whole white population of California, of all nations, was about fourteen thousand. At this period (1870) it is about six hundred thousand. The population of San Francisco, in 1842, was only one hundred and ninety-six persons-seventy-six men, forty-two women, forty-two boys, and thirty-six girls. The census taken in this year gives the name, age, birthplace, sex, and occupation of each person, in which there were in all but twentysix foreigners, as follows: ten Americans, four Englishmen, four Sandwich Islanders, two Germans, two Irishmen, and of Manilla, Peru, France, and Scotland, one each. No lawyers, insurance agents, dentists, tailors, hatters, dressmakers, real estate agents, doctors, or undertakers appear in the list. The marked improvement and growth of San Francisco continued steadily from the date of the American conquest. Although the Mission Dolores (now in the city limits of San Francisco) was established in 1776, there was not a solitary sign of life or settlement about the bay or beach of Yerba Buena cove, now the heart of the city of San Francisco, until 1835, when a tent made of old sails was erected by Captain W. A. Richardson. On the 4th of July of the following year, Jacob P. Leese erected a small frame building adjoining Richardson's house, in which was born, April 15, 1838, Rosalie Leese, the first child born at Yerba Buena, (good herb,) now San Francisco, and the city was started. At this point, a small depot of the Hudson Bay Company was established, which, however, disappeared in 1846. In January, 1847, San Francisco had a population of four hundred and fifty-nine persons of all classes-three hundred and twenty-nine males and one hundred and thirty-eight females; of these three hundred and seventy-five were whites, thirty-four Indians, forty Sandwich Islanders, and ten negroes-eighty-four colored. The whites represented the following nations: United States, two hundred and twenty-eight; California, thirty-eight; Mexico, two; Canada, five; Chili, two; England, twenty-two; Germany, twenty-seven; France, three; Ireland, fourteen; Scotland, fourteen; Switzerland, six; at sea, four; and of New Holland, New Zealand, Malta, Denmark, Peru, Russia, Poland, Sweden, and West Indies, one each. At this period the trades and professions were beginning to be represented: a minister, a schoolmaster, two surveyors, three lawyers, and three doctors represented the professions; many of the trades were represented. A weekly newspaper, published by Samuel Brannan and edited by E. P. Jones, called the California Star, was the first newspaper published in San Francisco; but as early as August 15, 1846, Messrs. Colton and Semple had started the Californian-the first paper published in California-at Monterey. In May, 1847, this journal was transferred to San Francisco. San Francisco was fast assuming a city appearance. In March, 1848, it contained two hundred houses, and a population of eight hundred and fifty souls. A public school-the first in California-had been opened on the 3d of April, 1848, by Thomas Douglas. On November 15, 1848, the first steamer ever upon the waters of San Francisco bay-a small boat taken from Sitka by Captain Leidesdorff-made a trial trip around the bay. In October, 1848, the first Protestant church in California was established by Rev. T. Dwight Hunt at San Francisco. Mr. Hunt was a Presbyterian minister, who came from the Sandwich islands, and was the first Prot estant minister in California. There was no regular church organization: Mr. Hunt preached in the schoolhouse. Although the first gold had been discovered by James W. Marshall, at Sutter's mill, on the American river, as early as the 19th of January, 1848, no news of the fact had reached San Francisco until February following, when the crash came which sent its echo throughout the world, and drew within the circle of California people of every part of the globe. The great event which brought the almost unknown and distant land of California to the notice of the world, and produced in so brief a period such scenes of excitement and commercial advantages, was the discovery of gold. In the fall of 1847, Captain John A. Sutter, a Swiss by birth, and a man of great adventure and many sterling qualities, who arrived in San Francisco July 2, 1839, and located in the following year at New Helvetia, near Sacramento, was erecting a saw-mill at a place called Coloma, about fifty miles east of Sacramento City, on the American river, which empties into the Sacramento. James W. Marshall had contracted for the erecting of the mill, and he and his men were at work in cutting and widening the tail-race: to effect this, he let the water of the river through the cut, which in its course carried away quantities of earth and sand. In cleaning portions of this away, Marshall observed some particles. of yellow glittering substance: these he examined through curiosity. This was on the 19th day of January, 1848. A piece of gold, weighing about six pennyweights, was carried by Marshall, in about two weeks, to Captain Sutter, who examined it without much belief |