Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-05-28
RISE OF SIN FRANCISCO.
HOW THE PACIFIC COAST TIETRoP-
OILS WAS FOUNDED.
a Spanish Mission and Fort First Oc-
cupied the Future City's Site
GOld's Discovery CaMsed a Boom.


cupied the Future City's site
Colds Discovery Caused Boom.
H HE story of the little settle.
ments among the hills of the
peninsula of San Francisco
reads like some picturesque
romance, and has always been
interesting to mo because it is SO diff
ferent from the story of other Ameri-
can cities Spanish priests founded
mission here, and Spanish soldiers
built fort, or Preside, III the an
tumu of 1776, while General Howe
was capturing New York and driving
Washington across into New Jersey
Many of the Spanish governors lived
here.
San Francisco Bay, the beautiful
inland sea, with its surroundings of
fertile valleys and high mountains,
was sailed past by early Spanish
voyagers and by SiY Francis Drake
himself, who, in 1879, cast anchor, rs
all critics agree, in cold San Fran
cisco harbor" brakes Bay, under
Point Reyes. The sea fog must have
lain across the Golden Gate when tho
famous soaking sailed past. For
ninety years longer the great bay WAS
undiscovered. Then in l7G9, Spanish
priests, soldiers, and colonists came to
California; and, November 7th in that
year, the expedition led by Governor
Portola and Father Juan Crespi, of the
Franciscan order, discovered the bay
of San Francisco. Six years pissed
before the new harbor was entered by
water. Then, in l776, Mission Do.
lores was founded in the valley ut the
base of the twin peaks, and II Spanish
fort overlooked the Golden Gnte, and
the Spanish folk began TO settle the
long peninsula and the valleys south,
east aud north of the bay of San
Francisco. Missions and settlements
were founded at Santa Clara, San
Jose and Sonoma; and the Indians
were subdued, till, i'll 1913, Mission
Dolores had twelve hundred converts,
and thousands more we're at the other
missions.
About sixty years after Mission
Dolores was founded, an English
trader named Richardson pitched
tent on the shore of the bay at the
head of Yerba Buenn cove; Jacob
Leese built the first wooden house,
and few Americans settled Mt the
place. One was old Galbraith, the
blacksmith, who used to take hi;
| homemade Kentucky rifle at day
break, and shoot deer among the sand.
hills where the City Hall now stands
The cove had been called Yerba Buena
because fragrant, white-howered lit
tie California vine much liked by the
Spanish people was very abundant
along the shore. The large island in
the bay, now Goat Island, was alsc
called Yerba Buena in those days.
So there were really three settle
ments within the present limits OF the
city of San Francisco the soldiers
camp at the Preside, the Indian and
Spanish village at the mission, which
was called San Francisco, and the
trading post of Yerba Buena. Com
munication was slow and difficult
among these settlements; for bogs,
rocks, mountains and sand-hills GOV.
cred with scrub-oaks and dense under
growth filled the space between. Ii
January, 1916, eleven years after it,
foundation, Yerba Buena contained
only thirty houses, but, July Sth, the
Stars and Stripos were hoisted oven
the little frontier VILLAGE that lay on
the eastern slope of the peninsula,
facing the continent; and in january,