The Beginnings of San Francisco - Chapters XV-XVI



CHAPTER XV. THE VILLAGE OF YERBA BUENA, 1839-1846

In the year 1835 the bay of San Francisco was a vast solitude through 
whose bordering groves ranged the red deer, the elk, and the antelope, 
while bears, and panthers, and other ferocious beasts frequented the hills 
and often descended upon the scattered farm yards. The five mission 
establishments in its vicinity did not contain above two hundred white 
inhabitants while the few ranchos were of great extent and widely 
separated. Boats manned by Indians came down the creeks from the missions 
with their loads of hides and tallow for the ships anchored in Yerba Buena 
cove. The growth of the little settlement was slow and in 1844 it 
contained only about a dozen houses and not over fifty permanent 
inhabitants. 

In 1839 Governor Alvarado ordered a survey of Yerba Buena, and the 
alcalde, Francisco de Haro, employed Jean Jacques Vioget, a Swiss sailor 
and surveyor, to do the work which was completed in the fall of that year. 
Vioget's survey laid out the blocks between Pacific, California, 
Montgomery, and Dupont streets, and shows Dupont street intersected at 
Clay by the Calle de la Fundacion, which branched off to the northwest 
towards the "Puerto suelo." Montgomery street is interrupted at Clay 
street by a lagoon that made in from the beach and occupied portions of 
the two Montgomery street blocks between Clay and Pacific streets. On the 
south, Montgomery street was again interrupted by a fresh water pond 
(Laguna Dulce) at the foot of Sacramento street which was supplied by a 
stream that ran down Sacramento street from above Powell. No names were 
given to the streets and the cross streets were two and a half degrees 
from a right angle. Down to 1846 lots were granted by Vioget's map, which 
I reproduce, and lots previously granted were made to conform to it. No 
street improvements were attempted, the line of streets being merely 
indicated by building and fences. In 1845 Captain Hinckley prevailed upon 
the prefect at Monterey to have Vioget's survey extended to Mason street 
on the west, Green street on the north, and Sutter street on the south. 
Early in 1846, according to Brown,(*) the map of this survey--which he 
calls the first map of surveyed lands-- hung in Bob Ridley's billiard 
saloon, at that time the headquarters for all strangers in town, and the 
names of those who had lots granted were written on the map. The map 
became soiled and torn and Captain Hinckley volunteered to make a new one, 
which was done with Brown's assistance, and the original map was put away 
for safe keeping. The maps were left in the barroom until after the 
raising of the American flag when they were demanded of Brown, who was 
Ridley's barkeeper, by Lieutenant Bartlett, by order of Captain 
Montgomery. This map, I presume the original, hung in a frame, in the San 
Francisco recorder's office and was destroyed in the great fire of April 
1906. A photographic copy of it is in the State Library at Sacramento. It 
bears the following certificate: 

"San Francisco, Feb. 22, 1847. 

"I hereby certify that this plan of the Town of San Francisco is the plan 
by which titles have been given by the Alcaldes from the first location of 
the town, and the numbers and names of lots and streets correspond with 
records transferred by me. 

Washn. A. Bartlett, 
Chief Magistrate."

(* Brown: Early Days of San Francisco, Chap. ii.)

On this map Powell, Mason, and Green streets have no names, Stockton 
street is the first street west of Kearny, Pacific street is named 
Bartlett street, Sacramento street is Howard, Sansome street is Sloat, 
Battery street is Battery Place, and Bush and Sutter streets follow 
California to the south. 

In March 1847 Jasper O'Farrell was employed to make a careful survey of 
the town and extend its limits. His survey covered some eight hundred 
acres and included the beach and water lots recently granted to the town 
by General Kearny. His map included the district bounded by Post, 
Leavenworth, and Francisco streets, and the water front; and south of 
Market street it showed four full blocks fronting on Fourth and eleven 
full blocks fronting on Second street. The streets in Vioget's survey were 
too narrow, but they could not be widened without a heavy expense which 
nobody wished to incur. It was considered indispensable, however, that the 
acute and obtuse angles of Vioget's lots should be corrected, and to do 
this a change of two and a half degrees was necessary in the direction of 
some of the streets. This transferred the situation of all the lots and 
was subsequently called "O'Farrell's swing" of the city. For years, on 
account of the swing, buildings were to be seen at various places 
projecting a little beyond the general line of the street. 

The line of Market street was made to correspond with the road to the 
mission and the lots south of that line were made four times as large as 
those to the northward because smaller lots there were not considered 
desirable.(*)

(* Hittell: History of the City of San Francisco, pp. 114-16)

In 1849 W. M. Eddy, city surveyor, extended the survey to Larkin and 
Eighth streets. Montgomery, Dupont, Clay, and Washington streets were 
named by Lieutenant Bartlett, and probably Kearny and Stockton also. Some 
time before July 18, 1847, Sloat street had become Sansome street, as 
appears in a communication from Major Hardie of that date.(*) O'Farrell's 
map gives the names of the streets as we now have them.

(* Dwinelle: Col. Hist. S. F. addenda, p. 258.)

In 1835 Captain Richardson's Indians had a temescal on the flat at the 
foot of Sacramento street where, after heating themselves in the sweat 
house, they plunged into the waters of the Laguna Dulce. At the foot of 
Clay street a spring of good water flowed from under the bank and supplied 
the ships. Here in 1838-9 Juan Fuller had a washhouse. In March 1838 
Francisco Caceres, an ex-sergeant of dragoons, obtained a one hundred vara 
lot in the block bounded by Dupont, Kearny, Jackson, and Pacific streets 
and built an adobe house on what is now the southeast corner of Dupont and 
Pacific, where he lived with his family a number of years. In 1838, A. B. 
Thompson built a hide house at Buckalew's Point at the head of a little 
cove, near the northeast corner of Sansome and Pacific streets. Thompson 
was a Santa Barbara trader and ship owner who came in 1825. He was a 
native of Maine and he married a daughter of Carlos Carrillo. 

In 1837 John Casimiro Fuller, commonly called Juan Fuller, an English 
sailor who came in 1823, obtained a hundred vara lot on Kearny, between 
California and Sacramento streets. In 1839 he put up three small wooden 
dwellings on his lot, in one of which he lived. He was a butcher and cook 
and was well known to all early traders. Brown says that Fuller was one of 
a small party who attended, at Leidesdorff's house, the reading of the 
declaration of independence by Captain Montgomery, July 4th, 1846.(*) 
Fuller's wife was Concepcion Avila and he has a number of descendants 
living in San Francisco.

(* Brown: Early Days, Chap. ii.)

In 1839 John Calvert Davis was granted a hundred vara lot on Kearny 
between Washington and Jackson streets, and built a house on Washington 
street near the southeast corner of this lot, and back of it a carpenter 
and blacksmith shop. He was an English ship-carpenter and blacksmith. 

Near the southwest corner of Montgomery and Pacific streets, Victor Prudon 
built an adobe house in 1839. He came in 1834 with the Híjar and Padres 
colony as a teacher; he was a Frenchman, well educated, of agreeable 
manners and attractive personal appearance. He became secretary to 
Governor Alvarado and captain of militia; later he was secretary to 
Comandante-general Vallejo with rank in the regular army as captain and 
brevet lieutenant-colonel. He was taken prisoner, with his chief, by the 
Bears at Sonoma.(*)

(* The members of the Bear Flag party were called by the Californians Los 
Osos--The Bears)

In 1839 William Sturgis Hinckley obtained by grant from Alcalde Guerrero 
the two middle fifty vara lots in the block bounded by Montgomery, Kearny, 
Clay, and Washington streets. He also appears to have owned a half 
interest with Spear in the fifty vara lot on the corner of Montgomery and 
Clay streets in the same block. This corner lot was divided, Hinckley 
taking the north half, on which he built in 1840 an adobe house next to 
Spear's store on Montgomery street, where he lived with his family until 
his death. Hinckley was a native of Massachusetts and nephew of William 
Sturgis of the mercantile firm of Bryant and Sturgis so prominent in the 
California trade. He came to California first in 1830 as master of the 
bark Volunteer; was engaged in the Honolulu trade for several years, and 
was master or supercargo of several vessels in turn. He assisted Alvarado 
in his affair with Guiterrez in 1836, landing two small cannon from the 
Don Quixote. He was accused of smuggling and was in more or less trouble 
with the revenue authorities. In 1844 he was alcalde and built a little 
bridge across the neck of the laguna at Jackson street, thus enabling the 
citizens to pass to Clark's Point without going around the laguna. This 
was the first street improvement work in Yerba Buena. In 1845-6 Hinckley 
was captain of the port. He died in June 1846, at the age of thirty-nine. 
His wife was Dona Susana one of Lieutenant Martinez' handsome daughters. 
She was his second wife and after Hinckley's death she married William M. 
Smith. Alcalde Bartlett occupied the Hinckley house as both office and 
residence. The house stood on what is now the southwest corner of 
Montgomery and Merchant streets and was removed in 1850 to make way for 
the Naglee building. 

On January 15, 1840, Captain J. B. R. Cooper received a grant of a hundred 
vara lot on the east side of Dupont, between Washington and Jackson 
streets, where, on the Jackson street lot just below Dupont, his cousin, 
John Cooper, alias "Jack the sailor," built a shanty and kept a groggery. 

Leese received the grant of his Montgomery street lot in January 1840, and 
the remaining third of the block--two fifty varas--fronting on Kearny 
street between Sacramento and Clay streets--was in the same month granted 
to Captain John J. Vioget. At the eastern end of the Clay street lot 
Vioget put up a wooden building in which he lived and kept a bar and 
billiard saloon. He rented this in 1844 to Robert T. Ridley who ran the 
business until February 1846, when he employed John H. Brown as bartender. 
Ridley, an English sailor, was in 1840-1 in the employ of Sutter, first 
having charge of his launch, going then, for a time, to Fort Ross. Later 
he was clerk for Spear and for the Hudson's Bay company under Rae. He was 
a pronounced cockney, a fine looking fellow, a tremendous drinker, and 
very popular with all classes. He became naturalized and married a 
daughter of Juana Briones. He succeeded Hinckley as captain of the port 
and after the Bear Flag affair was arrested by the Bears as a "prisoner of 
war," and sent to Sutter's fort. He was released with the other prisoners 
and was candidate for the office of alcalde against Washington A. Bartlett 
in the election held September 15, 1846. In 1845 Ridley built a house on 
the southwest corner of Montgomery and California streets, where the 
Clunie building now stands. The house was twenty varas back from each 
street and did not front on the line of Montgomery street as it now runs, 
but stood diagonally, like the casa grande of Richardson. It was a low one-
story bungalow of adobe with a long piazza fronting the bay. In 1846 he 
sold the house to Leidesdorff who lived there until his death in May 1848, 
and it was then occupied by W. D. M. Howard, his executor, and later by 
Captain Folsom who purchased the estate from Leidesdorff's heirs. Folsom 
had his residence and quartermaster's office there. Leidesdorff was a 
lover of nature and his garden on the place was considered a triumph. In 
1845 Ridley was granted Callayomi rancho at Sonoma which he exchanged with 
Jacob Leese for Visitacion rancho at San Francisco. In 1850 he was, with 
C. V. Stuart, keeping the Mansion house, a part of the mission buildings, 
and died there, November 11, 1851, aged 32. 

To return to the Vioget house. After Ridley's arrest Brown conceived the 
idea of turning the place into a sort of hotel, there being no 
accommodations in town for strangers. He therefore hired Tom Smith, an 
English sailor, as cook and steward, and took in such visitors as came. 
After the arrival of the Brooklyn Brown found help in plenty and engaged a 
widow, Mrs. Mercy Narrimore, as housekeeper, Lucy Nutting as waitress, and 
Sarah Kittleman, as cook, all from the Mormon colony, and opened out as a 
hotel in regular style. Two carpenters of the same immigration made the 
tables, benches, and bedsteads; the beds were made of Sandwich island 
moss; blankets of heavy flannel with a seam in the center, and quilts of 
calico. The house had been called Vioget house, but at the request of some 
of the warrant officers of the Portsmouth who offered to make him a sign-
board, Brown changed the name to the Portsmouth house. This was the first 
hotel in San Francisco. Sarah Kittleman married Dr. Elbert P. Jones, who 
gave his name to Jones street, and who succeeded Brown in the Portsmouth 
house, taking both hotel and cook off his hands. Jones was a Kentuckian, 
came in 1846, was active in town affairs and the first editor of the Star, 
predecessor of the Alta California. 

On January 1, 1841, there arrived in Monterey the Hudson's Bay company's 
bark Columbia having on board Sir James Douglas, agent of the company, 
with a party of thirty-six men, and carrying a cargo of goods for sale. 
The relations between the company and the Californians had been friendly 
but not close. The object of Douglas' visit was to obtain from the 
California authorities greater privileges for his fur-hunting operations 
in the interior and permission to establish a trading post on the coast. 
His party was composed in part of hunters, and the others were to conduct 
to the Columbia river a herd of live-stock which he hoped to purchase. 

Douglas was courteously received by Alvarado and hospitably entertained at 
the capital, and with a dozen of his men was sent overland to San 
Francisco, enjoying along the way the generous hospitality of the 
rancheros. He found the authorities ready to grant him the concessions 
desired and returned to Fort Vancouver to submit to the company plans for 
a trading establishment at Yerba Buena. These were approved and Chief 
Factor John McLoughlin despatched his son-in-law, William Glen Rae, to 
take charge of the post with full power to select or purchase a site for 
the proposed store. Rae arrived in California in August and bought from 
Leese his hundred vara lot and building on Montgomery street, for which he 
paid four thousand six hundred dollars, half in money and half in goods. 

The Russian property at Ross(*) had been offered to the Hudson's Bay 
company for thirty thousand dollars, but Douglas could not find that the 
company had any title to the land and was not disposed to buy the personal 
property at such a figure. It was afterwards bought by John A. Sutter.

(* The Russian company had endeavored to extend their holdings to the 
Sacramento river on the east, and southward to the Bay of San Francisco. 
Failing to obtain the consent of Mexico, they decided to abandon their 
establishment in California.)
 
Rae opened the Yerba Buena store with a ten thousand dollar stock of goods 
and on December 30th, Sir George Simpson, governor of the company, arrived 
and with him Chief Factor McLoughlin who brought his daughter Eloise, wife 
of Rae. Simpson visited Vallejo at Sonoma and was hospitably entertained 
at Monterey and at Santa Barbara. He gives the result of his observations 
in California in his narrative, from which I have quoted some extracts.(*)
Mrs. Rae describes the company's house as about thirty by eighty feet with 
a big hall in the middle, on one side of which was the store and on the 
other the dwelling, with a dining room and sitting room in front and in 
back, four bed rooms, and a kitchen back of all. Davis says that Rae and 
Spear were the chief entertainers, there being no hotels.(**) Rae was a 
Scotchman of fine presence, a bon-vivant and hard drinker, but subject to 
periods of great depression. He disliked Americans and, it is said, 
boasted when in his cups that "it had cost the company seventy-five 
thousand pounds to drive the Yankee traders from the Columbia and that 
they would drive them from California if it cost a million." The large 
capital of the Hudson's Bay company gave them an advantage over the 
traders in Yerba Buena but the business did not prosper under Rae's 
management. In the revolt against Micheltorena Rae espoused the cause of 
the rebels and furnished them with fifteen thousand dollars' worth of 
stores and munitions of war. A treaty of peace was signed in December 
1844, and Rae anticipated that the governor would punish the company for 
his unjustifiable interference. He pondered deeply over his position and 
the censure he felt would be laid upon him, and his depression was 
aggravated by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors. About eight 
o'clock on the morning of January 19, 1845, William Sinclair, Rae's clerk, 
and Mrs. John Fuller heard loud cries from Rae's room. They ran in and 
found Rae standing in the presence of his wife, his coat off and a pistol 
in his hand. Sinclair seized the pistol before it could be discharged, and 
hastened to call Hinckley. A shot rang out, and Rae fell to the floor 
dead. He had had another pistol. His wife fainted. Davis says that Rae was 
unfaithful to his wife and this becoming known, Rae, who was a very 
sensitive man, shot himself.(***) Robert Birney, Rae's chief clerk, denied 
that family troubles had anything to do with the suicide, which, according 
to Larkin, was the result of Rae's unfortunate participation in the 
revolution. James Alexander Forbes, British vice-consul at Monterey, took 
charge of the company's affairs and in March 1846, Dugald McTavish came 
down from the Columbia and closed up the business. This ended the Hudson's 
Bay company's operations in California which were, from the beginning, 
limited. The stories told by a recent writer of brigades of two hundred 
men disguised as Spaniards and led by La Framboise and McKay to the very 
doors of Monterey, and of a thousand-acre farm on the site of modern San 
Francisco are pure invention.

(* The matter relating to California is in Vol. 1, pp. 267-411)
(** Davis: Sixty Years in Cal., p. 116)
(*** Ibid., p. 120)

McTavish sold the property on Montgomery street to Mellus and Howard for 
five thousand dollars. In the winter of 1849-50 the building was converted 
into the United States hotel and was destroyed in the fire of June 14, 
1850. On August 26, 1854, some workmen engaged in digging for a sewer on 
Commercial street west of Montgomery came upon a coffin through whose oval 
glass were seen the well preserved features of a dead man. A crowd 
gathered, and after some time Charles R. Bond, secretary for W. D. M. 
Howard, pushed his way through the people about the trench and recognized 
the body of William Glen Rae. The place of burial had been formerly the 
garden of his house.(*) The body was re-interred in Yerba Buena cemetery--
now the city hall lot.

(* Commercial street, which was Long Wharf, had been extended to Kearny 
street through the block between Sacramento and Clay.)
 
In 1836 Juana Briones, wife of Apolonario Miranda, built an adobe house on 
the westerly side of Telegraph hill, where now Powell and Filbert streets 
cross, in what is known as the North Beach. For years it was the only 
house between Yerba Buena and the presidio. Here she had a small farm and 
supplied milk, eggs, etc., to the ships. She was noted for her generous 
kindness to sick and deserting sailors. Thomes, writing of his visit to 
Yerba Buena in 1843 says: "We pushed on, and after a short walk stood on 
the top (of Telegraph hill) * * * In the rear of the town were vast mounds 
of sand, ever changing, while at the foot of the hill, on the Golden Gate 
side, was a large adobe house, and outbuildings, the residence and rancho 
of Senora Abarono, a rich widow, where I afterwards used to go for milk 
every morning, unless off on boating duty. The lady and I struck up quite 
a friendship. She always welcomed me with a polite good-morning, and a 
drink of fresh milk. * * * If the men had had some of the energy of that 
buxom, dark-faced lady, California would have been a prosperous state, 
even before it was annexed to this country, and we would have had to fight 
harder than we did to get possession."(*) In 1838 Apolonario Miranda 
obtained one hundred varas of land near the presidio, known as the Ojo de 
Figueroa--the Well of Figueroa--where he had previously built a house. 
This well, which is still flowing, is near the middle of Lyon street, 
between Vallejo and Green. The water has been used until quite recently.

(* Thomes: On Land and Sea, 187-8. Telegraph hill and the Golden Gate had 
not received those names in 1843, nor was "Senora Abarono" a widow then. 
The foreigners, apparently, could not understand the Spanish custom of 
calling a married woman by her maiden name. A baptismal entry, for 
instance, would be (time, place, and name): "hija legitima de Apolonario 
Miranda y de su legitima esposa Juana Briones." If she wrote her name in 
full it would read, Juana Briones de Miranda. Of course she was always 
called "Juana Briones." Brown says (Early Days): "Mr. Baroma and family 
resided at North Beach, near Washerwomen's Bay.")

In 1842 Peter Sherreback, a native of Denmark, obtained a fifty vara lot 
on the southeast corner of Washington and Kearny streets and in 1843 built 
a wooden house on the lot. This gave way to the El Dorado gambling house 
destroyed by fire in 1849 and again in 1850. In 1850, Sherreback built on 
the rear of this lot, a house of entertainment known as "Our House" where 
refreshments, liquid and solid, could be obtained. There was neither bar 
nor counter, but on a table in the middle of the room was placed wine and 
spirits, and those who desired helped themselves. 

In 1837 Francisco Sanchez received a hundred vara lot next to 
Richardson's--the fourth grant made in Yerba Buena, which in 1844 he sold 
to Captain John Paty who built a house on it. Paty was a prominent ship-
master on the coast in the Hawaiian trade and was senior captain or 
commodore in the Hawaiian navy. He was associated with H. D. Fitch, Abel 
Stearns, and James McKinley in various enterprises, and in 1843-5 Paty and 
McKinley had a store in Yerba Buena, occupying the casa grande of 
Richardson which McKinley bought in 1842. James McKinley was also a well-
known trader. Bancroft says he was a Scotch sailor boy who had been left 
at San Francisco or Santa Barbara in 1824 by a whaler. He lived in Los 
Angeles and later in Monterey where he married Carmen, daughter of Jose 
Amesti and Prudenciana Vallejo, and niece, therefore, of General Vallejo. 
Josiah Belden, who came with the Bartleson party in 1841, was clerk for 
Paty and McKinley. Belden became very wealthy through fortunate 
investments in San Francisco real estate. 

One of the most enterprising and public spirited citizens of Yerba Buena 
was William Alexander Leidesdorff He was a native of the Danish West 
Indies, and came to California in 1841 as master of the American schooner 
Julia Ann sailing between California and Honolulu. In 1843 he obtained 
from Alcalde Sanchez the fifty vara lot on the southwest corner of Kearny 
and Clay streets and the fifty vara back of it in Clay street. In 1844 or 
'45 he erected a warehouse on the beach at the foot of California street 
at what was afterwards the corner of California and Leidesdorff streets, 
on a lot which was granted to him by Alcalde Noe April 22, 1846. The 
building was later used as a United States quartermaster's warehouse. In 
1846 Leidesdorff built a large adobe house on his lot on the southwest 
corner of Clay and Kearny streets. This he occupied first as a store and   
dwelling, but later leased it to J. H. Brown, who opened it as Brown's 
hotel November 1, 1846. It was later called the City hotel. In 1848-9 it 
was the headquarters of the gamblers and in 1849 was leased for sixteen 
thousand dollars, and sublet for stores and rooms at a great profit. It 
was the stopping place for officers of the army and navy during 1846-8, 
and it was there, according to Brown, that the declaration of independence 
was read by Captain Montgomery, July 4, 1846, five days before the 
American occupation. It was destroyed by the fire of May 4, 1851. 

In 1844 Leidesdorff was naturalized and was granted the Rio de los 
Americanos rancho, eight leagues (35,500 acres) on the left bank of the 
American river. The town of Folsom is on this grant. In 1845 Larkin 
appointed Leidesdorff vice-consul of the United States. He took an active 
part in all the affairs of the town, was captain of the port, treasurer, 
etc., and an enthusiastic advocate of the American cause, going so far as 
to support the Bear Flag movement, and, it is said, advising the arrest of 
Hinckley and Ridley with whom he had quarreled. Leidesdorff owned the 
first steamer that ever sailed on the bay of San Francisco--a little craft 
thirty-seven feet long by nine feet breadth of beam, drawing eighteen 
inches of water. She was built at Sitka by an American, as a pleasure boat 
for the Russian officers, and bought by Leidesdorff and brought to San 
Francisco on the Russian bark Naslednik in October 1847, and on the 28th 
of November she started for Sacramento carrying ten or a dozen souls, 
including the owner and several passengers, and made the passage in six 
days and seven hours. She was called the Sitka.(*)

(* McKinstry Papers, MS. Bancroft Collection. The author says: "She was so 
very crank that the weight of one man on her guard would put her on her 
beam ends, and when the order was given to trim ship we would pass Mrs. 
Gregson's baby over to starboard or larboard.")

Leidesdorff died suddenly of brain fever on the 18th of May 1848, at the 
age of thirty-eight, leaving a large and valuable estate. Colonel Mason, 
governor of California, advised Consul Larkin to take charge of the 
estate, being under the impression that Leidesdorff was an American 
citizen. On finding however that he was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, 
Mason directed John Townsend, alcalde of San Francisco, to place the 
estate in charge of safe, competent men under bond of double its value. 
Townsend appointed W. D. M. Howard administrator. Leidesdorff was buried 
at the Mission Dolores with imposing ceremonies befitting his prominence 
and social virtues. His estate was heavily encumbered, owing some forty 
thousand dollars, and it was thought doubtful if enough could be realized 
from it to pay the debts, but the discovery of gold settled that and the 
estate became immensely valuable. Captain Joseph L. Folsom went to St. 
Croix, Danish West Indies, and bought from the heirs--the mother and 
sisters of Leidesdorff--the estate in California for seventy-five thousand 
dollars and later paid fifteen or twenty thousand more, the property being 
then worth several hundred thousand dollars. 

In 1844 the governor authorized the building of a custom house at San 
Francisco, the cost not to exceed eight hundred dollars. While Monterey 
was the only port of entry, San Francisco had a receiver of customs and a 
few thousand dollars were annually paid there. The receiver in 1844 had 
his office in Richardson's casa grande which was then occupied by William 
H. Davis as agent for Paty and McKinley. Work on the custom house was 
begun in the summer of 1844, and the building completed in September 1845. 
The work was done mostly by Indians and some of the material was obtained 
from the presidio. It was built of adobe, with tile roof, one story and an 
attic, fifty-six and a half feet long by twenty-two feet wide, with a 
veranda six feet wide running across the front and both ends, and it 
contained four rooms. It cost about twenty-eight hundred dollars and it 
stood on the northwest corner of the plaza (Portsmouth square) with its 
front to the plaza and its north end on Washington street. This was the 
"old adobe" and "old" custom house so frequently mentioned by writers of 
early times. On the American occupation it was used as a barrack. In front 
stood the flag pole on which Montgomery raised the American flag. Later 
the building was used by the alcalde and revenue officers and as law 
offices. In July 1850, Palmer, Cook & Co. had their banking office in the 
south end and adjoining the bank were the law offices of H. H. Haight. 
Edward Bosqui who was a clerk in the bank and slept on the office counter, 
was awakened one night by a noise outside the building. He looked out of 
the window and witnessed the pleasing spectacle of a man being hanged from 
one of the beams of the veranda, a few feet from his window. It was the 
vigilance committee hanging Jenkins. 

Bosqui tells of climbing up to the attic, which proved to be a long, 
narrow, dimly lighted room, filled with a varied assortment of flint lock 
muskets, pikes, lances, battle-flags, ammunition, cartridge-boxes, tents, 
and other war-like stores. The building and all of its contents were 
destroyed by fire in 1851.(*)

(* Bosqui: Memoirs, pp. 45-58.)

In 1839 or '40 Spear built a two story frame building for a mill on the 
north side of Clay street between Montgomery and Kearny. It stood fifteen 
feet back from Clay street, was run by mule power, and was the first grist 
mill in California. Daniel Sill was the builder and miller. Thomes in 1843 
speaks of an old adobe mill about a cable's length from Clark's Point, run 
by mule power, which ground out some sweet and nutritious but very dark 
flour.(*) It was not an adobe building and was more than a cable's length 
from Clark's Point, but Thomes was writing from recollection many years 
after.

(* Thomes: On Land and Sea, p. 186. The building was sold in 1848 to 
Cross, Hobson & Co., who used it for store, dwelling, and office building.)

In 1844 Benito Diaz built an adobe house on the east side of Montgomery 
street, between Jackson and Pacific, near the lagoon. In 1847 Diaz sold 
this to Alfred J. Ellis who opened a boarding house and groggery. Beside 
the house was a well twenty-three feet deep. When a peculiar taste to the 
whisky caused Ellis to suspect the water, he cleaned out the well and 
found a drowned Russian sailor. Brown says that most of the citizens had 
been to Ellis' saloon and had drunk the water and with some of them it 
went very hard. Captain John Paty lay in bed for two days from the effect 
of it, and Robert A. Parker and many others were made very sick.(*)

(* Brown: Early Days, Chap. iv.)

John Finch, known as "John Tinker," an English blacksmith and tinker, 
built in 1844-5 a saloon and bowling alley on the northwest corner of 
Kearny and Washington streets where afterwards stood Wright & Co.'s 
Miners' Bank and later the Bella Union theater. John Finch was present at 
the raising of the American flag July 9, 1846. 

William Davis Merry Howard, one of the principal citizens of San 
Francisco, was a native of Boston and came to California in 1839 as cabin-
boy on the ship California. He worked for a while as clerk for Abel 
Stearns in Los Angeles and was for several years supercargo of various 
Boston vessels in the California trade. In 1845 he formed a partnership 
with Henry Mellus and bought the Hudson's Bay property on Montgomery 
street. Mellus came on the brig Pilgrim with Richard H. Dana, and left  
the vessel to become clerk for Alfred Robinson, the company's agent; he 
was supercargo of several of the Boston vessels, including the Admittance, 
the ship that brought Thomes in 1843. The firm of Mellus and Howard became 
very wealthy. Mellus married a daughter of James Johnson of Los Angeles, 
whose wife was a Guirado, and in 1850 withdrew from the firm. His name was 
originally given to Natoma street but the citizens were angered by charges 
made by him against Howard and changed the name of the street to Natoma. 

In 1848 Mellus and Howard built on the southwest corner of Clay and 
Montgomery streets the first brick building in San Francisco, and 
transferred their business to this store. They were also the principal 
promoters of the Central Wharf project, now Commercial street, and gave to 
the company the right of way--thirty-five feet--across the block owned by 
them and bounded by Clay, Sacramento, Sansome, and Battery streets. Howard 
was a large, fine-looking man, deservedly popular with all classes, and 
taking an active interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the 
town. His name was first given to Sacramento street and later, in 1848-9, 
to Howard street. His first wife, who died in 1849, was an adopted 
daughter of Captain Eliab Grimes of Honolulu and San Francisco. His second 
was Agnes, daughter of Dr. J. Henry Poett. He died in 1856, at the age of 
thirty-seven, leaving one son by his second wife.(*)

(* Howard Presbyterian Church was named for him. He gave the land on which 
the church was built, and was very liberal in contributions of money.)

In 1845-6 Stephen Smith of Bodega obtained a fifty vara lot on the 
southeast corner of Dupont and Washington streets where he built a wooden 
house. In 1846 he leased it to Sam Brannan who lived and published the 
Star there. Smith was a native of Maryland and came to California first 
from Peru in 1841. He obtained permission of Governor Alvarado to set up a 
steam saw-mill with a promise of land suitable for his operations. He 
brought the mill machinery from Baltimore in 1843, and with it also three 
pianos, the first steam mill and the first pianos in California. In 1844 
he was naturalized and received from Micheltorena a grant of eight leagues 
of land at Bodega and there he set up his mill. 

By the operation of a law increasing the number of inhabitants necessary 
for a municipal government, San Francisco lost its ayuntamiento in 1838. 
From that time until September, 1847, the town was ruled by an alcalde, 
who was a judge of first instance, and tried all minor cases. Noe, the 
last alcalde under Mexican rule, lived on the northeast corner of Dupont 
and Clay streets. Jose de Jesus Noe came with the Híjar and Padres colony 
in 1834 and settled in San Francisco. In December 1845, Noe received from 
Pio Pico a grant of the San Miguel rancho, one league, in what is now the 
geographical center of the City and County of San Francisco. A tract of 
one thousand and fifty acres of the rancho is yet undivided and belongs to 
the estate of the late Adolph Sutro. Francisco Guerrero y Palomares, was 
another of the Híjar and Padres colonists who settled in San Francisco. He 
was receptor and administrator of customs, alcalde, and was sub-prefect of 
the San Francisco partido, at the time of the conquest, and again under 
American rule, in 1849. He was a man of high standing and well regarded by 
Americans as well as Californians. He married Josefa, daughter of 
Francisco de Haro, and both he and De Haro lived at the Mission Dolores. 
Guerrero was murdered in San Francisco in 1851. He bought from Galindo in 
1837 the Rancho Laguna de la Merced in San Francisco, and in 1844 was 
granted Corral de Tierra rancho at Half Moon bay. 

According to Davis the inhabitants of Yerba Buena in July 1846, numbered 
about one hundred and fifty. I have accounted for some of the more 
important ones and the rest, consisting mainly of small traders, saloon 
keepers, and mechanics, I see no reason for enumerating here. Davis 
mentions Henry Teschmacher and R. S. Sherman as residing in Yerba Buena at 
that time, but I think they were later in settling there. 

AUTHORITIES: Bancroft, Hist. of Cal. ii-vi; Davis' Sixty Years; Hittell, 
Hist. S. F.; Bosqui, Memoirs; Thomes, On Land and Sea; Soule, Gihon and 
Nisbet, Annals of San Francisco; San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 26, 1909; 
Alta Cal., Feb. 17, 1867; Brown, Early Days; Dwinelle, Colonial Hist.; 
Simpson, Narrative; Cong. Doc. Senate No. 17. 



CHAPTER XVI. THE CONQUEST

It was believed that Mexico, torn with internal dissensions, would not be 
able to maintain much longer its feeble hold on the rich province of 
California, and it was known that a change of nationality would not be 
unwelcome to the higher classes of citizens, both native born and 
naturalized. The Americans were rapidly colonizing the country and made 
little effort to conceal their intention of acquiring possession. It was 
also understood that the English in California were making strong efforts 
to induce their government to interfere with the evident plan of the 
Americans to appropriate the country by the filibustering method. The 
actions of the Bear Flag party at Sonoma and elsewhere confirmed the 
belief of the English residents and the course of events was closely 
watched. In Yerba Buena interest was quickened by the arrival, shortly 
after the affair at Sonoma, of the United States sloop-of-war Portsmouth, 
twenty-four guns, which came in quietly and dropped her anchor in front of 
the town. Rumors were current of an expected conflict between the 
Portsmouth and an English man-of-war, for which, it was said, Forbes, the 
English consul, had sent to Mazatlan. On board the Portsmouth strict 
vigilance was maintained and the men were refused shore leave. Brown says 
that one morning early in July, they were startled by the report of a 
large gun and in a few minutes heard the long roll beat on board the 
Portsmouth and the ship was cleared for action, the guns run out and every 
man was at his post. The people came out of their houses expecting to see 
an engagement as an English war ship sailed into port and came to anchor 
abreast of the Portsmouth. She proved to be an English frigate on 
surveying service. 

On the 8th of July, Captain John B. Montgomery of the Portsmouth received 
orders from Commodore Sloat to take possession of Yerba Buena and the 
northern frontier. Sloat advised Montgomery of his action at Monterey and 
enclosed him copies of his proclamation, in English and Spanish, 
instructing him to hoist the flag in Yerba Buena within reach of his guns 
and post the proclamation in both languages. 

About eight o'clock on the morning of July 9th, Montgomery landed with 
seventy men at the foot of Clay street, marched to the music of fife and 
drum up Clay to Kearny, thence to the plaza, where he hoisted the American 
flag on the pole in front of the custom house. There was no Mexican flag 
on the pole to haul down, for the receptor de la aduana (receiver of 
customs), Don Rafael Pinto, had departed to join Castro and had taken the 
flag and placed it with his official papers in a trunk which he left with 
Leidesdorff for safe keeping. Montgomery's force consisted of a company of 
marines under Lieutenant Henry B. Watson and a few sailors under 
Lieutenant John S. Misroon. There was not a Mexican official in town from 
whom to demand a surrender. Sub-prefect Guerrero had retired to his 
rancho; the acting commander of San Francisco, Francisco Sanchez, had sent 
all his available militiamen to Castro, and, having no force to oppose the 
American commander, avoided the mortification of a surrender by retiring 
to his rancho; Port-captain Ridley was a prisoner in the hands of the 
Bears, and Receptor Pinto was with Castro. 

The Portsmouth saluted the flag with twenty-one guns and the salute was 
followed by three hearty cheers on shore and on board. Captain Montgomery 
made a short address to the people assembled and then Sloat's proclamation 
was read in English and Spanish and copies in both languages were posted 
on the flagstaff. Lieutenant Watson was appointed military commander and 
with his marines took possession of the custom house. In his address, 
Montgomery invited citizens willing to join a local militia to meet at 
Leidesdorff's house and form a military company, choosing their own 
officers. He said that in case of attack all necessary force would be 
landed from the Portsmouth. The meeting was held and a company organized 
with W. D. M. Howard as captain, William M. Smith, first lieutenant, John 
Rose, second lieutenant, and about twenty privates. Lieutenant Misroon, 
with Purser James H. Watmough of the Portsmouth, Leidesdorff, and several 
volunteers made a tour of the presidio and fort. At the fort they found 
three brass cannon and seven of iron, spiked by Fremont. Two days later, 
in company with Leidesdorff and a party of marines, Misroon visited the 
mission and removed therefrom a lot of public documents. San Francisco 
thus became an American town without the firing of a gun and with the 
apparent satisfaction of most of its citizens. 

On the 9th, before landing, Montgomery sent Lieutenant Joseph Warren 
Revere in the ship's boat to Sonoma to take possession and raise the flag. 
Revere arrived at Sonoma before noon, and summoning the troops of the 
garrison (Bears) and the inhabitants of the place to the plaza, he read to 
them Sloat's proclamation and then hauling down the Bear flag he raised 
the stars and stripes in its place, much to the satisfaction of the 
Californians. Revere sent an express to the commander at Sutter' s fort 
with a United States flag to be raised and a copy of the proclamation to 
be read; also one to Stephen Smith at Bodega. The flags were hoisted at 
both places with the proper ceremonies. At Yerba Buena all was quiet. At 
Montgomery's invitation Captain Sanchez came in on the twelfth and pointed 
out where two guns were buried, and a few days Sub-prefect Guerrero came 
from his rancho at Montgomery's request and gave up the papers of his 
department. Lieutenant Misroon landed a party of blue jackets from the 
Portsmouth and constructed a battery at Punta del Embarcadero (Clark's 
Point). The work was begun about July 17th. High on the steep bluff facing 
the bay Misroon excavated a terrace whereon he mounted a battery of five 
guns.(*) This was called "the battery" and gave the name to Battery 
street, whose lines intersect it at Broadway. It was later called Fort 
Montgomery. The battery was in existence as late as the fall of 1849. On 
the 31st of July the ship Brooklyn arrived from New York, with about two 
hundred Mormons in charge of Elder Samuel Brannan. They had sailed from 
New York February 4th and June 20th were at Honolulu where they met 
Commodore Stockton about to sail for Monterey. Surmising that California 
would soon be occupied by the United States and not knowing what they 
might find there, Brannan bought in Honolulu one hundred and fifty stands 
of arms and drilled the men of his company on the way over. He had 
announced to Brigham Young before sailing that he would select the most 
suitable site on the bay of San Francisco for the location of a commercial 
city, but finding the United States in possession the project was 
abandoned.

(* Two brass pieces from the old Spanish fort; two from Sonoma, and one 
brass twelve pounder dug up at the presidio where it had been buried.)

The landing of the Mormons more than doubled the population of Yerba 
Buena. They camped for a time on the beach and the vacant lots, then some 
went to the Marin forests to work as lumbermen, some were housed in the 
old mission buildings and others in Richardson's casa grande on Dupont 
street. They were honest and industrious people, and all sought work 
wherever they could find it. 

The peace and quiet of the town was undisturbed by anything more serious 
than the arrest of a few of the Portsmouth's men for disorderly conduct 
and one or two causeless alarms. Brown says that Lieutenant Watson was in 
the habit of coming to him at the Portsmouth house at a very late hour 
each night after he had gone to bed, to have his flask filled with whisky. 
Watson would come to Brown's window and give two raps on the shutter. When 
Brown answered, Watson would say, "The Spaniards are in the brush." At 
that Brown would get up and fill his bottle and Watson would go on duty. 
One night after Brown had gone to bed, Watson came as usual, and gave the 
signal, but Brown failed to awaken, when Watson, who had been drinking, 
fired his pistol and sang out at the top of his voice, "The Spaniards are 
in the brush." Instantly the guard at the barracks gave the alarm, the 
long roll was beaten and the men turned out under arms. The Portsmouth 
signaled to know if she should land a party, and the Mormons assembling 
with arms and ammunition ready for service, remained at the Portsmouth 
house for about three hours. Some shots were fired at what were supposed 
to be "Spaniards in the brush," but which were found to be only scrub oaks 
swaying in the breeze. In the morning Watson put Brown under bonds of 
secrecy, and the town resumed its tranquillity; but that they might be 
prepared in case the Spaniards really should attack, Lieutenant Misroon 
landed with a small party of sailors and constructed a log blockhouse at 
or near the northwest corner of Dupont and Sacramento streets on which was 
mounted a large Spanish gun from the presidio. After peace was declared 
this house was used as a jail by the alcalde.(*)

(* Brown: Early Days, Chap. ii. Alta California, Oct. 26, 1852. The oldest 
inhabitant (1911) has no knowledge of this blockhouse.)

Another alarm was caused by a City hotel coffee pot which exploded with a 
loud report. The long roll was beaten, the marines turned out and the 
citizens of the militia formed in line at the barracks. There was nothing 
more serious than a badly scalded cook. 

On August 26 Montgomery appointed Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett 
alcalde, and ordered an election on the 15th of September following, when 
Bartlett was elected alcalde, his opponent being Robert T. Ridley. This 
first election under American rule was held in a back room of 
Leidesdorff's store--afterwards the City hotel. Brown claims that he made 
the ballot box from a box holding bottles of lemon syrup which Ridley had 
bought of Stephen Smith of Bodega. The inspectors were William H. Davis, 
Frank Ward, Francisco Guerrero, and Francisco de Haro. Ninety-six votes 
were cast; of these Bartlett received sixty-six, Ridley twenty-nine, and 
Spear one. John Rose was elected treasurer and Peter Sherreback, 
collector. 

On July 23d Sloat turned over the command in California to Commodore 
Robert F. Stockton, and on the twenty-eighth sailed for home on the 
Levant. In the last days of September the frigates Savannah and Congress 
arrived from Monterey, the latter flying the pennant of Commodore 
Stockton, and on October 5th, the citizens tendered the commodore a public 
reception, which was accepted by him with much pleasure. Guerrero, 
Sanchez, Vasquez, and all the rancheros in the vicinity sent, for the 
procession, the choicest horses from their caponeras,(*) numbering a 
hundred or more. The people came in from all the surrounding country, and 
as the commodore landed from his barge at the foot of Clay street he was 
met by Montgomery, Bartlett, and Frank Ward, while the orator of the day, 
Colonel W. H. Russell, made the distinguished guest a flowery speech of 
welcome and presented him to the people. Then the procession, led by the 
chief marshall, Frank Ward, with a military escort under Lieutenant Jacob 
Zeilin, U. S. N., marched from Sacramento and Montgomery streets to 
Washington, to Kearny, to Clay, to Dupont, to Washington, and down 
Washington to Montgomery street where a platform had been erected. Here 
the people gathered while Stockton made them an address and gave them an 
account of the conquest of Southern California.[37] At the conclusion of 
the address, the commodore with an escort of citizens made a tour on 
horseback to the presidio and mission and returned to a collation at 
Leidesdorff's residence.(**) The ceremonies concluded with a ball in the 
evening. Davis says that Stockton was a good horseman, was fine looking, 
of dark complexion, with a frank and offhand manner, active and energetic, 
and he impressed them as a strong man of decided ability. One of the first 
acts of Stockton on assuming command, was to order the release of General 
Vallejo and the other prisoners of the Bears confined at Sutter's fort. 
Why they were not released on the day the American flag was raised on the 
fort no one seems to know.

(* A caponera is a band of horses kept up by the ranchero for his private 
use. It consists of twenty-five of his best animals under the lead of a 
bell mare.)
(** Lancey in the Cruise of the Dale, 131-2, says that the procession 
consisted of Captain J. B. Montgomery and suite, Lieutenant Bartlett, 
magistrate of the district, the orator of the day, foreign consuls, 
Captain John Paty, senior captain Hawaiian navy, Lieut.-commander 
Rudacoff, Russian navy, Lieut.-commander Bonnett, French navy, General 
Vallejo and others, who had held office under the late government; the 
captains of the ships, and a long line of citizens. He says that Stockton, 
in response to a toast at the collation, made an eloquent address an hour 
long in which he alluded to the revolt in the south and said that if one 
hair of the heads of the brave men he had left to garrison San Diego, Los 
Angeles, or Santa Barbara should be harmed, "he would wade knee deep in 
his own blood to avenge it." "As Commodore Stockton was small of stature," 
says Lancey, "this was considered as a very great sacrificial offer.")

Throughout the disturbances incident to the state of war then existing, 
most of the rancheros of the better class remained quietly on their farms 
and submitted to the requisitions of Fremont and the other officers of the 
California battalion for horses, cattle, and other property for the use of 
the army, which they were obliged to exchange for Fremont's receipts. With 
these requisitions, which were perhaps regular, came other and more 
exasperating demands from irresponsible Americans who carried on the work 
of plunder under the pretense of military necessity. This at last became 
unendurable and the Californians determined to make an effort to protect 
their property.(*) On the 8th of December Alcalde Bartlett with five men 
started down the peninsula to obtain some cattle. Francisco Sanchez at the 
rancho of San Pablo, who had suffered severely from such demands and had 
lost not only his own horses but those of Mellus and Howard under his 
care, assembled a small party and captured Bartlett and his men and 
carried them prisoners to the hills. Other rancheros joined him until he 
had about one hundred men under his command. After some delay Commander 
Hull of the United States sloop-of-war Warren, who had succeeded 
Montgomery in command at San Francisco, sent one hundred men, under 
command of Captain Ward Marston of the marines, to put down this 
rebellion. The force consisted of marines and seamen from the ships and 
mounted volunteers from San Jose and from Yerba Buena. The rival forces 
met on the plains of Santa Clara on the 2d of January 1847. After a sharp 
engagement of several hours during which two Americans were slightly 
wounded and the Californians were unhurt, Sanchez withdrew his men into 
the hills and sent in a flag of truce stating his grievances and offering 
to submit if the United States would guarantee protection of property.(**) 
An armistice was agreed upon until the commandant at San Francisco could 
be heard from. Two days later a reply was received from the commander 
stating that the surrender must be unconditional but giving unofficial 
assurances that property should no longer be seized without the proper 
formalities and receipts.(***) The terms were accepted; San Francisco's 
alcalde was returned to his anxious friends and the Californians returned 
to their ranchos. This was the famous campaign and battle of Santa Clara 
about which so much absurd stuff has been written. 

(* Walter Colton says: "The principal sufferers are men who have remained 
quietly on their farms and whom we are bound in honor as well as sound 
policy to protect. To permit such men to be plundered under the filched 
authority of our flag, is a national reproach." Three Years in California, 
p. 155.)
(** Col. Mason reports to Adjutant-general June 18, 1847, that very many 
claimants had their property taken and no receipt or certificate given for 
it. Ex. Doc. 17, Ho. of Rep. 31st Cong. 1st Ses.)
(*** Bancroft: Hist. Cal., v, pp. 378-383; Colton: Three Years in Cal. p. 
152-3; Hall: Hist. San Jose, 157 et seq.; Davis: Sixty Years in 
California.)

About the first of December 1846 the Warren's launch was sent up the 
Sacramento river with twelve men, including two sons of Captain 
Montgomery: William H., acting master of the Warren and John E., his 
father's secretary, with Midshipman Daniel C. Hugenin. She carried, it is 
supposed, money to pay the garrison at Sutter's fort. They never arrived 
at Sutter's and after several weeks Robert Ridley was sent in another 
launch up the Sacramento and San Joaquin, but found no trace of boat or 
crew. Ridley's opinion was that the boat was lost in a gale shortly after 
setting out, though there were those who thought that the officers had 
been murdered by the crew.(*)

(* Bancroft: Hist. Cal., v. p. 384)

On the 30th of January 1847, a notice appeared in the California Star 
signed by Washington A. Bartlett, ordering the name of San Francisco to be 
used on all public documents or records appertaining to the town. The 
order stated that the name of Yerba Buena was but local, originating from 
the name of the cove on which the town was built, and "therefore, to 
prevent confusion and mistakes in public documents, and that the town may 
have the advantage of the name given on the public maps, it is hereby 
ordered that the name of San Francisco shall be hereafter used in all 
official communications and public documents or records appertaining to 
the town." 

On the 22d of February 1847, Lieutenant Bartlett was ordered to his ship 
by the commanding officer of the squadron, and Edwin Bryant was appointed 
alcalde by General Kearny. Bryant was a native of Massachusetts who came 
overland in 1846 and served in the California battalion as lieutenant of 
company H. It was during his administration that the tide land grant was 
made by General Kearny to the town of San Francisco and the survey of 
Jasper O'Farrell was extended to include the beach and water property. 
Bryant resigned May 28th and returned to the East with General Kearny, 
leaving the valley of the Sacramento June 19th and reaching Fort 
Leavenworth August 22d, making the journey in sixty-four days. He 
published his book, What I Saw in California, in 1849; the same year he 
came across the plains to California and for several years was a citizen 
of San Francisco. He died in Louisville, Ky., in 1869 at the age of sixty-
four. 

George Hyde, who succeeded Edwin Bryant, was appointed by Kearny first 
alcalde May 28th. He was a native of Pennsylvania and came on the United 
States frigate Congress in 1846 as secretary to Commodore Stockton. He 
served as second alcalde under Lieutenant Bartlett while that officer was 
a prisoner in the Montara hills, and was first alcalde from June 1847 to 
April 1848. Hyde had many controversies with the citizens and charges were 
preferred against him by Ward, Brannan, and Ross; these charges Colonel 
Mason instructed the counsel to investigate. Hyde seems to have had the 
faculty of creating violent opposition, but was, I think, fully vindicated 
from all charges of official misconduct. In June 1848-9 Hyde lived on Clay 
street near Dupont, occupying the house afterwards known as the "Sazerac." 
Later he lived on Broadway whence he removed to a grassy lot of 
considerable size quite out of town, near the junction of Post, Market, 
and Montgomery streets, where he built a large square house surrounded by 
a garden and lawn. The Mechanics' Library building now occupies a portion 
of this lot and the rest of it still belongs to the Hyde estate. 

Early in March 1847 the ship Thomas H. Perkins arrived from New York 
bringing Colonel Stevenson and the first detachment of his regiment, the 
Seventh New York volunteers, who were enlisted for the war and were to be 
disbanded in California to become settlers. Jonathan Drake Stevenson was 
born in the city of New York January 1, 1800. He was private secretary to 
Governor Thompkins of New York and colonel of a New York militia regiment. 
In January 1846 he was a member of the New York legislature and in June of 
that year President Polk offered him the command of a volunteer regiment 
for service in California, if he could raise one. Stevenson accepted the 
commission and opened the rolls in New York, July 7th; by the end of July 
the lists were filled and on August 1st the regiment was mustered into 
service at Governor's island. On September 26th the expedition sailed on 
three transports, the Thomas H. Perkins, the Loo Choo, and the Susan Drew, 
under convoy of the United States man-of-war Preble. The regiment was 
mustered in as the Seventh but afterwards changed to the First New York 
volunteers. Several officers of the regular army were assigned to the 
regiment while the rank and file were mostly young men and the rough 
element was largely represented. Though their record in California was not 
altogether enviable, and some of their number ended their careers on the 
gallows, the muster roll of the regiment contains the names of a large 
number of men of standing who attained positions of wealth and influence. 
I can give here but few of the best known names. Colonel Stevenson was a 
familiar figure in San Francisco where he lived much respected until his 
death, February 14th, 1894, at the venerable age of ninety-four. The 
lieutenant-colonel, Henry S. Burton, and the major, James A. Hardie, both 
regular army officers, became general officers in the war of secession. 
Joseph L. Folsom, captain and assistant quartermaster, also a regular army 
officer, is frequently mentioned in this story. He died at Mission San 
Jose in 1855, a very wealthy man. Henry M. Naglee, captain of company D, 
was a graduate of West Point and a lieutenant of the regular army. He saw 
some active service in Lower California where he received the severe 
censure of his commander for causing two prisoners to be shot. For this 
Colonel Mason ordered Naglee's arrest and reported the matter to the 
adjutant-general to be laid before the president for his action, but the 
end of the war and the mustering out of the regiment prevented further 
prosecution of the matter. Captain Naglee established the first bank in 
San Francisco January 9, 1849, under the firm name of Naglee and Sinton. 
His partner was Richard H. Sinton who came on the line-of-battle ship Ohio 
in 1848, with Commodore Jones, as acting paymaster. The "Exchange and 
Deposit Office" of Naglee and Sinton was in the Parker house on Kearny 
street, fronting the plaza, now the site of the Hall of Justice. Sinton 
soon withdrew and after the destruction of the Parker house by fire, the 
business was continued on the corner of Montgomery and Merchant streets, 
under the name of H. M. Naglee & Company, until closed by a run on the 7th 
of September 1850. Naglee served in the war of secession as lieutenant-
colonel of the regular army and was made a brigadier-general of 
volunteers. He returned to California, became a man of great wealth, 
settled in San Jose, and was a well-known viticulturist and manufacturer 
of brandy. He died March 5, 1885. Francis J. Lippitt, captain of company 
F, was prominent in city affairs, speaker of the "Legislative Assembly" of 
San Francisco, member of constitutional convention, colonel of First 
California infantry in the war of secession. John B. Frisbie, captain of 
company H, became a railroad director, bank president, etc. Edward 
Gilbert, lieutenant of company H, first editor of the Alta California, 
member of constitutional convention, first member of congress for 
California, was killed by General J. W. Denver in a duel in 1852. William 
E. Shannon, captain of company I, was a member of the constitutional 
convention and author of the section of the bill of rights that forbade 
slavery in California. Shannon was born in Ireland and came to the United 
States at the age of seven, his father settling in Steuben county, New 
York. He studied law but joined the regiment for California in 1846. He 
was for a while a trader at Coloma and later a lawyer at Sacramento, where 
he died of cholera in 1850. Nelson Taylor, captain of company E, was a 
member of the first legislature, became a prominent citizen of Stockton, 
went to New York in 1856, served in the war of secession where he became a 
brigadier-general, and in 1865 was member of congress. Edwards C. 
Williams, first lieutenant of the company, was a prominent lumber 
manufacturer in San Francisco and for many years president of the 
Mendocino Lumber Company. He is one of the few survivors of the regiment, 
and, rich in that which should accompany old age, lives honored and 
respected in his Oakland home. There, in January 1911, he gave me many 
interesting details of the officers and men of this regiment that was 
mustered out of service more than sixty-three years ago. Thomas L. 
Vermeule, second lieutenant of company E, was a member of the 
constitutional convention, a well-known lawyer and politician. Edward H. 
Harrison, quartermaster's clerk, was afterwards a prominent merchant of 
San Francisco, of the firm of De Witt and Harrison. Thaddeus M. 
Leavenworth, chaplain of the regiment, was second alcalde of San Francisco 
under Hyde and Townsend, and first alcalde, 1848-9. James L. C. Wadsworth 
was sutler's clerk, and a well-known resident of San Francisco. Sherman O. 
Houghton was sergeant of company A, a prominent lawyer, mayor of San Jose, 
and member of congress, 1871-5. He is living in Los Angeles.(*) He married 
Mary M. Donner, and after her death, Eliza P. Donner, her cousin, both 
survivors of the Donner party. The Russ family, well known in San 
Francisco, came, twelve in number, on the Loo Choo, the father and three 
sons having enlisted as privates in the regiment in consequence of losing 
by burglary the entire stock of their jewelery store in New York. Of them 
more later.

(* The survivors of the Stevenson regiment living in California in January 
1911 are: Edwards C. Williams, Oakland; Sherman O. Houghton, Los Angeles; 
Thomas E. Ketcham, Stockton; Joseph Sims, Franklin; and Charles F. Smith, 
Soldier's Home.)

The Perkins carried the colonel, the surgeon, the quartermaster, and 
companies B, F, and G; the Loo Choo, companies A, C, and K, Major Hardie, 
Assistant-surgeon Parker, and Chaplain Leavenworth; while the Susan Drew 
had companies D, E, I, and H, with Lieutenant-colonel Burton, Commissary 
Marcy, and Assistant-surgeon Murray. 

The Perkins came in on March 5th, the Susan Drew on the nineteenth, and 
the Loo Choo on the twenty-fifth, while some men who had been left behind 
in New York came on the ship Brutus, April 18th. 

The war in California was over and the regiment was assigned to garrison 
duty. Companies H and K were stationed at the presidio under Major Hardie; 
A, B, and F, were sent to Santa Barbara under Lieutenant-colonel Burton; E 
and G to Los Angeles under Colonel Stevenson as commandant of the post and 
of the southern military district; company I to Monterey and later to San 
Diego; company C was stationed at Sonoma, and company D after a detail in 
pursuit of Indian horse thieves was sent to La Paz, Lower California, 
where also were sent companies A and B, with Lieutenant-colonel Burton in 
command. These three companies, A, B, and D, were the only ones that saw 
any active service. On the ratification of the treaty of peace, the 
regiment, enlisted for the war, was mustered out of service in August, 
September, and October, 1848. There were many complaints of 
insubordination and disorder while in the service and it was stated that 
the company officers had little control over the men. Colonel Mason 
reports the serious mutiny, at La Paz, of the men of company A, affecting 
the entire command, and necessitating the sending of the Independence from 
Mazatlan to restore order. He also complains of the bad conduct of certain 
soldiers of the three companies since their return from Lower California 
to be mustered out, and states that they had committed gross acts of 
pillage upon public and private property. Several murders were credited to 
the discharged soldiers of the regiment, and there is little doubt that 
they formed a considerable portion of the organized band of desperadoes 
known as Hounds or Regulators. 

On the 15th of July 1847, Governor Mason ordered Alcalde Hyde to call an 
election for a town council of six members, but the letter was not sent 
until August 13th, and in the meanwhile Hyde had appointed a council on 
July 28th. The election was held September 13th, and William Glover, W. D. 
M. Howard, W. A. Leidesdorff, E. P. Jones, Robert A. Parker, and William 
S. Clark were elected to hold their office until the end of 1848. The 
council was authorized to make all municipal laws and regulations and to 
appoint the necessary town officers and determine their pay. This was the 
first legislative body of the town since losing its ayuntamiento in 
1838.(*)

(* Ex. Doc. 17, 31st Cong. 1st Ses. pp. 310-358, 537-8, 649-653. Bancroft: 
History of Cal. v, pp. 502-517.)

On the 7th of August 1848, Colonel Mason issued a proclamation announcing 
the ratification of a treaty of peace between the United States and the 
republic of Mexico by which California was ceded to the United States. 

One result of the conquest I can only look upon with regret. Some of the 
American officers seemed to regard the change of flag as necessitating a 
change or translation of Spanish names. To have a formal official dispatch 
transform the Ciudad de los Angeles into the City of the Angels is as 
absurd as it would be to address Don Pablo de la Guerra as Mr. Paul of the 
War. The practice of translating the Spanish names makes the dispatches of 
that date most confusing. Though the St. John, St. Joseph, Hawk's Peak, 
Bird Island, of the Conquerors have vanished, and San Juan, San Jose, 
Picacho del Gavilan, and Alcatraz are returned to their own, the Rio de 
los Americanos has become the American river, Rio de los Plumas, the 
Feather river, Isla de los Angeles, Angel island, and Isla de los Yeguas, 
Mare island. The work of transformation, begun by the officers of the army 
and navy, was carried on by uncouth mountaineer trappers and hunters and 
rude borderers of Missouri, to whom everything Spanish was poison; so, 
many a Spanish name, significant and musical was supplanted by an 
outlandish, harsh, or common-place designation.