News and Stories

San Francisco during the 1800s

News and stories on The Maritime Heritage Project site are selected to give a sense of the development of San Francisco during its formative years.

• California Pioneers
• Cost of Passage
• Harbor Masters
• Bar Pilots
• California Newspapers
• Earthquakes and Fires
• Whalers on the North Pacific Coast
• Benevolent Societies
• Migration Patterns

1833

• Baltimore Clippers

1835

• Seamen of the United States, 1835

1846

• Passenger Arrivals: 1846 - 1847
• The California Bear Party
  

1847

• San Francisco Real Estate
• San Francisco Bay
  
• October 1, 1847: Mormons in San Francisco

1848

• Gold and Murder
• Inauguration of the Pacific Mail Line
• December 22, 1848: Update From the Flag Ship Ohio

1849

• January 1: California Gold Mines
• January 2: The Journey to California
• January 3: Letter from the Gold Region
• January 4: Gold in the streets
• January 4: Anti Tobacco
• January 10: Whiskey, Gold Dust and Dissipation
• January 20: Publisher predicts English as most spoken language!
• January: First gold miners from Sydney, Australia
• January 1849: 100,000 People in California by 1849
• February 1: Chagres, Panama
• February 2: Pennsylvania vs. California
• February 8: Emigration and Appalling Murders
• February 15: Tall Tales
• San Francisco's First Crimp Joint
• March 8: The President's Message
• March 11: The Gold Diggings, Lloyd's Weekly
• March 15: California Gold Song
• Edward King: March 17, 1849: San Francisco's First Harbormaster
• April 12: Money Buys Anything: Wholesale Prices
• April 1849: The Gold Excitement: 200 Vessels to Port,
• June 28: Burning of the Ship Philadelphia
  
• July 12: Tall Tale from the Boston Herald
• July 19: Lament of the Irish Gold Hunter
  
• August 4: Life at sea on the brig Osceola
• August 30: Real Estate - South San Francisco
• August 30: New York of the Pacific
  
• September 13: The First Chamber of Commerce
• San Francisco's First Entertainer: Stephen Massett
• The Rush for California
  
• October 1849: California Immigrants
• October 10, 1849: Arrival of the First Steamship
• At Sea with a Cruel Captain
• 100,000 Pioneers
  
• November 8: Turmoil Causes Immigration
• November 13: The Rush for California's Gold Fields
  
• <December: The Diggin Has Commenced
  
• The Bella Union
• Gold Discovered in Australia
• December 24: Lawyers in California

1850

• California Gold
• Lighthouses in San Francisco Bay
• Fort Alcatraz and Fort Point
• January: A Passenger's Description of Mazatlan
• Money Matters, April 1850
• Murderer's Bar, The Forks, April 1850
  
• The Steamship Alabama
• The Age of Steam!
• The City's Crowded Harbor
• A Pioneer's Letter from the brig Colorado
• August 2, 1850: Navigation
• August: Ship Building in New York
• The New Steamship San Francisco
• Bulls and Bears
• Meeting of Shipmasters
• September: A Disgruntled Letter Home
• October Emigration
• October 18: California is a State!: SS Oregon
• The Sailor and His True Love
• Right Sort of Woman
• A Ship Canal Across the Isthmus

1851

• January 9, 1851: Three Steamers Arrive at the Port of San Francisco in One Day!
• February 1851: Gold Discovered in Australia
• The SS Chesapeake and The Gold Bluffs
• A System for Immigrants
• Massacre of a Captain
• Dogs, Rats and Cats
• April 1851: The Prison Ship, Sacramento Transcript
• May 23, 1851: Circular to Bankers
• The Pacific Street Wharf Company
• Steamers on the Pacific
• July 1851: Steamer Day
• July 1851: Highway Robbery
• July 1851: California Indian Affairs
• Disasters on the China Sea
• Advertisements for Passage From the East to California
• Missionaries in Hawaii
• Kosher Meat in San Francisco
• August 8: Boxing becomes an "Aquatic Sport"
• October 20, 1851: Isthmus Crossing
• November 1851: The Pioneer Press
• A Report of California's First Foot Race
• Cost of Passage 1851-1852

1852

• Clippers: The Annals of San Francisco
• January: The Perils of Travel
• May: The Chinese Emigration
• May 15 : Review of the Market
• May 22: Extension of Davis Street
• October: An amazing array of Cigars!
• October: Insurance in San Francisco
• Limantour Land Grant Claims
• Upriver Rates of Passage
• Exports from Valparaiso to San Francisco: November 28th-December 12, 1852
• Pearl Fisheries of the Pacific
• E Clampus Vitus

1853

• The Deep Sea Derby of 1853: Clippers Racing Around the Horn from the East Coast
• New Books in San Francisco
• 300 Lives Lost on the SS Independence, February 1853
• Sailor Thieves
• Lamplighters
• The High Cost of Passage
• Notes of a Rambler
• February: LOSS OF THE STEAMER INDEPENDENCE!
• The Greatest Pride of Nature . . .
• The Miner's Ten Commandments
• March 6, 1853: THE TENNESSEE'S LAST VOYAGE!
• News of the City of San Francisco.
• Pencilling in the Streets of San Francisco
• March 1853: The Coffee Trade of the United States
• July 2, 1853: A Day in Court
• Grumbling About the Waterfront
• Murder on the High Seas
• Letter From New York
• July 1853: Imports and Exports
• Trade with South America
• September: Larcenous Lawyers and Their Books
• September: The French in San Francisco
• October, The Opium Trade
• Mediums, Clairvoyants, Spiritualists
• Loss of the Steamer San Francisco, Christmas Day

1854

• Unsuccessful Miner. Successful Miner
• The Loss of the Clipper San Francisco, February 1854
• Society of California Pioneers
• Market Review, 1854-1855
• The Boundary Survey Between the United States and Mexico
• Sinking of the Arctic, November 1854

1855

• Gold Discovered at Valparaiso
• Deaths at Sea: Cholera!
• Union of Californians for the Sake of California, July 12, 1855
• Thomas Russum Suicide, July 1855

1856

• Report on Imports from The California Historical Society Quarterly
• The Isthmus of Panama, January 1856
• Murder in Card's Alley
• The State of California from the California Historical Society Quarterly
• The Battle of the "Bulkhead"
• Execution of Cora and Casey, May 1856
• Captain Edgar Wakeman's "Water Police."
• Execution of Hothrington and Brace, August 1856
• December 6, Buddhist Temples in San Francisco

1857

• Clippers: The Fleet of 1857
• Camels in Texas
• California's Population/Demographics

1858

• Spar Making in San Francisco

1860

• Printers in San Francisco
• March 28, 1860: The Marsh Troupe arrives in San Francisco, SS Golden Age

1862

• The Anti-Coolie Tax of 1862
• The Sinking of The Golden Gate

1863

• The California Nautical Magazine
• Board of Nautical Education
• Commercial and Financial
• Shipment of Treasure
• Shipbuilder Donald McKay on Ironclads
• A Passenger's Life at Sea
• Confusing State of the Waterfront
• The City's Dogs: Bummer and Lazarus
• Emperor Norton Dines with Bummer and Lazarus
• Count Haraszthy develops vineyards in California and, in 1863, writes his book on Wine Growing

1864

• California Home Insurance Company

1865

• Madame Laurustinus: Great Prophetess and Doctress
• Mark Twain in California

1866-1868

• Merchant Vessels in San Francisco 1866-1868

1868

• Shipment of Treasure
• British Ship Moneta arrives in the Port of San Francisco

1869

• Lloyd's of London and A Sunken Treasure from HMS Lutine

1870

• January 17: Irish Political Prisoners Arrive in San Francisco

1871

• The San Francisco-Australia Mail Line
• In the Poorhouse
• The Elite at the Seaside

1872

• December 1872: Along the Wharves.

1873

• Airbags on the High Seas
• February 28, 1873: San Francisco as viewed by the Alton Telegraph

1875

• January 19, 1875: Letters of Isabella L. Bird, Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands
• November 9, 1875: Sinking of SS Pacific

1876

• A Cold Welcome
• Contention on Board

1877

• The Irish Americans
• Wheat to Great Britain. (The British Ship Cherwell)

1880 - 1882

• The Captain's Wife
• January 20: British Ship Milton Burned!
• January 26: Captain Punished for Abusing Crew
  

1883

• Chinese Interpreters
• Countries from Which Immigrants Arrived

1885

• January 18, 1885: Pioneer Captains
• June 16, 1885: Too Much Opium

1886

• Corinthian Yacht Club
• U.S. Marshal's Sale of Seized Opium

1890

• The Naval Order of the United States

1891

• Pacific Navigation Line: Empress of India, Empress of Japan, Empress of China
• Yankee Whalebacks, Daily Californian, August 27, 1891

1892

• Corinthian Yacht Club
• Millionaires

1895

• Cotton!
• April 16, 1895: The Emanuel Baptist Church Murders
• August 27: Ship May Flint in San Francisco

1896

• Shoemaker Needs Whole Ship

1897

• June 30: The new SS Moana arrives from New South Wales
  

1898

• March 26: 14-year-old Girl Arrested for Burglary
• Cruelty On The High Seas
• San Francisco Yacht Club
  

1899

• World's Fleet

1900s

• Highbinder Wars in San Francisco
• Hong Kong Maru, arrives March 23, 1900
• The Mail Race, SS Sonoma
• The Whaler Charles W. Morgan is in San Francisco
• December 30, 1900: Mail Steamer Lost