Month: December 2010

THE OATES’ LAST GOLDEN YEAR

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

For Mattie and James Wyatt Oates, 1907 was filled with truly halcyon days, both of them busy in the swirl of things they loved best – even though they were now at ages when most of their generation began slowing down. Mattie turned 48, and her husband was roughly ten years north of that.

Hardly a week went by that without a mention of one or both Oates’ in the Santa Rosa newspapers They took auto trips around the county (a few uneventful ones not mentioned below), and Wyatt apparently learned to drive; he also took the train to visit his old haunts in Arizona. He again played the broker in a big financial deal, and she entertained friends and Santa Rosa’s society swells in a grand manner; besides the party with a string orchestra in May, there were at least three other notable shindigs at their home that year.

The most significant event will be discussed at length in a future post, and that was the role of both Oates in the creation of the Saturday Afternoon Club clubhouse. In 1907 the women’s group was incorporated (attorney Oates doing the paperwork, natch) and they purchased land on 10th street where their meeting hall would be built the following year, to a custom design by Mattie’s architect, Brainerd Jones.

There was also a 1907 item that mentioned a young woman “who in years past visited frequently at the home of Colonel and Mrs. J. W. Oates,” suggesting that the couple may have had a mentoring relationship with a debutante before Anna May Bell, who was treated like the Oates’ godchild. The other woman was Adelaide Murphy, daughter of Samuel Murphy, president of the First National Bank in San Francisco. A society item from 1899 noted Mrs. Oates was the guest of Mrs. Murphy at their posh digs in Pacific Heights, just as Mattie occasionally visited Mrs. Bell in southern California. (Several newspaper stories about Adelaide can be found in the San Francisco papers. In 1902, the millionaire’s daughter married John Breckenridge, the sickly and idle scion of another San Francisco banking dynasty. Her father disowned her for three years and the couple fled to Paris.)

(RIGHT: Adelaide Murphy Breckenridge. SF Call, July 18, 1902)

Most interesting to the history of Comstock House, though, is a transcript of a speech by Mattie Oates to the Saturday Afternoon Club. As we have few artifacts about her except for a scrawled name in a cookbook and a fuzzy picture, the speech gives us a tiny bit of insight to her personality.

Her presentation was on “The Laws of California as related to Women and Children,” and is roughly in two sections, the first being a school book rehash of marital rights under old English law, and the latter part bearing the legalistic thumbprints of her lawyer husband (“…the reciprocal rights, duties, and privileges of women and children have been receiving more and more attention from lawmakers”). Most interesting is that she speaks approvingly of outlawing child labor and sweatshops but doesn’t mention sufferage or temperance, the two legal issues concerning women that were most discussed at that time. The transcript isn’t provided here because it’s somewhat of a struggle to read, both because of mundane prose and the lack of proofreading by the newspaper, which leaves many a sentence bereft of subject, object, or worse (you can find the whole thing in the Oct. 13, 1907 Press Democrat “Society Gossip” section). Still, there are a few passages that reveal flashes of character and wit:

* [In olden times the husband] might chastise her if he used a rod ‘no longer than a thumb.’ Whether this led to preferring a husband with small hands we do not know, as there is no recorded instance on the point.

* [The husband] is the head of the family today, even as in the long ago in the eyes of the law, at least, but how much so in fact is frequently debatable. It always strikes me [he] has much the worst of it in spite of his ‘lordship.’ He may choose the place of abode, but if he does not like it and stays away and seeks a divorce and he forgets it, everyone says of him, ‘The mean thing.’

* In California the wife has much the best of it, in face of the law. She is [no] longer what they dubbed her two hundred years ago, ‘the weaker vessel.’ She is now the ‘Ocean Greyhound,’ [yet] as compared to her husband is but a ‘Tramp Freighter.’

PLANS SOUTHERN TRIP

Judge James W. Oates has planned a trip to the southern part of the state and will also visit Arizona, where he resided at one time. Judge Oates has been suffering from a severe cold recently and will take the trip to recuperate. Some time will be spent by the talented Santa Rosan at Santa Barbara by the sea and Los Angeles and San Diego will also divide his time. Many friends expect him to return in robust health after his outing.

– Santa Rosa Republican, February 11, 1907
VISITED OLD SONOMA

Judge and Mrs. James W. Oates took an automobile trip to the historic city of Sonoma Monday afternoon and enjoyed their outing greatly. They found the sport exhilarating and the roads in pretty fair condition for the trip. Shirley D. Burris handled the throttle and steering gear and the trip afforded the party much pleasure.

– Santa Rosa Republican, April 9, 1907

THEIR ANNUAL FISH
Colonel Oates and C. A. Wright “Catch the Limit” in Porter creek

Last week Colonel James W. Oates and C. A. Wright, following an annual custom of eighteen years past, enjoyed a day’s fishing. They fished in Porter creek and they caught “the limit.” Before the gray streaks of light hearalded the dawn of day the bold fishermen left town for the scene of operations with a plentiful supply of bait and lunch. Both lunch and bait were disposed of and in the evening the gentlemen returned to town well pleased with their eighteenth yearly pilgrimage to Izaak Walton’s shrine.

– Press Democrat, May 7, 1907

Mr. and Mrs. James Wyatt Oates entertained the Married Ladies’ Card Club and a number of invited guests in a pleasing manner at their beautiful home on Mendocino avenue Tuesday evening. Choice blossoms and dainty greenery were blended together most artistically in decorating the spacious rooms for the occasion; and they certainly presented a brilliant scene, when brightly lighted and filled with a large crowd of our society folks. The dainty, pretty gounds worn by the ladies, added a touch of beauty to the whole effect of the affair. Progressive euchre was the game of the evening and was played with keen interest for several hours. At its close delicious refreshments were served and another hour spent in general sociability are [sic] the guests took leave of the charming hostess and jovial host and turned their steps homeward, delighted with the pleasures of the evening and the generous hospitality extended to them…Mrs. Oates was assisted in entertaining her guests by Mrs. Soloman [sic] and Mrs. Blitz W. Paxton.

– Santa Rosa Republican, June 22, 1907

The beautiful home of Col. and Mrs. James Wyatt Oates was the scene of a brilliant party Friday night, upon which occasion they entertained the Married Ladies’ Card Club and few invited guests. The large hall shone resplendent in bright canvas, pink roses cast their soft radiance over the living room, while in the dining room red geraniums constituted the decorative feature…

– Press Democrat, June 23, 1907

Will be Late

Attorney J. W. Oates has been called to San Jose by a subpoena requiring his appearance as a witness in a civil suit before the Superior Court. Ten o’clock this forenoon is the hour set for Colonel Oates’ presence in the court room, and he has not yet ascertained whether it will be possible for him to reach there in time. At eleven o’clock last night he quit studying the time tables, and began working upon a plea of mitigation of sentence for contempt of court.

– Press Democrat, July 26, 1907

The Insider of the Call says: Mrs. Adelaide Breckenridge, who has written a pantomime, which, the dispatches tell us, will have a London production, was never suspected possess a desire to hine as a dramatic writer in the old days when she was one of the most popular of our society girls. She was always known to be clever. Since Addie Murphey Breckenridge took up her permanent residence in Paris I hear that she has become so French that her old friends would not know her. She has a near approach to a “salon,” which so many of our clever women have tried to esablish here with disasterous results. Mrs. Breckenridge’s salon is said to be alomst Recamier-like in its scope. Nobody is permitted to speak anything but the Parisian tongue within the confines of her drawing rom, and that must be rather a hard ordeal for San Francisco girls who call upon their one-time chum in her French home.” Mrs. Breckenridge will be remembered well in our social circles as Miss Adelaide Murphey, daughter of Banker Murphey of San Francisco, and who in years past visited frequently at the home of Colonel and Mrs. J. W. Oates.

– Press Democrat, August 4, 1907

Col. and Mrs. James W. Oates, accompanied by Miss Anna May Bell, visited the Paxton ranch, this side of Healdsburg, Monday. The trip was made by automobile.

– Press Democrat, September 4, 1907

Mrs. David C. Farnham and Miss Myrtle Harell were the guests of honor at a most brilliant luncheon given Wednesday afternoon by Mrs. James Wyatt Oates. The beautiful Oates home had been artistically decorated for the occasion with great bunches of pink and white chrysanthemums intermingled wwith autumn foliage. Covers were laid for eighteen around a table that sparkled and flashed with its beautiful glass and silver conventionally placed under a huge bunch of white chrysanthemums that graced the center of the table. Mrs. Oates’ guests were:

[..]

– Press Democrat, October 27, 1907

Altogether informal, but none the less entertaining and enjoyable, was the afternoon given by Mrs. James Wyatt Oates in honor of Miss Katherine Rockwell of Kansas City, Thursday. Social conversation, interspersed with music, passed the afternoon delightfully after which a dainty collation was served. Mrs. Oates was assisted during the afternoon by Mrs. James R. Edwards and by her mother, Mrs. M. S. Solomon.

– Press Democrat, December 22, 1907

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POWER BROKER OATES

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

In 1907 Santa Rosa, the Twentieth Century was finally roaring in like thunder. Like other places in California, Sonoma County went car crazy; that year, locals were also experiencing a kind of future shock over the rapid deployment of telephones, a technology that many were still uneasy about. Missing from this picture of modernity was one crucial component: Dependable electricity.

A reliable power supply was the bane of both North Bay and East Bay, which shared a single line from a hydroelectric dam in the Sierra foothills. Invariably during winter storms, a tree would fall somewhere against the line or a pole would be washed out and the “juice” would be off, sometimes for days. Thus there was excitement in Sonoma County when it was learned that the Snow Mountain Water & Power Company planned to build a hydroelectric plant on the south fork of the Eel River near Potter Valley in Mendocino County. It took about a year to complete and had disasterous environmental consequences (to be discussed in a later post) but the project still generates power and diverts water to the Sonoma County Water Agency via Lake Mendocino. The reservoir behind the dam is Lake Van Arsdale, named for the man who built the system, W.W. Van Arsdale.

Another electrical proposal came before the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors that year, seeking to string transmission lines from Mendocino throughout Sonoma County. Yet the backers of this project claimed they had “nothing to do with the big Eel river enterprise in any manner.” Wink, wink. Permission was granted. Unknown is whether Van Arsdale gave his approval to the setup, or whether this group was rushing to have the lines approved before the Snow Mountain Water & Power Company made an application to bring their own lines into the county. But what we do know for certain is that the broker in this deal was none other than our anti-hero, Mr. James Wyatt Oates.

This is the second time we’ve seen Oates act as the power broker in a high stakes game. In 1905, he had walked into a City Council meeting with an offer of $200,000 to purchase the entire Santa Rosa municipal bond as the consigliere of a consortium of secret investors. This time, he was upfront about representing Frank M. Burris, president of the Sonoma Valley Bank. Who else was involved is unknown – Van Arsdale may well have been a silent partner – but the involvement of a well-established local banker like Burris ensured the project was well capitalized, probably with the investments of Sonoma’s wealthy elite, almost certainly including the savvy Oates. (Burris was the son of the bank’s founder, and the old Burris homestead in the town of Sonoma is currently the MacArthur Place Inn & Spa).

“JUICE” FOR ALL SONOMA COUNTY
Application For a Franchise For Distribution of Current Made to the Supervisors Here Monday

A matter likely to prove of great importance in the future development of Sonoma county was made public on Monday when Colonel James W. Oates appeared in behalf of Frank M. Burris and applied to the Supervisors for a franchise for distributing electric current for lights, power, and other purposes in all directions throughout the county.

The franchise is for a trunk line from Mendocino county through Cloverdale, Healdsburg and all the intermediate towns to Santa Rosa, thence through the Sonoma Valley and Sonoma to the Napa county line; also from Santa Rosa to Petaluma and intermediate towns.

While those interested say that this application has nothing to do with the big Eel river enterprise in any manner yet those familiar with conditions are satisfied that power from the plant will be handled, when it is available.

– Press Democrat, May 7, 1907
MORE “JUICE” WILL SOON ARRIVE HERE
Progress Made on the Big System on Eel River Through Mendocino and Sonoma Counties

The construction of the power line from Eel river through Mendocino county into Sonoma is progressing nicely. Wire is being strung on the poles from the power house to Cold Creek and a force of men are now at work placing poles south from Pieta. The power line wire is “No. 9” aluminum. The pipe line to connect the tunnel with the power house is being riveted and the machinery is being rapidly put together while work is being rushed on the power house building. It is expected that power will be available for use as far as Ukiah by the first of the year.

– Press Democrat, September 28, 1907

370 MILES OF WIRE FOR NEW “JUICE”
Eighty Thousand Dollars Cost of Wire Line for Eel River Concern–Will Ask for More Franchises

The Snow Mountain Water & Power Company is rapidly completing the electric power line from its source of supply near Eel river southerly to Sonoma county, all of the necessary material being on hand and most of the line constructed.

It will be remembered that a short time ago a franchise was granted for bringing the concern into and across Sonoma county, entry the county north of Preston and continuing down to this city, thence to Petaluma and the Marin county line, south of that city, and also from this city by Sonoma to the Napa county line. Already the material for erecting the entire line through this county is on hand, as is also the case in Napa county, where the company have a similar franchise.

[…]

It is understood that the policy of the company is to procure a large consumption and to do this, say they intend to keep rated down to living prices. They consider that such a policy is not only necessary in order to acquire a large consumption but as they are looking to a long investment with a fair income, they realize that to get that they must have a large patronage. This is one of the most momentous things that has happened in this section of the county. Electricity is the power and light of the future, and the advent of this enterprise cannot fail to add greatly, not only to the convenience of people, but to the value of property in all the country touched by it.

It is understood that the company will ask for other franchises in order to distribute the “juice” in different sections of the county.

– Press Democrat, October 1, 1907

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THE TEDDY BEAR MENACE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Here’s my new example of why this research is such fun: You discover a silly editorial about the “teddy bear fad,” and a few moments later, your jaw drops while learning that Hitler was a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt.

The 1907 Press Democrat editorial was a reaction to the absurd idea that little girls had to play with dolls that looked like people or they would lose all desire for motherhood. Such was the claim of a Michigan priest that had appeared in scores of newspapers nationwide as a July 8 AP wire item :


A dispatch to the tribune from St. Joseph, Mich., says:

The “Teddy Bear” fad was denounced by the Rev. Michael G. Esper from the pulpit of St. Joseph’s Catholic church yesterday.

The priest held that the toy beast in the hands of little girls was destroying all instincts of motherhood and that in the future it would be realized as one of the most powerful factors in the race suicide danger.

Father Esper asked all parents to replace the doll in the affections of children and discard the “Teddy Bear” forever.

PD editor Ernest L. Finley ridiculed the notion, but the story was often printed without commentary on the front pages (my favorite headline was from the Salt Lake Tribune: “Teddy Bear Dooms Race”). In newspapers with a strong Catholic identity, the item was expanded to explain the importance of preventing “race suicide.”

As it turns out, preventing “race suicide” was quite a favorite cause of Teddy Roosevelt, whose hunting adventures had inspired the creation of the “Teddy Bear” five years before. That a toy named after the president was now being accused of causing “race suicide” is one of those bizarreries of White House history, such as John Wilkes Booth being in the VIP section directly behind Lincoln during his second inauguration (Booth scored a ticket because he was engaged to a Senator’s daughter).

(RIGHT: A search for “race suicide postcard” on eBay or the collectible postcard web sites will turn up many examples c. 1905-1910. Most common were humorous cartoons with baby-delivering storks, but also found frequently are postcards with racist themes, such as the one shown at center. After Esper’s anti-teddy bear appeal, a new wave of “race suicide” postcards depicted little caucasian girls cuddling dolls. The bottom postcard was the exception that seemed to poke fun at the priest’s alarm. CLICK any image to enlarge)

Roosevelt’s interest in the topic began in the early 1890s, and let’s be clear that the primary “race” in Teddy’s concerns wasn’t a race at all, but “old-stock” white Americans, particularly those with ancestors from New England. Roosevelt thought the declining birthrates of that group was threatened by the higher birthrates found among the immigrants whom he called “inferior races.” By 1898, his views had become even more radicalized, writing that “evil forces” were causing “the diminishing birthrate among the old native American stock,” and any who chose to not to have children were “race criminals.”

Roosevelt’s solution was that Americans should “Work-fight-breed,” a message that melded into his overall promotion of a healthy “strenuous life.” But his glorification of motherhood cloaked uglier underlying views of women as breeders, and that eugenics was a good thing if it ensured “the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding.”

While this all sounds rather Nazi-ish, it must be emphasized that Roosevelt never suggested that “old Colonial stock” Americans were a kind of Übermensch. Speaking at Oxford in 1910, he noted that he was an eighth-generation American with ancestors from many different “European races.” It was the “common heirship in the things of the spirit,” he said, that “makes a closer bond than common heirship in the things of the body.” He made that same point in other speeches, defining Americans as those who fully assimilated and embraced Uncle Sam’s culture and customs, not just those who had Plymouth Rock bloodlines. In other words, he was expressing a fundamental view of American exceptionalism.

At the same time, there’s no way to reconcile Theodore Roosevelt’s contradictory views on racial issues that swing wildly between extremes.

Good-Teddy encouraged France, Germany, and England to take interest in “race suicide” birthrates in their countries, further showing that he didn’t believe in a particular flavor of racial superiority; that’s offset by Awful-Teddy denouncing the people in southern Italy as the “most fecund and the least desirable” race in all of Europe. While Good-Teddy vigorously opposed discrimination against African Americans, Awful-Teddy called genocide against the Indians “as ultimately beneficial as it was inevitable,” and said that “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”

TEDDY BEARS ARE A FAD

And now they say the “Teddy bear” craze is a bad thing, because the fuzzy little animals have largely displaced the dollies of our fathers–or mothers, rather–and while the fondling of dolls tended to develop the maternal instinct, play with “Teddy bears” awakens no such sentiment and consequently tends to produce race suicide.

What nonsense!

The “Teddy bear” is only a fad, and is said to be already fast losing its popularity. But if current reports are to be relied upon, Santa Claus is laying in a larger stock of dolls for the coming Christmas than ever before.

– Press Democrat editorial , August 30, 1907

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