1. The basic source for early area history is An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California published in 1880 by Thompson and West, hereafter Thompson & West History. This and other sources of local history are available, inter alia, at at the Sacramento Room of the Central Branch Library. If you are a history buff, for $10 you can purchase a CD rom copy of the Thompson & West History at the Sacramento Room or through SharingHistory.com The Thompson & West work was updated several times after the initial publication, most notably by Davis in 1890, hereafter Davis History. There is a extended discussion of the development of Sacramento County land titles in Thompson and West History at pages 181-185. Click here to read this discussion.
Actually, all of Curtis Park was within the area claimed by Sutter to be within his grant. Click here for a map of his initial claim. However, his expansive claims were ultimately rejected by the courts.
2. A good short early biography of William Curtis is at Davis History, pages 424-425. Family history references are from my conversations with the great-grandson of William Curtis, Curtis Carly Cutter.
3. For example, the 1907 City Directory, among others, lists the residence of William Curtis on Lower Stockton Blvd. Also see, e.g., the Sacramento Bee article of January 27, 1931, discussing the homesite. Old copies of the Bee and the Union can be viewed on microfilm on the second floor of the Central Branch Library.
4. The engraving is from Thompson & West History, page 155.
5. Davis History p. 553; Sacramento City & County Directory, 1896; the Sprague Deed, from J.H. Fox is in the Sacramento County Deed Book (hereafter Deed Book) S, at page 448. Deed Books are available on microfilm at the office of the County Recorder. To see the plat of Hattie Walton's Curtis Park lands Click here.
6. Thompson & West History facing page 50. The house location is indicated on a plat of the Sprague lands recorded January 13, 1896, available at Sacramento Archives & Museum Collection Center .
7. E.g., Deed Book 103, p. 272; Deed Book 170, p. 163.
8. Census of 1870.
9. Deed Book 103, page 272; Thompson & West History at page 191.
10. City Directories from 1896-1956 list the address of the Edwards family descendants at 3225 Freeport Boulevard. There is a map of the Edwards ranch in Subdivision Map Book 3, Map 36, dated January of 1900.
11. Deed Book 109, page 162.
12. Sacramento County and Its Resources published by the Sacramento Bee in 1894, at page 163; Thompson & West History at page 284.
13. Illustrated Review of Sacramento July 1924, vol. I, p.
14. The Freeport Road address is given, for example, in the 1905 City Directory. Brockway's death deed to his wife is at Deed Book 112, page 517; the deeds of Sprague and Edwards, supra, refer to the Brockway home; Thompson & West History page 277 has a brief biography and the illustration of the house is facing page 113.
15. Deed Book V page 634. See also a deed from E. M. Skags Deed Book 124, page 629, in 1879.
16. Sacramento County Patent Book, hereafter Patent Book 1, page 379; Web cite.
17. Ibid.; Patent Book 1, pages 280, 440
18. Thompson & West History at page 277.
19. Sacramento Union, June 8, 1875, page 8.
20. Thompson & West History at page 277.
21. Deed Book 112, pp. 510-517.
22.Subdivision Map Book 2, page Map 3.
23. Subdivision Map Book 2, Map 5. For more information on Highland Park in Los Angeles click here.
24. Sacramento Bee, April 27, 1935 and June 13, 1921, the school is noted on the 1889 Sacramento Map on the wall on the 4th Floor in the Central Barnch Library.
25. Subdivision Map Book 2, page 18.
26. Sacramento's Street Cars, Sacramento County Historical Society (1987) Richard Rodda
27. History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II The Lewis Publishing Company (1905) Click here for an early biography of George Cutter.)
28. This is the date on his headstone at the City Cemetary.
29. Sacramento County and Its Resources published by the Sacramento Bee, 1894; Sacramento Bee Jan 28, 1907; the photos are from Sacramento County and Its Resources at pages 67 and 167.
30. Sarah Edwards Death
31. Sacramento Bee, April 27, 1935 and June 13, 1921
32. Subdivision Map Book 5, Map 35, February 11, 1904.
33. Sacramento Bee March 23, 1904.
34. This is related in several Wright & Kimbrough real estate ads, e.g., Sacramento Bee, April 22, 1904, page 3, June 25, 1904, page 2.
35. For example, Sacramento Bee, May 11, 1904, has a story about a frightened filly who crashed through a matron's parlor window after shying at an auto. On July 20 there is an extended discussion of the mores of motorist tooting their horns at pedestrians. The Bee has an interesting summary article on these changing modes of transportation, click here to view it.
36. Sacramento Union, December 13, 1905, page 8.
37. For early speculation see, e.g., Sacramento Bee, September 24, 1904, page 18. The proposed route is detailed in the franchise application submitted in February 1906. Sacramento Union, February 9, 1906, page 1.
38. A sequential related deed indicates that a real estate company, Hawk, Hawley & Carly Company, had obtained an interest in or option on Hattie Walton's property. Deed Book 265, pages 58-61.
39. Sacramento Bee, December 15, 1907.
40. This is asserted on the plat mentioned and linked in endnote 5, supra.
41. Sacramento Union Jan 31, 1908, page 3; April 23, 1986, page A4.
42. Sacramento Union July 28, 1910, p. 14.
43. Sacramento Bee, November 26, 1910; the railroad shops near Highland Park ad is from the Sacramento Bee of November of 1907.
44. The new street car line extension ad is from the Sacramento Bee of February 2, 1907.
45. The Maxwell automobile ad is from the Sacramento Bee of January 26, 1907.
46. Bungalow and Ranch House Western History Quarterly (Summer 2001) by John Mack Faragher.)
47. There is a good general discussion in the "Boosterism in the West" issue of Journal of the West, Vol. 42, No.4, Fall 2003, edited by Professor Lee M.A. Simpson, of CSUS. For an example of the local pro"boomer" attitude, see, "More Praise for our Boomers," November 2, 1928, Sacramento Bee, extolling a give away of Sacramento Valley oranges at the St. Louis Fair to attract potential settlers.
48. "The suburban home first appeared as a rural villa for the fairly well-to-do family in the mid-nineteenth century. Located 'on the edge of the city,' it was intentionally designed as a therapeutic refuge from the city, offering tranquility, sunshine, spaciousness, verdure, and closeness to nature-qualities opposite those of city. This ideal was aggressively and persuasively articulated through pattern books, the writings of domestic reformers, and popular magazines. As house designs became adapted for more modest incomes and as advances in transportation lowered the cost of commuting, suburban living became affordable to an increasingly broad spectrum of the population." National Park website: "Historic Residential Suburbs"
49.
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