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 22
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January 7, 1874, Superintendent Hinkson served on Principal McDonald of the grammar school the following notice:
"You are hereby instructed to admit no children of African de- scent or Indian children into your school, and if any make applica- tion for admission, direct them to the superintendent, who will issue
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permits for their admission into the schools provided for them by law."
The admission of colored children to white schools had been made an issue in the election of December, 1873, and Hinkson had been elected superintendent, with W. F. Knox and George S. Wait, Democrats. J. F. Dreman, Republican, had previously voted against admitting colored children.
The notice called attention to the statute on the subject. The principal refused to obey the order and was suspended by the super- intendent and a special meeting was called, the principal stating that the orders of the superintendent were in conflict with the resolution adopted by the board, and asked which he should obey.
Director Welty offered the following resolution: "That the teach- ers are instructed that the paramount source of power rests with the board, in reference to the subject matter embraced in the com- munication from the principal of the grammar school."
The resolution was adopted by a vote of five to three and the principal reinstated. Director Dreman offered a resolution as fol- lows, which was lost by a vote of three to five:
"That it is the duty of Superintendent Hinkson to redeem his pledge to the people of Sacramento City by using all legal means to prevent the admission of colored children into the white schools."
Director Knox offered the following resolution :
"That the resolution of December 29, 1873, by the board of edu- cation, admitting certain colored children into the white grammar school, is a palpable violation of the statute of the state."
Director Welty offered this in addition :
"But is in strict harmony with the constitution and laws of the United States."
The resolution as amended was adopted. The supreme court soon after declared the statute constitutional and a plan was dis- cussed for establishing separate schools, but was deemed impractic- able and colored pupils were admitted to the grammar and high schools.
OTHER MATTERS
In 1882 a resolution was adopted by the board that thereafter, when high school exercises were held, a premium of $20 would be offered to the young lady pupil who would attend in the least ex- pensive and most appropriate dress. It seems therefore, that the evil of expensive dressing on such occasions was even then prevalent.
In 1881 the Fremont primary school at Twenty-fourth and N streets was erected.
In 1882 a two-room frame building, the Marshall primary, was erected at Twenty-seventh and J streets and afterwards enlarged. It stood on one of the city blocks reserved for plazas by General
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Sutter and when the city resolved to make a park there, the school was removed and a new one erected on G street.
In 1884 it was proposed to purchase the Perry Seminary build- ing for a high school and $9000 was offered for it, but Mrs. Perry asked $10,000. It was finally purchased for $9620 and used for years for the night school, but was converted last year into a manual train- ing school. In February, 1890, the board of trustees asked that the Perry Seminary property be deeded to the city, but the board of education declined, saying it had no power to cede it. In 1891 a similar request was made and again denied.
In 1904 the first Chinese school was opened in the Perry Sem- inary building.
In 1885 the Harkness grammar school at Tenth and P streets was erected at a cost of $14,992, and the building at Tenth and L streets, erected in 1879, named the Capital grammar school and at first used as a grammar school, was named the Capital primary school. In 1889 the Sutter grammar school at Twenty-first and L streets was erected, at a cost of $15,444. In that year, also, the business men of the city presented twelve American flags to the board of educa- tion, with the request that they be displayed on all legal holidays, on the first day of each term and on other occasions as the board might deem proper. Today Old Glory floats over every schoolhouse in the city and county while the schools are in session.
In this connection it may be stated that the first flag raised over a schoolhouse in the county outside of the city was in the Capital school district, on the old schoolhouse that stood on the Upper Stock- ton road at Swiss station, a short distance south of the county hospital, W. L. Willis being the teacher, and the school children and trustees contributing money for the flag and flagstaff. On the same day, but several hours later, a flag was raised on the American river dis- triet schoolhouse, Miss Agnes Burns, teacher. Neither district knew that the other contemplated such action, and the raising of the first two flags in the county was a remarkable coincidence. Both school- houses have since been demolished, and more commodious ones built on other sites to accommodate the growing needs of the districts.
Besides the high school, we have now three grammar schools,- the Watson, Harkness and Sutter, the Newton Booth school, which is mixed, and eight primary schools,-the MeKinley, Lincoln, Capital, Washington, Jefferson, Marshall, Fremont and Eugene Field pri- maries,-within the old city limits. Since the suburbs were annexed they have brought into the city school system the Oak Park grammar and primary schools, the Highland Park, Franklin, East Sacramento, Riverside and Palmetto Heights schools, the latter being the school of the Protestant Orphan Asylum on the Lower Stockton road. There is also a night high school, and a night school with twelve teachers. In addition to this, the old Perry Seminary has been fitted
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up as a manual training school, with four teachers. The schools also have a supervisor of drawing, a supervisor and assistant supervisor of music, a teacher and assistant teacher for the deaf and dumb, and four teachers of domestic science and home economics. In addition to these there are several kindergarten schools.
In the spring of 1911 the Capital primary school, on L street, between Ninth and Tenth, was burned, the work, it is generally be- lieved, of an incendiary. The Lincoln primary school, at Fourth and Q streets, has been twice burned within the past ten years, both fires being supposedly incendiary.
There are at present eighty school districts in Sacramento county, as follows: Arcade, Alabama, Alder Creek, Andrus Island, Arno, Brighton, Buckeye, Brown, Brannan, Courtland, Capital, Carroll, Center-Joint, Carson Creek-Joint, Colony, Davis, Dry Creek-Joint, Elk Grove, Elk Grove Union High, East Sacramento, Elder Creek, Enterprise, Excelsior, Freeport, Florin, Franklin Union, Fair Oaks, Galt, Granite, Grand Island, Georgiana, Good Hope, Goldberg, Highland, Highland Park, Howard, Hutson, Isleton, Jackson, June- tion, Kinney, Lisbon, Lee, Lincoln, Laguna, Michigan Bar, Moke- lumne, Ney, Natoma-Joint, Onisbo, Oak Grove, Orangevale, Oulton, Prairie, Point Pleasant, Pleasant Grove, Pacific, Palmetto Heights, Richland, Roberts, Reese, Rio Vista, Rhoads, Riverside, Sylvan, Sutter, Stone House, Sacramento City, San Joaquin, San Juan, Sherman Island, Union, Victory, Vorden, Wilson, Washington, Walnut Grove and Waker. Two new ones have been made by the board of supervisors within the past few months-Twin Cities district taken from Galt and Arno districts, and one, not yet named, taken from Brighton, Washington, Enterprise and Excelsior districts. The num- ber of teachers in the city schools is 267, and in the schools outside of the city ninety-one.
SACRAMENTO BUSINESS COLLEGE
When Agesilaus, King of Sparta, gave utterance to the precept "Teach your boys that which they will practice when they become men," he sounded the keynote of practical education and stamped the pattern for the commercial training of the present generation. This terse and epigrammatic injunction is the motto of one of the oldest and most firmly established educational institutions on the Pacific Coast. Founded February 28th, 1873, by Edmund Clement Atkinson, one of the pioneer business educators of the state, it has for nearly forty years inculcated sound business principles into the minds of the young men and young women of California, and maintained first rank among the institutions of learning of the community.
For the first twenty years of its existence, the college occupied the upper floor of the present city library building on I street, he- tween Seventh and Eighth, after which the third floor of the Hale 12
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block at Ninth and K streets, where it was for sixteen years one of the prominent features of the city's life. In 1909 it was moved to the present commodious and well-lighted building at the north-east corner of Thirteenth and J streets, where it continues to expound the sound principles of business, impressing them upon the receptive minds of its students along the strongly characteristic lines laid down by its eminent founder, and on completion of the course of instruction installs its graduates in responsible positions in the commercial world. In fidelity to its announcements it "puts thousands into business."
The college celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1898 by incorporating under the laws of California. Since the death of its founder, and in fact for a short time previous thereto, it had been under the direct control of its president and manager, William E. Cogswell, for eighteen years connected with the institution in various capacities.
CHAPTER XXIV RAILROADS
The inception of railroad building in the county of Sacramento, as well as in the whole state, has made very interesting history. The building of the Sacramento Valley Railroad which ran from Sacra- mento to Folsom, a distance of twenty-two miles, in 1855-56, (it being the first railroad constructed in the state) was the direct cause of the construction of the western half of the great transcontinental railroad known as the Central Pacific.
As far back as 1846 the building of a railroad across the plains and over the mountains had been agitated in Congress and out of it by Asa Whitney, until 1850. He was supported in his effort by Sena- tors Benton of Missouri and Breese of Illinois. February 7, 1849, Senator Benton introduced a bill in Congress for the building of a Pacific railroad, this bill being really the first tangible effort made in that direction. The formation of a company of citizens of Sacra- mento, Nevada and Placer counties was the first effort made in Cali- fornia for the building of an overland railroad. Articles of incor- poration of the Sacramento, Auburn and Nevada Railroad Company were filed in the office of the secretary of state, August 17, 1852. They contained the names of twenty-six subscribers of twenty-eight shares each, at a value of $100 a share, with the names of the follow- ing directors: S. W. Lovell, Placer county; F. O. Dunn, John R. Coryell, Charles Marsh, Isaac Williamson and William H. Lvons of Nevada county; John A. Read, J. B. Haggin and Lloyd Tevis of Sacramento county. A survey was made of a line from Sacramento City, through Folsom, Anburn and Green Valley, to Nevada City. The line was sixty-eight miles long. and the estimated cost of con- struction was $2,000,000. The survey was continued from Nevada
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City through the Henness Pass. But the enterprise assumed too gigantic proportions for the means of the incorporators, and they were forced, much against their will, to abandon the undertaking.
In March, 1853, congress passed an act providing for a survey, by the topographical engineers of the army, of three rontes of a trans- continental railway-the northern, southern and middle routes. The surveys were made as ordered, and the report submitted to congress and published, with elaborate engravings of the scenery along the routes, topographical maps and representations of the animals and plants discovered. These reports were doubtless valuable, but they did not demonstrate the fact that a railway route was practicable over the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges. The demonstration of that fact was to be made later by Theodore D. Judah, who had been the chief-engineer of the Sacramento Valley Railroad-the first railroad built in California. Mr. Judah became convinced, while en- gaged from 1854 to 1856 in building this road, that it was practicable to build a road over the Sierra Nevada mountains, the only range that had before been deemed impracticable. He made at his own expense trial surveys over several of the supposed passes over the Sierra Nevadas. While these were only harometrical surveys, they were sufficiently accurate to convince him that there was a practicable route, and that a road could be built.
Armed with the data he had thus obtained, Mr. Judah lost no time in presenting his views and ideas at all times in order to awaken interest and advance the project of a Pacific railroad. In 1856 he succeeded, through a concurrent resolution of the California legisla- ture, in having a railroad convention called, to meet in San Francisco, September 20, 1859. Many prominent men of California composed this convention, among them being Hon. J. A. McDougall, Hon. J. B. Crocket, Major John Bidwell, Hon. J. B. Axtell, Hon. James T. Farley, Sherman Day and others, of California, together with dele- gates from Oregon and adjoining territories. The convention sent Mr. Judah to Washington, D. C., to endeavor to procure legislation favoring the building of a railroad, and he proceeded thither, arriving in time to be present at the opening of the Thirty-sixth Congress. He lost no time after arriving in Washington, in visiting the various de- partments and collecting from each one all the information that was likely to be of assistance to him in presenting plainly and clearly to congress the importance and feasibility of the enterprise which he desired them to take favorable action upon. While this session was unfortunately so fully occupied with political matters that he was unable to gain an effective hearing, and therefore made but little impression on congress as a body, a great deal of good was effected by him through personal interviews and the presentation of his views and aims, backed up by the data gathered, with the different members and many prominent men. He had acquired such a thorough knowl-
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edge of his subject that he rarely failed to convince his auditors of the entire feasibility of the project he had espoused. In conjunction with Hon. John C. Burch, then a member of congress from California, he drew up a bill which contained nearly all the provisions of the bill finally passed in 1862. It was printed at private expense and a copy sent to each member of congress and senate.
In 1860 Mr. Judah returned to California and immediately set about making a more thorough survey of the Sierra Nevadas for a pass and the approach to it, than he had hitherto attempted. He was accompanied on this work by Dr. D. W. Strong of Dutch Flat, who contributed much from his private means toward payment of the ex- penses incurred in prosecuting the survey, as well as aiding it by his intimate knowledge of the mountains. When the Central Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated Dr. Strong became one of its first directors.
On completion of these surveys, which were made with a baro- meter, Mr. Judah made a trip to San Francisco for the purpose of laying his plans before a number of the capitalists of that city and trying to induce them to form a company to finance the work and carry it to completion. He was chagrined to find his ideas coldly re- ceived, and at obtaining no financial support in that city. He returned to his hotel one evening, after becoming convinced that it was futile to make any further trial to obtain financial aid in San Francisco, and remarked to a friend: "The capitalists of San Francisco have refused this night to make an investment, for which, in three years, they shall have ample canse to blame their want of foresight. I shall return to Sacramento tomorrow, to interest merchants and others of that place in this great work, and this shall be my only other effort on this side of the continent."
Mr. Judah had previously placed his plans and estimates before James Bailey, a Sacramento friend, who was struck by the force of his arguments and calculations. By Mr. Bailey he was introduced to Governor Stanford, Mark Hopkins, E. B. Crocker and Charles Crock- er. He was already acquainted with C. P. Huntington. A meeting of the business men of Sacramento was called. Mr. Judah laid his plans and statisties before them and steps preliminary to the organ- ization of a company were immediately taken. The organization was perfected and the articles of incorporation filed with the secretary of state June 28, 1861. The name chosen for the company was the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, and the officers elected were as follows: Leland Stanford, president; C. P. Huntington, vice- president; Mark Hopkins, treasurer; Theodore D. Judah, chief engi- neer; Leland Stanford, C. P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, James Bailey, L. A. Booth, D. W. Strong, of Dutch Flat, and Charles Marsh, of Nevada City, directors. The capital stock was
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$8,500,000 and $148,000 was subscribed, just enough to bring them within the limit as set by the laws of California.
That all but the last two named were citizens of Sacramento demonstrates conclusively that to Sacramento and her citizens belongs the lionor of inaugurating and carrying to successful completion the Pacific railroads; for had not Judah spent his time and talents in col- lecting data, making surveys and proving that such an undertaking was possible, it is an open question if the Pacific railroads would be in existence today. The country from the Mississippi river to the Rocky mountains was generally known in those days and appeared on the maps as "The Great American Desert." The lofty and inhospit- able Rocky Mountain range was on its western border, difficult to surmount. Beyond them was the valley and table land of Utah and Nevada, bleak and uninviting, and still beyond that, the lofty and rugged Sierra Nevadas to be surmounted. The prospect was not in- viting to the eastern investor. The harren and unpromising country to be traversed gave but little prospect of being settled for many a year and the prospect of financial profit from the construction of a railroad across a scope of such country nearly two thousand miles in extent was not a brilliant one, or one calculated to draw the dollars from the pockets of capitalists. Had the railroad not been begun at this end of the line, it is doubtful if the line would have been built, even to this day. To the men then, who threw themselves into the breach and periled their fortunes and those of their friends, acernes the honor of being foremost in the work of developing-not only the Pacific coast, but two-thirds of the width of the continent. Mr. Judah's engineering work in constructing the most difficult parts of the road was regarded as the wonder of the age, for he was forced to employ methods not before used in his profession.
His coadjutors in the work, who have all, or nearly all, passed away, deserve full credit for their faith in the enterprise, their in- domitable energy and their masterly manner of managing and over- coming the financial difficulties that they encountered during the years that elapsed between the organization of the company and the com- pletion of the road, which was often sneeringly alluded to by the San Franciscans as "Stanford's Dutch Flat Road." We cannot forget, however, that Mr. Judah had spent all his time and money and energy for three or four years previous to the organization of the company, in collecting data, without which no prudent man would have felt justified in investing a dollar in the undertaking that was so generally regarded as chimerical and impracticable.
After the company was organized Mr. Judah was instructed to make a thorough instrumental survey of the route across the Sierras, which he did. The previous surveys or reconnoissances made had covered three routes, one through Eldorado county via Georgetown, another via Illinoistown and Dutch Flat, and a third via Nevada
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and Henness Pass. The observations had demonstrated the existence of a route across the Sierras by which the summit could be reached by maximum grades of one hundred and five feet to the mile. The instrumental survey, however, developed a route with lighter grades, less distance and fewer obstacles than the previous observations had shown. The first report of the chief engineer to the officers of the company gave the following as topographical features of the Sierras, which rendered railroad building and operating over them so for- midable :
1. "The great elevation to be overcome in crossing its summit, and the want of uniformity in its western slope." The average length of the western slope of the Sierras is about seventy miles, and on this distance the altitude increases seven thousand feet, making it necessary to maintain an even grade on the ascent to avoid creating some sections with excessive grades.
2. "From the impracticability of the river crossings." These rivers run through gorges in many places over one thousand feet deep, with the banks of varying slopes from perpendicular to forty- five degrees. A railroad line, therefore, must avoid crossing these canyons. The line, as established by the surveys of 1861, pursued its course along an unbroken ridge from the base to the summit of the Sierras, the only river crossing in the mountains being that of Little Bear, about three miles above Dutch Flat. Another prominent feature of the location is the fact that it entirely avoids the second summit of the Sierras. The estimated cost per mile of the road from Sacra- mento to the state line was $88,000 per mile.
October 1, 1861, the board of directors of the Central Pacific Rail- road Company adopted a resolution as follows:
"Resolved, that Mr. T. D. Judah the chief engineer of this com- pany, proceed to Washington on the steamer of the 11th of October instant, as the accredited agent of the Central Pacific Railroad Com- pany of California for the purpose of procuring appropriations of land and United States bonds from the government, to aid in the construc- tion of this road." Mr. Judah proceeded to the east on his mission and that he accomplished his purpose this time is shown by the bill that was passed by congress in July, 1862. This bill granted a free right of way to the roads of four hundred feet wide over all govern- ment lands on their line. The government also agreed to extinguish the Indian title to all the land donated to the company either for right of way or to the granted land.
The lands on either side of the road were to be withdrawn from settlement, by pre-emption or otherwise, for a distance of fifteen miles, until the final location of the road should be made, and the United States surveys had determined the location of the section lines. This map of the route was made by Mr. Judah, filed in the office of the secretary of the interior, and the lands withdrawn in accordance
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with the terms of the bill. When the bill had passed, Mr. Judah telegraphed to his associates in Sacramento: "We have drawn the elephant. See if we can harness him up."
This bill also provided for the issue to the company of United States thirty-year six per cent. bonds, to be issued to the company as each forty mile section of the road was completed, at the rate of $16,000 per mile for the line west of the western base of the Sierra Nevadas, and at the rate or $48,000 per mile from the western base east to the eastern base of the Sierras, the latter subsidy to be paid on the completion of each twenty mile section.
To secure the government from loss, and insure the payment of these bonds, they were made a first lien on the road. The state of California also donated $10,000 per mile to the road, by an act ap- proved April 25, 1863. The engineering difficulties were great, and had been considered unsurmountable, but the financial difficulties also were great, and undoubtedly required more labor and thought than the engineering, though of a different kind. That all these difficulties were surmounted, and the originators of the effort still retained the ownership and control of the road, and in addition to the original line have built thousands of miles of road in California and Arizona and elsewhere, proves the ability of the leaders in this movement.
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