| Type | Weekly newspaper until 1849, then daily |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Samuel Brannan until 1849, then Robert B. Semple |
| Editor | E. B. Jones; Albert S. Evans |
| Founded | January 9, 1847 |
| Ceased publication | June 2, 1891 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Free online archives | cdnc.ucr.edu (1849–1891) |
The Alta California or Daily Alta California (often miswritten Alta Californian or Daily Alta Californian) was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper.
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]
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.
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, cofounder of The Californian, 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]
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]
Samuel S. Brannan was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the California Star, the first newspaper in San Francisco, California. He is also considered the first to publicize the California Gold Rush and was California's 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.
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, promoted by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had founded settlements in what is today the state of Utah. A provisional state government operated for nearly two years in 1849–50, but was never recognized by the United States government. The name Deseret derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.
The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s 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 comprising present-day Utah was part of the Republic of Mexico, with which the U.S. soon went to war over a border dispute left unresolved after the annexation of Texas. The Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war.
Edward Gilbert was an American newspaper editor and Democratic California politician. From 1850 to 1851, he served briefly as a member of the United States House of Representatives.
The history of California can be divided into the Native American period, the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican period (1821–1848), and United States statehood. California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. After contact with Spanish explorers, many of the Native Americans died from foreign diseases. Finally, in the 19th century there was a genocide by United States government and private citizens, which is known as the California genocide.
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 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 cities.
Yerba Buena was the original name of the settlement that later became San Francisco. 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.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in California. California has the 2nd most members of the LDS Church in the United States, behind Utah. The LDS Church is the 2nd largest denomination in California, behind the Roman Catholic Church.
The Californian was the first California newspaper.
Robert Baylor Semple (1806–1854) was a 19th-century California newspaperman and politician.
The Conquest of California, also known as the Conquest of Alta California or the California Campaign, was a military campaign of the Mexican–American War carried out by the United States in Alta California, then a part of Mexico. The conquest lasted from 1846 into 1847, until military leaders from both the Californios and Americans signed the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the conflict in California.
Alexander Badlam Sr. was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a Mormon pioneer.
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.
The timeline of North American telegraphy is a chronology of notable events in the history of the 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.
The interim government of California existed from soon after the outbreak of the Mexican–American War in mid-1846 until U.S. statehood in September, 1850. There were three distinct phases:
Senator was a wooden, side-wheel steamship built in New York in 1848. She was one of the first steamships on the California coast and arguably one of the most commercially successful, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the California gold rush. She was the first ocean-going steamer to sail up the Sacramento River to reach the new gold fields. After more purpose-built river steamers became available, Senator began a 26-year long career sailing between San Francisco and Southern California ports. Age and improving technology finally made the ship unsuitable for passenger service by 1882. Her machinery was removed and she was converted into a coal hulk. She ended her days in New Zealand, where she was broken up sometime around 1912.
The ship Brooklyn Saints were pioneers who sailed from New York City to San Francisco in Alta California to establish the first Mormon colony in the West. Due to religious persecution, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints planned to relocate the MormonA populace outside the United States. Two hundred thirty eight pioneers were recruited to sail around Cape Horn with heavy equipment for a large colony. They would plant crops and build infrastructure to receive the larger migration coming west by wagon the following year. Brooklyn took six months to sail 24,000 miles around Cape Horn to Alta California, surviving two terrible storms. Upon landing, the Brooklyn Saints were instrumental in building San Francisco and helped to kick off the California Gold Rush.
Talbot H. Green was an American merchant and politician during the mid-19th century, who was exposed as Paul Geddes, an absconder and embezzler of funds from a Philadelphia bank. Born in Pennsylvania to an influential family of Scottish descent, Geddes initially worked in merchandising and engineering. His early career in Philadelphia ended abruptly after financial mismanagement and embezzlement led him to leave his wife and four children, flee westward, and adopt the alias Talbot H. Green.
