USA > California > Marin County > History of Marin County, California also an historical sketch of the state of California > Part 30
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HISORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
and worried, he left the scene of his horrid deed, with his ill-gotten gold, and started, as he hoped, for China. But suspicion followed him. He had barely time to secret his effects under a washhouse floor in Saucelito, before the hand of the law was on him. His tongue was not as cunning as his hand had been. He could not talk as he had wrought. With determined and desperate villainy he tried to fasten the crime on another, Antone Petar, a neighbor. In two days the public excitement had become intense, and the region was full of busy men, intent on finding out what was only known to Wong. He and the Portuguese whom he had falsely accused were lodged in jail, and the officers of the law and citizens worked night and day to find the missing man. Detectives Lees, Coffee and Avan, from the city, con- ferred with Sheriff Mason, and then took hold of the case with him. They had a perfect understanding to begin with, and after that worked in perfect harmony together. Mr. Lees obtained Sheriff Mason's consent that he should interview Wong, all by himself, whenever he wished, the only condition being that the prisoner should not be abused or roughly handled. Mr. Lees' methods with Wong are not known, beyond the strategy of putting another Chinese prisoner with him, to draw out the facts. Although it is further understood that Wong thought Lees was his friend, perhaps a lawyer employed by his countrymen to secure his release. His visits to that cell are frequent. He stays an hour, a half hour, longer, he comes and goes. The special efforts of the officers go on, the miscellaneous, but persistent and determined search of friends and neighbors are made in every ravine, gulch, and secluded place in the region. On the twelfth day after the crime the little knot of officers are digging under a shed near the house. The earth is solid. There is not a sign that dirt or pebble in that spot had been dis- turbed since the American occupation. But the digging goes on, down one, two, three, four feet, and then the arm of a man is seen. A little more dirt is carefully removed, and enough is disclosed to identify the body of Sever- ance. It was not wholly uncovered that day, and next morning Coroner Eden was there with casket and ice, and the remains of the murdered man were brought to San Rafael. The autopsy confirmed one part of Wong's statement, viz., the five shots had been fired. Communication between the detective and the Chinaman was kept up, and last Saturday morning, fol- lowing another revelation wormed from him, the officers went to the wash- house in Saucelito, where they found the money, to obtain which Severance was killed, and with a pistol and jacket belonging to Wong Chi Long. This completed the work. The mystery was solved. The whole dark story of the crime was told. The money and other articles were taken to the China- man by the officers. The father and widow of Severance were present. Lees then threw off his previous strategy, and now became Wong's accuser. He was stunned and dazed, but still stuck to his denial, and clung to the thin lie, "The Portuguese," "The Portuguese." He denied owning the
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jacket, though Mrs. Severance testified she made it for him; he denied owning the pistol, which was identified as his; and he pretended he had never before seen the watch and chain, which Severance had always worn. The funeral of Severance took place from the Presbyterian church in San Rafael, Sunday, 18th, Rev. James. S. McDonald officiating. It was the largest funeral ever seen in the county, and very many strong men were moved to tears by the unutterable sadness of the occasion. The funeral was conducted by the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of which deceased was an honored member, the Saucelito and San Rafael Lodges uniting. The remains were buried in Mount Tamalpais Cemetery, beside a little son of the deceased, who was buried there a few months ago. At the grave the liturgy of the Order was read by the officers of the Saucelito Lodge. The character of Charles W. Severance was good and noble. Mr. Throckmorton, who knew him best, pays the highest tribute to his ability and personal worth. He was a young man of much more than ordinary promise. But for his untimely taking off, he would have come into prominence as a leader, in any sphere he might have chosen. But for his extreme modesty and retiring disposition, he would have been much more prominent than he was. He leaves a father and mother, a widow and two children, a brother and sister, and a legion of friends. As soon as the web of evidence began to close about the suspected Chinaman, he was locked up" each night in an iron cell. The first night in there he was very uneasy, and pleaded hard to be allowed outside, but his petition was unheeded. All that night and the next he cried and moaned most piteously, and Friday night, at lock-up, he fell upon his knees before the Sheriff and begged in agony that he might stay in the large cell. But in he went. He was still the first part of that night, but later the Chinaman in another cell heard a most unearthly cry, followed by yells and screams of mortal terror. He asked him what was the matter, and Wong answered that the Melican man's devil had come to him. He imitated the noise made by his approach, and described his appearance, and appeared to be in a perfect agony of terror. He said he would rather die than pass another night there. Sheriff Mason had taken every precaution to prevent his doing himself bodily harm. His cue was unbraided and taken away, his sash was taken off, and his bedstead was removed from the cell. His condition was not extraordinary Sunday morning, and the Sheriff's atten- tion was directed more to the mutterings of lynch law, and the danger from the outside, than to the fear of the prisoner's self-destruction. As soon as Severance's funeral was over, Sheriff Mason hurried to the jail, to make sure that no attempt at violence should be made, when he found the dead body of Wong, suspended by the neck. The Chinaman had torn up one of his under garments, and tied and twisted the strips into a rope. ' On the upper part of the tank were half-inch holes, six inches apart, for ventilation. He had managed to pass the end of his rope through one of these holes and
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bring it back through another, and this was repeated, so that the rope was tied through four holes. He then made a loop through which he put his- head, perhaps doubling his mattress to stand on, and then threw his weight. on his neck. He was strangled to death. His body lay in the Coroner's back room while the inquest upon his victim was proceeding in the front. room. It remained there, lying in the zinc box, until Wednesday morning. The earth refused to receive and hide it. No cemetery would give it room, and his own countrymen said "No sabbee." At last the Coroner was. obliged to go to the city and get a permit to bury it in the Chinese: cemetery, where he took it yesterday.
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BOLINAS.
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GEOGRAPHY .- Bolinas township is bounded on the north by Nicasio town- ship, on the west by, Point Reyes township, on the south by the Pacific ocean, and on the east by San Rafael township. In shape it is oblong, its greatest dimension being from southeast to northwest. There are no streams in it of any importance other than drainage. Its only harbor is the bay of the same name situated at the southeasterly corner of the town- ship. In days gone by this, doubtless, afforded a very ample anchorage, but the soil from the hillsides on the one hand and the sands of the sea on the other, have conspired to fill the entire bay, almost. The entrance to it is now nearly closed by an extensive sand-beach, there being only a narrow channel open through it. The greater portion of the bay is a great sand- bed which is bare at every low tide, and which affords a breeding ground for countless gigantic clams. It has, of course, required ages to effect these changes, for the attrition of the soil and the accretion of the sand, must necessarily have been very slow. When the country began to settle up, this filling in of the harbor progressed much faster; for the soil, being loosened by the plowshares, was the more easily washed into the bay by the Winter rains. When vessels first began to sail into the port, a schooner drawing ten feet of water could pass over the bar with ease at any stage of the tide, while now, the same draught of vessel can barely pass at the highest stage; and where those large vessels formerly lay at the wharf, the depth of water will not admit of more than a fishing smack. Old sailors are free to assert that the day is not far distant, at the present rate of filling in, when the entrance of the bay will be entirely closed, and the body of it will be mere tide and overflowed land open to reclamation and cultivation. It is true that the harbor is not of as much importance now as it has been in days gone by when the major portion of the wood and lumber supply of San Francisco passed over its bar ; still it would work a great hardship to the citizens of that section to have it closed altogether. "It does not seem prac- ticable nor probable that any efforts will ever be made to reopen the channel or to care for it in its present condition. At the termination of another generation the records of the many vessels which once spread their canvas in this harbor will read like a fairy tale, and will seem certainly to be among
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
the improbabilities; very much as the greater portion of the early history of our Golden State will read to our grandchildren.
TOPOGRAPHY .- The general surface of this township is in keeping with the others in the county, and is quite rough. On the eastern side a ridge of the Tamalpais chain extends nearly the entire length, which is penetrated with lateral cañons, causing that portion of the township to present a very corrugated appearance. Stretching northward from the head of Bolinas bay is a wide and fertile valley extending all the way to the head of Tomales bay. To the westward of Bolinas bay there is quite an extensive mesa or table-land, which extends to the ocean. North of this the land is rolling and finally culminates in a series of mountain peaks which stretch to the northern limits of the township along its western boundary.
SOIL .- The soil of this township is generally very rich and fertile. It is mostly a sandy loam, with here and there a section of clay. Most of the hills have clay quite near the surface, but the out-croppings of it are not very frequent. The clay is yellow and would, doubtless, be well adapted for the manufacture of brick. The soil of the valleys is well adapted for the purposes of growing grass, grain, vegetables, and fruits. Fruit trees planted almost thirty years ago by Captain J. A. Morgan are still bearing, and the fruit is excellent, considering the variety. There was a time, how- ever, when there were not so many choice varieties in the State, and when these apples were much sought for and highly prized in the San Francisco market. A twig from this orchard, on which there were twenty apples once sold for a twenty dollar gold piece in that city. Some years ago quite large quantities of oats were raised about Olema for the city market, and oats and barley are still grown very extensively for hay. They are sown together, as it is thought that one protects the other from rust. Fine pota- toes are also grown in this section, but as it is found to be more profitable to use the land for dairying purposes, the growing of all these grains and vegetables is mostly abandoned.
CLIMATE .- The climate of Bolinas township throughout is very fine, and varies from the cold and foggy air of the ocean beach to the mild and dry atmosphere of the interior. At Bolinas the ocean breezes have a fair sweep across the mesa and come upon the town freighted, aye, saturated at times, with moisture from the ocean. At Olema it is quite the contrary, and while the wind is fully as cool and refreshing, the dampness has all been absorbed by the thirsty vegetation and trees over which it has passed. Here is as salubrious and health-producing a climate as is to be found in any section, not only in Marin county but of the State of California.
TIMBER .- There was a time when the timber of this township was boun- tiful, and its forests grand and extensive. It was from Bolinas that the greater
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portion of the early lumber supply for San Francisco came. It is estimated that about fifteen million feet of lumber was cut in the immediate vicinity of Bolinas, and judging from the stumps which still remain, the redwoods of this grand old forest primeval must have been the peers of any of their con- geners in the State, always excepting of course the " Big Trees of Calaveras." This forest extended from about midway of the bay on the eastern side north ward to the summit between Bolinas and Olema. They grew much larger in the gulches where they were in a measure sheltered from the fierce winds of the ocean and also where the fog was the densest. On the ridges they grew very sparsely, and the few which did have the hardihood and indiscretion to spring up on those barren and forbidding mountain spurs were stunted in their growth by the bleak winds from the northwest, and warped into ill-shapen and unseemly dwarfs of a monster race. Their leaves and limbs have long since succumbed to the fierce blasts of old Boreas, and their trunks now stand mere bare poles, looking much like skeleton sentinels guarding the destinies of the race of men who have so fully supplanted the people which knew and perhaps loved them in their quasi and quandon glory. Of the other timber in the township, pine, fir, oak and alder form the greater portion. The pine is of the species known as "bull pine," and is gnarly, coarse-grained and unfit for use except as firewood. This tree seemed to flourish well here, and in an early day there were large quantities of it on every hill and mountain side. The fir is fine-grained and grows straight and tall. It makes good lumber for certain purposes, and is much sought after in the markets for the uses to which it is adapted. No prettier sight can be seen in many miles travel than a large forest of young fir trees growing on a mountain side. They stand in such regular order that, to the eye, they present the appearance of an army drawn up in rank and file. The oak, is the common black oak indigenous to all the coast of this section. It is gnarled and knotty, and its wood fit only for firewood, and not so good for that as its congenor, the live oak. The alder grew in the valleys and its forests were almost impenetrable, growing so closely together that they were obliged to follow Webster's suggestion to the young lawyer, and find their " room at the top," hence they grew very straight and tall. When they were cut the cord wood almost covered the ground from which the trees were chopped. The wood is light, makes a quick, hot fire, but not a lasting one. There is no other timber in this section worthy of mention. Of all these the major portion has long since been chopped out, and the places which knew them shall know them no more forever, nor will others spring up to take their places-" Peace be to their ashes."
PRODUCTS .- The fertility of the soil of this township would admit of a versatility of products, but here, as elsewhere in Marin county, the chief industry is dairying. In early times quite large quantities of oats, barley
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
and wheat were grown both in the section around Olema and on the mesa west of the town of Bolinas. Potatoes do well also, and in days agone were grown quite extensively. The products of this township at the present time chiefly consist of butter and cordwood.
EARLY SETTLEMENT-Bolinas .- In considering the early settlement of this township we shall divide it, for convenience, into two sections, Bolinas and Olema. Their location and interests were such that their settlement was not contemporaneous. To Rafael Garcia doubtless belongs the honor of being the first man to settle in the Bolinas section. It is not known now just what year he came in, but it was probably about 1834. He located the Baulinas rancho, and after remaining on it for a few years disposed of it to Gregorio Briones, his brother-in-law, to whom it was granted February 11, 1846, by Pio Pico. Briones sent his son Pablo to Bolinas in 1837. The family went in 1838 and he in 1839. The grant contained eight thousand nine hundred and eleven acres, and afforded pasturage for his extensive bands of stock. His house was only partially adobe, the lumber for the wooden portion having been "whip-sawed" in the adjacent forests. The adobe portion comprised four rooms, two bed rooms, sitting room and kitchen. His stock multiplied very fast and in a few years he numbered his cattle by the thousands and his other stock by the hundreds. In domestic matters he dispensed with the same liberal hand which so preeminently char- acterized all the rancherias of that day. Gregorio Briones was born in Mon- terey in 1797, and his wife, Donna Romana Garcia, was born in San Diego in 1803. At the age of twenty-two he entered the army and remained in it for a period of eleven years, during which time, in 1822, he was married at the Mission Dolores, San Francisco. In 1830 he went to San José and spent two years, then to Pinole, Contra Costa county, where he resided till September 5, 1837. He then went to the Presidio in San Francisco, and remained two years, during which time he was Alcalde of the place. They had five children, two sons and three daughters. He died May 10, 1863, beloved and respected by all who knew him. He was ever accredited with being an honest, upright and truthful man, and probably, with the exception of some few who had land difficulties with him, he did not have an enemy in the world.
The first marriage which occurred in the township was contracted between Francisco Sebrean and Senorita Maria J. Briones, daughter of Gregorio Briones. This occurred May 20, 1850, and was an event long to be rememn- bered by those present. Great preparations had been made for the occasion, and everything was in keeping with the order of things in that day. Up to this time there had not been a floor laid in the township, but what was a wedding without a dance, and what was a dance without a floor? So some whip-sawyers, among whom was Charles Lauff, were employed to furnish
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William Vanderbil-
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the requisite lumber and construct the floor. This floor was fourteen by twenty, and, though seeming quite small now, afforded ample opportunity for devotion to the Terpsichorean muse. A grand barbecue was also pre- pared, and the carcass of a fat bullock was roasted to a turn over the pit of bright coals. In connection with this there was a table set, the like of which had not been seen before in all these regions round about. Viands were spread upon it in bountiful profuseness, so that there was enough and to spare for all the guests. In the early hours of that bright and beautiful Spring morning, a single horse with two riders might have been seen thread- ing his way along the mountain trail leading from Bolinas to San Rafael. These riders were a man and woman, both in the full flush of youth and of love. He was the hero of the day, Francisco Sebrean, and she, the fair Senorita Maria J. Briones, and their destination, the mission, where was to be realized the full fruition of their ardent love. The services of Padre San- tilla were invoked, and the twain were made one flesh, both by the laws of God and man. Again mounting their horse, they started out on the journey home. Here was romance more than realized, but we draw the curtain and leave the newly-made man and wife alone with their love, their happiness, and their hopes. Arriving at the Briones homestead late in the afternoon, they found all preparations for the wedding feast duly made. Congratula- tions were showered upon them from every side, and all was joy and gaiety. The wants of the inner man having been more than -satisfied, all repaired to the dancing floor, and then the real pleasure of the guests began. The music consisted of a violin and guitar, and the dances were waltzes, polkas, schot- tisches and reels. A few quadrilles were indulged in by the American guests present. And thus was continued the round of eating, drinking and danc- ing, till the early dawn of another day was being heralded through the world by the clarion-throated chanticleer, and the approach of Aurora in her chariot of light.
Among the many men whom chance circumstances had stranded upon the Pacific coast in that early day, long before immigration set in in this direction, was a man known only by the cognomen of " The old Blacksmith;" whence he came or what had been his past life, no one ever knew, for those were subjects on which he was very reticent. He appeared at the Mission of San Rafael very suddenly and mysteriously about 1840. He had evidently deserted from some ship in San Francisco bay, and stopped at the first set- tlenient he came to. He was employed in several menial capacities by Timothy Murphy for a few years, but finally disappeared from there as mysteriously as he had come. In 1849, Captain J. A. Morgan had occasion to go to Bolinas bay, to wreck a vessel which had been stranded on the beach. Upon going ashore he was met by a very peculiar looking individ- ual who seemed to be a fixture in that vicinity. Upon entering into conver- sation with him, he found that the man was living near by in a deep ravine, and
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HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
he invited the Captain up to his residence for an inspection of his premises. When he arrived at " the house," what was his surprise, to find it to be sim- ply a cask picked up from the beach, with the open end against a rock which served as a door. In the hogshead there was a lot of leaves, and a few rags which answered for a bed. The Captain then inquired of the man what his name was, and was answered with the laconic reply, "Blacksmith," and no amount of persuasion could ever induce him to reveal any other name. The old Blacksmith offered to divide his claim with Morgan, which proposi- tion was accepted, and he subsequently located there. The Blacksmith was eccentric, erratic, cunning, bold and mischievous, and many used to think somewhat of a lunatic. · He had a small raft which used to serve his pur- poses of navigation about the bay, and which he propelled with a long pole. He seemed to be a fire worshipper, for no matter where he stopped, be it day or night, Winter or Summer, he would build up a large fire and sit by it. He had two companions, a cat and a pig, both of which followed him in all of his peregrinations, and if he chanced to push off from the shore without them, they would both plunge into the water and swim to him. The affec- tion which existed between them was something remarkable, and would more than emulate Robinson Crusoe and his pets. He always went bare- footed, and half naked, being inured to the extremes of weather. His food consisted of clams, fish and game, capturing the latter with an old flintlock musket, from which the lock had been gone for years, but which he dis- charged by applying a lighted match to the powder in the "pan." After there was a trading post established at the Point he would sometimes come across the bay and get a quantity of whisky and return to his hogshead
and have a glorious drunk. He came to the Point for whisky one day, and found everybody absent from home. Getting angry at this seeming disre- spect for him by leaving home the day he had chosen to come to town, he set about to wreak revenge upon the inhabitants.
He poured out all the fresh water about the premises, and replaced it with sea water. He then went to the only spring, a small one, and bailed out all the fresh water and filled it also with salt water; when supper had been prepared by the unsus- pecting victims of this perfidy, with this salt water, it can easily be imagined how little it was relished, and one can also readily guess that the anathemas pronounced upon the Blacksmith were not few nor other than dire. In 1857, at about the age of sixty, the old Blacksmith met the rider of the white horse face to face and passed away from the scenes of life to those which death opened to his view. £ When he realized that his end was near, he was asked to reveal the secret of his life, but he refused to say anything further than to intimate that he had murdered his wife. What a burden to carry on one's mind and heart through all the days and years of life! Driven, like the first of his kind, from the presence of man, with the mark fixed upon him, although not visible to stranger's eyes, yet always standing out boldly before
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