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THE 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST DISCOVERY. 
 SETTLEMENT, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA, 
 
 AND A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL THE IMPORTANT EVENTS 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 ITS GREAT CITY: 
 
 TO WHIOH ABE ADDED, 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF SOME PROMINENT CITIZENS. 
 
 BY- 
 FRANK SOULE, JOHN H. GIHON, M. D., 
 
 AND 
 
 JAMES NISBET. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FLNE ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 " Go to, let lis build ns a city, and a tower, 
 Whose to]> may reach unto heaven; 
 And let us make us a name." 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 I). APPLET ON & COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY. 
 SAN FRANCISCO: MONTGOMERY STREET. 
 LONDON: 10 LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 M.DCSC0.LV. / < C~~. 
 
Entered, according ti> Act «f Congress, in the year 185i, by 
 D. A PPLETON & COMPANY, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District 
 of New York. 
 
TO THE 
 
 'SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS," 
 
 THIS WORK 
 is 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHORS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Were not the plan, scope and purpose of the present volume sufficiently 
 explained in the text of the work itself, we should despair of adequately 
 initiating the reader in these subjects in the limited space necessarily 
 assigned to a Preface. It is not necessary to offer a reason for the ap- 
 pearance of these " Annals." To read and to know something of the 
 history of this new Tadinor which has grown up so suddenly in the midst 
 of what was but recently merely a desert, the centre of that vast trade 
 which the golden smile of California opened at once to the world, is so 
 natural and inevitable a desire, that it may be taken for granted, and 
 dismissed as a foregone conclusion. The plan of the work is such as its 
 nature seemed to require, and the style and manner of treatment must 
 rest for approval and criticism with the Pu'blic, for whom it was written 
 and to whom it is now submitted. 
 
 To avoid the necessity of frequent references in the body of the work 
 to authorities, and to those who have generously extended to the authors 
 facilities for its production, the Preface has been selected as the most 
 fitting place for expressing our obligations. For unrestricted access to 
 the " Californian," the " California Star," and the " Alta California " 
 newspaper files, we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Edward Conner, 
 one of the proprietors of the last named journal. Much valuable statis- 
 tical and other information has been derived from the " San Francisco 
 Herald," full files of which were kindly placed at our disposal by its 
 editor and proprietor, Mr. John Nugent. The " California Chronicle," 
 from its commencement to the date of publication of this volume, was 
 also placed by the proprietors at our service. We are likewise indebted 
 
6 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 to Messrs. T. J. Nevins and Wm. H. 0 'Grady for information respect- 
 ing the public schools ; to Mr. J. L. Van Bokkelin, for important facts 
 concerning the fire department; to Mr. A. G. Randall, for particulars in 
 regard to military organizations ; to Rev's T. Dwigkt Hunt, Albert Wil- 
 liams, J. L. Ver Mehr, S. H. Willey and 0. C. Wheeler, for matter 
 relating to the early state of religion 'and churches in San Francisco ; 
 to Messrs. Thomas 0. Larkin, William A. Richardson, Jacob P. Leese, 
 Jacob R. Snyder, James Caldwell Low, Hiram Pierson, J. D. Steven- 
 son, Samuel Brannan, R. H. Perry, David Jobson, Samuel J. Bayard. 
 Nathaniel Gray and James King of William, for much useful and inter- 
 esting information regarding the early and present history of the city ; 
 to Mr. J. M. Ford, daguerreian artist, for gratuitous services in taking 
 portraits of many of the gentlemen whose memoirs are given ; and to 
 our citizens generally who have freely responded to our call for informa- 
 tion, whenever they have been appealed to for that purpose. Many bio- 
 graphical sketches designed for this work have been omitte 1 for want 
 of room, the volume having extended to nearly double the size originally 
 intended and promised. These, however, with other interesting matters 
 connected with the progress of San Francisco, and a history of all the 
 important cities and towns of California, will be published at an early 
 day, in another volume, a great portion of the material for which is al- 
 ready prepared. 
 
 The necessity of condensing within the reasonable space of a single 
 volume, the history of a city which has occupied for the five or six years 
 of its existence so much of the attention of the world, and the unavoid- 
 able collateral history of California, has prevented, to some extent, a 
 natural impulse and inclination to indulge more at length in many inter- 
 esting details. But it is believed that the gist of the whole matter is 
 embraced in the history as written, and that no important event has been 
 omitted, which would have been of interest to the general reader. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 OH \PTER I.— Proposed treatment of the work.— Etymology of the name California. — Lower or 
 
 Old California. — Grixalra and Mendoza.— First discovery.— Expeditions of Cortcz. — Cabrillo.— 
 Fcrrelo.— Drake.— Drake s description of the natives.— Bodega and San Francisco Bays.— Sir 
 Francis Drake's Bay.— Captain Thomas Cavendish.— Captain Woodes Rogers.— His description 
 of the natives. — The English buccaneering expeditions along the west coasts of the Americas.— 
 Political reasons why the Spanish Government strennously prosecuted the discovery and settle- 
 ment of California. P 21 
 
 CHAPTER II.— Expeditions of Viscaino.— Admiral Otondo and Father Kino.— First settlement, and 
 introduction of the priest rule in the Californias. — Failure and w ithdrawal of the first missions. 
 — Renewed attempts to make settlements.— Father Salva-Tierraand his coadjutors.— Final estab- 
 lishment of the Jesuits in the country.— Geographical discoveries of Father Kino. — Jesuits ex- 
 pelled and superseded by Franciscan Friars ; these, in turn, by the Dominican Monks. — Population 
 and physical character of Old or Lower California 88 
 
 CHAPTER III.— First settlement of New or Upper California by Franciscan Monks.— Supposed 
 earliest discovery of San Francisco Bay. — Origin of the name —Establishment of a Mission and 
 Presidio there, and ceremonies on the occasion.— Gradual establishment of Missions and Presidios 
 over the country.— List of these, and population of some at various dates.— The gente de razon 
 and (he bestias, or the rational creatures and beasts of the country.— Causes why free white set- 
 tlers few in number.— Character i f the natives as given by Venegas, and other writers. — Progress 
 and apparent destiny of the Anglo-Saxons on the Pacific 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Conduct of the Fathers towards the natives.— Their mode of instructing, employ- 
 ing and subsisting the converts.— The Fathers do not appear to have promoted the true welfare 
 of the aborigines, or done any good to humanity. — Pictures, if gaudily colored and hon ibL' in 
 subject, great aids to conversion. — Missions and population of the country at recent dates. — 
 Table on this subject — Tables of the farm produce and domestic cattle of the country.— Table of 
 
 prices 66 
 
 CHAPTER V.— Pious Fund of California.— General description of the Missions.— Patriarchal kind 
 of life of the Fathers.— Reflections on the subject.— General description of the Presidios, Castillo*, 
 and their garrisons, and of the free Pueblos and Ranchios 67 
 
 ('H.VPTER VI.— Independence of Mexico in 1822, and gradual changes in the character and constitu- 
 tion of the Missions. — Manumission of the Indians in 1826; but plan found unworkable, and re- 
 turn to the old state of things. — Gradual disappearance of tho Pious Fund. — Increasing riches of 
 the Fathers. — Changes of 1833 and 1884 in the Missions, and attempts by the Mexican Congress 
 to secularize their property. — Santa Anna. — Attempted Centralization of the Mexican Govern- 
 ment. — Overthrew of [lie old Federal Constitution in 1836. — Revolt and Declaration of Indepen 
 dence of the Californians. — Continual sinking of the Fathers, and final fall of the Missions in 
 1845. — Indian converts sent adrift, and Mission property sold or rented. — Cost of the support 
 of the Missions to the Spanish and Mexican Governments 74 
 
s 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. — California distinct in physical character and national feeling from the other 
 Mexican provinces. — Beginning and progress of immigration into the country. — The Russians at 
 Bodega Bay. — Later great increase of foreign white settlers ; Americans largely preponderating. 
 — Outrage committed upon the settlers by Mexican authorities. — Commodore Jones takes pos- 
 session of Monterey. — Foreign settlers scatter themselves over the whole country, and silently, 
 but rapidly, revolutionize or Americanize it. — Origin of the war of 1846 between the Mexican 
 and American States SI 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. — Col. John C. Fremont — General Jose Castro.— Fremont declares war against 
 California.— Capture of Sonoma.— Proclamation of William B. Ide. — Letter of Pio Pico, Governor 
 of the Californias, to Thomas 0. Larkin, Consul of the United States. — Thomas 0. Larkin's reply 
 to Pio Pico. — California declared independent. — California desired by the American Government. 
 — Col. Stevenson's regiment. — Movements of General Kearny. — Seizure of Monterey. — Proclama- 
 tion of Com. Sloat. — Commander Montgomery takes possession of Terba Buena and Fremont of 
 San Juan 90 
 
 CHAPTER IX. — Commodore Stockton takes charge of the American forces in California.— Hostility 
 of the Californians. — Proclamation of Com. Stockton. — Landing at San Pedro, and manoeuvres 
 of the sailor army. — Castro's commissioners. — March on Los Angeles, and flight of General 
 Castro.— Triumphant entry into Los Angeles. — Provisional government formed. — The difficulties 
 of Stockton's march, and the complete success of his plans. — Reported hostility of the Walla- 
 Walla Indians. — Enthusiastic reception of Stockton at San Francisco and other places. — Satis- 
 faction of the people of California with the new government.— Stockton designs to cross Mexico 
 and unite with the forces of General Taylor 101 
 
 CHAPTER X. — Insurrection of the Californians. — Proclamation of General Flores. — Defeat Bnd 
 surrender of Talbot and Gillespie. — Captain Mervine defeated, with the crew of the Savannah. — 
 Com. Stockton defeats the Californians at San Diego. — Defeat of General Kearny at San Pasqual. 
 — The official relations of Com. Stockton and Gen. Kearny. — Movement against Los Angeles. 
 — Battles of the Rio San Gabriel, and the Plains of the Mesa. — Fremont negotiates with General 
 Flores and Andreas Pico. — Fremont appointed Governor, and subsequently tried by Court Mar- 
 tial. — Arrival of Commodore Shubrick, and the confirmation of General Kearny as Governor. — 
 Mexican Governors of California. — Foreign Consuls in the Territory 118 
 
 CHAPTER XI. — Peace conclndcd between the Mexican and American States. — Terms of the Treaty. 
 — California ceded to the United States. — The country ruled provisionally by American Govern- 
 ors. — Rapid increase of population by immigration.— Discovery of gold on the American River 
 by Mr. James W. Marshall. — Great excitement in consequence of the discovery, and rush of peo- 
 ple to the gold placers. — Mixed character of the population. — Necessity for the establishment of 
 a proper form of Government. — Independent sectional legislation inadequate and unsatisfactory. 
 — Meetings held to effect a general civil organization. — General Riley issues a proclamation for 
 a meeting to be held at Monterey to adopt a State Constitution. — Names of delegates appointed. 
 —Meeting at Monterey. — Constitution of California adopted, and rejoicings on the occasion. . 128 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— Geographical limits of Upper California. — General description of the country.— 
 Two great divisions of the northern part of the State. — Fertility of the soil.— Peculiarities of 
 the climate.— Two seasons : wet and dry.— Products of the country. — Fogs and winds on the 
 coast. — The harbors. — Country west of the Sierra Nevada. — The Sacramento and San Joaqnin 
 rivers, and their valleys. — This region of country abounds in timber. — Excessive heat in the dry 
 season. — Localities of the chief gold placers.— Immense size of trees. — Silver, lead, copper and 
 coal mines. — Advantages to the immigrant 140 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Description of the Golden Gate.— Origin of the name.— The Bays of San Francisco, 
 San Pablo, and Snisun.— Rivers emptying into Snisun Bay.— Description of the adjacent coun- 
 try. — Indian tradition.— Remarkable fertility of the soil.— Farm produce and mode of farming.— 
 Location of the City of San Francisco — The name Terba Buena — The first house built— Dis- 
 advantages of the locality.— No provision made for desirable public squares or parks U9 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 it 
 
 CHAPTER II. — Tlio Mission and Presidio of San Francisco. — Formation and survey of the village 
 of Terba Buena. — Disputes and litigation in regard to Verba Buena being a Pueblo. — Captain 
 Richardson the first Harbor Master. — Vi-its of national and other vessels to Yerba Buena Cove. 
 — Reasons why the whale ships ceased to enter the harbor for supplies.— Traffic between Verba 
 Buena and foreign ports. — Hides and tallow the chief exports. — Prices obtained for these. — 
 Heavy rains and their effects. — Earthquakes. — Unusual drought. — Mr. Jacob P. Leese establishes 
 himself at Terba Buena — Celebration of the Fourth of July at Leese's house. — First child born. 
 — Limits of the original survey 162 
 
 CHAPTER III. — Removal of the Hudson's Bay Company. — Rapid growth and increase of population 
 of Yerba Buena. — First newspapers established in California. — Tables showing the number 
 of inhabitants in 1847, with their places of birth, ages, sexes and occupations.— Ordinance of the 
 alcalde changing the name of Yerba Buena to San Francisco. — W. A. Bartlett was the first alcalde 
 under the American flag, who was succeeded by George Hyde, and he by Edwin Bryant. — Pow- 
 ers of an alcalde. — Great sale of beach and water lots, agreeably to a decree of General Kearny. 
 — Price of grants of property, and subsequent increased value of city lots. — Width of the streets. 
 —Municipal regulation restricting purchasers 178 
 
 CHAPTER IV. — Captain Montgomery hoists the American flag on Portsmouth Square. — Arrival of 
 the ship Brooklyn from N,ew York, with a large company of Mormon and other immigrants. — 
 Disputes among her passengers. leading to the first jury trial in San Francisco. — Grand ball at 
 the residence of Win. A. Leidesdorff.— Nautical fete given by Capt. Simmons.— Public reception 
 of Com. Stockton. — Attempts to establish a public school. — Name of town changed to San Fran- 
 cisco. — Number of buildings and Inhabitants.— Suffering immigrants in tho Sierra Nevada. — 
 Trustees of the proposed school chosen. — Delegates to represent the District of San Francisco in 
 the new legislative council. — Arrival of Col. Stevenson and New York Volunteers. — Vessels in 
 the harbor, 13th March, 1847.— "The California Star '' adopts the name of San Francisco. — Mails 
 established between San Francisco and San Diego. — Proposed erection of a church. — Grand illn- 
 mination in honor of Gen. Taylor's victory at Buena Vista.— Celebrations of Anniversaries. — 
 Public meeting to consider the claims of Col. Fremont to the office of Governor of the Terri- 
 tory.— Sale of beach and water lots.— Election of the first town council.— The first public school. 
 —Gales in San Francisco Bay.— The first steamboat.— Thanksgiving Day. — Commercial Statis- 
 tic* 186 
 
 CHAPTER V.— Resolutions concerning gambling.— Public sale of City Property.— Price Current 
 published.— Condition and population of the town.— Overland express to Independence, Mo. — 
 George Hyde, alcalde, resigned, and succeeded by Dr. J. Townsend.— Death of Wm. A. Leides- 
 dorff.— Discovery of gold, and immediate effects.— Illumination in celebration of the peace be- 
 tween Mexico and the United States.— Dr. T. M. Leavenworth elected alcalde.— First brick 
 house— Public meeting to regulate the price of gold dust— First square-rigged vessel discharged 
 at Broadway wharf.— Judicial limits of the town.— Rev. T. D. Hunt chosen chaplain.— First 
 issue of the "Star and Californian."— State of the markets.— Public meeting to organize a Pro- 
 visional Government— New town council elected.— Election declared invalid.— Duties collected 
 at the Cnstom-House 199 
 
 CHAPTER YI.-General Effects of the Gold Discoveries , 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— The Alta California newspaper established.— Delegates elected to the proposed 
 convention to be held at San Jose.— New town council elected — Three town councils at one 
 time.— Meeting of the convention to frame a civil government postponed.— Public meeting re- 
 specting the conflicting councils.— Public meeting concerning negro slavery.— Town councils 
 resigned, and legislative assembly chosen.— Arrival of the steamship California.— Address of 
 delegates to civil government convention.— Arrival of steamship Oregon, and Col. John W. 
 Geary with the first United States mails.— General Riley announced territorial governor.— Acts 
 of the legislative assembly and of tho governor.— Meetings concerning municipal and State govern- 
 ments.— Growth, population and general prosperity of the city.— Gambling and other vices and 
 crimes 218 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— The Hounds— Election of Supreme Jndge, delegates to convention and mu- 
 nicipal officers.— Alcalde's address to the Ayuntamiento.— Duties of prefects.— The prison brig 
 Euphemia and store-ship Apollo.— Churches.— Regulations and appointments of the Ayunta- 
 
10 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 miento. — The "Pacific News" commenced.— Meeting of the Constitution Convention at Mon- 
 terey. — Merchants' Exchange. — Steam Navigation. — Death of Nathan Spear. — First demo- 
 cratic meeting.— Circus opened.— Constitution approved and State officers elected. — First habita- 
 tion on Eincon Point. — Thanksgiving Bay.— Judge Almond's court. — The " Alta California." 
 
 First great fire 221 
 
 CHAPTER IX. — Increase of population — No proper homes.— Character of the houses. — Condition 
 of the streets. — Employments of the people. — Every thing in apparent confusion ; still nobody 
 . idle, and much business accomplished. — How the inhabitants lived. — Money rapidly made and 
 I'reely spent. — Gambling. — Shipping deserted. — Extravagantly high prices obtained for every 
 thing. — Rents and wages. — The mines the source of all the wealth. — Destitution, sickness and 
 death.— Increase of crime —Aspect of the Plaza.— Mixed character of the inhabitants.— The Post- 
 office. — A pleasant prospect 243 
 
 CHAPTER X.— Great sale of water lots. — An election day — Newspapers. — Approval by the ayunta- 
 miento of the City Charter, and limits of San Francisco. — Squatter difficulty at Eincon Point. — 
 Political meeting on Portsmouth Square. — The Colton grants. — First county election. — Col. 
 John C. Hayes elected Sheriff. — City Charter adopted by the State Legislature. — First election 
 under the City Charter.— Changes in the Common Council 264 
 
 CHAPTER XI. — Third great fire. — Aldermen's salaries. — Indignation meetings. — Veto message of 
 the mayor. — Shipping in San Francisco Bay. — Celebration of the Fourth of July.— The Oregon 
 Liberty Pole. — Custom-house at the corner of California and Montgomery streets.— Departure 
 from California of General Riley. — Society of California Pioneers. — Squatter riots at Sacramento. 
 —Suffering immigrants. — Presentation of Chinese Books. — Funeral ceremonies on occasion of 
 the. death of President Taylor. — A Chinese document 277 
 
 CHAPTER XII. — The first City Directoiy published. — Monetary crisis. — Fourth great fire. — Death 
 of Captain Bezer Simmons. — The wharves. — Celebration on account of the admission of California 
 into the Union of American States.— Explosion of the steamer Sagamore. — City Hospital burned. 
 —Improvements in the city. — Plank road to tbe Mission Dolores. — Death of the mayor of Sacra- 
 mento. — Thanksgiving Day.— Fire in Sacramento-street 289 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. — Population in 1S50.— City improvements.— Grading and planking streets.— 
 Wharves, steamers, manufactures. — Supply and demand for goods. — Mines yielding abundantly. 
 — Expresses established. — Moral progress. — Better state of things. — Cholera.— California admitted 
 to the Union. — City Charter granted. — First Common Council. — The gold medals for Aldermen.— 
 Corruption of officials. — Colton Grants. — Leidesdorff Estate. — City finances. — Outrages and fires. 
 — The prisons and police. — Lynch Law agitated 800 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— The Gold Bluffs and Pacific Mining Company.— The excitement at the City Hall 
 in February, 1851. — Attempt to Lynch Burdue and Windred. — Their subsequent escape. — Burn- 
 ing of the steamers Hartford and Santa Clara. 31 1 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— Judge Parsons and tbe case of William Walker for contempt of Court.— Act of 
 Legislature ceding Beach and Water Lots to the City of San Francisco. — Act to re-incorporate 
 the city. — New city limits.— First election of municipal officers under revised charter.— Act 
 passed to fund the State debt. — Act to establish State Marine Hospital. —Act to fund the floating 
 debt — Indebtedness of the city. — Municipal officers trafficking in city scrip.— Fifth great fire. 322 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— T. Butler King removing the enstom-house deposits. — Frank Ball's song, and 
 custom-house appointment. — Dr. Robinson's rhymes. — Incendiarism. — The case of Lewis, 
 charged with arson. — The facilities with which criminals escaped from punishment. — The Vigi- 
 lance Committee. — Contracts of Mr. Merrifield and the Mountain Water Lake Company to supply 
 the city with water 384 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— The sixth great fire.— Destruction of old buildings.— Execution by the Vigi- 
 lance Committee of Stuart, Whittaker and McKenzie. — County and city elections. — The Vigi- 
 lance Committee suspend operations. — Wells & Co. suspend payment. — Opening of the Jenny 
 Lind Theatre. — The American Theatre opened. — Shipping in San Francisco Bay. — Ball of the 
 Monumental Fire Company. — Indian disturbances and volunteer military companies.— Severe 
 storm ! 341 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 II 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. — Immigration diminished — Females comparatively few. — Great city improve- 
 ments.— Productions of the country, game, &c, in the markets.— Character of the community 
 changing for the better.— The circulating medium.— Extravagance in living, dress, &c— Personal 
 rencontres and other outrages common.— Titles to real estate uncertain. — Legal decisions. — De- 
 preciated value of merchandise. — Amusements, dissipation and recreation. — The foreign popula- 
 tion. -Great crimes less frequent. — The finances of the city 35" 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— Dr. Peter Smith.— His contract with the city to take charge of the indigent sick. 
 — The city's indebtedness. — Smith's judgments and executions. — Injunctions of the commission- 
 ers of the funded debt — Sale and sacrifice of the city property under Smith's judgments... 370 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— The Chinese in California —Act passed to fund the floating debt of the State. 
 — The State Marine Hospital. — Act to convert into a seven per cent, stock the floating debt 
 of the County of San Francisco. — Anniversary of fires.— Meetings of the Vigilance Committee. 378 
 
 CHAPTER XXI.— Clipper Ships.— Enormous Taxation.— Purchase of the Jenny Lind Theatre by 
 the Common Council. — Times and Transcript removes to San Francisco. — Fourth of July cele- 
 bration.— Great scarcity of printing paper. — Duel betw een Hon. Edward Gilbert and General 
 Denver. — Custom of Duelling. — Funeral ceremonies on occasion of the death of Henry Clay. 391 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.— Australian gold mines.— Restlessness of miners.— Many who emigrated to Aus- 
 tralia return to California. — Superior advantages of the latter place. — Second city directory 
 published. — California Telegraph Company.— General election.— Firo in Sacramento City.— 
 Another tire in San Francisco.— Intelligence received of the death of Daniel Webster. — Falling 
 of the waters of Lake La Mercede. — Another city directory. — Firemen's election. — Legal exe- 
 cution of Jose Forni. — Destructive storm 402 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII.— Increase of population.— Mixed character of the immigrants.— Chinese, Peru- 
 vians, Cuilenos, and other foreigners, notoriously vicious. — Sufferings of the overland immigrants. 
 —Greater attention paid to agricultural pursuits.— City improvements still progressing.— Great 
 fires no longer possible.— Fire insurance agencies established.— Manufactories.— New gold dis- 
 coveries.— Emigration to Australia.— Merchandise and provisions commanding high prices.— 
 The clipper ships.— Filthy condition of the streets.— Great abundance of rats.— The city exten- 
 sion, hay, and shipping.— The strong winds preventive of disease.— Peculations of officials - 
 San Francisco only suitable for the Industrious. — The city growing in importance.— Change of 
 inhabitants.— Fascinations of San Francisco life.— Reflections concerning the moral condition of 
 the city 4^1 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV.— Commerce.— Mercantile Library Association.— The Limantour claim.— Elec- 
 tion of delegates to revise the City Charter.— Third annual celebration of the organization of the 
 Fire Department— Steamships lost.— Extension of the city water front.— United States Marino 
 Hospital 427 
 
 CHAPTER XXV.— Russ's garden.— The German population.— May-day celebration by school-chil- 
 dren —Burning of the Rassette House.— Mountain Lake Water Company.— General State Hospi- 
 tal—Drinking houses.— Clipper ships and short passages.— Military parade and celebration of 4th 
 of July.— Dedication of the First Congregational Church.— St. Mary's (Catholic) Church.— Unita- 
 rian Church.— Seamen's Bethel.— Squatter difficulties.— Store-ships burned.— Strikes by mechan- 
 ics and laborers for higher wages.— Anniversary of the German Turn verein.— City and county 
 election.— Lafayette Hook and Ladder Company organized.— The French inhabitants.— Sweeney 
 & Baugh's electric telegraph 445 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI.— Important legal decision of the Supreme Court confirming Alcaldes' grants.— 
 Burning of the St Francis Hotel.— Opening of the telegraph communication to Marysville.— Lone 
 Mountain Cemetery.— Anniversary of the day of St Francis — The Mission Dolores.— The Span- 
 ish races in California.— The Custom House Block.— The steamship Winfield Scott wrecked.— 
 Election of officers of the Fire Department— The Sonorian Filibusters.— Opening of the Metro- 
 politan Theatre.— Great sales of water lots.— Montgomery block 467 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII.— Numbers and description of the population of the State.— Amount of gold 
 produced from California mines.— San Francisco as related to California.— Population of San 
 Francisco.— City improvements — Commercial statistics 4S4 
 
12 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. — Prosperity of San Francisco.— Business activity. — Fortunes rapidly made. — 
 Disputes concerning titles to real estate. — Real property commanding extravagantly high prices. 
 — Social, moral and intellectual characteristics.— Gambling. — Vice less concealed in San Francisco 
 than in other cities. — The female population. — Expenses of housekeeping. — Foreign population. 
 — The marvollous progress of the city during the past few years 497 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. — Meeting of citizens regarding the State Revenue Act. — Run on Adams & Co. 
 — Banking and banking-housee. — The Express Building. — Weather unusually cold.— Effects of 
 the weather upon the interests of the country. — Le Count & Strong's Directory for 1S54. — 
 Loss of the clipper ship San Francisco.— The city lighted with gas.— Riot at the Mercantile 
 Hotel 510 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. — Commercial depression. — Decrease in the value of real estate and merchandise. 
 — Combination of the steamboat owners. — Rates of freight and passage on river steamers. — 
 Duels and duelling. — Sale of "government reserve" town lots. — Celebration of St. Patrick's day. 
 —Conviction of filibusters. — Opening of the San Francisco branch mint. — The Pacific railroad. — 
 Falling of tbe U. S. bonded-warehouse. — Explosion of the boiler of the steamboat " Secretary." 
 — Arrival of Chinese immigrants.— Quick passage of the clipper ship "Flying Cloud." — Wreck of 
 the "Golden Fleece" 519 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. — Trial of the Mexican consul. — Arrest of the French consul. — Chinese newspa- 
 per established.— German May-feast at Russ's Garden. — The Hoadley street grades. — Indictment 
 by the Grand Jury of Sonora filibusters. — Dedication of the Lone Mountain Cemetery.— Exten- 
 sive Conflagration. — Report of the funded debt commissioners.— Squatter difficulties. — Sale of 
 public property. — Captain Adams arrived with the Japan treaty. — Alderman elected 581 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII — Commercial depression. — Reduction of prices of merchandise and real estate. 
 — Fall in rents.— Improved character of the buildings. — The plaza being improved. — Govern- 
 ment fortifications of the harbor commenced. — Immigration and emigration. — The population. 
 — Yield of the gold mines. — Labor profitable in California. — The quicksilver mines.— Agricul- 
 tural resources. — Fisheries. — Telegraphs and railroads. — Ship-building. — Foreign relations. — Ice 
 and coal trade. — Mail steamers between San Francisco and Shanghae. — The international rail- 
 way. — San Francisco water front extension. — The proposed new city charter. — Claim of the 
 city to Pueblo lands. — Increase of sources of domestic comfort. — Immoralities continue to pre- 
 vail. — Duel and duelling. — Theatrical entertainments. — Daily newspapers. — Means of moral and 
 educational improvement 543 
 
 PART III. 
 
 The Hounds 553 
 
 The Vigilance Committee 562 
 
 Deaths and Burials 588 
 
 The Great Fires 598 
 
 The Fire Department 614 
 
 Steamer-Day 626 
 
 Hotels, Restaurants and Boarding-Houses 639 
 
 Public Amusements 658 
 
 Some Phases of San Francisco "Life" 665 
 
 Public Schools 675 
 
 Churches and Religion X . ■ 687 
 
 Independent Military Organizations 702 
 
 Social and Benevolent Institutions 709 
 
 Memoir of John W. Geary . . ■ 718 
 
 " Charles J. Brenham 735 
 
 " Stephen R. Harris, M. D 740 
 
 " C. K. Garrison 744 
 
 " Samuel Beannan 748 
 
 " Joseph L. Folsom 754 
 
 " Thomas O. Larkin 758 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 Memoie of John A. Sutter 765 
 
 " Maeiano de Guadalupe Vallejo 769 
 
 " Edward Gilbert 773 
 
 " William D. M. Howard 779 
 
 " Joseph F. Atwill 781 
 
 " Jonathan D. Stevenson 784 
 
 " William M. Gwtn 790 
 
 " Selim E. Woodwoeth 794 
 
 " Theodore Payne 799 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Geeat Seal of the State of California 805 
 
 Constitution of the State of California 806 
 
 Aot of Corporation of the City of San Francisco 816 
 
 Members of the Society of California Pioneees 822 
 
Custom house, now (,1354) being erected on Battery street. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 1. — Bartlett's General Map, showing the countries explored by the United 
 
 States and Mexican Boundary Commission .... 
 
 2. — Montgomery street, San Francisco, north, from California street, Frontispiece. 
 
 3. — Custom-house, being erected on Battery street, San Francisco . 14 
 
 4. — Seal of the Society of California Pioneers . . . .lit 
 
 5. — Map of the City of San Francisco ..... 20 
 
 6. — Portrait of Sir Francis Drake . . . . . .27 
 
 7. — Sir Francis Drake and California Indians .... 29 
 
 8. — Sir Francis Drake's Bay, or Jack's Harbor . . . .32 
 
 9. — Landing of Captain Woodes Rogers, in Upper California . . 35 
 
 10. — View of the country in the interior of California . . .39 
 
 11. — Spanish Ship of Seventeenth Century, and Coast of California . 42 
 
 12. — Mission Dolores, or Mission of San Francisco . . .48 
 
 13. — California Indians ....... 62 
 
 14 — Indians under Instruction . . • . . .57 
 
 15.— Father Garzes and California Indians .... 59 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 16. — Mission of Santa Barbara 
 
 17. — Mission of San Carlos .... 
 
 18. — A Mission Rancho ..... 
 
 19. — Portrait of Father Antonio Peyri 
 
 20. — Sutter's Fort, or New Helvetia 
 •21. —Portrait of Colonel John C. Fremont 
 '22. — Portrait of Thomas 0. Larkin .... 
 
 23. — Portrait of Commodore Robert F. Stockton 
 
 24. — Sutter's Mill ... . 
 
 25. — City of Monterey . . . 
 
 26. — Entrance to the Golden Gate • . . . 
 2V.— The Golden Gate ..... 
 
 28. — City of Stockton ..... 
 
 29. — Island and Cove of Yerba Buena 
 
 30. — Portrait of Jacob Primer Leese 
 
 31. — Celebration of the 4th of July at I.eese's House 
 
 32. — San Francisco from the Bay, in 1847 
 
 33. — Suffering Immigrants in the Sierra Nevada 
 
 34. — Rush for the Gold Regions .... 
 
 35. — San Francisco in the Winter of 1848 
 
 36. — A Mining Scene ...... 
 
 37. — San Francisco in 1849, from the head of Clay >treet 
 
 38. — Prison-brig Euphemia and Store-ship Apollo 
 
 39. — San Francisco in 1849, from head of California street 
 
 40. — Parker House and Dennison's Exchange, December, 1849 
 
 41. — Muddy Streets ..... 
 
 42. — Lodging House ...... 
 
 43. — Parker House, when first opened 
 
 44. — Adobe Custom-house on Portsmouth square 
 
 45. — Post-office, corner of Pike and Clay streets . 
 
 46. — The Presidio of San Francisco .... 
 
 47. — San Francisco, April, 1850, south side of Portsmouth square 
 
 48. — Fire of May 4th, 1850 ..... 
 
 49. — Diagram of Fire of May 4th, 1850 
 
 50. — Custom-house, corner of Montgomery and California streets 
 
 51. — Sacramento City .... 
 
 52. — Emigrant Train ..... 
 
 53. — Beach of Yerba Buena Cove, Winter of 1849-50 
 
 54. — Aldermen's Medals 
 
 55. — San Francisco, Winter of 1849-'50 
 
16 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 56. — City-hall, February 22d, 1851 ... .815 
 
 5*7. — Fire of May 4th, 1851 ... . :i30 
 
 58. — San Francisco after the Fire of May 4th, 1851 .... 332 
 
 59. — Caricature: " The King's Campaign " . . 336 
 
 60. — Hanging of Jenkins on the Plaza . . . 343 
 
 61. — Old City Hotel ....... 346 
 
 62. — Residence of Samuel Brannan, Esq., in 1847 .... 347 
 
 63. — Jenny Lind Theatre ..... . . 354 
 
 64. — East side of Portsmouth square, Spring of 1850 . . . 358 
 
 65. — New World Market, corner of Commercial and Leidesdorff streets . 361 
 
 66. — Chinese Merchants and Coolie ...... 379 
 
 67. — Chinese Gambling House ...... 383 
 
 68. — Chinese Females .... ... 385 
 
 69. — Chinese Merchants ....... 387 
 
 70. — Clipper-ship . ...... 392 
 
 71. — Scene in the Gold Mines ...... 404 
 
 72. — Parrott's Granite Block . . . . . . .415 
 
 73. — A Street Scene on a rainy night ..... 420 
 
 74. — "Wreck of the Steamship Tennessee ..... 435 
 
 75. — United States' Marine Hospital ..... 443 
 
 76. — Lager-bier Politicians ....... 447 
 
 77. — New Rassette House ....... 44!) 
 
 78. — First Congregational Church ...... 454 
 
 79. — Unitarian Church ....... 456 
 
 80. — French Shoe-blacks: a Street Scene ..... 462 
 
 81. — Outer Telegraph Station ...... -t64 
 
 82. — Inner Telegraph Station . . . . . . -165 
 
 83. — St. Francis Hotel, after the fire .... 46S 
 
 84. — Interior of a Mission Church ...... 470 
 
 85. — Custom-house Block ....... 473 
 
 86. — Montgomery Block . . . . . . .483 
 
 87. — Interior of the El Dorado : a Gambling Scene . . . 501 
 8S. — San Francisco Beauties: the Celestial, the Seiiora and Madame . 504 
 
 89. — Colored Population : Greaser, Chinaman and Negro . . 506 
 
 90. — View of San Francisco in 1854 ...... 510 
 
 91. — Express Building ....... 514 
 
 92. — Wilson's Exchange, Sansome street ..... 524 
 
 93. — San Francisco U. S. Branch Mint ..... 526 
 
 94. — City of Oakland, Contra Costa . ..... 528 
 
 95. — Celebration at Russ's Garden ...... 536 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 PAGE 
 
 96. — Lone Mountain Cemetery ...... 636 
 
 97. — Plaza, or Portsmouth Square, June, 1854 .... 545 
 
 98. — Charcoal Merchant ....... 549 
 
 99. — California Exchange, corner of Clay and Kearny streets, June, 1854 . 551 
 
 100. — New Merchants' Exchange, Battery street .... 552 
 
 101. — The Hounds . . . . . . . . .553 
 
 102. — Hanging of Whittaker and McKenzie .... 602 
 
 103. — Hanging of James Stuart ...... 680 
 
 104. — Verba Bueua Cemetery ...... 588 
 
 105. — Fire of June 22d, 1851 . . . . . .598 
 
 106. — Diagram of the Burnt District, May 4th, 1851 . . . 609 
 
 107. — Diagram of the Burnt District, June 22d, 1851 . . .612 
 
 108. — San Francisco Firemen . . . . . .614 
 
 109. — Departure of a Steamship ...... 626 
 
 110. — Homeward-bound Miners ...... 632 
 
 111. — Oriental Hotel . . ...... 639 
 
 112. — Interior of Winn's Branch . . . . , 643 
 
 113. — Turk with Sweetmeats ....... 646 
 
 114. — St. Francis Hotel ....... 648 
 
 115. — The Tehama House ....... 660 
 
 116. — International Hotel ....... 651 
 
 117. — Russ's Garden ........ 653 
 
 118. — Portrait of Mrs. A. F. Baker ..... 657 
 
 119. — " Miss Matilda Heron ...... 661 
 
 120. — Fancy Ball, California Exchange ..... 665 
 
 121. — The old School-house on Portsmouth Square .... 676 
 
 122. — Portrait of Col. T. J. Kevins ..... 680 
 
 123. — First Presbyterian Church . . . . . .687 
 
 124. — Presbyterian Church, destroyed by fire, June 22d, 1851 . . 691 
 
 125. — Present Presbyterian Church ...... 693 
 
 126. — Vallcjo street Catholic Church ..... 696 
 
 127. — St. Mary's Catholic Church ...... 698 
 
 128. — Armory Hall ....... 702 
 
 129. — Front street, Sacramento City ...... 704 
 
 130. — San Francisco Orphans' Asylum ..... 709 
 
 131. — Alcalde's Office, Portsmouth Square ..... 718 
 
 132. — Portrait of Col. John W. Geary . ... . .725 
 
 133. — " Charles J. Brenham ...... 736 
 
 134— " Stephen R. Harris, M. D. . . . . 740 
 
 135. — " C. K. Garrison ...... 744 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 136. — 
 
 Portrait of Samuel Brannan .... 
 
 748 
 
 lot. 
 
 Joseph L Folsom .... 
 
 . 754 
 
 138. 
 
 1 nomas V. L.aikin .... 
 
 758 
 
 139. — 
 
 John A. butter .... 
 
 . 765 
 
 140. — 
 
 James Marshall ..... 
 
 767 
 
 141. — 
 
 " Mariano de Guadalupe Vallejo 
 
 . 769 
 
 142. — 
 
 Itidwara (jiloert . ... 
 
 773 
 
 143. — 
 
 \\ imam u. i>i. nowani 
 
 779 
 
 144.— 
 
 " Jonathan D. Stevenson .... 
 
 784 
 
 145.— 
 
 William M. Gwin .... 
 
 790 
 
 146.— 
 
 " Selim E. Woodworth .... 
 
 <y4 
 
 147.— 
 
 " Theodore Payne .... 
 
 . 799 
 
 148. — Stove of T. Payne & Co., formerly the Jackson House 
 
 803 
 
 149.— 
 
 Great Seal of the State of California 
 
 . 805 
 
 150.— 
 
 Seal of the City of San Francisco .... 
 
 816 
 
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS, ELECTED JULY 7tn, 1854. 
 
 G. 15 Post, San Francisco. 
 J. C. L. Wadswortli, do. 
 13. S. Lippincott, do. 
 J. P. Lease, Monterey. 
 J. Belden, Santa Clara. 
 
 Jacob II. Snyder, President. 
 Vice-President*. 
 
 H. W. Tlieall, Tuolumne. 
 
 P. C. Carillo, Santa Barbara. 
 
 J. A. Sutter, Sutter. 
 
 3. Bidwell, Butte. 
 
 P. B. Cornwall, Sacramento. 
 
 W. A. Richardson, Marin 
 
 G. Yount, Napa. 
 
 H. L. Ford, Colusi. 
 
 C. 11. Johnson, Los Angeles. 
 S. Purdy. S:m .loaqnin. 
 
 J. Caldwell Low, Secretary. W. T. Sherman, Treusui 
 
 W. Van Voorhies, 
 J. M. Huxley, 
 
 Board of Directors. 
 
 0. P. Sutton, 
 G. F. Lemon, 
 
 J. Shew, 
 B. W. Haight 
 
 T. A. Warbaas, 
 
 Corresponding Members. 
 
 D. S. Tumor, S. B. Harris, F. Soule, 
 
 A. G. Abell. 
 
 W. B. FarwelL 
 
ANNALS OF SAN FB.ANCISCO. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Proposed Treatment of the Work— Etymology of the name California— Lower or Old California— 
 Grixalva and Mendoza— First Discovery — Expeditions of Cortez — Cabrillo— Ferrelo— Drake- 
 Drake's Description of the Natives— Bodega and San Francisco Bays— Sir Francis Drake's Bay- 
 Cavendish— Captain Woodes Rogers — His Description of the Natives — The English Buccaneering 
 Expeditions along the West Coasts of the Americas— Political Heasons why tho Spanish Govern- 
 ment strenuously prosecuted tho Discovery and Settlement of tho Californias. 
 
 It appears expedient, before entering upon the annals of 
 San Francisco proper, to give a short review of the first dis- 
 covery, settlement, and progress of California itself, including 
 an account of the aboriginal inhabitants, and of the first estab- 
 lishment, rise, and decline of the priest class, their sovereigns, 
 whose domination forms a most peculiar and interesting phase 
 in the general history of the country. The subject indeed com- 
 prehends, or naturally demands, some notice of these points ; 
 for, up to a recent period, San Francisco, from its being the 
 " golden gate " to the wealth of the State, and from its many 
 physical advantages, its population, the rapidity and grandeur 
 of its wondrous rise and progress, the energy of its citizens, the 
 extent of its home and foreign commerce, its universal fame, 
 arising chiefly from its being associated in the minds of men, 
 
22 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Americans as well as foreigners, with the first discovery and 
 subsequent astonishing produce of gold — San Francisco, from 
 these and other causes, has been in a great measure identified 
 with California itself. No history, therefore, of the city, could 
 be complete, unless it included some account of the circum- 
 stances which preceded and immediately accompanied its rise, 
 and which have made it what it almost already is, but which it 
 will more plainly soon become, the greatest and most magnifi- 
 cent, wealthy and powerful maritime city in the Pacific — a city 
 which is destined, one day, to be, in riches, grandeur and influ- 
 ence, like Tyre or Carthage of the olden time, or like Liverpool 
 or New York of modern days. 
 
 We propose to embody in a succinct and continuous narra- 
 tive, the subjects already particularly noticed — a general account 
 of the causes, progress, and consequences of the war of 1846, 
 between the Mexican and American States — the cession of Cali- 
 fornia to the latter — the first discovery of gold, and the imme- 
 diate results of that discovery upon the prosperity and popula- 
 tion of the country — its admission as a State into the American 
 Union — and a description of its physical geography, and of its 
 commercial, agricultural, pastoral, and mineral wealth, and 
 capabilities to receive and satisfy millions of additional inhabit- 
 ants. These matters will form Part First of the work. 
 
 We shall afterwards, at somewhat greater length, describe, 
 in a similar continuous narrative, the progress and the various 
 incidents which happened, year by year, and month by month, 
 in San Francisco itself, from the period when California was 
 ceded by the Mexicans, and State and town became American, up 
 to the present time, and which, properly speaking, alone consti- 
 tute the " Annals " of the city. This subject will constitute 
 Part Second. 
 
 In the subsequent portion of the volume, we shall devote 
 special chapters, in no particular order, to the more minute details 
 of whatever things were most peculiar and interesting — physical 
 and intellectual, social and moral, and their causes and conse- 
 quences — which marked the progress of the city, and gave it a 
 world-wide reputation for good or for evil. In this division of 
 the work will be included biographical and personal sketches, 
 
ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME CALIFORNIA. 23 
 
 and anecdotes of the more prominent and distinguished actors in 
 the bustling scenes of the time, and whose names are closely 
 associated either with the general history of California, or with 
 the particular rise and progress of San Francisco itself. These 
 topics will be comprehended in and constitute Part Third. 
 
 The remembrance of these matters is still fresh in the minds 
 of our people ; but, in the silent lapse of years, many of them 
 must gradually fade away. It would then be well, that after the 
 present generation disappears, our posterity should know something 
 of the early history and triumphant progress of their glorious 
 city, and of its worthiest or most noted sons, and the exciting, 
 troublous scenes of the last seven or eight years, all drawn from 
 the fullest and most accurate sources that are still to be had. 
 We propose then to make this book an original record of the sub- 
 jects alluded to. 
 
 The etymology of the name California is uncertain. Some 
 writers have pretended that it is derived from the two Latiu 
 words calida fornax, or, in the Spanish language, calientc fornalla 
 — a hot furnace. This, however, is doubted by Michael Venegas, 
 a Mexican Jesuit, in his " Natural and Civil History of California" 
 (2 vols. Madrid, 1758), a work of much research and high au- 
 thority. In his opinion, the early Spanish discoverers did not 
 name their new-found lands in this pedantic fashion. " I am 
 therefore inclined to think," he says, " that this name owed its 
 origin to some accident ; possibly to some words spoken by the 
 Indians, and misunderstood by the Spaniards," as happened in 
 several other cases. 
 
 The name California is first found in Bernal Diaz del Castillo, 
 an officer who served under Hernando Cortez, in the conquest of 
 Mexico, and who published a history of that extraordinary expe- 
 dition ; and is by him limited to a single bay on the coast. On 
 the other hand, Jean Bleau, the celebrated geographer (Amster- 
 dam, 1662), includes under the term all those immense tracks of 
 country lying west of New Spain and New Galicia, comprehend- 
 ing the whole coast line from the northern parts of South America 
 to the Straits of Anian (Behring's Straits). In this larger sense 
 of the word, Jean Bleau is followed by several other geographers. 
 
24 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 However, whatever be the limits of the country, the name has 
 occasionally changed. In some English maps it is called New 
 Albion, because Sir Francis Drake, the well known English 
 admiral, who touched on the coast in 1579, so styled it. About 
 a century later, it is denominated Islas Carolinas (the penin- 
 sula of California being then supposed to be an island), in honor 
 of Charles II. of Spain ; and this designation was adopted by 
 several writers and geographers of repute. After a time, the 
 original name of California was revived, and soon silently and 
 universally adopted. 
 
 California — meaning the existing Lower, or Old California, 
 was known to be a peninsula so early as 1541, when a map drawn 
 up at Madrid, by Castillo, already mentioned, represents the 
 direction of the coasts nearly as they are known at present. Yet 
 this fact was unaccountably forgotten for one hundred and sixty 
 years, when Father Kiihn (Kino, of the Spaniards) seemed, for 
 the first time, to prove that California was not an island, but a 
 peninsula. In the early part of the sixteenth century, dreams of 
 a direct western opening to the Indias filled men's minds, as 
 later did those of a north-west passage. This was the first idea 
 of Columbus, which led to his great discoveries, and which he 
 held till death. In 1523, Charles V., in a letter, dated from 
 Valladolid, recommended to Cortez to seek on the eastern and 
 western coasts of New Spain, for such a passage. Cortez, in his 
 answer to the emperor, speaks with the greatest enthusiasm of 
 the probability of such a discovery, " which," he adds, " will 
 render your majesty master of so many kingdoms that you will 
 be considered as the monarch of the world ; " and seems to have 
 undertaken several voyages for the purpose of ascertaining the 
 fact. 
 
 In 1534, Cortez fitted out two ships under the command of 
 Hernando Grixalva and Diego Becerra de Mendoza, a relation of 
 his own, partly to learn the fate of a missing vessel of a previous 
 expedition, but chiefly to continue the coast discoveries. These 
 two ships happened to separate the first night following their 
 departure from Tehuantepec, and did not meet again. Grixalva, 
 after sailing three hundred leagues, came to a desert island, which 
 he called Santa Thome, believed to lie near the point of Califor- 
 
EXPEDITIONS OF HERNANDO CORTEZ. 
 
 25 
 
 nia. This is supposed to be one of the group of islands now 
 called the Revillagigedo Islands. He proceeded no farther north, 
 and made no fresh discoveries ; but shortly afterwards returned 
 to New Spain. Becerra, the commander of the other ship of this 
 expedition, was of a choleric, haughty disposition ; and, having 
 shown that offensively to his people, was murdered by a malcon- 
 tent crew, led on by his pilot Ortun, orFortuiio Zimenes, a native 
 of Biscay. 
 
 Zimenes afterwards continued the voyage of discovery, and 
 appears to have sailed westward across the gulf, and to have 
 touched the peninsula of California. This was in the year 1534. 
 He therefore was the first discoverer of the country. " But," 
 says Venegas, " he could not fly from the hand of Omnipotence ; 
 for coming to that part which has since been called Santa Cruz 
 Bay, and seems to be part of the inward coast of California, he 
 went ashore, and was there killed by the Indians, with twenty 
 other Spaniards." Upon this disaster, the remaining crew got 
 frightened, and returned to New Spain. This Bay of Santa 
 Cruz, so named by Cortez the following year, seems to be the 
 same as that now called La Paz, lying on the western side of the 
 Gulf of California, about a hundred miles north of Cape St. 
 Lucas. Some writers, however, suppose it to have been situated 
 much nearer the southern extremity of the peninsula. 
 
 Humboldt, in his " Political Essay on the Kingdom of New 
 Spain," in stating these circumstances, mentions in a note, that 
 he found in a manuscript preserved in the archives of the vice- 
 royalty of Mexico, that California was discovered in 1526, though 
 he knew not, he says, on what authority this assertion was founded. 
 From an examination which he seems to have made of other 
 manuscripts of the period, preserved in the Academy of History 
 at Madrid, Humboldt seems satisfied that this alleged discovery 
 of California in 1526 was unfounded, and that the country had 
 not even been seen in the expedition of Diego Hurtado de Men- 
 doza, who was a near relation of Cortez, so late as 1532. 
 
 In 1535, Cortez himself coasted both sides of the Gulf of 
 California, which was first called the Sea of Cortez, but was more 
 generally known as the Mar Roxo, 6 Vermejo, (the Red, or 
 Vermillion Sea), probably from its resembling the Red Sea 
 
26 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FEANCISCO. 
 
 between Arabia and Egypt in shape, or from the discoloration of 
 its waters at the northern extremity by the Rio Colorado, or 
 Red River. Gomara, the Spanish historian, in 1557, likened it 
 more judiciously to the Adriatic. In the English maps, it is gen- 
 erally marked as the Gulf of California. Francisco de Ulloa, 
 at command and likewise at the personal expense of Cortez, 
 prosecuted farther discoveries along the coast, and during the 
 subsequent two years, succeeded in exploring the gulf nearly 
 to the mouth of the Colorado. Neither Cortez, however, nor 
 Ulloa seems to have discovered the coast of New or Upper 
 California. 
 
 That honor was reserved to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, one of 
 the pilots of Cortez. Cabrillo was a Portuguese by birth, and a 
 man of great courage and honor. On the 27th June, 1542, 
 under instructions from the then viceroy of Spain, Antonio de 
 Mendoza, he sailed from the port of Navidad in Mexico, on 
 an expedition of discoveiy of the coast towards the north. He 
 touched at various places on the voyage. The large cape between 
 the fortieth and forty-first degrees of latitude he named Cape 
 Mendoza, or Mendocino, in honor of the viceroy. Cabrillo reached 
 44° lat. N., where he found the cold (10th March) intense. 
 This, the want of provisions, and the bad condition of his ships, 
 compelled him to return to Navidad, the harbor of which place 
 he re-entered on 14th April, 1543. This is according to the 
 authority of Venegas. Other accounts say that Cabrillo, who 
 had been long sick, and was overcome at last by the fatigues of 
 the voyage, died at Port Possession, in the Island of San Ber- 
 nardo, one of the Santa Barbara group, about the thirty-fourth 
 parallel, upon the 3d January, 1543, leaving the subsequent 
 guidance of the expedition farther northwards to Bartolome 
 Ferrelo, his pilot. Ferrelo is said to have named a promon- 
 tory about the forty-first degree of latitude, Cabo de Fortunas 
 (Cape of Perils, or Stormy Cape), from the rough weather and 
 dangers encountered in its vicinity. This promontory is supposed 
 to be the same, already noticed, which was called Cape Men- 
 docino. There is therefore some discrepancy between the accounts 
 of the voyage under the command of Cabrillo, or successively 
 of him and his pilot Ferrelo. Neither of these navigators, 
 
EXPEDITION OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 27 
 
 however, while they noticed and named various prominent points 
 of the coast, seem to have discovered the entrance to the great 
 Bay of San Francisco. 
 
 Sir FsAHOIB Dbakf. — From an old English Painting. 
 
 In 1577, Sir Francis, then only Captain Drake, already dis- 
 tinguished as an experienced navigator, fitted out, with the pecu- 
 niary aid of some friends, a buccaneering expedition against the 
 
28 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Spaniards, which ultimately led him round the globe. In those 
 days, and for a long time afterwards, the rich Spanish ships, which 
 bore over so many seas the wealth of their new-found world, were 
 the natural prey of the English buccaneers — or, to give them a 
 more honorable title, since they generally sailed under formal 
 license from the government, of the English privateers. Drake, 
 Cavendish, Dampier, and many other famous early navigators, 
 were all of that class. The wealth of the Philippines was gen- 
 erally conveyed by a single annual galleon from Manilla to 
 Acapulco, on its way to Europe. To intercept this particular 
 ship was one great aim of these privateers. Drake, in his expe- 
 dition of 1577, after safely threading the Straits of Magellan, 
 reached, at length, the Pacific, north of the equator, and appears, 
 in 1579, to have sailed along the shores of California. All along 
 the west coast of the Americas he had been capturing and plun- 
 dering the newly settled Spanish towns, and such ships as came 
 in his way. Wishing at length to return home, and afraid lest 
 the Spaniards might be waiting to catch him off the Straits of 
 Magellan, he tried to sail westward, and so reach England by the 
 Cape of Good Hope. This was in the autumn of 1579. Con- 
 trary winds preventing that course, " he was obliged," to use the 
 language of an old chronicler of the voyage, " to sail towards the 
 north ; in which course, having continued at least six hundred 
 leagues, and being got into forty-three degrees north latitude, 
 they found it intolerably cold ; upon which they steered south- 
 wards, till they got into thirty-eight degrees north latitude, 
 where they discovered a country, which, from its white cliffs they 
 called Nova Albion, though it is now known by the name of 
 California. 
 
 " They here discovered a bay, which entering with a favorable 
 gale, they found several huts by the water side, well defended 
 from the severity of the weather. Going on shore, they found a 
 fire in the middle of each house, and the people lying round it 
 upon rushes. The men go quite naked, but the women have a 
 deer skin over their shoulders, and round their waist a covering 
 of bulrushes after the manner of hemp. 
 
 " These people bringing the admiral (Drake) a present of 
 feathers and cauls of network, he entertained them so kindly 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIVES. 
 
 29 
 
 and generously, that they were extremely pleased, and soon after- 
 wards they sent him a present of feathers and bags of tobacco. 
 A number of them coming to deliver it, gathered themselves 
 together at the top of a small hill, from the highest point of which 
 one of them harangued the admiral, whose tent was placed at the 
 bottom. When the speech was ended, they laid down their arms 
 and came down, offering their presents ; at the same time 
 returning what the admiral had given them. The women 
 remaining on the hill, tearing their hair and making dreadful 
 howlings, the admiral supposed them engaged in making sacri- 
 fices, and thereupon ordered divine service to be performed at his 
 tent, at which these people attended with astonishment. 
 
 Sir Francis Drake and the California Indians. 
 
 "The arrival of the English in California being soon known 
 through the country, two persons in the character of ambassadors 
 came to the admiral, and informed him, in the best manner they 
 
30 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 were able, that the king- would visit him, if he might be assured 
 of coming in safety. Being satisfied on this point, a numerous 
 company soon appeared, in front of which was a very comely 
 person, bearing a kind of sceptre, on which hung two crowns, and 
 three chains of great length. The chains were of bones, and the 
 crowns of net work, curiously wrought with feathers of many 
 colors. 
 
 " Next to the sceptre-bearer came the king, a handsome 
 majestic person, surrounded by a number of tall men, dressed in 
 skins, who were followed by the common people, who, to make 
 the grander appearance, had painted their faces of various colors, 
 and all of them, even the children, being loaded with presents. 
 
 " The men being drawn up in line of battle, the admiral 
 stood ready to receive the king within the fences of his tent. 
 The company having halted at a distance, the sceptre-bearer made 
 a speech, half an hour long, at the end of which he began sing- 
 ing and dancing, in which he was followed by the king and all 
 the people ; who, continuing to sing and dance, came quite up to 
 the tent ; when sitting down, the king took off his crown of 
 feathers, placed it on the admiral's head, and put on him the 
 other ensigns of royalty ; and it is said that he made him a 
 solemn tender of his ivhole kingdom / all which the admiral 
 accepted in the name of the queen his sovereign, in hopes that 
 these proceedings might, one time or other, contribute to the 
 advantage of England. 
 
 " The common people, dispersing themselves among the admi- 
 ral's tents, professed the utmost admiration and esteem for the 
 English, whom they considered as more than mortal ; and accord- 
 ingly prepared to offer sacrifices to them, which the English 
 rejected with abhorrence, directing them, by signs, that their 
 religious worship was alone due to the Supreme Maker and 
 Preserver of all things. 
 
 " The admiral and some of his people, travelling to a distance 
 in the country, saw such a quantity of rabbits, that it appeared 
 an entire warren ; they also saw deer in such plenty as to run a 
 thousand in a herd. The earth of the country seemed to 
 
 PROMISE RICH VEINS OF GOLD AND SILVER, SOME OF THE ORE 
 BEING CONSTANTLY FOUND ON DIGGING. 
 
BODEGA, SAN FRANCISCO, AND DRAKE'S BAYS. 31 
 
 " The admiral, at his departure, set up a pillar with a large 
 plate on it, on which was engraved her majesty's name, picture, 
 arms, and title to the country ; together with the admiral's name, 
 and the time of his arrival there." 
 
 This is a curious and interesting picture of the aborigines of 
 California. From the description of their naked bodies and 
 painted faces, their howlings, singing and dancing, the girdles of 
 bulrushes of the women, and the " kind of sceptre, on which 
 hung " the chains of bone and the crowns of network " curiously 
 wrought with feathers of many colors," of the king, it may be 
 presumed that the people were in the rudest state of barbarism. 
 Though the earth seemed streaked with gold, or, as Pinkerton 
 says in his description of Drake's voyage, " the land is so rich in 
 gold and silver, that upon the slightest turning it up with a 
 spade or pick-axe, these rich metals plainly appear mixed with 
 the mould," yet the natives do not appear to have worn any orna- 
 ments made of these metals, which has usually been the case with 
 other savages when they had access to them. The beauty and 
 purity of the metals named, especially of gold, and the ease of 
 working in them, naturally render them precious in the eyes of 
 the most barbarous tribes. Unless, therefore, we suppose the 
 Indians to have been the most stupid and helpless people exist- 
 ing, it may be reasonably doubted whether so extensive indica- 
 tions of gold and silver were found as the broad statements of 
 the chroniclers seem to imply. Certainly, however, the traces of 
 the precious metals discovered by Drake were the first authentic 
 intimation of the mineral wealth of the country. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that Drake knew of the previ- 
 ous discovery of the country by the Spaniards ; and accordingly 
 long afterwards, and even with people to this day, it has been 
 believed that he was the first discoverer of California. Queen 
 Elizabeth afterwards knighted him for his services in this and 
 previous expeditions, " telling him, at the same time," in the 
 words of the writer of his voyages already quoted, " that his ac- 
 tions did him more honor than his title." The queen, however, 
 took no steps to secure the country which her admiral had discov- 
 ered : and the " pillar, with a large plate on it," and all its rusted 
 
32 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 engravings, may peradventure be yet some day discovered by the 
 antiquary. 
 
 In popular estimation the bay which Drake entered is believ- 
 ed to be that of San Francisco ; while many who might have had 
 opportunities to examine into the subject have hastily concluded 
 
 Sir Francis Drake's Bay, or Jack's Harbor 
 
 that it must have been Bodega Bay. There is, however, another 
 bay not far from these, and lying between them, known formerly 
 under the very name of Sir Francis Drake's Bay, though better 
 now as Jack's Harbor. This, on a careful examination of the 
 subject, seems to have been the true and only bay which Drake 
 ever visited on the coast. There is a sad confusion, even among 
 recent writers and geographers, as to the names and relative 
 positions of these bays. Most of them seem to think that 
 Bodega and Drake's Bays are the same. Thus Humboldt says, 
 " This port (San Francisco) is frequently confounded by geogra- 
 
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE'S BAY. 
 
 33 
 
 phers with the Port of Drake farther north, under the 38° 10J 
 of latitude, called by the Spaniards the Puerto de Bodega,." The 
 latitude of Jack's Harbor, or Drake's Bay, is 37° 59' 5" (longitude 
 122° 57^'), thus corresponding exactly with the statement of the 
 chronicler ; while San Francisco and Bodega Bays are a good 
 many miles to the south and north respectively of the parallel 
 named by him. If Drake had really entered San Francisco Bay, 
 it is more than likely that he, or his chronicler, would have said 
 something more of its peculiarities — its unusual excellence, and 
 the great arms which it stretches both to south and north. In 
 the English maps, constructed after Drake's voyage, there is a 
 bay laid down bearing his name ; although, owing to the general 
 ignorance of the coast and the confusion in regard to particular 
 bays alluded to, this bay has been often held to be the same as 
 that of Bodega. There is, therefore, every probability that the 
 Bay of San Francisco had never been seen at all by either the 
 Spanish or the English navigators (for there were others of the 
 latter nation after Drake along the California coast), but that, 
 in reality, it was discovered by travellers on land, and most pro- 
 bably first by the missionaries in 1769. It may also be remarked 
 in corroboration of these opinions, that the white cliffs and the 
 abundance of rabbits seen by Drake, closely correspond to the 
 present description of Punta de los Penes (Cape of Kings), and 
 the country around Jack's Harbor. The cliffs about this part of 
 the coast, for a space of nearly forty miles, resemble in height 
 and color, those of Gieat Britain in the English Channel, at 
 Brighton and Dover. Hence the propriety of the old designation 
 of the country, New Albion. We give an illustration of these 
 cliffs and of Drake's Bay. This bay has somehow grown out of 
 most people's remembrance, or at least their appreciation, since it 
 is a very safe and most important port of refuge along a foggy and 
 dangerous coast. A number of fishing vessels have made use of 
 it during the last few years, and it was their crews who dubbed 
 it Jack's Harbor, in ignorance of its previous name. It is likely 
 that public attention will be called to its peculiar advantages 
 before long. We think, however, that no new name should be 
 allowed to supersede the historical one of " Sir Francis Drake's 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Bay." It would be a pity not to preserve some such remembrance 
 of one of the greatest and earliest navigators along our coasts. 
 
 On the 14th of October, 1587, Captain Thomas Cavendish, 
 afterwards knighted by Queen Elizabeth, when in a privateering 
 expedition against the Spaniards, fell in with Cape St. Lucas, 
 at the extremity of California. A tine bay, named by the Span- 
 iards Aguada Segura, is within this cape, and there Cavendish 
 lay in wait for the Acapulco galleon, laden with the wealth of the 
 Philippines. At length she appeared, and after a severe fight, 
 was taken possession of by the English admiral. " This prize," 
 says the relator of the voyage, " contained one hundred and 
 twenty-two thousand pezoes of gold, besides great quantities of 
 rich silks, satins, damask and musk, and a good stock of provi- 
 sions." Pretty fair all that for an English adventurer ! In those 
 days, piracy was honorable, and legalized by formal license, tin nigh 
 the spoil was only gold and silver and light moveable goods — booty 
 of the common robber. After all, the old buccaneers were poor 
 grovelling souls. In our own times, pirates — called " filibusters," 
 whose business is notoriously unlawful, have much grander views 
 of glory and profit. Cuba and Sonora, which are countries equal 
 to Italy of the old world in beauty, fertility and real wealth, are 
 certainly prizes worth stealing and fighting for — the rewards of 
 Alexanders, Cassars and Bonapartes. But then, principles of 
 action being nearly the same, " Young America" is very much 
 smarter than " Old England." 
 
 The next Englishman who is specially recorded to have 
 touched the California coast is Captain Woodes Rogers, who was 
 in command of the usual filibustering or privateering expeditions. 
 This was in November, 1709. He describes the aborigines of the 
 peninsula as being " quite naked, and strangers to the European 
 manner of trafficking. They lived in huts made of boughs and 
 leaves, erected in the form of bowers, with a fire before the 
 door, round which they lay and slept. The men were quite naked, 
 and the women had only a short petticoat reaching scarcely to the 
 knee, made of silk grass, or the skins of pelicans or deers. Some 
 of them wore pearls about their necks, which they fastened with 
 a string of silk grass, having first notched them round : and 
 Captain Rogers imagined that they did not know how to bore 
 
CAPTAIN WOODES ROGERS. 
 
 35 
 
 them. These pearls were mixed with sticks, bits of shells and 
 little red berries, which they thought so great an ornament that 
 they would hot accept of glass beads of various colors, which the 
 English would have given them. The men are straight and well 
 built, having long black hair, and are of a dark brown complexion. 
 They live by hunting and fishing. They use bows and arrows, 
 
 Landing of Captain YVoodcs lingers. — from an old English engraving. 
 
 and are excellent marksmen. The women, whose features are 
 rather disagreeable, are employed in making fishing lines, or in 
 gathering grain (doubtless what grew spontaneously), which they 
 grind upon a stone. The people were willing to assist the English 
 in filling water, and would supply them with whatever they could 
 get ; they were a very honest people, and would not take the 
 least thing without permission." This description, and that 
 already given from Drake's voyage, make up a pretty complete 
 picture of the aborigines of the Californias. They appear to have 
 been a simple, honest, good-natured, stupid race of people, and, 
 
36 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in most respects, resemble the savages which we find in other 
 newly discovered countries. 
 
 Captain Rogers was, of course, lying in ambush for the 
 " great Manilla ship ; " and, in due course of time, she appeared 
 and was captured. " The prize was called Nuestra Senora de la 
 Incarnation, commanded by Sir John Pichberty, a gallant French- 
 man ; and the prisoners said that the cargo in India amounted 
 to two millions of dollars. She carried one hundred and ninety- 
 three men, and mounted twenty guns." 
 
 As illustrating the career of these English buccaneers, and 
 the state of terror in which the Spaniards were constantly kept 
 by their depredations, and which was one of the chief causes that 
 induced the Spanish Government, as we shall afterwards see, 
 strenuously to prosecute farther discoveries and settlements along 
 the coast of California, we shall give a copy of a deed, or instru- 
 ment, executed between the said Captain Rogers and the town 
 of Guiaquil. The exjiloits of Rogers and his men are indeed 
 much later in date than some of the expeditions yet to be noticed, 
 of the Spanish navigators along the California coast ; still, as they 
 forcibly explain one reason, at least, why such expeditions were 
 undertaken on the part of the Spaniards, it appears better to 
 notice them here than in mere chronological order. The notices 
 of the voyages of Drake, Cavendish and Rogers, are taken from 
 accounts contained in an old folio volume of voyages and travels 
 kindly placed at our disposal by the " Society of California Pio- 
 neers." 
 
 The "high contracting parties" entered into the following 
 agreement : 
 
 "Contract for the ransom of the town of Guiaquil: 
 " Whereas the City of Guiaquil, lately ia subjection to Philip V., King 
 of Spain, is now taken by storm, and in possession of the Captains Thomas 
 Dover, Woodes Rogers, and Stephen Courtney," — [the expedition, fitted out 
 at the cost of some " British gentlemen," consisted of the Dide, a ship of 
 three hundred tons burthen, thirty guns and one hundred and seventy men, 
 commanded by Rogers, and the Duchess, of two hundred and seventy tons, 
 twenty-six guns, and one hundred and fifty-one men, under the command of 
 Courtney] — " commanding a body of her Majesty of Great Britain's subjects ; 
 we, the underwritten, are content to become hostages for the said city, and to 
 continue in the custody of the said Captains Thomas Dover, Woodes Rogers and 
 Stephen Courtney, till thirty thousand pieces of gold should be paid to them 
 
RANSOM OF GUIAQUIL. 
 
 37 
 
 for the ransom of the said city, two new ships, and six barks ; during which 
 time no hostility is to be committed on either side, between this and Puna : 
 the said sum to be paid at Puna, within six days from the date hereof; and 
 then the hostages to be discharged, and all the prisoners to be delivered im- 
 mediately; otherwise the said hostages do agree to remain prisoners till the 
 said sum is discharged in any other part of the world. 
 
 In Witness Whereof, We have voluntarily set our hands, this twenty - 
 seventh day of April, old stile, in the year of our Lord, 1709." 
 
 This ransom seems to have been punctually paid, and the 
 hostages faithfully liberated. However, Captains Thomas Dover, 
 Woodes Rogers and Stephen Courtney appear, in addition, to 
 have plundered the town pretty thoroughly. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Expeditions of Viscaino. — Admiral Otondo and Father Kino. — First settlement^ and introduction of 
 tlic priest rule in the California?. — Failure ami withdrawal of the first missions. — Renewed at- 
 tempts to make settlements. — Father Salva-Tierra and his coadjutors. - Final establishment of the 
 Jesuits in the country. — Geographical discoveries of Father Kino. — Jesuits expelled and super- 
 seded by Franciscan Friars ; these, in turn, by the Dominican Monks. — Population and physical 
 character of Old or Lower California. 
 
 We shall now return to the progress of the Spaniards in dis- 
 covering and settling the coast of California : — In 1596 Caspar 
 de Zuniga, Count de Monte-rey, then viceroy of Mexico, received 
 an order from Philip II. to make farther discoveries and settle- 
 ments on the coast of California. The visit of Drake, and his 
 naming and claiming the country as first discoverer, for Queen 
 Elizabeth, had struck the inhabitants of the coast lower down 
 with consternation ; and already Englishmen, particularly the 
 famous Thomas Cavendish, and others, had fortified themselves 
 on the coast, and molested the rich Spanish ships which yearly 
 sailed between the Philippine Islands and New Spain, and which 
 generally made the coast of California about Cape Mendocino. 
 At that period, there was much talk of a north-east passage from 
 the Pacific to the old world by the Straits of Anian (Behring's 
 Straits), and the Spanish Government in Europe was considerably 
 alarmed lest the English should, by that probable route, strike a 
 deadly blow at their unprotected colonies on the west coast of the 
 Americas. An expedition to make fresh discoveries was accord- 
 ingly undertaken, and put under the command of General Sebas- 
 tian Viscaino, a man of great and tried abilities. 
 
 Viscaino accordingly sailed from Acapulco, but does not 
 appear to have proceeded far northwards ; for, in the same year 
 (1596), we find him returned to New Spain. Want of provisions 
 and unfortunate disputes with the Indians, produced this speedy 
 
EXPEDITIONS OF VISCAINO. 
 
 39 
 
 result. The Spanish Government, however, was keeping the 
 matter in view. In 1599 another order was dispatched from 
 Europe to Count Monte-rey to fit out a new expedition for the 
 purposes already mentioned. This again was placed under the 
 command of General Viscaino. In May, 1602, Viscaino, in 
 pursuance of his instructions, sailed from Acapulco, and proceeded 
 
 View in the Interior of California. 
 
 northwards till he reached the forty-second degree of latitude. 
 Uj) to the twenty-sixth parallel, he appears to have surveyed the 
 coast minutely ; but between that degree and the most northern 
 limits of his voyage, he seems to have been satisfied with merely 
 keeping the land in sight. He discovered the ports of San Diego 
 and Monterey, which latter was so named in honor of the viceroy. 
 Still not a word of San Francisco Bay. Indeed it is quite 
 evident that up to this period that great harbor had escaped 
 the observation of all the navigators who had attempted to 
 explore the coast. Viscaino, excited by his imperfect dis- 
 coveries, and full of hope of making more important ones on 
 a fresh expedition, solicited the viceroy for permission to pur- 
 sue it at his own expense ; but the viceroy referred him to the 
 
40 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Court at Madrid, who seemed to have taken the business into 
 their own hands. Viscaino therefore visited Spain, and pressed 
 his suit, but in vain. At last, in 1606, after Viscaino, wearied 
 and sick at heart with " hope deferred," had retired, moody and 
 discontented, to Mexico, another ordinance was issued by Philip, 
 commanding a fresh expedition of discovery and settlement to be 
 undertaken. The conduct of this was bestowed upon Viscaino, 
 who accepted the charge with alacrity ; but before any progress 
 was made in the matter, he was seized with a fatal distemper. 
 After his death nothing was done or said about the expedition. 
 
 Various attempts on a moderate scale, partly by adventurers 
 at their own cost, and partly under royal ordinances, were subse- 
 quently made to prosecute the survey and settlement of the coast. 
 In 1615, in 1633 and 1634, in 1640, 1642, 1648, 1665, and 
 1668, several fruitless efforts were made for these purposes. In 
 the interval, the public mind was rilled with magnificent views of 
 the wealth of the scarcely discovered country. It was known 
 that pearls, of great beauty and value, were found at various 
 places in the gulf and along the coast. Perhaps also the glowing 
 statements made by Sir Francis Drake of the golden sands and 
 other mineral riches which he saw there, helped to fire the ima- 
 ginations of the Spaniards. Omne ignotum pro magnifico. Cali- 
 fornia was long viewed as the Dorado of New Spain ; and was 
 believed not merely to be abounding in pearls and gold and silver, 
 but also in diamonds, and all manner of other pi - ecious metals and 
 gems. Our own days have justified these sparkling fancies, though 
 scarcely perhaps in the exact manner and localities of which the 
 old Spaniards dreamed. 
 
 In 1677, instructions were, after long and mature delibera- 
 tion, sent by the Court at Madrid to Don Francis Payo Enriquez 
 de Rivera, archbishop of Mexico, and viceroy of New Spain, to 
 undertake afresh the survey, conquest and settlement of Califor- 
 nia ; and that Admiral Pinadero, who had previously carried on 
 some private expeditions for the same end, at his own cost, 
 should be employed in the affair ; — that, if he declined, the 
 business should be offered to, and managed by others, also at 
 their expense, under certain specified conditions ; — but that, if no 
 volunteer came forward, the undertaking should be conducted at 
 
ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE CALIFORNIA. 
 
 41 
 
 the cost of the Crown. The enterprise fell to Admiral Dun 
 Isidro Otondo and Antillion, who signed an instrument for that 
 purpose, in December, 1678, which was approved of at Madrid 
 on 29th December, 1679. By this deed, the spiritual government 
 was conferred on the Jesuits and Father Eusebio Francisco Kiihn, 
 — a German by birth, called by the Spaniards Kino, and who was 
 a distinguished member of the Society of Jesus. This seems the 
 origin of the connection of the Jesuits and priest class with Cali- 
 fornia. Otondo and his Jesuits put to sea from Chacala, in May, 
 1683, and sailed up the gulf. During two years the admiral and 
 his missionary priests, who had meanwhile learned the native 
 languages, met with various success among the Indians of the 
 peninsula, many of whom they succeeded in converting to Chris- 
 tianity. However, they occasionally found rebellious tribes ; and 
 on the whole, were unable to make any serious impression on their 
 minds, or to establish any permanent settlement of importance. 
 This was caused indeed more by the natural barrenness of the 
 country, and the difficulty and expense of supporting existence 
 there, than by the vicious habits of the natives, who are described 
 as a simple, inoffensive and feeble race, more prone to consider 
 their white visitors as absolute deities on earth than as invaders 
 of their territorial rights. 
 
 The Spanish Court, which appears to have been drawn into a 
 large expenditure by this expedition, and by another, which im- 
 mediately followed, conducted by the same parties, soon got tired 
 of the subject, and judged the conquest and settlement of the 
 country to be impracticable. They declined, therefore, to prose- 
 cute the undertaking farther ; but knowing the political impor- 
 tance of having it somehow accomplished, they recommended the 
 Society of Jesus to finish it, and offered that body large annual 
 subsidies from the royal treasury in aid. The Society, after 
 discussing the " estimates " of Admiral Otondo and Father Kino, 
 and their own " ways and means," respectfully rejected the royal 
 proposal ; and thus a measure which had been agitated for nearly 
 two hundred years, and of which all admitted the political im- 
 portance, while the personal and pecuniary reward of success was 
 believed to be immense, was abruptly brought to a close. So 
 doubtful, expensive aud dangerous . id the undertaking appear, 
 
42 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 that the Crown refused the petition of Captain Francisco Lu- 
 zenilla to attempt it at his own expense. In the year 1G94, 
 indeed, a royal license was granted to Captain Francisco Itamarra 
 for making a descent at his own risk and charges ; but he had no 
 better success than his predecessors. 
 
 Spanish ship of the seventeenth century, and coast of California. 
 
 The missionaries, who had accompanied the expeditions of 
 Admiral Otondo, were now drafted to different places elsewhere, 
 although many of them deeply regretted that the rich harvest of 
 heathenism should be so suddenly and unexpectedly abandoned, 
 just when the sickle was sharpened and the laborers were in 
 the field. They had labored with great industry to accom- 
 plish an object toward which they looked forward with anx- 
 ious hopes, which they now saw would never be realized. 
 They thought that their Indian conversions would, sooner or 
 later, have extended over the whole tribes in California, had 
 they been enabled to retain settlements there ; while it was 
 more than probable that their new converts would relapse into 
 their old idolatry on the departure of their spiritual teachers. 
 Without detailing, therefore, the various steps taken by the 
 
FATHER SALVA-TIERRA AND HIS COADJUTORS. 
 
 Fathers to preserve and advance their spiritual ascendency in 
 California, it may be sufficient to say, that Father Kino, who had 
 these conversions much at heart, met with Father Salva-Tierra, 
 a man, like himself, of great enthusiasm for the Catholic faith, 
 and of untiring courage, and much benevolence and sweetness of 
 disposition. These two men, — particularly the latter, who had 
 chosen St. Francis Xavier as his model, — were the true apostles 
 of California. Somewhat later, Fathers Francisco Maria Piccolo 
 and Juan Ugarte associated themselves with these pioneers of 
 Christianity and civilization. Their biographies would make an 
 indispensable and most interesting chapter in the early history of 
 Lower California, but are out of place in this short summary of 
 the progress of discovery and gradual settlement of the general 
 country. It is sufficient to observe that their pious zeal urged 
 them on against every obstacle — the unwillingness of their own 
 Society of Jesus — the indifference of the Court, when it had to 
 advance the whole funds — the delays of officials — the poverty of 
 their own means, and the fewness of their coadjutors. At last, 
 the eloquence and pertinacity of Father Salva-Tierra kindled 
 some life among the superiors of their order and in a few wealthy 
 laymen. The last assisted the Society by large donations ; aud 
 soon subscriptions began to pour in from the general public, to 
 promote the pious work of conquering California to Christianity. 
 A crusade — peaceful, if the devil got frightened and retired 
 from the contest ; but warlike, if need were — was proclaimed ; 
 and all were invited to support the scheme by pecuniary means, 
 while the Spanish Government supplied the necessary soldiers to 
 protect the Fathers, and execute their decrees and those of 
 heaven. It was all, in terms of the motto and ruling spirit of 
 the Society, ad majorem Dei gloriam ; and great indeed would 
 be the reward in heaven of the patrons of the business. After 
 many hardships, and a slow, painful progress, the Jesuit mission- 
 aries succeeded in planting various missions over the whole 
 peninsula. Aided by subscriptions from the pious, and donations 
 from the Crown, they were enabled to give the simple Indians 
 daily food and a scanty raiment, and soon, with unwearied pa- 
 tience, converted them into excellent and faithful servants and 
 devout Christians. They had no more sense than mere children, 
 
44 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and they were accordingly treated as such. Like children, they 
 were always believing and obedient. Ignorant and helpless, they 
 were slaves both in body and mind, and knew no will but that of 
 their spiritual and temporal lords. 
 
 Father Salva-Tierra, in 1705, was chosen provincial of his 
 Order in Mexico, and thus absolutely governed the country both 
 in spiritual and temporal things. It was in 1700 and 1701, by 
 some accounts, and in 1709 by others, that, in the course of sev- 
 eral journeys undertaken for the purpose, Father Kino discovered 
 that California was united with the main land. We have seen 
 that this fact was known as early as 1541, where it appears a 
 peninsula in the map of Castillo ; but somehow the circumstance 
 had been unaccountably forgotten, and the contrary was almost 
 universally believed. 
 
 In 1767, the Fathers lost the missions, in consequence of an 
 ordinance issued by Charles III. for the instant and general ex- 
 pulsion of the Jesuits from all the Spanish dominions. This 
 stringent decree was immediately obeyed in the Mexican provinces, 
 where the Jesuits were arrested without delay, and hundreds of 
 them shipped off to Europe. They were succeeded in California 
 by a body of Franciscan Friars from Mexico ; but these in turn 
 were soon superseded by the Dominican Monks, who still retain 
 possession of the country. 
 
 The population of Lower California was never great, and 
 towards the end of last century was rapidly diminishing. Hum- 
 boldt, in his " Political Essay on New Spain," estimates that the 
 population, in 1803, did not exceed nine thousand of all races, — 
 somewhat more than the half of which number consisting of the 
 domesticated converts of the Fathers. The missions had then 
 been reduced to sixteen. Mr. Alexander Forbes, in his " History 
 of Upper and Lower California" (London, 1839), estimates the 
 total population, in 1835, not to exceed fourteen or fifteen thou- 
 sand. Compared with New California, the old country of that 
 name is a dry and barren land — with a serene and beautiful sky, 
 indeed, but with a rocky, or sandy and arid soil, where rains sel- 
 dom fall, and vegetation is consequently of little account. Such 
 a country could never become very populous, either in a savage 
 or a civilized state. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 First settlement of New or Upper California by Franciscan Monks.— Supposed earliest discovery of 
 San Francisco Bay. — Origin of the name — Establishment of a Mission and Presidio there, and 
 ceremonies on the occasion. -Gradual establishment of Missions and Presidios over the country.— 
 List of these, and population of same at various dates.— The gente de razon and (he lifstian, or 
 the rational creatures and beasts of the country. — Causes why free white settlers few in number. — 
 Character of the natives as given by Venegas, and other writers.— Progress and apparent destiny 
 of the Anglo-Saxons in the Pacific. 
 
 Still later than Old California, and upwards of two hundred 
 years after its first discovery, New or Upper California, was first 
 settled. The Spanish Court, afraid, as of old, lest some of the 
 other maritime nations of Europe should settle on the north-west 
 coasts of America, and induced by other political reasons, alluded 
 to in the previous chapters, sent instructions to the Marquis de 
 Croix, then viceroy of New Spain, to found missions, and presidios 
 for their military protection, in the ports of San Diego and 
 Monterey, and at various other parts of the country. TlnV 
 was accordingly done, with the aid of the church, in 1769, and 
 following years ; and immediately, in gratitude or in terms of 
 special agreement, both the spiritual and temporal government of 
 the country were put under the control of certain monks of the 
 Order of St. Francis, two being placed at the head of each mis- 
 sion established. Presidios, in addition to those at San Diego 
 and Monterey, were subsequently formed at Santa Barbara and 
 San Francisco. Father Junipero Serra, — a man of the Salva- 
 Tierra and Kino stamp, — was the first presiding missionary ; and 
 under his immediate auspices the mission of San Diego was 
 founded in 1769, being the earliest. 
 
 Without dwelling on the successive establishment of the 
 other missions, let us say a few words upon that of San Francisco. 
 The missionaries, in proceeding northwards, with the intention 
 
46 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 of reaching Monterey, happened to take the eastern side of the 
 range of mountains which borders the coast north of San Diejro, 
 which place they had just left, after establishing its mission. 
 They undesignedly passed by Monterey, and journeyed on till 
 they reached the magnificent bay and harbor which are now 
 called San Francisco ; and which are said to be so named from 
 the following circumstance : — Father Junipero, on leaving Lower 
 California, had received instructions from the visitador, or inspector- 
 general of the Spanish Government, respecting the names of the 
 proposed missions, and the saints carefully selected from the 
 calendar, to whose special patronage they should be entrusted ; 
 but among them the name of St. Francis did not happen to occur. 
 " What ! " exclaimed the good missionary, surprised and shocked 
 at such an insulting neglect, " is not our own dear Father, St. 
 Francis, to have a mission assigned to him ? " To this remon- 
 strance, the visitador calmly replied, " If Saint Francis wish a 
 mission, let him show you a good port, and then it will bear his 
 name." When accordingly the missionaries, in their progress 
 northwards, discovered the spacious bay mentioned, they cried 
 out, " This then is the port to which the visitador referred, and 
 to which the saint has led us — blessed be his name !" And 
 forthwith they named it San Francisco Bay, in compliment to 
 their patron and guide. They next set up the usual cross, took 
 formal possession, and returned to San Diego, where they arrived 
 on the 24th January, 1770. From any thing that can be cer- 
 tainly learned of the proceedings of previous travellers and voy- 
 agers, this seems the true and first discovery of that great bay — 
 nearly two hundred years after Sir Francis Drake was reputed to 
 have visited it. 
 
 The mission itself of San Francisco was only founded in 1776, 
 though it had been projected ever since the discovery of the 
 bay, about the end of October, 1769. On the 27th June of the 
 first mentioned year, an expedition which had started by land 
 from Monterey, arrived on the borders of a small lake, — the same 
 which is now called " Washerwoman's Lagoon," — near the 
 sea-shore, from which it is separated by a low sand-hill. This is 
 situated towards the northern extremity of the Peninsula of San 
 Francisco, and the surplus waters of which discharge themselves 
 
MISSION AND PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 47 
 
 into the strait that connects the bay with the ocean, and which 
 was afterwards called the il Golden Gate." The neighborhood of 
 this lake promised to be the best spot for establishing the mission ; 
 though it was subsequently planted about two miles to the south. 
 A store-ship had previously left Monterey with the necessary sup- 
 plies for the wants of the missionary band. Some soldiers, and 
 a few families from Sonora, as intending settlers, had accompanied 
 the expedition. They carried with them a number of black cat- 
 tle and sheep, horses, mules, field and garden seeds, and other 
 necessary means of stocking and making the settlements a profit- 
 able investment. While waiting the arrival of the store-ship from 
 Monterey, which, owing to foul winds, did not take place till the 
 18th August following, the expedition began to make preparations 
 for their permanent abode by cutting down timber, and selecting 
 what appeared to be the most eligible site for a settlement. On 
 the 17th day of September, solemn possession was taken of the 
 presidio — " the day," according to Father Palou, the historian of 
 the achievements of Father Junipero, "being the festival of the 
 impression of the sores of Saint Francis, the patron of the port. 
 After blessing, adoring, and planting the holy cross, the first mass 
 was chaunted, and the ceremony concluded by a Te Deum : the 
 act of possession in the name of our sovereign being accompanied 
 with many discharges of artillery and musketry by sea and land." 
 
 After these ceremonies, the harbor was surveyed, both from the 
 shore and by means of a launch, from the water ; when it was 
 ascertained that there was only one outlet to the sea, that by 
 which the store-ship had entered. On the 9th day of November 
 — being the day of Saint Francis — a similar ceremony was per- 
 formed on taking possession of the mission ; when, as Father 
 Palou remarks of the establishment and consecration of the mis- 
 sion and church of San Fernando, " the want of an organ and 
 other musical instruments was supplied by the continual discharge 
 of the fire-arms during the ceremony, and the want of incense, 
 of which they had none, by the smoke of the muskets." No 
 doubt the pious priests thought this was a pretty way of pleasing 
 the Omnipotent. Certainly it was one admirably suited to en- 
 chain the minds of the scared natives. The white " sorcerers " 
 were clearly more clever than the brown ones. This mission sub- 
 
48 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sequently bore the name Dolores, in commemoration of the suf- 
 ferings of the Virgin. 
 
 Mission of San Francisco. 
 
 The Fathers showed much good taste in selecting the site of 
 the mission buildings, which was a small fertile plain, embosomed 
 among gentle, green-clad hills, little more than a mile from the 
 shore and about two miles from the centre of the present city of 
 San Francisco. Several tiny rivulets of clear, sweet water, met 
 about the spot, whose united streams were conducted to the bay 
 by one larger creek, known by the name of Mission Creek. Far- 
 ther north the land was one continued succession of bleak sand- 
 hills, among which the present city is situated. An exception, 
 however, must be made of the spot where the presidio was estab- 
 lished, which indeed was very prettily and agreeably situated A 
 small cove lay to the eastward of the presidio, within the narrow 
 entrance to the bay, where good anchorage ground and shelter 
 coidd be had. This was the original port of the mission, though 
 latterly the cove of Yerba Buena, a few miles distant, and within 
 the bay itself, was more frequently adopted as a harbor. 
 
 On the arrival of this expedition at the bay, many of the 
 natives had affectionately approached the missionaries with de- 
 
NAMES AND FOUNDATIONS OF THE MISSIONS. 
 
 49 
 
 monstrations of peace, and all the signs of extreme pleasure at 
 their appearance ; but before the ceremonies alluded to — the im- 
 posing chanted masses and Te Deums, and still more wonderful sal- 
 vos of artillery and musketry — had been played, the whole of the 
 natives who had inhabited the place, having been surprised by an 
 unfriendly tribe, suddenly disappeared. This untoward circum- 
 stance somewhat delayed the conversions, the first baptism hav- 
 ing taken place only on Saint John's Day, December 27th, of 
 the same year. 
 
 The names and foundations of the various missions, up U 
 1803, according to the authority of Humboldt, taking them in 
 their order from south to north, with their respective Indian pop- 
 ulations at the close of 1802, are as follows : — 
 
 Foundations. 
 
 Missions. 
 
 Males. 
 
 | Females. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1769 
 
 
 737 
 
 822 
 
 1559 
 
 1798 
 
 San Luis Key de Francia, 
 
 256 
 
 276 
 
 532 
 
 1776 
 
 
 502 
 
 511 
 
 1013 
 
 1771 
 
 
 532 
 
 515 
 
 1047 
 
 1797 
 
 
 317 
 
 297 
 
 614 
 
 1782 
 
 San Buenaventura 
 
 436 
 
 502 
 
 938 
 
 1786 
 
 
 521 
 
 572 
 
 1093 
 
 1787 
 
 La Purissima Concepoion, 
 
 457 
 
 571 
 
 1028 
 
 1772 
 
 San Luis Obispo, 
 
 374 
 
 325 
 
 699 
 
 1797 
 
 
 309 
 
 305 
 
 614 
 
 17D1 
 
 Boledad, 
 
 296 
 
 267 
 
 563 
 
 1771 
 
 San Antonio de Padua, 
 
 568 
 
 484 
 
 1052 
 
 1770 
 
 San Carlos de Monterey, 
 
 376 
 
 312 
 
 688 
 
 1797 
 
 
 530 
 
 428 
 
 958 
 
 179-1 
 
 
 238 
 
 199 
 
 437 
 
 1777 
 
 
 736 
 
 555 
 
 1291 
 
 1797 
 
 
 327 
 
 295 
 
 622 
 
 1776 
 
 
 433 
 
 381 
 
 814 
 
 
 Total, .... 
 
 7945 
 
 7617 
 
 15562 
 
 Note — Forbes gives this table as taken from Humboldt ; but there is a 
 slight discrepancy in the two sets of figures. It is possible that the English 
 translation is incorrect. Forbes* table distinguishes the males and females 
 which Humboldt's does not. Forbes' table is therefore adopted with sonu- 
 verbal corrections from Humboldt direct. This translation, or the original 
 work itself, has various discrepancies in its figures. For instance, it talks of 
 the population being 15,562, at one place, while in its table, for the same year, 
 the figures summed up, make 15,630. 
 
 These populations include only the converted Indians, win 
 were attached to the missions. There are no statistics which can 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FEANCISCO. 
 
 be relied upon as to the numbers of wild Indians, — or gentiles, as 
 they were called by the Spaniards. Indeed as these gentiles were 
 naturally of an emigratory habit, roaming from place to place in 
 search of game, or in pursuit of hostile tribes, they could scarcely 
 be classed as among the permanent inhabitants of any particular 
 district of country. It was estimated by Humboldt that, in 1802, 
 the number of whites, mestizoes and mulattoes, and who lived 
 either in the presidios or in the service of the monks, was only 
 about thirteen hundred. These were the gente de razon, or 
 rational creatures of the country, in contradistinction to the 
 natives, who were considered only as bestias, or beasts. 
 
 In 1802, the total Indian population connected with the 
 missions, when they were eighteen in number, as shown by the 
 above table, amounted to 15,562. In 1801, Humboldt says, that 
 the Indian population was 13,668, and in 1790, when the mis- 
 sions were eleven in number, it was 7748. La Perouse, in 1786, 
 when there were only ten missions, estimates the converted or 
 domesticated Indians at 5143. These figures show a very rapid 
 increase of population, or rather of conversions, in so few years. 
 The real increase of population, however, would have been con- 
 siderable among the gente de razon had not the traditionary cus- 
 toms or laws, which regulated the Spanish presidios for ages, 
 stood in the way of the settling of the white population. The 
 governing priests were jealous of their white subjects (the people 
 of reason), and wished only a tame Indian population, who 
 were supposed unable to reason. Therefore the soldiers of the 
 presidios were not allowed to establish themselves as colonists, 
 nor was any building permitted to be erected in the neighborhood 
 of these fortresses. Indeed no marriages were tolerated among 
 the soldiers, without the consent of the Spanish Crown, and such 
 consent the Fathers hindered as much as lay in their power. 
 Notwithstanding these impolitic restrictions, the fertility and 
 pleasantness of the land were so great as gradually to draw a 
 small number of white settlers from other provinces of New 
 Spain ; and although grants of land could only flow from the 
 Fathers themselves, yet, either through favor or direct interest, 
 such grants were occasionally obtained, though generally the land 
 thus given lay at a considerable distance from the missions and 
 presidios. 
 
POPULATION OF THE MISSIONS. 
 
 51 
 
 The Indian population attached to the missions were mean- 
 while becoming an industrious, contented and numerous class, 
 though indeed, in intelligence and manly spirit, they were little 
 better than bestias — beasts, after all. Generally speaking, the 
 Indians along the whole north-west coast of America were a very 
 inferior order of beings to the great tribes who inhabited the 
 Atlantic border ; and, in particular, the different races who 
 dwelt in California were but poor wandering clans who subsisted 
 on what they could procure by hunting and fishing, and on the 
 fruits and grains which grew spontaneously ; but they knew 
 nothing of the arts of agriculture, or even of a pastoral life. 
 They might properly enough be compared to the aborigines of 
 Australia or to the Hottentots, or, perhaps, even the Bosjesmans 
 of Southern Africa, who have been considered the most barbarous 
 and brute-like people on the earth. On this subject, Humboldt 
 remarks that " the Indians of the Bay of San Francisco were 
 equally wretched at that time (the establishment of the missions), 
 with the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land." Venegas has said 
 of the aborigines of the peninsula, who closely resembled their 
 brethren in Upper California, that " it is not easy for Europeans 
 who were never out of their own country to conceive an adequate 
 idea of these people. For even in the least frequented corners 
 of the globe there is not a nation so stupid, of such contracted 
 ideas, and weak both in body and mind, as the unhappy Califor- 
 nians. Their characteristics are stupidity and insensibility, want 
 of knowledge and reflection, inconstancy, impetuosity and blind- 
 ness of appetite, an excessive sloth, and abhorrence of all fatigues 
 of every kind, however trifling or brutal ; in fine, a most wretched 
 want of every thing which constitutes the real man and renders 
 him rational, inventive, tractable, and useful to himself and 
 society." 
 
 The worthy Father Michael certainly paints, in dull enough 
 colors, his proteges and converts. It may be farther remarked, 
 that the Indians appear to have had little or no notion of religion, 
 although they seem to have had a kind of sorcerers among them, 
 who amused or terrified themselves and their patients with sundry 
 superstitious observances. Some writers, such as La Perouse, 
 say, that they had no knowledge of a God or a future state ; 
 
52 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 others simply call them idolaters. The natives around San Fran- 
 cisco Bay appear to have burned the corpses of their people, while 
 other tribes, more to the south, always buried theirs. Occasion- 
 ally, they appear to have eaten pieces of the bodies of their more 
 distinguished adversaries killed in battle, although this was pro- 
 
 1. Wahla, chief of tlic Yuba tribe. — civilized and employed by Mr. S. Brannnn. 2. A partly 
 civilized Indian. 3. A wild Indian. — From daguerreotypes by Mr. W. Shew. 
 
 bably only to insure, as they imagined, that a portion of the 
 brave spirit and good qualities of the slain should enter into and 
 be incorporated with their own systems along with the literal 
 flesh of their antagonists. 
 
 These notices and the extracts previously given from the voy- 
 ages of Drake and Cavendish, abundantly establish the fact of 
 the wretched state of humanity in California. And so it might 
 have been till doomsday, had not a new people appeared on the 
 scene. The Spanish population, and the Fathers, could not, or 
 would not, as truly they did not, as we may afterwards see, do 
 any thing to promote the happiness of the human race in the 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN THE PACIFIC. 
 
 53 
 
 country. Men feed the ox and the sheep for their milk and 
 fleece, the hog for his flesh, the ass for the strength of his back, 
 and all for their increase ; so did the Fathers feed their Indian 
 converts, and find abundant profit in their labor and personal 
 services, whom they left, as they perhaps found, if they did not 
 transform them into moral beasts, just as tame, dull and silly, 
 dirty, diseased and stupidly obstinate as the other brutes named. 
 Meanwhile, the little independence, natural intelligence and su- 
 periority of mind and character which even the rudest savages 
 possess over the lower creatures were gradually sapped and 
 brushed away, and the Christian converts left ignorant, super- 
 stitious and besotted, having neither thoughts nor passions, 
 strength nor will, but at the command and heck of their spiritual 
 and temporal teachers and masters. Better, a thousand times, 
 that the missions and all their two-legged and four-legged beasts 
 should be ruthlessly swept away, than that so fine a country, one 
 so favored and framed by bountiful nature for the support, com- 
 fort and elevation of her worthier children, should longer lie a 
 physical and moral waste — a blotch on the fair face of creation. 
 
 But another race was destined soon to blow aside the old 
 mists of ignorance and stupidity, and to develope the exceeding 
 riches of the land, which had lain, undisturbed and concealed, 
 during so many ages. The Spaniards had scarcely proceeded any 
 way in the great work, — if they had not rather retarded it, — when 
 the Anglo-Saxons, the true and perhaps only type of modern 
 progress, hastily stepped in, and unscrupulously swept away both 
 their immediate forerunners as effete workers, and the aborigines 
 of the land, all as lumberers and nuisances in the great western 
 highway of civilization. This highway is fated to girdle the 
 globe, and probably, in the course of a few centuries, will join 
 the original starting-point in the natal home of the " Pilgrim 
 Fathers " in old England. The " pioneers " of California are our 
 " Pilgrim Fathers," and there, need be not the slightest doubt 
 but that the empire, or rather the great union of peoples and 
 nations in the Pacific will soon — perhaps in fifty years, perhaps 
 in a century — rival, if not surpass the magnificent States of the 
 Atlantic. Indians, Spaniards of many provinces, Hawaiian s, 
 Japanese, Chinese, Malays, Tartars and Russians, must all give 
 i 
 
54 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 place to the resistless flood of Anglo-Saxon or American progress. 
 These peoples need not, and most of them probably cannot be 
 swept from the face of the earth ; but undoubtedly their national 
 characteristics and opposing qualities and customs must be ma- 
 terially modified, and closely assimilated to those of the civilizing 
 and dominant race. The English in India have already shown 
 how a beginning may be made ; the Americans, on the California 
 coasts, and farther west, will still more develope the modern 
 system of progress. People may differ in opinion as to the equity 
 of the particular steps attending the process, and many honest 
 folk may even doubt its ultimate benefit to mankind ; yet that 
 some such grand result will hereafter be evolved from the energy 
 and ebullition of the American character, and from the peculiar 
 circumstances of American position in the world, must be evident 
 to all who take a dispassionate and unprejudiced view of the 
 matter. 
 
 Not only are Japan and China much nearer to the Californian 
 coast than India is to England ; but with the aid of steam the 
 time for accomplishing the distance is immensely reduced. In 
 the palmy days of the English conquests in India, her ships took 
 several years to make the voyage out and home. Now, the ocean 
 steamship may traverse the whole northern Pacific from California 
 to China, and back again, within two months ! Indian sepoys 
 fought the battles of England against their own countrymen, 
 Chinese sepoys may do the same for Americans. China, like 
 India, has been long used to, and its national spirit broken 
 by the usurping governments of foreign races. And even 
 while we write, its extensive dominions are being separated 
 by a wide-spread and hitherto successful rebellion, into detached 
 kingdoms under the sway of military chiefs. These, standing 
 alone, and mutually jealous of their conquering neighbors, may 
 be easily played off, one against another, by a white people 
 skilled enough to take advantage of circumstances and direct the 
 moves of the political chess-board. So it was with the English 
 in India ; and so it may be with the Americans in China. Only 
 give us time. England has not been very scrupulous in her 
 stealthy progress over Hindostan, Ceylon and Birmah. Then 
 neither need America fear her reproaches, if she, in like manner, 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN THE PACIFIC. 
 
 55 
 
 acquire, conquer, or annex the Sandwich Islands, the Islands of 
 Japan, those of the great Malayan Archipelago, or the mighty 
 " Flowery Empire " itself. A few more years, and a few millions of 
 Americans on the Pacific may realize the gigantic scheme, which 
 even our fathers, on the Atlantic border, would have laughed at 
 as impossible and ridiculous. The railway across, or through the 
 Snowy and Rocky Mountains, which will bind all North America 
 with its iron arm into one mighty empire, will facilitate the 
 operation. And then San Francisco — in the execution and 
 triumph of that scheme, will assuredly become what Liverpool, 
 or even London is to England, and what New York is to the 
 Middle and Eastern States of America — a grand depot for num- 
 berless manufactures and produce, and a harbor for the fleets of 
 every nation. Long before that time, the English and American 
 peoples will have finished the last great struggle which must 
 some day take place between them for the commercial and polit- 
 ical supremacy of the world. It is more than probable that the 
 hosts of English from India, and Americans from California, 
 will meet on the rich and densely peopled plains of China, and 
 there decide their rival pretensions to universal dominion. What- 
 ever .may, in 1854, be thought of the relative strength of the 
 two nations, it appears very evident to the people of America, 
 that the natural increase of their population must necessarily 
 make them victors in the end. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Oonduct of the Fathers towards the natives. — Their mode of instructing, employing and subsisting 
 the converts. — The Fathers do not appear to have promoted the true welfare of the aborigines 
 or done any good to humanity. — Pictures, if gaudily colored and horrible in subject, great aid- 
 to conversion. — Missions and population of the country at recent dates. — Table on this subject- 
 Tables of the farm produce and domestic cattle of the country. — Table of prices. 
 
 It may now be necessary to explain shortly in what manner the 
 Fathers conducted their missions, and the state of their property 
 and finances down to the decline of their prosperity a.nd ultimate 
 fall. Their mode of conversion, if not very ingenious, was easy 
 enough. It was like the teaching of a monkey, or a dog, by 
 means of food and caresses, or sometimes by kicks, to perform a 
 few simple tricks. The Indian — like the hare in Meg Dodds', or 
 it may be Mrs. Glass's Cookery Book, being first caught, was 
 dressed in the following fashion, as described by Captain Beechy, 
 in his second voyage : — " I happened to visit the mission about 
 this time and saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They 
 were clothed in blankets, and arrayed in a row before a blind 
 Indian who understood their dialect, and was assisted by an 
 alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them to 
 kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names 
 of the persons composing the Trinity, and that they were to 
 repeat in Spanish what he dictated. The neophytes being thus 
 arranged, the speaker began : — Santissima Trinidad, Dios, 
 J csu Christo, Espiritu Santo — pausing between each name to 
 listen if the simple Indians, who had never spoken a Spanish 
 word before, pronounced it correctly, or any thing near the mark. 
 After they had repeated these names satisfactorily, their blind 
 tutor, after a pause, added, Santos — and recapitulated the names 
 of a great many saints, which finished the morning's tuition." 
 The pay and inducement to the Indians to submit to what 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES. 
 
 57 
 
 would doubtless appear even to them a farrago of nonsense, were 
 a daily allowance of Atole and Pozzoli, which were two kinds of 
 pottages, the first composed of barley flour and the second of the 
 same, varied by the addition of peas, beans and maize. The for- 
 
 Indians under instruction 
 
 mer was the usual breakfast and supper dish, the latter was 
 chiefly taken for dinner. Then huts, of which the Fathers kept 
 the keys, were provided for the nightly lodgings of the faithful ; 
 while a simple kind of clothing was furnished to them at intervals. 
 Soldiers took care meanwhile that order, decency and obedience 
 were strictly observed at work and play, at devotion and rest. 
 In return for these benefits, the Indians rose early, and attended 
 mass every morning, for an hour ; and during the day, in the 
 intervals betweeu a second mass and meals and pretty constant 
 prayers, cultivated the gardens and fields of the missions, gath- 
 ered, preserved and arranged for sale the farm produce, herded 
 and attended to the wants of their cattle, built their houses, spun, 
 
58 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 wove and cooked, and in all respects drudged patiently, though 
 they do not appear to have taken the work very laboriously, as 
 the born slaves of the Fathers, whose absolute will was all that 
 they could comprehend or obey. With the instinct of a dog, 
 they fawned on and loved their owners, and perhaps would have 
 readily died to do them service. How different all this from the 
 free, intelligent and bold spirit of the present community ! To 
 sharpen the intellects of the converts, sticks, whips, long goads 
 and the like were unhesitatingly employed by the beadles of the 
 churches, during mass and prayers, to silence the unruly and 
 make the refractory attentive and dutiful. Starvation and stripes 
 indeed attended the perverse Indian wherever he went ; and it 
 was his interest, — he could be made to understand that at all 
 events, — to comply with the wishes of his kind priestly persecu- 
 tors, as far as his animal nature would permit. 
 
 The conversion produced by such means could scarcely be 
 intellectual or very sincere. It seemed sufficient, however, that 
 the Indian duly attended mass (which he was obliged to do 
 under penalty of a sound, edifying whipping), knelt and mutter- 
 ed his incomprehensible Spanish words, made the sign of the 
 cross often and properly enough, and could correctly repeat to his 
 spiritual tutors, when called upon, the few cabalistic phrases 
 which they had taught him. Whether he understood the mean- 
 ing of these things was quite another question, as to which it was 
 not necessary for the Fathers to be impertinently curious. What 
 were these brown things, after all, but beasts — irrational beings, 
 who might have a soul truly to be saved, but whom it was absurd 
 to consider as having a mind ! Individually, the Fathers seem 
 to have been pious and philanthropic men ; but certainly humanity 
 and California owe them nothing. Every thing, even happiness, 
 is comparative ; and to the mind, undarkened by the gloomy 
 theology which considers the formal act of baptism without the 
 understanding soul to be sufficient for salvation, it must surely 
 be evident that the aboriginal savage, " lord of all he surveyed," 
 was a more dignified and happy creature than the steek, lazy, 
 stall-fed beast of burden into which the Fathers had entrapped, 
 or converted him. 
 
 In the churches, which were, of course, the leading and most 
 
MEANS OK CONVERSION. 
 
 59 
 
 substantial buildings of the country, the walls were hung with 
 glaringly painted pictures — the more gaudy, the more valuable 
 and effectual — of the saints, and especially of heaven and hell, to 
 astonish and fix the faith of the converts. La Perouse observes 
 that a horrible representation of hell in the church of San Carlos 
 has thus had a wonderful effect in promoting conversion ; while 
 
 Father Garzes and the Indians. 
 
 he considers that the picture of paradise in the same church, by 
 reason of its subdued coloring and treatment, had comparatively 
 little effect. In 1775, when Father G-arzes was travelling, on a 
 crusading or proselyting expedition, from Sonora to California, he 
 carried with him a painted banner, on one side of which was 
 represented the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the other the devil 
 in the flames of hell. On arriving at an Indian settlement, the 
 missionary took his first step of conversion. Just as the trav- 
 elling mountebank blows his horn and flutters his flag on 
 approaching a village of likely gulls, so did our good Father 
 
60 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 hoist his standard, and cry aloud ; when, as he naively observes / 
 the fascinated Indians, on seeing the Virgin, usually exclaimed, 
 good ! — but when they observed the devil, they as often said, bad ! 
 Probably this was faith enough to entitle them to immediate 
 baptism, absolution and salvation. Food, lodging and raiment, 
 and freedom from the cares of family and the future, naturally 
 followed. 
 
 By such means the Fathers speedily converted the whole Indian 
 tribes within their reach ; while, year by year, as the missions, 
 and their servants and cattle increased in number, they took 
 possession of the most fertile and desirable lands in the country. 
 Much judgment and discretion were exhibited, as well in select- 
 ing the localities of the missions, as in subsequently managing 
 them for a time to the best possible advantage. The moans 
 adopted for converting, training, and employing the natives, 
 were admirably devised, and were more successful and satisfactory 
 than could have been anticipated. The Fathers eagerly desired 
 to make Indian converts ; for every convert, besides becoming a 
 partaker of immortal glory, was a valuable slave ; but they 
 dreaded, and never invited the approach of free white settlers. 
 
 The first mission, San Diego, was founded in 1769 ; in 1776, 
 others had been established to the number of eight ; there were 
 eleven in 1790 ; and, in 1802, they had increased to eighteen. 
 In subsequent years, three more were added, viz., those of San 
 Francisco Solano, San Rafael and Santa Ines. In 1831, accord- 
 ing to the authority of Mr. Forbes in his excellent work, already 
 mentioned, on the " History of Lower and Upper California," 
 the population of all classes for the whole latter country was 
 23,025 — the Indians constituting 18,683 of this number, and the 
 garrisons, missions and free settlements comprehending 4342. 
 That author supposes that as the population, for some years 
 afterwards, was nearly stationary, the same enumeration would 
 nearly hold good for 1835, when he wrote, although his state- 
 ments were not published till 1839. We extract a valuable table 
 from Mr. Forbes' volume, showing the localities peopled, with the 
 amounts of their population respectively : — 
 
POPULATION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 61 
 
 NAMES OF TIIF, JURISDICTIONS, MISSIONS AND 
 TOWNS. 
 
 PEOPLE OF ALL CLASSES AND AGES. 
 
 
 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Total. 
 
 > 
 
 Jurisdiction of San Francisco. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 124 
 
 85 
 
 89 
 
 73 
 
 371 
 
 
 166 
 
 145 
 
 103 
 
 110 
 
 524 
 
 
 285 
 
 242 
 
 88 
 
 90 
 
 705 
 
 
 406 
 
 410 
 
 105 
 
 106 
 
 1027 
 
 
 146 
 
 65 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 237 
 
 
 752 
 
 491 
 
 68 
 
 60 
 
 1371 
 
 
 823 
 
 659 
 
 100 
 
 145 
 
 1727 
 
 
 222 
 
 94 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 366 
 
 Jurisdiction of Monterey. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 311 
 
 190 
 
 110 
 
 97 
 
 708 
 
 
 52 
 
 34 
 
 27 
 
 17 
 
 130 
 
 
 480 
 
 351 
 
 85 
 
 71 
 
 987 
 
 
 102 
 
 79 
 
 84 
 
 21 
 
 236 
 
 
 210 
 
 81 
 
 28 
 
 20 
 
 334 
 
 
 394 
 
 209 
 
 51 
 
 17 
 
 671 
 
 */ . j» o \f:«,»„t 
 
 349 
 
 292 
 
 46 
 
 61 
 
 748 
 
 " of San Luis Obispo 
 
 211 
 
 103 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 329 
 
 Jurisdiction of Santa Buroara. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 120 
 
 162 
 
 164 
 
 613 
 
 Mission of La Purissima 
 
 151 
 
 218 
 
 47 
 
 84 
 
 450 
 
 
 
 136 
 
 82 
 
 96 
 
 456 
 
 
 374 
 
 267 
 
 51 
 
 70 
 
 762 
 
 
 383 
 
 283 
 
 66 
 
 59 
 
 791 
 
 
 249 
 
 226 
 
 177 
 
 181 
 
 838 
 
 
 552 
 
 421 
 
 218 
 
 202 
 
 1388 
 
 Jurisdiction of San Dietjo. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2951 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 574 1 
 
 1911 
 
 683 
 
 621 
 
 •5686 
 
 " of San Juan Capistrano 
 
 464 [ 
 
 
 
 1138 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 750 
 
 520 
 
 162 
 
 143 
 
 1575 
 
 
 10272 
 
 7632 
 
 2623 
 
 2498 
 
 23025 
 
 From the pages also of Mr. Forbes, who seems to have made 
 minute researches on the subject, we extract the two following 
 tables, — the first of which shows the whole produce, in grain, 
 of the country, in 1831, calculated according to localities, and in 
 fanegas. The second table, calculated also by localities, gives the 
 total number of cattle, of all descriptions, in the same year. It 
 may be mentioned, however, that in addition to the number of 
 domestic cattle in the table, there were great numbers, particu- 
 larly mares, running wild ; and which were occasionally hunted 
 
 * " We are unable," says Mr. Forbes, " to give tliese latter details accu- 
 rately, the copy having accidentally caught fire when in the hands of the 
 printer." 
 
62 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and killed to prevent them eating the pasture of the tamer 
 species. 
 
 GRAIN. 
 
 NAMES OF THE JURISDICTIONS, MISSIONS AND TOWNS. 
 
 Jurisdiction of San Francisco. 
 
 Presidio ok San Francisco 
 
 Town of Sun Jose de Guadalupe 
 
 Mission of San Francisco Solano 
 
 " of San Rafael 
 
 " of San Francisco 
 
 " of Santa Clara 
 
 " of San Jose 
 
 " of Santa Cruz 
 
 Jurisdiction of Monterey. 
 
 Presidio of Monterev 
 
 Village of Branciforte 
 
 Mission of San Juan Bautista 
 
 " of San Carlos 
 
 " of Na. Sa. de la Soledad , 
 
 " of San Antonio 
 
 " of San Miguel , 
 
 " of San Luis Obispo 
 
 Jurisdiction of Santa Barbara. 
 
 Presidio of Santa Barbara 
 
 Mission of La Purissima 
 
 '• of Santa Ines 
 
 " of Santa Barbara 
 
 " of Buenaventura 
 
 " of San Fernando 
 
 Town of La Keyna de los Angeles. .. 
 
 Jurisdiction of San Diego. 
 
 Presidio of San Diego 
 
 Mission of San Gabriel 
 
 " of San Juan Capistrano 
 
 " of San Luis Rey 
 
 " of San Diego 
 
 Total fanegas . . 
 
 8 
 Ja 
 
 Se 
 
 Maize or 
 Indiuo Corn. 
 
 e c 
 
 
 1 
 
 S * 5 
 
 * 5 5 
 
 « 
 
 O 
 
 3 
 
 e 
 ■ 
 h 
 
 233 
 
 70 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 843 
 
 1657 
 
 1560 
 
 191 
 
 
 
 3408 
 
 1171 
 
 200 
 
 24 
 
 241 
 
 24 
 
 1660 
 
 774 
 
 130 
 
 15 
 
 388 
 
 20 
 
 1327 
 
 670 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 340 
 
 58 
 
 1092 
 
 2400 
 
 60 
 
 25 
 
 
 200 
 
 2685 
 
 4000 
 
 1000 
 
 123 
 
 1100 
 
 418 
 
 6641 
 
 160 
 
 300 
 
 10 
 
 386 
 
 20 
 
 876 
 
 490 
 
 332 
 
 131 
 
 
 
 953 
 
 103 
 
 160 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 343 
 
 840 
 
 170 
 
 40 
 
 256 
 
 6 
 
 1311 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 215 
 
 62 
 
 477 
 
 538 
 
 50 
 
 
 243 
 
 62 
 
 893 
 
 955 
 
 115 
 
 40 
 
 568 
 
 23 
 
 1701 
 
 599 
 
 36 
 
 9 
 
 57 
 
 33 
 
 734 
 
 350 
 
 60 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 
 450 
 
 
 800 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 890 
 
 700 
 
 100 
 
 20 
 
 56 
 
 17 
 
 893 
 
 800 
 
 400 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 1220 
 
 730 
 
 90 
 
 50 
 
 336 
 
 80 
 
 1236 
 
 700 
 
 200 
 
 160 
 
 800 
 
 
 1860 
 
 200 
 
 250 
 
 40 
 
 
 65 
 
 555 
 
 188 
 
 1758 
 
 179 
 
 
 
 2075 
 
 140 
 
 125 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 270 
 
 1400 
 
 400 
 
 13 
 
 
 25 
 
 1838 
 
 450 
 
 625 
 
 30 
 
 
 5 
 
 1110 
 
 1800 
 
 2000 
 
 200 
 
 1200 
 
 15 
 
 5215 
 
 2946 
 
 420 
 
 80 
 
 1200 
 
 
 4646 
 
 25144 
 
 10926 
 
 1644 
 
 7405 
 
 1083 
 
 46202 
 
 Taking the fanega at two and a half English bushels, the har- 
 vest in 1831 would be as follows : — Wheat, 7857| quarters ; 
 maize, 3414^ quarters ; frijoles, 514 quarters ; barley, 2314 
 quarters ; beans, garvanzos and peas, 338 quarters ; total, 14,438 
 quarters. Reckoning the average price of grain in California at 
 the same period to be, wheat and barley two dollars the fanega, 
 or one pound five shillings the English quarter, and maize at one 
 and a half dollars, or one pound per quarter, the following will be 
 the value of the produce, viz. : wheat, $49,114 25, or £9,822 17s. 
 sterling ; maize, $21,340, or £4,268 ; barley, $11,570, or £2,314 ; 
 
FARM PRODUCE AND DOMESTIC CATTLE. 
 
 63 
 
 peas and beans, reckoned as barley, $4,260, or £852 ; total, 
 $86,284 25, or £17,256 17s. The quantity of wheat produced 
 it will be perceived, is much greater than any of the other sorts 
 of <rrain, which is the reverse of what takes place in the Mexican 
 States, where the produce of wheat is small in proportion to 
 that of maize, the latter being the staple bread corn. 
 
 DOMESTIC CATTLE. 
 
 NAMES OP THE JURISDICTIONS, MISSIONS 
 AND TOWNS. 
 
 Jurisdiction of Son. Francisco. 
 
 Presidio of San Francisco . . . 
 Town of San Jose de Guadalupe.. 
 Mission of San Francisco Solano. 
 
 " of San Rafael 
 
 " of San Francisco 
 
 " of Santa Clara 
 
 " of San Jose 
 
 " of Santa Cruz 
 
 Jurisdiction of Monterey. 
 
 Presidio of Monterey 
 
 Village of Branci forte 
 
 Mission of San Juan Bautista 
 
 " of S in Carlos 
 
 " of Na. Sa. de la Soledad.. 
 
 " of San Antonio 
 
 " of San Miguel 
 
 " of San Luis Obispo 
 
 Jurisdiction of Santa Barbara. 
 
 Presidio ok Santa Barbara 
 
 Mission of La Purissima 
 
 " of Santa Ines 
 
 " of Santa Barbara 
 
 " of Buenaventura 
 
 " of San Fernando 
 
 Town of La Reyna de los Angeles 
 
 Jurisdiction of San Diego. 
 
 Presidio of San Dieoo 
 
 Mission of San Gabriel 
 
 " of San Juan Capistrano. . 
 
 " of San Luis Key 
 
 " of San Diego 
 
 Total 
 
 Black 
 Cattle. 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Mules. 
 
 Asses. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Goats. 
 
 Swine. 
 
 5610 
 
 470 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 4443 
 
 2386 
 
 134 
 
 
 
 
 
 2000 
 
 725 
 
 4 
 
 
 5000 
 
 
 50 
 
 1200 
 
 450 
 
 1 
 
 
 2000 
 
 
 17 
 
 4200 
 
 1239 
 
 18 
 
 
 3000 
 
 
 
 9000 
 
 780 
 
 88 
 
 
 7000 
 
 
 
 12000 
 
 1300 
 
 40 
 
 
 13000 
 
 
 40 
 
 3500 
 
 940 
 
 82 
 
 
 5403 
 
 
 
 5641 
 
 8310 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 *7070 
 
 401 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 7017 
 
 
 17 
 
 2050 
 
 470 
 
 8 
 
 
 4400 
 
 55 
 
 
 6599 
 
 1070 
 
 50 
 
 
 6358 
 
 
 
 5000 
 
 1060 
 
 80 
 
 2 
 
 10000 
 
 55 
 
 60 
 
 3762 
 
 950 
 
 106 
 
 28 
 
 8999 
 
 15 
 
 60 
 
 2000 
 
 800 
 
 200 
 
 50 
 
 1200 
 
 
 24 
 
 7900 
 
 1300 
 
 220 
 
 
 
 
 
 10500 
 
 1000 
 
 160 
 
 4 
 
 7000 
 
 80 
 
 62 
 
 7800 
 
 820 
 
 112 
 
 
 22(10 
 
 
 50 
 
 2600 
 
 511 
 
 150 
 
 2 
 
 8300 
 
 87 
 
 68 
 
 4000 
 
 800 
 
 60 
 
 
 3100 
 
 80 
 
 8 
 
 6000 
 
 800 
 
 60 
 
 3 
 
 3000 
 
 
 
 38624 
 
 5208 
 
 520 
 
 
 
 
 
 608 
 
 625 
 
 150 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 20-U)0 
 
 1700 
 
 120 
 
 4 
 
 13554 
 
 76 
 
 98 
 
 lo'ino 
 
 290 
 
 30 
 
 5 
 
 4800 
 
 50 
 
 40 
 
 26000 
 
 2M0 
 
 250 
 
 5 
 
 25500 
 
 1200 
 
 250 
 
 6220 
 
 1196 
 
 182 
 
 14 
 
 17624 
 
 825 
 
 
 216727 
 
 32201 
 
 2S44 
 
 177 
 
 153455 
 
 1873 
 
 839 
 
 The average prices of cattle, about the same period, were, 
 for a mule or saddle horse, ten dollars, or two pounds sterling ; 
 a mare, cow or fat ox, five dollars, or one pound ; a sheep, two 
 dollars, or eight shillings. 
 
 In regard to the preceding tables, it may be remarked that, 
 in 1831, the missions had already lost much of their former 
 splendor and greatness. Ever since 1824, their progress had 
 
64 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 been of a downward character. Most of them had so wilfully 
 mismanaged their estates, or so dissipated their means, or been 
 plundered of them by the Mexican authorities, that their wealth 
 in cattle, farm produce, &c, had dwindled down to less than one- 
 fourth, while the pecuniary affairs of many of their number 
 showed a still more ruinous appearance. We have given at length 
 the tables of Mr. Forbes, because he appears to have paid much 
 careful attention to the subject ; and we would now add some 
 statistics as to the riches of the missions, during the period of 
 their reputed greatest prosperity, extracted from the Rev. Walter 
 Colton's " Three Years in California" (New York, 1850), whose 
 statements, however, are somewhat more sweeping and less 
 detailed than those of Mr. Forbes. 
 
 The Mission of San Francisco Dolores, in 1825, is said to 
 have possessed 76,000 head of cattle, 950 tame horses, 2,000 
 breeding mares, 84 stud of choice breed, 820 mules, 79,000 sheep, 
 2,000 hogs, 456 yoke of working oxen, 18,000 bushels of wheat 
 and barley, $35,000 in merchandise, and $25,000 in specie : — 
 Santa Clara, in 1823, branded, as the increase of one year, 
 22,400 calves. It owned 74,280 head of full-grown cattle, 407 
 yoke of working oxen, 82,540 sheep, 1,890 trained horses, 4,235 
 mares, 725 mules, 1,000 hogs, and $120,000 in goods : — San 
 Jose, in 1825, had 3,000 Indians, 62,000 head of cattle, 840 
 tame horses, 1,500 mares, 420 mules, 310 yoke of oxen, and 
 62,000 sheep : — San Juan Bautista, in 1820, owned 43,870 head 
 of cattle, 1,360 tame horses, 4,870 mares, colts, and fillies. It 
 had also seven sheep farms, containing 69,530 sheep ; while the 
 Indians attached to the mission drove 321 yoke of working oxen. 
 Its storehouse contained $75,000 in goods, and $20,000 in 
 specie : — San Carlos, in 1825, branded 2,300 calves, and had 
 87,600 head of cattle, 1,800 horses and mares, 365 yoke of oxen, 
 nine sheep farms, with an average of about 600 sheep on each, a 
 large assortment of merchandise, and $40,000 in specie : — Santa 
 Cruz, so lately as 1830, had 42,800 head of cattle, 3,200 horses 
 and mares, 72,500 sheep, 200 mules, large herds of swine, and 
 $25,000 worth of silver plate : — Soledad, in 1826, owned about 
 36,000 head of cattle, and a greater number of horses and mares 
 than any other mission in the country. The increase of these 
 
WEALTH OF THE MISSIONS. 
 
 65 
 
 animals was said to be so great, that they were given away to 
 preserve the pasturage for cattle and sheep. This mission had 
 about 70,000 sheep and 300 yoke of tame oxen : — San Antonio, 
 in 1822, owned 52,800 head of cattle, 1,800 tame horses, 3,000 
 mares, 500 yoke of working oxen, 600 mules, 48,000 sheep, and 
 1,000 swine : — San Miguel, in 1821, owned 91,000 head of cat- 
 tle, 1,100 tame horses, 3,000 mares, 2,000 mules, 170 yoke of 
 
 Mission of Santa Barbara. 
 
 working oxen, and 47,000 sheep : — San Luis Obispo was reputed 
 to have been one of the richest of the missions. At one time, it 
 owned 87,000 head of grown cattle, 2,000 tame horses, 3,500 
 mares, 3,700 mules, and eight sheep farms, averaging 9,000 sheep 
 to each farm. "When its presiding priest, Luis Martinez, returned 
 to Spain, he took with him $100,000 of mission property : — 
 La Purissima, so lately as 1830, had over 40,000 head of cattle. 
 300 yoke of working oxen, 2,600 tame horses, 4,000 mares. 
 30,000 sheep, and 5.000 swine : — Santa Inez, in 1820, possessed 
 property valued at $800,000 : — Santa Barbara, in 1828, had 
 40,000 head of cattle, 1,000 horses, 2,000 mares, 80 yoke of 
 oxen, 600 mules, and 20,000 sheep : — San Buenaventura, in 
 1825, owned 37,000 head of cattle, 600 riding horses, 1,300 
 5 
 
66 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 mares, 200 yoke of working oxen, 500 mules, 30,000 sheep, 200 
 goats, 2,000 swine, a thrifty orchard, two rich vineyards, $35,000 
 in foreign goods, $27,000 in specie, with church ornaments and 
 clothing valued at $61,000 : — San Fernando, in 1826, owned 
 56,000 head of cattle, 1,500 horses and mares, 200 mules, 400 
 yoke of working oxen, 64,000 sheep, and 2,000 swine. It had 
 also in its stores about $50,000 in merchandise, and $90,000 in 
 specie. Its vineyards yielded annually about 2,000 gallons of 
 brandy, and as many of wine : — San Gabriel, in 1829, had 
 70,000 head of cattle, 1,200 horses, 3,000 mares, 400 mules, 120 
 yoke of working oxen, and 54,000 sheep. It made annually from 
 four to six hundred barrels of wine, the sale of which produced 
 an income of upwards of $12,000 : — San Luis Bey, in 1826, had 
 70,000 head of cattle, 2,000 horses, 140 yoke of tame oxen, 300 
 mules, and 68,000 sheep : — San Juan Capistrano and San Diego 
 were reputed to be among the most opulent of the missions, and 
 their possessions were not inferior to those of the others named. 
 
 Let the reader contrast these statements with those of Mr. 
 Forbes, and consider what havoc must have been produced among 
 the missions in the short space of six or seven years. It was the 
 impending secularization, or, in other words, the confiscation of 
 their property, which seems to have produced this lamentable 
 state of affairs, and made the Fathers quite careless in the man- 
 agement of their property. The large occasional grants, also, out 
 of which the laity either wheedled or bullied the Fathers, mightily 
 helped the disastrous result. The ravens had been long gather- 
 ing round the carcass of the still breathing creature. In its last 
 spasms, it recklessly threw aside all decorum, and thinking 
 nothing of the future only endeavored to share in and for the 
 moment enjoy its own spoils, along with the grasping and sacri- 
 legious Mexican officials and their Californian favorites. Soon 
 lands and stocks were all swept from the reach of the Fathers, the 
 very Indian converts disappeared, and nothing was left but their 
 huge empty churches, stripped of most of their valuable and 
 gaudy ornaments, and fast crumbling into ruins. With the 
 general disappearance of the stock of domestic cattle, those lay- 
 men who had acquired grants to the different parts of the mission 
 possessions now turned their attention more to tillage. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Pious Fund of California— General description of the Missions— Patriarchal kind of life of the 
 Fathers— Reflections on the subject— General description of the Presidios, Castillos, and their gar- 
 risons, and of the free Pueblos and Eanchos. 
 
 The missions of Upper California were indebted for their begin- 
 ning and chief success to the subscriptions which, as in the 
 case of the missionary settlements of the lower province, were 
 largely bestowed by the pious to promote so grand a work as 
 turning a great country to the worship of the true God. Such 
 subscriptions continued for a long period, both in Old and New 
 Spain, and were regularly remitted to the City of Mexico, where 
 they were formed into what was called " The Pious Fund of Cali- 
 fornia." This fund was managed by the convent of San Fer- 
 nando and other trustees in Mexico, and the proceeds, together 
 with the annual salaries allowed by the Crown to the missionaries 
 were transmitted to California. Meanwhile, the Spanish Court 
 scarcely interfered with the temporal government of the country. 
 It was true that some of the ordinary civil offices and establish- 
 ments were kept up ; but this was only in name, and on too 
 small a scale to be of any practical importance. A commandante- 
 general was appointed by the Crown to command the garrisons 
 of the presidios, but as these were originally established solely to 
 protect the missions from the dreaded violence of hostile Indians, 
 and to lend them, when necessary, the carnal arm of offence, he 
 was not allowed to interfere in the temporal rule of the Fathers. 
 He resided at Monterey, and his annual salary was four thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 In every sense of the word, then, these monks were practically 
 the sovereign rulers of California — passing laws affecting not only 
 property, but even life and death — declaring peace and war 
 
68 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 against their Indian neighbors — regulating, receiving, and spend- 
 ing the finances at discretion — and, in addition, drawing; large 
 annual subsidies not only from the pious among the faithful over 
 all Christendom, but even from the Spanish monarchy itself, 
 almost as a tribute to their being a superior state. This surely 
 was the golden age of the missions — a contented, peaceful, be- 
 lieving people, abundant wealth for all their wants, despotic will, 
 and no responsibility but to their own consciences and heaven ! 
 Their horn was filled to overflowing ; but soon an invisible and 
 merciless hand seized it, and slowly and lingeringly, as if in ma- 
 licious sport, turned it over, and spilled the nectar of their life 
 upon the wastes of mankind, from whence it can never again be 
 collected. The golden age of another race has now dawned, and 
 with it the real prosperity of the country. 
 
 The missions were originally formed on the same general plan, 
 and they were planted at such distances from each other as to 
 allow ahundant room for subsequent development. They were 
 either established on the sea-coast, or a few miles inland. Twenty 
 or thirty miles indeed seems all the distance the missionaries had 
 proceeded into the interior ; beyond which narrow belt the coun- 
 try was unexplored and unknown. Each mission had a consider- 
 able piece of the best land in the neighborhood set aside for its 
 agricultural and pastoral purposes, which was commonly about 
 fifteen miles square. But besides this selected territory, there 
 was generally much more vacant land lying between the bounda- 
 ries of the missions, and which, as the increase of their stocks 
 required more space for grazing, was gradually occupied by the 
 flocks and herds of the Fathers, nearest to whose mission lay the 
 previously unoccupied district. Over these bounds the Fathers 
 conducted all the operations of a gigantic farm. Their cattle 
 generally numbered from ten thousand to twenty thousand, and 
 their sheep were nearly as numerous — though some missions had 
 upwards of thrice these numbers — which fed over perhaps a hun- 
 dred thousand acres of fertile land. 
 
 Near the centre of such farms were placed the mission build- 
 ings. These consisted of the church — which was either built of 
 stone, if that material could be procured in the vicinity, or of 
 adobes, which are bricks dried in the sun, and was as substantial, 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE MISSIONS. 
 
 69 
 
 large, and richly decorated an erection as the means of the mission 
 would permit, or the skill and strength of their servants could 
 construct. In the interior, pictures and hangings decorated the 
 
 Mis-inn of San Curios. 
 
 walls ; while the altars wore ornamented with marble pillars of 
 various colors, and upon and near them stood various articles of 
 massy gold and silver plate. A profusion of gilding and tawdry 
 sparkling objects caught and pleased the eye of the simple con- 
 gregations. Around, or beside the church, and often in the form 
 of a square, were grouped the habitations of the Fathers and their 
 household servants, and the various granaries and workshops of 
 the people ; while, at the distance of one or two hundred yards, 
 stood the huts of the Indians. The firmer buildings were con- 
 structed of adobes, and covered with brick tiles, frail and misera- 
 ble materials at the best. The huts of the Indians were occa- 
 sionally made of the same materials, but more commonly were 
 formed only of a few rough poles, stuck in the ground with the 
 points bending towards the centre like a cone, and were covered 
 with reeds and grass. An adobe wall of considerable height 
 sometimes inclosed the whole village. The direction of the 
 affairs of the settlement was in the hands of one of the Fathers, 
 
70 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 originally called a president, but afterwards a prefect ; and each 
 prefect was independent in his own mission, and practically- 
 supreme in all its temporal, and nearly in all its spiritual mat- 
 ters, to any human authority. 
 
 Thus the Fathers might be considered to have lived something 
 in the style of the patriarchs of the days of Job and Abraham. 
 They indeed were generally ignorant and unlettered men, know- 
 ing little more than the mechanical rites of their church, and 
 what else their manuals of devotion and the treasuries of the lives 
 of the saints taught them ; but they seem to have been person- 
 ally devout, self-denying, and beneficent in their own simple way. 
 They thought they did God service, and perhaps much more the 
 Indians themselves, in catching, taming, and converting them to 
 Christianity. That was their vocation in the world, and they 
 faithfully obeyed its calls of duty. If ever stern necessity, or 
 sometimes a forgetfulness of the value of life to the wild Indians 
 prompted them, or their military guards and executioners, to the 
 slaughter of a tribe, now and then, of the more fierce, thievish, 
 and untractable natives, they were scrupulously careful first of 
 all to baptize the doomed ; and, therefore, though the hapless 
 aborigines lost earthly life and the freedom of a savage state, their 
 souls were saved, and they entered into and enjoyed paradise for 
 ever. Towards the converts and actually domesticated servants, 
 they always showed such an affectionate kindness as a father 
 pays to the youngest and most helpless of his family. The herds 
 and flocks of the Fathers roamed undisturbed over numberless 
 hills and valleys. Their servants or slaves were true born chil- 
 dren of the house, who labored lightly and pleasantly, and had no 
 sense of freedom nor desire for change. A rude but bounteous 
 hospitality marked the master's reception of the solitary way- 
 farer, as he travelled from mission to mission, perhaps bearing 
 some scanty news from the outer world, all the more welcome 
 that the Fathers knew little of the subject and could not be 
 affected by the events and dangers of distant societies. All 
 these things have now passed away. The churches have fallen 
 into decay, deserted by the old worshippers, and poverty-stricken — 
 the adobe houses of the Fathers are in ruins — and there is scarcely 
 any trace left of the slightly erected huts of the Indians, who 
 
PATRIARCHAL LIFE OF THE FATHERS. 71 
 
 themselves have deserted their old hearths and altars, and are 
 silently though rapidly disappearing from the land. But the 
 memory of the patriarchal times, for they were only as of yester- 
 day, still remains fresh in the minds of the early white settlers. 
 
 The quiet beauty and peacefulness of such a life make a de- 
 lightful subject of contemplation to the wearied spirits who labor 
 through the turmoils, anxieties, and vexations of the great world. 
 But the Indian neophytes had no such contrasts to show them 
 the inherent charm of their contented life. They grew and flour- 
 ished as the cabbage on the rich soil of their own land ; but they 
 also were as dull and earthly as the same cabbage. It may be 
 very true, the more knowledge, the more sorrow ; yet we cannot 
 avoid thinking that the more sources of intellectual eujoyment a 
 man has, the keener and more numerous also his moments of 
 pleasure. Even in many of the natural anxieties of civilized 
 society, there is a sense of power and heroic endurance which 
 softens the blow. The mere memory of past pains has almost 
 always something cheerful in it ; while the remembrance of intel- 
 lectual and refined enjoyments gilds the last and setting hour of 
 our existence. On the other hand, the hopes of the intelligent 
 being are infinitely more agreeable and ennobling than those of 
 the untutored, brutal savage. Therefore it may be concluded 
 that, apart from sickly sentimentalism and Rousseau-like theories, 
 the sooner the aborigines of California are altogether quietly 
 weeded away, the better for humanity. Yet the Fathers would 
 retain them : then sweep away the Fathers too. 
 
 Like the missions, the presidios were established on one general 
 plan. They were originally formed, as we have seen, to give 
 military protection and the aid of the carnal arm to the Fathers 
 in their conquest and civilization of the country, and in cap- 
 turing and taming the wild Indians. These presidios were four 
 in number, viz. : those of San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, 
 and San Francisco. They were built in the form of a square of 
 about three hundred feet on each side, surrounded by a wall 
 twelve feet high, made of adobes, and most of them are now lit- 
 tle better than a confused heap of dried mud, rapidly crumbling 
 into dust. Within these bounds were included the commandante's 
 house, barracks for the troops, a church, store-houses, and various 
 
72 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 other buildings. At some distance from the presidio was the 
 castillo, or fort, which might be sufficient to overawe the simple 
 Indians, but was too defenceless a structure to prevent a superior 
 force of white men taking easy possession of it. A few guns of 
 small calibre were mounted on the ramparts, which, however, 
 seemed more for show than use, since they were never attended 
 to. Soon, therefore, from the ravages of time and the weather, 
 their carriages fell to pieces, and the guns themselves became 
 honey-combed by rust and rot. 
 
 The soldiers assigned to each presidio were cavalry, and seem 
 always to have been of the worst kind of troops. As soldiers, 
 they were of little account ; as men and settlers, absolutely 
 worthless. There were supposed to be two hundred and fifty 
 attached to each presidio, but their complement was never com- 
 plete, and generally they were ridiculously short of that number. 
 Undisciplined, wretchedly clothed, and irregularly paid, they 
 were indolent, riotous, and good for nothing but to hunt, and 
 shoot, or capture for new converts and servants, the wild Indians, 
 and to act as policemen over the converts already made. Yet 
 even in these capacities, they generally gave more trouble to the 
 meek Fathers to manage and keep in decent order, than the wild 
 or disobedient natives themselves. These were the soldiers of 
 California in the days of the Spanish monarchy, and they were 
 no better under the Mexican republic. They are represented to 
 have been commonly the refuse of the Mexican army, and were 
 generally either deserters, mutineers, or men guilty of military 
 offences, who were sent to California as to a place of penal ban- 
 ishment. To these presidios also the convicted felons of Mexico 
 were often transported. Such was a considerable portion of the 
 white population of California. We have already seen of what 
 nature the Indian inhabitants were. 
 
 Occasionally, the old soldiers of the presidios, upon their re- 
 tirement, after a certain number of years, from active service, 
 received grants of land from the Fathers, upon which they set- 
 tled, married, and left descendants. These formed the nuclei of 
 a few free towns {pueblos), which were not under the control of 
 the missions, but under the immediate government, first of the 
 Spanish and afterwards of the Mexican authorities. As they 
 
PRESIDIOS, CASTILLOS AND RANCHOS. 
 
 73 
 
 were established in the most fertile places of the country, they 
 began gradually to attract other white settlers to their neighbor- 
 hood, and soon exceeded in population and importance most of 
 the original mission villages themselves. These pueblos, however, 
 were only three in number, viz. : that of Nuestra Senora de los 
 Angeles (the principal one, and indeed the chief town in Califor- 
 nia), and those of San Jose, near the mission of Santa Clara, and 
 Branci/orte, close to the mission of Santa Cruz. 
 
 Mission Rancho. 
 
 Besides the missions, presidios, castillos, and pueblos, it may 
 be remarked that there were certain public farms, called ranchos, 
 set apart for the use of the soldiers. They were generally four 
 or five leagues distant from the presidios, and were under the 
 control of the different commandantes Little use, however, seems 
 to have been made of these farms, and they commonly were left 
 in a state of nature, or afforded only grazing to the few cattle 
 and horses belonging to the presidios. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Independence of Mexico in 1822, and gradual changes in the character and constitution of the Missions. 
 — Manumission of the Indians in 1826; but plan found unworkable, and return to the old state of 
 things. — Gradual disappearance of the Pious Fund. — Increasing riches of the Fathers. — Changes 
 of 1833 and 1834 in the Missions, and attempts by the Mexican Congress to secularize their pro- 
 perty. — Santa Anna. — Attempted Centralization of the Mexican Government. — Overthrow of the 
 old Federal Constitution in 1836. — Revolt and Declaration of Independence of the Californians. 
 — Continual sinking of the Fathers, and final fall of the missions in 1S45. — Indian converts sent 
 adrift, and Mission property sold or rented. — Cost of the support of the Missions to the Spanish 
 and Mexican Governments. 
 
 The state of things described under the missions continued 
 without alteration until the overthrow of the Spanish power in 
 Mexico in 1822, and the establishment of a republican constitu- 
 tion in 1824. At that time, as population formed the basis of 
 the Federal States, New California was only admitted into the 
 Union as a territory, it not having the necessary population to 
 constitute a State. Under this character, it had a representa- 
 tive in the Mexican Congress, who sat in the assembly and shared 
 in debates, but who was not entitled to vote on any question. 
 The republic was represented in the territory, as the Spanish 
 monarchy had previously been, by a commandante-general, who 
 was nominal governor of the country. However, the practical 
 legislative powers and virtual government remained in the hands 
 of the missons as before. The commandante-general indeed had 
 a kind of advising or privy council given him by law, called a 
 deputation, and which was chosen by the people ; but their func- 
 tions, although appearing to take the form of a local and free 
 government, were very limited, and their meetings accordingly 
 seldom took place. 
 
 In 1826, the federal government first began to tamper with 
 the ancient state of affairs. In that year, the Mexican authori- 
 ties proclaimed the manumission of the Indians, and sent in- 
 
MANAGEMENT OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 75 
 
 structions to California that all those should be liberated " who 
 had good characters, and were supposed able to maintain them- 
 selves from having been taught the art of agriculture or some 
 trade." Certain portions of land were allotted to them, and the 
 whole country was divided into parishes, under the superintend- 
 ence of curates. The old salary of the missionaries (four hundred 
 dollars per annum) out of the national exchequer was also sus- 
 pended, as the country was expected to maintain its own local 
 establishments. 
 
 This plan, however, was quickly found to be unworkable. 
 The simple Indians were quite incapable of standing alone, and 
 rapidly gambled away, or otherwise squandered the little pro- 
 perty assigned to them. Beggary or plunder was only left them 
 to subsist upon. Such a state of things soon restored the 
 Fathers to their former position. The most respectable white 
 settlers entreated them to receive the beastly Indians back into 
 the old fold ; and this, in the following year, the Fathers did. 
 But they first took occasion to make the circumstances the 
 ground of petition and complaint to Congress, who subsequently, 
 and in consequence of their remonstrances, ordered not only the 
 old salaries to be continued, but the arrears then due to be paid 
 in full. Thus the reign of the Fathers was prolonged for a 
 few years. 
 
 Meanwhile, the old Pious Fund of California was become 
 only a name. After the separation of the Mexican provinces 
 from Spain, the ancient subscribers got lukewarm in their pay- 
 ments, and new ones were not easily to be had. In the dis- 
 turbed state of the country, and in the change of ideas arising 
 from political circumstances, there were more tempting channels 
 for the application of loose money than in riveting the chains 
 of Christianity on poor heathens, or securing the Fathers in their 
 comfortable domicils. But, to compensate for the loss of these 
 subscriptions, the real and personal estate of the missions was 
 rapidly rising in value. Traders had come on the coast, who 
 purchased the hides and tallow of their cattle, and the produce 
 of their fields. The Fathers were becoming excellent men of 
 business, and began to drive a thriving trade. They were now 
 independent, in the fullest sense of the word ; so much so, that, 
 
76 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 whereag formerly they were indebted to foreign contributions and 
 royal or republican assistance to support their missions, they now 
 not only could manage to subsist without these aids, but were 
 enabled, and in truth obliged, to support the Mexican forces and 
 civil establishments in their territory at a vast annual expense. 
 
 Portrait cf one of the Fathers— Antonio Peyri (aaeil GT years), Missionary at San Luis Key, from 
 
 1799 to 1S32. 
 
 Up to this time, and so late as 1833, the Mexican govern- 
 ment had not sought, or rather was unable, to interfere materi- 
 ally with the management of the Fathers. In that year indeed 
 a body of eleven Franciscan friars was ordered by Congress to be 
 sent to the missions to strengthen their establishments. At this 
 time, General Don Jose Figueroa was appointed military gover- 
 nor, or commandante-general. Some time later, in the same year, 
 the democratic party being then in power, the Mexican Congress 
 passed a law for entirely removing the missionaries, and dividing 
 the lands among the Indians and settlers, and appropriating the 
 
REVOLT OF THE C ALIFOBNIANS. 
 
 77 
 
 funds of the Fathers in Mexico to state purposes. Commissioners 
 were appointed to see this act carried into effect, and free emi- 
 grants were engaged to proceed from Mexico to settle in the 
 country. Tins was the most serious blow the missions had ever 
 received, and would have been a deadly one, but for one of those 
 revolutions or party triumphs which so frequently occur in 
 Mexico. Santa Anna, who was opposed to the democratic party, 
 happened to come into power before the provisions of the act 
 could be carried into execution. He immediately overturned all 
 that had been arranged on the subject, and forwarded, by ex- 
 press, counteracting instructions to California. When subse- 
 quently the emigrants from Mexico arrived in the country, Gene- 
 ral Figueroa received them so coldly, and gave them so little 
 encouragement, that soon the greater number of them returned 
 to Mexico. The missions therefore continued as before ; and so 
 et)ded this attempt on the part of the Mexican Government to 
 secularize the property of the Fathers, and augment the popula- 
 tion and resources of the country. 
 
 In 1835, the party at whose head was Santa Anna deter- 
 mined to remodel the Mexican republic, and centralize the gov- 
 ernment, thereby destroying, in a great measure, the federal con- 
 stitution of 1824. But no time was allowed him to make the 
 necessary changes and their exact nature therefore was never 
 known ; for, in the following year, 1836, by one of the usual 
 coups d'etat, and while he himself had been defeated and taken 
 prisoner by the Texans, another party opposed to his general 
 views of policy came into power. This party, however, agreed 
 with the previous administration on the necessity or propriety 
 of remodelling the federal system. The old constitution was 
 therefore abolished, and a new one adopted. By this change, 
 the separate states were deprived of many of their furmer pre- 
 rogatives, and nearly the whole rights and duties of government 
 were confined to the general Congress and executive. This 
 sweeping alteration of the federal constitution was opposed in 
 many parts of the republic, and in no quarter more vigorously 
 than in California. The people of Monterey rose en masse, and 
 at once declared themselves independent until the federal con- 
 stitution was re-adopted, and passed formal resolutions to that 
 
78 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 effect. Their example was quickly followed by the inhabitants 
 of the other towns and villages. But while the people of the 
 southern parts of the country were inclined to adhere to Mexico, 
 upon certain conditions, those of the nothern districts were 
 determined henceforward, and for ever, to sever the connection 
 with the other States, and to stand alone, free and independent 
 of Mexican domination. 
 
 Mexico, meanwhile, was not exactly idle, for it answered the 
 Californian proclamations, addresses, and long inflammatory 
 speeches, by epistles and speeches of a similar nature on the 
 opposite side. California and Mexico — the local and general 
 governments — each party appealed to the 'patriotism of the 
 people in support of their cause. Senor Don Mariano Guada- 
 lupe Vallejo, whose name will again occur in our pages, was ap- 
 pointed commandfinte-general on the part of the Californians, and 
 forthwith the whole train of congressional officials was forcibly 
 expelled from office and the government troops disbanded, and 
 before long transported to the Mexican territories. The Mexicans 
 threatened an expedilion to chastise the rebels, and recall them 
 to repentance and duty ; while the Californians defied their 
 menaces, and resolved to abide the consequences of their first 
 steps to freedom. However, General Urrea, who had been 
 charged by the Mexican Government with the conduct of this 
 expedition, soon afterwards joined the federalist party, and wil- 
 fully delayed the execution of his orders. At the same time, as 
 the rebels were so far away, and the opposite factions in Mexico 
 had so many more pressing matters to settle among themselves 
 at home, somehow all about California appeared to be forgotten, 
 and it was left, for a time, to any constitution, or none at all, 
 and anarchy, just as its people pleased. About the end of July, 
 1837, the excitement among the Californians had subsided so 
 far, that they then quietly accepted the new Mexican constitu- 
 tion without a murmur, and voluntarily swore allegiance to it. 
 
 It is probably unnecessary to dwell upon the successive and 
 rapid changes of administration in Mexico, each of them differ- 
 ing widely from each other in their general views of home and 
 foreign policy. In one thing indeed they pretty cordially agreed, 
 and that was the destruction of the missions as a ruling body in 
 
FALL OF THE MISSIONS. 
 
 79 
 
 California, and the secularization of their property for state and 
 other purposes. Accordingly, administration after administra- 
 tion adopted the extreme democratic views on this matter, and 
 soon the Fathers were legally, if not equitably, stripped of their 
 possessions, and of all their former dignity and influence. 
 
 Foreseeing and dreading the results of the long threatened 
 proceedings, the Fathers lost courage, and neglected the missions. 
 If they themselves were not to enjoy their great estates nobody 
 else should. Their cattle, therefore, were recklessly slaughtered, 
 their fields and crops were neglected, and their property was 
 granted away or sold for trifling sums. Long before their final 
 fall, most of the missions had become but a wreck of what they 
 had been but a few years before. Perhaps the period of their 
 greatest prosperity was immediately previous to 1824. when the 
 Mexican constitution was declared. After that time they all 
 gradually fell into decay. In successive years from the date 
 mentioned, and particularly from 1834 downwards, specially 
 marking the disastrous years 1840 and 1845, various acts were 
 passed in the Mexican Congress, which completely denuded the 
 Fathers of both power and property. 
 
 This, however, was a work of considerable time, and occasion- 
 ally, as rival administrations, differing in this matter a slight shade 
 from each other, came into office, a gleam of their setting and 
 cloud-shrouded sun would appear to cheer the hearts of the 
 Fathers. But that sun finally sunk in 1845, never again to rise 
 in California. In the year named, a considerable number of the 
 missions were sold by public auction. The Indian converts at- 
 tached to certain others, and who now were wandering idle and 
 wretched over the country, were ordered to return to and culti- 
 vate the portions of land, which had been assigned them by 
 government. If that return and cultivation were delayed more 
 than a month, then these portions of land and the missions to 
 which they were attached would also be sold ; and this was 
 subsequently done. The remaining missions were to be rented. 
 The price and rents of all these missions were then divided into 
 three parts : one was bestowed upon the missionaries themselves, 
 and another upon the converted Indians, for their respective 
 maintenance, while the last was converted into a new Pious 
 
80 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Fund of California, for the support and extension of education 
 and general charitable purposes. 
 
 Before closing this account of the former state of the missions, 
 we may mention what was the cost of the country to the Mexi- 
 can Government, independent of the salaries allowed to the 
 Fathers, which, however, seldom seem to have been paid. Take 
 the year 1831 : — In that year, the expense of the presidial com- 
 panies, according to the estimates, was $91,000. To this must 
 be added the pay of the commandante-general and sub-inspector, 
 the expense of maintaining auxiliary troops and convicts, and 
 various other charges, $40,000. Together, these sums make 
 $131,000. But, as the net amount of the public revenue, 
 which was principally derived from exorbitant and often prohibi- 
 tory tariff duties, which necessarily encouraged smuggling, was 
 only $32,000, a short-coming of $109,000 was left to be pro- 
 vided by the general government. Other years showed an equally 
 unprofitable state of public affairs. However, as the general govern- 
 ment wanted the means, and perhaps the credit, elsewhere, they 
 borroived the deficiency from their nominal subjects, the wealthy 
 Fathers ; and, accordingly, we find that the Mexican Congress, 
 in 1831, owed the missions the large sum of $450,000. This 
 circumstance, it might be thought, should have held back the 
 destroying hand ; but perhaps it only nerved it to greater and 
 more speedy destruction. The ungrateful are always the most 
 cruel. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 California distinct in physical character and national feeling from the other Mexican provinces.— 
 Beginning and progress of immigration into the country.— The Russians at Bodega Bay.— Later 
 great increase of foreign white settlers; Americans largely preponderating. — Outrage committed 
 npon the settlers by Mexican authorities. — Commodore Jones takes possession of Monterey. — 
 Foreign settlers scatter tl»mselves over the whole country, and silently, but rapidly, revolu- 
 tionize or Americanize it— Origin of the war of 1846 between the Mexican and American States. 
 
 New California lias always been a distinct country from the 
 rest of the Mexican provinces, having nothing in common but 
 that its few early white settlers were descended from the same 
 race. Locally it was separated by vast deserts from the peopled 
 parts of the same empire — in its constitution and government it 
 was sui generis — in its productions, climate and general character 
 of country there was no resemblance to any other portion of 
 Mexico. In the very feelings of the inhabitants there was little 
 sympathy with those of the Mexicans. Mexico never could 
 become a naval power : its mineral, pastoral and agricultural 
 wealth were very great, but it wanted the ports and the facilities 
 for procuring ship-building timber and other marine stores winch 
 California has within a comparatively small space of territory. 
 California possesses an* equable, mild and healthy climate — 
 excellent harbors — (one of which is equal, in capacity, safety, 
 and ease of entrance and departure to any other on the globe) — 
 a soil extremely fertile, capable of producing every kind of grain 
 and vegetables, except a few tropical varieties — and extensive 
 forests and other tracks of land which yield most kinds of marine 
 stores, such as timber, resin, &c. These things — if it only 
 had population, would necessarily, at all times, have rendered it 
 independent of Mexico, which is deficient in many of them. 
 Accordingly, the free white settlers early began to show that 
 they cared little about the Mexican Government, and that, 
 6 
 
82 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sooner or later, they were determined to be independent. This 
 consideration was always present in the minds of the Mexican 
 people, and a secret jealousy of the consequences generally pre- 
 vented them from heartily encouraging the immigration into 
 California of new white settlers. 
 
 We have seen that so early as 1836, and when the gente de 
 razon did not exceed, if they amounted to five thousand, the 
 people of Monterey declared themselves independent of Mexico, 
 and that their example was followed by the other inhabitants of 
 the country. This desire for independence was soon much in- 
 creased by the continual inroad of immigrants which now began 
 to come from the United States of America, and from many of 
 the islands and ports of the Pacific. 
 
 In 1812, the Russians, without asking leave of the Spanish 
 authorities, had formed a small settlement at Bodega Bay, 
 between fifty and sixty miles to the north of San Francisco. 
 Some years afterwards, they established another small station, 
 called Ross, about thirty miles farther north than Bodega. 
 These settlements were founded chiefly in order to supply the 
 Russian-American Fur Company with agricultural supplies, but 
 also as fishing stations for procuring the skins of seals and otters, 
 which animals abounded on the coast and on the adjacent rocky 
 islands. The Russians, however, were very jealously eyed by 
 the Spanish and Mexican authorities, and were compelled to 
 maintain strong forts and a large number of military to protect 
 their settlers. In 1841, therefore, they judged it expedient to 
 relinquish their possessions. They accordingly disposed of their 
 stations and property to Captain John A. Sutter, an adventurous 
 Swiss gentleman, whose name is closely connected with the later 
 history of California, and will again occur in our pages. The 
 Russians then altogether retired from the country. 
 
 But previous to 1826 there were comparatively few other 
 foreign settlers in California than the Russians. When, however, 
 in that year, the Columbia and North American Fur Companies 
 had united their interests, several hundred trappers and fur 
 traders were always wandering about the borders of the country, 
 and occasionally even penetrated as far as San Francisco Bay 
 and Monterey. Their visits were in general coldly received by 
 
OUTRAGE UPON FOREIGN SETTLERS. 
 
 83 
 
 the Califomians ; and much suspicion of their ulterior views 
 being raised in the Mexican Government, laws were occasionally 
 passed by Congress for the removal of all foreigners from Cali- 
 fornia. Notwithstanding, the flow of immigration gradually 
 increased, and trappers, fur traders, whalers, and adventurers of 
 all nations, but particularly from the American States, began 
 to throng the harbors, and to settle down in the more fertile 
 parts of the country. Soon the majority of merchants in the 
 ports were of American, or else of English or French extraction ; 
 while many of the land squatters, and the shop and tavern- 
 keepers and artisans in towns were adventurous immigrants from 
 every country on earth. They had perhaps roamed over the wide 
 Pacific for years, and now, tired of their vagabond career, had 
 chosen California as a pleasant resting place, and a home for the 
 remainder of life. Runaway seamen and stragglers from Colum- 
 bia and Missouri swelled the number of white settlers. The 
 indolent Spaniards stupidly looked on, while the prestige of their 
 name, their wealth and influence were quietly passing into other 
 and stronger hands. 
 
 Occasionally indeed they seemed to make a desperate strug- 
 gle against their fate ; but it was like the useless splash of the 
 unwieldy whale when the harpoon has struck his vital parts. 
 In 1840, a violent outrage was committed, under the instructions 
 of Don Juan B. Alvarado, then governor of the Califomias, upon 
 many of the most respectable settlers of foreign extraction. In 
 April of that year, nearly one hundred individuals, American 
 and British subjects, of every rank and profession in life, were 
 6eized, and carried to Monterey, where they were imprisoned, 
 some of them in irons, for a short time. No charge was made 
 against these people, yet they were treated as vilely as if they 
 had been condemned felons. A few were released, without 
 explanation, at Monterey, and the remainder carried as prisoners 
 to Santa Barbara. There a few more were released, again without 
 explanation, while the rest proceeded, still prisoners, to San Bias. 
 There several others were discharged, and left to find their 
 way back to Monterey, without money, passports or any assist- 
 ance whatever. Those who were still left were imprisoned for 
 an indefinite time at San Bias, or sent to other Mexican towns. 
 
84 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 A considerable number died from the severe treatment they 
 experienced ; while it was fifteen months before the last of them 
 was set at liberty. And still no reason was alleged for this 
 worse than Turkish or Russian despotism. Nor has it ever been 
 fairly known why such outrageous proceedings had been adopted 
 by the Mexican authorities, although it was suspected that they 
 considered the foreign settlers in California were engaged in some 
 revolutionary movement. This, however, was a most unlikely 
 thing. The prisoners in conversation all denied, while the 
 Mexicans ridiculously failed, or perhaps never seriously attempted 
 to establish it. Probably a better reason might be found in the 
 fact that the Mexicans had got so fretfully jealous and alarmed 
 at the progress of foreign immigration, that they were determined 
 to disgust the present settlers with the country, and to frighten 
 all others from entering into it. Besides the people mentioned, 
 there were many other foreign settlers of large property who 
 were arrested, though Governor Alvarado thought it prudent not 
 to imprison them. No redress seems ever to have been obtained 
 from the Mexican Government for this daring attack on the 
 liberty of American subjects, and for all the losses, pecuniary 
 and otherwise, sustained by the victims of these violent, arbi- 
 trary and unlawful proceedings. At that period, there was no 
 regular United States ship-of-war stationed on the coast, nor 
 any consul appointed, to whom the injured could appeal, and 
 who, in his official capacity, could have enforced some compensa- 
 tion for such manifold wrongs. As it was, indeed, Mr. Thomas 
 0. Larkin, afterwards our respected consul at Monterey, in his 
 private character as a merchant of the place and an American 
 subject, exerted himself strenuously to preserve the honor of the 
 United States flag and the fives and properties of his fellow 
 subjects ; but without effect. Several commanding officers of 
 United States ships in the Pacific likewise interested themselves 
 in the matter, when they happened to approach the coast ; but 
 as they were but transient visitors, having no proper commission 
 effectually to interfere, the few steps they took led to no settle- 
 ment of the business. 
 
 In 1842, a premature attempt was made by an American 
 officer forcibly to take possession of the country. In that year, 
 
COMMODORE JONES AT MONTEREY. 
 
 85 
 
 Commodore Jones, then in the Pacific, having fancied that the 
 Mexican and American States were at war on the Atlantic side 
 of the continent, sailed with his frigate, the United States, and 
 the sloop-of-war Cyane, to Monterey, where he arrived on the 
 19th of October. He immediately took possession of the town 
 and hoisted the American flag, publishing proclamations over 
 
 Sutter's Fort, — New Helvetia. 
 
 the whole country, declaring it a portion of the United States. 
 After only twenty-four hours possession, the commodore received 
 intelligence which altered his views of matters. He therefore 
 revoked all his recent orders, hauled down the " stripes and stars," 
 and restored the place to its former owners, with as handsome 
 an apology as he could make for his extraordinary proceedings. 
 
 So early as 1837, several societies were formed in the Ameri- 
 can States to promote emigration to Oregon and California. 
 In the following years, and particularly in 1843, 1844, 1845 and 
 1846, many thousand emigrants journeyed across the Rocky and 
 
86 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Snowy Mountains, enduring much suffering by the way, to 
 settle in California and the adjacent territory of Oregon. Other 
 large numbers proceeded thither through Mexico, across the 
 Isthmus, or by way of Cape Horn. The Valley of the Sacra- 
 mento, where Captain Sutter, already mentioned, possessed, 
 under a grant from the Mexican government, an extensive tract 
 of country, called by him New Helvetia, was the general resort 
 of the larger number of those immigrants whose wishes were 
 directed towards an agricultural life. Many, however, distributed 
 themselves over other parts of the country, and those whose 
 views were turned more to trade and commerce flocked to the 
 towns on the coast, where they soon became the most influential 
 part of the community, and in some instances formed even the 
 numerical strength of the white population. 
 
 Meanwhile the Mexican Congress, alarmed at an immigra- 
 tion so steadily increasing and so powerful, fulminated proclama- 
 tion after proclamation against the intruders, and instructed the 
 governor of the province to take steps for their immediate expul- 
 sion. Such a measure, however, was now too bold an undertak- 
 ing for the whole Mexican power to execute. There the stubborn 
 settlers were, and would remain ; the squatter on his land, the 
 merchant in his office, the artisan, shopkeeper and trader at the 
 posts they had severally selected. Accordingly, the commandante- 
 general of California contented himself merely with publishing, 
 in their order, the impotent ordinances of Congress as they 
 reached himself, without daring or taking the least trouble to 
 enforce them. It was felt by all parties that a silent revolution 
 was rapidly going on, the effect of which was thoroughly to 
 Americanize the whole province. It was barely possible that 
 England might have delayed this movement somewhat, if she 
 had received, as was at one time seriously proposed by many 
 influential personages, the territory of California from the Mexi- 
 can Congress, in lieu of the large public debt which her subjects 
 held against the insolvent republic. But even such a political 
 cession of the country to England would scarcely have stopped 
 the onward progress of American settlements, or removed the 
 profound feeling that California was destined, one day very soon 
 iow, to pass under the protection of the " star-spangled banner." 
 
WAR BETWEEN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES. 87 
 
 The pear was ripening, and, if not plucked a little earlier by 
 impatient hands, would certainly soon fall at the feet of the 
 watcher. Matters were in this condition, when the war of 1846 
 broke out between the United States of America and the Mexi- 
 can States, which brought matters to a crisis, and finally settled 
 the destiny of California. The origin of the war was shortly 
 this : — 
 
 In 1835, Texas, like California and many other provinces of 
 the Mexican republic, dissatisfied with the overthrow of the 
 federal constitution, revolted and declared itself independent. 
 War was accordingly proclaimed by the general government, and 
 an army, under the command of Santa Anna, was forthwith sent 
 to the rebellious province to compel obedience. But the Texans, 
 who were now chiefly of American descent, and who had no 
 sympathies with the Mexicans, having flown to arms, defeated 
 and captured Santa Anna himself, on the 21st April, 1836. In 
 the power of the enemy, and fearing the machinations of politi- 
 cal foes in the capital, Santa Anna was glad to sign a treaty 
 with the Texans, in which he acknowledged the independence of 
 the province. Meanwhile, another party had come into power in 
 Mexico who refused to confirm the proceedings of Santa Anna, 
 and still claimed Texas as an integral part of the republic. The 
 disordered state, however, of the general country prevented 
 active measures being taken to establish this claim ; and Texas 
 governed itself, and was acknowledged as an independent power, 
 by several European and other nations. 
 
 In the interval, the Texans applied to the American Congress 
 for permission to be received into the Union. This, for various 
 reasons, was refused on the part of Congress ; and similar 
 applications made during the next eight or nine years were like- 
 wise declined. At last, in 1845, the American Congress saw 
 reason to change its opinion, and on the 1st of March of that 
 year, passed resolutions sanctioning the annexation of Texas, upon 
 certain preliminary conditions, with which, as it happened, Texas 
 was ultimately found ready to comply. Five days after the pass- 
 ing of these resolutions, the Mexican ambassador, at Washington, 
 protested against them, and demanded his passports. Generally 
 such a course is only adopted where there is good reason to sup- 
 
88 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 pose that war is shortly about to follow. In the present instance, 
 war was not immediately declared, nor did any hostilities take 
 place. However, the Mexican people were much embittered 
 against the American States when they reflected on the course of 
 these events, and every where a popular feeling was produced 
 inimical to America, and which insisted on immediate war. 
 
 To complicate matters, the Mexican Government had acknow- 
 ledged itself indebted to American subjects in a large sum, (some 
 millions of dollars), which it never could or would pay ; and the 
 mere consideration and fixing the amount of which had occupied 
 some tedious years. This sum was the amount of damage 
 (assessed under the formal arbitration of mutual commissioners), 
 done to Americans, by reason of various seizures of and outrages 
 upon their ships and goods, which the Mexicans had made 
 during many previous years, partly, perhaps, through malicious 
 wantonness, and partly to replenish their impoverished exchequer. 
 Successive weak and poor governments among the Mexicans pre- 
 tended to acknowledge the justice of this debt, and faithfully 
 promised payment, though always at some future day ; until the 
 injured Americans got tired of remonstrating on the subject, and 
 indignantly clamored for warlike measures being adopted against 
 Mexico, to compel redress of their own and the national griev- 
 ances. Thus the popular mind in both countries was ripe for 
 war ; while both governments secretly began preparations to carry 
 it to extremities. The Mexicans made great levies and collected 
 numerous forces around their capital and on the Texan border. 
 On the other hand, the American Congress dispatched a consid- 
 erable fleet to the gulf of Mexico to be at hand when wanted, and 
 likewise ordered large forces to be assembled and to quarter them- 
 selves on the Rio Nueces in Texas. That river was held by the 
 Mexicans to be the south-western boundary of the province, 
 while the Texans themselves, and the United States taking up 
 their cause, claimed the Rio Grande, some one hundred and 
 thirty miles farther to the south-west, as the true and proper 
 limits of their territory. Thus the murderous train was laid 
 which a spark was to fire. 
 
 It is not our province further to develope the causes of the 
 war which ultimately broke out between the contending powers. 
 
WAR BETWEEN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES. 89 
 
 Suffice it to say, that, in April, 1846, war was formally declared 
 between the two countries ; and that, after a brilliant series of 
 battles and victories upon the Rio Grande, under General Zachary 
 Taylor, and a still more triumphant progress, bloody but decisive, 
 from Vera Cruz to Mexico, under General Winfield Scott, the 
 modern Cortez, the Americans were enabled, in the capital itself, 
 to dictate their own terms of peace to the Mexicans — one of 
 which was the cession of Upper California by the latter. Previ- 
 ous to this time, however, American subjects had conquered and 
 held in possession the last named country itself ; and to a short 
 summary of their proceedings in that quarter we will now direct 
 the reader. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Col. John C. Fremont — General Jose Castro. — Fremont declares war against California. — Capture of 
 Sonoma. — Proclamation of William B. Ide. — Letter of Pio Pico, Governor of the Califomias, to 
 Thomas O. Larkin, Consul of the United States.— Thomas 0. Larkin's reply to Pio Pico. — Cali- 
 fornia declared independent — California desired by the American Government — Col. Stevenson's 
 regiment — Movements of General Kearney. — Seizure of Monterey. — Proclamation of Com. Sloat— 
 Commander Montgomery takes possession of Yerba Buena and Fremont of San Juan. 
 
 Colonel John C. Fremont is generally considered the conqueror 
 of California ; where his exploits, undertaken with so small a force 
 and against such superior numbers, place him on a par with the 
 famous heroes of the days of chivalry. Yet to the bold, daring 
 and energetic measures adopted and prosecuted by Commodore 
 Robert F. Stockton, as we shall hereafter see, may justly be ascrib- 
 ed the final reduction of the country. Holding a commission in 
 the topographical corps of engineers, a great part of Fremont's 
 duties had hitherto consisted in exploring the districts of country 
 around the base of the Rocky Mountains, and the best lines of 
 communication from the Missouri to Oregon and California. In 
 1845, Fremont was instructed by the War Department to ascer- 
 tain a shorter and more southerly and convenient route to the 
 Columbia River. In the execution of this duty, he reached Mon- 
 terey in California, in the month of January, 1846. Allusion 
 has already been made to the jealousy with which the successive 
 immigration of American settlers was viewed by the Californians, 
 or rather the Mexican authorities. Accordingly, when Fremont 
 appeared with his small force near Monterey, General Jose Castro, 
 the commandant at that town, had his suspicions aroused as to 
 their ulterior intentions, and prepared to dispute their farther pro- 
 gress. To allay these suspicions, Fremont, leaving his little army, 
 hastened to Monterey and made such personal explanations to 
 Castro as seemed to satisfy the latter that he had no reason to 
 be alarmed at the appearance of the Americans. Castro having 
 
COL. FREMONT AND GEN. CASTRO. 
 
 91 
 
 Culu&el J (J. Fremont 
 
 confessed himself satisfied oil the subject, Fremont returned to his 
 people ; but, shortly afterwards being informed by the American 
 consul at Monterey that the Mexican general secretly intended to 
 attack him, he at once occupied a strong position in the neighbor- 
 hood, and displayed the American flag. Castro meanwhile having 
 thought better on the subject, especially after reconnoitering the 
 American position, determined to leave those foolish, obstinate 
 people alone. 
 
 Fremont, thus freed from molestation, proceeded on his pro- 
 posed route to Oregon. He had gone but a little way wben he 
 found that hostile Indians (supposed to have been urged on by 
 
92 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the Mexican authorities), barred his farther progress ; and learned 
 with extreme surprise and indignation, that Castro intended to 
 attack the American settlers, and expel them from the country. 
 Upon ascertaining this fact, Fremont took the bold resolution of 
 declaring war against California, and of carrying it too into the 
 very camp of the enemy. His force, at this time consisted of 
 only sixty-two men. On the 15th of June, in pursuance of this 
 determination, he, or others acting under his advice, surprised 
 and took possession of the military post of Sonoma, part of the 
 spoils of which place were nine cannon and two hundred and fifty 
 stand of arms. Four days previously they had also cut off an 
 important convoy from Castro's camp. It is true that various 
 contradictory accounts have been given of Fremont's personal 
 connection with these events ; and it is difficult to ascertain the 
 real state of the facts. If he had no active share in them, which 
 is probably the true state of the case, it is certain that he formed 
 the resolution mentioned above, just when the noted " bear-flag" 
 party had actually surprised Sonoma, and that he immediately 
 cordially joined them. 
 
 After the capture of Sonoma, Mr. William B. Ide, a native 
 of one of the New England States, who had immigrated to Cali- 
 fornia the previous year, and a man of courage and intelligence, 
 was intrusted with the command of the small garrison. At the 
 same time he issued a proclamation explaining the views of the 
 American party, the reasons for their present act, and the prin- 
 ciple on which they proposed to conduct their future proceedings. 
 This proclamation is as follows : — 
 
 " A proclamation to all persons and citizens of the District of Sonoma, re- 
 questing them to remain at peace, and follow their rightful occupations 
 without fear of molestation. 
 
 " The Commander-in-chief of the troops assembled at the fortress of So- 
 noma, gives his inviolable pledge to all persons in California, not found under 
 arms, that they shall not be disturbed in their persons, their property, or social 
 relations, one with another, by men under his command. 
 
 " He also solemnly declares his object to be : first, to defend himself and 
 companions in arms, who were invited to this country by a promise of lands 
 on which to settle themselves and families ; who were also promised a Repub- 
 lican Government ; when having arrived in California they were denied the 
 privilege of buying or renting lands of their friends ; who, instead of being 
 
LETTER OF PIO PICO TO T. 0. LARKIN. 
 
 03 
 
 allowed to participate in or being protected by a Republican Government, were 
 oppressed by a military despotism ; who were even threatened by proclama- 
 tion, by the chief officers of the aforesaid despotism, with extermination, if 
 they should not depart out of the country, leaving all their property, arms, 
 and beasts of burden ; and thus deprived of their means of flight or defence, 
 were to be driven through deserts inhabited by hostile Indians to certain 
 destruction. 
 
 " To overthrow a government which has seized upon the property of the 
 missions for its individual aggrandizement ; which has ruined and shamefully 
 oppressed the laboring people of California, by enormous exactions on 
 goods imported into the country, is the determined purpose of the brave men 
 who are associated under my command. 
 
 "I also solemnly declare my object, in the second place, to be to invite all 
 peaceable and good citizens of California, who are friendly to the maintenance 
 of good order and equal rights, and I do hereby invite them to repair to my 
 camp at Sonoma, without delay, to assist us in establishing and perpetuating 
 a Republican Government, which shall secure to all civil and religious liberty ; 
 which shall encourage virtue and literature ; which shall leave unshackled by 
 fetters, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. 
 
 " I further declare, that I rely upon the rectitude of our intentions, the 
 favor of heaven, and the bravery of those who are bound and associated with 
 me, by the principles of self-preservation, by the love of truth, and the hatred 
 of tyranny, for my hopes of success. 
 
 " I furthermore declare, that I believe that a government to be prosperous 
 and happy, must originate with the people, who are friendly to its existence ; 
 that the citizens are its guardians, the officers its servants, its glory its reward. 
 
 "William B. Ide. 
 
 "Head Quarters, Sonoma, June 18iA, 184G." 
 
 These sudden, bold, and unexpected proceedings produced 
 much alarm and excitement among the Mexican authorities, as 
 we may learn from the following copy of the translation of a long 
 epistle — too interesting to be omitted, and now published for the 
 first time — addressed by his Excellency, Don Pio Pico, the gov- 
 ernor of California, to Thomas 0. Larkin, Esq., the United States 
 consul at Monterey : — 
 
 " The undersigned, Constitutional Governor of the Department of the Cal- 
 ifornias, has the deep mortification to make known to Mr. Thomas 0. Larkin, 
 Consul of the United States of North America, that he has been greatly sur- 
 prised in being notified by official communications of the General Com- 
 mandancia of this Department and the Prefecture of the Second District, that 
 a multitude of foreigners of the United States of America have invaded that 
 frontier, taken possession of the fortified town of Sonoma, treacherously 
 making prisoners of the military Commandante, Don Mariano G. Vallejo. 
 
94 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Lieut. Colonel Victor Pruden, Captain Salvador Vallejo, and Mr. Jacob P. 
 Leese, and likewise have stolen the property of these individuals. 
 
 " The undersigned can do no less than make known to the Consul of the 
 United States, that acts so extraordinary and alarming have caused very great 
 grief. 
 
 " Until the present the Departmental Governor is wanting the least positive 
 information that would give him to understand of a declaration of war 
 between Mexico and the United States, and without such information he 
 judges the course pursued at Sonoma the most atrocious and infamous that 
 can be imagined, so much so that the like is not seen among barbarians. 
 
 " They have attacked the rights of the people, breaking the established 
 social compacts ; profaning the sacred soil of another nation ; indeed scan- 
 dalously usurping an integral part of the Mexican Republic, and what is more 
 provoking still, as an ignominious libel, is the folly of the principal of this 
 multitude of foreigners, William B. Ide, the separation of the Mexican Union. 
 This act tends to excite the mind of the undersigned, and causes him to sus- 
 pect that the Government of the United States are concerned in this matter, 
 which certainly should increase his regrets. 
 
 Mr. Thomas 0. Larkin will permit the undersigned to say to him frankly, 
 that he has witnessed with extraordinary coolness the invasion of the Depart- 
 ment, and that he has failed to note the general movement of all the inhabi- 
 tants, in defence of their country and liberty ; he has not been known to 
 make any arrangement that might make the invaders recede from their 
 abominable designs, and prevent the misfortunes which they can cause by 
 means of hostile provocation : misfortunes that the Departmental Govern- 
 ment will place to the responsibility of the chief authors before God and the 
 entire world. So base management as observed on this occasion highly com- 
 promises the honor of the United States, and if it shall have such a stain 
 upon itself, there is no doubt that it will be graven eternally in the remem- 
 brance of all nations, and will cause it to be despised. 
 
 " The undersigned believes that the Consul of the United States will agree 
 with him, that the acts committed by the party of foreigners, Americans, 
 have the appearance of actual and downright robbery; also that the Consul 
 will agree with him, that his indifference to prevent such fatal results, seeing 
 that they were subjects of his own nation who were violating this part of 
 the Mexican Republic, compromises more and more both nations. 
 
 " The undersigned in fulfilment of his duties sees himself obliged to recom- 
 mend to the Consul, Thomas 0. Larkin, that he make declarations of the 
 occurrence which has happened at Sonoma, to exact full satisfaction from him, 
 hoping that he will use all the means in his power to escape in time such 
 terrible consequences, and finally to protest solemnly, in the name of the 
 Departmental and Supreme Government of the Nation, that it is decidedly 
 opposed to all aggressions, defending to extremity its independence, liberty, 
 inalienable rights ; repeating that the principal authors are responsible to the 
 Representative of the United States near this Department for those abuses 
 and results of corrupt designs from which they are not deterred. 
 
lakkin's reply TO PIO PICO. 
 
 95 
 
 " The undersigned hopes, from the prudence and judgment of the Consul 
 of the United States at Monterey, that, admitting the justice that assists him, 
 the answer to this letter (and imploring that it may soon come), may be in 
 accordance with (veneboles) desire. 
 
 " God and Liberty ! 
 
 "Pio Piro. 
 
 Santa Barbara, 29th June. 1846." 
 
 Thomas 0. Lurkin. Esq. 
 
 To this indignant and piteous missive, Mr. Larkin returned 
 the following answer : — 
 
 " Consulate of the United States of America. 
 Monterey, Cal. July, 5th, 1846. 
 
 " To His Excellency, Don Pio Pico, 
 Governor of California. 
 
 " Sir : — The undersigned, Consul of the United States of America for 
 California, has the honor to acknowledge the reception of His Excellency's 
 letter of the 29th of last month, which was received yesterday afternoon. 
 
96 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 His Excellency may be well assured that the undersigned is duly sensible 
 of the great importance of the subject brought before him, and is compelled 
 to say that he cannot alone enter into any mode for the expulsion of the 
 foreigners who have taken possession of Sonoma. He is bound not only to 
 protect his countrymen in California from any unjust oppression, and settle 
 in an amicable manner any disputes in which they may be concerned ; but 
 firmly to refuse them support when they have been wilfully guilty of any 
 infractions of the laws of this Department, giving aid to the Authorities in 
 such cases, which aid has been refused by the Governor and Prefect. 
 
 The undersigned must assure His Excellency was wrongly informed when 
 told he made no exertions to aid the proper Authorities, and His Excellency 
 can learn that the undersigned has used the only means in his power as a 
 Consul, and that the Consular service had not been accepted. 
 
 His Excellency is pleased to say that the Americans engaged in this affair 
 are responsible to this Consulate. The undersigned must observe that he 
 knows not where this responsibility exists, and will not underrate the good 
 sense of his being in the idea that he believes Consular letters would have 
 effect on the persons in question, or that the Authorities would have given 
 him soldiers to bring into Monterey an equal number of Americans, when 
 General Castro, with three times their force, did not see proper to expel those 
 who took Sonoma. 
 
 The reasons brought forward by His Excellency as proofs that the Govern- 
 ment of the United States is concerned in this matter, not being sustained, 
 will, being by the undersigned proved to be erroneous, require no farther 
 assertion on his part to convince His Excellency on the subject. 
 
 The undersigned has the honor to renew to His Excellency the Governor 
 of California, assurance of his deepest respect and consideration. 
 
 Thomas 0. Larkin." 
 
 While these epistles were being interchanged, Fremont was 
 proceeding to the valley of the Sacramento, where the chief 
 settlements of the American population were, with the intention 
 of enlisting recruits for the farther prosecution of the war. A 
 garrison of only fourteen men had been left at Sonoma, which 
 was shortly afterwards increased to about forty. Scarcely had 
 Fremont departed, when General Castro prepared to attack the 
 feebly manned post. News of that general's movements speedily 
 followed Fremont, who instantly, with only a troop of ninety 
 riflemen, hurried, night and day, to the relief of the garrison. 
 He arrived just in time to frustrate the designs of Castro. To 
 follow up his original scheme, Fremont next called a meeting of 
 the Americans at Sonoma, on July 4th,1846 ; when, acting on his 
 advice, the assembly proclaimed the independence of the country, 
 appointed Fremont governor, and declared war against Mexico. 
 
colonel Stevenson's regiment. 
 
 97 
 
 Meantime, nothing was known of the condition of affairs in 
 the United States, nor that actual hostilities had taken place 
 between them and Mexico. While this ignorance existed in 
 California, there was equal want of knowledge in the United 
 States respecting the proceedings on the opposite side of the 
 continent. Very comprehensive measures to conduct the war 
 on all sides had been formed by the American government. 
 Not only were American generals advancing on the Rio Grande 
 and on Mexico itself, by way of Vera Cruz and Jalapa, but an 
 expedition under General Stephen W. Kearny, was formed to 
 proceed across the whole continent, from the Missouri, first to 
 Santa Fe, and after the expected reduction of New Mexico, far- 
 ther west to California. This latter province had long been de- 
 sired by the Americans, and the government was now determined, 
 since circumstances rightfully permitted the attempt, to secure 
 the country. To further this undertaking, Congress ordered a 
 corps of mounted riflemen to be raised, the command of which 
 was given to Captain, then first created Lieutenant-Colonel, 
 Fremont, and who, from his knowledge of the country, and his 
 being there at the very time, seemed the most proper person on 
 whom the honor of the command could be bestowed. 
 
 A regiment of volunteers, a thousand strong, to serve during 
 the war in California, was likewise raised in New York, and 
 placed under the command of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson, to 
 whose energy and ability the formation and organization of the 
 corps was chiefly owing. This regiment, though it arrived in 
 California too late to take any part in the actual hostilities of 
 the war, was subsequently of great service in preserving the 
 peace of the subjugated country. Col. Stevenson reached San 
 Francisco March 7th, 1847, and immediately afterwards his 
 regiment was divided into companies, which were severally sta- 
 tioned at Sonoma, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Monterey, 
 which last place, first was head-quarters, afterwards removed to 
 Los Angeles. So desirous was the United States Government to 
 preserve California at all hazards, that particular care had been 
 taken, in the raising of this regiment, that the men composing it 
 should be of good habits, and as far as practicable, of various 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 pursuits, and such as would be likely to desire to remain in the 
 country at the end of the war. 
 
 While these measures were being carried out by Congress, 
 General Kearny, having left Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri, 
 in June, 1846, was marching, at the head of sixteen hundred 
 men, across the deserts which lie between that place and Santa 
 Fe. After the capture of Santa Fe, and the proclamation of 
 New Mexico being now a portion of the American republic, and 
 after making the necessary arrangements for strengthening his 
 power there, Kearny, at the close of September, 1846, proceeded 
 farther west to California, to carry out the instructions given 
 him by Congress. He had gone but eleven days' march from 
 Santa Fe, when he met an express from Commodore Stockton 
 and Colonel Fremont, bearing despatches to Congress announcing 
 the conquest of California. Kearny, then dismissing two hun- 
 dred of his dragoons, to assist in the reduction of New Mexico, 
 continued his progress westward, accompanied by a troop of only 
 one hundred men, and two howitzers. His course lay across the 
 wild and untrodden country east of the Gila, down which river 
 he next proceeded, until he approached the frontier of California. 
 Meanwhile, Americans there were completing what we have seen 
 they had begun, the reduction of that country. 
 
 At the time when Fremont was forcing the Mexicans out of 
 California north of the Bay of San Francisco, Commodore Sloat, 
 who was then in command of the American squadron in the 
 Pacific, being apprised of the actual commencement of hostilities 
 between the American and Mexican states, had seized upon 
 Monterey. This was done on the 7th of July, when the Ameri- 
 can flag was hoisted, and the following proclamation read. It is 
 not our intention to give a detailed history of the war in Cali- 
 fornia ; but since this proclamation was the first formal announce- 
 ment of the intentions of the American Government, while the doc- 
 uments previously quoted were very important in themselves, we 
 have been induced to give them all at length, though they perhaps 
 swell this branch of our subject more than was at first contem- 
 plated. 
 
 "TO THE INHABITANTS OF CALIFORNIA. 
 " The central government of Mexico having commenced hostilities against 
 the United States of America, by invading its territory, and attacking the 
 
PROCLAMATION OF COMMODORE SLOAT. 
 
 troops of the United States stationed on the north side of the Rio Grande, 
 and with a force of seven thousand men under the command of General 
 Arista, which army was totally destroyed, and all their artillery, baggage, &c, 
 captured on the 8th and 9th of May last, by a force of two thousand and 
 three hundred men, under the command of General Taylor, and the City of 
 Matamoras taken and occupied by the forces of the United States, and the 
 two nations being actually at war by this transaction, I shall hoist the 
 standard of the United States at Monterey immediately, and shall carry it 
 throughout California. 
 
 " I declare to the inhabitants of California, that, although I come in arms 
 with a powerful force, I do not come among them as an enemy to California: 
 on the contrary, I come as their best friend, as henceforth California will be 
 a portion of the United States, and its peaceable inhabitants will enjoy the 
 same rights and principles they now enjoy, together with the privilege of 
 choosing their own magistrates, and other officers for the administration of 
 justice among themselves, and the same protection will be extended to them 
 as to any other State in the Union. They will also enjoy a permanent govern- 
 ment, under which life, property and the constitutional right and lawful 
 security to worship the Creator in the way the most congenial to each other's 
 sense of duty, will be secured, which, unfortunately, the central government 
 of Mexico cannot afford them, destroyed as her resources are by internal fac- 
 tions and corrupt officers, who create constant revolutions to promote their 
 own interests and oppress the people. Under the flag of the United States, 
 California will be free from all such troubles and expenses ; consequently, 
 the country will rapidly advance and improve both in agriculture and com- 
 merce, as, of course, the revenue laws will be the same in California as in all 
 parts of the United States, affording them all manufactures and produce of 
 the United States, free of any duty, and all foreign goods at one quarter of 
 the duty they now pay. A great increase in the value of real estate and the 
 products of California may also be anticipated. 
 
 "With the great interest and kind feeling I know the government and 
 people of the United States possess towards the citizens of California, the 
 country cannot but improve more rapidly than any other on the continent of 
 America. 
 
 " Such of the inhabitants of Calif >rnia, whether native or foreigners, as may 
 not be disposed to accept the high privileges of citizenship, and to live 
 peaceably under the Government of the United States, will be allowed time to 
 dispose of their property and to remove out of the country, if they choose, 
 without any restriction ; or remain in it, observing strict neutrality. 
 
 " With full confidence in the honor and integrity of the inhabitants of the 
 country, I invite the judges, alcaldes, and other civil officers to execute their 
 functions as heretofore, that the public tranquillity may not be disturbed ; 
 at least until the government of the territory can be more definitely arranged. 
 
 "All persons holding titles to real estate, or in quiet possession of land 
 under color of right, shall have those titles guaranteed to them. 
 
 "All churches and the property they contain in possession of the clergy 
 
100 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FKANCISCO. 
 
 of California, shall continue in the same rights and possessions they now 
 enjoy. 
 
 " All provisions and supplies of every kind furnished by the inhabitants 
 for the use of the United States ships and soldiers, will be paid for at fair 
 rates ; and no private property will be taken for public use without just com- 
 pensation at the moment. 
 
 "John D. Sloat, 
 " Commander-in-chief of the U. S. force in the Pacific Ocean." 
 
 A despatch was immediately forwarded by land to Com- 
 mander Montgomery, who landed at Yerba Buena without oppo- 
 sition, took possession of the place, hoisted the American stand- 
 ard on the public square, and posted the proclamation of his 
 commanding officer. Fremont, hearing of these proceedings, 
 took possession of the mission of San Juan. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Commodore Stockton takes charge of the American forces in California.— Hostility of the Californians.— 
 Proclamation of Com. Stockton.— Landing at San Pedro, and manoeuvres of the sailor army.— 
 Castro's commissioners.— March on Los Angeles, and flight of General Ca.-tro.— Triumphant 
 entry into Los Angeles.— Provisional government formed.— The difliculties of Stockton's march, 
 and the complete success of his plans.— Reported hostility of tho Walla-Walla Indians.— Enthu- 
 siastic reception of 6tockton at San Francisco and other places.— Satisfaction of the people of 
 California with the new government— Stockton designs to cross Mexico and unite with tho 
 forces of General Taylor. 
 
 Commodore Robert F. Stockton arrived at Monterey in the Fri- 
 gate Congress, on the 15th of July, 1846, and on the 23d of that 
 month assumed command of the squadron, Com. Sloat having 
 left on that clay to return to the United States. The bold and 
 comprehensive mind of Stockton perceived at once the circum- 
 stances by which he was surrounded. He was deeply impressed 
 with the grave and important trust that devolved upon him. 
 But he was neither dismayed nor perplexed with the importance 
 of his position nor the difficulties he was compelled to confront. 
 With a decision of character, promptitude and sagacity worthy 
 of commendation, he adopted the plan of a campaign, which the 
 most complete success vindicated, and which, if judged by its 
 results, is unsurpassed in the most brilliant records of military 
 achievement. 
 
 Fot a correct appreciation of the motives which governed 
 Com. Stockton, as well as of the ability with which his plans 
 were conceived and executed, we must briefly advert to the con- 
 dition of California at that time, and the circumstances that 
 influenced his course. The country was sparsely inhabited ; its 
 population chiefly clustering around isolated settlements at great 
 distances apart, or in the neighborhood of ranches, scattered with 
 wide intervals, over its vast surface. Large bodies of Indians 
 occupied much of the territory. To defend themselves from these 
 
102 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and the predatory incursions of more warlike tribes in the interior 
 of the continent, the Californians were necessarily familiar with 
 arms. They were hardy and expert horsemen, and excelled in 
 all equestrian performances. Possessed of a fleet and admirable 
 race of horses, they had all the elements of the best cavalry 
 force, in which indeed consisted their chief military strength. 
 At this period the Californians were greatly incensed against the 
 United States. They were ignorant of the declaration of war 
 with Mexico, and considered the demonstration of Fremont and 
 the immigrating parties reported to be approaching, as unpro- 
 voked aggressions. They were disposed to treat all Americans as 
 lawless adventurers or freebooters, whose designs were hostile to 
 the peace and authority of Mexico. The colonization of Califor- 
 nia by citizens of the United States for the purpose of ultimate 
 annexation (as in the case of Texas), they determined to defeat 
 by the most decisive measures. Accordingly, Andreas Pico issued 
 a proclamation intended to stimulate tbe most sanguinary treat- 
 ment of all Americans. The occupation of Monterey and some 
 other ports on the coast by Com. Sloat, was viewed by the Cali- 
 fornians as parts of the same aggressive scheme, indicated by the 
 elevation of the " Bear Flag " by Fremont, and the approaching 
 immigration. Com. Stockton, aware of these hostile feelings, 
 was painfully solicitous for the safety of the enterprising com- 
 panies of immigrants which he knew were crossing the Kocky 
 and Snowy Mountains. He concluded that unless a diversion 
 was produced of the Californian forces — unless they were kept 
 fully employed in their own defence, or absolutely dispersed, that 
 the fate of the immigrants would be inevitable. They would be 
 slaughtered in detail as they arrived, jaded, exhausted and en- 
 feebled by their long and arduous journey. Besides, it was quite 
 evident, that if left at liberty to concentrate their troops, the 
 Californians would overwhelm and repossess themselves of Mon- 
 terey and other ports, at which the flag of the United States had 
 already been elevated by Com. Sloat on the eve of his departure. 
 
 The Provincial Congress of California w r ere in session at this 
 time, and under the influence of British agents, the most lavish 
 grants to them of vast tracts of territory w r ere in progress of 
 consummation. There was reason to believe, that in contempla- 
 
PROCLAMATION 1, OF COMMODORE STOCKTON. 
 
 103 
 
 tion of the ultimate cession of California to the United States, 
 the Provincial Congress intended to render the acquisition of the 
 territory as valueless as possible. Com. Stockton, aware of these 
 proceedings and designs, was determined to frustrate them. He 
 was well informed of the strength of the enemy, while, he was 
 aware, they were totally unacquainted with his available force. 
 He had really but three hundred and fifty men who could be 
 spared for active service on land, with which to oppose the Cali- 
 fornians, about fifteen hundred strong, and composed, for the 
 most part, of the finest cavalry in the world. But the commodore 
 knew that these people were not familiar with the enemy they 
 were to meet, and that to magnify the efficiency of his own 
 strength, it was only necessary to excite the fears of his adver- 
 sary. The boldest, most decided and adventurous measures, only, 
 could therefore be relied on for success. To disperse the military 
 organization of the enemy, crush all resistance, occupy the pro- 
 minent positions in the interior around which the population was 
 collected, and thus to acquire and hold possession of the country, 
 he foresaw would afford security to the approaching immigration, 
 and baffle the cupidity of British agents and the crafty malevo- 
 lence of Mexican animosity ; while it would effectually facilitate, 
 at the close of the war, any negotiations for the cession of Cali- 
 fornia which our Government might institute. The quiet posses- 
 sion of the country, after its subjugation, would be likely to 
 render Mexico better disposed to relinquish the sovereignty which 
 her people were so incapable of defending. Thus informed, and 
 with these views, Com. Stockton, on the 28th July, issued the 
 following proclamation : — 
 
 " On assuming the command of the forces of the United States, on the 
 coast of California, both by sea and land, I find myself in possession of the 
 ports of Monterey and San Francisco, with daily reports from the interior of 
 scenes of rapine, blood and murder. Three inoffensive American residents of 
 the country, have within a few days been murdered in the most brutal man- 
 ner; and there are no Californian officers who will arrest and bring the mur- 
 derers to justice, although it is well known who they are and where they are. 
 I must therefore, and will, as soon as I can, adopt such measures as may seem 
 best calculated to bring these criminals to justice, and to bestow peace and 
 good order on the country. 
 
 In the first place, however, I am constrained by every principle of national 
 
104 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 honor, as well as a due regard for the safety and best interests of the people 
 of California, to put an end, at once and by force, to the lawless depredations 
 daily committed by General Castro's men upon the persons and property of 
 peaceful and unoffending inhabitants. 
 
 " I cannot, therefore, confine my operations to the quiet and undisturbed 
 possession of the defenceless ports of Monterey and San Francisco, whilst the 
 people elsewhere are suffering from lawless violence ; but will immediately 
 march against these boasting and abusive chiefs, who have not only violated 
 every principle of national hospitality and good faith towards Captain Fremont 
 and his surveying party, (but who, unless driven out, will, with the aid of 
 the hostile Indians, keep this beautiful country in a constant state of revolution 
 and bloodshed,) as well as against all others who may be found in arms aiding 
 and abetting General Castro. 
 
 " The present general of the forces of California is an ursurper — has been 
 guilty of great offences — has impoverished and drained the country of almost 
 its last dollar, and has deserted his post now when most needed. lie has 
 deluded and deceived the inhabitants of California, and they wish his expul- 
 sion from the country. He came into power by rebellion and force, and by 
 force he must be expelled. Mexico appears to have been compelled, from time 
 to time, to abandon California to the mercies of any wicked man who could 
 muster one hundred men in arms. The distances from the Capital are so 
 great, that she cannot, even in times of great distress, send timely aid to 
 the inhabitants : and the lawless depredations upon their persons and property 
 go invariably unpunished. She cannot or will not punish or control the 
 chieftains who, one after the other, have defied her power and kept California 
 in a constant state of revolt and misery. 
 
 The inhabitants are tired and disgusted with this constant succession of 
 military usurpers and this insecurity of life and property. They invoke my 
 protection. Therefore upon them I will not make war. I require, however, 
 all officers, civil and military, and all other persons to remain quiet at their 
 respective homes and stations, and to obey the orders they may receive from 
 me or by my authority, and if they do no injury or violence to my authority, 
 none will be done to them." 
 
 In twenty-four hours after assuming the command, Commodore 
 Stockton organized a battalion of mounted riflemen, which had 
 previously been raised by Capt. Fremont, and Lieut. Gillespie of 
 the marine corps, and which consisted of about one hundred and 
 sixty men. These officers and their men volunteered to serve 
 under Stockton so long as he should require their services in Cali- 
 fornia. Fremont was appointed major, and Gillespie captain of 
 the battalion. On the evening of the 23d, it was embarked on 
 the sloop-of-vvar Cyane and despatched to San Diego, with orders 
 to co-operate with the commodore in his proposed movement on 
 
STOCKTON AND THE COMMISSIONERS OF CASTRO. 105 
 
 Ciudad de los Angeles. On the 1st of August, Stockton sailed 
 in the Congress, and on the way to San Pedro, landed at Santa 
 Barbara, of which he took possession, and leaving a small detach- 
 ment for its defence, proceeded to his destination, where he arrived 
 on the 6th of August. Here he immediately learned, that the 
 enemy, headed by Generals Castro and Andreas Pico were strongly 
 posted near Los Angeles with a force estimated at fifteen hundred 
 strong. He was also informed that Major Fremont had safely 
 landed at San Diego, but found great difficulty in obtaining the 
 needful supply of horses. In the absence of Fremont's battalion, 
 Stockton was destitute of cavalry. Yet impressed with the im- 
 portance of celerity of movement, he determined not to delay on 
 that account striking a decisive blow as soon as possible. His 
 wbole disposable force of sailors and marines was immediately 
 disembarked, a camp formed, and efforts made to discipline for 
 shore service his aquatic troops, to which novel duty they sub- 
 mitted with cheerfulness and alacrity. The anchorage at San 
 Pedro is insecure and unprotected, and it was apparent to all that 
 when they left the coast there was no certainty of finding their 
 ships on their return. Rough weather would compel them to 
 put to sea, or seek a better harbor. Victory or death must, there- 
 fore, be the result of their enterprise. But confident in the 
 resources and gallantry of their leader, the hopelessness of retreat 
 only inspired the men with the prophetic certainty of success. 
 Six small guns, obtained from merchant vessels, constituted their 
 artillery. These were rudely mounted and dragged by hand. 
 The sailors were, of course, ignorant of the drill of soldiers, and 
 it was impracticable to subject them to the army discipline. Each 
 man was simply instructed to observe the movements of his right 
 hand comrade, and always to keep to his left. With this single 
 order they soon became expert in forming in line, square or column 
 as required. Though in forming they would appear in inextri- 
 cable confusion, yet in a few moments all was in order, and every 
 man in his proper place. 
 
 A few days after landing, a flag of truce was discovered ap- 
 proaching at a distance over the hills, borne by commissioners 
 from Castro. Acting upon his preconceived views of the enemy's 
 ignorance of his strength, Stockton at once determined to impress 
 
10G 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Castro's messengers with most exaggerated ideas of the number 
 of his forces and their formidable equipment. His little army 
 was accordingly ordered to march directly on the line of vision of 
 the approaching commissioners, at intervals of twenty or thirty 
 paces apart, to a position where they were sheltered from obser- 
 vation. Thus seen at a distance, their numbers, judging from 
 the time occupied in defiling, would appear very considerable. 
 The commissioners, coming more as spies than negotiators, as was 
 subsequently ascertained, were completely deceived. On their 
 arrival, they were led up by order of the commodore, to the 
 mouth of a tremendous mortar, which, excepting its huge aperture, 
 was entirely enveloped in skins. Such an engine of war Stockton 
 knew had never before met their gaze, and could not fail to inspire 
 apprehensions of its unknown and terrific qualities. Thus posted 
 he received the emissaries in a stern and reptilsive manner, and 
 in an imperious tone demanded the object of their visit. This 
 they delivered with so much confusion as to disclose the serious 
 impressions they felt. They were bearers of a letter from Castro, 
 proposing a truce, upon condition that all active operations should 
 cease, and each party hold its own possessions until a general 
 pacification. The commodore had fully considered the whole 
 matter, and believed that action, not negotiation, was his true 
 policy — that no terms would be kept by the enemy longer than 
 fear dictated — and that if time were allowed him to ascertain 
 the comparative strength of the opposing forces, the worst conse- 
 quences might be anticipated. He therefore contemptuously 
 rejected the proposition of Castro as insolent and insulting ; and 
 dismissed the commissioners with instructions to assure their 
 master, that, unless he immediately broke up his command and 
 disbanded his troops, he would be most severely punished, and 
 that no other terms than an unconditional submission, should 
 shield him from the just vengeance of an incensed foe. The mes- 
 sengers hastened to place the mountains between them and the 
 commodore, and no doubt returned to Castro with an appalling 
 account of the numbers, strength and sanguinary spirit of the 
 great invading army, preparing for his utter destruction. The 
 subsequent conduct of Castro and his superior forces, shows well 
 
FLIGHT OF GENERAL CASTEO. 
 
 107 
 
 the sagacity and wisdom with which Stockton had operated on 
 his imagination and fears. 
 
 Two days afterwards other messengers arrived from Castro, 
 bringing a bombastic letter, rejecting the terms of Stockton, and 
 concluding with the declaration, — " I will not withhold any 
 sacrifice to oppose your intentions : and if through misfortune 
 the flag of the United States waves in California, it will not be 
 by my acquiescence, nor by that of the last of my compatriots ! " 
 These commissioners were treated much the same as were their 
 predecessors — impressed with the formidable character of the 
 American force, and intimidated with the ferocity and implacable 
 purpose of conquest which seemed to animate the invaders. 
 
 Having now completed his arrangements, Stockton resolved 
 on pushing forward with expedition before the paucity of his 
 troops could be ascertained, and striking a blow while the appre- 
 hensions he had excited were still fresh and undiminished. He 
 dispatched a courier to Fremont with orders to join him on the 
 Plains of the Mesa, and on the 11th of August commenced his 
 march to meet Castro. The most constant vigilance was now 
 necessary to prevent surprise. The enemy's skirmishers were 
 almost daily in sight, and it was impossible to estimate their 
 numbers. The only provisions with which the commodore was 
 supplied were those afforded by the cattle, which were driven 
 along in hollow squares. The artillery was dragged over hill and 
 plain, and through rugged valleys, slowly and painfully, yet with 
 the utmost alacrity. A cheerful and courageous spirit animated 
 the little host, inspired by a leader in whom they felt the most 
 unbounded confidence. The distance between San Pedro and 
 Los Angeles was thirty miles, and was traversed in a single day 
 by Stockton and his little army. But before they could come 
 up, Castro, advised by his spies of their march, despite his pre- 
 vious gasconade and boastful threats, and no doubt mindful of 
 the terrible engine of destruction seen by his commissioners, 
 broke up his camp, disbanded his forces, and fled with all possi- 
 ble expedition to Sonora. Between seven hundred and a thou- 
 sand mounted troops strongly posted, with seven pieces of artil- 
 lery, dissolved and disappeared before the daring demonstration 
 of the American commander, at the head of only about three 
 
108 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 hundred seamen and marines, as poorly equipped, and as motley 
 and as curious a specimen of military organization as ever before 
 took the field, to meet in an unknown country any civilized foe. 
 Colton, in his " Three years in California" says : " Gen. Castro 
 had taken up his position just outside the pueblo, on an elevation 
 which commands the town and adjacent country. He was well 
 supplied with field pieces, and had a force of seven hundred men. 
 Com. Stockton landed at San Pedro with three hundred seamen 
 and marines from the Congress, and marched against him. His 
 route, which extended some thirty miles, lay through several 
 narrow passes, which Gen. Castro might easily have defended 
 against a much superior force. But the general kept in his 
 entrenched camp ; and informed the commodore by a courier, 
 ' that if he marched upon the town he would find it the grave of 
 his men.' ' Then/ said the commodore, ' tell the general to have 
 the bells ready to toll in the morning at eight o'clock, as I shall 
 be there at that time.' He was there ; but Castro in the mean 
 time had broken up his camp, mounted with an armed band and 
 fled." 
 
 Stockton, who was subsequently joined by Fremont, took 
 possession of Los Angeles on the 13th of August. A number 
 of Mexicans of high rank surrendered themselves prisoners of 
 war, among whom were Don Jose Maria Flores and Don Andreas 
 Pico, who were permitted to go at large on their parole of honor 
 not to bear arms against the United States ; a clemency which 
 they abused afterwards by violating their parole. Commodore 
 Stockton now by proclamation declared California a Territory of 
 the United States ; and as all resistance had ceased, proceeded 
 to organize a civil and military government, appointing various 
 civil functionaries and establishing provisional rules of adminis- 
 tration, himself retaining for the present the positions of com- 
 mander-in-chief and governor. The people were invited to 
 assemble on the 15th September to choose officers under the ex- 
 isting form of government. A tariff of duties on imports was 
 prescribed, and the inhabitants were encouraged to resume their 
 usual occupations. Thus, in less than one month from the time 
 when Stockton commenced his operations, California was con- 
 quered, in the face of a superior hostile army ; that army van- 
 
THE MARCH FROM SAN PEDRO TO LOS ANGELES. 109 
 
 quishedand dispersed, and the government of the conquerors quietly 
 imposed on the country. In establishing a local government for 
 California, Com. Stockton displayed the discretion, abilities, dis- 
 crimination, and judgment of the skilful statesman, as conspicu- 
 ously as he had exhibited on the field the prudence, enterprise, 
 and valor of the soldier. 
 
 This march of Stockton upon the capital of California, 
 though it was accomplished without a battle, or the loss of a 
 single man, was nevertheless performed under circumstances of 
 great difficulty as well as danger. A less enterprising officei 
 would have contented himself with protecting those places on 
 the coast already occupied ; and a less penetrating and compre- 
 hensive mind would not have appreciated the importance of sup- 
 pressing all demonstrations of hostility in every part of this ex- 
 tensive territory. The moral effect of Stockton's march on 
 Ciudad de los Angeles upon the minds of the Californians was 
 equivalent to a triumphant victory, and the effusion of streams 
 of blood. It broke down the spirit of resistance, destroyed all 
 confidence in the courage or capacity of the Californian generals, 
 and inspired the inhabitants with terror of an enemy who moved 
 with such celerity and boldness, while his humane conduct recon- 
 ciled the people to the change of government. The conception 
 of such an expedition, into the heart of an enemy's unknown 
 country, with a force composed principally of sailors, unaccus- 
 tomed to the fatigues and obstacles of a long march ; to en- 
 counter an opposing army of vastly superior numbers, upon their 
 own soil, in defence of their own country, well armed, the best 
 horsemen, and mounted on the finest horses in the world, re- 
 quired the most intrepid courage, indomitable energy, fertility of 
 resource, and self-reliance, such as we find only combined in 
 minds of the highest order, and characters cast in a heroic mould. 
 Yet despite all the difficulties with which he had to contend, in 
 the modest language of his despatch to the government, in less 
 than one month from the time he assumed command, he had 
 "chased the Mexican army more than three hundred miles 
 along the coast, pursued them into the interior of their own 
 country. — routed and dispersed them, and secured the territory 
 to the United States, — ended the war, restored peace and 
 
110 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 harmony among the people, and put a civil government into 
 successful operation." 
 
 While these events were occurring, official intelligence was 
 received hy Stockton of war between Mexico and the United 
 States. On hearing which, he left fifty men to garrison Los 
 Angeles, and a still smaller force at Santa Barbara and San 
 Diego, and proceeded north to look after the condition of affairs 
 in that quarter. At Monterey he was informed that Sutter's 
 settlement was threatened by one thousand Walla- Walla 
 Indians. He at once sailed for San Francisco with the inten- 
 tion of making a demonstration against this new enemy. But 
 on his arrival there, he found that the reports of Indian aggres- 
 sions were unfounded ; and after an interview with some of the 
 Indian chiefs he ascertained their friendly disposition, and con- 
 firmed their amicable opinions by such assurance as secured their 
 subsequent neutrality. 
 
 Everywhere on his progress through the country, the com- 
 modore was greeted with an enthusiastic welcome, and hailed as 
 the conqueror and deliverer of the territory. At San Francisco, 
 the entire population of that place and the adjacent country 
 gave him a formal reception — men, women and children march- 
 ing in procession to low-water mark to meet him — and address- 
 ing him in terms of the most exalted praise and ardent devotion. 
 His triumphant advent was celebrated with a banquet and ball, 
 and the wildest demonstrations of joy and satisfaction. The indus- 
 trious, sober, and peacefully disposed part of the inhabitants 
 were glad to be relieved from the domination of the cruel and 
 plundering chiefs and governors, who alternately ravaged the 
 country, contended with each other, and oppressed the people. 
 They soon perceived the advantages of security to life and pro- 
 perty, which they never had enjoyed until the flag of the United 
 States was floating on their soil. 
 
 The disposition of the inhabitants of the northern j^art of 
 California in favor of the new government was particularly 
 manifested at this time, on the occasion of a rumor that a large 
 force was being collected in Sonora for the purpose of re-conquer- 
 ing the country. They exhibited the utmost repugnance to any 
 such event, offering the commodore all needed assistance in 
 
Stockton's design to join general taylor. Ill 
 
 their power to contribute, and displaying their fears with the 
 earnestness of perfect sincerity. Having called on Stockton to 
 express their apprehensions, he assured them, in a characteristic 
 harangue, of his protection, and confirmed their confidence in 
 his determination to preserve his conquest : "You tell me," he 
 said, " that a thousand Sonorians are on their way to encounter 
 my men. Be not alarmed. Ten thousand Sonorians could not 
 excite our fears or arrest our progress. The sons of liberty are 
 on their way, and God alone can stay their inarch." They 
 returned with this assurance, satisfied that under such a leader 
 no reverse could happen which would endanger their present 
 security. In this state of flattering tranquillity and general 
 acquiescence with the new order of things, prevailing over the 
 greater part of California, but more particularly at the north, 
 Stockton was justified in believing, so far as appearances went, 
 that the conquest of California was complete. The civil govern- 
 ment was in successful operation, and seemed fully adequate to 
 the exigencies of the country. 
 
 Such being the condition and aspect of affairs, the active 
 mind and patriotic impulses of Stockton induced him to seek 
 another field of useful service. He conceived the vast, ma< r nifi- 
 cent and bold design of recruiting a force of volunteers in Cali- 
 fornia from among the American population then about settling 
 in the territory, sailing with them to Acapulco, and then striking 
 across the continent to unite with the forces of General Taylor, 
 then, as he supposed, approaching the City of Mexico. 
 
 The following is a copy of one of his confidential despatches 
 revealing his purpose : — 
 
 [" CONFIDENTIAL.] 
 
 " U. S. Frigate Congress, Bay of Monterey, 
 September ldth, 1846. 
 " Dear Sir : — I have sent Major Fremont to the North to see how many 
 men he could recruit with a view to embark them for Mazatlan or Acapulco, 
 where, if possible, I intend to land and fight our way as far on to the City of 
 Mexico as I can. 
 
 11 With this object in view, your orders of this date in relation to having 
 the squadron in such places as may enable me to get them together as soon as 
 possible, are given. 
 
112 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 " You will on your arrival on the coast get all the information you can in 
 reference to this matter. 
 
 '' I would that we might shake hands with General Taylor at the gates of 
 Mexico. 
 
 " Faithfully, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " R. F. Stockton, Commodore. &c. 
 " To Capt. ¥m. Meevine, TJ. S. Frigate Savannah." 
 
 Certainly a more daring, brilliant, and master-stroke of 
 military sagacity, has seldom ever been conceived. It reminds 
 us of the famous exploits of the most renowned heroes of 
 ancient and modern times. Instructions were given Col. Fre- 
 mont, who had previously been appointed military commandant 
 of California, to raise the necessary force to execute this bold 
 design. But while he was engaged in the performance of these 
 orders, intelligence from the south arrived which compelled the 
 abandonment of the proposed expedition, and concentrated all 
 the attention of Stockton upon the theatre of his recent success. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Insurrection of the Californians.— Proclamation of General Flores.— Defeat and surrender of Talbot 
 and Gillespie.— Captain Mervine defeated, with the crew of the Savannah. — Com. Stockton defeats 
 the Californians at San Diego.— Defeat of General Kearny at San Pasqual. — The official relations 
 of Com. Stockton and Gen. Kearny. — Movement against Los Angeles. — Battles of the Iiio San 
 Gabriel, and the Plains of the Mesa. — Fremont negotiates with General Flores and Andreas Pico. 
 —Fremont appointed Governor, and subsequently tried by Court Martial.— Arrival of Commodore 
 Shubrick, and the confirmation of General Kearny as Governor.— Mexican Governors of Califor- 
 nia. — Foreign Consuls in the Territory. 
 
 No sooner had Stockton left Los Angeles for the north, than the 
 Mexican chiefs, indignant and chafed with the knowledge of the 
 smallness of the force before which they had fled so ingloriously, 
 sought to retrieve their tarnished honor. Gen. Flores secretly 
 rallied the fragments of his scattered troops, and suddenly, on the 
 23d of September, invested Los Angeles with a force overwhelm- 
 ingly superior to that of the garrison. Capt. Gillespie, who was 
 in command, was obliged to capitulate on the 30th, and was al- 
 lowed to retire to Monterey. Lieut. Talbot, who had charge of 
 Santa Barbara, was also compelled to evacuate that place, but 
 without surrendering his arms. Intelligence of these successes, 
 greatly exaggerated, was soon spread over the whole country, and 
 almost the entire Mexican population of the southern portion of 
 California rose in arms, to drive the invaders from their soil. 
 Flores, who was chiefly instrumental in fomenting the insurrec- 
 rection, issued the following proclamation : — 
 
 "Mexican Army, Section of Operations, 
 Angeles, October 1st, 1846. 
 
 " Fellow-Citizens : — It is a month and a half that, by lamentable fatal- 
 ity, fruit of the cowardice and inability of the first authorities of the depart- 
 ment, we behold ourselves subjugated and oppressed by an insignificant force 
 of adventurers of the United States of America, and placing us in a worse con- 
 dition than that of slaves. 
 
 " They are dictating to us despotic and arbitrary laws, and loading us with 
 
114 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 contributions and onerous burdens, which have for an object the ruin of our 
 industry and agriculture, and to force us to abandon our property, to be pos- 
 sessed and divided among themselves. 
 
 " And shall we be capable to allow ourselves to be subjugated, and to 
 accept, by our silence, the weighty chains of slavery ? Shall we permit to be 
 lost the soil inherited from our fathers, which cost them so much blood and 
 so many sacrifices ? Shall we make our families victims of the most barbarous 
 slavery ? Shall we wait to see our wives violated — our innocent children 
 punished by the American whips — our property sacked — our temples profaned 
 — and, lastly, to drag through an existence full of insult and shame ? No ! a 
 thousand times no ! Countrymen, first death ! 
 
 " Who of you does not feel his heart beat with violence ; who does not 
 feel his blood boil, to contemplate our situation ; and who will be the Mexican 
 who will not feel indignant, and who will not rise to take up arms to destroy 
 our oppressors ? We believe there is not one so vile and cowardly. With 
 such a motive the majority of the inhabitants of the districts, justly indignant 
 against our tyrants, raise the cry of war, with arms in their hands, and of one 
 accord swear to sustain the following articles : — 
 
 " 1st. We, the inhabitants of the department of California, as members of 
 the great Mexican nation, declare that it is, and has been, our wish to belong 
 to her alone, free and independent. 
 
 " 2d. Consequently the authorities intended and named by the invading 
 forces of the United States are held null and void. 
 
 " 3d. All the North Americans, being enemies of Mexico, we swear not to 
 lay down our arms till they are expelled from the Mexican territory. 
 
 " 4th. All Mexican citizens, from the age of fifteen to sixty, who do not 
 take up arms to forward the present plan, are declared traitors, and under pain 
 of death. 
 
 " 5th. Every Mexican or foreigner who may directly or indirectly aid the 
 enemies of Mexico will be punished in the same manner. 
 
 " 6th. The property of the North Americans in the department, who may 
 directly or indirectly have taken part with, or aided the enemies, shall be con- 
 fiscated and used for the expenses of the war ; and their persons shall be taken 
 to the interior of the republic. 
 
 " 7th. All those who may oppose the present plan will be punished with 
 arms. 
 
 " 8th. All the inhabitants of Santa Barbara, and the district of the north, 
 will be invited immediately to adhere to the present plan. 
 
 "Jose Ma. Flores. 
 
 " Camp in Angeles, September 24£A, 1846." 
 [Signed by more than 300 persons.] 
 
 This proclamation, thus numerously signed, indicated a spirit 
 of the most decisive hostility, and a consciousness of strength, 
 which, considering the small force of the American commander- 
 
REVOLT OF THE CALIFORNIANS. 
 
 115 
 
 m-chief, was calculated to alarm him, with the insufficiency of 
 his means to cope with an enemy so superior in numbers. It 
 was now apparent that the work of conquest would have to be 
 repeated, and the most prompt and energetic measures were 
 adopted for that purpose. Stockton proceeded at once to San 
 Francisco, and despatched the frigate Savannah for San Pedro, to 
 reinforce the American garrison at that place. Fremont, then 
 at Sacramento, was ordered to San Francisco, with what force 
 could be collected, and about the 12th of October sailed, with 
 one hundred and sixty volunteers, for Santa Barbara, where he 
 was directed to procure horses, and subsequently to move simul- 
 taneously with Stockton upon the enemy at Los Angeles. The 
 Savannah did not arrive at San Pedro till after the defeat and 
 surrender of Talbot and Gillespie. Her crew, however, about 
 three hundred and twenty, though poorly armed, were landed, 
 and under Captain Mervine, attacked a large body of mounted 
 Californians about twelve miles from San Pedro. After a severe 
 engagement, they were repulsed, and retreated with the loss of 
 five killed and six wounded. Several subsequent skirmishes took 
 place, but with no material results. 
 
 As soon as Com. Stockton had completed his arrangements 
 for the security of the north, he proceeded in the frigate Congress 
 to the seat of war. Upon his arrival at San Pedro, about the 
 23d of October, he landed his crew in the face of the enemy, who 
 were in force to the number of eight hundred men. They 
 seemed, however, indisposed for an encounter, and retired into 
 the interior. And in order to give time to Fremont to mount 
 his men and co-operate in the contemplated campaign, as well as 
 on account of the greater security of the anchorage and protec- 
 tion from the storms which prevailed at this season on the coast, 
 and from the impossibility of procuring animals either for food or 
 transportation, (the enemy having driven them all into the inte- 
 rior,) Stockton re-embarked his men and sailed for San Diego. 
 In attempting to enter that harbor, the Congress grounded after 
 crossing the bar, and in such a way that it was necessary to sup- 
 port her with spars. While thus engaged, the Californians at- 
 tacked the town ; but in despite of the necessity of employing a 
 part of his force about the frigate, the commodore landed with 
 
116 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the remainder, and after a short encounter, defeated the enemy. 
 The condition of San Diego was miserable in the extreme, and 
 neither horses nor cattle could be obtained in the neighborhood. 
 The enemy were in great force at San Bernardo, thirty miles dis- 
 tant, from whence detachments repeatedly visited San Diego, keep- 
 ing up for many days their desultory attacks. A party of Americans 
 were despatched down the coast in pursuit of cattle, a supply of 
 which they fortunately met and drove into camp. 
 
 Immediately after landing at San Diego, Stockton commenced 
 energetic preparations for a march on Los Angeles. His men 
 were daily disciplined according to the tactics adopted, and what- 
 ever time could be spared was employed in building a fort, and 
 making saddles, shoes, and other equipments. Information was 
 received from Fremont that he could not procure horses at Santa 
 Barbara, and that he had gone to Monterey for that purpose. 
 Capt. Gibson had obtained a few horses, but they were poor and 
 worn down with severe marches, requiring rest before they could 
 be fit for service. Capt. Hensley, however, who had been sent 
 on an expedition to the south, after much arduous service, re- 
 turned with five hundred head of cattle and one hundred and 
 forty horses. While preparations were progressing for the march 
 on Los Angeles, a messenger arrived about the 3d of December, 
 with a letter from General Kearny, apprising Com. Stockton of 
 his approach, and expressing a desire to open a communication, 
 but without disclosing his actual situation. On the same even- 
 ing, Captain Gillespie was despatched with a force of thirty-five 
 men to meet Kearny. On the 6th of December, another messen- 
 ger arrived, bringing information of the defeat and perilous sit- 
 uation of General Kearny at San Pasqual. On his way from 
 New Mexico, with a considerable force, while a few days from 
 Santa Fe, Kearny met Carson, the courier sent by Com. Stock- 
 ton, with despatches to the Government, giving information of 
 the conquest of California, and the establishment there of a civil 
 government. Considering, therefore, the work of subjugation of 
 that territory completed, Kearny turned back the greater part of 
 his troops, and proceeded on his way toward California, taking 
 Carson as his guide. At, or near San Pasqual, he was intercept- 
 ed by the Californians, and defeated, with the loss of eighteen 
 
OFFICIAL RELATIONS OF STOCKTON AND KEARNY. 117 
 
 men killed and as many wounded, and one of his two howitzers. 
 He took refuge on a rocky eminence, closely invested by the enemy. 
 All his ammunition and nearly all his provisions were exhausted. 
 Under cover of night he despatched couriers, who with much diffi- 
 culty eluded the vigilance of the foe and reached San Diego. On 
 learning these facts, Stockton was about to proceed in person with 
 all his force to the relief of Kearny ; but subsequent messengers 
 brought intelligence that the strength of the enemy was much less 
 than had been represented. He therefore despatched Lieut. Gray, 
 with two hundred and fifty men, upon whose approach toward 
 San Pasqual, the besiegers abandoned the field, and left the re- 
 lief party to return unmolested with Kearny and his dragoons. 
 
 As the official relations of Com. Stockton and Gen. Kearny 
 have been the subject of much discussion, it is proper we should 
 say in what light we consider them. Gen. Kearny was directed 
 by instructions from the Secretary of War to invade California 
 with a prescribed force, and " should he conquer it," to establish 
 a civil government there. On his way, learning that the objects 
 of the expedition had been accomplished by Com. Stockton, as 
 above related, he turned back his troops, proceeded with a small 
 party, was attacked and defeated by the enemy, and relieved 
 from imminent danger by the detachment sent by Stockton. 
 Arrived at San Diego, he consented, according to the testimony 
 of all then present, to act under Stockton, then on the eve of a 
 movement against Los Angeles. The following lucid statement 
 of the reception of Kearny by Stockton, and of their relative po- 
 sitions in that movement, we extract from the official letter of 
 the commodore to the Secretary of the Navy, made subsequent 
 to the court martial which tried Col. Fremont^ and dated Febru- 
 ary 18th, 1848 :— 
 
 " On their arrival, General Kearny, his officers, and men, were received by 
 all the garrison in the kindest and most respectful manner. So far as my ob- 
 servation extended, no civility or attention was omitted. Having sent with 
 Captain Gillespie every horse that was fit for use to General Kearny, I was 
 without one for my own accommodation. I was therefore compelled on foot 
 to advance and receive the general, whom I conducted to my own quarters 
 until others more agreeable to him could be prepared. The arrival of General 
 Kearny was to me a source of gratification : although it was my decided 
 opinion, which as yet I have seen no reason to change, that under the circum- 
 
118 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 stances that existed I was entitled to retain the position in which I was 
 placed, of commander-in-chief: yet in consideration of his high standing in the 
 army, his long experience as a soldier, the importance of military science and 
 skill in the movements that were to be made in the interior of the country, I 
 immediately determined to yield all personal feelings of ambition, and tc 
 place in his hands the supreme authority. In accordance with this determi- 
 nation I tendered to General Kearny the position of commander-in-chief, and 
 offered to accompany him as his aid. 
 
 " This proposition was on more than one occasion renewed, and with all 
 sincerity and singleness of purpose. The responsibility of moving from San 
 Diego, and leaving the safety of the ships deprived of so large and efficient a 
 portion of their crews, was of itself a momentous one. This, however, in the 
 discharge of duty I felt no inclination to shrink from. But the fate of the 
 territory itself might depend upon the issue of a battle to be fought on shore 
 against an army organized to encounter us. The nature of the service, and 
 the importance of the stake, it seemed to me appertained rather to a general in 
 the army than a captain in the navy. Whatever ambition I might feel for 
 distinction, either on my own account, or on that of the gallant officers and men 
 under my command, was voluntarily and deliberately offered as a sacrifice to 
 a paramount sense of duty. The offers thus made were, however, on every 
 occasion positively and distinctly declined by General Kearny, who on his side 
 offered to accompany me in the capacity of my aid, and tendered to afford me 
 the aid of his head and hand. A few days before I expected to take up the 
 line of march, I addressed a note to the general, expressing a wish that he 
 would accompany me. In his reply, he repeated the language which he had 
 before employed — that he would so accompany me, and afford me the aid of 
 his head and hand. Accordingly, on the morning of our departure he appeared 
 upon the ground. After the troops had been paraded, and were nearly 
 ready to commence the march, as I was about to mount my horse, General 
 Kearny approached me, and inquired, who was to command the troops. I 
 replied, Lieutenant Rowan was to have command. On his expressing a wish 
 that he should himself command them, I replied that he should have the com- 
 mand. The different officers were at once convened, and informed that Gen- 
 eral Kearny had volunteered to command the troops, and that I had given 
 him the appointment, reserving my own position as commander-in-chief. 
 This arrangement having been made, we proceeded on the march." 
 
 Gen. Kearny himself, on examination before the court mar- 
 tial, testified on the fourteenth day of the trial, in relation to the 
 expedition to Los Angeles, — " Under Commodore Stockton's di- 
 rections every arrangement for the expedition was made. I had 
 nothing whatever to do with it." Col. Fremont, in his defence, 
 says, — " Both Gen. Kearny and the officers under him received 
 and obeyed the orders of Com. Stockton, in some instances in 
 opposition to those first given by Gen. Kearny, both on the 
 
THE MOVEMENT ON LOS ANGELES. 
 
 119 
 
 march and in the battles." Lieutenants Gray, Minor and Emo- 
 ry testified to the same effect. From this, and much other cor- 
 roborating evidence, it is historically true that whatever of re- 
 sponsibility or credit belongs to the movement upon Los Angeles, 
 at this time, must be attributed to Com. Stockton. He origi- 
 nated the expedition, provided the means for its prosecution, con- 
 ducted it as commander-in-chief, and is fairly entitled to the 
 praise due for its success. 
 
 On the 23d of December, general orders were issued, as 
 follows : — 
 
 " General Orders. — The forces composed of Capt. Tilghman's Company 
 of Artillery, a detachment of the 1st Regiment of Dragoons, Companies A 
 and B of California Battalion of Mounted Riflemen, and a detachment of sail- 
 ors and marines from the frigates Congress and Savannah, and the ship Ports- 
 mouth, will take up the line of march for the Ciudad de los Angeles on 
 Monday morning, the 28th inst., at 10 a. m. 
 
 "By order of the Commander-in-Chief, 
 
 "J. Zeilan, 
 " Brevet Captain and Adjutant. 
 
 " San Diego, 2Zd December, 184G." 
 
 On the 29th the march commenced. The distance to be 
 travelled between San Diego and Los Angeles was one hundred 
 and forty-five miles, the track lying through deep sands and over 
 steep and rugged ascents. The entire force consisted of five hun- 
 dred and forty sailors and marines, and sixty of Kearny's dra- 
 goons, and six pieces of artillery. The men, for the most part, 
 were poorly clothed, their shoes generally being made by them- 
 selves of canvas. Stockton, in his despatch of February 5th, 
 1847, to the Secretary of the Navy, says, — "We came to San 
 Diego with the Congress alone — her resources being almost ex- 
 hausted in a previous campaign. The town was besieged by the 
 insurgents, and there were no stores or provisions of any kind in 
 it, and we were reduced to one fourth allowance of bread. We 
 had to build a fort — to mount our artillery, — to make saddles, 
 bridles, and harness : we had, in truth, to make an army, with 
 all its necessary appendages, out of the mechanics and sailors of 
 this ship, and to take our horses and beef cattle from the enemy." 
 Captain Turner, of the dragoons, declined using the horses, in 
 
120 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 their feeble condition, preferring to proceed without thern, and 
 those taken along for purposes of draught were so miserable that 
 they daily became disabled, which devolved much hard work on 
 the men, in dragging the guns and the carts heavily laden with 
 provisions and ammunition. " Their route," says a writer alrea- 
 dy quoted, " lay through a rugged country, drenched with the 
 winter rains, and bristling with the lances of the enemy. 
 Through this the commodore led his seamen and marines, shar- 
 ing himself, with the general at his side, all the hardships of the 
 common sailors. The stern engagements with the enemy derive 
 their heroic features from the contrast existing in the condition 
 of the two. The Californians were well mounted, and whirled 
 their flying artillery to the most convenient positions. Our 
 troops were on foot, mired to the ankle, and with no resources 
 except in their own indomitable resolution and courage. Their 
 exploits may be cast in the shadow by the clouds which roll up 
 from the plains of Mexico, but they are realities here, which im- 
 press themselves with a force which reaches the very foundations 
 of social order." 
 
 The enemy were frequently seen during the march, and the 
 utmost vigilance was constantly necessary, to prevent a surprise. 
 The celebrated Kit Carson had been selected to command a 
 small corps of scouts, and to act as spies and skirmishers, which 
 duty was performed in a most efficient manner. On the 3d of 
 January, at San Luis del Key, Stockton despatched a messenger 
 to apprise Fremont of his advance, and to caution him against 
 the hazard of an action until a junction of their forces had taken 
 place. This messenger, however, did not reach Fremont until 
 the 9th January. Lieut. Selden, of the navy, was also sent with 
 a small vessel to the maritime defile of Rincon, to protect that 
 pass through which Fremont was expected to march. While ad- 
 vancing, propositions were received from Flores to negotiate, 
 which were rejected in the most peremptory terms. The bearers 
 were informed that no communication would be held with Flores, 
 he having forfeited his honor as a soldier, by breaking his parole. 
 They were likewise assured that Flores and every Mexican who 
 had broken his parole, if caught, would immediately be shot. 
 
 On the evening of January 7th, the whole force of the enemy 
 
BATTLE OF SAN GABRIEL. 
 
 121 
 
 being not far distant, the commodore despatched a confidential 
 emissary to ascertain, under cover of night, their exact position 
 and strength. They were formed between the invading army 
 and the Rio San Gabriel, apparently waiting to give battle, and 
 were estimated at from one thousand to twelve hundred men, 
 composed almost wholly of cavalry. On the morning of the 8th, 
 Stockton ordered all the guns of his men to be fired and re-loaded, 
 and passing through their ranks, reminded them that it was the 
 anniversary of the battle of New Orleans. They were then 
 formed in a square, with the baggage and cattle in the centre. 
 On approaching the river, the enemy were observed prepared for 
 their reception, and strongly posted on the opposite heights. The 
 banks commanding the ford (which was occupied by the artillery 
 of the Californians), were about fifty yards from the river, quite 
 steep, and about fifty feet high. When within a quarter of a 
 mile of the ford, the men were formed in line, and orders given 
 that not a gun should be fired until the crossing was effected. 
 The enemy, however, kept up a perpetual and brisk fire, though 
 with little effect. In the act of crossing, the water being about 
 four feet deep, word was sent by Kearny to the commander-in- 
 chief that the bed of the river consisted of quicksand and could 
 not be passed with the guns. Stockton instantly repaired to the 
 head of the column, seized the ropes, and with his own hands as- 
 sisted to drag over the artillery. The passage effected, the 
 troops were again formed for battle. The commodore took 
 charge of the artillery, and pointed his guns with such precision 
 that the enemy were soon compelled to abandon theirs ; when he 
 sent Lieut. Gray with orders to Kearny to charge up the bank 
 and seize them, while he prepared to receive a charge which was 
 about being made on his flank. Before Kearny could reach the 
 summit of the ascent, the Californians returning, withdrew their 
 guns, making but a feeble stand against the general. The great- 
 er part of their force, after making a circuit of some hundred 
 yards, descending to the level of the river, attacked Stockton on 
 his left flank ; but they were so warmly received that they re- 
 treated ujwn the hill, the commodore following, charging up the 
 declivity with his artillery, in the very face of the enemy. On 
 his reaching the heights, the latter were seen at a short distance, 
 
122 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 drawn up in battle array, with their artillery in front. The 
 Americans were now ordered to lie down, while their leader ran 
 out his guns, and poured upon the adversary a well-directed fire, 
 he himself aiming each piece as fast as it was loaded, with such 
 fatal effect, that the enemy were repeatedly driven from their 
 guns. Several ineffectual attempts were made by them to 
 charge ; but the steady front, cool courage, and well aimed rifles 
 of the assailants repelled their attacks. Dispersed in every di- 
 rection on the heights, a portion of their right wing wheeled upon 
 the rear of the American forces, and attacked Capt. Gillespie, 
 encumbered with his baggage and cattle, who received them so 
 warmly that they fled across the river. Their main body retreat- 
 ed before the assailants, until reaching a ravine, they renewed a 
 brisk fire, when Stockton again took charge of the guns, and by 
 his well-directed shots, drove them from their position. They 
 then rapidly fled, carrying off their killed and wounded, the 
 numbers of which could not be ascertained. The Americans lost 
 two killed and nine wounded. 
 
 On the 9 th, Stockton pursued the retiring foe in the direction 
 of Los Angeles, and after a march of six miles came up with 
 them on the Plains of the Mesa. They were well posted, with a 
 ravine to the left of their line, which masked their artillery. 
 When about six hundred yards distant they opened a fire on the 
 advancing column. Preparations for a charge were visible in 
 their ranks, and they were observed to be joined by a strong rein- 
 forcement. Stockton formed his whole force in square, with the 
 baggage, horses and oxen in the centre, and gave imperative com- 
 mands to his men not to fire a shot until he gave the signal, 
 which he said would not be until he could see the eyes of the 
 enemy. The Californians made a gallant charge. It is said by 
 those who witnessed it, to have been a brilliant spectacle. Gayly 
 caparisoned, with banners flying, mounted on fleet and splendid 
 horses, they bounded on, spurring to the top of their speed, on 
 the small but compact square into which the American force was 
 compressed. The very earth appeared to tremble beneath their 
 thundering hoofs — and nothing seemed capable of resisting such 
 cavalry. But inspired with the cool courage and dauntless hero- 
 ism of their leader, his men patiently awaited the result. The 
 
FREMONT NEGOTIATES WITH FLORES AND PICO. 123 
 
 signal was at length given, and a deadly fire, directed according 
 to orders at the horses, was poured into the ranks of the advanc- 
 ing foe, which emptied many saddles and threw them into com- 
 plete confusion. Retreating a few hundred yards, they again 
 formed, and despatching a part of their force to the rear, they 
 attacked simultaneously three sides of the square. Orders were 
 renewed to reserve fire until the enemy's near approach, and with 
 the same decisive results, — their ranks breaking up and retreat- 
 ing in disorder. A third time, having rallied, they returned to 
 the charge, but once more their ranks were thinned by the dead- 
 ly aim of the assailed ; and despairing of their ability to cope 
 with men so cool, unflinching and resolute, confused and discom- 
 fited, they scattered and fled in every direction. 
 
 On the 10th of January, at the head of his advanced guard, 
 on the broadest and principal road leading into Los Angeles, the 
 Commodore, with banners waving, marched into the city. He 
 directed Captain Gillespie to raise the same flag which he was 
 compelled to strike on the previous September. 
 
 A few days after these events, Fremont, without knowledge 
 of Stockton's movements and success, encountered Gen. Flores and 
 Andreas Pico and their disheartened remnant of followers, who in 
 humble terms sued for peace. Not knowing that the commander- 
 in-chief had refused to treat with them, Fremont entered into 
 negotiations, and finally agreed upon articles by which they stip- 
 ulated to surrender their arms, including the gun captured at San 
 Pasqual from Gen. Kearny, and cease from all further resistance. 
 These articles it was thought desirable to approve, as they were 
 considered a final pacification in the territory between the con- 
 tending parties, and as clemency on the part of the conqueror was 
 more likely to insure that result than the sanguinary exercise of 
 inexorable justice. 
 
 The following general order must close our narrative of the 
 military operations of Com. Stockton in California. We have ex- 
 tended it far beyond the limits originally contemplated; but as 
 the history of these events is closely connected with the subse- 
 quent prosperity of the country, and the present condition of San 
 Francisco, we have thought best to give it in all its interesting 
 details. 
 
124 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ■' Head-quarters, Ciudad de los Angeles. 
 January Wlh, 1847. 
 " The Commander-in-Chief congratulates the officers and men of the 
 southern division of the United States forces in California on the hrilliant 
 victories obtained by them over the enemy on the 8th and 9th instants, and 
 on once more taking possession of Ciudad de los Angeles. 
 
 " He takes the earliest moment to commend their gallantry and good con- 
 duct, both in the battle fought on the 8th, on the banks of the Rio San Ga- 
 briel, and on the 9th inst., on the Plains of the Mesa. 
 
 " The steady courage of the troops in forcing their passage across the Rio 
 San Gabriel, where officers and men were alike employed in dragging the 
 guns through the water, against the galling fire of the enemy, without ex- 
 changing a shot, and their gallant charge up the banks against the enemy's 
 cavalry, has perhaps never been surpassed ; and the cool determination with 
 which in the battle of the 9th they repulsed the charge of cavalry made by 
 the enemy at the same time on their front and rear, has extorted the admiration 
 of the enemy, and deserves the best thanks of their countrymen. 
 
 " R. F. Stockton, 
 " Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the 
 Territory of California." 
 
 Commodore Stockton, in pursuance of instructions which he 
 had communicated to the Government in September, now appoint- 
 ed Col. Fromont governor of the territory, and Wm. H. Russell, 
 secretary. It is painful to relate that unfortunate disputes arose 
 as to the right of Fremont to the high dignity of governor. Gen- 
 eral Kearny produced a commission appointing himself to the 
 office. His pretensions, however, were opposed both by Stockton 
 and Fremont, who contended that a new train of circumstances 
 had arisen since the produced commission had been granted. The 
 instructions to General Kearny from the war department, ("should 
 he conquer the country,") Com. Stockton considered as anticipated 
 by himself ; and of course the resulting action prescribed by those 
 instructions contingently, ("to form a civil government,") as de- 
 volving on himself, the real conqueror of the territory. In these 
 views of Stockton, the Government entirely acquiesced, — so far as 
 respected the approval in mass of his whole conduct, — the secre- 
 tary of the navy specially thanking him for anticipating the wishes 
 of the Government. It is not a little singular, that although the 
 validity of Stockton's acts was thus sanctioned, yet Col. Fremont, 
 for obedience to his orders, was tried by court martial, and con- 
 victed of disobedience to the orders of Gen. Kearny. His sentence 
 
KEARNY BECOMES GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 125 
 
 was suspension from the service; but the President, in considera- 
 tion of his many services and mitigating circumstances, was pleas- 
 ed to remit the punishment, and ordered him to be restored to 
 his former rank. But Fremont, being of opinion that he had done 
 no wrong, refused to accept this clemency, and accordingly resign- 
 ed his commission, and retired from the American military service. 
 Whatever may have been the merits of this case, it is certain that 
 Fremont showed himself a true hero, in his efforts to overthrow 
 the Mexican power in California, and is deserving of the gratitude 
 of American settlers in that territory. As an adventurous, per- 
 severing and talented explorer, who has laid open practicable and 
 easy paths to a great country that had long been closed against 
 the boldest pioneers, he deserves the approbation of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 In the mean time, General Kearny applied to Commodore 
 Shubrick (who arrived in California on the22d of January, 1847, 
 and as senior in commission, superseded Commodore Stockton in 
 command of the squadron,) to place him in the chief command. 
 But under the instructions to Com. Sloat of 12th July, 1846. 
 which devolved on the naval commander the conquest and civil 
 government of California, Shubrick did not consider himself au- 
 thorized to accede to his wishes. Soon after, however, other in- 
 structions, dated 9th November, 184G, having been received by 
 Com. Shubrick, Kearny was recognized as governor, and acted as 
 such until he relinquished the command to Colonel Mason, upon 
 his departure for Washington. These instructions Kearny did 
 not communicate to Fremont. Thus there were two acting gov- 
 ernors at the same time in California, and Fremont, without any 
 knowledge of his authority being annulled by the instructions of 
 the 9th November, subjected himself, in the performance of what 
 he considered his duties, to charges of disobedience to his superior 
 officer. He was ordered to surrender the howitzer lost by Kearny 
 at San Pasqual, at this time in possession of the California batta- 
 lion, to the Mormon regiment under Col. Cooke. This could not 
 have been done without the hazard of a revolt, and therefore was 
 declined by Fremont. 
 
 Before narrating the further steps adopted by the Americans, 
 when they had thus taken military possession of the country, we 
 
126 ANNALS OF SAN FKANCISCO. 
 
 may give a brief notice of the various governors and other public 
 officers who were connected with California, subsequently to the 
 Mexican declaration of independence. The list is somewhat a 
 long one for so short a period ; and illustrates the feeble hold which 
 Mexico had upon the political affections of so remote and neglect- 
 ed a province : — • 
 
 Sola was the last Californian governor under the Spanish flag 
 and the first under the Mexican. In 1823 he was ordered to 
 Mexico, and Don Luis Antonio Arguello was named governor, 
 with all the powers of his predecessor, and remained so until the 
 arrival of Echeandia, in the beginning of 1825. Echeandia had 
 command until the arrival of Victoria, in 1830. Victoria con- 
 tinued in power until the winter of 1832, when the Californians 
 revolted, and sent him away. At that time Pio Pico was the 
 senior member of the territorial department, and by law became 
 governor pro tempore. Echeandia, meanwhile, had remained 
 among his friends at San Diego, probably expecting some speedy 
 change in political affairs ; and, when Victoria was about to leave, 
 he took the military command. Both he and Pico continued in 
 office till the arrival of Figueroa in 1833. Figueroa died in 1835 ; 
 and, during his last illness, delivered over the civil command to 
 Don Jose Castro, and the military to Don Nicolas Gutierrez, 
 Castro being at that time senior member of the department. These 
 remained in office until the arrival of Chico, in 1836. The same 
 year Chico was sent away by the Junta department. Previous 
 to his departure he left the military and civil command with Gu- 
 tierrez, he having been formerly his second. 
 
 On the 6th of November, 1836, the Californians, assisted by 
 foreigners under Captain Graham, an American, and Captain 
 Coppinger, an Englishman, revolted against Gutierrez ; and the 
 latter was forced to leave the country, with all his officers, except 
 those who took part in favor of the natives, and wished to remain. 
 Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo played an important role in this 
 revolution, and became commander of the forces; while his nephew, 
 Don Juan Bautista Alvarado, was made civil governor. These 
 positions they held until the arrival of Micheltorena, in 1842. 
 Early in 1845, Micheltorena was sent away by the Californians, 
 after forming a sort of treaty with them (he being desirous to pro- 
 
CONSULS IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 127 
 
 ceed to Mexico), leaving Jose Castro with the military command. 
 Pio Pico, who was again the senior memher of the Junta depart- 
 ment, then became governor. These two continued in power, as 
 military and civil heads respectively, until the Americans took 
 possession of the country. Sola, Argiiello, Echeandria, Victoria, 
 Figueroa, Chico and Micheltorena, all had the united civil and 
 military authority. 
 
 In 1843, Mr. Thomas 0. Larlcin was appointed the first, as 
 he happened to be the last American consul in California. That 
 gentleman also held various other official and important appoint- 
 ments from the United States Government up to the year 1848, 
 when peace was declared, and the country became American. In 
 1845, Mr. Larkin, who resided at Monterey, the nominal Mexican 
 capital of the province, named Mr. William A. Leidesdorff the 
 United States vice-consul, at the port of San Francisco. Mr. 
 James A. Forbes received the appointment of the first British con- 
 sul in 1844, or 1845. The first French consul^ Don Luis Gasquet, 
 arrived in California, via Mexico, about the 10th of May, 1845, 
 and left some time in 1847. He remained a considerable time in 
 the country after he delivered the consulate over to M. Movenhaut. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Peace concluded between the Mexican and American States. — Terms of the Treaty. — California ceded 
 to the United States. — The country ruled provisionally by American Governors. — Eapid increase 
 of population by immigration.— Discovery of gold on the American Elver by Mr. James W. Mar- 
 shall. — Great excitement in conseqnence of the discovery, and rush of people to the gold placers. 
 — Mixed character of the population. — Necessity for the establishment of a proper form of Gov- 
 ernment. — Independent sectional legislation inadequate and unsatisfactory.— Meetings held to 
 effect a general civil organization. — General Riley issues a proclamation for a meeting to be held 
 at Monterey to adopt a State Constitution — Names of delegates appointed. — Meeting at Monte- 
 rey. — Constitution of California adopted, and rejoicings on the occasion. 
 
 The general war continued for about a year after the reduction 
 of California. At last, in the month of February, 1848, an ar- 
 mistice was entered into between the hostile parties, which en- 
 dured till a formal treaty of peace was concluded. This was rati- 
 fied by the Senate of the United States in March, and by the 
 Mexican Congress in May following of the year just named. By 
 this treaty a considerable territory was ceded by Mexico. The 
 boundary line between it and the United States was declared to 
 be the Rio Grande, up mid-channel of which it ran till about the 
 thirty-second parallel ; from whence, turning westward, along the 
 southern limit of New Mexico till it cut the Gila, down the mid- 
 dle of which river it proceeded till its junction with the Rio Colo- 
 rado ; from whence it ran westward till it reached the Pacific, at a 
 point about one league south of San Diego, nearly on latitude 
 thirty-two and a half. Thus Texas, to its full extent, New Mex- 
 ico and Upper California were altogether contained within the 
 boundary line on the American side. The free navigation of the 
 Rio Colorado, from the mouth of the Gila to the Gidf of Califor- 
 nia, as well as of the gulf itself, were likewise secured to the Uni- 
 ted States. To compensate, in some measure, for the cession of 
 such a vast territoiy, the American Government agreed to pay to 
 Mexico the sum of $15,000,000 ; and, moreover, took upon itself 
 all liability for the damages due by Mexico to American subjects, 
 
RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION. 
 
 129 
 
 which, as before stated, was one of the original causes of the war. 
 Each nation was to defray its own expenses in conducting hostil- 
 ities. There were several minor stipulations in the treaty ; but 
 with these we have nothing here to do. It is sufficient merely to 
 say, that California was now, wholly and legally, a portion of the 
 American Union ; and her people of Spanish or of other origin, 
 were henceforward American citizens. 
 
 Meanwhile the country was ruled, provisionally, by successive 
 American governors, until a constitution could be granted by 
 Congress, when it would be formally assumed as a Territory of the 
 Union. Events, however, were about to happen which superse- 
 ded the necessity of such a constitution, and hastened the devel- 
 opment of California into a State, without passing through the 
 intermediate stage of a territory. Like the Minerva on its public 
 seal, it started into life a full grown being, ripe in all its faculties 
 and powers, and at once fitted to contend with whoever and what- 
 ever should oppose its wonderful progress. This was owing to 
 the discovery of gold in the country and consequent rush of immi- 
 gration thither, with all its attendant effects. 
 
 But before this discovery took place, a vast immigration 
 from all sides had begun to flow towards California. The pre- 
 vious advantages which the country had offered to the intending 
 immigrant, were on a sudden immensely increased by the cir- 
 cumstance of its being now a portion of the American Union. 
 Accordingly, large bodies of people were beginning to flock to 
 the land ; and agriculture, trade and commerce were greatly 
 benefited by the accession of such numbers of active, intelligent 
 and industrious settlers. In 1845, it was estimated that the 
 white population had increased to about 8,000 ; while the do- 
 mesticated Indians, who but a dozen years before had numbered 
 nearly 30,000, now scarcely amounted to one-third of that 
 number. As for the wild or "gentile" Indians, it was impossi- 
 ble to form any reasonable conjecture as to their numbers. Thev 
 were, however, generally supposed, by different parties, to num- 
 ber from one to three hundred thousand. As they inhabited 
 districts hitherto scarcely visited by the white man, their pres- 
 ence and numbers were considered as of no account in the pro- 
 gress of the country. The years 1846 and 1847 brought a very 
 9 
 
130 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 large accession to the white population. Colonel Stevenson's 
 regiment of New York volunteers alone gave a body of a thou- 
 sand hardy settlers, as nearly the whole number, officers as well 
 as men, remained in the country upon being disbanded, which 
 indeed had been anticipated. But beside these, great numbers 
 of Americans had journeyed from the Atlantic States across the 
 Rocky and Snowy Mountains, and settled in California. Nume- 
 rous companies of Mormons likewise either came direct from the 
 Eastern States, or from their settlements beside the Great Salt 
 Lake. A portion of these had formed the noted " Mormon Battal- 
 ion " of the war. At the same time, far more than the usual 
 proportion of stragglers, runaway seamen, and adventurers from 
 all nations continued to pour into the country, so soon as the 
 war and its first results were known. At the close of hostilities, 
 it was estimated that the white population, of all nations, num- 
 bered between 12,000 and 15,000, which was not merely annually 
 but daily increasing. Such was the beneficent influence and 
 magic power of the American flag ! People knew that they 
 were safe under its folds, and free to run the race of a prosperous 
 career. 
 
 But immeasurably exceeding all other causes in raising the 
 swelling tide of immigration was the discovery of gold. This 
 happened at Coloma, a valley and town situated between fifty 
 and sixty miles east of Sacramento City, in the month of Janu- 
 ary, 1848 ; curiously enough, just when the land was ceasing to 
 be Mexican. Many strange and improbable stories have been 
 told as to the alleged earliest discoveries ; but we believe that 
 the only reliable account is that given by Captain Sutter, upon 
 whose ground the precious metal was first found, and which we 
 shall therefore adopt, without noticing the various fabulous state- 
 ments alluded to. 
 
 It appears that Captain Sutter, during the winter of 1847-48, 
 was erecting a saw-mill for producing lumber, on the south fork 
 of the American River, a feeder of the Sacramento. Mr. James 
 W. Marshall contracted with Sutter for the building of this mill; 
 and, in the course of his operations, had occasion to admit the 
 river water into the tail-race, for the purpose of widening and 
 deepening it by the strength of the current. In doing this, a 
 
DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 131 
 
 considerable quantity of mud, sand and gravel was carried along 
 with the stream, and deposited in a heap at the foot of the tail- 
 race. Marshall, when one day examining the state of his works, 
 noticed a few glittering particles lying near the edge of the heap. 
 His curiosity being aroused, he gathered some of the sparkling 
 objects ; and at once became satisfied of their nature and the 
 
 Suiter's Mill. 
 
 value of his discovery. All trembling with excitement, he hur- 
 ried to his employer, and told his story. Captain Sutter at first 
 thought it was a fiction, and the teller only a mad fooL Indeed, 
 he confesses, that he kept a sharp eye upon his loaded rifle, when 
 he, whom he was tempted to consider a maniac, was eagerly dis- 
 closing the miraculous tale. However, his doubts were all at 
 once dispelled when Marshall tossed on the table before him an 
 ounce or so of the shining dust. The two agreed to keep the 
 matter secret, and quietly share the golden harvest between them. 
 But, as they afterwards searched more narrowly together, and 
 
132 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 gloated upon the rich deposits, their eager gestures and looks, 
 and muttered, broken words, happened to be closely watched by 
 a Mormon laborer employed about the neighborhood. He followed 
 their movements, and speedily became as wise as themselves. 
 As secrecy was of little importance to him, he forthwith divulged 
 the extraordinary intelligence, and in confirmation of the story, 
 exhibited some scales of gold which he had himself gathered. 
 Immediately, every body in the neighborhood left his regular 
 employment, and began to search for the precious metal. A 
 large body of Mormon immigrants about this time was approach- 
 ing California by the south pass of the Rocky Mountains ; and, 
 on hearing news of the discovery, hastened at once to the spot. 
 Rumors of these circumstances speedily flew across the length 
 and breadth of the land, variously modified by the warmth or 
 coolness of fancy of the successive narrators, but all agreeing in 
 this, that gold was to be had in large quantities, for the mere 
 trouble of picking it up, at Sutter's Mill, on the south fork of the 
 Bio de los Americanos. To that quarter, then, all the loose 
 population around instantly directed their steps. Soon the neigh- 
 borhood swarmed with diggers; and, within a few days after the 
 first discovery, upwards of twelve hundred people were busily at 
 work, with spades, shovels, knives, sticks, wooden bowls, cradles, 
 and all manner of implements, many of them of the rudest and 
 most primitive fashion, excavating, riddling and washing earth 
 for the precious particles it contained. Over all California the 
 excitement was prodigious. Spaniard, American and foreigner 
 were all alike affected. The husband left his wife ; the father, 
 his family ; people tore themselves from the most pressing duties 
 at home ; men deserted their masters, and these followed their 
 servants — all hurried to Sutter's Mill. Some withstood the 
 temptation for a short time ; but, very soon, nearly the whole 
 male population of the country, unable to resist the evidence of 
 their senses when specimens of the newly found gold were exhi- 
 bited before their dilated eyes, became suddenly infected with the 
 maddened whirl of the " yellow fever," — the auri sacra fames, 
 and rushed off at a tangent, helter-skelter, to gather riches, as 
 Aladdin had plucked fruits of priceless value in his fairy garden, 
 in the bowels of the earth, among the valleys of the Snowy 
 
MIXED CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION. 
 
 133 
 
 Mountains. Towns were dispeopled, ships in harbor deserted, all 
 kinds of business sent to the dogs ; the whole settled parts of 
 the country were suddenly deprived of their inhabitants, or wo- 
 men and children alone formed the population, though even of 
 these many flocked to the placers and the diggings, to see and 
 be seen, to make money somehow, and as surely to spend it. 
 
 Meanwhile, other streams and other valleys were found to 
 contain the auriferous sands. Not only the whole strip of coun- 
 try west of the Sierra Nevada, which was drained by feeders of 
 the Sacramento, but that other strip, locally in connection with 
 the former, and lying to the south, which was watered by the 
 streams which fell into the San Joaquin, was ascertained also to 
 possess auriferous deposits in large quantities. In fact it was 
 believed that the gold regions could not be exhausted of their 
 treasures during countless generations. There was enough, 
 therefore, and to spare, for all comers, though their name should 
 be "legion." Individuals were daily making considerable for- 
 tunes, while all who chose to work steadily at the business, were 
 sure to earn much larger wages than they could do at any other 
 kind of labor in the country. 
 
 All this while, the few ships that were enabled to get away 
 from the coast, and travellers and expresses by land, were spread- 
 ing the news far and wide over remote seas and through foreign 
 climes. The circles of excitement grew wider and wider, and scarce- 
 ly lost strength as they spread farther distant. First, the Mexi- 
 cans from the nearest, and then those from the remotest provinces, 
 flocked to California. The indolent, yet adventurous, half-wild 
 population of Sonora poured in its many thousands from the 
 south ; while Oregon from the north sent its sturdy settlers in 
 almost equal numbers. The Sandwich Islands followed, with 
 their strange medley of white and colored races. Peru and 
 Chili then hurried an innumerable crowd, as fast as ships coul.I be 
 obtained to carry them to the fields of gold. Before long, China 
 sent forward her thousands of thrifty wandering children, feeble, 
 indeed, both in body and mind, but persevering, and from their 
 union into laboring companies, capable of great feats. Australia 
 likewise contributed her proportion of clever rascals, and per- 
 haps as many clever adventurers who had not been convicted 
 
134 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 felons. The United States, which at all times contain a vast 
 roving and excitable population, next were affected to their very 
 centres ; and armies — to use a moderate term, were on a sudden 
 organized instantly to proceed to California and share in the 
 golden spoil. The year 1848 was lost for the land passage ; but 
 by the early summer of 1849, great and numerous caravans were 
 in full march, by various routes, across the Rocky Mountains. 
 Many hardships were endured by these immigrants, and numbers 
 died on the road. But their untamed bodies and bleaching 
 skeletons were unheeded by the succeeding throng, or only pointed 
 out to the weary yet restless travellers the paths where others 
 had gone before, and which perhaps the new-comers should only 
 avoid. On — on ! to the land of gold ! There, fortune smiled on 
 all, while her worshippers revelled among riches. On — on ! 
 Round Cape Horn fleets were bearing additional thousands ; 
 while through Mexico to all her eastern ports, and especially 
 across the Isthmus of Panama, still other thousands were hurry- 
 ing, by new ships on the Pacific, to the " Golden Gate." Later 
 in the year, and somewhat diminished in intensity, the excite- 
 ment produced in Europe similar results. Many of the young, 
 strong and adventurous, the idle, dissipated, reckless, sanguine 
 youths of Great Britain, France and Germany, broke through 
 the ties of home, friends and country, and perhaps of civilization 
 itself, and embarked tor California, to seize fortune in a bound, 
 and with one eager clutch, or to perish in the attempt. 
 
 These astonishing circumstances soon gathered into California 
 a mixed population of nearly a quarter of a million of the wildest, 
 bravest, most intelligent, yet most reckless and perhaps dangerous 
 beings ever before collected into one small district of country. 
 Gold, and the pleasures that gold could buy, had allured them 
 to the scene. They were flushed with hope and excitement. 
 Giiefly young men, they were naturally boisterous and riotous. 
 When their " blood was up " they would dare all things, heedless 
 of consequences. Rich or poor — fortunate, or the reverse in their 
 search for gold, they were almost equally dangerous members of 
 the community. If unsuccessful, they were moody and discon- 
 tented, fit and ready for any new and desperate enterprise : if 
 fortunate, the excesses of warm youthful constitutions, the 
 
PROPER FORM OF GOVERNMENT NEEDED. 
 
 135 
 
 gaming table, women and drink, were certain to produce a pro- 
 lific crop of vice, crime and all social disorders. Without family 
 ties, without the restraining and softening charms of home and 
 modest female society, the strange mixed population of California 
 at this time was like the dormant volcano, which at some unex- 
 pected moment may break forth and devastate all within its in- 
 fluence. Or it may be compared to the swelling flood of a mighty 
 river which threatens every instant to overleap or burst its banks, 
 and overwhelm the great country through which it rolls, and 
 which, when the stream is confined within proper limits, it only 
 fertilizes and enriches. The good sense of the community, and 
 the speedy establishment of a legal constitution could alone save 
 California from the threatened manifold evils of its heterogeneous 
 population, and direct its immense and wavering energies into 
 the best and most profitable channels for their reception. 
 
 The cooler and more intelligent settlers in California early 
 foresaw the urgent necessity of a regular constitution being adopt- 
 ed. The provisional government subsisting since the conquest of 
 1847 was but a make-shift at the best ; fit perhaps to regulate 
 the concerns of such a limited community as then inhabited 
 California, but by no means able to satisfy the wants of the great, 
 growing and dangerous population which now so strangely and 
 suddenly had arisen. Probably, Congress, at a distance, was not 
 sufficiently alive to the pressing need of adequate measures being 
 instantly taken to remedy the alarming state of things described, 
 by means of a formal territorial government. At any rate, the 
 most honest, intelligent and influential inhabitants of California 
 believed that they could wait no longer the slow movements of 
 Congress, and conceived that their own social safety would be 
 best consulted by at once improvising governments of their own. 
 Accordingly, attempts were soon severally made, by the people of 
 San Francisco, Sonoma and Sacramento, to form legislatures for 
 themselves, which they invested with supreme authority. Other 
 portions of the country prepared to follow the example of the 
 places named. It was quickly found, however, that these indepen- 
 dent legislatures threatened occasionally to come into collision 
 with each other, while the existence in a limited country of so 
 many different supreme courts, each governed by its own maxims 
 
136 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and principles of procedure, betrayed an anomalous state of things 
 too uncertain and unsatisfactory to be longer patiently borne. A 
 general feeling therefore became evident that the sooner such partial 
 legislation was put a stop to the better for the country ; and that 
 nothing less than a general constitution and complete civil gov- 
 ernment would be held satisfactory by the people. 
 
 Great meetings for these purposes were held at San Jose, San 
 Francisco, Monterey, Sonoma, and other places, in the months of 
 December and January, 1848-49. It was there resolved that such 
 a civil organization was expedient, and that delegates should be 
 chosen by popular election, from each district of the country, who 
 should afterwards assemble at San Jose", though the place of 
 meeting was subsequently changed to Monterey. The period of 
 meeting was first fixed for the 8th of January, then extended to 
 the 5th of March, next to the 1st of May, and finally, in order 
 to give ample time to every district to make the necessary arrange- 
 ments, to the first Monday in August. The delegates to meet at 
 this convention were to frame the constitution desired. The 
 resolutions adopted at these primary meetings were forwarded 
 to and exchanged between the principal districts and towns of 
 the country for their consideration and approval ; by which places 
 they were unanimously approved of. These initiatory movements 
 were not dictated by political faction ; but were the true and 
 honest result of popular feeling on the subject. There were no 
 partisans in the matter, where there was only one great party, and 
 that included the whole thinking population. 
 
 While the people of California were thus working out for them- 
 selves the great problem of a State constitution, the military 
 governor, General Riley, thought fit to interfere. On the 3d of 
 June, 1849, he issued a proclamation, in which was fairly enough 
 stated the anomalous and unsatisfactory position of the country, 
 both in its local and general governments ; and he thereupon 
 ordained the inhabitants in certain specified districts to return 
 delegates to a convention, which would meet at Monterey on the 
 1st of September, to frame a State Constitution, and which 
 should afterwards be submitted to the people for their approval. 
 In the same proclamation he likewise made provision for the 
 election of certain district officials to complete the temporary 
 
DELEGATES TO ADOPT A CONSTITUTION. 
 
 137 
 
 local organization. The people in many parts of the country con- 
 sidered the interference of the military authority to be unnecessary 
 as it was uncalled for. As, however, matters could not be im- 
 proved, the different districts were content to adopt the provisions 
 of General Riley's proclamation^ and chose their delegates accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 These delegates were forty-eight in number, and while they 
 nominally represented only different parts of California, they 
 might have been taken as a fair representation of every State in 
 the Union. They likewise included natives of various European 
 countries. They were chiefly men of comparatively youthful years, 
 many of them not much accustomed, at least of late, to the study 
 of those abstract questions which might have been anticipated 
 in devising the constitution of a State. But they were all fully 
 impressed with the importance of their trust, and determined to 
 do their duty in the best manner possible. Among the number 
 were individuals of high talents, whose wisdom, despatch and 
 aptitude for legislation were eminently displayed. As these del- 
 egates cannot be too well known, we give the following list of 
 their names, and the districts they represented : — 
 
 San Diego. 
 
 Miguel de Pedrorena, 
 Henry Hill. 
 
 Los Angeles. 
 
 Stephen C. Foster, 
 Jose Antonio Carillo, 
 Hugo Reid, 
 Manuel Dominguez, 
 Abel Stearns. 
 
 Santa Barbara. 
 
 Pablo de la Guerra, 
 Jacinto Rodriguez. 
 
 San Luis Obispo. 
 
 Henry A Tefft, 
 Jose M. Covarrubias. 
 
 Monterey. 
 
 Henry W. Halleek, 
 Thomas O. Larkin, 
 
 Charles T. Botts, 
 Pacificus Ord, 
 Lewis T. Dent. 
 
 San Jose. 
 
 Joseph Aram, 
 Kimball II. Dimmiek, 
 J. D. Hoppe, 
 Antonio M. Pico, 
 Elam Brown, 
 Julian Hanks, 
 Pedro Sausevani. 
 
 Sonoma. 
 
 Joel P. Walker, 
 Robert Semple, 
 Mariano G. Vallejo. 
 
 San Francisco. 
 
 Edward Gilbert, 
 Myron Norton, 
 William M. Gwin, 
 Joseph Hobson, 
 
 William M. Stewart, 
 Francis J. Lippitt, 
 A. J. Ellis, 
 Rodman M. Price. 
 
 San Joaquin. 
 
 Thomas Lloyd Vermeule, 
 
 O. M. Wozencroft, 
 
 B. F. Moore, 
 
 J. M. EL Hollingsworth, 
 
 J. M. Jones, 
 
 Benjamin S. Lippincott. 
 
 Sacramento. 
 
 Jacob R. Snyder, 
 Winfield S. Sherwood, 
 L. W. Hastings, 
 John McDougal, 
 William E. Shannon, 
 John A. Sutter, 
 ElUha O. Crosby, 
 M. M. McCarver. 
 
138 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Monterey. 
 
 The delegates, at their first regular meeting on the 4th of 
 September, chose, by a large majority of votes, Dr. Robert Semple 
 as president of the convention ; Captain William G. Marcy was 
 then appointed secretary, and the other necessary offices were 
 properly filled up. The house iu which the delegates met was a 
 large handsome two-story stone erection, called " Colton Hall," 
 and was perhaps the best fitted for their purposes of any building 
 in the country. 
 
 Without narrating the particular incidents and debates that 
 occurred among the delegates, it may be sufficient to say, that, 
 after rather more than a month's constant labor and discussion, 
 the existing constitution of California was drafted and finally 
 adopted by the convention. This noble document was formed 
 after the model of the most approved State constitutions of the 
 Union, and was framed in strict accordance with the most liberal 
 and independent opinions of the age. Some indeed of its pro- 
 visions may be open to cavil, as for instance, whether the judges 
 — supreme ones particularly — should be chosen by direct election 
 of the people, and for only a limited period, and whether the 
 free descendants of the black and red races should be excluded 
 from the rights of suffrage and election. But, taking it as a 
 whole, the constitution, which is essentially democratic in its 
 
STATE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED. 
 
 139 
 
 nature, must certainly be pronounced, in its declaration of rights 
 and the various divisions regulating the election, powers and 
 duties of the legislative, executive and judicial departments, as well 
 as the portion respecting education, a wonderful advance .and im- 
 provement in the modern art of government. Among other things, 
 it expressly rejected slavery and "involuntary servitude," and 
 declared the right of women to hold as their own separate pro- 
 perty after marriage, the estates, both real and personal, which 
 they possessed before it, or which they might afterwards acquire 
 by gift, devise or descent. But it is unnecessary in our narrow 
 limits to dwell on the peculiar features of this celebrated consti- 
 tution. We refer our readers to the document itself, which should 
 be in the hands of every Californian. It will bear keen criticism, 
 and merits the close study of statesmen of every country. 
 
 On the 13th of October, the delegates signed the precious 
 instrument ; and so finished the labors they were appointed to 
 perform. While the signatures were being affixed, shot after shot 
 slowly boomed from the guns of the fort in honor of the Union, 
 and as the thirty-first and last was heard, which was a little louder, 
 the listeners thought, than those that had gone before, the sup- 
 pressed feelings of the people broke forth, and all joyously ex- 
 claimed — " That's for California I " — and so it was. 
 
 Thus was completed the great duty of 1849. From this 
 time forward, the history of the State demands a separate volume. 
 In this, we have only aimed at giving a mere sketch of its previ- 
 ous history, as a proper introduction to the " Annals of San 
 Francisco." Our next chapter will contain a short account of 
 the physical geography, and of the commercial, agricultural, pas- 
 toral and mineral capabilities of the country, which will conclude 
 Part First of the present work. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Geographical limits of Upper California. — General description of tlio country. — Two great divisions 
 of the northern part of the State. — Fertility of the soil. — Peculiarities of the climate.— Two 
 seasons: wet and dry. — Products of the country.— Fogs and winds on the coast. — The harbors. 
 — Country west of the Sierra Nevada. — The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, and their val- 
 leys. — This region of country abounds in timber. — Excessive heat in the dry season. — Localities 
 of the chief gold placers.— Immense size of trees. — Silver, lead, copper and coal mines. — Advan- 
 tages to the immigrant 
 
 In the " Constitution," the boundary of the State of California 
 is declared to be as follows : — 
 
 " Commencing at the point of intersection of the 42d degree 
 of north latitude with the 120th degree of longitude west from 
 Greenwich, and running south on the line of said 120th degree 
 of west longitude, until it intersects the 39th degree of north 
 latitude ; thence running in a straight line in a south-easterly 
 direction to the RiverColorado, at a point where it intersects the 
 35th degree of north latitude ; thence down the middle of the 
 channel of said river, to the boundary line between the United 
 States and Mexico, as established by the treaty of May 30th, 
 1848 ; thence running west, and along said boundary line to the 
 Pacific Ocean, and extending thereon three English miles ; 
 thence running in a north-westerly direction, and following the 
 direction of the Pacific coast to the 42d degree of north lati- 
 tude ; thence on the line of said 42d degree of north latitude 
 to the place of beginning. Also, all the islands, harbors and 
 bays, along and adjacent to the Pacific coast." 
 
 Within the above limits, California extends, from south-east 
 to north-west, nearly seven hundred and fifty English miles in 
 length, and, in average breadth, from east to west, about two 
 hundred and fifty. Its superficies, therefore, may be estimated 
 at about 187,500 square miles, or nearly twice the size of Great 
 Britain. The south-eastern part of the country, excepting a 
 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 141 
 
 narrow belt along the coast, has not yet been explored, and little 
 is known of its character. A great chain of mountains, called 
 by the Spaniards the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Range, runs 
 nearly through the centre of the southern district. Farther 
 north, this mountain range, which has a probable average height 
 of from eight to ten thousand feet above the sea level, though 
 many of its parts rise much higher, and are covered with perpe- 
 tual snow, becomes the eastern boundary of the State, and at 
 the extreme northern limit, by various cross ranges, separates it 
 from the territory of Oregon. Eastward of the Sierra Nevada, 
 and between it and the territory of Utah, lies the curious and 
 extensive district called the Great Basin, which has no outlet to 
 the ocean for its waters. This is a wild country that has been 
 hitherto traversed only in one or two great lines, but never 
 thoroughly explored, and which does not seem to have been 
 intended by nature for the abode of any large human population. 
 To the south of the boundary line is situated the Mexican 
 province of Old or Lower California. The Pacific Ocean forms 
 the western limit of the State. 
 
 The northern portion of California, to the extent of three 
 fourths of the whole country, naturally falls into two great divi- 
 sions. One lies on the east, and stretches over the whole of the 
 space mentioned from south to north, comprehending the valleys 
 of the San Joaquin in the south and the Sacramento in the north, 
 together with all the lateral valleys and foothills from the sum- 
 mit elevation of the Sierra Nevada, and extending westward to 
 the watershed that separates the streams which flow into the 
 San Joaquin and Sacramento from those which either flow di- 
 rectly into the Pacific, or into the Bay of San Francisco. The 
 other great division includes the whole country drained by the 
 last named streams ; and may also be allowed to embrace the 
 country farther to the south, likewise drained by streams which 
 disembogue directly into the Pacific. As already stated, the 
 extreme south-eastern part of the country supposed to be watered 
 by streams which empty themselves into the Rio Colorado, has 
 not been fully explored, and no proper description can therefore 
 be given of it. 
 
 The missions, of which a particular account has been given in 
 
142 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 preceding chapters, were located in the second mentioned division 
 of country, and excepting only two lying on the northern side 
 of the Bay of San Francisco, were all situated to the south of 
 the entrance to that inlet. A multitude of pleasant, fertile 
 valleys extend from the coast inland a length of from twenty to 
 forty miles ; and every main valley, of any extent, had its mis- 
 sion. The hills in this division seldom exceed two thousand feet 
 in height. The whole country is exceedingly diversified and 
 beautiful, and has hitherto been almost wholly devoted to the 
 grazing of innumerable herds of cattle and horses, and also of 
 large flocks of sheep. The tables and statements already given 
 of the possessions of the Fathers in domestic cattle and farm 
 produce, may serve in some measure to show the astonishing fer- 
 tility of the soil, and its capabilities to support a large popula- 
 tion, as well as the comparative value of different districts. 
 These tables and statements, however, by no means exhibit the 
 extent of cultivated land. Very far from that. Much of the 
 mission property was neglected, and most of it never turned to 
 the best use of which it was capable. The fertility of the soil 
 indeed is so great, and the genial warmth and general climate so 
 propitious to agriculture, that corn crops and all kinds of grasses, 
 fruits and vegetables show such an increase as if they had been 
 planted in a hot-bed, and manured and watered by rule to the 
 best advantage. 
 
 The climate of this division of the country varies consider- 
 ably, as it might be expected to do when it is considered that the 
 land extends over nearly ten degrees of latitude ; but still more 
 it varies from the circumstance of the various districts being more 
 or less subject to particular fogs and winds which prevail along 
 the coast. Towards the extreme south, the fogs and winds al- 
 luded to are not felt ; but north of Point Conception, about 
 latitude 34° 30', all the coast, extending from half a dozen to a 
 dozen miles inland, is peculiarly exposed to cold, penetrating 
 winds, blowing from the north, north-west and west, and thick 
 wet fogs, which, especially in the summer season, are remarkably 
 disagreeable. These fogs, however, serve one good purpose, as 
 they supply abundant moisture to the crops and herbage, which 
 might otherwise fail for the want of occasional rains in the sum- 
 
PRODUCTS OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 143 
 
 mer. Properly speaking, there is neither winter nor summer ; 
 but the months comprehended under these terms are here called 
 the rainy and the dry seasons. This is the case over the whole 
 country. The rains usually begin about the middle of Novem- 
 ber, and continue with short occasional dry intervals, (the most 
 charming periods indeed of the year, when the air is balmy, the 
 surface of the earth green and fresh, and all nature, animate and 
 inanimate, rejoices in a holiday,) till the month of May. During 
 the remainder of the year, commonly no rain falls ; but its place 
 is supplied along the coast by copious dews and the wet fogs we 
 have alluded to. 
 
 The heat in the division of country now before us is never 
 excessive. Below Point Conception, it may be said that eternal 
 summer reigns ; and the same high character may be given to 
 all north of that point, which is situated a few miles inland, and 
 not immediately exposed to the piercing winds and logs of the 
 coast. The atmosphere in these regions is ever mild and agree- 
 able. The temperature is never too high to prevent active exerc ise 
 out of doors, nor too low to need fires in the houses. There is 
 not much great timber, nor indeed wood of any kind, but the 
 undulating fields teem with rich natural grasses and an exube- 
 rance of wild flowers and flowering shrubs. Whole districts are 
 covered with natural oats, which supply provender to innumer- 
 able tame and wild creatures, when the herbage is dry, or has 
 partially disappeared in the heat of summer. The climate is 
 also remarkably salubrious ; while as if to heap upon this happy 
 land all natural blessings, the fecundity of its living creatures: — 
 human, beings as well as the lower animals, — far exceeds what 
 generally occurs elsewhere. The grape, the fig, the orange and 
 the olive grow luxuriantly in these regions, and so too do all 
 other sorts of semi-tropical produce. All varieties of European 
 fruits thrive in great plenty : plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, 
 melons, pomegranates, pears, apples, &c. In the more southern 
 parts, the plantain and banana likewise ripen. Wheat, barley 
 and maize, potatoes, cabbages, turnips and every other kind of 
 vegetable for the table, grow to the utmost perfection, and yield 
 a return the like of which can scarcely be paralleled in any other 
 country. It is believed also that the climate, in particular dis- 
 
144 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 txicts, is admirably adapted for the profitable culture of tobacco, 
 cotton and sugar. In short, there is no vegetable production of 
 any value raised in the temperate zone, and very few peculiar to 
 the torrid, which may not be cultivated to perfection in these 
 finer parts of California. 
 
 We have alluded to the prevailing winds and fogs of the 
 coast. These render navigation near the shore dangerous at 
 times, and are themselves very unpleasant to the new comer. It 
 must be admitted that they are some drawback to the otherwise 
 unmingled beauty and agreeableness of the climate. However, 
 in the summer season, when these fogs generally prevail, they 
 usually clear off by noon, leaving the rest of the day with a 
 bright and warm sky. The settler soon gets used to them ; 
 while, knowing the important part which the fogs play in drop- 
 ping fatness on the dry earth, he readily learns even to welcome 
 their presence. 
 
 There are several excellent harbors along the coast, the chief 
 of which is, of course, the incomparable Bay of San Francisco. 
 San Diego, however, at the extreme south, has likewise an ad- 
 mirable port ; while the havens, or roadsteads of Monterey and 
 Santa Barbara, sheltered from all but certain unusual winds, are 
 by no means despicable, but may match with good reputed har- 
 bors of many another country. Besides these, there are several 
 other fair anchorage grounds and partially sheltered roadsteads 
 along the coast, of less note ; while north of the Bay of San 
 Francisco there are some bays which form excellent occasional 
 harbors of refuge, if not first-rate ports. The Bay of San Fran- 
 cisco itself is so extensive, while the country surrounding it is so 
 fertile, and will one day become so populous, that many more 
 harbors than the one at the city of that name, will hereafter be 
 formed in this moderate sized inland sea. There is ample depth 
 of water around its shores, and sheltered coves enough for the 
 formation of several other harbors, which may almost rival that 
 of the City of San Francisco itself. 
 
 The other great division of the country, that lying east of 
 the one just dwelt upon, and west of the Sierra Nevada, has 
 been less thoroughly examined than the coast district, and not 
 so often described ; yet enough of it is known to show that it is 
 
SAN JOAQUIN AND SACRAMENTO VALLEYS. 145 
 
 capable of supporting a vast immigrating population in comfort 
 and plenty. This division comprehends the great valleys of the 
 Sacramento and San Joaquin, with all the smaller side valleys 
 running into them. The Sacramento takes its rise near the 
 extreme northern limit of the State, in the neighborhood of 
 Mount Shasta, which is 14,400 feet in height above the sea level. 
 From thence it flows, in a southerly direction, for nearly three 
 hundred miles, carrying off the waters of numerous streams on 
 both sides till it receives those of the San J oaquin, which have 
 come to meet it from the south-east, for nearly two hundred 
 miles. The united streams then run westward a further distance 
 of sixty or seventy miles, through various arms of the Bay of 
 San Francisco, till they rush through the " Golden Gate," to 
 bury themselves in the Pacific. The Sacramento has already 
 been navigated by steamers for one hundred miles above its 
 junction with the San Joaquin, while the latter has been navi- 
 gated by the same class of vessels, above the point mentioned for 
 seventy miles. 
 
 The great longitudinal valley of these rivers contains an 
 exceedingly fertile soil, fitted to grow any kind of grain, fruits 
 and edible roots. There is much timber in various parts of this 
 great region. Many varieties of the pine tribe are common, most 
 of which grow to an enormous size. But besides pines, the oak 
 especially abounds, as also elm, ash, beech, birch, plane and other 
 kinds of trees. The native fruit trees are not numerous. The 
 number and variety of indigenous herbs are very great. As 
 besides the pines which yield tar and resin, and every size of 
 spar and good timber for ship-building, it is found that hemp 
 and flax grow wild, and thrive exceedingly well in the country, 
 it will be seen that this region contains most of the material 
 elements to make California a great maritime nation. It was in 
 the valley of the Sacramento that a large number of American 
 immigrants had settled previous to the discovery of gold. Por- 
 tions of the lower districts of both it and the San Joaquin valley 
 are liable to be overflowed by floods which sometimes swell the 
 rivers to a great depth, when storms and meltings of the snow 
 on the Sierra Nevada suddenly gorge all the mountain torrents. 
 At other times, after a long track of dry weather, irrigation 
 10 
 
146 ANNALS OF SAX FRANCISCO. 
 
 would almost seem to be indispensable for profitable farming in 
 several districts ; although this, as yet, is considered to be by 
 no means certain. The cold winds and moist fogs of the coast 
 are sometimes wanted in this division, as well to water the 
 parched earth, as to temper the excessive heat of the solar rays, 
 reflected from the sides of the hills in the narrower valleys, and 
 concentrated every where to a high degree. In the great longi- 
 tudinal valley, and still more in the smaller cross valleys which 
 lie between the former and the Sierra Nevada, the heat in 
 summer is sometimes very dreadful — rising frequently, and that 
 too, day after day, for months together, to 100° and 110° of 
 Fahrenheit. Still, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the soil is 
 so rich and productive, and the climate so extremely dry and 
 healthy, that there is every reason to believe these districts will 
 soon be largely inhabited by an agricultural population. In 
 some parts of the valley of the San Joaquin which are liable 
 to be overflowed by the river floods, it is believed that rice may 
 be profitably cultivated. Meanwhile, there is abundance of deer 
 and smaller game in the forests and plains ; the streams and 
 lakes absolutely swarm with the most delicious fish ; while 
 geese, ducks, and other wild fowl are exceedingly plentiful. 
 
 It is in the cross valleys running up to the summit elevation 
 of the Sierra Nevada that the chief gold placers are situated. 
 The whole country in this quarter, for a length of at least five- 
 hundred miles, and an average breadth of perhaps thirty or forty, 
 is highly auriferous. The loose bed of every stream particularly, 
 but also the dry sandy soil of most of the intervening plains, 
 uplands and hills, contains particles of gold ; while even the deep 
 seated rocks in many parts are impregnated with the precious 
 metal, and are beginning to be wrought in a scientific manner 
 for its extraction. If some small portion of the auriferous 
 district may already seem to be almost exhausted, yet its whole 
 extent is so great, and so many parts are yet untouched, while 
 all, by the aid of proper scientific appliances, can be made still 
 to render a bountiful reward to the miner, that it may be truly 
 said, generations must pass before the Californian gold regions 
 can be emptied of their treasures, or cease to be profitably 
 wrought. This may be more particularly said of the gold-bear- 
 
IMMENSE SIZE OF TREES. 
 
 147 
 
 ing quartz rocks and veins, which in many places are exceed- 
 ingly numerous and rich. 
 
 Nature, as if content to scatter her bounties in this quarter 
 beneath the surface, has not also gifted the soil with exceeding 
 fertility, although there are many beautiful and fertile small 
 spots to be found in the district. In the months of April and 
 May, these places bloom and smell like a well tended garden, 
 from the variety, beauty and perfume of their wild flowers. The 
 mineral riches make it less desirable that these districts should 
 also possess a rich and prolific soil. Still it is in this quarter 
 that those enormous trees chiefly grow which amaze and almost 
 terrify by their prodigious height and bulk, those who have been 
 only used to the puny forests of less favored climes. A common 
 enough height for these trees is three hundred feet, while an 
 equally common diameter may range from fifteen to twenty feet. 
 Many, however, have been found of much larger dimensions. 
 The forests on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada will give 
 an inexhaustible supply of timber for household and most other 
 purposes to which wood is applied in the country. 
 
 Besides the gold mines on the west skirts of the Snowy Moun- 
 tains, there are several others scattered over California ; while 
 many other mineral treasures are to be found. There is a valu- 
 able mine of quicksilver near San Jose, and many silver, and 
 silver and lead mines, as well as others of copper and lead are 
 already known in various parts of the country. However, the 
 population up to the time of the rush to the gold regions was 
 too small, and the capital and energy of the owners too limited, 
 to permit these and similar mines to be wrought to advantage. 
 Coal has been discovered in some parts as well as iron. There 
 is excellent stone for building purposes to be had in various 
 places. Sulphur, asphalte and many other valuable mineral 
 substances are also ascertained to exist in different localities. 
 The mineral wealth of the country indeed, though not fully 
 examined, is believed to be far more extensive than what has 
 hitherto appeared, however great it may seem in these times. 
 
 To the immigrant from an old settled land, where competi- 
 tion exists in severity, and the means of a bare subsistence are 
 not easily to be had, California offers every inducement to draw 
 
148 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 him to her country. Here is political and social freedom — a 
 beautiful, pleasant, and healthy climate — a soil rich, and fertile, 
 producing every necessary, and most of the luxuries of life — 
 rivers and bays, abounding with delicious fish ; forests and fields, 
 with game of every species — mineral regions, where fortunes 
 may be made on a sudden, and, at all events, where the indus- 
 trious laborer is sure to provide a moderate competency for him- 
 self, in a wonderfully short space of time. Here are towns start- 
 ing yearly, nay, almost weekly, into existence, whose inhabitants 
 are full of life, energy and hope, determined and certain to 
 prosper ; great cities and ports, swelling into magnificence before 
 one's eyes, destined ere long to bear sway over the broad Pacific, 
 by reason of their natural position, their wealth, energy and 
 power. Here labor is honorable, and meets an ample reward ; 
 and, here, while the most unbounded ambition, in mining and 
 agricultural, commercial and political pursuits, may gratify its 
 most daring inner wishes, and the patriotic enthusiast foresee 
 a glorious future to this, his adopted country, the peaceful, retir- 
 ing and contented settler may select a quiet, sunny, cheerful 
 spot for his abode, and beneath unclouded skies and through 
 perpetual summer, among vines, and fig-trees, and flowers, and 
 all bright and pleasant things, pass life happily away. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Description of tbe Golden Gate.— Origin of the name.— The Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, anil 
 Suisun.— Riven emptying into Suisun Bay.— Description of the adjacent country.— Indian tra- 
 dition.— Remarkable fertility of the soil.— Farm produce and mode of farming.— Location of the 
 City of San Francisco.— The name Yerlia Buena — The first house built— Disadvantages of the 
 locality. — No provision made for desirable public squares or parks. 
 
 The mid-entrance to the Bay of San Francisco lies in latitude 
 37° 48' K, and longitude 122° 30' W. 3 from Greenwich. This 
 is a strait, running nearly north-east, call.-d Chrysopalce, or the 
 Golden Gate, ahout five miles long, and of an average breadth 
 of one and a half or two miles. The name " Golden Gate " first 
 appears in the " Geographical Memoir of California," and rela- 
 tive map, published by Col. Fremont in the spring of 1848. 
 The term was descriptive, not of the literal golden regions 
 within, then as yet undiscovered, but merely of the rich and fer- 
 tile country which surrounded the shores of the bay, and of the 
 wealth which the commerce of the Pacific, passing through the 
 strait, would certainly give to the future great city of the place. 
 The name was probably suggested by the Golden Horn of Con- 
 stantinople. Since the discovery of the auriferous character of 
 the country, the title has become of a still more happy nature ; 
 and its bestower must surely have had a prophetic soul, though 
 he himself knew it not. At the narrowest point of the strait, 
 where it is little more than a mile wide, the Spaniards had 
 erected a small fort for the protection of the neighboring mission. 
 This building is now in course of removal, to be speedily replaced 
 
150 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 (let us hope) by a larger and stronger fortress for the adequate 
 defence of the bay. The southern point of land, on the side of 
 the ocean, is called in the Spanish language, Punta de los Lobos 
 (Wolves' Point), and the northern, Punta Bonita (Pretty Point). 
 A few small rocks, at all times quite visible, lie about the en- 
 trance, and along the coast of the strait ; but the channel other- 
 wise is very deep and free from obstruction. About twenty or 
 thirty miles off the coast, and in a westerly direction from the 
 Golden Gate, lie certain small rocky islands, called the Farra- 
 lones, once favorite places for hunting seals and sea-otters by the 
 Russians, and upon which that people had a small permanent 
 settlement. Upon these islands the creatures mentioned are 
 still to be found. A bar lies nearly across the mouth of the 
 strait, upon which occasionally there is a heavy swell. Formerly 
 tins bar ran right across and within the actual limits of the 
 strait, but during the last thirty years it has gradually shifted 
 two miles farther to seaward, so that it now forms a kind of 
 arch, altogether outside of the entrance, spanning from point to 
 point of the strait. In the same period, a bank has likewise ad- 
 vanced from the south shore. By these natural operations the 
 entrance channel to the bay has been much improved. On this 
 subject it may be stated that all the shores in the mouth of the 
 bay are liable to be washed off every year, by the combined 
 strength of the wind, tides, local currents, and floods. In the 
 great freshets of the spring of 1825 more than fifty yards of land 
 were swept away to the westward of the fort. 
 
 The depth of water on the bar at low tide is considerable 
 enough to permit the largest ship of war to safely cross it. The 
 strait itself has a depth varying from five or six to sixteen 
 fathoms and upwards. The shores are bold and rocky, and in 
 some parts precipitous, swelling on the north side into mountains 
 of upwards of two thousand feet in height. The ,hills on the 
 southern side are more of a sandy nature, and may be only three 
 hundred or four hundred feet high. On both sides they are 
 quite bare and barren. The strong winds and heavy fogs which 
 constantly assail them, and their own sandy or rocky nature, 
 have effectually prevented trees or luxuriant vegetation of any 
 kind from growing. On the very summit, however, of the moun- 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 151 
 
 tains on the northern side of the strait, there happens to he a 
 solitary group of red-wood trees, whose tall forms make a striking 
 landmark to the mariner at sea. As he approaches the strait 
 from the south, the voyager has seldom perhaps seen so dismal a 
 looking place. A multitude of low, bleak sand hills on the sea 
 shore, often swept over by flying clouds of dense mist, first greet 
 
 Entrance to the Golden Gate. 
 
 his eyes. On passing gradually through the Golden Gate, how- 
 ever, the interior coasts begin sensibly to improve upon him. 
 The hills assume a more even character, which, as well as the 
 beautiful islands that stud the bay, are at certain seasons of the 
 year covered with vegetation, presenting a truly pleasing appear- 
 ance. 
 
 The tidal stream rushes through the gate in mid-channel 
 generally about six knots an hour. Along the projecting por- 
 tions of the strait there are numerous eddies. By taking advan- 
 tage of this great tidal speed, and of particular winds, which can 
 
152 
 
 t 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 almost daily be depended upon, blowing either in or out of the 
 channel at certain periods of the day, ships may always safely 
 enter or depart from the bay at all time's of the year. An occa- 
 sional wreck, where ships may have been driven by the strength 
 of the tide or local currents upon the rocky shores, has indeed 
 taken place ; but this has generally been traceable to the igno- 
 rance or carelessness of the pilot. Hitherto that class of men, 
 as might have been anticipated, have not been all picked indi- 
 viduals ; and some of them may not have had sufficient time to 
 study the peculiarities of the channel. It may, however, be con- 
 fidently asserted, that there are very few harbors in the world 
 where the entrance and departure are so easy and safe as those 
 of the one of San Francisco. To talk of it in the same breath 
 with such difficult and dangerous ocean ports as those of Liver- 
 pool and New York, or the river ones of London and New Or- 
 leans, is simply ridiculous. 
 
 After passing the strait, the great Bay of San Francisco sud- 
 denly opens up. This bay lies almost at right angles to the en- 
 trance just described ; and extends from north to south nearly 
 seventy miles, with an average breadth of about ten or twelve. 
 The southern division, comprehending about two-thirds of the 
 entire length, chiefly lies south of the entrance, and is more pro- 
 perly styled the Bay of San Francisco ; although the whole 
 body of inland waters, when spoken of in a general sense, is 
 commonly understood by that phrase. The northern division, 
 which is in some degree topographically separated from the other 
 by narrows and several small islands about the eastern end of 
 the strait, is known by the name of the Bay of San Pablo. At 
 the eastern extremity of the last named bay, the waters contract 
 into the Strait of Carquinez. Still more to the east, they again 
 widen into Suisun Bay, into which, through various channels, 
 called the Slough, a sort of delta much overrun with large trees 
 and jungle, the mingled streams of the Sacramento and San 
 Joaquin, enter and lose themselves. From the ocean to the 
 north-east corner of Suisun Bay, following the line of mid-chan- 
 nel, there may be a distance of between fifty and sixty miles. 
 The largest ships may sail as far as the city of Benicia, originally 
 called Francisca, situated on the north side of the Strait of Car- 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 153 
 
 quinez, where the channel is little more than a mile wide, and 
 at which place are a government dock-yard and naval stores. 
 Above that point, the water is at parts scarcely deep enough to 
 allow vessels of great burden to proceed, while the channels of 
 the Sacramento, through the delta, or slough, are intricate, and 
 encumbered with shifting shoals and sand-banks. 
 
 The Golden Gate. 
 
 Around the northern shores of the Bays of San Pablo and 
 Suisun lies a very fertile and beautiful country, watered by 
 streams, severally called the Suisun River, Napa, Sonoma, and 
 Petaluma Creeks. The valleys of these rivers will in a few years 
 be the residence of a great number of agricultural settlers, while 
 already numerous small towns are beginning to be established 
 among them. But the Sacramento and its greater tributaries, 
 the Puta Creek, and the American, Feather and Butte Rivers, 
 and the San Joaquin, with its leading feeders, the Mokelumne, 
 Calaveras, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne Rivers, are the great high- 
 ways of communication between the interior country and the 
 ocean ; and in the extensive, beautiful, and most fertile districts 
 drained by them will be located hereafter the abodes of many 
 millions of human beings. In the valley of the Sacramento and 
 
154 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 its offshoots are situated the great city of that name, and the 
 thriving towns of Marysville and Nevada. In the valley of the 
 San Joaquin, or in the connecting valley, are the considerable 
 and growing towns of Stockton and Sonora. Besides these 
 places, there are numerous other towns beginning to he established 
 in this great district. 
 
 South of San Pablo and Suisun Bays, and east of the Bay 
 of San Francisco proper, lies the district of country called Contra 
 Costa. This quarter is very mountainous, some of the summits 
 being upwards of three thousand feet high. One of them, Monte 
 Diablo, is three thousand seven hundred and seventy feet in 
 height. On the west, however, between the mountains and the 
 Bay of San Francisco, is a considerable tract of level land which, 
 like nearly all of a similar description in the country, is exceed- 
 ingly rich and productive. 
 
 On the opposite side of the bay, and between it and the 
 ocean, lies the long peninsula called the District of San Fran- 
 cisco. This strip of land is upwards of thirty miles long, with 
 an average breadth of perhaps twelve or sixteen. The side im- 
 mediately next the ocean is cold and barren. In the interior, 
 and towards the bay, it possesses a mild climate, and is of great 
 fertility. The surface is irregular and hilly ; but the many small 
 glens are green to the top, covered with luxuriant herbage, on 
 which feed many thousands of sheep and cattle. The northern 
 portion of this district is generally bare of trees and the larger 
 shrubs ; but much heavy timber grows in the middle and south- 
 ern parts. At the southern extremity of the bay lies an exten- 
 sive tract of land, which may be considered the choicest portion 
 of all the country we have been describing. Here, near the 
 mouth of the valley, watered by the Kiver Guadalupe, are situ- 
 ated the towns of San Jose and Santa Clara. The beauty and 
 salubrity of this district, its mild and agreeable climate, and ex- 
 ceeding productiveness, make it especially the granary, orchard 
 and garden of the City of San Francisco and surrounding parts. 
 
 We may observe here, that there is a tradition among the 
 Indians of California, that San Francisco Bay originally formed 
 a fresh water lake. An earthquake, however, suddenly opened 
 the line of mountains along the coast, when the sea rushed in, 
 
FERTILITY OF THE SOIL. 
 
 155 
 
 and changed the region to what it now is. The surplus fresh 
 waters of the old lake were supposed to have been discharged 
 into the Bay of Monterey, by a great river flowing through the 
 valley of San Jose and Santa Clara. This river was believed to 
 pass near the Mission of San Juan, and to fall into the present 
 stream of the Pajaro. 
 
 City of Stockton. 
 
 In the fertile districts of country all around the shores of the 
 bay the average productiveness of the soil is exceedingly great, far 
 beyond the usual return from tillage lands in most other countries 
 of the temperate zone, and rivalling, in fact, those of the torrid 
 zone itself. A common yield from sown wheat is from seventy to 
 eighty fold, though it is said to run often as high as one hundred 
 and upwards. A moderate average may be taken at fifty fold. 
 Maize occasionally gives a return of one hundred and fifty fold ; 
 while if it produces less than one hundred, it is scarcely consider- 
 ed worthy of notice. It may be remarked that the seed in gen- 
 eral is much less thickly sown than in most other countries ; and, 
 naturally, therefore, having space to spread and fructify, there is a 
 greater corresponding increase. Potatoes have been found of the 
 enormous weight of seven and eight pounds, while those of two 
 and three pounds are quite common. The usual yield of pot atoes is 
 
156 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 from two to three hundred sacks an acre. And such potatoes ! In no 
 part of the world are there larger, finer, firmer and healthier roots 
 grown. Newly-come immigrants and casual visitors are invariably 
 full of raptures at the sight of such magnificent earth apples. The 
 cabbages, again, are absolute monsters in size, often from fifteen 
 to twenty inches in diameter ; and as good in quality as enormous 
 in bulk. Carrots often grow nearly a yard in length, and are of 
 corresponding girth. Turnips, beets, radishes, onions, and indeed 
 every kind of edible root and table vegetable grows equally large, 
 and of the best and most wholesome description. California is 
 indeed celebrated for its garden and field productions. The ber- 
 ries and fruits of the vineyard and orchard show a corresponding 
 increase, and are of the most excellent kind. Long ago it had 
 been imagined by hasty travellers and writers, that California had 
 only an arid, sterile soil, never adapted to the successful pursuit 
 of agriculture. On the contrary, the country is exceedingly well 
 watered, the soil is naturally rich, and the diffused warmth and 
 geniality of the climate is such as to force to safe maturity an 
 abundant harvest of all kinds. Of course, manure in the present 
 stage of California, is out of the question. The teeming fields 
 will not require it for a generation or two, if ever. The present 
 practice is simply to break fresh ground every year ; and until the 
 agricultural settlers become much more numerous, there will be 
 abundance of land for such a mode of farming. There is no need 
 of farm buildings to house and stock the grain for shelter. The 
 chmate is so dry in the harvest season that the crops are never 
 spoiled by wet ; but the ears are just threshed out on the fields 
 where they grow. Farming operations formerly were of a very 
 rude nature, as they still generally are, though the soil shows so 
 large a return. When an improved method of husbandry is adopt- 
 ed, the yield will be correspondingly great. A slight wooden 
 shed, open upon one side to the weather, and merely covered with 
 canvas or scantling, affords quite a sufficient shelter, summer 
 and winter, to milch cows and the most delicate trained horses. 
 
 From the previous description of the districts surrounding the 
 inland waters known by the general name of the Bay of San Fran- 
 cisco, it will be noticed that their respective productions, seen to 
 be so great, can best be interchanged across that bay ; and that 
 
DESCRIPTION OF YERBA BUENA. 
 
 157 
 
 their only communication with the ocean is through the Golden 
 Gate. Conveniently placed as nearly as possible to this gate lies 
 the city of San Francisco, in latitude 37° 48' N. and longitude 
 122° 25' W. from Greenwich. It is situated on the north-east 
 corner of the peninsula already mentioned, about a mile south of 
 the eastern end of the general entrance to the bay, and is distant 
 about six miles from the ocean. The situation happens to be 
 about the most barren part of the district ; and the immediate 
 vicinity consists chiefly of low sand-hills, covered with coarse shrubs 
 and scattered patches of grass. The name of the Spanish village 
 which originally stood on a portion of the site of the present city 
 was Yerba Buena — good herb. In some maps of the country it 
 was designated as San Francisco ; but locally it was only known 
 by the name we have mentioned. Yerba Buena signifies also the 
 herb mint, great quantities of which grew about the spot, and 
 from that circumstance no doubt the name of the place is derived. 
 
 An island, lying in the bay about two miles east of the city 
 likewise bears the name of Yerba Buena, where the herb mention- 
 ed grows abundantly. Probably this island first bore the name 
 which later was given to the cove lying between it and the main 
 land ; and subsequently it was extended to the plain and village 
 surrounding the beach. But the name mentioned was descriptive 
 both of the island and the shore itself, since on both grew the 
 yerba buena. This herb grows through the underwood in form 
 of a vine, some feet long. The leaves are six inches apart, each 
 directly opposite another. It is very fragrant, and is used to make 
 a tea or alterative medicinal drink, though its frequent use is said 
 to debilitate the system. The name of so insignificant an herb 
 for the rising city being perhaps judged not sufficiently imposing, 
 it was changed into San Francisco in January, 1847, by an 
 ordinance of the then alcalde of the place, and under this last 
 designation it has been alone known to the world at large. 
 
 The village of Yerba Buena was situated in the small cove of 
 that name, which extended little more than half a mile between 
 Clark's Point (so named by Captain J. F. Hutton, in 1849), 
 on the north-west, and the Rincon, or Rincon Point, on the south- 
 east. The first tenement was constructed in the year 1835, by 
 Captain W. A. Richardson, and up to the year 1846, there might 
 
158 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 not be more than twenty or thirty houses of all descriptions in 
 the place. The only practicable landing spot for small boats at 
 low tide was at Clark's Point, where there were a few rocks. In 
 the inside of the cove where the water was shallow, there was an 
 
 Island and Cove of Verba Buena. 
 
 extensive flat of mud, laid bare at low water. The rise and fall 
 of ordinary tides was about eight feet. About a quarter of 
 a mile from the beach, the water deepened to five and six fath- 
 oms, and continued of the same or of little greater depth the whole 
 distance to the Island of Yerba Buena opposite. This space now 
 forms the present harbor and centre of the anchorage ground of 
 San Francisco. As Yerba Buena began to increase in size and 
 importance, the beach and water lots were seen to be of the ut- 
 most value ; and measures accordingly were taken, in 1847, and 
 following years, to extend the village, or town as it might now be 
 called, over a great portion of the cove. About the same time 
 the present character of the place began to be formed, which sub- 
 sequent years developed into the existing grand plan of the City 
 of San Francisco. 
 
 Eising up from Clark's Point, and between Yerba Buena Cove 
 and the cove farther to the north-west, now called the North Beach, 
 is the high ground named the Telegraph Hill. West and south 
 
LOCATION OF SAX FRAXCISCO. 
 
 159 
 
 of this hill, in a semicircular direction, lie other connecting high 
 grounds, bearing the names of Russian Hill, Fvrn Hill, &c. These 
 hills are about three hundred feet high. From the Rincon like- 
 wise rises a high ground of about from one hundred to one hun- 
 dred and fifty feet in height, which runs a short distance in a 
 westerly direction towards the Mission Dolores. Beyond and 
 south of the ridge alluded to lies Mission Bay, and the low ground 
 bordering Mission Creek. The distance between Telegraph Hill 
 and the last mentioned ridge, may be about three quarters of a 
 mile ; while that between the semicircular line of hills on the 
 west and the advanced line of streets built much within the 
 limit of ebb tide in Yerba Buena Cove, may be nearly the same. 
 
 Upon this limited space stands the most valuable and business 
 portion of San Francisco, and its most substantial and magnifi- 
 cent buildings. However, over all the hills, and much of the 
 country on every side beyond them, the ground has been regular- 
 ly laid out into building lots, lying upon long straight streets, 
 crossing each other at right angles ; and many excellent houses, 
 together with a scattered multitude of an inferior description, 
 have been erected on them. Indeed the nominal limits of the city 
 and the building stances, as actually surveyed and mapped out, 
 at this time, extend from the west side of North Beach to the 
 south side of Mission Creek, a distance of nearly four miles, in a 
 straight fine ; and from Rincon Point to the Mission Church, a 
 distance, likewise, in a direct line, of upwards of three miles. 
 Over all this space, some eight or nine square miles, on height 
 and in hollow, and upon every degree of elevated site, are spread 
 a variety of detached buildings, built partly of stone and brick, 
 though principally of wood. But, as we have already stated, the 
 heart and strength and wealth of the city is contained within the 
 little level space lying between the hills or rising grounds partic- 
 ularly mentioned, and the narrow waters of Yerba Buena Cove. 
 These waters are yearly continuing to be encroached upon as the 
 cove gets filled up with sand and rubbish, excavated from the 
 sand-hills and the foundations of the limits behind, and as new- 
 streets and houses, formed on piles, are pushed further out into 
 the bay. By these operations the old character of the cove has 
 been completely changed, and at present, instead of the former 
 
160 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 semicircle of beach there is almost a straight line of building: 
 extending across the middle of the cove from the Rincon to Clark's 
 Point. In many places of what is now the very centre of the 
 business portion of the city He large vessels, which in the disas- 
 trous years of shipping, 1848 and 1849, got stranded or were used 
 as store-ships or lodging-houses on the beach. When the exten- 
 sion of the city towards the waters of the cove took place, these 
 ships remained where they lay, fast imbedded in mud, while long 
 streets, hollow beneath, and numerous solid houses arose on eveiy 
 side, effectually to hem them in for ever. 
 
 The deepening water will prevent the city from moving much 
 farther into the bay, while the steep rising grounds in the rear 
 will equally prevent it from climbing and spreading over the 
 sandy, irregular country beyond them. The city will probably 
 therefore be forced to proceed northward towards the North 
 Beach, where there is already a long pier formed, but where there 
 is remaining but limited building room at best. It will also 
 spread, as it is beginning to do, over the extensive and compara- 
 tively level tract of ground lying to the south-west, on the banks 
 of Mission Creek, and in the direction of the Mission Dolores. 
 Perhaps not many years hence the whole shores at North Beach 
 and South Beach (Mission Bay), and the bay itself to a consid- 
 erable distance from the present high-water mark, will be covered 
 with streets and houses, quays and long piercing piers, just as 
 now is the cove of Yerba Buena. The existing surveys and 
 plans of the city, anticipating futurity, already exhibit these 
 places, both on land and sea, divided and fairly mapped out into 
 streets and wharves. 
 
 Over all these square miles of contemplated thoroughfares, 
 there seems no provision made by the projectors for a public park 
 — the true "lungs" of a large city. The existing plma, or 
 Portsmouth Square, and other two or three diminutive squares, 
 delineated on the plan, seem the only breathing-holes intended 
 for the future population of hundreds of thousands. This is a 
 strange mistake, and can only be attributed to the jealous ava- 
 rice of the city projectors in turning every square vara of the 
 site to an available building lot. Indeed the eye is wearied, and 
 the imagination quite stupefied, in looking over the numberless 
 
LOCATION OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 IGl 
 
 square — all square — building blocks, and mathematically straight 
 lines of streets, miles long, and every one crossing a host of oth- 
 ers at right angles, stretching over sandy hill, chasm and plain, 
 without the least regard to the natural inequalities of the ground. 
 Not only is there no public park or garden, but there is not even 
 a circus, oval, open terrace, broad avenue, or any ornamental line 
 of street or building, or verdant space of any kind, other than 
 the three or four small squares alluded to ; and which every resi- 
 dent knows are by no means verdant, except in patches where 
 stagnant water collects and ditch weeds grow. 
 
 While the position of San Francisco on the shores of the bay 
 was undoubtedly the best that could have been selected for mari- 
 time purposes, there certainly have been sad drawbacks to the 
 extension of the place on the land side. The want of sufficient 
 level space on which to found so great and growing a city, has 
 been partially rectified, at an enormous expense, by taking build- 
 ing ground from the waters, and by lowering, and in many cases 
 absolutely removing bodily the multitude of sand hills, by which 
 the place is immediately surrounded. What with digging out 
 and filling up, piling, capping and planking, grading and re- 
 grading the streets, and shifting, and rebuilding, and again re- 
 building the houses, to suit the altered levels, millions upon mil- 
 lions of dollars have been spent. This has not been recklessly 
 or foolishly done, and the present magnificence and business 
 capabilities of the city are the consequence ; while future years 
 will still more exhibit the grand result of all the money that has 
 been sunk in municipal improvements. It would be out of place 
 to say more of the present appearance of the city at this portion 
 of the work ; but a more particular account of it will be given 
 towards the conclusion of " Part Second." 
 
 11 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Mission and Presidio of San Francisco.— Formation and survey of the village of Terba Buena.— 
 Disputes and litigation in regard to Terba Buena being a Pueblo.— Captain Richardson the first 
 Harbor Master. — Visits of national and other vessels to Terba Buena Cove. — Reasons why the 
 whale ships ceased to enter the harbor for supplies. — Traffic between Terba Buena and foreign 
 ports. — Hides and tallow the chief exports. — Prices obtained for these.— Heavy rains and their 
 effects. — Earthquakes. — Unusual drought. — Mr. Jacob P. Leese establishes himself at Terba Bu- 
 ena —Celebration of the Fourth of July at Leese's house. — First child born. — Limits of the origi- 
 nal survey. 
 
 The Mission of San Francisco, as mentioned in the first part of 
 this work, was founded in the year 1776. It was situated about 
 two and a half miles to the south-west of the Cove of Yerba 
 Buena. Besides the mission buildings, there were erected, at the 
 same time, a presidio and fort, along the margin of the Golden 
 Gate, the former being distant from the mission about four 
 miles, and from the cove nearly the same space. The latter was 
 situated about a mile nearer the ocean than the presidio, close 
 upon the sea-beach, and on a rocky height at the narrowest point 
 of the strait. 
 
 Before 1835, the village of Yerba Buena had neither name 
 nor existence. The Mexican Government had some time before 
 resolved to found a town upon the cove of that name, which was 
 reputed the best site on the shores of the Bay of San Francisco 
 for establishing a port. Much discussion and litigation, involving 
 immense pecuniary interests, have occurred as to the date and 
 precise character of the foundation of Yerba Buena. It has long 
 been matter of keen dispute whether the place was what is called 
 a Spanish or Mexican "pueblo;" and although, after previous 
 contrary decisions, it was assumed (not being exactly decided 
 upon evidence) by the Supreme Court to be a "pueblo," the 
 subject seems to be still open to challenge. It is unnecessary in 
 this work to do more than merely allude to the question. In 
 
VISITS OF NATIONAL AND OTHER VESSELS. 
 
 163 
 
 the year last above mentioned, General Figueroa, then governor 
 of the Californias, passed an ordinance, forbidding the command- 
 ant of the presidio of San Francisco to make any grants of land 
 around the Yerba Buena Cove nearer than two hundred varas 
 (about one hundred and eighty-five yards) from the beach, with- 
 out a special order from the governor, the excluded portion being 
 intended to be reserved for government uses. Before any steps 
 could be taken for the survey and laying out of the proposed 
 town, General Figueroa died ; and the place was neglected for 
 some years, and left to proceed as chance and individuals would 
 have it. There had been previous applications for grants of the 
 whole land around the cove for professedly farming purposes, 
 which circumstance led to the governor's passing the temporary 
 ordinance, lest, some time or another, the portion of ground in- 
 tended to be reserved should, through accident or neglect, be 
 granted away. 
 
 Captain W. A. Richardson was appointed the first harbor- 
 master, in the year 1835, and, the same year, he erected the 
 first house, or description of dwelling, in the place. It was 
 simply a large tent, supported on four red-wood posts, and cov- 
 ered with a ship's foresail. The captain's occupation in those 
 days seems to have been the management of two schooners, one 
 belonging to the Mission of San Francisco, and the other to the 
 Mission of Santa Clara. These schooners were employed in 
 bringing produce from the various missions and farms around the 
 bay to the sea-going vessels which lay in Yerba Buena Cove. 
 The amount of freight which the captain received was twelve 
 cents a hide, and one dollar for each bag of tallow. The tallow 
 was melted down and run into hide-bags, which averaged five 
 hundred pounds each. For grain, the freight was twenty-five 
 cents a fanega (two and a half English bushels). 
 
 Some years before this period, Yerba Buena Cove had been 
 occasionally approached by various ships of war and other vessels. 
 For many years, the Russians had continued to pay it annual 
 visits for supplies of meat and small quantities of grain. One of 
 their vessels took away annually about one hundred and eighty 
 or two hundred tons of such provisions. In 1816, the English 
 sloop of war "Racoon" entered the port; also, in 1827, the 
 
164 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 " Blossom," of the same nation, on a surveying cruise. In the 
 last named year, the French frigate " Artemesia," of sixty guns, 
 arrived. In 1839, there appeared the English surveying ships, 
 the " Sulphur" and the "Starling." In 1841, the first Ameri- 
 can war vessel, the " San Luis," sloop, arrived ; and, later in 
 the same year, the " Vincennes," also Ameiican, on a surveying 
 expedition. In 1842, came the " Yorktown," the " Cyane," and 
 the " Dale," all of the American navy ; and in the same year, 
 the " Brillante," a French sloop-of-war. From this last named 
 year downwards hoth ships of war and merchantmen of all na- 
 tions occasionally entered the port. "Whale ships first hegan to 
 make their appearance for supplies in the fall of the year 1822, 
 increasing in number, year by year, since that period. However, 
 some impolitic port restrictions by the authorities had the effect 
 latterly of sending off a considerable number of this class of 
 ships to the Sandwich Islands, a place much less convenient for 
 obtaining supplies than San Francisco Bay. Since likewise the 
 discovery of gold in the country, and the consequent temptation 
 of seamen to desert, as well as the enhanced price of most sup- 
 plies, whale ships have not found it their interest to visit San 
 Francisco, but prefer victualling and refitting at the Sandwich 
 Islands. 
 
 Previous to 1822, a small traffic was carried on between the 
 coast of Mexico and the California ports ; the latter exporting 
 principally tallow and a little soap. Some small vessels from 
 the Sandwich Islands also visited occasionally San Francisco and 
 the other harbors in California. It was in the last year named 
 that the trade began between California and the United States 
 and England. The country then sent its tallow chiefly to Callao 
 and Peru, and its hides to the States and to England. The price 
 of a hide in 1822, was fifty cents, and of tallow, six dollars per 
 hundred weight. These prices had the effect of soon decreasing 
 the number of cattle ; and, in the following year, hides rose to 
 one and a half dollars apiece, payable in cash, or two dollars, if 
 the amount was taken in merchandise. The trade value of hides 
 continued at nearly this rate until the war between the United 
 States and Mexico. 
 
 Some few natural occurrences during these early years of the 
 
HEAVY EAINS AND EARTHQUAKES. 
 
 165 
 
 place are worth recording. In December 1824 and in the spring 
 of the following year, very heavy rains fell over all this part of 
 the country. The Sacramento and tributaries rose to a great 
 height, and their valleys were flooded in many places to a depth 
 of fourteen feet. It was partly owing to the great volumes of 
 fresh water brought down through the bay, in 1825, that a por- 
 tion of the land at the southern side of the entrance, was washed 
 away as stated in a previous chapter. In September, 1829, sev- 
 eral very severe shocks of an earthquake were experienced in 
 San Francisco, which forced open lock-fast doors and windows. 
 In 1839, an equally severe earthquake took place. In 1812, 
 however, a much more serious convulsion had been felt over all 
 California, which shook down houses and some churches in several 
 parts of the country, and killed a considerable number of human 
 beings. The Church of San Juan Capistrano was completely 
 destroyed, and forty-one persons, chiefly Indians, were killed by 
 its fall. We have already said that an Indian tradition attributes 
 the formation of the present entrance to the Bay of San Fran- 
 cisco to an earthquake, which forced open a great passage through 
 the coast range of hills for the interior waters. It may be men- 
 tioned, when on this subject, that since these dates, no seriou.- 
 occurrences of this nature have happened at San Franciscv. 
 though almost every year slight shocks, and occasionally smart cl- 
 ones have been felt. God help the city if any great catastrophe 
 of this nature should ever take place ! Her huge granite and 
 brick palaces, of four, five and six stories in height, would indeed 
 make a prodigious crash, more ruinous both to life and property 
 than even the dreadful fires of 1849, 1850 and 1851. This is 
 the greatest, if not the only possible obstacle of consequence to 
 the growing prosperity of the city, though even such a lament- 
 able event as the total destruction of half the place, like another 
 Quito or Caraccas, would speedily be remedied by the indomita- 
 ble energy and persevering industry of the American character. 
 Such a terrible calamity, however, as the one imagined, may 
 never take place. So " sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." 
 This maxim abundantly satisfies the excitement-craving, money- 
 seeking, luxurious-living, reckless, heaven-earth-and-hell-daring 
 citizens of San Francisco. 
 
166 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 We have elsewhere explained the nature of the climate in 
 respect that the winter and summer months are simply the rainy 
 and dry seasons of the year. We have seen above, the effects 
 of excessive rains ; and we may also mark the result of unusual 
 drought. In the personal recollections of Captain Richardson, 
 who is our authority on this subject, there have been several such 
 seasons in the country around the Bay of San Francisco since 
 1822, when that gentleman came to California. The grass on 
 such occasions was completely dried up, and cattle perished in 
 consequence. The missionaries were under the necessity of send- 
 ing out all their Indian servants to cut down branches of oak 
 trees for the herds to subsist upon. In these dryer seasons, too, 
 the crops suffered greatly from grasshoppers ; which insects, 
 about the month of July, when the corn was still green, would 
 sweep all before them. It may be remarked generally, that 
 while the year is divided into two seasons — wet and dry — there 
 is great irregularity, in the case of the former, as to the average 
 quantity of rain falling annually. During some winters heavy 
 rains pour down, without intermission, for months together ; 
 while, on other and often alternate winters, the sky is clear for 
 weeks — then for only a few days slight showers will descend — and 
 again there occurs a long period of the most delightful and dry 
 weather imaginable. Slight frosts are occasionally felt during the 
 winter months ; and ice, from the thickness of a cent to that of 
 an inch is seen for a day or two, nearly every season. Generally, 
 however, the winter climate is mild and open, and the winter 
 months are the most pleasant of the year. 
 
 The excessively and injuriously wet and dry seasons are ex- 
 ceptional cases, and do not impugn the accuracy of the state- 
 ments, made elsewhere, of the general mildness of the climate, 
 productiveness of the soil, and safety of the harvest. A fertile 
 field or a fruitful tree will not lose its character, because occasion- 
 ally there happens to be a short crop. The Pacific is still 
 reputed a serene ocean, though sometimes a gale or tempest 
 sweeps over it. Even in the case of possible earthquakes, no- 
 body would hold France, or Spain, or even Italy — the bella Italia 
 of the old world, as California is of the new one — to be danger- 
 ous countries to live in, although historical records show that 
 
ARRIVAL OF JACOB P. LEESE AT YERBA BUENA. 167 
 
 much damage has been done in them, at long intervals, by vol- 
 canic eruptions and subterranean movements. 
 
 In May, 1836, Mr. Jacob Primer Leese arrived in the Cove 
 of Yerba Buena, with the intention of establishing a mercantile 
 business at San Francisco, in partnership with Mr. Nathan Spear 
 and Mr. W. S. Hinckley, who were to remain at Monterey, and 
 
 Jacob Primer Leese. 
 
 manage the business of the firm there. Mr. Leese brought let- 
 ters from the then governor of California, Don Mariano Chico, 
 to the alcalde and commandante of San Francisco, desiring them 
 to render him all assistance in their power in arranging a location 
 and otherwise. Mr. Leese at once fixed on the beach of Yerba 
 Buena Cove for his establishment, but as the ordinance of Gene- 
 ral Figueroa, concerning the government reserve, was still in 
 force, he could not procure an allotment nearer the beach than at 
 the distance of two hundred varas. The alcalde and comman- 
 dante were much pleased that Mr. Leese should come to settle 
 
168 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 among their people, and at once offered him a choice of two loca- 
 tions, one being at the mouth of Mission Creek, and the other at 
 the entrance to the bay near the presidio. Mr. Leese, however, 
 had made up his mind on the subject ; and, partly for his own 
 business convenience, and probably, in part, foreseeing the increas- 
 ed future value of sites around Yerba Buena Cove, would accept 
 no grant but one in that quarter. In this the local authorities 
 could not legally aid him ; so Mr. Leese returned forthwith to 
 Monterey with his story and complaint to Governor Chico. On 
 explanations there, the governor informed Mr. Leese that he 
 would instruct the alcalde of San Francisco to grant an allot- 
 ment within the limits of the government reserve, and in the 
 mean time authorized Mr. Leese to select for himself the most 
 convenient place he could find elsewhere. 
 
 Back to Yerba Buena Cove hastened Mr. Leese, and on the 
 first of July presented to the alcalde his new letters. On the 
 following day he landed boards and other materials for building, 
 and immediately took possession of a one-hundred vara lot, ad- 
 joining on the south side that on which Captain Richard- 
 son's tent was already erected. Mr. Leese's lot was situated 
 about two hundred or two hundred and fifty yards from the 
 beach, and is the spot where the St. Francis Hotel was subse- 
 quently erected, at the corner of Clay and Dupont streets. Mr. 
 Leese was indefatigable in hastening the erection of his dwelling, 
 which was finished by ten o'clock on the morning of the 4th of 
 July — the first glorious fourth — when the independence of Ame- 
 rica was commemorated in style in California. These two houses, 
 belonging to Capt. Bichardson and Mr. Leese, were the earliest 
 houses erected in Yerba Buena, and formed the beginning of the 
 City of San Francisco. It is but eighteen years since their 
 erection, and now there is a population of over fifty thousand 
 around the spot ! 
 
 While Mr. Leese was erecting his mansion, which seems to 
 have been rather a grand structure, being made of frame, sixty feet 
 long and twenty-five feet broad, Captain Richardson was kindly 
 proceeding across the bay to Sonoma, where he invited all the 
 principal folks of the quarter to a banquet in the new building. 
 Two events — each great in their way — were to be celebrated : 
 
FIRST CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY. 169 
 
 first, Independence Day, and next, the arrival of Mr. Leese in 
 the country, his welcome and house-warming. The two worthy 
 souls, cordially fraternizing, were determined to make a great af- 
 fair of it ; and so indeed it happened. As it was the first grand 
 scene in the future San Francisco, where there have since been 
 so many, we are tempted to dwell a little on the eventful occa- 
 sion. Future generations will pleasantly reflect on this auspicious 
 commencement to the pride of the Pacific, then like a new-born 
 infant cradled by its tender parents, Capt. Eichardson and Mr. 
 Leese, and tricked out in all the magnificence of an heir's baby 
 clothes. 
 
 At this time there was lying in the cove the American 
 barque " Don Quixote," commanded by Mr. Leese's partner, 
 Capt. Hinckley, and on board of which were their goods. There 
 were also at anchor in the port another American ship and a 
 Mexican brig. These vessels supplied every bit of colored bunt- 
 ing they could furnish, with which was decorated Mr. Leese's 
 hall. A splendid display was the result. Outside of the build- 
 ing floated amicably the Mexican and American flags — the first 
 time the latter was displayed on the shore of Yerba Buena. 
 Captain Hinckley seems to have been somewhat extravagant in 
 his passion for sweet sounds, since he always travelled with a 
 band of music in his train. Through this cause the most stylish 
 orchestra, perhaps, ever before heard in California, was provided 
 by him. This consisted of a clarionet, flute, violin, drum, fife 
 and bugle ; besides two small six pounders to form the bass, and 
 to add their emphatic roar to the swelling din, when a toast of 
 more than usual importance should be given. These last, how- 
 ever, were borrowed from the presidio. 
 
 The feast was prepared ; the minstrels were met ; and the 
 guests began to assemble about three o'clock on the afternoon of 
 the Fourth. They were about sixty in number, and included 
 General M. Gr. Vallejo and all the principal families from the 
 neighborhood of Sonoma, such as the Castro, Martinez, &c, as 
 well as the chief inhabitants of San Francisco. Besides the 
 banqueting hall, Mr. Leese had erected a number of small tents, 
 in which to receive his numerous guests and provide for them 
 comfortably. At five o'clock dinner was served, and immediately 
 
170 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 afterwards followed the toasts. First of all was given the union 
 of the Mexican and American flags. (How little did the con- 
 vivial parties then dream of the near advent of the sole and ab- 
 solute sway of the Americans in the country !) General Vallejo 
 next paid the honors to Washington. Then followed appropriate 
 national and individual toasts in their order : hut which it is 
 
 Celebration of the Fourth of July at Lcese's House. 
 
 needless to particularize. The guests were as happy as mortals 
 could well be ; and, in short, " all went merry as a marriage 
 bell." The abundance and variety of liquors at table seemed to 
 tickle the Californians amazingly. One worthy gentleman took 
 a prodigious fancy to lemon syrup, a tumbler full of which he 
 would rmaff to every toast. This soon made him sick, and sent 
 him off with a colic ; which was all matter of mirth to his "jolly 
 companions, every one." At ten o'clock our " city fathers " got 
 the table cleared for further action, and dancing and other 
 amusements then commenced. The ball was kej)t hot and 
 
FIRST CHILD BORN IN VERBA BUENA. 
 
 171 
 
 rolling incessantly, all that night, and it appears, too, the follow- 
 ing day ; for, as Mr. Leese naively observes, in his interesting 
 and amusing diary, " our fourth ended on the evening of the 
 fifth." Many of the simple-minded Indians and such lower 
 class white people as were not invited, had gathered around 
 while the festivities and sports were going on among the people 
 of quality, and could not contain themselves for joy, but contin- 
 ually exclaimed, "Que buenos son los Americanos ! " — What 
 capital fellows these Americans are ! And doubtless the white 
 gentry thought, and often said the same. 
 
 But let a Yankee alone for knowing his own interest in spend- 
 ing money lavishly ! In a few days afterwards, Mr. Leese had 
 concluded the landing of his twelve thousand dollars worth of 
 goods, when he opened his store for business. The grateful guests, 
 and all the people around, at once flocked to purchase ; and 
 trade, he says, became quite brisk, at most satisfactory prices. 
 
 Shortly after this event, Mr. Leese, upon a hasty courtship — 
 or rather, for he seems to have had no time to wait, and Califor- 
 nia was beginning to shake off her lethargy and be a go-ahead 
 country ; in fact, none beyond "popping the question," in smart 
 business fashion, on the 1st of April, 1837 (ominous day for such 
 a deed !) — was married to a sister of General Vallejo. On the 
 7th of the same month they were tied together, for life, by the 
 "holy bands of matrimony ;" and from this union, on the 15th 
 pf April, 1838. sprung their eldest child — Eosalie Leese — being 
 tlie first born in Yerba Buena. 
 
 In this year, Mr. Leese erected a large frame building on the 
 beach, with consent of the alcalde, the latter observing that the 
 governor had informed him he was going to lay out a few town 
 lots. He therefore permitted Mr. Leese, in order to forward his 
 plans, to take a one-hundred vara lot provisionally where he wish- 
 ed. The present banking-house of Mr. James King of William, 
 at the corner of Commercial and Montgomery streets, and which 
 is situated in what may be called the centre of San Francisco, 
 occupies the site of Mr. Leese's frame building on the beach of Yer- 
 ba Buena Cove. In this year also, Captain Richardson erected 
 an adobe building on the same lot he had always occupied, and 
 which has been already noticed. This adobe building, one and a 
 
172 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 half stories high, was the old " Casa Grande " which stood on the 
 west side of Dupont-street, between Washington and Clay streets, 
 and was taken down in 1852. About this time, some native Cali- 
 fornians and a few visitors of foreign extraction, chiefly American, 
 began to settle in the rising town. The arrivals of ships likewise 
 were gradually increasing. 
 
 In 1839, Don J. B. Alvarado, then constitutional governor of 
 California, dispatched an order to the then alcalde of San Fran- 
 cisco, Francisco Haro, to get a survey taken of the plain and cove 
 of Yerba Buena. This was accordingly made by Captain Juan 
 Vioget in the fall of the same year, and was the first regular sur- 
 vey of the place. It included those portions of the present city 
 which lie between Pacific street on the north, Sacramento street 
 on the south, Dupont street on the west, and Montgomery street 
 on the east. The original bounds of the new town were therefore 
 very limited. The lot on which Mr. Leese built his second house 
 was marked No. 1 on the plan, and its eastern front made the 
 line of the present Montgomery street, which then formed the 
 beach of the cove. Mr. Leese seems to have been pretty well 
 treated by the authorities in the matter of the new town, since he 
 appears to have received, besides the allotment already mentioned, 
 farther grants of three one-hundred vara lots on the west side of 
 Dupont street, and two on the south side of Sacramento street, 
 as well as of other three lots, likewise outside of the survey. To 
 conclude this notice of Mr. Leese's close connection with the rising 
 fortunes of Yerba Buena, it may be mentioned, that, in the month 
 of August, 1841, he sold his dwelling-house to the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, and removed his property and family to Sonoma, with 
 the intention of engagingin extensive cattle transactions in Oregon, 
 which territory was then attracting much notice, and had begun 
 to draw to it many agricultural settlers. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Removal of the Hudson's Bay Company.— Rapid growth and increase of population of Terba Buens. 
 
 First newspapers established in California.— Tables showing the number of inhabitants in 
 
 1847, with their places of birth, ages, sexes and occupations.— Ordinance of the alcalde changing 
 the name of Terba Buena to San Francisco.— W. A. Bartk-tt was the first alcalde under the Ame- 
 rican flag, who was succeeded by George Hyde, and he by Edwin Bryant.— Powers of an alcalde. 
 —Great sale of beach and water lots, agreeably to a decree of General Kearny. — Price of grants 
 of property, and subsequent increased value of city lots — Width of the streets.— Municipal regu- 
 lation restricting purchasers. 
 
 During the early years of the existence of Yerba Buena, little 
 occurs worthy of notice. The place continued merely a village ; 
 and its history for some years subsequent to 1841, would be sim- 
 ply a record of the private business transactions of the Hudson's 
 Bay Company, whose agents and people formed nearly the entire 
 settlement. Even so lately as 1844, Yerba Buena contained only 
 about a dozen houses, and its permanent population did not ex- 
 ceed fifty persons. In 1846 the Hudson's Bay Company disposed 
 of their property, and removed from the place. After that pe- 
 riod it began gradually to increase in importance and population. 
 The progress of political events during which the country passed 
 into American hands, was, as might have been anticipated, the 
 chief cause of the rapid strides onward which the place now began 
 to take. 
 
 By mid-summer of 1846, the population numbered upwards 
 of two hundred, and the buildings of all kinds had increased to 
 nearly fifty. From this date the place advanced with wonderful 
 rapidity. On the first April of the following year, it contained 
 seventy-nine buildings, viz. : — twenty-two shanties, thirty-one 
 frame-houses, and twenty-six adobe buildings. In the course of 
 the subsequent five months, seventy-eight new tenements were 
 erected, viz. : — forty-seven of frame, eleven of adobe, and twenty 
 shanties. About this time the permanent population had increas- 
 
174 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ed to nearly five hundred. By the end of April, 1848, about the 
 time when the "rush" to the " diggings" commenced, the town 
 contained nearly two hundred buildings, viz. : — one hundred and 
 thirty-five finished dwelling-houses, ten unfinished houses of the 
 same class, twelve stores and warehouses, and thirty-five shanties. 
 At this last date the population numbered about a thousand in- 
 dividuals, composed almost entirely of people from the United 
 States or from European countries. Every day was bringing 
 new immigrants, and every week additional houses were erected. 
 
 Three kinds of buildings generally appear early in the progress 
 of American settlements : — the church, tavern and printing-office. 
 The last was established so early as January, 1847, when the pop- 
 ulation was little more than three hundred ; and, on the 7th of 
 that month the first number of the " California Star " appeared. 
 This paper was published by Mr. Samuel Brannan, and edited by 
 Dr. E. P. Jones. It was a small sheet of four pages, about fifteen 
 inches by twelve of type, and appeared every Saturday. It was 
 a neat production — type, matter and arrangement being of excel- 
 lent quality. A passage in the prospectus gave notice that " it 
 will eschew with the greatest caution every thing that tends to 
 the propagation of sectarian dogmas." This clause may have 
 been inserted in consequence of the publisher having but recently 
 been prominently connected with a certain religious sect, and with 
 a view to assure the public that it was no part of his intention to 
 make the "Star" the medium of promulgating its peculiar sectarian 
 tenets. 
 
 " The Californian," also a weekly newspaper, of still smaller 
 dimensions, and of much inferior typographical pretension, had 
 previously appeared at Monterey, where its first number was issued 
 on the 15th August, 1846, by Messrs. Colton & Semple, by whom 
 also it was edited. Commodore K. F. Stockton, however, was the 
 originator of this publication. This was the first newspaper in 
 the English, or indeed, in any language, which was published in 
 California. For the sake of the natives, the editors gave a portion 
 of the contents in Spanish ; but the greater part from the begin- 
 ning, and soon the whole of it, was printed in English. The pub- 
 lishers seem to have been reduced to considerable difficulty in 
 getting out their paper. In one of the impressions they give this 
 
FIRST NEWSPAPERS ESTABLISHED. 
 
 175 
 
 explanatory and apologetic note for its rude appearance. We 
 copy literally : — 
 
 " Our Alphabet. — Our type is a Spanish font picked up here in a clois- 
 ter, and has no W's [W's] in it, as there is none in the Spanish alphabet. I 
 have sent to the sandwich Islands for this letter, in the mean time vve must 
 use two Vs. Our paper at present is that used for wrapping segars ; in due 
 time we will have something better : our object is to establise a press in 
 California, and this we shall in all probability be able to accomplish. The 
 absence of my partner for the last three months and my buties as Alcaldd here 
 have dedrived our little paper of some of those attentions which I hope it will 
 hereafter receive. 
 
 "Walter Colton." 
 
 The printer is responsible for a few errors in the above ex- 
 tract ; but the editor seems also blameable for the rapid changes 
 from singular to plural and back again. It will be noticed from 
 the date of the first number of the " Californian," that it was 
 issued immediately after the capture of Sonoma and the first 
 hoisting of the American flag in the northern towns of California ; 
 and no doubt these events hastened its appearance. In the 
 prospectus the editor says : " We shall maintain an entire and 
 utter severance of all political connection with Mexico. We 
 renounce at once and forever all fealty to her laws, all obedience 
 to her mandates. * * * We shall advocate a territorial 
 relation of California to the United States, till the number of 
 her inhabitants is such that she can be admitted a member of 
 that glorious confederacy. * * * We shall support the 
 present measures of the commander-in-chief of the American 
 squadron on the coast, so far as they conduce to the public tran- 
 quillity, the organization of a free representative government, 
 and our alliance with the United States. * * * We shall 
 go for California— -for all her interests, social, civil, and religious 
 — encouraging every thing that promotes these ; resisting every 
 thing that can do them harm." Thus, every thing was showing 
 that the Americans were resolved, at whatever cost, to keep the 
 country, and make it their own. Meanwhile, San Francisco was 
 rising into such importance as to make it a much superior place 
 for publication to Monterey ; and accordingly on the 22d day of 
 May, 1847, Mr. Robert Semple, who seems now to have been the 
 
176 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sole publisher of the " Californian," issued the first number of 
 the second volume of that paper at the former town, much en- 
 larged and every way improved. This therefore was the second 
 newspaper established in our city, at a time when the permanent 
 population did not exceed four hundred. 
 
 From the columns of these early papers we extract much 
 curious information regarding the number and elements of the 
 population of San Francisco in the latter part of June, 1847. 
 The following table shows the total number of inhabitants, the 
 sex and age of the whites, and the sex of the Indians, Sandwich 
 Islanders, and negroes ; excluding the officers and soldiers of 
 the detachment of New York volunteers stationed there at the 
 
 time : — 
 
 Whites. Males. Females. Total. 
 
 Under 5 years of age 28 23 51 
 
 Over 5 and under 10 years 18 14 32 
 
 « 10 " 15 " 10 14 24 
 
 " 15 " 20 " 11 11 22 
 
 " 20 " 25 « 29 15 44 
 
 « 25 " 30 " 54 19 73 
 
 « 30 " 40 " 61 19 80 
 
 "40 " 50 " 20 10 30 
 
 "50 " 60 " 12 3 15 
 
 « 60 " 70 " 2 — 2 
 
 "70 " 80 " 2 — 2 
 
 Total whites 247 128 375 
 
 Indians (of different ages) 26 8 34 
 
 Sandwich Islanders (of different ages) 39 1 40 
 
 Negroes (of different ages) 9 1 10 
 
 Total 321 138 459 
 
 From this table it will be seen that upwards of four-fifths of 
 the whole population were under forty years of age ; while more 
 than one-half were between twenty and forty — the prime of fife. 
 Under twenty, the sexes were nearly equal in number ; but 
 above that age, the vast majority were males. These circum- 
 stances must be borne in mind when the reader considers the 
 restless enterprise, energy and capability exhibited by the com- 
 paratively small population of the town. We have already 
 alluded to the mixture of foreigners who settled in San Fran- 
 
POPULATION OF YEHBA BUENA. 
 
 177 
 
 cisco. We now give the birth-places of the above white popula- 
 tion : — 
 
 Born in the United States, 228 ; in California, 38 ; other 
 Mexican departments, 2 ; Canada, 5 ; Chili, 2 ; England, 22 ; 
 France, 3 ; Germany, 27 ; Ireland, 14 ; Scotland, 14 ; Switzer- 
 land, 6 ; at sea, 4 ; Denmark, Malta, New Holland, New Zea- 
 
 San Francisco, from the Bay, in 1847. 
 
 land, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sandwich Islands, Sweden and 
 West Indies, one each. 
 
 As of the number stated to have been born in California, 
 eight were children of immigrant parents, it will be seen that 
 the total population of Spanish or Mexican descent was only 
 thirty-two. Three-fifths of the total inhabitants were of direct 
 American origin ; and perhaps one-fifth more was composed of 
 people who had previously settled or lived in the United States. 
 The Americans, however, as may be supposed, were from every 
 
178 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 State in the Union, and were often as different from each other 
 in personal characteristics, as if they had been so many foreigners 
 of separate countries. 
 
 The number who could read and write was two hundred and 
 seventy-three ; those who could read, but not write, were thir- 
 teen ; while those who could neither read nor write, were eighty- 
 nine. 
 
 From these statements it appears that the number who could 
 neither read nor write bore a near relation to the number of 
 inhabitants under ten years of age. At that period, it may be 
 mentioned, there was only one school in the place, and no proper 
 facilities were as yet given for bestowing a suitable education 
 upon the young. 
 
 The occupations or professions of the white males were as 
 follows : — 1 minister ; 3 doctors ; 3 lawyers ; 2 surveyors ; 1 
 school-teacher ; 11 agriculturalists ; 7 bakers ; 6 blacksmiths ; 
 1 brewer ; 6 brick-makers ; 7 butchers ; 2 cabinet makers ; 
 26 carpenters ; 1 cigar-maker ; 13 clerks ; 3 coopers ; 1 gar- 
 dener ; 5 grocers ; 2 gunsmiths ; 3 hotel-keepers ; 20 laborers ; 
 4 masons ; 11 merchants ; 1 miner ; 1 morocco-case maker ; 6 
 inland navigators ; 1 ocean navigator ; 1 painter ; 6 printers ; 
 1 saddler; 4 shoemakers ; 1 silversmith ; 4 tailors ; 2 tanners ; 
 1 watchmaker ; 1 weaver. 
 
 The places in which the inhabitants conducted their business, 
 were as follows, viz. : — shops, 1 apothecary, 2 blacksmith, 3 
 butcher, 1 cabinet maker, 2 carpenter, 1 cigar-maker, 2 cooper, 
 1 gun-smith, 1 shoemaker, 2 tailor, and 1 watchmaker ; 8 stores ; 
 7 groceries ; 2 hotels ; 1 wind-mill ; 1 horse-mill ; 2 printing- 
 offices ; and 3 bakeries. 
 
 The Indians, Sandwich Islanders, and negroes, who formed 
 nearly one-fifth of the population, were mostly employed as 
 servants and porters. Many of the Sandwich Islanders were 
 engaged in navigating the bay, and were very expert boatmen. 
 
 On the 30th of January, 1847, the following important 
 " ordinance " appeared in the " California Star." 
 
 "AN ORDINANCE. 
 
 ""Whereas, the local name of Yerba Buena, as applied to the settlement 
 or town of San Francisco, is unknown beyond the district ; and has been ap- 
 
POWERS OF AN ALCALDE. 
 
 179 
 
 plied from the local name of the cove, on which the town is built : Therefore, 
 to prevent confusion and mistakes in public documents, and that the town 
 may have the advantage of the name given on the public map, 
 
 "It is hereby ordained, that the name of San Francisco shall here- 
 after be used in all official communications and public documents, or records 
 appertaining to the town. 
 
 " Wash'n A. Bartlett, 
 
 " Chief Magistrate. 
 
 " Published by order, 
 
 " J. G. T. Dunleavt, Municipal Clerk." 
 
 Mr. Bartlett was the first alcalde of San Francisco under the 
 American flag. He was a lieutenant in the United States navy ; 
 and on being subsequently ordered to his ship, Mr. Edwin Bryant 
 was appointed in his place, and sworn into office on the 22d day 
 of February, 1847. This gentleman had travelled the previous 
 year across the country from Independence, Mo., to the Pacific, 
 and had subsequently joined Col. Fremont as a volunteer in the 
 reduction of California. Shortly afterwards, he published in 
 New York an interesting account of his travels under the title, 
 " What I saw in California." Before Mr. Bryant's appointment 
 to the chief-magistracy, Mr. George Hyde had acted for a short 
 time as temporary alcalde. 
 
 Under the laws of Mexico, an alcalde had the entire control 
 of municipal affairs, and administered justice pretty much 
 according to his own ideas of the subject ; without being tied 
 down to precedents and formal principles of law. He could 
 make grants of building-lots within the town boundaries to 
 intending settlers ; and really in general, his right of administra- 
 tion (except in cases of importance, either civil or criminal), 
 seems to have been only limited by his power to carry his decrees 
 into effect. When the Americans seized the country, and until 
 peace should be declared or a formal constitution adopted, they 
 were obliged to make use of the existing machinery of local 
 government and the customary laws that regulated it. They 
 accordingly every where appointed alcaldes, or chief-magistrates 
 of towns and districts (it was of little consequence that they 
 were not lawyers, but only ministers, doctors, adventurers, men 
 of business, or of pleasure, and the like), and instructed them 
 to dispense justice in the best manner they could, paying always 
 
180 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 as much regard as possible to the national laws of Mexico and 
 the provincial customs of California. 
 
 The laws of Mexico reserved to the governor of a province 
 the disposal of lands in towns within a certain number of feet 
 below high-water mark. By this time, from the number of ships 
 arriving in the Bay of San Francisco, it was becoming absolutely 
 necessary that proper facilities should be given for the discharge 
 and the reception of cargoes, and that wharves and other land- 
 ing-places should be built across the great mud flat close upon 
 the beach at the town, and extended to deep water, so that ves- 
 sels could lie alongside. Upon the application therefore of the 
 alcalde, Mr. Bryant, the then governor of California, General 
 Kearny, in anticipation that the country was ultimately to be- 
 come American, formerly renounced, on the 10th of March, 1847, 
 in favor of the municipal authorities, the beach and water pro- 
 perty lying between the points known as the Rincon and Fort 
 Montgomery, upon the conditions stated in his decree. An ex- 
 tended survey and plan of the town had been previously com- 
 menced by Mr. Jasper O'Farrell, under the instructions of the 
 former alcalde, Mr. Bartlett, and were now continued so as to 
 embrace the beach and water property. When this survey was 
 completed, the shore lots, as distinguished from those on the 
 beach, were disposed of by private sale to applicants at a fixed 
 price put on them by the alcalde, agreeably to the Mexican cus- 
 toms. The plan of the city, as surveyed and mapped out by 
 Mr. O'Farrell, fronted the cove, and included the Telegraph Hill 
 and the Rincon. It extended about three quarters of a mile 
 from north to south, and two miles from east to west, and em- 
 braced about one and a halt' square miles. As the disposal of the 
 beach and water lots was a great event in the history of San 
 Francisco, we give a copy of the advertisement announcing the 
 sale, and which was published in the " California Star," of the 
 town, and in the " Californian," of Monterey, in conformity with 
 the governor's decree : — 
 
 "Great Sale of Valuable Real Estate in the Town of San Fran- 
 cisco, Upper California. 
 
 By the following decree of His Excellency, General S. W. Kearny. Go- 
 vernor of California, all the right, title and interest, of the United States, and 
 
SALE OF BEACH AND WATER LOTS. 
 
 181 
 
 of the Territory of California, to the beach and water lots on the east front 
 of the town of San Francisco, have been granted, conveyed, and released, to 
 the people or corporate authorities of said town : — 
 
 'Decree of General Kearny. 
 
 ' I, Brigadier-General S. W. Kearny, Governor of California, by virtue of 
 authority in me vested by the President of the United States of America, do 
 hereby grant, convey, and release unto the town of San Francisco, the people, 
 or corporate authorities thereof, all the right, title, and interest of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, and of the Territory of California, in and to the 
 beach and water lots on the east front of said town of San Francisco, included 
 between the points known as the Rincon and Fort Montgomery, except such 
 lots as may be selected for the use of the United States Government by the 
 senior officers of the army and navy now there: Provided, the said ground 
 hereby ceded shall be divided into lots, and sold by public auction to the 
 highest bidder, after three months notice previously given ; the proceeds of 
 said sale to be for the benefit of the town of San Francisco. 
 
 ' Given at Monterey, capital of California, this 10th day of March, 1847, 
 and the 71st year of the independence of the United States. 
 
 'S. W. Kearny. 
 'Brigadier-General and Governor of California.'' 
 
 " In pursuance of and in compliance with the conditions of the foregoing 
 decree, all the ungranted tract of ground on the east front of the town of San 
 Francisco, lying and situated between Fort Montgomery and the Rincon. and 
 known as the water and beach lots (the reservations by the general and town 
 governments excepted), will be surveyed, and divided into convenient building 
 lots for warehouses and stores, and offered at public sale to the highest bidder 
 on Tuesday, the 29th day of J une next, at ten o'clock, a. m. A plan of lots 
 in connection with a general map of the town will be made out and exhibited 
 on or before the day of sale. 
 
 " Terms of sale, one fourth cash, — one fourth in six months, — one fourth 
 in twelve months, — and one fourth in eighteen months, the purchaser giving 
 approved security bearing an interest of ten per cent, per annum from the 
 day of sale. 
 
 " Other conditions will be made known on or before the day of sale. 
 
 " The site of the town of San Francisco is known to all navigators and 
 mercantile men acquainted with the subject, to be the most commanding com- 
 mercial position on the entire eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean, and the town 
 itself is, no doubt, destined to become the commercial emporium of the west- 
 ern side of the American continent. The property offered for sale is the most 
 valuable in, or belonging to the town, and the acquisition of it is an object of 
 deep interest to all mercantile houses in California and elsewhere engaged in 
 the commerce of the Pacific. 
 
 "Edwin Bryant, 
 " Alcalde, or Ch ief Magistrate, Town and District of San Francisco. 
 
 "San Francisco, Upper California, March 16th, 1847." 
 
182 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 This great sale was subsequently postponed to Tuesday, the 
 20th of July following, by order of Mr. George Hyde, who was 
 then alcalde of the town. On the day last named the sale took 
 place, and lasted for three successive days. The lots were all 
 contained between the limits of low and high-water mark ; and 
 four-fifths of them were entirely covered with water at flood tide. 
 The size of the lots was sixteen and a half varas in width of front, 
 and fifty varas deep. A vara is a Spanish yard, and is equal to 
 about thirty-three and one-third inches of English measure. 
 There were about four hundred and fifty of these lots in all, of 
 which number two hundred were disposed of at the public sale 
 above mentioned. The attendance of buyers was pretty fair ; 
 and the prices given were very considerable (ranging from fifty to 
 one hundred dollars), considering the population and circumstan- 
 ces at the time. The price of some of the same lots now would 
 somewhat astonish the projectors of the town extension of those 
 days. 
 
 Curiously enough, we were in the act of finishing the last 
 sentence, when we were informed of the prices obtained by the 
 municipal authorities for other water lots which they were at this 
 time (26th December, 1853) disposing of likewise at public auc- 
 tion. These last lots were situated much farther out in the bay, 
 at places always covered with many feet of water, and measured 
 less than one-half the size of the old ones, being only twenty-five 
 feet in front by fifty-nine feet nine inches back. Yet they 
 brought prices varying from eight to sixteen thousand dollars ! 
 Four small sized building blocks alone produced, in all 3 the enor- 
 mous sum of $1,200,000 ; thereby restoring the injured credit 
 of the city. Such is one contrast between 1847 and 1853 at San 
 Francisco ! 
 
 But the principal part of the town was laid out in lots of fifty 
 varas square ; six of them making a building block, bounded on 
 the four sides by streets. In August, 1847, there had been 
 about seven hundred of this description of lots surveyed, of which 
 number nearly four hundred and fifty had been applied for and 
 disposed of by the alcalde at a fixed price, which now seems to 
 have been merely nominal. This price was twelve dollars per lot, 
 
SALES OF CITY PROPERTY. 
 
 183 
 
 and when the office fees for deed and recording (three dollars and 
 sixty-two and a half cents) were added, the total cost was less 
 than sixteen dollars. The conditions of sale were that the buyer 
 should fence in the ground, and build a house upon it within one 
 year ; failing which, the lot and improvements were to revert to 
 the town. 
 
 The south-eastern portion of the town was laid out in lots of 
 one hundred varas square, six of which also formed a building 
 block, bounded by regular streets at the four sides. The part of 
 the town formed by these last lots was supposed to be the least 
 valuable, and the lots themselves were expected to be the last 
 taken up and improved by purchasers. The price established by 
 law for these lots, which were four times the size of the fifty vara 
 ones, was only twenty-Jive dollars each, and when the deed and 
 recording fees were added (three dollars and sixty-two and a 
 half cents), the total cost was under twenty-nine dollars. In 
 August, 1847, about one hundred and thirty lots of this descrip- 
 tion were surveyed and laid out, of which number about seventy 
 had been sold. The conditions of the sale were similar to those 
 applicable to the fifty vara lots. 
 
 The proceeds of all these sales made up a considerable sum, 
 and saved the necessity of levying municipal taxes for a short 
 time. Eeal estate has advanced so rapidly in value since those 
 days, that it would only be ridiculous to compare the prices obtain- 
 able now with those fixed by the alcalde in 1847. In many cases, 
 however, an immense sum has been actually expended in first 
 bringing the ground into building condition. 
 
 In Mr. O'Farrell's plan, the streets are all regularly laid out 
 at right angles with each other, and are seventy-five and eighty 
 feet wide. One, however, is one hundred and ten feet in width. 
 The streets in the oldest part of the town — that portion surveyed 
 by Capt. Juan Vioget, as stated in the previous chapter — are 
 only about sixty feet broad. 
 
 There was at one time a municipal regulation, by which in- 
 dividuals were prevented from purchasing and holding more than 
 a single fifty or one hundred vara lot. The object of this appears 
 to have been to exclude speculators from jobbing in the lots, and 
 
184 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 to insure their speedy improvement by the real owner. By pro- 
 curing lots, however, in the names of third parties, speculators 
 soon contrived to evade this regulation, and thus a few individu- 
 als became possessed of a large portion of the extension of the 
 town. The alcalde and town council therefore, shortly after- 
 wards, did away with this restriction upon purchasers. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 1846-1847. 
 
 Captain Montgomery hoists the American flag on Portsmouth Square. — Arrival of the ship Brooklyn 
 from New York, with a largo company of Mormon and other immigrants. — Disputes among her 
 passengers, leading to the first jury trial in San Francisco.— Grand ball at the residence of Wm. 
 A. Leidesdorff. — Nautical fete given by Capt. Simmons. — Public reception of Com. Stockton. — 
 Attempts to establish a public school. — Name of town changed to San Francisco. — Number of 
 buildings and inhabitants.— Suffering immigrants in the Sierra Nevada. — Trustees of the proposed 
 school chosen. — Delegates to represent the District of San Francisco in the new legislative coun- 
 cil — Arrival of Col. Stevenson and New York Volunteers. — Vessels in the harbor, 13th March, 
 1S47. — "The California Star" adopts tho name of San Francisco. — Mails established between San 
 Francisco and San Diego. — Proposed erection of a church. — Grand illumination in honor of Gen. 
 Taylor's victory at Buena Vista. — Celebrations of Anniversaries — Public meeting to consider the 
 clnims of Col. Fremont to the office of Governor of the Territory.— Sale of beach and water 
 lots. — Election of the first town council. — The first public school. — Gales in San Francisco Bay. — 
 The first steamboat. — Thanksgiving Day. — Commercial Statistics. 
 
 Having got the new town of San Francisco fairly planned, and 
 given some general notion to the reader of the elementary com- 
 position of its inhabitants, shortly before the time when the dis- 
 covery of gold was altogether to change its appearance and char- 
 acter, we shall now turn back a little in the order of time, and 
 detail such few scattered notices of previous events as may seem 
 to us worthy of being recorded among the " Annals " of the 
 place. 
 
 1846. 
 
 July 8th. — The American flag was, on the morning of this day, 
 hoisted in the plaza, or public square of Yerba Buena, by Capt. 
 Montgomery, of the United States sloop-of-war Portsmouth, then 
 lying in the bay. Two days before Commodore Sloat had despatch- 
 ed a messenger to Capt. Montgomery, informing him of his in- 
 tention to raise the American flag at Monterey, and commanding 
 him to do the same in the northern parts of the province around 
 the Bay of San Francisco. This Montgomery did at the above 
 
186 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 date, accompanied by a party of seventy sailors and marines, 
 and under a salute of twenty-one guns from the Portsmouth. 
 The plaza at this time received the name of Portsmouth Square, 
 and the street lying on the beach was called Montgomery Street. It 
 may be mentioned that the American flag was raised at Sonoma 
 on the 10th of this month ; and soon afterwards at every princi- 
 pal place in the northern portion of California, where it was 
 generally beheld with tranquillity, if not with applause. 
 
 July 31st. — The ship " Brooklyn " arrived in San Francisco 
 Bay with a company of Mormon and other immigrants from New 
 York. On landing at Yerba Buena, they immediately set up 
 their tents among the sand-hills close to the beach. Very soon 
 disputes began to arise between the Mormon people and their 
 leaders, which ended in an open rupture, and a secession from 
 their body of several of the principal men. Mr. Samuel Brannan, 
 one of the most prominent of the party, was bitterly reviled, and 
 accused of sundry malversations in his office as president of the 
 association and as one of the managers of their funds. A jury 
 trial — the first ever seen in California — was the consequence ; in 
 which Mr. Brannan was successful. These proceedings had the 
 effect of preventing the Mormons at this time from selecting lands 
 together and establishing themselves as a distinct community. 
 Soon afterwards many of them volunteered to serve in the war in 
 California, and joined Colonel Fremont's battalion. 
 
 September 8th. — The people of Yerba Buena, though still 
 few in number, and particularly deficient in the fair sex, seemed 
 determined to enjoy fife while they might. A grand ball was 
 given on the evening of this day at the residence of Mr. William 
 A. Leidesdorff, by the officers in the service of the United States, 
 and by the citizens of the town ; when upwards of one hundred 
 Californian and American ladies were present, with a large num- 
 ber of gentlemen. The dancing was very spirited, and kept up 
 till daylight. This was the first gathering of ladies and gentle- 
 men since the hoisting of the American flag. It was not long 
 allowed to be the only one ; for on the 18 th of the same month, 
 we find Capt. Simmons, of the American whale-ship " Magnolia," 
 giving a nautical fete on board his ship on the evening of that 
 day. One hundred and fifty family invitations were issued in 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOL PROPOSED. 
 
 187 
 
 Yerba Buena and around the bay. From repeated traces whicb 
 we find, of subsequent balls, grand dinners and suppers, and 
 other festive entertainments, it may be presumed that the 
 people of Yerba Buena were an exceedingly gay set. Business 
 was brisk, and the town thriving ; while the majority of the pop- 
 ulation being unmarried and without proper homes, it seemed 
 that some such kind of continual public diversion was the only 
 way in which they could unbend their minds from the contem- 
 plation of the " almighty dollar," and enjoy themselves. 
 
 October 5th. — This day, His Excellency, Commodore 
 Robert F. Stockton, the governor and commander-in-chief of 
 California, was honored with a public reception on the occasion 
 of a visit to San Francisco. At a preliminary meeting to make 
 the necessary arrangements, nearly every male adult of the place 
 had been present ; and on this day again all turned out in pro- 
 cession, to welcome the commodore. After the magistracy of the 
 district and foreign consuls, there came the committee of manage- 
 ment and the masters of the ships in port, concluding with a 
 long line of citizens. A military escort and band of music 
 attended on the occasion. General M. Gr. Vallejo, with several 
 other native gentlemen who had held office under the last govern- 
 ment, also appeared in the procession. We may mention that 
 the general (many of whose relations were American or English), 
 and some other leading Californians, had been early of opinion 
 that the best hopes for their country lay in immediate annexation 
 to the United States ; and, accordingly, on all occasions, when duty 
 permitted, they had been firm friends to the Americans. After 
 an appropriate address to Commodore Stockton, in which he was 
 complimented upon his efforts and success in reducing California, 
 and a suitable reply by him, the ceremonies of the day, after a 
 long procession to the mission and back again, concluded by an 
 excellent collation, followed by a ball in the evening. 
 
 1847. 
 
 January. — Various attempts have been made of late to es- 
 tablish a public school. The " California Star " has weekly been 
 calling attention to this important subject. At last a committee 
 was appointed to ascertain the amount of subscriptions that 
 
188 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 might be expected from the inhabitants, the cost of the building 
 and the salary of the teacher. Very unlike the usual proceedings 
 of the citizens, much time and talk seem to have been lost on this 
 subject ; nor was the object wished for obtained till upwards of 
 twelve months after this date. 
 
 It was in this month that the term Yerba Buena was changed 
 into San Francisco, by an ordinance of the alcalde, as stated in 
 the preceding chapter. There were only about fifty houses at 
 this period in the whole place, most of which were small single 
 story buildings, constructed chiefly of adobes. They were scat- 
 tered irregularly over the space lying between the foot of Tele- 
 graph Hill and Happy Valley. In April, of this year, the pop- 
 ulation numbered three hundred and seventy-five, without 
 reckoning the Indians, who were by this time few in number. 
 
 February 3d. — A public meeting was held on the evening of 
 this day to consider the alarming situation of a party of immi- 
 grants, who the previous year had attempted to reach California 
 by a new route through the Great Basin ; but who, in ignorance 
 of the country and other causes, had been so long delayed on the 
 journey, that they were caught among the winter snows of the 
 Sierra Nevada, where some of them had already perished, and 
 the remainder were in imminent peril. Not content, however, 
 with a mere expression of feeling, the meeting subscribed nearly 
 fifteen hundred dollars, and immediately fitted out an expedition 
 of twenty men, with an old mountaineer as guide, to proceed to 
 the mountains with supplies to the sufferers, and to assist in ex- 
 tricating them from danger. Other expeditions, from various 
 parts of the country, one of which was organized and altogether 
 maintained at the personal charges of the benevolent Capt. Sutter 
 of New Helvetia, likewise made the attempt to penetrate the 
 mountains, and carry glad tidings and safety to the unfortunates. 
 By these means those still alive were all rescued by the middle 
 of spring. The descriptions given by the survivors, and by such 
 members of the expeditions as were able to reach them, show a 
 state of things of the most painful and horrible character. Many 
 indeed had perished, through excessive cold and exposure to the 
 weather, bodily fatigue and sheer hunger. When the provisions 
 of the party were exhausted, and there was no strength nor oppor- 
 
SUFFERING IMMIGRANTS. 
 
 189 
 
 tunities left to kill game for rood, necessity forced them to feed 
 upon the dead bodies of their companions, two of whom (Indian 
 guides), a small detached party of the white people killed for 
 their support. Some even began to relish this kind of food, and 
 sought it in preference when other provisions might have been 
 obtained. One man, particularly, named Kiesburg, was suspected 
 
 Suffering Immigrants. 
 
 of foul murders to enable him to gratify this new and unnatural 
 propensity. Before the time of trial, however, was over, all were 
 glad enough of opportunities to partake of the horrid messes of 
 human blood and uncooked entrails. 
 
 Packed closely together to preserve animal heat, in miserably 
 small tents, with masses of snow beneath and around them, while 
 piercing winds and snow blasts penetrated through all their de- 
 fences, and the temperature was much below the freezing point, 
 these unhappy beings for months saw only ultimate destruction 
 from cold and hunger before them. There were husbnnds and 
 
190 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 wives, parents and children, all bearing the same physical suffer- 
 ing, and the elders likewise the mental anguish of thinking upon 
 the sad fate of their little ones and the females dependent on them. 
 Snow had begun to fall earlier than usual among the mountains, 
 and when the party had arrived at the eastern side of the great 
 pass across the Sierra Nevada, it lay too soft and deep for them 
 to proceed. To retrace their steps was impossible ; and, accord- 
 ingly, they were forced to encamp where they were, with all the 
 gloomy months of winter before them, unprepared, in every respect, 
 in clothing, food, and lodging. Soon despair filled every heart ; 
 while the stealthy approaches of starvation and the daily sight of 
 their misery brought insanity in their train. Many died raving 
 mad ; while the minds of all were in some sense affected by the 
 horror of their situation. By great efforts and much physical ex- 
 ertion some few scattered members of the company managed to 
 struggle through the snowy barrier, and slowly and painfully, 
 reached the nearest settlements on the western slope of the moun- 
 tains. The warm hearts of the settlers beat with generous emo- 
 tion on hearing the sad tidings from the few who had thus escaped, 
 and soon the whole country around San Francisco Bay was aroused 
 to carry relief to the people still among the snows.' 
 
 The following notice of the appearance of the suffering immi- 
 grants when the relief party reached them, is taken from the " Cal- 
 ifornia Star " of the 10th April, 1847 :— 
 
 " The bones of those who had died and been devoured by the miserable ones 
 that still survived, were lying around their tents and cabins. Bodies of men, 
 women and children, with half the flesh torn from them, lay on every side. A 
 woman sat by the side of the body of her husband, who had just died, cutting 
 out his tongue ; the heart she had already taken out, broiled and eat ! The 
 daughter was seen eating the flesh of the father — the mother that of her chil- 
 dren — children that of father and mother. The emaciated, wild and ghastly 
 appearance of the survivors added horror to the scene. Language cannot de- 
 scribe the awful change that a few weeks of dire suffering had wrought in the 
 minds of the wretched and piteous beings. Those who but one month before 
 would have shuddered at the thought of eating human flesh, or of killing their 
 companions and relatives to preserve their own lives, now looked upon the 
 opportunity by these acts afforded them of escaping the most dreadful of deaths, 
 as a providential interference in their behalf. Calculations were coldly made, 
 as they sat gloomily around their camp fires, for the next and succeeding meals. 
 Various expedients were devised to prevent the dreadful crime of murder ; but 
 
SUFFERING IMMIGRANTS. 
 
 191 
 
 they finally resolved to kill those who had the least claims to longer exist- 
 ence. Just at this moment, however, as if by divine interposition, some of 
 them died, which afforded the rest temporary relief. Some sunk into the arms 
 of death cursing God for their miserable fate, while the last whisperings of 
 others were prayers and songs of praise to the Almighty. 
 
 " After the first few deaths, but the one all-absorbing thought of individual 
 self-preservation prevailed. The fountains of natural affection were dried up. 
 The chords that once vibrated with connubial, parental and filial affection were 
 rent asunder, and each one seemed resolved, without regard to the fate of oth- 
 ers, to escape from the impending calamity. Even the wild hostile mountain 
 Indians, who once visited their camps, pitied them ; and instead of pursuing 
 the natural impulse of their hostile feelings to the whites, and destroying 
 them, as they easily could have done, divided their own scanty supply of food 
 with them. 
 
 " So changed had the immigrants become, that when the party sent out 
 arrived with food, some of them cast it aside, and seemed to prefer the putrid 
 human flesh that still remained. The day before the party arrived, one of the 
 immigrants took a child of about four years of age in bed with him, and de- 
 voured the whole before morning, and the next day eat another about the same 
 age before noon. 
 
 " It is thought that several more of these unfortunate people might have 
 been saved, but for their determination not to leave their property. Some of 
 them who started, loaded themselves with their money and other effects to 
 such an extent that they sunk under them, and died on the road." 
 
 It was expected that this calamity would have had a serious 
 influence iu deterring future immigration into California from the 
 United States. But the discovery of gold immediately afterwards 
 destroyed all calculations on the subject, and sent headlong tens 
 of thousands across the plains and over t he Rocky and Snowy Moun- 
 tains where the above party had suffered so much, to encounter 
 in some cases nearly the same amount of misery as they. We 
 have seen that the town of San Francisco nobly did its duty on 
 the lamentable occasion. Of the eighty individuals who composed 
 the party, of whom forty-eight were males and thirty-two females, 
 thirty-six perished. Of these, twenty-eight were males, and only 
 eight females. The story of their sufferings and end make a strik- 
 ing incident in the history of California, and is worthy of being 
 recorded in the " Annals of San Francisco," if it were only to 
 mark the liberal exertions made by its citizens in their behalf. 
 
 February 21st— Dr. F. Forgeaud, C. L. Ross, Dr. J. Town- 
 send, J. Serrine and W. H. Davis, were appointed trustees of the 
 proposed school. 
 
192 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 March 4th. — A meeting of citizens was held this day to con- 
 sider the propriety of resolving, that the District of San Francisco 
 should be fitly represented by one member in the new legislative 
 council, convened by the governor, until a proper constitution 
 should be obtained for the Territory ; when it was resolved to that 
 effect, and Mr. J. G\ T. Dunleavy was chosen by a majority of 
 votes, to be representative accordingly. It appeared that the 
 legislative council, recently organized by Com. Stockton, consisted 
 of seven individuals, four of whom were Californians, one English- 
 man and two Americans ; while it. was an undoubted fact that 
 the majority of the white population was from the United States, 
 and the constant immigration was daily increasing this majority. 
 Similar meetings complaining of the insufficient American repre- 
 sentation in the council were held at Sonoma, Santa Clara, and 
 other places, at which American delegates were chosen to repre- 
 sent their interests, the governor being entreated by these meet- 
 ings to accept of their choice, and formally to re-appoint their 
 nominees as members of the legislative council. It does not ap- 
 pear that any notice was taken of these proceedings, or that the 
 "people's choice" became also His Excellency's. The latter alone 
 had the complete control of the Government — which, so long as 
 war with Mexico lasted, was necessarily a military one — and ap- 
 pointed only such officers to assist him in the same as suited his 
 personal views of the subject. 
 
 March 6th. — The ship Thomas H. Perkins arrived from New 
 York, bringing Col. Stevenson of the New York volunteers, and 
 the first detachment of his regiment. With few exceptions, the 
 volunteers were mechanics and single men; and as they were enlist- 
 ed t o serve during the war, and when peace came, to be disbanded 
 only in California, it was expected that they would nearly all re- 
 main as permanent settlers in the country. The colonel himself 
 and all his officers, had likewise expressed their wish and deter- 
 mination to make California their home after the termination of 
 hostilities. 
 
 March 13th. — There were in the harbor at this date six 
 square-rigged vessels, viz. : the United States ship Cyane, the 
 ships Moscow, Vandalia, Barnstable, Thomas H. Perkins, and the 
 brig Euphemia. 
 
CELEBRATION OF ANNIVERSARIES. 
 
 193 
 
 March 20th. — The local newspaper, the " California Star," 
 is pleased, at last, to acquiesce, very unwillingly, in the change of 
 name from Yerba Buena to San Francisco ; and to-day, for the 
 first time, dates its leader from the latter. This change seems 
 not to have gratified every party. Mr. Semple, of the Monterey 
 " Californian," and Mr. T. 0. Larkin, who had jointly founded 
 the new city of Francisca, on the Strait of Carquinez, afraid lest 
 their rising town should be confounded and lost in the name and 
 fame of San Francisco, were forced to change the appellation of 
 the former to Benicia. In those days, Benicia was anticipated by 
 many to be the great future rival of San Francisco. Later times 
 have shown how unnecessary fear was on the subject. 
 
 April. — Semi-monthly mails established between San Fran- 
 cisco and San Diego and intermediate places. 
 
 May 6th. — A public meeting was held to consider the pro- 
 priety of erecting a church in the town ; when a committee 
 was appointed for the purpose of taking steps to procure the erec- 
 tion. 
 
 May 28th. — First grand illumination in San Francisco. This 
 was in honor of General Taylor's great victory over the Mexicans 
 at Buena Vista. Every building in the town, of frame or adobe, 
 and shanty itself, shone with as much lustre as an unlimited al- 
 lowance of oil and tallow could bestow. Fire-arms cracked, and 
 bonfires blazed on all sides. 
 
 J uly. — Two great anniversaries were held this month, in a 
 becoming manner, at San Francisco, viz. : the independence-day 
 of the United States, on the 4th, — and the independence or con- 
 quest-day of California, on the 7th ; on which latter day, in the 
 previous year, the American flag had been hoisted at Monterey by 
 Com. Sloat. We have already had occasion to notice the cele- 
 bration of a " glorious fourth," just eleven years before, when Mr. 
 Leese had erected the first solid building (his house being of frame, 
 while Capt. Richardson's, erected the preceding year, was only a 
 canvas-covered tent), that was seen in Yerba Buena. Then the 
 country was Mexican, and while the guests were chiefly of that 
 nation, the flags of both Mexico and the United States floated 
 amicably together. Now — only eleven years later — the country 
 ■was American, and her flag alone was displayed, while the vast 
 13 
 
194 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 majority of those who shared in the festival was of that nation. 
 What a wonderful change these few years had made in the char- 
 acter and prospects of the country ! As before we had occasion 
 to chronicle Mr. Leese's musicians, his six pounders, his dinner, 
 drinks, dancing and general festivities ; so we may here say, that 
 the day of 1847 was celebrated in a similar manner, under salutes 
 from men of war in the bay, and the presidio, when people on 
 shore processed to musical strains, and when flags waved, and 
 much powder was burned, and the citizens speechified and hur- 
 rahed, toasted, drank, danced and made merry as is usual on 
 such occasions. The 7 th was observed in a similar fashion. 
 
 July 14th. — On this day was held a public meeting of a large 
 number of citizens to consider the conduct of Col. Fremont in Cal- 
 ifornia, and his claims to be chosen by the President of the Uni- 
 ted States as Governor of the Territory. It appears that after 
 the colonel's volunteer regiment of "mounted riflemen" was 
 disbanded, there had been no money forthcoming for the arrears 
 of pay, or even to reimburse the heavy pecuniary loss and outlay 
 which many of the officers and men had incurred. Governor 
 Kearny, and his successor, Governor Mason, would not, or could 
 not, make such payments from the territorial exchequer, or ra- 
 ther grant available warrants upon the national treasury without 
 the previous sanction of Congress. They had accepted a country 
 conquered partly by these very volunteers, and had entered upon 
 possession of its revenues, and yet would not, or cruelly delayed 
 to pay the necessary cost. Col. Fremont therefore appeared, in 
 the mean time, the only debtor ; but as it was impossible that he 
 could pretend to be able to make payment of the very large sums 
 disbursed on account of the war in California, and for the benefit 
 solely of the United States, much personal dissatisfaction was ex- 
 pressed against him by all who had suffered in this way, and by 
 many sympathizing friends, especially in the northern districts of 
 the country. In the southern quarters, from whence he had drawn 
 few or no volunteers, and owed therefore neither pay nor supplies, 
 the colonel had become exceedingly popular ; and this although he 
 had been a successful invader. In these parts of the country a 
 petition had been got up and was numerously signed, praying 
 Congress to appoint him Governor of California. The same peti- 
 
ELECTION OF A TOWN COUNCIL. 
 
 195 
 
 tion being taken northwards for the approval and signatures of 
 the Americans around San Francisco Bay, excited much angry 
 feeling on the subject. Col. Fremont was in danger of losing all 
 his recent popularity, and in the rage and injustice of the moment, 
 was even denied many of the claims, formerly advanced and else- 
 where allowed, to the heroic part he had taken in the conquest 
 of the country. At the meeting above mentioned, a committee 
 of eight gentlemen was formed to investigate and publish all re- 
 liable instances of his misconduct ; and meantime, the meeting 
 protested against his being chosen as their governor by Congress. 
 It may just farther be stated on this subject, that Congress, a 
 considerable time afterwards, allotted a large sum to satisfy all 
 claims against Fremont on account of the war in California, and 
 which naturally fell upon the United States as accepting the coun- 
 try reduced to their hands. 
 
 July 20th. — Beginning of the great sale of beach and water 
 lots in San Francisco, as detailed in a preceding chapter. 
 
 July 28th. — The alcalde, Mr. George Hyde, selected six gen- 
 tlemen to assist him in disposing of the great and daily accumu- 
 lation of municipal business. These were the ayuntamiento, or 
 " town council," as they were called, and were to remain in office 
 until the governor should think fit formally to cause an election 
 to take place among the citizens to fill their places. According- 
 ly, on 
 
 August 15th, Governor Mason issued an ordinance addressed 
 to Mr. Hyde, in regard to such an election. As it explains the 
 manner in which the municipal government was carried on in those 
 days, we quote the principal portion of it : — 
 
 " There is wanted in San Francisco an efficient town government, more so 
 than is in the power of an alcalde to put in force. There may he soon expect- 
 ed a large number of whalers in your bay, and a large increase of your popu- 
 lation by the arrival of immigrants. It is therefore highly necessary that you 
 should at an early day have an efficient town police, proper town laws, town 
 officers, &c, for enforcement of the laws, for the preservation of order, and for 
 the proper protection of persons and property. 
 
 " I therefore desire that you call a town meeting for the election of six 
 persons, who when elected shall constitute the town council, and who in con- 
 junction with the alcalde shall constitute the town authorities until the end 
 of the year 1848. 
 
196 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 " All the municipal laws and regulations will be framed by the council, 
 but executed by the alcalde in his judicial capacity as at present. 
 
 " The first alcalde will preside at all meetings of the council, but shall have 
 no vote, except in cases where the votes are equally divided. 
 
 " The town council (not less than four of whom shall constitute a quorum 
 for the transaction of business), to appoint all the town officers, such as trea- 
 surer, constables, watchmen, &c, and to determine their pay, fees, &c. 
 
 " The treasurer to enter into ample and sufficient bonds, conditioned for 
 the faithful performance of his duties : the bonds to be fully executed to the 
 satisfaction of the council before the treasurer enters upon his duties. 
 
 " The second alcalde shall, in case of the absence of the first aloalde, take 
 his place and preside at the council, and there perform all the proper functions 
 of the first alcalde. 
 
 " No soldier, sailor or marine, nor any person who is not a bona fide resi- 
 dent of the town shall be allowed to vote for a member of the town council." 
 
 In pursuance of the foregoing order, Mr. Hyde fixed the elec- 
 tion for six members for a town council, upon 
 
 September 13th. — We give the names of the gentlemen elect- 
 ed, along with the names of those who had previously been ap- 
 pointed by the alcalde, as an interim council : — 
 
 Councillors elected. No. of votes. Councillors chosen by Alcalde. 
 
 The town council chose Mr. Leidesdorff their treasurer. The 
 first alcalde was Mr. George Hyde ; and the second, Dr. T. M. 
 Leavenworth. Immediately after the formation of the town 
 council, its members entered with spirit upon the duties of their 
 office. They passed a multitude of laws affecting the general 
 interests of the town, regulating the streets and buildings, the 
 licensing and character of business allowed, appointed constables, 
 &c. Soon, therefore, the place became to assume a steady pro- 
 gressive appearance, and some fair sort of order was every where 
 established. This council may be said to have had every thing 
 to do to found the city. Our work would swell beyond all rea- 
 sonable limits, should we attempt to name every public act of 
 importance — when nearly all they did was new and of vital con- 
 
 William Glover, 
 William D. M. Howard, 
 William A. Leidesdorff, 
 E. P. Jones, 
 Robert A. Parker, 
 William S. Clark, 
 
 12G 
 114 
 109 
 88 
 74 
 72 
 
 William A. Leidesdorff. 
 Robert A. Parker. 
 Jose P. Thompson. 
 Pedro T. Sherreback. 
 John Rose. 
 
 Benjamin R. Buckelew. 
 
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY. 
 
 197 
 
 sequence to the well-being of San Francisco — performed by this 
 council. We can only, therefore, give an occasional notice in 
 future of their proceedings. One, however, of their earliest reso- 
 lutions may just be glanced at, viz. : the rescinding of those con- 
 ditions in the sale of town lands, which made it imperative on the 
 buyer to fence in and erect a building upon his lot within a year 
 after the purchase. One effect of this was certainly to encourage 
 speculation, since jobbers in lots could now safely hold an inde- 
 finite number, when not obliged to erect buildings upon them 
 within a limited time. 
 
 September 24th. — Messrs. Leidesdorff, Glover and Clark 
 were appointed by the town council a committee to take measures 
 for the establishment of a public school. Various resolutions 
 were subsequently passed by the council on this subject, and after 
 much public agitation, at length, on 17th March, 1848, a teacher 
 was appointed, with a salary of one thousand dollars ; and on the 
 3d of April following, Mr. Thomas Douglas formally opened the 
 long delayed and much needed school, for the instruction of the 
 youth of both sexes. This was the first public seminary estab- 
 lished in San Francisco. 
 
 October 20th. — A severe Norther visited the harbor which 
 did considerable damage to the shipping. Similar furious gales 
 have since been experienced every year, when more or less loss 
 has been occasioned to the shipping and to the wharves them- 
 selves. The exposure to excessive winds from the north and south- 
 east is one of the most serious drawbacks to the safety and con- 
 venience of the port. The extension of the city, in late years, 
 over the waters of Yerba Buena Cove, has increased the liability 
 of vessels to damage during the prevalence of these winds. 
 
 November 15th. — " The Steamboat," — being the only one it 
 had no distinct name, — performed an experimental trip round 
 " Wood Island." This was but a small concern which had been 
 brought by Mr. Leidesdorff from Sitka. It was the first vessel of 
 the kind in San Francisco Bay, and was quite a pet or plaything 
 in its way. Two days afterwards " the steamboat " sailed for 
 Santa Clara. In February following it was lost in a Norther. 
 
 November 18th. — The first "Thanksgiving Day" celebra- 
 ted in New England style. Public worship was performed at the 
 
198 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 house of Mr. Lincoln. The " Sons of New England " afterwards 
 had a public dinner. 
 
 December 31st. — The following statistics show the extent of 
 the commerce of San Francisco for the three months ending this 
 day : — 
 
 Total value of exports, $49,597.53 ; imports, $53,589.73. 
 Of the amount of exports, §30,353.85, represent the native pro- 
 duce of California, and were shipped as follows : — To the Sand- 
 wich Islands, $320 ; Peru, $21,448.35; Mazatlan, $560 ; Sitka, 
 $7,285.50 ; Tahiti, $700. The other exports, amounting to 
 $19,343.68, were the produce of foreign countries, and were ship- 
 ped as follows :— $2,060 to the United States ; $12,442.18 (of 
 which $11,340 were coined gold and silver), to the Sandwich Isl- 
 ands ; and $4,831.50 to Mazatlan. The imports came from the 
 following countries : — United States, $6,790.54 ; Oregon, $7,- 
 701.59 ; Chili, $3,676.44 ; Sandwich Islands, $31,740.73 ; Sit- 
 ka, $2,471.32 ; Bremen, $550.54 ; and Mexico, $160. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 1848. 
 
 Resolutions concerning gambling. — Public sale of City Property.— Price Current published.— Condi- 
 tion and population of the town. — Overland express to Independence, Mo. — George Hyde, al- 
 calde, resigned, and succeeded by Dr. J. Townsend. — Death of Wm. A. Leidesdorff.— Discovery 
 of gold, and immediate effects. — Illumination in celebration of the peace between Mexico and 
 the United States. — Dr. T. M. Leavenworth elected alcalde. — First brick house. — Public meeting 
 to regulate the price of gold dust. — First square-rigged vessel discharged at Broadway wharf. — 
 Judicial limits of the town. — Rev. T. D. Hunt chosen chaplain. — First issue of the "Star and 
 Californian." — State of the markets.— Public meeting to organize a Provisional Government — 
 New town council elected. — Election declared invalid. — Duties collected at the Custom-Houso 
 
 January 11th. — Stringent resolutions were passed by the 
 council regarding gambling. This vice had been growing in 
 popular favor, and at this period and for years afterwards, be- 
 came one of the leading characteristics of the inhabitants. Be- 
 sides heavily fining parties engaged in gambling, one of the 
 resolutions authorized the authorities " to seize for the benefit of 
 the town all the money found on a gambling table where cards 
 are played." If this had been in force a short time afterwards, 
 when the gold discoveries had enriched thousands, and the reck- 
 less miners hurried to San Francisco to spend their gains in the 
 great public gaming saloons of the period, the town in a single 
 night would have become wealthy. But at the next meeting of 
 the council these resolutions were all repealed. 
 
 March 5th. — A great public sale took place by the town of 
 some of its real estate. The preferable lots had already been 
 secured by speculators, under the old regulations, at a nominal 
 price, by private arrangement with the alcalde. The prices ob- 
 tained at this sale do not show much advance in the value of 
 town property, since the lots only brought from sixteen to fifty 
 dollars, averaging about twenty-two dollars and fifty cents each 
 for fifty-two lots. It is certain, however, that the value of desi- 
 
200 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 rable locations was immensely higher than this ; and the citizens, 
 from their eagerness in getting up houses, and the high prices of 
 labor and building materials, seem to have been satisfied on this 
 subject. The population of the town was fast improving. 
 
 March 15th. — As a sign of the times, a weekly wholesale 
 price-current was first published in San Francisco in the columns 
 of the " Californian " of this date. In the " California Star," of 
 the 18 th instant, likewise appeared a similar document, and re- 
 marks on the state of the market, for the first time. 
 
 About this period the population of the town was ascertained 
 by the Board of School Trustees, in canvassing the place for edu- 
 cational purposes, to be, 575 male and 177 female adults, and 60 
 children of ages to attend school, making a total of 812. Adding 
 the number of infants and children still too young to attend 
 school, the whole number of inhabitants amounted to about 850. 
 The buildings of all kinds numbered 200. There were two large 
 hotels in the place, besides boarding and public houses, and 
 houses attached to ten-pin alleys, billiard saloons, &c. ; so that 
 the town was becoming one of some consequence, and was assum- 
 ing the pretensions and attractions of older, wealthier and more 
 populous communities. Two wharves were in the course of con- 
 struction, and extensive stores and warehouses had been erected. 
 There were twelve mercantile houses established, consisting of 
 agencies for large firms in the East and in the Sandwich Islands, 
 auction and commission houses, and importers from the United 
 Stales direct. The facilities for discharging ships and filling 
 them anew with cargo, were rapidly increasing. There was 
 much bustle, and even enthusiasm among the inhabitants, which 
 promised a flattering future to the town. Current expenses were 
 too high to prevent immediate fortunes being made ; still most 
 persons in business believed they were laying the firm foundations 
 of early wealth. 
 
 April 1st. — The " California Star Express " left San Fran- 
 cisco, to proceed overland to Independence, Mo. The passage 
 was guaranteed to be accomplished in sixty days. Fifty cents 
 was charged as the postage on single letters. 
 
 April 3d. — The first public school was opened. Dr. J. 
 Townsend was also sworn in before the council, as first alcalde, 
 
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVEEY OF GOLD. 201 
 
 vice George Hyde, resigned. Serious complaints had been made 
 in regard to Mr. Hyde's conduct in office, which, being reported 
 to Governor Mason, led to a formal inquiry on the subject. 
 Some nine or ten charges of a criminal nature were made against 
 the former alcalde, only two of which were ultimately held to be 
 established by proof. These, in the whole circumstances of the 
 case, seemed insufficient to warrant His Excellency to remove 
 Mr. Hyde from office. But as popular clamor was somewhat 
 loud and vexatious on the matter, that gentleman thought fit to 
 resign his trust. 
 
 May 18th. — Mr. Wm. A. LeidesdorfF died of the brain 
 fever. This gentleman was the United States vice-consul at San 
 Francisco, and was closely connected with all the interests of the 
 place. His decease was much regretted by the town's people, a 
 large number of whom attended in his funeral procession. All 
 places of business and entertainment were closed on the occasion, 
 the flags at the barracks and of the vessels in port hung at half- 
 mast during the day ; while minute guns were fired as the burial 
 train moved on towards the Mission Dolores, in the church- 
 yard of which place the body was interred. Mr. Leidcsdorff was 
 of Danish extraction, and of the Roman Catholic religion. He 
 had been nearly nine years in business in San Francisco, and 
 was about thirty-six years old. The property he left was of con- 
 siderable value at the time of his death, (though heavily bur- 
 dened with debts ;) while, as much of it consisted of real estate, 
 on which the growing city afterwards spread, its value at this 
 date is immense. The deceased left no legal heirs on the spot, 
 and his estate was administered by Mr. Wm. D. M. Howard, 
 under authority of the alcalde, for behoof of all concerned. 
 Much litigation, among parties claiming to be administrators, or 
 heirs or assignees of heirs of the deceased, afterwards resulted, 
 which it is believed is not yet fairly ended. The law proceedings 
 and history of the estate generally form quite an event in the 
 annals of the town, and deserve a more particular notice, which 
 will be given in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 The promising state of things in San Francisco shortly be- 
 fore described was now to be suddenly checked by means which, 
 unpromising at first, ultimately led to the most extraordinary 
 
202 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 prosperity in the city. Early in the spiing of this year, occa- 
 sional intelligence had been received of the finding of gold in 
 large quantities among the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, the 
 particulars of which discovery we have already given. Small 
 parcels of the precious metal had also been forwarded ' to San 
 Francisco, while visitors from the mines, and some actual diggers 
 arrived, to tell the wonders of the region and the golden gains of 
 those engaged in exploring and working it. In consequence of 
 such representations, the inhabitants began gradually, in bands 
 and singly, to desert their previous occupations, and betake 
 themselves to the American River and other auriferous parts of 
 the great Sacramento valley. Labor, from the deficiency of 
 hands, rose rapidly in value, and soon all business and work, ex- 
 cept the most urgent, was forced to be stopped. Seamen deserted 
 from their ships in the bay and soldiers from the barracks. 
 Over all the country the excitement was the same. Neither 
 threats, punishment nor money could keep men to their most 
 solemn engagements. Gold was the irresistible magnet that drew 
 human souls to the place where it lay, rudely snapping asunder 
 the feebler ties of affection and duty. Avarice and the overween- 
 ing desire to be suddenly rich, from whence sprang the hope and 
 moral certainty of being so, grew into a disease, and the infection 
 spread on all sides, and led to a general migration of every class 
 of the community to the golden quarters. The daily laborer, 
 who had worked for the good and at the command of another, 
 for one or two dollars a day, could not be restrained from flying 
 to the happy spot where he could earn six or ten times the 
 amount, and might possibly gain a hundred or even a thousand 
 times the sum iu one lucky day's chance. Then the life, at 
 worst, promised to be one of continual adventure and excitement, 
 and the miner was his own master. While this was the case 
 with the common laborer, his employer, wanting his services, sud- 
 denly found his occupation at an end ; while shopkeepers and the 
 like, dependent on both, discovered themselves in the same pre- 
 dicament. The glowing tales of the successful miners all the 
 while reached their ears, and threw their own steady and large 
 gains comparatively in the shade. They therefore could do no 
 better, in a pecuniary sense even, for themselves, than to hasten 
 
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 203 
 
 after their old servants, and share in their new labor and its ex- 
 traordinary gains, or pack up their former business stock, and 
 travelling with it to the mines, open their new stores and shops 
 and stalls, and dispose of their old articles to the fortunate dig- 
 gers, at a rise of five hundred or a thousand per cent. 
 
 Kush for the gold regions. 
 
 In the month of May it was computed that, at least one 
 hundred and fifty people had left San Francisco, and every day 
 since was adding to their number. Some were occasionally re- 
 turning from the auriferous quarter ; but they had little time to 
 stop and expatiate upon what they had seen. They had hastily 
 come back, as they had hastily gone away at first, leaving their 
 household and business to waste and ruin, now to fasten more 
 properly their houses, and remove goods, family and all, at once 
 to the gold region. Their hurried movements, more even than 
 the words they uttered, excited the curiosity and then the eager 
 desire of others to accompany them. And so it was. Day after 
 
204 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 day the hay was covered with launches filled with the inhabitants 
 and their goods, hastening up the Sacramento. This state of 
 matters soon came to a head ; and master and man alike hur- 
 ried to the placeres, leaving San Francisco, like a place where 
 the plague reigns, forsaken by its old inhabitants, a melancholy 
 solitude. 
 
 On the 29th of May the " Californian " published a fly-sheet, 
 apologizing for the future non-issue of the paper, until better 
 days came, when they might expect to retain their servants for 
 some amount of remuneration, which at present was impossible, 
 as all, from the " subs " to the " devil," had indignantly rejected 
 every offer, and gone off to the diggings. "The whole country," 
 said the last editorial of the paper, "from San Francisco to 
 Los Angeles, and from the sea shore to the base of the Sierra 
 Nevada, resounds with the sordid cry of gold ! gold ! ! GOLD ! ! ! 
 — while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and 
 every thing neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pick- 
 axes, and the means of transportation to the spot where one man 
 obtained one hundred and twenty-eight dollars' worth of the real 
 stuff in one day's washing, and the average for all concerned is 
 twenty dollars per diem ! " 
 
 On the 14th of June the "California Star" likewise ceased. 
 In the explanatory fly-sheet, the editor simply and sadly said, 
 that his paper " could not be made by magic, and the labor of 
 mechanism was as essential to its existence as to all other arts." 
 And as every body was deserting him, why, the press and the pa- 
 per stopped together — that was all. 
 
 July 15th. — The "Californian" revives, and promises an 
 occasional paper, if that can be managed. It gives this day the 
 first intelligence of the French revolution, under the alarming 
 head, " The whole world at war ! " though little did the gold- 
 diggers and the speculative traders in San Francisco care about 
 that. It chronicles likewise the observance of another " glorious 
 fourth " which was held in the town as spiritedly as the few re- 
 maining inhabitants could manage. The rest of the news, and 
 many of the advertisements were about the mines and gold. 
 The city itself afforded few items of intelligence, except the con- 
 tinued desertion of the place, and the high and increasing prices 
 
PRICE OF GOLD DUST ESTABLISHED. 
 
 205 
 
 of labor. The council had not met for two months ; and its 
 members, with many officials of the town, had all " gone to the 
 diggings." 
 
 July 25th. — Governor Mason issued a proclamation calling 
 on the people to assist the authorities in apprehending deserters, 
 who had now become very numerous from both the army and 
 navy service. 
 
 July 31st. — His Excellency consents to receive gold dust in 
 payment of duties at the custom-house at a low rate, with right 
 of redemption of the whole by the payer, within one hundred 
 and eighty days, or of the half within ninety days, upon giving 
 the proper amount in gold or silver coin. Several public meet- 
 ings have been held on this subject, in which the community was 
 much interested. 
 
 August 11th. — A second grand illumination. This time it 
 was in celebration of the peace between Mexico and the United 
 States, the official news of which reached Monterey on the 6th 
 instant. In the early part of the day guns were fired on all 
 sides, from the presidio and barracks, ships in harbor, and by 
 every youngster on shore who happily owned, or could buy, bor- 
 row, or steal a little gunpowder and a fire-arm, from a musket 
 to a rusty key with a priming-hole filed across the barrel. A 
 cavalcade of citizens proceeded through the streets. In the 
 evening, the windows of every house remaining inhabited were 
 illuminated, many of them brilliantly. Tar barrels and bonfires 
 blazed on all sides. Squibs, crackers and pistols boomed oft" in 
 harmony with the general rejoicing. 
 
 August 29th. — Dr. T. M. Leavenworth elected first alcalde. ' 
 
 September 6th.— The first brick house was erected by Mel- 
 ius & Howard, at the corner of Montgomery and Clay streets. 
 This was the second brick building erected in Upper California, 
 one having been previously constructed at Monterey. 
 
 September 9th. — A great public meeting was held to con- 
 sider how best to fix the price of gold dust at a certain reason- 
 able amount, to pass as a currency in the country, during the 
 scarcity of coin, and until a branch mint could be established. 
 This was supposed to be the largest meeting that had ever as- 
 sembled in San Francisco, most of the old inhabitants havine 
 
206 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 returned for a season from the mines. Dr. T. M. Leavenworth 
 was called to the chair, and Mr. J. D. Hoppe appointed secre- 
 
 San Francisco, Winter of 1S4S. 
 
 tary. The meeting unanimously decided and resolved that six- 
 teen dollars an ounce was a fair price for gold dust, and that it 
 ought to be taken in all business transactions at that rate. A 
 committee was also appointed to urge upon Congress the imme- 
 diate establishment of a branch mint at San Francisco. 
 
 Tliis month a square-rigged vessel (the brig Belfast, from 
 New York,) first discharged a cargo at Broadway wharf. The 
 price of goods consequently fell twenty-five per cent., while real 
 estate rose from fifty to one hundred per cent. A vacant lot at 
 the corner of Montgomery and Washington streets was offered 
 the day previous to the opening of the wharf for five thousand 
 dollars, but there were no buyers. The next day the same lot 
 sold readily at ten thousand dollars. This shows how property 
 was beginning to be affected by the improvement of the town. 
 
 October 3d. — At a second election, Dr. T. M. Leavenworth 
 was again chosen first alcalde. B. R. Buckelew and Barton 
 Mowrey were also elected town councillors. One hundred and 
 fifty-eight votes were polled. 
 
STATE OF THE MARKETS. 
 
 207 
 
 October 9th. — First meeting of the town council since May 
 last. At an adjourned meeting held on the 11th, it was resolved 
 that the limits of the town for the administration of justice 
 should he as follows, viz. : " That the line shall commence at the 
 mouth of Creek Guadalupe, where it empties into the Bay of 
 San Francisco, following the course of said stream to its head 
 waters ; from thence a due west line to the Pacific Ocean ; 
 thence northwards along the coast to the inlet to the harhor of 
 the bay ; thence eastwardly, through the middle of the said inlet 
 into the Bay of San Francisco, and embracing the entire anchor- 
 age ground from the inlet to the mouth of the Creek Guada- 
 lupe." 
 
 November 1st. — No regular church had hitherto been estab- 
 lished ; but nearly every Sunday, for a long period back, occa- 
 sional religious services had been performed by clergymen of 
 various denominations ; or, in their absence, by some serious 
 minded layman. This day, the Rev. T. D. Hunt, who had been 
 invited from Honolulu, was chosen Protestant chaplain to the 
 citizens, and an annual salary of two thousand five hundred 
 dollars appropriated to him, to be defrayed out of the subscrip- 
 tions of various town's people. Divine worship on Sundays to 
 take place in the Public Institute, (school-house,) Portsmouth 
 Square. 
 
 November 18th. — The " Californian," having been bought 
 up by the proprietors of the " California Star," a new paper, 
 similar in appearance to both these, and virtually a continuation 
 of the latter, which had stopped five months before, was issued 
 this day under the title, " The Star and Californian." 
 
 December. — The markets, as might be expected, were very 
 high about this time, though prices fluctuated considerably. Ou 
 the 1st of this month, flour was twenty-seven dollars a barrel, 
 beef twenty, pork sixty ; butter was ninety cents a pound, and 
 cheese seventy. Two weeks later, flour sold at from twelve to 
 fifteen dollars a barrel, while other articles had fallen in propor- 
 tion. Brandy was in demand at eight dollars a gallon, and gold 
 dust dull of sale at ten dollars and a half an ounce. 
 
 December 12th. — The public school, after having been closed 
 for many months during the gold-mania, re-opened. Bates of 
 tuition were announced to be eight dollars a term. 
 
208 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 December 21st and 23d. — Great public meetings were held, 
 (Dr. Townsend in the chair,) regarding the propriety, and grow- 
 ing necessity of immediately organizing a provisional government. 
 For some time back, much public agitation had existed on this 
 subject. The frequent murders and other daring outrages com- 
 mitted of late in different parts of the country, especially at the 
 mines, while there was no proper legal protection for the lives and 
 property of the citizens, had forced the people to conclude that 
 Congress had been trifling with them in delaying the long pro- 
 posed constitution — that there was no more time to wait — and 
 therefore that instant steps should be taken to establish a form 
 of government for themselves. At these meetings resolutions 
 were passed to the above effect, and five delegates appointed to 
 be chosen at a subsequent public meeting, to represent the town 
 and district at a general convention to be held at San Jose, in 
 March next, for the purpose of framing a form of constitution. 
 A meeting to the same effect had been held at San Jose on the 
 11th instant, which had fixed the assembling of the convention 
 so early as the 2d of January following, and similar meetings 
 were beginning to be called all over the country. 
 
 December 27th. — The following gentlemen were elected as 
 town council, or ayuntamicnto, for 1849, viz. : Stephen C. Harris, 
 Wm. D. M. Howard, George C. Hubbard, Kobert A. Parker, 
 Thomas J. Koach, John Sirrine, and John Townsend — the last 
 of whom was chosen president. The number of votes polled was 
 three hundred and forty-seven. 
 
 December 28th, 29th and 30th. — Various meetings were 
 held of the old town council, which ended in its resolving that 
 the election of the 27th instant was invalid, owing to the votes 
 of a small number of unqualified parties having been received ; 
 and a new election was ordered for the 15th proximo. 
 
 The duties collected at the custom-house, during 1848, were 
 as follows: — First quarter, §11,931; second quarter, §8,835; 
 third quarter, §74,827 ; fourth quarter, §100,480. The value 
 of imported goods during the year was about one million of dol- 
 lars. Coin was also imported to about the same amount. Gold 
 dust to the value of two millions of dollars was exported in the 
 last six months of 1848. A few years later as great a quantity 
 was exported by every semi-monthly mail. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1848-1849. 
 
 General Effects of the Gold Discoveries. 
 
 While San Francisco, like so many other parts of the country, 
 was forsaken in the manner described in the foregoing chapter, 
 the neighborhood of the American River was overflowing with 
 people, all busily engaged in gold hunting. The miners by the 
 middle of May were estimated to be about two thousand. In 
 another month they had increased probably to three ; and, two 
 months later, their number was supposed to be about six thou- 
 sand. From that period the arrival of persons at the different 
 auriferous districts, which were known to extend over a large 
 .space of territory, was constant ; but no sufficient materials 
 existed to form a correct opinion of their total number. The 
 vast majority of all the laboring classes in the country had cer- 
 tainly deserted their former pursuits, and had become miners, 
 while a great many others — merchants and their clerks, shop- 
 keepers and their assistants, lawyers, surgeons, officials in every 
 department of the State, of the districts and in the towns, run- 
 away seamen and soldiers, and a great variety of nondescript 
 adventurers — likewise began the search for gold. The miners 
 were by no means exclusively American. They consisted of 
 every kindred and clan. There were already tame Indians, 
 Mexicans from Sonora, Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands, 
 settlers from Oregon, mixed with the usual dash of Spanish, 
 British, German and French adventurers that had for a long 
 time existed in California. Later months were to bring other 
 Mexicans, Chinese, Peruvians, and Chilians, and all these before 
 the great impending immigration of Americans and Europeans. 
 14 
 
210 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 At first the general gains of the miners, though great, were 
 little compared to what shortly afterwards were collected. But 
 any positive statement on this matter is naturally subject to 
 error, since none could personally know more than what was 
 taking place around the scene of his own operations, or where he 
 was immediately travelling. If, however, we compare different 
 accounts, and endeavor to form from them something like a fair 
 average, we might find that from ten to fifteen dollars worth of 
 gold dust was about the usual proceeds of an ordinary day's 
 hard work. But while that might have been the average, people 
 listened more to the individual instances of extraordinary success. 
 Well authenticated accounts described many known persons as 
 averaging from one to two hundred dollars a day for a long 
 period. Numerous others were said to be earning even from 
 five to eight hundred dollars a day. A piece of four pounds in 
 weight was early found. If, indeed, in many cases, a man with 
 a pick and pan did not easily gather some thirty or forty dollars 
 worth of dust in a single day, he just moved off to some other 
 place which he supposed might be richer. When the miners 
 knew a little better about the business and the mode of turning 
 their labor to the most profitable account, the returns were 
 correspondingly increased. At what were called the " dry dig- 
 gings " particularly, the yield of gold was enormous. One piece 
 of pure metal was found of thirteen pounds weight. The com- 
 mon instrument at first made use of was a simple butcher's 
 knife ; and as every thing was valuable in proportion to the 
 demand and supply, butchers' knives suddenly went up to 
 twenty and thirty dollars apiece. But afterwards the pick and 
 shovel were employed. The auriferous earth, dug out of ravines 
 and holes in the sides of the mountains, was packed on horses, 
 and carried one, two, or three miles, to the nearest water, to be 
 washed. An average price of this washing dirt was, at one 
 period, so much as four hundred dollars a cart load. In one 
 instance, five loads of such earth sold for seven hundred and 
 fifty-two dollars, which yielded, after washing, sixteen thousand 
 dollars. Cases occurred where men carried the earth in sacks on 
 their backs to the watering places, and collected eight to fifteen 
 hundred dollars in a day, as the proceeds of their labor. Indi- 
 
EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 211 
 
 viduals made their five thousand, ten thousand, and fifteen thou- 
 sand dollars in the space of only a few weeks. One man dug 
 out twelve thousand dollars in six days. Three others obtained 
 eight thousand dollars in a single day. But these, of course, 
 were extreme cases. Still it was undoubtedly true, that a large 
 proportion of the miners were earning such sums as they had 
 never even seen in their lives before, and which, six months earlier, 
 would have appeared a downright fable. When the " Califor- 
 nian " newspaper resumed its issue in July, the editors said, that 
 the publisher of the paper, "when on a tour alone to the 
 mining district," (probably in June,) "collected, with the aid of 
 a shovel, pick and tin pan, about twenty inches in diameter, 
 from forty-four to one hundred and twenty-eight dollars a day, 
 averaging one hundred dollars." This is a fair specimen of the 
 moderately fortunate miner. 
 
 The story has a shady as well as a bright side, and would 
 be incomplete unless both were shown. There happened to be 
 a " sickly season " in the autumn at the mines ; and many of 
 the miners sank under fever and diseases of the bowels. A 
 severe kind of labor, to which most had been unaccustomed, a 
 complete change of diet and habits, insufficient shelter, continued 
 mental excitement, and the excesses in personal amusement and 
 dissipation which golden gains induced, added to the natural 
 unhealthiness that might have existed in the district at different 
 periods of the year, soon introduced sore bodily troubles upon 
 many of the mining population. No gains could compensate a 
 dying man for the fatal sickness engendered by his own avari- 
 cious exertions. In the wild race for riches, the invalid was 
 neglected by old comrades still in rude health and the riotous 
 enjoyment of all the pleasures that gold and the hope of continu- 
 ally adding to their store could bestow. When that was the 
 case with old companions it could not be expected that strangers 
 should care whether the sick man lived or died. Who forsooth 
 among the busy throng would trouble himself with the feeble 
 miner that had miscalculated his energies, and lay dying on the 
 earthen floor of his tent or under the protecting branch of a 
 tree ? There were no kind eyes to gaze mournfully on him, 
 hearts to feel, lips to speak softly, and hands to minister to his 
 
212 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 wants. His gains were swept away to buy a hasty and careless 
 medical attendance ; and too generally he died " unwept, un- 
 knelled, unknown." Selfishness that heeded not the dying 
 might perchance bury the dead, if only the corrupting corpse 
 stood in the way of working a rich claim — scarcely otherwise. 
 Many, not so far reduced, were compelled to return to their old 
 homes, the living spectres of their former selves, broken in con- 
 stitution and wearied in spirit ; thoroughly satisfied that thp 
 diggings were not fit abiding places for them. 
 
 The implements at first used in the process of gold seeking, 
 were only the common pick and shovel, and a tin pan or wooden 
 bowl. The auriferous earth when dug out was put into the last, 
 and water being mixed with it, the contents were violently stirred. 
 A peculiar shake of the hand or wrist, best understood and 
 learned by practice, threw occasionally over the edge of the pan 
 or bowl the muddy water and earthy particles, while the metal, 
 being heavier, sunk to the bottom. Kepeated washings of this 
 nature, assisted by breaking the hard pieces of earth with the 
 hand or a trowel, soon extricated the gold from its covering and 
 carried away all the dirt. But if even these simple implements 
 were not to be had, a sailor's or butcher's knife, or even a sharp- 
 ened hard-pointed stick could pick out the larger specimens — the 
 pepitas, chunks, or nuggets, of different miners — while the finer 
 scales of gold could be washed from the covering earth in Indian 
 willow-woven baskets, clay cups, old hats, or any rude apology 
 for a dish ; or the dried sand could be exposed on canvas to the 
 wind, or diligently blown by the breath, until nothing was left 
 but the particles of pure gold that were too heavy to be carried 
 away by these operations. Afterwards the rocker or cradle and 
 Long Tom were introduced, which required several hands to feed 
 and work them ; and the returns by which were correspondingly 
 great. Every machine, however, was worked on the same prin- 
 ciple, by rocking or washing, of separating by the mechanical 
 means of gravitation, the heavier particles — the gold from stones, 
 and the fighter ones of earth. 
 
 Provisions and necessaries, as might have been expected, soon 
 rose in price enormously. At first the rise was moderate indeed, 
 four hundred per cent, for flour, and five hundred for beef cattle, 
 
EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 while other things were in proportion. But these were trifles. 
 The time soon came when eggs were sold at one, two, and three 
 dollars apiece ; inferior sugar, tea, and coffee, at four dollars a 
 pound in small quantities, or, three or four hundred dollars a 
 barrel ; medicines — say, for laudanum, a dollar a drop, (actually 
 forty dollars were paid for a dose of that quantity,) and ten 
 
 A Mining .Sicne. 
 
 dollars a pill or purge, without advice, or with it, from thirty, 
 up, aye, to one hundred dollars. Spirits were sold at various 
 prices, from ten to forty dollars a quart ; and wines at about as 
 much per bottle. Picks and shovels ranged from five to fifteen 
 dollars each ; and common wooden or tin bowls about half as 
 much. Clumsy rockers were sold at from fifty to eighty dollars, 
 and small gold scales, from twenty to thirty. As for beef, little 
 of it was to be had, and then only jerked, at correspondingly 
 high prices. For luxuries — of which there were not many ; if a 
 lucky miner set his heart on some trifle, it might be pickles, 
 
214 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 fruit, fresh pork, sweet butter, new vegetables, a box of seidlitz 
 powders or of matches, he was prepared to give any quantity of 
 the "dust" rather than be balked. We dare not trust ourselves 
 to name some of the fancy prices thus given, lest we should be 
 supposed to be only romancing. No man would give another a 
 hand's turn for less than five dollars ; while a day's constant 
 labor of the commonest kind, if it could have been procured at 
 all, would cost from twenty to thirty dollars, at least. When 
 these things, and the risks of sickness, the discomforts of living, 
 and the unusual and severe kind of labor are all balanced against 
 the average gains, it may appear that, after all, the miners were 
 only enough paid. 
 
 About the end of May we left San Francisco almost a desert 
 place, and such it continued during the whole summer and 
 autumn months. Many ships with valuable cargoes had mean- 
 while arrived in the bay, but the seamen deserted. The goods at 
 great expense had been somehow got landed, but there was no- 
 body to take care of them, or remove them from the wharves 
 where they lay exposed to the weather, and blocking up the way. 
 The merchants who remained were in a feverish bustle. They 
 were selling goods actually arrived at high prices, and could get 
 uo hands to assist them in removing and delivering the articles. 
 By and bye, some of the miners came back to their old homes ; 
 but most of them were emaciated, feeble and dispirited. Here, 
 therefore, as at the mines, the prices of labor and all necessaries 
 rose exceedingly. The common laborer, who had formerly been 
 content with his dollar a day, now proudly refused ten ; the me- 
 chanic, who had recently been glad to receive two dollars, now 
 rejected twenty for his day's services. It was certainly a great 
 country, this — there was no mistake about it ; and every subject 
 was as lofty, independent, and seemingly as rich as a king. No 
 money indeed could now buy the servile labor of many persons 
 who had lately been glad to receive the meanest employment ; 
 and thus many necessary acts, and much manual business had 
 to be done by principals themselves, or not done at all. Keal es- 
 tate, meanwhile, had rapidly advanced in value, and generally 
 was considered worth from five to ten times its former price. 
 
 Within the first eight weeks after the " diggings " had been 
 
EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 215 
 
 fairly known, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars had reached 
 San Francisco in gold dust, and within the next eight weeks, six 
 hundred thousand more. These sums were all to purchase, at 
 any price, additional supplies for the mines. Coin grew scarce, 
 and all that was in the country was insufficient to satisfy the in- 
 creased wants of commerce in one town alone. Gold dust, there- 
 fore, soon became a circulating medium, and after some little de- 
 mur at first, was readily received by all classes at sixteen dol- 
 lars an ounce. The authorities, however, would only accept it in 
 payment of customs duties at ten dollars per ounce, with the 
 privilege of redemption, by payment of coiD, within a limited 
 time. 
 
 When subsequently immigrants began to arrive in numerous 
 bands, any amount of labor could be obtained, provided always a 
 most unusually high price was paid for it. Returned diggers, and 
 those who cautiously had never went to the mines, were then also 
 glad enough to work for rates varying from twelve to thirty dollars 
 a day ; at which terms most capitalists were somewhat afraid to 
 commence any heavy undertaking, The hesitation was only for 
 an instant. Soon all the labor that could possibly be procured, 
 was in ample request, at whatever rates were demanded. The 
 population of a great State was suddenly flocking in upon them, 
 and no preparations had hitherto been made for its reception. 
 Building lots had to be surveyed, and streets graded and planked 
 — hills levelled — hollows, lagoons, and the bay itself piled, capped, 
 filled up and planked — lumber, bricks, and all other building ma- 
 terials, provided at most extraordinarily high prices — houses built, 
 finished and furnished — great warehouses and stores erected — 
 wharves run far out into the sea — numberless tons of goods re- 
 moved from shipboard, and delivered and shipped anew every 
 where — and ten thousand other things had all to be done without 
 a moment's unnecessary delay. Long before these things were 
 completed, the sand-hills and barren ground around the town 
 were overspread with a multitude of canvas, blanket and bough- 
 covered tents, — the bay was alive with shipping and small craft 
 carrying passengers and goods backwards and forwards, — the un- 
 planked, ungraded, unformed streets, (at one time moving heaps 
 of dry sand and dust ; at another, miry abysses, whose treacher- 
 
216 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ous depths sucked in horse and dray, and occasionally man him- 
 self,) were crowded with human heings from every corner of the 
 universe and of every tongue — all excited and busy, plotting, 
 speaking, working, buying and selling town lots, and beach and 
 water lots, shiploads of every kind of assorted merchandise, the 
 ships themselves, if they could, — though that was not often, — 
 gold dust in hundred weights, ranches square leagues in extent, 
 with their thousands of cattle — allotments in hundreds of con- 
 templated towns, already prettily designed and laid out, — on pa- 
 per, — and, in short, speculating and gambling in every branch 
 of modern commerce, and in many strange things peculiar to the 
 time and the place. And every body made money, and was sud- 
 denly growing rich. 
 
 The loud voices of the eager seller and as eager buyer — the 
 laugh of reckless joy — the bold accents of successful speculation 
 — the stir and hum of active hurried labor, as man and brute, 
 horse and bullock, and their guides, struggled and managed 
 through heaps of loose rubbish, over hills of sand, and among de- 
 ceiving deep mud pools and swamps, filled the amazed newly ar- 
 rived immigrant with an almost appalling sense of the exuberant 
 life, energy and enterprise of the place. He breathed quick and 
 faintly — his limbs grew weak as water — and his heart sunk with- 
 in him as he thought of the dreadful conflict, when he ap- 
 proached and mingled among that confused and terrible business 
 battle. 
 
 Gambling saloons, glittering like fairy palaces, like them sud- 
 denly sprang into existence, studding nearly all sides of the plaza, 
 and every street in its neighborhood. As if intoxicating drinks 
 from the well plenished, and splendid bar they each contained 
 were insufficient to gild the scene, music added its loudest, if not 
 its sweetest charms ; and all was mad, feverish mirth, where for- 
 tunes were lost and won, upon the green cloth, in the twinkling 
 of an eye. All classes gambled in those days, from the starched 
 white neck-clothed professor of religion to the veriest black rascal 
 that earned a dollar for blackening massa's boots. Nobody had 
 leisure to think even for a moment of his occupation, and how 
 it was viewed in Christian lands. The heated brain was never 
 allowed to get cool while a bit of coin or dust was left. These 
 
EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVEKIES. 
 
 217 
 
 saloons, therefore, were crowded, night and day, by impatient 
 revellers who never could satiate themselves with excitement, nor 
 get rid too soon of their golden heaps. 
 
 We are, however, anticipating and going ahead too fast. We 
 cannot help it. The very thought of that wondrous time is an 
 electric spark that fires into one great flame all our fancies, pas- 
 sions and experiences of the fall of the eventful year, 1849. 
 The remembrance of those days comes across us like the delirium 
 of fever ; we are caught by it before we are aware, and forthwith 
 begin to babble of things which to our sober Atlantic friends 
 seem more the ravings of a madman, than plain, dull realities. 
 The world had perhaps never before afforded such a spectacle ; 
 and probably nothing of the kind will be witnessed again for 
 generations to come. Happy the man who can tell of those 
 things which he saw and perhaps himself did, at San Francisco, 
 at that time. He shall be an oracle to admiring neighbors. A 
 city of twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants improvised — the 
 people nearly all adult males, strong in person, clever, bold, san- 
 guine, restless and reckless But really we must stop now, 
 
 and descend to our simple " annals." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 1849. 
 
 The Alta California newspaper established— Delegates elected to the proposed convention to be held 
 at San Jos6. — New town council elected. — Three town councils at one time. — Meeting of the con- 
 vention to frame a civil government postponed. — Public meeting respecting the conflicting coun 
 cils. — Public meeting concerning negro 6lavery. — Town councils resigned, and legislative assembly 
 chosen. — Arrival of the steamship California. — Address of delegates to civil government con 
 vention. — Arrival of steamship Oregon, and Col. John W. Geary with the first United States 
 mails. — General Riley announced territorial governor. — Acts of the legislative assembly and of tho 
 governor. — Meetings concerning municipal and State governments. — Growth, population and gen- 
 eral prosperity of the city. — Gambling and other vices and crimes. 
 
 January 4th. — " The Star and Californian " is dropped, and 
 the " Alta California," a weekly newspaper of the same character 
 and appearance, and published by the same parties, is issued in 
 its stead. 
 
 January 8th. — Election of delegates to the proposed con- 
 vention at San Jose, in conformity with the resolutions of the 
 public meeting of 23d ultimo, when Wm. M. Stewart, Francis J. 
 Lippitt, Elbert P. Jones, Myron Norton and John A. Patterson 
 were chosen. 
 
 January 15th. — New election of town council, which result- 
 ed in the choice of Stephen C. Harris, Lazarus Everhart, Ste- 
 phen A. Wright, Daniel Starks, Isaac Montgomery, John Sir- 
 rine, and C. E. Wetmore. Mr. Sirrine was appointed president. 
 
 There were at this period three town councils in San Francis- 
 co, viz. : — the old one of 1848, not yet dissolved, and those elect- 
 ed on the 27th December and 15 th January respectively. The 
 former of the two last insisted that the council of the previous 
 year had expired the very day of its own election on the 27th 
 December, and therefore the members met and transacted busi- 
 ness as if it alone represented the town. A majority of the old 
 council, however, insisted on continuing in office till those whom 
 
MUNICIPAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS. 219 
 
 they considered their proper successors were chosen, and accord- 
 ingly, they supported the council elected on the 15th January, 
 and resolved to transier the municipal records into its hands. 
 The citizens generally seemed adverse to the pretensions of the 
 old council, as scarcely a fourth part of the numbers that voted 
 on the 27th December voted on the second election of the 15th 
 January. Strong party and personal feelings existed among the 
 inhabitants at this time. The alcalde, T. M. Leavenworth, and 
 his official acts, among other subjects of contention, were vigor- 
 ously attacked by one party, and as strenuously defended by the 
 other. 
 
 January 24th. — The corresponding committee for the Dis- 
 trict of San Francisco, on the suggestion of the delegates chosen 
 at Monterey, recommend a postponement of the assembling of 
 the convention for framing a civil government to the first day of 
 May, in order to give the southern districts sufficient time to elect 
 delegates and appear at the convention. The movement for the 
 election of such delegates is general over the country, as the peo- 
 ple are satisfied that the present state of civil disorganization cannot 
 safely be longer permitted. 
 
 February. — It was estimated that the population was now 
 about two thousand. 
 
 February 12th. — Public meeting of citizens to consider the 
 anomalous position of two town councils existing and acting, in- 
 dependently of each other, at the same time. Myron Norton 
 was called upon to preside, and T. W. Perkins to act as secretary. 
 George Hyde submitted a plan of municipal organization and 
 government, which was adopted by the meeting ; and resolutions 
 were passed requesting the members of both councils to resign, 
 and appointing an election of fifteen town councillors and three 
 justices of the peace, to take place on the 21st instant. 
 
 February 17th and 24th. — Public meetings to consider the 
 propriety of instructing the delegates to the convention of the 
 1st of May to oppose any incipient act that might tend to the 
 introduction of negro slavery into California. Capt. J. L. Folsom 
 was chosen president, and B. R. Buckelew secretary. It was 
 known that the whole delay of Congress in providing a territorial 
 government had arisen from the disputes, and the apparent im- 
 
220 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 possibility of agreement between the two great political parties 
 on this subject. The inhabitants of the country itself might be 
 said to be unanimous against slavery in all shapes among them ; 
 and they were justly indignant that the Atlantic politicians 
 should pretend to dictate to them any thing on the matter. At 
 these meetings, resolutions were passed, instructing the delegates 
 of the San Francisco district, " by all honorable means to oppose 
 any act, measure, provision or ordinance that is calculated to fur- 
 ther the introduction of domestic slavery into the territory of 
 California." 
 
 February 21st. — In compliance with the wishes of the 
 meeting of the 12th instant, the members of both town councils 
 resigned their office, and an election of fifteen members of a legis- 
 lative assembly and three justices of the peace took place this day, 
 which it was hoped would settle all disputes between the rival 
 partisans. The parties elected were as follows : — 
 
 Justices of the Peace. 
 Myron Norton, Theron R. Per Lee, Wm. M. Stewart. 
 
 District Legislature. 
 
 Stephen A. Wright, Isaac Montgomery, Thomas J. Roach, 
 
 Alfred J. Ellis, "Wm. M. Smith, Wm. F. Swasey, 
 
 Henry A. Harrison, Andrew J. Grayson, Francis J. Lippitt, 
 
 George C. Hubbard, James Creighton, George F. Lemon. 
 George Hyde, Robert A. Parker, 
 
 On the 5th proximo these gentlemen met, and chose various 
 officials ; but as the whole proceedings were afterwards set aside, 
 it is unnecessary here to detail more of them. 
 
 February 28th. — The steamship "California" being the 
 first of the line of mail steamers along the coast, arrived. The 
 citizens hailed her appearance with many cheers and other de- 
 monstrations of joy. General Persifer F. Smith, a passenger on 
 this vessel, came to take command of the Pacific division of the 
 military department of the United States, which comprehends 
 Oregon and California. 
 
 March. — An address to the people of California was issued 
 by several of the delegates for San Francisco, Monterey, Sonoma, 
 Sacramento, and other parts of the country, recommending a 
 postponement of the meeting of the convention to frame a civil 
 
MUNICIPAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 221 
 
 government, to the first Monday of August, and that the place 
 of meeting be Monterey, instead of San Jose". 
 
 March 31st. — The Pacific mail steamship " Oregon " arrived 
 with about three hundred and fifty passengers, among whom were 
 Col. John W. Geary and family. Col. Geary had been appointed 
 postmaster for San Francisco, with powers to create post-offices 
 and appoint postmasters throughout the territory ; also to estab- 
 lish mail routes and make contracts for carrying the mails. He 
 was the bearer of despatches from the United States Government 
 to the commanders of the military and naval forces on the 
 Pacific, and brought with him the first regular mail from the 
 Atlantic States that was opened in San Francisco. 
 
 April 13th. — Order issued by Brigadier-General Bennet 
 Riley, announcing that he had assumed command of the tenth 
 military department of the United States, and the administration 
 of civil affairs in California. 
 
 June. — For the last six months, and particularly during the 
 last two, the public events of most consequence to San Francisco 
 resolve themselves into two divisions, viz. : the appointment of 
 pmper district and municipal authorities, and the formation of a 
 State government. We have already chronicled several meetings 
 on both these heads ; but notwithstanding all that had been said 
 or done, no common action could be obtained to promote the ends 
 in view to the satisfaction of all parties. 
 
 As regarded the municipal question, the recently appointed 
 legislative assembly abolished the office of alcalde, and substituted 
 the senior justice of the peace in his place. Afterwards, the 
 alcalde, Mr. Leavenworth, was ordered to give up the town docu- 
 ments and official papers in his hands ; upon which he applied 
 for advice to General Smith, who recommended him not to com- 
 ply with the demands of the legislative assembly. That body 
 next ordered the election of a sheriff, who, when appointed, pro- 
 ceeded to take what he considered legal steps against Mr. Leaven- 
 worth, who had meanwhile resuscitated the old council of 1848, 
 to sanction and confirm his proceedings, which it readily did, 
 appealing to Governor Riley for advice and protection. The gov- 
 ernor, accordingly, on the 4th of June, issued a proclamation to 
 the citizens, recognizing the office and power of the existing 
 
222 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 alcalde, declaring the legislative assembly an illegal body, and 
 forbidding payment of taxes to them. 
 
 While that was the state of affairs regarding the municipality 
 and District of San Francisco, the governor, on the 3d of June, 
 issued a proclamation to the people of California, in which, after 
 narrating the position of the country, and the necessity of both 
 district and general governments, he appointed the first day of 
 August for the election, first, of certain specified municipal and 
 district provisional officials over the whole country, according to 
 Mexican custom ; and second, of thirty-seven delegates to be 
 chosen from the specified districts, as delegates to a general con- 
 vention to be held at Monterey, on the first day of September 
 next, for the purpose of forming a State Constitution. 
 
 Following upon these proclamations, the people of San Fran- 
 cisco held a mass meeting in Portsmouth Square, on the 12th of 
 June, when Wm. M. Stewart was chosen president, and E. Gould 
 Buffum, secretary. This meeting was large and enthusiastic, and 
 after being addressed by several eloquent speakers, resolved that 
 the people of California had a rigid to organize a government for 
 their own protection — that, therefore, delegates should be chosen 
 to frame a constitution — and that a committee of five be imme- 
 diately appointed by the president of the meeting to correspond 
 with the other districts of the country, in order to carry out in a 
 practical manner the said resolutions. The meeting refused to 
 recognize Governor Eiley's proclamations as binding on them. 
 The committee chosen consisted of Peter H. Burnett, Wm. D. 
 M. Howard, Myron Norton, E. Gould Buffum, and E. Gilbert. 
 This committee, on the 18th of June, issued an address to the 
 public, in which, without admitting the right or power in Gov- 
 ernor Biley to " appoint " time or place for the election of dele- 
 gates and assembling of the convention, yet considered it best, as a 
 matter of expediency, to adopt the terms of the governor's pro- 
 clamation in these respects. 
 
 These steps settled the plan and course of future proceedings 
 so far as the State Government was concerned. In respect to 
 the municipality the legislative assembly published a long address 
 to their constituents, in answer to Governor Biley's proclamation 
 of the 3d, and the very " uncourteous and disrespectful " one of 
 
CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 223 
 
 the 4th June. In this document, they resolved that they were 
 a legally constituted body, and declared their determination to 
 hold office and to act in the same until formally deprived of their 
 authority by the people from whom it was derived. Thus arose 
 a sort of civil war on a small scale. The assembly afterwards 
 having considered it expedient to appeal directly to the people, a 
 ballot was taken on the subject on the 9th July, when one hun- 
 dred and sixty-seven votes appeared for their continuance in office, 
 and only seven against it. But as this result showed either the 
 indifterence of the citizens on the subject, since but a small por- 
 tion of their number voted, or else their tacit desire that the 
 legislative assembly should altogether cease, that body thought 
 fit, at last, to dissolve itself. Thus the old alcalde, Mr. Leaven- 
 worth, was virtually reinstated in triumph, and no obstacle left 
 to the several elections ordered by Governor Riley's proclamation 
 of the 3d of June. These various meetings and other proceedings 
 narrated may possess little interest for the present inhabitants of 
 San Francisco ; but they certainly much excited those who dwelt 
 in the town at the time of their occurrence. The excesses of the 
 " hounds," fully described in a subsequent chapter, were much 
 encouraged by the dissensions and jealousies which existed among 
 the rival politicians and local partisans of those days. 
 
 During the first half of this year, San Francisco was rapidly 
 increasing the number of its houses and population. Every day 
 added sensibly to both. The mines were continuing to yield 
 large returns, most of which were immediately forwarded to San 
 Francisco, in exchange for new supplies. The bay was filling 
 with shipping from all the ports of the Pacific coast of both 
 Americas, from the Sandwich Islands, and from China, Australia 
 and other ports towards the west. Nearly two hundred square- 
 rigged vessels lay at anchor about the end of July. Hosts of 
 passengers by these vessels, after staying but a little while in the 
 town, hurried off to the diggings. Meanwhile, others who had 
 been, fortunate were returning from the mines with bags of gold 
 dust, to squander in gambling, in drinking and all manner of 
 thoughtless extravagance and dissipation. Gambling, which pre- 
 viously had been carried on to so great an extent, was now begin- 
 ning to be developed on a still larger scale. Saloons, at the 
 
224 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 public tables of which every variety of game was to be found, 
 arose in all quarters of the town, where play was carried on during 
 the whole twenty-four hours, and where the gross amount of 
 money or gold dust staked was enormous. It might almost be 
 said that the same spirit of gambling or speculation reigned in 
 every department of business ; and prices rose and fell, and for- 
 
 San Francisco, in 1819, from head of Clay Street. 
 
 tunes were made, and lost, and made again, according to the 
 " play " of the parties engaged. New towns, all of course in 
 splendid locations, were beginning to be projected, and the build- 
 ing lots in them sold for immense sums of money. Sacramento 
 and Stockton were among the first and best needed of these 
 places ; and soon they took such positions as commanded success 
 and insured future prosperity. But besides these two cities, a 
 multitude of other and inferior places were projected, and while 
 the future of the whole country was uncertain, but over which 
 hung a certain vague grandeur, their pretensions were very 
 respectably set forth, and speculation in their allotments was 
 rife. Some of these schemes have since shared in the general 
 advancement of the countiy ; while of others probably nothing 
 again will ever be heard. 
 
 A short experience of the mines had satisfied most of the 
 
CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 225 
 
 citizens of San Francisco that, in vulgar parlance, all was not 
 gold that glittered, and that hard work was not easy, — sorry 
 truisms for weak or lazy men. They returned very soon to their 
 old quarters, and found that much greater profits, with far less 
 labor, were to be found in supplying the necessities of the miners, 
 and speculating in real estate. For a time every body made 
 money, in spite of himself. The continued advance in the price 
 of goods, and especially in the value of real estate, gave riches at 
 once to the fortunate owner of a stock of the former or of a single 
 advantageously situated lot of the latter. When trade was 
 brisk, and profits so large, nobody grudged to pay any price, or 
 any rent, for a proper place of business. Coin was scarce, but 
 ba<rs of cold dust furnished a circulating medium, which auswered 
 all purposes. The gamblers at the public saloons staked such 
 bags, or were supplied with money upon them by the " banks." 
 till the whole was exhausted. There were few regular houses 
 erected, for neither building materials nor sufficient labor were 
 to be had ; but canvas tents, or houses of frame, served the im- 
 mediate needs of the place. Great quantities of goods continued 
 to pour in from the nearer ports, till there were no longer stores 
 to receive and cover them. In addition to Broadway Wharf, 
 Central Wharf was projected, subscribed for, and commenced. 
 Several other small wharves at landing-places were constructed 
 at the cost of private parties. All these, indeed, extended but a 
 little way across the mud flat in the bay, and were of no use at 
 low tide ; yet they gave considerable facilities for landing passen- 
 gers and goods in open boats. The different religious denomina- 
 tions were beginning to make movements as to creating churches 
 and appointing clergymen ; while the Freemasons and Odd-Fel- 
 lows were likewise beginning to take their characteristic first 
 steps. Seamen deserted their vessels, as a matter of course, so 
 soon as they dropped anchor in the bay, and hastened to the 
 mines. Society, not merely there, but in San Francisco, was in 
 a state of utter disorganization, which became worse and more 
 terrible as the autumn and winter months brought new thousands 
 of immigrants upon the place. We have seen that there was 
 neither a proper government for the State, nor recognized mu- 
 nicipal authorities, who could have protected the citizens and 
 15 
 
226 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 established order, and made provision for the systematic extension 
 of the town and reception of the coming crowds. There was a 
 military governor, indeed, and martial law could have been 
 adopted, but the governor had not sufficient force at his com- 
 mand to curb the wild elements of the population ; nor, at best, 
 would his forcible interference have satisfied American ideas of 
 civil independence and the national privilege of self-government. 
 Thefts, robberies, murders, and other outrages of the most des- 
 perate and criminal nature were taking place, and there were no 
 proper officials to take cognizance of them, and bring the offend- 
 ers to justice. Every man was intent on merely making money, 
 and provided an outrage did not, in a direct manner, personally 
 or pecuniarily affect himself, he was content to shut his eyes to 
 the ultimate consequences. 
 
 By the beginning of 1849, the population of San Francisco 
 had increased to two thousand. Two months later it was proba- 
 bly about three thousand ; whilst in July, when the riots and 
 outrages of the " hounds" came to a height, it might be nearly 
 .five thousand. This was what might be called the usual and 
 permanent population of the time — if any thing could be sup- 
 posed permanent in so frail and fluctuating a place, although 
 every day new arrivals of immigrants added temporarily to the 
 number, till they flocked off to Sacramento, Stockton, and the 
 mines. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1849. 
 
 The Hounds— Election of Supreme Judge, delegates to convention, and municipal officers.— Al- 
 calde's address to the Ayuntamiento.— Duties of prefects.— The prison brig Kupliemia, and store- 
 ship Apollo.— Churches.— Regulations and appointments of the Ayuntamiento. — The " Pacific 
 News" commenced. — Meeting of the Constitution Convention at Monterey.— Merchants' Ex- 
 change. — Steam Navigation. — Death of Nathan Spear. — First democratic meeting. — Circus 
 opened— Constitution approved and State officers elected.— First habitation on Kincon Point. — 
 Thanksgiving Day.— Judge Almond's court— The " Alta California." — First great fire. 
 
 July 15th, et seq. — The affair of the "hounds" came to an end. 
 This was an association of young men for the declared purpose 
 of assisting each other in sickness, or when peril of any kind 
 threatened any of the members. It had been imperfectly organ- 
 ized in the beginning of the year, and was virtually a gang of 
 public robbers. The members assumed a kind of military disci- 
 pline, under the guidance of regular leaders, who wore a uniform, 
 •and occasionally, but only on Sundays, paraded the streets with 
 flags displayed and drum and fife playing. They attacked the 
 tents of inoffensive people, chiefly foreigners, and if they could 
 not extort money from the owners or inmates by threats, tore 
 them down to the ground, and stole or destroyed money, jewels, 
 and every thing valuable on the premises. These outrages, per- 
 petrated usually at night, when the more peaceable citizens had 
 retired to rest, were so frequent that the " hounds " became a 
 terror to all well-disposed people of the town. They invaded 
 the stores, taverns, and houses of Americans themselves, and 
 rudely demanded whatever they desired. They eould not be 
 refused, for their numbers were so great, while they were well 
 armed, that nobody durst resist them. The town was paralyzed 
 with terror, and the " hounds," who latterly adopted the name 
 
228 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 of " regulators," committed the most violent and cruel outrages 
 in open defiance of the law and common humanity. A series of 
 the most barbarous, destructive, and daring attacks, were perpe- 
 trated by those desperadoes on Sunday, the 15th of July, which 
 at last effectually roused the community to a determined coun- 
 teraction. They formed themselves into a police force, and pro- 
 ceeded to measure their strength against the rioters. They were 
 successful, and immediately afterwards some twenty of the of- 
 fenders were put upon trial. At this time San Francisco had no 
 proper municipal organization, while neither was there an efficient 
 State government to which the citizens could appeal for protec- 
 tion. They therefore had to do every thing for themselves. 
 They accordingly appointed judges and counsel for both prosecu- 
 tion and defence, and at once proceeded with the trial of the 
 rioters, or conspirators, as they were charged with being. A 
 jury found them guilty of conspiracy, riot, robbery, and assault, 
 with intent to kill. Nine were convicted and sentenced to 
 various periods of imprisonment and considerable fines, and the 
 town was purged for a while of the more violent ruffians that had 
 infested it. A full account of these proceedings will be found in 
 the Third Part of this work. 
 
 August 1st. — The elections ordered by Governor Riley took 
 place in a spirited, though orderly manner. The candidates were 
 numerous, and the following parties were elected : — 
 
 Peter H. Burnett, who had 1298 votes in San Francisco, and 76 at San Jose. 
 
 Judge of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Prefect. 
 Horace Hawes, 913 votes. 
 
 Sub-Prefects. 
 
 First Alcalde. 
 John W. Geary, 1516 votes. 
 
 Second Alcalde. 
 Frank Turk, 1055 votes. 
 
 Francis Guerrero, 1503 votes. 
 Joseph R. Curtis, 1399 " 
 
 Ayuntamiento, or Town Council. 
 
 Talbot H. Green, 1510 votes. 
 Henry A. Harrison, 1491 " 
 
 Rodman M. Price, 840 votes. 
 
 Alfred J. Ellis, 1354 
 Stephen C. Harris, 1323 
 Thos. B. Winton, 1052 
 
 Win. H. Davis, 835 " 
 Bezer Simmons, 825 " 
 
 Samuel Brannan, 823 
 
 John Townsend, 1052 " 
 
 Wm. M. Stewart, 815 " 
 Gabriel B. Post, 691 " 
 
alcalde's address to the ayuntamiento. 229 
 
 Delegates to Convention. Supernumerary Delegates. 
 
 Edward Gilbert, 1512 votes. Wm. D. M. Howard, 870 votes. 
 
 Myron Norton, 1436 " Francis J. Lippitt, 874 " 
 
 Wm. M. Gwin, 1073 " Alfred J. Ellis, 872 " 
 
 Joseph Hobson, 839 " Francisco Sanchez, 872 " 
 
 Wm. M. Stewart, 833 " Rodman M. Price, 871 " 
 
 There were some ten or a dozen different tickets at this elec- 
 tion, upon all of which the name of Col. John W. Geary ap- 
 peared for the office of First Alcalde. He consequently received 
 the whole number of votes polled. This decided evidence of 
 public confidence was deserved and appreciated. At the first 
 meeting of the ayuntamiento, the newly elected alcalde presented 
 the following address. It is a document worthy of preservation, 
 being well written, and giving a faithful account of the gloomy 
 aspect of public affairs in San Francisco at that period, and 
 much useful advice to those having the interests of the city in 
 charge : — 
 
 " Gentlemen of the City Councils : — Having been called by the unanimous 
 voice of my fellow-citizens to the office of chief magistrate of the city of San 
 Francisco,- 1 find it impossible to convey to them bywords the feelings excited 
 by this decided manifestation of their confidence and approbation. Pro- 
 foundly sensible that the honor and trust which have been conferred upon me far 
 transcend my deserts, I can make no other return, than a heartfelt declaration 
 of my gratitude, accompanied by the assurance, that to the extent of ray 
 power, I will with zeal and fidelity cause the observance of every law and or- 
 dinance made for the good of this city. 
 
 "The citizens of San Francisco, appreciating the importance of the present 
 crisis in the territorial history of California, and particularly the high and im- 
 portant destiny of their citj', have conferred upon you, gentlemen, the onerous 
 duty, yet high honor, of legislating for their future welfare and prosperity, 
 
 "As your presiding officer, I deem it my duty to call your attention to the 
 situation of the city, and to ask your co-operation in making it, in point of 
 order and security, what it must shortly be in wealth and importance, the 
 first city, and great commercial and moneyed emporium of the Pacific. To 
 effect this, gentlemen, it will require of you great devotion to your duties, as 
 well as great diligence and a liberal supply of funds for municipal purposes. 
 
 " Economy in the expenditure of the public money is at all times desirable 
 and necessary ; but situated as we are here, without any superior body to 
 legislate for us, the people of the city will, of necessity, be called upon to 
 assume a responsibility in the enactment of laws, and in the expenditure of 
 money for public purposes, not usual under ordinary circumstances. Of this 
 every citizen of San Francisco is fully aware, and all who desire the prosperity 
 
230 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and good government of the city will stand ready to sustain you in whatever 
 you may do for its permanent improvement and benefit. 
 
 "At this time we are without a dollar in the public treasury, and it is to 
 be feared the city is greatly in debt. You have neither an office for your 
 magistrate, nor any other public edifice. You are without a single police offi- 
 cer or watchman, and have not the means of confining a prisoner for an hour ; 
 neither have you a place to shelter, while living, sick and unfortunate strangers 
 who may be cast upon our shores, or to bury them when dead. Public im- 
 provements are unknown in San Francisco. In short, you are without a 
 single requisite necessary for the promotion of prosperity, for the protection 
 of property, or for the maintenance of order. 
 
 " I therefore repeat, that the present exigency in public affairs requires 
 the utmost diligence on your part, in the performance of all your duties, as 
 well as a liberal supply of funds, to provide for the security of life and property 
 in San Francisco. 
 
 " There is perhaps no city upon the earth where a tax for the support of 
 its municipal government can be more justly imposed than here. Real 
 estate, both improved and unimproved, within a short space of time, has in- 
 creased in value in many instances a thousand-fold, and even at its present 
 high rates, will produce in the shape of rents the largest average income upon 
 record. Yet notwithstanding this unprecedented increased value of real 
 estate, the burdens of government should not be borne by a tax upon that 
 species of property alone ; each and every kind of business carried on within 
 the limits of the district should bear its just and proper share of taxation. 
 Equal justice to all should be your guide, and if strictly followed, none will 
 have just cause of complaint. 
 
 " The charters of most cities in the United States, granted by the Legisla- 
 tures, give the corporation the right to levy and collect a tax, as well to defray 
 the expenses of its municipal government as for public improvements; and it 
 is usual to submit a tax bill to the Legislature for its confirmation. This is 
 done to prevent abuses. Yet I do not know of an instance where the tax im- 
 posed has been reduced by the Legislature. In towns not incorporated there 
 is no resort to be had to the Legislature for a confirmation of the tax laws. The 
 town officers, chosen by the people, impose the taxes, and collect a sufficient 
 revenue by common consent ; and their right to do so is never questioned. 
 That you have a right to levy and collect a reasonable and proper tax, for the 
 support of your municipal government, cannot, in my judgment, for a moment 
 be questioned. In the absence of State legislative authority, you, as the 
 representatives of the people, are supreme in this district, and your acts, so 
 long as you confine them strictly to the legitimate sphere of your duty, will 
 not only be sanctioned and approved by the present worthy Executive of our 
 government in California, but will be most promptly confirmed by the Legis- 
 lature, whenever one shall be assembled either for the Territory or State. 
 
 "I would, therefore, recommend that with all convenient despatch you 
 ascertain, as near as possible, the amount of funds deemed necessary for the 
 rupport of a proper and efficient municipal government for one year ; that 
 
alcalde's address to the ayuntamiento. 231 
 
 when you shall have determined this, you shall proceed to collect a just equi- 
 table tax upon real estate and upon sales at auction ; and that you require all 
 merchants, traders, storekeepers, &c, to take out a license for the transaction 
 of their business, paying therefor an amount proportionate to the quantity of 
 merchandise vended by them. Also, that all drays, lighters, and boats, used 
 in the transportation of merchandise, and of passengers, to or from vessels in 
 the harbor, be licensed. 
 
 " There is also another class of business proper to be taxed, which although 
 sometimes prohibited by law, yet in many countries is regulated by law. I 
 recommend you to adopt the latter course. The passion for gaming is uni- 
 versal, even where the severest penalties are imposed to prevent its indul- 
 gence. And it is a fact well known and understood, whenever gaming tables 
 are licensed and subject to proper police regulations, they are less injurious to 
 the interests and morals of the community than when conducted in defiance 
 of law. In the one case the proprietors are amenable to the law which au- 
 thorizes them, and are subject to proper control ; while on the other hand, if 
 prohibited, the evasion of the law by such means as are usually resorted to, 
 does but increase the evil, and the community is in no way benefited. I would, 
 therefore, recommend, under present circumstances, and until State legislation 
 can be had on the subject, that you license gaming and billiard tables. 
 
 " For the collection of each and every tax, the imposition of which I have 
 recommended, you have the example of almost every city in the world. A 
 revenue is necessary for the proper maintenance and support of the munici- 
 pality, — and it is a maxim everywhere acknowledged, that every citizen 
 should, for the privileges he enjoys, aid in the support of the government 
 under which he lives, and which affords him protection of life, liberty, and 
 property. 
 
 "The public documents containing all the muniments of title, &c, for real 
 estate, are not to be found in possession of my predecessor, but in the private 
 keeping of a portion of the citizens. 
 
 " As these documents have not been transferred to me in a legal manner 
 by an officer of the law, and as there may be a probability of their being more 
 or less mutilated, I particularly request you to grant me authority to appoint 
 a committee of three respectable and intelligent citizens, who, under oath, 
 shall make an inventory of the said documents, and a schedule of any mutila- 
 tions, erasures, or interlineations, which may be found on their pages. I feel 
 confident that the importance of this matter has already suggested to you 
 such a measure, inasmuch as the value of titles to real estate might be greatly 
 impaired by failing to adopt it. This course will not only relieve from unjust 
 suspicion the officer to whose charge and safe-keeping those documents are 
 intrusted by the law, but it will also render him responsible for his own 
 acts, and not for those of his predecessor, or of any other person. 
 
 " The laws under which we act oblige each officer, without regard to his 
 station, to advance, with his utmost zeal, the cause of education. L there- 
 fore, strongly urge upon you the propriety of adopting measures by which 
 the children of the high, the low, the rich and the poor of this district, can 
 
232 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 have equal advantages of drinking freely at the fountain of primary know- 
 ledge ; and it is to be hoped that our territory, which is ere long to be erected 
 into a State, and placed by the side of her elder sisters of the Union, will 
 show to them that she fully appreciates education as the only safeguard of our 
 republican institutions ; that the liberties of the people are based upon their 
 intelligence, and that in this respect, as well as in all others, California will 
 present herself to the world a model Republic, without spot or blemish. 
 
 " John W. Gearv, 
 " First Alcalde of the District of San Francisco. CaV 
 
 Prison-brig Euphemia. and Stoe-ship Apollo. 
 
 Prefect Hawes also ably addressed the council, chiefly ex- 
 plaining the duties of prefects, which are, he says, " to take care 
 of public order and tranquillity ; to publish and circulate, with- 
 out delay, observe, enforce, and cause to be observed and en- 
 forced, the laws, throughout their respective districts ; and for 
 the execution of these duties they are clothed with certain pow- 
 ers, which are clearly specified and defined. They are particu- 
 larly enjoined to attend to the subject of public instruction, and 
 see that common schools be not wanting in any of the towns of 
 
FIRST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 
 
 233 
 
 their respective districts. They are also required to propose 
 measures for the encouragement of agriculture and all branches 
 of industry, instruction, and jmblic beneficence, and for the exe- 
 cution of new works of public utility and the repair of old ones. 
 They constitute the ordinary channel of communication between 
 the governor and the authorities of the district, and are to com- 
 municate all representations coming from the latter, accompanied 
 with the necessary information." 
 
 The first money appropriated by the ayuntamiento was for the 
 purchase of the brig Euphemia, which was converted into a 
 prison for the confinement of criminals. This was the first jail 
 established in the place where convicted rogues could be kept in 
 custody. We give a correct representation of the Euphemia. 
 The store-ship Apollo, which is seen on the illustration, was an- 
 chored in the cove, some distance from the beach. It was subse- 
 quently used for a lodging-house and drinkiug-saloon. As the 
 city improvements progressed, lots were piled, capped, and filled 
 in on the flat covered by the waters of the bay, far beyond where 
 the Apollo lay ; and strangers visiting the city were astonished 
 to see the hull of a large ship located in the very heart of the 
 city, surrounded on all sides with large blocks of substantial stone 
 and brick edifices. 
 
 August 5th.— The first Protestant Church in California was 
 dedicated by the Baptists. At this time the Episcopalians, 
 Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Methodists, were taking 
 steps to build places of worship for themselves, while most of 
 these denominations had already established sabbath-schools. 
 The Roman Catholics had also erected a church in Vallejo-street, 
 at which divine service was regularly performed on Sundays. 
 The Rev. T. D. Hunt, whose appointment was noticed before, 
 officiated at the chaplaincy; and Mr. Lyman, a Mormon 
 preacher, was holding forth at the Institute, on Portsmouth 
 Square. 
 
 August 6th, 8th, and 11th.— The ayuntamiento meet, take 
 the oaths of office, and organize and distribute themselves into 
 various committees, for the purpose of systematically conducting 
 the affairs of the town. On the 13th, they appointed the follow- 
 ing municipal officials : — 
 
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 234 
 
 Frank Turk, Secretary. 
 William M. Eddy, City Surveyor. 
 P. C. Landers, Collector of Taxes. 
 
 And on the 20th of the month, 
 Dr. T. R. Palmer, City Physician. 
 
 Jonathan Cade, Sergeant at-Arms. 
 Malachi Fallon, Captain of Police. 
 A. G. Peachy, City Attorney. 
 John E. Townes, Sheriff. 
 Benj. Burgoyne, City Treasurer. 
 
 View of San Francisco in 1849, from head of California street 
 
 August 27th. — The " Pacific Neivs," a San Francisco tri- 
 weekly newspaper, published by Messrs. Falkner and Leland, 
 makes its first appearance. This paper was the second in San 
 Francisco at this period, and continued until 1851, when, after 
 having several times changed its proprietors and political com- 
 plexion, it expired. The only other newspaper in California was 
 the " Placer Times" published weekly at Sacramento ; but which 
 merged into a daily, and was afterwards issued in San Francisco. 
 
 The ayuntamiento this day issue an ordinance (subsequently 
 amended and re-issued) for raising a revenue for municipal pur- 
 poses, chiefly by means of a percentage duty on the sale of mer- 
 chandise and real estate, and heavy license duties imposed on 
 those engaged in different kinds of business. This was the be- 
 ginning of those steps by which a very great revenue was after- 
 wards collected. 
 
STEAM NAVIGATION COMMENCED. 
 
 235 
 
 September 1st. — The convention of delegates to frame a 
 State Constitution met at Monterey ; and on the 4th instant, 
 chose Robert Semple president, and Capt. Wm. 0. Marcy secre- 
 tary. The Constitution was finished and signed by the delegates 
 on the 13th of October. 
 
 September lOth.— The first " Merchants' Exchange" was 
 projected a short time before this date ; and at a public meeting 
 of citizens, held to-day, the scheme was approved of and sub- 
 scribed to by a considerable number of merchants and others. 
 The undertaking, however, after going on some time, seems to 
 have been dropped ; and in November we find Mr. E. E. Dunbar 
 opening a subscription " Merchants' Exchange and Reading 
 Room" in Washington street, which was patronized by most 
 mercantile people in the town. 
 
 October 26th. — Steam navigation is beginning to be adopted 
 in the bay and its upper waters. Just two years before this 
 time Wm. A. Leidesdorff had attempted to run a small steam- 
 boat, about the size of a ship's jolly-boat, which had been pro- 
 cured from the Russian settlement at Sitka. But this vessel, in 
 February, 1848, was sunk in one of the severe northers that 
 visit the bay ; and no steps had been taken to renew the experi- 
 ment until some time after the gold discoveries made its success 
 certain. Then speculators sent out many proper vessels from 
 the Atlantic States. The " Pioneer," a little iron steamer, 
 brought out in pieces from Boston, sailed upon the waters of the 
 Sacramento River about a month before this date ; and, being 
 the first that had penetrated so far into the interior, deserves the 
 title she had assumed. On the 9th instant, the small iron 
 steamer " Mint" had a trial trip, which was highly satisfactory. 
 She was intended to ply between San Francisco and the towns 
 on the upper waters. This day the steam-propeller " McKim" 
 left for Sacramento. Before this time voyages across the bay 
 and up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers were made in 
 schooners and launches. These vessels were often detained a 
 week or ten days in sailing that distance, which a steamer now 
 accomplishes in half a day. Both the steamers mentioned sailed 
 every alternate day from San Francisco, and on the intervening 
 days left Sacramento for the return passage. The fares at first 
 
236 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 were thirty dollars cabin, and twenty dollars deck. If berths 
 were used, five dollars extra. Meals on board, two dollars each. 
 The well known steamer " Senator " was shortly afterwards 
 placed on the same station, and the little "Mint" withdrawn 
 and placed on another. This was the beginning of a very great 
 increase of the transit trade of the bay. Later years have sent 
 numerous large, well appointed, and beautiful steam-vessels, 
 which have still further developed the interior water traffic, and 
 added immensely to the resources of the country. 
 
 October 21st. — Mr. Nathan Spear died of a disease of the 
 heart. He was forty-seven years of age, and one of the oldest 
 inhabitants of the place. This gentleman was partner to Mr. 
 Jacob P. Leese, who built the first house and formed the first 
 mercantile establishment in Yerba Buena. The death of Mr. 
 Spear was much regretted by the citizens, and the flags of the 
 ships in the bay were hung at half mast when it was announced. 
 
 October 25th. — The first Democratic Meeting ever held in 
 California assembled this evening at Dennison's Exchange. The 
 attendance was so large that the meeting was compelled to ad- 
 journ to the public square. The officers chosen were : — Presi- 
 dent, Col. John W. Geary ; Vice-Presidents, Dr. McMillan and 
 Messrs. 0. P. Sutton, E. V. Joyce, Thomas J. Agnew, John 
 McVickar, Annis Merrill, and W. H. Jones ; Secretaries, Messrs. 
 Joseph T. Downey, J. Ross Brown, Daniel Cronin, and John 
 A. McGlynn. Hon. Wm. VanVorhies delivered a spirited ad- 
 dress, and a long series of resolutions expressive of democratic 
 principles were adopted. The chief object of the assembly was 
 to effect a party organization previous to the approaching State 
 elections. 
 
 October 29th. — Rowe's Olympic Circus, which was in a large 
 tent, opened to a numerous attendance of spectators. This was 
 the first public announcement of the dramatic or spectacle kind 
 in San Francisco. The " house" could hold from twelve to fif- 
 teen hundred ; and the prices of admission were, three dollars to 
 the pit, five dollars to the boxes, and fifty-five dollars for a pri- 
 vate box. Two theatres had some time previously been an- 
 nounced, and were at this time in course of formation. 
 
 November 13th. — Ballot taken on the Constitution, and 
 
STATE ELECTION. 
 
 election for State officers. Party politics were beginning to in- 
 fluence voters in the choice of candidates. The election, how- 
 ever, was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner. In San 
 Francisco two thousand and fifty-one voted for the Constitution, 
 and five against it. Over the whole country the votes were 
 twelve thousand and sixty-four for, and eight hundred and 
 eleven against. These numbers were much below what had been 
 anticipated, partly on account of a mistake in the voting tickets 
 at San Francisco, and partly from the heavy rains over the 
 country, which prevented many voters from attending the polling 
 places. Perhaps, also, after the first excitement was over, when 
 the convention closed, the people became indifferent on the sub- 
 ject, and neglected the duty of voting. The following is a list 
 of the State officers, senators, and representatives in Congress, 
 first elected under the Constitution ; also, the members of the 
 first Legislature of California (to meet at San Jose), elected by 
 the citizens of San Francisco. 
 
 Governor. Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 Peter H. Burnett. John McDougal. 
 
 United States Senators. 
 John C. Fremont, Wm. M. Gwin. 
 
 Representatives in Congress. 
 George W. Wright, Edward Gilbert. 
 
 Secretary of State. Treasurer. Comptroller. 
 
 Wm. Van Vorhies. Richard Roman. J. S. Houston. 
 
 Attorney General. Surveyor General. 
 
 Edward J. C. Kewen. Charles J. Whiting. 
 
 Chief Justice. Associate Justices. 
 
 S. C. Hastings. J. A. Lyon, Nathaniel Bennett. 
 
 State Senators. 
 Gabriel B. Post, Nathaniel Bennett. 
 
 Assembly. 
 
 Wm. Van Vorhies, Edmund Randolph, Levi Stowell, J. H. Watson, 
 J. A. Patterson. 
 
 November 26th. — The first habitation on Rkicon Point, 
 erected by Dr. John H. Gihon. It was an India-rubber tent, 
 
238 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and occupied the site of the present U. S. Marine Hospital. The 
 entire hill was covered with gnarled oaks and thick underbrush. 
 There were at that time but several buildings between the Rin- 
 con and California street, while the waters of the bay washed the 
 foot of precipitous sand-hills the greater portion of the distance, 
 which rendered it necessary for the pedestrian, when the tide was 
 in, to wade up to his waist in the water in passing from the city 
 to the point, he being compelled to follow the line of the beach. 
 Those hills have since been transplanted into the cove, and made 
 substantial building lots, where large vessels were then anchored. 
 
 November 29th. — The governor had appointed this as a day 
 of solemn thanksgiving and prayer for the new State of Califor- 
 nia, and as such it was very generally observed. 
 
 December ]2th. — Some time previous to this date, the busi- 
 ness of the alcalde had so greatly increased, as to render necessary 
 the establishment of another court ; and upon application made 
 to the governor, he authorized William B. Almond, Esq., to open 
 and hold a Court of First Instance, with civil jurisdiction only, 
 and that in cases involving sums exceeding one hundred dollars. 
 Judge Almond accordingly organized his court in the old school- 
 house on the plaza ; and the novel and summary manner in 
 which he conducted his business and disposed of sometimes very 
 important cases, was a source of as much merriment to some and 
 mortification to others as any thing else then transpiring in the 
 town. Many a wag who was fond of fun, and had nothing better 
 to do, would spend an hour in the court-room to enjoy the satis- 
 faction of observing the chagrin of upstart attorneys, toward whose 
 oratorical eloquence and legal knowledge the judge was wont to 
 exhibit the most mortifying indifference. His Honor, at whose 
 expense many a good anecdote has been told, had a sovereign 
 contempt for Buncombe speeches, legal technicalities, learned 
 opinions, and triumphantly cited precedents. He was a man of 
 quick discernment and clear judgment ; and his opinion once 
 formed, and that sometimes occurred before even the first witness 
 was fully heard, his decision was made. Nothing further need 
 be said. His mind was as unalterable as were the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians. Jury trials were then of rare occurrence, 
 and the judge decided the cases that came before him ; and 
 
JUDGE ALMOND'S COURT. 
 
 239 
 
 there can be no reason to doubt, that his decisions generally were 
 far more just and equitable than those more recently given in 
 courts claiming greater legal knowledge, where learned judges 
 gravely occupy the bench, and tampered juries are influenced 
 more by bribes than testimony. On this day a case was tried in 
 which a physician had sued the captain of a ship for medical at- 
 tendance upon sick sailors during a voyage around Cape Horn. 
 The prosecutor claimed five hundred dollars. A number of wit- 
 nesses were called on both sides. The judge sat upon a rickety 
 old chair, with his feet perched higher than his head upon a small 
 mantel over the fire-place, in which a few damp sticks of wood 
 were keeping each other warm by the aid of a very limited sup- 
 ply of burning coals. His Honor employed himself in paring his 
 corns, or scraping his nails, while the " learned counsel " briefly 
 presented the case, and called the first witness, whom the judge 
 instructed, without changing his position, to tell all he knew 
 about the matter, in as few words and as quickly as possible, — 
 at the same time charging the lawyers not to interrupt him with 
 questions. This witness was no sooner done, and he had but 
 little to say, when the counsel called another ; but His Honor in- 
 formed him that it was unnecessary to pursue the inquiry fur- 
 ther — the witness had told a plain, straightforward story — the 
 court understood the merits of the matter, and its mind was 
 made up. " But," says a lawyer, " you will at least hear us 
 speak to the points of law ? " " That would be a great waste 
 of time, which is very precious," replied the judge ; "I award 
 the plaintiff one hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. Clerk, what is 
 the next case ?" Thus in less than fifteen minutes a case was 
 equitably disposed of, which in an ordinary court of law might 
 have occupied at least as many days ; and in the course of the 
 day, as much business was despatched in the same summary 
 manner, as would occupy most courts an ordinary quarterly 
 term. In the instance related the counsel for the plaintiff pock- 
 eted seventy-five dollars of the award, giving his client the bal- 
 ance, who was thus well paid for all the services he had rendered. 
 Young lawyers, however, were not pleased with this summary 
 method of disposing of business. To these the opportunity of 
 making a speech, the tendency of which is usually to render a 
 
240 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 clear case obscure, though it doubtless serves to display the ex- 
 tent of their wisdom and intelligence, is of quite as much conse- 
 quence as meat and drink to other people. They could not live 
 without it. Hence, Judge Almond, who deprived them of this 
 exquisite enjoyment, was no favorite with them. On one occa- 
 sion after a case had been decided, in the usual way, the defeated 
 attorney commenced reading aloud from a book he held in his 
 hand. The judge abruptly turned round, and reminded him that 
 judgment had been rendered, and all further remarks were use- 
 less. " I am aware of that," said the sprightly lawyer ; " but I 
 thought I would simply read a passage or two to convince you 
 what an old fool Blackstone was." The anecdote was not bad, 
 whether well applied or not, and even though it lacked origi- 
 nality. 
 
 The greater part of the business of Judge Almond's court was 
 of a similar character, viz., the settling of claims against owners 
 and masters of ships, instituted by their passengers or crews ; and 
 as the decisions were generally against the defendants, it was often 
 maliciously remarked that the judgments of the court were always 
 given against those who were best able to pay the costs. This 
 might have been true, though not in the sense intended ; for in 
 these cases, the parties most competent to pay were almost in- 
 variably the parties at fault. It was a well-known fact, that 
 during the first great rush of emigration to California, the most 
 shameless impositions were practised upon passengers by shipping 
 merchants and their agents. Vessels that had long been consid- 
 ered unseaworthy were hastily fitted up, without proper accom- 
 modations or provisions, and sent on a most dangerous voyage, 
 without even a reasonable expectation in some instances of their 
 reaching their place of destination, with passengers who had been 
 solemnly promised every needed comfort. And, when at sea, 
 they first discovered how they had been deceived, and began to 
 proclaim their grievances, they were merely laughed and scoffed 
 at by the brutal officers appointed (because of their peculiar 
 qualifications for that purpose) to carry out the designs of their 
 employers. These men had practised similar impositions with 
 impunity often before ; for how or where could a poor sailor or 
 emigrant passenger obtain satisfaction for wrongs suffered at sea, 
 
FIEST GREAT FIRE. 
 
 241 
 
 when the courts, even if appealed to, were so tardy in their 
 movements that the witnesses disappeared hefore an investigation 
 could take place, or the complainant was subjected to expenses 
 which he had no possible means to defray ? Owners and mas- 
 ters of vessels never supposed that in California, where every 
 thing was in a rude and unsettled condition, they would be pun- 
 ished for offences which had been winked at, if not sanctioned, 
 by the legal authorities in the oldest and best regulated commu- 
 nities ; hence, they were more reckless, bold and insolent than 
 ever in sending their almost worthless ships around Cape Horn. 
 But they were mistaken. Suits, well founded, were constantly 
 brought against them by the passengers and crews of vessels ar- 
 riving at San Francisco, and heavy fines and costs imposed for 
 the practice of mean impositions and tyrannical abuses ; until at 
 length, Judge Almond's court became such a terror to merchants 
 and captains of ships, that they would sooner compromise, even 
 at a sacrifice, a disputed point with a sailor or passenger, than 
 submit the case to the judgment of His Honor. 
 
 December 14th. — An edition of the " Alta California" is 
 published tri-weekly ; the old weekly issue being also continued. 
 
 December 24th. — This morning, about six o'clock, the awful 
 cry of fire was raised in the city, and in a few hours property 
 valued at more than a million of dollars was totally destroyed. 
 The fire began in Dennison's Exchange, about the middle of the 
 eastern side of the plaza, and spreading both ways, consumed 
 nearly all that 'side of the square, and the whole line of build- 
 ings on the south side of Washington street, between Montgom- 
 ery and Kearny streets. This was the first of the great fires 
 which devastated San Francisco ; and it was speedily to be fol- 
 lowed by still more extensive and disastrous occurrences of a 
 similar character. Something of the kind had long been antici- 
 pated by those who considered the light, combustible materials 
 of which the whole town was constructed. That the flames did 
 not spread further was in a great measure owing to the judicious 
 steps early taken by the municipal authorities in pulling down, 
 or blowing up with gunpowder, the houses at the extremity of 
 the conflagration. Scarcely were the ashes cold when prepara- 
 tions were made to erect new buildings on the old sites ; and in 
 16 
 
242 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 several cases within a few days, and in all, within a few weeks, 
 the place was covered as densely as before with houses of every 
 kind. These, like those that had just been destroyed, and like 
 nearly all around, were chiefly composed of wood and canvas, and 
 presented fresh fuel to the great coming conflagrations. 
 
 Dennison't Exchange, and l'arker House, before tlie fire, December, 1449. 
 
 The first fire of any consequence that had previously oc- 
 curred in the place broke out in January of this year, when the 
 " Shades Hotel" was destroyed. In June following, the ship 
 " Philadelphia" was burned in the harbor, as preparations were 
 being made for her sailing to the Sandwich Islands. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1849. 
 
 Increase of population — No proper homes. — Character of the houses. — Condition of the streets. — 
 Employments of the people. — Every thing in apparent confusion ; still nobody idle, and much 
 business accomplished. — How the inhabitants lived. — Money rapidly made and freely spent. — 
 Gambling. — Shipping deserted. — Extravagantly high prices obtained for every thing. — Iients and 
 wages. — The mines tlio source of all the wealth. — Destitution, sickness and death.— Increase of 
 crime —Aspect of the Plaza.— Mixed character of the inhabitants. —The Post-office. — A pleasant 
 prospect 
 
 The population of the State, and of San Francisco in particular, 
 had been largely increasing during the last six months. Between 
 the 1st of January, 1849, and the 30th of June following, it was 
 estimated that fifteen thousand had been added to the population 
 of the country ; of which number nearly ten thousand came by 
 sea, and landed at San Francisco. Only about two hundred of 
 these were females. The next half year gave an average of four 
 thousand immigrants per month, by sea alone, about five hundred 
 of whom, in all, were females ; and the whole of which numbers 
 landed at San Francisco. In the early part of 1849, the arrivals 
 were principally from Chili, Mexico, and other countries on the 
 Pacific coasts of America ; but later in the year, an immense 
 number of Americans came direct from the Atlantic States, 
 around Cape Horn, or by way of Panama, while many foreigners 
 also arrived from China and from various parts of Europe. 
 Hitherto the departures were comparatively few. Altogether 
 nearly forty thousand immigrants landed at San Francisco during 
 1849. Besides that great number, some three thousand or four 
 thousand seamen deserted from the many hundred ships lying in 
 the bay. Probably two-thirds of all these proceeded to the 
 mines, or to various parts of the interior ; but, on the other hand, 
 numerous fortunate diggers, or those who had tried gold digging 
 and been disappointed, visited town, to spend their gains, recruit 
 
244 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 their health, or follow out some new pursuit there. It will be 
 remembered also that somewhere about thirty thousand Ameri- 
 can immigrants had reached California across the plains, many 
 of whom ultimately settled in San Francisco. Therefore, it may 
 be reasonably estimated, that, at the close of 1849, the population 
 of the town numbered, at least, twenty, and probably nearer 
 
 Muddy Streets. 
 
 twenty-five thousand souls. A very small proportion of these 
 were females— a still smaller one, children of either sex ; while 
 the vast majority of inhabitants were adult males, in the early 
 prime of manhood. This circumstance naturally tended to give 
 a peculiar character to the aspect of the place and habits of the 
 people. 
 
 There was no such thing as a home to be found. Scarcely 
 even a proper house could be seen. Both dwellings and places 
 of business were either common canvas tents, or small rough 
 board shanties, or frame buildings of one story. Only the great 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 245 
 
 gambling saloons, the hotels, restaurants, and a few public build- 
 ings and stores had any pretensions to size, comfort or elegance. 
 The site on which the town is built was then still covered with 
 numberless sand-hills. The streets were therefore uneven and ir- 
 regular. By the continued passage of men, and of horses and 
 drays with building materials and goods, while the rainy season 
 (which commenced earlier than usual, and was remarkably severe) 
 was shedding torrents from the clouds, the different thoroughfares 
 were soon so cut up as to become almost, if not quite impassable. 
 Indeed both horse, or mule and dray were sometimes literally 
 swallowed up in the mud, while their owner narrowly escaped a 
 similar fate. The town authorities caused numberless cart loads 
 of brushwood and limbs of trees to be cut from the surrounding 
 hills, and thrown into the streets ; but these only answered a 
 limited and temporary purpose. The difficulty could not thus 
 be remedied. Nobody troubled himself to remove any rubbish 
 from the way ; but inmates of tents and houses satisfied them- 
 selves with placing a few planks, tobacco-boxes, bags of coffee, 
 barrels of spoiled provisions, or any other available object, across 
 and along the worst parts of the roads, to enable them safely to 
 reach their own dwellings. It was not for every body, however, 
 to attempt to navigate these perilous places, or hope to keep on 
 the narrow, slippery, unsteady, and often interrupted path which 
 spanned the unfathomed abysses of mud and water which lay on 
 all sides. Lanterns were indispensable to pedestrians at night, 
 and even in daylight not a few would lose their footing, and find 
 it difficult to extricate themselves from their unpleasant predica- 
 ments. 
 
 In those miserable apologies for houses, surrounded by heaps 
 and patches of filth, mud and stagnant water, the strange mixed 
 population carried on business, after a fashion. It is not to be 
 supposed that people could or did manage matters in the strict 
 orderly manner of older communities. Very few were following 
 that particular business to which they had been bred, or for 
 which they were best fitted by nature. Every immigrant on 
 landing at San Francisco became a new man in his own estima- 
 tion, and was prepared to undertake any thing or any piece of 
 business whatsoever. And truly he did it ; but it was with a 
 
246 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 deal of noise, bustle and unnecessary confusion. The great re- 
 cognized orders of society were tumbled topsy-turvy. Doctors 
 and dentists became draymen, or barbers, or shoe-blacks ; law- 
 yers, brokers and clerks, turned waiters, or auctioneers, or perhaps 
 butchers ; merchants tried laboring and lumping, while laborers 
 and lumpers changed to merchants. The idlest might be tempt- 
 ed, and the weakest were able, to do something — to drive a nail 
 in frame buildings, lead a burdened mule, keep a stall, ring a 
 bell, or run a message. Adventurers, merchants, lawyers, clerks, 
 t radesmen, mechanics, and every class in turn kept lodging-houses, 
 eating and drinking houses, billiard rooms and gambling saloons, or 
 single tables at these ; they dabbled in " beach and water lots," 
 fifty-vara blocks, and new town allotments over the whole coun- 
 try ; speculated in flour, beef, pork and potatoes ; in lumber and 
 other building materials ; in dry goods and soft, hard goods and 
 wet ; bought and sold, wholesale and retail, and were ready to 
 change their occupation and embark in some new nondescript 
 undertaking after two minutes' consideration. All things seemed 
 in the utmost disorder. The streets and passages, such as they 
 were, and the inside of tents and houses, were heaped with all 
 sorts of goods and lumber. There seemed no method in any 
 thing. People bustled and jostled against each other, bawled, 
 railed and fought, cursed and swore, sweated and labored lustily, 
 and somehow the work was done. A spectator would have im- 
 agined the confusion inextricable, but soon had reason to change 
 his opinion. Every body was busy, and knew very well what he 
 himself had to do. Heaps of goods disappeared, as if by magic, 
 and new heaps appeared in their place. Where there was a va- 
 cant piece of ground one day, the next saw it covered with half 
 a dozen tents or shanties. Horses, mules and oxen forced a way 
 through, across, and over every obstruction in the streets ; and 
 men waded and toiled after them. Hundreds of rude houses and 
 tents were daily in the course of erection ; they nestled between 
 the sand-hills, covered their tops, and climbed the heights to the 
 north and west of the town. 
 
 As we have said, there were no homes at this period in San 
 Francisco, and time was too precious for any one to stay within 
 doors to cook victuals. Consequently an immense majority of the 
 
MANNER OF LIVING. 
 
 247 
 
 people took their meals at restaurants, boarding-houses and hotels 
 —the number of which was naturally therefore very great ; while 
 many lodged as well as boarded at such places. Many of these 
 were indeed miserable hovels, which showed only bad fare and 
 worse attendance, dirt, discomfort and high prices. A few others 
 again were of a superior class ; but, of course, still higher 
 
 Lodging Room. 
 
 charges had to be made for the better accommodation. At best 
 all were inconveniently crowded, heated and disagreeable. The 
 whole population was constantly moving, and always visible, 
 which added greatly to its apparent numbers. If only people 
 did not sleep in public, they at least worked, eat, and amused 
 themselves in crowds. But even at night, they lay from half a 
 dozen to two score in a room, on the floor, in rows of cots, or 
 contracted and filthy bunks fastened to the weather-boards from 
 floor to ceiling, in which were immense swarms of fleas and other 
 troublesome vermin. At some lodging-houses and hotels, every 
 
248 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 superficial inch — on floor, tables, benches, shelves, and beds, was 
 covered with a portion of weary humanity. 
 
 While wages and profits were so high, and there was no com- 
 fort at their sleeping quarters, men spent money freely at differ- 
 ent places of riotous excess, and were indeed forced to pass their 
 hours of leisure or recreation at drinking bars, billiard rooms and 
 gambling saloons. Such places were accordingly crowded with a 
 motley crew, who drank, swore, and gamed to their hearts' con- 
 tent. Every body did so; and that circumstance was a sufficient 
 excuse, if one were needed, to the neophyte in debauchery. To 
 vary amusements, occasionally a fancy-dress ball or masquerade 
 would be announced at high prices. There the most extraordi- 
 nary scenes were exhibited, as might have been expected where 
 the actors and dancers were chiefly hot-headed young men, flush 
 of money and half frantic with excitement, and lewd girls freed 
 from the necessity of all moral restraint. A concert or a lecture 
 would at other times help to entertain the weary spirits of the 
 town. But of all their haunts, the gambling saloons were the 
 most notorious and best patronized. 
 
 Gambling was a peculiar feature of San Francisco at this 
 time. It was the amusement — the grand occupation of many 
 classes — apparently the life and soul of the place. There were 
 hundreds of gambling saloons in the town. The bar-room of every 
 hotel and public house presented its tables to attract the idle, 
 the eager and covetous. Monte, faro, roulette, rondo, rouge et 
 noir and vingt-un, were the games chiefly played. In the larger 
 saloons, beautiful and well-dressed women dealt out the cards or 
 turned the roulette wheel, while lascivious pictures hung on the 
 walls. A band of music and numberless blazing lamps gave an- 
 imation and a feeling of joyous rapture to the scene. No wonder 
 the unwary visitor was tempted and fell, before he had time to 
 awake from the pleasing delusion. To make a fortune in the 
 turning of a card was delightful — the very mingled hope and fear 
 of eventual success was a charming excitement. For the mo- 
 ment, men felt as great conquerors may be supposed some- 
 times to feel ; they manoeuvred on the green cloth, — the field of 
 their operations, — thinking their own skill was playing the game, 
 when chance alone gave the residt. At the end of a long even- 
 
GREAT PREVALENCE OF GAMBLING. 249 
 
 ing's campaign of mingled victories and defeats — petty skir- 
 mishes — they would either draw off their forces to renew the 
 game next day, or hazard their all, thousands of dollars perhaps, 
 on the issue of one great battle, and a moment afterwards leave 
 the table richer or poorer by a moderate fortune. Again and 
 again, were such campaigns fought, till the excitement and in- 
 tense desire of playing became chronic. When gTeat sums could 
 no longer be had, small ones served the same purpose ; and were, 
 in the end, lost like the others. Gambling became a regular 
 business ; and those who followed it professionally were really 
 among; the richest, most talented and influential citizens of the 
 town. 
 
 The sums staked were occasionally enormous. One evening 
 sixteen thousand dollars' worth of gold dust was laid upon a 
 faro table as a bet. This was lost by the keeper of the table, 
 who counted out the money to the winner without a murmur, 
 and continued his business with a cheerful countenance, and ap- 
 parently with as good spirits as though he had incurred no more 
 than an ordinary loss. As high as twenty thousand dollars, it is 
 said, have been risked upon the turn of a card. Five thousand, 
 three thousand, and one thousand dollars were repeatedly ven- 
 tured. The ordinary stakes, however, were by no means so high 
 as these sums — from fifty cents to five dollars being the usual 
 amount ; and thus the common day laborer could lay his moderate 
 stake as stylishly as a lord. It was only when the rich gamester 
 was getting desperate, or a half tipsy miner had just come from 
 the diggings with a handsome " pile," that the larger sums were 
 put on the cloth. Generally speaking, the keepers of the tables, 
 or " bankers," had no objection to these heavy stakes ; they knew 
 the game better than the player, and were well aware of all the 
 chances in their own favor. But it was scarcely necessary for the 
 professional gambler to encourage particularly large stakes. The 
 combined amount of all the usual small ones was very large ; 
 while every two minutes there was a new game formed, and new 
 stakes put down. The extensive saloons, in each of which 
 ten or a dozen such tables might be placed, were continually 
 crowded, and around the tables themselves the players often stood 
 in lines three or four deep, every one vieing with his neighbors- 
 
250 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 for the privilege of reaching the hoard, and staking his money as 
 fast as the wheel and ball could he rolled or the card turned. 
 The professional gamblers, who paid great rents for the right 
 of placing their tables in these saloons, made large fortunes by 
 the business. Their tables were piled with heaps of gold and 
 silver coin, with bags of gold dust, and lumps of the pure metal, 
 to tempt the gazer. The sight of such treasures, the occasional 
 success of players, the music, the bustle, heat, drink, greed and 
 deviltry, all combined to encourage play to an extent limited only 
 by the great wealth of the community. Judges and clergymen, 
 physicians and advocates, merchants and clerks, contractors, 
 shopkeepers, tradesmen, mechanics and laborers, miners and 
 farmers, all adventurers in their kind — every one elbowed his 
 way to the gaming-table, and unblushingly threw down his 
 golden or silver stake. The whole of the eastern side of Ports- 
 mouth Square, three-fourths of the northern, and a portion of 
 the southern sides were occupied by buildings specially devoted 
 to gambling. At these portions of the plaza were perhaps the 
 greater saloons, but all around the neighborhood there were num- 
 berless other places, where the same system was carried on, and 
 where the proceedings were exposed to the careless look of every 
 passer-by. 
 
 While such scenes, in hundreds of distinct places, were night 
 and day being acted in public, the better or richer classes, who at 
 first had openly appeared and gambled among the crowds at the 
 general saloons, began to separate and confine themselves to semi- 
 private play in the rear of the Parker House, and at similar 
 places. There, if tbe external excitement of moving crowds and 
 music was wanting, the interest in the sport arising from larger 
 stakes was correspondingly increased, if that were possible. The 
 amounts ventured in such secluded circles were immense ; and 
 almost surpass belief. Men had come to California for gold ; 
 and, by hook or by crook, gold they would have. It was a fair 
 and honest game, they thought, to hazard one's own money 
 against that of another. Therefore, they staked and lost — 
 staked and won — till in the end they were rich indeed, or penni- 
 less. But poor or rich, the speculative spirit continued — (there 
 was surely something infectious in the air !) — and either in direct 
 
GREAT PREVALENCE OF GAMBLING. 
 
 251 
 
 gambling, or in nearly similar operations in mercantile, land-job- 
 bing, or general business, the inhabitants of San Francisco, at 
 this period of its history, seemed to be one great horde of game- 
 sters. There were exceptions indeed, and some men scorned to 
 enter a gambling saloon or touch a card, but these were too few 
 comparatively to be specially noticed in the general hubbub and 
 speculative disposition of the place. 
 
 Parker House when first opened. 
 
 Who can tell the joy, the hope, the triumph, or the fear 7 
 misery ami ruin of the busy gamester ? It is not avarice alone 
 that urges his course — for we often find the ' professed gambler 
 careless of 0 money, liberal and 'generous to' excess. There is- 
 mental excitement — personal victory — riches, and consequent 
 power, honor and happiness in the game. Other passions have 
 theirjnoments of excitement and ecstasy ; but perhaps few have 
 more blissful ones than the uncontrollable spirit of play. Let 
 cold-blooded, lethargic people, who condemn the practice — for it 
 is still a pernicious vice — consider the temptations and pleasure, as 
 
252 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 well as the evils and crimes it induces, and withhold their ^dis- 
 criminating censures against those who have fallen victims to it. 
 Some countries indulge in national vices — it may be intoxication 
 or gambling, gross superstition or fanaticism. But no man can 
 know all the peculiar circumstances and temptations that lead to 
 wrong-doing ; and no man is so personally and morally pure that 
 he is entitled to throw a stone at the offender. We would not 
 seek to excuse the San Franciscans of those days for indulging 
 in gambling ; but we think some palliation might be found for 
 their conduct in the anomalous circumstances in which they were 
 placed, and much allowance made for their temptation and fall. 
 The same speculative spirit continues, although in a much less 
 degree. There are still many public gaming tables, open every 
 day of the week, at nearly all hours ; but the stakes are much 
 smaller than before, and the more respectable classes of the com- 
 munity do not attend such places. Private play is likewise still 
 canied on, but to nothing like the extent of former years. The 
 evil is dying away ; though many years must pass before it be 
 altogether extinct. So long as San Francisco is without proper 
 homes, and its population is composed chiefly of adult males, 
 while enormous profits and wages are usually made in every under- 
 taking, so long will the only amusements be public ones, and 
 chief among them, gambling. The richer and more respectable 
 classes have now such homes and families to enjoy themselves 
 among, and they no longer gamble. Give an agreeable domestic 
 circle to the mechanic and the laborer, the general speculator, the 
 tradesman and the clerk, and they likewise will forsake the public 
 haunts of dissipation. 
 
 We have occasionally alluded to the desertion of seamen. 
 At the time of which we write there were between three and 
 four hundred large square-rigged vessels lying in the bay, unable 
 to leave on account of want of hands. Many of these vessels 
 never got away, but, in a few years afterwards, rotted and tum- 
 bled to pieces where they were moored. As stores and dwelling- 
 houses were much needed, a considerable number of the deserted 
 ships were drawn high on the beach, and fast imbedded in deep 
 mud, where they were converted into warehouses and lodgings for 
 the wants of the crowded population. When subsequently the 
 
EXTRAORDINARY CIRCULATION OF MONEY. 253 
 
 town was extended over the mud flat of the bay, these ships 
 were for ever closed in by numberless streets and regularly built 
 houses both of brick and frame. When, by and by, the runaway 
 seamen returned from the mines, crews could be more easily had, 
 though still at a great increase of wages ; and gradually the de- 
 tained vessels were enabled to leave the port, to make room for 
 new fleets. 
 
 The circulation of money, — partly coin, partly gold dust, — 
 was very great. Men had a sublime indifference to the smaller 
 pieces of coin, and talked as familiarly of dollars as people else- 
 where would of dimes. A copper coin was a strange sight. 
 There was nothing less received for any service, however slight, 
 than half a dollar ; for any article, however trifling, than a 
 twenty-five cent piece. The price of admission to the pit of the 
 circus was three dollars ; while fifty-five dollars was the cost of a 
 private box. Thirty dollars a week, or eight dollars a day, was 
 the sum asked for good boarding ; while the most indifferent 
 could not be obtained for less than twenty dollars a week. Every 
 mouthful at dinner might be valued at a dime ; and to get a 
 hearty meal would cost from two to five dollars, according to the 
 quality of the viands. Other things were in proportion. Wheat 
 flour and salt pork sold at forty dollars a barrel ; potatoes and 
 brown sugar at thirty-seven and a half cents a pound ; a small 
 loaf of bread, such as might cost four or six cents in the Atlantic 
 States, brought fifty cents ; and the same price was required for 
 a pound of cheese ; coarse boots, the only description for which 
 there was any demand, could not be purchased for less than thirty 
 to forty dollars a pair, while superior ones of the same class were 
 sold for more than one hundred dollars. And truly, when one 
 considered the horrible muddy holes and ragged streets of the 
 place, boots were reasonable at these rates. It was about as 
 economical to throw away certain soiled articles of clothing and 
 buy new ones, as to get the old ones cleaned, when people had 
 to pay from twelve to twenty dollars for the washing of each 
 dozen of articles, large or small. Laborers' wages were a dollar 
 an hour ; skilled mechanics received from twelve to twenty dol- 
 lars a day. The carpenters struck work because they were get- 
 ting only twelve dollars a day, and insisted on being paid sixteen. 
 
254 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Their employers then offered fourteen dollars a day, for a limited 
 time, and afterwards an increase. Every brick in a house was 
 roughly estimated to cost a dollar, one way and another, before 
 the building was finished. Lumber rose to five hundred dollars 
 per thousand feet. 
 
 Rents were correspondingly enormous. Three thousand dol- 
 lars a month, in advance, was charged for a single store, of limited 
 dimensions, and rudely constructed of rough boards. A certain 
 two story frame building, known as the " Parker House," and 
 situated on Kearny street, facing the plaza, paid its owners one 
 hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year in rents. Of this 
 sum, somewhere about sixty thousand dollars was paid by gam- 
 blers, who occupied nearly the whole of the second floor. The 
 " El Dorado," a gambling saloon, which adjoined the Parker House 
 on the right, at the corner of Washington street, and which was 
 only a canvas tent of moderate size, brought at the rate of forty 
 thousand dollars per annum. At another corner of the plaza a 
 small building, which might have made a stable for half-a-dozen 
 horses, was possessed by Wright & Co., brokers, under the name 
 of the Miners' Bank, at a rent of seventy-five thousand dollars. 
 The United States Hotel paid thirty-six thousand dollars ; a 
 mercantile establishment, for a one-story building, of twenty feet 
 front, paid forty thousand dollars, and seven thousand dollars 
 per month was paid for the Custom House. The interest of bor- 
 rowed money was rated by the same scale. From eight to fifteen 
 per cent, per month, with the addition of real security, was regu- 
 larly given, in advance, for the use of money. And people paid these 
 enormous wages, rents and interests ; and still made fortunes to 
 themselves ! Keal estate, that but a few years before was of little 
 more worth than an old song, now brought amazing prices. From 
 plain twelve dollars for fifty-vara lots, prices gradually rose to 
 hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of dollars ; so that 
 large holders of such properties became on a sudden millionnaires. 
 Shippers in foreign countries realized large fortunes at first by 
 their ventures to California ; and if, ere long, the expenses were 
 so heavy and the wholesale prices of goods, by excessive supply 
 and competition, dwindled so low that sometimes they would not 
 pay landing or storage charges, why, still the commission agents 
 
EXTRAORDINARY CIRCULATION OF MONEY. 255 
 
 of San Francisco, and the host of interior merchants, shopkeep- 
 ers and other retail dealers, were doing a thriving business, and 
 accumulating large sums. The holder of every office in the State 
 and municipality was paid generously. There was no niggardli- 
 ness in such things. A religious body, whose clergymen are 
 seldom in the habit of receiving extravagant salaries, took the 
 
 Custom House on the Plaza. 
 
 support of their minister on themselves, and voted him the 
 princely allowance of ten thousand dollars per annum ! Clerks 
 and underlings were treated in the same handsome manner. 
 The great sums, forming the total of such wages, salaries and 
 profits, were always rapidly passing from hand to hand, and came 
 and went, and finally disappeared in gambling-saloons and 
 billiard rooms, at bars and in brothels, in land-jobbing, building 
 and mercantile speculations, in every kind of personal profusion, 
 extravagance and debauchery. 
 
 The main-spring of all this bustle and money-making trade 
 
256 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 was the gold mining. Consider, therefore, the mightily enhanced 
 prices of every article at the diggings ! Gold dust paid for all 
 foreign supplies, and filled the pockets of every active and shrewd 
 man hesides. Millions' worth of pure gold, in lumps and dust, 
 reached San Francisco every month. The greater portion was 
 forwarded to the Atlantic States and other distant quarters in 
 payment of supplies ; but, in the transit, much was appropriated 
 and retained, as currency, among the ever plotting, restless and 
 " wide-awake " people of San Francisco. Future generations will 
 see California a rich and prosperous country independently alto- 
 gether of her mineral wealth ; hut in those early days it was the 
 placers alone that made, and which are still making it what it 
 appears. All honor then to the sturdy and independent digger, 
 whose labors are peopling the country, cultivating the fields, build- 
 ing cities, making roads, covering the ocean and the bays and the 
 rivers of the land with steamers and great ships, and conferring 
 riches and happiness not only on the growing population of Cali- 
 fornia itself, that shall hereafter be numbered by millions instead 
 of the present hundreds of thousands, but also on millions of in- 
 dustrious workmen in every quarter of the world ! 
 
 While labor was so well paid at this period, in San Francisco, 
 it is a melancholy fact that there was much destitution, sickness, 
 and even death by want and exposure in the place. Many of the 
 immigrants had landed in a sickly and emaciated state, ill of scur- 
 vy and other diseases which their long voyage and hardships had 
 produced ; and such people could not work. Others had miscal- 
 culated their own powers and inclinations, and the nature of the 
 country they had come to, and were either ashamed or unable to 
 perform honest labor ; while perhaps they were too timid or up- 
 right to speculate in the variety of strange and often cunning ways 
 by which other adventurers made a living and fortune. Disap- 
 pointed diggers, returning from the mines with broken constitu- 
 tions, swelled the destitute population. They probably lived in 
 miserable habitations, sleeping often upon the bare earth. Around 
 them were bustle and lucrative pursuits, while they alone seemed 
 neglected. Then they lost heart, pined, took sick and died, curs- 
 ing the country and its gold, and the foolish fancies, that had led 
 them to it. Many committed suicide in the utter prostration of 
 
MIXED CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS. 
 
 257 
 
 physical strength, in feebleness or disease of mind and absolute 
 despair. Public meetings were held to consider the destitute sit- 
 uation of the poor — (strange word for such a country ! yet San 
 Francisco had its full share of the class), — and large sums were 
 raised for their support. The Orders of Free Masons and Odd- 
 Fellows, nobly did their part in the charitable work, and were the 
 principal means by which now, and at a later period, hundreds of 
 suffering: beings were saved from a miserable end, or their remains 
 decently interred after death. 
 
 San Francisco was like the scene of a great battle. There 
 were victorious warriors braving and flaunting on all sides, while 
 hope swelled the breast of every unwounded soldier. But, un- 
 heeded amid the crash and confusion of the strife, lay the wound- 
 ed and dying, who had failed or been suddenly struck down in the 
 mel 'e. As in the case of other battles, there were likewise secret 
 bands of unmanly ruffians, who attacked and plundered all sides 
 alike. These were the thieves, burglars and murderers of the 
 community, the " hounds " of recent times and their legitimate 
 successors, — a large and fearful class indeed, — daily increasing in 
 numbers, boldness and extent of depredation and crime. To their 
 wickedness were afterwards ascribed, some of the extensive con- 
 flagrations which so repeatedly laid waste the most valuable por- 
 tions of the growing town ; and under cover of the alarm and con- 
 fusion produced by which events, robberies could be carried on 
 with impunity. What mattered it though millions' worth of 
 property were consumed to enable the fire-raising villain to steal 
 a few thousand dollars ? He had still the few thousand dollars, 
 and the universe might go to blazes for aught that he cared. In 
 this manner, doubtless reasoned the " Sydney coves," and the 
 other desperate and criminal adventurers with which the town was 
 now infested. The "Vigilance Committee " had not yet arisen 
 to terrify the wretches into good behavior. 
 
 The every-day aspect of the plaza and streets was of the most 
 curious and interesting kind. Take the plaza, on a fine day, for 
 a picture of the people. All races were represented. There were 
 hordes of long pig-tailed, blear-eyed, rank-smelling Chinese, with 
 their yellow faces and blue garbs ; single dandy black fellows, of 
 nearly as bad an odor, who strutted as only the negro can strut, 
 17 
 
258 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in holiday clothes and clean white shirt ; a few diminutive fiery- 
 eyed Malays, from the western archipelago, and some handsome 
 Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands ; jet-black, straight featured, 
 Abyssinians ; hideously tattooed New Zealanders ; Feejee sailors 
 and even the secluded Japanese, short, thick, clumsy, ever-bow- 
 ing, jacketed fellows ; the people of the many races of Hindoo 
 land ; Russians with furs and sables ; a stray, turbaned, stately 
 Turk or two, and occasionally a half naked shivering Indian ; mul- 
 titudes of the Spanish race from every country of the Americas, 
 partly pure, partly crossed with red blood, — Chilians, Peruvians 
 and Mexicans, all with different shades of the same swarthy com- 
 plexion, black-eyed and well-featured, proud of their beards and 
 moustaches, their grease, dirt, and eternal gaudy serapes or darker 
 cloaks ; Spaniards from the mother country, more dignified, polite 
 and ponrpous than even their old colonial brethren ; "greasers," 
 too, like them ; great numbers of tall, goat-chinned, smooth- 
 cheeked, oily-locked, lank-visaged, tobacco-chewing, large-limbed 
 and featured, rough, care-worn, careless Americans from every 
 State of the Union, dressed independently in every variety of garb, 
 not caring a fig what people thought of them, but determined to 
 " do the thing handsomely," and "go ahead;" fat, conceited, 
 comfortable Englishmen, who pretended to compete in shrewdness 
 with the subtle Yankee — as if it were not the " manifest destiny" 
 of Jonathan, every where, but especially on his own ground, to 
 outshine John ! Then there were bands of gay, easy-principled, 
 philosophical Germans, Italians and Frenchmen of every cut and 
 figure, their faces covered with hair, and with strange habiliments 
 on their persons, and among whom might be particularly remark- 
 ed numbers of thick-lipped, hook-nosed, ox-eyed, cunning, oily 
 Jews. Among this vast motley crowd scarcely could two hats be 
 found alike in material, size and shape ; scarcely could two men 
 be found otherwise dressed alike. The long-legged boot, with 
 every variety of colored top, the buckled-up trousers, serapes or 
 cloaks, pea-jackets and broad-brimmed or slouched hats and glazed 
 caps, were perhaps the commonest articles of dress. The fortunate 
 miner with his dirty garments and hirsute face, could be readily 
 distinguished from all others. He cared not to dress or cleanse 
 himself properly, till the bars and gambling saloons had been 
 
THE POST-OFFICE. 
 
 259 
 
 duly visited, and his hard won gains were spent. Then did he 
 shake, shave and wash himself, and start again for the golden 
 placers. 
 
 The eye was delighted with the varieties of costume, and more 
 readily distinguished the wearers ; while the ear was only con- 
 founded with the babble of unknown, and to it harsh, guttural 
 and meaningless sounds which flowed from every mouth, and 
 where all alike talked loudly, and many furiously gesticulated. 
 Thus the people passed in pairs or in crowds — they loitered, stood 
 still, and moved on again, while other parties jostled beside and 
 around them. A horse or a bullock breaking loose would dash 
 along the way, and make a momentary struggle and flight ; but 
 soon again the scene resumed its old appearance. On two, if not 
 three sides of the juaza, were the open doors of the " hells " of 
 San Francisco, where gamblers, and others for amusement, passed 
 out and in during the whole day. On the other portions stood 
 hotels, stores and offices, the custom-house and courts of law, all 
 thronged with numerous visitors. The little open space which 
 was left by the crowds we have been describing, was occupied by a 
 multitude of nondescript objects, by horses, mules and oxen drag- 
 ging burdens along, by cars and carriages of various kinds, boys 
 at play, stalls with sweetmeats, newspapers, prints, toys^ and other 
 trifling articles of merchandise. At times a few Californians or 
 some foreigners would appear on prancing steeds, the horses ca- 
 parisoned with gaudy harness and brightly-colored saddle-cloths, 
 while little bells jingled as they moved along. The riders wore 
 strange leathern aprons before the legs, huge spurs on the heels, 
 and perhaps had a cloak picturesquely thrown across their shoul- 
 ders. Occasionally, too, even at this early period, the crowds 
 would make way for the passage of a richly dressed woman, sweep- 
 ing along, apparently proud of being recognized as one of frail 
 character, or several together of the same class, mounted on spirited 
 horses, and dashing furiously by, dressed in long riding skirts, or 
 what was quite as common, in male attire. 
 
 We cannot leave this part of our subject without alluding to 
 the scenes that daily occurred at the post-office, winch was situa- 
 ted at the corner of Pike and Clay streets. Every body, of course, 
 was anxiously expecting letters from home ; and every body has- 
 
260 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 tened to look after them. The post-office was hut a small build- 
 ing, and could neither accommodate many assistants and clerks 
 inside, nor afford much standing-room to make inquiries without. 
 When, therefore, soon after the arrival of the mail from the At- 
 lantic States, which occurred hut once a month, people came for 
 their wished-fbr letters, exhibitions of an interesting character 
 
 The Tost Office, corner of Tike and Clay streets. 
 
 were sure to transpire. To avoid riots and confusion, several reg- 
 ular lines were formed from the delivery windows, at the end of 
 which applicants for letters took places as they arrived. So anx- 
 ious were many to receive their epistles, that they posted them- 
 selves in the evening of one day to he early at the window on the 
 morning of the next, standing all night in the mud, with a heavy 
 rain pouring down upon their heads. The lines extended a great 
 distance down Clay street to the plaza, and along Pike street, even 
 across Sacramento street to the tents among the chapparel. Hours 
 
THE POST-OFFICE. 
 
 261 
 
 therefore, would elapse, before it came to one's turn to reach the 
 window. To save such delay, sometimes people would employ 
 and handsomely pay others to preserve places for them, which they 
 would occupy, in room of their assistants, when they were approach- 
 ing the loop-holes where the delivery clerks stood. Ten and 
 twenty dollars were often paid for accommodation in this way. 
 Indeed, many clever persons made large sums regularly by such 
 work, by securing good places in the line early, never intending to 
 seek letters for themselves, but only to sell their right of position 
 to some richer man who was in haste, and regarded more his time 
 than money. Some of these eager applicants had not heard from 
 their far distant homes for many long months, and their anxious 
 solicitude was even painful. It was therefore exceedingly distress- 
 ing to mark the despondency with which many would turn away 
 upon hearing from the delivery clerks the oft-repeated and much- 
 dreaded sentence, " There is nothing here for you." On the other 
 hand, it was equally pleasing to observe the cheerful and triumph- 
 ant smile, not unfrequently accompanied with a loud exclamation 
 of joy, that would light up the countenance of the successful appli- 
 cant, who hastens from the window, and as soon as he can force a 
 passage through the crowd, tears open and commences to read the 
 more than welcome letter, every word of which awakens in his 
 mind some tender reminiscence. He is now communing with the 
 dearest idols of his heart. He knows no feelings but those of 
 kindness and affection. The lines upon which his eyes are rivet- 
 ed, were written perhaps by an absent wife, and they have made 
 him already a better man than he was an hour before. She is 
 describing the sadness of the solitude his absence has occasioned, 
 and urging him with all a true woman's fondness, to hasten back 
 to the home which needs but his presence to be one of unmingled 
 happiness. She tells him of their innocent children — of their im- 
 proving loveliness — and how she has taught them in their daily 
 prayers to lisp their absent father's name. Look close into the 
 reader's face, and the nature of his emotions will not be mistaken. 
 There is an unusual twitching of the muscles of the mouth, a 
 growing dimness of the eyes, and tears are rapidly tracing down 
 the furrows of his sunburnt cheeks. He is too much absorbed in 
 his interesting occupation to know or care that he is an object of 
 
262 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 curious observation. What matters it to him what others think 
 of his apparent weakness ? It is a weakness of which he need not 
 be ashamed. He at length carefully folds the paper and carries 
 it to his comfortless abode, where he reads it over and over again, 
 until by constant handling, and the tears that fall upon it, its 
 characters become illegible. That night does not find him in the 
 gambling-house, nor elsewhere in search of amusement ; but in 
 his own wretched chamber, he is silently communing in spirit with 
 the loved ones at home. Such scenes were of hourly occurrence, 
 and tended to exhibit the better portion of human nature, which 
 neither the thirst for gold nor feverish excitement of the place could 
 entirely destroy. 
 
 Turning from these busy scenes and ascending a neighboring 
 height, the wearied spectator beheld one of the most peaceful 
 prospects and pleasant sights of the world. It was winter by the 
 calendar ; but the winters of California are the springs and early 
 summers of less favored lands in northern latitudes. Beneath 
 was the little pandemonium he had left, where the devil-inspired 
 worshippers of mammon burrowed in, and out, and about, holes 
 and huts of canvas and wood ; but the noise of whose never-ceas- 
 ing labors reached not his ears. Beyond the narrow limits of the 
 town were the calm waters of the bay, on which floated, swan- 
 like, hundreds of trim and well-proportioned ships, all motionless, 
 and deserted by their crews. Farther out was the high lying 
 island of Yerba Buena, green to the summit. Beyond it lay the 
 mountains of Contra Costa, likewise arrayed in verdant robes, on 
 the very tops of which flourished groups of huge redwood trees ; 
 while far in the distance towered the gray head of Monte Diablo. 
 The eye wandered to the northern and southern extremities of 
 the bay, and still gazed on green hills, smooth waters and pictu- 
 resque islands. It turned oceanward, and saw the Golden Gate 
 studded with deep laden ships inward bound. The grand 
 northern shores of the strait rose boldly and brokenly to the 
 height of nearly three thousand feet, while the lower coast oppo- 
 site was equally beautiful from the freshness of its fields and 
 bushes, in the midst of which, and in the most beautiful spot 
 embraced in the entire view, quietly nestles the presidio, now 
 the solitary habitation of a small detachment of United States 
 
A PLEASANT PROSPECT. 
 
 263 
 
 soldiery. The great Pacific might he dimly seen beneath the 
 dense veil of mist that hung miles out at sea opposite the Gate. 
 To the west and south-west the spectator next looked, and ad- 
 mired the Blue Mountain and the Pass that sheltered the quiet 
 
 The Presidio of San Francisco. 
 
 valley of the mission, and the long ridges of the Sierra San Bru- 
 no, their green color sinking into a faint blue as they were seen 
 more distantly. Overhead was a sky as blue and as beautiful as 
 imagination could picture ; the air was fresh and balmy ; the 
 earth beneath one's feet, soft and fragrant with new herbage and 
 flowering shrubs ; while the life-giving sun shed over all its own 
 radiance and joy. All was clear and sharp-defined ; all was tran- 
 quil and motionless, except the flight of innumerable white and 
 gray-winged gulls, that soared and fluttered among the deserted 
 shipping in the cove before the town. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 1850. 
 
 Great sale of water lots. — An election day. — Newspapers. — Approval by the ayuntamiento of the city 
 charter, and limits of San Francisco. — Squatter difficulty at Eincon Point — Political meeting on 
 Portsmouth Square.— The Colton grants.— First county election. — Col. John C. Hayes elected 
 Sheriff.— City Charter adopted by the State Legislature.— First election under the City Charter. - 
 Changes in the Common Council. 
 
 January 3d. — A great sale by the municipal authorities, of 
 four hundred and thirty-four water lots, which brought $635,130. 
 This sale had been ordered by the ayuntamiento by a resolution 
 passed on the 3d of October, 1849, in accordance with a procla- 
 mation of General Kearny, directing three months' notice to have 
 been previously given. 
 
 January 8th. — An election was held for members of the 
 legislature, alcaldes and ayuntamiento. The interest on these 
 occasions increased with the population, and the election of to- 
 day was the most exciting that had yet been held. The weather 
 was exceedingly unpleasant, the wind blowing a gale, and the 
 rain pouring down in torrents. The streets were covered with 
 mud and water so as to render them almost impassable. Still the 
 neighborhood of the polls was crowded during the entire day with 
 men and boys, zealous as they well could be in their endeavors to 
 promote the public welfare. It is one of the glorious conse- 
 quences of our republican institutions, that at such times, so 
 many worthy people are always to be found, utterly regardless of 
 their personal interests, and so entirely devoted to the general 
 good. Although the excitement ran unusually high, the day 
 passed off without disturbance, and much good humor was ex- 
 hibited by the conflicting parties. The voters were numerous ; 
 every citizen of the United States being entitled to the elective 
 franchise, and almost all who were here, from every part of the 
 
AN ELECTION DAY. 
 
 265 
 
 world, claimed to be American citizens. The way to the polls, 
 for a considerable distance, on either side, was completely blocked 
 up by roughly dressed men, who thrust their favorite tickets into 
 the hands of every new comer, with loud exclamations in behalf 
 of the parties for whom they were working. " Here's for Geary, 
 and the old council ! " cries one, " Geary and the old council for 
 ever ! " " For ever is a long day," says another ; " rotation in 
 office, is my doctrine. The old council has made money enough. 
 Let's give a new one a chance at the public crib ! " " The old 
 ones are so fat they can't eat any more ! " exclaims a third ; "we 
 had better keep them where they are ! " " We have had the 
 old council long enough ! " vociferates a stout six-footer, wading 
 up to his waist in the mud : " I go for a new council, side-ivalks, 
 and dean streets!" " You do, do you ? " replies a wag : " then 
 I guess you will have to go an infernal long ways to find them ! " 
 " We want another yuntermenter," bawls out a youngster in a red 
 shirt and tarpaulin hat, and resembling a drowned rat more than 
 an independent voter : — " we want another yuntermenter, and 
 here's the ticket for um ! " " It's a gutterminty that ye want ? " 
 replies a brawny Irishman ; " then take it, and good luck till ye ! " 
 giving the luckless wight a toss that sent him sprawling into the 
 gutter overhead in water : " I am thinking ye won't want another 
 gutterminty soon, any how ! " With much difficulty the polling 
 desk was reached, where other scenes no less amusing were trans- 
 piring. Around the judges and inspectors were an eager and ex- 
 cited crowd, some endeavoring to vote and others to prevent them. 
 "I challenge that man's vote," cries a bystander, as a simple 
 Sandwich Islander, almost as dark as an African, offered his 
 ticket. " Then we must swear him ! " says the judge, and the 
 usual oath was administered. " Where were you born ? " was 
 the inquiry. " In New York ! " whispered a prompter, and the 
 answer was given accordingly. "Where did you come from 
 last ? " " New York," was again the reply. " Where was your 
 father born ? " " New York." " In what street did you five ? " 
 " New York." " Where is New York ? " the judge next inquired. 
 This was too much for the poor fellow. He knew as much of the 
 locality and streets of the invisible world as he did of New York. 
 His prompter, who had brought him there to vote, endeavored 
 
266 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 to instruct him, but without success. His impatient challenger 
 at length exclaims : " Turn him out, he is a Kanaka ! " and the 
 vote was rejected. Another and another pressed forward, and 
 similar questions and just as honest answers were given, and 
 many a vote was polled, to the right of depositing which the 
 elector was no more entitled than the poor Kanaka. Still the 
 election proceeded, and notwithstanding the interest and excite- 
 ment manifested, the best sort of feeling was preserved through- 
 out. The polls were closed early in the evening, and the judges 
 announced the following gentlemen elected to the offices named. 
 The heaviest ballot cast was in favor of Col. John W. Geary, who 
 received 3,425 votes : — 
 
 State Setiator. — David C. Broderick. 
 
 Member of Assembly. — Samuel J. Clarke. 
 
 First Alcalde. — John W. Geary. 
 
 Second Alcalde. — Frank Turk. 
 
 Ayuntamiento. — A. J. Ellis, Talbot H. Green, Wm. M. 
 Stewart, W. H. Davis, Samuel Brannan, James S. Graham, 
 Frank Tilford, F. C. Gray, J. Hagan, M. Crooks, A. M. Van 
 Nostrand, and Hugh C. Murray. 
 
 January 22d. — The "Alta California" is changed into a 
 daily newspaper, being the first of the kind that has appeared in 
 California. The weekly issue is likewise continued. The day 
 following, the "Journal of Commerce "was started as a daily 
 paper ; and about six weeks later, the " Pacific News " took a 
 similar form. The " San Francisco Daily Herald " came into 
 existence on the first of June, and became a very popular journal. 
 On the first of August following, the " Evening Picayune " also 
 made its appearance. The latter was the fifth daily but the first 
 evening paper. The "Courier" and the "Balance" followed 
 soon after, and subsequently many other journals have been de- 
 veloped in San Francisco and other parts of the country. Some 
 of these are still in existence, while others after a very brief and 
 sickly career, perished for want of support. The " Placer Times," 
 which was extensively circulated in the mining districts, had been 
 commenced at Sacramento in April, 1849, and appeared weekly. 
 This was also converted into a daily newspaper, and was subse- 
 
POLITICAL MEETING ON PORTSMOUTH SQUARE. 267 
 
 quently removed to San Francisco. It is a political journal, de- 
 voted to the interests of the democratic cause. 
 
 February 13th. — A charter for the city, previously drafted 
 and considered, was amended and approved of by the ayuntami- 
 ento, and Messrs. Hagan and Green were instructed to present it 
 to the representatives of the city for adoption by the legislature. 
 By the first section of the charter it was declared, that " the 
 limits of the City of San Francisco shall be the same which 
 bounded the pueblo lands and town of San Francisco ; and its mu- 
 nicipal jurisdiction shall extend to said limits, and over the wa- 
 ters of the Bay of San Francisco, for the space of one league 
 from the shore, including the Islands of Yerba Buena, Los An- 
 geles, and Alcantraz." 
 
 February 28th. — A squatter difficulty occurred at the 
 Rincon. Most of the land here was held as United States 
 government reserve, and as such was leased for a limited period 
 to Mr. Theodore Shillaber. Upon attempting to take possession, 
 this gentleman found the leased property mostly occupied by 
 " squatters," the majority of whom were from Sydney. These 
 refused either to pay rent or vacate the land. Captain Keyes, 
 therefore, having charge of the presidio, marched to the Rincon 
 with a company of twenty United States soldiers, and soon de- 
 molished all the tents and shanties that had been erected on the 
 government grounds. A Mr. White, one of the leaders among 
 the squatters, subsequently brought a civil action for damages 
 against the captain ; but the latter was sustained by the court, 
 and the case was dismissed, the prosecutor being required to pay 
 the costs. 
 
 March 9th. — Party politics begins to embrace a good share 
 of public attention, and among the seekers after fame and for- 
 tune, there is no scarcity of aspirants for political preferment. 
 It is but lately, however, that party lines have been drawn, and 
 whigs and democrats, as such, arrayed against each other in their 
 patriotic efforts to promote the general welfare. But it was 
 found less difficult to draw these fines than to rally the forces 
 under their distinctive self-constituted leaders. There were as 
 many officers as soldiers to enter the political campaign. At 
 least, each party was divided into several factions, every faction 
 
268 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 having at its head, of course, men whose claims to puhlic favor 
 were superior to all others. Concerted action was therefore out 
 of the question. The democrats had resolved to remedy this 
 evil, so destructive of their party interests, by uniting or harmo- 
 nizing all their conflicting elements. To this end a mass meet- 
 ing was held this afternoon on Portsmouth Square. About one 
 thousand persons assembled, a band of music played national airs, 
 and a large and splendid ensign waved gracefully over the 
 speakers' stand, upon which were stationed officers duly appointed 
 to conduct the proceedings in proper form. The meeting was 
 opened with great enthusiasm, and, for a time, every thing gave 
 promise of the desired result. Several addresses were delivered 
 with good effect, which were enthusiastically responded to by the 
 admiring listeners. But a trying moment at length arrived. 
 The committee chosen to draft resolutions expressive of the feel- 
 ings and purposes of the democracy, presented their report, and 
 the resolutions were submitted for passage. These called forth 
 the factional prejudices of the assembly, which were exhibited in 
 uproar and confusion. The chairman was unable to decide the 
 votes, and hence, some of the most boisterous determined to decide 
 them in a manner peculiar to themselves. What they failed to 
 accomplish by the power of their lungs, they attempted to effect 
 by " the force of arms." Blows were liberally bestowed and re- 
 ceived, and broken heads and bleeding noses were the conse- 
 quence. The fight commenced on the speakers' stand, and in a 
 short time, the meeting was divided into a dozen squads, each 
 taking an active part in the melee. Order was at length restored, 
 and the mass once more gathered to adopt or reject the resolu- 
 tions. The chairman again " put the question," and the " ayes " 
 rang loudly through the air, which were followed no less loudly 
 by the " noes." It was impossible to decide whether the " ayes " 
 or the " noes " were in the ascendency. The holding up of hands 
 was next resorted to. The " ayes " were told to hold up their 
 right hands, and after them the " noes ; " but many of both par- 
 ties seemed to imagine that in a matter of such importance, all 
 hands were right, and consequently held up all the hands they 
 had, doubtless regretting not having others for the purpose. It 
 was then suggested that the "whigs" created all the difficulty. 
 
FIRST COUNTY ELECTION. 
 
 269 
 
 and they were requested to withdraw. The whigs accordingly 
 fell back, leaving about one-half the assembly behind. Elated 
 at the sight of their own numbers, they whirled their hats in 
 triumph over their heads, which was accounted by their opponents 
 as a signal for attack ; and down they rushed upon the retiring- 
 force in a perfect torrent, sweeping before them all who were not 
 levelled with the dust. It was now thought expedient to ad- 
 journ the meeting, which was effected with "three cheers" for 
 the democracy, every aspirant for the honors, spoils and profits of 
 whicb, internally resolving to support the party whenever its 
 requirements did not conflict with his personal interests. 
 
 March 26th. — For some time back tbere have been much 
 agitation and discussion on the subject of the " Colton Grants." 
 It appears that Mr. Horace Hawes, prefect of the district of San 
 Francisco, had chosen to consider that the duties and privileges 
 of his office were more extensive than had been previously sup- 
 posed. He had, in particular, instructed Mr Gr. Q. Colton, a 
 justice of the peace in and for his district, to sell and convey 
 away the municipal lands, accounting only to himself for the 
 proceeds of the same. When, afterwards, the Court of First In- 
 stance, on the petition of the ayuntamiento, granted an injunction 
 to restrain Mr. Colton from so acting, Mr. Hawes immediately 
 issued a mandate annulling the said injunction. Mr. Colton 
 meanwhile had sold or otherwise disposed of a great number of 
 town allotments, some of them at nominal prices, to various 
 parties. The ayuntamiento, holding that they alone were the 
 proper parties to authorize such sales, thereupon determined this 
 day to prefer against Mr. Hawes a number of charges, founded 
 upon these and other facts, to the governor of the State ; and 
 passed a long string of resolutions on the subject. The governor 
 subsequently suspended Mr. Hawes from performing the duties 
 of his office ; while the titles to the " Colton Grants," many of 
 which had been signed in blank, and others were ante-dated, 
 passed into the courts of law, and were for years afterwards a 
 fertile source of litigation. In the end, it is believed that they 
 were altogether found to be invalid. 
 
 April 1st. — The first election for county officers. The 
 principal office to be filled was that of sheriff, for which there 
 
270 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 were three candidates. Col. J. Townes was the regular whio- 
 nominee — Col. J. J. Bryant the nominee of the democratic party 
 — and the celebrated " Texan Kanger," Col. John C. Hayes, was 
 selected by the people as an independent candidate. It was soon 
 apparent that the contest rested between the two last named. 
 Col. Bryant was a man of fortune, and was determined to spare 
 no exertions or expense to secure his election. He was j>roprietor 
 of the most extensive and best conducted hotel in the place, 
 known at that time as the " Bryant House," formerly the 
 
 San Francisco in April 1S50, showing Clay street, opposite Portsmouth Square. 
 
 " Ward House," which was a great place of resort for politicians, 
 and where hundreds of the colonel's pretended friends and real 
 supporters enjoyed, in no slight degree, the advantages of his 
 generous hospitality. A band of music was daily stationed on 
 the balcony of the Bryant House after the nomination of its 
 proprietor, free lunches were served up in the spacious saloon, and 
 on this day the building was literally covered with flags, signals. 
 
FIRST COUNTY ELECTION. 
 
 271 
 
 and banners of every form and beautiful color, while the finest 
 liquors were gratuitously dispensed at the well-stocked bar to all 
 who chose to drink. On Saturday afternoon, March 29th, the 
 friends of Col. Hayes held a mass meeting on the plaza, which 
 was a large and enthusiastic assembly. After several spirited ad- 
 dresses had been given, the meeting formed in procession, and 
 headed by a band of music, paraded the principal streets, cheer- 
 ing and being cheered by multitudes of spectators as they passed 
 along. In the evening; the democrats also assembled in the 
 square, making a truly splendid display. The whole plaza was 
 covered with men, horses and wagons, and was illuminated with 
 flaming torches and other lights, which blazed from the speakers' 
 stand and hundreds of vehicles admirably arranged for effect. 
 Numerous transparencies, banners and flags added greatly to the 
 life and splendor of the pageant. Able speakers urged the claims 
 of the democracy in general, and of Col. Bryant in particular, to 
 the suffrages of the people, whilst, at regular intervals, cannons 
 were fired to give effect and increase the excitement. This meet- 
 ing also ended in a procession, which traversed the streets to a 
 late hour of the night. Early this morning the different parties 
 were in force about the polls, and in due time the judges, inspec- 
 tors and clerks were chosen and installed in their respective 
 offices. The election was conducted with more than usual spirit. 
 At noon it was evident that Col. Hayes was the people's favorite, 
 which incited to increased efforts the Bryant party. Accordingly 
 they appeared with another grand display upon the plaza. A 
 procession of mounted men, and carriages filled with musicians, 
 with banners and flags waving and floating above them, occupied 
 the square, and were in a measure, producing the desired effect. 
 But in the midst of the excitement thus produced, Col. Hayes, 
 mounted upon a fiery black charger, suddenly appeared, exhibit- 
 ing some of the finest specimens of horsemanship ever witnessed. 
 The sight of the hero, as he sat bare-headed and unattended 
 upon his noble animal, took the people by surprise, and called 
 forth the admiration and patriotism of the vast multitude of 
 spectators, from every one of whom shout after shout rent the 
 air, deadening the sounds of trumpets and drums, and being 
 heard far and wide over land and sea. Men crowded around him 
 
272 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 on every hand, some seizing the bridle, others clinging to his 
 clothing and stirrups, and each anxious to obtain a grasp of his 
 hand. The noise and tumult terrified the spirited beast he strode, 
 which reared and plunged among the enthusiastic crowd, though 
 so admirably managed as to do injury to none ; when, at length, 
 his rider giving him the rein, he dashed into and along the ad- 
 joining street, followed and greeted by loud huzzas at every step. 
 This settled the question. The cause of Col. Bryant was aban- 
 doned, and a vast majority of votes were given in favor of the 
 " Texan Ranger." The following named parties were elected : — 
 
 Sheriff. — John C. Hayes. District Attorney. — Calhoun Benham. 
 
 County Judge.- — R. N. Morrison. County Clerk. — John E. Addison. 
 County Recorder. — J. A. McGlynn. County Assessor. — David M. Cliauncey. 
 County Surveyor. — Wm. W. Eddy. County Coroner. — Edward Gallagher. 
 County Treasurer. — G. W. Endicott. County Attorney. — T. J. Smith. 
 Clerk of the Supreme Court. — E. H. Tharp. 
 
 April 15th. — The City Charter passed by the State Legisla- 
 ture. The limits of the city are now declared to be as follows : 
 — " The southern boundary shall be a line two miles distant in a 
 southerly direction from the centre of Portsmouth Square, and 
 which line shall be a parallel to the street known as Clay street. 
 The western boundary shall be a line one mile and a half distant 
 in a westerly direction from the centre of Portsmouth Square, 
 and which line shall be parallel to the street known as Kearny 
 street. The northern and eastern boundaries shall be the same 
 as the County of San Francisco." The city was to be divided 
 into eight wards by the first council appointed by the charter ; 
 and for its government were to be elected a Mayor, and Record- 
 er, a Board of Aldermen and a Board of Assistant Aldermen, 
 which two boards should be styled the " Common Council," each 
 consisting of one member from each ward. There was also to be 
 elected by the city a Treasurer, Comptroller, Street Commission- 
 er, Collector of City Taxes, City Marshal and City Attorney, and 
 by each ward two Assessors. As at the time of the first election 
 under the charter there were only four wards, it was provided 
 that two chief and as many assistant Aldermen should be elected 
 from each, while the same number of Assessors should be chosen. 
 The municipal officers were to hold office only one year, and new 
 
FIRST ELECTION UNDER THE CITY CHARTER. 273 
 
 elections to be made on the fourth Monday of April annually. 
 The powers and duties of the Common Council and municipal 
 officers are minutely laid down in the charter. 
 
 May 1st. — This day the City Charter was submitted to the 
 inhabitants for approval, when it was adopted ; and the first 
 election under its provisions took place. The following candi- 
 dates were returned as elected : — 
 
 Mayor. — John W. Geary. 
 Recorder. — Frank Tilford. 
 Marshal. — Malachi Fallon. 
 City Attorney.— Thos. H. Holt. 
 
 Treasurer. — Charles G. Scott. 
 Comptroller. — Benj. L. Berry. 
 Tax Collector. — Wm. M. Irwin. 
 Street Commissioner. — Dennis McCarthy. 
 
 Charles Minturn, 
 F. W. Macondray, 
 D. Gillespie, 
 
 A. Bartol, 
 C. T. Botts, 
 Wm. Sharron, 
 
 Robert B. Hampton, 
 Halsey Brower, 
 John Garvey, 
 
 Aldermen. 
 
 A. A. Selover, 
 Wm. Greene, 
 
 Assistant Aldermen. 
 John Maynard, 
 John P. Van Ness, 
 
 Assessors. 
 John H. Gihon, 
 Francis C. Bennett, 
 
 C. W. Stuart, 
 Wm. M. Burgoyne, 
 M. L. Mott. 
 
 L. T. Wilson, 
 A. Morris, 
 Wm. Corbett. 
 
 John P. Haff. 
 Beverly Miller, 
 Lewis B. Coffin. 
 
 Before the term of election expired, several changes occurred 
 in the Common Council. Mr. Burgoyne having made a visit to 
 the Atlantic States immediately after the election, was never 
 qualified, and his place was declared vacant ; and Mr. Macon- 
 dray resigned shortly afterwards. Their places were filled on the 
 27th June by the election of Moses G. Leonard and John Mid- 
 dleton. Mr. Maynard resigned June 24th, and soon afterwards 
 the resignation of Mr. Botts was accepted ; and a new election 
 to fill the vacancies thus occasioned, on the 27th July, resulted 
 in the choice of George W. Green and James Grant. Subse- 
 quently Messrs. Gillespie and Leonard retired from the Board of 
 Aldermen, and Mr. Morris from the Board of Assistants. Their 
 places were also supplied by election on the 2.0th January, 1851, 
 by W. H. V. Cronise and D. G. Robinson to the first, and George 
 W. Gibbs to the second Board. We are somewhat particular in 
 mentioning these changes in the Boards of Aldermen, since the 
 18 
 
274 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 affairs of their salaries, and the famous medals, hereafter noticed, 
 directed much attention to the individual members. 
 
 May 4th.— The second great fire in San Francisco, when 
 property to the value of nearly four millions of dollars was sup- 
 posed to he destroyed. It began about four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, in the building on the east side of the place called the 
 
 Fire of May 4tli, 1S50. 
 
 United States Exchange ; and before eleven of the forenoon, 
 three immense blocks of buildings, with a few trifling exceptions, 
 were totally destroyed. These were the blocks lying between 
 Kearny, Clay, Montgomery and Washington streets ; and the 
 two blocks between Dupont, Montgomery, Washington and 
 Jackson streets. A great many buildings were torn down or 
 blown up by gunpowder to stay the progress of the flames ; and, 
 among others, nearly the whole erections in Dupont street were 
 voluntarily destroyed to prevent the conflagration spreading on 
 that side. While some of the populace readily and untiredly 
 assisted in extinguishing the flames, others would lend no hand 
 at the work without being first well paid for it. The police force 
 
FIRST MEETINGS OF THE ALDERMEN. 
 
 275 
 
 1 m 
 
 JACK SOI 
 
 was very efficient in preventing pillage, and preserving order 
 among the real workers and the idlers at the fire. Circumstances 
 occurred which led to the strong suspicion, if not moral certainty, 
 that the fire arose through the ageucy of incendiaries, and a re- 
 ward of five thousand dollars was offered by the mayor for their 
 detection. Several parties were apprehended on suspicion, but 
 no formal trial took place, and they were shortly afterwards lib- 
 erated. As in the case 
 of the former great fire, 
 on the 24th December 
 last, new buildings were 
 begun to be erected 
 while still the sites of 
 the old were hot with 
 smoking ashes. While 
 even one extremity of - 
 the old tenement was 
 still blazing, people were 
 planning the nature of 
 the new erection, and 
 
 WASHINGTON ST. 
 
 * Portsmouth' 
 salt ARE 
 
 Diagram of the burnt district. May 4th, 1S50. 
 
 clearing away the embers and rubbish from the other scarcely 
 extinguished end, to lay the foundation of the intended new pile. 
 In a wonderfully short time the whole burned space was covered 
 with new buildings, and looked as if no fire had ever been there ; 
 although it was generally remarked that these were even more 
 unsubstantial and inflammable than those which had just been 
 destroyed. 
 
 May 9th. — The two boards of aldermen severally held meet- 
 ings for the first time at the new City Hall, at the corner of 
 Kearny and Pacific streets. The principal business of the meet- 
 ings was to organize, appoint committees, and receive and read a 
 message from the mayor. This latter was an able and interest- 
 ing document, containing many truly excellent suggestions in 
 regard to the interests of the corporation. Its great length pre- 
 cludes the propriety of its insertion. As the following extract, 
 however, gives a correct statement of the financial condition of 
 the city at this important period of its history, its omission 
 would be inexcusable : — 
 
276 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 " The Reports of the Treasurer and Comptroller are herewith submitted. 
 The financial condition of the city is as follows : — 
 
 Amount on second instalment, of sales of water lots, due 
 
 April 3d, 1850, $23,049 00 
 
 Amount on third instalment, due July 3d, 1850 107,602 00 
 
 Amount on fourth instalment, due October 3d, 1850 107,602 00 
 
 $238,253 00 
 
 The Report of the Comptroller, up to May 8, 1850, shows 
 the present liabilities of the city, including the purchase of 
 
 the City Hall, to be $199,174 19 
 
 Excess over liabilities $ 39,078 81" 
 
 In the course of this month, several stringent and useful or- 
 dinances were passed by the common council, which endeavored 
 to provide means for the better extinguishing of future fires. 
 One of these ordinances declared that if any person, during a 
 conflagration, should refuse to assist in extinguishing the flames, 
 or in removing goods endangered by the fire to a place of safety, 
 he should be fined in a sum not less than five, and not exceeding- 
 one hundred dollars. Another ordinance authorized the mayor 
 to enter into contracts for the digging of Artesian wells, and for 
 the immediate construction of water reservoirs in various parts of 
 the city. Another ordained every householder to furnish six 
 water buckets, to be kept always in readiness for use during the 
 occurrence of future fires. Such ordinances were all excellent in 
 their way, though unfortunately they were somewhat late in being 
 adopted. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1850. 
 
 Third great fire. — Aldermen's salaries. — Indignation meetings. — Veto message of the mayor. — Ship- 
 ping in San Francisco Bay.— Celebration of the Fourth of July.— The Oregon Liherty Pole.— 
 Custom-house at the corner of California and Montgomery streets. —Departure from California of 
 General Kiley.— Society of California Pioneers. — Squatter riots at Sacramento.— Suffering immi- 
 grants. — Presentation of Chinese Books. — Funeral ceremonies on occasion of the death of Presi- 
 dent Taylor.— A Chinese document 
 
 •June 14th. — Scarcely had the citizens time to hreathe after their 
 recent exertions at the fire of the 4th of May, and the labors 
 which followed in erecting new buildings in room of those de- 
 stroyed, when again the terrible cry of fire rang in their ears. 
 This was the third conflagration to which the city had been sub- 
 jected, and its ravages exceeded even those of the two previous 
 great fires united, being estimated at nearly five millions' worth 
 of property. These successive losses would surely have broken 
 the spirit of any people but Americans, and for a time indeed 
 sank even theirs. But in proportion to the unusual depression 
 was the almost immediate reaction, and the ruined citizens began 
 forthwith to lay the foundations of new fortunes instead of those 
 so cruelly destroyed. The fire, which arose from some defect in 
 the chimney of the house where it broke out, began about eight 
 o'clock in the morning, in a bakery, which was in a small wooden 
 back building, between Sacramento and Clay streets, and in the 
 rear of the Merchants' Hotel. The wind was high at the time, 
 and the flames soon spread on all sides. In a few hours, the 
 whole space situated between Clay, California and Kearny streets, 
 down to the edge of the water, was one mass of flame ; and, with 
 few exceptions, all the buildings and goods lying within these 
 extensive bounds, were totally consumed. The individual losses 
 were very severe ; and these occurring so shortly after the two 
 
278 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 preceding great fires, had the effect of reducing many citizens, 
 previously wealthy, to poverty. But as the spider, whose web 
 is again and again destroyed, will continue to spin new ones 
 while an atom of material or a spark of life remains in its body, 
 so did the inhabitants set themselves industriously to work to 
 rear new houses and a new town. In the space of a few weeks 
 the burned districts were covered over with other buildings, many 
 of which were erected of far more substantial materials than 
 before. Sad experience had taught the people that although the 
 cost of fire-proof, brick structures was much greater at first than 
 the old wooden ones, yet in the end, they were cheaper and better. 
 From this time forward, we therefore begin to notice, that the 
 street architecture gradually assumed a new and grander appear- 
 ance. This was one good consequence of the repeated fires ; 
 while another was the immediate formation and organization of 
 numerous hook and ladder, engine and hose companies. Many 
 municipal ordinances regarding these companies and the estab- 
 lishment and completion of wells and reservoirs in various parts 
 of the city, were likewise the result of these successive disasters. 
 
 During all this month, the community was kept in a state of 
 excessive excitement, arising from certain extraordinary proceed- 
 ings on the part of the Common Council. The members had not 
 been long in office, when they nearly unanimously passed an ordi- 
 nance providing for the payment of certain salaries to themselves 
 and the chief municipal officers. The mayor, recorder, and some 
 others, were to be paid annually the sum of ten thousand dollars, 
 while the sixteen principal and assistant aldermen were each to 
 receive six thousand. The salaries of the municipal officials were 
 perhaps not more than were necessary at the period, since these 
 gentlemen had really much work to do, while all their time was 
 supposed to be passed in the service of the city ; but it was con- 
 sidered by the citizens generally, that to bestow six thousand dol- 
 lars a year upon sixteen private persons, for only two evening 
 meetings in each week, was extravagant and ridiculous. As one 
 of the speakers at a subsequent public meeting said, people in 
 foreign countries, when they heard of such a thing, would be apt 
 to call it " a California lie." More especially the proposed alder- 
 manic allowance seemed monstrous and unjust, from the fact that 
 
INDIGNATION MEETINGS. 
 
 279 
 
 the city was then much embarrassed in pecuniary affairs, and that 
 certain most obnoxious and heavy taxes were proposed to be laid 
 upon the inhabitants. 
 
 Many public meetings of the citizens were held on the sub- 
 ject, at which resolutions strongly condemnatory of the council's 
 proceedings were passed. One of these meetings took place on 
 the plaza on the evening of the 5th of June, and was the largest 
 that had ever assembled in San Francisco for any purpose. From 
 three to four thousand people attended. General John Wilson 
 was appointed president. After some introductory discussion, 
 several resolutions were adopted by acclamation, the essence of 
 which was this, — that we " instruct our mayor and common 
 council to abandon the scheme of high salaries, and to remodel 
 the schedule of oppressive taxation, as shadowed forth by their 
 recent action ; and unless they are willing to do so, to resign and 
 give place to more patriotic and efficient men." A committee 
 of twenty-five were then appointed to wait on the council and 
 present a copy of the resolutions, and to request an answer to 
 the same. The gentlemen composing the committee were Messrs. 
 Wilson, Folsom, Crane, Post, Stoutenburg, Howard, Cooke, 
 Kelly, Yale, Syme, Retan, Robinson, Courson, Robertson, Dunbar, 
 Leonard, Minor, Parcells, Osborne, Wells, Duff, Parlon, Wake- 
 man and Meacham. 
 
 The committee named, accordingly, through their chairman, 
 Captain J. L. Folsom, presented the resolutions to the council. 
 These the aldermen, who appeared determined to carry matters 
 through with a high hand, received very coldly, and ordered them 
 to lie indefinitely on the table. This not being deemed a suffi- 
 cient answer by the committee, another "mass" and "indignation 
 meeting" was called by them for the evening of 12th June; 
 which was held on the plaza and was very numerously attended. 
 Again General Wilson filled the chair. The report of the com- 
 mittee having been read, and the supposed " insolence of office " 
 duly animadverted upon, the meeting, considering the " disrespect 
 and insult" which their former representatives had met with, 
 unanimously reappointed them as a committee, with poioer to 
 increase their number to Jive hundred, and instructed them again to 
 present the old resolutions to the council in such form as they 
 
280 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 should think fit. The committee thus fortified, afterwards chose 
 the additional members, and fixed the evening of the 14th, when 
 they should all march in procession to the place of meeting of 
 the common council, and there again submit the " sovereign will " 
 of the people to the aldermen, and require their prompt obedience 
 to the same. On that day the great conflagration just noticed 
 took place ; and farther action on the subject of the high salaries 
 and obnoxious taxation ordinances was indefinitely postponed. 
 Popular excitement took a new direction in consequence of the 
 fire ; and, excepting in the columns of the Herald newspaper, 
 and among a few testy individuals, little more was said on the 
 matter till some months afterwards, when the question was revived. 
 The previous meetings, however, had the effect of causing the 
 obnoxious license ordinance to be withdrawn for a time. In the 
 end, the salaries of both the municipal officers and the common 
 council were reduced, the latter being ultimately fixed at four 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 It is due to Col. Geary, mayor of the city, to observe, that 
 from the beginning he opposed the payment of salaries to the 
 members of the Boards of Aldermen, and at last vetoed the bill 
 allowing them four thousand dollars each. His message, on 
 returning the ordinance, unapproved, was a highly creditable 
 document. After declaring that the ordinance in question was 
 in direct opposition to the wishes of the people, whose will had 
 been made known to the aldermen in the most emphatic manner, 
 which he averred it was the duty of the latter to obey, he uses 
 the following language : — 
 
 " Another view which presents itself with great force to my mind, in in- 
 terpreting the executive right to arrest the ordinance in question, is that of 
 expediency. With great unanimity a financial measure has heen adopted to 
 provide for the immediate payment of the city's indebtedness, by means of 
 a loan of half a million of dollars. It is of the greatest importance to the 
 interests of the city, that that measure should be made to succeed at the 
 earliest possible moment. In my deliberate judgment its success would be 
 injuriously impeded, if not entirely defeated, by associating with the propo- 
 sition for a loan, an ordinance to appropriate so large a proportion of the 
 amount demanded as sixty-four thousand dollars, to the payment of a class 
 of officers whose services are usually rendered without any other remunera- 
 tion than the honor conferred by their fellow-citizens, and their participation 
 in the general good which it is their province and duty to promote. It could 
 
THE OREGON LIBERTY-POLE. 
 
 281 
 
 not fail to weaken our public credit to show a purpose to use it for the pay- 
 ment of salaries never contemplated by the people, especially in view of the 
 admitted necessity" for the practice of the most rigid economy, in order to 
 complete by means of all the resources and credit we possess the public 
 works in progress or in contemplation. With scarcely a dollar in the pub- 
 lic treasury — without the means of discharging even the interest falling due 
 for the scrip already issued— the city credit impaired, and general bankruptcy 
 staring us in the face, retrenchment should be the order of the day, rather 
 than the opening up of new modes of making enormous and heretofore un- 
 known expenditures." 
 
 This act of the mayor was universally and heartily applauded 
 by the people, and received the highest commendation of the en- 
 tire press ; while, on the other hand, it received the severest cen- 
 sures of the aldermen themselves, who not only passed the ordi- 
 nance by a legal number of votes despite the mayor's veto, but 
 for a long time refused to grant a salary to his honor. The 
 sudden and angry burst of popular feeling on this subject led, 
 the following year, to a provision in the new charter, then granted 
 by the Legislature to the city, which declared that henceforward 
 the members of the Common Council should not be entitled to 
 any compensation for their services. 
 
 July 1st. — From the shipping lists published in the daily 
 newspapers, it appears that about this time there were five hun- 
 dred and twenty-six vessels lying in the port, the greater number 
 of which were ships and barques, the remainder being brigs and 
 schooners. Besides these, there were at least one hundred large 
 square-rigged vessels lying at Benicia, Sacramento, and Stockton. 
 Long before this time many of the old seamen who had deserted 
 their ships had returned from the mines, and there was no diffi- 
 culty in procuring crews for departing vessels, upon paying them 
 the ordinary high wages of the time. 
 
 J uly 4th. — Another grand celebration of independence-day. 
 This was particularly distinguished by the erection on the plaza 
 of a magnificent flagstaff, or liberty-pole, which Messrs. S. Coffin 
 and W. W. Chapman, on behalf of the citizens of Portland, 
 Oregon, had presented to the citizens of San Francisco, and 
 which was received by the mayor, Col. J. W. Geary. The 
 length of this pole is one hundred and eleven feet. It is one 
 foot in diameter at the bottom, tapering regularly to about 
 
282 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 three inches at the other end, and is as straight as an arrow. 
 This is perhaps the longest and most faultlessly straight pole 
 that is known, although the presenters apologized that no longer 
 one had been sent, on account of the inconvenience of shipping 
 a stick of larger dimensions. The old pole which used to stand 
 on the plaza from Mexican days, and upon which the first Amer- 
 ican flag was hoisted, had been removed on the 7th of June pre- 
 ceding, and was erected in front of the custom-house, at the 
 corner of Montgomery and California streets. 
 
 Cus om-house, at the corner of Montgomery and California streets. 
 
 The custom-house, occupied by Col. James Collier, then col- 
 lector of the port, was a new four-story brick building, and the 
 most imposing edifice in the city. It was destroyed by fire on 
 the 4th of May, 1851, as was also the old liberty-pole. 
 
 July 15th. — General Bennet Riley, late military governor 
 of the territory, left San Francisco for the Eastern States. Prior 
 to his departure a letter was addressed him, signed by the mayor 
 and numerous influential citizens, tendering him a public dinner, 
 and complimenting him for the satisfactory manner in which he 
 had performed his duties as governor of the country. Previous 
 arrangements, however, prevented the general from accepting 
 
SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS. 
 
 283 
 
 this invitation, in declining which he uses the following lan- 
 guage : — " Both in iny official and social relations with the people 
 of California, I have ever been treated with the utmost indul- 
 gence and kindness. I can never cease to feel a lively interest 
 in their happiness and prosperity, and I now leave them with 
 feelings of deep regret. If California, by her mineral wealth, 
 and the unexampled increase of her population and commerce, 
 has attracted the attention of the world, her dignified course in 
 the peculiar and trying position in which she has been placed, 
 equally challenge universal admiration." 
 
 August. — Organization of the " Society of California Pio- 
 neers." The objects of this society were declared, in the words 
 of the constitution, to be " to cultivate the social virtues of its 
 members, to collect and preserve information connected with the 
 early settlement and conquest of the country, and to perpetuate 
 the memory of those whose sagacity, enterprise, and love of inde- 
 pendence, induced them to settle in the wilderness, and become 
 the germ of a new State." The society " shall be composed of 
 native Californians ; foreigners residing in California previous to 
 the conquest ; and natives of other States and other countries, if 
 citizens of the United States, resident here prior to January 1st, 
 1849, and their male descendants, who shall constitute the first 
 class ; and citizens of the old States of the Federal Government 
 who shall have resided in California prior to January 1st, 1850, 
 and their male descendants, who shall constitute the second 
 class ; and honorary members, who may be admitted in accord- 
 ance with what may be prescribed in the by-laws." The admis- 
 sion fees, which are now (1854) ten dollars, and a monthly sub- 
 scription of a dollar, payable half-yearly in advance, " and all 
 funds arising therefrom or by donation, shall be safely invested, 
 and the income arising therefrom shall be appropriated to chari- 
 table purposes, exclusively for the use and benefit of the widows 
 and orphans of pioneer immigrants, members of this society." A 
 list of the members in April, 1854, with the dates of their respec- 
 tive arrivals in California, their present residences, and the office- 
 bearers of that year, appear in the Appendix. Here we may 
 only name the first office-bearers of the society. They were as 
 follows : — 
 
284 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 President : — William D. M. Howard. 
 
 Vice-Prcsiden ts. 
 Jacob R. Snyder, Samuel Brannan, G. Frank Lemon. 
 
 Recording Secretary. Assistant Recording Secretary. 
 
 Joseph L. Folsom. J. C. L. Wadsworth. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary. Treasurer. 
 Edwin Bryant. Talbot H. Green. 
 
 Assistant Coi~responding Secretaries. 
 W. C. Parker and A. J. Grayson. 
 
 Board of Directors. 
 
 James C. Ward, H. W. Halleck, J. Mead Huxley, 
 
 James C. Low, J. D. Stevenson, R. M. Sherman, 
 
 Samuel Kyburn, James Hall, Henry Gerke, 
 
 G. K. Winner, Robert Wells, G. W. Vincent, 
 
 H. A. Schoolcraft, J. B. Frisbie, R. A. Parker, 
 William Blackburn, John Wilson, W. H. Davis. 
 
 August 15th. — The city was thrown into a state of excite- 
 ment by news of serious riots having occurred at Sacramento 
 City on the preceding day. It seems that a great portion of the 
 land covering that city and vicinity is held by grants from Capt. 
 John A. Sutter, who claimed under an old Spanish title. Much 
 of this land had been squatted upon by parties who denied the 
 legality of Sutter's grants, and who claimed a right to the property 
 as pre-emptionists or settlers. The holders of titles from Sutter 
 appealed to the courts, and decisions were given in their favor ; 
 but upon attempting to possess themselves of their appropriated 
 property they were forcibly resisted by the squatters. On the 
 13th instant, several of these latter were arrested for resisting 
 the officers of the law and the process of the court, and in default 
 of bail, two of them were held in custody on board the prison 
 brig. On the day following an armed body of squatters repaired 
 to the brig to release their companions, where they were met by 
 the mayor, sheriff, and a posse, who drove them back a consider- 
 able distance into the city, when they turned and fired upon the 
 legal authorities, who immediately returned the fire with guns 
 and pistols. Of the latter, Mr. Woodland, city assessor, was 
 
SQUATTER RIOTS AT SACRAMENTO CITY. 
 
 285 
 
 killed, and Mayor Bigelow, Mr. Harper, assistant postmaster, 
 and several others were wounded. Mahloney, the leader of the 
 squatters, was shot dead from his horse. Several others of the 
 same party were killed, and a number severely wounded. On 
 the same day, other disturbances occurred at Brighton, six miles 
 south of the city, when Sheriff Joseph McKinney was killed, and 
 
 Sacramento City 
 
 several of his posse were wounded ; three of the squatters were 
 also killed, and a number taken prisoners. Immediately upon 
 receiving intelligence of these lamentable occurrences Mayor 
 Geary issued a proclamation, calling upon " the citizens of San 
 Francisco to meet at the earliest possible period, form companies, 
 and hold themselves in readiness to answer such calls as may 
 necessarily be made upon them." Soon the " California Guard,'' 
 Captain Howard, numbering eighty men, and " Protection Fire 
 Company, No. 2," Captain McCormick, between forty and fifty 
 men, properly equipped and armed with muskets, reported them- 
 selves ready for service. This force, under the command of Col. 
 Geary, departed at 12 o'clock for the scene of the riots in the 
 
286 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 steamboat Senator, which, with characteristic decision, prompt- 
 ness, and public spirit, had been placed at their disposal by Mr. 
 Charles Minturn. Their departure was witnessed and loudly 
 cheered by a great multitude of citizens, who had hastily gathered 
 upon the wharves. They arrived at Sacramento about 11 o'clock 
 in the evening. In the mean time order was partially restored, 
 and happily their actual services were not required. They were 
 kindly received by the authorities and citizens, and hospitably 
 entertained until the 17th instant, when they returned to their 
 homes. Before leaving Sacramento they were presented with 
 highly complimentary and laudatory resolutions and votes of 
 thanks from the Boards of Aldermen and Military Department 
 of the State for the tender of their ready and efficient aid. This 
 prompt action on the part of the mayor and citizens of San 
 Francisco, doubtless, had a tendency not only to assist in pre- 
 serving the restored peace of their sister city, but to prevent the 
 occurrence of similar disturbances in other portions of the State. 
 Be this as it may, it was deserving of the praise it received, and 
 was an example worthy of being followed. 
 
 August 21st. — Mayor Geary published a brief address to 
 the citizens in all the morning papers, informing them that news 
 had been received of the " destitution, distress, and extreme 
 suffering of the immigrants to California by the overland route ; " 
 and that a committee had been selected for the purpose of call- 
 ing upon them during the day for means of relief for the suffer- 
 ers. The committee consisted of John W. Geary, E. E. Dun- 
 bar, E. C. Kemble, Talbot H. Green, Henry M. Naglee, W. H. 
 Parker, Wm. Sharron, and David C. Broderick. It was also 
 stated by J. Neely Johnson, Esq., Agent for the Sacramento 
 Relief Association, who had recently returned from an expedi- 
 dition of relief to the immigrants, that " it was supposed that 
 60,000 emigrants started across the plains by the Northern, or 
 'Southern Pass' route. On the 18th June, 39,000 had been 
 registered at Fort Laramie. Of this entire number probably 
 20,000 had arrived. Of the remaining number, 10,000 would 
 probably arrive this side of the Desert, without teams, money, 
 or provisions ; 10,000 more with their teams so much worn down 
 as to require additional assistance to enable them to cross the 
 
PRESENTATION OF BOOKS TO THE CHINESE. 287 
 
 mountains." Mr. Johnson described the condition of some 
 whom he had met on his expedition as destitute, sick, and 
 wretched in the extreme, and showed the necessity of speedy 
 means being taken to save the immigrants from starving, or 
 otherwise fearfully perishing before they could terminate their 
 journey. These appeals were promptly responded to by the 
 
 Emigrant Train. 
 
 citizens. Before night the committee had collected an immense 
 quantity of provisions, and about $6000 in cash, which was for- 
 warded without delay to meet the wants of the sufferers. 
 
 August 28th. — A novel and interesting ceremony took place 
 tins afternoon in Portsmouth Square. Mayor Geary, Vice-Con- 
 sul Frederick A. Wood worth, Rev. Albert Williams, and other 
 members of a committee appointed for the purpose, assembled 
 on the platform, to present the Chinese residents with certain 
 religious tracts, papers, and books, printed in Chinese characters. 
 The " China boys," as they are pleased to be called, having 
 
288 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 formed themselves in procession, marched to the square, and ar- 
 ranged themselves in a circle upon the platform. They were 
 clothed richly in their native costume, and made a fine and pleas- 
 ing appearance. Here the presentation took place, and addresses 
 were made by each of the gentlemen above named, which were 
 interpreted by As-sing, one of the Chinese. The mayor, on this 
 occasion, extended to them an invitation to take part in the 
 funeral ceremonies that were to occur on the following day. 
 
 August 29th. — The death of President Taylor was com- 
 memorated by a funeral procession. The military and fire com- 
 panies, Masonic and Odd-Fellows' Lodges, a variety of benevo- 
 lent and other associations, the clergy, officers of the army and 
 navy, consuls and representatives of foreign governments, the 
 councils and various municipal and State officers, a great number 
 of private citizens, and a large company of Chinese residents, 
 took part in the imposing ceremonies. Hon. John B. Weller 
 acted as Grand Marshal. The procession moved through the 
 streets to Portsmouth Square, where an appropriate prayer was 
 made by Rev. Augustus Fitch, and an eloquent eulogy pro- 
 nounced by Hon. Elcan Heydenfeldt. On the following day the 
 Chinese, who henceforward took considerable interest in public 
 affairs, where any ceremony of a festival or imposing nature was 
 concerned, presented the mayor with the following document, 
 written in Chinese characters : — 
 
 " San Francisco. Augmt 30th, 1850. 
 l: To Hon. John W. Geary, Mayor of the City of San Francisco : — 
 
 "Sir: — The "China Boys" wish to thank you for the kind mark of at- 
 tention you bestowed upon them in extending to them an invitation to join 
 with the citizens of San Francisco in doing honor to the memory of the late 
 President of the United States, General Zachary Taylor. The China Boys 
 feel proud of the distinction you have shown them, and will always endeavor 
 to merit your good opinion and the good opinion of the citizens of their adopted 
 country. The China Boys are fully sensible of the great loss this country has 
 sustained in the death of its chieftain and ruler, and mourn with you in sor- 
 row. Strangers as they are among you, they kindly appreciate the many kind- 
 nesses received at your hands, and again beg leave, with grateful hearts, to 
 thank you. 
 
 " As-sing, 
 
 " A-HE, 
 
 " In behalf of the China Boys." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 1850. 
 
 The first City Directory published.— Monetary crisis.— Fourth great fire.— Death of Captain Bezer 
 Simmons.— The wharves.— Celebration on occasion of the admission of California into the Union 
 of American States.— Explosion of the steamer Sagamore.— City Hospital burned.— Improvements 
 in the city.— Plank road to the Mission Dolores.— Death of the mayor of Sacramento.— Thanks- 
 giving Day.— Fire in Sacramento street 
 
 September. — The first " Directory " of the city was published 
 this month by Charles P. Kimball. It was a duodecimo pam- 
 phlet of one hundred and thirty-six pages, and contained about 
 twenty-five hundred names. 
 
 September 7th. — There have been during the last few days 
 a monetary crisis and great run upon the banks ; when one of 
 them, Mr. Henry M. Naglee's, suspended payment to-day. Dur- 
 ing the troublous and exciting winter of 1849-50, speculation 
 had gone beyond all bounds both in every kind of merchandise 
 and in real estate. When the reaction came, prices fell nearly as 
 much below the prime cost of goods as previously they had been 
 above it, and in many cases great quantities of valuable merchan- 
 dise could be had at nominal rates. Real estate, when forced on 
 the market, often did not fetch a tenth of its recent value. Add- 
 ed to this sudden collapse of prices, three great fires had helped 
 to ruin many, and had affected indeed every inhabitant of the 
 city in some measure prejudicially. Thus a general financial 
 embarrassment ensued, and numerous bankruptcies of people pre- 
 viously reputed wealthy followed. Some of the most extensive 
 firms of the city were compelled to assign their property for the 
 benefit of their creditors. On a sudden a panic seized those who 
 held deposits in the different banks, and an immediate " run " 
 was made on these establishments. Messrs. Burgoyne & Co., 
 19 
 
290 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 J ames King of William, and Wells & Co., nobly met the unex- 
 pected demand, and kept their doors open during unusual and 
 extra hours to accommodate the half frantic dejwsitors. 
 
 September 17th. — About four o'clock in the morning of this 
 day, fire broke out in the " Philadelphia House," on the north 
 side of Jackson street, near to the Washington market. It was 
 the fourth great conflagration in the city. The principal portions 
 of the different building squares lying between Dupont, Mont- 
 gomery, Washington and Pacific streets were overrun by the 
 flames. The buildings erected on these quarters were chiefly of 
 wood, and generally one story only in height ; so that, although 
 the space over which the fire extended was very great, much less 
 proportionate damage was sustained than on the occasions of the 
 preceding great fires. The loss was estimated to be from a quar- 
 ter to half a million of dollars. The newly organized fire compa- 
 nies were of much service in staying the progress of the confla- 
 gration, and would have been of still more had there not been a 
 short supply of water. It was evident, however, that the want 
 of a proper head or engineering chief sadly hindered the harmo- 
 nious action not only of these and the hook and ladder compa- 
 nies, but of every person who volunteered help in extinguishing 
 the flames. As usual, the burned space was so soon afterwards 
 covered with buildings that in a few weeks all external traces of 
 the disaster disappeared. It was remarked at this time that 
 there were certain unlucky individuals whose properties had 
 been consumed on each occasion of the four great fires — all with- 
 in nine months ! Many had suffered twice and thrice by these 
 successive calamities. This surely was enough to try the pa- 
 tience of a modern J ob, and drive the bravest to despair. But 
 in a common calamity, however great, there is such sympathy 
 and consolation, that the mind readily recovers its equanimity. 
 People were almost beginning to consider that such conflagra- 
 tions could not be avoided, but were surely sent either as a pun- 
 ishment for their wickedness or as a necessary drawback upon the 
 otherwise great profits of general business. So those burned out 
 just set themselves doggedly to work again, and soon reared up 
 new and grander habitations for themselves. Happily indeed 
 does the Phoenix appear on the corporation seal, since, like it, 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF WHARVES. 
 
 291 
 
 the city was continually reviving and springing from its own 
 ashes a fairer and more substantial thing than before. 
 
 September 26th. — Captain Bezer Simmons, the senior part- 
 ner of the well-known house of Simmons, Hutchinson & Co., died 
 this day. He was among the most respected citizens of San 
 Francisco, and the earliest business men of the place. His name 
 appears on several occasions in these " Annals," in connection 
 with subjects of public interest. Captain Simmons was a native 
 of Woodstock, Vt. Some years previous to the cession of Cali- 
 fornia to the American Government he was engaged in trading 
 along the coast of Lower California, and in 1848, purchased pro- 
 perty in San Francisco, where he settled, and soon afterwards en- 
 gaged in extensive and successful business operations. In April, 
 1849, he was sorely afflicted by the death of his wife, (who was 
 the sister of Frederick Billings, of the law firm of Halleck, Peachy 
 & Billings,) and before the close of the year, he received intelligence 
 of the death of his mother and a brother to whom he was strong- 
 ly attached. In January, 1851, he repaired to Woodstock, with 
 the remains of his wife, to bury them in her native town. On 
 his return he learned that his business was in an alarming con- 
 dition, and soon after the firm was declared insolvent. Beino- 
 exceedingly sensitive, this rapid succession of misfortunes and 
 afflictions were thought to aggravate an indisposition under which 
 he had been for some time suffering, and which consequently ter- 
 minated his life. His death was considered almost a public 
 calamity, and his body was attended to the grave by an immense 
 concourse of the best portion of the inhabitants of the city. 
 
 October 22d. — To show the rapid progress of the city in 
 one direction, we shall give a short notice of the state of the 
 wharves in the bay about this time. 
 
 Central Wharf. — So early as the autumn of 1848 the 
 want of a good ship wharf was seriously felt, and different 
 schemes were, in the following winter and spring months, pro- 
 jected to supply the deficiency. It was not, however, till May 
 of 1849, that any active steps were taken in the matter. At 
 that time a proper wharf association was formed, which raised 
 considerable capital, and began operations. By December of 
 the same year, eight hundred feet of the wharf was finished. 
 
292 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FKANCISCO. 
 
 In the fire of June, 1850, a considerable portion was consumed, 
 but the part destroyed was promptly repaired — even while the 
 smoke of the ruins around continued to ascend. In August fol- 
 lowing, measures were taken to continue the work ; and at the 
 date of this notice, it extended so much as two thousand feet 
 into the bay. This wharf had already cost $180,000 ; and was 
 of the greatest service to the shipping of the port. Large vessels 
 could lay alongside and discharge at any state of the tide. 
 
 Market Street Wharf commenced at the foot of Market 
 street, and had already run out six hundred feet into the bay. 
 
 California Street Wharf was four hundred feet long and 
 thirty-two feet wide. 
 
 Howison's Pier was eleven hundred feet in length, by forty 
 feet in width — the depth of water, at full tide, being fourteen 
 feet at the extremity. 
 
 Sacramento Street Wharf was eight hundred feet in 
 length. 
 
 Clay Street Wharf was nine hundred feet in length, by 
 forty feet in width ; and in another month was extended to eigh- 
 teen hundred feet. 
 
 Washington Street Wharf was two hundred and seventy- 
 five feet long. 
 
 Jackson Street Wharf was five hundred and fifty-two 
 feet in length, with thirteen feet depth of water. 
 
 Pacific Street Wharf was already five hundred and twen- 
 ty-five feet long, and sixty feet wide. 
 
 Broadway Wharf was two hundred and fifty feet long, and 
 forty feet wide. 
 
 Cunningham's Wharf was three hundred and seventy-five 
 feet long, and thirty-three feet wide, having a T at its end three 
 hundred and thirty feet long, by thirty feet wide. It had twen- 
 ty-five feet depth of water at the cross line. 
 
 Law's Wharf, at the foot of Green street, was likewise in 
 the course of formation ; and a wharf, to be seventeen hundred 
 feet in length, was immediately about to be undertaken by the 
 city, on the north beach. 
 
 The cost of these various wharves already amounted to nearly 
 a million and a half of dollars ; and they provided artificial 
 
ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA INTO THE UNION. 293 
 
 -'lorotighfares to the extent of almost two miles. A few of them 
 were the property of the corporation ; but the greater number 
 were owned by private companies or by individuals, who drew 
 large returns from them. There is little trace left of these 
 works, for the water space along their sides is now covered with 
 houses, while the wharves themselves have become public streets, 
 their future extensions forming the existing wharves and piers of 
 the city. This gradual march across the deep waters of the bay is 
 a peculiar feature in the progress of the city, and serves to liken it 
 to those other queens of the sea, Venice and Amsterdam, and per- 
 haps also to St. Petersburgh. But where the latter have canals 
 for streets, and solid earth now beneath their first pile-founded 
 buildings, San Francisco, over a great portion of its business and 
 most valuable districts, has still only a vast body of tidal water, 
 beneath both the plank-covered streets and the pile-founded 
 houses themselves. Year by year, however, this strange watery 
 abyss is being filled up by the removal of the sand hills behind, 
 which may be said to be taken up and cast bodily into the deep. 
 When the original wharves were erected they proved of the ut- 
 most benefit to the commerce and prosperity of the city ; and 
 their extent, as detailed above, shows in a striking manner the 
 energy and enterprise of the people who had constructed them in 
 so short a space of time. 
 
 October 29th. — This day was set apart to celebrate the ad- 
 mission of California into the Union. When, on the 18th in- 
 stant, the mail steamer " Oregon " was entering the bay, she fired 
 repeated preconcerted signal guns which warned the citizens of 
 the glorious news. Immediately the whole of the inhabitants 
 were afoot, and grew half wild with excitement until they heard 
 definitely that the tidings were as they had expected. Business 
 of almost every description was instantly suspended, the courts 
 adjourned in the midst of their work, and men rushed from every 
 house into the streets and towards the wharves, to hail the har- 
 binger of the welcome news. When the steamer rounded 
 Clark's Point and came in front of the city, her masts literally 
 covered with flags and signals, a universal shout arose from ten 
 thousand voices on the wharves, in the streets, upon the hills, 
 house-tops, and the world of shipping in the bay. Again and 
 
294 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 again were huzzas repeated, adding more and more every moment 
 to the intense excitement and unprecedented enthusiasm. Every 
 public place was soon crowded with eager seekers after the par- 
 ticulars of the news, and the first papers issued an hour after the 
 appearance of the Oregon were sold by the newsboys at from 
 one to five dollars each. The enthusiasm increased as the day 
 advanced. Flags of every nation were run up on a thousand 
 masts and peaks and staffs, and a couple of large guns placed 
 upon the plaza were constantly discharged. At night every pub- 
 lic thoroughfare was crowded with the rejoicing populace. Al- 
 most every large building, all the public saloons and places of 
 amusement were brilliantly illuminated — music from a hundred 
 bands assisted the excitement — numerous balls and parties were 
 hastily got up — bonfires blazed upon the hills, and rockets were 
 incessantly thrown into the air, until the dawn of the following 
 day. Many difficulties had occurred to delay this happy event, 
 and the people had become sick at heart with the " hope de- 
 ferred " of calling themselves, and of being in reality citizens of 
 the great American Union. It is only necessary to state here, 
 without going into particulars, that the delay had arisen from the 
 jealousy of the proslavery party in Congress, at a time when 
 they and the abolitionists were nicely balanced in number, to ad- 
 mit an additional free State into the Union, whereby so many 
 more votes would be given against the peculiar and obnoxious 
 (i domestic institution " of the South. Several compromises had 
 been occasionally attempted to be effected by statesmen of each 
 great party, but without success. In the end, however, the bill 
 for the admission of California passed through Congress by large 
 majorities. 
 
 Such an occasion beyond all others demanded a proper celebra- 
 tion at San Francisco ; and the citizens, accordingly, one and all, 
 united to make the day memorable. On the 29th instant, a pro- 
 cession of the various public bodies and inhabitants of the city, 
 with appropriate banners, devices, music and the like, marched 
 through the principal streets to the plaza. The Chinese turned 
 out in large numbers on this occasion, and formed a striking fea- 
 ture in the ceremonies of the day. The Honorable Nathaniel 
 Bennett, of the Supreme Court, delivered a suitable oration to the 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 295 
 
 people on the plaza, and an ode, composed for the occasion by Mrs. 
 Wills, was sung by a full choir. During the day repeated dis- 
 charges of fire-arms and a proper salute from great guns carried 
 off some of the popular excitement, while the shipping displayed 
 innumerable flags. In the evening, public bonfires and fireworks 
 were exhibited from Telegraph Hill, Rincon Point, and the islands 
 in the bay. The houses were likewise brilliantly illuminated, and 
 the rejoicings were every where loudly continued during the night. 
 Some five hundred gentlemen and three hundred ladies met at 
 the grandest public ball that had yet been witnessed in the city, 
 and danced and made merry, till daylight, in the pride and joy 
 of their hearts that California was truly now the thirty-first State 
 of the Union. 
 
 On this day (October 29th), the steamer " Sagamore " explo- 
 ded, when about to leave the wharf for Stockton. Thirty or forty 
 persons were killed. 
 
 October 31st. — Destruction by fire of the City Hospital, which 
 was situated at the head of Clay street, and owned by Dr. Peter 
 Smith. This was supposed to have been the work of an incen- 
 diary. The fire broke out in an adjoining house, which was also 
 consumed. Several of the patients were severely burned, and it 
 was only by the most strenuous exertions of the firemen and citi- 
 zens that they were saved at all. 
 
 November. — We have already noticed the progress that had 
 been made in the erection of wharves, and we may now direct at- 
 tention to the important steps that had been taken in grading, 
 planking and otherwise improving the streets of the city. During 
 the summer of this year, the care of the mayor and common coun- 
 cil had been particularly turned towards the improvements of the 
 communications through the town, and many ordinances had been 
 passed with that view. Considerable hills had consequently been 
 cut down and immense hollows filled up. Great quantities of 
 rock and sand were removed, from places where they were only 
 nuisances, to other quarters where they became of use in remov- 
 ing the natural irregularities of the ground, and making all smooth 
 and level. Piles were driven deep in the earth where needed, the 
 principal streets were substantially planked, and commodious sew- 
 ers formed. The cost of these improvements was very great, it 
 
296 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 being estimated that nearly half a million of dollars would be re- 
 quired this year to complete those now in operation. The city 
 paid about one-third of that amount, and raised the remainder by 
 assessment upon the parties whose properties faced the streets 
 which were altered. To show the extent of these improvements, 
 we give the following lists of the streets in which they were now 
 being executed. Those running north and south were as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Battery street between Market and California — graded and planked. 
 
 Sansome " " Bush and Broadway, " 
 
 Montgomery " California " " and sewer. 
 
 Kearny " " " " " 
 
 Dupont " Sacramento " " " 
 
 Stockton " Clay and Water, 8 
 
 Ohio " Broadway and Pacific, " 
 
 Taylor " Lombard and Water, " 
 
 Those running east and west were as follows : 
 
 Bush street, between Battery and Montgomery — graded and planked. 
 
 California " bulkhead " " and sewer. 
 
 Sacramento " Sansome and Dupont, " " 
 
 Clay " bulkhead and Stockton, " " 
 
 Washington " " Dupont, " " 
 
 Jackson " " " " " 
 
 Pacific " Kearny " " « 
 
 Broadway " Water and Ohio, " 
 
 Francisco " " Stockton, " 
 
 Thus the municipal authorities were taking precautions to re- 
 move, before the rainy season commenced, as many as possible of 
 the obstacles, which, during the preceding winter, had rendered 
 the streets nearly impassable. 
 
 November 18th. — This day an ordinance regarding the plank- 
 road to the Mission Dolores, and which had previously been car- 
 ried in the Board of Assistant Aldermen by a two-third vote, 
 passed the Board of Aldermen by a constitutional majority, not- 
 withstanding certain objections of the mayor and his consequent 
 veto. The mission, which is situated two and a quarter miles 
 from the plaza, was a place of common resort for the citizens, but 
 the road to it being sandy, was difficult of travel, especially for 
 vehicles. Owing to this cause, the cost of carriage was very great. 
 
MISSION PLANK-ROAD. 
 
 297 
 
 A load of hay, for instance, moved from the mission to the city, 
 cost as much as fifteen or twenty dollars. The same way likewise 
 led to San Jose, the capital of the State. It was therefore of con- 
 siderable public importance that this road should be speedily im- 
 proved. In the summer of this year, Colonel Charles L. Wilson 
 conceived the plan of laying a plank-road from Kearny street to 
 the mission, and presented a proposition to that effect to the Com- 
 mon Council. He offered to build the road, which, at that time, 
 was considered a tremendous enterprise, in consequence of the 
 high price of lumber and labor, on condition that he was allowed 
 to collect certain rates of toll from those using it, and that he 
 should have the exclusive right of the way for the term of ten 
 years, at the expiring of which time the entire improvements were 
 to revert to the city. An ordinance to grant Col. Wilson the pri- 
 vileges he asked, readily passed one of the boards of aldermen, 
 but it was a long while before it obtained the concurrence of the 
 other ; and not even then until it was so modified that seven years 
 only were allowed the projector for the use of the road, and but 
 five months granted him for completion of the work. The im- 
 portance of the undertaking was admitted on all sides ; and the 
 chief opposition to it was based upon the assumption that the city 
 should rather make it at its own expense and reap the large pro- 
 fits which it was supposed would be the result. This, however, 
 at that period, was impossible, the city being upwards of a million 
 and a half of dollars in debt, and without the slightest prospect 
 of being able for years to defray its unavoidable current ex- 
 penses. 
 
 Having obtained the consent of the council, Col. Wilson next 
 met with a formidable obstacle in rather an unexpected quarter. 
 The mayor, after retaining the ordinance the full length of time 
 allowed him, returned it unapproved. , Notwithstanding, the coun- 
 cil again adopted it with almost a unanimous vote. Still, the 
 veto of the mayor affected the enterprise unfavorably to a consid- 
 erable extent. Several parties, who had previously engaged to 
 furnish funds for the work, now became alarmed as to the legality 
 of the council's procedure, and withheld their promised aid. Col. 
 Wilson was therefore left alone, to abandon altogether his weighty 
 project, or to carry it on unassisted. He determined upon the lat- 
 
298 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ter course, and although without any definite idea of the source 
 from whence the means were to he obtained, commenced the work. 
 Having proceeded far enough to give a guarantee for the comple- 
 tion of the project, he visited the capital, and ohtained from the 
 
 Beach of Verba Baena Cove, Winter of 1849-ftO, from Central Wharl to Happy Valley. 
 
 legislature an act confirming the ordinance of the city council. 
 This renewed confidence in the measure. A half interest in the 
 undertaking was immediately sold, and funds were thus ohtained 
 for carrying it on. Upon the very last day allowed under the or- 
 dinance for completion of the work, loaded wagons passed on the 
 road from the mission to the town. 
 
 This plank-road has proved of the greatest service to San Fran- 
 cisco, and the property through which it passes has increased im- 
 mensely in value for huilding purposes. Formerly that property 
 was at times nearly inaccessible, and on all occasions was very 
 difficult and troublesome to reach ; while it is now of compara- 
 tively easy access. Since the formation of this plank-way, another 
 road of the same kind has likewise been formed to the mission, 
 upon similar terms granted by the council to the projectors ; and 
 both are believed to have proved highly lucrative schemes to their 
 spirited proprietors. 
 
ANOTHER FIRE. 
 
 299 
 
 November 27th. — Hon. Harden Bigelow, Mayor of Sacramen- 
 to City, died this morning at the Union Hotel. He had taken 
 an active part in suppressing the squatter riots at Sacramento, 
 when he received a gun-shot wound which required the amputa- 
 tion of an arm. The operation was performed by Dr. John Hast- 
 ings, by whose advice Mr. Bigelow was removed to San Francisco, 
 believing the climate of that city would conduce toward effecting 
 a more rapid recovery from the effects of the injury. While here 
 he was attacked with cholera, which caused his death. His 
 body was conveyed to the steamboat New World, to be taken to 
 Sacramento for burial, by an escort composed of the California 
 Guard, the mayor, members of the Common Council, heads of 
 departments of the city, and the Society of California Pioneers. 
 Mayor Geary delivered a very appropriate address on the occasion, 
 in which the many excellent traits in the character of the deceas- 
 ed were depicted in a most affecting manner. 
 
 November 30th. — A thanksgiving-day for the admission of 
 California into the Union. 
 
 December 14th. — On the evening of this day a fire broke out 
 in an iron building on Sacramento street, below Montgomery street. 
 Several large stores and much valuable goods were destroyed. 
 The total damage was estimated at about a million of dollars. 
 Elsewhere such a fire might well be called a great one ; but it was 
 not so reckoned in the " Annals of San Francisco." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 1850. 
 
 Population in 1850.— City improvements.— Grading and planking streets.— Wharves, steamers, man- 
 ufactures. — Supply and demand for goods. — Mines yielding abundantly. — Expresses established. — 
 Moral progress. — Better state of things.— Cholera. — California admitted to the Union. — City Char- 
 ter granted. — First Common Council — The gold medals for Aldermen.— Corruption of officials. — 
 Colton Grants. — Leidesdorff Estate. — City finances. — Outrages and fires. — The prisons and police. 
 — Lynch Law agitated. 
 
 In the course of the year 1850, upwards of thirty-six thousand 
 persons arrived by sea in San Francisco. Of these fully one-half 
 came direct from foreign ports, while many of those that crossed the 
 Isthmus of Panama were likewise from foreign countries. By far 
 the greater number of immigrants were adult males, as might 
 have been anticipated. The most of these persons hastened at 
 once to the mines, only staying a few days, or at most a week or 
 two, in town, to recruit their strength and make preparation for the 
 digger's toil. Perhaps two thousand females, many of whom were 
 of base character and loose practices, were also added this year to 
 the permanent population, if that can be called permanent which 
 dwelt at least a twelvemonth in the city. The immigration across 
 the plains and by land generally into the State was also, as in the 
 preceding year, veiy large. Great numbers of all these sea and 
 land immigrants, after they had been some months at the mines, 
 and made perhaps a few thousand dollars, returned by way of San 
 Francisco, to their former homes. Many others, altogether disap- 
 pointed with or unfit for the country, went hastily back to the 
 places from whence they had come. Thus vessels leaving the bay, 
 and especially the steamers, were nearly as well filled with passen- 
 gers as when they had first arrived. This constant migration to 
 and from the State gave a wonderful animation to the streets 
 
IMPROVEMENTS OF THE CITY. 
 
 301 
 
 of the town. Many of the incomers remained in the place, and 
 the regular population continued to increase. At the close of this 
 year, the inhabitants probahly numbered between twenty-five and 
 thirty thousand. The Chinese had not yet arrived in any great 
 numbers, but the Chilenos and other people of Spanish- American 
 extraction continued very numerous. 
 
 The year 1850 saw a wonderful improvement in the aspect of 
 San Francisco. Notwithstanding the conflagrations which had 
 so often laid in ruins large portions of the city, or perhaps rather 
 to some extent in consequence of them, the buildings in the busi- 
 ness quarters were now remarkable for their size, beauty and soli- 
 dity. The tents and shanties of last year had totally disappeared 
 from the centre of the town, while many of the old frame build- 
 ings that had not been destroyed by fire were replaced by others 
 of a larger and stronger kind, if not by extensive fire-proof brick 
 structures. It is true that in the outskirts there were still numer- 
 ous frail and unsubstantial habitations left, while, farther away 
 many more of the same kind were being weekly and daily added ; 
 but as population and the value of real estate and household pro- 
 perty gradually increased, these temporary erections began to give 
 place to more solid and comfortable buildings. Though labor still 
 commanded high prices, during a great part of the year, most 
 kinds of building materials could be obtained at comparatively low 
 rates, probably at an average of one-fourth or one-sixth of the 
 prices of the preceding season. 
 
 While houses were thus changing for the better, an equal 
 improvement was taking place in the character of the streets. If 
 nature had given to San Francisco magnificent water privileges, 
 she had certainly been very chary in bestowing upon it land ones. 
 The site, immediately available for building operations, was ex- 
 ceedingly small, and it was only by the expenditure of a vast 
 amount of labor that additional space could be obtained for the 
 necessary extension of the town. The land around was very 
 hilly and irregular, which had all to be made smooth and plain 
 before proper streets could be designed and convenient houses 
 built. Fortunately the obstructing hills were composed chiefly 
 of sand and easily removed. The original tents, shanties and 
 houses had just been placed upon the old uneven surface, high up 
 
302 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 or low dow n as it happened ; but it was soon found, that if the 
 city was ever intended by its inhabitants to grow to greatness, 
 some method must be observed in bringing them more upon a 
 straight line, with ready access between all parts of the place. 
 Very expensive works were therefore ordered by the town council, 
 to establish a regular and convenient grade to the streets, while 
 these were in many places substantially planked, and in some, 
 instances had sewers constructed along them. During the sum- 
 mer of 1850, such alterations had been proceeded with to a con- 
 siderable extent, and now, when the winter and rainy season 
 approached, their utility was seen and appreciated by all. 
 
 Other material improvements were keeping pace with those 
 of the houses and streets. Numerous well appointed wharves 
 were run out into the deep waters of the bay, at which the largest 
 vessels could lay alongside and discharge. Better regulations 
 were continually being adopted by the harbor masters to facilitate 
 the shipping interests. In the year just passed six hundred and 
 fifty-six sea- going vessels had arrived and discharged at the port. 
 Of these five hundred and ninety-eight were American, and fifty- 
 eight of different foreign countries. The public offices of the 
 city and State were removed to more commodious and accessible 
 buildings. The towns around the shores of the bay and those 
 situated on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers could now 
 be easily, rapidly and cheaply reached, by means of numerous 
 large, strong and beautiful steamboats. All along the outer 
 coasts, magnificent steamships regularly carried the mails and 
 passengers. In San Francisco itself, many workshops and man- 
 ufactories began to be established ; and, if few articles of trade 
 were manufactured from the beginning out of raw materials, at 
 least extensive repairs could always be now made upon them. 
 The important suburb of " Happy Valley," on the southern side 
 of the town, became quite a hive of manufacturing industry, 
 where there were many large works for the building and repairing 
 of steam and sailing vessels, foundries, lumber-yards, docks, flour- 
 mills and workshops of various kinds. Labor of every description 
 was highly paid, and generally all branches of the community had 
 reason to be satisfied with their profits. 
 
 The enormous gains of the preceding year had tempted those 
 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY. 
 
 303 
 
 who partook of them to largely increase their shipments for 1850, 
 while others, determined to share in the golden spoil, hastened to 
 send additional goods to what was a limited market at best. The in- 
 creased supply of merchandise soon affected the market, and prices 
 in the spring of 1850 fell very considerably. There was a slight 
 subsequent reaction in the course of the year, but towards the 
 close, markets became more depressed than ever, and much em- 
 barrassment ensued to the mercantile class. This fall in prices, 
 as well as the natural depreciation in the value of real estate 
 from the former excessive rates, and the losses sustained by the 
 many great fires, led to a monetary crisis, when a great number 
 of merchants, real estate jobbers and others became bankrupt. 
 One particular consequence of the excessive supply of goods was 
 the sudden extraordinary increase of auctioneering business. 
 When markets began to fall, and merchants found that their im- 
 portations could not afford to pay storage and other charges, and 
 still more, when commission agents desired to realize their ad- 
 vances, or were urged by foreign correspondents to sell at any 
 price, then whole shiploads of merchandise were rattled off with 
 a crack of the auctioneer's hammer. It seemed to be of little 
 moment at what rate so that somehow the matter was fixed, ac- 
 counts could be adjusted, and the distant sufferer made aware of 
 the net amount of his loss. This was still farther the case 
 during the succeeding year. The auction business was mean- 
 while becoming one of great importance, which it continued to 
 be, and is now, in San Francisco. That system of disposing of 
 goods possesses many advantages, among which are speedy returns, 
 and in the case of brisk demand, perhaps also better prices 
 than can be obtained otherwise, but, at a period of glut, it fearfully 
 sacrifices the interests of the luckless absent proprietor of unsaleable 
 merchandise. In 1850, and still more in 1851, these things could 
 not well be helped by any party. Still, however great individual 
 losses and sufferings might be, the general interests of the place 
 were all this while steadily advancing ; and this was only one of 
 the severe ordeals through which every great city in its unexpected 
 oiigin and speedy progress might be expected to pass. 
 
 The mines were yielding larger returns than ever, the country 
 was being rapidly peopled, agriculture was beginning to be followed 
 
304 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 to a considerable extent, towns were in course of erection, and 
 magnificent structures built on all the land. San Francisco was 
 the great centre from whence all these changes and improvements 
 originated, and naturally kept to itself a large proportion of them. 
 Steam and stage " expresses " — the invariable concomitants of 
 American progress — were established over the whole country and 
 to the Atlantic States, and letters, newspapers and packages were 
 conveyed with speed and safety at moderate rates. A powerful 
 press diffused general information, and from the pulpits of many 
 able churches flowed religious and moral consolation. These are 
 the marks of high civilization, and they were strikingly stamped 
 upon San Francisco. Some of the first immigrants had sent for 
 their wives and families, and a few of those who had come later 
 brought them in their train. The u household gods " were set up 
 in many a dwelling, and the inmates could now worship and enjoy 
 their blessings together. Instead of the old scenes of terrible 
 confusion which we have described as existing at the close of 1849, 
 the city, only one twelvemonth later, presented an orderly, decent 
 and busy aspect, with moderately clean and regular streets, houses 
 of fair proportions, prices of provisions and goods reasonable, 
 markets supplied with every luxury for the table, convenient 
 wharves for shipping, " expresses " by sea and land, a dozen 
 churches, half-a-dozen banking establishments, several theatres, 
 well-filled book and music stores, six or seven daily newspapers, 
 magnificent hotels and restaurants, handsome public carriages for 
 the rich and ostentatious, and with almost every luxury, conve- 
 nience and necessary, mental and corporeal, that old cities in long 
 peopled and civilized countries could boast of. The earliest citi- 
 zens formed themselves into the " Society of California Pioneers," 
 and numerous associations were organized for municipal and de- 
 fensive, literary, charitable, musical, social and similar purposes, 
 just as we find in the old established communities. Most of the 
 inhabitants certainly seemed to live purely to heap more dollars 
 to their existing store ; but it was not altogether so. Rays of 
 refinement were shooting through the sordid mass, and gradually 
 turning it towards a feeling that there was something higher, 
 happier and better than mere money gathering. But while this 
 ennobling leaven was silently and slowly at work among the busy 
 
aldermen's medals. 
 
 305 
 
 multitudes, the great apparent characteristics of the place con- 
 tinued to be its material progress and the incessant stir and in- 
 dustry of the people. The town had been severely tried in the 
 conflagrations which so repeatedly destroyed large portions of the 
 most valuable districts ; but nothing could daunt the energy and 
 enterprise of the inhabitants. These losses and all the natural 
 obstacles of the site were successively overcome, and the city 
 grew daily more grand and rich. 
 
 Cholera visited San Francisco in the fall of this year ; but 
 its ravages were slight. The greatest number of deaths in any 
 one day did not exceed ten or twelve. The epidemic began in 
 October, was at its height in November, and disappeared by the 
 close of the year. Notwithstanding the filth and rubbish which 
 naturally collected around the scene of so many busy operations 
 by a vast population which had hitherto adopted no proper means 
 to preserve cleanliness and purity of atmosphere, the health of 
 the place was wonderfully preserved ; and neither by cholera, 
 which alights and is most deadly on the filthiest spots of a 
 country, nor by other diseases, did a disproportionate or unusual 
 number of deaths occur. This is high testimony to the extreme 
 salubrity of the climate. The winter of 1850-51 was a remark- 
 ably dry and pleasant one, a striking contrast to the dreary 
 winter of 1849-50. 
 
 In the course of 1850, two great political changes had taken 
 place : California had been admitted into the Union, and a city 
 charter, previously approved of by the inhabitants, had been 
 granted to San Francisco by the State Legislature. The latter 
 was much improved and re-granted in the following year. In 
 the Appendix we give copies of the State Constitution and of the 
 amended City Charter. By these events, the hands of both the 
 general and local authorities were greatly strengthened, and the 
 foundations of a firm government fairly laid. 
 
 The first common council of San Francisco, under the char- 
 ter, had certainly a considerable deal to do, and perhaps did it 
 well enough ; but their appropriation of a large portion of the 
 city funds to themselves, by the name of salaries, met with much 
 opposition from the citizens, which had at least the effect of re- 
 ducing the amount one-third. At a later date of the year, the 
 20 
 
306 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 aldermen were said to have mysteriously voted to themselves a 
 gold medal, of the value of one hundred and fifty dollars, sup- 
 posed to be for those public and extra services which were not 
 
 covered by the salaries of 
 six or four thousand dol- 
 lars, nor by the very many 
 fine opportunities for cor- 
 poration jobbery. But 
 general curiosity being 
 excited on the subject, 
 and prying inquiries made 
 as to the when and how, 
 the why and the where- 
 fore, these medals were 
 earned, voted and paid 
 for, the council boards 
 suddenly found it conve- 
 nient to pretend utter ig- 
 norance of the whole mat- 
 ter, and to quietly pay for 
 the medals themselves, to 
 put into the melting pot. 
 The truth of the matter 
 seems to have been that 
 one of the sub-committees 
 appointed to make ar- 
 rangements for the public 
 I festival of the 29th Octo- 
 ber, to celebrate the ad- 
 mission of California into 
 the Union, had wilfully 
 or ignorantly overstepped 
 their duties, and, assum- 
 
 Aldermen's Medal. j n g the glad Consent of 
 
 their brethren, had ordered these medals, on pretence of suitably 
 decorating the aldermen for the occasion. But unluckily the 
 medals were not, and could not have been procured in time for 
 that celebration. The whole affair became an excellent joke, al- 
 
CAUSES OF LITIGATION. 
 
 307 
 
 though a somewhat bitter one against the goaded council. To 
 perpetuate the memory of those happy, or unhappy times for 
 our " city fathers," we give illustrations of the wonderful medal. 
 It will he noticed that a blank is left in the inscription for the 
 name of the worthy recipient. 
 
 All human institutions are subject to abuse, and especially in 
 the youth of a quickly growing community, where every member 
 is heart and soul occupied in providing only for himself. Many 
 charges have been made and more insinuated, as to the corrupt, 
 careless, and extravagant behavior of most of the officials, since 
 the fall of Mexican power, down even to 1854, in the adminis- 
 tration of the revenues and properties, both of the State of Cal- 
 ifornia and of the City of San Francisco. In a country and 
 place like these, where hitherto gold has been pretty generally the 
 only thing supposed to be worth living for, one cannot avoid be- 
 lieving that many of these charges and insinuations were true ; 
 and yet the occupants of office might otherwise have been " in- 
 different honest " men, and, after all, perhaps quite as good as 
 their clamant neighbors. When any transaction of a particularly 
 glaring, base or improper nature was found out, public opinion 
 was sure to rise in rebellion and shame the rogues to common 
 decency at least. Much popular feeling was, at one period of 
 1850, expended at " mass " and " indignation " meetings against 
 the municipal authorities ; but, by and by, the community, who 
 could not afford the pecuniary loss of such gratis excitement and 
 attention, settled down into comparative calmness and indiffer- 
 ence. 
 
 The " Colton Grants " and the " Leidesdorff Estate," proved 
 the means of much litigation in the courts of law, and from the 
 great extent of pecuniary interest involved, and the variety of 
 parties interested, these legal matters became of exceeding pub- 
 lic importance, and merit a passing allusion. We have already 
 noticed the death of Mr. Leidesdorff on the 18th May, 1848. 
 Circumstances had led that gentleman to become a Mexican 
 citizen about the year 1844, whereby he was enabled to hold, as 
 he afterwards acquired, real estate to a large extent in Yerba 
 Buena and its neighborhood, now San Francisco. From the 
 great immigration which subsequently took place, this property 
 
308 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 suddenly became of immense value. Mr. Leidesdorff was re- 
 puted to have died some fifty thousand dollars in debt, and yet 
 within two years afterwards his estate was worth nearly a million. 
 This indeed was a prize worth contending for. The very admin- 
 istration of its revenues, at San Francisco charges, was the means 
 of making annual fortunes to lucky agents. Hence the legal 
 strife, and perhaps the imputing and bandying of improper mo- 
 tives among the judges and parties chiefly interested. The 
 Leidesdorff estate was subsequently claimed by the State of Cal- 
 ifornia, on the ground that Mr. Leidesdorff had died intestate, 
 leaving only alien, though legitimate relatives, whereby his pro- 
 perty escheated to the State. In the spring of 1854, measures 
 were about to be taken by the Legislature to make that claim 
 effectual. 
 
 The financial condition of the city continued in a very bad 
 state. Large sums of money were raised on scrip and loan war- 
 rants, for the purposes of municipal improvements and to defray 
 the ordinary expenses, which there seemed no apparent means of 
 soon redeeming. It is true the city possessed considerable pro- 
 perty, but it was not yet time to sell it to advantage, while the 
 pressure of taxation was beginning to be heavily felt by the in- 
 habitants. The interest payable for public loans, as likewise in 
 the case of private accommodation of the kind, was exceedingly 
 great, the ordinary rates varying from five to eight per cent, per 
 month. When private parties borrowed, they had generally to 
 give real security for the amount, and to pay these high rates of 
 interest monthly in advance. 
 
 The social and moral state of general society had meanwhile 
 improved but little. Gambling indeed was not pursued, at least 
 openly, by the more respectable classes, and among all it was 
 much diminished in intensity. The common council had like- 
 wise passed ordinances which effectually prevented the public fol- 
 lowing of the avocation on Sunday. But notwithstanding this 
 tribute to religious decency, and check against one branch of 
 profligacy, crime was increasing, and the boldness and number of 
 the criminals became very alarming. All manner of burglaries, 
 robberies and thefts were of daily occurrence. So were personal 
 assaults of an aggravated nature ; while murders were repeatedly 
 
INCREASE OF CRIME. 
 
 309 
 
 taking place. A great many attempts at incendiarism had been 
 detected, although the charge seldom or never could be fairly 
 brought home to individuals. If, however, there were some legal 
 
 San Francisco, Winter of 1S49-50, showing Montgomery street North from California street 
 For same view in ls54, see Frontispiece. 
 
 uncertainty on the subject, which prevented convictions, no moral 
 doubt existed but that there was an active and numerous band 
 of desperadoes existing in the city, who added to many other 
 crimes that of wilful fire-raising. They did not display banners 
 and march in procession through the streets to the music of drum 
 and fife, like the old " hounds," but nevertheless they seemed to 
 be as thoroughly organized and to support each other when ne- 
 cessary, as that notorious gang of villains. Besides the numerous 
 real cases, false alarms of fire were still more frequently raised ; 
 and during the attendant confusion many depredations were 
 committed. Hundreds of the loafer and rowdy class haunted the 
 town, who had no visible means of support, and whose lives 
 showed only one continued scene of vice, crime and violence. 
 There seemed a wide-spread combination among the rogues to 
 divide systematically the different branches and gains of their un- 
 
310 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 hallowed profession ; and from petty theft and swindling up to 
 highway robbery and murder, the actors seemed to be perfect 
 adepts in their several parts. The prisons were full ; but they 
 could not hold a tithe of the offenders. The police were few and 
 not very highly paid, and they could not pretend to cope with the 
 more daring rascals, who defied all their efforts at captuve and 
 conviction. False swearing at trials, by trusty and unblushing 
 comrades, confounded the few prosecutions and ensured ultimate 
 escape to the most guilty. 
 
 People, at last, began to talk among themselves of the urgent 
 necessity of again adopting Lynch law, since the tedious and un- 
 certain measures of the authorities did not seem to have the 
 effect of terrifying and putting down the disturbers of the public- 
 peace. Even a portion of the newspaper press boldly advocated 
 such doctrines ; considering that the present alarming juncture 
 of events formed such an exceptional case as to require a depart' 
 uie from the ordinary course of administering justice. As the 
 successive conflagrations had developed a large volunteer force to 
 watch over the safety of the town from fire, so the continued in- 
 crease of open and daring crime was certain in the end to induce 
 the establishment of a great police that would not be trifled with, 
 but would uproot, by some sure and terrible means, villainy and 
 villains wherever they could be found. Already the necessity of 
 such a police was recognized, and it only wanted a few more glar- 
 ing cases of outrage, spoil and murder, to give it a sudden being 
 and irresistible strength. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1851. 
 
 The Gold Bluffs and Pacific Mining Company.— The oxcitement at the City Hall in February, 1851. 
 —Attempt to Lynch Burdue and Windred.— Their subsequent escape.— Burning of the steamers 
 Hartford and Santa Clara. 
 
 Januaky. — San Francisco has been startled "from its propriety" 
 by news from the celebrated " Gold Bluffs ; " and during the 
 greater part of this month has dreamed unutterable things of 
 black sand, and gray sand, and cargoes of gold. A band of pio- 
 neers and prospecters had recently proceeded in the Ghesajyeake 
 steamer northwards to the Klamath River, near which, on the sea 
 shore, they fancied they had found the richest and most extra- 
 ordinary gold field that had ever been known. The sands of the 
 sea, for a broad space several miles in length, beneath cliffs some 
 hundred feet high, appeared to be literally composed in one half, 
 at least, of the pure metal. Millions of diggers for ages to come 
 could not exhaust that grand deposit. Already a few miners had 
 collected about the spot ; but these were so amazed and lost in 
 the midst of the surrounding treasure that they knew not what 
 to do. Like the ass with its superabundance of hay, they could 
 not resolve to begin any thing. No man could well carry more 
 than seventy-five or a hundred pounds weight upon his back for 
 any great distance, and with that quantity of pure gold it was 
 ridiculous, so it was, to be content, when numberless tons lay 
 about. So these men — there were just nineteen of them — (the 
 tellers of the story were very particular in some facts), — had re- 
 solved to wait till the spring, when they would freight and fill a 
 ship with the wealth which they were then jealously watching 
 over. Let us not be misunderstood, or supposed altogether jest- 
 ing. A brilliant reporter for the Alta California says — " The 
 
312 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 gold is mixed with the black sand in proportions of from ten cents 
 to ten dollars the pound. At times, when the surf is high, the 
 gold is not easily discovered, but in the spring of the year, after 
 a succession of calms, the entire beach is covered with bright and 
 yellow gold. Mr. Collins, the secretary of the Pacific Mining 
 Company, measured a patch of gold and sand, and estimates it 
 will yield to each member of the comjjany the snug little sum of 
 $43,000,000 [say, forty-three millions of dollars !] and the esti- 
 mate is formed upon a calculation that the sand holds out to be 
 one tenth as rich as observation warrants them in supposing." 
 No digging even was required, since one had only to stoop a little 
 and raise as much as he wished of the stuff — half gold, half sand, 
 from the surface of the beach. 
 
 Back the adventurers hastened to San Francisco, where they 
 had long been impatiently expected. ; and the glorious news ran 
 like wild-fire among the people. General John Wilson and Mr. 
 John A. Collins, both of whom had been among the number of 
 discoverers, frankly testified to the truth of these wonderful state- 
 ments. The beach, they said, for a great distance, was literally 
 strewed with pure gold. It was found in the greatest quantity 
 in a certain kind of " black sand," although the " gray sand," 
 which was rather more abundant, contained likewise a large pro- 
 portion of the same black-colored stuff with its special share of 
 gold. " Mr. Collins," says the poetic reporter, " saw a man [one 
 of the nineteen, no doubt,] who had accumulated fifty thousand 
 pounds, or fifty thousand tons — he did not recollect which — of 
 the richest kind of black sand." 
 
 Such intelligence astounded the community. In a few days 
 eight vessels were announced as about to sail for this extraordinary 
 region. The magic phrase " Gold Bluffs ! " " Gold Bluffs ! ! " 
 every where startled the most apathetic, and roused him as with 
 a galvanic shock. " Gold Bluffs ! ! ! " filled the columns of 
 newspapers among the shipping advertisements ; they covered, 
 on huge posters, the blank walls of houses at the corners of the 
 streets ; they were in every man's mouth. A company was 
 formed called the "Pacific Mining Company," the shares of 
 which instantly rose to a handsome premium. There seemed 
 no douut of their incalculable gains, since they showed 
 
THE GOLD BLUFFS. 
 
 313 
 
 numerous samples of the wondrous " black sand," where the 
 golden particles lay and shone mildly, as stars in the milky way, 
 innumerable. The company had already, by the greatest good 
 fortune, secured a considerable number of miners' claims, em- 
 bracing indeed the entire beach beneath the " Bluffs," so that all 
 was clear for immediate operations. We have seen the intelli- 
 gent secretary's calculations on the subject. No wonder people 
 raved, and either invested a few thousand dollars in shares of this 
 company, or sold or forsook their all, and made sail for the Gold 
 Bluffs. The ancient excitement of Mississippi and South Sea 
 schemes was a bagatelle in comparison with that which now 
 stirred San Francisco, used though it had been to all manner of 
 rumors of placers, and gigantic " pockets " of gold. The skepti- 
 cism of envious un-" progressive" people was happily ridiculed, 
 and the press compared the ocean to a mighty cradle that had 
 been rocking and washing up gold from the bottom of the sea 
 for unknown ages, and had chanced to throw it in tons and ship- 
 loads beneath the hitherto undiscovered Gold Bluffs. It was tru- 
 ly great news for San Francisco. 
 
 The first damper to the hot blast that raged through the 
 town, and from whence it spread and fired up distant countries, 
 — until the arrival of the next mail, — was intelligence from the 
 earliest miners, that they found it very difficult to separate first 
 the black sand from the gray, and next the gold itself from the 
 black sand, the particles of the precious metal being so remarka- 
 bly fine. A little later, it was found that the innumerable 
 "patches" of black sand began most unaccountably to disap- 
 pear. Heavy seas came and swept them right away ; and though 
 it was hoped that heavier seas might soon bring them back again, 
 the people got tired of waiting for that event, and hastily fled 
 from the place, ashamed of their own hopes and credulity, and 
 cursing the cruel wags that had exhibited in San Francisco sealed 
 phials of dingy sand largely mixed with brass filings. 
 
 But we cannot pursue this pleasantry farther. Much serious 
 loss was suffered by the Gold Bluffs piece of business. The un- 
 fortunate "Pacific Mining Company" had bought the Chesa- 
 peake at a cost for boat and repairs of twenty thousand dollars, 
 had run her up the coast several trips at the loss of as many 
 
314 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 thousands more, and afterwards, when she had been injured in a 
 storm, were glad to sell her for about two thousand dollars. If, 
 however, the shareholders, or any single adventurer lost much 
 money — why, they had at one time the most brilliant hopes im- 
 aginable of immense riches ; and these were surely some com- 
 pensation. For what, after all, is life without hope ? There 
 was considerable gold at the Bluffs, but it turned out in the end 
 to cost more trouble to gather than it was worth. Hence the 
 place was abandoned, except by a few still hopeful individuals, 
 after a few months' trial. Since the whole affair formed a very 
 striking, though latterly a ridiculous event in the progress of San 
 Francisco, we could not refuse it a place in these " Annals." 
 
 February. — After the affair of the " Hounds," in 1849, the 
 citizens left the execution of the laws against criminals in the 
 hands of the constituted authorities. Either the laws, however, 
 or the authorities, or something else soon went wrong, and crime 
 fearfully increased. At length, not only were the people serious- 
 ly inclined to believe that they must take the law back to them- 
 selves and issue it in a new form, but the public journals .dis- 
 cussed the matter gravely and argumentatively, and urged the 
 instant appointment of " volunteer police/' or " regulators," who 
 would supply the place of an inefficient executive and judicature. 
 Hitherto there had been no organization for the purpose men- 
 tioned, although occasional mobs had ducked or whipped offend- 
 ers caught in the act of crime. 
 
 On the 19th of this month, about eight o'clock in the eve- 
 ning, two men entered the store of 0. J. Jansen & Co., and, pro- 
 fessing to be purchasers, asked to see some blankets. Mr. Jan- 
 sen, who was alone in the store, was in the act of producing the 
 articles, when he was violently struck with a slung shot, and fell 
 insensible on the floor. While in that state he seems to have 
 been farther maltreated, and was probably considered by the 
 ruffians as dead. These robbed the premises of two thousand 
 dollars, and immediately fled. The whole circumstances of the 
 outrage were of the most daring character, and the knowledge 
 of them caused much excitement among the people. The next 
 day a man was arrested, believed to be one James Stuart, but 
 who gave his name as Thomas Burdue, on the charge of having 
 
BURDUE AND WINDRED EXCITEMENT. 
 
 315 
 
 murdered Mr. Moore, the Sheriff of Auburn, and of having 
 robbed him of four thousand dollars. Stuart had been confined 
 in the jail of Sacramento to await his trial, but had escaped two 
 months before. Circumstances meanwhile had raised a suspicion 
 that this man Stuart, alias Burdue, had had something to do 
 with the attack on Mr. Jansen ; and accordingly he, and another 
 
 The City Dau, February 22d, 1851. 
 
 person of the name of Windred, who had been apprehended on 
 suspicion of the same offence, were, on the 21st, confronted with 
 the wounded man. Jansen at once recognized Stuart and also 
 Windred, although with some faint doubt of the identity of the 
 latter, as being the two persons who had committed the assault 
 and the robbery. These circumstances being known, the citizens, 
 in a state of the greatest excitement, gathered, on the following 
 day (Saturday, 22d February), around the City Hall, where the 
 examination of the prisoners was going on. Upwards of five 
 thousand people thus collected. This was not a mob, but the 
 peojile, in the highest sense of the term. They wanted only a 
 
316 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 leader to advise and guide them to any undertaking that pro- 
 mised relief from the awful state of social terror and danger to 
 which they were reduced. Handbills were extensively circulated 
 among the multitude, which were to the following effect : — 
 
 "CITIZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 " The series of murders and robberies that have been committed in this 
 city, seems to leave us entirely in a state of anarchy. ' When thieves are 
 left without control to rob and kill, then doth the honest traveller fear each 
 bush a thief.' Law, it appears, is but a nonentity to be scoffed at ; redress can 
 be had for aggression but through the never failing remedy so admirably laid 
 down in the code of Judge Lynch. Not that we should admire this process 
 for redress, but that it seems to be inevitably necessary. 
 
 " Are we to be robbed and assassinated in our domiciles, and the law to 
 let our aggressors perambulate the streets merely because they have furnished 
 straw bail 1 If so, ' let each man be his own executioner.' ' Fie upon your 
 laws ! ' They have no force. 
 
 " All those who would rid our city of its robbers and murderers, will 
 assemble on Sunday at two o'clock on the plaza." 
 
 While the examination of the prisoners was progressing, a 
 shout arose among the assembled multitude, " Now is the time ; " 
 and many rushed into the court room to seize the accused out of 
 the hands of the authorities. This attempt was successfully re- 
 sisted. The " Washington Guards," who had been secretly sta- 
 tioned in an adjoining room, through the foresight of the recorder, 
 who had anticipated some outbreak of this nature, now rushed, 
 under the command of Capt. A. Bartol, into the court-hall, and 
 soon cleared it of its noisy occupants, while the prisoners were 
 hurried through a back door into the cells beneath. During the 
 whole day the excitement continued, and many of the spectators 
 remained about the place, though the greater number gradually 
 dispersed, chiefly through the persuasions of some parties who 
 thought like themselves. Towards dusk the people again assem- 
 bled around the City Hall in greater numbers than before, when, 
 after some speeches, the following gentlemen were appointed a 
 committee to consult with the authorities and guard the prison- 
 ers till the next day, viz. : Messrs. W. D. M. Howard, Samuel 
 Brannan, A. J. Ellis, H. F. Teschemacker, W. H. Jones, B. 
 Kay, (x. A King, A. H. Sibley, J. L. Folsom, F. W. Macondray, 
 Ralph Dorr, Theodore Payne, Talbot H. Green, and J. B. Huie. 
 
BURDUE AND WINDRED EXCITEMENT. 317 
 
 This committee the same evening met in the recorder's room, 
 and discussed the position of affairs, and what was next to be 
 done. To show the temper, not of this committee, for they were 
 moderate and cautious in their proceedings, but of the general 
 public on the occasion, we may quote a short speech by Mr. 
 Brannan, who seems to have been always for stringing up and 
 hanging every rogue outright, on the shortest possible grace. 
 His language was certainly to the point, and quite accorded with 
 the sentiments of a great majority of the vast multitude that 
 was anxiously waiting without. One of the committee having 
 proposed that the citizens should choose a jury to try the prison- 
 ers, Mr. Brannan said : — 
 
 " I am very much surprised to hear people talk about grand ju- 
 ries, or recorders, or mayors. I'm tired of such talk. These men 
 are murderers, I say, as well as thieves. I know it, and I will 
 die or see them hung by the neck. I'm opposed to any farce in 
 this business. We had enough of that eighteen months ago 
 [alluding to the affair of the " hounds,"] when we allowed ourselves 
 to be the tools of these judges, who sentenced convicts to be sent 
 to the United States. We are the mayor and the recorder, the 
 hangman and the laws. The law and the courts never yet hung a 
 man in California ; and every morning we are reading fresh ac- 
 counts of murders and robberies. I want no technicalities. 
 Such things are devised to shield the guilty." 
 
 The rest of the committee did not exactly think with Mr. 
 Brannan, and after appointing a patrol of twenty citizens to 
 watch over the prisoners, a majority of them adopted a resolution 
 by Captain Howard, that they should adjourn to the following 
 day, on the plaza, to report the proceedings to the people. 
 
 Next day (Sunday), about eight thousand people collected 
 round the court-house. Mayor Geary, and others on the part of 
 the authorities then addressed them, advising coolness and mod- 
 eration, and suggesting that a committee of twelve of their 
 number should be appointed to sit as a jury along with the pre- 
 siding justice on the trial to take place the following day, the 
 verdict of which jury should be final. Other counsels, however, 
 prevailed ; and on the motion of Mr. Wm. T. Coleman, a com- 
 mittee of twelve was appointed, to retire and consider the best 
 
318 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 course of action to be adopted. Almost immediately afterwards 
 this committee returned and reported, that the trial should he 
 conducted by and among themselves — that if the legal courts 
 choose to assist in the business, they were welcome and invited to 
 do so ; but if not, that counsel should be assigned to the prison- 
 ers, a public prosecutor appointed, and the trials immediately 
 commenced. This was all accordingly done. The public au- 
 thorities having declined to interfere farther in the matter, and 
 being powerless before so numerous a body, retired from the con- 
 test. 
 
 At two o'clock of the same day, the committee and a great 
 number of citizens assembled in the recorder's room, while out- 
 side, in Kearny and Pacific streets, an immense multitude had 
 collected. The following parties were then empanneled as a jury, 
 viz. :— R. S. Watson, S. J. L. Smiley, W. E. Stoutenburg, J. L. 
 Riddle, George Endicott, D. K. Minor, George A. Hudson, 
 David Page, Jas. H. Robinson, J. E. Schenck, S. J. Thompson 
 and I. C. Pelton. J. R. Spence was appointed to preside on the 
 bench, and H. R. Bowie and C. L. Ross were named associate 
 judges. J. E. Townes was selected to officiate as sheriff, and 
 W. A. Jones as judge's clerk. Mr. Coleman was chosen public 
 prosecutor, and Judge Shattuck and Hall McAllister were ap- 
 pointed counsel for the prisoners. We are particular in giving 
 the names of these gentlemen, since they show the high charac- 
 ter and social standing of the parties who were concerned in this 
 movement against the legal and municipal authorities. As we 
 said before, the crowd was not a mob, but emphatically the 'people. 
 After evidence was led for the prosecution, an impartial charge 
 was given by Mr. Spence. The jury then retired, and were ab- 
 sent a considerable time, as they seemed unable to agree upon a 
 verdict. Seeing there were no signs of being able to come to a 
 speedy agreement, they returned to the court, and their foreman 
 reported that nine were for conviction, and three had doubts. 
 Much disappointment and agitation was now manifested by the 
 people, who had considered the prisoners clearly guilty on the 
 testimony. Loud cries burst from all quarters of " Hang them, 
 any how ! A majority rules ! " After some time order was re- 
 stored, and the jury were discharged. It was now midnight, and 
 
BURDUE AND WINDRED EXCITEMENT. 
 
 319 
 
 the numbers present were considerably diminished. The same 
 excitement, however, prevailed, and it required all the efforts of 
 the cooler and wiser portion of the assembly to preserve peace 
 and decorum to the end. Addresses were spoken to this effect 
 by Mr. Smyth Clarke, Dr. Rabe and Mr. Hutton. The latter 
 gentleman was now chosen chairman, and the meeting adjourned 
 to the outside of the building. At last — twenty minutes to one 
 o'clock on Monday morning, — the question was put from the 
 chair, that they should indefinitely adjourn, which being answered 
 affirmatively, the crowd quietly dispersed. 
 
 During this excitement, it is proper to remark, that the 
 mayor had collected together not only the regular police of the 
 city, but an additional volunteer force of about two hundred and 
 fifty citizens, and had determined that no injury should be done 
 the prisoners until they were legally tried and found guilty of the 
 alleged crime. In the mean time, parties were organized, who 
 were resolved to seize the prisoners at all events, and hang them 
 at the nearest convenient place, without regard either to decency 
 or justice ; and to carry out this object several attempts were 
 made to break into the station-house where the prisoners were 
 confined ; but these were successfully resisted by the strong and 
 determined force which the foresight of the mayor had gathered 
 and with which the City Hall was surrounded. 
 
 The occasion of this outbreak was the greatest that hitherto 
 ever agitated San Francisco, and the exciting scenes of Satur- 
 day and Sunday will be long remembered by the citizens 
 of the period. For thirty-six hours the whole town had 
 been in an uproar, and during a great part of that time many 
 thousands of persons had been gathered in the court-room or in 
 the streets outside. For months their patience had been severely 
 tried by the knowledge that crimes of the most atrocious descrip- 
 tion — murders, burglaries, thefts, fire-raisings and violent assaults, 
 had been of daily occurrence, and that few or no adequate pun- 
 ishments had been inflicted by the courts on the perpetrators. 
 On this occasion the long suppressed ire against the supineness 
 of the authorities burst forth, and the people were determined to 
 make an example of those whom they believed guilty of the 
 shocking assault upon Mr. Jansen and the robbery of his store. 
 
320 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 They were indeed deceived in regard to the true criminals, and 
 might have hanged innocent men. But the good sense of their 
 temporary leaders, and a return to dispassionate reflection, hin- 
 dered the execution of the sentence of death, which the general 
 multitude wished to pronounce. 
 
 We may here shortly state the further incidents connected 
 with the prisoners in relation to this matter. After being tried 
 by the people, as above mentioned, when no unanimous verdict 
 could be obtained, they were handed over to the proper authori- 
 ties, by whom they were put a second time upon trial, for the 
 same offence, according to the ordinary legal forms. On this oc- 
 casion both prisoners were found guilty, and sentenced to four- 
 teen years' imprisonment, being the highest penalty which the 
 law could inflict for the imputed offence. Windred shortly after- 
 wards escaped by cutting a hole through the floor of his prison. 
 Stuart, alias Burdue, was sent to Marysville, to stand his trial 
 for the murder of Mr. Moore, already noticed. He was found 
 guilty for this crime also, and was sentenced to be hanged. This 
 was in the course of the summer. Meanwhile, the Vigilance 
 Committee, which had been recently organized, had contrived to 
 lay hands on the true Stuart, who turned out not only to have 
 been the murderer of Mr. Moore, but also one of those who 
 had assaulted and robbed Mr. Jansen. Stuart was subsequently 
 hanged by the people for these and other crimes, as detailed in 
 our chapter on the Vigilance Committee. It was satisfactorily 
 shown that neither Burdue nor Windred had ever had the slight- 
 est connection with any of the offences for which they were 
 charged. The whole affair was a most curious case of mistaken 
 identity. Burdue was at different places, and by different juries, 
 twice convicted, and twice in the most imminent risk of death 
 for the commission of offences of which he was perfectly inno- 
 cent ! The luckless man was sent back to San Francisco, where 
 his sentence of imprisonment was annulled, and himself released. 
 A handsome subscription was raised among the citizens to com- 
 pensate in some measure for his repeated sufferings. What be- 
 came of him ultimately we know not ; but doubtless, in his cups, 
 he will wax eloquent, and have strange stories to tell of his 
 " hair-breadth 'scapes." Shortly after receiving the subscription 
 
TWO STEAMERS BURNED. 
 
 321 
 
 from the citizens, he was seen on Long Wharf playing at 
 "French Monte," and lustily bawling to the passers-by — " The 
 ace ! the ace ! — a hundred dollars to him who will tell the ace ! 
 — The ace ! — The ace ! — who will name the ace of spades ? A 
 hundred dollars to any man who will tell the ace ! " 
 
 March 3d. — The steamers Hartford and Santa Clara were 
 burned this morning at Long Wharf. 
 
 21 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 1851. 
 
 Judge Farsons and the case of William Walker for contempt of Court — Act of Legislature ceding 
 Beach and Water Lots to the City of San Francisco. — Act to re-incorporate the city.— New city 
 limits.— First election of municipal officers under revised charter. — Act passed to fund the State 
 debt. — Act to establish State Marine Hospital.— Act to fund the floating debt.— Indebtedness of 
 the city. — Municipal officers trafficking in city scrip.— Fifth great fire. 
 
 March 9th. — An "indignation" meeting, at which there 
 were several thousand persons present, was held to-day on the 
 plaza, to consider the conduct of J udge Levi Parsons, of the Dis- 
 trict Court, towards Mr. William Walker, one of the editors of 
 the Daily Herald. It appears that for some time before this 
 date the general public press had been endeavoring to rouse the 
 community to a full knowledge of the increasing and alarming 
 state of crime, and, in doing so, had taken repeated occasion to 
 criticise severely the "masterly inactivity" of the judicature in 
 trying and punishing criminals. This appears to have displeased 
 Judge Parsons, and he thereupon, in an address to the grand ju- 
 ry, chose to style the press a "nuisance," and insinuated that the 
 jury might offer some presentment on the subject. The grand 
 jury, however, did not gratify his wishes. His honor's observa- 
 tions became a new text for the now offended press ; and, among 
 other unpleasant things, they began to take grave exceptions to 
 his knowledge and application of the law as regarded grand and 
 petit juries. The Herald, in an article headed " The Press a 
 Nuisance," was especially severe in its strictures. A few mem- 
 bers of the bar next began to make some feeble movement to 
 soothe their brother on the bench ; but their affected indignation 
 only provoked laughter and made matters worse. Judge Parsons 
 thereupon — some days after the obnoxious article had been pub- 
 lished, issued an order from his own court to bring before him 
 
JUDGE PARSONS AND WILLIAM WALKER. 
 
 323 
 
 Mr. Walker, the acknowledged or reputed author of the article 
 in question. Mr. Walker accordingly appeared, and was duly 
 convicted by his honor, — who was plaintiff, judge and jury in the 
 case, — of contempt of court, fined five hundred dollars, and or- 
 dered to be kept in safe custody until the amount was paid. 
 The offender having declined to pay the fine, refusing to recog- 
 nize his honor's jurisdiction in and summary settlement of the 
 matter, was forthwith imprisoned for an indefinite time. 
 
 These circumstances being extensively made known, produced 
 great excitement in the city. One and all of the press were 
 doivn — to use an expressive vulgarism — -upon his honor ; and 
 as the people considered that the cause of the press was substan- 
 tially their own, they resolved to make a " demonstration " on 
 the subject. An " indignation " meeting accordingly was held, 
 as above mentioned, at which resolutions were passed approving 
 of Walker's conduct, and requesting Parsons to resign his judicial 
 situation as no longer fit to hold it. A committee was then 
 formed to transmit these resolutions to the latter. At the same 
 time, the senators and representatives of the district were re- 
 quested to propose articles of impeachment against the offending 
 judge. The meeting next in a body, — some four thousand 
 strong, — paid a personal visit of condolence and sympathy to 
 Mr. Walker in prison. 
 
 Meanwhile, the matter was carried by a writ of habeas corpus 
 into the Superior Court, by which Mr. Walker was discharged. 
 It was held that Judge Parsons had abused his position, and 
 that while the ordinary tribunals were open to him, if he consid- 
 ered that Mr. Walker had committed a libel, he had no right to 
 cite and punish summarily that gentleman for any alleged con- 
 tempt, that might be inferred from the published statements and 
 remarks in a newspaper. The contrary doctrine would be de- 
 structive of the freedom of the press, and was opposed to the 
 universally recognized principles of the constitution. This judg- 
 ment was considered a great popular triumph. In the mean 
 time, the question was farther discussed before the Legislature ; 
 and, on the 26th instant, a committee of the Assembly, upon the 
 memorial of Walker, " convinced that Judge Parsons had been 
 guilty of gross tyranny and oppression in the imprisonment of 
 
324 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the memorialist," recommended the impeachment of the former. 
 The majority of a select committee, however, afterwards appoint- 
 ed to inquire into the charges against Parsons, having reported 
 that these, "and the testimony given in support of them, do 
 not show sufficient grounds for impeachment," the matter was 
 dropped. 
 
 At the period of which we write, the tribunals of justice were 
 considered altogether insufficient for those dangerous times, and 
 many of the individuals connected with them as both incapable 
 and corrupt. The public looked chiefly to the press for advice 
 and information as to their rights and duties, and had resolved 
 that it should not be gagged and put down " by illegal orders, 
 attachments, fines and imprisonments for imaginary contempts 
 against courts which cannot be reduced much lower than they 
 have reduced themselves." So said the resolutions of the " indig- 
 nation " meeting of the 9th instant ; and this language was gene- 
 rally applauded. 
 
 March 26th. — An act passed by the Legislature, ceding, for 
 the period of ninety-nine years, all the right and interest which 
 the State of California had in those parts of the city called the 
 Beach and Water Lots, provided that twenty-five per cent, of all 
 moneys thereafter arising in any way from the sale, or other dis- 
 position of the said property, should be paid over by the city to 
 the State. The same act confirmed, also for ninety-nine years, 
 all sales that had previously been made, in virtue of General 
 Kearny's grant to the city, by the ayuntamiento, or town or 
 city council, or by any alcalde of the city, the last having been 
 confirmed by the said ayuntamiento, or town or city council, 
 and the deeds of these sales having been duly registered in the 
 proper books of records. This was a very important act, and 
 tended, in some great degree, to ease the minds of legal posses- 
 sors of city property. Owing to certain late conflicting decisions 
 of different judges, in regard to real estate, considerable doubt 
 had been cast upon the titles to almost every lot of vacant ground 
 within the municipal bounds, and squatters had been thereby 
 mightily encouraged to invade and secure for themselves the first 
 and best unoccupied land they saw. This led to much confusion 
 and even bloodshed among the contending claimants, and retard- 
 
ACT TO RE-INCORPORATE THE CITY. 
 
 325 
 
 ed for a considerable time the permanent improvement of the 
 city. The " Colton grants," of recent notoriety, likewise in- 
 creased the general uncertainty in regard to titles. The above- 
 mentioned act of the Legislature was therefore considered a great 
 benefit, coming when it did, in regard to at least the " Beach 
 and Water Lots," about the titles to which there could be no 
 dispute. 
 
 An act was passed by the Legislature on the 1st of May fol- 
 lowing, by which the right of the State to these lots was for ever 
 relinquished to the city, provided only that the latter should con- 
 firm the grants of all lots within certain specified limits originally 
 made by justices of the peace. As this provision was intended 
 to sanction some of the obnoxious " Colton grants," the common 
 council did not consider it for the interest of the city to accept 
 the State's relinquishment upon such terms, and accordingly the 
 last-mentioned act became inoperative. The boards of alder- 
 men, however, who happened, it might be said, to be somewhat 
 accidentally in office during 1852, attempted to force the pro- 
 visions of this most obnoxious act upon the citizens, but were 
 successfully opposed by the veto of Mayor Harris and the general 
 cry of public indignation. The act itself was, on the 12th of 
 March, 1852, repealed by the Legislature, just in time to prevent 
 some of the usual jobbery. 
 
 April 15th. — Act passed by the Legislature to re-incorporate 
 San Francisco. The limits were enlarged, and the city was 
 thereafter to be bounded as follows : — " On the south, by a line 
 parallel with Clay street, two and a half miles distant, in a south- 
 erly direction, from the centre of Portsmouth Square ; on the 
 west, by a line parallel with Kearny street, two miles distant, in 
 a westerly direction, from the centre of Portsmouth Square. Its 
 northern and eastern boundaries shall be co-incident with those 
 of the county of San Francisco." As a copy of this act, which 
 is the existing charter of the city, is given in the Appendix, it is 
 unnecessary here to particularize its provisions. Nearly the same 
 variety and number of municipal officers are appointed to be 
 chosen annually under it as under the charter, already noticed, 
 of 1850, and which latter act was declared to be now repealed. 
 
 April 28th. — The first election of municipal officers under 
 
326 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the amended city charter took place to-day. Considerable excite- 
 ment had been manifested by the candidates and their friends, 
 and several torch-light meetings and processions, with other 
 popular demonstrations, had been going on for some time previ- 
 ous. The total number of votes polled was nearly six thousand. 
 The parties elected were as follows :— 
 
 Mayor. — Charles J. Brenham. Recorder. — R. H. Waller. 
 
 Comptroller. — George A. Hudson. Treasurer. — R. H. Sinton. 
 Marshal. — Robert G. Crozier. Tax Collector. — Thos. D. Greene. 
 
 City Attorney. — Frank M. Pixley. Street Commissioner: — Wm. Divier. 
 Recorder's Clerk. — Jas. G. Pearson. County Judge. — Wm. H. Clark. 
 
 Public Administrator. — David T. Bagley. 
 
 City Assessors. — W. C. Norris, George Frank Lemon. 
 
 Aldermen. 
 
 E. L. Morgan, C. L. Ross, A. C. Labatt, C. M. K. Paulison, 
 
 Ralph Dorr. James Grant, George Endicott, William Greene. 
 
 Assistant Aldermen. 
 Henry A. Meiggs, W. W. Parker, T. H. Selby, W. D. Connell, 
 Jos. Galloway, J. F. Atwill, Jas. Graves, Q. S. Sparks. 
 
 April 29th. — Act passed by the Legislature to fund the debt 
 of the State. Bonds to the extent of $700,000 to be issued by 
 the treasurer, in lieu of scrip or other obligations of indebtedness 
 held by parties against the State. One-half of the sum men- 
 tioned is declared payable in New York upon the first day of . 
 March, 1855, and the other half, also in the city named, upon 
 the first day of March, 1861. Interest (payable either in New 
 York or at the office of the treasurer) to run upon the bonds at 
 the rate of seven per cent, per annum. Henceforward all State 
 taxes to be paid only in the legal currency of the United States, 
 or in gold dust at the rate of sixteen dollars an ounce, excepting 
 as mentioned in the act. Various declarations are also made 
 for providing the interest, and as to the formation of a sinking 
 fund to redeem the bonds, for payment of the principal and in- 
 terest of which are pledged " the faith and credit of the State of 
 California." 
 
 April 30th. — Act passed by the Legislature establishing a 
 State Marine Hospital at San Francisco ; and, on 1st May, an- 
 other act passed to provide a revenue for the same. As both of 
 
ACT TO FUND THE CITY DEBT. 
 
 327 
 
 these acts were amended in the succeeding session, they will be 
 noticed among the events of 1852. 
 
 May 1st. — Act passed by the Legislature, "to authorize the 
 funding of the floating debt of the city of San Francisco, and to 
 provide for the payment of the same." Peculiar circumstances, 
 such as the necessity of grading and improving the public streets, 
 building certain wharves, the purchase of expensive premises for 
 corporate purposes, the monstrous salaries claimed by the boards 
 of aldermen and other municipal authorities, the heavy outlay 
 attending the hospital, fire and police departments, contingent 
 expenses to a very large amount, printing, ( — $41,905 20 for 
 only nineteen months ! — ) surveying and numberless other 
 charges, had involved the city in an enormous gross amount of 
 indebtedness. By the Comptroller's Report, the total expenditure 
 of the city from the 1st August, 1849, to the 30th November, 
 1850, was $1,450,122 57 ; and in the three following months a 
 further expenditure was created of $562,617 53. In the space 
 of nineteen months, therefore, the total expenditure was upwards 
 of two millions of dollars. But as neither the property of the 
 city, which had already been sold to a great extent, nor its ordi- 
 nary revenues, were adequate to defray this immense sum, the 
 municipal authorities had been for a considerable period obliged 
 to issue scrip, in immediate satisfaction or acknowledgment of 
 the corporation debts. This scrip, as the city got farther in- 
 volved and could only make payment of its new obligations in the 
 same kind of paper, soon became much depreciated, and was lite- 
 rally in common sale at from fifty to seventy per cent, dis- 
 count. Meanwhile, nobody would do any business for the city 
 on the same terms as they would for other parties, so long as 
 they were to be paid in this depreciated scrip. The natural con- 
 sequence was that the municipal officers had just virtually to pay, 
 or rather give their promise to pay, twice or thrice the amounts 
 they would have needed to lay out, if the city had been solvent, 
 with cash in hand to meet all obligations. This circumstance 
 therefore still farther added to the enormous weight of debt. 
 
 Truly the city seems to have been long considered fair game 
 for every one who had spirit, skill, and corruption enough to prey 
 upon its means. The officials complained that their salaries 
 
328 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 were paid in depreciated scrip. That was true, and hard enough 
 upon many ; but, on the other hand, certain leading office-hold- 
 ers made a fine thing of this same depreciation. They contrived 
 to purchase vast quantities of corporation paper at one-third of 
 its nominal value, which they turned over, in their several depart- 
 ments, to the city at par. In various ways they trafficked in 
 this scrip, and always to their own great advantage. The tax- 
 collector, for instance, refused to receive scrip in payment of 
 license duties and other city taxes, on one ground or other, that 
 it was not yet due, and the like, while instead of paying into the 
 city treasurer the cash which was actually received, he only handed 
 over his own comparatively worthless paper, purchased with the 
 city's cash for that express purpose. The comptroller and trea- 
 surer were likewise parties concerned in this species of specula- 
 tion. Considerable fortunes were thus gained by sundry officials, 
 who could u finesse," and make money in any state of the corpo- 
 ration exchequer. Doubtless they quietly and gaily said to 
 themselves, as the public thought, that " it was an ill-wind that 
 blew nobody good." In those days — so recent, yet in the history 
 of San Francisco so virtually remote — jobbing and peculation 
 were rank, and seemed the rule in the city government. Public 
 honesty and conscientious attention to the interests of the com- 
 munity were solitary exceptions. To such an extent did nefa- 
 rious speculations in city paper prevail among people high in 
 office, that the Legislature was at last compelled to interfere, 
 and declare it a penal offence for any municipal officer to buy 
 scrip or to traffic in it in any manner of way. 
 
 Meanwhile the scrip was bearing interest at the rate of three 
 per cent, per month ! On the 1st day of March, 1851, the total 
 liabilities of the city were $1,099,557 56. At this time, the 
 whole corporation property, if forced to a public sale, would not 
 have brought one-third of that amount ; while, if interest were 
 to continue to run on the debt at the heavy rate just mentioned, 
 the ordinary revenues would have fallen lamentably short of 
 meeting it, after defraying the current expenses. In these cir- 
 cumstances, the act above mentioned was passed by the Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 By this act certain commissioners were appointed to manage 
 
FIFTH GREAT FIRE. 
 
 329 
 
 the proposed "funded debt," who were empowered to issue stock, 
 bearing interest at the rate of ten per cent, per annum, payable 
 half-yearly, in lieu of scrip to a similar amount, which might be pre- 
 sented by holders of the same within a specified time. This funded 
 debt was to be redeemed wholly within twenty years, and partic- 
 ular obligations were laid on the city that the sums necessary to 
 be raised to pay the half-yearly interest, and ultimately the 
 principal, should be solely applied to these purposes. Fifty 
 thousand dollars, over and above the amount required to pay the 
 interest on the stock, were to be levied annually, which sum was 
 to be made use of by the commissioners, under certain restric- 
 tions, in buying up, and so gradually reducing the amount of the 
 city liabilities. As the stock thus created was considered to be 
 an undoubted security for the amounts it represented, which the 
 old scrip was not, and as the former soon bore a higher market 
 value than such scrip, the holders of the latter generally took 
 occasion to convert their floating into the funded debt. The 
 small amount of scrip never presented for conversion into stock 
 within the specified time, and which was chiefly held by parties 
 at a distance, was subsequently paid in full by the city. In 
 1852, a great financial operation of a similar nature took place, 
 by which the then floating debt of the county of San Francisco 
 was converted into a seven per cent, stock. This will be more 
 particularly noticed in its chronological order. 
 
 May 4th. — The anniversary of the second great fire was sig- 
 nalized by the fifth, the ravages of which perhaps exceeded, in 
 gross amount, those of all the fires together that had previously 
 taken place in the city. For eight months the inhabitants had 
 enjoyed comparative immunity from conflagration. Although 
 single houses had caught fire, and been consumed, it was not be- 
 lieved that such a dreadful calamity could come as that which 
 now happened. A considerable number of buildings, which were 
 supposed fire-proof, had been erected in the course of the preced- 
 ing year, the solid walls of which, it was thought, would afford 
 protection from the indefinite spreading of the flames, when fire 
 should unhappily break out in any particular building. But all 
 calculations and hopes on this subject were mocked and broken. 
 The brick walls that had been so confidently relied upon crum- 
 
330 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 bled in pieces before the furious flames ; the thick iron shutters 
 grew red hot and warped, and only increased the danger and in- 
 sured final destruction to every thing within them. Men went 
 for shelter into these fancied fire-proof brick and iron-bound 
 structures, and when they sought to come forth again, to escape 
 the heated air that was destroying them as by a close fire, they 
 
 Fire of May 4th, 1851. 
 
 found, 0 horror ! that the metal shutters and doors had expanded 
 by the heat, and could not be opened ! So, in these huge, sealed 
 furnaces, several perished miserably. Many more persons lost 
 their lives in other portions of the burned district, partly by the 
 flames, and partly by the tottering walls falling on and crushing 
 them. 
 
 The fire began a few minutes past eleven o'clock on the night 
 of Saturday, the 3d of May, in a paint, or upholstery store, on 
 the south side of the plaza. As particular care seems to have 
 been observed in this establishment to extinguish all lights and 
 fires, the sad work was likely commenced by an incendiary. The 
 wind blowing strongly from the north-west, the conflagration 
 proceeded in the direction of Kearny street, and soon swept 
 
FIFTH GREAT FIRE. 331 
 
 before it all of the houses on some entire blocks. Then the 
 breeze suddenly shifted, and blew from the south, carrying the 
 fire backwards to the north and east. In a few hours the whole 
 business part of the city was one entire mass of flame ! The 
 wind that would have been considered high, though no fire had 
 existed, was now raised to a hurricane by the action of the flames, 
 that greedily sucked in the fresh air. The hollows beneath the 
 planked streets were like great blow-pipes, that stirred the fire to 
 fearful activity. Through such strange channels, too, which 
 themselves became as dry and inflammable as tinder, the flames 
 were communicated from street to street, and in an amazingly 
 short time the whole surface, over a wide region, glowed, crackled, 
 and blazed, one immense fiery field. The reflection from the sky 
 of this terrific conflagration was said to have been visible at Mon- 
 terey, nearly a hundred miles off ! where it filled the super- 
 stitious and timid with dismay and irrepressible terror. On all 
 sides in the doomed city there was heard the fierce roar, as of 
 many storms, that drowned the shouts of men and the shrieks of 
 women. The firemen jjlied their engines vigorously, and sent 
 showers of water on the wild flames, that only served to increase 
 their fury. As the solid stream of some lofty cataract is scat- 
 tered into spray and thin mist long before it reaches the earth in 
 the chasm beneath, so were the jets from the fire-engines dissi- 
 pated into clouds of mere steam which never fell upon or could 
 not extinguish the hot centre of the resistless element. Houses 
 were blown up, but the fire leaped lightly across the gaps, and 
 pursued its terrible course. It ran along the planked streets, 
 and from block to block, almost as if they were but a train of 
 gunpowder. The short space of ten hours, from the commence- 
 ment of the fire, saw from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
 houses completely ruined. In the end, the absolute want of fur- 
 ther fuel to consume was the chief cause of the conflagration 
 ceasing. Eighteen entire squares, with portions of five or six 
 others, were devastated, and, with fewer than twenty exceptions, 
 all the houses and property of every description were totally de- 
 stroyed. Only five of the brick buildings on Montgomery street 
 escaped destruction, and ten or twelve in other localities. The 
 burned district extended about three-fourths of a mile from north 
 
332 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 to south, and one-third of a mile from east to west. In this space 
 was comprehended the most valuable part of the city, and where 
 the most precious goods and merchandise were stored. All was 
 destroyed ! The damage was moderately estimated at from ten 
 to twelve millions of dollars. 
 
 San Francisco after the fire of May 4th, 1S51. 
 
 In this conflagration some of the old store-ships that had 
 been hauled high upon the beach, and gradually closed in by the 
 streets growing over the bay, were consumed. Of these was the 
 old " Niantic." This vessel had long lain fixed at the corner of 
 Clay and Sansome streets, where the hotel, which bears its name, 
 was afterwards erected. The "Apollo" and " General Harrison" 
 were also burned. Among the incidents of the fire, it may be 
 mentioned that Dewitt & Harrison saved their warehouse by using 
 vinegar in the absence of water, eighty thousand gallons of the 
 former fluid having been employed by them in protecting the 
 building. By breaking up the wharves, and so cutting off the 
 connection with the burning masses, the immense amount of val- 
 uable shipping in the harbor was saved, which at one time was in 
 the most imminent peril. 
 
FIFTH GREAT FIEE. 333 
 
 San Francisco had never before suffered so severe a blow, and 
 doubts were entertained by the ignorant that she could possibly 
 recover from its effects. Such doubts were vain. The bay was 
 still there, and the people, were also there ; the placers of the 
 State were not yet exhausted, and its soil was as fertile and in- 
 viting as ever. The frightful calamity, no doubt, would retard 
 the triumphant progress of the city — but only for a time. Sour, 
 pseudo-religious folk on the shores of the Atlantic, might 
 mutter of Sodom and Gomorrah, and prate the idlest nonsense, 
 while envious speculators in cities of California itself, that 
 would fain rival the glories of its grand port, might preach 
 till doomsday of the continual strong winds that prevailed in 
 the latter place, and which were certain, so they said, among 
 thousands of wooden houses, to fan the veriest spark into a con- 
 flagration, again and again. The citizens of San Francisco were 
 content only to curse and vow vengeance on the incendiaries that 
 kindled the fire, and resolved to be better prepared in future to 
 resist its spreading ravages. After the first short burst of sorrow, 
 the ruined inhabitants, many of whom had been burned out time 
 after time by the successive fires, began again, like the often per- 
 secuted spider with its new web, to create still another town and 
 another fortune. While the city lay one vast black and still 
 smoking tract, preparations were made to erect new buildings. 
 These were generally at first formed of wood, low in height, 
 limited in extent, and slightly constructed ; but, before long, 
 such rough, slim, temporary structures, began to give place to 
 the present magnificent buildings that decorate our streets. But 
 one other great fire was to come. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1851. 
 
 T. Butler King removing tho custom-house deposits. — Frank Ball's song, and custom-house appoint- 
 ment. — Dr. Robinson's rhymes. — Incendiarism. — The case of Lewis, charged with arson. — The 
 facilities with which criminals escaped from punishment — The Vigilance Committee. — Contracts 
 of Mr. Merrifield and the Mountain Lake Water Company to supply the city with water. 
 
 Mat 28th. — The custom-house, at the corner of Montgomery 
 and California streets, having been destroyed by the fire of the 
 4th instant, another building was speedily fitted up for the same 
 purposes at the corner of Kearny and Washington streets. The 
 treasure, amounting to upwards of a million of dollars, had been 
 preserved in a large safe (which had escaped damage from the 
 fire) in the old building. To-day the removal of this treasure to 
 the new custom-house took place ; and the manner of doing so 
 created some little excitement and much laughter in the town, 
 from the excessive care and military display which the collector 
 thought fit to adopt on the occasion. Some thirty gigantic, 
 thick-bearded fellows, who were armed with carbines, revolvers 
 and sabres, surrounded the cars containing the specie, while the 
 Honorable T. Butler King stood aloft on a pile of ruins with a 
 huge " Colt" in one hand and a bludgeon in the other, marshal- 
 ling his men and money " the way that they should go." The 
 extraordinary procession proceeded slowly along Montgomery street 
 to the new custom-house, Mr. King, marching, like a proud drum- 
 major, at the head of his miniature grand army. The people, 
 meanwhile, looked on with astonishment, and with some grief, 
 that their city should be considered so lawless and wicked a place 
 as to require so formidable a force even to guard millions of trea- 
 sure in broad daylight, and along one or two of the principal 
 streets, where there were continually present thousands of the 
 
REMOVAL OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE TREASURE. 335 
 
 most respectable inhabitants. But immediately the farcical na- 
 ture of the whole exhibition struck the most phlegmatic, and 
 peals of laughter and cries of ironical applause accompanied the 
 brave defenders of " Uncle Yarn's'' interests to the end of their 
 perilous march. It was felt that there was but one thing wanted 
 to make the show complete — half-a-dozen great guns from the 
 presidio. 
 
 In the absence of other matters of local importance, this 
 bloodless achievement formed the subject of a humorous song, 
 composed by a young man of the town, and which he sang in 
 one or more of the public saloons, on many occasions, " with 
 much applause." The thing had a run, and served to fill the 
 clever author's purse. He had a large number of copies litho- 
 graphed, on which was a caricature print of the procession, and 
 these he disposed of at a dollar apiece. In a single night he 
 sold five hundred copies at this rate. As the tune to which the 
 song was set was a popular and easy one, soon the town rang 
 with the story of " The King's Campaign." But besides this 
 effusion, there immediately appeared innumerable paragraphs, 
 squibs, jests, good sayings in social circles and the public jour- 
 nals. It is one of the penalties which people must pay for their 
 superiority in place over their neighbors that their actions are 
 pretty severely criticised, and, when occasion serves, ridiculed. 
 It was so here " with a will," and to Collector King's great mor- 
 tification. " Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." But 
 kings and collectors have potent remedies for the many evils 
 that beset them. Frank Ball, the writer of the song in ques- 
 tion, was shortly afterwards sent for by the collector, and favored 
 with a private interview. Ordinary men might have " beat 
 about the bush," or employed a friend in the little transaction 
 which followed ; but the Hon. T. Butler King, with the same 
 dauntless face which he showed on occasion of the treasure re- 
 moval, bluntly began conversation with the anxious poet, by ask- 
 ing whether he would not like to have a desirable post in the cus- 
 toms. Mr. Ball, gasping with surprise, mumbled, " Yes, surely ! " 
 " Then, Sir, it is yours," said the collector, gravely. In gratitude 
 Mr. Ball could do no less than stop singing his famous song, 
 which was doubtless what his honorable and doughty chief ex- 
 
336 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 pected. Cerberus was sopped. This anecdote would be incom- 
 plete unless we told that certain underlings attached to the cus- 
 tom-house, struck with a new light, began forthwith to chant the 
 obnoxious stanzas. Unluckily they had mistaken the game, for 
 the fact reaching the ears of the collector, one of them, caught 
 in the act, was instantly, though quietly, dismissed from the ser- 
 vice. It was a pretty illustration of the fable of " The Man, 
 
 Caricature. 
 
 There are so many serious matters — murders, suicides, larce- 
 nies, grand and petty burglaries, assaults, fires, and the dismal- 
 like in these " Annals," that we are glad, and so too may the 
 reader be, to have an opportunity such as this of introducing a 
 facetious subject, which once delighted the San Franciscans. 
 We, therefore, give an illustration of the caricature above al- 
 luded to, and the song itself : — 
 
REMOVAL OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE TREASURE. 
 
 337 
 
 "the king's campaign; or, removal of the deposits. 
 
 " Come, listen a minute, a song I'll sing, 
 Which I rather calculate will bring 
 Much glory, and all that sort of thing, 
 On the head of our brave Collector King. 
 Ri tu di nu, Ri tu di raw, 
 Ri tu di nu di. na. 
 
 " Our well-beloved President 
 This famous politician sent, 
 Though I guess we could our money have spent 
 Without aid from the general government. 
 Iii tu di nu, <$c. 
 
 " In process of time this hero bold 
 Had collected lots of silver and gold, 
 Which he stuck away in a spacious hole, 
 Except what little his officers stole. 
 Hi tu di nu, rf-c. 
 
 " But there came a terrible fire one night, 
 Which put his place in an awful plight, 
 And 'twould have been a heart-rending sight. 
 If the money had not been all right. 
 Hi tu di nu, tfc. 
 
 " Then he put his officers on the ground, 
 And told 'em the specie vault to surround, 
 And if any ' Sydney Cove' came round, 
 To pick up a cudgel and knock him down. 
 Hi tu di nu, $c. 
 
 " But the money had to be moved away, 
 So he summoned his fighting men one day, 
 And fixed 'em all in marching array, 
 Like a lot of mules hitched on to a dray. 
 Ri tu di nu, <$c. 
 
 " Then he mounted a brick and made a speech, 
 And unto them this way did preach, — 
 ' Oh, feller-sogers, I beseech 
 You to keep this cash from the people's reach. 
 Ri tu di nu, tf-c. 
 
 " ' For,' said he, ' 'tis well convinced I am, 
 That the people's honesty's all a sham, 
 
 22 
 
338 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 And that no one here is worth a d — n, 
 But the officers of Uncle Sam.' 
 Ri tu di nu, <%c. 
 
 " Then he drew his revolver, and told 'em to start, 
 Bat be sure to keep their eyes on the cart, 
 And not to be at all faint of heart, 
 But to tread right up, and try to look smart. 
 Ri tu di nu, <$c. 
 
 " Then each man grasped his sword and gun, 
 The babies squalled and the women run, 
 And all agreed that the King was one 
 Of the greatest warriors under the sun. 
 
 Ri tu di nu, Ri tn di nu, 
 
 Ri tu di nu di na." 
 
 They were a wild, perverse race, the San Franciscans in those 
 days, taking much delight in whatever mortified the " city 
 fathers." They are immoderately fond of fun and devilment 
 still ; and any thing of a peculiar spicy nature, — from a simple 
 fall in the mud, or the kissing of a pretty girl, up to the five 
 thousand dollar bribe of a senator, or a municipal papa, or grand- 
 papa being caught lurking about the premises of a jealous mar- 
 ried man, flies like lightning, or their own great fires over the 
 whole city. The people live so much together in hotels and 
 hoarding-houses, they meet so frequently for talk and drink (in 
 vino Veritas) at bars and billiard-rooms, that every piece of scan- 
 dal or matter of public interest is sure to ooze out and be dis- 
 cussed in all its bearings. A dozen daily papers by hint, inu- 
 endo, broad allusion, and description, considerably assist the 
 promulgation and spreading of idle tales. Hence, they often as- 
 sumed an importance which other communities may think they 
 scarcely deserve. The year of which we write, 1851, had a full 
 share of such local and temporary facetiae, some of which may 
 appear worthy of record, if it were only to illustrate the times. 
 The affairs of the aldermen's salaries and the curious medal busi- 
 ness were both prolific subjects for jesting and outrageous merri- 
 ment. Dr. D. Gr. Kobinson, a proprietor of the Dramatic Mu- 
 seum, gained considerable popularity by a series of doggerel, 
 " random rhymes " which he gave on his own stage, in which al- 
 
INCENDIARIES AND OTHER CRIMINALS. 
 
 339 
 
 most every municipal man of mark was hit off, and sometimes 
 pretty hardly too. So highly were these verses relished, and so 
 much favor did the author gain thereby with the people, that 
 Dr. Robinson was triumphantly returned as alderman to fill a 
 vacancy which had occurred in the first board. He was after- 
 wards seriously named as likely to be the most popular candidate 
 for the mayoralty in 1852. Such rewards do the generous citi- 
 zens bestow upon those who amuse them. Dr. Robinson's rhymes 
 were subsequently collected into a small printed pamphlet, 
 which will no doubt possess much interest to such as still relish 
 the gossip and scandal of the day. It would be out of place to 
 give here any characteristic quotations from the work. People 
 look back already with surprise to the favorable notoriety which 
 these songs gained for their author, and more especially to the 
 elevated position to which they were the means of raising him. 
 We have narrated the absurd affair of the removal of the trea- 
 sure, and given the relative song, only because they were reck- 
 oned rather important events of the time, and concerning which 
 there was much public merriment for a long period afterwards. 
 The parties interested can now well afford to laugh heartily at 
 the whole business. These things, also, form one illustration of 
 the state of society and " life " in San Francisco at the date of 
 their occurrence. 
 
 June 3d. — For some time back the attempts of incendiaries 
 to fire the city seem to be increasing. Cases of this nature are 
 occurring daily, where the suspicious circumstances are evident, 
 but where unfortunately the really guilty party cannot be de- 
 tected. It is extremely difficult to discover criminals in the very 
 act of committing arson. Incendiaries do their deeds only in 
 dark and secret corners, and if interrupted, they have always 
 ready a dozen trifling excuses for their appearance and behavior. 
 The train and the slow match can be laid almost any where un- 
 observed, while the "foul fiend" quietly steals away in safety. 
 The inhabitants had got nervously sensitive to the slightest alarm 
 of fire, and were greatly enraged against the presumed incendia- 
 ries. This day one Benjamin Lewis underwent a primary exam- 
 ination on the charge of arson. As the evidence was being 
 taken, the Recorder's Court began to fill, and much excitement 
 
340 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 to spread among the people. At this time, a cry of "fire ! " was 
 raised, and great confusion took place in the court-rooin, people 
 rushing desperately out and in to learn particulars. This was a 
 false alarm. It was believed to be only a ruse to enable the 
 prisoner's friends to rescue him from the hands of justice. The 
 latter was therefore removed for safety to another place. Mean- 
 while, some three or four thousand persons had collected outside 
 of the building, who began to get furious, continually uttering 
 loud cries of " Lynch the villain ! Hang the fire-raising wretch ! 
 Bring him out — no mercy — no laio delays ! Hang him — hang 
 him!" Colonel Stevenson harangued the crowd in strong lan- 
 guage, encouraging the violent feelings that had been excited 
 against the prisoner. Mayor Brenham endeavored to calm the 
 enraged multitude. Loud calls were at length made for " Bran- 
 nan," to which that gentleman quickly responded, and advised 
 that the prisoner should be given in charge to the " volunteer 
 police," which had been recently formed. A motion to this 
 effect was put and unanimously carried. But when the prisoner 
 was looked for, it was found that the regular police had mean- 
 while carried him out of the way — nobody knew, or would tell 
 where. Perforce the crowd was obliged to be satisfied, and late 
 in the afternoon it gradually dispersed. 
 
 This is one instance of the scenes of popular excitement 
 which were now of frequent occurrence in the city. Bepeated 
 losses by fire, and the terrible array of unpunished, undetected, 
 triumphant crime, were turning the inhabitants absolutely savage 
 against the supposed criminals. Matters were coming fast to a 
 head, which was immediately to ripen into the " Vigilance Com- 
 mittee." All these popular " demonstrations" were ineffectual 
 in deterring the " Sydney coves," and those of a like character, 
 from the commission of the most reckless, wanton, and flagrant 
 outrages. Incendiary attempts were now remarked almost daily. 
 Not only the desire for plunder, but malice against individuals, 
 and an unnatural lust for general destruction, seemed to inspire 
 the villains. 
 
 In regard to the particular case of Lewis, it may be men- 
 tioned that the grand jury found a true bill against him for 
 arson. Twice shortly afterwards was he brought before the Dis- 
 
MOUNTAIN LAKE WATER COMPANY. 
 
 341 
 
 trict Criminal Court for trial, and on each occasion his counsel 
 found a "flaw" in the indictment, which quashed the proceed- 
 ings. These delays and defects in the law were working the suf- 
 fering people up to madness. This is only one case, but it may 
 be taken as a fair specimen of the general inefficiency of the ju- 
 dicial officers and tribunals in punishing crime. The grand juries 
 were continually making formal complaints that their present- 
 ments were disregarded, and that criminals were somehow never 
 convicted and punished, while generally their trials were so long 
 delayed that the prisoners either escaped from confinement, or 
 the essential witnesses in the case had gone nobody knew whither ; 
 and so the prosecutions failed. San Francisco was truly in a 
 desperate condition at this period of its history. Though few 
 arrests were made in proportion to the number of offences actually 
 committed, yet it may be mentioned, that, to take one instance, 
 on Monday morning, the 9th June of this year, there were thirty- 
 six cases before the Recorder's Criminal Court from one district 
 alone (the second), out of the eight composing the city. " Of 
 the whole," we quote from a journal of the time, " six were for 
 drunkenness, six for fighting, six for larceny, three for stabbing, 
 one for burglary, four for fast riding, four for assaulting officers, 
 three for keeping disorderly houses, one for an attempt at rob- 
 bery," &c. Yet the previous day, Sunday, on which these of- 
 fences had been committed, had been remarked by the press as 
 having been unusually quiet and decently observed — without any 
 noise or crime worth noticing. 
 
 Of this date an ordinance was passed by the council 
 boards, and approved of by the mayor, granting to Mr. Arzo 
 D. Merrifield and his assigns, the privilege of introducing 
 fresh water by pipes into the city. It had happened at the 
 various fires that the numerous public water reservoirs were 
 either wholly or partially empty ; and great difficulty was at 
 all times experienced in filling them. This reason, as well 
 as the desire to have an abundant supply of pure, fresh water 
 for household purposes, had long led parties to consider the 
 best means of bringing it into the city by pipes from a dis- 
 tance. Various schemes were talked of among the public, and 
 discussed in the journals. The plan of Mr. Merrifield to bring 
 
342 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 water from a small lagoon, called the " Mountain Lake," situ- 
 ated about four miles west of the plaza, and which was well sup- 
 plied by springs, was at length approved of by the common 
 council, and under the ordinance noticed the projector became 
 entitled to certain privileges for the term of twenty-five years, 
 upon condition of his plans being carried into effect. Mr. Merri- 
 field, his associates and assigns, were authorized to break open 
 the streets, and lay down water-pipes in the same, upon properly 
 filling up and replacing the openings. The quantity of water to 
 be provided in a general reservoir, and the amount of discharge 
 by pipes, were both fixed ; while provision was made for the 
 amount of rates to be paid by the citizens using the water, which 
 rates were to be adjusted by a board of commissioners to be 
 chosen annually by the common council. At the end of twenty- 
 five years, from and after the 1st day of January, 1853, the en- 
 tire water-works were to be deeded to the city, in consideration 
 of the privileges and benefits that might accrue to the projector 
 and his assigns and associates during the said term of years. 
 The corporate authorities were also to be entitled to the gratuitous 
 use of the water for the purpose of extinguishing fires, and for 
 hospital and other purposes. In terms of this act, Mr. Merrifield 
 granted a bond for fifty thousand dollars that the works should 
 be completed on or before the 1st of January, 1853. 
 
 The gentleman named having conveyed his privileges to a 
 joint-stock company, called the " Mountain Lake Water Com- 
 pany," another ordinance was, of date 14th of July, 1852, passed 
 and approved of, whereby the former one was amended to the 
 following effect, viz. : That the new company should only be en- 
 titled to the privileges granted by the first ordinance for the term 
 of twenty years : — that the board of commissioners to fix the 
 rates payable by those who used the water should be chosen, 
 three by the common council, and two by the Mountain Lake 
 Water Company, under the regulations specified in the ordi- 
 nance : — that the term within which the works should be com- 
 pleted should be extended to the 1st of January, 1854, provided 
 the Water Company should expend fifty thousand dollars on the 
 works within six months of the date of the ordinance, and at 
 least a similar sum every six months thereafter until the said last 
 
HANGING OF JENKINS. 343 
 
 mentioned date : — that the privileges granted to the said Water 
 Company should be exclusive for the term of five years after 1st 
 of January, 1853 ; — and, lastly, that the said ordinance should 
 expire at such time after the 1st day of January, 1855, as the 
 said Water Company should refuse, or be unable, to supply the 
 city, at such elevation as the common council should fix, " one 
 million of gallons of pure and wholesome fresh water during every 
 twenty-four hours." 
 
 Hanging of Jenkins on tlip Plaza. 
 
 June 11th. — The "Vigilance Committee" is at last formed, 
 and in good working order. They hanged at two o'clock this 
 morning upon the plaza one Jenkins, for stealing a safe. For 
 the particulars of the trial and execution, we refer the reader to 
 a subsequent chapter, where also will be found an account of the 
 other doings of this celebrated association. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1851. 
 
 The sixth great fire.— Destruction of old buildings. — Execution by the Vigilance Committee of 
 Stuart, Whittaker and McKenzie. — County and city elections.— The Vigilance Committeo sus- 
 pend operations. — Wells & Co. suspend payment— Opening of the Jenny Lind Theatre. — Tho 
 American Theatre opened. — Shipping in San Francisco Bay. — Ball of the Monumental Fire 
 Company. — Indian disturbances and volunteer military companies. — Severe storm. 
 
 June 22d. — The sixth great fire. It began a few minutes before 
 eleven o'clock in the morning, in a frame house situated on the 
 north side of Pacific street, close to Powell street. The high 
 winds which usually set in about this hour from the ocean during 
 the summer season, speedily fanned the flames, and drove them 
 south and east. All day they spread from street to street, 
 consuming one building-square after another. The water reser- 
 voirs happened to be nearly empty, and even where the firemen 
 had water enough for the engines, their exertions were of little 
 use in stopping the conflagration. Nor was it much better with 
 the hook and ladder companies, whose useful operations were 
 thwarted by the owners of the property they were seeking to pull 
 down for the common good. Subsequent inquiries seemed to 
 show that the fire must have been raised by incendiaries, while 
 several attempts were detected during the day to kindle various 
 distant quarters of the town, yet untouched by the flames. The 
 fire extended from Powell nearly to Sansome street, and from 
 Clay street to Broadway. Within these limits ten entire squares 
 were destroyed, and large parts of six others. The total damage 
 was estimated at three millions of dollars. Happily the chief 
 business portion of the town escaped, and which had suffered so 
 severely six or seven weeks before. In the fire of the 4th May, 
 every newspaper establishment in the city, except that of the 
 " Alta California," was totally destroyed. In the fire of the 22d 
 
SIXTH GREAT FIRE. 
 
 345 
 
 instant, all escaped, except that of the journal named. These 
 conflagrations made no distinctions of persons or properties ; but 
 with a wild justice, sooner or later, reduced all to the same level. 
 The proprietors of the Alta now lost their building, presses, 
 types, paper and office furniture, just as their brethren of the 
 broad sheet were ruined before. The City Hall, located at the 
 corner of Kearny and Pacific streets, which had been originally 
 erected at an immense expense as a hotel, and was purchased 
 more than a year before by the corporation for one hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars, and improved at a heavy cost, was totally 
 consumed, although the principal office records were saved. Mr. 
 Thomas Maguire, the proprietor of the " Jenny Lind Theatre," 
 on the plaza, which was a most valuable building, now lost all 
 again, — a sixth time, by fire ! But it is needless to particularize 
 losses, where every citizen may be said to have been burned out 
 several times, and to have again and again lost his all. With a 
 sigh or a laugh, according to the temperament of the sufferer, he 
 just began once more to raise his house, stock it with new goods, 
 and arrange his future plans. The indefatigable spider was at 
 work again. 
 
 Many of the buildings erected since these last fires show a 
 wonderful improvement in strength and grandeur. When the 
 work was to be done it was now well done ; and it is believed 
 that if any buildings can possibly be made fire proof in the most 
 trying circumstances, many have now been made so in San Fran- 
 cisco. Solid brick walls, two and three feet in thickness, double 
 shutters and doors of malleable iron, with a space two feet wide 
 between them, and huge tanks of water, that could flood the 
 whole building from roof to cellar, seem to defy the ravages of 
 the fiercest future conflagration. Of that substantial character 
 are many of the banking establishments, the principal stores and 
 merchants' offices, and the most important houses in the city. 
 This improved style of building has chiefly been rendered neces- 
 sary by the great conflagrations we have had occasion to notice. 
 Of the different companies formed for extinguishing fires we 
 treat in a subsequent chapter. It is believed that they form the 
 most complete and efficient organization of their kind in the 
 world. 
 
346 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 The six great fires successively destroyed nearly all the old 
 buildings and land-marks of Yerba Buena. We extract the fol- 
 lowing pleasantly written lamentation on this subject from the 
 " Alta California" of 21st September, 1851 :— " The fires of May 
 and June of the present year, swept away nearly all the relics of 
 the olden time in the heart of the city. The old City Hotel 
 
 Old City Hotel. 
 
 [corner of Kearny and Clay streets], so well known and remem- 
 bered by old Californians, after standing unscathed through three 
 fatal fires, fell at the fourth. How many memories cling around 
 that old building ! It was the first hotel started in San Fran- 
 cisco, then the village of Yerba Buena, in the year 1846. When 
 the mines were first discovered, and San Francisco was literally 
 overflowing with gold, it was the great gaming head-quarters. 
 Thousands and thousands of dollars were there staked on the 
 turn of a single card, and scenes such as never were before, and 
 never again will be witnessed, were exhibited in that old building 
 during the years 1848 and 1849. In the spring of '49, the 
 building was leased out at sixteen thousand dollars per annum, 
 cut up into small stores and rooms, and underleased at an enor- 
 
OLD BUILDINGS DESTROYED. 
 
 347 
 
 mous profit. Newer and handsomer buildings were erected and 
 opened as hotels, and the old ' City' became neglected, deserted, 
 forgotten : then it burned down, and this relic of the olden time 
 of San Francisco was among the things that were. Then the 
 old adobe custom-house that had been first built for that purpose, 
 and then used as a guard-house and military office by the Auier- 
 
 Ilesidence of Samuel Brannan, Esq., in 1S47. 
 
 icans, and then afterwards as the American custom-house, was 
 also burned. The wooden building directly back of it, with the 
 portico, was also one of the old buildings — erected and occupied 
 by Samuel Brannan, Esq. in 1847. [In this house were exhibited 
 the first specimens of gold brought from the jila ceres.] This also 
 was burned, and all that remains of 1847, in the vicinity of the 
 plaza, is the old adobe on Dupont street. This building, in the 
 latter part of '47 and '48 was occupied by Robert A. Parker as 
 a large trading establishment. This has stood through all the 
 fires, and it is hoped that it may remain for years as a relic of the 
 past." That hope was vain. In the following year the adobe on 
 Dupont street was pulled down to make way for finer houses on 
 its site. So has it been with all the relics of six or eight years' 
 standing. What the fires left, the progress of improvement 
 swept from the ground. 
 
348 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 July 11th. — Trial and execution of James Stuart. 
 August 24th. — Recapture from the legal authorities of 
 Whittaker and McKenzie, and their execution hy the " Vigi- 
 lance Committee." 
 
 September 3d. — Annual election for the County of San 
 Francisco. The following were the officials chosen : — 
 
 Senate. 
 
 Frank Soule, Jacob R. Snyder. 
 
 Assembly. 
 
 B. Orrick, A. C. Peachy. A. J. Ellis, H. Wohler, 
 G. W. Tenbroeck, R. N. Wood. Isaac N. Thome. 
 
 Judge of the Superior Court. County Judge. 
 
 John Satterlee. Alexander Campbell. 
 
 Sheriff. County Clerk. 
 
 John C. Hayes. James E. Wainwright. 
 
 County Recorder. District Attorney. 
 
 Thomas B. Russum. H. H. Byrne. 
 
 County Treasurer. County Surveyor. 
 
 Joseph Shannon. C. Humphries. 
 
 Coroner. County Assessor. 
 
 Nathaniel Gray. Henry Vandeveer. 
 
 Harbor Master. — George Simpton. 
 
 The new city charter had provided that the first general 
 election for municipal officers should be held on the fourth Monday 
 of April, 1851, and " thereafter annually at the general election 
 for State officers." Under this section of the charter it was un- 
 derstood hy some that the second city election should take place 
 in September of the year named, when the usual annual election 
 of State officers occurred. Another construction was put upon 
 the section in question by the parties already in office and by a 
 large number of the inhabitants, to the effect that the second 
 election under the charter could only take place in September, 
 1852. Thus one party would give the existing common council 
 and municipal officers only half a year in power, while another 
 party, including the present incumbents, claimed a year and a 
 half. 
 
A CONTESTED ELECTION. 349 
 
 So dignified, or so satisfied with the legal strength of their 
 position, were the existing city officers, that they took no steps to 
 order a new election in September, 1851. Their opponents, 
 however, relying on their own interpretation of the words of the 
 charter, proceeded to act without them, and, unopposed in any 
 way, elected the whole parties on their ticket. The general 
 public took little interest in the matter, and most people seemed 
 to believe that the new election would end in nothing. So little 
 did the citizens concern themselves, that some of those newly 
 elected, polled but a very few votes. When the election was fin- 
 ished the new officers made a demand upon the old ones for a 
 surrender of the public books and documents. This being 
 refused, the new mayor elect, Stephen R. Harris, immediately 
 raised the necessary legal action against the old mayor, C. J. 
 Brenham, for a declaration of his own rights and the ejection of 
 the latter from office. In the district court a judgment was 
 given to the effect that the present incumbents should hold office 
 till April, 1852, and that then those elected in September, 1851, 
 should enter upon and remain in office for one year. The result 
 of this decision would have been that six months would always 
 intervene between the election and the entering upon office of 
 the municipal authorities. This decision was unsatisfactory to 
 most people. Mr. Harris next carried the case into the supreme 
 court, where a majority of the judges (24th December), after 
 able arguments were heard from the parties, reversed the judg- 
 ment of the court below, and found Mr. Harris entitled to enter 
 upon office as in September, 1851. Mr. Brenham promptly ac- 
 knowledged the weakness of his position, and at once yielded to 
 his legal successor. Party feeling prevented the other city officers 
 from surrendering their seats so readily. Those already in power 
 consisted of men of both of the great political parties — whig and 
 democratic ; and had been originally selected chiefly from among 
 the independent candidates, as men who would earnestly work 
 for the common good and the purification of the city from official 
 corruption and wide-spread crime. On the other hand, those 
 newly elected were altogether of the democratic party. The old 
 council offered to resign, if the new one would do the same ; 
 when both could appeal a second time to the people. But the 
 
350 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 latter council refused to do this. Meanwhile, the legal courts 
 had adjourned, and it would have cost much time and expense to 
 drive out the old council from the places which they persisted in 
 retaining ; and their year of office would probably expire before 
 this could be managed. In the end, however, the old council 
 thought it best for their own honor and the interests of the citv, 
 to quietly retire from the unseemly contest, and make way for 
 their unexpected successors. The names and offices of the latter 
 were as follows : — 
 
 Mayor. — Stephen R. Harris. Recorder — George W. Baker. 
 Marshal. — David W. Thompson. Street Commissioner. — Theodore Payne. 
 Comptroller. — Jas. W. Stillman. Treasurer. — Smyth Clarke. 
 Tax Collector. — D. S. Linell. City Attorney. — Chas. M. Delaney. 
 Recorder's Clerk. — Thomas W. Harper. 
 City Assessors. — James C. Callaghan, David Hoag, Arthur Matthews. 
 
 Aldermen. 
 
 E. L. Morgan, Win. G. Wood, Jos. H. Blood, John Cotter, 
 Caleb Hyatt, James Grant, N. S. Pettit, Wm. Moore. 
 
 Assistant Aldermen. 
 Henry Meiggs, Jos. Galloway, W. H. Crowell, N. Holland, 
 D. W. Lockwood, James Graves, J. C. Piercy, John W. Kessling. 
 
 September 16th. — The " Vigilance Committee" agreed to 
 suspend indefinitely farther operations regarding crime and crim- 
 inals in the city. The old extensive chambers in Battery street 
 were relinquished, and new rooms, " open at all times, day and 
 night, to the members," were taken in Middleton and Smiley's 
 buildings, corner of Sansome and Sacramento streets. During 
 the three preceding months this association had been indefatiga- 
 ble in collecting evidence and bringing the guilty to justice. It 
 had been formed not to supersede the legal authorities, but to 
 strengthen them when weak ; not to oppose the law, but to sanc- 
 tion and confirm it. The members were mostly respectable citi- 
 zens, who had, and could have, only one object in view — the 
 general good of the community. They exercised an unceasing 
 vigilance over the hidden movements of the suspected and crim- 
 inal population of the place, and unweariedly traced crime to its 
 source, where they sought to stop it. They had hanged four 
 men without observing ordinary legal forms, but the persons were 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 fairly tried and found guilty, while three, at least, of the number, 
 confessed to the most monstrous crimes, and admitted death to he 
 only a due punishment. At this small cost of bloodshed, the 
 " Vigilance Committee " freed the city and country of many 
 reckless villains, who had been long a terror to society. When 
 these had disappeared, outrages against person and property al- 
 most disappeared too, or were confined to petty cases. The legal 
 and municipal authorities now acquired, what previously they 
 lacked, sufficient power to master the remaining criminals ; and 
 the committee, having no longer a reason for continued action, 
 gladly relinquished the powers they had formerly exercised. 
 Grand juries, instead of offering presentments against them, only 
 praised in the usual reports their useful exertions, while, like all 
 good citizens, they lamented their necessity. J udges occasionally 
 took offence at the terms of such reports, and sought to have 
 them modified; but the grand juries were firm. Judge Levi 
 Parsons applied to the Supreme Court to have certain obnoxious 
 sentences in one of these reports struck out ; but his petition was 
 refused. People felt that there was much truth in the repeated 
 declarations of the grand juries, and they hailed with delight 
 their expressions of implied confidence in the Vigilance Commit- 
 tee. The weak, inefficient, and sometimes corrupt courts of 
 law were denounced as strongly by the juries as by that associa- 
 tion itself. In one report the grand jury said : — " The facilities 
 with which the most notorious culprits are enabled to obtain 
 bail, which, if not entirely worthless, is rarely enforced when for- 
 feited, and the numerous cases in which by the potent influence 
 of money, and the ingenious and unscrupulous appliance of legal 
 technicalities, the most abandoned criminals have been enabled 
 to escape a deserved punishment, meets with their unqualified 
 disapprobation." 
 
 But the worst days were over, and comparative peace was re- 
 stored to society. Therefore the Vigilance Committee ceased to 
 act. The members, however, did not dissolve the association, but 
 only appointed a special or executive committee of forty-five to 
 exercise a general watchfulness, and to summon together the 
 whole body when occasion should require. This was shortly after- 
 wards done in one or two instances, when instead of being oppos- 
 
352 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ed to the authorities, the members now firmly supported them by 
 active personal aid against commotions and threatened outrages 
 among the populace. They had originally organized themselves 
 to protect the city from arson, murder and rapine, when perpe- 
 trated as part of a general system of violence and plunder by 
 hardened criminals. In ordinary crimes, and when these stood 
 alone, and did not necessarily lead to general destruction, the 
 Vigilance Committee did not interfere farther than as good citi- 
 zens and to merely aid the ordinary officials whose duty it was to 
 attend to all cases of crime. When, therefore, some six months 
 later, a body of two thousand excited people sought to " lynch " 
 the captain and mate of the ship Challenge for cruelty to the 
 crew during the passage from New York to San Francisco, the 
 Vigilance Committee, instead of taking the side of the enraged 
 multitude, firmly supported the legal authorities. On many 
 occasions, both before and after this time, the committee were of 
 great service to the authorities. At their own cost, they collected 
 evidence, apprehended criminals and delivered them into the hands 
 of legal justice. When the city offered a reward of $2500 to 
 any person who would give information which might lead to the 
 apprehension and conviction of an incendiary, the committee 
 offered a reward of $5000 for the same services. The members 
 gave large contributions to hasten the completion of the public 
 jail ; and, in many ways, by money, counsel and moral aid, and 
 active personal assistance, sought earnestly to raise the character 
 of the judicial tribunals and strengthen their action. There could 
 not be a greater calumny uttered against high-minded men than 
 to represent, as was frequently done in other countries, and in the 
 Atlantic States, the members of the Vigilance Committee as a 
 lawless mob, who made passion their sole guide and their own 
 absolute will the law of the land. Necessity formed the com- 
 mittee, and gave it both irresistible moral and physical force. One 
 might as well blame a drowning wretch for clinging to a sinking 
 brother, or to a straw, as say that the inhabitants of San Fran- 
 cisco did wrong — some in joining the association, and others in 
 not resisting but applauding its proceedings. People out of Cal- 
 ifornia could know little at best of the peculiar state of society 
 existing there ; and such as condemned the action of the Vigilance 
 
NEW JENNY LIND THEATRE. 
 
 353 
 
 Committee positively either knew nothing on the subject, or they 
 outraged the plainest principles of self-preservation. We all 
 defend the man who, with his own hand, violently and unscrupu- 
 lously slays the midnight robber and assassin, because he would 
 otherwise lose his own life and property, and where the time and 
 place make it ridiculous to call for legal protection. So also 
 should we defend the community that acts in a similar manner 
 under analogous circumstances. Their will and power form new 
 ex tempore laws, and if the motives be good and the result good, 
 it is not very material what the means are. This subject is treat- 
 ed at greater length in the chapter on the Vigilance Committee, 
 and to it the reader is referred. 
 
 October 3d. — " Wells & Co." bankers, suspended payment. 
 This and the bankruptcy of H. M. Naglee already noticed, are 
 the only instances of failure among that class of the citizens of 
 San Francisco. When the place and the speculative spirit of 
 the people are borne in mind, it is high testimony to the general 
 stability of the banking interest, that only two of their estab- 
 lishments have become bankrupt. 
 
 October 4th. — Opening of the new Jenny Lind Theatre on 
 the Plaza. This was a large and handsome house. The interior 
 was fitted up with exquisite taste ; and altogether in size, beauty 
 and comfort, it rivalled the most noted theatres in the Atlantic 
 States. It could seat comfortably upwards of two thousand per- 
 sons. The opening night presented a brilliant display of beauty 
 and fashion, and every part of the immense building was crowded 
 to excess. A poetical address was delivered on the occasion by 
 Mrs. E. Woodward. A new era in theatricals was now begun 
 in San Francisco ; and since that period the city has never wanted 
 one or two first class theatres and excellent stock companies, 
 among which " stars " of the first magnitude annually make their 
 appearance. Before this date there had been various dramatic 
 companies in San Francisco, but not before had there been so 
 magnificent a stage for their performances. The " Jenny Lind " 
 did not long remain a theatre. The following year it was pur- 
 chased by the town for a City Hall for the enormous sum of two 
 hundred thousand dollars. The external stone walls were allowed 
 
 23 
 
354 
 
 ANNALS OF SAX FRANCISCO. 
 
 to stand, but the whole interior was removed and fitted up anew 
 for the special purposes to which it was meant to be applied. 
 
 Jenny Lind Theatre. 
 
 October 20th. — The " American " theatre opened. This 
 was a large brick and wooden house in Sansome street, between 
 ( California and Sacramento streets. It could contain nearly two 
 thousand persons, and was very elegantly furnished inside. Mrs. 
 Stark gave the opening address. 1 The walls sank nearly two 
 inches on the opening night, when the " house " was densely 
 crowded. The site formed a portion of the bay, and the sand 
 which made the artificial foundation had been deposited upon a 
 bed of soft yielding mud. Considerable fears were entertained 
 in such circumstances for the safety of the structure. Happily 
 the sinking of the walls was regular, and after the first night no 
 material change was perceptible. 
 
 October 31st. — To enable the distant reader to form an 
 idea of the crowded state of the harbor, and which it may be 
 
INDIAN DISTURBANCES. 
 
 355 
 
 mentioned was at all times about as well filled, we give the fol- 
 lowing accurate list of the number of vessels lying there at this 
 date, viz : — 
 
 Ships. Barques. Brig! Schooners. Ocean Steamers, Total. 
 
 American 42 G4 C7 50 9 232 
 
 British 5 23 5 3 30 
 
 French 9 11 U 
 
 Chilian .... 1 2 1 one S,00 P * onc S alliot 0 
 
 Bremen 1 4 4 1 10 
 
 Austrian 1 ship ; Swedish. 3 brigs. 4 
 
 German 1 barque ; Italian, 1 brig ; Dutch, 2 barques, 4 
 
 Storeships, 148 
 
 Total number of vessels 451 
 
 The store-ships had originally belonged to all nations, though 
 chiefly to America. In 1848 and 1849, most of the vessels that 
 then arrived in the bay were deserted by their crews, while both 
 in these years and in 1850, many old and unseaworthv vessels 
 had been hurriedly pressed into the vast emigration service to Cal- 
 ifornia. A considerable number of all these vessels were not 
 worth the expense of manning and removing, and so they were 
 left to be used as stores and lodging-houses in the suddenly 
 thronged town, or to rot and sink, dismantled and forsaken. We 
 have had occasion at various places to mention that several of 
 these ships are now lying on dry land, in the very centre of t he 
 city. 
 
 November 6th. — A grand ball was given in the evening of 
 this day at the Parker House, by the Monumental Fire Company. 
 It was one of the finest affairs of the kind held in the city. Up- 
 wards of five hundred ladies and gentlemen were present. Such 
 balls were becoming too numerous to be all chronicled, while 
 amidst the general brilliancy it is difficult to select any one as 
 a specimen to show forth the times. 
 
 December. — The southern portion of the State, having been 
 recently in great danger from attacks of the confederated Indian 
 tribes, applied for aid to Gen. Hitchcock, commanding U. S. 
 forces in California. He accordingly sent as many of his troops 
 as could be spared, and authorized the raising of two companies 
 of mounted volunteers. Great excitement, in consequence of 
 this permission and the previous alarming news, existed in the 
 
356 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 city, and numbers hastened to enroll themselves in the proposed 
 companies. To the disappointment of many applicants, a selec- 
 tion only could be received. The two companies were placed 
 under the respective commands of Col. John W. Geary and Capt. 
 Daniel Aldrich, while Col. J. C. Hayes was appointed to the com- 
 mand in chief. Later intelligence from the south, to the effect 
 that the Indian difficulties were being arranged, rendered it un- 
 necessary for the volunteers to proceed thither. 
 
 December 21st. — This day was remarkable for an unusually 
 severe storm of wind and rain, which continued during the night, 
 and lasted several days without abatement. The tide was several 
 feet higher than ordinary, and the swell from the bay rolled in so 
 heavily as to wash away the sand from many of the newly-piled 
 water lots. Several vessels dragged from their moorings and 
 came in collision with others. Store-ships, that had long been 
 imbedded in the sand, were set afloat and drifted to other quar- 
 ters. The water at Jackson street rose so high as to cross Mont- 
 gomery street, causing, at their junction, a lake of no inconsid- 
 erable dimensions. The cellars in the lower part of the city were 
 inundated. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1851. 
 
 Immigration diminished.— Females comparatively few.— Great city improvements.— Productions of 
 the country, game, Sic, in the markets. — Character of the community changing for the better. — The 
 circulating medium. — Extravagance in living, dress, &c. — Personal rencontres and other outrages 
 common.— Titles to real estate uncertain.— Legal decisions. — Depreciated value of merchandise. — 
 Amusements, dissipation and recreation.— The foreign population. - Great crimes less frequent — 
 The finances of the city. 
 
 The arrivals by sea at San Francisco were not so numerous in 
 1851 as during the preceding year. The tide of immigration was 
 slackening, only to roll in its much greater numbers the following 
 season. During 1851, upwards of 27,000 persons arrived by 
 sea. Of these rather more than one-half came by steamers from 
 the ports on or near the Isthmus. The ordinary population of 
 the city was increasing, though more slowly than before. At the 
 close of this year the total number probably exceeded thirty 
 thousand. Females were very few in proportion to the whole 
 number of inhabitants, although they were beginning to increase 
 more rapidly. A very large proportion of the female population 
 continued to be of loose character. The Chinese now began to 
 arrive in considerable bands, and occasionally a few of their fe- 
 males. Great numbers of French and Germans, of both sexes, 
 as well as other foreigners, made their appearance. The immi- 
 grants generally were of the mining and agricultural classes, al- 
 though a fair number of them ultimately settled in San Francisco. 
 An extensive immigration continued among the various districts 
 and towns of the country, and the population of all was constant- 
 ly changing. Fewer fortunate miners now paid visits to the city 
 for the sake of mere recreation, since the rising towns of the 
 interior, particularly Sacramento and Stockton, the capitals of the 
 northern and southern mines respectively, offered all the attrac- 
 tions of dissipation closer at hand. Yet in one way or another, 
 
358 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 at least one half of the entire population of the State passed 
 through, or visited San Francisco. The ocean steamers carried 
 away more people from the port than, they brought. There was 
 the usual large land immigration into the State, and, on the 
 whole, the general population of the country was considerably 
 increased. 
 
 East side of Portsmouth Square. S[iriri;z of 1851 
 
 In San Francisco material improvements were taking place. 
 At Clark's Point, on the northern extremity of the city, huge pre- 
 cipitous rocks were quarried and removed, and the solid hill deeply 
 excavated, whereby much new and valuable space was gained for 
 building operations. New streets were graded, planked and built 
 upon, and new and finer houses every where erected. In the 
 southern districts, the "steam-paddy" had been set to work, and 
 was rapidly cutting away the numerous sand hills that lay be- 
 tween the plaza and " Happy Valley." The rubbish was con- 
 veyed by temporary rails along the streets, and emptied into the 
 bay at those parts where already roads were laid out and houses 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 359 
 
 built on piles. Sansome and Battery, with the intersecting 
 streets to a considerable distance, were gradually filled up, and 
 firm foundations given for the substantial brick and stone houses 
 that were beginning to be erected there. The town continued to 
 move eastward, and new streets were formed upon piles farther 
 out into the bay, across which the piers and wharves were shoot- 
 ing like the first slender fines of ice before the sheet of water 
 hardens into a solid mass. Closer and thicker the lines ran, as 
 house after house was reared on innumerable piles, while the 
 steam-paddy and railway wagons, and horse-carts without num- 
 ber, were incessantly bearing hills of sand piecemeal to fill up the 
 hollows, and drive the sea far away from the original beach. 
 Where once 6hips of a thousand tons floated there now rose great 
 tenements of brick and mortar securely founded in the solid 
 earth. Portions of the loose sand were insensibly washed oft' by 
 the tides from the first places where it was deposited, and the 
 bay was slowly becoming shallower to a considerable distance 
 from shore. As the wharves were pushed farther out, the si lip- 
 ping found less convenient anchorage, and were exposed to occa- 
 sional strong tides and gales. The character of the port was 
 perhaps changing somewhat for the worse, although the necessi- 
 ties of the town so far urgently required an extension across the 
 bay. 
 
 The fires of 1850 and 1851, while they destroyed much valu- 
 able property, led in the end to a very superior kind of building, 
 and may thus be said to have done some permanent good. They 
 have stamped a wonderfully grand character upon the architec- 
 ture of the place. What at first were called and believed to be 
 fire-proof houses were becoming numerous, when successive con- 
 flagrations came and removed them all. Other houses were built 
 of a still more substantial kind, and these were destroyed by fire 
 in turn. At last, some buildings were erected that surely were 
 proof against the most intense heat and flame ; and upon their 
 models all the later structures of pretension have been formed. 
 While in certain respects these buildings assume the proportions 
 and grandeur of palaces, in others they appear heavy and gloomy 
 like the veriest prisons. The walls are enormously thick, and the 
 windows deeply sunk in them, showing often at first sight only 
 
360 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 narrow, dark cavities. When the ponderous wrought iron shutters 
 and doors are closed on the outside the resemblance to a jail is com- 
 plete. It is believed that no fire from without can seriously affect 
 such buildings, although they may be subject to internal confla- 
 gration. While improved houses were rising in the centre and 
 business portion of the town, superior buildings of frame were re- 
 placing in the outskirts and suburbs the old habitations, or such 
 as were destroyed by fire. The new plank road to the mission 
 had opened up a large and valuable tract of building ground, and 
 neat and substantial wooden houses were being erected along the 
 whole way. 
 
 In the vicinity of the town, wherever a tiny fertilizing stream 
 of water ran among the sand hills, at the mission and the presidio, 
 numerous flower and kitchen gardens and small farms were laid 
 out, which yielded large supplies of the more necessary or prized 
 vegetables. In 1849, the announcement of a real cabbage at 
 dinner would have set half the population frantic with strangely 
 stirred appetites ; now, the many cultivated spots named, daily 
 furnished numerous loaded carts of all kinds of fresh vegetables 
 to the city markets. Potatoes were no longer a rarity ; turnips 
 could be had for money — and at a moderate price, too. The 
 markets made pleasant morning sights. Besides a profusion of 
 vegetables and fruits, they were largely supplied with noble fish 
 and game of all descriptions from the ocean, the bay and the in- 
 terior. Salmon of huge dimensions, and vast quantities of like 
 delicious fish, whole cart loads of geese, ducks, quails, and other 
 wild fowl, innumerable quarters of bear, elk, antelope, deer, and 
 smaller game, loaded the stalls of the dealers. Mutton was per- 
 haps not so plentiful, but excellent beef was in abundance. 
 Times had changed with San Francisco. The hardships and 
 semi-starvation of 1849 were forgotten in these ample supplies 
 of exquisite food. The epicure might traverse the globe, and 
 have no finer living than what this city yielded ; the glutton 
 would here find both eye and palate satiated. But two years had 
 sufficed to this astonishing change. 
 
 The fires that cleared the ground and rendered necessary new 
 building operations, and the improved style of house structures, 
 gave constant employment to every body who could and would 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 361 
 
 work. Wages therefore continued high, and the poorest of the 
 laboring classes were enjoying the incomes of merchants and pro- 
 fessional men of other countries. The general improvements in 
 the aspect of the town and social character of the people, noticed 
 
 New World Market, corner of Commercial and Leidesdorff streets. 
 
 in the review of 1850, were still going on. New "Expresses" 
 were hurrying to all points, stage coaches, mails and noble 
 steamers communicated with the most distant quarters. Ad- 
 ditional manufactories and stores, additional newspapers, thea- 
 tres, public institutions, benevolent, useful and agreeable associa- 
 tions, were being constantly established. Schools and churches 
 were springing up on all sides. A certain class largely patronized 
 the last, though it must be admitted that very many, particular- 
 ly foreigners, never entered them. The old life and bustle con- 
 tinued, though matters were now systematized, and offered less 
 show and confusion. In 1849, San Francisco was like a great 
 ant-hill, when its busy creatures happen to be disturbed, and 
 when all were visible, hurrying to and fro, out and in, backwards 
 and forwards, apparently in the most admirable confusion and 
 
362 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 cross purposes, as if every one were engaged in some life and 
 death struggle. In 1851, the city was like the same ant-hill 
 when the cause of fright had been removed and order restored. 
 The old tenants were still as busy as ever, but there was method 
 now in their actions. Some were closely engaged in the interior 
 — the cells or houses of the place — and made no show. Outside 
 lines of other eager workers ran here and there, without jostling 
 or confusion, all filled with the thought of what they had to do, 
 and doing it well and quickly. There was no sauntering, no 
 idleness, no dreaming. All was practical and real ; all energy, 
 perseverance and success. In business and in pleasure, the San 
 Franciscans were fast folk ; none were faster in the world. Their 
 rents, interest on money, doings and profits, were all calculated 
 monthly. A month with them was considered equal to a year 
 with other people. In the former short time, men did such 
 deeds, and saw, felt, thought, suffered and enjoyed, as much as 
 would have lasted over a twelvemonth in other lands. But then 
 these were really men — giants rather, the very choice of the cle- 
 verest, most adventurous and hard-working people of America 
 and Europe. California was a hot-bed that brought humanity to 
 a rapid, monstrous maturity, like the mammoth vegetables for 
 which it is so celebrated. 
 
 The city was settling fast into the condition in which it now 
 is. The characteristics of a Spanish or Mexican town had nearly 
 all disappeared. The barbarous magnificence of an old Califor- 
 nian rider was now seldom seen. The jingling, gaudy trappings 
 of the horse, the clumsy stirrups and leathern aprons, the con- 
 stant lasso and the reckless rider, had given place to the plain, 
 useful harness of the American and his more moderate, though 
 still dashing riding. Superb carriages now thronged the streets, 
 and handsome omnibuses regularly plied between the plaza and 
 the mission. People now, instead of being " every thing by turns 
 and nothing long," more steadily confined themselves to one 
 proper business. The old stores, where so recently all things 
 " from a needle to an anchor " could be obtained, were nearly ex- 
 tinct ; and separate classes of retail shops and wholesale ware- 
 houses were now the order of business. Gold dust as a currency 
 had long given place to coin. Two years before, the buyer 
 
THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM. 
 
 363 
 
 would carelessly tumble out a heap of "dust" in payment, 
 while the seller would have his weights and scales ready for it as 
 a matter of course. A little lump less or more to the quantity 
 was of no consequence to either party. All that loose, stylish 
 kind of thing was now changed. Coin was plentiful, and its 
 fair worth was generally looked for. People found it somewhat 
 more difficult to accumulate wealth, and were less foolishly lavish 
 Of their means, although they still always spent them most ex- 
 travagantly. Specimens of nearly all the coinage of the civilized 
 world were in constant circulation. Approximate values were 
 bestowed upon the pieces, and if any thing like the mark, they 
 readily passed current. The English shilling, the American 
 quarter-dollar, the French franc, the Mexican double-real were 
 all of the same value ; so likewise were the English crown, the 
 French five-franc piece, and the American or Mexican dollar. 
 It did not matter although some were twenty-five per cent, more 
 worth than others. Four single francs were quite as good as the 
 English five-shilling piece. The smaller silver coins of whatever 
 denomination and of every country were all alike bits, and passed 
 for the same value. As for copper money, it was, of course, 
 never seen. A bit was the lowest denomination of money, and 
 very little of auy thing would it buy. Besides the coins men- 
 tioned, there were Indian rupees, Dutch and German florins and 
 guilders, the many coinages of South America, and in fact every 
 known piece of money that circulated in Europe, and in many 
 other parts of the world. The deficiency in the American proper 
 coinage was thus amply made up, especially so far as silver 
 money was concerned. In gold there was a less variety of foreign 
 coin, although many European pieces of that metal were in cir- 
 culation. The fifty dollar gold pieces called " slugs," and the 
 twenty and ten dollar pieces, issued by the United States Assay 
 Office, in San Francisco, served all the purposes of a regular 
 standard coinage. Before, and shortly after the establishment 
 of the assay office, large quantities of gold currency were sup- 
 plied by about a dozen different private parties ; but as these 
 coinages were generally of less intrinsic worth, in purity and 
 weight of metal, than their nominal value, they soon fell into 
 disrepute and were gradually withdrawn from circulation. Some 
 
364 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 of them were very neatly executed, and stray specimens may 
 still be occasionally found by the curious. 
 
 Formerly, that is, only two years before, the San Franciscans 
 were careless in personal appearance, and rude in manners. Now, 
 they dressed richly and extravagantly, and assumed the polished 
 airs of gentlemen. A striking change was observable every 
 where, and in every thing. The houses were growing magnificent, 
 and their tenants fashionable. Perhaps this fashion was not 
 quite d la mode de Paris, but rather sui generis. Balls and con- 
 vivial parties of the most brilliant character were constantly 
 taking place. The great number of flaunting women of pleasure, 
 particularly the French, mightily encouraged this universal holi- 
 day, and gave ease, taste, and sprightly elegance to the manners 
 of the town. There is perhaps no place in the world where 
 money is so little regarded as in San Francisco. A man spends 
 there like a prince, as he gains like one. The " almighty dollar " 
 to him appears of less worth than a shilling does to people in 
 England or in our Eastern States. At these balls, and at all 
 public and private entertainments, immense sums were squan- 
 dered. Trade might be dull, bad, ruinous — rents might rise or 
 fall, and people be really insolvent — still they spent money on all 
 sides. Business losses generally fell on distant correspondents, 
 and the half-burned and supposed bankrupt and ruined city 
 showed still the same brilliant bustle ; and its inhabitants still 
 pursued the same expensive round of amusements. Gold must 
 come from the placers, and San Francisco never could in a cer- 
 tain sense be poor. The riches of the Californian mines on the 
 one side, and the luxuries and conveniences of all countries in 
 the world on the other, met in San Francisco. It would be hard 
 indeed for its hot-blooded and venturous population if they did 
 not make the treasures within their grasp minister to every en- 
 joyment that youth and sanguine constitutions could crave. 
 
 Ever since the first great immigration many of the inhabit- 
 ants carried some weapon of defence secretly about them. 
 During the disturbed times in the early part of 1851, when no- 
 body was safe from the assaults of desperadoes even in the public 
 street or in his own dwelling, the practice of wearing deadly 
 weapons became still more common. These were often used — 
 
LAND TITLES THE CAUSE OF DISPUTES. 
 
 365 
 
 though not so much against the robber and assassin, as upon the 
 old friend and acquaintance, or the stranger, when drink and 
 scandal, time and circumstance had converted them into supposed 
 enemies. The number of duels, and especially of sudden per- 
 sonal affrays, was fearfully great. The general population of 
 San Francisco — with shame it must be confessed, in those days, 
 as is still the case to a considerable extent — drank largely of in- 
 toxicating liquors. A great many tippled at times, and quite as 
 many swore lustily. They are an adventurous people, and their 
 enjoyments are all of an exciting kind. They are bold and 
 reckless from the style of the place and the nature both of busi- 
 ness and amusement. New-comers fall naturally into the same 
 character. It may therefore be imagined that personal rencon- 
 tres frequently occur among such a population. In 1851 these 
 were constantly happening. One man perhaps called another a 
 " liar," and straightway revolvers were produced on both sides. 
 Repeated shots were hastily fired, with sometimes as much 
 damage to the by-standers as to the half-drunken quarrelers 
 themselves. Some scenes of a most savage and atrocious descrip- 
 tion, ending occasionally in death, took place between parties who 
 were reputed to be of the first class of citizens. Among the 
 lower American orders, and in all classes of foreigners, down to 
 the vilest " greasers," the same violent spirit of personal revenge 
 and deadly outrage was common. On the slightest occasion, at 
 a look or touch, ah oath, a single word of offence, the bowie-knife 
 leaped from its sheath, and the loaded revolver from the breast 
 pocket or the secret case, and death or severe wounds quickly 
 closed the scene. The spectators often shared in the same wild 
 feelings, and did not always seek to interfere. The law was pow- 
 erless to prevent such personal conflicts. Men thought as little 
 of their blood and lives as of their money, and to gratify high 
 swelling passion would madly waste them all alike. 
 
 One considerable cause of personal disputes and bloodshed 
 was the uncertainty of legal titles to property, which encouraged 
 squatterism. Owing to recent conflicting decisions by the courts 
 of law it almost appeared that the only, or the best title to real 
 tstate was actual possession. A great many people made a prac- 
 tice of settling down upon any vacant lot they fancied, and per- 
 
366 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 haps in the course of a night would fence it in and erect some 
 small house on the ground. When daylight and the proprietor 
 came, the intruder defied ejection. To seek redress from the 
 tribunals whose judgments had led to these encroachments was 
 only ridiculous ; so the parties generally fought it out among 
 themselves, with the aid of friends and long purses to hire help, 
 until both suffered considerably in the battle. The effect of these 
 conflicting legal decisions on the titles to real estate had other- 
 wise a very prejudicial effect. They hindered the immediate and 
 permanent improvement of property, since no man would expend 
 large sums in that way when his title to the ground was in jeop- 
 ardy. Lenders, already alarmed at the foolish proposals of usury 
 bills in the Legislature, became shy in advancing money on the 
 security of many properties ; the value of real estate fell consid- 
 erably ; in some instances no price whatever could be obtained 
 where the title was disputed ; and all was painful doubt on the 
 subject. In 1850, real estate in the city was assessed at the 
 value of $16,849,024 ; while, in 1851, it was only $10,518,273 ; 
 and this was notwithstanding the vast improvements that had 
 taken place in the interval. In the end, certain acts passed by 
 the State, which confirmed sales of the beach and water lots by 
 the city and sanctioned its title to those lots still unsold, and 
 also later and more satisfactory decisions of the Supreme Court 
 in the matter of titles, helped to re-establish confidence on the 
 subject, and secure the old owner in his property against the 
 mere squatter. 
 
 The commerce and imports of San Francisco were very great 
 during 1851 — too great indeed for a profitable trade. The fall 
 in the prices of nearly all kinds of merchandise which lasted over 
 a great part of 1850, continued during the following year. Mat- 
 ters were perhaps not quite so bad as when, in the spring of 
 1850, chests of tobacco were used to pave the streets or make a 
 solid foundation for houses, and when nearly every article of mer- 
 chandise went a-begging for a buyer, and not finding one was cast 
 aside to rot, or used to fill up mud-holes ; but still, in 1851, most 
 kinds of goods were a dead loss to the owner. In the palmy 
 days of '48 and '49, all were purchasers, at any price : now every 
 body sought to sell, at no matter what sacrifice. In '49 a dollar 
 
DEPRECIATED VALUE OF MERCHANDISE. 
 
 367 
 
 was paid for a pill, and the same sum for an egg ; a hundred dol- 
 lars for a pair of boots, and twice that sum for a decent suit of 
 clothes ; a single rough brick cost a dime, and a plank some 
 twenty feet long was cheap at ten dollars. At one period of that 
 wondrous year, common iron tacks of the smallest size, sold for their 
 weight in gold ; and for a long period were in request at from five to 
 ten dollars an ounce. But in '51, bales of valuable goods were some- 
 times not worth their storage. There happened to be no plaster 
 walls in '49, and small tacks— of which there was only a very 
 meagre quantity in the country, — were in extreme demand for 
 fastening the usual muslin coverings to tbe wooden partitions of 
 houses. Hence the apparently extravagant sum that was given. 
 Every thing that was useful and really needed in those earlier 
 days commanded the most astonishing prices. The supply was 
 limited and the demand great, while money was suddenly plenti- 
 ful. But in 1851, the stock of all kinds of goods was greatly 
 over-proportioned to the natural demand of the place. The pop- 
 ulation of the city and country generally, although numbering 
 only about a quarter of a million persons, yet being nearly all in 
 the prime of life, rich and careless, and with large appetites, con- 
 sumed and wasted the goods and provisions that would have sat- 
 isfied an ordinary population of perhaps a million of people. 
 Still the imports into San Francisco were far ahead of the most 
 extravagant demands and consumption of the ravenous, wasteful 
 people of California. For any article actually required, and of 
 which there might be but a scanty stock in the market, noble 
 rates were still given ; but as the supply of most goods was im- 
 mense, prices fell accordingly. The auctioneers, whose business 
 and importance daily increased, rattled away shiploads of mer- 
 chandise at often nominal prices. Extravagance and waste did 
 their best, but they could not destroy every thing. Enormous 
 losses were sustained during 1850, and especially in 1851, by 
 foreign shippers. The commercial people in San Francisco gen- 
 erally acted as agents on commission for others, and did not often 
 import as merchants on their own account. The losses therefore 
 on merchandise did not so very much affect individual citizens, while 
 to the general public it was a positive gain to have an unlimited 
 supply of goods at low prices. 
 
368 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 In the ordinary recreations of the city a change was gradually 
 taking place. The gambling-saloons, though still very many, 
 were becoming fewer, while billiard-rooms and drinking-bars or 
 saloons for refreshment and conversation, were increasing in num- 
 ber, in size and handsome style. There is no place in the world 
 with so many billiard- tables in it in proportion to the population, 
 as San Francisco ; and but few places, if any, with more drink- 
 ing-houses. In such quarters, in 1851, a large proportion of the 
 inhabitants usually spent their evenings. Other crowds nightly 
 filled the large and beautiful theatres that were now erected. 
 Balls, masquerades and concerts, gambling-saloons, visits to frail 
 women, — who always have been very numerous and gay in San 
 Francisco, — and an occasional lecture, filled up the measure of 
 evening amusement. Gayety and personal dissipation were then, 
 as they are now, characteristic features of the city. Nor were 
 these things confined to the upper and richer classes. Labor was 
 paid so highly that all orders of the people had money at command 
 to squander in amusements. During the day, and particularly 
 on Sundays, the "swells" of both the highest and the lowest rank, 
 cantered to the presidio or the mission, or scampered among the 
 sand-hills behind the town, or crossed the bay in the small steam- 
 ers to Contra Costa, or formed pic-nic excursions to the fort, or 
 the outer telegraph hill, or on the sea-shore, or somewhere among 
 the lonely and picturesque valleys among the hills. San Fran- 
 cisco was certainly a great city ; and its people had great notions ; 
 their deeds of business and amusement were all great in their way. 
 
 The large admixture of foreign races, particularly the light- 
 hearted, theatre-loving French, the musical Germans, and the 
 laughter-loving, idle, dancing Hispano- Americans, tended to give 
 a pleasant, gay aspect to the city. The grave national character 
 of United States men was converted into levity and cheerfulness 
 by the example and sympathy of their merry neighbors. It may 
 be said, at the same time, that the foreign population were gen- 
 erally an orderly, obedient and useful class of the community. 
 The Chinese might here perhaps form an exception. They are 
 an exclusive race, and mingle but little save with their own people. 
 They were now begiuning to arrive in considerable numbers, bring- 
 ing with them a number of their women, who are among the filthi- 
 
THE CITY FINANCES. 
 
 369 
 
 est and most abandoned of their sex. They, as well as most of 
 the foreign races, generally dwelt together in particular localities, 
 which gave these quarters a distinctive appearance from the rest 
 of the town. The Chinese and the free negroes, of whom there 
 was now a goodly sprinkling, were " the hewers of wood and the 
 drawers of water " of the place ; and performed washing and wo- 
 men's business, and such menial offices as American white males 
 would scorn to do for any remuneration. The "greasers," too, 
 who are verily " of the earth, earthy," helped the " celestials " 
 and the black fellows, or infernals, in their dirty work. 
 
 In various parts of this book, we have dwelt so fully on the 
 state of crime and public morals during 1851, that it is unneces- 
 sary to say much more on the subject in this general chapter. 
 The extraordinary action of the Vigilance Committee, proved most 
 salutary to the best interests of the community. After a few 
 hangings, which were signalized by scenes of the most terrible and 
 impressive nature, the social state of the city was much improved ; 
 and people could venture to appear at dark in the streets, or to 
 dwell alone in poorly defended houses, without dread of the assas- 
 sin, the burglar, or the incendiary. Crime was now principally 
 confined to petty thefts, for which the " chain-gang" was an ex- 
 cellent punishment ; while cases of bloodshed, — and they were 
 frightfully many, — arose chiefly from the rampant, unregulated 
 passions of the people, who thought and called themselves, as 
 they were reckoned by others, respectable men and good citizens. 
 
 The financial affairs of the city, which had long been in a very 
 confused and ruinous state, were, towards the close of 1851, much 
 simplified and improved. The general improvidence and corrup- 
 tion of a long series of municipal authorities, from the day when 
 the American flag was first hoisted on the plaza, had squandered 
 or jobbed away many of the most valuable portions of the real 
 estate belonging to the corporation. But the funding of the float- 
 ing debt, and perhaps the increasing purity, or dread of being 
 found out, on the part of recent officials, with other causes, tended 
 gradually to raise the credit of the city. The next great blow 
 which fell upon the municipal funds was the noted matter of the 
 "Peter Smith" sales, which shall be duly chronicled among the 
 events of 1852. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 1852. 
 
 Dr. Peter Smith. — Ilis contract with the city to take charge of the indigent sick. — The city's indebt- 
 edness. — Smith's judgments and executions. — Injunctions of the commissioners of the funded 
 debt. — Sale and sacrifice of tho city property undor Smith's judgments. 
 
 January. — Some time before this date certain legal proceedings 
 took place which much affected the pecuniary interests of the city. 
 These subsequently involved it in great and expensive litigation, 
 where millions' worth of property were concerned. The whole sub- 
 ject forms one of the most important series of events in the histo- 
 ry of the city, and has long excited the close attention of the cit- 
 izens and the deepest regret in the minds of all honest men that 
 such unfortunate circumstances should have occurred. Charges 
 of official corruption and private jobbery have at different times 
 been made openly, and oftener whispered, against prominent citi- 
 zens for their connection with the matter, and improper motives 
 have been very freely imputed to them. Lawsuits have been long 
 and vigorously carried on regarding the subject, the final decisions 
 upon some of which have regulated the ownership and titles to a 
 vast amount of property. We have selected the opening of this 
 year for a short general statement of the case, although some of 
 the particular events alluded to occur much later in point of 
 time. 
 
 In the course of 1850, Dr. Peter Smith contracted with the city 
 for the care of its indigent sick. For each patient he was allowed 
 a sum of four dollars daily. This may now seem a high allowance, 
 but at that period, — to say nothing of the usual jobbery in the 
 matter, — the cost of house-rent, boarding, medicines and medical 
 attendance, was very great. The city having little money in its 
 exchequer at the time, generally paid Dr. Smith in the shape of 
 
THE PETER SMITH SALES. 
 
 371 
 
 scrip, which bore a monthly interest of three per cent, till redeem- 
 ed by cash payments. The common council were meanwhile reg- 
 ularly auditing Smith's accounts, at short intervals ; while they 
 continued to give that gentleman the necessary amounts of scrip 
 to satisfy the different balances as they arose. Altogether, 
 the amount of city indebtedness under Smith's contract was 
 $64,431. 
 
 The total amount of city scrip granted in 1850 and the begin- 
 ning of 1851, was exceedingly great, and, as we have already men- 
 tioned, an act, after considerable discussion and delay, was finally 
 passed by the Legislature, to fund the floating debt and convert 
 the same into stock, bearing an annual interest of ten per cent. 
 General creditors, however, as well as holders of scrip, were neither 
 obliged to await the passage of this act, nor afterwards to accept 
 the terms of conversion. To those who possessed the obligations 
 of the city, or who held it' bound as debtor in any actual or im- 
 plied contract, the ordinary courts of law were open for ascertaining 
 and making effectual the amounts of their claims. Accordingly, 
 some creditors, — and chiefly Dr. Smith, — proceeded to take the 
 necessary legal steps to procure judgments against the city, and 
 to make executions and sales of its property. If all the then hold- 
 ers of scrip or of city indebtedness had acted in this fashion, there 
 would only have resulted " confusion, worse confounded ; " and 
 neither Dr. Peter Smith nor any one of the city creditors would 
 have profited by his hasty and preference-seeking proceedings. As 
 it happened, the party named was almost the sole, as he was the 
 chief creditor, who thought fit thus to secure his strictly legal 
 rights. 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1851, Smith recovered judgment 
 against the city for $19,239, being a portion of the total amount 
 claimed by him ; and on the 8th of July following, the sheriff 
 proceeded to sell so much of the city property as, it was expected, 
 would defray the sum named. At this sale the various wharves 
 belonging to the corporation were sold, as also the old city hall 
 lot, and the city hospital and buildings. By this time the act to 
 fund the municipal floating debt had been passed, and its proper- 
 ty conveyed to the commissioners there named. At first sight it 
 appeared improper, and perhaps ridiculous, in the circumstances, 
 
372 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 for an individual to sue the city to extremities, and seek to gain a 
 preference over the general body of creditors. The commissioners 
 of the funded debt made both public and private statements in 
 the strongest terms, to the effect that any sales which might take 
 place under the Smith judgments would be held as illegal and of 
 not the slightest value. This conduct on their part, as well as a 
 vague general impression among the citizens, that such was, or 
 certainly ought to be the true state of the case, had the effect of 
 discouraging buyers from attending and bidding at the sales in 
 question ; and consequently the property was sold at merely nomi- 
 nal prices, perhaps at not a twentieth, or even a fiftieth part of 
 its real value. The sum realized was therefore insufficient to sat- 
 isfy Smith's judgment. Accordingly an alias execution for the 
 balance was issued on the 7th of August following, upon which 
 the sheriff, on the 17th of September thereafter, sold forty one- 
 hundred-vara lots, fifty-five fifty-vara lots and one water lot. But 
 as the old impression remained tbat the whole proceedings were 
 illegal, nominal prices were again only obtained for the great 
 amount of property mentioned. On the 2d January, 1852, the 
 sheriff further sold an immense amount of water lot property 
 of the value, at least, of half a million of dollars, also at nom- 
 inal prices. Still the original judgment was unsatisfied. 
 
 Meanwhile a second suit had been raised by Smith against the 
 city, upon which judgment, on the 4th of March, 1851, was duly 
 obtained, for $45,538. Upon this, the sheriff advertised to sell 
 on 14th June following, one hundred and three water lots, twenty- 
 seven blocks on South Beach, and seven one-hundred -vara lots. 
 The commissioners, consequently, in order to save the city's pro- 
 perty from the threatened sacrifice, appealed to the proper legal 
 tribunals for injunctions to stay the sheriff 's sale ; but for reasons 
 which may not here be named, their appeal was disregarded. Fail- 
 ing to obtain the necessary injunction, and still determined to 
 protect the interests of the people, the commissioners attempted 
 to compromise matters with Dr. Smith, to effect which object, 
 Col. J. W. Geary and J udge P. A. Morse, on behalf of the Board, 
 personally waited upon John McHenry, Esq., counsel for Peter 
 Smith, and guaranteed to secure to Smith from their own private 
 funds the whole amount of his judgment on condition that the 
 
THE PETER SMITH SALES. 
 
 373 
 
 sale should be arrested. This generous offer, which had it been 
 accepted, would have saved millions of dollars to the city, from 
 the pockets of a few greedy speculators who were instigating and 
 abetting the proceedings of Smith, was not only rejected, but 
 treated with contempt. The commissioners driven to their last 
 resource, and acting under advice of their attorney, Solomon Hey- 
 denfeldt, Esq., who subsequently became and was a judge of the 
 Supreme Court, when the decision against the action of the com- 
 missioners and confirming the " Peter Smith Titles" obtained from 
 the sheriff, was given, issued the following address : — 
 
 " TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 " A sale of a large number of city lots is advertised to take place this day. 
 by virtue of an execution in the hands of the Sheriff, in favor of Peter Smith 
 against the city of San Francisco. The public are hereby notified, that the 
 city has no legal title to the said lots, nor had any title at the time of the ren- 
 dition of the judgment. By virtue of an ordinance of Council the city convey- 
 ed the said lots in December last to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, 
 in trust for the benefit of the creditors of the city ; and by virtue of an act of 
 the last Legislature, the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund conveyed said 
 lots to the present Commissioners of the Funded Debt upon the same trusts. 
 Some time since an injunction was obtained in the District Court to prevent 
 this sale. The injunction was dissolved on the ground that the judgment cre- 
 ditor of the city had the right to sell whatever interest the city may have left 
 after the execution of the trust, and that such sale would not interfere with 
 the trust. Every one will readily perceive that a purchase made at the Sher- 
 iff's sale will convey no title, because the property of the city is insufficient to 
 pay all of her debts, and under the acts above referred to, it will be the duty 
 of the present Commissioners of the Funded Debt to sell said property in ex- 
 ecution of the trusts confided to them, at which sales the purchasers will be 
 enabled to obtain a complete and perfect title. The public are therefore cau- 
 tioned to disregard the sale to be made by the Sheriff to-day, and the under- 
 signed have given this notice so that no one can complain hereafter that they 
 were purchasers without actual notice of the title held by the undersigned. 
 
 P. A. Morse, 
 
 D. J. Tallant, 
 
 Wm. Hooper, [. 
 
 Jno. W. Geary, 
 
 James King, of Wm. 
 Office Commissioner 1 's Funded Debt, June 14, 1851." 
 
 Commissioners 
 of 
 
 Funded Debt. 
 
 This address, which was published in the daily papers, and 
 even read to the people on the day it was issued, failed to produce 
 
374 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the effect intended by the commissioners. While, perhaps, they 
 never supposed it would deter the sheriff from proceeding with 
 the sale, which took place according to advertisement ; they, at 
 least, and we must believe, honestly supposed that it would pre- 
 vent citizens from purchasing property which the sheriff, accord- 
 ing to their opinion, had no legal right to sell, and of paying money 
 for titles which would never be confirmed, and therefore would be 
 valueless. Their action in the matter, certainly prevented many 
 persons from building or purchasing at the sale, and as before, the 
 lots were disposed of at ridiculously low rates. For this, the com- 
 missioners have of late been the objects of much public censure 
 and private calumny. Their conduct has been loudly condemned 
 and their motives impugned. But it should be observed, that 
 they acted by advice of learned counsel ; though singularly enough, 
 their adviser subsequently became a judge of the Supreme Court, 
 where he held a seat at the very time the decision was given ad- 
 verse to his former instructions, and legalizing the sales, by the 
 sheriff, of the city property, under the judgments of Smith. 
 
 But it is unnecessary, in this work, which does not profess to 
 be a legal guide to the titles of real estate, to detail minutely the 
 further judgments and sales. It is sufficient to say that Dr. Smith 
 instituted other suits, procured new judgments, and made new 
 executions and sales of the most valuable portions of the property 
 still left to the city. The great sale of the 30 th of January, 1852, 
 may only be alluded to, at which about two thousand acres of 
 land belonging to the city, and situated within the municipal 
 bounds, were disposed of by the sheriff in the manner above men- 
 tioned. As in the beginning, so to the end of these sales, only 
 nominal prices were obtained. The city was losing piece-meal 
 the best part of its real estate, while what between principal, in- 
 terest and legal costs, the old debt of Smith long remained nearly 
 as great as ever. In the end it was wiped off, but at what an 
 enormous sacrifice ! 
 
 At first the general public were inclined to treat the whole 
 proceedings as a farce, though a somewhat expensive one to the 
 purchasers at the sheriff's repeated sales. Farther consideration 
 made people begin to think that, after all, the laugh and profit 
 might really be on the side of those supposed foolish persons. The 
 
THE PETER SMITH SALES. 
 
 375 
 
 commissioners of the funded debt, in pursuance of their duties, 
 attempted to sell various portions of the city property, but were 
 baffled by repeated injunctions on the part of the holders of what 
 were at this time and have since been commonly called the " Pe- 
 ter Smith Titles." The boards of aldermen next meddled in 
 the fray, and they likewise began to deal in injunctions and other 
 legal annoyances. Matters looked bad, and soon the progress of 
 serious lawsuits made them much worse. Opportunities were 
 still given to cancel or remedy the worst parts of the original ob- 
 jectionable measures. The boards of aldermen and the mayor 
 happened to be opposed in this as in many other matters of con- 
 sequence, while the funded debt commissioners, were also not on 
 the best terms with the common council, which last body again 
 scarcely possessed the public confidence. Thus there was a gen- 
 eral want of union and common action in most municipal matters ; 
 while especially in regard to the Smith sales, either nobody 
 knew what to do, or every body pretended nothing could be 
 done. At any rate, nothing effectual was done to save the city's 
 interests. 
 
 At the last moment allowed by law for the redemption of pro- 
 perty sold under the sheriff's authority, a large sum of money 
 was procured through the liberality and public spirit of a distin- 
 guished and worthy firm, Messrs. Theodore Payne & Co., and 
 tender was made of the sums, principal, interest and charges, 
 contained in one of the judgments upon which the sale of the 30th 
 January, 1852, had taken place. This redemption-money was 
 refused by those who had purchased at the sale mentioned ; and 
 immediately new lawsuits were raised to try the question whether 
 it had been offered timeously and by the proper parties, or whe- 
 ther indeed there could be any right of redemption whatever in 
 the case. By and by the attorney-general instituted an action 
 against the funded debt commissioners, in which was claimed the 
 twenty-five per cent, due to the State of the supposed real value 
 of the water lots that had been sold at nominal prices. That ac- 
 tion was based on allegations of fraud, or culpable ignorance, or 
 carelessness on the part of the commissioners. The pecuniary 
 value of the whole property involved in these several sales was esti- 
 mated, in 1852, at about two millions of dollars, although two 
 
376 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 years later its probable value might be nearer twice, or perhaps 
 thrice that amount. 
 
 It was subsequently decided by the Supreme Court, that the 
 sales of the wharves and certain other portions of the city proper- 
 ty were legal. This swept away for ever one great portion of the 
 corporation means. The next question was the validity of the 
 redemption above mentioned. It was contended that the mayor 
 and the funded debt commissioners (which parties had made the 
 tender), were not entitled to redeem, especially without instruc- 
 tion from the council boards, that right being only in the city in 
 its corporate capacity. Other legal points of nicety arose, in re- 
 gard, particularly, to the alleged right of redemption itself. 
 These were long matters of contention, and from the immense 
 pecuniary interests at stake, the action was conducted on both 
 sides with all the talent and chicanery that influence or money 
 could persuade or buy. At length, and while we write (April, 
 1854), a decision has been given, that the redemption money al- 
 luded to was not offered by the parties who alone were entitled to 
 make it, and that therefore the relative sales were legal. This 
 judgment embraced other points of law upon which it was like- 
 wise founded, but it is unnecessary here to allude farther to them. 
 These several decisions have had the effect of depriving the city 
 of an enormous amount of property, the possession of which would 
 have much relieved the inhabitants of a great and annually in- 
 creasing taxation. 
 
 There is still, as there has long been, much bitter and angry 
 feeling existing in the city respecting the " Peter Smith Titles." 
 San Francisco has somehow lost its best and most valuable pro- 
 perty, and individual citizens have gained immense fortunes by 
 the loss. Little or no money has really been paid by these lucky 
 speculators in " the glorious uncertainty of the law." So far as 
 Smith is concerned, it was his undoubted right to make his claims 
 against the city effectual, if he legally could. The same right 
 was in the power of all its other creditors. That they did not 
 exercise their privileges was not the doctor's fault. At the same 
 time it may just be mentioned as a fact, that public indignation 
 was strongly excited against his independent and seek-my-own- 
 good style of action. Still, whatever may be thought of that 
 
THE PETER SMITH SALES. 
 
 377 
 
 gentleman's discretion or patriotism in the matter, or of the 
 original nature of his claims, which (perhaps, without that close 
 scrutiny that should have been given), having been sustained by 
 legal judgments, became settled facts, he is not lightly to be 
 blamed for the unfortunate events that afterwards occurred. The 
 same may not be said of certain officials and private citizens who 
 joined and acted with them. Every thing was certainly done to 
 cry down the right of Smith to sell, and thereby was lowered the 
 value of the municipal property. If this effect was foreseen and 
 wilfully intended, as many have not scrupled to assert, in order 
 to allow a clique of grand speculators to prey on the city means, 
 their conduct cannot be too strongly condemned. If their pro- 
 ceedings arose simply from an error in judgment, the sad effects 
 can only be deplored. The foregoing relation of facts seem 
 clearly to show that the commissioners acted in good faith. They 
 were men of reputed integrity, and had already "done the State 
 some service." The general public took the same view of the 
 subject as did the commissioners. They believed the sales to be 
 invalid, and that the titles obtained from them would be worth- 
 less. Hence the sheriff had only for bidders and buyers those 
 daring speculators, who either knew the law better, or were de- 
 termined to " chance it ; " and who, without competition, had 
 the most valuable lots knocked down to them at the cost of an 
 old song. Then, after all, is nobody to be blamed for the unfor- 
 tunate issue ? When millions have been lost in this way to the 
 community, it is hard to convince the citizens that no underhand 
 dealing has taken place ; that no corruption, no wilful delav, 
 false statements, gross personal interests and plotting have been 
 at work. It may not be easy to discover and brand the guilty 
 persons, and people may entertain different suspicions as to 
 their names and special concern in the grand game of spoliation. 
 Let every one therefore keep his own thoughts on the business. 
 At this stage of the affair, it is perhaps impossible to get at " the 
 truth — the whole truth — and nothing but the truth." One thing 
 only seems certain— the "manifest destiny" of San Francisco is 
 to be plundered at all hands, and to yield easy and quickly won 
 fortunes to her " most prominent citizens." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1852. 
 
 The Chinese in California. — Act passed to fund the floating debt of the State. — The State Marine 
 Hospital. — Act to convert into a seven per cent, stock the floating debt of the County of San 
 Francisco.— Anniversary of fires.— Meetings of the Vigilance Committee. 
 
 April. — The immigration of Chinese into California has great- 
 ly increased of late. By this month it was supposed that 
 upwards of ten thousand of that people had arrived at San 
 Francisco, while as many more were estimated to be on the way. 
 Considerable public discussion existed at this period on the de- 
 sirableness of such a vast immigration of the race ; and we take 
 occasion to make some general remarks on the subject, as well as 
 upon the present (1854) condition of Chinamen in the city. 
 
 The manners and habits of the Chinese are very repugnant to 
 Americans in California. Of different language, blood, religion 
 and character, inferior in most mental and bodily qualities, the 
 Chinaman is looked upon by some as only a little superior to the 
 negro, and by others as somewhat inferior. It is needless to 
 reason upon such a matter. Those who have mingled familiarly 
 with " celestials " have commonly felt before long an uncontrolla- 
 ble sort of loathing against them. " John's " person does not 
 smell very sweetly ; his color and the features of his face are un- 
 usual ; his penuriousness is extreme ; his lying, knavery and na- 
 tural cowardice are proverbial ; he dwells apart from white per- 
 sons, herding only with countrymen, unable to communicate his 
 ideas to such as are not of his nation, or to show the better part 
 of his nature. He is poor and mean, somewhat slavish and 
 crouching, and is despised by the whites, who would only laugh 
 in derision if even a divine were to pretend to place the two 
 races on an equality. In short, there is a strong feeling, — 
 
 i 
 
THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 379 
 
 prejudice it may be, — existing in California against all China- 
 men, and they are nicknamed, cuffed about and treated very un- 
 ceremoniously by every other class. Yet they are generally quiet 
 and industrious members of society, charitable among them- 
 selves, not given to intemperance and the rude vices which drink 
 induces, and are reputed to be remarkably attached to their pa- 
 
 Chinese Merchants aui\ Cooliii. 
 
 rents, revering indeed in all persons advanced years, which are 
 supposed to bring wisdom. The Chinese, or certain large tribes 
 of their nation, are of a migratory disposition. They have long 
 since wandered over the many great and rich islands and coun- 
 tries lying around their own land, and have contrived to secure 
 to themselves a large portion of the most valuable trade and 
 ©ommerce of these places. From Canton to Calcutta and Callao, 
 to Melbourne and Manilla, they swarm in all the ports of the 
 Pacific, and n: ire especially in those of the great Malay archi- 
 pelago. There seems a vast pressure upon the interior multitudes 
 of China, which forces many thousands annually to leave that 
 densely peopled country, for the sake of a bare subsistence, and 
 to save starvation at home. Little food, and that of the coarsest 
 
380 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and cheapest kind, suffices to support the life of Chinamen ; and 
 to procure that, they will drudge long and patiently at the most 
 painful task. When in a foreign country they have contrived to 
 amass a small sum, which may he considered a fortune hy them- 
 selves, they generally seek to return to spend it, and enjoy the 
 remainder of their days among kinsmen. This class of people 
 will perhaps form a large portion of the future population of 
 California, especially if any State encouragement should be given 
 them, and a short notice of their character is not out of place in 
 this work. At present they make one of the most striking pe- 
 culiarities of San Francisco. 
 
 From the date of the discovery of gold Chinamen had occa- 
 sionally appeared in the country ; hut it was only in 1851 and 
 1852 that their rapidly increasing numbers began to attract much 
 notice. Considerable apprehension began then to be entertained 
 of the supposed bad effect which their presence would have on 
 the white population. Large bands of Chinese were working at 
 the mines upon conditions which were supposed to be closely 
 allied to a state of slavery. Much misunderstanding arose on 
 the subject. It was believed that the gangs were receiving only 
 subsistence and nominal wages, — some four or five dollars per 
 month for each man, — and that speculators, both yellow and 
 white, were setting them to work on various undertakings which 
 free white laborers conceived should only be executed by them- 
 selves. If these vast inroads of Chinese were to continue, the 
 white miner considered that he might as well leave the country 
 at once, since he could not pretend to compete with the poverty- 
 stricken, meek and cheap " coolie," as so John Chinaman was 
 now called by many. It was true that the latter never sought 
 to interfere with the rich claims which the American miner 
 wrought, while he submitted very patiently to be violently driven 
 away from whatever neglected spot he might have occupied, but 
 which the white man suddenly chose to fancy. It was true also 
 that the Chinaman regularly paid, as a foreigner, -and was al- 
 most the only foreigner that did so, — his mining license to the 
 State ; and was a peaceable and hard-working subject. These 
 things did not matter. Eight or wrong, he should be driven from 
 competition with free white men, or his labor should be confined 
 
GOVERNOR BIGLER AND THE CHINESE 381 
 
 to certain inferior kinds of work, to which the dominant lords of 
 the soil never meant to apply themselves. Angry words, much 
 strife and perhaps some bloodshed, were generated in the mining 
 regions, and the hapless Chinese were driven backwards and for- 
 wards, and their lives made miserable. 
 
 Governor Bigler, influenced by the American miners' feel- 
 ings, issued a message in which he stigmatized the Chinese as 
 " coolies," (an appellation which they professed to abhor,) and 
 advised the Legislature to pass a law prohibiting the farther 
 immigration of that people. The terms of this message were 
 considered offensive and uncalled for by most of the intelligent 
 and liberal-minded Americans. The Chinese in San Francisco, 
 who now formed a large class of the community, took the matter 
 much to heart, and, on the 29th April of this year, published a 
 long letter or manifesto in answer to the governor's message. 
 This letter was written temperately, and was an exceedingly able 
 document. Subsequent communications of a like nature passed 
 between the governor and the Chinese. The Legislature mean- 
 while had appointed a committee to consider and report upon the 
 whole subject, and sundry passionate, and some other amusing 
 speeches were occasionally delivered in the State chambers. In 
 the end, the illiberal action suggested by the governor was not 
 adopted, and soon the matter fell asleep. Farther immigration 
 of this people took place in the course of 1852, and towards the 
 close of that year, there were probably sixteen or twenty thou- 
 sand of them in the country. Considerable numbers have since 
 left, but as many others have come in their stead, it may be sup- 
 posed that in 1854 there is still nearly the number mentioned. 
 
 In San Francisco, the Chinese were, in 1852, as they have 
 always since continued to be, very numerous — perhaps numbering 
 from three to four thousand. The following description of their 
 present condition is also applicable to the year named. Though 
 individuals of the race reside and carry on business in every quar- 
 ter of the city, the chief district in which they are located is the 
 upper part of Sacramento street, the whole length of Dupont 
 street, and portions of various other streets adjoining these 
 named. In such places the Chinese are almost the only inhabit- 
 ants, and the quarter is often called 11 Little China." There is 
 
382 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 a considerable number of respectable and wealthy Chinese mer- 
 chants and shopkeepers in San Francisco, who have extensive 
 business premises in Sacramento street and in various other parts 
 of the city. Their merchandise, as might be expected, is chiefly 
 the goods of their own country. These are of the " upper ten " 
 order, the Corinthian capital of the " celestial " pillar, and 
 would be a credit to any community. They are polite, shrewd, 
 and learned gentlemen ; and are sometimes generous. They can 
 either talk the English language pretty fluently themselves, or 
 by means of an interpreter can conduct any business transaction 
 or private conversation. But the great mass of their country- 
 men is of a very inferior description. Most of this class, who do 
 really work, engage in the washing and dressing of clothes, for 
 which they receive such wages as must appear to them noble re- 
 muneration. The washing and drying are conducted at the dif- 
 ferent lagoons and wells in the vicinity of the city, while in the 
 smallest, meanest habitation in every street, the Chinaman may 
 be seen diligently ironing and finishing the cleansed garment with 
 his smooth-bottomed chafing-dish of burning coals. They are 
 also employed as porters in warehouses and stores, and in vari- 
 ous other kinds of inferior labor. 
 
 It appears, however, to most residents in San Francisco, a 
 most curious thing how the great number of that people support 
 themselves. The majority certainly seem to be quite idle, or 
 only busy in gambling, which cannot be a very lucrative pursuit. 
 A portion of the upper end of Sacramento street, and nearly all 
 the eastern side of Dupont street, are occupied with Chinese 
 gambling-houses, which night and day are filled with crowds of 
 that people. The rooms, or " saloons," are generally small, each 
 containing from three to half a dozen tables, or " banks." At 
 the innermost end of some of the principal gambling places, there 
 is an orchestra of five or six native musicians, who produce such 
 extraordinary sounds from their curiously shaped instruments as 
 severely torture the white man to listen to. Occasionally a 
 songster adds his howl or shriek to the excruciating harmony. 
 The wailings of a thousand love-lorn cats, the screams, gobblings, 
 brayings, and barkings of as many peacocks, turkeys, donkeys, 
 and dogs, — the "ear-piercing" noises of hundreds of botching 
 
CHINESK GAMBLING AND MUSIC. 
 
 383 
 
 cork-cutters, knife-grinders, file-makers, and the like, — would 
 not make a more discordant and agonizing concert than these 
 Chinese musical performers in their gambling-houses. Heaven 
 has ordered it, no doubt, for wise purposes, that the windy chaos 
 is pleasant to the auricular nerves of the natives. Occasionally a 
 few white men will venture into these places, and gaze with min- 
 
 Gambling-honse. 
 
 gled contempt and wonder upon the grave, melancholy, strange 
 faces of the gamblers, and their curious mode of playing. There 
 seems to be only one game in vogue. A heap of brass counters 
 is displayed on the plain mat-covered table, and the banker, with 
 a long, slender stick, picks and counts them out one by one, 
 while the stakers gaze with intense interest on the process. The 
 game seems of the simplest nature, though white people scorn to 
 know any thing about it. A few low guttural, gobbling sounds, 
 are occasionally interchanged between the rapt players. A rank 
 smell pervades the place, but that is submitted to for a while by 
 the casual visitor. At last the diabolical music reaches some 
 fortissimo passage of intense meaning, while the wild howls and 
 
384 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 screams of the singer swell even above the dreadful instrumental 
 din, and then the " outside barbarian" is fain to fly. 
 
 While one large portion of the Chinese population of San 
 Francisco seems to be constantly engaged in gambling, another, 
 almost equally large, — the females of the race, — follow prostitu- 
 tion as a trade. In 1851, there were only a few Chinese women 
 in the city, among whom was the notorious Miss or Mrs. Atoy. 
 Every body knew that famous or infamous character, who was' 
 alternately the laughing-stock and the plague of the place. Her 
 advices home seem to have encouraged the sex to visit so delight- 
 ful a spot as San Francisco, and by and by, notwithstanding all 
 the efforts of the male Chinese to keep back their countrywomen, 
 great numbers of the latter flocked to the city. It is perhaps 
 only necessary to say that they are the most indecent and shame- 
 less part of the population, without dwelling more particularly 
 upon their manners and customs. Dupont street, and portions 
 of Pacific, and other cross streets, are thickly peopled with these 
 vile creatures. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the reputed industry of the Chinese, and 
 which has somehow become a "household word" over the world, 
 it must be confessed that prostitution and gambling seem, in 
 fact, the steady business of the majority of that nation in San 
 Francisco. The truly industrious, well behaved, and worthy part 
 of the people are scattered over the city and its environs, and are 
 seldom seen, while the gamblers, the frail nymphs, and the yellow 
 loafer class are continually loitering about the streets, or in their 
 own proper, open dens, and are every where visible. 
 
 In 1852, a regular Chinese dramatic company appeared and 
 performed pieces in their native language. These performances 
 were largely patronized by their countrymen, as well as by many 
 of the white inhabitants, who were curious to witness a real play 
 done by such actors. In 1853, another Chinese theatre was 
 opened. Besides these exhibitions, these people have occasionally 
 other ceremonies and amusements peculiar to themselves. At 
 two periods of the year, in spring and autumn, they form grand 
 processions, and march to Yerba Buena Cemetery with roasted 
 pigs and goats, the smell of which seems grateful to the spirits 
 of their dead lying there. After firing a multitude of crackers. 
 
CHINESE SOCIETY. 
 
 385 
 
 burning mystic papers, and performing a variety of droll capers, 
 they lift again the dainty meats, and march back in procession 
 to town to feed heartily on them. Huge, gaudy standards, gilded 
 dragons, with long tails, and a national orchestra, astonish and 
 disgust the bystanders, but extravagantly delight the saffron- 
 colored Johns. We have noticed above the nature of their in- 
 
 Chinese Females. 
 
 strumental and vocal music. Most of their national customs and 
 doings are as little agreeable to white people as tbose horrible 
 sounds which make the " celestial " harmony. 
 
 There seems to be some secret societies among this people, 
 by means of which a few of their number have occasionally been 
 found to grossly oppress their poorer brethren. The police have 
 attempted to interfere and protect the injured, though seldom 
 with much effect. The terror of these, lest vengeance should 
 somehow befall them from their persecutors, have generally pre- 
 vented full disclosures of the unlawful practices of the secret soci- 
 eties. So proverbial is falsehood among all classes of the Chi- 
 nese here, that one is quite at a loss to know any thing of their 
 peculiar private associations and customs. One strange idea 
 25 
 
386 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 among them seems to be, that it is a matter of honor for a debtor 
 who cannot pay his obligations to kill himself. Death cancels 
 all debt, and clears scores with hard-hearted creditors. Even 
 Chinese women, at different times, have poisoned themselves here 
 with opium, to satisfy this curious code of honor. Some of the 
 Chinese merchants are reputed to be pretty wealthy. They are 
 now (in 1854) erecting a handsome building as a sort of Mer- 
 chants' Exchange, specially for their own people. There is a 
 Chinese mission in the city, and some of the race profess them- 
 selves Christians. 
 
 The Chinese in San Francisco make an extraordinary feature 
 of the city, and appeal very strongly to most organs of the stranger 
 — to his eye, ear, and nose. They are seen in every street quietly 
 passing along. The white immigrant, who may never before 
 have met with specimens of the race, involuntarily stops, and 
 gazes curiously upon this peculiar people, whose features are so 
 remarkable, and whose raiment is so strange, yet unpretending, 
 plain and useful. They are generally peaceable and contented 
 among themselves, and seldom trouble the authorities except in 
 case of mere ignorance of the municipal ordinances. As we have 
 said, there are many most respectable merchants of their race. 
 These are active and keen men in bargaining. They dress in a 
 characteristic and sumptuous manner, and in their own exclusive 
 circles, where no low-caste countryman is allowed to intrude, 
 will no doubt have much refined and intellectual enjoyment. 
 Such flowery grandees as luxuriate in wives are proud to let the 
 white man know that their charmers have the little feet of ladies, 
 not the great hoofs of the trolloping damsels who haunt the 
 streets and lie in wait for the foolish stranger. Nearly the 
 whole race, from the "upper ten" to the lower thousands, wear 
 the time-hallowed tail ; while their every-day garb is the imme- 
 morial clothing of Chinamen. Some, indeed, sport one or more 
 articles of the white man's dress — his boots, trousers, coat, or hat ; 
 but these are comparatively few. On occasions of public rejoicing, 
 the Chinese muster in numerous bodies, while their banners, cars, 
 and they themselves, in their most superb array, form striking 
 and interesting features in procession, and the like. They are 
 very fond of such shows, and among themselves appear to observe 
 
FLOATING DEBT OF THE STATE. 
 
 387 
 
 many national, or private holidays, at which an abundance of 
 their famous crackers are discharged. Their dwellings, some of 
 which are brought in frames direct from China, and erected by 
 themselves, are small and incommodious, though extraordinary 
 numbers somehow contrive to creep into them, and live very com- 
 fortably. Over the fronts of many of these houses are nightly 
 displayed the common colored paper lanterns of China. 
 
 May 1st. — Act passed by the Legislature to fund the float- 
 ing debt of the State, and to issue stock to the extent of 
 $600,000, bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent, per an- 
 num. The principal of the debt is declared payable in New 
 York, or at the State Treasury, at the option of the parties re- 
 ceiving the stock bonds, on the 1st day of March, 1870. The 
 interest to be payable either in New York or at the office of the 
 
388 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 treasurer of the State. Particular provisions are made in regard 
 to a sinking fund, and as to the annual interest. 
 
 May 3d. — Of this date acts were passed by the Legislature 
 to amend certain acts which had been passed in the previous 
 session relating to the establishment of a " State Marine Hospi- 
 tal at San Francisco," and providing for its revenue, and also 
 concerning passengers arriving in the ports of California. This 
 hospital received such indigent sick as were objects of State char- 
 ity, as well as such invalids as were properly chargeable on the 
 city, upon payment of certain fees by the latter. Parties in 
 good health could secure the advantages of the hospital for one 
 year, in the event of sickness, upon payment of the sum of five 
 dollars. Other parties, invalids at the time, might be admitted, 
 after obtaining the certificate of the resident physician, and upon 
 payment of such fees as should from time to time be fixed. The 
 funds and management of the hospital were vested in a board of 
 trustees, to be composed of seven persons, five of whom (resi- 
 dents in San Francisco) were to be chosen annually by the Legis- 
 lature, and the other two were to be the mayor and president of 
 the chamber of commerce of that city for the time being. Of 
 this board the mayor was declared president. The board was to 
 choose a treasurer and inferior officials, while the Legislature was 
 to appoint one resident and two visiting physicians for the term 
 of two years, to each of whom a salary of five thousand dollars 
 was allowed. 
 
 The revenue of the hospital was to be derived from various 
 sources, such as — from a commutation tax upon all immigrants 
 arriving in California by sea, being ten and five dollars upon each 
 cabin and steerage passenger respectively, and which tax was 
 divisible as follows, viz. : three-fifths to the State Marine Hospi- 
 tal at San Francisco, one-fifth to the Sacramento State Hospital 
 (since abolished), and one-fifth to the State Hospital at Stock- 
 ton ; from a tax of one dollar upon each passenger, sailor, or 
 mariner leaving the port of San Francisco, — from the one-half 
 of all sums received by the city of San Francisco on account of 
 licenses to hawkers and peddlers, and on account of auction 
 sales and for licenses for gaming, — from the effects and pro- 
 perty of all persons dying in the hospital, which might not be 
 
ANNIVERSARY OF FIRES. 
 
 389 
 
 legally claimed by others, — from voluntary donations, and the 
 sums paid by parties to secure the advantages of the institution, 
 &c. An additional one-fourth of the sums received by the city 
 on account of licenses for gaming was also payable by it to the 
 board of trustees, to be applied by the latter, in the first in- 
 stance, towards payment of the debt of the former " State Ma- 
 rine Hospital ; " and after that debt was satisfied, to be set aside 
 as a building fund. 
 
 In the following year, the Legislature passed an act materi- 
 ally modifying the arrangements regarding this hospital and its 
 revenues, which will be noticed under its proper date. As the 
 acts particularly above mentioned, and those passed in the ses- 
 sion of 1851, form the foundation of the subsequent legislation 
 on the subject, we have thought fit to notice them in this place 
 at some length. 
 
 May 4th. — Act passed by the Legislature authorizing the 
 conversion of the floating debt of the County of San Francisco, to 
 an amount not exceeding $400,000, into a seven per cent, stock. 
 The interest of this funded debt is payable half yearly, and the 
 principal is to be redeemed within ten years after the 1st day of 
 July, 1852. Commissioners were appointed under this act to 
 carry out its purposes, who should hold office until the first day 
 of July, 1853, after which date the board of supervisors of the 
 county should enter upon the farther management of the matters 
 in question. Particular provisions are set forth in the act re- 
 specting the raising of the annual interest becoming due upon 
 the debt, and for the formation of a sinking fund to redeem the 
 principal. 
 
 This day was the anniversary of the second and the fifth great, 
 fires. Considerable apprehension was entertained that some at- 
 tempts would be made to set the city in flames about this time. 
 The different fire companies were therefore on the alert, and took 
 every precaution to provide against the dreaded danger. The 
 men remained in close attendance both day and night, and had 
 all their engines and tackle in instant working order. About ten 
 o'clock at night, on the 4th, the fire-bell was heard loudly boom- 
 ing, and with wonderful speed, " like greyhounds from the slips," 
 the firemen hurried to the quarter announced. This proved a 
 
390 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 false alarm ; but the circumstance showed the efficiency of the 
 fire-organization. The citizens had now some confidence in it, 
 and a strong feeling of security that no conflagration on the scale 
 of the former great ones would ever again happen. 
 
 The Vigilance Committee, which in the early part of this 
 year had held several meetings, both of the executive committee 
 and the general body of members, were again stirring at this 
 time. A common impression existed that there was still an or- 
 ganized band of thieves and incendiaries within the city. So the 
 executive committee recommended the general members to organ- 
 ize themselves into a " night patrol," while they took such other 
 measures as were adequate to meet the emergency. Although 
 this famous association had done many confessedly illegal acts, 
 yet the tendency of these had been so good, and they seemed so 
 justifiable in the terrible circumstances of the time, that the peo- 
 ple were led to trust implicitly to their unwearied vigilance and 
 decisive action, and could now lie down to rest at nights without 
 feeling the old constant dread of having their houses lobbed or 
 burned before morning. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 1852. 
 
 Clipper Ships.— Enormous Taxation.— Purchase of the Jenny Lind Theatre by the Common Council. 
 
 Times and Transcript removes to San Francisco.— Fourth of July celebration.— Great scarcity 
 
 of printing paper.— Duel between Hon. Edward Gilbert and General Denver.— Custom of Duel- 
 ling. — Funeral ceremonies on occasion of the death of Henry Clay. 
 
 June. — It appears from records kept by the late harbor master, 
 Captain King, that seventy-four vessels claiming and entitled to 
 be called " clipper ships," and averaging rather more than 1000 
 tons burden, had arrived in the port of San Francisco during the 
 last three years. These records commence with the well known 
 brig Col. Fremont, in May, 1849, and include the Aramingo, 
 which" arrived in May, 1852. The average passage was one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five days. Some of the fleet, however, made 
 much more speedy voyages. The Flying Cloud, which arrived 
 in August, 1851, performed the distance from New York in 
 eighty-nine days. The Sword Fish, also from New York, ar- 
 rived in February, 1852, after a passage of ninety days. The 
 Surprise, arriving in March, 1851, the Sea Witch, in July, 1850, 
 — both from New York, — and the Flying Fish, in February, 
 1852, from Boston, respectively accomplished the voyage in nine- 
 ty-six, ninety-seven, and ninety-eight days. 
 
 The " clipper ship " is virtually the creation of San Francisco. 
 The necessity of bearing merchandise as speedily as possible to so 
 distant a market, one too which was so liable to be suddenly 
 overstocked by goods, early forced merchants and ship-builders 
 interested in the California trade to invent new and superior mo- 
 dels of vessels. Hence the modern clipper with her great length, 
 sharp lines of entrance and clearance, and flat bottom. These 
 magnificent vessels now perform the longest regular voyage 
 known in commerce, running along both coasts of the Americas, 
 
392 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in about four months ; while the ordinary ships of older models 
 used to take seven and eight months to accomplish the same dis- 
 tance. The contrast is very striking between the short, clumsy 
 vessels, of a few hundred tons burden, which brought the early 
 European navigators to the coast of California, and the large and 
 beautifully lined marine palaces, often of two thousand tons, that 
 
 Clipper Ship. 
 
 are now continually gliding through the Golden Gate. These 
 are like the white-winged masses of cloud that majestically soar 
 upon the summer breeze. In another part of this work we have 
 given an illustration of the galleon, or sea-going armed merchant- 
 man of Drake's day ; here we lay before the reader a representa- 
 tion of one of the finest modern California traders, a clipper ship 
 bound for San Francisco. While these noble vessels have revolu- 
 tionized, in every maritime country, the model and style of long- 
 voyage ships, they have also introduced a much happier marine 
 nomenclature. The old-fashioned, humdrum Julias and Mary 
 Anns, the Trusties and Actives are fast disappearing. The very 
 names of our modern clippers have poetry and music in them, 
 and convey a wonderful sense of swiftness. They confer even 
 dignity on the dry details of the " marine reporter," where the 
 simple words shine like golden particles in the Californian miner's 
 sands. 
 
ENORMOUS TAXATION. 
 
 393 
 
 San Francisco was certainly a wealthy city, yet the amount 
 of taxation laid upon it was enormous. We give here some sta- 
 tistics taken from official documents, showing the amount of cash 
 
 which had been paid by the citizens during the year previous to 
 this date. 
 
 DIRECT TAXES. 
 
 Amount collected from City Licenses, from June 1st, 1851, 
 
 to May 31st, 1852, $275,873 14 
 
 Amount collected from City Taxes, between said dates, 262,665 23 
 
 $538,538 37 
 
 Amount collected from State and County Taxes, from May 
 
 18th, 1851, to May 18th, 1852, $231,348 85 
 
 Amount of direct taxes paid by the people of San Francisco 
 
 during the past year, $769,887 22 
 
 INDIRECT TAXES. 
 
 Duties collected at the Custom House for six months, ending 
 
 Dec. 31st, 1851, $1,012,128 94 
 
 Duties collected for three months, ending March 31st, 1852, 450,041 50 
 
 " for the fourth quarter (estimated,) 484,056 81 
 
 For the year ending June 30th, 1852, $1,946,227 25 
 
 Direct Taxes, as above. 769,887 22 
 
 Amount in cash actually contributed by San Francisco for sup- 
 port of City, State, County and National Governments 
 for one year, $2,716,114 47 
 
 These statistics show only the amount actually paid ; but 
 there were arrears of direct taxes which would certainly be recov- 
 ered (since they were secured upon property), and which would 
 swell the amount chargeable on the year to $1,053,773. Adding 
 the last sum to the amount of custom-house duties, it will be 
 seen that about three millions of dollars were drawn, as taxes, 
 from San Francisco in one year. If the population be estimated 
 at 30,000, this would show that the amount of local direct taxa- 
 tion was about $35 per head. In regard to the goods paying 
 custom-house duties, it will be borne in mind that a lair propor- 
 tion of the necessaries, and at least one-half of the luxuries used 
 in the State were consumed in this city. If we estimate there- 
 fore the population of the former at quarter of a million, it may 
 be supposed that the sum of, at least, §300,000 was actually con- 
 
394 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 tributed in indirect taxation by the inhabitants of the latter. This 
 is at the rate of $10 per head. Add this to the sum of $35 
 above mentioned ; and it appears that the total amount of direct 
 and indirect taxation for a single year upon each inhabitant, 
 male or female, infant or adult, of San Francisco, was $45. This 
 is an amount of taxation which few cities or countries can show. 
 But besides these sums, the holders of city real estate were as- 
 sessed in two-thirds of the expense of grading and planking the 
 streets opposite their properties ; while the general citizens volun- 
 tarily incurred a vast amount of additional expense, in the ap- 
 pointment of special police to guard particular localities, in the 
 gratuitous services of firemen, in lighting, watering, cleansing and 
 repairing the public streets, in opening drains and sewers, and in 
 many other ways, the duty of attending to which naturally falls, 
 in the cities of other lands, upon the municipal authorities. 
 
 June 4th. — We have already had occasion to mention the 
 unexpected manner in which the common council existing at 
 this time managed to get into office. They never enjoyed the 
 confidence of the people, by whom in reality they were not chosen. 
 Perhaps on that very account, they were the more determined to 
 neglect the public interests and attend solely to their own. Had 
 Mayor Harris not continually been a thorn in their side, much 
 additional mischief would have been perpetrated. Though this 
 gentleman was on their ticket, and came into office in the same 
 doubtful manner with themselves, there existed a marked differ- 
 ence in their public acts. Dr. Harris was a man of undoubted 
 personal integrity, and possessed in a high degree the confidence 
 and esteem of the citizens. By his care and faithfulness, the city 
 was saved from many heavy burdens that would recklessly have 
 been laid upon it by the common council of this year. One noted 
 instance was his refusal to approve of the aldermen's ordinance 
 accepting the terms of the act of the Legislature which relin- 
 quished the State claims to the water lots, upon the city recog- 
 nizing and confirming; certain of the old obnoxious " Cotton 
 Grants." 
 
 The purchase of the new Jenny Lind Theatre and Parker House 
 for the purposes of a City Hall was another of the common coun- 
 cil jobs which excited very much angry discussion at the time, 
 
PURCHASE OF THE JENNY LIND THEATRE. 395 
 
 and which afforded interesting and amusing "matter" for the 
 newspapers — (the "Jenny Lind Swindle," or sometimes " Juggle," 
 they facetiously called it), — during half a year. The old City 
 Hall having been destroyed in the fire of 22d June, 1851, the 
 various municipal officials were compelled to get business cham- 
 bers where they could, for which very high rents had to be paid. 
 As the different public offices were now located in separate parts 
 of the town, much inconvenience was experienced. This arrange- 
 ment could only be temporary. The rents, which were somewhere 
 about forty thousand dollars per annum, formed a heavy tax upon 
 the public ; while ground could be bought and a proper building 
 erected by the city itself for about four or five times that amount. 
 Several desirable sites could be had in the town on moderate 
 terms, and responsible contractors were ready to undertake the 
 construction of the proposed building at fixed rates, which would 
 certainly have reduced the total cost below two hundred thousand 
 dollars. In these circumstances, the common council, for rea- 
 sons, as the saying is, best known to themselves, and in spite of 
 the indignant cries of the citizens, and the general remonstrances 
 of the press, determined, — in conjunction with the board of super- 
 visors of the county, who were to pay half the cost, — to purchase 
 the Jenny Lind Theatre, and convert it into the proposed City 
 Hall. The purchase-money of the building as it stood was to be 
 $200,000 ; while to remove all the inside walls, leaving only the 
 outer ones standing, and to build up the interior anew, properly 
 fitted up for municipal purposes, was believed to involve the ex- 
 penditure of nearly half as much more. At the same time, it was 
 supposed that the building when so altered would be only a mis- 
 erable structure at the best. An ordinance authorizing the pur- 
 chase was passed by large majorities in both council boards, and 
 sent to the mayor for approval, which was refused. Notwith- 
 standing, the common council, on the 4th June, re-adopted the 
 obnoxious ordinance, and passed it by a constitutional and almost 
 unanimous vote. 
 
 Meanwhile, the public wrath was growing very clamorous, the 
 more so perhaps that it was impotent. On the evening of the 1st 
 of June, one of the usual mass and indignation meetings was held 
 on the plaza, where the proposed purchase was passionately de- 
 
396 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 nounced. Mr. William A. Dana presided on the occasion. This 
 was one of the most stormy meetings that had ever been held in 
 the city. Hon. David C. Broderick, who was in favor of the pro- 
 posed purchase, attempted to make a speech for his cause, but 
 the noise and reproaches of the meeting effectually put him down. 
 Sundry squabbling and wordy sparring took place between Mr. 
 Broderick and Dr. J. H. Gihon, who was on this occasion the 
 people's orator ; and the meeting ended in hubbub, riot and con- 
 fusion. Little cared the common council for such proceedings — 
 the general ire — the mayor's veto — the denunciations and ridicule 
 of the press. The matter was carried finally into the Supreme 
 Court, at the instance of some public-spirited citizens, and shortly 
 afterwards a judgment was obtained recognizing the right of the 
 city and the board of supervisors to make the purchase. This 
 was forthwith done ; and the contemplated alterations were speed- 
 ily made on the building, although at a great expense. The 
 whole affair was long a prolific subject for conversation and discus- 
 sion, for ridicule and the imputation of corrupt motives. It serv- 
 ed to glorify the council of this year, as the notorious aldermen's 
 salaries and medal pieces of business had immortalized a previous 
 party of " city s£e/?-fathers." 
 
 After the purchase was made and the alterations were comple- 
 ted, it was found that the new structure answered the purposes in- 
 tended better than was at first anticipated. The situation is ex- 
 cellent. At the present time, however (1854), it is beginning 
 to be discovered that the building is too small for the increased 
 business of the city. Movements are now making to purchase 
 additional business chambers elsewhere, or to include a portion of 
 the adjoining Union Hotel into the municipal establishment. 
 Doubtless, before many years pass, the whole of either that build- 
 ing, or of the El Dorado gambling-saloon on the other side, if not 
 both, will be required for the necessary extension of the City Hall, 
 unless indeed it be located in some altogether different quarter, 
 and built anew. 
 
 June 28th. — The "Placer Times and Transcript," transfer- 
 red from Sacramento, is first published in San Francisco, under 
 the management of Messrs. Fitch, Pickering & Lawrence. 
 
 July 5th. — "Independence-day" falling upon Sunday, was 
 
DEATH OF HON. EDWARD GILBERT. 
 
 397 
 
 celebrated the next day. This national festival has always been 
 a grand affair in San Francisco ; and on this occasion the citizens 
 exceeded all their former efforts. Prominent in the procession 
 of the day were large bands of foreigners, particularly of the French 
 and the Chinese. The latter displayed numerous fanciful flags 
 and specimens of the finest workmanship of their people. Their 
 gongs, cymbals, wooden bowls or drums, and strange stringed in- 
 struments, made the air hideous with diabolical sounds. One 
 wagon was filled with several Chinamen richly and showily dress- 
 ed, who occupied themselves in continually firing off their nation- 
 al crackers. In the evening there was a brilliant display of 
 fireworks on the plaza, where some fifteen thousand of the inhab- 
 itants had assembled to witness the exhibition. 
 
 July 11th. — The Herald newspaper is printed on coarse brown 
 paper, such as is commonly used for envelopes and for wrapping 
 packages. About this period, and during some months following, 
 all the newspapers of the city were reduced to the same or to even 
 worse descriptions of paper. Day by day, the old broad sheets 
 were becoming narrower and coarser, while they assumed every 
 color of the rainbow. The Alta for a long time was published on 
 a small double sheet (which, however, was of a pretty fine quali- 
 ty), where the typographical matter on a page measured only 
 about fourteen inches in length by ten in breadth. The market 
 had suddenly and unexpectedly happened to be without supplies 
 of proper printing paper ; and many months elapsed before a suf- 
 ficient stock could be procured. Of course prices of the material 
 rose enormously. 
 
 August 2d. — A duel took place this day between the Hon. 
 Edward Gilbert, senior editor of the Alta California and ex-repre- 
 sentative of the State in the Lower House of Congress, and Gen- 
 eral J. W. Denver, State Senator from Trinity County. Gen. 
 Denver having taken personal offence at certain observations which 
 had appeared in the " Alta California," regarding Governor Big- 
 ler's government, published a letter, in which he animadverted 
 strongly on the terms of these observations, and talked of the wri- 
 ter in objectionable language. Mr. Gilbert, the author of the 
 original obnoxious articles, considered the general's letter unjust 
 and offensive to himself, and thereupon challenged that gentleman. 
 
398 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 A hostile interview accordingly took place at Oak Grove, near 
 Sacramento. The weapons were rifles, and the distance forty 
 paces. General Denver, it was said, possessed an unerring aim, 
 while Mr. Gilbert scarcely knew how to hold his piece. At the 
 first interchange of shots, the general fired deliberately aside ; 
 while Mr. Gilbert missed. The challenger, or his second, insisted 
 on the fight being continued, more especially, perhaps, because 
 the former had been recently in the habit of ridiculing bloodless 
 duels. His antagonist now considered that it was time for him 
 to protect himself; and, at the next shot, sent his ball through 
 Mr. Gilbert's body. The wounded man never spoke again, and 
 in a few minutes expired. This termination of the duel excited 
 great regret in San Francisco, where Mr. Gilbert had been much 
 esteemed. A numerous company of the citizens assembled to 
 pay the last respects to his remains, public institutions passed 
 resolutions to the honor of the deceased, the shipping hung 
 their flags at half mast, many public buildings and private houses 
 were decorated with mourning draperies, and the newspapers ap- 
 peared with black lines down their columns. 
 
 The custom of fighting duels was at the period of which we 
 write, as it at present is, deplorably common among the higher 
 class of people of San Francisco. These encounters are generally 
 conducted in a manner which must appear somewhat strange to 
 the natives of other civilized countries. There is little delicate 
 privacy observed on the occasion. On the contrary, the parties, 
 or their immediate friends, invite all their acquaintances, who 
 invite others to go and witness the proposed engagement. It is 
 sometimes announced the day before in the newspapers — time, 
 place, parties, weapons, and every particular of the ceremony being 
 faithfully given. That no price is mentioned for the sight, seems 
 the only thing that distinguishes the entertainment from a bull 
 or bear fight. If two notable characters be announced to perform 
 a duel, say at the mission, half the city flocks to the place, and, 
 of course, the spectators are much disappointed should nobody be 
 slain. If the bloody entertainment be advertised to " come off," 
 say at Benicia or somewhere in Contra Costa, the steamers of the 
 eventful morning are densely packed with those who prefer the 
 excitement of a gladiatorial show to the dull pursuit of business, or 
 
CUSTOM OF DUELLING. 
 
 399 
 
 loafing about the streets. The favorite weapons are navy revol- 
 vers. The antagonists stand back to back, walk five paces, turn 
 suddenly round, and fire away at their leisure, till one or both are 
 wounded or slain, or the barrels are all discharged. Sometimes 
 rifles are preferred. With these deadly instruments many men 
 can lodge the ball within a hair's breadth of a given mark at forty 
 paces off, which is the usual distance between the parties in a duel 
 of this description. 
 
 We intended to have made Mr. Gilbert's death a text, not 
 only for enlarging upon the usual savage and public nature of 
 the numerous duels which take place here, but also for some 
 remarks upon the general carelessness of life among the people, 
 and the frequency of sudden personal quarrels, when revolvers, 
 bowie-knives and " slung shots " are unhesitatingly made use of. 
 But we have at so many other places in this work had occasion 
 to allude to these every-day characteristics of the inhabitants, 
 that little more need be said here on the subject. In the earlier 
 years, — that is, in 1849 and 1850, — fatal affrays were of very fre- 
 quent occurrence in the streets, and in every place of public 
 amusement. In the gambling saloons, pistols, loaded with ball, 
 would every night be discharged by some hot-headed, revengeful, 
 or drunken fellows. The crowd around were always liable to be 
 wounded, if not killed, but notwithstanding, play at every table 
 went briskly on, as if no danger of the kind existed. A momen- 
 tary confusion and surprise might take place if anybody happened 
 to be murdered in the room ; but soon the excitement died away. 
 Similar events often occurred at the bar, or on the steps of a 
 hotel, in a low dance or drinking-house, or in the open street, and 
 nobody was much surprised, though some of the parties were 
 severely wounded or killed outright. It was their " destiny," or 
 their " luck." Since the years last mentioned, quarrels of this 
 description have become less common, though they are still nume- 
 rous. There is a sad recklessness of conduct and carelessness of 
 life among the people of California ; and nearly all the inhabi- 
 tants of San Francisco, whatever be their native country, or their 
 original pacific disposition, share in the same hasty, wild charac- 
 ter and feeling. The circumstances of the time, the place and 
 people, soon create the necessity in the latest immigrant of think- 
 
400 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ing and acting like the older residents on this subject. It has 
 always been a practice with a large proportion of the citizens, to 
 carry loaded fire-arms or other deadly weapons concealed about 
 their persons, this being, as it were, a part of their ordinary dress ; 
 while occasionally the rest of the inhabitants are compelled also 
 to arm themselves like their neighbors. Of course, these arms 
 are intended for defence against attacks by robbers, as well as to 
 be used, when necessary, against those who would merely assault 
 the person without meaning to steal. Such weapons are not 
 generally produced, except in cases of extremity, or the place 
 would soon be made desolate ; while sometimes the fear of pro- 
 voking their use, may keep the rowdy and the insolent rascal 
 quiet. Yet the unhappy possession of these fatal instruments 
 often gives rise, on occasions of sudden passion, to many lamenta- 
 ble consequences. 
 
 August 10th. — Funeral solemnities, on a great scale, took 
 j)lace this day, in commemoration of the death of Henry Clay. 
 On this occasion political parties of all principles, the different 
 associated bodies, native Americans and foreigners of every nation 
 — in short, the whole inhabitants united to pay homage and re- 
 spect to the memory of the celebrated statesman. The proces- 
 sion was the largest assemblage of respectable people ever seen 
 in the city, and was distinguished as much for the evident heart- 
 felt sorrow in the mourners, as for the pomp and melancholy 
 splendor of the slow-moving train, which extended about a mile 
 in length. The Merchants' Exchange, the Custom House, El 
 Dorado, Bella Union, City Hall, Marshal's Office, and in fact 
 all the public buildings and many private houses were clothed in 
 black draperies, as if the very stones were to bewail the loss of a 
 great man. The whole of Montgomery street was hung in black, 
 the sombre-looking folds of the cloth being relieved at places by 
 wreaths and ornaments of white. Portions of every other main 
 street were decorated in the same elaborate and perhaps over- 
 fanciful manner. The various engine houses were likewise suit- 
 ably arrayed. While the insensate walls thus wore the aspect of 
 universal gloom, the people themselves were dressed according to 
 the solemnity and grandeur of the occasion — the natives of every 
 land appearing in the recognized national costume that expressed 
 
HENRY CLAY FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 401 
 
 the deepest grief and mourning in the wearer. The tolling of 
 great bells, the measured boom of the bass drum and the swelling 
 wail of wind instruments turned the hearts of the people heavy 
 and sorrowful. A hundred low- hung flags drooped over the city, 
 and numerous bands of music played dead marches. If mechan- 
 ical means could inspire or strengthen genuine sorrow, it was so 
 on this occasion. The procession moved through the principal 
 streets till it reached the plaza. There, the orator of the day, 
 Judge Hoffman, delivered an appropriate and eloquent address. 
 The dead no longer heard his praises chanted ; but the memory 
 of his deeds, his fiery eloquence, and the numberless benefits con- 
 ferred on his country and on the world, by the famous orator and 
 statesman, will long gratefully fill the minds of American citizens. 
 
 The occasion was worthy of a grand display ; and it was 
 admitted by everybody, that the procession, the ceremonies and 
 general mourning, were of the most novel, imposing, and splendi4 
 description that had ever been witnessed in San Francisco, 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 1852. 
 
 Australian gold mines.— Restlessness of miners. — Many who emigrated to Australia retnrn to Cali- 
 fornia.— Superior advantages of the latter place. — Second city directory published. — California 
 Telegraph Company. — General eleotion. — Fire in Sacramento city.— Another fire in San Francis- 
 co.— Intelligence received of the death of Daniel Webster.— Falling of the waters of Lake La 
 Mercede. — Another city directory.— Firemen's election. — Legal execution of Jos6 Forni.— De- 
 structive storm. 
 
 September. — For some time back a large number of vessels had 
 left San Francisco with adventurers to the Australian gold mines, 
 while now other vessels were bringing many of the same parties 
 back again. A short notice on this subject may not be out of 
 place. 
 
 Gold is perhaps the most extensively diffused metal in the 
 •world, although it -is commonly found in very small particles. 
 Every land is historically known to have had its auriferous dis- 
 trict. California, however, stood alone in this respect, so far as 
 it yielded large quantities of the precious metal, procured with 
 less labor than any other country. Its gold possessions had already 
 drawn upon it a vast population, who came hither hastily to 
 collect the sparkling treasure, and then leave. The miners gen- 
 erally never contemplated a permanent residence in the country. 
 When they had raised their "pile," they hurried home — to the 
 wives and families or the friends they had left in the Atlantic 
 States or in Europe. So long as they remained in California, they 
 were not closely attached to any one gold-bearing district, however 
 rich it might be. More often, they were incessantly moving 
 about and prospecting, hoping and looking for new and richer 
 claims. When a particularly valuable district happened to be 
 discovered, then a " rush " to it took place from all the neighbor- 
 ing regions, and even from places hundreds of miles distant. 
 
AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES. 
 
 403 
 
 This restlessness has always been a peculiar feature in the char- 
 acter of the miner, who is naturally speculative. He works hard 
 — harder than an Irish laborer or an English " navvie," for per- 
 haps one month — then he grows weary and discontented with his 
 trifling gains, and wanders about for as long a period prospecting, 
 poking into every odd crevice in likely rocks, sinking pits here 
 and there, and trying the sandy bed of every stream he may see 
 in his rambles, wistfully hoping, though seldom finding, some 
 rich secret deposit that will repay his previous fruitless labor. 
 When his means of living without immediately profitable and 
 earnest work are nearly exhausted, he gets tired of this new- 
 occupation, and a supposed good claim may perhaps also be 
 found. Then the digger sets vigorously to work once more, for 
 another month or two, until new ennui and restlessness force 
 him to go on the tramp again, and look about for the fanciful 
 great gains that can alone satisfy his hopes. He chases the rain- 
 bow to find its base. The gold miner, like man in the abstract, 
 " never is, but always to be blest." His business is closely allied 
 to gambling, with its rare chances of suddenly making a great 
 fortune, or of losing time and labor, which make his capital. 
 
 While the miner grew thus restless, and was attracted to new 
 placers upon the least rumor of their fancied superiority, and when 
 idle tales arose and were circulated by the weak, indolent or un- 
 lucky, that all the best fields had already been gleaned of their 
 rich harvest, he was naturally prepared to go farther, and to seek 
 in other lands the wealth which he had happened somehow to 
 miss in California. It mattered little in what place or country 
 he made his " pile," so that it was found. The discovery of gold 
 in Australia, nearly a year and a half ago, had produced in that 
 country, and subsequently over a great part of the world, a repe- 
 tition of the troublous scenes which had occurred immediately 
 after the discovery of gold in California. When, therefore, in- 
 telligence of the great quantities of the precious metal which 
 were being found in Australia reached San Francisco, and subse- 
 quently the mining regions of California, great excitement was 
 produced over all the country. Successive reports confirmed the 
 first astonishing yields. Rich as the Californian placers had been 
 esteemed, the Australian diggings appeared much to exceed them 
 
404 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in that respect. A good story by travelling loses nothing of the 
 marvellous. The first wonderful tidings of the Sydney diggings 
 — including the notable hundred-weight of pure gold, were almost 
 forgotten, when later intelligence came of the newer gold fields 
 of Victoria — of the famous Mount Alexander region, and its dis- 
 tricts ; Forest Creek. Friar's Creek and the rest, and also of the 
 
 Scene in the gold mines. 
 
 renowned Ballarat and Bendi£0. Lanjre numbers of the mkn*a- 
 tory and discontented miners in California now hurried to San 
 Francisco, to depart for the newer and perhaps true Dorado, just 
 discovered in Australia. Many adventurers from the city joined 
 these emigrants, and set sail for Sidney and Melbourne. At the 
 same time, great numbers of Australians, who had come to Cali- 
 fornia after 1848, now took the opportunity of returning to their 
 original homes. Some of these had wrought patiently at thfe 
 mines, or lived as good citizens in various parts of the country, 
 while others had long been the disgrace and terror of the comnm- 
 
AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES. 
 
 405 
 
 nity. The " Vigilance Committee " of San Francisco, and similar 
 associated bodies that had been formed in other towns of Califor- 
 nia, had already driven the worst of the last class of Australians 
 away. The news of the gold discoveries in their own country, 
 speedily carried off the rest. The migration from California at 
 this period was therefore not an unmingled evil, although its own 
 mines wanted every hand that could dig a hole or feed a long-torn. 
 
 After a time, most of the Californians in Australia grew sick 
 of their new country. They had perhaps found the auriferous 
 earth in general rather richer than what it was in California ; 
 but not so rich as tl jir brilliant hopes had pictured it. At the 
 same time, since the gold happened in general to be buried much 
 deeper in the ground, the labor of extracting it was greater, while 
 the water for washing purposes was often lamentably deficient. 
 Then there was the moral contamination of working beside the 
 convicts of Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales, the un- 
 healthiness of the mining country, the scarcity of proper water to 
 drink, the privations from want of food and severity of the 
 weather, and excessively severe labor. The Califovnians were 
 farther disgusted by the imposition; of a tax of seven and a half 
 dollars per month, laid by the government upon all miners for 
 license to work, as well as by the occasional outbreaks of national 
 jealousy, and disputes between themselves and British subjects. 
 On the whole, therefore, the Americans were glad to leave the 
 country to its first inhabitants and their coming brethren from 
 England ; and so soon as the former contrived to gather the pe- 
 cuniary means, and had the opportunity, they hastened back to 
 their old quarters in California, now doubly endeared to them by 
 their luckless absence. The reports brought by these returned 
 emigrants before long satisfied the wavering and adventurous, 
 that no special benefit was to be obtained by any American in 
 leaving the rich mines of his own country for those, however pro- 
 mising they might appear, of another. On the contrary, all he 
 could look for were many additional hardships, physical and 
 moral, and severe labor ill-requited. Of late, accordingly, com- 
 paratively few adventurers have sailed from San Francisco for the 
 Australian gold fields. This is well for California. It may just 
 also, while on this subject, be said in passing, that other labor in 
 
406 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Australia — from that of the rudest workman to that of the high- 
 est skilled mechanic — is only paid about one-half the rates which 
 it commands, has always received, and probably for many years 
 to come, will continue to receive in California. Let interested 
 people say what they will, there is no land so well fitted for the 
 comfortable residence of the poor and industrious man as Califor- 
 nia. Soil, climate, wages, and political, religious and domestic 
 institutions here make his position more ennobling and agreeable 
 than he can expect or possibly find in any other country. 
 
 This month the second (wrongfully said in the preface to be 
 the first,) San Francisco " City Directory " was published by A. 
 W. Morgan & Co. It was a well printed, thin octavo, of one 
 hundred and twenty-five pages. The names were not more in 
 number than what C. P. Kimball's Directory of 1850 contained. 
 These, however, in Morgan's book were stated both alphabetically 
 and classified into trades and professions. Some useful general 
 information was also given in an appendix. 
 
 October 22d. — A city ordinance was passed and approved 
 of, granting a right of way to the " California Telegraph Compa- 
 ny." Some time elapsed before the company could erect posts 
 and extend the wires through the State ; and it was only late in 
 the following year that they got into working order. By means 
 of this telegraph, San Francisco was brought into instant com- 
 munication with San Jose, Stockton, Sacramento, Marysville, 
 and other towns in the interior. 
 
 November 2d. — Election of State, county and city officials, 
 as well as others for the United States. The county and city re- 
 turns were as follows : — 
 
 Senate. — John N. Baird, John S. Hager. 
 Assembly. — Samuel Flower, John Sime, Frederick A. Snyder, George H. 
 Blake, James M. Taylor, Isaac N. Cordoza, Elcan Ilej denfeldt. 
 County Surveyor. — W. P. Humphreys. 
 Public Administrator. — David T. Bagley. 
 District Judge. — Delos Lake. 
 
 Mayor. — C. J. Brenham. 
 City Marsnal. — R. G. Crozier. Recorder. — George W. Baker. 
 
 Comptroller. — R. Matheson. Street Commissioner. — Wm. Divicr. 
 
 Tax Collector. — Lewis Teal. Treasurer. — Hamilton Bowie. 
 
 Harbor Master. — W. T. Thompson. City Attorney. — John K. Hackett. 
 City Assessors. — M. D. Eyre, J. L. Anderson, J. O'Callahan. 
 
FIRES IN SACRAMENTO AND SAN FRANCISCO. 407 
 
 Aldermen. 
 
 J. P. Flint, W. A. Dana, T. H. Selby, Geo. K. Gluyas, 
 J. P. Haven, C. L. Case, A. J. Bowie, E. J. Hoove. 
 
 Assistant Aldermen. 
 
 H. N. Squier, H. R. Haste, James De Long, J. B. Piper, 
 W. H. Bovee, G. W. Bryant, Edward Byrne, Thomas Hayes. 
 
 November 2d and 3d. — Great fire at the city of Sacramento, 
 by which nearly two thousand buildings were destroyed. The 
 conflagration extended over fifty-five blocks, and deprived seven 
 thousand people of their usual homes. The value of the build- 
 ings and goods destroyed was differently estimated at from five 
 to ten millions of dollars. Much distress was suffered by the in- 
 habitants on this lamentable occasion. The people of San Fran- 
 cisco, bearing in mind their own great fires, and the loss and 
 misery these had caused, held public meetings, at this time, to 
 express sympathy and to devise measures for relieving their suf- 
 fering brethren. A sum of sixteen thousand dollars was imme- 
 diately collected and remitted to Sacramento for the general 
 relief of those who had been burned out. Other subscriptions 
 swelled the amount to thirty thousand dollars. Many medical 
 gentlemen offered their gratuitous professional services, while the 
 steamers bore supplies thither free of freight. Signora Biscacci- 
 anti, who had recently been performing in San Francisco, gene- 
 rously offered to give a concert for the benefit of the sufferers. 
 This was largely attended, and realized the sum of seven hundred 
 dollars, which was paid into the relief fund. Other public per- 
 formers gave benefits for the sufferers at Sacramento. 
 
 November 9th. — While the people of San Francisco were 
 thus nobly sympathizing with the losses of others, fire again 
 broke out among themselves. The flames were first noticed 
 about half-past eight o'clock on the evening of this day, in a 
 wooden building at the corner of Merchant and Kearny streets. 
 The fire companies speedily turned out, and succeeded after 
 working vigorously, though under difficult circumstances, for 
 about an hour and a half, in subduing the conflagration ; al- 
 though not before thirty-two buildings, all of which, excepting 
 one or two, were of wood, had been consumed in Merchant and 
 
408 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Clay streets. Among these was the Union Hotel. The loss was 
 estimated at about $100,000. The new supposed fire-proof walls 
 were severely tested on this occasion. The substantial masses of 
 the City Hall on one side, the California Exchange on another, 
 and on the east the brick building that faced Montgomery street, 
 effectually prevented the flames from spreading beyond them. 
 
 This month was a disastrous one to many places in the State. 
 Not only had Sacramento been nearly altogether destroyed, while 
 San Francisco had sustained much loss, but Marysville, San Die- 
 go, and other towns and agricultural districts had been severely 
 scourged by fire. It was estimated that the total losses which 
 had fallen on the State from fire alone during the previous three 
 years amounted to sixty-six millions of dollars. 
 
 November 21st. — Intelligence received of the death of 
 Daniel Webster. The flags of the shipping, and others on shore, 
 were hung at half 'mast, minute guns were fired during the day, 
 and the city generally presented the appearance of sincere mourn- 
 ing for the loss of a " leader in Israel." The common council 
 passed resolutions of honor to the deceased statesman ; and it 
 was afterwards proposed by the boards of aldermen that funeral 
 solemnities on a great scale should be performed by the city, as 
 had recently been done in the case of the death of Henry Clay. 
 This proposal, however, through motives of economy, and partly 
 perhaps on account of the rainy season having commenced, was 
 ultimately negatived. It mattered naught to the illustrious 
 dead. His fame here will live for ever, as on the Atlantic shore. 
 
 November 23d. — The waters of Lake La Mercede, in the 
 vicinity of the city, and which cover several hundred acres, sank 
 about thirty feet. Shortly before midnight of this day, a shock 
 like that of an earthquake was felt by parties residing near the 
 place ; and the following morning it was discovered that a great 
 channel between the lake and the sea had been opened, through 
 a broad and high sand bank, during the night, by which the 
 waters had found a way and been discharged. It was supposed 
 by some, either that the bed of the lake had been suddenly up- 
 lifted, by volcanic agency, whereby the raised waters scooped 
 through the yielding bank the channel just mentioned, and that 
 afterwards the bed of the lake had fallen to its former level, or 
 
EXECUTION OF JOSE FORNI. 
 
 409 
 
 else that a great sinking of the hank itself had taken place (sup- 
 posed to have been produced by subterranean causes), owing to 
 which depression, the water had been drawn off to the extent 
 mentioned. The most probable conjecture is, that the excessive 
 rains of the season had simply forced open a passage through the 
 broad and loose sand-bank from the lake to the ocean. Formerly 
 the lake had no visible outlet whatever ; and its waters had in- 
 sensibly been kept about the same level by means of evaporation, 
 or by concealed underground communications with the sea. 
 
 December. — "City Directories" seem to be lucrative proper- 
 ties. We have already noticed that of A. W. Morgan & Co., 
 which appeared in September of this year. Another was pub- 
 lished this month by James A. Parker. This was a much supe- 
 rior publication to either Kimball's or Morgan's. It was an oc- 
 tavo volume of one hundred and forty-six pages, and was well 
 printed. The names were about nine thousand in number, being 
 considerably more than double those contained in either of its 
 forerunners. There was prefixed a creditable sketch of the rise 
 and progress of the city, and the volume contained an appendix 
 of miscellaneous useful information. Such publications in every 
 place become curious and interesting after the lapse of a few 
 years. Especially this will be the case in a rapidly increasing 
 community like San Francisco. To the patient student of the 
 social and personal, as well as the material history of our city, 
 and to the future antiquarian, these little works will be inesti- 
 mable. 
 
 December 6th. — The election for chief and assistant engi- 
 neers to the firemen is yearly becoming of more importance. 
 That spirited body of men, who, without fee or reward, save the 
 gratitude of the people, are ever ready to peril life and limb to 
 save the persons and properties of the citizens, had become a 
 numerous and influential association. Their annual election of 
 officers took place this day, when George H. Hossefros was chosen 
 chief engineer, and Charles P. Duane, A. R. Simons, and Edward 
 A. Ebbets, assistant engineers. 
 
 December 10th. — Jose Forni — or Forner, as he described 
 himself in his first confession — a Spaniard, was hanged upon 
 Prussian Hill, for the murder of Jose Rodriguez, a Mexican, in 
 
410 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Happy Valley. This was the only legal execution that had taken 
 place in San Francisco, where so many crimes deserving the pun- 
 ishment of death had been committed. The prisoner confessed 
 having killed the deceased, but to the last maintained that the 
 act was done only in self-defence. This, however, was not esta- 
 blished by evidence. The gallows had been originally erected 
 upon the summit of the hill ; but just before the execution, it 
 was removed about one hundred yards towards the west, so that 
 it was not visible from the principal portions of the city. A very 
 large crowd, — variously estimated at from six to ten thousand 
 people, — gathered round the place of execution, at least one- 
 fourth of whom seemed to be youths, women and children. 
 
 December 17th. — A furious gale from the S. S. E., accom- 
 panied by excessive rains. Considerable damage was sustained 
 by some of the more slimly constructed houses, while the shipping 
 suffered severely. The losses of both were estimated at $200,000. 
 Early in the previous month, a severe "Norther" had threatened 
 much damage to the shipping, and carried away the outer por- 
 tion of one of the smaller wharves. The want of docks, or of 
 breakwaters, upon the north and south sides of the harbor, is felt 
 more and more as the old sheltered cove gets gradually covered 
 with streets and houses by the extension of the water front of the 
 town. 
 
 The storm, first above noticed, seriously affected the rivers of 
 the interior, which rose to an unusual height, and inundated 
 most of the towns on their banks. The levee at Sacramento 
 was burst through by the pressure of the flood, and nearly the 
 whole of that unfortunate city, which so recently had been hah 
 destroyed by fire, was submerged to a depth of from five to ten 
 feet. Marysville and Stockton were equally flooded. Many sub- 
 stantially built houses were undermined at all these places by 
 the waters, and fell ; whereby much valuable property was de- 
 stroyed. All communication was cut off from the mining quar- 
 ters, and great distress was suffered there by the enormous prices 
 of provisions, particularly of flour, and the difficulty, or impossi- 
 bility of keeping open a connection with the towns for supplies. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 1852. 
 
 Increase of population.— Mixed character of the immigrants.— Chinese, Peruvians, Chilenos, and other 
 foreigners, notoriously vicious. — Sufferings of the overland immigrants.— Greater attention paid 
 to agricultural pursuits.— City improvements still progressing.— Great fires no longer possible.— 
 Fire insurance agencies established.— Manufactories. — New gold discoveries. — Emigration to 
 Australia.— Merchandise and provisions commanding high prices.— The clipper ships.— Filthy 
 condition of the streets.— Great abundance of rats.— The city extension, bay, and shipping.— The 
 strong winds preventive of disease.— Peculations of officials.— San Francisco only suitable for 
 the industrious. — The city growing in importance. — Change of inhabitants. — Fascinations of San 
 Francisco life. — Reflections concerning the moral condition of the city. 
 
 The population of both the State and city was largely increased 
 in 1852. The departures by sea from San Francisco were only 
 23,196, while there were 66,988 arrivals. This immigration was 
 about double the amount that had taken place in 1851. The 
 immigrants from the Atlantic States generally crossed the Isth- 
 mus, while the greater number of European foreigners came 
 round Cape Horn. The Germans, a most valuable and indus- 
 trious class of men, and the French, perhaps by nature not 
 quite so steady and hard-working a race, though still a useful 
 body of citizens, were year by year arriving in large numbers, 
 and were readily remarked among the motley population. The 
 most untutored eye could distinguish and contrast the natural 
 phlegm and common-sense philosophy of the fat Teuton, and the 
 "lean and hungry look" and restless gestures of the Celt. Both 
 races were generally "bearded like the pard," though in this 
 respect they were only like the commonalty of San Francisco, 
 who pride themselves much upon hair. The people named cher- 
 ished many of their old nationalities, and generally frequented 
 their own particular boarding and eating houses and places of 
 recreation. The English, Scotch and Irish immigrants, were 
 also numerous, but their characteristics, although something dif- 
 
412 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ferent, were less distinguishable from those of native Americans 
 than were the manners and customs of other foreigners. Besides 
 these, there were always arriving numerous specimens of most 
 other European nations, — Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Swiss, 
 Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Russians, Prussians, Dutch, Swedes. 
 Danes, Turks, too — all visited California. Many of them went 
 to the mines, although a considerable proportion never left San 
 Francisco. The country and city were wide enough to hold 
 them all, and rich enough to give them all a moderate independ- 
 ence in the course of a few years. A considerable number of 
 German and French women were constantly arriving, as also 
 many more of the sex from the Atlantic States. The female 
 part of the population, though still numerically very far below 
 the male portion, was increasing, perhaps faster in proportion to 
 their previous numbers. 
 
 Upwards of twenty thousand Chinese are included in the 
 general number of arrivals above given. Such people were be- 
 coming very numerous in San Francisco, from whence the recent 
 immigrants from their country scattered themselves over the 
 various mining regions of California. At one period of 1852 
 there were supposed to be about 27,000 Chinese in the State. 
 A considerable number of people of " color" (par excellence) also 
 arrived. These were probably afraid to proceed to the mines to 
 labor beside the domineering white races, and therefore they re- 
 mained to drudge, and to make much money and spend it in San 
 Francisco, like almost every body else. Mexicans from Sonora 
 and other provinces of Mexico, and many Chilians, and a few 
 Peruvians from South America, were likewise continually com- 
 ing and going between San Francisco and the ports of their 
 own countries. The Chinese immigrants had their mandarins, 
 their merchants, rich, educated and respectable men, in San 
 Francisco ; but all the Mexicans and Chilians, like the people 
 of negro descent, were only of the commonest description. The 
 women of all these various races were nearly all of the vilest 
 character, and openly practised the most shameful commerce. 
 The lewdness of fallen white females is shocking enough to wit- 
 ness, but it is far exceeded by the disgusting practices of these 
 tawny visaged creatures. 
 
NUMBERS AND CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION. 413 
 
 The land immigration into the State was also exceedingly 
 great this year, numbering probably about thirty thousand per- 
 sons of all ages and both sexes. Among these was a large pre- 
 dominance of youths just entering upon the early prime of man- 
 hood. Much suffering was experienced by those who crossed the 
 great desert, and supplies of provisions and other help were for- 
 warded to them by the State Government of California. The 
 steadily increasing production of gold had held out strong hopes 
 to the adventurous of the Eastern States, and of many other 
 portions of the world, that, after all, as great chances existed of 
 still making a moderate, if not a large fortune, in a short period 
 at the mines, as in the memorable years of 1848, '49 and '50. 
 
 Owing to the high prices of all kinds of provisions towards 
 the fall of 1852, many of the older residents in the country, and 
 a few of the later immigrants, began to turn their attention to 
 agricultural pursuits, which promised to yield even larger profits, 
 while they offered a pleasanter, healthier and surer occupation 
 than gold-digging. The choicer districts of the country were 
 thus getting gradually settled by " squatters" and pre-emptors, 
 and some legal purchasers of land ; and a beginning was made 
 towards rendering California independent of foreign countries for 
 supplies of food. A fair proportion of the recent immigrants re- 
 mained in San Francisco, while many who had been laboring in 
 the mines for the previous year or two with indifferent success, 
 or who had become wearied of that kind of life, now visited the 
 city with the view of permanently residing and entering upon 
 some kind of business there. From the census taken this year, 
 by authority of the Legislature, the total population of the State 
 appeared to be 264,435, while that of the County and City of 
 San Francisco was 36,151. These numbers were generally al- 
 lowed to be too small, arising from perhaps unavoidable errors in 
 taking the census. More particularly, the popidation of San 
 Francisco was supposed to be considerably underrated, the in- 
 habitants of some districts having been imperfectly enumerated. 
 The census was taken towards the close of 1852, and by the end 
 of December of that year, we think the true population of the 
 city alone may be reasonably estimated at 42,000 persons. 
 
 The material improvements begun in 1851 were briskly con- 
 
414 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 tinued dming the following year. California, Sansome, and 
 Battery streets were lined by a great many additional brick and 
 stone buildings. Front and Davis streets were formed, and closely 
 built upon with houses of frame. The various wharves continued 
 to stretch eastward, as if it were intended that they should soon 
 connect Yerba Buena Island with the mainland. The sand-hills 
 behind supplied ample material for filling up the bay, and giving 
 solid foundations for the increasing number of substantial stores. 
 Every where in the business portion of the city new and hand- 
 some fire-proof edifices were rising. The • lower story of these 
 was often constructed of Chinese granite, and the upper ones of 
 brick. The piling across the bay and the filling in were con- 
 stantly going on. No sooner was a water lot piled and capped 
 than up sprang a frame building upon it ; no sooner was the 
 hollow beneath filled than the house of wood was destroyed, and 
 replaced by some elegant brick or granite structure. 
 
 At another part of the city, Stockton street was being orna- 
 mented with many handsome brick tenements, which were in- 
 tended for the private residences of some of the wealthier citi- 
 zens ; while over all the western and northern limits additional 
 and much finer frame buildings, and occasionally brick ones, 
 were being erected. Telegraph Hill continued to be seriously 
 encroached upon by the excavating and blasting operations going 
 on at Clark's Point. Even more rapid progress was making to- 
 wards the extreme south. Happy Valley now contained a large 
 number of commodious and handsome habitations, chiefly of 
 frame. Over all the city the process of grading and planking 
 new streets was going on, so that communication between the 
 principal districts was becoming easy. In the centre, the spirit 
 of improvement was busily at work. The plaza indeed remained 
 a disgrace to the authorities ; but Montgomery street, and Com- 
 mercial, Clay, Merchant, Washington and other cross streets, which 
 touched it, were being rapidly covered with substantial and beauti- 
 ful fire-proof buildings. At the north-west corner of Montgomeiy 
 and California streets a large and imposing edifice of granite was 
 erected. This was occupied by Adams & Co., express agents, 
 and Page, Bacon & Co., bankers, and was the first of the superior 
 class of private edifices which are now so numerous in many parts 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 415 
 
 of the city, and particularly on Montgomery street. The stone 
 for this huilding was prepared in China and put up in San Fran- 
 cisco by Chinese workmen. It was erected, and is owned 
 by Mr. John Parrott. More to the south, great changes were 
 taking place for the better. The faithful "paddy" or steam- 
 excavator never tired. Market street was cut through from 
 Battery to Kearny street ; while the sand-hills at the adjoining 
 
 Parrott's Granite Block. 
 
 ends of First and Second streets were rapidly disappearing. 
 Bush street, that recently had been only a huge mound of sand, 
 was levelled. California, Sacramento and other streets leading 
 to the west, were cutting through or climbing over the obstruct- 
 ing eminences. Higher grades were being adopted for the streets 
 in most of the lower quarters of the city, to which the houses 
 were being gradually conformed. 
 
 On the whole, a vast improvement had taken place in the 
 aspect of the town, and in the elegance and substantial comfort 
 of the newer buildings. No longer could conflagrations, like the 
 
416 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 great fires of '50 and '51, destroy the centre and most valuable 
 parts of the city. The fire department was organized on the 
 most efficient scale, and included among its members many of 
 the most respectable inhabitants. The different companies were 
 supplied with an excellent stock of engines and other apparatus. 
 The men were enthusiastic, bold fellows, capable of enduring the 
 severest fatigues, and ever ready to hazard life and limb upon the 
 least alarm of fire, when their services could be made useful. An 
 unlimited supply of water could not be depended upon ; but 
 generally there was enough in the many artificial reservoirs 
 formed at the intersection of the chief streets, to extinguish any 
 ordinary conflagration. Confidence was now felt in the stability 
 of the city and its comparative immunity from fire. Two fire 
 insurance agencies, one for a New York and the other for a 
 London company, were established, so that the cautious could in- 
 sure their properties at reasonable rates. This was a striking 
 sign of the improved times. Lenders upon stored goods and on 
 real estate could now secure their advances against all hazard 
 from fire ; while the speculative owners of property were encour- 
 aged to undertake permanent and most expensive improvements. 
 
 In the vicinity of the city numerous brick fields had long been 
 established. The new style of fire-proof buildings occasioned a 
 constant demand for this material. California-made bricks are 
 certainly much inferior to well-burned English or United States 
 bricks, yet they are considerably cheaper, and when painted or 
 in some way protected from the weather serve their purpose very 
 well. Besides these extensive manufactories of brick, there were 
 other manufactories and workshops which were being constantly 
 formed. In the district of Happy Valley particularly, — which had 
 been early selected for the site of such estabhshments, — there 
 existed numerous flour mills and timber saw-mills, iron-foundries, 
 marine and land steam-engine works, and steamer and other 
 boat-building yards. In addition to these larger and more im- 
 posing establishments, there were many workshops, in various 
 parts of the city, of upholsterers, saddle and harness makers, boot 
 and shoe makers, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, jewellers and 
 other craftsmen. All manufactured articles were no longer im- 
 ported direct from the distant maker ; but some of the more 
 
NEW GOLD DISCOVERIES. 
 
 417 
 
 necessary were beginning to be made on the spot from the raw 
 material. The letter-press printers, as might have been antici- 
 pated from the character of the American people, were a numer- 
 ous body ; and on the many newspapers and in extensive job 
 work found ample employment at lucrative rates. 
 
 The shops were daily assuming a more splendid appearance, 
 while on their well loaded shelves and the neatly laid out window 
 fronts and counters were displayed a brilliant assortment of the 
 particular goods they dealt in. Stylishly dressed, and often lovely 
 women were constantly seen, in fine weather, promenading the 
 principal streets, and idling their time (which they knew not 
 how otherwise to "kill,") and spending somebody's money in 
 foolish shopping, just as is the custom with the most virtuous 
 dames in the great cities on both sides of the Atlantic. Omni- 
 buses and superb public carriages plied through the streets, and 
 beautiful private equipages glittered and glided smoothly along. 
 While the ladies dressed extravagantly, perhaps to please the 
 other sex, perhaps only to please themselves or annoy some 
 meaner souled or less rich sister, the gentlemen were scarcely be- 
 hind them in this respect. The days of the blouse, the colored 
 shirt and the " shocking bad hat " had fled, never, like time, to 
 return. 
 
 The incessant immigration gave liveliness to the streets, and 
 caused much profitable business to be done. At the same time 
 there was a vast emigration. Not only were the usual number 
 of departures to the Eastern States taking place ; but, as we 
 have seen, the discovery of gold in Australia was attracting 
 many Californians to that country. The whole world seemed to 
 be restless and morbidly excited by the cry of gold. "Where it 
 was all to end who could tell ? Originally the Americas had 
 been peopled by the same intense desire for the precious metals. 
 Now, the portions of the New World that had been overlooked, 
 and Australia, — a continent in itself, — were being filled by gold 
 hunters, who would assuredly in the course of time play an im- 
 portant part in the history of mankind. San Francisco itself 
 possessed a share of the precious metal. Gold was found in 
 pieces of quartz quarried from Telegraph Hill, in earth excavated 
 in Broadway, in the sand taken from a great depth in sinking 
 27 
 
418 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 wells in Stockton street, and at various other parts of the city, in 
 1850. Indeed, we have seen hundreds of persons occupied in gath- 
 ering it in small particles from the surface of the plaza itself, 
 after a long continued rain. But all these deposits in the centre 
 of the city, there is reason to "believe, were scattered through the 
 careless or mischievous behavior of parties who were either unable 
 or too indifferent to take care of the precious metal brought by 
 themselves or others from the well known mining regions, and 
 some of whom doubtless felt repaid for the cost in the wonder- 
 ment they excited. 
 
 Over all California, however, gold was continually being dis- 
 covered in new places. It was the mineral wealth of the country 
 that had created San Francisco, and which was the source of its 
 continued prosperity. If this should suddenly fail, or the cry 
 increase of other and richer gold countries, easily accessible like 
 Australia, the city would undoubtedly receive a great shock. 
 Thousands were already moving away, and it was only the un- 
 usually great immigration of the year that prevented their loss 
 from being seriously felt by the city and the country at large. 
 In the end it was found that the Australia mines were not better 
 places for making a speedy fortune than were those of California, 
 while the former were less salubrious and agreeable to the 
 American personally. The emigration therefore to Australia 
 began sensibly to slacken towards the close of this year ; while 
 gradually many of those who had gone thither early began now 
 to return. 
 
 In our review of 1851, we had occasion to remark the general 
 fall in the prices of merchandise, and the serious losses sustained 
 by shippers of goods to the San Francisco market during all that 
 year. The " good time " that had been long looked for by mer- 
 chants came at last ; and during the close, and generally over 
 the greater part of this year, not only remunerating but extrava- 
 gantly high prices were obtained for most goods, particularly for 
 all kinds of provisions. Flour, that had been only eight dollars a 
 barrel in March, by November had risen to upwards of forty dol- 
 lars, with a firm market. Rice, that was usually worth only a 
 few cents a pound, advanced, in the course of the year, to forty- 
 five and fifty cents. The Chinese, who preferred rice to every 
 
HIGH PEICES OF GOODS AND PROVISIONS. 419 
 
 other kind of food, suffered severely from these high prices. 
 Butter ranged from fifty-five to seventy cents a pound, over the 
 early and greater part of the year. Other provisions and indeed 
 most kinds of merchandise rose in proportion. The usual reac- 
 tion, though long delayed, had taken place — the scarcity followed 
 the glut ; and the fortunate holders of goods realized large 
 profits, that compensated those who had continued in trade for 
 the losses of the previous seasons. Late in the year, when mar- 
 kets, in particular articles, were at the highest, it was known 
 that a large fleet of clipper ships was on the passage with sup- 
 plies, many of which vessels were overdue ; hut as the stock 
 actually on hand was very limited, and day by day was lessening 
 in amount, which might be totally exhausted before the expected 
 arrivals happened, consumers had to submit to necessity and pay 
 the rates demanded. Time was every thing in such a market as 
 San Francisco, where prices of merchandise usually fluctuated as 
 do " fancy stocks " on the 'Change of New York, London or 
 Paris. A week lost or gained in the arrival of a well selected 
 cargo might just be a fortune lost or gained to the shipper. The 
 clipper ships, as we have already remarked, were peculiarly the 
 consequence of such a trade and the natural creation of the 
 needs and commerce of our city. These clippers after being has- 
 tily unloaded, were dispatched to India or China, where they 
 either competed successfully with English ships for return car- 
 goes to the Atlantic, or were profitably employed in bringing 
 from the latter country many thousands of Chinese emigrants to 
 California. Year by year, the clipper character of ship was being 
 more adopted, until it became, commercially speaking, foolish 
 and dangerous to freight any other kind of vessel to San Fran- 
 cisco. 
 
 Cholera again visited the city in the fall of this year ; though 
 its ravages were slight. However much may be said for the 
 general healthiness of the place, little praise can be given for the 
 very dirty state in which the greater part was allowed to remain 
 — and nearly the same may just be said of its condition in 1854. 
 The streets were thickly covered with black rotten mud. These 
 were the proper dunghills of the town, and were made a general 
 depot for all kinds of rubbish and household sweepings, offals and 
 
420 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 filth. Sometimes the rains came and scattered the abominable 
 stuffs, carrying part of them into the bay ; at other times, the 
 heats gradually dried them up. Eats — huge, fat, lazy things, 
 prowled about at pleasure, and fed on the dainty garbage. The 
 pedestrian at night, stumbling along the uneven pavements, and 
 through streets that were only a series of quagmires, would occa- 
 
 A Street-scene on a rainy night. 
 
 sionally tread on the loathsome, bloated, squeaking creatures, and 
 start back in disgust and horror, muttering a curse or two at such 
 a villainously unclean town. These animals abounded in such 
 great numbers that entire sacks and barrels of flour and bread have 
 been destroyed by them on a single night in a storehouse. They 
 were of several varieties, each differing in color. Besides the 
 common grey rat, there were others white, blue and black. 
 These latter descriptions have materially decreased in numbers 
 of late ; the gray fellows, being the stronger, having, it is said, 
 either driven away or destroyed them. Sickening stenches per- 
 
PECULATIONS OF OFFICIALS. 
 
 421 
 
 vaded every quarter. Owing to the raising of the streets in the 
 lower part of the city when establishing the grades, many of the 
 building blocks became great hollow spaces, surrounded on the 
 four sides by high banks of earth. In these places also, which 
 had no drainage, every foul thing and unsightly rubbish were 
 carelessly thrown, and soon deep pools of stagnant water collect- 
 ed in the midst. Beneath the houses and streets which had been 
 formed over the bay, and which had been only partially filled up, 
 there was accumulating a vast mass of putrid substances, from 
 whence proceeded the most unwholesome and offensive smells. 
 In any other place as near the tropic these things would un- 
 doubtedly have generated a pestilence ; but here the cool winds 
 from the ocean which prevail during the summer season, and 
 which at times are so unpleasant to the shivering inhabitant, had 
 the beneficial effect of neutralizing many of the bad effects which 
 must otherwise have arisen from the want of cleanliness over all 
 the city. From the dead level preserved in that part of the city 
 which was built across the bay, it would seem impossible that a 
 thorough drainage can ever now be had in the lower and most 
 valuable district. This is one of the inconveniences which the 
 indefinite extension of the town eastward has produced. Perhaps 
 it would have been better, if instead of streets and houses, there 
 had been constructed substantial quays and wet docks sufficient 
 to contain all the shipping that had ever visited the harbor. 
 Ships then would have lain in safety from the " South-casters" 
 and the " North-easters," which now so terribly plague and 
 damage them when lying exposed at anchor in the tidal 
 channel. 
 
 Crime, during 1852, was perhaps not sensibly diminished ; 
 but in the increasing importance of other matters of public dis- 
 cussion, lower-class criminals were tolerated, or less pursued. 
 Legalized robberies, in the shape of " Peter Smith " purchases, 
 more occupied the attention of the citizens. It would be unjust 
 to individuals and to human nature, to challenge every public 
 officer in San Francisco with gross peculation and corruption in 
 office ; yet it was confessed on all sides that almost every citizen, 
 who had a chance of preying upon the corporation means, unhesi- 
 tatingly and shamefully 1 took advantage of his position. His 
 
422 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 brother harpies kept him in countenance. This gave rise to a 
 general opinion that the city never could possibly obtain a pure 
 and good government until the bone of contention among rival 
 candidates for office, — its property, to wit, — was all exhausted, 
 squandered, stolen or gifted away. When that perhaps happy 
 day came, — as its advent seemed close at hand, — the "fathers" 
 and salaried servants of the city might possibly work only for the 
 common good, and not chiefly for their own. Had matters been 
 prudently and patriotically managed, San Francisco might, at 
 this day, have been the richest city, of its size, in the world. As 
 the case stands, it is one of the poorest, as certainly its inhabi- 
 tants are perhaps the most heavily taxed of any community for 
 a feeble aud inefficient government. This is chiefly to be attri- 
 buted to the people themselves. Incapable, weak and corrupt 
 officials are blamable, but the people who choose them, and of 
 whom they are part, are perhaps much more in fault. Where 
 the mass think, and talk, and act, without any particular regard 
 to high moral principle, it can scarcely be expected that their 
 chosen representatives should differ materially from them. When 
 even a man of severe probity and high talent is elected to an 
 office of trust, he finds often insuperable difficulties in his way, 
 from the want of co-operation, and the carelessness or corruption 
 of his own constituents. The most righteous judge can do little 
 good on the bench when interested witnesses disguise the truth, 
 and juries will return verdicts in defiance of it. 
 
 However, in spite of local jobbery and mismanagement, enor- 
 mous municipal expenses, and iniquity every where, the city grew 
 in size, beauty and importance. Its admirable maritime position, 
 and chiefly the determined energy and perseverance of its people, 
 who believed in its glorious future, and found their own interest 
 in the work, were raising it year by year to still more remarkable 
 grandeur. Many of the citizens were opulent, while none needed 
 to be in poverty. Intemperance and dissipation alone could 
 squander the enormous wages of the most inferior laborers and 
 the large profits of capital in every kind of business. Then, as 
 now, no healthy man of ordinary strength need want lucrative 
 and honest employment of some kind or other. As for the sick 
 and weak, San Francisco is indeed not a place for them, although 
 
GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE CITY. 
 
 423 
 
 hospitals and occasional private charities may serve to alleviate 
 for a time their hapless situation. San Francisco is a place for 
 work — real, useful, hard work. If any man can give that — it 
 may sometimes he with the head, but oftener with the hand, he 
 is sure, not merely of subsistence, but of a competence, and in- 
 deed a fortune in the long run. If lazy, or incapable of such 
 work, the sooner the useless thing takes his departure, the better 
 for himself and the place. 
 
 No important change had occurred in the social or moral con- 
 dition of San Francisco during 1852. The characteristics of the 
 people which were noticed in our review of the previous year, still 
 existed. The old dizzy round of business and pleasure continued. 
 There were now only more people, greater wealth, finer houses, 
 more shops and stores, more work, trade and profits, more places 
 of dissipation and amusement, more tippling and swearing, more 
 drunkenness and personal outrages, nearly as much public gam- 
 bling and more private play. There were also a few more modest 
 women, and many more of another class ; more benevolent insti- 
 tutions and orphans' asylums ; more fire companies, military 
 companies, and masonic lodges. Likewise there were more newspa- 
 pers, that discoursed eloquently, ever railing " in good set terms " 
 against corruption in high places, but which not being supported 
 by the sincere feeling of a pure and honest people, made no such 
 irresistible body of public opinion as they sometimes do in other 
 countries. Then there were more churches, more moral teachers 
 and religious publications, more Sabbath and day schools ; and, 
 too, more of every thing that was beautiful and bad, more vice, 
 debauchery and folly, and perhaps also a little more real religion, 
 and sometimes a deal of outward decency. The moral sepulchre 
 was occasionally receiving a fresh coat of paint. It should not 
 be forgotten, at the same time, that with the increase of popula- 
 tion, there was also an increase of occasional charities and high- 
 minded liberal deeds. These things are done in secret, or they 
 lose their noble character. The public generally know not of 
 them. However much the sordid pursuit of wealth may cloud 
 the true friendships and generous actions of many of the San 
 Franciscans, the native worth of heroic and pure souls will at 
 times shine through all. As kings reigned before Agamemnon. 
 
424 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 so there are here great and worthy, honest and true men, as well 
 as there have been elsewhere. Their exact number cannot be 
 counted, but the student of human nature, according to his 
 temperament and means of information, may hazard an estimate 
 on the subject. 
 
 Residents of a few years' standing — the landmarks, by turns, 
 of the ancient village, town and city, began now to disappear. 
 These perhaps had made a fortune, and sown their "wild oats" 
 in the place. They now retired to the Atlantic States or Europe, 
 — to home, in short, — to enjoy their gains at ease, astonish quiet 
 neighbors with their wondrous tales, speculate on the future of 
 San Francisco, and become disgusted and ennuied with the slow- 
 ness, tameness, decorum and insipidity of the conventional mode 
 of existence they were leading. New faces and new names were 
 rising into importance, in place of the earliest pioneers and the 
 "forty-niners." The majority, however, of the first settlers had 
 faith in the place ; they relished its excitements as well of business 
 as of pleasure ; they had no family or fond ties elsewhere, or 
 these had been long rudely broken ; and so they adhered to San 
 Francisco. Many of these persons had waxed very rich, in spite 
 of themselves, by the sudden rise in the value of real estate, or by 
 some unexpected circumstance, while others, after expending a 
 world of ingenuity, wickedness and hard work, remained almost 
 as poor as when, hopeful and daring, they landed in the ship's 
 boat at Clark's Point, or when the tide was high, at the first rude 
 wharf that ran a short distance out from the beach at Mont- 
 gomery street. There is a fascination in even the loose, unset- 
 tled kind of fife at San Francisco. Of many who have left the 
 city, after a residence of years, and when they have accumulated 
 a handsome fortune, a considerable number have gladly returned. 
 For many months, perhaps for even a year or two, the immigrant 
 thinks he can never worthily or rationally enjoy existence in such 
 a place ; so he determines to make a fortune as soon as possible, 
 and decamp for ever. But fortunes are now made more slowly, 
 and the old citizen — a few years here make one old in sensation, 
 thought and experience — changes his sentiments, and he begins 
 to like the town and people for their own sake. The vices and 
 follies, the general mode of living, that frightened and shocked 
 
SAN FRANCISCO MORALS. 
 
 425 
 
 him at first, seem natural to the climate, and, after all, are by 
 no means so very disagreeable. If he returned to settle in ultra 
 or pseudo-civilized and quiet States, he would surely feel himself 
 but a " used-up " man ; so he continues where he made his 
 money, still to feel, speculate and enjoy, to work and contend 
 with real men, in their keenest and strongest characters. 
 
 It may be thought by some that we have said many over- 
 harsh things in this and other chapters of this work, regarding 
 our fellow citizens. We cannot help that, for the occasions seem 
 to justify the language used. If unmingled praise, or hesitating 
 censure were adopted when talking of San Francisco, people else- 
 where would not believe the tale, while those here would only 
 laugh in their sleeve at the decent hypocrisy and cant of the 
 writer. Better proclaim the worst at once ; and then let who 
 will find explanations, excuses and palliations. These will be 
 readily advanced by the wiser portion of mankind, who know the 
 temptations that beset poor human nature, and how often it falls 
 when fatal opportunity offers. Let it be always understood that 
 we describe the place as at particular periods, and not what we 
 think will be its grand coming destiny. San Francisco was, at 
 the times of which we have discoursed, and it still is, in a state 
 of moral ferment. When the ebullition ceases, though years 
 may elapse before that happens, the natural qualities of its ad- 
 venturous and clever people will be more clearly and generously 
 developed. The scum and froth of its strange mixture of peo- 
 ples, of its many scoundrels, rowdies and great men, loose women, 
 sharpers and few honest folk, are still nearly all that is visible. 
 The current of its daily life is muddied and defiled by the wild 
 effervescence of these unruly spirits. It may be said that nearly 
 all came to the city only as devout worshippers of mammon ; 
 scarcely one, to find a home, which might unjustly have been de- 
 nied him elsewhere. In order to accumulate the greatest heap 
 of gold in the shortest possible time, schemes and actions had 
 often to be resorted to, which nice honor could not justify nor 
 strict honesty adopt. In the scramble for wealth, few had con- 
 sciences much purer than their neighbors ; few hands were much 
 cleaner. Some were found out and victimized ; others were 
 wise and provoked not discussion. The few lamented, and the 
 
426 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 wise and good hoped and foresaw better things. Time, and a 
 sounder public opinion, will cure most of the evils we have allud- 
 ed to, leaving the undoubted talent, shrewdness, capacity for 
 hard, practical work, and the original honesty, honor and high 
 liberal spirit of the people free to show themselves. Cities, like 
 men, have their birth, growth and maturer years. Some are 
 born Titans, and from the beginning promise to be mighty in 
 their deeds, however wilful and destructive. Few spring into 
 being full armed, wise and sedate as Minerva. San Francisco, 
 while it can show so many enduring marvels for its few years, has 
 also wasted much of its means in " riotous living ; " but its young 
 hot blood will cool by and by. Then ripened years and wisdom 
 will subdue its foolish levities and more disgraceful vices. Mean- 
 while, let us treat the noble city kindly, just as we deal with the 
 beautiful woman that offends us — look upon her face and forget 
 her follies. We pardon the careless, extravagant, yet high spir- 
 ited youth, who lavishes his substance in wild pleasure, when he 
 stops short and vows repentance ; nay, even though he break out 
 again and again, we cannot seriously feel offended with the 
 charming gallant, so only that he hurts nobody but himself. 
 Let us view San Francisco in something of the same gentle and 
 forgiving, if not sympathizing spirit. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 1853. 
 
 Commerce. — Mercantile Library Association. — The Limantour claim. — Election of delegates to revise 
 the City Charter.— Third annual celebration of the organization of the Fire Department— Steam- 
 ships lost — Extension of the city water front — United States Marine Hospital. 
 
 January. — We have taken occasion to notice in various parts 
 of this work the progress of commerce in San Francisco. Year 
 by year, the number of vessels visiting the harbor was increasing. 
 We present here some statements on the subject, compiled from 
 a table of statistics by Colonel Cost, of the naval office. 
 
 ARRIVALS AND CLEARANCES IN THE PORT OF SAN FRANCISCO DURING THE 
 
 YEAR 1852. 
 
 Arrivals. Clearances. 
 
 Nations. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 American 346 
 
 British 225 
 
 French 29 
 
 Chilian 37 
 
 Mexican 41 
 
 Danish 12 
 
 Bremen 11 
 
 Norwegian 4 
 
 Hamburg 20 
 
 Dutch 15 
 
 Hawaiian 28 
 
 Peruvian 14 
 
 Prussian 2 
 
 Swedish 4 
 
 Portuguese 3 
 
 Brazilian 1 
 
 Sardinian 3 
 
 Austrian 1 
 
 Am. Coasters 351 
 
 Tons. 
 
 188.575 
 74,931 
 11,286 
 9,393 
 5,279 
 2,215 
 3,132 
 1,100 
 4,628 
 6,965 
 3,562 
 2,024 
 960 
 1,156 
 675 
 738 
 1.038 
 521 
 196,282 
 
 Nations. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Total 1147 514,460 
 
 In 1851, the arrivals 
 
 were 847 245,678 
 
 Increase- 300 268,782 
 
 American 405 
 
 British 196 
 
 French 33 
 
 Chilian 25 
 
 Mexican 34 
 
 Danish 10 
 
 Bremen 11 
 
 Norwegian 2 
 
 Hamburg 20 
 
 Dutch 5 
 
 Hawaiian 25 
 
 Peruvian 8 
 
 Prussian 2 
 
 Swedish 5 
 
 Portuguese 2 
 
 Brazilian 1 
 
 Sardinian 7 
 
 Austrian 1 
 
 Am. Coasters 833 
 
 Tons. 
 216,642 
 76,270 
 12,949 
 6,444 
 4,567 
 1,959 
 2,977 
 
 576 
 4,185 
 1,523 
 3,190 
 1,599 
 
 540 
 1,700 
 
 450 
 
 728 
 1,383 
 
 300 
 115,462 
 
 Total 1625 453,444 
 
 In 1851 the clearances 
 
 were 1315 422,043 
 
 Increase 310 31,401 
 
428 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 The shipments of gold dust during 1852 from San Francisco, 
 as appears from the custom-house record of clearances, amounted 
 in all to $46,599,044. Of this amount the value of $45,251,724 
 was cleared for Panama ; $511,376, for San Juan ; $482,596, for 
 Hong Kong ; and the remainder principally for various ports on 
 the Pacific. Sums carried away by individuals are not included 
 in the amounts mentioned. 
 
 January 25th. — Election of officers of the Mercantile Libra- 
 ry Association. It had long been evident that such an associa- 
 tion was much needed in San Francisco. In the absence of any 
 thing like a home or domestic comfort, all classes seemed to be 
 alike forced to frequent places of public recreation, and were ex- 
 posed to the many degrading influences which drink, gambling, 
 and still worse vices have upon the personal character. To with- 
 draw youths in particular from the haunts of dissipation, and to 
 give to persons of every age and occupation the means of mental 
 improvement, and a suitable place for passing their leisure hours, 
 were the great objects of the Mercantile Library Association. 
 Public meetings were held, at which the purposes and advan- 
 tages of the proposed institution were strongly urged by its benevo- 
 lent projectors and patrons ; and committees were formed to col- 
 lect contributions of books and subscriptions from the general 
 public. By these means a considerable deal of interest was ex- 
 cited on the subject, and liberal donations and subscriptions were 
 procured. The following gentlemen were unanimously elected as 
 the first officers : — 
 
 President. — David S. Turner. 
 Vice-President. — J. P. Haven. Treasurer. — 0. E. Bowers, jr. 
 Recording Sec'y. — R. H. Stephen. Corresponding Sec'y. — Dr. H. Gibbons. 
 Directors— E. E. Dunbar, J. B. Crockett, D. H. Haskell and E. P. Flint. 
 
 The rooms of the association, which were on the second floor 
 of the California Exchange, — a central and most convenient lo- 
 cality, — were first opened on the evening of the 1st of March of 
 this year. The largest apartment was elegantly fitted up as a 
 reading and lecture room, and was abundantly supplied with 
 local newspapers, and with some of the leading journals of the 
 Eastern States, as well as with a choice selection of magazines 
 and reviews. The library contained fifteen hundred volumes by 
 
THE LIMANTOUR CLAIM. 429 
 
 the best authors, and was being constantly increased by dona- 
 tions and purchases. Only one year later, it numbered about 
 three thousand volumes, comprising many of the best standard 
 works in the English language, besides many valuable works in 
 French, Spanish, German, &c. 
 
 This institution is of the most excellent character, and de- 
 serves the active support and well wishes of every liberal-minded 
 citizen. It is the best substitute for a portion of the comforts of 
 a home that can be provided in the present condition of San 
 Francisco. Occasional lectures on interesting topics, literary and 
 dramatic essays and readings, and frequent public debates on 
 political and other subjects of the day, give variety and excite- 
 ment to the ordinary business of the association. The pleasures 
 and advantages of this institution have not hitherto been suf- 
 ficiently understood, or sought by the people for whom they were 
 intended ; but it may be presumed that the intrinsic and grow- 
 ing merits of the association will in future excite more fruitful 
 notice from all classes of the community. The terms of mem- 
 bership are very moderate, being an entrance fee of ten dollars 
 (since reduced to five dollars, " for clerks and others in employ"), 
 and a monthly payment of one dollar. A subscription of twen- 
 ty-five dollars, and a monthly payment of one dollar, entitle the 
 party to one share in the stock of the institution, and to the pro- 
 fits arising on the same. The library and reading rooms are open 
 every day, from 9 o'clock A. M. to 10 o'clock p. m. For two hours 
 after noon they are only open to ladies, and gentlemen accompa- 
 nying ladies. The chambers of the association are now in the 
 Court Block, Merchant street. 
 
 February 5th. — The claim of Jose Yves Limantour present- 
 ed to the Board of Land Commissioners. San Francisco, which 
 had survived the Leavenworth and Colton grants, the Peter 
 Smith sales, and other legalized robberies and " squatters " with- 
 out number, though it suffered terribly in the struggle, was now 
 threatened by a claim, which if held valid, would turn over to a 
 single individual one-half of its real estate, owned partly by the 
 city itself, and partly by thousands of onerous and bona fide hold- 
 ers, who fancied their possessions were their own by the strongest 
 legal titles. Limantour, who was a Frenchman by birth, and 
 
430 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 had been a trader along the coast, stated, that he had advanced, 
 in the year 1843, to Manuel Micheltorrena, who was then Mexi- 
 can Governor and Commandante-General of the Californias, con- 
 siderable sums of money for the use of the departmental govern- 
 ment of that country, at a period when it was impoverished. In 
 return for this service, or as it is expressed in the deed itself, "in 
 consideration of loans in merchandise and ready money which he 
 has made to this government at different times " (somewhere 
 about $4000), Limantour said that he had received a complete 
 grant of certain large tracts of land in the neighborhood of Yerba 
 Buena. The deed of conveyance and several relative papers 
 have been produced to the Board of Commissioners, and appear 
 at first sight regular and legal documents. The first seems to 
 have been given at Los Angeles, the 27th day of February, 
 1843, and is signed by Micheltorrena. It conveys "the land 
 contained from the line of the pueblo de la Yerba Buena, distant 
 four hundred varas from the settlement house (casa fundadora) 
 of Don William Richardson to the south-east, beginning on the 
 beach at the north-east, and following it along its whole edge 
 (mar gen), turning round the point of Rincon to the south-east, 
 and following the bay as far as the mouth of the estuary of the 
 mission, including the deposits of salt water, and following the 
 valley (canada) to the south-west, where the fresh water runs, 
 passing to the north-west side, about two hundred varas from 
 the mission to where it completes two leagues north-east and 
 south-west to the Rincon, as represented by the plat (diseno) 
 No. 1, which accompanies the Expediente. 
 
 " Second : Two leagues of land, more or less, beginning on 
 the beach of the c Estacada ' at the ancient anchorage of the 
 port of San Francisco, below the castle (castillo) following to 
 the south-east, passing the "presidio" (military post) — follow- 
 ing the road of the mission, and the line to the south-west as far 
 as the beach which runs to the south from the port, taking the 
 said beach to the north-west, turning round the Point Lobos, 
 and following to the north-east, along the whole beach of the 
 castle (castillo) two hundred varas, and following the beach as 
 far as the • Estacada,' where begins the plat ( diseno) No. 2." 
 
 The tracts of land contained within the boundaries men- 
 
THE LIMANTOUR CLAIM. 
 
 431 
 
 tioned (which are vague and very unsatisfactorily given), com- 
 prise four square leagues, and include a great part of the most 
 valuahle portion of the city. It may also he mentioned here, 
 that, in addition to these four square leagues, Senor Limantour 
 likewise claimed the Islands of Alcantraz and Yerba Buena in 
 the bay, and the whole group of the Farallones, which lie twenty 
 or thirty miles off the Heads, and a tract of land, one square 
 league in extent, situated opposite the Island of Los Angeles, at 
 the westward of Racoon Straits. Besides these islands and 
 square leagues, Limantour has also claimed before the Board of 
 Land Commissioners still more extensive properties in various 
 parts of the State, amounting in all to considerably more than a 
 hundred square leagues of land. All other claims are a bagatelle 
 to this. 
 
 These great claims seemed so ridiculous and untenable at 
 first sight, that the press and individuals pecuniarily interested 
 were generally disposed to think very lightly of them. That 
 Limantour should have been so long silent as to his alleged 
 rights was a very odd circumstance that generated suspicion all 
 was not told. He had looked on during years when the property 
 included in his grants was being transferred over and over again 
 to new buyers, always rising in value at every sale, and had 
 tacitly appeared to assent to the existing state of things. When 
 the ground was worth many millions of dollars, and hundreds, if 
 not thousands of individuals were pecuniarily interested in it, 
 then Limantour first declared his pretensions. His claim seemed 
 monstrous — to one half of the great City of San Francisco, with 
 all its houses and improvements and future prosperity ! — a claim 
 that had been mysteriously concealed for eight or ten years ! 
 Pshaw ! it could not be an honest, valid one. So folks said to 
 themselves. As while we write the matter remains under judi- 
 cial consideration, — though some years may pass before a judg- 
 ment can be obtained, — we are prevented from examining mi- 
 nutely the nature both of the claim and the objections to it. We 
 may only state generally that many believe the former is " false, 
 fraudulent, or simulated ; " while Gen. James Wilson, Liman- 
 tour's attorney, says — " With a perfect knowledge of all the pa- 
 pers and documents in the careful consideration of all 
 
432 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the testimony taken, I am constrained to say, and I do most 
 conscientiously say, that there is not, and in my firm belief there 
 cannot possibly be, the slightest indicia of fraud in it, or in any 
 way connected with it. ' Fraud is to be proved, not inferred.' " 
 In the pamphlet from which these quotations are made, and 
 which was printed and published by order of Limantour, Gen. 
 Wilson discusses Micheltorrena's alleged grant, and finds it 
 abundantly proved. He thus settles his client's cause with a 
 thunder-clap sentence, which must frighten the very souls of 
 Limantour's " nimble adversaries : " — " Say that deed of grant is 
 not valid ! Never — Never ! It cannot be so said without 
 rushing roughshod and blindfold over all the facts in the case, 
 and all the law and equity in Christendom." If proof and the 
 Land Commissioners sanction Limantour's claim, there will be a 
 day of reckoning and lament to many of our citizens, who have 
 fondly imagined themselves the true proprietors of much valuable 
 real estate. Then will be tried the truth and worth of the max- 
 im — Justitia fiat, mat Caelum. 
 
 February 16th. — Election of delegates from the different 
 wards to a convention to revise the city charter. The following 
 parties were elected : — 
 
 First Ward. — Henry Meigs, Edward McGowan, William Carr. 
 Second Ward. — F. L. Jones, James Gallagher, E. W. Graham. 
 Third Ward. — D. A. Magellan, Eugene Casserly, W. H. Martin. 
 Fourth Ward.— 8. W. Holliday, C. S. Biden, J. R. Dunglisson. 
 Fifth Ward— Louis R. Lull, T. D. Greene, F. 0. Wakeman. 
 Sixth Ward. — James Grant, Henry Richardson, David Jobson. 
 Seventh Ward. — A. C. Wakeman, James Hagan, Henry Sharpe. 
 Eighth Ward. — Thomas Hayes, I. D. White, William Green. 
 
 These parties met on the 7th of March at the council cham- 
 bers in the City Hall, and proceeded to discuss the provisions of 
 the existing charter and the proposed alterations upon it. The 
 charter, as revised, was afterwards submitted to the people at 
 the annual election of municipal officers. Little interest seemed 
 to be manifested on the subject, except by the inhabitants of the 
 eighth ward, whose personal interests were particularly affected 
 by the contemplated measure. Though rejected by six wards, it 
 was, on the whole, approved of by a majority of votes. Subse- 
 
firemen's celebration. 
 
 433 
 
 quently it was laid before the Legislature, to be formally passed by 
 it as a new charter of the city. At the date of writing this 
 notice, that event has not taken place. It differs materially 
 from the former charter, and the propriety of some of its decla- 
 rations, particularly what maybe called the "squatter" pro- 
 visions, has been much disputed. In many other respects, it is 
 a decided improvement upon the present charter. 
 
 February 22d. — The anniversary of the birth-day of Wash- 
 ington had been adopted on previous occasions as a fit time to 
 celebrate the organization of the fire companies of the city. On 
 this day, the third annual celebration took place. It was dis- 
 tinguished by the large attendance of the firemen, the splendor 
 of the procession, the fineness of the weather, and the great 
 number of citizens, who as sympathetic spectators participated in 
 the festivities of the occasion. The firemen were dressed in the 
 uniform of the different companies, and their engines and various 
 apparatus were burnished as brightly and decorated as beauti- 
 fully as hands could manage. Several bands of music formed 
 part of the procession, while banners and devices of various kinds 
 gave increased animation to the scene. The chief interest, how- 
 ever, of the exhibition lay in the appearance of the men them- 
 selves. These were of every class in the community, and were a 
 fine athletic set of fellows. Their voluntary occupation was a 
 good and grand one, and required much skill and courage, while 
 it was pursued under circumstances involving great personal 
 danger, and often much inconvenience and pecuniary loss to 
 individuals, who, at the call of duty, cheerfully forsook their own 
 private business to save the community from a terrible calamity. 
 At the awful peal of the alarm-bell, no matter at what hour or 
 place, or how occupied, the fireman rushed to his post, to drag 
 and work his pet engine where most needed. 1 At busy noon, he 
 threw aside his cash-book and ledger ; in the evening, he ab- 
 ruptly left the theatre, or other place of amusement ; at mid- 
 night, he started from sleep, and only half-dressed, leaped and 
 ran to his appointed quarters. A few minutes later, and the 
 whole city might be in a blaze ! This thought gave speed to his 
 heels and strength to his arms. Scarcely had the first heavy 
 strokes of the alarm-bell ceased to vibrate on the panic-stricken 
 28 
 
434 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ear, when were heard the lighter, cheerful peals of the bells of the 
 engines, as they were wheeled from their houses and hurried 
 rapidly through the streets. 
 
 Fires in San Francisco used to be dreadful affairs, and no 
 pen can adequately describe the terror, confusion and despair 
 that spread far and wide when the wild cry was heard. The 
 danger and horror of conflagration are now much lessened, partly 
 by the increase of fire-proof brick buildings, and partly by the 
 continually growing efficiency of the fire companies. Still the 
 alarm of fire can never be listened to without many sad misgiv- 
 ings as to the possible result. The centre and business part of 
 the city may now seem to be beyond the reach of total destruction 
 or even of a serious loss ; yet large districts lying around the fire- 
 proof nucleus may any day be altogether consumed, if it were not 
 for the unflagging and desperate efforts of the unpaid, volunteer 
 firemen. From the peculiar risk and circumstances attending 
 conflagrations in San Francisco, these noble men have always had 
 a difficult and dangerous task to perform. Their boldness, their 
 alertness, energy, and unwearied perseverance in their praise- 
 worthy calling, have been long celebrated in America ; and, to 
 this day, it is a high term of honor over the civilized world to 
 belong to their body. Many foreigners are members of the differ- 
 ent companies. Later in this year, some of the French inhabi- 
 tants of the city formed themselves into a company by them- 
 selves, called the " Lafayette." 
 
 On the occasion of the anniversary of the Fire Department 
 of this year, the procession alluded to moved through the princi- 
 pal streets, attended, admired, and cheered by a large concourse 
 of people. Indeed the whole city seemed to have turned out en 
 masse. The firemen then proceeded to the American Theatre, 
 where an occasional address was delivered by Frank M. Pixley. 
 The house was filled to overflowing, and presented a fine show. 
 There was a large attendance of ladies in the boxes. 
 
 March 6th. — The Pacific mail steamship Tennessee went 
 ashore this morning at Tagus Beach, in Bolinas Bay, about three 
 or four miles north of the Heads, at the entrance to the Bay of 
 San Francisco. Dense fogs, which had misled the captain as to 
 the ship's position, were the cause of the vessel striking the 
 
STEAMSHIPS LOST. 
 
 435 
 
 shore. These fogs are very prevalent along the coast, and have 
 often been the cause of serious shipwrecks. The Tennessee had 
 about six hundred passengers on board, one hundred of whom 
 were women and children. By happy chance, the ship went 
 upon a small, sandy beach, on both sides of which at a short dis- 
 tance were enormous cliffs, on which if the vessel had struck she 
 
 Wreck of the Tennessee. 
 
 would have gone immediately to pieces, and probably most of 
 those on board would have perished. As it was, and the sea 
 being smooth, the passengers were all safely landed, as well as 
 the mail-bags and express matter. It was expected that the 
 Tennessee would afterwards have been safely towed off. The 
 Goliah and the Thomas Hunt, steam-tugs, were sent to perform 
 that operation ; but after some trials, it was found to be imprac- 
 ticable. After removing therefore a considerable quantity of 
 cargo, stores, &c, the vessel was abandoned, and shortly after- 
 wards went to pieces. 
 
 The loss of the Tennessee was the first known of a series of 
 calamities at sea, which happened about this time, and in which 
 
436 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 San Francisco was deeply interested. The most terrible and 
 disastrous of these was the loss of the steamship Independence, 
 of Vanderbilt's Independent Line, from San Juan to San Fran- 
 cisco. Upon the morning of the 16th of February, about day- 
 break, and when the atmosphere was perfectly clear, the ship 
 struck upon a sunken reef, about a mile from the shore of Mar- 
 garita Island, off the coast of Lower California. The sea was 
 quite smooth at the time. The engine was backed, and the 
 ship hove off the reef. As she was making water rapidly, it was 
 thought best to beach her. She was accordingly run ashore in a 
 small cove on the south-west side of the island, about five miles 
 distant from the place where she had first struck. At this time 
 it was discovered that the vessel was on fire. The people, who 
 had hitherto been quiet and self-possessed, now lost all control 
 of themselves ; and many in a frantic state leaped overboard. 
 All order seemed to be lost, and everybody thought only how 
 best to save himself. The scene is said to have been horrible 
 in the extreme. The crew and passengers amounted to four 
 hundred and fourteen persons ; and of this number nearly two 
 hundred perished, among whom were seventeen children and fif- 
 teen females. When intelligence of the sad occurrence reached 
 San Francisco, it caused much excitement and general sorrow. 
 Many had to mourn the loss of a relative or friend, whose com- 
 ing had been fondly expected. Liberal contributions were made 
 by the citizens to alleviate the sufferings of the surviving passen- 
 gers of the Independence, and to carry them to a place of safety 
 from the desolate and dangerous island upon which they were 
 thrown, naked, and without food or shelter. 
 
 On the morning of the 9th April following, the steamship 
 S. S. Lewis, of the Nicaragua line, went ashore at a place six 
 miles north of Bolinas Bay, and about fifteen miles north of the 
 Heads. Dense fogs were the cause of this loss, as they bad been 
 the cause of the loss of the Tennessee. There were three hundred 
 and eighty-five persons on board when the ship struck, all of 
 whom were saved, as well as the greatest part of their personal 
 baggage. The sea was running high at the time, and soon after- 
 wards the vessel went to pieces. 
 
 Thus were three of the large ocean steamers connected with 
 San Francisco lost within little more than a month, two of which 
 
WATER FRONT EXTENSION. 
 
 437 
 
 had gone ashore within the distance of a few miles from the city. 
 It was remarked that there seemed to be a kind of fatality 
 attending the passenger steamers connected with our port. Eleven 
 vessels of that description, some of which were of a magnificent 
 character, had been lost within the previous two years. The list 
 is as follows : — 
 
 Commodore Preble. — May 3d. 1851, on Humboldt Bar. 
 Union. — July 5th, 1851, at San Quentin. 
 
 Chesapeake. — Rudder lost at sea, put into Port Oxford for repairs, October 10th, 
 
 1851; proceeded to Humboldt, and was condemned and sold. 
 Sea Gull— Jim. 26th, 1852, on Humboldt Bar. 
 General Warren. — Jan. 31st, 1852, Clatsop Spit. 
 North America. — Feb. 27th, 1852, forty miles south of Acapulco. 
 Pioneer. — Aug. 17th, 1852, San Simeon's Bay. 
 
 City of Pittsburg. — Oct. 24th, 1852, burned in the Bay of Valparaiso, on her 
 
 way to California. 
 Independence. — Feb. 16th, 1853, burned at Margarita Island. 
 Tennessee. — March 6th, 1853, entrance to San Francisco Bay. 
 Lewis. — April 9th, 1853, three miles north of Bolinas Bay. 
 
 April. — For some months back the citizens have been much 
 excited by the introduction and progress through the legislative 
 chambers, of a bill to extend the water front of the city six 
 hundred feet beyond the existing boundary line. It appears that 
 the annual expenditure of the State was year by year greatly 
 exceeding its income, and financial difficulties were the natural 
 consequence. To procure some relief from these, Governor Bigler, 
 in a message to the Senate and House of Assembly, recommended 
 that the limits of San Francisco should be extended towards the 
 water, and that such extension should be sold or leased for the 
 benefit of the State. This counsel appeared most unjust, and 
 caused much alarm to the inhabitants of the city. The mayor 
 and the boards of aldermen and assistant aldermen severally is- 
 sued messages and reports against the passage of the contem- 
 plated measure. The board of aldermen, on the 31st January, 
 unanimously adopted a memorial to the Legislature, in which 
 they represented that any measure of the nature suggested by 
 the governor would be productive of incalculable hurt to the 
 prosperity of San Francisco. 
 
 " Your memorialists," the document said, " have spared no labor to procure 
 a full and frank expression of opinion by the most competent to decide upon 
 
438 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the merits of the proposed extension, and have received the concurrent testi- 
 mony of every captain and merchant in the city, that the sanction of your 
 honorable bod}* to such a proceeding would place in jeopardy the entire ship- 
 ping of the port, by depriving it of the protection and shelter of the head- 
 lands which it at present enjoys. 
 
 •• Your memorialists feel warranted in asserting, from their own observation, 
 as well as from the assurance of the present distinguished officer in command 
 of the Hydrographical Party of the United States Coast Survey, that the ex- 
 tent to which the present filling up of the City Front has been pushed, has 
 worked material injury to the safe anchorage of vessels already, by shoaling 
 the waters of the harbor, and compelling ships of heavy draft to anchor fur- 
 ther out, exposed to the full force of the tide and the fur)' of the strong 
 gales from the south-east that prevail during the rainy season." 
 
 These opinions were fully shared in by the inhabitants gen- 
 erally. Not only would San Francisco, the commercial metropo- 
 lis of the State, be materially damaged as a port, but much griev- 
 ous wrong would be committed against the owners of property 
 upon the line of the existing water front. By the Act of 26 th 
 March, 1851, which leased the State's interest in the water lots 
 for ninety-nine years, and which specifically defined the boundary 
 lines, it was declared that the same " shall be and remain a per- 
 manent water front " of the city. In the knowledge and faith 
 of this constitutional and binding declaration, the water lots had 
 been sold and improvements made upon them. The present 
 owners had every reason to believe that the water front could not 
 legally, and would not illegally and inequitably, be further ex- 
 tended. The doing so would be most prejudicial to their rights, 
 while at the same time it would be a most serious injury to the 
 general interests and privileges of the city. 
 
 Notwithstanding these and other objections, the obnoxious 
 bill passed the House of Assembly by a majority of four, in which 
 majority were two of the representatives from San Francisco. 
 The other five representatives, who had voted against the mea- 
 sure, and some of whom had spoken often and forcibly upon its 
 manifest injustice, now resigned their seats, and appealed to their 
 constituents for an approval of their conduct, by standing as 
 candidates for re-election. On the 14th of April, a new election 
 took place. The course taken by the old representatives was 
 chiefly opposed by a certain small section of the community, 
 which was supposed to be personally interested in the passing of 
 
WATER FRONT EXTENSION. 
 
 439 
 
 the bill complained of. On the 2d of January, in the preceding 
 year, at one of the noted Peter Smith's sales, already mentioned, 
 a great belt of land " covered with water," and extending six 
 hundred feet beyond the existing and recognized water front, and 
 embracing many thousand distinct lots, had been sold by the sheriff 
 for something less than $7000, in order to satisfy a judgment against 
 the city. The particular nature of the right of the city to this 
 ground " covered with water," and the rights of the party holding 
 the judgment, and of the sheriff to sell it, were matters imper- 
 fectly understood. Therefore the exact rights acquired by the 
 purchasers nobody could distinctly estimate. As things stood, 
 the buyers, who had speculated on a fortune of twice as many 
 millions as they had paid thousands, could do nothing. But by 
 enlisting the State on their side, and exciting the cupidity of the 
 government, the Peter Smith jobbers might hope to derive incal- 
 culable benefits from their desperate bargains, by making a "com- 
 promise " with the commissioners proposed to be appointed under 
 the contemplated bill. By the express terms of this bill, they 
 would, most probably, have secured two-thirds of their purchases. 
 To raise a fund for carrying on their scheme, and to interest 
 parties personally in its success, certain of the new water lots 
 were disposed of at low or nominal prices. 
 
 It was these original and subsequent buyers then, and their 
 immediate friends and those whom they could in any way influ- 
 ence, that opposed the re-election of the representatives to the 
 House of Assembly. The people generally felt that this matter 
 was one of the utmost consequence to the welfare of the com- 
 munity. On the day of election many of the leading citizens 
 closed their places of business, and devoted themselves to watch- 
 ing over the polls. The question at issue was one of principle, 
 and not the mere personal choice of favorite candidates. The 
 anti-extensionists, as they were called, were completely successful. 
 Five votes to one of those polled were in favor of the old 
 representatives ; while, if it had been necessary, a still larger 
 majority would have been obtained. At the close of the poll, 
 the following parties were elected, viz. : — Samuel Flower, John 
 Sime, John H. Saunders, James M. Taylor, and Elcan Heydenfelt. 
 
 Meanwhile, the bill had been carried into the Senate, and 
 
440 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the parties for and against it seemed nearly balanced. Repeated 
 public meetings were held at San Francisco on the subject, at 
 which resolutions were passed strongly condemnatory of the bill 
 and its known supporters. All classes of the community, except 
 the reckless speculators who hoped to profit by the iniquitous 
 Act, were bitterly opposed to the measure. If adopted, it would 
 certainly have the effect of injuring the harbor and city to an 
 incalculable, an irreparable extent ; while, by throwing back the 
 existing water front, and altering the grades of the streets, an 
 immense deal of damage would be done upon private property. 
 And all for what ? Principally to enrich a few water-lot game- 
 sters, and perhaps put a little money in the exhausted exchequer 
 of the State. The pecuniary advantage of the transaction to 
 the State was exceedingly doubtful at the best ; while it was 
 abundantly evident that interminable litigation and grievous loss 
 to private parties and to the port itself were sure to arise. A 
 large number of the members of the Legislature seem to have 
 been at all times opposed to the prosperity of San Francisco ; 
 and would fain lay upon it what has often been considered, — by 
 the citizens themselves, at all events, — more than a proportionate 
 share of the burdens of the State. In the case in question, if 
 even the government had the legal right to carry out the measure 
 proposed by the obnoxious bill, which right was disputed by able 
 and disinterested lawyers, the advantage to be derived by the 
 State was very paltry in comparison with the vast amount of 
 damage that would be occasioned to the city and individual citi- 
 zens. This consideration plead for mercy from the spoiler, but 
 it had little effect. The Senate, like the House of Assembly, 
 seemed determined to kill the bird that laid the golden egg — for 
 such were the taxes that San Francisco, in its prosperity, paid 
 into the coffers of the State. 
 
 To show further the injustice and impropriety of the steps 
 contemplated by the Extension Bill, we give an extract from a 
 Report made by a portion of the committee appointed by the Sen- 
 ate on the subject : 
 
 " The harbor known in 1849 as the harbor of San Francisco, flanked north 
 and south by the headlands of North and Rincon Points, and stretching in- 
 wards somewhat in the form of a crescent as far as Montgomery street, is now 
 almost entirely filled up and occupied as the business part of the city. The 
 
WATER FRONT EXTENSION. 
 
 441 
 
 boundary line of this, the eastern front, as fixed and declared permanent by 
 the 4th section of an act of the Legislature, passed March 26th, 1851, extends 
 even a little farther out into the bay than the headlands, and when the same 
 shall be fully built up to and improved, the city will have a water front of 
 sufficient extent and adequate depth of water to supply all the wants of her 
 commerce and trade. The farther extension of said front six hundred feet 
 into the bay would not materially increase the extent on the eastern front, 
 while a greater depth of water than the present front now enjoys, would not 
 be necessary to enable vessels of the largest class to lie at the wharves. 
 
 " So far, therefore, as the eastern front of the city is concerned, we can dis- 
 cover no public necessity or conveniency which demands any action on the 
 part of the Legislature, conflicting either in letter or spirit with the guarantee, 
 or at least the declaration, that ' the said boundary line shall be and remain a 
 permanent water front of said city,' contained in the act above referred to. 
 
 " The testimony taken by the committee conclusively shows that the ship- 
 ping of the harbor would be materially injured by the further extension. 
 Protection to the headlands, which is still to some extent enjoyed, would be 
 destroyed, and the roadstead between the city and Goat Island, with a rapid 
 current, and subject to strong south-easterly and north-westerly gales, would 
 be materially contracted. This acknowledged injury, it has been suggested, 
 can be counteracted by the erection of breakwaters off either or both North 
 and Rincon Points. In a bay with such a variety of powerful currents, it 
 would be difficult to predict the effect should such a plan be carried into exe- 
 cution. It might prove a greater injury to the water front than any yet in- 
 flicted upon it. But were the erection of breakwaters clearly demonstrated to 
 be of great service, the practicability of accomplishing such a task by the 
 State in so deep and turbulent a bay, by any expenditure within her means, 
 is extremely doubtful. Any appropriation adequate even to the commence- 
 ment of such a work, would, under Art. 8 of the Constitution, have to be sub- 
 mitted to the people for their approval. 
 
 " No necessity now exists for such a hazardous project, and it would be 
 truly impolitic to create a necessity for it by making the proposed extension. 
 
 But should the Legislature determine in any manner to extend the city 
 front, we are decidedly of opinion that the necessity or use of erecting break- 
 waters would follow ; and that if profit to the treasury should be a mo- 
 tive in making such extension, the connection of any breakwater scheme with 
 it would entail upon the treasury losses infinitely greater than any imaginary 
 or hoped-for profits could liquidate. The cost of breakwaters can only be 
 reckoned by millions, and if the State embarks in the project with the hope 
 that the proceeds of the sales of water lots will raise an adequate fund for 
 that purpose, she will surely be disappointed. 
 
 " The right of the State to sell lots in the place indicated would be ques- 
 tioned perhaps by men most anxious for the sale to proceed ; the title of the 
 State could not escape being clouded in the minds of purchasers, when it ia 
 considered that a variety of interests adverse to the State would no doubt be 
 in active operation. With these interests the public are familiar, and from 
 one of them has proceeded the only proposition before the Legislature for an 
 
442 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 extension, and that proposition is based upon the assumption of a title adverse 
 to and independent of the State, coupled with the proffer of a partnership 
 interest of an entangling and intricate nature, as a consideration for the influ- 
 ence and authority of the State in carrying into effect a plan which your com- 
 mittee believe destructive to commerce, injurious to the property of a large 
 class of citizens, and inconsistent in legislation. 
 
 " Respectful and temperate language cannot be employed in giving com- 
 plete expression to the sentiments entertained of this proposition, and there- 
 fore your committee refrain from further allusion to it." 
 
 The Report, from which the above extract is taken, then 
 discusses at length the nature of the various rights claimable by 
 Congress, by the State, and by the city, to the land " covered 
 with water," in question ; and concludes thus : " Even if the 
 water front right, being a vested right, could be successfully ques- 
 tioned, bad faith to the citizens of San Francisco would be truly 
 chargeable against the government, were an act passed by which 
 said water front privileges and advantages would be destroyed." 
 
 The united people of San Francisco, excepting always the 
 small clique of speculators already mentioned, considered that 
 all law, justice, and expediency, were opposed to the projected 
 extension ; the supporters of the bill in the Legislature could 
 only talk of the absolute and wilful right of the State to do what 
 it chose with its own pretended property, without regard to 
 those who might be ruined by its so doing. After several de- 
 bates, the bill came to a final vote in the Senate upon the 26th 
 of April, when thirteen members voted for, and the like number 
 against it. Happily, the president of the chamber, Lieutenant- 
 Governor Purdy, who in cases of parity possesses a casting vote, 
 gave his against the bill. Thus, by the narrowest chance, San 
 Francisco escaped this severe stroke. Perhaps the Peter Smith 
 speculators in extension water lots may at some future time 
 renew their attempt to carry out their views, and may persuade 
 even a majority of the Legislature — at all times jealous of the 
 greatness and independence of San Francisco — to further their 
 iniquitous schemes. The citizens, therefore, will require to be 
 ever watchful on this subject, until a constitutional and legal 
 declaration be obtained, and which will be beyond all cavil or 
 question, that the existing boundary line shall be really and truly 
 the permanent water front of the city. 
 
UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 
 
 443 
 
 Amu, 7tli. — The corner-stone laid of the United States Ma- 
 rine Hospital, when the usual interesting ceremonies observed on 
 similar occasions, were performed. On the 10th of December, 
 1852, the mayor approved of an ordinance, which the common 
 council had passed, by which he was directed to convey to the 
 Government of the United States six fifty-vara lots, situated at 
 
 United States Marine Hospital. 
 
 Rincon Point. These were intended for the silo of the magnifi- 
 cent structure, the corner-stone of which was laid to-day. The 
 building was erected in the course of this year (completed De- 
 cember 12th), and is now a striking ornament to the city. It is 
 built of brick, and is four stories high. It is 182 feet long by 
 96 feet wide. At one time five hundred patients can be com- 
 fortably lodged, while, in cases of necessity, so many as seven 
 hundred can be accommodated. The total cost has been about 
 a quarter of a million of dollars. This hospital has been built 
 and will be supported by the United States, from the fees paid 
 into the treasury by the sailors of every American vessel entering 
 our ports. The sum of twenty cents a month is deducted from 
 their wages, and paid by the master of every vessel to the custom- 
 
444 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 house. In return, every sick and disabled seaman reaching San 
 Francisco is entitled to a certificate from the collector for admis- 
 sion to the hospital. As sailors under foreign flags pay no fees, 
 they are of course not entitled to the privileges of the institution. 
 This hospital and the State Marine Hospital sufficiently provide 
 at present for the wants of the sick in San Francisco. There 
 are several other hospitals of a semi-public or private nature, 
 which take care of such sick persons as may not be entitled to 
 admission into either of the two mentioned, or who may prefer 
 the accommodations of less public institutions. 
 
 April 11th. — The Jenny Lind steamer, when on her passage 
 from Alviso to San Francisco, with about one hundred and twenty- 
 five passengers on board, met with a dreadful accident. At half- 
 past twelve o'clock, when nearly opposite the Pulgas Eanch, and 
 when the company on board were about sitting down to dinner in 
 the after cabin, a portion of the connecting steam-pipe was blown 
 asunder, and instantly the destructive vapor burst open the bulk- 
 head of the cabin, and swept into the crowded apartment. 
 Many were dangerously scalded, and a large number instantly 
 struck dead, by inhaling the intensely heated atmosphere. 
 Thirty-one persons were either killed on the spot, or soon after- 
 wards died, from the effects of injuries received from the explo- 
 sion. This catastrophe occurring immediately after the losses of 
 so many fine steamships at sea, already noticed, excited much 
 sorrowful interest in the city. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1853. 
 
 Boss's garden.— The German population.— May-day celebration by school-children.— Burning of the 
 Eassette House.— Mountain Lake Water Company.— General State Hospital — Drinking houses.— 
 Clipper ships and short passages.— Military parade and celebration of 4th of July. — Dedication of 
 the First Congregational Church.— St. Mary's (Catholic) Church.— Unitarian Church.— Seamen's 
 Bethel.— Squatter difficulties.— Store-ships burned.— Strikes by mechanics and laborers for higher 
 wages.— Anniversary of the Gorman Turnverein.— City and county election. — Lafayette Hook 
 and Ladder Company organized. — The French inhabitants.— S n eeney & Baugh's electric telegraph. 
 
 May 1st. — May-day was celebrated by a large number of our Ger- 
 man citizens in the cheerful and imposing style observed in Father- 
 land. Tbe Turner Gesang Verein (Gymnastic Musical Union) 
 took the most active part in the festivities. Dressed in loose 
 brown linen coats and pantaloons, proper for their exercises, they 
 marched, with banners flying, and musical instruments sounding, 
 to the gardens of Mr. Russ, near the Mission road. There 
 somewhere about eighteen hundred persons of German blood par- 
 ticipated in the different enjoyments of the day. They leaped, 
 balanced and twirled, danced, sang, drank, smoked and made 
 merry, as only such an enthusiastic race of mortals could. The 
 weather happened to be very fine, and the grounds seemed beau- 
 tiful beyond all expression of praise from the full heart that 
 could only enjoy, while it knew not and cared not why. Das 
 Deutsche Vaterland was chanted in the most rapturous manner, 
 and for the moment the different performers seemed to forget all 
 their native local distinctions and the very land that now gave 
 them shelter, to become in heart and spirit only members of the 
 one common brotherhood of Germans. Prizes to the best per- 
 formers in the various athletic and other games were distributed, 
 and several appropriate addresses were afterwards delivered. 
 
 The German population in San Francisco has always been 
 
446 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 very large, and may now (1854) be estimated at between five 
 and six thousand. They are an orderly and intelligent people, 
 and show fewer criminals than a proportionate number of anv 
 other class of citizens. They learn the English language very 
 readily, and many of them are naturalized citizens. Very differ- 
 ent from the French population in this respect, they appear to 
 have little wish to return to their native country. When Ger- 
 mans do leave California, it is generally for the Atlantic States, 
 from whence most of them directly came. In San Francisco, 
 they take considerable interest in local affairs, and easily enter 
 into the spirit of the place. The different fire companies show 
 many Germans on their rolls. This people have a daily news- 
 paper in their own language, and at one time had two. They 
 also possess a school, and at different times have supported a 
 national theatre, while they often have both vocal and instru- 
 mental concerts. The professional musicians in San Francisco 
 are chiefly Germans. Various other occupations are extensively 
 and almost exclusively followed by them. The cigar and beer- 
 shops are chiefly kept by them. A large number of the Jews in 
 San Francisco are of German blood, many of whom are from 
 Prussian Poland. 
 
 Though comparatively few Germans intend to return to 
 Fatherland, they all bear a strong feeling towards it, and wheii 
 opportunity serves are always ready to celebrate their nationality 
 and praise the old country customs. Some of these are of an 
 interesting and most pleasing character, in which music generally 
 bears a leading part. Though usually somewhat phlegmatic 
 both in person and mind, and not so brilliantly gay as the 
 French, or so carelessly wanton in their mirth as the Hispano- 
 Americans, the Germans are perhaps the most thoroughly cheer- 
 ful of all the national races in San Francisco. Though many of 
 them possess considerable property, they are not as a class distin- 
 guished for wealth ; and they are generally of a saving, and 
 sometimes a penurious character. Touch their nationality, or 
 their pecuniary interests, and they may spend money lavishly ; 
 but in most other matters they are totally opposed, in feeling 
 and behavior, to the princely extravagance of native Americans. 
 The Germans pursue all professions, while they monopolize a cer- 
 
school-children's celebration. 
 
 447 
 
 tain few, and number some rich and many highly educated indi- 
 viduals among their people. Some of these have formed them- 
 selves into the Deutsches Club. The Germans have a society for 
 the protection of immigrants, and various other benevolent and 
 social institutions. Many of their naturalized citizens manifest 
 
 Liuier Bier Politicians. 
 
 a lively interest in the politics of our country, which they discuss 
 with much warmth in their favorite beer-house . 
 
 May 2d. — May-day happening upon Sunday, a procession of 
 school-children, to celebrate the occasion, took place the next 
 day. This was a new and pleasant sight in San Francisco, and 
 the event is worthy of being recorded. There were about a 
 thousand children of both sexes in the train. They appeared all 
 in holiday costume, the girls being dressed in white. Each one 
 carried a bouquet of fresh and beautiful flowers. There was the 
 usual " Queen of May," with her " Maids of Honor," and various 
 other characters, all represented by the juvenile players. The 
 children of seven schools hore distinctive banners. A fine band 
 of music accompanied the happy procession. After proceeding 
 
448 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 through the principal thoroughfares, the children moved to the 
 school-house in Broadway. Here some pleasant ceremonies, 
 songs, and occasional addresses took place, in which the children 
 themselves were the chief actors. A repast of such delicate eat- 
 ables as suited youthful palates was next enjoyed, after which 
 the glad multitude dispersed. 
 
 About eleven o'clock on the evening of this day, the Rassette 
 House, at the corner of Bush and Sansome streets, and some of 
 the adjoining buildings, were destroyed by fire. The Rassette 
 House was a first-class hotel, well known in the city. It was a 
 frame building, of five stories in height, including the basement. 
 The fire began in a room above the kitchen, and in a few min- 
 utes spread over the enormous structure of dry timber. The 
 hotel happened to be well filled with lodgers at the time, nearly 
 all of whom were in bed when the flames broke out. There 
 were four hundred and sixteen boarders at the house, the most 
 of whom also lodged there. The horror and danger of their 
 situation, in the midst of such a combustible mass, may be ima- 
 gined, but can scarcely be described. A north-east wind was 
 blowing fresh at the time, and strong fears were entertained lest 
 the conflagration should spread over that district of the city 
 which had escaped all the great fires of 1850 and '51. The 
 firemen were early in attendance, and did all that men could do 
 in the circumstances. Though they could not save the blazing 
 pile of lumber, nor some of the neighboring houses, they pre- 
 vented the conflagration spreading beyond a limited, short dis- 
 tance. The loss of property was estimated at nearly §100,000, 
 without including the valuable property belonging to the many 
 lodgers in the Rassette House. Several of the inmates of the 
 latter building were severely burned, and it was supposed for a 
 considerable time that some had perished. A new hotel has 
 since been built on the same site. It is one of the most mag- 
 nificent, as it is the largest private edifice, devoted to a single 
 business, in the city. 
 
 In the week previous to that in which the fire just noticed 
 occurred, several very extensive conflagrations had taken place in 
 various districts of the city. However, the numerous fire-proof 
 brick tenements, and the rapid movements and unwearied exer- 
 
MOUNTAIN LAKE WATER COMPANY. 449 
 
 tions of the firemen, prevented these fires from spreading far. 
 The daring and persevering labors of the Fire Department were 
 constant themes of praise and public gratitude. 
 
 New Eassette House. 
 
 May 14th. — The origin and privileges of the Mountain Lake 
 Water Company have been already noticed. The commence- 
 ment of their works was this day celebrated by some imposing 
 ceremonies at the foot of the hill near the presidio. The com- 
 pletion of this important undertaking has been considerably de- 
 layed, and while we write the works are at a stand. Want of 
 funds is presumed to be the reason. The cost has far exceeded 
 the first calculations of the projectors. Doubtless the necessary 
 moneys will be raised before long, and the original project carried 
 fully out. No single measure is of so much vital importance to 
 the city as this, and all good citizens must wish well to the suc- 
 cess of the enterprise. Hitherto San Francisco has been chiefly 
 provided with fresh water from a considerable number of artesian 
 
450 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 wells sunk in various parts of the city, and from supplies brought 
 in tanks by small steamers from Saucelito, on the opposite side 
 of the entrance to the bay. The water from all these sources is 
 deficient at the best, and its cost forms a considerable item in 
 the expenses of housekeepers. It is expected that the Mountain 
 Lake Water Company will be enabled, with a handsome profit 
 to itself, to supply millions of gallons daily of the softest and 
 purest fresh water at greatly lower rates than what are now being 
 paid for much smaller supplies. In a place like San Francisco, 
 so much exposed from position and circumstances to conflagra- 
 tion, the unlimited supply of water for extinguishing fires is par- 
 ticularly requisite ; and that will surely be obtained when this 
 company has completed its works. Its name is taken from the 
 Mountain Lake, which is but a small sheet of water, and of itself 
 could not yield the expected supplies. This lake has no visible 
 outlet. A few hundred yards from its northern margin, there 
 gushes through the ground a full stream of water, which is be- 
 lieved to be amply sufficient for all the purposes of a city thrice 
 the size of San Francisco. It is matter of doubt whether this 
 great spring, or rather subterranean river, is the vent of the 
 small Mountain Lake, or whether it is not the open end of a 
 natural siphon, which discharges the rains and dews that fall 
 among the mountains on the opposite shores of the bay. 
 
 May 19th. — We have already noticed various acts of the Le- 
 gislatuie establishing a State Marine Hospital at San Francisco. 
 Of this date, an act was passed which considerably altered the 
 constitution of the existing establishment, and which was hence- 
 forward intended to be the sole general State Hospital in Califor- 
 nia. The administration of the hospital was declared to be under 
 the control of a board of five trustees, to be annually elected by 
 the Legislature, in joint convention. The trustees should them- 
 selves choose by ballot a president and vice-president from their 
 own number. A treasurer, with a salary of $2,000 should also be 
 chosen by them. The Legislature should elect every two years 
 two resident and two visiting physicians, the former to receive an- 
 nually the sum of $4,000, and the latter the same sum, each, in 
 both cases payable quarterly. Particular provisions are made in 
 the act as to the respective duties of the trustees, the treasurer 
 
THE STATE HOSPITAL. 
 
 451 
 
 and physicians. All invalid persons desirous of being received 
 into the hospital should apply to the resident physicians or either 
 of them, and on their certificate should be admitted. Indigent 
 sick persons, not residents of any county in the State might like- 
 wise be admitted to the hospital, as State patients ; as also the 
 indigent sick of the city, upon such terras as the municipal au- 
 thorities and the board of trustees might determine. All the State 
 patients in the Sacramento and Stockton State Hospitals at the 
 time when these should be abolished by law should be admitted 
 as patients into the State Marine Hospital at San Francisco. There 
 should be set apart by the State Treasurer, as a hospital fund, the 
 net amounts accruing to the State Treasury, as follows, viz. : — 
 Three-fifths of the amount derived as a commutation or tax on 
 passengers arriving at the ports of the State, and the fines and 
 penalties collected by reason of a violation of the laws regulating 
 the same ; and all sums paid into the State Treasury for license 
 for auction, gaming, billiards, ten-pin or bowling alleys, hawkers 
 and peddlers, or collected as fines or penalties for a violation of the 
 same. Of the amounts derived from these several sources, the 
 one-half should be appropriated to the support and maintenance 
 of the State Marine Hospital at San Francisco, and the other half 
 should be distributed to each organized county in the State, pro- 
 portionably to the population of said counties, as a special fund, 
 to be appropriated exclusively to the support and maintenance of 
 the indigent sick of such counties respectively. It was, however, 
 provided that such allowance to the hospital at San Francisco 
 should not exceed the sum of $100,000, and that if it did not 
 amount to that sum then the State Comptroller should draw his 
 warrant for the deficiency, if the necessities of the hospital should 
 require it. 
 
 The State Marine Hospital at San Francisco is, while we 
 write, located in Stockton street, in a large and commodious 
 building (formerly at various periods, the American Hotel, the 
 Marine Hospital, the Kremlin, and the Clarendon Hotel), and 
 which is rented at a large sum. It has been much enlarged, and 
 was expressly fitted up for the purposes of a hospital. The sit- 
 uation is pleasant and healthy, although the inhabitants of the 
 adjacent houses have grumbled, with some reason, that such an 
 
452 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 establishment should have been located in a thickly peopled and 
 fashionable part of the town. This hospital is efficiently conduct- 
 ed, and as might naturally have been expected, has been produc- 
 tive of much benefit to both foreigners and Americans. The 
 average number of patients is about two hundred and fifty. The 
 only other State Hospital is one solely for insane persons at 
 Stockton. 
 
 June. — For some things San Francisco has been always par- 
 ticularly notorious. Among these may be mentioned its gambling 
 saloons and drinking bars. Many keepers of these places have 
 made large fortunes. A great proportion of the community still 
 gamble — -the lower classes in public, and the upper, or richer 
 classes in private. Very many also continue the habit of occa- 
 sionally taking a daily " drink," or two ; while most of the in- 
 habitants take many more " drinks" than they would perhaps 
 care to confess to a rigidly sober acquaintance. In the Christian 
 Advocate (a San Francisco weekly newspaper), about this date, 
 there appeared some information which exhibits the intemperance 
 and dissipation of San Francisco in a very alarming light. Reli- 
 gious journals are not always trustworthy, especially in facts and 
 figures, when commenting on the vices of the age ; but in this 
 case there is ample room for all possible exaggeration in the state- 
 ments, and still there would be statistics enough left to grieve 
 the philanthropist. We copy the following from the Herald : 
 
 " The Christian Advocate has found, by actual count, the whole number 
 of places where liquor is sold in this city to be five hundred and thirty-seven. 
 Of these, eighty-three are purely liquor, in retail line, and fifty-two wholesale ; 
 making one hundred and twenty-five places which do not keep an onion to 
 modify the traffic. Of the four hundred and twelve places where it is sold in 
 connection with other business, one hundred and forty-four are tavern restau- 
 rants ; one hundred and fifty-four groceries ; forty-six gambling-houses ; and 
 forty-eight supposed to be kept by bawds. Some of these appear genteel, 
 others are dance-houses and such like, where Chinese, Mexican, Chilian and 
 other foreign women are assembled. There were five hundred and fifty-six bar- 
 tenders present in the various places at the time when the memoranda were 
 taken. We think we may safely add one-quarter, if not one-third, as reserve 
 corps, making, including women, seven hundred and forty-three bar-tenders in 
 our city." 
 
 These statements, in all conscience, make matters black and 
 and bad enough. Opposed to such an array — " seven hundred 
 
 i 
 
1 
 
 CLIPPER SHIPS AND SHORT PASSAGES. 453 
 
 and forty-three bar-tenders ! "—all the " Sons of Temperance," 
 the clergymen, churches, religious publications, Mercantile Libra- 
 ry Associations and the like, can hope to do little good for strict 
 sobriety. It happens to be the custom in San Francisco to take 
 a "drink" occasionally, while the great mass of the people either 
 have not, or will not avail themselves of any places of recreation 
 or of retirement at the close of daily labor and business other than 
 those where liquor is sold. The usual active and speculative mode 
 of life at San Francisco encourages, if it does not necessarily lead 
 to much indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Yet though so many 
 are tasting again and again, in the course of the day, there is not 
 so much gross drunkenness visible as one might expect. Many 
 of the thirsty, better class San Franciscans are more tipplers than 
 downright drunkards. Among the lowest and the rowdy classes, 
 however, there is much brutal and degrading drunkenness, the 
 effects of which are seen at all hours of day and night upon our 
 streets. It is in the mixed dance and drinking-houses above no- 
 ticed, that so many noisy brawls and desperate assaults, often 
 ending in murders, chiefly take place, that make San Francisco 
 so infamous for its crimes. It is impossible at present completely 
 to close such places without bringing perhaps worse evils upon soci- 
 ety. Only time, a naturally better set of citizens, the example 
 and benefits of good men and good institutions, homes and do- 
 mestic society, and an improved public opinion, will gradually re- 
 duce the number of the haunts of vice, close the drinking and gam- 
 bling-saloons, and purify the general moral condition of the city. 
 
 We have already described the character of the "clipper ships" 
 which the trade and necessities of San Francisco created, and 
 have mentioned several of the shortest passages that had been per- 
 formed by these vessels between the Atlantic ports and our city. 
 These passages were the quickest that had ever been made. The 
 voyage from San Francisco to the Atlantic ports is generally ac- 
 complished in a considerably shorter period, which arises chiefly 
 from the prevalence of westerly winds in the region of Cape Horn, 
 by reason of which homeward-bound ships are speedily wafted 
 round that dreaded place, where usually so much delay is caused 
 to outward-bound vessels. The Northern Light sailed from San 
 Francisco, on the 13th of March this year, and arrived at Boston 
 
454 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCU. 
 
 on the 29th May thereafter, thus accomplishing the voyage in the 
 wonderfully short space of seventy-six days. This is the fastest 
 passage that has ever been made between the places by any ship, 
 not a steamer. 
 
 First Congregational Church. 
 
 July 4th. — Independence-day this year was chiefly remarka- 
 ble in San Francisco for the first battalion parade of the military 
 companies. These, numbering seven in all, inclusive of the " Sutter 
 Rifles," from Sacramento City, which were here on a visit, form- 
 ed into line and passed in review before Major General John A. 
 Sutter and a brilliant staff. The benevolent and true hearted old 
 
UNITARIAN CHURCH. 
 
 455 
 
 pioneer was rapturously welcomed wherever he appeared. The 
 battalion afterwards marched to the gardens of Mr. Russ, about a 
 mile and a half from the plaza, where Mrs. C.N. Sinclair present- 
 ed it with a set of colors. 
 
 Independence-day being the great annual festival of the Ame- 
 rican people, was otherwise celebrated in the usual manner. The 
 Irish population turned out in large numbers, and marched in 
 procession through the city, preceded by a band of music. In 
 the evening there was a discharge of fireworks on the plaza, at th* 
 city's expense. 
 
 July 10th. — Dedication of the new First Congregational 
 Church, at the south-w. corner of Dupont and California streets. 
 This is a very elegant brick building, and forms one of the stri- 
 king ornaments of the city. It is sixty feet in front, by one hun- 
 dred feet deep, and is seated for about twelve hundred persons. 
 According.to the plan there is to be a steeple one hundred and 
 sixty feet in height, but this has been as yet only raised to the 
 top of the tower, leaving the spire to be constructed at some fu- 
 ture date. The cost of the building was $40,000. The pastor 
 of the congregation, the Kev. T. Dwight Hunt, was the first regu- 
 lar clergyman in San Francisco. 
 
 July 17th. — The various religious bodies of the city are 
 gradually improving the style of their churches. The old, small 
 wooden buildings that served the purposes of religious meeting- 
 houses well enough a few years back are being discarded, and 
 magnificent brick structures are rising in their stead. This day 
 the corner-stone of a new Eoman Catholic church was laid, at 
 the north-east corner of Dupont and California streets, with the 
 many imposing ceremonies performed on similar occasions by that 
 body of Christians. A long train of priests and dignitaries offici- 
 ated on the occasion. The building, St. Mary's, is still in course 
 of erection. 
 
 The same day the dedication of the First Unitarian Church 
 took place. The exterior of this church is not yet finished ; the 
 interior is very fine. It is situated on Stockton street, near Sa- 
 cramento street. The services at the dedication were conducted 
 by the pastor of the church, the Kev. F. T. Gray. 
 
 These are among the most imposing and substantial edifices 
 
456 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 for public religious worship that have yet been erected in the 
 city. The most of the other churches are still of wood. Among 
 them may be noticed that eminently useful place the Seaman's 
 Chapel, or Bethel. This structure has been formed upon the hull 
 of an old forsaken ship, and exhibits a remarkably chaste and 
 beautiful interior. As congregations get larger and wealthier, 
 
 Uuitarian Church. 
 
 the many churches constructed of frame which are now existing 
 will gradually be supplanted by handsome edifices of brick or 
 stone, in conformity with the improved character of other build- 
 ings throughout the city. 
 
 July 20th. — The under-sheriff, John A. Freaner, was shot on 
 Mission street by one Redmond McCarthy, a " squatter," when 
 the former, in the performance of his duty, was endeavoring to 
 execute a writ of ejectment against the latter. Revolvers were 
 produced and fired by both parties, and both were severely 
 wounded. The circumstance is particularly mentioned as illus- 
 trative of the " times " in San Francisco. About this period the 
 
SQUATTER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 457 
 
 " squatters " on city lands became suddenly more numerous and 
 daring than ever. These were not like the legitimate " settlers," 
 who took possession of vacant unclaimed lands, under the ordina- 
 ry pre-emption laws of the United States. On the contrary, 
 many of the squatters seized upon lands known to be claimed by 
 others, and who held them by the strongest legal titles known. 
 As these titles, however, happened in almost all cases to have 
 some nice legal doubt affecting them, "squatters" settled the 
 matter in their own way, and at once forcibly seized upon every 
 piece of ground that had no permanent improvements made upon 
 it. They " squatted " every where ; not only on choice lots along 
 the line of public streets, and among the distant sand hills, but 
 on the public and private burying grounds and on the open 
 squares of the city. If they had the least colorable title adverse 
 to the party in constructive possession, good and well ; but gene- 
 rally there was no other right pretended than that of force. The 
 intruder displayed only his six-shooter and with a scowl and a 
 sullen curse would mutter to the offended owner — My title is as 
 good as yours ; I have now the ground, and I will keep it, ay, 
 until death. Out of the way ! Of course those who considered 
 themselves the proper owners were not inclined tamely to sub- 
 mit to this violation of their rights. Sometimes they took coun- 
 sel and aid from the law, but nearly as often they met the in- 
 vader with his own weapons, the axe to destroy fences and build- 
 ings, and the revolver to frighten or kill his antagonist. Hired 
 persons on both sides sometimes helped to carry on the war. 
 Occasionally one " squatter " would envy, and seek to steal the 
 already stolen possession of another ; and then both would have 
 a bloody fight about the matter. " To the victors belonged the 
 spoils." 
 
 Many lives were lost in these savage contests, and bitter en- 
 mity engendered among rival claimants. The law was almost 
 powerless to redress wrong and punish guilt in such cases. It 
 said that the owner of ground was entitled by every means in his 
 power, to prevent unlawful and hostile intrusion upon it ; and 
 thus men had not the slightest scruple to use fire-arms upon all 
 occasions. In the confusion and conflict of adverse titles, it could 
 not be instantly determined who were the true owners, and 
 
458 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 judges therefore could not punish the trespassers and murder- 
 ers. If even the title of one slain in such a struggle were clear, 
 juries could not be found who would bring in the slayer guilty 
 of murder. His plea, however false and ridiculous, of supposed 
 title to the ground which was the cause of the fatal dispute, was 
 always held sufficient to save him from any verdict that would 
 justify the extreme penalty of the law. Probably one or more 
 of the jurors themselves had committed similar outrages, and 
 would not condemn in the prisoner their own principles of action, 
 and weaken the titles to their own properties. It was supposed 
 that many of these "squatters" were secretly instigated in their 
 reckless proceedings by people of wealth and influence, who en- 
 gaged to see their pupils out of any legal difficulty into which 
 they might fall. Such wealthy speculators shared, of course, in 
 the spoils of the proceedings. To this day, many of the most 
 valuable districts in and around San Francisco are held by 
 " squatter's titles," which had been won perhaps at the cost of 
 bloodshed, and in defiance of other titles, that, if not the best in 
 law, had at least a colorable show, and should have been always 
 strong enough to resist the strong-hand claim of the mere robber. 
 In this way the city itself, the great victim of real estate specu- 
 lators, " squatters " and plunderers, has lost, for a time at least, 
 much of its remaining property. The new charter, if passed by 
 the Legislature, will make many of these temporary losses, final 
 and irretrievable ones. If it were desirable to enlarge on this 
 painful subject, as showing the independent and lawless state of 
 society in California, a history might be given of the great gang 
 of squatters who have stolen the broad rich acres of the native 
 Peraltas on the opposite side of the bay, in Contra Costa. How- 
 ever, it is sufficient merely to mention the subject, in illustration 
 of the like practices that had been long carried on, and at this 
 time seemed to be at their height in San Francisco and its en- 
 virons. 
 
 July 24th. — Fire broke out in the store-ship Manco, which 
 lay in close proximity to the wharves, near the corner of 
 Mission and Stewart streets. The store-ship Canonicus — an 
 old "forty-niner," — which was moored alongside, next caught 
 fire. The firemen turned out, as usual, but from the want of 
 
STRIKES FOR HIGHER WAGES. 
 
 459 
 
 proper resting-places found much difficulty in working their 
 engines with effect. There happened to be a large quantity of 
 gunpowder on board the Manco at the time, the knowledge of 
 which fact, when circulated, speedily sent to a respectful distance 
 the curious crowd that had gathered on the neighboring ships, 
 and wherever they could procure a view of what was going on. 
 The firemen, however, gallantly stuck to their posts, and poured 
 vast quantities of water into the hold of the burning ship. By 
 these means the powder was so damped that only partial explo- 
 sions of small quantities took place. At last, the ship was scut- 
 tled, and she sank iu shallow water. The flames continued, and 
 were only extinguished a considerable time afterwards. The loss- 
 es sustained by both the Manco and Canonicus were estimated 
 at about $50,000. 
 
 July — August. — There was a succession of " strikes " during 
 these months, among most classes of mechanics and laborers, 
 when wages were generally raised from fifteen to twenty per cent. 
 The following may be quoted, as being the average rate of daily 
 wages payable at this time to journeymen : — Bricklayers, $10 ; 
 stone-cutters, $10 ; ship carpenters and caulkers, $10 ; plaster- 
 ers, $9 ; house carpenters, $8 ; blacksmiths, $8 ; watchmakers 
 and jewellers, $8 ; tinners, $7 ; hatters (but few employed), $7 ; 
 painters and glaziers, $6" ; tenders, $5 ; 'longshoremen, $6 ; 
 tailors, $4 ; shoemakers, $100 per month, without boarding ; 
 teamsters, $100 to $120 per month, finding themselves ; firemen 
 on steamers, $100 per month ; coal-passers, $75 per month ; 
 farm hands, $50 per month, and found. These wages are at 
 least five times higher than what are paid similar workers in 
 the Atlantic States ; while they are about double the highest 
 rates of wages that are now (1854) given mechanics and laborers 
 in the gold-producing country of Australia. Most trades and 
 occupations other than those above named were paid equally well. 
 The printers, who have been always a highly remunerated class, 
 could earn, according to skill and employment, from $10 to $15 
 a day. Perhaps the former sum may be taken as a low average. 
 As we have elsewhere said, there is no place in the world where 
 so high remuneration is given for labor — useful, wanted labor, as 
 in San Francisco. The rates above mentioned do not vary much 
 
460 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in the course of the year ; and may, in 1854, be still quoted as 
 nearly correct. At the same time it should be mentioned that 
 it is not always the case that the applicant can find constant 
 employment at his particular trade. However, if necessity 
 should compel him to work for a time at an inferior occupa- 
 tion, and provided only he have bodily strength, he may always 
 fairly calculate in finding employment as a laborer in coarse 
 work, or in doing odd jobs, at from $3.50 to $5 a day. The im- 
 migrant, however, must work at something, unless he means to 
 starve outright. The expenses of living are very much greater 
 in San Francisco than in the dearest of the Atlantic cities, while 
 there is very little charity or sympathy bestowed on idle, healthy 
 men. People who would honestly succeed in this country must 
 be prepared to turn their hand and attention to any kind of labor 
 that promises to 2 Kl Ui n0 matter how disagreeable, or how little 
 used to it may be the hesitating beginner. That has been the 
 case with many of the most respectable and wealthy citizens, who 
 at earlier times in San Francisco have been without a dime in 
 their pocket or a friend to give them a gratuitous meal. They 
 had to strip to the shirt, and earn the beginning of their present 
 fortunes by " the sweat of their brow." If all employment 
 should by possibility fail in the city, the robust immigrant has still 
 the gold mines to fall back upon for sustenance and wealth, as 
 well as the rich unclaimed lands of the United States, that seek 
 only a tiller to produce marvellous crops, or he may always se- 
 cure a situation as an agricultural laborer for others. Again, 
 then, we say, there is no country in the world to be compared for 
 wages and profits to California. It is emphatically the poor 
 working-man's paradise on earth. 
 
 August 14th. — The second anniversary of the German 
 Turnverein (the gymnasts already noticed) was observed to-day, 
 in the park of Dr. Wedekind, in the southern quarter of the city. 
 This affair was a very grand one with the whole German race 
 here ; and nearly three thousand persons participated in the fes- 
 tivities of the occasion. Besides Dr. Wedekind's grounds, the 
 gardens of Mr. Russ adjoining were thrown open to the people, 
 where athletic games and many amusing sports, music, dancing 
 and singing, and the indispensable smoking and drinking were 
 
CITY ANT) COUNTY ELECTION. 
 
 461 
 
 kept up till a late hour at night. The amusements were resumed 
 on the following day. 
 
 September 7th.— The annual election of city and county of- 
 ficers. The following parties were chosen : — 
 
 Senate. 
 
 E. J. Moore, Samuel Brannan, and subsequently on 
 
 W. M. Lent (for short term), his resignation, David Mahoney. 
 
 Assembly. 
 
 J. C. Hubbard, A. A. Green, N. Hubert, 
 
 E. P. Purdy, W. J. Swasey, Elijah Nichols, 
 
 F. W. Koll, J. W. Bagley, James A. Gilbert. 
 
 Sheriff. — William R. Gorham. 
 County Judge.— T. W. Freelon (J. D. Creigh. to Jill vacancy.) 
 District Attorney.— Henry H. Byrne. County Clerk.— Thos. Hayes. 
 County Recorder.— James Grant. County Treasurer. — G. W. Green. 
 
 County Surveyor. — James J. Gardner. Coroner. — J. W. Whaling. 
 Public Administrator. — S. A. Sheppard. County Assessor. — J. W. Stillman. 
 
 Mayor. — C. K. Garrison. 
 Recorder— Geo. W. Baker. Tax Collector.— W '. A. Matthews. 
 
 Comptroller. — Stephen R. Harris. City Attorney. — S. A. Sharp. 
 Treasurer. — Hamilton Bowie. Street Commissioner. — John Addis. 
 
 Marshal. — B. Seguine. Harbor Master. — Robert Haley. 
 
 Clerk of the Supreme Court. — Henry Haskell. 
 Assessors. — Robert Kerrison. Jas. H. Keller, Richard Parr. 
 
 Aldermen. 
 
 H. Meiggs, Richard M. Jessup, John D. Brower, John Nightingale, 
 
 Chas. 0. West, Joseph F. Atwill, D. II. Haskell, Jas. Van Ness. 
 
 Assistant Aldermen. 
 Chas. II. Corser, Geo. 0. Ecker, Wm. II. Talmage, Saml. Gardner, 
 C. D. Carter, J. R. West, Frank Turk. J. G. W. Schulte. 
 
 On this occasion the proposed new charter of the city, framed 
 by the delegates already mentioned, was submitted to the people 
 for their approval or rejection. There were given for it 747 
 votes, and against it 620 ; showing a majority of 127 votes in 
 its favor. In all the wards, except the 2d and 8th, there were 
 considerable majorities against it. In the 2d ward, the numbers 
 were nearly equal ; and in the 8th almost the whole votes were 
 for it. The people, except perhaps in the last-named ward, 
 seemed to take little interest in the proposed measure. 
 
 September 19th. — The French inhabitants of the city organ- 
 
462 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ized among themselves the " Lafayette Hook and Ladder Com- 
 pany." The uniform they adopted was that common to firemen 
 in France. We have at different places alluded to the public 
 spirit of this class of citizens, and their appearance in large 
 bodies on occasions of public ceremonial. They are nearly as 
 numerous as the Germans in San Francisco, and may now (1854) 
 
 French Shoeblacks. 
 
 number about 5000 persons of both sexes. They preserve many 
 of their national characteristics, and do not seem capable of thor- 
 oughly adopting American thoughts and fashions. But a small 
 proportion seek to become naturalized citizens, and they do not 
 readily acquire our language. California, and America itself, are 
 but places where money may be made to enable them to return 
 to their own land in Europe. In San Francisco they have mo- 
 nopolized many professions of a semi-artistic character. They are 
 the chief shoeblacks and hairdressers, cooks, wine importers and 
 professional gamblers. In the first-named capacity, they form 
 
THE FRENCH INHABITANTS. 
 
 463 
 
 one of the street features of the place. They are posted at 
 many of the prominent corners, with seats for their customers, 
 whose boots they are ever ready to polish at the charge of 
 twenty-five cents ; and some of them have at this singular busi- 
 ness gathered money enough to open shops, neatly furnished, for 
 the same purposes. It is not uncommon to see a dozen of these 
 shoeblacks in a row upon the edge of the side- walks, scouring and 
 scrubbing away at the muddy or dusty boots of their patrons. 
 But besides these occupations, this people pursue all other call- 
 ings here, and many of them are among the most distinguished, 
 wealthy and respectable inhabitants of the city. They are par- 
 tial to public amusements, and have often a theatre open, when 
 plays, vaudevilles and operas in their own language are performed. 
 They have a society for the relief of poor immigrants, besides 
 several other benevolent associations. Two tri-weekly newspa- 
 pers are published in their language, a portion of one of which 
 is written in Spanish. 
 
 The presence of the French has had a marked influence upon 
 society in San Francisco. Skilled workmen of their race have 
 decorated the finer shops and buildings, while their national taste 
 and judicious criticism have virtually directed the more chaste 
 architectural ornaments, both on the exterior and in the interior 
 of our houses. Their polite manners have also given an ease to 
 the ordinary intercourse of society which the unbending Ameri- 
 can character does not naturally possess. The expensive and 
 fashionable style of dressing among the French ladies has greatly 
 encouraged the splendid character of the shops of jewellers, silk 
 merchants, milliners and others whom women chiefly patronize, 
 while it has perhaps increased the general extravagance among 
 the whole female population of the city. 
 
 There are in San Francisco many natives of Switzerland and 
 Alsace, those debatable lands between the French and German 
 people. The Alsatians are claimed, and sometimes rejected by 
 both. There does not seem much sympathy between the rival 
 races, less a great deal than is between either of them and the 
 Americans. The French complain that they are not treated so 
 kindly by the last as are the Germans. The reason seems obvi- 
 ous. It is because they do not take the same pains to learn the 
 
464 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 American language and character. The naturalized Germans 
 are professed and acknowledged brethren ; the French — foreign 
 in manner and physical appearance, in thoughts and hopes — can 
 never be considered as such. The occasional devotion of Germans 
 to old Fatherland does not so fill their hearts that they become 
 insensible to the numberless political and social blessings which 
 
 Outer Telegraph Station. 
 
 they receive in their adopted country. But the wild glorification 
 of Frenchmen to every thing connected with their beautiful 
 France, is often a neglectful insult to the land that shelters them, 
 and which they would ignore, even although they seek not to 
 become its permanent citizens. Both races have played a prom- 
 inent part in the industrial history of San Francisco, and in that 
 of California generally. Their numbers are very large in the 
 various mining districts ; while, as we have seen, they form a con- 
 siderable proportion of the population of the city. They are not 
 the dominant spirits of the place — for these are of the true Ameri- 
 can type that ever cry go ahead ! — but they help to execute what 
 the national lords of the soil, the restless and perhaps unhappy 
 people of progress contrive. The character of a man may at 
 least partially be inferred from his " drinks." The true Germans 
 dote on lager-bier — and they are a heavy, phlegmatic, unambi- 
 
FIRST ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN CALIFORNIA. 465 
 
 tious race ; the French love light wines — and they are as sparkling, 
 yet without strength or force of character ; the genuine Yankee 
 must have a burning spirit in his multitudinous draughts — and 
 lie is a giant when he begins to work, tearing and trampling over 
 the impossibilities of other races, and binding them to his abso- 
 lute, insolent will. 
 
 Inner Telegraph Station. 
 
 September 22d. — Opening of the first electric telegraph 
 in California celebrated. This extended eight miles, between 
 San Francisco and Point Lobos, and was erected by Messrs. 
 Sweeny & Baugh, to give early information of shipping arrivals. 
 Early in 1849 this enterprising firm had erected a station- 
 house on Telegraph Hill, which commanded a view of the 
 entrance to the Golden Gate and the ocean in that immediate 
 vicinity ; and having adopted a variety of appropriate signals, 
 well understood by merchants and others in the city, were ena- 
 bled to give early intimation of the approach and peculiar char- 
 acter of all vessels coming into the harbor. This firoved of im- 
 mense value to newspaper publishers and other business men, 
 from whom the enterprise received a liberal patronage, it being 
 principally supported by voluntary contributions. Thus encour- 
 aged, Messrs. Sweeny & Baugh afterwards established another 
 30 
 
466 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 station at Point Lobos, overlooking the ocean, from which, on a 
 clear day, vessels may be distinguished many miles distant. 
 This station is in full view of that on Telegraph Hill, which, re- 
 ceiving early signals from it, communicated them at once to the 
 citizens, who were thus apprised of the arrival many hours before 
 the vessel entered the harbor. The electric telegraph is still 
 another improvement, and increases materially the facilities pre- 
 viously afforded by the method of signalling. Occasionally 
 heavy fogs prevented the signals from being intelligible, or even 
 seen, which difficulty is measurably obviated by the electric tele- 
 graph. The proprietors have also established in Sacramento 
 street, near Montgomery, a Merchants' Exchange, supported by 
 subscription, in the spacious rooms of which are always to be 
 found the latest papers from all parts of the world. These 
 enterprises have proved exceedingly lucrative to their projectors. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 1853. 
 
 Important legal decision of the Supremo Court confirming Alcaldes' grants.— Burning of the St. 
 Francis Hotel. — Opening of tho telegraph communication to Marysville.— Lone Mountain Ceme- 
 tery.— Anniversary of the day of St. Francis.— The Mission Dolores.— The Spanish races in Cali- 
 fornia.— The Custom House Block.— The steamship WinfieM Soott wrecked. — Election of officers 
 of the Fire Department— The Sonorian Filibusters.— Opening of the Metropolitan Theatre.— 
 Great sales of water lots. — Montgomery block. 
 
 October 13th. — The most important decision ever given by 
 the Supreme Court of California was pronounced to-day in the 
 case of Cohas vs. Rosin and Legris. Previous decisions both of 
 this and the lower legal tribunals had established principles which 
 unsettled the city titles to nearly every lot of ground within the 
 municipal boundaries, and mightily encouraged squatterism. By 
 these decisions, one title had just seemed as good or as bad as 
 another ; possessio?i being better than any. The alarming conse- 
 quences of these doctrines forced both bench and bar into further in- 
 quiries and minute researches into the laws, usages and customs of 
 Spanish or Mexican provinces and towns. The new information thus 
 acquired was brought to bear upon the suit above named, where 
 principles were evolved and a precedent formed of the utmost 
 consequence to the community, and which have nearly settled, 
 though not quite, the " squatter " questions. The decision was 
 pronounced by Judge Heydenfeldt, and was concurred in by 
 Chief Justice Murray (although upon somewhat different grounds) 
 and Judge Wells. Without entering upon the merits of the 
 particular case in question we give the " conclusions " come to : 
 
 " Firstly, That by the laws of Mexico, towns were invested with the 
 ownership of lands. 
 
 "Secondly, That by the law, usage and custom in Mexico, alcaldes were 
 the hea ls of the Ayuntamicntos, or Town Councils, were the executive officers 
 
468 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 of the towns, and rightfully exercised the power of granting lots within the 
 towns, which were the property of the towns. 
 
 " Thirdly, That before the military occupation of California by the array 
 of the United States, San Francisco was a Mexican pueblo, or municipal cor- 
 poration, and entitled to the lands within her boundaries. 
 
 " Fourthly, That a grant of a lot in San Francisco, made by an alcalde, 
 whether a Mexican or of any other nation, raises the presumption that the 
 alcalde was a properly qualified officer, that he had authority to make the 
 grant, and that the land was within the boundaries of the pueblo." 
 
 St. Francis Hotel immediately after the fire. 
 
 These conclusions sustain all alcaldes' grants in the city, no 
 matter though the alcalde himself had been illegally appointed 
 and had made a dishonest use of his power. By this decision — 
 all opposing precedents having been expressly set aside by the 
 court— many notoriously fraudulent alcalde grants have been legal- 
 ized ; but that seems a small price to pay for the full assurance 
 of title now given to the proprietors of the most valuable part 
 of the ground within the municipal bounds. 
 
 October 22d. — Destruction by fire of the St. Francis Hotel, 
 at the corner of Dupont and Clay streets. This was a famous 
 house in the history of San Francisco. It was built in the fall 
 of 1849, and in the basement story the polls were held of the 
 
LONE MOUNTAIN CEMETERY. 
 
 469 
 
 first State election. It was afterwards converted into a first- 
 class hotel. The structure was composed of the slightest and 
 most inflammable materials ; and it had long been matter of sur- 
 prise that it had escaped the many conflagrations which had so 
 repeatedly destroyed great portions of the city. When, at last, 
 it was consumed, people were not only no whit surprised, but 
 many were absolutely glad that it was so, since the danger of 
 its long anticipated burning spreading to the neighboring tene- 
 ments was thereby put an end to. The strenuous exertions of 
 the firemen confined the fire to the building in which it originated. 
 The damage was estimated at .$17,000. One lodger was burned 
 to death ; and several firemen were very severely injured by the 
 flames. The masterly efforts of the Fire Department on this oc- 
 casion were much praised. 
 
 October 24th. — First telegraphic communication between 
 San Francisco and Marysville. This was the completion of the 
 line of the State Telegraph Company, already noticed. The 
 whole length of the wire is two hundred and six miles ; and it 
 was erected in seventy-five days. The rates charged were, and 
 are now as follows : From San Francisco to Stockton, Sacra- 
 mento or Marysville, two dollars for the first ten words ; and for 
 each additional five words, seventy-five cents. From San Fran- 
 cisco to San Jose, for the first ten words, one dollar, and for each 
 additional five words forty cents. 
 
 November. — The "Lone Mountain Cemetery" projected. 
 A tract of land three hundred and twenty acres in extent, lying 
 between the presidio and the mission, is to be laid out in a pro- 
 per manner as a new resting-place for the dead, the cemetery of 
 Yerba Buena being considered, by the planners of the new 
 grounds, too near the city for a permanent burial-place. The 
 new cemetery is located near the well-known " Lone Mountain," 
 situated three or four miles west of the plaza. From the sum- 
 mit of this beautifully shaped hill may be obtained one of the 
 finest and most extensive views of land and water. At the date of 
 writing, very material and expensive improvements are being made 
 upon the grounds, to adapt them for the purposes of a cemetery. 
 
 November 9th. — The day of St. Francis, the anniversary 
 of the foundation of the Mission Dolores, in 1776. In the pre- 
 
470 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ceding pages, occasional allusions have been made to the for- 
 mer grandeur and subsequent decline of this mission. At present, 
 the chief tiling worthy of notice about the place is the old church. 
 This is constructed of adobes, and is a spacious building. The 
 exterior is partially whitewashed and is very plain in appearance, 
 although the front pretends to some old-fashioned architectural 
 
 Interior of a Mission Church. 
 
 decorations, and shows several handsome bells. The capacious 
 interior is dark, cold and comfortless. The walls and roof are 
 roughly painted, and upon the former are several common paint- 
 ings of saints and sacred subjects. The ornaments upon and 
 around the great altar are of the tinsel character usually adopted 
 in ordinary Roman Catholic churches. It is presumed they are 
 of no great pecuniary value. Public worship is still regularly 
 celebrated in this huge and gloomy temple. The usual audiences 
 are a few women, whose features and dress proclaim their Spanish 
 origin. If any of the fast-thinking, doing and living people of 
 San Francisco could be induced to " pause and moralize a while," 
 there is no spot so fitted to encourage the unwonted mood, as 
 the dismal, silent and deserted interior of the Mission Church. 
 
THE SPANISH RACES. 
 
 There is an awe and apparent holiness about the place which the 
 casual heretical visitor cares not to disturb, as he perhaps hum- 
 bly kneels on the damp, earthen floor, and worships in secret 
 his own Grod. A walk round the small graveyard attached to 
 the church will only deepen his meditation as he gazes on the 
 tombs of departed pioneers and gold-hunters, and reflects upon 
 the glory of the ancient patriarchal times of tame Indians and 
 their ghostly keepers. 
 
 The mission has always been a favorite place of amusement 
 to the citizens of Ban Francisco. Here, in the early days of the 
 city, exhibitions of bull and bear fights frequently took place, 
 which attracted great crowds ; and here, also, were numerous 
 duels fought, which drew nearly as many idlers to view them. At 
 present, there are two race-courses in the neighborhood, and a 
 large number of drinking-houses. Two plank-roads lead thither 
 from the city, upon both of which omnibuses run every half hour. 
 The mission lies within the municipal bounds, and probably will 
 soon be united with the city by a connected line of buildings. The 
 highway to San Jose and the farther south, runs through the vil- 
 lage, while around it are fine green hills and fertile fields, and 
 hotels and places of public recreation. These things all make the 
 old home of the "fathers" a place of considerable importance to 
 our health and pleasure seekers. On fine days, especially on Sun- 
 days, the roads to the mission show a continual succession, pass- 
 ing to and fro, of all manner of equestrians and pedestrians, and 
 elegant open carriages filled with ladies and holiday folk. 
 
 Since we have given elsewhere short separate notices of some 
 of the leading races, not American, that people San Francisco, 
 we may here say a few words upon that one which first settled in 
 the country — the Spanish. Over the whole of California, there 
 may be probably about 20,000 persons of Spanish extraction ; 
 and in San Francisco alone, some 3,000. It is of the last only 
 that we would speak. Few of them are native Californians. Per- 
 haps one-half of the number are Mexicans, and one-third Chilians. 
 The remaining sixth consists of Peruvians and natives of Old Spain, 
 and of parts of Spanish America other than Mexico, Chili and 
 Peru. The Hispano-Americans, as a class, rank far beneath the 
 French and Germans. They are ignorant and lazy, and are con- 
 
472 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sequently poor. A few of their number may have a high social 
 standing in the city, while some more bear a respectable position. 
 For these there is one page of a French tri-weekly newspaper 
 written in the Spanish language. It is not of them, nor of the 
 few native Californians, who are gentlemen by nature, that 
 we speak, but of the great mass of the race. Many of the Chili- 
 ans are able both to read and write ; few of the Mexicans can. 
 Both peoples, when roused by jealousy or revenge, as they often 
 are, will readily commit the most horrid crimes. In proportion 
 to their numbers, they show more criminals in the courts of law 
 than any other class. The Mexicans seem the most inferior of the 
 race. They have had no great reason to love the American cha- 
 racter, and, when safe opportunity offers, are not slow to show- 
 detestation of their conquerors. The sullen, spiteful look of the 
 common Mexicans in California is very observable. The Chilians 
 in the time of the " Hounds " were an oppressed and despised 
 people. Since that period the class has perhaps improved. The 
 Hispano-Americans fill many low and servile employments, and 
 in general engage only in such occupations as do not very severe- 
 ly tax either mind or body. They show no ambition to rise be- 
 yond the station where destiny, dirt, ignorance and sloth have 
 placed them. They seem to have no wish to become naturalized 
 citizens of the Union, and are morally incapable of comprehend- 
 ing the spirit and tendencies of our institutions. The most infe- 
 rior class of all, the proper " greaser," is on a par with the com- 
 mon Chinese and the African ; while many negroes far excel the 
 first-named in all moral, intellectual and physical respects. 
 
 The Hispano-Americans dwell chiefly about Dupont, Kearny 
 and Pacific streets — long the blackguard quarters of the city. In 
 these streets, and generally in the northern parts of the city, are 
 many dens of gross vice, which are patronized largely by Mexicans 
 and Chilians. Their dance, drink and gambling houses are also 
 the haunts of negroes and the vilest order of white men. In the 
 quarrels which are constantly arising in such places many treach- 
 erous, thieving and murderous deeds are committed. A large 
 proportion of the common Mexican and Chilian women are still 
 what they were in the days of the " H >unds," abandoned to lewd 
 practices, and shameless. 
 
firemen's election. 
 
 473 
 
 The large and elegant building called " Custom-House Block," 
 at the south-east corner of Sansome and Sacramento streets, was 
 completed and partially occupied during this month. It was con- 
 structed at a cost, exclusive of the land, of $140,000 ; and is 
 a substantial structure, three stories high, besides a basement, 
 fronting eighty feet on Sansome and one hundred and eighty-five 
 
 Custom-IIouse Block. 
 
 feet on Sacramento street. The various offices connected with the 
 custom-house and naval department, besides a billiard room, and 
 sundry other offices and stores, are in the second and third stories. 
 
 December 2d. — The mail steamship Winjield Scott, on her 
 way from San Francisco to Panama, was wrecked on the rocky 
 and desolate Island of Anacapa, near the Island of Santa Cruz, 
 off Santa Barbara. The passengers and most of the mail bags 
 were saved, but the ship was a total loss. The accident was caus- 
 ed by dense fogs and ignorance of the exact position of the ship > 
 
 December 5th. — Annual election of the Fire Department, 
 when the following officers were chosen : Chief Engineer. — 
 
474 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Charles P. Duane. Assistant Engineers. — E. A. Ebbetts, Joseph 
 Caprise and Charles F. Simpson. 
 
 December 13th. — The Barque Anita sailed with about two 
 hundred and forty volunteers to join a small band of adventurers 
 that had lately left San Francisco on a filibustering expedition 
 against Lower California and Sonora. The circumstances at- 
 tending this expedition show in a remarkable manner the wild 
 and restless spirit that influences so many of the people of Cali- 
 fornia. Not content with their own large territory, much of 
 which is still unexplored, and nearly all of which that is known 
 is characterized by extraordinary richness in minerals, fertility of 
 3oil, beauty of scenery, and mildness and salubrity of climate — 
 by everything, in short, that could tempt an energetic immigrant 
 to develope its unusual advantages — many of our restless people 
 sighed for new countries, if not like Alexander for new worlds, to 
 see and conquer. The Mexican province of Sonora had long been 
 reputed to be among the richest mineral regions in the world. 
 Its mines, however, had never been properly developed. The 
 Mexican character is not a very enterprising one. At the same 
 time, the ravages of the numerous tribes of warlike Indians that 
 inhabit many parts of Sonora and its frontier, had farther checked 
 all efforts to work the known gold and silver mines there. The 
 country otherwise was a fine agricultural and pastoral one ; and, 
 if slaves could only be introduced to cultivate and reap the teem- 
 ing: fields, the owners would draw immense revenues from them. 
 To conquer, or steal this rich country, was therefore a very desira- 
 ble thing. That it belonged in sovereignty to a friendly and 
 peaceable power, and that some seventy thousand white people in- 
 habited and possessed the land, appeared matters of no great con 
 sequence. The government of Mexico was a worthless one, sure- 
 ly, and the citizens of Sonora were, or should be, dissatisfied with 
 it, and had a right to rebel, and call upon foreigners to aid them 
 in their rebellion. If they did not, why, their culpable negli- 
 gence was certainly no fault of the filibixsters. The Sonorians 
 ought to rise, proclaim their independence, and cry for help from 
 all and sundry. That was erough. The filibusters needed no 
 particular invitation. They were determined to succor the poor 
 Sonorians, and themselves ; and so they gathered together with 
 
THE SONORA FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 475 
 
 arras and ammunition for the purpose. Walker was another 
 Lopez ; Sonora, another Cuba. 
 
 About a twelvemonth before this date the grand scheme was 
 first projected, and during the following summer was matured. 
 Scrip was largely printed and circulated at fair prices among 
 speculative jobbers. This paper was to be redeemed by the first 
 proceeds of the new government. The nominal and perhaps real 
 leader of the movement was a gentleman, William Walker to 
 wit, who has already figured in these pages, as the champion of 
 the press and popular rights against the alleged corrupt judiciary 
 of former times. Walker is said to be personally a brave, highly 
 educated and able man, whatever may be thought of his discre- 
 tion and true motives of conduct in the expedition. He seems 
 to have taken a high moral and political position in the affair, 
 though his professions were peculiar and their propriety not 
 readily admitted by downright sticklers for equity and natural 
 justice. A few of his coadjutors were perhaps also men of a 
 keen sense of honor, who forgot, or heeded not, in the excitement 
 of the adventure, the opinions of mere honest men upon the sub- 
 ject. But the vast majority of Walker's followers can only be 
 viewed as desperate actors in a true filibustering or robbing spe- 
 culation. The good of the wretched and Apache-oppressed S< »- 
 norians was not in their thoughts. If they succeeded, they might 
 lay the sure foundations of fortunes ; if they failed, it was only 
 time and perhaps life lost. In either event, there was a grand 
 excitement in the game. 
 
 What Americans generally are to other nations, so are the 
 mixed people of California to Eastern Americans themselves. 
 All the impulsive characteristics of the natives of the Atlantic 
 States are on the Pacific carried out to excess. Americans, and 
 particularly those in California, are not altogether devoted to 
 money ; they oftentimes love change and excitement better. 
 The golden gains to be sometimes won here by strange specula- 
 tions early engendered a most restless disposition in society. 
 The adventurous character of the succeeding immigrants readily 
 received the impress and spirit of the place. What, our people 
 seem to think, is the worth of life, wanting emotion, wanting ac- 
 tion ? At whatever hazard, most persons here must have occa- 
 
476 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sional excitement — new speculations, leading to personal adven- 
 ture, change of scene and variety of life. Danger to life and 
 limb and loss of property will not stand in the way. They will 
 overlook the fairest prospect close at hand, with its dull routine 
 of duty and labor, to seek for an inferior one at a distance. 
 They are almost invariably dissatisfied with their present con- 
 dition, whatever that may be. The world moves not fast enough 
 for their boundless desires. Thus a new land, where hope and 
 fancy see all things, is to them a charmed land. They will seek 
 and know its qualities, or perish in the attempt. Discontent and 
 restlessness make the true spirit of "progress" that is ever un- 
 satisfied with the dull present, the practical and real. These 
 are the characteristics of all great men and great races, and are 
 the strongest signs of their superior intellect. 
 
 The spirit of progress is probably a most unhappy one to in- 
 dividuals, although it tends to raise a nation to the height of 
 wealth and glory. Knowledge is power, the attribute of a god ; 
 yet as the satirist says, increase of knowledge is only increase of 
 sorrow. Knowledge — power — " progress," is the Anglo Saxon 
 disposition, which has been developed on a large scale in the 
 American character. Brother Jonathan, like the Israelite of old, 
 seems doomed everlastingly to wander over the earth. His jour- 
 ney fairly began nearly a century since. On, on he must go. 
 Excelsior ! is his cr) r . The morality of the various steps in the 
 fated pilgrimage — as morals, social and political, are commonly 
 understood among old-fashioned people — may be dubious ; yet the 
 weary work must proceed. It is the fate of America ever to " go 
 ahead." She is like the rod of Aaron that became a serpent and 
 swallowed up the other rods. So will America conquer or annex 
 all lands. That is her " manifest destiny." Only give her time 
 for the process. To swallow up every few years a province as 
 large as most European kingdoms is her present rate of progress. 
 Sometimes she purchases the mighty morsel, sometimes she 
 forms it out of waste territory by the natural increase of her own 
 people, sometimes she " annexes," and sometimes she conquers 
 it. Her " progress " is still steadily onward. Pioneers clear the 
 way. These are political agents with money bags, or settlers in 
 neglected parts of the continent, or peaceable American citizens 
 
THE SONORA FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 477 
 
 who happen to reside in the desired countries, and who wish to 
 dwell under the old " Stars and Stripes," or they may be only pro- 
 per filibusters, who steal and fight gratuitously for their own fast- 
 following Uncle Sam. When they fail in their schemes, they 
 are certainly scoundrels, and are commonly so termed ; when 
 they succeed, though they be dubbed heroes, they are still the 
 old rogues. Meanwhile America (that is the true title of our 
 country) secures the spoils won to her hand, .however dishonest- 
 ly they may have come. That is only her destiny, and perhaps 
 she is not so blamable as a nation in bearing it willingly. One 
 may profit by the treason, yet hate the traitor. Let the distant 
 monarchs of the lands beyond the great lakes and the tawny 
 people of the far south look to it. America must round her ter- 
 ritories by the sea. Like Russia, she is steadily creeping over 
 the world, but different from that empire, her presence bestows 
 freedom and good upon the invaded nations, and not despotism, 
 ignorance, and unmanly, brutal desires. 
 
 The pioneers into Sonora were Walker and his people. They 
 never reached their destination. Lower California was .in the 
 way, and they thought it best to begin on the small scale, and 
 secure it first. On the 30th of September of this year, the brig 
 Arrow, which was about to be employed to convey the filibusters 
 to the land of promise, was seized by order of General Hitch- 
 cock, commanding the United States forces on the Pacific, and 
 acting under orders or a sense of his duty to protect a neighbor- 
 ing friendly power from being wrongfully attacked by Americans. 
 This measure involved General Hitchcock in unpleasant litigation, 
 and seems to have disgusted him with attempting to interfere 
 farther in the filibusters' movements. For want of sufficient le- 
 gal evidence to show the destination of the Arrow and the char- 
 acter of the preparations making by those connected with the 
 affair, or rather, perhaps, through disinclination of the prosecu- 
 tors to go on with the proceedings, the case was abandoned and 
 the vessel released. Meanwhile, the other officials here of the 
 United States Government, whose duty it was to prevent all pi- 
 ratical and filibustering expeditions from leaving the port, gave 
 little attention to the subject, and appeared wilfully to neglect 
 their most urgent duties. As for the State and city authorities, 
 
478 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 it seemed to be considered none of their business to move in the 
 matter. The newspaper press was neutral, or at all events did 
 not (with one or two exceptions) loudly condemn the course in- 
 tended to be pursued by the known filibusters. Encouraged by 
 these circumstances, the adventurers soon procured another ves- 
 sel, the barque Caroline, and shortly afterwards (16th October), 
 fl n ty-six of their number sailed in her from San Francisco for the 
 lower coast. Early in November, they reached the town of La 
 Paz, situated within the Gulf of California, and in the southern 
 division of the peninsula. There they landed, scattered the sur- 
 prised inhabitants, secured the governor, proclaimed the indepen- 
 dence of Lower California, declared the civil code of Louisiana 
 the law of the land, hauled down the Mexican flag and hoisted 
 their own — all within half an hour. A slight engagement after- 
 wards took place hetween the Mexicans and the invaders, in which 
 the latter were successful, after killing a few of the enemy. This 
 was the battle of La Paz. Mr. Walker then was nominated 
 " President of the Republic of Lower California," and chose, or 
 had chosen for him his various Secretaries of State, War and 
 Navy, and other grand functionaries of the new government. As 
 there were fewer than fifty men to select from, a pretty fair pro- 
 portion of the party became suddenly dignitaries in the Republic. 
 
 The President, his staff and whole forces soon forsook La Paz, 
 
 . . . . . 
 
 the particular reason for attacking which town at this juncture 
 
 of events is not plain, though perhaps it was only to create a 
 " sensation." There was not even the pretence made that the 
 inhabitants of the place, or any of the natives of Lower Califor- 
 nia, had invited the presence of the spoilers of their property. 
 Walker and his party now retreated altogether from the gulf; 
 and carrying with them the archives of the government, sailed 
 for Ensenada, a place about a hundred miles below San Diego, 
 on the Pacific side of the peninsula. Here, in a thinly peopled 
 and unattractive country, and at a long distance from any Mexi- 
 can troops, they were safe for a time ; and here they established 
 their *' Head Quarters," until reinforcements should reach them 
 from San Francisco. It was understood that the seizure of Low- 
 er California was only the first step in the proposed conquest of 
 Sonora, which was all along the grand object of the expedition. 
 
THE SONORA FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 479 
 
 When news of this short campaign reached San Francisco, 
 there was a mighty ado with the friends and sympathizers of 
 the expedition. Among the few initiated in the supposed secret 
 causes of the adventure, there were brilliant hopes of the indefi- 
 nite extension of one of the peculiar " domestic institutions " of 
 the South, and among all were glorious dreams of conquest and 
 plunder. The national flag of the new Republic was run up at 
 the corner of Kearny and Sacramento streets, and an office was 
 opened for the purpose of enlisting recruits. The excitement 
 was great in the city. At the corners of the streets and in bar- 
 rooms, groups of intending buccaneers and their friends collected, 
 and discussed the position of affairs. More volunteers appeared 
 than there were means of conveying to the scene of action. 
 News next reached the city of the battle of La Grulla, near 
 Santo Tomas, where the filibusters, when said to be in the act 
 of helping themselves to the cattle and provisions of the natives, 
 were severely handled, and a few of them slain. This, however, 
 only fired the recruits the more to help their oppressed brethren 
 Why could not the Lower Californians, poor, ignorant brutes, 
 have been contented with the beautiful scrip of the new Republic 
 for their paltry provisions ? The rage for war — freedom to the 
 Mexicans, death to the Apaches, and plunder to the Americans — 
 spread over all California, and numbers hastened from the mining 
 regions to San Francisco, to depart southward in time and share 
 in the spoil of the conquered land. The authorities meanwhile, 
 looked calmly on, and took no steps to prevent the departure of 
 the filibusters. The newspapers recorded their various movements 
 at length, and in general either indirectly praised, or did not 
 strongly condemn them. People in private circles laughed, and 
 talked over the business coolly. They generally thought, and 
 said, it was all right — at all events, it was a fine specimen of the 
 go-aheadism of Young America. Moneyed men even advanced 
 considerable sums for the use of the expeditionists, and the scrip 
 of the new Republic was almost saleable on 'Change, at a dime 
 for a dollar. 
 
 We have mentioned this affair at some length, more to show 
 the general wild and reckless character of the people, and the 
 state of public opinion upon filibustering, in San Francisco, and 
 
480 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in California at large, than to chronicle the particular doings of 
 the adventurers. Our people are mostly in the prime of life, 
 their passions are of the strongest, they have an acute intellect, 
 absolute will and physical strength, hut they are not distinguished 
 by high moral and political principle. They are sanguine in 
 whatever things they undertake, and are more inclined to des- 
 perate deeds, than to the peaceful business of ordinary life. 
 Had Walker's party succeeded in reaching Sonora and been able 
 to stand their own for a time or perhaps signally to defeat the 
 Mexicans in a pitched battle, ten thousand of our mixed Califor- 
 nians would have hastened to their triple-striped two-star stand- 
 ard. Against such a force not all the power of Mexico would 
 have been sufficient to dislodge the invaders from Sonora. Other 
 tens of thousands would have flocked into the country, and per- 
 force it would have been thoroughly Americanized. Undoubtedly 
 this will happen some day. Is it not " manifest destiny ? " 
 People here certainly look upon it as such, and hence very little 
 fault has been found, in general, with the proceedings of the 
 filibusters. The principles of action now existing in California, 
 in so far at least as regards neighboring countries, are something 
 like those of Wordsworth's hero, who acted upon 
 
 " The good old rule, the simple plan — 
 That they should take who have the power, 
 And they should keep who can." 
 
 Rob Roy was a great man in his day ; and in our own times the 
 Californians are the greatest of a great people. That is a fact. 
 
 To finish the story of Walker's exploits. The Anita safely 
 bore her contingent to " Head Quarters" at Ensenada, and by 
 other opportunities a considerable number of volunteers went 
 thither. They were generally well armed with revolvers, rifles 
 and knives. On their departure, the recorder's court at San 
 Francisco had much less daily business, and the city was hap- 
 pily purged of many of the old squad of rowdies and loafers. 
 Strengthened by such an accession to his forces, opposed to which 
 no body of Mexicans in that part of Lower California could ap- 
 pear in the field, Walker now, with a stroke of his pen, for he is 
 said to be even abler as a writer than as a warrior, abolished the 
 
THE SONOKA FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 481 
 
 Republic of " Lower California," and proclaimed in its stead that 
 of " Sonora," which comprised the province of that name and 
 the peninsula itself. Most of the great prizes in the lottery had 
 already been distributed. However, Col. H. P. Watkins, of the 
 Anita contingent, had the honor of being appointed the " Vice- 
 President." This gentleman and some of his fellow-dignitaries 
 subsequently underwent a trial at San Francisco for their filibus- 
 tering practices, the result of which will be noticed under the 
 proper date. In Lower California, various " decrees," proclama- 
 tions and addresses to the natives and to his own soldiers were 
 made by the " President." They dwelt upon the " holiness " of 
 the invaders' cause, and were very grandiloquent. The march 
 was being formed for Sonora, straight. 
 
 Meanwhile, dissensions were breaking out among the men. 
 The rank and file, the tag, rag and bobtail of the expedition, had 
 considerable difficulty in digesting the stolen or scrip-bought beef, 
 always beef, and Indian corn, always corn, that formed their 
 rations. They fancied that their officers "fared sumptuously 
 every day," which very likely was not the case. Any tiling will 
 serve as an excuse for behavior that has been predetermined. 
 So these epicures and haters of beef and corn, to the number of 
 fifty or sixty, gave up, without a sigh, Walker, Sonora and their 
 frugal meals. Other desertions subsequently took place, and the 
 staunch filibusters were gradually reduced to a very few. To 
 improve the moral tone of his army, Walker caused two of his 
 people to be shot and other two to be flogged and expelled, partly 
 for pilfering and partly for desertion. The San Fi'anciscan jour- 
 nals had now little mercy on the expedition and all connected 
 with it. It was a farce, they said ; and its end was just what 
 they had expected. For a while there remained a remnant of 
 the filibusters loafing about Ensenada, or Santo Tomas — or God 
 knows where — looking, like the immortal Micavvber, for " some- 
 thing to turn up." Subsequently, however, as will hereafter be 
 seen, they surrendered themselves as prisoners to the United 
 States authorities. 
 
 December 24th. — Opening of the " Metropolitan Theatre." 
 Theatricals, and especially that class of them in which music 
 bears a considerable share, have always been largely patronized 
 31 
 
482 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 by the San Franciscans. It was thought prefer to have a more 
 magnificent temple for dramatic and operatic entertainments than 
 any hitherto erected in the city, and the " Metropolitan " accord- 
 ingly was built and opened. This is one of the finest theatres 
 in America, and is distinguished by the beautiful and chaste 
 appearance of the interior. The house is built of brick. The 
 management of the theatre was under the care of Mrs. Catherine 
 N. Sinclair. She opened the splendid structure with an excel- 
 lent stock company, among whom there immediately began to 
 appear "stars" of the first magnitude, which have since con- 
 tinued in rapid succession. The prices of admission were — for 
 the orchestra and private boxes, $3, for the dress circle and par- 
 quette, $2, and for the second and third circles, $1. The School 
 for Scandal, in which Mr. James E. Murdock played the part 
 of " Charles Surface," and Mrs. Sinclair, the manageress, that of 
 " Lady Teazle," and the farce of Little ToddleJcins, were the per- 
 formances of the evening. 
 
 December 26th. — Great sale of one hundred and twenty 
 water lots belonging to the city, when the gross sum realized 
 was $1,193,550. These lots formed in all four small sized blocks 
 of land, covered with water, lying upon each side of Commercial 
 street wharf. They extended between Sacramento and Clay 
 streets, and from Davis street eastward two blocks. Most of the 
 lots measured twenty-five feet in front to a street, and fifty- 
 nine feet nine inches in depth. These brought on an average 
 between $8,000 and $9,000 a lot. The corner lots, which faced 
 two streets, brought from $15,000 to $16,000. A few larger 
 lots brought from $20,000 to $27,000. There was an average 
 depth of about eight feet of water, at low tide, upon these blocks 
 of land ; and to make them fit to receive buildings would require 
 the expenditure of large sums of money. The enormous prices 
 obtained for such small lots of ground, " covered with water," 
 show the confidence which capitalists had in the future prosperity 
 of the city. The sale was only for ninety-nine years, after 
 March, 1851, being the period for which the State had conveyed 
 the property to the city. In terms of the original grant, the 
 city was obliged to pay over to the State twenty-five per cent, of 
 the proceeds of the sale. The sum of $185,000 was likewise 
 
SALES OF WATER LOTS. 
 
 483 
 
 appropriated to satisfy any claims which several of the wharf 
 companies adjoining the lots disposed of had pretended to 
 the slips, now sold. After these deductions were made, a very 
 handsome sum was left to replenish the municipal exchequer, 
 and relieve it from many pressing obligations which had been 
 gradually accumulating. 
 
 Montgomery Block. 
 
 December 28th. — Great sale of the State's interest in water 
 property, when lots to the value of $350,000 were sold. This 
 property was situated between Broadway and Pacific streets. It 
 was partly covered with water, and partly dry land, although 
 covered with water in 1849, and is a portion of the property called 
 the " Government Keserve " on the ordinary maps of the city. 
 
 The magnificent structure known as " Montgomery Block" 
 was completed toward the close of this year. This is the largest, 
 most elegant, and imposing edifice in California, and would at- 
 tract especial attention in any city, though it occupies a site 
 that was partially covered by the waters of the bay as late as 
 1849. It has a front of 122 feet on the west side of Montgom- 
 ery street, from Washington to Merchant street, along which 
 streets it extends 138 feet, presenting an unbroken fagade on 
 these three streets of nearly 400 feet. It is owned by the law 
 firm of Halleck, Peachy, Billings & Parke. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 1853. 
 
 Numbers and description of the population of the State. — Amount of gold produced from California 
 mines.— San Francisco as related to California — Population of San Francisco. — City improve- 
 ments. — Commercial statistics 
 
 The year 1853 was not remarkable for any great increase in the 
 permanent population of California. A vast immigration cer- 
 tainly took place, but the emigration was also very great. Before 
 noticing the estimated increase in the number of inhabitants in 
 San Francisco, we take this opportunity of making a few remarks 
 on the progress of population in the country at large. 
 
 The Government census, taken at the close of 1852, returned 
 the population of California at 264,435 ; but this number was 
 considered by those best able to judge to be considerably under- 
 stated. In his message communicating the census returns to 
 the Legislature, the governor of the State, commenting upon 
 them, expressed his belief that the population of the country, at 
 the close of 1852, might properly be estimated at 308,000 per- 
 sons of both sexes, and of all races and ages. In 1853, it was 
 supposed that the immigration by land from the United States 
 and Mexico amounted to about 15,000 persons, while the number 
 of those leaving California by land was too inconsiderable to affect 
 materially any calculations on the subject. The number of im- 
 migrants by sea, who landed at San Francisco, was about 34,000, 
 while the departures were about 31,000. There were, therefore, 
 probably about 18,000 persons, on the whole, added to the 
 population of the country. If this number be added to the 
 estimated number at the close of 1852, it will appear that at the 
 close of the following year the total population of California was 
 
POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 485 
 
 326,000 persons. As while we write, in the spring of 1854, the 
 ordinary immigration of the year has not fairly commenced, 
 which, however, promises to be very large, the last-mentioned 
 number may be taken as a fair approximation to the present 
 number of inhabitants. Estimates have been made, at different 
 times, of the various races forming the total number, but none 
 of these can be confidently relied upon. The French and Ger- 
 man peoples generally claim a greater number of their country- 
 men in California than the Americans are willing to allow. The 
 following may be taken as a rough calculation on this subject. 
 Under the term "Americans''' are included the natives of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, who are less easily distinguishable from na- 
 tive Americans than are other foreigners. Many, however, of 
 the British-born, are American by adoption and naturalization. 
 Since the common language of the Americans and British is 
 English, and their customs and habits of thought are generally 
 the same, there seems no impropriety in calling them all in Cali- 
 fornia simply Americans. At the same time, it may be observed 
 that the vast majority of those so called are really natives of the 
 United States : — 
 
 Americans, 204,000 ; Germans, 30,000 ; French, 28,000 ; 
 Hispano- Americans, 20,000 ; all other foreigners of white ex- 
 traction, 5,000 ; Chinese, 17,000 ; Indians (estimated by the 
 census agents at 33,000, which number is considered much too 
 high), 20,000 ; Negroes, 2,000 ; total, 326,000. 
 
 Of this number, about 100,000 are believed to be working 
 miners, the remainder forming the population of the different towns 
 and the pastoral and agricultural districts of the country. It is 
 estimated that there are about 65,000 women in the country and 
 perhaps 30,000 children. In the mining regions the females are 
 much fewer relatively to the local population than in the towns. 
 As among the Indians and the native Californians the sexes may 
 be supposed to be nearly equal, it will be seen that among the 
 other races, the number of females must be very small in propor- 
 tion to the number of male inhabitants. The class of small 
 farmers and generally the agricultural population increased con- 
 siderably during 1853. They produced a large portion of the 
 provisions which supplied the wants of the people ; and it is pro- 
 
486 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 bable that in a few years the State will be altogether independent 
 of foreign supplies in the great staples which support life. 
 
 The quantity of gold produced from the Californian mines 
 cannot be correctly ascertained, though reasonable approximations 
 on the subject may be made. The custom-house returns at San 
 Francisco do not show the great amount of gold carried oft by 
 private parties, and not manifested, nor the quantity retained in 
 the country, where the circulation of local gold pieces is very 
 large. Perhaps the quantity of gold dust deposited and coined 
 at the different mints of the United States, with a fair allowance 
 for what may be shipped directly or transhipped to foreign coun- 
 tries, and used in manufactures throughout the Union, and as 
 coin in California itself, and what may be still in the hands of 
 miners and others, may make a sufficiently exact statement on 
 the subject. This allowance, after a careful consideration of 
 many circumstances, we would put, for the last five or six years, 
 at $44,000,000, which we think moderate. The total production 
 of the different years may therefore be estimated, and given as 
 follows : 
 
 Deposits at tho various mints of Californian gold. Total estimated produce. 
 
 1848 $45,301 $3,000,000 
 
 1849 6,151,360 25,000,000 
 
 1850 36,273,097 40,000,000 
 
 1851 55,938,232 60,000,000 
 
 1852 53,452,567 63,000,000 
 
 1853 55,113,487 65,000,000 
 
 Add, the manifested shipments 
 
 of gold dust from San Fran- 
 cisco in the month of De- 
 cemher, 1853, but which 
 would not he deposited at 
 the mints until January fol- 
 lowing 4,846,743 
 
 $211,820,787 $256,000,000 
 
 As manifested in the custom-house, the export of gold from 
 San Francisco, during 1853, was $54,906,956 74. Of this amount, 
 the sum of $47,914,448 was for New York ; $4,795,662 for 
 London; $926,134 for China ; $445,778 for Valparaiso; $390,781 
 for New Orleans ; $191,000 for the Sandwich Islands, — and the 
 remainder for New South Wales and various ports on the Pacific. 
 
SAN FRANCISCO AND CALIFORNIA. 
 
 487 
 
 It will be observed that between six and seven millions were 
 snipped, during the last year, directly to foreign countries, and 
 would not therefore appear in the returns of the United States 
 mints. 
 
 It seems unnecessary, in the " Annals of San Francisco," to 
 enter more largely into the mere statistics of gold. The yearly 
 production has steadily continued to increase, and the manifested 
 semi-monthly shipments of specie regularly range from two to 
 three millions. These shipments, as we have explained, do not 
 show the total production, since large quantities of dust are car- 
 ried off by private parties, which do not appear in the custom- 
 house records. In the beginning of 1854 the mines are unusu- 
 ally productive ; and so far as can be estimated, the total produc- 
 tion of the year named may be expected to show a considerable 
 increase on the production of 1853. 
 
 It is admitted by all who bestow a moment's attention upon 
 the subject, that hitherto it has been gold, almost alone, which 
 has given such an impetus to the progress of California at large, 
 and particularly to San Francisco. The latter is the one great 
 port through which the enormous foreign supplies of provisions 
 and all other kinds of goods pass to the interior, and from whence 
 the payments in gold dust are shipped abroad. Most of the 
 miners reach California by way of San Francisco, and all who 
 leave the country depart from the same city. Many years hence 
 the fertile and genial California will be a rich and populous coun- 
 try, irrespective entirely of her mineral wealth ; and as farming, 
 and, by and by, manufacturing immigrants pour in, that time 
 will be hastened. San Francisco will then, as now, be the great 
 port of the State, and the emporium of a vast commerce. The 
 Atlantic and Pacific Railway, which has been discussed for so 
 many years, and which must soon be really set agoing, will in- 
 crease to an incalculable extent the population and prosperity 
 both of California and San Francisco. By whatever route the 
 proposed railroad communication is made, our city must be the 
 chief terminus on the Pacific. Meanwhile, she is closely dependent 
 for prosperity upon the success of the miners and the increasing 
 production of gold. If these grow fewer, or the production be 
 seriously reduced, San Francisco must suffer most severely for 
 
488 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 a time. From the figures given above, it appears that the an- 
 nual production of gold has been steadily increasing ; while, 
 from what is known of the character of the mining regions, there 
 seems no reason to fear a serious falling off in the amount for 
 many years to come. Scientific apparatus and superior methods 
 of working are every year being applied to the auriferous earth 
 and rocks, which readily yield richer returns than ever. Long 
 before the mining districts can be worked out, for profitable labor, 
 San Francisco will have the millions of California for supporters 
 of her commerce and patrons of her magnificence. Hitherto 
 she has been, and from her unequalled maritime position, her 
 wealth, population and enterprise, must always be, the financial 
 and political, the vital centre of the State. 
 
 During 1853, the population of San Francisco was consider- 
 ably increased. At the close of the year, the city was estimated 
 to contain nearly fifty thousand inhabitants, or more than a 
 seventh part of the whole population of California. It is true 
 that many of these were only temporary residents, but as they 
 gradually left the city, their places were supplied by an equally 
 large number of occasional visitors or fresh immigrants. The 
 population, permanent and fluctuating, was composed of all 
 kindreds and peoples, and may be divided thus : 
 
 Americans (including British and Irish born — who probably 
 amounted to one-sixth of the number), 32,000 ; Germans, 5,500 ; 
 French, 5,000 ; Hispano- Americans, 3,000 ; other races of white 
 extraction, and negroes, 1,500 ; Chinese, 3,000 ; total 50,000. 
 
 About 8,000 of this population are females, and 3,000 chil- 
 dren ; while the great majority of the remainder are men between 
 the ages of twenty and forty years. The greatest number of 
 votes given at any one election have, however, been only 11,000. 
 This is partly explained by the fact that a large portion of the 
 adult males are neither native nor naturalized citizens. 
 
 San Francisco, during 1853, was particularly improved by 
 the erection of a large number of elegant and substantial fire- 
 proof brick and stone buildings. Some of these would be remark- 
 able in any country for their great size, strength and beauty. 
 The principal portion of them are situated on the east side of 
 the plaza, in Montgomery, Battery, Sansome and Front streets, 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 489 
 
 and in those parts of the cross thoroughfares, from Jackson to 
 California streets, inclusive, that touch or lie between those first 
 named. There are also many fine brick buildings in Stockton 
 street. "Montgomery Block" has upwards of one hundred and 
 fifty rooms, and the " New Kassette House," nearly two hundred 
 and fifty. Such great structures, the piles called the " Armory 
 Hall," the " Express building," the " Custom-House Block," and 
 many others of nearly as grand a character, have cost enormous 
 sums of money to build. At North Beach, Mission Bay and 
 Pleasant and Happy Valleys, many elegant private dwellings and 
 manufacturing establishments have been reared, and on Rincon 
 Point towers the splendid United States Marine Hospital, sur- 
 rounded on the land sides by numerous elegant structures. Some 
 of the more finely finished edifices have either the whole front or 
 the lower story formed of polished Chinese granite ; while the 
 fronts of nearly all the larger buildings, constructed of brick, are 
 covered with a fine gray-colored mastic which gives them all the 
 appearance of being made of stone. The distant reader can 
 scarcely have any proper conception of the magnificence of some 
 of these edifices, so different from the character of buildings 
 which were constructed in the early years of the great cities 
 on the Atlantic border. It was the repeated recurrence in 
 former days of conflagrations, which occasionally destroyed half 
 the city, and the perpetual liability, from local position, to similar 
 disasters, that induced capitalists to endeavor to make the best 
 and most valuable portion of the city thoroughly fire-proof. To 
 accomplish that, a peculiarly massive and imposing style of archi- 
 tecture has been adopted, the character of which has been more 
 particularly noticed in a previous page. The later fire-proof 
 buildings, like the earlier ones, are all provided with exterior 
 window-shutters and doors of thick wrought-iron. This circum- 
 stance gives the best street architecture of San Francisco an 
 appearance which is peculiar to itself. Engraved illustrations 
 can scarcely represent the general effect, arising from the cause, 
 and which the actual spectator feels. 
 
 While in the centre of the city these great buildings were 
 rapidly rising, in the districts beyond and in the outskirts, other 
 material improvements, in levelling the unequal ground and 
 
490 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 erecting additional houses, generally of frame, and in the forma- 
 tion of gardens, were being daily carried on. A second and a 
 third time, new and supposed better street grades were being 
 everywhere established. To carry out these, enormous and costly 
 excavations had to be made at particular localities, while at 
 others immense mounds of earth had to be thrown over deep 
 valleys. Generally the streets in the lower part of the city were 
 raised several feet above the former height, while on the high 
 grounds towards the north and west, the lines of streets had 
 to be lowered from ten to fifty feet. Although the city gen- 
 erally may in the end be much improved by the adoption of 
 these grades, the necessity thereby created of excavating, or of 
 filling up the building lots along the artificial street line, and of 
 raising or of lowering substantial buildings already erected, to 
 suit the new level, has caused incalculable injury and loss to in- 
 dividual citizens. Perhaps, under the existing plan of San 
 Francisco, which, as we have elsewhere explained, is on the prin- 
 ciple of strait lines of street crossing each other at right angles, 
 without regard to the natural inequalities of the ground, some- 
 thing like the existing grades of the streets was unavoidable, if a 
 prudent regard was to be had to the future appearance of the 
 city and convenient access to the remotest parts of it. But on 
 viewing the sad destruction of property caused to particular per- 
 sons by these new grades, we are only the more imbittered 
 against the original designers of the town for their absurd math- 
 ematical notions. If the great thoroughfares had been adapted 
 to the natural configuration of the tract of country upon wliich 
 the city stands, there might have been some apparent irregularity 
 in the plan, and some, perhaps some little ground available for 
 building purposes lost, yet many millions of dollars would have 
 been saved to the community at large, which, as matters stand, 
 have already been unprofitably expended, while millions more 
 must still be spent in overcoming the obstacles wilfully placed 
 in the way by the originally defective plans. 
 
 But leaving such unprofitable discussion, we may only remark 
 that owing to the adoption of these new grades, an immense deal 
 of labor was performed during the year, both in forming the 
 streets themselves and in altering the buildings along the sides 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 491 
 
 of them. Many new streets were planked for the first time, and 
 some of the old ones replanked. Planking has served well in the 
 infancy of the city, but it is probable that so perishable a mate- 
 •rial will soon give place to cobble-stones or Macadamized paving, 
 or even square dressed blocks of granite or whinstone. San 
 Francisco, like Rome, cannot be built in a day. Already, por- 
 tions of Montgomery and Washington streets are finely laid down 
 with cobble-stones. Meanwhile, the streets in general have 
 gradually been getting into clean and regular order, and have a 
 pleasant appearance. They and the buildings lining them are 
 in many respects equal, and in some respects superior to the 
 streets and buildings of long established and populous cities in 
 the Atlantic States. The San Franciscans are proud of their 
 noble city that sits enthroned beside calm waters, and as Queen 
 of the Pacific receives homage and tribute from all seas and 
 oceans. Richly freighted ships from every land visit her harbor. 
 Her buildings are becoming palaces, and her merchants, princes. 
 Wealth, gayety and luxury characterize her people. She is fast 
 approaching that peculiar and regal character which in days of 
 old was borne by the great maritime cities of the Mediterranean, 
 in more recent times by Venice and Genoa, and perhaps at this 
 date by Amsterdam and St. Petersburgh. Like the great mer- 
 cantile cities of the past, San Francisco may fall in her pride ; 
 but centuries shall first pass. She is very young yet, and has a 
 long age of growing grandeur before her. The commerce of the 
 Pacific is only beginning, and with its certain increase will San 
 Francisco certainly wax greater and more marvellous. Her spirit 
 is go ahead ! Wc have seen her, but a few years since, only a 
 barren waste of sand-hills — a paltry village — a thriving little 
 town — a budding city of canvas, then of wood, and next a great 
 metropolis of brick. In a few years more, if she be not changed 
 into marble, like Augustan Rome, she may be turned into as beau- 
 tiful and enduring substance, into Chinese or rather Californian 
 granite. After the wonders we have already seen, and part of 
 which we have described, nothing seems impossible in the pro- 
 gress of San Francisco. Her future will be far more glorious 
 than even the present. As the lover expatiates rapturously upon 
 his mistress, whose perfections, though nature may have been 
 
492 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 bountiful, he chiefly himself creates, so do the San Franciscans 
 speak of their beloved city, whose magnificence is principally the 
 work of their own hands. Some glorification is natural and al- 
 lowable on the subject. 
 
 To give a general notion of the condition in some respects of 
 the city at the close of 1853, we here present a variety of miscel- 
 laneous statistical facts. These have been drawn from the 
 columns of various newspapers of the day, from the city direc- 
 tory, custom house and other records, and from personal observation. 
 
 San Francisco, at the close of 1853, is divided into 8 wards 
 for municipal purposes, and has nearly 250 public streets and 
 alleys open, many of which are graded and substantially planked. 
 It has 2 public squares formed and already surrounded by build- 
 ings. Besides an immense number of handsome and commodi- 
 ous edifices of frame, there are 626 brick or stone buildings, 
 already erected or in course of erection, within the limits of 
 Broadway and Bush street, Stockton street and the water front. 
 Of these 350 are two stories in height ; 154, three stories ; 83, 
 one story ; 34, four stories ; 3, five stories ; and 1, six stories. 
 Many of the houses are very large, and a few rival in size and 
 grandeur the finest buildings in the United States. Nearly one 
 half of the whole number were built during 1853, and about two 
 thirds have been constructed in the most substantial manner, 
 and made secure against the hottest fires. The real estate of 
 the city was valued, on the 1st of July, at $28,880,200. As, 
 since that period, this kind of property has risen twenty-five per 
 cent, in marketable value, while extensive improvements were 
 making in the interval, the valuation will justify an increase of 
 $10,000,000 on the estimate made in the summer. There are 
 160 hotels and public houses with a descriptive name, 66 restau- 
 rants and coffee saloons, 63 bakeries, 5 public markets and 43 
 private ones, 20 bathing establishments, 15 flour and saw mills, 
 13 foundries and iron works, and 18 public stables. 
 
 There are 19 banking firms, of which more than one-half are 
 extensive establishments of the highest credit ; and the opera- 
 tions of a single one, including its agencies, have been 
 $80,000,000 in one year. There are 9 fire, life and marine 
 insurance companies. There are 10 public schools, with 21 
 
CITY IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 493 
 
 teachers, and 1250 scholars, besides several private educational 
 establishments. There are 18 churches, and about 8000 church 
 members. There are 6 military companies (one of them, how- 
 ever, being chiefly for target practice), with 350 members in all, 
 of which number about 260 are on active duty. The companies 
 have a common armory and drill room. There are 14 fire com- 
 panies, numbering about 840 members, with 12 engines, and 3 
 hook and ladder trucks. There are 38 large public cisterns for 
 the use of the fire companies. There are 2 government hospitals, 
 1 hospital in the course of erection by a benevolent society, and 
 an alms-house, all having together about 600 patients, besides 
 private establishments of the same nature. There are 8 lodges 
 of secret benevolent associations, and 4 public benevolent socie- 
 ties, connected with different races. There is a fine law library, 
 and, be it said, about 200 attorneys. There are all the usual 
 juiblic buildings which are required in a city of the size, a hand- 
 some city hall, a jail, post-office, custom-house, and city, county 
 and state court rooms of various denominations. Tliere is also a 
 mint erecting. There are a great number of societies for mer- 
 cantile, professional, literary, social and religious purposes, among 
 which are the Chamber of Commerce, a gas and water compa- 
 ny, a plank road and various wharf companies, the Mercantile 
 Library Association, the Christian Library Association, Bible and 
 tract societies, several asylums for orphans, the California 
 Pioneers, the Philharmonic Society, the Medical Society, the 
 New England Society, the Turnverein (Gymnastic Society), the 
 Saeagerbund (Singer's band), the San Francisco Vcrcin, and the 
 German Club. There are resident consuls for 27 foreign govern- 
 ments. There are 12 daily newspapers, of which 8 are morning 
 papers, 3 evening papers, and 1 a German morning paper. 
 There are 2 tri-weeklies, both of them French ; and 6 weeklies, 
 of which 3 are religious, 1 commercial, 1 French, and 1 a Sun- 
 day paper. There are 2 monthly publications, of which 1 is an 
 agricultural journal, and the other literary. Among places of 
 public amusement, there are 5 American theatres (generally 
 three or four of which are at all times open), a French theatre, a 
 musical hall for concerts, balls, lectures, exhibitions, &o, a gym- 
 nasium and two race courses. During the year, there were open, 
 
494 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 besides the American and French theatres, a German theatre, a 
 Spanish theatre, and a Chinese theatre. The billiard rooms, and 
 the public and private places at which gambling is carried on, 
 can scarcely be counted ; and the same may be said of the 
 places where vast quantities of intoxicating liquors are daily 
 consumed. 
 
 There are 18 ocean steamers, of which 8 run to Panama, 4 
 to San Juan del Sud, 2 to Oregon, and 4 to points on the coast 
 of California ; and there are 23 river steamers, which ply to dif- 
 ferent parts on the bay and its tributaries. There is one line of 
 daily stages to San Jose, another to the Ked Woods, and one 
 thrice a week to Monterey. There are regular lines of omnibuses 
 on the plank roads, which run to the mission every half hour. 
 There is a magnetic telegraph eight miles in length, from Point 
 Lobos, for reporting vessels ; and another, extending altogether 
 upwards of three hundred miles, to Marysville, through San Jose, 
 Stockton and Sacramento. There are 2 great, and some smaller 
 express companies, which convey letters and packages to all parts 
 of the Union, and to many foreign countries. The great Atlan- 
 tic mails leave twice a month, via Panama ; and there are daily 
 mails to all places of importance around the bay or on the Sacra- 
 mento and San Joaquin Rivers. For nearly two months, in the 
 summer of 1853, a weekly mail left for the Eastern States, 
 but this, not being sufficiently supported by government, came 
 abruptly to an end. About 1,000,000 of letters were sent during 
 the year to foreign and Atlantic ports. 
 
 The settled portion of the city covers about three square 
 miles. The principal part of the business is carried on in houses 
 erected on piles, or built on earth filled in where the waves of 
 the bay rolled three years ago. There are 2 plank roads to the 
 mission, and one across the hills on Pacific street, on the way to 
 the presidio. There are 12 large wharves projecting directly 
 into the stream, besides nearly as many small cross ones. About 
 2 j miles of streets and wharves are made on piles over the water. 
 
 During 1853, there were, in round numbers, imported into 
 San Francisco, 100,000,000 pounds of flour and meal, worth 
 $5,000,000 ; 20,000,000 pounds of butter, worth $4,000,000 j 
 25,000,000 pounds of barley, worth $500,000 ; nearly 80,000,000 
 
COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. 
 
 495 
 
 feet of lumber, worth $4,000,000 ; 29,500 casks, and 12,000 
 packages, of hams ; 8,400 tierces, hogsheads and casks, 700 bar- 
 rels and 9,400 boxes, of bacon ; 51,000 barrels of pork ; 16,000 
 barrels of beef; about 40,000 barrels of refined, and 100,000 
 bags, 3,000 barrels and 4,000 boxes, of raw sugars ; 100,000 
 boxes of soap ; 170,000 cases of candles ; 1,100,000 pounds of 
 tea ; 115,000 bags of coffee, (not including some 13,000 boxes 
 of the article ground) ; 2,300 tierces, and 14,000 barrels of 
 Carolina rice, and over 400,000 bags of foreign rice ; and, of un- 
 specified provisions, 50 tons and 55,000 packages. There were 
 also imported, among a variety of other articles, 67,600 cases of 
 boots and shoes ; 31,000 bales, 20,000 cases and boxes, and 6,000 
 packages, of dry goods ; 80,000 tons of coal, and 550,000 pack- 
 ages of unspecified merchandise. Likewise, whiskey equal to 
 20,000 barrels, and 400 barrels of rum ; 9,000 casks, hogsheads 
 and pipes, 13,000 barrels, 2,600 kegs and 6,000 cases, of bran- 
 dy ; 34,000 baskets of champagne ; and, of other wines, 9,150 
 hogsheads and casks, 2,500 barrels, 1,800 kegs and 156,000 
 cases. To complete the long list of "drinks," there were also 
 imported, of beer, 24,000 casks and hogsheads, 13,000 barrels, 
 and 23,000 cases and boxes ; and of " unspecified liquors," 5,000 
 pipes and casks, 6,000 barrels, 5,000 kegs, 8,000 cases and 1,600 
 packages. These importations were to supply the wants of 
 fewer than four hundred thousand persons, resident in California 
 and Oregon, and some of them in the Sandwich Islands. The 
 total imports of the year were about 745,000 tons of goods, and 
 were valued at upwards of $35,000,000 ; or, on an average, two 
 tons, and about $100 for every person in the State of California 
 and Territory of Oregon. The freights to vessels coming into 
 San Francisco during the year were $11,752,084 ; and the 
 duties collected at the custom house were $2,581,975. The 
 only exports worthy of notice were about $65,000,000 of gold 
 dust (part only of which was manifested), and 18,800 flasks of 
 quicksilver, valued at $683,189. 
 
 The arrivals of the year were 1028 vessels, of 558,755 tons 
 (though carrying about one-third more), and the departures were 
 1653 vessels, of 640,072 tons. Of the entrances, 634 vessels 3 of 
 428,914 tons, were American, and 394 vessels, of 126,880 tons. 
 
496 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 were foreign. The difference between the statements of the en- 
 trances and departures arises chiefly from the circumstance that 
 the many vessels engaged in the Californian coasting trade were 
 cleared, but not entered in the custom house. The quickest pas- 
 sages of the year were made by the Flying Fish and the John 
 Gilpin, both " clipper ships." These were from New York, and 
 arrived on the 31st January, and 2d February, in 92 and 97 
 days respectively. At the close of the year, there were 72 square 
 rigged sailing vessels in the port, consisting of 21 ships, 36 
 barques, and 15 brigs. A few weeks, and sometimes a few days 
 only, were now sufficient to discharge the largest vessels, and fit 
 them ready to depart again for sea. Besides the vessels men- 
 tioned as being in port, there was also there a proportion of the 
 large ocean steamers and those that plied along the coast, and in 
 the bay and tributaries. Many old "forty-niners" and other 
 vessels that had arrived in various late years, served as store- 
 ships, or lay dismantled and neglected in various parts of the 
 harbor. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 1853. 
 
 Prosperity of San Francisco. — Business activity.— Fortunes rapidly made.— Disputes concerning titles 
 to real estate.— Real property commanding extravagantly high prices.— Social, moral and intellec- 
 tual characteristics.— Gambling. — Vice less concealed in San Francisco than in other cities.— The 
 female population. — Expenses of house-keoping. — Foreign population. — The marvellous progress 
 of the city during tho past few years. 
 
 Many of the observations regarding San Francisco and its citi- 
 zens made in the reviews of the several years since 1849, and in 
 the chronological order of the proper " Annals," may be fitly ap- 
 plied in describing the place and people at the present time. 
 Cities change neither their moral nor physical nature in a twelve- 
 month. The same broad characteristics that marked the first 
 great increase in the number of inhabitants are still visible. At 
 the beginning of 1854, the citizens are as remarkable, as in 1849 
 they were, for energy for good and evil, and the power of over- 
 coming physical obstacles, and creating mighty material changes. 
 Every where in the city is the workman busy at his trade. La- 
 borers of various kinds are still hewing down the rocky hills, 
 excavating the streets, grading and planking them ; they are 
 levelling building lots, and 'fearing mammoth hotels, hospitals, 
 stores, and other edifices ; they are piling and capping water 
 lots, and raising a new town upon the deep ; gas and water 
 works are forming ; sand hiUs are being continually shifted, and 
 cast, piecemeal, into the bay. The wharves are constantly lined 
 with clipper and other ships, the discharge of whose cargoes 
 gives employment to an army of sailors and boatmen, stevedores 
 and 'longshoremen. The streets are crowded with wagons and 
 vehicles of every description, bearing goods to and from the huge 
 stores and warehouses. The merchant and his clerk are busily 
 32 
 
498 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 buying and soiling, bartering and delivering ; and fleets of 
 steamers in the bay and rivers are conveying the greater part of 
 the goods disposed of to the interior towns and mining districts. 
 The ocean is covered with a multitude of ships that bear all man- 
 ner of luxuries and necessaries to San Francisco. Seven hundred 
 and forty-five thousand tons of the most valuable goods were 
 brought into port in one year. All the inhabitants of the city 
 are in some measure engaged in commerce, or in those manufac- 
 tures and trades that directly enable it to be profitably carried 
 on, or in supplying the wants, the necessities and extravagances 
 of the proper commercial community. The gold of the mines 
 pays for every thing, and it all passes through San Francisco. 
 Elsewhere we have talked of the high ordinary prices of labor, 
 and the assurance of employment to the earnest workman, who 
 is not above turning his hand to any kind of work, however 
 severe and irksome it may be. 
 
 Numerous fortunes were rapidly made in the early days of 
 San Francisco, when the golden gains were shared among a few 
 long-headed speculators, who fattened on the public means, or 
 who took advantage of peculiar circumstances, or who had for- 
 tune absolutely thrust upon them by lucky accident. The ordi- 
 nary rates of profit in all kinds of business were very great, and 
 unless the recipients squandered their gains in gambling, de- 
 bauchery, and extravagance, they were certain in a very short 
 time to grow rich. Capital, when lent, gave at all times a return 
 of from thirty to sixty per cent, per annum, with the best real 
 security that the country and the times could afford. In two 
 years' space, the financier doubled his capital, without risk or 
 trouble to himself ; and the accumulation went on in geometrical 
 progression. But chiefly it was the holders of real estate that 
 made the greatest fortunes. The possession of a small piece of 
 building ground in or about the centre of business was a fortune 
 in itself. Those lucky people who held lots from the times 
 before the discovery of gold, or who shortly afterwards managed 
 to secure them, were suddenly enriched, beyond their first most- 
 sanguine hopes. The enormous rents paid for the use of ground 
 and temporary buildings in 1849 made all men covetous of real 
 estate. By far the greater part had originally belonged to the 
 
VALUE OF REAL ESTATE. 
 
 499 
 
 city, formerly the so-called pueblo, or village of Yerba Buena ; 
 but the guardians of its interests, from the conquest downwards, 
 liberally helped themselves and their friends to all the choice 
 lots. In later years, the unappropriated lots were more remote 
 from the centre of business, although the gradual increase of 
 population was constantly adding to their value. Numerous 
 attempts were then made to filch from the city its more distant 
 tracts of land, and these were often successful. Meanwhile, the 
 legal title of the city itself to all its original estate was disputed, 
 and hosts of rival claimants started up. Conflicting decisions on 
 the subject were given in the courts of law, and all was uncer- 
 tainty and confusion, violence, ending sometimes in death to the 
 parties, and interminable litigation. The great value of the 
 coveted grounds led to reckless squatterism, and titles by oppo- 
 site claimants, three or four deep, were pretended to almost 
 every single lot within the municipal bounds. Those who had 
 really made permanent improvements, or who held actual and 
 lucrative possession, might defy the squatter ; but the multitude 
 of unimproved land and water lots, and the large tracts around 
 the business part of the city, upon which as yet there was not 
 even a fence, were fair spoils to the resolute invader. No matter 
 what previous title was alleged ; all titles were doubtful — except 
 possession perhaps, which was the best. We have, under differ- 
 ent dates, noticed at length the speculations of the city guar- 
 dians in real estate, the Colton grants, Peter Smith sales, and 
 squatter outrages. 
 
 The temptation to perpetrate any trick, crime, or violence, 
 to acquire real estate, seemed to be irresistible, when the great 
 returns drawn from it were considered. The reader in the Atlan- 
 tic States, who may think of the usual cheapness of land in new 
 towns, can scarcely realize the enormous prices chargeable in San 
 Francisco for the most paltry accommodation. We have seen 
 the excessive rents paid in 1849. Four years later, they were 
 nearly as high. The commonest shops, or counting-rooms, in 
 ordinary situations, would rent at from §200 to §400 per month, 
 while larger ones would readily bring §500 and §600. Capacious 
 and handsome stores, auctioneers' halls, and the like, in desirable 
 localities, would often be held at §1000 per month, or more. 
 
500 
 
 ANNALS OK SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 The rents of the larger hotels, of the restaurants, coffee saloons, 
 gambling and billiard rooms, and of the finer stores and ware- 
 houses, would appear almost incredible to the distant reader. 
 Ordinary stores, offices, and dwelling-houses were rented at 
 equally extravagant sums. One paid away a moderate fortune 
 as a year's rent for but a sorry possession. The profits of general 
 business were so great that large rents, before they became quite 
 so enormous, were readily given. Capitalists built more and 
 handsomer houses, which were tenanted as soon as ready for 
 occupation. In a couple of years, the building speculator in real 
 estate had all his outlay (which, since labor and materials were 
 so very high, was exceedingly great) returned to him in the 
 shape of rents. Henceforward his property was a very mine of 
 wealth. As rents rose, so did the prices of such property. The 
 richest men in San Francisco have made the best portion of their 
 wealth by the possession of real estate. 
 
 For several years, rents and the marketable value of real 
 estate had been slowly, though steadily rising. Towards the 
 close of 1853, they were at the highest. At that period, and 
 generally over a great part of the year named, trade and com- 
 merce in San Francisco were unprofitable, and in many cases 
 conducted at a serious loss. An excessive importation of goods, 
 far exceeding the wants of California, and which arose doubtless 
 from the large profits obtained by shippers during the previous 
 year, led to a general fall in prices, and occasionally to a com- 
 plete stagnation in trade. Then it was found that the whole 
 business of the city seemed to be carried on merely to pay rents. 
 A serious fall in these, and in the price of real estate, more 
 especially of unimproved land, followed this discovery, some no- 
 tice of which will be given in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 As we have said, during 1853, most of the moral, intellec- 
 tual, and social characteristics of the inhabitants of San Fran- 
 cisco were nearly as already described in the reviews of previous 
 years. There was still the old reckless energy, the old love of 
 pleasure, the fast making and fast spending of money, the old 
 hard labor and wild delights, jobberies and official and political 
 corruption, thefts, robberies and violent assaults, murders, duels 
 and suicides, gambling, drinking, and general extravagance and 
 
GAMBLING STILL PREVALENT. 
 
 501 
 
 dissipation. The material city was immensely improved in mag- 
 nificence, and its people generally had an unswerving faith in its 
 glorious future. Most of them were removed from social tram- 
 mels, and all from the salutary checks of a high moral puhlic 
 opinion. They had wealth at command, and all the passions of 
 youth were burning within them. They often, therefore, out- 
 raged public decency ; yet somehow the oldest residenters and the 
 very family men loved the place, with all its brave wickedness 
 and splendid folly. 
 
 Interior of the El Dorado. 
 
 In previous chapters we have dwelt so fully upon the general 
 practice of gambling in San Francisco, that it seems unnecessary 
 to do more than merely allude to it in this portion of the " An- 
 nals." The city has been long made notorious abroad for this 
 vice. Though not now practised to the large extent of former 
 years, gambling is still very prevalent among many classes of the 
 
502 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 inhabitants. The large public saloons, so numerous in 1849, 
 and immediately succeeding years, have become few in number 
 at the date of writing (April, 1854). The chief of them are the 
 "El Dorado," on the plaza, and the "Arcade" and "Polka," 
 in Commercial street. These places still exhibit the old las- 
 civious pictures on the walls, while orchestral music, excellently 
 performed, continues to allure the idle, the homeless and family- 
 less, as to a place of enjoyment, where their earnings are foolishly 
 spent. The cards are often still dealt out and the wheels turned, 
 or dice thrown, by beautiful women, well skilled in the arts 
 calculated to allure, betray and ruin the unfortunate men who 
 become their too willing victims. About the wharves, and in 
 various inferior streets, there are other public gaming tables, of 
 a lower description, where the miner particularly is duly fleeced 
 of his bags of dust. There are also some half a dozen noted 
 houses, of a semi-public character, where play is largely carried 
 on by the higher order of citizens. In these places, sumptuous 
 refreshments are provided gratuitously for visitors. The keepers 
 are wealthy men, and move in the better social circles of the 
 town. At their " banks," single stakes are quite frequently 
 made as high as a thousand dollars, and even five thousand dol- 
 lars are often deposited upon one hazard. The "bankers," how- 
 ever, are not too proud to accept a single dollar stake. The 
 game played is faro. At such places, very large sums are lost 
 and won ; and many fine fellows have been ruined there, as well 
 in mind as in pocket. In strictly private circles, there is like- 
 wise a great deal of play carried on, involving large sums. The 
 good old game of " long whist " is ridiculously slow and scientific 
 for the financial operations of the true gambler, and the seducing 
 "poker" is what is generally preferred. All these things un- 
 happily harmonize but too well with the general speculative spirit 
 that marks the people of San Francisco. 
 
 Though there be much vice in San Francisco, one virtue— 
 though perhaps a negative one, the citizens at least have. They 
 are not hypocrites, who pretend to high qualities which they do 
 not possess. In great cities of the old world, or it may be even 
 in those of the pseudo-righteous New England States, there may 
 be quite as much crime and vice committed as in San Francisco, 
 
THE FEMALE POPULATION. 
 
 503 
 
 only the customs of the former places throw a decent shade over 
 the grosser, viler aspects. The criminal, the fool, and the volup- 
 tuary are not allowed to boast, directly or indirectly, of then- 
 bad, base, or foolish deeds, as is so often done in California. Yet 
 these deeds are none the less blamable on that account, nor per- 
 haps are our citizens to be more blamed because they often seek 
 not to disguise their faults. Many things that are considered 
 morally and socially wrong by others at a distance, are not so 
 viewed by San Franciscans when done among themselves. It is 
 the hurt done to a man's own conscience that often constitutes 
 the chief harm of an improper action ; and if San Franciscans 
 conscientiously think that, after all, their wild and pleasant life 
 is not so very, very wrong, neither is it so really and truly wrong 
 as the puritanic and affectedly virtuous people of Maine-liquor- 
 prohibition, and of foreign lands would fain believe. 
 
 There was a small, though steady increase, during the year 
 in the number of female immigrants. New domestic circles were 
 formed, and the happy homes of old countries were growing 
 more numerous. Yet while there are very many beautiful, 
 modest, and virtuous women in San Francisco, fit friends and 
 companions to honest men, it may be said that numbers of the 
 sex have fallen very readily into the evil ways of the place. 
 Perhaps the more " lovely " they were, the more readily they 
 " stooped to folly." It is difficult for any woman, however 
 pure, to preserve an unblemished reputation in a community like 
 San Francisco, where there is so great a majority of men, and 
 where so many are unprincipled in mind and debauchees by in- 
 clination. Not all women are unchaste whom voluptuaries and 
 scandal-mongers may wish to think such. The wives and daugh- 
 ters of respectable citizens must be held pure and worthy. Their 
 presence here confers inestimable blessings upon society. There 
 are known mistresses and common prostitutes enough left to 
 bring disgrace upon the place. By the laws of California divorces 
 are readily obtainable by both husband and wife, one of whom may 
 think him or herself injured by the unfaithful or cruel conduct 
 of the other, and who, perhaps, disliking his or her mate, or loving 
 another, may wish to break the bonds of wedlock. Divorces are 
 accordingly growing very numerous here, and have helped to 
 
504 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 raise a general calumny against the sex. Some of the newspa- 
 pers now regularly give, without comment, these " matrimonial 
 
 San Francisco Beauties— the Celestial, the Seflora, and Madame. 
 
 jars" as pieces of news in their columns, facetiously placing 
 "divorces" between the ordinary lists of "marriages" and 
 " deaths." Like the male inhabitants, the females of San Fran- 
 cisco are among the finest specimens, physically, of the sex, that 
 can anywhere be seen. 
 
 The subject of females naturally introduces that of house- 
 keeping ; and we accordingly take occasion here to mention a 
 few items regarding the expenses of a family in San Francisco at 
 the beginning of 1854. The wages of female servants are from 
 fifty to seventy-five dollars per month. Wood costs fifteen dol- 
 lars per cord ; coal, per hundred-pound sack, three dollars ; and 
 the same, per ton, delivered, fifty dollars. At market, the best cuts 
 of beef, pork, and mutton, are thirty-seven and a halt" cents per 
 pound ; venison is thirty-one cents ; salmon, twenty-five cents ; 
 
FOREIGN POPULATION. 
 
 505 
 
 best fresh butter, one dollar ; second quality of the same, 
 seventy-five cents ; Goshen butter, fifty cents ; fresh eggs, one 
 dollar and twenty-five cents per dozen ; Boston eggs, seventy- 
 five cents per dozen ; turkeys, six to ten dollars each ; wild 
 geese, or ducks, one dollar each ; chickens, two dollars and fifty 
 cents to three dollars each ; quails, six dollars per dozen ; pota- 
 toes, two to three cents per pound ; cabbages, twenty-five cents 
 a head ; cauliflowers, thirty-seven to fifty cents each ; turnips, 
 parsnips, and beets, one dollar per dozen ; milk, twenty-five 
 cents per quart. Kents of dwelling-houses vary from fifteen or 
 twenty dollars per month, for a single small apartment, up to 
 five hundred dollars per month, or what more one will, if a sty- 
 lish mansion must be had. 
 
 The multitude of foreign races in San Francisco, French, 
 Germans, and Hispano-Americans, with all their different com- 
 plexions, tongues, modes of dressing, amusements, manner of liv- 
 ing, and occupations, so different from those of the Americans, 
 and the numerous half-helot tribes of Chinese, Lascars, and ne- 
 groes, who are still more unlike our people in their natural 
 and acquired characteristics, — all make the city the most 
 curious Babel of a place imaginable. There are many less, 
 though still considerable shades of difference existing anions- 
 Americans themselves, who are drawn from all corners of the 
 Union, and between them and the various distinctive natives of 
 the British Isles. Again, there are numerous individuals from 
 European countries, not yet named, such as Italians, Spaniards, 
 Greeks, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, and others. All these peoples, 
 differing in language, blood, and religion, in color and other 
 physical marks, in dress and personal manners, mental habits, 
 hopes, joys, fears, and pursuits, and in a multitude of nice par- 
 ticulars, stamp upon San Francisco a peculiarly striking and 
 motley character. The traveller and the student of mankind 
 will meet here with specimens of nearly every race upon earth, 
 whether they be red, yellow, black, or white. Many of them 
 are still seen in their national state, or at least with the broadest 
 traces of their native qualities. In some respects, however, per- 
 haps most of them have been deeply impressed by the genius of 
 the place. Such show the peculiar mark of Young America on 
 
506 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the Pacific — the Californian, and especially the San Franciscan 
 "go-ahead" disposition. Let the immigrant he from what 
 country and of what personal temperament and character he 
 may, a short residence here will make him a shrewder and more 
 eneigetic man, who works harder, lives faster, and enjoys more 
 of both intellectual and sensuous existence than he would be 
 
 Colored population— Greaser, CMnaman, and N<>gro. 
 
 able to do in any other land. On any occasion of public excite- 
 ment, such as a fire, a fight, an indignation or filibustering 
 meeting, or the like, there is gathered together a multitude, 
 which cannot be paralleled in any other place, of stalwart, 
 bearded men, most of whom are in the early prime of life, fine, 
 healthy, handsome fellows. The variety and confusion of tongues 
 and personal characteristics, the evident physical strength, 
 reckless bravery, and intelligence of the crowd, make a tout 
 ensemble that is very awful to contemplate. Turn these men 
 into an angry mob, armed, as at all times most of them secretly 
 
ASTONISHING PROGRESS OF THE CITY. 
 
 I 
 
 507 
 
 are, with revolvers and bowie-knives, and a legion of drilled sol- 
 diers could scarcely stand before them. These youthful giants 
 are the working spirits of San Francisco, that have given it a 
 world-wide fame for good and evil. 
 
 When the early California pioneer wandered through the 
 city, and contrasted the lofty structures which he saw on all sides ; 
 the broad, level, and bustling streets, the chief of them formed 
 where once rolled the long swell of the sea ; the great fire-proof 
 warehouses and stores, filled with the most valuable products of 
 all lands ; the wharves, crowded with the largest and finest 
 vessels in the world ; the banks, hotels, theatres, gambling 
 .saloons, billiard-rooms and ball-rooms, churches, hospitals and 
 schools, gin palaces and brick palaces ; the imposing shops, 
 within whose plate-glass windows were displayed the richest 
 assortment of articles of refined taste and luxury ; the vast 
 amount of coined money incessantly circulating from hand to 
 hand ; the lively and brilliant array of horse and carriage riders ; 
 the trains of lovely women, and the crowds of well-dressed, eager 
 men, natives of every country on the globe, most of whom were 
 in the flower of life, and many were very models of manly or of 
 feminine beauty — for the cripple, the hunchback, the maimed and 
 deformed find not their way hither — when the veteran immigrant, 
 contrasted these things with what had been only a few years 
 before, he could scarcely persuade himself that all the wonders 
 he saw and heard were aught but a dream. The humble adobes, 
 and paltry wooden sheds ; the bleak sand hills, thinly dotted with 
 miserable shrubs ; the careless, unlettered, ignorant, yet some- 
 what gallant Californians ; the few ragged Indians and fewer free 
 white men ; the trifling trade and gentle stir of the recently 
 founded settlement of Yerba Buena, where coin was a curiosity ; 
 the great mud flat of the cove with its half dozen smacks or 
 fishing boats, canted half over at low tide, and perhaps a mile 
 farther out, a solitary square-rigged ship, the peaceful aspect of 
 the village of the olden time — all flashed across the gazer's 
 memory. Before one hair had turned gray, ere almost the suck- 
 ing babe had learned his letters, the magic change had been 
 accomplished. Plutus rattled his money bags, and straightway 
 the world ran to gather the falling pieces. The meanest yet 
 
508 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 most powerful of gods waved his golden wand, and lo ! the desert 
 became a great city. This is an age of marvels ; and we have 
 seen and mingled in them. Let the pioneer rub his eyes : it is 
 no mirage, no Aladdin's palace that he sees — but real, substan- 
 tial tenements — real men and women — an enduring, magnificent 
 city. 
 
 When the later pioneer took his sentimental stroll, memory 
 only recalled the frantic scenes of the memorable '49 — a period 
 that never can be forgotton by those who saw and shared in its 
 glorious confusion. The lottery of life that then existed ; the 
 wild business and wilder amusements ; the boundless hopes ; the 
 ingenious, desperate speculations; the fortunes made in a day 
 and lost or squandered nearly as quickly ; the insatiable spirit of 
 play ; the midnight orgies ; the reckless daring of all things ; the 
 miserable shanties and tents ; the half-savage, crime and poverty- 
 stained, joyous multitudes, who had hastened from the remotest 
 parts of the earth, to run a terrible career, to win a new name, 
 fortune and happiness, or perish in the struggle ; the com- 
 mingling of races, of all ranks and conditions of society ; the 
 incessant rains and deep sloughs in the streets, with their layers, 
 fourteen feet deep, of hams, hardware, and boxes of tobacco, 
 where among clamorous and reckless crowds people achieved the 
 dangerous passage ; the physical discomforts ; the sickness, deser- 
 tion, despair and death of old, heart-broken shipmates and boy- 
 hood companions, whom remorse could not bring again to life, 
 nor soothe the penitent for his cruel neglect ; the rotting, aban- 
 doned fleets in the bay ; the crime, violence, vice, folly, brutal 
 desires and ruinous habits ; the general hell (not to talk profanely) 
 of the place and people — these things, and many of a like sad- 
 dening or triumphant nature, filled the mind of the moralizing 
 " forty-niner." 
 
 If these pioneers — and like them every later adventurer to 
 California may think and feel, for all have contributed something 
 to the work — lent themselves to the enthusiasm and fancy of the 
 moment, they might be tempted with the Eastern king to 
 proudly exclaim, and as truly : Is not this great Babylon that I 
 have built, for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my 
 power, and for the honor of my majesty I Many obstacles, both 
 
ASTONISHING PROGRESS OF THE CITY. 
 
 509 
 
 of a physical and moral nature, have been encountered and grad- 
 ually overcome before the grand result was obtained. Hills were 
 removed and the deep sea filled up. Town after town was built, 
 only to be consumed. Great fires destroyed in one hour the labor 
 of months and years. Commercial crises and stagnation in trade 
 came to crush individuals. The vagabonds and scoundrels of 
 foreign lands, and those too of the federal Union, were loosed 
 upon the city. Robbers, incendiaries and murderers, political 
 plunderers, faithless "fathers" and officials, lawless squatters, 
 daring and organized criminals of every description, all the worst 
 moral elements of other societies, were concentrated here, to 
 retard, and if possible finally destroy the prosperity of the place. 
 All were successively mastered. Yet the excesses of the " Hounds," 
 the scenes of the great fires, the action of the " Vigilance Com- 
 mittee," and the crimes that created it, the multitude of indigna- 
 tion meetings and times of popular strife, the squatter riots, and 
 the daily occurrence of every kind of violent outrage — whatever 
 was most terrible in the history of the city, will ever be remem- 
 bered by the early citizens. Some of the worst of these things 
 will never again occur ; and others are being yearly modified, and 
 deprived of much of their old frightful character. For the 
 honest, industrious and peaceable man, San Francisco is now as 
 safe a residence as he can find in any other large city. For the 
 rowdy and " shoulder-striker," the drunkard, the insolent, foul- 
 mouthed speaker, the quarrelsome, desperate politician and ca- 
 lumnious writer, the gambler, the daring speculator in strange 
 ways of business, it is a dangerous place to dwell in. There are 
 many of such characters here, and it is principally their excesses 
 and quarrels that make our sad daily record of murders, duels, 
 and suicides. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 1854. 
 
 Meeting of citizens regarding the State Revenue Act — Run on Adams & Co. — Banking and bank- 
 ing-houses. — The Express Building. — Weather unusually cold. — Effects of the weather upon the 
 interests of tho country. — Le Count & Strong's Directory for 1854. — Loss of the clipper ship 
 San Francisco. — The city lighted with gas. — Riot at the Mercantile Hotel. 
 
 January 9th. — Large public meeting held, of parties chiefly 
 interested, at the Merchants' Exchange, to consider the effect of 
 certain late decisions by the Supreme Court, which had estab- 
 lished the constitutionality of the State Revenue Act of 15th 
 May, 1853. Many of the provisions in this Act, such as the 
 heavy license duties laid upon auctioneers and others ; the duty 
 of one per cent, chargeable on goods and real estate exposed to 
 auction ; that of " ten cents upon each one hundred dollars of 
 business estimated to be transacted " by bankers, and dealers in 
 exchanges, stocks, gold dust, and similar occupations ; and par- 
 ticularly the tax of sixty cents per one hundred dollars laid upon 
 " consigned goods," were considered to be unequal, oppressive and 
 unconstitutional in their operation. The following were declared 
 to be " consigned goods " within the meaning and intent of the 
 Act : " All goods, wares, merchandise, provisions, or any other 
 property whatsoever, brought or received within this State (Cal- 
 ifornia) from any other State, or from any foreign country, to be 
 sold in this State, owned by any person or persons not domiciled 
 in this State." It was estimated, that if the tax upon "con- 
 signed goods" were enforced, an annual burden of $300,000 
 would be laid upon shippers to the port. In like manner, the 
 tax upon the sales of personal property, to say nothing of those 
 of real estate, would form a burden of $125,000 annually ; while 
 the duties leviable upon the banking class would be so monstrous 
 
REVENUE ACT — BANKING HOUSES. 511 
 
 that their business could not be carried on. The parties against 
 whom these duties were leviable, refused to pay them ; and 
 accordingly actions had been raised by the proper officials on the 
 part of the State to try their legality. The Supreme Court of 
 California had just established that point in favor of the State, 
 but those who were affected by the obnoxious provisions of the 
 Revenue Act still refused to acknowledge their validity. 
 
 At the meeting above mentioned (Alfred Dewitt, chairman), 
 resolutions were unanimously passed — condemning the objection- 
 able parts of the Revenue Act as ' : flagrantly oppressive and 
 unjust " — declaring that they never would be submitted to, until 
 r all lawful and proper methods of redress should be exhausted " — 
 instructing counsel to move for a rehearing of the case before 
 the Supreme Court, and to prosecute all appeals that could be 
 made to the Supreme Court of the United States — that a me- 
 morial should be prepared and laid before the Legislature praying 
 for a repeal of the Act complained of — and that various com- 
 mittees should be appointed to collect subscriptions from the 
 citizens and carry out the views expressed in the resolutions. Such 
 committees were accordingly chosen, and the meeting separated. 
 
 While we write, the matters complained of remain in an 
 unsatisfactory and unsettled state. The law has not been enforced 
 and there is considerable doubt whether it ever can or will be. 
 The subject is one of great importance to the prosperity of San 
 Francisco, and has added strength and bitterness to the charges 
 often made against the Legislature, that it consults in its pro- 
 ceedings more the interests of the mining and agricultural than 
 of the commercial portion of the State. 
 
 January 18th. — Run upon Adams & Co., bankers. This 
 commenced on the evening of the 17th, and continued all next 
 day. It arose from the circumstance that the name of Adams 
 & Co. did not appear among the published list of those who had 
 exported gold by the semi-monthly steamers. The firm named 
 had actually shipped their usual quantity of specie, but this fact 
 was not known to the public. Upwards of a thousand of the 
 smaller depositors took the alarm, and hastened to withdraw their 
 money. The house, whose solvency was undoubted by large 
 capitalists, was well able to meet the unexpected demand, and, 
 
512 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 by the close of business on the 18th, had paid out §416,000. In 
 a short time afterwards, their old customers gladly re-deposited the 
 sums so hastily drawn. We take this opportunity to make a few 
 remarks upon banking in San Francisco. 
 
 There are no chartered banks in California. By the Consti- 
 tution, no corporation for banking purposes can exist in the 
 State, nor is any species of paper circulation admitted. The 
 first regular banking house in San Francisco was established on 
 the 9th day of January, 1849, under the firm of Naglee & Sinton. 
 Their " Exchange and Deposit Office " was on Kearny street, 
 fronting the plaza, in the building known as the Parker House, 
 and on the site of the present City Hall. Mr. Sinton soon retired 
 from the firm. The business was then continued by Mr. Naglee 
 until the run already noticed, on the bank, in September 1850. 
 when he closed. Prior to the opening of this office, deposits 
 were made with the different mercantile houses having safes, such 
 as Ward & Co. ; W. H. Davis ; Melius, Howard & Co. ; Dewitt & 
 Harrison ; Cross & Co. ; Macondray & Co., and others. This was 
 not only the case at San Francisco, but at places in the interior. 
 At Sutter's Fort, and afterwards at Sacramento City, the princi- 
 pal houses of deposit were S. Brannan & Co. ; Hensley, Reading 
 <t Co. ; and Priest, Lee & Co. 
 
 As the population increased, the work of receiving and pay- 
 ing out deposits became so great, that the necessity of houses 
 devoted especially to the business began to be felt ; and these 
 accordingly were soon established. At the close of 1849, the 
 following houses were in operation : 
 
 Henry M. Naglee established January 9th, 1849. 
 
 Burgoyne & Co do June 5th " 
 
 B. Davidson do about September " 
 
 Thomas G. Wells (afterwards Wells & Co), do do October " 
 James King of William do December 5th, " 
 
 Previous to the discovery of gold and the consequent rapid 
 influx of population, there was but very little coin in the country, 
 and that little mostly in the towns of Monterey, San Francisco, 
 San Diego and Los Angeles. Payments throughout the country- 
 were frequently made in cattle, hides, &c. The gentleman, — 
 an eminent banker in San Francisco, — from whom we have ob- 
 
BANKING HOUSES — EXPRESS BUILDING. 
 
 513 
 
 tained these and the following facts upon banking, has seen an 
 account, credited, " by two cows in full" for a physician's bill of 
 $20. This was in 1847, and near Los Angeles. After the dis- 
 covery of gold, that substance in its natural state became the 
 currency, and passed in all business operations at $16 per ounce. 
 The scarcity of coin was so great about and for some time after 
 that period, and the demand for it to pay custom-house duties 
 so urgent, that gold dust was frequently offered at $8 and $10 
 per ounce. This was particularly the case in the months of 
 November and December, 1848. During the same months in 
 1849, the bankers' rates were as follows : for grain dust, $15.50 
 to $15.75 per ounce ; and for quicksilver dust, $14.50 to $14.75 
 per ounce. This was when coin was paid out for the dust. 
 When the bankers received it in deposit, they valued it at $16 
 per ounce and repaid it at the same rate. 
 
 D. J. Tallant (now Tallant & Wilde), opened his bank- 
 ing house in February, 1850 ; and Page, Bacon & Co., and 
 F. Argenti & Co., theirs in June of the same year. Subsequently 
 several others were established. At this date (April, 1854), the 
 following houses are in operation : — Burgoyne & Co., established 
 June 5th, 1849 ; B. Davidson, September, 1849 ; James King 
 of Wm., December 5th, 1849 ; Tallant & Wilde, February, 1850 ; 
 Page, Bacon & Co., June, 1850 ; Adams & Co. (first as express 
 agents, now express and banking house) ; Palmer, Cook & Co. ; 
 Drexel, Sather & Church ; Robinson & Co. (savings bank) ; 
 Sanders & Brenham ; Carothers, Anderson & Co. ; Lucas, 
 Turner & Co. 
 
 January 20th. — The " Express Building," north-east corner 
 of Montgomery and California streets, completed, the foundations 
 having been laid in September, 1853. This is another of Mr. 
 Samuel Brannan's magnificent street improvements. The build- 
 ing is seventy-five feet high, having four stories and a basement, and 
 has a front on Montgomery street of sixty-eight feet, and on Cal- 
 ifornia street, of sixty-two and a half feet, and cost, exclusive 
 of the land. $180,000. The lot is valued at $100,000. Wells, 
 Fargo & Co., bankers and express agents, and Pollard & Co., 
 real estate and money brokers, occupy the lower floor. In the 
 fourth story the society of California Pioneers have their hall 
 33 
 
,314 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and secretary's office. The remainder of the building is used 
 for a variety of business purposes. 
 
 Express Building. 
 
 An unusual degree of cold was experienced in San Fran- 
 cisco for several days about this time, exceeding any thing 
 that " the oldest inhabitant " recollected. To-day, ice, in some 
 places an inch thick, was formed in the streets. Within doors, 
 the water in pitchers was generally frozen. At two o'clock 
 p. m., icicles a foot in length hung from the roofs of houses on 
 which the sun had been shining all day. The small lagoons 
 around the city were frozen over, and excellent skating was had 
 
THE WEATHER AND ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 515 
 
 on ponds near the mission. The hills in Contra Costa and near 
 the mission had their summits covered with snow. 
 
 There is a whimsical notion among native Californians, that 
 the coming of " these Yankee devils " has completely changed 
 the character of the seasons here, the winter months especially 
 being, it is believed, now wetter and colder than before the 
 American advent, The excessive rains of the winters of 1849- 
 50, and 1852-53, lent some fanciful support to the Calif .rniau 
 faith. The frosts and snows of January, 1854, seemed to cor- 
 roborate it. The winter of 1850-51 on the other hand, was warm, 
 dry and agreeable, to a degree seldom experienced even in the 
 usually mild climate of California. 
 
 We have alluded here particularly to these facts, from the 
 circumstance that San Francisco is peculiarly dependent on the 
 weather, inasmuch as the character of the latter materially affects 
 the production of gold in the mining regions. Too much water 
 or too little, at particular seasons of the year, will equally pre- 
 vent mining from being very successful. In summer, the miners 
 are generally engaged at what are called the " wet diggings," in 
 or beside the beds of rivers, when these are low. There, unex- 
 pected rains and consequent floods would ruin all their prospects. 
 At other periods of the year, when the rivers are full, the miners 
 work upon the "dry diggings," upon plains, uplands, and in 
 ravines, which are often at a considerable distance from any 
 stream. As, however, large quantities of water are required for 
 the purpose of washing the auriferous earth, rains then become 
 necessary. In many districts at certain seasons, rich " dry dig- 
 gings " have been prematurely deserted for want of sufficient 
 supplies of water. To rectify this want, large rivers have been 
 turned, at great labor and expense, from their course, and their 
 waters led by artificial channels to whatever places they may 
 be in demand, those persons using the water paying certain 
 rates for the privilege. The water companies, many of which 
 possess large capitals, form peculiar features of the mining dis- 
 tricts. They, however, can. assist but a small portion of the 
 whole number of " dry diggings," and copious rains are indispen- 
 sable for the rest. The rains in the early part of the winter of 
 1853-54 had been very slight ; and great inconvenience was expe- 
 
516 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 rienced at the mines for want of the usual supplies of water. 
 The rivers were too full for " wet diggings," and the plains and 
 hill sides too dry for " dry diggings." The production of gold 
 was therefore materially lessened, and this fact, joined with a 
 glut of imported goods, and heavy charges upon business, partic- 
 ularly the enormous rents, had produced much commercial dis- 
 tress about this period in San Francisco. In the spring of 1854, 
 abundant rains fell, which set the miners all busy at profitable 
 work, and it was expected by many that commerce would con- 
 sequently revive. Other circumstances, however, prevented that 
 desirable event, which shall be noticed in the next chapter. 
 
 February. — Publication of the San Francisco Directory for 
 1854. This is only noticed from the circumstance of its being 
 much the fullest and most reliable directory that had appeared 
 here. It contained the names and addresses of about twelve 
 thousand persons ; and, in an Appendix, a very great deal of 
 useful and curious information about the city. The canvasser 
 and compiler was Frank Rivers. It was published by LeCount 
 & Strong. 
 
 February 8th. — Loss of the clipper ship San Francisco, from 
 New York to this port. This was a fine new ship of large ton- 
 nage, whose cargo was valued at $400,000. In beating through 
 the entrance to the bay, she missed stays and struck the rocks 
 on the north side, opposite Fort Point. This was nearly at the 
 spdt where the English outward-bound ship Jenny Lind, from 
 the same cause, was wrecked a few months before. The " Golden 
 Gate " is narrow, but the channel is deep and perfectly safe, if 
 only its peculiarities be known and attended to. The loss of the 
 ships named was supposed to be more attributable to the igno- 
 rance or neglect of their pilots than to any natural dangers in the 
 place at the time. If it were obligatory on masters of sailing 
 vessels, not small coasters, to employ steam-tugs to bring their 
 ships from outside the Heads into the harbor, such accidents as 
 these could not occur. It appears that twenty-three large ves- 
 sels have either been wrecked, stranded, or seriously injured in 
 San Francisco Bay since 1850. This number is exclusive of any 
 accidents occurring to vessels at anchor in the roadsteads, or lying 
 
THE CITY LIGHTED WITH GAS. 517 
 
 at the wharves. The total losses in the harbor, since 1850, are 
 estimated to have exceeded a million and a half dollars. 
 
 The wreck of the San Francisco was attended by circum- 
 stances very discreditable to some of the people in and around 
 the city. So soon as the occurrence was known, a multitude of 
 plunderers hastened to the wreck, and proceeded to help them- 
 selves from the ship's hold. It was in vain that the owners or 
 their agents attempted to drive them away. Some two hundred 
 dare-devil Americans, nearly all armed with the usual weapons, 
 five or six-shooters and bowie knives, were not to be frightened 
 by big words. They stood their ground, and continued to take 
 and rob as they pleased, plundering from each other as well as 
 from the ship. It was said that even some of the soldiers from 
 the presidio crossed the strait, and became wreckers themselves. 
 Then a storm came, and scattered and capsized the deep-laden 
 boats that were bearing the spoil away. Some were carried out 
 to sea, and were lost ; others were swamped close beside the wreck 
 and a few of their passengers were drowned. The number of 
 lives lost could not be exactly ascertained, although it was sup- 
 posed that, at least, a dozen persons must have perished in the 
 midst of their unhallowed occupation. There were no fives lost 
 of those connected with the San Francisco. She was sold after 
 the wreck, as she lay, her contents included, for $ 12,000. A short 
 time afterwards, and when some of the lighter parts of the cargo 
 had been removed, the ship went to pieces, as had been the 
 case with the Jenny Lind, before her. 
 
 February 11th. — The city was first lighted with coal gas on 
 the evening of this day. The occasion was celebrated by several 
 hundred citizens at a banquet given by the trustees of the " San 
 Francisco Gras Company," in the Oriental Hotel. Already about 
 three miles of pipes were laid in the streets, to be increased as the 
 public accommodation required. At first, only a few of the prin- 
 cipal streets and some of the leading hotels and large mercantile 
 establishments were lighted with gas ; but every day the number 
 is increasing. The " Metropolitan " theatre, a few weeks after 
 this date, adopted the new light. It will, of course, soon become 
 general, and prove a great benefit to the city. When in addition 
 to gas, the leading street-grades are completed, the streets them- 
 
518 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 selves properly paved with stone, and fresh water introduced by 
 the " Mountain Lake Water Company/' San Francisco will pre- 
 sent an appearance equally agreeable and striking to those who 
 recollect the dangers and troubles of traversing its old swampy 
 paths on dark nights. The price charged by the company for 
 the gas was §15 per thousand feet. In regard to this rate, J. M. 
 Moss, the president of the company, remarked at the entertain- 
 ment above alluded to, that, considering that in San Francisco 
 the price of coal was $36 to $40 per ton — money, 36 per cent, 
 per annum — labor, §6 to §7 per day — gas was furnished here 50 
 per cent, lower than in New Orleans, and about 20 per cent 
 lower than in New York. The San Francisco Gas Company was 
 incorporated with a capital of $450,000, and their works were 
 commenced in November, 1852. These are situated on Front 
 6treet, one hundred and thirty-seven and a half feet, extending 
 from Howard to Fremont street, along which streets they have a 
 depth of two hundred and seventy-five feet. The company was 
 organized with the following officers : — President — Beverley C. 
 Sanders ; Vice-President — J. Mora Moss ; Secretary — John 
 Crane ; Trustees — B. C. Sanders, J. M. Moss, James Donahue, 
 John H. Saunders, John Crane. 
 
 The first street lamps in San Francisco were erected in Mer- 
 chant street, by Mr. James B. M. Crooks, in October, 1850. 
 They were lighted with oil, and to be paid for by private subscrip- 
 tion. The same gentleman had also completed the erection of 
 ninety lamps, on the 20th of February, 1852, on Montgomery, 
 Clay, Washington and Commercial streets, to be paid for in a 
 similar manner. These, with the exception of four posts, were 
 all destroyed by the fire of the 4th of May following. In the 
 autumn of 1852, the common council contracted with Mr. Crooks 
 to light the city within the limits of Battery, Kearny, Jackson 
 and California streets. This contract was carried out until the 
 introduction of gas as above related, by a contract made with 
 Mr. James Donahue for the " San Francisco Gas Company." 
 
 February 17th. — A serious riot took place this afternoon at 
 the Mercantile Hotel, when the policemen in their endeavors to 
 perform their duty by apprehending the rioters, were maltreated 
 by them, and severely injured. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 1854. 
 
 Commercial depression. — Decrease in the value of real estate and merchandise. — Combination of the 
 steamboat owners.— Eates of freight and passage on river steamers.— Duels and duelling.— Sale 
 of "government reserve" town lots. — Celebration of St. Patrick's day.— Conviction of filibusters 
 —Opening of the San Francisco branch mint— The Pacific railroad. — Falling of the U. S. bonded- 
 warehouse. — Explosion of the boiler of the steamboat "Secretary." — Arrival of Chinese immi- 
 grants.— Quick passage of the clipper ship "Flying Cloud."— Wreck of the " Golden Fleece." 
 
 March. — San Francisco is passing through a time of much mer- 
 cantile distress. For many months before this period, commer- 
 cial business had been unprofitable to those conducting it. We 
 have already alluded to the circumstance that an excessive 
 quantity of goods had arrived during the latter part of 1853. 
 In the spring of 1854, importations continued very large. The 
 market was completely glutted, and prices of the great staples 
 of commerce fell day by day. Several bankruptcies ensued, and 
 the whole commercial community were suffering severe losses. 
 The clipper ship Bald Eagle, and some other vessels, were fully 
 freighted to New York and other eastern ports with goods simi- 
 lar to those they had recently brought from thence. Besides the 
 general lack of business and low prices of merchandise, one great 
 cause of commercial losses here was the high rents charged for 
 stores and general business premises. During 1853, an unusual- 
 ly large number of expensive fire-proof buildings had been erect- 
 ed, which at first were in great demand at much increased rates. 
 When sales and prices of goods fell off, dealers could no longer 
 afford to pay the raised rents. It was found, at the same time, 
 that builders had been largely anticipating the natural demand 
 for business accommodation, and had erected far more houses 
 than could be profitably occupied. Soon the large number of 
 empty stores forced owners of house property to reduce rents from 
 
520 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 twenty to thirty per cent. ; at which reduction not many more 
 tenements were occupied than before. 
 
 All this while, as building was briskly going on and rents 
 were rising, the marketable value of all kinds of real estate was 
 greatly enhanced. Unimproved lots, within a wide circle round 
 the settled portions of the city, became suddenly in demand, at 
 many times their recent price. Speculation in real estate was 
 rife, and holders who had the prudence timeously to sell out, real- 
 ized large sums. Many people thought that surely the advance 
 could not last, but it did ; and prices still continued to rise. 
 Had trade been good, it is hard to say how high and how long 
 the increased prices, — great part of which was certainly without 
 just cause, — would have gone on ; although doubtless the reac- 
 tion would have come by and by. The bad condition of com- 
 mercial affairs, and the reduction in store rents, hastened the 
 downfall. About the close of December, 1853, at the time of 
 the great sales of water lots, prices of real estate were about the 
 highest. Two months later, unimproved town lots were almost 
 unsalable at any price, while house property suffered a fall cor- 
 responding to the reduction in rents. This led to the failure of a 
 few speculators in real estate. Looking, disinterestedly, at the 
 great extent of ground around the city still unbuilt upon, the 
 number of empty stores, the acknowledged overdoing of com- 
 mercial business, and, above all, the comparatively slow rate at 
 which, of late, the population of the State and city is increasing, 
 it appears to us highly probable that many years will pass before 
 the recent high prices be again witnessed. Most likely, the 
 present reduced prices for all kinds of real estate, but more par- 
 ticularly for unimproved lots, will continue, for some months, to 
 fall lower. When the population of the State, and by conse- 
 quence that of its great port, are materially increased, prices of 
 real estate in San Francisco may be expected to rise far above 
 the present or even the recent high rates. 
 
 While there seemed not much hope for any rise in the value 
 of real estate for a long period, prices of merchandise in the lat- 
 ter part of this month began slightly to improve. The prospects 
 of a general European war, and the expected diminution of ship- 
 ments from other ports to San Francisco, as well as the increasing 
 
DUELS AND DUELLING. 521 
 
 production of gold at the mines, led to the belief that before long 
 the commercial market would, at last, become again profitable to 
 merchants. All mercantile communities are subject to occasional 
 depression, but these in the end work their own cure. In the 
 instance before us, the chief loss would fall, not upon the general 
 inhabitants of San Francisco, — who only got their merchandise 
 cheaper, — nor even on its many commission merchants ; but on 
 the foreign shippers who wilfully and recklessly continued to flood 
 our market with goods that were not wanted at the time. 
 
 About this time, a combination was formed among the own- 
 ers of the various steamboats plying on the bay and interior 
 waters. The capital of this great joint-stock association, called 
 the " California Steam Navigation Company," was declared to be 
 $2,500,000 ; divided into shares of $1000. It was provided that 
 the partnership should exist for fifty years after the 22d day of 
 February, 1854, — that being the date of incorporation. Mer- 
 chants and others, both in San Francisco and the large interior 
 towns, considered that their interests would be prejudicially 
 affected by this combination, which would, for a time at least, 
 effectually hinder all competition. Very soon, the people of Ma- 
 rysville and Sacramento began to call public meetings, and agi- 
 tate the question of no monopoly. Preliminary arrangements, 
 while we write, are being undertaken to form companies to start 
 opposition boats. 
 
 The rates of freight and passage established by the old com- 
 bined companies are as follows : — From San Francisco to Sacra- 
 mento ; passage, $10 cabin, and $7 deck ; freight, $8 per ton. 
 From San Francisco to Marysville ; passage, $12 cabin, and $10 
 deck; freight, $15jL>er ton, and $12 measurement. From San 
 Francisco to Stockton ; passage, $10 cabin, and $7 deck ; freight, 
 $6 per ton. 
 
 March 9th. — Much excitement was caused by a duel which 
 took place this day between Mr. Philip W. Thomas, district at- 
 torney for Placer County, and Dr. James P. Dickson, of the State 
 Marine Hospital at San Francisco. Mr. Thomas had been chal- 
 lenged by another party for certain derogatory remarks he had 
 made upon the character of the challenger, but had refused to 
 fight a duel with the latter, on some such ground as that he was 
 
522 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 "no gentleman." Dr. Dickson, a friend of the challenger, there- 
 upon took the quarrel on himself, and in his own name challenged 
 Mr. Thomas. The parties met at Oak Grove, near Sacramento, 
 close by the spot where the fatal duel between Gilbert and Den- 
 ver had taken place, in August, 1852. On this occasion, the 
 weapons were duelling pistols, and the distance fifteen paces. 
 At the first fire, Dr. Dickson fell mortally wounded. He was 
 shot through the body, and died the same evening. His death 
 was much regretted by a numerous body of friends. 
 
 The practice of duelling seemed to be on the increase about 
 this time, and much attention was drawn to the subject. It was 
 admitted to be a barbarous custom, and many suggestions were 
 made as to how it could best be put down. Perhaps a Cervantes 
 or a Butler may hereafter arise to- laugh it out of fashion. 
 " Courts of honor," if only patronized by the leading politicians, 
 who are usually here compelled to be great " fire-eaters," might 
 have much influence in banishing the vice from among us. 
 Newspaper editors in California have long been particularly ex- 
 posed not merely to the literary raking fire of antagonists but to 
 their literal fire. Their professional motto should surely be tarn 
 Marte quam Minerva — by pen and rifle to do business. Shortly 
 after the Dickson duel, rival editors of the Alia California and 
 Times and Transcript, of San Francisco, thought fit to afford 
 each other a long shot. Kifles, and forty paces, were of course 
 the weapons and distance. At the third fire, one of the combat- 
 ants had a good hat spoiled by a ball which passed through it, 
 within an inch of the head that was in it. At the fifth fire, the 
 same party received a bullet in his body, and was " satisfied." 
 Only about a hundred persons were witnesses of the occurrence. 
 Usually there is a much larger number of spectators on such oc- 
 casions. Of course, the duellists and their friends were not mo- 
 lested by the civil authorities. Why should they have been ? 
 No legal evidence could be obtained on the subject ; and, if it 
 could, no jury would convict. Several other duels were fought 
 during this month ; and some others that were feared, or hoped 
 for, were happily nipped in the bud. The excitement, which ran 
 high for a time on the general subject of duelling, and led to 
 
CELEBRATION OF ST. PATRICK'S DAY. 523 
 
 many admirable appeals by journalists on the surpassing folly of 
 such encounters, speedily died away. 
 
 Elsewhere we have noticed the facts, that the constitution 
 declares all those who have been directly or indirectly concerned 
 in duelling to be incapable of filling any office in the State, and 
 that, notwithstanding, many of the highest officials are notorious 
 for having fought duels. The provision in the constitution is 
 quite inoperative. A general opinion was expressed about this 
 time that the law of Louisiana on this subject should be adopted, 
 which obliges parties, before entering upon any State office to 
 which they may have heen elected, to take an oath to the effect 
 that they had not been engaged in any manner of way, as prin- 
 cipal or second, in any duelling affair. By striking thus directly 
 at a man's pecuniary interest, Louisiana, formerly noted for 
 duels, has ceased to be so. It is believed by many that such a 
 compulsory oath would materially help to put down duelling in 
 California. Most citizens hope in time to till some lucrative post 
 in the government, and some of them would pause awhile before 
 they allowed a momentary gratification of passion to spoil all 
 their political prospects. The scheme may be worth trying, al- 
 though its effect, — where so many in California are neither na- 
 tive nor naturalized citizens, and whom therefore the proposed 
 law would not affect, — might not lead to the universal good 
 anticipated. Still, many who are urged to duelling and who do 
 fight, through mere force of a supposed public opinion or sense- 
 less clamor that hounds them on, would be very glad to have the 
 excuse of such a law as is proposed, for their refusal to accept a 
 challenge. 
 
 March 9th. — Sales took place this and the next day of the 
 interest which the State had in certain portions of the town lots 
 called the "Government Reserve," when the sum of $241,100 
 was realized. The prices obtained were considerably lower than 
 what had been freely given at the great sale rather more than 
 two months before. 
 
 March 17th. — St. Patrick's day. The Irish population in 
 San Francisco celebrated this occasion in a very grand manner. 
 Two of their associations — the " Hibernian Society of San Fran- 
 Cisco," and the " Sons of the Emerald Isle," united in performing 
 
524 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 the ceremonies. There was a large procession of the members 
 formed, which paraded through the city, and then proceeded to 
 the mission. In the old church there the Rev. Father O'Connell 
 addressed the people in a suitable oration. Previously, they had 
 been entertained by a substantial collation served on the green 
 at the residence of Mr. Wallace, at the mission. The procession 
 
 Wilson's Exchange, Ssnsome Street. 
 
 next returned to the city, and made sundry evolutions in the 
 plaza, and marched through some of the principal streets. There 
 were nearly a thousand persons engaged at the ceremony, some 
 hundreds of whom were on horseback. All were dressed in holi- 
 day garb, and many wore characteristic green sashes. A fine 
 band of music, and a beautifully painted flag, showing the wolf- 
 dog and harp of Erin, headed the procession. There was much 
 excitement among the Irish citizens, and Erin go bragh ! was 
 the order of the day. In the evening the festivities were wound 
 up by a grand dinner at Wilson's Exchange (Henry Toomy in 
 the chair), and a splendid ball at the Musical Hall. 
 
 March 24th. — Col. H. P. Watkins was this day convicted, 
 in the United States District Court, of setting on foot a military 
 expedition against the Republic of Mexico — in other words, of 
 
SAN FRANCISCO BRANCH MINT. 
 
 525 
 
 " filibusterism." This gentleman had been " Vice-President " of 
 the new Republics of Lower California and Sonora. Though he 
 was found guilty by a jury of the alleged offence, it is not to be 
 supposed that the general opinions of the inhabitants of Califor- 
 nia on the subject of filibustering expeditions were different from 
 those which have been previously mentioned. If the very judge 
 in his charge to the jury on this occasion could openly declare his 
 sympathy with the prisoner, it may naturally be supposed that 
 the people in general felt and expressed a similar sentiment. 
 Judge Hoffman, who presided at the trial, is reported to have 
 thus spoken : " From my heart I sympathize with the accused, 
 but I am sworn to the execution of the law, and must discharge 
 my duty, whatever my sympathies may be. To the law and to 
 the evidence then we must turn our exclusive attention. I may 
 admire the spirited men who have gone forth on these expe- 
 ditions, to upbuild, as they claim, the broken altars, and rekindle 
 the extinguished fires of liberty in Mexico or Lower California. 
 It may be that they are not adventurers, gone forth to build up 
 for themselves a cheap fortune in another land. But even were 
 my opinion of their purposes such, and their objects as glowing 
 and as honorable as depicted by counsel, still, sitting as a judge, 
 I should regard only the single question, has the law been 
 violated ? " 
 
 The evidence was clear, and decidedly against the accused, 
 and the jury had no help but to convict him. On the 7th of 
 April following, he was sentenced to pay a fine of $1500. On 
 the 10th of the same month, Major Frederick Emory, another 
 of the filibusters, and Secretary of State for the new Republic, 
 entered a plea of "guilty" to a similar charge to that of which 
 Col. Watkins had been convicted. Maj. Emory also was fined 
 $1500. The parties afterwards professed their inability to pay 
 these fines. While we write, it appears to be a doubtful ques- 
 tion in law, or in fact, whether they can be compelled either to 
 pay them or to be imprisoned till they do so, and it is probable 
 that neither Col. Watkins nor Maj. Emory will be much troubled 
 about the business. Thus are matters managed in California. 
 
 April 3d. — Opening, for business purposes, of the Mint. 
 The bill by the United States Government for the establishment 
 
526 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 of this much-needed, long looked-for institution, dates so far 
 back as 3d July, 1852 ; but it was only towards the end of 1853 
 that active steps were taken to construct the edifice, and provide 
 the necessary machinery. The building is situated in Commer- 
 cial street, between Montgomery and Kearny streets. It is sixty 
 feet square, and three stories high ; it is built of brick, covered 
 
 San Francisco United States Branch Mint. 
 
 with a fine cement, and is thoroughly fire-proof. The machinery 
 is of the newest, finest and strongest kind used in such establish- 
 ments. This Mint can coin, in gold, about thirty millions of 
 dollars yearly, in different kinds of pieces, or nearly $100,000 
 daily. The silver coinage produced by it will be comparatively 
 small. 
 
 For some years, many private coining establishments existed 
 here, though, at this date, there is only one in operation. It was, 
 however, the firm of Moffat & Co., long the United States Assay 
 Contractors, which chiefly supplied the large gold coinage that 
 was required by the increasing population and commercial tran- 
 sactions of the country. 
 
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 527 
 
 April 10th. — Lecture given by Gov. Isaac J. Stevens, of 
 Washington Territory, in Musical Hall, to a large and respect- 
 able audience, on the subject of the great Inter-oceanic Railway. 
 It is evident that the agricultural and other resources of Califor- 
 nia can never be fairly developed, until some cheaper, more expe- 
 ditious, and less hazardous and painful mode of reaching the 
 country be provided, than the present overland way across the 
 great plains, or the Isthmus, or round by Cape Horn. What 
 California wants is population ; an industrious, active, intelligent 
 population. If the long talked of Atlantic and Pacific Railroad 
 were once formed, the western terminus being in the State, this 
 want would soon be remedied. Three general routes have at 
 different times been proposed for this great undertaking. These 
 are : first, the southern route, which proceeds from Texas through 
 the Mesilla Valley, in the northern part of the Mexican territories, 
 and enters California at the southern extremity of the State ; 
 second, the middle route, which proceeds from the State of Mis- 
 souri across the plains to Utah, and from thence across the Sierra 
 Nevada to some point on the Sacramento River ; and third, the 
 northern route, which would connect the basin of the St. Law- 
 rence with Puget Sound, passing along the lines of the Upper 
 Missouri and the Colombia Rivers. This last route lies consider- 
 ably to the north of California. Gov. Stevens, in his lecture, 
 dwelt much on the advantages which the extreme northern route 
 possessed over all other proposed routes — on its comparatively low 
 levels, its freedom from deep snows, the fertile country in its 
 course, &c. In the present thinly peopled condition of the 
 immense regions which lie between the Eastern States and the 
 Pacific coast, it is probable that no more than one through rail- 
 way will be made for a great length of time. It is therefore of 
 the utmost consequence to San Francisco, and to California, that 
 that railway should terminate within the bounds of the State, 
 and if possible at its chief city. It should never be forgotten, 
 that Puget Sound offers commercial advantages nearly as many 
 and as great as the Bay of San Francisco presents, for the estab- 
 lishment of a great maritime city upon its shores. If the 
 western terminus of the Inter-oceanic Railway be made at the 
 former great inlet of the sen, immigration will be prematurely 
 
528 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 diverted from California, and turned directly, and chiefly, to the 
 advantage of a far northern territory. The people of San Fran- 
 cisco and of California, if they study their own interest, will take 
 care that a rival State and city do not suddenly arise to over- 
 shadow their own greatness. The best way to maintain the 
 supremacy of the former is to make sure, by all and whatever 
 means, that the first great Inter-oceanic Railroad terminate at 
 San Francisco. Later through lines may terminate where they 
 will ; only let our city have the first one. 
 
 City of Oakland, Contra Costa. 
 
 April 10th. — Oakland, on the eastern side of the bay 
 directly opposite San Francisco, is to the latter, something like 
 what Brooklyn is to New York. Between the two former places 
 there are frequent daily opportunities of communication by 
 steamers. Many people who carry on business during the day 
 in San Francisco, have their dwellings and families at Oakland. 
 The latter is one of the sweetest and most beautiful places on 
 the bay. It is a great excursion quarter for holiday folk from 
 San Francisco. As its name inqdies, Oakland is celebrated for 
 
FALLING OF THE BONDED WAREHOUSE. 
 
 529 
 
 its trees, of the live-oak kind, which give at all times a pecu- 
 liarly cheerful and refreshing character to the place. Recently 
 a small village, then a thriving town, it has now assumed the 
 name, if not all the pretensions of a city, although the inhabi- 
 tants number only two or three thousand. Of this date, the 
 first election under the city charter took place, when Mr. Horace 
 W. Carpentier was chosen mayor. 
 
 April 12th. — A portion of the U. S. Bonded Warehouse, 
 at the corner of Battery and Union streets, fell. This was only 
 one of several accidents of a like nature which happened about 
 this time. Public attention on this occasion was strongly drawn 
 to the generally inferior character of building materials used in 
 San Francisco, and to the supposed frail condition of many of 
 the most elegant and apparently substantial structures in the 
 city. Not only is the greater part of the materials — such as 
 brick, lime and timber, employed in building, of an inferior 
 quality, but the sites on which the houses have been erected are 
 of a shifting and treacherous nature. Nearly all the edifices 
 situated below the line of Montgomery street have been built on 
 what was only a few years ago the bed of the sea. The mud 
 bottom of Yerba Buena Cove, on which dry sand has been loosely 
 heaped, to form the foundations of these edifices, could scarcely 
 be expected to be very secure. Accordingly, by the unequal 
 sinking of the walls, many fine houses have been, or will soon be, 
 totally ruined. The tides are also continually washing out 
 particles of the loose sand, and thus still more danger is threat- 
 ened to the stability of many buildings. It seems absolutely 
 necessary for the protection of the lower part of the city, that a 
 great sea wall, on the outer front of the harbor, be soon con- 
 structed. Until, however, the various schemes which are being 
 continually hatched, for extending the water front are for ever 
 settled, one way or another, and the really permanent water front 
 fixed, nothing can be done regarding a sea wall. If, in addition 
 to such a breastwork against the waves on one side and the roll- 
 ing sands on the other, the foundations of the larger and more 
 important buildings, to be erected on the "beach and water lots," 
 were deeply and closely piled, much farther security would be 
 obtained for the structures. 
 34 
 
530 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 April 15th. — Explosion of the boiler of the steamer Secre- 
 tary, while midway between San Francisco and Petaluma. Out 
 of between fifty and sixty persons on board at the time of the 
 accident, upwards of one-half were killed, and nearly all the rest 
 were more or less severely wounded. 
 
 April 19th. — The Lord Warriston arrived from China with 
 780 Chinese passengers, 200 of whom were females. About this 
 time, there was a very large immigration of Chinese, and it was 
 understood that many thousand more of these people were only 
 waiting for ships to embark in from the ports of their country 
 for San Francisco. The State and city press discussed at much 
 length the propriety of excluding the race altogether from Cali- 
 fornia, or at all events of only admitting it to labor under certain 
 specified restrictions, particularly reserving the gold mines to the 
 white population. It was admitted on all sides, that the Chinese 
 were naturally an inferior race, both mentally and corporeally, 
 while their personal habits and manner of living were peculiarly 
 repulsive to Americans. It would be out of place in a work of 
 this nature to discuss the general Chinese question, which prom- 
 ises to give much debatable ground for philosophers, statesmen, 
 politicians, and mere laborers in California, for many years to 
 come. 
 
 April 20th. — The clipper ship Flying Cloud arrived at San 
 Francisco from New York, having accomplished the voyage in 
 eighty-nine days, eight hours. This is the quickest passage re- 
 corded as having been made by a sailing vessel between the ports 
 named. On a former occasion, the Flying Cloud made the same 
 voyage in eighty-nine days, twenty-one hours. 
 
 April 22d. — The Golden Fleece was wrecked at Fort Point, 
 on leaving the harbor. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 1854. 
 
 Trial of the Mexican consul.— Arrest of the French consul.— Chinese newspaper established.— Ger- 
 man May-feast at Russ's Garden. — The Hoadley street grades.— Indictment by the Grand Jury 
 of Sonora filibusters. — Dedication of the Lone Mountain Cemetery.— Extensive Conflagration.— 
 Report of the funded debt commissioners.— Sqnatter difficulties. —Sale of public property. — Cap- 
 tain Adams arrived with the Japan treaty. — Alderman elected. 
 
 April 28th. — Conclusion in the U. S. District Court of the trial 
 of the Mexican consul at San Francisco, Don Luis del Valle, 
 for a breach of the neutrality laws. This was only one of a 
 series of important events, connected with the subject, which 
 took place about this time. It appeared that the Mexican con- 
 sul, some two months before this date, had received instructions 
 from his government, to enlist, or select, a body of emigrants, 
 chiefly of French or German origin, who were to proceed (at the 
 cost of the Mexican Government,) to the province of Sonora. 
 There, after a year's service, they were each to receive a grant 
 of a certain portion of land. The particular service which these 
 emigrants were to render was not exactly known, either by the 
 emigrants themselves or by the federal authorities in San Fran- 
 cisco of the United States, although the latter presumed it was 
 service of a military description. The attention of the federal 
 authorities had been recently attracted to the filibustering move- 
 ments of Col. Walker and his associates upon Lower California 
 and Sonora. It was understood that the governmental instruc- 
 tions of Gen. John E. Wool, the chief military officer on the 
 Pacific coast, bore particular reference to the necessity of put- 
 ting down all filibustering schemes whatever. In furtherance of 
 his duty, Gen. Wool took occasion to narrowly watch the pro- 
 ceedings of the Mexican consul in regard to the expedition which 
 he was fitting out for Sonora. The British ship Challenge, on 
 board of which five or six hundred of the expeditionists were 
 
532 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 embarked, was seized, on 29th March, for a violation of the 
 revenue laws ; and, under various unusual pretences, was prevented 
 from sailing, until the federal authorities could make up their 
 mind what next to do. On 1st April, the Challenge was formally 
 allowed to leave, and on the morning of the following day she 
 sailed. Gen. Wool, just before this time, was of opinion, it was 
 said, that the men in the vessel named, who were bound for 
 Sonora, were proceeding thither only as " colonists." But before 
 the Challenge actually sailed, it seemed that the general found 
 reason to change his ideas as to the supposed object of the expe- 
 dition. Without troubling himself farther with the expedition- 
 ists, — the true filibusters, if there had been any filibusterism in 
 the matter, — Gen. Wool immediately caused the necessary steps 
 to be taken to arrest the Mexican consul. The arrest was 
 made on 31st March. The charge against the consul was, his 
 having violated the second section of the law of 1848, which 
 forbids the enlistment, within the territories of the United States, 
 of soldiers to serve under a foreign power. 
 
 During the trial, the United States (the prosecutors) found 
 it necessary for their case to procure the testimony of Mons. 
 Patrice Dillon, the French consul in San Francisco. By a con- 
 sular convention, recently entered into between France and 
 America, it appeared, that consuls of either nation could not be 
 compelled to appear in courts of justice to give evidence, but 
 that they could only be " invited " to do so. Two " invitations," 
 in terms of the convention, were forthwith transmitted to M. 
 Dillon by the court, at the desire of the district attorney. Both 
 of these M. Dillon politely declined. Judge Hoffman, of the 
 U. S. District Court, now held, that he could not, under the 
 circumstances, compel the attendance of the French consul, as a 
 witness for the prosecution. 
 
 Senor Del Valle, the defendant in the carise, on the broad con- 
 stitutional principle, that a party accused is entitled to be con- 
 fronted with witnesses to prove his innocence, next applied to the 
 court for compulsory process to bring forward M. Dillon. It was 
 not, however, generally supposed that the Mexican consul really 
 wished the presence of his brother consul in court as a witness 
 either for or against him. It was only imagined that the former, 
 
FRENCH AND MEXICAN CONSULS. 
 
 533 
 
 or his counsel, believed that they would fail to enforce the attend- 
 ance of the French consul ; and that being the case, and having 
 appeared to consider M. Dillon as a witness most material to the 
 defence, it was expected, that either the district attorney would 
 abandon the process against the Mexican consul, or that the 
 court would dismiss it, or that the jury would return a verdict 
 in his favor, on the ground that he had sustained a constitu- 
 tional wrong by being deprived of the testimony of a witness 
 said to be essential to the defence. M. Dillon was accordingly 
 cited, in the usual manner, as a witness in the cause for the 
 defendant ; but, as had been anticipated, he made no appear- 
 ance. Judge Hoffman, therefore, issued a writ of subpoena, 
 and M. Dillon was forcibly brought into court in custody of 
 the United States marshal. It was now found that some 
 irregularity had taken place in the technical order of pro- 
 ceedings, and the issuing of the warrant was held to be premature. 
 By consent of parties, the pleadings proceeded on the assump- 
 tion that the warrant of apprehension had not yet been issued. 
 After elaborate pleadings on both sides, where the great question 
 seemed at first to be whether, as the consular convention and the 
 constitution seemed to conflict, the one or the other should yield, 
 Judge Hoffman decided, that they did not conflict, but that vir- 
 tually, under the consular convention, the French consul must 
 be held to be in this country only in his consular capacity — his 
 true domicile, in the eyes of the law, being France ; and that, 
 therefore, he could not legally be compelled to appear in court as 
 a witness. French consuls were thus declared to have some of 
 the most sacred privileges of ambassadors. The decision implied 
 that the defendant, Sr. Del Valle, in the particular case, by not 
 being able to procure the testimony of M. Dillon, suffered no 
 more constitutional wrong, than he would have suffered by not 
 being able to procure the evidence of any witness, alleged to be 
 material to his cause, who might be residing in a foreign country, 
 and therefore not naturally amenable to the jurisdiction of the 
 U. S. District Court. In consequence of this decision, all the 
 rights and privileges which the French consul had claimed at 
 the commencement of the proceedings against him were allowed. 
 Much evil, however, had been done, by the premature and unlaw- 
 
534 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 fill step of his actual apprehension. M. Dillon had chosen to 
 take high ground in the matter ; had presented long protests 
 denying the jurisdiction of the court, and had struck his national 
 flag, considering that the French nation had been insulted in his 
 person, by the proceedings above alluded to. Considerable ex- 
 citement existed among the French inhabitants of San Francisco 
 on the subject. 
 
 In the mean time, the trial of the Mexican consul proceeded, 
 and he was, in the end, found guilty of the offence charged in 
 the indictment. The jury recommended him " to the kind con- 
 sideration and mercy of the court." The evidence having showed 
 that the French consul had been closely mixed up with the un- 
 lawful transactions, M. Dillon was accordingly next arrested, 
 and charged with having "aided and abetted" Sr. Del Valle 
 in the commission of a breach of the neutrality laws. In de- 
 fence, the French consul, like his Mexican brother, pleaded, 
 inter alia, that instead of the expedition by the Challenge 
 having been a filibustering one, it was an expedition of the very 
 reverse character. It had been chiefly, if not solely, projected 
 to break up true filibusterism, particularly the schemes of Count 
 Raousset de Boulbon, who had been long notorious for his hostile 
 designs on Sonora. The passengers on board the Challenge were 
 chiefly people who had been previously connected with and were 
 attached to Count Boulbon ; and who, by the bribe of a free 
 passage to Sonora and the offer of a grant of land there, had 
 been persuaded to desert their former leader and to serve under, 
 and for the Mexican Government, in place of serving against it. 
 In opposition to this argument, it was contended by the prosecu- 
 tion, that, even admitting that the expedition was really of the 
 nature alleged, still it was unlawful under the express terms of 
 the statute. But further, in the case of the French consul, the 
 prosecution maintained, that M. Dillon had only been using Sr. 
 Del Valle as an unconscious tool ; and that, while the former 
 pretended only to be aiding the latter in putting down the 
 filibustering projects of Count Boulbon, he, M. Dillon, for pur- 
 poses of his own or his government, was secretly working in 
 concert with and for the benefit of the count, and with the 
 intention of counteracting the plans of him whom he was pro- 
 
THE FRENCH AND MEXICAN CONSULS. 
 
 535 
 
 fessedly assisting but really thwarting — the blind and. simple Sr. 
 Del Valle. 
 
 After nearly the same evidence had been adduced in the case 
 of the French consul that had been led in the case of the Mexi- 
 can consul, the jury in the case of the former could not agree, 
 and were discharged. They had been six hours in deliberation, 
 and, at midnight, on 25th May, when they were discharged, it 
 was understood that ten stood for conviction and two for acquittal. 
 In such circumstances, on 29th May, the district attorney 
 entered a nolle prosequi in the case of M. Dillon ; and in the 
 case of Sr. Del Valle (who had not yet been sentenced, though 
 long before convicted), he moved the court to suspend further 
 proceedings. The effect of this motion was simply to discharge 
 the defendant, and free him from further molestation in the 
 suit. 
 
 The various proceedings briefly above narrated lasted during 
 many weeks, and occasioned much local excitement. The revela- 
 tions made in these trials and in the trial of Col. H. P. Wat kins 
 (one of Walker's party), the ex-vice-president of the short-lived 
 " Republic of Sonora," showed unmistakably the general loose 
 feeling of society in San Francisco and California on the subject 
 of filibusterism. The imputed motives of certain federal autho- 
 rities in pushing the former prosecution to a conviction, as well 
 as the supposed guilt or innocence of the accused, with all the 
 mixed character of the expedition and the suspected and attri- 
 buted opposite reasons of the Mexican and French consuls for 
 being connected with it, were much discussed in private circles 
 and by the public press. Many offensive personal charges were 
 made on both sides. Hearing altogether different statements 
 from opposite counsel, neither of which seemed to be fully estab- 
 lished by evidence, an impartial observer could scarcely know 
 what to think of the subject. The consequences of the trials, 
 being of a purely political nature, will fall to be adjusted by the 
 governments of the respective countries involved. 
 
 April 29th. — The first number of a Chinese newspaper, 
 called " The Gold Hills' News," appeared to-day. It was a small 
 sheet of four pages, wholly printed in Chinese characters. 
 "Gold Hills" is the Chinese name for San Francisco. There 
 
536 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 were now English, French, German, Spanish, and Chinese jour- 
 nals published in San Francisco. 
 
 May 7th. — The German inhabitants observed in grand style 
 their annual May-feast during this and the following day, at the 
 gardens of Mr. Christian Russ, on the Mission road. Between 
 two and three thousand persons shared in the entertainment. 
 
 Celebration at Euss's Garden. 
 
 The conductors of the arrangements were the members of the 
 German Turn-verein, or Gymnast Union. These performed a 
 variety of gymnastical feats and much vocal and instrumental 
 music. As we have previously mentioned at some length the 
 annual May festivities of the Germans in San Francisco, we 
 think it unnecessary to do more than merely allude to them on 
 this occasion. 
 
 On the 29th of April of this year, the children attending the 
 various public schools of the city held their annual May festival 
 in Musical Hall. 
 
 May 12th. — The subject of the street grades had long been 
 a vexatious one. We have already alluded to the grievous loss 
 and injury occasioned to many private citizens by the adoption 
 of the "official," or, as they were commonly called, the " Hoad- 
 
INDICTMENT OF FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 537 
 
 ley grades." As these grades were being carried out, and it was 
 seen that they involved an enormous amount of excavations and 
 the partial destruction of Telegraph Hill, and the other hills to 
 the west of the city, public dissatisfaction was much increased 
 on the subject. In the end, the common council referred the 
 whole matter to the consideration of a committee of three scien- 
 tific gentlemen, who had no personal interest in the question. 
 Of the above date, these gentlemen presented a long and inter- 
 esting report to the common council, in which they strongly re- 
 commended the abandonment of the " official" or " Hoadley" 
 system of grades. This report was printed for circulation 
 among property holders. Afterwards, an answer by Mr. Miles 
 Hoadley, the city surveyor, was likewise printed and circulated. 
 The boards of aldermen and assistant aldermen then met in 
 joint convention to discuss the subject. On the 26th of May, 
 they referred the report and answer, the remonstrances and 
 petitions of citizens, both for and against the existing and the 
 proposed systems of grades, and generally the whole question, 
 back to the committee already alluded to, for further considera- 
 tion. While we write, no further action has been taken on the 
 subject. It is probable, however, that material modifications 
 will be made upon the existing " official grades." 
 
 May 24th. — Of this date, the grand jury found true bills of 
 indictment against William Walker, Howard A. Snow, and 
 John M. Jarnigan. These were severally the president, the 
 secretary of naval affairs, and the secretary of war, of the " Re- 
 public of Sonora." The formal conclusion, therefore, of Col. 
 Walker's filibustering expedition against Lower California and 
 Sonora is close at hand. For some months back, the expedition- 
 ists had suffered much distress in the lower country. Without 
 sufficient arms or ammunition, or supplies of any kind, and with 
 the Mexican natives bitterly enraged against them, the few fili- 
 busters left, who were through necessity, or choice, faithful to 
 each other, only sought safely to leave the country they had in- 
 vaded, to fly to some neutral soil. As this, however, seemed 
 scarcely practicable, Col. Walker and his party crossed the 
 boundary line, below San Diego, which separated Mexico from 
 the United States, and surrendered themselves prisoners to the 
 
538 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 federal troops, who were in waiting to receive them. On arriv- 
 ing at San Francisco, on May 15th, the greater numher of the 
 prisoners were discharged upon their simple parole. The chief 
 parties were then indicted, as Col. Watkins and Maj. Emory had 
 recently been. The trials of the former have not been set down 
 for hearing at the time of writing this notice. Col. Walker was 
 
 Lone Mountain Cemetery. 
 
 cited as a witness for the prosecution in the case of the United 
 States vs. M. Dillon, referred to above ; but he declined to 
 give evidence, on the ground that his doing so might implicate 
 himself. 
 
 May 30th. — The " Lone Mountain Cemetery" was solemnly 
 dedicated to-day, when many interesting ceremonies were per- 
 formed on the ground before a large assemblage of ladies and 
 gentlemen. Col. E. D. Baker delivered an occasional address, 
 Mr. F. B. Austin an ode, Mr. Frank Soule a poem, Bishop Kip 
 the dedication address, and the Rev. F. T. Gray the closing ad- 
 
EXTENSIVE CONFLAGRATION. 
 
 539 
 
 dress. Appropriate hymns and prayers hallowed the new " city 
 of the dead." Herr Mengis, and the singers of the German 
 Turn-verein, performed the musical pieces. 
 
 When noticing the projection of this cemetery, under date 
 November, 1853, we said, that the tract of land to he used for 
 burial purposes was three hundred and twenty acres in extent, 
 and included the hill, or " mountain," from which it took its 
 name. That was the original intention of the projectors. Sub- 
 sequently, it was found that one hundred and sixty would form a 
 sufficiently large cemetery, and to that extent the limits of the 
 ground have meanwhile been reduced. The "Lone Mountain" 
 is not situated within the restricted boundaries, but adjoins them 
 on the south. The present mode of access to the cemetery is by a 
 circuitous route, nearly four miles in length, by way of Pacific 
 street and the presidio. When the western extension of Bush 
 street is graded and planked, which is proposed to be done dur- 
 ing the summer of 1854, the distance from the plaza to the 
 magnificent gateway of the cemetery, about to be erected at the 
 termination of that extension, will be about two miles. 
 
 May 31st. — Fire broke out this morning between two and 
 three o'clock in a grocery, on the east side of Dupont street, 
 between Broadway and Vallejo street. Notwithstanding the 
 efforts of the fire companies, the conflagration raged for two 
 hours, and consumed more than one-half of the entire buildings 
 on the block. Property was destroyed to the estimated value of 
 §50,000. The buildings were all of frame, and some of them 
 were little better than mere shanties. They were tenanted 
 chiefly by Mexicans, French and Germans. The wind was 
 blowing fresh at the time from the south-west. Had it been a 
 little stronger, and its direction from the north-west, from whence 
 it usually blows at this season, a great part of the city might 
 have been laid in ashes. Notwithstanding the great and daily 
 increase of fire-proof buildings in the city, there still exists an 
 immense number of wooden edifices, which may supply fuel for 
 some terrible conflagration to come. About this period of the 
 year, those high winds fairly set in, which fan flames to their 
 height and suddenly communicate them to new materials across 
 wide empty spaces and streets, notwithstanding all the unwearied 
 
540 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 exertions of perhaps the bravest and most skilful set of firemen 
 in the world. During this month large portions of two impor- 
 tant towns in the State were destroyed by fire, when the dread- 
 ful summer winds mightily increased the loss and danger. Ma- 
 rysville sustained loss to the amount of $200,000, and Yreka to 
 the amount of $150,000, by the fires alluded to. 
 
 May 31st. — The Board of Commissioners of the Funded 
 Debt (now consisting of Messrs. P. A. Morse, D. J. Tallant, 
 Wm. Hooper and Smyth Clark,) present their yearly report. 
 The total amount of bonds issued by the Board, for debts of the 
 city contacted prior to May 1st, 1854, was $1,635,600, of which 
 $126,100 have been redeemed, leaving as the balance of outstand- 
 ing debt of San Francisco, $1,509,500 ; which, bearing ten per 
 cent, interest, requires annually $150,950 to meet that sum. 
 The high price which this stock bears in the Atlantic cities and 
 in Europe, renders it improbable that any more will be offered for 
 redemption, and hence this item of interest may be considered an 
 annual requisition on the city treasury, until the Sinking Fund, 
 under the management- of the Board, shall have accumulated 
 sufficient to meet the final payment of the bonds. 
 
 June 5th. — The occurrences of the last few weeks have 
 shown the futility of the hope that the recent decisions of the 
 Supreme Court would be sufficient to settle the numerous dis- 
 putes concerning land titles. Squatters, in the face of law and 
 the decisions of the land commissioners and judges, are endea- 
 voring to maintain their assumptions by force. Much distress 
 has been the result of these proceedings, since every member of 
 the community is liable to become a victim of the robberies of 
 these outlaws — the poor man who owns a single lot, as well as 
 the wealthy proprietor of acres of land. Capt. Joseph L. Fol- 
 gom, one of the most extensive landholders in the city, has been 
 the principal sufferer by the squatting rascality, but many own- 
 ers of single spots of ground have been no less unjustly treated ; 
 and one aggravated case particularly has just occurred, in which 
 a poor woman, who owned a solitary house on a small lot, had 
 her house burned down, the land fenced in and herself turned 
 into the street to starve, without even the means to live, and of 
 course unable to resort to a twelvemonth lawsuit in such a place 
 
SQUATTER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 541 
 
 of problematic uncertainties as San Francisco. The evil was 
 unchecked by the authorities ; riot followed on riot ; the squat- 
 ters armed themselves and threatened to kill whoever should 
 attempt to dispossess them ; and finally executed their threat by 
 murdering Mr. George Dillon Smith, one of Capt. Folsom's party, 
 who were attempting to dislodge a set of squatters on his property 
 in Howard street. Undismayed, squatters on some of Folsom's 
 neighboring lots, fortified their tenements and prepared for resist- 
 ance. A few days after this affair, a terrible fight on Green 
 street resulted in the fatal wounding of a Mrs. Murphy by a par- 
 ty of squatters, who had attacked her husband's house. 
 
 Property-holders at last became seriously alarmed at the pro- 
 gress of these dissensions, and held a meeting, this evening, at 
 the office of Theo. Payne & Co. (Dr. Samuel Merritt, chairman), 
 at which Messrs. S. W. Park, Theodore Payne, Dr. Samuel Mer- 
 ritt, T. K. Stevens, Wm. Sharron, Louis McLane, jr., F. A. 
 Woodworth, Jas. C. Ward and Thos. 0. Larkin were appointed 
 a committee to draft a plan of organization of a special police for 
 the protection of their own property, and to issue a call for a 
 general meeting of citizens to act upon such a plan. On Tues- 
 day (6th inst.), this meeting was held at the Musical Hall, and 
 the report of the committee unanimously adopted by a large body 
 of citizens, who formed themselves into an Association for the 
 Protection of Property and the Maintenance of Order, adopting 
 a series of appropriate rules for their government. On the next 
 day the meeting reassembled at the Merchants' Exchange, and 
 completed the organization by electing the following officers : 
 
 President. — Col. David S. Turner. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. — Benjamin Haywood, G. B. Post, Henry M. Naglee. 
 Secretary. — Chas. R. Bond. 
 Treasurer. — Dr. Samuel Merritt. 
 
 Executive Committee. — G. B. Post. John Sime. E. J. Hassler, Wilson 
 Flint, F. A. Woodworth, J. P. Manrow, Jas. George. Edward Vischer, Louis 
 Cohen, John C. Maynard, Chas. L. Case. James F. Curtis. Henry M. Naglee, 
 John Perry, jr. 
 
 After a general expression of views and intentions the asso- 
 ciation adjourned, subject to the call of the president. About 
 one thousand citizens had enrolled themselves as its members, 
 
542 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 who were ready at all hazard to defend one another in their 
 rightful possessions. It was not designed, however, like the 
 Vigilance Committee of old, to oppose in any way the legal au- 
 thorities, although the police had more than once sided rather 
 ohviously with the squatters. It was rather hoped that the 
 moral effect of the decided and united action of so many reputa- 
 ble citizens would be sufficient to check any further disturbances, 
 and incite the authorities to something like action. They 
 had had ample premonition that some such rencontres would 
 occur, and were repeatedly told that owners of land would not 
 suffer themselves to be tamely plundered of their property. 
 Promptness and energy on their part could have prevented every 
 outbreak. As we close, inquests are being held over the mur- 
 dered bodies, and various rioters are detained for trial in the 
 hospitals and prison. 
 
 June 6th. — Interest of the State in twenty-two lots in the 
 square bounded by Pacific street and Broadway, Davis and Front 
 streets, sold for over $100,000. 
 
 June 8th. — Capt. Adams, U. S. N., arrived en route for 
 Washington with the treaty concluded between Com. Perry and 
 the Empire of Japan. 
 
 June 12th. — Dr. J. W. Van Zandt was elected Alderman of 
 the Third Ward, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation 
 of R. M. Jessup, Esq. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 1854. 
 
 Commercial depression. — Redaction of prices of merchandise and real estate. — Fall In rents. — Im- 
 proved character of the buildings. — The plaza being improved. — Government fortifications of 
 the harbor commenced. — Immigration and emigration. — The population. — Yield of the gold 
 mines. — Labor profitable in California. — The quicksilver mines. — Agricultural resources.— 
 Fisheries. — Telegraphs and railroads. — Ship-building. — Foreign relations. — Ice and coal trade. — 
 Mail steamers between San Francisco and Shanghae. — The international railway. — San Fran- 
 oisco water front extension. — The proposed new city charter. — Claim of the city to pueblo 
 lands.— Increaso of sources of domestic comfort.— Immoralities continue to prevail.— Duels 
 and duelling. — Theatrical entertainments. — Daily newspapers. — Means of moral and education- 
 al improvement 
 
 July. — It is not very necessary to say much more upon the 
 general physical and moral aspect of San Francisco, than has 
 already been said in reviewing its appearance and characteristics 
 at the close of the year 1853. During the six months immedi- 
 ately preceding the date of the present notice, the city passed 
 through a period of great commercial depression. At this time, 
 the extreme mercantile distress is beginning slowly to disappear ; 
 and the best judges hope that soon again prosperity will visit 
 commerce and all connected with it in San Francisco. 
 
 The prices of real estate may, in some few instances, have 
 rallied, but generally they continue much below those readily ob- 
 tainable at the close of 1853. Many years must pass, and our 
 population be much increased, before those high rates can again 
 be witnessed. While prices of real estate have fallen from 
 twenty to fifty per cent, and in some cases still lower, rents, 
 particularly in the lower or business part of the city, have like- 
 wise been considerably reduced. Rents may, perhaps, continue 
 to fall for some time, and yet a fair profit will be left to the own- 
 ers of house property. The wages of such classes as are employed 
 in building, and the cost of building materials, have both been 
 materially reduced ; so that houses can now be erected at much 
 less expense than formerly. 
 
544 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Arising no doubt partly from this circumstance, and notwith- 
 standing the continued and steady fall in rents and the prices of 
 real estate, a great deal of fire-proof and costly building has been 
 carried on since the beginning of the current year. In Stock- 
 ton, Montgomery, California, Battery and many other principal 
 streets, the old buildings of frame are being gradually pulled 
 down, and magnificent granite and brick structures are rapidly 
 rising in their stead. Vacant lots in the line of streets over all 
 the business part of the city are being covered with substantial 
 buildings. The new Merchants' Exchange and new U. S. Cus- 
 tom House will be massive and beautiful public edifices. These 
 material improvements are particularly observable upon the 
 northern extremity of Montgomery and Battery streets, at the 
 base of Telegraph Hill. The great depth of water at the 
 wharves in the neighborhood of Clark's Point, which depth, 
 from the character of the shore and tides, will probably long, if 
 not always, exist, will necessarily make that quarter a peculiarly 
 shipping and mercantile part of the city. Accordingly huge 
 hotels and stores, of the most beautiful and substantia] character, 
 are rising up in all parts of the district. 
 
 At the same time the spirit of improvement is visible over all 
 the other parts of the city. Many new and elegant buildings of 
 brick and stone, within the fire-limits, and chiefly of frame be- 
 yond them, are continually being constructed. New streets are 
 being graded and planked, and new public cisterns formed for the 
 use of the fire department. Even the plaza, the long-neglected, 
 miserable plaza, the standing reproach and mockery to the boast- 
 ed " progress " of our world-renowned city, is being at last, after 
 many years of public agitation, just a little " improved " by its 
 unkind guardians, the city fathers. While we write, it is being 
 graded, and is about to have an iron fence erected around it. 
 The wondrous fabrics of iron and glass, which were to have 
 turned it, as assuredly they would, if properly designed, into a 
 Crystal Palace, or rather into a veritable " Palais Royal," the 
 centre of Californian taste, luxury, fashion and folly, have been 
 all left to the next generation, or perhaps only to the still hope- 
 ful projectors and the speculative common council of the next 
 year. 
 
HARBOR FORTIFICATIONS. 
 
 545 
 
 The long-desired fortification of the harbor of San Francisco 
 has been at last commenced by the government. The system 
 proposed consists of two lines of batteries inside the entrance to 
 
 The Plaza, or Portsmouth Square, June, 1S54. 
 
 the harbor. Works are already in process of construction on 
 Fort Point and Alcatraz Island. Point San Jose and Angel 
 Island will, probably, be selected to complete the line of defence. 
 The fortress at Fort Point, which will be the strongest position, 
 will present one hundred and fifteen guns of eight and ten inch 
 calibre, in four tiers. Directly opposite^ on Lime Rock Point, 
 a battery of one hundred guns will complete the outer line. The 
 second point of fortification on the inner line is on Alcatraz 
 Island. The shipping battery here will consist of about fifty 
 guns, with batteries on other points yet to be selected. Majors 
 Barnard and Turner, Capt. Whiting and Lieut. Prince are di- 
 recting the works, which are estimated to cost not less than two 
 millions of dollars. Much doubt is expressed by officers of high 
 rank as to the sufficiency of water defence — many believing that 
 35 
 
546 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 an invading army could readily land any where between San 
 Francisco and Monterey. 
 
 The arrivals for the last six months from the Isthmus, ex- 
 ceeded the departures by several thousands. The immigration 
 of Chinese from their own country during the same period, 
 amounted perhaps to five thousand persons of both sexes, while 
 their emigration was slight. The incomers generally departed, 
 after a short sojourn in San Francisco, to the mines ; so that the 
 general population of the city may still be estimated at the sup- 
 posed number inhabiting it at the close of 1853, viz., something 
 over fifty thousand of both sexes and of all ages and nations. 
 The bulk of the great overland immigration does not appear till 
 the fall of the year. The immigration by land for the approach- 
 ing season is expected to be very great. 
 
 The gold mines, the prime source of prosperity and wealth to 
 California, have not for many years yielded better returns to the 
 labor applied to them, than they have done during 1854, so far 
 as the year has elapsed. Every day new and rich auriferous 
 fields are being discovered, while it is found that the old ones, by 
 the application of more careful and scientific methods of extract- 
 ing the precious metal, continue to supply an ample reward to 
 the miners. But it is not gold alone that has filled up the re- 
 plete coffers of the State. The quicksilver mines of Alameda 
 County are the largest yielding and most profitable in the world. 
 The only ones that at all compare with them, are those of Al- 
 maden in Spain, and Idria in Austria — the latter, one of .the old 
 monuments of Roman revenue. 
 
 But if the success of the miner has been great, how shall we 
 term the unexampled prosperity of the less romantic tiller of the 
 soil. Crops, throughout the State, have been immense, and have 
 had the effect to reduce* the prices of articles of food to a very 
 low figure — far lower than they at present are on the Atlantic. 
 The splendid agricultural resources of the country are only begin- 
 ning to be understood. A new and equally profitable source of 
 employment has been found in the fisheries on the Sacramento 
 and its tributaries. Salmon, sturgeon, pike, perch, dake, chub, 
 suckers, hard-heads, narrow-tails, &c, are being caught in large 
 quantities. The salmon fisheries are the most important — the 
 
GENERAL RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 fish being far over the average size in the East and ranging from 
 twenty to fifty pounds weight. This business must ere long be 
 one of the most considerable items of the commercial resources 
 of California. Who can tell the limit of the capabilities of this 
 State ? All it has accomplished is but preparatory to new exhi- 
 bitions of power and wealth. Its career lies yet before it. The 
 telegraph has already furnished nerves to the land, by which the 
 impulses of its distant parts are communicated to its great sen- 
 sorium commune — its brain at San Francisco. Railroads, too, 
 those great arteries by which vivifying nourishment is carried to 
 and from the remotest members of its body, soon will be com- 
 pleted. The Sacramento Valley Railroad from Sacramento to 
 Mormon Island, now projected, will be the pioneer of this im- 
 provement. All these facts, together with the extensive ship- 
 building carried on at Happy Valley and the Rincon, are prepar- 
 ing the State, and San Francisco particularly, for the great part 
 she has yet to play. Into the past six years, have been crowded 
 the most remarkable and important events that have occurred to 
 our country since its revolutionary birth ; and the great pole to 
 which they have all tended is San Francisco. California hence- 
 forth will no longer direct her energies on herself. She has at- 
 tained her majority and donned her freedom-suit, ready to start 
 upon the field of adventure. Foreign relations are engaging the 
 thoughts of citizens and government ; hence the ease with which 
 such expeditions as those of the Count de Boulbon and President 
 Walker are fitted up, and the apparent official countenance be- 
 stowed on them. Vessels are already departing for Japan, and 
 numerous companies are being formed for foreign traffic. Two 
 of these are in the full tide of success, — one for the importation 
 of ice from Russian America, and the other for the mining of 
 coal in Bellingham Bay, Puget Sound, Washington Territory. 
 The establishment by Congress of the line of mail steamers be- 
 tween San Francisco and Shanghae, and the great treaty with 
 Japan, come fortuitously to meet and give a field for this new and 
 longing spirit. The Pacific between this country and Asia has 
 at last been bridged over : California, the Sandwich Islands, Ja- 
 pan and China are the great piers — white sails, and great steamers 
 in continuous lines, will span the intervals. Let the Interoceanic 
 
548 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Railway now be built, and San Francisco will then be the great 
 entrepot of America, — the Tyre of the Pacific, — and California, 
 the most populous, enlightened, and civilized country in the 
 world. 
 
 The project of extending the water-front of the city (already 
 noticed at length), was revived in the Legislature this year. 
 However, political disputes among its supposed patrons, and the 
 parties pecuniarily interested in the scheme, as well as clamant 
 remonstrances of all San Francisco — collectively, in boards, asso- 
 ciations and committees ; and individually, by public-meetings 
 and signed petitions — had the effect of causing this unnecessary, 
 unjust, and perhaps " infamous " project, to be abandoned. 
 The new city charter was likewise lost in the Legislature. On 
 the expediency of passing this charter as a whole, public opinion 
 was divided, although many of its provisions were generally ad- 
 mitted to be improvements on the existing charter. Many other 
 bills, introduced in the legislative chambers, and which were 
 peculiarly obnoxious to large classes of the citizens, were likewise 
 lost. While we write, the claim of San Francisco is being 
 pleaded before the Board of Land Commissioners, established by 
 the United States, to settle disputed titles in California to four 
 square leagues of land around the city, in virtue of its being, as 
 alleged, a Mexican " pueblo." Whatever be the result of the 
 claim, many private titles to lots within the municipal bounds 
 will be deeply affected by the decision, and for a time " confu- 
 sion, worse confounded," will reign among property-holders. 
 Pending the discussion, many parties are busy over all the four 
 square leagues in question, selecting convenient and desirable 
 " claims and outrages of a daring description are continually 
 taking place between the old settlers and the new squatters, in 
 consequence of these lawless proceedings. 
 
 San Franciscans can now ask for nothing more on the score 
 of domestic comforts. Their streets and houses are well lighted 
 by a beautiful gas-light ; they dwell in elegant and handsomely- 
 furnished houses ; their tables are largely supplied with fish, flesh, 
 and fowl from the mountains, rivers and valleys of their teeming 
 land ; they have pure and limpid water for drink and cleanli- 
 ness, in no stinted measures ; and, finally, they have discov- 
 
SOURCES OF DOMESTIC COMFORT INCREASED. 549 
 
 ered, near at home, a boundless supply of excellent stone-coal, 
 sufficient to satisfy all their demands for fuel, in cooking their 
 meals, melting their gold, driving their steam-engines and dry- 
 ing their houses in their wet seasons. Bellingham Bay now 
 furnishes the great demand of the city. Hitherto, all the coal 
 used was brought, at great expense, partly from Vancouver's 
 
 Char coal-vendee 
 
 Island and Chili, but chiefly from such immense distances as 
 Philadelphia, Liverpool, and other foreign parts. In 1849 and 
 1850, the townspeople were furnished with fuel by men, chiefly of 
 the lower class of Hispano- Americans, who cut it from the little 
 gnarled oaks and thick brushwood grown on the low sand-hills 
 bordering the town — not a stump of which is now to be seen. 
 Wood and charcoal were brought into the city either on the 
 backs of these men, or in panniers carried by asses, and two dol- 
 lars were paid for as much as a man could carry in his arms. 
 The charcoal men are yet features of the place. They an- 
 
550 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 nounce their coming by the ringing of a small bell, and may be 
 seen in every street offering their little bundles for sale. 
 
 The old round of business, pleasure, folly, vice and crime, 
 still went merrily on. Cases of divorce were nearly as common 
 as cases of drunkenness. Cases of political corruption, of party 
 jobbery, of personal scandal, of ruin by debauchery and gam- 
 bling, by duelling and suicide, of squatter violence, of robbery 
 and burglary, of assault and murder — why, these were, as before, 
 nearly " as plentiful as blackberries.'' It is unnecessary to 
 single out particular cases for remark and reproach. Every day 
 produced a new crop of moral weeds. Still San Francisco con- 
 trived to nourish, and its people, in their fashion, to enjoy life. 
 To enforce some measure of outward decency, the common 
 council passed a stringent ordinance regarding houses of ill-fame, 
 making the keeping of them highly penal. This ordinance had 
 the effect, for a time, of closing a few of the most notorious 
 Mexican and Chinese brothels. But it was sought to be enforced 
 against fashionable white Cyprians, who had money enough to 
 employ able counsel to show the intrinsically illegal and tyran- 
 nous character of its particular provisions ; and then it was 
 found to be utterly impracticable in operation. It seemed all at 
 once to be discovered, that the impurity which was hid by walls, 
 could not be put down by mere legislation. 
 
 Duels appeared to be getting more numerous. In the 
 months of May and June several fatal " affairs of honor" took 
 place, and the performance with swords by a couple of French- 
 men varied the monotony of pistols and rifles, and introduced a 
 new fashion for the benefit of future gladiators. Occasionally 
 the death of some well-known citizen would rouse the press and 
 the pulpit to a spasmodic burst of indignation and high-toned 
 sentiment against the foolish and criminal practice of settling 
 personal quarrels by mortal combat. The public looked wise, 
 savage, and virtuous, and talked and drank ; then it looked 
 wiser, and so on, and talked and drank again. Still nothing 
 was done, or perhaps could be done, in the matter. Grand 
 juries occasionally offered a proper presentment on the subject, 
 but their words fell dead. Men in California, who generally 
 want the peaceful, endearing joys of home and family, which best 
 
EDUCATIONAL AND MORAL IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 551 
 
 make life worth living for, set little value on existence, and in 
 their hot rage will hazard it for the veriest trifle. 
 
 California Exchange, corner of Clay ami Kearny streets, June, 1S54. 
 
 Theatrical entertainments have never been so well patronized 
 in San Francisco as during the past half year. A rapid succes- 
 sion of musical and dramatic "stars" attracted continual crowds 
 to the various " houses." English, French and Italian versions 
 of the most noted modern operas were excellently performed in 
 the Metropolitan and Union Theatres, where four ladies, who 
 each claimed the rank of 'prima donna, successively appeared. 
 At the theatres named, though particularly at the Metropolitan 
 and American, some of the most celebrated American actors and 
 actresses made their regular nightly appearance. These, it is 
 said, have reaped a large harvest from their professional visit to 
 the land and the city of gold. The San Franciscans, truly, are 
 no niggards with their wealth. 
 
 A few of the immense number of daily newspapers, existing 
 at the beginning of 1854, have silently disappeared. In their 
 stead have risen the " Pioneer," a monthly magazine of great 
 typographical beauty and considerable literary merit ; a Chinese 
 
552 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 journal, and one or two weekly newspapers of fair pretension. 
 The "Mercantile Library Association" has largely increased its 
 stock of books and its members. Churches, schools, and charita- 
 ble, and other good and laudable associations, flourished contem- 
 poraneously with the spread of ignorance, folly and vice, which 
 they have been designed to counteract. A larger female popula- 
 tion, and a few more years, and San Francisco may yet be as 
 distinguished for its public and private morals, as it has long un- 
 happily been for the reverse. 
 
Tho Hounds. 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 THE HOUNDS. 
 
 In the spring and early summer months of 1849, San Francisco 
 was afflicted with the presence and excesses of a parcel of the 
 veriest rogues and ruffians that ever haunted a community. 
 The first intelligence of the discovery of gold in California natu- 
 rally sent thither the most daring and clever adventurers of 
 blemished reputation from their own countries, who saw iu this 
 modern Dorado a fit theatre for the profitable repetition of those 
 tricks and outrages, the exercise of which had rendered their 
 native homes no longer lucrative or safe places to reside in. 
 
554 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Long before any great number of tbe general public had emi- 
 grated from the Atlantic States or from Europe, San Francisco 
 was overrun with such men from the various countries and ports 
 on the Pacific, and particularly from the west coast of the 
 Americas. A little later came stray vagabonds from Australia, 
 where had been collected the choice of the couvicted felons of 
 Great Britain. The regiment of New York volunteers, which 
 some time before had been disbanded, and from which so much 
 good had been expected in ultimately peopling the land with 
 first-class settlers, had greatly disappointed the hopes of its pro- 
 jectors and friends. Many of the most noted blackguards of the 
 country turned out to have been formerly soldiers in that corps ; 
 and perhaps these very men formed the nucleus and strength of 
 the " hounds " themselves. The very earliest arrivals also from 
 the eastern ports were largely composed of the rowdy and knavish 
 class. They indeed had required no long time to make prepara- 
 tions for the voyage. Their baggage was on their backs, and 
 their purse in every honest man's pocket. They stepped on 
 board the first ship — and hey for California ! These vagabonds 
 never intended to follow a reputable calling there, but as sharp- 
 ers, gamblers, and cheating adventurers in every variety of 
 scheme, were prepared only to prey upon the community at 
 large. Every thing in San Francisco encouraged them to think 
 it was what their fellows would call a safe speculation. The 
 municipal and State organizations were both still unformed, and 
 the few local authorities were quite inadequate to cope with such 
 a body of villainy as was shortly developed. 
 
 The " hounds " were the natural consequence of such a state 
 of things. A party, calling themselves by that name, was first 
 faintly heard of towards the close of 1848 ; but it was only in 
 the spring of the following year that their depredations excited 
 much notice. In the desire to make fortunes easily and in a 
 hurry, the overtoiled people of San Francisco paid little atten- 
 tion to any thing but what immediately concerned themselves 
 individually, and much crime was allowed to be committed with 
 impunity, because nobody cared, or had time to think about it, 
 or to interfere in the matter. Thus the " hounds " had perpe- 
 trated many outrages before public indignation was fully aroused. 
 
THE HOUNDS. 
 
 555 
 
 These were directed chiefly against, foreigners — Chilians, Peru- 
 vians and Mexicans, as being supposed less able to defend 
 themselves, and who were likewise imagined to possess fewer 
 sympathies from the community in their behalf. This class of 
 the foreign population was generally of the lowest and most de- 
 graded character. Their habits were unclean and their manners 
 base. The men seemed deceivers by nature, while the women 
 (for there had been extensive speculators in their own country, 
 who brought many females to San Francisco,) were immodest 
 and impure to a shocking degree. These were washerwomen by 
 day ; by night — and, if a dollar could be earned, also by day, — 
 they were only prostitutes. Both sexes lived almost promiscu- 
 ously in large tents, scattered irregularly upon the hill sides. 
 Their dwellings were dens of infamy, where drunkenness and 
 whoredom, gambling, swindling, cursing and brawling, were con- 
 stantly going on. Such were the common victims of the 
 " hounds." It may at first sight seem hard to tell which were 
 the worst members of the community. 
 
 We have seen that among the first immigrants to the mines 
 were a multitude of foreigners of Spanish extraction, from the 
 various republics and provinces on the Pacific shores of America. 
 The presence of these people — many of whom seemed little bet- 
 ter than slaves — in the pay and under the command of their 
 own wealthier countrymen, was considered by the American 
 miners to be unfair towards themselves, as natural lords of the 
 soil, purchased by their own blood and treasure, and as tending 
 to lower both the dignity and profits of gold digging. Many dis- 
 putes, occasionally attended with bloodshed, had taken place in 
 the mines between the people of the United States and these 
 foreigners, the latter of whom were slowly but surely driven away 
 from the mining districts they had selected, partly by violence, 
 though principally by threats. 
 
 This state of matters in the mining districts, which was often 
 not discountenanced, but was even openly approved of by many 
 respectable citizens, as well as the low character of the class al- 
 luded to in San Francisco itself, mightily encouraged and lent a 
 flimsy pretext to the criminal attacks by desperadoes in that city 
 against the foreign population. The " hounds," who were a nu- 
 
556 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 merous body of youths and men in the prime of life, professed 
 themselves only an association for " mutual defence," but in re- 
 ality were but a band of self-licensed robbers, who thought every 
 Chileno was fair game for their plundering propensities. They 
 organized themselves so far that they had a place of regular 
 meeting, or Head Quarters, which they called Tammany Hall, 
 in a large tent, near the City Hotel. Leaders were appointed to 
 conduct operations, and afterwards apportion the spoil. To such 
 a daring extent were matters carried that the body, proud of 
 their strength and numbers, attempted a sort of military display, 
 and on Sundays, armed with bludgeons and loaded revolvers, 
 paraded the streets, in open daylight, with drum and fife play- 
 ing, and banners flying. It was in the dead of night, however, 
 when their outrages were done. There were then neither lights 
 in the unformed streets, nor a police force to watch over the 
 safety of the town. The well-disposed citizens, fearful of brawls, 
 retired early to their dwellings, and the more noise and rioting 
 they might hear at a distance the closer they crept into bed, or 
 prepared their weapons for the defence alone of their own proper 
 domiciles. At such times the " hounds " would march to the 
 tents of known Chilenos, and tearing them down, rob and spoil 
 the contents of value, and shamefully maltreat and even murder 
 the inmates. At other times they would content themselves 
 with extorting by threats large sums of money and gifts of jewels 
 and articles of value from all classes of foreigners, and sometimes 
 from Americans themselves, though it was seldom they meddled 
 with the latter. A favorite sport was to intrude themselves, 
 even in open day, in a numerous gang, upon taverns and hotels, 
 and demand high priced drinks and food, which on receiving, — 
 for people were too much afraid of their lives and property to re- 
 fuse, — they would recklessly destroy the furniture nearest at 
 hand, and forthwith decamp as boldly as they had entered, with- 
 out troubling their heads as to who should pay for the damage or 
 the articles consumed. 
 
 This state of things had continued for some months, when in 
 one of their destructive expeditions upon the tents and chattels 
 of the Chilenos, a young man by the name of Beatty, not pro- 
 perly one of themselves, but who happened to be among or near 
 
THE HOUNDS. 
 
 557 
 
 the band at the time, received a fatal shot from one of the 
 attacked foreigners. This roused the " hounds " to vengeance 
 against the whole population of Spanish origin, and they became 
 fiercer and more destructive in their excesses than ever. People 
 now could not avoid taking notice of these lawless abuses ; but 
 public indignation was not yet full. About this time the 
 "hounds" changed their name to "regulators," and had the 
 impudence to profess themselves guardians of the community 
 against the encroachments of Spanish foreigners. At the sound 
 of the " assembly beat " on the drum, they would collect in great 
 numbers at " Tammany Hall," ready to commit whatever vio- 
 lence their leaders might direct. 
 
 On the afternoon of Sunday, the 15th of July, a large band 
 of the "hounds" or "regulators," returning from a marauding 
 excursion to Contra Costa, determined to signalize the occasion 
 by some new exploits. Armed with firearms and heavy sticks, 
 and under the command of one dressed in regimentals, whom 
 they called Lieutenant, they paraded through the town in their 
 usual ridiculous fashion, and towards evening proceeded to attack 
 various Chilian tents. These they violently tore down, plunder- 
 ing them of money and valuables, which they carried away, and 
 totally destroying on the spot such articles as they did not think 
 it worth while to seize. Without provocation, and in cold blood, 
 they barbarously beat with sticks and stones, and cuffed and 
 kicked the unoffending foreigners. Not content with that, they 
 repeatedly and wantonly fired among the injured people, and 
 amid the shrieks of terrified women and groans of wounded men, 
 recklessly continued their terrible course in different quarters, 
 wherever in fact malice or thirst for plunder led them. This was 
 in broad daylight ; but there were no individuals brave or fool- 
 hardy enough to resist the progress of such a savage mob, whose 
 exact force was unknown, but who were believed to be both nu- 
 merous and desperate. 
 
 On the following day, Monday, the 16th July, when the 
 news of these last outrages were circulated among the citizens, 
 the whole town rose in the greatest state of excitement. Al- 
 calde Leavenworth, who was himself ]>owerless to quell the dis- 
 turbance, was waited upon by Captain Bezer Simmons and Mr. 
 
558 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Samuel Brannan, and urged by these gentlemen instantly to take 
 some steps to organize the community to protect itself, and put 
 down decidedly these disturbers of the public peace. Thus forced 
 to some definite action, the alcalde the same day issued a procla- 
 mation, calling on the public instantly to assemble in Ports- 
 mouth Square. At three o'clock of that day, the whole honest 
 part of the community seemed to turn out at the place appoint- 
 ed. Mr. W. D. M. Howard was chosen president of the meeting, 
 and Dr. Victor J. Fourgeaud, secretary. Mr. Samuel Brannan 
 then addressed the meeting, and denounced in forcible terms, the 
 depredations and many crimes of the " hounds." Upon his mo- 
 tion, a subscription list was opened for relief of the sufferers by 
 the riots of the previous evening. It was next suggested that 
 the citizens should organize themselves into a police force to ap- 
 prehend the criminals and drag them to justice. This was im- 
 mediately done ; and two hundred and thirty people of those 
 present at the meeting enrolled themselves as special constables. 
 The general command of the body was given to Mr. W. E. Spof- 
 ford, while Messrs. Stevenson, Wadleigh, Simmons, Smith, Turk, 
 Gillespie, Hughes, Priest ; Webb and Stevens were appointed 
 captains. They were armed with muskets, sixty of which were 
 furnished gratuitously by Mr. Hiram Webb, now of the firm of 
 Webb & Harris. This volunteer force exerted themselves so 
 diligently, that, in spite of several attempts at open resistance 
 by the " hounds," nearly twenty of the rioters were the same 
 afternoon apprehended, examined and put in prison on board the 
 United States ship " Warren," there being then no safe place on 
 shore in which to keep them in custody. The leader, " Sam " 
 Roberts, was also arrested on his way to Stockton. Mr. A. J. 
 Ellis, who had been chosen to act as sheriff, took an effective 
 part in making these arrests. 
 
 The same day another meeting of the citizens was held on 
 Portsmouth Square, at which Dr. Wm. M. Gwin and James C. 
 Ward were unanimously elected associate judges, to relieve from 
 excessive responsibility the alcalde, and to aid him in trying the 
 prisoners. Mr. Horace Hawes was then appointed district attor- 
 ney, and Mr. Hall McAllister his associate counsel. The next 
 day, Tuesday, a grand jury of twenty-four citizens met, and, 
 
THE HOUNDS. 
 
 559 
 
 upon evidence, found a true bill against Samuel Roberts and 
 other supposed members of the " hounds," to the number of nine- 
 teen, on the different charges of conspiracy, riot, robbery, and 
 assault with intent to kill. 
 
 The following day, Wednesday, the trials began. All the 
 usual judicial forms were observed, and there was no apparent 
 desire to press harshly on the prisoners. Probably if they had 
 been caught in their very acts of violence on the preceding Sun- 
 day, the enraged people would at once have executed popular 
 justice on them ; but now public indignation was somewhat 
 calmed, and the trials proceeded with the greatest decorum and 
 impartiality. Francis J. Lippitt, Horace Hawes, Hall McAllis- 
 ter, and Frank Turk appeared as counsel for the people ; while 
 P. Barry and Myron Norton were deputed to act for the accused. 
 The judges were the alcalde, T. M. Leavenworth, and Messrs. 
 Gwin and Ward. Counsel for the defence having waived all ex- 
 ceptions to the form of the indictment, a jury was impanelled, 
 consisting of the following named gentlemen : — Thomas B. Win- 
 ston, J. R. Curtis, J. V. Plume, A. De Witt, Clarence Living- 
 ston, Benjamin Reynolds, Z. Cheney, John Sime, William Hood, 
 John W. Thompson, Francis Melius and Frederick Tesche- 
 macker. 
 
 Witnesses were next called, on the part of the prosecution, 
 who proved the existence of the association called the " hounds," 
 its organization under leaders, its professed and imputed objects, 
 and general violent proceedings. Other witnesses, among whom 
 were one of the wounded Chilenos, then presumed to be in a 
 dying state, and who subsequently died in consequence of his 
 wounds, established the facts of the riots, assaults and robberies 
 of the Sunday night preceding, and identified some of the pris- 
 oners as having been actors in the scene. After some observa- 
 tions by counsel for the defence, evidence was led by them, the 
 drift of which seemed to be to confound the persons of the panels 
 at the bar with those described by the witnesses for the prosecu- 
 tion as having been engaged in the occurrences of Sunday, and 
 in some faint degree also to establish an alibi. After an impar- 
 tial charge by the alcalde, the jury found Roberts, the leader of 
 the gang, guilty of all the counts, and eight others guilty of one 
 
560 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 or more of them. Eoberts and Saunders (another of the more 
 active "hounds,") were then sentenced to ten years imprison- 
 ment, with hard labor, in whatever penitentiary the governor of 
 California might direct, and the remainder to imprisonment with 
 hard labor for shorter periods, as well as most of them to consid- 
 erable fines, some of them also being required to grant bonds for 
 large sums to keep the peace for twelve months. From various 
 circumstances these penalties were never inflicted ; but the pris- 
 oners, some of whom were sent out of the country, were shortly 
 afterwards set at liberty. 
 
 Thus ended the affair of the " hounds," which had alarmed 
 the community so much, and which had compelled them, in the 
 absence of a firm and regular judicature, to take the law into 
 their own hands, and administer justice in a prompt and decisive 
 manner. The early success and safety of the " hounds," for a 
 long period afterwards led to still more daring and criminal ex- 
 cesses on the part of the desperadoes with whom the town con- 
 tinued to be haunted, and who were checked for only a little 
 while in their crimes by the examples made of Roberts and his 
 mates. On the other hand, the ease with which a number of 
 respectable and determined men could thus put down a disorder- 
 ly gang, afterwards encouraged the formation of the famous 
 "Vigilance Committee" of the year 1851, when, what between 
 theft and burglary, assault, murder and arson on the great scale, 
 it became almost a life and death struggle for the honest citizen 
 to preserve his property and inhabit the town in peace and per- 
 sonal safety. Some of the " hounds," who had escaped the due 
 punishment of their crimes at this time, met it shortly after- 
 wards at the mines, where several of them were unceremoniously 
 hanged, at an hour's notice, by the enraged miners, upon whom 
 they had attempted to try the tricks they had so long played with 
 impunity in San Francisco. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that we have said, there is yet another 
 phase of the " hounds " business, which may be just noticed. At 
 that period, there happened to be influential parties in San Fran- 
 cisco, who were determined to make " political capital " for them- 
 selves, and who considered that a gentle course of public disturb- 
 ance, while it might not conduce to any materially evil results, 
 
THE HOUNDS. 
 
 561 
 
 could be employed, or at least its instruments, to facilitate the 
 objects they had in view, and further their own personal interests. 
 These persons were suspected at the time, and long afterwards 
 were known, to have had secret intimacies and mysterious deal- 
 ings with certain leaders of the " hounds," who undertook to 
 promote the purposes of the former while at the same time they 
 served their own. But the monster, which if not born, was, at 
 least, nursed into strength by these very respectable aspirants, 
 soon outgrew the power of its protectors to keep it within bounds, 
 and became at last their disgrace and terror. Fearful of com- 
 mitting themselves by owning a former connection, however 
 slight, with such a vile association, some of the richest and most 
 influential people in the town calmly heard of all the abuses com- 
 mitted by their proteges, but took no steps to quell them. It 
 would be imprudent at this time to mention names, but the fact 
 is so nevertheless. The truly liberal, honest and brave portion of 
 the community had therefore a doubly difficult task to accom- 
 plish ; for not only had they to put down the " hounds " them- 
 selves, who were emboldened to resist by the knowledge that they 
 had " friends at court," but they had also to overcome the un- 
 concealed reluctance of many of their fellow-citizens to move at 
 all in the matter, and to set aside the various obstacles which 
 these factiously were enabled to throw in the way. 
 
 36 
 
Hanging of Whittakerand McKeiizie. 
 
 THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 There is probably no portion of the history of San Francisco 
 which has more excited the attention, the mingled wonder and 
 applause, scorn and indignation of the civilized world, than the 
 proceedings of the famous " Vigilance Committee." To law- 
 loving, peaceable, worthy people in the Atlantic States and 
 Europe, it did certainly seem surprising, that a city really of 
 thirty thousand inhabitants, — though since the population was 
 chiefly composed of male adults, of virtually the pretension, the 
 riches, business and character of a city of twice that number, — 
 should patiently submit to the improvised law and arbitrary will 
 of a secret society among themselves, however numerous, honest 
 and respectable the members might be reputed. Few people, 
 abroad, who had been trained from infancy to revere " the 
 majesty of the law," and who had never seen any crime but 
 what their own strong legal institutions and efficient police 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 563 
 
 could detect and punish, could possibly conceive such a state of 
 things as would justify the formation and independent action of 
 an association which set itself above all formal law, and which 
 openly administered summary justice, or what they called justice, 
 in armed opposition and defiance to the regularly constituted 
 tribunals of the country. Therefore, in other lands, it happened 
 that the Vigilance Committee became often a term of reproach, 
 and people pointed to it as a sign that society in California was 
 utterly and perhaps irredeemably impure and disorganized. In 
 San Francisco itself, while some citizens, it must be confessed, 
 did condemn the proceedings of that body, by far the greater 
 number cordially approved of them. The public press was 
 almost unanimous in its support of the association. The officers 
 of the law were often obliged to take cognizance of the existence 
 and actions of the committee, and thought it a matter of public 
 duty to denounce them ; but many of even these parties, in 
 private conversation, and still more in heart, applauded the 
 course which had been adopted by their fellow-citizens. 
 
 We have already had occasion to mention the affair of the 
 "hounds" in 1849. The summary measures taken at that 
 period by the people had the effect, for a while, of keeping the 
 blackguards who had been long infesting the city within some 
 moderate bounds. But the great immigration in the fall of that 
 year, and the confusion in San Francisco which followed, natur- 
 ally encouraged new depredations, which in the bustle of the 
 time and place were unnoticed and unfelt by any but the actual 
 victims. Over all California it was the same. The inroad of 
 nearly a hundred thousand strangers, who were likewise strangers 
 to each other, scattered among a dozen newly established towns, 
 and over the various mining districts, and who themselves knew 
 not the laws of the land, and perhaps expected, as they could 
 find, no protection from them, but trusted only to their own 
 watchfulness and revolvers, produced a state of things which 
 greatly favored the increase of crime. In 1850, a similar vast 
 immigration took place. The legal institutions and executive, 
 that just before had served the needs of a population of twenty 
 or thirty thousand, now failed to secure safety to a quarter of a 
 million, in which number were some of the most darin°- and 
 
564 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 clever rascals in the world. Among the immigrants were many 
 of the same stamp with the older criminals of the country, and 
 who readily aided in the lawless exploits of the latter. When 
 the towns, or any particular localities, became too hot to hold 
 them, the mining regions, over a length of seven hundred miles, 
 were ready to receive and shelter the fugitives. After a few- 
 months, under a new garb and name, the rascals would boldly 
 return to their former haunts, and with impunity commit new 
 crimes. Society was every where continually changing ; while 
 disguised in every imaginable way, by dress and an alias, and 
 not least by the growth and trimming of the beard, it was almost 
 impossible that the old offenders could be recognized. The 
 natural migration of honest diggers from mine to mine, often far 
 distant from each other, and to the greater towns to spend their 
 gains or recruit their health, was so great, that no notice could 
 be taken, by the really few permanent residents in any place, of 
 the arrival and departure of strangers, or of those traits in their 
 behavior which might have seemed strange and suspicious, if 
 witnessed by idle, inquisitive people of long settled lands. While 
 this constant immigration favored the freedom of criminals from 
 arrest, it also helped to extend their acquaintance among kindred 
 rogues. Wherever they went, they knew there were one, two, 
 or half a dozen noted haunts for fellows like themselves, upon 
 whose aid they could always rely, to execute new outrages, to 
 swear an alibi, or give any kind of false testimony that might be 
 wished ; to fee counsel or offer straw-bail, or to plan an escape 
 from pursuit or prison of themselves, or some hotly pressed 
 associate in crime. Thus there was gradually formed a secret 
 combination among the chief thieves, burglars and murderers of 
 the country, minute ramifications of which extended down to 
 the pettiest pilferers. To occasionally cut off a single member 
 of this class would do little good, so long as the grand gang was 
 at large and in full operation. Nothing less than the complete 
 extirpation of the whole body of miscreants, with their numerous 
 supporters and sympathizers, aids and abettors, would relieve 
 society from the fearful incubus that now oppressed it. 
 
 America no doubt supplied a number of these plunderers, 
 while the different countries of Europe likewise contributed a 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 565 
 
 proportion. But the most daring, and probably the most 
 numerous class had come from Van Dieman's Land and New 
 South Wales, whither England had sent shiploads of her con- 
 victed felons. The voyage from Sydney to San Francisco was 
 neither a very tedious nor an expensive one ; and great numbers 
 of " ticket-of-leave " men and old convicts who had " served their 
 time," early contrived to sail for California. There the field 
 seemed so rich and safe for a resumption of their quondam 
 pranks, that they yielded to the temptation, and forthwith began 
 to execute villanies that in magnitude and violent character far 
 exceeded those for which they had been originally convicted. 
 Callous in conscience, they feared nothing save the gallows. But 
 that they had little reason to dread in merciful, gentle, careless 
 California, where prosecutors and witnesses were few, or too busy 
 to attend to the calls of justice ; where jurors, not knowing the 
 law and eager to be at money-making again, were apt to take 
 hasty charges from the bench as their sole rule of conduct ; 
 where judges, chosen by popular election, were either grossly 
 ignorant of law, or too timid or careless, corrupt or incapable, to 
 measure out the full punishment of crime ; and where the lawt- 
 themselves had not yet been methodically laid down, and the 
 forms and procedure of legal tribunals digested into a plain, 
 unerring system. These " Sydney coves " therefore were com- 
 paratively safe in their attacks on society. They lost not the 
 opportunity ; and, unchecked, during the fall of 1849, the whole 
 of 1850, and the early part of 1851, reaped a large harvest. 
 
 There was a district of San Francisco that was noted as 
 being the rendezvous of the numerous rascals we have been de- 
 scribing ; and from which perhaps at this time emanated as much 
 villainy as at any period the " Seven Dials " or the " Five Points " 
 produced. This quarter lay around Clark's Point, in Broadway, 
 Pacific street, and the immediate vicinity. It was the notorious 
 Sydney-town of San Francisco. Low drinking and dancing 
 houses, lodging and gambling houses of the same mean class, the 
 constant scenes of lewdness, drunkenness and strife, abounded in 
 the quarter mentioned. The daily and nightly occupants of 
 these vile abodes had every one, more or less, been addicted to 
 crime ; and many of them were at all times ready, for the most 
 
566 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 trifling consideration, to kill a man or fire a town. During the 
 early hours of night, when the Alsatia was in revel, it was 
 dangerous in the highest degree for a single person to venture 
 within its bounds. Even the police hardly dared to enter there ; 
 and if they attempted to apprehend some known individuals, it 
 was always in a numerous, strongly-armed company. Seldom, 
 however, were arrests made. The lawless inhabitants of the 
 place united to save their luckless brothers, and generally man- 
 aged to drive the assailants away. When the different fires took 
 place in San Francisco, bands of plunderers issued from this 
 great haunt of dissipation, to help themselves to whatever money 
 or valuables lay in their way, or which they could possibly secure. 
 With these they retreated to their dens, and defied detection or 
 apprehension. Many of these fires were believed to have been 
 raised by incendiaries, solely for the opportunity which they 
 afforded for plundering. Persons were repeatedly seen in the act 
 of kindling loose inflammable materials in out-houses and secret 
 places ; while the subsequent confessions of convicted criminals 
 left no doubt of the fact, that not only had frequent attempts 
 been made to fire the city, but that some of these had unfortu- 
 nately been successful. Fire, however, was only one means of 
 attaining their ends. The most daring burglaries were committed, 
 and houses and persons rifled of their valuables. Where resist- 
 ance was made, the bowie-knife or the revolver settled matters, 
 and left the robber unmolested. Midnight assaults, ending in 
 murder, were common. And not only were these deeds perpe- 
 trated under the shade of night ; but even in daylight, in the 
 highways and byways of the country, in the streets of the town, 
 in crowded bars, gambling saloons and lodging houses, crimes of 
 an equally glaring character were of constant occurrence. People 
 at that period generally carried during all hours, and wherever 
 they happened to be, loaded firearms about their persons ; but 
 these weapons availed nothing against the sudden stroke of the 
 " slung shot," the plunge and rip of the knife, or the secret aim- 
 ing of the pistol. No decent man was in safety to walk the 
 streets after dark ; while at all hours, both of night and day, 
 his property was jeopardized by incendiarism and burglary. 
 
 All this while, the law, whose supposed " majesty " is so awful 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 567 
 
 in other countries, was here only a matter for ridicule. The 
 police were few in number, and poorly as well as irregularly paid. 
 Some of them were in league with the criminals themselves, and 
 assisted these at all times to elude justice. Subsequent confes- 
 sions of criminals on the eve of execution, implicated a consider- 
 able number of people in various high and low departments of 
 the executive. Bail was readily accepted in the most serious 
 cases, where the security tendered was absolutely worthless ; and 
 where, whenever necessary, both principal and cautioner quietly 
 disappeared. The prisons likewise were small and insecure ; 
 and though filled to overflowing, could no longer contain the 
 crowds of apprehended offenders. When these were ultimately 
 brought to trial, seldom could a conviction be obtained. From 
 technical errors on the part of the prosecutors, laws ill under- 
 stood and worse applied, false swearing of the witnesses for the 
 prisoners, absence often of the chief evidence for the prosecution, 
 dishonesty of jurors, incapacity, weakness, or venality of the 
 judge, and from many other causes, the cases generally broke 
 down and the prisoners were freed. Not one criminal had yet 
 been executed. Yet it was notorious, that, at this period, at 
 least one hundred murders had been committed within the space 
 of a few months ; while innumerable were the instances of arson, 
 and of theft, robbery, burglary, and assault with intent to kill. 
 It was evident that the offenders defied and laughed at all the 
 puny efforts of the authorities to control them. The tedious 
 processes of legal tribunals had no terrors for them. As yet 
 every thing had been pleasant and safe, and they saw no reason 
 why it should not always be so. San Francisco had been just 
 destroyed, a fifth time, by conflagration. The cities of Stockton 
 and Nevada had likewise shared the same fate. That part of it 
 was the doing of incendiaries no one doubted ; and too, no one 
 doubted but that this terrible state of things would continue, 
 and grow worse, until a new and very different executive from 
 the legally-constituted one should rise up in vengeance against 
 those pests that worried and preyed upon the vitals of society. 
 It was at this fearful time that the Vigilance Committee was 
 organized. They knew they had no ordinary duty to perform. 
 They foresaw not merely much time, labor, expense, and actual. 
 
.568 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 danger occasioned to themselves — these were trifles — hut also 
 grievous responsibility, and perhaps much misconception and un- 
 deserved personal obloquy thrown upon their motives and con- 
 duct. They were prepared for all ; for what will not a man 
 suffer to save life, limb, and property ? They knew they might 
 possibly open a gate to insubordination and general anarchy, 
 thereby periling all future law, peace and happiness ; but they 
 did not think that a probable case, and at any rate the risk must 
 be run. The chances were all calculated beforehand ; and the 
 result showed only a clear winning game. 
 
 The law of nature, which is the foundation of, and is supe- 
 rior to, all civil law, justifies every means for self-preservation. 
 An individual or a community attacked has a right to defend 
 itself ; and where that attack cannot be otherwise resisted, then 
 is extermination of the offender proper. Where the constituted 
 tribunals of a country fail to accomplish the ends for which they 
 were created, society becomes resolved into its first elements, and 
 some new method must be adopted to preserve its very existence. 
 Opinions may differ as to the particular instant of time when 
 formal law and legal courts become inoperative, and sanction a 
 community in resorting to new and extraordinary measures for 
 its own safety ; but in regard to the general principle, all history, 
 and what is better, common sense and moral feeling, abundantly 
 establish it. The people of San Francisco, — and they of all the 
 world could alone know their own troubles, — believed that the un- 
 happy point of time had been reached ; and they accordingly 
 seized the occasion to make some terrible experiments, by which 
 to check the growth of those crimes that were so rapidly sur- 
 rounding them. 
 
 In the case of Stuart alias Burdue, in February, 1851, the 
 want of organization and previous arrangements on the part of 
 the people, had been severely felt. As the popular demonstration 
 of that period had failed to strike criminals with terror or lessen 
 crime, a number of the leading citizens organized themselves into 
 the Vigilance Committee. This was in June, 1851. The con- 
 stitution of the association was as follows : — 
 
 " Whereas, it has become apparent to the citizens of San Francisco, that 
 there is no security for life and property, either under the regulations of society 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 569 
 
 as it at present exists, or under the law as now administered ; Therefore, the 
 citizens, whose names are hereunto attached, do unite themselves into an 
 association for the maintenance of the peace and good order of society, and 
 the preservation of the lives and property of the citizens of San Francisco, 
 and do bind ourselves, each unto the other, to do and perform every lawful act 
 for the maintenance of law and order, and to sustain the laws when faithfully 
 and properly administered ; but we are determined that no thief, burglar, in- 
 cendiary or assassin, shall escape punishment, either by the quibbles of the 
 law, the insecurity of prisons, the carelessness or corruption of the police, or 
 a laxity of those who pretend to administer justice. And to secure the ob- 
 jects of this association we do hereby agree : 
 
 " 1. That the name and style of the association shall be the Committee of 
 Vigilance, for the protection of the lives and property of the citizens and 
 residents of the city of San Francisco. 
 
 " 2. That there shall be a room selected for the meeting and deliberation 
 of the committee, at which there shall be one or more members of the com- 
 mittee, appointed for that purpose, in constant attendance, at all hours of the 
 day and night, to receive the report of any member of the association, or of 
 any other person or persons whatsoever, of any act of violence done to the 
 person or property of any citizen of San Francisco ; and if in the judgment 
 of the member or members of the committee present, it be such an act as 
 justifies the interference of the committee, either in aiding in the execution of 
 the laws, or the prompt and summary punishment of the offender, the com- 
 mittee shall be at once assembled for the purpose of taking such action as a 
 majority of the committee when assembled shall determine upon. 
 
 " 3. That it shall be the duty of any member or members of the committee 
 on duty at the committee room, whenever a general assemblage of the com- 
 mittee is deemed necessary, to cause a call to be made by two strokes upon 
 a bell, which shall be repeated with a pause of one minute between each alarm. 
 The alarm to be struck until ordered to be stopped. 
 
 " 4. That when the committee have assembled for action, the decision of a 
 majority present shall be binding upon the whole committee, and that those 
 members of the committee whose names are hereunto attached, do pledge their 
 honor, and hereby bind themselves to defend and sustain each other in carry- 
 ing out the determined action of this committee at the hazard of their lives 
 and their fortunes. 
 
 " 5. That there shall be chosen monthly a president, secretary and treasurer, 
 and it shall be the duty of the secretary to detail the members required to be 
 in daily attendance at the committee room. A sergeant-at-arms shall be 
 appointed, whose duty it shall be to notify such members of their details for 
 duty. The sergeant-at-arms shall reside at and be in constant attendance at 
 the committee room. There shall be a standing committee of finance, and 
 qualification, consisting of five each, and no person shall be admitted a member 
 of this association unless he be a respectable citizen, and approved of by the 
 committee on qualification before admission." 
 
570 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 An occasion soon happened to test the character and uses 
 of this most extraordinary association. On the evening of the 
 10th of June, 1851, a person of the name of John Jenkins 
 feloniously entered a store on Long Wharf, and stole a safe. He 
 was subsequently seen with a large burden slung across his back, 
 and, an alarm being raised, was pursued. He then got into a 
 boat, and sculled out into the bay, followed by a dozen other 
 boats in keen pursuit. The fugitive was soon overtaken ; but 
 before his captors reached him he was seen to throw the burden 
 into the water. This was soon drawn up, and proved to be the 
 stolen safe. The prisoner was next taken to the rooms of the 
 Vigilance Committee, in Battery street, near the corner of Pine 
 street. About ten o'clock of the same night, a signal was given 
 on the bell of the Monumental Engine Company ; and shortly 
 afterwards about eighty members of the committee hurried to 
 the appointed place, and on giving the secret password were 
 admitted. Meanwhile, knots of people, some of whom knew and 
 all suspected what was going on, gathered about the premises, 
 and impatiently awaited the farther progress of events. For two 
 long hours, the committee were closely occupied in examining 
 evidence ; and soon they had no reason to doubt the prisoner's 
 guilt — though this he denied to the last. At midnight, the bell 
 of the California Engine House was tolled, as sentence of death 
 by hanging was passed upon the wretched man. The solemn 
 sounds at that unusual hour filled the anxious crowds with awe. 
 The condemned at this time was asked if he had any thing to say 
 for himself, when he answered : " No, I have nothing to say, only 
 I wish to have a cigar." This was handed to him, and after- 
 wards, at his request, a little brandy and water. He was per- 
 fectly cool, and seemingly careless, confidently expecting, it was 
 believed, a rescue, up to the last moment. 
 
 A little before one o'clock, Mr. S. Brannan came out of the 
 committee rooms, and ascending a mound of sand to the east of 
 the Basse tte House, addressed the people. He had been deputed 
 he said, by the committee, to inform them that the prisoner's 
 case had been fairly tried, that he had been proved guilty, and 
 was condemned to be hanged ; and that the sentence would be 
 executed within one hour upon the plaza. He then asked the 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 571 
 
 people if they approved of the action of the committee, when 
 great shouts of Ay ! Ay ! burst forth, mingled with a few cries 
 of No ! In the interval a clergyman had been sent for, who 
 administered the last consolations of religion to the condemned. 
 
 Shortly before two o'clock, the committee issued from the 
 building, bearing the prisoner (who had his arms tightly pinioned) 
 along with them. The committee were all armed, and closely 
 clustered around the culprit to prevent any possible chance of 
 rescue. A procession was formed ; and the whole party, followed 
 by the crowd, proceeded to the plaza, through Sansome, Cali- 
 fornia, Montgomery and Clay streets. Arrived at the flagstaff, 
 some thoughtlessly suggested that it might serve to hang the 
 condemned upon, but the proposal was indignantly overruled, as 
 desecrating the liberty pole. Those in charge of the execution 
 then proceeded to the south end of the adobe building, which 
 then stood on the north-west corner of the plaza. The opposite 
 end of the rope which was already about the neck of the victim 
 was hastily thrown over a projecting beam. Some of the authori- 
 ties attempted at this stage of affairs to interfere, but their efforts 
 were unavailing. They were civilly desired to stand back, and 
 not delay what was still to be done. The crowd, which numbered 
 upwards of a thousand, were perfectly quiescent, or only applauded 
 by look, gesture, and subdued voice the action of the committee. 
 Before the prisoner had reached the building, a score of persons 
 seized the loose end of the rope and ran backwards, dragging the 
 wretch along the ground and raising him to the beam. Thus 
 they held him till he was dead. Nor did they let the body go 
 until some hours afterwards, new volunteers relieving those who 
 were tired holding the rope. Little noise or confusion took place. 
 Muttered whispers among the spectators guided their movements 
 or betrayed their feelings. The prisoner had not spoken a word, 
 either upon the march or during the rapid preparations for his 
 execution. At the end he was perhaps strung up almost before 
 he was aware of what was so immediately coming. He was 
 a strong-built, healthy man, and his struggles, when hanging, 
 were very violent for a few minutes. 
 
 This Jenkins was one of the notorious " Sydney coves," and 
 was believed to be a man of desperate and crime-stained charac- 
 
572 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ter. The committee who tried him were generally people of 
 respectability in San Francisco. Stern necessity had led them 
 to make this first terrible example, and their conduct was almost 
 unanimously applauded by the citizens. The public press, with 
 one exception, likewise gave a hearty approval of their proceed- 
 ings. That the execution was conducted during the dead of 
 night, was simply owing to the fact that the criminal had been 
 apprehended only late in the preceding evening. The crime, 
 apprehension, trial, sentence and execution, all took place within 
 a few consecutive hours. The latter steps were managed as 
 swiftly as convenient to the ends of justice. If the crime had 
 been committed in the morning, the result would have been the 
 same, and the condemned would then only have been hanged in 
 open day. That the trial took place in secret was owing to the 
 constitution of the committee, which was devised to prevent the 
 excesses and turbulence of a mere mob sitting in judgment upon 
 offenders. 
 
 A coroner's inquest was held, the 11th of June, upon the 
 body of the hanged man. To illustrate further the constitution, 
 real objects, and spirit of the Vigilance Committee, we give a 
 portion of the testimony of Mr. Brannan before the jury on this 
 occasion. After declining to answer some questions on the ground 
 that his statements might implicate himself, the witness said : 
 
 " I believe the man had a fair and impartial trial. lie was tried before 
 from sixty to eighty men. I believe the verdict of guilty was unanimous, and 
 they came to the conclusion unanimously to hang him. I don't know how the 
 jury was empanelled ; think they empanelled themselves. The jury consisted 
 of the Committee of Vigilance ; they were all citizens of the town. I don't 
 know that the committee has by-laws. The declared object of the committee 
 was to consider themselves constantly on duty, to protect the lives and pro- 
 perty of their fellow-citizens ; to see that they are not troubled by burglars, 
 and incendiaries, and murderers ; and to arrest and punish promptly parties 
 caught in the act. The man was executed in accordance with the finding of 
 the committee. I understood a record was kept of the evidence adduced on 
 the trial ; six or eight witnesses were examined. The prisoner had the priv- 
 ilege of bringing in evidence in his behalf. He said he had but one witness, 
 who came and testified that he did not know him. There was no counsel as- 
 signed him. I don't know whether the man's witness saw him. He said he 
 did not know any such man before he reached the house. Don't know that 
 the witnesses were put under oath. I did not make any motion that the man 
 should have a new trial. Don't know whether any other persons than those 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 573 
 
 of the committee were in the room. A man is admitted to the committee on 
 a motion by a friend who vouches for his character, and that he will devote a 
 portion of his time to watching for burglars and other scoundrels. I don't 
 know of any other secrecy than that of an honest man. There is no oath 
 used. The object is to assist the law and administer justice. I do not believe 
 the prisoner would have been hanged if the committee had not found him 
 guilty. The committee are good citizens, and of good standing in society. I 
 saw the prisoner's witness out of doors ; heard him say he did not know any 
 such man as Jenkins ; don't know whether he went inside ; did not see him ; 
 could not give the names of any of the witnesses. I object to give the names 
 of any of the committee. I have understood that threats have been made 
 against their property and lives ; have heard threats made ; have heard it said 
 that my own house would be burned ; threats have come to me from the 
 prisoners in the county prison that I should not live ninety days. I know 
 of nothing done by the Vigilance Committee that they would conceal from the 
 officers of the law under proper circumstances. The avowed object of the 
 committee is to protect the city, and punish crime. I know of no other purpose 
 for which they are organized. I believe it was through the instrumentality 
 of the committee that the man was hanged." 
 
 Upon the above and much other evidence of a like nature, 
 the jury on the 12th June, returned the following verdict : — 
 
 "We, the Jurors of a Jury of Inquest, empanelled by the Coroner of the 
 County of San Francisco, to inquire into the death of one John Jenkins, alias 
 Simpton, do find upon our oaths that the said Jenkins, alias Simpton, came to 
 his death on the morning of the 11th of June, between the hours of two and 
 three o'clock, by violent means, by strangulation, caused by being suspended 
 by the neck, with a rope attached to the end of the adobe building on the 
 plaza, at the hands of, and in pursuance of a preconcerted action on the part 
 of an association of citizens, styling themselves a Committee of Vigilance, of 
 whom the following members are implicated by direct testimony, to wit : Cap- 
 tain Edgar Wakeman, William H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, 
 T. K. Battelle, Benjamin Reynolds, John S. Eagan, J. C. Derby and Samuel 
 Brannan ; and the following members by their voluntary avowal of participa- 
 tion in the act." [Here followed a list of the members of the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee.] 
 
 In consequence of this verdict (which, it may be just said 
 in passing, was never attempted to be followed up by the authori- 
 ties), the Vigilance Committee held a meeting on the 13th June, 
 when a unanimous resolution to the following effect was passed, 
 and ordered to be published. As the names appended to this 
 resolution make a pretty complete roll of the original, or moue 
 prominent members of the Vigilance Committee, many of whom 
 still reside in San Francisco and move among the most respecta- 
 
574 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ble circles, we give them at length. The curious and scandal- 
 loving may spell over the list at their leisure, and discover some 
 of the chief bankers, merchants and real estate proprietors now 
 flourishing in this city. There is, however, a better reason for 
 the present republication of these names, albeit some feebler- 
 minded folk may fervently wish that their " unco guid " friends 
 at a distance may never hear of their graceless connection with 
 the Vigilance Committee. Since common fairness compelled the 
 disclosure in 1851, to give moral support to the parties singled 
 out by the verdict of the coroner's jury ; therefore, so long as these 
 gentlemen continue well known, and while they must be specially 
 designated in any history pretending to be full and accurate of 
 the proceedings, the same spirit of fairness enforces the publica- 
 tion now. It would be doing gross injustice to a dozen worthy 
 men, if the full list were omitted in the " Annals of San Fran- 
 cisco." At the same time, there is no reason why any one of the 
 whole number should be ashamed of his appearance in the list. 
 
 " Resolved, That we, members of the Vigilance Committee, remark with 
 surprise the invidious verdict rendered by the coroner's jury, after their in- 
 quest upon the body of Jenkins, alias Simpton, after we have all notified to 
 the said jury and the public that we were all participators in the trial and 
 execution of said Jenkins. We desire that the public will understand that 
 Capt. E. Wakeman, W. H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward A. King, T. K. Bat- 
 telle, Benjamin Reynolds, J. S. Eagan, J. C. Derby and Samuel Brannan, have 
 been unnecessarily picked from our numbers, as the coroner's jury have had full 
 evidence of the fact, that all the undersigned have been equally implicated, 
 and arc equally responsible with their above-named associates." 
 
 S. E. Woodworth, 
 Fred. A. Woodworth, 
 Francis E. Webster, 
 Win. N. Thompson, 
 Clinton Winton, 
 James B. Huie, 
 B. Frank Hillard, 
 S. W. Haight, 
 George H. Howard, 
 Caleb Hyatt, 
 Samuel R. Curwen, 
 James F. Curtis, 
 L. Hulsemann, 
 A. G. Kandall, 
 8. Brannan, 
 George J. Oakes, 
 R. D. W. Davis, 
 Wm. H. Jones, 
 Edward A. King, 
 
 Jesse Southam, 
 T. H. Robinson, 
 George R. Ward, 
 C. L. Wilson, 
 W. H. Taber, 
 Isaac Bluxome, jr., 
 Lathrop L. Bullock, 
 John W. Rider, 
 Theodore Kuhlman, 
 Joseph E. Dale, 
 Julius D. Sliultz, 
 J. P. Stevens, 
 Thomas McCahill, 
 Wm. Peake, 
 Jonas Minturn, 
 Lloyd Minturn, 
 F. O. Wakeman, 
 Wm. Forst, 
 John W. Jackson, 
 
 James Shinaler, 
 J. W. Rickman, 
 W. S. Bromley, 
 
 A. Ottenheimer, 
 
 B. H. Davis, 
 
 P. Frothlngham, 
 E. E. Scbenck, 
 Geo. Austinworn, 
 E Botcher, 
 Samuel Marx, 
 Daniel J. Thomas, jr., 
 J. E. Farwell. 
 Jacob P. Leese, 
 Edgar Wakeman, 
 A. Markwell, 
 Samuel A. Sloaue, 
 W. B. Lucas, 
 Henry M. Naglee, 
 J. Thompson Iluic, 
 
 A. Wheelwright, 
 
 C. F. Fourgeand, 
 
 A. Jackson McDullic, 
 
 P. D. Hcadley, 
 
 S. B. Marshall, 
 
 H. Ilazeltine, 
 
 W. Iken, 
 
 George 1). Lambert, 
 John P. Half, 
 Joseph T. Harmer, 
 J. Seligman, 
 H. F. Von Lenyerk, 
 J. E. Derby, 
 T. J. West, 
 Win. T. Coleman, 
 J. S. Clark, 
 C H. Clark, 
 Herman R. Haste, 
 H. F. Tescbemacker, 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 575 
 
 William A. Howard, 
 Henry Dreshchfeldt, 
 James Ryan, 
 Win. Browne, 
 Hubert Wells, 
 H. D. Evans, 
 John J. Bryant, 
 E. Kirtus, 
 Thos. N. Deblois, 
 E. Gorliam, 
 Frank S. Mahoney, 
 James C. Ward, 
 R. S. Watson, 
 George Melius, 
 J. D. Stevenson, 
 Chas. K. Bond, 
 
 B. B. Arrowsmith, 
 S. E. Teschemacker, 
 
 C. H. Brinley, 
 J. W. Salmon, 
 Benjamin Reynolds, 
 A. W, Macpherson, 
 John S. Eagan, 
 
 J. C. L. Wadsworth, 
 William Hart, 
 George M. Garwood, 
 R. S. Lanot, 
 
 A. C. Tubbs, 
 J. R. Curtis, 
 
 A. II. Hill, 
 Wm. H. Graham, 
 
 B. E. Babcock, 
 J. A. Fisher, 
 Hartford Joy, 
 Joshua Hilton, 
 John F. Osgood, 
 James Pratt, 
 
 E. Kemp. 
 Wm. G. Badger, 
 J. Mead Huxley 
 S. J. Stabler, 
 Geo. Clifford, 
 Charles Soule, jr., 
 Robert H. Belden, 
 N. Smith, 
 
 Randolph M. Cooley, 
 Chas. II. Hill, 
 J. Neal, jr., 
 
 F. A. Atkinson, 
 Charles Miller, 
 John 0. Earle, 
 N. T. Thompson, 
 N. Reynolds Davis, 
 Gabriel Winter, 
 
 Otis P. Sawyer, 
 Wm. Meyer, 
 W. N. Hostin, 
 John G. McKaraber, 
 Eugene Hart, 
 John Raynes, 
 J. C. Treadwell, 
 John H. Watson, 
 Wm. Burling, 
 F. Quincey Coale, 
 Thomas N. Cazneau, 
 Geo. W. Douglass, 
 Wm. C. Graham, 
 Chas. II. Vail, 
 Charles Minturn, 
 Howard Cunningham, 
 Charles L. Case, 
 Charles Moore, 
 James R. Duff, 
 
 E. M. Earle, 
 
 J. L. Van Bokkelcn, 
 George N. Blake, 
 Dewitt Brown, 
 Edward F. Baker, 
 
 F. Argent!, 
 Stephen Payran, 
 C. Spring, 
 
 Wm. J. Sherwood, 
 W. L. Hobson, 
 
 E. W. Travers, 
 W. H. Tillinghast, 
 Wm. Langerrnan, 
 J. F. Hutton, 
 Thos. K. Battelle, 
 Horace Morrison, 
 Augustus Belknap, 
 
 F. L. Dana, 
 noratio S. Gates, 
 O. P. Sutton, 
 Jer. Spalding, 
 A. J. Ellis, 
 
 John M. Coughlin, 
 Samuel Moss, jr., 
 C. O. Brewster, 
 Charles L. Wood, 
 William Tell, 
 James Dow, 
 E. W. Crowell, 
 A. II. Gildemeester, 
 Samuel S. Philipps, 
 Chas. Del Vecehio, 
 Joseph Post, 
 Jas. King of William. 
 
 These were signatures of some of the richest, most influential, 
 orderly and respectable citizens of San Francisco. They show, 
 however, only a small portion of the people who subsequently 
 joined the Vigilance Committee, since every day was increasing 
 its numbers by the accession of the best inhabitants of the place. 
 At the time when the above resolution was formed and published 
 the committee likewise put forth the following by-laws, as an 
 address to the people : — 
 
 "Whereas, The citizens of San Francisco, convinced that there exists 
 within its limits a band of robbers and incendiaries, who have, several times, 
 burned and attempted to burn their city, who nightly attack their persons 
 and break into their buildings, destroy their quiet, jeopardize their lives and 
 property, and generally disturb the natural order of society; And Whereas 
 many of those taken by the police have succeeded in escaping from their 
 prisons by carelessness, by connivance, or from want of proper means or force 
 to secure their confinement, therefore be it 
 
 " Resolved, That the citizens of this place be made aware that the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance will be ever ready to receive information as to the where- 
 abouts of any disorderly or suspicious person or persons, as well as the persons 
 themselves when suspected of crime. 
 
 " That as it is the conviction of a large portion of our citizens, that there 
 exists in this city a nucleus of convicts and disorderly persons, around which 
 cluster those who have seriously disturbed the peace and affected the best 
 
576 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 interests of our city — such as are known to the police of the city, or to the 
 members of the Committee of Vigilance, as felons by conduct or association, 
 be notified to leave this port within five days from this date ; and at the ex- 
 piration of which time they shall be compelled to depart, if they have not 
 done so voluntarily within the time specified. 
 
 " Resolved, That a safety committee of thirty persons be appointed, whose 
 sacred duty it shall be to visit every vessel arriving with notorious or suspi- 
 cious characters on board, and unless they can present to said committee evi- 
 dences of good character and honesty, they shall be re-shipped to the places 
 from whence they came, and not be permitted to pollute our soil. 
 
 " Hesolved, That all good citizens be invited to join and assist the Com- 
 mittee of Vigilance in carrying out the above measures so necessary for the 
 perfect restoration of the peace, safety, and good order of our community." 
 
 These sweeping resolutions were not suffered to lie dormant ; 
 but were instantly and effectively acted upon. The terrible ex- 
 ample made of Jenkins, and the announcement of farther steps 
 by the committee, had already succeeded in frightening many of 
 the more fearful rogues away. The steamers to Sacramento and 
 Stockton were crowded with the flying rascals. But such a par- 
 tial exodus was not enough. The more desperate characters were 
 left, and unless the work was thoroughly done, the city would 
 be in as bad a state as before. An old Mexican law really forbade 
 the immigration into California of such persons as had been con- 
 victed of crime in other countries ; but this law, in the confusion 
 of the vast immigration of 1849 and succeeding years had been 
 disregarded. The committee, however, now proceeded to render 
 it of use, and give a somewhat wider scope to its operation. So 
 notices were forthwith served on all such persons as were known 
 or reputed to be vicious characters, upon the different " Sydney 
 Coves," and upon all who harbored or kept close companion- 
 ship with them, that they instantly leave the city, on pain of 
 being forcibly expelled, and shipped to the place from whence 
 they had last come. These notices were served always in presence 
 of three members of the committee, and after due inquiry, 
 although a secret one, had been made on the subject. If the 
 party warned considered himself an innocent or ill-used person, 
 he was at liberty to appeal to the committee, and have his cause 
 reheard. He could produce all evidence within his power in 
 regard to general character or to rebut specific charges ; and upon 
 that, or its absence, the committee altered or confirmed their for- 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 577 
 
 mer judgment. Kepeated cases of rehearing took place ; and 
 where the parties appealing were " white-washed," or turned out 
 really " good citizens," generally no malice was manifested by 
 them against the committee ; because they, like their judges, 
 considered that the whole proceedings had been conducted in 
 good faith and for the public benefit. A few actions of damages 
 for false imprisonment and defamation of character were about 
 this time and subsequently raised against members of the Vigi- 
 lance Committee, by parties who considered themselves aggrieved 
 by their proceedings. In the end, however, these actions were 
 either quashed, nominal damages only awarded by the jury, or 
 the plaintiffs indemnified. Meanwhile, the committee pursued 
 " the even tenor of their way," nowise daunted by the reproaches 
 and threats of offended individuals, nor by the continual oppos- 
 ing action of mortified officials. When some of the warned 
 were contumacious, and refused to depart, they were seized by 
 force, in spite of their appeals to the courts of law, and impris- 
 oned on board a safe ship in the bay until arrangements could 
 be made for their transportation abroad. The legal authorities, 
 with numerous practising lawyers in their train, meanwhile 
 " fretted and fumed " at thus losing their own proper business ; 
 and denounced in angry language the sweeping action of the 
 committee. Those personages did not deny the good result of 
 this action, nor did they disguise the alarming increase of crime 
 and the inability of the regular tribunals to cope with it ; 
 but still they harped upon the illegality, — the illegality of the whole 
 proceedings. Illegality truly ! People were abused, robbed and 
 murdered on all sides, their houses set in flames, and their goods 
 consumed or stolen, and yet they were to be forbidden the only 
 remedy in their power, because form was to be observed, while 
 the criminals escaped ! The reproaches of mere lawyers were 
 disregarded, and the work of purification went on. 
 
 Some individuals having chosen to throw obstacles in the way 
 of the Vigilance Committee's action, that body issued the follow- 
 ing notice to the public. It is here given to show the spirit of 
 their proceedings, and the ceaseless watchfulness with which they 
 were conducted. Not a word need be said as to their illegality ; 
 that is confessed by all. 
 37 
 
578 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 "Vigilance Committee Room: — It having become necessary to the 
 peace and quiet of this community that all criminals and abettors in crime 
 should be driven from among us, no good citizen, having the welfare of San 
 Francisco at heart, will deny the Committee of Vigilance such information as 
 will enable them to carry out the above object. Nor will they interfere with 
 said committee when they may deem it best to search any premises for sus- 
 picious characters or stolen property. Therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That we the Vigilance Committee do claim to ourselves the 
 right to enter any person or persons' premises where we have good reason 
 to believe that we shall find evidence to substantiate and carry out the object 
 of tliis body ; And further, deeming ourselves engaged in a good and just 
 cause — we intend to maintain it. 
 
 11 By order of 
 
 " The Committee of Vigilance, 
 
 No. G7, Secretary." 
 
 " San Francisco, July 5, 1851." 
 
 The next striking occasion when the Vigilance Committee 
 exercised its power was on the 11th of July following. A person 
 of the name of James Stuart — the real party of that name, and 
 for whom Burdue had been mistaken in the affair of the 19th of 
 February preceding, had been for some days in the hands of the 
 committee upon various charges. He had been regularly and 
 fairly tried, found guilty, and was sentenced to be hanged. Subse- 
 quently he made a full confession of his crimes, and acknowledged 
 the justice of his punishment. He was an Englishman, and had 
 many years before been transported from Great Britain to Aus- 
 tralia for forgery. At that time he was only sixteen years of 
 age. His whole life afterwards was one continued tissue of the 
 most daring crimes. After wandering about various parts of the 
 Pacific, he lighted at last upon California, and during liis short 
 residence there was supposed to have perpetrated more murders, 
 burglaries, and other crimes of every dark and desperate descrip- 
 tion, than any other villain in California. His confession revealed 
 an extraordinary state of social impurity, and showed, clearly 
 and minutely, the alarming mass of villany which existed among 
 the community, and the support it received from the lax and 
 culpable behavior of the executive. This confession was imme- 
 diately published, and the people warned against the many persons 
 whom it named and implicated in the crimes acknowledged. 
 
 About nine o'clock on the morning of the 11th, the customary 
 taps on the bell of the Monumental Engine House, which showed 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 579 
 
 that a matter of life and death was under consideration, summoned 
 together the Vigilance Committee. Immediately a numerous 
 assemblage of members convened at their rooms, and proceeded 
 to try the prisoner. Evidence was duly led and considered, and 
 Stuart's guilt being fully established, he was sentenced by a 
 unanimous voice, to immediate death by hanging. Before the 
 execution, Col. J. D. Stevenson went forth to the crowd of peo- 
 ple waiting outside, and addressing them, stated the facts of the 
 case briefly, as established by evidence, the subsequent confession 
 of the prisoner himself, and the proposed judgment of the com- 
 mittee. He then inquired whether the people approved of their 
 proceedings, and would confirm the sentence. A loud shout in 
 the affirmative from a great crowd answered his inquiry, against 
 which there were only several voices in the negative. During 
 this time the committee were in consultation as to their further 
 proceedings, while the prisoner remained manacled in an adjoining 
 room. He appeared quite reckless of his fate, and only at times 
 
 said that the business was " d d tiresome." He begged a 
 
 piece of tobacco from one of the members, which he continued 
 to chew until he heard his doom. When sentence was delivered, 
 he was permitted to have a delay of two hours, to frame his 
 mind to the solemnity of the occasion ; and to that end the 
 assistance of a clergyman was given, although the prisoner seemed 
 very indifferent about religious duties. This clergyman, the Rev. 
 Mr. Mines, was closeted with the condemned during the time 
 granted. In the interval, the members j)resent of the committee 
 — some four hundred in number, sat grimly on their seats, silent 
 and determined. They felt the responsibility and unpleasant 
 nature of the task before them ; but they did not hesitate. It 
 was for the good of the community and their own safety that 
 they had been laboring, and while conscience approved of their 
 proceedings, they did not so much court, as they hoped and ex- 
 pected the confidence and applause of their fellow-citizens. The 
 silence in that chamber of judgment was profound ; a pin could 
 have been heard to fall on the floor. 
 
 After the two hours' grace, the condemned was led forth, still 
 manacled, and closely surrounded by those who had the direct 
 charge of watching over him. The rest of the committee formed 
 
580 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in a line behind. They were all well armed, and prepared to 
 resist any attempted rescue, either by the prisoner's friends, or 
 the authorities themselves. In this order they marched, two by 
 two, as in funeral procession, after Stuart and his guards, along 
 Battery street to Market street wharf, down which they pro- 
 ceeded to its extremity. A great crowd of citizens followed. 
 
 Hanging of James Stuart. 
 
 Hitherto the prisoner had preserved much coolness, but towards 
 the close, fear was beginning to overcome him, and he was at 
 last obliged to be supported by two of his guards. At the end 
 of the wharf every thing had been hastily arranged for the exe- 
 cution. So soon as the procession reached the spot, the fatal 
 rope was fastened, and the condemned quickly hoisted up with a 
 jerk upon a derrick. He did not struggle much. After hanging 
 a few seconds his hat fell off, and a slight breeze stirred and gen- 
 tly waved his hair. This was a sorry spectacle — a human being- 
 dying like a dog, while thousands of erring mortals, whose wicked- 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 . r )81 
 
 ness only had not yet been found out, looked on and applauded ! 
 But necessity, which dared not trust itself to feelings of compas- 
 sion, commanded the deed, and unprofitable sentiment sunk 
 abashed. Reason loudly declared — So perish every villain who 
 icould hurt his neighbor ! and all the people said Amen ! 
 
 About twenty-five minutes afterwards, when life was supposed 
 to have fled, the body was lowered, and possession allowed to be 
 taken on the part of the authorities. These had, previous to the 
 execution, made some attempts to recover the person of the 
 deceased ; but were resolutely opposed, though no overt act of 
 violence took place. The verdict of the coroner's jury was as 
 follows : — " We, the jury, find that the deceased came to his death 
 by strangulation by hanging, at the hands of a body of men 
 styling themselves the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco." 
 It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that the authorities took no 
 legal action on this verdict. The grand jury empanelled for the 
 special July term by the court of sessions, towards the close of a 
 long report on the state of crime in San Francisco, and in which 
 they had made allusion to the Vigilance Committee, took occa- 
 sion to say : — 
 
 " When we recall the delays and the inefficient, and we believe that with 
 truth it may be said, the corrupt administration of the law, the incapacity and 
 indifference of those who are its sworn guardians and ministers, the frequent 
 and unnecessary postponement of important trials in the District Court, the 
 disregard of duty and impatience while attending to perform it manifested by 
 some of our judges, having criminal jurisdiction, the many notorious villains 
 who have gone unwhipped of justice, lead us to believe, that the members of 
 that association have been governed by a feeling of opposition to the manner 
 in which the law has been administered and those who have administered it, 
 rather than a determination to disregard the law itself. 
 
 " Under institutions so eminently popular as those under which we live, the 
 power of correcting all these abuses is with the people themselves. If our 
 officers are unfit for the stations they occupy, if the laws are not faithfully 
 executed, if an arraigned criminal procures his own friends to be placed on the 
 jury that tries him, where is the fault, and where the remedy 1 If those of 
 our citizens who are most interested in having good and wholesome laws, and 
 in seeing them well and purely administered, will not give sufficient attention 
 to our elections to secure proper and sober legislators, judicial and other offi- 
 cers, and neglect to obey the mandates of our courts when summoned as ju- 
 rors and witnesses, as has been too often the case, can they expect to see jus- 
 tice prevail or crime punished ? And is it not in the neglect of their duties 
 in these important particulars, that they may find the true fountains from 
 
582 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 whence have sprung many of the evils we have suffered ? The Grand Jurors, 
 believing, whilst they deplore their acts, that the association styling them- 
 selves the ' Vigilance Committee,' at a great personal sacrifice to themselves, 
 have been influenced in their actions by no personal or private malice, but for 
 the best interest of the whole, and at a time too when all other means of pre- 
 venting crime and bringing criminals to direct punishment had failed, here 
 dismiss the matter, as among those peculiar results of circumstances that 
 sometimes startle communities, which they can neither justify, or by a pre- 
 sentment effect any benefit to individuals or the country ; and with the as- 
 surance that there is a determination on the part of all well-disposed citizens 
 to correct the abuses referred to by selecting proper officers to take the place 
 of those who have violated their trusts, and by performing each his part in 
 the administration of the laws. When this is done, the axe will have been 
 laid at the root of the tree — the proper remedy applied for the correction of 
 the grievous evils our city and country have so long suffered, and there will 
 be no necessity for the further action of that committee. To them we are 
 indebted for much valuable information and many important witnesses." 
 
 The above testimony to the purity of motives and prudence 
 of conduct in the Vigilance Committee is highly important ; 
 and shows the estimation in which they were held by some of the 
 most enlightened members of the community, who themselves 
 had a legal duty to perform respecting crime in the district. 
 The public press, excepting as before, continued to give cordial 
 and effective aid, and even from the pulpit was heard a sound of 
 applause. As for the commonalty, it was almost unanimously in 
 favor of the committee. In consequence of the examples made 
 of Jenkins and Stuart, crime was now fast diminishing in San 
 Francisco, and the number of notorious criminals was much 
 reduced. 
 
 The next great occasion on which the committee figured was 
 in August following. They had had in their custody for some 
 time back, two persons of the names of Samuel Whittaker and 
 Robert McKenzie, who were charged with the various crimes of 
 burglary, robbery and arson. These persons had been fairly 
 tried, had confessed their guilt, and were sentenced to be hanged. 
 The particular time for the execution had not yet been fixed, 
 although a rumor spread abroad, on the evening of the 20th 
 August, that it would take place next day. 
 
 Meanwhile the governor of the State, the Hon. John Mc- 
 Dougal, issued (on the 20th August,) a proclamation to the 
 people in the County of San Francisco, directed against the Vigi- 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 lance Committee by name, and which called upon " all good citi- 
 zens of said county to unite for the purpose of sustaining public 
 law and tranquillity, to aid the public officers in the discharge of 
 their duty, and by all lawful means to discountenance any and 
 every attempt which may be made to substitute the despotic 
 control of a self-constituted association, unknown and acting in 
 defiance of the laws, in the place of the regularly organized 
 government of the country." To this proclamation the following 
 strange certificate was published in answer : — 
 
 " San Francisco, August 20th. 1851. 
 " We, the undersigned, do hereby aver, that the present governor, Mc- 
 Dougal, asked to he introduced to the Executive Committee of the Commit- 
 tee of Vigilance, which was allowed, and an hour fixed. The governor, upon 
 being introduced, stated that he approved the acts of the committee, and that 
 much good had taken place. He hoped that they would go on, and endeavor 
 to act in concert with the authorities, and in case any judge was guilty of 
 mal-administration, to hang him, and he would appoint others," &c. 
 
 Comment upon the above document is unnecessary. It shows 
 that although the governor, in prosecuting the duties of his office, 
 felt bound to oppose the proceedings of the Vigilance Committee 
 on the ground of their illegality, as an individual, he was willing 
 to acknowledge their beneficial effects. Indeed, the private 
 opinion and well-wishes of the " good citizens " upon whom he 
 called for aid against the actions of the committee, were nearly 
 unanimous in their favor. 
 
 On the morning of th'e 21st, before dawn, the sheriff, Col. 
 John C. Hayes, holding a wan-ant of habeas corpus, procured 
 upon the affidavit of Governor McDougal himself, went with one 
 of his deputies to the rooms of the committee, which he entered 
 without experiencing any resistance. A party of policemen fol- 
 lowed behind, to be ready in case of need. There were a suffi- 
 cient number of the committee at hand to have forcibly and 
 successfully resisted the authorities ; but, taken by surprise, and 
 unwilling to proceed to actual blows and bloodshed, they suf- 
 fered the prisoners to be removed. Some of the committee, 
 however, hastening from the apartment, immediately began to 
 ring the bell of the California Engine House. This soon aroused 
 the numerous members of the committee from slumber, and sent 
 
584 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 them quickly to the scene of action. By the time they arrived 
 the sheriff had left with the prisoners. There was something 
 strange and unexpected in the whole affair, and treachery on the 
 part of some of the prisoners' guards was suspected. The au- 
 thorities had known for weeks that Whittaker and McKenzie 
 had been in the hands of the committee, and during that time 
 they had made no effort to procure their release. It was gene- 
 rally believed indeed that the authorities, knowing the good the 
 committee had done in diminishing crime, took ready advantage 
 of their situation in protesting that feebleness alone kept them 
 quiet. Yet now they were perilling all the benefits that had 
 already resulted from the action of the committee. The latter 
 deeply deplored the hasty conduct of the officials, but resolved 
 to be cool and proceed cautiously in their farther steps. Villany 
 meanwhile looked stealthily on, and began to breathe more free- 
 ly. The old tribunals, and old delays — perjury — quibbles and 
 technical errors — corrupt and bribed prosecutors — ignorance and 
 corruption among the jury — misunderstood and misapplied laws 
 — ay, life itself, and freedom again to run a long course of rapine 
 and murder, all were suddenly opened, by this legal stroke of the 
 executive, to the astonished and delighted criminal ! As for the 
 authorities themselves, they were wonderstruck at, and almost 
 afraid of their own boldness and success ; and many could scarce- 
 ly believe that they had managed, at last, to circumvent the 
 formidable Vigilance Committee. So they made preparations to 
 resist any attempt that might be tried to rescue the prisoners ; 
 while fear and trembling, arising from many different causes, 
 filled the hearts of all " good citizens." 
 
 About half-past two o'clock, on the afternoon of Sunday, the 
 24th of August, an armed party, consisting of thirty-six mem- 
 bers of the Vigilance Committee, forcibly broke into the jail, at a 
 time when the Rev. Mr. Williams happened to be engaged at 
 devotional exercises with the prisoners, among whom were Whit- 
 taker and McKenzie. The slight defence of the jailers and 
 guards was of no avail. The persons named were seized, and 
 hurried to and placed within a coach, that had been kept in 
 readiness a few steps from the prison. The carriage instantly 
 was driven off at full speed, and nearly at the same moment the 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 585 
 
 ominous bell of the Monumental Engine Company rapidly and 
 loudly tolled for the immediate assemblage of the committee 
 and the knell itself of the doomed. The whole population leaped 
 with excitement at the sound ; and immense crowds from the 
 remotest quarter hurried to Battery street. There blocks, with 
 the necessary tackle, had been hastily fastened to two beams 
 which projected over the windows of the great hall of the com- 
 mittee. Within seventeen minutes after the arrival of the pris- 
 oners, they were both dangling by the neck from these beams. 
 The loose extremities of the halters being taken within the 
 building itself and forcibly held by members of the committee. 
 Full six thousand people were present, who kept an awful silence 
 during the short time these preparations lasted. But so soon as 
 the wretches were swung off, one tremendous shout of satisfaction 
 burst from the excited multitude ; and then there was silence 
 again. 
 
 After the bodies had hung about half an hour, the people 
 were addressed by Mr. Brannan, Dr. Robinson and Mr. Peyran ; 
 and shortly afterwards they slowly dispersed. In the course of 
 an hour later, the bodies were delivered over to the authorities, 
 and the same evening a coroner's jury returned the following 
 verdict : — " In accordance with the foregoing testimony, the 
 jury, after deliberate consideration, have come to the conclusion, 
 and accordingly render their verdict, that Samuel Whittaker and 
 Robert McKenzie came to their death by being hanged by the 
 neck, thereby producing strangulation, by the act of a body of 
 citizens styling themselves the ' Vigilance Committee of San 
 Francisco,' on the afternoon of Sunday, August 24th, instant, at 
 about three o'clock, in front of the Vigilance Committee Rooms, 
 on Battery street, near California street, from the second story 
 thereof." As heretofore, no steps were taken by the authorities 
 to implement the verdict of the jury. 
 
 This was the last time the committee took or found occasion 
 to exercise their functions. Henceforward the administration of 
 justice might be safely left in the hands of the usual officials. 
 The city now was pretty well cleansed of crime. The fate of 
 Jenkins, Stuart, Whittaker and McKenzie showed that rogues 
 and roguery, of whatever kind, could no longer expect to find a 
 
586 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 safe lurking-place in San Francisco. Many of the suspected, and 
 such as were warned off by the committee, had departed, and 
 gone, some to other lands, and some into the mining regions and 
 towns of the interior. Those, however, who still clung to Cali- 
 fornia, found no refuge any where in the State. Previously, dif- 
 ferent cases of Lynch Law had occurred in the gold districts, but 
 these were solitary instances which had been caused by the atro- 
 city of particular crimes. When, however, the Vigilance Com- 
 mittee of San Francisco had started up, fully organized, and 
 began their great work, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose, as well 
 as other towns and the more thickly peopled mining quarters, 
 likewise formed their committees of vigilance and safety, and 
 pounced upon all the rascals within their bounds. These associ- 
 ations interchanged information with each other as to the move- 
 ments of the suspected ; and all, with the hundred eyes of an 
 Argus and the hundred arms of a Briareus, watched, pursued, 
 harassed, and finally caught the worst desperadoes of the country. 
 Like Cain, a murderer and wanderer, as most of them were, they 
 bore a mark on the brow, by which they were known. Some 
 were hanged at various places, some were lashed and branded, 
 but the greater nurnber were simply ordered to leave the country, 
 within a limited time, under penalty of immediate death if found 
 after a stated period within its limits. Justice was no longer 
 blind or leaden-heeled. With the perseverance and speed of a 
 bloodhound, she tracked criminals to their lair, and smote them 
 where they lay. 
 
 . Thus by almost a universal — a national effort, was our beau- 
 tiful country, which had so long contained and been defiled by 
 the sweepings from the prisons and the thieves'-alleys of other 
 lands, once more made pure, sweet and safe. Hercules did no 
 greater labor when he cleansed the Augean stable by turning a 
 river through it. The people of California, and more particular- 
 ly the people of San Francisco, had turned the great stream of 
 justice, from its former slow, devious and uncertain course, and 
 sent its waters headlong to overwhelm criminals and wash society 
 clean from the stains that crime had left. For a long time after- 
 wards, the whole of California remained comparatively free from 
 outrages against person and property. 
 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 587 
 
 From all the evidence that can be obtained, it is not supposed 
 that a single instance occurred in which a really innocent man 
 suffered the extreme penalty of death. Those who were execut- 
 ed generally confessed their guilt, and admitted the punishment 
 to have been merited. We have seen that it was so in the case 
 of three of those hanged at San Francisco. 
 
 The Vigilance Committee has long ceased to act, but the 
 association has never been formally dissolved. The original 
 members are doubtless ready, if ever sad occasion should require, 
 again to assert the right of self-preservation, and the supremacy 
 of natural law over defective civil rules, tedious if not corrupt 
 tribunals, mastery of scoundrels and the quirks of professional 
 tricksters, if thereby the substantial ends of justice can be best 
 or alone obtained, and society relieved from the horrors of un- 
 checked and triumphant villany. Let rogues then beware ! It 
 is, however, to be sincerely hoped, that never again shall there 
 need to be revived those terrible times of 1851. California is 
 perhaps not yet quite so subject to the influence and strength of 
 law as most of the Atlantic States or the more civilized coun- 
 tries in Europe ; but she is fast being gently and securely broken 
 in to its majestic and salutary sway. Her career has been unlike 
 that of any other modern nation, aud the many anomalies in her 
 history must be peculiarly and leniently judged. God save 
 California ! 
 
Ycrba Buena Cemetery 
 
 DEATHS AND BURIALS. 
 
 This is a melancholy subject for a chapter in our " Annals." 
 The approaches of death are terrible every where, but especially 
 in places like San Francisco. In his native land and own home, 
 the sinking invalid is cheered by the sweet, loving attentions of 
 the woman, — it may be mother, wife, sister, or daughter, — that is 
 dearest to him, and the kind inquiries, visits and discourse of 
 the friends of his youth or ripened years. He thinks that death 
 has lost its chief terrors when he sees only gentle faces, hears 
 soft and soothing tones, and knows that his worldly affairs are 
 arranged, and that those dearest to his heart will be protected 
 when he has gone. Few of such consolations attend the dying 
 in San Francisco. It is so still ; but that was more particularly 
 the case in the times of the great immigration of 1849, 1850, 
 and 1851. It is to these years, and especially to the first named, 
 that the chief interest of the city attaches ; and we are natu- 
 rally inclined to dwell more upon the events of that strange time. 
 Although the climate of San Francisco is admitted to be un- 
 
DEATHS AND BURIALS. 
 
 589 
 
 usually salubrious, the mortality which prevailed in the years 
 mentioned was very great. Most of the immigrants had arrived 
 in a state of body which was far from sound. The majority 
 came by sea, and had been subjected to all the ills which a voy- 
 age of five or six months' duration usually induces. The ships 
 were generally small, old and inconvenient, having never been 
 properly fitted to carry passengers ; while all were crowded to 
 excess. The provisions were in many cases scarcely fit to be 
 eaten ; and in all there was naturally a deficiency of fresh vege- 
 tables and meats. The general diet was of course quite unlike 
 that to which the passengers had been accustomed. Salt, dry 
 and stale food, bad water, want of exercise, and confinement for 
 many hours daily in close, unaired cabins ; all these things 
 within half a year's time impaired the strongest constitution, 
 and afflicted many with scurvy and kindred diseases. When 
 such people landed at San Francisco those who were least sick 
 thought they were well enough, for hope at the moment was 
 strong and buoyant. Those, again, who were confessedly unwell, 
 found there was no suitable accommodation or sanitary treatment 
 to be had. Both classes, while they now had fresh, and perhaps 
 better food than before, had much worse habitations than when 
 they lived on shipboard. Canvas-covered tents, with the bare 
 earth for flooring, were miserable lodgings for sick people at any 
 season, but when the heavy winter rains set in, they became 
 only the abodes of disease and death. As if previous sickness, 
 change of diet, bad lodging, exposure to excessive damp, and 
 sometimes personal dissipation, were not enough to kill, disap- 
 pointed hopes came in the end to blast the principle of life, and 
 put an end to further misery. 
 
 While this was often the case with the newly arrived, the 
 immigrant of a few months' older standing had perhaps gone to 
 the mines. There he had been unsuccessful, or his already en- 
 feebled constitution was finally broken down by the excessive 
 fatigues of gold digging — and none but those who have tried 
 that kind of labor know or can guess its severity ; and he hastily 
 returned to San Francisco, to mourn his crushed hopes, seek in 
 vain for medical relief, and die. Even those who had gleaned a 
 fortune at the mines, when they came to town to spend their 
 
590 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 gains, soon fell victims to over-excitement and continued de- 
 bauchery. Gambling and intemperance slew many fine youthful 
 spirits, that in their native land had promised to be great and 
 good men, but who, left to themselves, quickly fell before the 
 temptations and vices of San Francisco. The chief fatal diseases 
 of the time were dysentery and inflammation of the lungs. 
 Brain fevers were also common, induced by excessive excitement. 
 Great numbers, particularly of the new-comers, had ulcerated 
 bowels, as was shown on dissection of the bodies of many of those 
 that died in the public hospital. 
 
 In early days, when the inhabitants knew or professed no 
 faith but that of old Mother Church, when Yerba Buena had a 
 civil existence, and San Francisco was still but young, the dead 
 of these places were buried in the church-yard of the mission. 
 Death then came seldom, for the population was scanty ; and 
 the loss of half a day was of little consequence at any time to 
 the survivors. But when the great rush of immigrants hap- 
 pened, time became money, and deaths were numerous. Few 
 men would then spare as much leisure as sufficed to accompany 
 the corpse of a stranger — nay, even of a friend, to a grave in the 
 mission burial ground ; that is, if the deceased were a Catholic, 
 or, if of any other faith, to the public cemetery then established. 
 The distance was considered great — a mile, or two, perhaps — 
 and the way was difficult, and sometimes almost impassable. 
 The usual custom of interring in consecrated ground was soon, 
 therefore, unheeded, and the bodies of the dead were hastily put 
 any where out of sight. There was no record of deaths kept by 
 the authorities, and no examination, inquest, or inquiry whatso- 
 ever, was made by them. In the bustle of the place, and con- 
 tinual change of the population, the dead man was not missed, 
 and nobody dreamed of seeking for the absent. He perhaps had 
 gone into the interior, or home, or to the mines, — any loose 
 rumor satisfied the few inquisitive acquaintances of the deceased. 
 Perhaps it might sometimes flash across their minds that their 
 old mate had made a stranger journey still, one " to that bourne 
 from whence no traveller returns ; " then they would shrug their 
 shoulders, mutter a "poor fellow" phrase, and apply to the 
 more pressing affairs of the moment that engrossed all their 
 
DEATHS AND BURIALS. 
 
 591 
 
 thoughts. Friends at the distance of many thousand miles 
 might write dozens of letters, hut who could give them informa- 
 tion of the missing, unheard of, unseen, unknown emigrant ? 
 To look for any individual among the motley, changing crowds 
 of San Francisco, was fruitless labor. Nobody knew, nobody 
 paid any heed to the dying, save the inmates of his own tent ; 
 or if perhaps he dwelt alone in some small shanty, the dweller in 
 the next adjacent. 
 
 As a rule, the immigrants were comparatively poor, and 
 could not afford to pay the extravagant fees charged for medical 
 aid ; while the dying, disappointed, returned miner, had often 
 no funds to purchase even the daily necessaries of life. There 
 were several private establishments for the sick, but their 
 charges were enormous, and put it beyond the power of ordinary 
 folk to gain admission. The city paid four dollars a day for 
 each patient in their public hospital, and to be received there 
 cost trouble and the aid of friends. At the same time, there 
 was naturally a strong feeling of repugnance to enter such a 
 place. By the majority its door was regarded as the certain 
 gate of death, and not altogether without reason. Notwith- 
 standing, the city hospital was filled to overflowing, and was the 
 scene of much loathsomeness and misery. But most of the 
 deaths happened in private places. Often the corpse of some 
 unknown was discovered lying in a retired spot, behind some 
 thicker bush than usual, perhaps, or in a remote tent, or at dawn 
 in the public streets. How he had died, whether slain by his 
 own hand or by that of another, — whether struck down by sheer 
 hunger, exposure, or disease, could often be scarcely ascertained. 
 The man was dead ; and that fact was generally enough for the 
 most curious. It might be said, that almost in every case the 
 hapless sufferer was neglected and alone ; and so he breathed his 
 last. The nature of his latest lament, his pangs of mind and 
 body, his horror and despair, faith, fear, and hope of a hereafter, 
 few had opportunities of learning. His fellow-lodgers, in the 
 tent at night, — for during day most such dwellings were deserted, 
 — or the nearest neighbors, or first noticers of the corpse, to rid 
 themselves of a nuisance, dug a hole in the ground behind, or 
 near the tent, or where it happened to be found, and there they 
 
592 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 buried the body. Coffins and shrouds were luxuries which the 
 dead needed not, and the living could not spare. Sometimes 
 the more intimate acquaintances of the deceased, with a lingering 
 regard for his remains, would bear the corpse up to Russian Hill, 
 on the summit of which was a small unenclosed space that many 
 years before had been made use of as a burying ground by the 
 Russian settlers of the town and bay. Or, if they happened to 
 be closer to Clark's Point, they would inter the body on the ris- 
 ing slope of Telegraph Hill, in a dreary spot, which, by common 
 tacit consent, had been set apart for such purposes. A thin, 
 flat piece of board, painted white, with a few black letters on it, 
 or a rude wooden cross, stuck in the ground, alone marked the 
 place where the body was deposited ; and even these memorials 
 were of rare occurrence. Generally, however, the deceased was 
 buried near the place where he died ; and when the dry, sandy 
 soil, that covered the tomb was levelled by the winds and rains, 
 no monument told what lay beneath. 
 
 During this period a piece of ground near the North Beach was 
 used as a regular graveyard. No permission had been granted by 
 the authorities for that purpose ; but after one funeral had taken 
 place, another and another quickly followed to the same quarter, 
 until gradually it began to be considered a public cemetery. It 
 was unenclosed, and to the eye seemed only a bleak and dreary 
 common. Here the same rude style of interment was observed 
 as elsewhere over the bounds of the great encampment forming 
 the city ; with perhaps this difference, that the small painted 
 grave-boards and wooden crosses might be a little more common. 
 But all this while occasional burials in different portions of the 
 city were continuing. People could not be troubled to walk 
 slowly and reverently half a mile, in those busy times, to inter a 
 dead stranger. A shallow hole in the nearest open space served 
 the purpose just as well as the grandest mausoleum would have 
 done. In grading the streets, sinking wells and digging the 
 foundations of houses in after years, the bones of such as had 
 been buried in this fashion have been repeatedly brought to light. 
 In vain may the loving mother and fond sister, the tender wife, 
 affectionate children, and dear friends, on both sides of the distant 
 Atlantic, be still mourning the absence, and continued, unaccount- 
 
DEATHS AND BURIALS. 
 
 593 
 
 able, cruel silence of the long-gone adventurer ; in vain they 
 may patiently wait and tearfully hope for his return with the 
 treasure for which he had perilled ease and life. Like the mother 
 of Sisera, who had gone forth to conquer, they may sit watch- 
 fully at the window, and moan aloud — Have the chariot wheels 
 ceased to turn ? And why tarry the fleet steeds ? Has lie not 
 sped and divided the prey ? Alas ! the proud, hopeful wan- 
 derer has fallen. The secret of his death, its time, place, manner, 
 and all its bitter circumstances, will never be revealed ! 
 
 In February, 1850, the ayuntamiento set aside a large tract 
 of land situated nearly midway between the town and the 
 mission, for the purpose of a public burial place, which was 
 called " Yerba Buena Cemetery ; " but the distance, the 
 approaching rainy season, and other causes, hindered this piece 
 of ground from being used immediately to any great extent for 
 the ends to which it had been appropriated. For a while, people 
 preferred the other irregular places we have mentioned for bury- 
 ing the dead. But at last the property near North Beach 
 became desirable for building purposes, and the bodies there 
 buried were exhumed and removed. A proper feeling of rever- 
 ence for the remains of human beings began to revive. Gradu- 
 ally therefore the irregular interments ceased, and most of the 
 dead were now laid in the public cemetery of Yerba Buena, 
 which began to fill up with a rapidity almost incredible. 
 
 At this time a majority of those who died were actual pau- 
 pers, and their remains had to be taken charge of by the author- 
 ities, who bestowed the scantiest possible care upon the interment. 
 Still the cheapest rate at which the city contrived to bury was 
 from fifty to one hundred dollars for each body. A coffin, or box, 
 of thin rough boards alone cost twenty dollars. A cart was en- 
 gaged to take these boxes or coffins to the public cemetery, and 
 on occasions several were taken at a single load, and when these 
 were tumbled out of the vehicle the driver hastened back for 
 others. Rows of graves were dug a few feet deep in the loose 
 sand, and there the coffins were laid as they were brought, with- 
 out care, or reverence, or in the presence of a single mourner. 
 The names of the deceased might possibly be known, and their 
 ages and country guessed at ; but the particular place of their 
 38 
 
594 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 birth and their history was generally a blank. The only funerals 
 that were attended with any great regard to decency and becom- 
 ing solemnity were such as were bestowed upon members of Free- 
 Masons' and Odd-Fellows' lodges, or where the dead had happily 
 possessed a large circle of friends, and might perchance have 
 been old residents of the place, that is, of one or two years' stand- 
 ing. Sometimes also a train of Chinese mourners might be seen 
 burning bits of paper over the graves of their departed country- 
 men, or performing similar antic ceremonies. 
 
 For some years Yerba Buena Cemetery remained an unen- 
 closed waste. It lies in a hollow among miserable looking sand- 
 hills, which are scantily covered with stunted trees, worthless 
 shrubs, and tufted weeds. It extends over a large space of 
 ground, and is still among the most dreary and melancholy spots 
 that surround the city. In 1850, there was nothing visible, 
 below and around, but the loose barren sand-hills, with their 
 scattered patches of wild bushes, while above was the boundless, 
 pitiless firmament. The din of the city could not penetrate 
 there. The only sound sometimes heard was the mournful 
 requiem of the distant waters of the bay, when stirred to solemn 
 music by a gale. The dead needed no lullaby, and cared not for 
 picturesque and pleasing scenery ; but to the living visitor, who 
 feels only his own emotions, which he attributes to insensible clay, 
 the aspect of the place was sad and desolate in the extreme. 
 Since that period it has been enclosed by a wooden fence, and a 
 portion of the ground is now thickly covered with simple tablets 
 and some highly-decorated monuments to the departed. Many 
 of the tombs are formed in the modern Parisian style, and in 
 their trim flower-beds, neat rails, crosses and tablets, imitate the 
 sepulchres of Pere La Chaise. It is a most interesting though 
 melancholy task to walk over the place, and mark the inscriptions 
 on the tombs. The years of the dead had been so few, and the 
 places of their birth were so diverse ! People from all parts of 
 the world lie buried there ; and especially natives from every 
 State in the American Union. Their race, language, religion, 
 their age, personal character and manners, actions, thoughts, 
 passions, hopes and dreams, had been all different in earlier days. 
 At last they came from the remotest quarters to work as rivals 
 
DEATHS AND BURIALS. 
 
 595 
 
 together in California, and win the dangerous gift of gold. Now 
 they sleep cordially side by side in Yerba Buena Cemetery. 
 What avail now their doting visions of wealth, fame and iriflu- 
 ence, the actual heaps of the precious metal ? American and 
 European, Asiatic and African are now the same filthy substance. 
 In life, the white man prided hirnself that his veins held not the 
 blood of yellow, red or black races ; the man of " progress," that 
 he was not like the slothful, ignorant, slavish native of warm 
 climates : now, in Yerba Buena Cemetery there is none better, 
 none worse in all human respects. 
 
 A mile farther to the west lies the burial-place of the mis- 
 sion, densely packed with the bodies of such good Catholics as 
 preferred being buried in ground consecrated by their own church ; 
 and who left money and friends to carry their wishes into effect. 
 Those interred here were chiefly natives of the country or Euro- 
 peans. The space is small, but the graves are numerous. 
 Scarcely can one find the inscriptions on two adjoining tablets in 
 the same language. Here one is Spanish ; the next may be 
 Italian, French, German, Portuguese or English. 
 
 The things we have mentioned exhibit in a striking manner 
 the strange mixed population of which San Francisco is composed. 
 To show that, and one general wild and mournful phase of the 
 place and people, is the object of these remarks. It may be 
 proper to add here, the following statistics of burials to the 1st 
 of January, 1854. No record of interments previous to July, 
 1850, is now in existence ; the imperfect register that had been 
 kept having been destroyed by fire in 1851. An approximate 
 knowledge of the number can only be arrived at by the exhuma- 
 tion of bodies at the principal places of burial, and the graves 
 still discernible in Happy Valley and on Russian Hill. The 
 number of interments prior to 1850, is thus estimated : — 
 
 At North Beach burial ground 840 
 
 In the vicinity of Happy Valley 75 
 
 On the hill rising from Clark's Point 30 
 
 On Russian Hill 25 
 
 Total 970 
 
 From tne beginning of 1850, to June 1st, 1854 : — 
 
596 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 At Yerba Buena Cemetery 4,450 
 
 At the Catholic ground (Mission Dolores) .-. 300 
 
 At the Jewish Cemetery 50 
 
 Total 4,800 
 
 Total burials to January 1st, 1854 5,770 
 
 From the register of deaths kept for three and a half years 
 by the city undertaker, we obtain the following : — 
 
 Interments from July, 1850, to July, 1851 1,475 
 
 " " July, 1851, to July. 1852 1.005 
 
 « " July, 1852, to Julyj 1853 1,575 
 
 « " July, 1853, to Jan'y, 1854 620 
 
 Total during 3^ years 4,675 
 
 It will be seen that the number of burials in 1850-51 far 
 exceeds that of the last half year of 1853, when the pupulation 
 was perhaps nearly three times as great. This remarkable dis- 
 parity may be accounted for, in the removal of the causes of 
 deaths we have already named. The long passages around Cape 
 Horn, in small and badly provisioned ships, as well as the toil- 
 some and debilitating journeys across the plains, are now com- 
 paratively few in number ; while the immigrants, however they 
 may have travelled, are sure to find wholesome provisions and 
 comfortable accommodations upon their arrival. People are no 
 longer compelled to live in wretched tents, exposed to every 
 variety of weather, sleeping upon the hard ground, and eating 
 food unfit for brutes. The immigrants reach San Francisco after 
 short passages in well provided steamships ; and all the neces- 
 sary requirements, in dwellings and in food, are furnished for the 
 entire population. The healthy and fortunate have time and 
 means to care for the sick and indigent ; and the hospitals have 
 so greatly improved in regard to accommodations, cleanliness, 
 attention, and medical assistance, as no longer to be considered, 
 as they formerly were, the certain gates of death. 
 
 A more suitable cemetery than " Yerba Buena " has recently 
 been laid out in a beautiful tract of land lying between the 
 presidio and the mission, some three or four miles west of Ports- 
 mouth Square, and in the immediate vicinity of the " Lone 
 
DEATHS AND BURIALS. 
 
 597 
 
 Mountain," from which its name has been derived. The grounds 
 embrace one hundred and sixty acres, inclosed with a handsome 
 fence. There are many beautiful spots within this space. De- 
 lightful dells, scooped out among the hills, with the evergreen 
 oaks bordering and fringing their quiet beauty ; valleys smiling 
 all over with flowers, of every hue, and knolls covered with 
 shrubs, rejoicing in their crowns of white lilac. The views are 
 as various and sudden as the avenues and their turnings. There 
 are portions full of hidden springs, and, in a word, the spot is 
 capable of being made one of the most delightful in California. 
 More than twenty miles of avenues have been laid out, cleared, 
 and sufficiently graded. These are as serpentine and zigzag as 
 nature herself could dictate. Sweeping round the hill-sides, 
 running through the vales and dingles, suddenly turning at acute 
 or obtuse angles, now in a straight line, now a curve, all of the 
 grounds, when completed, will form one of the most curious and 
 beautiful diagrams imaginable. It is intended to give each 
 avenue the name of one of the cemeteries in the Eastern States, 
 for instance : Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn, Greenwood, Oak Hill, 
 Cypress Grove. By the side of many of these avenues, the ever- 
 green vales and various charming shrubs and flowers, some of 
 them in full bloom, extend like an artificial fringe, and form a 
 quiet shade over the spaces destined for a last still repose. 
 
Fire of June 22d, 1851. 
 
 THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 The first "great" fire occurred on the 24th of Decemher, 1849. 
 Some such calamity had been dreaded through the months of 
 high winds, by all who took into consideration the exceedingly 
 inflammahle nature of the buildings. Thin boards, cloth, and 
 paint, were tempting inviters of the destroyer. When it did 
 come, it spread like a pestilence ; and although the windy season 
 had passed, it consumed completely the most flourishing portion 
 of the city. Dennison's Exchange, in which the fire originated, 
 was ceiled with cotton cloth, and that was painted. Instantly 
 this was on fire, and the whole building was burning before the 
 neighborhood was aroused, it being not yet quite six o'clock in 
 the morning. Scarcely a breath of wind was stirring to fan the 
 fiery flame. At once the citizens crowded to the scene. Then 
 the din of a thousand voices arose amid the crash of falling 
 frames, the jingling of battered windows, the sharp sound of 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 599 
 
 axes ; and, above all this, the roar of the devouring element, 
 which now surged wildly round the Parker House, from the win- 
 dows and doors of which, at both ends, dense clouds of smoke 
 rolled forth. Just then the cry of "stored powder" was raised, 
 and a general stampede of five or six thousand persons ensued. 
 So rapidly spread the flames, that the conflagration was at once 
 like a lion broke loose, defying all control. On, and still onward, 
 it went and spread — water, labor, powder, every thing seemed 
 powerless to stay it. Glutted at last, when half the square was 
 in ashes, nothing but smoke from burning cinders, like the breath 
 from the red nostrils of a dying monster, was to be seen, where 
 so recently had stood the works of human skill and labor. More 
 than a million of dollars had been destroyed in the property thus 
 turned to ashes. 
 
 But those who had suffered did not wait for the embers to 
 grow dim, and the cinders to disappear, before applying anew 
 their native energy. At once new buildings were in process of 
 erection — built — occupied, and the business of the section again 
 travelling its former course almost before the smoke had sped 
 away from sight. Four months rolled away, the city had re- 
 vived, and prosperity smiled in all her streets. Even the black- 
 ened district, blasted by the fire of December, had put on a glow 
 "f health. Just then, on the morning of the 4th of May, 1850. 
 the second great fire commenced, almost on the very site of the 
 previous one, and within a few hours swept away three entire 
 blocks, destroying property to the estimated amount of four mil- 
 lions of dollars. But, again, with more than former energy, the 
 people went ahead, and within ten days from the time of the 
 fire, more than half the burnt district was covered with new 
 buildings. 
 
 This enterprise and energy were doomed not long to press 
 onward unchecked. Already the fire-fiend felt again the crav- 
 ings of hunger, and hovered around, preparatory to his third 
 dreadful meal. Ashes had been hidden by new structures. 
 Timber and brick had followed close upon the track of the devas- 
 tator, charred timbers had given place to beautiful dwellings, 
 and streets filled with active men took the place of those so 
 lately swept by the living flames. But change is the order of 
 
600 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 life, of nations, and of cities. The 14th of June, 1850, came, 
 and with it the third of those dreadful devastations which 
 seemed sent, like the serpent of old, to destroy the young Her- 
 cules in its cradle. This fire has been so fully spoken of else- 
 where in this book, that it may be only necessary here to say, 
 that it exceeded in extent and loss both of those which had pre- 
 ceded it. Like those, it was frightful, as well from its rapidity 
 as from the completeness of the destruction. It was in a differ- 
 ent location from the fires already noticed, being more to the 
 south, and reaching to the bay. As before, efforts to check it 
 availed not. The same causes aided the spread of the flames, 
 and, besides, the summer sea-breezes were at full blast. So it 
 devoured until satisfied. When the fiery meal was done, the 
 citizens, like lively waiters at the fire-king's board, cleared away 
 the rubbish, and set a new meal, more tempting than before. 
 The appetite and digestion of the consumer seems to have been 
 unimpaired by these repasts. Not yet glutted, he did not long 
 endure the pangs of hunger, but once more sat down to breakfast 
 at public expense. 
 
 At about four o'clock on the morning of the 17th of Septem- 
 ber, 1850, the startling cry of " Fire! fire!" alarmed the wake- 
 ful, and aroused the sleeping, with a suddenness and terror that 
 an earthquake could not have produced. Perhaps in no other 
 place in the wide world could that fearful cry create at once 
 such general alarm and terror, and throw every individual of the 
 community into such sudden and overwhelming excitement. So 
 many whirlwinds of destruction had swept over the devoted city 
 at short intervals, and with such fearful strides, that the whole 
 community was as excitable as if they had stood on the brink of 
 a crater. In a few minutes the streets were full of people, and 
 the fire companies were on a full run for the scene. But so 
 rapidly did the flames spread, that for a long time all efforts to 
 arrest them seemed utterly vain. 
 
 At first the atmosphere was perfectly calm, but the winds 
 increased as rapidly as the flames, whirling the black masses of 
 smoke, the lurid sheets of fire, and immense quantities of blazing 
 cinders aloft, and in all directions. The conflagration spread on 
 every side. From the " Philadelphia House," on the north side 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 601 
 
 of Jackson street, where the fire commenced, it extended in- 
 stantly in all directions, notwithstanding several buildings were 
 at once torn down. The speed of the terrible courser was too 
 rapid for those who contested the field with him. Of the entire 
 square, bounded by Jackson, Kearny, Pacific, and Dupont 
 streets, the "Polka" was the only building saved. On the 
 south side of Jackson street every thing was swept away up to 
 the plaza, and east to Kearny street, leaving between the latter 
 and Dupont street only the " Alta California" office, the Cali- 
 fornia, Lafayette, and Excellent restaurants, and two dwelling- 
 houses. 
 
 Below Kearny street, the whole row on the east side was de- 
 stroyed, with the exception of the Verandah. About one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five buildings were consumed. The entire loss 
 could not be ascertained with any degree of accuracy. It was 
 far less in proportion to the space burned over than at any of the 
 previous fires, from the fact that a large portion of the buildings 
 destroyed were of one story, and small. The total loss was esti- 
 mated at amounts varying from two hundred and fifty thousand 
 to one million of dollars. Probably three hundred thousand dol- 
 lars would have been a fair estimate. That the buildings cost 
 more, vastly, than they were worth at the time of the fire, is un- 
 doubtedly a fact. Many of them were mere shanties, and were 
 easily replaced, and at a cost much less than that for which the 
 first ones had been erected. 
 
 To those who had leisure, and a position suitable to take a 
 view of the whole sea of flame, and who could divest themselves 
 of the sensations of pain incident to the occasion, it was a grand, 
 a sublime sight. The entire city was illuminated with a fierce 
 glow of light, and the surrounding hills sent back again its re- 
 flective brilliancy, accompanied by ten thousand echoes of crack- 
 ling timbers, rushing flames, the quick strokes of the engines, 
 rattling of carts and wagons, the wrenching of falling houses, 
 the roar and the tumult of thousands upon thousands struggling 
 almost hopelessly against their dread enemy, which swayed to 
 and fro in terrible mockery of human effort. The greedy flames 
 shot forth their dry, forked, snake-like tongues, lapping at every 
 thing within their reach, as if conscious of their own malignity 
 
602 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 and power ; licking at the windows and walls and house-tops ; 
 darting out horizontally through jaws of black smoke and teeth 
 of sparkling cinders ; rushing across alleys and streets and vacant 
 lots ; twisting or writhing in agony or delight, anon, as if bear- 
 ing an expression of their joy and mighty vengeance, shooting 
 upwards to the stars, those clear eyes which looked down so 
 quietly from their azure thrones. 
 
 Soon came the broad light of day, giving a still more strange 
 and gorgeous mantle to the hill-sides, crowded with busy, or 
 gazing, or shocked human beings, and mingling its heavenly 
 rays with those that held their revel dance amid the halls and 
 household gods, and wrapped themselves about the works of 
 labor and genius, like so many scarlet mantles. Through a sea 
 of blood the sun seemed to rise and gaze upon the work, his 
 great Titan eye glowering down upon the devoted city as if red 
 with anger and offended majesty. Yet few saw it. The little 
 things about, and near and dear to the brave struggling hearts, 
 were of much greater importance than the great ones far away. 
 
 When at length dwellings and chattels were in the dust, 
 and smoking embers, and ashes, and occasional jets of not yet 
 glutted flame alone indicated the sites of recent homes and busy 
 marts, it was painful to see the ejected sufferers, men, women, 
 and children, sad and tearful, clinging to the relics of late for- 
 tunes and firesides. The public square was literally crowded 
 with whatever could be snatched from the hungry fire. Up to a 
 late hour at night many j)ersons were still there with the few 
 remnants left from their former property and comforts. 
 
 But the enterprise which had built the city from a barren 
 waste, had smoothed its hills of sand, and filled up the valleys 
 between, and covered with habitations the places where so long 
 and so recently had prowled the Indian, and the cayote had 
 howled, now rose up, as the flames had risen, mighty and effect- 
 ive, and begun re-creating what these had destroyed. The pa- 
 tience which had endured a weary trip around Cape Horn ; the 
 perseverance that had pushed its way over the plains between 
 Missouri and the land of gold, plains dreadful in their desolation 
 of wild sage ; the daring which had traversed the hills, moun - 
 tains, and valleys of Mexico, undaunted by thirst, hunger, the 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 603 
 
 pitiless thrust of the cactus, the chappaval's thorn, the stealthy 
 wile of the Apache, and the fierce wrath of the Camanche ; 
 these were not consumed with the cloth partitions and iron 
 warehouses, but arose with new energy, as they had before done, 
 from the bivouac or the hammock. 
 
 So the rejuvenated giant grew and progressed. Above the 
 ashes new dwellings arose. Where the flames had scarce ceased 
 crackling, the hammer and the saw were heard, answering back 
 to the stone-cutter's chisel and the earnest ring of the mason's 
 trowel. Like the structures of the coral insect, the islands which 
 rise from the ocean's depths, San Francisco grew upwards from 
 her own ashes, supplanting the frosts of destruction with a crop 
 of success. Fine buildings succeeded piles of rubbish, charred 
 wood, and tottering walls. The appearance of the conflagration 
 passed away, commerce spread her white wings, and came and 
 went like the eagles ; trade changed and exchanged its commo- 
 dities ; gold dust flowed like a river from its mountain homes 
 when the spring sun shines and the snows melt ; immigration 
 grew to a great wave, and rolled in a rapid population ; and 
 prosperity smiled in all the streets. 
 
 But amid all this there lingered in the minds and memories 
 of the people a feverishness and sensitive chord of apprehension 
 that thrilled at the slightest alarm, like a spider's web when struck 
 by an insect. The sound of the first stroke of a fire-bell was 
 enough to clear church or theatre, or drowsy bed, in an instant. 
 The dreadful scenes witnessed had inscribed their history deep 
 and dark, and could not be erased. This proclivity to alarm had 
 soon an ample cause of new exercise. The anniversary of the 
 fire of May 4th, 1850, approached. Threats had been made, it 
 was said, that it was to be signalized by a similar spectacle. 
 These rumors existed, whether the threats had been made or not. 
 They were discussed upon the streets, and in places of business 
 and pleasure. The infamous gang, which infested the city, was 
 known to be desperate, and wicked enough to do this, or any 
 other heinous thing. 
 
 The sun had gone down over the western hills, and the dying 
 sea-breeze wasted its last breath against the brow of night. The 
 curtain had fallen upon the last scene of the last play, the lec- 
 
 ) 
 
604 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 turer had retired from the stand, the clergyman from the pulpit. 
 The lawyer was dozing over his brief, and weary limbs bad laid 
 down on the sleeper's couch. Tbe editor had put the last period 
 to his leader, and turned from his nagging duties to tremble at 
 the shrill outcry of " Fire !" That dreadful word in a moment 
 found an echo on a hundred tongues, and the pealing bells and 
 rushing engines answered back to the sound. It was nearly 
 midnight on the eve of May 4th, 1851. The flame when first 
 seen was in a paint-shop, on the south side of the plaza, and was 
 not larger than a man's hand ; but in five minutes, the whole 
 upper story was one entire blaze. 
 
 At first, the wind was but a breath ; but it had scarcely 
 lapped the flames, ere, like a tiger, after his first taste of blood, 
 its whole nature awoke to the fiery carnival, and became an 
 avenging and malicious spirit. It caught the black clouds of 
 smoke and the flashing streams of flame, and with a living skill 
 twisted them into wreaths and festoons fit to adorn the brow of 
 crumbling Sodom. As if its prison-bars had snapped with the 
 first flame, and the doors of its cells had burst open, from every 
 point of the compass its dread ministers poured forth, and joined 
 the banquet in one general whirlwind, turning hotel and store, 
 office and dwelling, into a fiery and dizzying waltz of conflagra- 
 tion. Nothing could stay the fury and progress of the united 
 wind and flame. On, and still onward, through the hours of 
 that dreadful night, it marched and rushed, and devoured, greedy 
 and remorseless, while food could be found for the gnawing hun- 
 ger of the destroyer. Over the marts of commerce and trade, 
 over the altars of home, the desk, the bar, the bench ; over the 
 white bed of the maiden and the crimson couch of the creature ; 
 over the parlor and the public hall ; the mart of luxury and the 
 depot of comforts, it rolled its red tongues, licking up to the 
 very cinders every thing which had been brought or made to 
 sustain, to embellish, or to beautify. There are occasionally 
 events in the history of our lives, so unexpected and appalling in 
 their nature, that the heart almost ceases its functions, and the 
 brain, confused and stupefied, makes thought and expression 
 difficult and uncertain. Such was the condition of the citizens 
 Of San Francisco as this dreadful conflagration broke in all its 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 605 
 
 terrors upon their view, and the smoke from two-thirds of the 
 city's foundations dimmed the light of hope as it veiled with 
 black the bright face of heaven. 
 
 The tornado of fire in its devouring path over the city, fur- 
 nished a scene of more grandeur, terror and sublimity, and, de- 
 void of one's sympathies, of more beauty, than any other event 
 which had transpired in our nation during the present century. 
 And yet all of one's sensibilities were inevitably interested, and 
 were necessary in order that this awful exhibition of nature in 
 her wildest and most pitiless mood, should duly and perhaps pro- 
 fitably affect man through his more kindly qualities. The com- 
 mencement of the fire was like the flash of gunpowder, so almost 
 instantaneous was its spread. For a few moments, hope, fear 
 and dread balanced upon the brakes of the engines. As those 
 gallant philanthropists, the firemen, bent every thought, and 
 strained each muscle, in a death contest with the common ene- 
 my, hope for an instant spoke of triumph. But physical exer- 
 tions and prayers were equally unavailing — the city's doom had 
 come. 
 
 Many persons inhabiting or owning buildings which appeared 
 to be out of the possible range of destruction, looked upon its 
 commencement without a thought of themselves, actuated only 
 by their sympathies for others. How suddenly ended their 
 dreams of security ! In a few hours, or minutes, they too were 
 wanderers in the streets, houseless, homeless, hopeless, shipped 
 of every thing. As the first faint hope of stopping the flames at 
 the place of origin, died out, the city's terrible impending fate 
 became more and more manifest. And yet no one could antici- 
 pate to its full extent the scope and completeness of the eventual 
 ruin. The winds from the north-west soon increased to whirl- 
 winds around the flaming piles ; the heated air, loaded with 
 smoke, cinders and flames, rushed up towards heaven, crackling 
 and roaring like a tornado, while fresh gusts and gales came 
 rushing in from every side to fill the melting vacuum with new 
 ministers of destruction. 
 
 The sight was sad, afflictive, awful. Great masses of smoke 
 ascended and rolled away, loaded with the wealth of men, the 
 rewards of toil and danger, bearing far above the crumbling city 
 
606 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 great flocks and sheets of burning cinders, and forming huge 
 clouds touched with every tint, from clear white light to the 
 darkness of night. Frame houses faded away like frost work. 
 Brick structures became batteries of flame, and poured forth im- 
 mense jets from their windows and doors. Iron and zinc curled 
 up like scorched leaves, and sent forth their brilliant flames of 
 green, blue and yellow tints, mingling with, and modifying the 
 glare of the great red tongues of fire which flashed upwards from 
 a thousand burning houses. The hill-sides were lighted as if the 
 sun were above the eastern mountains, and their trees, shrubs, 
 herbage, houses and people were as distinguishable in the bright 
 light, as if it were noon. But darkness hung over a large portion 
 of the shipping, where the broad and heavy ocean of smoke lay 
 down in impenetrable gloom over the bay. 
 
 People became paralyzed. Many removed their stocks of 
 goods four or five times, and had them overtaken and destroyed 
 by the flames at last. The streets were crammed with masses 
 of human beings and rushing teams, only giving way before the 
 advance of the elements, as the smoke, and heat, and crashing 
 walls pushed them back. Men became mad. Some rushed 
 headlong into the flames. Weeping women and prattling infan- 
 cy were wandering amid ashes and destruction. Every few mo- 
 ments the earth and air trembled, as great buildings were torn 
 into fragments by explosions of gunpowder, and the atmosphere 
 was filled with shattered timbers, bricks and mortar. The mul- 
 titude hung upon the borders of this " vast sea of flame," few, 
 comparatively, knowing what were the dangers and exertions of 
 those who were within the range of the stifling smoke and scorch- 
 ing heat. In less than nine hours from the beginning, more than 
 twenty squares existed only in memory, and in the ascending 
 columns of smoke and flame which covered the site of the city. 
 
 The Union Hotel burned like a furnace until the woodwork 
 was nearly destroyed, when the huge walls, five stories high, 
 pitched headlong into the street, and over the wrecks of neigh- 
 boring dwellings, long before they reached the earth, completely 
 lost in the flames and smoke which ascended from below. So 
 intense was the heat that jets of water poured from the hose 
 became instantly converted into steam, or were licked up by the 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 607 
 
 thirsty flames. Nothing less than a river of water could have 
 quenched them. But the saddest sight of all was the destruction 
 of brave but bewildered men, who, finding themselves suddenly 
 surrounded by fire, rushed, staggering and uncertain, from flame to 
 flame, in hopeless efforts to escape, until strangled and scorched, 
 they withered and fell in full view of thousands who were entire- 
 ly powerless to save them. Others, after battling the remorseless 
 demon inside of what they considered fire-proofs, finding their 
 efforts to save the buildings vain, endeavored to escape, but too 
 late. The doors and window bliuds were red hot, and in some 
 instances could not be opened, and the last chance of safety 
 failed. The sensations excited by gazing upon the blackened 
 remains of poor humanity, as they burned amid the coals in 
 the cellars, the next day after the fire, still beyond the reach of all 
 who viewed them, are indescribable, and such as none could de- 
 sire to experience for the second time. 
 
 People could not speak their thoughts. Feeling predomi- 
 nated over thought. Within eighteen months, they had seen the 
 finest part of the city sink away four times before the destroying 
 angel, leaving only ashes behind. But with all the experience 
 which they had given, the people were not prepared for the fifth 
 terrific visitation which laid the city once more in the dust. The 
 grandeur of the scene was beyond belief. Descriptions by the 
 pen would be but dark lines, and the painter has not found the 
 colors, nor the light and shade which could do it justice. The 
 result, when a few hours had passed, was before all eyes, except 
 those which the dreadful devastation had burned into silence for 
 ever, amid the cinders, rubbish and smouldering heaps of broken 
 walls. The dead alone were blind to the desolation which 
 reigned where joyousness had so lately run riot. A few hours 
 before, the moon and stars had looked down from their tranquil 
 heaven upon beautiful edifices and thronging men, upon gorgeous 
 saloons and hopeful occupants, brilliantly illuminated resorts of 
 bright faces and happy hearts. Now, the wreaths of smoke rising 
 upwards from cinders and dust, told wealth had turned to rubbish, 
 and hope to ashes. It was a terrible blow upon the city. Its 
 progress seemed stopped, its prosperity paralyzed. The destruc- 
 tion had been greater than that of all the previous fires combined. 
 
608 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Immense amounts of goods were destroyed, and many anticipated 
 that for years the effects would he painfully apparent. But even 
 then there were those who thought differently, and they were of 
 the majority. One thus expressed the general sentiment the day 
 after the fire : " So great is our confidence in the natural location 
 and advantages of this place, and in the recuperating energies of 
 our fellow citizens, that we do not for a moment hesitate to say 
 that San Francisco will rise again and occupy the position which 
 nature evidently intended her to fill and adorn. Our recovery 
 will not be as rapid as heretofore, perhaps, but it will be. Of this 
 fact, neither our own citizens nor our friends abroad need doubt. 
 There is hope enough, energy enough, determination enough 
 among us to do it. California possesses in her resources the in- 
 herent ability, and San Francisco has in her position, that which, 
 aided by the labor and indomitable perseverance of the American 
 people, will bring her out of even this last and most crippling 
 misfortune. It will take time and energy, bold hearts and will- 
 ing hands, hopefulness and patience to do it, but it will be done." 
 The spirit which could exist and speak thus after twenty squares 
 of a city which was not two years old were but a mass of smoking 
 ruins, and those squares constituting nearly all the settled portion 
 of the city, was equal to any contingency. And it proved itself 
 so, and fully substantiated the confidence and expression of the 
 writer. 
 
 As a complete calamity there was scarcely a parallel. There 
 had probably never been another so entire a destruction of a city 
 since the burning of Moscow. More than three quarters of it had 
 been blotted out. The destruction of property, the loss of life, 
 the suffering, the privation, the ruin — complete a picture of so 
 much misery as makes the heart ache to think of it. The loss 
 could scarcely be exaggerated. One had to sj)eak of millions. 
 It was the greatest by far of any which had visited the city, and 
 it was the more disheartening because of its following so closely 
 upon the track of the others. Almost the entire city had been 
 the product of Californian industry. Very little foreign capital 
 had been employed in erecting the buildings and improving the 
 streets. It was the result of labor performed in one shape or 
 another within the country itself. And it was a painful and 
 
THE GBEAT FIRES. 609 
 
 disheartening circumstance to have all this blotted out in a sin- 
 gle night. 
 
 Diagram of the burnt district. May 4tli, 18S1. 
 
 The rewards of such patient industry, of such active enter- 
 prise, of such unremitting toil, had been accumulated within the 
 short space of three years. San Francisco had been the world's 
 wonder. There is no similar instance, perhaps, in the history of 
 civilized society where so much had been accomplished, in so 
 short a space of time. But the same causes which existed in the 
 
 be<nnnin"; were existent still. There were the same rich and ex- 
 es o 
 
 haustless mines, and the same trade which had made San Fran- 
 cisco, in consequence of the gold, what she had been. So when 
 the people reflected that human labor had done all this in three 
 years, they were not cast down, but, like the apostle, thanked 
 God, and took courage. It required even a greater calamity to 
 defeat the progress of the city. It postponed, but did not pre- 
 vent her commercial importance. 
 
 Her citizens met the disaster like men. The first shock 
 naturally seemed to paralyze and drive them almost to despair. 
 But when they reflected upon the causes which had made them, 
 and remembered that they still existed, they resolved, and at 
 once, to meet the calamity with fortitude, and to remedy it. 
 29 
 
610 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 True, there was something paralyzing in the array of twelve 
 millions of dollars destroyed in one night. When one reckons 
 up the columns of that sum, and reflects what a vast amount of 
 human labor it represents, he is appalled at the idea of its sud- 
 den destruction. But then it was recollected that not all this 
 immense loss fell upon San Francisco and her citizens. The 
 buildings destroyed had been theirs, but a large portion of the 
 goods belonged elsewhere. This was one of the chances of trade, 
 and however regretted, it was only just that they who had shared 
 in the profits of the most lucrative trade in the world, should 
 also share in its reverses. 
 
 The greatest misfortunes often bring a breath of consolation 
 on their wings. So of this dreadful conflagration. The city had 
 been crowded with goods. The enormous profits which the 
 adventurers had realized, had induced many others to make 
 large shipments. Thus a vast amount of goods filled the stores 
 and storehouses, and the market was, as a natural consequence, dor- 
 mant and ruinous. The fire came and furnished a market for a 
 great portion of the stock, and although the returns for it made 
 no very flattering balance in the ledger, still the enhanced value 
 of what remained partially compensated for what had been lost. 
 Consequently, business soon revived. Some had been ruined, 
 many had lost every thing. But generally each one again buckled 
 on his armor, and commenced the battle anew. And soon the 
 city once more commenced arising from ashes and dust. 
 
 Within ten days, between two and three hundred buildings 
 had been completed, or were in a fair state of progression, within 
 the burnt district. About fifteen hundred buildings had been 
 destroyed within ten hours. At nine o'clock, on the morning of 
 May 4th, the last of that number was a bed of ruins ; but, by 
 the 14tb of the same month, fully one-fifth of the whole number 
 destroyed was again fit for habitation and business, or were fast 
 approaching that condition. Such determination, energy and 
 perseverance soon swept out nearly all traces of the fire from the 
 face of the city. And people with buoyant hearts hoped and 
 trusted that the city had passed through her last great affliction. 
 But another trial still awaited her and them. Still another fire 
 anniversary approached. The 14th of June of the previous year 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 611 
 
 had been signalized by a very disastrous conflagration, and the 
 citizens feared a repetition of the frightful anniversary of the 
 4th of the preceding May. 
 
 Again it was whispered that the lawless gang of desperadoes 
 who still infested the city had threatened to keep the anniversary 
 of the fire of June 14th, 1850, in a manner suitable to the 
 scenes of that day, and their own sentiments of hatred and 
 revenge. Two days before, one of their number — Jenkins — had 
 been hanged on the plaza by the enraged populace ; and that 
 class of villains to which he belonged, it was said, had sworn 
 vengeance. But great vigilance prevented the consummation of 
 the fiendish attempt, if such was intended. However, this state 
 of security was not to last long. Sunday, June 22d, came, with 
 its winning call to peace, quiet and devotion. The bells were 
 ringing out their invitation to prayer and praise, and the streets 
 were filled with people on their way to public worship. Just 
 then the bells changed their tone, and terror succeeded all feel- 
 ings of devotion. The sixth great fire had commenced, and the 
 buildings of nearly fifteen squares had felt the sun's light for the 
 last time. People forgot the church and rushed to the scene of 
 conflagration on the corner of Pacific and Powell streets. The 
 prayer-book, the altar and the Bible, psalm, hymn and sermon, 
 passed by unheeded, and -the dreaded devastator's court took 
 precedence of pew and pulpit, prayer and exhortation. An im- 
 mense crowd was at once at the scene of disaster. The firemen 
 were there, too, but no reservoirs were near, and the element had 
 its will. Like Hercules it rose superior to all opposition. The 
 flames were too rapid, and the heat in a short time became so 
 intense that every person was driven from the vicinity. Build- 
 ings were blown up, but that availed nothing. The shattered 
 wreck was soon in a blaze, and burned with all the more intensity. 
 Men contended with the flames until they could not breathe, 
 and then left their offices and dwellings, and rushed into the 
 streets, or upon the plaza. There, most melancholy sights met 
 the view. Large portions of the goods removed there for safety, 
 caught fire and were totally consumed. But the most horrible 
 sight of all was that of two or three corpses, one of a man who, 
 being sick, was removed in his bed to the plaza, and there died 
 
612 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 while the fire was raging. Another was the trunk of a man 
 burned to death, and partly consumed. The scene here was 
 singular and terrific. Goods had been moved to it from all parts 
 of the city, but they caught fire from the intense heat and 
 cinders, and a third part of them were destroyed. Patients 
 from the hospital, women and children, were gathered there, or 
 hurried thence as from certain destruction. 
 
 J 1 II I 
 
 C A LI F O R N I A ST, 
 
 ir ~]\ ii |! irni ir 
 
 Diagram of the burnt district, June 22d, 1S51. 
 
 There was no doubt that the fire was the work of an incendiary. 
 No fire had been used about the house in which it commenced for 
 any purpose whatever. As it progressed, the flames would suddenly 
 start up in advance, and in one or more instances persons were de- 
 tected in applying fire. It was any thing rather than a consoling 
 thought that three or four millions of dollars should be destroyed, 
 and thousands of people turned houseless into the streets, merely 
 to gratify the hatred or love of robbery of a few scoundrels. In 
 three or four hours all this sad work was done. Calculations, 
 plans, comforts, hopes, people, were all sent a-begging. The 
 burden, although it did not so much affect the mercantile por- 
 tion of the community, fell heavily upon the middle classes and 
 poor, and drove them in great numbers from the city. Some 
 
THE GREAT FIRES. 
 
 613 
 
 went to the mines, others to the interior cities, while some em- 
 braced the first opportunity of leaving the country for Australia, 
 the Eastern States, or other places. 
 
 There seemed so little security that many who were unable 
 to erect any thing more expensive than wooden buildings, pre- 
 ferred not to risk the little which they had, in such structures. 
 But others were of different means and metal. With them all 
 was progress and hope. Energy, perseverance and determination 
 were still at work and in earnest, and were destined to once more 
 build up the city from her ruins. A full confidence in the ad- 
 vantages of her commercial and geographical position impressed 
 the idea of a certain and glorious future destiny, and in the con- 
 fidence of such a hope and belief, the six terrible fires were com- 
 paratively forgotten. So from her fiery grave she arose again, 
 and has progressed until the present, interrupted only by the 
 vicissitudes to which trade and commerce are ever liable. A 
 number of fires of lesser magnitude than those here described, 
 have since occurred ; but these have been speeddy arrested by 
 the judicious preparations that have been made, together with 
 the triumphant labors of an unrivalled fire department. 
 
San Francisco Firemen. 
 
 THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Were the Mediterranean as great an ocean as the Pacific, no 
 more striking resemblance could be added to the many already 
 existing between Constantinople and San Francisco — chief among 
 which is the number of tremendous conflagrations to which both 
 have been liable. Neither, properly considered, have grown as 
 great cities grow. House by house have not slowly replaced one 
 another after years of crumbling and decay, as the atoms of a 
 living being, gradually renewed and multiplied, cause it to in- 
 crease in size and beauty. Both are embodiments of the fabled 
 phoenix — new creations have successively had their seed in the 
 ashes of the old — armed warriors rose from the graves of 
 peasants. Every change was a death — the fire-cry was the 
 call of the dread angel, at whose sound men's hearts sank, and a 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 615 
 
 whole people mourned. The resurrections soon dispelled sorrow ; 
 but who could say which would be the final death ? Even the 
 phoenix will cease to reproduce. The reader of the history of 
 this great city must by this time have identified it with these 
 occurrences, though all that can be said will fail to impress him 
 with the full sense of the awful horrors that those dread alarums 
 created in its citizens. The three years of prosperous and healthy 
 growth that have made San Francisco a well-formed and comely 
 place, — and not a stunted and scarred piece of patchwork, — have 
 been brought about by other causes than the improved style of 
 architecture. The torch has been repeatedly lighted since June, 
 1851, and there have been the same high winds to fan the flames 
 to greater fury ; but, except in isolated cases, the damage done 
 has been but trifling. More — aye, every thing, is due in this 
 connection to the unrivalled " Fire Department." Firemen in 
 other cities are immensely useful in restraining conflagrations to 
 which they are all liable ; but the fire-brigade of San Francisco 
 enters on a service of terrific danger. The enemy they have to 
 encounter might fright a dozen armies. They are forlorn hopes, 
 that have to storm the very batteries of the fire-fiend. Their 
 hard-fought battles, their many victories, and the able defence 
 and guard they exercise over their precious charge, have gained 
 them, better than laurel or gold, the sincerest thanks and warm- 
 est attachment of their fellow-citizens. San Franciscans would 
 laugh were it said that we flattered the fire department. Does 
 a man praise his right arm for performing its wonderful func- 
 tions ? Yet the fire department is the right arm of San Fran- 
 cisco. At the ring of the alarm-bell, it is not alone the 
 errand-boy, the counter clerk, or the rowdy corner loafer that 
 start for a scene of temporary excitement. But the merchant- 
 millionnaire springs from his cushioned seat ; the judge leaves 
 court and cases ; the industrious mechanic drops his tools ; 
 editors, lawyers and doctors abandon quills, briefs and pills, and 
 with pallid cheek but nervous sinews hurry their engines to the 
 threatened spot. They are playing for a fearful stake. Men 
 must be daring gamblers to foil the enemy they deal with. 
 Honor to whom honor is due. Give it freely to the Are depart- 
 ment, and when to it, to the whole body of enlightened, public- 
 
616 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 spirited and prominent citizens. These are men prouder of their 
 leathern capes than though they were bedecked with the toddery 
 uniform of a militia general — men who have poured out their 
 means with no stinting hand in the formation of the department. 
 The volunteer system need not be abandoned for a paid fire 
 organization. Nothing could replace the loss of an institution so 
 highly valued. San Franciscans might get along without gov- 
 ernment — dispense with churches — -abolish drinking houses and 
 places of amusement — cease soldiering — give over reading news- 
 papers — or see without regret their gambling saloons vanish in 
 the clouds. Pleasures are easily done without ; but home — 
 bread — years of toil — life itself, are not coolly and calmly to be 
 tossed into the flames 
 
 The first steps taken towards establishing a fire department, 
 date from Christmas, 1849, the day after the first great fire. 
 Meetings for that purpose were held by numerous influential 
 citizens, who had been old Atlantic firemen, among whom were 
 Frederick D. Kohler, David C. Broclerick, George H. Hossefros, 
 George W. Green, William McKibben, Benjamin Ray, Charles 
 W. Cornell, John A. McGlynn, and others. In January, 1850, 
 the councils first moved, by appointing F. D. Kohler chief engi- 
 neer, with instructions to proceed to permanently organize a 
 suitable fire department. At that time, three engines were all 
 the machinery that was to be found in the city, and those not 
 properly provided with hose. Three companies, known as the 
 San Francisco, Empire and Protection, were soon formed for 
 each of these and brought into active service in the fires of May 
 and June following. Before the last was well burned out, public 
 notice was given for meetings to be held that very evening, to 
 take measures properly to organize fire companies. It was evi- 
 dent that such conflagrations might be momentarily anticipated 
 — and what could three imperfectly provided companies do to 
 arrest them ? As a result of these actions, the fire department 
 was regularly organized by ordinance of councils, passed July 1st. 
 
 The government of the department was intrusted to a chief 
 engineer and assistants, and a board of delegates, to consist of 
 two representatives from each company, which officers were to be 
 elected by the members. Appropriations were at the same time 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 617 
 
 ordered for the construction of cisterns and the purcnase of appa- 
 ratus. The first election under this ordinance was held in Sep- 
 tember, and F. D. Kohler chosen Chief Engineer ; Edward A,. 
 Ehhets and Thomas K. Battelle, Assistant Engineers. The com- 
 panies enrolled were the Empire, Protection, Eureka, Howard, 
 Monumental and California engine companies ; St. Francis, 
 Howard and Sansomc hook and ladder companies. Under tliis 
 government things began to assume a proper form, and so great 
 an interest was excited in behalf of the department, that the 
 councils were induced to expend the city funds liberally in pro- 
 curing apparatus and locating reservoirs. From this date a 
 regular system has prevailed in governing the department, based 
 on that of New York. 
 
 The disasters of September, 1850, and May and June, 1851, 
 called for the utmost exertions of the whole department, and 
 seemed to demonstrate to puritanic folks, by their unchecked 
 progress, that the hand of man was of little avail in protecting 
 the doomed city. The true cause of the inefficiency of the de- 
 partment, was in the want of water. The few cisterns were 
 speedily exhausted — the tide was out — and the houses built upon 
 piles in the bay were consumed with the platforms upon which 
 they stood, leaving only great black spaces of slime and mud. 
 The chief attention of the officers henceforth was directed to the 
 remedying of this deficiency. 
 
 In August, 1851, Mr. Kohler retired from his position as 
 chief engineer, and first assistant Mr. Ebbets, being absent from 
 the city, Mr. T. K. Battelle, the second, served as chief until the 
 annual election, held November 3d, at which Mr. F. E. R. Whit- 
 ney was elected chief engineer ; Charles L. Case, first assistant ; 
 Wra. McKibbin, second assistant ; and R. R. Harris, third as- 
 sistant. On the 17th of the same month, Mr. Whitney was 
 compelled to resign by ill health, and on December 6th, Mr. 
 George H. Hossefros was chosen for the office, the duties of which 
 he performed to the complete satisfaction and great advantage of 
 the department. On the 7th February, 1852, Messrs. Case and 
 Harris also resigned, in consequence of which Mr. McKibbin be- 
 came first assistant, and Messrs. James A. Huntsman and Gardi- 
 ner P. Kingsland were elected second and third. All of these 
 
618 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 officers devoted much time to the proper development of the sys- 
 tem, and succeeded in raising it to its present standard. 
 
 The calamities of 1851 stimulated the department to greater 
 exertions, and induced the councils to pass numerous ordinances 
 for its benefit. In May, 1852, they created a board of fire wardens, 
 consisting of the three assistants and the secretary of the board 
 of delegates, and superintended by the chief engineer, with such 
 police jurisdiction over the respective fire districts, as to allow 
 them to examine all places in which fires are used, ascertain 
 whether danger is to be apprehended from any of them, and dis- 
 cover and have punished any violation of the various ordinances 
 for the prevention of future conflagrations. 
 
 A.t the annual election of December 6'tb, 1852, Mr. Hossefros 
 was re-elected chief by a handsome majority, and Messrs. Charles 
 P. Duane, A. R. Simons and E. A. Ebbets chosen assistants. 
 Business calling Mr. Hossefros to the Atlantic States, he resigned 
 his office, and as if an evidence of their regard for him was need- 
 ed, every fireman and each company vied to do him honor, and 
 present him tokens of respect on the day of his departure, with 
 an enthusiasm seldom ever equalled. Mr. Charles P. Duane was 
 elected chief at the ensuing election of December 5th, 1853 ; 
 Messrs. Edward A. Ebbets, first assistant, Joseph Capprise, 
 second, and Charles S. Simpson, third assistant, all of whom are 
 yet in office. 
 
 No one any longer apprehends any danger from fire to San 
 Francisco. With fifty large public cisterns already constructed, 
 others under way, and numerous others built by private individu- 
 als ; with thirteen powerful and well supplied engines, and three 
 hook and ladder companies, under the control of an average of 
 nine hundred and fifty certificate members (who are by statute 
 exempt from jury duty while members, and after five years' ser- 
 vice, exempt for life), the most dangerous fire can be subdued. 
 
 In 1852, the department organized a charitable fund, which 
 at this time exceeds $26,000, invested at good interest, and 
 which has already afforded much relief to those who had need of 
 its interference. It will be in place here to give a succinct histo- 
 ry of each company. 
 
 Empire Engine Company, No. 1. — This company was one of 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 619 
 
 those that took part in the organization of the department di- 
 rectly after the first great fire : bnt does not date its regular 
 existence until June 4th, 1850. The citizens most influential 
 in its origin were Messrs. D. C. Broderick, F. D. Kohler,Wm. 
 McKibbin, Geo. W. Green, C. W. Cornell and John A. McGlynn. 
 D. 0. Broderick was elected the first foreman ; G. W. Green, as- 
 sistant ; Wm. McKibbin, secretary ; and James Grant, treasurer. 
 The Empire has continued in the spirit of its motto, " onward," 
 a fine company, to the present date, always having a full roll, 
 and doing active service on every regular occasion. The appa- 
 ratus is a beautifully decorated New York side-lever engine, and 
 is located on Kearny street between Sacramento and California 
 streets. The members, early in 1851, organized a target com- 
 pany in the New York fashion, which parades one hundred and 
 twenty-five muskets. 
 
 Manhattan Engine Company, No. 2, was organized very re- 
 cently (January, 1854), through the exertions of Messrs. David 
 L. Beck, D. B. Arrowsmith, and other gentlemen, who felt a 
 lively interest in the department. Their number, which they 
 had obtained, because it was left blank, at the date of their for- 
 mation, had been previously assigned to two co npanies, viz. : the 
 Protection, 1852, and the Lady Washington, both having been 
 disbanded, the latter very recently. Tbe Manhattan, though 
 young, has given proof of its strength and usefulness, and now 
 numbers over fifty good members — all permanent citizens. The 
 apparatus is a New York side-lever engine, with hose cart, and 
 is located on Montgomery street, adjoining the Metropolitan 
 theatre. 
 
 Howard Engine Company, No. 3. — This is one of the old 
 companies that has nobly stood the test of time. It was organ- 
 ized June 14th, 1850, by various citizens, who had been old Bos- 
 ton firemen. The prime movers in the enterprise were Messrs. 
 Franklin E. B. Whitney, John S. Eagan, Tbomas K. Battelle, 
 and G. Lewis Cook. A few days after their organization they 
 were placed in possession of a fine Hunaman engine, which had 
 arrived from Boston in the ship Windsor Fay, having been or- 
 dered early in 1849, on private account, by the well-known and 
 public-spirited citizen, William D. M. Howard, who without de- 
 
G20 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 lay placed the engine in the possession of this company. As a 
 compliment to this gentleman, who had been exceedingly liberal 
 in the expenditure of money in the formation of tbe department, 
 the company resolved to adopt the name of " Howard." Their 
 efficiency has been repeatedly proven. The engine has no supe- 
 rior in the city, and is very beautifully painted. Its house, a fine 
 brick building with stone front, is in Merchant street, between 
 Montgomery and Sansome streets. The lower floor is appropri- 
 ated as the engine room ; the meeting room is in the upper story, 
 and is very elegantly and tastefully furnished. 
 
 California Engine Company, No. 4, was organized October 
 10th, 1850, principally by citizens residing in Happy Valley, 
 prominent among whom were Messrs. Moses G. Leonard, George 
 N. Shaw, W. Neely Thompson, Greorge J. Oakes, George M. 
 Garwood, Caleb Hyatt, K. S. Lamott, George Endicott, and oth- 
 ers, of whom Mr. Garwood was elected foreman. They were 
 supplied with the old San Francisco engine, the early cotempo- 
 rary of the Empire and Protection, which was, however, destroyed 
 by the fire of May, 1851. In June, 1852, the company ordered 
 from Boston a new Hunaman-build engine, of the same class as 
 the Howard, at a cost of $3,750, now in their possession and in 
 active service, with a large company to run it. It occupies a fine 
 two-story building on Market square, opposite the Oriental Ho- 
 tel ; and possesses a belfry and bell, which latter has often replied 
 to the summons given from the Monumental bell, in the days of 
 the Vigilance Committee. 
 
 Knickerbocker Engine Company, No. 5, was organized Octo- 
 ber 17th, 1850, through the exertions of James H. Cutter, 
 Charles E. Buckingham, John Wilson, R. R. Harris, and others, 
 and on October 25th, procured, at a cost of $3,000, a small size, 
 piano-box engine, Van Ness make. The first officers elected 
 were James H. Cutter, foreman ; John Wilson, assistant foreman ; 
 and Charles E. Buckingham, secretary. The company have im- 
 proved daily, and are on hand at the first tap of the bell, and 
 have no superior in ability to work at fires. The house originally 
 occupied by the Knickerbocker, in Merchant street, was de- 
 stroyed by fire on the night of November 9th, 1852. The 
 present engine building is a two-story cut-stone edifice, in 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 621 
 
 Sacramento street, between Sansome and Leidesdorff streets, 
 begun in March, 1853, and completed in July, at a cost of 
 §8000. It was furnished for the occupancy of the company by 
 October 15th, at a further expense of §2,000. The very hand- 
 some mahogany piano-box engine, now in use, is of the first 
 class, Smith's make, and was procured December 8th, 1852, at a 
 cost of §3,250. 
 
 Monumental Engine Companies, Nos. 6 and 7. — These com- 
 panies were organized in June, 1850, consisting of three engines, 
 on the plan of the Baltimore fire department, as an independent 
 association. They procured the three pieces known in Baltimore 
 as the Mechanical, Union and Franklin, which had been shipped 
 to this city. The principal parties in this association were 
 Messrs. George H. Hossefros, Wm. Divier, John S. Wcathred, 
 Joseph Capprise, Robert B. Hampton, W. H. Silverthoru, J. H. 
 Ruddach, and other old Baltimorean firemen. As the city coun- 
 cils could not recognize independent companies, they refused to 
 appropriate any moneys to their use. The companies hesitated to 
 comply with their ordinance until 13th of September, when they 
 joined the general organization as three companies and received 
 the numbers 6, 7, and 8 ; thus by their delay being numbered 
 higher than companies which had been formed later. They have 
 always done good duty, and have as high as three hundred en- 
 rolled members. The first officers of the association under its 
 old rules were, William Divier, president ; R. H. Bennett and 
 W. L. Bromley, vice-presidents ; George H. Hossefros, chief 
 engineer ; W. H. Silverthorn and Austin, assistant engi- 
 
 neers ; W. Lippincott, secretary ; and R. B. Hampton, treasurer. 
 In January, 1853, they resigned the number of 8, and ran two 
 companies, G and 7 ; and at this date, April 1, 1854, they have 
 resolved themselves into one number, 6, for the purpose of pro- 
 perly working a new piece of apparatus, of the largest class, built 
 by Messrs. Rogers, of Baltimore, and shipped in February. 
 This will be the largest engine on the Pacific, and will require a 
 large torce to work it. Mr. George H. Hossefros, late chief engi- 
 neer for two years, has been elected foreman of the consolidated 
 Monumental Company, No. G. Their house is located in Bren- 
 ham Place, facing Portsmouth Square, and is surmounted with 
 
622 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 a bell — not merely a bell, but " the bell " of San Francisco — for 
 who is conversant with the history of this city in 1851, that does 
 not remember the awful tones of this bell, as it gave the signal 
 for the assembling of the Vigilance Committee, and tolled the 
 death-knells of four of the most accomplished villains that ever 
 disgraced California ? It was the first bell for public purposes 
 ever raised in the city ; weighs only one hundred and eighty 
 pounds, and cost one dollar per pound. For clearness of sound 
 it cannot be excelled, and even now competes with the city bell. 
 
 Pacific Engine Company, No. 8, was organized September 
 9th, 1853, to take the number left blank from the Monumental 
 No. 8. Benjamin Oakley, jr., Frank Gray, D. 0. Brown, and 
 other citizens in the vicinity of Pacific wharf and Broadway, were 
 instrumental in forming it. It is located in Front street, be- 
 tween Jackson and Pacific streets. The company, though labor- 
 ing under many disadvantages from location and want of appa- 
 ratus, have done fair service, and are now making efforts to 
 procure a proper house and engine — so much needed in that 
 portion of the city. 
 
 Vigilant Engine Company, No. 9, was organized April 8, 
 1852, by Messrs. Martin R. Roberts, W. H. Bovee, J. D. Blux- 
 ome, C. S. Biden, D. L. Beck, and others. The apparatus is a 
 New York side-lever engine, housed in a brick building on 
 Stockton street, between Broadway and Pacific streets. At this 
 date the company are making arrangements for the erection of a 
 fine stone building, and have ordered a first-class engine from 
 New York, which is expected to arrive in Jidy. 
 
 Crescent Engine Company, No. 10, was organized November 
 4th, 1852, by Messrs. James P. Casey, Charles Bachman, L. M. 
 Byrne, J. Hawes Davis, and others, and is located in Ohio street, 
 between Pacific street and Broadway. They possess a New 
 York engine, and for celerity and efficiency at fires cannot be 
 excelled. In the ranks are very many old Atlantic firemen. 
 The city is now providing for the construction of a fine building 
 for No. 10. 
 
 Columbian Engine Company, No. 11, was organized Novem- 
 ber 4th, 1852, by Messrs. T. W. Brennan, J. Kimbal, J. D 
 Brower, J. H. Shepeard, Daniel N. Tucker, and others, and has 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 623 
 
 proved a good company in every respect, having now a full roll 
 of sixty-five members. The house is located in Bush street, 
 above Kearny, and the engine is Van Ness make, piano-box style, 
 handsomely polished and finished, with patent running gear. They 
 work two streams of water, and at late fires have done great service. 
 
 Pennsylvania Engine Company, No. 12. — This active com- 
 pany was organized November 4th, 1852, by Messrs. Robert B. 
 Quayle, P. E. Garvin, John V. McElwee, John Hanna, George 
 R. Gluyas, H. S. Brown, E. T. Batturs, and others. The house 
 is located in Jackson street, between Kearny and Dupont streets. 
 The engine, known as the old Franklin, of Philadelphia, is at 
 present in their possession. They have had built in the latter 
 city, by Agnew, a magnificent first-class Philadelphia engine, 
 which is expected to arrive in August, and will be a competitor 
 of the new engine, building for the Monumental, in Baltimore. 
 This company has been on a steady increase since its organiza- 
 tion, and is one of the best governed in the department. Their 
 uniforms are of the Philadelphia style, from which city many 
 of its members have brought the spirit of enthusiasm which has 
 so long characterized its own fire department. As an instance 
 of the liberality of the San Franciscans towards the perfection 
 of their department, we may add an anecdote told in Philadel- 
 phia, in connection with this very engine. The company had 
 sent in advance $5,000 to pay for the construction of a magnifi- 
 cent engine, and not deeming that sum sufficient, shortly after- 
 wards forwarded another instalment. The economic Philadelphia 
 artisan, already at a loss how to expend upon his work the first 
 apparently enormous sum, now applied for information as regard- 
 ed the use to be made of the second amount, alleging his inability 
 to do otherwise than pocket it. " Convert it into silver or gold 
 and stick it on any where," replied the members. And this same 
 generous spirit is actuating all the companies in their desire to 
 obtain unrivalled apparatus. An immense sum of money has 
 been expended in New York on an engine recently constructed 
 by order from San Francisco. 
 
 Young America Engine Company, No. 13, was the last or- 
 ganized, on the 1st of January, 1854, by citizens living at the 
 Mission Dolores, for the protection of property in that neighbor- 
 
624 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 hood, which, is between two and three miles from Portsmouth 
 Square. Being so young, we can say no more concerning this 
 company than to express a hope that their future will he char- 
 acterized by the energy implied in the name they have chosen. 
 
 St. Francis Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1, was organ- 
 ized on the 14th of June, 1850, chiefly by Messrs. E. V. Joice, 
 Samuel H. Ward, J. C. Palmer, C. P. Duane, W. A. Woodruff. 
 George W. Gibbs, B. G. Davis, and others. This is one of the 
 original companies of the permanent organization, and has always 
 maintained its position in the department. In the years 1850 ; 
 '51 and '52, the principal work at conflagrations fell on the hook 
 and ladder companies, owing to the impossibility of obtaining 
 water for the engines. This company is located in Dupont 
 street, between Clay and Sacramento streets, and has a fine 
 brick building under contract for its future occupancy. 
 
 LaFayette Hook and Ladder Company, No. 2, was organized 
 in September 19th, 1853, by Messrs. H. A. Cobb, E. Grisar, and 
 a number of the French citizens of San Francisco. Their num- 
 ber formerly belonged to the Howard Hook and Ladder Compa- 
 ny, which was organized in 1850, but disbanded in 1852. The 
 LaFayette is established on the principle of the Parisian fire 
 companies, and is the first on this plan in the United States. In 
 the ranks are many old French firemen. They drill regularly 
 and have become very perfect in their routine of duty. They are 
 good firemen, and under the government of their present fore- 
 man, Mr. Cobb, have rendered good service at recent fires. 
 
 Sansome Hook and Ladder Company, No. 3, was organized 
 June 14th, 1850, by Messrs. A. DeWitt, Florence Mahoney, C. 
 L. Case, E. A. Ebbets, J. L. Van Bokkelen, George A. Hudson, 
 William Adrain, H. A. Harrison, W. H. Hoffman, Wm. Greene, 
 F. A. Bartlett, R. L. Van Burnt, and others, residing in San- 
 some street and its vicinity, — adopting the name of that street 
 as their own, — for the protection of the property on which they 
 had chiefly organized. The truck used by this company is the 
 largest in the State, and carries fifty-feet ladders. The company 
 is one of the best organized in the city, and has intrusted to its 
 charge the powder magazine, intended for blowing up buildings 
 at fires in time of need, to use which none others are authorized. 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 625 
 
 The motto borne on the truck, in celebration of the admission of 
 California into the Union, " Though last not least," has been 
 well sustained. William Greene was first foreman, and was suc- 
 ceeded in the fall of 1850 by E. A. Ebbets, and on the appoint- 
 ment of the latter as assistant engineer of the department in the 
 spring of 1851, J. L. Van Bokkelen was elected foreman, and 
 has acted as such to this date. The company's house is located 
 on Montgomery street, between Jackson and Pacific streets, and 
 is constructed with carved stone front, brick walls, two stories 
 high, with deep basement. The entire building cost $24,000 : 
 the lot is valued at $15,000 ; and the furniture, as magnificent 
 as is to be found in any private dwelling, cost over $5,000, — 
 making in all an expense of $44,000. A large library belongs 
 to the company, which from the constant additions it is receiv- 
 ing, will doubtless be as extensive as any in the city. 
 
 The Sansome Hall, and the other handsome structures, which 
 are already completed or in course of erection for the various 
 companies, show how even a fireman's duties may be combined 
 with pleasure and comfort. The fire department is always one 
 of the chief features in public processions, and yearly celebrates 
 its own anniversary by a general turn-out on the 22d of Februa- 
 ry. The universal prosperity and harmony between the various 
 associations, are evidences enough of the excellence of the present 
 government and laws of the department. 
 
 40 
 
Departure of a Steamship. 
 
 STEAMER-DAY. 
 
 Once a fortnight, at the beginning and middle of every month, 
 San Francisco, which is never without some feverish excitement, 
 gets gradually worked up to a crisis. Different places have also 
 their occasional periods of intense interest. What in other 
 countries may be the annual fair to a village belle, a great saint's 
 day of obligation to devout Roman Catholics, the solitary " cheap 
 pleasure trip" to the artisan who has toiled and moiled unceas- 
 ingly for a twelvemonth, the last day of grace to a tottering 
 merchant who must meet his bill — but what need is there of 
 comparisons ? Steamer-day in San Francisco stands alone ; 
 it is sui generis. Every body, man, woman, and child, native and 
 foreigner, merchant and miner, general dealer, laborer, and non- 
 descript adventurer, old resident, and recent immigrant — every 
 body is deeply interested in this day. Mails in the Atlantic 
 cities start oftener, and affect only particular sections of the com- 
 
STEAMER-DAY. 
 
 627 
 
 munity ; but the great eastern mails that leave San Francisco 
 depart at long intervals, while they directly concern all classes. 
 The people who live here are not yet independent, either in busi- 
 ness or in home and affectionate feelings, of the connections of 
 their native countries. Hence, an immense amount of corres- 
 pondence is written and forwarded every two weeks. 
 
 Some days before the 1st or the 16th of the month, the mer- 
 chant, who must send returns for the goods he has received, and 
 perhaps sold, begins to consider how best he can " raise the 
 wind." He is not a Prospero, who, by waving his wand, consult- 
 ing his book, and muttering a few conjurations, can command 
 the elements ; but he summons his " faithful Ariel," his manag- 
 ing clerk, and the two take a long spell of a different description. 
 Daily, hourly, obstinate debtors are dunned ; and are alternately 
 beseeched, wheedled and bullied, to come down with the dust — 
 the one precious product and export of California. One's own 
 funds are failing, and money every where has suddenly and alarm- 
 ingly become scarce. Debtors are doubtfid, and no credit is 
 given the unfortunate cash-hunter himself. Yet money must be 
 had for steamer-day. This is essential to the merchant's honor 
 and his continuance in business. Cash bargains are therefore 
 hurried through at any sacrifice, and temporary loans effected, 
 upon tangible security always, at usurious rates — from four to 
 five, up to ten or twelve per cent, per month. Every means is 
 taken to collect a given sum. While the merciless creditor 
 assails his shuffling debtor, he himself turns a dull ear to re- 
 proaches, entreaties and threats of his own creditors and dun- 
 ners. Every man for himself in such matters. All the business- 
 men in San Francisco are bustling about ; every body is abusing 
 another for dilatoriness in making payments. What should have 
 been paid before last steamer-day not yet forthcoming ! — what 
 was a cash transaction two days ago not yet settled for ! Why, 
 it was shameful, unbusiness-like, atrocious conduct ! Where did 
 such people expect to go to when they died ? So the angry 
 dunner says to one neighbor, and so another speaks to the poor 
 enraged man a few minutes afterwards. The agony and the 
 " hope deferred " of making up the required sum continue to 
 grow in intensity until the last moment that bank, post, and 
 
628 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 express arrangements permit the remittance to be made. "When 
 the gun of the departing steamer is heard, the merchant feels 
 once more at ease. His excited nervous system becomes relaxed ; 
 and for another week, or ten days, he cares not though he re- 
 ceives not a cent. He smiles again on his delinquent debtor ; 
 they drink lovingly together, and exchange segars, and chat 
 and joke, in the most friendly manner, of their individual trou- 
 bles and throes in providing for the dread steamer-day. There 
 is little business done the day before the mail leaves, and none 
 on the forenoon of the day of its departure. Not only is time 
 consumed in attending to the indispensable remittances, but 
 numerous business letters must be answered, the state of the 
 markets described, account sales made out, suggestions given to 
 foreign merchants for particular shipments, and new orders sent 
 on one's personal account. The business letters alone of an ex- 
 tensive mercantile house must closely occupy the time of the 
 heads of the firm for at least a whole day before the mail is 
 closed. 
 
 The purely business letters may be the most urgent and pe- 
 cuniarily important communications, but those between the 
 mere resident and his friends at home are the most interesting. 
 Many residing here have left wives and families in far distant 
 countries. To such the opportunity is invaluable of telling of 
 their various movements, of their speculations, hopes and fears, 
 their health and comforts, and to express all their affectionate 
 wishes and love towards those most dear to them. But besides 
 the married and family man, all have more or fewer acquaint- 
 ances and dear friends whom they wish should know of their 
 " whereabouts." When emigrants leave home to settle perma- 
 nently in a new land, they very soon cease to feel interest in 
 their native place and old friends, and gradually give up the 
 first habit of communicating by letter with them. But many 
 of the San Franciscans have the surety of speedily rejoining the 
 friends and country they had left, whilst most of them hope and 
 expect that they will be enabled to do so in a few years at far- 
 thest. Hence, all these find it their interest, as they feel it 
 their pleasure, to keep up a familiar correspondence with the 
 mother country. The answers that will appear by and by to 
 
STEAMER-DAY. 
 
 629 
 
 their several communications will be eagerly looked for, and pe- 
 rused over and over again. To continue to receive such interest- 
 ing epistles, they must be faithfully acknowledged. Replies and 
 other letters are accordingly multiplied for each mail. With 
 many people, the entire day before the sailing of the steamer is 
 consumed in writing these. No wonder that the occasion is 
 looked forward to with much interest. 
 
 But it is not merely epistolary communications and the ne- 
 cessity of remitting that give lifelike interest and excitement to 
 steamer-day. Always two, and often three, large vessels leave 
 upon that occasion, conveying together from a thousand to some- 
 times nearly two thousand persons. That alone is an immense 
 body of people, who are naturally very much excited by thoughts 
 of the long passage, and the peculiar circumstances attending 
 their departure. Besides these it may be supposed that at least 
 thrice the same number of persons are directly interested as the 
 nearest friends of the actual passengers, while the whole city en- 
 tertains some kind of curiosity as to who are leaving and a 
 general feeling of interest on the subject. Numbers have come 
 from the mines and interior towns to take their departure from 
 San Francisco ; and these crowd the hotels and boarding-houses 
 for a few days until the steamer sails. From every large lodg- 
 ing-house there is somebody departing, while in almost every 
 house there are companions and confidants of those leaving. 
 These must commune and prepare ; they must drink, smoke and 
 palaver ; buy and interchange gifts, and make solemn promises 
 of futuTe communications. All is eagerness and excitement, on 
 both sides, until steamer-day has come and gone. 
 
 Follow the crowd on the eventful day. The merchant has 
 dispatched his letters, his expresses, his remittances, and has now 
 a little leisure. So he takes a stroll down to the pier-head to 
 see some old friends off. The mail-bags are closed, and the 
 anxious correspondent with home may now begin to count the 
 weary weeks and days before he receives fond answers. He also 
 can spare an hour, and dreamily wends his way to mark the no- 
 ble ship set sail that bears the mail, his letters included. The 
 express wagons that bear two millions of treasure are on their 
 way. The loafer and the compulsorily idle man likewise attend, 
 
630 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 because they are fond of a show and have nothing else to do. 
 General business is in some measure suspended, or lazily conduct- 
 ed until the steamer is actually gone. The baggage of the pas- 
 sengers, which is seldom very much, is being conveyed on board. 
 Some adieus have already taken place ; but most are to be made 
 upon the wharf or on the ship's deck. The mail boat for Pa- 
 nama starts from Pacific street wharf ; the opposition vessel, for 
 San Juan del Sud (Nicaragua route), from the wharf at Jackson 
 street. Let us take our stand on the latter. As it happens, the 
 ship is neither the largest nor the finest of the line, yet it is an 
 excellent boat notwithstanding, and we have a friend on board 
 who is leaving for the east. 
 
 The " Brother Jonathan " is already beginning to be crowd- 
 ed. Above and below, passengers with flushed faces and scarcely 
 steady steps are prowling among the heaps of packages and 
 boxes, searching for their own. They bustle about, and after 
 some thick speechifying and unnecessary gestures discover their 
 " bunks," and secure their " traps " as closely as possible. All 
 is confusion. Something is sure to be forgotten at the last mo- 
 ment ; something of the utmost consequence is still to be done. 
 There is neither time nor fit person to do the thing needful ; and 
 the unhappy passenger dare not leave the ship for an instant, lest 
 she sail without him. There is, however, no real danger of that, 
 though there is so much fear. One half of the passengers are 
 still on the wharf, talking fast and hurriedly with friends, and 
 preparing to take the last farewells. On board, a majority of 
 the people are those who have only come to see the emigrant 
 off. Small groups cluster wherever there is standing room on 
 the different decks. The bottle is produced, and the last drop 
 taken ; champagne freely flows among the state-cabin nobs, and 
 rum or ready-mixed bottled cocktails among the snobs over all 
 the ship. But we forget — in California happily all are equal and 
 independent, and there can be neither the pure snob nor nob, 
 where originally all came alike penniless, and nearly all who 
 make money do it " by the sweat of their brow." Well, some 
 continue poor, and some wax wealthy. Some have been indus- 
 trious and thrifty, enterprising and successful : these soon grow 
 rich. Others have been lazy and idle, perhaps weak, sick or in- 
 
STEAMER-DAT. 
 
 631 
 
 capable, or they have spent their gains in intemperance, gaming 
 or debauchery ; and these will never make or long keep a fortune 
 in any country. Among them all, some can and do pay for state- 
 cabins ; others can, but will not ; a considerable number ought 
 not, but do ; while the most cannot, and consequently do not. 
 All, however, are rejoiced to hold their friends to the last, and 
 seek to show their joy in various ways — in cheerful discourse and 
 in drinks, in a warm shake of the hand, a half-stifled sigh and a 
 heartfelt look. 
 
 Near the forecastle there is a group of shaggy-haired and 
 bronzed-faced though good-looking fellows. These are going 
 home with the profits of a successful trip to the mines. They 
 still wear the old red or blue woollen shirt, the battered hat and 
 the belt of the digger. Somewhere hidden about their persons 
 are certain little bags with fifty or a hundred ounces of the 
 " dust," ay, or perhaps five hundred ounces, for aught that a 
 stranger could tell. They conceal likewise a five or six-shooter, 
 or a brace of pistols, capped and loaded with ball, or it may be a 
 formidable blade that makes the blood run cold to touch. Some- 
 times indeed these weapons are openly displayed. Such men 
 shall not be robbed of their hard won treasure without making 
 some effort to save it, or they will have dire revenge at all 
 events for their loss. There may not be much risk, once on 
 board, and on the fair way to a law-protected land ; but habit 
 is a second nature, and still they bear the old faithful companions 
 of their toils and dangers. These determined " b'hoys " are the 
 fortunate and careful miners. Beside them are others of a dif- 
 ferent stamp. The hollow cheek, sunken eye and feeble gait 
 tell of broken constitutions. Sickness seized the hapless adven- 
 turer at the mines, just when the foundation of his " pile " was 
 being laid famously. There was a struggle for a little while be- 
 tween avarice and the longing for health and life. Disease 
 threatened the latter in unmistakable symptoms. The patient 
 was unwillingly forced to relinquish his best hopes, and drag 
 himself to town for advice and aid. He continued weak, and 
 was becoming poor — for doctors' bills are heavy in California. 
 So while he could still muster strength and pay his passage, he 
 resolved to go home, to see old friends, his mother and the sweet- 
 
632 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 heart he had been betrothed to, and then " go sleep with his 
 fathers." 
 
 The mining class form a large portion of the fore-cabin and 
 steerage passengers. Many of these, since their first coming to 
 
 Miners homeward bound. 
 
 California, had visited "the States" on previous occasions. 
 They took seasons of working at the mines, and passed the in- 
 tervals in making jaunts home and enjoying themselves with 
 their families and friends. When the annual period came round, 
 like regular birds of passage, they migrated once more to the 
 foot-hills and valleys of the Sierra Nevada, to labor lustily for so 
 many months, accumulate another nice little " heap," then de- 
 scend upon San Francisco, to leave it shortly afterwards upon 
 steamer-day. 
 
 There are numerous enfeebled, dispirited-looking passengers 
 in the fore part of the vessel. These are the disappointed. 
 They came to California, mistaking the country and miscalcu- 
 lating their own powers and the opposition before them. Per- 
 
STEAMER-DAY. 
 
 633 
 
 haps they were without the physical qualifications for work, or 
 some nicety of disposition or false pride prevented them from do- 
 ing what their most successful neighbors had had to do at a pinch 
 — turn their hand to any supposed mean occupation for a bare 
 living. These sad and often seedy-looking mortals had, it might 
 be, visited the mining country ; they looked on for a time — 
 wrought a day or two, perhaps only an hour, till their bones 
 ached and their backs seemed breaking. Then they roared a 
 curse against the mirage of gold, and set off to San Francisco. 
 They had still a little money remaining of their first capital ; 
 but billiard rooms and bars, and the numerous other places for 
 extracting cash from the idle and foolish, were rapidly reducing 
 the amount. They made application for situations of different 
 kinds, but they showed little energy even in that, and somehow 
 they were unsuccessful. They had not the courage to offer to 
 make, or to carry, bricks, or lime, to break up the French mo- 
 nopoly and blacken boots or hawk coals, keep a stall, slaughter a 
 cow, or feed pigs, help to lighten a ship's hold, serve as waiter at 
 an eating-house, or start into the interior nnd learn to plough, 
 sow and reap, set and dig potatoes, or herd cattle. Some of 
 these honest though supposed inferior occupations may always be 
 depended upon by the truly industrious in San Francisco, while 
 nobody need long remain in the despised situation, if his real 
 abilities, energy and good conduct deserve promotion to a better. 
 Our good-for-nothing fellows, however, would descend to nothing 
 so "low." Low, indeed ! as if they were the porcelain of the old 
 world, and their nearest neighbors were only common delf. 
 Well, time and their money were silently and rapidly disappear- 
 ing. At last, a more vigorous effort than usual made them re- 
 solve to "shake the dust from their feet," and go home, with the 
 faintest possible hope of having the "fatted calf" slain on their 
 reappearance there. Importunities had probably coaxed or forced 
 a few dollars from an old friend who was " doing well " in San 
 Francisco, and these, with the scanty sum left of their own 
 means, just paid up the reduced amount of passage money. 
 Such unfortunates carry away a poor impression of the country ; 
 but their spiteful tales serve only to make themselves ridiculous 
 among those who know the miserable character of the teller. 
 
634 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 The thriving artisan who is paid so liberally for his services, 
 and all other classes in turn occasionally visit "the States." 
 Health or business, pleasure or personal duty and love to the 
 dear absent, lead most of the more respectable people to leave 
 the city for a few months, once in every two years, or so. There 
 is likewise always a moderate number of officials, either of the 
 city or State, or of the general government, who must occasion- 
 ally pay a visit to the eastern capitals. Then sometimes come- 
 dians and other public performers, " stars " in their way, and a 
 few " swells " and sharpers of the " Sydney-cove " school, a com- 
 pany of Uncle Sam's soldiers, a clique of filibustering speculators, 
 bound ultimately for God knows what unprotected country, and 
 many other curious characters book themselves for berths. A 
 continued migration, backwards and forwards, is taking place. 
 Of all those leaving probably one-third are sure to return within 
 a few months. The voyage is long and inconvenient, with its 
 own dangers too ; but the voyager and the friends he is about to 
 leave do not imagine that their separation will be eternal. 
 There are only some contingencies in the way which tend to give 
 their parting the slightest dash of melancholy. This, however, is 
 usually mixed and disguised by a deal of gleesome envy and ban- 
 ter on the part of him that stays, and much eager, joyous hope 
 in him that goes. Generally there are a few ladies among the 
 passengers, though they are nearly lost to sight among the dark 
 crowd of the " lords of creation." The female passengers have 
 commonly a few friends of their own sex who sometimes attend 
 and see them fairly off. 
 
 A considerable number of the passengers are foreigners ; and 
 while most of these first visit the Eastern States, they intend to 
 travel much farther. In New York and the Atlantic ports, they 
 will find abundant and cheap opportunities of reaching their 
 Beautiful France," or " Dear Father-land," or " Old England." 
 They generally bear away a fair share of the golden spoil, and it 
 is doubtful whether many of them will ever return. Boon com- 
 panions and tried old mates of their own country witness their 
 departure, and cheerfully congratulate them on the prospect 
 of being soon again in a peaceful, happy home with " the old 
 familiar faces." 
 
STEAMER-DAY. 
 
 635 
 
 But leviathan begins to blow and heave uneasily, eager to be 
 off. The escape steam-pipe seems too narrow a throat for the 
 angry breath of the monster, and loudly threatens to burst, and 
 the mighty hulk quivers at the sound. The clamor strengthens 
 on deck. The mate begins to move about and shout, and the 
 men leap to obey his orders. The chief engineer and his aids are 
 at their posts, awaiting the word of command from the captain, 
 who at last condescends to enter on the scene of action. A rapid 
 shuffling of feet is heard, baggage is unceremoniously tumbled 
 aside, sailors handle the hawsers, and laggers rush hastily to the 
 wharf. The last drop has been drank, the last good-bye given. 
 The wharf is densely crowded with spectators, while the voyagers 
 every where occupy the different decks of the magnificent ship. 
 There are a few turns ahead of the paddle-wheels, and then a few 
 turns astern ; the creature is lazily stretching its gigantic limbs 
 before it begins serious work. The cables are cast loose, and 
 leviathan yawns, and slowly drags its ponderous length half 
 round. 
 
 There is meanwhile a general stillness observed by the spec- 
 tators both on board and on the wharf. Their kind wishes, re- 
 membrances, orders, farewells had all been given ; and the heart 
 was too full, or the eye too busily engaged with the ever attrac- 
 tive scene, to permit further active demonstrations. Only a few 
 unsentimental wretches will persist in bawling an untimeous 
 coarse witticism, and shout still more " God-bless-ye-s " between 
 the ship and the wharf. Perhaps a passenger, already " half 
 seas over," in the delirium of his joy and drink, will toss his hat 
 to a friend whom he is sorrowfully leaving, as a token of his last 
 affection ; or the deserted crony will tbrow his own " tile " 
 towards the " bosom friend " of many tipsy hours. Three to one, 
 these last fond memorials drop short into the water. Sometimes 
 quite a brisk fire will be thus kept up for a quarter of an hour, 
 while the ship is getting under way ; and oranges, hats, some- 
 times coats even, last notes and packets, jokes and repartees, will 
 fly from man to man across the widening space that separates the 
 parties. Such noisy salutations and gifts, however, are in the 
 end confined to a few. During the last ten minutes the passen- 
 gers are forming into a close line, and lean across the rails. 
 
636 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Occasionally they appear to whisper to each other about the 
 incidents passing a few yards off. Now one, and then another, 
 bows to some friend in the crowd, whose eye he could not resist 
 catching once again, while a faint, half joyous, half melancholy 
 smile plays upon his face. The friend answers the familiar nod, 
 and seeks to avoid meeting any more the gaze of the departing. 
 
 Slowly and heavily, leviathan plashes and plunges ; it moves 
 round the outer end of the pier till its head is clear of the farther 
 wharf. Then the great heart ceases for a moment to heat, mus- 
 tering its energies for the coming race. The excitement among 
 all increases. Now the ponderous iron beams lazily rise and fall. 
 For a moment there is no perceptible motion of the ship. The 
 excitement is intense. Then one sharp eye, and next another, 
 discovers and proclaims loudly that the large hulk is really moving. 
 Onward — slowly, slowly — a little faster, though still but slowly — 
 then moderately — a little more quickly — then faster, proudly, 
 triumphantly, with a continually accelerating speed ! Oh, it is 
 a beautiful, a grand sight, such a majestic vessel exerting its 
 enormous power, and growing momently in strength and swift- 
 ness ! So soon as the ship is seen to be really moving ahead 
 the interest of the spectators is at the height. Hats, caps, 
 handkerchiefs, hands, are eagerly waved, and a multitude of 
 cheerful voices bid a long farewell. The travellers gaily show 
 like demonstrations of interest and friendship. A few tears 
 moisten the eyes of the more sensitive. With one general im- 
 pulse, three hearty cheers are given by the forsaken, which the 
 departing as heartily return. As the loud huzzas die away, and 
 the sullen crash of the paddles is beginning to be distinguished, 
 smoke is observed near the bow of the ship, and at almost the 
 same instant the boom of a cannon-shot is heard, which thunders 
 and re-thunders among the cliffs of Clark's Point — and the 
 steamer has fairly started. For a few minutes afterwards the 
 eager crowds can mark the tall masts and the fluttering pennant, 
 till the ship gradually bends oceanward, and Telegraph Hill hides 
 her farther progress through the Golden Gate. Then with a long- 
 drawn breath — a genuine sigh, or a laugh, the multitude bustle and 
 hurry off to their proper kinds of business, to forget all about 
 
 I 
 
STEAMER-DAY. 
 
 637 
 
 the event and their emotions, until some subsequent steamer-day 
 recalls these to mind, by circumstances of a similar nature. 
 
 The arrival of the steamer bearing the eastern mails is like- 
 wise an occasion of much excitement — not so much in respect of 
 there being possibly some six or eight hundred passengers on board, 
 as because there are fifty thousand letters and newspapers coming 
 from home. The telegraph has some hours before announced 
 that the " Golden Gate " is approaching the Heads. The glad 
 tidings soon spread through the town. Those who expect to find 
 friends hasten to spy and welcome them before even the vessel 
 touches the wharf. Draymen and cabmen speed with their 
 wagons and coaches to secure a job. A multitude of persons 
 attend for the novelty and excitement of the scene. There are 
 nearly as many persons on the broad wharf as on the occasion of 
 the steamer departing. On sweeps the " Golden Gate " — a mag- 
 nificent specimen of the first-class ocean steamer. Her decks 
 are crowded with human beings. Deuse masses cluster on the 
 highest plank that can afford them footing, and cling high to the 
 rails and rigging. The passengers are chiefly fresh immigrants, 
 who have sought the land of gold and marvels, to make or recover 
 a fortune. And this is San Francisco ! they say to each other, 
 as they mark the forest of masts, and the lull-sides covered with 
 buildiugs. Well! it exceeds all my expectations ! But we have not 
 space, Asmodeus-like, to uncover the chambers of their brain, and 
 tell the various thoughts, fancies, hopes, ambitions, of the sanguine 
 immigrants. Among them are those who must and shall suc- 
 ceed, and also those who will surely be disappointed and lament- 
 ably fail. Among the last are a large proportion of medical men, 
 political place-hunters, lawyers, and such as would fain live more 
 by their wits than by rude manual labor. The most of these 
 men, — many of whom are highly educated in classic aud polite 
 literature, — must forget their refined associations, and submit to 
 corporeal drudgery, if they would thrive in San Francisco. If 
 they cheerfully do that, there is hope and fortune in store for 
 them. 
 
 For a few days such as intend to betake themselves to gold- 
 digging remain in town, and with staring, greedy eyes, look 
 about them, while they recruit their strength. Thus many a 
 
638 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 lank, awkward, budding Hercules may often be seen dreamily 
 wondering, wbile be wanders through the streets. Or if there be 
 a good demand for laborers in San Francisco, some may take a 
 few weeks spell at town work, to earn a " slug" or two, to help 
 them to travel farther. The finances of the newly-come immi- 
 grant are commonly but scanty. Many skilled mechanics and 
 tradesmen are among the number ; and these generally find 
 instant employment, if they diligently seek it, in their various 
 occupations. If the particular kind of business, however, which 
 they wish, and are best fitted for, cannot be obtained, then, as 
 they have hands, and eyes, and feet, and may have willing spirits 
 not above coarse work, they may always find something to do, to 
 keep soul and body together and save a little money to wait till 
 their better time comes, when they may have a choice of employ- 
 ment. But gradually many of the fresh immigrants swarm off 
 to Sacramento, and others to Stockton, as the first stages to the 
 mining regions. A considerable number of the passengers, par- 
 ticularly those in the cabin, are only returned Californians, such 
 as had gone off some months before. These are gladly coming 
 back to speculations and hard work, to feverish passion, wild 
 delights and all the dear, wicked, fast life of San Francisco. 
 The austerities of New England, the dull proprieties of the 
 Quaker City, and the general monotony of society over most 
 parts of the East, have only sharpened the appetites of the old 
 settlers for the delightful excitement that ever reigns in the 
 noble city which they themselves have helped to create. 
 
 The expresses hurry off their packages, mails are landed, 
 decks are cleared, and the passengers have all found a temporary 
 lodging. The post-office establishment is meanwhile as busy as 
 possible, arranging the letters for delivery. Merchants open their 
 private boxes and find the all-important missives they looked for. 
 Anxious crowds gather at the windows and with beating hearts 
 ask for the longed-for, half-expected letters. The reader may 
 readily imagine their mingled hopes and fears as the clerk answers 
 their inquiries. He who is blessed with news from home trem- 
 blingly unfolds the precious epistle in the street, and devours, as 
 it were, with gloating eyes, the substantial words. The disap- 
 pointed seeker turns ruefully away, to hope for success next mail. 
 
Oriental Hotel, corner of Battery and Hash streets. 
 
 HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND BOARDING-HOUSES. 
 
 I.N 1849 and the two or three subsequent years, although the 
 population had swelled to a large number, there were tew families 
 in San Francisco, and consequently, as lias already been observed, 
 there were no homes for the great mass of the inhabitants. Men 
 lived as they were never accustomed to live in any other portion 
 of the world. Many, who previous to emigrating here, were in 
 the enjoyment of all the pleasures and luxuries of refined civilized 
 life, were now without even its most ordinary comforts. Numbers 
 lodged in mean, inhospitable tents, that were pitched everywhere 
 upon the hills, in the valleys, and among the bushes ; and still 
 more, perhaps, in wretched and filthy shanties, where from one 
 to three score would occupy a single large room, sleeping upon 
 the floor, on benches, boxes, tables, or trunks, or in narrow con- 
 tracted bunks fastened to the weather-boards. The majority of 
 those who possessed places of business, passed their hours of 
 
640 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 slumber upon or under the counters of their stores, or mayhap 
 on cots, matresses, or settees with which their offices were fur- 
 nished. A clean and comfortable bed was a rare article at the 
 time, and few even aspired to the privilege of its enjoyment. 
 Thus people lived at night, or during such portions of the night 
 that were not passed in drinking saloons, gambling rooms, or 
 other places of public entertainment ; while their meals were 
 taken at eating-houses, of which there was an immense number 
 in every portion of the town. These were of every description, 
 good, bad and indifferent, and kept by every variety of people. 
 There were the American dining-rooms, the English lunch-houses, 
 the French cabarets, the Spanish fondas, the German wirthchafts, 
 the Italian osterie, the Chinese chow-choivs, and so on to the end 
 of a very long chapter. There were cooks, too, from every coun- 
 try ; American, English, French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Chil- 
 eno, Kanaka, Italian, Peruvian, Mexican, Negro, and what not. 
 Hence people of any nation might have choice of a place of the 
 kind, kept by their own countrymen, and where dishes were 
 served in styles to suit their accustomed and peculiar appetites 
 and fancies. There was an endless variety, too, in the character 
 of the provisions furnished ; for besides the common products of 
 the country, importations were constantly arriving from all sec- 
 tions of the globe. Of game no other market ever furnished so 
 great an abundance or so general an assortment. Bears, elks, 
 deer, antelopes, hares, rabbits, squirrels, geese, ducks, quails, 
 snipe, plovers, curlew, of a hundred species, came in from all 
 parts of the country and covered the walls, floors and stalls of 
 the market-houses. Vegetables indeed were scarce, but the 
 ranches furnished no small amount of cattle ; and bottled and 
 canned fruits, fowl, meats and oysters came in immense quan- 
 tities from abroad. The bay and rivers produced fish of many 
 sorts, and the shipping brought large quantities of every kind 
 of salt provision. Still the demand was great, and the expense 
 of preparation for the table enormous, so that the prices of living 
 were necessarily extravagant. At such establishments as Del- 
 monico's, the Sutter, Irving, Jackson, Franklin or Lafayette 
 house, a gentleman for his dinner and wine would be taxed from 
 five to a dozen dollars ; while at the meanest eating-rooms a very 
 
RESTAURANTS, HOTELS AND BOARDING-HOUSES. 
 
 641 
 
 ordinary meal would cost froni one to three dollars. At most 
 restaurants the prices were graduated according to the quantity 
 and quality of the food eaten ; and a bill of fare with the charge 
 for each item was placed before the visitor. A roast duck would 
 cost five dollars ; a broiled quail, two dollars ; a dozen canned 
 oysters, one dollar ; a small piece of pork or mutton, seventy-five 
 cents ; beef, the cheapest meat of the time, fifty cents ; a fresh 
 egg, one dollar ; a potato, the size of a walnut, twenty-five cents : 
 bread, butter, vegetables, coffee, and other necessary articles to 
 complete a meal, were charged for in proportion. At first pota- 
 toes were rare articles, and it was no uncommon thing to see 
 posted at the door of an eating-house, as an inducement for the 
 hungry to enter, the announcement. " Potatoes to-day," or 
 " Potatoes at every meal." It can readily be discerned, that, 
 from want of the necessary ajqiaratus and room for cooking, the 
 inexperienced and indifferent character of the men employed as 
 cooks, and the immense number of persons daily to be served in 
 the most of these places, the greatest cleanliness was not gene- 
 rally observed, and that very many devoured food of the precise 
 character of which it was quite as well that they were kept in 
 ignorance. 
 
 Besides the common eating-houses or restaurants, there were 
 a number of fashionable saloons, where a delicate meal of small 
 game or oysters could be obtained at exorbitant prices. These, 
 too, were drinking-houses, and the resort in the evenings of those 
 who had abundant means at their disposal, and were especially 
 fond of luxurious living. They were generally kept by dashing 
 females, or such were employed at high wages to decoy and enter- 
 tain customers. Particular regard was paid to beauty and other 
 attractions in their selection, and those who possessed the rarest 
 charms to please, drew the most patronage and received the 
 heaviest wages. Women were scarce in those days, and men 
 were frequently willing to pay largely for the slight privilege of 
 addressing one even in the way of business. Many, therefore, 
 were attracted to these saloons more by a graceful figure and 
 charming face, than the viands to be procured. It was quite a 
 luxury to be spoken to and waited upon by a pretty girl. Not 
 a few became the victims of these fascinating creatures, who were 
 41 
 
642 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 never slow in learning the value attached to their charms, or how 
 to bring these to the most profitable market. The dupes were 
 not always inexperienced young men, nor debauched old bache- 
 lors. Many a man possessing an amiable wife and interesting 
 children in the home from which he was temporarily separated, 
 had his brains addled by the skilful management of these artful 
 women. Money was foolishly squandered upon them in presents 
 of jewelry and dress, and the reward of the giver in most instances 
 was the gratification of an occasional deceitful word or smile, and 
 the deep mortification of discovering at last that he had been 
 outwitted, jilted and fooled. This sort of business was carried 
 on to some considerable extent, and more than one saloon girl, 
 who managed well their parts, have conti'ived to amass consider- 
 able sums of money, by worming it out of the pockets of their 
 vain and admiring dupes. 
 
 There was still another and far better class of establishments 
 of the latter kind, the habitual visitors to which were people of 
 a different character. Clayton's well known saloon, which still 
 exists on Commercial street, was one of the first of these. Here 
 the most respectable citizens repaired, to take their glass of punch 
 or ale, a broiled quail or oyster stew, a cup of coffee, or whatever 
 delicacy they might require. Here they would meet, undis- 
 turbed by any thing offensive to the most refined habits and 
 tastes, to talk over the affairs of the times, and spend an even- 
 ing in a quiet and rational way. Still greater improvements 
 were made in this line of business by that indefatigable and in- 
 dustrious caterer, Mr. M. L. Winn. His " Fountain Head " 
 became celebrated for its gentility and cleanliness, and more 
 especially by the entire exclusion of all spirituous and intoxicat- 
 ing drinks ; while his " Branch " at the corner of Washington 
 and Montgomery streets, would be a creditable establishment in 
 the oldest and best regulated cities. This is a refectory of the 
 highest order. It is a large saloon, and furnished in the most 
 tasteful and elegant manner. It is also conducted on the strict- 
 est temperance principles. No inebriating drinks are sold. Ice- 
 creams, jellies, cakes, and other delicate refreshments are served, 
 and the visitors embrace the most respectable ladies as well as 
 gentlemen of the country. 
 
HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND BOAR DING- HOUSES. 
 
 G43 
 
 The history of the enterprising proprietor of these establish- 
 ments would make an interesting chapter in these " Annals," which 
 
 Winn's Brunch. 
 
 want of room will prevent our giving. The following account, 
 however, of the extent of business transacted at the " Fountain 
 Head " and " Branch," which wc copy from the San Francisco 
 " Commercial Advertiser " of 6th April, 1854, is too curious and 
 important to be omitted : — 
 
 "The famous 'Fountain Head.' was started in July, 1851, after the proprie- 
 tor had been burned out twice, and losing every thing he owned in the world. 
 The ■ Branch.' at the corner of Washington and Montgomery streets, was first 
 opened in January, 1853. We learn from Mr. Winn, that the average num- 
 ber of persons entering his two establishments daily, to satisfy the cravings of 
 hunger, are 3.000. He has 100 attaches to the two houses, at an average 
 salary of $90 per month and boarded. The meat bill, per month, is $8,000 ; 
 flour bill, $4,000; milk, $2,000 ; sugar, $3.00); butter, $230; other items 
 necessary to carry on the two establishments. $5,000 ; rents in both places for 
 one year, $51,000; improvements in both places during the last year, $31,000 ; 
 can seat in both places 450 persons at one time ; paid for ice and eggs last 
 season, in five months, $28,000, more than has ever been paid in same length 
 of time before or since; has sold in one day 1.500 glasses ice cream. This 
 
644 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 was on July 4th, last year. Keeps 80 lights burning in both places every night ; 
 oil bill, $500 per month; 1.000 flour barrels used to pack soda crackers to be 
 sent into the country ; manufactures and sends into the country about 600 fifty 
 pound boxes of candies ; packs from 200 to 300 boxes of crackers for country 
 and city trade ; takes every city and country newspaper in the State ; has paid 
 in one month $1,600 for advertising and printing; carpenter's bill has averaged 
 $9,000 during the last twelve months ; printer's bill in same time, about 
 $3,000 ; has often fed 5.000 persons in one day ; upholsterer's bill for the last 
 twelve months has been about $6,000 ; employs two draymen constantly ; had 
 an agent in New York to ship stores, until they got so low here that it was 
 found to be cheaper to buy them in California. Last }^ear consumed daily 
 about one hundred and twenty-five dozen of eggs ; sells about $50 worth of 
 oysters a day ; manufactures 100 gallons of Winn's golden syrup per month — 
 not furnished to any but private families. Receipts at both houses average 
 $57,000 per month, or a little short of $2,000 per day; artesian well lately 
 dug at the Fountain Head ; has paid before $200 per month for water ; is sell- 
 ing confectionaries to go to all parts of the world, and occasionally packs a few 
 boxes as specimens to New York and London ; has sold as high as 6.000 
 pounds of buckwheat in a month, made into cakes; has paid one man in his 
 employ for 17 months' services $17,000 and board ; receives less custom on 
 Sundays than week daj r s ; bill for crockery and glassware for the last year, 
 has been about $10,000; consumed $1,500 worth of coal in one month; has 
 paid as high as $3,000 for potatoes in one month. Ice bill in one month has 
 amounted to $2,000. All the above prices should be taken as the largest ex- 
 penses in anyone month; sometimes they have been two -thirds less — for 
 instance: has paid $5,000 per month for eggs, and as low as $1,000 — other 
 articles the same. Paid last year for taxes and licenses, $1,500. 
 
 " In addition to the above we are enabled to state that Mr. Winn has made 
 very extensive donations for charitable purposes. Each day his expenses for 
 feeding poor and hungry applicants in both of his establishments, amounts to 
 $20. His known kindness in these matters sends crowds to him, from whom 
 he never asks a dime. The sufferers by the Sacramento fire, and by the Inde- 
 pendence, and by every public calamity, have been the recipients of his bounty. 
 He has paid away in the last year, independent of the above, $7,000 for the 
 support of ministers and churches.' 
 
 Mr. Winn, the conductor and proprietor of the "Fountain 
 Head " and : ' Branch," arrived in San Francisco in 1849, with- 
 out one cent in his pocket, and obtained his landing from the 
 ship in which he sailed from Panama, by borrowing money for 
 that purpose from a friend. He commenced business, by manu- 
 facturing candy with his own hands, and carrying it through the 
 streets upon a tray, supported over his shoulders by a pair of old 
 suspenders. Many of the inhabitants in the fall of 1849, will 
 
HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND BOARDING-HOUSES. 
 
 G45 
 
 remember his traversing the streets, with his stock in trade, cry- 
 ing at the top of his humorous voice : " Here is your own Cali- 
 fornia candy ! It has neither 
 come round the Horn, nor 
 across the Isthmus — but is 
 made iu your own city ; and 
 none but Winn can make it. 
 Here it is ! — buy it ! — taste 
 it, and try it ! " Tims Mr. 
 Winn began business. He 
 soon acquired sufficient means 
 to pay oft* old debts, and open 
 a small store. This, with all 
 his capital, was destroyed by 
 fire ; but he persevered, and 
 in despite of succeeding acci- 
 dents and difficulties, is now 
 doing a large and nourishing 
 business. He has now a suc- 
 cessor, or imitator in his early 
 trade, iu the person of a 
 Frenchman, or the Turk, as 
 he is called, who with tray and 
 clapper, vends sweetmeats and 
 candies through the streets, the accompanying illustration of 
 whom will be readily recognized by every citizen. 
 
 No place in the world contains any thing like the number of 
 mere drinking-houses in proportion to the population, as San 
 Francisco. This, perhaps, is the worst feature of the city. The 
 quantity of ardent spirits daily consumed is almost frightful. It 
 is peddled out in every gambling-room, on the wharves, at almost 
 every corner, and in some streets, in almost every house. Many 
 of the taverns are of the lowest possible description — filthy dens 
 of vice and crime, disease and wretchedness. Drunken men and 
 women, with bloated bodies and soiled garments, crowd them at 
 night, making the hours hideous with their bacchanalian revels. 
 Americans and Europeans, Mexicans and South-Americans, Chi- 
 nese and even negroes, mingle and dissipate together, furnishing 
 
 Turk with sweetmeats. 
 
G46 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 a large amount of business for the police department and the 
 recorder's court. Bad spirits are swallowed at from one to two 
 shillings per glass, and the motley assembly sing, dance, quarrel, 
 fight, gamble, pick pockets, and indulge in every manner of vul- 
 garity, lewdness and obscenity, to the music of a broken tambou- 
 rine, a cracked fiddle, or a tuneless organ. From these pitiful 
 dens there is a gradual ascent, through every variety of grade of 
 liquor-selling establishments, to houses of a highly respectable 
 order. The Dutchman has his lager-bier cellar, the Frenchman 
 his wine-room, the Englishman his pot-house, the politician his 
 head-quarters, &c. The most of these drinking places, however, 
 were but indifferently kept until, in March, 1852, Messrs. Barry 
 & Patten opened a house in Mr. Brannan's fire-proof block on 
 Montgomery street. This concern differed materially from all 
 others of the kind in the city. The rooms were fitted up in 
 the most superb and costly manner. Gambling was entirely 
 excluded, and no lewd paintings decorated the walls. The lower 
 floor was occupied as a bar-room and cigar stand. This was 
 ornamented with chaste oil paintings, water-color pictures, and 
 fine engravings in rich gilt frames. Splendid lamps and chande- 
 liers lighted the saloon. The furniture generally was neat and 
 handsome. Large mirrors were behind the bar, which was abund- 
 antly furnished with rich cut-glass and silver ware. The finest 
 and most delicate wines and liquors only were kept, and all the 
 fancy beverages that were ever conceived were here concocted, 
 while an inviting free lunch was daily set upon the table. In no 
 other city could be found a more attractive place of the kind. 
 The second floor was a spacious billiard-room, containing a num- 
 ber of Thurston's celebrated English slate-bed tables. This 
 house immediately became the resort of the most respectable 
 gentlemen of San Francisco. The proprietors were gentlemen 
 themselves, and their place was remarkable for its gentility. The 
 expenses of this concern were enormous. The single article of 
 ice alone, a small item, cost from fifty cents to a dollar a pound, 
 and an immense quantity was consumed. Their rent was sixty 
 dollars per day, and other expenses, exclusive of stock consumed 
 in business, amounted to about one hundred dollars more. Still 
 the conductors thrived and made money. Their house continues 
 
HOTELS, HESTAURANTS AND BOAUDING-HOUSES. 
 
 647 
 
 to be among the most popular and respectable in the country. We 
 notice it thus especially, because it was the pioneer establishment, 
 of the kind. Many others of a like character, among which are 
 the Bank Exchange, Allen & Parker's, Fisk & Patten's, &c, &c, 
 have since sprung into existence. 
 
 San Francisco may be especially noticed for its numerous 
 places of amusement. This is attributable to the fact already 
 named, that homes here were scarce, and people sought abroad 
 for pleasures to compensate for the want of that domestic satis- 
 faction and social intercourse to which they had been accustomed 
 in a different condition of society. Indeed, constant excitement 
 of some sort or other seemed essential to the endurance of life 
 in California. Hence, the extensive patronage given to balls, 
 concerts, operas, and theatrical entertainments. The gambling- 
 rooms were formerly the chief places of resort ; but as these 
 became disreputable, other places were sought, of less objection- 
 able character. Ten-pin alleys were consequently constructed, 
 and billiard-tables set up in every part of the town. Of these 
 there are now an immense number, and the extent of their 
 patronage is astonishing. 
 
 The first Hotel deserving the name was erected in 1846, at 
 the south-west corner of Clay and Kearny streets. This was the 
 " City Hotel," a view of which is given on page 346 of this 
 book. It was a long, one-story adobe building, with a verandah 
 running along the entire Kearny street front. Until after the 
 discovery of gold, this was the only public-house of any note in 
 San Francisco. Soon after that period it was turned into a 
 gambling-house, and became a famous place of resort for miners 
 and others visiting the city. It was subsequently divided into 
 many apartments, which were rented for offices, stores, drinking- 
 rooms, barber-shops, and similar purposes. It was destroyed, 
 much to the regret of the early inhabitants, — who desired to have 
 it preserved as one of the relics of the olden time, — by the fourth 
 great fire that swept over San Francisco. 
 
 In 1849, many hotels were opened ; but they were mostly 
 of an inferior class, being little else than mere restaurants and 
 lodging-houses. In this year the " Saint Francis," south-west 
 corner of Clay and Dupont streets, was partially built, sundry 
 
048 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 improvements being added in the following year. This was a 
 angular specimen of architecture, the lofty structure being 
 formed from some dozen or a score of small houses originally in- 
 tended for cottages. This was the fashionable house of the day. 
 Here the ilite of the city either boarded, or were accustomed to 
 congregate, and it became the theatre of many rare and amusino- 
 
 St. Francis Hotel, corner of Dupont and Clay streets. 
 
 scenes. The chambers were separated by the thinnest sort of 
 board partitions, without either lath or plaster, and consequently 
 but little privacy could be enjoyed by the lodgers. These by 
 whispering too loudly, or talking too plain, frequently and un- 
 consciously gave their neighbors intimations of facts which it was 
 not intended, and, indeed, which it was quite improper should 
 be known abroad. Hence, the house soon became as remarkable 
 for stories of laughable incidents, and even tales of scandal, as 
 for its ridiculous aristocratic pretensions. The building, though 
 one of the loftiest and roost inflammable in the city, escaped all 
 
HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND BOARDIXG-HOUSES. 
 
 649 
 
 the great conflagrations ; but was at length partially destroyed 
 by fire, on the morning of October 22d, 1853. On this occasion 
 the firemen of San Francisco performed great feats of daring, 
 and accomplished an astonishing triumph. The entire upper 
 portion of the house was in flames when the fire was discovered, 
 but the alarm was scarcely given before the firemen with their 
 apparatus were on the ground. By means of ladders, and 
 headed by their chief, Mr. Charles P. Duane, they carried their 
 hose into the second story, and succeeded in preventing the t 
 furious flames from descending below, or communicating with the 
 adjoining wooden structures. So rapid, however, did this fire 
 progress in its destructive work, that several of the lodgers were 
 forced to jump from the third story windows, while one man, Mr. 
 J. C. Coleman, was burned to death. 
 
 The first really substantial and elegant hotel of the city was 
 the " Union." This was a four-story brick building, with a 
 front of twenty-nine feet on the east side of Kearny street, 
 between Clay and Washington streets, and a depth of one hun- 
 dred and sixty feet. It was constructed, arranged, furnished, 
 and conducted as well as any similar establishment at that time 
 in the United States. The cost of the building and furniture 
 was $250,000. Messrs. John Middleton, A. A. Selover and E. V. 
 Joice, were the enterprising projectors, builders and owners of this 
 superb concern. The tables were supplied with every imaginable 
 luxury, and the boarders were of the wealthiest and most re- 
 spectable inhabitants and visitors of the city. This house, with 
 its contents, was destroyed in the fire of May 3d, 1851, and al- 
 though it has been rebuilt several times, after repeated conflagra- 
 tions, it never resumed its original character. It is now occu- 
 pied below as an extensive billiard-room and drinking-saloon, 
 while the upper stories are divided into comfortable lodging 
 apartments. It is a celebrated resort for all classes of politicians, 
 and most of the schemes affecting the interests of the State and 
 city are here concocted. 
 
 The Union was followed by several other "first-class" hotels, 
 the principal of which were " Jones's," at the corner of Sansome 
 and California streets, and the " Oriental," at the corner of 
 Bush and Battery streets. The former of these had but a 
 
G50 
 
 ANNALS OF SAX FRANCISCO. 
 
 brief existence. It was soon converted into the " Tehama 
 House," the rooms of which are rented to lodgers, who oDtain 
 their meals at " Alden's Branch" (a restaurant on the lower 
 floor), or wherever they may prefer. The "Oriental" and 
 
 The Tehama House, corner of Sansome and California streets. 
 
 " Wilson's Exchange," on Sansome street, near Sacramento, are 
 prominent hotels of the city. The " Bassette House" was also 
 a large and good hotel, at the corner of Bush and Sansome 
 streets. This was destroyed by fire May 2d, 1853. It has been 
 reconstructed of brick, and is one of the most imposing edifices 
 of the city. Early in 1854, an elegant hotel, the "Interna- 
 tional," was opened on Jackson street, between Montgomery and 
 Kearny streets, under the proprietorship of Messrs. E. S. Peck 
 and Henry Fisher. This is located in a central part of the city, 
 and is quite convenient to the several steamboat landings. It is 
 kept on the European plan, rooms being rented by the day or 
 week to the boarders, who obtain their meals at a restaurant on 
 
HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND BOARDING-HOUSES. 
 
 651 
 
 the premises. On the principal floor is a ladies' ordinary. The 
 building is five stories in height, fire-proof, and admirably 
 adapted in all respects to the purposes for which it has been 
 constructed. When completed, it will contain two hundred and 
 
 International Hotel, Jackson street. 
 
 fifty comfortable and well furnished rooms. A still larger hotel 
 is about to be erected at the corner of Battery street and Broad- 
 way, which is intended to cover an entire fifty-vara lot. Among 
 the ordinary hotels of San Francisco at this time, are the " Ports- 
 mouth House," the £: Franklin House," the " Mansion House," 
 the " Niantic," the " Crescent," &c. ; besides which there are 
 very many of inferior character, where living is obtained at 
 cheaper rates. The prices of hotel boarding have varied but lit- 
 
652 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 tie since 1849, having constantly ranged from about two to ten 
 dollars per day. 
 
 Vast improvements have been made in late days to the 
 general manner of living in San Francisco. The comfortless 
 tents and shanties have given place to neat and pretty buildings. 
 The cheapest lodging-houses are divided into small apartments. 
 Men no longer huddle together by scores in a single room, but 
 every person with moderate means can obtain an apartment to 
 himself. There are also numerous private boarding-houses, kept 
 mostly by respectable ladies, which have all the qualities of de- 
 sirable homes for single gentlemen and small families ; besides 
 which, the vast immigration of the wives of old settlers and new 
 comers have caused the erection and occupancy of beautiful cot- 
 tages and elegant mansions, which every where exist upon the 
 outskirts of the town. Comfortable and delightful homes are 
 becoming numerous, and domestic enjoyment and happiness in- 
 crease in proportion to the arrival of respectable females and the 
 growing prosperity of the town. 
 
Euss's Garden. 
 
 PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Ever since all Greece gathered to witness the quadrennial contests 
 of the Olympic sports, and the maidens of Rome wafted kisses to 
 victorious gladiators ; or rather, since Thespis, thus made im- 
 mortal, drove ahout his cart-load of histrionic pioneers to the 
 delight of gazing Athens, mankind have refused to imitate their 
 primeval ancestors, who, tending their flocks by day, and their 
 families by night, suffered neither from ennui nor atrubilis — but 
 require what they call amusements, to make life tolerable. The 
 theatre, and its derivatives, the opera, ballet, circus and hippo- 
 drome, have been called the great instruments of social progress. 
 Whether they deserve this high claim or not, it is at least certain 
 that their advance has been co-ordinate with that of civilization, 
 and that such exhibitions have become essential in the present 
 
654 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 day. The uiind, like the body, refuses to return to its original 
 nakedness after it has been adorned with the laced trappings of 
 ingenious art. The homespun, the broadcloth, the silk and 
 satin, and the royal purple, have supplanted the fig-leaf and the 
 bear-skin, and their wearers have the same increase of mental 
 foppery. The bloody rantings of the melo-dramatic hero, the 
 absurdities of the pantomimic display, the far-fetched witticisms 
 of the low farce, and the vulgar jibes of a drunken clown furnish 
 laughter and diversion, and excite the envy and emulation of the 
 gawk of the plough and the soap-locked rowdy of the city sub- 
 urbs. The screechings, yellings, bowlings of operatic automatons 
 in sibilant Italian, guttural German, or nasal French, elicit muf- 
 fled taps from gloved hands of popinjays, counter-jumpers and 
 aristrocrats ; while the sublime thoughts and moral teachings 
 of great dramatic historians, are palatable and healthful food for 
 men of genius, talent, and education. For the affected pious, 
 and would-be godly-minded, who shun the evil associations of 
 the theatre, and are disgusted with the necessarily public and 
 hence indecent exposure of female artistes, there are lectures, 
 exhibitions, panoramas, and the like — rational amusements — 
 fairs, where the ladies of a church, publicly stationed, brazenly 
 (not indecently) extort unreasonable prices for worthless goods 
 by sale ; where stately Pecksniffs playfully, by lottery (not gam- 
 bling), amuse themselves by gathering money for a pastor's gift. 
 There are museums, too, where quiet, demure quakeresses may 
 unblushingly gaze at the " Dream of Taglioni," christened 
 " Temperance Dance," or the " Pas de Quatre Nations," styled a 
 " Missionary Jubilee." 
 
 San Francisco was, and yet is, the very antipode of patriarchal 
 simplicity. Its flocks wore " golden fleece," and dwelt among 
 the mountain streams of the Nevada ; its tents had neither wives 
 nor children, — only rough, rugged, savage men. But that guardian 
 angel " self," who follows every one through life, and who had 
 given each of this new race his worldly wealth, had endowed him 
 with the desire, necessity, and means of unlimited enjoyment. 
 At first each sought gayety and pleasure for himself, in wine, 
 women, and the green cloth ; but the mind that does not degen- 
 erate soon satiates with solitary enjoyments. Public amusements 
 
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 655 
 
 become necessary, if for no other reason than that people like to 
 go where they can see and be seen ; and hence, long before the 
 corporated history of this place, rude efforts were made to revive 
 the dramatic exhibitions of other countries. Early in 184'J and 
 in 1850 respectively, two circuses were established as the pio- 
 neers of popular amusements. One of these was on Kearny 
 street above Clay, under the control of a Mr. Rowe, who subse- 
 quently converted it into a theatre. The other, of a few months' 
 later date, was owned by Mr. Foley, and was located on Mont- 
 gomery street below California. A short time subsequent to 
 these, another was opened on the western side of Portsmouth 
 Square. These were mere tent structures, where, on rude 
 benches, congregated crowds of easily satisfied and deeply inter- 
 ested spectators, and where spring-boards bounced men of various 
 sizes successively over one, two, and three horses ; and daring 
 riders, on broad wooden saddles, jumped through hoops and over 
 ropes, most fearfully to look at. Nowhere else were to be had 
 the materials for more legitimate displays, and the little-exacting 
 populace were forced to content themselves with what they could 
 get — paying without a murmur, their $3 for pit seats, $5 for box 
 places, and $55 for the princely luxury of a private stall. 
 
 On Monday evening, June22d, 1849, a concert of vocal music 
 was performed at the old school-room on the south-west corner 
 of the plaza, and this may properly be regarded as first amonsr 
 the regular amusements of San Francisco. It was given, entirely 
 unassisted, by Mr. Stephen C. Massett, at the suggestion of many 
 of his New York friends. The little room was crowded to suffo- 
 cation, the proceeds yielding the vocalist over five hundred dol- 
 lars. The following is the programme, a curiosity well worthy i.f 
 preservation, printed at the office of the " Alta California," then 
 the only paper in the city. " Front seats," it will be observed, 
 were reserved for ladies, of whom there were but four present. 
 The piano used (we believe there was only one in the country) 
 upon the occasion, was loaned by Mr. E. Harrison, the collector 
 of the port, and sixteen dollars were paid for removing it from 
 the custom-house to the school-room, situated on opposite sides 
 of Portsmouth Square. 
 
656 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 "ON MONDAY EVENING NEXT, 
 
 A CONCERT 
 ■Will be given at the Court-bouse, Portsmouth Square, 
 
 BY MR. STEPHEN C. MA8SETT, 
 
 Composer of ' When the Moon on the Lake is Beaming,' and other popular ballads. 
 PROGRAMME. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 1. Song.—' When the Moon on the Lake.' Words and Music by S. C. Massett 
 
 2. Recitation. — Mr. Massett: The Frenchman, the Exquisite, and the Yankee in Richard IIL 
 8. Song. — Mr. Massett: 'My Boyhood's Home,' from Opera of Amilie. 
 
 4. An Imitation of Madame Anna Bishop, in her Song of ' The Bunk* of Guadalquiver.' 
 
 5. Song. — ' When a child I roamed.' Words and Music by S. C. Massett 
 
 6. An Imitation of an elderly lady and German girl, who applied for the situation of soprano and 
 
 alto singers in one of the churches in Massachusetts. S. C. Massett. 
 
 part ii. 
 
 1. Song. — Mr Massett: 'When time hath bereft thee,' from Gustavns III. 
 
 2. Mr. Massett: 'Loss of the Steamship President,' by Epes Sargent. 
 
 3. Mr. Massett: ' I'm sitting on the stile, Mary,' by W. R. Dempster. 
 
 4. An Imitation of the N. T. Razor Strop Man, John Smith. 
 
 5. Ballad. — 'She wore a Wreath of Roses.' (Mr. Massett.) J. P. Knight 
 
 6. Ballad. — " List while I sing." Composed by Stephen C. Massett. 
 
 7. Yankee Imitation. — 'Deacon Jones and Seth Slope.' S. C. Massett 
 
 8. To conclude with the celebrated 
 
 ' YANKEE TOWN MEETING ; ' 
 
 In which Mr. Massett will give imitations of seven different persons, who had assembled for the 
 
 purpose of 'suppressing the press.' 
 Tickets $3 each, to be had at Dr. Robinson's, Chemist and Druggist, on the plaza; at the 
 'Parker House,' of Mr. Massett; at the office of Col J. D. Stevenson, and at the door on the night 
 of the performance. 
 
 N. B. Front seats reserved for ladies ! " 
 
 The first theatrical performance in San Francisco was a 
 representation of "The Wife" and "Charles the 2d," by a 
 small company, under the control of Messrs. Atwater & Madison, 
 who had been some time organizing a theatre, in January, 1850, 
 in the second story of a building at the rear of the old " Alta 
 California" office (then located on Washington street, about 
 midway of the plaza), known as Washington Hall. The most 
 that can be said of the exhibition is, that the performance was 
 poor and the room well filled. The genuine good taste of the 
 people, however, could not long remain satisfied with such im- 
 positions. San Francisco was leaving its embryo existence. Its 
 population of talent and education ceased their menial occupa- 
 tions, emerged from their filthy lodgings, and doffed their coarse 
 red shirts for Chesterfieldian apparel. All their wants now had 
 to be of the same luxuriant kind. The circuses no longer drew 
 
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 657 
 
 their crowds, and hence Rowe fitted his establishment on Kearny 
 street, between Clay and Sacramento streets, for stage perform- 
 ances. A company of English actors of undoubted merit, 
 opened the theatre, including Mr. and Mrs. Hambleton, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Batters, Mr. and Mrs. McCron and others. Mrs. Stark, then 
 Mrs. Kirby, soon after arrived, and appeared at this place. 
 
 In Sacramento the stage had taken the lead. Shortly after 
 the Washington Hall was opened at San Francisco, the " Eagle 
 Theatre " on Front street, was erected and continued for several 
 months. It was speedily surpassed, however, by the " Tehama 
 Theatre," under the management of Mrs. J. H. Kirby, an accom- 
 plished and talented actress, whose early exertions have done much 
 to advance the profession to its present stand in the country. 
 Mesdames Bingham, Hambleton, Kirby and Mestayer ; and 
 Messrs. Atwater, Bingham, Byers, Downie, McClosky, Stark, 
 Vinson and Zabriskie have successively appeared upon its boards. 
 The " Tehama " drew large houses until the following winter, when 
 the " Pacific" and "American" divided with it the patronage of 
 the people of Sacramento. 
 
 Meanwhile, in April, 1850, a neat little theatre (which was 
 soon after destroyed by fire) had been established in San Fran- 
 cisco, on Washington street near Montgomery, where, a portion 
 of the time, an amusing French vaudeville company performed ; 
 and on the 4th of July after, Messrs. Robinson & Evrard, gave 
 the first performance at their "Dramatic Museum" on California 
 street near Montgomery, with rather an interesting company of 
 amateur performers. In September following, the original "Jenny 
 Lind " was opened over Maguire's Parker House Saloon, Kearny 
 street near Washington. These houses were well patronized and 
 had better stock companies than are usually found in older cities. 
 At the latter, Mr. Stark, an actor of much ability, and Mrs. 
 Kirby, played a very deservedly successful engagement. During 
 the fall or winter, another small theatre was opened on Clay 
 street, near Montgomery, which, for a time, was under the 
 management of Mr. Bingham. This never became very popular. 
 This theatre, together with the "Jenny Lind" and "Dramatic 
 Museum," were destroyed by the fire of May, 1851. The latter 
 was rebuilt and again soon after burned. A wooden building 
 42 
 
658 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 was also erected on the site of the "Jenny Lind," which was also 
 reduced to ashes by the fire of 22d June, following. 
 
 Mr. Maguire then constructed the large stone "Jenny Lind 
 Theatre," now the City Hall, and opened it, October 4th, 1851. 
 Before this date the " Adelphi," a French theatre, was erected 
 on Dupont street near Clay, and in successful operation, under 
 the control of Messrs. Eobinson & Wiesenthal. It still exists 
 under the management of M. Paul. The building of the 
 " American Theatre, " on Sansome street, between Sacramento 
 and California streets, was commenced in September, 1851, and 
 opened on the 20th October, since which time it has continued 
 to give an uninterrupted series of dramatic representations. 
 
 On the 14th February, 1852, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Baker, 
 who had reached San Francisco from Philadelphia the preceding 
 week, commenced an engagement at the "Jenny Lind," ap- 
 pearing as Master Walter and Julia, in the Hunchback, and 
 played twenty-one nights to crowded and enthusiastic audiences. 
 After a sojourn of three weeks at Sacramento, they again per- 
 formed for thirty consecutive nights more, during all of which 
 time, they, and particularly Mrs. Baker, formerly Miss Alexina 
 Fisher, was the chief and only attraction, the company generally 
 being poor, and inefficiently conducted. After a second engage- 
 ment at Sacramento, Mr. Baker collected a small company, and 
 performed at Nevada, Grass Valley and Placerville, and return- 
 ing to San Francisco early in August, assumed the management 
 of the "Adelphi." During nine months Mrs. Baker played every 
 evening, except Sundays, and May, 9th, 1853, closed a season 
 which had profited the management $30,000, being all that 
 time the chief support of the theatre, and drawing crowded 
 houses, notwithstanding the opposition of the other theatres and 
 the very successful careers of Signora Elisa Biscaccianti and 
 Miss Catharine Hayes. On the 12th May, Mr. Baker took 
 charge of the " American," and for five months, with intervals from 
 other stars, his interesting and talented wife regularly appeared, 
 yet the great centre of attraction. It had been no trifling task, 
 at this period, to restore order out of the chaotic confusion of the 
 theatre in San Francisco. The drama drooped from the want 
 of industry and tact in its managers and the absence of proper 
 
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 659 
 
 discipline among their employes, the former regarding neither 
 reason nor interest, while the latter defied submission or control ; 
 and the neglect of the one to provide proper accessories, was 
 fully equalled by the imperfection of the others in the text of 
 the plays presented. This decadence in worthy attraction was 
 necessarily followed by a great diminution in the number and 
 character of the audiences. With the advent of Mr. and Mrs 
 Baker, however, commenced a new era in the California drama. 
 The generous enthusiasm which greeted the latter upon her 
 first appearance, increased with each successive performance. To 
 her was confided the task of developing the rich resources from 
 the golden mines of the old dramatists, and of enriching the 
 Pacific stage with the brightest gems of histrionic ability. 
 
 Mr. Lewis Baker, having assumed managerial duties, labored 
 with unceasing and praiseworthy assiduity to reform existing 
 abuses. He introduced a strict and severe discipline, had care- 
 ful rehearsals, and paid all needful attention to the necessary 
 accessories of the stage. Under such auspices, the citizens were 
 presented with entertainments of a refined character, and in a 
 style of excellence fully equalled to those of the best theatres in 
 New York or Philadelphia. Some idea may be formed of the 
 managerial responsibilities assumed by Mr. Baker, from the fol- 
 lowing statement of the expenses involved in the conducting of a 
 San Francisco theatre : — The rent alone amounted to $30,000 a 
 year ; the salary list, including artists, musicians, painters, car- 
 penters, &c., varied from $3,200 to $3,600 a week, without esti- 
 mating the large amount paid to stars, which has sometimes 
 exceeded $6,000 for six successive performances. The additional 
 expenses for lighting, printing, advertising, supernumeraries, 
 dresses, &c, make up an amount sufficiently large to deter any 
 one from entering rashly upon such an enterprise. 
 
 On the 2d of January, 1854, Mr. and Mrs. Baker took fare- 
 well of the California public, having succeeded in elevating the 
 character of theatrical representations from the low and confused 
 condition in which inexperienced management had kept it reduced. 
 During the eighteen months of Mr. Baker's control of the " Adel- 
 phi " and " American," the improvement in the style of entertain- 
 ment was such as to secure for him the sincere thanks and hearty 
 
660 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 support of the public. He was a young man — almost a tyro in 
 years — when he came to San Francisco. Very early in life he 
 had manifested a yearning for the theatrical profession, and 
 when his family removed to Texas, had originated a theatre at 
 Galveston. On the breaking out of the Mexican war, he was 
 connected with the two theatres at Corpus Christi, where Gen. 
 Taylor's division was stationed. He subsequently performed in 
 the northern cities, and, like his wife, had already earned a well- 
 merited reputation. As a reward for their exertions, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Baker acquired a competency in California, and are now 
 living in Philadelphia, among old friends, and enjoying life amid 
 the most pleasing associations of their youth. 
 
 In the fall of 1853, the ' ; Metropolitan," the most magnificent 
 temple of histrionic art in America, was built, and opened on 
 December 24th, by Mrs. Catherine N. Sinclair. On the 26th, 
 two evenings later, at the old " American," now eclipsed by the 
 grandeur of its greater rival, and on the point of closing, there 
 appeared one, who came friendless and unannounced to the 
 shores of the Pacific, but who was destined to play an important 
 part in theatrical affairs at this place, Miss Matilda Heron. 
 This young lady had left Philadelphia for San Francisco in com- 
 pany with Mr. George W. Lewis, her agent (a gentleman long 
 and extensively known among theatrical people), who having 
 died on the route, she accordingly landed unknowing and un- 
 known. Several gentlemen, however, having heard of her com- 
 ing, and being informed of her attainments, actively interested 
 themselves in her behalf, and succeeded in filling the old theatre 
 on the night of her appearance, despite the attraction of the 
 "Metropolitan," with its new scenery and decorations, and the per- 
 sonal appearance of its gifted proprietress, aided by Mr. James 
 E. Murdock, of Philadelphia (who had obtained great popularity 
 in California), and a very excellent stock company. Miss Heron 
 appeared as Bianca, supported by Mr. Baker, as Fazio, and was 
 greeted and sustained throughout the performance with an en- 
 thusiasm almost unequalled. Her success was unrivalled, and her 
 whole engagement, and a succeeding one at the " Metropolitan," 
 won for her an enviable reputation as an actress. The San 
 Franciscans claim the development of her rare talents. Two 
 
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 661 
 
 years before she had appeared in Philadelphia, a pupil of Mr. 
 Peter Kichings, and had since played various satisfactory engage- 
 ments in the Atlantic cities, but without creating the sensation 
 her merits deserved, to which merits alone she owed her success 
 in the far west. Performers appearing here need expect little 
 aid from claquerism. Intelligent audiences are prepared to 
 reward the meritorious, and as surely condemn the upstart. 
 The press is untrammelled ; editors are men of superior literary 
 attainment, who are not accustomed to prostitute their pens 
 for tempting rewards. Hence, theatrical criticisms are distin- 
 guished in San Francisco journals for their unbiassed justice, 
 and may be relied on as the expression of opinion of those com- 
 petent to decide. By such a test was Miss Heron tried and 
 lauded. Her chief merit was found in her perfect naturalness 
 of manner ; the total absence of those screamings, rantings, and 
 gesticulations which have grown up rank and deep-rooted weeds 
 on the dramatic field. It is this feature that causes the super- 
 ficial looker-on to regard her efforts with indifference ; that failed 
 to gain for her a merited eclat from the less critical people of the 
 East ; that excited the admiration of the Californians. It is a 
 human being that performs — not an unnatural contortion ; the 
 characters represented appear before you — the author's ideas, in- 
 terpreted and embellished by the artiste's genius. Miss Heron 
 has thus been an eminent reformer of the California stage. 
 Actors and actresses have subdued their rantings under her in- 
 influence, and adopted a more life-like style of performing. 
 Hence, the vast improvement in theatrical representations in 
 this city, even in mediocre players. Audiences have something 
 at which to listen ; attention is riveted on the play. The pea- 
 nut eaters of the upper circles, and the gentlemanly loafers of 
 the 'parquet, have been subdued into gentility ; the quiet de- 
 corum of the parlor has supplanted the noisy bustle of the circus ; 
 even riotous applause is regarded as inappropriate. For several 
 months Miss Heron followed up her brilliantly successful career, 
 and left in June on a temporary visit to her home in Philadelphia, 
 loaded with the most substantial evidences of the sincere affec- 
 tions of a host of admiring friends, and a discriminating and 
 generous public. San Franciscans regard her triumph as their 
 
662 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 own, since through them alone her merits were discovered, ac- 
 knowledged, and rewarded. 
 
 Other theatres have grown up in this city. The " San Fran- 
 cisco Hall," a neat little temple, was erected in Washington 
 street, above and near Montgomery street, early in 1853, was 
 conducted by Mrs. Sinclair, and has had some talented performers 
 on its boards. The " Olympic," another small theatre, now closed, 
 was opened in the Armory Hall building, at the corner of Wash- 
 ington and Sansome streets, in the fall of the same year. This 
 had but a very brief and sickly existence. The French popula- 
 tion have likewise another theatre, the " Union," in Commercial 
 street above Kearny, which for a short time was devoted exclu- 
 sively to the performances of that class of people. It was subse- 
 quently opened by Miss Laura Keene, who is now (July, 1854) 
 giving popular entertainments there with a very good American 
 stock company. The Germans and Chinese have each likewise 
 had places where entertainments adapted to their respective na- 
 tional tastes have been furnished. The Orientals particularly 
 have been very liberal in their support of their countrymen's 
 enterprise. Opera troupes and ballet companies, Italian, Ger- 
 man, Spanish, Mexican, French, and English have at various times 
 claimed and obtained a liberal share of the public patronage. 
 
 It is not our design to go more minutely into the history of 
 the corps dramatique. The exalted rank and large patronage 
 attending the legitimate drama in San Francisco, have deserved 
 the account we have given. In its theatres, the greatest talent 
 of the world now regularly appear, to enumerate whom, would 
 no longer belong to the characteristic features of the place, to 
 which we seek to confine ourselves. It remains, merely to men- 
 tion, in addition to those whose names have already occurred, a 
 few of the many eminent performers and dramatic pioneers in 
 the city. Among the " stars " that have visited San Francisco 
 are Mesdames Anna Bishop, Anna Thillon, Elisa Biscaccianti, 
 Lola Montez, and Misses Catherine Hayes, Susan and Kate 
 Dennin, the Rousset sisters, and Laura Keene ; Messrs. J. B. 
 Booth, James E. Murdock, and J. Hudson. The prominent stock 
 performers have been Mesdames Chapman, Evrard, Burrill, 
 Proctor, Robinson, Thorne, Waller, Booth, Celeste, Claughley, 
 
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 663 
 
 Duprez, Hambleton, Judah, Mansfield, Montague, Pelby and 
 Woodward ; Misses Carpenter, Chapman, Coad, Edmunds, Oceana 
 Fisher, Kate Gray and Julia Gould ; Messrs. Baker, Barry, 
 J. B. Booth, jr., Edwin Booth, Chapman, Collins, Coad, Evrard, 
 Hambleton, Haywood, Kent, King, McGowan, Maryatt, Samuel 
 Murdock, Proctor, Robinson, Ryer, Thome, Thompson, Venua, 
 Waller and Wilder. 
 
 The gay populace of San Francisco, however, have found 
 other sources of popular diversion than those just mentioned. 
 During 1849, '50 and '51, the torcos — bull-bates, — at the mission, 
 were largely attended. Now, in the same vicinity are two race- 
 courses, probably not surpassed by any in the world, where, espe- 
 cially on Sundays, the day usually selected for all these exhibitions, 
 the most celebrated of the fleet steeds of California arc matched 
 against each other, to the delight of interested multitudes. 
 
 Russ's Garden, a short distance from the thickly-populated 
 portion of the city, between the Mission Road and the South 
 Beach, also affords the weary citizens an opportunity of relaxa- 
 tion away from the scene of their toil. This is one of the 
 most beautiful spots and popular places of resort in the vicinity. 
 Hither celebrations, excursions, and the like rejoicings, are held 
 by societies and coteries on their various anniversaries and fite- 
 days ; while continually gay carriage loads or cavalcades, or soli- 
 tary individuals, mounted or on foot, wend their way thither and 
 amuse themselves about the pleasant grounds with games, ath- 
 letic feats, or merry feasting. In the spacious amphitheatre at 
 this place, sundry interesting public exhibitions are occasionally 
 given to amuse the crowds that here assemble. 
 
 In 1850, a company of model artists exhibited at the Parker 
 House with very poor success ; and even Dr. Collyer's company, 
 who opened rooms on a greater scale in Commercial street, re- 
 ceived no better patronage, — showing that the public taste was 
 not so vitiated as was supposed. 
 
 Balls by the various races of inhabitants, carried on according to 
 their peculiar customs, have been of constant occurrence, and are 
 now so frequent as to interest only their respective participants. 
 The German Turnvereins amuse themselves at their gymnasia — 
 while in Battery street, between California and Pine streets, a 
 
664 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 similar establishment, kept by Mr. Frank Wheeler, is provided for 
 general subscribers. A large Music Hall has been erected in Bush 
 street, near the corner of Montgomery, by Mr. Henry Meiggs, and 
 here quiet folk are entertained with concerts, oratorios, lectures, 
 fairs, and the like. The " Mercantile Library Company," " Young 
 Men's Christian Association," and other societies, at various sea- 
 sons every year, afford the literary public opportunities of listen- 
 ing to scientific, moral and other instructive discourses by emi- 
 nent speakers. 
 
 Thus do the people of San Francisco employ their leisure 
 hours. Possessed of so many opportunities of gaining wealth, 
 they freely use it in the purchase of those enjoyments which 
 relieve their minds and bodies from the harassing toil to which 
 they have been subjected in its acquirement. Thus, notwith- 
 standing the immense wear and tear of such unexampled energy 
 as is here required in any occupation, the unstinted and universal 
 use of reasonable relaxation and pleasure, enables them to retain 
 their vigor, and lead far more agreeable and useful lives than do 
 the miserable hoarders of slowly-gotten gains in other countries. 
 
Fancy Ball, California Exchange. 
 
 SOME PHASES OF SAN FRANCISCO "LIFE." 
 
 Perhaps never before in the world's history has there been ex- 
 hibited such a variety and mixture of life-scenes within the same 
 extent and among an equal number of people, as in San Fran- 
 cisco for the two or three years succeeding the discovery of gold. 
 Created by a sudden appeal to the covetousness of human na- 
 ture, and thus having drawn together a promiscuous crowd from 
 nearly all nations, it represented a new school in the wild pine- 
 woods, where all the scholars were strangers to each other, and 
 each was a pupil to all the rest, and none were teachers except 
 by example ; or a mixed camp of an army of allies, amid the 
 army-chests of the enemy, friendly relations maintained by an 
 armed neutrality. Jack Tar, after the termination of a long 
 cruise, with his prize-money in hand, never was more determined 
 upon a lark, than was a large portion of the sojourning multitude 
 of the city. Away from law, away from public opinion, away 
 
666 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 from the restraints of home, half wild with the possession of sud- 
 den and unaccustomed wealth, " On with the dance, let joy be 
 unconfined," seemed the motto best suited to the conduct of a 
 large portion of the people. The puritan became a gambler ; 
 the boy taught to consider dancing a sin, soon found his way to 
 masked balls ; monte became as familiar as the communion, and 
 the catechism was forgotten, while the champagne popped, 
 sparkled, and excited. At first it was a society composed almost 
 exclusively of males, and as a natural and inevitable consequence, 
 men deteriorated. Excitement was sought in such sources as 
 could be found. The gaming-table, with its cards and dice ; 
 the bar, with its brandy-smashes and intoxication, — these occu- 
 pied the wild and reckless, while those whose ideas of wealth 
 stopped not with the first buckskin bag of dust, sold goods at a 
 hundred times their cost, got grants of land for a song, soon to 
 be worth thousands uncounted, and spread out all their hands to 
 take in all the shore. 
 
 But soon woman began to join the anomalous crowd. Then 
 a new phase of society appeared. Then reason tottered, and 
 passion run riot. The allurements of the Cyprian contested the 
 sceptre with the faro bank ; champagne at ten dollars a bottle 
 sold as readily in certain localities, as did brandy at fifty cents a 
 glass in the saloon. Men suddenly rich, squandered more in a 
 night than until within a few months they had been able to 
 earn, or to possess, in years. Dust was plentier than pleasure, 
 pleasure more enticing than virtue. Fortune was the horse, 
 youth in the saddle, dissipation the track, and desire the spur. 
 Let none wonder that the time was the best ever made. Natur- 
 ally enough masked balls soon came in the train of women, wine, 
 and gold. Many of these ball-rooms were soon dedicated to the 
 service of Terpsichore, Cupid and Momus ; and it must be con- 
 fessed, also, that Bacchus shared no trifling portion of their devo- 
 tions. Imagine a vast hall, nearly one hundred feet square, with 
 a bar of fifty feet in length, built with an eye to tasteful archi- 
 tecture, and with a hand in the pocket, glittering in front with 
 gold-leaf, and in the rear supported by a battalion of cut-glass 
 decanters, colored glass ornamental articles, a golden eagle 
 perched above the stock of liquors and wines — the American cannot 
 
SOME PHASES OF SAN FRANCISCO "LIFE. 
 
 667 
 
 drink a cock-tail comfortably unless the "star-spangled banner" 
 float above, and the national eagle look with at least a glass-eye 
 into his potation ; — in the centre a piece of machinery, exhibiting 
 the sea in motion, tossing a laboring ship upon its bosom ; a 
 water-mill in action ; a train of cars passing a bridge; and a deer- 
 chase, hounds, horsemen, and game, all in pursuit, or flight. 
 Opposite, a full band, crowding every nook of the room with 
 sweet echoes, marches, cotillions, mazourkas, gallopades, waltzes. 
 On the third side, a cake and coffee-stand ; and behind it a fair 
 face, limber tongue, busy hands, coining dust from thirst, gal- 
 lantry, and dissipation. 
 
 It is dark, the hour nine ; the rain drizzles outside, and the 
 quaker-grey out-doors, wet, chill, mud, gloom of the rainy season, 
 drive the lonesome, the hilarious, and the dissipated to the door 
 where the ticket-taker admits the pleasure-seeker, who has de- 
 posited his umbrella in the general depot for those movable 
 roofs, and been relieved by a policeman of any dangerous 
 weapon — gold and silver excepted — which may accompany his 
 person. By the private entrance come the maskers, male and 
 female. The Spanish bandit, with his high tapering hat, orna- 
 mented with ribbons ; the gipsy, with her basket and cards ; 
 the Bloomer, bountiful in short skirts and satin-covered extremi- 
 ties ; the ardent young militaire, with a borrowed uniform and 
 sparse moustache, which requires, like swarming bees, the assist- 
 ance of a clattering tin kettle to congregate the scattered por- 
 tions ; the Swiss ballad-singers, with their hurdy-gurdy and 
 tambourine ; the flaunting Cyprian, not veiled by domino or 
 mask ; and the curious, but respectable lady, hidden by cloak 
 and false visage. There is the Frenchman in a fantastical dress ; 
 a Gallic count imitating the Yankee ; the Yankee affecting 
 " Aunty Vermont ; " and men already feeling the force of their 
 libations, affecting sobriety. 
 
 Now the band commences, the bow is drawn, the breath 
 blown, and domino and mask are whisked about into the midst 
 of the dizzy maze by the Turk who has forgotten his cimeter ; 
 the Pole who has nothing of Kosciusco or Poniatowski except 
 the tall cap et cetera ; the Vermonter imitating a courtier of 
 Charles II., and a Bed Bepublican affecting Silsbee or Dan 
 
668 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Marble. Away they whirl through the waltz, or dash along the 
 mazourka, or crash away promiscuously in the gallopade. Where 
 there are no masks exercise brings no new rose tint nor crimson 
 to the soft cheek — the rouge or carmine is too thick for that. 
 The music draws to a close and ends with a grand flourish. Off 
 to the bar and coffee stand go the maskers, the gentlemen to 
 treat, the others to be treated. So a few hours wear away. 
 The potations begin to operate, the violent seek rencontres, old 
 scores are to be settled, and new quarrels commenced. Jea- 
 lousy's eyes take a greener tinge from the bottle imp, and woman, 
 forgetting her last prerogative — gentleness — joins the ring and 
 gives point and effect to feminine oaths by the use of feminine 
 nails. Gradually the room is thinned, the first departing being 
 careful to select the finest umbrellas. And when daylight comes, 
 it finds the usual characteristics of such " banquet hall deserted." 
 Such is a slight description of the " California Exchange " in the 
 height of its ball-day glories, where in one night thousands 
 of dollars were taken for tickets, and thousands at the bar for 
 drinks. 
 
 Another scene. See yonder house. Its curtains are of the 
 purest white lace embroidered, and crimson damask. Go in. 
 All the fixtures are of a keeping, most expensive, most voluptu- 
 ous, most gorgeous, the favorite ones with the same class of hu- 
 manity, whose dress and decorations have made so significant 
 ever since the name of their city and trade, " Babylon." It is a 
 soiree night. The " lady " of the establishment has sent most po- 
 lite invitations, got up on the finest and most beautifully embossed 
 note paper, to all the principal gentlemen of the city, including 
 collector of the port, mayor, aldermen, judges of the county, and 
 members of the legislature. A splendid band of music is in at- 
 tendance. Away over the Turkey or Brussels carpet whirls the 
 politician with some sparkling beauty, as fair as frail ; and the 
 judge joins in and enjoys the dance in company with the beauti- 
 ful but lost beings whom, to-morrow, he may send to the house 
 of correction. Every thing is conducted with the utmost pro- 
 priety. Not an unbecoming word is heard, not an objectionable 
 action seen. The girls are on their good behavior, and are proud 
 once more to move and act and appear as ladies. Did you not 
 
SOME PHASES OF SAN FRANCISCO " LIFE." 
 
 669 
 
 know, you would not suspect that you were in one of those dread- 
 ful places so vividly described by Solomon, and were it not for 
 the great proportion of beauty present, you might suppose your- 
 self in a salon of upper tendom. But the dance is over ; now 
 for the supper table. Every thing within the bounds of the mar- 
 ket and the skill of the cook and confectioner, is before you. Op- 
 posite and by your side, that which nor cook nor confectioner's 
 skill have made what they are — checks where the ravages of 
 dissipation have been skilfully hidden, and eyes with pristine 
 brilliancy undimmed, or even heightened by the spirit of the 
 recent champagne. And here the illusion fades. The cham- 
 pagne alone is paid for. The soiree has cost the mistress one 
 thousand dollars, and at the supper and during the night she 
 sells twelve dozen of champagne at ten dollars a bottle ! This 
 is a literal fact, not an idea being a draft ivpon the imagination, 
 or decorated with the colors of fancy. No loafers present, but 
 the male ton ; vice hides herself for the occasion, and staid dignity 
 bends from its position to twine a few flowers of social pleasure 
 around the heads and hearts of these poor outcasts of society. 
 
 It is a dark, stormy, dismal evening of December, '49. 
 Few places save the gambling saloons are comfortable. Scarce a 
 fire or stove can be found elsewhere. The restaurant where you 
 " feed " is at best but a skeleton frame of strips of board covered 
 with " Lowells," through which the rain comes down in misty 
 particles and aggregated streams. There is no fire save in the 
 kitchen. Wood is forty dollars a cord, room is scarce, company 
 is not very select, and you go any where else for change, for soci- 
 ety, for comfort, for heat. Perhaps it is the night for your " chill," 
 the restaurant is also a bar-room, its floor is a rush mat laid upon 
 the ground, and on this in your bed of two blankets you are to 
 sleep, after the last glass of liquor has been sold, not before. So 
 you escape and go where there is at least heat, into the gambling 
 saloon. Look on. See the fever as it rages. Monte, faro, rou- 
 lette, these are its types, and the sleek, nimble-fingered gentry 
 who sit at the centre of each side of the table, are the doctors 
 who prescribe. Depletion is the prescription and human leeches 
 the remedy. The diagnosis of a cool observer would undoubtedly 
 be " golden lunacy." 
 
670 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Hear the ring of silver, the clinking of gold, the shuffling of 
 cards, the rattling of dice, the call of the gambler at his table of 
 rouge et noir, " Make your bets, gentlemen — the game is made 
 — five — eleven — seventeen — twenty — twenty-four — twenty-nine 
 — thirty-one — red wins ; " hear the band discoursing exciting 
 music, fit for better places and better company ; breathe the oft- 
 respired air which has passed through a thousand lungs, and is 
 impregnated with a hundred diseases, the odors of villainous rum, 
 and the effluvia of a furnace of cigars. See the reckless tempter 
 of fortune pile down his coin and dust on some favorite card, and 
 notice how adroitly another card is turned or dealt ; how sum by 
 sum passes from the belt and buckskin of the miner into the 
 dealer's pile, until the earnings of months have left the laborer 
 penniless. With empty pockets but a full heart, he drinks the 
 potation ordered at the gambler's expense, and rising from the 
 table walks away. To-morrow morning a dead body will be 
 found on the hill side, upon which his own hand has inflicted the 
 fatal blow. Do you ask whose is that poor senseless piece of 
 mortal frailty ? From an entrance into such a hell as the gam- 
 bler's saloon, is it so far morally to pecuniary ruin, and from that 
 to despair and suicide, that you cannot trace the course of him 
 who thus goes step by step to destruction ? That dead body sat 
 last night at the gambling table, trusted the cards, dared fortune, 
 drunk the draught of intoxication, grew wild with the dizzying 
 fumes about him — and there he is. 
 
 Another picture. It is Sunday afternoon. Service is over 
 at church and "meeting house." The Christian who went to 
 worship, and the belle whose desire was to excite admiration, 
 have returned home, the one to reflect or to read, and the other 
 to calculate possible triumphs, or to coquette. The streets are 
 full of pleasure-seekers, and lovers of nature and art, some all 
 listlessness, feeling like him in the play, " there's nothing in it," 
 others all attention, and finding interest in every thing. Sud- 
 denly from the piazza of an old adobe on the plaza arises the 
 voice of one crying in the wilderness. He " raises " a hymn in a 
 voice which would be dreadful in its power, were it not melodi- 
 ous. Hark ! You may hear the words half a mile off. The 
 city hall sends back the echo like a sounding board. You may 
 
SOME PHASES OF SAN FRANCISCO " LIFE." 671 
 
 stand at the foot of Merchant street and distinguish every sen- 
 tence : 
 
 "The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll in fire ! " 
 
 Had the vehicle spoken of really rolled over the planked streets 
 of the city, it is doubtful if the tumult of its lumbering wheels 
 could have drowned the voice of him who was thus describing in 
 thunder-like music, its advent, and the supposed dust it would 
 raise. Nothing short of the whistle of a railroad could expect to 
 make head against that tornado of musical 'praise. 
 
 That voice at once arrests attention. The loiterer turns 
 aside from his careless walk, stops, and listens. The miner 
 in his slouched hat and high boots, hears the sounds of worship, 
 recollects the day, thinks of the home and the dear ones far away, 
 and of the hours when he too worshipped with them in the old 
 church pew, in the country town, with the graves of the rude 
 forefathers of the village visible from the spot where he sat ; the 
 old elms bending gracefully beneath the weight of years and foli- 
 age over the dust of those who planted them ; and where he 
 listened to the trembling words of the gray-haired old clergyman 
 as he read, or spake from that old-fashioned pulpit, and he joins 
 the motley crowd. The loafing Mexican arouses from his reverie 
 and the smoke of his cigarette, gives an extra puff from his nos- 
 trils, throws his variegated serape over his left shoulder, leans 
 against the fence, and listens to words which he does not under- 
 stand, smokes the weed which he does understand, and thinks of 
 some padre to whom he confessed a long, long time ago. John 
 Chinaman passes along, and seeing books, and being of a literary 
 turn, ceases to jabber in the language of Confucius, joins the 
 outskirts of the company, and risks the integrity of his yard-long 
 queue among the " outside barbarians." The Malay, with his 
 red, pointed cap, stops a moment to wonder, and perhaps forgets 
 awhile the well-known trade of piracy when listening to a gospel 
 which he cannot comprehend. It is not long ere there is a 
 sufficient audience. The singing has brought together the con- 
 gregation. There is room enough for all. There are no cush- 
 ioned pews, standing room is free, and the plaza fence is picketed 
 by a continuous row of listeners. The worship progresses. 
 Prayer, singing, reading of the Scriptures, text and sermon follow. 
 
672 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 All can hear, all can see — there is no sexton nor usher, nor is 
 one needed. It is a primitive service, very earnest, and by no 
 means ridiculous. 
 
 There may be more than one opinion respecting street preach- 
 ing in cities, and even in San Francisco many condemn it. But 
 there can be but one opinion as to the sincerity of the Kev. Mr. 
 Taylor ; and probably there are few who will not admit that he 
 has exerted a very great influence upon the wandering masses, 
 recalling them often when they least expect it, to a recollection 
 of the days when they worshipped in their native villages, when 
 life was younger, and hope fresher, the thoughts purer, and the 
 heart lighter, and thus putting before their downhill wheels a trig 
 to save them from ruin. 
 
 Another scene. It is New Year's Day. God made this day 
 — there can be no dispute upon that head. You might submit 
 it to the city council, and they would not smother the remnant 
 of their religion by a denial. The Legislature at Benicia would 
 be truthful for once, and answer " aye." You might ask all San 
 Francisco, and no chairman would be needed to put it to vote, 
 no clerk to record the ballot. Nothing short of Divinity could 
 have done it. The aroma of heaven in springtime comes floating 
 upon the air. It is as bracing as the cool north-west winds which 
 kiss the bright waters of Casco Bay, as mild as the Indian sum- 
 mer which lies like a silken mantle over the landscapes of Louis- 
 iana. Italy might breathe it with a deep and delightful respira- 
 tion, and believe it that which visits Naples or the Tiber. Switz- 
 erland might feel stronger with its inspiration, and think it a 
 zephyr coming down from the glaciers*, warmed into tepidity by 
 the genial plains, while basking in the smiles and warmth of 
 spring. 
 
 There is nothing blue this day, save the skies, and every thing 
 puts on a robe of golden beauty, colored in the sunlight, and 
 bordered on the edges of the day with trimmings of stars. 
 Nature's great face wears a smile as irresistible as that of the 
 girl you love most dearly. One cannot but feel its influence, for 
 it seems spread out every where. The lowlands are alive with 
 glory. Over the hill tops the light comes and goes in flashes and 
 streams of wondrous brilliance. The lazy breezes stoop down 
 
SOME PHASES OF SAN FRANCISCO " LIFE." 673 
 
 to the laughing waters as they pass, and the amorous waves pout 
 up their moist lips to the kisses of the wooer. 
 
 On goes the day in its joyousness, full of a gusn of sentiment, 
 as if the elements themselves sympathize with human hearts, 
 and are determined to have a lark on New Year's Day. The 
 sun smiles unusually cosy from every pore of his jolly face. The 
 dull earth awakens like Eve from her first sleep, and is bathed in 
 blushes to find herself so beautiful. The bay lies around the 
 hem of our city's robe of beauty, like a spaniel at the foot of his 
 master, and the ships, resting like swans on a sea of silver, swing 
 leisurely with the tide, and like the ladies, await calls. 
 
 All maledom empties into the streets — all ladydom remains 
 at home. It is a gala day, a holiday, a day for polishing anew the 
 chain of friendship and interlocking the links of love. It is a 
 practical New Year's Day, one set apart to repair any omission 
 or error of the year which has passed. It is like the merry 
 march with which the returning funeral band spirits off the sad 
 thoughts which the recent burial excited. The old year has been 
 laid with his white beard in the tomb, and every body is haj>py to 
 enjoy the smiles of the new comer. 
 
 Oh ! it is a lovely babe — one upon which its parent may look 
 with pride, satisfaction and hope. It seems a spark struck off 
 from the great wheel of ages by the revolutions of time — one of 
 the sands in his glass changed to gold. The streets are full of 
 joy in the persons of splendidly dressed men on their tour of 
 friendship, acquaintance, or love, who seem almost to forget the 
 outdoor glories, in anticipations of those who preside over the 
 domestic hospitalities. Bright and cheering as is the sunlight 
 without, are the smiles within door, and soft as the balmy air 
 are the words breathed by the festive board. 
 
 There is pleasure in the streets and on the hills ; there is hap- 
 piness within the dwelling. Hearts swell more joyously — blood 
 flows through artery and vein with a wilder delight. Friendship 
 goes on foot, aristocracy on wheels, love on wings. Friendship 
 smiles, love sighs, snob swells. 'Tis a good time, a grand time, 
 a happy time. Old friendships grow nearer, love grows stronger, 
 snob becomes a little less stately — all harmonizing by humaniz- 
 ing. There's nothing like association. It is the sand-paper 
 43 
 
674 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 which rubs down nature's asperities, the burnisher which polishes 
 the rough surface of society, the brush which applies the last 
 varnish. 
 
 Therefore, long live the poetic and delightful custom of New 
 Year's calls. There is not a spot on earth where it could be of 
 greater service, not a region where the climate would so accord 
 with the custom. Business eats up intercourse like a cancer, 
 and isolation is to the character like salt water to the old iron of 
 the wrecked ship, corroding and rusting it. A custom which 
 causes pleasant associations and sympathies is like oil on the 
 surface of steel, keeping it bright. 'Tis the stamp on the guinea 
 of society, giving new beauty to its gold. Let New Year's Day, 
 then, be our mint to coin anew pleasant feelings, and turn into 
 double-eagles the rough bullion of life. 
 
The old School-house on Portsmouth Square. 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 The surest guarantee of the continuance of any liberal govern- 
 ment is the early and proper education of its youth. Mankind 
 are prone to lose sight of the mutability of the human race, and 
 to forget that adult life is but one of the seven stages in their 
 brief career, for all of which the world exists alike ; and that, 
 after a short cycle, each, like the pieces on the chess-board, will 
 have reached his highest post, whether he be pawn, bishop, 
 knight or queen. Popular governments, unless sustained by an 
 educated community, will change : hereditary monarchies require 
 no firmer basis than the ignorant dependence on traditionary 
 right, and the determination to endure and transmit that which 
 had been endured and transmitted. The wisdom of our own 
 successful system has recognized the necessity of a general dif- 
 fusion of education, and our youth enter manhood not to be the 
 blind followers of parvenu demagogues, but boldly and justly 
 
676 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 to determine questions of right and polity within their senate- 
 houses, and to practise those principles of politics and ethics 
 that have been inculcated at their public schools. It is an essen- 
 tial element in the happiness of every man, of whatever station, 
 to secure the welfare of his offspring, and to furnish them with 
 better implements for the task they have before them, than he 
 himself had ; and this duty the Anglo-Saxon observes beyond 
 any other. Living less for the present, than the indolent dreamer 
 pf the tropics, or the ignorant northern barbarian ; with passions 
 subservient to mind, and inclinations subordinate to will, he is 
 energetic, every where looking to the social elevation of his race, 
 and its continuance throughout the future. Even amid the wild, 
 brigandic confusion reigning on the Pacific coast, where dazzling 
 scenes and gorgeous changes embodied Aladdin's imagined splen- 
 dors ; where excitement fevered every pulse, and made of men 
 the genii doing the biddings of the mighty master ; where passion, 
 avarice and cupidity were dominant, one of the earliest measures 
 proposed, was the establishment of appropriate educational facili- 
 ties. These attempts were at first imperfect, and possessed more 
 of a private than a public character. Legislative action is always 
 slow. However anxious and ardent men may be for reform, here 
 as elsewhere, they seize the golden opportunity of power, and 
 sacrifice mutual interests to individual aggrandizement. There 
 were few children in the new State, but few wives or women, yet 
 the community was composed of men, with more of greatness of 
 mind and goodness of heart beneath the rugged coats of the 
 miner or the shaggy-haired trader in ounces, than those whom 
 the monkey-god of fashion had beautified in other lands. Hence, 
 the progress of the school system towards perfection, in this city, 
 has been unexampled, and its present successful practical work- 
 ings are subjects of the highest pride and gratulation to its in- 
 habitants. San Francisco has skipped through or over its colo- 
 nial stage, and grown from hamlet to village, from village to 
 town, and from town to city — from the little school-house in the 
 forest to the brick village building with a bell, to the orderly, 
 well arranged grammar-school, and the dignified and stately 
 university. It has burst upon the world — a new star in the fir- 
 mament of glories — the Adam of a new creation. Its history 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 677 
 
 has no centuries of toil : its stages were ephemeral. There was 
 a fierce struggle of intellect with passion — three days of battle 
 and pillage — and a glorious victory of man's high estate. Here, 
 improvements, begun elsewhere, are perfected, and that done 
 rapidly, which has been gained slowly. The schools here are not 
 inferior to the world-renowned and years-old systems of Pennsyl- 
 vania and the Eastern States. The minor details yet want much 
 of completion ; but the unanimous wish of the people has already 
 been so decidedly spoken, and men of such acknowledged talents 
 have devoted their energies to the task, that we need not fear 
 that existing defects will continue to interfere with its success. 
 
 The first American school in San Francisco, and we believe 
 in California, was a merely private enterprise. It was opened 
 by a Mr. Marston from one of the Atlantic States, in April, 1847, 
 in a small shanty which stood on the block between Broadway 
 and Pacific street, west of Dupont street. There he collected 
 some twenty or thirty pupils, whom he continued to teach for 
 almost a whole year, his patrons paying for tuition. He was not 
 remarkable for his education, and, indeed, possessed none of the 
 qualifications requisite in one of his calling. 
 
 The people of the town at length saw the necessity of some 
 public movement to secure to their children a fit education, and 
 late in 1847, they built a school-house, a representation of which 
 heads this article, on the south-west corner of Portsmouth Square, 
 fronting on Clay street where it is now joined by Brenham Place. 
 Insignificant as the building appears, it was destined to subserve 
 more useful purposes than any other that has been erected in the 
 city, and should have been preserved as one of its most valued 
 relics. Its history was almost an epitome of that of the curious 
 people who built it. Every new enterprise found here a heating 
 oven to warm the egg into successful hatching. Here churches 
 held their first meetings ; and here the first public amusements 
 were given. It was the assembly room of the early gatherings 
 of Odd-Fellows and other benevolent associations ; and a univer- 
 sal public hall for political, military, and almost every other de- 
 scription of meeting. It was dignified as a court-house under 
 Judge Almond, designated as an institute at another period, 
 and at length degraded to a police-office and a station-house. 
 
678 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Not a vestige, however, of the old relic now i-emains, and its 
 site is only recognized by the thousand cherished associations 
 that hover like spirits around its unmarked grave. 
 
 On the 21st February, 1848, a town meeting was called for 
 the election of a board of school trustees, and Dr. F. Fourgeaud, 
 Dr. J. Townsend, C. L. Ross, J. Serrine and Wm, H. Davis, 
 Esqs. were chosen. On the 3d of April following, these trustees 
 opened a school in the building just erected, under the charge of 
 Mr. Thomas Douglas, A.M., a graduate of Yale College, and an 
 experienced teacher, of high reputation. The board pledged 
 him a salary of one thousand dollars per annum, and fixed a 
 tariff of tuition to aid towards its payment ; and the town 
 council, afterwards, to make up any deficiency, " appropriated 
 to the payment of the teacher of the public school in this place, 
 two hundred dollars at the expiration of twelve months from the 
 commencement of the school." Soon after this, Mr. Marston 
 discontinued his private school, and Mr. Douglas collected some 
 forty pupils. Prior to opening the school, the trustees had 
 taken a census of the town, and ascertained that the population 
 was something over eight hundred (including Indians), of which 
 four hundred and seventy-three were males, one hundred and 
 seventy-seven females, and sixty children of suitable ages for 
 school ; the remainder being youths over sixteen and infants 
 under five years. Eight months previously the population num- 
 bered three hundred and seventy-five. 
 
 The public school prospered and increased for eight or ten 
 weeks, when it received a sudden and unforeseen check. The 
 accounts from the interior had lately been of the most favorable 
 character. Rumors of immense and rapidly acquired fortunes, 
 but above all, the exhibition of specimens of the precious oro, 
 drove the whole population to such an intensity of excitement, 
 that it resulted in a general stampede of men, women, and chil- 
 dren for the " mines,'' leaving the teacher minus pupils, minus 
 trustees and town council, and minus tuition and salary. He, 
 therefore, locked the school-house, and shouldering his pick and 
 pan, himself started for the " diggins." In the general scramble 
 for gold, the school enterprise was for a time forgotten, and the 
 education of the children, who were increasing in number by 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 679 
 
 immigration, was wholly neglected until April 23d, 1849, when 
 Rev. Albert Williams, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 obtained the use of the public school-house, and opened a pri- 
 vate school, charging tuition. He gathered some twenty- five 
 pupils, and continued teaching until September 20th, when, on 
 account of the increased demand upon his ministerial services, 
 the school was suspended. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1849, Mr. J. C. Pelton arrived from 
 Massachusetts, and on December 26th opened a school with three 
 pupils in the Baptist Church, on Washington street, which was 
 generously furnished to him by that society, free of rent. He 
 fitted up the church with the necessary writing tables at his own 
 expense, made no charge, but, for several months depended upon 
 voluntary subscriptions and donations, and the profits on the 
 sale of school books (a lot of which he had brought with him and 
 which he furnished to the pupils), for his compensation, and that 
 of Mrs. Pelton, who assisted him. In the spring of 1850, he 
 applied to the city council for relief, and from that time until he 
 closed his school late in the summer of 1851, his services and 
 those of his wife were recompensed from the city treasury by a 
 salary of $500 per month. This was at one time the only 
 school in the city, and numbered one hundred and fifty pupils in 
 regular attendance, and as it was chiefly supported from the 
 public funds, was called a public school, although the city coun- 
 cil had nothing to do with its organization or management. In 
 1850, the original public school-house on Portsmouth Square was 
 Vandalised. The only monument of the early educational taste 
 and enterprise of the toivn was demolished by order of the city, 
 on the ground that the old building marred the beauty of the 
 plaza, which, by the by, has to this day been used as a public 
 corral foi the accommodation and sale of cattle and horses. 
 
 In the mean time several other schools were started, among 
 them Mr. Osborn's Select School, which was particularly patron- 
 ized by the Presbyterian Church ; Rev. Mr. Preveaux's San 
 Francisco Academy, under the management of persons belong- 
 ing to the Baptist Church ; Dr. Ver Mehr's Episcopal Parish 
 School ; and several small primary schools in different portions of 
 the city. 
 
680 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 In June, 1850, Col. T. J. Nevins, then the agent of the 
 American Tract Society for this coast, applied to Messrs. Melius 
 & Howard, and obtained the free use of a building in Happy 
 Valley near where Mission and Second streets now intersect, for 
 
 Col. T. J. Nevins, first Superintendent of Public-Schools. 
 
 school purposes, employing Mr. Samuel Newton, from Connec- 
 ticut, as teacher, who opened, July 13th, and conducted a school 
 a few months, until he left for the east, when his place was, for 
 a short time, supplied first by Mr. Lewellyn Rogers, a young gen- 
 tleman, and subsequently by Mr. Cooley and Mr. Hyde, who took 
 charge of it, until the spring or summer of 1851, at which time 
 it was suspended. This school was originally supported chiefly 
 by voluntary contributions, but near its close the common council 
 voted an appropriation for the relief of the teachers. It was 
 therefore called the "Happy Valley Public School." From a 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 681 
 
 small beginning it had increased to nearly two hundred pupils, 
 and was the foundation of the school afterwards established in 
 the same building, under the Free School Ordinance. In Jan- 
 uary, 1851, Col. Nevins procured a fifty-vara lot, at Spring 
 Valley, on the Presidio Road, and erected, principally at private 
 expense, a large and convenient building, employed a teacher, 
 and opened a free school, which during the first quarter was sus- 
 tained wholly by voluntary contribution. A small tuition fee 
 was afterwards paid by the patrons of the school until the pas- 
 sage of the ordinance above referred to, when the house and lot 
 was leased to the city for free school purposes, for ninety-nine 
 years, for a rent of less than seven hundred dollars for the whole 
 time, being about fifty-seven cents per month. The situation is 
 delightful, being shaded by a grove of evergreens, on a magnifi- 
 cent road, and sufficiently removed from the noise and bustle of 
 the living mass, to prevent their interference with useful study. 
 Until the spring of 1854, it was the only school-house owned by 
 the city. All the other buildings occupied for public educational 
 purposes were subject to a ruinous monthly rent. 
 
 So soon as the city government had been fully organized and 
 put in harmonious operation, measures were adopted for the 
 establishment of a better system of popular instruction. In the 
 summer of 1851, the boards of aldermen appointed a committee 
 on education, at whose request Col. Nevins prepared a bill for 
 " the establishment, regulation, and support of free common 
 schools in the city," which without alteration, was passed by the 
 common council, and became a law on the 25th of September 
 following. This ordinance divides the city into seven school dis- 
 tricts, and provides for the erection and establishment of a free 
 school in each district, making these schools public and free to 
 all children and youths between the ages of four and eighteen 
 years, within the respective districts, and forbids in their control 
 all sectarian influence or interference. It makes provision for 
 raising a " Common School Fund," and for the proper employ- 
 ment of the same ; for the annual election by the common coun- 
 cil, of a board of education, to consist of one alderman, one 
 assistant alderman, two citizens, and the mayor, who is ex officio 
 a member and the president of the board ; and for the regular 
 
682 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 tion of salaries and other expenditures. It gives to the board 
 of education the whole charge of the public schools, and em- 
 powers them to elect a superintendent of the schools, and erect 
 or purchase necessary buildings for school purposes ; details the 
 duties of the superintendent, who is the general executive officer 
 and clerk of the board of education ; constitutes the superin- 
 tendent and any two members of the board, a committee for the 
 examination of teachers, who cannot be employed until examined 
 by such a committee ; exacts a quarterly report from the super- 
 intendent to the board, and an annual report from the board 
 to the common council, of the condition of the schools ; and 
 requires a quarterly meeting of the superintendent and teachers, 
 to examine and discuss the best methods of imparting instruc- 
 tion and of conducting the schools to the greatest advantage. 
 
 In accordance with the school ordinance, of which the fore- 
 going are a few of its many excellent provisions, the common 
 council, early in October 1851, elected by joint ballot, a board 
 of education, consisting of Hon. Charles J. Brenham, Alderman 
 Charles L. Ross, Assistant Alderman Joseph F. Atwill, General 
 John Wilson, and Henry E. Lincoln, Esq., who, on the 21st of 
 October, appointed Colonel T. J. Nevins superintendent of the 
 schools and clerk of the board. 
 
 At this time the city had no school-house accommodations 
 on rent or otherwise. The first duty of the superintendent, 
 therefore, was to procure and fit up buildings in suitable loca- 
 tions, an undertaking of great labor and difficulty. Every build- 
 ing was occupied, and no funds were provided for any expense 
 beyond the rents, temporary accommodations and salaries. After 
 considerable necessary delay, these obstacles were overcome, and 
 schools opened to the public. The situations and number of 
 schools, teachers, etc., at the close of the tenth quarter, May 
 1st, 1854, were as follows : — 
 
 District No. 1, Rincon Point. — Established January 8th, 1852. Located 
 corner of First and Folsom streets. Comprising a Primary and Grammar 
 School. Teachers: — Mr. J. Sweet and Miss Rebecca W. Foster. 
 
 District No. 2. Happy Valley. — November 17th, 1851. Corner of Bush 
 and Stockton streets. Primary and Grammar. Teachers : — Mr. Jas. Denman, 
 Miss Anna E. Sandford, Mrs. E. Wright. Mrs. J. A. Hazleton, and Miss 
 Kennedy. 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 683 
 
 District No. 3, Central— December 22d, 1852. Washington street, 
 between Stockton and Dupont streets. Primary and Grammar. Teachers: — 
 Air. E. EL Holmes, Miss A. C. Park. Miss Harriet A. Hancke. and Miss Mary 
 S. Haynes. 
 
 District No. 4, Clark's Point. — June 7th. 1852. Corner of Broadway 
 and Montgomery street. Primary and Grammar. Teachers : — Mr. Ahira 
 Holmes. Miss Sophronia Allyne. and Miss E. A. Pomeroy. 
 
 District No. 5, North Beach. — November 19th, 1851. Washington 
 Square. Primary and Grammar. Teachers: — Mr. H. P. Carlton and Mrs. 
 Olive P. Cudworth. 
 
 District No. 6, Spring Valley. — February 9th, 1852. Mixed School. 
 Teacher: — Mr. Joseph C. Morrill. 
 
 District No. 7. Mission Dolores. — May 10th, 1852. Mixed. Teacher:— 
 Miss Clara B. Walbridge. 
 
 The following teachers have been from time to time employed in the schools 
 and left by resignation : — Miss Mary S. Libby, Miss I. II. Hudson. Mrs. S. A. 
 Hazlcton, Mrs. E. Hyde. Mr. Joel H. Tracey, Mr. F. E. Jones. Mrs. E. W. 
 Baldwin. Miss Gertrude Brown. Mr. Silas Weston, Mr. W. H. O'Grady. Mr. 
 Asa W. Cole. Mr. Alfred Rix, Miss Marietta Chadsey. Miss Helen M. Allyne. 
 Miss E. Durgin. Dr. Stillman Holmes. Miss Marion Bain, Miss Clara M. 
 Silsbee, Miss A. W. Mil bury, and Sefior Jose Parra, teacher of Spanish. 
 
 These schools have hitherto been supported solely by city 
 taxation, and the whole expense incurred to the date (May 1854), 
 independent of the cost of building new school-houses, has been 
 about §75,000, which has been expended in rents, the fitting up 
 of proper houses, salaries and incidental expenses. Male teachers 
 receive §150 per month ; females, §100. During the first year, 
 the superintendent was paid §1200 per year, but since then .his 
 salary has been §2400. 
 
 On the 1st of February, 1852, the superintendent made his 
 first quarterly report, from which it appeared that 485 pupils had 
 attended the five schools then organized. Nine months after- 
 wards, at the end of the first school year (Nov. 1st 1852), there 
 were 791 at school, while the census stated the number residing 
 in the city, between the ages of four and eighteen, to be 2050 
 By August 1st, 1853, the end of the seventh quarter, the pupils 
 had increased to 1364, and at the end of the second year (Nov. 
 1st, 1853), there were 1399 at school, the whole number of 
 children in the city being 2730. In the beginning of the ensu- 
 ing year, the whole attendance at all the schools amounted only 
 *i 1 178. This decrease was owino- partly to its b«ing the rainy 
 
684 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 season, and partly to the want of rooms sufficiently large to accom- 
 modate the children. This latter difficulty is now being rapidly 
 removed. Mr. William H. O'Grady, who succeeded Col. Nevins 
 as superintendent in Oct. 1853, in his report of the ninth quarter, 
 ending February 1st, 1854, gave the number of scholars to be 
 1453, while the number of children in the city of suitable ages 
 for the schools had increased to more than 3000. At the close 
 of the tenth quarter, May 1st, 1854, there were in actual attend- 
 ance, 1574 scholars, of whom 901 were boys, and 673 girls, an 
 increase of 120 over the last quarter. 
 
 In September, 1852, the superintendent selected and pro- 
 cured to be reserved by the commissioners of the funded debt, 
 from auction sale of city property, the following school sites, 
 which, November 4th following, were set apart by an ordinance 
 of the common council for school purposes ; viz., 100-vara lots, 
 Nos. 128, corner of Market and Fifth streets ; 174, corner of 
 Harrison and Fourth streets ; 258, corner of Harris and Folsom 
 streets ; and 50-vara lots Nos. 301, corner of Bush and Stockton 
 streets ; 345, corner of California and Mason streets ; 462, corner 
 of Kearny and Filbert streets ; 663, corner of Taylor and Vallejo 
 streets ; 695, corner of Francisco and Stockton streets ; and 732, 
 corner of Harrison and Fremont streets. 
 
 On school lot No. 301 a fine two-story brick building, capable 
 of seating three hundred and thirty pupils, has been greeted at 
 a cost of $21,000, and was formally dedicated, June 12th, 1854. 
 This school was heretofore held in the house on Bush street be- 
 tween Montgomery and Sansome streets, and is, in fact, the continu- 
 ance of the old Happy Valley School, which was made a part of the 
 public school system in 1851, and of which Mr. Denman was the 
 first and is yet the teacher. The foundation of a new and large 
 school-house, capable of accommodating six hundred children, 
 has been laid on Telegraph Hill, in the 4th district. Another 
 has been commenced at the corner of Stockton and Francisco 
 streets, on lot No. 695, in the 5th district ; and it is intended 
 to erect one on Rincon Point in the 1st district, one in the 3d 
 district, and probably a second one in the 2d district midway be- 
 tween the Rincon and the school just completed. Ere long there 
 will be no lack of well constructed and well situated buildings 
 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 685 
 
 for the children to meet in, and then a much larger attendance 
 may he expected. Squatters on lots Nos. 663 and 301 have 
 occasioned much trouble and perplexity, and it is probable that 
 school sites for the other buildings will have to be purchased, 
 owing to these incumbrances on the property originally granted 
 by the city. 
 
 Besides the seven public schools, there are in San Francisco, 
 twenty-seven private schools, with an attendance of 947 pupils, 
 of whom 404 are boys, and 543 girls, and who are under the 
 direction of 44 teachers. The aggregate number of schools in 
 the city is now 34 ; the whole number of teachers 62, 20 being 
 male, and 42 female ; and the total number of scholars, 1305 
 boys and 1216 girls, or in all 2521, about seventy per cent, of 
 all the children over four years of age in the place. In five of 
 these schools, the ancient and modern languages, higher mathe- 
 matics, philosophy, etc., are taught. One of these was started 
 three years ago by Mr. Prevaux, as the San Francisco Academy, 
 with but two pupils, and now numbers sixty, and is called the 
 English and Classical High School. In May, 1854, the friends 
 of the school dedicated a new building, erected on the site of the 
 old one, in Powell street, south of Jackson, which was the first 
 substantial structure built in this city expressly for educational 
 purposes. Mr. F. E. Prevaux, A. M., Prof. A. J. Segueria, Mrs. 
 I. H. Purkitt, Miss H. R. Barlow, Miss S. L. Larkin, and Miss 
 W. E. Stowe are its teachers. 
 
 In February, 1853, the board of education, at the superin- 
 tendent's suggestion, adopted a resolution requesting the common 
 council to provide for raising the sum of $100,000, by loan, to 
 purchase additional school lots and erect and furnish the requi- 
 site number of convenient and substantial school-houses. Both 
 boards passed the resolution in September following, and issued 
 proposals for effecting the loan. The superintendent and board 
 of education have at various times within the last two years, 
 suggested to the common council the necessity of establishing a 
 Central High School, with a Female Seminary department, for 
 advanced pupils of either sex, and an asylum or House of Refuge 
 for the vagrant boys that prowl about the streets. No legisla- 
 tive action has yet been taken ; but it is probable that the grow- 
 
686 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ing importance of the measure will soon secure the necessary- 
 movements of the council. 
 
 The floating character of the population has hitherto much 
 embarrassed the public-school enterprise. But few pupils are 
 now in attendance who belonged to the schools a year ago. 
 Some have returned to their eastern homes ; others have removed 
 to the interior ; and not a few have been sent abroad to complete 
 their educations, for want of the high school or collegiate depart- 
 ment here. Those who have steadily attended, have made rapid 
 and commendable improvement. Their teachers are proficient, 
 liberal, benevolent, zealous and indefatigable in the discharge of 
 their duties. The climate is the most salubrious in the world, 
 and well adapted for the highest mental exertion and proficiency. 
 The school-bell now echoes through the streets of the busy city, 
 and the astonished stranger meets groups of bright and smiling 
 faces merrily trudging to their daily tasks, and ere long may 
 listen to learned professors expounding to classes of intelligent 
 students, art, literature and science as completely and perfectly 
 as can be heard in the most time-honored institutions of the 
 world. 
 
First Presbyterian Church. 
 
 CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 We have gazed so long on the moral turpitude of the San Fran- 
 ciscans, that both eye and mind would turn away pained if 
 they could dwell on no more pleasant sights. It would be a 
 sad necessity to have to think that so much of exalted in- 
 tellect, unexampled energy, and toilsome industry, had labored 
 only to furnish the pabulum for voluptuous and unbridled pas- 
 sion ; sadder that our country's fair fame should be marred by 
 nourishing in the midst of her sister cities one so favored in 
 beauty, and honored in rank, yet whose white bosom was crim- 
 soned with crime. Happily, the long record of vice and immorality 
 (the black pages of our diary) lias a bright and noble counter- 
 part, like the gold-dust among the muddy atoms of our own 
 river-beds, that redeems our character from wholesale condemna- 
 tion. Hitherto we have said but little concerning religious 
 
688 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 enterprises or observances in this portion of the country since the 
 missions of the Jesuits, which had gradually, and almost entirely, 
 been neglected and discontinued, so that when the place subse- 
 quently became of note, there was little of good left to restrain 
 those evil inclinations that spring up, a plentiful crop, whereso- 
 ever the god of wealth scatters his golden seed. Later still, 
 when the adventurous flocked to the shrine of that deity, few 
 could be expected among them who would tarry to listen to the 
 teachings of a plainer and poorer master. Very early in its his- 
 tory, however, there were men in the community whose sterling 
 worth and tipright examples combatted the dangerous allure- 
 ments surrounding them ; and ever since, the field has been filled 
 with honest laborers in the good cause, who now are gladly reap- 
 ing what they sowed with the sweat of their brows. 
 
 In October, 1848, Rev. T. D wight Hunt, who until the 
 summer previous had been in the service of the American Board 
 of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, arrived in San Francisco 
 from the Sandwich Islands, and was the first Protestant clergy- 
 man in California. The town had then an almost unenviable 
 notoriety for wickedness, and its reputation at the Islands was 
 such that any attempt at reforming it was deemed wild and 
 foolish. Mr. Hunt was, however, welcomed with a cordiality 
 that proved that all who dwelt on American soil had not forgot- 
 ten, or lost sight of American institutions. Three days after his 
 arrival, he was formally invited by the prominent citizens of the 
 place, of every religious persuasion, to reside among them, and 
 act as chaplain of the town for one year, dating from November 
 1st, 1848. A salary of $2500 was voted at the public meeting 
 as compensation for such services, and was all promptly sub- 
 scribed, and paid in quarterly instalments. Thus, at the very 
 outset of religious enterprise on this coast was exhibited that 
 generous liberality that has ever been a characteristic of its 
 people. Mr. Hunt entered at once on his labors. The school- 
 house on the plaza was appropriated by the town as the place of 
 public worship, and services were at once held in it at 11 o'clock, 
 A. M., and 1\, p. St., of every Sabbath. The attendance at both 
 hours was such on the very first meeting as afforded the most 
 ample encouragement. Soon the accommodations were alto- 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 689 
 
 gether too limited. It was not a month before listeners stood at 
 the doors and windows. The people eagerly testified their joy 
 and gratitude at the presence of an ordained minister of the 
 gospel among them, to perform those rites, which, except in 
 the efforts of a few individuals, had been unheard since they left 
 their far-off homes. Captain Thomas, of the English brig 
 " Laura Ann," then in port, had for two or three Sabbaths been 
 reading the service of the Episcopal church and a sermon to a 
 few whom his example had induced to public worship. Pre- 
 viously, a Mr. Anthony, a Methodist, had once or twice addressed 
 some of the people, who had been called together by public 
 notice. A prayer-meeting had been held for several months 
 before the discovery of the gold by two or three members of dif- 
 ferent churches, in the counting-house of a pious merchant, 
 among whom was Mr. Thomas Douglas, of New London, Con., 
 who subsequently taught the public-school on the plaza. But 
 beyond these, and perhaps a missionary, who had touched here 
 on his way to Oregon, or a chaplain of the army or navy, who 
 may have once or twice held public service, there had been 
 nothing of the kind prior to Mr. Hunt's arrival. One of the ear- 
 liest results of this gentleman's labors was the more general 
 observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest. Many who had 
 opened their stores as on other days, closed them, and the ex- 
 ample shamed some whom it did not otherwise influence. On 
 the first Sunday in January, 1849, the first sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper was administered to twelve communicants of five 
 or six different denominations. The scene was a rare and novel 
 one. Men and women gathered together to do homage to their 
 common Maker, and thought not of cavilling about creeds and 
 forms ; but forgot sectarian jealousies in the promptings of that 
 innate spirit through which they sought to do what was right 
 and consistent with those dictates of honor and justice that 
 made- them men above brutes. Despite all its vices, this city has 
 one proud boast over more puritanic communities, that its people 
 have always been ready to render unto every man his own, and 
 to aid their suffering fellows, unasked, and unasking whether 
 they be Christian or Jew, Catholic or Protestant, Pagan or Be- 
 liever. 
 
 44 
 
690 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 For about four months Mr. Hunt was alone in the State, 
 until the steamship California, — which reached San Francisco 
 February 28th, 1849, — brought four missionaries from New York, 
 who soon seconded his endeavors ; viz., Rev. 0. C. Wheeler, a 
 Baptist, who located in San Francisco, but is now at Sacra- 
 mento ; Eev. Sylvester Woodbridge, an old-school Presbyterian, 
 who proceeded to and still resides at Benicia, where he orga- 
 nized the first church in the State ; Rev. J. W. Douglass, new- 
 school Presbyterian, who first resided at San Jose, but now edits 
 and publishes " The Pacific," a religious paper, in San Fran- 
 cisco ; and Rev. S. H. Willey, of the same persuasion as the 
 latter, who landed at Monterey, and remained there a year and 
 a half, having officiated as chaplain to the convention that 
 framed the State Constitution. He was the second clergyman 
 in the State, having left the steamer on the 23d of February. 
 
 During the ensuing spring and summer other ministers ar- 
 rived. Rev. Albert Williams, who had reached the city in the 
 steamship Oregon, on the 1st of April, 1849, after preaching a 
 few times in the public school-house on the plaza, organized on 
 the 20th of May the first Protestant ecclesiastical society in the 
 city, and second in the State only to that at Benicia. This was 
 the " First Presbyterian Church," and it had originally but six 
 members ; viz., W. W. Caldwell, from the Second Presbyterian 
 Church, at Newburyport, Mass. ; Dr. George F. Turner, of the 
 Missionary Church, at Mackinaw, Mich. ; Frederick Billings, of 
 the First Congregational Church, at Woodstock, Vt. ; Sarah B. 
 Gillespie, of the Presbyterian Missionary Church, at Macao, China ; 
 Margaret A. Geary, of the Presbyterian Church, at Johnstown, 
 Pa. ; and Ann Hodghton, of the Missionary Church, at Valpa- 
 raiso, Chili. The first named two were elders. Messrs. Bezer Sim- 
 mons, Elihu Woodruff and Hiram Grimes were the first trustees. 
 
 This little congregation selected a lot as the site of then- 
 place of worship, on the west side of Dupont street, between Pa- 
 cific street and Broadway, upon which they erected a large tent, 
 which had been the marquee of a military company in Boston ; 
 and in it during the remainder of the dry season of 1849, they 
 statedly held their meetings. It was plainly, but neatly fur- 
 nished with matting, pulpit, seats and seraphine, and afforded 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 691 
 
 accommodations for about two hundred persons. In the summer 
 of 1849, Mr. Alfred DeWitt, a member pf the congregation, 
 very generously, upon his personal responsibility, ordered for its 
 use a church edifice from New York. The correspondents and 
 
 Presbyterian Church, destroyed by fire June 22d, 1851. 
 
 friends of Mr. DeWitt assumed the labor of procuring the plan 
 and execution of the building ; and by their own donations, 
 jointly with an appropriation from the funds of the Church Ex- 
 tension Committee of the General Assembly, they forwarded it 
 entire in its materials and work, including pulpit, seats, lamps, 
 and a fine-toned bell, as a donation, exclusive of the freight, to 
 the congregation. It was designed by J. Coleman Hart, archi- 
 tect, of New York, and was of the early Gothic style of archi- 
 tecture. It was thirty-five feet wide, by seventy-five feet in 
 
692 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 depth, with a vestibule of eleven feet in front, and could seat 
 eight hundred persons. Pending its arrival, a period of about 
 one year, the congregation worshipped for the most part in its 
 tent on Dupont street, and in the superior court-room (city-hall, 
 corner of Pacific and Kearny streets), and the adjoining council- 
 chamber, into which a communication had been opened to accom- 
 modate the increased number of members. On the arrival of the 
 building, in the fall of 1850, the present site on the west side 
 of Stockton street, near the corner of Broadway, was secured 
 and the church erected ; the whole expense, including lot and 
 freight, being about sixteen thousand dollars. 
 
 On Sunday, January 19th, 1851, the church was dedicated 
 in the presence of a crowded auditory, by Rev. Albert Williams, 
 its pastor, assisted by Rev. Messrs. Prevaux and Hinds. A re- 
 markable prosperity attended the society during the time of its 
 occupancy of that church edifice ; but five months only were 
 permitted to the congregation to remain in " its holy and beau- 
 tiful house." The sixth great fire, June 22d, 1851, totally 
 destroyed the building ; and in that sweeping desolation, which 
 involved very many of the citizens in extreme losses, its members 
 suffered heavily, and were much scattered by the overwhelming 
 calamity. In this emergency they availed themselves of the best 
 accommodations which could be had at the time, in the room 
 occupied by the superior court, in the St. Francis Hotel, where 
 they regularly worshipped until the present church, a plain and 
 unpretending building, was erected and ready for use (Sunday, 
 October 12th, 1851), on the site of the first edifice, and designed 
 only as a temporary structure. The society has rapidly recovered 
 its strength, and has enrolled at present one hundred and sixty- 
 seven communicants ; and the Sabbath-school, which from the 
 time of its formation has been connected with it, numbers one 
 hundred and fifty teachers and pupils in usual attendance. 
 
 Although this was the first society organized, it had not the 
 first building erected in San Francisco for religious worship. 
 Rev. 0. C. Wheeler, one of the passengers in the " California," 
 in February, 1849, organized on the 24th of June following, the 
 "First Baptist Church" of the city; and shortly afterwards 
 they erected a spacious and commodious building in Washington 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 693 
 
 street, between Dupont and Stockton streets. The society has 
 grown as large and influential as any in the city, and has a 
 numerously attended Sabbath-school and Bible-class attached to 
 it. On the departure of its originator for Sacramento, Kev. B. 
 
 Present Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Brierly was appointed their pastor, and still conducts divine 
 worship. A second church of this persuasion, and almost as 
 numerously attended, has been established in Pine street, near 
 Montgomery, under the pastoral charge of Rev. Win. Rollinson. 
 
 Mr. Hunt, of whose early labors we have already spoken, 
 completed the organization of a society, the " First Congrega- 
 tional Church," in July, 1849, which at present meets for divine 
 service at the corner of Dupont and California streets. This 
 was the third in point of date, and the fourth sprang into exist- 
 ence in the same month. The latter was the Trinity Church, 
 Episcopalian, organized by the Rev. S. F. Mines, who subse- 
 
694 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 quently died in 1852, the only clergyman who has ever deceased 
 in this city. This society has lately increased in size, and ranks 
 among the most prominent in the city. Its building is adjacent 
 to the Second Baptist Church, in Pine street, between Mont- 
 gomery and Kearny streets. Rev. Dr. Wyatt is the present 
 pastor. 
 
 The next of the early religious pioneers, whose zealous labors 
 have raised this city to the rank of a Christian community, was 
 the Rev. Dr. Ver Mehr, the first missionary sent by the Protes- 
 tant Episcopal Church to California. This gentleman arrived in 
 San Francisco in September, 1849, and preached his first sermon 
 in the American Hotel, now the State Marine Hospital, on 
 Stockton street. During three months he officiated in Mr. Frank 
 Ward's, afterwards Mr. George Plume's residence, at the corner 
 of Greene and Stockton streets. Meanwhile, a subscription list 
 had been filled to the amount of more than six thousand dollars 
 for the erection of a chapel. A fifty-vara lot, for one year rent 
 free, was given by Mr. James C. Ward, on which Grace Chapel 
 was opened, Sunday, December 30th, 1849 (a very plain build- 
 ing, costing, however, eight thousand dollars), at the corner of 
 Powell and John streets, which has since been converted into 
 the private residence of Mr. H. B. Truett. 
 
 In April, 1850, at a meeting of the congregation presided 
 over by Mr. W. Burgoyne, "Grace Parish" was regularly orga- 
 nized, Col. E. Bryant and Col. D. E. Turner being appointed 
 first wardens. The missionary, Rev. Dr. Ver Mehr, was called 
 to the rectorship. Towards the end of the same year, the con- 
 gregation became too crowded, and it was contemplated to build 
 a larger church. The whole fifty-vara lot was purchased, and a 
 contract made with Mr. G. L. Murdock to erect a substantial 
 building, which was progressing, when the fire of May, 1851, 
 arrested further subscriptions. The church, however, was nearly 
 completed, when the June fire swept away the whole neighbor- 
 hood ; and it was only saved with great difficulty and unusual 
 exertions. Finally, July 19th, 1851, it was opened to a crowded 
 congregation. To pay part of its indebtedness, a sacred concert 
 was given in February, 1852, by the Sanyer-bund ; and a second 
 one in the same year, by the talented Signora Elisa Biscaccianti, 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 695 
 
 who, in December, sang for the same object, the Stabat Mater 
 of Kossini, which was the first oratorio ever performed in San 
 Francisco. The debt was further discharged in 1853, by the 
 sale of the remainder of the fifty-vara lot, not occupied by the 
 church and parsonage. Dr. Ver Mehr, having established a fe- 
 male seminary at Sonoma, found it necessary, in February, 1854, 
 to resign the principal charge of the church to the Right Rev. 
 Bishop Kip, remaining himself as an assistant. A third Epis- 
 copal Church (Christ's Church) now worships in a room over 
 the post-office, under guidance of Rev. John Morgan, rector. 
 
 The summer of 1849 had brought still others, who were no 
 less ardent in their endeavors to reform the city. Among them 
 were the Rev. J. A. Benton, Congregationalist, who located at 
 Sacramento ; and the Rev. William Taylor, Methodist, whose 
 untiring exertions in behalf of the religious cause have accom- 
 plished much of the good that has been done. This gentleman 
 is pastor of the " Seamen's Bethel," a Methodist Episcopal 
 Church ; but in addition to his labors there, he preaches regularly 
 every Sabbath afternoon to large congregations that assemble in 
 Portsmouth Square. These latter meetings are universally con- 
 ducted with the utmost propriety, and their results have been 
 exceedingly beneficial. Probably no man in modern times has 
 followed up the practice of out-door preaching so successfully 
 and to so great advantage, as Mr. Taylor, whose unremitting 
 zeal and religious deportment have gained for him the esteem 
 and admiration of the entire San Francisco community. 
 
 Early in 1850, a society of Unitarians held divine services 
 every Sunday in Robinson & Evrard's Dramatic Museum, in 
 California street ; and on July 17th, 1853, the same denomina- 
 tion opened a very handsome church on Stockton street, between 
 Clay and Sacramento streets, of which Rev. Dr. F. T. Gray 
 was pastor, for about one year, when he removed to the Eastern 
 States. At the dedication of this church, five ministers of three 
 different denominations sat in the pulpit. How much better 
 would it be if divines elsewhere should imitate the truly religious 
 spirit that actuates ministers here in their practice and preach- 
 ing of the gospel ! Their freedom from sectarian rancor has con- 
 tributed as much as any thing to their wonderful success. People 
 
696 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 are more disposed to listen where they can hear something be- 
 sides abuse of contrary beliefs. 
 
 The southern part of the city, in the beginning of 1850, at- 
 tracted the attention of many Christian peojde as a field de- 
 manding religious effort. Along the beach, from the intersection 
 of Market and First streets to the Rincon, numerous families 
 were residing in temporary houses and tents. Many people were 
 employed in this section of the city in various branches of busi- 
 ness, and throughout the neighborhood there was a large number 
 of children. Of the older population few went to any place of 
 divine worship on the Sabbath, while the greater number, both 
 old and young, passed the day in frivolous employments at 
 
 home, or in riding, walking, or hunting game among the hills. 
 These facts, and the prospective growth of this portion of San 
 Francisco, seemed to establish the necessity of erecting a church 
 in the vicinity ; and, accordingly, after several preliminary meet- 
 ings, the " Howard Street Presbyterian Church " was organized 
 on the 15th of September, with six members ; and a temporary 
 place for worship and Sabbath-school secured. Subsequently a 
 lot was presented to the congregation by Mr. Win. D. M. Howard, 
 and a building capable of seating four hundred persons com- 
 menced in February, 1851 ; and dedicated on Sunday, June 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 697 
 
 15th, following. Its board of trustees consisted of Major A. B. 
 Eaton, Henry Haight, Wm. H. Dow, Capt. W. A. Cheever, 
 D. N. Nawley and J. S. Bacon. Its pastor was Rev. S. H. 
 Willey, who had left Monterey, where we have already noticed 
 his arrival as being that of the second Protestant minister in the 
 State. 
 
 These were the earliest efforts made in San Francisco for the 
 extension of a purer and holier philosophy over the riot rampant 
 spirit that had so firmly seized upon the place. Now the city is 
 full of societies, though as yet but few permanent structures 
 have been erected. Still, it is a matter of gratulation that so 
 much has been accomplished, and the self-sacrificing efforts of 
 the clergymen who immigrated here cannot be too highly esti- 
 mated. On the 9th of June, 1851 (the festival of the Pen- 
 tecost), Rev. John Maginnis, curate of the diocese of Monte- 
 re)'', founded a Catholic church, and held divine service every 
 Sunday for three months, in a house rented for the purpose, 
 at the corner of Third and Jesse streets ; and on the first Sun- 
 day in September, the building, known as St. Patrick's Church, 
 in Happy Valley, fronting on Market street, between Second 
 and Third streets, was opened for worship. The congregation 
 has increased so rapidly that a new building is already designed. 
 Attached to it is a flourishing school and orphan asylum, under 
 the charge of five Sisters of Charity (superintended by Sister 
 Frances Assisium McEnnis), a branch of the house of St. Joseph, 
 near Emmetsburg, Md. There are two other Catholic churches 
 in the city ; one in Vallejo street, between Dupont and Stockton 
 streets, in which services are conducted by the Rt. Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Joseph Allemany and Father Liberea, vicar-general ; 
 and one at the Mission de Dolores, of which Rev. E. O'Connell is 
 pastor. All of these are largely attended. Services are held in 
 English, French and Spanish. Before long they will have erected 
 large and magnificent churches, which are already projected, of one 
 of which, " St. Mary's," corner of Dupont and California streets, 
 we give a representation. It will be principally constructed of 
 brick, but will have a rough stone foundation, and mouldings of 
 cut stone. The interior will be columned and arched, and the 
 different parts of the edifice finished in the Gothic style of the 
 
698 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sixteenth century. The dimensions of the building are seventy- 
 five by one hundred and thirty feet. It will have a spire two 
 hundred feet in height. Altogether this building will be one of 
 the architectural beauties of San Francisco. 
 
 St. Mary's Catholic Cburcb. 
 
 Towards the close of 1853, the Universalists, comprising a 
 large body of intelligent and respectable citizens, met and estab- 
 lished a society, which, regularly every Sabbath evening, held 
 meetings for divine worship in Meiggs' Concert Hall, on Bush 
 street. They emjdoyed the Pacific Music Troupe as their choir, 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 699 
 
 and liberally paid two hundred and fifty dollars a night for the 
 hall and orchestra. Subsequently they removed to the Superior 
 Court room, which, we have already seen, had been frequently 
 used for similar purposes, and attracted large and respectable con- 
 gregations. Rev. John Upson officiated as pastor of this society. 
 
 On the 28th of August, 1853, a second Congregational soci- 
 ety was organized, and a house of worship, capable of seating 
 three hundred persons, erected in Greenwich street, between 
 Dupont and Stockton streets. Its pastor, Rev. W. C. Pond, 
 was supported at the inception of the enterprise by the American 
 Home Missionary Society. 
 
 There are more Methodist Episcopal churches in San Fran- 
 cisco than of any other denomination. Beside that of Mr. Tay- 
 lor, there is one in Powell street, near Washington, Rev. M. C. 
 Briggs, pastor ; the Wesley Chapel, at the corner of Bush and 
 Dupont streets, Rev. Dr. Boring, pastor ; the New Jerusalem 
 society, which meets in the Superior Court room every Sabbath 
 morning, and which has no permanent pastor ; and a church for 
 the colored population on Stockton street, of which Rev. James 
 Moore is pastor. 
 
 In Spring Valley, a chapel has been erected, in which every 
 Sunday afternoon, various clergymen, of all denominations, 
 preach to the people of the vicinity. The Jewish citizens, very 
 generally, observe their peculiar rites at their synagogues. The 
 French and Spaniards have services in their own languages at 
 the Catholic churches. In July, 1853, efforts were commenced 
 to erect a chapel for the Chinese residents of the city, and so 
 popular was the enterprise, that at a single lecture on the 21st 
 of that month upwards of $8000 were subscribed for the erec- 
 tion of the building. This was finally completed on the corner 
 of Sacramento and Stockton streets at a cost of $18,000, and 
 opened by dedication on the 4th of June, 1854. Rev. Wm. 
 Speer is the pastor ; Messrs. Jas. B. Roberts, David S. Turner 
 and H. C. Beals, are the trustees. The building is neat and 
 resembles churches generally, except that its walls are hung with 
 tablets inscribed with Chinese hieroglyphics. 
 
 Such an array of churches and societies are surely evidences 
 enough of the sincerity, zeal and success of the early soirit of 
 
700 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 moral reform. It has also established numerous benevolent 
 institutions, and sought to excite sympathy and gratitude, by 
 alleviating sorrow, softening the harsh blows of misfortune, and 
 leading the erring by example and precept back to the road from 
 which they had strayed, many of whom have shunned the chapel 
 door, first through shame and then indifference. In all of these 
 societies, the members of the various churches, as will be seen 
 elsewhere, took prominent parts ; but there are others yet, which 
 are more particularly of a religious character. We have already 
 spoken of the public-school effort, and of the good accomplished 
 through it, and we may remark now, that it has been ably 
 seconded by the establishment, in almost all the churches, of 
 Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, which are extremely well 
 attended. 
 
 On October 30fh, 1849, a meeting of citizens friendly to the 
 formation of a " Bible Society," was held at the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church in Powell street, at which Rev. T. D wight Hunt 
 presided, and Mr. Frederick Billings acted as secretary. Ad- 
 dresses were delivered by F. Buel, agent of the " American Bible 
 Society," Messrs. F. Billings and W. W. Caldwell ; and on motion 
 of Mr. William R. Wadsworth, the " San Francisco Bible So- 
 ciety," auxiliary to the " American Bible Society," was organized, 
 a constitution adopted, and the following officers chosen, whom 
 we recognize as the early laborers on this field, and who, with 
 characteristic real morality, frankly joined hands, irrespective of 
 sect or denomination : — President : — John M. Findley ; Vice 
 Presidents : — Rev. Dr. Ver Mehr, Rev. Albert Williams, and 
 Rev. Wm. Taylor ; Treasurer : — W. W. Caldwell ; Secretary : — 
 Frederick Buel. 
 
 Since its organization the society has been steadily engaged 
 in its appropriate work of supplying the Scriptures to the citizens 
 of the State, and has issued from its depository about ten thou- 
 sand volumes, in the different languages spoken in the State and 
 adjacent territories, the majority by sale and the remainder by 
 donation to those unable to purchase. This institution has ably 
 commended itself to the spirit of catholic Christianity, by the 
 universal circulation of that book within which its doctrines are 
 comprehended. Other societies for the same purpose, established 
 
CHURCHES AND RELIGION. 
 
 in the interior, have materially aided this object. The depository 
 of the society was destroyed by fire on the morning of the 26th 
 of April, 1853, in place of which a new fire-proof brick building 
 has been erected on a lot belonging to the society, No. 376 Stock- 
 ton street, between Union and Green streets. The officers for 
 1854, are, President : — Hon. D. 0. Shattuck ; Vice Presidents : 
 —Rev. B. Brierly, Rev. M. C. Briggs, and Rev. S. H. Willey ; 
 Secretary : — F. Buel ; Treasurer : — E. P. Flint ; Executive 
 Committee :• — Col. D. S. Turner, Major A. B. Eaton, Nathaniel 
 Gray, George Wyckoff, and R. P. Spier. 
 
 On the 24th of February, 1850, " The Pacific Tract Society" 
 was organized for alike creditable objects, as indicated by the 
 name. Maj. A. B. Eaton is the President of this extensive 
 organization ; Hon. R. H. Waller, Col. D. S. Turner, and Hon. 
 E. J. Willis of Sacramento, are the Vice Presidents ; D. L. Ross 
 is Treasurer ; Rev. A. F. White and Willard Leonard are Secre- 
 taries : while the Board of Directors embraces almost every 
 clergyman in the State and many distinguished men from its 
 various cities. From its depository in Clay street it has already 
 distributed a great many useful and moral productions. 
 
 Another society of later birth, dating from July, 12th 1853, 
 but of fast rising importance, is the " Young Men's Christian 
 Association," intended particularly to improve the moral and 
 mental condition of the young men of the city. A well stocked 
 library and a reading-room, in the second story of the post-office 
 building, at the corner of Clay and Kearny streets, and occa- 
 sional lectures by clergymen and others, to the society, to which 
 both strangers and residents are alike welcome, furnish rational 
 means of enjoyment to the youth of the place, and effectually 
 remove them from the tempting scenes of frivolity and dissipa- 
 tion, here so numerous. 
 
 We have said enough, we hope, to prove that not all, nor nigh 
 all the citizens of San Francisco are lost to every thing but reck- 
 less dissipation. No city of equal size — few of ten times its age 
 — can present such a list of men and institutions, who have 
 accomplished so much real good, with so little of cant and hy- 
 pocrisy. 
 
Armory Hall. 
 
 INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 Immediately after the excitement into which the town of San 
 Francisco was thrown by the capture, trial, and expulsion of the 
 notorious " Hounds," had in a measure subsided, some of the 
 most prominent citizens, dreading a recurrence of like scenes, 
 conceived the idea of organizing a permanent volunteer military 
 company, to aid the legal officers in the maintenance of order and 
 personal security. The proposal met a ready acquiescence, and 
 in the early part of July, 1849, several preliminary meetings 
 were held for that purpose in the " Institute," as the school- 
 house on the plaza was designated, and on the 27th of the month, 
 forty-one gentlemen signed the following Preamble, organizing 
 an artillery corps to be known as the " First California Guard." 
 
 " We, the undersigned, do hereby form ourselves into an association under 
 the name and style of the First California Guard, and for the good govern- 
 
INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 703 
 
 ment thereof, have adopted a Constitution and By-Laws, for the support of 
 which we mutually pledge ourselves : — 
 
 H. M. Naglee, W. E. SpofTard, Joseph Hobson, A. Priest, 
 J. P. Haven, Hall McAllister, R. H. Sinton, E. H. Harrison, 
 
 W. H. Tillinghast, Myron Norton, Saml. Price, W. C. Cleeman, 
 
 D. T. Bagley. Wm. L. Hobson, Rich. M. Sherman, R. Julius Stevens. 
 W. D. M. Howard, Eugene Musson, James C. Ward, Gustav Beck, 
 Wm. Sim, Frank Turk, Samuel "Ward, Wm. H. Davis, 
 
 S. Russell Gerry, E. L. Sullivan, Wm. Hooper, E. Mickle. 
 C. Melhado, W. L. Robinett, A. G. Randall, John Sime, 
 
 J. W. Austin, H.F.Teschemacker, Chas. H. Johnson, A. G. Abell. 
 Hiram Grimes, A. J. Ellis, Benj. Reynolds. Jas. Creighton, 
 
 Edward A. King." 
 
 Of these the following officers were chosen : — 
 Captain. — Henry M. Naglee. 
 
 First Lieutenants. — W. D. M. Howard, Myron Norton. 
 Second Lieutenants. — Hall McAllister, David T. Bagley. 
 Orderly Sergeant. — Richard H. Sinton. 
 Surgeon. — Samuel Russell Gerry, M. D. 
 
 At this time there was not a suitahle room for an armory In 
 the town, and the gentlemen who had organized the company, 
 being all men of ample means, agreed to form a joint stock com- 
 pany (out of members of the guard only), whose income would 
 be sufficient to defray all their military expenses and enable them 
 to purchase a lot of land and erect a building with a hall adapted 
 for drilling purposes. This scheme was soon carried into effect. 
 The stock was divided into three hundred shares of one hundred 
 dollars each, all of which were readily taken. A lot was pur- 
 chased, situated on the north-east corner of Dupont and Jackson 
 streets, and a two and a half story building, forty feet square, 
 was erected in the course of the fall — the whole expense amount- 
 ing to about $30,000. The company commenced occupying it 
 in the latter part of 1849, and soon obtained arms and accoutre- 
 ments sufficient for the drill, which was that of the infantry, 
 though the company was organized as artillery. The Guard 
 prospered, and received many new members. The 22d of Feb- 
 ruary following was celebrated at their hall by the most recherche 
 entertainment ever given in San Francisco, and on all similar 
 subsequent occasions, public parades, etc., they have formed an 
 essential ami imposing portion of the body politic. 
 
704 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 In August, 1850, their services were called into requisition 
 for the first time, and the importance of the organization and 
 its capacity to do all that had been expected in its formation, 
 was made manifest. The squatters of Sacramento having armed 
 themselves, had a bloody encounter with the legal authorities. 
 Governor Burnett had ordered out General A. M. Winn, of the 
 Second Brigade, First Division, California Volunteers, to the seat 
 of difficulties, and Lieutenant-Governor McDougal, then at Sa- 
 cramento, immediately requested Capt. Wm. D. M. Howard 
 
 Front street, Sacramento City. 
 
 (then commanding the Guards) to loan the authorities their mus- 
 kets, which the company unanimously resolved to bear in person, 
 and though only called together at 8 o'clock, a. m., were ready in 
 two hours, " armed and equipped as the law directs." Simulta- 
 neously, Mayor Geary called on the people of San Francisco to vol- 
 unteer in the aid of their sister city. The proclamation attracted 
 a large crowd of citizens, who deserted their occupations, and pro- 
 ceeded, as elsewhere narrated, on board the steamboat " Senator" to 
 the scene of action, along with the Guards, numbering eighty men, 
 and the " Protection Fire Company, No. 2," who, to the num- 
 ber of fifty, had hastily equipped themselves with red shirts and 
 
INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 705 
 
 dark pantaloons, and muskets, under Capt. W. McCormick. 
 On the voyage, the volunteers were drilled by Capt. F. J. Lip- 
 pitt, a most excellent officer. Notwithstanding the troops were 
 not called into actual service, the moral effect of their prompti- 
 tude and universal action, showed the efficiency of the volunteer 
 militia in defending law and order, and did as much as any 
 thing else to prevent the repetition of similar outrages in other 
 parts of the country. 
 
 In the latter part of 1850, a second military organization 
 was completed under the name of the " Washington Guards," 
 which remained in existence only a few months. During that 
 time, however, it had an opportunity of usefully serving the city, 
 on the occasion of the attempt of the mob to Lynch Burdue and 
 Windred at the City Hall, in February, 1851, when under the 
 command of Capt. A. Bartol, it resisted the effort of the people 
 to wrest the prisoners from the hands of the municipal officers. 
 
 The " California Guard " continued to prosper, a large num- 
 ber of the first citizens had joined it, and remained in regular 
 attendance. Every thing had been done to furnish the armory 
 and meeting-room in a luxurious style, when the fire of 17th 
 September, 1850, completely destroyed the whole property. 
 This was a severe loss to the company ; but an agreement was 
 speedily entered into with Mr. John Sime, the builder of the first 
 armory, to erect another of brick on the same site, which was 
 completed in three months and occupied by the company, who had 
 meanwhile removed to temporary quarters elsewhere. This build- 
 ing was supposed to be fire-proof, but in June 22d, 1851, it suffered 
 the fate of every other for many blocks around. Not deterred 
 by calamity, but with the phcenix-spirit of San Francisco, the 
 Guard determined, at whatever expense, to perpetuate the or- 
 ganization, and they have succeeded so well, that at the present 
 day it is still the most extensive company in the city. Fifty 
 thousand dollars is a low estimate of what has been paid as 
 contributions by the members for its support since its organi- 
 zation. 
 
 The Indian disturbances at San Diego in December, 1851, 
 again called for the exhibition of the military spirit from the 
 restless people of San Francisco, who, ever true to the American 
 45 
 
706 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 propensity, are ready to fly to arms at the call of danger. The 
 beleaguered inhabitants of the south had applied for aid to Gen- 
 eral Hitchcock, of the Pacific Division of the United States 
 Army ; but most of his command were operating under Colonel 
 Casey against the Indians in the north, and he could dispatch 
 them but fifty regulars under Lieutenant Frazer. In this emer- 
 gency, the governor authorized the raising of two companies of 
 mounted volunteers from the city of San Francisco, and Col. 
 Geary, Judge J. G. Marvin, and Capt. Aldrich immediately issued 
 a call for men. It needed no drum to summon the recruits to- 
 gether. Did one man, commissioned or non-commissioned, draw 
 up a roll, hundreds were ready to sign it. A meeting was held 
 in the California Exchange. Colonel John W. Geary was made 
 president, and J. Martin Eeese and Joseph C. Smith, Esqs., 
 were chosen secretaries. Col. Geary enrolled one hundred and 
 thirty men, soon increased to one hundred and seventy-five, 
 three times the authorized number, who met at the armory of 
 the California Guards, organized " The San Francisco Eangers," 
 and elected the following officers : — John W. Geary, captain ; 
 George H. Haig, first lieutenant ; John W. Eider, second lieu- 
 tenant ; J oseph C. Smith, third lieutenant ; Charles J. Beebe, 
 first sergeant ; and Augustus Larrentree, second sergeant. 
 
 The second company met at the Parker House, and took the 
 name of the " Aldrich Eangers," electing Daniel Aldrich, captain ; 
 William Mulligan, first lieutenant ; Ira Cole, second lieutenant ; 
 David Hoag, third lieutenant ; and J. E. Dunbar, first sergeant. 
 
 Both companies adopted a hasty uniform of blue shirts, and 
 black pants and caps, and held themselves in readiness to pro- 
 ceed south under the command of the officers appointed by Gov- 
 ernor McDougal, viz. : John C. Hayes, colonel commanding ; 
 Alexander Wells, adjutant general ; A. H. Sibley, quarter-master 
 general ; H. J. Williams, commissary ; and Samuel Purdy, aid-de- 
 camp. The next vessel, however, brought the news of the settle- 
 ment of the difficulties, and the batallion was dismissed. Fifty 
 of them, whose military career was not thus to be so untimely 
 terminated, organized a company under Captain Hoag, and per- 
 sisted in sailing for San Pedro. 
 
 Until May, 1852, the " California Guards" existed alone in the 
 
INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 707 
 
 city, with the solitary exception of the " Washington Guards," and 
 we might add, of the " Empire Guards," a target company, or- 
 ganized April 12th, 1851, for annual target excursions, out of 
 the members of the Empire Fire Company, No. 1. The old Guard 
 had increased largely in numbers, the members being principally 
 picked young men who had but recently seen active service in 
 the war with Mexico, each of whom was actuated by that esprit 
 du corps which they had brought with them from their victorious 
 battle-fields. 
 
 On the 14th of May, the " Marion Rifle Corps " was organized, 
 and the following officers elected : — T. B. Schaeffer, captain ; G. 
 R. Davidson, first lieutenant ; J. W. Rider and W. W. Hawks, 
 second lieutenants ; W. Neely Johnson, first sergeant. Shortly 
 after this, June 25th, the " Eureka Light-Horse Guards," a fine 
 cavalry corps, was formed ; and these were succeeded by the 
 " National Lancers," also cavalry, on July 4th, and on August 
 4th, by the " San Francisco Blues," infantry. 
 
 These five companies, joined by the " Sutter Rifles," of Sa- 
 cramento City, formed in batallion on the 4th of July, 1853, 
 and were reviewed by Major-General John A. Sutter, after 
 which they proceeded to Russ's Garden, where they received a 
 splendid ensign from Mrs. Catharine N. Sinclair, and celebrated 
 the day appropriately with an entertainment and other jollities. 
 The city companies (1854) are now proposing to form a batallion 
 and elect a colonel and subordinate officers. According to the 
 laws at present in force, every white male citizen, who refuses to 
 perform militia duty, is liable to a tax of three dollars ; but as 
 the militia has not yet been properly organized, the law has been 
 suffered to remain a dead letter on the statute book. As soon 
 as the organization has been completed, the law will probably be 
 enforced. 
 
 Until last fall, all of these volunteer companies supported 
 themselves by contributions from their members, when the first 
 encouragement ever received from the city was given by an ordi- 
 nance passed, appropriating five hundred dollars per month for 
 the rent of an armory to be used in common by all the volunteer 
 companies of San Francisco. They now occupy a splendid hall 
 as an armory and drill room in the fourth story of a new fire- 
 
708 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 proof building, owned by Mr. S. Brannan, and appropriately- 
 called " Armory Hall," at the north-east corner of Sacramento 
 and Montgomery streets. This elegant structure, occupying a 
 front of sixty feet square, was commenced on 1st July, 1853, and 
 completed November 15th following, at a cost of §225,000. 
 Each company has a separate room in the third story for meeting 
 and such purposes, and the use of the drill-room on its allotted 
 evening once a week. All are flourishing. Their meetings and 
 parades are well attended, and all justly regard the " First Califor- 
 nia Guard " as the pioneer corps of the State. 
 
The San Francisco Orphan Asylum. 
 
 SOCIAL AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS 
 
 The miserable condition of the sick and dying immigrants of 
 1849, for a long while met neither sympathy nor assistance. 
 Individual aid at best could have accomplished little ; yet that 
 little, men found neither time nor inclination to offer. Fortu- 
 nately, however, the eminent usefulness of those great institu- 
 tions, which like the arteries, veins and sinews of the living 
 body, concentaneously ramify themselves throughout the mi- 
 nutest parts of our organization, — each subservient to its own 
 great and distinct purpose, yet with the common object of the 
 preservation of life, health and happiness, — was here practically 
 demonstrated ; and chiefly through them, and subsequently 
 through the more local associations, designed for a similar ulti- 
 mate end, the great good was accomplished that residents of the 
 time alone can appreciate. The success, efficiency, and perma- 
 nency of these institutions, like our political existence, depencb 
 ing mainly upon their great national scheme of organization, a 
 
710 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 complete history of each can only be sought in their own volumi- 
 nous records, and must be studied there with all their relative 
 parts — not here. The general character of the times has been 
 fully discussed ; the vast improvement in the present as con- 
 trasted with the past has been noted ; and beyond a few dates 
 and names, which would seem necessary to make our history 
 complete in all that regards San Francisco, and identify with the 
 finished structure, every nail, lath and brick that have built it, 
 we cannot now pretend to go. 
 
 The fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, though few 
 in number, very early determined upon devising means to allevi- 
 ate the distress and promote the comfort of the destitute of their 
 brotherhood. In October, 1849, a convention assembled in San 
 Francisco and organized a lodge under a charter, which on the 
 preceding 9th of November, had been granted by the " Grand 
 Lodge of the District of Columbia" to Messrs. Levi Stowell, Wm. 
 Van Voorhies, and B. F. McDonald, that they might accomplish 
 this object when they should arrive in California. This was 
 entitled " California Lodge, No. 1," and consisted of about 
 twenty members, whose first officers were : 
 
 Levi Stowell, Esq., of Washington City Worshipful Master. 
 
 A. Bartol, Esq., of Columbus, Ohio Se?iior Warden. 
 
 Col. Jno. W. Geary, of Westmoreland Co., Pa Junior Warden. 
 
 Dr. John H. Gihon, of Philadelphia Secretary. 
 
 A. A. Selover, Esq., of New York Treasurer. 
 
 They rented rooms for meeting in the third story of a house 
 in Montgomery street, paying for their use, two hundred and 
 fifty dollars per month. They immediately commenced work, 
 eagerly sought out their destitute brethren, whom they conveyed 
 to private boarding-houses or hospitals, and furnished with medi- 
 cal aid or whatever else their necessities demanded. Some of 
 these recovered to bless the Order, and subsequently returned 
 to their families after a successful business or mining career. 
 Others died and received decent interment, and their friends 
 were apprised of the circumstances. The first funerals of the 
 city, after the discovery of gold, at which any number of persons 
 attended, or which were conducted with any degree of propriety 
 or solemnity, were those of the masonic fraternity. The expenses 
 
SOCIAL AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 711 
 
 attending these acts of benevolence were enormous. The board 
 and attendance of a sick brother averaged from fifty to a hundred 
 dollars per week, and the funeral of one deceased cost from one 
 hundred to two hundred dollars. 
 
 On the 17th of April, 1850, a convention was called at Sa- 
 cramento, of delegates from the California, Western Star, and 
 Connecticut Lodges, by which a Grand Lodge was organized in 
 due form under the following officers : 
 
 Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson, M. W. Grand Master. 
 
 John A. Tutt, R. W. Deputy Grand Master. 
 
 Caleb Fenner, " Senior Grand Warden. 
 
 Saschel Woods, " Junior Grand Warden. 
 
 John H. Gihon, M. D., " Grand Secretary. 
 
 Levi Stowell, " Grand Treasurer. 
 
 B. D. Hyam, W. Grand Se?iior Deacon. 
 
 E. J. Willis, " Grand Junior Deacon. 
 
 Simon Greenwalt, " Grand Steward. 
 
 Aaron Greenwalt, " Grand Steward. 
 
 G. P. Gordon, " Grand Marshal. 
 
 Wm. Davenport, " Grand Standard Bearer. 
 
 B. B. Gore, " Grand Sword Bearer. 
 
 W. G. Deale, " Grand Chaplain. 
 
 Frederick A. Clark, " Grand Tyler. 
 
 Several lodges, then working "under dispensations" from 
 other grand lodges, received charters, and at the first annual 
 meeting after its institution, the " Grand Lodge of California " 
 numbered more than a dozen flourishing lodges under its jurisdic- 
 tion. The " Davy Crockett Lodge, No. 7," subsequently styled the 
 " San Francisco Lodge," came into existence shortly after No. 1, 
 and in the summer of the same year (1850), " San Francisco 
 Royal Arch Chapter" was also established, under a charter from 
 the " General Grand Chapter of the United States," of which Col. 
 John W. Geary was first High Priest, and Dr. John H. Gihon, 
 first Secretary. In May, 1851, the French residents of the city 
 organized " La Parfaite Union Lodge, No. 17 ; " and in 1852, 
 the " Occidental Lodge, No. 22," and the " Golden Gate Lodge, 
 No. 30," were established, at which date there were thirteen 
 chartered lodges and seven " under dispensation " represented in 
 the Grand Lodge. In October, 1853, " Mount Moriah Lodge." 
 and in January, 1854, " Lebanon Lodge" were opened for work 
 
712 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 n San Francisco. Various lodges have been established over the 
 whole State, to the number of about fifty, not only in the midst 
 of the crowded cities, but amid the gulches and ravines of the 
 sparsely-peopled mountains, and have enrolled among their mem- 
 bers, the great portion of the most prominent public officials and 
 business men of the country. In Sacramento, two lodges were 
 established almost simultaneously with the organization of Cali- 
 fornia Lodge ; and a hospital was there founded by the Order in 
 connection with the Order of Odd-Fellows, in the support of 
 which about thirty thousand dollars were expended in little more 
 than one year. In 1851, the brethren residing in Honolulu in 
 Oahu of the Sandwich Islands, were, on due application, author- 
 ized to open a lodge in that city ; and the success attending its 
 operations has equalled the most sanguine expectations of its 
 founders. At this date the king, the heir-apparent and brother, 
 with several Hawaiian notables, have had an opportunity of join- 
 ing it. In this year (1854), a number of masons residing at 
 Valparaiso, solicited and received authority to establisb a lodge 
 in that place. This, however, has already withdrawn from the 
 California jurisdiction. The "Knights Templars" opened an 
 encampment, on the 20th of December, 1853, and a second 
 "Royal Arch Chapter" is now working at Sacramento. The 
 Grand Masters of the State have been successively, J. D. Steven- 
 son, in 1850 ; J. A. Tutt, in 1851 ; B. D. Hyam, in 1852 ; 
 Chas. M. Radcliff, in 1853 ; and Wm. H. Howard, now in office. 
 The Order is in the most prosperous condition, embracing about 
 four thousand members — all engaged actively in doing good. At 
 the last session of the Grand Lodge, the education of orphans 
 was one of the main features of their deliberations. Lands have 
 been donated for a Masonic College, which will probably be com- 
 menced in the ensuing year, and trustees appointed to take 
 charge of the property and receive donations. 
 
 The Independent Order of Odd Fellows dates its origin 
 in this city from the same causes, for the same objects, and about 
 the same time as the Masonic Order. In 1849, " California 
 Lodge, No. 1," was established, and occupied the same third- 
 story rooms in Montgomery street, paying the same sum for their 
 use. Like the masons they extended their aid to the suffering 
 members of their own Order, and like them accomplished an in- 
 
SOCIAL AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 713 
 
 credible amount of good. The Order now comprises twenty-one 
 lodges, — five of which are located in San Francisco, one of these 
 being composed principally of German residents, — embracing in 
 all about one thousand members with over five thousand visiting 
 brothers. On the 17th of May, 1853, the " R. W. Grand Lodge 
 of California " was organized, with the following officers : 
 
 Samuel H. Parker, M. W. Grand Master. 
 
 J. F. Morse, R. W. D. Grand Master. 
 
 E. W. Colt, R. W. Grand Warden. 
 
 T. R. Johnson, R. W. Grand Secretary. 
 
 John M. Coughlin, R. W. Grand Treasurer. 
 
 Matthew Purden, R. W. Grand Representative. 
 
 J. Zacariah, W. Grand Marshal. 
 
 A. J. Lucas, W. Grand Guardian. 
 
 L. F. Zantzinger, W. Grand Conductor. 
 
 The Patriarchal branch of the Order is under the control of 
 D. D. Grand Sire S. H. Parker, and comprises three subordinate 
 encampments in San Francisco, Sacramento and Stockton, num- 
 bering about one hundred and seventy-five members. A Degree 
 Lodge has been likewise established in each of these cities. The 
 Grand Lodge, of which J. F. Morse is the second and present 
 Grand Master, has alone donated for charitable purposes since its 
 organization, over $20,000, and the whole amount of money ex- 
 pended in the State, and the number of families, brethren, 
 widows and orphans relieved, is enormous. Mr. S. Brannan, a 
 member of " Templar Lodge, No. 17," has presented the Order a 
 valuable lot of ground on the Mission Road, for a cemetery. 
 
 Early in 1849, the Rev. T. D. Hunt organized a Temper- 
 ance Society in San Francisco, which lived several months and 
 accomplished some good by the dissemination of its peculiar doc- 
 trines, successfully relieving much of the distress of the times, by 
 laying the axe to the root of the great producer of vice, poverty 
 and wretchedness. During its existence, Mr. Hunt and others 
 delivered a number of lectures, on which occasions some who 
 needed the benefits of such an organization, were persuaded to 
 sign the pledge of total abstinence. The work thus begun has 
 since been more vigorously prosecuted by the Order of the Sons 
 of Temperance, of which there are almost forty subordinate 
 divisions in successful operation in the State, scattered princi- 
 
714 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 pally throughout its northern portion, the farthest south being at 
 Santa Clara and Mariposa. On the 9th of September, 1851, the 
 representatives of the divisions then existing met in San Francisco 
 and organized the " Grand Division of California." There are four 
 subordinate divisions in this city, embracing some five hundred 
 members. In the entire State the roll of membership is not 
 short of 2,500. Numerous branch organizations have likewise 
 grown into successful operation in San Francisco and the other 
 cities of California. There are two flourishing unions of the 
 Daughters of Temperance, one at Sacramento and one here ; of 
 the Templars of Honor there are also two organizations at the 
 same places ; and there are eight sections of the Cadets of Tem- 
 perance, consisting of lads of between twelve and seventeen years 
 of age, who do good service. The section in this city numbers 
 over forty members, though of very recent date. The temper- 
 ance influence has been markedly and beneficially felt. Various 
 hotels are conducted on strictly anti-intoxicating principles, and 
 some of the great refreshment saloons have abolished the sale of 
 stimulating draughts. 
 
 Distinct from these great Orders, branches of which exist in" 
 every hamlet of our mighty empire, there have arisen in San 
 Francisco various local associations, whose objects have been 
 more or less limited to peculiar sects or races, whom they have 
 either sought to unite in closer social intimacy or to mutually aid 
 and succor when they might become necessitous. The descend- 
 ants of the Pilgrim Fathers, as early as September, 1850, organ- 
 ized the New England Society of San Francisco, for the first 
 object. A meeting was held by a number of immigrants from the 
 Eastern States, at the American House on Clay street, opposite the 
 plaza 5 and the subsequent organization of the society was com- 
 pleted at the District Court-room in the old City Hall at the corner 
 of Pacific and Kearny streets, and the following officers chosen : — 
 
 President. — Charles Gilman, of N. H. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. — J. C. Derby, of Mass., W. H. Clark, of Me., John A. 
 Collins, of Vt, G. V. S. Gibbs, of R. I., and Theodore Dimond, of Ct. 
 
 Treasurer. — Geo. W. Gibbs. Auditor. — H. K. W. Clark. Librarian. — 
 Wm. A. Dana. Corresponding Secretary. — Louis R. Lull. Recording Secre- 
 tary. — Henry L. Dodge. Executive Committee. — J. P. Treadwell, Lucien 
 Skinnett, J. Satterlee, C. D. Cushman, Robert Hopkins, and 0. N. Bush. 
 
SOCIAL AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 715 
 
 la 1851, the society had made arrangements to furnish a 
 library and reading-room for the use of the members. Rooms 
 had been secured in a wooden building on the north side of 
 Washington street, between Kearny and Montgomery streets, 
 and a large collection of books, pamphlets and newspapers had 
 been ordered from the Atlantic States, and a part of them were 
 then on their way. The building in which were the society 
 rooms, and all the books, records and papers in the hands of the 
 officers were destroyed in the fire of May 3d and 4th of that 
 year. General Wilson and Messrs. Satterlee, Clarke and Austin, 
 prominent members of the association, were badly burned, and 
 narrowly escaped with their lives. The society soon replaced its 
 losses and resumed its prosperity. It has succeeded eminently 
 in its objects ; and its members, by constant intercourse, are in a 
 measure reconciled to the want of homes and families, and made 
 to feel less like isolated and uncared-for strangers. It celebrates 
 its anniversary on the 22d of December annually by speeches, 
 feasting, etc., and in 1853 a new feature was introduced by the 
 presence of ladies, wives and relatives of the members. 
 
 The Society of California Pioneers was instituted in 
 August, 1850, as we have already fully described, for a some- 
 what similar object. It sought to bind together in social union 
 the original founders of the great city of St. Francis, and to per- 
 petuate the reminiscences of their days of toil, by collecting and 
 preserving the early records of California history. 
 
 Numerous other exclusively charitable and benevolent associ- 
 ations have since been instituted. In 1851, the French citizens 
 organized a society called the French Benevolent Society, designed 
 to relieve the necessities of their sick and indigent countrymen. 
 More recently the Germans have formed a German Benevolent 
 Society, for similar purposes, and have enrolled almost three 
 hundred members. The Jewish residents of the city have been 
 equally mindful of the wants of those of their own persuasion by 
 founding the First Hebrew Benevolent Society. The soldiers, 
 who served in the Mexican War, and who are numerous 
 among our citizens, have in May, 1854, organized a society 
 among themselves, of which Gen. Wool is president, to perpetu- 
 ate their old associations, and render mutual aid and succor to 
 
716 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 those who may be destitute. On the 4th of August, 1853, the 
 San Francisco Ladies' Protection and Relief Society was estab- 
 lished, by the wives of numerous influential citizens, for the pur- 
 pose of affording protection and assistance to women in need and 
 distress, residents or strangers. Very many unfortunate females 
 have been furnished, through the exertions of its members, with 
 comfortable homes, and provided with situations in respectable 
 families, where they are enabled to earn honest livelihoods. 
 Medical, Law, Library and Literary Associations, with the va- 
 rious Religious Societies already noticed, are numerous, and most 
 of them, besides their more special objects, have beneficial pro- 
 visions for their needy and deserving members. 
 
 This much has been done for the adult sufferers of the dismal 
 days of the gold hunt and the present beneficiaries of the land 
 of wealth, — but there were also little children in San Francisco, 
 though few in number, who had been left fatherless and mother- 
 less to be tossed about in the great mozlstrom of passion — who 
 knew not wherewith to feed their hunger, nor where to rest their 
 wearied bodies, nor from whom to expect sympathy or assistance. 
 Honor to the great young city, these were not forgotten ! In 
 February of 1851, a few ladies of the different congregations of 
 the city, cordially met in the First Presbyterian Church, and, 
 having buried the hatchet of sectarian jealousies, established 
 the u San Francisco Orphan Asylum" under the following 
 officers : — 
 
 President. — Mrs. Williams. 
 
 Vice-President. — Mrs. Wiley. Treasurer. — Mrs. Boring. Secretary. — 
 Mrs. Warren. Managers. — Mesdames Waller, Taylor, Wheeler, E. V. Gil- 
 lespie, Joyce and Dubbs. Trustees. — Messrs. Chas. Gilman, Stephen Frank- 
 Jin and Daniel L. Ross. Matron. — Mrs. Wilson. 
 
 This society commenced with eight orphans, and now has 
 about thirty under its charge. Since it left the church it has 
 occupied rent free the cottage of Mr. Halleck on Folsom street, 
 but has now removed to the beautiful structure which has been 
 built for its accommodation. The common council, April 4th, 
 1853, passed an ordinance conveying to the trustees all the in- 
 terest had by the city in a lot of ground near Yerba Buena 
 Cemetery, for the purpose of erecting on it a suitable building. 
 
SOCIAL AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 717 
 
 The right to the land was in dispute, but the parties adverse to 
 the city's title had readily renounced their claim, and now the 
 city did the same. The situation is a pleasant one, though re- 
 tired, and the building erected is a handsome and commodious 
 edifice. About $24,000 have been expended upon the building 
 and grounds. 
 
 The Roman Catholic citizens of San Francisco have had a 
 similar institution in connection with the St. Patrick's Catholic 
 Church and school since 1852, in which there are now about fifty 
 orphans, over whom five Sisters of Charity exercise their kind and 
 matronly care. This asylum is situated in Happy Valley, and 
 like the other is doing much good, and is very generously sus- 
 tained. 
 
 In all these works of benevolence have been shown the finer 
 parts of human nature, — even though their field has been only 
 San Francisco, — and their gratifying results are as certain indices 
 of the real merits of the place, as the hosts of crime are of the 
 evils of unchecked passion and excitement. The good already 
 gained is surely an earnest of what may yet be done. 
 
Alcalde's Office, west side of Portsmouth Square. 
 
 JOHN W. GEARY, 
 
 LAST ALCALDE AND FIRST MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 Certain men in the histories of various countries, have, from 
 different causes, acquired a universal hold upon the affections of 
 the people. Such was the enthusiasm, which actuated every 
 member of the Grande Armee, — noblesse and bourgeoisie, — in his 
 life and death attachment to the Little Corporal ; such, the grati- 
 tude and reverence unanimously rendered to our First President ; 
 and such the admiration and respect for the subject of our 
 sketch, evinced by the heterogeneous population of the new 
 city in the Occident. We can, without being accused of fulsome 
 flattery, or without the fear of contradiction, employ terms of 
 
JOHN W. GEARY. 
 
 719 
 
 high eulogy in speaking of one of the earliest and most vigorous of 
 the pioneers, who have hewn for San Francisco a path to glory 
 and greatness through dangers and difficulties unaj)preciated by 
 any who did not share them. We have already, in our work, 
 noticed the prominent part he has taken in numberless enter- 
 prises for the public good, and the various and multiform relations 
 which he has filled in this country ; and through all, the appro- 
 bation of his acts and the confidence in his integrity, were such 
 as to make him a favorite of the people. The mass of man- 
 kind is ever ready to respect, honor and reward those virtues 
 which itself has not ; but it is rare to discover a society without 
 any, who refuse their sanction to what they know to be good, if 
 only for envy's sake. Who then, would have expected to have 
 found a community, so lawless and reckless, so passion-actuated 
 and fancy-governed, so wild, desperate and daring, so pregnant 
 with vices and so barren of virtues, as it was described in the 
 history of nations, the first to exhibit to centuries of civilized 
 life, a lesson of thankfulness for good done, of forbearance and 
 sacrifice of personal desires, of zeal and earnestness in rewarding 
 real merit ? Colonel Geary was not even a native of the place, 
 nor a long resident of the country, nor an old associate of its 
 inhabitants, but was left friendless on a strange shore, where a 
 strange city saw and appreciated his pre-eminent qualities. 
 
 John W. Geary is a Pennsylvanian, born in Westmoreland 
 County, and although but thirty-five years of age, he has won a 
 lasting fame by his firm adherence to the cause of right and duty 
 in the various parts of our country in which he has been placed 
 in civil, military, judicial and executive positions. He has been 
 rewarded by the prosperity and esteem that attends upright con- 
 duct and honorable actions, even though without the advantages 
 of wealth and influential or numerous frrends to gild life's troubles 
 at the outset of his career and help him to position and renown. 
 
 His parents never had much pecuniary means, and very early 
 in his life, his father was afflicted with a tardy attack of illness, 
 during which he became much involved in debt, and died without 
 leaving any thing to satisfy his creditors. Young Geary then be- 
 came the sole stay of his mother, whom he supported by teaching 
 school, and eventually through his praiseworthy and industrious 
 
720 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 exertions, succeeded in defraying every dollar of his deceased 
 parent's indebtedness. This at once gave him a high reputation 
 in his native place. So honorable a return for a mother's tender 
 rearing is unusual ; it is more uncommon, — indeed, it is never 
 expected, — that a son should so nobly vindicate the memory of 
 his father, by the generous gift of his hard earnings. The posi- 
 tion of a school-teacher not being wholly consonant with his 
 inclinations, he removed to Pittsburg, and accepted and filled for 
 a short time only the situation of clerk to a wholesale establish- 
 ment, quitting the business in disgust, in consequence of certain 
 dishonorable requirements, exacted by his employer. Meanwhile 
 his own efforts had given him a classical education, which he 
 completed at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., creating life- 
 long friends among professors and classmates, by the early exhi- 
 bition of those same qualities that have since endeared him to 
 so many others in public and in social life. 
 
 While at college his preference and pre-eminence were in the 
 various departments of the mathematical chair, and accordingly 
 he subsequently gratified his predilection and assumed the profes- 
 sion of a civil engineer, in the practice of which he went to Ken- 
 tucky, partly in the employ of the Commonwealth and partly in 
 that of the Green River Railroad Company, and was engaged in 
 the survey of several very important branches of the public im- 
 provements of that State. After an experience with the Engineer 
 Corps, in many of the States, he successively filled all the various 
 offices from a clerkship to the superintendency of the Alleghany 
 Portage Railroad, and during several years, discharged the duties 
 of his responsible positions with complete satisfaction. 
 
 Actuated by his mathematical abilities, it is not strange he 
 should, at a very early date, have exhibited a fondness for mili- 
 tary tactics. He admired, and labored strenuously by the out- 
 lay of time and means to perfect our volunteer system. From 
 a private in the ranks, he rose rapidly through all the grades to 
 that of Brigadier-General, to which he was unanimously elected 
 by the brigade, comprising Cambria and Somerset Counties. 
 
 The war with the Mexican States soon after this furnished 
 an opportunity for the citizen soldier to do in earnest, what he 
 had been doing in play — to temper and to test the steel he had 
 
JOHN W. GEARY. 
 
 721 
 
 been making — to ascertain the practicability and the use, beyond 
 a mere amusement, of all his music and marching, his gaudy 
 colors and fatiguing drills. Mr. Geary responded among the 
 first, to the call for volunteers, and was accepted to participate 
 in the coming conflict, along with the " American Highlanders," 
 whom he commanded. They were incorporated in the Second 
 Pennsylvania Eegiment, of which, on organization, Captain Geary 
 was almost unanimously elected Lieutenant-Colonel. His regi- 
 ment joined the army of General Scott at Vera Cruz, and served 
 in the advance under the command and on the line of operations 
 of that great chieftain through his brilliant campaign in Mexico. 
 He was attached to General Quitman's division, and distinguished 
 himself by his bravery and military skill in the battles of La 
 Hoya, Chapultepec, Garita de Belen and the City of Mexico, 
 and was so well appreciated and esteemed by his command, that 
 on arriving at the capital of the Montezumas, their leader, Colonel 
 Roberts, having died, he was elected Colonel by a vote of more 
 than two-thirds of the regiment, and was the first American 
 ever to receive a commission dated at that place. Such a com- 
 pliment, at such a time, could not be regarded as the reward of 
 friendship or political preference. It was the spontaneous and 
 grateful gift of associates in arms — the men who had fought by 
 his side, shared his privations, suffering and dangers, and served 
 cheerfully under his command through the hazardous march 
 across the country of a powerful enemy. It was the reward for 
 his own gallantry from the hands of the gallant soldiers who had 
 witnessed and best knew how to appreciate his merits. The 
 Second Pennsylvania Regiment had clone pre-eminent service in 
 the Mexican war. They were foremost in many terrific strifes, 
 enthusiastic, uncomplaining under fatigue, and anxious to lead 
 any enterprise of danger and difficulty. They had stormed and 
 taken the almost inaccessible heights of Chapultepec in the face 
 of the enemy's batteries — and Geary, though wounded in the 
 attack by a spent grape-shot, was with them in the victory ; they 
 had entered the fearful causeway of the Garita de Belen, under 
 a terrific fire from every side, drenching with their blood every 
 foot of the distance gained, and accomplishing a victory, despite 
 even the intention of the commander-in-chief, who had believed 
 46 
 
722 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 a mere feint and not an assault possible or feasible ; and lastly, 
 in connection with the gallant Quitman's command, they had 
 the honor assigned them of raising the ensign of their country 
 over that of the fallen enemy, within the walls of the conquered 
 city. In the appointments that followed the victory, Colonel 
 Geary was made first commander of the great citadel of the City 
 of Mexico in consideration of his valuable aid in the capture of 
 the capital. 
 
 Colonel Geary has always been remarkable for his close atten- 
 tion to his duties and business industry. During the campaign, 
 he exhibited, in a striking manner, this peculiarity of character. 
 He had never in a single instance been known to have been 
 negligent of duty. He daily visited in person every portion of 
 the regiment, and inspected the police and condition of his men, 
 examining the state of the hospitals, and relieving the sick either 
 by personal care or explicit directions through others. His men 
 always welcomed his appearance on such occasions, and hailed it 
 with as much hope as that of the physician. He was neverthe- 
 less a strict disciplinarian, and was never slow properly to bring 
 to punishment when detected, the idle or vicious. 
 
 The treaty of peace having closed the war, he returned to 
 his native State, marching his whole regiment from the City of 
 Mexico to the City of Pittsburg, three thousand miles, the season 
 being the most sickly of the year, without losing a single indi- 
 vidual from his command, numbering at that time nearly four 
 hundred men. The regiment originally consisted of eleven hun- 
 dred Pennsylvanians, embracing sterling men of all professions 
 and branches of industry ; but of this number not two hundred 
 and fifty are now living, the casualties of war and disease having 
 swept away the most of them. Upon his arrival at Pittsburg, 
 his troops being the first from the seat of war, the enthusiasm 
 of their reception knew no bounds. The whole population, 
 amounting to thousands upon thousands of people, turned out 
 on the occasion. Cannon were fired, bells rung forth peals of 
 joy, the roads were strewn with flowers, and triumphal arches 
 erected at every hundred yards — and the shouts and huzzas of 
 the populace rent the air. The Hon. William Wilkins, in a 
 public speech, complimented the services of the gallant, weather- 
 
JOHX W. GEARY. 
 
 723 
 
 beaten and war-worn troops, and their much honored leader. 
 The excitement of the universal jubilee ran to the highest pitch. 
 The whole country around likewise seemed crazy with joy ; and 
 when he reached his western home, he was publicly and enthu- 
 siastically welcomed by every citizen of his native place. 
 
 On the 22d of January, 1849, President Polk, in return for 
 his valuable services during the campaign in Mexico, appointed 
 Colonel Geary postmaster of San Francisco, with powers to create 
 post-offices, appoint postmasters, establish mail routes, and make 
 contracts for carrying the mails throughout California. He thus 
 unconsciously placed him in the way of all his subsequent success 
 and popularity among the people of the Eureka State. It was 
 all chance, cries one ; it was tak-deer (destiny), exclaims the 
 Persian. Whatever it was, judging from the man as he had 
 previously shown himself, we must suppose that even under other 
 circumstances or in another place, his career would have been 
 equally praiseworthy though doubtless less liberally rewarded. 
 
 Colonel Geary, with his customary energy, promptly returned 
 from Washington, with his commission, to his home in West- 
 moreland County, where he expeditiously closed his business and 
 sailed with his wife and child, on the 1st of February, from New 
 York for Chagrcs in the steamer Falcon, on her second trip. 
 Arrived at the Isthmus, he left Chagres in a small boat, accom- 
 panied, besides Mrs. Geary and child, by Captain Bezer Simmons 
 and wife. At that time there was no accommodation for travel- 
 lers attempting the transit. No provisions were to be had along 
 the route. Wild beasts and alligators were numerous. The 
 party in the boat became almost starved on the third day out ; 
 hut the inhabitants of the country, being at that time exceed- 
 ingly hostile, refused to supply their wants. Col. Geary, at a 
 bend in the river, went ashore and offered without success to 
 purchase food. Not being able to buy. and observing chickens 
 running about, he drew his revolver and shot two, throwing the 
 owners a dollar in recompense. Three men instantly attacked 
 him with clubs, supposing he had discharged all his loads, but 
 desisted as soon as he informed them that he had four left for 
 their service. He crossed to the opposite side of the peninsula, 
 keeping his assailants at bay. Here he discovered a tent, and 
 
724 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 obtaining rude utensils, prepared and cooked his chickens by the 
 time the boat with his family and friends arrived. They took a 
 hearty meal, and were no little revived in strength and spirits. 
 They returned to their canoe, and at sunset were deserted by 
 their guides and boatmen, and left to pass the night as they best 
 could on the banks of the Chagres Eiver, surrounded by wild 
 beasts. The ladies slept in the boat, wrapped in blankets, and 
 the colonel and captain alternately kept guard on shore. The 
 night was terrible under their unprotected condition. The rain 
 was pouring in torrents — the air was full of the strange cries of 
 tropical beasts — while numerous amphibious animals, splashing 
 and dashing through the water, added to the dismal sounds. 
 We may here incidentally observe that, though on this occasion 
 every danger was happily passed, Col. Geary and child are at 
 present, the only surviving members of the party. In the morn- 
 ing, the route was resumed and Gorgona reached on the fourth 
 day, at which place mules were obtained, and the party started 
 for the City of Panama. Mrs. Geary was the first lady who ever 
 made use of the side-saddle and rode in the American fashion on 
 this journey, which was accomplished in six hours and a half, 
 two entire days being frequently required. Here the necessity 
 of waiting for the steamer Oregon, the second that had sailed 
 for San Francisco, and which was making the voyage around 
 Cape Horn, and intended stopping at Panama to take on board 
 the Falcon's passengers, detained Col. Geary at this city about 
 twenty-six days, during which he did not remain idle or inactive. 
 At this time many of the passengers, by the Isthmus, suffered 
 from privation and disease. They were crowded together, in a 
 sickly neighborhood, without the hope of a speedy departure, 
 comfortless, friendless and destitute. Col. Geary accordingly 
 organized and presided first over a Masonic society, and subse- 
 quently over an association of Odd-Fellows, for the purpose of 
 alleviating the sufferings and relieving the miserable condition of 
 the unfortunate gold seekers. Both these societies are still in 
 existence, and have accomplished much good ; but the present 
 travelling facilities have materially removed the necessity for any 
 such interference. In connection with several other gentlemen, 
 he contributed and assisted in the publication of the first Ameri- 
 
JOHN W. GEARY. 
 
 725 
 
 can paper in the English language ever issued in the place, which 
 also continues to exist. 
 
 Ahout this time a singular and unprecedented adventure 
 occurred to the colonel, and which was so remarkable that we 
 take this opportunity of relating it. He had established his 
 quarters in two or three rooms of the second story of a house on 
 the north side of the plaza, near the jail, and in these apartments 
 he had daily been in the habit of displaying his goods, to dry and 
 air them. Three or four days after his arrival in the city, he 
 discovered that he had been robbed, during the night, of a num- 
 ber of valuable articles, and about daylight went to the guard, 
 consisting of a sergeant and twelve men, whose guard-house was 
 in the jail building, to obtain information concerning the robbery. 
 Here, though he addressed them in good Spanish, they pretended 
 not to understand him, and directed indignant and insulting 
 queries to him. The whole party gathered closely around, drew 
 their side-arms and circled them about his head. One of them, 
 finally, struck him on the ear, and being incensed at so gross an 
 outrage, he knocked the fellow down. Hastily perceiving his 
 error and observing his desperate position, he rushed between 
 two men, tripping them, and knocking down a fourth, sprang 
 into the guard-room. This was about thirty feet deep, and along 
 the back wall the arms were arranged in a row. He seized a 
 loaded musket from the rack, and placing his back to the re- 
 mainder, threatened to shoot the first who should enter the door. 
 Glancing his eyes around he recognized his perilous situation. 
 The sides of the room were of rough logs, between the inter- 
 stices of which peered at every corner the dark and desperate 
 faces of the prisoners in the contiguous jail cells. Before him 
 were thirteen armed and hostile men, anxious and determined to 
 destroy him. On repeating his questions concerning the robbery, 
 one of them threw himself on a pile of blankets and said that 
 they had slept in that position all the night and had kept no 
 watch. This man attempted, by rolling himself on the blankets, 
 to seize the colonel by the leg and trip him, upon which the lat- 
 ter snatched the rascal's bayonet from its scabbard and placed it 
 on the end of the musket in his hands. The fellow repeating 
 his effort, the colonel stabbed him in the leg, and seizing him 
 
726 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 with part of the blaukets hurled him out of the door, and thus 
 unexpectedly uncovered his stolen property. Having thus firmly 
 fastened the evidence upon the men, the stolen goods being in 
 sight, they immediately yielded, obeyed all his orders, and throw- 
 ing their bayonets in a pile, and forming themselves into a line, 
 carried the articles back to his quarters and placed them in the 
 spot whence they had been taken. Before leaving the guard- 
 room he took the precaution to knock out all the flints and re- 
 move the primings from the pans of the remaining arms. When 
 he reached his quarters, he sent twelve of the men back, and 
 knocking out the flint and priming and reversing the bayonet of 
 the gun he had retained, gave it to the last man, whom he sum- 
 marily kicked down stairs. During the day he called on the 
 American consul and preferred charges against the men to the 
 military commandante, who immediately ordered a trial, found 
 them guilty of the theft, and sentenced them to be whipped with 
 fifty lashes on the bare back in the public plaza, which was duly 
 carried into effect on the same day. Ever afterwards the colonel 
 was treated with the most abject humility by the military of the 
 place — though a reputation for such daring bravery was too ter- 
 ribly earned to be desired. 
 
 The Oregon at last arrived, and Col. Geary and family reached 
 San Francisco on the 1st of April. Having landed his trunks, 
 of which he had a number, he endeavored to employ persons to 
 carry them to a residence which he had previously secured ; but 
 being charged five dollars for each trunk, and complaining of the 
 exorbitant price, he was told by the man whom he had addressed 
 that he would give him five dollars each to carry them himself. 
 Taking the hint, he shouldered a trunk and soon succeeded in 
 conveying them one after another to his quarters. Thus, he at 
 least saved his originally intended outlay, though he never re- 
 ceived the additional fee promised by the labor-despising Cali- 
 fornian. 
 
 The colonel secured a room at the corner of Montgomery and 
 Washington streets, about eight feet by ten, for post-office pur- 
 poses, and commenced making preparations for distributing the 
 mail, consisting of about five thousand letters. Having no boxes, 
 he drew lines upon the floor, forming squares, which were duly 
 
JOHN W. GEARY. 
 
 727 
 
 alphabeted, in which the letters were arranged. These he de- 
 livered through a hole in the window, made by the removal of a 
 pane of glass. Col. Geary's labors were most arduous — he was 
 constantly at the delivery window — assistants could only be cm- 
 ployed at the high price of sixteen dollars a day, and their labors 
 he was compelled to overlook and direct. It was not long, how- 
 ever, before he had made such vast improvements as to render 
 the postal arrangements very complete. He removed the office 
 to the north-east corner of Washington and Stockton streets, 
 and thence to the south-west corner of Clay and Pike streets, 
 where it remained for a considerable time. Scarcely was the 
 office properly arranged, and in good working order, when Col. 
 Geary learned that General Taylor had, on his induction into the 
 presidency, appointed a successor. Too independent to retain 
 it a day longer than necessary, he applied to Col. Allen, then 
 mail agent for California, to release him from his contract with the 
 general government. Col. Bryan temporarily discharged the 
 duties of the office, until the arrival of Jacob B. Moore, Esq., 
 on whom the administration had bestowed the position. A uni- 
 versal sentiment of regret prevailed on the reception of this in- 
 telligence. Col. Geary, by his promptness and incredible dispatch 
 in reaching the city and opening his office, and the admirablo 
 manner in which he conducted it, had won the esteem and con- 
 fidence of the people. Owing to his removal from office, and the 
 impossibility of deciding upon his future course, but chiefly because 
 of the disordered state of the city, occasioned by the outrages of the 
 " Hounds," rendering it actually unsafe for any lady to reside 
 there, Col. Geary determined to let his family remain no longer, 
 but sent back to Pennsylvania, in company with long tried friends, 
 his wife and her two babes, the youngest of whom had been born 
 in April, and was the first male child of purely American parents 
 that was bom in San Francisco after the cession of California to 
 the United States. He now formed a co-partnership with 
 Messrs. Win. Van Vorhees and 0. P. Sutton, and entered into 
 a general auction and commission business, under the name of 
 Geary, Van Vorhees and Sutton. 
 
 The proclamation of General Eiley, governor of California, 
 having been issued a short time previous, the people began to 
 
728 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 look around for candidates, and Col. Geary was selected for the 
 office of First Alcalde. Notwithstanding he repeatedly and ab- 
 solutely refused to be a candidate, his name was placed on every 
 one of the ten different tickets, and in the ensuing election, he 
 received every vote cast for the office, as is officially certified in 
 the following document : 
 
 " To Hon. John W. Geary :— 
 
 " At a special election held in San Francisco, August 1st, 1849, to fill the 
 vacancy existing in the office of First Alcalde of said town and district, you 
 were elected by fifteen hundred and sixteen votes, being the whole number 
 cast. 
 
 "Frederick Billings, 
 " Cliairman Bd. Inspectors and Judges. 
 " San Francisco, August 2d, 1849." 
 
 Col. Geary had vacated his postmastership in favor of Col. 
 Bryan, who, on July 23d, assumed his duties, as soon as possible 
 after hearing of Mr. Moore's appointment of April 15th. Eight 
 days after, the entire population, by their flattering vote, had 
 demonstrated their confidence in his abilities. In obedience to 
 such a testimonial, the newly-elected alcalde entered on the du- 
 ties of his position, after taking the oath of office and being duly 
 commissioned by Governor Riley. The latter remarked in his 
 address on the occasion, in the presence of Commodore Jones and 
 others, that he was highly pleased at the result of the election, 
 that he entertained the highest regard and esteem for the colonel, 
 and was prepared to support him on all occasions, and if necessa- 
 ry call in the aid of the army ; " and," remarked Commodore 
 Jones, "add the navy, also." About this same time, Governor 
 Riley personally placed in his hands the following appointment 
 to the office of Judge of First Instance {Juez de primer a In- 
 stancia). 
 
 " Know all men by these presents, that I, Bennet Riley, Brevet Brig. 
 Genl. U. S. A., and Governor of California, by virtue of authority in me vested, 
 do hereby appoint and confirm J. W, Geary as Judge of First Instance in and 
 for the District of San Francisco, to date from the first of August, 1849. 
 
 " Given under my hand and seal at San Francisco, Cala., this Gth day of 
 August, A. D., 1849. 
 
 "B. Riley. 
 
 (Official.) •' Bt. Brig. Genl. U. S. A. and Gov. of California. 
 
 " H. W, Halleck, Bt. Capt. and Secretary of Stale." 
 
JOHN "W. GEARY. 
 
 729 
 
 Colonel Geary immediately set about the organization of the 
 city, and the establishment of an efficient police force. The task 
 was herculean. Pandemonium had to be quieted — chaos re- 
 duced to order. Here was a large maritime city, with a popula- 
 tion of about twenty thousand persons, and embracing a strange 
 medley of dangerous and desperate characters — without a solita- 
 ry officer, or a single law to govern or control them. All these 
 rebellious elements had to be subdued, and good citizens made 
 of daring bravados. This task fell upon the alcalde, who had to 
 perform the duties of every one of the customary officers of a city 
 and county jurisdiction. He was sheriff, probate, recorder, — even 
 notary public and coroner. He daily held an ordinary police or 
 mayor's court ; an alcalde's court for the minor cases and general 
 executive matters of the city ; a court of first instance with uni- 
 versal civil jurisdiction ; a court of first instance with like crimi- 
 nal extent ; and a court of admiralty for maritime cases. In 
 fine, he was the curator of the public, doing every thing that was 
 to be done, even to the holding of inquests and taking acknow- 
 ledgment of deeds. For a long time there was no other magis- 
 trate in the place, until Judge Geary himself requested the 
 appointment of other judicial officers, and Hon. Wm. B. Almond 
 was made Judge of First Instance with civil jurisdiction only. 
 Judge Geary performed all these varied and intricate duties with 
 the utmost satisfaction, until the month of January following, 
 when a new election took place, and he was re-elected alcalde, 
 having all but twelve of nearly four thousand votes polled. He 
 continued in this office until the ensuing spring, when the old 
 Mexican institutions were supplanted by our own system of mu- 
 nicipal government. 
 
 Under the old Mexican laws, alcaldes had power to grant 
 away the public lands at the fixed rates of twelve dollars for 
 fifty-vara lots and twenty-five dollars for one hundred-vara lots. 
 All American alcaldes, previous to Geary's time, had availed 
 themselves of this privilege, and disposed of an immense amount 
 of valuable property at the above mere nominal rates. Soon 
 after the organization of the ayuntamiento, a resolution was 
 offered authorizing and directing the alcalde to make such grants 
 at the legal rates. While the matter was yet in debate, Col. 
 
730 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Geary argued against it and refused to obey it if passed, declaring 
 that rather than make such grants he would relinquish his office, 
 since it would disgrace any man in after years to give away so 
 much property at prices so far below its real value. In accord- 
 ance with his suggestions, a committee of the ayuntamiento 
 was directed to ascertain the value of the city property at the 
 rates named. Their report stated it to be $35,000. On learn- 
 ing which, a small portion was ordered to be sold at public auction. 
 This realized the handsome sum of half a million of dollars, 
 which was duly accounted for and placed in the city treasury. 
 The large tracts remaining unsold were now proportionally worth 
 probably several millions of dollars. Such conduct cannot be too 
 highly commended, at a time when precedent, law and the direc- 
 tion of the ayuntamiento would have sanctioned the disposal of 
 the entire public domain for merely nominal prices. Hence the 
 titles that bear Judge Geary's signature are regarded the best 
 that can be possessed — since the citizens of the place are familiar 
 with his open and aboveboard conduct in regard to this affair. 
 Certain innuendos were afterwards circulated to the effect that he 
 had availed himself of his position and opportunities as a Com- 
 missioner of the Funded Debt to purchase lots at low rates for 
 his own aggrandizement, — a malicious slander that best refutes 
 itself, — for no one will believe that any man, then possessed of as 
 much as he need want, would contaminate his hands and risk 
 an untarnished reputation, for a few thousand stolen dollars, when 
 but a few months before, being then poor, he might have enriched 
 both himself and friends with millions, perfectly in accordance 
 with the law, and without detection or censure. 
 
 Col. Geary went into office as alcalde soon after the affair of 
 the " Hounds." From that time until the office was abolished, 
 the city was remarkable for the order which prevailed, and its 
 comparative freedom from the commission of heinous crimes. 
 The city comprised people of every nation, class and sort, many 
 of whom had for months been exercising an unrestrained course 
 of villainy and rascality, yet no civilized community has ever 
 been more harmoniously governed ; and even after his adminis- 
 tration had ceased, its condition could not compare with what it 
 had been before, as was proved from the necessity of the action 
 
JOHN W. GEARY. 
 
 731 
 
 of the Vigilance Committee. Thefts and robberies were of so 
 rare occurrence that valuable goods were frequently left in the 
 streets unwatched and undisturbed, and people had no hesitancy 
 in quitting their unprotected and generally open abodes for hours 
 and even days, without the slightest apprehension of suffering 
 loss during their absence. The rogues had either left the place 
 or were terror-stricken by a few examples of severe reprehension 
 that were given. They soon learned that they had little to ex- 
 pect from the tenderness or partiality of the magistrate. A con- 
 viction was sure to be followed by a merited and speedy punish- 
 ment, rendered as severe as opportunities permitted and circum- 
 stances seemed to demand. Finding that rascals cared little for 
 confinement in the prison-brig, where they ate the bread of idle- 
 ness at the public expense, the alcalde adopted a better method 
 to hold them in awe and teach them the observance of good 
 manners. He established a chain-gang, and attaching a chain 
 and large ball to the ankles of the criminals that they might not 
 escape, set them to work at improving the public streets, thus 
 compelling them to earn their keeping, and at the same time be 
 serviceable to the community. This company became a feature 
 of the place. The people of San Francisco appreciated these 
 efforts, and even those who suffered admitted the justice of his 
 decrees. Of twenty-five hundred civil and criminal cases tried 
 by the alcalde, not more than a dozen appeals had been taken 
 from his decisions, and not one was ever reversed. Throughout 
 the whole period of his arduous labors, he had exercised the most 
 unwavering firmness in the execution of his duty, regardless of 
 preference or friendship. He sought, too, to infuse the seeds of 
 prosperous and healthy life in the community, by his efforts in 
 the cause of education, and was instrumental in the establishment 
 of the first permanent public school in the town, whereby its 
 youths might be properly instructed and effectually shielded from 
 the vicious examples and temptations surrounding them. 
 
 Not less commendable were his exertions for the sanitary good 
 of the town during the fearful season of the cholera, which then 
 appeared in San Francisco. He was elected president of both 
 the State and City Boards of Health, and was as efficient in 
 
732 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 combating the attacks of disease, as he had been those of a more 
 tangible foe on the field of battle. 
 
 The first city charter was adopted May 1st, 1850, and Col- 
 onel Geary elected mayor under its provisions by a large and 
 flattering vote. The important measures that he accomplished 
 in perfecting the re-organization of the city, have been minutely 
 detailed in other parts of this work. He sustained the city 
 credit, and used the veto power repeatedly and judiciously in 
 restraining the extravagant outlays of public funds that the 
 councils, here as in eastern cities, continually voted. These were 
 calculated to impoverish the city, by vesting a series of wealthy 
 monopolies in the hands of private individuals. During this 
 administration, occurred the great conflagrations that we have 
 described elsewhere. For his almost superhuman efforts to save 
 the city from total destruction during these calamities, Mayor 
 Geary received the grateful thanks of the entire press. Pene- 
 trating boldly into the midst of the burning districts, he person- 
 ally ascertained the nature and extent of the disasters, and suc- 
 ceeded in staying their progress by ordering the destruction of 
 various buildings, — including valuable property of his own. Sev- 
 eral times the owners threatened his life, and one discharged a 
 pistol at him ; but nothing intimidated he hurled this man to the 
 ground, and axe in hand was the first to execute the order he 
 had issued. By these prompt actions he prevented the loss of 
 millions of dollars worth of property. Some of the owners of 
 the buildings he had officially ordered destroyed, supposing him 
 able to pay, subsequently endeavored by vexatious legal pros- 
 ecutions to compel him to indemnify them for their losses 
 out of his private purse, notwithstanding he had suffered as 
 severely as themselves, and his acts acknowledged not only to be 
 judicious but absolutely demanded under the circumstances. The 
 squatter riots at Sacramento furnished Mr. Geary another oppor- 
 tunity of eliciting the applause of his fellow citizens by his 
 efficient promptness on occasions of emergency and danger. 
 Hastily enrolling a large force of citizen soldiery, comprising the 
 first men of the town, he led them to the scene of disorder, and 
 by his timely appearance aided materially in restoring quiet. 
 Both the civil and military authorities of Sacramento, and the 
 
JOHN W. GEARY. 
 
 733 
 
 press of both cities, were loud in their commendation of his heroic 
 and voluntary assistance. 
 
 Toward the expiration of his term of office, Colonel Gear)' 
 received a communication numerously signed by respectable indi- 
 viduals and business firms of every political complexion, request- 
 ing him to be a candidate for re-election to the mayoralty, which 
 he positively declined ; but was soon after created by the State 
 Legislature a member of the Board of Commissioners of the 
 Funded Debt, and on the organization of that body was elected 
 their president. The city was then $1,500,000 in debt, at a 
 current interest of three per cent, per month, or an aggregate 
 of $540,000 per annum — a sum so immense that by its own 
 accumulation it would soon have swallowed up the vast resources 
 and real estate of the city. At first it was difficult to get indi- 
 viduals holding city scrip to fund it, exchanging it for bonds 
 bearing only ten per cent, per annum interest ; but the commis- 
 sioners, by untiring efforts, finally created a public opinion in favor 
 of funding, by showing that it was the only manner in which the 
 city could ever hope to pay her indebtedness and keep her faith 
 with her creditors. These representations, and especially a pro- 
 vision of the same Act of Legislature creating the commissioners, 
 that conveyed to them all the city lands in trust for the benefit 
 of its creditors, finally induced a majority of the holders to sur- 
 render their scrip. Some positively refused to fund their accounts, 
 and preferred suing and obtaining judgment against the city, 
 and levying upon these lots, which the sheriff accordingly sold, 
 though he and the public had been repeatedly warned of their 
 conveyance by deed of trust to the commissioners. The courts 
 would not grant injunctions to stop these sales, and the parties 
 interested refused to accept a settlement and satisfaction of their 
 judgments, although in one instance Colonel Geary offered to 
 secure the amount from his own private estate. Notwithstanding 
 the board had done every thing in their power to attain their 
 object, acting under the advice of their attorney, one of the most 
 astute lawyers in the State, Hon. Solomon Heydenfeldt, now 
 seated on the bench of the Supreme Court, and had even pub- 
 lished catalogues of sales, they were prevented from ever making 
 them by the injunctions of the courts, who seemed to conspire 
 
734 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 against them. The Supreme Court has since legalized the 
 sheriff's sales, yet the plan of funding the debt has been suc- 
 cessful, and alike honorable to the commissioners and City of 
 San Francisco, their bonds having risen from twenty-five per 
 cent, to their face value with interest added, and are now con- 
 sidered as safe and good investment as can be made in the State. 
 Having carefully examined and investigated all the facts con- 
 nected with the course of the commissioners, we know of none 
 other that could be prosecuted by them that would have resulted 
 with so much credit and benefit to the city. 
 
 San Francisco was, in the latter part of the year 1851, startled 
 by intelligence from southern California, that the Indians were 
 murdering the citizens of San Diego and its vicinity. Col. 
 Geary immediately issued a call for volunteers, and succeeded 
 in enrolling a fine cavalry corps of one hundred and thirty men — 
 which, with a company under Captain Aldrich, held themselves 
 in readiness to proceed to the south. It was, however, learned 
 by subsequent news from the sufferers that their interference 
 would not be required ; yet, in this instance, as on every other, 
 Col. Geary exhibited his willingness ever to draw his sword and 
 risk his life in the cause of right, honor and humanity. 
 
 Col. Geary left San Francisco, February 1st, 1852, on a 
 six months' leave of absence from the board ; but the death of 
 his wife, whom he found sick on reaching home, and of several 
 other near and dear relatives, has since prevented him from 
 returning to the scene of his usefulness. He at present resides 
 on his farm in Westmoreland County, and is ever actively alive 
 to the interests and prosperity of San Francisco, and her rising 
 rank among the great cities of the world. 
 
CHARLES J. BRENHAM, 
 
 SECOND AND FOURTH MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Many of the citizens of New Orleans and the Mississippi Valley, 
 as well as travellers upon the great " Father of Waters," will 
 rememher the cordial, gallant and popular commander of some 
 of the finest steamers on the Mississippi River, running between 
 Vicksburg and. the Crescent City, a few years ago — -the subject 
 of this sketch. Charles J. Brenham was born in Frankfort, Ken- 
 tucky, November 6th, 1817. Leaving home early in life, before 
 the age of twenty years, he found himself at Natchez, master of 
 one of the best steamboats on the river. When he arrived in 
 New Orleans, the underwriters, at first, refused insurance, be- 
 cause of his extreme youth. He might have imitated in his 
 reply the apt retort of John Randolph — "Ask my constituents.'' 
 But the opinions and endorsements of older heads finally over- 
 
736 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 came the objections to his younger one, and he was allowed to 
 occupy the position which his capacity had won. He proved 
 himself a very competent commander. Having followed the 
 business with varying success for several years, now in the full 
 tide of fortune, now seeing the flames consume or the waters en- 
 gulf his entire possessions, he finally determined to seek a new 
 field of adventure. 
 
 Mr. Brenham left New Orleans, June 17th, 1849, for Cali- 
 fornia, and arrived at San Francisco on the 18th of August fol- 
 lowing. A short time afterwards he took command of the 
 steamer McKim, running between San Francisco and Sacra- 
 mento. While thus employed, he was, in 1850, much to his 
 surprise, nominated by the whig party as a candidate for the 
 mayoralty. Mr. Brenham had always been a thorough and ar- 
 dent whig, but had taken no part in politics. The nomination 
 was unsolicited and unexpected, and our subject being very pros- 
 perous at the time, rather deprecated the election than other- 
 wise ; indeed the position was strange to one who had never 
 contemplated such a thing. The canvas was warmly conducted ; 
 but Mr. Brenham never left his business for a moment, nor did 
 he once go on shore for the purpose of electioneering, he having 
 stipulated with the party that he would only accept the nomina- 
 tion on the condition that he should not be required to neglect 
 his private business. He was, however, defeated by the election 
 of Col. Geary. 
 
 A short time afterwards, Mr. Brenham, in conjunction with 
 others, purchased the steamer Gold Hunter. He took command 
 of that vessel, and remained in her until she was placed in the 
 Mazatlan trade. In 1851, he was again nominated by the whig 
 party for the mayoralty. He was opposed by Mr. Frank Tilford, 
 a very popular democrat, and for the previous year recorder of 
 the city. The canvas at this time was the severest, and the ex- 
 citement the greatest by far that had taken place at any previous 
 election, and greater than any other which has taken place since ; 
 and it can be said with truth that the success of the ticket was 
 mainly attributable to the activity and exertions of Mr. Bren- 
 ham. For weeks previous he made speeches every night, and 
 considering that he was quite unaccustomed to fill such a posi- 
 
CHARLES J. BRENHAM. 
 
 737 
 
 tion, he acquitted himself as a public orator with great credit. 
 On the 5th of May, 1851, — the day after the great fire, — Mr. 
 Brenham entered upon the duties of office. The city was burned 
 down, and broken in credit ; she had not funds sufficient to buy 
 even stationery for the officers of the municipal government. 
 
 The year 1851, will ever be regarded as the most event- 
 ful that had yet occurred in San Francisco, and the admin- 
 istration of the municipal affairs may be considered an era in 
 the history of the city, as having been the most economical, faith' 
 ful and watchful of her true interests. The common council was 
 composed of men who had the interest of the city alone at heart, 
 and who nobly responded to the exigencies of the times. Be- 
 sides the embarrassment occasioned this year by the prostrate 
 condition of the municipal affairs, this administration encoun- 
 tered all the excitement and troubles of the Vigilance Committee 
 times. The position of the mayor was one of great delicacy and 
 difficulty ; but he faltered not, although in the strict discharge 
 of his duty he was often compelled to appear in open collision 
 with the people. In the noted riot, when attempts were made 
 to wrest from the court and officers the prisoner Lewis, charged 
 with arson, nothing but Mr. Brenham's resolution and firmness 
 prevented the mob from taking Lewis and executing him at once. 
 Among the many acts of the mayor during this year worthy of 
 great praise, time has shown that none will compare with his 
 advocacy of the measure to have the "Peter Smith" judgments 
 paid, at that time amounting only to the sum of $40,000. Had 
 his advice and counsel been heeded, a vast amount of money and 
 property would have been saved to the city. 
 
 As an evidence of Mr. Brenham's presence of mind and firm- 
 ness in trying circumstances, we may instance the great riot in 
 the case of Captain Waterman. The person named was in the 
 house of Alsop & Co., in which was crowded a most turbulent 
 set of men. About a thousand persons were assembled outside, 
 who were violent and vindictive, and determined instantly to 
 hang Waterman. The mayor appeared, cleared the house im- 
 mediately, and addressed the crowd, appealing to them to dis- 
 perse. Finding his appeal to the mob disregarded, he next 
 appealed to the law abiding citizens in the vicinity. Feeling 
 47 
 
738 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 confident that he could obtain their assistance if necessary, he 
 now spoke to the rioters in a determined and authoritative man- 
 ner ; and pulling out his watch, gave them just ten minutes to 
 disperse, or he would take every man of them to prison. Before 
 the expiration of the time granted, the crowd had left, and there 
 remained no traces of the late scene of violence and excitement. 
 
 At the general election following, the whig party, owing to 
 its construction of the law, made no nomination for the city offi- 
 cers. By a subsequent decision of the Supreme Court, Mr. Bren- 
 ham's administration was ejected ; and, after some litigation and 
 delay, the democratic candidates, who had run without opposition 
 — they receiving only about eleven hundred votes in a city which 
 had cast six thousand (the people not generally voting), — were 
 installed into office. As soon as the decision of the Supreme 
 Court was made known, Mr. Brenham promptly and very grace- 
 fully resigned his office to Dr. S. B. Harris, who had been by the 
 court declared elected. 
 
 At this period, Mr. Brenham commenced the banking and 
 exchange business, in company with Beverley C. Sanders, under 
 the style of Sanders & Brenham. This firm has been eminently 
 successful in business. 
 
 In 1852, during the presidential campaign, Mr. Brenham 
 was appointed one of the Whig State Central Committee, and 
 by the committee was elected president. His exertions and 
 efficiency in this capacity are known and appreciated by the 
 whig party throughout the State. Mr. Brenham was again 
 nominated, and elected, this year, for the mayoralty, and at 
 the same time received from President Fillmore the appoint- 
 ment of " Treasurer of the Mint," and " Assistant Treasurer of 
 the United States," which appointment was confirmed by the 
 Senate. The commission is dated August 31st, 1852. Al- 
 though the office of treasurer of the mint was lucrative, and one 
 of great honor and trust, still Mr. Brenham, preferring the mayor- 
 alty, declined the acceptance of the appointment. In this he 
 was partly influenced by the fact that his partner, Mr. B. C. 
 Sanders, at the very same time received and accepted the ap- 
 pointment of Collector of the Port. 
 
 Many important matters arose during the second term of 
 
CHARLES J. BRENHAM. 
 
 739 
 
 office of Mr. Brenham, as mayor, which required great judgment 
 and discretion. In the management of those matters, he dis- 
 played striking ability and integrity. His messages will compare 
 favorably with State documents of greater reputation. He was 
 often obliged to veto the action of the council, and generally his 
 action was to the entire satisfaction of the people and the welfare 
 of the city. During Mr. Brenham's whole official career, not the 
 slightest imputation was ever made impugning the purity of his 
 motives or his strict integrity. He was never interested in any 
 way pecuniarily with any speculation connected with the city. 
 He never availed himself of his position for the purpose of per- 
 sonal aggrandizement. No one ever has performed, or ever will 
 perform the duties of an office with more purity of purpose, and 
 with a greater regard for the true interests of the city, than did 
 Mr. Brenham. He retired from his office without the slightest 
 taint or suspicion. 
 
 Satisfied with the honors he had enjoyed, and with a deter- 
 mination to eschew both office and politics for the future, Mr. 
 Brenham declined a reappointment as a member of the Whig 
 State Central Committee, and has since then devoted all his time 
 and energies to the business of his house. Few men have so 
 many personal friends among all classes as has the subject of our 
 sketch. His manner is eminently cordial, conciliatory and com- 
 panionable. In every situation, however trying and untried, in 
 which circumstances and the choice of his fellow-citizens have 
 placed him, he has been found competent and faithful, and 
 has invariably discharged his duty impartially, efficiently and fear- 
 lessly. To be strictly bonest and honorable may not ordinarily 
 entitle a man to any extra amount of praise, for that is his duty. 
 Yet when we see one inflexibly pursuing the course of right be- 
 cause it is right, uncontaminated by the surrounding contagion of 
 unlawful speculation which greatly prevailed during much of the 
 time that Mr. Brenham held office, and possessed of the power 
 of turning his position into a medium of great, though dishonora- 
 ble gains, it is but justice to give the due meed of praise, and to 
 say to him who has justly done his duty to his fellow-citizens 
 and himself — Well done, thou good and faithful servant ! 
 
 ■ 
 
STEPHEN R. HARRIS. M. D., 
 
 i 
 
 THIRD MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Dr. Stephen R. Harris was born at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in the 
 year 1802. His father, Isaac Harris, formerly a merchant in 
 New York City, took an active part in the war of 1812, and 
 perished on the " Governor Tompkins," of which vessel he was 
 purser. After his father's death, he resided with his grandfather, 
 Captain Randall of Randall's Island. He studied medicine in 
 the office of Dr. Alexander H. Stevens, and graduated at the " Col- 
 lege of Physicians and Surgeons " in the City of New York. 
 In 1826, he commenced the practice of his profession in the first 
 ward of that city, where he continued until 1849, when he em- 
 barked for California. 
 
 During his residence in New York, he was appointed to 
 various offices of trust and responsibility, all of which lie filled 
 
STEPHEN B. HARRIS. 
 
 741 
 
 with uncommon ability and great credit to himself. For six 
 consecutive years he was Health Commissioner of the State, 
 having been successively nominated to the Senate by Governors 
 Wright and Bouck ; Governor DeWitt Clinton appointed him 
 surgeon of the ninth regiment of artillery ; he was selected by 
 the common council of the city, with other medical gentlemen, 
 to organize and attend in consultation with its officers, the alms- 
 house medical department ; and during the terrible prevalence 
 of the cholera in 1832-34, held the position of medical attend- 
 ant of the first ward. 
 
 Few men ever enjoyed a larger share of the respect and con- 
 fidence of their fellow-citizens. When an applicant for the posi- 
 tion of health officer of the port of New York, his application 
 was commended to the governor by numerous certificates and 
 letters signed by hundreds of the most respectable and influen- 
 tial men of the place, all urging his appointment by the most 
 flattering testimonials of his professional qualifications and moral 
 worth. The following brief extracts, will afford some evidence 
 of the high estimation in which he was held : — 
 
 " We believe him to be a physician of most respectable standing; and ac- 
 knowledged abilities — a man of energetic and industrious habits — of unblem- 
 ished honor and integrity, and one in whom confidence can be reposed ; and we 
 doubt not. if he should receive the appointment, would perform the duties of 
 the office with skill, fidelity and devotion to the best interests of the public, and 
 afford entire satisfaction to all persons having business with the quarantine." 
 
 " He is a man of pure moral character — an old resident of this city r , well 
 known as a firm and consistent democrat, ardent and laborious as such — as a 
 physician his abilities are acknowledged by all who have the pleasure of his 
 acquaintance, and they are numerous. His untiring devotcdness to the poor 
 during the pestilence which raged here in the years 1832-'34, entitled him to 
 the high character of a disinterested philanthropist and the benefactor of the 
 poor." 
 
 These testimonials speak for themselves, and are the more 
 important from the high and creditable sources from which they 
 emanated. They present the early character of Dr. Harris in 
 its proper light. Since his residence in California, he has fully 
 sustained the honorable reputation he had previously won ; hav- 
 ing gained the confidence, respect, esteem, and approbation of 
 the entire community. 
 
742 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Dr. Harris left New York on the 9th of February, 1849, and 
 reached Panama, on the 7th of March. Here he was detained 
 two and a half months waiting the arrival of a steamer bound to 
 San Francisco. During this time he was actively engaged in 
 attending, gratuitously, his sick countrymen and others, six thou- 
 sand of whom, on their way to California, were, like himself, 
 compelled to remain on the Isthmus. For the sick and destitute 
 no provision had been made. The expenses of rooms, cots, nurses, 
 medicines, — and in cases of death, — of burials, were paid by vol- 
 untary weekly contributions made by the members of Masonic 
 and Odd-Fellows' lodges, to both of which orders the doctor was 
 attached. His generous conduct on this and subsequent similar 
 occasions was reported to his lodges in New York, who signified 
 their high regard for him by the passage, unanimously, of a series 
 of highly laudatory resolutions. 
 
 Few sailing vessels entered Panama at the period above 
 named. The ship Niantic, a whaler, and one or two others that 
 had been discharging coal for the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
 pany, left, crowded with passengers at very extravagant prices, 
 so anxious were persons to leave ; and the chartering of vessels 
 by a few merchants had become so much a monopoly, that it 
 enabled them to extort enormous rates for passage. A number 
 of Americans joined together and sent to Cruces for an iron boat, 
 of sufficient size to sail down the bay, to intercept and charter 
 such ships as they might meet. For this purpose twenty thou- 
 sand dollars were collected, and placed in the hands of Dr. Harris 
 as treasurer, the persons paying their money to have preference of 
 passage. The iron boat was purchased, and by Herculean labor 
 carried by the natives to Panama. Circumstances rendered her 
 services unnecessary ; she was therefore re-sold and the money 
 returned to its respective owners. 
 
 At last the anxiously looked-for day arrived. A steamer was 
 announced. The news spread with electric rapidity. Hundreds 
 rushed to the Battery, and in a few minutes it was densely crowded, 
 each hoping it might prove a conveyance, and a release from a 
 city alone to be tolerated by necessity. The vessel proved to be 
 the steamship Panama, in which Dr. Harris sailed (her first trip 
 up), and arrived in San Francisco, June 6th, 1849. His early 
 
STEPHEN R. HARRIS. 
 
 743 
 
 arrival made him eligible, and he is now a member of the " So- 
 ciety of California Pioneers." 
 
 Shortly after reaching San Francisco, Dr. Harris proceeded 
 to Sacramento in a small schooner, the passage occupying six 
 days. He thence proceeded to Smith's Bar on the North Fork 
 of the American River, where he worked forty days digging gold, 
 at the expiration of which time he returned to San Francisco to 
 receive goods that he had shipped previous to leaving New York. 
 With these, valued at $20,000, he commenced the drug business 
 at the corner of Clay and Montgomery streets, in company with 
 Mr. Panton. Their establishment was the most extensive in the 
 country. Here the doctor met with a series of the most dire 
 calamities. In the terrible conflagrations of May 4th, and June 
 22d, 1850, and May 4th, 1851, his store, with its stock of goods 
 (the former being rebuilt and the latter replenished after each 
 successive fire), were entirely destroyed, amounting in the aggre- 
 gate to a very considerable fortune. Still persevering, he re- 
 moved to Dr. Stout's boarding-house, on Washington street, and 
 again commenced business ; but on the 17th of September, he 
 once more lost all he possessed by the destructive fire that then 
 occurred. No man in San Francisco suffered more by these 
 calamities than Dr. Harris. After the last fire, somewhat de- 
 pressed in spirits, he again left for the mines, and was absent five 
 months, visiting most of the mining districts, north and south, 
 examining quartz leads, and prospecting placer diggings. 
 
 In September, 1851, Dr. Harris was elected mayor of San 
 Francisco, and served his term of office to the entire satisfaction 
 of the people. This was during the period when, what has been 
 generally termed the " accidental " council were in power, whose 
 acts had rendered them almost universally unpopular. With 
 this council Mayor Harris frequently came in collision ; and by 
 his judicious use of the veto power, frustrated some of their 
 most obnoxious measures. At the election in September, 1853, 
 he was chosen for the responsible station of city comptroller by 
 a large majority of his fellow-citizens, which office he now holds, 
 and while he performs the business thereof to the entire satisfac- 
 tion of the people, he also continues to practise to some consider- 
 able extent the duties of his profession. 
 
C. K. GARRISON, 
 
 FIFTH AND PRESENT MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 If the history of all men in America who have risen to emi- 
 nence in the various callings of life, as well as those who have 
 missed such position, could be written, read and compared, it 
 would probably be found that the inheritance of wealth is, in a 
 majority of cases, a real misfortune, while the lack of it is the 
 means of making men of those who might have been merely the 
 spoiled pets of fortune. No man knows the real value of wealth 
 unless he has himself earned it. There is no true greatness without 
 self-reliance, and in most cases this is obtained chiefly through 
 the struggles and toils incident to the lives of self-made men. In 
 every course of life, he who works and wins is vastly superior to 
 him who merely retains. In this light, Louis Napoleon is a hero 
 and statesman compared with the hereditary czar, Nicholas ; and 
 so the subject of this biography is entitled to infinitely more 
 
C. K. GARRISON. 
 
 745 
 
 praise for having achieved a splendid fortune than all the inheritors 
 of wealth in the land for being the heirs of rich sires. 
 
 C. K. Garrison was born 1st March, 1809, upon the bank of 
 the Hudson, near West Point, on a farm settled by his grand- 
 sires more than one hundred and twenty-five years before. The 
 same property has remained in possession of the family for up- 
 wards of one hundred and fifty years. The ancestors of Mr. 
 Garrison were Hollanders ; on the father's side, 1 the Garrisons 
 and Coverts ; on the mother's, the Kingslands and the Schuylers. 
 Both branches of the family having been among the first settlers 
 of New Amsterdam, they have just claim to the title of "Knick- 
 erbocker." The subject of our sketch was the second of a family 
 of seven (five sons and two daughters), all of whom are living, 
 with the exception of one of the daughters. These were the 
 offspring of Oliver Garrison and Catherine Kingsland his wife. 
 The Garrison family had acquired a respectability from their long 
 residence in the same neighborhood, and for nearly a century had 
 exercised an influence that could only be gained by time over the 
 prevailing class — the Dutch. The paterfamilias was at onetime 
 considered quite wealthy, but from heavy indorsements for his 
 friends, he became involved in pecuniary matters, at an early day 
 in the history of the subject of this memoir. Then it was that 
 the latter, as well as his brothers, learned that they must look to 
 their own resources alone for maintenance and support. Accord- 
 ingly, at the age of thirteen, our little hero left home — the first 
 of the name that had ever quit his father's roof before arriving at 
 the age of manhood. His first outset was in the capacity of 
 cabin-boy in a sloop, such being the only craft employed at that 
 day in the carrying trade on the Hudson. It was not, however, 
 without great difficulty, that young Garrison obtained from his 
 parents their reluctant consent that he might leave their home, 
 and accept the situation he sought. This was more particularly 
 the case with Mrs. Garrison, who prided herself greatly upon her 
 family origin. " What," the old lady said, " would the Van 
 Buskerks, the Kingslands, the Schuylers, the host of other respect- 
 able relatives, the thousand and one cousins, &c, &c, say, if it 
 reached their ears, that my son was a cabin-boy." 
 
 Neither tears, remonstrances, nor consideration for the feel- 
 
746 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FKANC1SCO. 
 
 ings, or failings, of his friends and relatives, his thousand and 
 one cousins, &o, prevailed aught towards a change of mind. The 
 hoy had determined on his course. He would be independent, 
 and earn his own bread ; for he plainly saw that his father, in 
 consequence of his misfortunes, was unable to provide for him. 
 From that day forward, he supported himself without any paren- 
 tal aid, excepting, perhaps, the prayers of his beloved mother for 
 his success. He followed his employment on the river during the 
 business season, and through the winter months, when navigation 
 was suspended, went to a country school. After leading this 
 sort of life for about three years, he consented, at the earnest 
 solicitation of his mother, to go to New York, to learn architecture 
 and the building trade. After remaining there about three years, 
 he resolved to migrate westward. For some five or six years 
 afterwards, Mr. Garrison was engaged, principally in Upper Can- 
 ada, in the erection of buildings, and the constructing of steam- 
 boats on the great lakes. During that time he built, in connec- 
 tion with a gentleman from New York, four steamers on Lakes 
 Ontario, Huron, and Simcoe. In the interval, he married in 
 Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 While in Canada, and then a young man and a foreigner, the 
 important trust of the general supervision of the Upper Canada 
 Company's affairs, — that company being one of the wealthiest in 
 England, and owning a large portion of the province, — was con- 
 fided to the subject of our sketch. This trust was afterwards 
 voluntarily surrendered by him on account of the probability of a 
 war ensuing between England and America, arising from the 
 border difficulties existing at the time between the two nations. 
 Mr. Garrison's patriotism forbade his holding office in a company 
 so closely allied with the British government, should a war ensue. 
 
 From Canada, Mr. Garrison went to the south-west ; where, 
 for many years, he was engaged in building and commanding 
 steamboats, and in other enterprises. In February, 1849, he 
 met with the serious misfortune of losing his steamer, together 
 with some 1200 tons of cotton and produce, by fire, on the 
 Mississippi river, near Natchez. A short time previous to this 
 the precious metal having been discovered in California, Mr. 
 Garrison determined to remove to Panama, and establish a 
 
C. K. GARRISON. 
 
 747 
 
 commercial and banking-house there, as the important interme- 
 diate point between California and the Atlantic States. This 
 enterprise was successful beyond all that he had dared to hope. 
 
 Mr. Garrison left Panama for New York, in the latter part 
 of 1852, with the view of establishing a branch of his house in 
 the latter city. On arriving there, however, his intentions were 
 changed by an offer of the Nicaragua Steamship Company to 
 take the Pacific agency of their line of vessels, at a salary of 
 sixty thousand dollars a year for two years certain. In addition 
 to this appointment, he received, at the same time, the agency 
 of two insurance companies in San Francisco, at a salary of 
 twenty-five thousand dollars per annum. These sums made his 
 future income at least $85,000 a year. He arrived in San Fran- 
 cisco in the latter part of March, 1853, and early in September 
 following, was elected to the mayoralty of the city. 
 
 From the first hour of his leaving the paternal roof, to the 
 present day, Mr. Garrison has been actively engaged in various 
 pursuits, during which time he has met with many losses. Among 
 these were two of the largest class of steamers, of which he was 
 the sole owner, and upon one of which there was not a dollar of 
 insurance. These misfortunes left him for a time penniless, with 
 a wife and family depending on him for support. But he never 
 faltered. Energy and perseverance, hope and will were his, and 
 by them he fought and conquered. His career is a very fair 
 illustration of the American character. With a mind com- 
 mercially comprehensive, quick to perceive and to act, adven- 
 turous and speculative, he has taken advantage of circumstances, 
 and bent them to his will. As a business man, he is said, by 
 some, to lack system. But this, if true, is more than compen- 
 sated by the boldness of his ventures, and the pertinacity with 
 which they are pursued. At the age of forty-five, he finds him- 
 self the possessor of a princely fortune, which he knows how to 
 use ; with a salary three or four times greater than that of the 
 President of the United States ; with a revenue besides, from 
 other sources, of as much more ; and occupying one of the most 
 honorable positions politically, as Mayor of the City of San 
 Francisco, the duties of which he has thus far performed with 
 credit to himself and to the city. 
 
SAMUEL BRANNAN. 
 
 This gentleman was born at Saco, State of Maine, on the 2d 
 of March, 1819, at which town he was educated, and passed his 
 earlier years. In 1833, he removed, accompanied by his sister, 
 to Lake County, Ohio, where he entered upon an apprenticeship 
 to letter-press printing. Before the term of his indenture was 
 completed, in 1836, he bought up the remainder of his time. 
 He next went into the great land speculations of the memorable 
 years 1836 and 1837, when the whole Union was seized with the 
 mania of making fortunes without the worrying need of time, 
 trouble or capital. It was rather an early age at which to be- 
 come a land-jobber, but Mr. Brannan had a deal to do in the 
 world, and pretty soon began his eventful career. He came out 
 of his speculations nearly as he went into them — without a cent. 
 In 1S37, he turned again to the press, and travelled the country 
 as a journeyman printer. In the course of the five following 
 
SAMUEL BRANNAN. 
 
 749 
 
 years he visited most of the States in the Union, staying a 
 month in one town, two months in another, and perhaps half a 
 year in some more important place, all which time he was regu- 
 larly pursuing his profession. In 1842, he connected himself 
 with the religious hody of Mormons, and for several years advo- 
 cated their principles, and published for them in New York a 
 weekly newspaper, styled the " New York Messenger." 
 
 In 1846, he conceived the idea of leading a band of Ameri- 
 can pioneers to the shores of the Pacific, to settle and grow into 
 greatness among the Mexicans of California. At his own risk and 
 expense, he chartered the ship " Brooklyn," of three hundred and 
 seventy tons, fitted it up with state-rooms and cabins, supplied 
 it amply with provisions and all necessaries for the voyage, and 
 invited intending emigrants to take passages for California. Two 
 hundred and thirty-six passengers embarked (mostly Mormons), 
 of which number, upwards of sixty were adult females, and 
 about forty children of both sexes. With the foresight that 
 distinguishes him, Mr. Brannan provided a printing-press, types, 
 and a stock of paper, flour-mill machinery, ploughs and other 
 agricultural implements, and a great variety of such scientific 
 apparatus as would likely be of service in the new country. 
 
 On the 4th of February, 1846, the " Brooklyn " sailed from 
 New York ; and about five months afterwards, touched at the 
 Sandwich Islands for refreshments. Here Mr. Brannan landed all 
 the passengers, provided them with lodgings on shore, and was at 
 the whole expense of maintaining them while there. Previously 
 and during the voyage, many of the passengers, considering 
 the uncertain character of the country they were proceeding to, 
 and the probable chances of a war between the United States 
 and Mexico at the time when they would likely reach California, 
 had formed themselves into an association for mutual support 
 and protection, whereby they were to work in common and share 
 together the proceeds of their labor. Mr. Brannan was chosen 
 president of this association. The other members had nothing 
 which they could put into the common stock but their labor ; 
 while the president, patron, projector and leader of the party 
 contributed every thing he possessed — agricultural implements, 
 machinery, tools, provisions and all. There were then only 
 
750 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 twenty-four muskets on board ; but Mr. Brannan purchased at 
 the Sandwich Islands, in addition, one hundred and fifty stand 
 of arms. 
 
 Here, a person by the name of Henry Harris, residing in 
 Honolulu, became enamored with a pretty girl among the passen- 
 gers, and wished to join the association, so that he might follow 
 and marry her, which he afterwards did. The proposal of Har- 
 ris, however, to become one of the party, was at first opposed by 
 Mr. Brannan, who foresaw difficulties and future contention in 
 the scheme ; but when much intercession was used by influential 
 people, whom he regarded, that Harris should join the expe- 
 dition, he consented. Harris paid accordingly his fifty dollars 
 for a passage, and no more. It is from these circumstances, that 
 afterwards arose a great scandal and much foolish clamor against 
 Mr. Brannan ; and as the subject has been little understood, and 
 never before properly explained, we think it right to enter a little 
 upon it. 
 
 On the 31st of July the Brooklyn reached San Francisco, 
 then called Yerba Buena, and the passengers immediately landed 
 and squatted among the sand-hills of the beach. At first, there 
 was but trifling work for them to do, save to erect adobe or frame 
 buildings for the former inhabitants or themselves. There was 
 little or no money to be had, in those days, in the country ; but 
 their services were paid mostly in provisions or goods, which were 
 consumed almost as soon as received. 
 
 Harris, after three months' connection with the association, 
 grew tired of it, and wished to separate. He therefore asked 
 the directors to let him go, and pay him the share of the common 
 stock to which he thought he was entitled. His application was 
 refused on many plausible grounds ; and, particularly, in regard 
 to the payment of any thing, for this very good reason, that the 
 association, after paying its debts, had nothing to divide — neither 
 money nor goods, that could be shared. They further urged, 
 that Harris himself had been all along supported out of the com- 
 mon stock of provisions, and had received in that way a great 
 deal more than his services were worth. Still dissatisfied, Harris 
 raised an action, not against the whole association nor the direct- 
 ors conjointly, but against Mr. Brannan himself, as an individual. 
 
SAMUEL BRANNAN. 
 
 751 
 
 The suit terminated in a formal jury trial, the first that ever 
 took place in California. The alcalde of the day, Washington 
 A. Bartlett, presided as judge ; and Colonel W. H. Russell acted 
 as counsel for the defendant. The jury found for Mr. Brannan. 
 Upon these simple circumstances, and the subsequent dissolution 
 of the association, people have raised calumnies against the sub- 
 ject of our sketch, and have pretended to consider him indebted 
 for his present position and wealth to the money he wrongfully 
 withheld from his fellow-partners in the firm of " S. Brannan 
 & Co.," under which name the association had conducted its 
 business transactions. The fact was, that Mr. Brannan had sup- 
 plied every thing to that association, and received nothing from 
 them but the original moderate passage-money, that being only 
 from fifty to seventy-five dollars for each passenger. At the dis- 
 solution of the concern, in 1847, its property was sold, its debts 
 were paid, and the balance of the funds properly divided among 
 the remaining partners. 
 
 Mr. Brannan, meanwhile, both as a partner and president of 
 the associated immigrants, and as an individual on his own ac- 
 count, was interested in a number of speculations. In 1846, he 
 erected the machinery of two flour-mills in the existing Clay 
 street, which were the first introduced into the country. He 
 also, in January, 1847, projected and published a weekly news- 
 paper called the " California Star," which was the first journal 
 that appeared in San Francisco, and is the parent of the present 
 "Alta California." In t*he fall of 1 846, he had likewise commenced 
 a farm at the junction of the San Joaquin and Stanislaus rivers : 
 but, whether this was too slow a business for him, or that Provi- 
 dence had simply willed it otherwise, his farming operations were 
 failures, and he abruptly abandoned them. 
 
 In the fall of 1847, Mr. Brannan started a store at Sutter's 
 Fort, under the name of C. C. Smith & Co. This was the first 
 establishment of the kind formed in Sacramento Valley. In the 
 spring of 1848, he bought out Mr. Smith, who shortly afterwards 
 returned to the Atlantic States, possessed of a handsome fortune. 
 The business was subsequently conducted under the firm of S. 
 Brannan & Co. The discovery of gold had in the mean while 
 attracted a great crowd to the neighborhood, and the demands 
 
752 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FEANCISCO. 
 
 and riches of the miners speedily enhanced prices to a wonderful 
 degree. During 1848 and 1849, sales were made at this store to 
 the extent of $150,000, on an average, per month. But, hy and 
 by, competition began to appear, and the first enormous profits 
 to become less. Many other stores were established in the min- 
 ing districts, and great importations of goods arrived. Mr. 
 Brannan then withdrew from the new City of Sacramento, which 
 had suddenly grown up around him. While there he had specu- 
 lated in the town allotments like every other person, and like 
 every body else, in the beginning, made much money by his ven- 
 tures. Indeed it seemed at this period, that, like Midas, he 
 could touch nothing that did not turn to gold in his hands. 
 
 In 1849, Mr. Brannan returned to San Francisco, where he had 
 still preserved a residence and citizenship, and under the firm of 
 Osborn & Brannan carried on an extensive business for nearly a 
 year in China merchandise. In the noted affair of the "hounds" 
 about midsummer of 1849, he took an active part, and mainly 
 helped to extirpate that society of rascals from the town. In 
 August following, he was elected a member of the first regular 
 town-council ; and in 1851 was chosen president of the famous 
 " Vigilance Committee." 
 
 Since the beginning of 1850, Mr. Brannan has chiefly confin- 
 ed his business operations to dealings in real estate, both in San 
 Francisco and Sacramento, in which he has been so successful 
 that he is, at this moment, reported to be the wealthiest man in 
 either city, and perhaps in all California'. The many buildings 
 which he has bought or erected are distinguished by their strength 
 and magnificence ; and form some of the most striking and beau- 
 tiful features of the city. Montgomery street is particularly 
 remarkable for several of these substantial and elegant structures. 
 
 About the end of 1851, Mr. Brannan visited the Sandwich 
 Islands, where he bought extensive properties, farming land, and 
 building lots and houses at Honolulu. In 1853 he was elected 
 a senator of California. Business and private engagements, how- 
 ever, calling him to the Atlantic States, he was compelled to re- 
 linquish the high honor and resign the office. 
 
 It is impossible, in our narrow limits, even to allude to the 
 numberless public affairs in which this gentleman has been en- 
 
SAMUEL BRANNAN. 
 
 753 
 
 gagetl in California. From the earliest to the latest records of 
 San Francisco, we discover him appearing at every public meet- 
 ing, and taking a prominent part in municipal business. At one 
 time he is encouraging the establishment of the first school, and 
 offering handsome contributions to the building ; at another he 
 is haranguing the people on the subject of the "hounds now, 
 he takes on himself the responsibility of hanging a rogue by 
 Lynch law for the benefit of the citizens ; now, he charitably be- 
 stows sufficient land for a cemetery to the Odd-Fellows, of which 
 Order he is an active member ; now, he bullies, reasons, and 
 conquers in some purely municipal matters, urging a local im- 
 provement, or where jobbing officials seek to line their pockets 
 at the expense of the community. His energy, abilities, force 
 of character and courage, are very great, and have been only the 
 more conspicuously shown in face of those obstacles and dangers 
 that would have hampered and filled with dread less bold and tal- 
 ented men. He is but young still, yet years have passed since 
 he was first noted for consummate skill and daring. No man has 
 been better abused than himself, and yet to no man, perhaps, 
 would the community sooner turn to find a leader who would not 
 scruple to act determinedly upon principles which he thought 
 right in themselves, however strange and obnoxious they might 
 appear at first sight, or to commonplace, feeble minds. Such a 
 man was needed in the early days of San Francisco, when vice 
 and crime overshadowed law and justice. All honor and praise 
 should therefore be freely given to him who did his duty at that 
 perilous period. On other accounts, Mr. Brannan is entitled to 
 notice and commendation ; — as a citizen whose great private for- 
 tune has been invested in bestowing beauty and grandeur on the 
 town, as well as for his well known public services on very 
 many occasions. 
 
 Mr. Brannan married in 1844, and has now a family of four 
 children. He is slightly above the middle stature, and well-pro- 
 portioned. His features are agreeable and intelligent, while beauti- 
 ful dark eyes give increased animation to his face. He dresses 
 somewhat richly, as is the fashion in Sin Francisco ; and, in 
 fine, wears a modest " imperial." 
 
 48 
 
JOSEPH L. FOLSOM. 
 
 Captain Folsom, who has been as intimately mingled up as any 
 other man with the peculiar affairs of San Francisco, boasts a 
 high revolutionary ancestry. He was born in the town of Mere- 
 dith, Belknap, then a part of Strafford County, New Hampshire, 
 on the 19th of May, 1817. Meredith is situated at the outlet 
 of Lake Winnepiseogee, and here the paternal grandfather had 
 immigrated from Exeter, N. H, soon after the return of peace in 
 1783. He was a near relative of Brig. Gen. Nathan Folsom, 
 one of the first delegates from New Hampshire to the Conti- 
 nental Congress ; an old Indian fighter on the Canadian frontier, 
 and who also bore a prominent part in the revolutionary war. 
 
 Joseph's father died during the early childhood of our subject, 
 leaving a family of young children. To secure the benefits of a 
 good education for them, the estate was sold, and the family 
 
JOSEPH L. FOLSOM. 
 
 755 
 
 removed to Northfield, N. H. Having fitted for college, an ap- 
 pointment as a cadet at the Military Academy at West Point 
 was procured for young Folsom, through the friendship and kind- 
 ness of Hon. Franklin Pierce, who was then member of Congress, 
 and was subsequently elected President of the United States. 
 Mr. Folsom entered that excellent institution in June, 1836, 
 and graduated with honor in June, 1840. Being commissioned 
 as brevet second lieutenant, he immediately went to Florida, 
 under the command of Gen. Worth, then operating against the 
 Seminoles, in that most trying and difficult campaign. After 
 the war was over, having served some time longer, he was pro- 
 moted to a second lieutenancy. He served another year in con- 
 sequence of his own application, and then took charge of a com- 
 pany of Indians in their removal to their new homes in the west. 
 He afterwards joined his regiment, the 5th infantry, commanded 
 by Brevet Brig. Gen. Brooke, on the Upper Mississippi. Having 
 served at various places in the north-west until 1844, Lieut. 
 Folsom was ordered to West Point Military Academy as In- 
 structor in Infantry Tactics ; a position 'of the most distinguished 
 trust, and the highest compliment the General Government 
 could pay to his pre-eminent abilities, and to the efficient manner 
 in which he had hitherto discharged his duties. There he re- 
 mained two years. 
 
 When it became evident that there would be a war with 
 Mexico, Lieut. Folsom twice applied for a release from his po- 
 sition at West Point, in order that he might join his regiment 
 at the scene of operations ; but his application was refused on 
 both occasions. After war had , actually commenced, he again 
 applied, and was for the third time refused. This he considered 
 a hard fate, and himself the most unfortunate of men. It is 
 quite possible, however, that had he gone with his regiment to 
 the war, he would have shared the fate of his brave brother offi- 
 cers of that splendid corps. They suffered severely ; and at the 
 dreadful struggle at Molino del Eey, every one of his senior offi- 
 cers was slain. 
 
 When Col. Stevenson was about leaving for California, in 
 command of the 1st regiment of New York volunteers, he, al- 
 though personally unacquainted with Lieut. Folsom, applied for 
 
756 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 his services as a staff officer in the quarter-master's department 
 of the regiment. This position Lieut. Folsom refused, unless he 
 should also be promoted to the grade of captain. There was no 
 precedent for such a double promotion. But eventually he was 
 promoted to a first lieutenancy ; and on the day of the regi- 
 ment's departure, he received a captain's commission. Having 
 been relieved at West Point, he fitted out the expedition as 
 quarter-master, and sailed with it. After a voyage of five or six 
 months' duration, the command arrived at the Cove of Yerba 
 Buena, now San Francisco, in the beginning of March, 1847. 
 Upon arrival, Capt. Folsom received orders from Gen. Kearny to 
 select a place on the Bay of San Francisco for a depot of army 
 stores, and to prepare it for receiving them. This post was to 
 be Capt. Folsom's station as senior officer of the quarter-master's 
 department on the North Pacific Coast. This rank — chief of 
 that department — he held for nearly three years. After visiting- 
 all points on the bay, he selected Yerba Buena as the most suit- 
 able location. In this selection, which may probably be consid- 
 ered the germinating root of the city, he consulted only his orders 
 and his judgment. 
 
 Capt. Folsom continued on duty as chief of the quarter- 
 master's department and the commissariat during the war, and 
 for a year after its close. For more than a year of which period, 
 viz., from the summer of 1847 to the autumn of 1848, he was 
 receiver of all funds collected during the Mexican war in the 
 port of San Francisco, and made all disbursements for the civil, 
 as well as the military government of California. He was conse- 
 quently the first American collector ever appointed in California. 
 In May, 1849, he was relieved, and left for the Eastern States. 
 It was during this trip that he purchased the interest of the 
 heirs of Leidesdorff in the estate of one of the pioneers of San 
 Francisco, who had died in that city. This estate has been the 
 subject of much contention — squatters, settlers, the city, the 
 State Legislature, and the county, all, by turns, having claimed 
 more or less of it. The limits of this sketch do not permit a 
 discussion of the subject, which is elsewhere alluded to in this 
 history ; but it may be said, without entering at all into the 
 merits of the question, that Capt. Folsom has ever been anxious 
 
JOSEPH L. FOLSOM. 
 
 757 
 
 and ready to have the whole claim tested before the courts, and 
 finally settled. After an absence of seven months, Capt. Folsom 
 returned to California, and was on duty a year and a half longer, 
 as quarter-master. 
 
 This gentleman is one of the most remarkable instances of 
 unexpected fortune, of which Californian history is so prolific. 
 During the early part of his residence in San Francisco, and 
 before the discovery of gold, or any idea had been entertained of 
 its existence, he concluded that the natural location of the place 
 insured it at some not very distant period the position of an im- 
 portant city. With this idea, he invested all the means he 
 could spare — some twelve or fifteen hundred dollars — in lots 
 among the then barren sand-hills of Yerba Buena. For this he 
 was remonstrated with by some of his brother officers, then at 
 Monterey ; but he said that he believed his investments would 
 eventually be worth something handsome, and form a reserve for 
 him to fall back iqion when wounds or old age might force him 
 to retire from the army. He did not have to wait, however, for 
 cither wounds or years, ere the value of his investments began to 
 be evident. Real estate, very soon after the discovery of gold 
 and the consequent immigration, run up beyond all precedent, 
 and his lucky expenditure became a source of great wealth. He 
 is now one of the wealthiest citizens of California ; for besides 
 the great value of the " Leidesdorff Estate," his other purchases 
 have doubled and redoubled in value, to an astonishing degree. 
 
 In his general character, Capt. Folsom is above reproach. 
 He is quiet in his manner, high toned in his sense of honor, gen- 
 tlemanly in deportment, a fine tactician as a soldier, and an 
 agreeable companion among his intimate friends. His military 
 education has given him perhaps a little formality of manners, 
 but there is good reason to believe that there is no lack in his 
 heart of those qualities which constitute the firm and valued 
 friend and the worthy citizen. Withal, his literary attainments 
 are of the first order, and his opinions in matters of this sort are 
 evidences of a refined and highly educated mind. 
 
THOMAS 0. LARKIN. 
 
 Thomas 0. Larkin was born in Charlestown, Mass., on the 
 16th September, 1802. His ancestors came from Great Britain, 
 and settled in Massachusetts prior to the eighteenth century. 
 Their descendants were all burned out on the 17th June, 1775, 
 while in the battle of Bunker's Hill. Thomas 0. Larkin, the fa- 
 ther of the subject of this sketch, was born in Charlestown, Mass. ; 
 his wife was a native of Great Britain. The father died when 
 his son Thomas was seven years old ; the mother when the latter 
 was in the sixteenth year of his age. 
 
 At the age of nineteen, when in a book and stationery store in 
 Boston, the subject of our sketch entered into a written contract 
 with a young man of his own age, to leave their employer at the 
 same hour and go to the south to seek their fortune. For a 
 certain period, they were to live in common, and to possess but one 
 purse in case only one of them obtained employment. They ac- 
 cordingly sailed for the south, and landed at Wilmington, N. C, 
 without adequate funds, acquaintances or prospects. Mr. Lar- 
 kin, after having been engaged in mercantile pursuits in that 
 State for six or eight years, relinquished it, to enter largely in a 
 sawmill business. This unhappily soon swept away both his fortune 
 and his health. While in North Carolina, he held the appoint- 
 ment of Postmaster, and Justice of the County Court in Duplin 
 County. 
 
 In 1830, he returned to Massachusetts with shattered health, 
 but bold in adventure. His reduced condition led him to look 
 towards the north-west coast of America, to recruit his health 
 and fortunes. His uncle, in command of a Boston ship, had of- 
 ten before the war with England visited that coast and the 
 islands in the Pacific, trading for sandal-wood and furs for the 
 
THOMAS O. LARKIN. 
 
 759 
 
 China market. The half-brother of Mr. Larkin, John B. E. 
 Cooper, in command of a vessel, had also followed the same busi- 
 ness. The latter had married into the Vallejo family and set- 
 tled in a country called California. Mr. Larkin determined to 
 find his brother. The Boston ship owners, who sent yearly car- 
 goes to the country named, refused to carry passengers ; but a 
 passage was by chance obtained in an occasional vessel called the 
 Newcastle, Capt. Hersey. This vessel was bound to the Pacific 
 coast, in search of a market. She left Boston in September, 
 1831, and arrived at the Sandwich Islands in February, 1832. 
 From thence she sailed for California, and entered the port of San 
 Francisco in April, 1832. Soon after she departed for Monterey, 
 where she arrived the same month. Mr. Larkin there found 
 his brother, and immediately began to employ himself in com- 
 merce. He erected the first double geared wheat-mill in that 
 part of the country. As there were only ship carpenters 
 ashore, he had to make models for them to work by. 
 
 In 1833, Mr. Larkin was married, on board of a vessel then 
 on the coast of California, under the American flag, by John C. 
 Jones, the U. S. consul of the Sandwich Islands, who happened 
 to touch on the coast. The bishop and padres of the pueblos and 
 missions refused to perforin the ceremony of marriage, as both 
 the intending spouses were protestants, and they had objected to 
 become Boman Catholics for the mere purpose of having the nup- 
 tial bonds tied by a priest. Mrs. Larkin, of Mass., was the first 
 lady from the United States who settled in California. The chil- 
 dren of the marriage were the first Americans, that, is, of the 
 United States, on the paternal and maternal side, who were born 
 in the country. In 1832, there were about eighty Americans, 
 English and French, dwelling in California. 
 
 From 1834 down to 1846, Mr. Larkin engaged as many 
 foreigners as chose to work, in making shingles, lumber and shaped 
 timber, (the natives being employed by him in hauling, &c.,) and in 
 putting up buildings and wharves for the Mexican government, 
 and for individuals. He also purchased from the rancheros all the 
 soap they could or would make, and all their produce they brought 
 to Monterey. These transactions enabled him to export timber, 
 lumber, shingles, flour, potatoes, soap, sea and land beaver, and 
 
760 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 sea-otter skins and horses, to the Sandwich Islands, Mazatlan 
 and Acapulco, and to supply ships of war, whalers and other ves- 
 sels touching on the coast. This was opening an entirely new 
 trade in the country, the old trade having consisted exclusively 
 of hides and tallow. Mr. Larkin also supplied the different Mex- 
 ican governors in California with stores, clothing and funds. 
 Each governor assumed the account of his predecessor, whether 
 the latter had resigned voluntarily, or had been compelled to re- 
 tire by force of arms. The United States Government paid the 
 account due by the last governor. 
 
 During those years, when a vessel from Boston or other for- 
 eign port arrived, she entered at Monterey. The customs' duties 
 on merchandise were paid as follows : one-fourth to one-half in 
 cash and the balance in goods at market prices. The amounts 
 were drawn for on the supercargo by the treasurer of the depart- 
 ment of California, in orders of $5 to $1000, in favor of an officer or 
 creditor of the government. Previous to the supercargo commenc- 
 ing business he had his steerage bulkheads taken away, and 
 a large room fitted up with shelves, scales, and all the para- 
 phernalia of a trader. This was his store, and here he sold 
 in wholesale and retail. The prices charged were payable in hides, 
 tallow and furs, in certain proportions. Every time the super- 
 cargo entered the port, which would be six or eight times during 
 the two following years, — for so long generally did each particu- 
 lar vessel remain on the coast, — he would continue to sell and col- 
 lect the different goods in payment. Interest on money was un- 
 known in those days. Notes or receipts for merchandise and 
 produce were rarely taken. No passage money up or down the 
 coast, or over the country, was asked. There was not a hotel, 
 tavern or boarding-house in the land. People from shore always 
 found a free state-room in the ship, and those from the ship al- 
 ways obtained good free quarters on shore. 
 
 Prices of produce, from 1840 to 1846, averaged as follows : 
 Saddle horses, from $8 to $20 ; breeding mares, $3 ; grown cattle, 
 for killing, $6 ; heifers, $3 ; year-old calves, $1 50 ; hides, $2 ; 
 tallow, $6 per one hundred pounds ; flour, $6 per one hundred 
 pounds ; potatoes, $3 per one hundred pounds ; wheat and bar- 
 ley, 75c. to $1 per bushel ; joists and boards, $40 to $50 
 
THOMAS O. LARKIN. 
 
 761 
 
 per thousand feet ; beaver skins, $3 to $5 each ; sea-otter skins, 
 five to six feet long, $35. Drafts on the U. S. Government or 
 on the owners of whale ships, sold at from fifteen to twenty per- 
 cent discount. 
 
 In 1844, Mr. Larkin was appointed U. S. consul for Califor- 
 nia. He was the first and last American consul ever appointed 
 in the country. In 1845, he commissioned William A. Leides- 
 dorff, as U. S. vice-consul for San Francisco. Mr. Larkin was 
 also appointed by the President of the United States U. S. naval 
 agent for the north-west coast of America. In 1847, he was ap- 
 pointed by Commodore Shubrick U. S. naval store-keeper. Be- 
 sides the two named commissions from the American Govern- 
 ment, he received from President Polk another highly important 
 one in California. The commissions and emoluments of these 
 offices did not pay the incumbent's expenses in one of them. 
 
 In 1845, Mr. Larkin used every exertion which his great in- 
 fluence in the country gave, to reconcile the people to a change 
 of flags, and to another government. This change they expect- 
 ed, and Mr. Larkin's object was to direct their inclinations 
 towards his own country. He probably succeeded in doing this 
 with all the native authorities in the northern prefecture. When 
 Commodore Sloat arrived in Monterey on July 1st, 1846, he 
 soon found it necessary to unfold the American flag over the old 
 Mexican castle at that town. As there was no declaration of 
 war against Mexico on the part of the United States known by 
 the commodore or consul, the latter was at first desirous that the 
 existing government of California should accept protection under 
 his flag. This the native authorities were inclined to do, but 
 they required more time for consideration than the commodore 
 could give them. The idea was therefore abandoned, and formal 
 possession was taken of the town on the 7th of July, 1846. 
 During the drawing up of the proclamation by the commodore 
 and consul, an armed launch, belonging to the U. S. ship Ports- 
 mouth, arrived in Monterey from San Francisco, bearing the 
 news of the taking of Sonoma by the " Bear Flag" party, — some 
 fifty or sixty men, — under Commandant Ide. Mr. Larkin, at 
 his own expense, sent couriers to San Jose, San Francisco, Sono- 
 
762 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FKANCISCO. 
 
 ma and Sutter's Fort, with Com. Sloat's orders to raise the 
 American flag at these places. 
 
 The week following these incidents, Com. Stockton arrived in 
 Monterey and took command of the U. S. squadron. Com. 
 Sloat, heing unwell at the time, wished to proceed to Washing- 
 ton immediately, to represent in person the condition of affairs 
 in California. Mr. Larkin, at the urgent request of Com. 
 Stockton, left his family and business, went on board the U. S. 
 ship Congress, and proceeded with the commodore down the 
 coast. Arriving at Santa Barbara, the former went ashore, along 
 with one or two officers, to arrange with the Mexican authorities 
 as to giving up the place. This the latter did at noon to the 
 force landed, part of which was left in charge of Midshipman 
 Mitchell. At San Pedro, Mr. Larkin, with Lieut. Schenck and 
 a boat's crew, went ashore, and hoisted the American flag. That 
 place was then in charge of a Mexican officer and a few men. 
 During the week, Com. Stockton marched to Los Angeles, the 
 capital. Mr. Larkin and Lieut. Baldwin (now in command of 
 the steamship Brother Jonathan), had proceeded to the town 
 named, one or two days in advance of the forces — had obtained 
 possession of the government house — put people to work in pre- 
 paring it for the Americans, and had it in fair order on their 
 arrival. There were two or three hundred armed Californians in 
 Los Angeles at the time. Many of these were acquaintances of 
 the consul's, and some of them were more or less with him every 
 hour of the day. By his invitation, some of the families lent 
 furniture for the government house. When Com. Stockton re- 
 turned to San Francisco, he appointed Messrs. Grimes, Howard, 
 Larkin, Alvarado, Vallejo, and two others, as a board of council, 
 to meet him, in October, 1846, at San Francisco, to frame some 
 form of government. The retaking of the whole southern coun- 
 try by the Californians disarranged this plan. 
 
 Mr. Larkin then travelled towards the mountains, to engage 
 the coming immigration to join Col. Fremont's battalion, which 
 was to be re-formed. When afterwards he was returning to 
 Monterey, his horse having tired down on the road, he induced a 
 Californian to loan him a first-rate powerful steed, but it was 
 only on condition that if he lost the animal he was to pay $50, 
 
THOMAS 0. LARKIN. 
 
 763 
 
 (a high price,) and if the natives killed the rider on the road and 
 retained the horse, then Mrs. Larkin was to pay the money. 
 Having made this bargain before witnesses, Mr. Larkin started 
 for Monterey, with one attendant, well armed. On arriving there, 
 he found that his family had left by sea the besieged town for 
 San Francisco, and that his house was occupied by U. S. officers. 
 While making arrangements for advancing funds for the use of 
 Col. Fremont and his officers, Mr. Larkin was suddenly called to 
 San Francisco to attend a dying child, and to supply the U. S. 
 ship Portsmouth with stores. He started with one servant and 
 the horse already mentioned. 
 
 The same night he was surprised in bed by a party of the 
 enemy — every one of them being old acquaintances and former 
 customers of his. They carried him some miles to an encamp- 
 ment, consisting of about one hundred Californians. Here he 
 was closely questioned, and ordered, under the displeasure of the 
 party, to write a certain letter, in order to draw some of his 
 countrymen into an ambush. He first reasoned with the officers 
 and next refused. A party of armed men was then ordered from 
 the camp-fire to draw up and form into line. Mr. Larkin now 
 drew off, saying : " To live on such terms from night to night is 
 no object to me. Do as you like, gentlemen. I am cold, and 
 am going to sit down at the fire." This he did, and heard no 
 more about the matter that night. Next day, during the march, 
 he witnessed a battle, near the Mission of San Juan, between 
 the party who held him prisoner and a less number of Americans. 
 His guard of six men observing that he had a fine horse, and was 
 watching the opportunity to leave them for the other side, dis- 
 mounted him, and placed him upon another animal which they 
 knew was sure not to depart faster than in a walk. Mr. Larkin 
 was carried among the mountains and taken down several days' 
 journey to the south. He proposed that his captors should re- 
 ceive in exchange for himself three or four of their countrymen 
 (officers) who happened then to be prisoners of war. This pro- 
 posal was refused. The Californians wished to have him par- 
 ticularly, and kept him prisoner for months. The captivity and 
 travel were hard to bear, and were made more painful by the 
 prisoner's being in ignorance of the fate of his sick child. The 
 
764 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 last died, while the mother was under the impression that the 
 father was killed. Mr. Larkin was closely watched, hut was well 
 treated and attended to by every means in his captors' power. 
 This attention arose from old acquaintance and personal kind- 
 ness to the prisoner, and douhtless also from a full knowledge 
 that his death or cruel treatment would be avenged by his coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 Mr. Larkin had the satisfaction of receiving through the 
 Secretary of State, the thanks of the President for his attention 
 during so many years to the cause of his country. He had as- 
 sisted in person in hoisting the national flag in four different 
 places, and by his couriers in four other places, in California. 
 He and his lady, having been for twenty years absent from their 
 native State, resolved, in 1850, to go thither for an indeterminate 
 period, and to keep their children there for at least a few years. 
 But the attractions of the adopted country were too strong to 
 retain them long in Massachusetts, or in New York. They 
 returned to California in 1853, and settled in San Francisco. In 
 that city they hope to remain for life. 
 
 The foregoing narrative perhaps sufficiently illustrates the 
 character of its subject. Few men are more generally known to 
 the people of California than Mr. Larkin. His early spirit of 
 adventure has been gratified and calmed into the quiet of home 
 and home thoughts. In youth, poor, adventurous and persever- 
 ing ; in mature age, consistent, energetic and faithful in the dis- 
 charge of his duty, having been amply tried and proved ; he 
 finds himself rich, not alone from fortuitous circumstances, but 
 in a great measure as the result of industry and foresight, and 
 respected in the community and State which have grown up 
 around him, where for many years he faithfully fulfilled his trust, 
 and where he now enjoys all the gifts of fortune, the associations 
 of family and friends, and the rewards of an industrious and 
 honest life. 
 
JOHN A. SUTTER 
 
 General Sutter has been more extensively associated with 
 California than any of the pioneers of the new State. Every 
 quarter of the globe, even to the most barbaric, is familiar with 
 his name. Hence, it would be a grievous fault were we to omit 
 our due tribute to the gallant old hero by awarding him a niche 
 in our " Annals," even though his connection with San Francisco 
 has been an indirect one. Very few men so well merit his uni- 
 versal distinction — still fewer would cavil to see him enjoy it. 
 
 John A. Sutter was the son of a Swiss of the Canton Berne, 
 but was himself bora in Baden, at midnight of February 28th 
 (or March 1st), 1803. His early life was passed in the Grand 
 Duchy, and there he received his education. Like many of his 
 countrymen, feeling desirous of enjoying the institutions of our 
 
766 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 far-famed republic, he sailed for and reached New York in July, 
 1834 ; but finally settled and for several years resided in Mis- 
 souri. The wild west had always possessed a charm for him, 
 and he had removed thither ; but now his adventurous spirit 
 looked still further towards the setting sun, and roved along the 
 waters that sped their unknown way to the Pacific. Leaving 
 family and home, in company with Sir William Drummond 
 Stewart, he joined a party, under the charge of Capt. Tripps, of 
 the " American Fur Company," and started for the broad valleys 
 of California, where he knew that rich and fertile lands only 
 awaited an industrious cultivator ; and where Providence had 
 even a still richer yielding field that he knew not of. He left 
 the trappers at their rendezvous on the Wind River among the 
 Kansas Rocky Mountains, and with a new party of six decided 
 on proceeding to their destination by way of Oregon. Crossing 
 the valley of the Willamette, he finally arrived at Port Van- 
 couvre, and there ascertained that innumerable delays must 
 elapse before he could reach California. Nothing daunted, and 
 apparently urged, like Columbus, to accomplish his object despite 
 of fate, Capt. Sutter sailed for the Sandwich Islands, hoping to 
 embark thence direct for the Spanish coast. But when he ar- 
 rived there, no vessels were about to sail in that direction. 
 Again he threw down the gauntlet to fate, and re-embarked for 
 Sitka Island, in Russian America, and from that immense dis- 
 tance at last reached Yerba Buena on the 2d of July, 1839. 
 Not permitted to land here, he again embarked, and was finally 
 allowed to set foot on California soil at Monterey. What a con- 
 trast to the present lightning modes of travel was this circuitous 
 and extended route ! Having succeeded in overcoming the Span- 
 ish opposition to foreign settlers, he obtained the permission of Gov. 
 Alvarado to locate himself in the valley of the Rio del Sacramento; 
 more readily granted, perhaps, because it was then densely peo- 
 pled with savage Indians. He explored the Sacramento, Feather 
 and American Rivers, and in August, 1839, about eighteen 
 months after he commenced his journey, permanently established 
 himself on the latter river, with a colony of only three whites 
 and eight Kanakas. Shortly afterwards he removed to the 
 present location of what is known as " Sutter's Fort," and took 
 
JOHN A. SUTTER. 
 
 767 
 
 James W. Marshall. 
 
 possession of the surrounding country under a Mexican grant, 
 giving to it the name of Neiv Helvetia. F rorn this point he cut 
 a road to the junction of the Sacramento and American Kivers, 
 where he established an embarcadero (quay, or landing-place), 
 on the site of which has since been built the City of Sacramento. 
 Here he remained for several years, his settlement being the 
 head-quarters of the immigrants, who, following his example, 
 poured into the country from the American States. 
 
 It would be interesting, though hardly german to our present 
 purpose, to record the captain's innumerable hair-breadth escapes 
 and wild adventures, while dwelling in this rude wilderness, as 
 he has often over and over again related them to us in his own 
 pleasant way, but the few facts we have given as we received 
 them from him must suffice. By far the most important event 
 
768 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in his life was yet to happen. In the winter of 1847-48, he 
 had contracted with Mr. James W. Marshall to erect a lum- 
 ber saw-mill on the south fork of the American River, and in 
 January of 1848, that great discovery was accidentally made 
 which hastened the development of the country, far beyond what 
 centuries of the unassisted progress of nature could have effected. 
 Marshall one day having allowed the whole body of water to 
 rush through the tail-race of the mill for the purpose of making 
 some alterations in it, observed, while walking along the banks 
 of the stream early the next morning, numerous glistening parti- 
 cles among the sand and gravel, which had been carried off by 
 the force of the increased body of water. For awhile he paid no 
 particular attention to them, but seeing one larger and brighter 
 than the rest, he was induced to examine it, and found it to be 
 a scale of gold. Collecting several, he immediately hurried to 
 Sutter, and began his tale in such a hurried manner, and ac- 
 companied it with such extravagant promises of unbounded 
 wealth, that the captain thought him demented, and looked to 
 his rifle for protection : but when Marshall threw his gold upon 
 the table, he was forced into the delightful conviction. They 
 determined to keep the discovery a secret, but were observed 
 while examining the river, and soon had the immense armies 
 around them that we have elsewhere spoken of. Mr. Marshall 
 has lived to see the world enriched by his discovery, while he 
 himself wanders poor and homeless over a land that has too 
 long neglected to repay her immense debt of gratitude to him 
 who gave her all her wealth, power and position. As with all 
 great benefactors of mankind, some future century may record 
 his name on some historic page, while millions less worthy than 
 himself have fattened where he starved. 
 
 Gen. Sutter at present resides at Hock Farm, on the right 
 bank of the Rio de las Plumas, anglice, Feather River ; and 
 here, leading the happy, contented life of a tiller of the soil, he 
 meets friend and stranger with that sincere, unostentatious hos- 
 pitality that has endeared him to the whole community. A more 
 kind-hearted, generous and benevolent man does not dwell in 
 any corner of the State. 
 
MAEIANO DE GUADALUPE VALLEJO. 
 
 Among the most estimable of the citizens of San Francisco, mnst 
 be ranked the old Castilian residents of California. Very many 
 of these have remained with their families in the country and 
 have occupied positions as framers of the constitution, delegates 
 to conventions, and members of the State and local governments 
 under the American rule. The most prominent of these is Gen. 
 Vallejo, both for his share in the early history of the country 
 and his subsequent political connection with the place. 
 
 His father was a native of Spain, and had immigrated to 
 Mexico and settled in the State of Guadalajara during his ex- 
 treme youth. Many of the Vallejo family had voluntarily chosen 
 or been devoted to the service of the church — the males becoming 
 members of the priesthood and the females entering the nunne- 
 ries. Mariano's father had been designed for a similar course of 
 life, but his feelings and tastes revolted at the idea. Finding it, 
 however, impossible to avoid what he so much disliked should he 
 remain in Guadalajara, having already taken the preliminary 
 
770 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 steps to enter the religious order, he secretly joined the expe- 
 dition of Capt. Rivera for the exploration of Alta California, 
 This he accompanied to Durango, and thence to the Rio Colora- 
 do and the pueblos of San Gabriel and San Diego. The Indians 
 at Monterey having revolted and killed a number of the inhabi- 
 tants, among them a priest, Rivera marched his company over- 
 land to the defence of that place. Having quieted the difficulties 
 there and garrisoned the town, the expedition proceeded, in the 
 summer of 1776, up the country to the Bay of San Francisco, and 
 thence went as far inland as the Rio de San Joaquin, at a place 
 called by the Indians Ompinez, now the rancho of Dr. Marsh, where 
 the naval and land expeditions met, among the former being the 
 celebrated Father Junipero Serra, the founder of the missions of 
 San Diego, San Francisco, etc. During this first trip to Mon- 
 terey the Senor Vallejo saw, for the first time, in rather a roman- 
 tic way, the one destined to become his wife and the mother of 
 Mariano. It was on the day of her birth, at which occasion he 
 officiated as an assistant to the father of the infant. Then 
 he demanded and received permission from the parents to wed their 
 daughter when she should become of a marriageable age, pro- 
 vided all parties should yet desire it. Thirteen years afterwards, 
 during a subsequent journey between Monterey and San Diego, 
 this proposition, made at the time probably half in jest, was 
 renewed to the daughter, Senorita Maria Antonia Lugo, and after a 
 reasonable courtship, accepted and carried into effect. Notwith- 
 standing the disparity of ages, the bridegroom being then about 
 forty years old, this was a very happy alliance. Thirteen chil- 
 dren were the result of the romantic attachment, the eighth of 
 whom was the subject of this brief notice. As a specimen of the 
 sweetness and religious character of Spanish names, the thirteen 
 are here given in the order of their birth. The father was named 
 Don Ygnacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo, the mother Dona Maria An- 
 tonia Lugo ; the children were, Ysidora, Josepha, Jose' Ygnacio, 
 Jose de Jesus, J uana Maria Gertrudes, Maria Magdalena, Pruden- 
 ciana, Mariano de Guadalupe, Geronima Encarnacion, Maria Paula 
 Rosalia, Jose Manuel Salvador, Maria de Jesus and Juan Anto- 
 nio. From a Spanish mouth these names flow forth softly as oil 
 upon the water, or as the sweet strains of music from a harp. 
 
MARIANO DE GUADALUPE VALLEJO. 
 
 771 
 
 Mariano de Guadalupe was born at Monterey, July 7th, 1808. 
 There he continued at the schools, which were not merely civil 
 and religious, but military, until 1829 or '30. He then removed 
 to the San Francisco Mission, where as commandante of the 
 presidio, collector and alcalde, he remained until 1835. During 
 that year he had established the first ayuntamiento of the neigh- 
 boring town (pueblo) of Yerba Buena. At this time he was 
 ordered to proceed across the bay to Sonoma and colonize the 
 country in that vicinity. In November of 1835, a colony from 
 Mexico of four hundred and sixty persons, equally divided be- 
 tween the sexes, arriving at Sonoma, Commandante Vallejo 
 advanced to meet and deliver his garrison and post to the com- 
 mander of the new colony. While on his way for this purpose, 
 an express from Mexico brought tidings of the ascendency of 
 Santa Anna, with orders to seize the expeditionists just arrived 
 and send them out of the country. This duty successfully and 
 quietly accomplished exhibited Vallejo in a very favorable light 
 both as to his military skill, decision and rapidity of action, and 
 his humanity, that revolted at the idea of spilling the blood of 
 his countrymen. Subsequently when Chico was sent to succeed 
 Figueroa, the former governor of the department, Gen. Vallejo 
 took a prominent part in the expulsion of the latter. Gutierrez, 
 who succeeded Chico, was like him forcibly expelled from the 
 State and Alvarado was finally appointed governor and received 
 the confirmation of the Mexican government. In these and all 
 similar affairs in California, Gen. Vallejo bore a very conspicuous 
 and influential share. In concert with his nephew, Gen. Alvara- 
 do, and Gov. Castro, aided by the Carrillos and other men of 
 influence in the southern part of the State, the Californian party 
 was always, when it pleased, more than sufficient to checkmate 
 any burdensome tyranny attempted by the supreme government 
 at the city of Mexico. 
 
 Vallejo succeeded in obtaining a library while youngs which 
 he kept under lock and key, and to whose rich feast none were 
 admitted save, it is believed, his nephew Alvarado. This was a 
 necessary precaution against the demands and commands the 
 church would have made, had it been aware of his possession. 
 Into this great school for free and noble thoughts, his confidant 
 
772 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 alone admitted, the key turned upon all without — laity and cler- 
 gy — they read and studied the ideas of other minds and tutored 
 their own for the great business of a reasonable life. Few, per- 
 haps no others in the country, had the opportunity of perusing 
 aught save the rituals and other church-prescribed books. 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1846, he was taken prisoner by Fre- 
 mont and the " Bear Flag " party and confined in the prison at 
 Sutter's Fort for six days, when he was released by Commodore 
 Stockton upon his parole d'honneur. Not being exchanged, he 
 remained a non-combatant until peace was restored — very will- 
 ingly, no doubt, for he never seems to have entertained a very 
 exalted estimate of the character of the Mexican people. He 
 had assisted Castro and Alvarado in expelling them in 1837, and 
 has had no sympathy with that apparent idea of their civil, re- 
 ligious and political creed, which seems to possess only the am- 
 bition to prevent all change for the better — all improvement and 
 progress. 
 
 Vallejo with the rest of the Californians very speedily acqui- 
 esced in the rule of the conquerors, which indeed they had long 
 desired, and to whom they had never designed any opposition. He 
 became an active public man, and was elected in 1849 a member 
 of the convention which framed a constitution for the new Ameri- 
 can republic. His princely proposition to the State to make a 
 point on his estate the seat of government is well known ; and 
 some idea of the people's universal estimation of his integrity 
 may be gathered from the fact, that in all the angry discussions 
 to which it gave rise, his high and honorable motives were never 
 questioned. 
 
 On the 6th of March, 1832, he married Senorita Benicia 
 Francisca Felipsa Carrillo, the daughter of one of the oldest and 
 most influential families in the department. Fourteen children 
 have sprung from this marriage, blessed with whose love and in 
 the full possession of the public's confidence, his active life has 
 become quiet — his mature manhood, honored and happy. With 
 all, he possesses a fine form and handsome face, a kind heart, 
 courteous manners, and that abundant hospitality for which his 
 countrymen are so justly celebrated. 
 
EDWARD GILBERT. 
 
 There is something in the recollections which twine ahout the 
 memory of the honest man vastly more grateful to the contem- 
 plation of the historian, the hiographer, the public at large, than 
 in all the eclat which may attach to distinction of rank or the 
 possession of wealth. When the rich and the honored pass 
 away, if no better claim upon contemporary admiration exist than 
 the mere possessions which make the millionaire, the hero, the 
 scholar,— all that which placed him above his fellows being his 
 no longer, — his position is found below those whom he overtopped, 
 and he becomes like the dust in name, as in condition. But the 
 heart, the conscience, — that principle within which makes us 
 love virtue, — become sentinels to guard the memory of the vir- 
 tuous dead, and keep it green and beautiful. How much this is 
 
774 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 applicable to the character and memory of the subject of this 
 memoir, those who knew him best can most fully understand. 
 
 The Hon. Edward Gilbert was born about the year 1819, in 
 Cherry Valley, Otsego County, State of New York. Most of his 
 near relatives died before him, and the circumstances of fortune in 
 which he was placed, threw him, like so many others of his coun- 
 trymen, upon his own resources. Consequently, whatever excel- 
 lence he showed, or position he attained subsequently, should be 
 attributed alone to his own inherent qualities, his intellect and 
 perseverance. He was in the best sense of the word a self-made 
 man. Self-reliance, a hopeful disposition, energy, a brave and 
 honest heart, were his youthful patrimony. With these he 
 worked and won. Through the dangers and temptations of 
 childhood and youth — in the contests and struggles of manhood, 
 — in the field, in the press, in the legislative hall, these qual- 
 ities preserved and fortified. At a very early age he was appren- 
 ticed to " the art preservative of all arts," in the office of the 
 Cherry Valley newspaper, where he acquired the trade, or pro- 
 fession, of a practical printer. In 1839, or 1840, he joined the 
 Albany Argus as one of its compositors, and about 1845 was 
 made its foreman ; and very soon afterwards, assumed the position 
 also of one of its associate editors. In this station the war-cry 
 of his country found him in the spring of 1846, and he at once 
 co-operated with others in raising a volunteer company for the 
 Mexican campaign. The services of this company were tendered 
 the Government to join the army on the Kio Grande. 
 
 A call having been made for a regiment destined expressly 
 for California, he threw up his position on the paper, and de- 
 voted himself to the work of raising a company. Another com- 
 pany was being formed at the same time under Capt. Frisbie. 
 The two commanders, Gilbert and Frisbie, fearing that two 
 companies would not be accepted from the same city, Albany, 
 agreed to unite, Gilbert taking the office of first lieutenant. 
 This was done ; the company thus formed was accepted, and 
 arrived at the head-quarters of the 1st regiment of New York 
 Volunteers, under command of Col. J. D. Stevenson, at Gover- 
 nor's Island, on the 1st day of August, 1846. The regiment 
 sailed from New York on the 26th day of September in three 
 
EDWARD GILBERT. 
 
 775 
 
 transports, the " Thomas H. Perkins," " Susan Drew," and 
 "Loo Choo." Gilbert sailed in the "Susan Drew" as far as 
 Rio de Janeiro, where he exchanged to the " Loo Choo," and ar- 
 rived in San Francisco, in the latter end of March, 1847. 
 
 Company " H," to which Gilbert was attached, proceeded to 
 the presidio, but he and some twenty men were stationed in 
 San Francisco, their quarters being the " Old Adobe" on the pla- 
 za. Here he remained not only in command of the detachment, 
 but as deputy collector of the port, under Captain Jos. L. Fol- 
 som, who having been ordered to act as collector for the purpose 
 of raising a military contribution and to select as his deputy a 
 subaltern, had judiciously given that position to Lieutenant Gil- 
 bert. This was the first opportunity afforded him, iu California, 
 of evincing his ability and integrity as a business man. Most of 
 the duties of this office necessarily devolved upon him. They 
 were always arduous and sometimes very delicate and critical ; 
 but he never failed to inspire respect for his talents, confidence in 
 his integrity, and admiration for his firmness of character, and 
 amenity of manners. This position he held until the disbanding 
 of the regiment, August 16th, 1848. 
 
 The war had then been terminated, and it became necessary 
 to select a civilian to act as collector of the port, until the reve- 
 nue laws of the United States should be extended over the terri- 
 tory. The late General Mason, U. S. Army, then acting as gov- 
 ernor of the territory, appointed Mr. Gilbert to that office. Tins 
 he declined. By doing so he voluntarily lost the opportunity of 
 amassing a large fortune in a very short time. Mr. Harrison, 
 who was subsequently appointed, having become the recipient of 
 immense revenues, through the opportunities given him by virtue 
 of his office of getting possession of property, was soon made 
 almost if not quite a millionaire. About the 1st of October, he 
 started for the mines, and after spending some three weeks 
 there, ill health obliged him to return. 
 
 There were then two newspaper establishments in San Francis- 
 co, the "California Star " and the "Californian." Mr. Gilbert 
 having formed a partnership with Mr. E. C. Kembleof the "Star," 
 and Mr. Geo. C. Hubbard, and the materials of the "Californian" 
 having been purchased, tht'se two papers, the only ones as yet 
 
776 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 published in California, were merged into a new paper, the "Alta 
 California," the first number of which appeared on the 4th Jan- 
 uary, 1849, Mr. Gilbert filling the position of senior editor. He 
 continued to occupy this position until his death, except when 
 absent in the convention which formed the State constitution, and 
 afterwards during his congressional term. In the summer of 1849 
 he was elected almost unanimously as one of the delegates to 
 represent San Francisco in the convention about to assemble tc 
 form a constitution for the State. In the following autumn, 
 having held himself aloof from party nomination he ran as an inde- 
 pendent candidate for Congress, and was elected by a very flatter- 
 ing majority. He had thus the proud distinction of being a 
 member of the first delegation which represented in Congress a 
 sovereign State on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. At the expira- 
 tion of his term of service in Congress, he returned to California, 
 where he arrived in June, 1851, with health much impaired. He 
 soon resumed his position of senior editor of the Alia California. 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1852, the relief expedi- 
 tion sent out to assist the incoming immigration over the plains 
 under the law of the Legislature of that year became the subject of 
 much criticism through the press, as well as in private circles. 
 Mr. Gilbert could not from his nature and habits refrain from ex- 
 pressing decidedly his opinions touching it and its conductors. 
 This unfortunately involved him in a personal controversy with 
 several gentlemen, and finally led to a duel in which the Hon. J. 
 W. Denver, State Senator from Klamath and Trinity Counties, 
 and himself were principals, Mr. Denver being the challenged 
 party. They fought at sunrise, August 2d, at Oak Grove, near 
 Sacramento City. The weapons used were Wesson's rifles ; the 
 distance forty paces. The first fire having occurred without ef- 
 fect, the weapons were reloaded, the word given, and Mr. Gilbert 
 fell mortally wounded, the ball having taken effect just above the 
 left hip bone. He survived but a few moments, looking up to the 
 face of his second with a smile, and dying without uttering a 
 word. His body was taken to the Oak Grove Hotel, and thence in 
 the evening to Sacramento City. The next day his remains were 
 escorted by the Sacramento Guard and Sutter Light Infantry, 
 and a large number of the most prominent citizens, to the steam- 
 
EDWARD GILBERT. 
 
 777 
 
 er. On the arrival of the body in San Francisco it was received 
 by the various military companies, and other associations. In 
 the darkness of the gloomy night the silent and mournful cortege 
 presented a peculiarly solemn appearance, and impressed all with 
 the most melancholy reflections. In that sad hour there was not 
 present one heart which did not condemn the bloody code by 
 which he had been destroyed. 
 
 His funeral ceremonies were performed on the sixth of August. 
 The California Guard, of which he had been a member, acted as 
 escort. A very large concourse of citizens joined in the cererno- 
 monies and the procession. His remains were deposited in the 
 Yerba Buena Cemetery, where amid the shrubs they rest, cut 
 down in early prime like many of the flowers which bloom upon his 
 grave, and are too soon shattered by the untimely wind. Many 
 lie there in that young city of the dead, but none whose life in 
 its various relations was based upon more high and honorable 
 principles of conduct and feeling. 
 
 One who knew Mr. Gilbert well speaks of him thus eloquently 
 and truly : A residence of nearly six years in a new country, which 
 from the first became the home of his adoption, made him 
 thoroughly a Californian in all his actions and inmost thoughts. 
 Coming here under circumstances which remove the slightest im- 
 putation of seeking political preferment in a new State, or of reap- 
 ing the golden harvest which was not discovered until long after 
 his arrival, the most rigid scrutiny of his whole course will con- 
 vince all that he attained the proud distinction of a high, honor- 
 able and manly identification with the best interests of Califor- 
 nia, without any resort to means which could leave a stain upon 
 his character as a public man or private citizen. 
 
 His position as an editor was at times difficult ; but he met his 
 responsibilities fearlessly, and fulfilled each duty with more than 
 common ability and discretion. For fourye,ars the conductor of a 
 leading journal upon the shores of the Pacific, Mr. Gilbert partici- 
 pated largely in the development of institutions which 
 in some countries would have been the growth of gener- 
 ations ; and it may be said with equal credit to his memory as a 
 journalist, and as a man, that his ability has left its impress for 
 good upon almost every important question in the history of our 
 
778 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 young but powerful State. Politically, he was a consistent dem- 
 ocrat, unwavering in bis adherence to the great cardinal principles 
 of his faith ; but be was no partisan. He was above the servility 
 to party discipline which the great mass of politicians approve or 
 endure, never forgetting his individual dignity and honor in obedi- 
 ence to cliques and parties. As a member of the State Conven- 
 tion and of Congress, without pretence to the showy qualities of 
 the orator, he was one of the most indefatigable working com- 
 mittee-men, earnest and sensible. 
 
 Yet he lacked not the qualities necessary to a fluent speaker, 
 and was forcible, calm and argumentative. The dignity and up- 
 rightness of his character, together with his business tact, gave 
 him, notwithstanding his youth, a high and honorable position 
 among his confederates, in the Convention and in Congress. As a 
 man he was modest, unassuming, almost diffident, and bis manner 
 gave him an appearence of coldness which his intimate friends 
 knew did not spring from his heart. His attachments, when 
 once formed and unrestrained, were warm, generous and constant. 
 His disposition was kind and benevolent. He scorned every thing 
 low, corrupt and vile. He fearlessly expressed his feelings. He was 
 as resolute in the presence of a foe as he was warm towards a friend. 
 He was neither malignant nor vindictive. Guileless, frank, 
 open hearted, he won the esteem and secured the respect of 
 every circle in which he moved. His private life and character 
 were unblemished, and he guarded his honor with a sleepless watch- 
 fulness. His fault was a too sensitive vigilance and excitability 
 upon this point. It made him too keenly alive to the least ex- 
 pression which might be tortured into an insinuation against him- 
 self. Entirely conscious of his own rectitude and honesty, he 
 could not and would not suffer a doubt of either to be breathed 
 or whispered. If this was an error it sprung from a highly vir- 
 tuous impulse and principle, and he lost his life in vindicating 
 what he considered his honor. The gloom which hung over the 
 city after the announcement of his death, and during his funeral 
 ceremonies, showed how deeply he had fixed himself in the hearts 
 of the community. 
 
WILLIAM D. M. HOWARD. 
 
 Few names of individuals have occurred so frequently through- 
 out our narrative as that of Wru.D. M. Howard. Indeed very few- 
 men in San Francisco have so continually and zealously minis- 
 tered to its public welfare, entirely independent of political influ- 
 ences, and in return enjoyed the same unwavering, unabated 
 popularity through the antithetic phases of its history. 
 
 Mr. Howard is a native of Boston, and first came to Cali- 
 fornia in the year 1838, where he resided, with the exception of 
 a twelvemonth's absence on a visit to the city of his birth, until 
 1853, when his failing health again carried him from his adopted 
 home. Prior to the occupancy of the country by the army of 
 the United States, he was engaged as the agent of a commercial 
 house in Boston in the hide trade, then almost the only traffic 
 
780 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 carried on in California. This business rendered it necessary for 
 him to be continually travelling to and from the different por- 
 tions of the coast, and it was not till 1846 or 1847 that he 
 established himself permanently in San Francisco. 
 
 At that time, he associated himself with Henry Melius, Esq. 
 (another old resident on the Pacific), and with him purchased 
 the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company in San Fran- 
 cisco, along with other property, and entered upon a commer- 
 cial business, which was not then of much importance or of 
 very great extent. The discovery of gold, however, gave an 
 impetus to their operations, and ere long they became extensively 
 engaged in great commercial speculations. In 1850, these gen- 
 tlemen dissolved partnership, and Mr. Howard retired from the 
 busy scenes of commerce, and devoted himself to the improve- 
 ment of his property. 
 
 Among the political and party agitations of his adopted 
 State, Capt. Howard has never taken an active part, but he has 
 always been a zealous and efficient advocate for any measure 
 conducive to her welfare ; and his name is prominent among 
 those whose liberality and enterprise have been the spirit of the 
 progress of San Francisco. In every popular movement in the 
 city, he enacted an eminent and controlling part, and in the 
 social and minor relations of fife holds a merited and enviable 
 position. His charities have been abundant. The early efforts 
 to establish an Orphans' Asylum met in him a generous as- 
 sistant, and in the organization of the school system and fire 
 department, he acted prominently, tendering, besides pecuniary 
 aid, the free use of buildings to the former, and donating to the 
 latter a handsome fire-engine, which he had procured at his own 
 expense. He was among the first promoters of the cause of re- 
 ligion, and donated a lot of ground to the Howard street Pres- 
 byterian Church. His early connection with the volunteer sol- 
 diery led to his election as captain of the California Guard, a 
 position he long and worthily filled. He is about thirty-five years 
 of age, of a commanding general appearance, and a particularly 
 benevolent expression of countenance. 
 
JOSEPH F. ATWILL. 
 
 Mr. Atwill is another of the prominent pioneers of California, 
 who during the past five years have labored to develope the 
 resources of their adopted State. Ever prompt in the discharge 
 of the duties incumbent on an active and intelligent citizen, 
 thorough and precise in his business relations, bountiful in his 
 charities, generous, open-hearted and benevolent in disposition, 
 this gentleman has met with that signal success, which, like bread 
 cast upon the waters, returns to reward an unselfish life. A 
 resume of his career would be that of hundreds of men, who 
 leaving the crowded thoroughfares of the great Atlantic cities, 
 turned to the land of promise, where the trials and hardships of 
 ten years of active life crowded into one, were to develope traits 
 which might otherwise have remained concealed among the ener- 
 vating luxuries of eastern habits. 
 
 Joseph F. Atwill was born in Boston, Massachusetts, June 
 4th, 1811, and received the usual literary education afforded the 
 youth of that city by its excellent school system. This com- 
 pleted, young Atwill entered the office of the " New England 
 Farmer," where he served a regular aj>prenticeship among the 
 " types" — a hot-bed which has developed the germ of much of 
 the world's best talent. Two years of industrious application to 
 his business discovered to his friends that his occupation was of 
 a too sedentary nature, and he consequently entered the music 
 and fancy goods store of Messrs. Hewett & Co., in Boston, and 
 subsequently removed with them to New York, in the year 1831. 
 Having served with them the requisite time, he commenced a 
 business for himself in 1834, and experienced the vicissitudes of 
 a Broadway tradesman, until he became one of the most cele- 
 brated publishers of music in the country. 
 
 Ultimately, however, meeting with severe losses, Mr. Atwill 
 
782 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 became one of the restless thousands, who, carried away by the 
 excitement of the discovery of a land, embodying all the fancies 
 of Lalla Rookh and gorgeous Cashmere, determined to tempt 
 fortune anew on the shores of the Pacific ; and accordingly ar- 
 rived in San Francisco, via Panama, on the 31st of October, 
 1849. Landing almost without a dollar, like hundreds of kin- 
 dred spirits, he soon began to adapt himself to the place, and to 
 move with that alacrity and determination to succeed that mark 
 the man of will and firm resolve. After buying and selling ex- 
 tensively for himself, and operating largely for others, he located 
 a little store, 8 ft. by 14, on Washington street, a few doors west 
 of the plaza, and thus became the pioneer music and fancy- 
 goods dealer of California. In this snug little bijou of a place, 
 he laid the foundation of his wealth. At this period society in 
 San Francisco was almost totally disorganized, and resolved into 
 its original elements. Each man was an independent sover- 
 eignty, sailing under his own flag, declaring war, making treaties, 
 and exercising all the functions of a limited government. As a 
 consequence, some rose to imperial splendor ; others fell to ser- 
 vile dependency. Pictures of dejected misery and princely afflu- 
 ence met the gaze in every street ; men of the finest abilities 
 found themselves penniless and houseless ; while others, through 
 successful speculations, were constantly realizing fortunes. Lon- 
 don or St. Petersburgh never offered more remarkable contrasts 
 between luxury and distress than did San Francisco, in the 
 memorable winter of 1849. Thus, the little tenement of At will 
 was eagerly visited by his many unfortunate friends ; and the 
 cock-loft over 'the miniature store often gave nightly shelter to 
 many, who but a few months before had lived in luxuriant ease. 
 With his characteristic generosity, its proprietor shared his lodg- 
 ing with these friends, some of whom are now distinguished and 
 wealthy citizens. 
 
 In the spring of 1850, after several fortunate real-estate 
 operations, and while awaiting the arrival of goods, via Cape 
 Horn, he prosecuted his original design of visiting the mines, 
 and was particularly fortunate at the famous " diggings," near 
 Georgetown, being enabled to return to San Francisco in a very 
 few months. He then re-opened his establishment in the zinc 
 
JOSEPH F. ATWILL. 
 
 783 
 
 building on the plaza, formerly used as the U. S. custom-house, 
 post-office, &c, and which rented for many months at $75,000 per 
 annum, and having repeatedly escaped the great fires, was better 
 known as the " Salamander Block." While located here, Mr. 
 Atwill was (May, 1851) elected assistant alderman for the fourth 
 ward, and became president of the board, — a position which he 
 filled with ability and honor. In 1852, he visited New York, 
 where he finally closed up all his business affairs ; and with a 
 view to a permanent residence in the land of his adoption, made 
 arrangements for the removal of his family to his new home. 
 On his return to San Francisco, he opened tne fine brick build- 
 ing, No. 172 Washington street. In the spring of 1853, his 
 fellow-citizens of the fourth ward, mindful of his efforts to serve 
 them in 1851, again elected him to the city council ; and on the 
 meeting of that body, he was unanimously chosen president of 
 the board of aldermen. At both periods of his election to the 
 council, the municipal affairs were in a singular state of com- 
 plexity and embarrassment, and he aided that body much in re- 
 storing them to order and regularity. 
 
 In November, 1853, Mr. Atwill's family arrived, and found a 
 splendid mansion, prepared and adorned for them by the judi- 
 cious care of the husband and father. Henceforth, his home is 
 in San Francisco, of which his extensive relations entitle him to 
 be considered one of its most enterprising merchants. Notwith- 
 standing his increased wealth, he has lost nothing of the charac- 
 ter of probity and ability that have always marked his social 
 and political life. He is distinguished for a remarkable ease 
 and cordiality of manner. His countenance is full of good humor 
 and bonhommie. He is domestic in his habits ; strictly moral 
 and disciplinary in his course of life ; indeed, his rigid attention 
 to business and propriety of conduct were such as to excite 
 remark among the free, easy and adventurous sort of people that 
 dwelt in San Francisco. Mr. Atwill is a self-educated man ; 
 adding by useful and agreeable study and reading to the ex- 
 periences of life. His personal popularity bespeaks for him the 
 highest honors in the gift of his fellow-citizens. 
 
JONATHAN D. STEVENSON. 
 
 Colonel J. D. Stevenson, as commander of the well-known 
 regiment of New York Volunteers, in 1847 and 1848, earned for 
 himself a high name in California, which later years have not 
 derogated. This gentleman was horn of respectable parentage 
 in the City of New York, on the 1st of January, 1800. His 
 grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution ; and his father a 
 ship-master, who was, for many years, connected with the revenue 
 department at New York. Their descendant was bred a merchant 
 and entered into business on his own account before he was 
 eighteen years of age. While still a lad, and in the course of 
 transacting some business for his employers, the subject of our 
 memoir made the valuable and flattering acquaintance of D. D. 
 Tompkins, Esq., then governor of the State of New York, and 
 soon afterwards elected vice-president of the United States. 
 
JONATHAN D. STEVENSON. 
 
 785 
 
 When, early in 1818, Governor Tompkins commenced running 
 a line of steamboats from Staten Island to New York, he appointed 
 young Stevenson his agent. That distinguished individual indeed, 
 to the close of his life, testified to his youthful friend much of 
 the regard and affection which a father bears to a son, appointing 
 him his private secretary, and always treating him as a dear aid 
 confidential companion. Mr. Stevenson, in the former capacity 
 accompanied the vice-president to Washington, where he became 
 acquainted with the most notable men of the nation, with many 
 of whom he remained in habits of intimacy and correspondence 
 until he left the Atlantic States for California. The late 
 Honorable Silas Wright, and the present secretary of state, 
 William L. Marcy, may be particularly mentioned as having 
 been among Mr. Stevenson's personal friends. The latter named 
 gentleman has given numerous evidences of high regard for his 
 friend, while the following extract of a letter from the former to 
 one high in authority at Washington will exhibit the estimation 
 in which he was held by the writer : — " I will say to you, with 
 great cheerfulness, that I consider Stevenson a warm and devoted 
 friend to me and to the democratic party and its principles. I 
 have known him quite intimately for several years, and have cor- 
 responded with him a good deal, during that time, and I have 
 ever found him, in all my intercourse, strictly faithful to truth, 
 perfectly honorable, and most ardently, I may almost say pas- 
 sionately, devoted to his friends, as he never seems to me to think 
 of himself, when his friends, or his party, are in danger." 
 
 At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Stevenson attached himself 
 to a military company in the city of New York, and in 1825 
 united with Col. W. W. Tompkins in organizing the splendid 
 corps of citizen soldiers known as the Tompkins Blues, who, to 
 this day, as the Light Guard, stand at the head of the uniformed 
 militia companies for character and perfection of drill, as infantry 
 and artillery. From the rank of lieutenant in the Tompkins 
 Blues, he was elected, in 1828, to the command of a regiment of 
 citizen soldiers in New York by the unanimous vote of all the 
 officers. This commission he resigned in 1840, at which time 
 he was generally considered one of the best drill officers and tac- 
 titians in the State. 
 
 50 
 
786 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson was for many years a leading politician of his 
 native city and State ; and in 1846 was chosen from the former 
 a member of the State Legislature of New York. In the month 
 of June of that year, when on a visit to Washington, President 
 Polk, with whom he had long been personally intimate, offered 
 him the command of a volunteer regiment for service in Califor- 
 nia, if he would raise one. This offer was made by the president 
 alone, without previously consulting with his cabinet, in which, 
 it was afterwards understood, the matter became subject of debate. 
 However, towards the end of the same month, official instructions 
 reached Mr. Stevenson to raise and organize the proposed regi- 
 ment. The rolls were accordingly opened on the 4th of the 
 following month of July. Within three days afterwards the 
 force was filled up ; and, on the 1st of August mustered into 
 service at Governor's Island. There it lay encamped for some 
 time, until transports could be obtained for its embarkation to 
 California. The energetic and persevering character, as well as 
 great abilities of Mr. Stevenson, were so well known to the pre- 
 sident and secretary of war, that he was left with the entire 
 duty and responsibility of raising, organizing, and equipping this 
 regiment, and of making requisitions upon the several depart- 
 ments for the necessary supplies to his recruits. 
 
 Colonel Stevenson's carefulness in receiving volunteers for 
 his regiment was the cause of much subsequent annoyance 
 to him. It appears that the regulations of the service require 
 each recruit to be examined by a surgeon within four days after 
 enlistment. But as the surgeons of the new regiment were not 
 appointed for twenty days after it had encamped at Governor's 
 Island, such examination did not take place till a later period. 
 When, however, it was made, a number of men, physically dis- 
 qualified, were rejected and dismissed from each company. Now, 
 most men who have ever figured in public life have had their 
 political and personal foes ; and Colonel Stevenson had his. The 
 propriety of his appointment to his high command had been 
 much discussed, and though none pretended to deny his peculiar 
 fitness for the office, still many considered that there were others 
 who had equal if not better claims than he to the post. Some 
 of these grumblers, who happened to be bitter personal enemies 
 
JONATHAN D. STEVENSON. 
 
 787 
 
 of the colonel, got hold of the men dismissed from the regiment 
 as unfit for service, and persuaded them instantly to raise actions 
 of damages against the commander for false imprisonment and 
 what not. This was on the eve of the sailing of the expedition. 
 If these prosecutions had been commenced and process served, 
 interminable delay and expense would have resulted ; and, in the 
 end, the colonel would have lost the command, which was chiefly 
 what his enemies wished. Beiug informed of their plans, he 
 determined to balk them, if he could. In a day or two the ex- 
 pedition would certainly sail ; but that day or two was of the 
 utmost consequence. Colonel Stevenson accordingly at once 
 repaired on board one of the three transports, in which his men 
 were already embarked, and issued instructions, that prepara- 
 tions should immediately be made to sail. Meanwhile he refused 
 to receive any person on board, unless connected with the expe- 
 dition. By and by, the sheriff came alongside in a steamer, and 
 wished to go on board the transport. This the officer of the 
 watch refused to permit, and ordered a sentinel to shoot whoever 
 should attempt to set his foot on deck. The steamer therefore 
 went back with the disappointed official. Next morning, the 
 deputy sheriff made his report of the resistance which had been 
 offered to his authority — the sheriff called upon the mayor for 
 help — and the mayor, as in duty bound, provided a little army 
 of policemen to arrest the colonel and his officers, chartered a 
 steamer, and with his civic force hastened to the wharf. But 
 the birds had flown. The transports, under convoy of the United 
 States ship Preble, were already under way, and would be 
 beyond his worship's jurisdiction before they could be overtaken. 
 This was on the 26th of September. Thus the colonel's tactics 
 freed him from the danger. 
 
 In due course of time the Preble and transports reached 
 California. When Colonel Stevenson himself landed at San 
 Francisco, on the 7th March, 1847, he found orders awaiting him 
 from General Kearny, directing the distributing of his regiment 
 over various parts of the country ; which was subsequently done. 
 Detachments were stationed at Sonoma, San Francisco, Santa 
 Barbara and Monterey, to which last place, as head-quarters, 
 Colonel Stevenson proceeded. The Americans at Los Angeles 
 
788 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 begging for succor, and intelligence being received that a large 
 body of Mexicans, under General Bustamente, were approaching 
 the southern portion of the country, the colonel with two com- 
 panies of his regiment was ordered to that town. Here he 
 assumed the command of the southern military district, embrac- 
 ing Santa Barbara and all below that port. The battalion of 
 Mormon Volunteers was then at Los Angeles, at which place 
 Colonel Stevenson established his head-quarters. In July, 1847, 
 the Mormon battalion was disbanded ; and from that time till 
 the close of the war, this district of country was left under the 
 charge of the colonel, by whose constant vigilance it was kept 
 quiet. By his uniform kindness to the native Californians as 
 well as to foreign residents, added to his impartial administration 
 of justice in civil as in military matters, he endeared himself to 
 all who knew him. No man was ever more loved and respected 
 by those under his command than Colonel Stevenson. It is like- 
 wise well known, that he possessed the utmost confidence and 
 esteem of his superior officers, General Kearny and Colonel 
 Mason. Colonel Stevenson was afterwards ordered to Monterey 
 to await the coming of a portion of his regiment that had been 
 sent to Lower California. This arrived in October, 1848, and 
 was disbanded on the 24th of the same month. Their commander 
 himself was mustered out of service two days afterwards, being 
 just two years and one month from the time he had sailed from 
 New York. 
 
 Colonel Stevenson afterwards formed a party, with two offi- 
 cers and some picked men of his regiment, to proceed to the 
 gold mines. It was during this mining expedition that the colo- 
 nel, at the request of the general body of miners in the district 
 (Mokelumne Hill), prepared a code of laws, or regulations, re- 
 garding the proper working at the mines. These were unani- 
 mously adopted, and their framer was elected alcalde to enforce 
 them. This is believed to have been the first code for the regu- 
 lation of mining claims ever proposed in California, and was the 
 basis upon which all others have since been formed. 
 
 A short time subsequent to this, Col. Stevenson formed a 
 business connection with Dr. William C. Parker, who had been 
 assistant surgeon in the regiment of New York volunteers ; and 
 
JONATHAN D. STEVENSON. 
 
 789 
 
 the partners began extensive operations in real estate in San 
 Francisco. They were among the first who subdivided fifty-vara 
 lots, which they did most profitably to themselves, and with an 
 industry and perseverance unsurpassed by any others in Cali- 
 fornia. They soon began to be remarked as among the most 
 prosperous and wealthy men in San Francisco. They were the 
 first to erect and finish a dwelling-house with lath and plaster, 
 and among the first to erect buildings on piles, on what at that 
 time (1849 and 1850) was considered the bay. In 1850, Col. 
 Stevenson purchased up the interest of Dr. Parker in their large 
 estate. But, unfortunately, in the spring of the following year, 
 when the money pressure became very severe, he was obliged to 
 assign all his property for payment of his debts. His creditors 
 intrusted him with the management of his affairs ; and he, 
 anxious to be relieved from his heavy obligations, immediately 
 proceeded to realize the estate, and convert it into cash, which 
 was honestly applied in payment of every claim, principal and 
 interest, which could be made against him. If a little time had 
 been given, or which he might have taken, this property, which 
 was hastily sacrificed, would have produced perhaps millions 
 above what it was sold for. He is still, however, possessed of an 
 independent fortune. 
 
 Colonel Stevenson has ever been remarked for his agreeable 
 social qualities ; and in the memorable winter of 1849-50, he 
 had abundant opportunities to exhibit also an equally conspicu- 
 ous disposition for generosity and benevolence. At that period 
 there was much suffering in San Francisco, and many were 
 calling aloud for the exercise of charity in their behalf; and 
 such calls never fell unheeded upon the ears of him of whom 
 we write. Of his abundant means he contributed largely for the 
 relief of the poor, the sick and the dying, and to the decent inter- 
 ment of the indigent dead. Upon the organization of the Grand 
 Lodge of Freemasons for the State, he was unanimously elected 
 the first grand master, and served his term of office with credit 
 to himself and the satisfaction of its members, comprising many 
 of the most respectable, intelligent and influential men of the 
 country. 
 
WILLIAM M. GWIN. 
 
 Among the leading public men in the Senate of the United States, 
 and now occupying a prominent position before the country, is 
 this distinguished senator from California. Dr. Gwin was born 
 on the 9th of September, 1805, in Sumner County, Tennessee. 
 His father, Kev. James Grwin, was an eminent clergyman of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. The field of the ministrations of 
 this good man embraced all the western and south-western States : 
 and the zeal and energy with which he jierformed the duties of 
 his sacred office were chiefly instrumental in founding in that 
 part of the Union, the denomination of which he was a constant 
 and devoted advocate. His son William was placed at an early 
 age in charge of Professor Thruston, an eminent scholastic of 
 Kentucky, and being gifted with an active and vigorous mind, 
 
WILLIAM M. GWIN. 
 
 791 
 
 and possessing extraordinary energy and perseverance, he soon 
 became grounded in the elements of an English education, and 
 devoted himself to the study of mathematics and the ancient, 
 languages. The severe mental training, which he received in the 
 exact sciences, prepared him for any branch of learning, and per- 
 ceiving intuitively its importance he cultivated his reasoning 
 powers by familiarizing himself with geometrical discussions. 
 From these he entered another field of inquiry, in the study of in- 
 tellectual philosophy and the ancient classics, becoming well ac- 
 quainted with the Koman language and literature, and attaining 
 at the same time some proficiency in the more elegant and pol- 
 ished idiom of the Greek writers. This course of study under 
 the direction of his father and preceptor developed his great 
 mental vigor and acuteness. His predilection for the natural 
 sciences led him to the study of medicine, with the purpose of fol- 
 lowing it as a profession. Having already gone through regular 
 courses of chemistry and anatomy, he entered the Medical De- 
 partment of Transylvania University, where he graduated with 
 distinguished honor, and before he had attained his majority, 
 commenced the practice of physic near the city of Nashville, 
 Tennessee. The bent of his mind, however, was in a different 
 direction. As a branch of liberal education, he entered upon a 
 course of legal study and thoroughly read the great English and 
 American commentators, attentively examining, at the same time, 
 the institutions of our own country and of Great Britain, and 
 was finally duly admitted to practise at the bar. The severe 
 training he had received in his early education and his natural 
 abilities enabled him, however deep the research or intricate 
 the analysis, to give freshness and interest to any subject which 
 engaged his attention in his new profession ; while, at the same 
 time, in its management, he ever kept in view its ajiplication to 
 the real business and great end of life. In fact he was, uncon- 
 sciously, preparing himself for another sphere of action, in which 
 he has since figured among the most prominent and distinguished 
 statesmen in the Union. Born and reared almost under the eye 
 of Andrew Jackson, he became a favorite of that hero and states- 
 man from early infancy. Even in boyhood he had mingled with 
 men of no ordinary stamp — those men, indeed, whose energies 
 
792 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 have vindicated the justice and security of popular government 
 and sjiread its influence over the whole world — and they had 
 taught him the habit of self-reliance and the value of our preva- 
 lent institutions. He knew, in fact, hut one political creed, and 
 that was the principles of the democratic party. Installed in 
 such a church, from youth, he has ever been zealous and true to 
 its faith. 
 
 President Jackson, appreciating his great energy of character 
 and integrity of purpose, tendered him in the year 1833, the 
 office of U. S. Marshal for the State of Mississippi. This posi- 
 tion Dr. Gwin held, during that administration and throughout 
 President Van Buren's. He discharged the responsible duties of 
 the office with great delicacy and humanity. Indeed, his urbanity 
 and kindness materially lessened the severity of judicial exactions 
 and his private fortune was eventually ruined by his frequent 
 assumption of the liabilities of others and his forbearance from 
 enforcing the mandates of the law. 
 
 Upon the election of Gen. Harrison to the presidency, Dr. 
 Gwin resigned the office of marshal and became a candidate for 
 Congress on the democratic ticket. President Harrison had 
 received a majority of 2500 in 1840 in that district, but mainly 
 through the efforts of Dr. Gwin, the opposite party now triumphed 
 by an equal number of votes, and he was chosen a member of 
 the XXVIIth Congress. He at once gave evidence of his ability 
 as a legislator and as a business member, devoting himself with 
 untiring assiduity to all the numerous demands for his services. 
 The diversified matters in which his State was concerned, and 
 more particularly the landed interests of his constituents and the 
 extension of the postal system, occupied his attention. At the 
 close of his congressional term he was renominated by acclama- 
 tion, but was compelled for a time to withdraw from public life, 
 to attend to his private affairs, which had become embarrassed by 
 reason of his leniency in the discharge of his duties as marshal, 
 and of serious losses he had personally sustained, by receiving in 
 payment of executions, the perishable paper currency of that day. 
 
 In 1847, during President Polk's administration, he was ap- 
 pointed Commissioner to superintend the erection of the U. S. 
 Custom-House in New Orleans, the duties of which office he dis- 
 
WILLIAM M. GWIN. 
 
 793 
 
 charged with scrupulous fidelity, hut which, on the accession of 
 President Taylor, he resigned and emigrated for California. 
 
 His thorough knowledge of the institutions of the country, 
 his great experience in public affairs and his popular address, at 
 once commanded the attention and confidence of the medleyed 
 public in this quarter, and he was chosen in the primary assembly 
 of the people to represent them in convention to form a constitu- 
 tion for a State Government. He entered upon the duty with 
 his usual energy, and no man labored more zealously to complete 
 the work. He brought to bear, in the progress of the discussion, 
 all the resources of his vigorous and cultivated mind and had the 
 gratification of witnessing that instrument, which is now the 
 fundamental law of the Pacific State, adopted and ratified by 
 the people with singular unanimity. 
 
 The first Legislature under the State organization met in 
 December, 1849, and Messrs. Gwin and Fremont were chosen 
 United States Senators. His labors then, in behalf of Califor- 
 nia, began in earnest, and upon a new theatre. He was untiring 
 in collecting and disseminating among the members of both 
 Houses of Congress, information to enable them to understand 
 the true condition of his State, and to legislate accordingly. 
 During the turbulent agitation of the slavery question in the 
 public councils and throughout the country, Dr. Gwin was inces- 
 sant in his exertion to bring about the work of pacification and 
 secure the admission of his State, and finally, on the 9th of 
 September, 1850, had the gratification of perceiving the passage 
 of the Act of Congress, declaring California to be one of the 
 United States, and to be admitted into the Union on equal foot- 
 ing with her thirty elder sisters. He then took his seat in the 
 National Senate, and from that day, that great body and the 
 country at large have witnessed his statesmanlike course, and 
 the unparalleled exertions he has made to elevate his State from 
 the feebleness of political infancy to that commanding position 
 which she now occupies in the American confederacy. 
 
SELIM E. WOODWORTH. 
 
 Selim E. Woodworth, second son of the poet Samuel Wood- 
 worth, author of the " Old Oaken Bucket," was born in the city 
 of New York, on the 27th of November, 1815. Having had 
 from his earliest boyhood a strong desire to travel and " see the 
 world," he began his career at twelve years of age, by leaving 
 clandestinely his father's house, and with a rifle and knapsack 
 commenced what he intended should have been a grand tour to 
 the far, far west, across the prairies and Rocky Mountains to 
 the Pacific Ocean. He had accomplished about three hundred 
 miles of this journey and reached the western boundary of the 
 State of New York, when, meeting with some relatives who had 
 heard of his sudden departure from home and of the agonizing 
 anxiety of his parents to learn his whereabouts, he was checked 
 in the further prosecution of his intended tour and persuaded 
 
SELIM E. WOODWORTH. 
 
 795 
 
 by his friends to relinquish for the time heing what they deemed 
 a most Quixotic project. Regretting that in his youthful ardor 
 he had thoughtlessly given pain to the hearts of those ''loved 
 ones at home," he concluded to return to his native city, allay 
 the fears and anxieties of his parents and endeavor to make ar- 
 rangements for carrying out, under more favorable auspices, his 
 cherished project of " seeing the world." His friends assayed in 
 vain to induce him to abandon the idea, hut it had become the 
 ruling passion of his life, and circumstances soon occurred which 
 afforded him an opportunity of gratifying it. 
 
 Early in 1834, an expedition to the South Seas was fitted 
 out by some merchants in New York, under the command of the 
 celebrated navigator, Capt. Benj. Morrell. A beautiful clipper 
 brig, the Margaret Oakley, was built at Baltimore, and fitted, 
 armed and equipped for the purpose ; and young Woodworth, 
 having obtained the reluctant consent of his parents, embarked 
 in the expedition as captain's clerk. This vessel after cruising 
 among the islands of the South Pacific for about three years, 
 and while returning home by way of China and the Cape of 
 Good Hope, was wrecked upon the Island of Madagascar, where 
 our young adventurer was compelled to remain many months 
 among a rude and barbarous people, living almost in a state of 
 nature. He finally contrived to leave the island in a small 
 launch, and succeeded in reaching Mauritius, or the Isle of 
 France, from which he returned to his anxious friends at home, 
 after an absence of nearly four years. 
 
 Mr. Woodworth's spirit of adventure being now fairly awak- 
 ened, and filled with a fresh desire to pursue his wanderings, he 
 applied for and obtained an appointment as midshipman in the 
 U. S. Navy, with the object of joining the U. S. Exploring Ex- 
 pedition, then being fitted out under command of Capt. Wilkes. 
 His application for orders was successful ; but by an unfortunate 
 mistake, the "yellow document" was forwarded to the Brooklyn 
 post-office instead of to New York, and he did not receive it 
 until several days after the sailing of the expedition. 
 
 After the lapse of a few months, Mr. Woodworth was ordered 
 to join the Ohio, 74, in which ship he sailed for the Mediter- 
 ranean in the winter of 1838, and spent three years cruising 
 
796 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 on that station, visiting in the mean time all the different coun- 
 tries bordering on that and the adjacent seas, and feasting his 
 poetical imagination on the classic treasures of that wondrous 
 region. Returning home in 1841, the succeeding four years 
 were spent cruising in the Gulf of Mexico, among the West In- 
 dia Islands, and along the coast of Africa. 
 
 In the spring of 1846, having obtained an unlimited leave 
 of absence for the purpose, Mr. Woodvvorth resolved to carry out 
 the darling project of his youth, and cross the continent to the 
 Pacific. With this view he left home on the 1st of April of the 
 year named. Having spent about a month in St. Louis and 
 completed the arrangements for his journey, he finally left Inde- 
 pendence, Mo., on the 15th of May, and accomplished the trip 
 to the Oregon settlements, on the Columbia River, in a little 
 over sixty days. This is one of the quickest trips across the 
 plains on record. Remaining in Oregon until the following 
 winter, he then came down the coast, and landed at " Yerba 
 Buena," the site of the present City of San Francisco. 
 
 Shortly after Mr. Woodworth's arrival here, information was 
 received of the dreadful situation of a party of unfortunate 
 immigrants who had lost their way in the mountains, and were 
 perishing with cold and hunger in the snows. Our hero imme- 
 diately volunteered to take command of a party, raised for the 
 purpose, to go to their relief. An open launch was soon fitted 
 out and furnished with supplies of stores, provisions, clothing 
 and other necessaries ; and with his hardy little band Lieut. 
 Woodworth started on this forlorn hope, in aid of suffering hu- 
 manity. It required eleven days to navigate the little craft up 
 the Sacramento River, against the swollen current of the stream 
 which had been rendered doubly powerful by the severe freshets 
 of that memorable winter. The party were compelled to warp 
 their boat along the banks nearly the whole distance, until they 
 arrived at the embarcadero of Sutter's Fort, the Bite of the 
 present Sacramento City. This place was completely overflowed 
 at that time, so that the whole space between the embarcadero 
 and the fort, was navigable with canoes. The party arrived at 
 the fort, and that gallant old soldier, Capt. John A. Sutter, 
 whose heart and purse were ever open to relieve the sufferings of 
 
SELIM E. WOODWORTH. 
 
 797 
 
 his fellow-creatures, at once entered warmly into their plans of 
 mercy, and furnished thorn with whatever was lacking to carry 
 out their enterprise, including pack mules and a number of his 
 Indian servants. During the course of the perilous journey, and 
 at convenient distances on the route, deposits of provisions were 
 made and cached, for future use in returning from the mountains. 
 When the region of snow was reached, the party were compelled 
 to send back their mules and pack their remaining supplies upon 
 their own backs, for many days, over mountains almost impas- 
 sable and over snows in many places from sixty to eighty feet 
 deep. On finally arriving at the camp of the unfortunate suffer- 
 ers a scene of horror was presented to them which would have 
 shocked the sensibilities of the strongest nerve. There remained 
 alive about seventy of the original party of immigrants. Many 
 had died from cold and hunger, and for many days the only means 
 the survivors possessed of sustaining life, was by feeding upon 
 the dead bodies of their comrades. In one instance, a father was 
 discovered lying upon the ground and eating the carcase of his 
 own child ! Some were raving maniacs, and others were so 
 stupefied and benumbed, as to have lost all desire or power of 
 exertion. All who were found alive, however, were safely brought 
 in, and thus, by the almost superhuman exertions of this gallant 
 little band, nearly seventy human lives were saved from destruc- 
 tion, among whom are some of the present most distinguished 
 citizens of our State. 
 
 After returning from this mountain expedition, Lieut. Wood- 
 worth reported himself for duty, and was ordered, as master, to 
 join the U. S. ship Warren, then lying at Monterey. He was 
 afterwards appointed to the command of the U. S. transport 
 Anita. This command he retained until the close of the war 
 with Mexico, doing much important service on the coast in trans- 
 porting supplies, men and munitions of war, to and from the 
 various ports between San Diego and the Columbia River. 
 
 In the fall of 1849, at the urgent solicitations of his fellow- 
 citizens of Monterey, of which place he was at that time a resi- 
 dent, Capt. Woodworth consented to have his name presented to 
 the people of that county as a candidate for the State Senate at 
 the first session of our Legislature. Having been elected, he re- 
 
798 
 
 ANNA.LS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 signed his post in the navy, and served his constituents in the 
 senate chamber of the State during the first two sessions at San 
 Jose. During the last session of his term, the County of Mon- 
 terey was infested by a reckless gang of desperadoes, horse 
 thieves, robbers and murderers, who committed all manner of 
 outrages upon the peaceable inhabitants, until it was found abso- 
 lutely necessary to extirpate them under authority of the State. 
 Under commission from Gov. McDougall, Mr. Woodworth raised 
 a company of rangers, and after many weeks of incessant effort, 
 the campaign resulted in completely breaking up the gang, by 
 the arrest of a number who were tried and found guilty, and 
 several of whom were executed. 
 
 Mr. Woodworth built the first house in San Francisco upon 
 a water-lot. It was upon the spot now occupied as the Clay 
 Street Market. The project of erecting a store out over the 
 water, while so much unoccupied land remained, was ridiculed at 
 the time as visionary ; but the sequel proved the wisdom of the 
 act. In consequence of the position, the firm of Woodworth & 
 Morris possessed for a long period the exclusive trade of the light- 
 erage of the port. 
 
 Although firm, determined and courageous, self-reliant and 
 persevering, Mr. Woodworth is nevertheless one of the most 
 quiet of men in his habits, and seems to prefer nature in her 
 simplicity and purity, to all the bustle and turmoil of the city, 
 the honors and emoluments of politics, and the fripperies and 
 false glare of society. On a little island in the bay, half way be- 
 tween San Francisco and Benicia, he has taken up his abode, 
 where like a second Robinson Crusoe he can sit by his fire, and 
 shoot the wild fowl he may choose from the flocks which swim 
 close by his hearth-stone, or from the very steps of his cottage 
 catch the finny visitant of the fishing grounds of " Red Rock." 
 Yet, although so retiring and fond of quiet, there is not a man 
 in California whose heart would sooner respond to the call of 
 suffering humanity, or who would less calculate the cost of wealth, 
 life or limb, than he, in flying to its relief ; no one on whom his 
 fellow-citizens might more implicitly rely where toil and dangers 
 were to be met and overcome, and the great principle of doing 
 good to man carried out under the most formidable difficulties. 
 
THEODORE PAYNE. 
 
 This gentleman is extensively known as a prominent, useful and 
 prosperous citizen of San Francisco. Modest and unassuming, 
 yet honest, industrious and energetic, he has worked himself for- 
 ward to an enviable position in the community. Mr. Payne was 
 born in the City of New York, on the 12th of December, 1816. 
 He was educated for the profession of a merchant ; and during 
 his residence in his native city, devoted his attention to mercan- 
 tile pursuits, in which he exhibited the qualities of an active, in- 
 telligent and talented business man. When the California gold 
 excitement first began to prevail in the Atlantic States, he was 
 impressed with the favorable opportunities afforded by the im- 
 mense current of emigration that immediately commenced west- 
 ward, for the further display and more successful exercise of the 
 spirit of enterprise he so eminently possessed. He concluded to 
 embark without delay for the newly discovered regions of adven- 
 
800 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 ture and gold, with no other capital than indomitable energy 
 and perseverance, to a field of labor where he trusted these quali- 
 ties would find an ample field for their employment. 
 
 From New York he took passage for Chagres, and crossing 
 the Isthmus, reached Panama in the month of September, 1849. 
 Here he met the first severe trial of his life, which, though it did 
 not destroy, certainly for a time somewhat dampened his ardor. 
 Misfortunes commencing at so early a period of his adventure, 
 were by no means a satisfactory assurance of future success. 
 Through carelessness on the part of the agents of the Steamship 
 Company, he lost his entire baggage, and left for San Francisco 
 in the steamer Panama with nothing in the world that he might 
 call his own. Even the clothing he wore were borrowed from a 
 friend. This was a sorry condition for one commencing a voyage 
 of over two weeks, and destined to a country of which he knew 
 but little, and where he expected to meet none other than 
 strangers. Still his heart was light, and his hopes ran high. 
 Arriving in the last named city, his circumstances would not 
 allow him to remain long idle ; he, therefore, instantly sought 
 after the means to employ his time and talents to their best ad- 
 vantage. Connecting himself with Mr. W. J. Sherwood, they 
 opened the well-known auction-house of Payne & Sherwood, and 
 were immediately doing an extensive general auction business. 
 Whilst conducting this establishment, by his courteous deport- 
 ment, agreeableness of manners, and prompt attention to his 
 patrons' interests, he gathered around him a large circle of sub- 
 stantial and influential friends. At the same time he took an 
 active part in all matters of public concern, associated himself 
 with the prominent institutions of the place, was present at the 
 various conventions of the people on public occasions, and in 
 many other respects so employed his leisure as to draw toward 
 himself the favorable consideration and esteem of the people at 
 large. In October, 1850, his connection with Mr. Sherwood was 
 dissolved, and shortly after he united with Mr. S. P. Dewey in 
 establishing the present popular real estate auction-house of 
 Theodore Payne & Co. The business and profits of this concern 
 were immense ; for besides the extensive sales of private property 
 which they continually effected, they were chosen by the com- 
 
THEODORE PAYNE. 
 
 801 
 
 missioners to sell the great landed interests of the city, the bene- 
 fits of which appointment they still enjoy. In the prosecution 
 of this business many and great opportunities occurred for lucra- 
 tive speculations in real estate, of which Mr. Payne so judiciously 
 availed himself, that in a very brief period he accumulated valu- 
 able property to a very considerable extent. 
 
 In the mean time he had met with serious reverses. Like 
 almost every other business man in San Francisco, he was a heavy 
 loser by the frequent terrific conflagrations that swept over the 
 entire populous portions of the city. On more than one occasion 
 his whole earnings were suddenly snatched from him by these 
 wholesale and frightful calamities. But still he never sunk into 
 the slough of despondency, but bore his severe losses with ad- 
 mirable philosophy, retained his extraordinary cheerfulness of 
 disposition, and never slackened his efforts, nor suffered his ener- 
 gies to diminish for a single moment. " Onward " was his motto, 
 and when thrown down by one calamity, he was soon up again, 
 and at work, to repair the injuries sustained. 
 
 In the gloomiest days that San Francisco has ever known — 
 when the city was involved in debt to an immense amount, and 
 very few could discern by what means its liabilities could ever 
 be met, or its difficulties overcome — when many lost all confidence, 
 and even left the place in despair — when real estate had deteri- 
 orated in value to almost nothing — when the corporation script 
 could not be sold for one third its face value — when, in fact, the 
 great mass of the population were fast relinquishing all hopes of 
 its future prosperity — Mr. Payne was among the few clear-sighted 
 and far-seeing citizens who doubted not its subsequent greatness. 
 A large portion of the city property had been sold at sheriff's 
 sale under executions in favor of its creditors, at mere nominal 
 prices, redeemable six months after date of sale. The limited 
 time expired ; but the commissioners were without funds to 
 redeem the property. Mr. Payne took a lively interest in the 
 matter, and perceiving that this large amount of property was 
 likely to be inevitably sacrificed, nobly stepped forward and offered 
 to the commissioners the needed relief, which was gladly accepted. 
 Messrs. T. Payne & Co. drew a check on Messrs. Page, Bacon 
 & Co., for the large amount of $17,696, which was the sum 
 51 
 
802 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 required to meet the emergency. Thus Mr. Payne continued to 
 exhibit an unwavering confidence in the future ability of the 
 city to meet its liabilities and recover its earlier prosperity. 
 It was at this period that his rare business qualifications and 
 remarkable powers of discernment were rendered most conspicu- 
 ous. With great exertion, and patient toil, and persevering effort 
 he succeeded in calling the attention of capitalists to the true 
 condition of things and the ultimate value that would be attached 
 to the city property, and his labors, as much as those of any other 
 individual, tended to effect the rapidly increased value of lots 
 within the city limits ; always maintaining that San Francisco 
 would become a great commercial metropolis, and that neither 
 fire, nor flood, nor earthquakes, nor storms, would arrest its pro- 
 gress. Even as far back as 1849, he advocated these views. At 
 that period much was said in favor of Benicia ; and many sensi- 
 ble people contended that that city would take precedence of any 
 other in the State. On this ground Mr. Payne was strongly 
 urged to remove to the latter named place ; but he ridiculed the 
 idea, and pointed out very clearly the superior advantages that 
 San Francisco then possessed and would ever maintain. The 
 result shows the propriety of his judgment. Many persons 
 through his persuasion were induced to invest their limited means 
 in land purchases, through which they have suddenly accumulated 
 handsome fortunes. The advice he gave to others he followed 
 himself, and thus became one of our wealthiest citizens. 
 
 Mr. Payne has signalized himself by the active part taken 
 by him in many of the popular excitements that have agitated 
 San Francisco. In the memorable affair of February, 1851, when 
 the enraged popidace had resolved upon lynching and hanging 
 the men Burdue and Windred, for an alleged assault upon Mr. 
 Jansen, he was chosen one of the Committee of Safety, and did 
 himself credit by w T ise and judicious counsel. During the 
 " Colton Grants " excitement which threatened to result in seri- 
 ous public disturbances, he did service to the city by his active 
 opposition to the attempts made by certain parties to possess 
 themselves of the property of others and the city on the plea of 
 holding those fraudulent and worthless titles. He was the means 
 of arresting several, who, upon this pretence, had taken possession 
 
THEODORE PAYNE. 
 
 803 
 
 of and were piling in the public slips. For his services in this 
 matter he was presented by a number of prominent merchants 
 with a superb magic-case watch richly set with diamonds. He 
 was among the most active of those who, to prevent a useless 
 squandering of the public funds, opposed the purchase by the 
 common council of the Jenny Lind Theatre at the extravagant 
 
 Formerly tho Jackson House, south-west corner of California and Montgomery streets. 
 
 price of two hundred thousand dollars. Indeed, whenever and 
 wherever the interests of the city were about being jeopardized, 
 Mr. Payne was sure to be found among its supporters and defend- 
 ers — a strenuous advocate of its rights, and a fearless and deter- 
 mined opposer of every corrupt and selfish official scheme. 
 Although a firm and stanch democrat, he kept aloof from all 
 cliques and party caucusses, whose ends were personal advance- 
 ment rather than the public good. 
 
 Since the fall of 1849, Mr. Payne has been a useful and effi- 
 cient member of the Fire Department, and is now one of the 
 Trustees of its Charity Fund. He early became a member of 
 the first Masonic Lodge established in San Francisco, and con- 
 
804 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 tributed generously to the many works of charity performed by 
 that benevolent institution. In fact, when an act of generosity 
 was to be done — when donations for the relief of the sick or dis- 
 tressed were required — the kind-hearted subject of this sketch was 
 never appealed to in vain. His sympathies were ever as large as 
 his purse, and on some occasions they drew forth charitable con- 
 tributions which the latter could but ill afford. 
 
 In September, 1851, Mr. Payne was elected by the people to 
 the office of Street Commissioner, and for a time performed its 
 duties. But before the term for which he was elected expired, 
 he for sundry reasons vacated the situation, and turned his entire 
 attention to his business, which was far more agreeable to his 
 feelings and beneficial to his interests. Having removed his 
 family to San Francisco, he is now among its permanent, most 
 useful and valued citizens. Besides other prominent associations 
 to which he is attached, he is a highly respected member of the 
 well-known " Society of California Pioneers." 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 SEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 The credit of the design of the Great Seal of the State of California, as well as the $1000 award for 
 the same, were given to C'aleh Lyons of Lyonsdale, N. Y., at that time a resident of this State. Much 
 discussion having been occasioned both with respect to the artistic merit of the dev ce and its real 
 paternity, it may not be oat of place here, to state the facts concerning it. 
 
 The convention which framed the Constitution of the State of California passed a resolution, 
 appropriating $1000 for a design for the official Great Seal. One was presented by Mr. Lyons, of 
 which he professed to be the author. It represented the bay of San Francisco as emblematic of the 
 commercial importance of the City and State ; with the goddess Minerva, in the foreground, illustrat- 
 ing its sudden springing into maturity ; and the Sierra Nevada in the distance, as Indicative of the 
 mineral wealth of the country. The motto was the Greek word " Eureka," (tvpr)Ka, I have found 
 it). This was presented to the committee, which consisted virtually of Hon. John McDougal, his 
 associate, Hon. Rodman M. Price, bcinL' absent. Gen. McDougal was pleased with the design, and 
 wished it adopted with little or no alteration ; but finding that impossible, consented to several minor 
 additional Thus the figure of the grizzly bear was added, as appropriate to the only section of tho 
 country producing that animal. This was especially Insisted upon by those who had borne a part in 
 the "Bear Flag" atfair, conspicuous among whom was the Hon. Jacob I!. Snyder. Tho native Cali- 
 fornians, on the other hand, opposed it, wrongly supposing that its introduction was intended to im- 
 mortalize that event The sheaf of wheat and bunch of grapes were also adopted, as emblems of the 
 agricultural and horticultural interests of tho southern sections of the State, particularly. With these 
 exceptions, the seal as designed by Mr. Lyons, was that selected. 
 
806 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ARTICLE L 
 
 DECLARATION OF R1GIITS. 
 
 Section 1. All men are by nature free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among 
 which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty ; acquiring, possessing and protecting pro- 
 perty ; and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness. 
 
 Sec. 2. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, 
 security and benefit of the people ; and they have the right to alter or reform the same, whenever the 
 public good may require it. 
 
 Sec. 3. The right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain inviolate for ever; but a jury 
 trial may be waived by the parties, in all civil cases, in the manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 Sec. 4. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious protession and worship, without discrimina- 
 tion or preference, shall for ever be allowed in this State ; and no person shall be rendered incompe- 
 tent to be a witness on account of his opinions on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of con- 
 science, hereby secured, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify prac- 
 tices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this State. 
 
 Sec. 5. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases 
 of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its supension. 
 
 See. 6. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor shall cruel or unusual 
 punishments be inflicted, nor shall witnesses be unreasonably detained. 
 
 Sec. 7. All persons shall be bailable by suflicient sureties ; unless for capital offences, when the 
 proof is evident or the presumption great. 
 
 Sec. 8. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime (except in cases 
 of impeachment, and in cases of militia when in actual service, and the land and naval forces In time 
 of war, or which this State may keep with the consent of Congress in time of peace, and in cases of 
 petit larceny under the regulation of the Legislature) unless on presentment or indictment of a grand 
 jury ; and in any trial in any court whatever, the party accused shall be allowed to appear and de- 
 lend in person and with counsel, as in civil actions. No person shall be subject to be twice put in jeop- 
 ardy for the same offence ; nor shall he be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against 
 himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private 
 property be taken for public use without just compensation. 
 
 Sec. 9. Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being 
 responsible for the abuse of that right ; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty 
 of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions on indictments for libels, the truth may be 
 given in evidence to the jury ; and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libellous is 
 true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and 
 the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact 
 
 Sec. 10. The people shall have the right freely to assemble together, to consult for the eomrnra 
 good, to instruct their representatives, and to petition the Legislature for redress of grievances. 
 
 Sec. 11. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation. 
 
 Sec. 12. The military shall be subordinate to the civil power. No standing army shall be kept up 
 by thi6 State in time of peace ; and in time of war no appropriation for a standing army shall be for a 
 longer time than two years. 
 
 Sec. 13. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the 
 owner; nor in time of war, except in the manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 Sec. 14. Representation shall be apportioned according to population. 
 
 Sec. 15. No person shall be imprisoned for debt, in any civil action on mesne or final process, 
 unles9 in cases of fraud ; and no person shall be imprisoned for a militia fine in time of peace. 
 
 Sec. 16. No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall 
 ever be passed. 
 
 Sec. 17. Foreigners who are, or may hereafter become bona fide residents of this State, shall enjoy 
 the same rights in respect to the possession, enjoyment, and inheritance of property, as native born 
 citizens. 
 
 Sec. 18. Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crimes, shall 
 ever be tolerated in this State. 
 
 Sec. 19. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 
 unreasonable seizures and searches, shall not be violated ; and no warrant shall issue but on probable 
 
CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 807 
 
 cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing Uie place to be searched, and the per- 
 sons and things to be seized. 
 
 Sec 20. Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, adhering to its 
 enemies, or giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the evi- 
 dence of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confession in open court 
 
 Sec. 21. This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the 
 people. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 K1GUT OF SCFF&AGE. 
 
 Section 1. Every white male ci izen of the United States, and every white male citizen of Mexico, 
 who shall have elected to become a citizen of the United States, under the treaty of peace exchanged 
 and ratified at Queretaro, on the 30th day of May, 1S4S, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have 
 been a resident of the State six months next preceding the election, and the county or district In 
 which lie claims his vote thirty days, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or here- 
 after may be authorized by law: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to pre- 
 vent the Legislature, by a two thirds concurrent vote, from admitting to the right of suffrage, Indians 
 or the descendants of Indians, In such special cases as such a proportion of the legislative body may 
 deem just and proper. 
 
 Sec. 2. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from 
 arrest on the days of the election, during their attendance at such election, going to or returning 
 therefrom. 
 
 Sec. 8. No elector shall be obliged to perform militia duty on the day of election, except in time 
 of war or public danger. 
 
 Sec. 4. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by 
 reason of his presence or absence while employed in the service of tho United Statos ; nor while en- 
 gaged in the navigation of the waters of this State, or of the United Slates, or of the high seas; nor 
 while a student of any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse, or other asylum, at 
 public expense; nor while confined in any public prison. 
 
 Sec. 5. No idiot or insane person, or person convicted of any intamous crime, shall be entitled to 
 tho privileges of an elector. 
 
 Sec. 6. All elections by tho people shall be by ballot. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. 
 
 The powers of the Government of the State of California shall bo divided into three separate 
 departments: tho Legislative, tho Executive, and Judicial ; and no person charged with the exercise 
 of powers properly belonging to one of these departments, shall exerciso any functions appertaining 
 to either of the others, except in the cases hereinafter expressly directed or permitted. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Section 1. The legislative power of this State shall be vested in a Senate and Assembly, which 
 shall be designated tho Legislature of the State of California ; and the enacting clause of every law 
 shall be as follows: "The people of the State of California, represented In Senate and Assembly, do 
 enact as follows." 
 
 Sec. 2. The sossions of the Legislature shall be annual, and shall commence on tho first Monday 
 of January, next ensuing the election of its members, unless the Governor of tho State shall, in tho 
 interim, convene the Legislature by proclamation. 
 
 Sec. 3. The members of the Assembly shall bo chosen annually, by the qualified electors of their 
 respective districts, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, unless otherwise ordered 
 by the Legislature, and their term of office shall bo one year. 
 
 Sec. 4. Senators and members of Assembly shall bo duly qualified electors in the respective coun- 
 ties and districts which they represent 
 
 Sec. 5. Senators shall be chosen for the term of two years at the same time and places as mem- 
 bers of Assembly ; and no person shall be a member of tho Senate or Assembly who has not been a 
 citizen and inhabitant of the State one year, and of the county or district for which he shall be chosen, 
 six months next before his election. 
 
808 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Sec. 6. The number of Senators shall not be less than one third, nor more than one half, of that 
 of the members of Assembly ; and at the first session of the Legislature after this Constitution takes 
 effect, the Senators shall be divided by lot as equally as may be, into two classes; the seats of the 
 Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the first year, so that one half shall be 
 chosen annually. 
 
 Sec. 7. When the number of Senators is increased, they shall be appointed by lot, so as to keep 
 the two classes as nearly equal in number as possible. 
 
 Sec. S. Each House shall choose its own officers and judge of the qualifications, elections, and 
 returns of its own members. 
 
 Sec. 9. A majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number 
 may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner* 
 and under such penalties, as each House may provide. 
 
 Sec. 10. Each House shall determine the rules of its own proceedings, and may, with the concur- 
 rence of two thirds of all the members elected, expel a member. 
 
 Sec. 11. Each House shall keep a journal of its own proceedings, and publish the same; and the 
 yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of any three 
 members present, be entered on the journal. 
 
 Sec. 12. Members of the Legislature shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, 
 be privileged from arrtst, and they shall not be subject to any civil process during the session of the Le- 
 gislature, nor for fifteen days next before the commencement and after the termination of each session. 
 
 Sec. 13. When vacancies occur in either House, the Governor, or the person exercising the func- 
 tions of the Governor, shall issue writs of elections to fill such vacancies. 
 
 Sec. 14. The doors of each House shall be open, except on such occasions as, in the opinion of the 
 House, may require secrecy. 
 
 Sec. 15. Neither House shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, 
 nor to any other place than that in which they may be sitting. 
 
 Sec. 16. Any bill may originate in either House of the Legislature, and all bills passed by one 
 House may be amended in the other. 
 
 Sec. 17. Every bill which may have passed the Legislature, shall, before it becomes a law, b 1 pre- 
 sented to the Governor. If he approves it, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shjall return it, w ith his ob- 
 jections, to the House in which it originated, which shall enter the same upon the journal, and pro- 
 ceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, it again pass both Houses, by yeas and nays, by 
 a majority of two thirds of the members of each House present, it shall become a law, notwithstand- 
 ing the Governor's objections. If any bill shall not be returned within ten days after it shall have 
 been presented to him, (Sunday excepted.) the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed 
 it, unless the Legislature, by adjournment, prevent such return. 
 
 Sec. 18. The Assembly shall have the sole power of impeachment ; and all impeachments shall 
 be tried by the Senate. When sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall be upon oath or affirma- 
 tion ; and no person shall be convicted, without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 
 
 Sec. 19. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attor- 
 ney General, Surveyor General, Justices of the Supreme Court and Judges of the District Courts, 
 shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office ; but judgment in such cases shall ex- 
 tend only to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of lienor, trust, or profit, 
 under the State ; but the party convicted or acquitted, shall nevertheless be liable to indictment, 
 trial, and punishment according to law. All other civil officers shall be tried, for misdemeanors in 
 office, in such a manner as the Legislature may provide. 
 
 Sec. 20. No Senator, or member of Assembly, shall, during the term for which he shall have been 
 elected, be appointed to any civil office of profit, under this State, which shall have been created, or 
 the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during such term, except such office as may be 
 filled by elections by the people. 
 
 Sec. 21. No person holding any lucrative ofiice under the United States, or any other power, 
 shall be eligible to any civil office of profit, under this State : Provided, that officers in the militia 
 to which there is attached no annual salary, or local officers anil post-masters whose compensation 
 does not exceed five hundred dollars per annum, shall not be deemed lucrative. 
 
 Sec. 22. No person who shall be convicted of the embezzlement, or defalcation of the public funds 
 of this State, shall ever be eligible to any office of honor, trust or profit under this State ; and the Leg- 
 islature shall, as soon as practicable, pass a law providing for the punishment of such embezzlement, 
 or defalcation, as a felony. 
 
 Sec. 23. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made 
 by law. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of tho public moneys shall be at- 
 tached to and published with tho laws at every regular session of the Legislature. 
 
 Sec. 24. The members of the Legislature shall receive for their services a compensation to be fix- 
 
CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 809 
 
 ed by law and paid out of the public treasury ; but no increase of the compensation shall take effect 
 during the term for which the member! of either House shall have been elected. 
 
 Sec. 25. Every law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one object, and that shall be ex- 
 pressed in the title; and no law shall be revised, or amended, by reference to this title ; but in such 
 case, the Act revised, or section amended, shall be re-enacted und published at length. 
 
 Sec. 26. No divorce shall be granted by the Legislature. 
 
 Sec. 27. No lottery shall be authorized by this State, nor shall the sale of lottery tickets be allowed- 
 
 Sec. 23. The enumeration of the inhabitants of this State shall be taken, under the direction of 
 the Legislature, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and fifty-five, and at the end of every ten years thereafter ; and these enumerations, together 
 with the census that may be taken, under the direction of the Congress of the United States in the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, and every subsequent ten years, shall serve as the basis 
 of representation in both Houses of the Legislature. 
 
 Sec. 29. The number of Senators and members of Assembly shall, at the first session of the Legisla- 
 ture holden after the enumeration herein provided for and made, be fixed by the Legislature, and appor- 
 tioned among the several counties and districts to be established by law, according to the number of 
 white inhabitants. The number of members of Assembly shall not be less than twenty-four, nor 
 more than thirty-six, until the number of inhabitants within this State shall amount to one 
 hundred thousand ; and after that period, at such ratio that the whole number of members of Assem- 
 bly shall never be less than thirty nor more than eighty. 
 
 Sec. 30. When a Congressional, Senatorial, or Assembly District shall be composed of two or more 
 counties, it shall not be separated by any county belonging to another district ; and no county shall 
 be divided in forming a Congressional, Senatorial, or Assembly District. 
 
 Sec. 31. Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special 
 Act, except for municipal purposes. All general Laws and special Acts passed pursuant to this sec- 
 tion may be altered from time to time, or repealed. 
 
 Sec 32. Dues from corporations shall be secured by such individual liability of the corporators 
 and other means, as may be prescribed by law. 
 
 Sec. 33. The term corporations as Died In this article shall be construed to include all associations 
 and joint stock companies, having any of the powers or privileges of corporations not possessed by 
 individuals or partnerships. And all corporations shall have the right to sue, and shall be subject to 
 be sued, in all courts, in like cases as natural persons. 
 
 Sec. 84. The Legislature shall have no power to pass any Act granting any charter for banking 
 purposes; but associations may be formed, under general laws, for the deposit of gold ami silver, but 
 no such association shall make, is-ue, or put in circulation any bill, check, ticket, certificate, promis- 
 sory note, or other paper, or the paper of any bank, to circulate as money. 
 
 Sec. 35. The Legislature of this State shall prohibit, by law, any person or persons, association, com- 
 pany, or corporation, from exercising the privileges of banking, or creating paper to circulate as money. 
 
 Sec. 36. Each stockholder of a corporation, or joint stock association, shall be individually and 
 personally liable for his proportion of all its debts and liabilities. 
 
 Sec. 37. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide for the organization of cities and incor- 
 porated villages, and to restrict their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting 
 debts, and loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments and in contracting debts by such 
 municipal corporations. 
 
 Sec. SS. In all the elections by the Legislature, the members thereof shall vote viva voce, and the 
 vote shall be entered on the journal. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 EXECUTIVE DEPAItTMENT. 
 
 Section 1. The supreme Executive power of this State shall bo vested in a Chief Magistrate, w ho 
 shall be styled the Governor of the State of California. 
 
 Sec. 2. The Governor shall be elected by the qualified electors, at the time and places of voting for 
 members of Assembly, and shall hold his office for two years from the time of his installation, and 
 until his successor shall be qualified. 
 
 Sec. 3. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor (except at the first election) who has not 
 been a citizen of the United States and a resident of this State two years next preceding the election, 
 and attained the age of twenty-five years at the time of the said election. 
 
 Sec. 4. The returns of every election for Governor shall be sealed up and transmitted to the 
 seat of government, directed to the Speaker of the Assembly, who shall, during the first week of the 
 session, open and publish them in presence of both Houses of the Legislature. The person having 
 the highest number of votes shall be Governor ; but in ease any two or more have an equal and the 
 
810 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 highest number of votes, the Legislature shall, by joint vote of both Houses, choose one of said per- 
 sons, so having an equal and the highest number of votes, for Governor. 
 
 Sec. 5. The Governor shall be commander-in-chief of the militia, the army and navy of this State, 
 Sec. 6. He shall transact all executive business with the officers of government, civil and military, 
 and may require information in writing from the officers of the executive department, upon any sub- 
 ject relating to the duties of their respective offices. 
 
 Sec. 7. He shall see that the laws are faithfully executed. 
 
 Sec. S. When any office shall, from any cause, become vacant, and no mode is provided by the 
 Constitution and Laws for filling such vacancy, the Governor shall have power to fill such vacancy 
 by granting a commission, which shall expire at the end of the next session of the Legislature, or at 
 the next election by the people. 
 
 Sec. 9. He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the Legislature by proclamation, and shall 
 state to both Houses, when assembled, the purpose for which they shall have beon convened. 
 
 Sec. 10. He shall communicate by message to the Legislature, at every session, the condition of the 
 State, and recommend such matters as he shall deem expedient 
 
 Sec. 11. In case of a disagreement between the two Houses, with respect to the time of adjourn- 
 ment the Governor shall have power to adjourn the Legislature to such time as he may thiuk pro- 
 per : Provided, it be not beyond the time fixed for the meeting of of the next Legislature. 
 
 Sec. 12. No person shall, while holding any office under the United States, or this State, exercise 
 the office of Governor, except as hereinafter expressly provided. 
 
 Sec. 13. The Governor shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons after conviction, 
 for all offences except treason and cases of impeachment, upon such conditions, and with such re- 
 strictions and limitations, as he may think proper, subject to such regulations as may be provided by 
 law relative to the manner of applying for pardons. Upon conviction for treason, ho 
 shall have the power to suspend the execution of the sentence until the case shall be reported to 
 the Legislature at its next meeting, when the Legislature shall cither pardon, direct the execution of 
 the sentence, or grant a further reprieve. He shall communicate to the Legislature, at the beginning 
 of every session, every case of reprieve or pardon granted, stating the name of the convict, the crime, 
 of which he was convicted, the sentence and its date, and the date of the pardon or reprieve. 
 
 Sec. 14. There shall be a seal of this State, which shall be kept by the Governor, and used by him 
 officially, and shall be called " The great Seal of the State of California." 
 
 Sec. 15. All grants and commissions shall be in the name and by the authority of the people of 
 the State of California, sealed with the great Seal of the State, signed by the Governor, and counter- 
 signed by the Secretary of State. 
 
 Sec. 16. A Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected at the same time and places, and in the same 
 manner as the Governor: and his term of office, and his qualifications of eligibility shall also be the same. 
 He shall be President of the Senate, but shall only have a easting vote therein. If, during a vacancy 
 of the office of Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor shall be impeached, displaced, resign, die, 
 or become incapable of performing the duties of his office, or be absent from the State, the President 
 of the Senate shall act as Governor until the vacancy be filled, or the disability shall cease. 
 
 Sec. 17 In case of the impeachment of the Governor, or his removal from office, death, inability 
 to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, resignation, or absence from the State, the pow- 
 ers and duties of the office shall devolve upon the Lieutenant-Governor for the residue of the term, 
 or until the disability shall cease. But when the Governor shall, with the consent of the Legislature, 
 be out of the State in time of war, at the head of any military force thereof, he shall continue com- 
 mander-in-chief of the military force of the State. 
 
 Sec. IS. A Secretary of State, a Comptroller, a Treasurer, an Attorney-General, and Surveyor- 
 General, shall be chosen in the manner provided in this Constitution ; and the term of office, and eli- 
 gibility of each, shall be the same as prescribed for the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. 
 
 Sec. 19. The Secretary of State shall tie appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and eon- 
 sent of the Senate. He shall keep a fair record of the official acts of the legislative and executive de- 
 partments of the Government and shall, when required, lay the same, and all matters relative there- 
 to, before either branch of the Legislature ; and shall perform such other duties as shall be assigned 
 liim by law. 
 
 Sec. 20. The Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General, and Surveyo -General shall be chosen by 
 joint vote of the two Houses of the Legislature, at their first session under this Constitution, and 
 thereafter shall be elected at the same time and places, and in the same manner as the Governor and 
 Lieuteuant-Governor. 
 
 Sec. 21. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attor- 
 ney-General, and Surveyor-General, shall each, at stated times during their continuance in office, re- 
 ceive for their services a compensation, which shall not be increased or diminished during the term 
 
CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 811 
 
 for which they shall have heen elected ; but neither of these officers shall receive for his own use any 
 fees lor the performance of his official duties. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Section. 1. The judicial power of this State shall bo vested in a Supreme Court, in District Courts, 
 IB OoBnty Courts, and in Justices of the Peace. The Legislature may also establish such municipal 
 and other Inferior courts as may be deemed necessary. 
 
 Sec. 2. The Supreme Court shall consist of a Chief Justice and two Associate Justices, any two 
 of whom snail constitute a quorum. 
 
 Sec. 8. The Justices of the Supreme Court shall be eiccted* at the general election, by the qualified 
 electors of the State, and shall hold their office for the term of six years from the first day of Janu- 
 ary next after their election : Provided that the Legislature shall, at its first meeting, elect a Chief 
 Justice and two Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, by joint vote of both Houses, and so classi- 
 fy them that one shall go out of office every two years. After the first eloction, the senior Justice 
 in commission shall be the Chief Justice. 
 
 Sec. 4. The Supremo Court shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases when the matter in dis- 
 pute exceeds two hundrod dollars, when the legality of any tax, toll, or impost or municipal fine is in 
 question, and in all criminal cases amounting to felony or questions of law alono. And the said court, 
 and each of the Justices thereof, as well as all District and County Judges, shall have power to issuo 
 writs ot habtat corpus at the instance of any person held in actual custody. They shall al>o have 
 power to i>suo all other writs and process necessary to the exercise of their appellate jurisdiction, 
 and shall be conservators of the peace throughout the State. 
 
 Sec. 5. The State shall be divided by the first Legislature into a convenient number of districts, 
 subject to such alteration from time to time as the public good may require, for each of which a 
 District Judge shall be appointed by the joint vote of the Legislature, at its first meeting, who shall 
 hold his ofliee for two years from the first day of January next after his election ; after w hich, said 
 Judges shall be elected by the qualified electors of their respective districts, at the general election, 
 and shall bold their office for the term of six years. 
 
 See. 6. The District Courts shall havo original jurisdiction, in law and equity, in all civil coses 
 where the amount in dispute exceeds two hundred dollars, exclusive of interest. In all criminal 
 cases not otherwise provided for, and in all issues of fact joined in the Probate Courts, their jurisdic- 
 tion shall be unlimited. 
 
 Sec. 7. The Legislature shall provide for the election, by tho people, of a Clerk of the Supreme 
 Court, and County Clerks, District Attorneys, Sheriffs, Coroners, and other necessary officers; and 
 shall fix by law their duties and compensation. County Clerks shall be, er officio, Clerks of the Dis- 
 trict Courts in and for their respective counties. 
 
 Sec. 8. There shall be elected in each of the organized counties of this State, one Judge, who 
 shall hold his office for four years. lie shall hold the County Court, anil perform the duties of Surro- 
 gate, or Probate Judge. The County Judge, with two Justices of tho Peace, to be designated accord- 
 ing to law, shall hold Courts of Sessions with such criminal jurisdiction as the Legislature shall pro- 
 scribe, and he shall perform such other duties as shall be required by law. 
 
 Sec. 9. The County Courts shall have such jurisdiction, in eases arising in Justices' Courts, and 
 in special cases, as the Legislature may prescribe, but shall have no original civil jurisdiction, except 
 in such special eases. 
 
 Sec. 10. The times and places of holding tho terms of the Supreme Court, and tho general and 
 special terms of the District Courts within the several districts, shall be provided for by law. 
 
 Sec. 11. No judicial officer, except a Justice of the Peace, shall receive to his own use, any fees 
 or perquisites of office. 
 
 Sec. 12. The Legislature shall provide for the speedy publication of all statute laws, and of snch 
 judicial decisions as it may deem expedient ; and all laws and judicial decisions shall be free for pub- 
 lication by any person. 
 
 Sec. 13. Tribunals for conciliation may be established, with such powers and duties as may bo 
 prescribed by law ; but such tribunals shall have no power to render judgment to be obligatory on 
 the parties, except they voluntarily submit their matters in difference, and agree to abide the judg- 
 ment, or assent thereto in the presence of such tribunal, in such cases as shall be prescribed by law. 
 
 Sec 14. The Legislature shall determine the number of Justices of the Peace, to bo elected in 
 each county, city, town, and incorporated village of the State, and fix by law their powers, duties 
 and responsibilities. It shall also determine in what cases appeals may be made from Justices' Courts 
 to the County Court. 
 
812 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Sec. 15. The Justices of the Supreme Court, and Judges of the District Court, shall severally, at 
 stated times during their continuance in office, receive for their services a compensation, to be paid 
 out of the treasury, which shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which they shall 
 have been elected. The County Judges shall also severally, at slated times, receive for their services 
 a compensation to be paid out of the county treasury of their respective counties, which shall not be 
 increased or diminished during the term for which they shall have been elected. 
 
 Sec. 16. The Justices of the Supreme Court and District Judges shall be ineligible to any other 
 office during the term for which they shall have been elected. 
 
 Sec. 17. Judges shall not charge juries with respect to matters of fact, but may state the testimony 
 and declare the law. 
 
 Sec. 18. The style of all process shall be " The People of the State of California ;" all the prosecu- 
 tions shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of the same. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 MILITIA. 
 
 Section 1. The Lesislature shall provide by law for organizing and disciplining the militia, in 
 such manner as they shad deem expedient, not incompatible with the Constitution and Laws of the 
 United States. 
 
 Sec. 2. Officers of the militia shall be elected or appointed, in such manner as the Legislature 
 shall from time to time direct, and shall be commissioned by the Governor. 
 
 Sec. 3. The Governor shall have power to call forth the militia, to execute the laws of the State, 
 to suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 STATE DEBTS. 
 
 The Legislature shall not in any manner create any debt or debts, liabi'ty or liabilities, which shall 
 singly, or in the aggregate, with any previous debts or liabilities, exceed the sum of three hundred 
 thousand dollars, except in case of war, to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, unless the same 
 shall be authorized by some law for some singh) object or work, to be distinctly specified therein, 
 which law shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of the interest of such 
 debt or liability, as it falls due, and also pay and discharge the principal of such debt or liability within 
 twenty years from the time of the contracting thereof, and shall be irrepealable until the principal and 
 interest thereon shall be paid and discharged ; but no such law shall take effect until, at a general 
 election, it shall have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of all the votes cast 
 for and against it at such election ; and all money raised by authority of such law, shall be applied 
 only to the specified object therein stated, or to the payment of the debt thereby created ; and such 
 law shall be published in at least one newspaper in each judicial district, if one be published therein, 
 throughout the State, for three months next preceding the election at which it is submitted to the 
 people. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 EDUCATION". 
 
 Section 1. The Legislature shall provide for the election, by the people, of a Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, who shall hold his office for three years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by 
 law, and who shall receive such compensation as the Legislature may direct. 
 
 Sec. 2. The Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scien- 
 tific, moral, and agricultural improvement The proceeds of all land that may be granted by tho 
 United States to this State for the support of schools, which may be sold or disposed of, and the five 
 hundred thousand acres of land granted to the new States, under an Act of Congress distributing the 
 proceeds of the public lands among the several States of the Union, approved A. D. 1S41 ; and all 
 estates of deceased persons who may have died without leaving a will, or heir, and a'so such percent, 
 as may be granted by Congress on the sale of lands in this State, shall be and remain a perpetual 
 fund, tho interest of which, together with all the rents of the unsold lands, and such other means as 
 tho Legislature may provide, shall be inviolably appropriated to tho support of common schools 
 throughout the State. 
 
 Sec. 3. The Legislature shall provide for a system of common schools, by which a school shall be 
 kept up and supported in each district at least three months in every year, and any district neglecting 
 
CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 813 
 
 to keep and support such a school inny be deprived of its proportion of the interest of the public fund 
 during such neglect. 
 
 Sec. 4. The Legislature shall tako measures for the protection, improvement, or other disposition 
 of such lands as havo been, or may hereafter bo reserved or granted by the United States, or any 
 person or persons, to the State for the use of a University ; and the funds accruing from the rents or 
 sale of such lands, or from any other source for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a perma- 
 nent fund, the interest of which shall be applied to the support of said University, with such branches 
 as the public convenience may demand, for the promotion of literature, the arts and sciences, as may 
 be authorized by the terms of such grant. And it shall be the duty of the Legislature, as soon as 
 may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of said 
 University. 
 
 ARTICLE X. 
 
 MODE OF AMENDING AND REVISING TnE CON3TITCTION. 
 
 Section L Any amendment or amendments to this Constitution, may be proposed in the Senate 
 or Assembly ; and if the samo shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the 
 two Houses, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be entered on their journals, with the 
 yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the Legislature then next to be chosen, and shall be pub- 
 lished for three months next preceding the time of making such choice. And if, in the Legislature 
 next chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a majority 
 of all the members elected to each House, then it shall bo the duty of the Legislature to submit such 
 proposed amendment or amendments to the people, in such manner and at such time as the Legisla- 
 ture shall prescribe ; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or amendments, by 
 a majority of the electors qualified to vote for members of the Legislature voting thereon, such amend- 
 ment or amendments shall become part of the Constitution. 
 
 Sec. 2. And if at any time two thirds of the Senate and Assembly shall think it necessary to revise 
 and change this entire Constitution, they shall recommend to the electors, at the next election for 
 members of tho Legislature, to vote for or against the convention ; and if it shall appear that a 
 majority of the electors voting at such election have voted in favor of calling a convention, the Legis 
 lature shall, at its next session, provide by law for calling a convention, to be holden within six 
 months after the passage of such law ; and such convention shall consist of a number of members 
 not less than that of both branches of the Legislature. 
 
 ARTICLE XI. 
 rnoMiscuois provisions. 
 
 Section L Tho first session of the Legislature shall be held at tho Pueblo do San Jose ; which 
 place shall be Uie permanent scat of government, until removed by law: Provided, however, that 
 two thirds of all the members elected to each House of the Legislature shall concur in the passage of 
 such law. 
 
 Sec. 4. Any citizen of this State who shall, after tho adoption of this Constitution, fight a duel 
 Tdth deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either within 
 this State or out of it; or who shall act as second, or knowingly aid or assist in any manner those 
 thus offending, shall not be allowed to hold any office of profit or to enjoy the right of suffrage under 
 this Constitution. 
 
 See. 8. Members of the Legislature, and all officers, executive and judicial, except such inferior 
 officers as may be by law exempted, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, 
 take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation : 
 
 "I do solemnly swear (or alfirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the 
 United States, and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the 
 duties of the otlico of , according to the best of my ability." 
 
 And no other oath, declaration, or test, shall bo required as a qualification for any offico or public 
 trust. 
 
 Sec. 4. The Legislature shall establish a system of county and town governments, which shall be 
 as nearly uniform as practicable throughout the State. 
 
 Sec. 5. The Legislature shnll have power to provide for tho election of a Board of Supervisors in 
 each county ; and these Supervisors shall jointly and individually perform such duties as may be pre- 
 scribed by law. 
 
 Sec. 6. All officers whose election or appointment is not provided for by this Constitution, and all 
 officers whose offices may hereafter be created by law, shall bo elected by the people, or appointed as 
 the Legislature may direct. 
 
814 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Sec. 7. When the duration of any office is not provided for by this Constitution, it may be declar- 
 ed by law, and if not so declared, such office shall be held during the pleasure of the authority making 
 the appointment ; nor shall the duration of any office, not fixed by this Constitution, ever exceed four 
 years. 
 
 Sec. 8. The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of July. 
 
 Sec. 9. Each county, town, city, and incorporated village, shall make provision f >r the support of 
 its own officers, subject to such restrictions and regulations as the Legislature may prescribe. 
 
 Soc. 10. The credit of the State shall not in any manner be given or loaned to or in aid of any 
 individual, association or corporation ; nor shall the State directly or indirectly become a stockholder 
 in any association or corporation. 
 
 Sec. 11. Suits may be brought against the State in such manner, and in such courts, as shall be 
 directed by law. 
 
 Sec. 12. No contract of marriage, it otherwise duly made, shall be invalida'ed for want of conform- 
 ity to the requirements of any religious sect 
 
 Sec. 13. Taxation shall be equal and uniform throughout the State. All property in this State 
 shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as directed by law ; but assessors and col- 
 lectors of town, county, and State taxes, shall be elected by the qualified electors of the district, 
 county, or town, in which the property taxed for State, county, or town purposes is situated. 
 
 Sec. 14 All property, both real and personal, of the wife, owned or claimed by marriage, and thai 
 acquired afterwards by gift, devise, or descent, shall be her separate property ; and laws shall be passed 
 more clearly defining the rights of the wife, in relation as well to her separate properly as to that held 
 in common with her husband. Laws shall also be passed providing for the registration of tbc wife's 
 separate property. 
 
 Sec. 15. The Legislature shall protect by law, from forced sale, a certain portion of the homestead 
 and other property of all heads of families. 
 
 Sec. 16. No perpetuities shall be allowed, except for eleemosynary purposes. 
 
 Sec. IT. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit in this State, who shall 
 have been convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment. 
 
 Sec. IS. Laws shall be made to exclude from office, serving on juries, and from the right of suffrage, 
 those who shall hereafter be convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, or other high crimes. Tlie privi- 
 lege of free suffrage shall be supported by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate 
 penalties, all undue influence thereon from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice. 
 
 Sec. 19. Absence from this State on business of the State, or of the United States, shall not affect 
 the question of residence of any person. 
 
 Sec. 20. A plurality of the votes given at an election shall constitute a choice, where not otherwise 
 directed in this Constitution. 
 
 Sec. 21. All laws, decrees, regulations, and provisions, which from their nature require publication, 
 shall be published in English and Spanish. 
 
 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 BOUNDARY. 
 
 The boundary of the State of California shall be as follows: 
 
 Commencing at the point of intersection of forty-second degree of north latitude with the one 
 hundred and twentieth degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and running south on the line of 
 said one hundred and twentieth degree of west longitude until it intersects the thirty-ninth degree 
 of north latitude ; thence running in a straight line in a south-easterly direction to the River Colorado, 
 at a point where it intersects the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; thence down the middle of 
 the channel of said river, to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, as established 
 by the treaty of May 30th, 1343 ; thence running west and along said boundary line to the Pacific 
 Ocean, and extending therein three English miles; thence running in a north-westerly direction and 
 following the direction of the Pacific Coast to the forty-second degree of north latitude, thence on the 
 line of said forty-second degrco of north latitude to the place of beginning. Also, all the islands, 
 harbors and bays along and adjacent to the Pacific Coast 
 
 SCHEDULE. 
 
 Section 1. All rights, prosecutions, claims and contracts, a9 well of individuals as of bodies cor- 
 porate, and all laws in force at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, and not inconsistent there- 
 with, until altered or repealed by the Legislature, shall continuo as if the same had not been adopted. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 815 
 
 Sec. 2. The Legislature shall provide for the removal of all causes which may be pending when 
 this Constitution goes into effect, to courts created by .the same. 
 
 Sec. 3. In order that no inconvenienco may result to the public service, from the taking effect of 
 this Constitution, no office 6hall be superseded thereby, nor the laws relative to the duties of the 
 several officers be changed, until the entering into office of the new officers to be appointed under 
 this Constitution. 
 
 Sec. 4. The provisions of this Constitution concerning the term of residence necessary to enable 
 persons to hold certain offices therein mentioned, shall not be held to apply to officers chosen by the 
 people at the first election, or by the Legislature at its first session. 
 
 Sec. 5. Every citizen of California, declared a legal voter by this Constitution, and every citizen 
 of the United States, a resident of this State on the day of election, shall bo entitled to vote at the first 
 general election under this Constitution, and on the question of the adoption thereof. 
 
 Sea 6. This Constitution shall be submitted to the people for their ratification or rejection, at the 
 general election to be held on Tuesday, the thirteenth day of November next. The Executive of the 
 existing Government of California is hereby requested to issue a proclamation to the people, directing 
 the Prefects of the several districts, or in case of vacancy, the Sub-Prefects, or Senior Judge of First 
 Instance, to cause such election to be held, the day aforesaid, in the respective districts. The election 
 shall be conducted in the manner which was prescribed for the election of Delegates to this Conven- 
 tion, except that the Prefect, Sub-Prefect, or Senior Judge of First Instance, ordering such election in 
 each district, shall have power to designate any additional number of places fbr opening the polls, and 
 that, in every place of holding the election, a regular poll li-t shall be kept by the judges and inspec- 
 tors of election. It shall also be the duty of these judges aud inspectors of election, on the day afore- 
 said, to receive the votes of the electors qualified to vote at such election. Each voter shall express 
 his opinion, by depositing in the ballot box a ticket, whereon shall be written, or printed, " For tho 
 Constitution," or " Against the Constitution," or some such words as will distinctly convey the inten- 
 tion of the voter. These judges and inspectors shall also receive the votes for the several officers to 
 be voted for at the said election as herein provided. At tho close of the election, the judges and in- 
 spectors shall carefully count each ballot, and forthwith make duplicate returns thereof to the Prefect, 
 Sub-Prefect, or Senior Judge of Fir.-t Instance, as the case may be, of llicir respective districts; 
 and said Prefect, Sub-Prefect, or Senior Judge of First Instance shall transmit ono of the same, by 
 the most safe and rapid conveyance, to the Secretary of State. Upon the receipt of said returns, or 
 on the tenth day of December next, if the returns be not sooner received, it shall be the duty of a 
 Board of Canvassers, to consist of the Secretary of State, one of the Judges of the Superior Court, the 
 Prefect, Judge of First Instance, and an Alcalde of the District of Monterey, or any three of the afore- 
 mentioned officers, in the presence of all who shall choose to attend, to compare tho votes given at 
 said election, and to immediately publish an abstract of the same in one or more of the nowspapers 
 of California. And the Executive will also, immediately after ascertaining that the Constitution has 
 been ratified by the people, make proclamation of the fact ; and thenceforth this Constitution shall be 
 ordained and established as the Constitution of California. 
 
 Sec. 7. If this Constitution shall be ratified by the people of California, the Executive of the exist- 
 ing Government is hereby requested immediately after the same shall be ascertained, in the manner 
 lierein directed, to cause a fair copy thereof to bo forwarded to the President of the United States, in 
 order that he may lay it before the Congress of the United States. 
 
 Sec. 8. At the general election aforesaid, viz., the thirteenth day of November next, there shall 
 be elected a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, members of the Legislature, and also two members of 
 Congress. 
 
 Sec. 9. If this Constitution shall be ratified by tho peoplo of California, tho Legislature shall 
 assemble at the seat of Government on the fifteenth day of December next, and in order to complete 
 the organization of that body, the Senate shall elect a President pro tempore, until the Lieutenant- 
 Governor shall be installed into office. 
 
 Sec. 10. On the organization of the Legislature, it shall be tho duty of the Secretary of State to 
 lay before each House a copy of the abstract made by the P.oard of Canvassers, and if called for, tho 
 original returns of election, in order that each House may judge of the correctness of the report of 
 said Board of Canvassers. 
 
 See. 11. The Legislature, at its first session, shall elect such officers as may bo ordered by this 
 Constitution, to be elected by that body, and within four days after its organization proceed to elect 
 two Senators to tho Congress of tho United State*. But no law passed by this Legislature shall take 
 effect until signed by the Governor after bis installation into office. 
 
 Sec. 12. The Senators and Representatives to the Congress of tho United States, elected by the 
 Legislature and Peoplo of California, as herein directed, shall be furnished with certified copies of this 
 Constitution, when ratified, wdiich they shall lay before the Congress of the United States, requesting, 
 
816 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 in the name of the People of California, the admission of the State of California into the American 
 Union. 
 
 Sec. 18. All officers of this State, other than members of the Legislature, shall be installed into 
 office on the fifteenth day of December next, or as soon thereafter as practicable. 
 
 See. 14. Until the Legislature shall divide the State into Counties, and Senatorial and Assembly 
 Districts, as directed by this Constitution, the following shall be the apportionment of the two Houses 
 of the Legislature, viz : The Districts of San Diego and Los Angeles shall jointly elect two Senators ; 
 the Districts of Santa Ilarbara and San Luis Obispo shall jointly elect ono Senator ; the District of 
 Monterey, one Senator ; the District of San Jose, one Senator; the District of San Francisco, two 
 Senators; the District of Sonoma, one Senator ; the District of Sacramento, four Senators; and the 
 District of San Joaquin, four Senators. And the District of San Diego shall elect ono member of 
 Assembly; the District of Los Angeles, two members of Assembly ; the District of Santa Barbara) 
 two members of Assembly ; the District of San Luis Obispo, one member of Assembly ; the District 
 of Monterey, two members of Assembly ; the Di>trict of San Jose, three members of Assembly ; the 
 District of San Francisco, five members of Assembly ; the District of Sonoma, two members of 
 Assembly; the District of Sacramento, nine members of Assembly; and the District of San Joaquin, 
 nine members of Assembly. 
 
 Sec. 15. Until the Legislature shall otherwise direct, in accordance with the provisions of this 
 Constitution, the salary of the Governor shall be ten thousand dollars per annum ; and the salary of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor shall be double the pay of a State Senator ; and the pay of members of tho 
 Legislature shall bo sixteen dollars per diem, while in attendance, and sixteen dollars for every twenty 
 miles' travel by the usual route from their residences to the place of holding the session of the Legis- 
 lature, and in returning therefrom. And the Legislature shall fix the salaries of all officers, other than 
 those elected by the people, at the first election. 
 
 Sec. 16. The limitation of the powers of the Legislature, contained in article Sth of this Constitu- 
 tion, shall not extend to the first Legislature elected under the same, which is hereby authorized to 
 negotiate for such amount as may be necessary to pay the expenses of tho State Government. 
 
 CHARTER OF THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : 
 
 ARTICLE I 
 
 GENERAL POWERS, ltOUNDARIES AND WARDS. 
 
 Section 1. The People of the City of San Francisco shall continue to be a body politic and corpo- 
 rate, under the style of the "City of San Francisco," and by that name they shall have perpetual 
 succession, may complain and defend in all courts and in all actions and proceedings, and may pur- 
 
CHARTER OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 817 
 
 chase, receive, and hold property, real and personal, and sell or otherwise dispose of the same for their 
 common hcnetit: Provided, that they shall purchase without the eity only sueh property as may be 
 necessary for the purposes of burial, or for the erection of prisons, hospitals, asylums, and water-works 
 for supplying the city with water. 
 
 Section 2. The City of San Francisco shall hereafter be bounded as follows : On the south by a line 
 parallel with Clay street, two and a half miles distant, in a southerly direction, from the centre of 
 Portsmouth Square, on the west by a line parallel with Kearny street, two miles distant, in a westerly 
 direction, from the centre of Portsmouth Square. Its northern and eastern boundaries shall be coin- 
 cident with those of the County of San Francisco. 
 
 Sec. 3. The said city shall continue as now divided into eight wards, which number shall not be 
 altered, unless by Act of the Legislature. The Common Council shall, at least three months before 
 the general election in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-two, and also during the second year 
 thereafter, re-district the city, so that each ward shall contain as near as may be the same number of 
 inhabitants. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 OF ELECTIONS. 
 
 Section 1. For the government of said city there shall be elected annually, by general ticket, the 
 following ullieers: A Mayor, Recorder, Comptroller, Treasurer, Collector, Attorney, Marshal, Street 
 Commissioner, and three Assessors: and, also, by the respective wards, a Board of Aldermen and a 
 Boanl of Assistant Aldermen. 
 
 Sec. 2. No person who is not a qualified voter shall he eligible to any office under this charter, nor 
 shall any person be entitled to vote at any city election unless lie shall be an elector for State officers, 
 and have resided in the ward thirty clays next preceding said election. 
 
 Sec. 3. All vacancies, except as hereinafter provided, shall be filled by election in such manner as 
 may be prescribed by ordinance. 
 
 Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the Common Council to call all eity elections, to designate the places 
 of holding the same, giving at least ten days' notice thereof, to appoint inspectors of elections, to ex- 
 amine the returns and declare the results, and to determine contested elections. 
 
 Sec. 5. The first general election for officers under this charter shall be held on the fourth Monday 
 of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. and thereafter annually at the general election for 
 State officers. No election shall be held in any place where intoxicating liquors are vended. 
 
 Sec. 6. All provisions of law regulating elections for State officers shall apply, so far as practicable, 
 to elections under this charter. 
 
 Sec. 7. When two or more persons have an equal, and the highest number of votes for the office of 
 Mayor, the Common Council shall decide the election by joint ballot. 
 
 Sec. S. At the first election under this charter only two Assessors shall be elected, and tlio County 
 Assessor shall act as one of the City Assessors during the term for which he was elected. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 OP THE COMMON COUNCIL. 
 
 Section 1. The legislative power of the city shall be vested in a Board of Aldermen and a Board of 
 Assistant Aldermen, which shall each consist of one member from each ward, and shall form the 
 Common Council of the city. No person shall be eligible to either Board who shall not be an elector 
 of the ward for which he may bo elected ; nor shall he be a member except whilst a resident of the 
 ward which he represents. 
 
 Sec. 2. Both Boards shall assemble on the first Monday after their election ; they shall sit in sepa- 
 rate chambers, ami their proceedings shall be public. A majority in each Board shall be a quorum, 
 but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time, and may compel the attendance of absent 
 members. Each Board shall elect a president from its own body, choose its clerk and other officers, 
 determine the rules of its proceedings, judge of the qualifications of election of its own members, and 
 keep a journal of its own proceedings, and shall have power to compel the attendance of members, to 
 punish them for disorderly conduct, and, with the consent of two thirds, to expel a member. Either 
 Board may originate or amend any ordinance or resolution, and no ordinanco or resolution shall be 
 passed unless by a majority of all the members elected to each Board. On the final passage of every 
 ordinance or resolution ayes and nays shall be taken and entered upon the journal. 
 
 Sec 3. Every ordinance passed by both Boards shall, before it takes effect, be presented to the 
 Mayor for his approval. If lie approve he shall sign it, if not ho shall return it with his objections to 
 the Board in which it originated. Said Board shall enter the objections on its journal, and publish 
 
 52 
 
818 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 them in somo city newspaper. If at any stated meeting thereafter two thirds of all the members 
 elected to each Board shall agree to pass said ordinance, notwithstanding the objections of the Mayor, 
 it shall become a law. Should any ordinance not be returned by the Mayor within ten days after he 
 shall have received it, it shall become a law, the same ns if it had received his signature. 
 
 Sec. 4. Every ordinance providing for any specific improvemont, the creation of any office, or tho 
 granting of any privilege, or involving the sale, lease, or other appropriation of public property, or the 
 expenditure of public moneys (except for sums less than five hundred dollars), or laying any tax or 
 assessment, and every ordinance imposing a new duty or penalty, shall, after its passage by either 
 Board, and before being sent to the other, be published with the ayes and nays in some city newspa- 
 per, and no ordinance or resolution, which shall have passed one Board shall be acted upon by the 
 other on the same day, unless by unanimous consent 
 
 Sec. 5. The Common Council shall not create, nor permit to accrue, any debts or liabilities which, 
 in the aggregate with all former debts or liabilities, shall exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars over 
 and above the annual revenue of the city, unless the same shall be authorized by ordinance for some 
 specific object, which ordinance shall provide ways and means, exclusive of loans, for the payment of 
 the interest thereon as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal within twelve years; 
 but no such ordinance shall take effect until it shall have been submitted to the people and receive a 
 majority of all the votes cast at such election ; and all moneys raised by authority of such ordinance 
 shall be applied only to the object therein mentioned, or to the payment of the debt thereby created: 
 Provided, that the present debt of the city, with the interest accruing thereon, shall make no part 
 of the fifty thousand dollars aforesaid. 
 
 Sec. 6. The Common Council shall have no power to borrow money on the credit of the city, un- 
 less they shall by ordinance direct the same in anticipation of the revenue for the current year, and 
 shall provide in said ordinance for repaying the same out of such revenue, nor in such case shall they 
 borrow a sum to exceed fifty thousand dollars ; but a larger sum may be raised by loan for the pur- 
 pose of extinguishing the present liabilities of the city, whenever the ordinance providing for tho same 
 shall first be approved by the electors of the city at any general election : Provided, that said loon 
 shall bear a yearly rate of interest not to exceed ten per cent and shall be payable within twenty 
 years. 
 
 Sec. 7. The Common Council shall have no power to omit bills of credit or to issue or put, in circu- 
 lation any paper or device as a representative of value or evidence of indebtedness, to award damage, 
 for the non-performance or failure on their part of any contract, to loan the credit of the city, to sub- 
 scribe to tho stock of any association or corporation, or to increase the funded debt of the city unless 
 the ordinance for that purpose be first approved by the people at a general election ; but this section 
 shall not be construed to prohibit the auditing and certifying of accounts by the proper officers to 
 the creditors of the city, but no such audited or certified accounts shall draw interest. 
 
 Sec. 8. Annual and occasional appropriations shall be made by ordinance for every branch and ob- 
 ject of city expenditure, and no money shall be drawn from the treasury unless the same shall have 
 been previously appropriated to the purpose for which it is drawn. Every warrant upon the treasury 
 shall be signed by the Comptroller and countersigned by the Mayor, and shall specify the appropria- 
 tion under which it is issued, and the date of the ordinance making the same. It shall also state from 
 what fund and for what purpose the amount specified is to be paid. 
 
 Sec, 9. There shall be elected annually by ballot a joint committee of accounts to consist of three 
 members from each Board, who shall meet at least once a month and examine all accounts of the fi- 
 nance department, and report thereon in writing to both Boards of the Common Council. 
 
 Sec. 10. No member of the Common Council shall, during the period for which he was elected, be 
 appointed to any office under this charter, nor be interested in any contract or business, or the sale of 
 any article, tho expense of whicli is borne by the city, or which may be sold for city taxes ; nor shall 
 any member sell or offer for sale to the city any property in which he may bo interested. 
 
 Sec. 11. No member of the Common Council shall vote on any question in which he may be in- 
 terested, either personally or as agent for another. 
 
 Sec. 12. The Common Council shall have power, and it shall be their duty, annually to raise by 
 tax on the real and personal property in the city, whatever amount of money may be requisite for the 
 support of free common schools, and to provide suitable buildings therefor. 
 
 Sec. 13. They shall also have power within the city to pass all proper and necessary laws for the 
 regulation, improvement, and sale of city property ; for the le,vy and collection of city taxes on all tax- 
 able property, not to exceed one per cent, a year upon its assessed value; for the laying out, making, 
 opening, widening, regulating, and keeping in repair, all streets, roads, bridges, fences, public places 
 and grounds, wharves, docks, piers, slips, sewers, wells, and alleys, and for making the assessments 
 therefor ; for regulating and collecting wharfage, dockage, and cranage upon all water-craft and all 
 goods landed ; for securing the protection, health, cleanliness, ornament, peace, and good order of tho 
 
CHARTER OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 819 
 
 city; for the prevention and extinguishment of fires; for regulating firemen, watchmen, policemen, 
 and such other officers as it may he necessary to appoint; for the care and regulation of prisons, mar- 
 kets, houses of correction and industry, alms-houses and asylums; for the support, regulation, and 
 employment of all vagrants and paupers; for licensing, taxing, and regulating all such vehicles, busi- 
 ness, and employments as the public good may require, and as may not bo prohibited by law, and for 
 revoking such licenses ; to prohibit and suppress dram-shops, gambling-houses, houses of ill-fume, 
 gaming, hawking, pawn-broking, and all indecent or immoral practices, amusements and exhibitions: 
 to regulate the location of slaughter-houses, markets, stables, and houses for the storage of gunpowder 
 and other combustibles ; for the establishment of a chain-gang, and rules and regulations for the go- 
 vernment of the same, and, in brief, to pass all such other laws and ordinances, for the management, 
 good government, and general welfare of said city, as may not be inconsistent with this charter, or 
 with the laws or constitution of this State or of the United Slates, and to affix penalties to the violation 
 of any ordinance ; but such penalties shall not exceed imprisonment for sixty days and a fine of five 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 Sec. 14. All money to be received from the following sources, shall continue to constitute a sinking 
 fund for the payment of the existing city indebtedness with the interest accruing thereon, until the 
 same shall be cancelled : 
 
 1st The net proceeds of all sales of real estate belonging, or that may hereafter belong to the 
 city; 
 
 2d. The net proceeds of all bonds and mortgages payable to the city ; 
 8d. For occupation of private wharves, basins, and piers; 
 
 4th. For wharfage, rents, and tolls. Said fund or any part thereof shall not be loaned to any other 
 fund, or expended for any other purposes whatever. 
 
 Sec 15. The Common Council shall at an early day take steps to fund by ordinance the existing 
 debts of the city. The funded debt shall consist of— 
 
 1st The liabilities for the payment of which the city revenue is already pledged ; 
 
 2d. The creditors of the city may fund the debts respectively due them at the passage of this Act- 
 on such terms as the Common Council may prescribe, at a rate of interest not to exceed ten per cent 
 a year, and payable within ten years; but no bond shall issue of aless denomination than one hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 Sec. 16. The Common Council shall have no power to allow extra compensation to any creditor of 
 the city, on account of any depreciation to which the city bonds, warrants, or other evidences of in- 
 debtedness may be liable. 
 
 Sec. IT. The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund created by ordinance of the Common Council 
 are hereby prohibited from permanently disposing of any property belonging to the city by sale, lease, 
 or otherwise, and also required to rc-convcy and deliver to the city, before the tenth day of May next 
 all property, titles, rights, and interests belonging to the city, and which are or may be in their pos- 
 session. 
 
 Sec. 18. The Board of Assistant Aldermen shall have the sole power of impeachment and all im- 
 peachments shall be tried by the Hoard of Aldermen. No person shall be convicted unless by the 
 concurrence of two thirds of all the members. Judgment, in case of conviction, shall extend no fur- 
 ther than removal from office and disqualification from holding any office under the charter ; but the 
 party convicted may be indicted and punished according to law. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. 
 
 Section 1. The executive power of the corporation shall be vested in the Mayor, and such other 
 executive officers as are or may be created by law, and neither the Common Council nor any com 
 mittee or member thereof shall perform any executive or ministerial business unless especially direct- 
 ed by law. 
 
 Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the Mayor 
 
 1st To communicate to the Common Council semi-annually, and oftener if he shall think proper, 
 a general statement of the situation and condition of the city in relation to its government finances 
 and improvements, with such recommendations in relation thereto as he may deem expedient ; 
 
 2d. To be vigilant and active in causing the laws and ordinances of the city to be duly executed 
 and enforced ; to be the head of police ; to exercise a constant supervision and control over the conduct 
 of all subordinate officers, and to receive and examine into all such complaints as may bo preferred 
 against any of them for violation or neglect of dnty, and to certify the same to the Common Council : 
 to countersign all licenses and warrants on the Treasury, and generally to perform all such duties as 
 may be prescribed for him by law or by the city ordinances. 
 
820 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Sec. 3. Whenever there shall be a vacancy in the office of Mayor, or the Mayor shall be absent 
 from the city, or be prevented from attending to the duties of his office, the President of the Board of 
 Aldermen shall perform the duties, receive the compensation, and possess all the rights and powers of 
 Mayor during such vacancy, absence, or disability. 
 
 Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to receive and pay out all moneys belonging to the 
 city, and to keep an account of all receipts and expenditures under such regulations as may be pre- 
 scribed by ordinance. Tho Treasurer shall make monthly to the Common Council a full statement 
 of the receipts and expenditures of the preceding month, and publish the same in some city news- 
 paper. 
 
 Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller to report to the Common Council monthly a full 
 and detailed statement of all the expenses and payments of the city government and the state of each 
 appropriation made by ordinance, and he shall also, at the expiration of the fiscal year, publish a full 
 and detailed statement of the receipts and expenditures of the city during said year, specifying the 
 different sources of revenue and the amount received from each, the several appropriations made by 
 the Common Council, the objects for which they were made, and the amount of money expended un- 
 der each ; the moneys borrowed on the credit of the city, the authority under which each loan was 
 made and the terms on which it was obtained, the amount of the funded debt and of the interest ac- 
 crued thereon ; with a detailed statement of the sums owed and the property owned by the city. 
 
 Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the Marshal to execute all processes issued by the Kecorder or di- 
 rected to him by any legal authority ; to attend upon the Recorder's Court ; to arrest all persons guilty 
 of a breach of the peace or violation of any ordinance, and take them before the Recorder ; to super- 
 vise and control the City Police, to superintend the City Prison, and to perform all such duties as may 
 be prescribed by ordinance. 
 
 Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of the City Attorney to attend to all suits, matters, and things in which 
 the city may be legally interested, to give his advice or opinion in writing whenever required by the 
 Mayor or Common Council, and to perform all such other services in connection with Ins profession 
 as may be required by the Common Council. 
 
 Sec. 8. It shall be the duty of the Collector to issue all licenses that may be granted by city 
 authority, and to register the same in a suitable book which shall at all times be open for public 
 inspection ; to collect all license taxes, and all taxes and assessments that may be due according to the 
 assessment books, and to pay over the same to the Treasury in the specific funds received. 
 
 Sec. 9. It shall be the duty of the Assessors to prepare, within such time as the Common Council 
 may direct, a correct list of all the taxable property within the city, with the true valuation thereof, 
 and to present the same, certified by them, to the Common Council. The mode of making out said 
 list and of ascertaining the value of property and of collecting all taxes, shall be the same as is or may 
 be prescribed by law for assessing and collecting the State revenue. Should the owner of any pro- 
 perty assessed as aforesaid not be satisfied with the valuation thereof, he may apply, under oath, to the 
 Board of Assessors for tho reduction of the assessment. If said Board refuse he may appeal to the 
 Board of Aldermen, and their decision shall be final. 
 
 Sec. 10. The Recorder, as to offences committed within tho city, shall have like jurisdiction as 
 may be conferred upon Justices of the Peace. He shall also have final jurisdiction in all cases of 
 assault, riot, breach of the peace, ami petit larceny, and all crimes and misdemeanors punishable by 
 fine not to exceed five hundred dollars, or imprisonment not to exceed three months, or both such fine 
 and imprisonment. 
 
 Sec. 11. The Common Council shall prescribe the duties of all officers whose duties are not defined 
 in this Act, or in any other law of this State, and it shall be the duty of the officers of the city gene- 
 rally to perform all such services as may be required by law, or the ordinances of the Common 
 Council. 
 
 Sec. 12. The several officers under this charter shall receive for their services out of the city Trea- 
 sury, a compensation to be fixed by ordinance, not to exceed four thousand dollars a year : Provided, 
 that the Treasurer shall receive in lieu of salary not to exceed one half of one per cent, on all moneys 
 received, paid out, and accounted for by him, and the Collector not to exceed one per cent, on all 
 moneys collected and paid over. 
 
 Sec. 13. The compensation of the Mayor's and Recorder's Clerks shall not exceed two thousand 
 dollars each, per annum, nor shall that of the Clerk of either Board of Aldermen exceed twelve hun- 
 dred dollars. Each Assessor shall receive not to exceed fifteen hundred dollars, and no officer oi 
 department shall be entitled to any clerk or deputy unless as herein expressly provided. 
 
 Sec. 14. The members of the Common Council shall receive no compensation for their services. 
 
 Sec. 15. If any person elected to a city office shall remove from the city, absent himself therefrom 
 for more than thirty days, or shall fail to qualify within ten days after his election, his office shall be 
 (teemed vacant 
 
CHARTER OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 821 
 
 Sec. 16. Tho officers elective under this charter, shall continue in office for one year, it until tuolr 
 successors are qualified ; but any officer may be removed for misconduct by impeachment. 
 
 Sec. IT. All officers or persons to whom the receipt or expenditure of tho moneys or funds of the 
 city shall bo intrusted, shall give security in such amount as the Common Council may require, pay- 
 able to the city, and subject to tho approval of the Mayor. Such bond shall bo subject to the pro- 
 visions of law concerning bonds of officers. 
 
 Sec. 18. All fees, costs, fines, perquisites, or emoluments, for any services to be performed by any 
 officer or person under this charter, or collected under any ordinance of the Common Council, shall be 
 paid over every week by such officer or person into the City Treasury under oath ; and no officer 
 shall be entitled to receive his salary till lie shall file his affidavit with the Comptroller, that ho has 
 faithfully accounted for, and paid over, all moneys for which he is bound to account. 
 
 Sec. 19. For any violation of the tenth, eleventh, or seventeenth sections of article third, or of the 
 eighth or eighteenth sections of article fourth, or of the seventh section of article sixth of this charter, 
 the party so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, may bo 
 punished by fine not to exceed five thousand dollars, and imprisonment not to exceed one year. 
 
 Sec. 20. The officers of the present city government shall continue in office under this charter with 
 such powers and duties as are herein prescribed until their successors are qualified ; and nothing hero- 
 in contained shall be construed to release any persons heretofore holding office in said city, from any 
 personal liabilities which they may havo incurred by their official acta. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 STREETS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 Section 1. The Mayor, Street Commissioner and Assessors, shall constitute a Board of Commis- 
 sioners of Assessment When private property is taken for public purposes, and the valuation by 
 said Commissioners is not satisfactory to the owner thereof, he may require that the mattor bo sub- 
 mitted to the jury before the Superior Court, and the value found by tho jury, when confirmed by 
 the court, shall be the amount which the owner shall be bound to accept and entitled to receive before 
 the property is taken. 
 
 Sec. 2. Whenever tho Common Council shall think it expedient to open, alter, or improve, any 
 street or alley, or to improve any public grounds, notice thereof shall be given by publication for ten 
 days, in some daily paper. Should one third of all the owners of the adjacent properly protest 
 against the proposed improvement, it shall not then bo made. If no such protest bo made, tho 
 Common Council shall proceed with such improvement, at least two thirds of tho expenses of which 
 shall be borne by the property adj icent 
 
 Sec. 3. The assessment for said improvement shall be made by the Commissioners named in 
 section first and shall be proportionate to tho advantages respectively derived from such improvement. 
 
 Sec. 4. Should any person be dissatisfied with the assessment by said Commissioners, he may 
 appeal to the Board of Aldermen, whose decision shall be final. 
 
 Sec. 5. Whenever two thirds of all the persons owning property on any street or lane, shall apply 
 to the Common Council for any improvement thereof, the same shall be made on such conditions aa 
 the Common Council may determine, said persons paying, at least, two thirds of the expenses of suoh 
 improvement. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 
 
 Section 1. The fiscal year of tho city shall begin on the first day of July. 
 
 Sec. 2. Every ordinance of tho Common Council shall embraco but one subject, and that shall be 
 expressed in its title. 
 
 Sec. 3. The ordaining clause of the city ordinances shall be, "The People of the City of San 
 Francisco do ordain as follows." 
 
 Sec. 4. Taxation shall be uniform throughout the city. 
 
 Sec. 5. Licenses shall be discriminating anil proportionate to the amount of business. 
 
 Sec. 6. All sales or leases of property belonging to the city shall bo by public auction. 
 
 See. T. All contracts for work or supplies shall be let to the lowest bidder, after notice given 
 through the public newspapers, and no officer shall bo interested in any contract connected with his 
 department. 
 
 Sec. 8. The Common Council shall have no power to grant exclusive privileges. 
 
 Sec. 9. The Common Council shall appoint no officers for weighing, measuring, gauging, culling, 
 or inspecting any merchandise, produce, manufacture, or commodity; but nothing in this section 
 shall prevent their passing any ordinance necessary for protecting the public health. 
 
822 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Sec. 10. The Common Council shall have power to raise, by tax, any amount of money that 
 they may deem expedient, whenever the ordinance for that purpose shall have been approved by the 
 people. 
 
 Sec. 11. When any amendment to this charter shall have been agreed to by three fourths of all 
 the members elected to each Board, it may bo submitted to the people at any general election ; and 
 if approved by them, it shall become a part of the charter. Said amendment shall be published at 
 least sixty days before said election. It shall also be the duty of the Common Council to call a con- 
 vention of delegates for the revision of this charter. Said convention shall meet on ttie first Monday 
 of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and shall consist of three members for each 
 ward. Should the charter as amended and adopted by said convention be approved by the people at 
 any general election, it shall become the charter of the city of San Francisco — subject, however, to 
 the approval of the Legislature. 
 
 Sec. 12. The Act entitled " An Act to incorporate the city of San Francisco," passed April fifteenth 
 one thousand eight hundred and fifty, is hereby repealed. 
 
 Passed April 15, 1851. 
 
 LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS, 
 
 WITH THE DATES OF THEIR ARRIVAL IN CALIFORNIA, AND THEIR PRESENT RESIDENCES. 
 
 Those marked thus * are deceased. 
 
 M G. Vallejo, 
 Juan B. D. Alvarado, 
 Jose Jesus Martinez, 
 Pedro C. Carrillo, 
 W. E. P. Hartnell* 
 Win. A. Richardson, 
 J. B. E. Cooper, 
 Robert Ehvell, 
 John Wilson, 
 George W. Vincent,* 
 Timothy Murphy,* 
 Francisco Guerrero,* 
 Alfred Robinson, 
 William H. Davis, 
 Ziha Branch, 
 George Yount, 
 Jacob P. Leese, 
 Jose de Jesus Noe, 
 John Marsh, 
 [Thomas O. Larkin, 
 John Paty, 
 John A. Sutter, 
 W. D. M. Howard, 
 Isaac Livick, 
 Elliot Libbey, 
 Thomas Cordua, 
 John Bldwell, 
 
 G. C. Cook,* 
 Josiah Brlden, 
 Francis II. Huber, 
 Henry L. Ford, 
 
 I). W. Alexander, 
 
 H, F. Tescheinacker, 
 Thos. A. Warbass. 
 R. L. Kilburn. 
 John A. Hoar. 
 Jasper 0. Farrell, 
 Nathan Coombs, 
 
 M. Schallenberger, 
 Daniel Murphy, 
 John M Murphy, 
 Martin Murphy, 
 John Sullivan, 
 Jacob K. Snyder, 
 William Findlay, 
 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 Sonoma, 
 San Pablo, 
 Martinez, 
 Santa Barbara, 
 Monterey. 
 Saucelito, 
 Monterey 
 Santa Barbara, 
 SnLuis Obispo, 
 San Francisco, 
 San Rafael, 
 San Francisco, 
 Santa Barbara, 
 San Francisco, 
 SnLuis Obispo, 
 Napa, 
 Monterey, 
 San Francisco, 
 Contra Costa, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Hock Farm, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 San Rafael, 
 Sacramento, 
 Butte County, 
 San Jose, 
 
 San Francisco, '• " 
 Sacramento, Sept. 1842 
 Los Angeles, Deer. 1842 
 San Francisco, July, 1842 
 
 Napa, Mar. " 
 
 Monterey, Oct. 1843 
 
 Bodega. Nov. " 
 
 Napa, July, " 
 
 San Jose, Mar. 1844 
 
 " Deer. '• 
 
 Santa Clara, " " 
 San Francisco, Deer. 1849 
 Sept. 1S45 
 San Jose, July, " 
 
 DATE OF 
 ARRIVAL. 
 
 July, 1808 
 Sept. 1S09 
 Oct. 1814 
 Mar. 1817 
 May, 1822 
 Aug. 1822 
 May, 1823 
 Aug. 1824 
 Apr. 1826 
 July, 1826 
 Sept. 1828 
 Deer. 182S 
 Feb. 1828 
 Aug. 1S31 
 Feb. 1831 
 Feb. 1831 
 June, 1833 
 Oct. 1834 
 Jan. 1836 
 Mar. 1836 
 June, 1837 
 July, 1&39 
 Jan. 1S39 
 Oct. 1840 
 Deer. 1840 
 Mar. 1841 
 Nov. 1841 
 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 DATE OF 
 ARRIVAL. 
 
 William Blackburn, 
 Daniel Leahy, 
 Francis Hoen, 
 Henry C. Smith, 
 Wm. B. Bassham, 
 Win. F. Swasey, 
 Samuel Brannan, 
 R. M. Sherman, 
 E. C. Kemble, 
 Edwin Bryant, 
 Henry Gerke, 
 
 B. S. Lippincott, 
 Samuel Kyburg, 
 
 A. J. Grayson, 
 Ned Grayson, 
 
 C. C. Southward, 
 E. A. King, 
 
 D. A. McDermut, 
 Wm. II. Russell, 
 Joseph Aram, 
 
 J. C. Davis, 
 John M. II. nner, 
 H. S. Turner, 
 
 B. R. Buckelew, 
 J. Caldwell Low, 
 Edward Gilbert,* 
 
 J. C. L. Wadsworth, 
 
 L, W. Sloat, 
 
 A. G. Abell, 
 
 L. B. Clements, 
 
 J. Mead Huxley, 
 
 J. L. Folsom, U. S. A., 
 
 G. Frank Lemon, 
 II. W. Ilalleck, 
 
 H. M. Naglee, 
 R. J. Tobin, 
 R. A. Parker, 
 
 H. A. Schoolcraft,* 
 Jas. L. Ord, 
 John B. Frisbie, 
 Thos. J. Roach* 
 S. W. Haight, 
 R. H. Sinton, 
 Alfred J. Ellis. 
 M. L. Callender, 
 
 Santa Cruz, Sept. 1845 
 
 San Francisco, Oct. " 
 
 " Sept " 
 
 Alameda. Deer. " 
 
 San Jose, Oct. " 
 
 San Francisco, Sept. " 
 " July, 1846 
 
 " Mar. " 
 
 J uly, " 
 
 Aug. " 
 
 July, " 
 
 " Oct. " 
 
 San Jose, " " 
 
 Trinidad, Feb. " 
 
 San Francisco, Nov. " 
 
 " Oct " 
 
 " Aug. " 
 
 San Jose, Sept u 
 
 Putah Creek, Feb. " 
 
 Alameda. July, " 
 
 San Francisco, Deer. " 
 
 " Oct " 
 
 Mar. 1847 
 
 " April, " 
 
 " Aug. " 
 
 Santa Cruz, June, " 
 
 San Francisco, Mar. " 
 
 
 Jan. " 
 
 
 Mar. " 
 
 
 Sept " 
 
 Crescent City, 
 
 Mar. « 
 
 Sacramento, 
 
 Apr. " 
 
 Monterey, 
 
 Jan. " 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Mar. " 
 
 Trinidad. 
 
 Apr. " 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Mar. " 
 
 
 Nov. " 
 
 
 Apr. " 
 
SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS. 
 
 823 
 
 Alfred A. Groen, 
 Geo. Stoneman, U.S.A. 
 Henry D. Cook, 
 John S. Beener, 
 W. T. Sherman, U.S.A. 
 
 H. W. Theall, 
 Charles Stevens, 
 Charles L. Ross, 
 Horace Hawes, 
 Hiram Grimes, 
 James Adams, 
 John Q. Adams, 
 William Joy, 
 Win. M. Stewart, 
 Bethuel Phelps, 
 Charles B Johnson, 
 Alfred De Witt, 
 
 I. C. Woods, 
 Herman Wohler, 
 James King of Win., 
 Chas. A. Angelo, 
 Edward Martin, 
 George W. Ryder, 
 J. Wemvs Austin, 
 P. B. Cornwall, 
 Gabriel K. Post, 
 David S. Turner, 
 Joseph R. West, 
 Jesse Sutton, 
 
 John W. Tucker, 
 David T. Bagley, 
 A J. Hooper, » 
 J. E. Wainwright, 
 Louis R. Lull, 
 John Vandewater, 
 Charles R. Bond, 
 A. G. Randall, 
 F. C. Ewer, 
 Ferdinand Vassault, 
 Daniel L. Ross, 
 Wilson Flint, 
 Daniel Norcross, 
 L. Pickering, 
 John McDougaL, 
 
 F. A. Bonnard, 
 Geo. R. Davidson, 
 David C. Broderick, 
 P. A. Brinsmade, 
 Win. Van Voorhios, 
 J. Prall Stephens, 
 E. W. Leonard, 
 
 G. K. Fitch, 
 Squire P. Dewey, 
 Peter A. Morse, 
 E. D. Hammond, 
 Wm. L. Newell, 
 Wm. G. Wood, 
 Samuel Purdy, 
 Philip A. Roach, 
 R. Julius Stovens, 
 Frank Boole, 
 
 J. E. Lawrence, 
 George Kerr* 
 Henry Meiggs, 
 Hiram Leonard, U.S.A. 
 A. W. Peabody, 
 Wm. M. Eddy,* 
 
 Wm. a iiotr, 
 
 R. P. Hammond, 
 T. K. Battelle, 
 Geo. A. Hudson, 
 Chas. J. Warner, 
 G. W Bryant, 
 E. McGowan, 
 Geo. W. Green, 
 Washington Bartlett, 
 Robert G. Crozier, 
 John Benson, 
 Abram Bartol, 
 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Sonora, 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 DATS OF 
 
 ARRIVAL. 
 
 Apr. 1847 
 
 Jan. " 
 
 July, " 
 
 Sept. " 
 
 Jan. " 
 
 Mar. " 
 
 Apr. 11 
 
 Los Angeles, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Sacramento, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Stockton, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Feb. 
 Mar. 
 
 Apr. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Apr. 
 
 Sept 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 July. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 July, 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 June, 
 
 Nov. 
 Apr. 
 
 Sept 
 
 Deer. 
 
 J uly, 
 Aug. 
 Feb. 
 June, 
 Feb. 
 June, 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Apr. 
 
 June, 
 
 Sept. 
 
 July, 
 
 Juno, 
 
 July, 
 
 Apr. 
 
 Sept 
 
 Deer. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 June, 
 
 May, 
 
 June, 
 
 July, 
 
 June, 
 
 Apr. 
 
 June, 
 
 July, 
 
 Apr. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Jnne, 
 
 Aug. 
 
 July, 
 
 Oct 
 
 June, 
 
 Nov. 
 
 June, 
 
 Apr. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 is Hi 
 
 LESIDENOE. 
 
 DATE 01' 
 ARRIVAL 
 
 Joseph F. Atwill, 
 John M. Farwoll, 
 Jacob shew, 
 Theodore Payno, 
 Lew is Peck, 
 Charles Hosmcr, 
 W. B. Farwell, 
 Chas. D. Carter, 
 Henry M. Hale, 
 
 F. W. Macondray, 
 Chas. Minturn, 
 Richard M. Jcssnp, 
 (). P. Sutton, 
 John Middleton, 
 James G. Gould, 
 Aaron Pollard, 
 William Sherman, 
 Calhoun Benham, 
 P. W. Shepheard, 
 D. W. Connelly. 
 
 G. W. Ryckman, 
 Stephen R. Harris, 
 John II. Gihon, 
 Gregory Yale, 
 
 D. W. Perlay, 
 James Fitton, 
 John H. Still, 
 Chas. F. Hamilton, 
 Frank Tilford, 
 Charles C. Roe, 
 John Nugent, 
 
 E. O. Crosby, 
 J. J. Bryant 
 E. Morris Earl, 
 E. Gallagher, 
 Horatio N. Squire, 
 George S. Porter, 
 Asa T. Law ton, 
 John Short, 
 Philo White, 
 Isaac M. Hall, 
 
 II. S. Brown, 
 James B. Starr, 
 J. Judson Ames, 
 C. J. Brenham, 
 Cullen A. Johnson, 
 Henry Vandervior, 
 John V. Plume, 
 Selim Franklin, 
 Henry J. Wells, 
 John S. Hagar, 
 E. L. Sullivan, 
 Julius Wetzler, 
 John W. Conner, 
 Joseph Daniels, 
 P. A. Hussey, 
 M. S. Whiting, 
 Wm. D. Fair, 
 J. N. Cordoza, 
 Albert Williams, 
 Win. L. Ryckman, 
 Atkins Massey, 
 E. A. Edgerton, 
 O. C. Osborne, 
 J. D. Bluxome, 
 James Grant 
 Win. R. Wheaton, 
 J. W. Young, 
 i '. T. Parker, 
 Thomas D. Johns, 
 A. C. Peachy, 
 Wm. Newell, 
 Chas. H. West 
 J. W. Tice, 
 John McCrackan, 
 George M. Smith, 
 W. F. Kelsey, 
 Caleb Hyatt, 
 C. W. Gunnell, 
 
 San Francisco, Oct. 1849 
 
 Sacramento, 
 San Diego, 
 
 Sacramento, 
 
 July, 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 
 
 
 May, 
 
 
 July, 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 ** 
 
 Deer. 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 u 
 
 Oct. 
 
 tt 
 
 July, 
 
 H 
 
 Apr. 
 
 " 
 
 Snpt. 
 
 
 July, 
 
 
 Jan. 
 
 " 
 
 Aug. 
 
 " 
 
 
 Deer. 
 
 
 Sept 
 
 U 
 
 Oct. 
 
 
 
 
 Nov. 
 
 - 
 
 Deer. 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 
 July, 
 
 
 Sept 
 
 U 
 
 n 
 
 " 
 
 Ang. 
 
 •* 
 
 Oct 
 
 " 
 
 Deer. 
 
 If 
 
 Feb. 
 
 M 
 
 Aug. 
 
 " 
 
 June, 
 
 " 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 
 Oct 
 
 " 
 
 June, 
 
 {( 
 
 July, 
 
 li 
 
 Oct 
 
 ft 
 
 July, 
 
 II 
 
 Oct 
 
 a 
 
 Sept 
 
 tt 
 
 Oct 
 
 U 
 
 Aug. 
 
 M 
 
 Sept 
 
 « 
 
 Aug. 
 
 w 
 
 June, 
 
 H 
 
 Oct 
 
 
 Deer. 
 
 " 
 
 June, 
 
 (4 
 
 Feb. 
 
 " 
 
 June, 
 
 (( 
 
 Aug. 
 
 It 
 
 Sept 
 
 M 
 
 Oct 
 
 tt 
 
 Aug. 
 
 U 
 
 June, 
 
 H 
 
 Sept 
 
 H 
 
 Apr. 
 
 tt 
 
 Sept 
 
 K 
 
 
 tt 
 
 July, 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 II 
 
 Feb. 
 
 " 
 
 Aug. 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 
 
 
 Deer. 
 
 
 Apr. 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 tt 
 
 Sept 
 
 
 Nov. 
 
 
 Sept 
 
 II 
 
 July, 
 
 
 Sept 
 
 t, 
 
824 
 
 ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 B. F. Voorheos, 
 T. G. Bpear, 
 Theodore Boschulte, 
 15. B. Coil, 
 Joseph W. Philips, 
 
 Jainr- 1.. I'. .iim'ii, 
 Smyth Clark, 
 G. W. Coffee, 
 Jatnes Evrard, 
 James Dows, 
 S. A. Hopkins, 
 Win. L. Duncan, 
 Win. E. Keyes, 
 David B. stover, 
 George F. Sweeney, 
 
 E. F. Northam; 
 John T. Little, 
 Elisha Nichols, 
 Chas. H. Gough, 
 
 F. B. Austin, 
 Horatio S. Gates, 
 Julius K. Rose, 
 David Jobson, 
 
 De Witt C. Brown, 
 Frank Turk, 
 Kirliard Cheenery, 
 Seth B. Kneeland, 
 William B. Olds, 
 James Pearson, 
 
 A. B. Perkins, 
 William V. Wells, 
 John Q. Cole, 
 
 D. T. Raymond, 
 J. D. Pierson, 
 
 C. H. Crane, 
 
 E. W. Crowell, 
 Richard Ross, 
 
 Wm, Neely Thomson, 
 John J. Pensam, 
 J. J. A Bruce, 
 E. V. Joice, 
 James Vantine, 
 Chas. S. Simpson, 
 Thos. E. Lindenbcrger, 
 E. J. C. Kewen, 
 Richard V. Groat, 
 Geo. A. Parker, 
 Henry M. Grav, 
 Wm.'H. Crowell, 
 Chas. H. Gilman, 
 John A. Clark, 
 
 B. Frank Uillard, 
 
 G. Simpton, 
 David Gillespie, 
 Arthur M. Ebbetts, 
 Geo. H. Preston, 
 Daniel S. Rol>erts, 
 Wm. Melvibbin, 
 
 H. C. Murray, 
 James Tobin, 
 W. A. Mix, 
 A. M. Heslep, 
 Isaac N. Thornc, 
 Wm. 11. Grattan, 
 John Lrskine, jr. 
 James W. Stillman, 
 John H. Spooner, 
 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 8an Francisco, 
 
 Sacramento, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 DATE OF 
 ARRIVAL. 
 
 Apr. 1S49 
 J uno, " 
 Aug. " 
 
 July, 
 Sept. 
 Nov. 
 Deer. 
 
 Oct 
 
 Sept. 
 
 July, 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Apr. 
 
 Oct 
 
 July. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 June, 
 July, 
 Aug. 
 May, 
 Aug. 
 July, 
 Aug. 
 June, 
 Sept. 
 
 June, 
 Aug. 
 
 Mar. 
 May. 
 Aug. 
 
 Jan. 
 
 May, 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Aug. 
 Sept. 
 
 Nov. 
 Aug. 
 June, 
 
 Red Bluffs, 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Deer. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Oct 
 
 Aug. 
 
 June, 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Mar. 
 Nov. 
 Sept. 
 Mar. 
 Jan. 
 Oct 
 Sept 
 
 NAMES. 
 
 E. J. Folsom, 
 A. .1. .Morrell, 
 II. P. Jones, 
 James Holoban, 
 Wm. 11. Tiffany, 
 John M Coughlin, 
 Win. W. Warner, 
 Reuben Clark, 
 Abia A. Selover, 
 R. E. Brewster, 
 Alexander Campbell, 
 S. Rosenthal, 
 
 John C. Derby, 
 Thos. J. White, 
 John Satterlee, 
 Wm. II. Chamberlain, 
 S. 11. Meeker, 
 Joseph Galloway, 
 Jas. B. Town;-end, 
 Edward Conner, 
 H. G. Blankman, 
 Levi Stowell, 
 Wm. M. Burgoyne, 
 W in. L. Higgins, 
 0. W, Lander, 
 Wm. H. J. Brooks, 
 C. T. Ryland, 
 Henry A. Breed, 
 A. Larrain, 
 Jas. R. Duff, 
 Charles Gulliver, 
 John O. Earl, 
 Hervey Sparks, 
 Albert 11. Clark, 
 Wm. J. Shaw, 
 Samuel C. Eveleth, 
 Kelsey Hazcn, 
 Joseph Shannon, 
 Wake Bryarly, 
 
 F. McGilvery, 
 A. S. Wright, 
 
 8. Asbury Sheppard, 
 Chas. E. Buckingham, 
 Frank Johnson, 
 John A. Monroe, 
 J. Horace Kent, 
 Chas. W. Lawton, 
 Chas. S. Eigenbrodt, 
 Wm. E. Bushnell, 
 Jas. O. Callaghan, 
 W. Cornell Jewett 
 R. K. Dodge, 
 William Clark, 
 Joseph G. Cadiz, 
 R. Erskino Newland, 
 William Baker, jr., 
 John P. Buckley, 
 A B. Paul, 
 David Dwyer, 
 J. M. Tewksbury, 
 
 F. 11. West, 
 W. J. Whitney, 
 
 G. T. Upham, 
 L. A. Birdsall, 
 
 G. Burdell. • 
 W. Uoskins, 
 L. D. Jones, 
 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 DATE OK 
 AKKIVAL 
 
 San Francisco, Deer. 1S49 
 
 Apr. •' 
 Oct 
 
 Aug. " 
 
 " June, " 
 
 " July, " 
 
 £ Aug. " 
 
 " Sept. " 
 
 " June, " 
 
 Aug. « 
 
 " Deer. " 
 
 " July, " 
 
 " Sept. " 
 
 " June, " 
 
 Miss. San JosG, Aug. " 
 
 Sacramento, Oct. •' 
 
 San Francisco, Nov. " 
 
 " July, '• 
 
 " Apr. " 
 
 Monterey, June, " 
 
 San Francisco, Feb. " 
 
 " June, " 
 
 !! A " g " \\ 
 
 " Nov. " 
 
 San Jose, July, " 
 
 San Francisco, Deer. " 
 
 " July, H 
 
 " Feb. " 
 
 " Deer. " 
 
 " June, " 
 
 Los Angeles, July, " 
 
 San Francisco, June, " 
 
 " Apr. " 
 
 " Nov. " 
 
 " Aug. " 
 
 " Nov. » 
 
 " Sept. ** 
 
 " Nov. " 
 
 Sacramento, Apr. " 
 
 San Francisco. Deer. " 
 
 " Oct " 
 
 " June, 14 
 
 " Sept. " 
 
 " May, " 
 
 " Sept " 
 
 " Aug. " 
 
 Feb. " 
 
 " Apr. " 
 
 " June, " 
 
 " Sept " 
 
 " Nov. " 
 
 " July, " 
 
 " Sept " 
 
 THE END.