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Go 979.402 Sa519b 1714735
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01104 7732
n E
THE BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
C
SAN FRANCISCO'S
REPRESENTATIVE MEN,
THE CITY, ITS HISTORY AND COMMERCE.
PREGNANT FACTS REGARDING THE GROWTH OF THE LEADING BRANCHES OF TRADE, INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS OF THE STATE AND COAST.
all that news pea! ) IN TWO VOLUMES - VOLUME I.
PUBLISHED BY THE SAN FRANCISCO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE PUBLISHING CO. 326 PINE STREET, SAN FRANCISCO. 1891.
DEDICATION.
To all patrons of the SAN FRANCISCO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, and to all interested in the prosperity of the city and coast and the development of our resources and commerce, this volume is respectfully dedicated.
1714735
PREFACE.
" THE BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY " is, as its name implies, a series of sketches of some of the most prominent of those men who have done so much in the founding of San Francisco, and making it one of the great cities of the world, and not only the commercial, industrial and financial metropolis of the Pacific Coast, but of the whole West, as New York is of the East. Amongst the names presented in these pages will be found those of merchants, manufacturers, bankers, railroad magnates, and others, whose life work has been instrumental in making this city what it is to- day. Every statement in these sketches has been verified by the gentleman to whom it refers. The biographical contents of this volume thus form a body of personal history of leading men, the authenticity of which may never be questioned. In this lies their principal merit, as there is no pre- tension made to graces of style or ornamental or majestic diction, plain business statements, couched as nearly as may be in the ordinary every day language of commercial life, being all that is aimed at. The biographies are, for easy reference, arranged in alphabetical order. As it became evi- dent soon after undertaking the work that justice to the subject could not be done in one volume, it was determined to make this the first of a series bearing the same name and title.
In the introduction of one hundred pages will be found, in a condensed form, all that there is of interest regarding the matters therein treated of. These embrace a brief history of the city and State, with a description of the more striking features of both, the more important productions of the latter, its leading resources, a condensed history of gold and silver mining on the coast, the population of the city and its peculiarities, its principal institutions, and data revised to the present year regarding the commerce, manufactures, banking and finance of the city, and the leading staples of the State. All not found here will be published in Volume II. We aim to give in a small space, and for all time, information regarding the early history of the State and city that shall be invaluable to the historian of the future.
The credit for the inception and successful prosecution of the work is due jointly to W. H. MURRAY, the Secretary, and JAMES O'LEARY, the Editor, of THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE ; the introductory pages and much of the biography being the work of the latter gentleman,
SAN FRANCISCO, June 13, 1891,
ERRATA.
The Alta has ceased to exist since our pages on the Press were printed.
On page 44, the table of population gives San Francisco 350,000. It was intended to have the figures 330,000. However, as the table was com- piled a year ago, and as the figures were then deemed low, 350,000 is prob- ably nearer the truth than 330,000.
Page 14. Big Trees: Diameter should be 34 feet ; circumference, 90 feet.
" THE LAST TEN YEARS."-Governor Waterman has been succeeded by H. H. Markham, the Republican candidate and the choice of Southern California. At the same time all on the San Francisco Republicau ticket, but one, were elected by a good majority. The Legislature was Repub- lican by a great majority, and elected Leland Stanford United States Senator for the second time.
RAISINS : The pack of 1890 was 1,600,000 boxes. The figures on page 15 were for 1889.
Page 57: 1889 imports should be $51,288,306.
INDEX.
-
PAGE. 9
San Francisco.
47
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
PAGE.
Andrews, A.
101
Andros, Milton.
103
Armitage, William H
105
Badlam, Alexander .
107
Benchley, Leonidas B ..
109
Bendel, Hermann
113
Bishop, Ira.
115
Black, Henry M
117
Block, Elias Monroe.
119
Boone, John Lee
121
Castle, Fred L.
123
Chase, Charles Metaphor
125
Curtis, John M
127
Dean, Peter
129
Denicke, Ernst A
133
Dibble, Henry C.
135
Dickinson, John H.
137
Dimond, William H
139
Dingley, Charles L
141
Doble, Abner.
143
Dodge, Henry Lee
145
Dunn, James
149
Dyer, E. H
151
Easton, Wendell
155
Forderer, Joseph F.
157
Fox, Charles N
161
Galpin, Philip G ..
163
Garratt, William T.
165
Grant, Adam.
169
Haas, Kalman
171
Halsey, Abraham
173
Hanlon, Charles F.
175
Harney, William
177
Hart, W. H. H.
179
Haslett, Samuel
183
Haven, James M .
185
Hawley, Marcus C
187
Haymond, Creed
189
Heald, E. P.
193
Herrmann, Sigismund
197
Highton, Henry E
199
Hinz, A. Frederick
203
Holmes, H. T.
205
Hopkins, Mark. 209
Hotaling, A. P
213
Howard, Jolın L.
217
California
INDEX-CONTINUED.
Huntington, F. A
219
Hyde, George
221
Jackson, J. P.
223
Keith, Nathaniel Shepard
229
Kennedy, John F.
231
Killip, Jasper Newton
233
King, Frederick R
235
Koster, John Ludwig.
237
Kreling, William
239
Laidlaw. Royal D
241
Lucas, John and J. William
243
Macdonald, D. A
245
McAfee, William. .
247
McMenomy, John H.
249
Merry, William Lawrence
251
Mills, Darius Ogden
255
Morrow, Frederick B
257
Murphy, Samuel Green
259
Newman, Carlton.
261
Osborn, George W
263
Parrott, Louis B.
267
Patterson, James.
269
Perkins, George C.
271
Perrin, Edward B.
275
Perry, John, Jr
277
Phelan, James
281
Pierson, William M
285
Pond, Edward B
287
Ranlett, Horace Dodge.
289
Rankin, Ira P
29L
Reynolds, John
293
Roe, George Henry
297
Rothschild, Joseph
301
Sheffield, Charles P
30
Small, Isaac Henry
305
Spaulding, John.
309
Spaulding, Nathan Weston
313
Spreckels, Claus.
319
Stanford, Leland
321
Steinhart, William
325
Street, Cyrus H.
327
Taber, Isaialı West
329
Turner, Matthew.
331
Upham, Isaac.
333
Von Rhein, O. F
335
Wallenrod, George
33
Waymire, James A
.339
Weber, Adolph C
.343
Wetmore, Charles A.
347
Wilson, J. N. E ..
351
Williams, Henry B
353
Zeigler, Wilbur G
355
315
Sresovich, Luke George
CALIFORNIA.
EARLY HISTORY.
By what semi-civilized people Cali- fornia was first discovered may per- haps be never known, though it is not at all improbable that the honor belongs to the early Chinese or Japanese navigators, mayhap driven thither by stress of weather. There is no probability that it was ever oc- cupied by any of those ancient races whose renown has thrown sort of bar- baric light over the histories of Mex- ico, Pern or other less known and partially civilized and ancient empires of the new world. It was made known to the world in modern times by the enterprise of Spanish navigators whose renown soon after the discov- ery of the western continent, for a time in conjunction with their Por- tuguese and Dutch confreres filled the European world. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first who sailed along its coasts; this he did in 1542 or just three hundred and forty-eight years ago. Though in the service of Spain he was a native of Portugal. He reached the great western headland in latitude 40 30', which he called cape Mendoza, now cape Mendocino. The land of California was, however, known by reputation at least a gener- ation prior to this, as it is described in a romance published at Seville. It was then thought to be an island. Among his discoveries were the Far- allone Islands, outside of San Fran- cisco Bay, and named after the pilot Farallo. In 1578 Sir Francis Drake landed at Drake's Bay, and not know- ing of Cabrillo's discoveries, took for- mal possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth, calling it by the name of New Albion. In 1602 General Sebastian Viscayno explored
the coast from San Diego to Monte- rey, including the islands in Santa Barbara channel. About this time the impression went abroad that its mountains contained the precious metals, and during the succeeding century, several unsuccessful expedi- tions in search of them were made. In the winter of 1769 the Franciscan fathers organized expeditions to found colonies and missions in the hitherto unknown land. After loss by sea and suffering from scurvy and starvation, the party landed at San Diego on April 11th and May 1st. Two land expeditions reached the same destination May 15th and July 1st. From San Diego as a starting point, a land expedition working northerly along the coast discovered the Bay of San Francisco, October 25, 1769. Six missions were founded within the limits of the State, and Christian- ity and civilization had their first beginning on these western shores. By the close of the first quarter of the present century, twenty-one of these missions had been established, the most northerly one Sonoma. So that the first settlements of white men were made in California asin New England, by those whose first worldly consideration was the furtherance of religion, though of course the views of the mission and pilgrim fathers were as wide as the poles asunder. For a period of about fifty years was what was called the mission period in California. The fathers christian- ized about twenty thousand Indians and introduced into the State the cultivation of the ordinary cereals, of the vine and the olive. Then also were the first rude beginnings of commerce; the raising of cattle be- came a great industry. With the
10
BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
secularization of the missions in the second quarter of the century, the Indians were scattered, while immi- grants from Mexico and, during the latter part of this epoch, a few strag- gling ones from the East made their appearance in the land. Early in this period the Russians settled in the northwestern portion of the State, but did not make any lengthened stay. About five thousand persons crossed the plains between 1840 and 1845; in 1846 there were of these about two thousand left, as well as six thousand foreigners of different nationalities. The war between the United States and Mexico beginning July 7, 1846, added the State, then under Mexican rule, to the territory of the Republic. It had been under Span- ish rule from 1767 till 1822, and un- der Mexican from that time till July 7, 1846, when Commodore Sloat raised the American flag at Monte- rey. It had been hoisted there in 1842 by Commodore Jones, under the impression that war had been de- clared between Mexico and the Uni- ted States. The bear flag, as it was called, had been previously raised in the State by a number of patriotic Americans. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort in February, 1848, produced a tidal wave of immigra- tion to the land from all parts of the known world. On the 3d of June, 1849, a convention was called at Monterey to frame a constitution for the State; it met in September of that year. A constitution was ready October 13th; it was submitted to the people November 13th, when 12,064 votes were cast in its favor and 811 against it. There were 1200 set aside for informality. In December, Peter H. Burnett was elected Gov- ernor and application was made for admission to the Union. There was a long struggle in Congress over it which finally terminated September 17, 1850. It was admitted as a State, September 9th, of the same year. The new State rapidly advanced in population and wealth, immi-
grants flocking in from all sides by land and sea till in 1852 the popula- tion was estimated at 250,000. The first comers to the mines were as a rule men of good moral character and a miner might leave untold wealth in his cabin without bolt or bar and without fear of loss. But times changed; at last desperate men joined the throng and gambling and kindred vices flourished. This led eventually to much lawlessness and murder and a corruption of politics followed. So great had the evil be- come, that in San Francisco, in 1851, a Vigilance Committee was organized as a remedy and it did its work effect- ually for the time being, but the bad elements were only scotched, not stamped out, and in 1855, in the month of May, the Vigilance Commit- tee was organized again. This time it meant business; it was supported by a military force and had tribu- nals of its own. The assassination of James King of Wm., the founder of the Bulletin, was the immediate cause of its again springing into existence. It did its work so well that there has never since been such occasion to go outside of the regular courts. Outside of the political disputes and struggles, ending in the Terry-Broderick duel, there was little of exciting interest in the history of the State till the outbreak of the civil war. Broderick was a Douglass Democrat and work- ed faithfully in the interest of the " little giant " and the section of the party represented by him till he re- ceived his death blow in the duel with Terry, fought September 21, 1859. California ranged herself de- cisively on the side of the Union in the great civil contest which ended with the triumph of the Union forces and the abolition of slavery. She aided the cause with men, money and sanitary appliances. Leland Stanford, elected in 1861, represent- ed the Republican party and may be called the " War Governor." He is, however, better known as one of the founders of the Central Pacific
11
CALIFORNIA.
Railroad Co., which has doue so much to foster the material advance- ment of the State and to modify the currents of its commerce. He was succeeded by Frederick F. Low, also a Republican. But since that time, with the exception of the interregnum when the so-called "Dolly Varden" party held sway, governors elected by the two great political parties have taken the helm of State in turn with tolerable regularity. In Presi- dential elections in recent years, the vote of the State has generally been cast for the republican candidate. The agitation of the Chinese question and the rise and progress of what was call- ed "sand lot" politics gave a new di- rection temporarily to politics in the Golden State. The sand lot move- ment arose at a time when there was great distress amongst the unemploy- ed, which distress was charged to the extensive employment of Chinese. The leader of the sand lot movement was Denis Kearny, who had come to the coast as the mate of a vessel. Possessed of a rude eloquence, he for a time swayed the masses, and the movement rose from the status of Sunday meetings on the sand lot, attended out of pure curiosity, to that of a regular political move- ment as well organized as any in the city. There were many who believ- ed Kearny insincere, but these were the fewer in number, and when he with his lieutenants started to stump the State, they met with almost as signal success as they did in the city. The workingmen were almost univer- sally organized in the support of the movement and though opposed by both the old political parties, they swept the city in the first municipal election that offered a chance, the Democratic party in particular being apparently beaten out of sight. From carrying the city, the party then as- pired to carry the State and although they failed in this, they, with some assistance from the grangers who were a very powerful element among the farmers, at the same time united-
ly had a majority in the legislature. Then came a demand for a revision of the Constitution; first, so as to leg- islate against the Chinese, but finally to render it more democratic, not in a partisan, but in an economic sense. The demand was successful and a constitutional convention was called, which met in 1878. It did not do much towards solving the Chinese problem, but it altered the Consti- tution in some important particulars such as taxation of mortgages, etc. It was submitted to a vote of the people and despite a strong and in- tellectually powerful opposition was adopted May 7, 1879, and has since been our organic law.
THE LAST TEN YEARS.
Many evils were predicted from the adoption of the new constitution, but none of them have materialized, and it is evident that sufficient considera- tion was not given to the fact that our people are by nature conservative, and that as a general thing violent or revolutionary methods have no chance of adoption by them. The excitement attendant on the agitation was soon allayed, and the people re- turned once more to their ordinary pursuits with such zeal that the decade which has since closed has been one of the most prosperous in our history. The wheat harvest of 1880 was the greatest ever known in the State, and our trade with foreign countries received such an impetus that it has become one of the largest and most important in the western world. During the past decade our manufactures in general experienced previously unwonted development, agriculture has become more varied, our fruit industry may be said to have arisen, and the production of wine in the State to have become national in its importance. Our railroad sys- tem has received a wonderful devel- opment, while our population has increased from 864,694 to a figure exceeding 1,400,000. There can be no doubt that the final adoption of the new constitution was much in-
12
BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
finenced by the veto by the President of the Anti-Chinese bill, but since then the long-wished-for legislation has been accomplished, and save for the attempts made to nullify it in practice, agitation on the subject has well nigh ceased. Matters political have returned to their accustomed channels, and the Republican and Democratic parties remain constitu- ted as of old, and take about the usual rotation in office. An Ameri- can party has been organized, but as yet has exercised no special influence in politics, if we except the last gu- bernatorial election, when the Re- publican candidate for Lieutenant- Governor, R. W. Waterman, was elected by the help of its votes. The death of Governor Bartlett left him Governor of the State. The Prohibition party has not been strong, though in many places it has had suf- ficient influence either to close the saloons or bring about a high license compromise through those who are not prepared for such a radical measure as complete prohibition. And now the Nationalist party bas organized on the lines suggested by Bellamy's novel. A great develop- ment of the southern portion of the State has taken place during the past three years. At first it took the shape of a boom which culminated in the Fall of 1888. This subsequently sub- sided, but it eventuated in making Los Angeles city and county met- ropolitan, giving to San Diego the rank of a city, and in general advanc- ing that section of the State more than it had been during the preceding half century. The subsidence of the boom injured many, but we have al- ready recovered from its effects. We have taken leave of one decade and have entered on another whose promise is much more auspicious than that of any since California became an integral part of the Union.
A BANNER STATE.
California is without doubt the very gem of American States, and,
withont any exaggeration, her broad domain may be described as the gar- den spot of the United States. No- where else within the borders of the great republic is the climate so genial or the soil as a whole so fertile, or is there such a vast variety of produc- tions ministering to the wants and the comforts of man. In other States the climate is either too hot or too cold. In California it is neither. In fact, one can have pretty much what climate he desires. The wide bounds of the State contain within their ample area climates to suit everybody -all ranks and conditions of men. Of no other part of the United States can this be justly said. The area of the State is in itself imperial. It encloses within its wide borders 155,000 square miles, or 99,000,000, almost one hundred million acres. It is 750 miles in length, with a breadth of 260 to 300 miles. It is ahead of every other State, with the sole exception of Texas, which will ultimately, no doubt, be divided into two or three new commonwealths. It is nearly three times as large as New York, more than twice as large as all the States of New England, and nearly double in area the next largest State in the Union. It is, therefore, justly entitled to be called the Empire State instead of New York, which has so long proudly borne the title. It has about two- thirds the area of France, the Ger- man Empire or the Empire of Austria. It is one-fourth larger than Great Britain and Ireland. It possesses, as far as extent is concerned. every title to territorial domination. Its climate, on the whole, more resembles Italy than that of any other part of Europe, though it is much more gen- ial than that of Italy. Its title of the Italy of the United States can- not, therefore, be considered mis- placed. Roses bloom all the year round, while snow, save in the moun- tain valleys and the tableland of the southeast, does not visit even the northern portions more than once in
13
CALIFORNIA.
ten years. It has been eminently free from epidemics and contagious diseases, and while they have raged elsewhere throughout the world, California, though San Francisco has communication with all nations by sea, has been especially exempt from them. Its population at present writing cannot be less than 1,400,- 000, so that it has nearly trebled in twenty years, and it is now increas- ing much faster than ever before on account of the overflow of the surplus population of sixty-five millions from the West, and because its resources are becoming better known.
CLIMATE,
We have said that in California one can have pretty much what cli- mate he desires. The boundaries of the State have been said to enclose within their limits the climatic conn- terpart of nearly every portion of the habitable globe. We have the sea- sons of Italy, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor and Northern Africa in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. France is repre- sented in the foothills of our great valleys, between the alluvial forma- tion and the limit of 4,000 feet eleva- tion. Lombardy, with its olives, silks and vines-ulmos inter vites-is found again in Merced, Fresno, Tulare and Kern. Ireland and Southern Britain reappear in the foothills of Butte and the northern counties, Egypt on the Colorado River, and the Lower Danube, i. e., Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, and Roumania, in the valley of the Sacramento. Ten- nessee, Georgia and Alabama find their counterparts in Humboldt and Del Norte, Switzerland in Mendoci- no, the Atlantic States and Norway and Sweden above the line of 4,000 feet elevation in the Sierra Nevadas. The following figures give a good idea of the temperature as registered by the thermometer : At Red Bluff, in the northern Sacramento valley, Jan- uary ranges from 24 to 68, July from
68 to 104; at Sacramento, January has as extremes 25 to 62, July 63 to 100; San Francisco's winter registers 28 to 61, her summer 53 to 94; in Santa Barbara, January shows 31 to 70, July 58 to 101. Los Angeles, immediately after the celebration of the new year, has a thermometrical range of 34 to 81; after the Fourth of July, 63 to 103, while the climate of San Diego is one to two degrees higher both in Summer and Winter.
ATTRACTIONS OF THE STATE.
Not the least amongst the charms that the State presents is its mag- nificent climate and majestic and beautiful scenery. To the tourist and the traveler, as well as to those in search of health, Califorma offers unrivalled attractions. Every part of the State helps to restore to health the consumptive and the ailing. The south in particular has become known as the paradise of "one lung capital- ists." "Certain it is that thousands of people, who, if they remained in the East, would have been long since in their graves, are now in the enjoy- ment of robust health. We have within our borders all the beauty and all the sublimity of Europe, and as says a somewhat florid author :- "California, the golden land of the West, the land of wonder, is the paradise of the tourist. Here nature has finished her works in the grand- eur of omnipotent might. Lofty mountains pierce the regions of eternal snow, and valleys sink in eternal Summer; sparkling lakes gem her Sierras, and mineral springs of infinite variety are found în every section, surrounded by romantic scenery most attractive to all in search of health or pleasure. Deep chasms, frowning cliffs, waterfalls from dizzy heights, and a vegetation the most majestic the world ever saw, constitute a series of ever-varying attractions such as no other region of the globe presents. Above all reigns an equable climate divided into two seasons, the dry and the
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