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 29
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
Many of the buildings erected since these last fires show a wonderful improvement in strength and grandeur. When the work was to be done it was now well done ; and it is believed that if any buildings can possibly be made fire proof in the most trying circumstances, many have now been made so in San Fran- cisco. Solid brick walls, two and three feet in thickness, double shutters and doors of malleable iron, with a space two feet wide between them, and huge tanks of water, that could flood the whole building from roof to cellar, seem to defy the ravages of the fiercest future conflagration. Of that substantial character are many of the banking establishments, the principal stores and merchants' offices, and the most important houses in the city. This improved style of building has chiefly been rendered neces- sary by the great conflagrations we have had occasion to notice. Of the different companies formed for extinguishing fires we treat in a subsequent chapter. It is believed that they form the most complete and efficient organization of their kind in the world.
346
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
The six great fires successively destroyed nearly all the old buildings and land-marks of Yerba Buena. We extract the fol- lowing pleasantly written lamentation on this subject from the " Alta California " of 21st September, 1851 :- " The fires of May and June of the present year, swept away nearly all the relics of the olden time in the heart of the city. The old City Hotel
CITY HOTEL
BAL
BOOTS & SHOES
RİFIR
PIONEER
WHOLE SALER RETAIAL BOOK STORE
ASSAYES'
Old City Hotel.
[corner of Kearny and Clay streets], so well known and remem- bered by old Californians, after standing unscathed through three fatal fires, fell at the fourth. How many memories cling around that old building ! It was the first hotel started in San Fran- cisco, then the village of Yerba Buena, in the year 1846. When the mines were first discovered, and San Francisco was literally overflowing with gold, it was the great gaming head-quarters. Thousands and thousands of dollars were there staked on the turn of a single card, and scenes such as never were before, and never again will be witnessed, were exhibited in that old building during the years 1848 and 1849. In the spring of '49, the building was leased out at sixteen thousand dollars per annum, cut up into small stores and rooms, and underleased at an enor-
-
347
OLD BUILDINGS DESTROYED.
mous profit. Newer and handsomer buildings were erected and opened as hotels, and the old ' City' became neglected, deserted, forgotten : then it burned down, and this relic of the olden time of San Francisco was among the things that were. Then the old adobe custom-house that had been first built for that purpose, and then used as a guard-house and military office by the Amer-
Residence of Samuel Brannan, Esq., in 1847.
icans, and then afterwards as the American custom-house, was also burned. The wooden building directly back of it, with the portico, was also one of the old buildings-erected and occupied by Samuel Brannan, Esq. in 1847. [In this house were exhibited the first specimens of gold brought from the placeres.] This also was burned, and all that remains of 1847, in the vicinity of the plaza, is the old adobe on Dupont street. This building, in the latter part of '47 and '48 was occupied by Robert A. Parker as a large trading establishment. This has stood through all the fires, and it is hoped that it may remain for years as a relic of the past." That hope was vain. In the following year the adobe on Dupont street was pulled down to make way for finer houses on its site. So has it been with all the relics of six or eight years' standing. What the fires left, the progress of improvement swept from the ground.
348
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
JULY 11th .- Trial and execution of James Stuart.
AUGUST 24th .- Recapture from the legal authorities of Whittaker and Mckenzie, and their execution by the "Vigi- lance Committee."
SEPTEMBER 3d .- Annual election for the County of San Francisco. The following were the officials chosen :-
Senate.
Frank Soulé,
Jacob R. Snyder.
Assembly.
B. Orrick, A. C. Peachy, A. J. Ellis, H. Wohler,
G. W. Tenbroeck, R. N. Wood. Isaac N. Thorne.
Judge of the Superior Court. John Satterlee.
County Judge.
Alexander Campbell.
Sheriff.
County Clerk.
John C. Hayes.
James E. Wainwright.
County Recorder.
District Attorney.
Thomas B. Russum.
H. H. Byrne.
County Treasurer.
County Surveyor. C. Humphries.
Coroner.
County Assessor.
Nathaniel Gray.
Henry Vandeveer.
Harbor Master .- George Simpton.
The new city charter had provided that the first general election for municipal officers should be held on the fourth Monday of April, 1851, and " thereafter annually at the general election for State officers." Under this section of the charter it was un- derstood by some that the second city election should take place in September of the year named, when the usual annual election of State officers occurred. Another construction was put upon the section in question by the parties already in office and by a large number of the inhabitants, to the effect that the second election under the charter could only take place in September, 1852. Thus one party would give the existing common council and municipal officers only half a year in power, while another party, including the present incumbents, claimed a year and a half.
Joseph Shannon.
349
A CONTESTED ELECTION.
So dignified, or so satisfied with the legal strength of their position, were the existing city officers, that they took no steps to order a new election in September, 1851. Their opponents, however, relying on their own interpretation of the words of the charter, proceeded to act without them, and, unopposed in any way, elected the whole parties on their ticket. The general public took little interest in the matter, and most people seemed to believe that the new election would end in nothing. So little did the citizens concern themselves, that some of those newly elected, polled but a very few votes. When the election was fin- ished the new officers made a demand upon the old ones for a surrender of the public books and documents. This being refused, the new mayor elect, Stephen R. Harris, immediately raised the necessary legal action against the old mayor, C. J. Brenham, for a declaration of his own rights and the ejection of the latter from office. In the district court a judgment was given to the effect that the present incumbents should hold office till April, 1852, and that then those elected in September, 1851, should enter upon and remain in office for one year. The result of this decision would have been that six months would always intervene between the election and the entering upon office of the municipal authorities. This decision was unsatisfactory to most people. Mr. Harris next carried the case into the supreme court, where a majority of the judges (24th December), after able arguments were heard from the parties, reversed the judg- ment of the court below, and found Mr. Harris entitled to enter upon office as in September, 1851. Mr. Brenham promptly ac- knowledged the weakness of his position, and at once yielded to his legal successor. Party feeling prevented the other city officers from surrendering their seats so readily. Those already in power consisted of men of both of the great political parties-whig and democratic ; and had been originally selected chiefly from among the independent candidates, as men who would earnestly work for the common good and the purification of the city from official corruption and wide-spread crime. On the other hand, those newly elected were altogether of the democratic party. The old council offered to resign, if the new one would do the same ; when both could appeal a second time to the people. But the
-
350
1
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
latter council refused to do this. Meanwhile, the legal courts had adjourned, and it would have cost much time and expense to drive out the old council from the places which they persisted in retaining ; and their year of office would probably expire before this could be managed. In the end, however, the old council thought it best for their own honor and the interests of the city, to quietly retire from the unseemly contest, and make way for their unexpected successors. The names and offices of the latter were as follows :-
Mayor .- Stephen R. Harris.
Recorder-George W. Baker.
Marshal .- David W. Thompson. Street Commissioner .- Theodore Payne.
Comptroller .- Jas. W. Stillman. Treasurer .- Smyth Clarke.
Tax Collector .- D. S. Linell. City Attorney .- Chas. M. Delaney.
Recorder's Clerk .- Thomas W. Harper.
City Assessors .- James C. Callaghan, David Hoag, Arthur Matthews.
Aldermen.
E. L. Morgan, Wm. G. Wood, Jos. H. Blood, John Cotter,
Caleb Hyatt, James Grant, N. S. Pettit, Wm. Moore.
Assistant Aldermen.
IIenry Meiggs, Jos. Galloway, W. H. Crowell, N. Holland,
D. W. Lockwood, James Graves, J. C. Piercy, John W. Kessling.
SEPTEMBER 16th .- The " Vigilance Committee " agreed to suspend indefinitely farther operations regarding crime and crim- inals in the city. The old extensive chambers in Battery street were relinquished, and new rooms, "open at all times, day and night, to the members," were taken in Middleton and Smiley's buildings, corner of Sansome and Sacramento streets. During the three preceding months this association had been indefatiga- ble in collecting evidence and bringing the guilty to justice. It had been formed not to supersede the legal authorities, but to strengthen them when weak ; not to oppose the law, but to sanc- tion and confirm it. The members were mostly respectable citi- zens, who had, and could have, only one object in view-the general good of the community. They exercised an unceasing vigilance over the hidden movements of the suspected and crim- inal population of the place, and unweariedly traced crime to its source, where they sought to stop it. They had hanged four men without observing ordinary legal forms, but the persons were
351
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE.
fairly tried and found guilty, while three, at least, of the number, confessed to the most monstrous crimes, and admitted death to be only a due punishment. At this small cost of bloodshed, the " Vigilance Committee " freed the city and country of many reckless villains, who had been long a terror to society. When these had disappeared, outrages against person and property al- most disappeared too, or were confined to petty cases. The legal and municipal authorities now acquired, what previously they lacked, sufficient power to master the remaining criminals ; and the committee, having no longer a reason for continued action, · gladly relinquished the powers they had formerly exercised. Grand juries, instead of offering presentments against them, only praised in the usual reports their useful exertions, while, like all good citizens, they lamented their necessity. Judges occasionally took offence at the terms of such reports, and sought to have them modified; but the grand juries were firm. Judge Levi Parsons applied to the Supreme Court to have certain obnoxious sentences in one of these reports struck out ; but his petition was refused. People felt that there was much truth in the repeated declarations of the grand juries, and they hailed with delight their expressions of implied confidence in the Vigilance Commit- tee. The weak, inefficient, and sometimes corrupt courts of law were denounced as strongly by the juries as by that associa- tion itself. In one report the grand jury said :- " The facilities with which the most notorious culprits are enabled to obtain bail, which, if not entirely worthless, is rarely enforced when for- feited, and the numerous cases in which by the potent influence of money, and the ingenious and unscrupulous appliance of legal technicalities, the most abandoned criminals have been enabled to escape a deserved punishment, meets with their unqualified disapprobation."
But the worst days were over, and comparative peace was re- stored to society. Therefore the Vigilance Committee ceased to act. The members, however, did not dissolve the association, but only appointed a special or executive committee of forty-five to exercise a general watchfulness, and to summon together the whole body when occasion should require. This was shortly after- wards done in one or two instances, when instead of being oppos-
352
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
ed to the authorities, the members now firmly supported them by active personal aid against commotions and threatened outrages among the populace. They had originally organized themselves to protect the city from arson, murder and rapine, when perpe- trated as part of a general system of violence and plunder by hardened criminals. In ordinary crimes, and when these stood alone, and did not necessarily lead to general destruction, the Vigilance Committee did not interfere farther than as good citi- zens and to merely aid the ordinary officials whose duty it was to attend to all cases of crime. When, therefore, some six months later, a body of two thousand excited people sought to "lynch " the captain and mate of the ship Challenge for cruelty to the crew during the passage from New York to San Francisco, the Vigilance Committee, instead of taking the side of the enraged multitude, firmly supported the legal authorities. On many occasions, both before and after this time, the committee were of great service to the authorities. At their own cost, they collected evidence, apprehended criminals and delivered them into the hands of legal justice. When the city offered a reward of $2500 to any person who would give information which might lead to the apprehension and conviction of an incendiary, the committee offered a reward of $5000 for the same services. The members gave large contributions to hasten the completion of the public jail ; and, in many ways, by money, counsel and moral aid, and active personal assistance, sought earnestly to raise the character of the judicial tribunals and strengthen their action. There could not be a greater calumny uttered against high-minded men than to represent, as was frequently done in other countries, and in the Atlantic States, the members of the Vigilance Committee as a lawless mob, who made passion their sole guide and their own absolute will the law of the land. Necessity formed the com- mittee, and gave it both irresistible moral and physical force. One might as well blame a drowning wretch for clinging to a sinking brother, or to a straw, as say that the inhabitants of San Fran- cisco did wrong-some in joining the association, and others in not resisting but applauding its proceedings. People out of Cal- ifornia could know little at best of the peculiar state of society existing there ; and such as condemned the action of the Vigilance
353
NEW JENNY LIND THEATRE.
Committee positively either knew nothing on the subject, or they outraged the plainest principles of self-preservation. We all defend the man who, with his own hand, violently and unscrupu- lously slays the midnight robber and assassin, because he would otherwise lose his own life and property, and where the time and place make it ridiculous to call for legal protection. So also should we defend the community that acts in a similar manner under analogous circumstances. Their will and power form 'new ex tempore laws, and if the motives be good and the result good, it is not very material what the means are. This subject is treat- ed at greater length in the chapter on the Vigilance Committee, and to it the reader is referred.
OCTOBER 3d .- " Wells & Co." bankers, suspended payment. This and the bankruptcy of H. M. Naglee already noticed, are the only instances of failure among that class of the citizens of San Francisco. When the place and the speculative spirit of the people are borne in mind, it is high testimony to the general stability of the banking interest, that only two of their estab- lishments have become bankrupt.
OCTOBER 4th .- Opening of the new Jenny Lind Theatre on the Plaza. This was a large and handsome house. The interior was fitted up with exquisite taste ; and altogether in size, beauty and comfort, it rivalled the most noted theatres in the Atlantic States. It could seat comfortably upwards of two thousand per- sons.
The opening night presented a brilliant display of beauty and fashion, and every part of the immense building was crowded
to excess. A poetical address was delivered on the occasion by Mrs. E. Woodward. A new era in theatricals was now begun in San Francisco ; and since that period the city has never wanted one or two first class theatres and excellent stock companies, among which " stars " of the first magnitude annually make their appearance. Before this date there had been various dramatic companies in San Francisco, but not before had there been so magnificent a stage for their performances. The "Jenny Lind " did not long remain a theatre. The following year it was pur- chased by the town for a City Hall for the enormous sum of two hundred thousand dollars. The external stone walls were allowed
23
354
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
to stand, but the whole interior was removed and fitted up anew for the special purposes to which it was meant to be applied.
ELDORADO
Jenny Lind Theatre.
OCTOBER 20th .- The "American " theatre opened. This was a large brick and wooden house in Sansome street, between California and Sacramento streets. It could contain nearly two thousand persons, and was very elegantly furnished inside. Mrs. Stark gave the opening address. The walls sank nearly two inches on the opening night, when the " house " was densely crowded. The site formed a portion of the bay, and the sand which made the artificial foundation had been deposited upon a bed of soft yielding mud. Considerable fears were entertained in such circumstances for the safety of the structure. Happily the sinking of the walls was regular, and after the first night no material change was perceptible.
OCTOBER 31st .- To enable the distant reader to form an idea of the crowded state of the harbor, and which it may be
355
INDIAN DISTURBANCES.
mentioned was at all times about as well filled, we give the fol- lowing accurate list of the number of vessels lying there at this date, viz :-
Ships.
Barques.
Brigs. 67
Schooners. Ocean Steamers.
Total.
American
42
64
50
9
232
British
.5
23
5
3
36
French 9
1
1
11
Chilian
1
2
1 one sloop & one galliot 6
Bremen 1
4
4
1 10
Austrian
.1 ship ; Swedish, 3 brigs,
4
German ..
1 barque ; Italian, 1 brig ; Dutch, 2 barques,
4
Storeships,
148
Total number of vessels 451
The store-ships had originally belonged to all nations, though chiefly to America. In 1848 and 1849, most of the vessels that then arrived in the bay were deserted by their crews, while both in these years and in 1850, many old and unseaworthy vessels had been hurriedly pressed into the vast emigration service to Cal- ifornia. A considerable number of all these vessels were not worth the expense of manning and removing, and so they were left to be used as stores and lodging-houses in the suddenly thronged town, or to rot and sink, dismantled and forsaken. We have had occasion at various places to mention that several of these ships are now lying on dry land, in the very centre of the city.
NOVEMBER 6th .- A grand ball was given in the evening of this day at the Parker House, by the Monumental Fire Company. It was one of the finest affairs of the kind held in the city. Up- wards of five hundred ladies and gentlemen were present. Such balls were becoming too numerous to be all chronicled, while amidst the general brilliancy it is difficult to select any one as a specimen to show forth the times.
DECEMBER .- The southern portion of the State, having been recently in great danger from attacks of the confederated Indian tribes, applied for aid to Gen. Hitchcock, commanding U. S. forces in California. He accordingly sent as many of his troops as could be spared, and authorized the raising of two companies of mounted volunteers. Great excitement, in consequence of this permission and the previous alarming news, existed in the
356
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
city, and numbers hastened to enroll themselves in the proposed companies. To the disappointment of many applicants, a selec- tion only could be received. The two companies were placed under the respective commands of Col. John W. Geary and Capt. Daniel Aldrich, while Col. J. C. Hayes was appointed to the com- mand in chief. Later intelligence from the south, to the effect that the Indian difficulties were being arranged, rendered it un- necessary for the volunteers to proceed thither.
DECEMBER 21st .- This day was remarkable for an unusually severe storm of wind and rain, which continued during the night, and lasted several days without abatement. The tide was several feet higher than ordinary, and the swell from the bay rolled in so heavily as to wash away the sand from many of the newly-piled water lots. Several vessels dragged from their moorings and came in collision with others. Store-ships, that had long been imbedded in the sand, were set afloat and drifted to other quar- ters. The water at Jackson street rose so high as to cross Mont- gomery street, causing, at their junction, a lake of no inconsid- erable dimensions. The cellars in the lower part of the city were inundated.
I
CHAPTER XVIII.
1851.
Immigration diminished .- Females comparatively few .- Great city improvements .- Productions of the country, game, &c., in the markets .- Character of the community changing for the better .- The circulating medium .- Extravagance in living, dress, &c .- Personal rencontres and other outrages common .- Titles to real estate uncertain .- Legal decisions .- Depreciated value of merchandise .- Amusements, dissipation and recreation .- The foreign population. - Great crimes less frequent .- The finances of the city.
THE arrivals by sea at San Francisco were not so numerous in 1851 as during the preceding year. The tide of immigration was slackening, only to roll in its much greater numbers the following season. During 1851, upwards of 27,000 persons arrived by sea. Of these rather more than one-half came by steamers from the ports on or near the Isthmus. The ordinary population of the city was increasing, though more slowly than before. At the close of this year the total number probably exceeded thirty thousand. Females were very few in proportion to the whole number of inhabitants, although they were beginning to increase more rapidly. A very large proportion of the female population continued to be of loose character. The Chinese now began to arrive in considerable bands, and occasionally a few of their fe- males. Great numbers of French and Germans, of both sexes, as well as other foreigners, made their appearance. The immi- grants generally were of the mining and agricultural classes, al- though a fair number of them ultimately settled in San Francisco. An extensive immigration continued among the various districts and towns of the country, and the population of all was constant- ly changing. Fewer fortunate miners now paid visits to the city for the sake of mere recreation, since the rising towns of the interior, particularly Sacramento and Stockton, the capitals of the northern and southern mines respectively, offered all the attrac- tions of dissipation closer at hand. Yet in one way or another,
358
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
at least one half of the entire population of the State passed through, or visited San Francisco. The ocean steamers carried away more people from the port than they brought. There was the usual large land immigration into the State, and, on the whole, the general population of the country was considerably increased.
ELDORADO
East side of Portsmouth Square. Spring of 1850.
In San Francisco material improvements were taking place. At Clark's Point, on the northern extremity of the city, huge pre- cipitous rocks were quarried and removed, and the solid hill deeply excavated, whereby much new and valuable space was gained for building operations. New streets were graded, planked and built upon, and new and finer houses every where erected. In the southern districts, the "steam-paddy " had been set to work, and was rapidly cutting away the numerous sand hills that lay be- tween the plaza and "Happy Valley." The rubbish was con- veyed by temporary rails along the streets, and emptied into the bay at those parts where already roads were laid out and houses
359
CITY IMPROVEMENTS.
built on piles. Sansome and Battery, with the intersecting streets to a considerable distance, were gradually filled up, and firm foundations given for the substantial brick and stone houses that were beginning to be erected there. The town continued to move eastward, and new streets were formed upon piles farther out into the bay, across which the piers and wharves were shoot- ing like the first slender lines of ice before the sheet of water hardens into a solid mass. Closer and thicker the lines ran, as house after house was reared on innumerable piles, while the steam-paddy and railway wagons, and horse-carts without num- ber, were incessantly bearing hills of sand piecemeal to fill up the hollows, and drive the sea far away from the original beach. Where once ships of a thousand tons floated there now rose great tenements of brick and mortar securely founded in the solid earth. Portions of the loose sand were insensibly washed off by the tides from the first places where it was deposited, and the bay was slowly becoming shallower to a considerable distance from shore. As the wharves were pushed farther out, the ship- ping found less convenient anchorage, and were exposed to occa- sional strong tides and gales. The character of the port was perhaps changing somewhat for the worse, although the necessi- ties of the town so far urgently required an extension across the bay.
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.