USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 2
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7
THE PENINSULA.
George Hyde and a sapient council. The population is chiefly composed of enterprising Americans, sturdy pioneers, with a due admixture of backwoodsmen and seafarers, numerous artisans, and a sprinkling of traders and professional men-all stanch townsmen, figuring for beach lots at prices ranging as high as $600, and for local offices. There are rival districts struggling for supremacy, and two zealous weekly newspapers.
Less imposing are the immediate surroundings; for the town spreads out in a straggling crescent along the slope of the Clay-street hill, bordered by the converging inclines of Broadway and California streets on the north and south respectively. A thin coating of grass and melancholy shrubs covers the sandy surface between and around, with here and there patches of dwarfed oaks, old and decrepit, bend- ing before the sweeping west wind. The monotony incident to Spanish and Mexican towns, however, with their low and bare adobe houses and sluggish population, is here relieved by the large proportion of compact wooden buildings in northern European style,6 and the greater activity of the dwellers. The beach, hollowed by the shallow Yerba Buena Cove, on which fronts the present Montgomery street, presents quite an animated scene for these sleepy shores, with its bales of merchandise strewn about, and piled-up boxes and barrels, its bustling or lounging frequenters, and its three projecting wharves;7 while a short distance off lie scattered a few craft, including one or two ocean-going vessels. Farther away, fringed by the fading hills of Contra Costa, rises the isle of Yerba Buena, for which some wild goats shortly provide the new name of Goat Island. On its eastern side is a half-ruined ranchería, still braving the encroachments of time and culture.
6 There were 160 frame buildings and only 35 adobe houses, although the latter were more conspicuous by their length and brightness. 7 At California, Clay, and Broadway streets.
S
CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY.
POWELL
STREET
7
STOCKTON
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
STREET
DUPONT
STREET
7
Pres
PLAZA
Mission
K-EARN-Y-
STREET
11
BUSH
PINE
CALIFORNIA
SACRAMENTO
WASHINGTON
TIJACKSON
PACIFIC
BROADWAY
VALLEJO
MONTGOMERY
STREET
1
SANSOME
STREET
Ferbu Bucura Cove
Filled in und built upon later
STREET
7
MARKET
B
years
STREET
Front
Water
SAN FRANCISCO IN 1848.
Trail
-
Trail
CLAY
BATTERY
FRANCESCO
9
ABOUT THE BAY.
In the rear of the town, which extends only be- tween California and Vallejo streets to Powell on the west, from the direction of the Lone Mountain and beyond, comes a spur of the Coast Range, tipped by the Papas Peaks. To either side diverges a trail, one toward the inlet of the bay, where is the presidio enclosure, with its low adobe buildings, and to which the new American occupants have added frame houses, and earthworks with ordnance superior to the blatant muzzles of yore. Two miles to the south, beyond the sand hills, lies Mission Dolores, its dilapidated walls marked by darkened tile roofs, scantily relieved by clumps of trees and shrubs. The cheerless stone fences now enclose winter's verdure, and beyond the eddying creek, which flows through the adjoining fields, the sandy waste expands into inviting pasture, partly covered by the Rincon farm and government reserve.8
The opposite shores of the bay present a most beau- tiful park-like expanse, the native lawn, brilliant with flowers, and dotted by eastward-bending oaks, watered by the creeks of Alameda, San Lorenzo, San Leandro, and their tributaries, and enclosed by the spurs of the Diablo mountains. It had early attracted settlers, whose grants now cover the entire ground. The first to occupy there was the Mission San José, famed for its orchards and vineyards,9 and now counting among its tenants and settlers James F. Reed, Perry Mor- rison, Earl Marshall, and John M. Horner.1º Below are the ranchos of Agua Caliente and Los Tularcitos; and above, Potrero de los Cerritos;11 while behind, among encircling hills, is the valley of San José, the pathway to the Sacramento, and through which runs
8 Padre P. Santillan, who afterward became conspicuous as a claimant to the mission ground, was in charge at Dolores. The Rancho Punta de Lobos of B. Diaz extended to the north-west.
9 In charge of Padre Real. The claim of Alvarado and Pico to the soil was later rejected.
10 The latter a Mormon, living with his wife at the present Washington Corners, and subsequently prominent.
11 The former two square leagues in extent, and transferred by A. Suñol to F. Higuera; the latter three leagues, and held by A. Alviso and T. Pacheco.
10
CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY.
the upper Alameda. Here lives the venturesome English sailor, Robert Livermore, by whose name the nook is becoming known, and whose rapidly increasing possessions embrace stock-ranges, wheat-fields, vine- yards, and orchards, with even a rude grist-mill.12 Ad- joining him are the ranchos Valle de San José of J. and A. Bernal, and Sunol and San Ramon of J. M. Amador, also known by his name. Northward, along the bay, lies the Rancho Arroyo de la Alameda of José Jesus Vallejo; the San Lorenzo of G. Castro and F. Soto; the San Leandro of J. J. Estudillo; the Sobrante of J. I. Castro; and in the hills and along the shore, covering the present Oakland and Alameda, the San Antonio of Luis M. Peralta and his sons.13
Similar to the Alameda Valley, and formed by the rear of the same range, enclosing the towering Monte del Diablo, lies the vale of Contra Costa, watered by several creeks, among them the San Pablo and San Ramon, or Walnut, and extending into the marshes of the San Joaquin. Here also the most desirable tracts are covered by grants, notably the San Pablo tract of F. Castro; El Pinole of Ignacio Martinez, with vineyards and orchards; the Acalanes of C. Valencia, on which are now settled Elam Brown, justice of the peace, and Nat. Jones;14 the Palos Colorados of J. Moraga; the Monte del Diablo of S. Pacheco; the Médanos belonging to the Mesa fam- ily; and the Meganos of Dr John Marsh, the said doctor being a kind of crank from Harvard college,
12 His neighbor on Rancho Los Pozitos, of two square leagues, was José Noriega; and west and south in the valley extended Rancho Valle de San José, 48,000 acres, Santa Rita, 9,000 acres, belonging to J. D. Pacheco, the San Ramon rancho of Amador, four square leagues, and Cañada de los Va- queros of Livermore. Both Colton, Three Years, 266, and Taylor, El Dorado, i. 73, refer to the spot as Livermore Pass, leading from San José town to the valley of the Sacramento.
13 D. Peralta received the Berkeley part, V. the Oakland, M. the East Oak- land and Alameda, and I. the south-east. The grant covered five leagues. The extent of the Alameda, San Lorenzo, and San Leandro grants was in square leagues respectively about four, seven, and one; Sobrante was eleven leagues.
14 By purchase in 1847, the latter owning one tenth of the three-quarter league.
11
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY.
who settled here in 1837,15 in an adobe hut, and achieved distinction as a misanthrope and miser, sympathetic with the spirit at whose mountain's feet he crouched.
The upper part of the San Joaquin Valley had so far been shunned by fixed settlers, owing to Indian hostility toward the Spanish race. With others the aborigines agreed better; and gaining their favor through the mediation of the influential Sutter, the German Charles M. Weber had located himself on French Camp rancho, which he sought to develop by introducing colonists. In this he had so far met with little success; but his farm prospering, and his em- ployés increasing, he laid out the town of Tuleburg, soon to rise into prominence under the new name of Stockton. 16 He foresaw the importance of the place as a station on the road to the Sacramento, and as the gateway to the San Joaquin, on which a settlement had been formed in 1846, as far up as the Stanislaus, by a party of Mormons. On the north bank of this tributary, a mile and a half from the San Joaquin, the migratory saints founded New Hope, or Stanislaus, which in April 1847 boasted ten or twelve colonists and several houses. Shortly afterward a summons
15 He bought it from J. Noriega, and called it the Pulpunes; extent, three leagues by four. The San Pablo and Pinole covered four leagues each, the Palos Colorados three leagues, the Monte del Diablo, on which Pacheco had some 5,000 head of cattle, four leagues. The aggressive Indians had disturbed several settlers, killing F. Briones, driving away Wm Welch, who settled in 1832, and the Romero brothers. Brown settled in 1847, and began to ship lumber to San Francisco. There were also the grants of Las Juntas of Win Welch, three square leagues; Arroyo de las Nueces of J. S. Pacheco and Cañada del Hambre of T. Soto, the two latter two square leagues each.
16 Among the residents were B. K. Thompson, Eli Randall, Jos. Buzzell, Andrew Baker, James Sirey, H. F. Fanning, George Frazer, W. H. Fairchild, James McKee, Pyle, and many Mexicans and servants of Weber. See fur- ther in Tinkham's Hist. Stockton; San Joaquin Co. Hist .; Cal. Star, May 13, 1848, etc. Taylor reports two log cabins on the site in 1847, those of Buzzell and Sirey. Nic. Gann's wife, while halting in Oct. 1847, gave birth to a son, William. The name French Camp came from the trappers who frequently camped here. T. Lindsay, while in charge in 1845, was killed by Indian raiders. The war of 1847 had caused an exodus of proposed settlers.
12
CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY.
from Salt Lake came to assist the floods in breaking up the colony.17
North of Stockton Dr J. C. Isbel settled on the Calaveras, and Turner Elder on the Mokelumne, together with Smith and Edward Robinson. 18 The latter, on Dry Creek tributary, has for a neighbor Thomas Rhoads, three of whose daughters married T. Elder, William Daylor an English sailor, and Jared Sheldon. The last two occupy their grants on the north bank of the Cosumnes, well stocked, and sup- porting a grist-mill. Along the south bank extend the grants of Hartnell and San ' Jon ' de los Moque- lumnes, occupied by Martin Murphy, Jr, and Anas- tasio Chabolla. South of them lies the Rancho Arroyo Seco of T. Yorba, on Dry Creek, where William Hicks holds a stock-range.19
The radiating point for all these settlements of the Great Valley, south and north, is Sutter's Fort, founded as its first settlement, in 1839, by the enter- prising Swiss, John A. Sutter. It stands on a small hill, skirted by a creek which runs into the American River near its junction with the Sacramento, and overlooking a vast extent of ditch-enclosed fields and park stock-ranges, broken by groves and belts of tim- ber. At this time and for three months to come there is no sign of town or habitation around what is now Sacramento, except this fortress, and one old adobe, called the hospital, east of the fort. A garden
17 Stout, the leader, had given dissatisfaction. Buckland, the last to leave, moved to Stockton. The place is also called Stanislaus City. Bigler, Diary, MS., 48-9, speaks of a Mormon settlement on the Merced, meaning the above. 18 The former on Dry Creek, near the present Liberty, which he transferred to Robinson, married to his aunt, and removed to the Mokelumne, where twins were born in November 1847; he then proceeded to Daylor's. Thomas Pyle settled near Lockeford, but transferred his place to Smith.
19 The Chabolla, Hartnell, Sheldon-Daylor, and Yorba grants were 8, 6, 5, and 11 leagues in extent, respectively. The claims of E. Rufus and E. Pratt, north of the Cosumnes, failed to be confirmed. Cal. Star, Oct. 23, 1847, alludes to the flouring mill on Sheldon's rancho. See Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 162, in which Taylor and Chamberlain are said to live on the Cosumnes. In the San Joaquin district were three eleven-league and one eight-league grants claimed by José Castro, John Rowland, B. S. Lippincott, and A. B. Thompson, all rejected except the last.
13
SACRAMENTO VALLEY.
of eight or ten acres was attached to the fort, laid out with taste and skill, where flourished all kinds of vegetables, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, olives, figs, and almonds. Horses, cattle, and sheep cover the surrounding plains; boats lie at the embarcadero.
The fort is a parallelogram of adobe walls, 500 feet long by 150 in breadth, with loop-holes and bastions at the angles, mounted with a dozen cannon that sweep the curtains. Within is a collection of gran- aries and warehouses, shops and stores, dwellings and outhouses, extending near and along the walls round the central building occupied by the Swiss potentate, who holds sway as patriarch and priest, judge and father. The interior of the houses is rough, with rafters and unpanelled walls, with benches and deal tables, the exception being the audience-room and private apartments of the owner, who has ob- tained from the Russians a clumsy set of California laurel furniture.20 In front of the main building, on the small square, is a brass gun, guarded by the sentinel, whose measured tramp, lost in the hum of day, marks the stillness of the night, and stops alone beneath the belfry-post to chime the passing hour.
Throughout the day the enclosure presents an animated scene of work and trafficking, by bustling laborers, diligent mechanics, and eager traders, all to the chorus clang of the smithy and reverberating strokes of the carpenters. Horsemen dash to and fro at the bidding of duty and pleasure, and an occasional wagon creaks along upon the gravelly road-bed, sure to pause for recuperating purposes before the trad- ing store,21 where confused voices mingle with laugh- ter and the sometimes discordant strains of drunken
20 The first made in the country, he says, and strikingly superior to the crude furniture of the Californians, with rawhide and bullock-head chairs and bed-stretchers. Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 164, et seq. Bryant describes the dining-room as having merely benches and deal table, yet displaying silver spoons and China bowls, the latter serving for dishes as well as cups. What I Saw, 269-70.
21 One kept by Smith and Brannan. Prices at this time were $1 a foot for horse-shoeing, $I a bushel for wheat, peas $1.50, unbolted flour $8 a 100 lbs.
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CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY.
singers. Such is the capital of the vast interior valley, pregnant with approaching importance. In Decem- ber 1847 Sutter reported a white population of 289 in the district, with 16 half-breeds, Hawaiians, and negroes, 479 tame Indians, and a large number of gentiles, estimated with not very great precision at 21,873 for the valley, including the region above the Buttes.22 There are 60 houses in or near the fort, and six mills and one tannery in the district; 14,000 fanegas of wheat were raised during the season, and 40,000 expected during the following year, besides other crops. Sutter owns 12,000 cattle, 2,000 horses and mules, from 10,000 to 15,000 sheep, and 1,000 hogs.23 John Sinclair figures as alcalde, and George Mckinstry as sheriff.
The greater portion of the people round the fort depend upon Sutter as permanent or temporary em- ployés, the latter embracing immigrants preparing to settle, and Mormons intent on presently proceeding to Great Salt Lake. As a class they present a hardy, backwoods type of rough exterior, relieved here and there by bits of Hispano-Californian attire, in bright sashes, wide sombreros, and jingling spurs. The na- tives appear probably to better advantage here than elsewhere in California, in the body of half a hundred well-clothed soldiers trained by Sutter, and among his staff of steady servants and helpers, who have ac- quired both skill and neatness. A horde of subdued savages, engaged as herders, tillers, and laborers, are conspicuous by their half-naked, swarthy bodies; and others may be seen moving about, bent on gossip or trade, stalking along, shrouded in the all-shielding blanket, which the winter chill has obliged them to put on. Head and neck, however, bear evidence to their love of finery, in gaudy kerchiefs, strings of beads, and other ornaments.
22 Mckinstry Pap., MS., 28.
23 There were 30 ploughs in operation. Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 43. The version reproduced in Sac. Co. Hist., 31, differs somewhat.
15
SUTTER'S FORT.
The fort is evidently reserved for a manor-seat, de- spite its bustle; for early in 1846 Sutter had laid out the town of Sutterville, three miles below on the Sacramento. This has now several houses,24 having received a great impulse from the location there, in 1847, of two companies of troops under Major Kings- bury. It shares in the traffic regularly maintained with San Francisco by means of a twenty-ton sloop, the Amelia, belonging to Sutter and manned by half a dozen savages. It is supported during the busy season by two other vessels, which make trips far up the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The ferry at the fort landing is merely a canoe handled by an Indian, but a large boat is a-building. 25
Six miles up the American River, so called by Sut- ter as the pathway for American immigration, the Mormons are constructing a flour-mill for him,26 and another party are in like manner engaged on a saw- mill building and race at Coloma Valley, forty miles above, on the south fork. Opposite Sutter's Fort, on the north bank of the American, John Sinclair, the alcalde, holds the large El Paso rancho,27 and above him stretches the San Juan rancho of Joel P. Ded- mond, facing the Leidesdorff grant on the southern bank.28 There is more land than men; instead of 100 acres, the neighbors do not regard 100,000 acres as out of the way. Sutter's confirmed grant of eleven leagues in due time is scattered in different direc- tions, owing to documentary and other irregularities. A portion is made to cover Hock Farm on Feather
24 Sutter built the first house, Hadel and Zins followed the example, Zins' being the first real brick building erected in the country. Morse, Hist. Sac., places the founding in 1844.
25 As well as one for Montezuma. Cal. Star, Oct. 23, 1847; Gregson's Stat., MS., 7.
26 With four pairs of stones, which was fast approaching completion. A dam had been constructed, with a four-mile race. Description and progress in Id .; Bigler's Diary, MS., 56-7; Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 159. Brighton has now risen on the site.
27 Of some 44,000 acres, chiefly for his Hawaiian patron, E. Grimes.
28 Of 35,500 acres; Dedinond's was 20,000. Leidesdorff had erected a house in 1846, at the present Routier's.
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CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY.
River,29 his chief stock-range, and also embracing fine plantations. 30 On the east side of this region lies the tract of Nicolaus Altgeier,31 and along the north bank of Bear River, Sebastian Keyser and the family of William Johnson have located themselves;32 oppo- site are two Frenchmen, Theodore Sicard and Claude Chanon. The south bank of the Yuba is occupied by Michael C. Nye, John Smith, and George Pat- terson. 38 Facing them, along Feather River, Theo- dore Cordua had settled in 1842, and established a trading post, owning some 12,000 head of stock. 34 Charles Roether had in 1845 located himself on Hon- cut Creek, and near him are now Edward A. Farwell and Thomas Fallon. 35 The lands of Samuel Neal and David Dutton are on Butte Creek; William North- grave's place is on Little Butte; W. Dickey, Sanders, and Yates had in 1845 taken up the tract on Chico Creek which John Bidwell is at this time entering upon.36 Peter Lassen, the famous Danish trapper, had settled on Deer Creek, and erected a mill and smithy,37 granting a league to Daniel Sill, Sen. Moon's rancho is held by W. C. Moon and Merritt. A. G. Toomes occupies a tract north of the creek which bears his
29 A name applied by Sutter from the feather ornaments of the natives.
30 It was founded in 1841, and managed successively by Bidwell, Benitz,
S. J. Hensley, and Kanaka Jim. It had 5,000 head of cattle and 1,200 horses. 31 Who settled on the present site of Nicolaus. North of Hock Farm, C. W. Flügge had obtained a grant which was transferred to Consul Larkin.
32 On the five-league rancho given to P. Gutierrez, deceased, by Sutter, who made several grants in the valley, by authority. They bought land and cattle and divided.
33 Smith, who came first, in 1845, sold a part of his tract to Patterson. The first two had nearly 2,000 head of stock.
34 This rancho, on the site of the present Marysville, he called New Meck- lenburg, in honor of his native German state. Chas Covillaud was manager; trade relations were had with San Francisco.
35 The former on a grant claimed by Huber; the two latter on Farwell's rancho.
36 Northgrave was a settler on the tract claimed by S. J. Hensley, but disallowed afterward. James W. Marshall had abandoned his holding on the saine tract. The confirmed grants were Fernandez, 4 leagues; Arroyo Chico of Bidwell, 5 leagues; Agua Fria of Pratt, 6 leagues; Llano Seco of Parrott, 4 leagues; Bosquejo of Lassen, 5 leagues; Boga of Larkin, 5 leagues; Esquon of Neal, 5 leagues. The claims of Cambuston, Huber, Hensley, Nye, and others were rejected.
37 Bidwell's Cal. 1841-8, MS., 231-2.
17
ALONG THE SACRAMENTO.
name, and above, on Antelope Creek, lives Job F. Dye, below P. B. Reading, who ranks as the most northern settler in the valley, on Cottonwood Creek,38 one of the numerous tributaries here fed by the adja- cent snow-crowned summits dominated by the majes- tic Shasta.
Descending along the west bank of the Sacramento, we encounter the rancho of William B. Ide, of Bear-flag fame; 39 below him, on Elder Creek, is William C. Chard, and R. H. Thomes on the creek named after him.40 On Stony Creek, whence Sutter obtains grindstones,41 live Granville P. Swift, Franklin Sears, and Bryant; below them John S. Williams has lately settled with his wife, the first white woman in this region. 42 Watt Anderson is found on Sycamore Slough, and on the north side of Cache Creek the family of William Gor- don.43 Eastward lies the rancho of William Knight," and below him, facing the mouth of Feather River, that of Thomas M. Hardy. 45 In a hut of tule, facing the Sutter's-fort grant, lives John Schwartz, a reticent builder of airy castles upon his broad domain, and of whom it is said that, having lost his own language, he never learned another. A northern slice of his land he sold to James McDowell and family.46 On Putah Creek, John R. Wolfskill had, since 1842, oc- cupied a four-league grant. Adjoining, on Ulattis
38 One Julian occupied it for him in 1845, and he himself settled there in 1847.
39 Just below the present Red Bluff, a tract bought by him from Josiah These northern grants averaged five leagues each.
Belden.
40 He built the first dwelling in the county, on the site of Tehama
41 Cut by Moon, Merritt, and Lassen.
42 Of Colusa county, daughter of Jos. Gordon. He located himself two miles south of Princeton, on the Larkin children's grant, with 800 head of cattle, on shares with Larkin. M. Diaz' claim to 11 leagues was rejected.
43 Who built the first dwelling in Yolo county, in 1842, on Quesisosi grant. His son-in-law, Nathan Coombs, was probably the first white bridegroom in the Sacramento Valley. Married by Sutter in 1844. His son William was the first white child of Yolo county. Coombs soon moved to Napa Valley. 44 Who settled at the present Knight's Landing.
45 An Englishman, hostile to Americans.
46 McDowell built a log house at the present Washington, and was, in 1847, presented with the first white girl of Yolo county. He paid Schwartz 12} cents an acre for 600 acres.
HIST. CAL., VOL. VI. 2
18
CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THE GOLD DISCOVERY.
Creek, extends the grant of Vaca and Peña, and at its mouth are Feltis Miller J D. Hoppe, and Daniel K. Berry.
Hence, down the Sacramento for four leagues stretches the Ulpinos grant of John Bidwell, which he sought to improve by sending, in 1846, a party of immigrants to transform the lonely house then standing there into a town. After a few months' suffering from hunger and hardships, the party aban- doned a site for which the Indian name of Halo Che- muck, 'nothing to eat,' was for a time appropriately retained. Charles D. Hoppe bought a fourth of the tract in 1847.47 Equally unsuccessful was the con- temporaneous effort of L. W. Hastings, a Mormon agent, to found the town of Montezuma, fifteen miles below, at the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin in Suisun Bay. His co-religionists objected to the site as devoid of timber; yet he remained hope- ful, and ordered a windmill and ferry-boat to increase the attractions of his solitary house.49
These efforts at city building indicate how widely appreciated was the importance of a town which should tap, not merely each section of the great val- ley, as at Sutter's Fort and Stockton, but the joint outlet of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. It was foreseen that hence would flow the main wealth of the country, although the metallic nature of the first current was little anticipated. The idea seems to have struck simultaneously Bidwell, Hastings, and Semple. The last named, with a judgment worthy of the towering editor of the Californian, selected the bil- lowy slopes of the headland guarding the opening of this western Bosphorus, the strait of Carquines, the inner golden gate of San Francisco Bay. Indeed, the
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