Santa Clara County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter XVIII 1922
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Book Title: History Of Santa Clara County

CHAPTER XVIII.

History of the Lick Observatory on the Summit of Mt. Hamilton-The Eccentricities
of James Lick, the Philanthropist-What He Did for San Jose.

  The greatest work of man in Santa Clara County and San Jose's greatest asset
is the Lick Observatory on the summit of Mt. Hamilton, which is provided with
the best and most complete astronomical appliances in the world. The distance
from San Jose to the summit of the mountain is twenty-seven miles, but in an air
line it is much shorter, so that if one stands in the streets of the city and
looks at the Coast Range mountains he will see, a little south of east, the
great white dome glittering in the sunshine and looking benignly on the valley.
The drive to the summit is entrancing. The visitor motors out on Santa Clara
Street and across Coyote Creek enters Alum Rock Avenue, a continuation of Santa
Clara Street, and the broad, fine highway to the baths, mineral springs and
scenic beauties of the City Reservation. A little over three miles from San Jose
the visitor turns to the right and begins to ascend the first ridge of
mountains. The road is winding, but broad and safe, and the grade is easy. The
beautiful valley, with San Jose in the center, spreads out before him.

  He passes over this ridge and plunges into Hall's Valley; crossing which, with
its lovely homes and ranches, he begins to ascend another ridge. This is soon
crossed and the visitor descends again into a little valley through which runs
Smith Creek, a favorite trout stream. Here he finds a large hotel and garage,
and before him looms Mt. Hamilton, seven miles up the hill. The beautiful
scenery of the Coast Range is seen as the last climb up is made. The road winds
in and out through shady nooks, around bold promontories and up and up, often
doubling upon itself, while the higher one climbs, the grander the majestic
panorama of mountains and valleys that spreads out on every hand, and soon the
great valley of Santa Clara, with San Jose but a shady spot, peeps over the two
intervening ridges. The crookedness of the road may be imagined from the fact
that there are 365 turns between the base at Smith Creek and the observatory on
the summit.

  The Lick Observatory was the donation to the University of California by James
Lick, who became immensely wealthy through mining and real estate ventures. The
prominence which he achieved by his princely gift to science caused people from
all over the county to recall incidents of his life, and these have been
gathered and woven into a connected narrative, which is herewith presented.

  James Lick was born in Fredericksburg, Pa., August 25, 1796. His ancestors
were of German extraction and spelled the family name "Luk." His grandfather had
come to America early in the century and had served in the army of Washington
during the Revolutionary War. Nothing is known of the life of James Lick until
he arrived at the age of twenty-seven and entered himself as an apprentice to an
organ maker at Hanover, Pa. He worked here for a short time and in 1819 took a
position in the employ of Joseph Hiskey, a prominent piano manufacturer of
Baltimore, Md. An incident of his experience there has been recalled.

  One day a penniless youth named Conrad Meyer applied at the factory for
employment. He attracted the fancy of James Lick, who took the stranger in
charge, provided him with food and proper clothing and secured for him a place
in the establishment. The friendship thus formed lasted through life. In 1854
the pianos of Conrad Meyer took first prize in the London International
Exhibition, their maker possessing an immense factory in Philadelphia and
ranking as one of the most eminent piano makers in the United States.

  In 1820 James Lick left the employ of Hiskey and went to New York, expecting
to start in business on his own account. This venture was restricted by his lack
of capital, and, if attempted at all, was brief, for in the following year he
left the United States for Buenos Ayres, South America, with the intention of
devoting himself there to his trade. He found the Buenos Ayreans of that period
a singularly handsome and refined race of almost purely Spanish extraction, and
attaining by their mode of life in that fine climate a remarkable physical
development. By careful attention to business he prospered among them,
accumulating a competence during the first ten years of his stay. "In 1832,"
writes his friend, Conrad Meyer, in the Philadelphia Bulletin, "I was in
business on Fifth Street, when I was suddenly surprised one day at seeing James
Lick walk in. He had just arrived from South America and had brought with him
hides and nutria skins to the amount of $40,000, which he was then disposing of.
Nutria skins are obtained from a species of otter found along the River La
Plata. He said that he intended settling in Philadelphia, but in a few days left
for New York, and from there sailed to Buenos Ayres. There he filled several
piano orders, settled his affairs and sailed for Valparaiso, Chile, where for
four years he pursued his vocation. His next venture was in Callao, Peru, where
he lived for eleven years, occupying himself in manufacturing pianos and making
occasional investments in commercial enterprises. That he was successful is
shown in the statement made by himself that in 1845 he was worth $59,000.
Resolving to try California, he sold his stock for $30,000. This money, which
was in Spanish doubloons, he secured in a large iron safe which he brought with
him to California. Among the odd articles which James Lick brought from Peru was
the work-bench he had used in his trade. It was not an elaborate affair and the
object of its deportation to California, the land of timber, hardly appears,
unless he had acquired an affection for this companion of his daily labors. He
retained this bench through all his California experiences."

  Mr. Lick arrived in San Francisco late in 1847. At that time there was little
to indicate the future prosperity of the Pacific Coast. California Street was
its southern boundary, while Sansome Street was on the water front. Sand dunes
stretched out to the horizon on the south and east, an occasional shanty
breaking the monotony of the landscape. Mr. Lick quietly invested money in these
sand hills, paying dollars for lots that were not considered by the inhabitants
to be worth cents. He came to Santa Clara County at an early day and purchased
the property north of San Jose, on the Guadalupe, which was afterwards known as
the Lick's Mills property. He also bought the tract of land just inside the
present southern city limits which was afterwards named the Lick Homestead. All
these lands were then vacant and unimproved.

  During seven years after his arrival in California Mr. Lick did no business
other than the investment of his money. The first improvement of his property
was made on the Lick Mill Tract. An old "flour mill had stood upon the property
when he bought it in 1852, and this fact may have influenced him in his decision
to build his own mill on the site of the old one. In 1853 he began to lay plans
and gather material for the construction. In 1855 the work started and to those
who saw the structure rise, it was the wonder of the time. The wood composing
the interior finish was of the finest mahogany, finished and inlaid in the most
elegant and expensive style. The machinery imported for the works was of a
quality never before sent out to the Pacific Coast. The entire cost of the mill
was $200,000. When put in operation it turned out the finest brand of flour in
the state.

  There is a romantic legend preserved in the memory of the old acquaintances of
James Lick which explains the origin of this mill. The tale runs that when Lick
was a boy he was apprenticed to a miller, who, besides being possessed of a
competency and a flourishing business, had also an exceedingly pretty daughter.
Strange as the assertion may seem to those who were acquainted only with the
unlovely old age of this strange character, James Lick was a comely young man,
and upon him the miller's daughter cast approving eyes. Lick met her more than
half way and a warm attachment sprang up between the apprentice and the heiress.
The old miller, however, soon saw the drift of matters and interposed his
parental authority to break the-course of true love. Young Lick declared he
loved the girl and wished to marry her. Thereupon the miller became indignant
and, pointing to his mill, exclaimed: "Out, you beggar! Dare you cast your eyes
upon my daughter, who will inherit my riches? Have you a mill like this? Have
you a single penny in your purse?" To this tirade Lick replied that he had
nothing as yet, but one day he would have a mill beside which this one would be
a pigsty.

  Lick at once departed and after a time drifted to California, seeking the
fortune he determined to possess, a determination that never afterwards for a
moment left him. Nor did he forget his last words to the miller. When he was a
rich man he built this mill, and when he had finished there had been nothing
left undone which could have added to the perfection of its appointments. Its
machinery was perfect and its walls, floors and ceilings were of costly woods.
Not being able to bring the miller to view the realization of his boyish
declaration, Lick had the mill photographed within and without, and although his
sweetheart had long since been married, he sent her father the pictures and
recalled to him the day he boasted of his Pennsylvania mill.

  Although the mahogany mill gratified Lick's pride in its construction and in
the brand of his product, it was not a financial success. The periodical floods
of the Guadalupe River inundated the land about it, destroyed his orchards and
roads and interfered with the operation of the mill.

  In the year 1873 he surprised everybody by the gift of the whole property to
the Thomas Paine Memorial Association of Boston. For some years he had been a
close student and great admirer of the writings of Paine, and he took this means
of proving the faith that was in him. On January 16, 1873, he made a formal
transfer of the property to certain named trustees of the association, imposing
upon them the trust to sell the property and donate one-half of the proceeds to
the building of a memorial hall in Boston, and so invest the other half that a
lecture course could be maintained out of the income. The association sent an
agent to California to look over the acquisition, with power to deal with it.
Without consulting Mr. Lick, the agent sold the property for about $18,000, at
which proceeding the donor was so disgusted that he lost all interest in the
advancement of the theories of the famous infidel.

  The next scheme of improvement to which Lick turned his attention was the
erection of the Lick Hotel in San Francisco. He had bought the property for an
ounce of gold dust soon after his arrival in California, and until 1861 it had
lain idle and unimproved. The lot originally extended the entire length of the
block on Montgomery Street from Sutter to Post, and the hotel would have covered
this space had not Lick sold the Post Street corner to the Masons. At the time
of its construction the hotel was the finest on the Pacific Coast. Its interior
finish was, in the main, designed by Lick himself, who took special pride in the
selection of fine materials and in their combination in artistic and effective
forms. The dining room floor was a marvel of beautiful woodwork, made out of
many thousand pieces and all polished like a table.

  That part of the history of James Lick which lies between the years 1861 and
1873 is full of interest to those who desire to form a correct estimate of the
man. The course of affairs had amply justified his early judgment of the future
values of California real estate. His sand-hill lots, bought for a song in 1848,
grew to be golden islands of wealth in the rising streams of California trade.
The investments in Santa Clara County all yielded rich returns. By the very
bulldog tenacity with which he hung to his transactions, he became during the
'60s one of the wealthiest men on the Pacific Coast. His reputation, too, was
state-wide, made so not only by his wealth but also by the rumor of his
eccentricities.

  It is very probable that the advancing age of James Lick acted upon his nature
in developing into active eccentricities the natural peculiarities of his
disposition. Most of the pioneers who remember him during the first decade of
his California career, describe him as a close, careful, self-contained man,
cold and somewhat crabbed of disposition, going his own lonely way in business
and in life. Those who knew him between 1861 and 1873 intensify these
characteristics and declare him to have been miserly, irascible, selfish,
solitary; one who cherished little affection for his race or kin, and whose
chief delight appeared to lie in the indulgence of the whims of a thorny and
unfragrant old age. Others who knew him say that beneath the ice of his outward
nature flowed the warm currents of a philanthropic heart.

  The stories of Lick's eccentric career are numerous and amusing. Most of his
time after the completion of his hotel was spent in and about San Jose. At first
he lived upon his mill property, and upon it he began early to set out trees of
various kinds, both for fruit and ornament. He held some curious theories about
tree-planting and believed in the efficacy of a bone deposit about the roots of
every young tree. Many are the yarns told by old residents about his action. It
was a frequent sight to see him going along the highway in an old rattle-trap,
rope-tied wagon, with a bearskin robe for a seat cushion, stopping every now and
then to gather in the bones of some dead animal. There is a story extant, and
probably well founded, which illustrates the odd means he employed to secure
hired help at once trustworthy and obedient. One day while he was planting his
orchard a man applied to him for work. Lick directed him to take the trees he
indicated to a certain part of the grounds and there to plant them with the tops
in the soil and the roots in the air. The man obeyed the directions to the
letter and reported in the evening for further orders. Lick went out, viewed the
work with apparent satisfaction, and then ordered the man to plant the trees the
proper way, and thereafter to continue in his employ.

  Another story, similar to this, is handed down and is entirely authentic. Lick
at one time was the owner of what is now the Knox block, on the northwest corner
of First and Santa Clara streets. A fire having destroyed the buildings, much
debris of burnt and broken brick was scattered about the lot. One day while Lick
was viewing the ruins a young man applied to him for work and was instructed to
collect a certain quantity of bricks and pile them neatly in a corner. This he
did, and on reporting was told to take the same bricks back and pile them neatly
in another corner. Without protest the young man executed this singular order,
and was at once regularly employed.

  When Lick found that the floods interfered with the improvement of his mill
property, he transferred his operations to the tract of land south of San Jose,
for a long time known as the Lick Homestead Addition. Presently the residents of
San Jose witnessed a strange spectacle. Day after day long trains of carts and
wagons passed slowly through the city, carrying tall trees and full-grown
shrubbery from the old to the new location. Winter and summer alike the work
went on, the old man superintending it all in his old rattle-trap wagon and
bearskin robe. He imported from Australia some rare trees and had brought with
them whole shiploads of their native earth. Once he conceived the idea of
building conservatories superior to any on the Coast, and for that purpose he
had imported from England the materials for two large conservatories after the
model of those in Kew Gardens, London. His death occurred before he could have
these constructed and they remained on the hands of his trustees until a body of
San Francisco gentlemen contributed funds for their purchase and donation to the
use of the public in Golden Gate Park, where in full construction they now
stand, to the wonder and delight of all who visit this beautiful resort.

  It was in the year 1873, when James Lick was seventy-seven years old, that he
began to make those donations of the then vast estate which he possessed. For
many years preceding the bequest he had been a wide reader. He studied
everything written by and of Thomas Paine and made his own works conform to
Paine's opinions. It is related that while he was engaged in the improvement of
the Lick Homestead property he became involved in an argument with the late
Adolph Pfister, who served several terms as mayor of the city, over some
religious subject, when Pfister suggested that Lick put to "practical proof the
merits of Paineism as contrasted with other moral agencies, by the erection of a
grand college on his property for the education of young men in the Paine
doctrine. Lick was impressed with the idea and it is not improbable that it
found form in the gift of the mill property to the Paine Association of Boston.

  On February 15, 1873, Lick executed two gift deeds, one to the California
Academy of Science, the other to the Society of California Pioneers. To the
first named he granted a lot of forty feet frontage on Market Street, near
Fourth, San Francisco, and to the last named a lot of like dimensions on Fourth
Street near Market. These gifts he clogged with certain conditions which were
deemed irksome by the trustees. The matter was at issue when Lick died, but
after his death a compromise satisfactory to the donees was effected.

  The trust deed by which Lick gave all his remaining property to charitable and
educational objects was dated June 2, 1874. Among the provisions of this
instrument was one giving to San Jose $25,000 for the purpose of establishing an
orphan asylum, and another appropriating $700,000 for establishing an
observatory on land belonging to Lick, near Lake Tahoe. An investigation of the
appropriateness of the site was at once set on foot. It was soon ascertained
that the severity of the climate in winter about the chosen location would
seriously interfere with the effective operations of the telescopes and with the
comfort of the visiting public. Lick then determined to make a change of site
and lookedfavorably toward Mt. St. Helena, in Napa County. He visited St. Helena
and ascended part way to its summit, but before he had pursued his
investigations far enough to reach a conclusion his mind was directed to Santa
Clara County.

  Although out of the large amount of property distributed by Lick, San Jose
received but $25,000, the people of the city were very grateful and acknowledged
their gratitude in a well-worded series of resolutions prepared by Judge Belden
and adopted by the mayor and common council. The resolutions were beautifully
engraved and officially transmitted to Mr. Lick  in San Francisco. Other
recipients of the millionaire's benefactions had either responded coldly or had
made no response at all. Therefore the action of San Jose greatly pleased Lick
and caused him to think that he had not done as much as he should for the county
that had long been his home. The resolutions reached him at a time when he was
in doubt as to the location of the observatory, and he consulted his
confidential agent, Thomas E. Fraser, as to the availability of the mountain
summits east and west of San Jose. Fraser referred Lick to Mt. Hamilton and was
instructed to ascend the mountain's top and make thorough investigations. In
August, 1875, Fraser, accompanied by Mayor B. D. Murphy, went to the summit,
found it free from fog, equable of climate and generally suitable for the
observatory's location. Mr. Lick then addressed a communication to the board of
supervisors offering to locate the observatory on Mt. Hamilton if the county
would construct a road to the summit. The facts concerning the building of the
road will be found in the chapter on County Government and Good Roads.

  In the meantime, Lick had found that his deed of trust did not express his
intentions; that a strict construction of its terms would postpone the carrying
into effect of his benefactions until after his death. He wanted the work to be
pushed forward during his lifetime. After duly considering these matters, he
addressed a communication to his trustees, setting forth his conclusions and
intentions, revoking"the deed and asking them to resign. The trustees consulted
a lawyer and upon his advice declined to resign, for the alleged reason that
they had already converted about a million dollars of the real estate into money
and could not be relieved from responsibility by the dictum of Mr. Lick. This
brought about a controversy with the trustees which at first threatened disaster
to the beneficiaries. John B. Felton was Lick's attorney, and instead of
precipitating his client into a lawsuit he used the columns of the newspapers so
vigorously that the trustees became disgusted and made up an agreed case by
which the courts relieved them of responsibility and annulled the deed.

  On September 21, 1875, a new and final deed was executed, with Richard S.
Floyd, Bernard D. Murphy, Foxan D. Atherton, John H. Lick and John Nightingale
as trustees. The clause in the deed in reference to the observatory is as follows:

  "Third-To expend the sum of seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) for the
purpose of purchasing land and constructing and putting upon such land as shall
be designated by the party of the first part, a powerful telescope, superior to
and more powerful than any telescope yet made, with all the machinery
appertaining thereto and appropriately connected therewith, or that is necessary
and convenient to the most powerful telescope now in use, or suited to one more
powerful than any yet constructed; and also a suitable observatory connected
therewith. The parties of the second part hereto, and their successors shall, as
soon as said telescope and observatory are constructed, convey the land
whereupon the same may be situated, and the telescope and observatory and all
the machinery and apparatus connected therewith to the corporation known as "The
Regents of the University of California"; and if, after the construction of said
telescope and observatory, there shall remain of said seven hundred thousand
dollars in gold coin any surplus, the said parties of the second part shall turn
over such surplus to said corporation, to be invested by it in bonds of the
United States, or of the city and county of San Francisco, or other good and
safe interest-bearing bonds, and the income thereof shall be devoted to the
maintenance of said telescope and the observatory connected therewith, and shall
be made useful in promoting science; and the said telescope and observatory are
to be known as 'The Lick Astronomical Department of the University of California.'
"

  In making the new deed Lick selected Mt. Hamilton as the site for the
observatory, and the trustees, acting with the Regents of the State University,
secured an Act of Congress setting apart the public land at the summit for this
purpose. This tract contains 500 acres and is so situated as to prevent
settlement in the immediate vicinity of the observatory, or the inauguration of
any enterprise in that neighborhood that would be inimical to the interests of
the institution.

  John B. Felton charged $100,000 for his legal services in annulling the first
deed, and presented the bill to the new trustees. They refused to allow the
claim until Lick would sign a written authorization. Felton and Trustee Murphy
called on Lick and asked him to sign. "Mr. Felton," said the old philanthropist,
"when we made a contract on which that claim is based, we supposed that to
cancel my first trust deed would be an arduous matter, involving much expense, a
long delay and years of the most elaborate and expensive litigation. The whole
entanglement, however, was adjusted in a few months without any difficulty, with
little outlay and with only a formal litigation. I think, under the changed
circumstances, you ought to diminish the amount of your fee."

  "Your proposition, Mr. Lick," replied Felton, "reminds me of a story I once
heard about a countryman who had a bad toothache and went to a rustic dentist to
have the offender extracted. The dentist produced a rusty set of instruments,
seated the patient in a rickety chair and went at work. After some hours of hard
labor for himself, and the most extreme agony to the countryman, the tooth was
extracted and the dentist charged a dollar for his work. A few months later the
countryman had another attack of toothache and this time thought best to procure
a metropolitan dentist. He went to the city, found the best dentist in it and
offered his swollen jaw for operation. The expert dentist passed his hand
soothingly over the man's face, located the tooth with painless delicacy,
produced a splendid set of instruments, and before the countryman knew it, had
the tooth out. His charge was five dollars. 'Five dollars!' exclaimed the
countryman. 'When Jones, down at the village, pulled my last tooth it took three
hours, during which time he broke his chair, broke my jaw, broke his tools and
mopped the whole floor with me several times, and he charged me only a dollar.
You ought to diminish your bill.' " Lick saw the point, signed the authorization
and Felton got his money.

  In 1876 Lick had trouble with his trustees. One of the duties Lick wished
first performed was the erection of his family monument in Fredericksburg, Pa.
During the arrangement for this work the causes for the retirement of the second
board of trustees arose. One of the members of the board was John H. Lick.
Although James Lick had never been married, John H. was his son. He was born in
Pennsylvania in 1818, about the time James Lick made a hurried departure to New
York, thence to South America. Some years after Lick came to California he sent
for his son, then grown to manhood, and kept him for several years at work in
the mahogany mill. Here John H. remained until August, 1871, when he returned to
his Pennsylvania home. When James Lick made his first deed of trust he directed
the payment to his son of $3,000. With this pittance John H. was naturally
dissatisfied, and therefore in the second deed he was given the sum of $150,000
and made one of the trustees. To him, as trustee, was delegated the power to
contract for the Fredericksburg monument, but for some reason he failed or
refused to sign the contract. When this fact was made known to James Lick he
became very much incensed against his son, and in the weakness of old age he
included the whole board in his ill-humor and suddenly demanded the resignation
of the whole body. The trustees were acquiescent and a new board was appointed.
Captain Floyd, having been in Europe during this last trouble, was not included
in the old man's wrath, and therefore was made a member of the new board.

  James Lick died October 1, 1876, before the new board had fully organized. He
was eighty years of age. His body lay in state in Pioneer Hall, San Francisco,
and was followed by an immense concourse to Lone Mountain Cemetery, there to
rest until a more fitting burial place might be ready for its reception. Some
months before his death, in a conversation with the late B. D. Murphy of San
Jose, Lick, expressed the desire to be buried on Mt. Hamilton, either within or
at one side of the proposed observatory, after the manner of Sir Christopher
Wren, the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, who was buried in the crypt in 1723.

  Immediately after the death of his father, John H. Lick returned from the East
and secured letters of administration upon the estate. This was understood to be
the beginning of an attempt to annul the trust deed. After testing several
points in the courts, the trustees finally effected a compromise by which they
were to pay John H. Lick $535,000 in full of all claims against the estate. The
Society of Pioneers and the Academy of Science had been made residuary legatees
by the deed and their trustees insisted that this payment to John H. Lick should
be made pro rata from each of the bequests. After nearly a year of litigation
the courts decided that the special bequests could not be disturbed and that the
compromise money must come from the shares of the residuary legatees.

  As soon as possible after the completion of the road to the summit, work on
the buildings was commenced. Early in 1887 the work had progressed sufficiently
to permit the request of James Lick in regard to a burial place to be complied
with, and on the ninth of January the body was brought to San Jose, whence,
followed by a procession of officials and citizens, it was conveyed to the
mountain. A tomb had been prepared in the foundation of the pier which was to
support the great telescope, and in this, with imposing ceremonies, the coffin
was deposited. The following document, signed by the trustees and
representatives of the State University, Academy of Science, and Pioneers, and
the Mayor of San Jose, was sealed up with the casket:

  "This is the body of James Lick, who was born in Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania,
August 25, 1796, and who died in San Francisco, California. October 1, 1876.

  "It has been identified by us, and in our presence has been sealed up and
deposited in this foundation pier of the great equatorial telescope, this ninth
of January, 1887.

  "In the year 1875 he executed a deed of trust of his entire estate, by which
he provided for the comfort and culture of the citizens of California; for the
advancement of handcraft and redecraft among the youth of San Francisco and of
the state; for the development of scientific research and the diffusion of
knowledge among men, and for founding in the State of California an astronomical
observatory, to surpass all others existing in the world at this epoch.

  "This observatory has been erected by the trustees of his estate and has been
named The Lick Astronomical Department of the University of California in memory
of the founder. The refracting telescope is the largest which has ever been
constructed, and the astronomers who have tested it declare that its performance
surpasses that of all other telescopes.

  "The two disks, of glass for the objective were cast by M. Feil, of France,
and were brought to a true figure by Alvan Clark & Sons, of Massachusetts. Their
diameter is thirty-six inches and their focal length is fifty-six feet, two
inches. Upon the completion of this structure the Regents of the University of
California became the trustees of this Astronomical Observatory."

  The members of the third board of trustees were Richard S. Floyd, president;
William Sherman, vice-president; E. B. Mastick, treasurer; Charles M. Plum,
George Schoenwald.

  The contract for the great lens was made with Alvan Clark & Sons, of
Cambridge, Mass. In 1882 the flint glass was cast by M. Feil & Sons, of Paris,
but it was not until 1885 that a perfect crown glass could be obtained. The
Clarks succeeded in obtaining a true figure in 1886, and on the 27th of December
of that year the great glass reached Mt. Hamilton. The mounting of the
instrument and other details of construction occupied eighteen months more time,
and in June, 1888, the whole work was completed. The transfer of the observatory
from the trustees to the regents of the university took place on June 1, 1888,
being fourteen years from the date of James Lick's first deed. The total expense
of construction was $610,000. A balance of $90,000 remained as the nucleus of an
endowment fund. Profs. Simon Newcomb and Edward S. Holden were the scientific
advisers of the three boards. In 1885 Professor Holden was appointed president
of the University of California and director of the Lick Observatory on the
understanding that he would fill the former office until the completion of the
observatory and thereafter the latter office.

  The observatory consists of a main building containing offices, computing
rooms, library (of 8,000 books and 5,000 pamphlets), and the domes of the
thirty-six-inch equatorial and the twelve-inch equatorial telescopes; of
detached buildings to shelter the Crossley reflector, the meridian circle, and
other instruments, and to provide safe deposit rooms and photographic dark
rooms; of instrument shops; of dwelling houses; and of other buildings,
reservoirs, pumping stations, etc.

  The principal equipment provided by the Lick trustees consisted of: A 36-inch
equatorial refractor, objective by Alvan Clark & Sons, mounting by Warner &
Swasey. This instrument has also a photographic correcting lens of thirty-three
inches aperture, figured by Alvan G. Clark. By placing the latter lens in front
of the 36-inch objective, the telescope becomes a photographic instrument. A
12-inch equatorial refractor, objective and mounting by Alvan Clark & Sons. A 6
1/2 -inch meridian circle instrument, objective by Alvan Clark & Sons, mounting
by Repsold. Many smaller telescopes and other pieces of auxiliary apparatus.

  Other important instruments were presented to the Lick Observatory in later
years, as follows: A 36 1/4 -inch reflecting telescope, presented to the Lick
Observatory in 1895 by Edward Crossley, Esq., of Halifax, England. The mirror
was constructed by Sir Howard Grubb, and the mounting by Dr. A. A. Common. The
cost of a building to receive this instrument and the expense of transporting
the instrument and iron dome from England were met by subscriptions from
prominent citizens of California. A 6 1/2 -inch comet-seeker, objective by John
A. Brashear, the gift of Miss Catharine Bruce. A 6-inch photographic telescope,
with objective by Willard and mounting by John A. Brashear, all the gift of
Regent Charles F. Crocker. A 5-inch telescope, with interchangeable photographic
and visual objective, by Alvan Clark & Sons, the gift of Miss Floyd, daughter of
Captain Floyd. The Mills three-prism spectrograph, the gift of D. O. Mills.
Delicate seismographs, the gift of William Randolph Hearst.

  In order that the program of determining the radial velocities of the brighter
stars might be extended over the entire sky, D. O. Mills provided funds in the
year 1900 for a well-equipped expedition to the southern hemisphere. The
equipment included a 37 1/4 -inch Cassegrain reflecting telescope, with modern
dome; a three-prism spectrograph; a two-prism spectrograph; a one-prism
spectrograph; an instrument shop, and other accessories. The D. O. Mills
Observatory, administered by the Director of the Lick Observatory, is located on
the summit of Cerro San Cristobal, at an altitude of about 2900 feet above
sea-level, in the northeasterly suburbs of Santiago, Chile. This important
observatory was supported by Mills until his death in 1910, and the support has
been continued by his son, Ogden Mills.

  Many auxiliary instruments, such as spectrographs, seismographs, clocks,
chronographs, photometers, etc., have been purchased from time to time.

  The magnifying power of the great telescope may be changed from about 270 to
3,000 by changing the eye-pieces, in very much the same way that the magnifying
power of a microscope may be changed. The power employed depends upon the object
under observation and upon the state of the atmosphere.

  The height of the marble floor of the main building above mean sea-level is
4209 feet. On a closely connected peak half a mile to the east of the
observatory, and fifty feet higher, are the reservoirs from which water for
household and photographic purposes is distributed. Springs on the north and
south slopes of the mountain, about a mile east of the Observatory and about 350
feet and 630 feet, respectively, below it, supply excellent water. Another peak
seven-eighths of a mile to the east is the summit of. Mount Hamilton: it is 180
feet higher than the Observatory, and supports the reservoirs supplying power
for raising the movable floor in the dome of the great telescope. This system
receives its supply from the winter rains falling on the roofs, the water being
pumped to the reservoirs on the higher peak. The movable floor in the dome was
the first of the kind to be constructed. It is 60 feet in diameter, and can be
raised or lowered through a distance of 16 1/2 feet, its purpose being to bring
the observer within convenient reach of the eye end of the telescope.

  The Observatory is open to daytime visitors every day of the year, but
visitors are expected to leave the premises at or before sunset. The Observatory
is open every Saturday evening to visitors who arrive before 9 p. m.,
opportunity being afforded on clear nights to look through the 36-inch refractor
and the 12-inch refractor usually.

  Visitors who come in the daytime are usually conducted through the building
and have the uses of the instruments explained to them. On Saturday evenings the
scientific staff is on public duty. The annual number of visitors to the
Observatory exceeds five thousand. While the Observatory has no financial
interest in the coming of visitors, yet no pains are spared to make the time
spent here interesting and profitable to them. There are no hotel accommodations
at the summit.

  The average population of Mount Hamilton during the past five years has been
fifty. There is a public school on the mountain; the schoolhouse is the property
of the Observatory; the teacher is supplied by Santa Clara County.

  The directors of the Lick Observatory have been: Edward Singleton Holden, June
1, 1888, to December 31, 1897; James Edward Keeler, June 1, 1898 to August 12,
1900: William Wallace Campbell, January 1, 1901 to______. Other astronomers on
the staff have been: S. W. Burnham, 1888-1892: J. M. Schaeberle, 1888-1898: J.
E. Keeler, 1888-1891: E. E. Barnard. 1888-1895: W. W. Campbell, 1891-: Henry
Crew, 1891-1892: R. H. Tucker. 1893-: C. D. Perrine. 1893-1909: R. G. Aitken.
1895-: W. J. Hussey, 1896-1905; W. H. Wrigh,. 1897-; H. D. Curtis, 1902- The
list of assistant astronomers includes the names of A. L. Colton, J. H. Moore,
Sebastian Albrecht, R. E. Wilson, R. F. Sanford.

  Members of the staff have been detailed to take charge of the D. O. Mills
Observatory in Chile, as follows: W. H. Wright, 1903-1906; H. D. Curtis,
1906-1909; J. H. Moore, 1909-1913: R. E. Wilson, 1913-.

  The scientific staff has averaged: at Mount Hamilton, five astronomers, one
assistant astronomer and two assistants; and in Chile, on the D. O. Mills
foundation, one astronomer and two assistants.

  The Regents maintain three salaried University fellowships in the Lick
Observatory, which are open to well-prepared graduate students who have decided
to make astronomy or some of the closely related sciences the basis of
professional careers.

  The Martin Kellogg Fellowship in the Lick Observatory, endowed by Mrs. Louise
W. B. Kellogg, widow of President Martin Kellogg, provides opportunity to one
holder each year for advanced study and research under liberal conditions.

  The efficiency of the Lick Observatory has been greatly increased by generous
gifts of funds for special purposes from Regent Phoebe A. Hearst, Regent Charles
F. Crocker, Regent William H. Crocker, D. O. Mills, Ogden Mills, and others; and
by grants of funds from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the National
Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

  The investigational work of the Observatory has been exceedingly fruitful. The
great telescope has surpassed the expectations of those who planned it; and its
energetic use throughout the whole of every good night in the quarter century of
its existence has enriched astronomical science in unexpected ways.

  The leading discoveries that have been made embrace the following: Four
satellites of Jupiter; twenty-nine comets; about 4400 double star systems; 250
spectroscopic binary stars; a companion sun to the first magnitude star,
Procyon; spectrographic observations showing that the sun with its system of
planets is traveling through space, with reference to the general stellar
system, at a speed of about twelve miles an hour; that the velocity of the stars
increase with their effective ages; that the planetary nebulae are traveling
through space with average speeds even higher than the average speeds of the
stars; the North Pole Star found to be a triple star in 1899; an extensive
series of photographs of the minor planet, Eros, and surrounding stars, with the
Crossley Reflector, led to a new and accurate determination of the distance from
the earth to the sun.

  The following total solar eclipses have been successfully observed by
expeditions whose expenses were defrayed by the friends whose names are
recorded: 1889, January, in northern California, by the University of
California, 1889. December, in French Guiana, by Regent Charles F. Crocker.
1893, in Chile, by Regent Phoebe A. Hearst. 1898, in India, by Regent Charles F.
Crocker. 1900, in Georgia, by William H. Crocker. 1901, in Sumatra, by William
H. Crocker. 1905, in Spain and Egypt, by William H. Crocker. 1908, in Flint
Island, South Pacific Ocean, by Regent William H. Crocker.

  In the early days of Santa Clara County Mt. Hamilton was called La Sierra de
Santa Ysabel. The name Ysabel applies now to the creek that rises to the east of
Mt. Hamilton and that passes along its northern and western base and then makes
its way northward to the Bay of San Francisco. At the confluence with Smith
Creek, Ysabel Creek changes its name to Arroyo Honda and still further north
Arroyo Honda becomes Calaveras Creek. The valley through which Ysabel Creek
flows, lying east of Mt. Hamilton, is called Ysabel Valley. The mountain was
known as Santa Ysabel down to 1861 or 1862 when Rev. Leander Hamilton, an able
and eloquent Presbyterian preacher, climbed the mountain as a member of a
camping party. The striking beauty of the scenery inspired his ready pen and he
wrote a number of articles describing the mountain and its surroundings which
after publication were extensively quoted. The camping party, of which he had
been a member, out of compliment to him renamed the mountain Mt. Hamilton and it
soon became the popular name. Later, the United States Government surveyors put
down the official name as Mt. Hamilton and at once the name Ysabel became but a
memory.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
EUGENE T. SAWYER

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1922


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