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45-656: John Nugent and John E. Foy started the San Francisco Herald on 1 June 1850. In July 1850 Nugent bought out Foy for $ 15,000. Nugent edited the paper with Edmund Randolph, and William Walker had become a contributor by 1851. John Rollin Ridge , the first editor of the Sacramento Bee , also wrote for the San Francisco Herald among other publications. The California Gold Rush had caused

90-428: A convenient dwelling, can be had in the city limits at less than prices ranging above two thousand dollars each. Today you can, through one of these associations, for $ 300, payable in instalments of not over ten dollars per month, obtain a lot twenty-five by one hundred feet, in a district that before ten years have passed will be in the midst of the city, and worth fully ten times its present valuation. On 4 January 1855

135-603: A healthy flow of income. On 1 January 1855 the Daily Herald ran an editorial on the city's progress, referring to a detailed article that described the growth of the city. There were now 638 brick buildings with a valuation of $ 13,618,750. Among the more valuable, the New Merchant's Exchange, property of Jardine, Matheson & Co. of China, "cost $ 100,000 and is one of the many instances of confidence in our prosperity exhibited by capitalists abroad." On 7 January 1855

180-486: A hobby by which they expect to mount to fame." This was followed by an article on a bill for importation of dromedaries and camels. However, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company provided a regular mail service between San Francisco and New York that took about five weeks. Twice a month a steamer sailed from San Francisco to Panama City , while another sailed from New York to Chagres ( Colón ) on

225-630: A journalist and unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 1861 . In 1858, President James Buchanan appointed Nugent special agent to New Caledonia (British Columbia) . Buchanan wanted to see how Americans and their interests were faring in the area in light of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush . Nugent quickly discovered that there was little tension and good relations between the Americans and the British. Nugent appears to have created

270-414: A law must be apparent to all. No honest citizen will object to it... Everyone familiar with San Francisco is aware that for many years past the elections have been carried out by the agency of political bravos, who go around the city voting in every precinct, and often times more than once in each." In the 1850 the overland journey from San Francisco to the east coast took several months. On 20 January 1856

315-593: A rift through a dispute with Governor James Douglas over the treatment of American citizens in the courts. He further suggested that the Americans would intervene quickly if conflict arose. This came out of the feeling he had that New Caledonia and Vancouver Island should and would be annexed to the United States. The diplomatic difficulties were not great and the negativity fell on John Nugent personally. Later in life John Nugent married and had children. He married Magdalena Estudillo on August 26, 1860. Magdalena

360-733: A second objective: the establishment of civilian steamships which could be easily converted to warships or privateers during times of war. Thus the 1845 federal enabling legislation vested authority of mail contracts with the Secretary of the US Navy . His dual mandate was letting federal mail contracts and overseeing the construction of the steamers to ensure that they would be suitable for conversion to warships. In accordance to Polk’s aggressive program for developing Oregon, Congress passed more specific laws in for mail subsidies early in 1847. The new laws approved funding for four naval steamers, directed

405-596: The American Civil War the ships of the Pacific Mail, that carried the gold and silver of the western mines to the eastern states were under threat from the Confederate Navy in the form of commerce raiders, and several plots to seize one of their steamships for its precious cargo or to convert it into a raider to capture one of its other ships with such cargo. After one of these plots, that of

450-682: The Colorado River and Grand Canyon , and met the Hopi of the region. On 5 March 1860 Nugent attacked government-sponsored genocide of the Yuki people , I propose to the Legislature to create the office of Indian Butcher with the princely salary conferred upon the man who has killed most Indians in a given time, provided it be satisfactorily shown that the Indians were unarmed at the time, and

495-412: The Daily Herald published an editorial that questioned why the school tax had fallen from $ 18,685.11 for 1853 to $ 6,483.24 for 1854 despite the fact that the number of children had grown. The Herald wrote in laudatory terms of homestead associations: In no other way can a man of small means so cheaply obtain a homestead; and the time is rapidly slipping by in which eligible lots, of sufficient size for

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540-531: The Daily Herald wrote an article headlined "Filth among Chinese" that discussed overcrowded buildings occupied by Chinese immigrants with disposal of "every description of filth" through trap doors cut in the ground floor. The Herald also published a letter expressing concern that Negroes might be voting. In 1853 A.J. Moulder of the Herald presented episodes in the life of Captain Joseph R. Walker , who had explored

585-522: The Daily Herald wrote, "There never was probably a project started which has met with more universal approbation than the one for the establishment of a wagon route across the plains." It went on to say that the state needed more people to develop, and the Great Pacific Railroad would not be achieved for years and years. It concluded though, "...the appearances at present are that the project will be ridden to death, as so many have made it

630-651: The Herald in 1868 but was unsuccessful. At the end of the 1870s, Nugent worked on his memoirs, and died on March 29, 1880, in San Leandro, California. Pacific Mail Steamship Company The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall , Edwin Bartlett (American consul at Lima, Peru and also involved with

675-647: The Panama Railroad Company ), Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland . The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was established to carry US mail on the Pacific leg of a transcontinental route via Panama. The federal government discussed the possibility of creating subsidies for a private shipping company, similar to the model already established in Britain for the Cunard Line and

720-670: The Pima Villages to the Rio Grande . In 1851, Nugent became owner-editor of San Francisco Herald . In 1856 he opposed the re-establishment of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance , an extra-legal organization for the preservation of law and order. His failure to support it was an unpopular editorial decision that caused the paper to collapse a few years later in 1860. This was an event from which his career never recovered, although he continued to work as

765-480: The Salvador Pirates came to light, to prevent any further attempts to seize Pacific coast shipping, General McDowell ordered each passenger on board American merchant steamers to surrender all weapons when boarding the ship and every passenger and his baggage was searched. All officers were armed for the protection of their ships. Detachments of Union soldiers sailed with Pacific Mail steamers. In 1867,

810-710: The Sierra Nevada , and business boomed almost from the start. During the California Gold Rush in 1849, the company was a key mover of goods and people and played a key role in the growth of San Francisco , California. In addition to their maritime activities Pacific Mail also ran some of the earliest steamboats on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers , between San Francisco , Sacramento , and Stockton . Domingo Marcucci came from Philadelphia in

855-545: The Southern Route , through El Paso across New Mexico Territory to Fort Yuma . The party pioneered a shortcut on Cooke's Wagon Road that saved a long journey to the south. That route became known as the Tucson Cutoff . Later Nugent's Pass and Nugent's Springs on that route were named for Nugent, who gave his notes of the journey to aid Lt. John G. Parke in his expedition to find a railroad route from

900-692: The 1840s, he worked as a journalist with the New York Herald . In 1848, Nugent was leaked a copy of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , which would end the Mexican–American War after it was amended and approved by the Senate. Nugent was questioned by senators but did not reveal his source. Subsequently, Nugent traveled with a party of Forty-Niners from New York, led by John Coffee Hays , that traveled to California from San Antonio, Texas , over

945-918: The American flag and raised the Guatemalan flag in its place. The affair led to the recall of the U.S. Minister to Central America, Lansing Bond Mizner, by President Benjamin Harrison . The company was a charter member of the Dow Jones Transportation Average . In 1925, the company was purchased by Robert Dollar , of the Dollar Steamship Company . With the government bail-out of the Dollar Line in 1938, ownership passed to American President Lines , but by this time, PMSS essentially existed only on paper. It

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990-483: The Atlantic States, Europe, South America, Sandwich Islands, Australia, and Islands of the Pacific.", and for each issue in 1859 the masthead named the packets that carried that issue. William Walker gained national attention by dueling with law clerk William Hicks Graham on 12 January 1851. The cause was an article Walker had written in the Herald that criticized Graham's employer, Judge R.N. Morrison. Walker

1035-618: The British Mail Steam Packet Company. Such a policy served the larger objective of annexing and developing Oregon. President James K. Polk brought the Oregon Territory into the Union in 1846. Developing and maintaining the new land required the development of faster transportation and communications between the eastern seaboard and the remote northwest. At first the federal mail subsidy program served

1080-715: The Pacific Mail Steamship Company on April 12, 1848 with a capital stock of $ 500,000. The first three steamships constructed for Pacific Mail were the SS ; California , of 1050 tons, the SS Oregon , of 1250 tons, and the SS Panama , of 1058 tons. The company initially believed it would be transporting agricultural goods from the West Coast, but just as operations began, gold was found in

1125-499: The Pacific Mail on the run from Panama to San Francisco ended. Many of its ships were sold or put on other routes. While docked at San José de Guatemala , the Pacific Mail steamship SS Acapulco was involved in the Barrundia Affair of 1890. General Juan Martín Barrundia , a Guatemalan rebel general wanted by the Guatemalan government, was killed aboard ship after an attempted arrest by Guatemalan police, who hauled down

1170-635: The Pacific Mail steamship SS Oregon with a knocked-down steamboat in its hold. He started a shipyard in San Francisco on September 18, 1849, on the beach at Happy Valley , at the foot of Folsom Street, east of Beale Street. Marcucci's company assembled the Captain Sutter in six weeks. Built for the Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line , owned by George W. Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall, it

1215-451: The Pacific mail contract: a steamer would be required to sail from Panama to Astoria, Oregon in thirty days or less. He awarded the first contract to Arnold Harris, a straw buyer from Arkansas. The contract paid $ 199,000 annually and was in effect for ten years. Just days later, Harris assigned the mail contract to William H. Aspinwall, who brought in three partners: Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, and Gardiner Greene Howland. They incorporated

1260-723: The Pacific, running from Panama to San Francisco . In April 1851, the rivalry was ended when the U.S. Mail Steamship Company purchased Pacific Mail steamers on the Atlantic side, and George Law sold his new company and its ships to the Pacific Mail. One of the company's steamships, the SS Winfield Scott , acquired when the New York and California Steamship Company went out of business, ran aground on Anacapa Island in 1853. In 1854, Marshall Owen Roberts purchased Law's interest and became president of Pacific Mail. During

1305-763: The Sacramento run. That April Georgiana pioneered the shortcut route between Sacramento and Stockton through a slough in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta that was between the Sacramento River and Mokelumne River , which afterward became known as Georgiana Slough . In 1850, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company established a steamship line competing with the U.S. Mail Steamship Company between New York City and Chagres . George Law placed an opposition line of steamers (SS Antelope , SS Columbus , SS Isthumus , SS Republic ) in

1350-572: The US Department of the Navy to supervise the construction of these ships, and directed the Secretary of the Navy to contract with private carriers to carry US Mail to Oregon via Panama. Initially they planned for monthly mail service. One set of ships was to serve the Atlantic leg between the eastern US and Panama; the other set was to serve the Pacific leg. Secretary Mason set the terms for

1395-562: The business taken from the Herald and Chronicle, and became the leading morning paper. After this the Herald became aligned with the Democrats, but never regained its leading position. Nugent stopped contributing to the paper regularly and started a new career as an attorney. As of 1858 the Herald was described as being on the verge of the newspaper grave. The San Francisco Herald was published by G.W. Guthrie & Co. from 1860 to 1862. It

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1440-515: The company launched the first regularly scheduled trans-Pacific steamship service with a route between San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Yokohama , and extended service to Shanghai . This route led to an influx of Japanese and Chinese immigrants, bringing additional cultural diversity to California. As the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met in Utah in 1869, the profitability of

1485-505: The greater of them were squaws and papooses [women and children]. On 25 January 1855 the Herald ran a story on a bill introduced by Mr. Farwell requiring all voters, residents in any unincorporated city in the State, to be registered to entitle them to the right of suffrage. Lists were to be prepared at least ten days before any State or Municipal election of the legally qualified voters in each ward, and only these persons would be allowed to vote. The editorial commented "The necessity of such

1530-457: The law into their own hands. Nugent, a Democrat , opposed the vigilantes. The mainly Republican vigilantes were furious and nearly destroyed the newspaper by cancelling advertisements and subscriptions. Copies of the Herald were burned in public. The Herald lost the auctioneer ads, and was at once reduced to a quarter of its former size. The Chronicle , which also opposed the committee, suffered equally. The Alta California received most of

1575-467: The night before. The next day at around 11:30 the steamboat arrived with the seconds and surgeons, friends and reporters. The duel took place at 2:30. Cotter's second shot produced a compound fracture in Nugent's left thigh, which fortunately healed quickly. In 1853 he dueled with Alderman Hayes over a comment about some land deals. They fought with rifles at twenty paces, in front of a crowd of spectators. On

1620-528: The other side of the isthmus of Panama . Passengers would cross the isthmus, a three day journey by canoe and mule, then take the waiting steamer to their destination. The Herald published special editions named the Steamer Herald or San Francisco Herald for the steamer . Presumably talking of the steamer edition, the Library of Congress says it was semimonthly, the masthead said "For circulation in

1665-550: The second fire Nugent was severely wounded. In March, 1854 Benjamin Franklin Washington , who at the time worked for the Times and Transcript , took offense at articles written in the San Francisco Herald . He challenged C. A. Washburn, then the editor of the San Francisco Herald , to a duel. Washington aimed to kill, but his second shot went through the rim of Washburn's hat, and his third bullet struck Washburn in

1710-420: The shoulder. The duel then ended. In May 1856 James P. Casey of the city board of supervisors shot and killed James King of William , editor of the opposition newspaper The Evening Bulletin , for publishing an editorial that exposed Casey's criminal record in New York . This led to creation of the second San Francisco Committee of Vigilance . This was an extra-legal organization supported by businesses to take

1755-515: The sleepy town of San Francisco, with 800 people in 1847, to explode to 50,000 in 1850. Crime was rampant. Walker and Nugent outspokenly blamed town officials and judges for allowing the crime wave. According to James O'Meara , Nugent was "a master of pure English and keen in invective. His humor was pungent, his satire of the vitriol variety." His paper soon became the most popular in San Francisco. The Herald had four pages, 23 + 1 ⁄ 4 by 18 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (590 by 460 mm). Price

1800-544: Was 10 cents per issue, $ 2 per month by mail or $ 15 per year by mail. A fair amount of material consisted of reprinted material from other newspapers such as the London Times . There was a department called "Topics of the Day" that gave local news and opinion, another that gave write-ups of local concerts, recitals and theatrical shows, and so on. The Herald was the main place where auctioneers placed advertisements, which gave

1845-429: Was hit twice in the leg and fell down, but his wounds were not serious. Three months late Walker wrote an article in the Herald that attacked judge Eli Parsons, who had told a grand jury "the press is a nuisance". Parsons had Walker arrested, brought to court and fined $ 500 for contempt of court. Walker refused to pay and the judge threw him in jail. Thousands of people demanded his release, and on appeal Parsons' decision

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1890-651: Was one of the first steamboats that ran between San Francisco and Stockton , in 1849. Also for the Pacific Mail, Marcucci next converted the 153 ton side-wheel steamboat El Dorado that had been rigged as a 3 masted schooner for the trip around Cape Horn , to be used for the Sacramento run. Subsequently in March 1850, for the same company, he assembled the Georgiana , a small 30 ton side-wheel steamboat made in Philadelphia, knocked down and sent by sea also for

1935-554: Was succeeded by the Daily Herald and Mirror from 1862 to 1863. In 1869 Nugent revived the Herald , but it was short-lived. John Nugent (journalist) John Nugent ( c.  1821 – March 29, 1880) was an Irish journalist and U.S. government agent. Nugent was born in County Galway but travelled with his parents to the United States at an early age. He was educated at a Catholic college in New Jersey. In

1980-559: Was the daughter of Jose Joaquin Estudillo (1798–1852), the owner of the Rancho San Leandro . The Estudillos were the founders of the city of San Leandro, California . John and his wife, lived with her mother at 550 West Estudillo Avenue which was later the site of St. Leander's Church . The couple had four children; Sybil G. (1862–1909), Maud (1866–1922), Elsie (1868–1942) and John (1871–1948). Nugent tried to re-establish

2025-590: Was thrown out on the basis that the constitution protected freedom of the press. Nugent was also involved in several duels. He fought and slightly wounded William H. Jones in 1852. A quarrel with Alderman John Cotter arose from the purchase of the Jonny Lind Theatre for use as a public building, which the Herald insinuated was fraudulent. Nogent accepted a duel with Cotter that took place in Contra Costa on 15 July 1852. The protagonists went there

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