The Daily Alta California

Last updated
Alta California
TypeWeekly newspaper until 1849, then daily
Owner(s) Samuel Brannan until 1849, then Robert B. Semple
EditorDr. E. B. Jones; Albert S. Evans
FoundedJanuary 9, 1847
Ceased publicationJune 2, 1891
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Free online archives cdnc.ucr.edu (1849–1891)
Alta California Building, 1851 AltaCaliforniaBuilding1851.jpg
Alta California Building, 1851

The Alta California or Daily Alta California (often miswritten Alta Californian or Daily Alta Californian) was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper.

San Francisco Consolidated city-county in California, US

San Francisco, officially City and County of San Francisco and colloquially known as SF, San Fran, or "The City", is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. San Francisco is the 13th-most populous city in the United States, and the fourth-most populous in California, with 883,305 residents as of 2018. It covers an area of about 46.89 square miles (121.4 km2), mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city, and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is the 12th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States, with 4,729,484 people in 2018. With San Jose, it forms the fifth-most populous combined statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area.

Contents

California Star

The Daily Alta California descended from the first newspaper published in the city, Samuel Brannan's California Star, which debuted on January 9, 1847. Brannan, who had earlier assisted in publishing several Mormon newspapers in New York, had brought a small press with him when he immigrated to California as part of a group of Mormon settlers in 1846 aboard The Brooklyn. [1]

Samuel Brannan American politician

Samuel Brannan was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the California Star, the first newspaper in San Francisco, California. He is considered the first to publicize the California Gold Rush and was its first millionaire. He used the profits from his stores to buy large tracts of real estate. He helped form the first vigilance committee in San Francisco and was disfellowshiped from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of his actions within the vigilance committee. Brannan's wife divorced him and he was forced to liquidate much of his real estate to pay her one-half of their assets. He died poor and in relative obscurity.

New York (state) American state

New York is a state located in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.54 million residents in 2018, it is the fourth most populous state. In order to distinguish the state from its city with the same name, it is sometimes referred to as New York State (NYS).

With Dr. E. B. Jones as editor, the California Star was the city's only newspaper until an older publication, The Californian , moved to Yerba Buena (as San Francisco was then called) from Monterey in mid-1847. The city was about to undergo rapid changes as the California gold rush got underway. The California Star appeared weekly until June 14, 1848, when it was forced to shut down because its entire staff had departed for the gold fields. Its rival newspaper had suspended publication for the same reason on May 29.

<i>The Californian</i> (1840s newspaper)

The Californian was the first California newspaper.

Yerba Buena, California original name of San Francisco

Yerba Buena was the original name of the settlement that later became San Francisco, California. Located near the northeastern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, between the Presidio of San Francisco and the Mission San Francisco de Asís, it was originally intended as a trading post for ships visiting San Francisco Bay. The settlement was arranged in the Spanish style around a plaza that remains as the present day Portsmouth Square.

Monterey, California City in California, United States

Monterey is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it was the capital of Alta California under both Spain and Mexico. During this period, Monterey hosted California's first theater, public building, public library, publicly funded school, printing press, and newspaper. It was also originally the only port of entry for all taxable goods in California. In 1846 during the Mexican–American War, the United States flag was raised over the Customs House. After California was ceded to the U.S. after the war, Monterey hosted California's first constitutional convention in 1849.

Merger and name change

Later that year, Sam Brannan sold his interest in the moribund California Star to Edward Cleveland Kemble, who also acquired The Californian. Kemble resumed publication of the combined papers under the name Star and Californian on November 18, 1848. On December 23, 1848, the California Star and Californian ran an article indicating this would be the last issue. In a business arrangement with the firm of Gilbert, Kemble and Hubbard, a new paper, entitled ALTA CALIFORNIA, would be published at San Francisco, Upper California, the first issue of which would appear on Thursday, January 4, 1849. [2]

By 1849, the paper had come under the control of Robert B. Semple, who changed its name to the Alta California. On January 22, the paper began daily publication, becoming the first daily newspaper in California. On July 4, 1849, Semple began printing the Daily Alta California on a new steam press, the first such press in the west. [3] In 1863, Albert S. Evans became editor at the paper and continued in that capacity for several years. [4] The newspaper continued publication until June 2, 1891. [3]

Doctor Robert Baylor Semple (1806–1854) was a 19th-century California newspaperman and politician.

Albert S. Evans American explorer and writer

Albert S. Evans was an American explorer and writer. Prior to 1856, he lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and worked as a broker. He lived in Chicago and worked for many years at the Daily Journal. Evans arrived in San Francisco in 1861, began working as a journalist for the Morning Call and served on the staff of the Governor of California during the Civil War.

Other editions

The Daily Alta California was also published as weekly, tri-weekly, and steamer editions. [5] The Weekly Alta California was published every Saturday and the Steamer Alta California was published on the departure of the Steamers of the 1st and 15th of the month. [6]

Related Research Articles

Mormon pioneers Pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Mormon pioneers were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated in the mid-1840s across the United States from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley in what is today the U.S. state of Utah. At the time of the planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory was owned by the Republic of Mexico, which soon after went to war with the United States over the annexation of Texas. Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of this war.

Henry A. Lyons was the second Chief Justice of California, appointed to the court by the California State Legislature at the formation of the state. He was the first Jewish justice on the court.

Edward Gilbert was an American newspaper editor and Democratic California politician.

The history of California can be divided into: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, from September 9, 1850 which continues to this present day.

Media in the San Francisco Bay Area

The media in the San Francisco Bay Area has historically focused on San Francisco but also includes two other major media centers, Oakland and San Jose. The Federal Communications Commission, Nielsen Media Research, and other similar media organizations treat the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Bay Area as one entire media market. The region hosts to one of the oldest radio stations in the United States still in existence, KCBS (AM) (740 kHz), founded by engineer Charles Herrold in 1909. As the home of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area is also a technologically advanced and innovative region, with many companies involved with Internet media or influential websites.

The history of newspapers in California dates back to 1846, with the first publication of The Californian in Monterey. Since then California has been served by a large number of newspapers based in many different cities.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California

As of year-end 2017, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 767,301 members in 1,278 wards and branches, 16 missions, seven temples and 228 Family History Centers in California.

Conquest of California

The California Campaign (1846–1847), colloquially the Conquest of California or Conquest of Alta California by the United States, was an early military campaign of the Mexican–American War that took place in the western part of Mexico's Alta California Department, in the present-day state of California. The California Campaign was marked by a series of small battles throughout 1846 and early 1847.

Nathaniel Bennett was one of the first Associate Justices of the California Supreme Court.

Alexander Badlam Sr. was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a Mormon pioneer.

The California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) is a freely-available, archive of digitized California Newspapers; it is accessible through the project's website. The collection contains 433,033 issues comprising 4,976,984 pages and 32,437,924 articles. The project is part of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California Riverside.

David Fairchild created many newspapers in central and western New York State before heading to California in the Gold Rush. He was an early settler of the Golden State and was elected a member of the California State legislature in 1860 as a Democrat.

The California Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1854 to consolidate competing steamship companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It was successful in this effort and established a profitable near-monopoly which it maintained by buying out or bankrupting new competitors. In response to the Fraser Canyon gold rush and economic growth in the Pacific Northwest, the company expanded to ocean routes from San Francisco north to British Columbia. Similarly, as California's economy grew, the company offered service from San Francisco south to San Pedro and San Diego. It exited these markets in 1867 when competition drove prices to unprofitable levels. While the California Steam Navigation Company was successful throughout its life in suppressing steamboat competition on its core Bay Area and river routes, it could not control the rise of railroads. These new competitors reduced the company's revenue and profit. Finally, in 1871, the company's assets were purchased by the California Pacific Railroad, and the corporation was dissolved.

Steamboats operated in California on San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, and Sacramento River as early as November 1847, when the Sitka built by William A. Leidesdorff briefly ran on San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River to New Helvetia. After the first discovery of gold in California the first shipping on the bays and up the rivers were by ocean going craft that were able to sail close to the wind and of a shallow enough draft to be able to sail up the river channels and sloughs, although they were often abandoned by their crews upon reaching their destination. Regular service up the rivers, was provided primarily by schooners and launches to Sacramento and Stockton, that would take a week or more to make the trip.

Captain Sutter, sometimes mistakenly called the Sutter, or the John A. Sutter, was a stern-wheel steamboat, built in Philadelphia, brought around Cape Horn, to California, the first to run from San Francisco to Stockton, from late November 1849.

Timeline of North American telegraphy

The timeline of North American telegraphy is a chronology of notable events in the history of electric telegraphy in the United States and Canada, including the rapid spread of telegraphic communications starting from 1844 and completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.

References

  1. "San Francisco Genealogy-The Brooklyn" . Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  2. "California Star December 23, 1848" . Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  3. 1 2 "About this Newspaper: Daily Alta California. – Chronicling America – The Library of Congress" . Retrieved November 6, 2009.
  4. "Albert S. Evans". Fort Whipple, Arizona: Arizona Miner. 4 May 1867. p. 2. Retrieved 18 April 2015 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  5. "Alta California" . Retrieved November 9, 2017.
  6. "Steamer Alta California September 1, 1850" . Retrieved November 9, 2017.