on what past as news. the social effects and political effects of facebook are enormous. monday at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. up next, marilyn darnell shares the story of edgar jack who inyed a developmental role san luis obispo. ms. darnell: i get the sense he was a force to be reckoned with. he was already recognized as a prominent rancher, and in 1894 he was successful in bringing the railroad to san luis obispo. i believe that to be his major contribution to this community. back in 1993, i was new to the community by one year, and i saw this house and realized that we

-- [indiscernible] in 1998i came on board and this is on the national historic register for historic places for the country visions made to the community. i did not know anything about the beginning of his life only that his father was a sea captain. , butew he was from maine we didn't know where he was in the family, and so my research and his letters brought that to life. what really made me decide to publish all of his letters was the letter dated april 19, 1865. he is writing his parents that they had just received the news of president lincoln's assassination. "we have just received the horrible news of the assassination of president lincoln. san francisco is one mass of excitement. there were some copperhead papers here and the mob just

cleaned them out. they are papers and everything relying to their offices were pitched into the streets. it is believed here it will change the policy of the war and that not much more mercy will be shown the rebels. business is entirely suspended, and every building is draped in deep mourning. the funeral efficacies are to take place here on thursday. ps, in the afternoon, we have just received the news of the surrender of johnson's entire army to sherman. the people seem to be pleased to receive the news, but it has not taken away the sorrow from the continents nor created anything like the enthusiasm which has been seen had it not been for this calamity. the funeral observances will take place tomorrow, the same as in the east. j."rs with much love, r

the letters go through his schooling, his working as an intern, which his father arranged. it was not paid, very much like a lot of young people can do today. they can relate to that. they can relate to moving from place to place to find your niche, which is what he did. he was smart enough to know that -- he kept focused. in a sentence in one of his letters, he so much as said he could stand anything but being dull. and so the name of my book. he decided to come to california. he had a friend who visited him in new york. george convinced him as an employee of colonel ww hollister, who raised sheep and produced wool, very profitable. as a 22-year-old, he is ready to

strike out on his own and make his fortune, and he decided that was what he would do. he rationalized that wool would never go out of style so he , would always have something. he did come, but it was 1864. california was in a drought, and no business to be had. so he did work for colonel hollister to drive his sheep into the sierra nevadas, but then decided he couldn't do anything else. and so he went back to san francisco to stay with a cousin, and just be a clerk and office manager, and different jobs between san francisco and sacramento. well, he met through colonel nellyter his niece hollister, who became his wife. and nelly was raised in san luis obispo. this was the city.

he was already recognized as a prominent rancher. but san luis obispo afforded him to go into banking, was his profession. from banking, he recognized the community needed to grow. he bought land, he leased land, he developed land. then as time went on, and now it is the late 1880's, all of this time, he is working towards having some sort of transportation other than the steamships that were coming into what is now avila. and so consequently, there needed to be rail. he was asked by the community to be the spokesperson for the county. mr. caulkins in santa barbara county was the representative

there. the two of them went head-to-head huntington and thater of the big four were the four leaders of the southern pacific. they had to be convinced of a good reason to come to san luis obispo. so the opposition -- huntington was the opposition. crocker felt that san luis obispo was a good choice. but huntington, understanding that the financial straits that southern pacific was in at the time -- they were accustomed to laying track on flat ground. they really didn't need or want the expense of blasting through rock, which is what was going to have two happen with the crusted grade. it ended up they had to do seven tunnels. i think today there are only six. i am not sure why. i know that they had to be in time. i think in the 1950's, they had to make the tunnels larger for

the trains that were getting larger. but so they struck a deal that the -- all of the ranchers, anybody who -- property owners who owned any land in the county had to give them the right of way to build. they also needed to have property to do their stock, which today we would call a depot, and they needed land to their auxiliary buildings, where they would store stuff. whatever the case might be. they had to do all of that and to raise money mr. jack came up , with the idea of a subscription plan for the community so that everybody could feel as though they contributed. and so the cost of one subscription was one dollar. be he felt that that would

-- even for the least of the community, they could manage that. i am sure many people bought more than that. but i felt that was very wise on his part and very much community building. when you have everybody putting a stake into something, they are much more likely to approve something. soon afterwards, we had a library, of course schools churches. , it grew, and we became a place to work, play, and to live. today san luis obispo has that slogan to live, work, and play. ,san luis obispo. originally that idea came with the railroad coming to san luis obispo and mr. jack. announcer 1: san luis obispo, california, is one of the many stories -- cities we have two

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c-span. c-span is your unfiltered viewce of government, so you can make up your online. -- your own mind. >> sharon withycombe talks about pregnancy in the 19th century. she describes the experience of childbirth, which often occured at home, and the varied perceptions of miscarriages. this 15 minute interview was recorded at the annual american historical association meeting. shannon a professor at , the university of new mexico, i'm intrigued by the topic, buying better babies: popular health advice in the early 20th century. why this topic? sharon: i became really interested in the history of