A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 35

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184

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At the state election in September, 1861, Le- land Stanford was chosen governor. He was the first Republican chosen to that office. He received fifty-six thousand votes. Two years before he had been a candidate for that office and received only ten thousand votes, so rap- idly had public sentiment changed. The news of the firing upon Fort Sumter reached San Francisco April 24. twelve days after its oc-

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currence. It came by pony express. The be- ginning of hostilities between the north and the south stirred up a strong Union sentiment. The great Union mass meeting held in San Fran- cisco May 11, 1861, was the largest and most enthusiastic public demonstration ever held on the Pacific coast. The lines were sharply drawn between the friends of the government and its enemies. Former political alliances were for- gotten. Most of the Anti-Lecompton or Doug- las Democrats arrayed themselves on the side of the Union. The chivalry wing of the Dem- ocratic party were either open or secret sym- pathizers with the Confederates. Some of them were bold and outspoken in their disloyalty. The speech of Edmund Randolph at the Dem- ocratic convention July 24, 1861, is a sample of such utterances. * *

* "To me it seems a waste of time to talk. For God's sake, tell me of battles fought and won. Tell me of usurpers overthrown; that Missouri is again a free state, no longer crushed under the armed heel of a reckless and odious despot. Tell me that the state of Maryland lives again; and, oh! gentlemen, let us read, let us hear, at the first moment, that not one hostile foot now treads the soil of Virginia! (Applause and cheers.) If this be rebellion, I am a rebel. Do you want a traitor, then I am a traitor. For God's sake, speed the ball; may the lead go quick to his heart, and may our country be free from the despot usurper that now claims the name of the president of the United States."* (Cheers.) Some of the chivalry Democrats, most of whom had been holding office in California for years, went south at the breaking out of the war to fight in the armies of the Confederacy, and among these was Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who had been superseded in the command of the Pacific Department by Gen. Edwin V. Sum- ner. Johnston, with a number of fellow sym- pathizers, went south by the overland route and was killed a year later, at the battle of Shiloh, while in command of the Confederate army.

One form of disloyalty among the class known as "copperheads" (northern men with southern principles) was the advocacy of a Pa-

cific republic. Most prominent among these was ex-Governor John B. Weller. The move- ment was a thinly disguised method of aiding the southern Confederacy. The flag of the inchoate Pacific republic was raised in Stock- ton January 16, 1861. It is thus described by the Stockton Argus: "The flag is of silk of the medium size of the national ensign and with the exception of the Union (evidently a mis- nomer in this case) which contains a lone star upon a blue ground, is covered by a painting representing a wild mountain scene, a huge grizzly bear standing in the foreground and the words 'Pacific Republic' near the upper border." The flag raising was not a success. At first it was intended to raise it in the city. But as it became evident this would not be allowed, it was raised to the mast head of a vessel in the slough. It was not allowed to float there long. The hal- yards were cut and a boy was sent up the mast to pull it down. The owner of the flag was con- vinced that it was not safe to trifle with the loyal sentiment of the people.

At the gubernatorial election in September, 1863, Frederick F. Low, Republican, was chosen over John G. Downey, Democrat, by a majority of over twenty thousand. In some parts of the state Confederate sympathizers were largely in the majority. This was the case in Los Angeles and in some places in the San Joaquin valley. Several of the most outspoken were arrested and sent to Fort Alcatraz, where they soon became convinced of the error of their ways and took the oath of allegiance. When the news of the assassination of Lincoln reached San Francisco, a mob destroyed the newspaper plants of the Democratic Press, edited by Beriah Brown; the Occidental, edited by Zach. Montgomery; the News Letter, edited by F. Marriott, and the Monitor, a Catholic paper, edited by Thomas A. Brady. These were virulent copperhead sheets that had heaped abuse upon the martyred president. Had the proprietors of these journals been found the mob would, in the excitement that prevailed, have treated them with violence. After this demonstration Confederate sympathizers kept silent.

*Tuthill's History of California.

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CHAPTER XXXI.

TRADE, TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION.

T HE beginning of the ocean commerce of California was the two mission transport ships that came every year to bring sup- plies for the missions and presidios and take back what few products there were to send. The government fixed a price upon each and every article of import and export. There was no cornering the market, no bulls or bears in the wheat pit, no rise or fall in prices except when ordered by royal authority. An Arancel de Precios (fixed rate of prices) was issued at certain intervals, and all buying and selling was governed accordingly. These arancels included everything in the range of human needs-phys- ical, spiritual or mental. According to a tariff of prices promulgated by Governor Fages in 1788, which had been approved by the audencia and had received the royal sanction, the price of a Holy Christ in California was fixed at $1.75, a wooden spoon six cents, a horse $9, a deerskin twenty-five cents, red pepper eighteen cents a pound, a dozen of quail twenty-five cents, brandy seventy-five cents per pint, and so on throughout the list.

In 1785 an attempt was made to open up trade between California and China, the com- modities for exchange being seal and otter skins for quicksilver. The trade in peltries was to be a government monopoly. The skins were to be collected from the natives by the mission friars, who were to sell them to a government agent at prices ranging from $2.50 to $10 each. The neophytes must give up to the friars all the skins in their possession. All trade by citi- zens or soldiers was prohibited and any one attempting to deal in peltries otherwise than the regularly ordained authorities was liable, if found out, to have his goods confiscated. Spain's attempt to engage in the fur trade was not a success. The blighting monopoly of church and state nipped it in the bud. It died

out, and the government bought quicksilver, on which also it had a monopoly, with coin in- stead of otter skins.

After the government abandoned the fur trade the American smugglers began to gather up the peltries, and the California producer re- ceived better prices for his furs than the mis- sionaries paid.

The Yankee smuggler had no arancel- of prices fixed by royal edict. His price list va- ried according to circumstances. As his trade was illicit and his vessel and her cargo were in danger of confiscation if he was caught, his scale of prices ranged high. But he paid a higher price for the peltries than the government, and that was a consolation to the seller. The com- merce with the Russian settlements of the northwest in the early years of the century fur- nished a limited market for the grain produced at some of the missions, but the Russians helped themselves to the otter and the seal of California without saying "By your leave" and they were not welcome visitors.

During the Mexican revolution, as has been previously mentioned, trade sprang up between Lima and California in tallow, but it was of short duration. During the Spanish era it can hardly be said that California had any com- merce. Foreign vessels were not allowed to enter her ports except when in distress, and their stay was limited to the shortest time pos- sible required to make repairs and take on supplies.

It was not until Mexico gained her inde- pendence and removed the proscriptive regu- lations with which Spain had hampered com- merce that the hide drogliers opened up trade between New England and California. This trade, which began in 1822, grew to consider- able proportions. The hide droghers were emi- grant ships as well as mercantile vessels. By

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these came most of the Americans who settled in California previous to 1840. The hide and tallow trade, the most important item of com- merce in the Mexican era, reached its maximum in 1834, when the great mission herds were, by order of the padres, slaughtered to prevent them from falling into the hands of the government commissioners. Thirty-two vessels came to the coast that year, nearly all of which were en- gaged in the hide and tallow trade.

During the year 1845, the last of Mexican rule, sixty vessels visited the coast. These were not all trading vessels; eight were men- of-war, twelve were whalers and thirteen came on miscellaneous business. The total amount received at the custom house for revenue during that year was $140,000. The majority of the vessels trading on the California coast during the Mexican era sailed under the stars and stripes. Mexico was kinder to California than Spain, and under her administration commer- cial relations were established to a limited ex- tent with foreign nations. Her commerce at best was feeble and uncertain. The revenue laws and their administration were frequently changed, and the shipping merchant was never sure what kind of a reception his cargo would receive from the custom house officers. The duties on imports from foreign countries were exorbitant and there was always more or less smuggling carried on. The people and the padres, when they were a power, gladly wel- comed the arrival of a trading vessel on the coast and were not averse to buying goods that had escaped the tariff if they could do so with safety. As there was no land tax, the revenue on goods supported the expenses of the govern- ment.

Never in the world's history did any country develop an ocean commerce so quickly as did California after the discovery of gold. When the news spread abroad, the first ships to arrive came from Peru, Chile and the South Sea islands. The earliest published notice of the gold discovery appeared in the Baltimore Sun, September 20, 1848, eight months after it was made. At first the story was ridiculed, but as confirmatory reports came thick and fast, preparations began for a grand rush for the

gold mines. Vessels of all kinds, seaworthy and miseaworthy, were overhauled and fitted out for California. The American trade with California had gone by way of Cape Horn or the Straits of Magellan, and this was the route that was taken by the pioneers. Then there were short cuts by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, across Mexico and by Nicaragua. The first vessels left the Atlantic seaports in No- vember, 1848. By the middle of the winter one hundred vessels had sailed from Atlantic and Gulf seaports, and by spring one hundred and fifty more had taken their departure, all of them loaded with human freight and with supplies of every description. Five hundred and forty- nine vessels arrived in San Francisco in nine months, forty-five reaching that port in one day.

April 12, 1848, before the treaty of peace with Mexico had been proclaimed by the Presi- dent, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was incorporated with a capital of $500,000. Asto- ria, Ore., was to have been the Pacific terminus of the company's line, but it never got there. The discovery of gold in California made San Francisco the end of its route. The contract with the government gave the company a sub- sidy of $200,000 for maintaining three steamers on the Pacific side between Panama and Asto- ria. The first of these vessels, the California, sailed from New York October 6, 1848, for San Francisco and Astoria via Cape Horn. She was followed in the two succeeding months by the Oregon and the Panama. On the Atlantic side the vessels of the line for several years were the Ohio, Illinois and Georgia. The ves- sels on the Atlantic side were fifteen hundred tons burden, while those on the Pacific were a thousand tons. Freight and passengers by the Panama route were transported across the isth- mus by boats up the Chagres river to Gorgona, and then by mule-back to Panama. In 1855 the Panama railroad was completed. This greatly facilitated travel and transportation. The At- lantic terminus of the road was Aspinwall, now called Colon.

Another line of travel and commerce between the states and California in early days was the Nicaragua route. By that route passengers on the Atlantic side landed at San Juan del Norte

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or Greytown. From there they took a river steamer and ascended the Rio San Juan to Lake Nicaragua, then in a larger vessel they crossed the lake to La Virgin. From there a distance of about twelve miles was made on foot or on mule-back to San Juan del Sur, where they re- embarked on board the ocean steamer for San Francisco.

The necessity for the speedy shipment of mer- chandise to California before the days of trans- continental railroads at a minimum cost evolved the clipper ship. These vessels entered quite early into the California trade and soon displaced the short, clumsy vessels of a few hundred tons burden that took from six to ten months to make a voyage around the Horn. The clipper ship Flying Cloud, which arrived at San Fran- cisco in August, 1851, made the voyage from New York in eighty-nine days. These vessels were built long and narrow and carried heavy sail. Their capacity ranged from one to two thousand tons burden. The overland railroads took away a large amount of their business.

Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, as previously stated, was the real pathfinder of the western moun- tains and plains. He marked out the route from Salt Lake by way of the Rio Virgin, the Colorado and the Cajon Pass to Los Angeles in 1826. This route was extensively traveled by the belated immigrants of the early '50s. Those reaching Salt Lake City too late in the season to cross the Sierra Nevadas turned southward and entered California by Smith's trail.

The early immigration to California came by way of Fort Hall. From there it turned south- erly. At Fort Hall the Oregon and California immigrants separated. The disasters that be- tell the Donner party were brought upon them by their taking the Hastings cut-off, which was represented to them as saving two hundred and fifty miles. It was shorter, but the time spent in making a wagon road through a rough coun- try delayed them until they were caught by the snows in the mountains. Lassen's cut-off was another route that brought disaster and delays to many of the immigrants who were induced to take it. The route up the Platte through the

South Pass of the Rocky mountains and down the Humboldt received by far the larger amount of travel.

The old Santa Fe trail from Independence to Santa Fe, and from there by the old Spanish trail around the north bank of the Colorado across the Rio Virgin down the Mojave river and through the Cajon Pass to Los Angeles, was next in importance. Another route by which much of the southern emigration came was what was known as the Gila route. It started at Fort Smith, Ark., thence via El Paso and Tucson and down the Gila to Yuma, thence across the desert through the San Gorgono Pass to Los Angeles. In 1852 it was estimated one thousand wagons came by this route. There was another route still further south than this which passed through the northern states of Mexico, but it was not popular on account of the hostility of the Mexicans and the Apaches.

The first overland stage line was established in 1857. The route extended from San Antonio de Bexar, Tex., to San Diego, via El Paso, Mes- sillo, Tucson and Colorado City (now Yuma ). The service was twice a month. The contract was let to James E. Burch, the Postal Depart- ment reserving "the right to curtail or discon- tinne the service should any route subsequently put under contract cover the whole or any por- tion of the route." The San Diego Herald, August 12, 1857, thus notes the departure of the first mail by that route: "The pioneer mail train from San Diego to San Antonio, Tex., under the contract entered into by the govern- ment with Mr. James Bureh, left here on the 9th inst. (August 9. 1857) at an early hour in the morning, and is now pushing its way for the east at a rapid rate. The mail was of course carried on pack animals, as will be the case until wagons which are being pushed across will have been put on the line. * * * The first

mail from the other side has not yet arrived, although somewhat overdue, and conjecture is rife as to the cause of the delay." The eastern mail arrived a few days later.

The service continued to improve, and the fifth trip from the eastern terminus to San Diego "was made in the extraordinary short

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time of twenty-six days and twelve hours," and the San Diego Herald on this arrival, October 6, 1857, rushed out an extra "announcing the very gratifying fact of the complete triumph of the southern route notwithstanding the croak- ings of many of the opponents of the adminis- tration in this state." But the "triumph of the southern route" was of short duration. In September, 1858, the stages of the Butterfield line began making their semi-weekly trips. This route from its western terminus, San Fran- cisco, came down the coast to Gilroy, thence through Pacheco Pass to the San Joaquin val- ley, up the valley and by way of Fort Tejon to Los Angeles; from there eastward by Temecula and Warner's to Yuma, thence following very nearly what is now the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad through Arizona and New Mex- ico to El Paso, thence turning northward to Fort Smith, Ark. There the route divided, one branch going to St. Louis and the other to Alemphis. The mail route from San Antonio to San Diego was discontinued.

The Butterfield stage line was one of the long- est continuons lines ever organized. Its length was two thousand eight hundred and eighty miles. It began operation in September, 1858. The first stage from the east reached Los Angeles October 7 and San Francisco October 10. A mass-meeting was held at San Francisco the evening of October II "for the purpose of expressing the sense entertained by the people of the city of the great benefits she is to re- ceive from the establishment of the overland inail." Col. J. B. Crocket acted as president and Frank M. Pixley as secretary. The speaker of the evening in his enthusiasm said: "In my opinion one of the greatest blessings that could befall California would be to discontinue at once all communication by steamer between San Francisco and New York. On yesterday we received advices from New York, New Orleans and St. Louis in less than twenty-four days via El Paso. Next to the discovery of gold this is the most important fact yet developed in the history of California." W. L. Ormsby, special correspondent of the New York Herald, the first and only through passenger by the over-

land mail coming in three hours less than twenty-four days, was introduced to the audi- ence and was greeted with terrific applause. He gave a description of the route and some inci- dents of the journey.

The government gave the Butterfield com- pany a subsidy of $600,000 a year for a service of two mail coaches each way a week. In 1859 the postal revenue from this route was only $27,000, leaving Uncle Sam more than half a million dollars out of pocket. At the breaking out of the Civil war the southern overland mail route was discontinued and a contract was made with Butterfield for a six-times-a-week mail by the central route via Salt Lake City, with a branch line to Denver. The eastern terminus was at first St. Joseph, but on account of the war it was changed to Omaha. The western terminus was Placerville, Cal., time twenty days for eight months, and twenty-three days for the remaining four months. The contract was for three years at an annual subsidy of $1,000,000. The last overland stage contract for carrying the mails was awarded to Wells, Fargo & Co., October 1, 1868, for $1.750,000 per annum, with deductions for carriage by rail- way. The railway was rapidly reducing the dis- tance of stage travel.

The only inland commerce during the Mexi- can era was a few bands of mules sold to New Mexican traders and driven overland to Santa Fe by the old Spanish trail and one band of cattle sold to the Oregon settlers in 1837 and driven by the coast route to Oregon City. The Californians had no desire to open up an inland trade with their neighbors and the traders and trappers who came overland were not welcome.

After the discovery of gold, freighting to the mines became an important business. Supplies had to be taken by pack trains and wagons. Freight charges were excessively high at first. In 1848, "it cost $5 to carry a hundred pounds of goods from Sutter's Fort to the lower mines, a distance of twenty miles, and $10 per hundred weight for freight to the upper mines, a distance of forty miles. Two horses can draw one thousand five hundred pounds." In Decem- ber, 1849, the roads were almost impassable

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and teamsters were charging from $40 to $50 a hundred pounds for hauling freight from Sacra- mento to Mormon Island.

In 1855 an inland trade was opened up be- tween Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The first shipment was made by Banning and Alex- ander. The wagon train consisted of fifteen ten-mule teams heavily freighted with merchan- dise. The venture was a success financially. The train left Los Angeles in May and returned in September, consuming four months in the journey. The trade increased and became quite an important factor in the business of the south- ern part of the state. In 1859 sixty wagons were loaded for Salt Lake in the month of January, and in March of the same year one hundred and fifty loaded with goods were sent to the Mormon capital. In 1865 and 1866 there was a considerable shipment of goods from Los Angeles to Idaho and Montana by wagon trains. These trains went by way of Salt Lake. This trade was carried on during the winter months when the roads over the Sierras and the Rocky mountains were blocked with snow.

Freighting by wagon train to Washoe formed a very important part of the inland commerce of California between 1859 and 1869. The im- mense freight wagons called "prairie schooners" carried almost as much as a freight car. The old-time teamster, like the old-time stage driver, was a unique character. Both have disappeared. Their occupation is gone. We shall never look on their like again.

The pony express rider came early in the his- tory of California. Away back in 1775, when the continental congress made Benjamin Frank- lin postmaster-general of the United Colonies, on the Pacific coast soldier couriers, fleet mounted, were carrying their monthly budgets of mail between Monterey in Alta California. and Loreto, near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, a distance of one thousand five hundred miles.

In the winter of 1859-60 a Wall street lobby was in Washington trying to get an appropria- tion of $5,000,000 for carrying the mails one year between New York and San Francisco. William H. Russell, of the firm of Russell, Ma-

jors & Waddell, then engaged in running a ciaily stage line between the Missouri river and Salt Lake City, hearing of the lobby's efforts, offered to bet $200,000 that he could put on a mail line between San Francisco and St. Joseph that could make the distance, one thousand nine hundred and fifty miles, in ten days. The wager was accepted. Russell and his business man- ager, A. B. Miller, an old plains man, bought the fleetest horses they could find in the west and employed one hundred and twenty-five riders selected with reference to their light weight and courage. It was essential that the horses should be loaded as lightly as possible. The horses were stationed from ten to twenty miles apart and each rider was required to ride seventy-five miles. For change of horses and mail bag two minutes were allowed, at eachı station. One man took care of the two horses kept there. Everything being arranged a start was made from St. Josephi, April 3, 1860. The bet was to be decided on the race eastward. At meridian on April 3, 1860, a signal gun on a steamer at Sacramento proclaimed the hour of starting. At that signal Mr. Miller's private saddle horse, Border Ruffian, with his rider bounded away toward the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. The first twenty miles were covered in forty-nine minutes. All went well till the Platte river was reached. The river was swollen by recent rain. Rider and horse plunged boldly into it, but the horse mired in the quicksands and was drowned. The rider carrying the mail bag footed it ten miles to the next relay sta- tion. When the courier arrived at the sixty- mile station out from St. Joseph he was one hour behind time. The last one had just three hours and thirty minutes in which to make the sixty miles and win the race. A heavy rain was falling and the roads were slippery, but with six horses to make the distance he won with five minutes and a fraction to spare. And thus was finished the longest race for the larg- est stake ever run in America.

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A history of California and an extended history of its southern coast counties, also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I, Part 35

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company Number of Pages: 1184

Author: Guinn, James Miller, 1834-1918
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company
Number of Pages: 1184