Ten Years Ago.
Original article:
Daily Alta California, 22 March 1857 — Daily Alta California FRED'K
MacCRELLISH & CO. SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 1857. [ARTICLE]
Ten years ago, on just such a bright, beautiful Sabbath morning as this is, we took an early breakfast in one of the dilapidated rooms in the old barracks at the Presidio, and started with a dear friend, for a morning walk, to the then little village of Yerba Buena, the now flourishing city of San Francisco. Then the fields along the roadside were green with the springing grass, which the later rains had freshened, and the golden-headed California poppy and the modest little strawberry flower, dotted them with yellow and with white. From out the thickets which skirted the roadside, a scared rabbit now and then ran across the pathway, and timidly hid in the bushes on the other side. For the whole distance from the Presidio to where now is about the corner of Union and Powell streets, there was not a single house, the first one we reached on our journey to the village, being the little adobe establishment of Dona Juana Briones, which still stands as a relic of the early days of Yerba Buena. [map - MF] The laguna lay lonely and still by the pathway, and on its surface ducks were paddling, fearless of gun or pistol. No squatters' had fenced in the hills - no gardens were planted in the valleys, and but few of the signs of 'civilization' greeted our eyes and ears during the delightful, refreshing, invigorating walk of three miles on that beautiful, sunny Sabbath morning.
