USA > California > History of the State of California and biographical record of Coast Counties, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 37
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Col. T. J. Nevins, in June, 1850, obtained rent free the use of a building near the present inter- section of Mission and Second streets for school purposes. Ile employed a Mr. Samuel New- ton as teacher. The school was opened July 13. The school passed under the supervision of several teachers. The attendance was small at first and the school was supported by con- tributions, but later the council voted an ap-
propriation. The school was closed in 1851. Colonel Nevins, in January, 1851, secured a fifty-vara lot at Spring Valley on the Presidio road and built principally by subscription a large school building, employed a teacher and opened a free school, supported by contributions. The building was afterwards leased to the city to be used for a free school, the term of the lease running ninety-nine years. This was the first school building in which the city had an ownership. Colonel Nevins prepared an ordi- nance for the establishment, regulation and support of free common schools in the city. The ordinance was adopted by the city council September 25, 1851, and was the first ordinance establishing free schools and providing for their maintenance in San Francisco.
A bill to provide for a public school system was introduced in the legislature of 1850, but the committee on education reported that it would be two or three years before any means would become available from the liberal pro- visions of the constitution; in the meantime the persons who had children to educate could do it out of their own pockets. So all action was postponed and the people who had children paid for their tuition or let them run without schooling.
The first school law was passed in 1851. It was drafted mainly by G. B. Lingley, John C. Pelton and the superintendent of public instruc- tion, J. G. Marvin. It was revised and amended by the legislatures of 1852 and 1853. The state school fund then was derived from the sale and rental of five hundred thousand acres of state land; the estates of deceased persons escheated to the state; state poll tax and a state tax of five cents on each $100 of assessed property. Congress in 1853 granted to California the 16th and 36th sections of the public lands for school purposes. The total amount of this grant was six million seven hundred and sixty-five thou- sand five hundred and four acres, of which forty-six thousand and eighty acres were to be deducted for the founding of a state university or college and six thousand four hundred acres for public buildings.
The first apportionment of state funds was made in 1854. The amount of state funds for
* Annals of San Francisco.
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that year was $52.961. The county and mu- nicipal school taxes amounted to $157.702. These amounts were supplemented by rate bills to the amount of $42,557. In 1856 the state fund had increased to $69,961, while rate bills had decreased to $28,619. That year there were thirty thousand and thirty-nine children of school age in the state, of these only about fifteen thousand were enrolled in the schools.
In the earlier years, following the American conquest, the schools were confined almost en- tirely to the cities. The population in the coun- try districts was too sparse to maintain a school. The first school house in Sacramento was built in 1849. It was located on I street. C. H. T. Palmer opened school in it in August. It was supported by rate bills and donations. He gath- ered together about a dozen pupils. The school was soon discontinued. Several other parties in succession tried school keeping in Sacra- mento, but did not make a success of it. It was not until 1851 that a permanent school was es- tablished. A public school was taught in Mon- terey in 1849 by Rev. Willey. The school was kept in Colton Hall. The first public school house in Los Angeles was built in 1854. Hugh Overns taught the first free school there in 1850.
The amount paid for teachers' salaries in 1854 was $85,860; in 1900 it reached $4,850,804. The total expenditures for school purposes in 1854 amounted to $275,606; in 1900 to $6,195,438. The first high school in the state was established in San Francisco in 1856. In 1900 there were one hundred and twenty high schools with an attendance of twelve thousand one hundred and seventy-nine students. Two million dollars were invested in high school buildings, furniture and grounds. Five hundred teachers were employed in these schools.
TIIE UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC.
This institution was chartered in August, 1851, as the California Wesleyan College, which name was afterwards changed by act of the leg- islature to that it now bears. The charter was obtained under the general law of the state as it then was, and on the basis of a subscription of $27,500 and a donation of some ten acres of land adjacent to the village of Santa Clara. A
school building was erected in which the pre- paratory department was opened in May, 1852, under the charge of Rev. E. Banister as prin- cipal, aided by two assistant teachers, and be- fore the end of the first session had over sixty pupils. Near the close of the following year another edifice was so far completed that the male pupils were transferred to it, and the Fe- male Collegiate Institute, with its special course of study, was organized and continued in the original building. In 1854 the classes of the college proper were formed and the requisite arrangement with respect to president, faculty, and course of study made. In 1858 two young men, constituting the first class, received the de- gree of A. B., they being the first to receive that honor from any college in California. In 1865 the board of trustees purchased the Stock- ton rancho, a large body of land adjoining the town of Santa Clara. This was subdivided into lots and small tracts and sold at a. profit. By this means an endowment was secured and an excellent site for new college building obtained.
THE COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA.
The question of founding a college or uni- versity in California had been discussed early in 1849, before the assembling of the constitutional convention at San José. The originator of the idea was the Rev. Samuel H. Willey. D. D., of the Presbyterian church. At that time he was stationed at Monterey. The first legislature passed a bill providing for the granting of col- lege charters. The bill required that application should be made to the supreme court, which was to determine whether the property possessed by the proposed college was worth $20,000, and whether in other respeets a charter should be granted. A body of land for a college site had been offered by James Stokes and Kimball II. Dimmick to be selected from a large tract they owned on the Guadalupe river, near San Jose. When application was made for a college char- ter the supreme court refused to give a charter to the applicants on the plea that the land was unsurveyed and the title not fully deter- mined.
The Rev. Henry Durant, who had at one time been a tutor in Yale College, came to California
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in 1853 to engage in teaching. At a meeting of the presbytery of San Francisco and the Con- gregational Association of California held in Nevada City in May, 1853, which Mr. Durant attended, it was decided to establish an acad- emy at Oakland. There were but few houses in Oakland then and the only communication with San Francisco was by means of a little steamer that crossed the bay two or three times a day. A house was obtained at the corner of Broadway and Fifth street and the academy opened with three pupils. A site was selected for the school, which, when the streets were opened, proved to be four blocks, located be- tween Twelfth and Fourteenth, Franklin and Harrison streets. The site of Oakland at that time was covered with live oaks and the sand was knee deep. Added to other discourage- ments, titles were in dispute and squatters were seizing upon the vacant lots. A building was begun for the school, the money ran out and the property was in danger of seizure on a me- chanics' lien, but was rescued by the bravery and resourcefulness of Dr. Durant.
In 1855 the College of California was char- tered and a search begun for a permanent site. A number were offered at various places in the state. The trustees finally selected the Berkeley site, a tract of one hundred and sixty acres on Strawberry creek near Oakland, opposite the Golden Gate. The college school in Oakland was flourishing. A new building, Academy Hall, was erected in 1858. A college faculty was organized. The Rev. Henry Durant and the Rev. Martin Kellogg were chosen pro- fessors and the first college class was organized in June, 1860. The college classes were taught in the buildings of the college school, which were usually called the College of California. The college classes were small and the endow- ment smaller. The faculty met with many dis- couragements. It became evident that the in- stitution could never become a prominent one in the educational field with the limited means of support it could command. In 1863 the idea of a state university began to be agitated. A bill was passed by the state legislature in 1866, de- voting to the support of a narrow polytechnical school, the federal land grants to California for
the support of agricultural schools and a college of mechanics. The trustees of the College of California proposed in 1867 to transfer to the state the college site at Berkeley, opposite the Golden Gate, together with all the other assets remaining after the debts were paid, on con- dition that the state would build a University of California on the site at Berkeley, which should be a classical and technological college.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
A bill for the establishing of a state university was introduced in the legislature March 5, 1868, by Hon. John W. Dwinelle of Alameda county. After some amendments it was finally passed, March 21, and on the 27th of the same month a bill was passed making an appropriation for the support of the institution.
The board of regents of the university was organized June 9, 1868, and the same day Gen. George B. McClellan was elected president of the university, but at that time being engaged in building Stevens Battery at New York he de- clined the honor. September 23, 1869, the scholastic exercises of the university were be- gun in the buildings of the College of Califor- nia in Oakland and the first university class was graduated in June, 1873. The new buildings of the university at Berkeley were occupied in September, 1873. Prof. John Le Conte was act- ing president for the first year. Dr. Henry Durant was chosen to fill that position and was succeeded by D. C. Gilman in 1872. The corner- stone of the Agricultural College, called the South Hall, was laid in August, 1872, and that of the North Hall in the spring of 1873.
The university, as now constituted, consists of Colleges of Letters, Social Science, Agricul- ture, Mechanics, Mining, Civil Engineering, Chemistry and Commerce, located at Berkeley; the Lick Astronomical Department at Mount Hamilton; and the professional and affiliated colleges in San Francisco, namely, the Hastings College of Law, the Medical Department, the Post-Graduate Medical Department, the Col- lege of Dentistry and Pharmacy, the Veterinary Department and the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. The total value of the property belonging to the university at this time is about $5,000,000
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and the endowment funds nearly $3,000,000. The total income in 1900 was $475,254.
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY.
"When the intention of Senator Stanford to found a university in memory of his lamented son was first announced, it was expected from the broad and comprehensive views which he was known to entertain upon the subject, that his plans, when formed, would result in no ordi- nary college endowment or educational scheme, but when these plans were laid before the people their magnitude was so far beyond the most ex- travagant of public anticipation that all were as- tonished at the magnificence of their aggregate, the wide scope of their detail and the absolute grandeur of their munificence. The brief his- tory of California as an American state com- prises much that is noble and great, but nothing in that history will compare in grandeur with this act of one of her leading citizens. The records of history may be searched in vain for a parallel to this gift of Senator Stanford to the state of his adoption. *
* By this act Senator Stanford will not only immortalize the memory of his son, but will erect for himself a monument more enduring than brass or marble, for it will be enshrined in the hearts of succeed- ing generations for all time to come."*
Senator Stanford, to protect the endowments he proposed to make, prepared a bill, which was passed by the legislature, approved by the gov- ernor and became a law March 9, 1885. It is entitled "An act to advance learning, the arts and sciences and to promote the public welfare, by providing for the conveyance, holding and protection of property, and the creation of trusts for the founding, endowment, erection and maintenance within this state of universities, colleges, schools, seminaries of learning, me- chanical institutes, museums and galleries of art."
Section 2 specifies how a grant for the above purposes may be made: "Any person desiring in his lifetime to promote the public welfare by founding, endowing and having maintained within this state a university, college, school,
seminary of learning, mechanical institute, mu- seum or gallery of art or any or all thereof, may, to that end, and for such purpose, by grant in writing, convey to a trustee, or any number of trustees named in such grant (and their suc- cessors ), any property, real or personal, belong- ing to such person, and situated or being within this state; provided, that if any such person be married and the property be community prop- erty, then both husband and wife must join in such grant." The act contains twelve sections. After the passage of the act twenty-four trus- tees were appointed. Among them were judges of the supreme and superior courts, a United States senator and business men in various lines.
Among the lands deeded to the university by Senator Stanford and his wife were the Palo Alto estate, containing seventy-two hundred acres. This ranch had been devoted principally to the breeding and rearing of thoroughbred horses. On this the college buildings were to be erected. The site selected was near the town of Palo Alto, which is thirty-four miles south from San Francisco on the railroad to San José, in Santa Clara county.
Another property donated was the Vina rancho, situated at the junction of Deer creek with the Sacramento river in Tehama county. It consisted of fifty-five thousand acres, of which thirty-six thousand were planted to vines and orchard and the remainder used for grain growing and pasture.
The third rancho given to the support of the university was the Gridley ranch, containing about twenty-one thousand acres. This was sit- uated in Butte county and included within its limits some of the richest wheat growing lands in the state. At the time it was donated its as- sessed value was $1,000,000. The total amount of land conveyed to the university by deed of trust was cighty-three thousand two hundred acres.
The name selected for the institution was Le- land Stanford Junior University. The corner- stone of the university was laid May 14. 1887, by Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford. The site of the college buildings is about one mile west from Palo Alto. In his address to the trustees
* Monograph of Leland Stanford Junior University.
16
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
November 14, 1885, Senator Stanford said: "We do not expect to establish a university and fill it with students at once. It must be the growth of time and experience. Our idea is that in the first instance we shall require the establishment of colleges for both sexes; then of primary schools, as they may be needed; and out of all these will grow the great central institution for more advanced study." The growth of the uni- versity has been rapid. In a very few years after its founding it took rank with the best institu- tions of learning in the United States.
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
The legislature of 1862 passed a bill author- izing the establishment of a state normal school for the training of teachers at San Francisco or at such other place as the legislature may here- after direct. The school was established and conducted for several years at San Francisco, but was eventually moved to San José, where a site had been donated. A building was erected and the school became a flourishing institution. The first building was destroyed by fire and the present handsome and commodious building erected on a new site. The first normal school established in the state was a private one, con- ducted by George W. Minns. It was started in
San Francisco in 1857, but was discontinued after the organization of the state school in 1863, Minns becoming principal. A normal school was established by the legislature at Los An- geles in 1881. It was at first a branch of the state school at San José and was under control of the same board of trustees and the same prin- cipal. Later it was made an independent insti- tution with a board and principal of its own.
Normal schools have been established at Chico (1889), San Diego (1897) and San Fran- cisco (1899). The total number of teachers em- ployed in the five state normal schools in 1900 was one hundred and one, of whom thirty-seven were men and sixty-four women. The whole number of students in these at that time was two thousand and thirty-nine, of whom two hun- dred and fifty-six were men and one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine women.
The total receipts for the support of these schools from all sources were for the year end- ing June 30, 1900, $251,217; the total expendi- tures for the same time were $206,001 ; the value of the normal school property of the state is about $700,000. The educational system and facilities of California, university, college, nor- mal school and public school, rank with the best in the United States.
CHAPTER XXXVI. CITIES OF CALIFORNIA-THEIR ORIGIN AND GROWTH.
A LTHOUGH Spain and Mexico possessed ('alifornia for seventy-seven years after the date of the first settlement made in it, they founded but few towns and but one of those founded had attained the dignity of a city at the time of the American conquest. In a previous chapter I have given sketches of the founding of the four presidios and three pueblos under Spanish rule. Twenty missions were es- tablished under the rule of Spain and one under the Mexican Republic. While the country in- creased in population under the rule of Mex- ico, the only new settlement that was formed was the mission at Solano.
Pueblos grew up at the presidios and some of the mission settlements developed into towns. The principal towns that have grown up around the mission sites are San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, San Miguel, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara and San Rafael.
The creation of towns began after the Ameri- cans got possession of the country. Before the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico had been made, and while the war was in progress, two enterprising Americans, Robert Semple and T. O. Larkin, had created on paper an extensive city on the Straits of Carquinez. The city of Francisca "comprises five miles,"
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so the proprietors of the embryo metropolis an- nounced in the Californian of April 20, 1847, and in subsequent numbers. According to the theory of its promoters, Francisca had the choice of sites and must become the metropolis of the coast. "In front of the city," says their advertisement, "is a commodious Bay, large enough for two hundred ships to ride at anchor safe from any wind. The country around the city is the best agricultural portion of California on both sides of the Bay; the straits being only one mile wide, an easy crossing may always be made. The entire trade of the great Sacra- mento and San Joaquin Valleys (a fertile coun- try of great width and nearly seven hundred miles long from North to South) must of neces- sity pass through the narrow channel of Car- quincz and the Bay, and the country is so situ- ated that every person who passes from one side of the Bay to the other will find the nearest and best way by Francisca."
In addition to its natural advantages the pro- prietors offered other attractions and induce- ments to settlers. They advertised that they would give "seventy-five per cent of the net pro- ceeds of the ferries and wharves for a school fund and the embellishment of the city"; "they have also laid out several entire squares for school purposes and several others for public walks" (parks). Yet, notwithstanding all the su- perior attractions and natural advantages of Francisca, people would migrate to and locate at the wind-swept settlement on the Cove of Yerba Buena. And the town of the "good herb" took to itself the name of San Francisco and perforce compelled the Franciscans to be- come Benicians. Then came the discovery of gold and the consequent rush to the mines, and although Francisca, or Benicia, was on the route, or one of the routes, somehow San Francisco managed to get all the profit out of the trade and travel to the mines.
The rush to the land of gold expanded the little settlement formed by Richardson and Leese on the Cove of Yerba Buena into a great city that in time included within its limits the mis- sion and the presidio. The consolidation of the city and county governments gave a simpler form of municipal rule and gave the city room
to expand without growing outside of its mu- nicipal jurisdiction. The decennial Federal cen- sus from 1850 to the close of the century indi- cates the remarkable growth of San Francisco. Its population in 1850 was 21,000; in 1860, 56,- 802; in 1870, 149,473; in 1880, 234,000; in 1890, 298,997; in 1900, 342,742.
LOS ANGELES.
The only settlement under Mexican domina- tion that attained the dignity of a ciudad, or city, was Los Angeles. Although proclaimed a city by the Mexican Congress, more than ten years before the Americans took possession of the country, except in official documents, it was usually spoken of as el pueblo-the town. Its population at the time of its conquest by the Americans numbered about sixteen hundred. The first legislature gave it a city charter, al- though fifteen years before it had been raised to the dignity of a city; the lawmakers for some reason cut down its area from four square leagues to four square miles. This did not affect its right to its pueblo lands. After the appoint- ment of a land commission, in 1851, it laid claim to sixteen square leagues, but failed to substanti- ate its claim. Its pueblo area of four square leagues (Spanish) was confirmed to it by the commission. Within the past seven years, by annexation, its area has been increased from the original four square leagues, or about twenty- seven miles, to thirty-seven square miles. Its in- crease in population during the past twenty years has been the greatest of any of the large cities of the state. In 1880 it had 11,183 inhabitants; in 1890, 50,353; in 1900, 102,429. Its growth since 1900 has exceeded that of any similar pe- riod in its history. Its estimated population January, 1903, is 125,000.
OAKLAND.
Oakland, the third city in population among the cities of California, is the youngest of the large cities. It is purely American by birth. Its site during Spanish and Mexican rule was uninhabited and was covered with oak trees and chaparral. The territory which Oakland covers was part of a five-league grant made to Luis Maria Peralta, a Spanish soldier, who came to
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the presidio of San Francisco in 1790. August 16, 1820, Governor Sola granted him the Rancho San Antonio. His military service had extended over a period of forty years. In 1842 he divided the grant among his five sons, the portion em- braced in Oakland falling to the allotment of Vicente.
The first permanent settlers and the fathers of Oakland were Moore, Carpentier and Adams, who squatted on the land in the summer of 1850. The Peraltas made an attempt to evict them, but failed. This trio of squatters obtained a lease from Peralta, laid out a town and sold lots, giving quit-claim deeds. They erected houses and are considered the founders of the town. Other squatters followed their example and pos- sessed themselves of the P'eraltas' land. This involved the settlers in litigation, and it was many years before titles were perfected. The Peralta litigants finally won.
May 4, 1852, the town of Oakland was incor- porated. March 25, 1854, it was incorporated as a city and Horace W. Carpentier was elected the first mayor. The first ferry charter was granted in 1853. Defective titles and the water- front war between the city authorities and H. W. Carpentier retarded its growth for a number of years. In 1860 its population was about 1,500. The completion of the overland railroad, which made Oakland its western terminus, greatly accelerated its growth. The water-front war was continued; instead of Carpentier, the city now had the Central Pacific Railroad Com- pany to contend with. The controversy was finally ended in 1882, and the city won. The population of Oakland in 1890 was 48,682; in 1900, 66,960. According to a recent census (November, 1902), it exceeds 88,000.
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