# @sachistorymuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DbeM4-Ay6sN
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68554550-sachistorymuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/2d50363dea.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-31T21:20:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Sacramento History Museum (@sachistorymuseum) — https://gondola.cc/sachistorymuseum

## Caption

On July 31, 1846, Samuel Brannan arrived in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) aboard the ship the Brooklyn. Brannan, a 26-year-old elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, brought over 200 Mormon voyagers to California looking for a place for freedom of worship. The Brooklyn left New York on February 4, 1846, traveled around Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America), and stopped at Hawaii before arriving in California. By the mid-1800s, Hawaii was a major international trading hub and most ships stopped at Hawaii before sailing to California. 

In June 1846, while in Hawaii, Sam Brannan met with Commodore Robert Stockton and learned of the U.S. Navy’s plans to seize Monterey, the capital of Mexican California. Brannan hoped that when his group of immigrants arrived at Yerba Buena, they would be the ones to capture the small port town. When they arrived on July 31, much to Brannan’s dismay, the U.S. flag was already flying over the presidio.

Sam Brannan brought with him aboard the ship an iron printing press that he used to publish, starting in January 1847, The California Star newspaper. This was the second newspaper published in California and the first in San Francisco. In the fall 1847, Brannan opened a trade store outside Sutter’s Fort (in present-day Midtown Sacramento). It was at his trade store on February 14, 1848 that a teamster from Sutter’s sawmill tried to buy alcohol using gold found at the mill in Coloma. 

In March 1848, Brannan published news of gold on the American River and sold mining equipment at inflated prices. In July 1849, he opened the City Hotel, one of the first hotels in Sacramento City, near the corner of Front and I Streets. He is one of Sacramento’s founders and California’s first millionaire.

Copy of a lithograph of Yerba Buena in 1846 by William F. Swasey, courtesy of the California Historical Society. Portrait of Sam Brannan in the early 1850s, courtesy of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Front page of The California Star newspaper published on January 9, 1847.

#OnThisDay #sanfrancisco #sacramento #californiahistory #sachistorymuseum

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sacramento, californiahistory, sanfrancisco, onthisday, sachistorymuseum

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