Rediscovering the Peninsula: Law and order in the 1840s and ’50s

The treasury was empty. The main means of obtaining money by the council was by selling lots along the waterfront and around the town. Another means that was very lucrative was charging license fees for gambling. The city finally got the brig Euphemia, anchored at the intersection of Battery and Jackson streets for use as a jail since the calaboose in Portsmouth Square was inadequate.

Throughout the winter of 1848-49, a particular group of hoodlums that became named “the Hounds” rampaged the ethnic groups in the city by looting, murdering, setting fires, pulling down tents, beating occupants and keeping the city in turmoil. They formed semi-military companies “law and order group” and established a tent headquarters near Portsmouth Square. In July 1849, they raided “Spanish Town” and one of their men was killed. This set off the Hounds and they shot occupants of the colony and destroyed the entire camp. The next day, when the citizens heard of the destruction and acts of the Hounds, they formed a group of volunteers, about 250 men, and gave them arms, organized them into groups and ordered them to round up those responsible for these acts. Twenty were arrested and placed on a warship in the Bay. A judge and jury were set up by the citizens and, although it was not officially sanctioned, it kept to the rules and appointed a grand jury to hear the evidence. The men were found guilty of rioting, conspiracy, robbery and assault with intent to kill and given sentences accordingly. However, the men were released because the court had no means of carrying out the sentence. Although it seems like it was a failure to obtain justice, the group exhibited the power of the citizens to obtain justice if enough effort was exerted.

This episode did not stop the Hounds and, before long, another gang became active, called The Sydney Ducks. They congregated at the bottom of Telegraph Hill at what was called Sydney Town (This area later became known as the Barbary Coast). Again they operated at will on poor citizens in the same manner as the Hounds, robbing, beating, burning, etc., and the citizens were slow to act to reform this activity until February 1851 when a merchant was brutally beaten. Two men were arrested and the judge almost immediately let him be released. Outraged citizens immediately rearrested the men after pleading to the judge to retry them. He did not rearrest them so the committee did. Unfortunately, after a trial by the citizens, he was released due to lack of evidence.

This event led to the first organization of a Vigilance Committee in June 1851. The first act by this group was prompted by the robbery by John Jenkins on June 10, 1851. He was captured and hung over a beam at the Custom House. On July 11, James Stuart was found guilty of murder and he was hanged by the members of the committee. At the same time, the committee was turning “undesirables” away from San Francisco and banishing hundreds from the city because of their character and acts of crime. The final act of the Vigilance Committee was to hang two burglars, Samual Whittaker and Robert McKenzie, for their crime. The committee never met again and drifted in obscurity (for a while).

Full-scale corruption and graft by politicians and others in city government egged citizens to act and rejuvenate the committee in 1854 when James King of William, owner of the newspaper, Evening Bulletin, was shot by James P. Casey. The committee reorganized their men and again threw out of the city numerous hooligans making San Francisco a better place to live at least for a while.

Rediscovering the Peninsula runs every weekend. It is compiled through our archives created by Jim Clifford and the late Darold Fredricks.