The Railroad

The Pacific and Atlantic Railroad Company was incorporated on September 6, 1851.  The route was surveyed and published by the end of 1851.

William J Lewis - San Francisco 1851 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4362s.rr005100

Unable to raise funds locally, they turned to banking houses in New York and New England for funds.  Those institutions turned them down, stating they needed to raise local capital first.

The company tried again.  They reorganized on October 29, 1853, just before the expiration of the original construction permit, $2,000,000 of stock was authorized for sale.  Unfortunately, a downturn in the economy again scared investors away.   There after all notices of the Pacific Atlantic Railroad appear to be focused on just that, a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coasts.

Daily Alta California, Volume 4, Number 333, 22 December 1853 

By 1857, the public sentiment suggested it was time for a railroad along the San Francisco Peninsula.  The  San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company was incorporated in late 1859.  They intended to raise public funds by putting a referendum to the voters of the three counties served (San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara).  The goal was to raise $600,000 by the sale of bonds. A law was passed by the State Legislature and signed by Governor Dewey on 21 Apr 1860 allowing the referendum and allowing for an interest tax to cover the cost of interest on the bonds for a period of twenty years. 

Newpapers reported this as  "an attempted fraud upon the tax-payers of the counties" and the company dissolved in June 1860.

Daily Alta California, Volume 12, Number 167, 16 June 1860 

A new San Francisco and San Jose Railroad incorporated on August 18, 1860 with San Francisco industrialist Peter Donahue stepping in as treasurer, choosing his friends Judge Timothy Dame as president and Henry Newhall, a successful San Francisco auctioneer, as vice-president, and placing the company headquarters in San Francisco. Donahue, Dame and Newhall are thus credited as the three co-founders of the line.

1.  Daily Alta California, Volume 4, Number 24, 24 January 1853 — San Jose Railroad 
2. Railroad Law Daily Alta California, Volume 12, Number 118, 28 April 1860
3. Dissolution of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company
4. San Francisco and San Jose Railroad - Wikipedia  

The Menlo Park Family History Center has new hours starting June 1 The following announcement came from Erik Jacobsen, Director of the Menlo Park Family History Center, mpfhc.org.

Starting in June, the Menlo Park Family History Center is shifting to a new schedule. We will be open all day on Tuesdays, evenings only on Thursdays, and will be open Saturday mornings with Saturday afternoons dedicated to training sessions. The details: Tuesdays: 10:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. Thursdays: 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. with classes from 1:15 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. New Classes added for July In addition to five different training sessions in June, we have added three classes in July, including sessions on German Emigration, Irish Emigration, and Jewish Genealogy Research. You can see details and register for any of our 8 remaining summer classes here: MPFHC Training Session Registration There is no cost for the training sessions, but space is limited, so please reserve a spot by pre-registering for the sessions that interest you. New Facebook Page The Menlo Park Family History Center is now on Facebook. Like us and stay up to date with upcoming events and resources at the Center. Take a look: MPFHC on Facebook

SF History at Hyde Street Pier

By Maggie Melaney

Last Monday a few intrepid members of the Menlo Park genealogy class took a train to San Francisco, a streetcar to the wharf, and then walked right off the Hyde Street Pier into the history of San Francisco’s maritime industry.  We didn’t even get our feet wet! 

Our guide, an enthusiastic National Park ranger named Alan, took us aboard the Eureka ferry boat and the schooner C.A. Thayer, which carried fish, and then lumber, along the California coast and as far as the South Pacific.

 For many of us, this was a stroll through our family history.  Several folks recalled family tales of ancestors sailing on such a ship, or buying lumber off the pier.  We tried to imagine what it would be like sleeping in the hold of the ship when it carried cod from Alaska! 

The car ferries when still running when I was a child, and I remember traveling with my grandmother as she drove her car up - or down (the tides) into the bottom of the ferry in Berkeley.  

We were able to get out and go up top to enjoy the trip, then had to rush down as docking was announced in San Francisco.  There was even a restaurant which served what must have been the first truly fast food on the trip across.

After a lunch out on the pier, we went across to the National Park Service visitors center.  A few years ago, when I first visited, it was a small display area and a room for videos.  It’s now much larger with several dioramas, a boardwalk, a crashed ship(!), and displays of store fronts selling goods imported from Asia and Europe.  You can see below your feet some of the objects found during various excavations of the waterfront, the graveyard of gold rush ships.  There are Park Service rangers on hand to answer questions, and several videos and interactive maps.

The pier is now part of the National Park Service.  Entry is free with your National Park pass.

“Located in the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park offers visitors the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Pacific Coast maritime history. The Park includes a magnificent fleet of historic ships, a Visitor Center, Maritime Museum, Maritime Research Center, and Aquatic Park Historic District.”

Guided tours can be arranged through their website at https://www.nps.gov/safr/index.htm