California Narratives: Men and Memories of San Francisco

Description (from source site)
Theodore Augustus Barry and Benjamin Ada Patten established their credentials as California pioneers by arriving in their adopted state before 1 January 1850. This database gives later arrivals a detailed picture of the city as it existed a few months before California statehood. The men describe the streets and the residences and business that lined each thoroughfare and alley, as well as the men and women who owned those homes, boarding houses, hotels, restaurants, saloons, stores, offices, and shops. They also chronicle the fire of May 1851, which destroyed many of the structures they describe. While they focus on the city as it was in early 1850, the men's sketches of San Franicisco residents extend further, often forming capsule biographies of their subjects.

Sources Library of Congress. California As I Saw It, 1849-1900. Vol. 204. [database online] Washington: Library of Congress, 2000. Original data: Barry, Theodore Augustus. Men and Memories of San Francisco, in the "Spring of '50." San Francisco, CA: A.L. Bancroft & Company, 1873.

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