Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-09
THIRTY TEARS AGO.
HOW COLONEL SANDERS WORKED THE
WALNUT GROVE PEOPLE.
Breckenridge and the Campbellites-l
Daring Robbery and Attempted
Murder Near the Isle Bridge.

Every now and then somebody comes to
the front with the supposed discovery that
the earth is growing colder (or hotter, as
the case may be-the latter being the latest
theory. But this disposition to scent out
impending evils of all sorts was as great
thirty years ago as it is to-day. At that
time paragraph went the rounds of the
press, credited to the Scientific american,
claiming that the spots on the sun were in
creasing in size and number in an alarming
degree, and that several stars of great brill
fancy had disappeared from the armament
Astronomers, it was said, were of the opin-
ion that the light and heat of the sun were
gradually fading away, which meant the
ultimate destruction of plants and animal
life. Now comes q modern scientist who
claims that the earth is gradually approach
ing nearer and nearer the sun, and that in
the ages to come all animal life will be
destroyed by drought and heat; that the
poles will be the last stand of man upon
earth, and even there he will die from heat
and drought.
ulItN years dSc Was Wudt may
justly be termed the hoop skirt era" The
bigger hoops lady wore under her skirts,
the more fashionably was she dressed and
the bigger the woman the bigger hoops
could she wear. As in all communities,
Sacramento had some women of the levia.
than order. One of them missed her Grim
oline one day. and after hunting high and
low for it, without success, she gave it up
as lost, and bought another. The next day
she was passing through the rear portion |
of her yard, and there, behind shed, she |
found a juvenile circus in full blast, with |
her five-year-old son as proprietor and !
ring-master; and the tent was her lost |
crinoline. 1t is needless to say the per- |
Torrance was broken up in short order and |
all the pins returned to those from whom |
they had been collected for admission.
......... Sacramento was port of entry in |
those days, and one Colonel Sanders (there |
were Colonies even before the war; was the |
Collector. He went 10 Walnut Grove one |
night to make Breckenridge speech. |
Learning that most of the people of that |
locality were of the Campbellite persua-
sion, he CLEANED all the information he |
could about Campbelliteism, and when he |
spoke at night it was almost wholly upon
that subject. He ingeniously worked |
breckenridge name into his discourse
here and there, and when he had con-
cluded every Campbellte in the camp |
somehow felt that Breckenridge YVES the |
then great apostle of Campbellism, and the |
Democratic candidate for President was |
very solid in Walnut Grove.
......... Ex- Mayor Gregory one day came |
near burning up his fathers place of bus |
ness, and possibly the whole city He was |
quite little kid at the time thirty |
years ago), and getting hold of some |
matches set fire to box of very combusti- |
BILE material. His mother arrived on the |
scene just as the fire in the box was getting |
under good hesdwey, and with great pres |
ence of mind, but at serious risk to herself, |
picked the box up and carried it into the |
street. A FIRE was averted, but Mrs. Greg |
ory's hands were so severely burned that
the embryo Mayor escaped spanking until |
his father arrived.
AS James Mateer was coming into
the city one night, on horseback, he was
stopped by three mounted highwaymen
near the American river bridge, who
robbed him of $3.50. He told them that he
had dollar or two left and suggested that
they take that slso. His defiant manner
angered one Of the robbers, who shot and
wounded him in the breast and arm, when
he put spurs to his horse and escaped into
the city. Only two years before that he
was robbed in this city of 81 600.
On the 30th of October shooting
ARRAY occurred on the Osborn ranch, on
the Sacramento river, below CORTLAND, in
which a man named Merrill was wounded.
He was the lessee of the place and became
Jealous of Osborn. A circumstance occurred
one day which induced Merrill to shoot at
the owner Of the place, and shots were ex-
changed, Osborn escaping injury.
........The UNION of November 3, 1860,
contained a brief resume of the incidents
Al E-a no Of har
1852, when nearly all the closely built por-
ton of Sacramento was wiped out by fire.
Very few buildings escaped, but the city |
was soon rebuilt and in more substantial |
manner The losses by that fire were esti
mated at ten million dollars.
.........The filling of the bed of the river |
with sand and sediment was well under |
way thirty years ago, and has been increas- |
ing ever since. In the fall of 1850 so large |
had the bar at the mouth of the American
become that body OF fishermen erected |
tents and cabins thereon and lived out in |
the middle OF what in winter was roaring |
river.
Jose Ramon Pico, the descendant |
of the Picos who tried so often in later |
years to become Democratic State Treas |
urer, rode great race at San Jose in No
vember, 1860. He covered 150 miles on |
horseback in six hours and seventeen min |
uteS. de mas Deen noW-leeSeo ever SINCE.
......... Edwin Booth had become SO much |
of a star in the dramatic world at that time
that he was able 10 make S.. 900 in four
weeks at the Howard Atheneum in Boston.
If he didn't make that much on one or
two performances nowadays he would feel
that he wasn't doing much.
.........There were five large Touring
mills in operation in this city in 1860
the Lombard, the Bay State, the Phoenix,
the Pioneer and the City Mills. Those now
running here are the Phoenix, the Nc
Creary, the Pioneer, and the mills OF G.
Lages on Fifth street.
........A little step-daughter of o. F.
Rogers, who kept the Magnolia House, five
miles from the city, on the Jackson road,
fell into burning pile of rubbish one day,
while playing in the yard, and was fatally
burned before she could be rescued.
........Among the passengers leaving New
York on November 1, 1860, in the steamer
Uncle Sam, was Edward Klebitz, we'll
known citizen still of this city. Henry G.
McCreary also sailed for California by the
came steamer.
.........The Presidential vote of Sacra.
mento City in 1860 was 4.157, and in the
county 555 At the recent election there
were about $500 votes cast in the county.
ENTHUSIASTIC ATHLETES.
The Work of the sacramento Amateurs