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 40

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

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THE COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA.

The question of founding a college or uni- versity in California had been discussed early in 1849, before the assembling of the constitutional convention at San José. The originator of the idea was the Rev. Samuel H. Willey, D. D., of the Presbyterian church. At that time he was stationed at Monterey. The first legislature passed a bill providing for the granting of col- lege charters. The bill required that application should be made to the supreme court, which was to determine whether the property possessed by the proposed college was worth $20,000, and whether in other respects a charter should be granted. A body of land for a college site had been offered by James Stokes and Kimball H. Dimmick to be selected from a large tract they owned on the Guadalupe river, near San José. When application was made for a college char- ter the supreme court refused to give a charter to the applicants on the plea that the land was unsurveyed and the title not fully deter- mined.

The Rev. Henry Durant, who had at one time been a tutor in Yale College, came to California

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i11 1853 to engage in teaching. At a meeting of the presbytery of San Francisco and the Con- gregational Association of California held in Nevada City in May, 1853, which Mr. Durant attended, it was decided to establish an acad- emy at Oakland. There were but few houses in Oakland then and the only communication with San Francisco was by means of a little steamer that crossed the bay two or three times a day. A house was obtained at the corner of Broadway and Fifth street and the academy opened with three pupils. A site was selected for the school, which, when the streets were opened, proved to be four blocks, located be- tween Twelfth and Fourteenth, Franklin and Harrison streets. The site of Oakland at that time was covered with live oaks and the sand was knee deep. Added to other discourage- ments, titles were in dispute and squatters were seizing upon the vacant lots. A building was begun for the school, the money ran out and the property was in danger of seizure on a me- chanics' lien, but was rescued by the bravery and resourcefulness of Dr. Durant.

In 1855 the College of California was char- tered and a search begun for a permanent site. A number were offered at various places in the state. The trustees finally selected the Berkeley site, a tract of one hundred and sixty acres on Strawberry creek near Oakland, opposite the Golden Gate. The college school in Oakland was flourishing. A new building, Academy Hall, was erected in 1858. A college faculty was organized. The Rev. Henry Durant and the Rev. Martin Kellogg were chosen pro- fessors and the first college class was organized in June, 1860. The college classes were taught in the buildings of the college school, which were usually called the College of California. The college classes were small and the endow- ment smaller. The faculty met with many dis- couragements. It became evident that the in- stitution could never become a prominent one in the educational field with the limited means of support it could command. In 1863 the idea of a state university began to be agitated. A bill was passed by the state legislature in 1866, de- voting to the support of a narrow polytechnical school, the federal land grants to California for

the support of agricultural schools and a college of mechanics. The trustees of the College of California proposed in 1867 to transfer to the state the college site at Berkeley, opposite the Golden Gate, together with all the other assets remaining after the debts were paid, on con- dition that the state would build a University of California on the site at Berkeley, which should be a classical and technological college.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

A bill for the establishing of a state university was introduced in the legislature March 5, 1868, by Hon. John W. Dwinelle of Alameda county. After some amendments it was finally passed, March 21, and on the 27th of the same month a bill was passed making an appropriation for the support of the institution.

The board of regents of the university was organized June 9, 1868, and the same day Gen. George B. McClellan was elected president of the university, but at that time being engaged in building Stevens Battery at New York he de- clined the honor. September 23, 1869, the scholastic exercises of the university were be- gun in the buildings of the College of Califor- nia in Oakland and the first university class was graduated in June, 1873. The new buildings of the university at Berkeley were occupied in September, 1873. Prof. John Le Conte was act- ing president for the first year. Dr. Henry Durant was chosen to fill that position and was succeeded by D. C. Gilman in 1872. The corner- stone of the Agricultural College, called the South Hall, was laid in August, 1872, and that of the North Hall in the spring of 1873.

The university, as now constituted, consists of Colleges of Letters, Social Science, Agricul- ture, Mechanics, Mining, Civil Engineering, Chemistry and Commerce, located at Berkeley; the Lick Astronomical Department at Mount Hamilton; and the professional and affiliated colleges in San Francisco, namely, the Hastings College of Law, the Medical Department, the Post-Graduate Medical Department, the Col- lege of Dentistry and Pharmacy, the Veterinary Department and the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. The total value of the property belonging to the university at this time is about $5,000,000

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and the endowment funds nearly $3,000,000. The total income in 1900 was $475,254.

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY.

"When the intention of Senator Stanford to found a university in memory of his lamented son was first announced, it was expected from the broad and comprehensive views which lie was known to entertain upon the subject, that his plans, when formed, would result in no ordi- nary college endowment or educational scheme, but when these plans were laid before the people their magnitude was so far beyond the most ex- travagant of public anticipation that all were as- tonished at the magnificence of their aggregate, the wide scope of their detail and the absolute grandeur of their munificence. The brief his- tory of California as an American state com- prises much that is noble and great, but nothing in that history will compare in grandeur witlı this act of one of her leading citizens. The records of history may be searched in vain for a parallel to this gift of Senator Stanford to the state of his adoption. *

* * By this act Senator Stanford will not only immortalize the memory of his son, but will erect for himself a monument more enduring than brass or marble, for it will be enshrined in the hearts of succeed- ing generations for all time to come."*

Senator Stanford, to protect the endowments he proposed to make, prepared a bill, which was passed by the legislature, approved by the gov- ernor and became a law March 9, 1885. It is entitled "An act to advance learning, the arts and sciences and to promote the public welfare, by providing for the conveyance, holding and protection of property, and the creation of trusts for the founding, endowment, erection and maintenance within this state of universities, colleges, schools, seminaries of learning, me- chanical institutes, museums and galleries of art."

Section 2 specifies how a grant for the above purposes may be made: "Any person desiring in his lifetime to promote the public welfare by founding, endowing and having maintained within this state a university, college, school,

seminary of learning, mechanical institute, mu- seum or gallery of art or any or all thereof, may, to that end, and for such purpose, by grant in writing, convey to a trustee, or any number of trustees named in such grant (and their suc- cessors), any property, real or personal, belong- ing to such person, and situated or being within this state; provided, that if any such person be married and the property be community prop- erty, then both husband and wife must join in such grant." The act contains twelve sections. After the passage of the act twenty-four trus- tees were appointed. Among them were judges of the supreme and superior courts, a United States senator and business men in various lines.

Among the lands deeded to the university by Senator Stanford and his wife were the Palo Alto estate, containing seventy-two hundred acres. This ranch had been devoted principally to the breeding and rearing of thoroughbred horses. On this the college buildings were to be erected. The site selected was near the town of Palo Alto, which is thirty-four miles south from San Francisco on the railroad to San José, in Santa Clara county.

Another property donated was the Vina rancho, situated at the junction of Deer creek with the Sacramento river in Tehama county. It consisted of fifty-five thousand acres, of which thirty-six thousand were planted to vines and orchard and the remainder used for grain growing and pasture.

The third rancho given to the support of the university was the Gridley ranch, containing about twenty-one thousand acres. This was sit- uated in Butte county and included within its limits some of the richest wheat growing lands in the state. At the time it was donated its as- sessed value was $1,000,000. The total amount of land conveyed to the university by deed of trust was eighty-three thousand two hundred acres.

The name selected for the institution was Le- land Stanford Junior University. The corner- stone of the university was laid May 14, 1887, by Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford. The site of the college buildings is about one mile west from Palo Alto. In his address to the trustees

* Monograph of Leland Stanford Junior University. 16

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November 14, 1885, Senator Stanford said: "We do not expect to establish a university and fill it with students at once. It must be the growth of time and experience. Our idea is that in the first instance we shall require the establishment of colleges for both sexes; then of primary schools, as they may be needed; and out of all these will grow the great central institution for more advanced study." The growth of the uni- versity has been rapid .. In a very few years after its founding it took rank with the best institu- tions of learning in the United States.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The legislature of 1862 passed a bill author- izing the establishment of a state normal school for the training of teachers at San Francisco or at such other place as the legislature may here- after direct. The school was established and conducted for several years at San Francisco, but was eventually moved to San José, where a site had been donated. A building was erected and the school became a flourishing institution. The first building was destroyed by fire and the present handsome and commodious building erected on a new site. The first normal school established in the state was a private one, con- ducted by George W. Minns. It was started in

San Francisco in 1857, but was discontinued after the organization of the state school in 1863, Minns becoming principal. A normal school was established by the legislature at Los An- geles in 1881. It was at first a branch of the state school at San José and was under control of the same board of trustees and the same prin- cipal. Later it was made an independent insti- tution with a board and principal of its own.

Normal schools have been established at Chico (1889), San Diego (1897) and San Fran- cisco (1899). The total number of teachers em- ployed in the five state normal schools in 1900 was one hundred and one, of whom thirty-seven were men and sixty-four women. The whole number of students in these at that time was two thousand and thirty-nine, of whom two hun- dred and fifty-six were men and one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine women.

The total receipts for the support of these schools from all sources were for the year end- ing June 30, 1906, $429,416; the total expendi- tures for the same time were $316,127; the value of the normal school property of the state is about $1,017,195. The educational system and facilities of California, university, college, nor- mal school and public school, rank with the best in the United States.

CHAPTER XXXVI. CITIES OF CALIFORNIA-THEIR ORIGIN AND GROWTH.

A LTHOUGH Spain and Mexico possessed California for seventy-seven years after the date of the first settlement made in it, they founded but few towns and but one of those founded had attained the dignity of a city at the time of the American conquest. In a previous chapter I have given sketches of the founding of the four presidios and three pueblos under Spanish rule. Twenty missions were es- tablished under the rule of Spain and one under the Mexican Republic. While the country in- creased in population under the rule of Mex- ico, the only new settlement that was formed was the mission at Solano.

Pueblos grew up at the presidios and some of the mission settlements developed into towns. The principal towns that have grown up around the mission sites are San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, San Miguel, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara and San Rafael.

The creation of towns began after the Ameri- cans got possession of the country. Before the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico had been made, and while the war was in progress, two enterprising Americans, Robert Semple and T. O. Larkin, had created on paper an extensive city on the Straits of Carquinez. The city of Francisca "comprises five miles,"

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so the proprietors of the embryo metropolis an- nounced in the Californian of April 20, 1847, and in subsequent numbers. According to the theory of its promoters, Francisca had the choice of sites and must become the metropolis of the coast. "In front of the city," says their advertisement, "is a commodious Bay, large enough for two hundred ships to ride at anchor safe from any wind. The country around the city is the best agricultural portion of California on both sides of the Bay; the straits being only one mile wide, an easy crossing may always be made. The entire trade of the great Sacra- mento and San Joaquin Valleys (a fertile coun- try of great width and nearly seven hundred miles long from North to South) must of neces- sity pass through the narrow channel of Car- quinez and the Bay, and the country is so situ- ated that every person who passes from one side of the Bay to the other will find the nearest and best way by Francisca."

In addition to its natural advantages the pro- prietors offered other attractions and induce- ments to settlers. They advertised that they . would give "seventy-five per cent of the net pro- ceeds of the ferries and wharves for a school fund and the embellishment of the city"; "they have also laid out several entire squares for school purposes and several others for public walks" (parks). Yet, notwithstanding all the superior attractions and natural advantages of Francisca, people would migrate to and locate at the wind-swept settlement on the Cove of Yerba Buena. And the town of the "good herb" took to itself the name of San Francisco and perforce compelled the Franciscans to be- come Benicians. Then came the discovery of gold and the consequent rush to the mines, and although Francisca, or Benicia, was on the route, or one of the routes, somehow San Francisco managed to get all the profits out of the trade and travel to the mines.

The rush to the land of gold expanded the little settlement formed by Richardson and Leese on the Cove of Yerba Buena into a great city that in time included within its limits the mis- sion and the presidio. The consolidation of the city and county governments gave a simpler

form of municipal rule and gave the city room to expand without growing outside qflits mu- nicipal jurisdiction. The decennier Federal cen- sus from 1850 to the close cenfury indi cates the remarkable growth of SandFrancisco Its population in 1850 was 21,000; in 1860, 56,- 802 ; in 1870, 149,473 ; in 1880, 234,000/1n 1890, 298,997 ; in 1900, 342,742.

In Chapter XXVI, pago dfs et seq. of this volume, I have given the early history of San Francisco, or Yerba Buena, as it was called at first. I have there given an account of its growth and progress from the little hamlet on Yerba Buena cove until it became the metropolis of the Pacific coast. In that chapter I have told briefly the story of the "Six Great Fires" that, between December, 1849, and July, 1851, devas- tated the city. These wiped out of existence every trace of the make-shift and nondescript houses of the early gold period. After each fire the burned district was rebuilt with hastily con- structed houses, better than those destroyed, but far from being substantial and fire-proof struc- tures. The losses from these fires, although great at the time, would be considered trivial now. In the greatest of these-the fifth-start- ing on the night of May 3, 1851, and raging for ten hours, the property loss was estimated to be between ten and twelve million dollars. There were many lives lost. Over one thousand houses were destroyed. The brick blocks and corru- gated iron houses that by this time had replaced the flimsy structures of the earlier period in the business quarter of the city were supposed to be fire-proof, but the great conflagration of May 3d and 4th, 1851, disapproved this claim. They were consumed or melted down by the excessive heat of that great fire.

It became evident to the business men and property holders that a better class of buildings must be constructed, more stringent building regulations enforced, and a more abundant wa- ter supply secured. All these in due time were obtained, and the era of great fires apparently ended. As it expanded beyond the business quarter it became a city of wooden walls. But few dwelling houses were built of brick or stone, and south of Market street many of the business

Nadeau

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houses too were built of wood. Ninety per cent. of all the buildings in the modern city were frame structures.

After the great fires of the early '50s San Fran- cisco seemed to have become practically immune from destructive conflagrations. Other large cities of its class had suffered from great fires. Chicago, in 1871, had been swept out of existence by a fire that destroyed $170,000,000 of property. Boston, in 1872, had been forced to give up to the fire fiend $75,000,000 of its wealth; and Balti- more, in 1904, had suffered a property loss of $50,000,000. San Francisco for more than half a century had suffered but little loss from fires. Those that had started were usually confined to the building or the block in which they originat- ed. The efficiency of its fire fighters, its fire- proof business blocks, and the supposed inde- structibility of the redwood walls of its dwelling houses had engendered in its inhabitants a sense of security against destructive fires.

The emblem on the seal of the city and county of San Francisco the Phoenix rising from the flames in front of the Golden Gate-adopted in 1852, after the last of the "Six Great Fires," had little significance to the inhabitants of the modern city. The story of the Great Fires was ancient history. Nil desperandum-motto of the in- vincibles who rebuilt the old city six times- had no particular meaning to their descendants except as a reminder of the energy, enterprise and unconquerable determination of the men of the olden, golden days. History would not re- peat itself. The day of great fires for San Fran- cisco was past. This dream of the immunity of their city from destructive conflagrations was to receive a rude awakening.

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE.

On the morning of April 18, 1906, at thirteen minutes past 5 o'clock, its four hundred thousand inhabitants were aroused from their slumbers by the terrifying shock of an earthquake. The temblor was not a new visitor to San Francisco. Earthquake shocks had shaken it at intervals ever since its founding, but these had done little dam- age and had come to be regarded more as a bug- bear to frighten new arrivals than anything to

be feared. The earthquake of October, 1868, was the most severe of those in the past. Five lives were lost in it by falling walls. The walls of many buildings were cracked. But one of the most dangerous elements of the last great tem- blor did not exist then, that is the electric wire. The live wire has become one of the most dread- ed agents in great fires.

The impressions produced by the shock and the sights witnessed during the progress of the fire are thus graphically described by James Hopper in "Everybody's Magazine" for June (1906) : "Right away it was incredible-the violence of the quake. It started with a directness, a savage determination that left no doubt of its purpose. It pounced upon the earth as some sideral bull- dog, with a rattle of hungry eagerness. The earth was a rat, shaken in the grinding teeth, shaken, shaken, shaken with periods of slight weariness followed by new bursts of vicious rage. As far as I can remember my impressions were as follows: First for a few seconds a feeling of incredulity, capped immediately with one of final- ity, of incredulity at the violence of the vibra- tions. 'It's incredible, incredible,' I think I said aloud. Then the feeling of finality: 'It's the end-St. Pierre, Samoa. Vesuvius, Formosa, San Francisco-this is death.' Simultaneously with that a picture of the city swaying beneath the curl of a tidal wave foaming to the sky. Then in- credulity again at the length of it, at the sullen violence of it. Incredulity again at the mere length of the thing, the fearful stubbornness of it. Then curiosity-I must see it.

"I got up and walked to the window. I start- ed to open it, but the pane obligingly fell out- ward and I poked my head out, the floor like a geyser beneath my feet. Then I heard the roar of the bricks coming down in cataracts and the groaning of twisted girders all over the city, and at the same time I saw the moon, a calm crescent in the green sky of dawn. Below it the skeleton frame of an unfinished sky-scraper was swaying front side to side with a swing as exaggerated and absurd as that of a palm in a stage tempest.

"Just then the quake, with a sound as of a snarl, rose to its climax of rage, and the back wall of my building for three stories above me fell. I

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saw the mass pass across my vision swift as a shadow. It struck some little wooden houses in the alley below. I saw them crash in like emptied egg shells and the bricks pass through the roof as through tissue paper.

"The vibrations ceased and I began to dress. Then I noted the great silence. Throughout the long quaking, in this great house full of people I had not heard a cry, not a sound, not a sob, not a whisper. And now, when the roar of crumbling buildings was over and only a brick falling here and there like the trickle of a spent rain, this silence continued, and it was an awful thing. But now in the alley some one began to groan. It was a woman's groan, soft and low.

"I went down the stairs and into the streets, and they were full of people, half-clad, dishev- elled, but silent, absolutely silent, as if suddenly they had become speechless idiots. I went into the little alley at the back of the building, but it was deserted and the crushed houses seemed empty. I went down Post street toward the cen- ter of town, and in the morning's garish light I saw many men and women with gray faces, but none spoke. All of them, they had a singular hurt expression, not one of physical pain, but rather one of injured sensibilities, as if some trusted friend, say, had suddenly wronged them, or as if some one had said something rude to them." * * * * *

He made his way to the Call building, where he met the city editor, who said to him: "The Brunswick hotel at Sixth and Folsom is down with hundreds inside her. You cover that."

"Going up into the editorial rooms of the Call, with water to my ankles, I seized a bunch of copy paper and started up Third street. At Tehamna street I saw the beginning of the fire which was to sweep all the district south of Market street. . It was swirling up the narrow way with a sound that was almost a scream. Before it the humble population of the district were fleeing, and in its path, as far as I could see, frail shanties went down like card houses. And this marks the true character of the city's agony. Especially in the populous districts south of Market street, but also throughout the city, hundreds were pinned down by the debris, some to a 'merciful death,

others to live hideous minutes. The flames swept over them while the saved looked on impotently. Over the tragedy the fire threw its flaming man- tle of hypocrisy, and the full extent of the holo- caust will never be known, will remain ever a poignant mystery."

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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 40

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