History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 21

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660

USA > California > San Joaquin County > History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 21

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The Flood of 1852

The city elections were held annually until 1884.' The mayor elected in May, 1851, was a distinguished person-John C. Edwards. Born in Kentucky in 1806, governor of Wisconsin in 1844-48, he came to California in 1849 and located in Stockton. The year of his election

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as mayor he married Miss Emma J. Richards, who is now living in this city. her husband dying September 16, 1888. Mr. Edwards took his seat as mayor under very discouraging conditions. The principal part of the town had been destroyed in the fire of May 5, and in the spring of 1851 came the first of those floods that since that time have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars damange because the cit- izens made no movement to prevent damage by floods until some ten or fifteen years ago. In the winter. of 1851-52 a very peculiar condition of weather existed for it was the heaviest rain- fall-17.98 inches in 1851 ; 27.40 inches in 1852 -in the history of the county, save that of 1862. The freshet was sudden and unexpected for there had been scarcely any rain in Decem- ber, January or February. The storm com- menced March 5 and continued with but little interruption for three days. "Then it swept through the city with the most astonishing rapidity, boiling and roaring in its fury." The greatest force of the current was along Main Street, carrying away a part of the bridge and the engine house ; private parties also lost con- siderable property, and although there were no sidewalks or improved streets, the loss was over $25,000. One of the losses was that of the mayor who had a $1,700 interest in the Main Street bridge.

A special meeting of the council was held and they selected a permanent place for the engine house and instructed the city marshal to employ men to take charge of the city's lum- ber and to erect and repair all of the bridges and those cross walks that had been washed away. The county surveyor was instructed to take a level of the water courses approaching Stockton. He declared there was no danger from the back water of the San Joaquin River and the only danger was from the overflow of the banks of the Calaveras River, which finds a channel across the plains through the city. He advised that all bridges be placed above the high-water mark about three inches and that all buildings be erected on stone or brick foundations, the walls in low places to run with the current of water.

Reception to Peter Rothenbush

One of the council elected in 1852 was Peter Rothenbush, a very popular young German, who polled the highest vote on the ticket. In October Peter concluded that he would go home and get a wife and the city fathers gave a supper in his honor. The press received an invitation to be present and said the reporter, "We sat down to the most recherche supper ever spread in Stockton. It was an occasion of more than ordinary interest as one of their number, Alderman Peter Rothenbush, was about to start on his travels in search of a

wife. When we say that wine flowed freely, and that Captain Jordan was in 'tip top spirits' our readers will conclude that the affair went 'merry as a marriage bell.' Mayor Baker pre- sided. We must not forget to notice that the proprietor of the New York Hotel placed every luxury of the season on the table, fowl, game, an excellent dessert and a generous welcome." Peter returned with a "Frau" and for a time kept the Stockton Bakery Hotel, corner of Channel and California streets. In 1857 he purchased an interest in the El Dorado Brew- ery and continued in that business for many years. He died in Vallejo in August, 1892, sixty-eight years of age. He was an uncle of Jacob Simon, at one time a police and fire com- missioner, and a brother of Daniel and Jacob Rothenbush; the latter died in March, 1922, at the age of eighty-four years.

The Bridgers and Diggers

When the city election of May, 1853, was at hand, there were two questions at issue; the improvement of the streets and numerous bridges across the shallow and main water courses. "The question is," said the editor, "will we have public improvements or shall we remain behind the times, 'a one-horse town.'" The leading issue was the building of a bridge across the Stockton Channel, either at Hunter Street or El Dorado Street. The narrow foot- bridge across the channel, midway between Hunter and El Dorado streets, had been washed away by the flood, and those living north of the Avenue together with the mer- chants of the Peninsula were practically isolated; the only way they could cross the water was by ferry boat. The two factions were known as the Bridgers and Diggers. The Diggers demanded that the slough be deep- ened to Hunter Street, "the head of naviga- tion." As a proof of that assertion they point- ed to an ocean brig lying at anchor where now stands the Turnverein hall. The brig later was turned into a bowling alley, said James Kidd. The Bridgers comprised the merchants doing business on the Peninsula ; they wanted the bridge built at El Dorado Street. And their friends declared, "To refuse to build a bridge at El Dorado Street would be a gross outrage to the residents and property holders on the Peninsula." The Bridgers planned and carried through a neat scheme by having the legislature, in April, declare El Dorado Street the head of navigation. Captain Weber strong- ly favored the El Dorado project, and he backed it up by offering to release to the city the block in dispute providing they built a bridge at El Dorado at least eighty feet in width. The head of the Bridgers' ticket was M. B. Kenney, a crockery merchant, who was one of the first settlers in the city. With him

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were two men for councilmen, B. W. Owens and Captain P. E. Jordan, two of the most pop- ular men in Stockton and councilmen in 1852. The Diggers after considerable sparring for a candidate finally succeeded in getting Dr. Christopher Grattan to accept the nomination for mayor. On his ticket were several men for councilmen who were on the Kenney ticket, among them Austin Sperry, B. W. Owens and Andrew Wolf. The result was an overwhelm- ing majority for the Bridgers, 610 to 351. The mayor-elect and the councilmen comprised M. B. Kenney, B. W. Owens, Andrew Lester, Austin Sperry, Wm. Vance, J. W. Carlisle, J. C. Cleghorn, P. E. Jordan, Andrew Wolf, Joel Clayton and V. M. Peyton. This was the coun- cil which in connection with the county judge, W. D. Root, erected the first court house.

Mayor Kenney's Administration

Mayor Kenney took his seat as Stockton's third chief official and the first one to deliver an inaugural address. In the address he said, "The city income for the past year ending in March was $51,129.31. The expense exceeded the income because of a heavy drain for hos- pital expenses and bridges, but the excess is so small that it can be kept down by being eco- nomical. There is much to be done, building bridges and improving streets, which should have a regular grade and be planked or grav- eled in a substantial manner. At the second meeting of the council, Owens' resolution was unanimously adopted that the property holders be notified that Center, Levee, Main and Hunt- er streets would be immediately planked with three-inch Oregon or Humboldt pine. There was an immediate remonstrance against planking the Levee, the protestants saying that "probably we would not have any rain this year." Center Street, which was the prin- cipal street of the city, because it led to French Camp, in December the previous year "was in a woeful condition. The council at consider- able expense, carted soil from another part of the city to fill up the low places, but the rains came, the soil turned into mud, and now it is almost impossible to get across it." "Our partner, Dr. Radcliffe," said the editor, "at- tempted to cross it, and soon he was in the water up to his armpits. The following day a man on horseback floundered in the mud and nearly drowned." This press report is no stretch of imagination, for the author has seen these things time and again. In the heaviest winter storms, automobiles speed over Market Street today at twenty miles an hour. What was it in '53? The editor praising Councilman Owens for his planking resolution "as a move in the right direction," said, "We regret that he did not include Market Street. In no part of the year can a dray travel this thoroughfare

without being in danger of submergence in the slough, which passes along it nearly from beginning to end." The streets were planked and it cost $80,000 to plank Main Street from Center to Hunter and El Dorado to Levee, over $25,000 a block, and it was not only dan- gerous because of the holes in the planking, but almost useless, as the mud would fly up through the ends whenever a team passed over it thus covering the street with mud and slime. One day it is said that a team heavily loaded started up Main Street from Center and broke every plank along the street. The days of planking soon ended and then they tried gravel.

I have wandered a long way from the sub- ject which I had in mind-bridges-but as the subject of bridges or planking will not again be noted, a few lines on bridges, for these two items were among the heaviest city ex- penses. One of the first wagon bridges, if not the first, was the bridge across Mormon Chan- nel. It was built by the merchants as a busi- ness proposition in their trade with the moun- tain camps by the way of French Camp. They came before the council of 1853 and petitioned them to reimburse them for the money paid out. The council refused, as the city had paid half of the cost. In March, '53, a contract was given for the building of the El Dorado Street bridge at a cost of $27,000. It was 200 feet in length and 80 feet in width. The bridge was built on piles and for many years was an open waterway, the Chinamen passing through and tying their boats near the Hunter Street China houses. There were dozens of wagon and footbridges throughout the city, but now there are but few left, such is the city's progress.

Assassination of Wm. A. Brown

Considering the scarcity of funds in the city treasury it is peculiar the way in which they spent some of it. In April, '53, the coun- cil, through the mayor, offered $1,000 reward for the arrest of one William Bowlin, who shot and killed W. A. Brown, the Adams Ex- press messenger between Stockton and San Andreas. The citizens, the county judge, the Masonic lodge, of which Brown was a mem- ber, and Governor Bigler also offered large rewards for the arrest of Bowlin. He was also in the employ of the express company and embezzling funds, was tried and acquitted. Brown was a witness against him and this so angered Bowlin that he determined to kill him. At this time Brown was boarding at the City Hotel, located on the east side of the present Masonic Hotel site and kept by I. V. Leffler. Bowlin planned well his escape from the scene of murder by placing a relay of fast horses from Stockton to Mariposa. There was no telegraph or telephone lines, no rail- roads and a long stretch of country sparsely

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settled between the two points. Bowlin knew Brown's habits and, riding to Stockton on a fast horse late on the afternoon of April 1. 1853, lay in wait for his victim at the end of the small footbridge across the present Hotel Stockton site. At dusk Brown came from the hotel and as he approached the middle of the bridge, Bowlin fired at him with a shotgun, so seriously wounding Brown that he died the following day: Bowlin then quickly jumped on his horse, which had been held in waiting by Glover O'Neil, a son of the sheriff, and sped away in the darkness. There was great excitement over the cowardly assassination, for the murdered man was very highly re- spected, and as soon as possible a company of mounted men started after the fugitive. Everything, however, was in his favor, the darkness, fast horses and several hours start. Brown was buried in the City cemetery, over 2,000 persons, Odd Fellows, Masons, officials and citizens attended the funeral. In the meantime it was learned that Bowlin was secreted in the mountains near Mariposa and, stimulated by the large reward, parties of men mounted and well-armed started forth to hunt for the murderer. In a few days a party of four found Bowlin afoot and alone in a ravine near Mariposa. As the men came within hail- ing distance Bowlin cried out, "I suppose I am the person you are looking for." On re- ceiving an affirmative reply, he laid his bowie knife and revolver upon the ground and said, "Come and take me," and immediately swal- lowed a quick poison. One of the party then shouted, "He has taken poison." "I have," was his reply, "keep your distance, I am des- perate," and reaching for his revolver he kept it in his hand until his death.

Disposal of the Dead

In the evolving of civilization in Stockton there is no progress more noticeable than the humane burial of the dead. Today in Rural Cemetery they peacefully sleep, in soil artistic- ally laid off and surrounded by beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers, and some of them beneath handsome monuments and inclosed in costly mausoleums. Yesterday it was not so. Then the dead were disposed of as quickly and cheaply as possible in the most convenient spot, no prayer, nor funeral dirge. One grave was found while workmen were digging. the foundation of a building on Main Street; an- other was found, late in the '60s on Hunter Street, corner of Market while workmen were cutting out an oak tree for the improvement of the street. It was the grave of a little girl. While the Chicard family were crossing the plains the little girl died, but the mother posi- tively refused to leave the body buried on the plains, so the body was brought to Stockton. The family had had bad luck and on arrival

were extremely poor. Captain Weber, hear- ing of the sad case, permitted them to live on a lot on the southeast corner of the streets named and the child was buried beneath an oak tree standing near by.

For this neglect of the dead there were good and sufficient reasons; namely the conditions and the times. It's an old and a true saying, "What's everybody's business. is nobody's business," and as there was no government, no one to take charge of this work, the men were all strangers to each other, here today and gone tomorrow never to return. Each man was dependent upon himself for his food, shelter, and even life, none of them were wealthy, and they had neither the time. incli- nation nor the money to give to strangers. Then another reason, deaths were very many in number for such a small population, due from various causes. Many immigrants landed in Stockton with just money sufficient to pay their passage, lured to California with the absurd report that gold could be picked up off the earth. They took sick and died. Others came with some coin, they were also taken sick and going to the hospital, were turned out into the streets to die as soon as their money was exhausted. The physician was one of the most humane of men, but medicines, labor, material and food were high in price, and he could not act otherwise than as he did. Then there were many cases of men drunk with liquor who would mire down in the mud of winter, lie down and die. These were some of the con- ditions in the "days of '49."

After the organization of the city govern- ment, quite a number of the dead were buried in the lot where now stands the county jail. Then by common consent the city authorities selected a piece of ground just east of the Western Pacific depot. An engine house is now located on the block. Soon after this selection of a burial place had been made a wail went up from the press, "For mercy's sake and for the love of God, good Christian gentleman, let us bury our dead." Then the reported declared, "The hogs are rooting un the dead bodies on the unfenced burial ground. Now we earnestly suggest," said he, "that the city council take this matter under serious con- sideration, as they could do no more popular act than enclose with a good fence the Stock- ton burial ground." In the previous year, July, 1851, the committee on public grounds had been authorized to advertise for "proposals, to build a fence around the graveyard belong- ing to the city." They had taken the squat- ters possession, and Councilman Howison, in January, 1852, offered a resolution which was adopted, that the committee on public grounds "be instructed to confer with Captain Weber and solicit from him a donation of the burial grounds." At the same time $1,000 was appro-

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priated by the council towards inclosing the grounds. The citizens had previously obtained $500 by subscription for the same purpose, and they had requested the council to create the office of city' sexton, "to take charge of the graveyard, superintend funerals and make monthly reports of burials to the council." Their request was approved and the council appointed Morris H. Bond as city sexton and Jacob Sutherland as grave digger. M. H. Bond was a curious figure in Stockton's society. He was less than five feet in height, heavy-set, near-sighted, and slow of comprehension; be- cause of this he was the goat of many jokes. He was a Mason, an Odd Fellow and at one time a member of the Stockton Cornet Band. For over thirty years he was a funeral director and several times coroner, his office and home being just east of the engine house on Weber Avenue. He was the first undertaker to pur- chase a hearse, in 1856, and it was a crude vehicle in comparison with the handsome automobile hearses of today. The donation of the grounds was cheerfully made by Cap- tain Weber and soon after blocks of land were deeded to the Catholic and Jewish churches, and the Odd Fellows for the burial of their dead. In March, '61, a meeting of citizens was held in the city hall for the purpose of purchasing a new burial ground as "the city cemetery," they declared, "is being rapidly filled and will soon be unfitted for the pur- poses for which it is now used." The follow- ing year the old burial place was abandoned and the undertaker began the removal of the bodies, of those who had the money to pay for the work, to Rural Cemetery. Hundreds of bodies were left in the earth and the block, overgrown with dry grass, littered with broken tombstones and open graves was a disgrace to the city. The fence was broken in many places, cows fed and trampled over the graves and in '67 Captain Weber, at his own expense, engaged a carpenter to repair the fence, "for he is determined to keep the swine, horses and cattle from encroaching upon the graves." The legislature in 1893 authorized the removal of cemeteries from the city limits and Mayor W. R. Clark, recom- mending their removal, the city cemetery was obliterated, the Catholics selling their block to the Holt Manufacturing Plant, removing their dead to a new plot just north of North Street; the Odd Fellows, laying off a plot in the Rural grounds, sold their lot to the Western Pacific Railroad, and the Jewish cemetery still remains in the city limits.

J. M. Buffington's Administration

City elections every year, state and county elections every two years, kept the politicians busy. The proposal of the Democrats to carry the election of 1854 as they had carried the

three previous elections, went glimmering. The Democrats assembled in the city hall .April 20 and elected Captain P. E. Jordan president, and Abram Schell and Dr. Christo- pher Grattan secretaries. Dr. E. B. Bateman offered a resolution, which was adopted, that all candidates for office be pledged to sup- port the convention nominees or withdraw their names. Apparently up to this time there had been no party lines drawn in city elec- tions. The Whigs, assembled the day follow- ing the Democrats, declared "Whereas, the necessity has been forced upon us by the late Democratic convention of effecting an organ- ization ; Resolved, that we recommend compe- tency and integrity as constituting the only real claim to public support for municipal honors." They appointed a committee of thir- teen from the four wards to recommend a city municipal ticket, they to report April 25. Re- porting they said, "We have endeavored to select men whose interests are permanently identified with the city ; men of sound practical judgment and unquestionable character, abil- ity and integrity." They recommended for mayor, John M. Buffington, at the time was engaged in the grocery business, who was already a councilman, superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school and of the public schools. The unusual thing hap- pened in 1854, when the mayor of Stockton read to the council his report of the public schools as superintendent. All of the nomi- nees were elected viva voce, a very unusual custom in elections, but the Whigs declared "Let every man show his hand." The Demo- cratic press commenting on this method of voting asserted that B. W. Owens, the chair- man, "is constituted the king of the crowd and the ballot box is repudiated and almost scoffed at." In 1854 the Democrats voted by the same method in their convention. Commenting on the Whig nominee for mayor, the editor de- clared, "We have one objection to Mr. Buffing- ton, of a most serious character ; he was the head and front of the movement for the issue of city bonds to the amount of thousands of dollars for the purpose of building costly school houses."

The Democrats had placed at the head of their ticket William Vance for mayor, but he was defeated by the Whig nominee 518 to 410 votes. Mayor Buffington made a very able inaugural address before the council, in which he stated that the city revenue from taxation was $48,000, licenses $6,000, harbor dues $10,000, and rent of city property $5,000. The expense was, fire department $2,000, hos- pital, streets and wharves $16,000; schools $7,000, interest $20,000, and contingent $10,000. There was a balance of $25,000 which he hoped would be used in the liquidation of the debt. John M. Buffington was a very active

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business man and unfortunately for the city, he removed to San Francisco with his wife and four children in 1857 and there died in June, 1891. Born in Massachusetts in 1828. he attended the public schools of Boston, and coming to Stockton in 1849, he did his first work as a carpenter on the Presbyterian Church at sixteen dollars a day. He then opened a cracker bakery, where now stands the business college on Weber Avenue. He was a prominent Mason, and possessing con- siderable self-esteem, he had painted a life- sized oil painting of himself in the handsome Knights Templar uniform. It hung for many years on the wall of the Pioneer hall. One evening a woman lecturing on woman suffrage stated in her remarks, "They say the men are not self-conceited," and pointing to the paint- ing, she quietly said, "Look at that." The applause was deafening, the men as well as the women enjoying the speaker's sarcasm.

The City Rents Property

An income of $5,000 a year from the rent of city property would not come amiss even in this day. The idea of leasing property was conceived in the first council, that of 1850, for the purpose of replenishing the exchequer, and it was thought more advisable than the ordinance which they had passed taxing the auctioneers $100 a month. Captain Weber had deeded to the city the west half of block 12, fronting on Hunter and Main Streets, and Phelps & Company had made the council an offer of $600 per month, payable in advance, for lots on Main Street, which they accepted. Reserving lot seven for the use of the Hook and Ladder company, they leased the balance of the property, the lessors to erect their own buildings. Much of the property was a det slough in winter, but the buildings were erected on piles. On the corner was a saloon and to the east I. S. Locke's daguerrean car, which sat on wheels. The low one-story shacks remained until 1865 when the fire of May 5 wiped them out of existence, and the city out of considerable profit. Soon after the fire the Odd Fellows' Hall Association offered the council $5,000 for the corner lot 90x100 feet. The council accepted the offer, but Mayor Gray vetoed the ordinance, saying "the price was too cheap." The council passed it over his head and the Association erected the finest building, a three-story, in the San Joa- quin Valley.

In 1854 the council leased the southwest corner of the Court House Square to Webster & Barstow, a mercantile firm. They paid $250 a month for the rent of the ground, 50 feet on Main and 100 feet on Hunter street, and on piles of heavy timbers erected a one-story sheet-iron building. Some two years later

they removed and Marks, the auctioneer, occu- pied the building until 1860. It was then voted by the council to fill in and improve the square and the building was torn down.

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History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 21

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1660

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660