[p. 87] Civil War.
The Civil War (1861-65) did not seriously affect the prosperity of California. During its progress about 16,000 volunteers enlisted in the Union Army. Much to their disappointment these men were retained on the Pacific coast to fight Indians and keep the disloyal element in check. One battalion of five companies paid its own passage to the east and joined the Second Mass. Cavalry in which it did a splendid service in Virginia and Maryland. Quite a number of Confederate sympathizers from California joined the Southern armies during the war. Those who remained in the state were closely watched by the federal authorities and were not able to render much assistance to their friends from the South.
[p. 88] Mining
Previous to 1860 the chief industry of the state was mining. During the decade between 1850 and 1860 a number of rushes were made to new diggings reputed to be rich in the precious metals. The most famous of these were the Kern river in 1855 and the Frazer river in 1857-both ended in disaster to those engaged in them. In 1859 the silver mines of Washoe were discovered and a great rush made to these. The Comstock lodes were very rich and many fortunes were made. Stock gambling became a mania in San Francisco in which fortunes were lost.
[p. 88] Cattle Raising.
The southern part of the state was devoted to cattle raising which in th early sixties was immensely profitable. The land was held in large ranchos and at the time of the discovery of gold was mostly owned by naive Californians. The sudden influx of population consequent on the discovery of gold greatly increased the value of the cattle and made the stock owners rich. Wtih weath came extravagant habits and when the decline began they borrowed money at usurious rates and the high interest ruined them. The terrible dry years of 1963-64, when thousands of cattle starved to death, put an end to cattle raising as the distinctive industry of the south. The decadence of cattle growing brought about the subdivision of the large ranchos and the development of grain growing and fruit culture. In the southern part of the state the culture of citrus fruits-the orange and lemon-has become the leading industry. In favorable localities in the central and northen sections of the state the production of deciduous fruits-the apple, peach, prune, pear, etc., takes precedence; while the great valleys of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin are vast wheat fields.
[p. 88] Railroad Building.
Several schemes for the building of a trans-continental railroad were promulgated in California during the fifties. The first railroad built in the state was the Sacramento Valley road, which was completed to Folsom in February, 1856, and was twnenty-two miles in length. The next was the the road from San Francisco to San José, fifty-one miles long, completed January 16th, 1864. On June 28th, 1861, at Sacramento the Central Railroad of California was organized, with Leland Stanford, president; C.P. Huntington, vice-president; Mark Hopkins, treasurer; James Baily, secretary; and T.D. Judah, chief engineer. The capital stock of the company was fixed at $8,500,000. The whole amount of stock subscribed by is promoters would not have built five miles of road; none of the men at that time connected with the road were rich and the whole affair was regarded in the nature of a joke. On July 1st, 1862, the [p. 89] Pacific railroad bill was passed by Congress, authorizing the issuance of government bonds to the amount of $16,000 per mile to the foot of the mountains and of $48,000 per mile through the mountains. Forty miles had to be built and equipped before any bonds were issued. In addition to this there was a government land subsidy of 12,800 acres per mile. Ground was broken for the road at Sacramento, February 22nd, 1863. The Union Pacific was built westward from Omaha. On May 10th, 1869, the two roads met at Promontory, near Salt Lake, and were united.
The first road built in the southern part of the state was the Los Angeles and San Pedro, completed to Wilmington, in October, 1869. This connected Los Angeles with a sea-port and greatly facilitated commerce. The Southern Pacific Railroad was completed to Los Angeles, September 5th, 1877. It had, in 1872, obtained a subsidy from Los Angeles county of about $600,000; $225,000 being the Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad. For this it was to build twenty-five miles of road north of Los Angeles and the same distance to the east. The northen end met the extension of the road south from Lathrop on the Central Pacific in the Soledad canyon on September 5th, 1876, when the last tie was laid and the golden spike driven. The eastern end was completed in 1883 to El Paso, where it met the Texas Pacific and thus gave California a second transcontinental line.
The Atlantic and Pacific uniting with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, built jointly with main lines from Albuquerque to the Colorado at the Needles. From there the Atlantic & Pacific built to Barstow about eighty miles northeast of San Bernardino; thence the California Southern continued the line to San Diego. The road was completed to Colton in August 1882, and opened from San Diego to San Bernardino Septembe 13h, 1883. In 1887 the road was built westward from San Bernardino until it met the San Gabriel Valley line-which was built eastward from Los Angeles to Mud Springs. The different divisions of the road were united under one management with its western terminus at Los Angeles, thus giving California its third transcontinental line. The growth of the state and particularly of the southern part of the state since the advent of the railroads has been phenomenal.
[p. 89] Education
The first public school in California was opened at San José in December, 1794, seventeen years after the founding of the pueblo. The pioneer teacher was Manuel de Vargas, a retired sergeant of infantry. José Manuel Toca, a ship boy, opened the first school in Santa Barbara, in 1795. Maximo Piña, an invalid soldier, was the first schoolmaster in Los Angles, teaching in 1817 and 1818. During the Spanish era the schoolmasters were mostly invalid soldiers-men of little learning-about all they could teach was reading and writing [p. 90] and the doctrina Christiana. They were brutal tyrants and their school governments military despotisms. The people were indifferent to education and as the schoolmasters were paid by rate bills the terms were short and the vacations long. Mexico did somewhat better for public education than Spain. The school terms were a little longer and the vacations proportionately shorter, but it was not uncommon then for a vacation to last two or three years.
During the war of American conquest the schools were closed. After the cessation of hostilities in 1847, a school under army regulations was established in Los Angeles-or rather it was under the superintendency of Col. J.D. Stevenson, the military commander of the Department of the South. Dr. William B. Osburn was appointed teacher. This was the first English common school established in California. After peace was declared and the municipal governnments organized, schools were opened in the large towns. These were subscription schools, although in some cases the town council appropriated public funds for the education of a certain number of poor children who were entitled to attend some private school.
The first act to establish a common school system in California was approved May 3rd, 1852. Great advance was made in perfecting and building up this system from 1863 to 1869 under the administration of State School Superintendent John Swett, who has been called the "Horace Mann of California." The first state Normal School for "the training of teachers" was established in San Francisco in 1863. It was afterwards removed to San José. There are now five Normal Schools in the state. The public school system and the public schools of California rank among the best in the United States.