| 1840-1879 |
| 1842 |
Theodore
Cordua leases part of Sutter's land grant
(near present day Marysville) and establishes
the New Mecklenburg Ranch. Like Sutter's
Fort, the settlement is built using labor
from the local Native American population.
|
| 1843 |
Heavy rains ruin the
crops at Sutter's Fort. |
| 1844 |
Drought ruins the crops
at Sutter's Fort. |
| 1845 |
Sutter's crops fail
from neglect while he is off fighting in
one of Alta California's Civil Wars. |
| 1846
|
April: The Donner Party
departs for California. |
| June 14: The Bear Flag
Revolt. A group of American settlers raise
the Bear Flag at Sonoma and declare California
to be independent of Mexico. |
| Sutter's crops fail
from neglect while he is fighting in the
Bear Flag revolt. |
| The U.S. Navy occupies
Monterey and claims California for the United
States. |
| July: The American flag
is raised at Sutter's Fort and John Augustus
Sutter lays out the town of Sutterville.
It is quickly eclipsed by Sacramento with
the advent of the Gold Rush. |
| October: The Donner
Party trapped at Donner Lake. |
| 1847
|
Sutter's first census
report of the Sacramento area reports a
population of 22,657. |
| February-April: Relief
parties from Sutter's Fort rescue the Donner
Party's survivors. |
| December 22: Sutter
receives 2,000 fruit trees, which start
the Sacramento Valley's agriculture industry.
(Can anybody verify what type of trees?).
|
| 1848
|
January: James W. Marshall
discovers gold at Coloma while building
a sawmill for Sutter. |
| February 2: The Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo transfers what is now
California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona,
and parts of Wyoming and Colorado from Mexico
to the United States. |
| Sutter's Fort holds
the valley's first elections. |
| Darius Ogden Mills,
later the first president of The Bank
of California, founds the D. O. Mills
Bank in Sacramento. |
| December: Captain
William H. Warner, aided by future Civil
War General William Tecumseh Sherman,
surveys and lays out Sacramento's street
grid. The city's first buildings are erected
near the embarcadero of the Sacramento
River. |
| 1849
|
Miners, entrepreneurs
and developers pour into Sacramento as
the start of the Gold Rush begins. Some
of these newcomers squat on Sutter Fort
and steal his livestock. Sutter will eventually
be forced from his land and die bankrupt
as a result of the Gold Rush. |
| C. T. H. Palmer establishes
Sacramento's first school at the corner
of Third and I Streets. The school closes
a month later due to low enrollment. |
| April 28: The
Placer Times, Sacramento's first
newspaper, rolls off the press at Sutter's
Fort |
| California votes
to be a free rather than slave state during
its constitutional convention. |
| Sacramento city
government begins with the adoption of
the second City Charter. |
| June or July: The steamer
Sacramento (part of Sutter's Fort
Ross purchase) begins its run on the Sacramento
River. |
| August 17: The first
river steamboat in California, George
Washington, begins regular service
between Sacramento and San Francisco.
|
| October 18: California's
first theater, the Eagle Theatre, opens
on Front Street. The great flood of 1850
destroys it less than four months later. |
| The Sacramento City
Cemetery opens at Tenth and Broadway. |
| The sailing vessel
Whiton operates as Sacramento's first
post office. |
| December 22: The
California State Library opens. |
| 1850
|
Gold Rush newcomers
are unhappy about Sutter's land titles and
the result are the "Squatter's Riots.
" The climax of these riots is a gun
fight at the corner of 4th and J Streets
in Sacramento. Victims of these riots include
both the city's sheriff and mayor. |
| January 8: Sacramento's
first major flood inundates the waterfront.
Townspeople erect a temporary settlement
on higher ground near present day CSUS.
Fundraising begins for building levees
on the Sacramento and American Rivers. |
| Sutter boards his livestock
at Bidwell's Hock Farm on the west bank
of the Feather River. He later settles there
with his family after being forced out of
Sutter's Fort by squatters. |
| The California State
Legislature grants an official charter
to Sacramento City and County. |
| May: First term
of Sacramento County Court of Sessions. |
| September 9: California
becomes the 31st state in the Union. |
| December: Another
serious flood destroys most of the city.
Community leaders begin discussing building
levees to prevent future floods. |
| 1851
|
Taking advantage of
Sacramento's proximity to the American and
Sacramento Rivers, George Cooper opens the
city's first fish packing business. |
| Building of the
first County Courthouse at 7th and I Streets.
The State Legislature hold its 1852, 1854,
and 1855-1869 sessions in this building. |
| March 19: The
Sacramento Union publishes its first
edition. |
| 1852
|
Formation of the California
State Agricultural Society to "display
the state's diverse crops and varieties
of livestock." |
| Mohr & Yoerk Packing
Co. operates a pork packing and butcher shop
at 316 J Street. |
| The Sitka Ice Company
opens on 3rd Street between I and J to bring
ice to Sacramento for the first time. The
ice is brought by steamship from Alaska
to San Francisco and then Sacramento. |
| Over 90,000 head of
sheep and cattle are on the trail to California
from the midwestern states. |
| Col. Colonel James
Lloyd Lafayette Franklin Warren receives
a shipment of Sacramento's first camellia
flowers. |
| Fire destroys more
than 85% of the city, which is rebuilt
with brick rather than wood. |
| June 13: Wells Fargo
& Company opens for business in Sacramento,
on 2nd Street between J and K Streets. |
| August 16: The Sacramento
Valley Rail Road incorporates. |
| September: Warren
funds and hold California's first agricultural
fair at his New England Seed Store (located
at 111 J Street). This event is the beginning
of the California State Fair. |
| 1853
|
Warren introduces the
camellia in his store catalog as the official
flower of Sacramento, "'ere long it
will be acclimated with as to our pride
as an ornamental tree in our gardens." |
| Farmers begin planting
more wheat and looking into flour production
as California experiences a shortage. The
state becomes self-sufficient for wheat
and flour production by 1854. |
| 1854
|
Founding of the
California Stage Company. |
| Sacramento becomes
California's permanent state capital. |
| Sacramento's first
public water supply becomes available
from the construction of the City Hall
and Water Works Building (now the site
of the Discovery Museum in Old Sacramento). |
| February 20: Opening
of the city's first segregated schools. |
| March 1: Organization
of the California Steam Navigation
Company to provide steamer service
to San Francisco, Stockton, Marysville
and Red Bluff. |
| May 14: As Californians
begin to realize that its future lay more
in agriculture than in mining, the State
Legislature creates the California
State Agricultural Society. Its founding
members include Warren and part of its
mission is to hold an annual agricultural
fair (now the California State Fair).
|
| Warren funds and organizes
the first California State Fair in San Francisco.
|
| 1855
|
The California Supreme
Court meets in Sacramento. |
| Collis Potter Huntington
and Mark Hopkins open a hardware store
at 54 K Street. |
| Theodore Dehone Judah
published his proposal for building the
Transcontinental Railroad, A Practical
Plan for Building the Pacific Railroad.
|
| August 17: The first
passenger railroad in the West, the Sacramento
Valley Railroad, makes a trial run from
Sacramento to Folsom. |
| 1856
|
The first foreign
language newspaper in Sacramento, The
Chinese News, begins publication. |
| February 22: Ceremony
to mark the opening of the Sacramento
Valley Rail Road. |
| Sacramento's tax
rolls and city directory report a variety
of agriculture related businesses, including
the following: six steam flour mill, a
salmon fishery, and 47,305 acres being
farmed. |
| 1857 |
February 3: The Daily Bee,
later the Sacramento Bee, publishes
its first issue. |
| 1858
|
Production of grapes, especially for wine
making, is widespread in the Sacramento
Valley. Sutter produces over 400 gallons
from his crop at the Hock Farm. |
| June 1: Groundbreaking
of the California Central Railroad which
by October 13, 1861 connected Lincoln
to the Sacramento Valley Railroad at Folsom
Junction. |
| August 26: W.P. Miller
holds a demonstration in Marysville of his
steam driven traction engine, one of the
first attempts to use mechanical rather
than animal power for agricultural equipment.
|
| 1859 |
The Agricultural Society
builds California's first Agriculture Hall |
| 1860
|
Sacramento County leads
the state in production of produce including
apples, peaches, plums, lemons, almonds,
walnuts, and raspberries. |
| April: The Sacramento
Library Debating Club meets to discuss the
question "Resolved, that the agricultural
interests of California are of more importance
to the state than the mining interest." |
| April 4 : The Pony
Express begins service between Sacramento
to St. Joseph, Missouri and completes
its first run in under ten days. |
| 1861
|
September 18: Service
begins for the Sacramento Pioneers Railroad
Company's horse-drawn streetcars. |
| October 24: The
first transcontinental telegraph message
is transmitted to the Pioneer Telegraph
Building at 1015 Second Street. The Pony
Express stops operations two days later. |
| Construction begins
on the State Capitol. |
| June 28: Charles
Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis Potter Huntington,
and Leland Stanford (aka "The Big
Four") incorporate the Central Pacific
Railroad. |
California legislature
selects Sacramento as the permanent location
for the California State Fair.
|
| 1862
|
The worst flood
since Sacramento's founding prompts residents
to raise the downtown area up to fifteen
feet between 1862-1869. The tunnels under
present-day Sacramento are remainders
of the original downtown buildings and
streets. |
| Inauguration of
the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad
which connected Auburn to Folsom. |
| July 1: Abraham
Lincoln signs the Pacific Railway Act. |
| 1863
|
January 8: Construction
of the Central Pacific Railroad begins
with a groundbreaking ceremony at Front
and K Streets. |
| October 26: Laying
of the first rail for the Central Pacific
Railroad. |
| November 10: Central
Pacific's first locomotive, No. 1
Governor Stanford, is placed into
service. |
| 1864 |
June 10: Trains running on the Central
Pacific Railroad from Sacramento to Newcastle.
|
| 1865 |
The Civil War ends and John Wilkes
Booth assassinates President Lincoln. |
| 1866 |
Mark Twain visits Sacramento and agrees
to write a series on Hawaii for the
Sacramento Union. |
| 1868 |
The American River is re-channeled
to prevent flooding. |
| 1869
|
May 10: The Central Pacific and Union
Pacific Railroads meet at Promontory Point,
Utah, completing the Transcontinental
Railroad. |
| May 13: The Central
Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads inaugurate
regular service between Omaha and Sacramento. |
| May: The Wakamatsu Group,
the first Japanese immigrants to the Sacramento
Valley, arrives in Gold Hill to begin an
agricultural colony. |
| September 6: Western
Pacific Railroad completed from Sacramento
via Stockton to San Jose. |
| December: The California
State Legislature holds its first session
in the new Capitol building. |
| 1870 |
Central Pacific Railroad builds an ice-cooled
freight car at its Sacramento Shops to ship
California-grown fruit across country |
| 1872 |
Sacramento creates its
first professional fire department after
twenty years of service by the all-volunteer
Mutual Hook and Ladder Company No.1. |
| 1874
|
Construction of the California
State Capitol completed. |
| March
31: The first train shipment of produce
and salmon from Sacramento arrives on
the East Coast. |
| 1879
|
The Constitutional Convention
adopts a new state constitution. |
| Beginning
of free postal delivery in Sacramento. |
| June 14:
Sacramento Public Library reopens as the
city's first "free" library after operating
for 6 year as a subscription library. |
