USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1913 > Part 20
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The Locomotive was a six-column weekly advertiser and local pa- per which was excellent in its way and did a prosperous business for some months with R. L. Lawrence as the manager in the spring of 1873. Its office was on J street between Second and Third streets. T. F. Case bought a half interest and subsequently the whole interest, selling half of it to Dr. A. P. Truesdell, who became editor. The name of the paper was changed to that of the People's Champion, but in the summer of 1874 it threw up the sponge and was counted among the dead ones.
The only foreign paper, with one exception, published in Sacra- mento prior to 1885, was the Semi-weekly Sacramento Journal (German) published by K. F. Wiemeyer & Co., and edited by Mr. Wiemeyer. Its first number came out June 6, 1868, and it had a successful career for many years. The Sacramento office was at No. 314 J street and about 1890 Wiemeyer & Co. established an office in Oakland, publishing the paper at both places simultaneously. It was Republican in tone and independent in its utterances.
H. B. Eddy early in 1873 started a small weekly paper called the Valley World. It aimed at literary excellence, and was neatly printed and critical. Mr. Eddy died that fall, and the paper was continued for a few weeks, being ably edited by Rev. J. H. C. Bonte, Rector of Grace Church and afterwards secretary of the University of California, since deceased.
The Evening News, a daily, Sundays excepted, and neutral, was
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first published March 26, 1869, by B. F. Huntley & Co. Vincent Ryan, a member of the firm, did most of the writing, with Frank Folger and W. S. Johnson in the other departments. The paper died in three months.
The Sunday Free Press was started in February, 1873, by Beers & Co., but its initial appearance was also its last, although it was a lively number, local and jolly, and its proprietors mourned its loss for grave financial reasons.
In February, 1874, the Sacramento Valley Agriculturist began its existence as a monthly, with Davis and Stockton as editors and pub- lishers. In June, 1874, it changed to a weekly and the next month it bought up the old Champion material and was enlarged considerably. April 15, 1875, Davis sold his interest to W. T. Crowell. The paper was devoted entirely to agricultural matters, with a city edition òn Sun- day mornings, and some local news. It ceased publication many years ago.
The Occidental Star, a weekly paper of four pages, devoted to the interest of the return of the Jews to Palestine, began in January, 1873, and ran for about five months, with Mrs. L. I. L. Adams as proprietor.
The Winning Way was a weekly paper edited and published by Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Potter and devoted to the cause of woman and sociability. It was started in September, 1873, and went the way of many others in February, 1874.
Common Sense was published as a weekly of four pages by Dr. A. P. Truesdell in January, 1873, and discontinued in March, 1874, but was afterwards revived and published in San Francisco.
The Mercantile Globe was an advertising sheet published by Byron & Co., August, 1872, and changed to the Sacramento Globe October 18, and published by Kelly & Farland. It ran for several months, sus- pended, and was again started by Raye & Ford, December 5, continuing weekly until April 17, 1875, being afterwards published at intervals by B. V. R. Raye.
The California Teacher was started by the State Board of Edu- cation about 1877, being purchased from the San Francisco Teachers' Association. It has had a checkered existence since, with various pub- lishers, as a state journal, under various titles.
The State Fair Gazette has been published by H. S. Crocker & Co. for a number of years at the annual State Fair, as an advertising sheet distributed gratuitously.
The Evening Herald was started March 8, 1875, as a small evening paper, independent in policy. The publishers were Gardner, Larkin, Fellows, and Major E. A. Rockwell, a well-known journalist of wide experience, as editor. He had formerly occupied a position on the Morning Call of San Francisco and had served a time in the legislature creditably.
The Enterprise was started as a Sunday morning paper, by Crites.
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Davis and Alexander, August 29, 1875. It was well conducted and vig- orous, but the proprietors were handicapped by not finding a business manager to suit them and ceased publication with the ninth issue. It was printed from the old Reporter type.
The Seminary Budget, an occasional publication by the young ladies of the Sacramento Seminary, was issued for some years, attaining some literary excellence and doing credit to its student editors.
The Business College Journal was issued occasionally for a number of years by E. C. Atkinson, lately deceased.
The Sunday Leader appeared in October, 1875, issued by J. N. Larkin, who retained his connection with it as editor and proprietor until his decease in May, 1911, since which time his son, W. H. Larkin, who had been associated with him for some years, under the firm name of J. N. Larkin & Son, continues its publication. In 1884-5 it was the official paper of the county. In politics it has always been straight Republican. Mr. Larkin was a veteran of the Civil War, straightfor- ward and uncompromising, and had a host of warm friends who re- gretted his passing away. The Leader is a neat sheet, 28x42 inches, and presents a creditable appearance.
The Daily Sun was started as a workingman's organ immediately after the adjournment of the legislature of 1879, which provided for a constitutional convention. It was published by a company of stockhold- ers, with William Halley as manager. When the delegates to the con- vention were elected and he was defeated, he withdrew from the man- agement. A new company was formed and J. F. Clark continued as editor for a few months, when the paper ceased publication.
The Sunday Capital was started in 1883 by J. L. Robinette and C. C. Goode. It was a four-page folio, independent in politics and devoted to news and literature. After about a year Robinette disposed of his interest to William Ellery, but six months later it was discon- tinued.
The Sacramento Medical Times, afterwards changed to the Occi- dental Medical Times, was a large octavo monthly started in March, 1887, by five physicians and has been a successful publication. J. H. Parkinson, M.D., has been its editor-in-chief for many years and among his associates have been W. A. Briggs, William Ellery Briggs, W. R. Cluness, Thomas A. Huntington and G. L. Simmons of Sacramento; J. F. Morse, W. H. Mays, Albert Abrams, W. Watt Kerr and D. W. Montgomery of San Francisco, and J. W. Robinson of Napa. Of late years Drs. Cluness and Huntington have been residents of San Fran- cisco. Dr. Simmons died in 1911.
The Daily Evening Journal was begun July 4, 1888, by H. A. Weaver and ran until October 1 following. It was devoted to general news and literature. ·
Charles Schmitt issued the first number of the Nord-California Herold, a German paper, September 5, 1885, and it has taken front rank
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among the German papers of the state. Mr. Schmitt came to this state in 1865, and after mining several years, became one of the founders of the Abend Post, the second German daily published in San Francisco. In May, 1868, he came to Sacramento and founded the Sacramento Journal (German) and continued with it till 1881. Mr. Schmitt is a ready writer of wide experience and intelligence and his paper has a powerful influence in the field it occupies.
Themis was an able eight-page quarto Sunday paper, published in the interest of Sacramento and devoted to dramatic and governmental criticism and miscellany. It was printed with large type and on the finest paper. It was started in February, 1889, by Winfield J. Davis, W. A. Anderson and George A. Blanchard. The editors were among the early residents of the city and county, thoroughly conversant with its history in all respects, and eminently fitted for the task they had undertaken. The paper enjoyed a reputation for exceptional literary ability and the cessation of its publication in 1894 on account of a division of opinion between its proprietors as to the policy of the paper during the great railroad strike of that year, was regretted by a wide circle of citizens, who had enjoyed the perusal of its columns.
In the early part of 1856 Dr. Bradley established the Granite Journal at Folsom, Granite being at that time the name of what is now known as Folsom. He conducted the paper for several years and it became one of the most widely known papers in the state in that day of only a few newspapers. When the name of the town was changed from Granite to Folsom, the Journal changed its name to the Folsom Tele- graph. The paper also changed hands about the same time, William Penry, afterwards treasurer of Amador county, becoming the editor and proprietor, being succeeded several years later by William Aveling. When Mr. Aveling died, his widow conducted the paper for a time, but soon sold it to Peter J. Hopper. About 1872 John F. Howe purchased the paper and from his death ten years later until July 19, 1884, Mrs. Howe held ownership. It then passed into the hands of Weston P. Truesdell, and he published it alone until August 1, 1888, when I. Fiel joined him. They conducted the paper until March 16, 1889, when Mr. Fiel purchased the entire interest and soon after sold out to Thad McFarland. Since the death of Mr. McFarland, May 4, 1894, his widow has been the owner. The paper has been ably conducted by their son, R. D. McFarland, as editor and manager, and has been enlarged from six columns to seven.
The Galt Gazette has been in existence for a number of years and has a fair circulation in the southern end of the county.
The Daily Evening News was started in 1890, by John Dormer, a well-known newspaper man of Nevada, and Wells Drury, also a jour- nalist from the same state. Under their management the paper was published for two years. It was then purchased by John A. Sheehan and June B. Harris, who had been for many years attached to the
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editorial staff of the Daily Evening Bee. Sheehan and Harris were very capable newspapermen and the Daily News prospered under their management. Their financial backers became interested in a plan to have the city water works pass into the hands of private interests, and as part of the bargain for the support of other newspapers, the Daily News was suspended immediately after an election at which the people voted to substitute well water for that supplied from the river by their own works. The plan was blocked and ultimately fell through.
Soon after the suspension of the Daily Evening News, in 1893, the Sunday News was started by Messrs. Sheehan and Harris, and was a pronounced success from the date of the first issue. About two years later Harris died, and his interest in the publication was purchased by Winfield J. Davis. In May, 1897, the Sunday News was sold to the News Publishing Co., its present owner. Its size and pages were en- larged and a large modern publishing plant was equipped for its issu- ance with other printing and important publications. Mr. Sheehan continued as its editor until his decease in 1910. He was succeeded by Emmet Phillips, his former partner and editorial associate, who is at present editing the Sunday News, assisted by John H. Miller, for- merly of the Evening Bee. The plant of the News Publishing Co. is one of the largest in this part of the state, and the Sunday News is probably the most widely read and quoted weekly newspaper in Northern California. The present owners are Emmet Phillips, A. A. Trueblood and John H. Miller.
The Sacramento Star was started November 21, 1904, being fur- nished by the Scripps-McRae telegraphic service, the Associated Press franchise for the city being owned exclusively by the Union and the Bee. It is under the management of E. W. Scripps, who is the owner of a large number of papers on the coast and in the west. It started as a four-page, seven-column paper, printed on a flat press and in- creased successively to eight, ten and twelve pages of eight columns, in June, 1907, and subsequently. Henry White is editor and E. H. Car- penter general manager. The paper has grown steadily in prosperity and importance.
Several papers printed in foreign languages are being published in this city.
CHAPTER XXIII EDUCATIONAL MATTERS
It is an accepted fact among the educators throughout the country that Sacramento has always kept abreast of the times in matters educa- tional and the events of the past few years have emphasized the fact. One of the first things noted in the history of the city in the days of the first rush of immigrants to the land of gold, was the establishment of a school in the summer of 1849, when the fevered quest for the yel- 11
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low metal pervaded all men's minds to almost the total exclusion of all other sentiments. And Sacramento has fully kept pace with progress along educational lines ever since, the last action of the city in voting bonds to the amount of $800,000 for new schools and playgrounds for her children being a patent evidence that her people were keenly alive to the importance of directing the rising generation into the pathway leading to intelligence and good citizenship. Destroyed several times by fire, grown decrepit by age, stunted by cramped quarters and needing more room for the constantly increasing number of children seeking knowledge, the school buildings have time after time risen like the Phoenix from their ashes, or given place to more modern and commodious ones. Manual training, domestic science and gym- nastic training have usurped in late years the time and attention for- merly given to fossilized studies and ideas and the watchword of "Progress" has shouldered out of the way the old and obsolete fea- tures that had retarded advancement. Our boys are today being fitted for the battle of life by the employment of their minds, eyes and hands in a practical way, instead of turning them out upon their struggle for a livelihood with their heads crammed with a mass of knowledge that can be utilized only in certain directions and in a very limited field. Our girls are being trained in the arts that pertain to the home and its comforts and conveniences. The arts of cooking and sewing, which have become almost lost arts in the feminine part of the community, and on which the comfort and harmony of the household so greatly depend, have been resuscitated and given their proper place in the economy of our daily lives, and the growing gen- eration of womanhood is being better fitted for wifehood and mother- hood.
The influence for good these things will exert on the next gen- eration can hardly be calculated and must result in a great betterment of future economic conditions. The struggle for existence is becoming yearly more arduous and our children must be so trained as to be better fitted to encounter its future difficulties. Practical education, then, is necessarily taking the place of that which in the past was largely theoretical and impractical.
The first school recorded in the history of our city was opened in August, 1849, by C. T. H. Palmer. Rev. J. A. Benton, who was the first pastor of the Congregational Church in Sacramento, has given an interesting account of the first educational ventures in Sac- ramento, as follows: "C. T. H. Palmer, formerly of Folsom, taught the first school, so far as I know, that was ever taught in Sacramento. lle taught during the month of August, 1849, and then abandoned the business.' I do not know how many pupils he had, but the number could not have exceeded ten. I purchased from him in September the benches and furniture he had used, and opened the same school again October 15, 1849, at the same place in which he kept it. The place
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was on I street, in a building owned by Prof. F. Shepherd. The struc- ture was a one-story house about 14x28 feet, covered at the ends with rough clapboards, and the roof and sides were covered with old sails from some craft tied up at the bank of the river. Some 'shakes' and 'pickets' were nailed over the places not covered by the sails, close to the ground. The doorway was covered by a piece of canvas fastened at the top and dropping before the opening. There was no floor but the ground, and that was by no means level. The school house stood on the brink of the slough, or 'Lake Sutter,' near the northeast corner of Third and I streets. It was about sixty feet east of the east side of Third street and the southern side of it encroached a few feet on I street. I street was not then passable for wagons. The remains of a coalpit were in the middle of I street, a few yards eastward from the building. A small and crooked oak tree stood at the eastern end of the schoolhouse, close to it and near the door. A sycamore tree and some shrubs of ash and elder grew out of the bank on the northern side and close to the building. The filling up of I street and the advent of the Chinese now obliterate every trace of the building and its exact site. My school opened with four pupils, and increased to six, then to eight or nine. I do not think it ever exceeded twelve. By stress of weather and other circumstances I was compelled to close the school the 1st of December, 1849. That was the end of my en- deavors in the way of school teaching. It is my impression that Crowell opened a school in the spring of 1850, but it might have been during the following autumn. In the spring there were enough fami- lies to make school teaching desirable, and the weather and other circumstances were such as to make it practicable. I know of no other schools in 1849 than Palmer's and mine."
Up to 1854 the public schools had been merged into those of the county, and were under the supervision of the county assessor. by virtue of his office. The state school law provided for a supervising school committee in each city, town and incorporated village. The attempt made in Sacramento to establish a common school under that law failed and in 1852 the legislature repealed that law and passed a new one, which gave to cities and incorporated towns the control of the common schools within their limits, with a provision that if the municipal authorities did not exercise that power the county assessor should have charge of them and he ex-officio county superintendent. This act was amended April 26, 1853, and in that year the county assessor. H. J. Bidleman, appointed under the law as amended a board of school commissioners for the city consisting of Dr. H. W. Harkness. G. J. Phelan and George Wiggins.
Judging from the articles in the newspapers of that day, fre- quently demanding that the commissioners do their duty and open a public school, they must have been very dilatory in establishing the
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schools. At last, in February, 1854, the following advertisement ap- peared :
"Public School. The citizens of Sacramento are hereby notified that the school commissioners for this city will open a public school on the southeast corner of Fifth and K streets, on Monday morning, February 20, 1854, at 9 o'clock. G. H. Peck will have charge of the male department, and Miss Griswold of the female department. By order of the Commissioners of Common Schools."
The school was opened on the day designated and was the first public school opened in this city. The day of co-education had not then arrived, and two rooms were occupied, one by the boys and the other by the girls. The school opened on the first day with fifty boys and forty girls in attendance. Most of them were between seven and nine years old and the greater portion had never attended school before. The attendance increased rapidly and on the fourth day there were ninety boys and seventy girls in attendance. It was found that the school was growing so fast that there was not room for the accommodation of the pupils and soon there were 200 on the roll. The building not being large enough to accommodate all, another school was opened in an old building known as the Indiana House on I street, near Tenth, and the board appointed A. R. Jackson as teacher. This school in turn became too crowded, and another building was leased, on the corner of Tenth and G streets. The girls of the I street school were removed to this place and placed in charge of M. E. Corby. On June 19 a school for girls and boys was opened near the corner of Seventh and K streets, W. A. Murray being placed in charge. The attendance still increasing, a primary school was opened in the rear of the Fifth street school, in a building formerly occupied as a mechanic's shop, and the care of the pupils was con- fided to Miss A. E. Roberts.
And still the movement grew. In July, 1854, it is stated that there were 261 pupils attending the public schools, and 250 in private schools. The day of the children had come, and the city was becoming a city of homes instead of men only. From this time on the advance in the cause of education was rapid. October 2, 1854, the city council passed an ordinance which had been drafted by N. A. H. Ball, and which provided for the election of a city superintendent of schools and a board of education. The board was to assume the control of the city schools, which had heretofore been controlled by the county assessor.
The council elected Dr. H. W. Harkness superintendent, and N. A. H. Ball, George Wiggins and Dr. T. A. Thomas trustees or members of the board, which organized on the 1st of the following month, Harkness ocenpying the chair and Ball being secretary. At this meeting the board estimated the school income and expenses necessary for the ensuing year at $22,000. A controversy arose between the
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county superintendent and the board, the former declining to sur- render control of the schools on the ground that it would deprive him of his $1,000 salary. The matter was finally adjusted and on Decem- ber 7th the county commissioners and Superintendent Bidleman for- mally surrendered all the public schools in the city, the city board agreeing to liquidate all indebtedness. On the 11th the county super- intendent and commissioners resigned their offices and the city board assumed full control of the schools.
On November 25, 1854, the following teachers were elected by the new board: For the Second Ward female grammar school, Miss Anderson; Second Ward female primary school, Miss Frost; Second Ward Male grammar school, G. H. Peck; Third Ward male grammar school, A. R. Jackson. The first common school house was erected on the corner of Tenth and H streets, upon land tendered free by John H. Gass, A. B. Asper contracting to build it in fifteen days for $1,487. It was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, January 20, 1855. February 5, 1855, a primary school was established at Eleventh and I streets, with Mrs. Eliza A. Wright as teacher. The board apportioned scholars to the different schools, to the number of 574. The teachers were to register the applicants and if the pupil absented himself for more than a week without good canse the board and the parents were to be notified, his name dropped and the next applicant on the list admitted. Dr. Harkness in his first report showed accom- modations for only 414 pupils-157 boys, 157 girls and 100 primary scholars. Five hundred and seventy-eight pupils had made application to enter, and the accommodations were insufficient, there being an average attendance of 463.
In March, 1855, the authority to elect the board was taken from the council and given to the people by legislative act, the number of commissioners being increased to six. At the first election in April, 1855, Francis Tukey was elected superintendent, and R. P. Johnson, H. Houghton, F. A. Hatch, J. F. Morse, George W. Wooley and George Wiggins commissioners. The new board organized April 11th. the salaries of teachers being at that time $1,350 monthly. On the 15th Lee & Marshall's circus gave a benefit to the schools, netting $321. and subsequently gave other benefits. The schools grew rapidly and on May 5th the new board elected teachers, there being ten principals and two assistants. In February, 1856, Tnkey resigned as superin- tendent and F. W. Hatch was elected in his place, William E. Cham- berlain being elected commissioner in place of Hatch. The report of Superintendent Hatch on March 18th showed that in the six grammar schools there were 199 boys and 267 girls, a total of 466; average attendance 254. In the five primary schools there were 270 boys and 234 girls; total 504, average attendance 250. Twelve of the pupils were born in California and one in China. From Illinois came 93.
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Early this year came W. H. Watson who succeeded Mr. Wooley as a member of the board.
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