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GENEALOGY
979.402
SA519Y
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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San Francisco
A HISTORY
OF THE PACIFIC COAST
METROPOLIS
Bv JOHN p. YOUNG
VOLUME I
THE S. .1. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
Chrovici, E Building, Sax Francisco
P o N T I A c B r T I. n 1 N r. . Chicago
1259354
PREFACE
The reader who will take the trouble to peruse these pages will discover that
the writer has dealt with events rather than with the men who brought them about or
who figured in them. A variety of reasons prompted this course, but among them is
not included lack of appreciation of the value of biography, nor of the interest which
most people take in the doings of those who took part in acts worth recording, and of
scenes meriting description. These can be more fittingly treated separately, and
under circumstances which will permit their authors to preserve the sense of historical
proportion, which suffers disturbance when the personal element forms too large a
part of the narrative of a people's progress, thus subordinating the actions of the
whole community, which after all that may be said on the subject, makes or mars its
own fortunes and shapes its own destiny.
Although the period of active life of San Francisco has been a short one, as
historical periods go, it has been crowded with incident. Enough of the latter could
be found to present a vivid picture of the career of the metropolis of the Pacific
coast, but in this work something more has been attempted than a mere recital of
occurrences. It has been the purpose of the author to trace the causes of the growth
of the City, and to describe the manifold activities of its citizens. In his effort to
do so he has discovered an urgent necessity for condensation, and the elimination of
a vast quantity of material at his command. Had he used a tithe of that placed at
his disposal the history would have attained enormous proportions. This data, pro-
vided by accommodating and zealous friends, to whom I here wish to express my
gratitude and obligations, is of a character which would permit of the writing of
many monographs with an amplitude of detail which would perhaps make them more
interesting to the special reader than these two volumes will be to the public generally.
If the general reader whose familiarity with particular phases of metropol-
itan life finds that their treatment has been inadequate, he is begged to recall that
the activities of a great city are numerous, and that opinions respecting their im-
portance are almost as varied as the number who give them consideration. He is
reminded that the writer has sought to deal with a hundred subjects, half, or more,
of which would lend themselves to amplification of the sort the minute reader exacts,
but which in these volumes the exigencies of space have compelled the compression
into a few pages, and sometimes into paragraphs. Episodes in the history of the
City which other writers have ably dealt with at great length have necessarily been
epitomized in order that a more comprehensive survey of the period in which they
occurred might be taken, and because of the writer's belief that their details will
grow less interesting as the years wear on until at last they become a mere speck in
the historical perspective of San Francisco.
Perhaps that will be the fate of most of that which we now regard as important.
In the multitude of happenings which the universal historian has to draw upon he
vi PREFACE
finds comparatively few that he deems worth recording, and fewer still to which he
devotes pages of description. Appalling calamities he passes over with a mere men-
tion. Gibbon in his monumental history of Rome tells of the destruction of 250,000
lives in a great earthquake which nearly destroyed the city of Antioch in 551 A. D.,
and furnishes the reader no other information concerning it than is contained in his
conjecture that "the domestic population of the city was swollen by the conflux of
strangers to the festival of the Ascension," and he passes over the calamity which
befell the Roman world in the second year of the reign of Valentinian with a mere
reference to a tidal wave which drowned 50,000 people and to the disruption of a
mountain; and his relation of the seismic disaster which overthrew the Colossus of
Rhodes is confined to the recital of that fact coupled vrith a statement of the dispo-
sition made of the metal of the statue, which he appears to have introduced, more
for the purpose of giving an idea of its size than to illustrate the misfortunes of the
Rhodians.
The information, and the imagination necessary to present a graphic and more
extended account were not lacking, but the historian was dealing with the events of
centuries, and was compelled, while observing the limitations of space, to preserve
the sense of proportion. To him tragedies and great calamities were as the ripples
on the surface of a pond when a stone is thrown into its depths. When the transitory
disturbance ceased the stone was forgotten. AMiether consciously or unconsciously
Gibbon recognized that it is the sum total of human happenings and experience
which make history, and by a process of condensation which permitted him to mo-
mentarily turn the limelight of his genius on significant occurrences he succeeded
in producing a picture from which a vivid impression is derived, although the canvas
is crowded in places to the point of confusion.
On a lesser scale the annalist of a municipality seeks to accomplish the same
result. He cannot succeed unless he pursues the same method. The description of
a few events, no matter how important they may have seemed to those who par-
ticipated in them, cannot truthfully portray the growth of a community. Their
exceptional character stamps them as aberrations. It is only by the relation of
the manner in which a people works out the problem of its everyday existence that
a truthful idea of its status can be conveyed. Ebullitions on the surface show that
there is heat under the caldron, but they do not tell the story of the causes that
produced the heat.
The caldron has boiled fiercely at times in San Francisco and has brought a deal
of scum to the top, but when skimmed off and throvni to the side, it is seen that the
liquor beneath has been purified in the process. This story is an attempt to truth-
fully describe the boiling and the clarification. In doing so it has been found neces-
sary to consider many activities and briefly review them, incidentally reciting the
causes that have made their practice possible. In the following pages will be found
not merely an enumeration and relation of events ; they contain, it is hoped, sufii-
cient information to enable the reader to form a judgment of the progress of the
people of San Francisco both spiritually and materially.
There is something about the great industries of the State of California which
have made the growth of the metropolis possible. The trade of the City and its
commerce with foreign nations are treated. The development of the facilities of
the great Bay of San Francisco is traced. The banking operations of the City at
various periods, and its monetary troubles are noted. The labor troubles of the
PREFACE vii
community, and its effort to promote manufacturing are dealt with. Its civic aspira-
tions and accomplishments in the way of public improvements, receive attention,
not in the spirit of the booster, but in a candid fashion which recognizes failures as
well as successes. The shortcomings of the people in the administration of the af-
fairs of the municipality, are described, and the blame for them placed where the
author thinks it belongs. The recreations of the community: its sports and its
amusements; its educational facilities; its libraries and its literature; its fraternal
and social organizations ; its celebrations; its journalism and periodical publications;
its homes and its hotel and restaurant life; its art and its architecture; its churches
and its charities are all included in the survey, and it is hoped that all these varied
activities have been so correlated that the reader will find it possible to form a cor-
rect judgment of the present status of the metropolis and of the means by which it
has been attained.
It has not been deemed necessary by the author to encumber his pages with the
sources of his information. He freely confesses his obligations to writers who have
dealt with the early periods, and disavows all claims to special research. For infor-
mation concerning the events since 1877 he has depended on personal observation
and information derived from so many sources that an attempt to make acknowl-
edgment in detail would consume as much space as that required for their descrip-
tion. But he cannot refrain from renewing his expression of gratitude to those in
authority, and in a position to know, for the trouble they have taken to provide
him with the data upon which the story of the years after 1877 is largely based,
and which he hopes has been told without other bias than that which conviction
produces. John P. Young.
S-\N Francisco, October 1, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE SPANISH HUNT FOR A SHORT CUT TO THE INDIES
BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC THE SETTLEMENT OF PANAMA SEEKING A SAFE HARBOR
SPANISH TREASURE FLEETS SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND HIS PURSUITS THE SEARCH
FOR ANIAN SETTLEMENT OF CALIFORNIA ORDERED THE HARBOR OF MONTEREY
SPANISH NEGLIGENCE OF OPPORTUNITIES A HUNT FOR ISLANDS OF GOLD REVIVAL
OF INTEREST IN THE SHORT CUT 3
CHAPTER II
SPAIN'S PURPOSE IN OCCUPYING CALIFORNIA
A HALF WAY HOUSE FOR SHIPS IN THE PHILIPPINE TRADE THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
OVERLOOKED RUSSIA COVETED CALIFORNIA EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY ZEAL THE
BELIEF IN THE INSULARITY OF CALIFORNIA INVESTIGATIONS OF FATHER KINO
SPANISH PROJECTS SLUMBER THE FRANCISCAN ORDER EXPULSION OF JESUITS
FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA SEARCHING FOR MONTEREY PORTOLA's DISAPPOINT-
MENT DISCOVERY OF SAX FRANCISCO BAY 9
CHAPTER III
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS
SEARCH FOR THE BAY OF MONTEREY CONTINUED LIEUTENANT DE AYALA ENTERS THE
GOLDEN GATE THE EXPEDITION TO SAN FRANCISCO BAY SELECTION OF A SITE
ON MISSION BAY THE PRESIDIO ESTABLISHED FATHER SERRA REACHES MISSION
DOLORES SPANISH DRY ROT COMMUNICATES ITSELF TO THE NEW COUNTRY SPAIN's
TRADE WITH THE PHILIPPINES THE MISSION INDIANS THE LIFE AND LABORS OF
PADRE SERRA 15
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
RESULT OF THE LABORS OF THE MISSIONARIES
DEATH OF PADRE SERRA AT MONTEREY SPANIARDS POOR COLONISTS MANAGEMENT
OF THE MISSIONS THE MISSION INDIANS THE AIMS OF THE PADRES CHARACTER
OF CALIFORNIA INDIANS INDIANS LOW IN THE HUMAN SCALE WORKING ON UN-
PROMISING MATERIAL INDIANS TAUGHT AGRICULTURE PRACTICAL ENSLAVEMENT
OF THE INDIAN THE ABORIGINES MELT AWAY UNDER CIVILIZING INFLUENCES. . 23
CHAPTER V
THE UNPRACTICAL CHARACTER OF THE MISSIONARIES
THEIR FAILURE TO INCOURAGE COMMUNICATION THEY NEGLECT TRAVEL FACILITIES
PASTORAL PURSUITS IN CALIFORNIA WRETCHED CONDITION OF SETTLERS YANKEE
TRADERS VISIT CALIFORNIA LARGE NUMBERS OF HORSES AND HORNED STOCK RAISED
PRODUCT OF THE MISSIONS IN 1839 OCCASIONAL INDIAN UPRISINGS ARCHITEC-
TURE OF THE MISSIONS INDOLENCE OF SETTLERS LIFE ON THE RANCHES PAS-
TORAL PURSUITS TEND TO INDOLENCE AGRICULTURE NEGLECTED AND MANUFAC-
TURING IGNORED NO TRADE EXCEPTING WITH SMUGGLERS 29
CHAPTER VI
SPANISH DISCOURAGEMENT OF RELATIONS WITH OUTSIDERS
UNCOSI.MERCIAL METHODS OF SPAIN THE PREDICTION OF A PADRE CONCERNING SAN
FRANCISCO BAY EARLY YANKEE AMBITIONS SPANISH FEAR OF THE RUSSIANS
THE VISIT OF RAZENOFF AND HIS ADVICE TO THE CALIFORNIANS NAVIGATION OF
THE BAY DISCOURAGED BY GOVERNOR SOLA EARLIEST TRAFFIC ON THE BAY OF
SAN FRANCISCO CAPTAIN MORRELL MAKES A SUGGESTION UNCLE SAM SEEKS AN
OUTLET REPORT OF COLONEL BUTLER ON CALIFORNIA MEXICO UNAPPRECIATIVE
OF CALIFORNIA ARGUELLO LAUDS POSSIBILITIES OF PROVINCE THE EARLY IMMI-
GRANTS WELCOMED SHIPS DROP INTO SAN FRANCISCO BAY THE FOUNDATION OF
VERBA BUENA 35
CHAPTER VII
FOUNDATION OF THE VILLAGE OF VERBA BUENA
VERBA BUENA IN 1839 THE FIRST HOUSE ERECTED IN YERBA BUENA DEDICATION
OF THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS REZANOFF's VISIT TO SAN FRANCISCO BAY IN
1806 THE RUSSIAN IS WELCOMED A ROMANCE OF YERBA BUENA REZANOFF
SECURES SUPPLIES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RUSSIANS IN SITKA— DE.4TH
OF REZANOFF IN SIBERIA RUSSIAN METHODS IN CALIFORNIA FEW BOOKS IN
CALIFORNIA BEFORE ARRIVAL OF AMERICANS DANCING FORBIDDEN BY THE PADRES
PATERNAL RULE ON THE RANCHES THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH 41
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER VIII
LIFE OF NATIVE CALIFORNIANS ON THEIR RANCHES
HOSPITALITY OF THE NATIVE CALIFORNIANS NATIVE CALIFORNIANS AND THEIR
HORSES THE FEASTING AND MERRYMAKING OF THE PEOPLE DANCING AND
MUSIC AT FIESTAS LOVE OF FINERY SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS INDOLENCE A BE-
SETTING SIN AN EASILY CONTENTED PEOPLE A GREAT LACK OF CREATURE COM-
FORTS SOAP SPARINGLY USED SIMPLE DIET OF THE NATIVE CALIFORNIAN HE
DID NOT EXERT HIMSELF TO PROVIDE FOR THE TABLE 49
CHAPTER IX
LIFE IN CALIFORNIA BEFORE THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
SOME SQUALID FEATURES DRINKING AND GAMBLING VICES ADOPTED BY NEW COMERS
THE CALIFORNIA BULL RING EXTRAVAGANT HABITS EASILY ACQUIRED TRADING
INSTINCT NOT HIGHLY DEVELOPED EXCESSIVE FEAR OF LUXURIOUS HABITS THE
TROUBLESOME RUSSIANS CAUSES OF CALIFORNIAN BACKWARDNESS YANKEE TRAD-
ERS ON THE COAST SMUGGLING A FINE ART CELEBRATIONS AT THE MISSION ST.
FRANCIS AN UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE SEXUAL MORALITY 57
CHAPTER X
BEGINNING OF THE AMERICAN INVASION OF CALIFORNIA
THE FIRST SETTLERS OF SAN FRANCISCO MEXICAN OPINION OF CALIFORNIA AMERICAN
CRITICISM OF SPANISH METHODS RESTRICTIONS ON IMMIGRATION FOREIGNERS
WELCOMED BY CALIFORNIA WOMEN THE FIRST AMERICAN INTRUDERS RUMORED
SEIZURE OF THE PORT OF SAN FRANCISCO FRICTION WITH FOREIGNERS INTRIGU-
ING AMERICANS TRADE WITH NEW MEXICO ADVANCE GUARD OF THE AMERICAN
INVASION AGGRESSIVENESS OF AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS 65
CHAPTER XI
COVETOUS EYES CAST ON THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO
SEVERAL NATIONS ENVIOUS OF SPAIN THE SPANISH FAILURE TO MAKE USE OF THE
PORT OF SAN FRANCISCO THE PADRES AND THE MILITARY THE FATHERS OP-
POSED TO REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT POLITICAL SQUABBLES IN CALIFORNIA OF-
FICIAL LIFE UNDER SPANISH AND MEXICAN RULE MEXICO • UNCONCERNED ABOUT
THE FATE OF CALIFORNIA CONCILIATORY AMERICANS FRENCH AND BRITISH
INTRIGUES STIMULATING DISLIKE OF AMERICANS FREMONT APPEARS ON THE
SCENE THE "PATHFINDERS' " ACTIONS EXCITE SUSPICION 71
xii CONTEXTS
CHAPTER XII
LABOR PROBLEM BEFORE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
CALIFORNIA AND THE SLAVEHOLDERS OF THE UNITED STATES CHINESE LABOR SUG-
GESTED AS EARLY AS 1806 INDIANS AS SLAVES THE INDIAN AN OBJECT OF DREAD
THE ATTEMPT TO ELEVATE THE INDIAN ENSLAVEMENT OF INDIAN CHILDREN — -
INDIANS CRUELLY TREATED NO REWARDS FOR THE INDIAN LABORER OPPOSITION
TO INDIAN PUEBLOS INDIAN PUEBLOS NOT A SUCCESS RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF
MISSION INDIANS UNSATISFACTORY RESULTS 77
CHAPTER XIII
THE SPANISH LAND GRANT SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA
FIRST LAND GRANTS IN 1773 LIBERAL ALLOTMENTS DID NOT ATTRACT SETTLERS
LARGE RANCHES PRODUCTIVE OF INDOLENCE THE NEGLECTED STOCK OF THE NA-
TIVE CALIFORNIANS PARALYZING EFFECTS OF THE BAD LAND LAWS SUPPLIES RE-
CEIVED FROM ALASKA NO MANUFACTURING SKILL DEVELOPED EARLY CONSERVA-
TION SUGGESTIONS LUMBER SCARCE CALIFORNIANS NOT LOVERS OF THE SEA
MONTEREY OVERSHADOWS SAN FRANCISCO IN IMPORTANCE 83
CHAPTER XIV
EARLY TRADING TROUBLES OF THE CALIFORNIANS
SPANISH AND MEXICAN ATTEMPTS TO REPRESS TRADING SMUGGLING POPULARLY AP-
PROVED THE FUR TRADE SPAIN SURRENDERS NORTHWEST COAST VISITS OF YAN-
KEE SHIPS TO CALIFORNIA THE FORT ROSS ESTABLISHMENT AN AMICABLE AR-
RANGEMENT WITH THE RUSSIANS SUTTER AND VALLEJO QUARREL THE TRADE IN
HIDES AND TALLOW THE WHALERS AND THE WHALING INDUSTRY HONOLULU A
RIVAL OF SAN FRANCISCO FIRST MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENT IN VERBA BUENA
CONTINUED IMPORTANCE OF MONTEREY SAX FRANCISCo's FIRST PUBLIC IMPROVE-
MENT SEVENTY YEARS OF INACTIVITY 91
CHAPTER XV
THE EVE OF THE OCCUPATION BY AMERICANS
SPANISH FAILURE TO DISCOVER GOLD IN QUANTITY A FEW OUNCES FOUND IN LOS
ANGELES BEFORE THE SUTTER FORT DISCOVERY HOPES OF THE AMERICAN SETTLERS
SOUTHERNERS HOODWINK THE NORTHERN PEOPLE THE PLOTS OF THE SLAVE-
HOLDERS JACKSON's offer TO PURCHASE SAN FRANCISCO BAY THE WAR WITH
MEXICO — Fremont's expedition — Fremont's policy of provocation — Wash-
ington AUTHORITIES JIISLED FREMONT AND IDE THE BEAR FLAG EPISODE WHAT
MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED 99
CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER XVI
ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA BY THE UNITED STATES
THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA VERBA BUENA EARLY INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE
ARRIVAL OF MORMONS THE DONNER PARTY— VERBA BUENA GROWING OCCU-
PATIONS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS COMMERCE OF THE PORT IN 1847 TEMPTING
THE WHALERS TRADE WITH NEW MEXICO THE MISSION DOLORES MISSION ARCHI-
TECTURE VERBA BUENA CHANGED TO SAN FRANCISCO FIRST REAL ESTATE TRANS-
ACTIONS THE ORIGINAL STREETS OF VERBA BUENA Ill
CHAPTER XVII
THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND ITS GREAT IMPORTANCE
SURROUNDED BY A WILDERNESS THE "gOLDEN GATE" NAMED BY FREMONT THE NAME
"California" — the entrance to the harbor — the shores of the bay of
san francisco a natural basin filled in by the pioneers contour of the
bay not greatly changed first steam vessel on the bay russians in
alaska alaska a source of supplies commerce of the port in 1848
hundreds of ships in the harbor the dawn of commercial greatness. 121
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT SUTTER'S MILL IN 1848
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY THE CAREER OF SUTTER A POORLY KEPT SECRET BE-
GINNING OF THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA MILITARY GOVERNOR RICHARD B. MASON
PROPOSAL TO CONSERVE THE GOLD MARSHALL'S LIFE THREATENED SAN FRAN-
CISCO BECOMES THE MINEr's MECCA MINING AND TEMPERAMENT EFFECTS OF
THE GOLD LURE THE GOLD HUNTERS THE RUSH IN 1849 POPULATION IN 1849
IMMIGRANTS POURING INTO CALIFORNIA UNSTABLE CHARACTER OF THE NEW
POPULATION DEPENDENCE ON MIXING 131
CHAPTER XIX
MANY VICISSITUDES EXPERIENCED BY THE PIONEERS
A FLIMSILV CONSTRUCTED CITY SAN FRANCISCO IN 1848 THE BIG FIRES OF EARLY DAYS
LACK OF PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE FIVE CONFLAGRATIONS METHODS OF CON-
STRUCTION IMPROVING FIRST STORE BUILDING IN SAN FRANCISCO GOOD ARCHI-
TECTS EXPENSIVE BUILDING MATERIALS AND HIGH COST OF LABOR— MISSION STYLE
NOT FAVORED BY THE PIONEERS JERRY BUILDING NUMEROUS BRICK STRUCTURES
APPEARANCE OF THE CITY IN 1854 EARLY LAND GRABBING LAVING UP TROUBLE
FOR THE FUTURE 139
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER XX
LAND TITLES AND TROUBLES OF PIONEER DAYS
BIG DEMAND FOR TOWN LOTS WATER FRONT LOTS EAGERLY BOUGHT ATTEMPT TO
VALIDATE FRAUDULENT LAND GRANTS COLTON GRANTS DECLARED FRAUDULENT
TROUBLESOME SQUATTERS FEDERAL DETERMINATION OF TITLES CONFUSION
CONCERNING PUEBLOS AMERICAN ALCALDES IMITATE THEIR PREDECESSORS OF-
FICIALS CONNIVE WITH SPECULATORS THE SQUATTERS' ARGUMENT SQUATTING AS
AN OCCUPATION THE CITY AND THE INTERIOR SQUATTER TITLES IN DOUBT MANY
YEARS JURIES SIDE WITH SQUATTERS SAN FRANCISCO A PUEBLO THE LIMAN-
TOUR CLAIM THE LAND COMMISSION POLITICAL CONDITIONS NEGLECT OF CIVIC
DUTY IN SAN FRANCISCO 147
CHAPTER XXI
THE LAYOUT AND BEGINNINGS OF A BIG CITY
NOT MANY PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AT FIRST INDIVIDUAL EFFORT THE CHIEF FACTOR
IN THE UPBUILDING OF THE EARLY CITY PRACTICAL NEEDS ATTENDED TO BY PIO-
NEERS THE FIRST CITY HALL CONFIDENCE IN FUTURE GROWTH OF THE CITY
VERBA BUENA COVE FILLED IN BY PIONEERS HIGH RENTS MERCHANTS ABLE TO
PAY BIG RENTALS EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE SPECULATION IN 1853 OPPOSITION TO
RECTANGULAR STREET SYSTEM MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP AND CARE OF STREETS — -
MISSION PLANKED ROAD PROVIDING FACILITIES FOR SHIPPING A WATER FRONT
LINE PERMANENT WATER FRONT LINE ESTABLISHED IN 1851^THE COUNTRY AND
THE CITY STEADY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY EARLY WATER SUPPLY A LAKE
MERCED PHENOMENON 157
CHAPTER XXII
CLIMATIC AND OTHER PHENOMENA OF SAN FRANCISCO
SEISMIC TROUBLES DO NOT DETER IMMIGRATION ADVANTAGES WEIGHED AGAINST
DISADVANTAGES THE VERIFIED PREDICTION OF A PIONEER THE CLIMATE OF
CALIFORNIA AND OF SAN FRANCISCO VARIATIONS BUT NO CHANGES CLIMATIC
PECULIARITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO THE JAPAN CURRENT ABSENCE OF HUMID-
ITY MAKES HEAT ENDURABLE SNOWFALLS SO RARE THEY BECOME HISTORICAL
EVENTS KILLING A MAN TO START A GRAVEYARD MAN AND NATURE IN CALI-
FORNIA PRACTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PIONEER THE NAVIGABLE RIVERS
OF CALIFORNIA THE REGION ABOUT THE BAY 169
CHAPTER XXIII
TAXATION AND OTHER GOVERNMENTAL PROBLEMS OF THE
PIONEER
NATIVE CALIFORNIANS SLIGHTLY TAXED EXEMPTION FROM TAXATION NOT A BLESSING
ABUSE OF AN INHERITED SYSTEM THE SPECULATIVE LURE GENERAL KEARNY
CONTENTS XV
AND THE ALCALDES ALCALDE JUSTICE IN CALIFORNIA FIRST ALCALDE UNDER
THE AMERICAN FLAG SAN FRANCISCo's FIRST COUNCIL THE RUSH TO THE GOLD
DIGGINGS PEACE EASILY KEPT ORDINANCE AGAINST GAMBLING COUNCILMEN
DESERT THEIR POSTS TO DIG FOR GOLD— NATIONAL AND LOCAL POLITICS FACTIONAL
FEELING THREE OPPOSING SETS OF COUNCILLORS MILITARY INTERFERENCE IN
CIVIL AFFAIRS DELEGATES TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION THE NEED OF
REGULATION- — A SHORT BALLOT EXPERIMENT IN 1849 VOTE ON ADOPTION OF THE
CONSTITUTION HORACE HAWES A WELL HATED REFORMER A DEFIANT AYUNTA-
MIENTO HAWES TURNED DOWN 177
CHAPTER XXIV
.MANY EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
CHARTER OF 1850 INSPIRES HOPES OF BETTER GOVERNMENT SMALL REVENUES AND
HIGH SALARIES EARLY SALARY GRABBERS CONDONATION OF OFFICIAL TURPITUDE
A SECOND CHARTER GRANTED IN 1851 DEBT CREATED AND CREDIT IMPAIRED
THE PETER SMITH JUDGMENTS UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO REFUND TAXATION
BURDEN IN 1852 A CITY HALL SCANDAL NEGLECT OF SANITARY PRECAUTIONS
ANOTHER NEW CHARTER IN 1853 — -THE CITY SUFFERS FROM SPECIAL LEGISLA-
TION A TAX ON GOODS CONSIGNED TO SAN FRANCISCO MERCHANTS UNEQUAL
TAXATION WATER FRONT LINE SCANDAL AN ABANDONED FREE PUBLIC DOCK
SCHEME HARRY MEIGg's SPECTACULAR CAREER HE FLIES THE COUNTRY, MAKES
A BIG FORTUNE IN PERU AND WISHES TO RETURN TO CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE
CONDONES HIS OFFENSES— DEATH OF MEIGGS 189
CHAPTER XXV
THE PIONEERS AND THE CRIMINAL CLASS IN THE FIFTIES
CAUSE OF THE VIGILANTE UPRISING THE "hOUNDs" KNOW NOTHING TROUBLES
ATTACKS ON FOREIGNERS A TOWN WITHOUT POLICE POLITICAL FRIENDS OF THE
"hounds"— THE VIGILANTE EPISODE OF 1851 COMPOSITION OF THE VIGILANCE
COMMITTEE HIGH HANDED METHODS HANGING FOR STEALING THE COURTS AND
THE LAWS THE READY REVOLVER CIVIC DUTY DISREGARDED INDIFFERENCE OF
THE RESPECTABLE CITIZEN CONDITIONS IN 1855-56 SHOOTING OF RICHARDSON
BY CORA THE BULLETIN'S ATTACK ON CASEY INTEMPERATE JOURNALISM EDITOR
OF THE BULLETIN MURDERED CORA AND CASEY HANGED BY THE VIGILANTES
LAW AND ORDER PARTY CONSTITUTED ANTHORITIES DEFIED CORRUPTION AT THE
POLLS NUMERICAL SUPERIORITY OF THE BETTER ELEMENT DAVID S. TERRY
POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE VIGILANTE UPRISING 199
CHAPTER XXVI
POLITICAL AND OTHER RESULTS OF THE VIGILANTE UPRISING
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE REFORMS ITSELF THE IDEA OF CIVIC DUTY BEGINS TO ASSERT
ITSELF THE RECALL METHOD IN 1856 ORGANIZATION OF THE FEOPLe's PARTY
i CONTENTS
PLATFORM OF THE NEW PARTY RESULT OF ATTENTION TO CIVIC DUTY A SECRET
NOMINATING BODY ONLY A HALF REFORM ACHIEVED BRODERICK AND THE VIGI-
LANTES POLITICAL CAREER OF BRODERICK BRODERICK's MODE OF KEEPING UP
THE ORGANIZATION UNSETTLED OPINION CONCERNING SLAVERY FOR OR AGAINST
BRODERICK COLLISION OF NATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL INTERESTS POLITICAL
JUDGMENT OF VIGILANTE LEADERS DISSOLUTION OF THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
RETURN OF THE PROSCRIBED THE QUESTION OF TITLES VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
RECEIVES A GOLD BRICK STORIES OF CRIMINAL ASCENDENCY A MYTH FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT AND THE VIGILANTES SHEHMAN's PART IN THE AFFAIR SOLIDARITY
OF THE VIGILANTES 211
CHAPTER XXVII
AFFAIRS AT LOOSE ENDS IN THE EARLY FIFTIES
THE PEOPLE NOT INTRACTABLE BAD ELEMENTS NOT HARD TO CONTROL VICES OF
PIONEERS NOT OF THE HIDDEN SORT HIGH LIGHTS ON SHORTCOMINGS FIXING
RESPONSIBILITY FOR EVIL PRACTICES PUTTING THE BLAME ON FOREIGNERS
THE GOLD SEEKERS GROWING COSMOPOLITANISM OF THE CITY NEGLECT OF
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS EVERYBODY BOARDED PREVALENCE OF GAMBLING THE
GLITTERING BAR ROOMS PORTSMOUTH SQUARE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS GAM-
BLING HOUSE PROPRIETORS GROW RICH REGULATING THE SOCIAL EVIL A MIXED
STATE OF AFFAIRS SOCIALLY NO HOME RESTRAINTS EARLY PHILOSOPHERS
PLENTY OF COLLEGE BRED MEN IN THE CITY ATTEMPTS TO ERADICATE EVIL
, PROGRESS TOWARDS ORDER '223
CHAPTER XXVIII
CONDITIONS IMPROVE SOCIALLY AND OTHERWISE IN THE CITY
A STRUGGLE FOR DECENCY FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS CHURCHES FOUNDED ALL
THE DENOMINATIONS REPRESENTED A UNION OF PROTESTANT CONGREGATIONS
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE FIRST PROTESTANT SERMON IN CALIFORNIA THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH BISHOP ALEMANY' ARRIVES THE PIOUS FUND SAN FRANCISCo's FIRST
CATHEDRAL ATTEMPTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE CHINESE IMPROVED MANNERS AND
MORALS THANKSGIVING DAY PIONEER DIVORCES PASSAGE OF A SUNDAY LAW. 233
CHAPTER XXIX
LABOR CONDITIONS AND THE COST AND MODE OF LIVING
SAN FRANCISCO A VICTIM OF EXAGGERATION SUMMARY MODES OF ABATING EVIL MIS-
UNDERSTOOD CONDITION OF THE WORKER IN SAN FRANCISCO CHANGE IN LABOR
CONDITIONS PLENTY OF WORKERS WHEN THE GOLD RUSH WAS UNDER WAY
HURRY UP WAGES PAID LABOR ORGANIZATIONS FORMED RELATION OF EMPLOYER
AND EMPLOYED ENVIABLE CONDITION OF THE WORKER INFLUX OF CHINESE
THE COST OF LIVING IN THE EARLY FIFTIES IMPORTED FOOD STUFFS EFFECT ON
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION PRICES FALL THE LOW PRICE OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA
CONTENTS
EFFECTS OF THE ABUNDANCE OF GOLD EARLY EPICURIANISM HOW MEN GREW
RICH IN PIONEER DAYS DRESS IN PIONEER DAYS DISPOSITION TO CREATE IDOLS
EFFECT OF ISOLATION FIRST ORPHAN ASYLUM AND HOSPITAL EXCESSIVE MOR-
TALITY FROM EXPOSURE SAN FRANCISCO CHARITY SISTERS OF MERCY 243
CHAPTER XXX
SOCIAL AND OTHER DIVERSIONS OF PIONEER DAYS
SAN FRANCISCAN ARDOR FIREMEN THE ELITE OF THE CITY FIRE PRECAUTIONS FIRE
ENGINE HOUSES CENTERS OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY FIREMEN's PARADES THE MILITIA
ORGANIZATIONS CITIZEN SOLDIERY NOT DEPENDABLE THE DRINK HABIT BULL
FIGHTS AND BEAR BAITING HORSE RACING PUGILISTIC CONTESTS THE DUELLO IN
PIONEER DAYS EARLY CELEBRATIONS AND LOVE OF MUSIC THE SPANISH ELEMENT
SPANISH LANGUAGE LOSES ITS HOLD IN SAN FRANCISCO CHINESE QUARTER IN
EARLY DAYS "CHINA BOYs" IN PARADES ROUTE OF THE PIONEER PARADES RUSS
GARDENS AND THE WILLOWS JOYS OF THE CIRCUS APPRECIATION OF THE DRAMA
STARS VISIT CALIFORNIA CRITICAL AUDIENCES CHURCH FAIRS AND PUBLIC BALLS
NO EXCLUSIVE SOCIAL SETS OBTRUSIVE COURTESANS THE UBIQUITOUS COLONEL
PREVALENCE OF MILITANCY 255
CHAPTER XXXI
SAN FRANCISCO A BASE FOR FILIBUSTERING OPERATIONS
A RESTLESS PEOPLE TWO DESIGNING FRENCHMEN PLOTS AGAINST MEXICO ATTEMPT
TO CAPTURE SONORA A FRENCH CONSUL IN THE GAME WALKEr's DESIGNS ON
SONORA MEXICO AND THE AMERICAN MANIFEST DESTINY IDEA SAN FRANCISCANS
AID FILIBUSTERS REMARKABLE CAREER OF WALKER FATE OF THE FRENCH FILI-
BUSTERS CRABb's FUTILE EXPEDITION RESTLESS MINERS THE BLACK SAND
SWINDLE A RUSH TO AUSTRALIA THE FRASER RIVER RUSH STEADY GROWTH OF
THE CITY NUMEROUS HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS POPULARITY OF TEMPERANCE
RESTAURANTS EVERYBODY BOARDED IN SAN FRANCISCO THE GREGARIOUS TEN-
DENCY EARLY MEANS OF GETTING ABOUT FASHIONABLE SECTIONS CITY GROWS
SOUTHWARD NOT AMBITIOUS TO BECOME A CAPITAL A BELIEVER IN MANIFEST
DESTINY SOUTHERN INFLUENCE INCREASING IMMIGRATION 267
CHAPTER XXXII
RESOURCES THAT PROMOTED THE GROWTH OF SAN FRANCISCO
CHARACTER OF CALIFORNIA LANDS A BIGGER HOME MARKET FOR THEIR PRODUCTS
NEEDED PAST DEPENDENCE ON THE OUTSIDER UNORGANIZED MERCANTILISM
EARLY TRADE DEPRESSIONS— THE PANIC OF 1855 BANKING TROUBLES PLENTY
OF GOLD BUT NO CURRENCY PRIVATE COINAGE BUYING AND SELLING GOLD DUST
GOVERNMENTAL METHODS OF DEALING WITH THE PEOPLE MERCHANT PRINCES
OF PIONEER PERIOD PIONEER STOCKS OF MERCHANDISE LITTLE ATTEMPT TO
xviii CONTENTS
DISPLAY GOODS CREDIT SYSTEM AND COLLECTIONS PIONEER IDEAS OF A TRANS-
CONTINENTAL RAILROAD MUCH TALK OF CONNECTING EAST AND WEST STATE
PRIDE DEVELOPS SLOWLY WAGON ROADS HIGH FARE AND FREIGHT RATES SEA
AND RIVER NAVIGATION CLIPPER SHIPS PANAMA AND NICARAGUA ROUTES THE
PANAMA RAILROAD SHIPPING OF THE PAST BUSINESS DRAWBACKS 279
CHAPTER XXXIII
JOURNALISM, LITERATURE, EDUCATION AND POLITICS OF
PIONEER DAYS
NEWSPAPERS OF SAN FRANCISCO PRESS AT TIME OF GOLD DISCOVERY NEWS BEFORE
THE AMERICAN CAME TO CALIFORNIA THE FIRST NEWSPAPER MERGER VIOLENCE
OF EDITORIAL EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF THE PRESS EDITOR KILLED IN A DUEL
JOURNALISM AN UNPROFITABLE CALLING DRIVING RIVALS FROM THE FIELD NOT
MUCH STRESS LAID ON NEWS EDITORIAL WRITERS DURING THE FIFTIES USE OF
THE TELEGRAPH NEWS RECEIVED BY STEAMER MAILS RECEIVED BY STAGE AND
PONY EXPRESS JOURNALISM AND LITERATURE CLOSELY ALLIED VARYING LITERARY
STANDARDS POLITICS AND LITERATURE EARLY LIBRARIES FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK
THE WEEKLY PAPERS A WOMAN's JOURNAL GOLDEN ERA SCHOOL OP LITERA-
TURE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES THE PUBMC SCHOOLS AND THE HIGHER EDUCA-
TION PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS POLITICS AND THE SCHOOLS 295
CHAPTER XXXIV
POLITICAL CONDITIONS AFTER PASSAGE OF CONSOLIDATION ACT
SAN Francisco's seal — respectable element reformed — purity of ballot box —
vigilante's discard primary elections — a self perpetuating nominating
committee — secret selections produce good results — the consolidation act
— measures of economy — many restrictions — reforms effected — national
parties BRODERICK THE CHAMPION OF FREEDOM BRODERICK REFUSES TO OBEY
legislative INSTRUCTIONS THE REPUBLICANS TERRY KILLS BRODERICK IN A DUEL
CAREER OF TERRY BAKER's ORATION AT BRODERICk's FUNERAL TERRY BECOMES
A CONFEDERATE GENERAL OTHER POLITICAL DUELS PACIFIC COAST REPUBLIC SUG-
GESTED TALK ABOUT STATE DIVISION POLITICAL REVOLUTION 309
CHAPTER XXXV
CONDITION OF THE CITY AT CLOSE OF THE PIONEER PERIOD
pueblo titles van ness ordinance vexed questions affecting titles settled
control of the water front the impending war doubts concerning
California's agricultural capabilities — mechanic's institute fairs — exces-
sive IMPORTS SAN FRANCISCO AS A DISTRIBUTING POINT MANUFACTURES IN 1860
OBSTACLES TO GROWTH OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY COMMERCE OF THE PORT
EARLY DEPENDENCE ON WHEAT EXPORTS FRUIT INDUSTRY IN ITS INFANCY
MINERAL RESOURCES EXHAUSTION OF PLACERS DISCUSSED DISCOVERY OF THE
COMSTOCK LODE OPTIMISM OP THE ARGONAUTS APPEARANCE OF THE CITY IN
1861 GROWTH OF THRIFTY HABITS DEPRESSION PRECEDING THE CIVIL WAR. 319
CONTENTS xix
CHAPTER XXXVI
SAN FRANCISCO'S ATTITUDE DURING THE CIVIL WAR
THE CITY LOYAL TO THE UNION ATTEMPTS TO TURN OVER ITS DEFENSES TO THE CON-
FEDERATES A MINISTER WHO UPHELD THE SOUTH FIRE-EATING SOUTHERNERS
THE CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS CONFEDERATE ATTEMPTS ON MEXICO CHECKED DEP-
REDATIONS OF PRIVATEERS HARBOR DEFENSES IN WRETCHED CONDITION CON-
TRIBUTIONS TO THE SANITARY COMMISSION FUND EAGERNESS FOR WAR NEWS
ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE A PACIFIC MAIL STEAMER CONFEDERATE LAND PIRATES
A GREAT CHANGE OF SENTIMENT MONUMENTS ERECTED TO HONOR BRODERICK
AND BAKER MONUMENT TO THOMAS STARR KING *HE NEGRO QUESTION SENA-
TORIAL ELECTION SCANDALS MERCHANTS PROFIT THROUGH THE WAR 331
CHAPTER XXXVII
EFFECTS OF ADHERENCE TO GOLD MONEY DURING THE WAR
CHANGING COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS THE PANIC OF 1857 INCREASING EXPORTS
TAXATION OF CONSIGNED GOODS THE WAR TAX EQUAL TAXATION DEMANDED
WAR INCREASES EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA ADHERENCE TO THE USE OF GOLD
MONEY THE SPECIFIC CONTRACT ACT MERCHANTS PROFIT THROUGH RETENTION
OF GOLD MONEY SYSTEM GREENBACKS NOT DISTRUSTED SPECULATION IN GREEN-
BACKS HIGH RATES OF INTEREST ILLIBERAL BANKING LAWS LARGE GOLD PRO-
DUCTION RESULT OF BAD BANKING METHODS FIRST SAVING AND LOAN SOCIETY
FEDERAL EMPLOYES ARE PAID IN DEPRECIATED CURRENCY PAYING DEBTS IN GREEN-
BACKS ATTEMPTS TO INDUCE ABANDONMENT OF GOLD MONEY MANUFACTURING
DISCOURAGED BY SPECULATION IN MONEY GREAT EXPECTATIONS OF THE PEOPLE
LOOKING FORWARD TO RAILROAD CONNECTION WITH THE EAST 343
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS OF CALIFORNIA
EARLY FREIGHT AND FARE RATES FIRST EXPERIENCES IN RAILROADING PROPOSED
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROADS PROJECTORS OF THE FIRST OVERLAND RAILROAD
ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC CONGRESSIONAL AID TO OVERLAND RAIL-
ROADS GRANTS OF LAND AND FINANCIAL AID TO THE CENTRAL PACIFIC GREAT
HOPES BASED ON OPENING OF COMMUNICATION WITH EASTERN STATES EVERYBODY
FRIENDLY TO THE PROMOTERS OF THE RAILROAD FRIENDLINESS CONVERTED INTO
HOSTILITY GREED OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC MANAGERS CAUSES OF HOSTILITY
EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH A MONOPOLY ATTEMPT TO GRAB MINERAL LANDS SHUT-
TING OUT COMPETITION CONTRACT AND FINANCE COMPANY OAKLAND WATER
FRONT GRAB COMPLETION OF THE FIRST OVERLAND LINE 355
M CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXIX
LABOR CONDITIONS AND THE CHINESE QUESTION
ORGANIZATION OF A CENTRAL TRADES ASSEMBLY STRIKE OF FOUNDRY EMPLOYES
LABOR AND POLITICS ATTEMPT TO PASS AN EIGHT HOUR LAW' FORMATION OF AN
EIGHT HOUR LEAGUE TRADES UNIONS IN 1867 A WORKINGMEN's CONVENTION
LABOR LEADERS FAVOR POLITICAL ACTION WORKINGMEN WIN IN PRIMARY ELEC-
TIONS TRADE UNIONISM RECEIVES A BACKSET WOMEN WORKERS THE WORKING-
MEN AND THE CHINESE RACE PREJUDICE IN EARLY DAYS LEGISLATIVE INVESTI-
GATION IN 1852 SAN FRANCISCANS TOLERANT OF CHINESE OPPOSITION TO CHI-
NESE IMMIGRATION RAILROAD IMPORTS CHINESE LABORERS FEW JAPANESE AS-
SUMED NEED OF ORIENTAL LABOR— LAND MONOPOLY AND CHINESE LABOR 371
CHAPTER XL
THE MINING INDUSTRY AND MINING STOCK SPECULATION
J FRANCISCO AND THE MIXING INDUSTRY THE COMSTOCK LODE DISCOVERY OF
SILVER ORE FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCo's FINANCIAL STRENGTH CREATION
OF A STOCK BOARD PRIMITIVE DEALINGS IN STOCKS MINING STOCK SPECULATION
FROWNED UPON AT FIRST THE SPECULATIVE FEVER TAKES HOLD PROSPEROUS
BROKERS NEVADA STOCKS DEALT IN CHIEFLY EXTENT OF THE MARKET THE
SUTRO TUNNEL SUGGESTED THE ATTEMPT TO OVERREACH SUTRO PROVES UNSUC-
CESSFUL MINERS STAND BY SUTRO AGAINST THE "bANK CROWd" RELATIONS OF
NEVADA AND SAN FRANCISCO FAITH OF SAN FRANCISCANS IN MINING AS A SOURCE
OF WEALTH LEGITIMATE AND SPECULATIVE MINING 381
CHAPTER XLI
COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES AND FINANCES OF SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCANS VERY CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION TO CREATING A CLEARING HOUSE
OVERSHADOWING FINANCIAL IMPORTANCE OF THE CITY EXPANSION OF SHIPPING
INDUSTRY— CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF IMPORTS SAN FRANCISCO A DISTRIB-
UTING CENTER FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST THE COD FISH INDUSTRY
THE ACQUISITION OF ALASKA SEWARD 's GOOD BARGAIN VALUE OF ALASKAN TRADE
TRADE WITH THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS COMMUNICATION WITH HAWAII RECI-
PROCITY TREATY WITH THE ISLANDS SAN FRANCISCO's ATTITUDE TOWARD RECI-
PROCITY PLANS FOR ANNEXATION GROWING TRADE WITH THE ISLANDS ORIENTAL
TRADE FIRST SHIP OF THE PACIFIC MAIL TO THE ORIENT SAN FRANCISCo's COAST-
WISE TRADE RAPID GROWTH OF WHEAT EXPORTS DIVERSIFICATION OF AGRICUL-
TURE WOOL INDUSTRY WOOLEN AND OTHER MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES THE
FUR SEAL CONTRACT END OF CALIFORNIA'S ISOLATION 389
CONTENTS xxi
CHAPTER XLII
NATIONAL, STATE AND MUNICIPAL POLITICS IN THE SIXTIES
THE LAST POLITICAL DUEL CONTINUED SUCCESS OF THE PEOPLe's PARTY KEEPING
DOWN TAXATION PEOPLE's PARTY SUFFERS DEFEAT A LUKEWARM PERIOD THE
TAPE WORM TICKET AND BALLOT REFORM LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT DENIED
BUILDING A NEW CITY HALL ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN WATER SUPPLY MOVE-
MENT TO SECURE MUNICIPAL CONTROL OF WATER SYSTEM OPPOSITION TO CREA-
TION OF DEBT WIDENING OF KEARNY STREET PROPOSAL TO CUT DOWN RINCON
HILL QUIETING OUTSIDE LAND TITLES SECURING LAND FOR GOLDEN GATE PARK
THE LAND FOR PARK PURPOSES ORIGINALLY A DREARY WASTE OF SAND WOOD-
WARd's gardens ACTIVE BUILDING OPERATIONS REAL ESTATE IN FAVOR PRICES
OF REAL ESTATE MARKET STREET IN 1870 STREET CAR CONVENIENCES CONGES-
TION OF POPULATION BANKING AND BUSINESS CENTER APPEARANCE OF CITY AT
CLOSE OF SIXTIES 403
CHAPTER XLIII
THE HARBOR, THE RAILROADS AND THE LAND MONOPOLISTS
FERRY SERVICE HARBOR COMMISSION CREATED SEA WALL PROVIDED FOR BAD MAN-
AGEMENT DRIVES AWAY SHIPPING THE BULKHEAD LINE DEFINED HUNTERs'
POINT DRY DOCK BLOSSOM ROCK REMOVED COMPLAINT ABOUT PILOT LAWS SEA
ROUTES FROM SAN FRANCISCO LINES TO COAST PORTS STATE INTERDEPENDENCE
NOT MUCH THOUGHT ABOUT RAILROAD PLANS OF MONOPOLIZING ALL TRAF-
FIC RIVALS FORCED OUT BY THE CENTRAL PACIFIC MORE LAND GRABBING
ATTEMPT TO MAKE GOAT ISLAND A TERMINUS FEAR OF GOAT ISLAND RIVALRY
CALIFORNIA RAILROADS IN 1870-71 INCREASING HOSTILITY TO RAILROAD MANAGE-
MENT THE RAILROADS AND THE LABORING CLASS LAND MONOPOLY AND TAXA-
TION QUESTIONS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ADVOCATED AGITATION OF QUESTION OF
REVISING THE CONSTITUTION 417
CHAPTER XLIV
SOCIAL SIDE OF LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO IN TPIE SIXTIES
THE VACATION HABIT STILL UNDEVELOPED NEAR-BY ATTRACTIONS GOLDEN GATE
PARK BEFORE IT WAS RECLAIMED THE CLIFF HOISE AND WOODWARd's GARDENS
FAVORITE RESORTS GRAND OPERA GREATLY APPRECIATED FAVORITE OPERAS OF
EARLY' DAYS CONCERTS POPULAR THE REIGN OF MINSTRELSY ACTORS OF PIO-
NEER DAYS THE DRAMA DURING THE SIXTIES VOGUE OF BENEFIT PERFORMANCES
BIG PRICES PAID TO HEAR EDWIN FORREST HARRIGAN AND OTHER CALIFORNIA
FAVORITES EARLY VAUDEVILLE LOCATION OF OLD TIME THEATERS SAN FRAN-
CISCO'S FIRST DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE SOCIETY IN THE FORMATIVE STAGE FIRE
AND MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS PUBLIC CELEBRATIONS SPORTS POLITICAL TURN-
OUTS 431
xxii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XLV
INCREASING INTEREST IN CIVICS AND A MORAL AWAKENING
PRECAUTIONS NEGLECTED IN PIONEER DAYS RESTRAINT UPON EXTRAVAGANCE THE
INFLUENCE OF WOMEN ABATEMENT OF THE DRINK HABIT INCREASING RESPECT
FOR LAW BANDIT VASQUEZ CRIME IN SAN FRANCISCO KILLING OF CRITTENDEN
BY LAURA D. FAIR -A MORAL AWAKENING FOLLOWS THOMAS STARR KINg's CHURCH
ERECTION OF TEMPLE EL EMANUEL GRACE CATHEDRAL TEMPERANCE AND
CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS EDUCATIONAL WORK GROWTH OF PUBLIC SCHOOL
SYSTEM MODE OF SELECTING TEACHERS COURSE OF STUDIES MODERN LAN-
GUAGES TAUGHT NIGHT SCHOOLS PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS THE HIGHER
EDUCATION THE STATE UNIVERSITY LITERATURE HIGHLY SEASONED WRITING
LITERATURE AS A CALLING JOURNALISM IN THE SIXTIES WOMEN REPORTERS
NEWS GATHERING IN THE SIXTIES ART AND ARTISTS IN THE SIXTIES INTERIOR
DECORATION HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS T.HE HOME FEELING BEGINNING TO
DEVELOP ^■4'7
CHAPTER XLVI
DISASTERS OCCURRING DURING THE EIGHTEEN SIXTY DECADE
OPTIMISTIC TRAITS OF SAN FRANCISCANS DISASTROUS FIRES FAILED TO DISCOURAGE
THEM IN THE EARLY DAYS THE FAILITRE TO TAKE PROPER PRECAUTIONS AGAINST
FIRES BRET HARTe's JESTING PROPHECY THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1868 EFFECTS
OF THE SHOCK BADLY CONSTRUCTED BUILDINGS SUFFER THE DISTURBANCE
CAUSES NO APPREHENSION WHY SAN FRANCISCANS ARE NOT APPREHENSIVE
INCIDENTS OF THE DISTURBANCE OF 1868 NEWSPAPERS STATE REAL ESTATE ONLY
TEMPORARILY AFFECTED NO ATTEMPT TO CONCEAL THE FACTS A NITRO GLYC-
ERINE EXPLOSION OCEAN DISASTERS IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES NO INTER-
RUPTION OF PROGRESS SIGNS OF AN IMPENDING DEPRESSION AT THE CLOSE OF THE
DECADE SIXTY 467
CHAPTER XL VII
LABOR AND OTHER TROUBLES DURING THE SEVENTIES
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD BRINGS DISAPPOINTMENT GROWTH OF THE ANTI MO-
NOPOLY SENTIMENT DEMANDS OF THE FARMERS THE "dOLLY VARDEN" PARTY
BRYCE INVESTIGATES CALIFORNIA CONDITIONS FRAUDULENT LAND GRANTS THE
PROGRESSIVE PLATFORM OF 1912 FORESHADOWED IN 1877 REVIVAL OF THE CHI-
NESE QUESTION THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF DENIS KEARNEY IN POLITICS IRRIGA-
TION AND SMALL LAND HOLDINGS DIVERSIFICATION OF PRODUCTION POLITICAL
ACTIVITIES OF WORKINGMEN ill
CONTENTS xxiii
CHAPTER XLVIII
SAN FRANCISCO SURRENDERS TO THE SPIRIT OF SPECULATION
GROWTH OF COMMERCE OF THE PORT UNHEALTHY URBAN EXPANSION SAN FRAN-
CISCO WITHOUT A RIVAL CALIFORNIA PRODUCTS UNAPPRECIATED GREAT CHANGES
IN PRODUCTION OIL PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES SCOUTED BY CAPITAL DISCOVERY
OF THE BIG BONANZA FAKE MINING PROPERTIES CORRUPT MANAGEMENT OF
MINES EVERYBODY CRAZED BY SPECULATION EXCITING SCENES IN THE EX-
CHANGES AND ON THE STREETS VILE TRICKS OP MANIPULATORS TREMENDOUS
FLUCTUATIONS IN STOCKS IRRATIONAL ACTIONS OF SPECULATORS THE MANY
FLEECED BY THE FEW OUTPUT OF THE PRODUCTIVE MINES THE ACCUMULATIONS
OF A COMMUNITY ABSORBED BY SHARPERS THE "muD HENs" AND "PAUPER ALLEy"
THE COMSTOCK LODE FLOOD, o'bRIEN, MACKAY AND FAIR MANIPULATION OF
BIG BONANZA STOCKS STRUGGLES FOR CONTROL THE BROKERS SHEARING OF THE
LAMBS AND THE RESULT 487
CHAPTER XLIX
THE BURSTING OF THE STOCK SPECULATION BUBBLE
EFFECTS OF CALIFORNIA'S ISOLATION A SHORT LIVED BOOM THE EASTERN PANIC
OF 1873 FAILURE OF THE BANK OF CALIFORNIA CAREER OF WILLIAM C. RAL-
STON RISE OF RALSTON FROM THE RANKS CAUSE OF THE FAILURE OF THE BANK
OF CALIFORNIA WILLIAM SHARON RALSTOn's ENTERPRISE AN EXHIBITION OF
FICKLENESS AND INGRATITUDE THE DEATH OF RALSTON VICTIM OF A BAD SYS-
TEM OF BANKING THE BANK CROWD AND FLOOD AND o'bRIEN REHABILITATION
OF BANK OF CALIFORNIA FLOOD AND o'bRIEN START THE NEVADA BANK THE
DESIRE TO GET RICH QUICKLY THE GREAT DIAMOND SWINDLE THE BITERS BIT
SPECULATION IMPEDED INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT MANUFACTURES IN 1876
labor's SERIOUS MISTAKE CROP FAILURE UNEMPLOYED FLOCK TO THE CITY
BEGINNING OF SERIOUS LABOR TROUBLES CONDITIONS ON EVE OF THE SAND LOT
DISTURBANCES 503
CHAPTER L
CONDITIONS ON EVE OF ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF 1879
CAUSES THAT LED TO "SAND LOt" DISTURBANCES EVIL OF SPECIAL LEGISLATION COR-
RUPTION AND WASTE THE NEW CITY HALL CITY TREASURY LOOTED STREETS
AND SIDEWALKS IN A DILAPIDATED STATE KEARNEy's DENUNCIATION OF OFFICIALS
THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE SAND LOTTERS BOSSISM IN THE SEVENTIES BOGUS
NON PARTISANISM THE FEDERAL RING THE SPECTACULAR CAREER OF GEORGE M.
PINNEY PINNEY BECOMES A BROKER AND A MILLIONAIRE BECOMES INVOLVED AND
FLEES THE COUNTRY HIS RETURN RESULTS IN OVERTHROW OF REPUBLICAN PARTY
THE DESTRUCTION OF SEVERAL BANKS BANK COMMISSION ACT OF 1878 ESTAB-
LISHMENT OF CLEARING HOUSE THE UNITED STATES MINT AND SUB-TREASURY
AVERSION FOR PAPER MONEY INTRODUCTION OF SAFE DEPOSIT VAULTS 515
xxiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER LI
THE SAND LOT TROUBLES AND THE NEW CONSTITUTION
STATE RIPE FOR REVOLT THE LONG AGITATION FOR A NEW CONSTITUTION THE LEG-
ISLATURE OF 1877-78 A LONG LIST OF GOOD MEASURES TO ITS CREDIT "pIECe"
CLUBS NUMEROUS REFORMS EFFECTED THE MAIL DOCK RIOT AND THE PICK HAN-
DLE BRIGADE THE FIRST POLITICAL MEETINGS OX THE SAND LOT THE WORKING-
MAN^S PARTY DENIS KEARNEY AS A LEADER KEARNEv's ATTAINMENTS HISTO-
RIAN BRYCE's BLUNDER THE MANIFESTO OF THE WORKINGMAN^S PARTY FIRST
W. P. C. TRIUMPH SIMILARITY OF WORKINGMEn's PLATFORM TO THAT OF 1912
PROGRESSIVES CaOCKER's SPITE FENCE KEARNEY SHOWS THE WHITE FEATHER
"work OR bread" A GAG LAW PASSED AN INADEQUATE POLICE FORCE THE
FIGHT FOR THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND ITS ADOPTION THE NEW ORGANIC LAW
NOT A SAND LOT PRODUCT REFORMS EFFECTED PROMINENT PART PLAYED BY
"chronicle" IN SECURING ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 529
CHAPTER LII
CONDITIONS AFTER THE ADOPTION OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION
PREDICTIONS OF DISASTER THE LAST BIG STOCK DEAL DEALING IN FUTURES PRO-
HIBITED NEW ORGANIC LAW IMPROPERLY DEALT WITH WORKINGMEN CUT LOOSE
FROM ALL ALLIES KALLOCH ELECTED MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO THE MURDER
OF CHARLES DE YOUNG THE ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH KALLOCH JUDGES OVERAWED
BY A "popular" DEMONSTRATION KALLOCh's ADMINISTRATION HELD UP AS AN
AWFUL EXAMPLE JUDGE MADE LAW RAILROAD TAXES SHIRKED RAILROAD PRO-
POSES GROSS INCOME TAX OF 21^ PER CENT REPEATED FAILURES TO ADOPT A CHAR-
TER BRYCE REVISES SOME PREVIOUSLY' EXPRESSED VIEWS HENRY GEORGE's SAN
FRANCISCO CAREER PREDICTIONS THAT CAME TO NAUGHT SAN FRANCISCo's BOSSES
CHRIS BUCKLEY PREPARING FOR LEADERSHIP THE BOSS REPAIRS THE FORTUNES
OF THE SHATTERED DEMOCRATIC PARTY 5-19
CHAPTER LIII
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE CITY
DEMAND FOR REFORM COMMUNICATION OPENED WITH ALL PARTS OF THE STATE
STREETS AND SIDEWALKS IN BAD CONDITION A GROWING SENTIMENT IN FAVOR OF
GOOD PAVEMENTS KEARNEY STREET WIDENED DUPONT STREET CHANGED TO GRANT
AVENUE OBJECTION TO EXTENDING FIRE LIMITS SUTRO's INVESTMENTS IN REAL
ESTATE JAMES LICK AND HIS BEQUESTS CITY HALL CONSTRUCTED ON THE IN-
STALLMENT PLAN GETTING RID OF THE SAND DUNES THE PALACE HOTEL OPENED
BALDWIN HOTEL CONGESTION IN DOWN TOWN DISTRICTS POPULATION SPREAD-
ING WESTWARD "south OF THE SLOt" DRIFTING AWAY FROM THE MISSION DIS-
TRICT CHANGES EFFECTED BY IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES INVENTION
OF THE CABLE TRACTION SYSTEM THE FIRST CABLE ROAD COAXING INVESTORS TO
CONTENTS XXV
BUILD STREET RAILWAYS STREET CAR FARES REDUCED TO FIVE CENTS GREAT DE-
MAND FOR STREET CAR FRANCHISES WHOLESALE GRANT OF FRANCHISES NOB HILL
MANSIONS ACTIVITY OF REAL ESTATE DEALERS RECLAMATION OF GOLDEN GATE
PARK MULTIPLICATION OF URBAN CONVENIENCES FIRST ELECTRIC LIGHT TELE-
PHONE INTRODUCED WATER SUPPLY RAILWAY AND SEA TRANSPORTATION.. . 565
CHAPTER LIV
SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND THE UNREST DURING THE SEVENTIES
THE CHINESE QUESTION FEDERAL COURTS AND CHINESE THE CHINESE EXCLUSION
ACT VOTE ON CHINESE EXCLUSION IN 1879 CHINESE SERVANTS SAN FRANCISCO
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS THE WINE DRINKING HABIT THE FREE LUNCH SAN
FRANCISCANS NOT GIVEN TO DISPLAY VULGAR OSTENTATION NOT COMMON RICH
MEN WITH SMALL ESTABLISHMENTS SOCIAL CHANGES ^DECLINING INFLUENCE OF
THE PIONEER CENTENARY OP FOUNDING OF THE MISSION SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
THE TRE.\TIXG HABIT MERCANTILE LIBR.1RY LOTTERY SALMI MORSe's PASSION
PLAY THE AUTHORS CARNIVAL A LAW ABIDING PEOPLE RECEPTION OF GENERAL
GRANT CELEBRATIONS AND PAGEANTS AMUSEMENT VOGUE OP OPERA BOUFFE
CHANGE IN TASTE OF THEATERGOERS SPORTS RACING ENCOURAGED EVIDENT
WANE OF NEGRO MINSTRELSY FIRST PRODUCTION OF "pINAFORe" IN AMERICA
PROBABLE ORIGIN OF MOVING PICTURE IDEA PRIZE FIGHTING BASEBALL WALKING
CONTESTS children's SPORTS NEARBY RESORTS GROWTH OF SUBURBS. .... 595
CHAPTER LV
VARIED ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE OF A GROWING CITY
san francisco police force improved a gang of bandits exterminated two
notorious criminal cases the delays of the law a twice dispoiled bank
fight for the protection of sailors the barbary coast the bar and
attempts at reform of criminal procedure colonel e. d. baker and other
noted lawyers of san francisco justice field of the supreme court
California's first chief justice — the railroad and the legal profession —
corporation lawyers in the constitutional convention journalistic in-
FLUENCE DURING THE PERIOD GEORGE K. FITCH AND THE "bULLETIN" THE "SAN
FRANCISCO chronicle"- THE "aRGONAUT" AND ITS FOUNDER BEGINNINGS OF
THE SUNDAY MAGAZINE IN DAILY PAPERS WELL KNOWN WRITERS ART IN THE
SEVENTIES AND EARLY EIGHTIES LIBRARIES CALIFORNIA'S FREE LIBRARY SYSTEM
— HENRY George's land theories and his gre.\t book — john f. swift's politi-
cal NOVEL JOAQUIN MILLER ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON's LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO
— Bancroft's pacific coast histories — mont eagle university — Stanford's
foundation educational public and private schools 619
CHAPTER LVI
TRANSPORTATION TROUBLES OF SAN FRANCISCO MERCHANTS
RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS CORRUPTED BY THE CORPORATION EFFORTS TO REGULATE
DEFE-VTED CORPORATION COMPELLED TO P.\Y ITS BACK TAXES THE FRESNO BATE
xxvi CONTENTS
CASE BUYING OFF SEA COMPETITORS MERCHANTS SHOW SIGNS OF REVOLTING
FORMATION OF TRAFFIC ASSOCIATION THE TRANSCONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
NORTH AMERICAN NAVIGATION COMPANY THE MOVEMENT TO BUILD A COMPETING
RAILROAD SUBSCRIPTIONS TO SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY RAILROAD TERMINAL FACILI-
TIES SECURED THE ROAD TURNED OVER TO THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE
THE PEOPLE BETRAYED PACIFIC COAST JOBBERS AND MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIA-
TION GROWTH OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC SYSTEM MONETARY TROUBLES OF 1893
BUSINESS DEPRESSION IN SAN FRANCISCO 649
CHAPTER LVII
MONETARY PECULIARITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO AND CALIFORNIA
THE USE OF GOLD COIN IN CALIFORNIA WHY THE STATE WAS ABLE TO MAINTAIN
SPECIE PAYMENTS AN EXCESS OP SUBSIDIARY SILVER CAUSES TROUBLE IN SAN
FRANCISCO THE VARIABLE "bIT" AND THE HOSTILITY TO THE 5-CENT NICKEL
THE TRADE DOLLAR EXPERIMENT IGNORANCE OF EFFECT OF SILVER DEMON-
ETIZATION IN SAN FRANCISCO THE TRADE DOLLAR REDEMPTION JOB FALL IN
SILVER PRICES INJURES MINING INDUSTRY CAPITAL AND RATES OF INTEREST
BANK CLEARINGS THE CRISIS OF 1893 AND THE SUBSEQUENT BUSINESS DEPRESSION
CALIFORNIA PRODUCERS SUFFER FROM FALLING PRICES SAN FRANCISCO VEGE-
TATES HAWAIIAN TRADE TEA MARKET SLIPS AWAY IMPORTANCE OF ALASKAN
TRADE CUTTING UP BIG RANCHES OPERATIONS OF MINT AND SUBTREASURY
OBSTACLES TO MANUFACTURING DEVELOPMENT AGRICULTURE IMMIGRATION. .663
CHAPTER LVIII
NUMEROUS AND SERIOUS LABOR TROUBLES IN THE CITY
LABOR CONDITIONS IN 1883 CHANGED RELATIONS OF EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED
DIMINISHING NUMBER OF CHINESE AN ANARCHISTIC ASSOCIATION THE INTER-
NATIONALS CAREER OF BURNETT G. HASKELL, SOCIALIST AND AGITATOR PROPA-
GANDA OF THE FEDERATED TRADES STRIKE OF FOUNDRY WORKERS IN 1885
STRIKE OF THE BREWERS SAILORS MAINTAIN A LONG STRIKE TRADES UNIONS
RECEIVE A SETBACK FORMATION OF AN EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION TRADES UNIONS
AGAIN ACTIVE UNSKILLED LABOR ORGANIZED UNIONS ENGAGE IN POLITICS
ENTER ABE RUEF NUMEROUS STRIKES IN 1901 THE TEAMSTERs' STRIKE THE
ALLIANCE AND THE TEAMSTERS POSITION OF THE EMPLOYERS SCENES OF VIO-
LENCE GOVERNOR GAGE INTERVENES RUEF AND THE WORKINGMEN FORMATION
OF WOHKINGMEn's PARTY PLATFORM OF WORKINGMEN ELECTION OF SCHMITZ
CLAIM THAT HE MADE CITY PROSPEROUS SCHMITZ REELECTED TWICE RUEF's
METHODS THE BOSS SUPERSEDED BY RUEF CHRIS BUCKLEY 681
CHAPTER LIX
SAN FRANCISCO MAKES MANY EXPERIMENTS IN MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT
REPEATED EFFORTS TO SECURE A NEW ORGANIC LAW THE CONSOLIDATION ACT FINALLY
DISCARDED A CONTINUOCS STRUGGLE FOR REFORM AUSTRALIAN BALLOT ADOPTED
CONTENTS
OLD TIME PRIMARY FARCES A GREATLY IMPROVED PRIMARY LAW THE BOSSES
AND THE STRATTON PRIMARY LAW IT MERELY RESULTS IN GIVING THE CITY A NEW
SET BOSSES PROFIT BY DIVISION OF THE RESPECTABLE ELEMENT THE RAILROAD
POLITICIANS AND BOSSES WERE NOT INNOVATORS SCANDALS ATTENDING ELECTION
OF LELAND STANFORD DOMINATION OF STATE AND MUNICIPAL POLITICS BY THE
RAILROAD INCREASED MUNICIPAL EXPENDITURES BUT FEW IMPROVEMENTS
CHANGES PRODUCED BY ADOPTION OF CHARTER OF 1898 NO ECONOMIES EFFECTED
A MORE EXPENSIVE FORM OF GOVERNMENT CITY SECURES LOCAL AUTONOMY
THE CITY BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION AND ITS ACTIVITIES
IT FURNISHES MANY VALUABLE OBJECT LESSONS DOLLAR LIMIT DEPARTED FROM
IMPROVEMENT CLUBS CIVIL SERVICE LAW COST OF CITY GOVERNMENT VOTING
MACHINES WOMAN SUFFRAGE DEFEATED IN 1896 THE INITIATIVE IN SAN FRAN-
CISCO OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC UTILITIES GEARY STREET ROAD TAXATION
CHARGES 701
CHAPTER LX
FREQUENT ALTERNATIONS OF ACTIVITY AND DEPRESSION
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY EFFECTIVE PROGRESS IN SPITE OF POLITICAL DRAWBACKS AD-
VERSITY AND PROSPERITY WELL BALANCED GRIEVANCES SOON FORGOTTEN
GREAT INCREASE IN SAVINGS BANKS DEPOSITS RESOURCES OF COMMERCIAL BANKS
ENLARGED ACTIVITY FOLLOWS SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR THE MIDWINTER FAIR
OF 1894 THE RAILROAD RIOTS OF 1894 TRANSMUTING CLIMATE INTO GOLD •
SAN FRANCISCO HARSHLY CRITICIZED THE KLONDIKE GOLD DISCOVERY AND THE
RUSH TO ALASKA A MILD REVIVAL OF MINING SPECULATION HYDRAULIC MINING
' STOPPED BY COURTS GOLD DREDGING EXPANSION OF GENERAL MINING INDUSTRY
AGRICULTURE RAPID URBAN DEVELOPMENT IMPEDIMENTS TO MANUFACTUR-
ING GROWTH FIGURES THAT DECEIVED TRADES UNION RESTRICTIONS MANUFAC-
TURES IN 1904 IMPORTANCE OF HARBOR RECOGNIZED HARBOR COMMISSION A
POLITICAL MACHINE CORRUPTION AND WASTE ON WATER FRONT CITIZENS'
COMMITTEE FORMULATE PLANS OF IMPROVEMENT IMPROVED SHIPPING FACILITIES
HAWAIIAN AND ALASKAN TRADE FAILURE OF A BIG WHEAT DEAL LUMBER
AND COAL TRADE THE OIL INDUSTRY DOMESTIC SHIPPING INDUSTRY THE
UNION IRON WORKS WAR SHIPS BUILT OTHER SHIPBUILDING CONCERNS 723
CHAPTER LXI
PEOPLE RISE SUPERIOR TO POLITICAL AND OTHER TROUBLES
INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS SCORES A TRIUMPH UNBUSINESSLIKE METHODS IN CONDUCT OF
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN PUBLIC OFFICIALS STREET IM-
PROVEMENT DUE TO INDIVIDUAL EFFORT LACK OF IMAGINATION SAN FRANCISCo's
FIRST STEEL FRAME STRUCTURE IMPROVEMENT IN BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE
FIREPROOF STRUCTURES BEFORE 1906 RESIDENCE ARCHITECTURE SITES THAT
AFFORD MARINE VIEWS GROW IN FAVOR APPRECIATIVE CRITICISM BY STRANGERS
— SAN Francisco's picturesque appearance — growth of the home instinct
xxviii CONTENTS
HEAL ESTATE AND REAL ESTATE DEALERS OPENING OF NEW DISTRICTS
"graft" and the tipping HABIT FRANCHISES NOT REGARDED AS VALUABLE
THE DOOR LOCKED AFTER THE STEED WAS STOLEN SCHEMES TO SHUT OUT COM-
PETITION CABLE SYSTEM ADOPTED ON MARKET STREET LINES AGITATION AGAINST
OVERHEAD TROLLEY UNITED RAILROADS TAKE OVER CHIEF CITY STREET CAR
LINES CONTROL EASILY SURRENDERED BY LOCAL CAPITALISTS MUNICIPAL EF-
FORTS AT BUILDING A STREET RAILWAY NO REAL OBSTACLE TO CREATION OF A
RIVAL STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM BURNHAM PLANS FOR A CITY BEAUTIFUL THE
PARKS WATER SUPPLY TELEGRAPHIC EXTENSION CABLE TO THE PHILIPPINES
FROM SAN FRANCISCO 749
CHAPTER LXII
VARIED PHASES OF LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO
THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION JAPANESE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS DOC-
TOR o'dONNELL AND THE CHINESE LEPERS CHINESE QUARTER A SORE SPOT THE
BUBONIC PLAGUE SCARE COMMISSION INVESTIGATES AND FINDS NO CAUSE FOR
ALARM HEALTH CONDITION GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD SETTLEMENT AND OTHER UP-
LIFT WORK THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES RISE OF WOMEN's CLUBS AND THEIR
ACTIVITIES SOCIAL CLUBS AND FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS AMUSEMENTS
SHIFTING OF AMUSEMENT CENTER THE LAST LAY OP THE MINSTRELS SUCCESSFUL
SEASONS OF GRAND OPERA RESTAURANTS AND NIGHT LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO
ORIGIN OF MOVING PICTURES NEWSPAPER SENDS OUT WEATHER WARNINGS SAN
FRANCISCO METEOROLOGY THE RACING GAME AND OTHER SPORTS THE BICYCLE
CRAZE AUTOMOBILES DISPLACE CARRIAGES EDUCATION FACILITIES PUBLIC AND
OTHER LIBRARIES JOURNALISM LITERATURE AND WRITERS EASTERN CRITI-
CISMS OF SAN FRANCISCO SHORTCOMINGS ABNORMAL FEATURES OF SOCIAL LIFE
CONTRACT MARRIAGES CELEBRATED CRIMINAL CASES CHINESE CRIMINALS
TECHNICALITIES AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 777
CHAPTER LXIII
THE GREAT DISASTER AND CONFLAGRATION OF APRIL, 1906
CONDITION OF THE CITY ON THE EVE OF THE EARTHQUAKE SAN FRANCISCO ON TOP
OF THE WAVE OF PROSPERITY THE WORKINGMEN's PARTY AND BOSS RUEF IN
POWER COMMERCE AND MORALS MIXED BUILDINGS BEFORE THE FIRE OPPOSI-
TION TO EXTENSION OF FIRE LIMITS LAST PERFORMANCE IN THE GRAND OPERA
HOUSE NO WARNING OF IMPENDING DANGER EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE
THE THREE DAYS' CONFLAGRATION MUCH PROPERTY UNNECESSARILY SACRIFICED
EXPLOSIVES TIMIDLY AND UNSKILFULLY ITSED ORGANIZATION OF CITIZENS COM-
MITTEE OF FIFTY CIRCULATION OF WILD RUMORS COMPOSITION OF THE COM-
MITTEE OF FIFTY RIGID PRECAUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE MILITARY FOOD IN GREAT
DEMAND RELIEF POURS IN FROM ALL POINTS THE UPLIFT WORK OF THE DAILY
PRESS FILLMORE STREET BECOMES CENTER OF ACTIVITY REJOICING OVER RE-
SUMPTION OF STREET CAR TRAVEL OVERHEAD TROLLEY PERMIT FOR MARKET
CONTENTS xxix
STREET GRANTED CHIMNEY INSPECTION AREA OF THE BURXED DISTRICT NO-
TABLE ESCAPES FROM THE FLAMES INVESTIGATION BY UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL
SURVEY BUILDING TO GUARD AGAINST TREMORS FAILURE OF WATER SUPPLY THE
EXODUS FROM THE CITY RELIEF WORK OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC 819
CHAPTER LXIV
PROMPT INAUGURATION OF THE WORK OF REHABILITATION
FIRST SPECK OF THE GRAFT TROUBLES SCHMITZ AS THE PRESIDING OFFICER OF THE
citizens' committee ORDER PRESERVED WITHOUT DIFFICULTY MARTIAL LAW
NOT IN FORCE A SUMMARY EXECUTION GOOD SENSE DISPLAYED BY THE PEOPLE
WORK OF THE BELIEF COMMITTEE EFFORTS TO RESUME TRADING NEW
BUSINESS CENTERS CREATED RAPID GROWTH OF BUSINESS ON FILLMORE STREET
—NEW SHOPPING DISTRICTS VAN NESS AVENUE DEVOTED TO SHOPS HASTILY
CONSTRUCTED BUILDINGS WAGES AND BUILDING MATERIALS HIGH A SCENE OF
HOPELESS CONFUSION MAKING THE STREETS PASSABLE STREETS DESTROYED BY
THE FIRE BACK TO OLD BUSINESS CENTER DOWN TOWN PLANS OF BEAUTIFICA-
TION DEFERRED ACTIVE WORK BY UNITED RAILROADS FITS OF PESSIMISM EX-
HIBITIONS OF RIVALRY FORTUNATE ESCAPE OF WATER FRONT PROPERTY
AMOUNT OF INSURANCE RECEIVED BRISK BUSINESS REFUGEE CAMPS FINANCIAL
EXPEDIENTS ROBBER BAND RESUMES ITS SWAY 857
CHAPTER LXV
GRAFT PROSECUTIONS AND OTHER TROUBLES AFTER THE FIRE
CHIMNEY INSPECTORS REAP A HARVEST EXACTIONS OF LABOR DETER INVESTMENTS
A REIGN OF TERROR THE "OAS PIPe" THUGS AND THEIR CRIMES JAPANESE IN
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ROOSEVELT MENACES THE CITY ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE
ON THE SUBJECT OF JAPANESE IX THE SCHOOLS GARMENTS STRIKE OF 1902
TROUBLE RAISED BY THE CARMEN IN 1906 ATTITUDE OF PUBLIC TOWARD PAT-
HICK CALHOUN carmen's TROUBLES ARBITRATED STRIKE RENEWED IN 1907
AND MUCH VIOLENCE A DIVIDED COMMUNITY RUEF AND HIS UNSAVORY CREW
EXPOSURE OF SUPERVISORS BY DETECTIVE BURNS INDICTMENTS BY THE HUNDRED
POLICY AND METHODS OF THE GRAFT PROSECUTION PLENTY OF PRECEDENTS FOR
GRAFT RUEF IN THE ROLE OF ATTORNEY THE SHARING OF THE LOOT EXPLA-
NATION MADE BY CALHOUN ISSUES OF THE PROSECUTION GREATLY CONFUSED
FLUCTUATIONS OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT MAKEUP OF THE PROSECUTION SUSPICION
THAT STRIKE OF 1907 WAS INCITED RULING THE CITY BY THE GOOD DOG METHOD
SHOOTING OF HENEY AND SUICIDE OF HIS ASSAILANT SUICIDE OF CHIEF OF
POLICE BIGGY BOMB EXPLODED IN GALLAGHER HOUSE RUEF THE ONLY ONE OF
THE GRAFTERS CONVICTED CASES DISMISSED ANOTHER TURN OF WHEEL OF POL-
ITICS AND A WORKINGMAN ELECTED MAYOR 873
XXX CONTENTS
CHAPTER LXVI
THE SUMMING UP OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS AFTER THE FIRE
no interruptions of the progress of the city the people make history
greater san francisco movement a free market experiment fails san
Francisco's oriental population — redistribution of the population — titles
NOT disturbed APARTMENT HOUSES MULTIPLY CHANGES ON NOB HILL SOCIAL
CLUBS REHOUSED HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS IN INCREASED NUMBERS CHANGES
IN CAFE LIFE THE SAN FRANCISCO ATMOSPHERE THE OLD AND THE NEW VAN NESS
AVENUE THE NEW SHOPPING DISTRICTS RETURN TO THE OLD AMUSEMENT CEN-
TER AMUSEMENTS AFTER THE FIRE TETRAZZINl's OPEN AIR CONCERT VISIT OF
BATTLESHIP FLEET THE PORTOLA FESTIVAL NEW YEAR's EVE IN SAN FRANCISCO
CONDITION OF STREETS A NEW CITY HALL AND A CIVIC CENTER ABOLITION OF
CEMETERIES THE STREET RAILWAY SITUATION WATER SUPPLY BONDED IN-
DEBTEDNESS THE city's growing BUDGET IMPBOVED STEAM RAILWAY FACILI-
TIES THE PANAMA PACIFIC EXPOSITION HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS GROWTH OF
COMMERCE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES MONEY EXPENDED FOR FIRE PRECAU-
TION AND PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS POPULATION GREATER THAN BEFORE THE
FIRE BRILLIANT FUTURE PREDICTED FOR PACIFIC COAST METROPOLIS 897
THE ANTE MISSION PERIOD
1513-1776
SAN FRANCISCO
CHAPTER I
THE SPANISH HUNT FOR A SHORT CUT TO THE INDIES
BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC THE SETTLEMENT OF PANAMA SEEKING A SAFE HARBOR
SPANISH TREASURE FLEETS SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND HIS PURSUITS THE SEARCH
FOR ANIAN SETTLEMENT OF CALIFORNIA ORDERED THE HARBOR OF MONTEREY
SPANISH NEGLIGENCE OF OPPORTUNITIES A HUNT FOR ISLANDS OF GOLD REVIVAL
OF INTEREST IN THE SHORT CUT.
HE history of San Francisco begins with the adventuresome
march of Balboa across the Isthmus of Darien in the year
1513. It might even be maintained with some show of
plausibility that it began when Columbus made his con-
vincing exposition of the spheroidical character of the
earth before Ferdinand and Isabella, for the object of
that demonstration had as its underlying motive the dis-
covery of a new route to the Indies, a quest which started in 1492 and never ceased
until accumulating evidence in the piling up of which the Bay of San Francisco
and what we know as California, figures largely, proved that there was no short cut.
It is not probable that Balboa when he first caught a glimpse of the Pacific
realized the full significance of his discovery, but it is evident from the prompti-
tude with which plans were formed for cutting through the narrow neck of land
separating North and South America that he, and those with him, comprehended
that with the possibility of sailing into the new ocean would disappear the obstacle
which stood in the way of accomplishing the desire of shortening the route to the
riches of the Orient.
Panama was settled in 1517 and in that year a Spanish engineer named Saavedra,
one of the followers of Balboa, mooted the project of a canal. He studied the
subject many years, but in 1529, when his plans were nearly completed he died.
Charles V became interested and ordered surveys, but the work was pronounced
impracticable. His son, Philip II, subsequently gave the matter attention, sub-
mitting it to the consideration of the Dominican friars who found in the scriptural
injunction, "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," and in his
indisposition to exert himself, sufficient excuse for neglecting the recommendations
of engineers and practical men.
But while the Spanish crown refused to anticipate the accomplishment of what
is to be the great achievement of the twentieth century there was no abatement of
the desire to explore the unknown ocean. On the 28th of November, 1520, Ferdinand
3
Settlement
of Panama
in 1517
Straits of
Magellan
Discovered
SAN FRANCISCO
Discovery
otthe
Philippines
Wreck of
tlie St.
Augnstln
Spanish
Treasure
Fleets
Magellan, who had bargained with Charles V to find for Spain a western passage
to the Moluccas, sailed into the Pacific having passed through the strait which
bears his name. The story of his adventuresome voyage is a familiar one, but the
fact that his discovery of the Philippines was intimately associated with the Bay
of San Francisco and resulted in its subsequent location is rarely dwelt upon by
writers.
The Philippines were discovered in 1521. Magellan and a number of his men
were killed by the natives. Some of the survivors escaped and made their way
to the Moluccas where they loaded one of their vessels with spices and set sail for
Panama. But that port was never reached by the "Victoria." Instead she rounded
the Cape of Good Hope, being the first vessel to circumnavigate the globe. Forty-
four years later the Spaniards effected a settlement in the islands and from that
time onward one of the chief objects of the navigators in the service of the King
of Spain was the discovery of a safe port on the west coast of North America
wliich would break the passage between the Philippines and Panama which by this
time had become the half-way house for the voyagers between the distant spice
isles of the Orient and the Pacific coast countries to the south of the isthmus.
On the Slst of May, 1591, Luis de Velasco, the viceroy, wrote to Philip II,
that the numerous disasters to the ships sailing between the Philippines and Mexico
and Panama made it imperative to discover a safe harbor. The king ordered a
survey to be made which was undertaken by Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno, a
Portuguese and an experienced navigator. The result of this exploration was
disastrous. The "St. Augustin," the vessel sailed by Cermeno, after a visit to
the Philippines set sail on July 5, 1595, from the port of Cavite and sighted New
Spain at Cape Mendocino on the 4th of November. The diary of Cermeno which
gives this information states that the "St. Augustin" subsequently entered a large
bay in which the vessel was wrecked.
The description of Cermeno makes it apparent that the wreck occurred in
the bay that had previously been entered by Drake, and that the Portuguese had
already found the Bay of Monterey, which he named San Pedro. He described
it as being fifteen leagues from point to point and in latitude 37° north, while the
locality in which the wreck of the "St. Augustin" occurred is fixed by the statement
that the islets in the mouth were in 38° 30', and that the distance between the two
points forming it was about twenty-five leagues.
The wreck of the "St. Augustin" occurred on the morning of December 8,
1595. It was not attended with great loss of life, only two perishing. The sur-
vivors managed to reach La Navidad, and later Mexico City. For many years there
was a fiction based on the story of one Miguel Constanse that the partly had made
its way overland to Zacatecas, but recent researches of Richman establish that the
journey was never made, but that the men, some seventy in all, had reached the
port above mentioned in a small open vessel propelled by square sails and sweeps.
The Spaniards had as early as 1556 a fleet of fourteen vessels devoted to the
carriage of treasure and the transportation of supplies to the subjects of Spain
established on the west coast of America. In 1564 Legazpi was commissioned by
Luis de Velasco to subdue the Philippines and he accomplished his task, founding
Manila in 1571. The purpose was to build up a trade with ^Mexico, but the islands
did not contribute greatly to that result. But a tolerably brisk intercourse between
SAN FRANCISCO
Molucca, Siam and China was brought about, the products of those countries being
shipped in considerable quantity to New Spain.
The length of the passage was surprisingly great, many voyages consuming
over two hundred days. It was the practice of the navigators to make their course
from the Philippines to Cape Mendocino, after sighting which the coast was skirted
to Cape San Lucas and Acapulco. It was to lessen the hazard of this long voyage
by establishing a station between Mendocino and Mexico and Panama that such
earnest efforts were made to find a safe anchorage as near to the former as prac-
ticable. There appeared to be no particular desire to explore with the view of
effecting settlements. To the contrary there was something like a conviction that
the region was uninviting, its chief drawback being its assumed inhospitable climate,
the fogs of the coast having created the impression that the country was cold and
desolate.
But while the Spaniard regarded California territory as a negligible quantity
for purposes of development he was keenly alive to the usefulness of a port of
call which would serve as a station whose function it would be to facilitate the
trade intercourse established with the Orient. And to his perseverance in the
search for the desired harbor, which finally culminated in the discovery of the
Bay of San Francisco, may be traced all the causes which contributed to that long
repose of two and a half centuries during which perhaps the most fertile region
of the globe was withheld from development.
It may be idle but it is interesting to speculate on what might have happened,
if Sir Francis Drake, who appeared on the scene about the time that the Spanish
were so intent on making secure their intercourse with the Orient by navigating
the ocean to which Magellan gave the name Pacific, had been animated by other
motives than those of the bucaneer and the chaser of the will-o'-wisp of Anian.
Had Drake when he effected a landing on the shores of the bay which bears his
name, like the Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock, been a refugee from
religious intolerance, and a searcher for a home, he would not have hastily decided
that the country was too cold, a singular opinion to take possession of a man in
search of a northwest passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It is not surprising
that his search was so easily abandoned, and that so little came of his naming his
discovery New Albion. Sir Francis was a good fighter, but a poor explorer. He
had the qualities that go to make up the successful pirate, but was deficient in
those calculated to reflect luster upon the country under whose flag he sailed, and
absolutely none that confer real distinction.
Drake sailed through Magellan straits in 1578-9 and up the Pacific coast,
accumulating in the hold of his ship, the "Golden Hind," a store of silver bars
"the bigness of a brick bat eche," according to the chronicler of his adventures,
and reached the comparatively sheltered body of water near the entrance to the
harbor of San Francisco, which he passed without discerning its existence. When
he abandoned his search for Anian, deterred by the cold, he simply effected a landing
to make repairs, and concerned himself no further about his accomplishment.
The appearance of Drake in the North Pacific made the Spanish very uneasy.
Although Drake was a buccaneer pure and simple, the kinsman of a piratical slaver
who had made himself equally obnoxious, they suspected that his motives might
be the same as their own. Maritime activity was very pronounced in England, and
the desire to find a short cut to the Indies had taken possession of many minds and
CaUfornla
ciated
Drake's
SDCcessfnl
Piracies
Spanish
Suspicion
of Drake's
Objects
SAN FRANCISCO
it was naturally the subject of much discussion of a kind calculated to alarm the
nation hugging the delusion that it could monopolize not alone the territory of
the new world, but of the routes of communication. When Sir Francis sailed away
from the coast, and after rounding the Cape of Good Hope reached Portsmouth
with the news of his exploits there was no abatement of Spanish anxiety.
There was a renewal of the inquiry that had been made some years earlier
when England threatened to become a rival. A memorial was presented to Philip
II, which set forth in strong terms the danger to Spanish supremacy if the English
or French heretics should find the strait which would enable them to enter the
Pacific by sailing from Labrador. So fearsome of the consequences were some
of the advisers of the Spanish king they recommended to him the conquest of
China, probably assuming that possession of that country would remove the incen-
tive to continued search for the mythical passage.
Philip was not enterprising enough to act on so bold a suggestion and he died
in 1598 having done little to forward the ambitious projects of those of his subjects
who sought to extend Spanish dominion in the new country. His successor, Philip
III, displayed more active qualities. Shortly after his accession he found a memorial
from Sebastian Vizcaino, who some years earlier had received a pearl fishing con-
cession which had not proved very profitable, asking further favors from Philip
II, and proposing to make a voyage of exploration with the view of taking possession
of the coast of the Californias for the king. This proposal had received the indorse-
ment of the Comde de Monterey, who had reminded Philip that since the wreck
of the "St. Augustin" the exploration of the coast in connection with the object of
establishing a station for the vessels in the Philippine trade had ceased.
The examination of the document resulted in a cedula to the Comde de Mon-
terey to undertake a discovery and settlement in California, and Vizcaino was
commissioned to carry out his proposal. He sailed with four vessels from Acapulco
on the 5th of May, 1602, encountering much stormy weather, landing November
10th in the harbor previously entered by Cabrillo which he named San Diego in
honor of his flagship. Ten days later Vizcaino sailed from San Diego, and on
December 16th he cast anchor in a harbor to which he gave the name of the
Viceroy Monterey. On January 3d he continued his voyage northward reaching
what is known as Drake's bay, which he called Puerto de los Reyes, finally attain-
ing Mendocino from which he retreated, like Drake, deterred by the cold fogs of
the coast from further investigation.
The net result of Vizcaino's voyage of exploration was the establishment of the
fact that there were at least two suitable harbors on the coast of California, San
Diego and Monterey. The latter had in all probability been discovered by Pedro
de Unamuna, a navigator of Macao, who on his return from an exploring expedi-
tion in 1587 had reported finding a bay the description of which matched that of
Monterey, but he never received credit for his discovery.
That Vizcaino, Drake, Cermeiio and Unamuna should have all passed the entrance
to the harbor of San Francisco without detecting it may seem singular to all but
those who have sailed by the opening which even with the landmarks made familiar
to mariners by the study of charts and observation, is not obtrusively noticeable.
The configuration of the coast is such that the Golden Gate may be easily over-
looked even by those searching for it. Only a survey of the sort not common in
the sixteenth century would disclose it to those unaware of its existence. It is not
SAN FRANCISCO
strange therefore, despite the persistent search for a good harbor by navigators
of undoubted courage, enterprise and some skill in their calling, that it should
have been reserved for a land expedition to make the important discovery.
The pressing object of the assiduous search for a safe port seems to have been
lost sight of soon after Monterey was discovered. The political relations of Spain
and England after the opening of the seventeenth century apparently removed the
stimulus which moved the Spanish to exert themselves commercially and otherwise.
There was something like a complete allayment of the proverbial distrust of the
Dons, and from 1600 to 1700 there was not more than a single yearly visit to the
coast of Alta California, and that took the form of sighting Mendocino by the
galleon from the Philippines, which after having ascertained its bearings felt its
way southward to the Mexican port of Acapulco.
Thus it came to pass that the knowledge of the existence of the harbor of
Monterey in the course of time became little more than a tradition scarcely kept
alive by the cartographers whose imagination often outran their information. But
the lively belief in Anian endured, and enterprising sailors still dreamed of finding
the passage. Towards the close of the seventeenth century there was a decided
revival of interest, the paramount desire being to find a route which would be
shorter than that around Cape Horn, and perhaps divested of some of the perils
that beset the navigator in rounding the southern extremity of the continent.
With the revival of the Anian fever there was a renewal and strengthening of
the conviction that the region known as California was an island, a belief that was
not discarded until explorations to the Colorado river in 1701, 1702 and 1706 by
the Jesuit missionary, Eusabio Francisco Kino, disposed of the fiction. It can
hardly be said that Kino's discoveries were the final word, for the subsequent
explorations of the land expedition which started from the Gila toward the close
of the eighteenth century were required to remove all doubt.
The chief interest attaching to the search for the short route which occupied
so much of the thought and time of the people of the centuries immediately follow-
ing the discovery of America, so far as California, and particularly San Francisco
are concerned centers in the remarkable attitude of the western world toward enter-
prise. The form it took was suggestive of that which governed during the crusades.
There was an abundance of courage, and there was a not inconsiderable exercise
of the faculties which help the solution of great problems. But there was a note-
worthy absence of that highest form of initiative which devotes itself to the develop-
ment of resources.
The names of those writ largest in the history of the period are of men who
were ready to devote their energies and lives, not to the creation of wealth, but
to acquisition of riches already created. This spirit permeates all the accounts of
the fruitless search for Anian. It begins with the temptation which caused Fer-
dinand and Isabella to succumb to the arguments of Columbus that great wealth
could be secured from the Indies where it had already been accumulated if a
short route could be found which would serve as a siphon to draw off the accumula-
tions.
When the new world was discovered this attitude was but slightly changed.
The opportunities presented by regions of illimitable fertility for profitable de-
velopment, while not absolutely disregarded, were subordinated to the overween-
ing desire to get rich, not by exertion, but by securing the fruits of the exertions of
Spaniards
Neeligent
Revived
Interest in
Short Cut
8 SAN FRANCISCO
others. As a result we are called upon to note the persistence of the lure of the
short cut, and the credulous acceptance of tales of isles of gold, and lands abound-
ing in those things which contribute to the gratification of the love of ornamentation.
Islands of As early as 15-13 there was a belief prevalent that there were islands of gold
*'°''* and silver somewhere in the North Pacific. These mythical isles at first known as
"The Isles of the Armenian" were so firmly believed in that Pedro de Unamunu
was sent to search for them in 1586. The stories concerning their existence prob-
ably had their origin in Japanese folk lore, but the credulous and eager Spaniard
found nothing improbable in them, for the land in which they originated was rich
in the things he coveted and what more natural than to associate beautiful objects
with the abundance of the precious metals.
Crude They were crude economic ideas, characteristic of the times, and those imbued
Economic ^^j]j tijem were ^not responsible for their existence. They were an inheritance
from centuries of teachings that man's gainful instincts menaced his opportunities
to enter into a future life of happiness, the result of which was to retard useful
production, without, however, blunting his acquisitive desires. They were a sur-
vival from the darkest days of the middle ages, and their persistence explains the
failure of the Spaniard to appreciate and make proper use of the resources at his
command during the three centuries in which he had practical control over a region
now recognized as the most productive on the globe. And the same explanation
applies to the utter disregard of the advantages possessed by them in their posi-
tion on the Bay of San Francisco for seventy years without in the slightest degree
improving its facilities, which were no greater when they were replaced by a more
virile people than when Mission Dolores was first established in 1776.
CHAPTER II
SPAIN'S PURPOSE IN OCCUPYING CALIFORNIA
HALF WAY HOUSE FOR SHIPS IN THE PHILIPPINE THADE THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
OVERLOOKED RUSSIA COVETED CALIFORNIA EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY ZEAL THE
BELIEF IN THE INSULARITY OF CALIFORNIA INVESTIGATIONS OF FATHER KINO
SPANISH PROJECTS SLUMBER THE FRANCISCAN ORDER EXPULSION OF JESUITS
FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA SEARCHING FOR MONTEREY PORTOLa's DISAPPOINT-
MENT DISCOVERY OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY.
APTAIN COOK, the discoverer of the Sandwich islands,
in his narrative threw out the suggestion that if they had
been discovered at an earlier period by the Spaniards
they would doubtless have availed themselves of so ex-
cellent a station, and would have made use of Atooi or
some other island of the group as a place of refreshment
for the ships that sailed annually between Acapulco and
Manila. He noted that "they lie almost midway between the last mentioned place
and Guam, which is at present (1777) their only port in traversing this vast ocean,
and it would not have been a j week's sail out of their ordinary route to have touched
at them."
It is perhaps idle to speculate on what might have occurred had the Spanish
hit upon the islands. The possibility, however, is suggested of a complete change
of the course of history, for despite the neglect during the seventeenth century
of the matter of securing a desirable station on the coast of California it was not
wholly lost sight of by the authorities, and to a large extent it engrossed the minds
of inissionaries who were working for the salvation of the Indians of Northern
Mexico, and those of the regions we now know as New Mexico and Arizona.
Their zeal did not hinder them from recognizing that their cause would be advanced
by linking it with commercial affairs, and they exhibited a more intelligent ap-
preciation of the material advantages which would flow from the possession of a
safe port than the inefficient and almost supine representatives of the crown.
It does no violence to the probability that the utilization of the Sandwich
islands in the manner described by Cook would have indefinitely postponed the
search for a harbor which resulted in the discovery of San Francisco. The activities
of the Franciscans and Cook were nearly concurrent with those of the Russians.
They were established in the regions north of California, and as early as 1788
we find a statement that they imported Chinese artisans, "because of their reputed
hardiness, industry and ingenuity, simple manner of life and low wages," and they
Missionary
Worii in
Arizona and
New Mexico
10
SAN FRANCISCO
Spain
Relinqnlshes
Territory
Effects of
Missionary
Zeal
had well defined ideas of the desirability of developing the country to the south
whose agricultural capacities appealed strongly to their enterprise.
The facility with which the Spaniard abandoned his hold on the region lying
north of San Francisco under British pressure indicates what might have happened
had not the land expedition of Portola pushed north and established a settlement
on the Bay of San Francisco. The steady eastward encroachment of the Russians,
which led them across the vast deserts and through the gloomy forests of Siberia,
defying its rigorous climate, and making light of the obstacles interposed by its
mighty rivers until the shores of the Pacific were reached, compels us to believe
that once well established on the American continent their march southward would
have been irresistible had no political obstacles interposed.
The latter must have been greatly minimized if San Francisco harbor had not
been discovered. The recent researches of the delvers i,among the musty archives
of Russia disclose that the thought of the acquisition of California was still in
the mind of the czar's advisers years after the missionaries had created their
establishments. That they would have pushed their opportunities at an earlier
period if Spain's indifference had been accentuated by the possession of an ideal
station in the Pacific is hardly debatable. What sort of a civilization would have
followed as the result of their occupation can only be conjectured. That it would
have been more effective materially than that of the Spanish is suggested by the
fact that Russians were able to comprehend possibilities of whose existence the
Spaniard did not dream.
But the Sandwich islands were not found bj' the Don, and, although the urgency
for a station to serve the Manila trade was no longer so great a new promoter of
desire had arisen. Zeal for the redemption of the Indian accomplished that which
the navigator failed to achieve. This movement was by no means wholly dis-
sociated from material considerations, but it was as nearly unselfish as any project
devised by mortal man. On those points where the secular side was touched it is
plainly apparent that nothing more than recognition of the necessity of cooperation
governed.
As early as 1687 the Mission Nuestra Senora de las Dolores was founded by
Father Kino about 120 miles south of the present Tucson. In 1690 Juan Maria
de Salvatierra, who was sent to Sonora as visitador, called at Father Kino's mission
and talked with him about "suspended California," and suggested that its fertile
valleys might be made sufficiently productive to | offset the barrenness of northern
Mexico, and thus equalize conditions.
At this time Salvatierra and Kino were both under the impression that Cali-
fornia was an island, but subsequently while on a visit to the Mission San Xavier
del Bac Kino told the Indians how the Spaniards had come over the sea from a
distant land to Vera Cruz, and perhaps received some intimation of the untrust-
worthiness of the belief in the insular theory. In 1693 he pushed further into
Arizona visiting the Sabos. Journeying about eight leagues from their land he
saw from an eminence what he reckoned to .be at least twenty-five continuous
leagues of the land of California. In 1694 he again visited the shores of the sea
of California, and had his doubts finally resolved.
Kino was now bent upon the project of extending the missions into California
and visited the City of Mexico to secure assistance. But his requests were not
favorably regarded, there being no fervor for missionary work at that moment.
SAN FRANCISCO
11
Father Kino
Reaches the
Colorado
but in the ensuing year the new viceroy, the Comde de Montezuma, was inclined
to lend ear to Kino's request and on February 5, 1697, he issued a license author-
izing Kino and Salvatierra to undertake the reduction of the Californias, stipu-
lating, however, that the work should be at their own expense and that if the
reduction be effected it be in the name of the king.
In 1700 Kino descended the Gila to its junction with the Colorado, arriving
there on the 7th of October. This achievement practically settled the doubts re-
specting the peninsular character of Lower California, but to silence all criticism
Kino resolved to start an expedition which would leave Las Dolores and reach
Loretto by land. It appears, however, that Salvatierra's faith in the insular be-
lief still survived, for he wrote Kino that the rejoicings at Loretto were much
greater "than he had means and desires to examine at close range what on distant
view might be misleading."
To Kino the solution of the problem meant much. He, apparently, was pro- Father Kino'i
foundly convinced that California was a land of wondrous promise, and that its ^"*
penetration would not merely result in the removal of pernicious errors and false-
hoods concerning a crowned king, carried on a litter of gold, of a walled city with
towns, and the destruction of the whole tissue of falsehoods which had been ^woven
about the Anian idea, but that it would teach that the true way from Japan was
by Cape Mendocino and whence might be brought to Sonora the goods of the very
rich galleons from the Philippines. Salvatierra was less enthusiastic about the
matter. The determination of peninsularity promised a safe means of moving
supplies between the missions already established and he was satisfied to let it
go at that.
Father Kino died among the Pimas in 1711 without having penetrated the
promised land, and in 1717 Salvatierra was also laid at rest. With their deaths
the project of the extension of Spanish dominion northward slumbered until 1747
when a royal cedula sanctioned the reduction of the Californias on the exact plan
of Kino, the main feature of which was the entrance of the land above the head
of the Gulf of California by way of the desert of Arizona. Even at that late
date the idea of Anian had not wholly disappeared, for Michael Venegas in some
notes on California printed in (1757 is still found asking whether there was not
a chance that a strait might be discovered by some Englishman. He also ex-
pressed apprehension of Russian designs and indorsed Kino's conception that the
integrity of Spanish rule in America demanded that "the missions must be joined
to the rest of New Mexico and extended from the latter beyond the rivers Gila
and Colorado to the furtherest known coasts of California and the South Sea, to
Puerto de San Diego, Puerto de Monterey, the Sierra Nevadas, Cape Mendocino,
Cape Blanco or San Sebastian and to the river discovered by Aquillar in 43°
nortli latitude."
It was reserved for the Franciscan order of missionary friars to carry out the
conception of Kino. The order had been established in Mexico since 1524, when
its advance guard of twelve sandal shod and wide sackcloth gowned brethren
presented themselves to Cortez and were graciously received by him. In 1761
the inspector general of the order, Jose de Galvez, was sent to the province, and
at the same time Charles Francisco de Croix went as viceroy. Shortly after their
arrival they united in a dispatch to the king in which the desirability of having
Galvez visiting the Californias for the purpose of establishing in them pueblos, and
Spanish
Projects
Slumber
12
SAN FRANCISCO
Jesuits
Expelled
by Portola
Galvez
Projects
Settlements
Father
Junipero
to regulate their government, was urged on the ground that the remoteness of the
peninsula from Sonora made it necessary to have a nearer source of supplies.
When Galvez reached Lower California he foimd the religious part of the
establishment in charge of |Serra and his Franciscans, while the temporalties
were administered by Gasper de Portola, whose duty it had become on the 17th of
December, 1767, to expel the Jesuits who had formerly been established there.
The condition of affairs reflected discredit on the management of the secular arm.
The licentious soldiery had spread disease among the natives, and the population,
which had once numbered 12,000 souls, had dwindled to a few more than 7,000.
Galvez sought to apply a remedy by restoring the temporalties to the Franciscans
and a return to the system of the mission. By these means he hoped to wean the
Indians from their nomadic habits and induce them to live in the pueblos.
Galvez's project embraced the idea of effecting settlements, but the difficulties
attending the colonization of Spaniards were numerous. He sought to overcome
them by offering crown lands and military rights. Perhaps his plans of native
redemption could not have made progress without a resort to such concessions, but
they afterward proved a source of trouble and did much to destroy the efforts of
the padres to make good Christians of the Indians. It was through the offers of
this kind made in August, 1768, that he was able to gather the necessary party
to form the expedition to Monterey conceived by him, which received the prompt
approval of the Viceroy de Croix, and which was enthusiastically embraced by
Father Junipero Serra, who was made president of the California missions.
Father Serra is the most notable figure in the early history of California, and
his character merits attentive study. He was a man of great piety, a firm believer
in miracles and a wielder of the penitential scourge. He possessed in a preeminent
degree all those qualities which are attributed to those who receive the honor of
canonization from the Catholic church, but he was by no means deficient in shrewd-
ness or practical ability. Had he been born in another age or had he been able
to shake off the trammels of the ; medieval system, he might have succeeded in
the task he set for himself of lifting up the wretched natives of the soil. The
union of a pure mind and ability might under other circiunstances have accom-
plished an aim which utterly failed because submerged by an idea which completely
subordinated the only instinct which has ever contributed greatly to elevating a
race in the scale of civilization.
In 1768 Galvez de Croix and Serra met to discuss the method of attaining
their object of reaching Monterey. The details of two expeditions were gone over —
one by land and the other by sea. The latter, like most of the preceding maritime
explorations having for their object the establishment of a station in Alta Cali-
fornia, had an unfortunate experience. The vessels stored with suppUes for the
voyage and articles that would be needed in the new ports which were to be
converted into missions sailed from La Paz on the 8th of January, 1769, Galvez
accompanying the party as far as Cape San Lucas where he bade farewell. The
little fleet did not reach San Diego until the following July, although the good
padre had reported that its sailing qualities were admirable, one of the craft ac-
tually making six knots an hour in a moderate breeze.
The plans of the expedition were completely disarranged by the appearance
of scurvy on the ships, and it was recognized that if the purpose of occupying
Monterey was to be realized it must be reached by land as the crews were no
SAN FRANCISCO
13
longer in condition to manipulate their craft. A party of 67 was formed which
started from San Diego on the 14.th of ,July leaving behind at that place, Serra,
Vila, Vizcaino, some artisans and a number of sailors mostly ill. The work of
establishing a mission was at once inaugurated by (^Serra, who laid the foundations
of that of San Diego, the oldest in Alta California, on the 16th of July. The
records show that the activities of the good padre were called into play at once,
for the natives surrounding the new port who were under the influence of the
warlike Yumas soon became troublesome, and on the 15th of August made an
attack on the little establishment in which three of their number and a Spaniard
were killed and Father Vizcaino was disabled by an arrow which pierced his hand.
The party which started overland was provided with notes of the results of
the former explorations, but depended principally upon a reprint of a manual
which placed the port of Monterey in 37° north latitude, and gave suggestions for
finding it which would prove more valuable to an expedition approaching from
the sea than to one seeking it by a land route. But as the explorers kept the ocean
in sight it was inevitable that perseverance should reveal the object of their search.
The itinerary of the party shows that it made its way past San Clementa ; that the
Catalina Islands were kept in sight and that Los Angeles was traversed. The San
Fernando valley was passed through to the headwaters of the Santa Clara, and
from thence the river valley was followed to the sea. Point Conception wa-i
touched, and from that the explorers made their way to the head of the Santa
Barbara channel. Leaving San Luis Obispo they kept along the coast until the
Sierra barred their way. They crossed the mountain and penetrated the Salinas
valley which they pursued to the sea, following the shore of which they at length
attained Point Pinos which their records told them was the determining landmark
of Monterey harbor.
But viewed from that side Monterey did not answer the description of those
who had eulogized it as a safe port. Portola, who headed the party, received the
impression, which he recorded, that it was no better than an open roadstead. The
rejoicings which the sight of the Point of Pines first occasioned were soon con-
verted to despondency, and after a week's rest, on October 8th the explorers held
a council which reached the resolution to again press forward.
The party thus far had met with no serious adventures. They had seen numerous
Indians, the males entirely naked, and they had noted with surprise and admira-
tion the skill of those living along the Santa Barbara channel in handling their
canoes, which were well constructed. They had killed some bears, a sort of game
very abundant, and had felt some earthquake shocks which they set down in their
records as "frightful," and had noted many things, the knowledge of which might
prove useful to them in the future work of converting the Californias into a
habitable coimtry. ~ The only evil results of their journey was the appearance of
scurvy which attacked several members of the party.
This dread disease maintained its hold until the rains set in. When Portola
and his party took up their toilsome march after their disappointment at Point
Pinos the leader and Father Riviera were ill. The supply of food had run out, and
some of the men had to be borne in litters. But they pressed on and on November
1st they reached Point San Pedro, and from an eminence saw the Farallones and
the bay described by Cermeno, and recognized it as the locality in which the "St.
Augustin" had been wrecked.
Ronte of tbe
Explorers
Portola'g
Party
Attacked
by Scurvy
14
SAN FRANCISCO
San Fran-
cisco Bay
DiscoTered
On the day following, some soldiers of the party, headed by Ortega, while
hunting for deer climbed the headland of Point Reyes and suddenly came in sight
of a large body of water which he thought was an inland sea. The hunting party
encountered some Indians who informed them that a ship was lying at anchor at
the head of the newly discovered sea, and Ortega carried a report to that effect
to Portola. A search for the ship was made, but in vain, and on November 11th
thejeader, convinced that Monterey had been passed in the fog, or that it had been
overwhelmed with sand started southward with his command, now seriously short
of rations.
He reached Point Pinos without identifying the bay as that described by
Cermefio, and on December 10th he erected two great commemoration crosses,
one on the shore of Carmello bay, and the other on the shore of the bay which
he had found, but failed to recognize; and on the ensuing day began retracing his
steps to San Diego which he reached on the 24th of January, 1770. In the en-
suing month Portola and Crespi reported the results of their adventure to the
Visitador. They were convinced that the belief in the existence of Monterey was
an illusion, and felicitated themselves upon dispelling it; but Crespi put a bright
side upon the fancied failure to discern the harbor of Cermefio by pointing out
that they "had found an actuality" in the inland sea discovered by the hunters.
CHAPTER III
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS
SEARCH FOR THE BAY OF MONTEREY .CONTINUED LIEUTENANT DE AYALA ENTERS THE
GOLDEN GATE THE EXPEDITION TO SAN FRANCISCO BAY SELECTION OP A SITE
ON MISSION BAY THE PRESIDIO ESTABLISHED FATHER SERRA REACHES MISSION
DOLORES SPANISH DRY ROT COMMUNICATES ITSELF TO THE NEW COUNTRY SPAIN's
TRADE WITH THE PHILIPPINES THE MISSION INDIANS THE LIFE AND LABORS OF
PADRE SERRA.
HE hunting party of 1769, and another which followed a
year later, getting a glimpse of the Bay of San Francisco,
were under the impression that the body of water seen by
them was that which Cermeflo had described. On a map
which accompanied the diary of the Portola journey it is
called Estero de S. Francisco, and the notes of Constanso
treat it as an appurtenance of the Cermeiio bay. It was
not, however, deemed impracticable to found a mission on the shore of an estuary
which might provide facilities for such intercourse as would arise out of the
project of reduction if successfully carried out.
The idea of bringing colonists who would effect a settlement was adhered
to, and the earlier suggestion of linking Monterey and Sonora was kept in mind,
Portola's failure to positively locate the bay not having the effect of completely
destroying faith in the existence of the "safe harbor," wliich had been named after
the Viceroy Comde de Monterey. It was not until 1774 that all doubts respecting
Monterey and the Bay of San Francisco were cleared away, and steps taken to
carry out the cherished desire of Father Serra to honor the patron saint of his
order by founding an establishment which was to take the name of St. Francis.
On the 9th of March, 1774, a junta called by the viceroy decided that the
port of San Francisco should be occupied by Juan Bautista de Anza, and that
communication should be established between Sonora and the new foundation.
Captain Anza had originally purposed bringing about a connection between Mon-
terey and Sonora, and had started on January 8th from Tubac with that object
in view, but in accordance with the plans of the junta he prepared to march to
San Francisco.
The expedition consisted of 40 soldiers and their families who were chosen
from the poverty stricken districts of Northern Mexico. The appropriation made
for the party was a slender one amounting to only £1,927 pesos and two reals.
Only 10,000 pesos were to be called for at first, and they were to come out of the
pious fund, a source of supply called into existence some time previously to provide
15
Doubts
Cleared
Determina-
Hon to
Occupy Port
Francisco
16
SAN FRANCISCO
rprising
: San Diego
Uentenant
de Ayala
Enters the
Golden Gate
Riviera
ClianKes
hig Mind
Making the
Presidio
Habitable
the means for carrying on the work of converting the Indians in the countries
occupied by the Spanish.
Anza's journey was interrupted by a call for relief from San Diego which
was menaced by an Indian uprising. Riviera, who had induced Anza to assist in
quieting the unruly natives, tried to persuade him to abandon his expedition to
the north. He was very insistent that the "estuary" of San Francisco was not
adapted to the purpose which the junta desired to effect, and doubtless he was
convinced that the southern harbor would serve it much more admirably.
But Anza adhered to his instructions tenaciously and ended all discussion of
the matter by announcing that he was determined to find a suitable place ; if one
could not be found at the mouth of the port he would go inland to where it seemed
best to him even if he had to go several leagues from the shore. Anza was very
confident that his efforts would be crowned with success and promised the doubting
San Diegan that he would bring back a phial of the water of the river which had
been seen by|Fages in 1770, but which he did not follow to its mouth.
Anza, after a short illness which detained liim at San Carlos mission, started
on March 23d for the supposed estuary. On the 5th of August, 1775, Lieutenant
Juan Manuel de Ayala of the royal navy had in the "San Carlos" passed through
the Golden Gate and had cast anchor in the harbor near an island named by him
Isla de Los Angeles, and in September the naval officer Bruno Heceta, who was under
orders to cooperate with Anza, landed and made his way to Point Lobos, so it
happened that when the captain finally arrived and on March 28, 1776, chose as a
site for a fort the place where Fort Point is now situated the waters of the bay
were not wholly uncharted.
On the day following he selected a place on what we know as Mission bay, for
a mission. The calendar evidently suggested the name of Dolores which he gave
it, and the story that it was inspired by the sight of a weeping Indian woman
may be dismissed as one of the fantastic tales which the imaginative are always
ready to supply as substitutes for actualities which have no color of romance or
the unusual.
When Riviera received word at San Diego of the success of the exploration
he changed his attitude and sent instructions which authorized the establishment
of a presidio on a site selected by Anza, but he was slow about giving his sanction
to the mission project. He had been in collision with the padres over an Indian
who had sought sanctuary with the missionaries, and was strongly disposed to
resent their interference with the administration of justice by the secular end of
the San Diego establishment, and his hostility served for a time to interfere with
the accomplishment of the desires of the zealous Franciscans.
Meanwhile, however, the party at San Francisco went on with the work of
getting the presidio in habitable condition, and in June the padres Palou and Ben-
ito Cambon, with the help of Cazinares,and the crew of the "San Carlos," which ar-
rived from Monterey in August, the spot named by Anza was provided with quar-
ters, a chapel, commandantes' dwelling and a warehouse. These were constructed
of palisades with roofs of earth and were in readiness by the 17th of September,
and, despite the injunction of Riviera, who did not finally withdraw his opposition
until the following November, after the establishment had been formally dedicated
and named the Mission St. Francis de Asis.
SAN FRANCISCO
Riviera, whose opposition was attributed to jealousy of Anza, under viceroyal
pressure gave his approval on the 9th of October to the new mission, which was
the sixth founded in Alta California. The obstacles placed by him in the way of
the foundation were a forerunner of the clashings which occurred at various times
between the spiritual and temporal authorities in California, and which have been
put forward by many writers in explanation of the failure to accomplish any really
beneficial results, of either a religious or material character, while the Spaniards
and their immediate successors ruled the destinies of the vast region which after-
ward came into the possession of the United St-ates. The story when unfolded will
disclose that while the conflicts often produced lack of harmony, the real cause of
the absolute stagnation which endured during the years between 1776 and 1816
was the complete disregard of economic laws. ^
It was not until the 10th of October, 1777, that Serra beheld the mission with
which his name has been associated, and which to him seemed the key of the whole
system he so laboriously sought to build up, and the establishment of which was
followed by the creation of similar nuclei until Alta California had within its
boundaries a chain of houses of the order of which he was president, numbering
eighteen.
They stretched from San Diego on the south, and in nearly every instance hugged
the sea. They were named San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, San
Buenaventura, Santa Cruz, San Luis Rey, La Purissima Concepcion, San Jose,
San Carlos and San Francisco. The inland establishments were those of San Ga-
briel, San Fernando, San Luis Obispo, San Antonio, San Juan Bautista and Santa
Clara, and they were near enough to salt water to be always reminded of its exist-
ence. Only two, those of Soledad and San Miguel were at all remote from the
ocean, and they can only be said to have been so relatively.
A study of the inspiring causes leaves one in doubt as to the real desires of the
authorities in Spain in countenancing the establishment of the missions, or .whether
they ever had any well defined aspirations. The extension of dominion appears
to have been at the bottom of all the sanctions, but the absolute indifference to
material advancement, so conspicuously displayed after settlements had been ef-
fected, indicate beyond the possibility of doubt that there was no conception of
the results that might be achieved by the development of the resources of a region
of extraordinary fertility, and there is reason to believe that very few in Madrid
or in Mexico City had any real knowledge of what might be done in California by
the exercise of industry, intelligently directed.
The dry rot of mediaevalism which had possession of Spain like a cancerous
sore, promptly spread through Mexico into the virgin country, and even after the
zealous missionaries had by their exertions succeeded in effecting what seemed like
a fair start, its destructive progress was not arrested. Practically little more was
accomplished between the seventy vears of mission and mixed temporal and spirit-
ual rule than had been achieved during the century when California lay wholly
neglected by those who claimed it. but only thought of the vast region with its
more than a thousand miles of sea coast, because in the indentations of the latter
there might be found a harbor of refuge or station for the vessels engaged in a
trade, which by comparison with that since developed in the disregarded territory
was ridiculously insignificant.
New j^Ussioo
Approved by
Serra S«aches
18
SAN FRANCISCO
Spain's
Fhllippine
Slow
Growth of
tbe Missions
A Station
no Longer
Needed
There are days when more ships sail out of the port of San Francisco than
would have made it their station in ten years when the Philippine trade of Spain
was at its best. The proud galleons of which so much that is picturesque has been
written made annual sailings, and the goods and treasures in their holds, if the
statistics were attainable, would make a sorry showing by the side of the tables
of exports and imports of the metropolis of the Pacific coast, and there is no rea-
son for believing that the conditions which produced the frame of mind that led
men to think that the main function of a great harbor on the northern coast of
Alta California, had they endured, would have permitted any improvement of the
results secured between 1776 and 1846.
Twenty years after the establishment of the Mission of St. Francis impatient
critics declared that not in centuries would the Indians be fitted for the pursuits
of civilization while remaining under the tutelage of the missionaries, and the
results of the system justified the criticism. It was unquestionably founded on the
erroneous assumption that the Indian is incapable of being lifted in the scale of
civilization, but it was undoubtedly correct so far as it assumed that religious meth-
ods would not suffice to make the native an industrious member of society.
Indians have been redeemed and made tolerable citizens in this country, and
have acquired fair concepts of morals and religion, but the result has been achieved
by indirection. Like more intelligent beings whose acquirements are the product
of a long evolutionary period, the red man did not find it possible to industriously
toil for a reward in the hereafter. This apparently was all that the good padres
had to offer the Indians, who could not be made to believe that the privilege of toil-
ing in the fields and praying in the churches was a desirable exchange for the lib-
erty they had enjoyed before they were dragged into the fold.
But failure does not detract from the fact that Serra and his associates were
animated by the highest of motives in the pursuit of their self-imposed mission of
redemption. Their zeal, benevolence and integrity is unquestioned, and if instances
can be cited which show that sometimes a padre subordinated the spiritual to the
material, they must be taken as exceptions which prove the rule that they were a
devoted band of men ready to sacrifice their lives to pluck brands from the burning.
If their failure unduly impresses the reader, as it has some critics, animated by
sectarian prejudice, they will be wise ^ to modify their impression by attempting to
measure against the performances of the padres the poor results achieved by some
of their countrymen, who were inspired by more worldly motives. It must be
remembered that the government had no other object in weakly supporting the
Franciscans than to thwart the Russians, whose encroachments about the time of
the establishment of San Francisco had become a source of alarm.
The desire for a station had long since abated, the trade which gave birth to it
having diminished to proportions that made it no longer an object for continued
governmental concern. If it were not for the desire to maintain dominion, which
had become a tradition rather than a vital policy the arguments brought against
the establishment of missions in Upper California by the Jesuits must have pre-
vailed. They urged that the distance of Monterey from the peninsula, the perils
of navigation, the necessity of maintaining considerable bodies of soldiery at the
presidios, the known bad character of the Indians, who, even Serra was compelled
to admit, were great thieves, and the uncertainty concerning their docility, all
SAN FRANCISCO
19
pointed to the hopelessness of the task of reducing the country, unless God should
interpose with a miracle.
These views were by no means confined to the followers of St. Ignatius; they
were shared by not a few of the padres of the peninsula missions, who did not hesi-
tate to voice them, but Serra was confident that the miracle would be worked, and
he believed that it was his duty to act as the human instrument for its performance.
He did not, however, expect the miraculous intervention to take the form of pro-
viding manna for the wanderers in the wilderness, and in all his actions subse-
quent to the conclusion reached at the conference he comported himself as a prac-
tical man and constantly kept in mind the fact that the blessings of Providence
are only conferred upon those who exert themselves to obtain them.
In his subsequent administrations of the affairs of the missions he exhibited
as much sagacity as he did patience of the kind which is only attained by those
who set out to perform great undertakings filled with foreseen obstacles, which
they think may be overcome by persevering in a lofty resolution which refused to
recognize any other possibility than success.
It has been pointed out that in their zeal to win over the natives the padres
made promises which they were not able to redeem, and that their desire to impress
on the neophytes the grandeur and importance of the King of Spain aroused ex-
pectations of gifts that never materialized. There is no reason to discredit these
representations. The imagery of religion finds expression in language easily mis-
apprehended by the ignorant and untutored, who are too apt to take literally sto-
ries about golden streets and pearly gates.
There is nothing surprising therefore in the recitals of discontent with which
the comparatively brief annals of the mission days are filled, nor need we wonder
that the neophytes, who at least were reasonably sure of getting enough to eat
while they remained amenable, should envy the gentile Indians who roamed at
will and preferred their liberty, even though it was often accompanied by hunger
that not infrequently became starvation. What the padres gave them in exchange
for their days of toil could hardly have been regarded by them as an adequate com-
pensation. The benefits on the material side were too slight to be accepted by
people as low in the scale of civilization as the California Indian.
Neophytes
Envy Gentile
Indiaus
THE MISSION PERIOD
1776-1846
CHAPTER IV
RESULT OF THE LABORS OF THE MISSIONARIES
DEATH OF PADRE SERRA AT MONTEREY SPANIARDS POOR COLONISTS MANAGEMENT
OF THE MISSIONS THE MISSION INDIANS THE AIMS OF THE PADRES CHARACTER
OF CALIFORNIA INDIANS INDIANS LOW IN THE HUMAN SCALE WORKING ON UN-
PROMISING MATERIAL INDIANS TAUGHT AGRICULTURE PRACTICAL ENSLAVEMENT
OF THE INDIAN THE ABORIGINES MELT AWAY UNDER CIVILIZING INFLUENCES.
UNIPERO SERRA died at Monterey .August 28, 1784, eight
years after the foundation of the Mission of San Francisco.
His last moments were spent on a bed of planks and he
passed away mourned by all who knew him. When his
body was carried to the grave it was covered with roses by
Caballero and Indians, all of whom regarded him as a saint.
His ministration was not .without worries. There were
rumors of the intended displacement of the Franciscans by the Dominicans forced
on his attention, and while he was almost destitute of worldly mindedness he could
not help being disturbed by intimations which appeared to discredit his work by
reflecting on his order.
The padre deserved something better than an exhibition of ingratitude of this
sort, for within the limitations imposed upon him he had accomplished more than
could reasonably be expected. The human material with which he had to deal was
of the poorest. The aptitude of the Spanish for colonization was never of the
highest order, and those of them who engaged in it were rarely the best of their
race. The most of them were disposed to look to the world to furnish them a liv-
ing without exertion, and the tendency was called into constant play when they
came in contact with a race regarded by them as inferior. And their ignorance
fully matched their inertness.
Whatever was produced within the limits of the mission establishments was
due to the foresight and energy of the padres, who had to look after the physical
as well as the moral welfare of the gente de razon and of the neophytes. The
most of the former and all of the latter were incapable of taking care of them-
selves. Under such circumstances, and with such responsibilities devolving upon
them, it would have been little short of miraculous if the padres, when some de-
gree of prosperity attended their efforts, should not have assumed autocratic airs.
There is no trace, however, of any such disposition in the conduct of Serra, under
whose guidance the Mission of San Francisco, which at the time of foundation
numbered a few more than eight hundred souls, including the converted Indians,
had increased its population and fortunes considerably before his death.
23
24
SAN FRANCISCO
Spaniards
Poor
Colonists
the Indians
The despotic tendency came later and was not always in the ratio of the growth
of prosperity which was not rapid. The soldiers of the presidios were not permit-
ted to marry without the consent of the crown, and the policy of granting lands,
which afterward became so liberal, was very restricted in the beginning. Doubt-
less both of these restrictions harmonized with the wishes of the padres, who, if
they did not actually urge them, must have regarded them as facilitating their
desires to bring into the fold the Indians, which was the main purpose of the es-
tablishment of the missions so far as they were concerned, although they worked
in harmony with the higher authorities who more particularly had the aggrandize-
ment of Spain and the preservation of the integrity of its territory in mind.
The pursuit of a policy almost wholly governed by considerations for the wel-
fare of the souls of the Indians necessarily proved an obstacle to development. It
must have done so, had it prevailed, even though the Spaniard had been endowed
with the colonizing instinct ; for its natural effect must have been to deter enter-
prise of an individual sort which could not possibly have succeeded in competition
with the mission estabhshments, which were tolerably well equipped for the opera-
tions which they chose to engage in, and in addition were armed with the power
to command the labor of the neophytes for the common good.
The possession of this power by the padres fully explains the failure of the
territory in which they controlled to develop. There is no reason to question the
judgment of early travelers who have recorded their opinion that the padres through
experience soon became fairly competent business men, and managed the properties
imder their care in a fashion which, measured by individualistic standards, must
have been regarded as satisfactory for thirty or forty years. That is to say, the
inventories of the missions at succeeding periods showed what would be considered
gratifying increases. The herds and flocks grew larger year by year, and the
quantities of the cereals and other products of the soil were steadily being enlarged,
but ; there was nothing even remotely resembling the expansion witnessed in other
parts of the continent, where Nature had been much less generous than in California.
The assumption that the system adopted by the padres in dealing with the
Indians was at the bottom of the total lack of progress is not far fetched. It is
supported by the observed experiences of other countries in which the chief de-
pendence was placed on servile labor for industrial development. Although the
native Indians of California were not nominally slaves, they were so in fact. It
was not the intention of the government to enslave them. Indeed the Spaniard
may be credited with the intention to make good citizens of the natives, the theory
evidently being that they could be educated sufficiently to realize the importance
of citizenship and then be gathered into municipalities.
This purpose implies that those highest in authority regarded the missions as
temporary affairs to be supplanted by civil establishments when the suitable mo-
ment for the change arrived. It is not apparent, however, that the padres viewed
their duties in this light. They were by no means disposed to subordinate the busi-
ness of saving souls to the doubtful occupation of preparing very poor material
for a future state in which religious restraint would be relaxed and the results of
their zeal and energies be dissipated.
The instructions of Jose de Galvez, under which the original missions were
established, and various decrees of the Spanish government, clearly foreshadowed
the policy of secularization which was later effected ; but there is no evidence that
SAN FRANCISCO
25
the padres at any time sought to conform their work to the speedy realization of
the idea. On the contrary, from the beginning, they persistently managed affairs
so that, unless forcible interference were interposed, the system of elevating the
care of the souls of their charges to the first place would be indefinitely perpetuated.
It was inevitable that the purpose of the missionaries, when combined with the
power to carry it out, should have produced the result witnessed. The primary
object being to save the soul of the Indian, he was regarded from the moment of
his baptism as one who had taken a vow which was irrevocable. If after the cere-
mony he ran away, soldiers were sent in pursuit, and when he was brought back
he was punished with lashes.
The testimony regarding the ^ treatment of the Indians does not imply that they
were cruelly dealt with as a rule by the padres. There is distinct evidence to the
contrary furnished by impartial observers, and some from sources which might
fairly be considered as prejudiced. Vancouver, for instance, spoke of the fathers
as "mild and kind hearted, and never failing to attract the affections of the na-
tives," but he noted with astonishment that they appeared to derive few advan-
tages from their conversion. De Mofras, another observer, declared that the mis-
sionaries had accomplished magnificent results by the exercise of benevolence, and
among the accomplishments he enumerated the teaching of the advantages of labor
to the Indians.
That the Englishman was the best judge of the two was developed in the full-
ness of time. The Indians of California never realized the benefits of labor, be-
cause the system did not permit them to obtain any just reward for their toil. They
were serfs under the most benevolent of the padres and remained so after the
Mexican revolution, the change made in their condition by the process of secular-
ization being merely nominal.
Reviewing all the evidence we have concerning the Indians of California, it
does not seem so surprising that the Franciscans should have thought them capable
of redemption, but it is astonishing that men of discernment and abundant oppor-
tunities to observe, should have believed in the possibility of their being evolved
into suitable material for citizenship. The possession of such a belief indicates an
optimism defiant of long experience.
While the earlier acquaintance of the Spaniard with the Indians of California
was not entirely reassuring on the point of his docility, he exhibited some charac-
teristics which to the observant padres seemed to promise tractability. The troubles
in San Diego which occurred before tlie Mission of St. Francis was founded were
easily traced to the inspiration of the warlike Yumas, and it was justly inferred
that if the tribes immediately surrounding the Bay of San Diego had not been in-
stigated to make trouble they would have cheerfully put up with the strangers who
had invaded their country.
The experiences of the explorers when in search of Monterey amply confirmed
this opinion. Few signs of hostility were displayed, and there were numerous in-
stances of exhibitions of the opposite feeling. There was no evidence of the exist-
ence of intercommunication, nor of the qualities which the romancing recorder of
the exploits of the buccaneer Sir Francis Drake discovered when he landed on the
shores of the bay north of the entrance of San Francisco harbor.
If Portola and his party found any sceptered kings with crowns, who were
accompanied by cabinet ministers who made displays of oratory, they maintained a
Savlner the
Indian Soul
Treatment
of Mission
Indians
Traits of
California
Indians
26
SAN FRANCISCO
Calif ornja
Indians Low
in the Scale
Destitute
of Moral
Concepts
Wretched
Condition of
GeatUes
discreet silence respecting them. They, and other parties of Spaniards who pene-
trated further into the interior than Drake, who appears to have had no desire to
do more than effect a landing, found no natives with bags of tobacco, nor did they
discover that "the country seemed to promise rich veins of gold and silver, some
of the ore being constantly found in digging." From their relations there is no
possibility of assuming otherwise than that the Indians throughout the length and
breadth of the wide area over which they roamed were nearly all of one kind, and
that the stage of their development was as low in the scale as could possibly be
conceived.
Those who knew them best declare that they ranked lower in intelligence than
Hottentots or the aborigines of Australia. They were as lazy as they were feeble
minded and when pressed by famine easily fell into cannibalism. They had no
religion, and even lacked imagination sufficient to form definite superstitions. It
is related of the more virile Indians of other parts of the North American continent
that they had some conception of a great spirit, but that they never even attained
to the intellectual height of originating a creation myth. Some authorities have
insisted that the Californian Indian reached that stage, but Father Ubach of San
Diego, whose ministrations in that place were continued long after the occupation,
and whose intercourse with Indians of that county was intimate, expressed the
belief that there is no authenticated instance of a California Indian having formed
a distinct religious concept without suggestion from the outside.
Their sexual relations knew no restraint. They had no form of marriage. The
missionaries found an instance of an Indian cohabiting with his mother and three
sisters. They were without fixed abodes and roamed over a large territory in
search of small game, which existed in great abundance, but they lacked the courage
to attack bear or elk and the prevision to preserve meat, although throughout most
parts of California that can be done by the simple process of drying. As a conse-
quence they were visited by periodical famines which prevented their numbers
enlarging.
The Indians living near the Mission of St. Francis differed in no essential par-
ticular from those of other parts of Upper California, and there is no reason to
believe that they had any warlike qualities, although they were frequently hunted
down by the Spaniards living about the Bay of San Francisco, who professed to
fear them. In a manuscript left by an American who lived near Ripon in San
.Toaquin county the statement is made that the Indians in that region never hunted
.my big game. The section abounded in large animals, but no bones of those of
any size were ever seen in their mounds. They evidently subsisted almost entirely
on pine nuts, manzanita and other berries, Indian turnips and a varied assortment
of acorns which they ground in metates, or large stones hollowed so as to facilitate
the operation of crushing with a rude pestle.
During inclement weather these Indians lived in caves in the neighborhood.
The indications point to the probability of the group or tribe never exceeding thirty
in number. When Dr. Marsh, who settled near them, arrived in 1835, they had
dwindled to less than a dozen. At that time they had scarcely any covering for
their bodies, and were still living in the caves, having no other habitation. They
icknowledged or knew of no government other than their tribal head and had
finally to be removed to the footliills of what is now Calaveras county, because they
developed the habit of killing the cattle of settlers. Outside of this group or tribe
SAN FRANCISCO
27
the writer of the manuscript asserts there were no other Indians in all the section
between Mount Diablo and the Sierra.
It was this unpromising material that the missionaries were called upon to deal
with, and it is less astonishing to learn that they had their labor for their pains
than it would be to find evidence that they even remotely approached the accom-
plishment of their object. That they eifected something which indulgent observers
were inclined to praise must be conceded, but that it was in any wise commen-
surate with their hopes, or that their efforts could have succeeded, even if they
had met with none of the obstacles which they severely deprecated because they
regarded them as hindrances to the work of conversion, is not thinkable.
As already stated the underlying purpose of the padres, so far as the making
of the Indian into a useful member of society was concerned, was to teach him to
till the soil. Other nomads, by the evolutionary process, managed to attain the stage
of civilization which cultivation represents, and in the process they acquired a
knowledge of some of the other useful arts. It is not strange, therefore, that the
California Indians, when induced by promises of presents and hopes of salvation
to embrace Christianity, attained to some degree of aptitude in the pursuit of
agriculture.
The statistics of the missions, however, indicate that the proficiency was not, of
the sort dependable except when exercised under direction and the closest sort of
supervision, which in accordance with the spirit of the age was usually accompan-
ied by the use of the lash and other forms of punishment. Thus it happened that
the exemplary regulations which were carefully devised for the government of
the Indians in the Spanish dominion, although they expressly forbade slavery, eas-
ily lent themselves to a system which had all the vices of legal bondage and often
evaded its obligations.
Thus it was prescribed that no Indian might live outside his village, and to
preserve him from contamination, it was ordered that no lay Spaniard might
live in an Indian village. The latter could not even tarry over night imless he
were ill, and if he were a trader his stay was limited to three days or nights at
the utmost. When these regulations were first established it was represented that
the Indians would not work for wages, and that some expedient would have to be
resorted to in order to keep them in touch with the Spaniard, so that the great
object of converting them to Christianity might be achieved. As their Catholic
majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, and their successors would not countenance
nominal slavery, a method was devised which had many of the features of the
feudal system of the middle ages, and it is not remarkable that its application
should have produced the same results as those witnessed in Europe between the
sixth and fifteenth centuries, during which enterprise languished and population
remained stationary.
It would be interesting to trace the resemblances in this new world feudal sys-
tem to that of the mediaeval period, but a history of San Francisco is more con-
cerned with the results of its application by the missionaries than it is to trace its
origins and describe its similarities. The modern reader, whose interest in the
mission system is mainly confined to the ascertainment of the net results of the
efforts of the padres, may relegate the solution of the problem whether it is ^vise
to subordinate the spiritual to the material in the management of worldly affairs
to the writers on sociology. There is plenty of suggestive matter in a mere recital
Teaching
Indians
Agricnltnre
Tlie lasli
Often
Applied
A New World
Feudal
Sj-stem
Away Before
Whites
28 SAN FEANCISCO
of undisputed facts, and expending many words in the discussion of the causes
would be a work of supererogation in this connection.
Natives Melt The chief thing we are concerned to know is, what did the padres succeed in
doing with the laboring material at their command, which was almost wholly com-
posed of natives, the Spanish colonists being even less favorably disposed to toil
than the neophytes? The answer might easily be compressed into the , statement
that the benevolence of the padres was almost as fatal to the Indian as the grasp-
ing avarice of the settlers on the other side of the continent, who made little at-
tempt at concealment of their design to take over the red man's heritage on their
own terms.
In both cases the native melted away before the advance of the whites as the
snow does when kissed by the ardent beams of the sun. But there was this essen-
tial difference in the two processes of the extinction of the native : In the region
bordering on the Atlantic the extermination of the Indian might be attributed to
the crowding-out process. The disappearance of the natives of the East made
way for innumerable white successors who usurped their places ; on the Pacific
coast the Indian was displaced, and during the prevalence of the mission system
the most fertile section of the continent scarcely maintained as many inhabitants
as were contained in it before the advent of the missionaries.
CHAPTER V
THE UNPRACTICAL CHARACTER OF THE MISSIONARIES
THEIR FAILURE TO ENCOURAGE COMMUNICATION THEY NEGLECT TRAVEL FACILITIES
PASTORAL PURSUITS IN CALIFORNIA WRETCHED CONDITION OF SETTLERS ^YANKEE
TRADERS VISIT CALIFORNIA LARGE NUMBERS OF HORSES AND HORNED STOCK RAISED
PRODUCT OF THE MISSIONS IN 1839 OCCASIONAL INDIAN UPRISINGS ARCHITEC-
TURE OF THE MISSIONS INDOLENCE OF SETTLERS LIFE ON THE RANCHES PAS-
TORAL PURSUITS TEND TO INDOLENCE AGRICULTURE NEGLECTED AND MANUFAC-
TURING IGNORED NO TRADE EXCEPTING WITH SMUGGLERS.
, -*— -S'Ka'V LTHOUGH .the long search for a safe harbor on the north-
ern coast of California in its inception was prompted by
trade considerations, it is a singular fact that when the
Bay of San Francisco was finally discovered, and after its
discoverers had apparently ^awakened to a full realization
of its value for commercial purposes, no effort was made
by those who controlled its destinies to utilize its advan-
tages. The only evidence of concern in this connection that, we have is contained in
actions and expressions showing the haunting fear of the Spaniard that some other
nation might possibly attempt to make use of that which he neglected.
As for the missionaries, their efforts were concentrated on the saving of souls,
and such material affairs as engaged their attention almost excluded the idea of
trade. The application of feudal methods was fatal to domestic trade, and such
foreign commerce as was developed during the seventy years between the founding
of the Mission St. Francis and the American occupation was in response to a de-
mand for things which they recognized their inability to produce, rather than to
the desire for gain. The exchange of hides and tallow for the articles brought to
the coast by adventurous traders approached no nearer to true trade, profitable to
both parties, than that of the Indian ready to swap a handful of gold dust for a
few glass beads.
The padres made no efforts to promote domestic intercourse with a view to en-
couraging trade, and the authorities, influenced by the jealousy of foreigners, placed
every possible obstacle in the way of maritime communication for that purpose.
Thus it happened that during the greater part of a century after 1776 the Bay of
San Francisco, with all its superior advantages, remained as useless to mankind as
though it had never been discovered. The missionaries devoted themselves exclu-
sively, so far as physical effort was concerned, to the cultivation of the soil. That
the results are not worthy of admiration is proved by the fact that in a country
Bay of San
Francisco
Neglected
Domestic
Intercourse
Neglected
30
SAN FRANCISCO
Excessire
Indian
Mortality
Settlers Not
WeU ProTided
For
which has since been shown to have the capacity to feed millions the scant popula-
tion of their period was sometimes compelled to endure the pangs of hunger.
Statistical presentations of the conditions existing in the mission days, unless
carefully analysed, are misleading. Unless they are studied by the light of the
accomplishments of later days they must necessarily produce an erroneous im-
pression. When we learn from the inventories of the missions that at such a time
so many bushels of this, that or the other product was raised in their establishments,
and that their flocks and herds were on many hills, visions of plenty arise, but
they are disputed by the facts which show that the general condition of the sparse
population was wretched and that even the forward ones lived lives which bordered
closely on squalor.
As early as 1784 we are told that it had been found necessary to reduce by
slaughter the surplus cattle at the San Francisco presidio. The number of horses
became so great that some years later they were killed by tens of thousands. They
roamed at large and many of them became the prey of wolves and bears, and others
were mired in lagoons and marshes. Statements of this sort, accompanied by fig-
ures showing that there had been a gain in the production of live stock in all the
missions of California between 1800 and 1810 of 162,882 head, and that the agri-
cultural products had increased , 113,625 bushels, convey the impression of great
prosperity, but the secular authorities were under no illusions regarding the situa-
tion, and we find them expressing the opinion that the missions of Alta California
were little better than expensive failures.
They were not merely expensive failures; they were worse. The vital statis-
tics with startling brevity express the true condition. At the end of 1800 the
death rate of the natives had been 50 per cent of baptisms; in 1810 it was 72 per
cent and a few years later 86 per cent. In 1810 President Payeras had declared
that at Purisima nearly all Indian mothers gave birth to dead infants, and in 1815
it was reported throughout the province that the proportion of deaths to births had
for many years been as three to two.
Governor Sola, in reviewing the condition of the Indians in the last named
• year pronounced them "indolent and disregardful of all authority, costing for half a
century millions of pesos without having made at that time any recompense to the
body politic." He declared that they had become spoiled by settling at the mis-
sions, and that though instructed in agriculture and other branches, "they are able
to but cover half of their bodies." This summing up of results leaves us to infer
that the Indian communities were actually in worse condition than when Serra first
came in contact with the natives of San Diego and found their womankind "so
honestly covered that we could take it in good part if greater nudities were never
seen among the Christian women of the mission."
The Indians, however, were in no worse case than the soldiers of the garrison.
In 1817 Commandante Luis Arguello at San Francisco begged Sola for clothing
for his own family and a little later a Yankee trader, James Smith Wilcox, urged
an excuse for smuggling that he had thereby served "to clothe the naked soldiers
of the king of Spain," thus enabling them to attend mass which otherwise they
could not do for lack of raiment. This apology for infractions of the revenue
laws was frequently invoked, and apparently freely accepted by officials of the
crown, who were aware that unless the stranger was permitted to provide, the
subjects of the king would have to go unprovided.
SAN FRANCISCO
31
It is difficult to conceive of such utter incapacity as these revelations disclose.
In 1825 an inventory of the property of the Mission Dolores was made which
showed that there were 76,000 homed cattle, 950 horses, 2,000 mares, 84 steeds,
820 mules, 79,000 sheep, 2,000 hogs and 456 working oxen belonging to the estab-
lishment. It may be true as asserted that the quality of the wool supplied by the
sheep was of an inferior character, and that the breeds of the animals were of the
poorest, but that fact hardly explains the destitution commented upon. The poor-
est of wool may be spun and woven into garments, and the hides of the most
wretched cattle may be tanned and made into good leather. But the processes of
converting the raw materials into products suitable for apparel demanded exertion
and some skill, neither of which were forthcoming, hence Indians, soldiers and all
went naked or ragged.
When Dana visited California in 1835 he found that the people who were able
to exchange their surplus products for articles brought by Yankee traders were
ready to buy a bad wine made in Boston. The vagaries of the consumers of the
juice of the grape might explain the purchase of a foreign kind of wine, but in, this
instance appreciation of the Massachusetts vintage is not urged. The idle and
thriftless population made no wine although the country abounded in grapes and
it was therefore Boston wine or none at all.
That the padres produced some wine is undoubtedly true, but it was evidently
retained for their own consumption. There does not appear at any time to have
been a strong desire on their part to lessen the demand for the fiery alcoholic bev-
erage known as aguardiente, by supplying a light and wholesome substitute by ex-
pressing the juice of the native grape or that of the variety introduced by them
from Spain, and which has long been familiarly known as the California mission
grape.
That the instructions given by the padres were not of a character to make good
agriculturists of the neophytes may be inferred from the statements made by many
observers. In preparing the soil for grain the earth was simply scratched with a
heavy timber pointed with iron if the metal was obtainable. This wretched substi-
tute for a plow was dragged by oxen who pulled against a yoke attached to theii
horns, the belief being that the strength of the animal lay in that part of its body.
Later the Yankee , trader came to their assistance with a share of more modern
fashion, but even with this help the results were not of the sort to command admira-
tion.
In 1839, seventy years after the foundation of the San Diego mission, which
enjoys the distinction of being the first establishment of the padres in Upper Cali-
fornia, the total product of all the missions of California was hardly equal to that
of a good sized American farm of the present day. Of wheat, maize, barley, beans
and peas there was a total output of 14,438 quarters in the year mentioned. Of
live stock, which took care of itself, there were over 400,000 head of all kinds,
the number being made up of 216,727 black cattle, 32,201 horses, 2,844 mules,
153^455 sheep, the remainder being asses, goats and swine.
It is true that the operations of the missionaries had been interrupted before
this date by the secularization of the establishments, but it would do violence to
the probabilities to assume that any better showing would have been made had
there been no interference with the methods of the padres. The tremendous in-
roads of disease, and the great falling off of the birth rate pointed to the speedy
Crude
AgriCDltural
Methods
32
SAN FRANCISCO
Mission
Architecture
extinction of the supply of native labor, and indolence and incapacity of the col-
onists from Mexico, and the absolute refusal of the soldiery to engage in useful
occupations precluded the idea of any substantial assistance from any other source.
Although the missionaries failed to transform the Indians into a dependable
laboring element, their activities had an unlooked for effect which produced much
subsequent trouble. The native Californian in appearance and manner encour-
aged the impression that he was made of docile stuff, but his frequent quarrels
■with his own kind should have suggested that the tractability which sometimes
manifested itself was more apparent than real. Before the neophytes were gath-
ered and kept within the mission precincts they had lived in small rancherias and
there was no friendly contact between them. When associated together their at-
titude of hostility was awakened, and acquaintance soon developed something like
organizing ability and a desire to act in common against the oppressor.
How much this attitude affected their efficiency in the fields it would be diffi-
cult to decide, but it is evident that it must have militated against cheerful accept-
ance of the condition imposed upon them by the padres. The troubles which oc-
curred after the missions were shorn of most of their privileges indicate that the
exemption from uprisings was due more to the skillful management of the priests
than the docility of the natives, or to their acceptance of the teachings of Chris-
tianity.
That the missionaries could have succeeded in changing the habits of the native
Californian by the swift process of religious conversion was believed by many, but
it hardly admits of a doubt that the tendency to conspire which propinquity had
developed among the Indians must have ultimately defeated the purposes of the
missionaries no matter how zealously or intelligently they may have labored. About
their zeal there can be no question. The most, if not all of the padres, had an
earnest desire to recover the souls of the benighted natives, but that they went
intelligently about their work is disproved by the meager results of their exertions.
In addition to the poor showing of the inventories of the missions they left to
California nothing to felicitate itself upon excepting a style of architecture which
has many claims to distinctiveness. The remains of this talent have probably con-
tributed more to the mistaken belief held by some that the padres were really effi-
cient directors than any written record of their accomplishments or traditions con-
cerning their doings. It is difficult to contemplate the ruins of the missions of
California without investing them with a romantic interest. They are suggestive
of a condition which never really existed. Their appearance, even in their present
ruinous state, conveys an impression of peace and plenty that is no more truthful
than the description of a baronial hall of the middle ages, in which the stress is
laid on the barbarous feasting and rioting, while allusions to the poverty of the
wretched serfs surrounding it is carefuUv suppressed.
It might almost be inferred from the work expended in the construction of the
mission buildings that the energies and talents of the monks were chiefly expended
upon them. That the most of them would not have regarded this as an aspersion
is undoubtedly true. They imagined that they were working for the glory of God,
and strove in the manner which has always been considered most effective to ac-
complish their object. They were merely repeating in the new world the mistake
made in the old during the Middle Ages, of subordinating the temporal to the spir-
itual. They fervently believed that the best thing that could be done for mankind
SAN FRANCISCO
was to wean it from the desire for worldly things, by concentrating thought on the
future life, and deferring hope of reward until attained in an eternity of bliss.
Unfortunately man is too easily encouraged to exchange activity of a kind
which accomplishes material results for the more peaceful and less troublesome
occupation of laying up treasures in heaven. And unless the colonists of the mis-
sion period are greatly maligned their disposition was such that it naturally lent
itself to easy acquiescence in the behef that it is not worth while to exert oneself
here below to pile up riches. People in this frame of mind find no difficulty in
accepting conditions that would be regarded as unendurable by those less inclined
to religious domination. Hence we find that during the entire mission period in-
dividual exertion was at a minimum stage, and the only noteworthy accomplish-
ments were those of the monks who were able to effect them cooperatively with the
assistance of a system of labor that was slavery in everything but name.
Throughout the length and breadth of the vast territory comprised within the
boundaries of Alta CaUfornia there was not a single structure outside of the relig-
ious establishments, that any early traveler thought worth noting. We have
plenty of accounts which enable us to picture the mode of life of the gente de razon,
but the descriptions of their abodes is one which leaves an impression of simplicity
which borders closely on actual squalor. What wealth there was did not lend itself
to ostentation of the kind we are familiar with. A man of the period might
have been rich in lands, and may have possessed great herds of cattle, and flocks
of sheep and was looked up to on that account, but he lived little better, so far as
mere housing was concerned, than his poorest neighbor.
That this state of affairs was not wholly due to the friars, although it may be
traced to the belief in the undesirability of mundane things which their predeces-
sors had inculcated during centuries, and which they still taught, may be inferred
from the fact that no more progress was made after secularization than before
that event. Indeed, if anything, there was less energy displayed after the tem-
poralities had displaced the spiritual than during most of the time between the
founding of the Mission Dolores and the successful revolution in Mexico which re-
duced the influence of the padres to a negligible quantity. And it is a singular
circumstance, worth noting in this connection, that the earlier settlers who found
their way into the country and allied themselves with the native Californians, did
not add greatly to the enterprising character of those with whom they took up
their home. As a rule they were absorbed and speedily adopted the indolent habits
and the acquiescent attitude of the colonists of Spanish extraction.
It will not be difficult to understand why Englishmen, Scotchmen and Ameri-
cans who found their way into California before 1846 adopted the unenterprising
habits of the natives. The acceptance of manafia, or to-morrow, as a rule of life
comes easy to most men, and when to the natural disposition to accept the plan
of moving along the line of least resistance there was added the excuse that a fatu-
ous system of trade restriction made enterprise almost impossible, it is not sur-
prising that few escaped its seductive influence.
Both by design and the acceptance of conditions, the inhabitants of California
during the entire period of Spanish and Mexican rule were confined to agricultural
and pastoral pursuits; and as the latter required the least exertion they were most
favored. Agriculture of the kind which proves profitable to those engaging in it
had few attractions for the gente de razon even when they could command Indian
Layinsr np
Treasnres
In HeaTen
34
SAN FRANCISCO
Self-Sufflc-
ins Ranches
little
Trading
Done
labor, and ceased to have any at all when serfdom was practically abolished. As
for manufactures they were non existent, for at no time, even during the most
flourishing days of the missions had the natives succeeded in developing enough
skill to advance beyond the primitive stage.
Necessarily a country in which agriculture was neglected, and manufacturing
was confined to the production of things absolutely needed, and the fashioning of
which required little or no art, could not develop a domestic trade. Consequently
there was little or no intercourse such as that which the interchange of commodi-
ties brings about. Every ranch was self sufficing. If its owners were opulent
enough to maintain a smith or a carpenter, the proprietor and his dependents were
provided after a fashion with the articles produced by artisans of that sort, but
most of the time they did without tools and things which an American frontiersman
would regard as indispensable to the carrying on of farming operations of the
simplest character.
The only approach to anything resembling real trade was that witnessed when
a vessel from some foreign land touched at the ports which the jealous Spaniards
and Mexicans permitted the stranger to visit. On those occasions the exchanges
were made under such restrictions, and so many obstacles were placed in the way
of freedom of intercourse that any considerable development was rendered impos-
sible. This interference which might have stimulated a more energetic people
than the native Californians, and the colonists, to exert themselves to provide by
their own efforts that which a fatuous government prohibited them from buying
from foreigners, did not result in the creation of a home industry of any kind. The
doctrine of the beauty of contentment was ingrained, and resignation to depriva-
tion was elevated into a virtue and ambition, except of the sort that manifested
itself ia Aspiration for petty political favors was wholly extinguished.
1259354
CHAPTER VI
SPANISH DISCOURAGEMENT OF RELATIONS WITH OUTSIDERS
UNCOMMERCIAL METHODS OF SPAIN THE PREDICTION OF A PADRE CONCERNING SAN
FRANCISCO BAY EARLY YANKEE AMBITIONS SPANISH FEAR OF THE RUSSIANS
THE VISIT OF RAZENOFF AND HIS ADVICE TO THE CALIFORNIANS NAVIGATION OF
THE BAY DISCOURAGED BY GOVERNOR SOLA EARLIEST TRAFFIC ON THE BAY OF
SAN FRANCISCO CAPTAIN MORRELL MAKES A SUGGESTION UNCLE SAM SEEKS AN
OUTLET REPORT OF COLONEL BUTLER ON CALIFORNIA MEXICO UNAPPRECIATIVE
OF CALIFORNIA ARGUELLO LAUDS POSSIBILITIES OF PROVINCE THE EARLY IMMI-
GRANTS WELCOMED SHIPS DROP INTO SAN FRANCISCO BAY THE FOUNDATION OF
VERBA BUENA.
OTHING could more plainly reveal the utterly uncommercial
character of the Spanish than their mode of dealing with
the port of San Francisco. For a couple of centuries a
harbor was sought for with varying degrees of diligence
and when it was finally found no more use was made of it
than if it were non existent. It cannot be said that the dis-
coverers were unacquainted with its advantages, or that they
failed to make the authorities in Mexico and Spain acquainted with them, but there
interest in the matter and desire terminated.
As early as 1772, four years before the foundation of the Mission Dolores,
Verger wrote a letter in which he outlined the uses to which a good harbor could
be put. He was under a misapprehension concerning the river which he described
as flowing into the bay, and which he thought might be connected with the Colo-
rado, but he was under no illusions regarding the possibility of establishing a port
in which there could be ship yards and other facilities that would be easy to pro-
vide on account of the abundance of timber of a suitable sort for building boats
and other vessels. He had an intimate knowledge of the foibles of his countrymen,
which made him suspect that something more than a mere recital of advantages was
necessary to stimulate them to exertion for he told Casafonda, to whom he sent his
description, that "great prejudice to the crown of Spain must be feared should
some foreign nation establish themselves in this port."
The suggestion that some one else might utilize the bay if the Spanish did not
was heeded in a way. It was taken possession of bj' the crown, and interlopers
were warned away, but during the seventy years while it was under the control of
Spain and Mexico no Spaniard, Mexican or native Californian ever exerted him-
self to realize the expectations of those who predicted a great future for the unri-
valled sheet of water which bears the name of the patron saint of the Franciscan
order.
The tln-
rommercial
Spaniard
JealoDsy of
Foreigners
The Port
Utterlj-
Neglected
35
SAN FRANCISCO
Viceroy
Florez
Bazenoff's
Tisltin
1806
It is related that one of the padres who assisted at the establishment of the
Preside of San Francisco^ after performing the ceremony of blessing the site of
Fort Point, ascended to the slight eminence in its rear, where he found a very
green and flowery table land abounding in wild violets and sloping gently towards
the port. In a description which he subsequently wrote he pronounced the view
"delicious." "There may be seen," he said, "not only a good part of the port with
its islands, but the mouth of the bay and the sea where the prospect ranges even
beyond the Farallones."
A man of his cloth might have stopped here but he went on indulging in prac-
tical comment, which probably reflected the belief and aspirations of the first set-
tlers on the Bay of San Francisco. "I judged," he wrote, "that if this site could
be well populated as in Europe, there would be nothing finer in the world, as it
was in every way fitted for a most beautiful city — one of equal advantages by
either land or water, with that port so remarkable and capacious, wherein could be
built ship yards, quays and whatever might be desired."
A few years later, in 1788, Viceroy Manuel Antonio Florez, shortly after his
arrival in Mexico, wrote to his home government that there would be no occasion
for surprise if the American colonies of the British, "now that they are an inde-
pendent republic, should carry out the design of finding a safe port on the Pacific
and of attempting to sustain it by crossing the immense country of the continent
above our possessions of Texas, New Mexico and California."
From these and similar observations made by representatives of the Spanish
crown, and by early visitors to the Pacific coast of North America, we discover that
there was no lack of appreciation of the importance of establishing a port of the
sort described by Florez, nor of its desirability when viewed from the standpoint
of the trader whose interest would lie in the development of a commerce between
Alta California and the rest of the world. But there is an essential difference
between recognition of possibilities and their realization.
The crown, the viceroy of Mexico, the governors of California and the padres
may have fully comprehended the importance of the Bay of San Francisco, but
they never moved a hand to bring about the result which they desired to see achieved.
Even the stimulus of fear, inspired by rivalry, was powerless to quicken them to
action of any sort looking to the realization of their hopes. Their inertia was so
marked during the entire period under review that a doubt arises whether the ex-
pressions of opinion by the optimistic were not merely words destitute of signifi-
cance, and wholly devoid of that quality which spurs men to action.
In 1806 a Russian named Razenoff visited San Francisco for the purpose of
obtaining supplies for his countrymen, who were taking pelts in Alaska. He was
compelled to resort to extraordinary devices to escape the restrictions imposed by the
distant authorities upon trade of all kinds with the Californians. Many of these ob-
stacles were the result of fear of Russian encroachment, an not entirely imwarranted
apprehension, but one which could hardly be removed by the pursuit of the policy
of aloofness which involved complete abstention from effort to create the means by
which aggression could be prevented.
This astute foreigrner, who did not hesitate to spy out the land wliile attempting
to persuade the commandante of the port of San Francisco, and the padres, that
they would be committing no crime in disposing of some of their surplus products,
appears to have lectured his hosts with vigor on their supineness, declaring with
SAN FRANCISCO
37
refreshing directness that they were negligent of their interests which required that
they should develop their country, so that regions less favored by nature might
obtain in exchange for their peculiar products needed supplies of food stuffs.
There is no evidence that his advice made any serious impression on his hear-
ers. They may have regarded it as sensible, and were doubtless quite ready to
admit that they would benefit by following his suggestions, but they failed to act.
Eleven years later, while Arguello, who had been Razenoff's host, was still com-
mandante, the magnificent body of water, about whose shores nearly a million
people are now engaged in productive pursuits, was as little used by man as it had
been before the first Spanish vessel entered through the Golden Gate.
Desiring to secure some timber necessary to effect some much needed repairs
of the presidio buildings Arguello resorted to Corte de Madera to obtain what he
required. The wood cutters who felled the trees and prepared them for use were
compelled to cross the Carquinez straits on rafts and made their way to Corte de
Madera by way of Sonoma, Petaluma and San Rafael, making a circuit of seventy
leagues, while the actual distance between the forest and the jDresidio is less than
four leagues. An English carpenter assisted in building a suitable craft to bring
the timber to the presidio front and spent some days in teaching the soldiers how
to sail it. Without this assistance, and that of an Indian named Marin, the cargo
could hardly have been successfully brought across the bay ; as it was the cumber-
some craft was nearly wrecked in Racoon straits.
Unpromising as was this initial effort it met with the additional discourage-
ment of the disapproval of Governor Sola, who was enraged that the launch should
have been built without his authority. Commandante Arguello experienced great
difficulty in convincing him that it was absolutely necessary to engage in the enter-
prise to save the presidio from falling into utter ruin. The explanation condoned
the heinous offense of the commandante, but the sharp reproof he had received
appears to have effectually cured any desire he may have felt to engage in further
maritime activities.
It was not until several years after this episode that any serious effort was
made to navigate the bay, and it soon developed monopolistic tendencies, which
however, did not prompt attempts at regulation. William A. Richardson, who
had first settled at Sausalito, in 1822, moved to San Francisco and not long after
he began sailing a couple of schooners between points where settlements had been
made, collecting produce from the missions and farms. His enterprise speedily
developed into a monopoly, but the records do not show that he adopted any irreg-
ular methods to secure or maintain it; nor do they indicate dissatisfaction with
his rates, which were 12 cents a piece for hides, $1 per bag of tallow weighing
500 pounds and 25 cents for two and a half bushels of wheat.
The charges were not based on the length of the haul but appear to have been
uniform for all distances, and the service performed in all cases was the trans-
ference of the products from various points on the bay to the Cove of Yerba Buena,
where it was finally transferred to seagoing vessels. Later the Mission St. Francis,
and those at San Jose, each maintained a thirty ton schooner, but it is noteworthy,
as indicative of the utter inefficiency of the Spaniards and Mexicans, that they
were built at Fort Ross by the Russians, no one connected with the religious
foundations or any settler having the requisite skill to engage in such construction.
The Russian's
Advice
Disregarded
Discourages
Xarigation of
Richardson
Starts a
Schooner
38
SAN FRANCISCO
Indifferent to
Advantages
of Harbor
MorreU's
Description
of California
Growing
Fame of
the Bay
Seeking an
Ontlet on
the Pacific
BatIer-8
Keport to
Although the Californians were indifferent to the advantages of the magnificent
harbor and allowed them to remain practically unutilized, that fact did not prevent
the outside world gaining information which incited longings for an opportunity
to compel a development which the Spaniards were disposed to neglect. In spite
of a policy which sought to make the Bay of San Francisco as inaccessible as the
interior of a monastery it was penetrated at intervals and usually the visiting
strangers were prompted to speak in glowing terms of the disregarded possibilities.
Captain Frederick M. Beechey of "H. M. S. Blossom" who entered the bay in
1826 subsequently wrote that "California must awaken from its lethargy, or fall
into other hands. It was of too much importance to remain neglected."
In 1832 Captain Benjamin Morrell, a Yankee skipper who had traded on the
coast, and had informed himself concerning its capabilities, wrote a book in which
he echoed the words of Beechey and gave them point by suggesting that the young
republic contained the people who would effect the redemption of the slumbering
Californians. He said: "These beautiful regions (were they but the property of
the United States) would not be permitted to remain neglected. The Eastern
and Middle states would pour into them their thousands of emigrants until mag-
nificent cities would arise on the shores of every inlet on the coast, while the wil-
derness of the interior would be made to blossom like the rose."
It is not clear that the Californians were acquainted with the grooving interest
that the outside world was taking in their affairs, and that other people were cast-
ing longing eyes upon their bay, which was becoming famous. They were not
very literary and had small acquaintance with books, and it is not difiicult to think
of them as absolutely uninformed concerning the appearance of fresh publications.
But such descriptions as those of Morrell made a vivid impression on the people
of the Atlantic states which soon began to find expression in recommendations which
did not go unheeded by those in authority.
The dominant note in all of these was the desirability of an outlet to the
Pacific. The manifest destiny idea made suggestions of this sort welcome, and
every bit of information was made to fit in with the popular desire. The difficul-
ties with Mexico which culminated in the acquisition of the coveted territory were
not of sudden origin; they may easily be traced back to a period many years
anterior to the trouble on the Rio Grande. It would be far more reasonable to
attribute to the desire for a station for American whalers in the harbor of San
Francisco, which was strongly expressed during Jackson's administration, the war
with ^Mexico than to charge it to the machinations of the pro slavery element.
That the advocates of slavery performed a conspicuous part in bringing about
the result is undeniable, but the success which crowned their efforts was whollj'
due to the sentiment which found noisy expression in the "Fifty-four-forty or
fight" slogan of the campaign which put Polk in the presidential chair. The
American people were not jiarticularly bent on sustaining the institution of slavery,
but they were under the domination of an irresistible desire to extend the territory
of the United States westward until it should reach the Pacific.
We find this longing outlined in the report of Colonel Anthony Butler, who
was appointed charge d'affaires to Mexico by his friend President Jackson. In
1835 Butler went to Washington to press on the attention of the president a
proposition to secure by treaties from Mexico the whole tract of territory "known
as New Mexico and the higher and lower California." This region he declared
SAN FRANCISCO
was "an empire in itself, a paradise in climate * * * rich in minerals, and
affording a water route to the Pacific through the Arkansas and Colorado rivers."
Butler's information respecting the navigabiUty of the two rivers mentioned
by him was not accurate, but his desire for an outlet to the Pacific was plainly
indicated. His opinion that the coveted territorj% the acquisition of which would
permit access to the great ocean whose waters lave the shores of the newest and
most ancient of nations, was clearly expressed, however, and his view that it
could be obtained by treaty found acceptance and in 1842 was urged upon Daniel
Webster by Waddy Thompson, the American minister to Mexico, who was confident
that the latter country could be persuaded to cede Texas and the Californias to
the United States in payment of the claims of American merchants against the
Mexican government.
The striking feature of Thompson's recommendation is the assumption run-
ning through it that Mexico thought so little of the territory whose acquisition
he urged that it would part with it for less than a song. The minister was under
no misapprehension concerning the value of the territory, but he evidently believed
that the Mexicans regarded it as valueless, or, at least, that they realized that
they were incapable of promoting its development. He said, in speaking of it:
"As to Texas I regard it as of little value compared with California, the richest,
most beautiful and the healthiest country in the world." But it was upon the
value of the harbor of San Francisco that he laid the most stress, declaring that
it was "capacious enough to receive the navies of the world."
Thompson's assumption that the occupants of California were wiappreciative
of its value was only partially true. The archives of the City of ^lexico, and the
records stored in San Francisco, and so liberally used in determining land title
controversies at a later date, prove conclusively that there were Californians who
had the capacity to judge and describe the resources of the territory although they
were incapable of developing them. We have a report of Arguello, made in 1825
on the condition and prospects of California in which he spoke of the admirable
physical characteristics of the country ; its splendid forests ; its soil of inconceiv-
able fertility, and "its capacity of becoming one of the richest and happiest coun-
tries in the world."
It is significant that Arguello's glowing description lays no stress upon the
value of the harbor of San Francisco, and hardly suggests its existence. It is
permeated throughout by the same feeling that the padres inherited from the
feudalistic experiment of the middle ages, and which they managed to preserve
and pass on down almost to our own times. It breathes the spirit of isolation,
accompanied by that narrow conception of self sufficingness which was the most
marked characteristic of the institution in the middle ages, and which in the midst
of comparatively dense populations in Europe set up such barriers that intercourse
between separated communities was almost wholly suspended.
It is not surprising that the productive faculties should have been atrophied,
and the trading instinct weakened by the non intercourse predilections of the
Californians, who did not apparently greatly resent the decrees and the legislation
which threw them on their own feeble resources. Throughout the period while
they were in control no efforts were made by the native Californians to open
communication with outsiders. Such intercourse as they had with strangers was
unsolicited by them, and often it was unwelcome. They were not merely content
Thompson
Urges
Tliompson's
Appreciation
of California
Productive
Faculty
Atropliied
40
SAN FRANCISCO
Few Ships
Visit the
Harbor
I-and
Settlers
to refrain from efforts to create surpluses for exchange, they actually had to be
coaxed to part with these which were created for them by their proUfic herds.
They were not inhospitable to strangers whose motives in visiting them were
not open to suspicion, and even welcomed those who were ready to accept their
habits and who assumed family relations which made them part of the community.
But they did not go out of their way to invite immigration and promptly took
alarm when it began to assume proportions which threatened to provide the labor
needed to develop the neglected resources of the country.
This invasion, as we shall see later on, was not from the water. Despite the
fact that the Bay of San Francisco was much discussed, and its advantages well
apprehended, it was rarely visited by ships. Few merchantmen entered the harbor,
their trading being more conveniently transacted at Monterey and other points
along the coast where supplies of hides and tallow were stored. The records
show that between 1816 and 1842 nine or ten war vessels entered the port, among
them five flying the American flag. The first American war vessel to visit the bay
came through the Golden Gate in 1841 and was followed in the same year by
another, both being bent on surveying errands. A year later the "Yorktown,"
"Cyane and Dale" paid visits to the port that was to be, but which at that time
gave few indications of its future greatness.
Apart from these visits there was little to record of shipping activity in the
harbor prior to 1842 but after that year the visits of war ships and merchantmen
became more frequent. The laws of Mexico had reserved to the governor of the
province the disposal of lands within a certain number of feet below high water
mark, but the power was not made use of until 1835, and then only in a negative
fashion, Figueroa framing an ordinance in that year forbidding the presidial
authorities making any grants of land about the Yerba Buena cove nearer than 200
varas from the beach without his special order.
From this order may be said to date the foundation of Yerba Buena, the vil-
.lage that has since developed into a great city. The purpose of Figueroa in
making the reservation was to preserve it for government use. Applications had
been made before that date by individuals who desired to secure the land about
the cove for farming purposes, and he desired to prevent it falling into private
hands. He also contemplated something in the way of creating a settlement; but
he died before the town he proposed could be laid out; and nothing was done until
1839 when Alvarado, the then governor, dispatched an order to survey the plain
and cove of Yerba Buena, which was executed by Alcalde Francisco Haro with
the assistance of Captain John Virget who ran the lines.
CHAPTER VII
FOUNDATION OF THE VILLAGE OF YERBA BUENA
VERBA BUENA IN 1839 THE FIRST HOUSE ERECTED IN YERBA BUENA DEDICATION
OF THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS REZANOFf's VISIT TO SAN FRANCISCO BAV IN
1806 THE RUSSIAN IS WELCOMED A ROMANCE OF YERBA BUENA REZANOFF
SECURES SUPPLIES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RUSSIANS IN SITKA DEATH
OF REZANOFF IN SIBERIA RUSSIAN METHODS IN CALIFORNIA FEW BOOKS IN
CALIFORNIA BEFORE ARRIVAL OF AMERICANS DANCING FORBIDDEN BY THE PADRES
PATERNAL RULE ON THE RANCHES THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH.
HE boundaries of the town laid out under the order of
Alvarado would make but a small dot on the map of the
San Francisco of 1912, and to the person unfamiliar with the
fact that much of the land in what is now the business sec-
tion of the City was recovered from the bay, it would appear
that no special effort was made to get near the water front.
The ambitions of the founders were satisfied by setting off
a space which had Pacific street for its northern and Sacramento for its southern
boundary, while its western limit was described by Dupont street and its eastern
by Montgomery, the waters of the cove reaching the latter street in 1839, the year
in which the survey was made.
This district, known as Yerba Buena until 1847 when the name was changed
to San Francisco, was described by the early comers as being about the most un-
lovely part of the region surrounding the bay. It was barren and in the immediate
vicinity were low sand hills covered with coarse shrubbery and patches of grass.
Yerba Buena derived its appellation from the village of that name which stood
on the spot surveyed in 1839, but it was only known locally by that designation,
its true name being given on the map as San Francisco.
Yerba Buena is the Spanish name of a vine found in the underwood of the
region about the bay which has some claims to fragrance. Literally translated
it means good herb, and the earliest annalists state that it was held in some esti-
mation by the settlers of Spanish extraction who brewed a tea from its leaves.
The first house in Yerba Buena appears to have been erected in 1835 by Cap-
tain W. A. Richardson who anticipated the survey. It was not a very substantial
construction, being merely a ship's foresail stretched over four redwood posts.
Richardson was in charge of the two schooners mentioned as belonging to the
missions of St. Francis and Santa Clara. His connection with the padres secured
for him the privilege of planting the tent-like structure on the spot mentioned.
Later he built an adobe house on what is now Dupont street west of Portsmouth
square.
41
Name
Changed
in 1847
42
SAN FRANCISCO
Dedication
of Mission
St. Francis
That was in 1841 and there were then thirty families living in the village.
In addition to the adobe house of Richardson, Juana Briones, a widow, had erected
another on the corner of Powell and Filbert streets, and there was an establishment
of the Russians which was built of wooden slabs and covered with tarpaulin. Three
years later Yerba Buena had about a dozen houses and in 1846 the number had
increased to fifty. The expansion of the two last years was caused by the impend-
ing change in the administration of Californian affairs foreshadowed by the col-
lision between the United States and Mexico, the outcome of which held no riddle
for active minded Americans.
In addition to this small settlement there was the establishment at Dolores
and the garrison at the presidio. Although the site selected by the padres for
their operations does not suggest extensive tilling of the soil, a century ago it
presented an entirely different aspect and as the records attest it was capable of
producing on a liberal scale. At no time after its foundation was the importance
of the mission inferior to that of the military or the commercial part of the com-
munity, and throughout the somewhat tense periods when the spiritual and tem-
poral powers were in conflict the padres retained their hold upon the respect and
affections of the little society.
It is not in the doings of so small a community as Yerba Buena was in the
years immediately following the establishment of the mission that we can find
the materials for a picture of the social life of the people who first displaced the
native Indians of California. There were other and large establishments which
outranked that of St. Francis in wealth, but the latter from the day that it was
dedicated with firing of muskets, which greatly scared the poor Indians who were
drawn to the scene by the ceremony, and by a display of such banners, vestments
and other articles of ceremonial display as the padres could provide, always occu-
pied a position of importance in the minds of the authorities, and perhaps that
of the people generally because it was the northern outpost of the mission estab-
lishments and in a way the only barrier that had been set up to guard against
Russian encroachment.
Monterey down to the time of the American occupation was the social center
of Northern California, as it was also of the political activities of the region.
But while the foundation on Monterey bay outshone that of St. Francis the latter
appears to have had attractions at an early date for foreigners, especially the
Russians, who exhibited a decided inclination for the locality and in one way and
another proved a source of uneasiness to Spain and the people planted by that
country in Northern California.
Mention has already been made of a Russian named Rezanoff who in 1806
visited the harbor of San Francisco in quest of supplies for the hunter's station
established by Russia in Alaska, the occupants of which were in a condition border-
ing on starvation. The adventure of Rezanoff is interesting as it discloses the
lesires of Russia, but more particularly because it affords us a glimpse of the
mode of life in the little community made up of the garrison of the presidio and
their families, and the fathers and the servants and workers of the mission.
Rezanoff was chamberlain of the czar in 1803 and conceived the design of
securing trade concessions for Russia from the Japanese, but proving unsuccessful
in his effort he crossed over to the Aleutian islands bearing with him credentials
as inspector of the Northwestern establishments of the Russian crown. He found
SAN FRANCISCO
43
the condition of the station at Unalaska deplorable when he reached there in 1805,
the employes of the Russian-American Company being in a state bordering on
starvation.
Rezanoff at once resolved to relieve their distress by obtaining supplies from
California. His expedition for that purpose was attended with many hazards.
It started at a season of the year when terrific gales were likely to be encountered,
and he realized that in the event of weathering the storms which menaced his
voyage that he might meet a hostile reception at the hands of the Californians.
But he stated in a communication to the home office that it was merely a question
of taking the risks or of remaining in Alaska and starving.
In this same correspondence traces of other objects than the obtaining of relief
are found. In it he discussed the unenterprising character of the Spaniards who
made scarcely any use of their fertile lands, and he also animadverted upon the
Bostonians who were trading to a limited extent with the Californians, and pro-
posed supplanting them if possible, remarking that there was no reason why fac-
tories in Siberia should not supply to the Spaniards cloth, ironware, linen and
such things in exchange for breadstuffs and other produce.
If Rezanoff had any expectation of the strict regulations made by the Spaniards
for the port of San Francisco being enforced he must have been surprised when he
sailed into the harbor on the 5th of April. There was a reasonable prospect of his
being fired upon by the battery of San Joaquin as he ran by without asking permis-
sion to enter, but he met with no such reception probably because advices had been
received from Madrid, not long before that date, to the effect that a better under-
standing between Spain and Russia had been reached, and that a Russian vessel
would shortly visit the coast.
Instead of the expected rebuff which Rezanoff was prepared to encounter,
trusting to his ability to smooth things over after effecting an entrance, a con-
fidence which was by no means misplaced, he was received with pleasure, and he
and those on board his ship the "Juno," were overwhelmed with civilities by the
son of the commandante of the port Luis Arguello, whose father Jose happened
to be absent at the time at Monterey, where he was visiting the governor.
Rezanoff took advantage of the situation created by the misapprehension. He
at once wrote to the governor, Arrillaga, proposing to visit him at Monterey, but
that official, who was not altogether satisfied as to the regularity of the proceeding,
answered that he would do himself the honor of receiving his guest at San Fran-
cisco which he did, and there met the Russian. On the day following the official
meeting Rezanoff and the governor were invited to dine with the commandante
and there the Russian encountered his fate in the shape of the daughter of Jose
Arguello whose accomplishments, lovely disposition and beauty were celebrated
throughout the Californias.
Concepcion was only 14 years old and was romantic and highly impressionable
and longed for adventure. Rezanoff promptly surrendered to her charms and the
youthful senorita reciprocated his advances. It does not appear that this first
San Franciscan romance suffered interruption in its earliest stages, but later on
when it had fully developed, and the Russian formally offered his hand, the padres
and the whole community protested against the match, regarding the difference of
religion of the lovers as an insuperable obstacle to their union.
An Early 9
Francisco
44
SAN FRANCISCO
Supplies
Secured by
Bezanoff
Plans for
Future Trade
Relations
Death of
Bezanoff
in Siberia
Rezanoff and his sweetheart looked upon the matter differently, probably feeling
that verbal distinctions made by disputing religionists should not be permitted to
interfere with their happiness, and vowed eternal constancy to each other. The
Russian, however, did not allow the love affair to interfere with the accomplish-
ment of his main purpose. If it were not for information derived from the archives
of Russia years after the affair had become merely a memory it might even be sup-
posed that he made use of Cupid to forward his objects.
At any rate he continued his negotiations for supplies and eventually succeeded
in breaking down the scruples of the governor whose instructions on the subject
were rather precise, and did not contemplate trading with Russians under circum-
stances suggestive of lending aid and comfort to a power whose intentions were
suspected by the Spanish. But the padres were quite willing to trade and the
commandante offered no opposition and the hold of the "Juno" was well filled
with flour, maize, beans and peas when the Russian sailed away for Alaska. As
she passed down the harbor the battery on San Joaquin thundered out a parting
salute; the people on shore waved good-bys and many of them hoped for a speedy
return of the engaging Russian and his agreeable entourage.
Rezanoff's efforts were by no means confined to securing a cargo of needed
supplies for the Alaskan station. He discussed with the padres his scheme of
trade relations between Siberia and California, and convinced them of its desir-
ability. He even tried to persuade Arrillaga to make representations to the court
of Spain which would pave the way to the consummation of a commercial treaty,
but the governor was indisposed to meddle with the pro j ect.
When Rezanoff sailed away from San Francisco he was filled with the idea
of closer trade relations and his correspondence recently unearthed by Richman
shows that he meant to push it with vigor, and it also discloses that the pledge
he made to Dona Concepcion was sincere, and that when he had succeeded in his
purpose of effecting a treaty between Russia and Spain he meant to return to
California by way of Mexico and marry her.
But fate willed otherwise and perhaps his inability to carry out his plan
changed the destiny of California. Rezanoff reached Sitka in safety and relieved
the suffering employes of the fur company and in September, 1806, he crossed
over to Kamtchatka and from thence he started overland to St. Petersburg. He
was ill when he began the long and arduous journey and had the misfortune of
falling from his horse while in that condition. A fever took hold of him and be-
came so bad that he died at Krasnoyarsk on the 1st of March, 1807, and was buried
there and a monument was erected to his memory.
But those who accompanied him failed to take the trouble to apprise the little
Californian beauty of his death and she remained in ignorance of the fact for
many years, but always maintained an abiding faith in the constancy of her lover.
It may help to a realization of the isolation of California to know that Concepcion
did not learn of the circumstances attending the demise of Rezanoff until they
were related to her in 1842 by Sir George Simpson at Santa Barbara. She had
assumed the duties of the Third Order of Franciscans some years before, and in
1851 as Sister ^laria Dominica she entered the Dominican Convent of St. Catarina
at Monterey, and in 1854 she followed the institution to Benicia where she died
December 23, 1857, at the age of 63.
SAN FRANCISCO
45
The romance was not completely rounded out until three or four years ago
when an indefatigable searcher found in certain records the correspondence of
Rezanoff which indisputably settled the honesty of his professions of devotion,
respecting which there was for a time some doubt in California although it was
never shared by the faithful Concepcion.
The story deserves a place in the historj^ of San Francisco because it reveals
facts which explain the methods by which the Russians subsequently gained a
foothold in California. The visit of Rezanoff paved the way for the planting of
the establishment at Ross which continued down almost to the time of the American
occupation, and it has its value also because it throws some sideUghts on the
methods of the padres in dealing with their charges, and to some extent reveals
the extent of their domination over those who lived outside of the immediate pre-
cincts of the mission.
The case of Rezanoff makes it perfectly plain that whenever religion was con-
cerned, and especially if the matter touched women, the priests had no difficulty
in controlling the people. It is true that Concepcion's mother was antagonistic
to the union of her daughter with the Russian, because she believed that it meant
separation, but she realized that the ardent attachment of the two would not yield
to her wishes so she invoked the assistance of the church which was promptly ren-
dered, and would have prevailed unless Rezanoff had abjured the Greek church.
That he had any intention of doing so seems improbable. He undoubtedly
designed returning to California but the tenor of his correspondence indicates
that his mind was too thoroughly saturated with ambitious projects for the ad-
vancement of the fortunes of Russia to permit him to easily renounce the estab-
lished church of that country. He was a resourceful man, and the padres would
have had trouble with him had he come back to claim his bride; but their threats
of ex-communication had sufficient power to postpone the union of the two until
death finally separated them.
There are not many recorded instances of recalcitrancy of a gravity sufficient
to call for the use of this formidable weapon of the church, but those of which
we have knowledge suggest that, except in the case of exceptional men, there
was no disposition on the part of the native Californians to question the right of
the padres to regulate their lives so far as spiritual affairs were concerned; and
that they continued to keep the boundary line between the temporal and spiritual
so indeterminate that it was always easy to make the latter overlap the former.
In the matter of education the padres were especially jealous and unremitting
in their effort to preserve the people from the contamination of bad books. There
was a great scarcity of literature of any sort in California when the padres were
in control, and the supply was not augmented until the Americans began to make
their appearance. The extent of the mission library in San Francisco was a
geographical dictionary, the laws of the Indies and a copy of Chateaubriand. At
San Juan the monks regaled themselves with "Gil Bias." San Luis Obispo boasted
twenty volumes of Buffon's "Natural History," and at San Gabriel a "Life of
Cicero" was treasured together with an edition of the lives of celebrated Spaniards,
"Goldsmith's Greece," "Venega's California," "Exposures of the Private Life of
Napoleon" and Rousseau's "Julie."
In 1884 Dr. Alva brought from Mexico several boxes of miscellaneous and
scientific books, but they were promptly seized and burned by the missionaries,
Prelnde to
Russian
Foothold
The Padres
and the
People
Weapon of
Excommuni
SAN FRANCISCO
Fadre Inter-
dicts Dancing
Arbitrary
Exercise
of Authority
and while Alvarado was governor they attempted to control his taste in the matter
of reading, which had inquisitive features not agreeable to the fathers. His dis-
position, however, was not of the yielding sort, and he disregarded threats which
would easily have scared a less independent character. There may be some con-
nection between the fact that Arguello read what he pleased and the reputation for
efficiency which was freely accorded him by the people but not always by his
superiors who sometimes found him troublesome.
It is almost unthinkable considering the later reputation of the Californians
that there should have been a time in their history when the pastime of dancing
was interdicted, or perhaps it would be more precise to say when an effort was made
to taboo the waltz. That form of terpsichorean art had been introduced bj' foreign-
ers during the administration of Governor Arguello and at once became very popular.
Father Sarria regarded the innovation with much displeasure and procured from
the bishop of Sonora an edict forbidding the waltz. It was posted on all the
church doors and created great consternation, but the governor who had taken
kindly to the new fangled dance when appealed to encouraged the ungodly to per-
sist in their whirling practice by remarking that he was neither a bishop nor an
archbishop, but if he felt an inclination to dance he would do so, whereupon
Father Sarria prudently withdrew his objections.
It may be unwise, however, to attach too much importance to these interferences,
or to assume that they were dictated by religious intolerance or sacerdotal arro-
gance. There are stories of the existence of a domineering spirit which make it
reasonable to suppose that much of the effort to restrain may have been due to
the propensity of the period to exert authority in an arbitrary and overbearing
manner. Thus it is related of Sola, the first governor of California under Mexican
rule, that having ordered Luis Antonio Arguello to Monterey to explain the building
of a vessel without his order the latter entered his presence with a sword which
he carried at his side, using it in lieu of a cane, having injured his leg on the
ride from San Francisco to Monterey. As soon as Sola perceived the weapon
he began upbraiding Arguello and was about to use his cane upon him when the
latter straightened up and prepared to answer in kind. This brought Sola to his
senses and he apologized to Arguello by saying that his cane was reserved for the
pusillanimous.
This well authenticated case of the attempted exercise of arbitrary power fits
in with the knowledge we have of the almost despotic rule of the head of the
family whose authority, especially among what might be called the better classes,
was little less than that accorded to the father in Ancient Rome. When the Cali-
fornian father entered the room where the family were assembled for meals or
any other purpose all arose and respectfully greeted him, and the ceremony was
repeated when he departed. The custom may present a refreshing contrast to the
almost absence of respect paid by children to their parents in these days, but it
undeniably points to a condition of dependence unfavorable to initiative; and the
results it produced were somewhat like those witnessed in China where the dead
hand stretched from the grave to clutch the skirts of progress holding her back
for centuries.
The deference of children to their parents was more than matched by that
shown by the dependents of the household. It was exhibited in a manner which
had many peculiarities distinguishing it from the elaborated exactions of the
SAN FRANCISCO 47
grandees of Spain, and observance of these misled many observers who failed to
get back of the veil of familiarity which had its rigid requirements. The Southerner
hailing from the slave states could understand the Californian, but the New Eng-
lander and Americans from other parts of the Union where involuntary servitude
was unknown, rarely perceived the striking resemblance to the mode of life so
common south of Mason and Dixon's line before the war, and attributed the short-
comings of the people to the interference of the priests, when in fact it was due
to the survival of the feudal spirit, under whose thraldom the church was as se-
curely held as the other members of the community.
CHAPTER VIII
LIFE OF NATIVE CALIFORNIANS ON THEIR RANCHES
HOSPITALITY OF THE NATIVE CALIFORNIANS NATIVE CALIFORNIANS AND THEIR
HORSES THE FEASTING AND MERRYMAKING OF THE PEOPLE DANCING AND
MUSIC AT FIESTAS LOVE OF FINERY SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS INDOLENCE A BE-
SETTING SIN AN EASILY CONTENTED PEOPLE A GREAT LACK OF CREATURE COM-
FORTS SOAP SPARINGLY USED SIMPLE DIET OF THE NATIVE CALIFORNIAN HE
DID XOT EXERT HIMSELF TO PROVIDE FOR THE TABLE.
IR WALTER SCOTT and other writers of romances who
have dealt with the lives of the people who lived under the
feudal institution have given us pictures of a state of
society the reverse of unpleasant. If we divest ourselves
of the feeling that has had possession of the world since
the Renaissance, and ignore what amounts to a passion for
material progress it is by no means difficult to find much
to admire in the manners and entire mode of life of the people of the middle ages.
California during the period 1776-1846, if considered in the same spirit, creates
the frame of mind obtained by the impressionable reader of "Ivanhoe," and is
very apt to produce a judgment which easily passes over the defects and only sees
the virtues of the actors and the system.
Foremost among the amiable qualities of the Californians, those who occupied
the land before the gringo came, was that of hospitality. It was dispensed in a
fashion calculated to suggest that the phrases framed by the Spanish in which the
courteous host turned over all of his possessions to the visitor or guest were not
wholly insincere. The native who made a person at home by saying my house and
all within it is yours, came near meaning what he said, and it might be added with-
out greatly departing from the truth that the one to whom the tender was made
usually accepted it very literally.
It was said in another connection that the lack of intercourse between the dif-
ferent sections of California in the days before the American occupation was a
barrier to progress. The facilities for communication were so utterly inadequate
that the development of domestic trade was impossible. A people whose ingenu-
ity and industry were unable to produce anything better than the caretta with its
clumsy wheels made of discs of wood, and who were outclassed as boat builders
and navigators by the Indians they found fishing in the Santa Barbara channel,
could hardly be expected to promote that sort of intercourse prompted by desire
for gain.
Vol. 1—4
49
Amiable
Qualities
of Native
Californians
Hospitallt.y
Freely
Exercised
50
SAN FRANCISCO
HoTseman-
8hip of
Califomians
ETerybody
Bode Horse-
Back
No Invita-
tions Sent
Ont
But while the facilities for moving articles werfe wretched, being confined on
the land to the slow moving cart drawn by a yoke of oxen, and to practically no
means of getting about on the water, the natives found no obstacles to free inter-
course when hospitality, or the desire for the amusements which its exercise brought
about, were in question. Then they rose equal to the occasion. The horse, which
for some inexplicable reason never served conspicuously as a draught animal, was
then brought into requisition and surprising results in the way of traveling were
achieved.
Mention has been made of the great number of horses bred at the missions,
and on the ranches. No especial care was taken to keep up the strains which
might have been fine in the beginning, but had greatly deteriorated through neg-
lect. Quantity and not quality characterized the stock; still the result was not
entirely bad, for out of the great herds choice specimens could be picked, and as
the number to be drawn upon was practically illimitable there were plenty of
fairly good animals at the command of all classes.
As a result of this abundance everybody rode, and riding became the chief
accomplishment of the ranchowner, his wife and daughters and his sons and de-
pendents. It was the custom in the morning to catch a horse and to saddle and
bridle it ready for the use of the person who had selected the animal, which, on
occasion might stand for hours waiting to be used. The supply of horses was
so great that they were practically valueless, and it never occurred to the owner to
bother about the return of an animal borrowed from him provided the borrower sent
back the saddle and bridle.
Thus it happened that distance formed no obstacle to the assemblage of a large
number of guests at the various feasts and merry makings in which the people in-
dulged themselves. If the means of the ranchers permitted weddings were always
made great affairs, and it was not unusual, if the contracting couple belonged to
a well known family, for the celebration of their union to draw friends hundreds
of miles. The San Francisco beaus and belles made little of riding to Monterey or
Santa Barbara ; and if the actors were sufficiently distinguished or particularly
well liked Los Angeles was not too distant to draw them.
Naturally feasts thus attended were not the ephemeral aifairs moderns indulge
in, which are usually limited to a few hours, The Californian when he went forth
to enjoy himself meant to protract the enjoyment as long as possible; and as he
found others were of his way of thinking, and had like desires, days were spent
in merrymaking. There were ill natured critics who declared that the gatherings
never dispersed until all things eatable and drinkable were consumed, but be that
as it may the testimony is uniform that while supplies held out the guests were
welcome.
The attendants at Californian merrymakings were not always formally invited.
Relatives to the remotest degree considered themselves as on the expected list,
and unfailingly availed themselves of the opportunity to feast at the expense of
their more fortunate connections. A rich rancher usually had an astonishingly
large number ready to assert their relationship on the slightest pretext, and they
rarely shrunk from the obligation imposed by custom of sharing their good
fortune with those who had claims upon them. The claims were sometimes more
imaginary than real, but the spirit of the times and their peculiar environment
SAN FRANCISCO
51
made the owners of broad lands and cattle on many hills welcome the implied
dependence.
The favorite recreation at festal gatherings was dancing. Before the advent
of the waltz, and even after its general introduction into the province, individual
exhibitions of the terpsichorean art were common. If the dancers borrowed their
steps from Spain the loan must have been effected long before the styles made
familiar during recent years by professionals were in vogue. It is possible that
some of the Californian belles may have displayed the same vigor and poetry of
motion of the highly accomplished modern Spanish danseuse, but most of them
comported themselves with modesty and without any suggestion of abandonment.
The amusement was by no means confined to the younger members of the com-
munity. It was no uncommon thing for a mother who could boast a half score
of children to display her agility and grace of movement. Nothing was more cal-
culated to arouse the enthusiasm of all present than when a grandmother took the
floor and revived the memory of her youthful days by showing how they danced
when she was a girl. Perhaps she executed a double shuffle bearing on her head
a tumbler filled with water, not a drop of which was spilled while she danced;
and when she had finished, for a while she was the heroine of the room, and over
her head were broken more cascarones filled with bright colored confetti than were
expended on her ^dvacious granddaughters.
Not infrequently the head of the family, though his life may have been filled
with years and wisdom, cut a pigeon wing to demonstrate that he was still to be
reckoned with, and he too, like his dame received his round of applause. But as a
rule the people of mature age surrendered the floor, which oftener than otherwise
was well tamped adobe, to the youngsters whose favorite dance, until it was super-
seded by the waltz, was the fandango which they executed with a degree of skill
which called for frequent rounds of applause from their elders, who reposed in
the seats of honor against the wall of the room ; and from the servants and de-
pendents of all kinds who crowded every opening that commanded a view of the
dancers.
The music on these occasions would scarcely command the admiration of mod-
ern devotees of the waltz or other dances. Sometimes a violin was available, but
not often. The instrument most used was the guitar upon which many performed
with a skill more suggestive of a natural talent than an acquired art. Some of
the early visitors make mention of the use of the mandolin, but there could not
have been many in the province for long after the gringo came it was still an
unfamiliar instrument. It is possible that there were performers who could ex-
tract from the guitar sweet sounds, but the semi-professionals who gave their serv-
ices at dances without scorning a consideration only succeeded in producing a
monotonous twang which, however, had the merit of being good time and that is all
the dancers asked.
There was one other feature of the fiesta which deserves mention. It afforded
the members of both sexes an opportunity to display their finery. Dana says the
women were excessively fond of dress, and intimates that the sex had a monopoly
of the vanity which finds outward expression in rich and beautiful garments, but
the Californian caballero attached as much importance to dress as his sister. When
arrayed in all his glory with slashed pantaloons of velveteen or broadcloth,
profusely trimmed with gold or silver lace and buttons of those metals, a black silk
Dancing a
Favorite
Recreation
Old and
Displays of
Finery
52
SAN FRANCISCO
Early
Immigrants
handkerchief about his neck, a vest of brilliant scarlet and a silk sash and a gaily
decorated broad sombrero, he was a very gorgeous affair and was fully conscious
of the fact.
The dress of the native Californian of both sexes had distinctive features but
they can hardly be regarded as a peculiar product of the taste of the people for
nearly all that appeared characteristic was borrowed from the outside. The
calzonera or slashed pantaloons were derived from Mexico and so was the stiff
brimmed hat which was sometimes loaded with ornaments of silver, and in the
case of the more opulent occasionally with braid fasliioned from the more precious
metal. The serape which the men wore over their shoulders, and the rebosa which
the women threw over their heads were also of Mexican or New Mexican origin.
Indeed everything in the way of finery worn by the people of the province came
from foreign lands, and for the most of the articles of every day wear they were
likewise indebted to the outside world.
The gradations of society were not many and the line of demarcation between
classes was so faint as to be almost indistinguishable. The only sharp division
was that which separated Indians from all others who were called gente de rason,
or people of reason. The latter embraced negroes, mulattoes. Sandwich islanders,
in fact all except aborigines. The admixture of blood was very obvious, and all
who could establish the slightest claim to being white traced their origin to Castile.
It cannot be said that the commingling of blood had the effect witnessed in
some countries where the admixture resulted in a decided improvement as in the
case of the blend which produced what we call the Anglo-Saxon. There is a con-
sensus of opinion that with the exception of a few favored by fortune, and who
by courtesy were designated as the upper classes by visiting foreigners, the great
majority of the California colonists were lazy, ignorant and addicted to the con-
sumption of aguardiente.
The indolence of the people so conspicuously exhibited has been attributed to
various causes. The fact that most of the Californians who found their way into
the province after the establishment of the missions were of the military class is
held responsible for the general aversion for work. It is assumed that the chil-
dren of these colonists inherited the disdain for useful occupation from their mili-
tary ancestors, but this view disregards the undoubted fact that it did not take
long for those settlers who found their way into the country from various lands,
and whose occupations were usually of a peaceful nature, to fall into the easy
going ways of the natives.
It is not in evidence that the adventurous few who made their homes in Cali-
fornia, and took unto themselves wives of the country, ever developed the idea
that work is degrading, but they soon adapted their lives to the plan of moving
along the line of least resistance, and at the time of the occupation there was a
not inconsiderable number who regarded that event as the passing of the golden
age.
It is not difficult to account for this condition of mind. It was an outcome of
what may be regarded as a modified form of the simple life. The latter very
often was involuntary, and had some features which sharply differentiated it from
voluntary asceticism but the result was nearly alike in both instances. When the
number of things used by man is limited the necessity for exertion to reach his
wants is diminished. If he chooses to roam about with no other covering than a
SAN FRANCISCO
53
breech clout he has no occasion to bother himself about the manufacture of tex-
tiles, and secures immunity from a multitude of troubles, big and little, which con-
stitute the penalty that man pays for the satisfaction of achieving a higher civil-
ization.
Californians did not strive consciously or unconsciously to achieve this latter
condition. Even those in whom a certain degree of prosperity had engendered
longings which were perhaps fostered by tradition never succeeded in attaining
to that restlessness of desire for more which is the mainspring of progress. The
conception of wealth and its uses was of the narrowest. Even the possession ,of
land failed to carry with it the same importance that attached to it in older coun-
tries. The chief value of a ranch was in the stock that roamed over it, and a man
was rich in proportion to the number of cattle, horses and sheep owned by him.
This primitive concept of wealth produced incongruous results. It was no
uncommon .thing, we are informed, "to see a man of fine figure and courtly manner,
dressed in broadcloth and velvet, and seated on a horse, covered with trappings,
without a real in his pocket and absolutely suffering for the want of something
to eat." If that was ,true of men whose outward appearance suggested comfort,
what must have been the condition of those who in the struggle for existence were
not able to secure enough clothes to cover their nakedness.''
But it is unwise to base a judgment on the exceptional. In spite of the records
which show that at various times the people who inhabited Cabfornia between
1776 and 1846 were in severe straits there is good reason for believing that ex-
treme want was by no means a continuous experience. There were doubtless
times when the people generally were on short commons, and it may even be true that
there were occasions when the scourge of famine afflicted them; but so far as mere
meat and bread were concerned, it is not likely that the deficiency ever extended over
a long period, or that it was so great that it carried with it the menace of starvation.
Man, however, does not live by bread alone, and if we are to judge the lives
of a people correctly we must not confine our observations to the mere matter of
subsistence. Whether properly or improperly we base our estimates of those who
have gone before us upon their achievements of a material sort. We may blunder
in doing so. Our inferences drawn from a beautiful Gothic cathedral may be all
wrong; or we might be accused of overrating the accomplishments of the ancient
Greeks and Romans if we tried to read the story of their lives in the, ruins of their
buildings, but we cannot go far astray if we study the self-imposed limitations of a
population. ,
We lack no evidence on that score. The native Californians placed in a region
where flowers grow spontaneously never exhibited any fondness for them. Father
Serra, it is related, was filled with joyous enthusiasm when he found wild roses
which reminded him of Castile, but his admiration for them did not communicate
itself to his flock. The Californians did not have gardens nor did they .plant trees.
With the example continuously before them of the padres, who with the aid of
the Indians succeeded in growing . fruit of good quality, they never thought of
securing like results. When the American came the only garden and orchards
were those under the care of the missionaries which were not always well kept.
Vancouver records that the vineyards were not properly cultivated and consequently
were not in good condition. At Santa Clara apple, peach, pear and fig trees were
growing, but none were seen about the ranches.
Queer
Contrasts
Neglect of
Graces
of Life
54
SAN FRANCISCO
Habit of
Dependence
pie Diet
of the
People
Very often, if not invariably, the ranch buildings of the Californians were
placed in positions which seemed .to have been selected with regard to availability
for defense, and without any consideration for the possibility of making them
attractive. More frequently than otherwise the site chosen was barren and incapable
of cultivation had the [desire to cultivate been present. No trees or gardens sur-
rounded them, and the practice of having the corral convenient was productive of
discomforts in the shape of dust when the weather was dry, and of mud in ithe
vicinity of the home when it rained. The condition sometimes was suggestive of
that met with in Ireland and some other countries where poverty compels the
inhabitants to live more intimately with the lower order of animals than is the
case in regions where space is abundant and the inclination to use it more general.
One observer, Wilkes, noted that there was little good soap to be had in Cali-
fornia and set, down the fact as an indication of a general disinclination to use it;
but it is not impossible that the indifference he spoke of was due to the feeling
that its use involved an expenditure of energy which could not accomplish the ob-
ject that caused it to be put forth, as the dirt floors of the houses and the general
untidiness; of the surroundings of the home must have demanded an incessant ap-
plication to secure results.
The limited use of soap is more interesting viewed from the standpoint of the
economist than from that of the sanitarian , because it calls attention to the fact
that the Californians were in the habit of shipping out of the country great quan-
tities of raw material which with the expenditure of a ilittle energy could have
been converted into the best of cleansing agents. That it was not so employed
can only be attributed to the operation of; a system which stifled ambition by nar-
rowing the field of human desire.
This contradiction was witnessed on every hand. It exhibited itself in the case
with which the relation of dependent was accepted, and in the cheerful acquiescence
of those who with a little exertion might have provided themselves with many
luxuries of which they deprived themselves. It would be a mistake, however, to
attribute this deprivation to the spirit of voluntary self denial. The jascetic ten-
dency was by no means prevalent. It did not even have as a basis the philosophic
thought that the most things imen use are superfluities and can be dispensed with.
Californians were contented because their training, and that of their ancestors
had been along lines which permitted them to think leniently of the shiftless and
incompetent members of society.
There is no contradiction involved in this assumption. It exhibited itself in the
fact that the most of the Californians were almost childlike in their eagerness to se-
cure and enjoy tilings which they were incapable of making themselves. Although
their habitual diet was as plain as that of a Kentucky frontiersman in the days of
Daniel Boone they craved luxuries and were always ready to purchase them when
the adventurous trader brought them to their doors. Even in the best households,
where as a rule there was plenty to eat the bill of fare was of the shortest and was
scarcely ever varied. Fresh beef and frijoles with tortillas appeared on the |table
day after day. The beef was usually roasted on the coals, but sometimes boiled.
Vegetables were scarce and fruit was almost unknown outside the missions. There
was a little chocolate and sugar brought from Mexico consumed by the very well
to do, but no other beverages such as other people take at their meals were common.
The cooking was as wretched as the bill of fare was limited. The tortillas
SAN FRANCISCO 55
which served as bread were thin cakes of maize flour which was ground on metates.
They were baked before the fire or like griddle cakes on sheets of heated iron.
An inordinate fondness for hogs' lard was a trait not suggestive of epicurianism.
A favorite dish was boiled beans afterwards fried in hogs' fat which was used
without stint when it could be commanded. The use of olive oil appears to have
been very limited. Outside of the mission at San Diego which contained a grove
there were few olive trees planted, a singular circumstance considering the .^marked
predilection for this vegetable oil in Spain, and all the more remarkable as the
olive once it begins to produce continues to bear indefinitely. The trees in the mis-
sion orchard in the oldest mission, which were set out nearly a century and a half
ago are still producing.
CHAPTER IX
LIFE IN CALIFORNIA BEFORE THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
SOME SQUALID FEATURES DRINKING AND GAMBLING VICES ADOPTED BY NEW COMERS
THE CALIFORNIA BULL RING EXTRAVAGANT HABITS EASILY ACQUIRED TRADING
INSTINCT NOT HIGHLY DEVELOPED EXCESSIVE FEAR OF LUXURIOUS HABITS THE
TROUBLESOME RUSSIANS CAUSES OF CALIFORNIAN BACKWARDNESS YANKEE TRAD-
ERS ON THE COAST SMUGGLING A FINE ART CELEBRATIONS AT THE MISSION ST.
FRANCIS AN UNCONVENTIONAL PEOPLE SEXUAL MORALITY.
N AMERICAN writer reviewing the conditions existing in
California before the occupation declares that the nearest
approach to Arcadian life was that reached by the people
during its pastoral age. His assumption is somewhat at
variance with the facts as he presents them, and hardly
accords with the ideas of simplicity which permeate the
sixteenth century romances. The lives of the Californians
were by no means idyllic. The military taint, and imported urban vices, .divested
them of the characteristics pertaining to purely rural communities.
The rural side of life in mission days ,was the most pronounced, and in many
parts the pastoral was most in evidence, but there is less suggestion of Arcadia
than of Homeric days. While not deserving the appellation of ^ quarrelsome, the
Californians were by no means Quakers. Their padres may have taught them that
peace was desirable, but they often were at outs with each other and their brief
history is filled with tales of conflicts which might have made their story a tragic
one if it were not for the disposition to act very much as the modern French duelist
is charged with doing when he enters upon an affair of "honor."
It is not of these idiosyncrasies, however, that we are thinking when we reject
the Arcadian assumption to accept which we must believe that a spirit of real con-
tentment existed and accounted for a condition approximating primitiveness. There
is nothing admirable in the "simple life" of the early Californians, because on oc-
casion they displayed that it was not voluntarily assumed, and as a rule they ex-
hibited a readiness to accept urban vices without offering the excuses which are
tendered by the dwellers in cities when charged with laxity.
The domestic merry makings and their brighter side were dwelt on in another
chapter, but no reference was made to the well established fact that they were
oftener than otherwise attended by exhibitions of drunkenness, the result of an
indulgence in the fiery spirituous liquor known as aguardiente. This was a vice
to which the Mexicans were addicted and was imported into the province by the colo-
nists, many of whom were not of .^irreproachable character.
57
Natives
were not
Quakers
Drunkenness
and Gam-
bling
58
SAN FRANCISCO
Another vice freely indulged in was that of gambling, which likewise formed
a leading attraction of all gatherings, the purely domestic as well as the public.
Weddings, christenings, and occasions unconnected with religious ceremonies were
alike enlivened by the presence of the gamester, who not infrequently was a "pro-
fessional" if that word may be properly applied to a practice like gambling.
It is not in a spirit of pharisaism ^that an American writer should approach this
subject, as many have done, but rather as an investigator seeking an explanation of
phenomena whose outward manifestations are calculated to deceive; and it, may as
well be said at the outset, in order to divest the assertions here made of unfairness,
that after the occupation the gringo who dispossessed the native Californian out-
Heroded Herod, and that he furnished a more striking example of the lengths to
which man may go in his endeavor to secure something without working for it
than any other people on the globe.
It may be justly claimed as a mild sort of extenuation for the excesses of the
first few years after the American occupation that they were to some extent the
result of an existing condition. Had the gold hunters found their way into an
environment of another kind, one in which gambling was vigorously deprecated,
even when practiced, there would have been no such flagrant exhibitions of disre-
gard for morality and the conventions of an advanced civilization as were witnessed
in pioneer days in this City.
It cannot be urged that the vice of gambling was inherited, but it is true that
the propensity to do as Romans do when in Rome had a liberal exemplification in
the closing years of the "Forties" of the last century and in the first years of the
ensuing decade. Before our flag floated over Monterey gambling was interdicted
nowhere in California. Professional gamesters were on hand wherever the people
were gathered together for any purpose and they plied their vocation openly, and
all classes risked^their money in the hope of ^vinning.
Betting was carried to excess at horse racing, and no Californian ever thought
of urging that the sport he was so fond of had for its purpose the improvement
of the breed of horses. He was not temperamentally truthful, but he would have
scorned to make believe that he had any other object in view in attending a race
than securing the pleasure he derived from witnessing the contest, and the oppor-
tunity it afforded him to bet his money on the result, which he did with an amazing
disregard of the consequences to himself and family. There were few Califor-
nians who wholly escaped the vice, and there were many who did not hesitate to
stake their last .peso, or the saddle on the back of their horse, and even the clothes
on their own backs, when other money or property were unavailable for the purpose.
The taste for the bull ring was not indigenous ; it came into the country through
Mexico, but the sport as displayed in California had modifications which were the
outcome of the general proficiency in horsemanship which asserted itself rather in
showing skill in handling the beast to be attacked than in efforts to elude its fury,
or to show superiority by slaying it for the gratification of the onlookers. The
strict rules of the game as it was played in Spain were sometimes adhered to but
oftener than otherwise the effort of the bull baiter was confined to ^dexterously
throwing down the animal by a peculiar twist of the tail, and to keeping out of its
way until this feat was achieved. On great occasions, however, such as the Mexi-
can national holiday of September 16th, the baited brute would be stuck full of
skewers adorned with ribbons and a real feast of blood would be afforded. Most
SAN FRANCISCO
59
amusement was derived from turning a bull and bear into an enclosure to fight for
the mastery. It was less hazardous watching them than encountering an enraged
bull even when the latter had its horns sawed off as a measure of safety for the
bold matador.
It would be hard to establish a theory of Arcadian simplicity out of the mate-
rial which the annals of early California furnish, or indeed of simplicity of any
sort excepting that of a dense general ignorance. The "simple life" of the Cali-
fornians did not stand for self abnegation, as we shall see later on when we
examine the records and find disclosed the fact that there was an eager desire to
share in luxuries, an echo of the enjoyment of which came to them from the outside
world when a traveler penetrated their country, or which were hinted at in the
stocks carried in the trading vessels visiting the coast for the purpose of obtaining
cargoes of hides and tallow.
When such opportunities presented themselves they were eagerly seized by all
classes able to buy; and it was to this propensity that many of them owed their
undoing. Long after American was substituted for Mexican rule the Californians
continued to bewail the facility with which the outsider was able to strip them of
their possessions in a perfectly legitimate manner. Their plaint amounted to a
virtual admission that they were as incompetent as children to take care of them-
selves, and that like children they were ready to pay the price for anything that
caught their fancy.
It was to this shortcoming that many of the foreigners who entered the province
and engaged in business owed their prosperity. In the arena of trade the native
Californian exhibited no more skill than he did in the workshop or in the field.
The Spaniard and his descendants stood idly by while Frenchmen, Englishmen and
Americans conducted thriving businesses. They did not hold aloof because they
despised trade ; the Spanish grandee in his home might have had a genuine con-
tempt for such dealings, but his new world offshoots did not refrain from trading
on that account. Their lack of energy and incapacity for initiative of any kind
were the real obstacles to their engaging in commerce and not Castillian pride.
If the native Californians had possessed any of those qualities which make great
trading peoples they would have soon disposed of the restraints placed upon them
by Spain and later by Mexico. The American colonists when the mother country
sought to bring them into harmony with her commercial system by taxing tea with-
out previously obtaining their consent, boarded the ships bringing it and threw
their cargoes overboard. The Spanish settlers in California, from the beginning,
quietly acquiesced in a system which made them dependent upon the Crown for
supplies of foreign things, and they were only heard in feeble protest when through
neglect the galleons which were supposed to put in an appearance at stated inter-
vals failed to do so, and threw them wholly on their own resources, or compelled
them to resort to illicit trade to eke out their wants which, under such circum-
stances necessarily were limited.
In describing the long quest for a passage to India mention was made of the
trade with the Philippines and the efforts made to retain it exclusively in Span-
ish hands. The transports engaged in this business were not permitted to pursue
it after the fashion of men bent upon securing all the profit which the traffic might
bring. In the beginning they were placed under restrictions which indicated a
paternal solicitude for the consumer, and also some of that spirit which signalizes
Spanish Re-
straint not
Resented
Trade with
the Philip-
SAN FRANCISCO
Abatement
of Trade
ReBtrictions
modern times, and which has for its object the prevention of great riches being
acquired by traders. The king was insistent that the vessels in the Philippine
trade which had formerly made Cape San Lucas their port of call should continue
to make regular visits to the coast of California, and in 1782 had made an order that
they should put in at San Francisco or Monterey, but as the interdictions of trade
remained in force, there was little or no disposition on the part of the colonists to
accumulate for the purpose of making exchanges.
The necessities of the missions and the colonists in 1786 caused the Crown to
remove restrictions for a period of five years, during which transports were per-
mitted to trade ^more freely, and this permit was further extended in 179 J', but it
is significant of the spirit of the times and the attitude of the people that Governor
Fages in 1791 expressed apprehension that the relaxation would prove conducive
to luxury. His warning voice must have been heeded in Madrid for in 1797 pleas
for more commercial privileges urged by Borica and Manuel Carcaba received
no attention, and the same inattention to colonial needs was manifested as during
the years prior to the temporary removal of restrictions.
If the Spanish, in attempting to hold the trade for themselves, had imitated
the examples of the English, and vigorously sought to cultivate their opportunities
for commercial profit, the outcome would have been different. But their jealousy
accomplished nothing more than to prevent anyone deriving advantage and kept
the people of California in a condition bordering on absolute stagnation. This
jealousy exhibited itself in many forms, sometimes, as in the case of Fages, who
was perhaps inspired by the missionary idea that the people might become cor-
rupted by luxury, it was based on considerations for the moral welfare of the inhab-
itants of the coast; but in most instances it was due to the apprehension that if the
foreigner was permitted to trade with Californians he might pave the way to
seizing the country.
In 1788 Martinez actually recommended to the viceroy a plan for the acquisi-
tion of Hawaii and the planting thereon of an establishment, and the reduction of
the islanders so that the possibility of the island being used as a port of refuge by
foreigners would be destroyed. He urged in support of his recommendation that
the facilitation of commerce which would follow the use of Hawaii as a port of
refuge must prove a menace to California, and while his suggestion was not acted
upon there is every reason to believe that his arguments were sound. Nothing was
done in the premises, for long before Martinez sounded his warning Spain had
dropped out of the habit of doing things.
The failure to take steps to prevent encroachments were wholly due to the
cause last mentioned and not to any feeling of security. That was non existent,
but the apprehension, which seemed to be a pervading state ,of mind in Madrid,
Mexico and in California, was not of the kind calculated to interpose obstacles to
the accomplishment of the dreaded result. The attempts of the Russians to secure
a foothold in California, to all appearances, were regarded with alarm, and there
are documents in which may be found vigorous instructions imposing upon someone
the necessity of getting rid of them; but for a long period, comparatively speaking,
they were allowed to do pretty much as they pleased in the vicinity of San Fran-
cisco bay ; probably because there was no force adequate to the carrying out the rec-
ommendations made by superiors located at the seats of government.
SAN FRANCISCO
61
The inaction in the case of the Russians affords another illustration of the
ineptitude of the Californians which was scarcely disguised by professions of fear
for the integrity of the Spanish territory on the Pacific coast, or by moral consid-
erations such as those put forward by Fages. The suppression of trade had no
effect in repressing desire; it simply made it difficult or impossible to obtain things
eagerly longed for by all classes, even the padres sharing in the longing.
When the "Juno" entered the harbor of San Francisco in 1806 on her errand
of securing supplies for the employes of the Russian ^ establishment in Alaska, she
brought many articles which Langsdorff, the chronicler of the voyage, says the
missionaries were well pleased with. Among them were linen cloths, Russian tick-
ing and English woolen cloth. But the things inquired for which the "Juno" was
unable to supply, when enumerated give a better idea of the combined results of
restriction and inefficiency. There was a demand for tools for the mechanical
trades, implements of husbandry, household utensils, shears for shearing sheep,
axes, large saws for, sawing out planks, iron cooking vessels, casks, bottles, glasses,
fine pocket handkerchiefs, leather, particularly calf skins and sole leather, and
the ladies at the presidio sought cotton fabrics, shawls, striped ribbons and other
articles of adornment. /
There is a suggestion in the not unnatural demand of the women for articles of
finery of the decided formation of habits of luxury, but in the ,long list of almost
indispensable things we discover evidence of needs, the failure to meet which must
be held responsible for the backwardness of the province. In it we also have pre-
sented a picture, the details of which may easily be filled in, of a community liv-
ing in the midst of a region of plenty, yet unable to command the simplest articles
of common use, such as are found in the household of the least rewarded mechanic
or laborer of the present day. And it must be borne in mind that this deprivation
was not merely felt by the poor; it was also suffered in common by all the inhabit-
ants from highest to lowest.
It is from the study of such demands and the inadequate fashion in which they
were met that we may obtain the best knowledge of the actual conditions existing in
California during mission days, and not from loose statements suggestive of Ar-
cadian simplicity. And the inquiry will not be made in vain if it serves to make
clear the fact, which is too often lost sight of, that the theories respecting the
difficulties of an increasing population gaining a livelihood are untenable. The
accuracy of the Malthusian assumption that population must ultimately press on
the limit of subsistence may be demonstrated mathematically, but it is far easier
to prove that people invite suffering and want by their failure to guard against them.
Had the early Californians made use of their opportunities they could have
provided themselves with most of the things which they so eagerly demanded, and
which they were only permitted to obtain under suffrance. After the year of the
arrival of the "Juno," and even before that date, the enterprising Yankee had
gained a knowledge of their needs, and what the}' had to offer in order to obtain
the things necessary to satisfy them. The cargoes brought by these enterprising
purveyors tell a story of their own which is very interesting and throws valuable
side lights on the mode of life and even affords some illuminating hints respecting re-
ligious usages and the attitude of the people towards those managing their spirit-
ual affairs.
Yankee Trad-
ers Visit
tile Coast
62
SAN FRANCISCO
It has been mentioned by the chronicler of the "Juno's" voyage that the padres
were well pleased to obtain certain articles brought by that vessel from Sitka, but
the privilege was reserved for a Boston skipper to make a plea in extenuation of
an infraction of the custom's laws, that he was actually making it possible to prop-
erly perform the ceremonies of the church by smuggling into the country many
things imperatively required.
This man fertile in excuses was Captain George Washington Eayrs, whose ves-
sel, the "Mercury," was seized for smuggling in 1813. When caught in the act
Eayrs did not bother the United States government to help him out of his diffi-
culty, but set up the plea that he was not conscious of having done anything ^vrong.
On the contrary he asserted that he should be regarded as a benefactor rather
than as a, malefactor as he had "provided the priests with what they required for
instructing the natives and for the ceremonies of religion." He added, "they have
paid me with provisions and some few otter skins. I have clothed many naked,
and they have ^ given me in return products of the soil, as the officers of this dis-
trict can inform your excellency."
The padres and the officers appealed to were quite ready to back up Captain
Eayrs, but when we examine the list of the articles brought to the coast for trad-
ing purposes by the "Mercury" we discover that it embraced many things not
usually regarded as the necessaries of life, nor as essentials of Arcadian simplicity.
Among them we find mention of hardware, crockery, fish hooks, gimpowder, cotton
cloth and blankets, camelshair shawls, Chinese silks of various colors, and a par-
ticularly admired rose shade, white lady's cloth, fine kerchiefs, decorated water
jars, gilded crystal stands, flowered cups for broth, porcelain plates, platters with
red and green flowers upon them, shaving basins, black mantillas, etc., etc.
We fail ,to discern in the long list any articles particularly devoted to church
uses, but there is no doubt that the claim was justified, and that the kindly inter-
vention of Captain Eayrs helped the padres to make their churches more attractive
in appearance, and their ceremonials impressive. These were the chief diversions
on the religious side of the Californians, every feast day being signaUzed by pro-
cessions in which the most magnificent vestments attainable were brought into
requisition, together with silken banners and other religious insignia.
In the accounts we have of the equipment of the expeditions formed for the
purpose of reducing Upper California, there is frequent mention of the provision
of ^vestments, altar utensils, and other articles demanded by the elaborate cere-
monial of the Catholic church ; and occasionally there are intimations that the sup-
ply was not as great as desired. It is not improbable that the silks and some of
the other articles brought by the "Mercury" were employed to replenish the store
which must have become depleted by years of wear. The powder, too, we may as-
sume, was requisitioned for the church feasts, in which musketry discharges as well
as music played a part.
The population of the locality in which the Mission of St. Francisco was situated
was not sufficiently large to afford the necessary actors for the morality plays
which are described by some of the early visitors, but the old church still standing
in the mission had its share of celebrations, which were probably as instructive to
the neophytes as the religious spectacle of "Holy Night," which we are told was
produced in San Diego with great splendor and much realistic effect. This drama
was enacted after the midnight mass and was participated in by several persons.
d^TTS^H
Jm
11
i
a
i
^
OB
San Francisco Water Fror
H
the LantVs End.
[^
The Golden Gate, from Boulevard.
m
SAN FRANCISCO
63
male and female, who took ^the parts of Lucifer, the Archangel Gabriel, a hermit,
a lazy vagabond and shepherdesses. The action represented a conflict of Satan
with the angel, in which the champion of the heavenly hosts always won.
The music in the mission chapels was of a somewhat better order than that
produced at the dances. The padres taught the Indians to play on several instru-
ments and helped out themselves. It is related of Pius X, that he took serious
exceptions to the use of airs derived from operatic scores by Catholic church
choirs, but the missionaries were not so particular. If we may accept the assurance
of Duflat de Mofras he heard the Marseillaise played as an accompaniment to a
mass at the Mission Santa Cruz. He did not mention the fact censoriously but
rather as a curious matter; perhaps because the sentiment back of the French
revolutionary hymn was so much at variance with the extreme conservatism of
the padres. ^
There were other practices of the native Californians which gave them a repu-
tation for unconventionalism, but most of them may be set down to ignorance of
the usages of polite society rather than any desire to adhere to the tenets of the
simple life. The desire to make a display was sufficiently pronounced, but the
equipment was defective. The etiquette of the table varies greatly in different
lands and what is good manners in one place may easily be regarded as bad form
in another. Therefore it is unnecessary to dwell with too much emphasis on such
stories as that related of a visitor on board one of the trading ships who was much
disappointed in not obtaining the same aromatic result from grating the end of his
thumb nail into a glass of punch as his neighbor who used a spicy nutmeg; or that
of the other ranchero who found the sauce of the pudding so much to his liking
that he consumed the contents of the sauce dish and asked for more.
It is idle to discuss the question of the morality of the sexes; and certainly it
is unwise to make sweeping assertions. Dana spoke slightingly of the women,
but he was contradicted point blank by other writers, who had better opportuni-
ties for observation and whose knowledge of Spanish and of Californian manners
made them better qualified to pass judgment. iThe duena system prevailed, but
more as a tradition than because its necessity was recognized. Perhaps the earlier
writers are not entitled to as much consideration in determining the matter as ob-
servers who came much later. It may be affirmed with positiveness, that unless
twenty years of American rule in California ^vastly changed the character of the
native women the standard of morality was as high among them as in any other
modern nation. i
There is no doubt that after the secularization of the missions, and when the
padres had completely parted with their powers, there was a marked change in
the devotion to religious observances which in many cases, especially when unions
were formed with Protestants, approached close to the border of absolute indiffer-
ence, ,but native California women were not singular in that regard, and their
indifferentism did not appear to undermine their morals; as for the men, religion
never was their strong point, and the padres had to be content with their outward
observances of its forms, and a more or less lukewarm compliance with the de-
mands of the church.
Indians
Taught
Ignorance
of PoUte
Religrions
Sentiment
Relaxed
CHAPTER X
BEGINNING OF THE AMERICAN INVASION OF CALIFORNIA
THE FIRST SETTLERS OF SAN FRANCISCO MEXICAN OPINION OF CALIFORNIA AMERICAN
CRITICISM OF SPANISH METHODS RESTRICTIONS ON IMMIGRATION FOREIGNERS
WELCOMED BY CALIFORNIA WOMEN THE FIRST AMERICAN INTRUDERS RUMORED
SEIZURE OF THE PORT OF SAN FRANCISCO FRICTION WITH FOREIGNERS INTRIGU-
ING AMERICANS TRADE WITH NEW MEXICO ADVANCE GUARD OF THE AMERICAN
INVASION AGGRESSIVENESS OF AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS.
HE composition of the population during the mission period
has been indirectly alluded to in the preceding chapters,
but its changing complexion at various intervals, especially
after the successful Mexican revolution, makes it more fit-
ting to attempt to describe its source and peculiarities by
including the immigrants whose presence in the country
anticipated and to a considerable extent promoted the
scheme of American occupation.
It is quite clear that the animating purpose of the Franciscans who assisted in
the work of reducing the province was the conversion of the Indians and not the
opening of the lands to settlement. Whatever may have been the views of the
Spanish authorities in the premises they were completely subordinated to the
exigencies of the situation which compelled the acceptance of such settlers as of-
fered themselves, ^and they were as a rule of an inferior character and sometimes
very disreputable.
The first expeditions were military rather than industrial, and those composing
them had no stomach for work, and they soon fell, into the habit of shifting every-
thing like exertion onto the Indians who accepted Christianity and by so doing
placed upon their necks the yoke of slavery. Perhaps had they been formed of
better material the men composing the garrison of the presidio might have assisted
in forwarding the work of development in spite of their disinclination for work,
but unfortunately for the country they were in large part, in the beginning, mem-
bers of the poverty stricken region of Northern Mexico, the backward condition of
which was due to the general incapacity of the inhabitants who were in a constant
state of pauperism.
It may be inferred from a publicly expressed opinion of one of the governors
of Upper California that it was a place too good for convicts but not inviting
enough for decent people to make their home in it, that it had a bad reputation in
Mexico and perhaps a worse one in Spain. Those who have paid any attention
to the subject will recall that for a time after the discovery of gold a like impres-
Vol. 1—6
65
First Settlers
of San
Francisco
Soldiers
Disinclined
to Work
SAN FRANCISCO
Mistaken
Opinions of
Mexicans
Habits Easily
Acquired
Early Comers
Sharp Critics
Restrictions
Upon Immi-
sration
sion prevailed in the Eastern states of the Union, derived from the statements of
those who misjudged the capabilities of the country because it did not present the
same characteristics as the regions with which they were acquainted, and whose
absence they assumed would offer insuperable obstacles to agricultural productivity.
The Spaniards and the Mexicans had little excuse for making such a blunder,
for in its general aspects Upper California closely resembled many parts of Spain,
and did not essentially differ from a good deal of Mexico except in one particular.
In both of the countries named successful efforts had been made to bring under
cultivation land which, however uninviting it may appear before the application of
water, after it is applied surpasses all other Idnds in productivity. As the earliest
settlers could not have been unaware of this fact it must be assumed that it was
an unconquerable aversion for work of any sort which caused the neglect that
occasioned the bad reputation which they perhaps welcomed because it afforded
them immunity from adverse criticism.
It is quite certain that they enjoyed such immunity during the entire period
from the establishment of the first mission in San Diego until four or five years
after the American occupation. The first Americans who entered the country
neither by word nor example rebuked the Californians. Unless the records are
very misleading they promptly fell in with the customs of ^the country, and soon
learned to adopt the fallacies of the inhabitants among which were embraced the
settled conviction that its cliief if not its only value was for grazing purposes.
When criticism began it was of the sharpest. The Americans regarded with
scorn the inefficiency of the earlier occupants of the land and sweepingly asserted
that the soldiers at the presidios were of no value as settlers and even of less
account as wj/rriors. They declared that they were utterly without discipline,
were wretchedly underpaid and that they were riotous and indolent and gave the
mission fathers more trouble than the Indians. They were commonly, they asserted,
the refuse of the Mexican army, or deserters, mutineers or men guilty of military
offense who were sent to California as a place of penal banishment. Not infre-
quently convicted felons were sent to the presidios and their presence was not cal-
culated to elevate the general tone of the society.
These were the views entertained by the Americans who thronged into the
country after the discovery of gold, and they might properly be suspected of ex-
aggeration if they were ^not amply corroborated by the testimony of the padres,
Mexican officials and others whose disinterestedness is not open to question. They,
perhaps, more nearly described the condition existing after the Mexican revolu-
tion, but with some modification they apply equally to the whole period of Spanish
and Mexican rule.
In the Fifties when the municipal troubles of San Francisco assumed such pro-
portions that drastic measures had to be taken to suppress them the condition was
attributed to the mixed character of the population, but no such excuse could be
offered by the Spaniards or Mexicans for their shortcomings. Jealousy of for-
eigners had always characterized the Spanish and the feeling was inherited by
their Mexican successors. There were laws which permitted immigration, but
there were so many restrictions accompanying them they were practically with-
out effect. As a consequence there never was any considerable number attempting
to enter the country, and the few who did would not be regarded as the flower
of the lands to which they owed their origin.
SAN FRANCISCO
67
Outside of the Russians who penetrated California in the early part of the
nineteenth century, and who were not absorbed in the general society, the first
foreigners to make their homes in the province were deserters and shipwrecked
sailors. The earliest of these was a young Briton who in 1814 reached the coast in
a British vessel and found it sufficiently to his liking to remain. The town of
Gilroy is named after him. He became a Catholic, married and was admitted to
citizenship a few years later. About the same time an American carpenter and
an Irish weaver took up their abode and assumed Spanish names, a practice very
generally resorted to by the settlers of this period.
A nominal acceptance of the Catholic faith was a prerequisite to toleration, and
if the conversion was complete, and accompanied by marriage to a Californian
girl there was an approach to something like a welcome at least by the women
who showed a decided inclination for the strangers, while the males of the fam-
ily usually regarded them with distrust until their superior energy won for them
a place in the community. It is a matter of record that the most of these mar-
riages turned out fortunate, probably because the foreign husbands had a keener
appreciation of the necessity of providing for their wives and offspring, with the
result that they became forehanded, often converting the land poverty of the girl
and her relatives into comparative affluence.
In 1826 a law was passed by the Mexican congress prohibiting foreigners
from entering the country without a proper passport. It was not called for by
any great influx of outsiders, for as late as 1829 there were only 44 foreigners
in Monterey. Its probable inspiration was the arrival in the first named year of
a party of Americans who came into the country overland. It was headed by Jed-
ediah Smith, who had been authorized by the United States executive authorities
to hunt and trade west of the Rocky Mountains. They entered the desert country
near the Colorado river and were in grave straits because of the failure of their
supplies. They managed, however, to reach San Gabriel in Los Angeles county
where they encountered trouble owing to the suspicions of the native Californians,
which were only appeased by the representations of the captains of foreign ves-
sels who certified to the honesty of their intentions. Subsequently they made
their way to San Francisco in search of supplies and were summoned before Gov-
ernor Echeandia at Monterey, and again were delivered from surveillance by the
interposition of sea captains. Smith and his party left San Francisco and pushed
toward the Columbia. Later he was killed by Indians.
The presence of Smith and his party caused a rumor to become current that
the United States had seized the port of San Francisco. Echeandia took occasion
to deny it, and in doing so intimated pretty broadly that the disposition to do so
undoubtedly existed, as it was by far the best harbor belonging to the Mexican
republic, and he cited in support of his belief that the Americans did not hesi-
tate to take the Floridas from Spain, and added that he had no doubt that they
would cheerfully round out their possessions by seizing California.
These foreigners who entered the country in a more regular fashion than the
deserters from ships were chiefly attracted by the colonization laws already re-
ferred to which provided for the disposition of vacant lands. The provisions were
very liberal and would undoubtedly soon have resulted in adding a considerable
number to the sparse population of the province if it were not for the interposi-
Settlers
Easily As-
similated
Meiican
Laws Pro-
Iiibited Imi
American
Immigrrants
SAN FRANCISCO
Colonization
Laws
1S24-2S
Foreigners
Self-Re-
liant
Intrienes
Agrainst
Foreigners
Tense Sit-
uation in
1833
tion of obstacles which were not lessened when the fear of an American influx took
possession of the authorities.
The laws dealing with colonization were passed in 1824 and in 1828. That
first enacted provided for the disposition of the public lands. Preference was given
to Mexicans, but foreigners who proposed to establish themselves in the country
were to enjoy certain immunities and were to share in the privilege of taking up
lands. These grants were not to exceed one square league of irrigable land, four
square leagues which depended upon the seasons and six square leagues suitable
for grazing. Colonists were, however, prevented from transferring their prop-
erty in mortmain, nor were they permitted to retain the granted lands in the
event of their leaving California.
While the law extended these privileges to foreigners, Californian sentiment
was not favorable to the law, and the dislike to see it executed was made mani-
fest in many ways. Manuel Victoria in a report charged that Abel Steam's only
object in becoming a citizen was to acquire land. He also accused John B. E.
Cooper with being animated by the same purpose, and he pretty broadly inti-
mated that the padres whose hostility to the new government was pronounced
were aiding them in their attempts to secure large tracts. There is little doubt
concerning the correctness of Victoria's accusations. The event justified the charge
as they both succeeded in getting immense grants.
In 1829 Alphonso Robinson, who came to the coast after hides and tallow, heard
rumors of the intention of the Californians to seize the property of foreigners.
The country was filled with convicts and an uprising was actually planned by them
but they never attempted to carry it out. Robinson furnishes an explanation of their
inaction in his statement that the foreigners were perfectly able to take care of
themselves. The ostentatious placing of a bell on the top of his store room in
Monterey probably served to warn the desperate characters of the reception they
might receive if it was tapped to bring Americans together to defend themselves.
Although the better sort of Californians had no connection with these contem-
plated uprisings they were by no means pleased at the prospect of being driven
out by the foreigners, and a faction at the head of which was Pico charged that
their rivals were being assisted by them. The accusation was made by them that
Zamorano, with whom they were at loggerheads, had no other support than that af-
forded by a company made up of deserters from ships, some of whom had been
prosecuted for bad conduct.
In 1833 the situation was quite tense. Jose Figueroa, the governor, was par-
ticularly concerned about the presence of Americans and Russians, and his uneasi-
ness was shared by Father Guitierez of San Francisco who said the foreigners "made
his soul sick." He declared that the Russians on the one side and the Americans on
the other were possessing themselves of the fertile lands of the frontier "which
he said should be reserved for Californians." He specifically charged that a party
of some forty Americans, English and French was corrupting the Indians and
teaching them Iiow to steal, and urged that they should be expelled on that account.
He also objected to their presence on the ground that some of them were heretics.
Figueroa took up these charges and directed M. G. Vallejo to give particular
attention to the actions of the Russians. Vallejo apparently did not svmpathize
with Guitierez for he retorted in a report that the missionaries were the cause
of the hostility of the Indians on the northern side of the bay, and that there was
SAN FRANCISCO
little to fear from the Russians, as Fort Ross was a post of traders rather than of
soldiers. The difference between Figueroa and the Californians in Sonoma, and
around the bay generally, became so acute and he became so unpopular that he
was finally expelled. That the American contingent took an active part in the
movement that led to this result is evident; and that Figueroa greatly resented their
interference in California affairs may be inferred from his bitter tirade against
Stearns on an occasion when he denounced him as a despicable foreigner, unfit to
associate with honorable gentlemen.
That the Americans who entered the country were sometimes of the sort cal-
culated to disturb the equanimity of a people less jealous of foreigners than the
Spaniard the records show. Isaac Graham certainly came in this category. He
■was a trapper who had gathered about him a number of men engaged in the same
pursuit. In addition to hunting for furs he carried on the business of illicitly dis-
tilling aguardiente which he sold in defiance of the authorities who were unable to
prevent the trade although it was by no means clandestine. Graham, perhaps for
the purpose of self protection, organized those about him into a military company
whose services were commanded by the highest bidder.
In one of the quarrels between the factions Graham and his followers were en-
gaged to take part against Alvarado and the latter, acting on information which
caused him to believe that a revolution was contemplated, ordered Jose Castro to
arrest them. Castro succeeded in surprising and capturing the entire gang who
were loaded on a vessel and shipped to Mexico to be tried. The impending troubles
with the United States saved them from the fate which they doubtless deserved,
even though the charge of revolutionary intent may have been groundless. There
were other offenses committed by them which would only have been tolerated by a
government conscious of its weakness.
In addition to the trappers who found the region about the Bay of San Fran-
cisco more favorable to their pursuit than the country further south, that section
was receiving some accessions to its population through a trade with New Mexico
which sprung up in 1833. As already related the inefficiency of the Californians
rendered them absolutely dependent upon the outside world for nearly everything
but the barest necessaries of life. Particularly were they in need of clothing, and
this want was in large part supplied by New Mexicans who brought blankets and
scrapes to California and exchanged them for mules. Every expedition of the enter-
prising New Mexicans resulted in leaving some of its members behind, and the
route over which they traveled pointed out the way to American Southerners who
even at that time had set covetous eyes on the promised land.
But the true advance guard of the American invasion was composed of Mis-
sourians who left Independence in May, 1841, entering the country through Walk-
er's pass. There were about sixty in this party which contained several members
whose names were prominently identified later with California affairs. Among
them were John Bidwell, Joseph B. Chiles, Josiah Belden, Charles M. Weber,
Charles Happer, Henry Huber, Talbot H. Green, Robert Rykman, Charles W.
Fliigge, Benjamin Kelsey, Andrew Kelsey, Grove C. Cook and Elias Barnett.
There was no question about the purpose of these men. They were in search of
land on which to make homes, and probably had the conditions been different they
would have become good Mexican citizens. But the jealousy so frequently alluded
to, and which was kept alive by knowledge of the fact that there were societies in
Graham's
Party Sent
to Mexico
Trappers
Around the
Bay of San
Francisco
.Advance
Guard of
American
lUTasion
70
SAN FRANCISCO
Feebleness
of Mexican
Government
Grabam
Released
the East, especially organized to promote emigration to the Columbia river region,
and to California, naturally made it impossible for the authorities to view the
advent of the strangers wth pleasure, or to welcome them; and it is not surpris-
ing that a disposition was shown to put up exclusion bars.
But the feebleness of the Mexican government prevented a resort to an ex-
treme course. In the affair with Graham, Governor Alvarado had acted vsdth reso-
lution and promptitude, but he received no support from the authorities in Mexico.
A few days after Castro had sailed for Mexico with his prisoners. Captain For-
rest of the corvette "St. Louis" arrived in Monterey and immediately took a hand
in the affair. He addressed a letter to Alvarado in which he denounced the capture
of Graham and his gang as an outrage, and demanded the arrest of those who had
committed the indignity of seizing American citizens engaged in extensive commer-
cial business. Alvarado replied justifying his action and said there was no dis-
position on the part of the government to interfere with foreigners engaged in
honest industry. The Mexican governor's attitude was dignified throughout, and
he was able to show that Graham and his company were not strictly honest, but
Mexico in IS^S deemed it prudent to release and indemnify the arrested men.
It is hardly to be wondered at that after such experiences the Americans were
emboldened to act pretty much as they pleased. But even before the arrest
and deportation of Graham and his release and indemnification, they assumed an
aggressive attitude and virtually denied the right of the Mexicans to exclude them or
place obstacles in their way of occupying the land. In 1839 quite a number of
Americans came into the country and in the succeeding year were followed by par-
ties from Oregon. These Vallejo sought to prevent landing, but they went to
the American consul and demanded passports, declaring that they would only wait
fifteen days to get them, and that if they were not received in that time they would
resort to arms to establish their rights. Their determined attitude had its effect
and no further attempt was made to disturb them.
CHAPTER XI
COVETOUS EYES CAST ON THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO
SEVERAL NATIONS ENVIOUS OF SPAIN THE SPANISH FAILURE TO MAKE USE OF THE
PORT OP SAN FRANCISCO THE PADRES AND THE MILITARY THE FATHERS OP-
POSED TO REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT POLITICAL SQUABBLES IN CALIFORNIA OF-
FICIAL LIFE UNDER SPANISH AND MEXICAN RULE MEXICO UNCONCERNED ABOUT
THE FATE OF CALIFORNIA CONCILIATORY AMERICANS FRENCH AND BRITISH
INTRIGUES STIMULATING DISLIKE OF AMERICANS FREMONT APPEARS ON THE
SCENE THE "PATHFINDERS" ACTIONS EXCITE SUSPICION.
HERE would be no excuse for presenting so much of what
may with propriety be regarded as California and not San
Francisco history, if it were not for the fact that the real
object of American desire was the bay, the value of which
was perfectly comprehended by the people of all civilized
countries, and which the leading nations of the world were
anxious to wrest from Spain. While most of the scenes of
the drama were enacted at a distance from its shores the actors knew what the prize
was, and in the struggle which was carried on over a large area they never lost sight
of the fact that San Francisco was the key of the situation.
The almost absolute indifference of the natives to the advantages of the mag-
nificent harbor, and the fact that they preferred to plant their capital at Monterey,
and that what little energy they displayed in developing the country was mostly
exerted at missions at a distance from San Francisco, may seem to contradict this
assumption, but the records clearly established that the Spanish, the Mexicans and
the people of California generally, appreciated the value of their jewel even while
they neglected to put it to use.
They were like the finder of a diamond in the rough, cut off from that part of
the world where gems are valued, and without any prospect of a market for his
treasure, which could only have value attached to it by cutting and exposing
its beauties and making them an object of desire. They, however, realized the
possibilities, and while totally lacking in the capacity to develop them, they
were quite ready to defend their prize and do everything in their power to prevent
it falling into the hands of those who might make use of it for their own profit.
But the incapacity which operated to prevent their developing the commercial
possibilities of the Bay of San Francisco, and the imperial region surrounding it,
asserted itself in every direction, and rendered them as incapable of defense as
they were industrially. Just how much of this benumbment was due to the mission
system it would be difficult to tell. The attentive reader of history may not be
ready to acquiesce in the assumption that the inculcation of the doctrine of
San Fran-
cisco Bay
71
72
SAN FRANCISCO
Warlike
Spirit Un-
^lubdned by
Relieion
Native
Calif omian
Political
Wrangles
Aatliorities
and the
Indians
Bnle Over-
thrown in
Mexico
"turning the other cheek" is always productive of humility and pusillanimity. There
were monks in Spain too, but it will be recalled that there were plenty of adventure-
some and brave men sent forth by that country, who gave good accounts of them-
selves on the field of battle, on the ocean and wherever danger might be encountered.
Religious teachings may have been the primary cause of the general decline of
prosperity in the middle ages, and the consequent arrestment of population ; but
it would be idle in the face of the evidence concerning the combativeness of the
period to assume that it greatly diminished the warlike spirit of the people. The
story of feudalism is a long recital of feats of arms, and struggles for supremacy,
in which personal valor, never surpassed under other systems, was constantly ex-
hibited.
The examples of the priests and the lives of the monks were powerless to ex-
tinguish the contentious spirit, but they were potent enough to bank the fires of
economic energy during centuries in the old world, and they accomplished a like re-
sult on a smaller scale in that portion of the new world whose fortunes we are describ-
ing. Thus it happened that in California between 1769 and 1846 a condition was cre-
ated which had all the characteristics of mediaevaUsm in an accentuated form, owing
to the racial admixture which under any circumstances, no matter how favorable,
must have produced bad results.
There was much wrangling throughout the whole period, and contests for su-
premacy which failed to reach the dignity of real conflicts, and never resulted in
the spilling of any considerable quantity of blood. The wretched administration of
affairs contributed to this condition. Petty restrictions and regulations were numer-
ous and exasperating but there was an entire absence of the firm hand. From the
beginning the Spanish government practiced a policy of practical non-interference
in temporal affairs ; no effort was made to keep up the civil establishments in a
fashion calculated to insure respect for the laws, the enforcement of which for
a time was assumed by the missionaries. A commandante general was appointed
by the crown to command the garrisons of the presidios, but he confined himself
almost wholly to the business of protecting the missions from the depredations of
Indians and left the priests to pass laws affecting property and even life and death.
Up to the time of the overthrow of Spanish rule in Mexico there was compara-
tively little friction between the peons and the secular authorities. The differences
that arose usually had their origin in the attempts to protect their charges from
aggression. The strict regulations designed for the purpose of keeping the soldiers
apart from the Indians occasionally precipitated trouble, and some instances are
recorded of demands for the punishment of sentries failing to respect the rights
of the cloth, but nothing of a serious character grew out of these trifling collisions,
and on the whole the relations of the padres and the military functionary were
pleasant.
The Spanish power in Mexico was overthrown in 1822 and two years later a
Republican constitution was framed. Under this new government Upper Califor-
nia became a Mexican territory under the title of "New California" and was ac-
corded a delegate in the congress of Mexico which met in the city of that name. No
attempt was at first made to curtail the powers or privileges of the missionaries.
The commandantes had a privy council, selected by the people and called a deputation
imposed upon them, but its functions were very limited and no particular desire
to exercise them was displayed.
SAN FRANCISCO
73
But with the growth of the spirit of republicanism new ambitions were created
which resulted in formidable breaches, and finally in the overthrow of the mission
system. The influence of the missionaries was exerted against the new govern-
ment, and it was some time before they accepted the constitution. In 1818, when
Monterey was attacked by insurgents from Buenos Ayres, Arguello had hastened by
forced marches to the assistance of Governor Sola. He favored the continuance
of the Spanish government, and was not disposed to contribute to the success of the
revolt.
His attitude was not generally approved ; there were some who strongly favored
the revolutionary movement, but that fact did not stimulate the Californians to
activity, and they contributed little to the cause of independence. Perhaps the
remoteness of the country from the capital contributed to that result; but the belief
was prevalent that it was the hostility of the missionaries which prevented action
which might have helped the cause ; and when the new government was firmly
established it took pains to frame a test oath which was as effective in its way in
bringing about an emigration of the padres as the decree framed in 1827 which
forbade any person of Spanish birth holding office in Mexico.
By this time the Californians had become so completely reconciled to the new
government that a proposal made to change the name of the territory to Montezuma
met with ready acceptance. The territorial assembly which dealt with the matter
had at the same time imder consideration a suggestion made by Echeandia, the
Mexican governor, to fasten on Los Angeles a designation which would have
greatly embarrassed the present population if it had been adopted, but the reso-
lutions were never heard of after being sent to the capitol for action.
It would be profitless to enumerate all the squabbles that ensued after the ac-
ceptance of the Mexican constitution. They must have been regarded as family
rows by the people at the capital, as no steps were taken to interfere; or perhaps
they had too many troubles of their own in Mexico to think of worrying about those
of remote California. They did not even take a hand when movements were started
which had for their object the expulsion of governors appointed by the central
authority. There was such an uprising in 18S2, and in 1835 there was one fo-
mented by the padres which was suppressed by Figueroa.
A prolific source of trouble was the location of the capital which had been at
Monterey from the earliest days of Spanish occupation. A decree had been se-
cured from the superior government in 1835 to transfer it to Los Angeles. The
measure was attributed to the intrigues of Pico who persisted in his efforts to make
the change down to the day of occupation. His zeal in the premises was so ardent
that in the assembly which convened in August, 1844, to deliberate upon the im-
pending trouble with the United States he sought to subordinate the main question,
that of removal, and succeeded in having that body compromise on Santa Inez,
until word could be received from the city of Mexico.
The prizes of office in California during the period were not great, but such as
they were they were eagerly sought after. In 1843 the aggregate amount of sal-
aries paid to officials was a little over $171,000 and this expenditure was cut down
to $132,000. A little incident which occurred during the incumbency of the gover-
norship by Alvarado throws a side light on the administration of financial affairs.
A treasurer who had been provided with $1,785 to be expended for a certain purpose
only used $215 of the amount. Alvarado was so surprised that such honesty should
Padres Hos-
tUeto
Repablic
Californians
Accept Xew
Government
Xnmerons
Political
Squabbles
Quarrels
Over Loca-
Capital
Official
Salaries
74
SAN FRANCISCO
Work of
Conqnest
Made Easy
Efforts to
Placate
Frnstrated
exist he offered to put the honest treasurer in charge of the custom house, but he
declined the position on the ground that he did not desire public employment of
any sort because of its precariousness.
This rapid survey of differences will enable the reader to form a judgment
whether the Californians were by training, experience or natural ability, capable
of successfully resisting the aggressions of a vigorous neighbor ; but when to the in-
formation is added the fact that there was the strongest kind of feeling against the
centralization of power in Mexico, which constantly manifested itself, and on one
occasion resulted in an effort to separate from Mexico and erect California into an
independent state, we cease to wonder that the work of American conquest was so
easily accomplished.
No help whatever was extended by the superior government to the authorities in
California and it might be supposed if it were not for occasional orders sent out
from Mexico that there was complete indifference to the fate of the territory.
There were sporadic exhibitions of wrath which had the effect of arousing such
Californians as were completely reconciled to the republican idea, but the people
generally were so apathetic that Americans who made it their business to inquire
into the situation were led to believe that when the crucial moment arrived there
would be no difficulty whatever in persuading Californians that they would be so
greatly benefited by a change that they would welcome the stars and stripes.
This expectation was not realized, but it might have been had matters been
managed more diplomatically, and with greater consideration for the feelings of
the Californians whose sensibilities were totally disregarded by Fremont and a
portion of his adherents who were contemptuous of the prowess of the native, and
were disposed to look upon any one who did not speak English as an inferior sort
of person, a propensity exhibited most freely by those least entitled by education
or any other qualification to pass judgment.
Had the desires of the more successful Americans who had managed to gain the
good will of their neighbors prevailed, the attempt to pave the way to an entirely
peaceful occupation would have succeeded. While there were sporadic displays of
dislike against foreigners, and especially against Americans, there is not the slightest
doubt that some of the latter were held in great esteem and possessed much in-
fluence. The material success of this class, while it inspired jealousy in the breasts
of some, convinced the more thoughtful of the better classes that their best in-
terest would be promoted by encouraging their enterprise even if all the rewards
from it did not come to them.
While the Americans who devoted themselves chiefly to the acquisition of land
as a rule fell easily into the slouchy habits of the Californians, and were too often
content to accept the conditions of life which the unenterprising natives had im-
posed on themselves, the Yankees who engaged in mercantile pursuits betrayed no
such shortcomings. They were not affected by the dolce far niente disposition of
those with whom they came in contact, and almost wholly escaped the prevailing
tendency to postpone until to-morrow. Their houses and other buildings were of
better construction than those of the natives and in other ways they set an example
which was not without some effect.
If this contingent had been allowed to assert its influence without interference,
there must have been some such result as that witnessed in Texas, which might have
been accomplished without any serious conflict, owing to the remoteness of Califor-
SAN FRANCISCO
75
nia from Mexico and to the impoverished condition of the Mexican exchequer which
would not have permitted the formation of an expedition of sufficient strength to
go several hundred miles to force an unwilling people to keep up a nominal al-
legiance to a state which had shown its incapacity to govern and its indifference to
the needs of California.
It was at one time assumed that dislike of Americans was excessive, and there
is considerable evidence that the British sought to profit by what they considered
an insuperable obstacle to a peaceful adhesion of Californians to the American
system. Great Britain and France were both apprehensive that the power of the
United States would be too greatly augmented by territorial accessions that would
give them an area of continental dimensions, stretching from ocean to ocean, and
containing on the Pacific a harbor which was by universal consent conceded to be one
of the finest in the world, and by reason of its situation was destined to be of com-
manding importance.
The desire of Britain took a preventive rather than an acquisitive form. Al-
though there is some testimony which points to plans for the acquirement of Cali-
fornia, the preponderance of evidence favors the belief that the British merely
hoped to see it erected into an independent state, whose authority might be guar-
anteed and thus prevent it falling into the hands of the United States.
Something like an active intrigue to produce that result was begun during the
vice consulship of James A. Forbes, who had been appointed to represent the British
government at Monterey. In 1842 Forbes began an inquisition into the feelings
of the Californians with a view of ascertaining how they would regard the extension
of a protectorate over them by Great Britain. Forbes seems to have shared the
opinion expressed by Eugene de Mofras, who in 1841 had predicted that it would be
the fate of California to be conquered by Great Britain or the United States unless
she placed herself under the benevolent protection of some European monarchy,
preferably that of France. But he must have been compelled to modify it to con-
form to the more reasonable plans of his superiors, who made use of California
as a club to beat down the American demand of extension to the line of fifty-four-
forty on the north.
Both de Mofras and Forbes were convinced that the Californians were antipa-
thetic to Americans, but they differed in regard to their attitude toward the Brit-
ish. De Mofras said that all the people of California were by religion, manners,
language and origin out of sympathy with Americans and English ; Forbes had
reason to believe that the feeling against his own countrymen was not general, but
on the contrary that they were well liked. He was certainly justified in thinking
that there were many Englishmen who were appreciated and who stood high in the
esteem of the Californians, while it is not so certain that the points of resemblance
indicated by the Frenchman predisposed the Californians to an alliance with a
country like France.
As a matter of fact both of these foreign critics were wrong. They did not
understand the situation, and but imperfectly comprehended the workings of the
Californian mind. They misinterpreted the indisposition shown at an earlier date
to sever relations with Spain and wholly failed to recognize the import of the
opposition to centralization, which was an exhibition of extreme republican senti-
ment rather than antagonism to Mexico. In short, they overlooked the fact that
Californians, like the Mexicans, and the other Latin American peoples who estab-
French and
British
Intrigues
Unavailing:
Efforts of
a Briton
Mistakes
of Foreign
Observers
76
SAN FRANCISCO
starts a
Back Fire
Fremont's
Marplot
Actions
Efforts to
Preserve
Harmony
lished republics after the destruction of Spanish rule, were admirers of the institu-
tions of the republic of the United States and that it would be difficult to persuade
them to any step which would oblige them to relinquish the desire to model upon
that country.
Larkin, the American consul, who was well informed concerning the efforts of
Forbes, who made no serious effort to conceal them, apparently had no doubt about
his ability to head off British and French intrigue. With or without authority he
at once started to back fire the work of the British consul, and fortunately for his
efforts the influence gained by the commercially inclined Americans proved suffi-
cient to nullify the advantage Forbes might have gained had all immigrants from
the United States been of the kind who made it their business to stir up animosity
by plainly betraying their contempt for Californians of every degree.
There were several, however, who contrived to remove, or at least modify the
bad impression made by the intemperate criticism of native shortcomings. They
were usually men of substance and had married women of the country. These few
without attempting to disguise their object persuaded some of the more influential
Californians that they would be wise to retain their original predilection for re-
publicanism, and that their best chance of achieving their desire for material pros-
perity would be to cast in their fortunes with the nation which had pioneered the
path of liberty in America and had announced its determination to prevent the
introduction or restoration of monarchial institutions in the western world.
The accounts all agree that these considerations and the arguments of Larkin
would have prevailed had it not been for the precipitate action of John C. Fre-
mont who, from the time of his first advent in California, had caused considerable
friction. It seems inconceivable that he should have planned to thwart a pro-
gramme of peaceful acquisition, but many of his actions point to something of that
sort. That he was not in complete accord with the authorities in Washington is
shown by the fact that he and Commodore Sloat worked at cross purposes. The
latter was acting under instructions which assumed that Americans would be re-
ceived with open arms ; Fremont on the other hand was pursuing a course which
has been characterized as a deliberate attempt to promote hostilities, and some
of his critics did not hesitate to assert that his object in so doing was to further his
personal ambitions.
That was the opinion entertained by man}' who had hoped to see California
accept the inevitable without protest, and who believed that the interests of natives,
and of Americans who were expected to seek homes in the country then so sparsely
settled, would be best served by maintaining harmonious relations. It should be
kept in mind that during the years immediately preceding the Mexican war the
outlook to Americans in California must have presented itself in a manner quite
different from that which shapes itself in our minds when dealing with the subject
retrospectively. There was then no thought of a rapid influx and swift growth
of population such as followed the gold discovery at Sutter's fort.
The probabilities must have formed the belief that the work of settlement
would proceed slowly, and there was reasonable ground for the fear that the crea-
tion of unnecessary enmities would retard development, and thus frustrate the
hopes which those familiar with the resources of the region had formed and which
furnished the excuse some of them desired to offer for violating an obligation they
had assumed when they sought Mexican citizenship.
CHAPTER XII
LABOR PROBLEM BEFORE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
CALIFORNIA AND THE SLAVEHOLDERS OF THE UNITED STATES CHINESE LABOR SUG-
GESTED AS EARLY AS 1806 INDIANS AS SLAVES THE INDIAN AN OBJECT OF DREAD
THE ATTEMPT TO ELEVATE THE INDIAN ENSLAVEMENT OF INDIAN CHILDREN
INDIANS CRUELLY TREATED NO REWARDS FOR THE INDIAN LABORER OPPOSITION
TO INDIAN PUEBLOS INDIAN PUEBLOS NOT A SUCCESS RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF
MISSION INDIANS UNSATISFACTORY RESULTS.
T MAY be interesting to conjecture how two difficult prob- California
lems would have been solved by the people of California o"* Slavery
had they been permitted to work out their solution slowly.
What would have happened if the reasonable anticipation
that population would necessarily grow slowly had been
realized, and instead of mining proving the dominating
factor, the cultivation of the soil had been the main occu-
pation of the inhabitants ?
The subject is usually approached from a standpoint which obscures the prob-
ability that California would have become a slave state had gold not been discov-
ered in sufficient quantities in 1848 to draw to it people from all quarters of the
earth, the majority of whom were opposed to the extension of the evil on American
soil. In that event it is not unlikely that the agricultural community which would
have grown up slowly would have been made up chiefly of recruits from the South-
ern states and they might have succeeded in carrying out the purpose which was
at the bottom of the aggressions upon Mexico of extending slavery to the coast.
The labor question in the province of California and later under Mexican rule Labor Qnes-
had never been very acute, because the inhabitants were indifferent to their advan- t'onin
tages, and by inherited disuse of the faculty which prompts enterprise they had al-
most ceased to desire improvement of any kind. They were like children and de-
sired the good things of earth, but when they did not see them they were contented
and put up with what they had.
It does not appear that at any time the Californians showed a disposition to
use the Indians they were able to command for any other purpose than to relieve
themselves from the drudgery of work. There was slavery of a genuine sort, but
it was wholly different from that which existed in the South before the Civil war,
and it was never employed, as it was in many parts of Latin America, for objects
of gain, such as the increase of productivity with the view of creating a surplus
for sale, or to extract gold from the soil.
The Russian, Rezanoff, who visited California in 1806, was so impressed by
77
78
SAN FRANCISCO
Indian
Labor in-
dependable
Attempts
to JSnsIave
Indians
The
CaUfornla
Aborigine
Fruitless
StruRwle
for Existence
the failure of the Californians to make use of their fertile soil that he could not
refrain from comment and suggestion. In a letter to his government in which he
outlined the possibilities of trade between Siberia and California, and somewhat
significantly hinted that if the Californians did not make use of their opportunities
some other people should step in and show them how, he discussed the labor ques-
tion in a fashion which indicates that he must have considered the possibility of
making the Indians useful, but that he had dismissed the idea as impracticable.
As for the natives he was under no illusions regarding them. He left them
completely out of the reckoning, summing up their deficiencies in a general state-
ment which virtually indicted them as a people too lazy to do hard work, and
too incapable to successfully engage in any occupation requiring skill. So thor-
oughly was he impressed with their deficiencies, and so little importance did he
attach to the possibility of converting the Indians into a dependable labor supply,
he proposed to introduce Chinese, whose industry and skill he extolled as only
second to their tractability.
This judgment was formed after thirty-six years of experimentation by mis-
sionaries and rancheros, and is probably a far more accurate estimate of the value
of the Indian as a laborer than any made by later travelers, some of whom, misled
by the achievements in the immediate vicinity of the missions, overlooked the general
condition of the country, which was very much down at the heel because of the
incapacity of the rancheros and the absence of a reliable supply of labor.
The Southerners had attempted in some sections of the Union to make slaves
of the Indians but without success, but the material they dealt with was not of
the same sort as that found in California. They might easily have been induced
to believe that they could achieve success where the missionaries and the native
Californians had failed. The testimony that many thought along these lines is
abundant and there is no reason to doubt, had the gold rush not interfered to mar
their plans, that slavery would have been introduced into California and that the
Indian would have formed part of the institution.
Had that turned out to be the case it is doubtful whether the attempt would
have proved successful. The aborigine in California was not made of the same
stuff as the Seminoles and Creeks, but he was by no means the docile creature
which his acceptance of the yoke imposed upon him by the padres implied. As
already observed his propensity to relapse into the ways of the gentiles could
hardly be restrained, and as the process of creating neophytes advanced, and he
was thrown more and more in contact with his own kind he began to develop an
organizing ability which was unknown to him when he was a member of an isolated
family or tribe.
When he was a nomad the California Indian expended his energies in an al-
most fruitless struggle for existence. He showed little disposition to cultivate re-
lations with his own kind, and, although not made of fighting stuff easily collided
with other tribes or bands when they approached his neighborhood too closely.
This antagonism was practically wiped out by the mission policy, which assembled
considerable numbers of Indians closely together, and enabled them to compare
notes, with the result that on several occasions they were able to combine in upris-
ings which, although they never proved successful, sufficed to keep the Californians
uneasy and made the Indian an object of dread rather than the useful draught
creature into which they sought to convert him.
SAN FRANCISCO
79
That the California Indian was so regarded after the years of effort made by
the missionaries will be gathered from an expression in the "Annals of San Fran-
cisco," which seems to have epitomized the general opinion. The writer, after
extolling the goodness of heart of those who sought to make a good citizen of the
Indian, summed up the situation by saying: "Therefore it may be concluded that
* * * the sooner the aborigines of California are altogether quickly weeded
out, the better for humanity. Yet the fathers would retain them: then sweep away
the fathers too."
This language breathes a spirit of intolerance which owed much of its bitter-
ness to the prevalent "know-nothingism" of the period, but it distinctly indicates
the line of cleavage in the efforts for the uplift of the California Indian. The
religious motive which prompted the missionaries to engage in the work of the
redemption of the Indian, and the political object of making him a good citizen
were always conflicting, and by some the conflict is held responsible for the poor
results achieved; but candor compels the admission that they were no worse than
those attained by Americans in dealing with the aborigines ; and that the Anglo
Saxons never made as serious an effort to help them as the Latins of California.
Some years before the successful revolution of Mexico the Spanish Cortes laid
the foundations for the later attempts to secularize the missions. It had been the
design from the beginning that these establishments should, when the fitting time
arrived, be converted into civil or municipal corporations. In various documents
the object of their creation was stated to be the civilization and education of the
Indians so as to prepare them for citizenship. In 1813 the Cortes declared that
the missions ought to be converted into ordinary parish churches, but as often
happened in the dealings of the mother country Spain with her colonies, the Cortes
proposed and the missions disposed.
The revolt of the Mexicans once successfully accomplished the new government
began to interest itself actively in the condition of the Indians, a natural conse-
quence of the fact that the success of the revolution was largely due to that race
which produced some leaders, and not a few who afterward participated in the
administration of Mexican affairs. In 1827, evidently acting under this inspira-
tion, a territorial deputation which met at Monterey proposed to emancipate from
mission tutelage all Indians within certain jurisdictions who were qualified to be-
come Mexican citizens. At this same deputation a resolution was adopted which
limited the right to inflict corporal punishment on the neophytes to fifteen lashes.
It is quite clear that the body which passed these resolutions had no definite
idea concerning the qualifications necessary for good citizenship. The Mexican
opinion on this point was extremely liberal, and it may be said without greatly
straining the truth that it excluded all limitations. But while the deputation may
have been somewhat hazy so far as the eligibility of the Indian to citizenship was
concerned, it seems to have had well defined views on the subject of the desirability
of not driving him forth to join the gentiles by a resort to harsh measures, hence
the restriction on the use of the lash.
It is noteworthy that this deputation confined its attention to the treatment of
the Indians by the missionaries. It was reserved for Governor Echeandia to attempt
to put a period to a practice which resulted in the practical enslavement of the In-
dians by the rancheros. In 1829 he ordered that no more Indian children should
be seized under the pretense of teaching them Christian manners. The children
Opinion o(
the Indian
Intolerant
Attitude ot
Mexican
Interest in
the Indian
80
SAN FRANCISCO
Cruelty to
Indians
thus seized were made use of as domestic servants, and were sometimes badly
treated. Echeandia's order was aimed not only at future abuses, but was retroactive
as it compelled the restoration of the children held at the time to their parents.
It is not impossible that the attempted application of remedies was responsible
for an uprising which occurred in 1829, and which resulted in an exhibition of
ferocity rarely surpassed by any people. In that year the Indians at the Mission
San Jose were induced to desert and join a number of gentiles in the San Joaquin
valley. They were pursued by troops from San Francisco, but the latter were
repulsed in a thicket and compelled to retreat. Subsequently the defeated Cali-
fornians were reinforced by a body of men under the command of Vallejo who
descended on the camp of the recalcitrant neophytes, killing many of them and
taking a number of prisoners. A cruel vengeance was inflicted on those supposed
to have been responsible for the desertion. They were tortured in various ways,
and the instruments selected to inflict the punishment were Indians, who, as was
often the case with negro slaves in the South, delighted in the exercise of barbarity.
One of the padres protested against the cruelties, but nothing came of the pro-
test except recrimination. As in former cases when priests were charged with
gross abuses of Indians the testimony of the latter was disregarded, or the witnesses
were charged with having perjured themselves. The Calif ornians were not unlike
the settlers in the regions east of the Rocky Mountains still infested with Indians.
Their prejudice was so great that a charge against a white man was sufficient to
array all the whites on his side. They honestly entertained the belief that any
attempt to repair an injustice would create the impression in the minds of the
Indians that it was inspired by fear. Hence a soUdarit}- which put the poor neo-
phyte at a great disadvantage and doubtless encouraged the naturally cruel who
were in positions of command over them to commit acts of cruelty.
But acts of cruelty do not explain the undoubted fact that the Indians were
quite as ready to assail the padres who were really kind to them as the major
domos who freely en^ployed the lash to secure obedience from their charges, or to
compel them to perform their tasks in the field or elsewhere. In the uprisings of
which we have knowledge there is every reason to believe that in the event of suc-
cess they would have sacrificed the most benevolent missionary as ruthlessly as the
crudest overseer who made their lot .so bitter.
Perhaps such an attitude is inseparable from a system which does not recognize
the right of the toiler to more than a bare existence. That was the condition of
the California Indian who received absolutely no pecuniary advantage from his
connection with the mission. He was a slave in all particulars except one. While
he could be worked to death he could not be sold, although it was not impossible
to transfer his services. That indeed was as common as the practice of making
domestic servants under the pretense that they were to be taught Christian manners.
The failure to recogpize that the Indian after he assumed the duties of Chris-
tianity had any rights which his superiors were bound to respect was in large de-
gree responsible for the facility with which conspirators could enlist him in enter-
. prises against the authorities, or of men engaged in personal feuds to use him to
accomplish their wcked ends. The California Indian could hardly be likened to
a Hessian, for he was not a trained soldier, but his actions were as easily controlled
as those of the men whose services were sold by princelings to fight against a cause
SAN FRANCISCO
81
in which they had no interest, and whose success or failure could not affect them
in the slightest degree.
It was remarked that the Indians derived absolutely no advantage of a pecuni-
ary sort from their connection with the missions, and this statement might be sup-
plemented by the assertion that their condition was not greatly improved in this
regard after the authority of the padres was wholly destroyed and the property
of their establishments was dissipated among the eager crew who only awaited
their dissolution to grab the wreckage. But it is true that something like an effort
was made by the successful revolutionaries to carry out the declared purpose of
the Spanish Cortes of fitting the tractable Indians for the duties of citizenship,
and to that end an attempt was made to put into practice a municipal system which
in a measure imposed the work of self government upon those participating in its
expected benefits.
Manuel Victoria, the fourth Mexican governor, sought to effect the betterment
of the Indians by other methods than those embraced in the plan of placing them
in pueblos. He asserted that the project of Echeandia was not in their interest,
and that it meditated a scheme of spoliation, the result of which would be the
division among a few favorites of the property of the missions and the consequent
waste of the labors of the padres and the neophvtes who had built them up and
made them worth plundering. His antagonism sufficed to temporarily block the
scheme of secularization, but nothing ever came of his suggestion to select likely
Indian youths with a view of sending them to Mexico to be educated so that they
might in turn help in the uplift of their brethren.
Governor Alvarado, whose general course exhibited a greater desire for reform
than was displayed by most Californians in 1839 appointed an Englishman named
E. P. Hartwell, who had carried on a merchandizing business at Monterey since
1822, as "Visitador General of INIissions." His duties embraced the investigation
of complaints with the view of remedying the troubles of the Indians. Few of
them remained at the missions and those who did were in a miserable condition
and contemplated desertion. Hartwell was much in earnest, but the communities
in which he worked were indifferent to the sufferings or needs of the Indians, re-
garding them only as material for labor. The Indians on the other hand were
bitterly hostile to the old families and could not be persuaded that an_v interest
taken in their affairs was called forth by the desire to benefit them.
Hartwell's investigations caused a great deal of talk which sounded well. There
were many propositions looking to giving the Indians complete liberty and of or-
ganizing them into pueblos as was contemplated in the Mexican act of seculariza-
tion. At this time the Indians in San Francisco were so few in number, and their
condition was so wretched that Hartwell recommended that they should be assem-
bled at San Mateo and formed into a pueblo at that place ; and it is probable that
if he had retained his position something of the kind would have been done ; but he
resigned on September 7, 1840, disgusted with the opposition of the Vallejo and
Pico factions and with the interference he met with in the appointment of major-
domos.
The net result of the efforts of Hartwell and of the movement to help the In-
dian was the creation of a pueblo at San Juan Capistrano which maintained a sickly
sort of existence. Two vears after its establishment the records showed tliat of
The Indians
Hopeless
Life
Efiforts to
Improve
ttie Indian
SAN FRANCISCO
Indians
Turned
Adrift
Why no
Improvement
was Effected
Plans of
Doubtful
Merit
one hundred and fifty persons to whom lots had been given sixty-four, including
forty-six Indians, had forfeited their grants.
It is not necessary to question the sincerity of the efforts of the Mexican gov-
ernors to improve the condition of the Indians, and it is idle to assume that the
failure of the pueblo plan was due to the avarice of men eager to secure possession
of the property of the missions. Doubtless this desire existed, and the sequel shows
that it prevailed; but all the evidence points to the utter inability of the wretched
aborigines to do for themselves. After years of tutelage they were as inefficient
and helpless as they were when the Spaniards first invaded the country, and had
the latter turned over every rood of land in the vast territory to them, and left
them to their own devices they inevitably must have reverted to their original
nomadic habits.
In the year 1779 one of the Franciscans who was displeased with the slow
progress made in gathering the Indians into the fold made a plea for them which
when taken in connection with the final result exhibits clearly the illusions under
which the most earnest of the missionaries were concerning the capacity of their
charges for improvement. This critic who signed himself "The Most Unworthy
Minister of the Order of St. Francis" declared that the innumerable apostacies,
already common at that time, were not due to "the natural inconsistency of the
Indians or to their impatience of subordination to labor," but to the failure to im-
part to them proper religious instruction when gathered in widely separated missions.
He enumerated other causes which to a later generation furnish a more rational
explanation of the propensity of the aborigines to take to the mountains, such as
the application of the lash for the punishment of trivial faults, the levying of con-
tributions by curates, and the utter disregard of regulations designed for the benefit
of the neophytes who were to be gathered in pueblos. These would seem to have
proved sufficient to provoke recalcitrancy but he adds one more that is not usually
considered in this connection, namely "the keeping of lands in common, whence it
results that the most powerful appropriate them in order to form haciendas fifteen,
twenty or thirty leagues in extent." At first this may suggest that the good padre
was under the impression that these liberal appropriations of land tended to deprive
the Indians of a means of subsistence, but another cause assigned by him under a
different heading shows that he regarded individual enterprise as the chief ob-
stacle to the elevation and redemption of the Indians for he tells us that "the
maintenance of dispersed ranchos of Spaniards, mulattoes, and other castes by their
isolation became a prey to the gentile Indians," hence the temptation to the neo-
phyte to desert his work for the missionaries and the frustration of the efforts of
the latter to lift him in the scale of civilization or to effect the salvation of his soul.
We may doubt the efficiency of the plan which the good padre evidently had in
mind to bring about the results he desired. Had it been acted upon it must have
resulted very much as the later efforts of Americans to save the Indian from con-
tamination by herding him in reservations. No one now contends that any real
good was ever accomplished by the system of keeping Indians apart. They never
derived any real benefit from the white man until they were absorbed in the whole
body of the people and educated to believe that like other men they had responsi-
bilities, chief among which was the hard necessity imposed on the whole of man-
kind of earning a subsistence within a comparatively limited space, a stern law
fatal to the nomadic propensity and before which the nomadic instinct must dis-
appear as does the winter's snow when the spring thaw comes.
CHAPTER XIII
THE SPANISH LAND GRANT SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA
FIRST LAND GRANTS IN 1773 LIBERAL ALLOTMENTS DID NOT ATTRACT SETTLERS-
LARGE RANCHES PRODUCTIVE OF INDOLENCE THE NEGLECTED STOCK OF THE NA-
TIVE CALIFORNIANS PARALYZING EFFECTS OF THE BAD LAND LAWS SUPPLIES RE-
CEIVED FROM ALASKA NO MANUFACTURING SKILL DEVELOPED EARLY CONSERVA-
TION SUGGESTIONS LUMBER SCARCE CALIFORNIANS NOT LOVERS OF THE SEA
MONTEREY OVERSHADOWS SAN FRANCISCO IN IMPORTANCE.
HILE the isolation of the ranchero may have been respon- a Liberal
sible for the straying habits of the neophytes who were s^"^^^'^*"*
enticed by the gentiles to join them in their mode of life,
which was rendered somewhat less precarious by their abil-
ity to prey upon the herds and flocks of the gente de
razon, that evil was light by comparison with the greater
one inflicted on the country by a policy which made it
impossible for California to become the home of a thrifty farming population.
The conferring of enormous grants of land on individuals was the main factor
in keeping California in the condition of a pastoral community down to the time of
the American occupation, and its blighting influence was felt long after the dis-
covery of gold brought on the scene a people who by instinct and from force of
example were disposed toward the diversification of industry. The reader will be
enabled to judge of the drawbacks imposed upon the earlier population by study-
ing the troubles encountered by a more energetic community when the story of the
retardment caused by the indisposition of the holders of large grants of land to
dispose of their holdings is told in future pages.
In this chapter the effort of the writer will be confined to showing the workings Origins of
of the system under Spanish and Mexican rule, and to tracing the connection be- "" ™*
tween it and the stationary stage in the development of California during the early
part of the nineteenth century, a condition which must have prevailed indefinitely
had not men with other ideals and ambitions than those of the early occupants
broken into the territory, and by the force of their example, and their success in
operating on a small scale, shown the futility and profitlessness of methods that
were characteristic of the feudal period and utterly out of harmony with the aspira-
tions of the present age.
The land grant system of California dates back to August 17, 1773, when au-
thority was given by the Viceroy Bucareli y Ursuas in instructions to Fernando
Rivera y Moncada on the occasion of his appointment as commandante of the new
establishment at San Diego and Monterey, and the first grant was made to a soldier
84
SAN FRANCISCO
who had married an Indian girl who had accepted Christianity and was duly bap-
tized. No pains whatever were taken to describe the permanent landmarks, and
in the course of time the grant which was in the San Carlos mission failed of con-
firmation on account of the uncertainty regarding boundaries.
A few years later the commandante general of the jurisdiction, Jacobo Ugarte
y Loyola, then residing at Chihuahua, directed that four square leagues be al-
lotted to new pueblos in California, and in 1789 he ordered that an allotment be
made to a retired corporal at San Luis Obispo mission. This soldier had also
married a Christianized Indian belonging to the establishment named. Prior to
these grants of a public character Governor Fages had in 1784 granted to Manuel
Nieto a place called Santa Getrudis, and to Jose Maria Verdugo another known
as San Rafael. Both of these were in Los Angeles county. The first named con-
tained over 300,000 acres and the latter 34,000 acres. In 1795 Patricio and Miguel
Pico received grants aggregating 100,000 acres in Santa Barbara, and an indefinite
tract between San Pedro and Point Aiio Nuevo was granted Jose D'Arguello.
These Spanish grants were all subsequently confirmed, and after the revolution
the Mexicans entered upon a liberal policy of land bestowal. Laws were enacted
in 1824 and 1828 by which the governor or political chief was authorized to make
grants for the purpose of inducing colonization. Under this authority heads of
families, leaders of colonies or private individuals could have lands conferred
upon them, which grants had to be confirmed by the supreme government. There
were numerous restrictions upon the granting power of the governors. They were
not permitted to grant lands within 30 leagues of the boundary of a foreign power
nor nearer the sea coast than 10 leagues. The grants were limited to one square
league of irrigable land, 4 square leagues of ordinary land and 6 square leagues of
grazing land. The grantee was not permitted to transfer his land in mortmain
nor retain it if he resided out of the territory of the Mexican republic.
These laws, liberal though they were, did not greatly promote the desired col-
onization. There were some grants made under them but it was not until the secu-
larization of the missions in 1833 that numerous demands were made for the valu-
able tracts to which the missionaries laid claim and which were regarded as the
most fertile lands in the country. The number of grants made which complied
with the requirements of the laws and were afterward pronounced valid by the
United States Land Commission, established after the occupation, was 514. In
addition there were nearly three hundred claims rejected, some of which, on review
by the United States supreme court were finally confirmed. It was estimated that
the total acreage of the grants with which the commission dealt was 12,000,000,
nearly one seventh of the area of the state.
This reckless disposition of the public lands did not accomplish the purpose
which prompted it. It failed to people the vast territory with a population of
workers or of colonists of any sort. It was not alone disappointing in that par-
ticular, it also failed to realize the expectations of the grantees who experienced
all the embarrassments attendant upon "land poorness." There were owners of
thousands of acres of land who were so wretchedly poor that no well paid laborer
of to-day would envy their condition. The brothers Andreas and Pio Pico who had
vast tracts confirmed to them were always on the ragged edge of real want, although
they were among the grandees of the land, and the last named of the two enjoyed
the distinction of being the last Mexican governor of California.
SAN FRANCISCO
85
As may well be imagined the lack of care exercised by the authorities in grant-
ing tlie lands of Upper California was productive of great trouble when the prop-
erty became valuable. No regular surveys were made by the Spaniards or Mexi-
cans. The grantees usually received juridical possession, and in most cases the
nearest alcalde with suitable land marks designated the boundaries of the grant.
The title, however, was supposed to be complete without the juridical possession.
Naturally this loose method resulted in disputes as it lent itself to fraudulent
claims based on forgeries and misstatements of various sorts. In a letter written
to President Buchanan in 1860 by United States Attorney General Black he stated
that the value of lands claimed in California under fradulent grants was not less
than $150,000,000, and that the most of the rejected claims were based on absolute
forgeries.
But it is not with the troubles after the occupation that we are here dealing,
but rather the evil results which were experienced by the recipients of the extrava-
gant bounty of the Spanish and Mexican governments. The padre who referred
to the temptation presented by isolated ranches to marauding gentiles indicated
one source of mischief, but it was small by comparison with the result produced
by the invitation to a naturally indolent people to shirk exertion of all kinds. A
virile people such as those who pioneered Kentucky, and the other states of the
American Union, which at that time were on the outskirts of civilization, would
have made short work of the Indians and secured the peace necessary to success-
fully carry on farming operations, and perhaps they might have created an envi-
ronment for themselves which would have enabled them to overcome the limitations
of a pastoral life. But the Californians were not made of that stuff, and conse-
quently they easily accepted conditions little better than those of the aborigines
they dispossessed.
The only superiority of the gente de rason over the nomadic Indians was their
practical attachment to the soil which enabled them to apply some of their inher-
ited knowledge to the business of maintaining life. They devoted themselves
chiefly to pastoral pursuits, or rather it should be said they permitted their herds
and flocks to multiply and thus obtained a means of existence. To speak of them
as raisers of stock would mislead, for the term stock raising implies attention to the
improvement of the breed of the animals, and they gave no thought to anything
of the kind.
It is asserted that the Spanish jealousy of competition was responsible for the
inferior quality of the wool produced on the California ranches, but there is no
evidence whatever that the natives ever made any effort to prevent deterioration of
their stock. The sheep, as was the case with horses, horned cattle and hogs, were
utterly neglected, and the inevitable consequence was the multiplication of their
kind after a fashion, the most of which were worthless for any other purpose than
to kill. The scant supplies of wool obtained scarcely sufficed to provide the not
exacting demand for clothes; the "razor back" hogs were deficient in the fat which
the Californian taste craved, the oxen were miserable creatures hardly able to per-
form the work imposed on them by their lazy owners, and the other horned cattle
were valueless except for their hides, and the tallow which was extracted from
their bodies when they were in fit condition for killing. As for horses they roamed
over the land in vast numbers, and from them enough good mounts could be selected
SAN FRANCISCO
Estates as
Large as
Principalities
Paralyzing
Effects of
Band Land
System
to satisfy the requirements of the rancheros, but the great majority were valueless
for any purpose.
The men who permitted these conditions were incapable of advancement, but
it is doubtful whether any better result could have been achieved under the system
which created estates as large as small principalities. The benumbing influence of
the big ranch was not confined to the Californian. There are plenty of instances
of men who, in another environment would have been enterprising, but who could
not resist the enervation induced by their surroundings, which, however, they were
prone to blame on the climate. They easily adopted the indolent habits of the
people contemptuously called "greasers" by the later comers, and to all intents and
purposes were as worthless, and did as little to promote the progress of their
adopted country as those they aifected to despise.
It would be idle to assume the possibility of any rapid change in the condition
of a people thus situated, and it may be a work of supererogation to even describe
their shortcomings which were not due to racial deficiencies. The diflSculties to
be surmounted by them were of the same sort that brought about the institution
of feudalism in Europe, which has to its discredit not merely the arrestment of
progress during the middle ages, but is chargeable with the destruction of policies
through which a civilization was effected that brought great material prosperity
in its train, no matter what may be said about its defects on the moral side.
California offered no opportunity for the exercise of the destructive effects of
a bad land system, but it was an admirable field in which to exhibit its paralyzing
influence. There was nothing to destroy for it was a virgin country into which
it was introduced, but it kept the land and the people in precisely the same condi-
tion to which Europe was reduced after the decline of the Roman empire, and in
which it remained until the Renaissance, when commercialism burst the fetters of
restraint and showed the world that the true road to improvement, and the better-
ment of human conditions generally, was that which was paved by enterprise and
industry, and not by good intentions.
Example was wasted in a country destitute of means of communication, and of
the instinct for gain, which is at the bottom of commercialism, and is responsible
for human progress, and the higher civilization on which it is based. The mis-
sionaries planted vines and set out orchards, but the rancheros did not imitate
them. William Wolfskill, one of the early settlers, turned his attention to fruit
raising and showed what could be done in that line, but although he began his
operations as early as 18S0, when the gringo overran the country, the acres of the
big ranches were as barren of fruit trees as they were when Padre Junipero Serra
first saw the land and gloried over its possibilities. About the same time a French-
man named Vignes set out some vines, and showed that the soil was excellently
adapted to the growth of grapes, but for many years afterward those who could
command the price were still eagerly purchasing the products of the brick vine-
yards of Boston or consuming the fiery aguardiente.
Notwithstanding the fact that the hills of California were overrim with cattle
the Californians rarely made any butter or cheese and were too indolent even to
milk their cows. They lived on a monotonous diet at which the inmates of our
reformatory institutions and those of our almshouses would revolt. In the midst
of the plenty implied by the existence of untold numbers of cattle we learn that
there were periods during which the problem of existence in California was one of
SAN FRANCISCO
87
subsistence, and that in 1814 "from San Diego to Monterey there was for the
Spaniard the need of manufactured goods."
Eight years earlier the Russian Rezanoff learned of this condition and proposed
to remedy it. He did not live to carry out his projects, but those who were on
the ground in Alaska after his death took the hint, and in that remote and desolate
region was produced a large part of the not very great quantity of manufactured
articles consumed by the Californians. It was from the ship yard of Sitka that
many of the cumbersome hoes and crude plows used in California were derived,
as were also a number of household utensils of the commoner kind, pots, pans and
the like. In the foundries of the Alaska ship yard were also cast a considerable
number of the bells used by the mission establishments to call the faithful to prayer
and the neophyte to work.
It cannot be said that no attempt was made in the mission days to manufacture
for the padres did make essays in that direction. But their efforts if they were
consciously directed towards building up an industry, which is doubtful, were un-
availing because their methods tended to produce the same result as that which
was witnessed during that period of the middle ages when intercourse between
men was reduced to a minimum, and the only evidences of manufacturing activity
were those of the household.
In a report of Governor Victoria made in 1831 we are told that there were no
manufactures carried on except in the mission where wool was worked up by the
neophytes into blankets and coarse cloths. On the ranches there was an inconsid-
erable amount of blacksmithing, carpentering, tanning and shoemaking, but abso-
lutely nothing was produced for export. In 1824 there appears to have been no
more than a single source of lumber supply, which was provided by a man named
David A. Hill, who together with an Irishman operated a rip saw in a pit. At
San Luis Obispo there was a water mill for grinding grain, but the most of the
meal was produced by a process which showed very little advancement over the
metate and pestle of the Indians, and indeed the latter was oftener found doing
duty than the arrastra, composed of two stones, the upper of which was made to
revolve by mule power.
The missionaries imported or brought with them a few artisans from Mexico
who were to teach the neophytes their crafts, but the latter except in rare cases
never attained to any proficiency even measured by the standard of the time and
place. Father Viader of the Santa Clara mission had built for him by his Indian
mechanics a wonderful vehicle which was drawn by a mule. It is described as
having a long narrow body, the entire framework of which was covered with brown
cotton, and was furnished with a seat made of lambs wool. The good padre was
usually accompanied on his outings by vaqueros, who assisted the mule to pull
the carriage up steep places. It appears, however, that the contrivance was
frowned upon as an object tending to luxury and there was no disposition to imi-
tate it manifested by the rancheros, who depended upon their horses to get them
about, and upon the oxcart for moving freight.
The allusion to brown cotton cloth calls attention to the fact that a small quan-
tity of cotton j'arn was imported at different times from Mexico, and that some of
the Indians were taught to weave and spin, but the industry, which was confined
to one or two missions, never made any progress and was abandoned despite the
great need for clothing, which seemed to be a chronic affliction shared by soldiers.
Feeble Ef-
forts at
Mannfac-
SAN FRANCISCO
First Vessel
Built in
California
Use of
the Sea
Discouraged
Settlers
Amid the
Coast
neophytes, the padres and rancheros, and one that was not wholly removed even
when enterprising Yankee traders sought to supply the deficiency.
We have seen that as late as 1824 a single rip saw provided all the lumber
demanded by the Californians. Not much progress was made by the industry after
that year until 1843, when Stephen Smith, who visited the East after sojourning
some years in California, on his return brought a complete outfit for a steam
grist and saw mill which he located at Bodega. Between the two dates nothing
calculated to create alarm occurred, yet in 1839 a paper was issued by Romero,
the Mexican minister of the interior, who sounded a warning note on the subject
of the necessity of conservation. He said the republic had suffered in some years
from droughts which caused the harvests to fail and the cattle to die. Reason,
tradition and experience, he declared, pointed to the devastation of the forests and
the denudation of the hills and mountains as the chief cause of these troubles.
Consequently he proposed to restrict the cutting of trees with the view of preserving
the health of the people and to protect agriculture and the industries dependent
upon it, and he even suggested the planting of trees along public roads and such
places as could not otherwise be made useful.
The warnings were hardly needed in California as no disposition was exhibited
there to denude the land of its timber. Although the Bay of San Francisco invited
navigation, and j'ears before when the presidio was first located men peering into
the future saw ship yards springing up along its shores in which the excellent
timber of the surrounding forests could be utilized, it is recorded that the first
vessel of any sort built in the province was a launch, the timbers of which were
hewn at San Gabriel and put together in 1831. This, however, was not a product
of native Californians for it was constructed by Englishmen and Yankees.
It is difficult at times to distinguish between cause and effect, but no extraor-
dinary penetration is required to divine the reasons of the failure of California
to make progress in any direction during the period under review. It is said of
the ancient Romans that their roads played a more important part in building up
their great empire than the soldiers who marched over them. Undoubtedly the
multiplication of facilities for close intercourse is a powerful agency in the devel-
opment of commerce and in promoting the growth of civilization, but the Califor-
nians disregarded this valuable experience and actually adopted a policy which
had for its object the discouragement of the use of the ocean as a means of com-
munication.
The pains taken in the land grant laws of the ^Mexicans to prevent development
along the sea coast by compelling grantees to take up tracts at a considerable
distance from the shore; the display of temper exhibited by the governor who
censured the commandante of the presidio of San Francisco for daring to engage
in such an enterprise as the building of a rude craft to bring lumber from the
opposite shore to repair the ruined quarters of the soldiers, and the vexatious and
utterly unreasonable methods adopted to preserve the integrity of the territory,
and which practically shut off all intercourse with the outside world except that
of a clandestine character, all point to the utter incapacity of those who occupied
the land before the Americans poured in upon them to realize the value of their
possession or to develop its resources.
Their obtuseness and indifference to the benefits of communication by land
and sea also explain the singular fact that although nearly two centuries were
SAN FRANCISCO 89
spent in finding a safe harbor in about the locality' where San Francisco bay was
finally discovered it was sixty years after the establishment of a ranch on its
shores before a beginning was made towards the creation of a port. That event
practically dates from the laying out of a single street along the cove which was
first utilized by shipping. In August, 183i, Governor Figueroa put into effect the
law of August, 1831, which decreed the secularization of the missions and provided
for the establishment of pueblos, which were to be organized in conformity with
its provisions. In October, 1835, Francisco de Haro, who was residing at the
Mission Dolores, received orders to lay out Yerba Buena, which he did by marking
on the ground a single street to which the high sounding name of Street of the
Foundation was given.
It was a feeble beginning from which good results commercially might have Monterey
followed in later years even if the uncommercial Californians had remained in * * Chief
possession of the territorj', but such an outcome would hardly be inferred from its
excessively slow development and its utter subordination to Monterey, which re-
mained the place of most importance until the gold rush made it imperative for
the shipping which was finding its way to the coast to seek a more convenient and
safer harbor. Monterey served the purposes of the traders who visited California
to obtain cargoes of hides and tallow. In many respects it suited them better than
Yerba Buena. The latter might have superior attractions for captains who laid
stress on security, but even they were ready to subordinate that consideration in
order to get nearer to the source of supply of the merchandize they were seeking,
and closer to the population which was ready to exchange its rude products for
the manufactured articles and the luxuries brought to the coast by the trading ships.
CHAPTER XIV
EARLY TRADING TROUBLES OF THE CALIFORNIANS
SPANISH AND MEXICAN ATTEMPTS TO REPRESS TRADING SMUGGLING POPULARLY AP-
PROVED THE FUR TRADE SPAIN SURRENDERS NORTHWEST COAST VISITS OF YAN-
KEE SHIPS TO CALIFORNIA THE FORT ROSS ESTABLISHMENT AN AMICABLE AR-
RANGEMENT WITH THE RUSSIANS SUTTER AND VALLEJO QUARREL THE TRADE IN
HIDES AND TALLOW THE WHALERS AND THE WHALING INDUSTRY HONOLULU A
RIVAL OF SAN FRANCISCO FIRST MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENT IN VERBA BUENA
CONTINUED IMPORTANCE OF MONTEREY SAN FRANCISCo's FIRST PUBLIC IMPROVE-
MENT SEVENTY YEARS OF INACTIVITY.
N THESE days of intense commercialism when every op-
portunity to engage in enterprise is eagerly seized, and
when men devote their thoughts to creating opportunities
to extend the field of their energies, it is almost impos-
sible to comprehend the temperament which shrunk from
exertion and actually placed obstacles in the way of de-
=E2«*^ velopment. The inertia of the occupants of the territory,
which is now one of the most prosperous states of the American Union, was a bad
thing in its way, but its consequences would not have been so fatal to advancement
as they proved to be, if the active factor of direct interference had not supplemented
the enervating effects of a system which succeeded in crushing out ambition in every
country in which it was tried.
The story of trade repression in California during the first half of the nine-
teenth century is interesting, amusing and instructive. It is amusing because it
illustrates to the fullest extent the futility of attempts to interfere with the gratifi-
cation of the desires of a people when the necessary force to compel compliance
with regulations is lacking. It is instructive because when properly viewed it
brings out plainly the fact that high tariffs, and even prohibitions of intercourse
do not promote a domestic industry unless the desire for its creation is existent.
The Calif ornians enjoyed all the advantages natural and artificial that are consid-
ered the chief factors in the promotion of production. They had raw materials in
abundance for manufacturing purposes, and the natural protection which distance
from established manufacturing and producing centers affords, and in addition
they had tariffs which, had the disposition existed to make them so, would have
proved prohibitory to the introduction of foreign products.
But the desire to exclude did not exist. On the contrary there was a decided
propensity to encourage the foreigner to bring his wares, which brought about a
condition that can be best described by the paradoxical assertion that the Califor-
91
Trading:
Instinct
Repressed
Tariffs Fail
to Promote
Industry
Fnreisrn Goods
Acceptable
SAN FRANCISCO
No Objection
to Foreign
Traders
Hide and
Tallow
nians succeeded in legalizing illegality. They did not merely elevate smuggling
into a fine art, they acutally accomplished the extraordinary feat of converting the
officials whose duty it was to exercise repressive and restrictive authority into ac-
tive supporters and defenders of a trade which, although contraband, was carried
on without attempts at secrecy, and which was supported by public sentiment, not
excluding that of officials.
Perhaps this is less surprising than the fact already alluded to that the native
Californians made no opposition to the establishment of foreigners in their midst
as traders. They may have felt some slight pangs of jealousy when they observed
Captain N. A. Richardson erecting a house in Yerba Buena, the first put up in
that place, but they were assuaged by the feehng that after all he was useful to
them, as he operated two schooners for their benefit, and thus enabled them to get
their hides and tallow to a place where they could be sold to the skippers of the
trading ships.
Richardson's advent may not have been complacently regarded by the mission-
aries but they were not able to overlook the fact that he filled a want which they
were unable to supply by becoming a common carrier on the bay, and that he
helped to facilitate that trade with the outside world by which they obtained ar-
ticles that contributed to their comfort, and other things absolutely indispensable,
if agriculture was to be pursued even in the rudest fashion.
But years before Richardson came on the scene enterprising traders had found
their way to the coast and were buying the hides and tallow which were the only
articles of consequence exported by the Californians. Some valuable furs were
obtained by the exertions of intruders who were not unwilling to do the work nec-
essary to secure them. Spain did not entirely disregard this valuable trade. The
desire to secure its benefits was sufficiently pronounced, but the same causes which
induced the Spanish explorers to shun the coast north of San Francisco harbor on
account of its fogs and their assumed discomforts prevented its development. If
the seals and other fur bearing creatures had presented themselves for capture, or
had it been possible to take them as easily as cattle running on the hills of Cali-
fornia, there might have been as lively a trade in furs as in hides and tallow.
The fur trade of the coast, even that of parts remote from San Francisco bay,
has been linked with the destinies of the Pacific coast metropolis from the time
that Captain Cook's men in 1778 obtained from the natives at Nootka a number of
skins of the sea otter which they carried to Canton and sold at the high price of
$120 a piece. The Russians and British had been taking skins for years, but it
remained for the publication of the account of Cook's voyages in 1784 to create an
almost universal interest in the fur trade. Spain awakened to the possibility of
profit being derived from her American possessions through this industry and in
1786 a monopoly was projected which, however, was soon abandoned.
In 1788 Martinez, who had just made a supply trip to the coast, wrote from
Monterey describing the intentions of the Russians, and urging Spain to extend
her claims to Nootka. By doing so, he asserted, Spain would establish herself on
the coast from Nootka to the port of San Francisco. The Viceroy Florez sent him
to Nootka, where he arrived in May, 1789, and discovered that an American vessel,
the "Columbia," and an English brig, the "Iphigenia," sailing under Portuguese
colors were ahead of him. He made no attempt to molest the American, but seized
the "Iphigenia" and her consort as poachers on Spanish possessions. There was
SAN PEANCISCO IN 1849
From a sketch
-M»J^Z
SAN FEANCISCO IN 1846, AT THE TIME OF THE OCCUPATION. IT ^VAS THEN
KNOWN AS YEEBA BUENA
SAN FRANCISCO
93
much bluster over the seizure but in the end Spain made restitution and a treaty
was concluded October 28, 1790, by which Spain yielded claim of exclusive sov-
ereignty to the northwest coast, but obtained from her adversary an agreement not
to navigate or fish within ten leagues of any part of the coast occupied by Spain.
Despite this agreement, which implied the determination of Spain to exclude
foreigners from the privilege of fishing on the coast, Americans and Russians en-
gaged in otter hunting expeditions from Trinidad bay to Todas Santos islands
and even ventured within the estuary of San Francisco. In these adventures the
Russians furnished the hunters and Americans the equipment of the vessels. The
officials of the Russian American Company viewed these arrangements with dis-
pleasure, and one of the objects of Rezanoff's visit to California in 1806 was to
investigate the possibility of ousting the Bostonians from what was already re-
garded as a profitable trade. In a report made by him to the government he ad-
vised the building of a war brig to drive the Americans from California waters
unless they procured their supplies from the factories in Siberia. He had learned
that the Spanish were ready to trade surreptitiously with the Yankees, and that
the latter were receiving in exchange for what he characterized as trifles valuable
otter skins.
The first Boston captain to visit the coast was Ebenezer Dow in a vessel called
the "Otter." He touched at Monterey October 29, 1796, but does not appear to
have visited California with the intention of engaging in unlawful trade, although
other American vessels did, and very soon they beset the padres, whose necessities
were numerous, with great temptations. The commandante on the occasion of
these visits interposed few obstacles. If he was disposed to be captious his attitude
was soon changed by a bribe ; the padres usually succumbed to the desire for use-
ful articles which they were able to pay for with otter skins, for which they had
no conceivable use in a climate like that of California.
Rezanoff's efforts to head off the Bostonians proved unavailing, but out of his
visit to California came an understanding between the Russians and Spain which
resulted in gaining for the former a foothold near the port of San Francisco from
which they were not dislodged for many years. The anxiety of the Spaniards to
prevent Americans effecting a settlement on the "Columbia" caused them to receive
with favor a proposition from the Russian American Company to assist in frustrat-
ing such a purpose, and thus began the advance southward toward San Francisco,
which point Rezanoff had advocated as the boundary line between the Russian and
Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast.
The encroachment was not completed in a day. Kuskoff did not reach Bodega
bay until INIarch, 1811. A year later he repeated his visit, this time in force, and
on September 10th, at a point 18 miles north of Bodega, on a bluff 100 feet above
sea level, Ross was established. It was fortified with a battery of ten guns, and
manned by 95 Russians, and a party of Aleuts who were probably brought along to
assist in otter taking rather than to help defend the position which was never seri-
ously endangered by the supine Californians.
Meanwhile, despite the proximity of the Russians, and their desire to shut out
the Yankees, one of the latter appears to have been able to do a brisk business
with the Californians and perhaps there were others. That will be inferred from
the fact that Jose Sevilla, who was made coast guard of California, alleged in a
report that it was the custom of English vessels to anchor at Santa Catarina islands,
A Shrewd
Skipper
94
SAN FRANCISCO
EngliBhmen
Monopoly
ten leagues from the coast, and there exchange China and East Indian goods for
otter skins and cattle. Sevilla appears to have been in error so far as the nation-
ality of the vessels was concerned, and was probably deceived by the fact that
their crews spoke English; but he made no mistake when he asserted that the
officials connived at this illicit trade, for all he said was amply supported by state-
ments made in a letter by Captain George Washington Eayrs, of the "Mercury" of
Boston, written on the 7th of February, 1814. In that document the captain
tells of the arrangements made with the head people and the "Pardres" who en-
treated him to bring them many articles which they sorely needed, and could not
obtain from the continent. As the letter was accompanied by several orders of the
padres making the requests, the captain's statement must be accepted as fully
corroborated.
About the time that Eayrs was dealing with the padres and driving successful
trades with the rancheros, the Spanish home government was directing Viceroy
Calleja to take steps to get rid of the Russians whose proximity was creating great
uneasiness. The viceroy did not deem precipitancy prudent, but he passed on his
orders to Governor Jose Arguello, who in the early part of 1815 notified Kuskoff
that the Russian post at Fort Ross must be abandoned. Kuskoff visited San Fran-
cisco and tried to convince the Spanish authorities that the presence of his country-
men in the neighborhood did not menace their possessions, and that Russia made
no claim to territory south of the Strait of Fuca. There was considerable palaver-
ing during three or four ensuing years and finally in 1820 the Russian American
Company through its representative announced that it would abandon the settle-
ment which caused the Spaniards so much apprehension, and dismiss all ideas of
obtaining another site if by this sacrifice the privilege of a permanent trade with
California could be gained.
This proposal, like other negotiations of the Spanish at this particular period
does not appear to have been formally acted upon, but a few years later under
the Mexican Governor Arguello an agreement was entered into by which the
Russian American Company was permitted to hunt otter on shares with Califor-
nians, probably a euphemistic wording of an arrangement by which the fact that an
improper payment bj' the Russians for the privilege was concealed. Arguello,
however, held unusually liberal views on the subject of trade, and it is not improb-
able that he acted in violation of tradition because he believed the result would
be beneficial to California. His complacency toward the Russians did not prevent
his entering into a contract with an English house in December, 1823, by which the
company was obligated to take all the hides and tallow produced in the province, at
a stipulated price, during a period of three years.
This arrangement between McCulloch, Hartwell & Co., the English firm re-
ferred to and the toleration accorded to the Hudson Bay Company, whose relations
with the Californians were always friendly, probably explains the belief enter-
tained by the British in the province, and the people in Downing street, that in
certain contingencies California would gladly have placed herself under the pro-
tection of Great Britain. Certainly color was lent to the impression by a privilege
accorded to the Hudson Bay Company in 1841 by Alvarado, by which its hunters
were permitted to operate along the Sacramento. This concession called forth
an angry letter from Sutter, a foreigner, who had established himself in the region
where the British proposed to operate after assuming citizenship which enabled
him to secure a large tract of land.
SAN FRANCISCO
95
Sutter's letter fell into the hands of Vallejo, who used it to injure the writer,
whom he charged with having assumed a title which did not belong to him, and also
accused him of having made war on Indians in his neighborhood, and of selling into
servitude the children who were made orphans by the killing of their parents.
Sutter's name appears very frequently in California history, and not always in a
manner reflecting luster upon it. His operations, however, did not closely touch
San Francisco. The nearest they came to doing so grew out of his attempt to secure
the property of the Russian establishment at Fort Ross, which Vallejo in a letter
to Mexico dated December 12, 1841, said was sold to Sutter, a transaction which,
had it stood, would have greatly increased his prestige and perhaps might have
materially influenced the course of affairs which subsequently resulted in American
occupation.
The hide and tallow business which under Spanish rule had been wholly con-
fined to government vessels excepting that which was illicitly carried on, when the
Mexicans administered the affairs of the country was distributed more generally
and was shared by Americans. After the exclusive contract with McCulloch, Hart-
well & Co. had expired, several Boston concerns came on the scene and were per-
mitted to buy freely. The trade was of considerable consequence. In 1826 there
were at least 200,000 head of cattle in California. At the private ranches there was
an annual slaughter, but the missionaries did their killing weekly. The hides when
not sold in their green state were dried. The tallow was tried out and run into bags
of bullock skin, which held twenty-five pounds each. No very exact figures of the
extent of the exports of these two commodities, hides and tallow, exist, but after
secularization became a certainty, large numbers of cattle were killed for their
hides. Twenty thousand dollars worth were sold by the San Luis Obispo mission,
and the money was used to purchase goods which were distributed among the In-
dians. At San Gabriel, whose herds numbered 100,000 head, the cattle were killed
where found, and some of the valleys were covered with putrescent masses, no effort
being made to secure the tallow.
The wholesale slaughtering which followed the disestablishment of the mis-
sions was exceptional, but as early as 1784 it had been found necessary to reduce
the number of cattle at the San Francisco presidio. Between 1805 and 1810, as
already stated, the devastation resulting from horses running at large was so great
that a campaign was carried on which got rid of them by tens of thousands. Usu-
ally after the rodeos, the annual rounding up of stock for the purpose of branding
and separating and distributing the cattle among their owners, there was a slaughter
the extent of which was determined by agreement. It necessarily caused a great
deal of offal, for the consumption of which scores of dogs were kept by the ranch-
eros. It was no unusual thing for one of the lords of the soil to be attended by a
train of dogs half a mile long. How they were fed at other times than at these
annual killings we have no specific records, but in a country where when the horses
became too numerous they were driven over cliffs to kill them the canine prob-
ably never suffered even if his owner at times experienced privations because he
was too lazy to adjust matters so that he might have a steady supply of meat.
One of the first things to attract the attention of Americans to the importance of
the harbor of San Francisco was the practice of the whalers of wintering in the
Hawaiian islands. The latter prospered greatly in consequence of these visits
and the whalers were able to secure the supplies they needed from there much
Sutter Quar-
rels with
Vallejo
Importance
of Hide
and Tallow
Trade
Wholesale
Slaagrhter
After Secu-
larization
SAN FRANCISCO
Leese Starts
Store in
Yerba Buena
more advantageously than they could have obtained them in California. At that
time, however, the manifest destiny idea was fermenting in the American mind,
and it took a form which differed greatly from that which held possession in later
years. The whalers were convinced that their interests would be subserved, and
those of the country as well, by securing possession of a port like San Francisco,
and they so managed to impress the authorities in Washington, that official cogni-
zance was taken of the matter. Whaling was then an industry of great importance,
and those engaged in it by reason of their wealth and enterprise commanded a great
deal of influence and by their efforts some of the sentiment which later resulted
in acquisition was created, and helped to divert attention from the true motives of
those who were bent on seizing California.
Although the people of remote New Bedford were alive to the value of the
whaling trade the Californians gave it no thought. After the time that one of the
Spanish navigators had pointed out the desirability of occupying the Sandwich
islands to prevent any foreigner from doing so no one in Spain or Mexico both-
ered about the matter and the predicted came to pass. In 1820 the foreigner in
the shape of seven missionaries from New England planted himself in the islands,
and in the fullness of time they were attached to the United States. The mis-
sionaries were followed by enterprising men whose energies soon accomplished what
the Spaniard who settled on the shores of the Bay of San Francisco only talked of
doing. In 1827 a ship yard was started in Honolulu by Americans, and in 1836 a
newspaper was published by them called "The Sandwich Island Gazette," and from
that time on despite guarantees of autonomy and various governmental experiments
the group was practically American.
While the enterprising Yankees were creating a rival port in the tropic seas
the Californians were pursuing a course calculated to make trade impossible. In-
stead of welcoming the whalers, they actually placed restrictions on the quantity
of provisions that might be sold to them. Despite the fact that they were in sore
need of many manufactured articles which the whalers would gladly have brought
to them they limited the amount that a ship might sell to $400. At Honolulu, of
course, the whaler was permitted to buy all that the islanders had to sell, and in
1844! the annual trade of that port with the adventurous fishermen was fully
$250,000.
This condition of affairs was not changed until after the American occupation.
In 1836 when Jacob Primer Leese started the first mercantile establishment in
Yerba Buena he may have had some foreshadowing of the possibilities of trade
with shipping, but there was no active interest taken in Hawaii, or for that matter
in anything or any place outside of California. Leese had been doing business in
Monterey in partnership with Nathan Spear and W. S. Hinckley, and was evi-
dently gifted with prescience, for he recognized possibilities of development in
the new pueblo which were disregarded by most others. W^hen he first made ap-
plication to the alcalde and commandante for a location on the beach he was con-
fronted with the order directing the setting aside of reservations, but was offered a
choice of two other places, one at the mouth of Mission creek and the other near
the entrance of the bay, close to the presidio. Subsequently letters given him by
Governor Chico procured for him an allotment within the reservation limits, and
on the 1st of July, 1836, he took possession of a hundred vara lot, distant about
250 yards from the beach, the spot selected being near to what is now the corner
of Clay and Dupont streets.
SAN FRANCISCO
97
Lease's establishment was a considerable one for the locality and the stock of
goods and its character indicates that he expected a patronage somewhat greater
than the insignificant village and the ranches in the immediate vicinity afforded.
He was well patronized and the city began to take on an air of business it had not
known before his arrival. Captain Richardson had pioneered the way in this vicinity
with his two schooners, which, as already stated, gathered hides and tallow and
wheat from points about the bay accessible to the rancheros who brought their
products to the landings in their rude ox carts and sometimes utilized the Indians as
porters.
But Monterey continued to be the most important place in the North several years
after Leese had established himself in San Francisco. But the wisdom of his choice
was made apparent even before the Americans took possession. The town grew
slowly and gradually began to divide the honors with its neighbors to the south.
Leese had married a sister of Vallejo who became the mother of the first child born
in Yerba Buena. This event occurred April 15, 1838, and was made the occasion
for great festivities in which all classes participated. Leese's relations \vith the
Californians were of a friendly nature and his American proclivities were not reck-
oned against him. When he celebrated the completion of his store by a house warm-
ing in 1836, on the Ath of July of that year, the American and Mexican flags floated
side by side over the new structure, and the stars and stripes were hailed with as
many vivas as the green, red and white colors of the sister republic. At the
banquet, which all the old Spanish families that could reach Yerba Buena attended,
the best of feeling prevailed, and no sign of impending trouble made its appearance.
While Yerba Buena made some little progress commercially after the establish-
ment of Leese's store its anomolous political condition put it at a disadvantage,
even though there was nothing like real rivalry throughout the length and breadth
of the province. There was no place in California before 1846 where any con-
sideration was given to such matters as public improvements. The open spaces
set aside as plazas were in no instance made attractive by shrubbery. If anything,
their dedication to public use caused them to be more unlovely than they were
when unfrequented. But enterprising men, with a bit of the civic instinct, might
have done something in the way of adding to their convenience had they been
furnished with the machinery to bring about such a result.
They were not, however. The mi.^ed condition of the law relating to the
missions and pueblos created such uncertainties that had Leese and a few others
who made their way into Yerba Buena before 1846 been possessed by the spirit
of the modern boomer, they could have done nothing. The abolition of the mission
system, and the attempt to convert the missions into Indian pueblos which had proved
unsuccessful, resulted in complete disorganization. Strictly speaking, there was
no pueblo in the sense of an organized municipality. The control had passed into
the hands of the political government which responded to pressing needs slowly,
and never anticipated them. In 1839, the prefect, Jose Castro, when urged by the
inhabitants of Dolores, made application to the government to establish a pueblo,
which brought forth a permit to grant building lots, but the place failed to receive
the same authoritative sanction as Los Angeles, Los Flores and other pueblos.
It is not surprising, therefore, that no improvements were made and that the
settlement remained pretty much in the same condition down to the time of occu-
pation, and for that matter until a few years after the Americans had taken possession
1 PabUc
nprovemi
98
SAN FRANCISCO
First Terba
Bnena Public
ImproTement
A Solitarj-
Instance of
Enterprise
Seventy Vears
of Rest
and Quiet
and caused the name of Yerba Buena to be changed to San Francisco. A few scat-
tered houses, without any well defined streets, gave it the appearance of an illy
regulated village. In IS**, William Sturges Hinckley, who had arrived in IS^O,
was elected the first alcalde of Yerba Buena, and he distinguished himself by
inaugurating a public improvement.
In 1844, in the locality now bounded by Montgomery, Washington, Kearny
and Jackson streets, there was a salt water lagoon or lake connected with the bay
by a creek or slough. The tide ebbed and flowed through this slough which at all
times contained water separating the original village of Yerba Buena and Tele-
graph hill. For years those who wished to pass in a direct line between the then
harbor and the eastern point of the hill were obliged to jump or wade across the
slough. The enterprising alcalde caused a rude bridge to be thrown across the
watery obstacle and his action was regarded as so extraordinary that the rancheros
came from considerable distances to view the marvelous structure that apparently
excited more interest and admiration than the erection now-a-days of a bridge
costing millions of dollars.
This important improvement, the achievement of eleven years of the close inter-
course of village life and the commercialism of the day, appears to be the only
recorded instance of what might be termed public activity if it were not for the
suspicion that the bridge was built at the personal expense of Hinckley, and not
by the people in their collective capacity. The relation of the fact will serve to
impress on the reader the utter absence of enterprise existing in California before
the occupation and will, perhaps, enable him to form a judgment of the obstacles
to growth which would have been encountered had the Mexicans retained their hold
on the territory.
This solitary instance of municipal enterprise, a few straggling houses and the
mission establishment at Dolores were the net product of seventy years of effort on
the shores of the bay which was found after centuries of vain search for a short
cut to the wealth of the Indies. The absurdly inadequate results achieved caM
fairly be attributed to one primary cause. Had not the spirit of industrialism
been almost extinguished by the feudal system of the middle ages which was trans-
planted to California, and all the vices of which were inherited by Californians,
they would have found a way to produce wealth in quantities that would have paled
into insignificance even the fabulous hoards of the isles of gold and silver which
the Spanish explorers so eagerly sought.
They and their successors failed to achieve the object of their desires. They
did not discover the passage to Anian, but they found a country abounding in un-
told possibilities. It is true that they did not recognize them, and never appreciated
California at its real value, but there must have been something resembUng an
instinctive recognition that the land they regarded as so unpromising would eventu-
ally demonstrate its worth. Some such feeling may account for the zealous effort
to preserve the territory from encroachment, but while adherence to so narrow
a sentiment must be set down as something far from admirable, Americans have
no reason to find fault with it, as it preserved for them in almost virgin state a
vast region with illimitable resources, which are being intelligently developed, and
in such a way that the whole of mankind, and not merely those engaged in their
exploitation, will be benefited.
CHAPTER XV
THE EVE OF THE OCCUPATION BY AMERICANS
SPANISH FAILURE TO DISCOVER GOLD IN QUANTITY A FEW OUNCES FOUND IN LOS
ANGELES BEFORE THE SUTTER FORT DISCOVERY HOPES OF THE AMERICAN SETTLERS
SOUTHERNERS HOODWINK THE NORTHERN PEOPLE THE PLOTS OF THE SLAVE-
HOLDERS JACKSON's OFFER TO PURCHASE SAN FRANCISCO BAY THE WAR WITH
MEXICO — Fremont's expedition — Fremont's policy of provocation — Wash-
ington AUTHORITIES MISLED FREMONT AND IDE THE BEAR FLAG EPISODE WHAT
MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED.
HE irony of fate was never exhibited in a more striking
fashion than in the failure of the Spanish to discover
that the El Dorado they were seeking lay concealed beneath
the soil of California. From the day that Columbus blun-
dered upon the island of San Salvador^ when trying to reach
India, down almost to the time that the Spaniards were
driven from Continental America they were constantly in
quest of the precious metals. No stories concerning their existence seemed too
improbable for belief, and to some extent their credulousness was justified, for the
most rapacious of the adventurers sent forth by them secured gold and silver in
such quantities that the supply of them must have seemed really inexhaustible to the
people of the old world, who, for centuries preceding 1492, had been suffering from
their scarcity.
The early successes of the adventurers, like Pizarro and Cortez, were partly
responsible for the failure of the Spanish to discover the metallic riches of the
territory which came to be known as the Golden State. They had obtained the sup-
plies of gold accumulated by the Indians with such surprising ease that they fan-
cied it could be picked up from the ground without exertion. This self deception,
combined with an indolence bred in their bones, prevented them, when they finally
reached the field in which the object of their desires might be gratified, from
making use of their opportunities. And thus it came to pass that they sojourned
in the country for nearly eighty years unconscious of the fact that they were living
in a land of gold, and that diligent search would have rewarded them beyond the
dreams of avarice.
They did not wholly neglect the search ; that would have been impossible while
the eager desire for the metals was the animating purpose of so many who made
their way into the new country. They did hunt for gold after a fashion, but their
success was so meager and the reward so scant that the search was not persistent.
In a report made by Manuel Victoria in 1831 he declared that no mines worth
working had been discovered in the occupied portions of the territory and it was
generally believed by those who gave the matter a thought that there were no valua-
99
Spaniards
Find no
Gold
100
SAN FRANCISCO
Traces of
Gold in
1841
Discovery
Causes no
Excitement
niiat Miglit
Have
Happened
ble minerals in the country. There were reports that Jedediah S. Smith, the first
American who reached California by traveling overland, had found gold in the
Sierra Nevada about 1826, but they have not been authenticated and the story,
in view of his later exploits and his failure to make further search, seems improbable.
The accounts given by Drake's party that the Indians seen by them when they
landed had gold in their possession are utterly discredited by the fact that none of
the aborigines later encountered by the Spanish had any of the metal. Investigators
who have given the subject attention regard the statement concerning gold, and also
that which represents the Indians as possessing tobacco, as an interpolation.
It was not until 1841, during the incumbency of Alvarado that Andreas Castilero,
the man who afterward discovered the quicksilver mines at New Almaden, saw a num-
ber of water-worn pebbles which he said were always found in the vicinity of gold,
that interest was excited. A ranchero named Francisco Lopez, who had heard this
statement, while pulling up some wild onions at San Francisquito, about thirty-five
miles north of Los Angeles, found similar pebbles and immediately began a search
for the precious metal and was rewarded by finding some. The news of the dis-
covery soon spread, but the gold hunters were not very lucky and the diggings never
were important. But there is no question respecting the genuineness of the dis-
covery, for in 1842 a package containing eighteen ounces was sent East to be
assayed at Philadelphia where it was found to be worth $344.
The discovery created scarce a ripple on the surface of the even life of the
missions and on the ranches, and was no factor in the promotion of the interest
in California which developed rapidly after 1842. Unlike the Spaniards, whose search
for the golden fleece led them to the acquisition of new territory, the Americans
appeared to give the possibility of mining little or no consideration. Their thoughts
were directed into the broader channel of the creation of wealth by the practice of
industry and the pursuit of commerce. If the first Americans who entered the
territory heard of the discovery of gold at Los Angeles attached any importance
to it, there is no evidence of the fact. The lure of gold was a force that operated later,
but its story does not begin until a couple of years after the American flag was
floating over Portsmouth square in San Francisco and over the custom house at
Monterey.
Those whose arrival anticipated that event had an opportunity to study the
question of development uninfluenced by the excitement which attends the extraction
of gold and the sudden acquirement of wealth by lucky finds. The problem they were
creating for themselves, as it appeared to them, was uncomplicated by questions of
rapid transit. They looked forward to the settlement of the country by Americans,
but they imagined that the invasion of immigrants would be chiefly by land, and not
a few hoped that it would be of the kind that would clear the way for the introduction
of slavery and thus settle a question which was continually threatening the de-
struction of the Union.
Men engrossed by ideas of that sort were less inclined to adversely criticize
the shortcomings of the people whose places they hoped to usurp, than those who
arrived later filled with the lust for gold, and with all the intolerance which con-
sciousness of a wrong done invariably begets. The early Californians who had
received large land grants, and who lived upon them in a style which showed that
they were strangers to exertion, were not as incomprehensible to the man who hoped
to share the land with them as thev were to the Yankees and other Eastern men
SAN FRANCISCO
101
■who had been in the scramble for existence, and who had flocked to the coast with
no other purpose than to "make their pile" and return home.
The Missourians and others familiar with the institution of slavery could re-
gard with a lenient eye habits that were not entirely foreign to communities in
which servile labor was depended upon almost exclusively, and there is reason to
believe that there were many wholly disconnected from the movement for acqui-
sition who would welcome any class of workers who would make it possible to
develop the broad lands which the finger of destiny pointed out to them as being
intended for their countrymen.
It was the presence of this advance guard in California that facilitated the
easy acquisition of the territory. Had the men who were on the ground before
Wilkes surveyed the Bay of San Francisco, or who were present when the premature
attempt of Thomas Catesby Ap Jones to seize the port of Monterey was made, been
of a different material, it is not impossible that they might have dissuaded by their
advice and action the projectors from carrying out their purpose which at that
time was generally understood to be the addition of more territory to the American
Union to permit the expansion of slavery.
It is not improbable, however, that other motives were mixed with the predomi-
nating one, and it is even susceptible of demonstration that in its inception the
desire to secure California was as much felt in the North as in the South. The
manifest destiny idea had a strong hold on the popular imagination. It prevailed
to such an extent that cunning politicians had no difficulty in making use of it to
carry out purposes which were not always apparent on the surface.
The facility with which the dispute on the northern boundary question was turned
to the advantage of the advocates of slavery illustrates the ease with which the popu-
lar mind could be diverted from the real object of the slave oligarchy, and induced
to start in full cry after something else when put on a wrong scent. When the
democratic convention which nominated Polk in 1844 demanded "the occupation
of Oregon up to fifty-four degrees forty minutes regardless of consequences,"
such a manifest destiny dust was kicked up that the North was completely blinded.
"Fifty-four forty or fight" was the slogan which elected the man who \vithin nine
months after his inauguration recommended the speedy settlement of the Oregon
boundary question, not b_v a resort to arms, but by peaceful diplomac}'.
It is not very creditable to the perception of the North that it could be so
easily fooled as the events immediately preceding and following the Ashburton
treaty imply. When Webster effected the convention there was as much rejoicing
over the event as though he had accomplished a remarkable diplomatic feat and saved
the countrjr from the consequences of a disastrous war. It is possible that England
might have been ready to proceed to extremes if the United States had persisted in
its demand that the boundary should be fixed at 54° 40" North, but it is absolutely
certain that Polk had no intention of forcing a war.
The pro-slavery element had other fish to fry at that particular moment. They
were too acute to think it possible that the United States could successfully
carry on a war on its northern and southern boundaries at the same time, and it
had been decided by them that one should be waged against Mexico. Not only
were the Southerners determined upon attacking the republic, they were equally
determined that their proposed addition of territorv on the south and west should
Advance
Guard of
.\inericaiia
Northern
Boundary
Question
Northern
People
Hoodwinked
The ••.■54-40
or Fight"
Fizzle
102
SAN FRANCISCO
Early Efforts
to Secure
California
Offer Made
by Presi-
dent Jackson
Qaestion of
Acqaisitioo
Declared
AKainst
Mexico
not be balanced by acquisitions on the north which would permit the creation of
more free states.
These are facts of history and must be related, as they are linked up with the
events which led to the occupation of California and its subsequent annexation by
conquest. If the warlike cry of "Fifty-four forty or fight" had been a genuine
national demand, and had it been backed by force, there might have been a wholly
different story to tell. There might, in that event, have been a Pacific coast
metropolis at some future day, but its history probably would have been wholly
different from that which it has made for itself under American auspices.
It has already been told how Jackson as early as 1839 began his intrigues to
secure Mexican territory, and how, in that year, he offered the republic $5,000,000
for Texas, as his overtures to purchase the Bay of San Francisco made in 1835
have also been related. Reference has been made likewise to Waddy Thompson's
eulogy of the resources of California, and his suggestion that Mexico might be
induced to part with it in settlement of the claims of American citizens. These
movements were made with little or no attempt at concealment. Some of them
were freely discussed by the American people who read without resenting the sug-
gestions contained in such books as that of Captain Benjamin Morrell of the schooner
"Tartar," whose smuggling experiences on the coast had qualified him to speak
understandingly, that if the United States had possession of the harbor of San
Francisco commerce would be quickly developed and that the resources of the region
about the bay, which he described in a fashion calculated to appeal to the manifest
destinarian, would be exploited with benefit to the people of California and of the
whole world.
The necessities of the whalers and Morrell's description and persuasive argu-
ments probably had a good deal to do with the offer made by Jackson to purchase
the Bay of San Francisco, which was accompanied by the proposal that a line
should be run northward along the east bank of the Rio del Norte to the 37th par-
allel and then west to the Pacific. It was diplomatically suggested that Monterey
might be excluded, as there was no wish to interfere with the actual settlements of
Mexico on the Pacific coast, which implied that the president had ample knowledge
of the fact that nothing had been accomplished in the way of development of the shores
of the body of water which he sought to gain possession of for the United States.
After 1835, the question of acquisition appears to have been little considered
from the commercial side. From that time forward the matter engaged the atten-
tion of the Southerners more particularly, and they regarded it solely from the
standpoint of the needs of the institution of slavery. The struggle which ensued
is part of the history of the nation, and to attempt to describe it would necessitate
the relation of the events which led up to the Civil war. San Francisco and Cali-
fornia were merely pawns on the political chessboard of the period, but they were
often moved with such dexteritj' that the bigger pieces were endangered, and at
no time after the slave-holding element had set its covetous eyes on the terri-
tory so glowingly described by Butler, Thompson and others were they wholly
negligible quantities.
War was declared against Mexico by the United States on the 13th of May,
1846, but hostilities were looked for much earlier by those not behind the scenes,
and the result was occasional exhibitions of precipitate action. In 1842 Commo-
dore Jones, on the strength of rumors related to him by the American consul at
SAN FRANCISCO
103
Mazatlan, to the effect that the British were negotiating with the Mexicans for the
cession of California, set sail for Monterey to head off the supposed intended
occupation. The story ran that Great Britain had agreed to take over the province
in satisfaction for debts aggregating $50,000,000 owed by Mexicans to British
subjects, and it was accompanied by rumors that the expected war between the
United States and Mexico had begun.
Jones crowded on sail in order to reach the coast of California first. British
war vessels had been cruising off Mexico when the consul reported the alleged
negotiations between England and that country and Commodore Jones thought he
was engaging in a race for possession. When he arrived at Monterey he promptly
summoned Governor Alvarado to surrender, and as the Californian was powerless to
resist, he did so, not, however, without demurring to what he regarded as a breach
of the rules of war. The American flag was hoisted over the fort or castle and
the bloodless victory was celebrated by the victors and those in sympathy with the
desire to place California under the protection of the United States. Subsequently,
Jones, upon learning of his error, struck his colors, apologized and saluted the
Mexican flag.
Meanwhile events were occurring in the interior, the significance of which
may be as easily understood by the reader as by the Californians who were observing
with jealous suspicion the action of certain unwelcome intruders on their soil.
In 1842 John C. Fremont made a scientific expedition to the Rocky Mountains and
a year later he started on a second trip, his objective this time being Oregon and
California. In February, 1844, he crossed the Sierra near Tahoe and descended to
the plains, reaching the Sacramento at Sutter's place. New Helvetia, in March.
His presence caused a great stir among the defenceless Californians who disbe-
lieved his profession that his mission was purely scientific.
It is not impossible that Fremont was technically within the limits of truth.
His mission was undoubtedly scientific in the same sense that an engineer's movements
in running lines before a beleaguered fort with the intention of springing a mine
under it are scientific. He was undoubtedly performing work of a sort which in
certain contingences might prove very useful and which were curiously linked up
with the persistent and oft-expressed desire of Americans to secure the harbor of
San Francisco.
In the early Forties the most of the country west of the Missouri river was a
terra incognito. Land now recognized as the most fertile in the United States was
then supposed to be desert. Among the numerous fictions there was one which Fre-
mont had apparently decided upon investigating, because it might prove useful
knowledge which could be made to contribute to the success of his enterprise. It
was supposed up to the time of Fremont's expedition that there was a river which
flowed from the Rocky Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco. This imaginary
river was called the San Buenaventura, and had it existed it would have afforded
facilities for penetrating the coveted land which an engineer could not afford to
overlook.
When he discovered that the San Buenaventura was a myth Fremont made his
way to the Sacramento valley and in 1844 he and his party began to be a source
of worry to the Californians. About the same time Thomas O. Larkin, acting un-
der instructions, was actively corresponding with Americans supposed to be friendly
to the project of occupation. Larkin wrote to Jacob P. Leese at Sonoma, to John
Commodore
Jones'
Precipitate
Action
Fremont's
Expedition
inlS42
San Bnen-
aventnra
River a
Myth
104
SAN FRANCISCO
Winning
Favor for
Americans
Fremont
and tlie
Collision
with the
Natives
Fremont's
Provocative
FoUcy
Warner at San Diego and Abel Stearns at Los Angeles, all Mexican citizens who,
however, despite their relations to Mexico were well disposed towards the United
States. The purpose of Larkin was to induce them to engage in the work of bring-
ing about a favorable disposition towards the United States. Conviction and in-
terest prompted them to make the attempt, but as the sequel shows they were not
very successful, although they undoubtedly were under the illusion that they were
and so reported to the consul, who in turn communicated his information to Wash-
ington, producing there an impression that subsequently caused the issuance of
some contradictory orders which caused the actors in the absorption drama to play
at cross purposes.
If at any time Leese and the others succeeded in cultivating the desired favor-
able impression it was speedily converted into the opposite feeling by Fremont,
whose course was the reverse of conciliatory and from the beginning seemed to
have been adopted with the view of provoking the Californians to the commission
of some act which would afford him an excuse to engage in hostilities. There was
no such demonstration during the year 1844, but early in 1846, after a visit to the
East, he again made his appearance on the coast with a party of sixty-two. His
presence this time created great alarm, for the rumors of impending war were nu-
merous, and the Californians could not help regarding him as an enemy.
Shortly after his arrival in California Fremont visited Castro at Monterey and
attempted to allay the fear created by the presence of the small band of Americans
by giving the Californians to understand that they were on their way to Oregon.
Castro professed to accept these assurances but it is quite evident that he placed
no faith in them, for a few days afterward while Fremont and his men were en-
camped in the Gabilan Mountains, about thirty miles east of Monterey, they were
ordered to leave the country. These orders, which were accompanied by threats
that if they were not complied with forcible means would be used to expel the
Americans, were sent by Manuel Castro, the prefect, and Jose Castro, the com-
mandante of Monterey, who were acting in conformity with instructions sent from
Mexico, which also embraced directions to get rid of the families of Americans who
had established themselves on the frontiers.
Fremont's only reply to the Castros was to retire to a ridge of the Gabilans,
where he posted his men in full view of the Californians at San Juan Bautista and
hoisted the American flag. Nothing came of the "defy." The Californians did not
attack, and Fremont in a little while retired from his position "growling," as he
subsequently wrote in describing the affair. He evidenth' did not feel warranted
in bringing on a collision unless he could put the onus of it upon the Californians,
and as they failed to attack, he withdrew, marching leisurely towards the Sacra-
mento, keeping along its banks in the direction of Oregon, no one attempting to
follow or molest him.
Just what influenced his movements, after what can only be regarded as a feint,
is a matter of surmise rather than accurate knowledge. It is supposed, however,
that Lieutenant Gillespie, who arrived on the "Cyane," April 16, 1846, brought
dispatches to Fremont from his father-in-law. Senator Benton, or the war depart-
ment. These were delivered to him at Sutter's fort and after their receipt there
was no further pretense of continuing the march to Oregon.
After receiving the dispatches Fremont evidently resumed his policy of provok-
ing an attack while keeping appearances in his favor. But events were rapidly
SAN FRANCISCO
105
shaping which were to have the effect of spoiling his plans and to deprive him of
the glory which he was seeking. The Bear Flag movement^ which has been attrib-
uted to Fremont, had begun. The Americans living in the Sacramento valley,
alarmed by the prospect of being attacked if they did not take precautions for
their safety, banded together for defense under the leadership of William B. Ide.
To the latter, and not to Fremont, belongs the honor, if any attaches to the Bear
Flag uprising or its accomplishments, for it is quite clear from the evidence that
the plan of the Missourian did not contemplate a declaration of independence, or
the pursuit of tactics such as had been resorted to by the Americans in Texas.
Fremont desired to enlist the assistance of American settlers to carry out a
scheme which he thought would provoke an attack from Castro. This plan was
undoubtedly not in harmony with the ideas of the authorities in AVashington, who
had been led to believe by the letters of Larkin, and from other information, that
the people were quite ready to accept American rule, and that no serious opposition
to taking possession of the country would be offered by the native Californians.
Evidently the Americans headed by Ide and Fremont did not share this confidence.
They were perhaps in a better position to judge than Larkin and those with whom
he advised, for with them the wish was father to the thought, while the isolated
American settlers, who, perhaps, had good reason to fear for themselves, knew
that a bitter animosity existed against the gringo which could not be allayed by a
bit of diplomacy.
In joining the names of Fremont and Ide it is necessary to point out that the
association was not entirely voluntary so far as the former was concerned. Fremont
had planned to compel the Californians to attack him, always keeping in mind his
object of making it appear that the natives were the aggressors. To that end he
caused a band of horses belonging to Castro to be seized by a party of his men
under the command of Lieutenant King. The latter, before making the capture,
had asked Ide and the other Americans with him what they would do in event of the
seizure. Their answer was that there would be nothing left for them to do but
to make a rush on Sonoma. The question put by King was merely in the nature
of preparation and was not framed with the view of eliciting advice, for while the
discussion was under way the horses were being stolen by the lieutenant's men.
who shortly rode up to the party with the captured animals. They related that
they had sent word to Castro that if he wanted them back to come and take them.
There was then no other course left for the Americans than to act promptly,
and they did so. They agreed that if things went wrong, and the expected war
did not break out, that they would be put in the position of horse thieves, and that
it might go hard with them. Accordingly the rush on Sonoma, which made some
slight pretense of being a stronghold, having nine brass cannon and a provision
of muskets, followed and the place was captured. The victory was a bloodless one
and was celebrated indifferently by oaptors and captives, but not by the adherents of
Fremont, a few of whom were in the attacking force. There was an attempt made
by a man named Grigsby, while the men under Ide were awaiting the dawn to
make the advance on Vallejo's house, the most important on the Plaza, in which
the defenders had assembled, to persuade the Americans to abandon their purpose.
Grigsby was accused of being inspired by Fremont, who had shown his disapproval
of the project. His arguments, however, were not sufficiently strong to allay the
fear of Ide's men that unless a warlike act were committed they would be put in
a dangerous position, from which they might find it difficult to extricate themselves.
106
SAN FRANCISCO
Independent
Bepnblic
Elimination
of Ide by
Fremont
This fear shaped the policy of Ide, who as soon as Sonoma had surrendered
began the preparation of a declaration of independence which set forth the griev-
ances of the settlers. In it the charge was made that they had been invited to
settle, but that they were denied the right to buy or rent lands; that they were
oppressed by a military government and were threatened with extermination. The
government was arraigned for its shortcomings and maladministration, and it was
asserted that the property of the missions had been seized for the aggrandizement
of individuals. From beginning to end the document contained evidence of a de-
sire to include the native Californian in the protest; and that the latter, who were
assembled in Sonoma, for the time being, regarded it as much an affair of their
own as of the Americans is attested by the fact that all present joined in its ac-
ceptance with enthusiasm, which may have been helped along by copious libations
of the freely dispensed aguardiente.
The declaration of independence was plainly the preliminary to the establish-
ment of an independent republic. In part it was directly addressed to the native
Californians, who were urged to join Ide in his undertaking, which he declared
was as much intended for their benefit as to assert the rights of American settlers.
But Ide was not in a position to push any plan he may have conceived or wished
to carry out. Fremont disapproved of the movement and when Ide suggested that
a hundred muskets be provided to arm men on the south side of the bay who were
ready to rise he flatly refused.
The declaration of independence prepared by Ide was preceded by the hoist-
ing of the Bear Flag, a rudely designed emblem, the execution of which scarcely
matched the conception, as the animal depicted by the painter has been criticized
as bearing a closer resemblance to a pig than the formidable grizzly it was meant
to portray. As soon as Fremont heard of what had been done he hastened to
Sonoma from Sutter's fort, where he was during the time of the attack. When
he met Ide he began to upbraid him, but he soon realized the impolicy of such a
course, and took steps which resulted in effecting something like a satisfactory
arrangement. A convention of all the Americans was called to meet at Sonoma on
July 5th, and when assembled Fremont explained that as a representative of the
United States he could not interfere in California politics, but he urged that it
was desirable for all to stand together. Ide and his associates still retained their
fear and insisted that unless they put themselves in the position of revolutionaries
they might be regarded and treated as bandits in the event of the failure of Fre-
mont's enterprise.
It required manipulation to accomplish Fremont's object of eliminating Ide, but
he succeeded in his efforts. A pledge drawn up by Ide, which required all signing
it to stick together until the object of attaining a full degree of rational liberty was
achieved, did not prove satisfactory to Fremont, who managed to have the commit-
tee dealing with it increased to three, which formulated a document to his liking,
but he could not prevent Ide putting forward a minority report in which he pre-
sented his views. Two days after the adoption of the majority report the Bear
Flag, with its single star and grizzly, with the words "California Republic" be-
neath it, was hauled down and the American flag was hoisted in its place.
Whether Ide's plan if it had not been interfered with could have been carried
out no one can tell. It is not impossible that owing to the distance from the cen-
tral authority that a revolution might have proved successful, in which event the
SAN FRANCISCO
107
same process which effected the acquisition of Texas would have been resorted to,
for California, like the vast state north of the Rio Grande, was predestined to fall
into American hands. The only question of interest connected with the different
methods of procedure is that raised by the subsequent hostilities which undoubtedly
were responsible for a great deal of bad feeling that might have been overcome by
following a plan which would have seemed to give the Californians a voice in the
disposition of the territory they had so long occupied.
That the authorities in Washington hoped that the acquisition of California
could be effected without bloodshed is reasonably certain. When Commodore Sloat
arrived on the second of July, apparently acting under instructions, he issued a
proclamation saying that he had come as a friend of California, and up to the day
of the transfer of his command to Commodore Stockton he persisted in his efforts
to smooth over matters, Stockton on the other hand fell in with the views of Fre-
mont, and issued a proclamation in which he took the absurd stand that he was
present in California to protect the natives against such men as Castro. Sloat sub-
sequently wrote to the secretary of the navy to inform him that Stockton did not
truly present his (Sloat's) reasons for taking possession of the country. These he
said were to be found in his proclamation of July 7, 1846, at the hoisting of the
flag, in which he promised the inhabitants that they should enjoy the same rights
and privileges they were then in possession of; that they should choose their own
magistrates and other officers for the administration of justice among themselves,
and that the same protection would be accorded to them as to the other parts of
the Union. He also predicted the rapid advancement of agriculture and commerce
and a career of prosperity.
These promises and predictions might have produced a different result had
Fremont and Stockton cooperated to bring it about, but they adopted a course
which prevented a graceful acceptance of conditions by the Californians, and pre-
cipitated a war in which neither side covered itself with glory, but which was
speedily terminated by the superior force and resources of the Americans. The
story of the conflict is not part of the history of San Francisco. It was wholly
confined to the South, to which the leaders of the native Californians with their
followers had fled.
At its conclusion, and even before the signing of the treaty of peace, a disposi-
tion to adapt themselves to the new conditions was shown by the Californians.
They gave no signs of being enthusiastic over the promise of material improve-
ment which the occupation held forth, their attitude was simply one of acquiescence
in results. Whether they really believed that Commodore Sloat's predictions would
be realized it would be hard to tell, but it is permissible to say that they showed
no signs of desire to contribute to the result. What was accomplished was wholly
due to American effort. After the raising of the flag at Monterey and over Ports-
mouth square in San Francisco the native Californian ceased to be a factor in the
history of the state or City.
No Bloodshed
Anticipated
Californians
Adapt Them-
selves to the
Chanee
THE PIONEERING PERIOD
1846-1861
CHAPTER XVI
ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA BY THE UNITED STATES
THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA VERBA BUENA EARLY INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE
ARRIVAL OF MORMONS THE DONNEH PARTY YERBA BUENA GROWING OCCU-
PATIONS OK THE FIRST SETTLERS COMMERCE OF THE PORT IN 1847 TEMPTING
THE WHALERS TRADE WITH NEW MEXICO THE MISSION DOLORES MISSION ARCHI-
TECTURE ^YERBA BUENA CHANGED TO SAN FRANCISCO FIRST REAL ESTATE TRANS-
ACTIONS—THE ORIGINAL STREETS OF YERBA BUENA.
EARLY eighty years had elapsed between the date of the
establishment of the first mission in San Diego and the
occupation of California by the Americans and at the end
of that interval the white population of the territory was
still SO insignificant that a handful of strangers found no
difficulty in wresting it from its possessors.
The Greeks vaunted the march of the 10,000 and the
conquerors of England have had the story of their exploit told by a score of historians ;
the piratical excursion of Pizarro and his overturning of the Inca civilization, and the
performance of Cortez in Mexico have all been duly recounted by writers who found
themselves unable to divest their narratives of something like admiration for the con-
querors even while denouncing the motives of the invaders whose feats of arms thej
recorded. But no Xenophon or Prescott has yet arisen to tell the story of the invasion
of California as it will be told when the impression produced upon the world by
what the awakening conscience of the period could not help regarding as an un-
scrupulous act of land grabbing has faded away.
Some day when kindly time has softened the asperities of criticism, and when
results are regarded as of more importance than the mode of achieving them, some
one will set the happenings in California in the years immediately preceding 1846
in such a form that only the brilliant fact will stand forth that a handful of men
achieved the conquest of what in the fullness of time is destined to be the Empire
state of the American Union.
When the time for writing the story arrives the author ^vill tell that in 1803
Humboldt, in an essay, estimated that the entire population of California did not
exceed nine thousand, and that this small number had only increased to ten or
twelve thousand when the covetous American laid hands on the neglected territory
and put it to the uses which Nature had designed it for ; and if he is given to making
startling comparisons he will relate how in less than four years after that act of
depredation had been committed, the 12,000 had multiplied more than twenty- fold.
He will also describe the wonderful metamorphosis of the village of Yerba
111
Conquest of
California
112
SAN FRANCISCO
A Cosmopoli-
tan Popa-
lation
Occnpations
of the
VUlagers
Prospective
.4Lgrlcul-
tnrists
Buena, which in the midsummer of 1846 contained only two hundred people, indif-
ferently accommodated in forty or fifty houses, but which eight years later had
grown to be a city of 50,000 inhabitants, whose name was known to the whole
world and was on the lips of all men. He will not, however, lightly pass over the
few years in which this extraordinary growth was effected, for they were filled with
events, some of them serious and tragic enough to have a place in history, and
others not so grave but equally interesting because the actors in them were unlike
any ever before gathered together in so short a time, unless perhaps the motley
throng which rushed to Colchis in search of the "Golden Fleece" may have formed
such an assemblage.
Descending to minute particulars we find that in the first year after the occu-
pation there were 459 residents of Yerba Buena, the place that is now San Fran-
cisco; and that of this number 375 were whites, the remainder being Sandwich
islanders, Indians and negroes. Of the whites 268 were adults. The 107 children
were made up of 51 under 5 years of age, 32 who were between 5 and 10 and
24 between 15 and 20. Of Indians there were only 34, and they like the 10 negroes,
were chiefly in domestic service. The 40 Sandwich islanders were almost all sail-
ors. Captain Richardson, and the few others engaged in transportation, finding
them the only material available for that purpose, the native Californian having
110 liking for the water, and still less for the work attendant upon the navigation
and the loading and unloading of the few craft on the bay.
The composition of the population of Yerba Buena in 1847 foreshadowed the
cosmopolitanism which later became so marked a characteristic of San Francisco.
As might have been expected the largest part of the addition during the first year
of occupation was made up of whites born in the United States. There were 228
who called themselves Americans, 38 Californians, 2 from other ISIexican depart-
ments, 5 Canadians, 2 Chileans, 22 Englishmen, 3 Frenchmen, 27 Germans, 14
Irish, 14 Scotch, 6 Swiss, 4 born at sea and Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, the
West Indies, Denmark, New Holland and New Zealand had one representative each.
There is scant information concerning the occupations of these first settlers of
the future metropolis of the Pacific, but we know that among them were numbered
a fair proportion of adventurers, who had come to spy out the land. A regiment
formed in New York, which Colonel Jonathan Stevenson commanded, had the rep-
utation of being made up of men especially selected with reference to their habits,
the idea being that at the conclusion of the war they would settle in California, but
how many of them remained in San Francisco after the disbandment of the com-
mand is not accurately known. During 1846 and 1847 a large number of immigrants
journeyed over the Rockies. These latter were chiefly from what would now be
called the middle west and the most of them were farmers, and their purpose was
to settle on the land. That was also the object of a colony of Mormons, formed in
the Eastern states, which was among the first considerable bodies of men to enter
the port of San Francisco.
These prospective agriculturists contributed something to the growth of the new
town. They arrived from New York on a vessel called the "Brooklyn," on July
"1, 1846. Before reaching California they had quarreled among themselves. They
were headed by Samuel Brannan, who had joined them in 1842 and published a
newspaper for the cult. He is credited with having conceived the idea of settling
on the Bay of San Francisco, but the party which left on the "Brooklyn" in Feb-
SAN FRANCISCO
113
ruary of 1846 gave out that their destination was to be Oregon. Their undoubted
purpose, however, was to establish a tabernacle on the shores of the bay, and to
accomplish that end they expected to secure a concession from the Mexican govern-
ment.
The changed condition of affairs frustrated their plans. The occupation of
California cut off all hopes of negotiating with Mexico but it did not deter the
colonists from attempting to effect a settlement. They had been driven from the
East by public sentiment, but they probably hoped that in the new and sparsely
settled country there would be less antagonism, and this emboldened them to make
the attempt to remain on the shores of the bay, and accordingly they made a camp
in the sand hills near Yerba Buena. The Mormon colonists numbered 238, and
they were provided with manj' of the essentials of a modern town. Among these
was a printing plant, which produced the "California Star," a weekly paper, the
first number of which was issued January 9, 1847.
Their neighbors at Yerba Buena apparently made no objections to their pres-
ence, and it is among the possibilities that these Mormons, had not the gold rush
which took place in 1848 completely submerged them, might have succeeded in
creating a mart of commerce as successfully as members of their peculiar sect sub-
sequently created a prosperous agricultural community in the region about the
Great Salt Lake of Utah. The discovery of the precious met&ls brought them good
fortune, but it also resulted in serious dissensions, which finally disrupted the col-
ony. Brannan, who was the high priest of the church, had assumed the right to
collect tithes, but the prospects of securing wealth independently had weakened the
ties which bound the brethren together, and his privilege was challenged. One of
their number, William S. Clarke, refused to pay, and when the others saw that
Brannan lacked the power to enforce they imitated his example. Brannan, who
had already collected sufficient to lay the ground work of a fortune when his tithes
were cut off, refused to recognize the claims of the church and the association
dissolved.
There is little to record of commercial or social activity in Yerba Buena until
the discovery of gold at Sutter's mill in 1848. Emigrants were leaving the East
in considerable numbers during 1847 and their movements occupied the minds of
the settlers on the bay, who evidently looked upon them as the agency which would
result in promoting the realization of their expectation, that their little village
would develop into a seaport of consequence. Occasionally they were called upon
to render assistance to emigrants who had miscalculated the demands that would
be made upon them in their hazardous journey from civilization to the promised
land of California.
The "California Star" of April 10, 1847, relates the doings of a relief meet-
ing, at which $1,500 were subscribed for fitting out an expedition to go to the relief
of the Donner party in the Sierra. Of some eighty persons who composed the orig-
inal company, thirty-six perished. Horrible stories of the condition to which the
emigrants were reduced were told, and one of them named Kingsbury was charged
with cannibalism. The accused man denied the charge, but evidence that he had
taken the precaution to salt down parts of several bodies, induced the relief party
to believe that he had committed a number of murders and it was with difficulty
that they were dissuaded from hanging him. Kingsbury lived several years in
Brighton, near Sacramento, with two idiotic children, and protested his innocence
Gold
Discovery
Diarnpts
Mormon
Plans
114
SAN FRANCISCO
Mechanic
Arts and
Professions
Occupations
of First
Residents
Men Doitigr
for Them-
selves
Gambling
in Yerlia
Buena
to the last. That his life was spared was wholly owing to the impression created
by the horrible sufferings to which the party was reduced by starvation.
Despite the lack of recorded information of the social and other happenings
of the little community in 1847, we can form some sort of an idea of what occurred.
In the absence of any mention of serious trouble we may assume that the residents
of Yerba Buena occupied themselves pretty much as a similar number of people
gathered in any small village would. But, even in this early stage of the career
of the place, they took account of the callings and the accomplishments of the in-
habitants and from the recital we may gather that the new society differed in a
marked fashion from any that had previously existed in California.
In the daj's of Spanish and Mexican rule there was absolutely no disposition
on the part of the better element to engage in professional work, the mechanical
arts were almost wholly neglected, commerce was at an exceedingly low ebb and
there was a close approach to general illiterateness. One year after American occu-
pation Yerba Buena in its population of nearly five hundred boasted 273 who could
read and write, and 13 who could read but not write. It acknowledged to 89 who
could do neither, but they were children under ten years of age. We have no account
of what they read and wrote, excepting that they had an opportunity to peruse the
weekly "California Star," but we maj' be assured that the new settlers had brought
with them more books than California had gathered in all the years before the
gringo began to rule.
The list of occupations of the inhabitants of the settlement is in striking con-
trast to that which could have been made up for any other town in California at
that date. It embraced 1 minister, 3 doctors, 3 lawyers, 2 surveyors, 1 school
teacher, 1 1 agriculturists, 2 gunsmiths, 4 masons, 7 bakers, 6 blacksmiths, 1 brewer,
6 brickmakers, 7 butchers, 2 cabinet makers, 3 hotel keepers, 11 merchants, 26
carpenters, 1 cigar maker, IS clerks, 3 coopers, I gardener, 5 grocers, 20 laborers,
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 watch-
maker and 1 weaver.
This represented a diversification of callings that must have seemed astonish-
ing to the most enterprising of native Californians, whose desires were never strong
enough to advance them bej-ond the stage of attempting to gratify any but primary
needs. We may be sure that the work of some of these new comers must have
proved as surprising a revelation to the earlier occupants of the soil as Hinckley's
effort at bridging a slough had been a few years earlier. That men should do for
themselves seemed queer to those who had been accustomed to letting nature do
for them ; and, perhaps, like the Indians, they regarded with contempt a people
so silly as to exert themselves merely for the purpose of producing things which
they had found themselves able to dispense with.
There was one feature of early California life which was promptly grafted
onto the transplanted industrial stock of Yerba Buena, and that was the love of
social diversion. It has already been related how Jacob Leese launched his new
house, the first in the place, with a banquet, at which all the people of consequence
who could get to it were assembled. Necessarily a feast at that time was followed
by a dance and this custom appears to have been liberally imitated by Leese's
neighbors, who neglected no opportunity that would afford an excuse for a ball.
SAN FRANCISCO
115
It is said that the Americans exhibited as marked an inclination for dancing as the
natives, even if they did not so readily acquire as much proficiency in the art.
With this harmless amusement there had long been associated the gambling
vice. No fiesta was ever celebrated by the native Californians at which the pro-
fessional gamester was not in evidence. The Americans seem to have taken kindly
to the peculiar games of the Spanish speaking people, and they introduced a few
of their own. The practice of gaming must have grown rapidly and assumed a
form distasteful to the new community, for at the opening of the year 1848 the
authorities ordered that "all moneys found on a gambling table where cards are
played" should be seized. The spasm of virtue was a short one, however, as the
order was repealed at the next meeting of the council. The recital of this little in-
cident suggests the necessity of accepting with caution the assumption of those
writers who later attempted to account for the deliquencies of early San Francisco
by attributing them to the riff-raff who came in with the "gold rush."
In the list of occupations above quoted there was no mention of servants, but
the 500 inhabitants of Yerba Buena had that problem to deal with as well as those
who came after them. There does not seem to have been any scarcity of domestic
help, but it was of a nondescript sort, made up chiefly of Indians, Sandwich is-
landers and negroes who formed about one-fifth of the population. Respecting the
qualifications of these servants, who were chiefly males, we have little information,
perhaps because the love of the cuisine and other creature comforts which devel-
oped so speedily after the placers began yielding their nuggets and dust had not
yet begun to manifest itself.
The surprisingly small number set down in the list of occupations as navigators
indicates that the new port had not as yet begun to realize the expectations of those
who had predicted a great future for the harbor of San Francisco. The six inland
navigators mentioned probably comprised the crews of the two schooners operated
by Captain Richardson, and the ocean navigator was doubtless the captain himself,
who sought to distinguish between a mere sailor on the bay and one who had earned
his rank serving on deep sea ships. The statistics of the commerce of the port
for the year 1847 bear out the assumption that the maritime activity of the port
in that year was not calculated to greatly alarm its rival at Monterey.
The value of the exports of Yerba Buena in 1847 was $49,-597.53 and of the
imports $53,589.73. Care was taken by the statistician to note that $30,353.35 of
the amount exported represented California products, of which $21,448 went to
the Sandwich islands and Peru; $560 to Mazatlan; $7,285 to Sitka and $700 to
Tahiti. The imports were chiefly from the United States, Chile, Oregon and the
Sandwich islands, aggregating $31,740. Sitka, Bremen and Mexico also figured in
the table of imports, which did not distinguish very clearly between foreign and
coastwise trade.
The chief part of the California produce exported to the Sandwich islands was
destined for the use of whalers, who by this time had fallen into the habit of win-
tering in the ports of the group. The policy of the Spanish and their successors,
the Mexicans, had effectually succeeded in depriving the inhabitants of California
of this valuable trade, the importance of which may be inferred from the fact that
in 1855 there were as many as 500 vessels engaged in the whale taking industry
of the North Pacific, and that they were all compelled to resort to ports in temperate
regions during the winter months. As early as 1826 Captain Beechey reported
.attempts
to Check
OambliBff
of Yerba
Buena in
tS47
116
SAN FRANCISCO
Whalers
Praise
California
Newcomers
EnterprisiDK
that he found seven whalers anchored at Sausalito, where they were enabled to
obtain fresh water, supplies of fire wood being cut on near-by Angel island.
The whalers found the Bay of San Francisco greatly to their liking, and, as
already related, it was their glowing accounts of the surrounding country (con-
cerning whose soil they seemed to have formed a better judgment than the Amer-
icans who rushed to California to search for gold) that directed the attention of the
people of the East toward the desirability of acquisition. Perhaps these suggestive
reports were in part responsible for the policy of trade restriction which drove the
whalers to the islands to secure the supplies which were begrudged them by the
short-sighted rulers of California.
The Americans after their establishment in Yerba Buena immediately began
considering a complete reversal of the Mexican policy. There were discussions of
the value of the trade and a disposition to offer inducements was shown which had
they been extended, must ultimately have had the effect of greatly increasing the
business of the port. The value of the fisheries, and the trade incident to the pur-
suit of the whaling industry were well understood, and it is not improbable, had
not attention been diverted to other sources of wealth, that the development of the
salmon and cod fisheries, which began several years later would have been antici-
pated.
The Russian American Company had abandoned Fort Ross before the close of
Mexican rule, but it was not until 1846 that the Hudson Bay Company, which had
preserved amicable relations with the Californians and had been accorded hunting
privileges, disposed of its property in Yerba Buena and retired from the scene.
This left the region about the Bay of San Francisco to American trappers and
hunters, who made good use of their opportunities and contributed to the growing
importance of the port ; but the principal business of the latter remained the same
as during the regime of the Mexicans, the chief surplus products available for ex-
;3ort being hides and tallow. These were gathered from the ranches about the
bay, and with such assiduity that with the assistance of the padres, who had been
compelled to abandon stock raising and had disposed of their herds, the country,
which had formerly been overrun with cattle, promised to go to the other extreme
of disregard of what was once its main dependence for subsistence.
Some fifteen or sixteen years before the American occupation a trade of some
importance had sprung up between New Mexico and California but it was mainly
confined to the southern part of the territory. The New Mexicans produced a
blanket, which met the approval of the Californians, and a well woven serape.
These articles were brought to Los Angeles by caravans, which traveled by the
route that afterward became the chosen one of emigrants moving from the south-
western states into California, and were exchanged for mules. A more energetic
jieople than those living in Los Angeles at that time would have built up a distrib-
uting trade, but it does not appear that efforts were made by the merchants in that
part of California to supply the rest of the territory with New Mexican blankets and
scrapes, and the commercial intercourse between New Mexico and California, which
was considerable in 1839-4.0, had ceased entirely before the outbreak of hostilities.
One of the earliest exhibitions of enterprise of the newcomers in Yerba Buena
was an attempt to supply the blanket and serape requirements of the Californians
by a substitute which would be as acceptable as the New Mexican product had for-
merly been to the natives. The merchants were not under the illusion that a change
116
SAN FRANCISCO
Whalers
Praise
California
Hudson
Bay Com-
pany
that he found seven whalers anchored at Sausalito, where they were enabled to
obtain fresh water, supplies of fire wood being cut on near-by Angel island.
The whalers found the Bay of San Francisco greatly to their liking, and, as
already related, it was their glowing accounts of the surrounding country (con-
cerning whose soil they seemed to have formed a better judgment than the Amer-
icans who rushed to California to search for gold) that directed the attention of the
people of the East toward the desirability of acquisition. Perhaps these suggestive
reports were in part responsible for the policy of trade restriction which drove the
whalers to the islands to secure the supplies which were begrudged them by the
short-sighted rulers of California.
The Americans after their establishment in Yerba Buena immediately began
considering a complete reversal of the Mexican policy. There were discussions of
the value of the trade and a disposition to offer inducements was shown which had
they been extended, must ultimately have had the effect of greatly increasing the
business of the port. The value of the fisheries, and the trade incident to the pur-
suit of the whaling industry were well understood, and it is not improbable, had
not attention been diverted to other sources of wealth, that the development of the
salmon and cod fisheries, which began several years later would have been antici-
pated.
The Russian American Company had abandoned Fort Ross before the close of
Mexican rule, but it was not until 18i6 that the Hudson Bay Company, which had
preserved amicable relations mth the Californians and had been accorded hunting
privileges, disposed of its property in Yerba Buena and retired from the scene.
This left the region about the Bay of San Francisco to American trappers and
hunters, who made good use of their opportunities and contributed to the growing
importance of the port; but the principal business of the latter remained the same
as during the regime of the Mexicans, the chief surplus products available for ex-
port being hides and tallow. These were gathered from the ranches about the
bay, and mth such assiduity that with the assistance of the padres, who had been
compelled to abandon stock raising and had disposed of their herds, the country,
which had formerly been overrun with cattle, promised to go to the other extreme
of disregard of what was once its main dependence for subsistence.
Some fifteen or sixteen years before the American occupation a trade of some
importance had sprung up between New Mexico and California but it was mainly
confined to the southern part of the territory. The New Mexicans produced a
blanket, which met the approval of the Californians, and a well woven serape.
These articles were brought to Los Angeles by caravans, which traveled by the
route that afterward became the chosen one of emigrants moving from the south-
western states into California, and were exchanged for mules. A more energetic
))eople than those living in Los Angeles at that time would have built up a distrib-
uting trade, but it does not appear that eilorts were made by the merchants in that
part of California to supply the rest of the territory with New Mexican blankets and
scrapes, and the commercial intercourse between New Mexico and California, which
was considerable in 1839-40, had ceased entirely before the outbreak of hostilities.
One of the earliest exhibitions of enterprise of the newcomers in Yerba Buena
was an attempt to supply the blanket and serape requirements of the Californians
by a substitute which would be as acceptable as the New Mexican product had for-
merly been to the natives. The merchants were not under the illusion that a change
TOPOGRAPH
ICAL MAP OF %
SAN FRANCISCO ■->
COUNTY UP .\
TO 1912. \
SHOWING VAR-
IOUS DISTRICT,
OF CITY
SAN FRANCISCO
of flag would effect a revolution in Californian habits and dress. Perhaps they re-
garded the latter as more picturesque than that of the Americans. At any rate, it
is a well attested fact that the serape retained its hold on the Cahfornian affection
for many years after the occupation. It distinguished the native from the Amer-
ican down to very recent times, and may still be seen in some of the southern coun-
ties of the state from which the language of the Spaniard and his habits have not
been wholly banished.
The final extinction of the missions was accomplished under the decree of May
28, 1845, and a supplementary one of September 10th, but two years before that
date the Mission Dolores, the near neighbor of Yerba Buena, had fallen into a de-
plorable state. In 1843 the Indians of that establishment numbered only eight,
the remnant of the once large congregation. They were plunged in the depths of
indigence, nakedness and hunger was their lot, and they were utterly destitute of
property of any kind. This Uttle band was composed of aged people, who had
worked all their lives, but had nothing to show for their toil. They were prob-
ably too feeble to do more than protest, and what their ultimate fate may have
been is not recorded. On October 28, 1845, Pio Pico had issued an order direct-
ing the sale of San Rafael, Dolores and other missions, and in the proclamation the
doubtful privilege was accorded the Indians of doing for themselves.
In accordance with this proclamation Dolores was sold at auction and passed
into private ownership. The newcomers in Yerba Buena had little opportunity,
therefore, to judge of the missionary system from the evidence presented by dis-
established Dolores. What they knew about it was gained from earlier observers
who recorded their impressions. Even if Dolores had survived without impairment
down to the date of occupation, it would hardly have furnished a fair sample of the
more prosperous establishments in other parts of the territory, for it lacked many
of the features which had made an impression on several visitors who have recorded
what they saw in books or letters.
The mission buildings of California were generally of one type, but in some
more attention was paid to architectural effect than in others. The description
of San Luis Rey, so far as its practical features were concerned, would nearly fit
that of all the estabhshments. The buildings of that mission enclosed an area of
about 80 or 90 square yards, in the center of which was a fountain of pure water.
The buildings around the courtyard were divided into separate apartments for
the missionaries and the major domos, and with store rooms, work shops, hospi-
tals and rooms for unmarried males and females.
Near at hand was the home of the superintendent and a guard house, usually
occupied by ten or twelve soldiers. In the rear were granaries and store houses
for maize, beans, peas and other products, and near them were corrals, in which
carts and such other vehicles as the missions owned were kept. In the vicinity of
these were two gardens, in which vegetables were grown, and some fruit trees. The
ranches worked by the Indians were a few lengths distant.
San Luis Rey, however, was more attractive architecturally than many of the
other missions. Its front was ornamented \vith a long corridor supported by 32
arches, and inclosed by latticed railings, which afforded protection from the inclem-
ent weather to the padres in winter and from the hot sun in summer. The church
at the end of the corridor gave the whole an aspect which made a distinctly favor-
able impression on travelers. The church of San Luis Rey was built of stone, and
Deplorable
State of
JUssion
Dolores
Dolores
Sold at
.Auction
Mission
Buildings
Arrange-
ment of
Mission
Buildings
118
SAN FRANCISCO
Modest
Baildings
in San
Francisco
Establish -
Yerba Buena
Name of
Yerba Buena
Clianged to
San Fran-
its interior was decorated with numerous pictures, very highly colored, some of
which, however, were not without merit.
The mission buildings at San Francisco or Dolores were much more modest.
The church was built of adobe, as were the other structures used for residential
purposes and storehouses. There was nothing striking about them, and they would
never have served as an inspiration to succeeding architects. Already, in 1854,
all the buildings but the church were little better than a confused heap of dried mud,
a condition to which the adobe is speedily reduced when neglected. The old
church, however, is still preserved and is the only remaining monument in San
Francisco of the days of the missions. The castillo or fort at the presidio had
fallen into decay before the occupation. A few guns of small caliber were still
mounted, but neglect and rust had overtaken them, and they were of no value except
to serve as hitching posts, a use to which they were put later.
It has been suggested that mission construction had its inspiration from a com-
bination of causes, among them a recognition of the fact that California was sub-
ject to earthquakes, and to the fear of the incursions of Indians, but it is more
than probable that the character of the material employed in building compelled
the main feature, that of thick fortress-like walls. The adobe did not lend itself
to a light or graceful style of construction, and there was nothing left to the build-
ers but to depend upon mass and line for effect. Perhaps they did not give the
subject half as much thought as the modern critic, who has found beauties where
the original builders only aimed at securing results.
The mission and presidio were widely separated in San Francisco. The latter
was at first constructed of palisades, but these were replaced by adobe walls in
1778. It is quite certain when the presidio buildings were erected there was no
longer any fear of Indian uprisings, but the original style of single story, white-
washed adobes, ^vith roofs of red tiles, seen in other parts of the province, was
adhered to by the builders and sixty years later the same style of construction
was still pursued. Richardson built an adobe house on what is now Dupont street,
west of Portsmouth square and a widow named Juana Briones caused another to
be erected on the spot that is now the corner of Powell and Filbert streets.
The Russians had an establishment, the building of which was constructed of
slabs covered with tarpaulin. This and the store of Leese, which presented some
peculiarities, were the only structures that distinguished Yerba Buena from other
Mexican villages in 1846, but in the early part of that year the annalist tells us
there began to be an improvement. It is doubtful, however, whether the lumber
substitutes for adobe, which the Americans provided for themselves, had any real
advantage over the style they displaced. The flimsy wooden structures were cer-
tainly not as warm as the adobes, although hygienioally they marked a distinct
step in advance as they were sometimes provided with floors, which could be cleansed.
Perhaps the most important event of the two years preceding the gold discov-
ery was the official act of Alcalde Washington A. Bartlett, who on the 30th of
January, 1847, issued an ordinance which was published in the "California Star"
of that date to the effect that as the use of the name Yerba Buena was liable to
lead to confusion, owing to the fact that the town was designated on the public
map as San Francisco, he ordered that thereafter it should be so called in all offi-
cial documents.
Back of Bartlett's action, however, was an attempt, which proved successful.
SAN FRANCISCO
119
to head off an ambitious rival. On the 15th of September, 1846, Mariano G. Val-
lejo, of Sonoma, and Robert Semple, of Monterey, formed a project of creating a
town on the Straits of Carquinez, which they purposed naming the City of Fran-
cisca, after one of the Christian names of Vallejo's wife. This document was pre-
sented to Alcalde Bartlett for record on January 19, 1847, and he objected to
the similarity of the designation and refused to accede to the request. Vallejo,
Semple, and Thomas O. Larkin protested, but Bartlett remained firm and they
accepted the situation, choosing another of Senora Vallejo's Christian names, that
of Benicia. From that date the title Yerba Buena was dropped, and the town,
including the mission, came to be known as San Francisco.
In all the years intervening between the promulgation of the ordinance by Gov-
ernor Figueroa, which prohibited the granting of lands around Yerba Buena cove
nearer than 200 varas from the beach, which was followed by the laying out of the
"Street of the Foundation," there appears to have been no movement in real estate
until the Americans took charge of affairs. As already stated, a survey was made
in 1839, under the direction of Alcalde Haro, but it was not followed by any active
demand for lots. A sudden change in this attitude of indifference took place in
1847, when the principal part of the town was laid out in fifty vara lots. Seven
hundred and fifty of these were surveyed, and 450 that had been applied for were
sold by the alcalde at a nominal price. The amount demanded for fifty varas was
$12, to which were added the charges for deed and recording, making the cost to
the purchaser $16.
The buyers of these lots were required to inclose them with fences and to build
upon them within a year, under penalty of reversion in case of failure to comply
with the regulation. In addition to the 750 fifty vara lots there were also sold
lots 100 varas square, six of which formed a block bounded by streets on the four
sides. The price established for these lots was $25 each, plus the cost of the deed
and recording which, as in the case of the 50 vara lots, was $4.
The streets as originally laid out in Yerba Buena were only 60 feet wide, but
in the new survey none was less than 70 feet in width, and one broad thorough-
fare of 110 feet was provided. The expectation that San Francisco would develop
into a maritime city of importance stimulated the desire for water front lots, and
the far seeing and speculatively inclined caused measures to be taken as early as
1847 to extend the town over the shoal places of the cove.
Water front lots were sold in pursuance of an order made by the militarj' gov-
ernor, General Kearny, on the 10th of March, 1847, between Fort Montgomery
and the Rincon, but the work of filling in did not begin until a year later. The
eagerness with which this sort of property was sought in 1847 indicates that there
was little doubt in the minds of the would-be purchasers that the port of San
Francisco would have a rapid growth.
Earliest
Real Estate
Transactions
CHAPTER XVII
THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO AND ITS GREAT IMPORTANCE
surrounded by a wilderness the golden gate named by fremont the name
"California" — the entrance to the harbor — the shores of the bay of
san francisco a natural basin filled in by the pioneers contour of the
bay not greatly changed first steam vessel on the bay russians in
alaska alaska a source of supplies commerce of the port in 1848
hundreds of ships in the harbor the dawn of commercial greatness.
HE port SO eagerly sought by the Spaniards and so jealously
guarded by them from intrusion; the body of water whose
magnificent opportunities had excited the cupidity of rival
nations, until the Americans took possession and perma-
nently settled its ownership, was as nearly neglected up to
that time as during the centuries preceding the year when
Drake sailed past its mouth without discovering it, and
anchored in a roadstead when he might have enjoyed the shelter of a land-locked
harbor. It cannot be said, however, that there was lack of interest. That was
kept alive by frequent descriptions given to the outside world by navigators, who
could not refrain from extolling its advantages, and who appeared more keenly
alive to the possibilities of the development of the region surrounding it than those
who occupied the soil and should have some knowledge of its resources.
The ignorance concerning the Bay of San Francisco among those who lived
on its shores in the first years of the nineteenth century was of the densest. The
maritime instinct was wholly lacking in the small community made up of the in-
mates of the mission and the garrison of the presidio. Its members were appar-
ently as unfamiliar with the surroundings of the inland body of water and the
opportunities it presented of opening a vast expanse of territory by its superior
facilities for communication as they were with the discoveries made after they
had entered the country.
In November, 1826, when the British ship "Blossom" entered the harbor of
San Francisco, its captain compared notes with the observations of Vancouver,
who had been in the bay 33 years earlier. The only change observed by Captain
Beechey was that everything presented an appearance of decay. The dilapidated
condition of the fort particularly impressed him, but not more than the uncompro-
mising ignorance of the missionaries, who still believed the lying account of Mal-
donado, who professed to have sailed through the center of the continent, and who
would not believe his statement that the Tahatian group of islands had been dis-
covered, because they could not find them laid down on charts made in 1782.
121
Ignorance
CoDcerniDS
the Bay
Maritime
Instinct
Lacking
Few Changei
in Thirty-
three Tears
122
SAN FRANCISCO
Make no
Use of Bay
American
War Vessels
Enter Port
No wonder that Captain Beechey was moved to write that the Bay of San Fran-
cisco was in the hands of people who made no use of it, and who were not merely
ignorant of its value but were unwilling to learn. Alfred Robinson, who anchored
in the cove three years later than Beechey's visit, was equally unfavorably im-
pressed. He landed at North Point with a small party, purposing to make a visit
to the mission. Horses were provided for them and they rode through a dense
thicket, occasionally running across cayotes and seeing plenty of bear tracks. After
a circuitous ride of several miles over a narrow trail through brush whose over-
hanging branches endangered their heads, they reached Dolores, whose dark and
tiled roofs they thought compared with "the black and cheerless scenery" sur-
rounding the establishment.
In the more than fifty years from the establishment of the mission this trail
through underbrush, with its accompaniment of cayotes, howling wolves and bear
tracks was all that had been accomplished in the waj' of providing facilities for
communication with the port or cove. It is possible that the missionaries knew the
latitude and longitude of the entrance to the bay, but there was absolutely no use
of the knowledge made by them or those who accepted their direction spiritually
and otherwise. Up to 1842, as already noted, several foreign war ships had en-
tered the bay, and they all apparently did something in the way of surveying. The
"Blossom," commanded by Beechey, went about the work with some system, and
the rock, which was in later years removed by the United States government be-
cause it had become an obstacle to navigation, was named after that vessel.
In IS^l two American war vessels, the "San Luis," and the "Vincennes," en-
tered the harbor and made surveys, and in the year following the "Yorktown,"
"Cyane" and the "Dale" did a little in the same line. French war ships, the frigate
"Artemesia" in 1827 and the "Brilliante" in 1842, anchored in the bay and the
observations of their officers added something to the common knowledge, but we
have no information of any serious effort by the Spanish or the Mexicans to en-
lighten the world concerning the harbor which they did not use themselves, and
were unwilling to have others make use of even though benefit might accrue to
them by stimulating its use.
In 1847 there were six square rigged vessels in the harbor, the names of which
have been preserved for us by the annalist. They were the U. S. ship "Cyane,"
the ships "Moscow," "Vandalia," "Barnstable," "Thomas H. Perkins" and the
brig "Euphemia." They enjoyed the benefits of the more precise surveys of the
"Wilkes," made on the eve of the occupation, but had not yet learned to make use
of the name "Golden Gate," which was applied to the entrance by John C. Fre-
mont a year later. On his map of California and Oregon, published in 1848, he
used the Greek word Chrysopylae. The title was not suggested to Fremont by the
discovery of gold, but as he explains in a geographical memoir, published at the same
time the map appeared, it was inspired by reasons similar to those which gave to
the entrance to the harbor of Byzantium, now Constantinople, the appellation
Chrysoceros or Golden Horn.
The closely concurring discovery of gold gave to the name bestowed by Fre-
mont a double significance, but the luster of the first conception has not been dimin-
ished by time or circumstance. As the years roll on the appositeness of the title
is more clearly recognized, and in the fullness of time San Francisco's portal open-
SAN FRANCISCO
123
ing out upon the ocean destined to become the greatest highway of commerce will
attain to a fame surpassing that of antiquity's most celebrated port.
It is fortunate that Fremont deemed it wise to explain his reason for the be-
stowal of the name so happily appropriate. Had he not done so another fruitful
subject of discussion would have been opened, and, as in the case of "California,"
there would have been endless speculation and innumerable attempts to solve an
unsolvable riddle. After a century of more or less brilliant guessing and patient
research the world is still in doubt respecting the origin of the word California.
The once easily accepted explanation that it was taken from a work of fiction has
been dismissed, and it is now attributed to the borrowing propensity of the Spanish
adventurers, who were not indisposed to retain phrases of a descriptive character
derived from Indians. Thus we are told that the Indians of Lower California
were accustomed to designating a high hill or sandy coast as "Kali forno." Alvar-
ado, Vallejo and other native Californians leaned to this view, and Bancroft asserts
that an old Indian of Sinaloa called the peninsula, in 1878, Tchal ifalni-al — the
sandy land beyond the water. The supporters of the theory that the name was
derived from Calida fornax (hot furnace) point to the method of classification of
the Mexican regions, into tierra fria, tierra templada and tierra caUente, and a
writer in the "Chronicle," in an extended examination of all the claims, concluded
that Cal y forno was a name given by Indians who recognized in the white hills
of the lower part of the state a resemblance to lime kilns which he had seen.
There is some point to the inquiry instituted bj'' Shakespeare concerning the
importance of a name, but while we may agree with him that "a rose by any other
name would smell as sweet," it is reasonably certain that "Hot furnace" would
not be regarded as aptly descriptive when applied to California. The designation
may have suited the Colorado desert, but it would have been rejected as inappli-
cable to the other parts of the province. Certainly those Spanish navigators who
later became familiar with the region about the Bay of San Francisco, would not
have persisted in the use of so obvious a misnomer, unless perhaps they were of
the same mind as one of the governors of the Mexican period, who did not hesitate
to stigmatize California as too poor a place to attract decent people and a little
too good for convicts.
There was something loose about the method of naming places adopted by the
Spaniards who settled California. The padres were very careful to register the
baptisms of the neophytes, and always gave them a Christian name, but the sol-
diers, it would seem, when the duty devolved upon them of picking out a designation
for a site, sometimes became fanciful, and abandoned the sentimental habit of
translating an old world name to the new, or the equally convenient one of select-
ing that of a saint from the calendar, and sought to commemorate an event by an
apt word or phrase. According to Palou, Mission bay came by its name in that
manner; but the critics assert that Las Dolores was more probably bestowed by
the padres to honor "the mother of Sorrows," than to commemorate the discovery
by Aguirre of three Indians weeping on its shores.
California nomenclature has been the subject of much discussion and not a little
adverse criticism, but the fact that there was no disposition to substitute common-
place names for those already bestowed has not been much dwelt upon. The "Red
Dogs," "Hangtowns." "Sandy Ears," "Yuba Dams" and like titles have been
cited as instances of lack of fancy, but the retention of the Spanish appellations
124
SAN FRANCISCO
A Greek
Word
■Englished"
Entrance
to the
Harbor
Early Ac-
counts of
the Bay
SuTTey of
the Golden
Gate
indicates a keep appreciation on the part of the argonauts of mellifluous titles.
The accounts unite in the assertion that much trouble was experienced in dealing
with the names of individuals and of towns, but the struggle proved successful and
only in rare instances was there an attempt made to translate; hence the retention
of designations which still worry the visitor from the East, but present no difficul-
ties to Calif ornians.
But while the first comers were ready to incorporate Spanish words, and took
kindly to Yerba Buena, Dolores, Sacramento and San Francisco, and were even
prepared to wrestle with Moquelumne and other words of Indian origin, they would
not accept the scholarly imposition of Chrysopylae of Fremont, but insisted on
converting it into English so that it might be understood by that part of mankind
with which they were identified, and which they felt was most interested in their
fortunes. It is not probable that the matter was given much thought in the hurly
burly of the first years of the gold rush, but the promptness with which "Golden
Gate" was accepted and transferred to maps, following that made by "The Path-
finder" exhibits a lively appreciation of the value of a significant title.
If names did not occupy a very large share of the early public mind there is
evidence that the things and places they designated or described were carefully
considered. Chrysopylae, in the first years after the occupation, may have been
little discussed even by those who lay much stress on origins, but the entrance to
the harbor was a matter of profound concern, and there was an earnest effort made
to let all mankind know that the gate was one through which the commerce of the
world might ebb and flow without hindrance. The very earliest descriptions indi-
cate that not long after the occupation the facts concerning the portal and its
approaches and the bay itself were as well known as they are today.
An account of the ease with which entrance to the harbor is effected, published
when San Francisco occupied the center of the stage, describes it as perfectly as
the latest chart. Speaking of the ports to the north and south, Columbia river and
San Diego, the writer said: "The available depth on the San Francisco bar is
considerably more than is found at either of the ports named, being fully five fath-
oms at the lowest stage of the tide over much the greater length of the bar, which,
measured along the crest of its crescent from shore to shore, is fifteen miles. Over
about four miles of this distance the depth is a little more than four fathoms, leav-
ing eleven miles over which it is not less than five fathoms. Inside of the four
fathom bank and lying close under the north head, known as Point Bonita, there
is a channel half a mile wide, through which more than seven fathoms can be car-
ried at the lowest stage of tide, the rise of which varies from three to seven feet,
giving an additional depth at periods of high water."
Later surveys describe the Golden Gate as being nearly three miles in length,
nearly a mile wide in its narrowest part, and having a maximum depth of 360
feet. The shores of the gate are bold and rocky. The North or Bonita channel
is a third of a mile wide, according to these measurements and has a depth of 54
feet. When the first description was written it was not considered necessary to
explain that ships would have no difficulty in entering the harbor, but a commis-
sion which had under consideration methods of improvement of the harbor, in 1907
deemed it expedient to explain that "no matter how great the draft of the ship of
the future it will always be able to enter the port of San Francisco with safety."
;AX FEANCISCO in 1851
YEEBA BUENA COVE IN 1851
SAN FRANCISCO
125
San Francisco bay, with its northern extension, San Pablo bay, has an area of
420 square miles. The shore line of the main body of water, excluding its numer-
ous navigable inlets, measures 100 miles in length. This body of water, presenting
such remarkable facilities for commercial purposes, has since its discovery occu-
pied the minds of physiographists, who are nearly agreed that its entrance was orig-
inally the outlet for the combined waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers, and that some time in the remote past there was a subsidence of their beds,
with the result that the waters of the sea were admitted through the Golden Gate,
thus forming San Francisco bay. It is asserted that the Indians had a tradition
of a great cataclysm that accounted for the creation of the bay, but the story may be
set do^vn as one of the cases in which the framer of an ingenious theory seeks to
obtain support by dubious methods for a view which is plausible in itself.
The uses to which the Bay of San Francisco may be put at some future day
will be described later, when the period in which harbor improvement became a
dominating consideration is under review. Here the conditions existing on the
eve of the gold rush will be chiefly dealt with so that the progress of development
may be followed. In 1848, and the years immediately following, the question of
port facilities was a burning one, but it assumed a different form from that which
it presents at present, and it may be said that the unwisdom shown in dealing
with it was responsible for many of the problems which later brought so much
vexation.
The appearance of the shores of San Francisco bay has been changed in some
particulars by the hand of man, but his artificial additions have not greatly al-
tered the general aspect. If Portola, Beechey, Robinson, Dana and others who
have left descriptions were to return they would find more that was familiar than
strange to them. They would miss the solitary group of tall redwoods on the
summit of the mountains on the northern side of the Golden Gate, which the writer
of the "Annals" tells us made a striking land mark for the mariner at sea; and Dana
would be unable to find any traces of the herds of red deer which he saw "under a
high and beautifully sloping hill" near the mouth of the bay, and Beechey would
hunt in vain for the dense growth of wood which he had to pass through to reach
the mission when he landed at North Point. But the main features which impelled
Dana to remark in his "Two Years Before the Mast": "If California ever becomes
a prosperous country this bay vrill be the center of its prosperity," still exist. The
bay still affords "the best anchoring grounds in the whole coast of America," and
the region about it retains the climate which he said "is as near being perfect as
any in the world."
The modern facilities for the speedy docking of vessels have caused navigators
to think less of good anchorage grounds, but when Dana wrote they were uppermost
in the sailor's mind when he thought of harbors. Dana visited the bay in 1835.
Thirteen years later the enterprising Americans, who were determined on removing
the "if" which the author interposed when talking of the future of California, be-
gan to revolutionize the ancient trend of thought by resolving to dispense with
anchorage except as a temporary expedient. The revolution and the way it has
worked out helped make a great deal of the history of San Francisco in the first
few years of occupation, some of it very unsavory, but all of it interesting and sig-
nificant.
Area of
Bay of San
Francisco
Appearance
of Shores of
the Bay
126
SAN FRANCISCO
FiUingot
the Cove
a Mistake
Speculation
and the
Water Front
The cove so frequently mentioned in the descriptions of those who left their
impressions of the San Francisco before the occupation was early doomed to oblit-
eration. In 1847 the work of filling in began and it was continued until the place
which had once been the snug harbor of all the craft visiting the port was converted
into something that might be likened to an untidy Venice. The nearby sand hills
formed the chief part of the material used in converting what was water into land,
but the rubbish of the growing town was freely employed for the same purpose.
These operations, which were begun before the influx of gold hunters commenced
were pushed with vigor as soon as funds and labor were available for the purpose.
The primary object of filling in the cove was to get as near to deep water as
possible, but the sand dunes and steep hills in the rear had their influence in deter-
mining the pioneers of San Francisco to make for themselves an artificial water
front. It was believed in 1848, and for some years afterward, that the nature of
the land surrounding the semicircular beach enclosing the cove would prevent the
town extending westward and the desire for concentration suggested the accom-
plishment of a double stroke, that of creating more room for building purposes on
a level, and the facilitation of the unloading and loading of ships by providing
berths for them in which they might lie securely while the process was in progress.
There was also another object to be served and that was perhaps more influential
in hastening results than the immediate necessity of providing wharves. The spec-
ulator had a great deal to do with the shaping of affairs in the port of San Fran-
cisco. His prescience was responsible for much of the activity before which the
semicircular beach of the cove disappeared to allow its place to be taken by a
straight line of buildings extending across what had once been the anchoring ground
of deep sea ships. The localit)' may yet be recognized by surviving land marks,
describing its boundaries, some of which, however, are being removed, and others
are destined to share that fate. The writer of the "Annals of San Francisco" men-
tions one hill which it would be difficult to identify, probably because it was lev-
eled, and Rincon hill, another point which he felt sure would always be recognized,
is now on the eve of demolition. Telegraph hill alone seems destined to endure,
because it has been made an object of sentimental consideration, and even it may
have to go when the demands of commerce become more urgent.
The changes necessitated by the growth of San Francisco are the only ones
which have seriously altered the appearance of the hundred miles or so of the
shore line of the bay. The numerous other towns surrounding it have made but
slight alterations in its contour, although they furnish abundant evidence of human
activity which would certainly astonish any surviving pessimist of the ante occupa-
tion period, and would perhaps fill with surprise the optimists, who predicted the
great future of the harbor. The inhabitants of Yerba Buena, who in 1847 saw what
they called "the steamboat" making an experimental trip about the harbor, could
not have imagined the possibilit)' of the bay being navigated by so many vessels
propelled by what was then a comparatively strange force, that it would be neces-
sary to establish fairways and to resort to the strictest sort of regulation in order
to guard against accident.
The vessel referred to as "the steamboat" was brought from Sitka in the year
named. It never proved a success and its fate is a matter involved in doubt. The
writer of the "Annals" declares that the launch, for it was really nothing more,
perished in a norther in 1848, but more recent researches indicate that after making
SAN FRANCISCO
127
a trip up the Sacramento river, in which it was outdistanced by an ox team, which
left San Francisco after its departure, the engines of the steamboat were taken out
and put to what was deemed a better use, and the hull was converted into a sloop.
The steamboat was by no means the first vessel on the Pacific to be propelled
by steam. In 1840 two steamships were brought out from England and plied be-
tween South American ports and Europe. The fact is interesting because it calls
attention to the advances made by some of the countries on the west coast of South
America, while Mexico and its great territory of California were at a standstill.
That the first steam craft on San Francisco bay came from Alaska also suggests a
degree of energy in the North difficult to reconcile with the subsequent policy of
Russia in dealing with its possessions on the American continent.
As shown in a previous chapter the resources of the region comprising Alta
California and the territory above it, since occupied by the United States and Great
Britain, were apparently better comprehended by the Russians than any other peo-
ple, and they made more use of the part of North America controlled by them in
some respects, during the time they were in possession of Alaska, than the United
States did until after the gold discoveries in the Klondj'ke. We are accustomed to
thinking of that event as the practical starting point in the industrial history of
Alaska, but long before the rush from the United States to the Dominion province,
and the subsequent development of the American territory, the Russians were ener-
getically engaged in prosecuting various industries in Sitka, and were hopeful of
becoming the source of supply of manufactured articles for the Californians.
The Russians operating in Alaska continued prosperous down to 1821. In that
year the Russian American Company declared good round dividends. Some impres-
sion of its enterprise may be gained from the statement that it sought to establish
a market for Alaskan coal in San Francisco. Several hundred thousand dollars
were expended in attempting to accomplish that object but the enterprise proved a
failure because of the poor steaming qualities of the coal. The people engaged in
this undertaking derived some profit from shipping ice to the rising town, but the
business could not be successfully carried on after it was found impossible to create
a market for Alaskan coal in California. The various activities of the Russians
on the coast necessitated a considerable fleet. At one period there were 500 per-
sons in the employ of the Russian American Company, who were served by a num-
ber of brigs and a regular line of supply ships between St. Petersburg and the
American colonies was maintained.
It was in the shipyards at Sitka, called into existence primarily for repairing
purposes, that various auxiliary manufacturing establishments were created which
continued to produce numerous articles in great demand by the Californians, and
a profitable trade in these was carried on down to the time of the American occupa-
tion. When the discovery of gold was made at Sutter's fort many cargoes of shop
worn and hitherto almost unsaleable goods were shipped to San Francisco and
found ready purchasers, who paid big prices for them. These transactions, how-
ever, appeared to have ended the profitable connection of the Russians in Alaska
with California. On the 18th of October, 1867, the territory, in pursuance of a
treaty of purchase arranged by Secretary of State William H. Seward, passed
into the possession of the United States, and from that time forward it began to
be an important factor in the commerce of the port of San Francisco, as will be
related in the proper connection.
.steam Vessels
in Sonth
PaeiBc
Comprehen-
sion of Vain<
of California
SAN FRANCISCO
Commerce
Francisco
1848
The Bay Full
of Vessels
inlSSO
Activities
of the
FioDeers
The official reports inform us that the tonnage of ocean arrivals in the port of
San Francisco in the year 1848 aggregated 50,000 tons, of which 1,000 only were
steam. The foreign tonnage was 23,000 and the domestic 27,000, the latter in-
cluding the 1,000 steam tonnage. A better idea of the shipping industry at this
period and in the years following is derived from the statement in the "Annals," that
in the first half of 1849 there were two hundred square rigged vessels in the har-
bor at one time, and that before the close of the year between three and four hun-
dred were in port, many of them unable to leave on account of the desertion of
the sailors, and not infrequently of the officers.
At this time there was one wharf known as the Broadway and another, the Cen-
tral, was projected and completed early in 1850. There were several small land-
ing places which scarcely deserved to be dignified by the title wharf. These were
constructed by private parties, and extended but a little distance across the mud
flats and were of no use at low tide, but they afforded facilities for landing pas-
sengers and goods in open boats and were a source of profit to their owners. The
Central wharf was built by an association and cost $180,000. It extended to deep
water and large vessels could lay alongside and discharge at any stage of the tide.
The year 1850 was marked by great activity in wharf building, the longest of
which was that at the foot of Clay street. Its original length was 900 feet, but the
demand for berth space was so great than in the month following its completion it
was extended to 1,800 feet. In addition to the wharves already mentioned there
were in 1850 similar accommodations for shipping, some of which were not so
long. Market, California, Sacramento, Washington, Jackson, Pacific, Clay and
Broadway all terminated in structures whose lengths varied from 250 feet to that
of Clay street, which, as already recited, was nearljf a third of a mile long.
On the 1st of June, 1850, there were 526 vessels of various kinds lying in the
harbor, the greater number of which were ships and barks, the remainder being
brigs and schooners. In addition to these there were at least a hundred large
square rigged vessels lying at Benicia and in other well sheltered parts of the
bay, where they were secure from the occasional northers which swept over its
waters. The records indicate that considerable damage resulted from these visita-
tions in the first few years after occupation, but before 1853 the facilities provided
for protection were such that it was stated no further injury was experienced from
them.
It is not marvelous that the argonauts should have dwelt with great satisfac-
tion upon their achievements in wharf building, and the pro%-ision they made for
the expeditious transaction of the great commerce which had grown up in so short
a period after the occupation. When the Americans hoisted their flag over Ports-
mouth square in 1846, Yerba Buena cove was as innocent of pretensions to activ-
ity in maritime matters as it was when a few native Californian soldiers marched
.iround the head of the bay to procure lumber for the decaying presidio buildings,
which they brought from the opposite shore in a rude lumber drogher built under
the direction of a foreigner. This was the chief nautical achievement of the men
who had dreamed and talked of a great city on the shores of the Bay of San Fran-
cisco.
In four years the Americans had at a cost of more than a million and a half
provided artificial thoroughfares over two miles in length along a water front of
considerable extent to serve vessels numbered by the hundred bringing passengers
SAN FRANCISCO 129
and merchandise from every country on the globe for the consumption of a popula-
tion which had sprung up like a mushroom, and which felt so assured of its future
that it promptly set to work to convert the sea into dry land in order that business
might be done with convenience and dispatch; for all these early constructions in
another four years had ceased to perform their original functions and had been
converted into public streets.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT SUTTER'S MILL IN 1848
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY THE CAREER OF SUTTER A POORLY KEPT SECRET BE-
GIKNING OF THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA MILITARY GOVERNOR RICHARD B. MASON
PROPOSAL TO CONSERVE THE GOLD- MARSHALL'S LIFE THREATENED SAN FRAN-
CISCO BECOMES THE MINEr's MECCA MINING AND TEMPERAMENT EFFECTS OF
THE GOLD LURE THE GOLD HUNTERS THE RUSH IN 1849 POPULATION IN 1849
IMMIGRANTS POURING INTO CALIFORNIA UNSTABLE CHARACTER OF THE NEW
POPULATION DEPENDENCE ON MINING.
WOULD be idle to ascribe the wonderful metamorphosis
described in the previous chapter to the unassisted energy
of the Americans who settled in Yerba Buena when the
territory of California passed under the flag of the United
States. There is every reason for believing that there
would have been progress, which would have presented a
brilliant contrast to the inactivitj^ of the dispossessed Cali-
fornians, but in the nature of things the work of building up a great city must have
proceeded slowly, removed as Yerba Buena was from the great centers which could
have contributed the population necessary to effect its upbuilding if it were not
for the adventitious circumstance of the discovery of gold.
The first Americans who settled in Yerba Buena and those who found their
way into California when it became the property of the United States did not
place mineral products high in the list of its resources. If they gave the subject
of mineralogy any consideration in this connection, they did not lay much stress
upon it. There is little or no reference to gold made in most of the early descrip-
tions of the State of California. As already related gold had been discovered in the
vicinity of Los Angeles by native Californians and a few ounces were gathered
and sent to Philadelphia to be refined, but the discovery attracted little more than
local attention, and even there it did not stimulate extensive prospecting, and in a
very short time the find was a closed incident.
It may be asserted in a general way that Californians and the newcomers prior
to 1848 never thought of the territory as a possible gold producer. The small but
growing town of Yerba Buena was engrossed with entirely different matters, and if
the minds of the more enterprising inhabitants of the place ever harbored thoughts
of gold they gave no expression to them. When the discovery was finally made at
Sutter's mill by accident, the intelligence of the fact brought to the people of
Yerba Buena as much surprise as it did to the outside world, which knew little
about California resources, and did not bother itself much about them until it
131
Effects of
the Gold
DiscoTcry
First Settlers
Not After
Gold
132
SAN FRANCISCO
The DlscoT-
ery at
Sntter'B Mill
Sutter's
Character-
istics
A Secret
That Conid
Kot be Kept
awakened to the knowledge that the placers of the newly occupied country were
yielding gold nuggets and dust in abundance.
The discovery which caused the adventurous spirits of the civilized world, and
some from countries that had not attained the stage implied by the term enlight-
ened, was made in January, 1848, by a man named James W. Marshall who had
contracted with John A. Sutter, the owner of a large tract of land granted to
him by the Mexican government in the Sacramento valley, and which he entered
upon in 1839 and practically took possession of the surrounding country which he
called New Helvetia. In the summer of that year he established himself at a
place afterward called Sutter's fort and built a road to the point on the Sacra-
mento river, where the city of that name subsequently had its beginning. Sutter
was born in Baden, Germany, in 1803, and had a wandering career before finally
settling in California, and in the course of his peregrinations had become a citizen
of Switzerland. Later he swore devotion to Mexico. Before he moved to Cali-
fornia he had pursued farming in Missouri and it was from thence that he made
his way to the Far West accompanjdng a party under the command of Captain
Tripp, known as the American Fur Company, to the Wind river country. He
left Tripp there and made his way to Oregon and from there to the Sandwich
islands. His objective was California, but before reaching the territory he found
his way to Sitka and it was not until 1839 that he achieved his aim, arriving in
Yerba Buena on the 2d day of July in that year.
Sutter was a man of varied acquirements and undoubted enterprise. He also
enjoyed the reputation of being a brave man, and it was chiefly to that fact
that he owed his large grant and the consideratble latitude accorded him in the
administration of affairs about his place. His so-called fort was regarded as an out-
post against the Indians and he was not infrequently called upon to take action
against them, albeit he was charged with deliberately provoking collisions in
order to secure captives who were reduced to a condition little better than slavery.
In order to secure power for the saw mill he had contracted to build, Marshall
admitted the water from the south fork of the American river, a feeder of the
Sacramento, into the tail race for the purpose of widening and deepening it by
the force of the current. The rush of water brought with it considerable gravel,
mud and sand which was deposited in a heap at the foot of the race. In this
deposit Marshall noticed a number of glittering objects. He carefully examined
them and soon concluded that the shining particles were gold. He gathered about
an ounce of the dust and, greatly excited over his find, he repaired with it to the
fort where he exhibited it to Sutter, who thought Marshall had gone mad when
he first told him that he had found gold.
Tests of the dust soon satisfied Sutter of the genuineness of the discovery
and it was arranged between the two that they should keep their find a secret
but a woman employed about the place who had overheard them divulged it and
in a very short time everybody in or near the fort was discussing the discovery
and in an incredibly brief period all the neighborhood was hunting gold. Every-
body in the vicinity abandoned his regular employment and hurried to Sutter's
mill to hunt for gold, and in a few days over 1200 persons were on the ground,
from which they spread to other places where the prospects seemed good.
On June 1, 1848, Thomas O. Larkin wrote to James Buchanan, then secre-
tary of state, an account of the discovery. He followed this letter with another
SAN FRANCISCO
133
from Monterey, dated June 28, 1848, in which he spoke in glowing terms of the
importance of the newly found placers, saying he was inclined to believe that a
few thousand men in a hundred miles square of the Sacramento valley would
yearly turn out the whole price of all the territory newly acquired from Mexico.
As the amount paid to the republic for all the region embracing New Mexico,
Arizona and California, in conformity with the terms of the Gadsen treaty, was
only $15,000,000, Larkin cannot be accused of having overestimated the possi-
bilities. Since he made the modest statement quoted no year has passed in Cali-
fornia in which the yield of gold has not equalled that amount, and during many
years the product has been four times as great as the cost of the acquired territory.
In the closing years of the decade 1840-9, information traveled slowly. There
were no enterprising newspapers in those days to disseminate intelligence, but
letter writing was an art more in favor than at present and it was not many months
after the discovery before the enterprising began to turn their steps California-
ward. The Baltimore "Sun" on Sept. 20, 1848, took notice of the discovery but
there were parties on the way from the East to the new diggings earlier than that
date. They had gained their information from private letters which had been
received before the discovery was noticed by a newspaper.
The appearance of the article in the "Sun" and the dispatch of Larkin's letter
to Buchanan had been preceded by a visit to the diggings made by Governor
Mason, accompanied by Lieutenant William T. Sherman, afterward general of
the United States army. They started from Monterey on the 17th of June, 1848,
visiting San Francisco en route, finding it almost deserted. They made their way
to Sutter's fort by passing through Bodega and Sonoma, reaching there on the
2d of July. They found the neighborhood a scene of great activity. From
Sutter's fort they traveled up the American river about twenty-five miles to the
lower mines which were known as the Mormon diggings, and thence to Coloma,
where they spent several days with Marshall and Weber. At this place they found
over 4,000 employed in mining.
Richard B. Mason was the military governor who took charge of the affairs
of the territory in the absence of General Kearny. He was colonel of First
United States Dragoons and had the bureaucratic notions of the arm of the
service to which he belonged, and had some thoughts of putting into execution
an idea which suggested itself to him, which to some extent foreshadowed the
recently developed conservation policy of the government. As the result of his
observations he concluded that the total yield of the mines he had visited was
from $30,000 to $50,000 a day. As the gold was all derived from public land
he seriously deliberated a method of securing to the government "a reasonable
rent or fee for extracting it." He was dissuaded from adopting such a course
by consideration of the fact that the country was too big and the people of the
wrong sort to be managed by the force at his command.
It was fortunate for California and the rest of the world that Mason aban-
doned all idea of interference and permitted the work of extracting the gold from
the soil to proceed freely. Had he attempted to put his plan in force there would
have been a collision which in any event must have proved disastrous. Had he
succeeded in exacting fees, and in otherwise hampering the prospectors, the inevi-
table result would have been a restriction of production ; but it is more than
probable that the course he proposed would have aroused an antagonism or a
News Dis-
seminated
Slowly
Larlcin <
Sherman
Report
Snggested
Gold Con-
servation
The
Conservation
Idea
134
SAN FRANCISCO
Early Mani-
festation of
Intolerance
The State
and the
City
rebellion which would not have been as easily quelled as the uprising of the
Californians after the hoisting of the flag at Monterey. Mason must, however,
be credited with good judgment. He displayed it when he wrote to Commodore
James on his return to Monterey that the destiny of California was settled by
the gold discovery, treaty or no treaty, but the latter was consummated before the
missive reached its destination.
Mason was not alone in his view respecting the conservation of gold. It was
shared by General Persifer Smith who, while on his way in January, 1849, to join
the American forces in California, announced at Panama that he intended to treat
every man not a citizen of the United States, who entered upon the public land
to dig for gold, as a trespasser; and he proposed, if possible, to drive all foreigners
from the diggings. It is probable that Smith was inspired more by the "know
nothing" spirit of the times than by a desire to save the gold for posterity, but
he, too, was obliged to abandon his views and assent to the free-for-all policy
which had established itself in the gold fields. Such decided benefits were derived
by those who hunted for, and found the precious metal, and the world's commerce
was so greatly stimulated by its abundance, that conservation went out of fashion
and was not heard of again for over a half a century.
An idea of what might have occurred had Mason or Smith attempted to enforce
their views may be gained from the experiences of Sutter and Marshall who took
the ground that the gold of the Coloma fields was theirs by right of discovery.
As soon as the rush to the placers began, Sutter attempted to exact a toll of
10% upon all the gold found. This exaction was not submitted to by the miners,
who moved away. Later Sutter sold his claim in Coloma for $6,000 and Marshall
disposed of his interest in the mill for one-third that amount, but he still claimed
to be owner of the ground and involved himself in many quarrels by so doing, and
by his propensity to boast of making big finds. His professions in this regard were
believed by some and he acquired the reputation of withholding the secret of his
discoveries out of pure contrariness. This exasperated the miners to such an
extent that they threatened to lynch him and he fled for his life. The animosity
he excited was so great that his enemies wreaked vengeance on his mill and as a
result it became impossible to locate the spot where it had stood.
The personal fortunes of the miners and the methods they adopted to secure the
gold they sought only indirectly concern San Francisco. Books have been written
describing the characteristics of the miners and their performances but they are
part of the history of California rather than that of its metropolis. But it is
impossible to draw the line between what pertains to the state at large and that
which directly affected the city which at once became the mecca of the fortunate
seeker after gold and the refuge of the unfortunate prospector who, in the slang
of the time, "went bust." It is safe, therefore, to assume that for many years after
1848 nothing of consequence occurred anywhere in California which did not in some
manner touch San Francisco interests.
It was the gold the miners extracted from the soil that brought a ceaseless pro-
cession of ships to the port of San Francisco; and it was the bad luck or failure
of the searcher after the golden fleece to achieve his desire that sent him back
to the new mart of commerce to attempt to earn the living there which the aurif-
erous soil begrudged him. To supply the demands of the miners who thronged the
hills and built up numerous towns in the mining districts, mercantile establishments
SAN FRANCISCO
135
of consequence were started in the city, whose imports in some cases in a single year
exceeded in volume and value all the merchandise brought into California during
the entire period of Spanish and Mexican possession of the soil. And soon it
became the business of the same bustling community to find a market for the
surplus agricultural products of a region which the argonauts, at first, unmindful
of the differing peculiarities of agricultural countries, had set down as unfertile
and only adapted to the uses to which it had been put by the unenterprising
inhabitants who were there before they came.
Because all these interests are linked up so closely the historian must draw
on them and he may use them in the full assurance that their bearing will be
perceived without taxing the reader with explanations. There may be no apparent
connection at first between the statement that for many years the miner who carried
his "outfit" on his back and was always ready to move on to where he thought
he conld do better, typified the restlessness of the inhabitants of San Francisco
until the rushes which sometimes nearly depopulated the City are described. It
will then be seen how greatly the occupation of the gold seeker affected the tempera-
ment of San Franciscans, and how, until mining became only a part of the indus-
trial activity of the state, it developed tendencies which would not have exhibited
themselves so conspicuously if the process of growth could have been as devoid
of the elements of chance as in other communities.
At no time after the discovery of gold were the stages of development the
same as those in other countries. The growth was never normal. It began with a
rush and was interrupted by rushes. From the day that the merchant abandoned
his store, the printer his case, the minister his pulpit and the teacher his desk
to dig for gold down to the days when the discovery of the precious metal in the
Klondyke drew away from the City a goodly proportion of its floating population,
and not a few of those who in other localities would be regarded as settled inhabit-
ants, San Francisco was subject to waves of excitement which sometimes materially
retarded its growth, but despite the drawbacks of this nature due to the lure of the
"golden fleece" the City steadily increased in numbers and wealth.
When Constantine removed the capitol of the Roman Empire to Byzantium
there may have been some such transformations effected in incredibly short periods
as were witnessed in San Francisco when the news spread throughout the civilized
world that El Dorado had at last been found or that at least there was sufficient
gold in California to permit slaves of savage kings to bathe in its glittering dust
and parade in gilded splendor if they so desired. And when with this intelligence
the word was passed on that in this new land all were free to dig, the exodus of
the enterprising from the older settled communities was sufiiciently great to make
inroads on the population statistics of ambitious American towns that had already
acquired the "boosting" habit.
Something like a chronological arrangement of the national features of the
invasion of the gold seekers has been attempted but the attempt did not prove very
successful. The accounts agree that a large proportion of those who were first
on the ground were Mexicans, the Sonoranians being particularly numerous. They
were followed by contingents from Oregon on the north and soon the Sandwich
islanders made their appearance. Then ships began to arrive with Peruvians and
Chileans. The Orient was not far behind in contributing its quota, for in 1848 the
world was on a nearly even footing in the matter of the transmission of intelligence,
Nationality
of the Gold
136
SAN FRANCISCO
The Rush
> California
In 1S49
and the ambitious Chinese were as quick in resorting to the feast as their Cau-
casion competitors. Among the latter was a not inconsiderable number from the
Australian colonies; men with shady records and some perhaps who were reckoned
as such, who merely suffered from the taint that long attached to the antipodean
continental possession of the British, because it had been a penal settlement.
When the year 1849 opened wagon trains were slowly moving by var.'ous
routes to the region whose wealth in the popular imagination immeasurably sur-
passed that of the famed Indian Golconda. Ships were sailing around the Horn
in fleets with thousands of passengers all animated by the same desire as the other
thousands who were moving in caravans through the passes of the Rocky Mountains
to the promised land. In this motley throng the good and the bad were inex-
tricably mingled, but there is no foundation for the assumption, which later events
seemed to warrant, that the latter element predominated.
It is well to bear in mind in considering the composition of the population
built up out of the adventurers of all sorts who found their way into California
from all quarters of the globe that assertiveness is a propensity of the wicked.
The good, until aroused, play their part in the world ^vithout attracting any at-
tention to themselves ; but the criminal, even when he works in secrecy, shrinking
from the publicity which might invite the halter or a prison cell, engages in per-
formances which force notice even when they are not wholly spectacular. Nobody
sets down the number of good acts jserformed. but more or less accurate statistics
of criminality are easily accessible.
There were many unscrupulous and utterly reckless men among the first comers
in the gold rush, and they continued to be followed by others as the stream of immi-
gration broadened and increased in volume. These added to the criminal class im-
posed on the unfortunate province of the Mexicans, who for a long time had used
California as a place of exile and penal servitude, made a powerful impress on the
new community and gave it a reputation not wholly deserved, and which was in a
measure confirmed by the extra legal methods later adopted to repress crime and
get rid of the criminals. As will be seen later on the experiences of San Francisco
in 1851 and 1856 merely exemplify the truth at the bottom of the ancient lines in
which the assertion is made that "the fame of the youth who fired the Ephesian
dome outlasts that of the pious fool who reared it." Had the pyromaniac not
indulged his predilection we might never have known that there was an Ephesian
dome, and had not a few wicked men provoked an outraged community to action
the world would never have learned the sort of stuii the pioneers were made of,
and how, when aroused, they could straighten out matters.
It is estimated that during 1849 over 40,000 immigrants were landed in San
Francisco, but at the end of the year the population of the town did not number
more than 25.000. The major part of those arriving only stayed long enough to
secure an "outfit" for the mines and to add to what they had brought. During 1850
the arrivals numbered upwards of 36,000, of whom fully one-half were from foreign
countries. At the end of this year the population of San Francisco showed no
noteworthy increase, the number not exceeding 30,000. As in 1849 all or nearly all
who arrived by sea hastened to the mines.
At the same time that immigrants from all quarters of the globe were pouring
into California through its chief port, daily accessions to the population were
received by the various land routes. The major part of this immigration was of
SAN FRANCISCO
137
American origin, and no inconsiderable portion of it was from southern and south-
western states, a circumstance which influenced the course of events in San Fran-
cisco in succeeding j'ears, and not always favorably. In 1852 a census was taken
by authority of the legislature and the number of inhabitants of the state was
ascertained to be 264,435, while that of the City and county of San Francisco was
36,751. It was asserted, however, that the enumeration was very imperfect owing
to the shifting character of the population and that at the close of the year named
San Francisco had fully 42,000 inhabitants.
The secretary of state in a report in which he abstracted the census returns
noted that the population had increased at the annual rate of 30% during the
two years preceding 1852, and indulged in some conjecture regarding the future.
He assumed that it was reasonable to expect that the increase during the ensuing ten
years would be at the rate of ten per cent annually, and that the population would be
quadrupled within that period. His anticipations, however, were not fully realized,
for at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war the number was not greatly in excess
of 400,000. The census of 1860 only showed 379,994.
It is possible that the census made by direction of the state legislature was accu-
rate, but the figures obtained by the general government in 1860 above given, cast a
doubt upon the veracity of the enumerators. It is true that the year 1853 made no
large additions to the total of 1852. If any such rate of increase as that witnessed
between 1900 and 1910 had been maintained in the Fifties, the population of the
state should have been greater in 1 860 than the federal census marshals assigned to
it, but the probabilities favor the belief that the tide of immigration receded greatly
during the later Fifties, and that California suffered a considerable diminution of
inhabitants throughout the decade owing to the propensity of those who had struck
it rich to return "home."
Home to the pioneers, for several years after 1849, meant to most of them the
states on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. An approximation of the number
of Americans in the 326,000 estimated population of 1853 was 204,000, or nearly
two-thirds of the inhabitants of California. Very few, comparatively speaking, of
the Americans, prior to that year, thought of California as a place of permanent
abode. Their families in many cases, and their relations and other ties were in the
region they had abandoned, and they yearned to return to them. It was many years
after the discovery of gold before the generality of Californians thought of the state
as home, and the habit of applying that appellation to the East and other sections of
the Union did not wholly cease until a new generation came on the scene.
In the estimate or approximation referred to the number of people of non-Ameri-
ican origin in the state in 1853 was about 100,000, of which 30,000 were Germans,
28,000, French, 20,000 Latin Americans, and 17,000 Chinese. In addition there
were 20,000 Indians and 2,000 negroes, the most of the latter from south and south-
western states. At the close of the year, probably owing to the practice ever since
maintained of large numbers of persons who while working in the interior in summer
resorting to the City in winter, San Francisco had at least 50,000 people.
There was not an undue proportion of foreigners in the City at this time, consider-
ing the sources from which f)ie population was derived, the whole world having con-
tributed to the result. Of English speaking peoples there were nearly 32,000. The
Germans numbered 5,500 ; the French with 5,000 had a relatively greater representa-
tion than later ; the Spanish Americans numbered 3,000 and there were 3,000 Chinese.
Population
Predictions
Not Realized
Immigration
Diirins the
Fifties
California
Not Kesarded
as Home
Foreigners
in San
Francisco
138
SAN FRANCISCO
Mining
the Chief
Resonrce
The remaining 1,500 was composed of representatives of every nationality on the
globe, a large proportion of this special contingent being made up of deserters from
the ships in the harbor, which in many instances, when bereft of their crews, were
abandoned, and subsequently made to do duty as warehouses, hotels and in one case
as a prison.
This not inconsiderable population in the first years after the occupation was
almost wholly dependent upon the output of the placers, in which perhaps a hundred
thousand men were seeking for the precious metal during the summer of 1853. The
other resources of the state were as yet scarcely touched by the eager gold hunters,
the most of whom were unfitted by previous training or knowledge of agricultural
possibilities to recognize that there were other greater and more enduring sources of
wealth at their doors. Even those few specialties which the indolent natives had
made their own were neglected, and for a period no one thought of any other means
of gaining worldly substance than through the direct agency of the nuggets and dust
extracted from the soil.
It requires little imagination to realize that the conditions produced by this com-
plete absorption in the quest for gold must have been abnormal, and the results flow-
ing from it had to be wholly different from those Witnessed in communities where
the process of upbuilding was more orderly and where the diversification of industry
introduces complexities which by their attrition speedily wear off the rough edges of
extreme individuality and put on the veneer of conventional civilization. It will be
interesting to trace the effects of this practical confinement to a single field of en-
deavor with the view of ascertaining the part it played in bringing about the serious
troubles San Francisco had to deal with in the beginning of her career, but which
were happily overcome by vigor of action, which often had to be called into play
to repair the damage done by carelessness and neglect.
CHAPTER XIX
MANY VICISSITUDES EXPERIENCED BY THE PIONEERS
A FLIMSILY CONSTRUCTED CITY SAN FRANCISCO IN 1818 THE BIG FIRES OF EARLY DAYS
LACK OF PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE FIVE CONFLAGRATIONS METHODS OF CON-
STRUCTION IMPROVING FIRST STORE BUILDING IN SAN FRANCISCO GOOD ARCHI-
TECTS EXPENSIVE BUILDING MATERIALS AND HIGH COST OF LABOR MISSION STYLE
NOT FAVORED BY THE PIONEERS JERRY BUILDING NUMEROUS BRICK STRUCTURES
APPEARANCE OF THE CITY IN 1854 EARLY LAND GRABBING LAYING UP TROUBLE
FOR THE FUTURE.
STRANGER visiting a city of normal growth, if he is not
statistically wise concerning its standing, soon forms an
impression of its wealth and resources by observing how
its people are housed, the character of its public and quasi
public buildings, its warehouses and stores and its streets
and parks. These are the outward signs which tell the
informed the story of its status as unerringly as the fig-
ures of the assessor and the tax gatherer. But the keenest observer landing in San
Francisco any time within five or six years of the gold discovery at Sutter's fort
would have been at loss to form a judgment of possibilities or probabilities, for the
visible manifestations were entirely dissimilar from anything he could have wit-
nessed in the older communities.
It is only from something like a detailed description that an idea can be gained
of the impression that the nondescript collection of devices made to do sheltering
duty must have made on the stranger as late as 1854, and to understand the cause
of the great vicissitudes to which the population was repeatedly subjected by fire,
it will be necessary to trace the course of building operations during several years.
In the architecture of the growing City, if the term architecture may be applied to
that in which so little art was exhibited, we can discern the attitude of the inhabit-
ants toward the land in which most of them imagined that they were merely tem-
porary dwellers ; and in it we may find an explanation of the restlessness which
more than anything else, contributed to the instability that was so marked a char-
acteristic of early days, and which was responsible for an indifference that tolerated
lawlessness until it became unendurable, and defied the danger of conflagration
which was recognized and feared but which men were too busy to guard against.
For several years after 1848 San Francisco was not a city of homes; it was
merely a place where men lived, and some few women. The great preponderance
of males produced this result, and its effects were visible in the temporary and
makeshift construction or rather, it should be said, expedients resorted to for the
139
140
SAN FRANCISCO
San Fran-
cisco In
1848
Fires
ioneer
Days
The First
Conflagration
purpose of housing a population almost nomadic and always ready to move on.
It was not until the home instinct began to assert itself that an improvement was
visible. Until that was developed the metropolis of the Pacific coast presented the
appearance of a great circus in winter quarters, ready to resume its wanderings on
short notice.
At the end of April, 1848, when the gold rush began, the town contained about
200 buildings; 135 of these were used as dwellings and 12 were devoted to the
sale and storage of goods. The statistician furnishing these figures also enumerates
35 shanties, which implies that those set down as dwellings were of better con-
struction, but the testimony does not encourage the view that they were at all pre-
tentious, the most of them being frame and rudely put together. The first brick
house erected in San Francisco was put up by a firm named Melius & Howard, on
the corner of Montgomery and Clay streets. It was the second brick structure in
California, one having previously been built of that material in Monterey.
In an address delivered by John AV. Geary, the alcalde, in August, 1849, he
mentioned that there was not a single public building in the town, not even a jail.
The failure to provide a place of detention was remedied before the close of the
year, not, however, by building but by utilizing the brig "Euphemia," which was
bought by the council and converted into a prison. The "Euphemia" was moored
in the cove of Yerba Buena, and doubtless the fact that she was surrounded by
water added to the belief that prisoners were kept in greater security on that
account, but her isolation was only temporary. In a very short time after the
establishment of the floating prison it began to be surrounded by houses, and soon
it had for a neighbor the ship "Apollo," which was converted into a saloon.
There were five great fires in the first four years after occupation, to which the
term conflagration may be applied. The first of these occurred in December, 1849.
It broke out in a place called Dennison's Exchange on the east side of the plaza,
now known as Portsmouth square, and consumed nearly all the buildings on that
side and destroyed a line of structures on the south side of Washington street, be-
tween Montgomery and Kearny. Its progress was finally arrested by blowing up
a building with gunpowder. The loss was estimated at a million dollars.
This was the first pronounced warning of danger, the only two previously re-
corded fires being the destruction of a hotel in the preceding January and the
burning of the ship "Philadelphia." But there are no indications that the warning
made any serious impression, for tents and shanties were made to take the place of
the destroyed buildings, and the invitation to disaster they held out was accepted
very promptly. On the 4th of :May, 1850, a fire started in a building on the east
side of the plaza, known as the U. S. Exchange, and three blocks were consumed
before it was arrested. The district burned over was that between Jackson and
Washington and Montgomery and Dupont streets, and the block between Montgom-
ery and Kearny. There were suspicions of incendiarism, and arrests were made,
but the accused were released, there being no evidence against them. The proba-
bility favors the belief that the charges were wholly unfounded.
Although the loss occasioned by this fire was nearly four million dollars, there
appears to have been no serious effort to prevent a recurrence of the disaster. The
new buildings that took the place of tliose destroyed were flimsier than those that
had been swept away. A few unavailing precautions were adopted by the council,
which ordered the digging of artesian wells and the immediate construction of cis-
SAN FRANCISCO
141
terns. An ordinance was also passed compelling every available person to assist
in extinguishing a fire when called upon, a penalty ranging from $5 to $100 being
imposed in case of refusal, and all householders were required to keep water buck-
ets filled with water in readiness for an emergency.
The inefficiency of these simple measures was soon exhibited. Forty days after
the second fire what the early annalists designated as the third great fire occurred,
and it is chargeable with the destruction of five millions' worth of property, the
space between Clay, Kearny and California, down to the water's edge, being swept
by the devastating flames.
Once again the damage was repaired and numerous hook and ladder, engine
and hose companies were formed, more wells were dug and the number of reservoirs
was added to, but they proved unavailing to entirely ward off a danger which was
becoming a menace to prosperity. On the 17th of September, about 4 o'clock in
the morning, a fire started in the Philadelphia house on the north side of Jackson
street near Washington, and the flames swept through the district bounded by Du-
pont, Montgomery, Washington and Pacific streets. The structures destroyed
were chiefly one story affairs, but the damage was estimated at between a quarter
to half a million dollars. On this occasion, which the pioneers ranked as the fourth
great fire, the newly organized fire companies did work which brought forth a great
deal of commendation, but the critics were loud in their denunciation of the short-
age of water in the cisterns, which prevented their getting the best possible service
out of their new apparatus.
The fifth and last great fire of pioneer days occurred on the anniversary of
the second fire. On the night of May Sd, 1851, flames were seen issuing from
a paint or upholstery store on the south side of the Plaza. The planking in the
street facilitated their spread and the fire extended from block to block. In ten
hours 1,500 to 2,000 houses were destroyed, eighteen blocks being burned over.
The brick buildings on Montgomery street and ten or twelve in other localities
escaped, but all the remaining structures in an area three quarters of a mile north
to south and a third of a mile east to west were wiped out. In this conflagration
a number of old ships that had been abandoned in 1848 or 1849 were burned,
among them the "Niantic" at Clay and Sansome streets, the "Apollo," which had
been converted into a saloon and the "General Harrison." By breaking up the
wharves the spread of the fire was arrested and the shipping was thus saved. The
loss occasioned by this calamity was estimated at from ten to twelve million dol-
lars, but the depression it created was short lived, nothing apparently being capable
of downing the indomitable spirit of the inhabitants or extinguishing their confi-
dence in the future of the City.
These repeated disasters, and the growing desire for something better, at length
produced a change in construction. Many new buildings in the business quarter,
erected after the fourth fire, were built of more enduring materials. Solidity was
aimed at by the owners of property, and we are told that many of the structures
erected at this time were "remarkable for their size and beauty." Tents and shan-
ties had disappeared from the center of the town, but a few of the latter still sur-
vived on its outskirts at the close of the year 1850. The price of building material,
which had been abnormally high during the preceding year, was now much lower,
some things costing scarcely one sixth to one fourth as much as formerly. The
reduction gave a big impulse to building during 1851 and 1852, which resulted in
Improved
Methods of
Constmction
142
SAN FRANCISCO
Substantial
Structures
Erected
Great Build-
iuB Activity
materially improving the appearance of the City. At the close of the latter year
California, Sansome and Battery streets contained many brick houses, and granite
was beginning to be employed in the lower stories.
It was during this year that the granite building at the northwest corner of
Montgomery and California streets was erected. It enjoys the double distinction
of being the first stone building put up in San Francisco and of passing through
the great conflagration of 1906. The granite was cut and dressed in China and
put in place by Chinese workmen. It was regarded as a handsome edifice in its
time, and was still standing when this paragraph was penned, but is not likely to
be preserved as a memorial, although its retention might admirably serve the pur-
pose of illustrating for future generations the architectural standards of the period
in which it was erected. The vicissitudes through which it has passed give assur-
ance that it would prove an enduring monument.
The erection of the Parrot granite building was speedily followed by the con-
struction of a number of others of the same material, all of which were regarded as
fireproof. Many of these survived down to the day of the great disaster, and they
all had the same external appearance imparted to them by their shutters of wrought
iron and doors of that metal. There was nothing distinctive about their architec-
ture, but the precautions taken to guard against fire gave the business part of the
town a fortress-like appearance totally unlike that of any other American city,
and confirmed the impression of the beholder that at length effective steps had been
taken against the "fire fiend."
The succeeding year was one of great building activity and there was evidence
on every hand of attempts to escape from the severely plain models of 1852. The
improvement must have been marked, for we find an enthusiastic critic declaring
that "in a few years more, if she be not changed into marble like Augustan Rome,
she may be turned into as beautiful and enduring a substance — into Chinese or
rather California granite." In 1853 there was completed the largest edifice up to
that time erected in California. It had a frontage of 122 feet on the west side of
^Montgomery from Washington to Merchant and extending 138 feet along the lat-
ter street.
This burst of enthusiasm and the statement that "the distant reader can hardly
form a conception of the magnificence of some of these new buildings," so different
from those constructed in the cities of the Atlantic states in the early stages of
their career, was not wholly unwarranted. Competent critics of a later period,
who had an opportunity to study the productions of 1853, 4 and 5 unite in the as-
sertion that some of the constructions in the business district were both exotic and
interesting and "retained under American surroundings a certain propriety and
positive charm."
This artistic turn was due to the presence in California in the early days of
a number of foreign trained architects, whose quest for the golden fleece was not
rewarded by an abundance of nuggets taken from the soil and who sought to repair
their fortunes by applying their talents. Among those whose names have been
preserved as worthy of mention were Thomas Boyd, Henry Kenitzer, Victor Hoff-
man, Peter Portois, Stephen H. Williams, Prosper Huerne, Reuben Clarke and
Gordon Cummings. These men were graduates of the best French and English
schools, and their work, some of which survived the fire of 1906, testifies to the
SAN FRANCISCO
143
justness of the appreciative remarks of the annalist of 1856^ and the later summing
up of their accomplishments.
That the disposition to encourage art should have existed under the unfavorable
circumstances which attended the growth of the City in the early Fifties is astonish-
ing. Costly materials are not employed as a rule in the construction of buildings
in small towns. Their use is reserved for later periods when those making the
expenditures see the possibility of direct returns for their enterprise from the com-
petition which always results from the concentration of a great number of people
in the contracted precincts of a city. But the unique conditions in San Francisco
prompted men to discount the future, and the result merited the tribute paid, that
on the whole the business structures erected between 1850 and 1860 were better
designed and better looking than those used for like purposes anywhere else in
the United States at that time.
Most of the new houses erected in the first half of the decade fifty were of
brick, but even this material was as costly as it was unsatisfactory. The owner
of a building constructed in 1850 paid $140 a thousand for bricks, and they were
of a very poor quality, being burnt at the San Quentin prison kiln, where care was
not always taken to use fresh water in mixing the clay. The wages of bricklayers
and hod carriers were fabulously high. When the brick fort at the Golden Gate
was erected the contractor paid bricklayers $25 a day and the hod carriers $17.50.
Carpenters and masons not infrequently were paid $20 a day.
The Parrott block, which has been referred to as still standing, cost its owner
$117,000 to erect. It was constructed by Chinese labor, but the expenditure it
involved does not suggest cheapness. The owner of the second brick house erected
in San Francisco paid $140 a thousand for his brick and $20 a day to masons.
Henry M. Naglee had been burned out four times before he formed the resolution
to provide for himself a fireproof structure. The building did not meet the mod-
ern architects' definition of indestructibility, but it passed through the fires of 1851
unscathed, and survived down to the day of the great conflagration as the oldest
brick structure in San Francisco. It was situated on the corner of Montgomery
and Merchant streets and underwent many external disfigurements before its final
obliteration, but architects recognized under these disguises that "it must have been
a very respectable piece of mid century Parisian design."
The largest of the early buildings, the Montgomery block, was planned by
Gordon Cummings, and betrayed the inspiration of London construction of the
Forties. At the time of its erection in 1853 it was an object of great attention,
the declared purpose of its projectors being to secure an absolutely fireproof
structure. The precautions taken were not wholly responsible for the fact, but
the Montgomery block escaped the flames of 1906, and the building still stands
as a monument of the abiding faith of the pioneers in the future of the City of
San Francisco.
It should be added in speaking of the architecture of the early Fifties that the
high cost of labor, as too often happens, was not coupled up with incompetency.
The stone carving and wrought iron work on some of the best buildings show con-
clusively that the architects were able to obtain the assistance of well trained
mechanics, who were not over numerous in the United States at that time; and the
flattering tribute paid to the workers of this period, that they built well and better
144
SAN FRANCISCO
Mission
Architecture
Not Favored
Appearance
of City In
18S4
during the Fifties than they have until the rehabilitation of the City after the great
fire, was fully deserved.
There is no trace in the architectural movement of the early Fifties of appre-
ciation of the work of the missionaries. Contemptuous allusions to mouldering
piles of adobes are met with, but not the slightest hint of a disposition to imitate
or adopt. That came later. It may have been unconscious prejudice formed by
men of action against what they considered an institution that clogged progress,
and prevented recognition of the possibilities in the arched corridors, the patio, the
tiled roofs, domed towers and pierced belfries of establishing a style; but it is far
more likely that the complete failure during the entire period to accept a sugges-
tion from the buildings of the missions was due to the alien architects, who had
brought with them the traditions of the schools in which they were educated, and
who preferred to work along the lines to which they had been accustomed. The
pioneer owners exercised little choice, preferring to trust to the guidance of their
trained advisers.
The fact that architects found good mechanics at hand did not entirely save
investing owners from loss through inferior construction. The haste with which
work was done under the pressure of urgent demand resulted in some "jerry"
building. On the 12th of April, 185i, a portion of the United States bonded ware-
house fell, and it was only one of a number of similar accidents, due to the use of
inferior materials and to the frail character of apparently solid walls. The settling
of walls began to be a common affair, and for a while militated against the con-
struction of solid buildings on the made ground in the cove. The uncertainties
concerning the water front also plaj^ed their part in arresting progress in the busi-
ness section, but it was by no means wholly checked, for the year was marked by
the erection of some lofty buildings, notable among them being that of Samuel
Brannan, known as "The Express," which was put up at a cost of $180,000, ex-
clusive of the value of the land, which was appraised at $100,000. It was situated
on the northeast corner of California and Montgomery streets, directly opposite the
Parrott building, and the lower part was occupied by Wells Fargo & Co.'s express
and by a real estate agency and brokerage.
At the close of 1853 there were 626 brick or stone buildings, 154 of them three
stories high; 350 of two stories and 83 of one story. In addition to these there
were 38 exceeding three stories, 1 of sis, 34 of four and 3 of five stories. Fully
half of these were built in 1853. The section in favor for residential purposes at
this time was north and west of the business district. The majority of these dwell-
ings were frame, but occasionally preference was given to brick. While on the
other hand, in what might be termed the hotel and business district, there were few
departures from the strict rule of solidity. Any deviation from the determination
to avoid the mistakes of the past was checked by the destruction of the Rosette
house, a five story frame structure on the comer of Bush and Sansome streets, the
burning of which would have caused another conflagration, as a high wind was
blowing at the time, had not the neighboring houses been built of brick.
Speaking of the appearance of the City in 1854 the writer of the "Annals" said:
"Over all the space, some eight or nine square miles in extent, on the heights and
in the hollows are spread a variety of detached buildings, built partly of stone and
brick, though principally of wood. The heart and strength and wealth of the City,"
he added, "is contained within the little level space lying between the hills or
SAN FRANCISCO
145
rising grounds (back of what was Yerba Buena cove) and the narrow waters of
what remained of that harbor." The nominal limits of San Francisco, as actually
surveyed and mapped out, extended from the west side of North Beach to the side
of Mission creek, a distance of nearly four miles, and from Rincon Point to the
mission church, a distance exceeding three miles.
Already in 1854 the idea that the hills immediately back of the cove would
offer an insuperable obstacle to the growth of the City in a westerly direction was
being abandoned. Although the town was building along the line of least resist-
ance there were numerous persons with a predilection for sea or water views, who
chose the side hills for sites, but the movement was by no means general and there
were many who still believed that the future city would be on the level expanse to
the south, which would require very little preparation or clearing to convert it into
excellent building sites.
Much hard work had to be done to bring the City to the condition it had at-
tained in 1854 and it was attended with exciting events of various kinds, not least
among which were the struggles growing out of the desire to get hold of the desir-
able lands under the control of the local authorities. The methods of the grabbers
have rarely been matched in any country, and the public, which hears much about
modern "grafting" tendencies will not be apt to maintain that we are worse than
our predecessors after reading about them. It is an unsavory story, but the truth
of history demands that it be told without reservation, even though the telling may
raise a doubt concerning the strict accuracy of writers who, in extolling the merits
of the argonauts, have manifested a tendency to gloss over their delinquencies.
But the struggle for land, despite its fierceness, cannot obscure the fact that
the men who grabbed, and those who obtained it in a manner only remotely sug-
gesting irregularity, accomplished results which might not have been achieved in
a century by the people acting in their collective capacity. Private ownership,
when the title is acquired by dubious means, is not an admirable thing to contem-
plate, but it has this to say for it, that the unregenerate grabber is apt to put it to
better, or at least more prompt use than a community holding land in common.
Much of what is now the most valuable real estate in San Francisco was acquired
by methods which reflected discredit on the persons obtaining it, but it would be
idle to conceal that it was owing to the energy of this acquisitive class that the
growth of San Francisco was enormously stimulated, and that they caused it to
become a real city almost before its inhabitants realized that they had emerged
from the village state.
The HlUs
Back ot
the City
Grabbins
the City
Land8
CHAPTER XX
LAND TITLES AND TROUBLES OF PIONEER DAYS
BIG DEMAND FOR TOWN LOTS WATER FRONT LOTS EAGERLY BOUGHT ATTEMPT TO
VALIDATE FRAUDULENT LAND GRANTS COLTON GRANTS DECLARED FRAUDULENT
TROUBLESOME SQUATTERS FEDERAL DETERMINATION OF TITLES CONFUSION
CONCERNING PUEBLOS AMERICAN ALCALDES IMITATE THEIR PREDECESSORS— OF-
FICIALS CONNIVE WITH SPECULATORS THE SQUATTERs' ARGUMENT SQUATTING AS
AN OCCUPATION THE CITY AND THE INTERIOR SQUATTER TITLES IN DOUBT MANY
YEARS JURIES SIDE WITH SQUATTERS SAN FRANCISCO A PUEBLO THE LIMAN-
TOUR CLAIM THE LAND COMMISSION POLITICAL CONDITIONS NEGLECT OF CIVIC
DUTY IN SAN FRANCISCO.
HE plain bordering on Yerba Buena cove was surveyed in
1839 but, as already related, there was little effort made
to secure the lots within the boundaries of the survey.
These latter were not very extensive, embracing only the
blocks between Pacific on the north, Sacramento on the
south, Dupont on the west and Montgomery on the east,
the latter at that date being the shore line of the cove.
This neglect was amply offset by the eagerness displayed as soon as American
rule was established. General Kearny, in compliance with an active demand made
by newcomers anxious to provide commercial facilities ordered a sale of lots be-
tween Fort Montgomery and the Rincon, which was carried into effect.
This was in March, 1847. In June of the following year the Alcalde Bryant,
in pursuance of this order of the military governor, directed another sale, the an-
nounced terms of which were one fourth cash, one fourth six months, one fourth
twelve months and the balance in eighteen months, with interest at the rate of ten
per cent per annum. By this time the gold hunger had taken hold of the people
and the alcalde found it necessary to stimulate interest in the sale by proclaiming
the merits of the site and making a few predictions. He reminded the people that
"the site of the town was known to all navigators and mercantile men acquainted
with the subject to be the most commanding commercial position on the Pacific
ocean," and he declared that "the town itself is no doubt destined to become the
commercial emporium of the western side of the American continent."
This bit of promotion literature was issued on March 16, 1848, and the date
of sale was fixed for June 29th, but a postponement became necessary and it
did not take place until July 20th, when it was conducted under the auspices of
Alcalde Hyde, lasting three days. The lots sold were all between high and low
water mark, and four-fifths of them were covered with water. The right, title
147
148 SAN FRANCISCO
and interest of the government in this property had been conveyed by General
Kearny to San Francisco, and although the validity of his action was early called
into question, the officials of the municipality did not hesitate to act on the authority
granted, and long before the question was finally determined a large part of the
lands had been disposed of to meet the financial requirements of the city.
Under the original decree of March 10, 1847, a portion of the property had
been laid out in lots of 45 feet 10 inches frontage, and 1371^ feet in depth. These
irregular sizes were due to the conservatism which caused the acceptance of the
Spanish vara of 33 1/3 inches as the unit of measurement, a practice which is
still maintained in the older sections of the City, and occasionally causes surprise
to the stranger unaware of the circumstances responsible for the apparent oddity.
There were 444 lots in the first batch of land sold, and they went at prices ranging
from fifty to one hundred dollars each. Deeds were given to the purchasers by
George Hyde, alcalde and chief magistrate. In the latter part of 1849 there was
another survey of beach and water-front property, which was divided into 328
lots of the same size as those sold in the previous year, and the greater part of
these was disposed of on January 3, 1850, at public auction by the Alcalde John
W. Geary, who executed the deeds for them on behalf of the City.
The purchasers of these water front lots were apparently undisturbed by the
question raised concerning Kearny's authority to make the grant. Their confidence
that the sales would be held valid was justified by the subsequent action of courts
and the legislature of California. It had been the settled law of the United States
that land situated as was that disposed of under the Kearny grant belonged to
the sovereign power by virtue of its sovereignty, and as California when admitted
to the Union became a sovereign state, the ownership of the water-front lands, not
otherwise legally disposed of, passed from the United States to the state as an at-
tribute of its sovereignty. In view of these facts, and assuming that those who
had purchased the water front lots at the public auctions in good faith, the legisla-
ture of the state, on March 26, 1851, passed an act which granted the use and
occupation of the lands in question to the City of San Francisco for ninety-nine
years, providing, however, that "all lots sold in accordance with the terms of
Kearny's grant, and all lots sold or granted by any alcalde and confirmed by the
ayuntamiento should be granted and relinquished to the purchaser for a term of
ninety-nine years."
This action of the legislature, while it settled the question so far as the water-
front lots were concerned, was productive of trouble in another direction, as it
apparently encouraged the effort made to secure confirmation for titles about which
there was no pretense of legality or good faith on the part of the purchasers who
held them. In May, 1851, the legislature passed an act relinquishing the right of
the state to the City conditional upon the latter confirming the grants of all lots
within certain specified limits originally established by justices of the peace. This
would have covered the Colton grants, about the fraudulent character of which
there was not the slightest doubt. Colton was appointed to assist in the adminis-
tration of justice during the time when Horace Hawes was acting as prefect. He
abused his position by making grants to anyone applying for them of lots at $100
a piece, whicli were easily worth five times that amount when the grants were made.
He was a bold swindler, who did not hesitate to appropriate every dollar he re-
SAN FRANCISCO
149
ceived to his personal use, promptly shipping it to the Atlantic states, to which he
fled to enjoy his ill gotten wealth.
The ayuntamiento caused legal proceedings to be adopted against Colton and
on December 24, 1849, declared all the grants made by him were void because
they were unauthorized. Some fifty-three beach and water-front lots were sold by
Colton, and the purchasers although the affair was obviously a job, and not a dol-
lar had accrued to the treasury from the transaction, had the effrontery to appeal
to the common council four years later to have their fraudulent purchases confirmed.
They succeeded in having an ordinance passed by the council accepting the condi-
tions of*the legislative act of May, 1851, but the mayor, Stephen R. Harris, inter-
posed his veto. The statute was subsequently repealed on the 12th of March,
1853, the jobbers failing to induce the City to accept its conditions.
The uncertainties produced by these and other irregularities greatly stimulated
a propensity which began to exhibit itself very shortly after the occupation. The
right of Hawes to authorize the sale of lands was not merely contested by the
court, which issued an injunction to restrain Colton, but there were many in the
community who planted themselves on the proposition that no one had any right
to sell because, as they claimed, they belonged to anyone who chose to take posses-
sion of them. Before Colton began selling a number of persons had squatted upon
the land of the Rincon, which was held as a government reserve and was leased
to Theodore Shillaber. When Shillaber attempted to make use of the property
he found it occupied by several men, chiefly from Sydney, who refused to abandon
the land. He was enabled to take possession by the aid of a party of U. S. soldiers
under the command of Captain Keyes, who was afterward sued by one of the
ejected squatters but was sustained in his course.
The uncertainty respecting titles was increased by the known attitude of Mason
who, while disposed to recognize the practice of alcaldes to sell lots within the
limits of their towns, because it was the custom of the country before occupation,
held to the opinion that all grants made by such officials should have the confirma-
tion of the federal government when it became the owner of the soil by treaty. In
his view the alcaldes were not authorities of the United States, but merely of the
military government of California, and as such subject to removal by the military
governor. His position was recognized as sound, and the government later took
steps to secure all the information possible respecting the earlier grants. Captain
Henry N. Halleck was directed by the secretary of state to collect and examine
all of the archives of the old government of California. He was very successful
in this work and the documents secured by him were the chief reliance of the com-
mission, which was subsequently appointed to determine the merits of the many
claims put forward by real or fraudulent grantees.
The necessity of this precaution will be reahzed when the confusion attending
the status of the lands later embraced in the city limits is studied. As already
related there were originally two settlements, which were afterward practically
merged when the City expanded. These were the mission and the presidio. The
former, by the operation of the Mexican secularization laws, had in 1834 become
an Indian pueblo and was known as Pueblo Dolores. According to the plan as
originally devised Dolores should have had a regular ayuntamiento, but the terri-
torial body known as the deputation ordered the establishment of the ayuntamiento
at the presidio, of which Francisco de Haro was the alcalde or first magistrate-
SAN FRANCISCO
Municipal
The deputation, while failing to accord an ayuntamiento to the Indian pueblo,
recognized its existence in various ways, among these recognitions accorded to the
ayuntamiento being the right to grant building lots, provided they were not within
two hundred varas of the beach. Immediately after the exercise of this right by
the presidial authority a grant was made by the deputation of the rancho Laguna
de la Merced, in which it was recited that the grant should not prejudice the com-
mon lands of the Pueblo de Dolores.
Out of this mixed state of affairs grew uncertainties which were eagerly seized
upon by the unscrupulous. Up to July, 1846, nearly eighty grants had been made
by alcaldes or justices of the peace for hundred vara and fifty vara lots, many of
which were subsequently held to be invalid because they were granted on the sup-
position that Dolores was a pueblo. In addition to these grants there were others
made by the governor or prefect, within what was subsequently the territory of
San Francisco, which in no wise recognized the pueblo and without reference to
its existence. Among these were the Laguna de la Merced, of about half a square
league, one of four hundred varas square in the level ground northwest of the Mis-
sion Dolores made in 1836 to Francisca Guerrero, one of a hundred varas square
near the presidio to Appolinaris Miranda in 1838, a hundred vara lot in Yerba
Buena to Salvador Vallejo and Jacob P. Leese in 1839, one to Cornelio Bernal of
about a square league on the bay shore, including Hunter's Point, made in the
same year, one of the depression southeast of the Mission Dolores, known as the
Willows, to Jose Jesus Noe in 18-10, another of two square leagues in extent south
of the Bernal rancho to Jacob Leese in 184'1, and another to Noe of the rancho
San Miguel in 1845.
These liberal disposals were freely imitated by the American alcaldes, who,
in pursuance of the idea of adhering to the customs of the country until a new sys-
tem of government was provided, not only assumed the title of their predecessors
under Mexican rule but exercised their functions and were not slow to avail them-
selves of every precedent which they could make fit in with their desires or for-
ward the interests of the new settlers. The sale of town lots by auction was a
novelty, but apart from the method of disposal there was little difference between
the system of conveyance after the occupation and that in vogue under Mexican
law. The American alcaldes followed the course of their predecessors and did not
ask for confirmation of their grants, until the adoption of the resolution of the
ayuntamiento in August, 1849, which prohibited alcaldes selling without the special
order of that body.
It is doubtful whether this restraint would have been imposed had not the
growing demands for money forced the authorities to cast about for sources of
revenue. There does not appear to have been any concern for the conservation of
the land for future municipal uses, for the council showed a great eagerness to get
rid of all the property under their control. There was something like an exhibition
of desire to prevent monopolization but it was only a temporary manifestation.
There had been in existence a regulation prohibiting a purchaser from obtaining
and holding more than a single fifty or hundred vara lot, but the first town council
elected September 13, 1847, removed all restrictions upon the sale of lots, thus
throwing open wide the door for speculators who were not slow to accept the
invitation.
ft-.-
,s.^^
31
.
^^^^Hl^^^^^^^^"
I
. Si
f
TWO VIEWS OF SAN FKAXCISCO HARBOR, DURING THE GOLD CRAZE,
SHOWING THE DESERTED SHIPS
SAN FRANCISCO
151
Before March, 1848, all the choice lots, or those so regarded at the time, had
been snapped up by the astute buyers, who were assisted by complaisant or conniv-
ing authorities to get them on their own terms. Once in the possession of private
owners the lots in desirable locations speedily rose in value, but their appreciation
did not seem to stimulate the price of the property still remaining to be sold, as
was displayed by the fact that at a sale of fifty-two lots in the month mentioned
the prices paid for them only ranged between $16 and $50 a lot, averaging about $25.
It is not surprising that the looseness attending the disposal of the lands subse-
quently embraced within the limits of the City, both before and after the occupa-
tion, should have added to the already existing sentiment that non occupants had
no just claim upon the soil. The method of the general government in disposing
of its property, and the opinions expressed by Mason and others, encouraged the
belief that the theory of first come first served would be adhered to, and that the
squatter who took up a piece of land and planted himself upon it in the City would
be as much entitled to hold it as the locater on farm lands. This feeling was re-
sponsible for the freedom of action afterward extended to gold seekers, not, how-
ever, without some fruitless opposition interposed by the military authorities.
But the conservatism of the period was too pronounced to permit the successful
prevalence of loose notions of rights in landed property. The current of opinion
ran in one direction in the middle of the nineteenth century. The desirability of
settling up the country was generally recognized, but it was felt that vested rights
must be respected, and that the fabric of society would be endangered if the title
to land was not secure. There were no refinements indulged in by those who ad-
hered to the sacredness of the vested rights idea. They were newcomers in a prac-
tically new country and for that reason refused to cumber their theory with time
limitations. They could not show title extending back through a long period, and
therefore rested their claims upon the deeds which they had secured, and de-
nounced as land thieves those who sought to deprive them of what they considered
as their property.
They denied the right of squatters to go behind the returns and assume the
functions of a court, and the result was considerable bloodshed. The beginning
of the trouble in San Francisco, as already related, was the attempted seizure of
a reservation made by the government, which had been leased to a man named
Theodore Shillaber.
The practice thus inaugurated in 1850 was subsequently elaborated into a reg-
ular system. Men not only engaged in squatting for themselves, but there were
plenty who were quite ready to engage in the business for those willing to employ
and pay them. Except in the built up parts of the city for many years squatting
was a common method of acquiring and holding land. It was no unusual circum-
stance for rough characters to hire themselves out to hold possession of a piece
of property, and the same men were equally ready for pay to assist in dispossess-
ing for a claimant squatters who had entered on their land.
The evil was by no means confined to San Francisco. It extended throughout
the state and assumed a political aspect. An organization was formed to promote
the movement, which had for its underlying theory the belief that the land of Cali-
fornia belonged to the people. The squatters contributed to a fund designed to
protect them in what they conceived to be their rights, and there was much bad
blood and a readiness to contest for possession with arms. One prominent leader
Authorities
Connive with
Speculators
Argnments
of tlje
Squatters
An Evil
General
Throusrhout
the State
152
SAN FRANCISCO
Th« Interior
SDd the City
Squatter
Titles in
Doubt Manj-
Tears
Squatters
and the
Jory System
of the squatters in the course of a debate growing out of an alleged misuse of the
funds collected, said openly that he would rather fight than palaver or collect sub-
scriptions. "If the speculators wish to fight," he said, "I am for giving them
battle. Let us put up all the fences pulled down," he added, "and also put up all
the men who pulled them down."
There was far more warrant for the attitude assumed by the interior squatters
than for that taken by those who sought to get possession of the land within what
were known as the pueblo limits of San Francisco. It was justly suspected that
grants had been made to such an extent that the whole country would be absorbed
by the wily schemers, who were obtaining them from the original grantees, and in
many instances concocting claims absolutely fraudulent, as was later disclosed
by the researches of the commission which investigated the subject. The differences
of opinion respecting the pueblo of San Francisco hardly warranted grabbing,
for in any event it had been the recognized practice to pass title to the lands in
some authoritative manner, and in no case was mere entry regarded as a warrant
for possession. The argument put forward by the squatters, that the grants were
invalid and that, therefore, they were open to anyone who chose to enter upon
them, was not of the sort calculated to appeal to people who had views respecting
the regularity of proceedings, and who were disposed to relegate the settlement
of vexed questions of title to the courts, and the outcome was necessarily a triumph
for what might, with more propriety, be termed law and order than some later
performances which were carried on under the aegis of those two great factors in
promoting and preserving civilization.
The triumph was not achieved in a day, for the validity of the pueblo titles
occupied the attention of the courts for many years, and the disputes concerning
them were not finally settled until the so-called pueblo decisions were rendered
in 1864 and 1866, by which the government relinquished and granted to the City
all the lands included in such pueblos. Meanwhile until public sentiment proved
strong enough to finally carry the day, there were cases of squatting in all parts of
the City, and occasionally they were attended with serious consequences. In 1853
something like a pitched battle occurred between a squatter and a deputy sheriff,
who sought to eject him and the official was killed. There were several other
encounters during this year and these were not always between persons holding
alcalde titles and squatters, but between the squatters themselves, who were quite
as ready to dispute possession with each other for the lands to which they held no
title whatever, owing to the disposition manifested to carry to its logical conclusion
the theory that ownership did not vest in anyone who could not or did not occupy
and hold the premises.
In the settlement of these controversies juries ceased to be of value. If a man
was killed in defending a piece of property claimed by him, no matter how clear
his title, it was impossible to obtain a conviction. There were always plenty who,
influenced by the belief that the Spanish and Mexican grants were all tainted with
fraud, and that all the sales made on the authority of the military governors were
corruptly conducted, were ready to stand by the squatter, or at least would not
lend their aid to maintain the claims of men they believed to be unconscionable
speculators and grabbers. This feeling in a measure abated as the years wore on.
A decision rendered by the state supreme court in October, 1853, confirming the
alcalde grants, contributed greatly to allaying the passions growing out of the
SAN FRANCISCO
153
grabbing propensities of the period, but there were repeated disturbances of the
security of owners between that year and the final adjudication of the matter by
the supreme court of the United States.
The decision of the state supreme court in substance was that by the laws of
Mexico towns were invested with the ownership of lands ; that by the law, usage
and custom of Mexico alcaldes were the heads of ayuntamientos or town councils,
and as executive officers of the towns they rightly exercised the power of granting
lots within the towns, which were the property of the towns ; that before the mili-
tary occupation of California by the army of the United States San Francisco was
a Mexican pueblo or municipal corporation and entitled to the lands within her
boundaries, and finally 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 the authority to make the grant and
that the land was within the boundaries of the pueblo. The effect of this decision
was to legalize many fraudulent alcalde grants and it was severely criticized on
that account, but it had the merit of practically settling a question which was
causing much friction, and it soon was accepted as the best mode of bridging over
a serious trouble.
While it efifectually disposed of the doubts concerning the alcalde titles it did
not give complete security to owners. Disturbance arose in another quarter, which
at first was not regarded as serious, but soon occasioned great concern. A French-
man named Jose J. Limantour was the cause of disquiet. He claimed that he had
advanced to the Mexican governor in 1843 the sum of $4,000, and had received for
the same a grant of land in the neighborhood of Yerba Buena, which had it been
held valid would have covered the site of the City like a blanket. At first the peo-
ple were disposed to regard Limantour's pretensions lightly, but they soon per-
ceived that they were backed by a great deal of what seemed like important evi-
dence. The land contained in the alleged grant to Limantour was embraced in
several parcels. One conveyed a tract running from the line of the pueblo of
Yerba Buena, distant 400 varas from the settlement house of Richardson, to the
southeast, beginning at the beach on the northeast and following it along its edge,
turning round the point of Rincon on the southeast and following the bay as far
as the mouth of the estuary of the mission, including the salt water and following
the valley to the southwest, where the fresh water runs, passing to the northwest
side about 200 varas from the mission, to where it completed two leagues northeast
and southwest to the Rincon.
The second granted two leagues beginning at the beach at the ancient anchor-
age of the port of San Francisco, below the castle, following to the southeast, pass-
ing the presidio and following the road to the mission and the line to the south-
west as far as the beach, which ran to the south from the port, taking the beach to
the northwest, turning round Point Lobos and following to the northeast along the
beach of the castle for 200 varas, and continuing as far as the estacada, the place
of beginning.
In addition to these tracts comprising four square leagues Limantour also claimed
the islands of Alcatraz, Yerba Buena, the Farallones and a square league on the
island of Los Angeles opposite Racoon straits and other tracts throughout the
state, all of which were apparently conferred upon him for the sum of $4,000.
The boundaries as laid down in the alleged grant were of the vaguest sort and
The Fraudu-
lent Liman-
tour Claim
Trying to
Grab the
Whole City
154
SAN FRANCISCO
Title Uncer-
tainties Is
Obstacle to
Big: Interior
Holdings
suggested fraud, but it required several years to rid the City of the incubus. It
was not until April 22, 1858, that a decision was given which finally disposed
of Limantour's claim, which the United States Attorney General Jeremiah S.
Black declared was the most stupendous fraud, the greatest in atrocity and magni-
tude the world had even seen perpetrated.
The land commission which passed upon the Limantour claim, and numerous
others equally fraudulent, but representing more modesty than was displayed by
the Frenchman in his effort to grab nearly the whole of San Francisco, was greatly
assisted in its labors by the intelligent work of Edwin M. Stanton, afterwards war
secretarj^ during the war of secession, who succeeded in making such use of the
material in the archives assembled under the direction of Captain Halleck, that the
City began to breathe more freely, but the period of imcertainty endured during
the whole of the decade, and all the claims were not finally disposed of until the
closing years of the nineteenth century.
But uncertainties attending land titles did not impede the growth of the City.
Owners were subjected to annoyances, and breaches of the peace were of frequent
occurrence because of the unsettled condition of affairs, but clouds on titles did
not seem to affect values very seriously, for the optimism of the people made them
confident that matters would come out all right in the end. It would be possible
to fill volumes with the details of the conflicts in the courts over claims growing
out of the vicious system prevalent under Mexican rule of disposing of lands with-
out adopting anything remotely resembling careful registration, or attempting to
properly define the boundaries of the grants made. Absolute neglect, failure to
survey and a total absence of system produced many complications for a people
who, by their energy, made the lands of California valuable, but the Spaniards
and their successors, the Mexican administrators, might claim that they were
troubles we brought on ourselves, and that if they had not been disturbed in their
possession of the soil there would have been none, for it would never have been
made valuable enough to quarrel about.
The assertion that the complications brought about by the loose land grant
system did not retard development applies only to the City, and must be qualified
by the observation that its growth was indirectly affected by the retardment of
interior progress through the retention of immense tracts of farming land in the
hands of men who showed little disposition to make any better use of them than
the original grantees from whom they had obtained them by one method or an-
other, and not always in a fashion to reflect credit on Americans. During a con-
siderable period California was menaced by the possibility of having fixed upon
it a system of land monopoly or large holdings which, had it been perpetuated,
must have permanently arrested the diversification of industry, and made the state
lag in the work of developing its resources, and of creating homes for a happy
and prosperous people.
It would be difficult to trace the origin of all the evil effects described as result-
ing during the earlier period of San Francisco's development under American rule.
During the Fifties adversity, crime, bad government, insecure titles, shameless
grafting, all were powerless to prevent the town going ahead. For a while it seemed
to thrive on disorder, and in spite of the contradictory evidence there is no reason
to believe that even the best sentiment of the period was well disposed to carry
through any thorough measures of reform. The drastic means adopted to put a
SAN FRANCISCO
155
stop to rampant criminality are quoted to support the assumption that the so-called
better elements in the community had the matter of bringing about good govern-
ment much at heart, but there are too many attending circumstances connected with
their efforts to permit the claim to pass unchallenged. Men with property to pro-
tect may always be relied upon to act as the bulwark of social order when emer-
gencies arise, but it is unfortunately true that they are often, through negligence
or indifference, the direct cause of the disorders and criminality which they, in
wrathful moments, seek to suppress.
San Francisco's history abundantly illustrates this propensity, and in their
proper place will be found descriptions of events which will amply support the
charge of contributory negligence on the part of those whose duty it was, by the
exercise of vigilance and attention to civic duty, to make it impossible for the
worst elements of society to control. The mere relation of certain proclivities,
and what they tended to, will show that in most instances the spectacular displays
of civic house cleaning would have been wholly unnecessary had the decent inhab-
itants, the members of the class whose personal interests are directly subserved by
the preservation of order, and who are the chief sufferers when disorder reigns,
always set a good example, one calculated to inspire the belief in the evil minded
that they cannot profit by defying the conventions prescribed by civilized societies.
It is with the view of making clear and emphasizing the fact that absorption
in the struggle for wealth was indirectly responsible for the troubles of the years
which brought the Vigilantes on the scene, that the conditions of growth in popu-
lation and wealth will be described in advance of the political shortcomings of the
inhabitants of San Francisco during the years preceding the overturn of law and
order in 1856. It is only by contemplating the processes of accretion that a
just estimate of the performances of that year and of 1851 can be obtained. The
study of the events preceding and accompanying these ebullitions of popular ^vrath
will reveal the fact that the pioneers were men of extraordinary energy and intel-
ligently enterprising, but it will also disclose that they were the victims of a laxity
due to the shaking off of the restraints imposed by an older civilization, which,
while they may not always be sincerely regarded as desirable by those who accept
them nevertheless exercise a powerful influence and tend to the elevation of society.
Contributory
Negligence
of Good
Citizens
In the
Struggle
for Wealth
CHAPTER XXI
THE LAYOUT AND BEGINNINGS OF A BIG CITY
NOT MANY PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AT FIRST INDIVIDUAL EFFORT THE CHIEF FACTOR
IN THE UPBUILDING OF THE EARLY CITY PRACTICAL NEEDS ATTENDED TO BY PIO-
NEERS THE FIRST CITY HALL CONFIDENCE IN FUTURE GROWTH OF THE CITY •
YERBA BUENA COVE FILLED IN BY PIONEERS HIGH RENTS MERCHANTS ABLE TO
PAY BIG RENTALS EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE SPECULATION IN 1853 OPPOSITION TO
RECTANGULAR STREET SYSTEM MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP AND CARE OF STREETS
MISSION PLANKED ROAD PROVIDING FACILITIES FOR SHIPPING A WATER FRONT
LINE PERMANENT WATER FRONT LINE ESTABLISHED IN 1851 THE COUNTRY AND
THE CITY STEADY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY EARLY WATER SUPPLY A LAKE
MERCED PHENOMENON.
HE writer of the "Annals of San Francisco," in surveying
the condition of the City in 1854, pessimistically remarked
that there were no parks, nothing but Portsmouth and two
or three other squares, none of which had any green grass.
He spoke of contemplated thoroughfares, and other proj-
ects having for their object the improvement of the
municipality, but he mourned the fact that there was not
foresight enough to provide future "breathing holes" for a population which he pre-
dicted would be numbered by hundreds of thousands. He stigmatized the failure
to make provision for future needs as a serious oversight and attributed it to avarice.
Avarice and ignorance, allied with indifference, were justly chargeable with
the omission he denounced, as was also the unfortunate disregard of the topograph-
ical requirements exhibited in laying out the City. He declared that "the eye was
wearied and the imagination stupefied in looking over the numberless squares — all
square- — building blocks, and mathematically straight lines of streets, miles long,
and every one crossing a host of others at right angles, stretching over sandy hills
and plains and chasms. Not only is there no public park or garden," he added,
"there is no oval, circus or anything ornamental, nothing but the four squares
alluded to," which he already had told us were utterly destitute of grass, and no
better than the dusty plazas bequeathed to them by the indolent native Californians.
It has been shown that some of the pioneers were not wholly regardless of the
graces and comforts of civilization, and that there was an early display of good
taste in architecture, but all the evidence we have of development along esthetic
lines indicates the narrowest sort of individualism. There were numerous excel-
lently constructed buildings, which would have been an ornament in a much more
populous city, but they were erected for the personal gratification and profit of the
157
Few Public
Improve-
Avarice and
Ignorance
Denounced
158
SAN FRANCISCO
Practical
Needs Receive
Attention
Rush to
Mines
Continues
Extension
of City
Limits
owner. Public buildings there were none until the middle of 1851, when a theater
known as the Jenny Lind was purchased for $200,000 to serve as a city hall. It
was wholly unsuited for the use to which it was put, and was destitute of external
attraction. The council responsible for the acquisition was accused of jobbery
and David Broderick, who at a public meeting spoke in favor of the purchase,
was severely criticized.
But while parks and plazas and green grass received scant consideration it
cannot be said that the pioneers were backward in the matter of making the City
habitable. They proceeded with vigor in the work of creating streets and grading
in order to make communication easy and succeeded in an incredibly brief space of
time in accomplishing results that were a tribute to their enterprise and a substan-
tial benefit to the community. Perhaps men confronted with such a task as that
which San Franciscans took upon themselves in the early Fifties may be exonerated
from the charge of civic indifference because they disregarded the superfluous, and
posterity would doubtless readily excuse them on that ground if it were not for
the fact that the disposition to ignore the public needs while struggling for private
gain was manifested during many years subsequent to the period when good judg-
ment and common sense demanded that the practical needs of the community should
first receive attention.
The essentials received attention as soon as the labor conditions were such as
to permit the carrying out of projects of improvement. During the rush to the
mines, when the City was practically deserted by its inhabitants, who had joined
the searchers for gold, and while every successive installment of immigrants re-
mained in San Francisco only long enough to fit out for the work of digging the
precious metal, it was simply impossible to make any considerable progress. In
1849 streets were still ungraded and their condition was so bad that miring was
no unusual occurrence on the best thoroughfare. No sanitary regulations were
imposed and people deposited rubbish where they pleased. For a while it was
found more expedient to use bags of coffee, cases of tobacco and barrels of spoiled
provisions to make crossings or fill up holes than to cart the nearby earth or rock
to the places where needed.
There was no appreciable abatement of the rush to the mines during the two
or three years immediately following the discovery at Sutter's fort, but the tide
ceased to flow only in one direction long before the attraction of the placers dimin-
ished. Not everyone who went to dig for gold succeeded in finding what he was
after, and many soon abandoned the quest and repaired to the City, where they
thought they could mend their own fortunes by serving the more fortunate hunters,
who resorted to San Francisco whenever they struck it rich to enjoy themselves
and were more frequently than otherwise, parted from their hard earned nuggets
and dust and obliged to return to the diggings to procure more or were reduced
to the necessity of abiding in the town and getting a livelihood as best they could.
The working element available from this source, reinforced by constant arrivals,
to whom the temptation of the large wages offered proved more alluring than the
chances of the diggings, soon began to produce an impression on the ragged sur-
face of the town site, the habitable limits of which were daily being extended to
meet the requirements of the increasing population. The charter framed by the
legislature April 15, 1850, fixed the southern boundary or the city limits at a
distance of two miles from Portsmouth square, making its line run parallel with
SAN FRANCISCO
159
that of Clay street on the north. The western line was one and a half miles dis-
tant from the center of the square and paralleled Kearny street on the east, and
the northern and eastern boundaries were made the same as those of the county
of San Francisco.
These lines indicated confidence in the future growth of the City and the area
prescribed seemed to furnish abundant room for expansion. The original survey,
made by O'Farrell, had long before 1850 proved insufficient in that regard, and
habitations of all kinds had spread far beyond the district in which the streets
were laid down. But the principal operations carried on by individuals and by the
authorities in that year were confined to seventeen or eighteen streets in the section
between Battery and Taylor and Bush and Francisco. Within this district the
thoroughfares were all graded and planked, and in several blocks sewers were laid.
The longest improved street running north and south was Battery, which extended
from California to Market. Sansome was only put in condition between Bush and
Broadway. Montgomery and Kearny extended only from California to Broadway,
and Dupont was passable between Sacramento and Broadway. The work on the
east and west streets was not as extensive as on those running north and south,
the hills offering formidable obstacles to the young community. Bush street was
graded and planked between Battery and Montgomery, and California started at
the bulkhead and stopped short at Montgomery. Washington and Jackson stopped
at Dupont and Pacific reached to Kearny.
Simultaneously with these grading operations there was carried on the work of
recovering from the waters of the cove of Yerba Buena more level space on which
to erect business structures. The early annalist of San Francisco likened the City
at this stage to "those other queens of the sea Venice and Amsterdam," but pointed
out that "where the latter had canals for streets and solid earth beneath their first
pile founded buildings," San Francisco over a great part of its most valuable busi-
ness district "had still only a vast body of tidal water beneath the plank covered
streets and beneath the pile founded houses themselves." It took some years to
change this feature, but by degrees all the spaces between the wharves and under
the buildings were filled, the sand and the earth removed from the hills brought
to grade contributing to that result.
The energetic work during the summer greatly improved the condition of the
streets, which were pronounced measurably passable toward the close of 1850. In
1851 the legislature reincorporated the City, extending its boundaries in a southerly
direction and the work of grading and planking the streets was prosecuted with
increased vigor. But there was as yet no serious encroachment on spots outside
of the business district, which lay within the boundaries of the tract or space
traversed by the seventeen or eighteen streets before referred to when the grading
operations were mentioned. In 1851 there was still a valley in the locality that
is now Second and Mission streets, and it was made attractive by a grove of
evergreens. Telegraph hill was used for residence purposes to a limited extent
but the disposition to keep to the improved section was pronounced and this
stimulated the owners of property to reserve and make habitable the region fur-
ther south. Market street, which at that period was a sand dune of no mean
proportions, was cut through from Battery to Kearny streets in the year following.
A machine known as the steam paddy was employed and did excellent work in
Confideiice
in Fntnre
Growth
Fining in
Xerba Bnen
Core
Energetic
Work Im-
proves Con-
ditions
160
SAN FRANCISCO
Values
Purely
Speculative
Effects of
a Gold
Plethora
removing and leveling the sand hills and effected speedy transformations which the
satisfied denizens of the growing City were inclined to speak of as "magical."
They were certainly entitled to be characterized as wonderful for they com-
pletely altered the aspect of the site as viewed from the water three of four years
earlier and made it nearly unrecognizable to those who returned to it after a
sojourn of a year or so in the mining region. These visitors found in place of the
quagmires they were familiar with, well planked streets which were tolerably free
from mud and dust, and many of them provided with sewers. The thoroughfares
were lined with buildings of various sorts, some of them of impressive dimensions
with attractive exteriors. There were shops where luxuries and necessaries of
all kind could be found, and plenty of good hotels and restaurants, and the com-
placent opinion freely expressed by those enjoying the benefits of these exer-
tions was that San Francisco was rapidly attaining the dignity of a metropolis.
To this belief the active real estate dealer and speculator freely contributed
by word and action. The latter took tlie form of putting up rents to rates which
sound fabulous, but were apparently freely paid. In 1853 we are told the com-
monest shop rented at from $200 to $iOO a month and that stores of any size
brought $1,000 for the same period. The demand for quarters played its part
in fixing the valuation of real property with the result that enormous prices were
demanded and paid for choice lots which had been purchased by the original
owners only a short time before for a song. By this time the City was deriving
some benefit from the increased appreciation and demand for its property. On the
day after Christmas of 1853 there was a sale of water front lots, 120 in all, which
realized $1,193,500. Four small blocks extending from Davis street eastward,
and between Sacramento and Clay, divided into lots 25x59.9 sold from $8,000 to
$9,000 a lot, the corners commanding $15,000 to $16,000. A few larger lots
brought from $20,000 to $27,000.
This enhancement was out of all proportion to the value at the time, and was
based wholly on the speculative assumption that the abnormal conditions created
by the enormous production of gold would continue indefinitely. It disregarded
the fact that the opportunities for extension were not restricted, and ignored the
experience of the two years following the gold discovery during which there was
a tremendous modification of the demands of landlords. In 1849 the Parker
house, a two story frame structure, was rented for $120,000 a year, and there
were several mercantile concerns that paid from $30,000 to $70,000 in the year
mentioned. One building with less than thirty feet frontage brought $36,000
a year.
Only conditions produced by a plethora of gold would warrant such rents in
a town of less than 50,000 inhabitants. The storekeeper who took gold dust for
his goods from men who were not particular about the quantity of metal they gave
in exchange for tlie articles they desired, and on occasion dispensed with the use
of scales entirely, could well afford to pay any amount demanded for a suitable
location. The saloon keeper who charged extortionate prices for the liquors dis-
pensed by him, and took an additional toll from the careless miner when weigh-
ing his dust, and the gambling house did not need to bargain closely; they could
depend upon coming out ahead of the game no matter what they paid.
But the demand for the gold increased much faster than it could be taken out,
a fact apparently not well considered by those who believed that every one who
o
■m
m-"/^
m
\Vaii I'm nc 'I. SCO ^i.^'^)
5f
;; )!v Pionoc^i'^
SAN FRANCISCO
161
had obtained possession of lots at the ridiculously low prices prevailing when the
first sales were made by the alcaldes would become millionaires. It would seem
when a piece of property which may have originally cost not more than $12
brought in an annual rental of thousands of dollars that the process of millionaire
making would be a rapid one, and that a great number of them would be produced.
But the result did not justify the expectation. In the end it developed that fewer
millionaires were made in San Francisco by the great output of gold, and the
abnormal conditions created by it, than were subsequently produced by the more
dependable growth of agriculture and manufacturing industries and the pursuit
of commerce in an orderly and less speculative manner than that which marked
all transactions and occupations in pioneer days.
In 1854 there began to be something like an appreciation of the uncertainties
produced by excessive speculation. In the fall of 1853 and the spring of 1854
there was a reaction in business due to the overstocking of the markets. Goods
had been rushed into the new town from all parts of the world without reference
to the needs of the community. The prices obtained in previous years had infected
the universe with the idea that California could absorb all the goods sent to it,
and as a result every mercantile house in San Francisco was deluged with con-
signments which could not be disposed of and bankruptcies were numerous. Empty
stores were seen on every hand and reduction of rentals proved no temptation
to open them. The trade depression soon communicated itself to real estate
speculators and many of them failed. The decreased rates of rent and the depre-
ciation of property, however, did not have the effect of destroying confidence
in the future of the City. On the contrary, predictions were made that values
would greatly exceed those which had been attained; but they were not realized
as speedily as the sanguine men of 1854 believed they would be.
In 1854, on March 9th, there was another sale of town lots on what was
called the government reserve which realized $241,000, but the prices obtained were
much lower than those eagerly bid the preceding year. Meanwhile building activ-
ity was not seriously interrupted. Although rents were falling the unbounded
confidence of owners of property stimulated them to increased exertion. Their
opinion respecting the value of real estate was shared by the squatter element
whose activities became very pronounced, no unoccupied lot being safe from in-
trusion. There were numerous riots due to the determination of owners to protect
their property, which they did by hiring watchers who were prepared to resist
with arms any invasion of what they considered the rights of their employers.
The authorities made no efforts to check the evil. Perhaps they recognized their
inability to preserve order with the inadequate force at their command, but the
popular impression was that they were indifferent — or worse still, that they were
catering to the lawless element, for the squatters had begun to assert themselves
in politics in the city and throughout the state.
It is not surprising that in the hurly burly of this eager game of grab that
suggestions concerning gradients when made by "scientific gentlemen," should have
gone unheeded. The grade established by a surveyor named Hoadley was strongly
protested against by men who combined with their knowledge of civil engineering
some taste, and were at the same time gifted with the abiUty to peer into the
future and divine its needs. They urged the abandonment of Hoadley 's grades
which demanded a great deal of costly excavation to carry out the scheme of
Result of
Excessive
Specnlation
Town Lots
Price*
162
SAN FRANCISCO
Cnttine
TfarouKh
Sand HUlB
A Difflcnlt
Piece of
Roadway
rectangular streets but their efforts proved wholly unavailing. The reason assigned
for the persistence in a system so unsuited to a city topographically situated as
San Francisco is was an overweening desire for profit by individuals who were
determined to make their property valuable even though the general welfare was
sacrificed; but the true cause was the indifference of the people generally due to
the utter absence of civic spirit of the sort which impels a community to act
together for the common good.
Very early in the history of the City of San Francisco the question of munici-
pal ownership was brought up, but it failed to receive the attention it deserved.
It is mentioned in this connection because it has a direct bearing on the subject
of street improvement, and the ideas respecting it which prevailed at the time. The
Mission, which had a small settlement in 1850, was some 21/4 miles distant from
the Plaza or Portsmouth square. An ordinance was adopted by the council to con-
nect it with a plankroad from Kearny street, but a proposal was made by Charles
L. Wilson to construct and maintain a toll road for a period of seven years.
There was some opposition on the ground that the profits which it was thought
might be derived from the undertaking should be enjoyed by the City, but the
discussion of the question did not take a wide range and at no time was considera-
tion given to the policy of the maintenance of absolutely free roads which was
then receiving considerable attention in other parts of the world.
The construction of the planked road along Mission street to the Mission had
the effect of carrying building operations in the direction of that settlement which
was within municipal bounds but not included in the city limits until later. In
1853 there were so many houses on the line of the road that it presented the ap-
pearance of a continuous street. It was much traveled, for there were numerous
drinking houses in the Mission which for a time was the sporting and amusement
resort of the City.
In 1853 and during some years later the difficulties attending the construction
of the road were impressed on the people but in course of time the transformation
effected was so great that the community could hardly be persuaded that the made
ground was not as solid as that of other localities, and the Federal government
was induced to select as a site for its general postoffice a number of lots wliich
had formerly been a quagmire. In constructing the road several sand ridges cross-
ing Kearny south of California street had to be cut through. One particularly
large one near Post street caused a heavy expenditure for its reduction. It was
near this point that a toll gate was established, the surrounding dunes compelling
vehicles to pass through the cut at that place. This gate was maintained for a
number of years.
The sand dunes were a less formidable obstruction than the soft places in the
two and a quarter miles of road. The steam paddy performed its service effi-
ciently and with comparative cheapness, but the quagmires taxed the ingenuity of
the road builders. At the place already mentioned an attempt was first made to
construct a bridge, but when piles were driven they disappeared, a couple of blows
of the hammer of the pile driver sufficing to produce that result. The idea of
bridging was then abandoned and heavy planks were laid platform-wise. This
served the purpose for a while, but the traffic finally caused the platform to sink
several feet, and considerable expense was incurred in keeping it in a state of
passibility. This first road was built at a cost of $150,000 and the tolls charged
SAN FRANCISCO
163
were 25 cents for a single horse and rider, 50 cents for a horse and buggy, 75
cents for two horses and a vehicle and $1 for a four-horse team. A second road
was built later at a cost of $96,000. It superseded the earlier construction and
was maintained down to the date of the expiration of the franchise. The under-
taking was a profitable one, it being estimated that its projectors realized at least
3 per cent, a month on the amount they had invested during the period they were
in control.
The movement to convert the cove of Yerba Buena into dry land was one
of those undertakings marked by concert of action produced by the desire of indi-
viduals for gain which often produce results nearly impossible of attainment
through organization. It is unthinkable that the recovery of what is now a large
part of the most important business section of the City could have been accomplished
at the time by public effort. No one has ever attempted to estimate the enormous
cost of this improvement, but from first to last it was so great that to even attempt
to approximate the probable expenditure would have appalled the young community.
But what the people in their collective capacity would have shrunk from attempting,
had any one been so preposterously deficient in knowledge of practical affairs as
to propose it, was achieved with comparative ease by individual effort.
Doubtless had the argonauts been advised in the last years of the Forties
by a L'Enfant, and at the same time been assured that the national government
would ultimately carry out a far-seeing plan of improvement, they would have lis-
tened to him; or had some person gifted with as much foresight as modern harbor
commissioners are with hindsight, a plan would have been devised for the settle-
ment of San Francisco's water front, which would have saved much subsequent
annoyance to their successors by giving them a thoroughly worked out system.
In that event the pioneers might have made provision for the monster ocean carriers
of today which were undreamed of then. But lacking the prophetic gift and means
they did the best they could.
A community with the certainty that its development would be along the lines
of orderly growth might have done something of the sort, although wisdom and
order do not always walk hand in hand. If there had been no gold, the inhabit-
ants of the little town on the shores of Yerba Buena in the course of a hundred years
or so might have begun to feel rich enough to improve their harbor, in which
event they would in all likelihood have imitated the example of Liverpool and
resorted to closed docks. Instead of filling in they would have scooped out and
in the long run perhaps the scooping process would have proved the best.
But the pioneers, after the gold discovery, were confronted with a different
problem. Their harbor was suddenly filled with hundreds of ships of all kinds,
whose owners were demanding speedy discharge of their cargoes. With such a
condition existing the natural thing to do was to provide wharves alongside which
the ships and other vessels might lay while unloading. To have created docks
would have been out of the question ; the labor, the material and the money were
not available for such expensive works, and the urgency of the demand for facili-
ties forbade the thought of engaging in the construction of basins which would
have been years in building.
Under the circumstances the rational thing to do was to utilize the timber
of the forests surrounding the bay, and this was promptly done, but not by the
people in their collective capacity. Each individual was too intent on making his
The Water
Front Prob-
lem
Not an
Orderly
Growth
164
SAN FRANCISCO
Encroaching
on Waters
of the Bay
Water Front
Line Estab-
lished
own fortune to concern himself about the general welfare, but, as is usual when
individualism is allowed free play and hopes of great reward are held out, that
which the community refused to do for itself, or to put it more truthfully that which
it was unable to do was done for it by men eager for gain. Their motives were
wholly selfish, and in almost every instance thej' were unscrupulous, or not over-
scrupulous respecting the means they adopted to carry out their projects. But the
outcome was a substantial gain for the City, even though the unsystematic way in
which they went about the work of recovery entailed some annoyances and later
procured for them some criticism from those wise after the event.
The eagerness to bring ship and landing place close together necessitated the
establishment of a water front line. Had no prohibition been interposed there is
no telling how far the land would have been made to encroach on the waters of
the bay. But the much-abused principle of vested rights promptly asserted itself
and in an incredibly brief period, as historical periods go, brought something like
order out of chaos, for the struggle for vantage points was near to bringing about
that result. Public authority had to be invoked to effect regulation, and some-
times it is assumed by superficial critics that because it became necessary to do so
it would have been wiser for the public to have commenced at the beginning.
But an assumption of this sort ignores the lesson of the fable of the monkey
called upon to make the decision of the piece of cheese between the quarrelling
cats. The cats found the cheese but the monkey took it all in his efforts to divide
fairly and the cats were permitted to go hunt for more.
Something of the sort happened when the individuals who had built the wharves
invoked public protection. In those days the appeal could not be made to the com-
munity directly interested, for that was the era in which there was much talk
about the hatefulness and the danger of centralization. The opposition was merely
theoretical, for that really exercised was considerately overlooked. San Francisco's
water front more directly concerned the people of that City than those of Los
Angeles, or the mining regions, but it was the state's province at that time to regu-
late and legislate specially for municipalities, and other political subdivisions, and
it had to be invoked and permitted to take its share of the cheese. Later it took
the whole of the cheese.
By an act of March 26, 1851, a permanent water front was established for the
City, and maps were ordered to be made and deposited in various public offices
delineating the prescribed boundary by a red line. In after years this map
became familiarly known by the title red line, because it had to be frequently
invoked. The water front established by it would have been satisfactory to the
owners, and perhaps the act of the legislature would have been wholly beneficial
if it had stopped at reserving the right of the state to regulate the construction
of wharves so that they should not interfere with navigation. But the interference
did not stop there. On May 1st of the same year the legislature passed another
act which empowered the City to construct wharves at the ends of all the streets
connecting with the bay by extending such streets 200 yards beyond the water
front, or red line, and authorizing the City to prescribe wharfage rates. In the
same act the legislature relinquished the right of the state to the beach and
water lot property, but on the express condition that all the titles to such within
the limits of the Kearny grant that had been conferred by justices of the peace
should be confirmed. The obvious purpose of this proviso was to validate a great
SAN FRANCISCO
165
fraud and should have had no place in a statute which was assumedly devised
for the regulation of the water front. It would not have been inserted had it not
been for the machinations of a class of politicians who became very active in the
promotion of schemes which had for their object the security of holders of property
obtained with the connivance of rascally or the carelessness of incompetent officials.
This venal interference with an affair which should have been wholly con-
trolled by San Francisco was followed not long after by an attempt to make the
commerce of the port help pay the running expenses of the state government.
In April, 1853, Governor Bigler sent a message to the legislature in which he
recommended that the limits of the City be extended toward the water front and
that the space thus gained should be leased or sold. California was heavily in-
debted at the time and the legislative financiers conceived the idea of replenishing
a depleted treasury by extending the City front six hundred feet beyond the line
established by the act of 1851. The campaign to accomplish that object was con-
ducted chiefly by interior members, nothing but remonstrance coming from San
Franciscans who might reasonably have been supposed to have a knowledge of
the present and future requirements of the port, equal at least to that of the
legislators living in the interior at distances remote from the harbor whose inter-
ests they assumed to defend.
These self-constituted champions of the navigation interests of San Francisco
argued that the water front limits embraced by the line of 1851 were too restricted
and that this enabled the owners of water front property to charge extortionate
rents for their wharves thus precluding people of moderate means from the bene-
fit of their use. This antimonopoly plea was accompanied by statements that the
proposed extension would enable larger vessels to be berthed conveniently and
would also permit the free ebb and flow of the tide in the channel, thus increasing
its scouring capacity and keeping it clean. The arguments presented seemed plaus-
ible enough and would have prevailed had it not been for the uproar raised in
San Francisco where the charge was openly made that Bigler and the legislature
were in league with real estate speculators who had acquired for a song the lots
to be made valuable at what were called "Peter Smith Sales," a name used to
characterize the most outrageous fraud ever devised by the rogues who infested
San Francisco.
The Peter Smith rascality will be described in another place when the subject
of municipal mismanagement and grafting is dealt with; here it is alluded to only
to emphasize the fact that the men who were vigorously at work seeking to make
a convenient port of San Francisco received no aid in their efforts from the peo-
ple whose representatives, when they were not engaged in schemes of spoliation,
were studying out methods of embarrassing those seeking to promote facilities of
the sort calculated to encourage the growth of commerce and the development of
the interior.
Despite these drawbacks the work of improving the water front of San Fran-
cisco proceeded steadily and the result must be set down as one of the greatest
achievements of undirected energy of which we have a record. Had there been
no other accomplishment to place to the credit of the pioneers they might have
rested their fame upon their successful conversion of what under the most favorable
circumstances would have been only a relatively advantageous place for discharg-
ing and loading ships into a district which affords every convenience for the trans-
Legislature
Helps the
Jobbers
166
SAN FRANCISCO
The City's
Water Supply
in 1S51
The
Mountain
Lake Water
Company
Lake Merced
Violently
Distorbed
action of a large part of the business of the leading port of the state. Its crea-
tion very greatly facilitated the handling of freight and passengers, the primary
object of those who seek to develop and improve natural harbors.
As in the case of the creation of facilities for shipping, individual exertion was
depended upon by the people in the early Fifties for the introduction of a supply
of drinking water. In 1851 the privilege was granted to Argo D. Merrifield to
introduce fresh water into the City. Previous to that date the dependence had been
wholly upon wells, but the failure of the reservoirs at crucial moments, due to the
fact that the water obtained was required for immediate consumption, made it
necessary to turn to some other source for an adequate quantity to meet the de-
mands of the growing population.
Merrifield proposed to obtain a sufficient supply from a small lagoon called
mountain lake which was situated about four miles west of the Plaza. He was
to receive a franchise for a period of twenty-five years at the expiration of which
the plant was to be turned over to the City. In the ensuing year, on July 14th,
the term of the franchise was reduced to twenty years and a board for rate-mak-
ing purposes was created consisting of three members of the council and two
representatives of the Mountain Lake Co., the name of the concern. It was also
provided that at least $50,000 should be expended by the company during the
ensuing six months, and a like sum before Jan. 1, 1854; and that a million gallons
should be provided daily. This company had a great deal of trouble with the au-
thorities and finally failed in 1862. Before that year the increasing necessities of
the town called into existence another company known as the San Francisco Water
Works which began operations in 1857, by bringing the waters of Lobos creek
around the shores of the Golden Gate, by tunnel through Fort Point and a flume
to Black Point, where it was pumped to suitable elevations. Like its predecessors
the new company was frequently in collision with the authorities, a fact responsi-
ble for the passage by the legislature of 1858 of a law designed to encourage
private enterprise in the development of water for cities and towns. Under its pro-
visions the Spring Valley Company was inaugurated and succeeded in meeting
public requirements for some years, not, however, without creating considerable
friction between itself and the public it served.
A notable occurrence connected with the water supply of the City is men-
tioned in the "Annals." On the night of November 22, 1852, the few persons living
in the vicinity of Lake Merced felt what they thought was an earthquake shock.
On the following morning they discovered that the waters of the lake had fallen
thirty feet during the night. Various conjectures were advanced to account for
the phenomenon. It was suggested that it was due to a volcanic disturbance which
had permitted the waters to subside through the bottom of the lake, but opinion
finally settled on the heavy rains as an explanation. They had increased the body
of water to such an extent that the pressure became great enough to force an
outlet to the sea through the banked up sand on its shores.
This singular incident, and the talk it created, suggests that the early San
Franciscans may have been impressionable and ready to draw conclusions which
careful investigation would not justify. It also illustrates the indisposition of the
SAN FRANCISCO 167
newcomers to be deterred by phenomena of any sort from carrying through their
self-appointed task of settling the country and making the best of its resources,
and it furnishes evidence that the pioneers were not ready to accept the theories
later advanced bj' a distinguished English author, who laid down the proposition
that regions in which the manifestations of Nature are sometimes over- vigorous is
sure to be the habitat of a people deficient in energy and given over to superstitions.
CHAPTER XXII
CLIMATIC AND OTHER PHENOMENA OF SAN FRANCISCO
SEISMIC TROUBLES DO NOT DETER IMMIGRATION ADVANTAGES WEIGHED AGAINST
DISADVANTAGES THE VERIFIED PREDICTION OF A PIONEER TI^ CLIMATE OF
CALIFORNIA AND OF SAN FRANCISCO VARIATIONS BUT NO CHANGES CLIMATIC
PECULIARITIES OF SAN FRANCISCO THE JAPAN CURRENT ABSENCE OF HUMID-
ITY MAKES HEAT ENDURABLE SNOWFALLS SO RARE THEY BECOME HISTORICAL
EVENTS KILLING A MAN TO START A GRAVEYARD MAN AND NATURE IN CALI-
FORNIA PRACTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PIONEER THE NAVIGABLE RIVERS
OF CALIFORNIA THE REGION ABOUT THE BAY.
HOMAS BUCKLE did not write his "History of Civiliza-
tion in England" until 1857. Had it appeared ten years
earlier it might have created a state of mind adverse
to the speedy settlement of California. The qualifying
word "might" is advisedly employed, for despite the
learned disquisitions of the eminent Englishman expe-
rience has demonstrated that men will go anywhere that
a prospect of earning a livelihood offers itself. The most terrifying exhibitions of
Nature's unrest will not drive them away permanently from regions where oppor-
tunities are presented.
It is not probable that the knowledge that California occasionally experiences
geological disturbances would have stayed the movement from the farms of the
southwest and south to the coast, which set in before the discovery of gold and it
is absolutely certain that it would have had no deterring influence upon the adven-
turous men who flocked to the new El Dorado from all parts of the world as soon
as the news of the find was heard. They were made of the stuff that would seek
gold on the rim of an active crater. Seismic convulsions had less terror for them
than the possibility that they might be compelled to reproach themselves with pov-
erty if they neglected the chance to mend their fortunes which the discovery
seemed to offer.
But while it is certain that men would have rushed to California with as little
fear of consequences as the man who plants a vinej'ard on the slopes of Vesuvius,
it is not impossible that the manifestations may have played some part in shaping
the characters of those who encountered them without an accumulation of pre-
vious experience calculated to give them confidence of the kind which persuades the
sailor who goes down to the sea in ships that his vocation is less hazardous than
that of the landsman who is constantly subjected to unexpected dangers far more
numerous than those who brave the deep have to contend with.
169
170
SAN FRANCISCO
Advantages
Outweigrh
DisadTantagcB
The Pioneer
and the
Precautions
in Buildingr
The pioneer may not have felt like assuming the role of Ajax defying the
lightning, but he promptly began to weigh advantages and disadvantages and to
balance them against each other and the result was an early conclusion that the
former so greatly exceeded the latter that it was hardly worth while to borrow
trouble. The processes of mind by which the conclusion was reached were not
those of the sort suggesting indifference; they were efforts in which pure reason
played an important part, and they were based on observations which were proba-
bly more trustworthy than those of the insurance actuary who calculates the chances
of life.
It was not likely that men who considered earthquakes from the standpoint
of the pioneer would ever become victims of superstition. They may not have elabo-
rated seismic theories as highly as they have been during recent years but they
were under no illusions concerning the origin of earthquakes and would have
laughed at the suggestion that the agency which produced them was supernatural.
They may have believed that Nature had its mysteries, but they were ready to pit
against them the law of chance. If it proved adverse to them they felt they would
be able to repair the damage inflicted by the exercise of energy aided by wit and
ingenuity.
A spirit of this sort, which we find expressed in some comments on the subject
in the "Annals," was generally prevalent. The writer remarked that almost
every year slight shocks and occasionally smarter ones had been felt, and he specu-
lated on what might happen to "the huge granite and brick palaces of four, five
and six stories" if a great shock occurred, but he was sure that if they came down
with a prodigious crash or if even half of the town should be half destroyed "like
another Quito or Carracas" the damage would "speedily be remedied by the indomi-
table energy and persevering character" of its American builders.
Having delivered himself of this prediction, which was more than verified in
1906, the annalist goes on to tell why earthquakes could have no discouraging
results and pointed out that Italy, although it had endured and emerged from many
calamities of that sort, had never impressed men as an undesirable place to live
in, but to the contrary had always proved a powerful magnet to draw people from
all parts of the world to enjoy its varied attractions.
There were no serious shocks experienced in San Francisco between 1839 and
1854 and for many years after the latter date the solidity of the construction of
the "huge granite and brick palaces" was not tested. Perhaps it was not altogether
fortunate that the test was deferred for so many years. Had it come earlier, when
the City was smaller and less populous a lesson might have been learned wliich
would have tended to minimize the disaster when it finally came. It is advisable
to qualify with the word "perhaps," for there is no evidence that the people of
San Francisco, at any time prior to 1906, were impressed by the danger of covering
large areas with inflammable wooden structures. Indeed when the subject of seis-
mic disturbances was connected with that of construction it was usual to assume
that the safest buildings in an earthquake country are those built of wood.
There was undoubtedly a decided disinclination to discuss the subject of earth-
quake in the early days, but it was by no means due to fear or to apprehension of
injurious results to property from such disturbances. It was owing wholly to the
feeling that those who were unacquainted with seismic phenomena would be sure
to magnify the danger and thus, by causing the country to be misunderstood, im-
SAN FRANCISCO
171
pede the settlement of the state. The desire to see this accomplished was general,
and with many amounted to something like a passion. It began to assert itself as
soon as the feeling that "home" was the region east of the Rocky Mountains weak-
ened, and when those who had merely come for gold made up their minds that
the state was a good place in which to abide.
When this stage was reached the Californian began to count up the advantages
possessed by California over the older states of the Union, and he found so many
to enumerate that he felt a natural reluctance to spoil the picture by inserting in
it anything that would detract from his claim that it was "the land of the blest."
He did not wish to be forced to explain or to contrast. He deemed it wiser and
easier to pass over the matter than to attempt to show cyclones are infinitely more
destructive than earthquakes, that more people are killed by excessive heat and
cold every year than are taken off in a century by temblors in California. In short,
he believed that his new home came as near to realizing the idea of an earthly
paradise as possible, and he was not disposed to weaken his belief by dwelling on
possibilities that he chose to consider remote.
This reluctance extended down to a very late period, as periods are measured
in California. In a history of the state, written in the early Eighties, the subject
of earthquakes is scantily treated. Several of those recorded were enumerated by
the author, but the barest facts only were related, and no attempt whatever was
made to study the phenomena ; perhaps because of the absence of data, but more
probably for the reason above mentioned, and the additional one that as nothing
could be done to avert them there was little benefit to be derived from giving much
thought to them.
In marked contrast to this avoidance was the very pronounced disposition to
expatiate on the charms of the climate. Long before the American occupation
travelers had dwelt in glowing terms on the equable temperature of California.
Dana, Morrell, Robertson and others had told how over a great part of the long
stretch from San Francisco to San Diego snow never fell; and navigators who had
visited every country said there was no place that surpassed in delightfulness this
neglected part of the world. But it was reserved for the pioneers to appraise the
climate at its real worth. Their valuation of this physical feature was never un-
der the mark, but it never was made on a strictly commercial basis as in later years
when it began to be perceived that sunshine could be made as valuable an asset as
an unfailing gold mine.
The account given to Eastern people of the resources and attractions of the
country rarely omitted mention of the climatic features, which distinguished Cali-
fornia so greatly from the states on the Atlantic seaboard, and those of the Middle
West and Southwest, which had contributed a large proportion of the immigrants.
These descriptions were not always made in the language of the meteorologist,
and they often lacked exactness, but on the whole they were sufficiently accurate
to convey a correct impression if they had been attentively considered. Their
principal interest for us now consists in the fact that they refute the assumption
which frequently finds expression, that the climate of California is changing.
The records show the same uncertainties regarding the weather as those ex-
perienced in the twentieth century. There were alternations of wet and dry sea-
sons in the Fifties just as there are at present, and the fluctuations in the volume
of precipitation were as great then as now. There was one mistake made by the
California
CUmate
Unchanged
172
SAN FRANCISCO
Inexact
Weather
Kecords
San Francisco
pioneers in their descriptions that has resulted in a misconception, which explana-
tions seem powerless to correct. They were accustomed to speaking of the rainy
and the dry season, thus conveying the idea that at one period of the year there
is incessant rainfall, while during the other there is no precipitation at all. This
misstates the fact. If they had spoken of "the season when it rains" instead of
"the rainy season," and had added that in certain months it scarcely rains at all,
it is possible that the very common error that California is alternately drenched
and desiccated would not be made.
It may be said in defense of the inexactness of the early reporters of weather
conditions in California that there was a series of winters after that of 1850-51,
in which the rainfall was copious, ranging in San Francisco from 18.55 inches in
1851-52 to 35.26 in the following year, and not falling below the first named quan-
tity in any year until 1862-63, when there was something like a repetition of the
exceedingly dry season of 1850-51, when the precipitation was only 7.42 inches.
Ten years of such experience would naturally suggest the division into rainy and
dry seasons, but the terms, when not qualified by the information that the rains
are frequently punctuated by intervals of cloudless weather, naturally convey the
false impression that CaUfornians constantly seek to remove.
The climate of California can be best comprehended by actual experience, which
must be extensive, for the area of the state is great, stretching through many de-
grees of latitude, and having a longitudinal breadth which, while not great, has
two ranges of mountains running through it, whose elevations result in producing
climatic conditions in parts closely resembling those of the older states of the Union.
In fact there are many sorts of climate in California and they are not determined by
latitude or longitude, but by physical peculiarities, which produce striking varia-
tions that prevent a description that accurately fits one locality being correctly
applied to another section only a few miles distant.
The climate of San Francisco enjoys the distinction of differing from that of
most other parts of the state. It has peculiarities which cause it to be misunder-
stood by the casual visitor. These peculiarities can be best understood by attentive
study of the records. Before the discovery of gold several pioneers appreciated
the value of careful observation, and as a result the professional meteorologists
have data extending back fullj' sixty years. Among the careful citizens who engaged
in this work were Dr. G. H. Gibbons, Dr. T. M. Logan and Thomas Tennant, and
from their tables the present weather bureau officials have been able to extract in-
formation which has greatly assisted them in their important duties.
The records of the weather bureau only date back to February 2, 1871, but as
its operations deal with the past and the future as much as with the present, its
accounts of climate conditions are more dependable than those made by empirical
observers, whose observations only extend over limited periods. This being the
case it will be wise to disregard the exactions of chronological presentation in
order that a comprehensive idea of the conditions existing in the past and which are
likely to endure may be gained by the reader. Such a view may be derived from
the data specially prepared for this history by Professor A. G. :McAdie, the head
of the weather bureau in San Francisco in 1912, and during many years prior to
that date.
In order to understand the climatic peculiarities of San Francisco it is neces-
sary to give consideration to the general climatic conditions of the Pacific coast.
SAN FRANCISCO
173
which are controlled by four factors. The first of these is the location of the
areas of high and low pressures, which within recent years have been known as
the great centers of atmospheric action. These have been carefully observed and
the meteorologist is aware of certain conditions corresponding with the departures
of those centers of action from their normal location. The second factor in deter-
mining the climate of California is the prevailing drift of the surface air from
west to east in temperate latitudes. The west, northwest winds so characteristic
of the California coast north of Point Conception, have often been miscalled the
trades, which, properly speaking, are the northeast and southeast winds of lower
latitudes. The correct designation of the California coast winds is "prevailing
westerlies."
Much has been written about the influence of the Japan current in controlling
the temperature, but as a matter of fact it plays a small part in moderating cli'
matic conditions. The Japan and Bering sea currents have their greatest strength
at the end of winter, or in the early spring, while for the equatorial current the
conditions are reversed. Coming from the south the equatorial current is most
marked in the end of summer or early in the fall.
A third factor is the proximity of the Pacific ocean, the great natural conser-
vator of heat. Both because of the great mass of water with its high specific heat,
and the water vapor carried by the prevailing wind, the range of temperature is
small along the coast from Puget Sound to San Diego bay. It is because of this
blanket of vapor that the isotherms run nearly north and south instead of east
and west as they do in other parts of the United States. Topography is the
fourth factor. The state has an extremely diversified surface. In one county,
Inyo, is situated Death valley, wherein lies the lowest land in the United States,
some 273 feet below sea level. Seventy-five miles west of this locality is the east-
ern range of the great Western Divide. The high Sierra culminates in this sec-
tion. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the United States (excluding Alaska),
has an elevation of 14,502 feet above sea level. On the other hand near the north-
ern part of the state, where the coast range and the Sierra come together, we find
Shasta 14,380 feet. Along the coast line there are several remarkable bays, and
within short distances marked diilerences in the surface air drainage exist, and
finally, perhaps, the greatest of the natural features is the extensive inland valley
of California.
Within the limits described the highest temperature in the United States occurs.
The shade temperatures of the Colorado desert frequently reach 130° F., while the
most noticeable climatic features of the coast are the moderate temperatures, fre-
quent fogs and high winds. The latter, however, rarely attain a high velocity;
their continuance during the season of the year when the atmosphere is usually
undisturbed in sections is what produces the unusual summer climate of San Fran-
cisco.
The weather bureau has seen fit to conmient on the difficulties which beset the
stranger in his endeavor to understand the climatic conditions existing in San Fran-
cisco and furnishes this explanation, which contains facts that even residents who
have lived in the City for some time are apt to overlook unless specially observant.
Professor McAdie says: "The climate of San Francisco is so unusual that it has
attracted universal attention. When a native of that city is asked which is the
coldest month he is apt to say that July is. If asked which is the warmest month
Climatic
Pecoliarities
Misanderstood
174
SAN FRANCISCO
Heat
Without
Discomfort
Vital
Statistics
Defective
he may say December. His confusion arises from the comparatively small range
of temperature. The mean annual is 56°. May and November have practically
the same temperature^ and are about ten degrees warmer than the mean. The
warmest month is September^ when the temperature rises to 61°, and the coldest
is January, when the mean is slightly above 50°. The highest temperature re-
corded in San Francisco was on September 8, 1904, when 101° was observed,
and the lowest 29° on January 15, 1888. The next warmest day was June 29,
1891, when the temperature reached 100°. Temperatures above 90° occur very
rarely. Warm days are most likely in September and October. A warm period
seldom exceeds three days, and as a rule is brought to a close by strong and dense
fog and temperature ranging from 50° to 55°."
These observations may be supplemented by the statement that the 101° re-
corded on the 8th of September, 190-1, did not prevent the Knights Templar
marching in procession, enveloped in their black velvet cloaks, on the occasion of
their triennial gathering in that year; nor did the lofty flight of the mercury cause
any interruption of ordinary avocations. There were no strokes, although the
Knights marched in the blazing sun along an unshaded street; nor were there
any prostrations. The explanation of this extraordinary exemption is the total
absence of humidity, which is so marked a feature of California heat and makes
it endurable even when it is uncomfortable.
Snow falls so rarely in San Francisco that when it does the occurrence attains
the dignity of an unusual if not an historical event. The heaviest snowfall ever
recorded in San Francisco was that of December, 1882, when over three inches
fell. In February, 1887, there was another fall, the quantity being about the
same in the lower levels of the City, but a depth of fully seven inches was measured
in some places. On the 20th of January, 1854, the annalist of San Francisco
records that ice an inch thick was formed in the streets, and that within doors
water in pitchers was generally frozen. At two P. M. icicles hung from the roofs
of houses in the City, on which the sun had been shining all day. Small ponds in
the vicinity were frozen over and there was excellent skating in the mission. The
weather was so extraordinary that the native Californians declared that the Yan-
kees had bewitched the climate. It may be added that there is no record of any
repetition of the phenomenal occurrences mentioned since 1854.
The pioneers were convinced that the climate of San Francisco was conducive
to health and the general conditions supported their view. There are, however,
no vital statistics available, and if they existed they would have small comparative
value because of the peculiar composition of the population, in which males of an
age which offers resistance to disease largely predominated. Inferences may, how-
ever, be drawn from current jokes, which, under the circumstances, are perhaps
as reliable as mortality tables. One of these was to the effect that a man had to
be killed to start a grave yard.
The only serious visitation to which the City was subjected was in 1852. In
the fall of that year there were numerous cases of cholera, but the disease's rav-
ages were not nearly so great as in other places in the United States. The pio-
neers were under no illusion regarding the cause. The utter disregard of sanitary
precautions, and the rapid extension of the City into the waters of the bay were
held responsible for the trouble, and the authorities were roundly denounced for
SAN FRANCISCO
175
their failure to perform the duty of compelling cleanliness; but it does not appear
that any disposition existed to provide funds for that purpose.
The seismic and climatic phenomena described above may have had some influ-
ence in shaping the character of the community in the early Fifties, but it would
have been difficult to establish the fact, and it would have been equally troublesome
to trace a connection between the other physical peculiarities which theorists as-
sume play an important part in moulding the dispositions of a people and deter-
mining whether they shall be indolent or industrious. There is no proof that
lofty mountains and wide spaces were awesome, and that their proximity had a
deferent effect on energy. If the pioneers gave them much thought it was not of
the kind calculated to breed superstition, for, from the beginning, those who did
not admire the grandeur of California mountains, and the beauty of its scenery,
devoted themselves to the task of bending Nature to their own purposes.
Only as the latter were affected can it be said that Nature had much to do with
California temperament, or the creation of that which a later generation, with the
poetic instinct high developed, has been pleased to call "atmosphere." The phys-
ical peculiarities of California influenced the population indirectly, but the operat-
ing cause was usually economic. In no wise was it traceable to fear or a feeling
of insecurity. The general attitude toward natural phenomena of a disturbing
kind was one of careless indifference, and sometimes it was even jocular, as was
the case when Bret Harte wrote his condensed novel in 1867, in which he pictured
the total destruction of San Francisco in a fashion that amused the residents of
the City more than it did outsiders, because the latter could not understand the
subtle allusions to the aspirations of a neighboring city.
The pioneers of 1849-56 would have enjoyed the paragraph referred to quite
as much as the people of San Francisco did ten or eleven years later, although
Oakland had as yet made no progress towards urban greatness. They would have
accepted it in the same spirit that they did the more seriously expressed conviction
of the annalist, that the indomitable American spirit would rise superior to any
untoward manifestations of Nature, because they were matter-of-fact men trained
by experience to count chances, which they did Avith deliberation, and having done
so they were firmly convinced that Nature's smiles so greatly outnumbered its frowns
in California that it would be idle to take the latter seriously.
These practical men were more disposed to think of rivers and mountains and
great plains from the standpoint of possible utilization, and gave only a passing
thought to geological phenomena, and that usually was confined to speculation
concerning the part they played in assisting man to secure the much desired pre-
cious metals, and in fashioning the water courses, which might be made to bear
to the mart they were establishing the products of the region they drained. They
were prosaic, a fact which stirring events have not been able to obscure. They
looked at everything from the standpoint of utility.
The Sierra Nevada on the east and the Coast range on the west were interest-
ing to them because they were the mountains inclosing a great plain, which those
gifted with the ability to peer into the future realized would one day become a
vast agricultural region. It cannot be said that this perception was very general
in the Fifties. To the contrary, there was a very prevalent belief which was re-
tained during nearly a generation, that what is now recognized as the greatest body
of fertile land in California, and perhaps in the whole world, was chiefly desert.
176
SAN FRANCISCO
Some
Far Seeing
Men
There are traces, however, of the fact that there were far-seeing men who re-
alized that the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys inclosed by the Sierra
and Coast range were destined to be something else than mere pasturing grounds
for herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and business acumen very early divined that
the region we now know as the Great valley, a plain some 400 miles long and from
fifty to sixty miles in width, almost unbroken throughout its length and breadth
except in the northern half, where its even surface is varied by the Marysville
Buttes, would one day be the chief contributor to the commercial greatness of the
port of San Francisco.
It was appreciation of this fact that caused a lively interest to be taken in the
rivers which drained this great plain. The Sacramento in the northern half, and
the San Joaquin in the southern half of the enormous valley, it was thought would
develop in their vicinity a large quantity of agricultural land, the products of
which would be borne on their waters to the Bay of San Francisco, into which they
discharged, and to the port of that name, whence they would be sent to all parts
of the world. As these two rivers are the only navigable streams in California, and
as in the period when the development of the resources of the state began in earnest,
water transportation still held its place in the esteem of men as the most
feasible and cheapest way of moving products, it is not surprising that the im-
portance attached to them was very great.
But while this great valley appealed to the imaginative and tempted the prac-
tical to speculate on its possibilities, nearby resources were not overlooked. The
great Santa Clara valley and other regions close to the bay were perhaps earlier
objects of consideration than the vast tract whose settlement was long delayed, a
fact attested by the efforts made at a very early date to provide rail transportation
for the thriving region. The land on the peninsula side of the bay, intervening
between the City and San Jose, and the valleys south of that city, was also favor-
ably regarded and that of the transbay country, comprising the county of Ala-
meda, and the timbered regions were all held in esteem, and the day was looked
forward to when they would make urgent demands upon the facilities of the port,
which were daily being added to, and which those concerned in the City's develop-
ment believed would soon rival those of the greatest harbors of the world.
CHAPTER XXIII
TAXATION AND OTHER GOVERNMENTAL PROBLEMS OF THE
PIONEER
NATIVE CALIFORNIANS SLIGHTLY TAXED EXEMPTION FROM TAXATION NOT A BLESSING
ABUSE OF AN INHERITED SYSTEM THE SPECULATIVE LURE GENERAL KEARNY
AND THE ALCALDES ALCALDE JUSTICE IN CALIFORNIA FIRST ALCALDE UNDER
THE AMERICAN FLAG SAN FRANCISCo's FIRST COUNCIL THE RUSH TO THE GOLD
DIGGINGS PEACE EASILY KEPT ORDINANCE AGAINST GAMBLING COUNCILMEN
DESERT THEIR POSTS TO DIG FOR GOLD NATIONAL AND LOCAL POLITICS FACTIONAL
FEELING THREE OPPOSING SETS OF COUNCILLORS MILITARY INTERFERENCE IN
CIVIL AFFAIRS DELEGATES TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION THE NEED OF
REGULATION A SHORT BALLOT EXPERIMENT IN 1849 VOTE ON ADOPTION OF THE
CONSTITUTION HORACE HAWES A WELL HATED REFORMER A DEFIANT AYUNTA-
MIENTO HAWES TURNED DOWN.
jdoption of a form of government whose theories com-
mend themselves as sound does not always assure the peo-
ple that they will be well governed. Imperfect laws, ad-
ministered by able and honest men are likely to produce
better results than can be derived from a perfect legal
system executed by venal and incompetent officials. The
Spanish and Mexican inhabitants of California had their
affairs conducted for them by officials, during nearly three quarters of a century,
without obtaining any special benefits from their services; but on the other hand
they were never seriously victimized by the rapacity of those who were placed
over them by others, or by men whom they chose to serve them.
It would not be safe to assume, however, that because the Californians nearly
escaped taxation that their exemption was due to the wisdom of their rulers or to
the excellence of their system and the integrity of those who administered the law.
The evidence points to a wholly different cause, namely the failure to produce on
a scale calculated to afford a field in which the ingenious and unscrupulous ele-
ments of society could successfully and profitably operate. The cynical observation
of Governor Alvarado concerning the return of certain moneys to the treasury,
which it was supposed had been expended, but through prudent expenditure had
been saved, indicates that occurrences of that sort must have been extremely rare
for he virtually declared that the case was so exceptional that it deserved com-
ment and reward.
The Spanish rule in California terminated in 1823 and the last governor under
the crown was made the first Mexican governor. His administration did not give
Vol. 1—12
177 .
178
SAN FRANCISCO
A Cheaply
Adxuini&tered
Government
Ridiculously
Small
BeTennes
E:cemptioD
Taxatiou
t a Blessing
Adherence to
Ancient
Customs
perfect satisfaction nor did that of his successors. There were frequent squabbles
of a factional sort, the accounts of which sometimes suggest the absurdities of the
court of the Duchy of Gerolstein, made famous by Offenbach, but there are no
accounts of uprisings on account of excessive taxation or oppression. If the native
Californians were oppressed they were unaware of the fact until Ide told them that
such was the case in his Bear Flag declaration of independence, the preamble of
which recited a formidable list of grievances regarding the nature of which there
must have been serious doubts in their minds.
The government of California before the occupation was carried on for a ridicu-
lously small sum of money, so insignificant indeed that the figures cast a doubt on
their own accuracy. It seems incredible that any sort of an establishment could
have been maintained upon the revenues of the territory, which are given at $32,000
in the year 1831. The cost of presidial garrisons, and the salary of the command-
ante general and the pay of a few auxiliary troops were the chief charges and
they amounted to considerably more than the revenue, aggregating $131,000, or
pesos, in the year mentioned, but only $32,000 appears to have been directly drawn
from the people; the deficit was made up by borrowing from the fathers, who up
to that date reckoned the central government in Mexico as debtor to the amount
of $450,000.
A review of the administrative methods of the Spanish and their successors
disclosed why the revenues were so ridiculously small. The native Californians,
from highest to lowest, were systematic nullifiers of regulations and paid no re-
spect to tariffs. By common consent disregard of the laws relating to taxation
was counted a virtue, and evasion was more honored than disposition to pay. Smug-
gling was conducted with such openness that it was impossible to corrupt an offi-
cial. When a whole community joins in a practice offenders cannot be singled
out for punishment. In such cases it is the part of wisdom to ignore what cannot
be prevented, and this was a policy adhered to by both Spanish and Mexicans
with sufficient closeness to make the exceptions stand out as acts of oppression,
which the people, who had become unaccustomed to contributing anything to the
support of government, really believed they were.
If exemption from taxation could be considered a blessing the native Califor-
nians would be regarded as a blessed people, but modern enlightened opinion holds
to quite another view, and justly considers that to be the best government which
can extract the largest revenue and expend it for the benefit of those from whom
it is drawn. It is not apparent, however, that the pioneers entertained this ad-
vanced opinion. They appear to have been influenced very largely by the preva-
lent belief of the period, that the best governed community is the one that is taxed
the least, and doubtless adherence to that idea played its part in causing the ready
acceptance of the suggestion that the existing system should be continued without
any material modification or change until the necessity for it should arise.
As a result, during the first years after the occupation of California, Americans
living in Yerba Buena were content to adhere to the ancient customs. They were not,
however, voluntarily adopted, but were imposed upon them by the military authori-
ties who, after a conquest, never display celerity in the matter of acceptance of
popular rule. It was deemed wise by those in command that the institutions of the
country should be maintained so far as possible until the central government should
put machinery in motion that would give the people something better.
SAN FRANCISCO
179
The project seemed to be in accord with those conservative instincts usually-
justified by the assumption that the slow course is the safest; but in this instance
the belief did not work out in practice. It is hardly conceivable that any system
adopted by a sane body of Americans could have produced as much mischief as
was entailed by the retention of the alcaldes whose powers, when they came to be
exercised by men animated by the desire for gain, were abused in some cases and
in others injudiciously asserted under the mistaken impression that the community
would be benefited.
The early critics of the system assert that under the Mexican law the entire con-
trol of municipal affairs was intrusted to the alcalde, and that he administered
justice according to his own ideas, the only limitation on his power being his abil-
ity to carry his decrees into effect. It was perfectly safe to intrust the average
Spaniard or Mexican with extensive authority, for they lacked the energy, even
though they may have possessed the inclination, to abuse their power. It has been
related that during the long interval between the successful Mexican revolution
and the American occupation of California very few lots were asked for and
granted in the pueblos, and that in some cases after grants had been made and
accepted by individuals they abandoned them.
There was a very speedy change when the "gringo" took hold of affairs. The
results have hitherto been variously regarded, but no matter what success may
have attended the vigorous efforts to energize a dormant community and start it
on the road to progress it will never be contended that the means adopted to effect
the purpose were scrupulously conceived or carried out. Nothing is plainer in the
history of San Francisco than the fact that the Americans and other people first
on the ground were convinced that Yerba Buena should be speedily settled, and that
the best way to accomplish that object was to put the land in possession of people
who would occupy or make use of it, and thus promote the public good. The the-
ory was sound, but the absence of effort to compel those who were permitted to
buy land for a song to make use of their purchases opened wide the door to specu-
lation and the grossest forms of fraud.
One of the first acts of Commodore Sloat was to issue a proclamation promising
the people that they should be governed by officials of their own choosing. It was
accompanied by a prediction which seems to point to the existence of a strong specu-
lative spirit, which he desired to make use of to attract native Californians to the
new government. He said that the undoubted effect of the change would be to
enhance the value of real estate. His opinion was certainly shared by all Amer-
icans, who knew by experience that land is valueless until it is made use of and a
demand for it created. The native, however, profited little by his advice, which
practically amounted to an admonition to get land, and they seemed to be even
less concerned to exercise the privilege of choosing tlieir alcaldes.
Sloat's proclamation was issued on the 7th of July, 1846, and in August an
election for alcalde was ordered for September 15th. There were several candi-
dates in Monterey, but the total vote cast was 338, and the successful man received
only 68, which gave him a plurality over his competitors. But while the naval
branch thus liberally accorded the people the right to choose their own rulers, the
army was not disposed to relinquish any authority. General Kearny very soon
intervened, doubtless influenced by the belief that the alcaldes had too many pow-
ers conferred upon them. The author of a history of California has told us what
The New
Settlers
Eager for
Real Estate
Commodore
Sloat's
Prediction
The
prrielamation
of July 7,
1846
180
SAN FRANCISCO
Arbitrary
Acts of
General
Kearny
First
American
Alcalde
they were at the time. He says that "the office of the alcalde of Monterey involved
jurisdiction over every breach of the peace, every crime, every business obligation
and every disputed land title within a space of 300 miles. To his court was an
appeal from every other alcalde's court in the district, but there was none from it
to any other tribunal." The alcalde was in effect supreme, and "there was not a
judge on any bench in the United States or England whose power was so absolute
as that of the alcalde of Monterey."
These extraordinary powers must have resulted in working an injury to the
commonwealth had they been permitted to endure for any considerable period, and
therefore the critic hesitates to characterize as an act of unjustifiable usurpation
the arbitrary performance of General Kearny, who promptly assumed control over
the magistrates and removed them at his pleasure. He did not always proceed
with that respect for civil authority now demanded and occasionally took a course
which would in these days cause a flame of indignation throughout the land. His
method of dealing with John H. Nash, the alcalde of Sonoma, illustrates his arbi-
trary propensities. When he apprised Nash that he was dismissed the latter re-
sented the dismissal and threatened to invoke the assistance of his friends among
the Bear Flag party. The general settled the question by kidnaping Nash,
Lieutenant W. T. Sherman, afterward the general of the armies of the United
States, acting as kidnaper and carrying him to San Francisco, from whence he
was removed to Monterey to prevent his giving further trouble.
Not only did Kearny thus effectively regulate the alcaldes, he also exercised
the functions which from the beginning must have been regarded as more important
than the administration of justice. As already related he attempted to make grants
of land on the water front of San Francisco. On March 10, 1846, he issued a
decree, in which he granted to the people of San Francisco by virtue of his author-
ity as governor of California, all the right, title and interest of the government to
the beach and water front lots on the east front of the town between Rincon Point
and Fort Montgomery, except such as should be selected for the use of the United
States.
The first settlers of Yerba Buena were perhaps justified in thinking lightly of
the judicial side of the alcalde's administrative duties. Law and justice was dis-
pensed by them very much after the manner of the Oriental cadi until after the
Americans came. That this mode was perfectly satisfactory to most of the native
Californians is proved by the tenacity with which they clung to alcalde law in the
lower part of the state down to very recent times. It is related of a major domo
of the estate of Don Juan Foster in San Diego county, who was repeatedly elected
as justice of the peace in San Juan Capistrano, that he invariably gave the natives
who came before him to have their disputes settled the choice of statutory law or
his own, and that they always chose his, which, in their minds, stood for common
sense, and was not complicated with intricacies they could not comprehend.
But the complexities introduced by the newcomers would not permit the con-
tinuance of this simply method of dispensing justice. Washington A. Bartlett, the
first alcalde under the American flag, was able to get along with the system, but
one of his immediate successors, George Hyde, was compelled to call for the assist-
ance of an ayuntamiento. He selected six persons to act in that capacity, but his
action did not meet the approval of Mason, who issued an ordinance in which the
necessity of providing an efficient town government was dwelt upon. Among the
SAN FRANCISCO
181
reasons assigned was the rapid growth of the town and the fact that the expected
advent of the whaling fleet would make its policing necessary.
In accordance with Mason's ordinance an election was held on the 13th of
September, 1847, and William Glover, William D. Howard, William A. Leidersdoril,
E. P. Jones, Robert A. Parker and William S. Clarke were elected. Hyde at-
tempted to have his selections endorsed and an opposition ticket was put in the
field for that purpose but only two of his appointees, Leidersdorff and Parker, were
elected. The highest vote received by any of the six successful candidates was
that of Glover, for whom 126 ballots were cast. William S. Clarke received only
72 votes. Leidersdorff was chosen treasurer.
There are no signs of increased efficiency in the records of this first council,
one of whose earliest acts was the rescinding of the regulation restricting the sale
of lands. While the bars were thus thrown down to speculation no harm ensued
directly, because the speculative element was too small at the time to be very mis-
chievous. The administration of Hyde was attended with much dissatisfaction and
he resigned on that account, not, however, until complaints were made against him
which caused Governor Mason to institute a formal inquiry, the result of which did
not disclose anything sufficiently grave to warrant his removal. Hyde's place was
filled by Dr. J. Townsend, who was sworn in on the 3d of April, 1848, and was in
office when the gold rush began.
The second election took place on October 3, 1848, when Dr. T. M. Leaven-
worth, who had been elected on the 29th of August as first alcalde, was again
chosen. At the same time B. R. Buckalew and Barton Mowrey were chosen coun-
cilors. There were 158 votes polled at this election, a number suggestive of indif-
ference to public duty, but the smallness of the vote is accounted for by the fact
that there had been an exodus to the newly discovered placers. Its extent may be
measured by the fact that in May the "Californian" was obliged to issue a fly sheet
instead of its regular publication in order to announce that it would be necessary
to suspend as the printers had gone to the diggings, an example which was promptly
followed by its rival the "Star."
It is not surprising that under such circumstances the councilors abandoned
the duties they had been elected to perform. The temptation of enormous rewards
to be obtained in the gold field proved irresistible, and for several months no
meeting was held by them. The result was unfortunate for the prestige of civil
authority, for it involved the necessity of the governor making a direct appeal to
the people to assist in the apprehension of deserters from the army and navy who
were abandoning their commands and ships. The request, however, bore no fruit.
Nobody seemed to think that he was called upon to keep men from participating
in the opportunity to get rich quickly even if obligations were violated and the
public interests thereby jeopardized.
Up to the time of the gold discovery the course of events in San Francisco had
not been attended by much excitement of any sort except that growing out of the
possibility of getting hold of desirable property cheaply. As already noted the
citizens seemed so engrossed in their personal affairs that Governor Mason was
impelled to remind them that an efficient government was required in order to
insure the policing of the town. The possibility of an influx of whalers suggested
that something of the kind would be necessary to keep the sailors in order while
in port, but there was no apprehension of trouble from any other quarter.
l"rancisco'e
First
Council
Tlirowinff
Down the
Bars
A Small
Number
Voters
Autliorities
Desert tb«
Posts
182
SAN FRANCISCO
Council
Attempts
to Stop
GambliDg
If the whalers proved a troublesome element the fact has not been recorded.
There is evidence that they were not difficult to deal with, for we find that in 1849,
when the population had increased to fully 5,000, the only police protection was
that afforded by six constables, utterly undisciplined, and no more effective than
a like number of men performing the duties of peace officer in an interior village.
If the sailors or other classes in the growing seaport were turbulent no special
effort was made to keep them within bounds. There were very few disturb-
ances during IS^Y requiring the active intervention of the authorities, and that
probably excused the failure to make ample provision for maintaining the peace,
when the necessity arose in 1848, as it did soon after the gold rush began. There
was as much indifference on this point then as during the interval when the most
serious troubles were those which grew out of over-indulgence in aguardienti. and
the disputes of the gamblers and their patrons.
On January 11, 1848, the council had passed an ordinance in relation to
gambling, but it was less designed to repress the evil than to create a source of
revenue for the town. It provided that all the money found on gambling tables
should be seized and turned into the treasury. Its effect was to indirectly license
the practice of public gambling, which had been so prevalent in California before
its occupation by the Americans. It proved absolutely ineffective so far as re-
straining it was concerned, but it did produce a feeling of irritation among the
considerable class who regarded interference with the monte table as an infringe-
ment of personal liberty.
At the time of the election of Leavenworth as first alcalde, the limits of the
town for judicial purposes embraced a small area. They were within boundaries
described by a line commencing at the mouth of Guadalupe creek, following its
course to where it emptied into the bay, and from thence west to the Pacific, thence
north along the coast to the entrance to the harbor, thence eastwardly through the
middle of that inlet to the bay, including the whole of the anchorage ground.
Marked out on the map of the City of to-day this seems but a comparatively small
space, but it soon taxed the abilities of the newly created authorities to keep peace
within its limits.
Perhaps had the councilmen remained at their posts the troubles which speed-
ily arose might have been averted, but disorder gained ground rapidly and dissat-
isfaction manifested itself. Public meetings were held to urge the necessity of
establishing a provisional government because of the growing prevalence of crime.
As is usual in all such public movements the system rather than the administrators
was held responsible, and it was believed that a speedy remedy would be fotmd
in abandoning the Spanish-Mexican methods and resorting to those to which the
dissentients had been accustomed in their old homes. Much stress was laid upon
the neglect of congress and resolutions were passed by gatherings in December,
urging the holding of a general convention in the following March. Meetings were
held in other parts of the state, at which resolutions of like tenor were adopted.
At the period we are speaking of it was the fashion to subordinate everything
political to what was conceived to be the most important issue. National, state
and municipal affairs were inextricably bound together, and the determination of
inconsequential as well as important local matters was dependent on the attitude
of the people of the various communities towards the institution of slavery. It
was not always possible to distinguish the effects of the injection of partisan prej-
SAN FRANCISCO
183
udice into local affairs, but a searching analysis of the moving causes that produced
dissension almost invariably discloses that no dispute, however trivial, was wholly
dissociated from national politics.
California was more afflicted in this regard than any other part of the country
during the decade preceding the Civil war, and in the early Fifties it was a battle
ground on which the advocates of the extension of slavery, and those opposed to
the institution fought with varying success. The adoption of a constitution, in
which the part of freedom was boldly taken and maintained, by no means settled
the dispute. California unequivocally declared against slavery and took its posi-
tion as one of the free states, but the Southerners, who had entered the country in
large numbers, refused to abide by the decision of the constitutional convention.
It is due to this incessant conflict that there was so much division of opinion
on local matters in San Francisco, and to the evil influence of the overshadowing
importance of the national issue maj' be traced many of the troubles to account
for which contradictory explanations have been given. It is improbable that the
men who on two occasions exhibited their ability to absolutely control the lawless
elements of San Francisco would have found it difficult to preserve the peace if
they had not been divided by the burning question of the day. It was solely
owing to this division that extra legal methods had to be resorted to in order to
save the City from the rule of the mob. The ordinary machinery of government
had been taken possession of by men engrossed by one idea, and who could not
find a point of contact which would permit them to act in unison with others on
questions purely local, while the control of the ballot box, the courts and the legis-
lature was necessary to carry out their larger aims.
It will be seen that men who were utterly unable to come together to use the
machinery provided for the purpose of giving effect to American theories of gov-
ernment, could strike hands and work shoulder to shoulder for a common cause
when that machinery was discarded. But until they did so every question of
municipal government was directly or indirectly influenced by national politics.
To the complications thus introduced are attributable the difficulties growing out
of the selection of bad men for municipal positions; men who usually owed their
success in securing office to the division of the forces of those who would naturally
stand for good government and the indifference of those who were too busily en-
gaged in trying to advance their own fortunes to concern themselves very much
about the methods adopted by others to achieve their purposes.
There were other causes of division than those produced by national politics,
but in some manner they were always linked up with the latter. The connection
may not have been obtrusively apparent, but it existed nevertheless, and had its
effect in aligning men against each other who would have naturally been found
in the same group if the disturbing influence had not kept them apart. In the
elections of January, 1849, evidence of the disturbing element may be easily
traced. On the surface it appeared to be a contest to decide which were the best
men to carry out local policies, but the squabbles which resulted in three sets of
claimants to the town councilship, all of them attempting to exercise authority
simultaneously, would not have engendered so much bitterness if there had not
been back of them the factional feeling which divided the City into hostile camps.
In April, 1849, the military still assumed to have charge of civil affairs. Briga-
dier General Bennett Rilev on the ISth of that month announced that in addition
A Political
Battle
Ground
Municipal
GoTernment
Weak
184
SAN FRANCISCO
Election
XJnder
MiUtary
ADspices
to commanding the tenth military department, he would also attend to "the admin-
istration of civil affairs in California." A district legislature had been elected on
the 21st of February, 1849, which ordered the abolition of the office of alcalde and
the substitution of justices of the peace in their stead, but Leavenworth, when or-
dered to deliver the documents in his possession refused to do so, being instigated
to take that stand by General Persifer Smith. The legislative assembly also or-
dered an election for the purpose of choosing a sheriff, who was to take steps to
oust Leavenworth from office, but the latter contrived to resurrect the council of
1 848, which gave its sanction to his proceedings. Riley finally ended the dispute
by declaring the legislative assembly to be an illegal body, and issued the proclama-
tion directing the election of certain specified municipal and district provisional
officers, to which reference has already been made.
The issuance of this proclamation by General Riley was denounced at a large
public meeting as a gross usurpation, and an interference with the right of the
people to organize a government for their own protection, but it ended in accepting
his order for the holding of an election to choose delegates to attend a convention
to be held at Monterey. But the committee chosen by the meeting, while making
this concession, let it be known that they regarded Riley's proclamation as "dis-
courteous and disrespectful," and the legislative assemblymen announced their in-
tention to hold until deprived of their offices by the people who had chosen them.
With the view of securing an expression of opinion on the subject an election was
held on the 9th of July, at which 167 voted for their continuance and only seven
against. The main body of the electorate having declined to take the trouble to
vote, the assembly, regarded the indorsement as unsatisfactory and dissolved it-
self, and Leavenworth was reinstated.
On the 1st of August another election was held under the auspices of the mili-
tary. It succeeded in bringing out a larger number of the electorate, the vote for
the successful candidates ranging from 1,516 for John W. Geary, to 691 for Ga-
briel B. Post. At this election Peter H. Burnett was chosen judge of the supreme
court; Horace Hawes, prefect; John W. Geary, first alcalde; Frank Turk, second
alcalde; Francis Guerrero and James R. Curtiss, sub-prefects. A town council
designated as the ayuntamiento was also chosen. It consisted of Talbot H. Green,
Henry A. Harrison, Alfred J. Ellis, Stephen C. Harris, Theodore B. Winton, John
Townsend, Rodman M. Price, William H. Davis, Bezer Simmons, Samuel Bran-
nan, William M. Stewart, and Gabriel B. Post.
At this election delegates to the convention to be held at Monterey were chosen.
There were several tickets in the field and the vote was much split up. Edward
Gilbert, Myron Norton, William M. Gwin, Joseph Hobson, William M. Stewart,
William D. M. Howard, Francis J. Lippett, Alfred J. Ellis, Francisco Sanchez
and Rodman M. Price were elected. The convention, which met at Monterey on
the first of September, completed its organization on the 4th. Its deliberations
were continued during the month and extended well into October, the constitution
framed by it being finished and signed on the ISth of that month. Its adoption
affected the future growth of San Francisco in many important particulars, but,
as will be seen, as the story unfolds, hardly in the way that the sanguine believer
in the efficacy of forms imagined it would.
The deliberations of the convention clearly indicate that the dominating idea
of the majority of the framers of the constitution was to prevent the introduction
SAN FRANCISCO
185
of slavery into California. San Francisco had been particularly insistent that
every "honorable means" should be used to frustrate the attempt that would be
made to foist the institution upon the people of the territory, and resolutions were
adopted at mass meetings to instruct the delegates elected by the voters of the town
to that effect. Apart from the absorbing interest in the slavery question the gen-
eral public, and for that matter the delegates themselves when assembled in con-
vention, had no such well defined ideas respecting the relations of municipalities
to the state government as those now existing. As a result the instrument con-
tained no innovations of consequence, the delegates being content to accept and
copy the methods of the states of the Union which assumed that the sort of local
autonomy which guarantees to the people the right to conduct their own immediate
affairs was a dangerous privilege to confer.
The experiences through which the City had passed, and the condition in which
it was while the convention was sitting certainly were not of a nature to create
the impression that municipalities do not require guidance and excessive regulation
by an authorty only indirectly affected by the prosperity or adversity of the regu-
lated community. John W. Geary, who had been elected at the same time that the
delegates to the convention were chosen, gave some information on this point. In
his capacity of first alcalde he addressed the ayuntamiento on its assemblage and
told them that affairs were in very bad shape. He dwelt particularly on the neces-
sity of taking precautions to preserve order and insure security, and emphasized
the desirability of economy, giving point to this part of his address by declaring
that there was not a dollar in the treasury and that the City was greatly in debt.
"You are without a single police officer," he said, "and have not the means of
confining a prisoner for an hour. There is no place to shelter sick strangers or
bury them when dead. In short, you are without a single requisite for the promo-
tion of prosperity or for the maintenance of order." Having made perfectly clear
the deficiencies of the City the chief magistrate recommended the addition of a
license tax to supplement that on real estate, which he claimed, should not bear
all the burden of government. He indicated among the classes of business that
should pay a license tax that of auctioning, which was very prevalent at the time,
and urged that drays and lighters should be licensed.
Another part of his address disclosed the fact that the public documents were
in the custody of private individuals, probably because the City had no place to
keep them. The failure to provide a place of detention for criminals was not the
only instance of neglect; it appears that there was no building or office in the
town, which the people could call their own, and that there was no attempt made to
keep the records together. The omission to make provision for the detention of
criminals was promptly repaired, the first money appropriated by the ayuntamiento
being for the purchase of a deserted brig lying in the harbor, which was used as
a jail for some months by the City.
It is worth noting that the system thus temporarily resorted to by the pioneers
was essentially the same as that now extolled as a novelty. When the ayuntamiento
met on the 6th of August, 1849, it organized and immediately proceeded to ap-
point a list of officials now selected by popular vote. The tax collector, city attor-
ney, sheriff and treasurer were all designated by the governing body. The prac-
tical effect of this method was to reduce the number of elective officers to a mini-
mum and to repose all power in the legislative body. It was a nearer approach to
Municipal
Affairs in
Bad Sliape
Deficiencies
Pointed ont
by Geary
No Public
Building or
Ottice
SAN FRANCISCO
Partisan
PoUtics
in 1850
Official
Tnrpitnde
A WeU
nated
Reformer
the short ballot than is likely to be again attained, despite the growing distrust of
the popular judgment, which the advocacy of a limited number of elective officers
implies.
The first state or general election under the constitution was held November
13, 1849. The vote for the instrument was 12,064 and 811 against. In San
Francisco 2,051 votes were cast for adoption and only 5 against. Considering the
eagerness of the demand for an organic law, and the liveliness of the campaign for
the selection of delegates the ballotting was very light. Heavy rains, however,
served to keep people from the polls in the interior, and certain defects in the
tickets caused a large number of ballots to be thrown out, but the small vote was
not wholly due to those causes. The indifference to public affairs, which later
caused so much trouble, was in part responsible, and was the subject of adverse
comment.
On January 8, 1850, there was an election at which John W. Geary was
reelected first alcalde, receiving 3,425 votes. At this same election David C. Brod-
erick, whose name appears so conspicuously in the annals of the City, state and
nation, was elected to the state senate. The annalist of San Francisco teUs us
that in this election partisan politics began to play their part, but this ignores the
fact already noted by him, that the slavery question exercised a great influence
during the preceding year, which manifested itself in many other places than at
the polls. The expression "began" refers more particularly to the disposition
shown to separate on party lines, and also directs attention to the significant signs
that the scandals growing out of the sales of the water front and other lands of the
City were to be participated in by the people of the state and not confined as there-
tofore to San Francisco.
These scandals indicated a degree of official turpitude never exceeded in this or
any other country. The worst feature disclosed by them is the fact that the at-
tempts at reform met with little encouragement and brought the principal advocate
of a searching investigation more kicks than honors. Horace Hawes, who entered
upon the work of cleaning the municipal stables, lacked the quality known as
magnetic, but there is no question regarding his knowledge and ability. His dis-
position was not an engaging one, and he had complicated the situation by putting
those whom he assailed in a position to retort by "calling him another" because
he was the owner of city lands, which had also been acquired, if not irregularly, at
least in such a manner that his purse was not seriously depleted through their
acquisition.
Hawes was what is called a self made man. He was born in New York in
1813 and when he reached a suitable age learned the trade of carpenter, which he
abandoned to try house painting and later cabinet making. He also did some farm-
ing and read law. In 1837 he left New York and adopted the profession of teach-
ing, to which he adhered until he received the appointment of consul to the Society
islands. He came to California from Tahiti in 1848 and, after the discovery of
gold, which resulted in the rapid growth of population and prospective clients,
he resumed the practice of law. In July, 1849, he was selected by the people to
prosecute the "hounds." a band of criminals who were terrorizing San Francisco,
and at the election of August 1st of that year he was elected to fill the office of
prefect, whose importance he never lost sight of, nor did he permit the community
to do so, as he insisted on exercising its powers to the fullest extent.
SAN FRANCISCO
187
On the 10th of September he vetoed an appropriation of the ayuntamiento on
the ground that it would raise more revenue than would be required, but Henry W.
Halleck, as secretary of state, representing General Riley, denied his authority to
interfere, and the council thus supported refused to pay any attention to Hawes
and after holding a large sale of the city lands on January 3, 1850, they refused
to make an accounting. Hawes laid the matter before Governor Burnett, and on
February 15 that official issued a proclamation suspending all further sales until
the legislature should act in the premises. The order of the governor was brought
to the attention of the ayuntamiento several times, but no account was forthcoming
from them.
Hawes again appealed to the governor and in a letter addressed to him on the
27th of February, 1850, he declared that it evidently was the determination of the
ayuntamiento to proceed with the sale of municipal lands until all the property
of the City was disposed of, and that its members were not going to render an
accounting, plainly intimating that their reason for acting in this fashion was dis-
inclination to expose that they had criminally taken advantage of their official
positions. The ayuntamiento by formal resolution declared that the governor had
no right to interfere with the sale of town lands, and another sale was announced
for March 15, 1850.
Before this sale took place, the attorney general, E. J. C. Kewen, advised the
governor that the transfer of sovereignty over California to the United States
divested Mexican law of all power to alienate American soil, and that his proper
course was to issue a quo warranto, requiring the ayuntamiento to show by what
authority it presumed to act. On the day fixed for the sale the ayuntamiento re-
ceived a letter from Kewen, advising them of his intention to resort to quo war-
ranto proceedings. It is doubtful, however, whether Kewen's intimation had as
much to do with the abandonment of the sale as Hawes' threats of exposure. He
had transmitted to the ayuntamiento on March 13th, and caused to be recorded in
the archives, a long list of sales made in November and December of 18-19, and on
January 3, 1850, in which members of the ayuntamiento figured as purchasers.
The names of some of this delectable lot are still perpetuated and honored by the
people of San Francisco. Among the councilors who figured in the role of grab-
bers were Samuel Brannan, J. W. Osborn, his business partner, Osborn and Bran-
nan as a firm, Wm. H. Davis, Gabriel B. Post, Talbot H. Green and Rodman Price.
The grabbers, enraged at their exposure, or rather because Hawes attempted
to make their actions appear odious, turned upon him, and charged him with hav-
ing advised the Colton grants, with having corruptly granted lands and with the
acceptance of illegal fees. All of these accusations were specifically denied by
Hawes. His most malignant accusers were Brannan and Green, alias Geddes,
who, like many others of the period, had a past which he sought to obliterate by
the simple process of changing his name. These charges were taken up by the
governor, and without investigation, or giving the accused man a chance to present
his evidence he suspended Hawes, alleging as a reason for so doing that he had
received a report of the finances from the ayuntamiento, covering the period from
December 6, 1849, to ;March 1, 1850, and that it showed that additional revenues
would be required to carry out certain projected improvements, for which funds
could not be raised through the ordinary channels of taxation and that further sales
of town lots would therefore be necessary.
Getting Rid of
all the PabUc
A Respectable
Lot of
Grabbers
188
SAN FRANCISCO
Demands
Impeach-
This action of the executive greatly exasperated Hawes and he demanded the
impeachment of the governor for suspending him without cause. In his demand
Hawes repeated his charges of improper purchases of town lots by members of
the ayuntamiento, and added that an appropriation of $150,000, for the purpose
of purchasing the Graham house, had been corruptly made, and that in receiv-
ing a report of the council, which had not passed through the regular channels, the
governor was guilty of malfeasance. The attempt of Hawes to defend himself by
this method was treated with scant courtesy by the legislature. On the 4th of
April Speaker John Bigler, in presenting the charges to the assembly, moved that
they be laid on the table. The motion prevailed and that was the last ever heard
of them.
CHAPTER XXIV
MANY EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
CHARTER OF 1850 INSPIRES HOPES OF BETTER GOVERNMENT SMALL REVENUES AND
HIGH SALARIES EARLY SALARY GRABBERS CONDONATION OF OFFICIAL TURPITUDE
- — A SECOND CHARTER GRANTED IN 1851 DEBT CREATED AND CREDIT IMPAIRED
THE PETER SMITH JUDGMENTS UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO REFUND TAXATION
BURDEN IN 1852 A CITY HALL SCANDAL NEGLECT OF SANITARY PRECAUTIONS
ANOTHER NEW CHARTER IN 1853 THE CITY SUFFERS FROM SPECIAL LEGISLA-
TION A TAX ON GOODS CONSIGNED TO SAN FRANCISCO MERCHANTS UNEQUAL
TAXATION WATER FRONT LINE SCANDAL AN ABANDONED FREE PUBLIC DOCK
SCHEME HARRY MEIGg's SPECTACULAR CAREER HE FLIES THE COUNTRY, MAKES
A BIG FORTUNE IN PERU AND WISHES TO RETURN TO CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE
CONDONES HIS OFFENSES— DEATH OF MEIGGS.
F THE people hoped that a change for the better would be
effected by depriving their municipal government of one
or two of the features inherited from the Mexicans, they
were doomed to disappointment. Unless they imagined
that the names of political or governmental bodies exercised
some mysterious and potent influence it is impossible to
divine, why they should have thought that the new charter
given them on the 15th of April, 1850, would work a revolution in conditions. This
new measure of government provided for the division of the City into eight wards
and prescribed that there should be a mayor and recorder and a board of alder-
men and a board of assistant aldermen, which were to be styled the common coun-
cil, the two bodies consisting of a member from each ward. A city treasurer, a
comptroller, street commissioner, tax collector, city marshal, city attorney and two
assessors for each ward were also prescribed.
Any illusions that may have existed concerning the efficiency of the new system
to effect reforms were speedily dissipated. The financial condition was not of the
brightest when the officials under the charter entered on their duties. When they
took stock they found that the receipts from the three installments of the payment
for the water front lots sold would aggregate $238,253, and that the liabilities,
including the purchase of a city hall were $199,174.19, a surplus of $39,078.81
over immediate demands. But as the source of revenue furnished by the sale of
town lots was practically dried up for the time being by the disposal of all the
Immediately marketable property of the City, by their predecessors of the ayunta-
miento, the new council had to study up other methods of procuring funds for
running the town government, which appeared to require considerable expenditures
189
Illnslons Soon
Dissipated
190
SAN FRANCISCO
SmaU
Revenues
and High
Salaries
for its maintenance, despite the fact that it was unable to make any showing in the
way of public improvements.
Although the outlook was not encouraging the officials elected acted as if they
were convinced that an Occidental pactolus was to discharge itself into their treas-
ury. The excitement over the gold discoveries still ran high, and the almost fabu-
lous quantities of the metal taken from the placers may have justified optimism
of an exaggerated kind, but the community was too much infected with the demo-
cratic idea that official life should be simple, and the rewards of the servants of
the people moderate to patiently endure the attempt made by the aldermen within
a couple of months of their installation, to raise salaries to an extravagant height.
By resolution the council voted that its members should receive $6,000 per
annum, and that the mayor, recorder and some of the other officials, should be
paid $10,000 a year. Public indignation flamed high and an immense mass meet-
ing was held, at which resolutions were adopted denouncing in scathing terms
the greed of the salary grabbers. A committee was appointed to wait on the ex-
travagant officials, but the resolutions presented by the representative of the meet-
ing were promptly laid upon the table with such a show of insolence that the pro-
testant, Captain J. L. Folsom, was obliged to report to his fellow citizens that
something stronger than mere expressions of disapprobation would be required to
dislodge them from their position. A second meeting was held, which dealt with
the matter even more vigorously than the first, and created a committee of 500,
which was to have waited on the council on the 1-ith of June. This plan, which
had something of a menace in it, was interrupted by one of the big fires, which at
recurring intervals afflicted the town, but the council took the hint and subsequently
made a big reduction in stipends, which touched the entire city government.
Salary grabs have occurred in so many other parts of the United States since
1850, even congress succumbing to the changed ideas respecting the simple life,
it would hardly be fair to charge the first city council of San Francisco with venal-
ity on that account. Perhaps if the grabbers had subsequently demonstrated by
their devotion to duty that the laborer is worthy his hire, the community in reach-
ing a verdict might have even gone the length of agreeing that an alderman, or
a mayor, performs services as important as those rendered by carpenters, black-
smiths and plasterers who, only a few months previously, had been earning as
much as the councilors proposed to pay themselves.
But these councilors did not stop at appraising their services at a high figure;
they went a great deal further and singled themselves out for special honors, which
their fellow citizens, who had given them a vote of confidence only a few months
earlier, were unwilling to bestow upon them or permit them to appropriate to
themselves. The great event of the year 1850 was the admission of California into
the Union and its celebration was on a scale adequate to its importance. San Fran-
cisco made extraordinary preparations to render it memorable. The councilors
appear to have been duly impressed with the importance of the occasion and their
own importance, and to contribute to the latter they voted that gold medals, to cost
$150 a piece, should be prepared for their use, to be worn by them in the parade,
and to be retained by them as souvenirs. The medals were to be decorated with a
star on one side, surrounded by the letters EUREKA, and on the other witb the
date of admission, September 9, 1850, and were to be inscribed "Presented to ....
, Member of Board of Aldermen, by the City of San Francisco, October
SAN FRANCISCO
191
19, 1850." The affair raised such a hubbub that the originators of the scheme
of self laudation relinquished it, and the matter was turned into a joke. Some of
the members, however, secured the coveted honor by paying for the medals out of
their own pockets, and one so obtained is now available for the inspection of the
curious in the Midwinter Memorial museum in Golden Gate Park. The others,
presumabl}', went into the metal pot.
It would be a serious mistake to assume that this council and the other members
of the city government in 1850 were hopelessly corrupt, or that their actions caused
them to lose the confidence of the community. It wiU be seen as the narrative
progresses, that when the day of purification came, men who were conspicuous as
members of the ayuntamiento in 1849, which displayed extraordinary eagerness to
save the City the trouble of taking care of a lot of property, were foremost in de-
manding that the ordinary forms of law should be dispensed with in dealing with
criminals, and that summary punishment should be inflicted on all accused persons
believed to be guilty of crime, even if the evidence necessary to convict them was
not always attainable.
The names of the ayuntamiento of 1849 have been given, and to complete the
record those of the members of the first city government under American methods
are here presented: Mayor, John W. Geary; recorder, Frank Tilford; marshal,
Malachai Fallon; city attorney, Thomas H. Holt; treasurer, Charles G. Scott;
comptroller, Benjamin L. Berry; tax collector, Wm. M. Irwin, and street commis-
sioner, Dennis McCarthy. The aldermen were Charles Minturn, A. A. Selover,
Wm. M. Burgoyne, F. W. Macondray, William Green, M. L. Mott, D. Gillespie
and C. W. Stuart. The assistant aldermen were A. Bartol, John Maynard, L. T.
M^ilson, C. T. Botts, John P. Van Ness, A. Morris, William Corbett and William
Sharon. The list of assessors embraced Robert B. Hampton, John H. Gibon, John
P. Hoff, Halsey Brown, Francis C. Bennett, Beverly Miller, Lewis B. Coffin and
John Garvey.
It is difficult to reconcile the sweeping verdict of the annalist and other his-
torians of this period that these two administrations were hopelessly inefficient with
the subsequent tributes paid to some of the members composing them. The asser-
tion has been made that, while they were in control "the City was fleeced and
preyed upon in every quarter," and that it had to pay "for nearly everything it
purchased two or three times more than ordinary prices." We can only assume that
in pioneer days, as at a later period, the opinion was prevalent that in dealing with
the community it was not necessary to apply the rigid rules governing personal
relations, and that the people in their collective capacity are incapable of being
robbed. In no other way can the tolerance accorded public men, who abused their
trust, be accounted for by the historian, who would hesitate to accept the explana-
tion if the practices of his own time did not afford abundant evidence of the exist-
ence of this vicious opinion.
The unsatisfactory working of the first scheme of municipal government under
American auspices pure and simple suggested another experiment and the legis-
lature was appealed to, with the result that the first charter was repealed and a
new one granted April 15, 1851. In the act of reincorporation the limits of the
City were considerably extended, but no changes in the direction of amplification
or restriction of the powers or duties of the governing body were made. Perhaps
the result would not have been different if some of the modern reformatory meth-
A Second
Charter
Secured It
1851
192
SAN FRANCISCO
The Peter
Smith
Judgments
ods had been applied, but they were not and the City went on in the same old way,
expending the money of the taxpayer without getting proper returns, and piling
up debt without making provision for its payment.
On May 1, 1851, the indebtedness of the City was over a million and a half,
and there does not appear to have been much to show for the expenditure implied.
Some of these obligations may have been incurred properly, but the most of the
debt represented mismanagement and extravagance. Between August 1, 1849, and
November 30, 1850, the amount disbursed was $1,450,122.57, and in the three
months following $562,617.53, making a total expenditure in nineteen months of
over $2,000,000, an enormous sum, considering the size of the City and the un-
doubted fact that scarcely any improvements of a permanent character for the
public good were made during the period.
The failure to make adequate provision for the payment of the city debt nec-
essarily greatly impaired its credit and called into existence a group of speculators,
who bought up the scrip of the municipality, which bore the enormous interest
rate of 3% a month. A great deal of this paper fell into the hands of an unscrupu-
lous manipulator, who subsequently used it to consummate a scheme to get pos-
session of a large part of the land still in the ownership of the City. The pro-
jector of this daring job was one Peter Smith. His method was to buy the City's
paper, which had greatly depreciated, and to obtain judgments. There is reason
to suspect that a ring existed, formed in part of municipal officials, which helped
Smith to carry out his operations. Their actions certainly facilitated them, the
tax collector refusing to receive the scrip in payment of taxes, and the comp-
troller upholding him in his refusal.
The judgments obtained by Smith and those who profited by the nefarious
transaction were usually for small amounts and bore interest at the rate of ten per
cent per annum. They were not secured for the purpose of recovering the amounts
represented by the scrip, but to afford the requisite excuse for obtaining possession
of the remaining city lands, sales of which were ordered to satisfy the judgments.
At the sales under these executions the lots were sold for a trifle. Perhaps all who
bought were not in the conspiracy to rob the City, but they were under grave sus-
picion. The wretched transaction caused a great scandal, which involved numerous
citizens of repute, among them David C. Broderick, afterward United States sen-
ator. He was the purchaser of sixteen beach and water lots, two south beach
blocks and a hundred vara lot. The fact that he did so must not be counted too
strongly against him, as the iniquity of the transaction, if it was iniquitous to do
what every one sought to do, was shared by others, against whose names no word
of criticism has been directed, and was practically condoned by the community.
It is true that the transaction created a great scandal and that an attempt was
made to defeat the purposes of the jobbers, but the fact remains that after several
years of litigation it was decided that the Peter Smith sales carried the title to all
the beach and water lots, wharves and city property below high water mark that
had been sold and not otherwise previously disposed of by the City; and that an
attempted redemption which followed the protests against the job was invalid for
the reason that the commissioners of the funded debt were not authorized to re-
deem. Thus in the case of the property indicated it was in effect held that the
people, when acting in their collective capacity, may not recover stolen goods, pro-
SAN FRANCISCO
vided the robbery was accomplished with some semblance of adherence to the
forms of law.
The funding commission appointed after the Peter Smith grab sold most of
what was left of the city property conveyed to them for the purposes of extin-
guishing the debt, but the proceeds did not go far towards the accomplishment of
that object. The operations of the commission continued through a long period,
but at the expiration of ten years only one-sixth of the bonds issued were redeemed.
It was not until 1871, when the bonds matured that these old bonds were paid in
full. They originally bore ten per cent interest, and were given in exchange for
the scrip obtained by the speculators for absurdly small considerations.
In 1852 the people of San Francisco were called upon for $769,887.22 to sup-
port the government. Of this amount $275,873.14 was derived from licenses and
$262,665.23 from taxation of real and personal property. In addition they con-
tributed $231,348.85 in the shape of state and county taxes. The burden, accord-
ing to an estimate made by a statistician of the period, amounted to $35 per capita
for the support of the City, and $10 for the state. The demands made on the tax-
payer, according to this showing, were nearly double those which he was called
upon to meet during many years in which public improvements of some importance
were made, but the administrators of 1852 did not accomplish much with the sum
placed at their disposal.
Out of this amount they expended little or nothing for the improvement of
streets. That work was a direct charge upon the property owner, who had to pay
for grading and planking the street or roadway on which his holdings were sit-
uated. He was also called upon to make large payments for a special police serv-
ice, that furnished by the municipality being ridiculously inadequate and inefficient.
There were plenty of means, however, for getting rid of the money of the tax-
payer and the latter had no doubt in his mind that they were largely corrupt and
did not hesitate to charge that they were by resolutions passed in mass meetings
and through the medium of the press, which was becoming aggressive in its criti-
cisms.
One of the scandals of the year 1852 was caused by the purchase of a theater
for the use of the municipality. The city hall had been destroyed in the fire of
June 22, 1851, and a place had to be provided for housing the municipal govern-
ment. Although there were contractors who stood ready to erect a suitable build-
ing for the sum paid for the Jenny Lind theater the council disregarded their
offers and purchased that structure. It had to be entirely remodeled to adapt it
to the needs of the city officials, and a considerable sum for that purpose had to
be added to the purchase price of $200,000. The transaction excited great indig-
nation. Mass meetings were called and the councilmen were accused of jobbery,
but they were undeterred by the clamor directed against them. Legal steps were
taken to prevent the consummation of the bargain, but the supreme court finally
decided that the council had the right to make the purchase. Less than two years
after its purchase, despite the expensive change made in order to make it at all
useful, the building had become too small for the accommodation of the city officials.
If the records are at all dependable the authorities gave the people absolutely
nothing in return for their money. The writer of the "Annals of San Francisco,"
speaking of the causes responsible for the cholera visitation in 1852, said the con-
dition of the streets was bad. They were covered with black, rotten mud, and were
Unsatisfactory
Funding:
Experiment
Municipal
Expenditui
in 1S52
Xo Retorns
for Money
Expended
The Jenny
Lind Theater
No Concern
for Public
Health
194
SAN FRANCISCO
A Third
Attempt at
Charter
Making
Legislature
Interference
with City
the receptacles for rubbish and sweepings of all kinds. Rats, huge, lazy, fat
things, infested them and pedestrians abroad at night would tread on them. They
were of all varieties, black, grey and white. A sickening stench pervaded every
quarter. Hollows made by raising grades were filled with anything that came to
hand.
Some of these evils appear to have been the direct result of the feverish haste
which marked the effort to convert the waters of Yerba Buena cove into land avail-
able for business structures. Often beneath the houses there remained pools of
stagnating water, into which putrid substances were thrown in order to save the
trouble and the expense of removing them. This practice was not interfered with,
and imless the chronicles are wholly unveracious there was no attention whatever
given to sanitation. Altogether it was a wretched state of affairs and it is not
surprising that good men should have despaired of the future of the City. One
such tells us that: "It was confessed on all sides that almost everyone who had a
chance of preying upon the corporation means unhesitatingly and shamelessly took
advantage of his position. His brother harpies kept him in countenance. This
gave rise to a general opinion that the City never could possibly obtain a pure
government until the bone of contention among rivals for office — its property, to wit
— was all exhausted. Had the affairs of San Francisco been prudently managed,"
he added, "the City might have been the richest of its size in the world."
The people were by no means patient under their afflictions. They sought a
remedj', and as before they turned to law making to correct the evils of bad gov-
ernment. On February 16, 1853, delegates to frame a new charter were elected.
They were chosen from the various wards of the City and the list embraces the
names of one or two who afterward achieved an unenviable notoriety, but on the
whole the body was an eminently respectable one. Despite the fact that so much
was expected of the new instrument very little interest was displayed by the citi-
zens generally. Its provisions relating to the establishment of titles excited the
antagonism of the squatters, but the discussion of the instrument by no means indi-
cated a hearty desire for reform. In six of the eight wards of the City, when sub-
mitted for adoption, it met with an adverse vote, but a majority of the voters of
the City cast their ballots in favor of its adoption.
It is not improper to suggest that the fact that only 1,367 persons voted at the
election of September 7, 1853, although the population of the City at the time was
not less than 50,000, and the City's misgovernment were closely connected. It was
not, however, because lack of interest was shown that the legislature rejected the
instrument. Its rejection was due chiefly to the energetic action of some of its
adversaries, whose influence at the capital was greater than that of the people of
San Francisco. There may have been no real ground for the belief prevalent at
the time, that anything desired by the City was certain to be antagonized by the
representatives of the people, but many years had to pass away before the prin-
ciple of local self government was well enough established in California to induce
the legislature to abandon its propensity to engage in special legislation.
San Francisco suffered greatly from this cause in the early Fifties, and it was
not always the malevolence of the outsider that induced interference with the
management of the City's purely municipal affairs by the members from interior
counties. More frequently the troubles growing out of the system arose from the
machinations of interested San Franciscans, who could depend upon the active
SAN FRANCISCO
195
assistance of a part of the legislature, and the indifference of the remainder to
carry out their schemes. It is true, however, that from a very early date there
was a disposition to regard San Francisco as a toll gatherer by the sea and to
utterly ignore the services it rendered the interior.
The prevalence of this feeling led to numerous experiments in taxation, which
seemed to have for their object the extraction of a relatively larger proportion of
the sum required by the state for carrying on the government from San Francisco
than from other parts of California. An instance of this sort was the revenue act
of 1853 imposing a license of $1,000 on auctioneers, a license tax of 10 cents on
every $100 of business done by bankers or dealers in exchange, stocks or gold dust
or bullion, and an imposition of 60 cents on every one hundred dollars of consigned
goods sold, not the property of persons domiciled in the state. San Francisco re-
fused to submit to these extortions even after the supreme court had decided that
they were not unconstitutional. Numerous meetings were held denouncing the act,
which fell into desuetude, not because of its manifestly one-sided character, but
because it was systematically and successfully evaded, the state having no machin-
ery to enforce the law.
The inspiration of this legislation came from San Francisco. It was plainly
instigated by merchants, who were importing on their own accoxmt, and who objected
to the rivalry created by large consignments sold for the benefit of eastern and
foreign exporters. This practice had attained large proportions and later precipi-
tated disaster by glutting the market. It was an undoubted evil, but one which
could not be properly corrected by the state converting the practice into a source
of revenue. Had the measure been completely dissociated from those provisions
of the act which were added for no other purpose than to increase the state's
sources of revenue by singling out the City as the object of a method of taxation,
which would not directly touch any other part of the state, San Francisco would
have submitted to the unjust exaction as cheerfully as it did in subsequent years,
during which it bore, because it could afford to do so, more than its proportion of
the public school tax.
The inequality of the early taxation methods were a frequent cause of disagree-
ment between City and country, and between the sections devoted to mining and
those in which grazing was still the leading pursuit. In a message of Governor
McDougal the fact was dwelt upon that the southern grazing counties, with a pop-
ulation of 6,367, had been called upon to pay taxes on real and personal property
to the amount of nearly $42,000, while the twelve mining counties, with 119,000
inhabitants, paid only about $21,000. The latter, he pointed out, had a represen-
tation in the legislature of forty-four, while the counties in the southern part of
the state had only twelve members. Taking all the agricultural counties together
their population aggregated only 79,778, and they were called upon to pay taxes
to the amount of $246,000, while 119,000 living in the mining counties only con-
tributed $21,000 to the support of the state.
The poll tax was also a source of vexation. A few years later it was charged
in the legislature that Butte, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Siskiyou
and Tuolomne paid more than half of all the pool taxes received by the state, and
that San Francisco, with 6,000 more voters than Siskiyou, contributed $3,000 less
to the amount derived from poll taxes than the mining county. A similar inequality
of distribution was noted by McDougal, who asserted that there was a per capita
Taxation of
Consigned
Goods
196
SAN FRANCISCO
Making the
City Pay
Dearly
er Front
Scandal
The State and
Pessimistic
ews of an
Annalist
tax of $51,495 levied in the mining counties as against $7,205 in the grazing coun-
ties, but that the amount actually collected in the mining region was only $3,580,
while $3,918 was contributed by sections devoted to grazing.
Perhaps these inequalities maj' be set down as being due to inexpertness and
inefficient machinery for the proper collection of the taxes levied rather than to de-
liberate purpose to impose a greater burden upon one section of the state than on
another, but the debt-making proclivities of the early administrators of the state
created a pressing demand for funds, which had to be met in some way, and the
idea that the City could more easily respond to the tax collector than the country
undoubtedly influenced the legislature in 1853 to take a course which seriously
affected San Francisco. Here again, however, the manipulations of a San Francisco
contingent played as important a part as the alleged "cinching" disposition of the
interior.
The attempt of the legislature to extend the water front line of San Francisco
harbor 600 feet further in to the bay than the red line, and to dispose of the prop-
erty thus gained, was inspired by unscrupulous grabbers, who had bought lots at
the Peter Smith swindling scrip sales, to which the City could give no title, because
it had no proprietary interest beyond the red line. These purchasers, if they did
not instigate, easily entered into the scheme which, had it been successfully con-
summated, would have shut in all the owners who had bought at other than the
Peter Smith scrip sales, while at the same time adding something to the revenues
of the state, which claimed the land outside of the red line.
On the 17th of March, 1853, an assemblyman from Tuolomne county intro-
duced a bill to carry out the proposed extension, and to dispose of the property
that would be gained thereby, the proceeds of which were to be divided, one third
to go to the state and the remainder to the purchasers at the Peter Smith sales and
their grantees. It was expected that the sale would realize a couple of millions
for the state, as the property embraced in the extension was valued at six million
dollars. The flagrant iniquity of the transaction, which proposed to violate the
terms of the act of March 26, 1851, which fixed the water front of the City per-
manently, did not deter the assembly from voting for the bill and passing it in that
body by 31 to 27. The action of the San Franciscans in the lower house caused
so much resentment, and the protests were so vigorous, that the members who had
abused the confidence of their constituents resigned. The project, however, was
persevered in by Governor Bigler, and his attorney general attempted to allay ap-
prehension and divert attention from its real purpose by stating that its object was
to save the Citj' from itself by preventing it from thereafter extending its water
front. The measure, however, received its quietus in the Senate where on the
26th of April, Samuel Purdy, lieutenant governor and presiding officer, by his cast-
ing vote against it, earned the approbation of the City, which was nearly a unit
against the proposed change.
The legislature was not alone in its assaults upon the integrity of the water
front. The city council of 1853 exhibited equal disregard of the public interest
and helped to give point to the declaration of the writer of the "Annals" that there
would be no more pure government in San Francisco while anvthing remained to be
stolen. By the act of March 26, 1851, four blocks lying along Commercial street
wharf, and extending from Sacramento on one side to Clay on the other, between
Davis and East streets, were given to the City and by an ordinance of the council
SAN FRANCISCO
197
of November 4, 1852, they were reserved as a free public dock for shipping.
Originally these blocks had been covered with deep water, but the nearby wharves
in the course of their extension eastward had rendered them useless for the purpose
designed by the ordinance. The council of 1853 decided that the free public dock
scheme would be impracticable and by ordinance of December 5th ordered the lots
to be sold. The sale was made but was afterward declared void, but not until the
City had lost considerable money through the transaction. An idea of the rapidly
increasing estimation in which water front property was held may be gained from
the fact that purchasers were willing to pay ten thousand dollars a piece for lots
not equal in value to those formerly sold for a few dollars.
But the experiences already described were eclipsed in 185-1, when an event
occurred which disclosed a degree of municipal rottenness compared with which
the worst exhibitions of recent misgovernment will seem venial. In 1850 there
arrived in San Francisco from New York a man named Henry Meiggs. He had
an engaging personality and was a typical boomer. He early conceived the idea
that the North Beach section of the City had a great future because it was nearer
to the Golden Gate than the region about the cove and must, therefore, he argued, be
superior for business purposes. He was a man of action and backed up his belief
by causing a level road to be built above high water mark, around the base of
Telegraph hill to Clarke's Point from the beach, where he had invested consid-
erable money, together with friends he had persuaded of the soundness of his views.
The construction of the road was followed by that of a long wharf which, be-
ginning at a point near the foot of Powell street, extended 2,000 feet into the Bay
in the direction of Alcatraz island. Meiggs' personality and his enterprise caused
him to become extremely popular. He was "Harry" to everybody and no man in
the community was better liked or more highly esteemed. In 1853 he was elected
a delegate to the convention which framed the charter rejected by the legislature
after its adoption by the people; and later in the same year he became a member
of the board of aldermen. He made the best possible use of his connection with
the council to push along his North Beach projects. Through his efforts the bury-
ing grounds of the North Beach section were closed and the bodies they contained
were removed to Yerba Buena cemetery, which later became the site of the city
hall destroyed in the fire of 1906.
Meiggs' principal energies were directed to overcoming the natural obstacles
interposed by the hills, which were numerous in the section he was booming.
Through his efforts many streets, among them portions of Stockton, Powell street
from Clay to North Beach, and Francisco through to the northern end of Tele-
graph hill, were graded, but his activities were not convincing enough to induce
outsiders to invest in North Beach property. Having loaded himself with obliga-
tions his financial condition became precarious, and when the commercial and
general depression of 185-i set in he tried to save himself by resorting to a daringly
criminal expedient.
At that time street work was paid for by warrants drawn on the city treasury.
These warrants required the signature of the mayor and the comptroller to render
them valid. It was also required that they should have the name of the creditor.
In order to save trouble the comptroller was in the habit of signing a number of
blanks, which were bound in books, and he appears to have had no difficulty in
inducing the mayor to also attach his signature. These were left in the care of the
Harry MeiEKs
Meiggs
Energj- in
Opening
Making
Rascality
Easy
198
SAN FRANCISCO
Lesislatnre
Condones
Melggs'
clerk of the comptroller^ a particular friend of Aleiggs, who, when occasion arose,
filled in the blanks intrusted to his care. In some way Meiggs became possessed
of one of these books of blanks, which he applied to his own use. He had no diffi-
culty in doing so, as there was no money in the street fund at the time, a fact
which made the offer of the scrip as collateral seem perfectly natural. The extent
of his borrowings upon this fraudulent security is not known, but it is said that he
was caUed upon to meet interest payments aggregating $30,000 a month.
The singular feature of the transaction is the failure of his borrowings, which
were sometimes effected at the rate of ten per cent per month, to excite suspicion.
Perhaps the appellation which he had in some manner earned of "Honest Harry"
helped to blindfold his victims, who were numerous. In addition to using the scrip
as collateral Meiggs, driven by his necessities, entered on a career of forgery, the
indorsement of promissory notes being his specialty. He continued his practices
for some time, being fertile in expedients, but in the autumn of 1851 he was called
upon to make payment to the banking house of Lucas, Turner & Co., of which W.
T. Sherman was then manager, and who insisted upon the reduction of his obli-
gation to $25,000. He managed to procure an indorsement or acceptance from a
house, whose headquarters were in Hamburg, which was duly accepted by the bank
which held a mortgage on Meiggs' home on the northeast corner of Montgomery
and Broadway streets and some $10,000 of the fraudulent warrants to secure the
$25,000 balance. The securities given to the Hamburg concern were soon discov-
ered to be worthless and the firm failed.
It was impossible to conceal the facts any longer, and on October 6, 1854, with
the assistance of his brother, John G. Meiggs, who only a month earlier had been
elected comptroller, he escaped on a vessel ostensibly engaged for a cruise about
the bay and made his way to Chile. His liabilities were about $800,000, and for
a long time it was generally supposed that he had carried away with him about a
quarter of a million dollars, but he subsequently asserted that when he arrived in
Valparaiso he had only $8,000 and that before he got a fresh start in life he was
reduced to the extremity of pawning his watch.
Meiggs was a versatile man, and demonstrated his ability by engaging in rail-
road building in Peru. He obtained contracts for the construction of some 800
miles of road in that country, from which he netted an enormous sum, his wealth
being estimated at fully a hundred million. With the return of prosperity a great
yearning to revisit California took possession of him, and he induced his friends to
put through the legislature a bill ordering that all indictments against him should
be dismissed, and that future grand juries should refrain from reopening the cases
against him. This extraordinary proceeding, which took place in 1873-74, called
forth very little protest from the people, but the scandalous attempt was frustrated
by the interposition of the veto of Governor Booth, and the state was saved the
disgrace of openly condoning crime out of deference to wealth.
CHAPTER XXV
THE PIONEERS AND THE CRIMINAL CLASS IN THE FIFTIES
CAUSE OF THE VIGILANTE UPRISING THE HOUNDS KNOW NOTHING TROUBLES
ATTACKS ON FOREIGNERS A TOWN WITHOUT POLICE POLITICAL FRIENDS OF THE
"hounds" THE VIGILANTE EPISODE OF 1851 COMPOSITION OF THE VIGILANCE
COMMITTEE HIGH HANDED METHODS HANGING FOR STEALING THE COURTS AND
THE LAWS THE READY REVOLVER CIVIC DUTY DISREGARDED INDIFFERENCE OF
THE RESPECTABLE CITIZEN CONDITIONS IN 1855-56 SHOOTING OF RICHARDSON
BY CORA THE BULLETIN'S ATTACK ON CASEY INTEMPERATE JOURNALISM EDITOR
OF THE BULLETIN MURDERED CORA AND CASEY HANGED BY THE VIGILANTES
LAW AND ORDER PARTY CONSTITUTED ANTHORITIES DEFIED CORRUPTION AT THE
POLLS NUMERICAL SUPERIORITY OF THE BETTER ELEMENT DAVID S. TERRY
POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE VIGILANTE UPRISING.
HE intimate connection between the municipal mismanage-
ment of San Francisco during the six or seven years fol-
lowing the discovery of gold, and certain events which
stand out prominently in the early history of the City, has
been obscured by the assumption that those drawn to Cali-
fornia by the hope of mending their fortunes were largely
composed of the criminal classes. There were undoubt-
edly many with shady records, and more whose adventuresome disposition tended
to recklessness and crime, but it does not appear that at any time this element was
too large to have been easily kept under control by the decent and orderly portion
of the community, had not the latter been completely absorbed in the effort to get
rich quick.
It was for the purpose of bringing out this fact clearly that the sequence of the
narrative was interrupted and the recital of the doings of the so-called Vigilance
Committees was reserved for this chapter. It will be seen as the narrative proceeds
that crime and disorder were rampant between 1849 and 1856 because the "good"
citizens utterly neglected their civic duties, and that they would not have been
forced to resort to extra legal methods had they not permitted themselves to become
engrossed in the struggle for wealth. That the well disposed always had the
power to preserve order by the exercise of ordinary methods is proved by the celer-
ity with which it was restored when a serious effort was made to do so, and the
ease with which it was maintained when the citizens had their eyes opened to the
fact that their practical acquiescence in a policy of indifference to official turpitude
was responsible for the mischiefs inflicted upon the community.
A historian who has devoted many words to describing the performances of the
199
200
SAN FRANCISCO
Hounds
Became
•Regulators"
Vigilance Committees tells us that the creation of what was known as the People's
Party after the affair of 1856 resulted in making San Francisco the best governed
city in America for several years, and that this change for the better was due "to
carrying into the legitimate administration of municipal affairs the same pure and
well intentioned spirit which had characterized the proceedings of the Vigilance
Committee." He apparently was unable to perceive that the same degree of inter-
est in civic affairs exhibited during several years after 1856 must have produced a
like result had it been shown between 1849 and 1856.
The earliest trouble recorded was that growing out of the formation of a band
of bad characters said to have been made up largely of ex-Australian convicts and
disreputable members of the regiment of New York Volunteers, who came to Cali-
fornia to assist the regulars in the work of conquest. By others we have been told
that this regiment was composed of picked men, selected with especial reference to
the settlement of the new territory by a class, whose help in the upbuilding of the
new commonwealth would prove of the greatest value; but unless the "Annals"
are misleading, they contributed a large quota to the organization known as "The
Hounds," which was formed in 1848 and which, in its inception at least, seemed to
have for its object the persecution of foreigners.
In considering the depredations of this bodj^ it must not be forgotten that the
gold discovery in California, synchronized with what was known as the "Know
Nothing" movement in the East, and which during a considerable period took on
large political proportions, and exhibited itself in a particularly aggressive form
in California, where a governor and supreme court judges were elected by the native
Americans. The bad feeling engendered by this anti foreign movement manifested
itself in various ways. In the early rush of adventurers to California efforts were
made to prevent others than Americans securing passage on vessels sailing from
the isthmus for San Francisco, and at least one prominent army officer, General
Persifer Smith, openly advocated the exclusion of all but Americans from the gold
fields.
The Hounds in the beginning devoted themselves to assailing the people of
Latin American origin in the City. There was at the time a considerable number
of Chileans, Mexicans and Peruvians, many of whom were fresh arrivals. It was
charged by the Hounds that the women of these people were grossly immoral, and
that the colony lived in a disorderly and riotous fashion, but the methods of purifi-
cation adopted by the reformers were not calculated to produce any desirable re-
sult. The Hounds were accustomed to parading the streets with banners flying
and drums beating, and the annalist tells us that these parades, which often ended
with attacks on foreigners, were not discountenanced, "but were openly approved
by good citizens."
Had the Hounds confined their outrages to foreigners they might probably
have gone on unchecked for a longer period, but they broadened their operations
and began to enter taverns, whose proprietors they robbed on occasion, but oftener
made them become involuntary hosts of the gang. This met with disapprobation,
but did not sufficiently arouse the people to the gravity of the situation, nor did
they realize it until, as the result of an assault on the Latin American settlement
a bystander, who it is said was not "properly" one of their number was shot and
fatally wounded by one of the "greasers," the name applied to the Spanish speak-
ing people by the ruffians, and for that matter by the community generally. The
SAN FRANCISCO
201
Hounds took summary vengeance on this occasion, and followed up their riotous
proceedings by changing their name to that of the "Regulators" and on the fol-
lowing Sunday, July 15, 1849, they made a daylight attack on the Chileans in
their tents, seriously maltreating many of them.
At last the town was aroused. Demands were made upon Alcalde Leavenworth
for the suppression of disorder, but the fact that he had no police at his service
rendered him impotent. A mass meeting was called on July 16th and held in
Portsmouth square, the leading spirit being Samuel Brannan. It resulted in the
formation of a special police of 230, the command of which was given to VV. E.
Spofford. This body made short work of the matter. They apprehended twenty
of the Hounds and placed them aboard the U. S. ship "Warren." Another meeting
was held on the same day, at which Dr. Wm. M. Gwin and James C. Ward were
unanimously elected associate justices to relieve the alcalde from the excessive
responsibility imposed upon him, and Horace Hawes was appointed district attor-
ney and Hall McAllister associate counsel. The arrested Hounds and their al-
leged leader, named Roberts, were tried on the charges of conspiracy, riot, robbery
and assault with intent to kill, and were fined and sentenced to ten years at hard
labor.
The charge was made at the time that the Hounds were instigated to their ex-
cesses by influential men who profited by the disorder they created, but the accusa-
tion was not accompanied by specifications. That the disorderly band in many
particulars resembled the gangs common in eastern cities at the time, and who usu-
allj' made their headquarters in the houses of the volunteer fire companies, and
were available for carrying out the purposes of unscrupulous politicians there is
no doubt. That the Hounds caused greater disorders, and were more disposed to
viciousness than their Eastern prototypes, was due imdoubtedly to the negligence
of the people of San Francisco, who from the time when the gold rush began, lost
sight of the necessity of adhering to recognized methods, and instead embraced the
curious belief that irregular manifestations of wrath would prove more impressive
and a greater deterrent of crime than systematic repression.
The example made of the Hounds did not produce results which conformed to
the idea that spasmodic effort was more efficacious than persistent watchfulness
and zeal in compelling the enforcement of the laws, for the criminal element con-
tinued its depradations throughout the winter of 1849 and during 1850, and the
early part of 1851. No additions of consequence were made to the police force,
and the few men employed were poorly paid. The prisons provided were small
and insecure, but they were not in much demand, as bail was accepted in the most
serious cases; and when there were trials they failed to result in conviction. Up
to 1851 no criminal had been executed for murder, although there were several
who deserved hanging.
It can hardly be said that these results justified confidence in the efficacy of
Vigilante methods. Those with criminal instincts were not deterred by the knowl-
edge that a body of men met at intervals to receive complaints, and that good citi-
zens were ready to respond %vhen called upon to assist in suppressing lawlessness.
There were frequent crimes but the committee was not aroused to action until an
exceptionally bold thief, named John Jenkins, entered a store on Long Wharf
and stole a safe, which he threw overboard from a boat when pursued. He was
captured and the safe was recovered, and he was promptly tried by a jury of the
Political
Friends of
tile Hounds
Useless
Spasmodic
Efforts
202
SAN FRANCISCO
stand Taken
by Vigilance
Committee
High Handed
Methods of
VlgUantes
Vigilance Committee, which had assembled when summoned by the tolling of the
bell of the Monumental Engine Company. There were about eighty of the Vigi-
lantes present, and their deliberations lasted about two hours, at the expiration of
which he was condemned to death. The prisoner denied his guilt but the evidence
against him was conclusive. The bell was tolled a second time and the assembled
crowd was addressed by Samuel Brannan, who stated that Jenkins had been found
guilty and had been sentenced to die within the hour on the Plaza. He asked if
the committee's action was approved and great shouts of "aye" went up; only a
few noes were heard.
A procession was then formed and the mob proceeded to the Plaza. Up to this
time there was no show of interference on the part of the authorities, and when
they did finally interpose an objection it was ineffective, because, as subsequent
events suggested, they were not entirely assured of their own safety. Jenkins was
undoubtedly an ex-convict or what was called a "Sydney cove," and the committee
believed that he was one of an organized gang of robbers responsible for numerous
depredations. A coroner's inquest was held and it found that Jenkins had died
by the violent means of strangulation "at the hands of and in pursuance of a pre-
concerted action on the part of an association of citizens styling themselves a Com-
mittee of Vigilance, of whom the following members were implicated by direct
testimony: Captain Edgar Wakeman, William H. Jones, James C. Ward, Edward
A. King, T. K. Baltelle, Benjamin Reynolds, John S. Eagan, J. C. Derby and
Samuel Brannan.
The verdict was never followed up by the authorities and the committee paid
no further attention to it than to publish a full list of its members as a significant
intimation that they were ready to assume responsibility for the act and to show
that the methods of the extra legal body were approved by the most influential citi-
zens of San Francisco. On this point there could not be much doubt, and that
every member of the committee was proud of the part he took, and of his associa-
tion with the organization, which had avowed its purpose of putting a period to
the reign of crime. Their firm stand resulted in greatly scaring the rogues infest-
ing the town and many of them fled to the interior. Those under suspicion, who
failed to fly were haled before the committee, which had conveniently resurrected
a Mexican law forbidding the entrance of criminals. Wlien contumacy was shown
the committee imprisoned the defiant until arrangements could be made for their
deportation.
The methods of the Vigilance Committee were as high handed as they were tem-
porarily effective. They assumed the right to enter any person's premises in which
they claimed to have good reason for suspecting that they would be able to secure
evidence, which would substantiate their charges and help them to carry out their
object. The authorities protested against the irregularity of the proceedings of
the committee. The grand jury for the July term, when it made its reports ani-
madverted upon the inefficiency of the law authorities, charging that the trials of
criminals were unnecessarily protracted by postponements and otherwise, and ended
up with a declaration that, while the acts of the committee were to be deplored,
they were undoubtedly influenced by the best of motives and that on the whole
what had occurred was for the public good.
It is almost superfluous to state that the qualified disapproval of the committee's
irregularities had no influence, and that it was shortly afterward followed by more
SAN FRANCISCO 203
action of a vigorous character. Two men, named Whittaker and McKenzie, charged
with burglary and arson, were arrested by the committee on the 20th of August
and were promptly sentenced to death. This action brought forth a proclamation
from Governor McDougal, who called upon all good citizens to unite for the pur-
pose of maintaining the law. He was not a forceful man and his efforts were
turned into ridicule by the publication of an anonymous circular, which quoted him
as saying that he approved of the acts of the committee and that much good had
resulted from them. The sheriff of the county, however, undertook to give effect
to the proclamation by serving a writ of habeas corpus on the members of the com-
mittee, who had Whittaker and McKenzie in their custody, and they were surprised
into delivering their prisoners to him. But the engine bell was promptly sounded,
and as soon as a sufficient number of the Vigilantes could be assembled they recap-
tured the accused men, who were hanged within seventeen minutes in the presence
of the crowd which had assembled in the square when the usual alarm was sounded.
The coroner's jury, as in the case of Jenkins, voiced a feeble objection to the irreg-
ularity of the proceedings and there the matter ended for the present so far as
San Francisco was concerned.
These exhibitions of mob violence were not confined to San Francisco. Like Hanging
summary methods had been adopted in dealing with interior criminals. The first ***' stealing
recorded lynching in the state took place in Santa Barbara, in 1848, where two
men, who had killed a couple of miners in Tuolomne, and stolen their gold, were
overtaken by a party organized to pursue them, and hanged by the sea. These
lynchings were attributed to the gold discoveries, but a writer, Jeremiah Lynch,
who made a careful investigation of the circumstances attending the killing of
David C. Broderick by David Terry, commenting on the propensity of the Cali-
fornians of pioneer days to take the law in their hands, emphatically dissents from
the commonly accepted view that violence and disorder is a necessary attendant of
what may be called "gold rushes," and to support his position points to the fact
that Australia escaped the infliction, and that the comparatively recent opening of
the Klondyke mining country in British Columbia did not result in breaking down
the laws. He attributed their immunity from this particular form of violence to
avoidance of the tendency to permit courts to override the laws. "We have the
same laws," he said, "but with us the tribunals are superior to them; with the
British the tribunals obey the laws and do not override them."
Theorizing respecting causes is a profitless occupation when for guesses we
may substitute actual facts. We know that one of the vices of the time was the Carrying of
carrying of fire arms. Every man went "heeled." It is related that at one of the
first sessions of the legislature it was the habit of the members to take off their
pistols and lay them on the desks before them. The practice was so common it
attracted no attention. The weapons were ostensibly carried for defensive pur-
poses, but the fact that a pistol may be used offensively as well as defensively was
lost sight of by those who assumed that it was necessary to go armed in order to
cope with bad men. This fashion has been held responsible by some for the con-
tempt into which the law fell during the early Fifties, but it is an insufficient
explanation. Besides we have the recent example just quoted of the Klondyke,
where fire arms were as common as they were in California in pioneer days without
producing the same evil results.
204
SAN FRANCISCO
The Courts The true reason for the breaking down of the law is the one already pointed
'"'^Laws ""^^ ^^ ^^^* owing wholly to the utter disregard of civic duty by the so-called re-
spectable element of society. This is freely admitted by historians, who have in-
consistently defended the extra legal methods of the Vigilance Committee and
assumed that the necessity of going outside the law was imposed upon good men.
The ablest historian of California in dealing with the subject has told us that
"in the unsettled condition of business and society, and the feverish rush for gold,
few or none of the respectable classes of the community took sufficient interest in
public matters to go to the polls, or to sit on juries." And he adds that as a con-
sequence "the management of municipal affairs, and for that matter of national
affairs also, in so far as the}' depended upon municipal representation fell into the
hands of men of the vilest character, who had served an apprenticeship in New
York and other hotbeds of political corruption."
Indifference The author who thus expressed himself lived near to the times of which he
Besnectabie wrote and took part in some of its activities. His opportunities for learning the
Citizens exact facts were unsurpassed, and his sympathies were wholly with the class that
resorted to the extraordinarv methods of the Vigilance Committee. It may be as-
sumed, therefore, that he did not carelessly charge his fellow citizens with derelic-
tion of duty; but while thus holding the respectable classes responsible for the
existing condition he does not escape the error of putting the blame for the trouble
on "the last straw that broke the camel's back," nor does he avoid the blunder of
excusing a resort to violence, which might have been averted by the simple process
of respectable citizens performing their civic duties.
Swift The prevalent assumption that examples of swift punishment would have a
„„j J, deterrent effect was not justified by experience. The criminal element was un-
Deterrent doubtedly cowed for a short time when the respectable citizens rose in their wrath,
but it speedily forgot the lesson. In the first ten months of 1855 there were 489
murders committed in California, and there were only six legal hangings. On
the other hand there were forty-six cases of summary punishment by the mob, and
there was always a possibility of the machinery of the Vigilance Committee (for
the interior in places had modeled itself on San Francisco and maintained like
organizations) being put in motion. But thieves and violent men continued their
practices, and politics remained as corrupt as they had been.
jndiiions in It is not astonishing that there should have been a recurrence to the methods
isr.5-50 ^£ jg^g ^^^^ jg2„^ ^j^^^ ^j^^ business depression of 1855 came. The flight of Harry
^leiggs and the disreputable failures of a couple of important banking concerns
created a state of frenzied apprehension, which was kept at white heat by the
vigorous attacks of the press on municipal corruption. The journals of the early
Fifties had not acquired the modern habit of sparing the past lives of officials, and
confining their criticisms to the shortcomings of the immediate present. California
was filled with men who had a past, and when one of that sort, and there were
plenty of the kind in San Francisco, came up for public honors, or managed to
creep into office, he was unsparingly dealt with.
Richardson It Was this journalistic propensity and not an overly sensitive public conscience
Shot^b.T j]-|3t precipitated the activities of the Vigilance Committee of 1856. On the 18th
of November, 1855, two men, named Cora and Richardson, met in a saloon. They
had not previously been acquainted, but the familiarities of the bar room soon put
them on an easy footing. They had several drinks together and quarreled, but
SAN FRANCISCO
205
separated on that occasion without coining to blows. The next day they met again,
quarreled and in a scuffle Cora shot and instanth' killed Richardson. Cora was a
professional gambler and openly consorted with the keeper of a bagnio; Richard-
son was a United States marshal, but it does not appear that he came in contact
with Cora in his official capacity.
The trial of Cora took place two months later. Despite his bad character he
had many friends and some influential defenders. Colonel E. D. Baker, afterward
United States senator, was one of his counselors and used all his art to save the
accused man from the gallows and succeeded in bringing about a disagreement of
the jury, which after forty-one hours' deliberation reported that it was unable to
find a verdict. The failure to convict caused great dissatisfaction and the charge
was freely made by the press that the jury had been packed, and intimations were
thrown out that the outcome would be a resort to lynching. The long roll of un-
convicted murderers was frequently referred to, and the blame was placed upon
the lax enforcement of the laws.
Cora was remanded to prison after the mistrial, and he and his friends hoped
that the excitement would subside, when their plans could be more safely resumed.
But such expectations were disappointed by the vigorous attacks made by the
"Evening Bulletin" upon the criminal element which, it asserted, was shielded by
politicians. The owner and editor of the paper was James King of William, who,
before engaging in its publication had been in the banking business. King's as-
saults were largely directed against the so-called "Federal brigade," the employes
of the government in San Francisco, whom he charged with being in alliance with
the blackguards of the City. The federal officials found a champion in James P.
Casey, the editor of a weekly paper, who printed an anonymous communication,
in which the assertion was made that King's brother had sought the position
filled by Richardson, but had been repulsed. The alleged office seeker repaired to
Casey's office and denied the statement and demanded the name of the writer of
the anonymous letter, but Casey refused to disclose its authorship.
A day or two later Casey, learning that King purposed attacking him, repaired
to the "Bulletin" office to remonstrate against the expected publication. His visit
did not dissuade the editor, who on the same evening that he had received Casey
published a slashing article, in which this paragraph occurred:
"The fact that Casey has been an inmate of Sing Sing prison in New York
is not an offense against the laws of the state ; nor is the fact of his having stuffed
himself through the ballot box, as elected to the board of supervisors from a district
where, it is said, he was not even a candidate, any justification why Mr. Bagley
should shoot Casey, however richly the latter may deserve having his neck stretched
for such fraud upon the people."
The publication of this paragraph on May 14th, was by no means the first time
that the statement had appeared in print. On November 2, 1855, Casey had
testified in a case growing out of an election brawl, which occurred on the corner
of Pine and Kearny streets, on the preceding 21st of August, that he had been
convicted of larceny in New York, and that he had served eighteen months in
Sing Sing prison. His admission was published on the following day by all the
papers, and one of them, the "California Chronicle," contained a strong denuncia-
tory editorial of the methods by which Casey's election as supervisor had been
secured, and reference was made to his criminal record in New York. This por-
The Bnlletii
Attack on
Ca8e.v
Casey's
Career
Exposed
206
SAN FRANCISCO
Casey
Shoots
Editor of
BnUetin
The City an
Armed Camp
Cora and
Casey
Lynched
tion of the "California Chronicle's" editorial was reproduced by the "Bulletin"
on November 5, 1855, and at the time provoked no mischief, nor does it appear
that Casey very greatly resented the assaults made upon him by the other papers.
Bad blood had been created in the meantime, and Casey was unable to control
himself when he was confronted ivith a rehearsal of his past misdeeds, the inspira-
tion of which he attributed to his political enemies. He did not repair directly to
the "Bulletin" office to wreak his vengeance, but lurked in its vicinity awaiting
King's departure for his home. When the editor appeared he opened fire upon
him and shot him down. There was an instantaneous uprising but the authorities
succeeded in saving Casey from the crowd, which was fiercely demanding that he be
hanged. For securitj' he was removed to the jail on Broadway, where a guard of
three hundred was maintained to protect him from the thousands who surged around
the building. The mayor begged that the law be observed, but was interrupted by
fierce cries reminding him of the delays in dealing with Cora.
King did not die at once, although the wounds he had received were fatal. The
shooting occurred on May 14th and he passed away six days later. During this
period daily bulletins of the condition of Casey's victim were posted, the excite-
ment rising and falling as changes showing improvement or the reverse were noted.
On the morning after the shooting a call appeared in the press for a meeting of
citizens, which took place in the quarters occupied by the "Know Nothings" prior
to the event. Over a thousand persons signed the roll, subscribing to the consti-
tution of the committee, which was the same as that adopted by the members in 1851.
During the time that King's life was in the balance the City resembled an
armed camp. The Vigilance Committee had secured all the stock in the gun shops ;
guards were stationed about the jail to prevent the removal of Casey and Cora by
the authorities, and there were other evidences of intention to defy the latter. The
governor, J. Neely Johnson, visited the City and had a conference with the execu-
tive committee of the Vigilantes, and accorded them permission to place a small
body within the walls of the prison in order that there might be complete assurance
against attempted removal of the prisoners. The sheriff on the other hand sum-
moned a posse of one hundred, obtaining only fifty, for the purpose of frustrating
any effort that might be made to take the prisoners from his custody.
The futility of the efforts of the authorities was plainly apparent, but the
advocates of "law and order" were not deterred by that fact from attempting to
save the prisoners from summary vengeance. While the sheriff was making his
puny preparations the Vigilance Committee was at work organizing its forces. King's
condition was growing worse and his death was momentarily expected. On Satur-
day night the alarm bell summoned the Vigilantes to headquarters to receive in-
structions, and on the ensuing morning twenty-six hundred of them assembled and
were formed into companies of artillery, cavalry and infantry. William T. Cole-
man, the president of the committee, directed the operations of this armed force.
Cannon were taken to the jail and planted in front of its gates, and Coleman de-
manded an interview with the sheriff, in which he insisted upon the prisoners being
placed in the custody of the Vigilantes.
The sheriff, thus overpowered, surrendered Cora and Casey. James King of
WiUiam died on Tuesday, May 20th, and his death was the signal for the expiation
of the crimes of the two murderers. The mayor and the other officials of the City
made no effort whatever to prevent the carrying out of the plans of the committee
SAN FRANCISCO
207
and the state authorities were no more active, and it was stated that the governor,
after his interview with Coleman, had tacitly acquiesced in the irregular proceed-
ings. The funeral of the murdered journalist was attended by the whole com-
munity, and was made doubly impressive and significant by causing the cortege to
pass the hanging bodies of Cora and Casey.
The labors of the Vigilance Committee did not end with the removal of Cora
and Casey. It plainly exhibited a determination to put affairs on a new footing.
Its avowed purpose was to stamp out crime and to bring about the purification of
the municipal offices. The necessity for such a course may have been apparent at
the time, but it was never clearly explained why the overwhelming majority ad-
hering to the cause of the Vigilantes found itself unable to accomplish its objects
by methods more in harmony with modern ideas of popular government than those
to which it resorted.
Whatever may be said in condonation of the summary act of the committee in
executing Cora and Casey, cannot apply to its subsequent proceedings, which took
on the shape of settled defiance of constituted authority. All the testimony points
to the complete cowing of the criminal element. Murders ceased and for a period
the City was as orderly as could be desired. It was assumed that this condition of
affairs was whoUj' due to the continued activitj' of the Vigilance Committee, and that
its assumption of the functions of public prosecutor and of the administration of
criminal justice were positively necessary to the preservation of peace; but those
who were opposed, although an insignificant minority, boldly charged that the
object was to secure possession of offices, and that the movement was inspired
solely by political objects.
That this latter allegation was well founded there is no doubt, but it is impos-
sible to believe that the leaders and the great majority siding with the Vigilance
Committee were actuated by improper motives or that they had any other object
in view than the reformation of conditions which, as has been shown, were inde-
scribably bad. The only question that is debatable is whether the Vigilante method
of cleaning the augean stables was the proper one to adopt, and that there were
many good men in San Francisco who thought it was not is clearly established by
the evidence. These men, who called themselves advocates of "law and order"
had the misfortune, however, of seeming to defend crime and disorder. It is un-
thinkable that men of the caliber of William T. Sherman and some others, who vig-
orously opposed the committee, were influenced by any other desire than the main-
tenance of established institutions, or to doubt that they sincerely believed that
the methods of the Vigilantes menaced their existence.
But it is equally undeniable that the office holders, and a considerable number
of their adlierents, hated and feared the Vigilance Committee because its activity
threatened the perpetuation of their rule. Their fears were well grounded, for
it only needed the awakening of the community to the necessity of actively interest-
ing itself in civic affairs to dislodge from their position a gang of political cormo-
rants and inefficients. And the fears of this class were shared by all those with
criminal instincts, who hoped to profit by municipal corruption, and who to ac-
complish that end were always ready to contribute their support at the polls to
the men who promised to be their friends in the hour of need.
It was because the circumstances made the disreputable elements of the City
tlic allies of the law and order advocates that the term "law and order" became
Operations of
the Vigilance
Committee
Constituted
Authority
Disregarded
Political
Features of
Movement
SAN FRANCISCO
Numerical
Saperiority
of Better
Element
almost a stench in the nostrils of those who had reached the conclusion that the
only way to secure the object they aimed to achieve was to act outside the law.
There was another factor, which played its part, but has never been given the con-
sideration it deserved. Although the attitude of the Vigilance Committee was ap-
parently based on hostility to municipal misgovernment, it was found necessarj- to
give assurances to its own members that there were no ulterior objects in view.
On the 14th of June a resolution was adopted expressing confidence in the consti-
tution and laws of the United States and the state of California, and deprecating
all action at that time looking to constitutional changes or reform. National ques-
tions were at the time almost inextricably mixed up with state, municipal and even
ward politics, and while there was probably no reason to suspect that there was
any serious thought of converting California into an independent republic, the
matter was freely discussed, and the politicians who were supporting the adminis-
tration at Washington were undoubtedly apprehensive that the feeling which in-
spired the threats, would crystallize into a sentiment which would weaken the hold
of the pro-slavery party on California.
It is impossible to dissociate the Vigilance Committee's actions from the national
unrest of the period. Whatever the purposes of the directing spirits may have
been, and no matter how sound the reasons for believing that they were of the
purest, it was inevitable that active politicians of the class to which David S. Terry
belonged should regard with apprehension the creation of a machine which might
wrest power from them. They did not love corruption for its own sake, but they
were educated in a political school, which lived up to the motto that the end justi-
fied the means, and they had no squeamishness about employing the devices by which
small men reached out and obtained small places, because they went on the assump-
tion that it was absolutely essential to obtain and retain control, in order to preserve
the institution of slavery.
We have, in many sections of the Union, attained so near to the ideal of a fair
election that it is almost impossible to realize how general the disregard of honesty
at the polls was in the years preceding the Civil war. The public conscience,
which voices itself so forcibly now in such matters, was nearly dormant in the Fif-
ties in San Francisco, but it flared up quickly when touched on the raw, as it was
a little later when the determination of the respectable element to mend its ways
and attend to its duties began to assert itself. It will be seen that one of the first
effects of the awakening was a movement to put an end to vote-stuffing, and that
the most potent argument in favor of a new deal and better government in the
future was the public exhibition by the committee of a captured ballot bos, so
arranged that those manipulating it could insure as many votes for their candi-
dates as might be necessary to secure their election.
The ease with which good results %vere achieved after the hanging of Cora and
Casey was the subject of felicitation in the ranks of the Vigilantes, who never per-
ceived the inconsistency of their position, even after a' practical demonstration had
been afforded of their numerical superiority and therefore of their abiUty to win
at the polls had they worked as earnestly together with peaceful methods as they
did when they took up arms to assist in the purifj-ing process, ^^^len those adher-
ing to the law and order party attempted to oppose the Vigilance Committee with
a show of numbers they could scarcely secure a corporal's guard. Governor John-
son, who is credited with having expressed approval of the action of the committee.
SAN FRANCISCO
was persuaded to set in motion the machinery of the state for the suppression of
lawlessness and disorder. He attempted to use the national guard to overcome the
Vigilantes and appointed W. T. Sherman, whose militar_v experience gained at
West Point qualified him for the work to command the troops, but only seventy-five
responded to the call, an insignificant force to oppose to the 5,000 Vigilantes, who
were well armed and were in possession of two field pieces. Sherman was given
the rank of major general of national guard, and there is no doubt but that he
would have given a good account of himself if he had had at his back a firm execu-
tive. But there was no firmness in Johnson's composition. He was weak and
vacillating, and before a week had passed Sherman threw up his command in disgust.
The literature dealing with this event was extremely voluminous, and every
phase of the affair has been discussed in all its bearings, but all the descriptions are
easily condensed into the statement that, after a brief period, the office holders
recognizing the futility of their attempts to withstand the will of the community,
as expressed by the Vigilance Committee, gave up the struggle. The superior or-
ganization and zeal of the Vigilantes checkmated the Law and Order people and
won every move in the game. There were some encounters between the opposing
forces, growing out of the attempt of the Law and Order forces to secure arms. In
one of these affairs David S. Terry, who formed one of the rear guard of a party
of the Law and Order adherents stabbed an official of the Vigilantes, who sought to
prevent it entering the armory.
Terry was subsequently arrested. A strong force of the Vigilantes, which was
promptly summoned to the scene when the Law and Order party offered resistance,
surrounded the armory, opened its gates and compelled all the inmates to surrender
their arms, after which they were all, with the exception of Terry, released. He
was charged with resisting the officers of the committee, and with this offense were
coupled others, some of which it was alleged had been committed by him several
years earlier. Whether the charges against Terry were true or false it is not nec-
essary to inquire, but in a written commuincation to the committee he made a state-
ment which is interesting because it professes to describe the motives which prompted
him to array himself on the side of the Law and Order party. He said:
"You doubtless feel that you are engaged in a praiseworthy undertaking. This
question I will not attempt to discuss, for whilst I cannot reconcile your acts with
my ideas of right and justice, candor forces me to confess that the evils .you arose
to repress were glaring and palpable, and the end you seek to attain a noble one.
The question on which we differ is, as to whether the end justifies the means by
which you have sought its accomplishment; and as this is a question on which men
equally pure, upright and honest might differ, a discussion would result in nothing
profitable."
From these expressions the inference might be fairly drawn that Terry and the
other men who sided with the Law and Order party were of the same way of think-
ing as the Vigilance Committee so far as the presence of a great evil was concerned,
and that they differed merely as to the methods to be adopted to bring about a
better condition of affairs ; but the facts forbid this assumption. They show con-
clusively that the majority of the Vigilantes and the bulk of the Law and Order
advocates were as wide apart as the poles. The Vigilance Committee, no matter
how much the civic indifference of its members in the past had contributed to the
bad state of affairs wliich they sought to repress, were earnest!}' desirous of clean-
A Flood of
Vigilante
Literature
Arrest of
David S.
Terry
Object of Law
and Order
Party
210
SAN FRANCISCO
Character
ot Terry
ing out the bad lot, who infested the public offices, while the Law and Order party
were struggling to retain control, some merely for the purpose of plundering the
community, and others for what they considered the most important of political
considerations, namely to safely hold the state for their party.
The personal fortunes of Terry, and the other actors in the Vigilante drama,
are only a part of the history of the period, and not the whole of it as many writers
have assumed. Biography is always interesting, but it may easily be made to usurp
the place of more important matters. If Terry, who conducted his own defense in the
hearing, which was entirely secret, had been convicted, which might easily have
happened had the man he stabbed died, he would doubtless have been hanged, in
which event his fate would have been linked up with that of Cora and Casey,
and his name might have passed down to posterity as that of a mere brawler, who
suffered the consequences of being in too close touch with those who made a busi-
ness of politics and who after the manner of business men, sought to profit through
the pursuit to which their energies were devoted.
But Terry's survival and his subsequent actions are worth tracing, because they
bring into bold relief the fact that the Vigilante upheaval of 1856 was not merely
a movement for the purification of the municipal offices, but was also a part of the
game of national politics, the stakes in which were the perpetuation of the Federal
Union. The connection between the two is not always perfectly clear, but that is
due to the fact that the actors were not always conscious that they were pawns in
the game. Had they realized what was in the minds of those who were making
the moves on the national chess board the alignment would have been different.
That they did not appreciate all the intricacies of the situation is shown by the
line of cleavage afterwards so sharply drawn, which separated men who had stood
together in what they regarded as a great municipal emergency, but could not have
been persuaded to act in imison had they realized that their efforts were destined
to completely alienate California from the Democratic party and put it in line with
the states opposed to the perpetuation of the institution of slavery.
CHAPTER XXVI
POLITICAL AND OTHER RESULTS OF THE VIGILANTE UPRISING
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE REFORMS ITSELF THE IDEA OF CIVIC DUTY BEGINS TO ASSERT
ITSELF THE RECALL METHOD IN 1856 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE's PARTY
PLATFORM OF THE NEW PARTY RESULT OF ATTENTION TO CIVIC DUTY A SECRET
NOMINATING BODY ONLY A HALF REFORM ACHIEVED BRODERICK AND THE VIGI-
LANTES POLITICAL CAREER OF BRODERICK BRODERICK's MODE OF KEEPING UP
THE ORGANIZATION UNSETTLED OPINION CONCERNING SLAVERY FOR OR AGAINST
BRODERICK COLLISION OF NATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL INTERESTS POLITICAL
JUDGMENT OF VIGILANTE LEADERS DISSOLUTION OP THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
RETURN OF THE PROSCRIBED THE QUESTION OF TITLES VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
RECEIVES A GOLD BRICK STORIES OF CRIMINAL ASCENDENCY A MYTH FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT AND THE VIGILANTES SHERMAn's PART IN THE AFFAIR SOLIDARITY
OF THE VIGILANTES.
HE immediate political results of the Vigilante movement of
1856 were purely local. The attack on the criminal ele-
ment was salutary. It was noted that the bad characters
who had not fled the town were completely cowed. Brawls
almost entirely ceased, and during a couple of months
after the hanging of Cora and Casey there were no mur-
ders in the City. The jocular reference to "a man for
breakfast" was beginning to lose its point, and San Francisco was entering on a
career which subsequently permitted good citizens to boast that it was as orderly
a community as any in the country. The ability to make this claim was by no
means due to the flight of criminals from the City. Some had fled when the Vigi-
lantes were dangling the noose before their eyes, but there was no place in Califor-
nia where they could depend upon receiving a hospitable reception, for Vigilance
Committees had become as popular in the interior as in San Francisco.
There were several deportations of notorious characters, and there was a pro-
scribed list, the knowledge of which had a marked restraining influence, and it
operated so powerfully on the minds of some that they deemed it prudent to absent
themselves until matters quieted down. That they had reason to expect that the
storm would soon blow over may be inferred from what happened after the pre-
vious popular uprisings, but the precedents of 1849 and 1832 were not to be fol-
lowed in 1856. The Vigilance Committee, in its attempt to drive out criminals and
reform municipal politics had reformed itself and was ready to adopt a course
which proved more efficacious in keeping down corruption and repressing crimes
of violence than irregular intimidation could possibly effect.
211
Vieilance
Committee
Reforms
Itself
212
SAN FRANCISCO
I Sense of
Civic Duty
Created
Recall
Methods of
1856
Purifying
the Jury
Lists
Organization
of People's
Party
Platform of
New Party
In short, the upheaval had resulted in creating civic sentiment of the sort that
can be relied upon to prevent municipal corruption. Those arrayed against that
sort of crime soon gave practical effect to their beliefs by demanding the resigna-
tion of the entire city government. A mass meeting was held on June 14, 1856,
at which William Sharon, afterwards a conspicuous figure in San Francisco life,
was the moving spirit. He introduced a set of resolutions, the purport of which
was "turn the rascals out." The meeting adjourned without putting them to a
vote, but on July 12th the suggestion embodied in them was acted upon. A petition
reciting the most flagrant abuses of the administration was circulated and numer-
ously signed, demanding that the men responsible for them resign their offices and
was published in the press.
The thugs and thieves had been completely intimidated but the same effect had
not been produced on the city officials. This early attempt to put the recall into
effect met with no success. Its outcome was the reverse of what those who urged
the demand for resignations expected. Instead of resigning the officials turned upon
those who made the demand and charged that the object of the Vigilantes was to
secure the offices, and that their resort to violence and irregular methods was solely
for that purpose. County Judge Thomas Freelon; sheriff, David Scannell; district
attorney, Henry H. Byrne; mayor, James Van Ness; clerk, Thomas Hayes; re-
corder, Frederick D. Kohler ; assessor, James W. Stillman ; surveyor, James J.
Gardener; coroner, J. Horace Kent, flatly refused to comply with the behest of the
petitioners, while some of the minor officials ignored it entirely.
Prior to this failure the Vigilance Committee had caused a list of eligibles for
jury service, whose characters made them undesirable, to be made, which was ac-
companied by the request that any member of the committee, or others who knew
of cause why anyone should not be permitted to serve on juries, should make known
the facts. This list was posted in conspicuous places. The suggestion of the com-
mittee to add to it was liberally acted upon and caused great indignation and con-
siderable flutter in the breasts of numerous persons, whose past reputations were
not of the best, but the movement undoubtedly had an excellent effect.
The refusal to accept the recall was perhaps the best thing that could have
happened for the cause of municipal reform, because it resulted in action of the
sort which must be exhibited in a conspicuous fashion if good government is to be
maintained under a system which calls for manhood suffrage. A People's party
was organized, which was something more than a mere name, for it embraced all
classes of citizens anxious to assist in putting an end to political corruption. Men
who had formerly, for various reasons, refrained from going to the polls, now
displayed a lively interest in the movement to "get out the vote." There were no
excuses of the kind covered by the expression "what is the use?" nor was there
anyone found ready to suggest important business as an explanation of failure to
act. There was a complete revolution. Incivicism of the worst type had been re-
placed by devotion to the public interest, and the community, for the time being,
experienced a complete political regeneration.
The platform of the new party was something more than a promise. It con-
tained an indictment of past conduct of those who framed it. It demanded that the
administration of justice should be in the hands of pure minded men, and that
good men should devote at least a few weeks of their time to public affairs. There
were numerous other reforms asked for, but they may have appeared in previous
SAN FRANCISCO
213
party professions. The chief reform, however, was contained in the pledge to
devote a few weeks' time to the public interest, for on it depended the whole situa-
tion. If it were lived up to all the rest would come easy, for when good men make
up their minds to have things done properly, and give their attention to bringing
about the results they aim to achieve, they usually succeed in their endeavors, be-
cause the actively and passively good element in any community always greatly
outnumbers the corruptly inclined.
The People's party elected their candidates to office at the election in Novem-
ber, 1856, without any difficulty and the good citizens of San Francisco could have
done the same thing during the previous years had they stood together. There has
been much stress laid on the number of "Sydney coves," who were lured to the
coast by the hope of finding gold, and the fact that there were numerous bad men
among the adventurers who flocked to San Francisco between 1849 and 1856, but
a fair survey of the composition of the immigrants does not warrant the conclusion
that the community as a whole, at any time during the period, had a much larger
proportion of the viciously inclined than any other seaport. We are told by a
historian in a review of the character of the immigrants who made their way to
San Francisco, that they were composed of three classes. A tenth of the number,
he estimated, were politicians who had outlived their period of usefulness in their
old homes; another tenth were idle loungers around gambling saloons, men who
had come to San Francisco with the idea that they could pick up gold without
working for it; "but much the largest class, comprising at least four-fifths of the
American immigrants, who seemed to outnumber all others twenty to one, and per-
haps a large share of the immigrants from other lands, were honest and industrious
workers."
The story of the Vigilance Committee is not completed by the relation of its tri-
umphs at the polls. That triumph secured something like decency in the adminis-
tration of local affairs, but the overshadowing national political questions had so
divided good citizens that corrupt practices at the polls were still the order of the
day where the legislature was concerned. At the same election, which resulted
in the return of men to whom it seemed safe to confide the administration of munic-
ipal affairs, a politician who was past master of all the tricks known to Tammany,
and resorted to by it for the preservation of power, so manipulated affairs that he
was pble to control the legislature.
One of the unfortunate features of the campaign made under the auspices of
the Vigilance Committee in 1856, was the introduction of the undemocratic method
of selecting candidates by a secret body. The resort to this plan indicated a dis-
trust of the organization which it hardly deserved. A resolution was framed and
adopted after some opposition to appoint a committee of twenty-one to name a
ticket. This committee's deliberations were entirely secret, but its members appear
to have been earnest in the determination to name first class men, and to that end
thoroughly canvassed the names of all eligible candidates. On September 11th it
completed its labors and presented a ticket for city and county officials, and mem-
bers of the legislature. This was formally given the name of the People's Reform
partj'^, and this appellation was retained several years.
The ticket had arrayed against it candidates of the Democratic and Know
Nothing parties. The Republican party, then a newcomer in the field of politics,
endorsed the ticket of the People's party. The Vigilance Committee in the election
People's Party
Elects its
CaDdidates
Corrupt
Political
Practices
A Secret
NominatinK
Body
214
SAN FRANCISCO
Broderick's
Plans not
Interfered
With
Broderick's
Folitieal
did not depend on the efficacy of putting forward good names. Before the election
stirring addresses were made urging upon good citizens the necessity of going to
the polls, and assurances were given that the old time practices would be completely
suppressed and that the election would be honestly conducted. To secure that
object the City was districted and a Vigilante police force was created to preserve
order at the polls, and to see that there was no stuffing of ballot boxes or cheating
in the count.
The close scrutiny which resulted in an election, the honesty of which was a
subject of felicitation, while it undoubtedly gave the City a purer and better ad-
ministration, failed to interfere with the machinations of Broderick, who had se-
cured absolute control of the legislature. W^riters whose criticisms in general were
favorable to the Vigilance Committee movement were disposed to regard this as
"the fly in the ointment;" perhaps because Broderick had not heartily entered into
the campaign for purification, or because they knew that he was opposed to the
attempt of the Vigilantes to control municipal affairs.
The only definite knowledge of Broderick's position toward the Vigilance Com-
mittee is that disclosed by a statement made by him some three years later, that
during Terry's incarceration by the Vigilance Committee he had paid $200 a week
to a newspaper to print articles in his defense. The journal alluded to was the
"Herald," probably the most ably conducted daily paper in 1856, and the most
prosperous. Because of its attitude towards the Vigilantes it was destroyed by
the business men of the City, who withdrew their advertisements in a body.
It would have been extraordinary had Broderick sympathized with the efforts
to purify municipal government, for he, more than any other man in San Francisco,
was responsible for the wretched condition of affairs. Broderick's subsequent ca-
reer has cast a glamour over his life, but the truth of history demands the statement
that for a long period his methods were utterly vicious, and that he shrunk from
no infamy which would promote his objects. He had been in politics for several
years, having been elected state senator in 1849, and his political career in Cali-
fornia was a stormy one. He had come to the state a year earlier from New York,
where he had learned all the arts of the political rogue of the period, and was soon
recognized as a past master.
It may be necessary to relate his career more fully later, when the causes of
his tragic death are examined ; here it is merely desired to make clear the fact that
the undoubted "boss" in municipal politics concurrently with a vigorous and ag-
gressive effort to effect the reform of municipal government was able to secure
control of the legislature, a body which had the power, and often chose to exercise
it, of nullifying the efforts of the better elements of San Francisco to manage
their affairs for the benefit of the community rather than for the comfort of ex-
travagant politicians.
The methods of Broderick differed in no essential particular from those of his
numerous successors. A'tTien he arrived in San Francisco there was no party sys-
tem and he applied his undoubted organizing talent to create one modeled on that
of New York. He professed to stand aloof from local affairs, interfering in them
only to the extent of making them pay for keeping up the organization, but his
professions do not relieve him from responsibility for all the evil practices which
resulted in the misgovernment of the City, for his attitude wag that of the boss
who sells offices to the highest bidder with permission to recoup themselves at the
SAN FRANCISCO
215
expense of the taxpayer. He was virtually the dictator of the municipality^ and
his dictatorship was secured by stimulating the belief that it was of the highest
importance to keep up the national party organization, even though the methods
employed directly promoted the corrupt conduct of municipal aifairs.
One of the sources of his popularity was his early identification with the volun-
teer fire department. In 1852 he organized a company, and soon introduced the
idea that firemen should be an important factor in politics. No opportunity to
popularize himself was neglected, and it was not long before he was in a position
which permitted him to say to the candidate ambitious for the shrievalty, "this
office is worth $50,000 a year ; keep half of the amount, and turn over the other
half to me for the use of the organization." The biographers of Broderick acquit
him of personal jobbery, and say that he never descended to vulgar venality, but
this verdict hardly accords with the notorious fact that he participated in numerous
grabbing schemes, and that the foundation of his wealth was the purchase of water
front lots sold at Peter Smith scrip sales.
Whether Broderick used any of the money ostensibly collected to advance the
purposes of the organization to increase his store of wealth, or devoted it wholly
to securing the election of men adhering to the party to which he belonged matters
little, for so far as the public was concerned the results were the same. The Brod-
erick plan permitted unscrupulous men to gain local office and fleece the taxpayer,
and the success of the organization inured to the advancement of the personal am-
bitions of the boss. That his political eminence and practices were not seriously
regarded at the time by the majority of those who contributed to the success of
the municipal ticket nominated by the Vigilance Committee seems evident, for they
voted for the men put forward by Broderick, and perhaps in the full knowledge
that he was their sponsor.
It has been remarked that in the election which gave Broderick control of the
legislature that no sectional lines were drawn. That assumption rests largely upon
the fact that Broderick was warmly supported by many ardent Southerners, and
that he was bitterly antagonized by some Northerners, some of them from his own
state. But that establishes nothing; it simply recalls that in 1856 the opinions of
men on the subject of slavery were in an imsettled condition, and that there were
almost as many men living north of the line, which was drawu to prevent the en-
croachments of the institution, who actively advocated its perpetuation, as there
were in the states where slavery actually existed. It was sometime later before
views became fixed. In 1856 Northerners were still ashamed to be regarded as
abolitionists. They were still unable to perceive what a great statesman later
pointed out, that slavery and freedom could not exist side by side, and that the
conflict between them would continue until one or the other was destroyed.
This indecision of the masses, however, was not shared by the men who were
guiding the destinies of the country. They had well defined views respecting the
desirabilit}' of maintaining the institution at all hazards, and they did not intend
to permit its expansion to be interfered with by those who were beginning to fear
the effects of its encroachments upon free labor. These pro-slaveryites, however,
found it necessary to proceed with caution in a state which had adopted a consti-
tution emphatically inimical to the extension of slavery; they recognized that there
was even less probability of a successful attempt to convert California by open
methods to the idea that the institution should be permitted to expand than in the
Broderick and
Funds for the
Organization
California
Support
Souglit
216
SAN FRANCISCO
Political
jDdement of
Vigilante
Leaders
Suits
Brought
Against
Tigilanteg
Northern states east of the Rocky Mountains, whose close business relations with
the South made them ready to accept political domination rather than provoke
trouble.
It was owing to the indecision described that Southerners were found support-
ing Broderick and not the absence of sectional feeling. That already found a
harbor in many Southern bosoms in San Francisco, as is well attested by the sym-
pathy extended at various times to men actively engaged in attempts to extend the
area in which slavery might be maintained. The strength of "Know Nothingism"
in California also furnishes evidence that Southern sentiment was very strong, for
the movement undoubtedly had its stanchest supporters in those who feared that
a great influx of foreign immigrants, by providing the country with an abundance
of free labor, would menace the "institution" and the political supremacy of the
South. But while conflicting views were causing a ferment which was producing
a line of cleavage that created some antagonisms for Broderick his personal pop-
ularity in a measure overcame them. In short, the campaign on the surface was
for or against Broderick, and did not concern itself much with principles.
And to the personal popularitj' of Broderick we may look for an explanation
of the fact that despite his record he was not openly antagonized by men who were
fighting against the evils produced by the methods of the boss. They probably
accepted his view that it was necessary in order to carry on the organization to
obtain money from candidates, and did not seriously inquire to what obtaining
funds by this plan tended ; or it is not impossible that they were so engrossed by
their purpose of purifying the municipal offices that they would not run the risk
of defeating their own aims by engaging in a contest which might easily have dis-
tracted attention from their main object by converting the fight into a partisan
struggle in which the local must have been subordinate to the national issue.
This may suggest a compromise on the part of the Vigilantes with the powers
of evil, of the kind the present generation is perfectly familiar with, and the pos-
sibility that it may have been made, while it may not be defended, can at least
be set down to their credit as an act of good political judgment, for it resulted in
the achievement of the main purpose of the Vigilance Committee. The election of
the ticket nominated and supported by the committee gave the City good govern-
ment. It practically put an end to corruption, and extravagances, an assertion
eloquently backed up by the statement that whereas the expenditures for municipal
purposes in 1855 had aggregated $2,646,000 in 1857 they were only $353,000.
That this great reduction of expenditures testifies to the honesty of the city offi-
cials elected under the auspices of the Vigilance Committee is undeniable ; that it
furnishes evidence of their sagacity in the conduct of municipal affairs is open to
grave doubt. It is true that the large sum expended by the deposed city govern-
ment in 1855 was chieffy squandered on inefficient officials, and that much of it
was corruptly made away with, but under the new regime a policy of do nothing
was entered upon which endured for several years, during which the City added
nothing to its attractiveness. Although the cost of administration after a while
steadily increased there were no improvements to show for what was expended.
After the success in the election of 1856 the Vigilance Committee did not
cease its activities entirely. It was obliged to maintain its existence as a measure
of defense for lawsuits of various kinds were brought against its members in the
United States courts. These, however, rjl came to naught; although they were
SAN FRANCISCO
217
provocative of much ill feeling and charges of bias and prejudice were freely made
against the judge and the grand jury which brought the indictments. These suits
were not confined to San Francisco; the federal courts were invoked in other
states, but the suitors there were no more successful than in the City where the
damages sued for were alleged to have been incurred.
On the 21st of August, 1857, the executive committee and board of delegates
of the Vigilance Committee, which still held joint meetings, adopted a resolution
to the effect that order and perfect security had been established through the ef-
forts of the People's party, which had complete control of municipal affairs and
had established a modern government; and that the conditions were such that the
committee might with propriety terminate its existence. This action was subse-
quently made the subject of criticism, the preamble of the resolutions being par-
ticularly objected to by the critics who succeeded in causing the subject to be taken
up again at a meeting on October 12, 1857, when the original preamble and reso-
lutions were adopted.
Within a year of this action many of the proscribed had returned to San Fran-
cisco, and some of them brought suits for damages. There were two cases of recov-
ery, those of Charles P. Duane who secured a decree in the United States circuit
court against the owners of the steamer "John L. Stephens" for the sum of $4,000,
and by the Greens who had earned some notoriety in disturbing titles. They asked
for $50,000 and were awarded $150. This latter case was decided in 1860, and its
connection with the Vigilante uprising directs attention to the committee's concern
with other matters than the repression of the criminal classes, and the purification
of municipal politics. It points to an alignment not much dwelt upon in the criti-
cisms of the actions of the Vigilance Committee, but which was perfectly natural
under the circumstances. The fraudulent land grants, and the irregularities at-
tending the sale of water front and other city properties, together with the attempt
of a part of the population to carry into effect the theory that the land belongs
to the man who occupies it had greatly disturbed titles, and the Vigilance Com-
mittee attempted to assist in the work of straightening out those that were most
tangled.
In the case of the Greens they sought to effect this object by compromise. The
family in question had been troublesome squatters, harder to deal with than some
of the others who merely depended upon possession to hold their claims, for they
professed to have valuable documents bearing on the moot question of pueblo
lands. The alleged existence of these papers, which were said to have been de-
rived from one Tiburcio Vasquez, were a cause of disquiet to property owners,
and the Vigilance Committee determined to allay the apprehension by bringing
the Greens before them with the view of malting them produce the disturbing evi-
dence. They were accordingly arrested and subjected to a searching inquisition
which was at one stage converted into a negotiation, Alfred, one of the family, in-
ducing the committee to consider a proposition for the purchase of the papers in
their possession.
Whether tliese documents were of any value is not of as much interest in
this connection as the fact that the Vigilance Committee regarded it as part of
its duties to make an investigation, and that it endeavored to gain possession of the
Green papers by purchasing them from the family. Alfred, who apparently was
not its representative, soon realized that recalcitrancy might prove destructive, and
Title
Disturbers
Bought ofl
The Green
Family'8
Secrets
218
SAN FRANCISCO
Papers
I "Gold
Brick"
The Critic's of
Vigilante
Methods
instead of being defiant, he offered to sell. Although the Vigilance Committee had
numerous lawyers on its roster they were evidently unable to agree as to the value
of the documents. The question whether there had ever been a pueblo at San
Francisco was an intricate one and the committee as a whole felt itself unable to
cope with it, and took the short cut of attempting to buy off the possibly disturbing
elements.
Accordingly they offered Alfred $12,500 for the papers, the sum he had de-
manded, but he refused to give the papers up until his brothers who were held
by the committee on their parole should be tried, and their cases disposed of by
the inquisitors. They were subsequently examined by the executive committee
on August 10th, and all were released excepting Alfred. The charges against
them were probably baseless, not to use the harsher word "trumped up," as they
were dismissed on the ground that they had not been substantiated. Later the
committee reached the conclusion that Alfred had fooled them with worthless
papers, but they had paid him the $12,500 he had demanded. The documents were
subsequently turned over to the United States district court. It is doubtful, how-
ever, whether that disposition would have been made of them had their tenor been
different. If they had been of a character calculated to establish that there had
been no pueblo, it is reasonably certain that the committee would have taken
measures to prevent their proving a further disturbing element in the community.
The actions of the Vigilance Committee of 1856 have rarely been considered
from the same standpoint as other departures from established methods of ad-
ministering the law common in the United States almost from the foundation of
the government. It has often been quoted as the one defensible instance of lynch
law. It was so regarded at the time by a vast majority of the people of San Fran-
cisco and California, and also by a very considerable proportion of the American
people. The latter did not always understand the causes which had brought the
Vigilance Committee into existence, but the belief was general that it was fighting
criminals, and corruption of all kinds, and Americans were ready to applaud even
if the methods adopted were not those which should suffice in a civilized com-
munity.
There was no disposition at any time on the part of those who championed
Vigilante methods to go behind the returns and attempt to discover the causes
which made them necessary. It was assumed without question that the conditions
existing in San Francisco were wholly different from those which might be found
in other American cities, and that they were entirely without precedent. The dis-
covery of gold, and the rush of adventurers to the coast, was supposed to have
inflicted upon San Francisco an overwhelming horde of criminals who could only
be restrained by summary processes, and the safety of society and the preservation
of civilization, it was urged, demanded that they should be put forth.
And yet the evidence is indisputable that this fancied criminal ascendancy
was a myth, and that the trouble was due to the failure of the better elements in
the community to use the peaceful means at their command to exercise restraint.
Instead of decency and respectability asserting itself it quickly submitted to the
introduction of the worst vices of Eastern municipal politicians. An overwhelming
majority of voters who were interested in maintaining good government, instead
of exerting themselves to that end, allowed the Brodericks, and the broken
down politicians of the Atlantic states and the South to conduct their affairs for
SAN FRANCISCO
219
thenQj and the result was precisely the same, so far as misgovernment was con-
cerned, as was witnessed in other sections of the Union where less fuss was made
about such matters than in California, where love of the spectacular has been
something like a passion ever since the discovery of gold.
Red shirts were worn in other cities, and disreputable rowdyism had flourished
in places where the veneer of civilization was a little thicker than in San Fran-
cisco, but no one thought of indicting the whole community on that account.
Probably the mistake of making a target of the Pacific Coast city would not have
been made had there not been shown, from the beginning, a disposition to regard
as picturesque what was merely vulgar, and to assume that because a place is new
that its population, no matter what its previous training, may safely disregard the
conventions of established societies and revert to primitive conditions.
The critics East, West, North and South, had no hestitation whatever in 1856
about accepting San Franciscans at their own valuation. Then, as now, they were
quite ready to believe that the community was out of the ordinary and might there-
fore be a law unto itself. The word "atmosphere" had not yet been applied to
conditions produced by relaxation of the rules which obtain in older communities,
but San Francisco was universally considered as a queer town, peculiar in many
respects, but on the whole very likeable, and not entirely bad even though its peo-
ple sometimes did things that set the whole world talking, and shocked a great
many who regard departure from the beaten track as a serious matter.
It was largely due to this estimate of San Francisco that the federal gov-
ernment refused at any stage of the Vigilante uprising to directly interfere with
its operations. The authorities at Washington were asked by the Law and Order
people to intervene, and the governor set the machinery in motion to bring about
that result, but the Washington politicians managed by one means or another to
evade action. During the administration of Governor Downey in 1860 a bill was
passed by the legislature, and approved by him to pay R. A. Thompson and
Ferris Forman, who were sent to Washington to invoke assistance in putting down
the Vigilance Committee. In the course of the debate over the matter statements
were made which clearly established that it was not uncertainty concerning the
propriety of intervening which held back the administration, but inability to de-
cide whether intervention would interfere or help the cause which those at the
head of affairs had most at heart.
But while the federal authorities on one pretense and another evaded their
duty, there was no lack of sympathy for the advocates of law and order among
the military and naval officers of rank on the coast. But they acted with circum-
spection, and were evidently restrained by orders from Washington which tied
their hands. Thus General John S. Wood, commanding the Pacific division of the
U. S. army, when applied to b_v Governor Johnson on the 4th of June, 1856, for
arms, answered that such a request could be granted only upon the authorization
of the president. In the meantime, however, one of his subordinates at the pre-
sidio. Lieutenant J. H. Gibson, although ordered by Wood to remain perfectly neu-
tral had, on the requisition of ^Mayor Van Ness, promptly issued a quantity of
ammunition. His indiscretion nearly caused him to lose his position, an active
effort to have him cashiered being defeated with some difficulty.
The part played by Sherman in the days of the Vigilance Committee of 1856
illustrates the peculiarities of the situation. A long time subsequent to the upris-
San
Francisco
Atmosphere
Acceptance of
California
Verdict
Federal
Anthorlties
Hold Aloof
SAN FRANCISCO
SoUdarity of
Vigilance
Committee
Failure of
Majority
;o £xereise
its Power
ing he expressed the opinion that if he had been properly supported by the gov-
ernor he would have been able through the instrumentality of the committee of
citizens favoring law and order to bring the operation of the Vigilance Committee
to a standstill, or that he could at least have succeeded in placing the movement in
such a light that it would have lost the support of many who remained identified
with the organization to the last. The point on which Sherman laid stress was
the misleading of Johnson by such men as Terry, Howard and some others, who
made him believe that the committee was weak and ready to give in, and that
the proper method to pursue was to demand an unconditional surrender. The ex-
lieutenant, it appears, was a believer in pacific methods, and advocated a compro-
mise. It is perhaps significant that Volney E. Howard, who was appointed to suc-
ceed Sherman, when the latter resigned the command of the militia in disgust,
because he was not supported, and David S. Terry, later developed into pro-
nounced secessionists and cast in their fortunes with the South at the outbreak of
the Civil war.
The effort to bring about the compromise to which Sherman referred was in-
stituted by a group of citizens at the head of whom were such men as Joseph B.
Crockett, Frederick W. Macondray, Henry S. Foote, Martin R. Roberts, John
Sime, James D. Thornton, James Donohue, John J. Williams and Bailey Peyton.
This committee asked and obtained an interview with the Vigilance Committee
and preferred among other demands that the writ of habeas corpus should be re-
spected, and that all exhibitions of force should be dispensed with. This was on
June 3, 1856, but nothing came of the meeting, the Vigilance Committee planting
itself on the proposition that the Law and Order party should disband their forces,
whereupon the governor withdrew his proclamation. Sherman after this inter-
view accompanied the citizens committee to Benecia, where they met the governor,
but the latter was by that time so completely under the influence of the men men-
tioned that the moderate measures suggested were rejected and force was resolved
upon to compel an unconditional surrender.
The Vigilance Committee to all appearances acted as a unit, but there were
occasional dissensions within the ranks. There was objection at times to the
secrecy of proceedings, and the black list. The former was assailed as dangerous
because it might lead to the same excesses which followed the exercise of arbitrary
authority by the tribunals during the French Revolution, and the singling out of
individuals for proscription on mere suspicion without giving them a trial, it was
feared, might result in injury to innocent persons. But on the whole the Vigilance
Committee was a harmonious body, and the majority of its members were pro-
foundly convinced that the method to which they had resorted was the only one
which could be depended upon to cure the troubles of San Francisco. There may
have been some members whose motives were ulterior, but they were a small minor-
ity, tut candor compels the statement that they were not the least influential mem-
bers of the committee.
The objects of the committee were stated in an address of the executive
committee of the Vigilantes which after reciting various abuses, and dwelling with
great particularity upon election frauds and ballot box stuffing, declared that "em-
bodied in the principles of republican government are the truths that the majority
shall rule, and that when corrupt officials fraudulently seize the reins of authority
SAN FRANCISCO 221
and designedly prevent the execution of the laws of punishment upon the noto-
riously guilty, then the power reverts back to the people from whom it was wrested."
The declaration carries with it the admission that the majority had been Negligence of
negligent in its duties. Had it not been the minority could not have wrested power "^* Majority
from the majority for it could have controlled at the polls as easily before 1856
as it did afterward, had there been half as much zeal displayed as there was when
the People's party came to be a factor in politics.
CHAPTER XXVII
AFFAIRS AT LOOSE ENDS IN THE EARLY FIFTIES
THE PEOPLE NOT INTRACTABLE BAD ELEMENTS NOT HARD TO CONTROL VICES OF
PIONEERS NOT OF THE HIDDEN SORT HIGH LIGHTS ON SHORTCOMINGS FIXING
RESPONSIBILITY FOR EVIL PRACTICES PUTTING THE BLAME ON FOREIGNERS
THE GOLD SEEKERS GROWING COSMOPOLITANISM OF THE CITY NEGLECT OF
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS EVERYBODY BOARDED PREVALENCE OF GAMBLING — THE
GLITTERING BAR ROOMS PORTSMOUTH SQUARE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS GAM-
BLING HOUSE PROPRIETORS GROW RICH REGULATING THE SOCIAL EVIL A MIXED
STATE OP AFFAIRS SOCIALLY NO HOME RESTRAINTS EARLY PHILOSOPHERS
PLENTY OF COLLEGE BRED MEN IN THE CITY ATTEMPTS TO ERADICATE EVIL
PROGRESS TOWARDS ORDER.
ONCENTRATION of attention on the early political his-
tory of San Francisco is apt to produce the impression
that the inhabitants of the City were a particularly in-
tractable people who required the application of extraor-
dinary measures to keep them within bounds. Much of
the evidence concerning this point is presented in a
manner calculated to emphasize this view, but the im-
partial investigator, ready to consider all the facts, is forced to conclude that great
exaggeration has been indulged in by witnesses in order to justify their assumption
that the resort to unusual methods to preserve order was necessary.
Some of the contradictions in the testimony have been pointed out in the
chapters dealing with the Vigilance Committee and its operations. The testimony
of one historian that four-fifths of the population was made up of honest and in-
dustrious Americans has been cited, and his implied and expressed opinion that
this better element could at all times have controlled the disorderly classes had
they performed their civic duties with half the zeal with which they pursued their
personal interests lias been dwelt upon. The expression of such an opinion, while
it seemed called for by the extraordinary exaggeration of the bad features of early
California life, to the logical thinker will always appear superfluous in the face
of the attested fact, that in every instance when the better elements took the trou-
ble to assert themselves, the criminally inclined, and the predatory politicians,
were easily kept in check.
But the precise thinker is not in the majority. The most of those who have
read of the Vigilante episodes of San Francisco have reached the conclusion that
they were a necessary accompaniment of the development of a country whose first
vigorous inhabitants were adventurous men who had cut loose from the ties of
223
Not an
Intractable
People
Bad Elements
Easily
ControIIed
224
SAN FRANCISCO
Vices not
Hidden by
Pioneers
High
Lights on
Shortcomings
Serious Side
of Life not
Neglected
settled communities and were disposed to be a law unto themselves. That there
were many such is undeniable, and that they and their doings were much more in
evidence than that of the majority who were not disposed to break away from
the conventions of the world they left behind them is equally true ; but their pres-
ence and actions did not prove that the whole society was any more reckless than
a procession of red-shirted firemen at about the same period in New York proved
that all the people in that city were "Bowery Boys."
The annalist of San Francisco in telling of the first rush to California describes
a condition of affairs in 1848 which has been taken as typical of a period, but which
really endured but a short time. Telling of the desertion of the town when the
news of the gold discovery at Sutter's fort reached it, and of the speedy growth
which followed the great influx from the East, he says: "Everybody made money
and was suddenly growing rich; nobody had leisure to think for a moment of his
occupation ; all classes gambled, the starched, white neck clothed professor of re-
ligion and the bootblack." The description fitted San Francisco for a short period
only. From the pages of the "Annals" and other sources we can easily extract the
evidence that despite some staring external manifestations San Francisco rapidly
put on the garb of the older sections of the country, adopting most of their virtues,
and neglecting none of the things which contributed to the advancement of civil-
ization.
The men who made San Francisco their home also brought with them some of
the vices of an older civilization, and these were accentuated in appearance by
their refusal to conceal them. They disdained the hypocrisy which takes the
form of hiding evils from the public gaze, and openly practiced vices that were
equally common in other places, but were discreetly hidden behind doors. No one
now seriously urges that this attitude was either admirable or desirable, and few
will deny that the glittering saloons and their wide open doors, and easily accessi-
ble gaming tables, converted many a man into a loafer who might have been a
good citizen, had the temptations to stray from the path of sobriety and industry
not been so numerous ; but it must be borne in mind that in the early Fifties, in
most sections of the Union, puritanical notions concerning gambling and drinking
were not prevalent, and that San Francisco's distinctiveness in this regard was
chiefly due to ostentatious disregard of appearances.
We have been too prone in thinking of early San Francisco to place in the fore-
ground of our mental picture the gilded gin shops, and the painted harlots, while
we have relegated to the rear the churches and schools and other outward evidences
of modern progress. The meretricious desire to find a peculiar atmosphere is
responsible for the fact that the El Dorado and other gambling places in the City
were talked about at home and described in letters to the East, while little or no
mention was made of the soberer side of life. But the omission is repaired by the
testimony of the daguerreotypes reproduced in this volume, in which structures
devoted to religion and learning are conspicuous in the landscape.
At the risk of imperiling the picturesqueness of the narrative it must be told
at the outset that the serious side of life was not wholly subordinated, and that
the churches and schools had their earnest supporters, and that thev were the
saving salt of a community, undoubtedly over much given to struggling for wealth.
The part they played, as is fitting, will be described later on. They were the
instruments which imperceptibly, but nevertheless efficaciously worked toward the
SAN FRANCISCO
regeneration of the City, and to appreciate their work at its real value it is neces-
sary to first portray as faithfully as possible the difficulties with which they had to
contend.
One of the causes assigned by historians when endeavoring to account for the
corruption of Rome in the days of the Empire was the lure of gain its wealth
held out to foreigners. The assumption predicates a state of purity in the Romans
which never existed. It implies that the natives were spoiled by the people who
flocked in upon them from the whole of the known world of the period when in
reality they merely exchanged their uncouth habits and brutal customs for refined
vices. Had they been what the historians assume, a really moral people, they
would not so easily have adopted the vices of the foreigner; they would have
assimilated his good qualities and rejected the bad ones which he brought with
him. It has been the custom during the ages to put the blame for shortcomings
on the stranger. It was not departed from by the early Californians ; if anything
the propensity was exhibited by them in a more marked fashion than usual. There
were several reasons for this. The first was that inspired by the uneasy feeling
of the interloper determined to maintain his position against all comers; and
strongly cooperating with this was the jealousy inspired by the discovery of gold
which gave birth to the apprehension that in the flood of immigration the owners
of the soil through conquest would completely be submerged, and that the treasures
of the new El Dorado would be absorbed by the outlander. But the most potent
factor in the creation of adverse sentiment against foreigners was the transplanted
"Know Nothingism" which flourished luxuriantly in California soil.
San Francisco was not at first disposed to boast of its cosmopolitanism. The
Americans were inclined rather to regard with distrust and suspicion all who
could not speak English. They did not seek to ingratiate themselves with the
native Californians, and were very apt to apply contemptuous names to them, and
to think of them as inferior beings, making few distinctions between the classes
and regarding none of them as entitled to much consideration. There was a dis-
position to be aggressive, or at least to be tolerant of the aggressions of the vicious,
and what is more discreditable than anything else to hold foreigners, as a class,
responsible for outrages in which disreputable Americans figured as freely, and
much more numerously than those of other countries. The Sydney "coves" would
not have been emboldened to act as they did in the affair of the Hounds in 1849
if they had not been well supported by a strong contingent of rowdies and black
legs from the states east of the mountains.
All races were mingled in the influx. There were Chinese and Malays, Abys-
sinians and negroes. Kanakas and New Zealanders, Feejee Islanders, and even Jap-
anese, described as "short, thick, clumsy, ever bowing jacketed fellows," Hindoos,
Russians and a few Turks. The Latin American peoples were well represented,
the number of Chileans, Peruvians and Mexicans being especially noticeable. Ger-
many and Great Britain had large contingents, by far the largest proportion from
the latter country being Irish. The French were not absent from the throng and
there were a few who claimed the distinction of being real Spaniards. And in
greater number than any other nation could boast were the Americans who, how-
ever, were as much strangers in a strange land as those whom at first they were
disposed to regard as interlopers. Happily the intolerant spirit did not last long,
and, except in rare instances, it was unproductive of mischief. In an incredibly
Besponsibility
for Evil
Practices
Puttlns the
Blame on
Foreigners
SAN FRANCISCO
Foreigners
Gain
Respect
Growing
Cosmopolitan-
ism of City
Every
Body
Boarded
brief period there was an astonishing assimilation of all the respectable elements,
only occasionally disturbed by the political manifestations of the "Know Nothings,"
which, however, usually expended their force at the polls. The friction produced
by native Americanism after 1849 was never very great, even though the party
proved victorious in elections and succeeded in putting its candidates into the
gubernatorial chair and on the supreme bench.
It soon came to pass that foreigners were as much esteemed by Americans
generally as though they were citizens, which indeed they took pains to become
as speedily as possible when eligible for the honor. Among the names of the
prominent business men of the Fifties will be found a large proportion whose origin
may be easily detected, and the roll of the Vigilance Committee has its share of
members who were born under other flags than the stars and stripes. Even the
Chinese at that period shared in the general indulgence, and were familiarly
known as "China boys." They were invited to take part in public functions and
treated on terms of perfect equality in San Francisco at a time when they were
being discriminated against in other parts of the world.
With the perception of the fact that foreigners were an advantage rather than
a hindrance to the prosperity of the community San Franciscans became proud of
the cosmopolitan character of their City, and long before the Know Nothing fever
had spent its strength they were wont to dwell upon the varied costumes and
peculiar habits of the people who lived in their midst and made the life of San
Francisco interesting. There are many interesting descriptions of street scenes
in the early Fifties in which the picturesque features receive ample recognition.
The native Californian on his prancing steed or slouching around with serape over
his shoulders was much in evidence. There were a few Indians who roamed the streets
half naked, and Chinese trudged along with baskets suspended from bamboo poles
which rested on their shoulders. Red shirted men were numerous, but they could
hardly be regarded as distinctive, for that garment was much aifected at the time
by firemen and others in Eastern cities. An occasional woman was sometimes
seen parading her rich attire, for the purpose of advertising her calling.
The condition of the streets used by this motley gathering from all parts of the
world received as much attention from the critics as the people. It was indescrib-
ably bad. The thoroughfares could hardly have tempted pedestrians to extraordi-
nary effort. At first there were mere pathways of boards, and later there were
walks which were illy divided from the planked roadways. They were unclean
by day and unlighted by night, rendering them dangerous, as in many places they
crossed swamps in which one might easily pay a serious penalty for carelessness.
There was a plague of rats of all sorts, many of them doubtless introduced into the
new country by the ships which brought the immigrants. There are old prints
depicting the consternation they created in the female breast, which amusingly
illustrate the extent of the evil and at the same time call attention to the almost
total neglect of sanitary precautions.
The buildings which housed the people were not much better than the streets.
Small rough board shanties were numerous, and tents were freely used for shelter
until successive disastrous fires to which the City was a victim compelled the aban-
donment of such flimsy structures. In the first year after the gold rush home life
was almost unknown. At the close of 1849 nearly everybody lived in boarding
houses, or at restaurants, which were numerous, but with rare exceptions were
JENNY LIND THEATEE, LATER CONVEETED INTO A CITY HALL, ON EAST SIDE
OF KEAENY STEEET, OPPOSITE PORTSMOUTH SQUAEE
The saloon on the left was the famous El Dorado
MASONIC TEMPLE, MONTGOMERY AND POST STREETS, ERECTED IN
1800 AND DESTROYED BY FIRE OF 1906
SAN FRANCISCO 227
wretchedly deficient in anything contributing to human comfort, although those
who conducted them exacted enormous prices for the miserable accommodations and
fare provided by them.
It would have been amazing if under such circumstances a population composed
almost wholly of men could have escaped the allurements of the saloon and the
gambling table. The lack of opportunity for unobjectionable recreation, and the
disposition to squander easily gained wealth combined, greatly stimulated the inher-
ent tendency of men to indulge in games of chance, and there were plenty ready to
provide the means to gratify the propensity. As a result, when gambling is un-
restrained, it became a passion for the many, and a mere matter of business for
the cold and calculating professionals who lived by preying upon the unwary. It
cannot be said that the vice was introduced into the country by those who made
their way to California when gold was discovered, for the natives were inveterate
gamblers; but the newcomers brought with them many strange methods of parting
the fool from his money, which were formerly tmknown, and which became fully
as popular as the Spanish game known as monte which had up to 1849 been the
chief diversion of the people.
The games mostly played in the big saloons were monte, faro, roulette, rouge
et noir and mngt-u7i. Poker, which later vied in attractiveness with the games <'a™«8
mentioned is not often referred to among the fascinations held out by the dens
clustered about Portsmouth square, although it must have been played, as it was
well known in the South, and on the Mississippi years before 1849, and long before
Bret Harte wrote his stirring verses on the celebrated encounter between Ah Sin
and the haughty Caucasian. The stakes pla_yed for were often high. The annal-
ist tells of a single wager in which $16,000 was risked, and his testimony is amply
corroborated by others who assert that it was no uncommon thing for men to come
in from the mines and get rid in a single night of all the gold gathered by them
during months of toil.
We may trust the descriptions of the gambling saloons (they can hardly be cuttering Bar
called dens, their aggressive openness would make the term a misnomer) up to a "<">■"»
certain point, but unless we keep in mind the changed significance of adjectives we
may easily be misled by the free use of such words as glitter and magnificent.
Things are usually judged relatively, and measured by their surroundings the ap-
pellation "palace" may have seemed appropriate, but there is reason to believe that
the showest were tawdry affairs despite the almost uniform testimony of the argo-
nauts to the contrary. A woman, writing under the nom de ■plume of "Shirley," in
a sketch in which she entered into details, conveys the impression that a bar room
trimmed with red calico, from the midst of which gleamed a mirror flanked by de-
canters and jars of brandied fruit, was regarded in the mining country as something
luxurious. We may assume that the saloons of the metropolis were provided with
better adornments than this description implies, but specimens of what were once
known as "gorgeous" affairs survived down to a comparatively recent period and
permitted the more discerning critic to decide that the impression of grandeur was
produced largely by a display of glittering glass, mirrors, and a little gilt, and
that if reproduced today they would hardly be considered an attractive addition
to the water front of a sea port.
Until very recently the alert traveler, anxious to see novel sights, might have
obtained a fair impression of San Francisco's bustling center in 1849 by examining
SAN FRANCISCO
Women In
Gamblins
Places
Honse
Proprietors
nourish
any of the open places so common in towns of considerable size along the transcon-
tinental railroads. Portsmouth square, like these more recent examples of pioneer
life, was flanked by saloons. The whole eastern side was devoted to them, and a
not inconsiderable portion of the street on the south. The latter was particularly
affected by gamblers, and many of the saloons whose names were almost household
words in California for years were situated there. Gambling, however, was by no
means confined to these places whose owners used every device to bring the man
with money to their tables; it was pursued in all the hotels of consequence, the
practice being to set aside rooms where "gentlemen" could find a quiet game, from
which we may infer that, while everyone may have gambled, there were some who
did not care to openly advertise the fact that they were gamblers.
In all the big saloons women dealt cards and turned the roulette wheels. It
goes without saying that they were of the lower world, and that they owed their
positions to that fact. In some of the larger saloons there were as many as a dozen
tables, and it was usual to make large displays of gold upon them, the spectacle
being arranged with especial reference to exciting the cupidity of the visitors. The
policing of the town was notoriously bad for the first few years after the discovery
at Sutter's fort, but it is one of the anomalies of the period, that although the men
entrusted with the rule of the community could not preserve order the saloonkeep-
ers succeeded in doing so in their places, their motto being "no interference with
the progress of the game." Brawlers and fault-finders were summarily ejected,
and the sentiment of the visitors usually approved the methods of securing peace
even when they were accompanied by a display of force.
It is not of record that the argonauts generally succeeded in amassing wealth,
although the opportunities for thrifty persons to do so were abundant; but the pro-
prietors of the saloons were, as a rule, forehanded, and many of those conducting
the popular places made big fortunes. Their patrons were cast in a diilerent
mould, and with them it was "easy come, easy go." No one has attempted to re-
duce to terms of percentage the proportion of the first comers who were heedful
enough of the future to save a competence, but it was not large. It was not the
miner who made a lucky strike who loomed up as an important figure in the com-
munity. He too often realized the adage concerning "a fool and his money," and
when he parted with his "dust" or "nuggets," not infrequently it was to the man
who ran the gambling tables and to dissolute women.
Of the latter the community soon had more than its share. Among the earliest
to appear on the scene were numerous Mexicans and Chileans, and it was their
presence which formed one of the excuses for the depradations on the Latin Amer-
icans by the Hounds, who alleged that they aided their paramours in robbing the
indiscreet visitors to their quarter. They were probably no worse than their sisters
of evil repute from other countries, who surpassed in audacity the Mexican and
Chilean women, who were not unaware of the fact that they were especial objects
of that peculiar resentment which is often manifested against the conquered by the
conquering class, and were less obtrusive on that account than their rivals. It was
noted in 1 8.13 that there was a small and steady increase of female immigrants, and
that among them were some "beautiful and modest women." but the preponderance
of the disreputable class was such that the annalist feelingly remarks that "there
are common prostitutes enough to bring disgrace on the place." He also adds that
many men openly maintained mistresses. Perhaps the severest indictment against
SAN FRANCISCO
229
the looseness of the period was the flagrant disregard of the decencies of life
which attended this practice. It was no uncommon thing for men of standing in
the community to parade their mistresses in public, and to obtrude them on women
having claims to respectability. But not infrequently men who thus defied the
conventionalities later repaired their error by accepting to the fullest extent the
obligations imposed by the relation, and clothed their mistresses with the title of
wife without the intervention of minister, priest or justice.
The social evil and gambling were a source of trouble to the authorities, who
resorted to various devices to check them but with little success. Very early an
ordinance was adopted, and promptly repealed, authorizing the seizure of money
openly displayed on gaming tables. The sentiment of the period did not sustain
the effort, and in 1854, when the common council passed a stringent ordinance
against houses of ill fame, and penalizing the inmates, it was soon permitted to
fall into desuetude. At first it was rigidly enforced against the cheap brothels of
the Mexicans and Chileans, but when it was sought to extend its operation to "the
fashionable white Cyprians," it was promptly discovered that it was "intrinsically
illegal and tyrannous in some of its provisions." A commentator of the period tells
us that it was soon found out "that impurity hid by walls could not be put down
by mere legislation."
This attitude was not changed for manj' years, and while the evils ran their
course "society" in San Francisco can only be described as very mixed. General
Sherman in his "Memoirs" gives us a glimpse of the state of affairs in a story he
tells about a chance encounter on the ship which brought him to California in 1853.
It appears that the general, who was then a young officer, was obliging enough to
help two "ladies" to secure a change of the stateroom assigned to them, and as a
result of his courtesy he not only lost his own berth, but was recorded as being
their escort, the passenger list reading "Captain Sherman and ladies." "At every
meal," he tells us, "the steward would come to him and say 'Captain will you bring
your ladies to the table .''' " The "ladies" were the most modest and best behaved
on the ship, but sometime after San Francisco was reached a fellow passenger
asked the captain if he personally knew Mrs. D., who had so sweetly sang for
them, and who had come out under his special escort. He told the inquiring indi-
vidual that she was a chance acquaintance of the voyage, and that she expected to
meet her husband, who lived near Mokelumne hill. He was then informed that
Mrs. D. was "a woman of the town." "Society was decidedly mixed in California
in those days," was the general's comment on the incident.
The fact that very few of the gold seekers were in the country vrith a view of
making it their home was more largely than anything else responsible for the
loose conditions described. In 1852 many who had made their "pile" were leaving,
and usually they made it very clear that they had no desire to return. While many
of the earliest American settlers had abundant faith in the future development of
California and clearly perceived that San Francisco was destined to become a great
sea port, not a few of those who rushed into the country in search of gold, deceived
by unfamiliar conditions, quickly reached the conclusion that the land was not fit
to live in, and that about the only thing it was good for was to extract the precious
metal from its soil. Their brief experience inclined them to share the belief of the
Mexican governor, who reported to his government that California was too good
for convicts, but not exactly a desirable place for decent people.
Resulatins
the Social
Evil
A Very Mixed
Society
230
SAN FRANCISCO
Plenty of
College
Bred Men
Nostalgia, sometimes in its acute and again in its milder form, was productive
of extremely pessimistic views. The morbidly homesick man always looks at the
dark side of things, and San Francisco in the first year of the fifty decade was
filled with adventurers thus afflicted. The distractions of the bar room and other
dissipations were resorted to by some to quell their pangs; it was not always the
mere love of excitement that turned men from the straight path in pioneer days;
too frequently it was the desire to escape mental torments that drove them to ex-
cesses, which, under other conditions, would not have appealed to them. The ad-
venturous class may be entitled to all the encomiums bestowed upon it by writers
who admire the microbe of unrest; it may have more than its share of the spirit
of enterprise ; its stock in trade may embrace courage and intelligence, but it does
not possess stability of character in an unusual degree. The mass of the argonauts
were singularly deficient in this latter respect. It was a long time before they
began to show a disposition to look upon San Francisco as a desirable town in
which to abide permanently. As late as March, 1855, we find Governor Bigler
extolling as one of the advantages of San Francisco the facilities offered by the
port for shipping "home" the oil and bone taken by the whalers in the North Pacific,
who by that time had begun to use the harbor as a place for wintering.
There were some, however, who amid the excitement and the discomforts inci-
dent to existence in a town which had sprung up like a mushroom, were able to
philosophize and make the best of circumstances. One such was the writer of the
"Annals," who, after telling us that "San Francisco was in a state of moral fer-
ment;" that "the scum and froth of its strange mixture, of its many scoundrels,
rowdies, and great men, loose women, sharpers and few honest folk" was about
all that was visible in the current of the daily life of the City, was still able to
exclaim: "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 his admiring
neighbors." The prediction has been amply fulfilled, and as might be expected
the oracle has not always approached his narrative in a critical mood. He may at
one time have longed as ardently as a boarding school girl for "home," and may
have loathed his surroundings even though he contributed to making them what
they were, but when the change came, when San Francisco became habitable by
a process of elimination, repression and addition, he became as ardently attached
to the City as though its early history were without a blemish. Forgotten were the
vicissitudes and the hardships, the incessant drinking and gambling, and the daily
calendar of crime. The only memory that has survived is that of achievement and
in that all the argonauts share, even he who remarks with complacency that he
might once have bought the lot on Market street, now worth a million dollars or
more, for a pair of old boots if he had been thoughtful enough of the future to
have done so, or if he had the old boots to spare to make the purchase.
All the adventurers who thronged to California in the early days did not make
fortunes, and all the fortunes that were made were not accumulated in the mines.
Many a respectable citizen of later days commenced his career in San Francisco
by accepting a menial position. We hear a great deal now-a-days of college stu-
dents earning sufficient money to procure an education by waiting on the table ; in
pioneer days the job of "waiter" was sought by many college graduates who had
been more proficient in earning educational honors than they were in the work of
finding gold or in the pursuit of the more prosaic occupations. It is said that in
SAN FRANCISCO
231
1850 there were more collegians in San Francisco than any other city in the coun-
try, and unless the chroniclers of the period grossly misrepresent the facts they
found more difficulty in adapting themselves to their new environment than the
mass of gold hunters and other adventurers less equipped with learning.
It would be a mistake to assume that the conditions described required the dras-
tic performances of the Vigilantes to bring about their elimination. Something
better than the inspiration of fear was steadily undermining the powers of dark-
ness. The introduction of those agencies of civilization which have lifted man to
the high plane he now occupies followed close upon the heels of the adventurer.
It may have seemed a correct judgment to the annalist when he summed up the
situation by asserting "that nearly all come to the City as devout worshippers of
Mammon." The facts, however, do not bear out his view, for the evidence of the
working of the leaven of good clearly indicates that there were plenty of earnest
men who labored hard to eradicate evil in the early Fifties, and that while their
fight was an uphill one it never seemed hopeless to them. Nor did it seem so to the
writer of the "Annals," whose alternations between pessimism and hopefulness
testify to the sincerity of his narrative, for he was able to record in 1854 that "for
the honest, industrious and peaceful man San Francisco is now as safe a residence
as can be found in any other large city. For the rowdj^ and shoulder striker, the
drunkard, the insolent, foul-mouthed speaker, the quarrelsome, desperate politi-
cian and calumnious writer, the gambler, the daring speculator in strange ways of
business, it is a dangerous place to dwell in. There are many such here, and it is
their excesses and quarrels that make our sad daily record of murders, duels, etc."
The admission that there were still plenty of rogues in San Francisco, and
that they engaged in excesses does not impair the force of the statement that the
Citj' had become a safe place of residence for the peaceable and industrious. While
the City had not yet reached the stage of orderliness attained in the older com-
munities it was fast marching in that direction. The conspicuously vicious features
had by no means disappeared, but there were daily additions being made to the
agencies calculated to counteract their harmfulness. There was still much open
flaunting of vice, too much gambling and a great deal of drinking; but schools,
churches, charities and social organizations were multiplying rapidlj', and what was
of much more consequence the number of homes was increasing. It may be neces-
sary to again recur to the darker side of San Francisco life in dealing with this
period, but before doing so, lest the impression be conveyed that it was once like
the city abandoned by Lot, it is desirable to present the facts which show that the
struggle toward the light began earl}-, and that while it did not eventuate in creat-
ing a community of the sort found in many parts of the East, that the efforts, on the
whole, were successful in making the metropolis of the Pacific coast a desirable
place in which to live and work out the problems of modern civilization.
Attempts
Eradicate
Progress
Towards
Order
CHAPTER XXVIII
CONDITIONS IMPROVE SOCIALLY AND OTHERWISE IN THE CITY
STRUGGLE FOR DECENCY FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS CHURCHES FOUNDED ALL
THE DENOMINATIONS REPRESENTED A UNION OF PROTESTANT CONGREGATIONS
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE FIRST PROTESTANT SERMON IN CALIFORNIA THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH BISHOP ALEMANY ARRIVES THE PIOUS FUND SAN FRANCISCo's FIRST
CATHEDRAL ATTEMPTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE CHINESE IMPROVED MANNERS AND
MORALS THANKSGIVING DAY PIONEER DIVORCES PASSAGE OF A SUNDAY LAW.
ACH passing year brought an improvement to San Francisco,
we are told by the annalist, and we may credit his state-
ment even though at times he despairingly exclaimed that
the City was going to the dogs. Among the changes for
the Better noted by him in 1850 was the fact that some of
the immigrants were sending "home" for their families.
The most of the inhabitants were still living simply to
heap up dollars, but the churches and a few good people were establishing sociable
and charitable organizations. The prisons were full, but they could not hold a
tithe of the offenders and there was a good deal of talk about lynch law. There
was some disquiet caused by fear of incendiarism, and gambling was common; the
drink habit was dreadfully prevalent. Treating was carried to extremes and carouses
were indulged in by many. From the gambling dens increasingly came the cry
"the ace! the ace! the ace! a $100 to him who will tell the ace! Who will name
the ace of spades? A $100 to anyone who will tell the ace!" The play went on
by day and night. Through the twenty-four hours foolish men were getting rid
of their hard-earned dust or nuggets, and the adventurers of the Cora stamp untir-
ingly devoted themselves to the task of relieving the silly ones of the money they
were anxious to get rid of, although the most of them professed to believe that
they were striving to augment their store. But decency entered into competition
with blackguardism, and while its advocates had an uphill fight before them they
never lost courage and always felt sure of victory in the end.
It is interesting to follow the contest. It began early in 1849. Against the
revelries of the bar room were placed the attractions of the lodge. Instead of men
spending all their time and money in a society in which each sought to drag the
other down the more sober minded were organizing for rational enjoyment and
mutual benefit. In 1849 a lodge of Masons was formed under a charter granted
by the District of Columbia and named the California Lodge. It was small in
numbers at first and held its meetings in a room in the third story of a house on
Montgomery street. In less than six months, on the 17th of April, 1850, a grand
233
Changing
Social
Conditions
SAN FRANCISCO
First
Protestant
Church
ew Brick
Chnrch
Boildine
lodge was organized and in 1852 there were as many as thirteen lodges in the City.
Organizations of Odd Fellows were effected with equal promptitude. California
Lodge No. 1 was started in 1849 and in 1853 a grand lodge was formed, and by
1854 there were five more or kss flourishing lodges in the city. In 1849 there was
also organized by the Rev. T. D. Hunt a temperance society which waged war on
the saloon and did its part in the work of regeneration.
After the occupation by the Americans the new members of the community were
quick to introduce their religion. The Mission church at Dolores had met the needs
of the Catholics up to that time, and there were few of any other denomination
until the gringo came. In 1847, on the 6th of May, a public meeting was held in
the City to consider the question of erecting a Protestant church and a committee
was appointed to that end. There is some dispute as to which denomination is en-
titled to the honor of priority. The claim is made for the Baptists that they erected
in 1849, in the month of July, a structure, which was the first Protestant edifice on
the coast with the exception of a small chapel built in Washington county, Oregon,
by Rev. Victor Snelhng in 184S. The San Francisco church was not very imposing
in appearance, having Oregon pine boards for walls and ship's sails spread over
scantlings serving as a roof. The major part of the cost of construction was borne
by one person, Charles L. Ross, but he was stimulated and encouraged in his work
by the American Baptist Home Missionary Society of New York. Its first pastor
was the Rev. Osgood C. MHieeler, who arrived in San Francisco in February, 1849.
On March 18th services were held bj"^ him in the new church, and it is recorded that
in closing an address on the 17th of June in that year he predicted the great com-
mercial future of the City, and urged upon his hearers the importance of the Bap-
tist church effecting a thorough organization so that its religious work could develop
with the City and become a part of its future greatness. In August, 1850, the
second Baptist church in San Francisco was organized with twelve members. This
congregation held its services in a rented building on the north side of Pine street,
not far from the site of the present California Market, but the organization only
continued a few months. Its members after the disbandment of the congregation
united with the first church. The first pastor. Rev. Mr. Wheeler, resigned his pas-
torate in November, 1851, and for an interval the pulpit of the First Baptist
church was filled regularly by ministers of other denominations. It appears that
the worldliness and the bustle and excitement of the City in the first two years
after the discovery of gold made S.an Francisco seem a profitless field for religious
work, and there was some difficulty in getting a successor, but the place was finally
filled by Rev. Benjamin Brierly, who began his ministrations on September 29,
1852. It is interesting to note that his salary was fixed at $3,000 a year.
In July, 1853, the membership of the church had increased to seventy- five. In
the meantime the building on Washington street had been enlarged, but the increas-
ing attendance demanded more commodious quarters and the building of a brick
edifice was resolved upon by the congregation. The new church was 52x85 in size
and had a seating capacity of 450 when finally completed in 1857. Its construction
was delayed by various causes, but the congregation had the forethought to retain
the old building, which they removed to the rear of their lot and used it as their
place of worship until they were installed in their new quarters. Mr. Brierly's
ministrations lasted six years. There was an interval between his departure in
May, 1858, in which the pulpit was not filled. In June, 1859, Rev. Dr. Cheney,
SAN FRANCISCO
235
of Philadelphia, accepted a call and within a year after he commenced his labors
the congregation was nearly doubled.
In the "Annals" we are told that in 1852 it was noted that the number of
women immigrants were increasing, and that many of them were of a better class
than the earlier arrivals. This testimony is amply corroborated by the statement
that on the day after Christmas, 1849, John C. Pelton and his wife opened a school
with three pupils in the First Baptist church building, the free use of which was
granted to him by resolution of the trustees. In April, 1850, the number of pupils
had increased to 130, and the care of the school was assumed by the city council,
and Pelton and his wife were paid $500 a month for their services. The pioneer
school continued to occupy the church building, rent free, until its destruction in
the fire of June 22, 1851, and at one time it had close to 300 scholars enrolled.
The significance of this increase, and the further statement that there was a flour-
ishing Sunday school maintained, will be realized by those who carefully trace the
connection between it and the steady improvement of the condition of the com-
munity.
The first Presbyterian church of San Francisco was due to the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions, which sent the Rev. Albert Williams to this City in 1849.
He arrived on April 1st, and in accordance with instructions he opened a school in
a small tent on Portsmouth square, near its northwestern corner, but he said subse-
quently: "I had no more children than if I had opened it on the Desert of Sahara,
and for the same reason — there were no children in either place." In the course
of a couple of weeks, however, he succeeded in securing four pupils, but he only
retained them for a few days as their parents abandoned the City for the mines
and took their progeny with them. Mr. Williams commenced preaching at once
after his arrival, but owing to insufficient housing accommodations he was compelled
to move from place to place for several Sundays, but finally, on May 20th, he
secured a location for a good sized tent and organized the First Presbyterian
church of San Francisco. A writer who has traced the fortunes of the church since
its establishment tells us that "although the Baptists, under the ministerial charge
of Reverend O. C. Wheeler, had been holding Sunday services in the private house
of Charles L. Ross for several weeks, they had not formally organized as a church,
so the First Presbyterian church," he says, "stands as the first Protestant church
organization inaugurated in San Francisco."
When the First Presbyterian church was organized the only Protestant minis-
ters in San Francisco were Rev. Albert Williams, Presbyterian; Rev. O. C. Wheeler,
Baptist; Rev. T. Dwight Hunt, Congregationalist; Rev. Wm. Taylor, Methodist,
and Revs. F. S. Mines and J. L. Ver Mehr, Episcopalian. On August 19, 1849,
a lot was secured by the Presbyterians on Dupont between Pacific and Broadway,
and a large tent, the property of a disbanded miners' association, was bought and
pitched. At the very first meeting under the canvas the small congregation was
gratified by the announcement that a church building had been bought in New
York and was being shipped around the Horn. It arrived in due season and was
duly set up on Stockton street between Pacific and Broadway and "thirty-two ladies
were present at the dedication," a notable fact, as it was the largest number of
women ever gathered in a place of worship (excluding the Mission Dolores) in
San Francisco up to that time. This building was destroyed in one of the fires of
1851. A new church was planned to take the place of that which had been burned.
Women
Iminisrants
Increasing;
First
Presbyterian
Church
Frotestant
Ministers in
1S49
SAN FRANCISCO
Cnion ot
Protestant
Coneresrations
It was to be of brick, but its construction, owing to the vicissitudes of the times,
proceeded slowly and it was not entirely completed for several years, the services
being meanwhile held under a temporary roof. With the rapid increase of popu-
lation between 1850 and 1860 other Presbyterian churches were organized. In
1851 Howard church was formed with Rev. S. H. Willey as pastor. It was located
on Mission street near Third. In June, 1854, a number of members of the First
church were granted letters to form a new congregation and Calvary Presbyterian
church was ushered into existence. The first pastor was Rev. W. A. Scott, and he
filled its pulpit until 1863, when he was succeeded by Rev. William Wadsworth,
who in turn was followed by the Rev. John Hemphill. The first Calvary church
was built on the north side of Bush street between Montgomery and Sansome.
Although the first Presbyterian church, as already stated, was organized under
the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions by the Reverend Albert
W^heeler in 1849, the Rev. T. D wight Hunt, a minister of that denomination, had
arrived in San Francisco a year earlier from the Hawaiian islands with a view of
establishing a church. In the "Californian" an announcement of his arrival was
printed, and the statement was made that a fund had been raised by a number of
citizens to maintain a Protestant chaplain, which office had been unanimously ten-
dered to Mr. Hunt and by him accepted. A popular meeting was held in the Insti-
tute on Portsmouth square on November 1, 1848, which was presided over by
Edward E. Harrison, and James Creighton acted as secretary. Addresses were
made by several present and five trustees were elected: C. E. Wetmore, Joseph
Banden, C. V. Gillespie, C. L. Ross and E. H. Harrison. Mr. Hunt was chosen
chaplain for one year and an appropriation of $2,000 was made for his support.
This was distinctly a union of various prominent denominations, and Mr. Hunt had
agreed to make no eifort to found a church of his own preference during his incum-
bency of the chaplainship. The ministrations of Mr. Hunt signalized the advent
of Protestantism in San Francisco and he is regarded by the members of the various
denominations as the pioneer preacher of the City. It is related that Mr. Hunt's
exhortations were effectively employed against conducting business on Sunday, a
practice almost universal at the time in California. Whatever he may have accom-
plished in that regard, however, was not enduring, for Sunday closing remained
a vexed question for many years. Efforts were made at various times to restrict
the practice by law, but the sentiment of the people did not favor restraint, al-
though the closing habit finally became established by general consent, which was
by no means accorded through consideration for religion but rather through the
growing recognition of the necessity of a day of rest.
The first sermon preached by a Methodist minister was heard in an adobe
building opposite Portsmouth square on the 24th of April, 1847. It was not the
first time Methodist doctrine was expounded in the City, for before the arrival of
the Rev. William Roberts, missionary superintendent of Oregon and California, a
layman named Anthony at different times talked to the few Protestants in the com-
munity, and tradition asserts that he spoke with great fervor. It is also stated
that sea captains were sometimes moved to speak "the word," and that they did so
convincingly, but to very small congregations. It was not, however, until August,
1848, that the first Methodist congregation was regularly organized, and its first
church was not dedicated until October 8, 1849. It was a very humble edifice.
SAN FRANCISCO
237
25x40. feet, rudely built, and its first pastor was William Taylor, afterwards or-
dained bishop.
In the following year steps were taken to found the University of the Pacific,
now the College of the Pacific. This institution takes rank as the premier in the
field of the higher learning in California, a claim which Methodists love to dwell
upon, as they also do upon the fact that in 1851 they founded the "Christian Advo-
cate," the first religious paper published in the new state. In this year the Howard
Street church was organized with Rev. M. C. Briggs as its first pastor. Dr. Briggs,
like the Rev. Starr King, was an eloquent advocate of the preservation of the Union
and shares with liim the honor of crystallizing the sentiment which proved power-
ful enough to thwart the plans of Southerners who hoped to bring about the seces-
sion of California.
In a sketch prepared for the author the claim is urged on behalf of the Congre-
gationalists that the honor of establishing the first Protestant church in San Fran-
cisco belongs to them. The writer states "that out of the union service presided
over by Mr. Hunt in November, 1848, emerged the First Congregational church, and
that Mr. Hunt, though a Presbyterian, was called to be its pastor." He adds that
by "what was regarded as a bit of innocent and amusing, but rather sharp practice
the First Presbyterian church, led by Rev. Mr. Williams, hastened its formal or-
ganization and perfected it three or four days in advance of the others." For this
reason the writer of the reminiscence believes that the order of priority should be
Congregational, Methodist and Baptist. The zeal displayed thus early by the
different church organizations unmistakably indicates that the workers in the re-
ligious field had no doubt about the outcome of their labors, and that they divined
the real condition of affairs and understood the temperament of the people of San
Francisco far better than those who pessimistically declared that the City was ut-
terly without saving salt.
Although the Catholic church, by reason of its long establishment in the province,
should have been firmly intrenched in San Francisco at the time of the occupation,
that does not appear to have been actually the case. The "Annals" tell us that the
condition of St. Francis church was not inviting, that its attendance was very small,
and that the congregation was usually composed of women. It was built of adobes,
was very plain externally and had a comfortless interior, but was the possessor of
some fine bells, which were probably cast in the Russian foundry at Sitka. The
apathy, however, was soon changed into activity when the adventurers began to pour
into the City from the Eastern states, and other parts of the world, for among them
was a considerable number of Catholics of the sort who believed that works were
a necessary accompaniment of faith.
There were several Irish colonists in California before the gold rush, who had
crossed the plains, and they had been preceded by others who had made their way
into the territory by other routes. The influential among these were quick to dis-
cern the possibilities of the future and they wrote to Bishop Hughes of New York,
describing the condition of affairs and urging him to interest himself in organizing
the church. The needs of the people were brought to the attention of Rome and a
young Spanish provincial, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, who had labored for ten years
in the missions of Kentucky and Tennessee, was settled upon as the one best adapted
to meet the difficulties of the change of rule in California and to harmonize the old
with the new regime. Alemany numbered among his friends and admirers ex-
Disputed
Question
Priority
Irish
Colonists
Ask for
Bishop
SAN FRANCISCO
DiTision oi
tUe Pious
Fund
The
Sequestered
Fund
Kegained
Growth of
Church
tinder
President Andrew Jackson, and this with his Spanish affiliations, it was properly
assumed would lessen friction should any occur. Alemany was consecrated in the
Dominican church of the Minerva in Rome in June, 1850, and arrived in San Fran-
cisco on December 7th of that year and was given a reception in the school room
of St. Francis church built by Father Langlois, on which occasion a purse of
$1,350 was raised to help pay his expenses in visiting at least a part of his vast
diocese, which extended from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains.
The necessity of resorting to this early collection was imposed upon the Cath-
olics by the Mexicans, who diverted to political uses what was called the Pious
Fund, which was started as early as 1697 in New Spain, by Father Salvatierra.
The Church of Nuestra Seriora de los Dolores of Mexico, and private individuals,
contributed sums to this fund ranging from $10,000 to $20,000, the money to be
applied to missionary work, each new mission to receive a donation of at least
$10,000 for its maintenance. The original contributions were judiciously invested
by the Jesuits and when the income of the fund was transferred to the Dominicans
and Franciscans in Upper and Lower California it amouted to $50,000 a year.
From 1811 to 1818 and afterwards to 1828 the church in California received nothing
from the fund; instead the missions were often subjected to enforced contributions.
In 1832 the Mexican congress ordered the properties belonging to the Pious Fund
to be rented for a term not to exceed seven years, the proceeds to be deposited in
the mint for the benefit of the California missions. In the ensuing year the Mexi-
can governor, Figueroa took the ground that owing to the law of secularization the
missions no longer existed and in 1834 a congressional decree was issued that all
missions of the republic should be secularized and converted into curacies, their limits
to be designated by the governors of the different states.
Many years afterward the fund thus sequestered was regained for the church
by the activity of Archbishop Riordan, but when Bishop Alemany came on the
scene in 1850, despite the labors of the missionaries and their accumulations, the
Catholic faithful of San Francisco were as poor as the founders of the Christian
religion. Besides the Mission Dolores, which was some three miles from the new
town, there was the little adobe church of St. Francis, and only two priests. Fathers
Langlois and Croke. The former's congregation had been made the victim of an
imposter in 18i9, who had obtained a considerable sum by misrepresentations, and
he was determined that there should be no repetition of the offense, and it is related
as an amusing incident that he asked Bishop Alemany to exhibit his credentials
before giving him his confidence.
Soon after the advent of Bishop Alemany the activities of the church were
greatly increased. In 1851 a new parish was organized in a hall on the corner of
Third and Jesse streets and by a vote of the congregation it was named St. Pat-
ricks. About the same time a pioneer who had been on the ground long before the
forty-niners arrived, donated the land where the Palace hotel now stands for a
church, orphanage and school. This orphanage was the first refuge of the kind
established in California, it having been the custom of the native Californians to
adopt into families the unfortunate children deprived of their parents. The insti-
tution was well supported from the date of its foundation. It was the precursor
of many other charitable institutions founded by the Catholics all of which flour-
ished under their care. In 1852 San Francisco was made a diocese and an arch-
diocese at the same time, the formal translation of Archbishop Alemany to the
SAN FRANCISCO
239
Metropolitan See of San Francisco taking place on July 29, 1853. The jurisdic-
tion of the new archdiocese extended from Santa Cruz to Oregon and from the
Pacific to the Great Divide, an area almost half as large again as France.
The first cathedral in San Francisco was that of St. Marys on the corner of
California and Dupont streets. Its corner stone was laid on the 17th of July,
1853. The site was donated by Mrs. Catherine Sullivan, and the edifice erected
was for a long period the most notable in San Francisco. It was destroyed in the
great conflagration of 1906, only the walls surviving, but was restored without
any change being made in its appearance, and stands today as a reminder of the
fact that there was some good designing done in the early Fifties. The cost of
the original structure was $175,000, and there is a tradition that its erection con-
tributed largely to the quieting of the pretensions of Benicia which for a time
exhibited a disposition to engage in rivalry with San Francisco for supremacy of
the bay. "Old St. Marys," as it came to be called, remained the cathedral until
1891 when the structure on Van Ness avenue was completed.
On the 9th of April, 1856, the French Catholics bought for $15,000 the Baptist
church on Bush street between Dupont and Stockton streets and converted it to
their own use. Gustave Touchard made the purchase. The French government
at this time was much interested in San Francisco and made an appropriation of
450 francs annually for its maintenance. Even with this munificent help the
church did not flourish. It was badly administered and was seized for a debt of
$30,000. Two years earlier the Germans of San Francisco established a congre-
gation in an iron building which had been used as a store on Montgomery street
by Tucker the pioneer jeweler. Mr. Tucker had prospered and built a new place
for his business and generously presented the iron building to the Germans, a
graceful and courageous act considering the fact that he was a Protestant and
that Know Nothingism was rampant at the time. The building was removed to a
lot on the north side of Sutter, between Kearny and Montgomery streets, where
it was used by the German Catholics until 1869, when they procured a fifty vara
lot on Golden Gate avenue, then Tyler street, between Jones and Leavenworth
streets.
The Italians in the early days, although later they became very numerous, the
colony numbering fully 20,000, had no church of their own prior to 1884. They
were looked after spiritually by Old St. Marys, which for a period was a poly-
glot congregation, the priests ministering at different masses to Italians, Spaniards,
French and German and preaching in those languages. In old St. Francis, which
had the distinction of being the first Catholic cathedral of San Francisco, there
were sermons in English, Spanish, French and Italian. By 1857 the congregation
of St. Francis had so enlarged that the construction of a new church in the Gothic
style was begun by Father Magagnotte. St. Patrick's on Market street also
increased its membership rapidly, and was obliged as early as 1854 to erect a new
church to take the place of the modest frame structure which had served the
parish during three or four years, and which was converted into a school house
and used as such until 1872 when church and school moved to Mission street
between Third and Fourth.
Very early efforts were made by the Catholics to effect conversions among the
Chinese, but the time was not ripe for labor in that field. In 1853 a Chinese
student was brouglit to San Francisco and made his headquarters in St. Francis
San
Francisco's
Urst
Cathedral
Other
Catholic
Churches
Bnilt
Efforts t
Convert
Chinese
240
SAN FRANCISCO
Improved
iners and
Morals
First
ThanksEiving
Proclaxnation
Smoking and
Chewing
Prohibited
church. His name was Father Cain, and he strove very earnestly with his coun-
trymen to win them from heathenism, but after ten years of unsuccessful work he
returned to Naples where he became the head of the seminary for Chinese mis-
sions, dying in Italy in 1868. Father Valentine from Hong Kong and Father
Antonucci, met with no better results. Later a Chinese school was started and
fostered by the Paulist fathers. The Protestants also devoted themselves to the
conversion of Chinese and later of Japanese, and established schools which were
provided witli substantial buildings. The results of their efforts are variously
viewed. The hopeful being inclined to regard them with satisfaction while the
skeptical assert that the apparent success in recent years is chiefly due to percep-
tion of the value of the English education imparted in the mission schools.
It is impossible to sum up the results of these religious efforts with precision,
or to apportion the shares of the various social activities of an uplifting kind in
contributing to the steady diminution of license in San Francisco after they were
well introduced, but it is not hard to trace an improvement in manners and morals.
The advance of the community was rapid, although a different impression may have
been created by the recital of the story of the Vigilance Committees. In 1849 the
mayor, John W. Geary, saw no other way of dealing with the gamblers than by
licensing and regulating them. In an address he presented a picture of the dis-
ordered condition of the community and despairingly urged as a remedy for the
evil its sanction by law, but four years later it was voted that gambling was losing
its attractions. In 1854 there were still numerous gambling saloons. On the
Plaza the El Dorado flourished, and on Commercial street the Arcade and the
Polka continued to exhibit on their walls lascivious pictures, and women were
dealing cards, but the stakes were no longer abnormally high even within their
precincts, and the bankers in other houses did not disdain a dollar stake. The
annalist still speaks of the people of San Francisco as "an excitement craving,
money seeking, luxurious living, reckless, and heaven, earth and hell daring," but
the attractions of the bar room were being pitted against many agencies and the
professional gambler was compelled to meet new sorts of rivalry every day, and
no longer had things all his own way. The Salvation Army was foreshadowed by
street preachers who planted themselves before the saloons, and their words and
singing blended with the rattle of the chips. "The Chariot! The Chariot! Its
Wheels Roll in Fire," and other hymns often drowned the cries of the monte
dealers and the words of these itinerant religionists although they fell on the
ears of "loafers" often made an impression.
Governor Burnett's proclamation appointing November 29, 1849, as a day
of thanksgiving and prayer may have fallen on few attentive ears, but at the
close of 1853, when there were eighteen churches with 8,000 members, many
schools, and numerous charitable and other social organizations, the impression
produced by such a call must have been vastly different. The leaven was at work
and while it did not suffice to leaven the whole mass it produced some striking
results. In 1852 a bill was introduced in the state senate for the suppression of
gambling which was only defeated by the casting vote of the presiding officer
Purdy, thirteen senators voting for and as many against the reformatory measure.
A year earlier bad manners were attacked in the same body with more success.
On the 17th of April, 1851, the senate by resolution ordered that no more smoking
or chewing be allowed within its bar. Prior to that date the free and easy man-
SAN FRANCISCO
241
ners of the pot house prevailed ill the chamber, and as might be inferred they
were not conducive to orderly proceedings. About the same time that the attempt
was made in the legislature to put a stop to gambling the Annalist noted "the
advent of a better class of women," and he happily brackets their arrival with
the increase of churches, teachers, schools and charities. He does not tell us that
they should be connected as cause and effect, but the inference was plain.
But the presence of good women while wholesome did not wholly abate; it
merely modified the evils of loose living. The divorce habit early asserted itself.
In 1853 there were public complaints that divorces were becoming shamefully
numerous, and in 1856 the governor of the state urged in a message that testimony
be taken in open court in all divorce cases so that as many obstacles as possible
might be placed in the way of separations. His theory that publicity would tend
to interfere mth the spread of the divorce habit may have been faulty, but the
fact that he thought that it would have a discouraging effect indicates his belief
in the existence of an active public opinion which might be depended upon to pre-
serve respect for the marriage relation.
Another bit of evidence testifying to the remarkable change in the habits of
the people was the persistence of the demand for the enforcement of a Sunday
law which finally prevailed in the legislature of 1858 which passed an act requiring
every store, shop and house of every description devoted to business purposes,
excepting taverns and eating houses, to close on Sundays. It was declared uncon-
stitutional on the ground that the legislature had no right to restrain a citizen in
the lawful pursuit of a lawful occupation. Subsequently another law was passed
which survived the test of the courts, but could not be enforced. Public opinion
was not imfavorable to observance, and in time there came a complete cessation of
Sunday business through voluntary action. The temperament of the people of
California, and especially those of San Francisco, made it impossible to bring about
the result in any other manner. In 1883 that fact was recognized and the Sunday
closing law of 1861 was repealed.
CHAPTER XXIX
LABOR CONDITIONS AND THE COST AND MODE OF LIVING
SAN FRANCISCO A VICTIM OF EXAGGERATION SUMMARY MODES OF ABATING EVIL MIS-
UNDERSTOOD CONDITION OF THE WORKER IN SAN FRANCISCO CHANGE IN LABOR
CONDITIONS PLENTY OF WORKERS WHEN THE GOLD RUSH WAS UNDER WAY
HURRY UP WAGES PAID LABOR ORGANIZATIONS FORMED RELATION OF EMPLOYER
AND EMPLOYED ENVIABLE CONDITION OF THE WORKER INFLUX OF CHINESE
THE COST OF LIVING IN THE EARLY FIFTIES IMPORTED FOOD STUFFS EFFECT ON
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION PRICES FALL THE LOW PRICE OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA
EFFECTS OF THE ABUNDANCE OF GOLD EARLY EPICUHIANISM HOW MEN GREW
RICH IN PIONEER DAYS DRESS IN PIONEER DAYS DISPOSITION TO CREATE IDOLS
EFFECT OF ISOLATION FIRST ORPHAN ASYLUM AND HOSPITAL EXCESSIVE MOR-
TALITY FROM EXPOSURE SAN FRANCISCO CHARITY SISTERS OF MERCY.
T IS now time to review the activities other than religious
which assisted in evolving from the disorders of the early
Fifties a community whose respect for law, and for most
of the conventionalities of life, has not merely equalled
but has surpassed that of most of the older cities of the
Union. Without deserving or desiring it San Francisco
has achieved a reputation which has procured for it
sometimes sympathy and at other times detestation. The latter has been incurred
partly through misrepresentation, but oftener through misunderstanding. As the
story of San Francisco's upbuilding progresses much of the latter will be removed
by evidence which will conclusively demonstrate that sins which the outsider has
been pleased to regard with much horror have been venial by comparison with those
of cities more favorably situated for the practice of all the virtues, and that they
seem particularly black in the case of the Pacific coast metropolis because the
spirit of reform at recurring intervals induced spectacular exhibitions of self
deprecation which can be properly likened only to those self abasements produced
at revival meetings when the mourners' bench is filled with sinners whose imagina-
tions transform them, for the time being, into wretched creatures unfit to remain
on the footstool.
San Francisco throughout her career has neither been so black nor so gay as
she has been painted. All of her actions have been seen through distorted lenses.
From the days when the significance of the discovery at Sutter's fort was first
realized by the outside world, down to the present a disposition to exaggerate has
been manifest. Little offenses have been magnified and big ones have been mini-
mized. There has been a continual straining to discover something unusual in
243
Much
Misrepre-
A Tictlm of
£xasfferatlon
244
SAN FRANCISCO
Methods of
Deallne with
EvU
ordinary men, and to treat as exceptional conduct which differs in no essential
from the performances of other peoples who escape censure by being prosaic, and
are happy because they have no annals.
The Vigilante uprising stands out as a startling manifestation, but the expe-
rience which produced it was by no means peculiar to San Francisco. At the time
when it occurred there were other corrupt communities, in which venal politicians
did pretty much as they liked, and where crime was dealt with no more severely
than in San Francisco. The only thing that distinguished San Francisco from
them was the summary method adopted to end the trouble when it became unbear-
able. The latter was indefensible because a decent regard for civic duty would
have averted the necessity of resorting to extra legal methods, yet it was better
to have cured the evil in that way than to have gone on winking at it, as the
nation persists in doing to this day, an assertion which will not be disputed by
those who study the homicidal record of the United States and who read the dia-
tribes of statesmen and publicists directed against the laxity of our courts and the
failure of juries to perform their sworn duty.
A simple recital of the efforts of good citizens to make their environment
endurable, and avoidance of the propensity to throw high lights on the exceptional,
will effectually dispose of the romances and give the reader a truthful idea of con-
ditions as they existed in the Fifties. There was much that was exceptional, but
there was more that was humdrum, and sometimes even the exceptional became
humdrum, as for instance when the artisan or laborer who received fabulous
wages found that the price level of the period made his earnings and his expendi-
tures harmonize in nearly the same fashion that they do or did in countries where
the scale of compensation was lower.
All things are relative, and especially is the saying true when the economic
aspects of the labor problem are considered, but the generality is inclined to dis-
regard the fact. Because of this latter propensity a tremendous impression was
created by the stories which were told of the labor situation in California in the
first few years after the discovery of gold. It would have been astonishing had
the result been otherwise, for it should be remembered that when there was talk
of mechanics and artisans receiving $20 a day in California, the people of the
East were verging toward a condition that culminated in a political campaign in
which the charge was made that the success of one of the candidates would result
in wages of ten cents a day, while the triumph of his opponent would insure to the
worker "a dollar a day and roast beef."
In the last analysis of the labor question it always will be found that the
getting of the roast beef rather than dollars is of most importance for the worker,
and it is more interesting to inquire how much of it the San Francisco worker got
than to learn how many dollars a day he earned. The information on this point
is abundant and varied, and such as it is it indicates that for a short time at least
the man who worked with his hands prospered because of the plethora of gold.
The labor question was not troublesome in California before the discovery of gold.
During the Spanish and Mexican regimes the disinclination to work was so general
that a condition of repose was produced which militated against productivity and
permitted decay, but it had its compensations. There was little or nothing done,
but there were no strikes or quarrels respecting rates of wages. Occasionally a
protest was heard against the enslavement of Indians, but it was never seriously
SAN FRANCISCO
245
enough urged to discommode those who engaged in the practice, probably because
the condition of the involuntary worker was a great deal better than it would have
been had he been allowed to roam at large. As for the other workers, many of
whom by courtesy were called white, money of any kind was so scarce in the country
that a wage scale was unnecessary. Those willing to work were usually glad to
get subsistence for their efforts, and those who refused to labor managed to subsist
somehow.
This situation was not materially changed between the day of the hoisting of
the flag over Portsmouth square and the announcement of the find at Sutter's mill,
but immediately after that event a revolution in labor conditions occurred. When
the rush to the diggings took place it was impossible for a while to procure labor of
any sort. The few artisans who were often their own bosses deserted their occu-
pations to search for gold, and they were joined by every one who felt able to wash
out the precious metal and was willing to undergo the hardship which the trip to the
diggings and work in the mines involved. The result of the exodus was to bring
the town to a complete standstill for a few months, a condition which endured until
the influx of immigrants from the East, and other parts of the world, made some
men see that there was as much money to be made by ministering to the comfort
and needs of the gold hunters as there was in searching for the metal.
With the rush came a plentiful supply of workers. Perhaps the most of the
first immigrants designed going directly to the placers to pick up big nuggets, but
not a few of them found that they had miscalculated the expenses of the under-
taking and elected to stay in the town where wages were good; and a fair propor-
tion had intended to make their home in San Francisco because they believed that
the City would grow and that it would offer better rewards to the toiler than could
be obtained at the East, where in every other industry than agriculture the compensa-
tion was wretchedly small and the opportunity to obtain jobs very slender. To
these supplies of labor constant additions were being made by men returning from
the mines, whose bad luck forced them to cease their search for gold and take
refuge in the City where they could earn some sort of a living.
The conditions produced by the great output of gold, and the pressing neces-
sities of the people crowding into the small town were abnormal. There was no
scarcity of workers but the means to pay them were temporarily so abundant, and
the desire of men to put themselves in a position to trade or otherwise employ
their talents to get their share of the gold being extracted from the placers was so
great, that for the time being those able to do things could name their own terms.
At first, those with capital to invest, accustomed to the insignificant wages of the
East and Europe hesitated, but hesitation was soon swept aside, and the man who
wished to put up a store, a saloon or a house, or to have a ship unloaded and the
goods put under cover, paid what was asked. In 1849 the average daily wage of
mechanics was roughly estimated at $20, and the commonest kind of labor was
paid for at the rate of $10 a day. Carpenters who at first received $12 a day
demanded $16 before the year was over and when refused they "struck." They
were not idle long, the employers seeing that it would pay better to push their
enterprises than to stand out. Apparently this first strike, although successful,
was not an organized affair, but it was speedily followed by efforts in that direc-
tion which seem to have been very effective. In the ensuing year sailors, brick-
layers and musicians conducted strikes, and in 1851 the printers went out. In 1853
Cbanged
Labor
Conditions
246
SAN FRANCISCO
Relations
of Employer
Condition
of the
Worker
there was an epidemic of dissatisfaction with wages, and a resort to methods on
the part of the workers which called forth vigorous protests from the press. The
"Alta" in August of that year remonstrated against the action of the striking fire-
men and coal passers who insisted on making passengers on the steamers show
their tickets to prove that they were not strike breakers.
Before the close of 1856 there were labor organizations, not always called
unions, which embraced teamsters, draymen, lightermen, riggers and stevedores,
bricklayers, bakers, blacksmiths, plasterers, masons, shipwrights, caulkers and mu-
sicians. The latter struck for the enforcement of the imion scale in 1856. The
bands that held these associations together were, however, by no means as strong
as those of later years. The printers who had formed a union in 1850 with 8 mem-
bers, which number had increased to 147 in 1852, fell to pieces in that year, was
reorganized in 1855 and repeated the experience, but came into the national organ-
ization in 1859. The ship carpenters' union was so prosperous during this period
that it had to cast about for methods to get rid of accumulating funds, and it be-
came an association for social enjoyment rather than an aggressive agency to secure
the rights of its members.
On the whole the Fifties may be characterized as a period of comparative
amity between employer and employed. The writer of the "Annals" is moved to
remark of the condition in 1850 that "labor of any description was highly paid,
and all branches of the community had reason to be satisfied with the profits." He
also in 1852 contrasted the wages in Australia, where gold had been discovered, and
was being taken out in great quantities, with those of California, saying that they
were only about half as much in the English colony as in San Francisco, and gave
his comparison point by remarking: "Let interested people say what they will,
there is no land so well fitted for the comfortable residence of the poor and indus-
trious man as California." And what may seem more surprising in view of his
repeated assertions in other places, and the excuses made for the resort to extra
legal methods by the Vigilance Committee, he added: "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."
The figures of compensation in 1853 bear out the claim that the worker's condi-
tion in California was enviable, compared with that of the countries from which
he had emigrated. Bricklayers, stone cutters, ship carpenters and caulkers received
$10 a day; plasterers $9; house carpenters $8; blacksmiths $8; watchmakers and
jewelers $8; tinsmiths $7; hatters $7; painters and glaziers $6; longshoremen $6;
tailors $i; shoemakers $100 a month without board; teamsters $100 to $120 a
month and feed themselves; firemen on steamers $100 a month; coal passers $75;
farm hands $50. These wages were at least five times as high as those paid in
the Atlantic states, and fully double those of Australia, where large quantities of
gold were also being taken from the soil.
In the early Fifties the influx of Chinese was on a scale to cause alarm, but
their presence in San Francisco did not occasion much trouble. In the mines, how-
ever, they were a constant menace to the peace of the white workers who regarded
them as rivals, and resorted to all sorts of aggressions to make their presence
uncomfortable. In the City they were regarded as thrifty, but "feeble in body
and mind." They were credited with the virtue of perseverance and "from their
union into laboring companies capable of great feats." It was this propensity
SAN FRANCISCO
247
■which excited much of the hostility of the miners to the Chinese, and caused
repeated aggressions upon them; but these can in no sense be attributed to trades
unionism, for the associations in the mining communities were chiefly composed of
men working on their own account and who were almost invariably their own
The cost of living in the early Fifties must have presented more problems for
the solution of the worker than it has at any time since in California. He was not
only called upon to pay high prices for the things he consumed, he was also con-
fronted with variations which must at times have made him wonder whether low
wages and a reasonably steady source of supply were not preferable to high
wages and recurring scarcities of the things he was in the habit of consuming. In
1848 a brig arrived in the port of San Francisco from New York and discharged
her cargo at Broadway wharf. The result was a general fall in prices. On
December 1st of that year a barrel of flour sold at $27 in San Francisco; two weeks
later flour was selling at $12 a barrel and other commodities experienced the
same drop in price.
Although cattle in great numbers roamed the hills of California in 1848 salt
beef was brought to San Francisco and was sold at $20 a barrel; salt pork cost
three times as much, and butter and cheese were respectively 90 and 70 cents per
pound. Brandy which was in moderate demand brought $8 a gallon. Four years later
prices were still subject to great fluctuations. Flour which was sold in March,
1852, at $8 a barrel rose to $40 in November of that year. This five fold advance
was due to a delay in the arrival of a fleet of clipper ships which did not make
its appearance in the harbor until the stocks of the merchants were nearly
exhausted. A year later there was a great fall in prices due to excessive imports,
but it does not appear that any portion of the community was benefited as the
general stagnation in trade, due to the miscalculations of importers who overstocked
the markets, caused many failures and made it diflicult for workers to obtain em-
ployment.
The exceptionally high prices of 1849 have been dwelt upon so much that atten-
tion has been diverted from the comparatively speedy change to a better condition
of affairs. The fact that in 1849 potatoes and brown sugar were sold at 37^2
cents a pound; that a small loaf of bread which usually retailed for six cents in
the Atlantic states demanded fifty cents in San Francisco; that a pair of coarse
boots cost from $30 to $40 and a fine pair $100, and that the services of the
launderer were only procured by paying from $12 to $20 a dozen for articles
large and small has been made use of to such an extent that a distorted idea of the
true condition has been conveyed. A very little reflection would save anyone from
committing the blunder of supposing that these soaring prices continued for any
length of time, or that they told a true story of the pioneers' struggle for existence.
California was a country of relatively high prices for several years after 1849,
for labor reluctantly accommodated itself to changing conditions, but all things
were not dear. When the placer mines were producing millions worth of gold
monthly, the most of which was freely exchanged for commodities, luxuries were
in great demand and men were willing to pay handsomely for them, but the staples
of life were soon provided by domestic industry and in an incredibly brief period
they were as easily obtainable as in the older communities. The abnormalities
which many have accepted as tj'pical of pioneer days were soon corrected. Stores
Cost a
Living;
Early
Fifties
Result of
Domestic
Prodaction
248
SAN FRANCISCO
Things
Keasonably
Cheap
££Fects of
Abundance of
Gold
that rented for $3,000 a month in 1849 a very few months after could be obtained
at reasonable rates, and long before the gold excitement had completely worn
itself out there were many owners vainly seeking tenants for their premises.
But figures of this sort impart no intelligent idea of conditions. Rentals in
some quarters of the modern San Francisco range much higher than they did in
the "days of old, the days of gold, the days of 'iQ," without exciting comment, and
there is nothing startling in the statement that some dwelling houses in 1854 rented
for $500 a month, when it is accompanied by the information that people of modest
desires could be accommodated at the rate of $15 to $20 a month. It must be appar-
ent to the most superficial that if the writer of the "Annals" could truthfully
declare that San Francisco was a desirable place for the honest, industrious and
peaceable man to make his home that the bulk of the things consumed by those in
that category were reasonably cheap. The price list of San Francisco in 1854
may have appalled the people living in the Atlantic states at that time, but it may
be studied by them now without exciting consternation. Some of the quotations
may strike one as indicating an excessive cost of living as for instance fresh eggs,
which sold at $1.25 per dozen, while their rivals, known as "Boston Eggs" cost
only 75 cents. Best cuts of beef were 37^2 cents a pound, and venison 31 cents,
prices which compare not unfavorably with those of 1912. Turkeys are spoken
of as selling at from $6 to $10 a piece, but buyers about Christmas time in 1911
find no call for the plentiful use of exclamation marks accompanying the 1854 quo-
tation, and the butter prices of the early period ranging from seventy-five cents to a
dollar a pound are not apt to startle the person familiar with the demands of the
modern dairymen.
Observations of the effect of the abundance or scarcity of the precious metals
when confined to a limited area are not always illuminating, but the comparative
isolation of San Francisco in the early Fifties produced a condition which to some
extent bore out the theory that the quantity of money governs prices. The value
of gold in the first years after the discovery in California was directly affected,
the amount allowed for it in exchange for commodities being considerably less
than the ruling rate at the world's money centers, and very much lower than was
obtained for the few ounces found in Los Angeles several years earlier, and sent
to the mint in Philadelphia to be refined. This discrepancy in the selling price
of gold dust was partially explained by the cost of moving it to regions where it
could be absorbed, but it is undeniable that the effect of its plentifulness operated
directly to force up the price of goods, and the wages of labor, in such a fashion
that they presented a marked contrast to those obtaining at the East where, until
a large part of the output of the California placers was transferred by trade oper-
ations, the precious metals were scarce and prices were low in consequence.
While the output of the California mines remained relatively large this depre-
ciation of the value of gold was very marked. But as soon as the mechanism of
trade was called into play, bringing improved means of communication, and offer-
ing in exchange for the metal great quantities of products of all sorts, the adjust-
ment began, and conditions soon became at least not strikingly different from
those in the Atlantic states. The change was not effected without abberations,
for the early dealings of the mercantile world with the gold diggers were of a
highly speculative character, and the result was an alternation of abundance and
scarcity of goods which made itself apparent in price lists. The irregularities
SAN FRANCISCO 249
noted were responsible for the spectacular price of $40 a barrel for flour, and
for some other manifestations which made a profound impression on chroniclers
and lost nothing in the telling. It was much more picturesque to speak of the
fabulous sum paid for such a necessary of life as flour, than to tell of the adequate
supply which subsequently brought down the price to $8 a barrel ; and it was natural
to dwell upon the epicureanism of Sam Ward rather than refer to the sober life of
honest and industrious workers.
In that respect the annalists of the days of gold resembled those of Rome who
emphasized the gastronomic performances of the actors who provided such dishes
as the brains of talking birds for their guests, and delighted to tell about the
splendors of the feasts of Lucullus. That tradition has handed down to us the fact
that Ward, who afterward passed much of his time in Washington and became
more famous gastronomically at the national capital than he was in San Francisco
in 1853 and 185-1, suggests that he was by no means representative of a type.
The description of Ward derived from a deposition pictures him as a man of lively
wit, with a knowledge of languages and great culinary skill, and "a rotund, expan-
sive appreciation of good wine," which the deponent avers was oftener obtained
by the subtle art of flattery than by the expenditure of money earned by himself.
Ward's mode of living, and that of his few imitators, was no more illustrative of
the real life of San Francisco at this time than that of the man who caused the
dancer in a fashionable New York restaurant to divert his guests by pirouetting on
the dinner table.
It has bfeen remarked that a single swallow does not make a summer, and it
may be observed with equal force that isolated instances are not to be depended
upon to illustrate general tendencies. There are authenticated cases of men climb-
ing the ladder of fame in the early days of California without putting their feet
on the lower rounds. We are told that Niles Searles, who afterward became a jus-
tice of the supreme court, took his first case while waiting on the table, and we
have a circumstantial relation of the mode by which Lloyd Tevis and his partner,
John B. Haggin, laid the foundations of their great fortunes, which is interesting
but does not detract from the fact that the most of the lawyers of pioneer days
who practiced in San Francisco in the Fifties attained prominence in a humdrum
manner, and that the rich men of the City built up their wealth as they did in other
communities by taking advantage of circumstances or by making circumstances that
they might take advantage of them.
As Lloyd Tevis later became a conspicuous figure in San Francisco affairs it
is not amiss to relate that like many others he reached San Francisco in a condition
of impecuniosity which compelled a prompt search for work. He wrote a fine
hand, and succeeded in persuading the recorder that he would find in him an efficient
copyist. At first he merely received what might be termed the overflow of the
office, but presently he made a proposition to the recorder that he would do the
work performed by two clerks for the salary paid to one of them. As civil
service reform and the merit system had not been introduced the recorder was
able to make the experiment. Tevis was equal to his profession of ability, kept the
job. earned a couple of thousand dollars and joined forces with Haggin and by
judiciously loaning their united capital at ten per cent a month they soon had
enough to engage in broader enterprises.
250
SAN FRANCISCO
Keeping in mind the adage about the swallow and the summer, and by ignoring
the desire to find an "atmosphere" for San Francisco, we may be able to form a
more correct impression of San Francisco life in the early Fifties than is conveyed
by dwelling upon the exceptional. There were plenty of red shirts in evidence
upon the streets of the City in the early Fifties, but garments of that color were
as familiar a sight in the big towns of the Atlantic states as on the coast, being
much affected by the volunteer firemen of that day and were copied by their
admirers. The Bowery boy of New York found their vivid hue particularly appeal-
ing. The wearers of the red shirts also were given to sticking their trousers into
the longlegged boots which were worn at the time, but it is a matter of record that
the men who wore this striking costume were from the mines, and that as a rule,
when their luck permitted them to gratify their desire they promptly arrayed them-
selves in "boiled shirts" and even ventured upon "plug hats."
Charles Warren Stoddard, whose boyhood days were spent in San Francisco,
m one of his delightful papers describing the conditions and scenes of pioneer
days tells us that one of the features which impressed him greatly was the pro-
pensity to over dressing. This hardly harmonizes with the idea usually conveyed,
that uncouthness and disregard of the conventionalities endured for a long period,
a view which ought not to have survived the statement of the annalist that as early
as 1852, "the day of the blouse, the colored shirt and shocking bad hat had fled
never to return." We may overlook the tendency to exaggeration displayed in the
further statement that "superb public carriages plied the streets, and beautiful
private equipages glittered and glided smoothly along," but we shall make a mis-
take if we fail to draw the inference that a vast change had occurred between 1849
and 1852, and that San Francisco in three brief years had progressed so rapidly
that it was taking on the airs of a metropolis. Not every man in San Francisco
had become a dandy but there were plenty who aimed to dress well and succeeded.
The pains taken to describe the peculiarities of the few persons who attained the
distinction of being regarded as dandies indicates that they were rare. The gov-
ernor who succeeded Burnett, McDougal of San Francisco, undoubtedly earned the
appellation. He was accustomed to wearing elaborately ruffled shirts. His panta-
loons and vest were buff, and over them he wore a blue coat with shining brass
buttons. His resplendant attire in no wise diminished his popularity, perhaps it
helped to secure for him the overwhelming majority by which he was elected lieu-
tenant governor, thus putting him in the line of succession which made him gov-
ernor of the commonwealth of California when Burnett resigned.
The town in its early days boasted another character whose mysterious source
of livelihood was perhaps more responsible for his fame or notoriety than his fas-
tidiousness in the matter of dress. His name was William F. Hamilton. That,
and the fact that he made it his solemn business to parade the streets whenever the
weather permitted in irreproachable clothes, were well known to all, but no one
knew his occupation until after his death, when it was discovered that he secretly
engaged in upholstering and that his specialty was stuffing cushions for church
pews and carriages, for which he was well paid, and the proceeds of which he
devoted to adorning himself with shiny hats, patent leathers, and the other insignia
of an effete civilization. His crowning glory was his dyed hair, which he thought
concealed his advancing years. But no one was deceived, and almost as much was
made of his eccentricities as of those of the shrewd individual who lived at the
SAN FRANCISCO
251
expense of the community by making believe that he was under the hallucination
that he was a mighty potentate, or of Lilly Coit, the daughter of a well known
physician named Hitchcock, whose desire for notoriety led her to "run with the
machine." San Francisco in the pioneer days, and well on toward the Eighties was
in the habit of making for herself idols. She refused to be unconventional but
dearly loved to exploit someone or something out of the usual. Hamilton was her
Beau Brummel during the Fifties and Emperor Norton, who bore some likeness to
Napoleon III, gave distinction to her streets during a couple of decades, arrayed
in a once gorgeous uniform, with massive epaulets whose brilliancy was tarnished
by the weather until their color and general appearance harmonized with that of
the coat which carelessness at the lunch counter had rendered almost undistinguish-
able. Norton was welcome in many of the eating houses of the City and could
always command the price of a dinner from a host of admirers, and he shared with
two dogs, "Bummer and Lazarus," about whom tradition has woven many remark-
able stories, the affections of a people, who, despite the exciting events of the Vigi-
lante period, and some other experiences were often hard pressed for diversions
exactly suited to their tastes.
It is possible that there were other communities in this work-a-day world a
half a century or so ago that could make as much out of little, and as little out of
much, as San Francisco, but it is doubtful. If they existed they had no one to throw
the glamour of romance over their inconsequential doings, and make an epic out of
material that as often as otherwise was commonplace. There were few places on
the footstool where the disposition existed to make a heroine out of a hoyden who
derived amusement from running to fires with the boys, or who were ready to
expend their admiration upon a man who preferred to live like a crab in a shell
rather than pay $32 a day for treatment in a hospital. This disposition to admire
at random was an amiable weakness due to isolation rather than to peculiarity of
temperament. It disappeared rapidly when San Francisco came into close touch
with the rest of the world. But the period of isolation was not wholly given up to
red shirts, gambling and amusements of a doubtful character. San Francisco in
1 849 and in the Fifties had its serious as well as its excitable and happy-go-lucky
sides. As already pointed out it promptly arrayed the forces of religion against
those of vice, and opposed to the selfishness engendered by the eager desire for
gold the ameliorating sentiment of consideration for the unfortunate. The man
"down on his luck" had little difficulty in finding a friend in San Francisco in the
days of gold, and those who helped were not always over zealous in their efforts to
ascertain whether the one asking aid deserved to be helped ; it sufficed to know that
he needed a helping hand. It is not surprising that where such feelings prevailed
charity should quickly take on an organized form in order to make it more effective
and the "Annals" and other sources of information inform us that such was the case.
All great cities draw the unfortunate. The adage about God making the coun-
try and man making the town conveys an impression that it is only in the former
that we need look for goodness and its accompaniments, but actual experience con-
tradicts the assumption and discloses that it is in the places where men congregate
in large numbers that the virtues are most actively displayed. The opposite quali-
ties may be rampant; crime and immorality may be painfully conspicuous; but
they cannot repress the nobler instincts in a people in whom the germs of a better
life have been implanted. The Sydney coves and the transplanted rowdies may
252
SAN FRANCISCO
First
Orphan
Asylnin and
Hospital
MortaUty
Exposure
have been cruel and unscrupulous, but the mass of those who crowded into San
Francisco in the earlier days were made of the right stuff, an assertion well sup-
ported by the record of the promptitude with which it provided itself with all the
instrumentalities for the amelioration of suffering, and of the spontaneity it dis-
played in extending sympathy and help to those in need.
The fact that before the occupation no such institution as an orphan asylum ex-
isted in California has been mentioned, but it will do no harm to repeat it and add
that for quite a time the most conspicuous edifice in San Francisco was the Roman
Catholic orphanage, which stood on the spot where the Palace hotel now stands,
and was built with funds largely subscribed by men who were not of the Catholic
faith, but belonged to the universal brotherhood which easily unites when a demand
for help is made. Not only were the little ones who were left alone carefully
looked after, the sick also received attention from the various benevolent societies
which multiplied rapidly, and in 1853 the state established a hospital in San
Francisco which was to be the sole general state hospital in California. The rev-
enues for its support were to be derived from taxes levied upon persons arriving
in the port and from fines imposed for infractions of harbor regulations. Half of
the amount obtained from these sources, not to exceed $100,000 annually, was to go
to the maintenance of the hospital, and if the sum collected fell short the deficit
was to be made up by the state treasury. The hospital was at first located on
Stockton street in what had formerly been a hotel, but later a substantial brick
building was constructed on Rincon hill.
This action of the legislature was prompted by recognition of the tendency
already commented upon of the sick and the needy to make their way to the port
when in distress. San Francisco, then as at present, was a magnet, and the result
was productive of singular abberations in the mortality reports. It is related that
in 1849 and 1850 there were so many unfortunates who found their way to the
City that it often happened that men died on the streets or in the bushes without
a soul near them. The annalist states that the majority of those who died in 1850
were actual paupers. They had made their way from the mines to the City, hoping
for relief which Ihey failed to receive in the hurly-burlj' of the same excitement
that had taken them to the mining regions where they contracted the diseases which
destroyed their lives. Between 1850 and 185-t the total number of interments in
the three cemeteries, Yerba Buena, Mission Dolores and the Jewish, was 5,770.
A large proportion of this relatively great mortality was due to hardships incurred
in crossing the plains, and to the wretched accommodations of some of the ships
which brought the immigrants, but the greatest part by far was set down to the
exposure and unaccustomed work of the gold hunter. The indifference to the needs
of the poverty stricken who had fled to San Francisco for refuge did not endure
for any great length of time. Very soon an active sympathy was manifested, which
did not confine itself to the precincts of the City, but responded to calls from re-
mote places. The awful plight of the Donner party of immigrants caused the
formation of a body of men who volunteered to go to their relief at their own ex-
pense, and they would have done so had not an equally generous spirit manifested
itself in settlements closer to the scene of the awful tragedy. Subsequently when
there were calls for help from settlers threatened by Indians the response was
equally prompt.
SAN FRANCISCO 253
These were manifestations of the spirit which at a later day, when wealth was
more abundant, and society better organized, impelled California and particularly
San Francisco to go to the aid of the Sanitary Commission and evoked from its head
the effusive tribute "Noble! tender, faithful San Francisco; City of the heart;
commercial and moral capital of the most humane and generous state in the world."
The praise may sound exaggerated, but San Francisco had long been trying to live
up to its reputation for liberality and hospitality and deserved all the good things
said about her people by generous outsiders who just as often were censorious
critics of actions and habits they could not understand. In the story of San Fran-
cisco charity there is one episode which San Franciscans would like to forget. In
1856 there was an exhibition of intolerance growing out of the Know Nothing
antagonism to foreigners. The Sisters of Mercy, who had been brought to the City
in 1854, and who had braved the cholera epidemic, nursing patients deserted by
all others, had contracted with the municipality to take care of the indigent sick.
They were at once made the objects of calumnious attacks by a portion of the press,
the "Bulletin" being particularly virulent. Charges were made which were resented
by the jNIother Superior, who demanded an investigation by the grand jury, which
developed the fact that the Sisters had given their services without compensation
during seven months of a most trying period. The disturbed condition of municipal
affairs prevented the recognition of their claims, and in 1857 they cancelled their
contract with the City because it refused to pay its bills. But this was only a
temporary wave of intolerance which soon subsided, and enables the historian to
saj' with an approach to accuracy of statement that San Francisco was less dis-
turbed than other sections of the Union by the illiberal uprising, even though thfl
state enjoyed the unfortunate distinction of electing a Know Nothing governor
and supreme justices, whose careers did not add luster to the reputation of Cali-
fornia.
Ardor of San
CHAPTER XXX
SOCIAL AND OTHER DIVERSIONS OF PIONEER DAYS
SAN FRANCISCAN ARDOR FIREMEN THE ELITE OF THE CITY FIRE PRECAUTIONS FIRE
ENGINE HOUSES CENTERS OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY FIREMEn's PARADES THE MILITIA
ORGANIZATIONS CITIZEN SOLDIERY NOT DEPENDABLE THE DRINK HABIT BULL
FIGHTS AND BEAR BAITING HORSE RACING PUGILISTIC CONTESTS THE DUELLO IN
PIONEER DAYS EARLY CELEBRATIONS AND LOVE OF MUSIC THE SPANISH ELEMENT
SPANISH LANGUAGE LOSES ITS HOLD IN SAN FRANCISCO CHINESE QUARTER IN
EARLY DAYS "cHINA BOYs" IN PARADES ROUTE OF THE PIONEER PARADES RUSS
GARDENS AND THE WILLOWS JOYS OF THE CIRCUS APPRECIATION OF THE DRAMA
STARS VISIT CALIFORNIA CRITICAL AUDIENCES CHURCH FAIRS AND PUBLIC BALLS
NO EXCLUSIVE SOCIAL SETS OBTRUSIVE COURTESANS THE UBIQUITOUS COLONEL
PREVALENCE OF MILITANCY.
T IS not difficult to invest with singularity customs which
were prevalent in the early days of San Francisco, but
which, upon investigation turn out to have been nothing
of the sort, but were merely imitations and sometimes ex-
aggerations of practices common in other cities of the pe-
riod. San Francisco in a way epitomized all the vices
and follies as well as many of the virtues of the times in
which it had its commercial beginnings. During many years it was conspicuously
devoted to militarism and to fire fighting, but it was not peculiar in this regard.
Throughout the Fifties military companies were common in all the cities of the
East. Volunteer fire fighting organizations were relativelj' as numerous as in the City
by the Golden Gate, although the people of the latter were perhaps more disposed
to appreciate the importance of a good fire department because of the disasters
through which the town had passed than those of some other more fortunate cities.
The enthusiastic praise of the writer of the "Annals" was doubtless deserved by
the fire brigade which, he informs us, was regarded as "the right arm of San Fran- ^^^^ °
Cisco." He tells us the members of the various organizations were as proud of the
leathern caps they wore as if they were bedecked with finery. They were the elite
of the City and considered it an honor to belong to a company. The first fire com-
pany was organized Christmas day, 1849, and in its membership roll we discover
several names of men who afterward became prominent, among them that of David
C. Broderick. In the beginning of 1850 the number of engines had increased to
three which, after the fashion of the times, were given names. They were the
San Francisco, Empire and Protection. They were not well provided with hose
and this drawback was held responsible for the ineffective work of the department
255
Firemen the
256
SAN FRANCISCO
Fire
Frecantlong
In 1854
Centers of
Social
Activity
in the fire of Septemberj 1850. The trouble was remedied by the council, which
made appropriations for additional equipment and for cisterns, also some new ap-
paratus. At the close of the year there were in addition to the companies named
the Eureka, Howard, Monumental and California engine companies. There were
also three hook and ladder companies : the St. Francis, Howard and Sansome.
This equipment was increased from year to year and in 1854, in summing up
the fire fighting resources of the City, the annalist tells us there were fifty cisterns
already constructed and others in course of construction. It is a curious com-
mentary on the inadequacy of human foresight that in 1912 the City has provided
itself anew with cisterns to replace those abandoned when the introduction of a
water system was supposed to have rendered them unnecessary. The most of the
cisterns constructed in the Fifties had fallen into disuse and their existence was almost
unknown to the firemen in April, 1906. In one or two places the oldest inhabitant
knew where they were and their almost forgotten stores of water were drawn upon
to check the flames. In 1854 there were thirteen engines, which were described
as powerful and well equipped and three hook and ladder companies. This appara-
tus was wholly manned by volunteers, there being 950 certified members who were
exempted from jury duty in recognition of their public service. Five years of
active membership secured exemption from a duty which seemed to have even less
attractions for citizens in those days than it possesses at present. The engines
were all built in the East and were generally of the type known as side lever, and
were usually provided with hose carts which were reels mounted on wheels. The
cost of the engines ranged from $3,250 to more than $5,000. They were hand-
somely decorated, and there was much rivalry between the diflferent companies,
each seeking to outdo the other in the matter of effectiveness and the appearance
of their machines.
The engines and other apparatus were well housed in substantial and in some
cases pretentious structures, which were the centers of the social activities for quite
a period. The Sansome Company's building cost its members $24,000 and was
furnished as well as any residence in the City. It boasted "a large library." In
a few cases the engines were provided by public spirited citizens, but in most in-
stances they were procured by united effort. The members contributed their serv-
ices gratuitously, but the companies properly organized received appropriations
from the council for maintenance. There were frequent contests to determine which
was the most powerful engine and to test which company was most effective at the
pumps, which were worked with brakes which made heavy draughts on the energy
and skill of those who manned them. The chief glory of the department may have
been the readiness of its members to respond to the call of duty, but its activities
and usefulness were not confined to fighting fires. The "Fifties" were remarkable for
the interest taken by the people in parades and public celebrations of all sorts and
in no American city was there a greater desire shown for such diversions than in
San Francisco. No event or anniversary of consequence was allowed to pass with-
out a demonstration, and in these outpourings the firemen with their apparatus
were the most conspicuous feature, rivaling in popularity the military companies,
whose members were arrayed in "uniforms" that were not uniform, no two organ-
izations being garbed alike.
On these festive occasions the engines were drawn through the streets by hand
by their members arrayed in their leathern hats. At the head of each company
MONUMENTAL VOLUNTEER ENGINE COMPANY'S HOUSE ON THE PLAZA, 1856.
Great attention was paid to architectural effect by the members of the Volunteer Fire
Department, and some of the best of the early buildings were erected under their auspices
SAN FRANCISCO
257
was the foreman or engineer, who carried a horn, usually of silver, handsomely-
chased, and his assistant was also provided with one, only less splendid than that
of his chief. The rope by which the machine was drawn was immaculately white,
and distended to about the width of the engine or hose, and the firemen marched
two and sometimes four abreast, the intervals between ranks being properly spaced.
The apparatus itself, as brilliant as paint and varnish could make it, with all its
metal parts glittering, was as much an object of admiration as the men who drew
it, and the relative beauties and "squirting" capacity of the fire extinguishers, and
of the hook and ladders and hose carts were as much discussed as the abilities of
the men who operated them.
In the numerous parades the militia companies were only less conspicuous than
the firemen. Immediately after the ailair of the Hounds a company was organized
called the First California Guard. Its officers were prominent men, whose names
frequentljr figure in the "Annals" and in the later history of the City. The cap-
tain was Henry M. Naglee; there were two first lieutenants, W. D. M. Howard
and Myron Norton; and two second lieutenants. Hall McAllister and David T.
Bagley. Subsequently other companies were formed, and on the Fourth of July,
1853, five companies in addition to the Sutter Rifles were reviewed by Sutter, and
a handsome flag was presented by Mrs. Catherine Sinclair in Russ' Gardens, where
the birth of American liberty was celebrated by reading the Declaration of
Independence and by listening to patriotic addresses. The militia companies did
more than parade and enjoy themselves in the first years of the Fifties. They were
always ready to respond to calls, and in 1851 the San Francisco and Aldrich Rangers
when summoned to repress a threatened Indian uprising, hastily adopted a uniform
more adapted to the field than the one used on parade, and was about to proceed
to the scene of the disturbance when the news was brought that the disorderly
aborigines had taken alarm and dispersed. In the beginning the fire and military
companies were often closely identified, part of the membership of the former bear-
ing arms, while the remainder more particularly occupied themselves with the oper-
ation of the apparatus. The status of these early militia companies was a trifle
indeterminate. At first they were supported by voluntary contributions, but in the
fall of 1853 an appropriation of $500 a month was made by the City for the rent
of the fourth floor of a building on the northeast corner of Sacramento and Mont-
gomery streets, which was used as an armory in common by all the companies.
In the latter part of 1850 the Washington Guards was formed, the company
which in 1851 responded to the call of the municipal authorities and prevented the
lynching of Burdue and Windred by the Vigilantes. The organization only lasted
a few months. In 1856, when William T. Sherman attempted to support the state
authorities in suppressing the Vigilance Committee, the militia of San Francisco
was slow to respond and he threw up his commission in disgust. It was not aston-
ishing that support was refused by the militia for many of its prominent members
were identified ^vith the Vigilance movement, but the defects of the system were
also largely responsible for the inaction. The law called upon every white male
citizen to perform militia duty and penalized refusal by a tax of $3, but the statute
received no attention and became a dead letter.
The social side of militia and firemen's life implied by the creation of libraries
and well furnished rooms, and the giving of frequent balls, did not keep politics
out of the organizations and later we hear of them, under the manipulation of men
Vol. I— 1 T
SAN FRANCISCO
Bull Fights
and Bear
Baiting
ambitious for national preferment, forming a part of the municipal machine respon-
sible for so much of the corruption witnessed in the early Fifties. The militia was
never a serious offender in this regard. The citizen soldiery may have been more
accessible to the blandishments of politicians than if they had not been connected
with militia companies, but they were never made use of as freely as were the fire-
men by the cunning men who had learned their politics in the Atlantic cities. Many
of the firemen were easily manipulated by clever and ambitious politicians of the
Broderick stamp, but the militia were less vulnerable. For a while at least firemen
and militiamen were as important factors in the development of San Francisco as
the schools and churches. They helped to make life endurable in a city whose
remoteness from the populous centers of the nation threw its inhabitants on their
own resources and compelled them to work out their social problems in a different
fashion from that prevalent in the sections from which they had emigrated.
It would be a mistake, however, to assume that this isolation always resulted in
spectacular manifestations. Occasionally there were departures from sanity, such
as that wliich marked the celebration of the admission of the state to the Union,
when a large company assembled in one of the big drinking places and formed
itself into squads, and successfully essayed the feat of consuming all the cham-
pagne in the place by each squad regularly advancing to the bar in military style,
drinking and falling back to let another squad take its place and repeating the per-
formance until all were drunk. But the drink habit had a powerful hold on the
pioneers, and those who viewed its excesses with disapproval declared that the
practice of treating was responsible for the greater part of the evil. It may have
played its part, but the unsociable drinker was likewise much in evidence in IS^Q
and 1850, and men of talents and ability often fell victims to the "spreeing" pro-
pensity, which was much more common in San Francisco at the time than in any
place in America because there was no restraining public opinion. That did not
begin to assert itself in real earnest until men began to bring their wives and fam-
ilies in increasing numbers. With their advent the coarse and often brutal habits
of a population in which males were unduly preponderant held sway, how gener-
ally may be inferred from the fact that it seemed necessary to caution the priests
of the diocese from lending the sanction of their presence to bull fights and bear
baiting.
These latter were amusements of an indigenous character, but the gold seekers
took to them with astonishing facility. These contests were usually held near the
Mission church in an enclosure of adobe walls which was entered through an iron
gate. It is not recorded that the priests were witnesses of these spectacles, but
there was for years an official prohibition against attending the concorsus taurorum
in cemeteris. This may have deterred the clergy from attending, but it had no
effect on the Americans, who thronged the sides of the bull ring in great numbers
whenever a fight was advertised, or when bull and bear were pitted against each
other. These exhibitions may have lacked some of the accessories which make the
bull fights of Spain and Mexico so attractive to the peoples of these countries, but
a much traveled pioneer, who has enjoyed opportunities to make comparisons,
declares that the spectacles presented to San Franciscans in 1849 and the early
Fifties were up to the standard so far as cruelty to animals was concerned.
Bull fighting and bear baiting shared popularity with horse racing in the Fif-
ties. Running races were in vogne but there were no planned meetings as in later
SAN FRANCISCO
259
days when the amusement was converted into a pursuit whose principal object was
to separate foolish men and women from their money. The races in the period we
are describing were usually attended with betting, but the bookmaker was almost
unknown. Those who frequented the track, which was situated in the Mission
district, were mostly men in search of diversion, with a sprinkling of followers of
the turf, and a few who believed that the sport tended to improve the breed of
horses, a matter of much more consequence in those days when automobiles were
undreamed of, and when "2 :40 on the turnpike road" was still a phrase with a
meaning for those who heard it, and thought it represented the highest possible
achievement of a trotting nag. There were many native Californians whose ac-
complishments rivaled those of the circus rider, and they were easily tempted to
exhibit their dexterity in the management of their steeds. The}' were not, how-
ever, permitted to enjoy supremacy without a contest. There were plenty of Amer-
icans ready at any time to attempt any feat which appeared extra hazardous and
as a result there was plenty of dare-devil riding added to the major attractions of
the somewhat informal meets which drew the crowds Missionwards on Sundays and
other days of the week.
Pugilism during the Fifty decade was in much favor. The noted characters of
the ring, John C. Heenan, nicknamed the Benicia Boy, Yankee Sullivan, Tommy
Chandler and other pugilistic celebrities, gave exhibitions of boxing which were
conducted under London prize ring rules, no attempt being made to conceal the
object of the contests by prescribing gloves. The fights were alwaj's with bare
knuckles, and when the "pugs" succeeded in drawing blood the onlookers were as
much delighted as a modern crowd is when a like result is produced in a regulated
ring, which suggests that there may be something amiss in the assumption that the
growth of wealth and luxury tends to brutalize people. Some of these notable
exponents of the "manly art" conducted themselves in a fashion that brought them
imder the observation of the Vigilance Committee. Their associates were usually
of the vilest character and their presence was regarded as a menace to the com-
munity, hence some of them were politely invited to deport themselves, and one
of them, "Yankee Sullivan," narrowly escaped having his neck stretched.
Meetings on "the field of honor" were quite common during the Fifties. They
differed essentially from the affairs which have made the duel ridiculous, for the
combatants usuallj' shot to kill. They were not lacking in the formalities with
which the French are pleased to invest their encounters. There were seconds and
rigid requirements of various sorts, but the outcome was never ludicrous. Navy
revolvers and rifles were the favorite weapons, and as those who used them, as a
rule, knew how to shoot, the consequences were almost invariably serious. There
was no privacy surrounding these meetings. Announcements were sometimes made
in the newspapers a day or two in advance of a duel and a crowd would turn out
to witness the spectacle. Benicia was a favorite resort for duelists, and when a
particularly interesting affair took place the steamboats would carry loads of pas-
sengers to the scene of the conflict. Political quarrels were chiefly responsible for
these meetings, the politicians of the period laboring under the delusion that a
stain upon their honor could be wiped out by killing somebody. In some cases
there was ground for the suspicion that quarrels were deliberately provoked by
bullies for the purpose of getting rid of persons obnoxious to them, or to the group
with which they trained. Newspaper men seem to have been frequent victims of
SAN FRANCISCO
Latin
American
Population
the curious idea that a statement could be clinched by shooting the person resenting
it; and the aggrieved individual, oftener than otherwise a politician, labored under
the hallucination that his reputation would be repaired by killing his alleged
calumniator.
There were other diversions far less exciting and demoralizing than bull fights,
bear baiting, horse racing and the duello. The foreigners, who formed a large
proportion of the early population of San Francisco, by the introduction of their
habits contributed considerably to the modification of the desire for the more violent
forms of amusements, and helped to introduce the taste for music and the kindred arts.
The Turner Gesang Verein, an organization of the Germans, who were estimated to
number at least 6,000 in 185-i, gave frequent entertainments, and its annual cele-
bration on May Day, at a local resort known as Russ' Gardens, generally drew
out the entire population. May Day was also marked by the festivities of the
school children. On the 1st of May one thousand pupils of the schools, of both
sexes, marched through the streets to the schoolhouse in Broadway, receiving the
plaudits of the admiring crowds who watched the progress of the tastefully dressed
children in the train of their queen for a day.
The Germans, unlike the Latin peoples who made their homes in San Fran-
cisco in the early days, were not disposed to clannishness and did not seek to keep
in touch with each other by establishing themselves in a particular residential dis-
trict. At no time was there anything like a German quarter, although there were as
many of that nationality in the City as of any other kind of foreigners. On the other
hand the French and Spanish exhibited a decided inclination for social intercourse
with their own kind and failed to mingle as freely with the population generally as
the Germans. There were about 5,000 French in the City in 1854, and already at
that time they had a theater of their own, in which plays and operas were acted and
sung in their own language. They showed little inclination to become citizens,
few of them becoming naturalized, but they admittedly made a distinct impression
on the manners of the people, and had a decided influence in the moulding of the
taste of the women, who eagerly copied the styles of dress which they introduced
from France. The annalist, in his enumeration of the occupations of the French
residents, leaves it to be inferred that they were chiefly engaged as hairdressers,
cooks, wine importers and shoe blacks and fails to dwell on their activities in commerce,
but the colony was fairly well represented in all the walks of trade and a little
later, although there was a large relative diminution of the importance of the
French element in the City, that nationality boasted several prominent merchants
noted for their enterprise.
The Spanish speaking population of San Francisco was not as great as the fact
that the state had been occupied by people who had owed allegiance to Spain and
Mexico would suggest. About the middle of the Fifties there were probably 3,000
who could be described as of Spanish extraction and they were made up of Mexi-
cans, Chileans, Peruvians and a slight sprinkling of natives of Spain. The colony
in those days was located chiefly on Dupont, Kearny and Pacific streets. It was
not regarded with admiration by the chroniclers of the period, who doubtless im-
parted some of their prejudice to their statement that on the whole the Spanish
speaking people were illiterate, and that the most of them were only fitted for
"menial and servile" pursuits. One writer unhesitatingly classes them with the
Chinese and Africans. Unlike the French they had no paper of their own, but were
SAN FRANCISCO
261
content with a page in a tri-weekly issued by a Frenchman. Many unsavory crimes
were committed in the quarter and then, as now, dance houses were a conspicuous
feature of the locality.
In other countries in which the Spanish planted themselves their language
gained and maintained a firm hold, but its tenure was short in California after the
American occupation. There was a disposition on the part of the earliest legis-
lators to recognize Spanish, and some documents were printed for the benefit of
people who did not understand English, notably the inaugural message of Governor
McDougal, of which 1,000 copies in Spanish were authorized by the assembly.
The senate, however, had refused to sanction the publication of 3,000 copies of the
statutes in that language, and the attempt to perpetuate the practice begun in the
lower house was soon abandoned.
The Chinese quarter became a conspicuous feature of San Francisco as early
as 1850, and after that date the number inhabiting it increased rapidly. The earli-
est immigrants from China, as a rule, made their way to the mines as speedily as
possible, but very soon the commercial instinct asserted itself and Oriental mer-
chants established themselves in the City who acted as intermediaries for their
countrymen, and a growing number found their way into households as servants.
The latter very generally had their lodgings in the district which, almost from the
beginning, was known as Chinatown. In 1852 it was estimated that 20,000 Chinese
arrived in the port of San Francisco and the population of that race in the state
numbered at least 27,000. The propensity of the race to crowd together exhibited
itself from the first. The theory that congestion in cities is due to the rapacity of
land owners receives no support from a study of the life of the Chinese in San
Francisco. They lived together because they liked to, and not because circumstances
compelled them to herd. Even when they might have spread themselves over the
entire landscape they preferred to huddle, and Chinatown in ISSl, and during the
rest of the decade, presented all of the characteristics which has given it its unde-
sirable notoriety. In a description of the quarter at this time we are told by the
writer that basements were used by barbers, and that "in apartments not more than
fifteen feet square three or four different professions" were often represented, "and
these afforded employment to ten or a dozen men." Then, as during many years
after, "no corner was too cramped for the squatting street cobbler," and the venders
of sweetmeats and conserves infested the sidewalks or "crouched under overhang-
ing windows" or in dark doorways.
The Chinese of "the Fifties" were not regarded as particularly picturesque.
The squalor of the quarter seemed to be more resented then than later. Although
there was no sign of active opposition to their presence in San Francisco there were
frequent expressions of disapprobation of the constantly increasing flood of the
yellow immigrants, and predictions were made in which possibilities of disaster
largely figured. In the interior there were numerous collisions between the Chinese
miners and those of other races, but in the City the bustle and activity attending
the constant expansion of business and population, and the troubles growing out
of bad municipal government occupied the people too fully to permit them to give
much attention to what subsequently was conceded to be a great menace.
For a while the "China Boys," with their dragons and gaudy banners were
welcome additions to the parades which celebrated every event of importance, and
sometimes their prominent men were asked to take part in demonstrations that were
Language
Loses its
Hold
Too Bus/
Bother Abi
Chinese
SAN FRANCISCO
Roate of
Early
Parades
Boss'
Gardens and
the Willows
not altogether disconnected from politics. An occasion of this sort was the funeral
solemnities commemorative of Henry Clay, when all business was suspended, and
the whole town was draped in mourning. The resolutions of condolence were par-
ticipated in by the Chinese merchants, who wore the outward signs of grief even
though they may not have deeply felt the loss of the statesman. In pioneer days
great men were not allowed to pass away without recognition. The funeral of
Clay testified to the affection of San Franciscans for the Kentuckian. Bells were
tolled and many citizens wore mourning, not only while in the procession, which
was headed by bands playing funeral dirges, but for days afterward. Not every
great statesman was thus honored. When Daniel Webster's death occurred a few
months after that of Clay, a proposal to pay his memory equal honor was rejected.
The necessity of practicing economy was given as an excuse, but the fact that the
former was from Massachusetts probably influenced the decision against public
mourning.
The route of the parades on national holidays as late as 1856 was not so long
as that laid out for more recent demonstrations. The weary wanderers who cover
several miles in a modern procession, marching from some place of formation near
the foot of Market street, to a point far north on Van Ness, will be interested in
the statement that the participants in the great celebration which was held to sig-
nalize the successful consummation of the work of the Vigilance Committee formed
at Third and Market streets, marching from thence to Montgomery, turning up
Clay to Stockton, along Stockton to Vallejo, then to Powell, traversing that street
to Washington as far as Kearny, along which they proceeded to California, thence
to Sansome, to Clay, to Front and Sacramento to headquarters, the Fort Gunny-
bags alluded to in the account of the Vigilante trouble. Within these boundaries
were situated all the shops of importance, and they also embraced the hotel district
of the period. Plainly the object of the projectors was to give an opportunity to
all to witness the spectacle and considerations of a straightaway march were not
entertained.
Mention has been made of the attractions of Russ' Gardens, which was a favor-
ite place of resort during the Fifties and was quite out of town and boasted some
trees which were not always refreshingly green. The visitors, in addition to discussing
the refreshments provided, were entertained with performances of various kinds.
The celebrated Blondin gave an exhibition which the critics agreed was very won-
derful, of his ability to climb a tight rope, ascending from the ground to the peak
of a pavilion trundling a wheelbarrow before him. The Willows was another
sylvan retreat. Its proprietors maintained a small menagerie, but the drawing card
of the resort was the singing and dancing. It was chiefly patronized by the French
colony and its "air" was in direct contrast to that of the Russ place, which was a«
decidedly Germanic as the Willows was French.
The writer of the "Annals" in deprecating the indisposition of the municipal
authorities to anticipate the future by providing breathing places for the people,
and scolding them for failing to make the Plaza attractive mournfully remarked
that there was not even a circus oval. The oval may have been lacking but not the
circuses, for during 1849 and 1850 there were two rival organizations entertaining
the public. One of the tents was pitched at Kearny above Clay and the other on
Montgomery below California. The taste for this form of amusement was so pro-
nounced that a third company entered the lists, being operated on the west side of
SAN FRANCISCO
263
Portsmouth square. The prices of admission ranged from $3 in the pit to $5 for
a private stall. The performances only dimly foreshadowed the "marvels" of the
modern circus "under three tents," but the patronage accorded indicates as great
a degree of appreciation of this mode of entertainment as that displayed in 1912
when the circus comes to town.
The statistical presentation of the amusement business in the early Fifties fur-
nishes conclusive evidence that San Francisco was entitled to the reputation she
achieved of being "a good show town." In 1853 there were five American theaters,
a music hall for concerts, a French theater and a theater in which German and
Spanish performances were made a specialty. Occasionally one of these houses
was closed, but as a rule three or four were running. These theaters were not
ramshackle affairs by any means, and the professionals who appeared on their
boards ranked with the best then playing in the country, the actors being lured by
high rewards offered by the flush miners. The first professional performance given
in the City was in Washington hall, which was situated in the second story of a
building on Washington street. This was in January, 1850, and it is recorded
that, although the attendance was good, the actors were poor and not worth the
price of admission. "The Wife" and "Charles II" were played on this occasion.
This essay was soon followed by another in a house on Kearny, between Clay and
Sacramento, in which an English company exhibited its ability. Then a French
vaudeville troupe came on the scene, its talents being exhibited in a building on
Washington street near Montgomery. The Jenny Lind theater was first opened
over Maguire's Parker House saloon. After its destruction in the fire of 1851,
Maguire built the new Jenny Lind theater, which was afterward converted into a
city hall.
The advent of so many theaters soon undermined the popularity of the circus.
The fickle populace transferred its affections to the more serious drama and gave
it a strong support. It is noted that "The Hunchback" was played twenty-one
nights during February, 1852, to crowded houses. The company that gave this
performance made a tour of the mining regions and the management realized a
profit of $30,000 in a nine months' engagement. The "Julia" was a Mrs. Baker,
a great favorite. She was supported by her husband, Lewis Baker, who shared
her popularity. Some interesting facts are related in connection with this engage-
ment, which apparently revived a waning interest in the drama. The people were
out of conceit with the bad actors who at first inflicted themselves upon the amuse-
ment-loving public, but the Bakers changed this feeling to one of lively apprecia-
tion, as may be inferred from the fact that shortly after their advent there were
three theaters running simultaneously.
The Metropolitan theater, an excellently constructed building of brick was
opened on the night of December 24, 1853, with a stock company, but the man-
agement soon made a feature of introducing stars. Many of the most prominent
actors of the day trod its boards. A list of them amply justifies the assertion made
in the "Annals" that "stars of the first magnitude appeared." Some of the names
are not familiar to the modern theater-goer, but their reputation was national dur-
ing the Fifties and for years afterward. It is not surprising that great artists
were tempted to visit California. Crowded houses usually greeted them, and as the
rates of admission were $3 for dress circle and parquet; $2 for the second circle
Amusements
in the Early
Fifties
264
SAN FRANCISCO
Chnrch Fairs
aDd PnbUc
Balls
and $1 for the place allotted to the "gods," the management was usually enabled
to offer terms which much larger cities on the Atlantic seaboard could not rival.
The love of music manifested itself in as marked a fashion as did approbation
of good drama. A music hall was erected by Harry Meiggs in 1849 on Bush near
Montgomery streets, in which concerts and oratorios were given. In 1854 opera
was presented in Italian, English and French at the Metropolitan and Union thea-
ters. Four prima donnas gratified audiences with their notes, and the seasons were
represented to be profitable. Among the more noted singers were Mesdames Anna
Bishop and Biscaccianti, who achieved great local reputations. Among the actors
who pleased the theater-goers of the Fifties in San Francisco were some whose
names were American household words. There was Lola Montez, J. B. Booth, Jr.,
Edwin Booth, Samuel Murdock, Matilda Heron, Oceana Fisher, Laura Keene, and
a large number of less notable people whom the San Franciscans persisted in liking
as well as some who came to them heralded by fame.
The audiences of the period counted themselves excellent judges of a perform-
ance and some of the early visitors were disposed to concede the claim. The large
pecuniary rewards received by some of the admittedly good actors tempted many
of inferior talent to try their fortune on the San Francisco stage, but the pioneers
boasted that only merit was recognized, and the fact that they extended a liberal
support to stock companies of acknowledged ability, while turning a cold shoulder
to stars lacking brilliancy, supports their claim. An attempt to introduce the
claque, we are told, proved unsuccessful, the reason assigned for its failure was
the general intelligence of the theater-going public and its disposition "to reward
the meritorious and to condemn the upstart." The miscellaneous character of the
population of early San Francisco was perhaps responsible for the fact that in the
infancy of the local drama the actors at times had their feelings hurt by undeserved
criticism, but on the other hand they not infrequently received substantial tokens
of approbation in the shape of presents of nuggets thrown over the footlights. But
this sort of demonstrativeness did not endure long. "The peanut eaters of the
upper circles and the gentlemanly loafers in the parquet were speedily subdued
into gentility, and the quiet decorum of the parlor soon superseded the noisy bustle
of the circus."
The milder diversion of the church fair was not unknown to the pioneers, and its
lotterj' accompaniment, and the propensity of those who conducted such entertain-
ments to "brazenly exact unreasonable prices for worthless goods" was censured,
but in their way these gatherings were fully as popular as the public balls, the
religious and irreligious alike patronizing them. Not infrequently the public dances
under the auspices of foreign societies drew larger crowds than the balls promoted
by Americans, who were not indisposed to admit that there were some things that
foreigners could do better than Yankees.
The decade of the Fifties had nearly closed before any sign was witnessed of
a tendency to form social groups. The pioneers very early exhibited a desire to
erect themselves into an exclusive cult, entrance into which was based solely on
priority of arrival. Only those who arrived in California earlier than the close of
1850 were admitted to membership, and while the organization exhibited social
desires and distinctly proclaimed its purpose of benefiting those who belonged to
it, there was no affectation of superiority ; that came later when the reputation of
the state had become so well established that it was regarded as a distinction to
SAN FRANCISCO
265
have been identified with its beginnings. In that particular the pioneers did not
differ essentially from other aristocracies, whose claims are based on the fact that
their ancestors were earliest in spying out the land and getting it into their possession.
Otherwise the pioneers were very democratic, as indeed everybody who lived
in San Francisco in the Fifties had to be unless disposed to flock by himself. There
was no trace of exclusiveness in San Francisco for many years ; that feature of life
only became apparent, or at least did not make itself conspicuous until men by
perseverance or good fortune had accumulated or become possessed of wealth. Be-
fore 1856 all sorts of people mingled in public affairs without asking questions about
their neighbors, which would have been a superfluity. People knew all about the
present mode of life of those they met, and whatever ambiguity there may have
been about their past they did not seek to clear up, perhaps because of an instinct-
ive dislike for disillusionment.
It was not unusual for courtesans to intrude themselves into perfectly respect-
able gatherings. Their presence for a time called forth no strong protest, and one
may venture to suspect that the reason for refraining was the very natural one
that it was felt to be unkind in an unsettled community to inquire narrowly into
antecedents or to seriously scrutinize the mode of life of anyone not actually under
the ban. There is no doubt that this peculiar laxity, or liberality, was chiefly due
to the disregard of the necessity of sanctioning sexual relations shown by men who
attained prominence through their abilities, and that it did not meet the approval
of women whose status was well determined, but they were helpless. It was also
in a measure promoted by the presence of a not inconsiderable number of enter-
prising individuals who were trying to redeem the errors of early life under new
names, and were therefore disinclined to be censorious, or to insist upon too close a
scrutiny of credentials.
While there was no "society" of the sort whose doings fill the modern press,
the pioneer community had a mode of singling out some of its members for dis-
tinctions which, despite the simplicity of its workings, was fully as effective as that
adopted by kings in conferring titles. It is related of a well known general of the
ante bellum period that he obtained his dignified appellation by means of an intro-
duction at a banquet, and there must have been many others who obtained their
titles in the same easy manner, for the town was full of colonels. Lieutenant John
Derby, in his "Phoenixiana," tells us that when he sailed from San Francisco for
San Diego every passenger but himself seemed to have friends to bid them good-
bye, and that it made him feel lonesome and of small consequence. But he remedied
the latter shortcoming by a happy device. As the steamer cast loose he lifted his
hat and called out "Good-bye, Colonel !" and every man on the wharf responded by
raising his tile and shouting "Good-bye!"
It would be a mistake, however, to attribute this title-conferring propensity
solely to a disposition to bestow unusual distinctions, or to suppose that it was
peculiar to San Francisco. It reflected the spirit of the times, which was decidedly
militant. The atmosphere of early San Francisco was remarkably congenial to
militancy, and for some years it was a hotbed of intrigue against the peace of other
countries. The war which resulted in the acquisition of California was not alto-
gether responsible for these breaches of international comity. It did inspire the
idea that the institution of slavery might be extended at the expense of the integrity
of Mexican territory, and efforts were made by Americans to accomplish this ob-
The
Democratic
Pioneer
Obtrusive
Courtesans
The
Ubiquitous
Colonel
The
Militant
Spirit
266 SAN FRANCISCO
ject; but the most serious assault on the sister republic was that planned and car-
ried far in the direction of success by Frenchmen, who made San Francisco the
base of their operations. The story of these affairs is part of the history of the
City because it illustrates in a very pertinent fashion the restless disposition of
the people, and the ease with which schemes, no matter how visionary, were eagerly
supported by the men who made their way to San Francisco in search of gold or
adventure.
CHAPTER XXXI
SAN FRANCISCO A BASE FOR FILIBUSTERING OPERATIONS
RESTLESS PEOPLE TWO DESIGNING FRENCHMEN PLOTS AGAINST MEXICO ATTEMPT
TO CAPTURE SONORA A FRENCH CONSUL IN THE GAME WALKER's DESIGNS ON
SONORA MEXICO AND THE AMERICAN MANIFEST DESTINY IDEA SAN FRANCISCANS
AID FILIBUSTERS REMARKABLE CAREER OF WALKER FATE OF THE FRENCH FILI-
BUSTERS CRABb's futile EXPEDITION RESTLESS MINERS THE BLACK SAND
SWINDLE A RUSH TO AUSTRALIA THE FRASER RIVER RUSH STEADY GROWTH OF
THE CITY NUMEROUS HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS POPULARITY OF TEMPERANCE
RESTAURANTS EVERYBODY BOARDED IN SAN FRANCISCO THE GREGARIOUS TEN-
DENCY EARLY MEANS OF GETTING ABOUT FASHIONABLE SECTIONS CITY GROWS
SOUTHWARD NOT AMBITIOUS TO BECOME A CAPITAL A BELIEVER IN MANIFEST
DESTINY SOUTHERN INFLUENCE INCREASING IMMIGRATION.
HE mercurial temperament of the pioneer San Franciscan
lent itself to credulity. He was very easily induced to en-
gage in enterprises of doubtful character and validity. On
more than one occasion the growing City was almost de-
populated by "rushes" to regions where gold was said to
have been discovered in abundance. This trait was by no
means peculiar to the townsman; it was a characteristic of
all those engaged in the pursuit of mining, excepting the Chinese, who rarely de-
serted a field until they had cleaned it thoroughly. The whites, on the other hand,
would abandon a region of moderate promise to try their fortunes in a new place
which rumor asserted was richer. This propensity continued down to a late date.
It was only one of the forms of the restlessness of pioneer days, and was productive
of much discomfort to those who could not resist the call, but it did not even re-
motely possess the possibilities for mischief held out by filibustering.
The Spanish power in Mexico was overthrown in 1822, and a republican con-
stitution was adopted by the Mexican people, who were slow to develop a capacity
for self government. Their inability did not pass unnoticed, and long before the
vast region comprising New Mexico, Arizona and California was wrested from
them by Americans, the European powers were eagerly considering the possibility
of securing a share of the spoil in the event of a break-up of the republic which
they regarded as inevitable. The third Napoleon was particularly intent upon
profiting by the disintegration, and as later events disclosed was not averse to help-
ing to promote that result. The evidence that the men who operated on behalf of
France were inspired by him is not conclusive, but it is sufficiently strong to cause
most Mexicans, and Americans who have given attention to the subject, to believe
SAN FRANCISCO
Two
Designing
Frenchmen
Plotting
Against
Mexico
Attempt to
Capture
A Plotting
French
Consul
that he was cognizant of several movements during the Fifties which had a fatal
outcome for their promoters.
In 1850 two titled Frenchmen, Count Gaston Raoul de Raoussett-Boulbon and
another known as the Marquis de Pindray, were in San Francisco. The latter was
said to have left France on account of a shady money transaction, and on his arrival
in the City was ready to turn his hand to almost any sort of employment. Raoussett
bought a lighter and hired a couple of men to assist him and did a fairly profitable
business. Pindray soon took service as a vaquero, and Raoussett in a short time
followed his example, investing his money in cattle purchased in the South, which
he drove North, but the venture proved unprofitable. The adoption of the same
pursuit by the two Frenchmen may have been a coincidence, but it is open to the
suspicion that they were familiarizing themselves with an occupation, a knowledge
of which might aid them in their future designs.
The first demonstration against Mexico was made by Pindray, who formed a
band of 150 men and started for Sonora with them. They professed to be colo-
nists, but the purposes of their leader were under suspicion and he was assassinated
before he reached Mexico. At this time Patrice Dillon was French consul in San
Francisco. It is impossible to tell whether he acted without instructions, but he
was undoubtedly engaged in an intrigue which had for its object the gaining of a
foothold for France in Mexico. He found a ready instrument in Raoussett, who
had conceived the idea of converting Sonora into a buffer state to prevent the
United States from further encroaching on Mexico. Raoussett was sent by Dillon
to the City of Mexico, where, in the course of a few months, he succeeded in con-
vincing the authorities that his project was in the interest of Mexico, and they
arranged to provide him with money to raise a band of men to assist him in carrying
it out. Raoussett had no difficulty in securing 250 adventurers to assist him. They
were chiefly Frenchmen and sailed with him for Guaymas, which place they reached
in June, 1852.
Meanwhile, however, a doubt had arisen in the minds of Mexicans regarding the
integrity of Raoussett's purpose, and orders were conveyed to him to remain in
Guaymas. Raoussett thereupon charged the Mexican government with duplicity and
proceeded to defy General Blanco, who had ordered him to refrain from proceed-
ing to Sonora. Blanco then "denounced" Raoussett as an insurgent, and the latter
attempted to secure the adhesion of the rancheros on the pretense that he was work-
ing for the independence of Sonora. Subsequently Raoussett captured Hermosillo,
defeating Blanco in an engagement before that place. The Mexican general lost
200 men and fled, while the loss of the French adventurer was 17 killed and 23
wounded. The Frenchman lacked the ability to follow up his successes, and at
Mazatlan was seized with a severe illness. Blanco, more successful in diplomacy
than in war, succeeded in persuading the disheartened forces of Raoussett to return
to San Francisco in a bark chartered for that purpose.
While in Mazatlan Dillon wrote to Raoussett urging him to renew his attempt.
He returned to San Francisco and was made a hero of by the populace, who were
disposed to regard the capture of Hermosillo as an extraordinary exploit. Another
appeal was made to the French capitalists in San Francisco, who were about to
furnish $300,000 when a false report that Sonora had been sold to the United
States, which probably had its origin in the diplomacy which led to the treaty in
SAN FRANCISCO
December, 1853, by which Mexico ceded territory embracing 45,535 square miles
to the United States, caused the intriguers to withdraw their support.
Meanwhile Walker, who also aimed at the acquisition of Sonora, had sailed from
San Francisco for Lower California October 15, 1853. On November 3 he seized
La Paz and proclaimed the republic of Lower California. Walker's movements gave
Santa Ana much more cause for alarm than those of the Frenchman, and he wrote
to the Mexican consul at San Francisco, Luis del Valle, to recruit Frenchmen to a
number not exceeding 3,000, who would be willing to take service with Mexico, and
to ship them to Guaymas. Del Valle at once applied to Dillon, who entered into
an arrangement with Raoussett, who eagerly embraced the opportunity to get a
band of armed men into Mexican territory. But the French intriguers at this point
encountered an obstacle in the shape of the determination of the pro-slavery ele-
ment in San Francisco to prevent any colony being established by France on the
American border. They were not disposed to sympathize with Mexico, and had
even rejoiced over the victory of Hermosillo, obtained by Raoussett, but Walker's
purposes, which were generally understood to be the conversion of the border states
of Mexico into a slave holding republic with the view of permitting southern expan-
sion, were more in harmony with their desires.
In consequence they set in motion the machinery of the courts, and the British
ship "Challenge," chartered to carry 800 men to Guaymas, was seized on March
29, 1854, for violation of the revenue laws. The Mexican consul was tried sub-
sequently for violating the neutrality laws. Dillon, who was summoned as a wit-
ness, refused to testify, invoking his rights as a consul. Del Valle attempted to
profit by the refusal, demanding that he be permitted to prove his innocence by a
witness who would not testify. Dillon was forcibly brought into court, and the
judge held that the French consul was here merely in his consular capacity, and that
his domicile in the eyes of the law was in France. The French consul was then
charged with violation of the neutrality laws, but pleaded that the men raised to
be sent to Mexico were to colonize a part of that country with a view of preventing
filibustering. The jury could not agree, standing ten for conviction and two for
acquittal. In the following May a nolle prosqui was entered.
There was great excitement in the City over the trial and the attitude of the
French consul was severely deprecated, but the tenor of the criticisms indicates
that they were not influenced by consideration for the neutrality laws. As a matter
of fact the City was infected with the spirit of filibusterism, and the majority were
indisposed to recognize any rights that their neighbors to the south might claim.
In 1852, when William Walker proposed his scheme of establishing a republic in
Lower California, it was hailed with applause, and scrip or promises to pay based
on the revenues of the prospective new government was freely sold. The press
voiced the same sentiment as that expressed in the "Annals:" "It is ever the fate
of America to go ahead * * * So will America conquer and annex all lands.
That is her manifest destiny."
When the news of the occupation of La Paz by Walker reached San Francisco
the flag of the new republic was hoisted at the corner of Kearny and Sacramento
streets and an office opened for recruits and more volunteers offered themselves
than could be taken to the scene of action. The newspapers recorded all that was
doing at great length, and there was great excitement, but no effort on the part of
the authorities to prevent the departure of the filibusters. When the barque
Walker's
Designs
on Sonora
Advocates
Block French
Plan
Mexico and
Manifest
Destiny
270
SAN FRANCISCO
"Anita" sailed with its contingent no one offered to prevent its departure. The
brig "Arrow" had been seized bj' General Hitchcock, commanding the United States
forces on the Pacific, a couple of months earlier, September SOth, and released for
want of sufficient legal evidence to show its destination. Other federal officers and
the state and city authorities acted as though the matter did not concern them.
Indeed a federal judge in the case of Colonel H. P. Watkins, who was convicted in
the United States district court, openly sympathized with the prisoners and la-
mented that he was compelled to discharge his dutj' in fining the captain and an-
other prisoner, who by the way escaped paying the fine by professing their inability
to raise the amount imposed.
The subsequent adventures of Walker, Raoussett and the other filibusters are
not a part of the history of San Francisco. They are not devoid of interest but
their recital would consume more space than can be spared and besides they have
been related in great detail by numerous writers. It is necessary to round out the
story, however, by telling that the Lower California scheme came to naught, and
that Walker and his cabinet returned to San Francisco in May, 1854, and were
indicted by a grand jury, tried and promptly acquitted. Despite the fact that
the whole affair was a wretched fizzle, in which Walker had exhibited some very
despotic traits, he was made a hero of by the admiring San Franciscans, and they
were quite ready to assist him when he embarked on his Nicaragua enterprise in
May, 1855. This expedition, like those previously organized by him, also miscarried.
After two years of varying success in that country he was compelled to leave. He
went to New York, and after a stay in the North of a couple of years, he returned
to New Orleans and from there made another attempt on Central America, fell
into the hands of the Honduras military authorities and was tried and shot on
September 25, 1860.
Raoussett met the same fate as Walker. While the trial of Patrice Dillon was
pending he surreptitiously left the City in a small schooner carrying a few men,
some arms and a quantity of ammunition. His purpose was to make himself mas-
ter of Guaymas, with a view of heading off the United States, which he thought
menaced Cuba, Canada and Mexico and threatened in a brief period to become
master of the world. The little vessel was wrecked off the coast of Lower Califor-
nia and he and his comrades were nearly starved before they were able to reach
the neighborhood of Guaymas towards the end of June, 1854. A number of the
Frenchmen composing the band that had embarked on the "Challenge" had estab-
lished themselves in Guaymas and he ordered them to seize the civil and military
authorities of that place. They refused and endeavored to effect an arrangement
with a general who was about to "pronounce," but the latter, while professing to
acquiesce in the Frenchman's plans was secretly preparing to oppose him. When
Raoussett attempted to capture Guaymas he was himself taken prisoner and promptly
shot.
Another filibustering expedition, organized by Henry A. Crabb of Tennessee,
who made his home in Stockton in 1850, where he took a prominent part in poli-
tics during several years, sailed from San Francisco to San Pedro in 1857. Crabb's
objective was Sonora, and he proposed marching overland from San Pedro to that
Mexican state with a band of one hundred men. His wife, a Mexican, had numerous
relatives in Sonora, and he expected them to cooperate with him in his efforts.
Before he started on his venture Crabb had thrown out intimations of his purpose
SAN FRANCISCO
271
to annex Sonora, and as he was a violent pro-slavery man, and in communication
with some active advocates of the extension of the institution, it was not unreason-
ably assumed that he was receiving outside encouragement. Whatever he contem-
plated, his plans came to grief, for he was captured by Pesquiera, the governor,
who refused to accept his explanation that the object of his visit to Sonora was
merely to carry on mining, and ordered him shot. At first our minister to Mexico
characterized the expedition of Crabb as that of fiUbusters, but a little later, at
the end of May, 1857, he claimed that the party had no other object in entering
Sonora than to secure homes. Nothing came of the claim, and no one believed the
minister.
Occurrences of this sort were alternated with other excitements produced by
the instability of the population, or that portion of it which manifested no disposi-
tion to adopt settled occupations and a not inconsiderable number who were ready
on short notice to abandon what they were engaged upon on the chance of improv-
ing their condition. The earliest manifestation of this tendency was that furnished
by the almost complete abandonment of the town when the news of the discovery of
gold at Sutter's fort was received. It is not surprising that the announcement
should have resulted in an exodus at that time, for the embryo City was not offer-
ing great inducements to the newcomers to help them make good their belief in its
future. Things were proceeding in a humdrum fashion, and the rewards of the
merchant, mechanic or laborer were not excessive. There was a wide margin for
improvement, and when the possibility of picking up a competence in a few days
began to be perceived, hardly any in the community felt that a greater profit might
be derived from sticking to ordinary occupations than could be gained by resorting
to the gold fields.
But it is astonishing that after the vicissitudes of the mining occupation came
to be generally understood, and when even the most credulous had begun to learn
that persevering toil in commonplace industries in the long run held out more reliable
rewards than searching for gold, the propensity to rush continued. The men who
had resorted to the mines soon learned that untrustworthy reports easily gained
circulation, and plenty of them were able to relate bitter experiences gained in pur-
suing myths. Stories of disappointments were oftener heard than tales of good
luck, but the latter made an impression, while the former were easily forgotten.
The miner who could exhibit a buckskin bag well filled with gold dust and nuggets
was an infinitely greater object of interest than the small army of the unlucky who
soon began to find their way to San Francisco which, when the mines began to
pour out their treasures in earnest, began to prosper in a business way, holding
out many inducements to the able and those willing to work.
The steady stream of immigration, the ebb of the rush to the placers and other
causes combined to make the City a very brisk place, and attractive to the man who
had the money-making faculty, but as a whole the speculative tendency had pos-
session of the community and it was easily deceived by accounts of rich finds, and
occasionally with disastrous results. In the early part of 1851 there was a rush
to the Klamath river country induced by a report that the sands of the beach near
where the stream discharged itself into the ocean were composed of at least one-half
pure metal. The most fabulous representations were made and eagerly believed.
It was stated that a band of prospectors had found a patch of the metalliferous
sand, which was estimated to contain gold to the value of $43,000,000, and these
An Unstable
Population
272
SAN FRANCISCO
The Fraser
KlTer
Excitement
Distinguish-
ing
Peculiarities
figures were supposed to represent only one-tenth of the possible richness of this
particular spot. Marvelous as it may seem these purely mythical statements were
vouched for by men supposed to be reputable. The effect on the community was
tremendous. The rush and excitement were as great as when the discovery of gold
in California was announced. Shiploads of men went to the alleged wonderful
country, only to learn that the black sands which were reputed to be immensely
rich were really destitute of the precious metal, or contained so little of it that it
could not be extracted by the most cunning devices known to the miners of those
days.
Despite this experience, which gave a rude shock to the business interests of
San Francisco, greatly unsettling them, a year later, when the reports of the im-
mense yields of the Australian mines began to be received, a large number of Cali-
fornians left the state and made their way to Victoria, Ballarat and Bendigo. There
was no exaggeration in this instance, Australia like California had enormously rich
fields, and for many years they remained "a poor man's diggings," but there was no
more assurance of their permanency when the fever first attacked San Francisco
than there was when the Klamath river excitement lured from the City enough of
its population to make their absence noticeable in the diminished crowds on the
streets. There was one cause for rejoicing over the rush to Australia. A great
many of the bad characters who had come to California from the island continent
hastened to return when they learned that the chances of finding gold in the coun-
try they hailed from were as good as in the land which refused to welcome them.
But the most serious of the rushes, so far as the fortunes of the rising City
on the Bay of San Francisco was concerned, was that to Fraser river in British
Columbia in 1858. The hegira commenced in the spring and continued until Decem-
ber. So many left the City that fears were entertained that it would be depopu-
lated. After a while the new diggings began to have few attractions for the majority
of those who expected to make their fortunes in them, and the most of them found
their way back to San Francisco, and it is noted that on their return business
renewed its activity, although it is not clearly apparent how that result could have
been produced by the presence of a great number of "strapped" miners.
Despite the speculative tendencies of the inhabitants of San Francisco, and the
occurrence of startling events calculated to divert men from the pursuit of those
ordinary occupations which demand the application of untiring industry to achieve
success, the City continued to grow in wealth and population during the decade.
Disastrous fires, reckless criminals, corrupt municipal management, intriguing fili-
busters, quarrelsome politicians and gold rushes were powerless to arrest its prog-
ress. In 1860 the census showed that the City had a population of 56,802, a more
than fifty-fold growth since the occupation. But numbers by no means tell the
whole story. There were other cities in the United States on the eve of the Civil
war whose inhabitants exceeded those of San Francisco, but there was none of
double its size which even remotely approached the metropolis of the Pacific in the
possession of those features which go to the making of a great city.
At no time after the gold rush began did San Francisco resemble the older com-
munities. Five years after that event it contained more hotels, restaurants, thea-
ters, saloons and other places created for the diversion of a restless pleasure-loving
people than are found today in some cities of a quarter of a million inhabitants.
They were not kept for occasional service, but were always in active requisition.
SAN FRANCISCO
273
Although the greatest stars of the period found their way to the City by the Golden
Gate at frequent entervals, such visits were inadequate to satisfy the demand for
good dramatic performances, and stock companies were maintained, the excellence
of which may be inferred from the fact that from their ranks sprang many whose
subsequent successful careers stamped them as artists of merit. Grand opera also
flourished and acquired something of a permanent character, the stay of visiting
companies at times extending over months.
But it was in the possession of hotels and restaurants, far better than the aver-
age of the decade, that San Francisco found its chief claim for distinction. In
1853, it is stated, there were 160 hotels and public houses with a descriptive name,
and 66 restaurants and coffee saloons. This formidable number included American
dining rooms, English lunch houses, Spanish fondas, German wirthschafts, Italian
osteria, and Chinese chow chows, and the cost of entertainment in them ranged
from $5 to $12 for "a gentleman's dinner," to a couple of dollars for a satisfying
meal. But the prices on the menus of popular restaurants are not always an index
of the cost of living of the people generally ; if they were we should conclude that
the average man found it difficult to make ends meet on bigger wages than $15 a
day. Some of the items read: "Roast duck, $5; broiled quail, $2; a dozen canned
oysters, $1."
With few exceptions all of the hotels and restaurants sold liquors. One of these
exceptions was "The Fountain Head," whose proprietor employed 100 persons in
catering for the patrons of his two establishments. Their salaries averaged $90 a
month. According to a descriptive article published in the "Commercial Advertiser"
of April 6, 1854, the monthly receipts of these two temperance houses aggre-
gated $57,000 ; the expenditures were also on a liberal scale, the proprietor's potato
bills being $3,000 monthly and his disbursements for ice and eggs amounting to
$28,000 in five months. It is interesting to note that the St. Francis hotel, situated
on the corner of Clay and Dupont street, was a fashionable hostelry in 1849. It
was built of a dozen small houses originally intended for cottages. Its rooms were
separated by the thinnest of board partitions without lath or plaster. On the next
block stood the City hotel, built in 1846. It was the only public house in San
Francisco up to the time of the discovery of gold. Both of these hotels were de-
stroyed by fire. The Union hotel on Kearny street between Clay and Washington,
was the first hotel built of brick. It was a four story structure and cost $250,000.
It was burned in the fire of May 31, 1851, and subsequently rebuilt, but never re-
gained its old time importance.
Among the other hotels singled out for recognition were the Jones, on the cor-
ner of Sansome and California; the Oriental, corner of Bush and Battery; the
Rossette, at Bush and Sansome; the International, on Jackson street between Mont-
gomery and Kearny. The latter was conducted on the European plan, but the
American method was more generally preferred by proprietors and customers, the
rates ranging from $2 to $10 per day. These hotels were designed as much for the
use of permanent guests as for transients, and down to the closing years of the
decade 1850-60 their patronage was more largely that of home people than of
strangers. Charles Warren Stoddard tells us that during the Fifties everybody
in San Francisco boarded or kept a boarding house. Some of the latter sought to
rival the hotels and as late as 1861 the name of Madame Parran's house on Clay
Vol. I— 1 8
^Numerous
Hotels and
Restanranta
Temperance
Restaurants
Popular
274
SAN FRANCISCO
Hotel Center
in Early
Days
Catting I^oose
from the
Country
street, near Powell, where a number of the leading lawyers of the City boarded,
was as well known as that of the best hotel in the City.
Many memories cluster about the early hotels of San Francisco and reams have
been written about their peculiarities. The story has been told of how dearly the
privilege was bought of sleeping under cover in the most exciting period of the
gold rush. Men sometimes paid as much as $30 a week for the use of a shelf or
bunk in a shack or tent, and $8 a day for good board. The Parker house on
Kearny street, facing the Plaza, paid a rental of $120,000 a year, and a canvas tent
adjoining which housed the El Dorado saloon, netted its owner $40,000 a year.
But the glories of the Oriental, and the wonders of the hotel which had for its
foundation the submerged hulk of a ship, are not nearly so interesting as the fact
that the gregarious or some other instinct of man in 1849 and the early Fifties
impelled him to a course which produced the same condition in a new city with
all out-doors in which to expand, as that witnessed in our own times and is errone-
oush' attributed to enforced congestion.
The story of hotel and restaurant life in San Francisco is one of continuous
improvement and mirrors the progress of the City. It also, when carefully fol-
lowed, exhibits the development of a conservatism which later became as pronounced
a characteristic of the people as their earlier instability. Before the breaking out
of the Civil war most of the hotels of the earlier Fifties were destroyed or edged
out by the encroachments of business, but the hotel and amusement center refused
to move far from the district in which it had been established by the pioneers. The
Occidental and Cosmopolitan hotels, although the City had spread to the south,
and persisted in climbing hills which the prophets declared would be a barrier to
expansion, were built within a half dozen blocks of the center of 1849; and a quarter
of a century later the Palace was reared in the same neighborhood. Even the
calamity of 1906 proved powerless to resist this conservatism. The new St. Fran-
cis is scarcely more than five minutes' brisk walk from the spot on which the St.
Francis of 1849 stood, and a guest of the Fairmont could almost throw a stone into
the district where restaurants and theaters flourished during the Fifties.
If the men who had much to do with shaping the destiny of San Francisco
knew the lines about a "pent up Utica," and admired them, they never thought of
applying them to themselves. Although the tendency to spread southward early
manifested itself instead of allowing for expansion in that direction a course was
deliberately adopted which later greatly hampered the City's growth. The influ-
ences and motives responsible for the attempt to contract the operations of the
municipality are easily understood. The corruption of officials prior to the appli-
cation of the drastic methods of the Vigilantes had caused the people to distrust
themselves, and they easily fell in with the proposition of the framer of the Con-
solidation Act of 1856 to lop off a large part of the original county of San Fran-
cisco in order to form a compact political subdivision.
Horace Hawes was not gifted with much imagination, and if he had been the
times and his environment would have militated against his taking a glance into
the future, which would have permitted him to see that changed means of trans-
portation would affect men's ideas concerning the desirability of packing people
closely together. In cutting off all that part of the original county of San Francisco
south of a line rimning through the southern extremity of Lake Merced, and its
erection into San Mateo county, he doubtless thought that he was conferring a
SAN FRANCISCO
275
benefit on the remaining part which was consolidated with the City. Consolidation
naturally suggested itself to an economical man, and Hawes was economical to the
verge of parsimony ; but no one criticized him adversely on that account at the
time. The people who deemed it expedient to cut up the land into building lots
of twenty-five feet and even less frontage were not expansive in their ideas. They
leaned to the belief that the business of a city could be effected with more facility
by contracting the area in which it was to be carried on than by spreading operations
over a large surface.
Street cars were first used in San Francisco in 1863, several 3'ears after their
introduction into American cities on the Atlantic seaboard. Up to that date "omni-
buses" were employed. The first line of stages drawn by horses was used to
carry passengers from North Beach to South Park and began operating in the early
part of 1852. A road was opened along the bay shore, around the eastern and
northern base of Telegraph hill, making communication easy, and the "busses"
were regularly dispatched between the two points. The traffic was inconsiderable,
and it was not until the advent of the tramway that the disposition to spread
manifested itself, and then only feebly, for many years until a San Francisco inven-
tion solved the problem of climbing the hills that encircled the bay.
The prestige given to South Park by this communication with North Beach
endured well into the following decade. It was not much of a park as parks go in
these days, but the people of the Fifties did not regard the term as a misnomer
when applied to the oblong enclosure, surrounded by prim houses very much alike,
but still having an air of gentility which caused the neighborhood to be regarded
as fashionable. It soon had a rival in Rincon hill, which overlooked the bay, and
maintained its supremacy until the Seventies when the cable cars began to climb
Clay street ; then it was deserted by people with pretensions, and surrendered to
manufacture and commerce. It is now doomed to disappear entirely. Its integrity
was early attacked by the commercial spirit which resented interference with south-
ward march of business, and streets were cut through it which gave the houses an
inaccessible appearance and made them undesirable for residence.
The same fate for a long while menaced Telegraph hill which survived threat-
ened inroads only because the failure of Harry Meigg's project of rivaUing Yerba
Buena prevented North Beach from growing in population and importance as
rapidly as that daring speculator imagined it would. Had his dream been realized
there is no doubt that the assaults made upon the hill by those wishing to unite
the region which had already won favor with the northern part of the City must
have caused its complete demolition. A considerable portion along the edge of the
bay was escarped for the purpose of making a roadway, and later there were further
encroachments to increase the level area at its shore end, but the practical arrest-
ment of business enterprise on the northern side of the City after the flight of
Meiggs caused the retention of Telegraph hill until sentiment began to operate
and now there is a strong probability that it will remain a permanent landmark,
and a reminder of the days when it was an important signal station from which
the welcome news of the arrivals of steamships bringing letters from "home" was
announced.
Even the success of Meiggs' scheme would have been ineffective to arrest the
progress of the City southward and westward. The sand dunes were less formid-
able than they appeared to be to the forty-niners, and the successful use of the steam
Early
Transporta
tion
Facilities
Fashionable
Kesidence
District
Southn-ard
MoTement of
Cit.T
276
SAN FRANCISCO
Early
Street
System
No Desire
to be the
Capital
shovel soon pointed out the natural direction of extension for business purposes.
Happy valley, as that part of the City lying between California street and Rincon
Point was called, was assailed when the necessity for expansion exhibited itself
and in the course of years not a suggestion of the early character of the soil was
left. No pioneer has ever told how the area lying between California street and
Rincon Point and the bay and the Mission Peaks came to be called Happy valley.
Viewed from what is now known as Nob hill it appeared to be a mere waste of
sand, although there were spots in it containing thick undergrowth as was notably
the case in the place selected for a cemetery.
Through this waste of sand a broad street, to which the name of Market was
given, was traced to run in a southwesterly direction from the bay. It did not follow
the line of least resistance, but those who laid it out were apparently governed by
the desire to avoid some of the embarrassments which would have been presented
by a too strict adherence to the rectangular plan of the streets that were first sur-
veyed. The pioneers of San Francisco were not wholly unmindful of the possibili-
ties of conforming thoroughfares to topography ; there was much criticism of the
unloveliness of the formal squares or blocks, and it was pointed out that beauty
and convenience might be made to go hand in hand, but the commercial spirit was
the dominating factor in determining the matter and straight lines were decided
upon. Hindsight is frequently more reliable than foresight, but it will be wise
for those who take advantage of experience to criticize the failure of the pioneers
to build for the future to keep in mind the fact that the builders of the City had
many problems to deal with, and that the one which appealed to them most strongly
for solution was that of making San Francisco a great commercial port and that
object was constantly kept in the foreground.
At no time was this idea subordinated to any other consideration. Few aspiring
communities escaped more easily the desire to become a capital. On two or three
occasions sporadic efforts were made to establish the seat of state government in
San Francisco, but they never received the hearty support of the community. In
1850 the legislature which had been meeting at San Jose got tired of that place,
and an agitation was started to transfer the capital to a spot that would be deemed
more suitable. Numerous offers were made to tempt location, but San Francisco ex-
hibited little or no concern, and was not even disposed to regard with alarm the pro-
posal of Vallejo to start a city on the Straits of Carquinez which was to be pro-
vided with all the requisites of a great capital, including botanical gardens, universities
and penitentiaries. Five or six years later, after the capital had been located at
Sacramento, a flood compelled the legislators to find refuge in the City, and a move-
ment was set on foot to offer inducements which would bring about its transfer to
San Francisco, but it never gained force. Perhaps the inhabitants of the City were
conscious of the jealousy of the interior which early asserted itself and concluded
that any effort they might make would prove unavailing; but it is more than prob-
able that the cause of the apathy concerning the matter was the same as that which
made San Franciscans indifferent to the numerous attempts to divide the state,
namely, the profound conviction that the destiny of the City was assured and could
not be seriously affected by the machinations of politicians or by rivalry.
When Bret Harte wrote that San Francisco sat by the Golden Gate, "serene and
indifferent to fate," he poetically expressed the unfaltering belief of the pioneer
in the manifest destiny of the City. It was not, however, an unintelligent conviction,
SAN FRANCISCO
277
and was never responsible for the relaxation of energy which at times exhibited
itself during the growth of the City. Other causes for the temporary arrestments
of progress can easily be assigned, and they in no wise conflict with the assertion
that on the whole the pioneers, and their immediate successors, made excellent use
of their opportunities which in many respects were far inferior to those enjoyed
by the regions on the other side of the Rockies which were helped b}' an unceasing
stream of assimilable immigrants who assisted in the development of their resources.
The interdependence of city and country was clearly understood by the people
of San Francisco who were perhaps keener to appreciate the possibilities of the
soil than those who, by a variety of methods, some of them not altogether creditable,
obtained possession of large quantities of land which they held for a rise in values.
The people of the City at all times were averse to large holdings, and eager for the
subdivision of the land, and they were settled in the determination that the big
Spanish grants should never be made profitable by the introduction of cheap
Oriental labor, fully realizing that the inevitable result of development by means
of a servile and nonassimilable people would in the long run produce results not
unlike those which for a period made the South a comparatively' negligible indus-
trial and commercial factor.
Southern sentiment, which after its first defeat in the attempt to make a slave
state of California nearly regained dominance, did not appear to have any other
than political consequences. The offices and those occupations closely related to
politics were swayed by Southerners, but their point of view was not largely shared
by the mercantile element of San Francisco which preferred to mould itself on
the methods of the more vigorous Northern states. The tremendous admiration
entertained by San Franciscans for Henry Clay was largely due to their sympathy
with his aspirations for American industrial emancipation. The people of San
Francisco believed that the future of their City was linked with free labor. At
times they appeared to vacillate, but the departure from the straight path never
proceeded too far to be easily arrested. The vagaries of politics led them to side
with a party whose leaders were not in accord with them, but when the crucial
moment arrived they arrayed themselves without hesitation against the slaveholders;
and in the same way, while they occasionally paltered with the proposition to hasten
the state's development by means of cheap Chinese labor, when it became neces-
sary to make a choice they were uncompromisingly against its introduction.
It is necessary to make the connection perfectly clear so that the reader may
comprehend that San Francisco encountered obstacles to her advancement which
no other city of the Union was called upon to deal with. The first wave of emigra-
tion which swept into California nearly a quarter of a million people quickly
receded. Afterward the tide ebbed and flowed placidly, and at the end of fourteen
years of occupation its great area was occupied by less than four hundred thousand
inhabitants, made up very largely of classes not disposed to enter upon the land.
At the same time the older states of the Union were receiving continuous acces-
sions of toilers to whom tilling of the soil was a congenial occupation, and inci-
dentallj' their absorption was creating a labor condition which California must
necessarily attain if her expectations of great industrial expansion were to be
realized.
City ana
Country
Advocates
of Free
CHAPTER XXXII
RESOURCES THAT PROMOTED THE GROWTH OF SAN FRANCISCO
CHARACTER OF CALIFORNIA LANDS A BIGGER HOME MARKET FOR THEIR PRODUCTS
NEEDED PAST DEPENDENCE ON THE OUTSIDER UNORGANIZED MERCANTILISM
EARLY TRADE DEPRESSIONS THE PANIC OF 1855 BANKING TROUBLES PLENTY
OF GOLD BUT NO CURRENCY PRIVATE COINAGE BUYING AND SELLING GOLD' DUST
GOVERNMENTAL METHODS OF DEALING WITH THE PEOPLE MERCHANT PRINCES
OF PIONEER PERIOD PIONEER STOCKS OF MERCHANDISE LITTLE ATTEMPT TO
DISPLAY GOODS CREDIT SYSTEM AND COLLECTIONS PIONEER IDEAS OF A TRANS-
CONTINENTAL RAILROAD MUCH TALK OF CONNECTING EAST AND WEST STATE
PRIDE DEVELOPS SLOWLY WAGON ROADS HIGH FARE AND FREIGHT RATES SEA
AND RIVER NAVIGATION CLIPPER SHIPS PANAMA AND NICARAGUA ROUTES THE
PANAMA RAILROAD SHIPPING OF THE PAST BUSINESS DRAWBACKS.
LTHOUGH mining was the only industry which largely
contributed to the growth and prosperity of San Francisco
during the early Fifties, those most interested in the
development of the City did not deceive themselves con-
cerning the probability of its becoming a diminishing re-
source. The exhaustion of the placers was freely discussed
and the question asked what products could be made to
take the place of gold when the fields should cease to yield large quantities of the
precious metals. Later, when quartz mining began to make a showing there was a
revival of the belief that the production of gold would always be California's most
important industry, but it was not shared by observant men who recognized the
possibilities of a thorough development of the vast area of fertile land which had
been practically neglected up to the time of the occupation, and was not made much
use of during the first few years after the discovery of gold.
There was a wide divergence of opinion respecting the agricultural capabilities
of California in the early Fifties. They were relatively better appreciated before
the gold rush began than while the excitement attending the great finds of the
precious metal lasted. Among the immigrants who entered the state with the
view of engaging in mining there were comparatively few who had previously
worked on farms, and they were easily misled by appearances into the belief that
most of the land was unfit for any other than grazing purposes. This view was to
some extent shared by the immigrants who had been farmers and was only aban-
doned by them when actual experience demonstrated that there was no branch of
agriculture which could not be profitably pursued within the borders of California.
Thus it happened that the pioneer merchants of San Francisco, while all their
279
Sources of
Prosperity
FertiUty ol
California
Lands
SAN FRANCISCO
energies were at first absorbed in the conduct of a trade unique in many particulars,
inasmuch as it involved the exchange of a universally sought product for an infinite
variety of commodities, rather than the complex operations attending the quest for
markets in which to dispose of competing articles, were the first to recognize the
need of industrial expansion, and did all in their power to bring about that result.
That this was their attitude is made plain by the discussions in the legislature and
the press in which the future of the port of San Francisco was always spoken of
as dependent upon the development of the agricultural resources of the country,
and the conversion of raw materials into finished products. It was the prevalence
of this opinion as much as any other cause that kept California from meeting the
fate which a section of the American people were desirous of imposing upon her
from the date of acquisition. Had the course of events after 1846 not been inter-
rupted by the discovery of gold it hardly admits of a doubt that the most of the
immigrants attracted to the new territory would have been from the South and
Southwest, and that they would have succeeded when the rupture between
North and South finally came, in carrying California out of the Union. The influx
of great numbers of men from those parts of the country where free labor prevailed,
and where the conviction was very general that American prosperity depended on
the creation of a condition which would relieve the countr}' of the necessity of
depending on foreigners, determined the future of California and set at naught
the plans of politicians.
The early trade conditions, and the first feeble efforts at manufacturing in San
Francisco very faintly indicated the aspirations of its inhabitants which were im-
possible of speedy realization because of economic obstacles that will only be
overcome when the population of the state is great enough to permit it to manufac-
ture on a scale which will make low cost of production possible. In tracing these
efforts it will be seen that San Francisco was subject to drawbacks which at first
seemed advantages, and that in reaching out to secure the benefits which close
intercourse undoubtedly confers she subjected her growing industries to a compe-
tition which her sparse population and limited resources were not able to withstand.
Turning back to the days of Forty-nine we find that the country was as dependent
on the outside world for all those things which men desire as the native Californians
were before their arrival. The commonest necessaries of life had to be brought
from the "States" or Europe, and those artificial contributions to comfort demanded
by man, whenever he can command the means to obtain them, were all derived from
the same sources. As a consequence for several 3'ears the import trade of San
Francisco was not merely the most important, it was practically the sole direct
trade with other peoples, for the commodities imported were almost wholly paid
for with the gold taken from the placers. In 1848 there were twelve mercantile
establishments and a number of agencies for Eastern concerns and firms doing busi-
ness in the Sandwich islands ; and there were also several direct importers. Within
the first eight weeks after the discovery at Sutter's fort fully $250,000 worth of
gold dust had reached San Francisco, and in the ensuing eight weeks an additional
$600,000 was received. The effect on trade was what might have been expected.
The stocks on hand were rapidly cleaned out. So great was the demand for all
sorts of commodities that the Russian American Companj', whose managers in
Alaska had early intelligence of the gold find, were enabled to clear shelves and
SAN FRANCISCO
281
warehouses of dead stock that had accumulated during the many years their estab-
lishment had been in operation.
In 1849 merchants were so eager to procure goods that they went out in boats
to meet ships in the offing. It is related that a trader who adopted this plan of
replenishing his stock hailed a ship just arrived, asking: "Have you woolen
shirts.'" "Yes," was the reply. "How many.''" "About a hundred dozen." "What
will you take for the lot?" "A hundred per cent over New York cost." "Done.
Here's a hundred dollars to bind the bargain." The trade thus concluded, netted
the purchaser more than the New York consignor or the ship, but all were satis-
fied. It is not surprising that the knowledge of this extraordinary demand should
have resulted in a great movement of goods towards the new El Dorado. Soon
ships were sailing toward the Golden Gate from all quarters of the globe bringing
merchandise and men. Before the middle of the year 1849 the bay was filled with
shipping. Over two hundred square rigged vessels lay at anchor in the harbor,
and they had all brought goods, and as is usual in such cases, the importations
were nearly all responsive to the same impulse, and not nicely adjusted to the
requirements of the market. Nevertheless, although the merchants were obliged
to pay the excessive rents and high prices for their goods, they made large profits,
An attempt was made in the fall of 1849 to organize a Merchants' Exchange,
but while there were several subscribers to the project the hurly burly of the times
prevented the consummation of the idea. Everybody was too busy to attend meet-
ings, and those engaged in trade apparently were disposed to ignore methods
prevalent in older communities. A reading room established by E. E. Dunbar,
however, was much resorted to by men in business, and to some extent served the
purpose for which exchanges are devised. The best of organization would not
have materially improved the condition. The world knew that vast quantities of
gold were being taken out, and just at that time the complaint of overproduction
of manufactured articles was general, hence all sought to get their surplus com-
modities to the place where they could be exchanged for the gold. The desire of
the local dealers to get rich quickly cooperated with the eagerness to unload, and
the consequence was that San Francisco merchants were heavily overstocked and
in the spring of 1850 they were compelled to make great reductions in prices to
realize, a course which saved some but resulted in many bankruptcies.
One of the effects of this overstocking was the creation of an auction business
which survived many years in San Francisco, and was at one time so flourishing
that the legislature, always on the lookout for opportunities to draw revenue from
the City, sought to impose on it a special form of taxation. It first came into
prominence through the necessity of speedily getting rid of the stocks of debtors,
but later it was made use of by consignees to dispose of cargoes shipped by them
without special knowledge of the needs of the market, a practice which tended to
demoralize the regular conduct of business.
Despite these drawbacks merchandizing up to 1854 does not appear to have
been an extra hazardous occupation. At least there was no perceptible diminution
of the volume of trade. There were great fluctuations in prices and incautious
operators occasionally went to the wall, but on the whole, owing to the high range
of profits, there were relatively fewer fatalities than in many places in the At-
lantic states where business was carried on in a conservative fashion. In 1853
there was a repetition of the earlier trouble of overstocking due to the practice of
Early
Trade
Depressions
SAN FRANCISCO
First San
Francisco
Banks
consignees flooding the market, and it became necessary to ship goods back to
New York in order to relieve the glut. This depression passed away, and there were
hopes of a complete recovery of business in 1854 which were disappointed, trading
during that year being generally unprofitable.
In 1855 as the result of bad banking methods several financial institutions
failed, and the business community suffered severely. There were 197 failures
with liabilities amounting to $8,000,000. The disaster had its origin in the indis-
cretion of a banking concern with its headquarters in St. Louis and a branch in
San Francisco. The parent house had invested heavily in the Ohio and Mississippi
Railroad and was drawing upon Page, Bacon & Co. of San Francisco for funds
to meet demands upon it when it failed. At the time of the failure there was a
million dollars worth of gold dust in transit to St. Louis, which successfully eluded
the depositors of the San Francisco bank who tried to get it into their possession.
The obligations of Page, Bacon & Co. in tlie City reached two millions, and the
firm closed the doors of their establishment after paying out about $600,000. An
attempt was made to sustain Page, Bacon & Co., but the manager of the bank,
Henry Haight, was unable to make a satisfactory showing and the effort had to
be abandoned. Adams & Co., another of the larger institutions, anticipated an
expected run by putting up its shutters. A receiver was appointed, and there was
a continuous legal battle which in the end dissipated all the funds of the depositors
who received little of the money deposited by them.
The banking trouble of this period was largely attributed to the failure of the
State to exercise a proper surveillance over the operations of financial concerns.
Owing to the distrust of corporations which was excessive at the time of the adop-
tion of the first constitution the state was prohibited granting charters for banking
purposes, or of the issuance and circulation of bank notes; but there was no inhi-
bition of the privilege of creating banks of deposit which exercised nearly all the
functions of a chartered bank, such as receiving deposits, making loans, selling
drafts and buying bullion, and between 1849 and 1852 five companies doing what
was called an express banking business were in existence. They were S. F. Adams
& Co., Page, Bacon & Co., Palmer, Cook & Co., Todd & Co., and Wells, Fargo &
Co., and they all did a flourishing business, handling the bulk of the gold dust and
bullion passing through San Francisco. There were also private banks and for
some time mercantile houses possessing safes acted as depositaries.
Outside of the express companies the principal private banking firms in 1849
were those of Henry M. Naglee, Burgoyne & Co., B. Davidson, Thomas G. Wells
and James King of William. Naglee in company with a man named Linton,
established the first bank on the coast on Jan. 9, 1849. In April, 1854, this num-
ber had increased to a round dozen, the banks in operation being those of Burgoyne
& Co., B. Davidson, James King of William, Tallant & Wilde, Page, Bacon & Co.,
Adams & Co., Palmer, Cook & Co., Drexel, Sailer & Church, Robinson & Co.,
Sanders & Brenham, Carothers, Anderson & Co., Lucas Turner & Co.
Although California in the first year after the discovery of gold produced over
ten million dollars worth of that metal, and in 1850 $41,273,106, the annual out-
put increasing to $81,294,700 in 1852, it actually suffered from a dearth of money,
and various expedients had to be resorted to in order to secure a medium for the
transaction of business. Large quantities of foreign coin were in circulation and
passed without much attention being paid to its real worth. Pieces which approxi-
SAN FRANCISCO
mated in size to those of a familiar American coin were accepted without demur
as an equivalent of the coin they resembled, and in a land of gold, over which the
Stars and Stripes floated, for quite a period about the only gold coins obtainable
were English sovereigns.
This neglect of the government at Washington was partly remedied by the
establishment of private assay offices where coins were minted of various denomi-
nations. Ingots varying in size, stamped by an assayer appointed by the state
under authority of an act passed by the legislature April 20, 1850, were the
nearest approach to a legal money until the secretary of the treasury made a con-
tract with the firm of Curtiss, Perry & Ward to commence the assaying of gold.
Coins were emitted by this firm, and although they were not recognized by the
government they circulated commercially, as did those put out by firms wholly
unauthorized to coin money.
There was considerable profit in this private coinage, and although it might
easily have lent itself to serious abuses there do not appear to have been any
frauds of consequence perpetrated. Fifty dollar pieces called "slugs" were issued
with the stamp of the United States assayer. They were octagonal in form and
somewhat thicker than a double eagle. There were also twenty-five dollar and
twenty, ten and five dollar pieces. Although not a legal tender they were freely
received, and no objection was made to the fact that they were as a rule worth
less than their face value. With his customary disregard of small things the argo-
naut was quite ready to permit those who furnished him with a convenient medium
of exchange, for which there was urgent need, to make a liberal profit, and he
never thought it worth his while to challenge what was unmistakably an invasion
of a governmental function most jealously guarded by other nations than the
United States.
There was much looseness of thought concerning the rights of buyer and seller
of gold dust and bullion which may be attributed to the carelessness of the miner
as much as to the greed of those with whom he dealt. Until the branch mint began
to supply legal tender coins it was the custom to make purchases with dust and
scales were a part of the paraphernalia of every store. As a rule bargaining was
not indulged in, and if the miner happened to be particularly flush he was more
apt to give the storekeeper the benefit of overweight than to exact an advantage
from him. Large sums of money were made by firms making a specialty of buying
gold dust, and a scandal of considerable magnitude was raised by a charge against
Page, Bacon & Co., that they had improperly "cleaned up" about $100,000, the
implication being that thej' had cheated their customers by manipulating the
scales and undervaluing the fineness of the metal.
On this latter score there was ample ground for complaint against the negligence
of the government whicli not only failed to act promptly in the matter of supplying
a convenient medium of exchange, but took advantage of its own laches to compel
mporters to settle customs duties on a basis which involved a loss to the merchant
n many instances. In July, 1848, the government consented to receive gold dust
n payment of duties at a very low figure, permitting the payer the right of
redemption which was kept open for one hundred and eighty days. In December
of the same year gold dust was dull of sale at $10.50 an ounce, although the price
had been fixed at a public meeting held in the previous September at $16 an ounce.
In view of the fact that the importers of coin made profits ranging from fourteen
Private
Fronts of
the Private
Coiner
Buying and
SeUing
Gold Dust
(iovernmental
Incapacity
284
SAN FRANCISCO
Basiness
Highly
Speculative
Early
Merchant
to thirty per cent, that coins worth 19 cents circulated at 25 cents, Spanish reals
of IZVo cents were valued at 15 cents, that the owner of gold dust was compelled
to sacrifice heavily in selling owing to the uncertainties attending its quality, and
that interest on loans made in coin soared heavenward, the pioneer may justly
claim that he was the victim of governmental incompetency at a time when it was
universally acknowledged that the stream of gold he was pouring into the channels
of trade was exerting a revivifying influence and starting the world anew on a
career of progress.
The modern sensitiveness concerning the quality of money apparently did not
trouble the argonauts whose chief concern was to gather gold and secure a circu-
lating medium of some sort, but there is little room for doubt that the crudity
of the banking and monetary systems of the early Fifties contributed largely to
the business troubles of the period by converting what should have been ordinary
transactions into speculative ventures. All speculation not forbidden by law may
be regarded as legitimate, but there was little commerce of the sort we now term
"legitimate" in California up to the crash of 1855. There was no certainty that
the intelligent application of knowledge and the exertion of energy in any given
enterprise would produce reasonable returns; everyday commercial affairs were
invested with the same elements of uncertainty as the hunting of gold which might
or might not be rewarded with success. It was largely a question of luck, because
the practical isolation of the City and coast made the business men of San Francisco
dependent on the caprice and judgment of outsiders who rushed in goods without
any knowledge of the requirements of the people they were serving.
It is astonishing that so many men proved their ability by weathering commer-
cial storms more numerous and violent than those encountered elsewhere. The fact
that they did so can only be explained hj the enormous output of gold which aggre-
gated $345,950,117 up to the close of 1854, and reached the enormous sum of
$639,191,997 at the close of the decade. This permitted the taking of profits which
under any other condition would have been regarded as abnormal, and they pro-
vided a margin for contingencies which were frequently occurring, and many that
were of a character which could not be foreseen by the most sagacious. Hence
we are not surprised that even as early as 1853 there were instances of success
in business which warranted the writer of the "Annals" in asserting that many
who had resorted to mercantile pursuits had become "merchant princes." While
the term was not pure hyperbole, for there were merchants who had amassed suf-
ficient wealth to attain to influential positions in the community, it must not be
taken too literally, or as connoting all that we now attach to the designation.
Things are to be regarded relatively, and when the pioneer tells us that there were
fine stores and as big and varied stocks in San Francisco in the early Fifties as
there are now, we must weigh the assertion with the qualification "in proportion
to population." There were big stores with big stocks of goods, and curiously
enough they were conducted on lines very similar to those of a modern department
store, but they bore no nearer resemblance to the great modern marts of trade
than a large country store of today does to one of those institutions.
In no particular has merchandizing changed more than in the mode of display-
ing goods. That is wholly a modern development and owes its growth as much
to the improvement in the production of plate glass as to increased competition.
When the hundreds of vessels which entered the harbor in 1849 and 1850 and 1851,
SAN FRANCISCO
and disgorged their cargoes into the mercantile establishments of the City, there
were goods in abundance, and the enthusiastic annalist was warranted in speaking
of the stocks as covering the range of human desire, but that range was limited,
comparatively speaking. A merchant whose career in San Francisco began in the
early Fifties, and who still actively pursues his calling declares, that a thoroughly
equipped modern store probablj' carries fifty times as great a variety of articles
as the biggest establishment did in 1854, and that the present method of conducting
business would have seemed absurdly complex to the pioneer merchant; and that
most of the devices now resorted to in order to tempt customers and promote trade
would have been scorned by them in the early days when simplicity and directness
of dealing were the rule.
The interior of a big store in San Francisco in the early Fifties presented a
picture of profusion rather than variety, and in no case was there any serious
effort made by employers or clerks to impress by display. Goods were piled where
it was found convenient to bestow them rather than with reference to attracting the
attention of customers to their existence. The staple articles, now usually hidden
in warerooms to be brought forward when demanded, were most in evidence. Big
piles of flannel shirts, and other garments which the customer could not help
being aware were to be had, were as often as not in the foreground, while articles
of luxury were concealed in parts of the store only penetrated by the inquisitive.
Mountains of barrels were kept in sight, but the bij outre and other luxuries had
to be dragged forth when demanded. Window displays were so uncommon as
to be almost unknown, and other means of advertising were equally neglected. The
trained clerk was a rarity, the salesmen and accountants being principally re-
cruited from the ranks of unsuccessful gold seekers, and very often the employer
was as ignorant of the selling art as his employee.
It is perhaps to this latter fact that the long persistence of a custom of col-
lecting bi-monthly, which grew out of the necessity of making remittances on the
sailing days of steamers is owing. When the line established by the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company succeeded in making its schedules of departures for Panama
perfectly dependable, the 1st and 16th of each month were fixed as collection days,
and every business house sent out men to dun customers. The practice was not
abandoned when other facilities for remitting were provided, and still endures
despite the fact that numerous mails are daily dispatched to the Atlantic states.
It never met with adverse criticism until very recent years, and is still defended
as a useful custom on the ground that it keeps debtors in mind of their obligations.
The conservatism implied by the long endurance of a business device of this char-
acter contrasts forcibly with the intensely speculative character of pioneer trading
days, and when investigated discloses the cause of some of the anomalies which have
puzzled students of early Californian peculiarities. Accepting the warning which
the evil results of wildcat banking at the East held out, the framers of the first
constitution deliberately hedged about the business of banking with obstacles which
made a safe system impossible. The people became obsessed by the idea tliat no
representative of money was safe, and insisted that only the precious metals should
be used as a medium of exchange. They deemed it impossible to devise a scheme
by which a representative of the metals could be made absolutely safe, because they
ignored the fact that the underlying cause of wildcat banking in the East was the
scarcity of basic money. They did not see that the abundance of gold in Cali-
Store in
Early
Days
Credit
System and
Collection
Days
SAN FRANCISCO
Getting
in Touch
with the
Railroad
Talk in
1854
fornia made the creation of reserves possible, and that proper laws under the con-
ditions created by successful placer mining would have enabled them to obtain
and maintain an absolutely safe circulation.
The attitude of the commercial element of San Francisco, and the people gen-
erally, towards paper money after the outbreak of the Civil war was in seeming
contradiction to the earnest efforts inaugurated at an early day to bring the coast
in closer touch with the states on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. It is some-
times assumed that the need for a transcontinental railroad was first felt when
the slaveholder rebellion threatened to sever California from the Union, but that
is an error. Although California by her specific contract act appeared to advertise
to the world that she had no confidence in the integrity of the government's green-
backs, her refusal to receive them had no such significance. Long before 1861
California was earnestly seeking closer financial relations with the Atlantic states,
and the necessity of linking the country together, so as to lessen the drawbacks
of an isolation which every observant person clearly perceived, was generally
recognized.
The spontaneity with which ocean transportation was provided after the dis-
covery of gold no wise weakened the belief that California would be vastly bene-
fited by land connection with all other parts of the Union. The Pacific Mail and
other transportation companies speedily furnished facilities which undoubtedly
for a considerable period made an overland project seem visionary rather than
practical, but the multiplication of sea lines did not divert attention from the possi-
bilities of a more direct and rapid transit. It is interesting to note that when this
possibility was first discussed the scope of desire was very modest. There were
some who had visions of more than one transcontinental railroad, but usually the
talk revolved about "a railroad." In his retiring message in 1851 Governor
McDougal spoke of the railroad that had already been started in western Missouri
and expressed the hope that congress would aid in forwarding the gigantic project
to completion. He pointed out that the government owned immense bodies of
fertile lands which lay waste and untenanted and said that by granting those por-
tions lying along the line of communication the value of the remainder of the
public domain would be greatly enhanced.
In 185i a writer in discussing the question of routes declared that whichever
one was selected San Francisco would be "the chief terminus on the Pacific," but
a little later he sounded a warning note and said that Puget Sound offered com-
mercial advantages nearly as great as those of the Bay of San Francisco, and that
it would be unfortunate if the northern section got the start as the result would
be to divert immigration from California. "Later," he added, "let through lines
terminate where they will; only let our City have the first one." In the same year
on April 10, Governor Isaac J. Stevens of Washington territory, lectured in San
Francisco on "The Great Interoceanic Highway," and pointed out what would
be accomplished "when the long talked of Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was fin-
ished," Three routes were spoken of at that time. The first was the Southern.
It seemed to be the favorite, probably because it appeared to be the one best calcu-
lated to advance the interests of the South; and the general impression was that
it had the best show of receiving aid on that account. It would have traversed
Texas, New ^Mexico and Arizona, and San Diego bay would have been its terminus.
The second was the Middle route, which starting in Missouri was to have ended at
SAN FRANCISCO
287
some place on the Sacramento river, and the third was the Northern which would
connect the basin of the St. Lawrence river witli Puget Sound, passing along the
lines of the Upper Missouri and Columbia rivers.
All of these projects were finally consummated, but not until many years after
their enthusiastic advocates began talking of their possible accomplishment. The
last spike of the first completed line which connected the Missouri river with
Sacramento by rail was not driven until 1869, and not until after the scheme for
its building had been made the battledore and shuttlecock of the politicians. The
pro-slavery element was determined upon securing a line which would run south
of the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude, and made it clear that unless that was con-
ceded there should be no line at all. At no time was there any doubt expressed
concerning the propriety of extending aid in the way of land grants. Northerners
and Southerners were equally disposed to be liberal in that regard, the only hitch
between them grew out of the choice of route.
That California had not as yet taken strong hold of the affections of the people
of the state may be inferred from the fact that an important section of the com-
munity was quite ready to deprive the coast of the benefits of transcontinental com-
munication rather than make any concessions which they thought would militate
against the interests of the slaveholders. In the congress of 1858 lines were
sharply drawn, and Broderick, who advocated the Central route was antagonized
by Senator Gwin, who throughout the contest exhibited a far greater desire to
advance the fortunes of the South than of the state he was chosen to represent.
Perhaps the Southern contingent found some warrant for their action in the reso-
lution passed at the first democratic meeting held in San Francisco on the 25th of
October, 1849, which required candidates to vote for "an Atlantic and Pacific rail-
road through United States territory in preference to any other." Compliance
with this demand would have necessitated adherence to the plan of Thomas H.
Benton, but years afterward, when the situation had been completely changed
by the purchase of the land comprising the present states of Arizona and New
Mexico, the proviso lost its force, and the chief struggle was between the adherents
of a route along the thirty-second parallel and those advocating a terminus at
Sacramento.
Although discussion of transcontinental railway plans absorbed a great deal
of public attention the people of San Francisco and the rest of the state did not
concentrate all their hopes upon overland communication but were active supporters
of schemes designed to put them in touch with the rest of the Pacific coast. They
early appreciated the benefits to be derived from roads that would link the different
sections of the coast together, and promoted enterprises which presented great
difficulties owing to the vast distances intervening between the different nuclei of
population. In 1848 when the news of the gold discovery reached Oregon, Burnett
the first governor of California, organized a party which traveled overland from
Oregon City to the Sacramento valley. The initial trip was attended with some
difficulty, but the result was the mapping out of a road which was subsequently
developed. In 1855 the legislature passed an act to build a wagon road over the
Sierra, but it exceeded the debt limit provision in the organic law and was declared
unconstitutional in 1857. Meanwhile, however, considerable work was done on
the road, and obligations were incurred which the people by the decisive vote of
A Southern
Transconti-
nental Line
SAN FRANCISCO
Beneats
Expected
High
Freight
ind Fare
Ignorance
Concerning
Railroads
57,600 to 16,000 decided should be paid, sternly setting their faces against repudi-
ation in any form.
In 1855 the legislature was much occupied with the transportation question.
The availability of the diilerent passes was discussed and reports were made which
showed the practicability of the state being entered by railroads at various points.
A memorial was introduced at this session which had for its object anticipation of
the service to be performed by a railroad or railroads. It proposed the establish-
ment of an overland express by means of camels or dromedaries. The experiment
was tried, but the "ships of the desert" did not prove a success, and. horses were
substituted for them, and later stage coaches were introduced. These facilities,
however, were provided by individual effort, and were the only tangible results
of the public discussions which continued during nearly twenty years. The political
resolves adopted in 1849 were backed up by resolutions introduced and passed at
almost every session of the legislature, the first being that suggested by John
Bigler in 1850, urging on congress the importance of constructing a railroad from
the ^Mississippi to the Pacific. The transportation literature of the period is volum-
inous, and only less entertaining than the story of the actual happenings after the
railroad was finally built. Throughout it all there runs a vein of optimism which
contrasts remarkably with the subsequent feeling engendered by the abuses which
followed the advent of the first transcontinental line.
San Franciscans were more positive in the expression of the belief that a trans-
continental line would work a great transformation in California than the other
inhabitants of the state, but they failed to give their convictions practical effect.
They were confident that it would make its fertile lands accessible to great numbers
of immigrants who would produce on a scale which would speedily make San Fran-
cisco a trading port of consequence and a real metropolis. Its merchants had been
long accustomed to viewing matters from the standpoint of the distributor, and they
had visions of the development of a great Oriental traffic which would make the
City the most prosperous on the globe. No one apparently realized the possibility
of the new method of communication destroying the advantages which came from
comparative isolation. The railroad in the common belief would prove an unadulter-
ated benefit; no one seemed to think of the possibility of its bringing trouble;
even the laboring element of the community did not seriously regard the chance
of its making a change in their condition.
We may discern the source of this optimism in the prevalent belief that in some
fashion or other the transcontinental railway would bring relief from oppressive
freight charges. How great a burden these were may be inferred from the message
of Governor Bigler in 1851, in which he pointed out that the law allowed 20 cents
per mile for passage, and 60 cents per ton for freight to steam navigation com-
panies. He urged an amendment which would make a reduction of ten cents a mile
for passage and 15 cents a ton for freight, and, evidently believing that the people
were on the eve of securing the desired connection with the East, he warned the
legislature that unless the reduction was made the railroad would be able to
charge $500 for passage from the Missouri river to the coast; and $1,500 for haul-
ing a ton of freight between the two points.
Theories respecting the management of railroads had not been highly developed
at the time, but this recommendation, and the general attitude, indicates an almost
total ignorance of the policy of "all the traffic will bear," which was subse-
SAN FRANCISCO
quently elaborated by the organizers of what finally grew into the Southern Pa-
cific system. That it could have been deemed possible for any sort of freight to
bear a traffic charge of $1,500 a ton exhibits clearly that although the discussion
was incessant, and took a range so wide as to even embrace the fear that unless
the United States should hurry up Great Britain might get ahead of us by "building
from Halifax to Lake St. Clair," it was not very illuminating. "Shall we yield the
palm of building the longest railroad in the world to them?" asked a committee of
the California senate, which reported a bill in May, 1852, granting the right of way
to the United States for the construction of a road connecting the two oceans.
"Never!" was the emphatic answer to its own query.
San Franciscans knew little about railroads in those days, and for that matter
the fund of information concerning them was not large in the older communities.
The first railroad in California was that built under the provisions of an act passed
in 1853 and ran from Sacramento to Folsom. It was commenced in the early part
of 1855 and was opened February 22, 1856. It did not prove profitable owing to
the high cost of labor and the decline of the placer mines, and in 1865 fell into the
hands of the Central Pacific after several vain efforts by different persons to make
it pay. Until 1863, when the road between San Jose and San Francisco was opened,
San Franciscans and California generally were utterly destitute of railroad experi-
ence, and it is not surprising that they raised false hopes for themselves, and made
gTeat blunders in dealing with the men who attained to knowledge more rapidly
than they did, and made use of it to amass great wealth for themselves.
The inaction of congress in promoting the railroad enterprise contrasts with
the activity displayed by individuals in providing other means of transportation.
The discovery of gold was promptly followed by a rush which called into requisition
all sorts of sea craft, but this unorganized traffic was soon succeeded by regular
lines. In a remarkably brief period there was as much certainty respecting the
sailing days and arrivals of the steamships carrying passengers by way of the
isthmus, or the Nicaragua routes as there is today. Not only was regularity secured
in the traffic between San Francisco and the Atlantic states, great promptitude was
also shown in the promotion of facilities for reaching the mining regions.
After the sinking of "the steamboat" there was no steam navigation on the
bay until speculators incited by the hope of profit, sent out an iron boat from the
East, which was shipped in pieces and set up in San Francisco, making her first
trip to Sacramento in September, 1849. This adventure was speedily followed by
others. On the 9th of October a boat called "The Mint" started plying between
San Francisco and the towns on the upper waters of the Sacramento. On the
26th a propeller called the "McKim" left the City for Sacramento. Prior to the
appearance of these boats points on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers were
reached by schooners and launches, their voyages often occupying as many as ten
days. In 1854 the time had been reduced to about a half a day, and steamboats
were making regular departures. The price of passage, which at first was $30 in
the cabin and $20 on deck, was greatly reduced during the interval.
In that year excessive competition brought about a combination which excited
great indignation. The various steamboats plying on the bay, and on the inland
waters, were brought under one management in a concern called the California
Steam Navigation Company. It was organized with a capital of $2,500,000 in
shares of $1,000 each. The merchants of the City denounced the amalgamation as
Limited
RailroadiDg
Experience
Sea Trans-
portation
Begrolar
Tlie CaUfor-
nia Steam
Navigation
290
SAN FRANCISCO
Nicaraeua
Ship Canal
Project
a dangerous monopoly, but took no practical steps to disrupt it by starting rival
lines. The experience which led to the combination undoubtedly deterred fresh
enterprises. At the height of the struggle between the companies, which later
pooled their interests, passage became practically free, and on occasions the
rivalry assumed the exaggerated form of offering meals to induce patronage. The
rates of fare under the new arrangement were much lower than they were three
or four years earlier, but they were still high enough to form a reasonable groimd
for protest. The cost of passage from San Francisco to Sacramento in the cabin
was $10, on deck $7, and freight was carried at the rate of $8 a ton. To Marys-
ville it was $12 in the cabin and $10 on deck, and freight was $15 a ton. The rate
to Stockton for passengers was the same as that to Sacramento, but freight was
taken at $2 a ton less.
The greatest development resulting from pioneer needs was that of the clipper
ship. The story of the performances of these remarkable products of the skill of
American shipbuilders is an ocean classic. Passages were made between New York
and San Francisco by these vessels in as few as 89 days, the average being about
125 days. The "Flying Cloud" held the record up to 1854, making the trip from
New York to San Francisco, around the Horn, in 89 days. In 1852, 72 vessels,
averaging 1,000 tons burthen, all of them claiming to be clipper ships entered the
port. But the glories of their performances were eclipsed by those of their rivals
impelled by steam, and few but poets and "tars" lamented their disappearance.
Indeed the sentimentally inclined pioneer was so impressed by the sight of a
departing Pacific Mail steamer he was apt to indulge in superlatives and forget
the clipper. It was the custom in the early days to see the steamer leave her wharf,
and we have a vivid description of one of these events in the "Armals:" "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 swiftness." The tribute was deserved, even though
the majestic craft described would only make a good-sized launch for a modern
liner such as now sails out of the port of San Francisco.
The distance from San Francisco to New York by way of Panama was about
5,700 miles and it required twenty-five days to make the trip. Up to the estab-
lishment of the Pony Express in 1860, all the Eastern mails, and for nearly twenty
years up to the opening of the overland railroad most of the mails between the
Atlantic and Pacific coast were carried by this route which was operated by the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company. For a time it had a rival which made use of the
waterways and territory of Nicaragua. A concern known as the Accessory Tran-
sit Company, the outgrowth of a contract originally made by Cornelius Vanderbilt
and other New York capitalists with the Nicaraguan government, maintained an
opposition line during four years which made semi-monthly passages between New
York and San Francisco via Nicaragua. The Accessory Transit Company was later
practically merged in the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company in
pursuance of a contract with the Nicaraguan government, which, among other things
provided for the construction of a ship canal to connect the two oceans within a
period of twelve years from April 11, 1850.
This project had received governmental attention for many years, and it is not
improbable that it might have been carried through had not the machinations of
the filibuster Walker created complications which raised insuperable obstacles. In
SAN FRANCISCO
291
this work Walker was assisted by two California lawyers who sought to aid rivals
of Vanderbilt in gaining possession of the steamship privilege which had become
very profitable. The projectors of the ship canal disregarded their obligations, and
juggled matters so that the Nicaraguan government received nothing for the con-
cession. They made no effort to dig a canal, and thus furnished the excuse which
Walker prompted Rivas, the president, to offer for canceling the contract and
granting a new charter to Garrison, the rival of Vanderbilt, on the ground that
the Accessory Transit Company had forfeited its rights. This new charter was
granted by Rivas in February, 1856, but was kept a secret to permit Garrison to
get in readiness new steamers to take the place of those which would be withdrawn.
The proceeding was so complicated by chincanery that when Garrison sought to
run the new line it at once became an object of distrust, and in a short time, although
under the Vanderbilt regime it had done a profitable business, running semi-monthly
steamers in and out of San Francisco, and carrying thousands of passengers, it
was compelled to discontinue its operations.
Its rival the Pacific Mail continued to prosper. It had commenced the con-
struction of a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama in 1850, but owing to exces-
sive mortality among the working force, which hampered operations, the road
was not opened until Jan. 23, 1855. The cost of the road, which was only 48
miles long, was originally estimated at only $2,000,000, but $7,000,000 were
expended before it was finally completed. At one time it was feared by the
projectors that the undertaking would swamp them, but the prospects of profit
encouraged them to persevere, and profitable mail contracts ultimately repaired the
losses incurred through the excessive cost of building. William H. Aspinwall, the
moving spirit in the enterprise, was a New York millionaire who had interested
himself in mail contracts before the discovery of gold. As early as 1845 a petition
had been sent from Oregon asking for a mail service between that territory and
New York. Aspinwall was a bidder at a subsequent call for proposals and re-
ceived the contract through the default of parties who had bid lower than himself
and associates. The service was to be monthly, by way of Panama, and subse-
quently, by act of congress in 1847, San Francisco was made a port of call. Aspin-
wall, together with Gardener Rowland and Henry Chauncey incorporated the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company April 12, 1848.
Under the terms of the act of congress of 1847 the contractors carrying the
mails to Oregon and California were to receive a subsidy of $200,000 per annum.
They were to build the steamers to engage in the work under government super-
vision, and they were to be operated under the command of captains selected from
the United States navy. The first steamers constructed were the "California,"
"Oregon" and "Panama," respectively 1,050, 1,120 and 1,058 tons burthen. They
were propelled with side wheels and at that time there were few vessels on the
Atlantic comparable with them in size, appointments or speed. The "California"
was the first of the three to sail from New York, leaving that port for Panama via
the Straits of Magellan on the 5th of October, 1848. While the "California" was
making her way to the Pacific, preparations were made on the Atlantic side to
establish a connection. A vessel named the "Falcon" was put in this service. She
sailed from New York on the 1st of December, 1848, but the passengers she carried
were obliged to wait twenty-five days in Panama for the arrival of the "California"
whose passage occupied a much longer time than had been expected. The initial
The Pacific
Mail Steam -
ship Company
292
SAN FRANCISCO
Early Voyagres
of Paciflr
Mail
Steamers
First
Arrivals by
Steamer
RlvaU of
Pacific
MaU
Tonnase
of Port
inlS59
voyage of the "California" from Panama to San Francisco, owing to a coal short-
age, took 28 days, but when she arrived in the port on the 28th day of February,
1849, she received a grand reception.
The time consumed in getting the passengers through from New York to San
Francisco on this first trip was 89 days, including the detention of 25 days due
to the failure to make connection with the "California." The 64 days of actual
transit were subsequently largely reduced, but before it became possible to effect
the reduction the company experienced great difficulty in maintaining its schedule.
The crew of the "California" on her arrival in the harbor promptly deserted and
made their way to the mines as did the most of the passengers. The next steamer
of the line to arrive was the "Oregon." She left New York in December, 1848,
and entered the harbor on the 1st of April, 1849, bringing 250 passengers who had
made the long voyage through the Straits of Magellen. The "Panama" was to have
been second, but did not enter until June 4, 1849, having 290 newcomers aboard.
Passenger lists are not, as a rule, very interesting, but those of the first two
mail steamers entering the port of San Francisco contained so many names of men
who afterward figured in the upbuilding of the City, they deserve reproduction if
merely to emphasize the fact that fortune favors those who are prompt to seize an
opportunity. Among the arrivals by the "California" whose names are part of the
history of the city were General Persifer F. Smith, William Van Voorhees, Captain
R. W. Heath, H. F. Williams, D. W. C. Thompson, Major Canby, Alexander Aus-
tin, Eugene Sullivan, E. T. Batters, Alfred Robinson, Mallachi Fallon, R. M. Price,
Pacificus Ord, Levi Stowell and Cleveland Forbes. There were also four ministers,
Sylvester Woodbridge, Presbyterian; O. C. Wheeler, Baptist; J. W. Douglas and
S. H. Willey, Congregationalists. In the list of the "Oregon" are found the names
of Dr. A. J. Bowie, R. P. Hammond, Dr. George F. Turner, Captain E. D. Keyes,
Frederick Billings, F. D. Atherton, John Benson, A. K. P. Harmon, Rev. Albert
Williams, Dr. Horace Bacon, D. N. Hawley, Captain M. R. Roberts, E. B. Vree-
land. Dr. W. F. Peabody, John W. Geary, George H. Beach, WiUiam M. Lent,
John T. Little, David Fay, J. Cowell, Samuel Blake, John T. Wright, A. J. Morell
and Captain L. M. Goldsborough.
In the last ten months of 1849 the passenger business of the Pacific Mail aggre-
gated 3,959. It would have been extraordinary if such remunerative traffic had not
tempted others to engage in the business. The Accessory Transit Company's efforts
have already been mentioned, but there were numerous other rivals for patronage.
In 1850 the number of steamers in the Panama trade had increased from 6 to 21 and
the trips from 14 to 41, and the passengers carried from 3,959 to 7,118. In the
succeeding year 30 steamers making 74 trips, and four lines in operation, were
recorded. The number of steamers, however, does not begin to tell the story of
increase, for the "Golden Gate" of 2,067 tons register, double the size of the first
boats to ply in the Panama trade was put in service and she was able to accom-
modate 600 passengers.
It would require a volume devoted to the special subject to tell the whole story
of the maritime activities of the port in the first decade after the occupation. Here
the attempt to describe them must be confined to the statement that in the closing
year of the Fifties the tonnage of ocean arrivals aggregated 596,600 tons, of which
143,700 tons were steam. Of the total tonnage of 1859, 230,700 tons were registered
as foreign and 365,900 as domestic. This expansion was nearly twelve fold during
SAN FRANCISCO
293
the decade, the registry showing a total of 50,000 tons in 1848; but the greatest
increase occurred before the close of 1853, when 559,000 steam and sail tonnage
was registered. After 1853 the greatest change noted was in the increase of steam
tonnage, which rose from 98,400 to 143,700 tons in 1859.
The traffic indicated by these figures furnished ample justification for the de-
cided strengthening of the belief, which at no time after the beginning of the gold
rush had been at all weak, that San Francisco was destined to be a great commercial
emporium. The point of view changed as new developments occurred. The dis-
heartening effects of the disastrous fires of the first years of the City had passed
away. No one in San Francisco at the beginning of the Sixties could be found to
express himself as did a correspondent of the "Illustrated London News," who on
July 5, 1851, describing the fire of May 3rd, said: "Whether San Francisco will
ever entirely recover from the blow, is, I think, doubtful." There were no longer
doubts about the future, but there was much uncertainty concerning how the future
would work itself out. There was a great diversity of opinion, but it did not eventu-
ate in the impairment of confidence, and to some extent the differences tended to
promote the opposite feeling. The latter was based on the growing comprehension
of the immense resources of the state, and in considering them all apprehension
which might have been created by the diminishing returns from the mines dis-
appeared.
After the drastic settlement of the municipal troubles in 1856 business men
were freed from an incubus which affected initiative, and they were able to think
intelligently and plan for the future. Their plans were not wholly dissociated from
those of the rest of the mercantile world, but comparative isolation had its effect
in shaping them, as it had in creating the opinion which frequently found expression
later, that in some way California would be compelled to work out its own destiny.
That this feeling should have existed is not at all surprising, and that it should
have tended to obscure the possibilities of closer contact with the outside world is
also not remarkable. There was steadfast faith in the future and it was not a
faith wholly without works. The performances of the business men of San Fran-
cisco after 1856 were not spectacular, but they were effective, as was proved by the
steady growth of the City after that date, not merely in population but in all those
directions which contribute to the well being of a community anxious to take its
place in the van of the army of civilization, and in the estimation of the outside
world. Like the rest of the Union, the City of San Francisco, despite its remote-
ness from the political centers of the country, suffered from the depression produced
by bad legislation on the eve of the Civil war. Its merchants received a severe
blow, and the experiences of 1855 were repeated, but they passed through the
crisis, and when the war did commence, fortuitous circumstances enabled them to
recover from disaster more speedilj^ than those of any other part of the Union.
Confidence
in tbe
Fntnre
Belluni
Business
Troubles
CHAPTER XXXIII
JOURNALISM, LITERATURE, EDUCATION AND POLITICS OF
PIONEER DAYS
NEWSPAPERS OF SAN FRANCISCO PRESS AT TIME OF GOLD DISCOVERY NEWS BEFORE
THE AMERICAN CAME TO CALIFORNIA THE FIRST NEWSPAPER MERGER VIOLENCE
OF EDITORIAL EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF THE PRESS EDITOR KILLED IN A DUEL
JOURNALISM AN UNPROFITABLE CALLING DRIVING RIVALS FROM THE FIELD NOT
MUCH STRESS LAID ON NEWS EDITORIAL WRITERS DURING THE FIFTIES USE OF
THE TELEGRAPH NEWS RECEIVED BY STEAMER MAILS RECEIVED BY STAGE AND
PONY EXPRESS JOURNALISM AND LITERATURE CLOSELY ALLIED VARYING LITERARY
STANDARDS POLITICS AND LITERATURE EARLY LIBRARIES- — FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK
THE WEEKLY PAPERS A WOMAN's JOURNAL GOLDEN ERA SCHOOL OF LITERA-
TURE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE HIGHER EDUCA-
TION PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS POLITICS AND THE SCHOOLS.
N TRACING the progress of events in San Francisco its
public journals have been mentioned, not always in a man-
ner calculated to impress one with the idea that journalism
was an unmixed blessing. In the Fifties the newspapers
were almost as turbulent as the times in which they were
printed. Their editors and publishers were not always di.s-
posed to pour oil on the troubled waters. As a rule they
pursued a course which might be fittingly described as adding fuel to the flames.
In this respect, however, their conduct did not differ materially from that of those
pursuing a like calling at the East, but the result oftener proved tragic in the new
metropolis of the Pacific.
The early newspapers were intensely partisan and devoted a great deal of their
space to the discussion of political questions. They were able to spare it because
the art of news gathering had not been developed to any extent at the time, and
the facilities for procuring intelligence were limited. Before the gold rush there
was published under the auspices of Samuel Brannan a small sheet of four pages,
fifteen by twelve inches in size. The editor, E. P. Jones, probably having in mind
the former relations of Brannan with the Mormons, announced that sectarianism
would be avoided in its columns. It was called "The Star," and it made its first
appearance on January 7, 1847. On the 22d of May following, a weekly news-
paper, printed in Monterey as early as August, 1846, from an old font of Spanish
type, from which the w's were missing, was moved to Yerba Buena. It was pub-
lished by Robert Semple, but appears to have been the selected organ of the mili-
tary occupants of the country.
295
Newspaper*
of San
Francisco
An Intensely
Partisan
Fresg
296
SAN FRANCISCO
Effect of
Gold Dis-
covery on
Journalism
News
Before tlie
Intemperate
and Violent
Expression
These two papers filled the want of the period, and would probably have re-
mained the sole exponents of public opinion for a long time had not the discovery of
gold changed conditions, injecting energy into an occupation that hardly had an
existence in San Francisco before ISid. The change did not come suddenly, for the
editors and typesetters deserted their posts when the reports of the find at Sutter's
fort reached them, and it was some months before they returned to their duties.
Their desertion is one of the rare instances in American journalism of newspaper
men abandoning their work, and was more due to the absence of that discipline
which characterizes the modern news gathering organization than to the avarice
of those employed in making these pioneer papers.
Prior to 1849 news traveled very slowly in California. The journal of a navy
chaplain, written in Monterey, states that, although gold was found in January,
1848, nothing was heard of the discovery until the ensuing May. When the news
was received at the ancient capital it was through some such channel as had served
for the dissemination of intelligence in California from the days when the chain of
missions was first established. Who the bearer of the momentous bit of news was
is not recorded, but it was probably someone who had occasion to visit Monterey on
a business errand. At least it is certain that it was not specially transmitted to the
little hamlet by the sea ; that all came later.
The "Californian" temporarily suspended publication on the 29th of May, 1848,
and in the following month the "Star" imitated its example. The subscribers of
the "Californian" were treated to an apology, accompanied by an explanation that
everyone had gone to the diggings. It is not impossible that the flight was for the
purpose of getting information, for on the 15th of July, the "Californian" again
made its appearance. The major part of the resumed issue was devoted to describ-
ing the rush to the diggings, but enough space was spared to announce that "the
whole world was at war," and to give some faint idea of the extent of the revolu-
tions in Europe which threatened to overturn all the monarchies of that continent.
Before the close of the year the "Star" and "Californian" were merged, and
on the 4th of January, 1849, they dropped their hyphenated name and the "Alta
California" was born. Other ventures soon followed. Some of them had an ephem-
eral existence, the support being less liberal than might have been expected, consid-
ering the free handed manner of the miners in getting rid of their "dust." On the
22d of January, 1850, the "Alta" was published as a daily, the first on the Pacific
coast. The next day the "Journal of Commerce" imitated the example of the
"Alta." A few weeks later the "Pacific News" entered the daily field and on the
1st of June a new candidate for favor, the "Herald," made its appearance and
soon became very popular. On the first of August an evening paper, called the
"Picayune," was issued. It was followed soon after by the "Balance" and the
"Courier."
From the beginning pioneer journalism was marked by violence of expression
and a virulent personalism. In the columns of the "Herald" may be found the most
scathing denunciations of the municipal officials who participated in the salary grab
of that year. The men excoriated perhaps deserved all the epithets applied to
them, but it is astonishing that at a time when those with grievances were so ready
to resent thera allowed the attacks to pass without other notice than that embodied
in mild attempts at justification in the rivals of the "Herald," who were not so vigor-
SAN FRANCISCO
297
ous nor insistent in denouncing the salary grab as the paper which inaugurated the
crusade.
What was called the freedom of the press received much more consideration in
the Fifties than at present. In 1851 William Walker, the leader of the filibusters,
was editor of the "Herald." He made a feature of attempting to reform the judi-
ciary, and proceeded by direct methods in the accomplishment of his object. His
assaults on a judge, Levi Parsons, who deserved what was said of him, caused him
to be haled into court by Parsons, who fined him for contempt. Walker refused
to pay and was committed to prison. Great excitement ensued, the community ap-
parently siding with the editor, who was released on habeas corpus. It was urged
that Parsons had abused his position, and that his remedy, if he had a grievance
against Walker, was a libel suit. The legislature, as a result of the agitation grow-
ing out of the aifair, began impeachment proceedings against Parsons, but after
inquiry decided that the evidence did not afford sufficient grounds for such a course.
It is sometimes assumed that the journalism of the ante helium period was of a
solid character, and wholly free from the frivolities of the present day newspaper,
but no candid investigator will reach such a conclusion. The editors of San Fran-
cisco in the Fifties did not differ essentially in their methods from the example set
by their brethren in the Atlantic states, and the contemporary verdict was against
their seriousness and veracity. In 1851 the writer of the "Annals," in summing up
the newspaper situation, remarked, "A dozen daily papers by hint, innuendo, broad
allusion and description, considerably assist in the promulgation and spreading of
idle tales." This was not the verdict of a writer disposed to find fault with jour-
nalists, for he was one of the cult. He stated a simple fact which a modern critic,
noting in the old files such attempts at facetiousness as the insertion of divorces
in the lists of marriages and deaths, and the publication of family dissensions be-
fore they became public property by being carried into the courts, would say was
amply supported by the evidence. These stories of domestic jars, which were often
told in the tersest manner, however, provoked less trouble for the papers and their
authors than the fiery comments of their editors on politicians, and their attacks on
their rivals. These were productive of a number of duels, in which the editor usu-
ally got the worst of it, perhaps because he was more proficient with his pen than
with a pistol.
In August, 1852, the senior editor of the "Alta," Edward Gilbert, was killed in
a duel growing out of attacks made on the administration of Bigler, who found a
champion in General J. W. Denver of Oak Grove, Sacramento county. Less than
two years after the rival editors of the "Alta California" and "Times Transcript"
exchanged shots, one of them receiving a bullet in his body. The affair of James
King of William, which resulted in his death at the hands of a rival editor, has been
described in another place. It is usually associated in the minds of pioneers with
the Vigilante uprising of 1856, but the tragedy had a more direct connection with
the most vicious feature of early journalism than it did with the punishment of
criminals and the reformation of society.
James King of William bore no resemblance to the twentieth century newspaper
man. In his salutatory he announced that he had not adopted journalism from
choice, but that necessity had driven him into the business. That he did not mean
financial necessity may be inferred from the fact that he added that no one could
be more fully sensible than himself of the folly of a newspaper enterprise as an
298
SAN FRANCISCO
Driven from
the
Newspaper
Field
investment of money. What he meant was contained in the menacing statement:
"It has been whispered to us that some parties are about pitching into us. We
hope they will think better of it. We make it a rule to keep out of a scrape as
long as possible; but if forced into one we are 'thar/ entiende?"
It is not astonishing that this announcement and adherence to the policy out-
lined shoidd have produced trouble, but it also brought circulation to the "Bulletin."
In a month after the printing of the salutatory it printed nearly 2,500 copies, and
in less than two months its circulation was the largest in the City, reaching nearly
3,500 copies, and its patronage went on increasing until its power and influence
outstripped that of all of its rivals. It suited the temper of the times and the peo-
ple who loved "scraps" more than news, and pleased a community which was
hungry for diversion. The language used by James King of William was intem-
perate to a degree scarcely dreamed of in these days, and his comment took a wider
range than is now permissible, as may be inferred from this quotation: "If the
jury which tries Cora is packed, either hang the sheriff or drive him out of town
and make him resign. If Billy Mulligan lets his friend Cora escape hang Billy
Mulligan or drive him into banishment."
The integrity of James King of William's motives was never assailed, and the
Vigilante uprising indicates that his methods, no matter how extreme they may seem
to us, were approved by a vast majority of the community. We may deprecate the
fact that he covered with ridicule Broderick, who afterwards became, if not a popu-
lar idol, at least a greatlj' honored man, evidence of the inconsistency of a democ-
racy. But changes in point of view do not blunt the point of truth. King charged
Broderick with being connected with municipal steals, and declared that all of
his efforts to secure power were for unholy purposes ; and he covered with invective
the boss' associates and others who were engaged in plundering the public. But
curiously enough, virulent denunciation and unrelenting exposure did not move the
people, who applauded James King of William's utterances, to resort to the peace-
ful remedy at their command. They did not act imtil the editor was killed, and
their procedure then took on the appearance of meting out punishment to a rival
newspaper rather than the satisfaction of justice.
As a result of the killing of James King of William the "Herald" was driven
out of business. Up to the time of the collision with the "Bulletin" the "Herald"
had been a prosperous paper, and was well supported by the mercantile community.
The "Herald" was unquestionably superior in many respects to the paper edited
by James King of William and had enjoyed the favor of a fickle community for
some years, but when the Vigilance Committee passed a resolution pledging all its
members to withdraw their advertisements from the "Herald" it met with little
opposition. The head of the Vigilante organization had the good sense to recognize
that its action would be regarded, not as directed against the murderer of James
King of William, but as an effort to curb the liberty of the press and to punish a
paper for expressing its disapproval of the Vigilante movement, which he said it
had a perfect right to do. His remonstrances, however, proved unavailing and the
"Herald" was obliged to suspend publication.
While the press of pioneer days was never remiss in the duty of pointing out
and denouncing municipal abuses, it was not so keen to expose or condemn attempted
aggressions on neighboring countries. To the contrary it applauded and stimulated
men like Walker in their efforts to steal from sister republics, and looked with tol-
SAN FRANCISCO
299
erance on many things which are now made the objective of the assaults of the
modern editor. The reformers of the Fifties pursued tactics which in many re-
spects resembled those of the present-day advocates of the exemplary punishment
of abusers of the public trust. They indulged in invective; made exposures, and
called on the courts to put offenders in jail, but they rarely attempted to convince
the good citizens, who were sufferers from maladministration of public affairs, that
their inattention to civic duty was at the bottom of their trouble.
In the discussion of political questions the editors of the Fifties were particu-
larly strong. Their columns contained many able presentations of the burning
questions of the period, but they were not noted for their news gathering proclivi-
ties. This neglect was a feature of early journalism of which those responsible for
it were wholly unconscious. It is related of a publisher, whose newspaper career
began in pioneer days, that as late as 1877 he was under the impression that one
man constituted an adequate reportorial force ; but while his paper was never
much burdened with news it always contained long and satisfying screeds on the
principles of democracy.
Evidently there was no demand for what the modern calls news, or it would
have been responded to in the Fifties, if competition were capable of producing
such a result. At the close of 1853 there were twelve daily papers in San Fran-
cisco, two tri-weeklies, six weeklies, one Sunday Journal and a commercial sheet.
Judging from the stirring accounts of the pernicious activity of the criminal class,
the reporter would have found ample opportunity for the exercise of his talents in
descriptive, had his inclination tended in that direction, but detail and artistic veri-
similitude were not in his line. A striking characteristic of nearly all the reporting
of the period was that sort of compactness which oftener results from inability to
see things than the desire for conciseness. In short, reporting in the Fifties was
a neglected art, or perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that the newspapers
had not discovered its possibilities. It can hardly be said that the pioneer editor's
idea of journalism was derived from a study of French papers, but in many partic-
ulars the newspaper of the Fifties resembled those produced in Paris more nearly
than the later products of this country. Great stress was laid on the necessity of
providing theatrical criticism of the kind which deals in analysis of the motives of
the playwright as well as the actor, and space was often found for abstruse dis-
cussions of mooted historical questions. Articles showing great erudition were fa-
vored, and there was relatively a much greater recognition of the value of classical
models than at present.
The editors of the Fifties were much addicted to literature, and as a rule es-
teemed the ability to produce a story or write verse, as of more consequence than the
other qualities which later came to be in great demand in newspaper offices. An
extended list of men who at one time or another wrote for the "Sacramento Union"
in its palmy days, and afterward drifted to San Francisco, discloses the names of
several who attained distinction in politics or at the bar, and the most of them were
unusually facile producers, and not a few were masters of invective, a style in great
demand, the possession of which established the reputation of the possessor as a
great writer. Among the most noted of the writing editors of this period were
Newton Booth, who became governor and later United States sena
