USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume I > Part 33
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When the First Presbyterian church was organized the only Protestant minis- ters in San Francisco were Rev. Albert Williams, Presbyterian; Rev. O. C. Wheeler, Baptist; Rev. T. Dwight Hunt, Congregationalist; Rev. Wm. Taylor, Methodist, and Revs. F. S. Mines and J. L. Ver Mehr, Episcopalian. On August 19, 1849, a lot was secured by the Presbyterians on Dupont between Pacific and Broadway, and a large tent, the property of a disbanded miners' association, was bought and pitched. At the very first meeting under the canvas the small congregation was gratified by the announcement that a church building had been bought in New York and was being shipped around the Horn. It arrived in due season and was duly set up on Stockton street between Pacific and Broadway and "thirty-two ladies were present at the dedication," a notable fact, as it was the largest number of women ever gathered in a place of worship (excluding the Mission Dolores) in San Francisco up to that time. This building was destroyed in one of the fires of 1851. A new church was planned to take the place of that which had been burned.
Women Immigrants Increasing
First Presbyterian Church
Protestant Ministers in 1849
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It was to be of brick, but its construction, owing to the vicissitudes of the times, proceeded slowly and it was not entirely completed for several years, the services being meanwhile held under a temporary roof. With the rapid increase of popu- lation between 1850 and 1860 other Presbyterian churches were organized. In 1851 Howard church was formed with Rev. S. H. Willey as pastor. It was located on Mission street near Third. In June, 1854, a number of members of the First church were granted letters to form a new congregation and Calvary Presbyterian church was ushered into existence. The first pastor was Rev. W. A. Scott, and he filled its pulpit until 1863, when he was succeeded by Rev. William Wadsworth, who in turn was followed by the Rev. John Hemphill. The first Calvary church was built on the north side of Bush street between Montgomery and Sansome.
Union of Protestant Congregations
Although the first Presbyterian church, as already stated, was organized under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions by the Reverend Albert Wheeler in 1849, the Rev. T. Dwight Hunt, a minister of that denomination, had arrived in San Francisco a year earlier from the Hawaiian islands with a view of establishing a church. In the "Californian" an announcement of his arrival was printed, and the statement was made that a fund had been raised by a number of citizens to maintain a Protestant chaplain, which office had been unanimously ten- dered to Mr. Hunt and by him accepted. A popular meeting was held in the Insti- tute on Portsmouth square on November 1, 1848, which was presided over by Edward E. Harrison, and James Creighton acted as secretary. Addresses were . made by several present and five trustees were elected: C. E. Wetmore, Joseph Banden, C. V. Gillespie, C. L. Ross and E. H. Harrison. Mr. Hunt was chosen chaplain for one year and an appropriation of $2,000 was made for his support. This was distinctly a union of various prominent denominations, and Mr. Hunt had agreed to make no effort to found a church of his own preference during his incum- bency of the chaplainship. The ministrations of Mr. Hunt signalized the advent of Protestantism in San Francisco and he is regarded by the members of the various denominations as the pioneer preacher of the City. It is related that Mr. Hunt's exhortations were effectively employed against conducting business on Sunday, a practice almost universal at the time in California. Whatever he may have accom- plished in that regard, however, was not enduring, for Sunday closing remained a vexed question for many years. Efforts were made at various times to restrict the practice by law, but the sentiment of the people did not favor restraint, al- though the closing habit finally became established by general consent, which was by no means accorded through consideration for religion but rather through the growing recognition of the necessity of a day of rest.
The first sermon preached by a Methodist minister was heard in an adobe building opposite Portsmouth square on the 24th of April, 1847. It was not the first time Methodist doctrine was expounded in the City, for before the arrival of the Rev. William Roberts, missionary superintendent of Oregon and California, a layman named Anthony at different times talked to the few Protestants in the com- munity, and tradition asserts that he spoke with great fervor. It is also stated that sea captains were sometimes moved to speak "the word," and that they did so convincingly, but to very small congregations. It was not, however, until August, 1848, that the first Methodist congregation was regularly organized, and its first church was not dedicated until October 8, 1849. It was a very humble edifice,
First Protestant Sermon
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25x40. feet, rudely built, and its first pastor was William Taylor, afterwards or- dained bishop.
In the following year steps were taken to found the University of the Pacific, now the College of the Pacific. This institution takes rank as the premier in the field of the higher learning in California, a claim which Methodists love to dwell upon, as they also do upon the fact that in 1851 they founded the "Christian Advo- cate," the first religious paper published in the new state. In this year the Howard Street church was organized with Rev. M. C. Briggs as its first pastor. Dr. Briggs, like the Rev. Starr King, was an eloquent advocate of the preservation of the Union and shares with him the honor of crystallizing the sentiment which proved power- ful enough to thwart the plans of Southerners who hoped to bring about the seces- sion of California.
In a sketch prepared for the author the claim is urged on behalf of the Congre- gationalists that the honor of establishing the first Protestant church in San Fran- cisco belongs to them. The writer states "that out of the union service presided over by Mr. Hunt in November, 1848, emerged the First Congregational church, and that Mr. Hunt, though a Presbyterian, was called to be its pastor." He adds that by "what was regarded as a bit of innocent and amusing, but rather sharp practice the First Presbyterian church, led by Rev. Mr. Williams, hastened its formal or- ganization and perfected it three or four days in advance of the others." For this reason the writer of the reminiscence believes that the order of priority should be Congregational, Methodist and Baptist. The zeal displayed thus early by the different church organizations unmistakably indicates that the workers in the re- ligious field had no doubt about the outcome of their labors, and that they divined the real condition of affairs and understood the temperament of the people of San Francisco far better than those who pessimistically declared that the City was ut- terly without saving salt.
Although the Catholic church, by reason of its long establishment in the province, should have been firmly intrenched in San Francisco at the time of the occupation, that does not appear to have been actually the case. The "Annals" tell us that the condition of St. Francis church was not inviting, that its attendance was very small, and that the congregation was usually composed of women. It was built of adobes, was very plain externally and had a comfortless interior, but was the possessor of some fine bells, which were probably cast in the Russian foundry at Sitka. The apathy, however, was soon changed into activity when the adventurers began to pour into the City from the Eastern states, and other parts of the world, for among them was a considerable number of Catholics of the sort who believed that works were a necessary accompaniment of faith.
There were several Irish colonists in California before the gold rush, who had crossed the plains, and they had been preceded by others who had made their way into the territory by other routes. The influential among these were quick to dis- cern the possibilities of the future and they wrote to Bishop Hughes of New York, describing the condition of affairs and urging him to interest himself in organizing the church. The needs of the people were brought to the attention of Rome and a young Spanish provincial, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, who had labored for ten years in the missions of Kentucky and Tennessee, was settled upon as the one best adapted to meet the difficulties of the change of rule in California and to harmonize the old with the new regime. Alemany numbered among his friends and admirers ex-
A University Founded
Disputed Question of Priority
The Catholic Church
Irish Colonists Ask for a Bishop
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President Andrew Jackson, and this with his Spanish affiliations, it was properly assumed would lessen friction should any occur. Alemany was consecrated in the Dominican church of the Minerva in Rome in June, 1850, and arrived in San Fran- cisco on December 7th of that year and was given a reception in the school room of St. Francis church built by Father Langlois, on which occasion a purse of $1,350 was raised to help pay his expenses in visiting at least a part of his vast diocese, which extended from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains.
The necessity of resorting to this early collection was imposed upon the Cath- olics by the Mexicans, who diverted to political uses what was called the Pious Fund, which was started as early as 1697 in New Spain, by Father Salvatierra. The Church of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores of Mexico, and private individuals, contributed sums to this fund ranging from $10,000 to $20,000, the money to be applied to missionary work, each new mission to receive a donation of at least $10,000 for its maintenance. The original contributions were judiciously invested by the Jesuits and when the income of the fund was transferred to the Dominicans and Franciscans in Upper and Lower California it amouted to $50,000 a year. From 1811 to 1818 and afterwards to 1828 the church in California received nothing from the fund; instead the missions were often subjected to enforced contributions. In 1832 the Mexican congress ordered the properties belonging to the Pious Fund to be rented for a term not to exceed seven years, the proceeds to be deposited in the mint for the benefit of the California missions. In the ensuing year the Mexi- can governor, Figueroa took the ground that owing to the law of secularization the missions no longer existed and in 1834 a congressional decree was issued that all missions of the republic should be secularized and converted into curacies, their limits to be designated by the governors of the different states.
Many years afterward the fund thus sequestered was regained for the church by the activity of Archbishop Riordan, but when Bishop Alemany came on the scene in 1850, despite the labors of the missionaries and their accumulations, the Catholic faithful of San Francisco were as poor as the founders of the Christian religion. Besides the Mission Dolores, which was some three miles from the new town, there was the little adobe church of St. Francis, and only two priests, Fathers Langlois and Croke. The former's congregation had been made the victim of an imposter in 1849, who had obtained a considerable sum by misrepresentations, and he was determined that there should be no repetition of the offense, and it is related as an amusing incident that he asked Bishop Alemany to exhibit his credentials before giving him his confidence.
Soon after the advent of Bishop Alemany the activities of the church were greatly increased. In 1851 a new parish was organized in a hall on the corner of Third and Jesse streets and by a vote of the congregation it was named St. Pat- ricks. About the same time a pioneer who had been on the ground long before the forty-niners arrived, donated the land where the Palace hotel now stands for a church, orphanage and school. This orphanage was the first refuge of the kind established in California, it having been the custom of the native Californians to adopt into families the unfortunate children deprived of their parents. The insti- tution was well supported from the date of its foundation. It was the precursor of many other charitable institutions founded by the Catholics all of which flour- ished under their care. In 1852 San Francisco was made a diocese and an arch- diocese at the same time, the formal translation of Archbishop Alemany to the
Growth of Church Under Bishop Alemany
Division of the Pious Fund
The Sequestered Fund Regained
PLATT'S HALL, CORNER OF MONTGOMERY AND BUSH STREETS, OPENED IN 1860
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Metropolitan See of San Francisco taking place on July 29, 1853. The jurisdic- tion of the new archdiocese extended from Santa Cruz to Oregon and from the Pacific to the Great Divide, an area almost half as large again as France.
The first cathedral in San Francisco was that of St. Marys on the corner of California and Dupont streets. Its corner stone was laid on the 17th of July, 1853. The site was donated by Mrs. Catherine Sullivan, and the edifice erected was for a long period the most notable in San Francisco. It was destroyed in the great conflagration of 1906, only the walls surviving, but was restored without any change being made in its appearance, and stands today as a reminder of the fact that there was some good designing done in the early Fifties. The cost of the original structure was $175,000, and there is a tradition that its erection con- tributed largely to the quieting of the pretensions of Benicia which for a time exhibited a disposition to engage in rivalry with San Francisco for supremacy of the bay. "Old St. Marys," as it came to be called, remained the cathedral until 1891 when the structure on Van Ness avenue was completed.
On the 9th of April, 1856, the French Catholics bought for $15,000 the Baptist church on Bush street between Dupont and Stockton streets and converted it to their own use. Gustave Touchard made the purchase. The French government at this time was much interested in San Francisco and made an appropriation of 450 francs annually for its maintenance. Even with this munificent help the church did not flourish. It was badly administered and was seized for a debt of $30,000. Two years earlier the Germans of San Francisco established a congre- gation in an iron building which had been used as a store on Montgomery street by Tucker the pioneer jeweler. Mr. Tucker had prospered and built a new place for his business and generously presented the iron building to the Germans, a graceful and courageous act considering the fact that he was a Protestant and that Know Nothingism was rampant at the time. The building was removed to a lot on the north side of Sutter, between Kearny and Montgomery streets, where it was used by the German Catholics until 1869, when they procured a fifty vara lot on Golden Gate avenue, then Tyler street, between Jones and Leavenworth streets.
The Italians in the early days, although later they became very numerous, the colony numbering fully 20,000, had no church of their own prior to 1884. They were looked after spiritually by Old St. Marys, which for a period was a poly- glot congregation, the priests ministering at different masses to Italians, Spaniards, French and German and preaching in those languages. In old St. Francis, which had the distinction of being the first Catholic cathedral of San Francisco, there were sermons in English, Spanish, French and Italian. By 1857 the congregation of St. Francis had so enlarged that the construction of a new church in the Gothic style was begun by Father Magagnotte. St. Patrick's on Market street also increased its membership rapidly, and was obliged as early as 1854 to erect a new church to take the place of the modest frame structure which had served the parish during three or four years, and which was converted into a school house and used as such until 1872 when church and school moved to Mission street between Third and Fourth.
Very early efforts were made by the Catholics to effect conversions among the Chinese, but the time was not ripe for labor in that field. In 1853 a Chinese student was brought to San Francisco and made his headquarters in St. Francis
San Francisco's First Cathedral
Other Catholic Churches Built
Latin American Catholics
Efforts to Convert Chinese
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church. His name was Father Cain, and he strove very earnestly with his coun- trymen to win them from heathenism, but after ten years of unsuccessful work he returned to Naples where he became the head of the seminary for Chinese mis- sions, dying in Italy in 1868. Father Valentine from Hong Kong and Father Antonucci, met with no better results. Later a Chinese school was started and fostered by the Paulist fathers. The Protestants also devoted themselves to the conversion of Chinese and later of Japanese, and established schools which were provided with substantial buildings. The results of their efforts are variously viewed. The hopeful being inclined to regard them with satisfaction while the skeptical assert that the apparent success in recent years is chiefly due to percep- tion of the value of the English education imparted in the mission schools.
Improved Manners and Morale
It is impossible to sum up the results of these religious efforts with precision, or to apportion the shares of the various social activities of an uplifting kind in contributing to the steady diminution of license in San Francisco after they were well introduced, but it is not hard to trace an improvement in manners and morals. The advance of the community was rapid, although a different impression may have heen created by the recital of the story of the Vigilance Committees. In 1849 the mayor, John W. Geary, saw no other way of dealing with the gamblers than by licensing and regulating them. In an address he presented a picture of the dis- ordered condition of the community and despairingly urged as a remedy for the evil its sanction by law, but four years later it was voted that gambling was losing its attractions. In 1854 there were still numerous gambling saloons. On the Plaza the El Dorado flourished, and on Commercial street the Arcade and the Polka continued to exhibit on their walls lascivious pictures, and women were dealing cards, but the stakes were no longer abnormally high even within their precincts, and the bankers in other houses did not disdain a dollar stake. The annalist still speaks of the people of San Francisco as "an excitement craving, money seeking, luxurious living, reckless, and heaven, earth and hell daring," but the attractions of the bar room were being pitted against many agencies and the professional gambler was compelled to meet new sorts of rivalry every day, and no longer had things all his own way. The Salvation Army was foreshadowed by street preachers who planted themselves before the saloons, and their words and singing blended with the rattle of the chips. "The Chariot! The Chariot! Its Wheels Roll in Fire," and other hymns often drowned the cries of the monte dealers and the words of these itinerant religionists although they fell on the ears of "loafers" often made an impression.
First Thanksgiving Proclamation
Governor Burnett's proclamation appointing November 29, 1849, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer may have fallen on few attentive ears, but at the close of 1853, when there were eighteen churches with 8,000 members, many schools, and numerous charitable and other social organizations, the impression produced by such a call must have been vastly different. The leaven was at work and while it did not suffice to leaven the whole mass it produced some striking results. In 1852 a bill was introduced in the state senate for the suppression of gambling which was only defeated by the casting vote of the presiding officer Purdy, thirteen senators voting for and as many against the reformatory measure.
Smoking and Chewing Prohibited
A year earlier bad manners were attacked in the same body with more success. On the 17th of April, 1851, the senate by resolution ordered that no more smoking or chewing be allowed within its bar. Prior to that date the free and easy man-
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ners of the pot house prevailed in the chamber, and as might be inferred they were not conducive to orderly proceedings. About the same time that the attempt was made in the legislature to put a stop to gambling the Annalist noted "the advent of a better class of women," and he happily brackets their arrival with the increase of churches, teachers, schools and charities. He does not tell us that they should be connected as cause and effect, but the inference was plain.
But the presence of good women while wholesome did not wholly abate; it merely modified the evils of loose living. The divorce habit early asserted itself. In 1853 there were public complaints that divorces were becoming shamefully numerous, and in 1856 the governor of the state urged in a message that testimony be taken in open court in all divorce cases so that as many obstacles as possible might be placed in the way of separations. His theory that publicity would tend to interfere with the spread of the divorce habit may have been faulty, but the fact that he thought that it would have a discouraging effect indicates his belief in the existence of an active public opinion which might be depended upon to pre- serve respect for the marriage relation.
Another bit of evidence testifying to the remarkable change in the habits of the people was the persistence of the demand for the enforcement of a Sunday law which finally prevailed in the legislature of 1858 which passed an act requiring every store, shop and house of every description devoted to business purposes, excepting taverns and eating houses, to close on Sundays. It was declared uncon- stitutional on the ground that the legislature had no right to restrain a citizen in the lawful pursuit of a lawful occupation. Subsequently another law was passed which survived the test of the courts, but could not be enforced. Public opinion was not unfavorable to observance, and in time there came a complete cessation of Sunday business through voluntary action. The temperament of the people of California, and especially those of San Francisco, made it impossible to bring about the result in any other manner. In 1883 that fact was recognized and the Sunday closing law of 1861 was repealed.
Numerous Divorces
Passage of a Sunday Law
Vol. 1-16
CHAPTER XXIX
LABOR CONDITIONS AND THE COST AND MODE OF LIVING
SAN FRANCISCO A VICTIM OF EXAGGERATION-SUMMARY MODES OF ABATING EVIL MIS- UNDERSTOOD-CONDITION OF THE WORKER IN SAN FRANCISCO-CHANGE IN LABOR CONDITIONS- PLENTY OF WORKERS WHEN THE GOLD RUSH WAS UNDER WAY- HURRY UP WAGES PAID-LABOR ORGANIZATIONS FORMED-RELATION OF EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED-ENVIABLE CONDITION OF THE WORKER-INFLUX OF CHINESE- THE COST OF LIVING IN THE EARLY FIFTIES- IMPORTED FOOD STUFFS-EFFECT ON DOMESTIC PRODUCTION-PRICES FALL-THE LOW PRICE OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA- EFFECTS OF THE ABUNDANCE OF GOLD-EARLY EPICURIANISM-HOW MEN GREW RICH IN PIONEER DAYS-DRESS IN PIONEER DAYS-DISPOSITION TO CREATE IDOLS- EFFECT OF ISOLATION-FIRST ORPHAN ASYLUM AND HOSPITAL-EXCESSIVE MOR- TALITY FROM EXPOSURE-SAN FRANCISCO CHARITY- SISTERS OF MERCY.
San Francisco Much Misrepre- sented
T IS now time to review the activities other than religious which assisted in evolving from the disorders of the early OF Fifties a community whose respect for law, and for most Y of the conventionalities of life, has not merely equalled but has surpassed that of most of the older cities of the SEAL OF SAN FR CO Union. Without deserving or desiring it San Francisco has achieved a reputation which has procured for it sometimes sympathy and at other times detestation. The latter has been incurred partly through misrepresentation, but oftener through misunderstanding. As the story of San Francisco's upbuilding progresses much of the latter will be removed by evidence which will conclusively demonstrate that sins which the outsider has been pleased to regard with much horror have been venial by comparison with those of cities more favorably situated for the practice of all the virtues, and that they seem particularly black in the case of the Pacific coast metropolis because the spirit of reform at recurring intervals induced spectacular exhibitions of self deprecation which can be properly likened only to those self abasements produced at revival meetings when the mourners' bench is filled with sinners whose imagina- tions transform them, for the time being, into wretched creatures unfit to remain on the footstool.
San Francisco throughout her career has neither been so black nor so gay as she has been painted. All of her actions have been seen through distorted lenses. From the days when the significance of the discovery at Sutter's fort was first realized by the outside world, down to the present a disposition to exaggerate has been manifest. Little offenses have been magnified and big ones have been mini- mized. There has been a continual straining to discover something unusual in
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