Published in the Sept. 3-16, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
September is sure a busy month with all kinds of great activities happening in South County. I’m visiting Chitactac-Adams on back to back days the last weekend in September for a couple of reasons. First, Santa Clara County Parks is sponsoring a Family Day on Saturday that celebrates the culture of the native Amah Mustsun peoples who called this area home for hundreds of years. There will be a variety of activities for kids of all ages including tool and jewelry making, acorn processing and tours of the village site. The event starts at 10 a.m. and concludes at 2 p.m.
On Sunday, Chictactac-Adams will be much quieter and the pace much more leisurely as we enjoy an autumn wind rustling through the oak trees and contemplate the significance of the acorn harvest. My second reason for visiting the park is to focus more on the history of the Adams School site. After the Native Americans of Chitiactac were forced into the mission system, an early pioneer by the name of John Hicks Adams, drawn to California by Gold Rush fever, entered into the picture. He initially worked the diggings near Hangtown (Placerville) in 1849.
In 1853, his family settled on a portion of Rancho Solis farming an old ranch at the confluence of Uvas and Little Arthur creeks near the slopes of Mt. Madonna. In 1856, the Adams family donated a parcel of land along Uvas Creek to the county and a school district (Adams) was formed and a building erected to serve the families living in the immediate area.
The story of John Hicks Adams and the Adams School District is right out of the Wild West folklore. Children arriving to school in the mornings often came across bear and mountain lion tracks. Adams himself was quite an adventurer and heroic figure. After realizing success in the gold fields and being one of the first to explore the Lake Tahoe region, he became interested in local politics, serving early on as a county supervisor and in 1863 elected to be sheriff. He developed quite the reputation as a lawman, especially for his role in the pursuit and capture of the notorious highwayman Tiburcio Vasquez.
Another story has Adams and a posse of deputies surrounding a shack near Almaden where a band of renegade Confederate soldiers in 1864 were holed up. A shoot-out ensued just like in the movies with Sheriff Adams being shot in the chest but the bullet struck his pocket watch and only slightly injured his ribs.
Adams was elected Sheriff for three terms, finally retiring in 1876 and then moving on to become a Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Arizona Territory.
In 1878 he was killed at age 58 in an ambush by five Mexican bandits. I cannot complete the story of early Santa Clara County sheriffs without mentioning John Murphy who served a four-year term beginning in 1857.
John was the son of Martin Murphy Sr. His family crossed the country and scaled the Sierras in 1844 when John was 19 years old. San Martin, Morgan Hill and Gilroy have deep roots with the Murphy family.
It should be a wonderful weekend at Chitactac-Adams. The park is open year-round so if your schedule is too full, plan to visit this jewel of a park in the future and enjoy a peaceful step back in time.
