1906 EARTHQUAKE: CRIMINALS AFOOT

When the 1906 earthquake turned Santa Rosa topsy-turvy, there were at least two men who thought it was a perfect time to pull off a heist.

To be clear: these were real, plotted felonies, not petty crimes of opportunity. As noted here earlier, there was a mini-crime wave on the morning of the earthquake, as scoundrels took advantage of the confusion to walk off with other people’s stuff. Pity especially the poor family over on Third Street, who found out too late that the kindly strangers who helped them cart their belongings out of their house were actually robbers; their classified ad pleaded for the bad guys to return at least their table linen, “as there was but one napkin left us.”

The first to be unmasked was Hugh W. Dunn, alias “Dr. C. C. Crandall,” who had enough medical know-how to pass himself off as an M.D. He volunteered his services at the Santa Rosa Hospital after the quake, where he allegedly stole cash, a gold watch, and a nurse’s medical bag. Mister Doctor Dunn-Crandall was snagged in Oregon by our indefatigable Sheriff, Frank P. Grace a few weeks later and brought to Santa Rosa, where he was charged with felony embezzlement. Impersonating a physician was apparently completely legal in 1906, and with two years of actual hospital experience, Dunn might even have been more qualified than others who were treating the injured; the edition of the Santa Rosa Republican that appeared the day of the quake thanked all the “alopaths [sic], osteopaths, homeopaths, electics and others…who did valiant service” that day (I’m sure the editor meant “electrics,” but if I were broken and bruised from an earthquake, I’d certainly pick an “electic” physician over a quack with a pair of bare wires and a generator) .

More devious was J. E. Keeler, who worked for the Scott Grocery Company. Keeler had a trusted position with the business, and went to the grocer’s insurance company in San Francisco to settle up the company’s claim. He accepted 50ยข on the dollar – about $2,500 – and skipped town with the money. Keeler was traced to “somewhere about Kansas City” with his young son, but his wife was left behind in Santa Rosa. As Keeler was authorized to collect money due the company, it was unclear if he could be prosecuted, according to the Santa Rosa District Attorney.

Doctor Is Now Wanted

A warrant has been sworn out against Dr. C. C. Crandall charging him with felony embezzlement. The warrant is in the hands of the sheriff and a search is being made for the man who is alleged to have fled from the City of Roses.

About the first known of Dr. Crandall here was subsequent to the earthquake on April 18, when he volunteered to give his services to aid the injured and afflicted in this city.

The absent medico is accused of having stolen from the Santa Rosa Hospital one gold watch valued at $50, a surgical case of considerable value, and $45 in coin.

– Santa Rosa Republican, May 23, 1906
“Dr. Crandall” Is Back

Sheriff Frank P. Grace arrived today from Portland, bringing Hugh W. Dunn, alias “Dr. C. C. Crandall” back to face a charge of felony embezzlement. Dunn had read medicine two years and a half and seen hospital service in the Philippines, which caused him to be valuable as an assistant at the hospital. He claims the nurse whose property he took, knew he intended leaving Santa Rosa for a few days.

– Santa Rosa Republican, June 1, 1906
“Dr. Crandall” Held

Hugh W. Dunn, alias “Dr. C. C. Crandall,” was held to answer before the Superior Court this afternoon by Justice Atchinson, on a charge of felony embezzlement. The doctor is accused of having taken $45 in gold, a gold watch and surgical case from Miss Margaret Linsley, a prety nurse at the hospital and decamped. “Crandall” refused to take the witness chair in his own behalf.

– Santa Rosa Republican, June 4, 1906

J. E. KEELER LEAVES FOR PARTS UNKNOWN
Takes Funds of Creditors and Wife Admits His Guilt

It was learned this afternoon that J. E. Keeler of the Scott Grocery Company has skipped with about $2500 belonging to the creditors of the firm. On receiving the information a representative of the Republican called on Mr. Eli Scott of the company at the warehouse of the Sonoma County Fruit and Produce Company, and learned the following facts concerning Keeler and his actions.

After the earthquake Keeler was authorized to collect what he could of the oustanding accounts of the firm, and since then he has been engaged in doing so. It is supposed that he was able to secure about $1000 of the money owing to the company on accounts. On August 23d he went to San Francisco without stating the object of his visit to the metropolis and there collected what he could of the insurance money coming to the company, settling the claims with the insurance companies for about fifty cents on the dollar. He then returned to this city and on the Sunday following, August 26th, left Santa Rosa.

For several days prior to taking his leave, however, he had been informing members of the company that he was expecting to receive word from his father who was seriously in Paris, Texas, to come at once. It was this impression that he gave when he started from here, but on the following day, August 27th, he cashed the check for the insurance at the D. O. Mills National Bank in Sacramento.

M. Flourand, who is also a member of the firm with Eli Scott and J. E. Keeler, took the matter of the actions of Keeler up and called upon Mrs. Keeler later, telling her that “the cat is out of the bag, and the creditors are aware that Keeler has left with the money.” It is stated that the lady then broke down and crying, told Mr. Flourand that she knew her husband had taken the money and that he had intended to leave with it. When threatened with attachment, and being urged to write to Keeler, she at once telegraphed him and also sent a letter to Kansas City. It is supposed that Keeler went from here to the East, and that he is somewhere about Kansas City at present.

The case is a very peculiar one, and was at once referred to the district attorney and Attorney Julliard, and it was learned after very careful study that there is very little hope of ever being able to bring Keeler back to Santa Rosa and even if he were brought here, there could be nothing done with him, as he was authorized to collect the money and that nothing was done by the creditors of the old firm in order to protect them in such a case as this.

It is known that the money that he had would only partly cover the claims of the creditors, and that if the insurance had been settled on a better basis than that to which he consented, there would have been sufficient to have cleared most of the indebtedness of the company, and have set them on their feet again. Or at least to have permitted them to start even. Mrs. Keeler is certainly to be sympathized with in being left to bear the brunt of the disgrace that her husband has brought upon her, but the plans of Keeler are very evident from the fact that he took with him his young son and gave his wife information as to his whereabouts.

– Santa Rosa Republican, September 11, 1906

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1906 EARTHQUAKE: COURTHOUSE FOR SALE, GOOD FOR PARTS

Amid the hustle to raise a new downtown Santa Rosa in the summer of 1906, the wreck of the old courthouse still sat in the center of it all, as unwanted as Sheridan Whiteside in “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”

The county put the job of demolishing the building up for salvage bid – that a contractor would pay Santa Rosa for the right to tear it down in exchange for the value of materials in the structure. But when the sealed envelopes were opened in August, the Board of Supervisors found the contractors wanted the county to pay them up to $4,500 for the work. The Board passed on those offers without comment, and it was nearly Thanksgiving before it was announced that a deal was struck: A contractor would pay $1,250 for the pleasure of doing the demolition work, and still get to keep everything as salvage.

Gentle Reader is forgiven for thinking this deal smells a mite fishy. Why did only a single contractor offer anywhere near an acceptable bid? And why didn’t that contractor – former Santa Rosa street commissioner J. W. Brackett – submit any bid at all when they were first requested?

Although we can’t know enough today to connect the dots, it smacks of a rigged contract by Santa Rosa’s Good Ol’ Boy network, or as the muckraking team over at the Republican newspaper had recently called it, a “scheming coterie of gentlemen who manage to protect their private interests by the conduct of the city government.” There certainly should have been questions asked, editorials written, and maybe a call made for a Grand Jury investigation. Sadly, none of that happened; the skeptical journalists at the Republican left after the earthquake, and per usual, Press Democrat editor Ernest Finley had no interest in pursuing issues that might reflect badly upon his town.

WHO WANTS THE COURT-HOUSE?

Who wants to buy the Court House? It is highly probable that someone will have the opportunity before long, if the present plans of the Board of Supervisors go through.

The building was badly damaged by the earthquake, and soon afterwards a gang of men were put to work removing the wrecked portion, which included pretty much everything from the second story up. Most of the furniture, the law library, the numberous records, etc., were removed and now the building stands like a dismantled ship at harbor.

It is understood that the Board proposes to advertise for bids, the highest bidder to take the building as it now stands and tear it down and remove it.

– Press Democrat, June 8, 1906
WRECKING THE COURTHOUSE
Bids Opened by the Supervisors at Their Meeting on Thursday

Nobody seems anxious to buy the old Courthouse–the part that remains of it, and instead of the bids opened Thursday by the Supervisors offering cash for the big amount of material in the building, the bidders asked for substantial sums for wrecking the partially demolished structure, and for the material to boot. The Supervisors, after opening the bids, took them under advisement. The bidders were: J. J. Forget, $2,750; D. E. Albers, $3,250; Riley & Maroni, $3,497; Bacigalupi & Forni, $4,500.

– Press Democrat, August 10, 1906


Men working on the fallen cupola of the county courthouse. Photograph courtesy California State Library

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1906 EARTHQUAKE: RACE TO REBUILD

Downtown Santa Rosa was like an obstacle course following the 1906 earthquake, and three months later the streets were still cluttered with lumber and bricks – only now these were piles of new bricks and wood being used in building an entire business district from the ground up.

The rapid pace of construction in those months is mind-blowing. At the June 22 City Council meeting, it was mentioned that in the two months since the earthquake, Building Inspector Willcox had reviewed nearly two dozen plans, and at that meeting alone, permission was granted for construction of five major commercial buildings downtown.

Despite the belief that poor construction was a factor in the collapse of some buildings, there was still resistance to Santa Rosa’s first attempt at enforcing building codes; Willcox issued a stop-work order to one developer for using bad mortar, only to return and find that they had constructed the wall anyway.

Alas, details about this important period in the town’s history are slim. There are no known photos from the rebuilding period, and the papers offered little more than an occasional architect’s sketch of a major building that was underway and a pair of articles that are transcribed below (note that almost all of the buildings described there were at the end of Fourth St. which was obliterated by the mall).

But glimpses of those days can be found in other newspaper items, particularly in requests and complaints made to the City Council. As construction was underway, merchants were still attempting to run their businesses alongside. “In some places where walls have been left standing owners have placed roofs on the structures and completed store rooms,” one article noted. Many of the “temporary structures” approved by Council were little more than wooden tents intended to shade open air tables. At every Council meeting there were approvals for temp buildings, typically described as “40×80 feet,” a “lean-to corregated iron shed,” and most ambitiously, a “small galvanized iron building in the rear of his new building on Fourth street to be used as a kitchen by the new grill room.”

Shoppers also had to be adventurous and nimble because of “dangerous holes and planks across sidewalks, projections from buildings and piles of materials on sidewalks.” An item in the May 13 San Francisco Call compared downtown to the chaos of a mining camp:


On all the side streets leading to the burned portion of the city numerous one-story frame buildings are being erected for temporary use as stores. This gives the city the appearance of a mining camp of the days of ’49.

It was Santa Rosa nightlife that was most transformed, however. The evenings streets were now illuminated only by moonlight; Press Dem editor Ernest Finley told the story that travelers who arrived after nightfall were drawn to his newspaper office because they had the only light visible downtown, and someone would be dispatched with a lantern to lead visitors to their destinations. Fire Chief Muther complained that it was only luck that a fire wagon didn’t collide with one of the “immense heaps of sand” in the street. There was great relief when finally a single electric street light illuminated the town’s main intersection of Fourth and Mendocino, three months after the disaster.

BUILDING GOES MERRILY ON

It is very gratifying not only to the people of this city, but visitors from other sections of the state, to see the progress made in the way of building.

Already the erection of the big C. C. Donovan building at Fourth and Washington streets and the Dougherty-Shea building at Fifth and Mendocino streets, are well under way. The walls of the Morris Prince, T. T. Overton and William Sukalle buildings on Fourth street are also arising.

Material is being hauled to the Con Sheas lots at Fourth and B and Fourth and A streets, and Mr. Shea will soon begin building.

Other property owners are getting ready to build and next week and the week after will see the commencement of several new buildings.

The P. Towey building, occupied by the Noonan Meat Company’s market is about ready for occupancy on Fourth street, and the Shea and Prince buildings are being repaired.

Mr. and Mrs. B. F. McDannell are getting ready to erect their building on Fourth street. The ground floor is already leased and if a fraternal order desires to lease the upper story for a hall it will be built.

Santa Rosa’s new business section promises to eclipse the old one. There are many fine buildings in prospect, including the five-story Livernash Building, the bank buildings, the Overton and Shea buildings, and those to be built by other property owners all along the street, B street, A, Mendocino, Third, Main, Hinton and Exchange avenues, etc.

– Press Democrat, June 28, 1906

SOLID BLOCK OF CONCRETE
Santa Rosa Will Have Substantial Structure

Arrangements are being perfected for the construction in Santa Rosa of reinforced concrete buildings. There is every reason to believe that in the near future work on this mammoth structure will begin, and that it will be enclosed before the rains of the coming winter set in.

The block of reinforced concrete buildings will be located on the south side of Fourth street between Exchange avenue and B street. The property in this block is owned by Mayor John P. Overton and Tol T. Overton with the single exception of the one piece owned by Mr. and Mrs. B. F. McDannaell. These three owners have been considering the matter for some days and have about completed their investigations and concluded that for safety their best interests lay in the reinforced concrete formation.

A solid block of these concrete buildings would certainly be a substantial thing, and the news is pleasing to Santa Rosans that the owners are considering the matter favorably.

Work was begun Monday morning on the foundation for the Towey building at the southwest corner of Fourth and A streets. This structure is to be constructed especially for the use of J. C. Pedersen, the furniture man, and will be rushed to completion as rapidly as possible. The foundation will be sufficient to carry a building of several stories.

Con Shea has begun work on the block of stores he proposes to construct on the southeast corner of Fourth and A streets. Workmen were busy early this morning making the boxes for molding the foundations, which will be heavy with cement. It is expected to have these stores ready for occupancy before the rains of winter begin.

The Coughran, Parsons and Proctor reinforced concrete block, consisting of five stories on Fourth street between Hinton avenue and D street is well under way. The rear walls and side walls are under construction, and the front will be held in abeyance until the matter of widening Fourth Street has been definitely determined by the city council.

Morris Prince and Dougherty and Shea will be among the first property owners here to construct an entirely new business block in the Greater Santa Rosa. In some places where walls have been left standing owners have placed roofs on the structures and completed store rooms. Mr. Prince began from the bare lot and has two handsome buildings already under construction, both being on Fourth between A and B streets. Both of these structures are already one story high and will be carried up another story. Mr. Prince realizes the demand for apartments here and will build as rapidly as he can get men for the work. Messrs. Dougherty and Shea have their building completed to the one story line, but will make it a two-story structure. This will provide elegant offices for attorneys and professional men, something that is badly needed at the present time.

The C. C. Donovan building has reached the second story and is being rapidly completed. The window frames for the second story have been placed in position. Many other buildings are projected for the City of Roses and in a short time there will be even greater activity than is noticeable now.

– Santa Rosa Republican, July 16, 1906

It is indeed remarkable how rapidly the scars of the recent disaster in Santa Rosa are disappearing. The city will be rebuilt sooner than any of us have supposed. Three months have passed since the trouble came upon our fair city. What busy months they have been. First there was the clearing away of the debris then the making of plans, and now there is building activity all along the line. Dozens of fine business blocks will be completed before the winter rains are upon us. These business blocks will be filled with splendid stocks of goods just as soon as they are completed. Everybody notes the progress of our city. Everybody has a good word for the rapidly rebuilding City of Roses. Visitors are thoroughly surprised at what is doing here. They note our progress with great satisfaction and are giving Santa Rosa favorable advertisement wherever they go.

– Santa Rosa Republican, July 19, 1906

MUST OBEY ORDINANCE OR BE ARRESTED

Contractors who refuse to obey the orders of Building Inspector William H. Willcox in future in regard to the building ordinances of Santa Rosa will be arrested and punished. This was officially determined at the Council meeting Tuesday evening. Inspector Willcox reported that he had ordered the work stopped on a certain structure on Fourth street because sand was being mixed with the slacked lime before the lime had an opportunity to cool. This is in violation of the ordinance. The inspector then left town for a couple days, and declared on his return the mortar so made had been used in the building. It is contended that the mixing of sand with hot lime takes the textile strength from the mortar and makes it unfit for use. The councilmen were angry at the treatment accorded the building inspector and notified him in the future to call on Chief of Police Rushmore to arrest any one violating the building ordinances of the city. It is proposed to have this ordinance respected in every particular. The councilmen also discussed the advisability of compelling the tearing down of the wall in which the improperly mixed mortar had been used.

– Santa Rosa Republican, July 25, 1906

A petition for an arc light on Fifth street, between A and B streets, was referred to the Street Committee.

– Press Democrat, May 26, 1906

Light on Fourth Street

An electric light has been placed at the corner of Fourth and Mendocino streets, where it was greatly needed. Many favorable comments were heard Thursday night.

– Press Democrat, July 22, 1906
OFFENDERS WILL BE ARRESTED
Negligence on the Part of Contractors and Property Owners Will be Punished

Fire Chief Muther called the attention of the Council last night to the negligence of contractors in leaving obstacles on streets in the city, on dark nights without any warning lights being placed thereon. He instanced Monday night when the town was in darkness by reason of the shutting off of the lights and stated that lanterns were missing on a number of immense heaps of sand, etc., and piles of lumber. The fire department had a call and it was only by the sheerest good fortune that an accident was averted.

Attention was also called to the negligence of property owners and contractors on Fourth street and on other streets, who have dangerous holes and planks across sidewalks, projections from buildings and piles of materials on sidewalks without lights to warn pedestrians.

The Street Commissioner and Chief of Police were instructed to enforce the law and if necessary arrest and see that the offenders were punished.

– Press Democrat, December 12, 1906

The Overton Building, designed by San Francisco architect Victor Dunkerley, who is said to have worked for Frank Lloyd Wright. This intersection at the southeast corner of 4th and B was seen also in an earlier post – note the W.C.T.U. water fountain in the foreground of both pictures

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