USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. II > Part 10
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t Sherman: Memoirs, p. 67. Some good Samaritan gave warning to the unwary by erecting a sign on the corner of Clay and Kearny streets, bearing the legend:
"This street is impassable
Not even jackassable."
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
lines of sidewalk were constructed of expensive merchandise whose storage would cost more than its actual or prospective value, while tons of wire sieves, iron, rolls of sheet lead, cement, and barrels of beef were sunk in the mud. Tobacco in boxes was found to be excellent foundation material for small buildings. The narrowness of the pathways made progress dangerous. Lanterns were indis- pensable at night, and even in daylight not unfre- quently a pedestrian would lose his balance and find himself floundering in the mud. These were the conditions under which the mixed population of San Francisco conducted business in the winter of 1849-50. Before the following winter, which was exceedingly dry, the streets in the central parts of town were graded and planked, and Montgomery, Kearny, and Dupont streets, were sewered from Broadway to Sacramento street. The plaza, or Portsmouth square, as it was now called, around which were the principal gambling houses, was for many years neglected. Neither tree, shrub, nor grass adorned it, but it contained a rude platform for public speaking, a tall flag staff, and a cow pen enclosed by rough board .
Bad as were the physical conditions in 1849, the social conditions were even worse. The town was full of gamblers, thieves, and cut-throats from every quarter of the globe. Society there was none. Every man was a law to himself and by midsummer disorder reigned. An organization, formed from the
599
THE HOUNDS
riffraff of the disbanded regiment of New York volunteers, joined by Australian convicts and the scum of the town, paraded the streets with drum and fife and streaming banners, spreading terror . and dismay among the people. They called themselves Hounds or Regulators, and under pre- tense of watching over public security, intruded themselves in every direction and committed all sorts of outrageous acts. Relying on strength of numbers and arms they levied forced contribu- tions upon the merchants for the support of their organization. Their meeting place was a tent, on what is now the corner of Kearny and Commercial streets, which they called "Tammany Hall." The culmination of their reign was reached when, on the night of July 15, 1849, they made an attack in force upon the Chileno quarter at the foot of Telegraph hill, robbing, beating, and seriously wounding the inhabitants and destroying their tents and houses. The people of the town, now seriously alarmed, as- sembled on the plaza and under the leadership of Brannan, Ward, Bluxome, and others, organized for defence and public order. Four companies of volunteers of one hundred men each were formed, under command of McAllister, Ellis, Bluxome, and Lippitt, with Captain Spofford as chief marshall. Two hundred and thirty men were enrolled as special police. Tammany Hall was invaded and the nest broken up. The regulators scattered in all direc- tions. Nineteen men were arrested, including the
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
leader, Sam Roberts, an ex-member of company E, New York volunteers. A grand jury was formed, the prisoners were regularly indicted and were put on trial at the public institute. William M. Gwin and James C. Ward were appointed to "assist" the alcalde .* Hall McAllister and Horace Hawes volunteered to appear for the people, while P. Barry and Myron Norton were appointed to act for the accused. Nine were convicted, and though there was some talk of hanging them it was finally deter- mined to ship them out of the country, and they were sent to Washington on one of the war ships.
Hall McAllister, who was active in the work, was a native of Savannah, Georgia, born February 9, 1826; was a graduate of Yale college and a lawyer of high standing. He came on the Panama, June 4, 1849, bringing letters of introduction to Charles V. Gillespie. Governor Riley appointed McAllis- ter second lieutenant of the California Guards, September 8, 1849, and on the 25th of the same month appointed him attorney for the district of San Francisco at a salary of two thousand dollars per annum. His father, Mathew Hall McAllister, was the first judge of the United States Circuit court at San Francisco. Hall McAllister's name, given to Mc- Allister street, attests the regard in which the people held this distinguished jurist. His statue in bronze stands in front of the city hall, on McAllister street.
* Thaddeus M. Leavenworth. He was openly charged with being in sym- pathy with the regulators and of using them to further his political aspirations.
601
THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
For more than two years the Americans had been in possession of San Francisco; the gold mines had been discovered, the pueblo had grown to a city of ten or fifteen thousand inhabitants, and yet it had no municipal government but that of the alcaldes. No modern city had a greater need of a strong and effi- cient local government, based directly upon public opinion, responsible to it, and controlled by it. A meeting of citizens was held on the plaza, February 12, 1849, for the purpose of organizing such a form of government. The people had previous notice of the meeting, it was largely attended, and by some of the most prominent of the citizens. Resolutions were adopted calling for the election of a "Legislative Assembly" consisting of fifteen members, whose power, duty, and office was to make such laws as they in their wisdom might deem essential to promote the happiness of the people. The resolutions provided for the election of three justices of the peace to administer the law and hear and adjudicate all civil and criminal issues in the district, according to the common law of the United States.
On February 2Ist the election was held; three justices and fifteen members of the district legisla- ture were elected, and the assembly was organized March 5th, with Francis J. Lippitt, speaker, and J. Howard Ackerman, clerk. The assembly held its sessions in the public institute and on March 10th reported to General Persifer F. Smith, commanding the Pacific division, its proceedings, asking his recog-
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
nition of their body and concurrence and aid in the execution of its laws. General Smith declined to recognize the legislative assembly and pointed out to the petitioners that the "legislative assembly" was a body wholly unknown to the law. He sug- gested to them that the best government, unless well-founded and secure in a validity that could carry it safely through judicial scrutiny, was only weaving a thread of endless trouble and litigation for its people. He also assured them that so far as the alleged misconduct of officers of the existing government was concerned, any charge preferred would be thoroughly examined and that there was, in the government, not only the disposition, but the law and power to remove and punish any officer proved to be guilty. This referred to charges made against Alcalde Leavenworth of maladministration and of favoring land speculators in the granting of city lands.
The pacific letter of the general was not well received, and the assembly proceeded to abolish the office of alcalde and ordered Mr. Leavenworth to turn over to the sheriff the books and records of his office. Leavenworth appealed to General Smith and was assured by that officer that he was still alcalde and chief magistrate of the district of San Francisco, notwithstanding any law, enactment, or resolution of the district legislature to the contrary, and advised him to retain possession of his office, his books, and his papers. He also advised him that
603
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION CALLED
the commander of the department, Colonel Mason, was civil governor of California and would apply whatever correction the case demanded.
On April 13, 1849, Brigadier-general Bennet Riley succeeded Mason as military commander and civil governor. One of Riley's first acts was to send the steam transport Edith to Mazatlan to ascertain what action congress had taken in regard to a govern- ment for California, and on her return with the information that congress had adjourned without providing a government for California, he issued a proclamation, dated June 3, 1849, for the election of the necessary executive and judicial officers under the existing (Mexican) laws and at the same time ordered the election of delegates to a general con- vention to meet at Monterey, September Ist, to form a state constitution or plan for territorial government to submit to congress.
In the meantime charges against Alcalde Leaven- worth were laid before the governor, who, on May 6th suspended him from office and appointed a com- mission consisting of Talbot H. Green, James C. Ward, and Henry A. Harrison to investigate. I have seen no report of this commission, but on June Ist, Governor Riley restored the alcalde to his office and four days later Leavenworth resigned. On May 3 Ist the sheriff appointed by the legislative assembly, accompanied by a body of armed men, violently entered the alcalde's office and forcibly removed from the alcalde's custody the public records. The
604
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
report of this act and of certain ill-advised talk of "independence" having reached the governor, he issued a proclamation, dated June 4th, denouncing the so-called legislative assembly as an unlawful body which had usurped the powers of congress, and called upon all good citizens to assist in restoring the records to their lawful keeper, the alcalde, and warned all persons against giving them countenance either by paying them taxes or by supporting or abetting their officers.
Riley was thoroughly acquainted with conditions in San Francisco and was also aware that the men constituting the legislative assembly were among the best in California. Having administered his rebuke, he proceeded on the following day, in a most courteous letter addressed to these same persons and others, to point out their remedy under the law by the election of an ayuntamiento. He appointed nine of them judges of election, and assured them of his entire sympathy with their efforts for the security of property and the rights of citizens. After some talk and denunciation of military interference, the good sense of the leaders prevailed and without formal action the "Legislative Assembly of the Dis- trict of San Francisco" passed into history.
In accordance with the proclamation of the governor the civil organization of the territory was completed by the election, on August Ist, of judges of superior court, prefects, alcaldes, justices of the peace, and town councils (ayuntamientos). The
605
THE AYUNTAMIENTO
higher offices were, under the law, to be filled by ex- ecutive appointment; but the governor announced that he would appoint to those offices the persons receiving the plurality of votes in their respective districts. The people of San Francisco elected Horace Hawes, prefect; Joseph R. Curtis and Fran- cisco Guerrero, sub-prefects; John W. Geary, first alcalde; Frank Turk, second alcalde; twelve council- men (ayuntamiento), with Frank Turk and Henry L. Dodge, secretaries.
The prefect, Horace Hawes, was a native of New York and first visited California in 1847, on his way to Tahiti where he had been appointed United States consul. He returned to California in 1849, and spent the rest of his life in San Francisco. He was a lawyer of great ability, a man of honor, but eccentric to a degree and exceedingly unpopular. He became involved in a controversy with the ayuntamiento, and accused certain members of profiting by their knowl- edge of contemplated improvements. The ayun- tamiento retaliated by preferring counter-charges and by inducing the governor (Burnett) to suspend the prefect. From my knowledge of the men involved I have little doubt that the prefect was in the right. Hawes was a member of the assembly for two terms and of the state senate in 1863-64. He earned the gratitude of the people of San Fran- cisco by his services in connection with the consoli- dation act, of which he was the author, which put a check upon the plunderers of the city. He died in
1
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
1871, at the age of fifty-eight, leaving a large estate, the bulk of which was to be devoted to the establish- ment of a university; but his heirs, who had been comfortably provided for, contested the will and succeeded in breaking it on the ground of the testa- tor's insanity.
John W. Geary was born in Pennsylvania and served during the Mexican war with the Second Pennsylvania volunteers, rising to the rank of colonel. He came on the first voyage of the Oregon April I, 1849, bringing a commission as postmaster. He served as postmaster a short time, and hearing that Jacob B. Moore had been appointed to succeed him, he turned the office over to W. P. Bryan, temporary postmaster. Geary was the first mayor of San Fran- cisco under the charter. In 1852 he returned to Pennsylvania, served with distinction in the war of secession, and became governor of his native state. Geary street was named for him.
The ayuntamiento organized a complete municipal service with surveyor, tax collector, treasurer, and other officers. Malachi Fallon was appointed chief of police and given a force of thirty men-later increased to fifty. To facilitate the course of justice, the governor appointed William B. Almond judge of first instance, with civil jurisdiction; criminal cases remaining with the first alcalde. Almond was a man of coarse manners and had a habit of adjourning court to go out for a drink. He had been a peanut peddler and knew little about law. In hearing his
5
PRISON BRIG EUPHEMIA AND STORE SHIP APOLLO
Sacramento and Battery streets. Note the buildings on piles. From "Annals of San Francisco."
THE BEVIS TIES OF SAN FRANCISCO
(8Tl, 1) the agen Dr)-eight, leaving a large estate, the Truth of which was to be devoted to the establish- tarot of A weremity ; but his heirs, who had been samlertalls provided for, contested the will and succeeded in breaking it on the ground of the testa- 105's in anito.
John W. Geary war born in Pennsylvania and served during the Mexican war with the Second Pennsylvania volunteers, rising to the rank of colonel. He came on the first voyage of the Oregon April I, 1849, bringing a commission as postmaster. He served as postinaster a short time, and hearing that Jacob B. Moore had been appointed to succeed him, ће ВОЈЈОЧА ЧІНЯ НЯОТЕ КА МІМАНТИЯ ЭЛЯЯ ИЮЛЯФОГАГУ postmaster. 12 11 bas ofmost of San Fran- .agliq no agnibliud edt stoVl, he returned to Pennsylvania, served with distinction in the war of secession, and became governor of his native state. Geary street was named for him.
The ayuntamiento organize l a complete municipal service with surveyor, tax collector, treasurer, and other officer. Malachi Fallon was appointed chief of police and given a force of thirty men- -- later micreased to ftty. To facilitate the course of justice, iDE Soverbor appointed William B. Almond judge of fuer hutango, with civil jurisdiction; criminal cases temaiming with the first alcalde. Almond was a man of comme mAmmers and had a habit of adjourning court to go but for a drink. He had been a peanut peddler and knex little about law. In hearing his
NONTVSOTTOIN
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607
PRISON SHIP EUPHEMIA
cases he would sometimes listen to one or two wit- nessess on one side, and then cut short the attorneys of the other side, saying he wanted to hear no more.
The town was but poorly provided with jail facili- ties, and the ayuntamiento used the first money coming into its hands in the purchase of a prison ship. They bought the brig Euphemia on October 8, 1849, and anchored her off the Sacramento street wharf, corner of Battery street. The brig was soon overcrowded, and the prisoners were put to work on the streets under charge of a chain-gang overseer. As soon as the council was organized they applied to the governor for a loan from the civil fund. Gov- ernor Riley informed them that while he had no authority to loan any of the public funds in his pos- session, he would direct the treasurer to pay over to the municipality ten thousand dollars to purchase or erect a district jail and court house, provided that an equal amount was raised and appropriated by the city for that purpose. The council had plans for a city hall, hospitals, wharves, and other public im- provements, and to meet these costs arranged a sale of water lots, now coming into eager demand. The sale was held in January 1850, and yielded six hun- dred and thirty-five thousand dollars. Three hun- dred thousand of this was at once appropriated for the extension of the California and Market street wharves, and in place of building a city hospital the council entered into the contract with Doctor Peter Smith which resulted so disastrously for the city.
608
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Notwithstanding the large amount of coin brought into the country by immigrants and the millions of gold dust used as currency, the specie basis was very small in comparison with the volume of business transacted. In August 1848, Colonel Mason re- ported to the commissary general that, owing to the scarcity of specie, drafts on the subsistence depart- ment could not be negotiated except at a ruinous discount. The merchants of San Francisco asked to be allowed to pay custom dues in gold dust, and were informed by Governor Mason that his instruc- tions gave him no discretion, but required him to collect duties "exclusively in gold and silver coin" before the goods could leave the custody of the col- lector. He was willing, however, to permit the goods to go at once into the market and to wait three and six months for the duties, provided, that gold dust be deposited as security at a rate low enough to insure its redemption at the expiration of the period. Like all other commodities in California the price of gold was subject to violent fluctuations. Its value was not well understood, and so great was the quantity produced it was feared its value would greatly de- crease .* It sold at the mines during 1848-49, at four to nine dollars an ounce. The gold Colonel Mason sent to the war department with his report of August 17, 1848, he paid ten dollars an ounce
* Horace Greeley estimated that a thousand millions would be added to the world's supply within four years.
Brown: Early Days, Chap. iv.
609
PRICE OF GOLD DUST
for, and it was worth at the mint eighteen dollars. The price of gold dust was, however, largely governed by the needs of the owner and the supply of coin. Brown says that at first the gamblers would not play for it and the miners would come to him at the bar of the City hotel for money to play. He bought their dust at six to eight dollars, according to his supply of coin. The Indians, who mined much of the gold, would sell it weight for weight for any article they wished to buy. They have been known to sell an ounce of gold for fifty cents in silver coin, or for a drink of whiskey. Sixteen dollars an ounce ultimately became the ruling price at which the gold dust was taken in trade and in a transaction of any size a handful more or less did not count with the easy-going miner.
The profits of the merchants were enormous, particularly at the mining camps. At the close of 1848 the most extravagant prices prevailed at the mines. Sales of flour are reported at eight hundred dollars a barrel; pork, four hundred; a pair of boots, a blanket, a gallon of whisky, and hundreds of other things, one hundred dollars each; eggs, three dollars each; drugs, one dollar a drop; pills, one dollar each; doctor's visits, fifty to one hundred dollars; all paid in gold dust at eight to ten dollars an ounce. Some dealers kept special price lists and special scales and weights for trading with the Indians, considering it quite legitimate to rob them. I do not think such practices were at all general,
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
but there is no doubt that they were altogether too prevalent, and it was no uncommon thing for a trader to make a fortune in a single season.
The forced and ruinous sales of cargoes in the fall of 1849, with the enormous cost of lighterage and storage caused a rapid fall in prices .* The heavy rains at the beginning of winter closed interior traffic and increased the stagnation. Beef and pork which had ranged from twenty to sixty dollars a barrel fell to ten dollars; flour fell from sixty to ten dollars; coffee from seventy-five cents a pound to nine; molasses from four dollars a gallon to sixty-five cents, and other importations in like ratio.
The losses of 1849 checked importations for a time and prices grew steadier under reduced supplies. Wages continued high. A common laborer received a dollar an hour, or ten dollars a day; while the pay of a carpenter was sixteen dollars a day. The cost of living was frightful. A little house of four rooms rented for four hundred dollars a month. For offices, a cellar big enough to hold a desk and a few chairs rented for two hundred and fifty dollars a month. Stores rented from one to six thousand dollars a month, while the gamblers paid ten thou- sand dollars a month rent for a lower floor in the Parker house, and for other rooms in that hotel they paid from thirty-five hundred to six thousand dollars a month. Everything was on a cash basis and all rents
* Storage: Three dollars a month per barrel; drayage, three to four dollars a load. Doc. 17, pp. 31-2.
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HIGH PRICES
were paid in advance. Rooms at the hotels could be had from twenty-five to two hundred and fifty dollars a week. A bunk in an enclosed porch of an adobe house cost twenty-one dollars a week. The price of board was thirty-five dollars a week. There were several cheap Chinese restaurants where meals could be had for one dollar, while at the higher class restaurants a dinner a la carte cost anywhere from three to ten or more dollars. Food was abundant; the ranchos supplied unlimited quantities of good beef, while all kinds of game and fish could be had for the taking. Milk, butter, fruit, and vegetables were more difficult to obtain. Milk cost one dollar a quart, butter from one dollar and a half to two dol- lars and a half a pound, according to its rank, and vegetables about what the dealer chose to ask. Bay- ard Taylor speaks of choice grizzly bear steaks at the restaurant, very solid, sweet, and nutritious, of a flavor preferable to that of the best pork.
With the general exodus to the mines in the sum- mer of 1848, real estate in the town became almost worthless, and many of the faint hearted saw the finish of San Francisco and the rise of the rival city of Benicia on the straits of Carquines; but the beginning of the winter rains sent the inhabitants back to town, and the place was filled to overflowing. Building was resumed with feverish intensity, and lots that could hardy be given away in the summer, found ready purchasers at greatly advanced prices, and some on favored corners sold as high as ten
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
thousand dollars. In the spring of 1849, real estate speculation again lagged with the departure of the miners, but with their return in the fall, laden with the gold of the placers, speculation went mad and prices advanced to unprecedented figures. The firm of Finley, Johnson & Company sold for three hundred thousand dollars real estate that had cost them the year before, twenty-three thousand. A lot on the plaza, bought in the spring for six thousand dollars, sold for forty-five thousand. Encouraged by the demand for lots, Dr. John Townsend and Cornelius de Boom laid out a suburban town in the Potrero Nuevo, on the beautiful sloping banks of Mission bay,* but owing to its distance from town it was long before there was a demand for lots. Many of the people who had to have houses and could not pay from three to six hundred dollars a thousand for lumber, went to the redwood forest of San Antonio, got out the lumber, and built for them- selves. This was the case with Brother Taylor of the Methodist conference. Landing in San Fran- cisco in September 1849, after a long trip around Cape Horn, he could find no shelter for his wife, weak from a recent confinement and the weary
* In 1847, Dr. John Townsend built his residence and physician's office on his fifty vara lot on the south side of California street between Montgomery and Sansome, where the Merchant's Exchange now stands. John Cornelius de Boom, a native of Antwerp, came in 1849, from South America, with a cargo of goods, landing February 18th. He bought from Townsend his Cali- fornia street lot and became owner of a large amount of San Francisco property. He established the house of De Boom, Grisar & Co. of Valparaiso and San Francisco.
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