d a
Land Commission in 1851 to pursue a settlement of property claims, a group of
three men---
Horace Carpentier, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon---backed
at one point by a small army of some 200 men hired from San Francisco, began
developing a small settlement on Peralta land initially called "Contra
Costa" ("opposite shore", the Spanish name for the lands on the
east side of the Bay) in the area that is now downtown Oakland. Carpentier was
elected to the California state legislature and got the Town of Oakland
incorporated on May 4, 1852. By the time the Land Commission got around to
confirming the Peraltas' claims in 1854, Oakland was quickly being further
developed. The Peraltas in the meantime had been persuaded to sell various
parcels of their vast holdings. In 1853,
John Coffee
"Jack" Hays, a famous Texas Ranger, was one of the first to
establish residence in Oakland while performing his duties as sheriff of San
Francisco.
On March 25, 1854, Oakland was re-incorporated as the City of Oakland.
Horace Carpentier was elected the first mayor. His tenure did not last,
however. He was ousted in 1855 by an angry citizenry when it was discovered that
he had acquired exclusive rights to the waterfront from the Town Board of
Trustees in 1852. Charles Campbell replaced him as Mayor on March 5, 1855.
The city and its environs quickly grew with the railroads, becoming a major
rail terminal in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the Central Pacific
constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland
