USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > Colville's San Francisco directory for the year commencing 1856-1857 > Part 2
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Commercial Flour Mills.
45
Commissioners of tho U. S.
45
Com'rs F. Debt, ooder act 1851 .. 245
Comr's F. Debt, ander act 1854. .. 245
Comissioners of Funded Debt .... 46
Confidencc, Steamer.
40
Congregationalist Church
46
Consuls.
245
Convent Female Orphao Asylum, 47
Convent Presentation.
47
Convent Sisters of Mercy
47
Courts. 246
Cornelia, Steamer 48
Custom House and Post Office. .246 Custom House dis. of S. Francisco.246 Dock-Masters .. 57
Eclipse, Steamer
64
Election Districts
247
Eureka Typograpical Union
66
Fireman's Journal.
71
Fire Department.
247
Freeman & Co's Express
75
Fulton Iron Works.
76
Gas Works ..
77
Genessee Flour Mills.
249
German E. L. Charch
78
German M. Church.
78
Germau Hospital.
78
German Ciuh Room.
78
Grace Church.
86
Golden Era.
249
Helen Hensley, Steamer.
93 | San Francisco College.
.191
U. S. Clerk District Court.
.222
U. S. Fire Insurance Company ... 222
U. S. Hotel.
222
U. S. Judge of Circuit Court. 222
FOR ADVERTISING INDEX, SEE LAST PAGE OF WORK.
Y
COLVILLE'S
1856. 1857. SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY VOLUME I.
FOR THE YEAR COMMENCING OCTOBER, 1856 ;
BEING A GAZETTEER OF THE CITY:
EMBRACING
A General and
+
usiness
Register of Citizens,
WITH
STATISTICAL TABLES, HISTORICAL REFERENCES, BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES, ETC. PREFACED BY
A HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO,
AND REVIEWS OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES, ASSOCIATIONS, ETC.
SAMUEL COLVILLE, COLLATOR AND PUBLISHER.
DEPOTS FOR THE SALE OF THIS WORK :
J. J. LECOUNT, 111 MONTGOMERY ST., AND McGLASHAN & CO., 127 MONTGOMERY ST., SAN FRANCISCO, GARDINER & KIRK, POST OFFICE BLOCK, SACRAMENTO.
SAN FRANCISCO: COMMERCIAL STEAM PRESSES: MONSON, VALENTINE & CO., No. 129 Sansome Street, a few doors from Washington. 1856. ·
*+ 91794. Szzy-
ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the Year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-six, BY SAMUEL COLVILLE AND C. C. SACKETT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of the State of California.
77339 .
.
PREFATORY.
THE compiler considers it due to himself and respectful to the public of San Francisco, to say a few words explanatory and apologetic, by way of preface, on the appearance of COLVILLE'S SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY AND GAZETEER.
Having had considerable experience in this branch of business, the com- piler, with slight hesitation, complied with the wish of many personal friends, among the merchants of this city, who declared that a really complete Directory of San Francisco was very much needed, and being favorably impressed with his capacity for the work, urged him to under- take it. But, impelled by a higher ambition than the publication of a mere Directory, and desirous of establishing an enterprise of a permanent char- acter, by laying the foundation of an annual commensurate with the present importance and prospective greatness of the metropolis of the Pacific, he proposed that his book should contain, not only the names and residences of the citizens, with the ordinary data usually included in such registers, but that it should also contain, arranged in a concise and systematic man- ner, a brief review of the history of the city, short biographical notices and sketches of its institutions, enterprises, etc., by which, so to speak, a picture would be presented, reminding the early citizen of almost forgotten remin- iscences, and interesting him in present progress, while the new-comer could, within a reasonable space, possess himself of the important features of the past and present of San Francisco.
How nearly he has realized his conception in this work must be deter- mined by his patrons-but he has fallen short of his own desires, and very far short of what he hopes to make of its successors; he can, however, conscientiously affirm, that he has spared neither labor nor expense in his efforts to perfect the work.
iv
PREFATORY.
He claims indulgence only to the extent that may be justified by the fact that, it being a pioneer work of the character in this city, he was without the advantage which the present work must be to the future; to the diffi- culty, aggravated by that circumstance, of obtaining from those in posses- sion of it, the various and extended information required; the reluctance of many individuals to have their former official relations mentioned; and, finally, to the unexpected announcement of an opposition Directory, which, however incomplete or unsatisfactory it might prove, was still formidable enough to destroy the hope of reasonable gain on this publication, if suf- fered to appear much in advance of it; hence, the compiler has anticipated, by some weeks, the date at which he intended to have his book out, and to that extent curtailed the time intended to have been devoted to the com- pilation and careful revision of the reading matter.
In reference to the register of names, no expense has been spared to make it complete and accurate; nevertheless there are many omissions arising from the absence of inmates, and refusal, in numerous instances, of persons to give their names or the names of others, partners or inmates with them, fearing consequences, in reference to taxation or jury duty, if their names and residences were given ; or, perhaps, influenced by pride or mere caprice to prevent the publication of their residence.
Notwithstanding these defects, the compiler relies, with implicit confi- dence, upon the community who have so generously sustained his work by their subscriptions and advertisements, firm in the conviction that the material found in its pages is well calculated to convey a clear impression of the character and importance of the city, as well as aid its business men in their pursuits, promising the citizens and his patrons that each year shall exhibit a progressive improvement in every department of the enterprise.
The uniform courtesy which the compiler has received from all those holding official position to whom it was necessary to apply for information, and their ready acquiesence, attended frequently with great labor in fur nishing the information sought, would render it invidious here to mention individual names; but these gentlemen are assured of his grateful appre- ciation of their kindness, and enjoy the satisfaction of having contributed matter useful and important, otherwise inaccessible.
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
NO PERIOD of life is more interesting to the student of nature, than is that known as childhood. Not even the full tide of success upon which manhood is borne onward to the highest honors of professional life, pleases the philosophic observer so much, as do the early developments of the child. Mature honors which sit upon the wintry brows of age, are pleasant to contemplate as the rewards of a life well spent-but all are then more a souvenir than anything else. There is little of earthly hope left to be woven with those chaplets. Anticipations have been realized or disappointed. Memory is then most of life. And memory is ever sad, if not mournful. But the cradle and the nursery are presided over by the smiling goddess, Hope. Nothing of a gloomy past casts shadows upon the buds and blossoms of youth. Life is a joyful avenir, and we watch its every development as the horticulturist watches the sprouting plant, and the pomologist his budding scions. The growth of the soul is quite as delightful a study as is its matured expansion. Cities are like human creatures. They have their infancy, their childhood, old age. Some have even had their death, and have found after long ages of silence, their "Old Mortalities" to move away the rubbish from over their graves, brush the dust from their tomb-stones, decipher their epitaphs, and give the world their histories. Ninevah, Pompei, Palenque, begun, grew, matured, became old, passed away, and were forgotten in their graves of em- pires, until Layard, Stephens and others, gathered up their dust and preserved it in their classic urns. All periods of their history, could we have them in the language of Gibbon, Hume, or Prescott, would doubtless be of great interest. But it may be doubted if during the greatest conquests of Ninevah, the highest triumphs of the Roman Empire, or during whatever known glories may have clustered around the lost cities of the American continent, anything so pleasant to contemplate would be found, as the early signs of future greatness which accompanied their infancy. To see dark forests open to the sunlight, barbaric rites and customs fade before civilization's illum- ing, to see the clipper supercede the canoe, the white sails of Commerce succeed the Indian paddle, and hear the steamer's pattering wheel chronicle its progress where only the stealthy course of the savage in midnight silence had previously been ; to mark the resolute landing of hale, adventurous, thinking, civilized men on shores hitherto trod only by the listless aboriginee, the transient foot of the buccaneer, or the visitant mariner in search of wood and water; to hear the war-whoop give way to the saw, hammer and ribbon-stripping plane, and note the cabin follow the original hut, the handsome dwelling succeed the squalid hearth-fire of the native ; to observe how habitations advance upon the hill sides and out upon the ocean's verge; lumber, brick and stone supplanting sticks, bark and brush ; roofs of smoked hide and sooty willows
vi
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
changed for frescoed and pictured walls, wigwams to marble facades, air-bound council halls to churches and courts of justice, Indian tracks to busy streets, war-paths to avenues of trade, war-dances to Christian worship ; to see the frowning face of nature changed by the wooing touch of human industry and intellect into a picture which greets the visitor with a smile and lives in the minds of the absent a pleasant memory ; to see the triumphs of trade and commerce succeed the trophies of barbarian warfare, rustling silk instead of the bloody scalp, and to hear the worship-moving organ where the death song has so lately been heard -- this it is to watch the birth and early growth of a city, this peculiarly the fortune of those who have for a few years helped watch over the cradle of San Francisco. They have seen all this, and more. They have witnessed scenes such as perhaps no other place or time has furnished. For never before had human passions been so strongly appealed to, and left so free to act, as here. Never before had such a promise of gold been sounded forth to the adventurous of all nations and so few restraints placed upon its acquisition. Upon the ear of the fainting toiler the cry of measureless gold fell like an annunciation from pitying and blessing Heaven. Ancient myths became realities, the caves of romauce were open, El Dorado was found. The great, deep, universal passion was aroused, the love of wealth had a promise of gratification. Gold had taken voice and spoken to the world. This mod- ern "Peter the Hermit" had entered upon its mission, and cold were the harangues of the enthusiast monk compared with the soul-thrilling appeals which were heard in the ringing promises of gold. The appeal found ready and anxious listeners. The crusade was inaugurated. A new Jerusalem was to be invested, its golden temple despoiled, its golden sepulcher seized, its scoffing inhabitants driven ont, its treasures appropriated. And with a wild worship of what lay buried in the mines of California, not inferior in intensity to that religious enthusiasm which swelled the hearts of the knights and retainers of Richard I., Phillip II. and Lewis IX., in swarms they moved toward the promised land. Like Jason and his Argonauts, they traversed the waters in search of the golden fleece. Like Atilla and his Huns they crossed the plains and left no blade of grass where the hoofs of their horses trod. Like the early voy- agers, they doubled Cape Horn in crafts little better than hulks. Like Cortes, they plunged into the unknown tracts of Mexico; like Pizarro, they traveled the isthmus, and catching a view of the Pacific, stood as did he, gazing
"Silent upon a peak in Darien."
From the four quarters of the earth, they came, and the isles of the sea kept not back. The five great races were all represented. The Caucassian, traveling on the track of empire, and the Mongolian with his face against it; the Malay, leaving his piratic freedom, and the Negro escaping from his bondage, met upon the shores of the American Indian, all except him, worshippers at the same shrine, all anxious to bow in reverence to the same god, all crusaders in the cause of Mammon, all sinking for a time the arrogance of blood and caste and color in the universal passion which sought its gratification here. From that "Northern Hive" which had poured its swarms of conquering Goths, Huns and Lepidæ over the fertile plains and proud cities of classic Italy fourteen centuries before, came the plodding, industrious, educated emigrant from northern Europe. The descendants of the countrymen of Brennus, forgot Napoleon and the "Barricades," for the time, intent upon storming the rocky ramparts which concealed nature's army-chest in the fastnesses of the Sierras. The Scot
vii
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
turned his back upon classic Edinburgh and his native heather; the disciple of St. Patrick forgot the Hill of Howth; and John Bull exiled himself from the sound of Bow Bells-that they might gather gold from beneath the mansanita bushes, and by the brink of Californian rapids. From the climes of Kamehameha, from the land of the Cid, from the gold-ribbed realms of Montezuma, and the silver-veined hills of the Incas they came; the tappa-clothed Otaheitan and the fur-clad Russ, the Creole dweller by the St. Lawrence, and the Ganges-worshipping Hindostanee, the discomfited adherents of Kossuth and Mazzini, battalions of the Guarde Mobile, and squads from the rabbles of General Flores, the imported Coolie and the transported " Sidney Duck,"-all turned their faces toward the land of bright gold and brighter hopes-gold often "hard to get and hard to hold"-hopes ever easy to come, and ready to leave. Thus was San Francisco peopled by such a human mosaic as never before had been wrought into a harmonious society. All creeds were represented. The devotee of the Prophet of Mecca side by side with the disciple of the Cross. The enthusiastic followers of Budh, Brahma and Vishnu, and the undoubting believer in St. Peter's Apostolic succession. Brethren of the creeds of Calvin, Luther and Penn, and members of Loyola's Society of Jesus ; fellow-scoffers of Voltaire, and fellow-thinkers of Tom Paine. Gold is the great leveler. Gold is the great human amalgam. It draws all castes and creeds, religionists and sects into the congregations of its worshipers. So was it in the great Hegira for California. The turbaned Turk. and the pig-tailed Chinese, the red-capped Malay and the "stove-piped" heads of whiter nations, joined the train and bowed in its presence. All moral codes and immoral, had their representatives. The Fourierite and the Turner, the wifeless Shaker, and the well-wived Mormon, the non-resistent and the believer in the code of honor, the debt-payer and the spunge, the spendthrift and the miser, the free hand and the sordid heart. From all points of the compass, all quarters of the globe, all nations and tribes, they converged toward this golden magnet like rays of light, and shadows mixed together.
To those who think, the knowledge of these things must operate as a preventive of astonishment that so anomalous a collection of humanity should result for awhile in an anomalous state of society, morals, government, politics and trade. For in this strange admixture of men, there could be said to exist but one reliable element of order. The Anglo-Saxon race formed the nucleus around which the elements of religion, morals and enlightened progress were to gather and crystallize. For, passing by the earlier history of San Francisco, its native condition, of which little is known and nothing remains save some of its hills and the debris of its Indian rancherias ; its discovery-probably in 1769-its settlement at the Mission Dolores in 1776, by the Missionaries of St. Francis, and the dreamy life of clergy, laity and neophyte which succeeded, the acquisition of California by the United States is the period when the history of San Francisco properly commences, and from that time its prevailing principle of order, progress and prosperity has been found in the races which peopled the eastern side of North America. In properly estimating the condition of the city in all its aspects and stages during its short but stirring history, it is necessary to understand the character of the population thus assembled, from which ingredients the compound of society was to be formed. No chemist's laboratory ever contained a greater variety of materials for analysis, admixture, or solution, perhaps never so
viii
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
many antagonistic in their natures. If their contact has created violent ebnlitions, it is no more surprising than are those occurring in the crucible, and instead of wondering at the seething which accompanied the process, a pleasant surprise at the advances made in so few years, is a more just and natural feeling.
Through untold centuries the site of what is now San Francisco, remained, doubtless, with scarce a change, save the slow growth of the shrubs and dwarf oaks which maintained severe contest with the dry earth and strong winds, vegetated and decayed ; the drifting sand, and the slight incidents and vicissitudes which marked the dream- life of the few savage tribes that have left no trace except the decomposed shells and other matter forming their rancheria relicts. The barren sand hills, the rippling waters of the Bay, the stunted shrubs, the flowers giving an early answer to the winter rains-these were the history of the spot nntil men foreign to the soil, but imbued with a sublime faith, left home and civilized society and plunged into its desert of cold winds, desolate sand, and savage men, to teach civilization to barbarism and preach salvation to the heathen.
Then followed the details of missionary life, self-denial, industry, toil, the policy of the statesman, the fortitude of the Christian, the conrage of the soldier. Gradually the wild man's confidence was won, his listless nature partially aroused, through his appetites, his life of laziness and hunger changed to some degree of industry and comfort. He was taught to supply food by tilling the soil, and his dim ideas of God were used as avenues to reach his soul with some conception of moral and religious accountability. All these poor heathen with their teachers, have passed away, leaving scarce a trace of their history. But who shall say that in the great hereafter the records of what the Franciscan Missionaries and their wild Indian pupils did aud tried to do, may not shame the grander results of our more modern missionary and political achievements.
Three score years and ten-man's allotted age-thus passed away, a few acres of soil being cultivated ; a few Indians through hope of food more than from any religions bias or conception of what the gospel meant, demanded and promised, being added to the missionary fold ; a few soldiers stationed at the Presidio; a few ships at intervals visiting the harbor for water, hides and tallow; and few advances in civil- ization other than those indicated. For, however admirably calculated the system of Catholic Missions may be for drawing into their fold the Indian, teaching him a few of the common arts of life, and to incorporate upon his heathenistic traditions of the Great Spirit some of the forms of Catholic worship, it has seldom or never progressed beyond these partial results, either from inadequacy in the system itself, or, what is more likely, owing to the principles of the materials upon which it labored-the apathetic, intractive, unprogressive Indian nature. And little better adapted to aid in human progress, than the Indian's, was the nature of a large portion of the Mexican population, which first took possession of California, and which at the time of its acquisition by the Americans, was the ruling class. They are generally as far reduced in character from their ancestors whether Moorish or Castillian, as they are in point of time, or as the adobe haciendas and Missions, are inferior to the palaces of Grenada or Madrid. Beyond a certain point their power of civilization, progress and industry seems incapable of advancing, and that point was reached soon after the Missions were established, and enough Indians "lassooed" to supply the priests and
ix
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
their adherents with food through their labor. A few men of a different class, fine types of the grand old Dons, must be acknowledged as exceptions to this. But beyond their own ranches, whatever of liberal sentiment they felt fell dead before the bigoted policy which prevailed.
And thus the civilization of the Indian amounted to little more than the process which breaks the wild ass to the pannier, his conversion only to an engrafting of religious forms upon heathen superstitions ; and the progress of the Spanish priests and task-masters, rested satisfied with such results.
This condition of things could not last forever. So fine a bay could not remain merely the resort of an occasional whaler, or the clumsy hide drogher. Its waters were destined to be thickly dotted with the snowy sails of commerce, to bear up the graceful and vast forms of the clipper, and its shores to echo back the broadsides of men-of-war. The splendid site of the present city could not forever be left to the listless savage, and the stunted civilization of Spanish-American policy. Located and formed by nature for a great destiny, on one of the finest bays in the world, looking out upon the greatest, richest and most pacific of oceans, in the very track of empire, in the healthiest of latitudes, within nine days sail of the Sandwich Islands, within a month of China, standing a neighbor to Japan, and the archipelagos of both northern and southern Pacific, holding a relatiou to the commerce and wealth of that vast sea such as was held by Tyre toward the Mediterranean, and is now held by London and New York in respect to the Atlantic-this place could not fail to attract the shrewd attention of the expanding Saxon race, and of falling into their hands as ready to receive as mighty to win.
That time was approaching. Commerce was hastening it. The whaler got some idea of the country in his occasional visits. The beaver and otter even, were aiding in the work by enticing across the continent the hardy trapper. Some of these adventurers when they had crossed the Sierra, felt the touch of the delicious climes, and tasted the dreamy life on its western side, either took up their abode in the country, or returned to carry back a good report. Gradually the regenerating race began to dot the country, a few even settling in San Francisco.
From the first settlement of the Presidio, and the Mission Dolores, now embraced within the limits of the city and county of San Francisco, for a period of nearly sixty years, few incidents occurred worthy of history, beyond the usual events of a mission life, or the details of a Mexican military occupation of a country with only a sparce population of miserable Indians, and a few foreign residents. What is now San Francisco proper, during all this time, had few inhabitants, and was known as Yerba Buena, so named from an aromatic plant which abounded among and upon the sand hills. The taste which substituted its present name for that which it bore so long, which had reason for its application, and which is so much more sonorous and agreeable, is at least very questionable.
In 1816 the British sloop-of-war Racoon, entered the Bay and port. Whaleships commenced in 1822 to visit the place for supplies of fresh provisions, and even previous to this, some trade had been carried on between the place, Mexico and the Sandwich Islands. Men-of-war of various nations arrived, but only at intervals, for some twenty years after this period, before a regular commercial trade can be said to have been fairly established.
x
HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO.
In 1835, however, the port and its trade were considered of sufficient importance to deserve the honors and attention of a Harbor Master, and Captain W. A. Richard- son, whose decease has so recently been announced, received that appointment. He was at that time engaged in the freighting business between different points around the bay, and the vessels which visited the harbor of Yerba Buena for the purpose of obtaining supplies, or freights of hides, tallow, soap and grain. During this year he erected the first dwelling, or tent, in the place. It was merely a few posts covered with the sails of a ship. Thus and then commenced the village which, in fifteen years, was destined to astonish the world with its almost fabulous prosperity, its abun- dance of gold, its recklessness of trade, of life, of business, of speculation ; its harbor of a thousand ships and forests of spars; its miraculous growth, sudden fortunes, stirring events and electric life.
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