Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

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1884 - Outline of Matter and Advance Sheets of the Report on the Problems of Irrigation , Wm. Ham. Hall

The 304 page outline and advance sheets for the 1884 Report on Irrigation was submitted to the California Legislature as an exhibit of the extent and character of the report that was in the process of preparation and publication. The first 32 pages contain the Table of Contents or Outline of Matter, for each chapter of the entire work. The subsequent 272 pages contained the text of about three-fifths of the First Book. Hall planned to his work to consist of three parts making up seven books: Part I. The Social, Political and Legal Problems of Irrigation (Books I & II); Part II. The Physical, Practical, and Technical Problems of Irrigation (Books II, IV & V); and Part III. The Planning, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Irrigation Works (Books VI & VII).
1884 – Outline of Matter and Advance Sheets on the Report on the Legislative, Administrative, Technical and Practical Problems of Irrigation, William Ham. Hall

Prepared by William Ham. Hall, this publication was an exhibit transmitted to the California State Legislature concerning the extent and character of the Report on the Problems of Irrigation then in the course of preparation and publication by the State Engineer. While the first 32 pages of this book contain a Table of Contents or Outline of Matter for each chapter of the entire work, from which a fair idea could be formed of its scope, system of arrangement, and degree of completeness. The remaining 272 pages contain the text of about three-fifths of the First Book of the work -- namely, the papers on the Irrigation Legislation and Administration of the Romans, French, and Italians. This preparatory notice outlined the seven works with the necessary appendices would address: The Social, Political, and Legal Problems of Irrigation; the Physical, Practical, and Technical Problems of Irrigation; and the Planning, Construction, Operation, and Maintenance of Irrigation Works. The book goes on to address the matter of water supply and irrigable lands in California
1884 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1883

1884 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1883, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1885 - History of California, Volume 1 Theodore Henry Hittell

Volume I details the discovery of California, Coretes' expedition to California, including the voyage and discoveries of Francisco de Ulloa, expedition of Coronado to Cibola and Quivira, discovery of Alta California by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Philippines trade, Francis Drake, New Albion, Thomas Cavendish, Woodes Rogers, Privateersman Captain George Shelvocke, governors of California; Mexican independence from Spain, Northwest-Coast fur trade, overland expeditions and explorations to the West, Indian religion and superstitions.
1885 - History of California, Volume 2, Theodore Henry Hittell

Hittell devotes the first portion of Volume 2 to the Mexican Governors of California including Pablo Vicente de Sola, Luis Antonio Arguello, Jose Maria de Echeandia, Manuel Victoria, Pio Pico, Jose Figueroa, Mariano Chico, Nicolas Gutierrez. Juan Bautista Alvarado, Jose Manuel Micheltorena, Hittell also describes the people and circumstances leading up to the war between the United States and Mexico: John C. Fremont, Bear Flag Revolution, Texas Revolution, and Florida Treaty. The final portion of Hittell's book addressed the social and cultural aspects of life in Alta California, missionaries, physical geography, geology, botany and zoology of Alta California, Americans in Alta California, Commodore Sloat, Eugene McNamara, Robert F. Stockton, Stephen W. Kearny, Richard B. Mason, gold discovery, Bennet Riley, land titles, September 1, 1849 California Constitutional Convention, organization of the State of California, first State of California Legislature, and admission of California into the Union,
1885 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1884

1885 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1884, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1886 - Physical Data and Statistics of California

A reporting of water supply and related data collected in accordance with the law of 1878, creating the office of and defining the duties of the State Engineer, and upon which to base reports on the problems of irrigation and arterial drainage in California.
1886 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1885

1886 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1885, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1886 - The Irrigation Question, Memorandum Transmitted to the Legislature of California, Wm. Ham. Hall

The 1886 abstract prepared by William H. Hall of a report he would write on the question of irrigation in California. Hall notes the lack of useful irrigation laws, the detriment, noting that English law of riparian rights should not become a rule of property in California. Hall discusses the need for irrigation in California to be a necessary common or public use of waters that would be founded upon public control of water supplies and this must rest on public ownership of streams.
1887 - The Present Condition of the Mission Indians of California, Charles C. Painter

The need of the direct observation of facts in the Indian country, and of assistance and redress for Indians in cases of flagrant wrong and encroachment, increases every year. The Indian Rights Association co-operated with the government in all measures and efforts tending to the advancement of the Indians toward self-support. The Association favored the immediate adoption of a system for the education of all Indian children; the extension of law over the reservations, for the protection of the rights of both Indians and white men; the allotment of lands to individual Indians, and the breaking up of the tribal organization, which it considered to be the real citadel of savagery. Painter discussed a number of cases pending before various courts pertaining to the California Mission Indians.
1888 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1887

1888 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1887, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1889 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1888

1889 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1888, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1889 - Sixty Years in California, William Heath Davis

The author, who arrived in Alta California in 1831, wrote about his extended experience as it related to the manners and customs of the people, their methods of trade, of social and political history of the Mexican government and of its successor, the Territory and then State of California, The book covers 60 years of history of events and life in California; the personal, political and military, under the Mexican Regime, during the quasi-military government of the Territory by the United States, and after the Admission of California into the Union. While the 63 chapters cover a broad and detailed history of California, the author intersperses factual information with personal observations. Davis included some statistics concerning livestock and produce of the ranchos and missions.
1891 - Life in California During a Residence of Several Years in that Territory, Alfred Robinson

The personal observations of Alfred Robinson of the Spanish rule and more detailed descriptions under Mexican rule of Alta California were originally published in 1846. The 1891 updated version Included is an appendix that describing the events that transpired after the period when California was an independent government, thought not yet recognized as such by Mexico. He also included an addition at the end of his book entitled, Reminisces of 1829.
1892 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1891

1892 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1891, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1893 - History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892, Winfield J. Davis

The manuscript and copyright of this 1893 book written by Winfred J. Davis was purchased by the California State Library with the proviso that the Library publish the book thereby ensuring that it was preserved and made accessible. The document details the history of the California Political Conventions between 1849 and 1892 covering, but not limited to, the conventions held by the Democrats, Whigs, No-Nothing Party, Republicans, settlers and miners, Temperance, Douglas Democrats, and Breckenridge Democrats.
1893 - Resources of California, H. H. Markham

This 1893 publication that highlights the resources of the State of California was prepared in response to State legislation requiring that the report be prepared for distribution at the World's Columbian Exposition. It includes a description of each county, including area, population, chief industry, climate and soils, that would assist the intending settler "in forming his judgment as to which part of the State offered immediate advantages in the pursuit of the vocation he chose to follow."
1897 - History of California, Volume 3, Theodore Henry Hittell

Hittell dedicated the first portion of Volume 3 to early mining times in California including Pioneer mines, miners and mining appliances, Northern California mines, Southern California mines, gold distribution and gold rushes, struggles for organization and order, evolution of mining laws, and the lynch-law in the mines. Hittell wrote at considerable length about the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1851 and 1856, progress made in San Francisco, city debts, land sales, bank failures of 1855, growth of the State of California, People's Party reform, squatters, Land Commission Act, Joaquin Murieta and his banditti, Californian Filibusters, discovery of Humboldt Bay, Yosemite, argricultural and horticultural advances, treatment of Indians, and finally the Modoc War.
1898 - Brief History of California, Book I, Theodore Henry Hittell

To further minimize time and effort on the part of teachers, and at the same time to give pupils an opportunity of acquiring for themselves directly some knowledge of the history of the State, Hittel's "Brief History of California, Book I," dealing with the discovery and early voyages to California, was designed as a textbook for instruction in the history of the State and for supplementary reading for grammar grade students (6th through 8th) .
1898 - History of California, Volume 4, Theodore Henry Hittell

Author Hittell wrote about the lives and times during the tenures of the California governors during the second half of the eighteen hundreds including: Peter H. Burnett; John McDougal; John Bigler; John Neely Johnson; John B.. Weller; Milton S. Latham; John G. Downey; Leland Stanford; Frederick F. Low; Henry Huntly Haight; Newton Booth; Romualdo Pacheco; William Irwin; George Clement Perkins; George Stoneman; Washington Bartlett; Robert W. Waterman; Henry Markham; and James Budd. Hittell also wrote about the Pacific Railroads and Second Constitutional Convention. The book also contains an index (141 pages) that includes the contents of Volumes 1-4 of the History of California.
1899 - List of Printed Maps, Map Department, California State Library

A finding list of printed maps that were found in the Map Department of the California State Library as of November 1899.
1901 - Report of Irrigation Investigations in California

The 1901 Report of the Irrigation Investigations in California under the auspices of Elwood Mead, Expert in Charge was premised on the growing value and increasing scarcity of water creating, in turn, the need for better laws to control the distribution of streams in California. In order to promote the more rapid and successful development of the State's resources, the general conclusions of those taking part in the investigations indicated the need for and nature of the reforms required to put agriculture under irrigation on a ore enduring and satisfactory basis.
1901 - Report of the California State Agricultural Society for 1900

1901 report on various subjects pertaining to the California State Agricultural Society in 1900, copies of some of the bulletins issued by the Society during the year, and a review of the physical conditions and characteristics of most of the counties of the State, with statistics showing the farm acreage, the assessable wealth, and industrial resources for those counties.
1901 - Soil Survey of the Lower Salinas Valley California, Macy H. Lapham and W. H. Heileman

Prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, this report addresses the conditions found in the Lower Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California in 1901, including the development of agriculture, climate, geology, soil types, cultivation, irrigation. groundwater, and alkali found in the soil.
1901 - The Transition Period of California from a Province of Mexico in 1846 to a State of the American Union in 1850

A detailed description of events that transpired from 1846 when to 1850 when California became a state of the United States of America. The author gives a brief account of peoples already living in California and events preceding the war with Mexico. He discusses efforts by other countries to get a foothold in California, the war with Mexico, the treaty, the conventions held to establish California first as a territory and then as a state.