USA > California > California gold book : first nugget, its discovery and discoverers, and some of the results proceeding therefrom > Part 13
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The work of improving the Oakland harbor has progressed finely during the past year under the super- vision of the United States engineers. The work of the tidal canal has progressed slowly, for the reason that much time was spent in dredging the estuary. An effort will be made by the citizens of Oakland to have the next Congress appropriate a sum sufficient to com- plete the improvement. Contracts have been let by a number of private citizens for the building of wharves along the water front, an improvement which has long been needed.
An important improvement now in progress is the construction of the boulevard around Lake Merritt. The people by a popular vote defeated a proposition to bond the city for $400,000 for a boulevard. The city council, however, decided to go ahead with the work that had been commenced, and has made an appropria- tion of $100,000 for the same. The boulevard will be paid for by a direct tax. Lake Merritt will be dredged and the boulevard will cut across the southeast corner of it, and thence northeasterly around the lake.
San Francisco in 1848.
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AN FRANCISCO CITY and county would fur- nish material for the most exciting history ever written. Its size and importance, compared with its age in years, is superior to that of any other city on the globe. Its progress has been identified with that of every other section of the State, and it is the pride of Californians, from San Diego to Del Norte, that they have helped to build it, and it is their metropolis.
The belief in the careful supervision of an overruling Providence, producing events and discoveries exactly when His subjects are prepared to utilize them, re- ceives strong support from the history of the discovery of the entrance to the greatest and safest harbor in the world-the finding of the Golden Gate. To modern mariners the entrance to the magnificent bay of San Francisco is so capacious and well defined, and gives such unmistakable evidence of something of inesti- mable value beyond, to reward the greedy adventurer, that it is inexplicable to them how any one, sailing up or down the coast, could fail to have been attracted to it. History affirms that three different navigators of note passed Golden Gate unnoticed as far back as the sixteenth century. Sir Francis Drake was on the coast in July, 1579, and remained long enough to give his name to a small body of water on the Marin county coast. Vizcaino was on the coast in 1596, and again in 1602, and on the latter voyage discovered San Diego harbor, and the bay of Monterey, but saw nothing of the larger and more desirable bay of San Francisco. His last expedition had been fitted out by Count Monterey, and was intended as one of exploration, and to find and lay claim to everything valuable along the whole coast.
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Still the bay of San Francisco remained undiscovered, in spite of the fact that Drake had spread glowing accounts of California and its wealth of gold and pearls. In Spain, dozens of small expeditions, whose object was to come here, failed utterly. Spain and England were both jealous of any territory that the other might acquire, but Spain did much more to become established in the new El Dorado than any other country. The discovery was finally accomplished by accident. The "beautiful bay" of Monterey had been carefully described by Vizcaino as he had seen it more than 150 years before, and the mission fathers were bent on utilizing it. To that end an expedition was sent from San Diego in 1779 by land, to more thoroughly explore it, and discover all its advantages. Supplied with a fairly correct description, the expedition passed Mon- terey bay without recognizing it, and journeyed on to the hills over-looking the magnificent land-locked bay of San Francisco. For a time they were certain this was the bay of Monterey, but more thorough examina- tion convinced them that it was not, and that they had found a valuable harbor hitherto undiscovered. A patron saint, Francis, was supposed to have led them there, and it was therefore called San Francisco bay. The discoverers returned to San Diego and reported their find. Singularly the mission of San Francisco was not founded until six years later. June 27, 1776, the missionaries with their paraphernalia started for San Francisco by land, and settled upon the northern extremity of the peninsula that forms the present county, establishing their presidio about where the Government army headquarters is to-day. A vessel laden with goods, cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and every-
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thing thought to be necessary, was started for the new mission by water, but did not land until August 18th following. September 17th solemn possession was taken of the presidio amid imposing ceremonies. The harbor was explored, and it was found that it had only one opening to the Pacific. The mission was taken possession of formally in November, "when the want of an organ was supplied by discharging the muskets, and the lack of incense was atoned for by the smell of burnt powder," says a historian of the time. The mis- sion was not established at the presidio, but further south, upon Mission creek, not far within the limits of the city of San Francisco, in that part still known as the Mission. It was not around these mission build- ings that Yerba Buena, or San Francisco was built, but rather between the mission and the presidio, at the little cove of Yerba Buena, opposite Yerba Buena island, known now as Goat island. The name Yerba Buena, signifying "good herb," was given for a small shrub which flourished abundantly all over the peninsula and the bay islands.
Before 1835 the village of Yerba Buena was not in existence. The Mexican government had decided to build a little town on the site near the little cove some time before anything was done. General Figueroa, then governor, forbade any grants within a limit of 200 varas (about 185 yards) of the shore line, as he wished to hold the land for government purposes. Figueroa died before anything was done, and matters became mixed up. In 1835 Captain W. A. Richardson was appointed first harbor master of San Francisco, or Yerba Buena at that time. The house was really a 'ent, made of a ship's foresail stretched upon four
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upright posts. Ships from various parts of the world had come frequently to the bay before the house was built.
May, 1836, another citizen came to Yerba Buena to start a business in the little town. It was Jacob Primer Leese, and he decided that a location near the cove was the best to be had. The order of General Fig- ueroa stood in his way, so he was obliged to go to Monterey and have Governor Don Mariano Chico direct that he be given his choice of locations. Leese took lumber back to Yerba Buena with him, and erected the second house in San Francisco near the corner of Clay and Dupont streets. The house was finished on the morning of July 4th. It was the first glorious Fourth in San Francisco, and Mr. Leese and Captain Richardson prepared for a grand celebration and housewarming. Several ships in the harbor loaned all their colored bunting, and with an American and Mexican flag, its decorations were very gay. Captain Richardson had invited everybody for miles around, an orchestra had been procured and some small cannon were borrowed from the presidio. Guests began to assemble in the afternoon, and sixty were soon in attendance. Many Sonoma people and all grandees of the Mexican and Mission governments who could get there came. Small tents were erected to provide comfort. Dinner was served at 5o'clock, and then patriotic toasts were indulged in by everybody. After dinner a dance was held, and the fun was kept up at great length. Mr. Leese says : "Our Fourth ended on the evening of the 5th. "
In a few days Leese landed his large stock of goods, and his guests were heavy purchasers. Leese married
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a sister of General Vallejo very soon, and on April 15, 1838, Rosalie Leese, the first child born in San Francisco, blessed the union. That year Leese put two more buildings up ; and the little town began to get started. In 1839 the village was surveyed. The limits were from Pacific street to Sacramento street one way, and from Dupont to Montgomery the other.
Up to 1844 Yerba Buena was a mere village of a dozen houses, and about fifty permanent residents. Up to 1811 its history is simply a record of the transac- tions of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. This com- pany disposed of its interests in 1846 and moved away. By that year, in the summer, there were about two hundred people in the town and perhaps fifty houses had been erected. The growth of the place was very rapid after that period. By April of next year seventy- nine houses clustered about the cove. In five months of that year seventy-eight new edifices went up. Many of the houses were adobe, but some were mere shanties. The population had increased to five hundred.
At this time the alcalde of the place, Washington A. Bartlett, decided that the name Yerba Buena was hardly befitting for so pretentious a village, and he therefore styled the town San Francisco, and had an ordinance printed so fixing it. A newspaper published in the town, called the California Star, San Francisco's first journalistic venture, published a list of the inhabitants, in 1847. There were representatives from the United States, California, Mexico, Canada, Chile, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Switz- erland, Denmark, Malta, New Holland, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, the West Indies and
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the Hawaiian islands. Many of the foreigners were latterly from different parts of the United States.
The gold rush of 1848 soon brought a large and excited population to San Francisco. Lots had been sold in the town the year before, when the first water- front properties were disposed of. In the town fifty vara lots were sold for $12 apiece. In the spring of 1848 the first intelligence of gold discoveries reached San Francisco. Later a few miners came in and gold specimens arrived. People began to leave, singly and in crowds. Labor rose rapidly in value, business places were deserted, sailors left their ships, and everybody went wild. In the month of May one hundred and fifty people left San Francisco, and numbers departed daily. They all left everything behind in their hurry, and lost much of their property. By June the two papers that were being published in San Francisco were suspended because everyone connected with them-proprietors, editors and printers-had skipped ont to the mines. Some of the many times millionaires of San Francisco then made their vast fortunes sure by becoming pos- sessed of all the real estate they could carry.
In August, 1848, news was received of the end of the war with Mexico, and a grand celebration was held. Property began to be of great value, and lots jumped to big figures. While numbers of people went off to the mines hundreds of newcomers arrived. All who wished could get work, and wages ranged from $10 to $30 a day. The State's whole population began to flock to San Francisco for supplies, and everything was needed. There were no accommodations for them, so that houses had to be hastily constructed.
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Lots went up to higher prices, buildings were started every day, and tents dotted the hillsides all over San Francisco's present site; everybody made money and was growing rich. Gambling saloons started every- where-the whole country was afire with excitement. Thousands kept pouring in, the mines increased in wealth, and their gold came to San Francisco for more supplies. By the beginning of 1849 there were 2,000 people in San Francisco.
From this time on the history of San Francisco grew so fast that the transactions of any year would have furnished material for a large history. The sand dunes and sage brush disappeared rapidly. Grand improvements rushed on apace. There is no counter- part of the rapid growth of San Francisco except in marvelous Chicago, which began its forward move- ment almost to a day with the first receipt of gold. from California.
Business ventures were conducted on a grand scale, and movements for the moral and intellectual better- ment of citizens were equally pronounced. Schools and churches were established, and in several instances the houses of worship were constructed in the East, and sent around Cape Horn in the holds of sailing ves- sels. The business man had to have his morning paper with his breakfast, and the churchman perused with avidity the news supplied by his church organ. San Francisco had shaken off the censurable debris of min- ing communities, and adopted the healthy charms of cultured centers of Christian civilization.
As vast numbers of energetic men had come to San Francisco from south of the Ohio river, it is not sur- prising that their sympathies were with the people of
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the seceding States after the fall of Sumter, nor that they hoped and believed that California might be added to the Southern Confederacy, of whose success- ful establishment very many of them never entertained a doubt. Their strength in numbers was so considerable that the loyal majority entertained grave misgivings as to the result should the conflict of arms be precipi- tated upon California. When the war was well under way, Governor John G. Downey, promoted to the position by the election of Governor Milton G. Latham to the United States Senate, had been elected lieuten- ant governor by Democratic votes, but was patriot- ically loyal to the Constitution of the United States. He authorized the enlistment of six regiments to be mustered into the service of the United States, and which number completely filled the quota of California under the calls of the President of the United States up to this time. These men relieved the regular sol- diers still on duty on the Pacific coast and were as- signed to active duty wherever soldiers were in demand in California, Arizona and New Mexico. The action of Governor Downey gave joy and encouragement to the loyal men of San Francisco, who hastened to enroll in the California contingent.
But there were a great number of the patriotic young men of San Francisco who were determined to participate in the stirring events transpiring in Vir- ginia. As the Government seemed unlikely to order any of the forces organized in California to the Atlan- tic States, the historical California Hundred was formed. Captain J. Sewell Reed, a native of Massa- chusetts, conceived the idea of this immortal band, which was selected from several hundred young men
Welcoming G. A R., Golden Gate Park.
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who offered, and who were not only expert horsemen, and accustomed to the use of fire-arms, but were all able to bear their own expenses to the seat of active hostilities. They were mustered into the United States' service by Colonel Ringgold, of the regular army. They represented by birth nearly every Northern State. When organized they were reviewed by the mayor of San Francisco, attended by the principal business men and citizens, and went to Starr King's Church in a body, where he consecrated them to the service of the country in as eloquent an address as he ever delivered.
As evidence of the earnest loyalty of all classes at that time, and their anxiety to be identified with the glorious cause of the Union, one incident is mentioned. Places where a company could practice, drill and become accustomed to military discipline were not as common then as now in San Francisco. There were no National Guard Barracks. David Fitzgibbon, a native of Ireland, long resident in San Francisco, was the lessee at a high rental of " Assembly Hall," located at the corner of Post and Kearney, where the " White House " emporium now is. His place was exactly adapted to the requirements of the men, the lower floor for a drill room, and the upper floors for sleeping quarters. He hunted up Captain Reed, and tendered its free use to his company. It was gladly accepted, and became the home of this gallant band until its departure by steamer for New York, and there their friends gave them their parting blessings.
Four more full companies organized immediately, and followed under command of Major C. Crownin- shield. The California Hundred were first assigned to duty as Company A, Second Massachusetts Cavalry.
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Captain Reed was killed while at the head of his eom- mand in a charge at Drainesville, Virginia, February 22, 1864, and how these five hundred Californians shared in the severest campaigns in Virginia is evidenced by the fact that only one hundred and eighty-three were mus. tered out at the close of the war, and a great number of these held rank as commissioned officers. Very many of them are among the most successful business men in San Francisco to-day, and all are specially honored. Col. C. Mason Kinne, the assistant secretary of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Com- pany, the pioneer company in San Francisco, was one of the members of the California Hundred.
When San Francisco began to put on the airs becoming a metropolis, there were several reasons why abodes and business houses displayed no great archi- tectural beauty, nor any special magnificence in pro- portions. Lumber was $600 a thousand feet. There were evidences that earthquakes in the past had shaken adobe structures to pieces, and it was doubtful whether tall buildings, however massive their walls, could with- stand the shock of even such tremblors as were not unusual in mining days. It required some courage to be first in constructing a tall house. One of the first great houses constructed in the business part of the city was the Halleck block, on Montgomery street, con- structed for General H. W. Halleck, then a resident in San Francisco. That was followed by the Nevada Bank block, the Palace and Baldwin hotels, the Phelan block, and some others of good dimensions. No harm came to any of them, and then M. H. de Young was inspired to erect a "sky-scraper" as an imposing home for the San Francisco Chronicle, and very many timid
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people pronounced it a risky thing to do, but those occupying the ninth and tenth stories seem to have no more nervous dread of a disaster from a quake than if they were domiciled in a one-story block of granite. The Crocker family and D. O. Mills, and the Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York, and the Pacific Mutual Insurance Company, of San Francisco, have all since put up great piles which would be deemed spa- cious as well as ornamental in any city in the world. The wisdom of Mr. de Young has been endorsed by as careful business men as there are in the State, and his example followed to the extent of the expenditure of millions of dollars which would be utterly lost were their magnificent buildings wrecked by earthquake shock or otherwise. San Francisco has become the home of architectural ornaments, not alone in the business part of the city, but in all the residence districts.
San Francisco is better provided with internal rail- road facilities than any city in this country, and prob- ably in the world. Its numerous points of high alti- tude made the use of steam or horses for drawing cars impracticable. A resident solved the problem by the invention of the cable car, and the first one used in the United States was on the old Clay street line in San Francisco, and few improvements have been made in the original affair. Cable car lines were multiplied, until with the horse cars nearly every block in the city could be reached by one or the other of these con- veyances. Now the more rapid electric car is taking the place of the others on some lines. By a system of transfers, not usual in other cities, one may go from one point to another, almost anywhere in the city, for one fare.
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San Francisco has nearly always been remarkable for the extent and excellence of its manufacturing enterprises. It was so far from the established manu- facturing centers when its history began that man's ingenuity and skill were taxed to their utmost extent to supply articles absolutely necessary in life's daily routine. Everything almost that was needed must be constructed here, and first came the manufacture of tools. In very many directions the skilled mechanics of the coast have no superiors anywhere. The Pacific Saw Manufacturing Company, of which Hon. N. W. Spaulding is at the head, has established a reputation for turning out reliable goods, both of all classes of saws and every kind of cutting tools not attained by any other manufactory of its kind in the United States. The Union Iron Works may be mentioned because of the remarkably fine work performed in shipbuilding. The United States war ships San Francisco and Charleston and the harbor defence Monitor Monterey will be monuments to the skill and ability of Irwin M. Scott, and the grand capacity of the Union Iron Works, as long as they remain afloat, and for years afterward. It would require pages to give even a brief mention of the manufactories in operation in San Francisco. These grand producers of wealth turned out of their work- shops during 1892 articles to the value of over ninety- four millions of dollars-more than the value of all the merchandise which passed through the San Francisco custom house, both outgoing and incoming.
San Francisco has ninety-one school-houses of all grades, attended by 46,172 pupils, and expended in their support in 1892 $1,098,838. The fine climate of the city enables students to devote more time to study
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without weariness than in climates which vary from hot to cold. The standard of scholarship in all grades is high in consequence, and the benefits conferred are in excess of those obtainable in the same time else- where. These figures are exclusive of the large attend- ance upon the great number of excellent and high grade private schools.
No community in the world has produced so many persons of wealth who took pleasure in devoting a goodly share of what they possessed to benefiting the people. There are now thirty-five kindergarten schools maintained in San Francisco, with an attendance of 3,108. The growth of the admirable system has been more marked here than in any other city in the country, owing to the personal interest and generosity of citizens. Eighteen of the thirty-five kindergartens are perma- nently endowed ; fifteen of them are memorial kinder- gartens. The first kindergartens of the kind in the world were the Leland Stanford Jr. memorial kinder- gartens, the first one of which was organized July 7, 1884. Since that time, and growing out of that seed germ, there have been scores of them planted all over the world. With a pledge of only $7.50 per month, the work began, in the heart of the Barbary coast, thirteen years ago, under the auspices of Mrs. Cooper's bible class. At the close of the first year there were two kindergartens, with 109 children, and total receipts of $1,805.70. Last year the total receipts were $43,- 731.90. During the thirteen years over 13,000 children have been trained. The late Senator Sharon gave fifty thousand dollars to found a playground in Golden Gate Park for the pleasure of the children of San Francisco. No point in this charming resort is patron-
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ized to the same extent as this-not even the music stand where two days in the week the best performers dispense music for the million. The Park has number- less attractions bestowed by generous citizens, some of whom are with the dead, and all for the gratification and refinement of the public taste. James Lick created an institution which adds to the achievements of astron- omy, and has already advanced the grand column of heavenly discoveries. Besides, he endowed the Academy of Sciences, and established a people's free bath house. Others have been equally generous, and the end is not yet. Royally have the citizens of San Francisco been endowed with wealth, and royally have they dispensed it for the improvement of humanity.
The gifts named have been for the intellectual grati- fication of the masses. The generous have not manifested less care for the comfort and welfare of those in want, or poorly provided for. The Salvation Army has been made the almoner of hundreds of busi- ness men and society women, who are proud to give, but lack the time to hunt up those requiring aid. Through this generosity a place is provided where supper, a bath, lodging and breakfast, are furnished for ten cents. A great number of persons buy tickets by the hundreds or the thousands and instead of giving money to those asking alms, they give a ticket guarantee- ing the holder the meals, the bath and the bed. Mr. Brown, desirous of doing something to benefit working girls, has established a place on Howard street where they can obtain a cup of tea or coffee, and any single dish of good palatable well cooked food for one cent. Of course this does not pay first cost, but the girls get a healthy lunch, retain their self-respect, and
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