History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 12

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660

USA > California > San Joaquin County > History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 12

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New Orleans. Later rice and coarse brown sugar in 100-pound mats was imported from China. Black and green tea came from Can- ton, packed in large chests. H. O. Mathews was the largest importer and an expert on tea. Bottled pie fruits of the finest quality put up for the California trade were imported from England and from the same isle came the an- thracite coal used by the blacksmiths. Raisins were imported from Italy and the finest qual- ity of wines, "liqueurs" and champagne from France. At a Thanksgiving dinner in 1850 there were twenty varieties of wine on the list, including the famous Chateau Laffitte and Haute Sauterne Margaux of the vintage of 1825. Tobacco was imported from Virginia and the finest "segars" from Havana. As to fruits and vegetables they were imported for several years from various places outside of the county. Large fine limes, lemons and or- anges came from Mexico; bananas from the ' Sandwich Islands; grapes, large, sweet and juicy, the Mission variety from Los Angeles ; and peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines and watermelons from the Sacramento River coun- try. Apples then, as now, were imported from Oregon; and especially large apples weighing a pound and a half were grown for the holiday trade. They were packed in cotton in small square cartons and retailed at four and five dollars each.

Food Prices

The prices, especially that of food supplies, were far below the present day prices, but there was no stability, as they were continual- ly going up and down according to the supply and demand. Perhaps one day the cost of an article would soar sky high, then a ship would enter the harbor loaded with the article in de- mand, and overstocking the market, it would be impossible to sell the article at any price. On one occasion there was no tobacco to be had, then in came a clipper-ship loaded with tobacco; the price went down to less than cost. One merchant to whom a consignment of to- bacco was made, rather than pay heavy stor- age rates, threw the boxes into the street for stepping stones over the mud. In an old ledger of a grocery merchant of 1856, I find a few prices for that year and they were the prices for many years. At that time saleratus was sold to the customer at 12 cents a pound, po- tatoes, 9 cents, dried apples, 22 cents, ten- pound sack salt, 38 cents, candles, 27 cents per pound, soda, 25 cents, cream tartar, 50 cents, Java coffee, 25 cents, Rio coffee, $1.00 fifty- pound sack, flour $5.50 per fifty-pound sack, sugar, 20 pounds $1.00, syrup, 90 cents per gal- lon, yeast powder, 38 cents per pound, starch, 21 cents, pickles, 38 cents a bottle, pie fruit, $3.00 per dozen, sweet oil, 38 cents per bottle,

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

white beans, 4 cents, oysters, 87 cents a can, cod fish, 10 cents a pound, sardines, 3712 cents a can, vinegar, 38 cents a gallon, fence nails, 28 cents, tacks 13 cents a paper, garden seeds, 25 cents a package.

The worries of the merchant of today are nothing as compared with the troubles of the retailer in the days of old. Today a merchant knows his business standing in the commun- ity, he knows where he can obtain goods at short notice if he make a contract, he knows the good and the bad debtors and he knows he is reasonably safe from loss by fire or bad weather conditions. The pioneer merchant had all of these conditions with no assurance of the coming day. The buildings were all constructed of wood, flimsy in character with but little or no fire insurance, and no adequate fire department, and he knew not the day nor the hour when a fire would break out through the carelessness of some person, or the match of the arsonist, and in a big conflagration de- stroy the entire block. Well do I remember that at the cry of fire or the alarm of the fire bell, the entire town would be startled and run to the fire. Now we sometimes count the fire whistle number and pay no more attention to the matter.

The majority of the merchants were poor business men. They had had no experience whatever and they went into business in a haphazard sort of way trusting to luck, as the saying goes. Some found their place and were successful, others were complete failures. And you will find the record showing where men were engaged in a half dozen different kinds of business in as many different years. Austin Sperry took up the barley and flour mill busi- ness, and when past seventy years died a part owner of the Sperry Flour Co .; Andrew Wolf crossed the plains overland, founded a livery stable and between the stable and farming he left a fortune; Andrew W. Simpson bought into the lumber business with his brother Asa. He died in 1921 worth over $800,000. These men also were good bookkeepers but the ma- jorty were failures. There was in vogue for many years a shiftless credit system, and the merchants would credit "Tom, Dick and Harry" without regard to their community standing or ability to pay their debts. Strangers in a strange land, they had no stand- ing either business or social, and perhaps with plenty of money today, they would go "broke" tomorrow, as was the case with thousands of men. It was the custom to collect bills month- ly, and familes would run up big bills, and then depart for some other town, for families like the individuals, were ever on the move. It was the condition of the times-no permanency in anything. Farmers would run up bills as high as $1,000, expecting to pay after harvest.

If the harvest was good the merchant got his money, if very poor or only fair, just enough for seed, then the merchant was compelled to carry him over another year. Sometimes farmers were dishonest and they would beg off from year to year until the bill was outlawed- five years-then the merchant could whistle for his money. Said a merchant to me one day, pointing to a stack of ledgers piled two feet high, "There's $100,000 in those books."

Another great drawback to business were the weather conditions. Today the condition of poor crops is balanced or nearly balanced by manufacturers and the assistance of horticul- ture and irrigation. Now in winter you may travel anywhere, then nowhere. We were subject to the whims, if I may so express it, of a kind Providence and upon several occa- sions when the people were fearful of a drouth, the pastors, like Elijah of old, prayed for rain; and there came rain. We have never had a failure of wheat crops but once, the year fol- lowing the flood of 1862, and a partial failure in 1872. But if there was no rain in Novem- ber then the people began to cry "hard times" and tighten their purse strings. The pessimis- tic cry was contagious, the housewives spent less money, the shops would lay off men, and building improvements would cease. This of course greatly affected business. Then if in early December there came a heavy rain the faces of the people would brighten up, they would congratulate each other. "Fine rain we had, worth a million dollars." Their purses would open up and the merchants with their Christmas goods would do a rushing business. A jeweler told me just after a heavy late No- vember rain, "That rain, George, was worth $10,000 to my business during this holiday sea- son." Strange to say the same heavy rains, if continued through December, killed complete- ly all the merchants' trade. The farmers could not get into town because of the mud, and from the same cause the women of the town would not go out in the slush and mire to do their Christmas shopping. There were no telephones, no street cars, there were but few sidewalks, made of rickety boards, and the merchants who were stocked with Christmas goods, not salable in any other season, lost heavily.

Foreign Miners' Tax

The Southern mines contained two-thirds of the population of the interior, during the first ten or fifteen years, and the mountain camps were the heaviest purchasers of the Stockton merchants. An event which threatened to al- most bankrupt the city merchants was the so- called Foreign Miners' Law. The agitation of the Californians against the foreigners, the Japanese, is nothing new. The same agitation

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

was made against the Chinese in 1880, and against the Mexicans and Chileans in 1850.

The American miners asserted that the

foreigners were digging all the gold

and shipping it from the country. It

was estimated

that

there

were

about

200,000 · foreigners in the mines, this number including the Chinese. To offset this drain of gold to some extent the legislature of that year passed a law taxing all foreigners twenty dollars a month. This tax, it was be- lieved, would bring in a big revenue to the de- pleted state treasury. Collectors were ap- pointed in each mining district with authority to take possession of any of the foreigners' personal property, tools, blankets or other property. The result was a very unexpected surprise. Some of the foreigners resisted pay- ing such an exorbitant tax, but the majority, packing up their household goods, began leav- ing the mines by the thousands. Because of the exodus the mountain merchants closed their doors for want of customers. The Stock- ton trade fell off fifty per cent, and the moun- taineers had no money to purchase more goods or pay their indebtedness to their creditors. Then the Stockton retailer became a delin- quent to the San Francisco wholesaler and there was a financial worry "from the moun- tains to the sea." This is state history, but the citizens of Stockton were deeply interested and said a citizen, "We do not recollect to have ever before seen in California so large, so re- spectable and so extensive a gathering as the one at the El Placer House on Thursday even- ing to take into consideration the subject of the tax on the foreigners. The proceedings were harmonious, spirited and of the. right stamp." The mayor of the city, Samuel Purdy, was chairman of the meeting, and a committee comprising John S. Robb, David S. Terry, Dr. George A. Shurtleff, Samuel Knight and Wil- liam Root were appointed to draft a set of resolutions "expressive of the feelings of the citizens of the southern district of California." It was a good committee of young men, a newspaper man, an attorney, a physician, a merchant, and a judge, all prominent citizens in later years, but they were impetuous and hot headed, and way off on their first resolu- tion. The resolutions, evidently written by Terry, declared that "We look upon the in- fliction of this tax as but part of a scheme to depress the enterprise of our citi- zens, and make them tributary to the northern part of the state. It is but one of many meas- ures upon the part of the state to cripple our commerce and destroy our local trade. Re- solved, that the infliction of this tax is uncon- stitutional, unlawful, an outrage upon the practical miner, and of vast injury to the whole people of the district and as a public measure

its continuance is a public robbery." A committee was appointed to visit San Jose and urge the repeal of "the odious" law. Re- monstrances were sent to the legislature from all parts of the mines and the law was modi- fied and later repealed. Then happened a strange action, for all of the newspapers pub- lished the repeal of the law in the Spanish and French languages, and circulars were sent out urging not the exclusion, but the return of the foreigners to the mines.

The foreign tax law was not the merchants' only trouble, for in 1851 they strongly opposed the local tax of two dollars per ton levied upon all merchandise landed upon the wharf. The council were considerably worried over the subject of revenue, a subject of vital import- ance today. They passed an ordinance, which was signed by Mayor J. C. Edwards, increas- ing the wharf tax of the steamers from twen- ty-five to fifty cents. At a subsequent meeting they reduced the tax to the former figure. They must have money to pay their high- salaried officers and September 6, Alderman B. W. Bours presented an ordinance which was adopted, levying the two dollars tax. Then the merchants became unduly excited and at the meeting held two weeks later they petitioned the council to repeal the tax. The record says, "On motion (probably of Dr. J. M. Hill a dentist) the petition was filed." The cause we know not, but immediately six of the aldermen, Dr. George A. Shurtleff, B. W. Bours, E. W. Colt, B. W. Owens, H. C. Gilling- ham and M. T. Robertson resigned. The coun- cilmen would not accept the resignation of the alderman last named and he remained in office.

The resignation of more than half of the city councilmen created quite a breeze and the Times declared, "It has been a subject of much discussion during the past few days," and which resulted in a call for a meeting in the Main Street Hotel opposite the court house. The feeling in the meeting seems to have been directed, for some reason not apparent, par- ticularly against Dr. J. M. Hill, and a resolu- tion was passed signed by thirty-two of the most prominent firms of the town, among them Dudley & Sanderson; Biven & Branco; M. Ainsa; Calvin Paige & Company ; C. A. Gill- ingham; Avery & Hewlett; B. W. Bours & Company ; Lamden-Compton & Trembley, and Hestres & Company, calling upon Councilman Hill to resign. The resolution which was unanimously approved declared that "The un- dersigned views with surprise your conduct in relation to the disposal of the petitions signed by the merchants, remonstrating against the law . .. as by such conduct you deny the right of petition and give place to a misrepre- sentation of the views of your constituents, to the great injury of the public at large and

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

detrimental to the future welfare of the city. We respectfully ask you to resign."

The merchants' request was published in the Times September 17, and the same day Alder- man Hill received a letter from forty of his friends. The letter said: "We beg to offer you our thanks for the effort and conscientious- ness in which you have discharged your duty in the council, and beg that you will continue to be a member notwithstanding the unjust and ungenerous attack upon you by certain citizens." Hill in replying to the merchants said, "In your discourteous card of September 16 you have called upon me to resign. My answer is that having been elected by 600 of the voters of this city, I shall not desert my post to gratify the caprice of a few disaffected individuals styling themselves 'The merchants of Stockton.' Finally, dear sirs, thus do I dis- pose of your card. Pledged not to resign."

In their assembly of the 16th' the merchants appointed a committee to report September 18, in the El Placer House the names of citizens to fill the vacancies in the council. The com- mittee in their report declared the tax "unjust and unequal in its operation because it is ex- clusively imposed upon the merchants and it is not required to meet any just expense in- curred by the city government. Resolved, that while we are willing to submit to all such taxa- tion as an honest and judicious administration of the city government may require, we also declare our intention neither to sanction or submit to the enforcement of such laws as are in direct violation of the Republican principle of equality of burdens. Resolved, That we the undersigned penetrated by the profound conviction of the injustice of the ordinance do hereby pledge ourselves to sustain each other by every means which we command in all legal resistance to the enforcement of the ordi- nance." They nominated as councilmen to be voted for September 26, B. W. Owens, J. G. Candee, Wm. H. Fairchilds, J. A. Donaldson, Enoch Gove and Isaac Zacariah. The opposi- tion also put up a ticket. The merchants suc- ceeded in electing three only of their nominees, B. W. Owens, W. H. Fairchilds and J. A. Don- aldson, but succeeded in their object, as the "odious" tax was repealed.

Ships Block the Harbor

When compiling my History of Stockton- 1880-I asked Captain Weber the name of the first vessel that anchored in the channel dur- ing the summer and fall of 1849. He threw up his hands as if in despair, thus indicating that they came in so fast he could scarcely count them. In a short time there were a hundred and more ships in the harbor flying at their mast top the flags of every nation-England, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Sweden,

Norway, Mexico and Chile. Even China was represented, for John Grattan said that when he and his brother Dr. Grattan anchored in McLeod's Lake in the 500-ton bark Canton, there was a Chinese junk and an United States ship at anchor. The ships continued coming so many in number they soon blocked the channel. They were such an obstruction to navigation that the steamers and sailers from San Francisco could not land their freight. Something must be done. And the merchants in February, 1850, five months before the or- ganization of the city, sent the following peti- tion to Captain Weber, "The undersigned citi- zens of Stockton do most respectfully request that you cause to be removed from Stockton slough any vessel or vessels which you may own, lying at anchor in said waters. You will also use your most strenuous influence to have all of the vessels similarly situated taken away from their present position. Such a course is deemed absolutely necessary, particularly to the mercantile interest and those who have invested in real estate. As these vessels are now placed, proper navigation is obstructed and the prosperity and growth of the town very much retarded. That you will cause to be carried into effect at the earliest moment the foregoing expression of public feeling is the prayer of your petitioners." The petition was signed by 107 persons this including thirty-six merchants, nine saloon keepers, three black- smiths, six carpenters, two real estate dealers, a physician, two butchers, two express agents, a lumberman, seven teamsters, four hotel keepers, lawyers and gamblers. A large num- ber of the vessels were towed to Mormon Channel and destroyed by fire; others were used as store ships for goods, and one for a time for a prison brig. After the organization of the city, the harbor master was given full control of the channel, and all vessels at permanent anchor were ordered to leave on a penalty of ten dollars per day license.

The Brig Adelaide

One of these vessels over which the city had no control was the U. S. Government brig Adelaide. She lay at anchor in McLeod's Lake for over fifteen years, the historic vessel of the city. She also aided materially in causing the Government Board of Waterway Commis- sioners to act favorably in regard to Stockton's fifteen feet of water to the sea. The ship is seen in the background of a picture of Stock- ton taken in 1850, this proving that in early days, ocean-sailing vessels anchored in Stock- ton. This bark sailing into San Francisco harbor in 1849, was purchased by the United States Government for use as a supply ship for the troops located at Fort Miller. She was loaded with supplies and sailed up to Stockton

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

and anchored in the lake. At the close of the Civil War Fort Miller was abandoned. The Government having no use for the brig, she was put up at auction, and sold for $180 to a Norwegian captain, Henry Ramsey. Refitting the brig with new masts he intended to use her as an ocean freighter, but for some reason the port collector at Stockton refused to give him clearance papers. Ramsey was now in a quandry, with an elephant on his hands. Final- ly he purchased two water lots on the east side of El Dorado Street and at high tide built a bulkhead around the hulk, covered over the deck and opened a saloon. Ramsey lived there until his death, in September 1883. Kullman, Wagner & Company then bought the lots for the extension of the Pacific Tannery, and the old bark was used for firewood.

Disastrous Fires

The greatest fear of the early-day merchant was that of fire and rightly too, for the great- est number and the most disastrous fires in the history of the city occurred in the blocks bounded by Main, Hunter, Weber Avenue or Levee and Commerce streets. Block No. 1, as designated on the official city map, is the birth- place of Stockton. There Willard (Joe) Buz- zell built his log cabin and his friends, the hun- ters and trappers, their tule and brushwood tents. When the merchants intending to go into business arrived at the Weberville embar- cadero, they naturally gravitated to block 1 and set up their tents. Flimsy affairs they were, of board frames covered with cloth, with perhaps a tule roof. Business was rushing, for daily men were arriving bound for the mines, expecting to get such supplies as were neces- sary in Tuleburg. The merchants however were soon put out of business, for on the morn- ing of December 28, 1849, the cry of fire was heard and in less than one hour the town was in ashes. Everything was destroyed with a loss estimated at $200,000. The morning was very cold and there was considerable suffer- ing. That night and for several evenings the homeless pioneers took shelter in the shipping in the harbor. In less than a week business was again resumed.

In the meantime hundreds of immigrants were locating in the new town and the popula- tion had increased to over 2,000. The business firms were more than three times the number of 1849 and many of the buildings were con- structed of Oregon or Chile pine. This made a much hotter and longer fire than the cloth tents, and on the night of May 6, 1851, the cry of fire was again heard. In a short time the town was a mass of flames. There were no fire engines and the citizens tried to check the devouring element by buckets of water taken from the channel. The loss was nearly $1,500,-

000, with not a dollar of insurance. The heavi- est losers were Lamdin & Compton, $6,000; Underhill & Company, $15,000; Heath & Emory, $20,000; E. S. Holden, $10,000; C. A. Gillingham & Company, $45,000; Biven & Branco, $10,000; Weber & Hammond, $45,000; John S. Robb, $30,000; and John S. Owens, $50,000. The two last named were the heaviest losers for Robb, the owner of the Stockton Journal, lost his entire plant, while the finely furnished saloon and beautiful El Placer Thea- ter were the property of John S. Owens. One of the merchants at that time was R. B. Par- ker. A few days previous to the fire he or- dered by letter several thousand dollars worth of goods from the San Francisco firm of Mc- Condry & Company. Mr. Parker concluded on May 5 to go to the city. The next morning he was met by Mr. McCondry with the remark, "Well, Parker, all of your goods were de- stroyed by fire last night. They were. all marked with your name and were on the side- walk ready for shipment." This was the great San Francisco fire of May 4, and the goods be- ing invoiced to Parker he was compelled to stand the loss. Returning to Stockton he found his grocery store destroyed. They, how- ever, saved the money drawer, containing sev- eral hundred dollars.

From 1851 to 1856 the town grew rapidly along business lines, and there was a solid row of business firms carrying stocks of valuable goods in wooden shanties, that burning like tinder, could be destroyed in an hour's time. These shacks extended along Main Street, from Hunter to Center, both sides; along Hunter to Levee to Center Street, to Main on either side, along El Dorado to Main, both sides and a few buildings along El Dorado to Market. These buildings were, in the main, one-story wooden frames with here and there story-and- a-half structures, such as the Harbeson and Hickman building, corner Hunter and Levee, the Massachusetts bakery and lodging house on El Dorado, the Fisher stage office, corner Levee and Center, and the Phoenix Hotel, cor- ner Market and El Dorado. There were a few brick buildings also in these blocks.

One of these brick buildings, that of Adams Express Company, proved to be a very prac- tical object lesson in the way of insurance against fire. It was in the pathway of the hottest flames in the fire of July 30, 1855, and although at one time there was fire on three sides of the building, it stood intact. The flames started in the lodging house and coffee stand of Peter Manivich, located on the levee a few doors below Center Street. The alarm was given by the watchman of the steamer Cornelia, by ringing continuously the steamer bell. Owing to the fact that a heavy breeze was blowing the flames spread rapidly and all

HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

efforts to stay the devouring element were abortive until it reached the fireproof building of C. P. Greeley & Company's hardware store. At the time the stage office of Reynolds & Company and the Lodge saloon were burning, great fear was expressed for the El Dorado saloon and Fisher's stage office on the opposite side corner of Weber Avenue and Center Street. The loss was about $25,000, not a large amount of money today but quite a fortune then when the wealthiest man in the county was assessed for only $6,000. The losers in- cluded T. Robinson Bours, banker, B. Howard Brown, and Richard S. Baters, produce dealers, who formerly had tent stores on the wharf, J. Russell, the hatter, J. F. Rosenbaum, the pioneer book seller, and Nichola Milco, the fruit dealer. For the first time we read about the necessity of a fire alarm and, "we hope the council will take immediate steps to procure a bell. If a proper alarm had been given much of the property could have been saved. What we require is a bell of sufficient tone and size on some elevated position to be heard distinct- ly in all parts of the town." This suggestion was adopted in 1861, when the historic bell was lifted to the court house dome.

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History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 12

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1660

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660