USA > California > California gold book : first nugget, its discovery and discoverers, and some of the results proceeding therefrom > Part 14
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A
VANDERCOOK ENG & PUB. COMPANY.
City Hall, San Francisco.
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save pennies of which they have none too many. During January, 1893, an average of 140 girls per day were accommodated, and the deficiency which Mr. Brown had to make up out of his pocket was in the vicinity of $100 per month. More good could not possibly be accomplished for the same amount of money.
Facts similar to these might be recounted for hours. Only these will be given, and they are among the most unimportant. They indicate the tendency of the people to sympathize with and help one another. Very few of these acts of kindness are made public. No one suffers whose wants are generally known. The climate is not more genial and beneficent than the great hearts of San Francisco's people. They enjoy largely, and enjoy most when others are having a full share.
The necessity for improvements and additions to the harbor facilities of San Francisco has long been rec- ognized by the business community and the harbor commissioners. The dock charges were not sufficient to warrant any material change. The harbor is a State institution, and the legislature, at its last session, upon the recommendation of the harbor commissioners, submitted an act, to be voted upon by all those entitled to the franchise, authorizing the commissioners to issue bonds, to the extent of $500,000, par value, the money received from their sale to be used in improving the docks, and erecting such buildings as were found to be necessary. The authorization was endorsed, and plans and specifications have been accepted for a grand union depot into which all the street railroads, cable and horse, will deliver passengers for the ferries, and gather all who may arrive for the various points in the city. It will prove a great convenience, compared with the
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arrangements now in vogue. Other needed improve- ments are being consummated, and before the end of 1893 the landing at San Francisco will be one of the most sightly and convenient in the United States, and will relieve the business community of much unnecessary trouble.
AN JOAQUIN COUNTY is one of the original subdivisions of the State, and the local seat of government was established at Stockton, where it has remained. The name of the county originated with the Spanish lieutenant, Moraga, who christened the little river of that name in honor of Joachim, the tra- ditional father of the Virgin Mary. From that it passed to the great valley, and thence to the county formed from its upper end. The county is composed almost completely of level plain, what hills it contains occupying the southern end of it.
Jedediah S. Smith and other trappers were in the valley as early as 1825, but Father Crespi, of the Mon- terey Mission, had been there in 1773. Then the San Joaquin valley was full of deer, elk, wild horses, bear and fowls. As high as fifteen grizzlies have been seen there at one time. The rivers were full of fish, and many beavers, which the trappers were searching for, inhabited the banks of every stream. The trapping companies that came to the great valley in 1839 found the most populous villages of Indians that they had ever beheld. The banks of the rivers were fairly brist- ling with villages containing from 50 to 100 wickiups, built of poles and thatched with rushes. The Indians lived sumptuously upon game, fish, wild seeds and ber-
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ries, while their huts were red with the salmon that they were curing.
Late in the summer of the next year, 1833, those vil- lages were utterly depopulated. Here and there a half dozen Indians were left, but at every village the skulls and remains were numbered by hundreds. Evidences of wholesale burials and immense funerals pyres were seen everywhere. Only one camp had any considerable number left, and in one night twenty of these died. They were stricken with smallpox, which was a disease unknown to them before, and for which their medicine men possessed no specific. Every tribe of Indians in California had at that time its " sweathouse " at each village. These houses were pits in the ground, covered with a conical roof in which a small aperture was left for the escape of smoke. A small entrance admitted the Indians, and it was tightly closed after them. In these dens a fire would be built upon the floor, the passage being closed the Indians danced furiously until in a reeking perspiration, and then they would dash to a stream of water near by and plunge in. This heroic treatment of the fever patients doubtless killed every one who tried it.
Unlike other American Indians, these never used trees or bark with which to build their canoes. Instead they used tule reed strongly lashed with strips of wil- low These boats were serviceable and very buoyant. These Indians for many years after the whites came in believed that the Great Spirit was still on their side. One tradition was that upon the coming of the pale face the summer showers, which had been regular and fre- quent, were stopped by the Great Spirit, so that the sterility of the land would drive the white man away,
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after which the rains would fall again .. They never figured much on artesian wells and irrigation canals.
The first immigrant party that came through the San Joaquin valley was Captain J. B. Bartelson's com- pany of about thirty men. They came across the plains, and after arriving in the San Joaquin valley separated and spread out over the State. A Captain Weber formed a partnership with Guillermo Gulnac in 1842, and started various industries. Because of the latter's Mexican name Weber applied for a land grant through him of eleven square leagues of land in the vicinity of French Camp, in what is now San Joaquin county. Soon after the partnership was dissolved, and Weber became the owner of the land. Weber visited Sutter's Fort and hunted up an Indian chief, Jose Jesus, with whom he formed a lasting friendship and peace. Jose advised Weber to start his settlement at the place which is now Stockton, and in accordance lie located upon the site. Jose agreed not only to a peace, but to help fight any Mexicans or Indians who should give trouble. As Jose was the terror of the Mexicans this alliance did much to assure success to the young town. The settlement was commenced about 1843. The location was particularly advantageous, as the hunters and trap. pers made French Camp their winter quarters, and they exchanged ammunition and blankets for furs. The application for land that Gulnac had filed was allowed in January, 1844. Captain Fremont passed through there in March of that year. In 1847 Weber, who had given his attention to his business in San Jose, decided that his settlement at Stockton's site was pro- gressing too slowly. He sold out at San Jose and moved with a number of men, 200 horses and 4,000
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head of cattle, to the new settlement. The little town thus finally started was called Tuleburg. The name was changed to Stockton in 1843 by Captain Weber to honor Commodore Robert Stockton of the United States navy.
Early in 1848 news of the discovery of gold at Coloma came to the settlers on the San Joaquin. The fever struck every man in the county, and Captain Weber organized a company and started a search at once in his own part of the State. He found gold before long on the Mokelumne river, and soon the region known as the Southern mines was flooded with men. Weber left workers on the creek named for him, and tanght a lot of Indians how to prospect. These he sent into Calaveras, and they faithfully hunted out the precious metal and sent in splendid specimens and glowing reports. A large party was equipped at Tuleburg and started for the new "diggings." The importance of the new mines grew with astonishing rapidity. Weber decided that a town was a necessity. He went back to Tuleburg and founded Stockton at once. He then bought a small sloop called the Maria for $4,000, and established the first regular packet line between San Francisco and Stockton. The town grew like a mushroom. Hotels went up rapidly in 1849.
Of recent years the notion that San Joaquin was fit only for a grazing county has been exploded. The county is rich now in agricultural productions. The lands which were too dry have been abundantly irri- gated from the great rivers and from some of the finest artesian wells in the State. Hundreds of thousands of acres formerly relegated to the tules have been re- claimed, and have proved to be rich and productive.
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The Stockton which started as a temporary camp so long ago is one of the most flourishing cities in the State. The whole county is prosperous and pro- gressive, and the people are happy and contented.
No interior county in the State shows greater mate. rial progress for the year 1892 than San Joaquin. The building of the Tracy branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad has opened up a part of this county hitherto almost inaccessible during the rainy season. The
opening of that line has had the effect that new rail- roads usually have of brightening up towns that had been slumbering for years. Tracy shows many signs of new and vigorous life. Its population has increased by half, its business has been doubled, and the village is dotted with new buildings.
Stockton now has a sewer system second to none, and it has been almost completed during the year. The main sewer and dumping station cost $35,000. The outlet pipe has been extended three miles to the San Joaquin river, and during the summer the sewer- age is to be used in the irrigation of the Moss tract, which belongs to Sacramento Boggs of Colusa county. The pumps in the new station will handle the sewerage of a city of 100,000 inhabitants and have a capacity of pumping fourteen million gallons per day. Eighteen miles of lateral sewers have been laid at a cost of $44,- 000. The city has a separate system of rainwater sewers under construction, and during the year five miles of this sewer was laid at an approximate cost of $5,000.
ONO COUNTY was organizedin 1861, and is a long, narrow belt of territory on the eastern
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slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Bridgeport is its county-seat. It was thought to contain rich deposits of silver, and gold placers of no great extent were worked for a time by the miners from Truckee and Virginia City. The Bodie excitement created towns and cities, but on its subsidence these were depopulated. However, lit- tle is now really known of the mineral resources of Mono county. Scarcely any of it is fit for agriculture, and it ought to have some appropriate place in the economy of nature, and when thoroughly explored may develop bonanzas. Traces of zinc, copper, iron, jasper, chalcedony, and other metals and stones have been found, and the county contains a great deal of valuable timber.
Mono lake is situated in the center of the county, and is about fifteen miles long by ten miles wide, its waters being a somewhat unusual compound, various chemical substances being found in solution in them. The great bluffs and rocky ravines of the Sierra come almost to the western shore of the lake, while upon the eastern side salt deposits and lines of driftwood mark the plain, showing very distinctly what were the for- mer more extensive shores of this sheet of water. Upon the bluffs of the western side are water-marks which make it seem very probable that the waters were once almost a thousand feet above their present elevation, spreading out over the plains to the east to form a great inland sea. The lake receives a number of small streams, but is without a perceptible outlet. In picturesque variety and grandeur the scenery in the mountainous region of this county surpasses many of the celebrated views in the Alps.
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ANTA CLARA COUNTY was one of the origi- nal subdivisions of the State, and contained more territory than now, as a portion was given to both Ala- meda and Contra Costa counties in fixing their boundar- ies. In January, 1777, Father Thomas de la Pena founded the Mission of Santa Clara, having come from San Diego for that purpose, and to spread the faith among the Indians. The name was chosen by Padre Thomas in honor of Saint Clara, child of the pious mother Hortalana, whose prayers were answered by a lumin- ous glow, in token of which the child was christened Clara, signifying the feminine of light.
When the padres came to Santa Clara no other whites had ever seen the country. It was very beau- tiful then, as it still is. The natives were very numer- ous, and thousands were converted, forcibly as usual, in that same year, 1777. That was not the San Jose of to-day. The first site chosen was too near the river, which overflowed in the winter, to the extreme discom- fort of the few residents. Subsequently they moved, having obtained permission from Spain, and that site was in the midst of the "Garden City " that this gen- eration knows.
There was little or no interruption to the progress of the Santa Clara mission for many years. It was not long after it settled down to its calm routine before the hills about were overrun with horses, cattle and sheep. Many small industries were also started, in which the natives performed the labor after having been instructed. In 1812 a severe earthquake cracked the main building badly. Another shock in 1822 rendered it unsafe, and extensive repairs were neces- sary. Although Mexican independence had been
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established, and the regime of the missions had been much altered, so that in fact they were soon upon the brink of destruction, still in 1825 a new site was selected and a new church erected. The original building has long since gone to decay and ruin. The prosperity of the Santa Clara mission was hardly second to any in the State. In 1823, even after some reverses, the mission had 22 400 calves to brand as increase to the herd. By 1825 there were over 74,200 head of cattle on their ranges, 407 yoke of oxen, 82,500 sheep, 1,890 horses broken to saddle, 4,230 brood mares, 725 mules and 1,000 logs. Truly a rich possession. At that time there was 1,800 Indians at the mission. They attended to all of the vast labor necessary to keep it in operation.
The gold excitement which followed the declaration of peace left this country, like other non-mineral local- ities, deserted. However, in 1849 interest was revived in the neighborhood of San Jose. The constitutional convention which had convened at Monterey Septem- ber 1, 1849, named that city as the State capital. December 15, 1849, the first legislature met in that city. There was not adequate room in the town for the gathering, and the two branches of the legislature had to meet in different houses. All of the elected Sena- tors and Assemblymen did not appear, many remaining at the mines. The legislature had already convened when a bill was introduced to remove everything to Monterey. It was defeated. In April a splendid offer from General Vallejo, who wanted the capital at the town of Benicia, startled the San Jose people. A bitter rivalry broke out at once, and offers and counter offers were made as inducements. Members were
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dissatisfied with San Jose, and in 1851 she lost the capital, which Benicia secured. In 1854 it looked as if San Jose would win again, as a supreme court decision gave her the capital. This decision was soon overruled, and Sacramento secured the prize for all time.
Santa Clara county is adapted to the production of all the fruits of the semi-tropics. There is not a variety which cannot be found here in abundance, yielding rich returns to the growers. So productive is the soil, so congenial is the climate, that new orchard homes are constantly being established, and grain farming is fast becoming unknown. Of prunes alone during the year 1892, there were produced in Santa Clara county 20,- 000,000 pounds, of which over 17,000,000 pounds went directly to the Eastern markets, the remainder supply- ing the local and San Francisco demand. Of other dried fruits over 5,000,000 pounds were shipped, while 15,656,675 pounds of green fruits were sent to the East and over 20,000,000 pounds used by the canneries and for local consumption. There were shipped by the Southern Pacific railroad 73,875,925 pounds of green and dried fruits and other ranch products. For the fruit the highest prices known for years was obtained.
One feature which distinguishes the year 1892 from others is that of the subdivision of large tracts of land into small orchard homes of ten and twenty acres. While there is proportionately more land devoted to fruit growing in this section than in any other county of the State, there are yet some large ranches ; but the movement now under way bids fair to dispose of all of these.
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TANISLAUS COUNTY was formed from Tou- lumne county in April, 1854. Its formation had been contested by the Terry faction under the belief that it would, in some way, aid the political fortunes of Senator Broderick, afterwards killed by David S. Terry. Empire City was at first the seat of local gov- ernment, but later it passed to La Grange, a rival town. In 1860 the legislature annexed to Stanislaus a large slice from San Joaquin county, including Knight's Landing, a rapidly growing town, which obtained the honor from La Grange. In 1870 the Southern Pacific Company commenced work on its line through the San Joaquin valley, which it called the Visalia division. A new town was laid out on the road, the people of Paradise and Toulumne removing their houses bodily to the new place, which was called Modesto, and in 1871 this thriving place won the prize after a spirited contest, and soon became the most prosperous and thriving town in the county.
One of the first settlements in the county was that of French Bar or La Grange, as it soon came to be called. Rich mines were discovered here which were first worked by Frenchmen, whence the name. Several thousand people settled here, and the young city was both lively and prosperous. The years 1854 and 1855 were seasons of great excitement over the discovery of rich placers along the river at this point. Many for- eigners settled here, and they were so strong that they for awhile successfully defied the law providing for the collection of a mining tax from foreigners. They were brought to their senses, however, by the authorities.
In the spring of 1849 Captain Knight pitched his tent on the bank of the Stanislaus river, in the edge
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of the foothills, and established a ferry across that stream for the accommodation of the miners who were pouring into the mines. As Knight's Ferry the place became known, and it bears the name to the present time. Knight was a comrade of Fremont, and had accompanied him on his various exploring trips, finally settling here, where he remained until his death, which occurred in a few years. Captain John Dent succeeded Knight in the ownership of the Ferry and the place was frequently known as Dentville. It was a sister of Captain Dent whom General Grant married, and that individual, while a captain in the regular army, once spent some time here, in the summer of 1854, while en route to the post in the northern part of the State to which he had been appointed.
Hill's Ferry is another of the settlements of the early days which has survived the exigencies of the mining excitement and still remains as a center of considerable trade. This town was laid out on the Orestimba ranch, one of the five Spanish grants in Stanislaus county, and was for a long time the head of navigation on the San Joaquin river, though light draft vessels have gone considerably farther up the stream in times of high water.
Three branches of the Southern Pacific Railroad traverse the county, assuring the adequate transpor- tation facilities that will be demanded when in the course of a few years the diversified products of a soil enriched by irrigation shall find their way in great volume to the markets of the world. Stanislaus is destined to loose her fame, as the banner wheat-pro- ducing county of the State, to attain in due time a new and greater fame as the richest, acre for acre, of the agricultural and horticultural counties.
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Newman, on the west side branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, is another prospering town. During last year a sixteen-thousand-dollar hotel has been erected there, and the Odd Fellows recently dedicated an eight-thousand-dollar structure. Other buildings aggregating a cost of $10,000 have been built in New- man during the year.
Oakdale, on the branch railroad between Stockton and Merced, ranks second to Modesto in importance It is a beautiful lively town, in the center of a large district, destined to be famous for horticultural and agricultural productions. Public improvements aggre- gating many thousand dollars have been made during 1892, and the Oakdale canal and irrigation system has virtually been completed, promising new life and pros- perity for the new and succeeding years.
The completion of the west-side branch of the Southern Pacific railroad has given existence to half a dozen new settlements along the line, and on the east side two new settlements have sprung up. The towns of Grayson, Knight's Ferry, La Grange, Crow's Land- ing, Turlock, Montpelier, Ceres, Waterford, the settle- ments of Westport, Horr's ranch, Hickman, Westley and others, have made progress during the year, and none have lost ground.
OULUMNE COUNTY was organized by the first legislature, and Stewart, formerly Sonorian camp, was designated as the seat of government. Her earliest story began with the first mining settlement, as prior to that her only visitors were the few hunters and trappers who happened across her territory before
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any Americans thought of making their homes on the Pacific coast. The Woods party, who came in the early summer of 1848, were Toulumne's first permanent occupants. They settled on the banks of a stream and named it Woods creek. These first comers discovered gold in paying quantities and decided to stay. Very soon afterward a party of Mexicans came to Tou- lumne and located the Sonorian camp, afterward called Stewart and then Sonorian. Gold being found everywhere and in large nuggets, a population, mixed and rough, poured in. Toulumne became suddenly the headquarters of the famous southern mines. Immigration became so rapid that there were soon more mining camps in this section than could be found in a like area anywhere in California. The richness of the diggings was unprecedented.
The towns that sprang up were generally named for their first settlers. Jamestown on Woods creek was named for Colonel James, who came from San Francisco in 1848. Jacksonville was thus named for Colonel Jackson, its first storekeeper. There was a town called Chinese Camp for its Mongolians. Yankee Hill was a nugget town settled by men from "way down East." Then there were Peppermint Gulch, Mountain Brow, Garotte, Big Oak Flat, Columbia, and a number of others with titles peculiar to mining nomenclature. Every camp was full of gold, and there was a preponderance of bad men and worse whisky. Toulumne was exceedingly rich, but the times were sadly out of joint in a moral sense.
The bitterness of feeling entertained by the Mex- icans and Spanish for everything American, which had started with the war with Mexico, had not died out in
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1849. Peruvians, Chileans, and all nations speaking the same tongue, combined in many things against the Yankees. Murders were of frequent occurrence. Germans, Austrians, French and Australians, called "Sidney ducks," grew disaffected. Questions of expelling all foreigners were fully discussed. Finally in 1850 a "foreign miner's tax" was passed by the legislature, imposing an impost of $20 a month on all foreign miners. The most intense excitement followed the first attempt to collect the tax. Riots were immi- nent everywhere. The foreigners combined and their orators inflamed them with speeches. The American miners assembled their forces and armed themselves. A body of several hundred formidable-looking miners marched into Sonora and almost proclaimed martial law. These, with the sheriff and the tax collector, started through the camps. Mexicans, Spanish, Dutch, French, everybody fled before them. Homes were dismantled, mines abandoned and towns depopulated. Hundreds of the foreigners went away from the country entirely. Others spread out over the county and commenced careers of outlawry that kept peaceful people in constant terror. Many robberies and mur- ders were committed in revenge by these ostracised foreigners, and innocent people were frequently the victims.
The conditions of law and society rapidly improved in Toulumne after 1851. The mines were still pouring out immense treasures and the class of men who worked them were still very rough, but the courts were begin- ning to be well established ; schools started everywhere, wise and energetic citizens came in, and a great variety of enterprises were inaugurated.
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