SF Bay Area to 1892
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Daly City: http://dalycityhistorymuseum.org/
Oakland history pictures: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5b69q5bc
Richmond: http://wn.com/Point_Richmond,_Richmond,_California
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)
c560000BCÂ Â Â 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)
c100000BCÂ Â Â In 1943 construction workers in Millbrae
uncovered elephant bones that dated to about this time.
   (Ind, 9/21/02, 5A)
c100000BCÂ Â Â In 2005 bones of a Columbian mammoth
were discovered in San Jose, Ca.
   (SFC, 7/14/05, p.B1)
c33000BCÂ Â Â 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)
25000BCÂ Â Â 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)
c15000BCÂ Â Â The SF west coast extended out 6 miles
past the Farallon Islands.
   (SFC, 12/20/99, p.A8)
125000BC-80000BCÂ Â Â The Daly City Dunes on the
western end of San Bruno Mountain formed during this period, when
the North Peninsula of the San Francisco Bay Area was an island and
water lapped at the base of the mountain.
   {HistoryBC, Daly City, SF Bay Area}
  Â
(www.mountainwatch.org/kens-words/2012/1/19/save-the-daly-city-dunes.html)
c8000BCÂ Â Â Rising ocean waters flowed into the Golden
Gate and formed the nascent SF Bay.
   (SFC, 12/20/99, p.A8)
500Â Â Â Â Â Â The northern California
Emeryville Shellmound, CA-Ala 309, dates to about this
time.  Â
   (Buckeye, Winter 04/05)
1000-1400Â Â Â 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)
1579Â Â Â Â Â Â Jun 17, Sir Francis Drake
sailed into a bay in Northern California and proclaimed English
sovereignty over New Albion (California). Some claim that Sir
Francis Drake sailed into the SF Bay. Sir Francis Drake claimed the
area for England. The location 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. In 2012 Drake’s
Cove in Point Reyes was designated as the site where Drake landed
and named a national historic site.
   (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)(SFC, 10/20/12, p.A1)
1579Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 26, Francis Drake left
SF to cross Pacific Ocean.
   (MC, 7/26/02)
1769Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 30, Captain Gaspar de
Portola and his party camped at what is now Pacifica. They climbed
the ridge above Linda Mar and saw the Farallon Islands as well as
the cliffs of Point Reyes. Portola sent Sergeant Jose Ortega
out to survey what was ahead.
   (SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFC, 11/7/15,
p.C2)
1769Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1769Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1769Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1772Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 2, Father Juan Crespi
looked out over a bay, later called Suisun Bay, and believed he had
found the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Colorado
River. After Father Serra established a mission in Monterey, Ca,
Pedro Fages and Father Juan Crespi had set out to explore the SF Bay
by land.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(SFC, 5/3/13, p.D1)
1774Â Â Â Â Â Â Juan Bautista de Anza was
the first non-native to cross the Sierra to scout the Bay Area.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1775Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 5, Spanish Lieutenant
Juan Manuel de Ayala and his crew of 30 became the first European
explorers to sail into the San Francisco Bay. He anchored at Angel
Island and waited for the overland expedition of Captain Juan
Bautista de Anza. Angel Island was one of the first landforms named
by the Spanish when they entered SF Bay. The 58-foot 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.
   (CAS, 1996, p.19)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFEC,
3/8/98, p.W38)(SFC, 12/26/01, p.A28)(SFC, 8/16/14, p.C1)
1775Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 29, Mexican Captain
Juan Bautista de Anza (39) and his party of Spanish soldiers and
setters departed Tubac, Arizona, on a journey to the SF Bay Area
following reports of a great river flowing into the bay. Anza led
240 soldiers, priests and settlers to Monterey. Jose Manuel Valencia
was one of the soldiers. His son, Candelario Valencia, later served
in the military at the Presidio and owned a ranch in Lafayette and
property next to Mission Dolores. One of the soldiers was Don Salvio
Pacheco.
   (SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A22)(SFC,
9/14/13, p.C4)
1775Â Â Â Â Â Â Capt. Juan Manuel de Ayala
named SF Bay’s northernmost island Isla Plana (Flat Island). In 1835
Gen. Vallejo later renamed it Mare Island.
   (SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C1)(SFC, 1/3/15, p.D1)
1776Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 10, The expedition of
Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in Monterey, Ca.
Colonists were left in Monterey as a smaller party departed for the
SF Bay.
   (http://tinyurl.com/pltuw96)(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 28, Mexican 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 camped at Mountain Lake and 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. Laguna de los Dolores was later believed to
be a spring near the modern-day corner of Duboce and Sanchez.
  Â
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Bautista_de_Anza)(SFEC, 9/21/97,
p.C7)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(SFC, 2/19/11, p.A10)
1776Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 31, Captain Juan
Bautista de Anza and a crew that included such names as Castro,
Peralta, Bernal, Moraga, Alviso and Berryessa, among others, arrived
at the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay on a 5-day expedition
to explore the area.
   (SFC, 12/5/11, p.A1)
1777Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1792Â Â Â Â Â Â Englishman George
Vancouver sailed into the Bay on his ship Discovery. He explored the
Santa Clara Valley.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1794Â Â Â Â Â Â Gov. Diego Borica took
command of Alta California and remarked on the general fecundity of
the Bay Area.
   (Bay, 4/07, p.25)
1797Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1808Â Â Â Â Â Â An earthquake was
recorded.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1810Â Â Â Â Â Â An earthquake was
recorded.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1810-1813Â Â Â 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)
1812Â Â Â Â Â Â San Francisco Bay’s Red
Rock Island was first mentioned by Russian fur traders. In 1826 it
was charted by British Capt. Frederick Beechey.
   (SFC, 12/27/14, p.C2)
1820Â Â Â Â Â Â The Mexican government
granted Luis Peralta (1759-1851) the 44,800-acre Rancho San Antonio
in the East Bay of northern California, for his military services.
The rancho ran from San Leandro Creek to a rise known as El Cerrito.
Peralta settled in San Jose, while his four sons took over the land
grant. The Peralta Hacienda in Oakland was built in 1870.
  Â
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_Mar%C3%ADa_Peralta)(SFC,
5/3/02, p.A20)(SFC, 11/26/10, p.D9)
1826Â Â Â Â Â Â John Thomas Reed (21), an
Irishman, arrived in Marin county. [see 1834]
   (SFC, 5/19/04, p.A4)
1826Â Â Â Â Â Â British navy Capt.
Frederick Beechey reported seeing seven American whalers anchored in
Richardson Bay, getting fresh water from the springs of Sausalito
and collecting firewood.
   (SFC, 8/4/18, p.C4)
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)
1831Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1834Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1834Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1834Â Â Â Â Â Â Candelario Valencia, the
grandson of Jose Manuel Valencia, was granted the 3,329 Rancho
Acalanes, an area near what later became the SF Bay Area town of
Lafayette. He sold it in 1839 and returned to a much smaller plot
just east of Mission Dolores in San Francisco.
   (SFC, 6/12/21, p.B6)
1834Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1835Â Â Â Â Â Â Jose Antonio Sanchez
(d.1843) was granted the 14,639 Rancho Buri-Buri on the San
Francisco peninsula.
   (SFC, 6/12/21, p.B6)
1837Â Â Â Â Â Â In the SF Bay Area 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)
1838Â Â Â Â Â Â A major earthquake opened
a huge fissure from SF to Santa Clara.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1840Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1841Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1842Â Â Â Â Â Â Nantucket Capt. Gorham Nye
sailed into Yerba Buena, later known as San Francisco, and sold
several goats to traders. A local character named Jack Fuller
proposed to businessman Nathan Spear to buy some of the goats and
raise them on Yerba Buena Island, which became known as Goat Island.
   (SFC, 11/23/13, p.C3)
1842-1846Â Â Â 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)
1843Â Â Â Â Â Â John Thomas Reed (38),
founder of Mill Valley, died.
   (SFC, 5/19/04, p.A4)
1844Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1844Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1846Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct, American settlers led
by Carlos Maria Weber, a German immigrant, began seizing horses and
other supplies from Californio ranches across the San Francisco Bay
Area. Their seizure of an estimated 6,000 horses led to the 1847
battle of Mission Santa Clara.
   (SFC, 1/25/20, p.C3)
1846Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 16, The Californio
Sanchez brothers seized Washington Bartlett, the alcalde of Yerba
Buena, along with six volunteer sailors as they scouted on a
supposed Mexican invasion at Rancho Buri-Buri. This was likely in
exchange for the seizure of their younger brother by US officers in
Yerba Buena, who feared a Mexican invasion.
   (SFC, 1/25/20, p.C3)
1846Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1847Â Â Â Â Â Â Jan 2, Armed Californio
rancheros fought a company of US soldiers 3 miles west of Mission
Santa Clara. No one was killed or wounded.
   (SFC, 1/11/20, p.C1)
1847Â Â Â Â Â Â Jan 7, Some 100 Californio
rancheros held a formal treaty ceremony with more than 100 US
soldiers under marine Capt. William Marston west of Mission Santa
Clara.
   (SFC, 2/8/20, p.C2)
1847Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 2, William A.
Leidesdorff launched the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
   (HN, 8/2/98)
1847Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1847Â Â Â Â Â Â In Palo Alto (tall tree) a
tamped-earth adobe home was built on the 4,400 acre Rancho Purisima
Concepcion of the Briones family. In 1954 California declared the
site a historic landmark. In 1987 Palo Alto declared the home on Old
Adobe Road a historic landmark. In 2011 the California Supreme Court
cleared the way for demolition of the home.
   (SFC, 3/22/99, p.A18)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.C3)
1848Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1848Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 19, The 1st commercial
laundry was established, in Oakland, California.
   (MC, 9/19/01)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â Irishman Thomas H. Dowling
settled on Goat island in the SF Bay about this time and built a
house, a dock and started a quarry. The US Army, citing a claim that
the government owned all the islands in the SF Bay, ejected Dowling
and his family from the island in 1867.
   (SFC, 11/23/13, p.C3)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â Alviso was founded as a
steamboat connection for San Jose and SF.
   (SFC, 8/23/02, p.E8)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â The Benicia Arsenal was
founded.
   (SFC, 8/6/01, p.A13)
1849Â Â Â Â Â Â The SF Bay covered 787 sq.
miles.
   (SFC, 11/4/98, p.A29)
1850Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 6, The San Francisco
Bay Yerba Buena and Angel islands were reserved for military use.
   (MC, 11/6/01)
1850Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1850Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1850Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1850Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1850Â Â Â Â Â Â 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 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)
1851Â Â Â Â Â Â Suisun City was founded at
the head of Suisun Slough.
   (SFC, 9/3/99, p.A4)
1851Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1851Â Â Â Â Â Â G.M. Burnham began
building Redwood City’s first vessel. Most of the early ships were
lumber schooners.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1851Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1851Â Â Â Â Â Â In the SF Bay Area a
nearly weeklong bull and bear fiesta at Mission Santa Clara featured
12 bulls, two grizzly bears and a considerable number of Indians of
whom four were killed on the 2nd day.
   (SFC, 3/4/17, p.C4)
1851-1962Â Â Â The Benicia Arsenal was active. It was
the 1st ordnance supply depot in the West.
   (SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A14)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul, San Quentin State
Prison opened in Marin County, California.
  Â
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Quentin_State_Prison)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â The Young Ladies’ Seminary
was founded in Benicia, Ca. In 1865 missionaries Cyrus and Susan
Mills bought the Seminary for $5,000, renamed it Mills College, and
moved it in 1871 to Oakland, Ca. In 2021 Mills College said it will
stop enrolling first-year undergraduates after the Fall of 2021 and
will confer its final degrees in 2023.
  Â
(www.mills.edu/about/mission_and_history.php)(SFC, 3/18/21, p.A1)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â The US Navy bought Mare
Island in SF Bay from its owner for $83,491 and established a repair
facility there.
   (SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFC, 1/3/15, p.C2)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â A lighthouse was built on
Alcatraz island in the San Francisco Bay.
   (SFC, 2/22/07, p.A13)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â Francis Kittredge Shattuck
homesteaded 160 acres in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay. This
area became most of downtown Berkeley, Ca.
   (SFC, 2/11/11, p.C7)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â Oakland was founded. In
2002 it celebrated its 100th birthday with a parade that stretched
for 15 blocks.
   (SFC, 6/8/02, p.G8)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â Dennis Martin, lumber
pioneer, constructed St. Denis, the Peninsula's 1st Catholic church.
It was abandoned in 1872.
   (Ind, 3/9/02, 5A)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â The state legislature
convened in Vallejo.
   (SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â William Shaw opened the
1st general store in Redwood City.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1852Â Â Â Â Â Â Almaden Vineyards was
begun by Etienne Thee, an émigré from France, who settled near Los
Gatos, Ca.
   (SFC, 1/24/08, p.C3)
1852-1884Â Â Â Hydraulic gold-mining in the Sierra
released large amounts of mercury-enriched sediments into the Bay.
   (SFC, 3/17/99, p.A19)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 11, A steam line burst
on SF Bay ferry Jenny Lind as it made its way from Alviso to San
Francisco. 31 passengers were killed.
   (SFC, 4/13/13, p.A1)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â The US government
fortified the 22-acre island of Alcatraz to protect SF from attack.
   (SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
c1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â The 7 Mile House opened as
a stagecoach stop on the edge of Brisbane. In 2017 it was recognized
as one of the oldest restaurants in the country.
   (SSFC, 4/30/17, p.A2)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â Redwood City’s 1st hotel,
The American, opened.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1853Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â Andrew and Daniel Inman
bought 400 acres and naming rights to the area that became known as
Danville.
   (SFCM, 8/5/01, p.46)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1854-1857Â Â Â 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)
1855Â Â Â Â Â Â Timothy Guy Phelps
(1824-1899), Peninsula land holder, was elected to the State
Assembly.
   (Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1855Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1855Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 7, In California the
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors held their 1st meeting at the
general store of John Vogan on Main Street in Redwood City. The
county had just recently been created.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)(SFC, 5/18/13, p.C2)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â In Oakland, Ca., steam
beer production began at a site that later became known as Golden
West Brewery, which produced the Golden Glow Beer and Ale labels.
Operations shut down in 1959.
   (SFC, 9/4/09, p.C1)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1856Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1857Â Â Â Â Â Â In Oakland, Ca.,
Theophilide St. Germaine and her husband, a French count, built a
structure at 301 Broadway to serve as a wine shop. In 2014 the
building, home to Vegan Soul Food, was believed to be the oldest
structure in the city.
   (SFC, 4/2/14, p.E3)
1858Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1858Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1858Â Â Â Â Â Â Stanford Hospital was
founded.
   (SFC, 6/17/99, p.A10)
1858Â Â Â Â Â Â The 1st Redwood City
courthouse was built.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1858Â Â Â Â Â Â The 1st San Mateo County
Courthouse was built on land donated by Simon Mezes.
   (SMMB)
1858-1861Â Â Â Timothy Guy Phelps (1824-1899),
Peninsula land holder, was elected to the State Senate.
   (Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â William Godfrey
established the San Mateo Gazette, a 4-page weekly newspaper.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â David S. Woods (1830-1911)
painted a portrait of a horse named "Black Hawk," owned by Ansel
Easton.
   (SFCM, 10/28/01, p.18)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â The side-wheel, steamer
Saginaw became the 1st ship completed at Mare Island.
   (SFC, 9/10/04, p.F2)
1859Â Â Â Â Â Â The Shafter family of San
Francisco bought 50,000 acres of West Marin pastures for dairy
farms. The land was eventually divided into individual ranches, each
designated by a letter. In 2009 the B Ranch shut down dairy
production due to falling milk prices and rising costs.
   (SSFC, 8/23/09, p.A14)
1860Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1860Â Â Â Â Â Â 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. Â Â Â
   (Ind, 5/12/01, 5A)
1860Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1860Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1860Â Â Â Â Â Â 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      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)
1861Â Â Â Â Â Â May, Groundbreaking was
held at San Francisquito Creek for the San Francisco and San Jose
Railroad.
   (Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1861Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1861Â Â Â Â Â Â The College of California
was founded in Oakland.
   (SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1861Â Â Â Â Â Â Leland Stanford was
elected Governor of California.
   (Ind, 6/2/01, 5A)
1861Â Â Â Â Â Â Alcatraz Island in the San
Francisco Bay became an official US military prison.
   (OAH, 2/05, p.A1)
1861Â Â Â Â Â Â The Fairfax property in
Marin was the site of the last legal duel in California.
   (SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1861-1862Â Â Â The winter of this time flooded the area
with a record 49 inches of rain.
   (SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)
1861-1863Â Â Â Timothy Guy Phelps (1824-1899),
Peninsula land holder, was elected to the US Congress.
   (Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1862Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1862Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1862-1884Â Â Â 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)
1863Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 1, RR and ferry
connections between SF and Oakland were inaugurated. Southern
Pacific had begun running steam trains in the East Bay this year.
   (SC, 9/1/02)(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
1863Â Â Â Â Â Â Frederick Kohl was born.
He later inherited a fortune from his father’s shipping business,
the Alaska Commercial Co.
   (KHB, 2003)
1863Â Â Â Â Â Â The rails of the SF &
San Jose Railroad were completed to San Mateo. The Santa Clara depot
opened as the first station on the line.
   (Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)(SFC, 1/15/14, p.E1)
1863Â Â Â Â Â Â Frederick Law Olmstead
designed the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
   (SFC, 1/5/01, WBb p.8)
1863Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1863Â Â Â Â Â Â Oakland, Ca., opened the
Stranger’s Plot at the Mountain View Cemetery for the bodies of its
poor, unknown, suicides and criminals. Some 500 people were buried
there until WWI.
   (SFC, 1/24/11, p.C3)
1864Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1864Â Â Â Â Â Â Aug 25, A combination rail
and ferry service became available from SF to Alameda, Ca.
   (chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1864Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1864Â Â Â Â Â Â The rails of the SF &
San Jose Railroad were extended to San Jose.
   (Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1864Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1865Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1865Â Â Â Â Â Â John D. Daly acquired the
1,000 acre Hohenworth Ranch in Colma.
   (Ind, 10/7/00,5A)
1865Â Â Â Â Â Â The oldest grave at the
local Rose Hill cemetery in Antioch, Ca., dated to this time. In the
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)(SFC, 9/8/09, p.C5)
1866Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1866Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)Â
1866Â Â Â Â Â Â The San Mateo-Half Moon
Bay Turnpike opened. Much of the route was later incorporated into
Highway 92.
   (Ind, 7/20/02, 5A)
c1866Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1866Â Â Â Â Â Â The train depot at Fair
Oaks (later Atherton) opened.
   (SFCM, 7/25/04, p.6)
1866Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
c1866Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1867Â Â Â Â Â Â Physician Samuel Merritt
became the 13th mayor of Oakland, Ca., and served to 1869. He
donated 155 acres of dammed tidal water from the headwaters of
Indian Slough, which became known as "Merritt's Lake" and later as
Lake Merritt.
   (SFC, 9/20/13,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Merritt)
1867Â Â Â Â Â Â In the SF Bay Area the
Menlo Park train station was completed. It was made over in 1890
with the opening of Stanford Univ.
   (SSFM, 4/29/01, p.47)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 21, A 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. The Marine Hospital at Rincon Point was badly
damaged and forced to close.
   (SMMB)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)(SFC, 10/18/07,
p.A15)(SFC, 10/9/10, p.A10)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â Oct 21, The Hayward
Earthquake in northern California created a sunken area in San
Francisco that came to be called Pioche’s Lake.” The area was filled
in and rooming houses were built, all of which collapsed in the 1906
earthquake.
   (SFC, 6/8/13, p.C4)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â The St. Vincent Ferrer
Catholic church was built in Vallejo, Ca.
   (SFCM, 12/19/04, p.4)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â A tidal slough was dammed
to form Lake Merritt and connected Oakland, Ca., to the lumber port
of Brooklyn. After 2 years of incorporation Brooklyn residents voted
themselves out of existence.
   (SFCM, 4/11/04, p.6)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1868Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1869Â Â Â Â Â Â Jul 4, 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)(SFC, 10/11/14, p.C2)
1869Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1869Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1869Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1869Â Â Â Â Â Â The first Colma village
post office opened.
   (LaPen, 12/86, p.)
1869Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1870Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar 18, The 1st US
National Wildlife Preserve was Lake Merritt 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)(SFCM,
8/17/03, p.3)
1870Â Â Â Â Â Â Nov 3, Laura Fair (33)
shot and killed Alexander Parker Crittenden (47) as he was about to
depart an Oakland, Ca., ferry with his wife and son. They had been
carrying a long-term adulterous affair in which Crittenden had lied
from the start Fair (d.1919) was initially found guilty and
sentenced to death, but was freed on appeal by reason of temporary
insanity. In 2013 Carole Haber authored “The Trials of Laura Fair:
Sex Murder and Insanity in the Victorian West.”
   (SFC, 6/28/14, p.C1)
1870Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1870Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1870Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1870-1970Â Â Â The Selby smelter near San Pablo Bay
released large amounts of lead into the Bay.
   (SFC, 3/17/99, p.A19)
1871Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1871Â Â Â Â Â Â Portuguese immigrants
began holding their annual Pentecost Festival named Chamarita, after
a traditional folk dance.
   (SSFC, 6/9/02, p.E4)
1871Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1871Â Â Â Â Â Â The Levy brothers,
emigrants from Lorraine, France, arrived in the Bay Area.
   (Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1872Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1872Â Â Â Â Â Â 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/)
1872Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1872Â Â Â Â Â Â Vallejo, Ca., built its
first City Hall. A new City Hall, was constructed in 1925. in 2010
structure was combined with the Masonic Temple to create Temple Arts
Lofts.
   (http://tinyurl.com/ya835znc)(SSFC, 10/15/17,
p.N2)
1872Â Â Â Â Â Â F.M. Riehl became the 1st
man to swim across the SF Bay.
   (SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W4)
1872Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1873Â Â Â Â Â Â A lighthouse was built on
East Brother island off Richmond between SF Bay and San Pablo Bay.
It was automated in 1969 and turned into a bed and breakfast inn in
1979. A power cable to the island failed in 2021 threatening the
future of the lighthouse.
   (SFC, 7/6/01, p.A21)(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.C5)(SFC,
5/11/21, p.B1)
1873Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1873Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1873Â Â Â Â Â Â George Cunningham Edwards,
the 1st student to enroll at UC Berkeley, graduated in the class of
1873.
   (SFC, 11/18/05, p.F6)
1873Â Â Â Â Â Â The big coho salmon runs
of Marin County, Ca., began to decline when the first of seven dams
was built in the Lagunitas Creek watershed.
   (SFC, 6/24/14, p.A8)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 3, Gertrude Stein
(d.1946), poet and novelist, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her older
brother, Michael, managed the family business, which included San
Francisco's Market Street railway line. Her parents were Daniel and
Milly. The family returned to America from Europe in 1878, and
settled in Oakland, California, where Gertrude attended First Hebrew
Congregation of Oakland's Sabbath school. Her relationship with her
brother, Leo (1872-1947), abruptly ended in 1914. Her work included
"Three Lives," "G.M.P." and "Tender Buttons." Stein coined the term
"Lost Generation" in reference to the disillusioned intellectuals
and aesthetes of the post-World War I years. The 40-year
relationship between Gertrude and Leo is told by Brenda Wineapple in
"Sister Brother, Gertrude and Leo Stein." "Everybody gets so much
information all day long that they lose their common sense." "It is
awfully important to know what is and what is not your business."
   (SFEC, 8/11/96, DB,
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(AP, 12/27/97)(AP,
9/3/98)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â A tunnel was carved
through the solid Franciscan rock for Hibernia Bank cofounder
Richard Tobin. He wanted to be able to ride his buggy back and forth
between his family’s city home and their house in Rockaway Beach,
Pacifica, south of Daly City, Ca.. Nature delivered the coup de
grace to Tobin’s Folly in 1906, when the SF earthquake reportedly
knocked off most of the rock tunnel and threw it into the ocean.
   (http://www.princetonbytheseamemories.com/?p=898)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â Union Pacific completed a
cavernous, brick, train repair shed in West Oakland. It was
shuttered in 2002 and in 2010 was scheduled for demolition.
   (SSFC, 10/3/10, p.C1)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â In Menlo Park the Duff
& Doyle General Store opened on Santa Cruz Avenue.
   (Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)(Ind, 3/9/02, 5A)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1874Â Â Â Â Â Â Oakland was a town of
14,000 people.
   (SFC,10/31/97, p.A4)
1875Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1875Â Â Â Â Â Â In Menlo Park the new
Thurlow Lodge of Milton Latham was completed.
   (Ind, 1/9/99, p.5A)
1875Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1875-1935Â Â Â In San Jose, Ca., a paupers graveyard
was used as the final resting spot for those who died at the Santa
Clara Valley Medical Center. In the 1950s the site was covered by a
parking lot. In 2012 it was re-discovered during excavation work for
a new building.
   (SFC, 5/19/12, p.C3)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â San Francisco Bay’s
Station Island was uninhabited until Drawbridge on Station Island
was started at the southern end of the bay with a single shack for a
Southern Pacific Cost railroad bridge caretaker to raise a bridge
for shipping over Coyote Slough. The last train stopped in 1955. Its
last resident, Charlie Luce, left in 1979.
   (SFC, 4/7/00, p.A19,20)(SFC, 12/27/14, p.C2)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1876Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1877Â Â Â Â Â Â California attorney John
Henry Boalt, president of the Bohemian Club, delivered an
influential address at the Berkeley Club titled “The Chinese
Question,” calling for an end to Chinese immigration. His efforts
were led to the 1882 passage by Congress of the Chinese Exclusion
Act.
   (SFC, 5/19/17, p.A10)
1877Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1878Â Â Â Â Â Â Apr 1, The city of
Berkeley, home to UC Berkeley, was incorporated.
   (SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1878Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1878Â Â Â Â Â Â John McBain came to Menlo
Park to work on the mansion of bonanza king James C. Flood.
   (Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)
1878Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1878Â Â Â Â Â Â Lyman C. Byce, Petaluma
poultry pioneer, began experimenting with an incubator to hatch baby
chicks.
   (Ind, 4/26/03, p.5A)
1878Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â Sep 30, Pres. Ulysses S.
Grant was treated to a reception by Comstock millionaire Darius
Ogden Mills in Millbrae.
   (Ind, 2/3/01, 5A)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â A daughter of John Parrott
married French Count de Guigne, who went on to found the Stauffer
Chemical Co.
   (Ind, 1/04/03, 5A)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â San Mateo’s 1st street
lamp was installed.
   (Ind, 9/21/02, 5A)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â The Levy brothers expanded
their operations with the purchase of the H.C. Hart store in San
Gregorio.
   (Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1879Â Â Â Â Â Â The Yoakum brothers,
convicted of murder, were lynched by a mob in San Lorenzo, Ca. The
SF Bay town was earlier known as Squattersville.
  Â
(http://www.sanlorenzoheritage.org/history/slzintro.htm)(SFC,
10/10/14, p.A1)
1880Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1880Â Â Â Â Â Â Women in Alameda staged
their 1st temperance campaign for closing a saloon.
   (SFC, 4/22/05, p.F3)
1880Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1880Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1880Â Â Â Â Â Â The Pacific Coast Oil Co.
built its 1st refinery at Alameda Port.
   (SFC, 10/20/04, p.C6)
1880-1890Â Â Â 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)
1881Â Â Â Â Â Â May 1, A family wagon got
stuck on train tracks the SF Bay town of San Lorenzo, Ca. 5 of 6
children were killed.
  Â
(http://www.sanlorenzoheritage.org/history/slzintro.htm)(SFC,
10/10/14, p.A11)
1881Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1881-1919Â Â Â 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)
1882Â Â Â Â Â Â Dec 25, Mary Frances
Sherwood Hopkins gave Thurlow Lodge to her adopted son Timothy who
renamed it Sherwood Hall.
   (Ind, 8/25/01, 5A)
1882Â Â Â Â Â Â The 2nd San Mateo County
Courthouse was built. Its annex was the remains of the 1858
courthouse destroyed in the 1868 earthquake.
   (SMMB)
1882Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1882Â Â Â Â Â Â The Beltramo family opened
shop in Menlo Park.
   (SFCM, 6/10/01, p.6)
1883Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1883Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1882Â Â Â Â Â Â A jute mill was opened for
convicts of San Quentin.
   (SFC, 4/20/01, WBb p.7)
1883Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1883Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1883Â Â Â Â Â Â The Levy brothers acquired
the Garretson store in Pescadero.
   (Ind, 11/7/98, p.5A)
1883Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1884Â Â Â Â Â Â William A. Coulter painted
"San Francisco Bay."
   (SFC, 3/20/00, p.E4)
1884Â Â Â Â Â Â Gideon Jacques Denny
painted "The Golden Gate and Fort Point."
   (SFC, 3/20/00, p.E4)
1884Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1884Â Â Â Â Â Â Charles Crocker acquired
San Bruno Mountain.
   (Ind, 4/27/99, p.11A)
1884Â Â Â Â Â Â John Parrot, SF
millionaire banker and merchant, died.
   (Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1884Â Â Â Â Â Â Leland Stanford Jr. (15)
died of typhus. His death moved the Stanfords to found Stanford
Univ.
   (SFC, 6/20/98, p.A15)
1885Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1885Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â May 10, The US Supreme
Court ruling in Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad dealt
with taxation of railroad properties. A unanimous decision, written
by Justice Harlan, ruled on the matter of fences, holding that the
state of California illegally included the fences running beside the
tracks in its assessment of the total value of the railroad's
property. As a result, the county could not collect taxes from
Southern Pacific that it was not allowed to collect in the first
place.
  Â
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad)(Econ,
3/26/11, p.78)(Econ, 4/16/11, p.18)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â Charles Dormon Robinson
painted "Looking Across the Golden Gate."
   (SFC, 3/20/00, p.E1)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â John McBain built Pioneer
Hall in Menlo Park.
   (Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â The Episcopal Church of
the Holy Trinity was completed in Menlo Park.
   (Ind, 12/30/00, 5A)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1886Â Â Â Â Â Â Jennie M. Easton, the wife
of Charles Frederick Crocker, died in SF during the birth of their
3rd child.
   (Ind, 10.26/02, 5A)
1887Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1887Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1887Â Â Â Â Â Â Sturgeons landings in the
SF Bay peaked at 1.7 million pounds.
   (SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A22)  Â
1887-1889Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â In San Rafael Michael de
Young, co-founder of the SF Chronicle, built his Meadowlands summer
estate.
   (SFCM, 8/29/04, p.4)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â Frederick Law Olmstead
designed Stanford Univ.
   (SFC, 4/5/04, p.B5)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1888Â Â Â Â Â Â Charles Crocker died and
San Bruno Mountain became an asset of the Crocker Land Co.
   (Ind, 4/27/99, p.11A)
1889Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1889Â Â Â Â Â Â 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. Â
   (SFC, 4/21/08, p.B2)
1889Â Â Â Â Â Â Juana Briones (b.1802), SF
businesswoman and Santa Clara County rancho owner, died.
   (SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)(SFC, 2/25/11, p.C3)
1890Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1890Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1890Â Â Â Â Â Â In San Rafael Dominican
College was founded by Dominican nuns as a liberal arts college for
women.
   (SFC, 6/26/00, p.A17)
1890Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1890Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â Feb 28, US Senator George
Hearst of California died.
   (Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â Mar, Congressman
millionaire Charles N. Felton of Menlo Park, California, was
appointed to succeed Sen. Hearst.
   (Ind, 10/17/98, p.5A)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â The Southern Pacific Depot
in Danville was built. It later became the Museum of the San Ramon
Valley.
   (SFCM, 8/5/01, p.46)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â Gustavus Swift, a Swedish
immigrant, opened the Western Meat Co. in South San Francisco.
   (Ind, 7/15/00,5A)
1891Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1892Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1892Â Â Â Â Â Â May 1, A US quarantine
station opened on Angel Island, SF Bay.
   (MC, 5/1/02)
1892Â Â Â Â Â Â 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)
1892Â Â Â Â Â Â The Mill Valley Lumber Co.
was established in California's Marin County.
   (SSFC, 5/20/18, p.L18)
1892Â Â Â Â Â Â The Searsville 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.
In 2014 the American Rivers environmental group named San
Francisquito Creek as the 5th most endangered river in the US.
   (SFC, 2/19/01, p.A18)(SFC, 4/9/14, p.E2)
1892Â Â Â Â Â Â 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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Subject = SF Bay Area
Go to 1893