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Page: of 436
SPRING 1845—JANUARY 1847
means of serving the Mormon church. Now, viewing the poorly printed
Monterey paper with amused contempt, he saw a new vision.
California, it appeared, was going to be a very lively place, but Monterey was not where the future lay. Why, then, should he limit his horizons by issuing a narrowly defined missionary paper? Brannan was convinced that he and Ed Kemble could produce a weekly of professional
quality. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young hadn’t elevated themselves by
setting modest goals. Think big—that was the way!
HX
ED KEMBLE MISSED out on the big moment. When Sam Brannan decided to launch the California Star at Yerba Buena, Sergeant Kemble was
at the Mission of San Buenaventura with Colonel Frémont. Three days
after the first issue was printed on January 9, 1847, the Californios surrendered to the Americans and the war in California came to an end.
With Kemble gone, Brannan chose Elbert P. Jones to edit the new
paper. Jones, a Kentucky lawyer who had just arrived in California, was
not a printer, so Sam had to help John Eager set the type and run the
press.
Before the second issue was ready, Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett
USN, Yerba Buena’s alcalde, came into the Star office with a stranger at
his side. A month earlier on December 10 Bartlett and some friends were
caught in the act of requisitioning cattle from a Santa Clara rancho and
taken prisoner by Francisco Sanchez and his vaqueros.
News of the capture traveled to San José and Yerba Buena, where a
rescue mission was put together hastily. Two companies of United States
Marines, a dozen or so Yerba Buena horsemen, and a company of volunteers from San José fought a one-hour battle with Sanchez at Santa Clara
and forced him to relinquish his prisoners and sign a treaty of peace.
Bartlett introduced his companion to Sam as James Reed, an acting
lieutenant in Captain C. M. Weber’s San José company, who had aided in
his rescue. Bartlett wanted Sam to hear the story of Reed’s family,
stranded in the Sierras. On January 16, 1847, the Star reported Reed’s
tale to its subscribers:
EMIGRANTS IN THE MOUNTAINS
It is probably not generally known to the people that there is now in
the California mountains, in a most distressing situation, a party of emigrants from the United States, who were prevented from crossing the
mountains by an early fall of snow.
The party consists of about sixty persons, men, women and children.
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