Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Generally posts related to Sacramento history or regional events that I may have covered.
The view above represents the fine and substantial bridge across the American River at Leslie’s Ferry. It was commenced in the spring of 1851 and completed in the month of September of the same year. It is the largest and most substantial structure of the kind in California, being 620 feet in length, 25 feet in width, and 30 feet above low water mark.
European immigrants were dominated by people immigrating from Ireland, making up 40 percent. Next were individuals born in England (25.88%) and Germany (18.42%.) Immigrants from France, Scotland, and the Western Islands totaled slightly less than 14 percent of the population. The population of Chinese individuals was close to the number of immigrants who listed England as their birth origin.
It will not entail on you any pecuniary responsibility or outlay at all and will be of no disadvantage. I have recommended you to Col. Wilson the representative of the capital and who will be the President of the company and he unites with me in the request that you should consent to serve.
David, the gentleman Ann wrote had been shot in the back, did make it to California. David Beach was also a cousin of Amos Catlin and several people wrote to Amos about news of David’s gunshot injury. Of the other men listed in the letter to Amos Catlin, Judge Hastings was most likely Serranus Clinton Hastings. Judge Hastings lived and practice law in Iowa. He found his way to California and was appointed to the California Supreme Court and later won the election to become the state’s Attorney General.
In 1843, John Bidwell rode over the potential grant property with John Sinclair. The two men were examining the property for Nathan Spear who was considering petitioning the Mexican government for a land grant. William Alexander Leidesdorff would petition for the property and in 1844 was awarded a land grant named the rancho Rio de Los Americanos by the Mexican government. John A. Sutter subsequently rode over the property with Leidesdorff and would give him juridical possession of the property 4 leagues in width east to west, 2 leagues in length to the south, encompassing 8 leagues of land.
It was a pandemic lengthen 2-year project to research and write a book on the life of Amos Catlin. In the course of the research, I could not locate the burial site for several of Amos Catlin’s children. Historic Sacramento Cemetery documents indicated that some of the children had been moved closer to their mother Ruth Anne (Donaldson) Catlin who died in 1878. However, there were no headstones in the plot with Ruth Anne and Amos.
“Amos P. Catlin, The Whig Who Put Sacramento On The Map,” chronicles Amos’ life from his arrival in California in 1849 to his death in 1900 in Sacramento. Particular attention is paid to Amos’ work on organizing and building the Natoma water ditch in the early 1850s. It was during the ditch construction that Amos was elected to the California Senate. He wrote the bill to relocate the state’s capital to Sacramento. However, Amos did not consider the water projects or the state capital his most significant accomplishments in life.
Section 1. It is hereby made the duty of each and every Chinese within the limits of the city of Sacramento, and they are hereby, each and every one, directed to remove without the limits of the city of Sacramento on or before the 1st day of March, 1886.
The Sacramento Bee remained defiant. They discerned, “If that be the law of the State, then no newspaper will hereafter feel safe in recording the facts connected with any man’s arrest until after he has been convicted.” They concluded, “If Mr. C. H. Gilman is banking on getting $500, or any other sum, from this paper, he had better postpone his hilarity until he hears from the Supreme Court, for certainly The Bee does not propose to permit this matter to rest here. The fight has only commenced.”
The one line of business Amos did try to explain was his investment in a steam engine for a saw mill. He thought the saw mill would produce him the most income, and he was proud of his investment. “The engine belongs to me, a beautiful 12 horse locomotive which cost me $3,000.” He then goes on to loosely explain the business arrangement and business proposition. We also learn that he was the main salesman for the operation.
