutional Convention the year before.

The best man was Tefft’s good friend William Rich Hutton. One of the few surveyors in California, Hutton had just completed a survey of Los Angeles. He was in the process of doing the first survey of our county seat and Capt. John Wilson’s Rancho La Cañada de Los Osos.

Tefft’s diaries, now at the Huntington Library, tell the story of the wedding at Nipomo’s Dana Adobe:

“By noon, two days before the wedding day, the relatives began to arrive.

“Hosts of beautiful and graceful girls and handsome matrons arrived, men young and old, all cousins of the bride’s mother’s ‘mi primo chapeta’ (my first cousin).

“The women came in ox carts — a lumbering two-wheeled machine — the wheels being sections cut from a large tree. The men invariably on horseback — and such horsemanship!

“On the day before the wedding, the ‘parientes’ (relatives) of the bride began to come early in the day. Relationships in California are counted as in Virginia, consequently the house was soon filled up.”

The adobe was sufficiently large for a family, but far too small to accommodate such a large crowd.

“The girls, 30 or 40 of them, slept in the ‘sala,’ on the tables or on mattresses or on rugs upon the floor.

“The young men slept in the corridor with a hide to keep them from the ground, each wrapped in his ‘serape,’ and perhaps with his saddle for a pillow.

“It was a merry crowd ... In the morning early, the boy who had gone to (gather) the horses ... reported that he had seen three (grizzly) bears.

“In an instant there was mounting (of the horses) and in a few minutes 20 men were careening over the fields.

“From the house the chase could be seen. It was short. The bear, a young one, was soon lassoed, a hide was place under him, and he was dragged to the house.

“It was proposed to have a bull and bear fight. But the little fellow had been too roughly handled and he died before noon.”

The family insisted that Hutton return to his regular room on the night following the wedding. He notes that “the entrance to my room was through the bridal chamber.

“In the morning, it was not easy to get out as I came in. So I waited, listening to hear movement in the next room.

“It was late. The sun was high. No movement.

“Supposing they were two early birds and gone out long before, I ventured out.

“As I stepped into the bridal chamber, the bride was in the act of getting out of bed.

“But I was not squeamish. I said ‘Good morning’ and passed on.”

On July 19 you can witness a re-enactment of the Tefft-Dana wedding and reception with period music and dance.

The audience will be invited to join in the reception party and the opportunity to learn historic dances.

The program will be performed once in the morning and repeated after lunch in the early afternoon.

Almost all the entertainments of the 1850 event short of “Bull and Bear Baiting” will be presented by the Friends of the Dana Adobe at their 10th Annual Heritage Day.

You will even get to meet a recent subject of “Times Past,” Judge Pablo de la Guerra, played by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rogelio R. Flores.

The free event is at Rancho Nipomo’s Dana Adobe, 671 South Oakglen Road, Nipomo from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Experience a historical wedding

Witness a re-enactment of the Tefft-Dana wedding and reception with period music and dance. The audience will be invited to join in the reception party and to learn historic dances.

The program will be performed once in the morning and repeated after lunch in the early afternoon.

The free event is at Rancho Nipomo’s Dana Adobe, 671 South Oakglen Road, Nipomo, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 19.

Dan Krieger is a professor emeritus of history at Cal Poly and president of the California Mission Studies Association.