San Diego, California
1851-1877
1851
Antonio Garra, a Cupeno leader residing at the village of Cupa, leads last of the major Indian revolts, prompted by the county's attempt to collect taxes from Indian tribes, at Don Juan Warner's Ranch. Garra's first objective is to destroy Camp Independence, the military camp established on the Colorado River for the protection of overland travelers. Garra is executed by firing squad, January 17, 1852. Pourade on the Garra uprising.
April 5, 1851
Cave Johnson Couts marries Ysidora, daughter of Juan Bandini, in Old Town, amid a fiesta that lasts a week. Rancho Guajome is a wedding gift from Abel Stearns, the bride's brother-in-law. Journal of San Diego History article on Rancho Guajome.
May 29, 1851
San Diego Herald publishes its first edition. Photo of front page.
January 3, 1853
San Diego County Board of Supervisors holds its first meeting.
1853
Liuetenant George Horatio Derby (1823-1861) arrives to divert San Diego River back into False Bay. Derby is remembered best as Squibob or John Phoenix, for his humorous pieces published in the San Diego Herald, and Phoenixiana, first printed in 1855. Read Derby's stories on American Memory (this is humor-not history).
1853
First known vigilantism occurs after indigent tailor John Warren is found bludgeoned to death by the jawbone of an ox. Townspeople, led by Ephraim Morse and Robert Israel, round up three Indians suspected of the crime. Without a trial, two are hanged in Old Town and the third escapes. Journal of San Diego History article on Warren and treatment of Indian murderers.
1854
Warner's Pass (San Pasqual) road is declared a public road by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, serving as a main road between San Diego and the Colorado River until 1868, when shorter routes to the south, leading through the pass at Jacumba, began to be used by stagecoaches. Stagecoach Days
November 15, 1855
The "Old Spanish" lighthouse on Point Loma is illuminated for the first time 15 minutes before sunset. Photo of Point Loma Lighthouse. The site, 422 feet above sea level is frequently enshrouded in fog. A new lighthouse at sea level would replace it in 1891. The original lighthouse, restored in 1935, would become the nucleus of the Cabrillo Monument.
1856-57
Whaley House, built by Thomas Whaley, is the oldest brick structure in southern California. In addition to being the home of the Whaley family, it served variously as granary, store, court-house, and school and as the town's first theater. Photo of Whaley house in 1872.
August 13, 1857
The schooner Loma is launched, the first boat to be built in San Diego shipyards.
1857
James Birch establishes the "Jackass" mail route between San Diego and San Antonio; passengers must traverse the Oriflamme Canyon and Colorado Desert on muleback. Stage driver James E. Mason brings first overland mail to town and decides to settle here.
October 2, 1858
San Diego is hit with a 75mph Category 1 hurricane, the biggest on record, causing some homes to collapse and boats to wash ashore but no deaths.
1860
San Diego population is 731. San Diego County population is 4324. Population table
1860
San Diego Herald, San Diego's first newspaper, founded in 1851 by John Judson Ames, publishes its last edition.
1861
San Diego floods from heavy rains; state-wide storms.
1861
United States Civil War begins. It ends April 9, 1865 with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Journal of San Diego History articles on San Diego and the Civil War.
May 27, 1862
Earthquake of 6.0 magnitude hits San Diego region
1862
Smallpox epidemic kills hundreds of Indians and Mexicans in Southern California. Beginning in San Juan Capistrano, the epidemic reaches San Diego in 1863. Read about San Diego's Smallpox Fear of 1862-63.
1863-5
Floods of 1861-2 are followed by the Great Drought. During the fall and winter of 1862-63 only 3.87 inches of rain falls in San Diego County. Little more than five inches of rain falls in 1863-64. Ranchers drive their cattle to the mountains and into Baja California. The once-great cattle industry of California is virtually destroyed.
April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is assasinated by John Wilkes Booth, while watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
1865
First public school house opens in San Diego. Mary Chase Walker is its first teacher. She receives a salary of $65/month. After eleven months she quits teaching and marries Ephraim Morse, president of the school board.
1867
Photo of Old Town in 1867, just before the arrival of "Father Horton".
April 15, 1867
Alonzo Erastus Horton arrives from San Francisco on the paddle-wheel steamer Pacific. On that same day he gives the County Clerk $10 to cover the cost of a new election for the Board of Trustees, which is held on April 27th. On May 10, with local merchant Ephraim Morse as auctioneer, Horton acquires 800 acres of land, which would become New San Diego, for $265. SDHS copy of auction entry, documenting sale. Horton returns to San Francisco and opens a land sales office on Montgomery Street. Read more about The Real Story of Horton's Purchase in the Journal of San Diego History.
1868
Kimball brothers buy 26,400 acres of Rancho de la Nacion and lay out National City. Photo of Frank Kimball.
Feb 15, 1868
Ephraim Morse presents a resolution to the Board of Trustees of San Diego that land be set aside for a city park. Morse, Thomas Bush and Alonzo Horton select the land now known as Balboa Park.
October 10, 1868
San Diego's Weekly Union publishes its first edition near the Plaza in Old Town. Today's San Diego Union-Tribune would result from a merger of The San Diego Union and The Evening Tribune, founded Dec. 2, 1895. John D. Spreckels purchases the Union in 1890 and the Tribune in 1901. Spreckels' estate sells the newspapers in 1928 to Ira Clifton Copley of Illinois. Photo of San Diego Union building on 4th Street south of Broadway in 1872.
April 8, 1869
First post office is established in New San Diego. Dr. Jacob Allen is appointed postmaster.
1869
Albert Seeley purchases the run-down Bandini Adobe in Old Town and spends six months in renovation of the old home to create the Cosmopolitan Hotel, building the Seeley Stables next door. Photo of Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1872 shows Seeley's Black Hawk livery stable at left.
1869
Alonzo Horton completes a wharf at the end of 5th Avenue, at a cost of about $45,000. On March 24, Horton sells $5,500 worth of commercial and residential lots in one day. His new town begins to boom. Horton Hall opens around Christmas 1869. This two-story brick building on the southeast corner of Sixth and F streets has shops downstairs and a meeting hall with 400 seats upstairs, serving as downtown's first public theater. Horton Hall burns in 1897 and is torn down shortly thereafter. Photo of Horton Hall.
1870
City of San Diego population is 2300. San Diego County population is 4951. Population table
1870
Black prospector Fred Coleman discovers placer gold near present-day Julian, setting off local "gold fever". First lode mine, the George Washington Mine, is discovered in February of 1870. By 1875, mines in the area produce over $2 million in gold. By 1876, many of the mines are closed, though significant gold production continues until about 1911. Read more about the "Gold Fever". ~ Photo of Julian , circa 1874.
Feb 4, 1870
San Diego becomes the first city west of the Mississippi to set aside land for an urban park. This 1440 acre tract becomes the site for City Park, now Balboa Park. San Diego's City Park, 1868-1902
1870
Alonzo Horton opens his Horton House hotel on D Street (now Broadway) between Third and Fourth Streets (where the U. S. Grant Hotel now stands). Photo of Horton House. He sets aside a half block across the street as a plaza for his visitors (now Horton Plaza). Photo of original Horton Plaza (note Horton House at left).
October 24, 1870
George P. Marston and his 20-year-old son, George White Marston, arrive in San Diego. Young George takes a job as a clerk at Horton House - eventually becomes a successful businessman, civic leader and founder of the San Diego Historical Society.
1871
County archives are moved from the Whaley House in Old Town to the new seat of municipal government, the newly built County Courthouse in New San Diego. Photo of courthouse in 1872.
1871
Mount Hope Cemetery is established.
1872
Tourmaline is discovered near Pala, though previously known to the Indians. Mining increases by the turn of the century, stimulated by the high price of tourmaline in China. About 90% of the gem production in Southern California comes from five mines in inland San Diego County.
April 20, 1872
Fire sweeps Old Town, destroying key business buildings.
1872
Mission San Diego de Alcala is in disrepair. Photo of Mission in 1872.
1873
Thomas Scott of Pennsylvania Railroad sets off brief railroad boom with start of construction of Texas & Pacific Railroad from San Diego east; bond failure in Paris and Wall Street panic halts boom.
1874
San Diego Chamber of Commerce publishes its first City Directory, including 22 photos, promoting New San Diego as a place to live and listing schools, churches, lodges, and downtown businesses.
1874
The San Diego Society of Natural History is founded at a meeting held in the office of local attorney and naturalist, Daniel Cleveland.
1875
Ah Quin, age 27, arrives in San Diego aboard a four-masted schooner wearing the traditional queue and carrying everything he owns on his back. Because of his diplomacy and mastery of English, Ah Quin quickly finds work as a labor contractor for the California Southern Railroad. Later Ah Quin is recognized as the unofficial Mayor of Chinatown, an area bounded by Island, J, 3rd and 4th.
1875
Murderer Pancho Lopez and a band of six ruthless bandits instigate gunfight at Gaskill's Store in Campo. Six men are killed, Luman Gaskill is wounded in the chest but survives. Read more about Luman Gaskill and his "Frontier Medicine".
1877
Severe drought in San Diego County.
1877
Following a five-year partnership with Charles Hamilton, merchant George Marston establishes the first store of his own in a small wood structure on the northwest corner of what is now Fifth Avenue and Broadway. George White Marston: The Merchant Prince of San Diego
December 5,1877
Lieutenant Reade of the U.S. Weather Bureau gives first public demonstration of the telephone in San Diego County.
Antonio Garra, a Cupeno leader residing at the village of Cupa, leads last of the major Indian revolts, prompted by the county's attempt to collect taxes from Indian tribes, at Don Juan Warner's Ranch. Garra's first objective is to destroy Camp Independence, the military camp established on the Colorado River for the protection of overland travelers. Garra is executed by firing squad, January 17, 1852. Pourade on the Garra uprising.
April 5, 1851
Cave Johnson Couts marries Ysidora, daughter of Juan Bandini, in Old Town, amid a fiesta that lasts a week. Rancho Guajome is a wedding gift from Abel Stearns, the bride's brother-in-law. Journal of San Diego History article on Rancho Guajome.
May 29, 1851
San Diego Herald publishes its first edition. Photo of front page.
January 3, 1853
San Diego County Board of Supervisors holds its first meeting.
1853
Liuetenant George Horatio Derby (1823-1861) arrives to divert San Diego River back into False Bay. Derby is remembered best as Squibob or John Phoenix, for his humorous pieces published in the San Diego Herald, and Phoenixiana, first printed in 1855. Read Derby's stories on American Memory (this is humor-not history).
1853
First known vigilantism occurs after indigent tailor John Warren is found bludgeoned to death by the jawbone of an ox. Townspeople, led by Ephraim Morse and Robert Israel, round up three Indians suspected of the crime. Without a trial, two are hanged in Old Town and the third escapes. Journal of San Diego History article on Warren and treatment of Indian murderers.
1854
Warner's Pass (San Pasqual) road is declared a public road by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, serving as a main road between San Diego and the Colorado River until 1868, when shorter routes to the south, leading through the pass at Jacumba, began to be used by stagecoaches. Stagecoach Days
November 15, 1855
The "Old Spanish" lighthouse on Point Loma is illuminated for the first time 15 minutes before sunset. Photo of Point Loma Lighthouse. The site, 422 feet above sea level is frequently enshrouded in fog. A new lighthouse at sea level would replace it in 1891. The original lighthouse, restored in 1935, would become the nucleus of the Cabrillo Monument.
1856-57
Whaley House, built by Thomas Whaley, is the oldest brick structure in southern California. In addition to being the home of the Whaley family, it served variously as granary, store, court-house, and school and as the town's first theater. Photo of Whaley house in 1872.
August 13, 1857
The schooner Loma is launched, the first boat to be built in San Diego shipyards.
1857
James Birch establishes the "Jackass" mail route between San Diego and San Antonio; passengers must traverse the Oriflamme Canyon and Colorado Desert on muleback. Stage driver James E. Mason brings first overland mail to town and decides to settle here.
October 2, 1858
San Diego is hit with a 75mph Category 1 hurricane, the biggest on record, causing some homes to collapse and boats to wash ashore but no deaths.
1860
San Diego population is 731. San Diego County population is 4324. Population table
1860
San Diego Herald, San Diego's first newspaper, founded in 1851 by John Judson Ames, publishes its last edition.
1861
San Diego floods from heavy rains; state-wide storms.
1861
United States Civil War begins. It ends April 9, 1865 with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Journal of San Diego History articles on San Diego and the Civil War.
May 27, 1862
Earthquake of 6.0 magnitude hits San Diego region
1862
Smallpox epidemic kills hundreds of Indians and Mexicans in Southern California. Beginning in San Juan Capistrano, the epidemic reaches San Diego in 1863. Read about San Diego's Smallpox Fear of 1862-63.
1863-5
Floods of 1861-2 are followed by the Great Drought. During the fall and winter of 1862-63 only 3.87 inches of rain falls in San Diego County. Little more than five inches of rain falls in 1863-64. Ranchers drive their cattle to the mountains and into Baja California. The once-great cattle industry of California is virtually destroyed.
April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is assasinated by John Wilkes Booth, while watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
1865
First public school house opens in San Diego. Mary Chase Walker is its first teacher. She receives a salary of $65/month. After eleven months she quits teaching and marries Ephraim Morse, president of the school board.
1867
Photo of Old Town in 1867, just before the arrival of "Father Horton".
April 15, 1867
Alonzo Erastus Horton arrives from San Francisco on the paddle-wheel steamer Pacific. On that same day he gives the County Clerk $10 to cover the cost of a new election for the Board of Trustees, which is held on April 27th. On May 10, with local merchant Ephraim Morse as auctioneer, Horton acquires 800 acres of land, which would become New San Diego, for $265. SDHS copy of auction entry, documenting sale. Horton returns to San Francisco and opens a land sales office on Montgomery Street. Read more about The Real Story of Horton's Purchase in the Journal of San Diego History.
1868
Kimball brothers buy 26,400 acres of Rancho de la Nacion and lay out National City. Photo of Frank Kimball.
Feb 15, 1868
Ephraim Morse presents a resolution to the Board of Trustees of San Diego that land be set aside for a city park. Morse, Thomas Bush and Alonzo Horton select the land now known as Balboa Park.
October 10, 1868
San Diego's Weekly Union publishes its first edition near the Plaza in Old Town. Today's San Diego Union-Tribune would result from a merger of The San Diego Union and The Evening Tribune, founded Dec. 2, 1895. John D. Spreckels purchases the Union in 1890 and the Tribune in 1901. Spreckels' estate sells the newspapers in 1928 to Ira Clifton Copley of Illinois. Photo of San Diego Union building on 4th Street south of Broadway in 1872.
April 8, 1869
First post office is established in New San Diego. Dr. Jacob Allen is appointed postmaster.
1869
Albert Seeley purchases the run-down Bandini Adobe in Old Town and spends six months in renovation of the old home to create the Cosmopolitan Hotel, building the Seeley Stables next door. Photo of Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1872 shows Seeley's Black Hawk livery stable at left.
1869
Alonzo Horton completes a wharf at the end of 5th Avenue, at a cost of about $45,000. On March 24, Horton sells $5,500 worth of commercial and residential lots in one day. His new town begins to boom. Horton Hall opens around Christmas 1869. This two-story brick building on the southeast corner of Sixth and F streets has shops downstairs and a meeting hall with 400 seats upstairs, serving as downtown's first public theater. Horton Hall burns in 1897 and is torn down shortly thereafter. Photo of Horton Hall.
1870
City of San Diego population is 2300. San Diego County population is 4951. Population table
1870
Black prospector Fred Coleman discovers placer gold near present-day Julian, setting off local "gold fever". First lode mine, the George Washington Mine, is discovered in February of 1870. By 1875, mines in the area produce over $2 million in gold. By 1876, many of the mines are closed, though significant gold production continues until about 1911. Read more about the "Gold Fever". ~ Photo of Julian , circa 1874.
Feb 4, 1870
San Diego becomes the first city west of the Mississippi to set aside land for an urban park. This 1440 acre tract becomes the site for City Park, now Balboa Park. San Diego's City Park, 1868-1902
1870
Alonzo Horton opens his Horton House hotel on D Street (now Broadway) between Third and Fourth Streets (where the U. S. Grant Hotel now stands). Photo of Horton House. He sets aside a half block across the street as a plaza for his visitors (now Horton Plaza). Photo of original Horton Plaza (note Horton House at left).
October 24, 1870
George P. Marston and his 20-year-old son, George White Marston, arrive in San Diego. Young George takes a job as a clerk at Horton House - eventually becomes a successful businessman, civic leader and founder of the San Diego Historical Society.
1871
County archives are moved from the Whaley House in Old Town to the new seat of municipal government, the newly built County Courthouse in New San Diego. Photo of courthouse in 1872.
1871
Mount Hope Cemetery is established.
1872
Tourmaline is discovered near Pala, though previously known to the Indians. Mining increases by the turn of the century, stimulated by the high price of tourmaline in China. About 90% of the gem production in Southern California comes from five mines in inland San Diego County.
April 20, 1872
Fire sweeps Old Town, destroying key business buildings.
1872
Mission San Diego de Alcala is in disrepair. Photo of Mission in 1872.
1873
Thomas Scott of Pennsylvania Railroad sets off brief railroad boom with start of construction of Texas & Pacific Railroad from San Diego east; bond failure in Paris and Wall Street panic halts boom.
1874
San Diego Chamber of Commerce publishes its first City Directory, including 22 photos, promoting New San Diego as a place to live and listing schools, churches, lodges, and downtown businesses.
1874
The San Diego Society of Natural History is founded at a meeting held in the office of local attorney and naturalist, Daniel Cleveland.
1875
Ah Quin, age 27, arrives in San Diego aboard a four-masted schooner wearing the traditional queue and carrying everything he owns on his back. Because of his diplomacy and mastery of English, Ah Quin quickly finds work as a labor contractor for the California Southern Railroad. Later Ah Quin is recognized as the unofficial Mayor of Chinatown, an area bounded by Island, J, 3rd and 4th.
1875
Murderer Pancho Lopez and a band of six ruthless bandits instigate gunfight at Gaskill's Store in Campo. Six men are killed, Luman Gaskill is wounded in the chest but survives. Read more about Luman Gaskill and his "Frontier Medicine".
1877
Severe drought in San Diego County.
1877
Following a five-year partnership with Charles Hamilton, merchant George Marston establishes the first store of his own in a small wood structure on the northwest corner of what is now Fifth Avenue and Broadway. George White Marston: The Merchant Prince of San Diego
December 5,1877
Lieutenant Reade of the U.S. Weather Bureau gives first public demonstration of the telephone in San Diego County.
