immigration, was wholly neglected until April 23d, 1849, when Rev. Albert Williams, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, obtained the use of the public school-house, and opened a private school, charging tuition. He gathered some twenty-five pupils, and continued teaching until September 20th, when, on account of the increased demand upon his ministerial services, the school was suspended.

Late in the autumn of 1849, Mr. J. C. Pelton arrived from Massachusetts, and on December 26th opened a school with three pupils in the Baptist Church, on Washington street, which was generously furnished to him by that society, free of rent. He fitted up the church with the necessary writing tables at his own expense, made no charge, but, for several months depended upon voluntary subscriptions and donations, and the profits on the sale of school books (a lot of which he had brought with him and which he furnished to the pupils), for his compensation, and that of Mrs. Pelton, who assisted him. In the spring of 1850, he applied to the city council for relief, and from that time until he closed his school late in the summer of 1851, his services and those of his wife were recompensed from the city treasury by a salary of $500 per month. This was at one time the only school in the city, and numbered one hundred and fifty pupils in regular attendance, and as it was chiefly supported from the public funds, was called a public school, although the city council had nothing to do with its organization or management. In 1850, the original public school-house on Portsmouth Square was Vandalised. The only monument of the early educational taste and enterprise of the town was demolished by order of the city, on the ground that the old building marred the beauty of the plaza, which, by the by, has to this day been used as a public corral for the accommodation and sale of cattle and horses.

In the mean time several other schools were started, among them Mr. Osborn's Select School, which was particularly patronized by the Presbyterian Church; Rev. Mr. Preveaux's San Francisco Academy, under the management of persons belonging to the Baptist Church; Dr. Ver Mehr's Episcopal Parish School; and several small primary schools in different portions of the city.

In June, 1850, Col. T. J. Nevins, then the agent of the American Tract Society for this coast, applied to Messrs. Mellus & Howard, and obtained the free use of a building in Happy Valley near where Mission and Second streets now intersect, for

Col. T. J. Nevins, first Superintendent of Public-Schools.

school purposes, employing Mr. Samuel Newton, from Connecticut, as teacher, who opened, July 13th, and conducted a school a few months, until he left for the east, when his place was, for a short time, supplied first by Mr. Lewellyn Rogers, a young gentleman, and subsequently by Mr. Cooley and Mr. Hyde, who took charge of it, until the spring or summer of 1851, at which time it was suspended. This school was originally supported chiefly by voluntary contributions, but near its close the common council voted an appropriation for the relief of the teachers. It was therefore called the "Happy Valley Public School." From a

small beginning it had increased to nearly two hundred pupils, and was the foundation of the school afterwards established in the same building, under the Free School Ordinance. In January, 1851, Col. Nevins procured a fifty-vara lot, at Spring Valley, on the Presidio Road, and erected, principally at private expense, a large and convenient building, employed a teacher, and opened a free school, which during the first quarter was sustained wholly by voluntary contribution. A small tuition fee was afterwards paid by the patrons of the school until the passage of the ordinance above referred to, when the house and lot was leased to the city for free school purposes, for ninety-nine years, for a rent of less than seven hundred dollars for the whole time, being about fifty-seven cents per month. The situation is delightful, being shaded by a grove of evergreens, on a magnificent road, and sufficiently removed from the noise and bustle of the living mass, to prevent their interference with useful study. Until the spring of 1854, it was the only school-house owned by the city. All the other buildings occupied for public educational purposes were subject to a ruinous monthly rent.

So soon as the city government had been fully organized and put in harmonious operation, measures were adopted for the establishment of a better system of popular instruction. In the summer of 1851, the boards of aldermen appointed a committee on education, at whose request Col. Nevins prepared a bill for "the establishment, regulation, and support of free common schools in the city," which without alteration, was passed by the common council, and became a law on the 25th of September following. This ordinance divides the city into seven school districts, and provides for the erection and establishment of a free school in each district, making these schools public and free to all children and youths between the ages of four and eighteen years, within the respective districts, and forbids in their control all sectarian influence or interference. It makes provision for raising a "Common School Fund," and for the proper employment of the same; for the annual election by the common council, of a board of education, to consist of one alderman, one assistant alderman, two citizens, and the mayor, who is ex officio a member and the president of the board; and for the regula

tion of salaries and other expenditures. It gives to the board of education the whole charge of the public schools, and empowers them to elect a superintendent of the schools, and erect or purchase necessary buildings for school purposes; details the duties of the superintendent, who is the general executive officer and clerk of the board of education; constitutes the superintendent and any two members of the board, a committee for the examination of teachers, who cannot be employed until examined by such a committee; exacts a quarterly report from the superintendent to the board, and an annual report from the board to the common council, of the condition of the schools; and requires a quarterly meeting of the superintendent and teachers, to examine and discuss the best methods of imparting instruction and of conducting the schools to the greatest advantage.

In accordance with the school ordinance, of which the foregoing are a few of its many excellent provisions, the common council, early in October 1851, elected by joint ballot, a board of education, consisting of Hon. Charles J. Brenham, Alderman Charles L. Ross, Assistant Alderman Joseph F. Atwill, General John Wilson, and Henry E. Lincoln, Esq., who, on the 21st of October, appointed Colonel T. J. Nevins superintendent of the schools and clerk of the board.

At this time the city had no school-house accommodations on rent or otherwise. The first duty of the superintendent, therefore, was to procure and fit up buildings in suitable locations, an undertaking of great labor and difficulty. Every building was occupied, and no funds were provided for any expense beyond the rents, temporary accommodations and salaries. After considerable necessary delay, these obstacles were overcome, and schools opened to the public. The situations and number of schools, teachers, etc., at the close of the tenth quarter, May 1st, 1854, were as follows:

DISTRICT NO. 1, Rincon Point.—Established January 8th, 1852. Located corner of First and Folsom streets. Comprising a Primary and Grammar School. Teachers:-Mr. J. Sweet and Miss Rebecca W. Foster.

DISTRICT NO. 2, Happy Valley.-November 17th, 1851. Corner of Bush and Stockton streets. Primary and Grammar. Teachers:-Mr. Jas. Denman, Miss Anna E. Sandford, Mrs. E. Wright, Mrs. J. A. Hazleton, and Miss Kennedy.

DISTRICT NO. 3, Central. December 22d, 1852. Washington street, between Stockton and Dupont streets. Primary and Grammar. Teachers:Mr. E. H. Holmes, Miss A. C. Park, Miss Harriet A. Hancke, and Miss Mary S. Haynes.

DISTRICT NO. 4, Clark's Point.-June 7th, 1852. Corner of Broadway and Montgomery street. Primary and Grammar. Teachers:-Mr. Ahira Holmes, Miss Sophronia Allyne, and Miss E. A. Pomeroy.

DISTRICT No. 5, North Beach.-November 19th, 1851. Washington Square. Primary and Grammar. Teachers:-Mr. H. P. Carlton and Mrs. Olive P. Cudworth.

DISTRICT No. 6, Spring Valley.-February 9th, 1852. Mixed School. Teacher:-Mr. Joseph C. Morrill.

DISTRICT NO. 7, Mission Dolores.-May 10th, 1852. Mixed. Teacher:Miss Clara B. Walbridge.

The following teachers have been from time to time employed in the schools and left by resignation:-Miss Mary S. Libby, Miss I. H. Hudson, Mrs. S. A. Hazleton, Mrs. E. Hyde, Mr. Joel H. Tracey, Mr. F. E. Jones, Mrs. E. W. Baldwin, Miss Gertrude Brown, Mr. Silas Weston, Mr. W. H. O'Grady, Mr. Asa W. Cole, Mr. Alfred Rix, Miss Marietta Chadsey, Miss Helen M. Allyne, Miss E. Durgin, Dr. Stillman Holmes, Miss Marion Bain, Miss Clara M. Silsbee, Miss A. W. Milbury, and Señor José Parra, teacher of Spanish.

These schools have hitherto been supported solely by city taxation, and the whole expense incurred to the date (May 1854), independent of the cost of building new school-houses, has been about $75,000, which has been expended in rents, the fitting up of proper houses, salaries and incidental expenses. Male teachers receive $150 per month; females, $100. During the first year, the superintendent was paid $1200 per year, but since then his salary has been $2400.

On the 1st of February, 1852, the superintendent made his first quarterly report, from which it appeared that 485 pupils had attended the five schools then organized. Nine months afterwards, at the end of the first school year (Nov. 1st 1852), there were 791 at school, while the census stated the number residing in the city, between the ages of four and eighteen, to be 2050 By August 1st, 1853, the end of the seventh quarter, the pupils had increased to 1364, and at the end of the second year (Nov. 1st, 1853), there were 1399 at school, the whole number of children in the city being 2730. In the beginning of the ensuing year, the whole attendance at all the schools amounted only to 1178. This decrease was owing partly to its being the rainy