Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 46

2-FL GakUnblTrlbune Jan. 20, 1963 A B-FlNNAtLITorTJaland's skyline in 1868 was the Wilcox I it LUI Indiana where the snowfall was light and the hill slopes In my youth I attended Boston University and In my first year there a church superintendent came to the school asking for three young, men to go to Maine for work where the snow piles up eight to 10 feet and more. There were no volunteers until two other boys and myself felt ashamed and gave our names. I can't rethember what hap- -pened, but he didn't return for us. When serving a student appointment at Old Plymouth I recall a stormy winter day when I took the Old Colony Railroad train to Plymouth in midst of a terrific At Plymouth the wind had swept the sand-dune road out to my little church free oU-snow.

I started walking, forgetting that between the dunes and my church there was snow 12 to 15 feet deep. Darkness" came on as I struggled into a drift and -became I thought "this Is the end." But an idea struck me. I laid my suitcase on the and worked my way to the top, then scooted along the road until I saw a lifiht. the home of an in fl i i HI i 1 i i i ii -v, vTi. -s built in 1868 and still standing at southwest 15-year-old companion, Johanna Rodesino, and a Mrs.

Amelia Lloyd, then a bride of little more tharf one year.a Johanna rode along side Agnes and was struck in the. temple byjtfiotgun pellets from the single blast fired by the highwaymen. The stage driver, Alphonse "Babe" Raggio, caught some of the shot in his lungs, and Mike Tovey, the stage messenger, was hit in the -arm. Johanna died from her wound a few hours later. Raggio and Tovey carried the shot to their graves many years -later.

Mrs. "Lloyd escaped injury, as did Agnes, who-lived to become Mrs. Gustave Guerard. "There have been many versions told eoricerning the tragic evenC' Mrs. Guerard says.

"All through the years it -has been called the Sheep Ranch stage robbery, but the highwayman didn't make any attempt to rob the stage even though it carried the payroll for the Sheep Ranch Mine. The shotgun blast toppled Raggio. over-back--- jvards and he was held on the stage by To- Johanna slumped over unconscious. I must have panicked. I remember I had on a coat I borrowed from my older sister, but I leaped from the stage without touching or tripping anything and started running back, down the road screaming.

Three riders said in town they, would be following us. Then I heard the stage start moving. Tovey had grabbed the reins with his one good Lloyd shouted himthe varning that I was out of the stage, and he 1 was still frightened when I leaped in, but it was on the run back to the stage that I "saw the, gunman. He was tall and thin and wore a dirty rag half over his face as a mask. Tovey drove us to a nearby farm, then drove the stage back tVSan Andreas-to spread' the alarm.

A posse was formed but they never did find the i i i 111' I Early photo of the Wilcox Building a new deal in and around there at an early day. Every well-wisher of Oakland ill be glad to hear that the matter has been set- tied somehow, and that so important an institution as the Grand Central, as re- spects the city's prosperity, will.be no longer clouded by any conflict of ownership. The doctor will doubtless always have the credit of making the hotel so striking an architectural ornamentation so overtowering and magnificent, all things considered, while the captain will have the satisfaction of running it to suit himself, however costly the experience heretofore. Let us hope that all are satisfied and that the hotel may prosper with amazing prosperity. We do not know the precise terms of the compromise, hence we will not speak particularly on that point," the article concluded.

Pointed out as the rrtost magnificent inn on the Pacific Coast, the big hotel did prosper for awhile. But bad days caught up with it and on the, night of March 9, 1880, it burned to the ground. The very year Capt. P. S.

Wilcox won his law suit with Dr. Merritt thtere" was a listing in the newspapers of Oakland's richest men. Edson Adams headed the list, Dr. Samuel Merritt was second. Sixth on the list was Capt.

P. S. Wilcox. Tragic Holdup LAST Sunday was an eventful day for Mrs. Agnes Filippini Guerard of Concord.

Now 85 years of age, she was -guest-oftronorwhen a molTuhlent "was dedicated four miles beyond San Andreas where the last stage holdup in Calaveras County took place 70 years ago. She is the 'last survivor among thoe present at Jhe holdup. On that occasion in April of 1892 the 15-y ear-old Agnes Filippini was a passenger' aboard the stage along with her til ii ii trsiiat ft 'w ii Mi iii.m- i. mi in i i. 1 1 W'tif 41ir- Building onJhe.lsojuth.west cor-- ner of -Broadway and-Ninth" bt, It still stands.

But despite lis then towering height, owner Pv S. Wilcox's loudest boast was that it was the first three-story brick building in Oakland. And it was. Perhaps the reason little ado was made about its height was that some of Oakland's majestic oak trees were still in abundance and may have added 'more to the skyline than the three-story At any rate, the photograph shown of the building today's Knave page is undoubtedly a very early picture of the structure. It tvins this honor, due to the fact the oak tree stands the corner of Ninth and Broadway." In the only other early pictures of the building we've seen, this oak tree is missing.

Albert E. Norman. Oakland realtor, author and historian, says Wilcox acquired the land on which the building stands in 1866 for a jeweler's magnifying eyepiece we made out the date in the insignia atop the building's Broadway front to be 1868. William Halley's Centennial Year Book of Alameda County, published in 1876 has this to say about the building following the earthquake of October, 1868: "Wilcox's three-story brick building, corner of Broadway dJiMhStreetSr-cscaped -unharmed, some of the cement merelv-beinp brok-pn from the outer wall. This building is the highest in the city.

Its walls are well tied together, a large amount of iron having been used in their construction and this accounts for their security. Dunham Cook, proprietors of the Palace Photo-graph Gallery, sustained some damage from the destruction of chemicals, which damaged the carpeting of the waiting room. In today's photograph, the Palace Photograph Gallery is tied the name 'A. K. Kipp.

Just another bit. of that this photo was taken some months prior to the October 1868 earthquake perhaps very shortly after the buildings was completed and occupied earlier in 1868. WE ARE indebted to Terry Wilkinson, an Oakland collector of stereoscopic slides, for today's picture. He found it among some views purchased on the Atlantic seaboard recently. "For some years after its erection, this building was a landmark of the city's main artery and was looked upon as important and imposing," Norman tells us.

"It was -primarily office building at first, al- though some years later it housed a hotel, as it does today. I recall my mother telling me she learned the art of millinery in a basement room in the building. Steps down to the millinery shop were located on the Ninth St. side of the building." At the far lef.t of the picture, at street level, can be seen the first offices of the Oakland Bank of Savings of which P. S.

Wilcox was then president. A horse and buggy stand in front. The second horse and buggy is just about in front of the rooms occupied by Wells Fargo Express. There was a barber shop and the offices of E. C.

Sessions, a man who was extremely active and influential' in developing both business and residential properties east of Lake Merritt. The hardware dealers, importers and sellers of agriculture implements at the-Broadway and Ninth St. corner were Herbert E. Wilcox and Constantino Grosso. "The same year P.

S. Wilcox bought the "Broadway property for the site of his 'sky- scraper' he also bought a block of land along Telegraph Ave. rom Hobart to 20th Norman continues. "There he built his home which he sold in 1870, later mak- ing his residence in the palatial Grand Central Hotel on 12th in whichhe was also financially interested. But a fewyears later-the Oakland directories have him -residing -on ---the-west -side; ot Jackson.

St. 1 between 12th St. and Lake Merritt." SESSION'S Red Estate Gazette of Jan-Wuary, 1869, reported that "the -year Jjust ended has been one of unparal: leled prosperity for the City of Oakland. Greater changes have taken place within the year 1868 than during any two -or three years of her former historyDuring the last nine months, five miles of streets within the city limits have been graded, curbed and macadamized and a large amount of work of the same nature is now being projected. Gas and water mains cover a greater portion of the city, several handsome school houses and churches and alarge number of elegant residences have been erected.

Prices of real estate advanced 50 per cent or more." This was the year Dr. Samuel Merritt was mayor of Oakland. Merritt was responsible for the building of Oakland's Grand Central Hotel and lie and P. S. Wilcox were undoubtedly friends in its financing.

But five years later this was not so. A Tribune of February, 1875, reports the settlement of a law suit, Merritt vs. Wilcox. "The Captain-Gets theBig Hotel: the Doctor Steps Dow and Out," was the heading. "Ere this," says the news report, "it is a matter of -legal record that the biguit between Captain Wilcox and Dr.

Merritt over the Grand Central Hotel has been finally and forever settled. The captain is now sole proprietor-of the institution, including all the and angles, and will probably make tT i Vi'i 0 v-V" .1 From nit Ttrry wilklnton Colltcllon IttrMtnpic Vltwt corner of Broadway and Ninth Street Snowshoe Thompson THE KNAVE: One of theNmen in California history who holds our lasting respect was John A. Thompson, known as Snowshoe Thompson. He had arrived inXaliforniarin the gold days and had settled on Putah Creek. In the winter of 1856 he read that the settlers in Carson Valley were unable to get their mail or newspapers on account of the deep snow.

As a boy in Norway' he had trained himself tp travel on skis or "snowshoes." He volunteered to carry the mail from Placerville over the mountains and made for himself a pair of sturdy skis. On these, carrying the mail and some food, he would make the trip into Carson Valley regardless of weather or snow. If night overtook him he simply searched out a sheltered spot by a big rock or tree, scratched around until he found some fuel, cooked his meal and then slept snugly in his blanket. He kept up this service for 20 years (1856 to 1876) and took up a-home-stead for himself in Diamond Valley near Woodf ords. I have often stood by his grave in Genoa cemetery a grave marked by -a pair, of stone-carved skis in honor of his, unselfish service.

As a young minister in Dunsmuir I once had a pair of skis given me. One winter day when the snow was about three feet deep on the town's main street I decided to try my-skiis. I climbed to a lofty perch and although the mountain was forested I selected a point where there was but a scattering of-treesriHpat "down the slope, quickly acquiring furious' speed. The trees seemed to get in my path and I collided with most of them. Fortunately, I was not much hurt; just a 'little bruised.

I had too little time to learn the art so gave the snowshoes to a young friend. Snow has always interested me, but my boyhood was spent in southern By MiTOarKs More thaw SO California canyons, UKt.fc.rsb. ISLANDS ANT1 -HILLS ARE NAMED THE MINERS' IMPORTS SOLTRCE OF MEAT-THE RABBIT 1 iVsn II i 1 old sea captain. He took me in for the night. John W.

Wlnkley. New Significance I' JUNEVOORKJs Jhe" Empire StaU of the nation, surely California ranks as Empire State of the Pacific. At least, this is the suggestion forwarded by Dr. Rockwell D. Hunt today.

"I have already applied that title in my writings," he says, "but hence forth it will have new and more convincing reason and added have no disposition to, indulge in a quibble about the exact hour, or day, or even month when we passed (or will pass) New York in population; that's a matter of little moment to me. Rather, I wish to make reference to a limited num-' ber of items (selected from many) concerning which California ranks No. 1 of all our 50 and arrange them according to their respective categories. No -attempt is made to enumerate a complete -list of all the individual firsts, however impressive such a list might be to the typical booster. First of all, a thumbnail chronology.

California was discovered by Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator in Spanish service who entered San Diego Bay on -Sept. 8, 1542, almost exactly 5Q years after Columbus' famous discovery was Francis Drake, the English navigator, who laid clairn to Nova Albion in the summer of thus giving us the first New England in the Western Hemisphere more than 40 years before the landing of the Mayflower with the Pilgrim founders. The. first Spanish settlement was by Portola and Padre Serra at San Diego in 1769. In 1846, following the Bear flag episode, came the American conquest, then the close of the War with Mexico and the acquisition of California in 1848.

The discovery of gold by Marshall was on Jan. 24, 1848. The Golden State was admitted into the Union as the 16th free state on Sept. 9, 1850." The first state constitution continued in effect until 0 VARIETY Of mineral deposits California ranks first. "The grand total," Dr.

Hunt "runs to about 600. The peak for gold came in 1853 with the amazing total for that year.of $65 million; more than a million dollars worth, on an average, left San Francisco each week. In recent years the overshadowing mineral production has been petroleum. The astounding production in agriculture, horti- culture and vegetables has grown to be 'almost beyond belief; eachingat present: into the billions of dollars. I mention here some of the' dozens of California firsts: citrus fruit, dates, barley, rice, sugar beets, peaches, pears, prunes, olives, melons various), i vineyard products (raisins, wine).

In cotton we are second only to the large state of. Texas. In transportation California has most motor vehicles (more than nine million in 1961), highest registrations and largest number of licensed drivers, with most miles of freeways. We have the greatest number of workers in aircraft construction and electronics, also in food processing. In motion picture production Hollywood has long ranked an easy first.

The name Hollywood is known over the world where even Los Angeles and San Francisco are scarcely heard of! More films and tapes of great variety are produced. In the field of education all the way from the kindergarten-to the graduate university Jalifornia enjoys an enviable reputation IN TOLITICS and public Office California claims President Herbert Hoover Vice President Richard Nix6n, Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field, and Chief Justice Earl Warren, as well as many other nign ranking oificers in all branches of the Government. In California literature it is. sufficient simply to mention the names of.

Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, Ina Coolbrith, Jack London and John, Steinbeck. It is a glorious galaxy in which alifornians may take just pride THE KNAVE CALIFORNIA CAVALCADE lllMMMMMMBBB-wvwy fZr K'T CARSON, famous scour OPERATION GETAWAY I 11 FElSKScO WS0NEOFTHEAMERIOWSUR6ICAU I' 715: yaS2t SS25SJrM GLANDULAR rejuvenation, if If (3 SSISJLm underwent eoperapom rspK WMJ ''WA SSS22.A OA WERE SO REJUVENATED THAT I ffS?) IVWAl -1J fig- 7.