USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 23
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P. L. Shoaff purchased the interest of Mans- field, and in 1855 C. A. Hutchinson bought P. L. Shoaff's interest. On the 28th of June, 1854, the firm name was changed to H. C. Patrick & Co., and under the management of these gentlemen it was prosperons, until the stand was taken by it against the Vigilance Committee (in 1856) so determined and persistent that in one week's time nearly all the merchants of Stockton withdrew their subscription and adver- tising patronage. It never recovered from the shock.
After the death of Mansfield the editorial chair was filled successively by A. C. Bradford, A. C. Bain and A. C. Russell, the former as- sumiug his duties September 4, 1854. January 3, 1855, the paper was reduced to a twenty-four- column sheet. In 1856 C. A. Hutchinson with- drew from the firm. January 7, 1857, the firm name of J. M. Conley & Co. was assumed, and early in that year Kennedy withdrew, and in December 24, of the same year it became Con- ley & Patrick.
In 1858 A. C. Russell withdrew from the
editorial department, and assumed that position with the Statesman at Sacramento. After this the paper remained without a regular editor until the spring of 1862, when Beriah Brown took the helm and attempted to steer the already sinking craft through the storm and strife evoked by the civil war in this country. The effort was a failure, and the last gun was fired from the shattered wreck in Stockton, Decemn- ber 13, 1862. The office was moved to Sacra- mento, but the fiat had gone forth. It struggled out a brief existence, being at one time mobbed because of its disloyal sentiments, and finally disappeared beneath the wave. The wreck was raised in December, 1869, and again Mr. Pat- rick, with J. M. Bassett for editor, commenced its issue in Stockton, and for three years pub- lished a commendable paper; but it was doomed to disaster and was finally abandoned. Thus ended the Republican offspring of the Times- the pioneer paper of the great San Joaquin valley. The type and material of the office, in April, 1874, became the property of Mrs. Laura De- Force Gordon, who purchased it to be used in the printing of the Daily Leader.
THE STOCKTON JOURNAL.
Within three months after the establishment of the Times, namely, on June 22, 1850, John S. Robb, a native of Philadelphia and at one time connected with the St. Louis Reveille, is- sued the first copy of the Stockton Journal, under unfavorable circumstances; but its com- ing was hailed with pleasure by the people, even by a public demonstration.
He started the paper in a three-story frame building on Main street which he had erected. This was burned May 6, 1851, but the press was saved, taken to a small building on Main street, where was published a small editiou just prior to the sailing of ocean steamners. From the first it became the leading organ, although it, as well as the Times, took no sides in politics. Mr. Robb was absent much of the time, being a lobbyist at the Legislature in Sacramento. In his absence John Tabor conducted the office,
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being both compositor and editor. For a short time Sainnel Knight was a silent partner. In 1852 Mr. Tabor became editor and proprietor, enlarged the paper to twenty-four columnns, started a daily publication and commenced ad- vocating the principles of the Whig party, opening a fierce war upon misrule and the lax manner in which the laws were executed in Stockton. He was a fluent writer, and had he been an educated man would have exerted an extended influence. Thus he gained many warm friends from the better class of citizens, and of course became the target for abuse and personal violence from the roughs. At one time he was visited by the district attorney, whom he had censured severely for a failure to properly prose- cute some criminal. The attorney asked him if he wrote the offensive article. Tabor replied that he did; whereupon the attorney drew a re- volver and whip and commenced chastising him. Mr. B. Gallup, being present and thinking that there should be fair play, placed a conple of derringers within Tabor's reach, on a stool. Tabor seized the weapons, Mr. Gallup retreated into the street, and directly Tabor fired two shots and also ran out into the street. The at- torney on reaching the sidewalk found no editor in sight, but, seeing Mr. Gallup in the street, was about to assault him when he was prevented by mutnal friends.
Soon after this occurrence a number of gam- blers left Stockton, when Mr. Tabor took occa- sion to say in his paper that " if Stockton would take an emetic and spew out the balance of tliat fraternity it would be a Godsend to the moral health of the city;" whereupon one of the ronghs went to Mr. Tabor's office, and, finding that gentleman unarmed, proceeded to beat him over the head with a revolver until he was nearly unconscious. After this Mr. Tabor always went armed, and was ever on the alert watching for expected assaults.
June 22, 1854, J. Mansfield, one of the pro- prietors of the Republican, and Mr. Tabor met on the street at the corner of Center and Levee, some words passed between them, and Mans-
field raised his arın and was in the act of shak- ing his fist (or open hand according to one of the witnesses), when Tabor fired, lodging a ball fatally in Mansfield's heart. The Journal was never issued again. It had on the 19th of January previous to this passed into the hands of B. W. Owens & Co., Mr. Tabor remaining as editor. When he was thrown into prison for his crime, the Journal was absorbed by the Daily Argus, edited by William Biven.
Tabor was legally condemned to death, and only one hour before the time arrived for him to pay the penalty of his crime, General E. Cana- van, whose every look and act was eloquent with intense emotion, entered the cell with a paper in his hand, which was the Governor's pardon. This, not being expected by the convicted man, actually so excited him that he for a time could scarcely realize that he was permitted to live. After his discharge from prison he was em- ployed on the Evening News in San Francisco, conducted by the Bartlett Brothers, until he went to Nicaragua, during the period of " Fili- buster " Walker's rule there, and took charge of the paper known as the Nicaraguazee. He was also engaged in several battles fought under Walker's regime and received some severe wounds. Afterward he went to New Orleans, and during the last war he was engaged in tlie business of smuggling cotton through the lines of the Union army, making his headquarters at Brownsville, Texas, in this business. He is said to have made a quarter of a million dol- lars there, and finally died a panper at Mem- phis, Tennessee.
A few years after the Stockton tragedy, the body of Mansfield was exhumed, and found to have become petrified, with the exception of tlie right hand and left foot.
THE STOCKTON EVENING POST
was started in the spring of 1854, by William Biven as editor and proprietor, and it advo- cated the Broderick wing of the Democratic party. It was published on Center street near the levee and continued until the killing of
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Mansfield, when Biven and Henry A. Crabb purchased the Journal material and removed both offices to the two-story brick building on the site of a former Journal office.
STOCKTON DAILY ARGUS AND WEEKLY DEMOCRAT.
This paper was the result of a change in the name of the Daily Evening Post, that had been published about one year, and was owned by Wm. Biven; the first issue with the new name being June 7, 1854. It was a twenty- eight-column daily, and was owned by an asso- ciation of parties, among whom was H. A. Crabb, who was killed at the massacre of Cavorca in 1857. Crabb and Biven were the editors, and had the management of affairs. Mr. Crabb remained with it but a short time, and it fell into the hands of Mr. Biven. It was a Whig paper for about one year, when it became the American or Know-nothing organ for this section of the country, and. as such assumed a prominence more than simply that of a local paper.
In 1856 the Argus took a decided stand in favor of the Vigilance Committees of California; moving in the line that had been foreshadowed by the unfortunate Tabor. The fierce war of aroused passions and the outpourings of bitter- ness that were brought forth in that short cam- paign of the citizens against the murderers and the thieves of California will never be forgotten until the sod shall rest over the last participant.
December 6, 1857, Rasey Biven, who had re- cently been a prisoner in Guaymas, Mexico, returned to Stockton, and started a weekly twenty-eight-column paper, Democratic in pol- itics, and an ably edited sheet, called the Weekly Democrat; but he did not own the material of the office; and so found himself afloat before he had fairly started. August 15, 1858, we find Rasey's brother Willian assuming the proprie- torship and editorial chair, and, changing its political front, inustered it into the Donglas army. Rasey Biven stated in his valedictory that his subscription list had reached 1,400, and that the paper was financially upon a firm basis. 11
From this time until September 20, 1862, when it was suppressed by Government order, the Weekly Democrat remained the only weekly issned from the Argus office. In 1858, when the split in the Democratic party occurred, the Argus became a strong supporter of the Douglas wing; and had it followed the advice of its great leader, given in his last speech at Chicago, in which he called upon his followers and coun- trymen to stand by the Union, it would have continued to be the leading paper of this valley; but the opposite course was taken, and in Feb- rnary, 1862, the services of A. C. Russell were secured in the editorial department, and it came ont as a violent opponent of the administration and war. It liurled its anathemas against the Government, as it had formerly done against thieves and murderers, until by an order eman- ating from the Secretary of War it was sup- pressed in September following, and was never afterward resumed.
Mr. William Biven continued in the printing business after this for several years, and finally, July 3, 1865, began the publication of the
.
DAILY EVENING HERALD,
a paper of twenty columns. In the first issue he declared himself in favor of the Monroe doctrine and opposed to negro suffrage, con- sidered the Republican and Democratic parties alike dead, and proposed to wait until new issues should be presented. April 19, 1869, the paper was enlarged to twenty-four columns. Septem- ber 13, that year, he purchased of D. W. Gel- wick the Daily and Weekly Gazette, suppressing the Daily Gazette and Weekly Herald. After that he published the Daily Evening Herald and the Weekly Gazette until January, 1875, when the latter name was finally abandoned and that of the Herald properly assumed for the weekly edition. January 15, 1870, fonr more columns were added to the daily, making it a twenty-eight-column paper; but some time be- tween January 1 and July 1, 1872, these four colminns were dropped, and the price of the
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
paper reduced to $6 a year. October 17 it was again raised to $10 a year, but all this time it was not a paying institution.
In the issue of November 13 appeared the new firm of Glenn, Stevenson & Co., as pro- prietors, consisting of William N. Glenn, R. W. Stevenson and William Biven, the latter withdrawing from active connection with the paper, he having entered into other business for a time, and sold to each of the parties named a one-third interest. Both of the gentlemen buy- ing in had been attaches of the office; Mr. Glenn for six years. Mr. Stevenson took the business department, having had some experi- ence in that line. February 17, 1873, exit Glenn, Stevenson & Co., and William Biven appears npon the stage again, becoming the arbiter of the Herald's destiny for three years, until January 2, 1875, when presto! the scene shifts,-and appears the Daily Evening Herald as a thirty-two column, and the Weekly Herald as a forty-eight column paper, published by the Daily and Weekly Herald Publishing Company, with the following gentlemen for directors; J. S. Davis, J. A. Morrissey, Charles llaas, Joseph Cole, L. B. Walthall, P. D. Wigginton, William Biven, T. E. Ketchum and J. R. W. Hitchcock, and William Biven as managing agent.
May 9, 1875, the body of Mr. Biven was found on North street, near the railroad, in Stockton. He had evidently been thrown from a horse and killed. Thus closed the eventful career of one of Stockton's journalists, who had for twenty-two years navigated the changing currents of public sentiment, sailing more fre- qnently against than with the tide.
June 8, A. C. Beritzhoff became managing agent, and July 10, H. S. Spalding & Co. be- came its proprietors, the members of this firm being H. S. Spalding, W. G. Atkins, W. T. Compton, Fred. Biven and W. S. Johnson.
August 30, Fred. Biven purchased the prop- erty and assumed proprietorship. One of the first things he did was to reduce its size from thirty-two columns to twenty-eight. He then secured the services of A. C. Russell as editor,
and trimmed his sails in the direction of Democracy.
The paper had become seriously embarrassed. It had not fully identified itself with any party, and in shifting from issue to issue, håd often got on the unpopular side, until it was unques- tionably on the decline. Fred. Biven changed the face of inatters a little, but remained with it too short a time to make the change felt, when he sold to B. T. K. Preston and J. V. Bell, who began their supervision of the storm- beaten ship January 17, 1876, and sailed her on to glory and success. In 1883 we find Preston & Ruggles the publishers, who changed it to a morning paper, and shortly afterward it was discontinued, the Evening Mail taking its place.
THE STOCKTON GAZETTE
was a daily and weekly, the daily being first issued August 19, 1867, as a morning paper. It was a Democratic sheet, and was started when that party was weak in the county; and though the horizon did not present a cloudless sky, yet a company of practical printers ven- tured to try their fortune, and the result was a twenty-column daily that lasted until Septem- ber, 1869.
It was under the business management, in the start, of C. M. Harrison and C. G. Miller. The first editor was C. D. Campbell, who was soon superseded by J. W. Leigh. Some time in 1867 P. L. Shoaff purchased Mr. Miller's interest, and the firm name became Shoaff & Harrison; and under the management of these gentlemen and the editorial charge of J. W. Leigh, the paper seemed to prosper,-at least a readable one was issued.
On the 1st of August, 1868, Harrison sold to Shoaff, and that gentleman became the sole publisher; but the party could not support two Democratic papers. The Herald was a form- idable rival within its own party limits, althonglı this paper was not very pronounced in its views. The concern became involved, and De- cember 5, 1868, Mr. Shoaff's name last appears in connection with the paper. For ten days the
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ship was without a captain, when D. W. Gel- wick, after purchasing the concern, assumed the position nominally of publisher, and A. C. Rus- sell became the editor. Mr. Gelwick was at that time State Printer, and was forced to com- init its business management to "the winds " practically, there being no head in reality. The result was that though (from a partial perusal of its old files) we see it was ably edited, yet it was forced to succumb to the march of human events, and in September, 1869, it was absorbed by the Evening Herald, and the daily edition abandoned finally.
The weekly was continued by its old name in connection with the Daily Evening Herald until December 12, 1874, when Mr. Biven sold the establishment to a stock company, and the new company abandoned the old name of Gazette, and attached that of the Herald to their weekly edition.
THE DAILY MORNING COURIER
was started as the " Dolly Varden " organ, and as such was a lively sheet. Its proprietors had no capital, and the party was a failure. Consequent- ly the paper was driven to the wall before it was fairly on its legs. The proprietors, the "Courier Publishing Company," issued the first number August 14, 1873, with L. F. Beckwith as editor, W. H. Robinson as local editor and W. D. Root as manager. It was the first paper in the State outside of San Francisco to issue a Sunday edition. September 12 it was enlarged to a twenty-four column paper. On the 29th Beckwith & Root retired, and James F. Meagher assumed the management. He announced that tlie policy of the paper would be to advocate railroads in this county within prescribed lim- its; but the employés mutinied October 1, seized and scuttled the craft and it went forever under.
THE NARROW GAUGE.
In June, 1873, William N. Glenn rented the printing material of the defunct San Francisco Republican and began in Stockton the pub-
lication of a semi-weekly called the Narrow Gauge, endeavoring to make headway from the enthusiasm of the people concerning narrow-gauge railways at that time, and also by employing, in November following, Mrs. Laura De Force Gordon to edit a woman's department. She had then but recently taken up her residence in this county at Mokelumne, now Lodi. But for the want of substantial nutriment, this paper of laudable ambition also starved to death while an infant. Mr. Glenn is now a superintendent at the great Pacific Press publishing house at Oakland, a Seventh-Day Adventist institution.
THE STOCKTON LEADER.
At this time the printing material of the Stocktonian-the wreck of another newspaper launch-was sold under an execution for debt. Mrs. Gordon purchased it and on September 22, 1873, issued the first number of the Stockton Weekly Leader, a semi-literary newspaper, which met with such favor by the public as to encourage the proprietor to venture upon the precarious experiment of publishing a daily paper .. The old San Joaquin Republican news- paper and job printing office being still in the market awaiting a purchaser, Mrs. Gordon bought that also in April, 1874, and on the first of the next month issued the first number of the Daily Leader, Democratic in politics. The paper was conducted with ability and called forthi favorable notices from the press of the State, and received a liberal share of local pat- ronage. This enterprise had the novelty of being the first of the kind undertaken by a lady. Indeed, at that time it was the only daily news- paper in the world edited by a woman. The success of the Democratic party in the election of the State ticket in the summer of 1875 in- duced Mrs. Gordon to remove her printing office to Sacramento, where she sold it. The publication of the Leader was continued for a time and then discontinued. Mrs. Gordon was then and still is a practicing attorney at law and an advocate of woman suffrage.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
SMALLER CONCERNS.
Among the transient sheets that for a brief time made their appearance was The Sunday Morn- ing News, by Berdine & Root, a twenty-four- column sensational sheet that was started Au- gust 3, 1873, and ran profitably for about one year, when it became so personal, and the feel- ing engendered against it was so strong, that it was suspended by the publishers.
In January, 1874, the Sunday San Joaquin Valley Times, a sixteen-column paper, was started by Severy & Detten.
In May, 1873, The Temperance Champion made its appearance as the organ of the Cham- pions of the Red Cross, and ably edited by Rev. C. V. Anthony. It was an eight-page monthly with four columns on each page, published by D. H. Berdine, and was sold to a San Francisco firm, after running some nine months, to be published at Champion headquarters.
The Stockton Advertiser was started May 26, 1877. It was a small sixteen-column weekly and was a Republican campaign paper. It was once enlarged, and finally suspended, February 16, 1878.
The Workingman was a twenty-four-column paper, first issued in April, 1878, and lasted two months.
The Pacific Observer is the only religious paper ever published in Stockton. It was the organ of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In November, 1868, it was published on Sutter street, having been removed to this city from Alamo. The patronage was poor, and it was at length moved to greener pastures.
D. H. Berdine & Co. (V. W. Beecroft), at the old stand, 350 Sutter street, published for a time the Stockton Press and Lathrop Junction, and afterward the West Coast. During the spring of 1889 the office and material were sold to two young printers-Karl I. and Goethe G. Fanst, who, August 31, following, revived the West Coast, as an eight-page quarto weekly, is- sued on Saturday, with their father, G. L. Faust, a lawyer recently from Iowa and Dakota, as editor; but the enterprise died in November following.
The College Exponent, a monthly devoted to the interests of the Stockton Business College, was commenced in April, 1889, by K. I. Faust.
There have been a number of other periodi- cals whose lives were so brief, and which passed into oblivion so completely that we can get no data from which to record any special fact re- garding them.
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
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STOCKTON CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES.
1
CHAPTER XII.
S will be seen on these pages, the first re- ligious service of a Christian character ever held in this county was in 1848, by a Catholic priest. Whether he preached a sermon or not, is not known; he may have merely said
mass. The first Protestant sermons here were by Presbyterian ministers, although the Method- ists are generally first on pioneer ground. This time they were next after the Presbyterians.
These events, which were the first of a series continuing until the present time, and possibly for ages in the future, seemed to the actors at the time very insignificant and unimportant; but nevertheless, to us who have a remarkable history of the subsequent events with which to compare them, they are a constant source of pleasurable reflections.
St. Mary's Church, Catholic .- The first pub- lic Christian service held in San Joaquin County, was conducted by Father Francis S. Vilarassa, an eminent Dominican, in 1848, at the residence of Captain Weber. Two years afterward the first Catholic church building in the county was erected, at a cost of $25,000. The corner-stone of the present edifice was laid in 1861, and the building mostly erected in 1868, at a cost of $30,000. Since the time of Father Vilarassa, the pastors have been: Revs. Blaiye, Dr. Maurice, Joseph A. Gallaglier, James Motter and W. B. O'Connor. The last- mentioned lias been here a long term of years. The parish now numbers 2,900. The church
building is located on the north side of Wash- ington street, between Hunter and San Joaquin. The Catholic schools are mentioned under the head of schools elsewhere; and the Young Men's Institutes under head of societies.
First Presbyterian Church .- The first Prot- estant sermon ever preached in San Joaquin valley was by Rev. James C. Damon, on Sun- day, July 1, 1849. This minister, a Presby- terian, was the seamen's chaplain, stationed at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, who, visiting California that year, reached Stockton in his travels and preached from the deck of a store- ship, taking as his text Gal. vi., 7, 8: “ Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."
We have no account as to the second relig- ions meeting here among the Protestants; but the third was conducted by Rev. James Woods, also a Presbyterian minister, at the cloth house of an old Methodist resident. On the front of this building was the sign, " A Temperance Store." Characteristic of the times, while Mr. Woods was preaching in one of the rooms, a blacksmith was shoeing a horse in the adjoin- ing room, there being only a cloth partition between the apartments. The building belonged to Captain Atwood.
The following Sunday a more commodious place was secured; and to provide seats for the congregation, half-barrels yet full of whisky were set on end, and boards placed on top of
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
them. At that time Mr. Woods, with a wife and three children, were obliged to reside tem- porarily at Chapman's Hotel, which, though the principal one in the town, was a rough place, having gaming tables on the first floor, where drinking and carousing and the firing of dcadly weapons were the daily programmne.
For a house of worship in Stockton he went to San Francisco and purchased a building that had been framed for a warehouse, had it ship- ped to Stockton and put up, on the east side of San Joaquin street, between Maine and Market. He dedicated it on the first Sunday in May (5th day of the month), preaching a sermon on the text, "What is Truth?" from John xviii, 38. This sermon was published in the Inde- pendent after his death. The house of worship was a neat building, of good exterior, well fur- nished, and was the first Presbyterian church building in California, and the second on the coast.
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