Bishop Kip, Episcopal Bishop of California from 1853-1893

Source: Kip, William Ingraham, The Early Days of My Episcopate 1853-1860 (1892)

Section I:  Convention in California held in July 1850 at Trinity Church, San Francisco for the purpose of organizing a Diocese of California.  William Ingraham Kip, Rector of St. Peter’s, Morristown, NJ was elected by the House of Bishops meeting in NY City in October 1853.  He sailed to Panama, crossed the Isthmus, and arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday, January 18, 1854.   His journals of his first six years in California represent some of the most important historical documents in California and the source for the founding of the Episcopal Church in the state.

Section XVII  San Jose, May 1854

“This place (San José) is considerably larger than Santa Clara, and has the same mixture of American and old Californian population.  The valley in which it is situated is about twenty miles broad by a hundred long (sic), hemmed in by mountains.  With a climate of perpetual summer, it is considered one of the garden spots of California and when the projected railroad connecting it with San Francisco is finished, this valley will be filled with the villas of citizens who will take refuge here at times from the crowded city.  The legislature once met here, but it proved to be too dull a  place for their taste and they preferred the bustle of Sacramento.  It is indeed as quiet as can well be conceived, presenting a strange contrast to the usual excitement of California.  We look out from the balcony of the house where we are staying, and opposite are Spanish adobe houses, the inmates of which seem to be lounging about, enjoying the dolce far niente, never excited except when on horseback.  Afternoons come warm and quiet:  the whole population seems to be taking its siesta and you here no sound except the insects wheeling round and drowning in the air.”

Wednesday, May 24^th “At evening we had our first service.  The Presbyterian house of worship had been courteously given us for the occasion.  The building, which was small, was well filled, and I found later that there were many Church people in the neighborhood.  Among those present was a classmate of mine at Yale College – Mr. Douglas – whom I had not seen since we graduated in 1831.  He became a Congregational minister and since been a teacher in the Young Chief’s School at Sandwich Island

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