USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California, including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description; together with a record of the Mexican grants also, incidents of pioneer life; and biographical sketches of early and prominent settlers and representative men > Part 42
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2, 6. Dunham
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HOMICIDE OF GEORGE MUTH .- The village of San Pablo was the scene of another bloody murder; the date was August 10, 1873. The victim in this case was George Muth, a young German, who had lived some years in the vicinity, and was generally liked and respected. He was killed by Henry Ploeger, also a German, who lived usually in San Francisco, but for some years, during part of each season, had been engaged in hay-pressing, and had been so employed in San Pablo at the time of the slaying. He had, some time back, it is said, sold a hay press to Muth, and was displeased with him because he had engaged in business rivalry with him. On Sun- day, August 10th, both parties were at the village, and both had been drink- ing, though it was a very unusual thing for Muth to do so. Ploeger had made threats against Muth, and the latter, just as Ploeger was about to mount his horse, crossed from the opposite side of the road and laid his hand on his, Ploeger's, shoulder, asking him : " what he was threatening him for ?" or, " what had he against him ?" or some question of such purport. Ploeger instantly drew his pistol and shot him through the heart, killing him almost instantly. Ploeger claimed that he anticipated an attack with a pistol when he drew his, and that the shooting was unintentional. The by-standers, though, did not seem to have been impressed with such a be- lief, and were inclined to execute summary justice on the spot, regarding it as an act of unprovoked and wanton murder. The prisoner was, however, held by the officers and safely taken to the jail at Martinez, November 27, 1873; he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years impris- onment in the State Prison.
KILLING OF RAMON CHAVIS .- A native Californian half-breed named Ramon Chavis was shot by Constable John Wilcox on Sunday, August 23, 1874, at San Pablo. It appears that the deceased had been at the house of Wilcox, drinking and quarreling during the evening, and Wilcox had sev- eral times been obliged to intervene to stop fights in which he had engaged. Before the shooting Wilcox had retired to bed, but was called up by some one who said that deceased and some one else were killing somebody. Wil- cox got up, partially dressed himself, took his pistol and went out, to find Chavis and another partially drunken man charging their horses and riding over a man they had thrown down in the road, who was a half demented or insane person residing in the place. Wilcox commanded them to desist, when Chavis rode off a few yards, wheeled his horse and charged on him. When within a few feet Wilcox fired, and Chavis fell with a shot under the eye-socket. The Coroner's Jury found that the homicide was justifiable.
MURDER OF AH HUNG .- The salient facts in this case are as follows : The deceased, Ah Hung, some two months previously opened a new wash- house at Pacheco, and subsequently took Ah Sing into partnership relations. There was also a Chinese boy, Ung Gow, employed in the establishment.
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They all retired as usual on the night of Sunday, January 16, 1876, Ah Hung sleeping in an inner apartment, Ah Sing in an outer room, on a table, and the boy, Ung Gow, on the floor, under the table. About daylight the boy was awakened by a noise, and heard Ah Hung exclaiming that he was killed. He ran into the room and saw Ah Sing attempting to haul him off the bed and chopping him with a hatchet. The boy attempted to pull Ah Sing away, but he turned and struck at him with the hatchet, in- flicting one or two cuts and saying he would kill him too. Ung Gow ran out to escape him, and went directly to the other wash-house, up the street, to give the aların and find protection, but was refused admittance and dri- ven away. He then went over to the place of Mr. Tiedeman and reported what had occurred. Constable Henry Wells was the first to visit the scene of the homicide, and there found the deceased in the front apartment, still with life enough remaining to make some moans of suffering, and most hor- ribly hacked, and he survived but a few moments. From the appearance of the place it was evident that the dead man had made a fearful struggle for life after being mortally wounded, the floor and walls were marked with bloody hand-prints, showing where he had endeavored to regain his feet, while blood clots and even pieces of bone from his skull lay about the floor and on the walls. The murderer was captured and had on his person cloth- ing and money, together with a purse identified as the property of the de- ceased. April 19, 1876, Ah Sing was tried, made the plea of murder in the second degree, and was sentenced to forty-five years imprisonment in the State Prison.
KILLING OF JOSE ARRAYO .- A bloody affray occurred on Friday, March 2, 1877, about three-quarters of a mile from Walnut Creek, when José Arrayo was stabbed by Ramon Romero. The stabber was at once arrested. Arrayo died on the 10th March, and Romero was committed on the charge of murder, for which he was tried, found guilty November 23, 1877, and imprisoned for life in the State Prison.
KILLING OF JAMES MILLS .- On Monday, June 18, 1877, a young man named Mills was fatally stabbed in an affray with P. B. Martin. It would appear that ill-feeling had existed for some time between the parties, which culminated in a fight on the day named. Mills died on June 24th, and Martin was arrested, tried, and, April 20, 1877, found not guilty.
KILLING OF GEORGE MITCHELL .- At an early hour of Friday morning, February 1, 1878, it was rumored about Antioch that George Mitchell, an old resident of that town, was not to be found, and there was a strong sus- picion that he had been murdered. About half-past ten o'clock on Thursday night he accompanied William Brunkhorst to his residence on Front street, with a lantern, the night being dark and stormy. Mitchell was duly sober and told Brunkhorst on parting that he was going to Dahnken's saloon on
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the wharf where he slept, and retire for the night. Carson Dahnken had closed the saloon. In about fifteen minutes after Mitchell left Brunkhorst, a pistol-shot was heard on the wharf by several parties, but it seems no one went out to ascertain the occasion of the shooting. Dahnken, who slept in the rear of the saloon building, said he also heard the breaking of a lantern, the broken glass of which, together with several spots of clotted blood, were plainly to be seen upon the wharf. It was believed from the circumstances that Mitchell had been murdered and thrown into the river from off the wharf. Poles were brought and a moment's search proved that such was the case. The dead body of Mitchell was brought forth from the water and a bullet-hole or knife-wound found on his left side over the heart. Suspi- cion at once fastened upon William Hank, a German, in charge of the schooner A. P. Jordan, which had been lying at anchor a few miles down the river. Hank had been in town on Thursday, drinking freely, exhibited a pistol, and was once during the day prevented from shooting at a man in Martin's saloon, by Martin. Shortly after the shooting on the wharf Hank went into Gordon's saloon and told the bar-keeper, Johnson, that he had just killed a man on the wharf, his, Hank's clothes, being at the time quite bloody, with his nose, face and lips scratched and bleeding. Going out of Gordon's saloon he fired at some dogs and finally went to Dahnken's hotel and entered the room of Joseph Parker, a boarder. Parker awoke and find- ing a strange man in the room inquired what he wanted ; Hank said he was a stranger in the house and wanted a room. He finally slept upon a lounge in the sitting-room, where, his pistol was found in the morning by Dahnken. While search was being made for Mitchell on Friday morning, Hank left the wharf in his sail-boat for his schooner. As soon as the body of Mitchell was found, Constable Pitts, with two Italian fishermen, started in pursuit with a boat and overtook him. Pitts got into his (Hank's) boat, and on being told that he (Pitts) was an officer come to arrest him, Hanks leaped overboard. He was handcuffed by the Constable while in the water, then taken into the boat, tied and brought shivering with cold from his voluntary bath to Antioch. George Mitchell was an Englishman, forty-seven years of age, and had lived in Antioch and its vicinity since 1859. On April 24, 1878, Hanks was tried and acquitted. Immediately after the trial, and ere he had left the court-room, he was joined in matrimony to Mary Augusta Raymond, who was present during the proceedings, and watched the case with eager interest.
KILLING OF JOSE REYES BERRYESSA .- On Monday evening, May 20, 1878, near the crossing of West Main and Castro streets, in the town of Martinez, José Reyes Berryessa, a native Californian, made an assault upon Louis Kamp, in resisting which he shot and killed his assailant. It appears that Kamp was passing along the street towards the bridge, carrying a pail
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of water, when Berryessa approached and addressed him angrily in Spanish, Kamp answering in the same language. Berryessa then assaulted him with violent blows of his fists, causing him to drop his water bucket, then grap- pled and threw him repeatedly and violently, either with his fist or a stone, cutting his face and causing a copious flow of blood. Just then Constable Gift's attention, in passing, being attracted to the affray, ran forward, pulled Berryessa off and commanding the peace, told them they were both under arrest and must go with him before the justice. Kamp said he would go, but Berryessa defied the officer insultingly, and immediately renewed the assault upon Kamp, striking, and again throwing and falling upon and hitting him with a stone while down. Gift again pulled him off, but he struggled free from his grasp, making threatening demonstrations of contin- uing the assault upon Kamp, who was then upon his feet, and according to the testimony, backing away while drawing a pistol from his right hip pocket, which he presented and fired just as Berryessa, in breaking from Gift's hold to reach him was turned partially sideways, some ten or twelve feet from him, and the shot entered his right side just below the nipple. Berryessa stooped, placed both hands on the wounded part, walked to the sidewalk from near the middle of the street, sat down, and in a few seconds expired. The verdict of the Coroner's jury was that the killing was justi- fiable.
DEATH OF AN UNKNOWN MAN .- The Contra Costa Gazette of March 22, 1879, has the following : " We mentioned last week that the body of a man, some time dead, was found on the afternoon of the 13th inst., on Hyde's ranch, about four miles south of Cornwall station, and that Coronor Hiller had gone up to hold an inquest. Following is the verdict of the inquest :
' We, the jury summoned to inquire into the cause of the death of a man found on the 13th day of March, 1879, lying on the ranch of F. A. Hyde, caught in the fence dividing the lands of said Hyde and W. E. Whitney, having viewed the body and heard the testimony presented, on our oaths do say, that from the evidence we suppose his name to be Levy Gish, aged about thirty years, nativity unknown, and that he came to his death some time in the first part of March, 1879, the exact date being un- certain and that his death was caused by violence, but by whose act is to the jury unknown.
' Hyde's Ranch, March 14, 1879.
'Signed : A. A. Hadley, B. K. Walker, Thomas Prichard, Wm. Fahy, Lewis H. Abbott, John Tepe, W. J. Whitney, Joseph McCloskey.'
" The body was that of a man apparently between thirty and thirty-five years of age, about five feet seven or eight inches in height, with fine brown curly hair, curling in small curls all over his head, and reddish moustache, no beard, dressed in light colored cassimere pants, dark-brown striped calico
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shirt, with undershirt made of flour-sacks having the brand of the Kern River Mills, hickory outside shirt, old boots with tops cut off, and no coat on body. The body, with a bullet or bludgeon wound on the back of the head, was found lying on the west of the fence dividing land of Hyde from land of W. E. Whitney. Both feet were through between the pickets, apparently caught while he was endeavoring to get over the fence. The body was lying partially on the left side, with left arm bent up under it and right arm extending upwards and in front of face, and sleeve of shirt drawn up over the hand. About twenty-five feet from the body, along near the fence, there were signs of a struggle, the ground being torn up and a great deal of blood on the lower part of the fence, and some hair from the head of the deceased on the pickets. Some four or five feet from the fence lay a pair of new gray blankets with a great deal of blood on them, and near them an old coat very much wrinkled and a great deal of blood on it and curls of hair similar to that on the man's head, and on the blanket. Near the head of the body lay a pair of blankets similar to the others, but clean, rolled up and not tied, a black felt hat, and a letter from Abram S. Gish addressed to Levy Gish, Ellis Station, dated in October, 1870. Over the fence about twenty feet from the body was an account of sales of wheat and a letter dated March 6th, 1871, from Bryant & Cook, Commission Mer- chants, San Francisco, addressed " Levy Gish, Ellis Station." The body had evidently been lying there six or eight days.
" Constable Erwin, of Point of Timber, has since been at Martinez, where Mr. Hiller has the effects found with the body, has identified the pants, and, from the description, is satisfied that the man is one whom he arrested Feb- ruary 25th, with two others, for burglarizing Peter Swift's house near Point of Timber, and found in his possession five letters directed to Levy Gish, Ellis, and Moore's Landing. The men were taken by Erwin to Antioch and lodged in jail there, and the same night broke out and decamped. Erwin also identifies the coat as one that was worn by one of the companions of the deceased when arrested, but the coat then worn by him was of a better style and quality. The probability is strong, therefore, that the dead man was one of the three fugitive burglars, who received his death wound at the hands of his companions, or some other unknown person or persons, within a short time after their escape from the Antioch lock-up. It could hardly have occurred immediately after, as the ground where the body was found had been marked when wet, in the death struggles of the deceased, and it did not rain until several days after their break out, on the morning of February 26th. It may, therefore, be inferred that they remained some- where concealed in the neighborhood for, possibly, a week or more, there being no way of determining when the supposed murder was committed, further than that, from the condition of the body, it could not have been less than eight or ten days before the remains were discovered, and it must
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have been after the rains of the first week in the month had softened the before hard dry ground.
" It will be remembered by our readers that we mentioned the arrest last week of four tramps by Constable Gift, at the Granger's hay barn, on sus- picion that they might have had something to do with the burglary of Blum's store and safe, but, as nothing was disclosed that would warrant their being held in custody, they were turned loose. Now from the descrip- tion, and other circumstances, Mr. Erwin is confident that two of these per- sons were the same that he arrested for the Point of Timber burglary and placed in the Antioch lock-up with the man since found dead. The coat worn by one of the men arrested here Mr. Erwin is confident was the one worn by the deceased when he made the arrest at the Point of Timber, and the coat found near the dead body, which is now in the keeping of Coroner Hiller, Mr. Erwin identified as one worn by one of the other persons whom he arrested and lodged in the Antioch lock-up, allowing them, after search, and taking from them a dirk and pocket knife, to retain a bag containing clothing and among other articles a blouse similar to one which these tramps, while held in jail here, gave to one of the prisoners confined there awaiting trial. On these circumstances and other facts, which it may not be judicious to mention here, the inference is justified that two, if not all four of this tramp party are implicated in the murder, and warrants have been issued for their arrest."
The Antioch Ledger of March Ist had the following report of the arrest and escape of the burglars :-
" Three tramps, who gave their names as John Sullivan, Charles Williams and William Dency, broke into Peter Swift's house, situated near the Salt Pond, Point of Timber, about nine o'clock Tuesday morning, and appropri- ated to their own use a suit of clothes, a quantity of food, and sundry other articles. Swift was absent at work in the field ; missing the stolen property shortly after, he procured a warrant from Justice Carey, and Constable Er- win overtook and arrested the parties near the Point of Timber school- house. They were brought to Antioch Tuesday evening and confined in the town jail, to await trial the following morning. Erwin visited the jail premises at midnight and finding his captives secure, retired, but in the morning discovered that the trio had departed. Though thoroughly searched when placed in confinement, they had cut off a two-inch plank about a foot above the floor, pried it off and were free. It is evident the cutting was not done with a knife, but was evidently the work of a chisel or small hatchet. It is also apparent that they were furnished the necessary implements by outside parties. A knot hole in one of the planks had been enlarged from the outside so as to admit of an instrument two inches in diameter.
"In answer to letters addressed to them for information relating to Levy Gish, presumed to have been a resident of that vicinity, Coroner Hiller,
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since the foregoing was in type, has learned, from the Postmaster and Con- stable at Ellis, that the person is now living in San Diego county, from whence a letter written by him on the 5th instant has been received at Ellis. They inform Mr. Hiller that the cabin Gish formerly occupied was recently broken into and rifled by tramps, who are presumed to have taken away the letters addressed to Gish, which were found by Constable Erwin when he made the arrests at the Point of Timber and those found near the dead body on Hyde's ranch, and which led the jury to presume that the name of the deceased was Levy Gish, who, as now appears, is doubtless alive and well in San Diego county, while some other name belonged to the dead, and probably murdered man."
MURDER OF - LANGBHEN .- The following particulars relating to this tragedy, which occurred near Marsh Landing on May 16, 1879, are an excerpt from the San Francisco Bulletin of the time: The tules in the vicinity of Antioch were the scene of a horrible tragedy last Friday morn- ing, consisting of the murder of two children, aged respectively six and four years, by their father, and the latter's suicide. Some six weeks ago he took up his quarters on a vegetable ranch owned by his nephew near Marsh Landing, a place about five miles from Antioch. Langbhen and his family were fresh from Faderland. They were quiet and industrious people, the most affectionate relations existing between husband and wife and between parents and children. For the want of anything better to do Langbhen worked on his nephew's ranch, cultivating small fruits and vegetables, which the nephew took to Antioch and sold. The nephew boarded with the family. While working in the fields Langbhen was usually accom- panied by his two children, who whiled the time away in playing and weeding. At half-past four on Friday morning Langbhen got up and pre- pared breakfast for his nephew, as was his wont, and after the latter left for Antioch with a load of strawberries, he went to the field to work ; soon after his children followed him. At about eight o'clock Langbhen was seen by Max Klein, a neighbor, who was at the time cutting potatoes in his barn, a few rods from the Langbhen residence, to tie the shoe-lace of the little girl. He was then seen to take the two children to the adjacent tules; soon after he was observed coming out of the tules without the children, and walking rapidly toward his house. Immediately after he reached it, Mrs. Langbhen rushed out in an excited state, throwing up her hands in despair, and talking excitedly in German. This was followed quickly by the discharge of a gun. The neighbors naturally enough rushed to the scene. A Mr. Fleckaman, a next-door neighbor to the Langbhens, reached the house first, and entering it, he beheld a horrible sight. Langbhen was leaning against the wall, almost doubled up, and dead, with a double-barreled shotgun grasped firmly in his hands and the muzzle in his mouth, with his
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toe against the trigger. The charge had passed into the unfortunate man's head and spattered his brains all over the room. After partly recovering from the shock a search was begun for the children, who were missing. About an hour later the two were found by a Portuguese gardener, lying dead, side by side, in the tules, not far from where Langbhen had been seen to emerge. The little girl's skull had been smashed with a heavy blunt instrument and her throat cut from ear to ear, severing the jugular vein, and a piece of flesh had also been cut out of one of her hands. The boy's body bore no marks of violence, excepting that his head was nearly severed from the trunk. Near the bodies were found the apron worn by Langbhen at the time he slaughtered his children, and the heavy bludgeon with which it is supposed he beat in the skull of his little daughter. Both articles were covered with blood. The throats of the little ones are supposed to have been cut with a scythe-blade or some similar instrument, as in each case the frightful wound had been inflicted with one blow. But no such weapon, or any other corresponding to it, could be found, although a most careful search was made in the neighborhood.
MURDER OF A CHINAWOMAN .- A Chinawoman was stabbed and killed by a Chinaman named Ah Yen on Saturday, September 27, 1879, at An- tioch. On examination it appeared that the man who killed her, and another Chinaman, who claimed to own the woman, having bought her for one hundred and eighty dollars, came to Antioch together three or four weeks previously from one of the mountain mining districts. What the relation of the parties was, or what the provocation for the murderous assault, whether hatred, jealousy, revenge, or suddenly aronsed anger, was not made clear by the evidence adduced at the examination. Ah Yen was tried, convicted of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to twenty- eight years in the State Prison.
KILLING OF THOMAS SHERIDAN .- A serious affray occurred on Saturday, June 12, 1880, in Moraga valley, which resulted in the death of Thomas Sheridan, a young man of eighteen or nineteen years of age. The difficulty occurred on land lying south or southeast of the Moraga Rancho, claimed as being in the Sobrante Grant, but supposed to be public land, and occupied as such for ten years, or more, past. Upon a quarter-section of this land, with consent, or upon bargain with the original squatter claimant, S. S. Kendall, an old resident of the Moraga valley, had cut a quantity of wood. Whether the original claimant had technically lost his right or not is a matter of dispute, but the land for the last year or two had been claimed and occupied by John Sheridan and his family. Mr. Kendall being himself a cripple-having a few years before suffered the loss of a leg-and antici- pating some opposition in removing the wood, engaged a neighbor, T. B. Fulton, and a negro named Charles Mingo, to load and haul it away. These
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men went out for the purpose, armed with a breech-loading rifle and a re- volver. On undertaking to load the wood Mrs. Sheridan came out and forbade them. She was followed by Mr. Sheridan, armed with a hatchet, Thomas Sheridan with a double-barreled shot-gun, and a man named Gleeson with a single-barreled gun. As the statements go, Sheridan attack- ed Fulton with the. hatchet, striking him several times upon the head and inflicting some severe cuts. Gleeson also struck him once, or more, with bis gun. Mingo, holding his rifle in one hand, seized Sheridan with the other, and endeavored to drag him off Fulton. Thomas Sheridan, at a distance of a few yards, leveled his gun on Mingo, and walked around, approaching nearer, to get in range to shoot him without danger of shooting his father, Mingo, meanwhile, endeavoring to keep the father as a shield between himself and the son. The latter, however, gained a position of vantage where Mingo saw that he would have a clear shot at him; he then hastily dropped the barrel of his own rifle to range with the breech at his hip, and fired, the ball entering the abdomen of young Sheridan and causing his death within half or three-quarters of an hour.
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