USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
In the State House there was many a trick played, many a joke passed, the recollection of which produces a smile upon the faces of those who witnessed thein. It was not infrequently that as a person was walking up-stairs with a lighted candle, a shot from a revolver would extinguish it. Then what shouts of langhter rang throng'ı the building at the scared individual. Those who fired were marksmen; their aim was true and they knew it."
THE FANDANGO.
Speaking of the way in which these gay and festive Legis- lators passed their evenings, a writer says: " The almost nightly amusement was the fandango. There were some respectable ones and some which at this day would not be called respect- ahle. The term might be considered relative in its signification. It depended a good deal on the spirit of the times and the the notion of the attendant of such places. Those fandangos, where the members kept their hats on and treated their part- ners after each dance, were not considered of a high-tonedl character (modern members will please bear this in mind).
There were frequent parties where a little more gentility was exhibited. In truth, considering the times and the country, they were very agreeable. The difference in language, in some degree prohibited a free exchange of ideas between the two sexes when the Americans were in excess. But then, what one could not say in so many words he imagined, guessedl, or
madle signs, and on the whole, the parties were novel and inter- esting.
AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MEMBERS.
The grand ont-door amusements were the hull and hear fights. They took place sometimes on St. James, and some- times on Market Square. Sunday was the usual day for bull- fights. On the 3d of February the Legislators were enter- tained by a great exhibition of a fellow-man putting himself on a level with a beast. In the month of March there was a good deal of amusement, mixed with a good deal of excitement.
It was reported all over the Capital that gold had been dis- covered in the bed of Coyote creek. There was a general rush. Picks, shovels, crow-bars, and pans had a large sale. Memhers of the Legislature, officials, clerks, and lohhyists, coneluded suddenly to change their vocation. Even the sixteen dollars per day which they had voted themselves, was no inducement to keep them away from Coyote creek. But they soon came back again, and half of those who went away would never own it after the excitement was over. Beyond the ahove interesting, and presumably prominent facts, history gives us very little concerning the meeting of our first Legislature, except that the session lasted one hundred and twenty-nine days, an adjournment having been effectedl on the 22d of April, 1850.
SECOND SESSION OF LEGISLATURE.
The second Legislature assemhled on the 6th of January, 1851. On the 8th the Governor tendered bis resignation to the Legislature, and John MeDougal was sworn in as his snecessor. The question of the removal of the capital from San Jose was one of the important ones of the session, so mueh so that the citizens of San Jose were remarkably active in cater- ing to the wishes of the members of the Legislative body. They offered extravagant bids of land for the capitol grounds, prom- ised all manner of buildings and accommodations, and even took the State scrip in payment for Legislators' board. But it was of no use.
Vallejo was determined to have the capital, and began hrib- ing members right and 1, it with all the city lots they wanted. The Act of remo missed February 14th, and after that date the Legisl .. I ." suffer. The people refused to take State scrip for $ n .J., e board, charged double priees for everything; and when. on the 16th of May, the Solons finally pulled up stakes and * tt there was not thrown after them the traditional old sho ill( 1 assorted lot of mongrel oaths aud Mexican maledictions
RIM WAL OF THE CAPITAL.
Third Session-Convened at Vallejo, the new Capital, Jamu- ary 5, 1752. Number of members: Senate, 27; Assembly, 62; total 89.
65
REMOVAL AND LOCATION OF THE CAPITOL.
Fourth Session-Convened at Vallejo, January 2, 1853; removed to Benicia, February 4, 1853.
Fifth Session-Convened at Benicia, January 2, 1854, re- moved to Sacramento, February 25, 1854, where it has sinee remained.
PRESENT CAPITOL BUILDING.
In the beginning of 1860 the citizens of Sacramento deeded to the State, lots of land in the city on which a new State Cap- itol could be built. Work commenced the 15tb day of May 1861, and the corner-stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies, conducted by N. Green Curtis, then Grand Master of the Order. In a few years other bloeks were added, so that now the grounds extend from Tenth to Fifteenth and from L to N streets. For this addition the citizens subscribed $30,000, the State appro- priation not being sullicient to fully pay for the land. The original architeet was Reuben Clark, to whom the greatest mued of praise should be given for the beautiful building that now adorns the city and is an honor to the State. After the dedication ceremonies, work was discontinued on it for some time, and it was not until 1865 that labor was recommeneed in earnest. Up to November 1, 1875, the eost, added to the usual items for repairs and improvements, amounted to $2,449,- 428.31. The building is two hundred and forty feet in height, the height of the main building being ninety-four feet. Its depth is one hundred and forty-nine feet and its length two hundred and eighty-two. The Assembly Chamber is seventy-three by seventy-five, with a height of forty-eight feet, and the Senate seventy-three by fifty-six, with the same height. The first, or ground story of the building, is sixteen feet above the level of the surrounding streets.
The State Capitol, one of the prettiest in America, stands in a park of eight blocks, terraced and ornamented with walks, drives, trees, shrubs and plants, forming one of the prettiest spots in the country. This fine structure cost about $2,500,000 and its towering dome, surmounted by the Temple and Goddess of Liberty, rises two hundred and forty feet, and is the first objeet presented to view in the distance from whatever direc- tion the traveler approaches the city. A fiue engraving of this building will be found as a frontispiece.
The State Capitol Park, in which are located the Capitol building, the State Armory, and the State Printing Office, em- braces ten full blocks of land, and the breadth of four streets, running north and south. Recent improvements, lay ont the grounds in a graceful landscape style, of extensive lawn and clumps of trees, and arranges them more especially as a drive. The main drive is in the form of an ellipse, the roadway being forty feet in width, and estimated to be about two-thirds of a mile in length. It is bordered by a double row of trees, and the grounds intervening between the roadway and the fences are being tastefully laid ont in the best style of landscape gar- dening.
Descriptive and Statistical Matter.
THE Coast Range of mountains runs parallel to the ocean, and has an altitude of from two thousand to four thousand feet above the sea, and an average width of twenty to forty iniles.
SIERRA NEVADA RANGE.
On the general eastern boundary of California, and running nearly its entire length, lies the Sierra Nevada (snowy range), its summit being generally above the region of perpetual snow. In this State it is about four hundred and fifty miles long and eighty miles wide, with an altitude varying from five thousand to fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. Nearly its whole width is occupied with its western slope, descending to a level of three hundred feet above the sea; its eastern slope, five or six miles wide, terminating abruptly in the great inte-
STATE HOUSE AT SAN JOSE, 1849.
rior basin, which is five thousand feet above the sea level. The sides of the Sierra Nevada, to a height of abont eight thou- sand feet, are covered with dense forests of valuable timber, which is succeeded by rugged granite and perpetual snow.
CALIFORNIA ALPS.
John Muir says :--
" Few portions of the California Alps are, strictly speaking, pieturesque. The whole massive uplift of the range, four han- dred and fifty miles long by about seventy wide, is one grand pieture, not clearly divisible into smaller ones; in this respect it differs greatly from the older and riper mountains of the Coast Range. All the landscapes of the Sierra were remodeled deep down to the roots of their granite foundations by the developing ice-floods of the last geologieal winter.
HEAD-WATERS OF THE TUOLUMNE.
" On the head-waters of the Tuolumne is a group of wild Alps on which the geologist may say the sun has but just begun to shine, yet in a high degree pieturesque, and in all its main fea- tures so regular and evenly balanced as almost to appear con- ventional-one somber cluster of snow-laden peaks with gray pine-fringed granite bosses braided around its base, the whole
66
TWO GREAT MOUNTAIN RANGES OF THE STATE.
surging free into the sky from the head of a magnificent valley, whose lofty walls are beveled away on both sides so as to embrace it all without admitting anything uot strietly belong- ing to it. The foreground was now all aflame with autumn colors, browu and purple and gold, ripe in the mellow sunshine; contrasting brightly with the deep, cobalt blue of the sky, and the black and gray and pure, spiritual white of the rocks and glaciers. Down through the midst the young Tuolumne was seen pouring from its erystal fountains, now resting in glassy pools as if ehauging baek again into iee; now leaping in white eascades as if turning to snow; gliding right and left between the granite bosses, then sweeping on through the smooth meadowy levels of the valley, swaying pensively from side to side with ealm, stately gestures, past dipping willows and sedges, and around groves of arrowy pine; and throughout its whole eventful course, flowing fast or slow, singing loud or low, ever filling the landscape with spiritual animation, and manifesting the grandeur of its sourees in every movement and toue."
MOUNT DIABLO.
The most familiar peak in the State is, however, Mount Diablo, being very near its geographical center, and towering above all other peaks-prominent from its inaeeessibility and magnificent panoramie sweep from its top-prominent from its seleetiou by the Government as the initial poiut of base and meridian lines in the land survey, it being the reference point in about two-thirds of the State.
It stands out boldly three thousand eight hundred and fifty- six feet high, overlooking the trauquil ocean, thirty miles due east from the Golden Gate, serving as a beacon to the weary, sea-tossed mariuer, far out on the blue, briny billows, pointing him to a haven of security in the great harbor through the Golden Gate itself; and even on through bay and strait to anchorages safe and deep, up to where the foot-stones of the great pile meet and kiss the braekish waters. Grand old mountain, majestie, silent, yet a trumpet-tongued preacher ! Who is there of tbe prosperous dwellers upon its slopes, or near its grateful shadows, that, going or eoming by land or sea, does not look upon that blue receding or advaneing pile with a full heart ?
General Vallejo gives the following as the history of Mount Diablo (Mount Devil) : "In 1806, a military expedition from San Francisco mnarehed against the tribe ' Bolgones,' who were eneamped at the foot of the mountain. The Indians were pre- pared to receive the expedition, and a hot engagement ensued in the large hollow fronting the western side of the mountain. As the vietory was about to be decided in favor of the Indians, an unknown personage, decorated with the most extraordinary plumage, and making diverse movements, suddenly appeared near the eombatauts. The Indians were vietorions, and the incognito (Puy), departed towards the mount. The defeated soldiers, on ascertaining that the Spirit weut through the same
ceremony daily, and at all honrs, named the mount 'Diablo,' in allnsion to its mysterious inhabitant, that continued thus to inake its strange appearance until the tribe was subdued by the troops in command of Lientenant Gabriel Moraga, in a sceoud campaign, the same year. In the aboriginal tongue, Puy signifies Evil Spirit; and, doubtless, it signifies devil in the Anglo-Ameriean language."
" It is believed there are few points on the earth's surface from which so extensive an area can be seen as from this mountain." The writer has, from its summit, eounted thirty- five eities and villages, where reside two-thirds of the inhabit- ants of the State.
GREAT MOUNTAIN RANGES.
The two great mountain ranges unite at the northern and southern part of the State, each connecting range having a lofty peak.
In the northern eonneeting link is Mount Sbasta, fourteen thousand four hundred and forty-two feet high. It rears its great, eraggy snow-covered summit high in the air, and is often seen at a distance of two hundred miles at the south-west. It takes about three days to reach its summit and return. You can ride to the snow line the first day, aseend to the top the follow- iug morning, deseend to your eamp in the afternoon, and return to the valley on the third day. Mount Shasta has a glacier, almost, if not quite, the only one within the limits of the United States. The mountain is an extinet volcano. Its summit is composed of lava, and the eye can easily traee the now broken lines of this old erater when viewed from the north.
Mount Shasta is elothed with snow for a virtual mile down from its summit during most of the year. Mount Whitney is the highest point in the United States (14,900 feet); bnt Mount Shasta (14,442 feet) makes a more imposing appearanee because it rises in solitary grandeur seven thousand feet above any mountains near it. In the Sierra Nevada range are more than one hundred peaks over ten thousand feet high, according to the State Geological Survey.
In the southern connecting link is suow-capped Mouut San Bernardino eleven thousand six hundred feet above the sea level. Between these two great ranges, lie the great interior basiu of the State, comprising the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, really but one geographical formation, drained by the two great rivers bearing their respective names, and their tributa- ries; an uninterrupted level country of exceeding fertility, aud the great future wheat growing seetion of the State. This basiu extends north and south about four linndred miles. with an average breadth of from fifty to sixty miles, rising into un- dulating slopes and low hills as the mountains are approached on either side. It is covered with a diluvinmi from four hun- dred to fifteen hundred feet deep, and presents evidences of having once been the bed of a vast lake.
Innumerable valleys are formed by spurs shooting off from
67
A RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION.
the western slope of the Sierra Nevada range, and from the Coast range on either side, extending the entire length of the State; well watered by springs and living streams, possessing a good soil and elimate, and every way adapted to profitable mixed husbandry.
This great valley is drained from the north by the Saera- mento river, and from the south by the San Joaquin, which, after meeting and uniting in the center of the basin, break through the Coast Range to the Pacific. At the southern ex- tremity are the Tulare lakes and marshes, which in the wet season cover a large extent of surface. Along the great rivers the valleys are generally low and level, and extremely fertile, rising into undulating slopes and low hills as the mountains are approached on either side, and broken on the east by numerous spurs from the Sierras. The following table gives the most noted mountains in the State :-
ALTITUDE OF PROMINENT POINTS IN THE STATE.
NAMES OF PLACES. Altitude (HIERRA NEVADA RANGE). fr'm S.F. above &co.
173
14,900
Snow Mountain ...
114
7,500
Mount Whitney.
244
14,442
Mount St. John ..
96
4,500
Mount Shasta ...
160
14,386
Mouut Hamilton. .
52
4,400
Mount Tyndall
148
13,227
Mount St. Helena.
70
4,343
Mount Dana ...
144
13,217
Mount Diablo.
32
3,856
Mount Lyell
152
13,886
Mount Balley_
280
6,375
Mount Silliman.
130
11,623
15
2,604
Lassen Butte ..
183
10,577
Mount Tamalpais.
2,030
Stanislaus Peak.
125
11.500
Marysville Buttes.
92
200
Round Top.
120
10,650
Farallone Islands.
387
Downieville Buttes
157
8,720
Clay Street Hill.
225
307
Colfax Village
144
2,431
90
30
Redding.
Sacramento
POPULATION AND INCREASE.
In 1831, the entire population of the State was 23,025, of whom 18,683 were Indian converts. During the years 1843, '44, '45 and '46 a great many emigrants from the United States settled in California. In January, 1847, the white popu- lation was estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000. Its population, in 1850, was probably 150,000. The population of the State, in 1880, was 864,686. There are on the average, six inhabitants to the square mile, but the distribution of the settlement over the State is unequal. Thus, San Francisco bas about 8,000 people to the square mile, while those portions of San Diego and San Bernar- dino counties in the Colorado Desert and enelosed basin, with an area of fourteen thousand square miles, have at least seven square miles to each white inhabitant. The counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo, Solano, Napa, Sonoma and Marin, fronting on San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun bays, and the deltas of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, all within thirty miles of Mount Diablo, and distinetly visible from its summit, have 580,800 inhabitants, or about fifty-eight to the mile, leaving a little more than two to the square mile for the remainder of the State.
CENSUS OF THE STATE BY COUNTIES* SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION.
Increase in
COUNTIES
1850.
1860.
1870.
1880.
ten years.
1
Alameda
dee 146
2
Alpine (a).
1,804
Amador
3,574
12,106
11,403
18,721
7,308
4
Butte _ _
85
G
Colusa
115
5,328
8,461
12,525
4,044
7
Contra Costa
1,993
2,022
2,499
628
8
Del Norte.
20,057
20,562
10,309
10,6-47
338
9
10
Fresno
2,694
6,140
15,515
9,375
11
477
12
Inyo(b).
2,925
5,600
2,675
13
Kern(b)
1,803
1,686
2,969
6,643
3,674
15
Lake(c)
1,327
3,341
2,014
16
Lassen (d)
3,530
11,333
15,309
33,392
18,083
17
Los Angeles
323
3,334
6,903
11,326
4,423
18
19
Mariposa
55
3,967
7,5-45
5,657
2,850
21
430
5,416
1,433
23
Monterey.
1,872
4,739
9,876
11,309
4,700
24
Modoc (j)
405
5,521
7,163
12,894
5,713
25
Napa (c)
16,446
19,134
20,534
1,400
26
Nevada.
13,270
11,357
14,278
2,921
Placer
4,363
4,489
6,881
2,392
Plumas (.).
24,142
26,830
36,200
9,370
29
5,584
5,584
San Benito (k)
5,551
4,324
4,951
8,620
3,669
32
56,802 149,473
San Francisco (g)
9,435
21,050
24,323
3,273
34
336
1,782
4,772
8,142
3,370
35
3,214
6,635
8,717
2,082
San Mateo (g).
3,543
7,784
9,478
1,694
37
Santa Barbara
11,912
26,246
35,113
8,864
38
39
40
Shasta (d)
11,387
5,619
6,617
998
41
Sierra
7,629
6,648
8,401
1,553
42
Siskiyou
580
7,169
16,871
18,475
1,604
Solano
560
11,867
19,819
25,925
2,452
-45
Stanislaus (h)
3,444
3,390
5,030
5,212
46
Sutter
Tehama
1,635
5,125
3,213
4,982
1,769
48
Trinity
49
Tulare
8,351
16,229
8,150
7,8-43
50
Tuolumne (h)
51
Ventura (j)
1,086
4,716
9,899
11,880
1,981
52
Yolo
9,673
13,668
10,851
11,540
689
53
Yuba
92,597 379,994
560,247
The returns of 1850 for Contra Costa and Santa Clara were lost on the way to the Census Office, and those for San Francisco were destroyed by fire. The corrected State census of 1852 gives the population of these three counties as follows : Contra Costa, 2,780; San Francisco, 36,154; and Santa Clara, 6,561; and gives the total population of the State (save El Dorado, not returned) 215,122. El Dorado was estimated at 40,000, which would make the total population at that date 255,122. ( Vide Doc. No. 14. Appendix to Senate Journal, 4th session Legislatura.) (a) In 1863 Alpine from Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, and Miono.
(b) I» 1865 organized.
(d) In 1863 Lassen from Plumas and Sbasta.
(f) In 1863 organized.
(/) I» 1854 Stanislaus from San Joaquin and TuolumDo.
(i) Divided and attached to other countles. (j) Organized 1873.
(k) Organized in 1872 from Monterey.
(c) In 1861 Lake from Napa.
(e) In 1800 organized.
(g) In 1867 San Mateo from San Francisco.
Colored
962
4,086
4,272
6,265
75,025
25,715
Chinese
17,908
7,241
16,130
8,889
Indians
g | Total. .. 52|
The State
91,635 323,177
1499,424
767,266
267,842
Wbite.
4,044
3,587
9,414
5,827
47
11,281
6,748
4,638
4,533
5,088
5,088
Santa Cruz
6-43
4,944
8,743
12,808
4,605
378
4,360
4,173
9,700
5,527
43
44
Sonoma
2,215
6,499
8,951
182
San Diego
233,956
84,483
33
San Joaquin (le) - -
3,647
San Luis Obispo ..
36
1,185
1,141
2,807
11,000
3,455
20
Mendocino(e)
Merced*
5,013
22
Distance
NAMES OF PLACES. (COAST RASOR.)
Distance
Altitude I'm S.F. above Sea.
28
Saeramento
9,087
30
7,800
3.812
Mt. Loma Prieta __
54
4,040
Mount Brewer . ..
31
San Bernardino.
4,379
6,243
4,572
4,399
Idee.173
Marin
16,884
16,299
8,895
8,980
Calaveras
2,274
6,165
13,118
6,953
El Dorado
4,605
6,336
9.478
3,142
Humboldt
1,956
2,928
10,930
9,582
11,386
39,402
8,927
2.1,237
63,639
685
539
864,686 304,439
1,993
34,933
49,310
Red Bluff
558
260
14
Klamath(¿)
Mono (f).
4,700
27
3,988
Santa Clara
6,106
dee.307
"The consus of ISSO gives males, 518,271; females, 346,416; native, 572,006; foreign, 202,080.
34
68
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS.
It is as an agricultural State now, however, that California is attracting attention, and to show what we are doing in that line we append a table of receipts and exports from San Fran- cisco of wheat, flour, barley, oats, beans and potatoes since 1856.
Each year terminates with June 30th :-
WHEAT AND FLOUR.
EXP .RTS.
LECEIFTS.
Equal to
Equal to
Date.
bbls. Flour.
Date.
bbls. Flour.
43,960
1857
116,474
1858
20,618
1859
212,888
1859.
186,182
1860.
834,020
1861
385,600
1874
89,091
5,739
1874
752,456
29,441
1875
113,577
8,156
1875
1863.
715,975
1864
1864.
310,691
1865.
1865
917,217
1866.
626,060
1866.
1,967,197
1867.
1,697,402
1867
1,878,508
1868.
1,691,115
1868
.2,238,800
1869
1,012,095
1869
.2,244,061
1870.
1,974,259
1870
1,597,756
1871
1,386,834
1871.
937,203
1872
.. 3,537,874
1873
.3,079,473
1874.
3,069,123
1874
3,731,104
1875
.3,413,669
1875
.2,652,461
1876
.2,490,633
Private grants surveyed to June 30, 1879
40,707
Mission Church property .
188,049
Pueblo Lands. .
15,000
Private grants unsurveyed.
318,631
Indian and military reservations.
1,561,700
Lakes, islands, bays and navigable rivers.
110,714
Swamp and overflowed lands unsurveyed. .
100,000
Salt marsh and tide lands around Humboldt bay.
5,000
BARLEY.
OA'T'S.
Receipts, in centals.
Exports, in centala.
Receipts, in centals.
Exports, in centals.
1857
455,823
66,368
1857
157,344
8,370
1858
637,568
142,612
1858
186,039
107,659
1859
779,870
295,836
1859
320,248
218,647
1860
549,293
69,246
1860
216,898
90,682
1861
677,455
339,536
1861
315,078
116,467
1862
611,227
188,617
1862
351,633
154,585
1863
432,203
49,809
1863
177,105
39,986
1864
611,143
40,329
1864
304,044
91,086
1865
438,432
13,920
1865
273,973
3.366
1866
1,037,209
349,990
1866
343,042
113,966
1867
730,112
142,154
1867
328,478
89,331
1868
638,920
31,342
1868
221,811
5,685
1869
608,988
91,202
1869
234,498
21,934
1870
752,418
300,528
1870
299,143
13,957
1871
701,639
138,008
1871
304,153
13,227
1872
792,198
16,707
1872
358,531
11,707
1873
981,028
226,928
1873
200,545
5,437
1874
1,127,390
243,752
1874
243,400
27,640
1875
1,243,657
182,146
1875
305,844
56,023
1876
1.142,154
204,131
1876
233,960
3,101
1877
1,552,765
282,875
1877
210,257
4,479
1878
858,967
88,887
1878
145,413
10,756
1879
1 752,712
468,335
1879
253,802
29,253
1880
1,191,451
411,145
1880
143,366
5,372
BEANS AND POTATOES.
POTATOES.
BEANS.
Receipts, in sacks.
Exports, in sacks.
Receipts, in sacks.
Exports, in sacks.
638
1857
343,681
1857
330,307
1858
292,458
1859
11,955
1860
40,097
1861
5,815
1862
14,952
1863
22,161
1864
5,976
1865
16,984
1866
7,378
1867
19,133
1868
24.360
1869
53,711
1,899
1869
701,960
24,710
1870
99,585
7,890
1870
700,122
18,880
1871
85,618
21,800
1871
720,077
36,578
1872
56,390
7,479
1872
779,379
27,986
1873
70,048
5,997
1873
781,049
33,772
1862.
781,138
1863
509,730
1876
115,128
17,296
1876
731,207
25,684
1877
117,860
10,512
1877
810,576
36,818
1878
80,116
12,705
1878
624,353
18,840
1879
207,193
17,871
1879
750,211
23,440
1880
198,249
28,740
1880
590,611
36,200
STATE LANDS AND HOW DIVIDED.
State Surveyor-General, William Minis, places the area of the State at 100,500,000 acres, divided as follows :-
Agricultural and mineral lands surveyed to June 30, 1879.
40,054,114
Agricultural and mineral lands unsurveyed
8,459,694
1876
.4,115,554
1877
.4,029,253
1877
1,864,644
1878
.1,765,304
1878.
.3,839,180
1879
.3,867,955
1879
.. 2,891,660
1880.
2,591,545
1880. .
BARLEY AND OATE.
Salt marsh and tide lands around San Francisco bay
100,500,000
Aggregate
OWNERSHIP AND CULTIVATION OF LAND.
From various official sources we have compiled the subjoined table, showing the total area, the area sold by the Government ( that is, held by private ownership ), the area enclosed, and the area cultivated, in every county of the State-all in square miles. The figures are not exact, nor is it possible to make them so from any official records now in existence. The area "sold " is that treated as subject to taxation in the several counties, and the areas enclosed and cultivated are reported annually in the Assessor's reports.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.