USA > California > A picture of pioneer times in California, illustrated with anecdotes and stores taken from real life > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61
Now, I take issue with the authors of the "Annals," and make the following statement, which I will undertake to sustain, in
58
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
part, by some facts given in the "Annals" itself, and, in part from other sources; and my readers shall be the judges of the proba- ble correctness of my position. In the first place, then, I assert, that after the first day of May, 1849, nineteen-twentieths of the emigration to this State came from the other States of the American Union. Secondly, that this whole emigration, with a few exceptions, of course, were remarkable for their high moral and social standing at home, as well as for their education, in- telligence, energy and personal bravery. Thirdly, that four- fifths of them never faltered, in their new home, from this high character and standing. Fourthly, that a large number of women and children poured into the State with the American immigration, and that of all these women in San Francisco, and in the whole State, not so large a proportion as one in twenty belonged, openly or privately, to the abandoned class, which was the only one known, it should seem, to the authors of the "Annals." Fifthly, that in the early Summer months of 1849, family homes began to appear in every direction in San Francisco, and that by the Fall of '49, they could be said to be numerous; and that from that time forward they steadily increased; that in the Fall of 1850, nice family houses and cottages, were a leading feature of the city; that, in '51 and '52, the want of families and of home family circles was hardly felt-except, of course, by the new comers; that not so large a proportion as one-fifth of the resi- dents of San Francisco joined in the gambling carousals described in the "Annals," or in fact, gambled in any way; that there never was such a ball at a house of ill-fame, as described in the "An- nals" on page 665, which they accompany with a wood cut to make it look charming; that there were balls at such houses no one doubts, but that respectable men in San Francisco ever openly attended such is untruc; that it never was so that keepers and managers of gambling hells were of the "first respecta- bility and social standing" in San Francisco, as is claimed by the "Annals;" that no one in San Francisco ever saw a minister of religion, of any denomination, who was in good standing with his church, at a gambling table; that there never was a day in San Francisco when every man, or even one man of respectable standing was willing to say openly that he went to such carous- als as are described on page 665 of the "Annals." Now, my young Forty-niners, to whom I am addressing myself, let me see how far I can sustain these bold, flat denials and charges of
59
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
misrepresentation on the authors of the "Annals." I will draw your attention, in the first place, to a few queer facts we find in the "Annals" themselves, and see if they look consistent with the charming picture of "brave wickedness and splendid folly" they draw of us old Forty-niners. Examine the following quotations from the "Annals":
On page 295 we find the following, in relation to the celebra- tion of October 29, 1850:
" The houses were likewise brilliantly illuminated and the rejoicings were everywhere loudly continued during the night. Some five hundred gentle- men and three hundred ladies met at the grandest public ball that had ever yet been witnessed in the city, and danced and made merry till daylight, in the pride and joy of their hearts that California was truly now the THIRTY- FIRST State in the Union."
Page 361:
" Schools and churches were springing up on all sides. A certain class largely patronized the last, though it must be admitted that very many, par- ticularly foreigners, never entered them."
Page 447. 1853:
"" MAY 2d-May-day happening upon Sunday, a procession of school chil- dren to celebrate the occasion, took place the next day. This was a new and pleasant sight in San Francisco, and the event is worthy of being re- corded. There were about a thousand children of both sexes in the train. They appeared all in holiday costume, the girls being dressed in white. Each one carried a bouquet of fresh and beautiful flowers. There was the usual ' Queen of May,' with the ' Maids of Honor,' and various other charac- ters, all represented by the juvenile players. The children of seven schools bore distinctive banners. A fine band of music accompanied the happy pro- cession. After proceeding through the principal thoroughfares, the children moved to the schoolhouse on Broadway. Here some pleasant ceremonies, songs, and addresses took place, in which the children themselves were the chief actors. A repast of such delicate eatables as suited youthful palates was next enjoyed, after which the glad multitude dispersed."
Page 492. 1853:
"There are 10 public schools, with 21 teachers, and 1,250 scholars, besides private establishments. There are 18 churches, and about 8,000 church members."
Divorce. Page 503:
" By the laws of California, divorces are readily obtained by both husband and wife, one of whom may think him or herself injured by the cruel conduct of the other, and who, perhaps, disliking his or her mate, or loving another
60
PIONEER TIMES ET CALIFORNIA.
may wish to break the bonds of wedlock. Divorces are accordingly growing very numerous here, and have helped to raise a general calumny against the sex."
Pages 663-4:
" In 1851 a company of model artists exhibited at the Parker House with very poor success; and even Dr. Collyer's company, who opened rooms on a greater scale on Commercial street, received no better patronage-showing that the public taste was not so vitiated as was supposed."
* * * " A large Music Hall has been erected on Bush street, near the corner of Montgomery, by Mr. Henry Meiggs, and here quiet folks are enter- tained with concerts, oratorios, lectures, fairs and the like. The ' Mercan- tile Library Company,' ' Young Men's Christian Association,' and other societies, at various seasons every year, afford the literary public opportuni- ties of listening to scientific, moral, and other instructive discourses by emi- nent speakers.
" Thus do the people of San Francisco employ their leisure hours. Possessed of so many opportunities of gaining wealth, they freely use it in the purchase of those enjoyments which relieve their minds and bodies from the harass- *ing toil to which they have been subjected in its acquirement. Thus, not- withstanding the immense wear and tear of such unexampled energy as is here required in any occupation, the unstinted and universal use of reasona- ble relaxation and pleasure enables them to retain their vigor, and lead far more agreeable and useful lives than do the miserable hoarders of slowly- gotten gains in other countries."
Page 685:
" The aggregate number of schools in this city is now 34, the whole num- ber of teachers 62-20 being males and 42 females, and the whole number of scholars 1,305 boys, and 1,216 girls-or, in all, 2,521, about seventy per cent of all the children over four years of age in the place. In five of these schools, the ancient and modern languages, higher mathematics, philosophy, etc., are taught."
Churches and Religion. Page 687:
" We have gazed so long on the moral turpitude of the San Franciscans, that both eye and mind would turn away pained if they could dwell on more pleasant sights. * * * Happily the long record of vice and immorality (the black page of our diary) has a bright and noble counterpart, like the gold-dust amid the muddy atoms of our own river-beds, that redeems our character from wholesale condemnation."
Pages 699 and 700:
" Such an array of churches and societies are surely evidences enough of the sincerity, zeal and success of the early spirit of moral reform. It has also established numerous benevolent institutions, and sought to excite sym- pathy and gratitude, by alleviating sorrow and softening the harsh blows of
misfortune. * * We have already spoken of the public school effort,
61
FIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
and the good accomplished through it, and we may remark now that it has been ably seconded by the establishment, in almost all the churches, of Sab- bath-schools and Bible-classes, which are extremely well attended."
Page 701:
" We have said enough, we hope, to prove that not all, nor near all, the citizens of San Francisco are lost to everything but reckless dissipation. No city of equal size-few of ten times its age-can present such a list of men and institutions who have accomplished so much REAL good with so little cant and hypocrisy."
On page 176 of the "Annals" we find that in June, 1847, some time before gold was discovered, not counting the New York volunteers, there were 375 white inhabitants in San Fran- cisco; 107 of these were children, of both sexes, and 77 were women, and 228 of the whole number were born in the United States. This shows that we did not start with much when gold was discovered. Now read the quotation from page 295 of the "Annals," and what do we find on the twenty-ninth day of Octo- ber, 1850, a little over a year after the American immigration be- gan. We find 300 highly respectable ladies attending a ball given in honor of the admission of California into the Union. I was at that ball, and I knew personally every lady in attend- ance on that happy occasion, and there was not one exception- able female there. They were the wives and daughters of our first citizens. Pretty good, you will admit, for a city where no virtuous women could live, if we were to credit the "Annals."
In the next place, read the quotation from page 447. Here we find 1,000 well dressed, well cared for, beautiful children on parade, representing at least three times that number not on parade. This proves that on the second day of May, 1853, there must have been at least four thousand children in San Francisco. Did the mothers of these 4,000 children arrive here the day be- fore the parade, or had they mothers ? The children were beauti- fully dressed. Can it be that they came from the haunts of the vile and the wicked, as the "Annals" would have us believe ? My young reader, these children had mothers; good, virtuous, and as true women as ever adorned a community. They were your mothers, the women of '49-'50-'51-the existence of whom the authors of the "Annals" ignore throughout their whole book. On pages 300 and 357, and in every paragraph relating to women, they wickedly misrepresent the character of the fe- male immigration to our State. I well recollect that, on the
62
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
occasion of that parade of children, I stood on Montgomery street with a respected friend, now past to his last resting place in Lone Mountain. As the procession passed us, my friend, c'asping his hands enthusiastically, exclaimed: "Well, well ! God bless the women of '49! They have done more for our State than all the men on earth." Next let me ask you to read the quotations from pages 492 and 493. What do you think ? Does it not show pretty well for a place the authors of the "Annals " tell us was steeped to the chin in a universal debauch ? In 1847 we started, as I have already drawn your attention to, with 375 white inhabitants, and 107 of these were children. In three years from that date the "Annals" are forced to admit the existence of ten public schools, conducted by 21 teachers, with one thousand two hundred and fifty children in daily attendance; 18 churches, with eight thousand church members. Who were these church members ? To take a rule that almost universally applies to the sex of church members, say three women to one man, it will give us 6,000 female church members and 2,000 male church members. How is this ? The "Annals" tell us that no virtuous women could live in San Francisco at that time. The "Annals" further tell us that, besides the one thousand two hun- dred and fifty children at the public schools, there were a great number attending " private educational establishments." Pretty good, I say, for a three-year-old, debauched city, where "all gamble and drink," and where the most respectable attend balls at houses of ill-fame by invitation, without any conceal- ment, as the "Annals " tell us. But we have more wonders to draw attention to that this " brave, wicked " people did. Read quotation from page 685. You see that, in 1854, the most de- pressed year San Francisco ever went through, the schools num- bered 34, the teachers 62, the children in actual attendance two thousand five hundred and twelve, which was seventy per cent. of the children over four years of age in the whole city. By adding the thirty per cent. not in attendance on the schools, and the children under four years of age, it will give us about 5,000 children for San Francisco at that date. Pretty fair, you will admit, for a city whose women are " flaunting, idle, worthless creatures." Yes; pretty fair for a city that has no mothers, no home family circles, if we are to believe the authors of the "An- nals." Now I will draw your attention to the quotation from page 663, and ask this question: If San Francisco was such a
63
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
terribly wicked place as the "Annals " describe it, why did not this shameless exhibition of De Collyer's prove a success ? Now read the quotation from page 664, and do you not find it a com- plete contradiction to nearly the whole of what the "Annals" have before told us, as to the habits and ways of our pioneers ? Now read the quotation from page 687, on character and religion. It is a preface to a long account of the churches and the won- derful activity in religious matters in San Francisco. This his- tory of religious matters was furnished to the authors of the "Annals " by the clergymen of the various denominations, and could not, with decency, be omitted; so they insert it, but make an ingenious effort to induce us to believe that this splendid array of personal sacrifices for the sake of society, with its won- derful success, in some way, was consistent with the sink of immor- ality they describe the whole people of San Francisco to be sunk in. " Without an exception worth noticing," as we are told on pages 216, 250 and 251. What an absurdity! San Francisco commenced her career with 375 white inhabitants-not a school or a church within her limits. This was a year before the gold
discovery. In four short years after the discovery of gold the "Annals " record that she has 24 places of public worship, many of them beautiful buildings, with at least 12,000 church mem- bers, 9,000 of whom were undoubtedly women. Pretty good for a city a virtuous woman could not live in and preserve un- sullied ber reputation, for so the "Annals " tell us. They record, further, that there are now 34 public schools, with 25,000 children in daily attendance, and 2,500 children not attending the public schools; two well conducted and flourishing orphan asylums, with many charitable and benevolent associations, to which be- long hundreds of zealous members. Yes; and they tell us of public libraries, lecture rooms, and, in fact, a fine beginning in all that should belong to a refined Christian community. Is such a state of facts possible, if what the "Annals " tell us of the people of San Francisco from 1849 to '54 be true ? As to the women of those four years, if we were to believe the "Annals," they were " nearly all worthless, abandoned, idle creatures." I have quoted the only sentence, from cover to cover, in the "An- nals," where the authors utter a word in regard to women, that would qualify their wholesale denunciation of them, and that is an unwilling admission, that there were, or might be, some virtu- ous women in San Francisco; but they were the exception.
61
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIAA.
On page 300 we are told that of 2,000 women they report as arriving that year, "many of them were of the abandoned sort," and from the way it is stated, the impression is given that most of them were of that class, whereas, in truth, not over three in a hundred of them were of that class, and this is a large estimate. Again, on page 357, we are told that the women were increasing very fast, but that "a very large proportion of them continue to be of the worst class." This is another wicked misrepresentation. Read the quotation from page 417. What a false idea it conveys of the women of '49! For, my young readers, there never was in the annals of the world a nobler class of women than the women of '49. They were patient, they were enduring. They accepted terrible privations, and faced dangers and trials with- out a murmur. Many and many a time in those days, when the proud, strong man faltered at the difficulties before him, did the wife, the daughter, or the sister, with her cheerful, encouraging voice, and bright, sunny smiles, dispel the dark shadows, and show him the way to success. When I speak of the " women of '49," of course I do not speak of the poor, abandoned creatures who so filled the imaginations of the authors of the "Annals." No; I do not speak of them, or think of them; for, though num- erous, and particularly so in the eyes of those who chose to live in friendship with them, they were as nothing in numbers when compared to the whole female population of San Francisco. No; when I speak of the women of '49, I speak of the wives, daughters and sisters of the men of '49, who, with heroic cour- age and undaunted resolution, faced a pioneer life, asking noth- ing but to share our hardships or our triumphs-whatever fortune might throw in our way. No; I speak of your mothers, who brought with them to San Francisco, or had born to them there, the 5,000 children we find there at the close of 1853. I speak . of the women who fostered and guarded those children in all that difficult time. I speak of the women whose devotion, unobtrusive picty, good example, and constant whisperings of encouragement and good counsel to the worldly-minded men of their households, were the chief cause of churches, schools, orphan asylums, and many other useful and benevolent associa- tions, springing like magic into existence in every part of the city. Read the quotation from page 423: "A few more modest women and many more of another class." According to these authors, we were growing worse instead of better, notwithstand-
65
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
ing our display of churches, schools, and all. Read the quota-
tion from pages 502-3. It gives us some wise, moral teaching. The authors say, in plain English, that all this vile life they describe is not " really and truly" wrong, after all; and that an open boast of leading such a life is commendable and a virtue. The authors evidently do not believe in the scriptural passage that says, "Scandal must needs be but woe to him by whom it cometh." Then they admit-but very unwillingly-that there are some virtuous women in San Francisco, fit companions for the dear, innocent, virtuous creatures they describe us men of San Francisco to be at that time. Truly, my young forty-niners, you ought to be grateful to these authors for this admission; for it makes it just possible that some of your mothers were more than fit companions for the sort of men only known to the authors of the "Annals " as existing in San Francisco. But they qualify this reluctant admission in so many ways that the uninformed reader conceives from it a yet worse idea of the women of '49 than he had before. Read the quotation from page 670, and you will find another contemptible fling at the women of '49. The authors give the women a base motive for attending church. To the men a good one !!! Can it be, my young readers, that these authors had a mother, or a sister? They write as if they never knew of either, although they could not have got into the world without a mother, or lived through their childhood without a woman's unselfish, tender care. Now, let me draw attention to a quotation taken from page 700. It comes in after the authors find themselves compelled to give a record of the brilliant triumphs of religion and of learning in the first four years of San Francisco's existence as an American city. You will find in this quotation a sort of an unwilling admission of what we had done, but not a word that takes back their former wholesale slanders of both men and women. They see the ab- surd position they have placed themselves in, and, with impu- dence that is refreshing from its coolness, tell us that " not all or near all" the people of San Francisco were debased outcasts. Truly we should be thankful for this admission. The authors of the "Annals" are as inconsistent on this whole subject of society in San Francisco, in their views and the faets given, as they were in the first part of their book on the Missions. Who can read of what the young city of San Francisco accomplished for religion and education, in four short years, and not be filled 5
66
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
with enthusiastic admiration ? Yet the authors of the "Annals " describe this whole people as being little less than denizens, en masse, of houses of ill-fame, and gambling hells, conducted, they tell us on pages 249 and 250, by the "richest, most talented and most influential citizens of the city." I challenge the authors, or any one, to name the conductor of a gambling hell, in 1849, or in any other year, who could be said to be one of the "most talented, most influential citizens of the town." The assertion is utterly without foundation in fact, as every '49er knows. I will say here that I quote what the authors of the "Annals " say of our divorce laws, on page 503-not to condemn it, but to hold up both hands in approval.
The law, as it stands, is nothing less than infamous. It lets the guilty party contract another marriage as well as the ag- grieved party. This is not so in New York or Pennsylvania, nor is it so in most of the older States of the Union. Their laws only permit the aggrieved party to again marry. Our law opens the door to terrible domestic wickedness, and strikes at the very foundation of society. The shameful fruits are to be seen all over our State, in wives and husbands dishonored and disgraced, and poor children homeless, and many of them on the road to our State Prison, or worse. From our law to the abominable doctrine of free love there is but one short step. Our law gives the villain who covets another's wife, or the shameless woman who seeks another husband, an easy way to gratify their licen- tiousness. When you, the young people of California, get the reins of power into your hands, which you will in a few more short years, honor the land of your birth by striking the objec- tionable feature in this law from the statute book.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NATURE OF OUR EARLY IMMIGRATION-DIFFICULTIES AND EXPENSE-THE WRITER'S OWN EXPERIENCES-THE "SOUTII CAROLINA"-CHARACTER OF THE VOYAGERS, AND THEIR AMUSEMENTS-THE ONLY LADY PASSENGER-RIO- THREE SCALAWAGS AND THEIR FATES-THE EMPEROR'S GARDEN-PUZZLING MONEY-SLAVE TRADE AND CIVIL RIGHTS-ISAAC FRIEDLANDER, CONROY AND O'CONNOR, JOHN A. MCGLYNN, W. T. SHAW, D. J. OLIVER, WM. F. WHITE -AIR CASTLES-DEAD AND LIVING.
I have said that the American immigration to this State, after the discovery of gold, was in the main of a very high order, as to intellect, education and moral standing; and this I think can- not be disputed. When the news of the gold discovery reached us in the Eastern States, in November, 1848, thousands and thousands wished to rush off to California, but the difficulties in the way were found to be very great, principally owing to the fact that no one could go who could not command enough of money to get an outfit, and pay the expenses of the trip, which required in all about five hundred dollars. This was more money than any worthless loafer or scalawag could get hold of- except he stole it, which was difficult to do. Poor fellows, of un- exceptionable character, found friends to help them to the money, trusting to their honor and honesty to return it, gener- ally agreeing to send a handsome sum in addition in case of reasonable success. This caused the immigration from the Mid- dle and Eastern States to be decidedly select in character, and, even from the States west of the Mississippi river, mere loafers found it hard to get admitted into companies going over the plains to California; and to make the journey alone, at that time, was not possible. Without wishing to intrude my own individual history on my readers, which would be disagreeable to myself as well as to them, I will just say enough of personal experience to show from what standpoint I speak. I will describe the crowd with which I came to this State, and the voyage of the ship in which I came as passenger, and then go on and give my views
1
68
PIONEER TIMES IN CALIFORNIA.
of the '49er; and when I speak of '49ers I include all who came to this State to the close of 1851, for they were all pretty much of the same general stamp of character. I will say to my young California readers that I want them, after hearing my views, to talk with their fathers and mothers and other pioneers, and judge for themselves of the probable correct- ness of my picture of men and things in the pioneer times. As I proceed I shall give some anecdotes, and close with some stor- ies, all founded on well-known occurrences and facts. This I do, the better to illustrate the times, without tiring the reader.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.