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 9
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d opened in San Le Wwerican occupation
уязмоэтом то яниябо дяотг ядоу шей the govern- ГТАЛЯТА ИОТДИІНКАИ ДИА Hier the con- ".itnsD" odt stoV. At the stores C. L. Ross
man permaster and e mail berods lip the California, ulf into aun eroe and gave him floor TH Imo ferr on witch Geary drew chalk Ha the wpkres distributed the letters. Then des plass out of the window. he opened log. Ross was a native of New - 1847, and was a prominent man for a number of years.
Bali A farke a native of Boston, came in Pronto on the ship Mt. Vernon, and opewa, aby o thr casa grande of Richardson's on Dupont siger Later he kept the City hotel, and in 1849 buit and kept the famous Parker house
NEW YORK STORE BY C.L.ROSS AND COMPANY
GENERAL MERCHANDISE!
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583
THE RUSS FAMILY
on Kearny street facing the plaza. In 1846 William H. Davis bought out the business of his uncle, Nathan Spear, and did a large business in the store built by Spear next to "Kent Hall." The store of DeWitt and Harrison was, in 1848, on the northwest corner of Sansome and Pacific streets. This house was later DeWitt, Kittle and company, then Kittle and company, and was continued in business until very recently.
On the arrival of the Loo Choo in March 1847, J. C. Christian Russ and his sons obtained from the ship some second-hand lumber and built, out in the suburbs, a shanty for the shelter of the family. Here they lived for several years, building additions from time to time as their needs grew. This house was, until after the breaking out of the gold fever, the southern limit of settlement, and was separated from the town by a sand-hill. It was on the south- west corner of Pine and Montgomery streets. Russ and his sons ascertained that town lots were to be had for the asking, and being men of thrifty habits they managed to secure quite a large number. In their shanty they had a store for the manufacture and sale of jewelry, and after the discovery of gold, added assaying and refining to their work. They built the American hotel on the west side of Mont- gomery street between Pine and Bush streets. They owned the two fifty vara lots on Montgomery street and the middle fifty vara on Bush street in this block. When the great immigration came they
584
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
built thirty-five or forty little shanties on their property which they rented to good advantage. These were removed later to build the Russ house, so well known to Californians, which property still remains in possession of the family. In 1850 the head of the family went far into the wilderness and built on Harrison and Sixth streets, on a little dry
knoll in the middle of a swamp, a residence where he lived for a number of years and which became, in 1856, the famous Russ Gardens. A narrow causeway was built from Folsom street to the gardens, and woe to the unlucky rider who deviated from the narrow road; both horse and rider were likely to be engulfed.
Of the hotels of San Francisco, the City hotel on Clay and Kearny streets has been already described; the Parker house, built by Robert A. Parker and John H. Brown on Kearny street, facing the plaza, was de- stroyed by fire three times and as many times rebuilt. It was then incorporated with other property, in the Jenny Lind Theatre building. This was, in turn, destroyed by fire twice, and finally replaced by a handsome stone structure, which, proving unsuccessful as a theatre, was sold to the city for a city hall at the price of two hundred thousand dol- lars-a deal that was put through by the jobbers of 1852. This building, known to San Franciscans of the present day as the "Old City Hall," to which was added the four story "El Dorado" on the north as a hall of record, stood until taken down in 1895
585
HOTELS OF THE CITY
to make way for the Hall of Justice, destroyed by the fire of 1906, and now in process of reconstruction.
The St. Francis hotel, a four story building, stood on the southwest corner of Clay and Dupont streets, on the lot whereon Jacob P. Leese erected the first house in Yerba Buena. The sleeping apartments in the St. Francis were the best in California, and the charge for room and board-one hundred and fifty dollars a month-was unusually cheap. No gambling was permitted. On the south side of Clay street, above the City hotel, and facing the plaza, was the Ward house, a good hotel, kept by Colonel J. J. Bryant, whose contest for the shrievalty against Colonel Jack Hays, the Texas ranger, in April 1850, was long remembered. Bryant entertained liberally at the Ward house; wine flowed and drinks were free; but when the famous Texas ranger rode into the plaza on his curveting, prancing black steed, his dash and horsemanship carried the day, and the hotel man was defeated. The Graham house, a four story wooden edifice lined on two sides by continuous balconies, was imported bodily from Baltimore and set up on the northwest corner of Kearny and Pacific streets. It was bought by the council, April 1, 1850, for a city hall, for the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The building succumbed to the fire of June 1851. These were the principal hotels up to the time the Jones, or Tehama house of Captain Folsom, and the Union of Selover and company, were built. The latter was of brick, four and a half
586
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
stories high, and cost, with furniture, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was on the east side of Kearny street between Clay and Washington streets, with a frontage of twenty-nine feet, and was burned in 1851. The Oriental hotel, spoken of by Richard H. Dana, in his "Twenty-four Years After, " was begun in 1850. It stood on the corner of Bush and Battery, and was an elegantly appointed house. A large number of cheaper hotels and innumerable lodging houses and restaurants provided accommo- dation to those who could pay for it, while out-of- door stands sold hot coffee, pies, and hard-boiled eggs on the streets. On the southwest corner of Bush and Sansome streets was a large, high sand-hill, on the top of which, in a hollow, hidden from sight of passers on the beach, was a colony of thieves, bur- glars, escaped convicts, and desperadoes of every nationality. In this retreat they had their tents and shanties, whence they issued forth by night in search of prey .* The Rassette house was afterwards built on the site of this sand-hill and still later it was occupied by the Cosmopolitan hotel. It is now a business block.
The first newspaper published in California ap- peared in Monterey, August 15, 1846, edited by Walter Colton and Robert Semple and called The Californian. A portion of its contents was printed in Spanish. The printing apparatus was an old press and type belonging to the Mexican government at
* Barry and Patten: Men and Memories of San Francisco.
587
FOUNDING OF THE ALTA CALIFORNIA
Monterey, which had not been in use for several years, so that the type had to be scoured, and rules and leads made from tin plate. The paper was the Spanish foolscap used for official correspondence. It appeared every Saturday until May 1847, when it was transferred to San Francisco and was later merged in the California Star.
Sam Brannan, Mormon chief and elder, a printer by trade, had published for several years in New York a church organ called The Prophet.39 He brought with him on the Brooklyn the press and out- fit of this paper, and on January 9, 1847, published in San Francisco the first number of the weekly California Star with Elbert P. Jones as temporary editor, succeeded later by Edward C. Kemble. It was a sheet of eight and a half by twelve inches of print. The paper was temporarily suspended during the gold excitement in the summer of 1848, but from November the publication was regular. It had been slightly enlarged in January 1848, and when publication was resumed in November of that year, Kemble bought out The Californian and con- solidated it with his own paper under the name of the California Star and Californian. In January 1849, the name was changed to the Alta California, with Edward Gilbert as editor, and Kemble, pro- prietor. The Alta California became a great daily and was published continuously until June 2, 1891, when it was suspended. Kemble came with Brannan on the Brooklyn, though he was not a Mormon.
588
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
He took an active part in the politics of the town and was connected with the paper until he went east in 1855.
Soon after the American occupation educational matters began to engage the attention of the people. The California Star of January 16, 1847, urged the importance of establishing a school for the children of the rapidly growing town and offered to contrib- ute a lot and fifty dollars in money towards the erection of a school house. In April 1847, J. D. Marston opened a private school in a shanty on the west side of Dupont street between Broadway and Pacific. This was the first school in San Francisco and was attended by some twenty or thirty children. It lasted but a few months. At a meeting of the council, September 24th, W. A. Leidesdorff, William Glover, and W. S. Clark were appointed a committee to attend to the building of a school house. The building was erected on the western side of the plaza, and on April 3, 1848, the school was opened under Thomas Douglas, a graduate of Yale college, with Dr. Victor J. Fourgeaud, C. L. Ross, Dr. John Townsend, John Sirrine, and William Heath Davis as trustees. The school prospered until the gold excitement carried teacher and trustees to the mines. From the date of its completion in December 1847, the school house served the purpose of town hall, court house, people's court for trial of culprits by the first vigilance committee, school, church, and finally, jail. Owing to the range and variety of its
589
THE FIRST SCHOOL
uses, the building was dignified by the name of Public Institute. In April 1849, school was resumed under the management of the Rev. Albert Williams, a Presbyterian clergyman who arrived on the Oregon April Ist, and who, on May 20th, organized the First Presbyterian church with six members, and held services in a tent on the west side of Dupont street between Pacific street and Broadway .*
From the second Sunday after their arrival at San Francisco, the Mormons held religious services in Captain Richardson's casa grande on Dupont street, where Sam Brannan exhorted the saints to remain faithful in this land of gentiles, but some twenty of them "went astray after strange gods," as did their eminent leader a few years later. On the 8th of May 1847, a public meeting was held under the auspices of the Rev. Thaddeus M. Leavenworth (Episcopalian) who had come as chaplain of the Stevenson regiment, and a committee was appointed to gather subscriptions for the building or lease of a house of public worship. The committee never reported. On May 16th, 1847, Rev. James H. Wilbur of the Oregon Methodist mission, passenger on the ship Whiton, stopped on his way to Oregon and organized a Sunday school which was to meet every Sunday forenoon at the alcalde's office. J. H. Merrill was appointed superintendent. This Sunday school met the fate of the secular school-closed by a stampede to the mines. On Sunday July 25, 1847,
* Taylor: California Life Illustrated, p. 66.
590
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Chaplain Chester Newell, of the United States frigate Independence, preached in the new building on the northwest corner of Washington and Mont- gomery streets, the store built for Gelston & Com- pany, and occupied later by C. L. Ross. This is the first record of divine service, but it is likely that other services were held by chaplains of ships in the harbor. The first sermon preached after the mines were opened, of which we have any notice, was on September 3, 1848, in the public institute, by the Rev. Elihu Anthony, a native of New York, of the overland immigration of 1847, a Methodist preacher. For several weeks following Mr. Anthony's advent, Captain L. H. Thomas, of the English brig Laura Ann, read the English service at the public institute, and Mrs. C. V. Gillespie revived the Sunday school. In this building a meeting of citi- zens was held November 1, 1848, to organize a Christian society. Edward H. Harrison presided; C. E. Wetmore, C. L. Ross, C. V. Gillespie, Joseph Bowden, and Edward H. Harrison were chosen trustees, and the Rev. Timothy Dwight Hunt, a native of Rochester, N. Y., who had lately arrived from Honolulu, was appointed chaplain for one year at a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars. This was the only organized institution for Protestant worship in the city until the spring of 1849, when the first coming ships brought, with the seekers of the Golden Fleece, several missionary preachers. In
591
THE FIRST CHURCHES
August 1849, the following Protestant organizations were holding services in the city :
I. The Chaplaincy, Rev. T. D. Hunt, Public Institute.
2. First Presbyterian, Rev. Albert Williams, in a large tent on Dupont street, near Pacific.
3. First Baptist, Rev. O. C. Wheeler, church on Washington street, near Stockton.
4. Protestant Episcopal, Rev. Flavil S. Mines, in house of J. H. Merrill.
On the 8th of October, a Methodist Episcopal church, shipped from Oregon and set up on a Powell street lot, was dedicated by the missionary minister, Rev. William Taylor, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Hunt, Rev. Albert Williams, and Rev. O. C. Wheeler.
The burial ground in 1846-47 was the fifty vara lot on the southeast corner of Vallejo and Sansome streets. There were no burials there after 1847, the place of burial being established in the North Beach region near Washington square; and in Feb- ruary 1850, the Yerba Buena cemetery-the present city hall lot-was opened for burials, and to it the bodies were removed from North Beach.
On the Ist of April 1848, the California Star express carried a mail from San Francisco to Inde- pendence, Missouri, in sixty days. Fifty cents postage was charged on letters. A special edition of the newspaper was prepared for eastern distri- bution and sent by this express. It consisted of
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
six pages, and contained an article by Dr. Victor J. Fourgeaud on The Prospects of California. This was a most able presentation of facts concerning the climate, soil, resources, minerals, lumbering, and fishing facilities of California, and the writer pre- dicted that with its agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing prospects, California would become one of the happiest portions of the globe. Doctor Fourgeaud's article attracted much attention, and he continued to publish, from time to time, articles on California and did much to correct false impres- sions gained from the writings of careless observers and disappointed, prejudiced adventurers .*
The great and sudden immigration following the discovery of gold completely changed the aspect of the town. The necessity for shelter for the forty odd thousand of people who landed in 1849 was such that everything that would, in a measure, afford protection from the winds and rains was utilized. The range was from a dry goods box to a tent, or a hastily constructed shanty lined with bunks.
* Many writers of 1849 denounced the country as unfit for agriculture and said that it must forever depend upon the eastern states, Oregon, Chili, Australia, and the Hawaiian islands for its breadstuffs. As for the climate it was highly unhealthy.
Doctor Victor Jean Fourgeaud was born in Charleston, South Carolina, April 8, 1817, and died in San Francisco, January 2, 1875. He was a graduate of the University of France and of the Charleston Medical college. He came overland to California accompanied by his wife and son, and arrived in San Francisco October 20, 1847. While practicing medicine in San Francisco and the bay counties Doctor Fourgeaud studied the agricultural possibilities and the commercial prospects of California. He was actively interested in the affairs of the city, and he made the first assay of the gold found by Marshall at Sutter's mill.
593
HAPPY VALLEY
The space from California street to the line of Market street was a region of high sand-hills covered with a scattering growth of brush and scrub oak; but following the curving shore of the cove to the south, one came to a little valley protected on the west by the sand-hills of Market street. Here, sheltered from the harsh winds, tents had been set up and the place named Happy valley. This was between First, Second, Market, and Mission streets. It was supplied with a good spring of water and contained, in the winter of 1849-50, about one thousand tents. To the south as far as Howard street, was Pleasant valley. The beach afforded good walking into town and served for a pleasant stroll on Sunday afternoons. Around the plaza were grouped houses of the better sort, the tents dotting the hills in the rear and spreading around the base of Telegraph hill to the north. This region, abounding in public houses of the lowest order, frequented by convicts and ticket-of-leave men from Australia, bore the significant title of Sidney Town. West of this section, and reaching from Kearny to Stockton streets, between Broadway and Green street, was Little Chili, where the Chilenos and Peruanos were gathered. Westerly between Powell and Mason streets, Washington street and Broadway, was Spring valley, while Saint Ann's valley, not yet occupied, was between Geary, Eddy, Jones, and Stockton streets.
594
THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Water for domestic use was obtained from wells, and for drinking, an extra good quality was brought from Sausalito in tanks and sold by the gallon from carts in the street.
There was but little attempt at permanent con- struction in San Francisco in 1849. Few of the people contemplated a permanent residence, and for the short time they intended to remain in California, were satisfied with almost any kind of shelter. Houses were built of the flimsiest construction, and most of them, when finished at all inside, were lined with cotton cloth in lieu of plaster. They had soon good reason to repent of hasty and careless building. Early on December 24, 1849, a fire broke out in Dennison's exchange, a rickety gambling house on Kearny street opposite the plaza, and in a few min- utes the flames spread through the block. Some fifty houses were burned and the loss was about one million dollars. The adjoining blocks were saved by pulling down buildings and by covering houses with blankets saturated with water. Among the fire fighters was David Colbert Broderick, a New York fireman, of whom California was to hear more. The buildings were quickly replaced and by the end of January 1850, no vestige of the fire remained. This was the first of the great fires from which San Francisco was to suffer, and the only one that comes within the scope of this work. With- in a year and a half, San Francisco was devastated six times by fire, and twenty-four million dollars
595
ORGANIZATION OF FIRE DEPARTMENT
worth of property was destroyed. Each time the destroyed portion of the city was rebuilt with better buildings, until the business section presented a substantial appearance. The walls of many build- ings that remained standing after the great earth- quake and fire of 1906 attest the fidelity of the con- struction of 1851. The havoc made by the first great fire of December 1849, aroused the people to the necessity for protection, but the fire department was not formally organized until June 1850, when the Empire Engine Company, No. I was formed, with David C. Broderick as foreman. The Empire was immediately followed by Protection No. 2, and Eureka No. 3. The Eureka was changed to the Howard, in honor of W. D. M. Howard, who pre- sented the company with an engine. Five other companies were organized before the close of the year, together with hook and ladder and hose companies.
Owing to the cost of lumber and of labor, many houses were made in Boston and elsewhere and shipped to San Francisco in sections. Bayard Tay- lor speaks of seventy-five houses imported from Can- ton and put up by Chinese carpenters. In Happy valley, W. D. M. Howard put up a number of cot- tages that he had made in Boston, in one of which he lived.
Though houses sprang up by hundreds over night, they could not begin to hold the thousands who came in 1849. The miner returning in the winter could scarcely recognize his surroundings. He left a town
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
of tents and shanties containing five or six thousand inhabitants. He found a city of houses extending along the shore from Clark's Point to the Rincon, reaching out a long arm through the "puertezuela" towards the Golden Gate, and stretching to the top- most heights back of the town; while lofty hotels with verandas and balconies furnished luxurious quarters, and presented bills of fare set out with the choicest of dainties. True, the streets left some- thing to be desired-particularly after the rains came-and the city was infested with the plague of rats. These pests swarmed everywhere-into bed- chambers, ovens, kneeding troughs, and one could hardly walk the street at night without being brought into contact with them .* They could be seen swim- ming in the bay, visiting ship after ship. There were black rats, brown rats, gray rats, of monstrous size, fierce, voracious, and destructive.
The rainy season of 1849-50 was long and severe. The early coming of the rains brought distress to the belated immigrants in the sierra, and to the people of San Francisco exceeding discomfort. With the shedding torrents from the clouds the streets, uneven and irregular, became, by the continual passage of men and of horses and drays, so cut up as to be almost or quite impassable. So deep was the mud that horse and wagon were sometimes literally swallowed up in it, while the owner narrowly
* A well house bore the sign "Shut the door and keep out the rats-the nasty things."
SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849 Montgomery street looking north from California street.
PR ENT BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
of leals and handles containing five of six thousand Itabirawr. He found a city of honses extending alone the shore fmm Clark's Point to the Rincon, re lim out a long arm through the "puertezuela" Wwarde the Golden Gate, and stretching to the top- mot heights back of the town; while lofty hotels with verandas and balcomes furnished luxurious quarter- and presented bills of fare set out with the chaicest of dainties. True, the streets left some- tung to be desired-particularly after the rains osme -- and the city was infested with the plague of Then posts swarmed every where -- into bed- chambers ovens, kureding troughs, and one could hardly walk the str eras night without being brought into contact wieksi VT 00215%AT NAand be seen swim- mine 991/2 simotils) mort d'unon gnidool ponte mismogroM There were blecke rule, brown ralar grap rals, of monstrous atle, fierce, voracious, and destructive.
The rainy season of 1849-re wal long and severe. The early coming of the major brought distress to The belated immigrants in the werra, and to the peopleof San Francisco exceeding discomfort. With the shelling Torrents from the clouds the streets, bocyour ud irregular, became, by the continual pallage of men and of horses and drava, so cut up al To big show or quite impassible. So deep was the mud that hơn and wagon were sometimes literally swallowed op in it, while the owner narrowly
* A. wol leums bine the nga "blut the docr and Verp out the ra s --- the
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597
IMPASSABLE STREETS
escaped a similar fate. Upham says: "It was no uncommon occurrence to see at the same time a mule stalled in the mud of the street with only his head above the mud, and an unfortunate pedestrian, who had slipped off the plank side walk, being fished out by a companion." ** It is said that even human bodies have been found engulfed in the mire of Montgomery street. The authorities caused a num- ber of loads of brush wood and limbs of trees to be thrown into the streets. General Sherman says: "I have seen mules stumble in the streets and drown in the liquid mud. Montgomery street had been filled up with brush and clay, and I always dreaded to ride on horseback along it because the mud was so deep that a horse's legs would become entangled in the brush below and the rider was likely to be thrown and drowned in the mud."} Nobody troubled to remove rubbish, but inmates of tents and houses would put a few planks or boxes of tobacco or other goods along the worst parts of the roads to enable them to reach their own dwellings. The inflow of shipments was such that many cargoes contained goods in excess of the demand, and entire
* Upham (S. C.): Notes of a Voyage to California, p. 268.
Caleb T. Fay in his Statement of Historical Facts, p. 3, says "I have seen a mule in the rainy season go out of sight in the mud, at the corner of Mont- gomery and Clay streets, with the exception of his head."
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