Museum On Main Street Blog The Pleasanton Star Unmasks a Fire Hazard, 1885

Hop wagons at the Pleasanton S.P. Station, ca. 1880. Museum on Main collection. In the mid-1880s, California had a significant population of itinerant farm laborers drawn from the population of recent immigrants (Chinese and European), from unemployed urban laborers, and from farmers who had lost their lands to bankruptcy and drought. As the railroad hub of an agricultural community, Pleasanton saw its share of transients come through town--and not everyone trusted them, certainly not the editor [...]