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 9
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making exertions to have the place declared a port of entry. The political waters were being stirred a little, in anticipation of the ap- proaching election. Mr. Gilbert, of the Alta California, and Colonel Stewart, candidate for governor, were in the city. A political meet- ing which had been held a few nights before, in front of the City hotel, passed off as uproariously and with as zealous a sentiment of patriotism as such meetings are wont to at home."
Shortly after the great discovery that was to so influence the for- tunes of the world and to become the ruin of General Sutter, a num- ber of stores were located at the fort and an immense business was soon created there. The first of these was the establishment of C. C. Smith & Co., in which Sam Brannan was a partner. It was started a few months before the opening of the mines and the first exchange of gold dust for store goods took place over its counters. Brannan afterwards bought his partners out and continued the business in the old adobe building which was subsequently used as a hospital. In 1849 the building on the inside of Sutter's Fort was occupied by Rufus Hitchcock, the upper story being used as a boarding house. The front room below was used as a barroom and gambling house and the bar was kept open night and day. If a customer had coin, his drink cost him fifty cents, but he generally opened his sack and the barkeeper took out a pinch of gold dust, to be regulated by size or amount of drink consumed, and in those days very few drank alone. The cost of board at this place was $40 per week.
Hitchcock soon left the fort and went to the mines on the Stan- islaus. In passing it may be stated that old residents say that in the '50s Capt. (afterwards Gen.) Ulysses S. Grant, owned a ferry on the Stanislaus and they often saw him, dressed in red shirt and overalls, lying under a shady tree on the bank, contentedly waiting for a foot passenger to come along who wanted to be ferried over. In those days, in fact, many a man who afterwards became prominent in the history of his country, was a resident of California. Hitch- cock subsequently became the owner of the Green Springs ranch in Eldorado county and died there in 1851. He was succeeded in the boarding house by M. F. MeClellan of San Francisco. By summer all the business had become transferred to the Embarcadero or land- ing place on the Sacramento river, now known as Front street, which became a lively place. The blacksmith shop at the fort was carried on by a Mr. Fairchild, who paid an assistant $16 a day and charged $64 for shoeing a horse all round, or $16 for a single shoe.
In the freighting to the mines, which was done by means of ox teams, John S. Fowler had a virtual monopoly and paid his team- sters from $200 to $250 per month. The rate for freighting was enor- mous. In the winter of 1848-49 the roads to the mines were almost impassable. Freight from the fort to Coloma was one dollar a pound
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-$2,000 a ton. Even at that price it was impossible to transport the necessaries of life fast enough to prevent serious apprehensions of famine in the more distant mining districts.
The firm of S. Brannan & Co. consisted of Sam Brannan, Will- iam Stone, W. D. Howard, Henry Mellus and Talbot H. Green. The stores of Priest, Lee & Co., Hensley, Reading & Co., Captain Dring, C. E. Pickett, Von Pfister & Vaughn, and the drug store of Drs. Frank Bates and Ward were inside of the fort. The prices de- manded were enormous. One evening John S. Fowler, wishing to give a supper to his teamsters, saw on the shelf in Brannan's store a dozen two-pound cans of oysters and asked the clerk the price. "Twelve dollars each," replied the clerk. "How much if I take the lot?" asked Fowler. "One hundred and forty-four dollars," was the reply. "Well, I'll take them all," said Fowler, and he carried off his costly prize.
Brannan's employes were: Jeremiah Sherwood, of New York; Tallman H. Ralfe, afterwards editor of the Democrat in Nevada City; J. Harris Trowbridge, afterwards of Newburg, N. Y .; George M. Robertson, afterwards supreme judge of Oahu, Sandwich Islands; James B. Mitchell, subsequently public administrator of Sacramento county, who died in 1857 in Benicia; W. R. Grimshaw, a well-known resident for many years on the Cosumnes river; and James Queen.
The pioneers did not leave their patriotism behind them when they came here. The 4th of July, 1849, was celebrated in the shade of a grove of oak trees, the last survivor of which, hoary with age and covered with mistletoe, stood for many years in front of the old build- ing on L street which was used as a hospital. The orators of the day were William M. Gwin and Thomas Butler King, who after- wards served the state in the United States senate.
Shortly afterward came the struggle for supremacy with Sut- terville. As soon as the survey of Sacramento City had been made George MeDougall obtained a lease of the ferry at a point below the entrance of Sutter Lake, and located a store-ship on the river hank opposite I street, and in company with Judge Blackburn, opened it with a large stock of goods. When John A. Sutter, Jr., arrived, his father, the captain, transferred to him all the proprietary rights in the city of Sacramento. MeDougall declared that his lease gave him control of six hundred feet along the river front, and a dispute arose which was carried into the courts. Being defeated, McDongall in a rage determined to destroy the prospects of the city, and re- moved his goods to Sutterville. He then came ont with immense placards stating that he would sell goods at cost and freight, and made a verbal declaration that if necessary he would sell goods at cost. This produced a lively agitation among the traders and they patched up a scheme of purchase which broke up many lines of Me-
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Dougall's stock and, as it was no easy task in those days to replenish it, effectually extinguished McDougall's enterprise and put an end to the budding hopes of Sutterville as well.
The latter end was accomplished largely by a shrewd specu- lative move on the part of Sam Brannan, Judge Burnett and Priest, Lee & Co. The Sutterville proprietors had offered to donate to these traders eighty lots in Sutterville if they would transfer their stocks and business to Sutterville. They informed young Sutter of the offer and persuaded him that it would be for his interest to give them about five hundred lots in Sacramento to induce them to stay here, and he did so. Such was the passing of Sutterville, and today the old brick brewery stands as a monument of its decease, while the big brick stores which stood there until later years have disappeared.
Sacramento grew apace. April 1, 1849, the number of inhabi- tants of the fort and city did not exceed one hundred and ten. An election had been held the preceding fall for first and second alcaldes, resulting in the election of Frank Bates and John S. Fowler, re- spectively. Fowler resigned in the spring and Henry A. Schoolcraft was appointed in his place. Early in the spring a board of commis- sioners consisting of Messrs. Brannan, Snyder, Slater, Hensley, King, Cheever, MeCoover, MeDougall, Barton Lee, Feete, Dr. Car- penter, Fowler and Southard was elected to frame a code of laws for the district. The committee met under an oak tree at the foot of I street and submitted a report which recommended the election of one alcalde and one sheriff, who should have jurisdiction from the Coast Range to the Sierra Nevada and throughout the length of the Sac- ramento valley. H. A. Schoolcraft was elected alcalde and A. M. Turner, sheriff, and thus was laid the foundation of the judicial and political system in Northern California, under a sturdy oak on the banks of the Sacramento.
Immigration was coming by sea, although as yet in not very great numbers between February to June, but improvement went steadily on. The condition was anomalous. There was no law or system of government, yet there was no discord or disorder. There was no legal restraint imposed on citizens, yet during these months the community was exempt from violence, and all seemed imbued with a feeling of forbearance and accommodation. The craze for gold had not yet fastened its deleterious influence on men, and right and a feeling of equality and independence seemed to guide their actions.
Trading yielded an enormous profit and everyone was absorbed in it. Two hundred per cent was the profit on goods procured from San Francisco and trading in gold dust was very profitable. At first the scale of payment for goods with dust ranged from $8 to
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$16 an ounce. Clerks could hardly be retained in the stores at from $200 to $300 per month. The trade between the mines and Sacra- mento was immense. Such was the prevailing feeling of honesty and security that neither goods nor gold dust were watched with anxiety for their safety. Miners came to town with bags of gold dust which they took no more care of than their hats and boots. Money was so plentiful that there was no temptation to steal. By the first of May there were about thirty stores, and two barks and a brig were moored along the shore. The Whiton, one of the former, had as- tonished the residents by coming up from San Francisco in three days, from five to ten days having been consumed before then by small boats and launches.
In June there came a change. Immigrants began to arrive by thousands and to outfit for the mines, Sacramento being the point of departure for the northern mines. The American, Yuba, Bear and Feather rivers were the points of attraction and Sacramento was the place for outfitting. Business became a rush in which the cal- culation was only for today. Transportation from San Francisco was the source of enormous profits and every craft that could be procured was pressed into service. The cost of passage from San Francisco to Sacramento was from $16 to $25 and the freight rate was cor- respondingly high. On June 26th the city numbered a hundred houses and the City Hotel, on Front street between I and J, 35x53 feet and of three stories, originally framed for a saw and grist mill for Cap- tain Sutter, was said to have cost $100,000. It was headquarters for the aristocracy of the times and the scene of many town-meetings.
Every sort of material from which tents, stores and houses could be constructed rose to enormons prices. Muslin, calico, canvas, old sails, logs, boards, zine and tin were priceless possessions. The hun- dreds of immigrants coming in were lucky if they could have the shade of the trees to protect them from the noonday sun or the night. Gambling was everywhere carried on and magnificent saloons were built at enormous cost, the first place of public gaming being on J street, between Second and. Third, kept by James Lee, and euphoni- onsly named "The Stinking Tent." Others followed. and a demo- cratic and cosmopolitan crowd composed their patrons. Coin was scarce and the miners brought their bags of gold dust, depositing them with the game keepers and drawing from them as the game pro- gressed, generally till all was gone, and then went back to the mines for more. Not one person in ten, either by absence or condemnation, tried to discountenance gaming. Indeed, it is narrated by Dr. Morse that two ex-clergymen were conspicnous among the gamesters, one dealing monte and the other playing faro. Poker was played by the larger capitalists on a magnificent scale, the ante being often $100 and $3.000 being frequently bet on a single hand. One individual
5
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is said to have staked a thousand ounces on a hand and won, after having lost nearly that much previously. Many men who had been brought up to regard gambling as a stain on a man's character and who had left their wives and children in straightened circumstances, says Morse, hastened to hazard and lose the first few hundred or thousand dollars they had made.
But a moral wave soon swept over the community. In April, 1849, Rev. Dr. Woodbridge preached the first sermon ever heard in Sacramento. In May Dr. Deal, a practicing physician, undertook to establish regular religious services and in July Rev. J. A. Benton began his long and beneficent services in the city. "His course," tes- tifies Dr. Morse, "was from the first consistent. IIe was essentially a minister of the gospel-a seven-days advocate of the Christian re- ligion." He extended his influence by a pure life, winning the re- spect and confidence of the people, instead of making an onslaught on the tide of vice, and soon acquired great influence in the com- munity. At this late day many of the pioneer Sacramentans who knew him speak in the highest terms of his character. He sometimes made missionary excursions of two or three weeks duration, sleeping on the ground under the trees and living like the primitive Apostles.
Before the removal of MeDougall's store, Hensley and Read- ing had erected a frame building in Sacramento, on the corner of I and Front streets, the first frame house in the new city. Soon after that a Mr. Ingersoll erected a building half canvas and half frame, between J and K on Front street and Mr. Stewart had put up a canvas house on the bank of the river, which was opened as a tavern. In February, 1849, Sam Brannan erected a frame storehouse on the corner of J and Front streets, and this was soon succeeded by an- other belonging to Priest, Lee & Co., on the corner of Second and J and directly afterwards two substantial log houses were erected by Mr. Gillespie and Dr. Carpenter.
For a time the chief place for business was on First or Front street between J and K, but soon it began to extend up J and K streets to Third. The river bank was piled with the goods of immi- grants and merchandise, and storage facilities were entirely in- adequate. The chief business was in miners' supplies. Lumber was from fifty cents to a dollar per square foot, and hard to get at that. Teaming and packing earned enormous revenue. In December $50 a hundred was charged for hauling goods from Sacramento to Mormon Island and Auburn. In July fresh beef sold for fifteen cents a pound; bread fifty cents a loaf; butter from $2 to $3 a pound; milk $1 a quart; dried apples $1 to $2 a pound; saleratus $6 a pound, and pickles whatever their owner chose to ask. Carpenters were paid $16 a day; laborers $1.50 an hour; board without lodging $16 to $49 a week; washing $6 to $12 a dozen; doctor's fees $16 to
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$32 a visit. A glass of liquor at a first-class bar cost $1, and a cigar fifty cents. Everything was high in proportion.
But business did not entirely engross the attention of the citi- zens. There were some votaries of pleasure, and on July 4, 1849, a grand ball was given at the City hotel, at that time the headquar- ters of Sacramento fashion and aristocracy. Money was spent with- ont stint to enhance the success and dignity of the occasion, and the affair was on a magnificent scale. There was a dearth in the com- munity of feminine attractions and the surrounding country was scoured thoroughly by a committee of young men to gather in all the ladies that could be obtained to grace the occasion. Every min- ing camp, ranch, wagon, tent and log cabin was canvassed, with such success that eighteen of the fair sex were secured. To quote Dr. Morse again. "Not all Amazons, but replete with all the adornments and graces that belong to bold and enterprising pioneers of a new country. Tickets to the ball were fixed at the moderate price of thir- ty-two dollars; gentlemen were requested to have swallow-tail coats and white vests. The supper was, of course, a profusion of all that money could obtain," and champagne flowed freely, despite its cost. Thus was the pace set for future occasions in the new city.
In July, 1849, a movement was set on foot to organize a city government. An election for conncilmen was held at the St. Louis Exchange on Second street between I and J, and the first council- men for the city of Sacramento were chosen as follows: John P. Rodgers, H. E. Robinson, P. B. Cornwall, William Stout, E. F. Gil- lespie, Thomas F. Chapman, M. T. McClelland, A. M. Winn and B. Jennings. The new council was organized on August 1st, with Will- iam Stont as president and J. H. Harper as clerk. The first busi- ness transacted was the preparation of a constitution for local gov- ernment. A. M. Winn was afterwards made president in place of Stout, who had left the city. On September 20th an election was held to decide on a city charter. A draft had been prepared by the coun- cil but the citizens did not turn out well to vote, and it was defeated by a majority of one hundred and forty-six votes. Its rejection was charged to the gamblers, who opposed a change and worked hard and spent much money to defeat it. Up to this time there had been no law or government that was more than nominal, as there was no court except that of the alcalde, which, while expeditious, was costly in dispensing justice. The people therefore shunned litigation and this lawless state just snited the gamblers. This was a great morti- fication to the council, and the president issued a proclamation stat- ing that the council was unable to determine what the citizens wanted, and as the powers and duties of the council were not defined, they desired to know whether the citizens desired still to act under the Mexican laws at present in force, although inapplicable to the pres-
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ent conditions, or to adopt a charter, striking out such features as were objectionable. Immediate action was necessary if the council was to be of any use. It therefore asked the citizens to meet Octo- ber 10, 1849, and declare what they wished the council to do. The people, who had paid no attention hitherto to local government, awoke from their apathy. A Law and Order party was formed. The gamblers were defeated and the charter adopted by a majority of two hundred ninety-six. The charter adopted, however, contained matter relative to taxation which rendered it unpopular, and it was soon amended.
The council soon had a burden of troubles of its own. The com- munity had enjoyed robust health during the spring and summer months, but with the fall a terrible change came. Many of the ed- venturous immigrants had seemed to think that nothing was neces- sary to their success except to reach California. Many of them were destitute on their arrival. Not one in a hundred had money to buy an outfit for the mines at the ruinous prices asked. Many were suf- fering from hardships and privations endured on the overland jour- ney, or as steerage passengers saturated with scorbntic diseases or so depressed or despondent that they became an easy prey for dis- ease. Nine-tenths of these adventurers poured into Sacramento, the nearest point for ontfitting for the mines. Here they met another train of scorbutie sufferers straggling in from the east, debilitated and worn out by the hardships encountered.
From these canses Sacramento had become one vast lazar honse long before the city government was organized and the council im- mediately found a serious condition confronting it. This was in- tensified by the fact that as men became accustomed to these scenes of suffering, familiarity with them hardened their hearts, and cupid- ity took possession of them. The lure of gold beckoned them away. They could not spare time to relieve the distress of their fellows. They must press on to the diggings and begin to acquire their for- tunes. Fathers abandoned their sons, and sons abandoned their fathers when they required a little troublesome care. When they could be of no further nse to each other friendship and kinship be- came mere words. One flagrant case was that of an old father, who had furnished the means for his son and other relatives to come to the new Eldorado, but was deserted by them as he lay dying with scurvy on the levee, where he soon passed away. The sick and suf- fering accumulated so fast that by July means of caring for them were entirely inadequate. Creigan's Hospital at the fort and the one opened by Dr. Deal and Dr. Martin were filled, but the prices for nursing and board were prohibitive to four-fifths of those need- ing care. Miasmatic fevers added to the misery and distress of the scurvy.
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But charity had not departed, and compassion and help were at hand in a limited degree. Two great fraternal orders were represented among the community, not organized into lodges, but numbering many individual members. The feeling of brotherhood that had bound them together, also bound them to relieve distress as far as lay in their power, and nobly did they come to the front and face the stupendous task. The first effective efforts for relief came from members of the fraternity of the Odd Fellows. They came together and bound them selves into an informal organization and devoted themselves witlı earnest zeal to the relief of the distressed. A. M. Winn was elected president of the association, a Mr. McLaren secretary and Captain Gallup, treasurer. Every member of this body became a visiting com mittee and an immense amount of relief was dispensed.
They were joined by the members of the Masonic fraternity in their efforts to take care of the sick and destitute. "The two noble orders contributed money and exertions as freely as if their lives had been devoted to the exclusive function of human kindness," says Dr. Morse, "and their fair names are inscribed in indelible and liv- ing characters upon those pages of history which California ought to and must preserve." But their combined efforts, assisted by those of the council, could not do all that there was to do. The people were appealed to in a public meeting to come forward and assist in the general effort for relief. The president of the council was dispatched to Monterey for the purpose of laving the case be- fore General Riley and proenring from him some of the public funds then in his possession. But their mission was a failure, as General Riley, the military governor of the territory, did not consider he had the right thus to use the national funds.
Sacramento was then thrown upon her own resources, and with her treasury empty and low credit, she did all that was possible and by co-operation with individual effort and the two fraternities she succeeded in furnishing a tolerable shelter and medical attendance for the sick. Rough pine coffins had ranged from $60 to $150, and even then the supply was far from sufficient, so hundreds had been buried without coffins and even without being wrapped up in a blan- ket. The Odd Fellows spent thousands of dollars for coffins and when General Winn became the executive officer of the city, no man was refused a coffin burial. The scenes of those days were terrible and the description of their horrors is almost unreadable.
When the rains set in the misery was increased. Many of the sick. with typhus and other fevers, lay without shelter from the pitiless storms. Finally Drs. Morse and Stillman aroused the sympathies of Barton Lee, whose name should occupy an honored place in the City's history, and induced him to erect a story and a half hospital, 40x50 feet, at the corner of Third and K streets. The city deter-
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mined also to erect a two story hospital, 20x60 feet between I and J, Ninth and Tenth streets, and $7000 was expended for lumber, but when it was partially erected it was prostrated to the ground by a rain and wind storm, and the timber so injured as to make it al- most useless for building purposes.
But the future city was doomed to pass through a yet more try- ing period. An enemy came like a thief in the night, for which she had made no provision. The reckless speculators had declared there was no danger of inundation and the people had been credulous enough to believe them when they declared that the city's site had remained free from flood during the sojourn of the oldest Californians. The people had not raised their buildings, but had built on the ground wherever their lots happened to be. The rains through the latter part of December and the first part of January had awakaned anx- iety. The Sacramento and American rivers were rising rapidly and the back country seemed to be filling up and entting off communi- cation with the higher lands. But the citizens, with fatnous confi- dence in the assertions that a flood could not harm them, made no preparations for the deluge. Hence, when it came, there was no adequate protection for life or property. Many were drowned, some in their beds, some in trying to escape, and many from the terrible exposure. The few boats belonging to the shipping at the Embarca- dero were pressed into service to rescue the women and children and the sick, that were scattered over the city in tents and canvas houses. Some of the women were found standing upon beds or boxes, in water a foot or two deep. Sick men on cots were found floating about help- lessly. By mere accident a boat in which Capt. J. Sherwood was manager passed the hospital and was attracted by the cries of the sick for help. He immediately proceeded to rescue them and took them to safety in Mr. Brannan's house.
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