San Mateo County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter VI Miscellaneous - San Mateo 1893 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher cagwarchives@gmail.com January 12, 2007, 3:08 am Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of The Coast Counties Of Central California. CHAPTER VI. MISCELLANEOUS-SAN MATEO. THE town of San Mateo is a station on the Southern Pacific railway, and has many elegant homes, being a favorite place for country residences of merchants and others doing business in San Francisco, on account of its nearness to that city. An excellent road over the mountains greatly facilitates the handling of such products from the neighboring coast as are not sent to the metropolis by water. SAN MATEO DISTRICT SCHOOLS. No. children between 5 and 17; boys, 253; girls, 135; total 388 No. children under 5 144 No. children who have attended school 247 No. children between 5 and 17 who only attend private 73 No. children who have not attended any school 68 Native born, 504-foreign born, 28 582 No. and grade of schools, grammar grade 2; primary grade 5 7 No. boys enrolled 211-girls 89 300 Average No. belonging 209 Average daily attendance 197 Per-cent of attendance on average No. belong 94 No. pupils enrolled in grammar grade 32; primary grade 268 300 No. months of school maintained 10 1/4 Sex of teachers: all females 7 Teachers certificates high school, 1; 1st. grammar, 4; 2d grammar, 2 CURRENT EXPENSES. Paid teachers $4,323.75 Paid rent and contingent expenses 1,710.61 Paid libraries 101.50 Paid apparatus 30.00 $6,165.86 Paid lots, buildings and furnishings 5,661.30 ___________ $11,827.16 INCOME. Balance July 1, '91. $952.42 Received State $2,574.00 Received county 1,818.00 Received subscription, insurance, etc 7,069.00 Total receipts $11,413.42 $12,413.42 Balance June SO, '92 $586.26 Valuation of lots, houses and furnishings $600 Valuation of libraries 600 Valuation of apparatus 250 $1,450.00 No. of volumes in library 900 NOTE-In this district a six-class schoolhouse was burned during the school year and $7,000 insurance received. $25,000 bonds were voted for erecting an eight-class and also a four-class building. OTHER POINTS. There are numerous small towns in San Mateo county, besides Redwood City with its population of 1,570 and San Mateo with 950 inhabitants, among which are: Half moon bay, Pescadero, Menlo Park, Colma Station; and smaller settlements, as Millbrae, Colusa, Belmont, Searsville, Woodside, La Honda, Purisima and San Gregorio. A PICTURESQUE COUNTY. Esthetically considered, San Mateo is one of the most attractive sections of the State. It abounds in the beautiful, both in nature and art. It has long stretches of beach, the finest for bathing in the world, rolling hills, elevated ridges, wooded glens, rugged romantic canons, precipitous cliffs, against which the ocean beats unceasingly, dense forests, where deer and quail find a home, and crystal streams filled with trout. From the summit of the ridge the view is unequaled in grandeur and extent, except possibly from Mount Shasta, a point few people ever reach. Standing on the crest of the divide and looking north, east and south, the eye commands at a sweep a distance of a hundred miles. From Vallejo to Gilroy, the hills of Marin, the bay of San Francisco, in its entirety, the counties of Alameda and Santa Clara, with their numerous cities, towns and villages, lie like a map spread at the observer's feet, with Tamalpais, Diablo and Hamilton, rising like stately sentinels at intervals. To the westward adown deep canons over the tops of giant redwoods, that darken the slope, are seen the coast towns, the long shore line, the Farallone Islands and the Pacific ocean with a stretch of unnumbered miles north and south and limited in the west only by the impenetrable curtain at the horizon. HALFMOON BAY. Of all the towns in San Mateo this most wears the air of the pre-American regime. It is a quaint, rambling place with as much variety in its architecture as there is in the patois of its people. Situated in the beautiful and fertile Pilarcitos valley, on the border of that semi-luna of water, from which it takes its name, it is one of Nature's chosen spots, but unfortunate in its isolation. The valley spreads out into thousands of acres, through which the Pilarcitos creek makes its way to the sea. The climate is not excelled in its loveliness by any on the ocean side, not excepting the much vaunted Santa Barbara channel. From the town there stretches away to the north for miles a clean gradually shoaling beach, the finest without exception in California. From Pilar point, the northern headland, a reef of rocks, just discernible at low water by the break of the waves, extends southward for two miles, forming a natural breakwater and rendering the beach absolutely free from undertow, high rollers and every possible danger. Here is the grandest bathing place in the world, prepared and protected by Nature. The building of the coast railroad will deflect the great army of people who annually flock to Monterey and places farther south. Half moon Bay will be rediscovered and the borders of the crescent be ornamented with summer hotels and villa residences. There is room for all in the spacious waters of the bay and the most elegant sites for hotels or summer homes to be found anywhere on the coast. This valley was the seat of the Miramontez and Vasquez families long before the appearance of the American settler, and by all old residents the town is still called Spanishtown. The old adobe homestead is still here, but before many years will have yielded to the assaults of time and become an unnoticed tumulus. There is something in the atmosphere of Spanishtown that breeds a spirit of independence. The people believe in themselves. Not that they consider that they are the salt of the earth entirely, but they love the valley where they have made their homes and cling to it as to a family tie which they are loth to sunder. The business of the place is drawn mainly from dairymen and farmers. At Amesport, a short distance north of town, there is a wharf and warehouse where coasting vessels call and take away the butter, cheese and beans. LA HONDA. In the romantic canon of the San Gregorio, where giant redwoods cast their elongated shadows and the murmuring waters of the stream sing a ceaseless lullaby, Mr. John H. Sears, one of the pioneers of San Mateo, is passing the afternoon of his life. Here he has built a hotel and store and does not lack for company. During the summer season the woods ring with the merry voices of campers and the hotel and cottages are crowded to repletion. No more charming place can be found anywhere in the State. It is reached by stage from Redwood City over a fine road, but so strong is the impression of a primeval wilderness when once in the heart of the forest that even the rattle of the daily coach and the receipt of diurnal messages from home does not suffice to break it. White tents peep through the bushes at every turn, but that serves to high ten the illusion. You are out of the world when you know you are in it. The days are spent in eager angling after the elusive trout with which the stream abounds. In the evening there are concerts in the camps; bear stories to be swapped with the landlord; comparative fish yarns by young men, who could'nt catch three trout in a week, but who love to talk about it; a championship game at cribbage with the drummer, who knows it all and then to be abed for seven hours in deepest oblivion. It is a joyful place, unconventional, unaffected, but unexceptionable in the personnel of its patrons. A writer in one of the many visits to this favorite spot was introduced to a camp, where the party was almost entirely composed of ladies. When out of hearing of the camp he asked the lady who acted as chaperon of the party how they managed to enjoy themselves without the aid of the sterner sex. "Enjoy themselves?" said she in a burst of enthusiasm, "oh, yes; they do! We have plenty of horses, wear divided skirts, ride astride like men and have such lots of fun." Of course they did. It was harmless, healthful fun, and they were free to throw their souls into it. It was an active exercise of body and mind in a pure air, and with such surroundings as induced joyful hearts, consuming appetites and refreshing sleep. Every day so spent added a year to their lives. It is not strange that when the sun dips to the south they look forward with eager anticipation to the June days when they shall again set up their tents at La Honda. LIGHTHOUSES. Ano Nuevo (New Year's) Island fog signal station (lantern) is located on the southwestern or seaward side of the island. It was established in 1872. Its latitude is 37° 06' (43") north; and longitude 122°, 19' (51") west. The light is a fixed white lens lantern, twenty-four feet above sea level. This station is equipped with a twelve-inch steam whistle. Blasts, ten seconds; intervals fifty-five seconds. Point Pigeon lighthouse is located on the extremity of Pigeon Point, latitude 37°, 10' 49" north, and longitude 122°, 23', 39", west. Light, flashing white every ten seconds, a Fresnel of the first order, 150 feet above sea level, visible eighteen and one-half (nautical) miles; established in 1872. It has a twelve-inch whistle: blasts, four seconds, alternate intervals of seven and forty-five seconds. It is thirty-eight miles south of Golden Gate and thirty-nine miles from Point Pinos light. The lantern of this station did duty at Cape Hatteras on the coast of North Carolina before the war, but so perfect is its construction that the revolving apparatus shows no sign of attrition, although it has been in use half a lifetime. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California. Illustrated. Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent Citizens of To-day. HENRY D. BARROWS, Editor of the Historical Department. LUTHER A. INGERSOLL, Editor of the Biographical Department. "A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."-Macaulay. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sanmateo/history/1893/memorial/chapterv208gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 11.9 Kb