The San Francisco call., 1898-01-30
COUNTRY WHERE EVERYBODY GOES ABOUT ON STnTS

the charming sister-in-law of one of the army officers, and for forty-elght years the two have lived and labored together. Retired from active service now, they are spending the twilight of their days in an ideally happy home. An hour spent in their entertaining So- ciety gives one very realistic idea or California life fifty years ago. as it cen tered about clergyman and his fam fly.
 When I came to Monterey" says MT. Wiley, there was no Protestant church in all California, and DO scnoOl other than Mission instruction. l held services in hall with a small congre- gation, composed for the most part of women, the wives of officers and sol diers, and a few civilians. The gold fever was of course very high, and the soldiers gave their superiorS a great deal of trouble by deserting at every opportunity and going to the mines. Supplies were very costly, and the cir culating medium was nuggets and goose quills filled with gold dust.
 Tn September of that year C849) the Constitutional Convention to form the State Constitution was convened in Monterey, and the session lasted for thirty days. I was chaplain of that convention and took a great interest in its work, the result of which endured for thirty years.
 ''The capital being changed to San Jose and the army post being moved to Benicia caused a general exodus Of the English-speaking people from the pretty little seaside town, which had been so full of life and business, and l came with others to San Francisco.
 This city was the busiest place imaginable for the next few years. No one had any time for anything but money-making in some form or other, and the population was composed of excited crowds of strangers, constantly changing as to personality, and inter- eSted in each other only as means to the desired end of financial success.
 Tn May, 1850, I started the Howard Presbyterian Church in a building Sit uated on Natoma and Jane (noW New Montgomery streets, in what was then known as Happy Valley This was a sort of an oasis, pretty little resi- dence quarter in a setting of trees and chaparral and grass, sheltered from the winds, and separated from the business portion of the town, by the immense sand dune which extended from what is now Haight street to below Second.
 "The houses were what is known as 'knock-down' affairs, the frames being made and accurately fitted in the East and then sent out here in conveniently portable form ready to be set up all most as easily as children's block houses. w. D. M. Howard, Captain Folsom and Samuel Grammar were the men who had them made and brought here, and it was an excellent invest ment for them, for, although they con- tained only seven small rooms, they rented for $150 a month and were never empty.
 One of the advantages of life in Happy Valley was its immunity from the disastrous fires which from time to time swept over the other parts of the city. The business portion of the town was composed of fiimsy wooden buildings lined with cheese cloth, and many tents, and fire once started was apt to run for blocks. Four or five times the central part of the city was burned completely over, at loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and an alarm of fire struck terror to every heart.
 'I we'll remember the second Sunday after our church was opened that just as I had begun service the fire bells started ringing and every man in my congregation rose and went out, leav- ing me in the midst of my prayer. remember, too. that as soon as that prayer was ended I left the church my self and spent the rest of that day fighting fire with all my might.
 Gambling houses were a great fea-
 
 sides of Portsmouth square were
 bounded by such establishments, and they were crowded day and night right along Miners and adventurers of al kinds freQuented them, and enormous sums of gold changed hands there con- stantly.
 Much of my time was spent in loca , home missionary work, for, plenty as , gold was there were many cases of ac , tual distress. There were not a few
 families whose breadwinners were al , the mines, and many sick, unfortunate
 and disappointed persons who had nc
 friends to care for them. To searcf , these out was my special task. and
 am glad to say that I never lacked fo means to carry on this work. Thos
 who were prosperous were only nor ' than willing to give me funds to dis tribute to the needy. They had no tim to attend to such things themselves but they had money in plenty, and the.
 gave it freely.
 , Another part of my work was visit ing the dying and burying the dead No matter how reckless and even wick ! ed a mans life might have been if h e had any time in which to prepare fo death he always wanted clergyman | beside him at the last. and made dy
 ing request for Christian burial, and . did my best at all times to carry ou . their wishes During the cholera wis }. itation in the fall of 1850 my work il , this line was very onerous. remark k able thing about that cholera seasol T was that the generality of San Fran . ciscans did not seem to be at all alarm 2 ed over it. They were too busy am |; preoccupied to give the fact of it's ex a istence in their midst more than incl . dental attention, but many poor fellow h died of it and of the levers which wer 5 so prevalent during those years of eX
 citement, personal carelessness and un
 sanitary conditions.
 = :, Tn 1850 the Protestant Orphan Asy lum was started by Mrs. Dr. J. F
 Warren over in Happy Valley to car
 for the children whose parents had die V in crossing the plains. and the institu = tion was we'll supported from the frs = People could afford to be generou $ when the most incapable househol e help commanded s20 a week and nor O "One peculiarity of minister's lii
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