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Generally posts related to Sacramento history or regional events that I may have covered.

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The California Mighty Oak Of The Leidesdorff Land Grant Dispute

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By today’s standards, it seems absolutely crazy that anyone would invest money in property or infrastructure when there was no clear title to the land and the State of California continually threatened to strip Folsom of his ownership of the Leidesdorff estate. But this was the state of California in the 1850s. Even before the untimely death of Folsom, he and other men were pushing forward with their development plans in Sacramento County. Folsom had been working with the Sacramento Valley Railroad to run a line from Sacramento to Negro Bar on the south side of the American River over the Leidesdorff land grant.

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The 1854 Fight to Move California’s Capital to Sacramento

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The regional newspapers started to sniff that the politics were changing and that there was a desire to vacate Benicia. The Stockton newspapers were advocating that the capital be located in Stockton. Senator Crabb presented a proposal offering the Stockton Court House, plus, the city would pay for the move. Crabb argued that the climate was the same as Sacramento, had river access, and as a bonus, also hosted the State’s Insane Asylum, where legislators could take a brief respite from their hallucinations of grandeur.

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The Railroad That Broke Auburn

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After the battle to save the railroad was lost, Auburn went dormant. The town’s pride and pocket book had taken a severe beating. The only way to get out from underneath the $50,000 bond obligation was to dissolve the city. In 1868, Assembly bill 760, An Act to repeal an Act to incorporate the town of Auburn, was passed by both houses of the legislature.

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California Pioneers Describe Early Sacramento Rivers, Drainage, and Sewer System

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Perhaps that was a necessity, although it does not seem to me to be so, because no solid or fecal matter is discharged into these sewers, or these drains which we call sewers. The city authorities have strictly adhered to the policy, if it is a policy, of having all the matter sink into the soil upon which the city is built, to saturate it, permeate it, and fester there and breed disease. And a city having a system of sewers like that comes into Court here in the name of the People of the State and complains that we have destroyed its sewerage system. Well, such a sewerage system as that ought to be destroyed. It never ought to be allowed to exist.

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Early Sacramento Sheriff Sale Documents of James Lansing from 1860s

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My name is James Lansing. I am 56 years of age. I know l am going to die, and make this statement under the impending crisis of the immediate presence of my demise. I do not know the man who shot me. I may have seen him, but if I did, I do not know it. I had no difficulty with him. I was out in the back yard of my hotel helping fix up a car load of coal about 4 p. m. I saw a man running down the alley and heard people halloo after him.

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Albert Gallatin Correspondence 1875 – 1894

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1887 Gallatin Steffens: Letter noting the sale from Gallatin to Joseph Steffens, E ½ of Lot 5 between I and J streets and 18 and 19 streets. Gallatin sold his Victorian mansion to Steffens that later became the California Governor’s Mansion.

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Tower Records, Railroad, Historians, Preservationists Honored At Sacramento Historical Society Gala

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It started as a small idea to honor regional Sacramento residents for their contributions to preserve our history, historical buildings and infrastructure. It quickly ballooned into a gala event that was very challenging for the small Sacramento Historical Society organization. Fortunately, we all kept the goal of acknowledging the substantial accomplishments of so many deserving people first and foremost as we organized the event.

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1848 Map Of Gold Mines On The South Fork Of the American River

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It has been pointed out that several features or bends of the American River are not illustrated. I don’t believe it was the intent of the map maker to accurately depict river but to note its relative position to the mines. The distances of 25 miles to the lower mines and of 50 miles to the upper mines is pretty accurate. The lower mines were also known as Mormon Island for the first group of miners who did extensive mining after the initial discovery of gold by Marshall. The distance to the upper mines, site of Marshall’s gold discovery is also relatively accurate considering hilly terrain that had to be traversed to get to the location.

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Recordings of Bugbey’s Waltz and Galop Composed in Sacramento, California

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Bugbey commissioned Yanke to compose a galop and a waltz. The galop premiered on July 4, 1870. Bugbey was heavily involved in politics and the Republican Party at the time. So his galop was part patriotic pomp and part marketing for his sparkling wines that he was shipping to the East Coast market and Europe. Similar to the Railroad Kings Galop, Bugbey’s Champagne Galop displayed his image on the cover of the sheet music. His portrait is surrounded by grapevines and bordered on one side by an overflowing champagne flute and an exploding cork and champagne bottle on the other side.

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California Central Railroad: Folsom To Roseville

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While SVRR was planning the extension, Charles Lincoln Wilson incorporated a new company called the California Central Railroad in 1857 with Theodore Judah as Chief Engineer and Wilson as the appointed contractor. I have found no actual map filed, thus far, with the state by the California Central Railroad, but it’s probably floating around someplace. However, in 1864, the Central Pacific Railroad filed a map of their lower division from Sacramento to Auburn. On it the CCRR is depicted in the relative alignment indicated by the SVRR extension map.

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