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Description
Title supplied by cataloger. Typed caption on back: "first sawmill in Oakland Date 1850 Owned by Volney D. Moody Located Palo Seco Creek, Near Diamond Canyon." Typed note on back from donor: "This sawmill was by by Mr. Meiggs of Meigg's wharf San F and he lost it to Volney D. Moody, the older of the two sitting on the log. This mill was the junction of Sausal Creek and Palo Seco Creek at what is now the junction of Park Boulevard and Warren Freeway. In 1848 Wm Mendenhall, founder of Livermore, Mr Van Gordon, father of Mrs Henry C Smith Henry C Smith and his brother Nathaniel Smight and Joel Harlan all worked at this mill. It was here that Mrs Smith gave birth to the first Anglo American child born in what is now Oakland on April 9, 1848. A van GGrdon child (a girl) was buried near this mill but to now 1959, no one has been able to locate the grave. Henry C Smith was the man who took the petition to Sacramento to have Alameda County carved out of Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties. Mrs Smith passed away in 1925 on Dover St in Oakland. Albert E Norman, Oakland." Stamped on back: "Albert E. Norman." Written in ink on back: "donor 1959." Stamped on back: "Please credit Albert E. Norman Collection, California Historical Society, San Francisco." Men and boy at the first sawmill in Oakland, 1850; General Subjects Photography Collection, PC-GS-Industry; California Historical Society.
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