An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California : containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future portraits of some of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also prominent citizens of today, Part 19

Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 916

USA > California > Sacramento County > An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California : containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future portraits of some of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also prominent citizens of today > Part 19

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the cast steel work is done in San Francisco, but otherwise the engine is entirely built here. So with cars; sleepers and fine passenger coaches are not generally built here, but in the great car shops of the East. But ordinary passenger, emigrant and freight cars are built throughont, as well as all the specially fine and elegant work, as Governor Stanford's private car, which was built in these shops.

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS.

CHAPTER XVII.

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

HE first agricultural association in the State met here in Sacramento, October 8, 1852, in the American Theater. C. I. Hutchinson was president, and Dr. J. F. Morse delivered the address. A fair was held a week or two on that occasion, under the supervision of Warren & Co. The "State Agricultural Society " was organized early in 1854, and on May 13, that year, was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature. The first officers were named in the charter and were as follows: F. W. Macondray, of San Francisco, President; Vice-Presidents, E. L. Beard of Alameda, J. K. Rose of San Francisco, D. W. C. Thompson of Sonoma, H. C. Malone of Santa Clara, W. H. Thompson of San Francisco, and C. I. Hutchin- son of Sacramento; Corresponding Secretary, J. L. L. Warren, of San Francisco; Recording Secretary, C. V. Gillespie, of San Francisco; Treasurer, David Chambers, of San Francisco. The same act appropriated $5,000 per annum for the first four years, for premiums.

Under the new charter, the first fair was held in San Francisco, in October following; the second in Sacramento, September, 1855, when the general exhibition was held in the State House and the cattle show at the Louisiana race- track; the third in San José, in October, 1856; the fourth in Stockton, in 1857; the fifth in Marysville, in 1858, since which time all the fairs have been held at Sacramento. When the

society, in 1860, voted to hold the next fair at Sacramento,-being the third time in succession at the same place,-it angered the competing points in the State, opposition agricultural so- cieties were formed, and the receipts fell from $28,639 in 1860, to $18,584 in 1861.

In 1859 the Pavilion at the corner of Sixth and M streets was erected. It was a fine build- ing for the times, constructed upon plans de- signed by M. F. Butler. To defray the expenses, one-fourth of one per cent. was levied upon the property of the county, and the title was there- fore vested in the county.

In 1860 the Sacramento Park Association was formed, which donated the ground bounded by E, H, Twentieth and Twenty-second streets, which was cleared and equipped for a trotting park. The Legislature also appropriated $15,000 for the improvements. A brick wall was built around the plat, stands, etc., erected, at a cost of $25,000.

Early in 1862, a society styled the " Union Park Association," purchased the six blocks of land lying north of the society's cattle grounds, and thus enabled them to make an excellent mile track. These grounds are still used and kept in good condition.

In 1863 the Legislature provided for the election of a " Board of Agriculture," to be en- trusted with the affairs of the State Agriculture Society. Under this arrangement the fairs were held until the State Constitution of 1879 was

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adopted, which cut off all State assistance unless the Board of Directors were appointed by State authority. The subsequent Legislature em- powered the Governor to appoint the inembers of this board, and also divided the State into "agricultural districts " of several counties each, placing in the Third District the counties of Sacramento, Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Colusa, Te- hamna and Yolo; but at present, probably on account of the direct presence of the State in- stitution, Sacramento is not taking an active part in the district organization.

In 1884 the present magnificent Pavilion, east of the Capitol, was erected. It is, in general, abont 400 feet square, and cost, with furnish- ings, in the neighborhood of $115,000. It is the largest public building in the State.

For some years the fairs have occupied about two weeks' time. At the last exhibition, Sep- tember 3 to 15, over $20,000 was awarded in preminms. The annual membership fee is 85, which entitles one to exhibit in the Pavilion and to compete for premiums, and also to a sea- son ticket of admission for himself, an accom- panying lady, and children under fifteen years of age.

The preisdent of the board this year is Chris- topher Green, of Sacramento; and the other resident members are: G. W. Hancock, Superin- tendent of the Park; H. M. La Rue, Superin- tendent of the Pavilion; and Frederick Cox. The secretary of the board is Edwin F. Smith, whose office is in the Pavilion.

A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.

In the year 1884, A. A. Krull, about two and a half miles northeast of Florin, executed a novel but brilliantly successful experiment in horticulture. Having several acres of " hard- pan " upon his place, he devised the plan of breaking it up with blasts of powder. Ein- ploying an expert, he bored holes in the ground, one for each tree, put down in each a pound of Huckley's No. 2 Giant Powder, and exploded it, with the result of giving to each tree a mnass of rich, loose, moist earth, not needing irriga-

tion. It is now as good as the best land for raising fruit. The cost was 827 per 100 charges. Occasionally a spot required a second charge. Other horticulturists are taking lessons. It seems that in time all the hard-pan in the country, now considered nearly worthless, may be made the best of land.

SACRAMENTO BOARD OF TRADE.

We are indebted to the kindness of Albert M. Johnson, Esq., Secretary of the board dur- ing the years 1885, 1886 and 1887, for the fol- lowing particulars:

Although this city ever since the admission of California into the Union had been the second in the commnonwealth in respect to commercial im- portance, no definite steps were taken until 1877 toward the organization of a business inen's association whose mission should be the im- provement of the city and the establishment of commercial intercourse between it and the sur- rounding country. At that time, however, the growth of the city seemed to render it impera- tively necessary to form such an organization. Accordingly, on the 24th of October, that year, a few of the leading merchants here held an in- formal meeting in the office of W. P. Coleman, one of the oldest business inen of Sacramento, and discussed the advisability of uniting them- selves into a commercial organization whose aim should be to supply the pressing needs referred to. Albert Gallatin was chairman of that meet- ing, which comprised Joseph Steffens, A. S. Hopkins, W. P. Coleman, Sparrow Smith, John McNeill, C. H. Hubbard, C. T. Wheeler and others. Preliminary steps were then taken. On the 21st of the next month a constitution and by-laws were adopted, and the officers elected December 11, 1877, for the first year were: Albert Gallatin, President; W. P. Coleman, Vice-President; H. G. Smith, Treasurer; C. T. Wheeler, A. S. Hopkins, Joseph Steffens, Wm. M. Lyons and James I. Felter, Directors.

Starting with a membership of abont twenty, the board has constantly increased in numerical strength, as follows: 1878, thirty-fonr; 1879,

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

thirty-five; 1880, forty-four; 1881, forty-nine; 1882, fifty-seven; 1883, fifty-nine; 1884-'87, sixty-two; 1888, sixty-five; 1889, about seventy. The only conditions of membership are signing the constitution and paying the monthly dues, it being the design of the founders to admit all persons and firms feeling an interest in the growth and welfare of the city. From the organ- ization to the present time the zeal and effi- ciency of the board have not flagged, and almost every improvement of the city and county owes its origin to their philanthropy and enter- prise.

In 1878 their exertions procured the estab- lishment of a branch State Prison near Folsom. About that time they also began to agitate the question of having a Government building in Sacramento, wherein should be the postoffice, revenue offices, the land office, etc. This was a difficult undertaking, but, despite the opposition of a few and the indifference of many, they con- tinued to memorialize their Senators and Rep- resentatives in Congress until they succeeded in having a bill passed making the necessary appropriation for such a purpose. Sufficient ground has been purchased on the north-east corner of Seventh and K streets-a central lo- cation-and the building will probably be coin- pleted within two years.

By the year 1879 the interests of its members had so increased that the board began to pay special attention to the matter of business fail- ures, attachments, etc. In the absence of a State insolvent act, the repeal by Congress of the United States bankrupt law had entailed severe losses upon the merchants of both Sac- ramento and San Francisco. The Boards of Trade of these cities therefore united their efforts to procure the passage of a State insolvent law. They also agreed during that year that all fail- ures thereafter affecting their membership should be managed in common, and that all the recov- eries therein effected through the instrumen- tality of either board should be divided pro rata among all the members interested in both boards. This agreement has been in force ever since,

and the operations of the two boards under it have been uniformly satisfactory.

The Legislature of 1880 was called upon by the merchants throughont the State to pass thie insolvent act prepared and recommended by the San Francisco and Sacramento Boards of Trade; and through the joint efforts of the two bodies the Legislature was prevailed upon to enact the law, which is yet upon the statute books and has since proved a great benefit, to debtors as well as creditors.

In 1882, realizing the insufficiency of the accommodations afforded by the State Agricult- nral Society in the building then used as a pavilion during the annual State fairs, the Sacra- mento Board of Trade inaugurated a movement for the procuring of a better building, to be erected by the State upon a part of the Capitol Park. The result was the erection of the State Exposition Building, the most beautiful and the largest public edifice in the State, described elsewhere under the head of "Agricultural In- terests."

About this time the State began to feel the influence of Eastern immigration that had been pouring in for a year or two, principally to Southern California, and measures began to be taken in the northern and central portions of the State to induce a part at least of that im- migration to "move up this way." In this enterprise the Sacramento Board of Trade took a leading part, and has ever since sustained that position. The movement has been effectual. Land has risen in some parts of Northern Cali- fornia to several times its former value, while population has almost doubled. In December, 1882, Hon. Joseph Steffens was elected presi- dent of the board, and filled the position so creditably, and gave snch universal satisfaction, that he has ever since been re-elected without opposition to that office. It was he who in- augurated, in pursuance of a long-forgotten by- law of the board, the custom of delivering an annual address which should not only give a summarized account of the work done by the association, but should also refer to many mat-

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ters of general interest in Sacramento and the surrounding territory. His addresses have been printed and widely circulated, and have aided very materially in attracting the attention of Eastern people to this community.

It is also dne to the untiring efforts of the Sacramento Board of Trade that appropriations were increased in 1885-'86 for the improvement of the rivers, and in the latter year the board saw that the money was properly expended. In September, at the expense of the Board of Trade, the California Senators and Representatives in Congress, accompanied by representatives from the commercial organizations of San Francisco, as well as by a delegation from the Board of Trade and the city authorities, ascended the Sacramento River in a steamer chartered for the purpose by the board, to view for themselves the devastation cansed by hydranlie mining. Since then more particular attention has been paid to the necessity of removing the obstruc- tions in the river and reclaiming the lands laid waste by mining débris.

In 1884-'85 the board favored the proposed State poor law which has since been enacted.

In 1885-'86 the approaching completion of the California & Oregon Railroad, connecting Sacramento directly by rail with Portland, Ore- gon, and the great Northwest, induced the board to memorialize Congress against the forteiture of the land that had been granted in aid of the enterprise. Their efforts were not unsuccessful, and it may be said that to this movement, as much as to anything else, Sacramento owes her railroad connection with that rapidly developing portion of the Union.

During this year the board began the investi gation of the much discussed city bond ques- tion, and by the appointment of committees and identifying itself generally with this compli- cated subject, has done as much perhaps as all other influences combined to put this vexed question in a fair way to a speedy and satisfac- tory settlement.

In this year also the board took up the Ne- vada State law exacting a heavy license from

representatives of California houses, which law had for years oppressed commercial travelers. Vigorous efforts had been made by wholesale merchants, both of Sacramento and San Fran- cisco, to have the law repealed; but not until the Sacramento Board of Trade took hold of the matter in earnest was any result accomplished. It co-operated with a few of the members of the San Francisco Board (that board, for some rea- son, having failed to lend its entire aid) in carry- ing up a case to test the constitutionality of the law, resulting in a complete victory for the wholesale. merchants. California commercial travelers operating in Nevada are now free from the payment of unnecessary license fees.

The members of the Sacramento Board of Trade were among the earliest to take measures for the holding of annual citrus fairs in the northern part of the State. The first fair of the kind was held in 1886, and since then they have been held regularly every year.

In March, 1888, the long-talked-of railroad from Sacramento to Placerville was completed, thus adding greatly to the material welfare of the city, as well as to that of Placerville and other points; and this enterprise was aided at all times by the influence of the Sacramento Board of Trade.

These are but a few of the good works that owe their conception to the Sacramento Board of Trade. They suffice to show, however, that in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the city the members of its Board of Trade have been the foremost workers.

This body meets annually in December, and at other times when called; but the details of the business are attended to by the Board of Directors, whose meetings are held on the sec- ond Tuesday of every month. Place of meet- ing, in the scoretary's office, over Wells, Fargo & Co.'s.

The present officers of the board are: IIon. Joseph Steffens, l'resident; P. E. Platt, Vice- President; G. G. Pickett, Secretary; Edwin K. Alsip, Treasurer; Directors-Josephi Steffens, P. E. Platt, Engene J. Gregory, Herman Fisher,

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William Ingram, Jr., D. A. Lindley, L. L. Lewis and A. S. Hopkins.

A "Business Men's Club" has also been re- cently formed for the purpose of entertaining visitors contemplating settlement upon the coast, and showing them the advantages of lo- cating in this vicinity.

THE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

of the city and county of Sacramento was or- ganized May 31, 1887, with abont 200 members, for the purpose of advancing the interests of Sacramento and vicinity, and to prevent private jobbery with public funds. W. P. Coleman has the credit of being the foremost man in this or- ganization. At the preliminary meeting held May 25 preceding, resolutions were passed protesting against large land holdings, and urging assess-

ments to be raised upon them. Committees were appointed upon every subject relating to the im- provement of the locality. Ordinances have been submitted by them, especially relating to the improvement of the streets and sidewalks. This association built and still maintains that beanti- ful permanent exposition building near the de- pot, for the exhibition of the products of Nortlı- ern and Central California, and J. C. Medley is employed to keep the hall open every day from 7 A. M. to 6 P. M., for the accommodation of vis- itors. The building, designed by N. D. Good- ell, is an octagon in form and of very attractive finish.

The present officers are: Hon. W. H. Beatty, President; Hon. F. R. Dray, Vice-President; C. H. Cummings, Treasurer, and C. W. Baker, Secretary.

HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

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CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

CHAPTER XVIII.

S introductory to this subject, it will be most convenient to notice here the epi- demics and indescribable suffering at the earliest period of the rush for gold, which led first to the establishment of private hospitals. Dr. Morse says:

"At this time Sacramento was a nuclens of attraction to the world. It was the great start- ing point to the vast and glittering gold fields of California, with the tales of which the whole universe became astonnded, and which men of every clime and nation sought to reach without a moment's reflection upon the cost or hazard of such an adventure. The only consideration upon the part of a hundred thousand gold- seekers who were preparing for emigration to California, was dispatch. Time wasted on pri- dential outfits, upon the acquirement of means beyond the passage fee to San Francisco, and peradventure a little spending money to dissi- pate the impatience of delay, was as well wasted in any other way. What were a few dollars that required months to accumulate in the At- lantic States, to the gold-gleaming ounces that California gave weekly as compensation for the simplest labor?

" All that men seemed to wish for was the ineans of setting foot upon California soil, and few were sufficiently provident in their calcu- lations to provide anything beyond the mere

landing at San Francisco. Out of the thon- sands who landed at the above place in the in- terval referred to, not one in a hundred arrived in the country with money enough to buy him a decent outfit for the mines. Such was the heedlessness with which people immigrated to this country during the incipient progress of the gold-seeking fever. In all parts of the world vessels of every size and condition were put up for the great El Dorado, and as soon as put up were filled to overflowing with men who had not the remotest conception of the terrible

sufferings they were to encounter. Along the entire coast of the American continent, in every prominent port of Europe, in nearly every mari- time point of Asia, and in nearly all the islands of the world, were men struggling with reck- less determination for the means of coming to California. The earnings of years were in- stantly appropriated, goods and chattels sold at ruinous sacrifices, homesteads mortgaged for loans obtained upon destructive rates of interest, and jewelry, keepsakes and pension fees pledged for the reimbursement of a beggarly steerage passage for thousands of miles to the town of San Francisco. These are facts with which the world is now familiar; and this being the man- ner in which people embarked for the Eureka State, it can be easily imagined how those landed who survived the untold and unuttera-

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ble sufferings endured from port to port. From the 1st of August, 1849, the deluging tides of immigration began to roll into the city of San Francisco their hundreds and thousands daily; not men made robust and hearty by a pleasant and comfortable sea voyage, but poor, miserable beings, so famished and filthy, so saturated with scorbutic diseases, or so depressed in spirits as to make them an easy prey of disease and death, where they had expected naught but health and fortune.

" Thus did mining adventurers pour into San Francisco, nine-tenths of whom for a few months immediately took passage to Sacramento. How- ever debilitated they might be, however penni- less and destitute, still this, the great focus of mining news, the nearest trading point for miners situated upon a navigable stream, was the only place that men could think of stopping for recuperative purposes. Hence, from Cape Horn, from all the Isthmus routes, from Asi- atic seaports, and from the islands of the Pacific, men in the most impoverished health were con- verging at Sacramento. But these were not the only resources of difficulty to Sacramento in 1849; for at the same time that the scurvy-rid- den subjects of the ocean began to concentrate among us, there was another more terrible train of scorbntic sufferers coming in from the over- land roads, so exhausted in strength and so worn out with the calamities of the journey as to be but barely able to reach this, the Valley City.

" From these sources, Sacramento became a perfect lazar house of disease, suffering and death, months before anything like an effective city government was organized. It must be recollected that in proportion as these scenes began to accumulate, men seemed to grow in- different to the appeals of suffering and to the dictates of benevolence. The more urgent and importunate the cries and beseeching miseries of the sick and destitute, the more obdurate, despotic and terrible became the reign of enpid- ity. Everything seemed vocal with the assur- ance that inen came to California to make money, not to devote themselves to a useless waste of

time in procuring bread and raiment for the de- pendent, in watching over and taking care of the sick, or in the burying of the dead. The common god (gold) of that day taught no such feminine virtues, and the king of the country, Cupidity, declared it worse than idle in his sub- jects to pay attention to the ties of consanguin- ity, or stultify their minds with any consider- ations of affection or appreciation of human sympathies. Fathers paid little attention to sons, and sons abandoned fathers when they re- quired a little troublesome care. Brothers were fraternally bound to each other as long as each was equally independent of all assistance. But when sickness assailed and men became depend- ents npon men, then it was that the channels of benevolence were found to be dry, and the very fountains of human sympathy sealed by the most impenetrable selfishness.

" IIad this not been the condition, such scenes as were then witnessed could not have been ex- hibited. If men had not allowed themselves to become the temporary vassals of cupidity, an old gray-headed father, nearly famished by a tedious Cape Horn voyage, and landing upon our levee in the last stage of a disorganizing scurvy, could never have been abandoned by a son and other relatives who were dependent upon him for the means of coming to the country. And yet such an old man was left alone upon the unfrequented banks of the slough, to await the coming of the only friends that could give him relief-death and the grave! The grave he was not sure of, but death was certa'n, and soon realized.

" In the month of July, 1849, these subjects of distress and the appeals of misery became so common that men could not escape them; and if there had been the utmost attention paid to the exercise of charity and protection, it would have been impossible to have met the demands of the destitute, sick and dying as a commen- surate sympathy would have dictated. Such was the difficulty with which facilities for the care of the sick could be procured, that even the few who had money could not purchase those

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comforts which even the poorest in the Atlantic States can always enjoy. Dr. Craigan's hospi- tal at the Fort was the most comfortable place, but such were the necessary demands for board- ing and nursing that men could not avail them- selves of such care. Soon after the establish- ment of this hospital, Drs. Deal and Martin opened another hospital in one of the bastions of the old Fort. This led to a reduction of the cost of hospital board and attendance, but still it was too dear a comfort to be purchased by more than one in five of the accumulating in- valids of the town. The sick of the city were in consequence thrown upon the exclusive at- tention of a society which had become so mam- mon-ridden as to be alinost insensible to the voice of want. Not only were the victims of scurvy evolving a general distress, but also those who supposed themselves acclimated were be- ginning to feel the sweeping miasmatic fevers which were peculiarly severe during this first season.

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Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 916

Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 916