USA > California > Alameda County > History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions > Part 95
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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP- CITY OF OAKLAND.
says James Anthony Froude, among the most reliable of modern historians, "never," so far as we know, have mankind put forth from themselves any thing so grand, so useful, so beautiful, so beneficent as the Catholic Church once was." The two great causes of this were, we believe, its practical philanthropy and its mental cultivation. Prophecies may fail, and dogmas of infallibility shall vanish away, but "the inward adorning of the meek and quiet spirit," the graces of heart and mind, and all the sacred results of Christian discipline and education, will win men's homage so long as there is any virtue and any praise, and will shed their light and fragrance beyond the grave.
The work of Christian education, with all the neatness and gayety, the happiness and order that attend it, is, we should imagine, a blessed and grateful work, both to the Sisters and to the pastor. While the heart is yet unspotted from the world, while the life is unsullied, while the innocent little ones need only to be guided in order to choose the good and cling to it and love it forever, while the habits are yet unformed and the mind, like a white, unwritten page, needs only the autograph of Christ and the impression of Heaven, the pastor steps in with his school and foils the tempter and infuses moral strength to resist evil in the future. While he educates the mind he barricades the soul. While he equips the children for time, he is shielding as well as training them for eternity. How noble a sight is such a school under such guardian- ship! Surely the angels must love to look at it! Unruly tempers gently led into captivity to Christ. The child taught, almost before "the dawn of reason's awful power," to shrink from vice as from poison. What respectful silence greets the pastor as he enters the school; what radiant looks and merry laughter when he speaks his kindly criticisms to one and then another. And what are they taught? Not bigotry; not harsh judgment of others; but something higher, better, and more positive-to love the Saviour, his Mother, and his Saints; to follow their example here and walk where their light falls, that they may meet them amid other scenes, and dwell with them forever. Here, surely, is the pastor's noblest work. Not on the platform, though he thunder forth platitudes with a fifty Boanerges power; not in angry polemics, though he were ever so victorious; not even scattering the flowers of rhet- oric upon the heads of a fashionable audience, who cry that they are "miserable sin- ners," but act as though they were saints in lavender. No; but at the bedside of the sick and dying, caring for Christ's poor, and obeying his command to Peter, given as a test of love, "Feed my lambs." The religious influences that fall upon the Protest- ant as well as Catholic pupils, at such schools as the Convent, are not, as we have seen, theoretical or dogmatic, but that imperceptible molding of the character and chastening of the thoughts for good, as bring forth fruit in the self-control and patience of a Christian life.
Trusting that we may be pardoned this lengthy digression we now return to our running chronology of events. On February 5, 1869, the first number of the Alameda Democrat made its appearance and was said by one of its contemporaries to have " a countrified appearance." At this time Oakland boasted three daily papers, and in that respect took third rank in the State. In the month of February, 1869, the city was visited by heavy rain-storms that did considerable damage. In this year, during the month of February, Alameda Degree Lodge, No. 5, I. O. O. F., was instituted by
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Past Grand Representative Nathan Porter, when the following officers were installed: J. C. Holland, N. G .; J. Barnett, V. G .; W. J. Gurnett, Secretary; George H. Fogg, Treasurer; J. Callagan, Guardian.
The plumed hat, crooked walking-cane, and heavy sabre of "Emperor Norton" are well remembered by those of Oakland's residents of to-day. To those who come after us we may say that Norton was a pioneer merchant of San Francisco who, through fortune's rebuffs, lost his mind, and among his aberrations thought himself invested with sovereign power over the United States and Mexico. His end was a sad one. He dropped dead in one of the streets of San Francisco without warning of the coming of the Grim Monster. ' All in all he was regretted, for he was utterly harmless. In one of his visits to this side of the bay, as was his wont, he issued the following proclamations, which go to show that his weakness was not of an obtrusive nature.
NORTON, DEI GRATIA, EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES AND PROTECTOR OF MEXICO: Being anxious that the physicians should continue unabated in their zeal for the total obliteration of the small-pox, do hereby command the City Authorities, in all places where the disease has been or may continue, to make compensation in honor or money to all physicians who may make the most effective cures in case of small-pox.
Oakland, February 15, 1869.
NORTON I.
WE, NORTON [. EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES AND PROTECTOR OF MEXICO: Do hereby protest against any action of Congress depreciating National Bonds as a disgrace to the Nation; being convinced that our integrity is our only Salvation, and all foreigners whom it may concern are hereby advised of our determination.
Oakland, February 15, 1869. NORTON I.
Among the improvements made in the year 1869 was the erection by Captain Wilcox of a building on Ninth Street, next to his three-story brick building.
About this time certain portions of the community were much exercised against the Rev. L. Hamilton who had established an Independent Presbyterian Church. Charges of a comparative heterodoxy were made against him, and he was summoned to appear before the Presbytery, but, refusing to do so, he was suspended from his duties. The feeling on the subject was thus expressed: "Mr. Hamilton has withdrawn from a body where he could have no possible influence and whose verdict was known before ever the charges had been preferred and hearing granted. Any act that the Presbytery can take will carry with it simply the weight of the moral influence and opinions of its members. A higher tribunal than Presbytery or Synod has rendered its decision. The Christian men and women who have for years listened with profit to the preachings of Mr. Hamilton, the whole community, have concurred in the sentiment that freedom of conscience shall not be crushed and that however much men may differ with them upon abstract theories, when they are the same in feeling and in heart, the bonds shall not be dissolved." Upon the organization of the Inde- pendent Presbyterian Church the following trustees were appointed: Professor H. Durant, Rev. David McClure, C. W. Howard, Judge S. B. McKee, George C. Potter, J. S. Emery, Col. A. J. Coffee, W. C. Tompkins, and J. R. Glascock.
1870 .- In the month of January, 1870, an attempt was made to get an Act passed through the Legislature having for its object the division of the city into wards and districts, but the City Council, on January 3d, carried a resolution that the passage of such a bill would be detrimental to the interests of the city, therefore the matter
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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP-CITY OF OAKLAND.
dropped for the time. On the 10th January a bid was made for having the State Normal School located in Oakland, and to attract the committee having this settle- ment of the matter they were tendered the hospitalities of the city. In the mean time the City Hall was offered for the purpose, and on January 24th, Mr. Spaulding offered a resolution recommending the offer of ten acres of land and fifty thousand dollars in bonds of Oakland Township to the State for Normal School purposes, which was adopted, and the City Attorney was directed to draw up an enabling Act in accordance therewith. The following short sketch of this institution may prove of interest to the reader. Early in the history of the State a few gentlemen of San Francisco who had the educational interests of California at heart, among them being State Superintendent Andrew J. Moulder, John Swett, and City Superintendent Henry B. James, mooted the idea of a State Normal School. By the earnest efforts of these gentlemen, a City Normal School was established in San Francisco in 1857, with George W. Minns as Principal, and John Swett, Ellis H. Holmes, and Thomas S. Myrick, assistants. This school was continued until 1862. In the years 1859 and 1860, Mr. Moulder urged the establishment of a State Normal School, but no action was then taken in the matter. Subsequently, however, a committee was appointed to examine into the feasibility of the scheme, which they favored in an elaborate report dated January 2, 1862. It was embodied by the State Superintendent in a communi- cation to the Legislature of 1862, and May 2d of that year an Act providing for the establishment of such an institution was passed. Three thousand dollars was appro- priated by the Legislature for carrying out the design, and Ahira Holmes appointed Principal by a Board of Trustees consisting of Superintendent Moulder, George Tait, Superintendent of San Francisco, and Dr. Taylor, Superintendent of Sacramento. The school was opened in one of the vacant rooms of the San Francisco High School, July 21, 1862, with thirty-one pupils, but was soon removed to rented rooms on Post Street, the teachers being Henry P. Carlton, Vice Principal, with Helen M. Clark and Kate Sullivan in the Training Department. In 1864 it was transferred to the rear of the Lincoln Grammar School.
In the month of April 1870, a bill was passed by the Legislature directing the levy of a tax to provide a State Normal School Building Fund. We have seen how Oakland made an attempt to gain the location of it there, but San José received the boon, and in 1870 the building was commenced. On February 11, 1880, the hand- some structure was destroyed by fire, but a new Normal School was erected on its site and first opened to its proper uses in I88I.
On January 10, 1870, T. J. Arnold was appointed City Engineer; on August Ist an ordinance prohibiting the soliciting of custom for hotels and carriages in railroad- cars and steamboats within the limits of the city was passed, and, on November 7th, an ordinance concerning a record of births in the city of Oakland was passed.
In the year 1870, the subject of a bridge across San Antonio Creek between Oakland and Alameda was placed before the Legislature, and was bitterly opposed by the residents of Brooklyn, on the ground that it would obstruct navigation and thus interfere with the prospects of their town, but without avail, for the bill became law and the Webster-street Bridge an accomplished fact. Another matter that received considerable attention about this time was the removal of the county seat
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
from San Leandro to Oakland. It was the initial step to a very bitter contest, which, however, was won by the city. On July 1, 1870, the San Francisco and Oakland, and San Francisco, Alameda, and Haywards Railroad Companies were consolidated under the name of the San Francisco, Oakland, and Alameda Railroad Company, to form a continuous line from San Francisco to Haywards. Directors: Faxon D. Atherton, D. O. Mills, Wm. C. Ralston, Alfred A. Cohen, and David P. Barstow.
Concerning the city of Oakland, the following Acts of the Legislature were passed, in the year 1870. An Act to provide for building bridge across the Estuary of San Antonio. Tax for payment of bridge bonds: To issue bonds for bridge pur -- poses; An Act to prevent the destruction of fish and game in and around Lake Merritt; An Act providing for a bridge across San Antonio Creek; Mayor of Oakland to appoint bridge committee; City of Oakland to levy special bridge tax; An Act to lay out and improve streets of Oakland; An Act authorizing contract for lighting city of Oakland with gas; An Act authorizing tax for redemption of School Bonds in Oakland; An Act amending an Act of 1864, to improve streets in Oakland; An Act to authorize a tax for interest on bonds issued for funding certain claims on Oakland; An Act authorizing the Mayor to appoint Commissioners for a bridge across San Antonio Creek; An Act authorizing a special tax for bridge across San Antonio Creek; An Act concerning wharves, not to apply to Oakland; and An Act establish- ing boundary between Brooklyn and Oakland.
In March, 1870, the Oakland Musical Society was started with the following lady and gentlemen as a committee of organization: Mrs. W. C. Little, Jacob Bacon, W. K. Flint, E. J. Passmore, W. B. Treadwell. In this year building was almost a mania in Oakland; new residences could be counted by the score, while business blocks and general improvements were under way all along Broadway. The want of hotel accom- modation was much felt, but practical schemes in that direction were being then devised, by the Newland Brothers, at the corner of Seventh and Washington Streets.
1871 .- On March 20, 1871, Oakland was divided into two election precincts for voting purposes, Adeline Street being the partition line between the two, a division which obtained until January 13, 1873, when the city was redistributed. On the 11th October the Council passed a resolution that the pastors of the several churches in the city be requested to take up collections among their congregations for the relief of the sufferers from the Chicago fire.
In March of this year the Post-office was moved to the office formerly occupied by W. K. Rowell, on Broadway between Ninth and Tenth Streets, it having changed its location several times since its establishment, in the first instance, on the corner of Broadway and Second Street. On March 2, 1871, the new building of the Union Savings Bank, on the corner of Broadway and Ninth Street, was ready for occupation.
In the year 1871 there took place the heaviest real estate transaction that had hitherto been known in the city of Oakland. It was the selling by Elijah Bigelow to the San Francisco Land and Loan Association, for one hundred and two thousand dollars, two-thirds of Broadway Block, excepting a piece one hundred by seventy-five feet, on the corner of Broadway and Twelfth Street, the property of T. J. Murphy. The march of improvement still pushed onward in this year, Broadway being the
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OAKLAND TOWNSHIP-CITY OF OAKLAND.
.
scene of much activity in building, where the owners seemed to have settled upon the policy of erecting only the very first-class structures. The fact was recognized that Oak- land was fast becoming a city capable of sustaining the very best class of stores, and that unless that street furnished the proper accommodations, other and more enter- prising capitalists would turn their attention to some other locality, and there erect the improvements demanded by the enlarged condition of the city. Their policy was a vise one, and, by carrying it out, they secured for all time the prestige of Broadway as the most important thoroughfare in Oakland. In May, the Hurlburt Block, bounded by Broadway, Washington, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Streets, was sold to Armes & Dallam for seventy-five thousand dollars, making the third heavy land sale within the city, and all aggregating two hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars. It should be mentioned that heavier sales than these had taken place; for instance, the railroad company purchased sixty-six acres of land at the Point for three hundred and thirty thousand dollars; the Casserly Tract was sold for one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and the Lake Side Tract for one hundred thousand dollars; but in each of these cases the area of the property sold was extensive, while in the transac- tions noted it is very small. In this month James Canning commenced the erection of his building on the corner of Broadway and Thirteenth Street, while, on the 24th May, the dilapidated platform that stood on the south side of Seventh Street near Broadway, and served as a passenger landing for the trains, was removed; and, in June, E. C. Sessions commenced a handsome building at the corner of Broadway and Twelfth Street.
1872 .- Having so fully gone into the matter of the removal of the county seat in ancther place, it will be unnecessary here to dwell upon the subject; all that we shall do is to follow the official action so far as it regards the part taken by the City Council. On January 1, 1872, Hiram Tubbs, of Brooklyn, addressed the Council to the effect that as petitions were in circulation praying for the removal of the county seat to Oakland from San Leandro with the implied understanding that the unoccupied parts of the City Hall would be tendered to the county for the use of its officers, and as a doubt existed in the minds of many residents of the town of Brooklyn (who were favorably inclined to the removal under such condition) arising from the fact that there had been no authoritative expression from the Council on the subject, he inquired if such should be made in that event, to which he received a reply in the shape of the following resolutions, passed on the 9th January :-
WHEREAS, It is contemplated by the people of the county of Alameda to change the county seat from San Leandro in said county to the city of Oakland, and
WHEREAS, It is deemed expedient that the city of Oakland should give some public expression in relation thereto, therefore be it
Resolved, That the unoccupied apartments in the new City Hall in the city of Oakland are hereby tendered to the county of Alameda for its use for the purposes of county offices as long as desirable; and sufficient ground upon the City Hall Plat to erect a Recorder's Office; and at such time as the county shall see fit or desire to con- struct county buildings, it is the intention of the city of Oakland to furnish to the county, land sufficient and proper therefor.
Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and resolutions be published in full in all the papers in the county of Alameda.
Immediately following this action the City Council had a meeting, and on Jan- nary 15th passed the following resolution :-
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Resolved, That a public meeting of the citizens of the city of Oakland and township of Oakland and vicinity should be held immediately, to take into consideration the subject of a removal of the county seat and recommend that such a meeting be called immediately for the purpose of discussing the merits of such removal and that Samuel Merritt, A. C. Henry, and Rodmond Gibbons are hereby requested to call such meeting and publish notice of the same, and to invite and select speakers to speak upon the subject at said meeting.
A meeting was accordingly held on January 24th, and the annexed resolutions unanimously adopted :-
WHEREAS, It has become necessary for the accommodation of a large majority of the citizens of Alameda County that the county seat of said county should be removed to the city of Oakland, and a petition of the voters of said county has been presented to the Legislature of the State, asking for the passage of a law authorizing such removal, and
WHEREAS, Objections to said removal are being made by some, on the ground that a heavy debt would be incurred by such removal, in the purchase of land, and the erection of the necessary buildings for county purposes, it is therefore
Resolved, By the citizens of Oakland in mass-meeting assembled, that the second story of the City Hall shall be finished at the expense of the city, and partitioned into suitable rooms for the District Court, the County and Probate Courts, the Sheriff, the District Attorney, the Grand Jury, the Petit Jury, the County Surveyor, and the Judge's chambers; and that rooms shall be provided on the first floor of said hall for the Board of Supervisors and the Superintendent of Public Schools; and in the basement of said hall, if required, rooms sufficient for a jail. And that the city will also dedicate to the county a lot of land, parcel of the City Hall lot, situated in the southwest corner of the same, fifty feet wide on Fourteenth Street and one hundred feet in depth, for the purpose of erecting a Hall of Records for the use of the County Recorder, County Clerk, and County Treasurer. And that the use and control of said rooms and said land shall be vested in the Board of Supervisors of Alameda County, for so long a time as said Board may use and occupy them for the purposes aforesaid.
Resolved, That the Secretary of this meeting transmit to our Senator and Representatives and to the City Council a copy of these resolutions.
This action was fully indorsed by the City Council at a special meeting held on the 29th of January, while a draft of a bill providing for an election by the people to decide the question, and approved by resolution, was sent to Hon. E. Tompkins and E. H. Pardee, at Sacramento, to be by them submitted to the Legislature. In the mean time the Council approved the action of the citizens in offering Washington and Franklin Squares, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, on Broadway, to the county whereon to erect county buildings, this being again indorsed on the 10th of March- The further proceedings in this regard will be found in the chapter on Legislative history, the culminating act of the City Council being on February 9, 1874, when Mr. Warner presented a certified copy of an Act approved February 4, 1874, " to enable the Board of Supervisors of Alameda County to erect the county buildings of said county on Washington and Franklin Plazas in the city of Oakland," and offered a resolution, which was adopted, that the President and Clerk of the Council be directed to execute and acknowledge the grant of said plazas from the city to the county.
Early in the year 1872 there appears to have been a little unpleasantness existing between the town of Brooklyn and its greater neighbor of Oakland, which called forth the following action on the part of the City Council of the latter place. On January 29th the accompanying resolutions were passed :-
WHEREAS, The Trustees of the town of Brooklyn have proposed certain amendments to their town charter, including one giving said town and its officers jurisdiction to low-water mark on their side of San Antonio Creek or Estuary, in order to remove any question of their power to enforce the ordinances of said town in certain cases without infringing at all on the rights of the city of Oakland, and
WHEREAS, The said amendments have been submitted to the Alameda Delegation in the Legislature with the view of securing their passage, and said delegation require first the assent of the Council in the premises.
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Resolved, Therefore, that the assent of the city of Oakland is hereby given to said proposed amendment, provided, that the boundary line in other respects shall remain the same as at present, and that no rights of prop- erty shall be affected thereby.
Notwithstanding this, however, it would appear that the Brooklyn authorities transgressed their limits and called from the Oakland Council the following resolutions the 19th February :-
WHEREAS, This Council by Resolution No. 1083, gave its consent to the passage of an Act, granting to the town of Brooklyn jurisdiction to low-water mark on the eastern shore of San Antonio Creek, in which resolution there is contained a provision that the boundary lines of the city of Oakland should not in any manner be changed, nor the rights of property be interfered with, and
WHEREAS, Said resolution was adopted by this Council at the urgent request of the town of Brooklyn, and in good faith, as that town desired the right to enforce its ordinances pertaining to police regulations to low water, and done simply as a friendly act towards said town, and
WHEREAS, This Council have become convinced that the town of Brooklyn is not acting in the premises in an open and fair manner, but on the contrary are seeking by subterfuge to change the boundary line of the city of Oakland, therefore be it
Resolved, That Resolution No. 1083 be and the same is hereby in all things rescinded.
Resolved, That this Council most emphatically protest and object to any change of the boundary of the city of Oakland whereby its present territory will be decreased, or in any manner limiting or diminishing its present terri- torial or police jurisdiction, and to the passage of any bill granting any jurisdiction or police regulations to the town of Brooklyn within the present charter line or corporate limits of the city of Oakland.
Resolved, That this Council hereby condemns the action of the town of Brooklyn and its agents in the prem- ises as attempting, under cover of extending its police regulations upon the water front of said city, to change the well-settled charter line of the city of Oakland without even its knowledge or consent.
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