hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

132 INLAND AND OVERLAND TRAFFIC.
also plying on the river of that name to the head of
steamboat navigation, until the appearance in Octo-
pany,' while others confuse the Pioneer with Ball's Sacramento. The latter
was a ferry at Sac. as late as Jan. 1851. The Placer Timesvaguely alludes
to a Sacramento prior to Van Pelt's, but it looks doubtful. Benicia undoubtedly
launched the first steamer, and as one was evidently running below Sac
wheu the Washington was wrecked, at least two must have existed before Oct
Further, as this Washington was made the pioneer boat above Sacramento,
after having performed a few trips on the lower and more important part of
the river, she must have been replaced by another, namely, Van Pelt's craft,
which may therefore be placed third. The next place is contested by the
YtOxi, a scow intended for dredging, but used for traffic on the upper river,
and sold for $40,000. Ball, ubi sup. However this may be, there are clear
records in Oct. for the three most notable of early steamboats, the Mint, a
small, careening, yet fast craft, which made its trial trip on Oct. 9th from S. F.
to Sac.; the McKim, of 400 tons, by ocean from New Orleans, which left S. F.
on Oct. 26th, and arrived at Sac. in 17 hours. Placer Times, Nov. 3, 1849.
She made $16,000 in one trip on this route, but was sold in 1855 for $600,
S. F. Bulletin, Dec. 26, 1855; and the famous Senator, a still larger and faster
vessel, which reached Sac. on Nov. 8th. Id., Nov. 10th. During the first
year her net profits exceeded $60,000a month. MattJiewsons Stat., MS., 2;
Ryckmaris Vig., MS., 6-7; Cat Assoc. Pioneers, N. Y., 1875, 45-6; Williams'
Stat., MS., 12; Alameda Oaz., March 8, 1873, and other journals. Among
other early boats were the Merrimac, first to reach Stockton, S. Joaq. Co. Hist.,
23; the second place being disputed by Otn. Suiter, Mint, and M. White;
the Lawrence, which followed in Nov., and then passed to Marysville; the
propellor Hartford, appearing in Dec.; the Linda, put in Dec. upon the
upper Sac. route; the El Dorado, arriving at Sac. in Jan. 1850; the New
World, which had escaped from the sheriff at New York; the Firefly, April
1850; the JStna, claimed by Placer Times, Apr. 22, 1850, to have* first ascended
the American; the Gold Hunter, May 1850, later on the Oregon route;
Lucy Long, which first ascended alx>ve Feather River, Ben. Tribune, Feb. 14,
1874; Jack Hays, first to reach Tehama in May, Placer Times, May 22, 1850,
S. F. Bulletin, Feb. 21, 1868; the Capt. Sutter, a Stockton trader; the Napa
City, trading to the place of that name; the Major T/tompkins, which exploded
Jan. 1851; the Santa Clara, Fashion, Phanix, West Point, N. B. Reading;
Mariposa, sunk Oct. 1850; Gov. Dana, of the spring of 1850; Confidence, California,
Georgina, Maunsel White; Butte, to run to Butte City in May 1850,
Placer Times; Antelope, Wilson G. Hunt, Benicia, H. T. Clay, Erastus Corning,
Star, Tehama, Wm Robinson; and the Sagamore, exploded Oct. 1850. To
these are added the Union, Missouri, Ion, Chesapeake, C. W. Grinnel, Martha
Jane, Libertad, Com. Jones, Neto England, Kennebec, Gen. Warren, Victor Constant,
Aw Star, San Joaquin, Jenny Lind, and New Orleans, by a special letter
of Jan. 1851 to Hunt's Meixhants Mag., xxiv. 545-6, 549, which states that
270 other craft were engaged in the river trade. Of the regular lines in Dec
1850, 8 boats were running from S. F. to Sac, 7 to Stockton, 3 to San Jose*,
3 from Sac. to Marysville, others going less regularly beyond, in different directions.
I will not pass beyond 1850 for further names, but may add that
the San Joaquin claims to have first reached Bed Bluff, in 1853, the Express
meanwhile trading to Monroeville. Sac. Bee, Aug. 24, 1869; Alia Col, May
1, 1854. The first Oakland ferry was the Hector, the Contra Costa Ferry Co.
being subsequently organized, with E. Corning for ferry. Alameda Gaz., May
31, 1873. Klamath navigation was projected in 1850. Sac Transcript, Oct.
14, 1850. Borthwick, CaL, 95-7, and Farwell, Stat.t MS., 1-3, explain concisely
how Cape Horn was weathered by the first steamers. The names of
the steamers, etc., are found in Alia CaL, Pac. News, CaL Conner, 8. F. Herald,
and other journals for the time, especially the Placer Times. See also
Boytons Stat., MS., 1; Sac Directory, 1853-4, 18; Carson's Early Rec, 23;