tenuated string continued toward the government reservation at Rincon Point, the south-east limit of the cove.17

Thus the city was truly a fit entrepôt for the gold region. Yet, with the distinctive features of different nationalities, it had in the aggregate a stamp of its own, and this California type is still recognizable despite the equalizing effect of intercourse, especially with the eastern states.

The first striking landmark to the immigrant was Telegraph hill, with its windmill-like signal house and pole, whose arms, by their varying position, indicated the class of vessel approaching the Golden Gate.19 And many a flutter of hope and expectation did they evoke when announcing the mail steamer, laden with letters and messengers, or some long-expected clippership with merchandise, or perchance bringing a near and dear relative! Along its southern slopes dwellings began rapidly to climb, with squatters' eyries perched upon the rugged spurs, and tents nestling in the ravines. Clark Point, at its foot, was for a time a promising spot, favered by the natural landing advantages, and the Broadway pier, the first ship wharf; and its section of Sansome street was marked by a number of corrugated iron stores; but with the rapid extension of the wharf system, Montgomery street reaffirmed its position as the base line for business. Most of the heavy import firms were situated along its eastern side, including a number of auction-houses, conspicuous for their open and thronged doors, and the

Roughing It, 410, 417, 444; Nouv. Annales Voy., 1849, 224; Voorhies' Oration, 4-5; Pac. News, Nov. 27, 1849; Dec. 27, 1850; New and Old, 69 et seq.; McCollum's Cal., 33-6. Earlier details at the close of preceding volume.

A mile across from Clark Point. These two points presented the only boat approach at low water. A private claim to Rincon Point reservation was subsequently raised on the ground that the spot had been preempted by one White; but government rights were primary in cases involving military defences. S. F. Times, Apr. 7th.

18 This improved signal-station, in a two-story house 25 ft by 18, was erected in Sept. 1849. Reminiscences in S. F. Call, Dec. 8, 1870; Taylor's Eldorado, i. 117. After the telegraph connected the outer ocean station with the city, the hill became mainly a resort for visitors. The signal-house was blown down in Dec. 1870.

hum of sellers and bidders. On the mud-flats in their rear, exposed by the receding tide, lay barges unloading merchandise. Toward the end of 1849, piling and filling pushed warehouses ever farther out into the cove, but Montgomery street retained most of the business offices, some occupying the crossing thoroughfares. Clay street above Montgomery became a dry-goods centre. Commercial street was opened, and its water extension, Long Wharf, unfolded into a pedler's avenue and Jews' quarter, where Cheap Johns with sonorous voices and broad wit attracted crowds of idlers. The levee eastward was transformed into Leidesdorff street, and contained the Pacific Mail Steamship office. California street, which marked. the practical limit of settlement in 1848, began to attract some large importing firms; and thither was transferred in the middle of 1850 the custom-house, round which clustered the express offices and two places of amusement. Nevertheless, the city by that time did not extend beyond Bush street, save in the line along the shore to Happy Valley, where manufacturing enterprises found a congenial soil, fringed on the west by family residences.

19

Kearny street was from the first assigned to retail shops, extending from Pine to Broadway streets, and centring round Portsmouth square, a bare spot, relieved alone by the solitary liberty-pole, and the animals in and around it." The bordering sides of the plaza were, however, mainly occupied by gambling-houses, flooded with brilliant light and music, and with flaring streamers which attracted idlers and men seeking relaxation. Additional details, with a list of business firms and notable houses and features, I append in a note. 20 At the corner of Pacific street stood a four

19 It long remained a cow-pen, enclosed by rough boards. Helper's Land of Gold, 74.

A record of the business and professional community of S. F. in 1849– 50 cannot be made exhaustive or rigidly accurate for several obvious reasons. There was a constant influx and reflux of people from and to the interior, especially in the spring and autumn. The irregularity in building and numbering left much confusion; and the several sweeping conflagrations

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story building adorned with balconies, wherein the City Hall had found a halting-place after much mi

which caused the ruin, disappearance, and removal of many firms and stores, added to the confusion. Instability characterized this early period here as well as in the ever-shifting mining camps. I would have preferred to limit the present record of the city to 1849 as the all-important period, but the autumn and spring movements force me over into the middle of 1850. The vagueness of some of my authorities leads me occasionally to overstep even this line. These authorities are, foremost, the numerous manuscript dictations and documents obtained from pioneers, so frequently quoted in this and other chapters; the ayuntamiento minutes; advertisements and notices in the Alta California, Pacific News, Journal of Commerce, California Courier, S. F. Herald, Evening Picayune, and later newspapers; and Kimball's Directory of S. F. for 1850, the first work of the kind here issued. It is a 16mo of 159 pages, with some 2,500 names, remarkable for its omissions, errors, and lack of even alphabetical order, yet of great value. The Men and Memories of San Francisco in the Spring of 1850, by T. A. Barry and B. A. Patten, S. F., 1873, 12mo, 296 pp., which has taken its chief cue from the above directory, wanders often widely from the period indicated on the title-page, yet offers many interesting data. I also refer to my record for the city in 1848, in the preceding vol., v. 676 et seq. The favorite landing-place for passengers of 1849 was the rocks at Clark Point, so called after Wm S. Clark, who still owns the warehouse here erected by him in 1847-8, at the N.E. corner of Battery and Broadway. At the foot of Broadway extended also the first wharf for vessels, a short structure, which by Oct. 1850 had been stretched a distance of 250 feet, by 40 in width. The name Commercial applied to it for a while soon yielded to Broadway. Here were the offices of the harbormaster, river and bar pilots, and Sacramento steamer, and for a time the brig Treaty lay at the pier as a storage ship, controlled by Whitman & Salmon, merchants. On the same wharf were the offices of Flint (Jas P. and Ed.), Peabody, & Co., Osgood & Eagleston, commission merchants; Geo. H. Peck, produce merchant; F. Vassault & Co. (W. F. Roelofson), Col Marsh, Col Ben. Poor, Jos. P. Blair, agent of the Aspinwall steamship line, J. Badkins, grocer, and the noted Steinberger's butcher-shop.

Near by, to the north, were three pile projections. First, Cunningham wharf, between Vallejo and Green sts, in Oct. 1850, 375 ft long, 33 ft wide, with a right-angle extension of 330 ft by 30, at a depth of 25 ft cost $75,000. Here lay for a time the storage ship Resolut, in care of the pilot agent Nelson. For building grant of wharf to Jos. Cunningham, see S. F. Minutes, 1849, 197-8. At the foot of Green st and toward Union st were the extensions of B. R. Buckelew & Co., general merchants, and the Law or Green-st-wharf building in the autumn of 1850. Southward stretched the wharf extension of Pacific st, a solid structure 60 ft wide, of which in Oct. 1850 525 ft were completed, out of the proposed 800 ft, to cost $60,000. On its north side, beyond Battery st, lay the storage ship Arkansas. Near it was the butchershop of Tim Burnham, and the office of Hy. Wetherbee, merchant. Near the foot of Broadway st, appropriately so named from its extra width, were the offices of Wm E. Stoughtenburgh, auctioneer and com. mer.; Hutton & Miller (M. E.); Ellis (J. S., later sheriff S. F.) & Goin (T.); and L. T. Wilson, shipping; Hutton (J. F.) & Timmerman, com. mer.; D. Babcock, druggist; D. Chandler, market. On Battery st, named after the Fort Montgomery battery of 1846 which stood at the water edge north of Vallejo st, rose the Fremont hotel of John Sutch, near Vallejo, and the Bay hotel of Pet. Guevil. On either side of the street, between Vallejo and Broadway, were the offices of Ed. H. Castle, mer.; Gardiner, Howard, & Co., Hazen & Co., Jos. L. Howell, J. H. Morgan & Co. (A. E. Kitfield, John Lentell), L. R. Mills, J. H. Morton & Co., corner of Vallejo, the last three grocers; Nat. Miller is marked both as grocer and lumber dealer; Wm Suffern, saddler; south of Broadway were Brooks & Friel, tin-plate workers.

On Broadway, between Battery and Sansome sts, were the offices of C. A.

grating, in conjunction with the jail and court-rooms. The opposite block, stretching toward Montgomery

Bertrand, shipping; at the Battery corner, Wm Clark, mer.; John Elliott, com. mer.; Geo. Farris & Co. (S. C. Northrop and Edwin Thompson), gen. store. Half a dozen additional Point hostelries were here represented by the Illinois house of S. Anderson, at the Battery corner, Broadway house of Wm M. Bruner, the rival Broadway hotel of L. Dederer, Lovejoy's hotel of J. H. Brown, Lafayette hotel of L. Guiraud, and Albion house of Croxton & Ward, the latter four between Sansome and Montgomery sts, in which section were also the offices of White, Graves, & Buckley, and Aug. A. Watson & Co ; H. Marks & Bro., gen. store; Wm H. Towne, and Dederer & Valentine, grocers. West of Battery ran Sansome st, from Telegraph hill cliffs at Broadway to the cove at Jackson st, well lined with business places, and conspicuous for the number of corrugated iron buildings. At the west corner of Broadway rose the 3-story wooden edifice of J. W. Bingham, O. Reynolds, and F. A. & W. A. Bartlett, com. mer. In the same block was the office of De Witt (Alf. & Harrison, (H. A.), one of the oldest firms, later Kittle & Co.; alз0 Case, Heiser, & Co., and Mahoney, Ripley, & McCullough, on the N. w. Pacific-st corner, who dealt partly in ammunition. At the Pacific-st corner were also Wm H. Mosher & Co. (W. A. Bryant, W. F. Story, W. Adain), and E. S. Stone & Co., com. mers, and Hawley's store. In the same section were the offices of Muir (A.) & Greene (E.), brokers; Jos. W. Hartman and Jas Hogan, mers, are assigned to Telegraph hill. The well-known C. J. Collins had a hat-shop on this street, and José Suffren kept a grocery at the Broadway

corner.

The section of Sansome st, between Pacific and Jackson sts, was even more closely occupied. At Gold st, a lane running westward along the cove, L. B. Hanks had established himself as a lumber dealer. Buildings had risen on piles beyond the lane, however, on the corners of Jackson st, occupied by Coghill (H. J.) & Arrington (W.), com. mer.; Bullet & Patrick (on the opposite side), Buzby & Bros, F. M. Warren & Co. (C. E. Chapin, S. W. Shelter), ship and com. mer.; Hotalling & Barnstead, Huerlin & Belcher, gen. dealers, and Ed. H. Parker. Northward in the section were Ellis (M.), Crosby (C. W.), & Co. (W. A. Beecher), Cross (Al.), Hobson (Jos.), & Co. (W. Hooper), Underwood (Thos), McKnight (W. S.), & Co. (C. W. Creely), Dana Bros (W. A. & H. T.), W. H. Davenport, Grayson & Guild, and J. B. Lippincott & Co., all com. mers; E. S. Lovel, mer.; Chard, Johnson (D. M.), & Co., gen. importers, at Gold st; Simmons, Lilly, & Co., clothing. J. W. & S. H. Dwinelle, counsellors, were in Cross & Hobson's building. On Pacific st, adjoining, was the office of Wm Burlin, mer., the grocery stores of T. W. Legget and Man. Sufiloni, the confectionery store of J. H. & T. M. Gale, and three hotels, Union, Marine, and du Commerce, kept by Geo. Brown, C. C. Stiles, and C. Renault, the last two between Sansome st and Ohio st, the latter a lane running parallel to the former, from Pacific to Broadway.

The business part of Montgomery st, named after the U. S. naval officer commanding at S. F. in 1846, extended southward from the cliffs at Broadway, and beyond it, on the slopes of Telegraph hill. There were several dwelling-houses, among them Capt. P. B. Hewlitt's, who received boarders; yet the hill was mostly abandoned to disreputable Sydney men, and westward to the now assimilating Spanish Americans. In the section between Broadway and Pacific sts, I find only the merchant F. Berton; Chipman, Brown, & Co. were grocers; Jas Harrison kept a gen. store at the corner, and Dr S. R. Gerry, the health officer of Dec. 1849, had an office here. In the next section, between Pacific and Jackson, Montgomery st assumed the general business stamp for which it was preeminent. Merchants, commission houses, and auctioneers were the chief occupants, the last being most conspicuous. At the Pacific corner were the merchants Harrison (Capt. C. H.), Balley, & Hooper, and A. Olphan; and at the Jackson end, J. C. & W. H. V. Cronise,

JACKSON-STREET LAGOON.

175

street and at the foot of Telegraph hill, was filled with shabby dens and public houses of the lowest order,

mers and aucs (with them as clerk, Titus Cronise, the later author), Hervey Sparks, banker and real estate dealer, and Dewey (Squire P.) & Smith (F. M.), real estate. Intermediate were J Behrens, Geo. Brown, Davis & Co. (J. W. & N. R. Davis), JH Levein, McKenzie, Thompson, & Co., H. H. Nelson, Thos Whaley, G. S. Wardle & Co., all com. mers; Simon Raphael, mer.; J. A. Norton, ship and com, mer., an English Jew whose subsequent business reverses affected his mind and converted him into one of the most noted characters of S. F. under the title of Emperor Norton of Mexico. Until his death, in 1880, he could be seen daily in the business centres, dressed in a shabby military uniform, and attending to financial and political measures for his empire. Here were also the clothing stores of Raphael (J. G.), Falk, & Co., J. Simons, Louis Simons, and Dan. Toy.

The Jackson-st corner bordered on the neck of the lagoon, which pene. trated in a pear form on either side of this street more than half-way up to Kearny st. It was one of the first spots to which the fillage system was applied, and the bridge by which Montgomery st crossed its neck since 1844 had by 1849 been displaced by a solid levee. Jackson st began its march into the cove, and in Oct. 2, 1850, the private company controlling the work were fast advancing the piling beyond Battery to Front st, being 552 feet out, where the depth was 13 ft. The estimated cost was $10,000. Its section between Montgomery and Sansome was heavily occupied by firms: N. Larco & Co. (Labrosa, Roding, Bendixson), Louis Cohen, Quevedo, Lafour, & Co., Reihling, Edleysen, & Co., O. P. Sutton, mers; Bech, Elam, & Co. (W. G. Eason, J. Galloway), J. C. Catton, Huttmann (F.), Eiller, & Co., Wm Ladd, J. F. Stuart & Co. (J. Raynes), com. mers; Christal, Corman, & Co., Lord & Washburn, wholesale and gen. mers; Beideman (J. C.) & Co. (S. Fleischhaker), Ollendorff, Wolf, & Co. (C. Friedenberg), B. Pinner & Bro., Potsdamer & Rosenbaum (J. & A.), Sam. Thompson, R. Wyman & Co. (T. S. Wyman), clothing; Adam Grant, S. L. Jacobs, Titman Bros, C. Jansen & Co., dry goods-the last named victims of the outrage which led to the vigilance uprising of 1851-Hall & Martin, aucs; Roth & Potter, stoves and tinwork; White & McNulty, grocers; Paul Adams, fruit; Dickson & Hay, land-office; C. C. Richmond & Co., druggists, in a store brought out by the Eudorus, Sept. 1849. Here were also two hotels, the Commercial and the Dalton house, kept by J. Ford & Co. and Smith & Hasty, and the fonda Mejicana of E. Pascual dispensed the fiery dishes dear to Mexican palates. Sansome st extended from here on piles southward, and in the section between Jackson and Washington sts, on the east side, was the office of W. T. Coleman & Co., com. mers, whose chief was prominently connected with the vigilance committee of 1851, and the famed president of the 1856 body. Near by were Jas H. Ray, Turner, Fish, & Co., Goodall (T. H.), Muzzy, & Co., Paul White & Co. (J. Watson), also com. mers; John Cowell, mer. at the Jackson corner; Belknap, White, & Co., provisions. Rogers, Richeson, & Co. (M. Jordan) had a coal-yard, and at Jones' alley lay a lumber-yard belonging to Palmer, Cook, & Co.

Continuing along Jackson st, from Sansome to Battery st, we find the offices of Myrick, Crosett, & Co., gen. jobbers; Howe & Hunter, Jacoby, Herman, & Co., Savoni, Archer, & Co., N. H. Sanborn, Murry & Sanger, Vose, Wood, & Co., com. mers. Wm Crosett, com. mer.; C. E. Hunter & Co., F. Coleman Sanford, gen. mers; F. M. Warren & Co., White (W. H.) & Williams (J. T.), ship. and com. mers; the latter nearer Sansome st. Along the water-front W. Meyer kept a coffee-house. The latter part of this section was a wharf, and the narrow approach to the office of Dupuy, Foulkes, & Co., com. mer., at the Battery corner, revealed the splashing water on either side. Beyond them were the offices of E. L. Plumb, mer.; Gassett & Sanborn (T. S.), E. S. Woodford & Co. (J. B. Bridgeman), ship. and com. mers; O.