HORSE AND BUGGY DAYS. The first carriage ever built in San Francisco was made by William Larkins. William was born and raised in Ballinasloe in County Galway, Ireland -- a market town with a hundred-year history of carriage building. He emigrated to America as a teen ager during the time of the Great Potato Famine. After spending some time in Boston, he came west in 1861 to post-goldrush San Francisco, where he was first listed in the city directory as a carriage painter. By 1865 he had become the proprietor of Larkins & Co, makers of high grade carriages.