(1850-1860) (1850)(1800-1850)(1860-1870) Table of Contents
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935, 1850s See Text
Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159pp., 1850s See Text
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1908, 1860s, 1850s See Text
Kenneth Libo and Irving Howe We Lived There Too St. Martin's: NY, 1984, 347pp., 1984, 1850s See Text
Gordon Newell and Joe Williamson Pacific Coastal Liners, Superior Publishing Co.: Seattle, WA, (Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing: NY), 1959, 192 pp., 1850s See Text
Harriet and Fred Rochlin, Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West, Houghton Mifflin Co.: Boston, 1984. 1854, 1853 See Text
Alexander Saxton The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the anti-Chinese movement in California, University of California Press: Los Angeles, CA, 1971 (1975), 293 pp., 1880s, 1870s, 1860s, See Text
Morris U. Schappes A Documentary History of the Jews in the United States, 1654-1875, The Citadel Press: New York, 1950, 762pp., 1950,, 1850s, See Text
Grant H. Smith The History of the Comstock Lode 1850-1920, Geology and Mining Series No. 37, University of Nevada Bulletin: Reno, Nevada, vol. XXXVII. 1 July 1943, no. 3, (revised 1966), Ninth printing, 1980. 305pp., 1873, 1850s, 1850 See Text
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1850s See Text
Documents
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935, 1876, 1860s, 1850s
Chapter XI Trails of Destiny
"p. 118 . . .
"We have an accurate picture written by a woman of [p. 119] gentle birth who tells what the pueblo was like in these formative days. Mrs. Benjamin Hayes was the wife of a young lawyer, son of a Missouri slave-holder who came in 1852 . . . [p. 120] Mrs. Hayes did not live to see the pueblo grow up; she died of consumption. Judge Hayes . . . his diary is one of the standard books of California history.
" . . .
"1853: Comes Abel Stearns, the Yankee, to marry the beautiful Arcadia Bandini and put new impulse into the old Spanish life, yet accepting its customs and proud to become "Don Abel." Dr. W. B. Osborne build a post office by making pigeonholes in a cracker box. Before, the letters had been thrown into a tub. Catholic Sisters started the first hospital in the adobe house of Don Cristobal Aguilar on upper Main Street. H.P. Dorsay installed the first Masonic master.
"1854: The Rev. James Woods started a Presbyterian church in a carpenter shop on Main Street. Rabbi A.W. Edelman started the first synagogue. Joseph Newmark brought the first Chinese servant in, to whom he paid one hundred dollars per month. Bill, the waterman, was peddling domestic water, a bucket a day, for fifty cents a week. Andrew Briswalter, an Alsatian, planted the first truck garden. O.W. Childs paid one hundred fifty dollars for the first hive of bees.
"1855: The first public school was started at Second and Spring, far out of town to keep the children away from the pueblo's distractions. St. Vincent's College was started in [p. 121] the old Lugo house on the Plaza. The first flour-mill ended the long anthem of the metate.
"1856: Boom year. Cattle sold for five hundred thousand dollars. William Wolfskill shipped the first oranges East-four hundred boxes, one hundred dollars a tree.
"1857: Lieutenant Ord made the first survey establishing the present streets. A public appeal was made to citizens to buy public lands at one dollar an acre, now the heart of the down-town district.
"1859: Mrs, Arcadia de Bandini de Stearns de Baker [sic] built the Baker Block, the first grand building. A gold rush in San Gabriel canyon thrilled the pueblo. On account of the pro-slavery attitude of Los Angeles, California voted by a two-thirds majority to divide the state. Congress refused to ratify.
Harry Carr Los Angeles City of Dreams (Illustrated by E.H. Suydam), D. Appleton-Century Co.: NY, 1935, 402 pp., 1935
Chapter XVIII The East A-Calling
"[p. 223] Captain Phineas Banning from Wilmington, Delaware, was the father of the [San Pedro] harbor. He started the first stage-line to the pueblo; took a long chance and towed the first schooner into the inner harbor; promoted the first railroad between Los Angeles and the bay.
"In his day, it was the only connection between the pueblo and San Francisco . . . then the big city of the coast. Los Angeles was a contemptible, one-horse, sleepy adobe town so inconsequential that the first railroad had to be coaxed hard to build the rails into Los Angeles instead of driving straight down to San Bernardino.
"There was a weekly mail steamer which anchored off shore and took on passengers from the pueblo by lighter.
Jim Heimann Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Chronicle Books: San Francisco, CA, 1999, 159pp., 1850s
"Almost from the start, Los Angeles had a reputation as a hell-hole. In the mid-1800s it was filled with murderers, vigilantes, thieves, and prostitutes. Streets were rutted paths where mongrel dogs roamed and dead animals were dumped. . . ."
Ingersoll's Century History Santa Monica Bay Cities (Being Book Number Two of Ingersoll's Century Series of California Local History Annals), 1908, 1908a, 1912, 1908, 1860s, 1850, 1850s
[p. 121] Chapter I. Santa Monica Bay Region
. . . [p. 139] In early days it [La Ballona] was chiefly occupied as a stock range, although some grain was raised and orchards of various fruits were planted about the haciendas. The district was occupied by a number of families in the fifties and sixties and was one of th first townships set aside, originally including San Vicente, Boca de Santa Monica, Malibu and a large territory. It was organized into a school district during the sixties and was a factor in the election of early days.
" . . .
[p. 157, 1850, 1850s] Chapter II Laying the Foundations. 1870-1880.
. . . [p. 157] But when the news of the gold discoveries of California penetrated the country and called to every youth with a bold heart and adventurous blood, young John Perceval Jones joined forces with several other young men who were as eager for the change as himself. They secured a small vessel, sailed through the lakes and the St. Lawrence river and started on the long and perilous voyage around "the Horn." They were months on the ocean and experienced many hardships and dangers before they finally reached San Francisco Bay, in the spring of 1850. The young adventurer at once hastened away to the mines to seek his fortune. For many years he was a typical California miner, sometimes finding his hopes fulfilled, often finding them dashed.
In those days when thousands of men sought gold with fierce energy, living without homes, without comforts, without the restraints of civilization, it was only strong character and true manhood that withstood the temptations of the environment. Young Jones came of sturdy stock and proved himself a man and a leader, even in these early days. He served as sheriff in county of Trinity at a time when the office required a stout heart and level head for-to a large extent-the sheriff was the law.
Kenneth Libo and Irving Howe We Lived There Too St. Martin's: NY, 1984, 347pp., 1984, 1913, 1853, 1850s
" . . .
"Whereas San Francisco had grown into a full-fledged city in a few years, Los Angeles remained a dusty little cow town until well after the Civil War, When Harris Newmark arrived via Nicaragua in 1853, there were no more than a few thousand settlers living in an assortment of flat-roofed houses spread out helter-skelter from the town's center into the flatlands beyond. What follows are Newmark's recollections of those early days, taken from his memoirs, Sixty Years in Southern California (18
"After heavy winter rains mud was from six inches to two feet dep, while during the summer dust piled up to about the same extent. Few city ordinances were obeyed; for notwithstanding that a regulation of the City Council called on every citizen to sweep in front of his house to a certain point on Saturday evenings, not the slightest attention was paid to it. In to the roadway was thrown all the rubbish: if a man bought a new suit of clothes, a pair of boots, a hat or a shirt, to replace a corresponding part of his apparel that had outlived his usefulness, he would think nothing, on attiring himself in the new purchase, of tossing the discarded article into the street where it would remain until some passing Indian, or other vagabond, took possession of it., So wretched indeed were the conditions, that I have seeen dead animals left on the highways for days at a time. . .
"The principal industry throughout Los Angeles County, and indeed throughout Southern California, up to the sixties, was the raising of cattle and horses - an undertaking favored by a people particularly fond of leisure and knowing little of the latent possibilities in the land; so that this entire area of magnificient soil supported herds which provided the whole population in turn, directly or indirectly, with a livelihood. The live stock subsisted upon grass growing wild all over the county, and the prosperity of Southern California therefore depended entirely upon the season's rainfall . . . If the rainfall was sufficient to produce feed, dealers came from the North and purchased our stock, and everybody thrived; if, on the other hand, the season was dry, cattle and horses died and the public's pocketbook shrank to very unpretentious dimensions . . ."
Gordon Newell and Joe Williamson Pacific Coastal Liners, Superior Publishing Co.: Seattle, WA, (Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing: NY), 1959, 192 pp., 1850s
Harriet and Fred Rochlin, Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West, Houghton Mifflin Co.: Boston, 1984. 1854, 1853
" . . .
" . . .
Another memorable sojourner was Solomon Nune Carvalho, (1815-1897 )
oil painter, photographer, and daguerreotyper, who spent one
extraordinary year in the Far West. From September 1853 to September
1854 he participated in a historic and treacherous expedition, which
he recorded in oil paintings, daguerreotypes-the first taken of the
Far West-and a trip diary and letters upon which he based
Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West. The book opens
with a description of his first meeting with the organizer and leader
of the journey, which occurred on August 22, 1853.
"After a short interview with Col. J.C.
Fremont, I accepted his invitation to accompany him as artist of an
Exploring Expedition across the Rocky Mountains. A half hour
previously, if anyone had suggested to me the probability of my
undertaking an overland journey to California, even over the emigrant
route, I should have replied there were no inducements sufficiently
powerful enough to have tempted me. Yet in this instance, I
impulsively, without even a consultation with my family, passed my
word to join an exploring party, under the command of Col. Fremont
over a hitherto untrodden country in an elevated region, with the
full expectation of an arctic winter . . . I know of no other man to
whom I would have entrusted my life under similar circumstances.
"Colonel John C. Fremont, celebrated American
soldier, explorer, and politician, planned the arduous winter
journey, his fifth and final expedition in the West, to demonstrate
the feasibility of a year-round transcontinental rail route along the
thirty-eighth parallel. Carvelho's task was to provide Fremont with
daguerreotypes to illustrate the proposal.
" . . .
"Cared for by the Mormons, Carvalho recuperated, then continued on to Los Angeles. He spent from June until September in the City of Angeles, where on the invitation of Samuel and Joseph Labattt he participated in the organization of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, the first Jewish organization in Los Angeles. The Labatts in turn helped Carvalho start a photographer's and artist's studio to earn money for his trip home.
" . . ." pp. 175, 176
Alexander Saxton The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the anti-Chinese movement in California, University of California Press: Los Angeles, CA, 1971 (1975), 293 pp., 1880s, 1870s, 1860s, 1850s
[p. 3] 1. The Labor Force In California
The Chinese
. . . In 1860 Chinese had represented slightly more than 9 percent of all Californians; ten years later the proportion had dropped to 8.6 percent and in 1880 to 7.5 percent;.
Distribution throughout the state was uneven and shifted with changing occupational patterns. Most Chinese immigrants were laborers. The majority reaching California in the early fifties had joined the rush to the foothills. There thay had found themselves in competition with white miners, who frequently resolved their own differences sufficiently to join in evicting Chinese from the camps. Already, however, the golden days were passing; by the end of the decade, as surface deposits were stripped away, most white miners went hunting richer territory elsewhere or drifted into other pursuits. The Chinese then returned to work out low-yield diggings and comb over abandoned tailings. Thus, the census of 1860 for California found more than two-thirds of all Chinese in the mining regions of the Sierra Nevada and Trinity Alps . . .
Morris
U. Schappes A Documentary History of the Jews in the United
States, 1654-1875, The Citadel Press: New York, 1950, 762pp.,
1950, 1897, 1925, 1857, 1856, 1855, 1854, 1853, 1852, 1850, 1850s,
1848, 1847, 1846, 1815
Schappes' commentary and footnotes
concerning his Chapter on Carvalho, 1957: 118. Exploring the West
with Fremont
"Fascinating is Carvalho's account
of one of the great adventures of nineteenth century far western
exploration. Born in Charleston, S.C., in 1815, Carvalho was an
artist and photographer who practised in Philadelphia and Baltimore
befoe he came to New York. In 1852 he was awarded a diploma and
silver medal from the South Carolina Institute for his painting,
The Intercession of Moses for Israel. An admirer of John
Charles Fremont, a man of his own age but already famous as an
explorer, a conqueror of California, and an anti-Slavery senator from
that State, Carvalho accepted Fremont's invitation on August 22, 1853
to accompany him on his fifth expedition across the Rocky Mountains.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis having exhibited his preference for
the southernmost route to California as the path for a projected
railway, and having sent out other expeditions to demonstrate the
practicability of his plan, Fremont, privately financed by Senator
Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and his own funds, determined to prove
that a central route was also practicable and more desirable.
Carvalho was engaged to make daguerreotype photographs, and thus
became the first official photographer ever to accompany a scientific
expedition. After a couple of months spent painting portraits in Salt
Lake City, which he reached on March 1, 1854, Carvalho started out
for California on May 6, 1854 in the wake of a group of Mormon
missionaries, arriving over the mountains at San Benardino on June 9,
1854. He was probably the second Jew to cross the Rockies into
California. His book is the chief surviving source of information
about the expedition. He speaks simply but effectively of the
hardships of twenty-two men crossing the Rockies on foot in winter
across uncharted territory."
"1) Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West; with Col. Fremont's Last Expedition Across the Rocky Mountains: Including Three Month's Residence in Utah, and a Perilous Trip Across the Great American Desert, to the Pacific, New York, 1857, pp 96-103, 128- 138.
Carvelho's preface is dated Baltimore, September 1856, and the volume may have been planned to appear in time to influence the 1856 elections in which Fremont was a candidate for President, but the title-page bears the date 1857. However, excerpts from Carvalho's diaries were published in John Bigelow, Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont . . . New York, 1856, pp. 430-442, which appeared in time for the elections and was published by Derby & Jackson, who later issued Carvalho's volume.
" . . .
"5) The conquest of California from Mexico was achieved y the armed forces of Fremont and others between July 5, 1846 and January 13, 1847, when the treaty of victory was signed. On September 9, 1850, when California was admitted to the Union, Fremont became one of its first United States Senators, failing of re-election, however, because of his anti-slavery views.
" . . .
"9) Carvalho married Sarah Solis of Philadelphia; his first son, David Nunes was born in 1848 (died 1925); Jacob S. Carvalho; Solomon Solis was born in 1856. Solomon Nunes Carvalho died 27 May 1897 (age 83.)
Grant H. Smith The History of the Comstock Lode 1850-1920, Geology and Mining Series No. 37, University of Nevada Bulletin: Reno, Nevada, vol. XXXVII. 1 July 1943, no. 3, (revised 1966), Ninth printing, 1980. 305pp., 1873, 1850s, 1850
[p. 137] Chapter XVI The Crown Point-Belcher Bonanza-The Gold to Silver Ratio-The Silver Question.
[p. 142] The Silver Question
[p. 142] "The great flow of gold from California in 1849 and 1850 alarmed the bankers of Europe. Holland and Belgium, in 1850, began to sell their gold and stock up with silver. Other nations followed, especially after the great gold discoveries in Australia, beginning in 1851, and silver rose in price throughout the world. The countries of Europe, with the exception of Great Britain and France, were practically on a silver basis until 1871 when [p. 143] Germany adopted the gold standard after receiving a large amount of gold from France in payment of the war indemnity. Japan and the United States demonetized silver in 1873, and Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France and Holland soon followed. All of those countries threw quantities of silver upon the market, with a resultant decline in price.
Betty Lou Young Our First Century: The Los Angeles Athletic Club 1880-1980, LAAC Press: Los Angeles, California 1979, 176pp., 1850s
The 1850s brought settlers. Banning, Mellus, Foy, Winston, and Downey. Jewish settlers included John Jones, Newmarks, Cohns, and Hellmans . . . whose leisure time pursuits included church socials, parlor games, songfests, gymnastics, footraces and baseball . . .