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A BRIEF HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO from various sources thank you all whose jpegs I have copied to let you know this site is the most concise and best illustrated

San Francisco became the winter retreat of a vast number of miners. Thus, land speculation began in earnest.  In the city proper, the firm of Finley, Johhson, &co. sold a lot for $300,000 which had only the previous year cost 23,000.  Similarly, a lot on Portsmouth Square which in the spring sold for $6000 now commanded $45000.  These were the sagas of those fortunate to be 'in the right place at the right time'.

WILLIAM A RICHARDSON, an englishman who had jumped ship an lived at the Presidio, became the fjrst settler in the port village of Yerba Buena, which developed in teh general area marked today by Portsmouth Square.  Initally he carried on a small retail business with ships' crews and Indians, from a tent stretched over pine posts,.  In 1837 he built his Casa Grande on the Calle de la Fundacion, the one street in town. It ran at an angle to the beach and connected at the north with a road to the Presidio and at the south with a road to Mission Dolores. At the order of Alcalde Francisco de haro, a Swiss named Jean Vioget devised a plan to be used in granting lots.  He sought to include withhi near-rectangular block all the houses and fences already on the streets. Calle (dlf) is now called Grant Avenue.

part of the MONROE DOCTRINE

. At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal has been made by His Imperial Majesty to the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The Government of the United States has been desirous by this friendly proceeding of manifesting the great value which they have invariably attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by which they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. . . It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the results have been so far very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgement of the competent authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security. The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote, and surely none of them more so than the United States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those continents circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course.

Official interest in California dates to the 'Monroe Doctrine', which also informed the Russians to stop using Fort Ross as a 'springboard' for further colonization. by 1845, with Polk as president, CA was high on the acquisition agenda. William Heath DAvis, who spent years in the tallow trade, thought that whole new towns could be established, and he offered 5000 to Don Vicente Peralta for a part of his ranch at contra costa. On a part of that ranch, Encinal de Temescal, now stand the skyscrapers of downtown Oakland. It covered an area from Milpitas all the way to Berkeley, and beyond.  It makes me smile when I think that all these people are living in what was once just a ranch 'against the coast'However, in the end, squatters took most of that area from Don Vicente, I think..

A plan for a town at Mission San Francisco in Sonoma was put into effect, but troubles with the Indians put an end to it. An order to found a town was given to Mariano Vallejo in 1835, establishing the town of Sonoma in 1835, which by 1840 had 200 settlers.

64 DILLINGHAM ROAD O'MARA THOMAS J & SUSAN $281,600  $297,800  104 DILLINGHAM ROAD REIMAN ROBERT D & ELIZABETH $260,700  $276,800  0 DILLINGHAM ROAD REMY RONALD G & JANE M $138,100  $151,600  81 DILLINGHAM ROAD SIGSBEE DOROTHY B $253,000  $268,900  0 DOBLE WAY KER ROBERT W III ETAL  TRUSTEE $530,600  $694,700  0 DOBLE WAY STRINGER ELIZABETH D $264,800  $313,000  57 DONAHUE ROAD ALDORISIO HARRY & BARBARA $189,600  $273,700  24 DONAHUE ROAD CASSARINO SANTO & CAROL A $187,700  $270,000  86 DONAHUE ROAD FRAIND ANTHONY & STARNER LEE $198,500  $284,000  170 DONAHUE ROAD GATELY ELIZABETH M $200,600  $282,400  52 DONAHUE ROAD JASTRZEBSKI JOZEF & MAUREEN $210,600  $292,300  118 DONAHUE ROAD KOMOSA DONALD J $218,300  $300,400  106 DONAHUE ROAD LAUNOY MARC & $193,300  $277,100  140 DONAHUE ROAD LINDSTROM SHIRLEY M $197,600  $279,700  9 DONAHUE ROAD MARGESON CHERYL & $204,100  $286,200  10 DONAHUE ROAD MODZELEWSKI NORMA G $218,300  $301,100  93 DONAHUE ROAD MURPHY ROBERT B & MARY JANE $200,6

In the sand hills, around what is now 1st & Mission, there stood 1000 tents or more.  In the vicinity, Peter and James Donahue established a small foundry making implements for the miners.  Farther still, around what became Howard street, 2000 people lived in tents and shanties, ten times what some had seen upon their departure from San Francisco. Needless to say, there continued to be an explosion of population in the whole bay area, from Vallejo to Sonoma, San Francisco and the East Bay  [nsert Cambrian]

a very brief glimpse of the Gold Rush of 1848-49-50

JAMES MARSHALL'S DISCOVERY OF GOLD along the American River near Sacramento in January 1848 precipitated an influx of immigrants from all over the world to California in search of promised wealth. Rumors of gold began circulating soon after Marshall took his find to Captain John Sutter at Sutter's Fort, where the two confirmed, to the best of their knowledge, that the metal was indeed gold. Sutter tried to keep the discovery secret, but word soon traveled, carried by teamsters delivering goods to Coloma. Although announcements appeared in San Francisco newspapers by mid-March, it was not until 12 May, when Samuel Brannan - who operated a store at Sutter's Fort - arrived in San Francisco, a bag of gold dust in hand and shouting: "Gold! Gold! Gold! from the American River!"

Some of the'commandments' of the miners

Thou shalt not go prospecting before thy claim gives out. Neither shalt thou take thy money, nor thy gold dust, nor thy good name, to the gaming table in vain; for monte, twenty-one, roulette, faro, lansquenet and poker, will prove to thee that the more thou puttest down the less thou shalt take up; and when thou thinkest of thy wife and children, thou shalt not hold thyself guiltless—but insane.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Neither shalt thou destroy thyself by getting "tight," nor "stewed," nor "high," nor "corned," nor "half- seas over," nor "three sheets in the wind," by drinking smoothing down—"brandy slings," "gin cocktails," "whiskey punches," "rum toddies," nor "egg-noggs." Neither shalt thou suck "mint juleps," nor "sherry- cobblers," through a straw, nor gurgle from a bottle the "raw material," nor take "it straight" from a decanter

onE OF the most striking and significant eviences of the chronic social disorganization in post-gold rush California was the outbreak of a rash of "vigilance committees." The truth about vigilantism is that it began in Los Angeles in 1836 when the "junta defensora" (defensive union) seized a man and a woman from teh custody of the alcaldes and shot them ofr the murder of the woman's husband, and was not an 'Anglo-Saxon' INVENTION.

FILIBUSTERS Somewhat related to the spirit of vigilantism was the spirit of those Californians of the 1850's  who took internation law into their own hands. Filibusters were attempts by private adverturers to seize foreign territory  by force and intrigue.  Again the Spanish had furnished the word for it-filibustero was the Spanish equivalent of ":freebooter" There was a rash of such schemes, directed against Hawaii, northern Mexico, and Central America.  Some of them were praised by several California newspapers, mainly proslavery ones.

none other than Sam Brannan led a filibustering expedition to Hawaii, in the fall of 1851.  his redwood house in SF, built with mormon fonds, had been burnd, so with 24 men and Game Cock, he set off. He landed in Honolulu on Nov. 15 an attempted to persuade King Kamehameha III to cede some islands to him for a colonizing venture. Needless to say they 'booted' him off.  During the decade, there were several expeditions to Sonora (most of them organized with varying degrees of secred connivance on the part of the Mexican politicians and the government of Napoleon III, and involving groups of Frenchmen who had faild to find gold in California.

But the most famous of all California filibusters was William Walker, a shy and homely but intensely ambitious man, weighing about 100 pounds, who became known to some, especially to himself, as "the gray-eyed man of destiny."

William Walker - 19th century North American lawyer/journalist turned adventurer who sought to expand the pre-civil war United States into Central America by setting up a slave state in Nicaragua. He invaded with a small but well armed force in October of 1855, named himself president of Nicaragua in July of 1856, but only held control of Granada and other select parts of Nicaragua briefly before being expelled by combined Central American armies in early 1857. The first Nicaraguan victory of against Walker's army occurred on the 14th of September 1856 and is celebrated annually as a national holiday.

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