A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > California > Sacramento http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=587 Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=35815 Submitted by: California Contributors Article Title: Sacramento Daily Union Article Date: January 1 1869 Article Description: Statistics of California - 1868 - Part I Article Text: Sacramento Daily Union Friday Morning, January 1, 1869 Page 1 STATISTICS OF CALIFORNIA - 1868 STATE RECORD Noticeable Events During the Year The year 1868 has been notably the most prosperous year ever experienced in this State. It is the third of a series of three consecutive years during which agriculture has risen to the front rank in our industries, whilst mining has in the same time receded to comparative insignificance. In these three years, but more especially in the last one, a marked change has come over our people. The nomadic habits, encouraged by mining life, have given place to more settled ideas and steadier pursuits. Population has become fixed and permanent in most of the towns, as well as on the farms. Attention is turned almost universally in the rural districts to the improvements and adornment of homes and the comforts of enlightened life. In a less marked degree this change has affected the mountain population, where, since the failure of placer mining, labor has not yet detected its best and most profitable new channels, or at least has not had its energies turned into them with satisfacto! ry success. Our wheat production during the year places California third among the best producing States of the Union in quantity and first in quality. Our surplus, after deducting 5,000,000 bushels for home consumption and feed will probably net the producers $12,000,000. But it is not this staple alone that agricultural industry has been encouraging. In other cereals, and in grapes, wine, wool, the products of the dairy, garden and orchard, of root culture, in the construction and business of saw and flouring mills, and other manufactures, as of wool, silk, furniture, glasswares, brooms, malt liquors, candles, iron lead, brass, soap, sugar, leather, type, etc., we have made satisfactory progress; and also encouraging experiments in the breeding of silkworms, the growth of mulberry trees to feed them, and, in at least one establishment, for the manufacture of silk. In several counties which had never before produced anything from the soil for export, this year are shown millions of bushels of surplus wheat and barley, and a consequent addition to the valuable real estate of the country amounting to many millions of dollars. The increase in population has not kept pace with the augmentation of our wealth. But the completion of the Pacific Railway and inevitable competition in the steamer carrying trade will doubtless soon ! encourage a greater influx of immigrants. The year has been comparatively exempt from wild speculations. Industry and business have gradually turned into regular and steady channels. In all the commercial and agricultural towns there has been great advances in the value of real estate, and also in the domain of the farmer. In the chief commercial city, which was disarmed for defense against that or any other contagious disease from a want of suitable sanitary laws and local power to act, the small pox has raged as an epidemic for the last four months of the year; but the end of the year found it declining, and another month will probably serve to exhaust its virulence. Aside from this, the health of the State at large has, with few exceptions, been as good as usual. Our progress in education and moral tone has been encouraging. Crime has decreased, whilst population and wealth have been increasing, a circumstance doubtless resulting from the favorable change of industry from nomadic to settled and rural habits. In t! he succeeding columns will be found a record of the most noteworthy events of the year: JANUARY 1st - Bark H.S. Rutgers wrecked at Point Bonita....Amount of money in the State Treasury, $1,291,308.90. 2d - David PATTON killed by a man named STEIGER, in self-defense, at Mountain View, San Mateo county.... The Pacific Mail Steamship Montana sailed for Panama with $924,705.58 in treasure. 3d - Legislature reassembled pursuant to adjournment previous to the holidays....Charles MACLAY elected Senator from Santa Clara, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. J.W. KNOX....Funeral of Colonel Edward McGARRY at San Francisco, who committed suicide December 31st....John H. MILLER, a resident of Sacramento, drowned in Mad river, Mendocino county. 4th - Funeral of Commodore WATKINS at San Francisco, accidentally killed at Nagasaki, Japan, November 12th....William OLIPHANT run over and killed by the steamer Yosemite, near Rio Vista. 5th - Patrick SHANY drowned himself in San Francisco Bay. 7th - John THOMAS (colored) found dead in a room in San Francisco. 8th - Andrew BILLMAN accidentally drowned near Marysville. 11th - Snow fell in San Francisco....Philip PRATT seriously stabbed by Thomas H. LORD, in San Francisco....The Pacific Mail Steamship left for Panama with $1,302,905.68 in treasure. 12th - Two feet of snow fell at Cisco...Brigadier General Frederick STEELE died at San Mateo of apoplexy....Charles DEAROVER thrown from his carriage and killed, near Copperopolis....Two children of McINTIRE fatally poisoned by eating toadstools, mistaking them for mushrooms. 13th - The British bark Oliver Cutts with a cargo of coal, wrecked on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco. 15th - Frank FERGUSON convicted in San Francisco County Court of highway robbery, in knocking down and robbing Lewis EVANS of $540. 16th - At the Summit the thermometer indicated twenty degrees below zero. 17th - Ephraim PRATT caved on and killed, near Georgetown....A negro named Joseph WATERFORD dropped dead on Pacific street, San Francisco. 18th - The Pacific Mail Steamship Sacramento sailed for Panama, carrying $809,501.66 in treasure. 19th - The body of Terence MURPHY found floating in the bay at San Francisco. 20th - D.H. WALTON, formerly of Sacramento, dropped dead at the Broadway wharf, San Francisco. 22d - A two-story building crushed in near Nevada City by the weight of snow upon the roof. 23d - Hermann RABITSCHECK indicted for the murder of J. EISNER on the 20th of December, 1867, admitted to bail in the sum of $50,000 in San Francisco. 24th - F. GERBAND found dead in his bed at the St. Louis House, San Francisco....The residence of P.W. BERGANTZ, near Grass Valley, destroyed by fire, and 2,000 gallons of wine lost. 26th - Shocks of earthquake fell at Pacheco, Contra Costa county. 27th - Snow fourteen feet deep at Deer Valley, Alpine county. 28th - John WILLIAMS drowned in the Calaveras river at Jenny Lind....Volney E. HOWARD announced himself the author of the pamphlet entitled "Bribery and Corruption in the Legislature." 29th - The sloop Melville, from Bolinas, capsized at sea....William COOPER shot and killed by Orrin DU BOIS, near San Jose, for seducing his daughter. 30th - The clerk of Brandenstein & Co., San Francisco, left by the steamer Constitution, with $4,000 belonging to his employers....The Pacific Mail Steamship Constitution sailed for Panama with a large number of passengers and $1,098,161.88 in treasure. FEBRUARY 1st - Augustus TITTEL, a pioneer Californian, died suddenly in San Francisco, of apoplexy. 2d - Thomas ALCORN shot and killed by Eli HANNA in Grass Valley township. HANNA was subsequently convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to twenty-five years in the State Prison. 3d - Two Chinamen, caught robbing sluices at Squire's Canyon, near Dutch Flat, whipped to death....Exciting snow shoe races commenced at Laporte, Sierra county, continuing five days. 4th - Act granting lands in Yosemite Valley to J.M. HUTCHINGS and J.C. LAMON vetoed by Governor HAIGHT. 8th - Dr. Johnson PRICE, formerly Secretary of State, died in San Francisco. 10th - Three teamsters robbed by two footpads between Auburn and Forest Hill. 11th - The Pacific Mail steamer Montana, with 386 passengers and $1,058.781 in treasure, sailed for Panama....Remains of two human beings found by workmen excavating on Sutter street, San Francisco. 12th - George ANDREWS arrested in San Francisco for appearing on the street dressed in female apparel....A son of J.J. HOFFMAN, at Dutch Flat, broke his arm for the third time. 13th - Corner-stone of the New Alhambra laid at San Francisco....The annual apportionment of State school money announced as $2.68 to each child. 14th - An unknown man run over and killed on the Alameda Railroad near San Leandro. 15th - The body of D.T. RAYMOND, a pioneer Californian and highly respected citizen of San Francisco, found in the bay. 16th - F.B. WHITE, a pioneer California actor, died suddenly at San Francisco....American Theater, San Francisco, totally destroyed by fire; loss $29,000....The new steamer Great Republic arrived at San Francisco from New York....Mrs. Dora TRACY, mother of Helen TRACY, the actress, died at San Francisco. 18th - The Pacific mail steamship Golden City sailed for Panama, carrying 302 passengers and $501,416.28 in treasure. 19th - Alexander WALKER, a farmer of Scott Valley, near Yreka, committed suicide by shooting himself. 20th - Timothy LYNCH, who induced Ellen CASEY to steal her mother's money and elope, indicted by the Grand Jury at San Francisco. 21st - The body of Anson COX found floating in San Francisco bay....State Convention of the Grand Army of the Republic held at San Francisco. 22d - Banquet given by the City Council of Oakland, which was largely attended by members of the Legislature. 24th - Jacob McKENTY, a San Francisco stock broker, knocked down and savagely beaten by George DOUGHERTY, another broker. 28th - A negro named J.B. FERGUSON hung at Mokelumne Hill for the murder of B.R.C. JOHNSON in 1866. 29th - Joseph C. HILL, a veteran soldier, died at the San Francisco County Hospital of diseases contracted at Andersonville....A little son of M. SHAW, of Chile Gulch, Calaveras county, killed in a mining cave. MARCH 1st - The Pacific Mail steamship Sacramento sailed for Panama with passengers and $651,661.66 in treasure....A man named HALEY was instantly killed in San Francisco by falling from the roof of a house. 2d - HIBBETTS indicted on thirteen charges of indecent assault on little girls in San Francisco....Safe of the County Treasurer of Placer county robbed of $14,000. 7th - The British ship Viscata, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of wheat, drifted ashore between Fort Point and Point Lobos. 9th - A.E. MANNING, convicted of mayhem, in throwing vitriol in the face of Philip S. MOWER, was sentenced in San Francisco to thirteen years imprisonment in the State Prison....The Pacific Mail steamship Constitution sailed for Panama with $362,068.07. 10th - Thomas KNOTT, a Cornish miner, killed by a bank caving on him at Dutch Flat. 11th - Mrs. Clara BALL was drowned in San Francisco Bay, near Hunter's Point, by the capsizing of a sail boat. 12th - Mike BRANNIGAN and Harriet SKILLMAN, indicted in San Francisco for conspiracy, in inducing girls from New York to enter a house of ill-fame. 13th - A portion of the Simpson bridge, near Marysville, fell, carrying with it forty head of beef cattle. 15th - George and Henry FRANKS and a boy named PEISTER, killed by the caving of the bank in a hydraulic mining claim at Ford's Bar, Yuba county. 17th - St. Patrick's Day celebrated in San Francisco by the Irish portion of the population by a parade and exercises in the Metropolitan Theater and Platt's Hall....Sheriff COCHRAN of Trinity county fatally stabbed by an insane man named McDONALD, at Red Bluff. 18th - Owen KEEFE found dead in his bed, having been shot by some party unknown. 19th - The Pacific Mail steamship Colorado sailed for Panama with about 375 passengers and $704.799.44 in treasure. 20th - A boy named Charles SWIM, six years old, drowned in a well at a ranch on the San Pablo road, Alameda county. 21st - GILTNER's bill for the removal of the Capital defeated in the Assembly, by a vote of 44 to 20. 24th - Quite a heavy shock of earthquake felt at San Francisco. 26th - A panther killed at Canada Hill, Trinity county, by James THOMAS, with a pick. 27th - The new steamship Nebraska for the North American Steamship Company, arrived in San Francisco, via Cape Horn. 28th - Slight shock of earthquake felt at San Francisco. 29th - James FORD, a miner residing on Gold Hill, near Grass Valley, killed by falling into a well at the first named place. 31st - The Chinese Embassy and suite arrived on the steamship China....The Pacific Mail steamship Colorado sailed for Panama with 488 passengers and $958,820 in treasure....The Union State Convention met in this city and nominated ten delegates to the Presidential Convention at Chicago....The Legislature adjourned sine die. The following is a summary of the work of the session: Number of bills introduced in the Senate, 508; in the Assembly 773. Total bills introduced, 1381. Bills passed which became laws, 545. Fifty-six bills passed both Houses which did not meet with the approval of the Governor. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CA-Old-News ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NewspaperAbstracts.com - Finding our ancestors in the news! TM http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com