USA > California > Monterey County > History and biographical record of Monterey and San Benito Counties : and history of the State of California : containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present. Volume I > Part 39
USA > California > San Benito County > History and biographical record of Monterey and San Benito Counties : and history of the State of California : containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present. Volume I > Part 39
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On the eastern side the towns of San Leandro and Haywards that were badly damaged in the earthquake of 1868 escaped this last temblor unharmed. Santa Clara, Gilroy and Salinas suf- fered in about the same proportion as San Jose.
At Monterey the Del Monte hotel was injured by the falling of the chimneys through the roof. Two persons, a bridal couple from Arizona, were killed by the falling of a chimney.
Hollister, Napa and Santa Cruz suffered con- siderable damage. The greatest loss of life at any public institution occurred at the Agnews In- sane Asylum. It contained ten hundred and eighty-eight patients, besides physicians, nurses and attendants ; of these, as nearly as can be as- certained, one hundred and ten inmates and em- ployes were killed. The buildings were entirely destroyed. The inmates who escaped injury were housed in tents and guards stationed around the inclosure to keep them from running away. Temporary buildings were at once constructed. There was no loss of life or property south of Monterey. The shock throughout the southern part of the state was very slight.
LOS ANGELES.
The only settlement under Mexican domina- tion that attained the dignity of a ciudad, or city, was Los Angeles. Although proclaimed a city by the Mexican Congress more than ten years before the Americans took possession of the coun- try, except in official documents it was usually spoken of as el pueblo-the town. Its popula- tion at the time of its conquest by the Americans numbered about sixteen hundred. The first leg- . islature gave it a city charter, although fifteen
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years before it had been raised to the dignity of a city ; the lawmakers for some reason cut down its area from four square leagues to four square miles. This did not affect its right to its pueblo lands. After the appointment of a land commis- sion, in 1851, it laid claim to sixteen square leagues, but failed to substantiate its claim. Its pueblo area of four square leagues (Spanish) was confirmed to it by the commission. Within the past seven years, by annexation, its area has been increased from the original four square leagues or about twenty-seven miles, to thirty-seven square miles. Its increase in population during the past twenty years has been the greatest of any. of the large cities of the state. In 1880 it had 11,183 inhabitants; in 1890, 50,353; in 1900, 102,429. Its growth since 1900 has exceeded that of any similar period in its history. Its estimated population January, 1908, is 300,000.
Many influences have contributed to the growth and advancement of the city, not the least of which has been the excellent transportation ser- vice developed in the Pacific Electric System. The first attempt to introduce the trolley car in Los Angeles was a failure, and the promoter, How- land, died in poverty. Later, other ventures to provide suitable transportation were made, though none was successfully launched until 1892, when the Los Angeles Electric Railroad system was inaugurated. The first line con- structed was that on West Second, Olive, First and other streets to Westlake Park. The prop- erty owners on the line of the road gave a sub- sidy of $50,000 to the promoters. When H. E. Huntington bought the controlling interest in the Los Angeles Electric Railway the building of a system of suburban and interurban railways to the different cities and towns contiguous to Los Angeles was begun. The road to Long Beach was completed in 1902, to Monrovia in 1903, and to Whittier the same year. The seven-story Hunt- ington building, at the corner of Sixth and Main streets, the entrepot of all Huntington interur- ban lines, was completed in 1903. These im- provements, together with the extension of new street car lines in the city, stimulated the real estate market and brought about a rapid advance in values. Lots on South Main street, held at
$100 per front foot in 1900, sold five years later at $1,500, and frontage on South Hill street valued at $200 a front foot in 1901, sold in 1906 at $2,500. Real estate contiguous to the busi- ness district, but still residence property, had ad- vanced in value in five years from one thousand to twelve hundred per cent.
OAKLAND.
The site of the city of Oakland was discovered by the Spaniards in 1772, when a brave band of explorers set out to find the lost bay of San Francisco.
The first official survey of Oakland in 1853 es- tablished the boundaries at Fourteenth street on the north, Oakland creek on the south, the slough which now is Lake Merritt on the east, and on the west a line three hundred feet west of West street. The enclosed area was divided into blocks "200x300 feet in dimension, with streets eighty feet in width with the exception of the main street, one hundred and ten feet wide. Six blocks were reserved for parks. Oakland was incorporated March 25, 1854. H. W. Carpentier was the first mayor.
Since 1880 the city has been extended toward the foothills, and laid out with regularity. The streets have been effectively paved, and constant attention given them. Large amounts of money have been expended for sidewalks, sewers have been kept in serviceable condition, and parks beautified.
The first newspaper, the Contra Costa, was established in the fall of 1854 by S. M. Clarke, though the first devoted solely to Oakland's in- terests was the Leader, edited by H. Davison, founded in the spring of 1854 and printed in San Francisco. The Oakland Journal, a German weekly, was started in 1875. Oakland now sup- ports two daily papers, the Tribune and the Enquirer.
The city is well situated for manufacturing purposes, with its harbor facilities, its three trans- continental railways, and the settlement for all time of the city's complete ownership of the water front.
Oakland has eighteen banks, with an author- ized capital of $3,495,100. The total paid in
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capital is $2,188,007 ; the deposits for June, 1908, totaled $38,561,051.35. The institutions that oc- cupy their own buildings are the Central Bank, the Union Savings, the Oakland Bank of Sav- ings, and the First National, the last two named having completed modern structures in 1908.
The Board of Trade was started in 1886, and became the Chamber of Commerce in 1901. The Merchants Exchange was organized in 1895.
The advancement of needed reforms and up- building of the city are being carried through successfully. The final settlement in September, 1908, of all waterfront litigation, gave Oakland possession of her tide lands. Modern business blocks have been erected, also elegant residences, theaters, and hotels, among the latter being St. Marks, completed in 1908; the Claremont, in the Claremont hills, nearing completion ; Bankers, to occupy a square block when completed, and which will compare with any in the west ; Arcade, opened in May, 1908; The Key Route Inn, Hotel Metropole and Athens. The extension of the street railway, known as the Oakland Traction Company, into the suburban sections, is opening up fine residential districts, bringing the city in close connection with Piedmont, Berkeley, the sections about Fruitvale and other new settle- nients. The expansion of the Key Route service, and steam lines of the Southern Pacific, nearly ready to change to electricity, now in operation, giving rapid and safe transportation to and from San Francisco, together with the tendency to- ward clean, independent municipal government makes Oakland, with her rapidly increasing population (estimated in 1908 at 265,000 in her own limits), an ideal home city, as well as an excellent business location, second to none on the Pacific coast.
BERKELEY.
In 1820 the present site of Berkeley formed a part of a grant given to Don Luis Peralta by Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola, and was trans- ferred in 1842 to his son, José Domingo Peralta, when Don Luis partitioned the grant. In 1852 came the first three American farmers in Oak- land township, F. K. Shattuck, W. Hillegass, and G. M. Blake, who began farming on the present
site of Berkeley. Not a house was in sight from where they pitched their tents. Years later, with Rev. Henry Durant, these three men labored to have that spot selected for the site of the University of California buildings and campus. On March 1, 1858, the trustees of the College of California, destined to grow into the great university, accepted a site of over two hundred acres, on the western slope of the Contra Costa hills, for a permanent location, in what is now Berkeley.
In 1878, by a special act of the legisla- ture, Berkeley town was incorporated. With- in the ten years since the coming of the university in 1868, had grown up the little city. The first university buildings on the slopes looked down upon a small village known as Ocean View, later called West Berkeley, while the cluster of houses close around the university became known as East Berkeley, and comprised the first incorporated town. A superior class of citizens had begun to settle there when the uni- versity was established in its permanent home.
In 1891 the limits of Berkeley were extended by the annexation of Ocean View. Other terri- tory was annexed by general elections in 1892, 1906 and 1908, in the last year stated the first public park being created by the acquisition of the old Indian burial ground. In 1893 Berkeley had become a town of the fifth class under the gen- eral laws of the state, and a freeholders' charter was adopted in 1895, with a subsequent amend- ment in 1905.
The growth of the city has been rapid ; in 1908 it had an estimated population of over 35,000. In that year was completed a town hall at a cost of more than $150,000, the new high school, worth about as much, having been completed about three years before. The new Polytechnic high school was begun in the fall of 1907, on property bought near the high school. On account of the shipping facilities, including the new wharf on the west front, dedicated in 1908, several manufacturing concerns are being established in Berkeley. A heavy retail business is carried on in West Berkeley, and in the heart of central Berkeley. The banking facilities are adequate and the institutions are well capitalized
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and in a flourishing condition and rank high among those of the state. Transportation is afforded by two transcontinental railroads, a net- work of electric street car lines, and two suburban systems operating between San Francisco and Berkeley.
The University of California, the pride of all Californians, and one of the ranking institutions of the world, has had a phenomenal growth since its inception. It was instituted by an act of the legislature on March 23, 1868. The in- struction was begun in Oakland in 1869 and commencement held July 16, 1873, in Berkeley. The College of California, which was started in 1855 in Oakland by Rev. Henry Durant, was donated to the state and became a college of letters of the university in 1869, being trans- ferred at that time; and through that college the = university became possessed of some valuable property in Oakland. In 1873 the university was removed to the Berkeley property, where buildings erected by the state were .com- pleted. The institution continued to grow from that time, developing its possessions, and making a foundation for its future. The years from 1878 to 1890 were a period of remarka- ble growth in the university, and of close financial stress because of the inadequacy of state support. During those years the Lick As- tronomical department was given by James Lick; the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art was given; J. C. Wilmerding gave the Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts; Stiles hall was given for the use of the university Christian societies by Mrs. A. J. Stiles ; and an exhibit was sent to the Mid-Winter fair, from which the university greatly benefited. Scholarships given by Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst were bestowed, and the Har- mon gymnasium was donated.
From 1895 to 1900 new buildings were erected, these being the Botany, Philosophy and Agri- cultural buildings, and East Hall. In the same period the Hearst Mining Memorial building was. begun.
In 1905 the state appropriated $150,000 for a state university farm, which is located on seven hundred and eighty acres of land near Davis- ville, Yolo county, the citizens buying and donat-
ing to the university the water rights. In 1906 the San Francisco fire of April 18 destroyed the Hopkins Institute of Art and most of its treas- ures, an irreparable loss. In 1908 Clarence W. Mackay gave $100,000 to build the new building for the college of mechanics, which was estab- lished in 1875.
The administration of the university and its finances is in the hands of a corporation known as the Regents of the University of California, consisting of the governor, lieutenant-governor, speaker of the assembly, state superintendent of public instruction, president of the State Agri- cultural Society, president of the Mechanics In- stitute of San Francisco, and the president of the university, all ex-officio; and the sixteen other members, appointees of the governor. Out of the proceeds of the sale of tide lands in the city and county of San Francisco, $200,000 was ap- propriated for the benefit of the university. Its resources are : The Seminary fund and Public building fund granted by Congress to the state; property received from the College of California, including the Berkeley site; funds derived from the Congressional land grant of July 2, 1862; tide land funds appropriated by the state; vari- ous appropriations by the legislature for speci- fied purposes ; State University fund created by the Vrooman act, of a perpetual endowment from the state tax, of one cent on each $100 of as- sessed valuation; endowment fund of the Lick astronomical department; United States experi- ment station of $1.500 a year ; and gifts of in- dividuals. The colleges of dentistry, medicine and pharmacy are supported by moderate fees from students ; the college of law has a separate endowment; and there is also a military depart- ment in the charge of an officer of the United States army. The university has the second largest library in the state, containing collections of fine arts ; and classical archeological museums, classified and distributed by departments. It also has complete laboratories and a gymnasium. The presidents of this institution from the date of founding to the present time were as follows: Henry Durant, D. C. Gilman, John LeConte, Horace Davis, Martin Kellogg, and since 1899, Benjamin Ide Wheeler.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
ALAMEDA.
Alameda township was constituted in 1854 by a special act of the legislature. In covered a peninsula four and one-half miles long, by three- quarters to one and one-half miles wide, and con- tained about twenty-two hundred acres. The same legislature passed a special act incorporating the town of Encinal, but the population being in- sufficient, no town government was organized un- der this law until the next year.
By a special act of the legislature March 7, 1872, the town of Alameda was incorporated with the township boundaries. The act was amended in 1874 because of the growing needs of the town, and again in 1876; and in 1878 a re-incor- poration act was passed. In 1884 under the gen- eral laws of the state, Alameda became a city of the fifth class. No further changes were made in the form of municipal government until 1906, when a model freeholders' charter was adopted.
In 1876 the town was divided into wards, a town hall erected and the next year the sewer sys- tem was begun and continned until 1885, when the present system was adopted. The fire de- partment, organized as a volunteer department in 1876, and made a paid department in 1885, has gradually kept abreast of the growing condi- tions. The city government began the macadam- izing of the streets in 1875, and the same year the first high school building was erected, and retained in use until 1899, when the present costly brick structure replaced it.
Soon after Alameda had been made a city of the fifth class, the Federal government became in- terested in the improvement of the harbor. Dredging, which since has been prosecuted at a total expenditure of $3,000,000, was begun. The isthmus which connected Alameda to the main land was severed; a steel drawbridge was built across the canal on Park street by the United States government in 1892. The estuary, as San Antonio creek has come to be known, was con- tinued by a tidal canal to San Leandro bay, which was deepened into a tidal basin. This project, which made an island of Alameda, was com- pleted in 1902, and was celebrated by the citizens
of the island city in a Mardi Gras on the shore of the new waterway. Private capital followed the government, by the reclaiming of marsh lands for manufacturing sites. Many firms have been attracted to the city.
The place is naturally healthy. A superb sys- tem of municipal lighting is in operation ; pure artesian water for domestic purposes comes from a series of wells that were constructed at a cost of nearly $500,000 by private individuals ; thousands of substantial, and many of them beau- tiful, homes have been built; business blocks of considerable size have been erected ; the public school system equals that of any city in the state, consisting of the high school, evening school, parental school, and eight grammar schools. The city supports a fine free library ; churches of nearly every denomination have been provided ; hospitals and private sanitariums are maintained; the police department is efficient ; banking facilities are adequate and well capi- talized; street car service is excellent, supple- mented by the Southern Pacific broad and nar- row gauge systems, traversing the entire penin- sula. Alameda supports a full company of the National Guard of California. The city is an ideal residence place, with a population of about twenty-five thousand, famed for the upright char- acter of her citizenship-patriotic, home-loving people, jealous of the fair name of their city in the world of industry and politics.
SACRAMENTO.
Sutter built his fort near the junction of the Sacramento and American rivers in 1839. It was then the most northerly settlement in Cali- fornia and became the trading post for the north- ern frontier. It was the outpost to which the tide of overland immigration flowed before and after the discovery of gold. Sutter's settle- ment was also known as New Helvetia. After the discovery of gold at Coloma it was, during 1848, the principal supply depot for the mines. Sutter had a store at the fort and did a thriving business. Sam Brannan, in June, 1848, estab- lished a store outside of the fort, in a long adobe building. His sales amounted to over $100,000 a month. His profits were enormous. Gold
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
dust was a drug on the market aud at one time passed for $8 an ounce, less than half its value. In September, 1848, Priest, Lee & Co. estab- lished a business house at the fort and did an immense business. The fort was not well lo- cated for a commercial center. It was too far away from the river by which all the freight from San Francisco was shipped. The land at the embarcadero was subject to overflow and was deemed unsuited for the site of a city. Sut- terville was laid out on rising ground three miles below. A survey of lots was extended from the fort to the embarcadero and along the river bank. This embryo town at the embarcadero took the name of Sacramento from the river. Then began a rivalry between Sutterville and Sacramento. The first house in Sacramento, corner of Front and I streets, was erected in January, 1849. The proprietors of Sutterville, McDougall & Co., made an attempt to attract trade and building to their town by giving away lots, but Sutter beat them at that game, and Sacramento surged ahead. Sam Brannan and Priest, Lee & Co. moved their stores into Sac- ramento. The fort was deserted and Sutterville ceased to contend for supremacy. In four months lots had advanced from $50 to $1,000 and business lots to $3,000. A regular steam- boat service on the river was inaugurated in August, 1849, and sailing vessels that had come around the Horn to avoid trans-shipment worked their way up the river and landed their goods at the embarcadero. The first number of the Placer Times was issued April 28, 1849. The steamboat rates of passage between San Fran- cisco and Sacramento were: Cabin, $30; steer- age, $20; freight $2.50 per one hundred pounds. By the winter of 1849 the population of the town had reached five thousand and a year later it had doubled. Lots in the business section were held at $30,000 to $50,000 each. The great flood of 1849-50, when four-fifths of the city was under water, somewhat dampened the enthusi- asm of the citizens, but did not check the growth of the city. Sacramento became the trading center of the mines. In 1855 its trade, princi- pally with the mines, amounted to $6,000,000.
It was also the center of the stage lines, a dozen of which led out from it.
It became the state capital in 1853, and al- though disastrous floods drove the legislators from the capital several times, they returned when the waters subsided. The great flood of 1861-62 inundated the city and compelled an immense outlay for levees and for raising the grades of the streets. Sacramento was made the terminus of the Central Pacific Railroad sys- tem, and its immense workshops are located there. Its growth for the past thirty years has been slow but steady. Its population in 1890' was 26,386: in 1900, 29,282.
SAN JOSE.
· The early history of San José has been given in the chapter on Pueblos. After the American conquest the place became an important busi- ness center. It was the first state capital and the removal of the capital for a time checked its. progress. In 1864 it was connected with San- Francisco by railroad. The completion of the railroad killed off its former port, Alviso, which had been laid out as a city in 1849. Nearly all the trade and travel before the railroad was built had gone by way of Alviso down the bay to San Francisco. San José and its suburb, Santa Clara, early became the educational centers of California. The first American college founded in the state was located at Santa Clara and the first normal school building erected in the state- was built at San José. The population of Sau José in 1880 was 12,570; in 1900, 21,500.
STOCKTON.
In 1844 the Rancho Campo de los Franceses,. Camp of the French, or French Camp, on which the city of Stockton is located, was granted to William Gulnac by Governor Micheltorena. It contained eleven leagues of 48.747 acres of land. Capt. Charles M. Weber, the founder of Stock- ton, was a partner of Gulnac, but not being a. Mexican citizen, he could not obtain a land grant. After Gulnac obtained the grant he con- veved a half interest in it to Weber. Weber shortly afterwards purchased his partner's inter- est and became sole owner of the grant. Some.
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attempts were made to stock it with cattle, but Indian depredations prevented it. In 1847, after the country had come into the possession of the Americans, Weber removed from San Jose, which had been his place of residence since his arrival in California in 1841, and located on his ranch at French Camp. He erected some huts for his vaqueros and fortified his corral against Indians. In 1848 the site of the city was sur- veyed and platted under the direction of Captain Weber and Maj. R. P. Hammond. The rancho was surveyed and sectionized and land offered on most advantageous terms to settlers. Cap- tain Weber was puzzled to find a fitting name for his infant metropolis. He hesitated between Tuleburgh and Castoria (Spanish for beaver). Tules were plentiful and so were beaver, but as the town grew both would disappear, so he finally selected Stockton, after Commodore Stockton, who promised to be a godfather to the town, but proved to be a very indifferent step-father ; he never did anything for it. The discovery of gold in the region known as the southern mines brought Stockton into promi- mence and made it the metropolis of the south- ern mining district. Captain Weber led the party that first discovered gold on the Mokelumne river. The freight and travel to the mines on the Mokelumne, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers passed through Stockton, and its growth was rapid. In October, 1849, the Alta California reports lots in it selling from $2,500 to $6,000 each, according to situation. At that time it had a population of about one thousand souls and a floating population, that is, men coming and going to the mines, of about as many more. The houses were mostly cotton-lined shacks. Lum- ber was $I a foot and carpenters' wages $16 per day. There was neither mechanics nor mate- rial to build better structures. Every man was his own architect and master builder. Cloth was scarce and high and tacks at one time were worth $5 a package; even a cloth house was no cheap affair, however flimsy and cheap it might appear. On the morning of December 23. 1849, the business portion of the town was swept out of existence by fire. Rebuilding was begun al- most before the embers of the departed city
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