Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-22
THE FIRST SACRAMENTO PAPER.
The FIRST Number Issued at Suffers
Fort. Anil IS. 1919.

|
ment0. In looking up the matter we find
that on the 18th of April, 1919, at Suffers
Fort, the first Sacramento paper was born.
It's parents were E. C. Kemble & Co. and
from the fecund seed they planted sprang
all the journals which have been since
either propitiously or untimely born. Over
one hundred newspapers have occupied
the field, but the death rate has been so
enormous that Sacramento has not beer
lnapuy termed :" the graveyard of news
papers" The first paper, the Placer Times,
| was an off-shoot of the Alta California; of
| San Francisco and its success gave courage
| TO the adventurous man who conceived the
idea of paper at the Fort. The merchants
| there congregated rallied about him, and
subscribed TO secure him from loss. A lot
OF old type was picked up out of the Aha
Office, an old Ramage press was repaired, a
| lot OF Spanish foOlscap secured, and the
! whole shipped TO Sacramento on vessel
known as the Dice me Mana Essays my
Mamma }, the first craft to carry type and
press to interior California which trip she
made in eight days. An office was built
for the paper about 600 feet from the north
east corner of the bastion, near what is now
the corner of Twenty-eighth and K streets.
IT WAS A STRANGE MIXTURE
OF adobe, wood and cotton cloth, but an
sWered the purpose. The paper was in
size - by Is inches, and had a title vignette
which had been carved in wood with
Jack-knife. All sorts of expedients were
resorted to in cutting off and piecing out
letters to make up complement of sorts"
IN the cases. The press had a wooden
platen, which needed constant planning off
to keep 1t level, and the rollers were any
thing but successes. The Times appeared
on Saturdays until June, when chills and
fever drove Mr.. Kemble to the Bay" and
l. L. Per Lee Il Co. took charge. Per Lee
ran the paper two weeks, but being a tyro
IN the business, gave it up, and J. II. Giles
TOOK charge as agent for E. Gilbert 4; Co,
at that time the owners of the alta Gull
.f0Tn'd. In July the office of the Times was
removed from the Fort to Front street. 1t
hourlshed for time, but the promise to
give 1t lot for building being unfulfilled
inc editor growled about ingratitude. The
subscription was $40 per annum. In No
veInber, lS49 after brief period of reduc-
ton IN size it resumed its old shape and
was removed to Second street, between X
and l.: April %, 1850, it began to appear
as tr!- weekly, and J. e. Lawrence assumed
ealtonai control. June 5, 1850, it appeared
as daily, and thus won the distinction of
being.
THE FIRST DAILY PAPER
Published in Sacramento. In July. 1880
1t was enlarged one-third. October s. 1850.
II was purchased by Loring Pickering ]
u. Lawrence and L. Aldrich, the price paid
beng $4,000, which included the cost of
the building and two lots AIdrich soon
afterwards disposed of his interest to his
partners The paper had been neutral. but
IN 1890 inclined toward the Democracy
men the squatter riot excitement came
Ia.nr
real estate owners, but under its new man
asement was less partisan In June. 1851
II was consolidated with the Transcript. its |
rival, Its last issue being June 10, 1851.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
In the research. for the history of the first
paper, so briefly sketched, we have had to |
pass, for brevity's sake, a hundred incl |
dents OF the good old pioneer period init |
mateIy connected with the career of the |
i1tdceT Tunes. Those were the flush DAYS of |
me mining era. Sacramento had then but |
100 buildings; there lay at her river front |
PARKS, 6rigs and ships in deep water Hy-
draullc mining and boycotting were then |
Things unknown and unheard of. An ordi- !
nary wooden hotel, 35x55 feet, then cost |
slo0,ooo to erect, ard readily rented for |
So,ooO per month, as did that built by Bran |
nan on Front street and leased to Fowler & |
Fry. FIFTY dollars per 100, or 81 900 per
ton, was charged by teamsters for haul |
ing freight from Sacramento to Nor
mon Island. Beef was worth 50 so |
10 % per pound; cheese, 81 so per pound;
ana mix 81 per quart Carpenters received |
$40 per day. and common laborers 81 so an |
Hotel
COULD MUSTER BUT EIGHTEEN WOMEN
FROM region extending from Marysville
10 the San joaquin, and over these $50 men
competed for the first dance" after hav-
ing paid s32 per ticket for admission to the
ballroom. The Sacramento of that time
had been termed a nucleus of attraction
to the whole world" Here centered the
varied spirits which marked the pioneer
days with SO much of the rude and the no.
bic; OF crime and honor; of debasement
and lofty manhood, and all the good and
bad elements incident to a sudden and |
mixed population, removed from restraints
OF law and the refining influences of set
tied society, but by its very isolation and
the grim code of the revolver and the bowie
knife
THE SECOND PAPER
The first issue of the Sacramento Trans
crlot appeared April 1, 1850. 1t was the
size OF the Times appeared as a tri-weeklv,
ana was the first paper to issue in interior
California oftener than once a week. The
proprietors were G. X. Fitch, S. c.. Upham.
}. NJ. Julian, H. S. Warner, Theodore Rus
sell and +. &. Ever. Mr.. Fitch and Mr..
Pickering, of the pioneer press of this city,
are now the proprietors of the EyeaiIaq
bulletin and Morning Cal, of San Francisco.
The Transcript was good paper, aimed at
literary excellence, and was ably edited
Fifth interests in this paper sold in the
summer after its birth for as high as S.. 600
G. c. Weld bought the interest of Upham
for $4,000 very shortly after the paper
started. In July, 1850 the TRANSCRIPT was
enlarged, and the rivalry between it and
the Times became very warm. The Trans
cript was an Independent sheet in the start
but ID December, 1850, came out for the
Democratic party, and was thus the first
interior Democratic paper.
THE TIMEs-TRANscIIPr.
On the 10th of June, 1851, the Times and
Transcript were united, and issued as one
paper under the joint title, being the first
double headed paper in California 1t was
enlarged, and appeared in form about the
size of the DAILY RECORD UNION. G. k.
Fitch had become State Printer. and L.
Pickering had the city printing These
formed the basis of the fusion Mr. Fitch
retaining a half-interest in the paper and
Pickering and Lawrence the other half The
editors were Pickering Fitch and Law
State Journal, and in June, 1852, the Times
and Transcript left the field and went to
San Francisco, where it was published by
the old firm, and subsequently by George
Kerr & Co., composed of George Kerr, B. F.
Washington, ]. Z. Lawrence and j. C. Has
well. 1t passed from them to Edwin Bell
and next to Vincent E. Geiger & Co. Pick
ering, Fitch & Co. meanwhile had acquired
the Alta California, and December II, 1854.
they bought back their old Times and Tran
script, and the Aha swallowed it at one gulp.
The third paper in the field was The Set
tiers and Miners Tribune an organ of the
Squatters' Association, started October 80.
1850. DR.. C. L. Robinson was the first
editor, and was noted for the active part he
took in the squatters' riots of 1850. He
subsequently became the Free State Gov
ernor of Kansas. The late James Nc
CATCHY and L. NJ. Booth were associate
editors. The type with which this paper
was published was brought from Maine by
Cyrus Rowe. The paper was issued daily
for one month, except Sundays, when it
declined to a weekly, and after another
month quietly gave up the ghost and was
laid to rest in the journalistic boneyard.
A RESPITE FOR. FORTY DAYs.-Governor