USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > Colville's San Francisco directory for the year commencing 1856-1857 > Part 7
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On the twenty-second, the funeral of Mr. King took place. The people of the city which had been draped in mourning, immediately upon the announcement of his death, attended in great numbers. While the funeral ceremonies were being performed in the church, Casey and Cora, who had previously been tried by the Vigilance Committee and sentenced to be executed, were hung from the windows of the Committee Rooms, in presence of a vast multitude. An immense procession followed the remains of Mr. King to his final resting place in Lone Mountain Cemetery. Subsequently the Committee arrested many other persons against whom charges of crimes and misdemeanors had been made. From twenty-five to thirty of these were either sent away, or ordered to leave by the Committee. The charge against many of them was that they had been engaged in ballot-box stuffing, and other election frauds. Generally they were men for whom personally hut little sympathy could be felt. There were those, however, who opposed the Committee's action and existence as a dangerous exercise of power unauthorized, unconstitutional and illegal, and as subversive of all the guaranties of republican government, and who argued that the arrests, trials and puuishments inflicted by the Committee upon the humblest, or most guilty, being illegal, were acts against the rights of all, dangerous as a precedent, and in themselves crimes against the public, and treason against the government of State and Nation. On the other hand, the Committee. and their sympathizers replied that, they were the people, the public; that the people
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possessed the inherent right to revolutionize when the government failed to protect them, and to correct outside of the law great evils which the law through the courts did not, or could not remedy. They declared that the evils which existed could not be longer borne, and that no way to abate them existed, except by means such as they were employing.
Meanwhile the Grand Jury had found true bills against Edward McGowan and Peter Wightman, as accessories to the murder of James King. The police force were immediately in hot pursuit of them. The police of the Vigilance Committee were also exerting themselves to the utmost for the same purpose. But all in vain. To this day no reliable information has reached the public, except the report of McGowan's having been seen in Santa Barbara, and even that many do not believe. That "white hat" disappeared as mysteriously as a "little joker" beneath the cabalistic words of some necromancer, and its locality is as uncertain as is the burial place of De Soto. On the twenty-ninth of June the third legal execution took place in the yard of the County Jail, upon the person of Nicholas Graham, convicted some time before, of the crime of murder. He was a young man, and had killed a companion on one of the steamers lying at one of the city wharves, as he averred, while under the influence of liquor. A terrible penalty he paid for his intemperance. Que of the persons who had been arrested by the Vigilance Committee, was the noted pugilist Yankee Sullivan, whose fights, victories and defeats had made him notorious the world over. Though brave enough for a milling match, he had not the moral courage to endure the dangers which he imagined surrounded him as he lay incarcerated in the rooms of the Committee. He undoubtedly believed that he was to be hung, or sent back to Australia. He chose to die by his own hand rather than risk the fate which he feared might be intended for him. On the morning of May thirty-first, his guards on entering his cell, found him dead, lying partly on his bed, bathed in blood, his left arm above the elbow disfigured with a terrible gash. Alone in his cell, he had done the fearful deed, and his soul had in silence passed away, let us hope, forgiven even after the commission of the act at which humanity shudders. Who knows but in that dreadful agony which preceded and followed the fatal blow, his soul may have been purified and forgiven.
The exports of treasure during the month of May, amounted to $4,575,408. In shipping the arrivals amounted to 38,789 tuns. Thus the great oracles of wealth still poured their current through the heart of the State, although the business of the city had nearly reached a stand-still. Gold came and went, ships came, discharged, spread their white wings and departed. Goods came, were landed, disposed of, some here, the freight paid somehow, and remittances for them made, although the general report and conversation was that, there was no business doing. Indeed little else was discussed except the subject of the Vigilance Committee, and with many, their relations with it superceded all other occupations.
On the fourth of June the Proclamation of Governor Johnson appeared in the newspapers, together with the General Orders of Gen. Sherman. By the Governor's Proclamation the County of San Francisco was declared in a state of insurrection, and the Militia of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Divisions were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to operate for suppressing the insurrection. Gen. Sherman's orders called for volunteers, and enlistments began in various parts of the city and
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in other places. Some companies were mustered into the service of the State. Meanwhile the Committee put their head-quarters in a state of defense, erected a breastwork of gunny-bags filled with sand, in front, planted cannon inside, made an arsenal, armory and fort of the building itself, kept guards day and night on the breastwork, on the roof, at the entrances, and took every precaution against a surprise, as well as for defense in case of attack. Enlistments and drills during this time, were progressing under the Law and Order party, and many anticipated battle and bloodshed.
In the midst of all this excitement a new Bulkhead project was brought before the Council, and passed before the Aldermen, in the face of a most unequivocal condemnation by the press and the public. However it was arrested in its course by an injunction upon the Board of Assistant Aldermen, and thus defeated. It would scarcely have passed that body even without the injunction. Gen. Sherman tendered his resignation on the ninth of June, and the Governor appointed Volney E. Howard in his stead. An effort was made by parties not connected with the Vigilance Committee, to bring about an understanding between the Governor and the Committee, the withdrawal of His Excellency's Proclamation, and a settlement of the exciting Vigilance question. The attempt failed. Abont the same time the Address of the Committee to the public was published. On the tenth, eleventh and fourteenth, large numbers of people assembled in public meetings to express their sentiments upon the exciting questions of the time. At the date last named, the meeting was called for an expression of feeling by those sympathizing with the purposes of the Committee, although not belonging to the organization. It was a very large assemblage, at which several prominent lawyers made addresses, approving the acts and purposes of the Committee, a sentiment which was indorsed by the meeting in a series of resolutions. Sometime previons there had been held a large meeting on the Plaza by those opposing tbe Committee, at which strong gronnd was taken in favor of the constitution, laws, courts, trial by jury, right of the writ of habeas corpus, and as which the Committee was severely denounced. By the twentieth of the month that organization claimed to have six thousand enrolled members and four thousand muskets. This was doubtless an exaggeration. But that they were strong in men and arms could not be doubted. An occasion was near at hand when this was to be made manifest.
On the twenty-first of June an attempt was made by a party of the police force of the Committee, under the command of a person named Hopkins, to' arrest J. R. Moloney. In doing so, Hopkins and Judge Terry of the Supreme Court, came in collision, and during the scuffle, which ensued, Hopkins was stabbed in the neck by the Judge. Moloney, Judge Terry and the rest of their party took refuge in the armory on the corner of Dupont and Jackson Streets, near which the struggle had taken place. Immediately the armory was besieged by members of the Committee. In a very short time that organization appeared in the streets in squads, companies and battalions, armed, and in a very little while all the armories of the Law and Order party, were surrounded, and commanded by infantry, horse and artillery. The persons of Judge Terry and his companions were. demanded, and after some delay, there being no chance of making available resistance, they surrendered prisoners. All the arms in the armory were likewise taken possession of by the Committee's
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forces. All the persons found in the other armories were likewise taken prisoners, and together with the arms taken to the Committee Rooms. All opposition to the Committee in the city, seemed now powerless.
The arrest of Judge Terry and the circumstances which led to and attended it created a perfect furor. The embers and flames were lashed into a sea of fire. Both sides were raging, one demanding the destruction of the Committee and the release of Terry, many of the other party calling for his execution. In the midst of all this excitement, the Executive of the Committee commenced the trial of Judge Terry. It was long and tedious to all parties. The doubt which for a long time existed as to Hopkins' chance of recovery, upon which it seemed to be generally conceded, the life of Terry hung, was very exciting to the public, very painful to the friends of the Judge. Hopkins eventually recovered, Terry's trial was finally euded, he was declared guilty of some of the charges preferred, but was nevertheless unconditionally discharged by the Committee on the seventh of August, with an expression that he ought to resign his position of Judge. Previous to this time, viz: on the twenty- fourth of July, Dr. Andrew Randall had been shot in the bar-room of the St. Nicholas Hotel, by one Hetherington who had repeatedly threatened to take his life. Dr. Randall lingered one or two days in an unconscious condition, when he died. The killing was a cool, predetermined murder. The Committee arrested Hetherington, tried him, pronounced him guilty, and condemned him to death. He had some years before killed Dr. Baldwin under circumstances of great barbarity. On the thirtieth of July, Hetherington, and one Brace, who had been a party nearly two years before, to the murder of Capt. West near the Mission, and who was supposed subsequently to have murdered his companion in the crime, one Marion, in Alameda County, were taken from their rooms by the Committee, to a scaffold erected in Davis Street, and there executed by hanging. On the scaffold Hetherington was cool and self-possessed, and attempted to make a speech, but was soon interrupted by Brace, whose expressions and conduct were of the most shocking nature possible to be conceived. Total depravity seemed virtue compared with his moral perceptions, and character, as illustrated by himself on that fearful platform.
On the eighteenth of August the Vigilance Committee appeared in force at a Grand Parade and Review, preparatory to a dissolution of the organization. About three thousand men appeared under arms, formed in line, were reviewed by their officers and the Executive Committee, and afterward paraded through the principal streets of the city. This was their last appearance as an organized force, in public. Soon afterward their rooms were opened to the public, and many thousands visited them. At one period afterward it was feared that they would again be assembled for the purpose of rescuing two of their number from the operations of the law. Messrs. Durkee and Rand had been indicted by the U. S. Grand Jury for piracy, in taking forcibly from a small vessel in the bay, in obedience to the orders of the Committee, certain arms belonging to the State, on their way to the city. They were tried, and acquitted on the eleventh of September, and thus for the present all fears of a collision between them and the authorities passed away.
Since then few things worthy of particular notice, have occurred. Nearly all other subjects of discussion and interest, have been submerged in the excitement of politics. The candidates, the platforms, the parties, their principles, their calculations
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and their abuse of each other form the principal staple of current discussion, and little relief can be anticipated ere the election in November.
After the preceding paragraph was written, a vile act was committed which deserved and received the reprobation of all correct minds. On the morning of Sunday, October fifth, an effigy of Rev. Dr. Scott, Pastor of Calvary Church was found suspended by the neck in front of that place of worship. Dr. Scott had seen fit to express his opinions in regard to certain events that had taken place in the city, and it is supposed that in consequence this wanton outrage, which disgraced no one except its cowardly perpetrators, was committed. To hang a man in effigy, by daylight, is but a poor, weak, and contemptible way of expressing the vilest of the malignant passions. An act of the kind is doubly despicable when done as was this, like a theft, or robbery, in the dark, by persons lost to all decency, except the shame of letting their personalities be known. Such a deed ranks with writing abusive anonymous letters, poisoning of cisterns, or using the dagger in a dark alley. The result of this act has been to crowd the Reverend gentleman's Church since then, with greater congregations than filled it before. Oppression and persecution are not suited to the sentiments of a free people.
The arrivals of passengers during the first three-quarters of the present year have reached 23,511, the departures 15,905, leaving an addition to the population of 7,606. This is a small increase from that source. The necessity of an avenue from the Eastern States overland by means of a railroad, is evident in this fact, as in many others. California and San Francisco cannot expect an equal share with their sister States and cities, of the emigration from the Atlantic States, while only the present facilities exist. Around Cape Horn, and over the plains are too long, as well as too expensive. By steamship across two oceans and over the territory of a foreign, half-civilized nation, territory at all times subject to dangerous diseases, epidemic and contagious, and to the dangers of warfare and riots, is not only a passage of risk and accident, but of still too much time, and far too expensive for those very classes which the city and the country most particularly, need, the laboring, honest men of moderate means, who have families to bring, with whom a few hundred dollars are the result of as many years toil; and the month spent on the journey is an additional loss not easy to be borne. To a railroad uniting the Pacific and Atlantic territories, must the public of this city and the State look as the only reliable route through which the broad, rich lands of the State are to be peopled and made productive, manufactories erected, and the whole country, city and State, placed on a basis of permanent prosperity, such as by nature they seem entitled to enjoy.
The operations of the Mint, for the last two years, and the first three-quarters of the present, show the following total results of the coinage. In 1854, over nine millions of dollars, more than five and a half millions of which were in bars. In 1855, over twenty-one and a half millions, three and one-third millions and over being in bars. During the current year the coinage has been nearly twenty-four millions, of which bars have a little exceeded three millions. During the last and present years, the coinage of silver has averaged about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars, exhibiting a small annual increase. The total of coinage for the three years exceeds fifty-five millions of dollars. At times the operations of the Mint have been very much impeded by a scarcity of acids. This, added to the
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inadequate size of the Mint, lias curtailed the amount of the coinage. Yet it has reached a figure sufficient to warrant in the estimation of all reasonable men, the construction of a much larger and more commodious building.
Thus in as limited space as possible, a sketch of the history of San Francisco has been given. The theme is one upon which the writer could delight to linger, full as it is of most stirring incidents, phases of life and colorings of character, to be found in real life, perhaps no where else. ,But time for this, was limited, as intimated in the preface; and besides, in such a rushing community as ours, he who would be read, must make his writings short. Those who have watched for six or seven years, the city's growth, physically, morally and socially, scarcely need the aid of what has here been written. But to the stranger, and him whose residence here dates but recently, the facts stated will serve to give a general, and as nearly as possible, correct idea of the origin, growth and importance of a young American city, destined yet to be the grand metropolis of the Pacific, rivaling perhaps in riches and renown the great ones of antiquity, the greater ones of modern times.
GENERAL REVIEW.
WE purpose in the following pages to give a | pline etc., with the complete control of the re- brief glance at the principal public institutions, and many of the private establishments of San Francisco, with such details as we may deem of interest or a reference to the pages of this work where the same may be found.
As first in importance and public estimation, we shall commence with the subject of
Education and the Public Schools.
From the earliest period at which this Depart- ment attracted public attention in San Francisco, it has properly been deemed one of its most im- portant interests, and though sometimes ineffi- ciently, has always been better sustained than any other branch of the city government. It has been deemed the pride of our metropolis, and with commendable liberality its citizens have cheerfully paid the self-imposed and heavy taxa- tion required for its support.
The salaries allowed Teachers have been as generous as circumstances would allow, and their payment, though sometimes long delayed, has always been finally provided for.
Our subsequent remarks will exhibit the Schools in a prosperous state, so far as the disci- pline and system is concerned; but requiring a persistent and judicious economy in the manage- ment of the resources of the department, to pre- serve its efficiency and protect it from fearful pecuniary embarrassment.
For the present high character of the depart- ment, it is in no small measure indebted to Jno. C. Pelton, Esq., the present worthy Superintend- ent, who as the pioneer in the Free School en- terprise in this city and State, gave it a pro- gressive impulse, which it still maintains.
The system of administration is in many res- pects similar to those of Boston or New York. There is a Superintendent, chosen by the people at large, and a Board of School Directors, con- sisting of one from each election district elected once in two years. To this Board is confided the entire management of the Schools, appoint- ment of Teachers, selection of studies, disci-
sources assigned by law for the support of the schools. Within their appropriate sphere the Board of Education is independent of, and in no way accountable to, any other branch of the government.
The resources of the Board of Education are derived from a tax of thirty-five cents on each one hundred dollars-the maximum allowed by law-and the sum received from the Treasury as . the pro rata of this county from the income of the State school fund. From both these sources there will be realized, the coming fiscal year, about $102,000-a sum entirely inadequate to sustain the present scale of expenditure, and meet the appropriations for the sinking fund, chargeable upon the revenue. The citizens in addition to the heavy taxation with which they are burdened, authorized a loan deemed to be ample for the objects contemplated, and they now, perhaps justly, require from the Board such application of the annual revenue as will gradu- ally liquidate the debt, without the substitution of another.
The city, principally through the loan referred to, is the owner of four school house sites and buildings, viz :- The Union Street School-a brick house, well constructed and admirably adapted to its purposes. About four hundred pupils in the Grammar, Intermediate and Prima- ry Departments under the charge of Wm. Ham- mell, Esq., as Principal, attend this school; the commodious brick at the corner of Francisco and Stockton Streets, is occupied in the same manner, and has nearly the same number of scholars, F. E. Dunne, Esq., Principal ; the brick building at the corner of Stockton and Bush Streets, Jas. Denman, Esq., Principal, with about three hun- dred pupils in the different departments; and the school house at the Laguna, with about two hundred pupils in the several divisions, J. C. Morrell, Esq., Principal ;- the latter, although the first owned by the city, is the smallest and most inconvenient of all.
Tl ;re is in addition to the above named, ten
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REVIEW.
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buildings leased for school purposes, in three of which are taught Grammar Schools, to wit :- The Powell Street School, formerly occupied by the San Francisco Academy, accommodates a Grammar and Intermediate Schools numbering about three hundred children, A. Holmes, Esq., temporary Principal. The Primary Department of this school occupies a frame building on Washington Street, used in 1849 by J. C. Pelton, Esq., (now Superintendent,) who established the first public school on the Pacific Coast. The
school thus established, now known as the Pow- ell Street School, has continued to be a most flourishing and important one. The school on Hampton Place, Jno. Swett, Esq., Principal, with about four hundred pupils in all the departments. The school at the Nonantum House, Mission Street, H. P. Carlton, Esq., Principal-this being badly located and not well attended will proba- -bly be discontinued. There is also the Union Grammar, or High School, in the building on Powell Street, heretofore known as Doct. Bor- ring's Church. About ninety pupils promoted from the grammar schools attend this school; M. E. Holmes is the Principal. Considerable dis- satisfaction has heen expressed in regard to the establishment of this school, and earnest efforts will be made to discontinue it, which aided by the necessity for retrenchment, will perhaps be successful. The Board here recently established an Evening School, which is certainly equal in importance to any of the others; it is attended by about three hundred young men and boys, ranging from thirty down to ten years of age, dis- qualified by age or prevented by their daily avo- cations from attending the day schools. A small monthly payment secures to the former the ad- vantages of the very liberal course of studies prescribed at this institution.
The whole number of pupils in attendance at the public schools is near four thousand, consist- ing of about equal numbers of each sex. By the School Law pupilage is from four to eighteen years of age.
It has been observed by persons competent to form an opinion on the subject, that the pupils of our public schools evince an extraordinary dis- position and a ready facility in the acquisition of knowledge and exhibit a degree of proficiency in the various studies pursued, certainly not sur- passed if equaled in any other city of the Union. While on this subject, we avail ourselves of the remarks of a talented female Teacher, whose ample experience, in other fields favorable for
observation, lends great weight to her conclu- sions, she says :- "One peculiar feature to be marked in the children attending these schools is their healthful appearance. Their robust propor- tions, clear complexions, and excess of animal spirits, give full evidence that the bracing climate of San Francisco is highly favorable to the growth and development of the physical nature of child- ren, and if properly trained, the mind, from very sympathy, must be susceptible of large culture, giving fair promise for the future of California. Perhaps in no city in any part of the world are there children brought together with such di- versity of habits, creeds, thoughts and feelings, but with the ready adaptation and quick assimi- lation of childhood these destructive traits grad- ually pass away, they catch the impress of the prevailing tone and when they enter upon the responsible duties of life, will prove themselves Americans in heart and Americans in action. All ranks in society send their children to these schools, hence, if for no other reason, they should be exalted to the highest point of excellence, that the rich and the poor may alike, draw their intellectual sustenance from the same fountain. How important, then, that the teachers should be experienced, competent and responsible, that the instruction imparted be solid and practical, and that morality and refinement here find a place."
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