Very Important Passengers

San Francisco Gold Rush 1849.

William A. Leidesdorff

1810 - 1848

Leidesdorff was a pre-Gold Rush pioneer born out of wedlock in the Virgin Islands to a Danish sugar planter and Anna Marie Spark, a native woman having Negro blood. After his father drifted off, he was taken in by an English plantation owner; he left his home to live in New Orleans to work with a cotton merchant, brother the English gentleman.

Leidesdorff flourished in the maritime trade out of New Orleans sailing to New York. He desired to marry a New Orleans belle, but when her father learned of his heritage, he was not allow his daughter to marry him.

He sold his personal effects in New Orleans, bought the 106-ton schooner, Julia Ann, and prepared for a trading voyage to San Francisco, landing at Yerba Buena Cove in 1841.

His business ventures include launching the first steamboat to sail on San Francisco Bay. Apparently she had no name, but has since been called the Sitka. Her dimensions were: length, 37 feet; breadth of bow, 9 feet; depth of hold, 3 1/2 feet; drawing, 18 inches of water, and having side wheels moved by a miniature engine. She was built by an American at Sitka, as a pleasure boat for the officers of the Russian Fur Company and was purchased by Leidesdorff, being brought down to San Francisco in October, 1847.

By November 28th, the Sitka began carrying goods and transporting passengers as far as Monterey. The Sitka was wrecked at her anchorage in Yerba Buena in a gale but was saved, hauled inland by oxen, her named changed to Rainbow. She ran on the Sacramento River even after the discovery of gold.

Leidesdorff was naturalized in 1844, and obtained a grant of thirty-five acres of land, to which he gave the name the Rio De Los Americanos ranch, located on the left bank of the American River. He he continued to establish himself as a business man of amazing acumen when he bought a lot on the corner of Clay and Kearny and built the town's first hotel, which he named the "City Hotel."

Later, extending his import-export trade (particularly in tallow and hides), he built a warehouse on the corner of California and Leidesdorff streets, the latter being the short street on the waterfront of the Embarcadero of the day, which was named for him.

In 1845, Leidesdorff was appointed Vice Consul to Mexico by Consul Thomas Oliver Larkin, serving under the jurisdiction of Commodore Stockton, then military governor of California. In this capacity Leidesdorff gave aid to Fremont and the Americans raising the Bear flag in the historic rebellion at Sonoma in 1846.

Leidesdorff remained a bachelor, yet he lived in one of the largest homes in the area (on the corner of California and Montgomery Streets) from which he played host to government officials, American or Mexican. His cuisine offered the finest foods and wines and he could boast the only flower garden in all Yerba Buena.

He held civic positions of honor and trust. He was a member of the town's first council; he was town treasurer, and one of the three members of the first school board which supervised the building of the first public school erected for children in the community. In a lighter vein, he found occasion in the field of sports, to indulge the lively spirit of speculation and daring which he brought with him into California.

The Horse. Wendy Williams.

Among his last ventures, in 1847, was the staging of the state's first horse race, on a meadow near Mission Dolores, especially improvised for this unprecedented event.

Leidesdorff died of brain fever in 1848 at the early age of thirty-eight. In his death he was accorded the highest recognition a bereaved community could tender a beloved and honored citizen. Flags hung at half-mast from all military barracks and vessels in the port. Minute guns were fired as the funeral procession made its way through the winding streets to Mission Dolores, where with imposing ceremonies his body was laid to rest.

May 24, 1848, Californian

DIED. In this town, on Thursday last, of brain fever. Capt. William A. Liedesdorff late U. S. Vice Consul for this port. Dieing in the Roman Catholic faith, he was buried on Friday last in the Mission Church of Dolores, near this place. A large and respectable procession of the citizens followed the hearse from the late residence of the deceased to the place of interment. ? The flags at the barracks and of the shipping in port were displayed at half mast during the day, and as the procession moved from town minute guns were fired from the barracks.

Captain Liedesdorff was about 36 years of age at the time of his decease. He was born of Danish parents on the Island of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, and was educated in the city of Flensburg, Denmark. He early entered the merchant service of the United States, and was for some years well known as a ship master in the ports of New York and New Orleans. He arrived on this coast in the year 1841, master of the schooner Julian, since which time he has been engaged in mercantile business at this port, where he has established a high character for honesty, enterprise and activity. In his decease the town and indeed the whole territory has experienced a loss which will long be felt and sincerely deplored.

He has a sister and aunt in the city of Copenhagen, and a brother who at the latest intelligence was a resident of Flensburg, Denmark. New York, Philadelphia and New Orleans papers will please notie.


William Alexander Leidesdorff

William Alexander LeidesdorffWilliam Alexander Leidesdorff

First Black Millionaire, American Consul and California Pioneer
Gary Palgon
Joseph Libby Folsom, captain in the U. S. Army and at one time collector of the port, journeyed all the way to the Virgin Islands in search of Anna Marie Spark, Liedesdorff's mother, who still lived in the islands with her other children. Folsom paid her the sum of $75,000 to gain absolute title to the whole of the Leidesdorff property.


Naval Order of the United States.

The Naval Order of the United States The Naval Order of the United States. has a history dating from 1890. Membership includes a wide range of individuals, many with highly distinguished career paths. When it was established, the Founders provided "that any male person above the age of eighteen years who either served himself, was still presently serving, or was descended from an officer or enlisted man who served in any of the wars which the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, or Revenue or Privateer services was engaged was eligible for Regular membership." Today, the Order is a "by invitation only" society, and includes men and women who have served or who assist in accomplishing its Mission, including research and writing on naval and maritime subjects.

The San Francisco Commandery meets the first Monday of each month in San Francisco, California and holds two formal dinners each year:

The Project

Maritime Nations, Ships, Sea Captains, Merchants, Merchandise, Ship Passengers and VIPs sailing into San Francisco during the 1800s.

SITE SEARCH

HOME PORT

Construction

2017: 20 years of sea-faring research is being split between The Maritime Heritage Project and Ship Passengers to meet current WWW standards, and to offer easier access to information.

Kindly

Kindly contribute so that we can continue adding maritime history information.

Inquiries

DALevy @
MaritimeHeritage.org



MaritimeHeritage.org
MaritimeHeritageProject.com
MaritimeHeritage.co
MaritimeNations.com
MaritimeHeritage.us
MaritimeHeritage.education
MaritimeHeritage.world

Sources: As noted on entries and through research centers including National Archives, San Bruno, California; CDNC: California Digital Newspaper Collection; San Francisco Main Library History Collection; and Maritime Museums and Collections in Australia, China, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, etc.

Please inform us if you link from your site. Please do NOT link from your site unless your site specifically relates to immigration in the 1800s, family history, maritime history, international seaports, and/or California history.