He Once Owned the Whole Town
By Ralph Head ( Head81@aol.com)

"Esta bastante, es bastante" (enough, enough!) yelled Julio Carrillo as he prepared to receive the First Degree of Masonry on February 12, 1853, the first Spanish Californian to become a Mason.

On June 1, 1997, Santa Rosa Lodge No. 57 rededicated the headstone on the grave of Julio Maria Tomas Carrillo in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat in reporting the event stated that Julio once owned the whole town.

Technically and legally the title of the founder of the City of Santa Rosa belongs to the man whose memory was honored by his Masonic lodge.

Julio was the fourth child of Dona and Joaquin Carrillo. Born in 1824, he was 12 years old when his widowed mother brought her family north from San Diego to her new land grant. Julio was 21 when the Bear Flag was raised at Sonoma.

Dona Mario Carrillo built an adobe house on Santa Rosa Creek and was the first non-Indian resident in Santa Rosa Valley. When she died in 1849, Julio inherited the land. Four years later Barney Hoen bought 70 acres from Julio and together they planned the first streets in the town with a plaza in the center. According to Fifty Years of Masonry in California, Julio Carrillo was the first native Californian of Spanish blood to apply for and receive the degrees of Masonry in California. When his ranch, Santa Rosa Rancho, was being surveyed, Julio overhead a discussion among the surveyors pertaining to Masonry. Julio inquired what Masonry meant and after receiving information expressed a desire to become a Mason. A member by the name of Derby could not suppress his sense of humor and advised Julio that he would need a branding iron made of the finest steel and that he and all his herd of horses would have to be branded before he could become a Mason. This proves to all that for every horse he sold or gave away was "an honest, square deal."

On the night of his initiation the charcoal was lighted, the branding iron heated, and at the proper moment applied to his backside with some protection between Julio and the iron so as not to burn him. Pieces of animal hide and hair were placed on the burning coals, and candidate Julio, feeling the heat of the branding iron and smelling the burning hide, yelled in Spanish, "Esta bestante, es bastante," (enough, enough). After the initiation and finding no scar, Julio broke out in laughter and exclaimed, "El Diablo, El Diablo" (the devil, the devil).

Brother Carrillo was initiated in Temple Lodge No. 14, where later lodge records were lost or destroyed. An examination of the returns of Santa Rosa Lodge No. 57 finds that he affiliated on September 29, 1854, enrolled as a Master Mason. He later became a Royal Arch Mason. Years later Brother Julio lost his cattle, horses, and rancho, all his fortune but his humble home. He was employed as a janitor at the Court House, was tiler of Santa Rosa Lodge, and the Guard of Santa Rosa Chapter Royal Arch Masons.

Julio Carrillo died on October 30, 1889, and was buried with Masonic honors by the lodge. At his funeral a short address was given by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, whose land gave rise to the City of Vallejo. Were it not for his Masonic membership he would have died in want. According to Sherman's Fifty Years of Masonry in California, Brother Carrillo, the man who once owned Santa Rosa, was a noble, courteous, generous, and hospitable man. Temple Lodge of Sonoma, Santa Rosa Lodge, and the Masons of California are proud that a man of the character of Brother Julio Maria Tomas Carrillo was once a member of the Craft. The rededication of his headstone in the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery gives testimony to the love and respect Santa Rosa Lodge and the Masons of the state have for their brother, the first Californian of Spanish blood to become a Mason.

Sources: Sherman's Fifty Years of Masonry in California, Hundred Years of Masonry in California, and The Santa Rosa Press Democrat and the column Gaye LeBaron's Notebook, and data provided by Master Alfred Truslow.