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The following contemporary account of the little schoolhouse in Portsmouth Plaza was written by Charles P. Kimball in 1853 for
the San Francisco Directory:
In April 1847, the number of inhabitants exclusive of Indians, was 375. Eight months afterwards, when a census was
taken by the Board of School Trustees, the number exceeded 800. Of these there were adult males, 473; adult females,
177; children of age proper to attend school, 60. This increase of more than an hundred per cent, in eight months,
took place some months before the discovery of gold, and when California was sought merely for agricultural and
commercial purposes.
As early as January 1847, a complaint was published in the California Star that there was no school for children,
the writer stating that he had counted forty children playing in the street. A public meeting was then called, to
adopt measures to found a school. But the project failed. Some months later it was revived, with better success. A
school house was built, and completed by the 1st of December. On the 21st of February, 1847, an election was held
for School Trustees, and the following gentlemen were chosen: Dr. F. Fouregard, C. L. Ross, Esq., Dr. J. Townsend,
J. Serrine, Esq., and W. H. Davies, Esq. The Town Council passed a resolution that "not exceeding four hundred dollars
be appropriated to the payment of the teacher of the public school of this place; two hundred to be paid at the
expiration of the first six months, and two hundred at the expiration of twelve months from the commencement of
the school." That was the day of small things. Gold was a scarce article in California, except as a hidden treasure.
But the enterprise and energy of the American people were nevertheless directing themselves in a channel which would
have made the country great and prosperous, even if there had not been a grain of the precious metal hidden in her
soil. The first American school in California was duly opened on Monday, the 3d day of April, 1848. As this was a
movement of great moment to the infant settlement, it is believed that the announcement of the school, as made by
the Trustees in the columns of the "California Star" will interest the reader sufficiently to warrant its introduction
in this sketch. It was in the following form:
SCHOOL.—The school to be kept in the public school house of San Francisco will commence on Monday, the third of
April next, under the superintendence of Mr. Thomas Douglass, a graduate of Yale College, Connecticut.
Mr. D. has had more than ten years’ experience in the instruction of academies and high schools in the States
and has in his possession testimonials from the Trustees of those institutions which speak of him as a skillful and
successful teacher, and as well qualified for the business of his profession. The undersigned Trustees, therefore,
cheerfully recommend his school to the patronage of the citizens of this town and vicinity, confident that he will
do all in his power to impart a thorough education to pupils committed to his care.
The terms of tuition will be as follows: —For instruction in Reading, Writing, Spelling and Defining, and
Geography, $5.00 per quarter. In the above branches, with the addition of Mental and Practical Arithmetic, English,
Grammar and English Composition, $6.00 per quarter. In any of all of the above, together with Mental and Moral Science,
Ancient and Modern History, Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, $8.00 per quarter. In any or all of the above branches,
together with Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, Astronomy, Surveying and Navigation, $10.00 per quarter. In any of the
above, together with the Latin and Greek languages, $12.00.
The great importance of this undertaking required that the teacher should have an adequate compensation. To meet
the case, the Town Council adopted and published the following resolution:
"Resolved, That not exceeding four hundred dollars be appropriated to the payment of the teacher of the public
school in this place. Two hundred to be paid at the expiration of six months, and two hundred at the expiration of
twelve months from the commencement of the school."
In the appointment of this salary there was a degree of economy, and in the mode of disbursement a degree of
caution, which we might look for in vain in the subsequent golden age of California. The conclusion is evident,
however incredible to the generation of gold seekers who soon followed, that the early settlers of San Francisco
had some other designs in view than the rapid accumulation of wealth.
This first American school on the Pacific coast south of Oregon, though founded apparently on a basis so safe
and economical, had a short lived existence. In less than a year the gold excitement was to sweep over the country
like a whirlwind, and for a season to crush everything like intellectual and moral culture, substituting the one
all-absorbing passion for the accumulation of wealth.
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