ness.

THE BOOMING BUSINESS.

443

At various points tracts of land were seized and town lots mapped out and sold. Then the advantages of the place were trumpeted far and wide, and all were invited by oily-tongued agents to come and buy and live. Title acquired often by force and trickery was kept by the power of the rifle and legal jugglery. The most ambitious projects sought to combine the head of ship navigation in the bay with a command of the great valley outlets, as instanced in New York of the Pacific. Then followed claimants to the head of river navigation in the Sacramento and San Joaquin, beginning with Vernon, and contestants for the control of the trade with certain tributaries and districts. Along the coast rose several pretenders to harbors, with promising river drainage, as Klamath City, and throughout the interior were sprinkled plats intended for valley centres and county seats, some of which nurse, as mere hamlets, the dream of greatness realized by their successful neighbors. The speculative fever for city building raged most virulently during 1849 and into 1850, raising a crop of prospective millionaires, after which the symptoms abated to sporadic forms, with occasional epidemics, as in 1863.

Agricultural towns date from the Spanish pueblo colonies, supplemented in time by converted missions, and latterly by lingering and transformed mining camps, some, like San José, of centennial dignity, and the younger Salinas, depending on wheat regions, Los Angeles boasting of her orange groves, Anaheim and St Helena leading a host of vinicultural communities, and Healdsburg prominent in the display of orchards. Aside from the woollen mills and other industrial adjuncts of the large cities, a number of towns live by their manufacturing interests. Eureka and Guerneville are conspicuous among a host of places producing lumber, the earliest manufacture on a large scale. Flour-mills have found development at Vallejo; Soquel depends upon a variety of industries, notably tanneries; Taylorsville is a paper-mill; Suisun a pack

ing place; Martinez figures among fish-canning places; Alvarado is known for its beet-sugar mills; Boca for breweries; and Newhall for oil. Nortonville and New

Almaden find their chief support in coal and quicksilver; Folsom flourishes by a prison and its quarries; Berkeley, Benicia, and Santa Clara rank among college towns; Santa Cruz, Santa Bárbara, and Santa Monica are sustained greatly as watering-places, their list swelled by San Diego, Calistoga, Auburn, and a number of other places, particularly in Lake and San Mateo, as health and pleasure resorts; while Oakland, Alameda, and Washington are known rather as the bed-chambers, or suburbs, of cities.

25

During the last three decades the railroad has risen as arbitrator in the fortunes of many of these towns. By passing them by it has drawn away their trade and left them to lingering decay, as illustrated notably by San Juan Bautista, and several towns of the San Joaquin Valley. It has build up instead numerous thriving stations, among which towns like Modesto, Merced, Bakersfield, and Hollister have been so effectively fostered as to secure the important dignity of county seats to swell their expanding trade resources. In other cases it has revived many languishing settlements, as for example, Calistoga, Oroville, Sauzalito, and opened the way in the southern deserts for flourishing and reclaiming oases.

The latest feature of town building is presented by a new form of the agricultural colonies, which were first planted by Spaniards, under official auspices, as at San José, Los Angeles, and Branciforte. Sonoma was a subsequent semi-official venture, and Sutter's Fort partook of this stamp. Americans introduced the cooperative system, beginning with San Bernardino of the industrious Mormons, but more properly with Anaheim. This stands as a prototype here of

25 Modesto overshadowed Knight's Ferry and La Grange, Merced took life and honors from Snelling, Fresno from Millerton. Alviso has suffered, Shasta is reduced, etc. A few, like Brighton and Stanislaus, saved a weak existence by moving to the railroad line.

STARTLING SURPRISES.

445

the chiefly horticultural settlements started on coöperative principles to overcome the early difficulties of such undertakings, marked by costly irrigation canals, non-productive planting periods, and manufacturing adjuncts. These vanquished, each member assumed independent control of his allotted share, associated with his neighbors only by a general and voluntary interest in certain branches, and in sustaining the indispensable canals. Many owners of large ranchos are profiting by the success of these ventures, which with proper management is almost assured,26 by opening ditches and occasionally planting tracts, and then selling the land in small lots, with the expectation of profiting also by the formation of a village by each cluster of colonists. There are a number of these settlements round Fresno, and in the three southern counties along the coast; and with the now growing reputation of California as a wine region, so well suited for them, they are assuming wider proportions and importance." They form one of the many startling surprises with which this country has abounded, from the first glittering harvests of gold to the succeeding and richer crops from waving fields; in the spreading fame of balmy clime and fertile soil, once overshadowed by supposed deserts and aridity; in the variety of its magnificent resources and the grandeur of its scenery, with giant trees and geysers, with caves and mountain clefts; in the birth of towns and expansion of resources and wealth, at times swift in rise and fall as the terror-inspiring justice of the vigilance committees, at times slow and majestic as befits the dawning of eternal empire.

26 The earliest colony at Fresno failed for lack of due precaution and energy.

27 Agua Mansa, in San Bernardino, is a languishing colony, formed in 1842 by New Mexicans. The not far distant Riverside is one of the most flourishing spots in the county. Lompoc is a Temperance colony in Sta Bárbara. Compare with Nordhoff's Communistic Societies, 361-6. Homestead associations are to be found in connection with most large cities. Comments in National, Dec. 26, 1864; Apr. 10, 1865. Just before the opening of the overland railway in 1870 a homestead fever raged all round the bay. Lottery sales attended them at one time. Sac. Union, June 25, 1855; Jan. 27, 1857; S. F. Ab. Post, July 23, 1870. See, further, under counties, next chapters.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CITY BUILDING.

1848-1888.

THE GREAT INTERIOR-RIVER AND PLAIN-SUTTERVILLE AND SACRAMENTOPLAN OF SURVEY-THE THRICE SIMPLE SWISS-BETTER FOR THE CounTRY THAN A BETTER MAN-HEALTHY AND HEARTY COMPETITION-DEVELOPMENT OF SACRAMENTO CITY-MARYSVILLE-STOCKTON-PLACERVILLE --SONORA NEVADA-GRASS VALLEY-BENICIA-VALLEJO-MARTINEZOAKLAND AND VICINITY-NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CITIES.

In illustration of the preceding observations, I append a sketch of the early development of the principal and typical cities, and of each county in the state, particularly with reference to the birth of its towns, and to the general tendency of progress. Limited space forbids more than a brief consideration of the topical points; and I must refer the reader to the special chapters on politics, mining, agriculture, manufacture, commerce, society, education, and church, for further details touching the different sections. My information has been culled by systematic search through many original manuscripts, and through the newspapers of San Francisco, as well as those from every quarter of the state. I have also carefully consulted the reports of census officers, surveyors, and assessors, county histories, and directories, local archives of towns and counties, the Vallejo, Larkin, and Hayes documents, and scattered notes in books and pamphlets of a more or less general character, as indicated in the narrative, only the most pointed references being retained to affirm or illustrate special

statements.

SACRAMENTO AND SUTTERVILLE.

447

The best prospects for an interior city lay naturally along the Sacramento River, near the mouth of its last great tributary, the gate to the central and northern parts of the great valley. This advantage must have influenced the founder of Sutter's Fort; but the small extent of its hill site, surrounded by low-lying banks which were subject to overflow in very wet seasons, was inadequate for a city, and such a one being required, Sutterville was laid out on the rising ground three miles below, whence a dry wagon-road to the mountains could be constructed. It made slow progress, for the fort still retained the ascendency, by virtue of its ferry, supplies, stores, and workshops. The gold excitement, however, while assuring urban preeminence to this quarter, demanded quickly an expansion of site, and it was to be expected that the chosen spot, Sutterville, should become the centre. "Had I not been snowed in at Coloma," said Sutter to me at Litiz, "Sacramento never, never, would have been built." But the Swiss potentate lacked business ability. He had vast resources and golden opportunities; but in his wide-reaching plans he had become heavily involved, and to escape his creditors he transferred his property to his son, John A. Sutter, a young man lately from school. This took place Oct. 14, 1848. Sutter's Per. Rem., MS., pp. 178–81; Placer Times, Dec. 15, 1849; Sac. Ill., p 8, Alta Cal, Feb 6, 1853; S. F. Herald, Feb. 9, 1853; Tuthill's Hist. Cal., p 297 For testimony, In re John C. Reiley vs A. Heisch et al., 1860, see Sac. Directory, 1871. As the interest in Sutterville had mostly passed out of his hands, Sutter permitted his son to lay out another town at the embarcadero, or landing, just below the fort, to which the name of the river was applied.

The fort had frequently been called by that name, although Tehama was the Indian appellation. The survey was made by Wm H. Warner, of the U. S. topog. engineers. He was shot in 1849 by the Indians while surveying near the sources of Feather River. The fort formed the nucleus of his operations; thence down to the embarcadero and along the river bank he laid out streets. Those parallel with the stream were called First, Second, Third, etc.; those at right angles to it A, B, C, etc.; the avenue bordering on the river was called Front street. All were 80 feet wide except the centre street, M, which was made 100 feet. The blocks were 320 by 400 feet, divided by 20-foot alleys running east and west. The landing-place was in itself no small advantage in favor of Sacramento, while the slough at Sutterville, which required bridging, operated against the latter. Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 178-81; Placer Times, Dec. 15, 1849; Sherman's Mem., i. 59, 77; Burnett's Per. Rec., MS., ii. 1-2; Id., Rec, 287-8. Winans, Days of 1849, MS., 8, and Crosby, Events, MS., 27, differ on the date and surveyor. A year later Seton, Ord, and Sherman were employed to connect Warner's survey of Sacramento with Davidson's survey of Sutterville. An auction sale of lots to be held at Sutter's Fort on Jan. 8, 1849, was advertised under date of Dec. 2d, in the Star and Cal. of Dec. 23, 1848. The first sales were near the fort, but at the close of Jan. 1849 lots near the river came into demand. The purchase of more than four lots to one person was discouraged in order to promote settlement, which was also favored by time payments and uniform prices. P. H. Burnett became on Dec. 30th the attorney for Sutter, jr. He received one fourth of the proceeds, but becoming too rapidly rich, according