“At 3 p.m. on Dec. 3, 1849, a tall, powerfully built man made his way through the throng in Portsmouth Square. His name was William Taylor, and he was a Methodist minister who had arrived in town 2½ months earlier to spread the word of God to the most ungodly, blasphemous, hard-drinking, Sabbath-breaking collection of reprobates to be found anywhere in North America.
“Taylor climbed up on a carpenter’s bench in front of one of the gambling houses that lined the square and, in a voice so powerful it could be heard for blocks around, began to sing. ‘Hear the royal proclamation, the glad tidings of salvation!’ Taylor thundered. ‘Jesus reigns, he reigns victorious, over heaven and Earth most glorious!'”
Finding a good church was the last thing on their mind when hordes of adventurers flooded into the bay of tiny Yerba Buena, en route to hills of gold.
It was all about that gold. But, many found there was more fortune to be had by serving the needs of the forty-niners in the town that would soon be called San Francisco. Shops were erected to provide shelter, food, clothing, laundry and tools. The big money was in serving the need for liquor, gambling and sex.
One man came to San Francisco in 1849, but not for gold or the fortunes of attending businesses. Rev. William Taylor came from Baltimore to meet the spiritual needs of those early gold diggers, sailors and residents of San Francisco. The Methodist Church sent him to start a church, which he did, but Taylor was not content to preach in the safe confines of the church’s walls. Most Sunday afternoons, Rev. Taylor would preach from atop a whiskey barrel, surrounded by saloons and gambling houses, on Portsmouth Square. He wrote about his sermons and experience in a book, Seven Years of Street Preaching in San Francisco, available online HERE. Here he is, “singing up a crowd.”
By his account, as many as a thousand men would pour out of the saloons to hear his singing and preaching, as he invited them to turn away from their greed and filthy lifestyle and find salvation through Jesus Christ. The fearless Taylor was certainly heckled and there were plenty of distractions that come from preaching outdoors, but he earned the respect of his hearers and many responded and joined Bible classes at his church.
To read more, see the article, part of San Francisco Chronicle’s Portals of the Past series by Gary Kamiya: SF’s 1st street preacher brought God to a godless crowd.
Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Portals of the Past series by Gary Kamiya.
See Also:
San Francisco’s Mount Davidson
Read about another pioneer Methodist minister, Rev. Lorenzo Waugh.
What started as a routine carpet cleaning job in rural Petaluma, continued with a deep dive into the life of Lorenzo Waugh, a Methodist minister, Petaluma pioneer and adventurer (1808-1900). Turns out, the home in which I worked is on the property that is part of the original Waugh homestead, land granted to him by Gen. Vallejo. I couldn’t let it go until I had photographed Waugh’s original Petaluma home (with permission), read most of Waugh’s autobiography, visited his grave in Cypress Hill and written this post. I hope you find his life as fascinating as I do. Read more and view more photos HERE: https://www.advanceddry.com/the-lorenzo-waugh-homestead/
