History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 79

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

Pacific Railroad, all three making their landings at the old tumble-down wharf at the foot of Broadway. The Chin-du-WVan carried passengers across for ten cents, and had a horrible instrument of torture, called a calliope, which went by steam and was played upon by turning a crank. This cross between a hand-organ and a steam-whistle went with forty thousand fog-horn power, and went at all hours of the day and night. Its services were popularly supposed to be efficacious against the " bloated monopoly," much as a Chinese tom-tom makes against the devil's machinations. It was exhila- rating to view the brave spectacle of the Chin-du-Wan, loaded down to the guards with passengers, move out from the wharf, its automatic brass band playing its one tune, whose pianissimos, even, smote upon the ear at a distance of five miles, and whose " ffo" aroused the dogs of two whole townships. At such times the Louise or her consort would creep forth from her berth with usually not enough of passengers to keep her captain from nearly dying of loneliness. One paid five cents to cross on the Louise. The rivals invariably raced, and the Chin-du-Wan invariably got left. To be beat never troubled the calliope voice, and, though distanced, the discordant hobgoblin always played its song of triumph. After a while the Chin-du-Wan was put on the Stockton route, and the people of the city of the tules cannot have forgot- ten their sensations when the calliope gave forth its notes on the vessel's first arrival in the slough, at two o'clock in the morning. The sleep-destroying monster never became popular in that town, perhaps because of a too close trenching upon the religious scruples in favor of Gabriel and his trumpet.

The S. M. Whipple, also a stern-wheeler, did service on the creek route for a while, and received as a legacy the calliope. But the novelty of the thing was gone, and the machine came to be regarded as a nuisance; as indeed it was.

Let us now conclude the official acts of the Board of Trustees during the year 1852. On May 12th of that year an ordinance (No. I) was passed, fixing the time and place of holding their stated meetings; on May 26th, Ordinance No. 4, providing for the protection of oyster-beds within the corporate limits, and Ordinance No. 5, prohibiting the taking of oysters at certain seasons, were passed, thus early establish- ing a proper care for the luscious bivalve.

1853 .- The first subject to which we will turn our attention in the year 1853 is that which comes under the head of the city, its streets, bridges, public highways, plazas, and such like. We have not the space to devote to the intricate action taken on the opening of each thoroughfare throughout the city; indeed such is unnecessary; it has therefore been thought that only the salient points in regard thereto should be mentioned.

On January 29, 1853, an ordinance was passed, consequent upon a petition received from the citizens, that all shade-trees should be protected under the fostering care of the Town Trustees; and on August 27th the stumps remaining on Broadway, after its being laid out as a thoroughfare, were directed to be removed; while on December 24th the road, as surveyed and located, one hundred feet wide and running from Broadway to Cerito and known as the "County Road," was declared to be a municipal highway to be called "Contra Costa Avenue."

Let us for a moment take a retrograde step and inform the reader of the manner

a. w. Bishop.

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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP-CITY OF OAKLAND.

in which the town of Oakland was started. While Carpentier was at work perfecting his water-front scheme, other parties were in negotiations with Vicente Peralta for the purchase of the ground on which the town is built. The transaction was completed March 3, 1852, and the property deeded by Peralta and his wife to John Clar, B. de la Barra, J. R. Irving, Col. John C. Hays, John Caperton, and Jacob A. Cost for the absurdly small sum of ten thousand dollars. The first named being the one with whom the contract was made, the others afterwards becoming interested in the prop- erty with him, a deed of partition was duly executed in August, 1853, setting off their respective portions to each, at the same time making an equal division of the town plot, within the limits surveyed earlier in the year by Julius Kellersberger. The orig- inal town is described as being within the south line of Fourteenth Street, and east of a line running parallel with and distant three hundred feet westerly from West Street, dividing the property into blocks of the uniform size of two hundred by three hun- dred feet, with streets eighty feet wide, excepting only Main Street, now Broadway, which is one hundred and ten feet wide. Six blocks of land were reserved for public squares. An extension of the streets was subsequently made to the northward and westward, at right angles with each other, from the line of high-tide on San Antonio Creek, those running north extending two hundred feet northerly of what is described as "the northern line of Thirteenth Street;" and those running westerly, from what was designated on the map as the westerly line of West Street.

On January 9, 1854, an ordinance providing for the better protection of shade- trees was passed; while on the same date an enactment was made whereby the bridge (a history of which will be found in the Legislative History, in the first part of this work) in the town of Oakland should be exempt from taxation.

By the Act entitled "An Act to Incorporate the City of Oakland," approved March 25, 1854, the town of Oakland ceased to be, and she was distinguished by civic honors. The boundaries were declared to be: "Northerly, by a straight line drawn at right angles with Broadway, formerly Main Street, in said city, crossing the extended line of Broadway three hundred and sixty rods northerly from where stood the 'Oak- land House,' on the northwest corner of Broadway and First Streets, and running from the bay of San Francisco, on the west, to the easterly or southeasterly line of that branch of the San Antonio Slough, or estuary, over which crosses the bridge from Oakland to Clinton; thence along the eastern and southern highest-tide line of said slough, and of the estuary of San Antonio, following all the meanderings thereof to the mouth of said estuary, in the bay of San Francisco; thence southwesterly to ship channel; thence northerly along the line of ship channel to a point where the same intersects the said northerly boundary line extending westerly: provided, that nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to prohibit or abridge the right of the Trustees of the town of Clinton and San Antonio, whenever the citizens thereof may elect to become a body corporate, under the provisions of any Act which may hereafter be passed, to provide for the construction of wharves and other improve- ments for the accommodation and convenience of the trade, travel, and commerce of the said towns or villages, at their respective sites." On April 29, 1854, Mayor Carpentier addressed to the City Council his first message. After stating to them that they have been called upon by the people of Oakland to conduct its municipal government, at a

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time, he says, "perhaps the most important and decisive in its whole history," he con- tinues: "You find yourselves, on one hand, clothed with extraordinary powers, and on the other, confined within the narrowest limits, under a charter singularly care- less in its provisions, and which affords but a doubtful security to the rights of prop- erty of citizens-a charter the errors of which, it is to be hoped, the more mature deliberation of the present, or the wisdom of a succeeding, Legislature will duly cor- rect.

"Aware of the efforts being made by the enemies of the town to lessen its resources and prostrate some of its most important interests, the people have elected you with a flattering unanimity to watch over their common interests during the ensu- ing year. And in taking office at such a period, you have assumed a responsible trust which I feel assured you will discharge both with credit to yourselves and advantage to the city. Under these circumstances I have thought proper to call your attention to such matters as I deem of present importance, and to recommend certain interests to your favorable consideration." He further states: "It is gratifying to witness the healthy vigor with which a number of villages are springing up around us. Between these and Oakland there can be no rivalry, and should be no jealousy. Our interests are common and identical, and after a short time will probably be united under one corporation.

"The chief ornament and attraction of this city consists doubtless in the magnifi- cent grove of evergreen oaks which covers its site, and from which it takes both its former name of 'Encinal' and its present one of 'Oakland.' Their preservation ought to be with you, as it shall be with me, a subject of peculiar care. In fact, the destruction of a single tree, on whose land soever it stands, should be considered a public injury. I recommend the passage of an ordinance for the protection of shade- trees, under the heaviest penalties authorized by the charter.

"There is no other city in California that can boast so wide and regular streets, or so numerous and beautiful parks as ours. The substantial and ornamental fence around Washington Square affords a gratifying evidence of correct taste, and I recom- mend that others of the public squares be inclosed and embellished at as early a day as the finances of the city will permit.

"In the opening of new streets, as from time to time this may become necessary, to meet the wants of our rapidly increasing population, it will, I think, be best to fol- low the plans of the old ones, both as to the width and direction, so that the city may not lose in this respect her invaluable characteristics of regularity and beauty. No city on earth has a more perfect grade than that which is natural to Oakland-a gentle slope from the center towards the waters of the bay-which almost surrounds it. The soil, too, is of so porous a quality as to afford sufficient drainage and entirely obviate the necessity for artificial drains and sewers. Here, then, in the items of grading, paving, drainage, and sewerage we have an immense saving of expenses, which are incident to most other cities, and which in San Francisco cost in some instances full fifty per cent. upon the value of property."

June 24, 1854, the Marshal was directed to clear Broadway of filth; and Mr. Kellersberger was ordered to run out Fourth, Seventh, Eighth, and Fourteenth Streets at right angles with the pre-emption claim of Mr. Hardy, and to mark the line.

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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP-CITY OF OAKLAND.

About this time it was attempted, by ordinance, to vary the original plan of Oak- land as regards its streets, which, had such been permitted, would have done much to make what is a beautiful city hideous in its outlines, therefore, on July 13th, the Mayor vetoed the ordinance and gave his reasons for so doing in the following able communication to the Council: "'An Ordinance concerning streets' is herewith returned without my approval. This ordinance provides that the streets running in an easterly and westerly direction shall be crooked from their course at acute and obtuse angles to coincide with certain private boundary lines which have neither certainty nor legal existence, and that a portion of the streets running northerly and southerly shall cut others which have the same general direction obliquely.

"The original plan of the city of Oakland is well calculated, if carried out, to make this the most regular and beautiful city on the Pacific Coast. The advantage to the city to be gained by a change in that plan, such as is proposed by the ordi- nance herewith returned, I am wholly unable to see, whilst the disadvantage that would result from it are to my mind clearly apparent.

"Acute and obtuse angles in a city are opposed alike to beauty and convenience, and a careful examination of the map of the city of Oakland will show that a system of straight, uniform, and rectangular streets following out the plan and direction of those that have heretofore been opened would be best calculated to avoid waste of land and to promote public convenience. Instead of the magnificent vistas which a system of straight and rectangular streets would afford, looking out in every direction upon the craters of the bay or the mountains, by crooking them the view on all sides will be intercepted by buildings.

"Another serious objection to crooking the streets in the manner proposed is that the winds which prevail in this latitude nearly the whole year would sweep directly up through them without any check or obstacle, whereas, if the streets be continued straight in conformity to the present plan, the winds, striking them obliquely, will be broken and arrested by the buildings.

"The objections urged by those friendly to the passage of this ordinance against the straight streets-that they would, in some instances, divide private land claims into fractional blocks-is without weight and deserves but little consideration. Streets are laid out for the public convenience, and in the opening of public streets and high- ways the common good is mainly to be consulted and not private interests. Not that private interests should be disregarded or made to suffer unnecessarily. Our laws do not permit the property of individuals to be taken for public uses without remuneration. Whatever losses may be sustained by the claimants through whose lands new streets are opened, should, I think, be paid at a fair valuation out of the city treasury.

"It is with reluctance that I withhold my approval on grounds of policy alone from an ordinance which has been passed deliberately by the City Council after a full discussion of its merits. It interests the people of Oakland perhaps but little at present, how, or where the streets are opened. But as we are now laying the founda- tion, as it were, of a town which we may reasonably anticipate will, with a steady growth, become a great commercial city, with a population to be numbered by hun- dreds of thousands, to proceed correctly is important, and, as I am convinced that

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the continuation of our streets in direct lines from their respective termini to the waters of the bay would be the best plan that could be pursued and calculated in so small degree to preserve the beauty and promote the prosperity of the city, I am con- strained to return the ordinance for your reconsideration." Notwithstanding the apparently very proper veto the ordinance was passed by the Council, with the fol- lowing vote: Ayes-Aldermen Eames, Josselyn, Kelsey, and Gallagher. Noes -- Aldermen Blake and Marier.

On November 6, 1854, directions were issued for the survey of Eighth Street, from Market Street to the bay, and of Market Street from San Antonio Creek to the city limits.

A writer in December, 1854, in speaking of the city and its appearance, says: Oakland, located within thirty minutes' sail of and directly opposite the great empo- rium of the State, blessed with a most salubrious climate and unsurpassed in its natural adornments, became at an early day an object of interest to speculators. Had these speculators been half as judicious in the management of their interests in the town as they were in selecting its location, a majority of its blocks would have been occupied at present with handsome edifices, surrounded with flowers and orna- mental shrubbery; its population would have been industrious, intelligent, and virtu- ous. And Oakland, screened from the cold winds by its removal from the coast and its embowering evergreens, would have been the most attractive place upon the Pacific. But how different is the reality! Turn which way you will, and comparatively few respectable dwellings meet the view-but instead, miserable dwellings meet the view --- miserable redwood shanties-and these generally vacant. Some blocks, perhaps, you will find inclosed by what are termed 'jumper fences' (a class of fence never known until recently), consisting of a single redwood rail-so thin, irregular, and cracked that all lawful and respectable fences would disown it -- tacked upon two sticks with burnt nails stolen from the embers of the last great fire in San Francisco. But the most of these fences have been torn down by the passing wind or passing traveler, and have wholly disappeared from the premises or been broken by the wayside, surpassed alone by the worthlessness of the characters of those who erected them. Oakland, to-day, notwithstanding all her natural advantages, seems really to be in a state of decline." What a contrast is this picture compared with that of the Oakland of 1883!

On April 25, 1855, the City Council petitioned the Board of Supervisors to have the bridge over Indian Creek (a small stream that runs into the eastern side of Lake Merritt) described as being situated between Oakland and the town of Clinton, declared free; while, on January 16, 1856, a resolution was passed recommending resi- dents and owners of lots of land bounding Broadway to plant trees in front of the same at a uniform distance of twelve feet from the line of the street. On the 6th April of the last-mentioned year Mayor Robinson, in his message, says: "The toll- bridge across the north arm of the San Antonio Creek (Twelfth-street Bridge) is another great obstacle to the growth of our city. It is located upon one of the prin- cipal thoroughfares in our county, and several expensive and important bridges have been more recently erected at the expense of the county, upon the same highway. At the time the present owners of the bridge undertook to complete it under a con- tract made with the county, and which was afterwards approved and adopted by the

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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP-CITY OF OAKLAND.

town of Oakland, the county was in its infancy and not in a condition to make an appropriation for such purposes, but, now, all the most necessary bridges are com- pleted, and the finances of our county are in as flourishing a condition as those of any other county in the State, and she should carry out her plan of using her revenue in making internal improvements by purchasing and making free the only obstruction to the travel on this great highway leading from Oakland to San José. The heavy debt already resting upon our city will not warrant you making any appropriation therefor; if it were otherwise, and our treasury full, we would still have the right as tax-payers to call upon the county to expend some portion of her revenue in the township of Oakland. This township pays more taxes than any other in the county, and as yet has had none of its revenue appropriated for her benefit, except some two or three hundred dollars for bridges in the valley. The united efforts of the authorities of the city and the citizens of Oakland generally, would, I am confident, secure successful action of the Board of Supervisors of the county in this matter, and the cry of 'toll- bridge' that has been so long ringing in our ears will be heard no more." No action would appear, however, to have been taken on the prayer of the Council, by the Supervisors, for we find the succeeding Mayor, Mr. Williams, dealing with the subject in a communication to the Council in these words: " Another incubus on the prosper- ity of this city is the toll-bridge to Brooklyn across the northern arm of the San Antonio Creek. The importance to us of an untrammeled intercommunication with the surrounding country is incalculable. The already great and rapidly increasing amount of travel from the range of mountains southeast from us, and from the great Santa Clara Valley-a valley which, in an extent of sixty miles in length by ten to twelve in breadth, is capable of more agricultural production than the whole State of Massachusetts, or of many other States of the Union, and a large proportion of whose products for a distance of fifty miles, from the rich alluvial bottom-lands of San Pablo on the north to the fertile valley of San José on the south, seek a market in San Francisco from this side of the bay-and the great accommodation of an embar- cadero at our wharves, present a strong argument for offering every facility in our power to our neighbors, whose ranchos are in our vicinity, to make this a viaduct to the metropolis, for the production of the ranchos within thirty miles around.

" It will promote and increase our daily and hourly business and social inter- course with our neighbors and the inhabitants of the whole country round about us; bring down to our markets the flocks and herds from the mountains, and the agricult- ural products of the valleys; fill our hotels and boarding-houses with the traveling public, increase the trade of our merchants, afford employment to our mechanics and artisans, and in a short time the whole face of our community will be changed from inactivity and want of employment to industrial activity and life. Your now tenant- less houses will become habited by an industrious population; the lowness of rents . and cheapness of living will invite an honest and thrifty population instead of dull- ness and inactivity; your streets will teem with animation and life, and the whole face of this city be changed. All this business and travel which would seek our city, were the passage over that bridge free, is now turned aside and stopped at other and some- times inconvenient points, and, while the public is incommoded our city is impover- ished. The tolls now demanded and paid for passing the bridge, varying from

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twenty-five cents to one dollar and upwards, form no inconsiderable cash item to the farmer and others whose wants or inclinations require them to pass it daily, and some- times several times a day throughout the year, and when they have well-founded doubts of the legality of the exaction it becomes still more onerous and objection- able, for the public sentiment throughout the land is anti-monopoly. The spirit of the age is for freedom from restrictions and shackles of every kind consistent with individual rights and the laws of the land. It is a spirit eminently American-pro- motion on the one hand of enterprise and industry, individual success and national advancement; while, on the other, every obstacle to the free business and social inter- course of society withers the fresh budding of enterprise, palsies the strong arm of industry, and hampers and manacles the free exercise of the highest and noblest powers, both mental and physical, of man. It is the free intercourse between the distant portions of this vast country by means of railroads, bridges, steamers, clip- pers, and lightning telegraph which has brought us together as neighbors, promoted our prosperity, strengthened the national arm, and bound us together with bonds of iron.

" You have a strong incentive for your exertions to procure a free bridge in the noble stand taken by the Honorable the Board of Supervisors of this county at their recent session at San Leandro-the county seat. The Supervisors are fresh from the people, represent every town in the county, are supposed to faithfully reflect the pub- lic wants and wishes, are themselves a body of great intelligence and gentlemen of varied and extensive business experience, and their almost unanimous action is deserving of your full approbation. Your zealous and hearty co-operation, therefore' with the Board of Supervisors in making a free bridge either by purchase of individ- ual interests in the present bridge, or the construction of a new one, will receive the cordial approval of your constituents, carry out the public sentiment, and respond to the wishes and feelings of the entire community." Here the matter did not rest. This action, so important to the prosperity of the city, was strenuously urged, and a special appropriation for the construction of a bridge between Oakland and Brooklyn was strongly recommended. The Board of Supervisors had, with praiseworthy liber- ality, appropriated six thousand dollars of the county's funds for that object, and it was thought that the requisite balance could be easily supplied by private subscrip- tion and a vote from the Council.

By decree of the Council under date May 11, 1859, the public square bounded by Fourth and Fifth Streets and Broadway and Washington Streets was given the name of Washington Square; and that bounded by Fourth and Fifth Streets, and Broadway and Franklin Streets, was to be hereafter known as Franklin Square. It may be be mentioned here en passant, that on the former of these is located the Court House, and on the latter the Hall of Records, both having been ceded to the county in con- sideration of the county seat being located in Oakland. May 25th Washington Square was leased by the city to the Alameda Agricultural Society, and on June 8th the City Marshal was directed to remove the wooden building occupied by Mr. Stuart, daguerreotypist, on Second Street near Broadway, as well as all stands, booths, tables, etc., erected on the public streets, sidewalks, and squares. In his message of March 28, 1860, Mayor Davis suggested the advisability of extending Seventh or Eighth

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History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 79

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood Number of Pages: 1206

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206