San Mateo County Gazette News
April 30, 1859, Vol. 1 No. 4.
(Transcribed by Chris Havnar, December 2004)

REMOVAL - J. THORPE, of the San Bruno House, has removed from his old stand
near the Twelve Mile House, and has opened a new and commodious hotel at
the junction of the San Bruno and County roads.

HOME SUMMARY
Gen. James M. ESTELL, whose name is so widely known in connection with
our State prison affairs, died in San Francisco on the 26th.
Jos. White, a young man from Albany, N.Y., in a fit of insanity on
Monday last, three himself from the balcony of the City Hall in San
Francisco, and died soon after.
The San Francisco papers have been making a great blow about the
conviction of one Mary PFISTER, a pretty German woman, for larceny. It may
be right, but we think they need hardly be so severe on so faithful an old
Coon as the present Police Judge, on account of a single error.
In Stockton, on the 21st, Jacob ELYEA was sentenced to be hung on
the third of June, for the murder of McWADE.
By the arrival of the Salt Lake mail we learn that eleven men have
perished between Salt Lake and the South Pass, from cold.
Judge CRADLEBAUGH has left Provo, and the military have returned to
their old quarters.
The trial of Harry WAPPNER for the murder of Louis VOLMER in March
last, was concluded in the Fourth District Court on Wednesday last, and
resulted in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree.
Julius KORN, formerly of the German Journal, will next week commence
the publication of a daily German paper in San Francisco.
Wyatt BIRDSALL, the late engineer of the ferry-boat Contra Costa, was
arrested yesterday, on the charge of causing by carelessness, the death of
H.L. OSTRANDER and Joseph HOLSTER. He was admitted to bail in the sum of
$2500.

SHERIFF's SALE - By VIRTUE OF A DECREE of Foreclosure of Mortgage and Order
of Sale Issued out of the District Court of the Twelfth Judicial District,
County of San Mateo, State of California, in the action of Charles McC.
DELANY against Charles D. JUDAH and John K. HACKETT, assignee of Charles D.
JUDAH, an insolvent debtor, duly attested the 18th day of April, A.D. 1859.
I am commanded to sell the following described property, to wit:
All the estate, right, title, and interest, which the said
defendants, or either of them had on the 29th day of June, A.D. 1854, or at
any time thereafter, of, in, and to all the following described real
estate, to wit: All the undivided quarter or one-fourth interest of the
defendant, Charles D. JUDAH, of, in, and to that certain tract, piece, or
parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the County of San Francisco,
known as part of the Rancho de las Pulgas, and bounded and described as
follows, to wit: Commending at a point where the San Francisquito Creek
intersects the line of the fence known as the Middle Field fence, and
designed on the map or survey made by FROWSKYLOWSKI, and filed by the
parties hereto in the County Recorder's office of San Francisco, as point
No. 1, (one) in red ink, near which point of intersection is a stake, on
the north side of said San Francisquito Creek, bearing, from a live-oak
tree marked with two crosses, south, four degrees forty-three minutes
forty-three seconds; east, distant one chain and nine one-hundredths;
thence running along said Middle Field fence north fifty-eight degrees west
six chains to a point on said map or survey marked in red, No. 2, (two)
where commences the line of division between Hackett & Judah's Ranch and
Hackett & Wood's Rancho; thence running along said division line as
designated on said map or survey, south twenty-one degrees thirty-five
minutes east to the Bay of San Francisco and a stake, which stake is
designated as No. 12 (twelve) in said map or survey; thence along the line
of the Bay of San Francisco, to the mouth of the San Francisquito Creek,
through its channel and meanders, to the place of beginning; said tract
above described being estimated to contain one thousand eight hundred and
twenty three and seventy-six one-hundredths acres - save and excepting the
tract of one hundred acres of land belonging to James P. and E.P. FLINT,
being bounded on the south by the San Francisquito Creek, on the east by
the fence running from the Creek to the Bay and on the west and north by
lines running at right angles to said last mentioned boundaries.
Also all the undivided quarter or one-fourth interest of the said
defendant, Charles D. JUDAH, of, in and to all that certain tract, piece or
parcel of land situated lying and being the county of San Francisco known
as a part of the Rancho de las Pulgas, and bounded and described as
follows: to wit: Commencing at a point opposite land of Chase's on the
county road leading from San Francisco to the San Francisquito Creek, where
said road is intersected by the southerly bend of the Hotel Road, which
road is laid out in survey of Humphreys, county surveyor, numbered 15, 16
½, and filed in the County Recorder's office of County of San Francisco, by
the parties hereto, June 25, 1853, running thence northerly along said
Hotel Road and fence as now laid out on said survey, to the point where the
Rancho road as laid out on said survey intersects with said Hotel road, and
by courses and distances to said point of intersection, is as follows:
north sixteen degrees forty-five minutes west four chains fifty-nine links;
thence north five degrees west eight chains twenty-four links; thence north
forty-five minutes west seven chains; thence north eighteen degrees thirty
minutes west, four chains ninety-one link; thence north thirty degrees
forty-five minutes west; five chains fifty-one links to said point of
intersection between the said Hotel road and said Ranch road; thence in an
easterly direction along said Rancho road, as by said survey, to a point
where the line of the Middle Field road and fence intersects with said
Rancho road and by courses and distance to said point of intersection by
said survey is a follows: north sixty-four degrees fifteen minutes east
four chains sixty-seven links, north sixty-eight degrees forty-five minutes
east three chains sixty-seven links, north seventy-six degrees east two
chains forty-five links, north eighty-two degrees thirty minutes east, five
chains twenty-nine links, north seventy-nine degrees forty-five minutes
east, six chains seven links, north eighty-three degrees thirty minutes
east seven chains, eighty-five links; north seventy-seven degrees
forty-five minutes east; eight chains forty-five links, north seventy-nine
degrees forty-five minutes east three chains ninety-four links, north
eighty-three degrees fifteen minutes east five chains twenty-seven links,
to said point of intersection of the Rancho road with said Middle Field
road; thence easterly along said Middle Field road and fence as laid out in
said survey, and by courses and distances south fifty-eight degrees fifteen
minutes west thirty-two chains seventy-seven links, to the line of division
of the county road land between HACKETT & JUDAH's and Rufus ROWE's, which
line is marked on said survey as division line A; thence in a straight line
to the county road by courses and distances south thirty-one degrees thirty
minutes west forty-nine chains and ninety-two links to the county road;
thence along the said county road to the place of beginning, by course and
distance north fifty-eight degrees thirty minutes west sixty chains
ninety-seven links. Said tract estimated to contain two hundred and ninety
forty-five one-hundredths acres, be the same more or less, which said tract
of land is colored on said survey in red or pink.

Also, all the undivided quarter interest of the said defendant,
Charles D. JUDAH, of, in and to the Pulgus Wharf, situated on the
above-mentioned property, and with all rights, privileges and benefits
heretofore made and granted by the Legislature of the State of California
to the party of the first part and John K. HACKETT, by an act passed March
31, 1854, together with all and singular the tenements, hereditaments and
appurtenances thereunto belonging or in anywise appertaining, and the
reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders, rents, issues and
profits thereof.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that on THURSDAY, the 12th day of MAY, A.D.
1859, at 12 o'clock, noon, in front of the Court House doors, Redwood City,
San Mateo county, I will see said property at Public Auction to the highest
bidder for cash, pursuant to said order.
JOHN W. ACKERSON
Sheriff San Mateo County

BIG BARN. - Messrs. SHAW & KENDALL are now erecting on the ranch of Horace
HAWES, Esq., the largest building in the county, being a barn fifty feet
wide and one hundred and fifty-two feet long. It is designed chiefly as a
storehouse for hay, but is being well framed, and will remain for a
permanent institution.

BRICK YARD. - On the completion of the courthouse, last Fall, the
brick-yard, opened by the contractor upon that building, and the only
brick-yard in the county, was abandoned. But we are pleased to learn that
another one has been opened on the farm of T.G. PHELPS, Esq., where our
townsman, W.C.R. SMITH is making arrangement to turn out brick in any
required number. This fact alone is significant of another - that
considerable improvement in this vicinity must be in contemplation to
justify the undertaking of such an enterprise. Indeed, we learn that many
thousand brick are already contracted for, to be used here and at Belmont.

CHANGE OF STATIONS. _ Stables are being built at THORPE's new Fifteen Mile
House, for the U.S. Mail stages, which will be the first station out of the
city, when they drive over the new road. The next station will be at this
place, where the Company are about to build stables for their use.

ON THE STOCKS - The sloop Sarah Ann, of San Francisco, has been for some
days on the stocks at McLeod's ship-yard, in this place undergoing repairs.

SPEEDY CONVEYANCE. - The Overland Mail, which arrived in San Francisco on
the 12th, brought letters to merchants in that city, from Boston,
postmarked "March 18." This is the most speedy mail overland conveyance we
have yet had, being only twenty-five days on the journey.

LAND SLIDE AT MONTE CRISTO
The following is taken from an extra of the Sierra (Downieville) Democrate,
dated April 19th:
On Monday evening at about sundown, the inhabitants of Monte Cristo
were started by a rumbling noise like that of an earthquake; the earth had
parted, and a large mass, about twenty five feet in width, and of great
bulk was precipitated down the mountain side, a distance of about four
hundred feet, carrying away three dwelling houses. There was great
consternation among the inhabitants in that part of the town. It was soon
ascertained that four persons were missing, Mrs. Howe __________ of her
children, one _______________ the other a little girl between two and three
years of age, and also the little some of Mrs. P. WRIGHT, aged four years.
The city turned out immediately after the accident in search of the
missing, and recovered the dead bodied of Mrs. WRIGHT's boy and that of
Mrs. HOWE's infant. That night about nine o'clock, there was another
avalanche, which compelled those in the neighborhood to flee from the
threatened danger.

Early this morning the search was resumed, when Mrs. HOWE's body was
found, having a large beam resting upon the neck. She must have been
killed almost instantly. The body of Mrs. HOWE's little girl was not found
up to the time our informant left; another child of Mrs. HOWE, a bright
girl of about seven years, was carried on the top of the avalanche, and was
saved, though considerably bruised and scratched.

Mr. HOWE (husband of the lady above mentioned) was saved by one of
those mere chances which are of such frequent occurrence in events of such
a nature. He had but a moment or two been out of the house where Mrs. HOWE
and the children were, and was talking with a man about the probable danger
of a landslide, when the crash came. Three miners, living in a cabin next
to the house of Mr. HOWE, had just finished supper and left their cabin
when it was crushed to atoms, and they had barely time to flee from
impending death. Parties living in that part of the town had been warned
of the danger of remaining.

POISONED. - A Frenchman, whose name we have been unable to learn, residing
with several others at the landing, on the San Francisquito creek, died
suddenly on Monday morning last, evidently from the effects of poison. As
we have heard the story, he arose early in the morning with a view of going
away to work before the others about the house were up. Having partook of
some coffee, which he had prepared, he was seized with convulsions, and
shortly after died. An investigation was made by the people of the house,
which resulted in the conclusion on their part that a cask of water which
was always kept near the door, outside the house, and from which the water
for the coffee was taken, had been poisoned with strychnine. Whether this
conclusion is correct, we are unable to say. The affair is shrouded in
mystery. Some parties are suspected of having intentionally poisoned the
water, but we understand none have yet been arrested.