SF Bay Area to 1919
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Alameda http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/historybl.html
Belmont http://www.belmont.gov/hist/index.html
Brisbane http://www.ci.brisbane.ca.us/spirit/Default.htm
Daly City: http://www.ci.daly-city.ca.us
Oakland history pictures: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5b69q5bc
Pacifica http://www.ci.pacifica.ca.us/HISTORY/history.html
Palo Alto http://www.commerce.digital.com/palo-alto/historical-assoc/home.html
Redwood City:
http://www.ci.redwood-city.ca.us/about/local_history/exhibits/redwood_city/photo_index.html
San Bruno http://www.ci.sanbruno.ca.us/History/sbhistory.html
South SF http://www.ci.ssf.ca.us/
The SF Bay and adjoining Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta cover 1,600 square miles and drain about 40% of California.
(SFC, 5/24/04, p.A4)
c560000BC
Tectonic uplifting caused the inland Corcoran Lake to rise and cut an
exit to drain into the Bay Area. This carved Carquinez Strait and
plugged the Salinas Valley outlet to Monterey Bay.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A8)
c100000BC In 1943 construction workers in Millbrae
uncovered elephant bones that dated to about this time.
(Ind, 9/21/02, 5A)
c100000BC In 2005 bones of a Columbian mammoth were
discovered in San Jose, Ca.
(SFC, 7/14/05, p.B1)
c33000BC About this time, or more recently, a
catastrophic earthquake carved out the Golden Gate and the waters of
the Pacific rushed into the exposed plain to form the SF Bay. [see
8000BC]
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
25000BC San Francisco and the Bay Area were home to
mammoths indicating cold temperatures of an Ice Age. In 1934 a 10-pound
mammoth tooth from this time was found by engineers working on the new
Bay Bridge.
(SSFC, 1/15/09, DB p.43)
c15000BC The SF west coast extended out 6 miles past
the Farallon Islands.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A8)
c8000BC Rising ocean waters flowed into the Golden
Gate and formed the nascent SF Bay.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A8)
500 The northern California
Emeryville Shellmound, CA-Ala 309, dates to about this
time.
(Buckeye, Winter 04/05)
1000-1400 Indians inhabited an area at the junction
of 2 creeks between Walnut Creek and Lafayette, Ca. A burial site was
found there in 1904. In 2004 some 80 sets of human remains was found
during the construction of the Hidden Oaks housing development.
(SFC, 6/22/04, p.A1)
1579 Jun 17, Sir Francis Drake
sailed into San Francisco Bay and proclaimed English sovereignty over
New Albion (California). Some claim that Sir Francis Drake sailed into
the SF Bay. Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England. It
may have been Drake’s Bay or Bolinas Lagoon. In 1999 there were 17
proposed locations for his landing with the latest set in Oregon and
described by Bob Ward in the book "Lost Harbor Found." A brass plate,
allegedly left by Drake, was found in 1993, but determined to be a fake
in 1977.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(HN,
6/17/98)(SFEC, 8/22/98, p.T6) (SFC, 10/29/99, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A1)
1579 Jul 26, Francis Drake left SF
to cross Pacific Ocean.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1769 Nov 1-3, Sgt. Jose Francisco
Ortega with his scouting party first looked upon SF Bay from the
vicinity of Point Lobos.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1769 Nov 4, Portola received
reports of a large bay ahead and went to see for himself. He crossed
Sweeney Ridge in San Mateo County and saw the SF bay. Francisco de
Ulloa was a navigator and member of the party. California landmark #27
at San Andreas Lake marks his campsite.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1769 El Camino Real began as a
footpath when Franciscan missionaries began to establish missions from
San Diego to Sonoma. Gaspar de Portola reportedly camped under El Palo
Alto during his expedition that discovered the SF Bay.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A15)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.T7)
1772 After Father Serra
established a mission in Monterey, Pedro Fages and Father Juan Crespi
set out to explore the SF Bay by land.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1774 Juan Bautista de Anza was the
first non-native to cross the Sierra to scout the Bay Area.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1775 Aug 5, Lt. Juan Manuel de
Ayala was the first European explorer to sail through the Golden Gate
of California. He anchored at Angel Island and waited for the overland
expedition of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza. Isla de los Angeles, or
Angel Island, was one of the first landforms named by the Spanish when
they entered SF Bay. The Spanish fregata, Punta de San Carlos, was the
first sailing vessel to enter the SF Bay while on a voyage of
exploration. Ayala named Alcatraz Island after a large flock of
pelicans, called alcatraces in Spanish.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(CAS, 1996,
p.19)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)(SFC, 12/26/01, p.A28)
1775 Capt. Juan Manuel de Ayala
named the bay’s northernmost island Isla Plana. Gen. Vallejo later
renamed it to Mare Island.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C1)
1775 268 people from the
expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza settled in various parts of the Bay
Area.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A13)
1776 Mar, Captain Juan Bautista de
Anza, Lt. Jose Moraga, and Franciscan priest Pedro Font arrived at the
tip of San Francisco. De Anza planted a cross at what is now Fort
Point. They searched inland for a more hospitable area and found a site
they called Laguna de los Dolores or the Friday of Sorrows since the
day was Friday before Palm Sunday. Anza became known as the “father of
SF.” Mission Dolores was founded by Father Francisco Palou and Father
Pedro Cambon. Rancho San Pedro, near what is now Pacifica, served as
the agricultural center.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 9/21/97,
p.C7)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1777 Nov 30, San Jose, California,
was founded by the Spanish as El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadeloupe,
California's first town.
(SFEC, 7/11/99, BR p.1)(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A12)(SFC,
11/30/07, p.B4)
1792 Englishman George Vancouver
sailed into the Bay on his ship Discovery. He explored the Santa Clara
Valley.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1794 Gov. Diego Borica took
command of Alta California and remarked on the general fecundity of the
Bay Area.
(Bay, 4/07, p.25)
1797 In San Jose the first Juzgado
(courthouse) was constructed. The Spanish Commandante Lt. Jose Moraga
built a 1-story, 3-room adobe structure to house the jail, assembly
hall and seat of government for the Pueble de San Jose de Guadalupe
that served until 1850.
(SFC, 7/14/97, p.A15,16)
1808 An earthquake was recorded.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1810 An earthquake was recorded.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1810-1813 Boston-based whalers slaughtered an
estimated 150,000 fur seals on the Farallon Islands, 28 miles west of
San Francisco. Russian hunters followed and occupied the islands for
the next 25 years during which they wiped out the remaining fur seals.
Fur seals began to return around 1977, but their first pup wasn’t born
until 1996.
(Bay, 4/07, p.33)
1820 The Mexican government
granted Luis Peralta Rancho San Antonio, which fan from San Leandro
Creek to a rise known as El Cerrito.
(SFC, 5/3/02, p.A20)
1826 John Thomas Reed (21), an
Irishman, arrived in Marin county. [see 1834]
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A4)
1830s Ignacio Pacheco retired as a
customs officer in San Francisco's Presidio and received a land grant
in Sonoma County. He thought it unsuitable for agriculture and traded
it for a 7,776 acre plot in Marin County. Much of it later became
Hamilton air Force Base.
(SFC, 1/15/04, p.D4)
1831 James Alexander Forbes,
Scotsman, arrived in the Bay Area on the whaler Fanny. He became the
British vice-consul while California was under Mexican rule. [see 1850]
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.C5)
1834 John Thomas Reed (d.1843)
obtained a Mexican land grant for Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio and
shortly thereafter built a landmark mill that gave Mill Valley,
California, its name. The land grant spanned 9,000 acres from Tiburon
to San Rafael.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A4)(SSFC, 7/17/05, p.A25)
1834 Mexico granted Don Salvio
Pacheco 18,000 acres in northern California known as Monte del Diablo,
which included what would later became Concord and Walnut Creek. The
family later donated land to the government for roads and public
buildings. The area was originally inhabited by the Bolbones Indians.
(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A22)(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A13)(SFC,
7/17/06, p.B5)
1834 El Marinero, chief of the
Lecatuit tribe, died. He reputedly hid out and plotted raids from the
East and West Islands off San Rafael, which soon took on his name as
the Marin Islands.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.B7)
1837 John Marsh (1799-1856),
Harvard graduate and Minnesota Indian agent, bought Rancho de Los
Meganos east of Mount Diablo and became the 1st American in the San
Joaquin Valley. He purchased the Rancho Los Meganos from Jose Noriega
for $300 in cowhides. The land stood where the hills of Contra Costa
met the San Joaquin Valley. He built a stone Gothic mansion in 1856. In
2002 plans were made to restore the Marsh House.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.E4)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.B3)
1838 A major earthquake opened a
huge fissure from SF to Santa Clara.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1840 Mexican Gov. Juan Bautista
Alvarado granted 12,500-acres in the mid-Peninsula to Irishman John
Coppinger, who carved up the property. 942-acres of the area later
became San Mateo’s Wunderlich Park.
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1841 Capt. William A. Richardson
moved to Sausalito from SF after the Mexican government gave him a
19,571-acre land grant from the Marin headlands to Stinson Beach. There
he established Rancho del Sausalito.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1842-1846 The Sanchez Adobe was constructed in
Pacifica by Francisco Sanchez, owner of the Rancho San Pedro. He led
volunteer forces against the US in the Battle of Santa Clara.
(SMMB)
1843 John Thomas Reed (38),
founder of Mill Valley, died.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A4)
1844 By this time Charles Brown, a
pioneer lumberman, acquired a 2,880-acre portion of the Coppinger land
grant in San Mateo Ct. Brown called his holding Mountain Home Ranch.
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1844 Juana Briones purchased a
4,400 acre rancho that later covered parts of Los Altos, Los Altos
Hills and Palo Alto. She acquired her funds renting rooms and selling
food in SF.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)
1846 Robert Semple, a
Kentucky-born printer, dentist, lawyer, physician and riverboat pilot,
helped lead the Bear Flag Revolt. He helped take Gen’l. Vallejo
prisoner and with financier Thomas O. Larkin paid Vallejo $100 to
become co-owner of 5 sq. miles around Benicia. Larkin was the American
ambassador to California
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W36)
1847 Aug 2, William A. Leidesdorff
launched the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1847 Aug, Construction of the
first 20 homes in Benicia began. The new city was named "Francisco"
after Vallejo’s wife, but residents of Yerba Buena changed the name to
San Francisco and Robert Semple renamed his town to "Benicia" after
Mrs. Vallejo’s middle name.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1847 In Palo Alto (tall tree) a
tamped-earth adobe home was built on the 4,400 acre Rancho Purisima
Concepcion of the Briones family.
(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A18)
1848 Don Luis Peralta owned the
Rancho San Antonio. This included nearly all the land on the eastern
shore of the SF Bay. He lost his land to the 49ers and the rancho
became Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Hayward and a dozen other towns.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, Z1 p.4)
1848 Pacific Mail Steamship Co.
was incorporated. It carried people, goods and mail from San Francisco
to Asia and South America. It was taken over by the US government in
1932 so as to continue doing government work. The government renamed it
American President Lines and held it until 1952.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p.R46)(SFC, 4/8/03, p.B5)
1849 Sep 19, The 1st commercial
laundry was established, in Oakland, California.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1849 Nov 13, Voters approved a
state constitution. The original California Constitution was drafted
and signed on 19 hand-written pages of an animal-skin document. At the
constitutional convention 48 delegates met in San Jose. This was
criticized by the state’s first daily newspaper, the Alta California,
as a location among the coyotes. The "Legislature of a thousand drinks"
established a code of laws and a judicial system, elected 2 senators
and voted to relocate to Vallejo.
(WSJ, 6/11/97, p.CA1)(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)(SFEC,
3/1/98, p.W26)
1849 Alviso was founded as a
steamboat connection for San Jose and SF.
(SFC, 8/23/02, p.E8)
1849 William Slusher, a farmer
from the East Coast, built a cabin on Nuts Creek (later Walnut Creek,
Ca.) and became the first American settler in the area.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1849 The Benicia Arsenal was
founded.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A13)
1849 The SF Bay covered 787 sq.
miles.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A29)
1850 Nov 6, The San Francisco Bay
Yerba Buena and Angel islands were reserved for military use.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1850 US President Millard Fillmore
issued an executive order that designated the southern point of the
Marin Headlands a military reservation later called Lime Point Military
Reservation. Fillmore also reserved Alcatraz Island for military use.
(The Park, Summer 1995)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.B4)(OAH,
2/05, p.A1)
1850 John Coffee Hays, a Texas
Ranger turned Californian, acquired a piece of the Coppinger land grant
and called it Hays Ranch. He later became the 1st sheriff of SF and
after that served as the federal surveyor-general for the state.
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1850 James Alexander Forbes,
Scotsman, built a stone flour mill on Los Gatos Creek. The area became
known as Forbestown until it was renamed Los Gatos after the local
mountain lions.
(SSFC, 12/9/01, p.C5)
1850 Gen'l. Mariano G. Vallejo
donated land and cash for a state capital in Vallejo.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A16)(SFCM, 12/19/04, p.4)
1850 Ferry commuting began on the
SF Bay. Robert Semple operated a ferry service to Benicia which had
grown to some 1,000 citizens. Semple advertised in the SF newspaper,
the Californian, which he published.
(SFEC, 4/21/97, p.A11)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1850s John Hoby Redington
(1826-1890) founded the pharmaceutical house Redington & Co. He was
born in Maine and joined the gold rush to California in 1849. His
business was the only wholesale drug business on the Pacific Coast.
(Ind, 2/27/99, p.5A)
1850s The US Navy established its
repair facility on Mare Island.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1850s The US Army used over 25
tons of gun powder to shave off the cliff face near Lime Point in
preparation for a multi-tiered fort, where the north tower of the GG
Bridge now stands.
(G, Winter, p.1)
1850s Stephen B. Whipple, breeder
and gambler, acquired a 470 acre estate in San Mateo. It was sold in
the 1880s to Walter S. Hobart, Comstock silver millionaire.
(Ind, 8/24/02, 5A)
1851 Suisun City was founded at
the head of Suisun Slough.
(SFC, 9/3/99, p.A4)
1851 The Belgian Sisters of Notre
Dame de Namur founded their peninsula school. In 2001 the name was
changed to Notre Dame de Namur University. The school was moved in 1923
to the 80-room Gardner Sanitarium (Ralston Mansion) in Belmont.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.A11,15)(Ind, 4/28/01, 5A)
1851 G.M. Burnham began building
Redwood City’s first vessel. Most of the early ships were lumber
schooners.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1851 A saloon was built in Bolinas
by Isaac Morgan, a ship commander who had arrived in Bolinas in 1849.
Smiley’s Schooner Saloon celebrated it’s 150th anniversary in 2001. It
was one of 14 California operating bars that that dated to the 1800s.
(SFC, 12/15/01, p.A23)
1851-1962 The Benicia Arsenal was active. It was the
1st ordnance supply depot in the West.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A14)
1852 Mar, Judge J. Caleb Smith,
former governor of Virginia, issued David C. Broderick a challenge to a
duel in Oakland. Smith’s 2nd shot hit Broderick in the stomach and
struck a double-cased gold watch. Fragments of the bullet drew blood
and the duel with honor preserved.
(PI, 6/13/98, p.5A)
1852 Sep, Construction of a new
City Hall in Benicia began. The city fathers had floated a $25,000 bond
to build the structure on land donated by Thomas O. Larkin. The mayor
of Benicia offered the state Legislature free use of the new City Hall
if they would make Benicia the state capital.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1852 A lighthouse was built on
Alcatraz island in the San Francisco Bay.
(SFC, 2/22/07, p.A13)
1852 Oakland was founded. In 2002
it celebrated its 100th birthday with a parade that stretched for 15
blocks.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.G8)
1852 Dennis Martin, lumber
pioneer, constructed St. Denis, the Peninsula's 1st Catholic church. It
was abandoned in 1872.
(Ind, 3/9/02, 5A)
1852 The state legislature
convened in Vallejo.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1852 William Shaw opened the 1st
general store in Redwood City.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1852 Almaden Vineyards was begun
by Etienne Thee, an émigré from France, who settled near
Los Gatos, Ca.
(SFC, 1/24/08, p.C3)
1852-1884 Hydraulic gold-mining in the Sierra
released large amounts of mercury-enriched sediments into the Bay.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A19)
1853 Feb, John Bigler, the 3rd
governor of the state, signed a bill proclaiming Benicia the permanent
state capital of California. The Legislature passed 180 of 460 bills
during its 13 months in Benicia.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1853 Lafayette Square Park opened
in Oakland. I late became known as "Old Man's Park" and was restored in
1999.
(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A18)
1853 The California state prison
at San Quentin was completed. It was built to house 50 inmates. An
associated housing development on the prison grounds was included.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)(SSFCM, 8/19/01, p.11)(SFCM,
4/4/04, p.8)
1853 John Parrott (42), SF
businessman, married Abigail Eastman Meagher (18) in Mobile, Ala. He
brought her back to SF and they set up house in a new brownstone on
Folsom St. in the Rincon Hill. In 1859 they acquired property in San
Mateo.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1853 The US government fortified
the 22-acre island of Alcatraz to protect SF from attack.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
c1853 Senator William Gwin, a
leader of pro-slavery interests in California, proposed to divide
California to create a pro-slavery southern half. He was opposed by
David C. Broderick.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1853 William Waldo, a Whig
candidate for governor of Ca., lost the election and moved to Oregon.
He was a major property owner in southern Marin Ct. and his name stuck
to the steep hill and later the tunnel just north of the GG Bridge.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A11)
1853 Redwood City’s 1st hotel, The
American, opened.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1853 Timothy Guy Phelps
(1824-1899) of New York began buying land along the Peninsula and
ultimately acquired 3,500 acres south of Belmont.
(Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1854 Jan 4, Gov. Bigler, supported
by David C. Broderick, addressed the 5th Legislature and called to move
the capital to Sacramento.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1854 Jun 1, A lighthouse, the
first on the West Coast, was completed on Alcatraz. The original was
removed to make way for the Alcatraz Prison. A new lighthouse was built
in 1909.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)(SFC, 6/2/04, B1)
1854 Dr. R.O. Tripp (d.1909) and
M.A. Parkhurst built the Woodside Store. It served as a country store,
post office and community center until dr. Tripp died. It was later
restored to its 1880s appearance.
(SMMB)
1854 Sarah Moore Clarke was the
first California woman to start a newspaper. She began the Contra Costa
weekly in Oakland and printed on the SF Evening Journal’s presses.
Clarke and her husband bought the SF paper.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1854 Colonel Agoston Haraszthy, a
Hungarian Count, acquired several hundred acres of the old Rancho Feliz
in California's San Andreas Valley. He planted 30 acres of zinfandel
and muscat grapes along with 20,000 fruit trees. He later moved to
Sonoma.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1854 Andrew and Daniel Inman
bought 400 acres and naming rights to the area that became known as
Danville.
(SFCM, 8/5/01, p.46)
1854 Dennis J. Oliver and Daniel
C. McGlynn, from Menlough County Galway, Ireland, built farms on a
former Mexican land grant and marked their property "Menlo Park."
(Ind, 3/9/02, 5A)
1854 The US Navy bought Mare
Island near Vallejo for $83,491. Commander David Glasgow Farragut
arrived to transform the island into a productive shipyard. He later
became the Navy’s first admiral.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A15)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C5)
1854-1857 David Kerr charted more than 100 sq. miles
of the San Francisco Bay Area marshland for the US Coast Survey, the
first federal mapping agency.
(SFC, 10/25/96, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/2uwjs3)
1855 Timothy Guy Phelps
(1824-1899), Peninsula land holder, was elected to the State Assembly.
(Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1855 The College of California,
founded by former Congregational minister Henry Durant from New
England, was incorporated in Oakland. The founders chose to set their
new campus in Oakland to safeguard the students from the vulgarity of
San Francisco.
(www.berkeley.edu)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.6)
1855 Lord Charles Snowden Fairfax
and Lady Fairfax received a 24-acre site in Marin as a wedding present.
The land later became the site of the Marin Town and Country Club.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1856 Apr 20, Capt. William A.
Richardson died from mercury poisoning. 3 of his uninsured ships were
lost at sea in this year and he died a ruined man.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1856 Jul 7, The San Mateo County
Board of Supervisors held their 1st meeting at the general store of
John Vogan on Main Street in Redwood City.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1856 Sep 24, John Marsh, Harvard
graduate and pioneer California settler, was murdered on the road
between Pacheco and Martinez while traveling to SF. Marsh was the 1st
non-Hispanic to live in Contra Costa County. He had made a fortune
attracting settlers to Contra Costa and selling them land. His new
7,000 stone mansion in Brentwood was later made the center-piece of the
John Marsh/Cowell Ranch State Park.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.B3)
1856 Don Francisco Galindo and his
wife, Maria Dolores Manuela Pacheco, built a 2-story house on Amador
St. in Todos Santos (later renamed Concord).
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A13)
1856 Samuel P. Taylor built a
paper mill in Marin County, near Lagunitas, to produce newsprint for SF
newspapers. The area later became the Samuel P. Taylor State Park
(SSFC, 7/28/02, p.C5)
1856 William Davis Merry Howard,
SF merchant and pioneer, died and was buried on Lone Mountain. His body
was later exhumed and reburied in San Mateo. His 15-acre El Cerrito
estate passed to Agnes Poett, his widow. The estate stood on the
dividing line between San Mateo and Hillsborough. Agnes soon married
Howard's younger brother George and together built a sprawling country
home.
(Ind, 5/31/03, p.5A)(Ind, 9/1/01, 5A)
1857 Joel Clayton purchased 1,400
acres east of Mt. Diablo, laid out a town and sold plots. The town was
named Clayton and incorporated in 1964 to become the 13th city of
Contra Costa County.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A15,19)
1857 Aug 20, Ansel Easton,
co-owner of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., married Adeline Mills.
Easton (28). Ansel owned an eighth of the Buri Buri land grant that
later became the SF Int’l. Airport. Easton was killed in the 1868 when
thrown from his horse Black Hawk. His Black Hawk ranch later moved to
the foot of Mount Diablo and was developed into the Blackhawk community.
(SFCM, 10/28/01, p.18)(Ind, 12/1/01, 5A)
1857 Sep 12, A wooden-hulled
steamship, the SS Central America under Capt. William L. Herndon, sank
off the coast of Georgia. The ship carried 21 tons of gold from
California to New York. The brig Marine and the Norwegian bark Ellen
rescued some 141 people. 425 (428) of 528 (578) passengers were
drowned. The survivors included Ansel Ives Easton (d.1868) and his new
wife Adeline. The wreck was in 8,000 feet of water and in 1987-1988
salvage operations were begun by Tommy Thompson. He hauled in $500
million worth of gold bars, coins and nuggets. After a court battle he
was awarded 92% of the gold. The story is told in the 1998 book "Ship
of Gold in the Deep Blue sea" by Gary Kinder. The loss of the gold
sparked "The Panic of 1857." The SS Central America sank off Cape
Romain, SC.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W3)(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.W9)(SFEC,
6/28/98, BR p.3)(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.W16)(WSJ, 1/28/00, p.B1)(ON, 7/01,
p.2)(MC, 9/12/01)(Ind, 12/1/01, 5A)
1857 Dec 23, Sister Mary Dominica
Arguello (b.1791), formerly Concepcion Arguello, died in at the
Dominican convent in Benicia, Ca. At age 15 she had fallen in love with
Nicolai Rezanov (1764-1806), a visiting chamberlain to the czar of
Russia. [see 1806]
(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A8)
1857 The Sisters of Mercy
established the West Coast’s 1st hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, in the
SF Bay Area.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.B8)
1858 Aug 21, State Sen. William I.
Ferguson faced George Pendleton Johnston, clerk of the US Circuit
Court, in a duel at Angel Island. Johnston’s 4th shot hit Ferguson’s
thigh and shattered 6 inches of bone. Ferguson at first refused to have
his leg amputated, but consented on Sep. 14. He did not survive the
operation. Johnston was arrested but went free when the court decided
that Ferguson’s death resulted from his initial refusal to accept
amputation.
(PI, 6/13/98, p.5)
1858 Oct, Coaches of the
Butterfield Overland Stage Co. began serving the peninsula. The
Butterfield operation was already charged with carrying the US Mail
from St. Louis to SF via southern Ca.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1858 Stanford Hospital was founded.
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.A10)
1858 The 1st Redwood City
courthouse was built.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1858 The 1st San Mateo County
Courthouse was built on land donated by Simon Mezes.
(SMMB)
1858-1861 Timothy Guy Phelps (1824-1899), Peninsula
land holder, was elected to the State Senate.
(Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1859 Mar 2, Timothy Hopkins was
born in Maine and said to be the son of Patrick and Catherine Nolan.
Patrick Nolan soon moved to California where he died. Catherine Nolan
then moved to California and became employed as a domestic to Mary
Hopkins.
(Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1859 Sep 13, David C. Broderick, a
US Senator, faced David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the California
Supreme Court, in a duel at Lake Merced. Broderick was hit in the chest
and died after 60 hours. Terry fled the scene and resigned his position
the next day. He was charged with murder and was arrested Sep 23, but
was not convicted. The weapons used were a pair of Belgian .58-caliber
pistols on loan from an associate of Terry. Broderick’s weapon was set
with a hair-trigger, and misfired. The pistols sold at auction in 1998
for $34,500.
(PI, 5/30/98, p.5A)(SFC, 11/25/98, p.B8)(Ind,
5/12/01, 5A)
1859 William Godfrey established
the San Mateo Gazette, a 4-page weekly newspaper.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1859 David S. Woods (1830-1911)
painted a portrait of a horse named "Black Hawk," owned by Ansel Easton.
(SFCM, 10/28/01, p.18)
1859 The military fort on Alcatraz
Island received its 1st active duty personnel when Captain Joseph
Stewart arrived with Company H, 3rd US Artillery.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A1)
1859 John Parrott purchased 377
acres in San Mateo called Brookside, the old Frederick Macondray place.
He renamed the property Baywood.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1859 The side-wheel, steamer
Saginaw became the 1st ship completed at Mare Island.
(SFC, 9/10/04, p.F2)
1860 Apr 23, The Pony Express
rider missed the boat at Benicia, Ca. Thomas Bedford, a 34-year-old
stable keeper, was hired on the spot and boarded the ferry Carquinez
with his horse. His discovered that his horse had lost a shoe and
borrowed a horse from Martinez blacksmith Casemoro Briones and
delivered the mail to the ferry at Oakland. The mail reached SF 9 hours
and 15 minutes from the time it left Sacramento.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A19)
1860 Jul 6, The Marin trial of
David S. Terry (d.1889) for the murder of Sen. Broderick ended in an
acquittal due to lack of witnesses.
(Ind, 5/12/01, 5A)
1860 Carl Janke, a Dresden-born
immigrant, opened a beer garden in Belmont. It was set in what later
became Twin Pines Park. Business flourished until 1900 when the
Southern Pacific railroad refused to charter trains from SF due to
excessive damage caused by rowdy passengers.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1860 The Leech House was built in
The Corners, later Walnut Creek, Ca. In 2006 it stood as a restaurant
and offices at 1533 N. Main St.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1860 The 25-room Burgess Mansion,
later known as the Secret Garden Mansion, was built in The Corners,
renamed Walnut Creek in 1862.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A17)(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1860s Lewis Mead, a regent of
Univ. of California, developed the Byron Hot Springs resort with the
help of a rich uncle. The property was first owned by adventurer John
Marsh.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.B3)
1860s A Chinese fishing village
(China Camp) was established on San Pablo Bay in San Rafael.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1860s Valparaiso Park, the home of
Faxon D. Atherton, was constructed.
(Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)
1860s Mines were blasted into the
Antioch hills near Mt. Diablo to mine coal. Black Diamond was the
largest coal mining operation in California until the turn of the
century.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A21)
1860s Coyote Point, a former
island connected to the mainland by a marsh, was developed by Chinese
as a fishing village. The marsh had earlier been drained for pasture
land.
(Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)
1861 May, Groundbreaking was held
at San Francisquito Creek for the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1861 William Henry Crocker was
born. He later married Ethyl Sperry, the half-Indian daughter of Simon
Willard Sperry, a Stockton flour millionaire.
(Ind, 9/23/00,5A)
1861 The College of California was
founded in Oakland.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1861 Leland Stanford was elected
Governor of California.
(Ind, 6/2/01, 5A)
1861 Alcatraz Island became an
official US military prison.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A1)
1861 The Fairfax property in Marin
was the site of the last legal duel in California.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1861-1862 The winter of this time flooded the area
with a record 49 inches of rain.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)
1861-1863 Timothy Guy Phelps (1824-1899), Peninsula
land holder, was elected to the US Congress.
(Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1862 A dam was built in the San
Andreas Valley to harness Pilarcitos Creek and began delivering water
to San Francisco by a redwood flume.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1862 The Corners area by Mt.
Diablo, Ca., changed its name to Walnut Creek following the arrival of
a post office.
(SFCM, 8/24/03, p.7)(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1862-1884 Robert Mills acquired some 1,100 acres that
was donated to the State in 1979 as a living monument to San Mateo
County ranch life. It became the Burleigh Murray Ranch State Park, east
of Half Moon Bay.
(Ind, 1/19/99, p.14A)
1863 Sep 1, RR and ferry
connections between SF and Oakland were inaugurated.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1863 Frederick Kohl was born. He
later inherited a fortune from his father’s shipping business, the
Alaska Commercial Co.
(KHB, 2003)
1863 The rails of the SF & San
Jose Railroad were completed to San Mateo.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1863 Frederick Law Olmstead
designed the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
(SFC, 1/5/01, WBb p.8)
1863 Lester Cooley purchased the
wharf at Ravenswood, a few miles south of Redwood City, and renamed it
Cooley’s Landing. It later became part of East Palo Alto.
(Ind, 5/23/00,14A)
1864 Jan 16, A celebration was
held in San Jose for the completion of the San Francisco and San Jose
Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1864 Aug 25, A combination rail
and ferry service became available from SF to Alameda, Ca.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1864 John Hoby Redington married
Julia Poett, daughter of surgeon Joseph Henry Poett. Poett owned much
of what later became Burlingame and Hillsborough. The Redingtons
acquired some 800 acres of the Poett estate and built an elegant home
called Oak Grove.
(Ind, 2/27/99, p.5A)
1864 The rails of the SF & San
Jose Railroad were extended to San Jose.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1864 The Belmont Picnic Grounds
opened under sarsaparilla maker Carl Augustus Janke. He set it up as a
traditional German beer garden.
(Ind, 10/13/01, 5A)
1865 Frederick Law Olmstead
designed was hired to design the college grounds and adjacent
residential area of Berkeley. His campus plan was not used but the
residential plan was used for Piedmont Ave.
(SFC, 4/5/04, p.B5)
1865 John D. Daly acquired the
1,000 acre Hohenworth Ranch in Colma.
(Ind, 10/7/00,5A)
1866 May 23, The $13,500 Episcopal
Church of St. Matthew at Baldwin Ave. and County road in San Mateo was
dedicated by Bishop William Ingraham Kip.
(Ind, 9/1/01, 5A)
1866 May 24, Founders of UC
Berkeley named their town after Bishop George Berkeley due to a line
Berkeley’s poem: On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in
America: "Westward the course of empire takes its way."
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1866 The San Mateo-Half Moon Bay
Turnpike opened. Much of the route was later incorporated into Highway
92.
(Ind, 7/20/02, 5A)
c1866 Commodore James Watkins of
the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. built a Gothic Victorian home on a
19-acre plot in Atherton. It was bounded by Maple Ave, El Camino, Fair
Oaks Lane and SP right-of-way in Valparaiso Park. In 1998 it was moved
a half-mile to a new location on Alejandra.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A13,17)
1866 The train depot at Fair Oaks
(later Atherton) opened.
(SFCM, 7/25/04, p.6)
1866 The US government bought land
around northern California’s Golden Gate for harbor defense. The area
was turned into the Old Lime Point military reservation.
(SFC, 6/13/08, p.A22)
c1866 Anson Burlingame, US
ambassador to China, purchased 1,100 acres between San Mateo and
Millbrae from Dr. Joseph H. Poett.
(Ind, 8/18/01, 5A)
1867 The Menlo Park train station
was completed. It was made over in 1890 with opening of Stanford Univ.
(SSFM, 4/29/01, p.47)
1868 Mar 23, Gov. Henry Haight
signed an act that created the Univ. of California and wed the
insolvent College of California to the state with the promised backing
of 150,000 acres of federal land. The line "Westward the course of
empire takes its way" from a 1752 poem by Irish Bishop Berkeley had
earlier inspired the founders of Berkeley, Ca., to name their city and
university after Berkeley.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
1868 Oct 21, An major earthquake,
later estimated at magnitude 7, took place on the Hayward Fault in
northern California. It destroyed the top of the San Mateo County
Courthouse. At this time only 265,000 people lived in the Bay Area.
(SMMB)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A15)
1868 Enoch Pardee (1826-1896), an
eye doctor from San Francisco, built an Italianate mansion on 11th
Street in Oakland. It was later turned into the Pardee Home Museum. In
1876 Pardee was elected to a single term as Mayor of Oakland. His only
child, George C. Pardee, also became a respected medical doctor and
politician and was elected as Oakland Mayor between 1893 to 1895.
George C. Pardee later served a single term as Governor of California
from 1903 to 1907.
(SFC, 1/8/09, p.B1)
1868 The San Andreas Dam west of
Millbrae was a 95-earth and clay structure built under the direction of
William H. Lawrence.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1868 The St. Vincent Ferrer
Catholic church was built in Vallejo, Ca.
(SFCM, 12/19/04, p.4)
1868 A wharf was constructed at
Amesport (later Miramar), a few miles north of Spanishtown, under the
direction of Judge Josiah P. Ames.
(Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)(Ind, 7/20/02, 5A)
1868 A tidal slough was dammed to
form Lake Merritt and connected Oakland to the lumber port of Brooklyn.
After 2 years of incorporation Brooklyn residents voted themselves out
of existence.
(SFCM, 4/11/04, p.6)
1868 The area around Mount Diablo,
land grant of Don Salvio Pacheco, was named the town of Todos Santo
(All Saints). It was later renamed Concord.
(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A22)(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A13)
1868 John Parrott, SF banker and
Peninsula pioneer, established a manor house on his 377-acre Baywood
estate, that extended from El Camino back to the hills.
(Ind, 2/27/99, p.5A)(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1869 Nov 8, The transcontinental
railway arrived in Oakland with a stop at Suisun City. The Mariposa
pulled 6 coaches into Oakland at 7th and Broadway.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W27)(SFC, 9/3/99, p.A4)(SFC,
5/3/02, p.A20)
1869 Enoch Pardee, eye doctor and
later Oakland mayor, completed his Italianate Oakland home. It became
part of Preservation Park in 1991.
(SFCM, 4/6/03, p.5)
1869 William C. Ralston completed
his Belmont estate. In 1923 it became the administration building
of the Univ. of Notre Dame de Namur.
(Ind, 6/29/02, 5A)
1869 The first Colma village post
office opened.
(LaPen, 12/86, p.)
1869 The first large Eastern
oysters arrived live on the new railroad. They soon glutted the market
and the excess was dumped into the Bay where the oysters grew but would
not reproduce. Captain John Stillwell Morgan made claim to the Bay
shallows along San Mateo and began cultivating oysters.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1869 Frederick Marriott flew his
unmanned Aviator Hermes Jr. over a field near Millbrae and Burlingame.
The machine was a gasbag filled with hydrogen, and a steam engine
turning rotors with attached delta wings guided by men on the ground
with ropes.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A23)
1870 Mar 18, The 1st US National
Wildlife Preserve was Lake Meritt in Oakland, Calif. Lake Merritt,
actually a tidal lagoon, was named after Samuel Merritt, a physician
and one of the 1st mayors of Oakland.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W31)(SFC, 1/5/01, WBb p.8)(MC,
3/18/02)(SFCM, 8/17/03, p.3)
1870 The first road was built to
Stinson Beach from Sausalito, Ca. The area then became known as Willow
Camp after a tent settlement sprang up among the willow trees.
(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A13)
1870 Merchant Albert Dibblee
purchased the Ross family estate in Marin County, Ca. The property
later constituted much of the town of Ross.
(SFC, 11/23/06, p.B6)
1870 Native Olympia oysters
disappeared by this time as they were replaced by cultivated oysters
imported by rail from the Atlantic.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A1)
1870s The Crystal Springs Hotel
was dismantled to make way for the Crystal Springs Reservoir.
(Ind, 6/16/01, 5A)
1870s William Henry Howard
purchased 160 acres on the north bank of San Mateo Creek, an area that
was once part of Rancho de las Pulgas. There he built the 36-room,
shingle-covered Victorian called Uplands with a design by architect
Bruce Price for $250,000.
(Ind, 5/6/00,5A)
1870s Edgar Wakefield McLellan
began growing flowers as a boy on the family dairy farm on land that
later became the Bay Meadows Race Track near San Mateo. He delivered
flowers to customers who promptly paid their milk bills.
(PI, 1/24/98, p.5)
1870s Darius Ogden Mills, a
Comstock millionaire, established a dairy with partner Alfred Green. It
was located along El Camino at the site where Peninsula Hospital was
later built.
(Ind, 10/7/00,5A)
1870s The Levy brothers paid
Portuguese emigrants to hunt whales off of Pigeon Point. They also
maintained a herd of 600 milk cows and operated cheese factories.
(Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1870-1970 The Selby smelter near San Pablo Bay
released large amounts of lead into the Bay.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A19)
1871 Oct, William E. Barron, owner
of the New Almaden Quicksilver mine near Los Gatos, died. He owned a
380-acre estate in Menlo Park.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1871 Portuguese immigrants began
holding their annual Pentecost Festival named Chamarita, after a
traditional folk dance.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.E4)
1871 The Barron estate in Menlo
Park was sold for $75,000 to Milton Slocum Latham, one-time California
governor and Senator.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1871 The Levy brothers, emigrants
from Lorraine, France, arrived in the Bay Area.
(Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1872 Feb 13, The former Barron
home in Menlo Park burned to its foundation while undergoing remodeling
for Milton Slocum Latham. A new 50-room mansion was immediately begun.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)(SFC, 4/15/05, p.E1)
1872 Mar, Joshua Norton, aka
Emperor Norton, ordered SF and Oakland citizens to build a suspension
bridge across the bay. His similar Aug 19, 1869, proclamation was later
considered a forgery.
(SFC, 12/15/04, p.A1)(www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/)
1872 Dec, The Levy brothers,
Fernand and Joseph, purchased the merchandising firm of Charles E.
Kelly and Richard L. Mattingly in Half Moon Bay.
(Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1872 F.M. Riehl became the 1st man
to swim across the SF Bay.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W4)
1872 Simon L. Jones, a secretive
Welsh importer and exporter, acquired 1,500 acres of the original
Coppinger land grant in San Mateo Ct. and named the area Hazel Wood
Farm. 942-acres of the area later became San Mateo’s Wunderlich Park.
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1873 A lighthouse was built on
East Brother island between SF Bay and San Pablo Bay. It was automated
in 1969 and turned into a bed and breakfast inn in 1979.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A21)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.C5)
1873 The Potter Schoolhouse was
built in Bodega Bay. It was abandoned in 1962 and used in the 1963
Hitchcock film "The Birds."
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.T5)
1873 The Univ. at Berkeley became
part of the Univ. of California and was required by law to admit women.
The first roofed halls including south Hall opened at Berkeley and
Daniel Coit Gilman from Yale served as the first president of the new
state university until 1875, when he accepted an offer at Johns
Hopkins.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.24)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.8)
1873 George Cunningham Edwards,
the 1st student to enroll at UC Berkeley, graduated in the class of
1873.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.F6)
1874 Feb 21, The Tribune of
Oakland, Ca., was founded by George Staniford and Benet A. Dewes. The
Oakland Daily Tribune was first printed at 468 Ninth St. as a 4-page,
3-column newspaper, 6 by 10 inches. Staniford and Dewes gave out copies
free of charge. The paper had news stories and 43 advertisements.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Tribune)
1874 Apr 24-26, The 2-story
mansion leased by Thomas Brownell Clarke on the southwest corner of
16th and Castro in Oakland was reported to be haunted. Dr. Joseph
LeConte Sr., co-founder of the Univ. of California and the Sierra Club,
was called in to evaluate the situation. A 360 page report was compiled
but not released. In 1877 Clarke published a 23-page pamphlet called
"The Oakland Ghost," in which he argued that the house was haunted.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.A4)
1874 In Menlo Park the Duff &
Doyle General Store opened on Santa Cruz Avenue.
(Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)(Ind, 3/9/02, 5A)
1874 The Spring Valley Water Co.
purchased the Crystal Springs Hotel along with 95 acres for $37,500.
The land was cleared and by 1891 the area was put under water by the
Crystal Springs Dam.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1874 Oakland was a town of 14,000
people.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.A4)
1875 Jan, In the SF Bay Area a
tunnel near Pacifica’s Mussel Rock, commissioned by SF attorney Richard
Tobin, was completed. Storms soon rendered the tunnel impassable and
the project was abandoned.
(Daly City Fog Cutter, Vol 8 No. 3, 2008)
1875 In Menlo Park the new Thurlow
Lodge of Milton Latham was completed.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1875 William C. Ralston built the
Palace Hotel in SF. Ralston was the founder of the Bank of California
and had a sprawling estate in Belmont. He had earlier built a dam to
form a reservoir as a water supply for his Ralston mansion that became
known as Water Dog Lake
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C4)(Ind, 5/25/99, p.13A)
1876 Apr, Some 7,000 members of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from SF joined 1000 members of the
IOOF from the Peninsula at the Belmont Picnic Grounds.
(Ind, 10/13/01, 5A)
1876 Jul 1, The San Mateo County
Hospital and Poor Farm opened along Polhemus Road near Highway 92. A
140-acre ranch was purchased from Hannibal Pulan for an initial
investment of $10,000.
(Ind, 5/18/02, 5A)
1876 Jul, Leland and Jane Stanford
purchased the old Mayfield Grange home of George Gordon in Menlo Park,
Ca. The estate came to be named Palo Alto. Stanford began his horse
breeding farm this year on an initial 650 acres. It eventually extended
to 8,800 acres.
(Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)(Ind, 4/19/03, 5A)
1876 A house was built on a dairy
farm at Strawberry Point off Richardson Bay. It was owned by Dr.
Benjamin Lyford and his wife Hilarita, who was the daughter of John
Reed, the 1st white settler in Marin County.
(SSFC, 7/17/05, p.A25)
1876 Drawbridge on Station Island
was started at the southern end of the SF Bay with a single shack for
the railroad bridge caretaker. Its last resident, Charlie Luce, left in
1979.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A19,20)
1876 John Strenzel, father-in-law
of John Muir, led efforts to build Granger's Wharf in Martinez to help
ship out grain.
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.B2)
1876 James Lick, one of the
wealthiest men in SF and a notorious miser, died. He gave away most of
his wealth before dying and the elevated 101 freeway from the Bay
Bridge to Candlestick Point was later named in his honor as was the
Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A11)
1877 The Jersey Farm, a 3,000 acre
dairy, was begun by Richard G. Sneath. Its operations were spread
across 3 ranches over what later became Tanforan Shopping Center, the
national Cemetery and the SF County Jail.
(Ind, 10/7/00,5A)
1878 Apr 1, The city of Berkeley,
home to UC Berkeley, was incorporated.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1878 Jun 19, Immigrant English
photographer Edward Muybridge settled a bet for Leland Stanford,
governor of California and horse racing enthusiast. Stanford bet a
friend that a galloping horse kept at least one hoof on the ground at
all times. At the governor's training course in Palo Alto, Muybridge
set up 12 cameras at trackside with shutters activated by tripwires.
The resulting "motion" pictures, seen here in postcard form, proved
that the horse did indeed raise all four hooves off the ground during
its gallop. Muybridge's photographic methods were expanded by Thomas
Edison to develop "an instrument which does for the eye what the
phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of
things in motion...."
(HNPD, 6/19/98)
1878 John McBain came to Menlo
Park to work on the mansion of bonanza king James C. Flood.
(Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)
1878 A railroad connected Byron to
Martinez and San Francisco and allowed people in SF to reach Byron Hot
Springs in 3 hours.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.B3)
1878 Lyman C. Byce, Petaluma
poultry pioneer, began experimenting with an incubator to hatch baby
chicks.
(Ind, 4/26/03, p.5A)
1878 Mark Hopkins, railroad
builder, died. Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins set up her adopted son
Timothy as treasurer of the Southern Pacific RR.
(Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1879 Sep 20, Pres. Ulysses S.
Grant arrived in San Francisco aboard the steamship City of Tokio. He
was in a bad mood because a steward had just emptied a glass of water
with his false teeth through a porthole.
(Ind, 2/17/01, 5A)
1879 Sep 30, Pres. Ulysses S.
Grant was treated to a reception by Comstock millionaire Darius Ogden
Mills in Millbrae.
(Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1879 Oct 8, Pres. Ulysses S. Grant
was treated to a reception by Nevada Senator William Sharon at the old
Ralston mansion in Belmont, Ca. Grant had just finished a tour around
the world.
(Ind, 7/1/0,5A)
1879 A daughter of John Parrott
married French Count de Guigne, who went on to found the Stauffer
Chemical Co.
(Ind, 1/04/03, 5A)
1879 San Mateo’s 1st street lamp
was installed.
(Ind, 9/21/02, 5A)
1879 The Hercules Powder Works
began manufacturing explosives north of Richmond, Ca. Production later
shifted to fertilizer and continued until 1964. As the company moved
out residential developers moved in and the town of Hercules took the
company name.
(SFC, 5/30/06, p.D1)
1879 The Levy brothers expanded
their operations with the purchase of the H.C. Hart store in San
Gregorio.
(Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1880 Dec 23, Florence Emily
Sharon, daughter of Nevada Senator William Sharon, married Sir Thomas
George Fermor-Hesketh, at the old Ralston mansion in Belmont, Ca. In
1867 Sir Thomas had inherited the Easton Neston estate, built around
1700 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, in Northamptonshire, England.
(SFC, 5/11/05, p.G6)
1880 Women in Alameda staged their
1st temperance campaign for closing a saloon.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F3)
1880 James C. Flood, silver
magnate, completed his 43-room Linden Towers mansion in Menlo Park
(later Atherton). An elaborate fountain was designed by J.W. Fiske. The
estate was torn down in the 1930s and the area was subdivided into a
neighborhood known as Lindenwood. The fountain remained at 42 Flood
Circle.
(Ind, 3/9/02, 5A)(SSFC, 5/22/05, p.A12)
1880 Milton Latham was forced to
auction off his property in Menlo Park due to losses on his North
Pacific Coast Railroad.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1880 The Pacific Coast Oil Co.
built its 1st refinery at Alameda Port.
(SFC, 10/20/04, p.C6)
1880-1890 In the 1880s the Niles Dam was built on the
Alameda Creek in Alameda County, Ca. About 20 years later the Sunol Dam
was built. Both became obsolete when the Hetch Hetchy system was
completed in the 1930s. In 2006 the Niles and Sunol dams were removed.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.B9)
1880s William Rust, a blacksmith,
came to El Cerrito and is considered its founding father.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A17)
1880s The Levy brothers purchased
the stagecoach line that ran from San Mateo to Half Moon Bay and later
to Pescadero.
(Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1880s Walter S. Hobart, Comstock
silver millionaire, acquired some 470 acres in San Mateo that were
initially held by Stephen B. Whipple. Hobart built an elegant residence
on the site that was acquired St. Matthew’s Parish (1929) and converted
to a convent and school by the Sisters of the Holy Cross (1931).
(Ind, 8/24/02, 5A)
1881 A 9 day fire in San Rafael
swept through the cemetery where William A. Richardson was buried and
obliterated his marker.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1881-1919 Some 59 laborers, mostly Chinese
immigrants, were killed during this period in explosions at the
California Powder Works in Hercules. They were paid 12.5 cents per hour.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1882 Dec 25, Mary Frances Sherwood
Hopkins gave Thurlow Lodge to her adopted son Timothy who renamed it
Sherwood Hall.
(Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1882 The 2nd San Mateo County
Courthouse was built. Its annex was the remains of the 1858 courthouse
destroyed in the 1868 earthquake.
(SMMB)
1882 Henrietta Dwight purchased
the house, Thurlow Lodge, and property of Milton Latham in Menlo Park.
She sold the property in less than a year to Mary Frances Sherwood
Hopkins, widow of railroader Mark Hopkins, who gave it to adopted son
Timothy for $1. During WW II the house was destroyed to make way for
Dibble General Hospital.
(Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)(Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1882 The Beltramo family opened
shop in Menlo Park.
(SFCM, 6/10/01, p.6)
1883 Jul, Annie Mooney (4)
disappeared at a picnic of the Carpenter’s Union of SF at the Belmont
Picnic Grounds. She was never found.
(Ind, 10/13/01, 5A)
1883 Davenport Bromfield
(1862-1954), an Australian surveyor, ran away with Mary Ware
(1851-1935), a married mother of 3. They escaped to New Zealand and
then to San Francisco, where Bromfield became an established surveyor
in San Mateo County.
(Ind, 1/5/02, 5A)
1882 A jute mill was opened for
convicts of San Quentin.
(SFC, 4/20/01, WBb p.7)
1883 Charles E. Boles, known as
Black Bart, was caught in SF by a Wells Fargo detective, who tracked
him down using a laundry ticket. Bart spent 50 months in San Quentin
for his eight-year string of stagecoach robberies.
(HN, 8/27/01)
1883 Heinold's First and Last
Chance Saloon opened in Oakland. Jack London later did his homework
there and worked on 2 of his novels.
(SFC, 10/25/03, p.A13)
1883 The Levy brothers acquired
the Garretson store in Pescadero.
(Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1883 The Brooks and Carey Saloon
opened on Mission Road, Colma, Ca. It was later renamed the Brooksville
Hotel. Frank Molloy purchased the place from Patrick Brooks in 1929 and
renamed it Molloy's.
(Ind, 1/30/98, p.5A)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.E8)
1884 William A. Coulter painted
"San Francisco Bay."
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.E4)
1884 Gideon Jacques Denny painted
"The Golden Gate and Fort Point."
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.E4)
1884 Charles Crocker (b.1822 in
New York), chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, acquired
3,814 acres of the Visitacion Rancho.
(GTP, 1973, p.128)
1884 Charles Crocker acquired San
Bruno Mountain.
(Ind, 4/27/99, p.11A)
1884 John Parrot, SF millionaire
banker and merchant, died.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1884 Leland Stanford Jr. (15) died
of typhus. His death moved the Stanfords to found Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.A15)
1885 Leland and Jane Stanford
founded Stanford Univ. The cornerstone was laid in 1887. The 1st class
began in 1891 with David Starr Jordan (d.1931) as the first president.
(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.8)(Ind, 4/12/03, 5A)(Ind, 4/19/03,
5A)
1885 The Manor Terrace home in
Mill Valley was built. It was owned by the daughter of John Thomas
Reed, founder of Mill Valley, and her 2nd husband Bernardino Garcia,
who some believed was the notorious bandit “Three Fingered Jack.” In
2004 coffins with skeletons were found under the home.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A4)
1886 Charles Dormon Robinson
painted "Looking Across the Golden Gate."
(SFC, 3/20/00, p.E1)
1886 Colonel Hayward (d.1904),
Vermont-born mining millionaire, completed his home at Fifth and Laurel
in San Mateo. He broke up with his wife Charity, who moved East, and
lived alone in the 3-story, 22-room structure.
(Ind, 12/8/01, 5A)
1886 John McBain built Pioneer
Hall in Menlo Park.
(Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)
1886 The Episcopal Church of the
Holy Trinity was completed in Menlo Park.
(Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)
1886 William Henry Howard sold his
Uplands estate to Col. Charles Frederick Crocker, eldest son of the
railroad builder, who renamed the house Montes Robles (Los Robles).
(Ind, 5/6/00,5A)(Ind, 9/23/00,5A)
1886 Jennie M. Easton, the wife of
Charles Frederick Crocker, died in SF during the birth of their 3rd
child.
(Ind, 10.26/02, 5A)
1887 The Oak Grove Villa Hotel was
built in Menlo Park. A fire swept through the building in 1965 on the
afternoon of the Firemen’s Ball.
(Ind, 8/5/00,5A)
1887 The Southern Pacific Railroad
acquired 173 acres on the Peninsula for the development of a town that
became known as San Carlos.
(Ind, 7/6/02, 5A)
1887 Sturgeons landings in the SF
Bay peaked at 1.7 million pounds.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A22)
1887-1889 The San Jose City Hall, an ornate Victorian
style building, was constructed at Plaza Park, now the Plaza de Cesar
Chavez.
(SFC, 7/14/97, p.A15)
1888 In Larkspur the Thomas
Dolliver house was built at 58 Madrone. It was later place on the
National Register of Historic Places.
(SFCM, 5/26/02, p.24)
1888 The Southern Pacific Depot in
San Carlos, Ca., opened. It was built of Almaden sandstone. The style
was continued by the same mason at Stanford Univ.
(SFCM, 8/7/05, p.8)
1888 In Santa Clara the $750,000
California Hospital for the Chronic Insane at Agnews was built. The 1st
65 inmates came from the overcrowded Stockton Asylum. Agnews collapsed
in the 1906 earthquake and was rebuilt by 1909.
(Ind, 6/1/02, 5A)
1888 In San Rafael Michael de
Young, co-founder of the SF Chronicle, built his Meadowlands summer
estate.
(SFCM, 8/29/04, p.4)
1888 In Tiburon Old St. Hillary's
on Esperanza St. was built in Carpenter Gothic style. St. Hillary is
the patron saint of scholars.
(SFEM, 6/27/99, p.56)
1888 Frederick Law Olmstead
designed Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 4/5/04, p.B5)
1888 Timothy Hopkins retained the
services of Ireland-born Michael Lynch to create Sherwood Hall Nursery
on his 300-acre estate in Menlo Park. The nursery became the Sunset
Seed and Plant Co. in 1893.
(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)(Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1888 San Mateo Deputy George
Washington Tallman became the 1st local lawman killed in the line of
duty from injuries suffered during a jail break.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A23)
1888 Charles Crocker died and San
Bruno Mountain became an asset of the Crocker Land Co.
(Ind, 4/27/99, p.11A)
1889 An off-campus residential
area near Stanford was subdivided by Timothy Hopkins at the request of
Senator Leland Stanford. The Palo Alto neighborhood became known as
Professorville.
(SFCM, 9/1/02, p.8)
1889 The North Pacific Coast
Railroad established a train station in Marin County called Manzanita
atop a shell mound site previously settled by coastal Miwok Indians. In
1906 a liquor license was granted for an establishment there called
Manzanita Villa and in 1916 a building was erected for a hotel and
dance hall by Thomas, James and George Moore, SF liquor and cigar
dealers. In 1947 new owners built a motel behind the building and
renamed it “The Fireside.” In 1957 2 skeletons of American Indians were
found during renovation. In 2008 the site was re-developed as a new
affordable housing complex.
(SFC, 4/21/08, p.B2)
1889 Juana Briones (b.1802),
businesswoman and rancho owner, died.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)
1890 James Cobbledick, who had
came to the Bay Area from Toronto in 1851, founded the Cobbledick Glass
Co. in Oakland.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D8)
1890 Johann Spenger, a German
immigrant, began selling crabs in the industrial area called Ocean
View. After Prohibition his shack turned into a bar with 4 stools and
in 1933 became a full-fledged restaurant. It was sold to the McCormick
& Schmick group in 1998.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A7)(SFC, 8/20/03, p.A19)
1890 In San Rafael Dominican
College was founded by Dominican nuns as a liberal arts college for
women.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A17)
1890 Davenport Bromfield,
surveyor, and his wife Mary, became US citizens and formed the
Peninsula’s 1st Christian Science Church. [see 1883]
(Ind, 1/5/02, 5A)
1890 The town of Rodeo, just south
of the Carquinez Strait, was named.
(SFC, 10/22/03, p.A23)
1890s A bathhouse was constructed
at Coyote Point and the area became a recreational attraction.
(Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)
1890s Italian farmers near Half
Moon Bay began planting artichokes.
(Ind, 7/20/02, 5A)
1891 Feb 28, US Senator George
Hearst of California died.
(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)
1891 Mar, Congressman millionaire
Charles N. Felton of Menlo Park, California, was appointed to succeed
Sen. Hearst.
(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)
1891 Apr 29, Pres. Benjamin
Harrison arrived in Menlo Park, Ca., by special train for a visit with
Senators Stanford and Felton and to inspect the newly completed Leland
Stanford Junior Memorial Univ.
(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)(Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)
1891 Mar, David Starr Jordan (40)
of Indiana Univ. accepted an offer as president of the new Stanford
Univ. in Palo Alto, Ca.
(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)(Ind, 11/17/01, 5A)
1891 Aug, Mrs. Kate Johnson, a
former resident of Menlo park, donated her 80-acre estate to the
Catholic Church for the education of priests. SF Archbishop Patrick
William Riordan soon began construction of St. Patrick’s Seminary.
(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)
1891 Oct 1, The Leland Stanford
Junior Memorial Univ. in Palo Alto was dedicated. Stanford Univ. opened
its Mission Romanesque Quadrangle in Palo Alto. It was established by
Leland and Jane Stanford in honor of their late son. Gov. Leland
Stanford had purchased the campus property from Peter Coutts.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4,5)(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)(SFC,
12/30/96, p.A15)(SFC, 6/20/98, p.A15)(Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)(Ind,
10/17/98, p.5A)(SFC, 7/17/99, p.A21)
1891 The Southern Pacific Depot in
Danville was built. It later became the Museum of the San Ramon Valley.
(SFCM, 8/5/01, p.46)
1891 The largest concrete dam in
the world was completed across the neck of Crystal Springs canyon south
of San Francisco. It trapped the waters of San Mateo Creek and was the
culmination of a 5 reservoir project.
(Ind, 5/11/02, 5A)
1891 Drydock No. 1, a 508-foot
trough of granite slabs, was completed on Mare Island after 13 years of
construction.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C5)
1891 Gustavus Swift, a Swedish
immigrant, opened the Western Meat Co. in South San Francisco.
(Ind, 7/15/00,5A)
1891 Mary Frances Sherwood Hopkins
died. She excluded adopted son Timothy Hopkins from her will. A trial
resulted and Timothy later settled for $8-12 million.
(Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1892 Mar, The Stanford and UC
Berkeley football teams played their 1st "big game" in San Francisco at
the Haight Street Grounds. Stanford won 14-0. Legend says that Herbert
Hoover, Stanford manager and future US president, forgot the requisite
football and caused a several hour game delay.
(SFEC,12/797, p.B12)(Ind, 11/10/01, 5A)
1892 May 1, A US quarantine
station opened on Angel Island, SF Bay.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1892 Dec 17, The Stanford and UC
Berkeley football teams played their 2nd "big game" in San Francisco at
the Haight Street Grounds. They tied 10-10. The annual games continued
in SF until 1904.
(Ind, 11/10/01, 5A)
1892 A dam was built on the San
Francisquito Creek west of Stanford. Searsville Lake was formed and was
later predicted to brim with silt by 2050.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A18)
1892 Walter S. Hobart, Comstock
silver millionaire, died. His son introduced the 1st pack of fox hounds
to California.
(Ind, 5/12/01, 5A)(Ind, 8/24/02, 5A)
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