USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The annals of San Francisco; containing a summary of the history of California, and a complete history of its great city: to which are added, biographical memoirs of some prominent citizens > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
" No soldier, sailor or marine, nor any person who is not a bona fide resi- dent of the town shall be allowed to vote for a member of the town council."
In pursuance of the foregoing order, Mr. Hyde fixed the elec- tion for six members for a town council, upon
SEPTEMBER 13th .- We give the names of the gentlemen elect- ed, along with the names of those who had previously been ap- pointed by the alcalde, as an interim council :-
Councillors elected.
No. of votes. 126
Councillors chosen by Alcalde. William A. Leidesdorff.
William Glover,
William D. M. Howard,
114
Robert A. Parker.
William A. Leidesdorff,
109
José P. Thompson.
E. P. Jones,
88
Pedro T. Sherreback.
Robert A. Parker,
74
John Rose.
William S. Clark,
72
Benjamin R. Buckelew.
The town council chose Mr. Leidesdorff their treasurer. The first alcalde was Mr. George Hyde ; and the second, Dr. T. M. Leavenworth. Immediately after the formation of the town council, its members entered with spirit upon the duties of their office. They passed a multitude of laws affecting the general interests of the town, regulating the streets and buildings, the licensing and character of business allowed, appointed constables, &c. Soon, therefore, the place became to assume a steady pro- gressive appearance, and some fair sort of order was every where established. This council may be said to have had every thing to do to found the city. Our work would swell beyond all rea- sonable limits, should we attempt to name every public act of importance-when nearly all they did was new and of vital con-
197
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY.
sequence to the well-being of San Francisco-performed by this council. We can only, therefore, give an occasional notice in future of their proceedings. One, however, of their earliest reso- lutions may just be glanced at, viz. : the rescinding of those con- ditions in the sale of town lands, which made it imperative on the buyer to fence in and erect a building upon his lot within a year after the purchase. One effect of this was certainly to encourage speculation, since jobbers in lots could now safely hold an inde- finite number, when not obliged to erect buildings upon them within a limited time.
SEPTEMBER 24th .- Messrs. Leidesdorff, Glover and Clark were appointed by the town council a committee to take measures for the establishment of a public school. Various resolutions were subsequently passed by the council on this subject, and after much public agitation, at length, on 17th March, 1848, a teacher was appointed, with a salary of one thousand dollars ; and on the 3d of April following, Mr. Thomas Douglas formally opened the long delayed and much needed school, for the instruction of the youth of both sexes. This was the first public seminary estab- lished in San Francisco.
OCTOBER 20th .- A severe Norther visited the harbor which did considerable damage to the shipping. Similar furious gales have since been experienced every year, when more or less loss has been occasioned to the shipping and to the wharves them- selves. The exposure to excessive winds from the north and south- east is one of the most serious drawbacks to the safety and con- venience of the port. The extension of the city, in late years, over the waters of Yerba Buena Cove, has increased the liability of vessels to damage during the prevalence of these winds.
NOVEMBER 15th .- " The Steamboat,"-being the only one it had no distinct name,-performed an experimental trip round " Wood Island." This was but a small concern which had been brought by Mr. Leidesdorff from Sitka. It was the first vessel of the kind in San Francisco Bay, and was quite a pet or plaything in its way. Two days afterwards " the steamboat " sailed for Santa Clara. In February following it was lost in a Norther.
NOVEMBER 18th .- The first " Thanksgiving Day" celebra- ted in New England style. Public worship was performed at the
198
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
house of Mr. Lincoln. The "Sons of New England " afterwards had a public dinner.
DECEMBER 31st .- The following statistics show the extent of the commerce of San Francisco for the three months ending this day :---
Total value of exports, $49,597.53 ; imports, $53,589.73. Of the amount of exports, $30,353.85, represent the native pro- duce of California, and were shipped as follows :- To the Sand- wich Islands, $320 ; Peru, $21,448.35 ; Mazatlan, $560 ; Sitka, $7,285.50 ; Tahiti, $700. The other exports, amounting to $19,343.68, were the produce of foreign countries, and were ship- ped as follows :- $2,060 to the United States ; $12,442.18 (of which $11,340 were coined gold and silver), to the Sandwich Isl- ands ; and $4,831.50 to Mazatlan. The imports came from the following countries :- United States, $6,790.54 ; Oregon, $7,- 701.59 ; Chili, $3,676.44 ; Sandwich Islands, $31,740.73 ; Sit- ka, $2,471.32 ; Bremen, $550.54 ; and Mexico, $160.
CHAPTER V.
1848.
Resolutions concerning gambling .- Public sale of City Property .- Price Current published .- Condi- tion and population of the town .- Overland express to Independence, Mo .- George Hyde, al- calde, resigned, and succeeded by Dr. J. Townsend .- Death of Wm. A. Leidesdorff .- Discovery of gold, and immediate effects .- Illumination in celebration of the peace between Mexico and the United States .- Dr. T. M. Leavenworth elected alcalde .- First brick house .- Public meeting to regulate the price of gold dust .- First square-rigged vessel discharged at Broadway wharf .- Judicial limits of the town .- Rev. T. D. Hunt chosen chaplain .- First issue of the "Star and Californian."-State of the markets .- Public meeting to organize a Provisional Government .- New town council elected .- Election declared invalid .- Duties collected at the Custom-House
JANUARY 11th .- Stringent resolutions were passed by the council regarding gambling. This vice had been growing in popular favor, and at this period and for years afterwards, be- came one of the leading characteristics of the inhabitants. Be- sides heavily fining parties engaged in gambling, one of the resolutions authorized the authorities " to seize for the benefit of the town all the money found on a gambling table where cards are played." If this had been in force a short time afterwards, when the gold discoveries had enriched thousands, and the reck- less miners hurried to San Francisco to spend their gains in the great public gaming saloons of the period, the town in a single night would have become wealthy. But at the next meeting of the council these resolutions were all repealed.
MARCH 5th .- A great public sale took place by the town of some of its real estate. The preferable lots had already been secured by speculators, under the old regulations, at a nominal price, by private arrangement with the alcalde. The prices ob- tained at this sale do not show much advance in the value of town property, since the lots only brought from sixteen to fifty dollars, averaging about twenty-two dollars and fifty cents each for fifty-two lots. It is certain, however, that the value of desi-
200
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
rable locations was immensely higher than this ; and the citizens, from their eagerness in getting up houses, and the high prices of labor and building materials, seem to have been satisfied on this subject. The population of the town was fast improving.
MARCH 15th .- As a sign of the times, a weekly wholesale price-current was first published in San Francisco in the columns of the " Californian " of this date. In the " California Star," of the 18th instant, likewise appeared a similar document, and re- marks on the state of the market, for the first time.
About this period the population of the town was ascertained by the Board of School Trustees, in canvassing the place for edu- cational purposes, to be, 575 male and 177 female adults, and 60 children of ages to attend school, making a total of 812. Adding the number of infants and children still too young to attend school, the whole number of inhabitants amounted to about 850. The buildings of all kinds numbered 200. There were two large hotels in the place, besides boarding and public houses, and houses attached to ten-pin alleys, billiard saloons, &c. ; so that the town was becoming one of some consequence, and was assum- ing the pretensions and attractions of older, wealthier and more populous communities. Two wharves were in the course of con- struction, and extensive stores and warehouses had been erected. There were twelve mercantile houses established, consisting of agencies for large firms in the East and in the Sandwich Islands, auction and commission houses, and importers from the United States direct. The facilities for discharging ships and filling them anew with cargo, were rapidly increasing. There was much bustle, and even enthusiasm among the inhabitants, whichi promised a flattering future to the town. Current expenses were too high to prevent immediate fortunes being made ; still most persons in business believed they were laying the firm foundations of early wealth.
APRIL 1st .- The " California Star Express " left San Fran- cisco, to proceed overland to Independence, Mo. The passage was guaranteed to be accomplished in sixty days. Fifty cents was charged as the postage on single letters.
APRIL 3d .- The first public school was opened. Dr. J. Townsend was also sworn in before the council, as first alcalde,
201
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
vice George Hyde, resigned. Serious complaints had been made in regard to Mr. Hyde's conduct in office, which, being reported to Governor Mason, led to a formal inquiry on the subject. Some nine or ten charges of a criminal nature were made against the former alcalde, only two of which were ultimately held to be established by proof. These, in the whole circumstances of the case, secmed insufficient to warrant His Excellency to remove Mr. Hyde from office. But as popular clamor was somewhat loud and vexatious on the matter, that gentleman thought fit to resign his trust.
MAY 18th .- Mr. Wm. A. Leidesdorff died of the brain fever. This gentleman was the United States vice-consul at San Francisco, and was closely connected with all the interests of the place. His decease was much regretted by the town's people, a large number of whom attended in his funeral procession. All places of business and entertainment were closed on the occasion, the flags at the barracks and of the vessels in port hung at half- mast during the day ; while minute guns were fired as the burial train moved on towards the Mission Dolores, in the church- yard of which place the body was interred. Mr. Leidesdorff was of Danish extraction, and of the Roman Catholic religion. He had been nearly nine years in business in San Francisco, and was about thirty-six years old. The property he left was of con- siderable value at the time of his death, (though heavily bur- dened with debts ;) while, as much of it consisted of real estate, on which the growing city afterwards spread, its value at this date is immense. The deceased left no legal heirs on the spot, and his estate was administered by Mr. Wm. D. M. Howard, under authority of the alcalde, for behoof of all concerned. Much litigation, among parties claiming to be administrators, or heirs or assignees of heirs of the deceased, afterwards resulted, which it is believed is not yet fairly ended. The law proceedings and history of the estate generally form quite an event in the annals of the town, and deserve a more particular notice, which will be given in a subsequent chapter.
The promising state of things in San Francisco shortly be- fore described was now to be suddenly checked by means which, unpromising at first, ultimately led to the most extraordinary
202
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
prosperity in the city. Early in the spring of this year, occa- sional intelligence had been received of the finding of gold in large quantities among the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, the particulars of which discovery we have already given. Small parcels of the precious metal had also been forwarded to San Francisco, while visitors from the mines, and some actual diggers arrived, to tell the wonders of the region and the golden gains of those engaged in exploring and working it. In consequence of such representations, the inhabitants began gradually, in bands and singly, to desert their previous occupations, and betake themselves to the American River and other auriferous parts of the great Sacramento valley. Labor, from the deficiency of hands, rose rapidly in value, and soon all business and work, ex- cept the most urgent, was forced to be stopped. Seamen deserted from their ships in the bay and soldiers from the barracks. Over all the country the excitement was the same. Neither threats, punishment nor money could keep men to their most solemn engagements. Gold was the irresistible magnet that drew human souls to the place where it lay, rudely snapping asunder the feebler ties of affection and duty. Avarice and the @verween- ing desire to be suddenly rich, from whence sprang the hope and moral certainty of being so, grew into a disease, and the infection spread on all sides, and led to a general migration of every class of the community to the golden quarters. The daily laborer, who had worked for the good and at the command of another, for one or two dollars a day, could not be restrained from flying to the happy spot where he could earn six or ten times the amount, and might possibly gain a hundred or even a thousand times the sum in one lucky day's chance. Then the life, at worst, promised to be one of continual adventure and excitement, and the miner was his own master. While this was the case with the common laborer, his employer, wanting his services, sud- denly found his occupation at an end ; while shopkeepers and the like, dependent on both, discovered themselves in the same pre- dicament. The glowing tales of the successful miners all the while reached their cars, and threw their own steady and large gains comparatively in the shade. They therefore could do no better, in a pecuniary sense even, for themselves, than to hasten
203
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
after their old servants, and share in their new labor and its ex- traordinary gains, or pack up their former business stock, and travelling with it to the mines, open their new stores and shops and stalls, and dispose of their old articles to the fortunate dig- gers, at a rise of five hundred or a thousand per cent.
DELE
.ORR
Rush for the gold regions.
In the month of May it was computed that, at least one hundred and fifty people had left San Francisco, and every day since was adding to their number. Some were occasionally re- turning from the auriferous quarter ; but they had little time to stop and expatiate upon what they had seen. They had hastily come back, as they had hastily gone away at first, leaving their household and business to waste and ruin, now to fasten more properly their houses, and remove goods, family and all, at once to the gold region. Their hurried movements, more even than the words they uttered, excited the curiosity and then the eager desire of others to accompany them. And so it was. Day after
204
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
day the bay was covered with launches filled with the inhabitants and their goods, hastening up the Sacramento. This state of matters soon came to a head ; and master and man alike hur- ried to the placeres, leaving San Francisco, like a place where the plague reigns, forsaken by its old inhabitants, a melancholy solitude.
On the 29th of May the " Californian " published a fly-sheet, apologizing for the future non-issue of the paper, until better days came, when they might expect to retain their servants for some amount of remuneration, which at present was impossible, as all, from the " subs" to the "devil," had indignantly rejected every offer, and gone off to the diggings. "The whole country," said the last editorial of the paper, "from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the sea shore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds with the sordid cry of gold ! GOLD ! ! GOLD ! ! ! -while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and every thing neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pick- axes, and the means of transportation to the spot where one man obtained one hundred and twenty-eight dollars' worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and the average for all concerned is twenty dollars per diem !"
On the 14th of June the " California Star" likewise ceased. In the explanatory fly-sheet, the editor simply and sadly said, that his paper "could not be made by magic, and the labor of mechanism was as essential to its existence as to all other arts." And as every body was deserting him, why, the press and the pa- per stopped together-that was all.
JULY 15TH .- The " Californian" revives, and promises an occasional paper, if that can be managed. It gives this day the first intelligence of the French revolution, under the alarming head, " THE WHOLE WORLD AT WAR !" though little did the gold- diggers and the speculative traders in San Francisco care about that. It chronicles likewise the observance of another "glorious fourth " which was held in the town as spiritedly as the few re- maining inhabitants could manage. The rest of the news, and many of the advertisements were about the mines and gold. The city itself afforded few items of intelligence, except the con- tinued desertion of the place, and the high and increasing prices
205
PRICE OF GOLD DUST ESTABLISHED.
of labor. The council had not met for two months ; and its members, with many officials of the town, had all "gone to the diggings."
JULY 25th .- Governor Mason issued a proclamation calling on the people to assist the authorities in apprehending deserters, who had now become very numerous from both the army and navy service.
JULY 31st .- His Excellency consents to receive gold dust in payment of duties at the custom-house at a low rate, with right of redemption of the whole by the payer, within one hundred and eighty days, or of the half within ninety days, upon giving the proper amount in gold or silver coin. Several public meet- ings have been held on this subject, in which the community was much interested.
AUGUST 11th .- A second grand illumination. This time it was in celebration of the peace between Mexico and the United States, the official news of which reached Monterey on the 6th instant. In the early part of the day guns were fired on all sides, from the presidio and barraeks, ships in harbor, and by every youngster on shore who happily owned, or could buy, bor- row, or steal a little gunpowder and a fire-arın, from a musket, to a rusty key with a priming-hole filed across the barrel. A cavalcade of citizens proceeded through the streets. In the evening, the windows of every house remaining inhabited were illuminated, many of them brilliantly. Tar barrels and bonfires blazed on all sides. Squibs, crackers and pistols boomed off in harmony with the general rejoicing.
AUGUST 29th .- Dr. T. M. Leavenworth elected first alcalde.
SEPTEMBER 6th .-. The first brick house was erected by Mel- lus & Howard, at the corner of Montgomery and Clay streets. This was the second brick building erected in Upper California, one having been previously constructed at Monterey.
SEPTEMBER 9th .- A great public meeting was held to con- sider how best to fix the price of gold dust at a certain reason- able amount, to pass as a currency in the country, during the scareity of coin, and until a branch mint could be established. This was supposed to be the largest meeting that had ever as- sembled in San Francisco, most of the old inhabitants having
206
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
returned for a season from the mines. Dr. T. M. Leavenworth was called to the chair, and Mr. J. D. Hoppe appointed secre-
San Francisco, Winter of 1S4S.
tary. The meeting unanimously decided and resolved that six- teen dollars an ounce was a fair price for gold dust, and that it ought to be taken in all business transactions at that rate. A committee was also appointed to urge upon Congress the imme- diate establishment of a branch mint at San Francisco.
This month a square-rigged vessel (the brig Belfast, from New York,) first discharged a cargo at Broadway wharf. The price of goods consequently fell twenty-five per cent., while real estate rose from fifty to one hundred per cent. A vacant lot at the corner of Montgomery and Washington streets was offered the day previous to the opening of the wharf for five thousand dollars, but there were no buyers. The next day the same lot sold readily at ten thousand dollars. This shows how property was beginning to be affected by the improvement of the town.
OCTOBER 3d .- At a second election, Dr. T. M. Leavenworth was again chosen first alcalde. B. R. Buckelew and Barton Mowrey were also elected town councillors. One hundred and fifty-eight votes were polled.
207
STATE OF THE MARKETS.
OCTOBER 9th .- First meeting of the town council since May last. At an adjourned meeting held on the 11th, it was resolved that the limits of the town for the administration of justice should be as follows, viz. : "That the line shall commence at the mouth of Creek Guadalupe, where it empties into the Bay of San Francisco, following the course of said stream to its head waters ; from thence a due west line to the Pacific Ocean ; thence northwards along the coast to the inlet to the harbor of the bay ; thence eastwardly, through the middle of the said inlet into the Bay of San Francisco, and embracing the entire anchor- age ground from the inlet to the mouth of the Creek Guada- lupe."
NOVEMBER 1st .- No regular church had hitherto been estab- lished ; but nearly every Sunday, for a long period back, occa- sional religious services had been performed by clergymen of various denominations ; or, in their absence, by some serious minded layman. This day, the Rev. T. D. Hunt, who had been invited from Honolulu, was chosen Protestant chaplain to the citizens, and an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars appropriated to him, to be defrayed out of the subscrip- tions of various town's people. Divine worship on Sundays to take place in the Public Institute, (school-house,) Portsmouth Square.
NOVEMBER 18th .- The "Californian," having been bought up by the proprietors of the "California Star," a new paper, similar in appearance to both these, and virtually a continuation of the latter, which had stopped five months before, was issued this day under the title, "The Star and Californian."
DECEMBER .- The markets, as might be expected, were very high about this time, though prices fluctuated considerably. On the 1st of this' month, flour was twenty-seven dollars a barrel, beef twenty, pork sixty ; butter was ninety cents a pound, and . cheese seventy. Two weeks later, flour sold at from twelve to fifteen dollars a barrel, while other articles had fallen in propor- tion. Brandy was in demand at eight dollars a gallon, and gold dust dull of sale at ten dollars and a half an ounce.
DECEMBER 12th .- The public school, after having been closed for many months during the gold-mania, re-opened. Rates of tuition were announced to be eight dollars a term.
208
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
DECEMBER 21st and 23d .- Great public meetings were held, (Dr. Townsend in the chair,) regarding the propriety, and grow- ing necessity of immediately organizing a provisional government. For some time back, much public agitation had existed on this subject. The frequent murders and other daring outrages com- mitted of late in different parts of the country, especially at the mines, while there was no proper legal protection for the lives and property of the citizens, had forced the people to conclude that Congress had been trifling with them in delaying the long pro- posed constitution-that there was no more time to wait-and therefore that instant steps should be taken to establish a form of government for themselves. At these meetings resolutions were passed to the above effect, and five delegates appointed to be chosen at a subsequent public meeting, to represent the town and district at a general convention to be held at San José, in March next, for the purpose of framing a form of constitution. A meeting to the same effect had been held at San José on the 11th instant, which had fixed the assembling of the convention so early as the 2d of January following, and similar meetings were beginning to be called all over the country.
DECEMBER 27th .- The following gentlemen were elected as town council, or ayuntamiento, for 1849, viz. : Stephen C. Harris, Wm. D. M. Howard, George C. Hubbard, Robert A. Parker, Thomas J. Roach, John Sirrine, and John Townsend-the last of whom was chosen president. The number of votes polled was three hundred and forty-seven.
DECEMBER 28th, 29th and 30th .- Various meetings were held of the old town council, which ended in its resolving that the election of the 27th instant was invalid, owing to the votes of a small number of unqualified parties having been received ; and a new election was ordered for the 15th proximo.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.