Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 77 jected the running of good steamboats for traffic after the great tide of gold emigration had set in, it ie difficult to say. The first vessel propelled by steam entering the Bay of San Francisco was the California, February 28, 1849. The excursion of the steamship Oregon from San Francisco to Benicia and back, April 21 of the same year, was the first trip of a steam vessel of any magnitude into any of the interior waters adjacent to the main bay. It was indeed a successful and magnificent excursion. Prior to this, however, announcements had been made that steamboats were on their way trom the East to California, to ply on the rivers here. The first of these announcements was issued from the office of the old Placer Times, when that journal was first started at Sntterville, in April, 1849. It was printed in the form of a handbill, at the order of some of the proprietors of that place. May 19, the following advertisement appeared in the Zimes: “Ten thousand cords of wood. We wish to employ any number of men that may call, to cut wood at Sutterville for the use of the steamers. George McDougal & Co., Sutterville, May 15, 1859.” Of course the wood was never cut. During the summer of 1849 a number of steamboat enterprises were on foot, and the keels of several small vessels, brought by some of the ships chartered by the gold hunters, were laid at different points on the river and bay. The first of this series of which we have any record was one of about fifty tons burden, put together at Benicia, the material having been brought from the East by way of the Horn on board the Edward Everett. She made her first trip to Sacramento, August 17, 1849. About this period also were established the tiret regular express lines in the State, two commencing business between here and San Francisco, to take the business of the regular mail, which was at that time the subject of bitter complaint and unsparing ridicule. August 25, another small steamboat trom Philadelphia began to ply the river, accommodating some thirty passengersand “running abont seven knots an hour.” About the first boat advertised for regular trips between this city and San Francisco appears to have been the Sacramento, in September, 1849, commanded by Captain John Van Pelt. She had two engines of sixteen horsepower, could carry about 100 passengers, besides freight. She was built about where Washington now stands, opposite the northern portion of Sacramento City, and the captain, who became a sort of Pacific Vanderbilt, made successful and regular trips with the vessel as far down as “ New York of the Pacitic,” where passengers and freight had to be transferred. About the same time a little steam dredge, brought out by the Yuba Company, was set up in a scow and started on a trip up the Feather River, carrying a quantity of bricks, at $1.00 each for freight (!), and lumber at $150 per 1,000 feet. Two months after her arrival she was sold at anction for $40,000. The next boat was the Mint, also a small one, put up at San Francisco, which was really the first steamboat to make successful trips with passengers and freight all the way between that city and Sacramento, beginning in the middle of October, 1849. The propeller McKim was the first large vessel that ever navigated the Sacramento River by steam. She had doubled Cape Horn and arrived at San Francisco, October 3, and was immediately put in order by her San Francisco agents, Simmons, Hutchinson & Co., for the Sacramento trade. She drew eight feet of water, and many doubted whether she could ascend the river to that point; but she arrived there on the 27th of that month, amid the cheers of an immense crowd lining the shore. The fine old steamer Senator became her rival November 6, 1849. During these times the fare from Sacramento to San Francisco was $30. The little steamer called the Washington was the first that ascended as far as Vernon, at the mouth of Feather River, to which point she made regular trips. In April, 1850, the Avtna, a very small steamer, ascended the American as far as “ Norristown,” the first and probably the