In They Were San Franciscans, author Miriam Allen de Ford profiles James Lick, Samuel Brannan, Tom Maguire, Lillie Hitchcoch Coit, James J. Corbett, George Sterling, Asbury Harpending, Henry George, Kate Kennedy, Dennis Kearney, Burnette Haskell, Fremont Older, Albert Abrams, and Ella May Clemmons.