USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1913 > Part 33
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On the morning of December 30, 1894, the community was horrified to learn that F. H. Weber, a grocer living on L street near Thir- teenth, had been brutally murdered, together with his wife. They lived over the grocery store and were found lying on the floor, their skulls cloven with a sharp instrument, and a bloody hatchet near by told the tale. Robbery was evidently the object, as the house had been ransacked. No clue was to be found by the officers, who worked assiduously, but it bade fair to be one of those mysterious affairs that are never solved. The theory was advanced by a man who had traveled in Europe and Asia, that the method of murder indicated it was probably done by a Russian or a Finn, the ax being a favorite weapon with those nationalities. But as time rolled on the mys- tery did not clear up, and it began to be classed as one of the cases
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that would always remain unsolved. The various clues that had been followed up proved false. But the old saying that "murder will out" was once more verified, although it was nearly six months before the discovery came through the drunken statement of the murderer. Ivan Kovalev was one of ten Russian convicts who escaped from the Si- berian penal colony at Saghalien and were picked up at sea in a pi- tiable condition and brought to San Francisco by the whaling bark Cape Horn Pigeon in the winter of 1893. They claimed to be Nibil- ists and excited wide spread sympathy by a recital of their terrible treatment. Later developments proved that some of them, at least, were sent to Siberia for crimes committed. Kovalev's companions were Kharlampi Nitikin and Mathiew Stcherbakov. Kovalev was arrested in San Francisco June 25, 1895, from information given to the police by a carpenter named Zakrewski, who said that Kovalev, while drunk, in the preceding February, had confessed to him a murder. He said that Kovalev told him that he. and Stcherbakov had been watching the Weber store for three days and went around to the back of the store on the night of the murder and that he went up on the back porch, where he found a hatchet and when Weber came out with a candle in his hand, he (Kovalev) struck him on the head with the hatchet. As he did so, Weber cried out, "I'm murdered! I'm killed!" The two men then went into the house, found Mrs. Weber, demanded money and then killed her. They took some money and jewelry and left the city. Kovalev buried a little box about seven inches square, three miles from Sacramento,
In March, 1895, Zakrewski accompanied Kovalev, Nitikin and Stcherbakov to San Jose, and while there they tried to rob a little grocer, but he wielded his pocketknife so effectively that one of the robbers, supposed to be Stcherbakov, was found dead nearby the next morning. When Kovalev was arrested he was identified by Mr. Weber's son Frank, as a man he had seen loafing about the store just preceding the murder. He identified the trousers Kovalev wore as belonging to his father, and the suspenders Kovalev wore as made by his sister for his father. The trial began December 5, 1895, and lasted till the 21st, when the jury, after fifteen minutes absence from the courtroom, brought in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. He had feigned insanity and had been tried for insanity by a jury and declared sane, after the trial began. He was sentenced on the 29th, just one year after the murder, to be hanged February 21, 1896, and the sentence was carried out at the state prison at Folsom.
Chin Hane was hung at Folsom prison on December 13, 1895, for the murder of Lee Gong in 1893. The murder was the result of a tong war. At that time the street cars ran on Third street to I. Lee Gong lived on the west side of the street, between I and J, and the tong headquarters were on the opposite side of the street. Sud-
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denly a fusillade begun from the tong headquarters and Lee Gong was shot down at his door. A street car containing passengers was passing at the time, and the shooting endangered the safety of the passengers. Much excitement ensued, and there were threats of "cleaning out" Chinatown, but as no white people were hurt, they soon calmed down.
While there have been a number of other executions at Folsom since, most of them were of persons from other counties, and those hung since the execution of Kovalev who were sentenced from this county are: George Puttman, November 19, 1900; Kochichi Hidaka, June 10, 1904; Charles Lawrence, October 7, 1904; Sing Yow, January 6, 1905, and three men who were condemned for participating in the break at Folsom prison July 27, 1903. They were Joseph Murphy, Harry Eldridge and W. M. Gray.
July 27, 1903, thirteen desperate convicts in Folsom prison as- sailed the guards, captured the prison. armory and escaped, carrying with them Warden Wilkinson and Capt. R. J. Murphy. They had armed themselves with "file" knives and razors. Two of them turned on W. A. Chalmers, the outer gatekeeper, and stabbed him in the arm, while the others rushed into the captain's office, captured the warden, captain and other officials and taking them as shields, demanded that the armory be opened to them, or they would slaughter all the officials. The armory was opened and they supplied themselves with rifles, revolvers and ammunition and still holding their prisoners to shield them, demanded that the main gate be opened, under the same threat, and it was done.
To the honor of two prisoners be it said, Joseph Casey, a life termer, slammed the inner door, preventing a general escape. O. C. Clark, another convict, doing twenty years for forgery, dropped down in the office and going to the warden's office, gave the alarm, which was telephoned to Folsom, and the big siren was sounded. The war- den and officers were released and returned to the prison, their cap- tors having exchanged clothes with them. Chief Turnkey Joseph Cochrane had been badly stabbed, and Guard William Cotter was dead * and others wounded. At Pilot Hill the convicts were overtaken by posses and J. J. Allison, a convict, was killed. On August 1st as a militia company from Placerville was trailing the convicts on a hill near that place, they were fired on from ambush and two of them, Festus Rutherford and Charles Jones, were killed and William Gill wounded. The convicts split into two bands, and posses hunted the foothills and mountains for them. Roberts was captured in a grain field near Davisville on August 5th by Deputy Sheriff John J. Hinters of this county. Roberts and Howard had come to Sacramento and passed the night at Agricultural Park, separating afterwards. Seavis, the negro convict, was captured on August 6th, at Auburn, by Sheriff Keene and Deputy Coan. Fahey had a battle on the night of August 7, with Detective Max Fisher and Deputy Sheriff Wittenbrock, but 18
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got away in the dark. On August 23rd Murphy was captured by offi- cers at Reno, and Woods was captured in the same city the next day. Roy Fahey, "Red Shirt" Gordon and some of the others have never been captured.
December 30, 1904, a desperate attempt was made by seven con- viets engaged on the rock-crushing plant in the prison grounds, to duplicate the break of 1903, but it was a disastrous failure. Warden Yell, anticipating that such an attempt was contemplated, had given strict orders to the guards to fire on the convicts, no matter who might be killed, if such an attempt be made. The convicts were aware of the order, but did not believe it would be carried out. They stopped the machinery by throwing a sledge hammer into the rock crusher, and when Captain Murphy went to see what was the matter they seized him and Charles Jolly, a guard, using them as shields. The convicts had cached a number of knives made from pieces of steel, with which they threatened to kill their prisoners. The convicts were Charles Carson, W. J. Finley and F. Quijada, life-termers; and D. Kelly, W. Morales, J. Quinlan and H. C. Hill. The guards began firing and in less time than it takes to tell it, Morales, Quinlan and Hill were lying dead, and the others badly wounded. Captain Murphy and Jolly, whom they had used as shields, were both wounded by bullets. Finley and Carson, being life-termers, were convicted after their recovery from their wounds, and sentenced to hang, but by appeal to the United States supreme court managed to delay their fate, but are now under re-sentence.
Joseph Piraino was brutally murdered March 3, 1908, on the Yolo side of the river a little above the town of Washington, his body being almost severed and disemboweled, leaving only the backbone and a strip of the abdomen to hold it together. He was then thrown into the river by the murderers, but his immense vitality enabled him to reach the shore, where he was found. He told the officers that he had befriended a fellow countryman, a Sicilian named Antonio Cip- polo, who enticed him to go with him and two others to get some fish from a fisherman opposite the second Barnum's slough; that they . attacked him in the brush, demanding the $120 he carried in his money belt, and stabbed him repeatedly and flung him into the river. De- tective Max P. Fisher searched untiringly for Cippolo until he cor- nered him in the lodging house where he and Piraino had lived, and the dying man identified him as the murderer. Part of the money was found in his shoe, and Fisher so skillfully wove a web of evidence around him that he was convicted and hung April 28, 1909, refusing to the last to reveal the names of his accomplices.
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CHAPTER XXX
THE GREAT RAILROAD STRIKE
The great railroad strike of 1894, which as far as California was concerned, was a purely sympathetic strike, was the cause of loss and damage to this state, from which it took years to recover. Having its inception in a dispute between the Pullman Car Company and its employees over a reduction in wages, it was far-reaching in its effects, involving business of all kinds and parties who had nothing to do with the dispute and became sufferers through events with which they were not even remotely connected. The strike occurred at the time when the heaviest shipments of fruit from California to the east were being made, and in one day the business of the fruit growers was paralyzed and hundreds of carloads of fruit were left to rot in the boxes because they could not be forwarded on account of the strike. The fruit was ripening fast during the hot weather, and the total stop- page of traffic made the crops ripening at that time of year almost a total loss to the growers. A large percentage of them were ruined, and it was several years before others recovered from the blow and re-established themselves in their business. One singular thing in the circumstances was that a number of them, and of others in other branches of business who were also sufferers from the stagnation that resulted, were in sympathy with the strikers and aided them. Much of this feeling was probably only the open expression of the hatred many people bore for the Southern Pacific Company, engendered by its connection with state politics, and by personal causes.
The province of the historian is to weigh carefully all the data and evidence he is enabled to collect, and to state impartially the facts in each case as well as he can ascertain them. The strike on this coast created a great deal of bitterness which, at nearly twenty years' distance, has not been entirely obliterated. The writer, however, feels that at this date the consensus of opinion would be that the strike should never have extended to this coast, as the cause of it had no connection with the railroads doing business in this state. The strike began at the town of Pullman near Chicago. The town was known as a "model town," being owned solely by the company, which had built it for use by the employees, with streets, sewers, etc., complete. They were in no sense railroad men, being in reality members of the cabinet makers' and kindred trades. But they had affiliated with the American Railway Union, the aim and scope of which was intended to embrace all crafts in connection with the railroad business. Al- though not railroad men, the Pullman employees' union had affiliated with it, and when they appealed to it for aid, the A. R. U. thereupon declared that they were willing to handle the trains on the railroads affected, providing the roads would refuse to handle or put into their trains the Pullman cars. The railroads declining to do so, the mem-
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bers of the union refused to handle Pullman cars or trains of which they were a part. The railroad companies operating in California could not separate their interests from those of the Pullman company, the Southern Pacific being a three-fourths owner of the Pullman cars used in this state. The strike being declared, the Santa Fe railroad was the first to feel it, all trains being stopped June 27, 1904. As the Santa Fe road did not extend to Sacramento, this history is not further concerned in it further than the mention of this fact.
On the following day, the 28th, however, Engene V. Debs, the president of the A. R. U., telegraphed from Chicago to the heads of the local unions in this state to tie up the Southern Pacific com- pany's roads completely, and the strike was on in full force. It imme- diately assumed a threatening aspect in the main railroad centers and Sacramento being the main center of the system in California, was forced to bear the brunt of it. It was brought under control in Los Angeles before it attained full headway, while in Oakland, which con- tained many strikers, they managed to do considerable mischief. The railroad company refused to yield, and the fight grew more bitter daily. Besides the workers in the Sacramento shops, numbering about three thousand, there were all the train crews, freight handlers, sec- tion men and other out-door men of the system, numbering several hundred more. Most of these had become members of the A. R. U., and they became daily more irritated and inclined to violence in order to coerce the company to do their will. Passengers on the trains were tied up at various points. Baggage and freight were daily piling up. The crux of the situation, however, was the delayed mail, which accu- mulated rapidly and which finally forced the United States govern- ment to take a hand. It was evident that the dam must soon break. The situation had grown beyond the power of the local authorities. The local police could not cope with the trouble and it was generally known that the sheriff of Sacramento county sympathized with the strikers, and that both in Sacramento and Yolo counties there were many among the farmers and business men who were in sympathy with them. California had hitherto been free from any experience like this, but the eastern National Guard had been called out several times, to combat strikers who had deteriorated into rioters, and it was a foregone conclusion that as events were moving so fast toward a critical point, the National Guard would be called out to protect people and property. Governor Markham was marooned in Los An- geles, where he had been when the strike was declared, and all orders from him had to be received over the telegraph wires. The situation had become serious.
But Uncle Sam was ready to move, and on July 1st Attorney- General Olney sent instructions to all United States marshals having jurisdiction over the territory affected by the strike, to execute the process of the court, and prevent any further hindrance to the free
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movement of the mails. In accordance with this order, the United States marshal of the southern district of California called on Gen- eral Ruger, commander of the western division of the regular army, to furnish assistance at Los Angeles. Six companies, three hundred and twenty men, under the command of Colonel Shafter, were dis- patched there on July 2nd, and left San Francisco that night.
Barry Baldwin, United States marshal of the northern district of California, was at Sacramento with a large number of deputy mar- shals, sworn in for the occasion, to co-operate with the regular troops. The plan was to break, almost simultaneously, the blockade in Sac- ramento and Los Angeles, the two real strategical points. At Los Angeles the regulars experienced but little trouble, but the marshal and his deputies found it very different at Sacramento. Here the mob of strikers was larger and more desperate, and also better organized than anywhere else in the state. Baldwin, on the afternoon of July 3rd, attempted to open up the blockade. The strikers calmly watched the operation of making up the trains, and everything seemed to be progressing smoothly, when all at once, at a signal, the strikers rushed forward and demolished in a few minutes what it had been the work of hours to accomplish. Superintendent J. B. Wright and T. W. Heintzelman, assistant superintendent of motive power, both of whom were favorites with the men, when they attempted to throw off the brakes and start the train, were lifted bodily from the plat- forms by the strikers and carried to the ground. The brakes were dis- abled and the train could not start. Marshal Baldwin was furious and endeavored to force his way through the crowd, but was thrown to the ground several times. Regaining his feet, he drew a revolver but was prevented from using it and the cooler heads in the mob had difficulty in keeping him from being severely handled. Seeing the hopelessness of trying to move the train, he left the depot in posses- sion of the strikers. He called on Governor Markham immediately for the assistance of the military to enable him to enforce his authority and maintain free passage for the mails. The Governor responded by ordering Major-General Dimond, of the National Guard, to furnish the necessary assistance. The experience of the militia in eastern strikes having shown the salutary effect of a large display of force, it was determined to call out a large number of troops. Accordingly troops were ordered out as follows: of the Second Brigade, com- manded by Brigadier-General Dickinson, the First Regiment of In- fantry, Colonel Sullivan, the Third Regiment of Infantry, Colonel Barry; one-half of the Signal Corps under command of Captain Hanks, and a section of the Light Battery, consisting of Lieutenant Holcombe, twelve men and a gatling gun; of the Third Brigade, Com- panies A and B of the Sixth Regiment, under command of Captain Nunan; of the Fourth Brigade, under command of Brigadier-General Sheehan, Companies A, E and G of the Second Infantry Regiment,
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commanded by Colonel Guthrie, the Signal Corps, and Light Battery B; in all about one thousand men. The Fifth Regiment, Second Ar- tillery Regiment and First Troop Cavalry were ordered to hold them- selves in readiness.' Companies A and B of Stockton, Colonel Nunan commanding, were ordered to be ready to join the San Francisco troops when they reached Stockton, and the Sacramento troops were to join the main body on their arrival here.
The men arrived in Sacramento the next morning, ready for duty, at 8 A. M. The officers had expected to disembark at the depot, but found that orders had been given to stop the train at Twenty-first street and the men were forced, after an all night ride, to march thence to the armory at Sixth and L streets, arriving there weary and hungry a little after nine o'clock. Here they were to breakfast. The adjutant-general had given orders for the men to be supplied with rations, but it had been overlooked, and they had none. They were promised an ample breakfast at the armory, but after an hour's delay it was found to consist merely of strong coffee and bread, and was the last food that most of them received until night. While the troops were being fed in relays, the Sixth Regiment stood in line on L street in the hot sun. It may here be stated that July 4, 1894, was one of the hottest days during the season, and the troops from San Fran- cisco, being unused to the climate, suffered severely through the day, and many succumbed to the heat, several officers among them. While in line, a private of the Sixth attempted to load his gun, but it not being in order, the cartridge exploded. The bullet passed through the leg of a soldier in front of him and, striking a cobblestone, was shat- tered into a number of fragments. Here was shed the first and only blood of the day. The fragments of that bullet did deadly work, cost- ing the life of an estimable citizen, O. H. Wing, and wounding six other persons.
After the troops had finished breakfast, they were marched to the depot, reaching it about noon. General Dickinson's troops marched to the west end of the depot, General Sheehan's being at the head of the column. The description of the day's events at the depot is collated and condensed from the testimony and report of the Court of Inquiry held afterwards in an effort to ascertain where the blame lay for the failure of the troops to take possession of the depot and drive the strikers out of it; and from the Record-Union report, part of which the writer had helped to make.
Company A of the Second Infantry, one of the three Sacramento companies, flatly refused to go to the depot, saying that they were willing to do guard duty, at the armory, but would not fire on the strikers if ordered to do so. The Board of Inquiry held afterwards censured Major-General Dimond and Brigadier-Generals Sheehan and Dickinson, but the governor and adjutant-general afterwards declared that General Sheehan had received an undue degree of censure. It
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is certain that several blunders were made by various officers. The San Francisco troops were not properly equipped, and had to ride all night and stand on the streets most of the forenoon without any- thing to eat. Even when they had breakfast in the armory it con- sisted only of coffee and bread, and. hardly enough of that for the companies who breakfasted last. After this insufficient meal they had nothing more until evening, when they were taken to a hotel for supper. When to this was added their being compelled to stand in the broiling sun for hours, on one of the hottest days in the season, many of the San Francisco and Stockton troops succumbing to the heat, while red tape delays prolonged their sufferings, it is not to be wondered at that their enthusiasm was dampened.
It being the Fourth of July, the city was filled with people from the country, and others seeking a holiday, and when the troops began to march to the depot, the sidewalks were filled with curious men, women and children who accompanied them, nnmindful of the fact that any moment might precipitate a bloody conflict, in which they might come to harm. When the depot was reached, too, they formed a crowd of abont two thousand in the west end of it, consisting of strikers and their sympathizers, among whom were mingled hundreds of women and children, many baby carriages even being present in the mob. These were what the soldiers found to confront them, and it is not a matter of wonder that the thought of firing into or charging with bayonets upon such a crowd appalled many of the troops, and tested their loyalty to the state and to society. They were confronted with men who were defying the law, but these men were not at the time actively engaged in destroying property, nor did they, as a body, show any intention, as is shown clearly, of attacking the troops. On the contrary, they were good-humored and attempted to fraternize and argne with the members of General Sheehan's command, who occu- pied the head of the column, and among whom many of them had relatives and friends. In justice to all, these circumstances must be taken into account in passing judgment on the fiasco of the day.
General Sheehan, on being ordered by General Dimond to clear the depot, found the west entrance blocked by the mob, who refused to give way, and pressed up close to Company G. He addressed them, telling them the troops did not wish to use force, if it could be avoided, but were there to protect the United States marshal in the discharge of his duties, and must use force if it became necessary. He asked them to disperse and permit the troops to occupy the depot, as they must place the railroad company in possession of the government mail trains, as ordered, and would have to do their duty. Major Weinstock addressed the strikers in the same manner, but they said they would die in their tracks rather than give up the fight. General Sheehan convinced some of the leaders that they could not right any wrongs by resisting the law, and the mob began to give way to the
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troops, when some one cried out to hold on, and demanded that he would promise not to allow any Pullman cars to be moved. He answered that his troops would not help to move any cars, but if called on, must do their duty and protect those moving them, and a chorus answered, "Then you can never enter here unless you do so over our dead bodies."
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