1902pleasant

SEEKING MAMMY PLEASANT

Quiz time: Name the most prominent African-American ever to live in Sonoma county. Name the wealthiest woman in 19th century San Francisco. Name the person your grandparents and great-grandparents believed was actually practicing black magic. All three are Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant.

(RIGHT: Detail of a 1902 portrait of Mary Ellen “Mammy” Pleasant at age 87)

Remarkably little  about her is known with certainty. She was born sometime between 1814 and 1817. She may have been a slave (or not). She refused to answer to the racist nickname, “Mammy” and the portrait most often used is not even a photograph of her at all, but Queen Emalani of Hawaii. All that’s really certain is that she always carried herself with poise and was light-skinned, able to pass as white whenever she wanted – or then again, maybe her face was darker but had “European” features. But you can bet she was likely far smarter than anyone else she ever met.

An incident that happened at Glen Ellen in 1913 was originally planned to be retold here as part of the previous item about our ancestor’s readiness, just a century ago, to pull out their guns and blast away at each other. But as I prepared to write it up, it became clear that this shooting could be of interest to scholars as it reveals previously unknown details related to her story, and the canon of published work on Pleasant is so puny that even small bits may help.

Nearly all that’s available about her – both in print and online – is a thin weave of myths, canards and twice-told bits which fall apart with the slightest tug of fact checking. On the Internet this thumbnail bio offers a pretty good capsule view of her life. Further research is found in The Making of “Mammy Pleasant” which is available at the Sonoma County library (the introduction is particularly worth reading).

But most of what is still commonly said about her comes from novelizations of her life and times written by Helen Holdredge, who turned out a handful of history-based potboilers in the 1950s. Sources are rarely mentioned in “Mammy Pleasant” and “Mammy Pleasant’s Partner,” making it impossible for the reader to know how much was simply made up. The author sensationalized the story without restraint, always seeking to reveal malevolent motivations behind Pleasant’s every deed. And often staining those pages is Holdredge’s racism; not content to simply mention a newspaper at the time once called Pleasant “queen of the voodoos,” Holdredge spun out a three page yarn of the supposed ritual which gave her “absolute control over the Negroes.” Thanks to the availability today of digitized newspapers and other sources we can debunk some of the claims in her books but gaps will always remain, in part because Holdredge possibly destroyed some primary source material before donating her collection to the San Francisco Library.

This is not the place to attempt a full profile of Mary Ellen Pleasant, but here are some biographical highlights:

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INSTANT ENTREPRENUER   When Mary Ellen Pleasant arrived in 1852 California there were over nine men to every woman. Demand was high for domestic service skills; her first job here was cooking for $500/month (over $24,000/mo today). She followed by operating laundries and boardinghouses which catered to the richest men in town, presumably giving her the opportunity to pick up investment tips.
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FREEDOM FIGHTER   Mary Ellen established the western terminus of the underground railroad and was as important an activist in the movement as Harriet Tubman, aiding hundreds of slaves to find transport to new lives in Canada and the West. She was an avid supporter of John Brown and involved with financing Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry. He was carrying a note from her when he was captured, which is the Believe-it-or-Not! connection between her and Santa Rosa’s Comstock family; Harvey B. Hurd was in the leadership of another group supporting John Brown and Hurd had provided the famed abolitionist with his own clothes to replace Brown’s tattered suit. While it’s unknown if Hurd and Pleasant met (and it is quite possible since they were only 300 miles apart during 1859 when she was in Ontario), her note was found in a pocket which once belonged to Hilliard Comstock’s grandfather.
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FINANCIAL WIZARD   Back in post-Civil War San Francisco, Mary Ellen Pleasant resumed her investments with mining and real estate deals, building one of the great fortunes in San Francisco during the Gilded Age. She did not conceal her wealth, riding through the streets in a carriage attended by a coachman and footman dressed in top hats and white breeches. In 1877 she designed and had built a mansion on a lot covering two city blocks (see photos below). It was said to cost $100,000 and she spared no expense in decorating; tapestries, gold bronze chandeliers and a clock over seven feet high were some of the features that left visitors gasping.
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HUMANIST, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST   Even Pleasant’s critics would concede she used her wealth and influence to great good. She marshalled a constant stream of protégées, both black and white, towards good jobs and good marriages while finding homes for unwanted babies. In the late 1860s she successfully sued the streetcar companies in San Francisco so African-Americans would be allowed to ride the trolleys.
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MAMMY” IS BORN   Pleasant was a key player in a scandalous legal battle that dragged through most of the 1880s with papers nationally reporting every dramatic moment in the courtrooms, including an incident where someone pulled a Bowie knife on a Supreme Court justice at a hearing. At issue was whether socialite Sarah Hill was indeed married to Senator William Sharon, one of the wealthiest men in America, who claimed she was just his West Coast mistress. Pleasant’s connection with the woman isn’t clear, but Mary Ellen paid her legal fees, testified several times and attended every court appearance, sitting next to Hill. Pleasant’s reputation was collateral damage as the well-connected senator sought to smear Hill in the press. Accusations flew she was a prostitute and Pleasant was the whorehouse madam, and it was whispered “Mammy” had bewitched the senator with a love potion. The trials and demeaning press coverage set the stage for her downfall a few years later, when she would face some of the same judges in her own lawsuits.

Central to our story is the long and complex relationship between Mary Ellen and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bell. Before he met Pleasant, Thomas was already wealthy as part of the 1860s “Bank Crowd” in San Francisco, the insiders controlling nearly everything connected with Comstock Lode mining. In the 1870s he partnered with Pleasant and their mutual fortunes skyrocketed further still. He moved into her mansion which presumably raised some eyebrows, although a few years earlier he had been staying with another (male) partner from the Bank Crowd. Whether or not Thomas and Mary Ellen shared an intimate relationship is completely speculative.

Thomas’ wife, Teresa, is almost as much a riddle as Mary Ellen Pleasant. Most of her backstory comes from the unreliable Helen Holdredge, whose books claim she was another young protégée, groomed to be Bell’s mistress and nanny to his adopted children. (Another part of the Holdredge story that makes no sense is that Mary Ellen supposedly tricked him into believing he had to adopt them because they were his kids from prostitutes and mistresses.) After Teresa and Thomas married, all of them were living together in the 30-room manse where the fiction was Pleasant was employed as housekeeper. Altogether there were six children, but it’s unclear how many were born to the couple or were adopted.

Family life shifted to Sonoma county after Pleasant bought 985 acres near Glen Ellen in 1891. Included was one of the finest vineyards in California and a two-story ranch house, which she remodeled and probably expanded. She named the place Beltane Ranch, which survives today with the home turned into a bed-and-breakfast. (Sadly, the inn’s website includes only a few words about her and includes the usual dubious facts; for more information see this  history of the Beltane Ranch.) As usual, she made a savvy investment. Train service through the Valley of the Moon from the Tiburon ferry had just started the year before, and would soon transform the area into a favorite getaway for San Francisco elites, with the likes of sugar magnate Rudolph Spreckels raising polo ponies nearby.

The Bells and Pleasant played at being country squires but it only lasted about a year. The exact start of Mary Ellen’s downfall can be dated to October 16, 1892, when Thomas Bell died after falling over a railing in their San Francisco mansion.

Mary Ellen and Teresa continued their same roles, Teresa primarily at Beltane and Mary E. in the city. They co-parented the children and Pleasant continued handling all financial matters, even to the point of clothes shopping for Teresa.

They would also spend the next ten years in courtrooms fighting Thomas’ creditors, Pleasant’s creditors and finally each other. And except for the occasional sojourn to the courthouse in Santa Rosa, most of the legal battles were decided in San Francisco in front of Judge Coffey, who also presided over the endless William Sharon case.

Thomas and Mary Ellen’s investments were deeply entangled and became even more twisted after his death. For example, Mary Ellen apparently tried to hide assets by giving Teresa the deed to half of Beltane in 1894 but five years later, creditors convinced a judge to declare Pleasant the sole owner of the ranch. An old unrecorded deed conveying the San Francisco mansion to Pleasant had to be wrestled from Teresa’s grasp. Both were taking out mortgages on properties they may or may not have owned. It was an epic mess, impossible to straighten out today because the probate records for Thomas’ estate were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Matters were made worse when 23 year-old eldest son Fred Bell petitioned the court in 1897 to have his mother removed as guardian of the children, claiming Teresa was an abusive alcoholic and being manipulated by the “Voudon woman.” He lobbed escalating charges at Pleasant in following months: She had stolen jewelry, embezzled thousands from the estate and ultimately hinted she had murdered his father, although he hedged by adding that while he was in the house at the time, he was too drunk to say for sure.

The crisis came in the spring of 1899. A petty quarrel at Beltane Ranch between Mary Ellen and Teresa escalated into thermonuclear war. Police were called.  Mary Ellen – somewhere past 85 years old at the time – locked herself in her room as Teresa, sprightly at age 51 or 52, struggled to push in the door. You kids.

Mary Ellen packed her trunks and left Beltane, never to return. Shortly after returning to the San Francisco mansion she found police at the door with an eviction notice from Teresa – a curious twist since at that time Pleasant was the owner of record of both the mansion and Beltane. She moved out of there, too.

Pleasant spent most of her final years at a small house in what is now South San Francisco. She died impoverished in 1904 at the home of a couple who buried her in their family’s cemetery plot in Napa.

Even after Mary Ellen Pleasant’s death the lawsuits continued. Her probate wasn’t closed for six years, when it was decided (by Judge Coffey, again) she left Beltane to the couple who nursed her at the end. That spurred new suits which went on for much of the 1910s. A little tin box of Pleasant’s was found in a safe deposit vault, and in 1912 Teresa and a small army of lawyers crowded together over a courtroom table as it was unlocked. Instead of the jewels Teresa expected, there was only “a bunch of faded papers,” according to the Chronicle, including personal letters and some old deeds. Naturally, Teresa tried to claim they belonged to her.

From published snippets of Teresa’s diaries it is shown she had a burning hatred of Mary Ellen from 1899 onward. But why? Surely she still wasn’t nursing a grudge over the squabble at the ranch concerning which one of them owned an armchair. It certainly went beyond a kind of Monopoly game competition of who had claim to the most houses or even any particular place. No, she wanted to see “Mammy” Pleasant utterly destroyed; her hatred was visceral, and I believe it was driven by a single person: Bayard Saville.

 

 

 

Two views of Mary Ellen Pleasant’s mansion at the southwest corner of Bush and Octavia in San Francisco. At top is a 1926 photograph of the southern face showing the original home designed by Pleasant following the Second Empire/Mansard style. Below is a 1925 photo of the building adjoining it on the northwest side, giving the residence an overall count of thirty rooms. An early photo does not show the addition on the north side, so that building, constructed in the Italian Renaissance style popular around the Civil War, was moved there at some time after Pleasant’s home was built in 1877. The sprawling mansion was called the “House of Mystery” and “House of Secrets” by the press. Both photos courtesy of UC/Berkeley, Bancroft Library. CLICK or TAP to enlarge

8 thoughts on “SEEKING MAMMY PLEASANT

  1. Nice Article!! I am glad you linked it to me!

    I used to think MEP designed and built the mansion but I was challenged on that view by a comment in my blog saying the city plans for it -said it was Bell’s home. Have you checked on that? Just because HH said she built it does not mean she did. She probably furnished it though and ordered the ceiling paintings etc.

    Personally, I have come to think she was his glorified and beloved housekeeper, just as she was for the Woodworths and at least one other family. It is doubtful she ever cooked for Case-Heiser and so the amount she made at their place must have been made up too. I think she did cook somewhere though. If there is documentation anywhere of her salary as a cook, please let me know. Otherwise, I have learned, if HH said it, it was a lie at worst and twisted at best. I do think MEP obviously picked up insider information and invested with Thomas Bell, and saved their fortunes in 1875 with her insider information. Have you actually looked at the court documents for the fight over the property?

    I am from SF and my mom and aunt got HH’s book the day it came out. They were horrified and said it was yellow journalism, because MEP had an excellent reputation among the earliest crowd, (which included a lot of Quakers, which my Mom’s dad was) She was an addenda to the Allie Hill story which is the story that got told. My mother’s mother’s family moved to SF, actually Marysville in 1853 and my gt gt grandfather farmed wheat up there before he served one term in Congress and then was appointed the first Asst Sec’y of the Mint. My parents’ generation (I am 74) had heard of her through their grandparents.

    I want to see the court docs and the architecture plans, but I don’t get up there much anymore. I started my blog to wiggle people who are interested in her out of the woodwork, for I would truly like to see HH vilified and shown up to be what she was- willing to sacrifice the truth to her horrible racism and creepy imagination.

    1. The source for the $500 cooking story is the full-page, illustrated Sunday feature in the SF Call, May 7, 1899. This is a very important article, if only because it bears no fingerprints of Teresa or James E. Brown. The reporter clearly interviewed MEP; it contains (what I think is) the first mention in a SF newspaper of her involvement with the underground railroad. That and other anecdotes suggests the cooking story, true or no, came from her. The article is overall complimentary and I believe it represents how she wanted the public and her creditors to view her following the news of her eviction from Octavia street. I think it is very likely that the “Queen of the Voodoos” feature that appeared in the Chronicle a few weeks later was Teresa’s/Brown’s reaction to counter this favorable story.

      A name on architectural plans does not convey ownership. It’s interesting to note that a Jan. 5 1902 article in the Chronicle described a court officer finding Teresa had “…the unrecorded deed which conveyed the famous Bell mansion on Octavia, Sutter and Bush streets from Thomas Bell and wife to Mary E. Pleasant.” That certainly implies the Bells had title. Yet after his death, Lynn Hudson writes in her book (pg. 81) “…Judge Coffey agreed to set 1661 Octavia Street aside as a homestead for the widow and children. This appeared to eliminate any of Pleasant’s claims to the property.” We know MEP had title when she was evicted in 1899. Since Thomas Bell’s probate records were lost in the 1906 fire, we’ll probably never know how many times it went back and forth.

      By the way, I am unable to find any primary source that describes the mansion as having 30 rooms. As it became the Hotel Atherton in 1904, I am beginning to wonder if the second building was added around that time. Holdredge appears to be the first person to use that number.

  2. It is a matter of record that she HATED being called “Mammy”, and it’s disrespectful that you would continue using that term. She reportedly would not answer any correspondence addressed that way, but returned it to the sender unopened. Please take a step into the 21st century and not use these labels.

    1. It’s always helpful to actually read some of the material you rush to criticize! The article always refer to her as Mary Ellen, except where pointing out “Mammy” was a racist slur created and used by her enemies.

  3. Does anyone know if there is a geneological link from Teresa or Thomas Bell to Helen Holeredge? Perhaps a niece on Ms. Holderedge’s husband’s side of the family.

    I am attempting to connect M.E. Pleasant to her investments in Nortonville just south of present day Pittsburg, Contra Costa County, CA (site of the Black Diamond Coal Mines). My specific research interest is her financial backing of the “Shoo Fly Inn” circa 1876-1878. Any insights or leads would be most appreciated. Thank you.

    1. Hi Carol,
      Although Mary Ellen’s parentage is hard to verify, from my readings, I surmised that she may have indeed been part Hawaiian, as she has said “that gets my Kanaka blood boiling”, and there were quite a few Hawaiian sailors/stevedores in the whaling and fur industries during the 1800’s. The cookbook that Helen Holdredge compiled does have some pages dedicated to the Shoo Fly Inn. I am sure that there is no genealogical connection to Teresa Hooey or Thomas Bell or the Holdredges. The family appears to have taken some of her personal items and pieces of the mansion through various sales, so that might be another connection. There is a link above to some of my research, I hope that is helpful.

  4. I so enjoyed reading your article on Mammy Pleasant. As you can see my last name is Pleasant. My husband spoke often of stories his mother told him as a youth about Mammy Pleasant and the Pleasant family (distant relatives) who lived in Virginia. My sister in law is named for Mary Ellen Pleasant. I have all of Helen Holderedge’s books she wrote and find all of this quite fascinating to think my husband has some connection with M. E. Pleasant

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