Name/Title
"New York Semi-Weekly Tribune"Entry/Object ID
2012.389.1.1Description
"New York Semi-Weekly Tribune," 4 January 1851 (Vol. 6, No. 585.) The newspaper contains an article in column 6 of page 2 consisting of a dispatch from Los Angeles, dated November 1850 from "T." It refers to mines at "Amorgosa [sic] Springs," which is Amargosa Springs in today's Nevada near Las Vegas; plans for a colony along the Colorado River just below the Mexico border; plans for establishing a town at San Pedro, including the creation of a suitable harbor and the importation of water from the San Gabriel River from the east into a reservoir; an idea to divert Los Angeles River water through Los Angeles for town needs and the irrigation of thousands of acres of land to the south; and the plans of Theodore Foster to acquire a printing press at San Francisco to start Los Angeles' first newspaper, a weekly. The letter also mentions that rents are up, new buildings being constructed and emigration from the South growing. It is assumed "T" was Foster, who was a second cousin to prominent Angeleno Stephen C. Foster and who arrived from the East along the southern route in 1849, spending some time at the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino. Theodore secured, in October 1850, a site for a building to house his newspaper, but evidently did not find a press in San Francisco, and the lot became the location of the Los Angeles Star, which began operation in mid-May 1851 under different management. In the 1850 census enumeration of February 1851, Theodore Foster was listed as a laborer for John Rowland of Rancho La Puente, but, by 1853 or so, his whereabouts are not known. With foxing, soiling, some stains, and edge rubbing, the condition is fair.
