Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 47

EDITORIALS FEATURES tribune NO. 15 VOL CLV OAKLAND TRIBUNE, SUNDAY, JULY 15, 1951 grand and glorious Fourth of July, demonstrate Sfheir patriotism and have a good time. At 10 o'clock in the morning the parade started, Jieaded by the local 16-piece all-brass band, with drums but without uniforms, to give it all a proper setting. Tr.en came cowpunchers and other horsemen in a wild and woolly array, firing blanks from their six-guns and yelling like Comanche Indians or worse, and last but not least came a whole flock of school children Rev. J.

B. McNally. I was dressed in a Norfolk suit with knickerbocker pants, and a little round cap, Oxford style. I met Brother Andrews, who introduced me to the class. They all laughed at the way I was dressed and my accent.

But we came to be great pals. Some of the class were Jack Hassler, Jack Halloran, Edmund Kel-lar, Eddie McAllister, Tom Coyne, Charlie Fee-han, George Nolan, Joseph Kingston, Alex Brock, Babe O'Keefe. My dad died a few years later. I had to leave school and go to work for Lassen and Jonathan Trumbull (Juan Jose) Warner. Aristocratic families among the His-pano-Californians, boasting their pure Castilian blood, were the Castros, Picos, Arguellos, Car-rillos, Alvarados, Vallejos, Noriegas, Bandinis and a few others.

Not a few daughters of the best families readily surrendered to the allurements of the Yankee immigrants. Many a dark-eyed senorita made a secret vow never to marry any but a man with the admired ojas azules (blue eyes). Abel Stearns won the hand and heart of Dona Arcadia Bandini, reputed to be the most beautiful of all Californians, daughter of the influential Don Juan Bandini. Stearns himself, particularly after receiving a facial scar as the result of a brawl, was perhaps the homeliest man in the whole province! Like most other home-seeking foreigners, Stearns became an adopted Mexican citizen, became known as Don Abel (pronounced as one word), received a large land grant to which several other ranchos were added, until he became one of the largest land owners in all California. As is well known, his beautiful home became a popular center of true California hospitality he was a princely entertainer.

Having no children of his own, he was called the childless patriarch. i 'Awesome Indeed' "One item of special interest may be mentioned here. In 1842, half a dozen years before Marshall's discovery at Coloma, Don Abel sent about 20 ounces of gold to the mint at Philadelphia. This had been mined in Southern California, following the discovery by Francisco Lopez in the Santa Feliciano Canyon, near Los Angeles. Although rated one of the wealthiest men in all California, a succession of dry years brought him temporarily almost to a condition of bankruptcy.

He was a principal builder of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, served for a time as alcalde and later became sub-confidential agent of the United States at Los Angeles under Thomas O. Larkin of Monterey. In this capacity some of his most valuable service to the United States was rendered. Stearns died 80 years ago, in San Francisco. Harris Newmark recalled the incident of his burial in these words: 'Late in October, his body was brought to Los Angeles for final interment the tombstone having arrived from San Francisco a week or two previously.

Awesome indeed was the scene that I witnessed when the ropes sustaining the 800-pound metallic casket snapped, pitching the coffin and its grim contents into the grave. I shall never forget the unearthly shriek of Dona Arcadia, nor the accident itself." becoming scholastic. Mr. Meacham was not a historian in the scholastic sense. But perhaps his contribution was much the greater because of that.

No old trail was too remote for him to tramp over and reconstruct. And the literally thousands of appearances he made at schools and general gatherings during his lifetime have done very much to keep alive the pioneer fame. We will miss him." Prescott Continuing the story of his excursions into Arizona scenery and old mining towns, John W. Winkley says: "I left Flagstaff on the afternoon of May 2, following Route Alt. 89 down Oak Creek Canyon and into the mountains around Jerome and Prescott.

Oak Creek Canyon is surely among the few most beautiful spots on earth. We stopped briefly at a small resort made famous as the scene of Zane Grey's story of 'The Call of the As we debouched upon the valley, we crossed the Verde River and climbed into steep-sided Jerome, perched on the flank of a great mountain. What a strange place to build a town, but its vast ore beds of copper lured men here. In the late afternoon we hastened along the mountain road to Arizona's one-time capital city, Prescott. We drove about the well-kept and flourishing little city, then found a comfortable motel and bedded down for a restful night.

Gold was discovered here about 1863 and a mining camp established. This was in Civil War days. Confederate troops under a General Hunt had seized the desert lands of New Mexico and Arizona, ranging as far west as Tucson. An old map of that time shows the dividing line between these states as running east-west, New Mexico occupying the northern section and Arizona the southern part. But in 1862 General Carleton, with the California Volunteers, drove the Confederates out of the country and Carle-ton governed the whole region from his station to Tucson.

At length a territorial government was set up for these territories and. the state lines run as of the present day. Prescott was made the seat of government, and in 1879 Col. John C. Fremont was appointed territorial governor.

Jessie Fremont's Day "In my possession is an old and prized book, 'Far West written by Jessie Benton Fremont. Its closing chapter relates the story of her trip from the end of the rail line at Yuma to" Prescott in the mountains some 230 miles away. The road was only a rough, rocky, sandy trail with intermittent water springs. Gen. W.

T. Sherman had just come down from Prescott. He said to Jessie: 'I pity you. Going over that road, there were plates where I shut my eyes and held my breath. You will cry and say your Jessie gives a vivid description of this journey in which two large stages drawn by six strong mules on each carried her and her party across the 230 miles of burning desert at a rate of 30 agonizing miles per day.

They were protected by a detachment of soldiers, and arrived safely in Prescott. Mrs. Fremont called the stages They entered Prescott on a Sunday, and the streets of the little town were lined with men, women and children, waving a welcome. But there was no 'governor's nor a livable hotel. A generous citizen vacated his cottage, turning over the key to Mrs.

Fremont with the words, 'Lock us out until you have a house of your Jessie soon made a place for herself in the community, encouraging a dramatic club, a local theater, an orchestra, and chorus. As elsewhere, she was the center of social life. She gave history talks to the 200 children in the town's brick schoolhouse. Now that is all ancient history. Behind the present scene, I beheld the Indians, prospectors, miners, soldiers and the builders of modern Prescott." Fourth in Hadson The town of Hadson, Calaveras County, has been entirely wiped off the map and on the ground where it once stood are gullies- and heaps of rock, for the area has been run through sluice boxes for the free gold it then contained.

Fifty years ago, says W. C. Shipley, it was a booming mining town and was part of the property of the Royal Consolidated Mine and some other smaller mines along the same lode, and all were prospering. Its inhabitants were a polyglot collection of Mexicans, Spaniards from Spain, a few Cousin Jacks, some "Dog Eaters," a sprinkling of Irish from the Old Sod and a whole flock of Americanos. As a rule, the mill never shut down unless there was an accident to the machinery, for every minute lost in operation cost the company much profit in pure gold, but on the Fourth of July and Christmas it would shut down the day shift, which was from 6 in the morning to, 6 at night This respite" from labor gave the several hundred inhabitants a chance to relax and celebrate It was July 4, 1901, that the town and countryside gathered in the one main street, one-man, one-saloon, one-store town to do homage to the NFORTUNATELY, we cannot all go ailong with the Nevada County Historical Society when, on July 22, it travels in caravan to the historic camps of Alpha and Omega.

We can, however, get the foretaste and atmosphere from Axel Gravander of Grass Valley's Union. He tells us: "The Alpha and Omega diggings will of course go down in history as the birthplace of Emma Nevada. Her fame and glory belongs to Alpha but Omega will always bask in the reflected luster. It was, however, the hardworking miners who built the one-time thriving little towns with the fruits of their labor, reared their children to men and women, many of whom have been instrumental in the development of this region. Alpha and Omega were out in the peripheri of the gold country, far enough away from Nevada City to make them quite isolated in the good old horse and buggy days.

They were therefore pretty much dependent on their own resources and ingenuity when itt came to diversions and entertainment after the daily grind. And they did fairly well in that regard with Masonic Lodge, the Sons of Temperance, and of. course schools and churches. Down the awful steep grade was 'Washington, where other diversions were to be found in weekly dances and other goings-on. Washington was really the general rendezvous for miners, throughout the regionand one of the greatest attractions was the race track on Murphy's tRanch, where uztail mustangs from Sierra Valley, Moore's Flat and the City of Six competed for sometimes big stakes and always with spirited betting.

And Omega had its Ah Suey Chang. Ah Suey Chang "Ah Siuey Chang was a real character and tradition gives him a nimbus as prince and overlord over the unusually large number of Orientals who congregated in the triumviral camps of Alpha and Omega and Washington, in which last place China Flat by Yuba River was teeming with Chinese. A great number of these had come from the railroad gangs across Bear Valley. Ah Suey was a merchant with a big supply store in Washington, well stocked for the local trade and capable of outfitting outlying camps, lone prospectors or bigger scouting parties. He was also ready with a grubstake for almost anyone, and many canny deals brought gold flowing into his coffers.

Ah Suey ruled his princedom from his house in Omega which "in time became known all over the state of California and the lively camps in Nevada. His Omega house was also a mecca for the gambling Orientals, who left most of their clean-ups and hard-earned wages at his gambling tables. From Nevada City, Grass Valley, the valley towns, down to San Francisco? from Virginia City and Reno gamblers canoe singly and in parties, and games lasted sometimes for weeks on end. From all Ah Suey extracted his mite, and his wealth was said to be considerable. But his life was empty hie had no sons to worship him when he was gone and to carry his name to further glories.

This sad affair could, however, be remedied. He sent $2000 in gold to China and his clan there picked out a wife for him. Bride Is Welcomed "Her arrival was a gala day in the Washington Basin's history. When she alighted from the stage heavily veiled as befitted a bride-tc-be, she was greeted by Ah Suey with fitting Oriental solemnity. Of course, everybody in the three camps were there and celebrants had come from far and near.

A Chinese band escorted the wedding party to China Flat, where a splendid spread had been prepared. Not only was there everything the Chinese etiquette prescribes, but the white women of Washington had baked and decorated a mammoth wedding cake that Ah Suey himself valued so highly that he could hardly allow this token of friendship to be cut. The hydraulic minei-s in the Alpha and Omega district were among the more high-spirited participants in the violent debris battle with the valley faction. The leaders sometimes had to hide from the spies and sheriff posses that made sweeps through the hydraulic area from Omega over Bloomfield and the Ridge. Tradition has it that the Omega miners footed the bill for the lavish outfitting of a luxurious 'blind room' in the Kidder mansion in Grass Valley, to which the hydrau-lickers retired when the law was out looking for them." Abel Stearns Anniversary Just 80 years ago (August 23, 1871), Abel Stearns, for years during the Mexican regime the most influential foreigner in Southern California, died at the Grand Hotel in San Francisco.

Rockwell D. Hunt, author and historian, writes to tfte Knave: "A pioneer of J829, he was one of the first American home-seekers in California, a group including such men as Capt Henry D. Fitch, William E. P. Hartnell, William WclfskillMJohn Marsh, Robert Livermore, Peter carrying American flags It was a patriotic show and did the community a lot of good.

While the parade was under way Bill Dennis, master me- chanic, and a crew of men were firing a 21-gun salute from the top of the hill behind the town from a cannon with an inch bore made from an old piece of shafting. It made a heap of noise. The people then gathered in the new hall that had just been completed, the band played "America" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" and several other patriotic tunes while the audience stood spellbound and reverent. While these tunes were being played by the band one of the local belles, dressed as Columbia, stood on the platform and waved Old Glory. Eating Champion Mr.

J. C. Kemp Van Ee, the big boss of the mine, called to order and introduced Mr. Walter Lanagan, his trusted secretary, as master of ceremonies, who made a long speech and then introduced the speaker of the day, who happened to be myself (Shipley), as I was young, green and just out of medical school the year before. I did not cover myself with glory, but did evoke a few rounds of cheers.

As my oration was rather short it made a hit, for the boys did want to get out into the street again to resume the festivities. After the exercises in the hall there was a series of games and contests in the one wide street, consisting of foot races, sack races, three-legged races, wheelbarrow races, rock-drilling contests, both single and double jack, timber sawing, and egg and spoon and relay races for the kiddies and a lot more; it was a full afternoon. About 3 in the afternoon Red Pat (Patrick McKinna) gave a demonstration of his capacity for food by eating six dozen raw hen's eggs, shells and all, as he sipped the contents of 12 bottles of beer. It took him over two hours to accomplish this superhuman feat. There was bronco busting in a nearby open field for the horsemen.

Of course, the local bar did a smashing business and some of the elated celebrants got a bit pickled. There were a few fights which were squashed before they became serious and everybody had a glorious time, and those who could went to work when the 6 o'clock shift came, for gold had to be produced. Indian Theory The Knave: "As there has always been much 'pro and con' regarding whether the Indians burned the underbrush, I decided to try for first-hand information. That which I got was so interesting that I want all the information I can get on what the Indians thought they were accomplishing by burning the brush. It has quite a bearing on our dwindling water supply, so much so that the University of California School of Forestry is investigating the effect of surplus vegetation on reducing our dwindling water supplies.

In fact they are trying to learn anew 'a lost art' the Indians practiced. Well to get back to our Indians. In the year 1933 when the countryside was snowed in and frozen, I spent the night on the Trinity River, upstream from the Union Hill Siphon. A Missourian and an old Indian who were working a claim asked me to spend the night with them. I found that the intelligent old Indian (Charley Daniels) had been a 'wild Indian' in his childhood and youth, so here was a chance to get first-hand information.

He told me that they were sure that the burning made the springs run better, the clover grow better and the quail more plentiful and that the smoke kept the bugs down and kept the country healthy. He also added a good bit of information to the effect that fh those days the Indians had no pants.and that anyone who tried to go through brush without pants would appreciate the advantages of open country. Charley is now gone as are many of the old timers who used to tell me things. I hope others can give more dope on the Indians' understanding of the relation of brush to spring-flow." Bill Gianella. In Strange Land The.

Knave: "I arrived in West Oakland in 1900, just a little lad from Liverpool, England, and stayed at the Hudson House, down "at the Point. Then my family rented a home on Henry Street, from the Miss Taite Real Estate Company. Being of Catholic faith, the Catholic neighbors had their children take me to St Patrick's School, 10th and Peralta Streets. I remember the boys who took me to school: Edward Gaines, Danny O'Keefe, Mathew Lest- range, Jack Halloran, Jack ODonnell. It was then I met a great priest, the the California Flax Mill, Third and Magnolia, My boss was Tony Silva.

I remember a girl named May Halpin working there. Also the Gaines, the Hallorans and the Gaspers, and John P. Ferle, were good to us, in our trying days in a new country. We bought our meat from John Mays, the bread at the Wolfe Bakery, our suits at C. J.

Heesman's. For amusement we went to the Novelty Theater, and the Dewey. Bought our groceries at Eiben and. Nors. The free library was in Hansen Hall.

Tom Painter owned a saloon at Seventh and Chester Streets. The Capitol Hotel, 11th and Franklin Streets, was owned by D. Meilette. Wishart's Drug Store was at 10th and Washington Streets. We used to go to Freeman's Park, 60th and San Pablo Avenue, to see the Oaks play.

I remember players named Pete Lohman, Bill Dunleavy, Kid Mohler and Strieb." Walter J. Johnston. Horse Car Days Alex J. Rosborough was "chewing the fat' of the Eighties and before when he told us of old San Antone. He takes up, properly, with the Brooklyn which followed: "After Brooklyn came, a two horse car line operated along 12th Street, between Broadway in Oakland and 13th Avenue in Brooklyn, which passed Tubb's Hotel, a social center of the 70's and 80's, located on the block between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

These cars were quite large in those days, had two seats, one on either side of the car and running the full inside length. Fare was paid by dropping a copper token, with an imprint of the car on it, into a glass enclosed box along side the door at the front end of the car. If any passenger neglected to drop the fare into the box, the driver gave a reminder by pulling on a wire which rang a little bell inside the box, calling attention of the forgetful rider to pungle up. At 13th Avenue and 12th Street, where the Tubb's Hotel line ended, it connected with the Highland Park and Fruitvale line, which ran from Brooklyn Southern Pacific Station, out 13th Avenue and at 20th Street east to then out that street to the old County Road, -which it followed east to the head of Fruitvale Avenue and ended in front of the Hermitage Resort. This one horse car was quite small and shaped like the letter 'O', with an oblong bell shaped top and long curved seats ran against the wall on either side.

When the driver came to the end of the line he pulled out a coupling pin and drove the horse around to the other end of the stationery truck, turning the body of the car around on a little round track, built on the truck, as he went, so the car provided its own turntable, and when the hole in the protruding plate fitted over a hole in the plate on the wheel truck, he dropped the coupling pin back in place, which made the back wheels on the going trip the front wheels on the return. It made a topheavy looking affair and did not stay long. Afterwards this company ran a two horse double deck car. The old street car track on Commerce ran along the creek bank, and in the stream, which emptied into an arm of the Bay, there were little fish in summer time, and a large head of water in winter's run-off. Huckleberry AleX "Redwood Peak is not now a lonesome place, neither was it back in the early eighties, when we boys from Brooklyn used to ramble all over the high ground and when land subdivisions were larger we caught trout in Fruitvale Creek, up in Dimond Canyon, and from the top of the Peak used to heliograph messages down to Highland Park.

We shot quail and cottontail rabbits in the gulches on its slopes. There were stumps of redwood trees up there, from five to 18 feet in diameter, which told a story of earlier lumber doings. I often wonder if that old huckle berry patch, near the top, from which I've picked and packed home many a bucket of ber-. ries (to make marvelous pies) still grows. Judge La Rue lived in the big white mansion which stood on the north side of 12thStreet, between 13th Avenue and Commerce Street.

He presented the city with four blocks of land, east of 16th Avenue, between 17th and 19th Streets, on the south slope of 'La Rue' hill, for park purposes, which was named 'Independence There was a boy born in Brooklyn. We all called him the 'Brooklyn Giant' He shot up like a bean stalk and got to be seven feet, four inches tall. Have seen him walk up to one of the old city gas lamps" (which were lighted by a man on horseback with a lighter on the end a stick) and reach up to the cut-off valv inside the glass frame. THE KNAVE An Epic Race Some few have memories of the greatest of races on the Mississippi; more have heard their parents tell the tale. And there are many thousands who have seen a movie re-enactment or read an account in newspaper columns that are given to recalling old events.

I am thinking that June 30 was the anniversary of the race between the steamers Robert E. Lee and Natchez. From Louisville, and the Courier-Journal, I get this briefed account: "In the epic race which started in New Orleans June 30, 1870, both the captains, Thomas P. Leathers of the Natchez and John Cannon of the Robert E. Lee, were Kentuckians and had their early lessons in navigating on the Ohio.

Thousands of watchers stood on the banks and levees for the whole 1200-mile stretch, sweltering under a hot sun by day, lighted by bonfires at night, while the two boats the Lee stripped to the gunwales, the Natchez carrying a full load both belching fire and smoke, made their way up the river, a three-and-a-half-day trip. Three days, 18 hours and 14 minutes, to be exact, it took the Robert E. Lee to make the old St. Louis wharf, six hours ahead of her rival. The record has never been bettered; accidents, ice and a flash flood have intervened.

Even if it should be, however, the glamour of those palatial sidewheelers of the Showboat era can never be renewed. They are like fairy stories in this atomic age." Oregon Historian Those who dig deeply into the history of the West, and particularly the Northwest, are acquainted with the writing and the labors of the late Walter Meacham of Portland. For a number of years he has been called upon to settle points in dispute; he has gone over the old trails and separated legend from fact. When he died recently, the Oregonian said editorially: "Mr. Meacham was akin to such men as the late Professor Horner of Oregon State College and the late George H.

Hines, long superintendent of the Oregon Historical Society. These men deeply involved through themselves and their families in the founding of the state devoted their lives to preserving the state's records. It was an almost 'fanatical devotion. It is improbable that others will appear to take their places, especially on a statewide basis. Whether for better or.

for worse, history has" entered a new phase. Definitely, our history is.