1880

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WHEN THE HIGH DRY WINDS BLOW

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

The “Diablo Winds” are apparently a Regular Thing now, with the high, dry northeasterly gales ripping through the North Bay and too often creating firestorms. But how common were these damned winds historically?

Start with our three examples that caused major fires: The 2017 Tubbs Fire, the forgotten Great Fire of 1870 and the 1964 Hanly Fire. Beyond those incidents, however, it’s hard to say with much certainty.

First, “Diablo Winds” is a modern term, invented in 1991 (Wikipedia has a good explanation of the meteorology), so looking for that name in the old newspapers is a non-starter. A century ago and more they sometimes called any bad winds “Boreas,” although that was the classical name for a cold north wind often accompanied by rains. But the bigger problem is that our ancestors didn’t care much about recording wind directions or speeds; while they diligently kept records of rainfall down to the hundredth of an inch, apparently no one in Sonoma County had an anemometer in the old days.

Searches of the Santa Rosa and Healdsburg newspapers turned up surprisingly few historic windstorms that match the Diablo pattern with certainty (I limited my research to destructive weather events during the California autumn months with no rain mentioned). If I find more I’ll add it here and flag the update in the title of this article, but I think it’s safe to presume these big winds weren’t very common. Sources of all newspaper items are transcribed below.

The most surprising discovery was 1871, the year following the Great Fire. Once again there were “large fires were seen in the direction of Napa and Sonoma…It was the hardest blow ever experienced in this locality.”

“A vicious wind” in 1887, which might also have been a freak tornado, took down a two-story hotel at Los Guilucos that was under construction. “Those who witnessed the disaster say the sides and interior of the building seemed to melt away before the blast and the roof pausing in mid air a moment like a hawk hovering above its prey, fell with a crash that was heard for miles.”

There are two accounts of the two-day storm in 1892; rain was mentioned in Petaluma but not elsewhere. It was “one of the severest [windstorms] felt in Sonoma county for a number of years,” the Sonoma Democrat reported, with hundreds of mature trees downed. An elderly woman died of fright.

“The dry north winds that had been blowing for the last four or five days culminated on Sunday afternoon in a violent wind storm,” the Healdsburg Tribune noted in 1900, making it sure bet to be classified as a Diablo Wind. Then a few weeks later, an even more destructive wind hit the town following a light rain: “The wind almost reached the power of a cyclone and is said by old settlers to have been the speediest blow ever experienced here. Houses rocked on their foundations as if shaken by an earthquake.”

Our last historic windstorm conveniently also provides our obl. Believe-it-or-Not! finish. This item is from the Press Democrat in 1919:

The heavy wind storm of Wednesday night did many queer things, but probably none more novel will be reported than that experienced on the A. C. Hull ranch near town. A barn on the place contained a horse. During the height of the storm the barn was blown over, making two complete turns and landing right side up, uninjured. The horse was left standing without any injury where the barn had stood.

 

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The Storm.

A terrific wind storm prevailed throughout the county on Thursday night, during which large fires were seen in the direction of Napa and Sonoma, and it is feared serious damage was done in those localities. About Santa Rosa, sign boards were demoralized to a considerable extent, that of the Kessing Hotel being torn from its fastenings and broken to pieces. Those of the telegraph office and Santa Rosa Book Store, were blown down. The tin roof of the store occupied by Carithers & Martin, was transferred to the building of E. T. Farmer, next adjoining. Wind mills upon the premises of Windfield Wright, Henry Worthington and Adam Shane, were blown down, and orchards through the Township literally stripped of fruit. It was the hardest blow ever experienced in this locality, and our people are fortunate in getting off with damages so slight.

– Sonoma Democrat, October 14 1871

 

HIGH WIND —One of the most violent windstorm ever known in this region raged last Tuesday. It subsided during the night without causing any material damage in any way. But it made a lively dust.

– Sonoma Democrat, November 20 1880

 

A Vicious Wind.

The new two-story hotel at Los Guilucos town was razed to the ground during a violent wind storm which occurred there about 7:45 o’clock Thursday evening. If the building was as substantial as its appearances would indicate it certainly must have been a vicious wind, and the descriptions given by the workmen who were on the spot are now too highly colored. The men employed in tinning the roof had not been out of the building three minutes when the crash came. The air was full of flying timbers, some of the largest of which weighed several hundred pounds and were hurled high above the tops of the trees and lodged on top of the hotel before it fell. It seemed to be the nature of a whirlwind, and the doors and windows of the structure being open its interior formed an amphitheatre for the sports and athletic feats of Boreas. Those who witnessed the disaster say the sides and interior of the building seemed to melt away before the blast and the roof pausing in mid air a moment like a hawk hovering above its prey, fell with a crash that was heard for miles. Not a timber was left standing and all that remained to mark the spot where had once stood the first building in Los Guilucos town was a few pieces of roof timbers held together by long narrow strips of twisted and misshaped tin. Other reports received from the valley are somewhat contradictory of the nature of the storm. A gentleman residing within two miles of the hotel says the wind was somewhat stronger than a zephyr, but not of sufficient violence to cause him or his family any alarm concerning the safety of their residence and outbuildings. The damage it is estimated will not be over 4,000. Messrs. Ludwig & Kroncke visited the scene of the disaster Friday.

– Sonoma Democrat, November 26 1887

 

Early Monday morning Petaluma was visited by the swiftest and most disastrous windstorm known for many years. The wind did not only whistle, but it howled and groaned through every chink accessible. This account will read very true to many Petalumans, for most of them were kept awake by the ceaseless noise of boreas and his companion, the rain. Trees were uprooted in many parts of the town. Robert Spotswood, on Keller street had a pepper and an acacia tree blown down. A eucalyptus was blown from the sidewalk in front of the Newburgh residence on Liberty street. A poplar was uprooted at Father Cleary’s, and many other trees. The fence was blown from in front of the D street school. Also the fence surrounding the Sweed property on Sixth and B streets. The scaffolding left by the carpenters on the handsome Haubrick residence now in course of construction was scattered far into the street. Not satisfied with this, the wind sailed three miles out of town and lifted a goodly section of roof off the old adobe built by General Vallejo in the early days and now used as a home by M. Riely. This old building was perfectly strong and secure and it must have been a terrific wind to carry that roof as it did.

– Sonoma Democrat, December 3 1892

 

Effects of the Storm of Sunday Night.

The storm last Saturday and especially Sunday and Sunday night was one of the severest felt in Sonoma county for a number of years.

Trees were blown down all over town Sunday night. Near the corner of the Baptist Church, a large maple, which Street Commissioner Cozad will remember very well, blew down across B street.

The top of a large pine tree, standing near the residence of R. M. Swain, broke off about twenty-five feat from the top, and in falling just missed the house. The fragment was fully one foot in diameter, which shows the force of the wind.

Two large trees standing near the home of O. H. Hoag were blown down. They struck the house and rather demolished the kitchen.

A tree on William Hopper’s place fell Sunday night and carried with it a large section of Mr. Hopper’s front fence.

Keegan Bros, heard the wind whistle to the tune of $100 Sunday night. The force of the wind tore off the front sign hanging to the awning and carrying it in struck and broke the beautiful plate glass window.

The wind also played havoc with the sky-light of the engine house, picking it up and setting it down rather roughly where it did not belong, breaking every pane of glass. A number of panes of glass were also broken in the courthouse.

Carithers & Forsythe and George F. King have the turbulent elements of Sunday night to blame for misplacing their signs.

Beldin & Hehir’s sign, aided by the gentle zephyrs, drifted from its moorings and tapped the window of the postoffice and the adjacent transom a little too hard,

A passenger on the down train from Guerneville says that all hands were required to get off and help remove two large trees that had fallen across the track a few miles from Guerneville.

About seventy trees are down across the road from Duncan Mills to Guerneville, and one citizen from Bodega says the storm Saturday and Sunday was the severest felt in that windy locality for years. It blew down most of the fences in Bodega, together with several trees and old out-buildings that were insecurely anchored.

The Pacific Methodist College came near being scalped when the gale caught one corner of the tin roof and tore off about six hundred square feet of the roof.

A large maple in front of the residence of Dr. Savage, on Fourth street, succumbed to the breeze.

Many windmills throughout the valley got more wind than they could stand, and went to the ground, and one barn was blown down.

No very heavy damage to property is reported.

The saddest occurrence of all was the death of Mrs. Clark, elsewhere reported, who was afflicted with heart troubles, and it is believed her death was precipitated by nervousness and fright occasioned by the storm.

– Sonoma Democrat, December 3 1892

 

The dry north winds that had been blowing for the last four or five days culminated on Sunday afternoon in a violent wind storm. The winds and the intense heat of the sun have been of great advantage to prune drying, condensing into a few days what would take weeks to dry. It’s an ill wind that blows evil to the fruit dryer.

– Healdsburg Tribune, September 27 1900

 

THE STORM.
Violent Windstorm Does Considerable Damage Tuesday Night.

The rain that had been gently falling for the previous few days, culminated in a terrific windstorm on Tuesday night. Old Bordeas went on a toot, tearing down signs, breaking windows, uprooting trees and doing damage to a greater or less extent in all directions. The wind almost reached the power of a cyclone and is said by old settlers to have been the speediest blow ever experienced here. Houses rocked on their foundations as if shaken by an earthquake and sleep became an unknown quantity with many residents. The damage to ornamental trees must have been considerable in the aggregate. The electric lights were snuffed out at about 11 o’clock but resumed business a few hours later. The rainfall for Tuesday night was 1.53, and 9.11 for the season. The symmetrical circle of umbrella trees on the Plaza was broken, two of the trees falling prone on the sward, and the others being blown out of perpendicular. Silberstein’s sign became loosened at one end and becoming a plaything in the power of the winds, smashed much of the glass front of the store into smithereens. The early morning hours indicated that the proprietors had gone out of business, and had moved their signs to other parts of the city, Carl Muller, who has kept a record of the rainfall for many years, reports the windstorm as severe, if not more so, than any previous windstorm within his memory.

– Healdsburg Tribune, November 22 1900

 

BARN MOVED BY WIND, BUT HORSE REMAINS BEHIND

The heavy wind storm of Wednesday night did many queer things, but probably none more novel will be reported than that experienced on the A. C. Hull ranch near town. A barn on the place contained a horse. During the height of the storm the barn was blown over, making two complete turns and landing right side up, uninjured. The horse was left standing without any injury where the barn had stood.

– Press Democrat, November 29 1919

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GODDESS OF THE BROKEN COURTHOUSE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Uh, that story about finding a dead girl was a joke, the editor of the Santa Rosa newspaper revealed, a week after his hoax upset people all over the state.

The corpus delicti described in the 1882 article was actually the old statue of Lady Justice which was once mounted atop the first Sonoma County courthouse – but the story was written as if it described a real murder victim, with only the faintest hints it was a hoax.

The whole item is transcribed below, but it had Julio Carrillo – then the janitor of the county buildings on Fourth street – discovering “a young lady who has spent her whole life in Santa Rosa, and whom he had known from her birth…”


…Propped up in a partially reclining posture in the corner formed by the wall of the shed and Major Louck’s fence, was the lifeless and partially nude figure of a beautiful girl…that there had been the foulest of foul play was but too evident at the first glance. Around the unfortunate young lady’s eyes what appeared to be a white handkerchief had been tightly drawn, evidently to prevent her recognizing her assassins. That she had struggled most desperately for life was proved by her rent and disarranged clothing, but chiefly – horrible and almost incredible to relate – by the fact that her left arm had been absolutely torn from the socket, and lay beside the body, completely detached, and more than that, broken in two! The atrocious brutality and inhuman ferocity of this monstrous deed may well excite both the amazement and execration of mankind, and that its fiendish perpetrators may speedily be apprehended and dealt with as the horrible nature of their crime demands, should certainly be the desire of all. We rejoice to state that the officers have a clue to the assassins, but we are not at present permitted to state what it is…

Aside from the blindfold, the only nod to it being a prank was found in the last line: “Meanwhile let the friends of the late Miss Justice endeavor to be patient and wait.”

Thomas L. Thompson, editor of the Sonoma Democrat and a pompous numbskull with an unwavering certainty in his own perfection, offered the weakest apology: “…it seems there were many subscribers not familiar with the attending circumstance [and] received it in sober earnestness, to whom we will now say that it was a hoax which we supposed all would fathom and appreciate at once, thoughtlessly not considering their unfamiliarity with the surroundings.”

We know the story was picked up by at least three other newspapers in the West, but given the tiny fraction of historic papers which are currently available online it’s safe to bet that dozens of others published this lurid tale of murder. Nor did Thompson regret deceiving all those people who lived far away from Santa Rosa: “…though it bore upon its face plainly the impress of a hoax [it] seems to have created a sensation with some careless readers…” Seriously: What a jerk.

What happened to the statue after that is unknown, but the decline and dismemberment of Lady Justice fills in the backstory of that early county courthouse. The basic details have been told here before; it was built in 1855 and less than three years later the county Grand Jury declared the it unsafe, dangerous and a “public nuisance,” with the roof leaking and walls cracked. Expensive repairs were made, other Grand Juries complained, more repairs, more complaints, until it was decided in 1883 to tear the thing down and build a new courthouse in the Plaza (this courthouse was at the current location of Exchange Bank, on Fourth street).

There are no known closeups of the statue, but it can be faintly seen in this enhanced 1875 photo (original images courtesy Sonoma County Library)
There are no known closeups of the statue, but it can be faintly seen in this enhanced 1875 photo (original images courtesy Sonoma County Library)

 

The one positive development from Thompson’s hoax is that it drew a letter from the editor of the Sutter County Farmer (a newspaper which only survives as a few scattered issues on microfilm) whose editor once lived in Santa Rosa and colorfully described the situation – for extra fun, imagine this being read by Grandpa Simpson:


Santa Rosa is graced by the most rickety and ram shackley old shebang in Christendom, and calls it a court house. This building is so ancient that when an excited lawyer addresses a jury with any degree of vehemence, he is at once toned down by the Court, who reminds him that the safety of the Court and all the audience depends upon his restraining his emotions, as he is liable to shake the edifice down.

He doesn’t say when the statue was created, but that it was carved out of redwood by “a local artist, who had spent the best years of his life in carving figure heads for ships.”

In 1866 Lady Justice was considered damaged and supposed to be replaced as part of (yet another) round of repairs. From the Sonoma Democrat: “…a gilt ball [is] to take the place of the figure now surmounting the dome. We are glad the goddess of justice is to be removed, as she has occasioned much remark by strangers who have visited the town. The scales upon which she used to mete out justice to all, have long since been knocked into ‘pi,’ and the sooner she is removed from her elevated position the better.” (Does anyone understand this “pi” reference?)

That apparently didn’t happen, as in 1873 the town’s water department was demonstrating how much pressure the system had by attaching a hose to a hydrant and “water was thrown from the middle of the street to the statue of Justice on top of the Court House.”

She apparently stood atop her perch until 1880, when even more major repairs were underway. “As we write men are at work removing the cupola and goddess with equally poised scales, which have heretofore graced the top of the building, in order to relieve it of surplus weight.”

That edition of the Democrat also included a detailed report on the building’s condition, written by a respected San Francisco architect: “…The outer walls are bulged and leaning toward the east side. The floors are out of level. The interior walls are not plumb and are badly cracked. The building is NOT SAFE AS IT NOW STANDS” [emphasis theirs].

Jump forward a couple of years and in responding to Thompson’s stupid hoax, the Petaluma Courier commented about conditions of the “old rookery:”


It has become from old age a rickety and unsightly man-trap, and the county officers and courts when in session, live in constant fear of an earthquake. It would take but a slight shock to level its rotten and unsightly walls to the ground…No wonder the Goddess of Justice in her humiliation dismembered and mutilated herself and then fell prone to the ground.

The small Believe-it-or-not! epilogue to this story is that Thompson’s name was never linked to the prank, which was good news for him – a few weeks later he was nominated as the Democratic Party nominee for Secretary of State. (Thompson won the election and turned his paper over to a real journalist, thus sparing Santa Rosa of his bigotry for the next four years.) Imagine the furor today if a candidate for high office was exposed for inventing sensationalist “fake news.” Oh, wait.

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Repairs to the Court House.— Four bids were presented to the Board of Supervisors for the contract of repairing the Court House, as follows; H. T. Hewitt, $2,500 ; Mr. Bumpus, $2,350 ; A. P. Petit, $2,290, Mr. Morrow bid for the tinning of the roof alone at $900. The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder, A. P. Petit, who gives bonds to perform the whole work in accordance with plans and specifications on file. The cornice now on the building is to be removed, and a new one put in its place, to be supported by moulded brackets. The cupola is to be raised 13 feet, the dome to be retained, and a gilt ball to take the place of the figure now surmounting the dome. We are glad the goddess of justice is to be removed, as she has occasioned much remark by strangers who have visited the town. The scales upon which she used to mete out justice to all, have long since been knocked into “pi,” and the sooner she is removed from her elevated position the better. The building is to be enclosed with a high roof, covered with the best quality of leaded tin, standing groove, and neatly painted on both sides. The Court-room is to be replastered and painted throughout. Mr. Petit is an excellent workman and experienced architect, and we have no doubt will finish the work up in fine style. He receives for the entire job $1,980, and all the old material now on the roof.

– Sonoma Democrat, May 12 1866

 

A NEW COURT HOUSE.

Nearly everybody who is informed as to the condition of the building now in use recognizes the necessity of a new Court House for this county. The present building was erected in 1857, twenty-three years ago, when the county did not compare with what it is now, in population, wealth, or any other particular, and the result of the effort, then, to combine court house, hospital and jail, was by no means what the necessities of the county, even at that time, required. The old Court House has been crumbling to pieces for years. It has required bracing and stays on every side to keep it from falling, and is now a constant drain upon the treasury. As we write men are at work removing the cupola and goddess with equally poised scales, which have heretofore graced the top of the building, in order to relieve it of surplus weight. Besides, the building is not adequate to the purposes for which it is intended. An additional courtroom and several offices on the outside are necessary to transact the business of the county, for which extra rent is being paid. Several Grand Juries have directed the attention of the Supervisors to its present dilapidated condition, generally believed to be unsafe for occupancy, and at the instance of Judge Temple, as will be seen by the proceedings of the Board, an examination has been made by competent architects, who pronounced it unsafe and insecure. All seem to agree that a new building must be erected at an early day, and it appears to us folly to expend any more money in patchwork on the old one. If a change of building necessitates a change of location, we think the people of Santa Rosa should and will provide a suitable lot for the buildings, free of cost to the county. Such a lot might be obtained for a very reasonable price, and we understand several enterprising citizens have already expressed a willingness to subscribe to a fund for that purpose. Then, the old Court House and the Hall of Records, with the ground upon which they stand, might be sold for a good price, and the proceeds of the sale put into the new building, leaving but a small sum to be raised by taxation to give Sonoma county public buildings in keeping with her rank as one of the leading counties of the State.

– Sonoma Democrat, February 7 1880

 

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

Tbs following communications relative to the insecure condition of the Court House and Jail were received from Judge Temple, and read. As the matter is one at general interest, we publish the communications In full:

Santa Rosa City,
Sonoma Co. Cal.

To the Hon. Jackson Temple, Judge of the Superior Court Department No. 1.

By your request, we have carefully examined the present County Court House building located In Santa Rosa city, Sonoma Co. Cal., now used for county and city purposes. We consider said building dangerous and unsafe for large crowds in the Court Room, and liable at anytime by extra weight to give way, thereby causing loss of life and limb. We find the foundations insufficient to carry the building. The bricks in the walls soft and badly laid, the lime and cement in construction of very inferior quality. The outer walls are bulged and leaning toward the east side. The floors are out of level. The interior walls are not plumb and are badly cracked. The building is NOT SAFE AS IT NOW STANDS.

The Jail building we find in a better condition, but the walls in places are broken and defective, the rear wall particularly so. We would condemn it as unsafe for the security of County Prisoners.
Very respectfully,
L. R. Townsend Architect,
San Francisco

Supplement.—We would suggest to relieve the roof of the Court House of a ton and a half of dead weight, now over the Court Room, to remove and take down the present cupola and tin over the space. Also bridge in between the floor beams in the center of the jury room and the Judge’s chambers, which will cost in all $150.
L. R. Townsend, Architect.

To the Honorable Jackson Temple:—By your request, In connection with Mr. Townsend, I have examined the County Court House and Jail. As I cannot agree with Mr. Townsend on some points, I submit the following report:

I consider the Court House in its present condition unsafe, and dangerous for large assemblages, owing to many defects in the walls and the poor quality of the mortar used. By the removal of the cupola to take the weight off the center of the building the danger would be materially lessened. The floors in the Jury-room and Judges chambers require more and larger joists. To bridge the present floor would not add to the strength of the floor. The iron columns in the Court Room have not sufficient foundation to support the weight placed upon them.

The walls of the Jail at the rear of the building are defective, but in no way affect the security of the prisoners; their security depends entirely on the lining and works on the inside of the walls.
Very respectfully,
C. W. White.

[..]

– Sonoma Democrat, February 7 1880

 

A Horrible Discovery

Early Wednesday morning, our well known citizen, Julio Carrillo, chanced to walk around the west end of the woodshed in the Court House yard, when his eyes fell upon a most horrible sight. Propped up in a partially reclining posture in the corner formed by the wall of the shed and Major Louck’s fence, was the lifeless and partially nude figure of a beautiful girl, in whom, as soon as he recovered from the first shock of the sight, Mr. Carrillo was horrified to recognize a young lady who has spent her whole life in Santa Rosa, and whom he had known from her birth. The body was stiff and rigid, and life had evidently been extinct for some time. That there had been the foulest of foul play was but too evident at the first glance. Around the unfortunate young lady’s eyes what appeared to be a white handkerchief had been tightly drawn, evidently to prevent her recognizing her assassins. That she had struggled most desperately for life was proved by her rent and disarranged clothing, but chiefly – horrible and almost incredible to relate – by the fact that her left arm had been absolutely torn from the socket, and lay beside the body, completely detached, and more than that, broken in two! The atrocious brutality and inhuman ferocity of this monstrous deed may well excite both the amazement and execration of mankind, and that its fiendish perpetrators may speedily be apprehended and dealt with as the horrible nature of their crime demands, should certainly be the desire of all. We rejoice to state that the officers have a clue to the assassins, but we are not at present permitted to state what it is. Meanwhile let the friends of the late Miss Justice endeavor to be patient and wait.

– Sonoma Democrat, June 3 1882

 

Last week an article entitled “Horrible Discovery” was written up for these columns, in which the old Goddess of Justice that once adorned the dome of the Court House was made the victim of a foul murder, and the finding of the mangled plaster of Paris remains was graphically pictured. Our towns people were familiar with the white figure that has been knocked around the Court yard the last several years and of course appreciated the hoax. But it seems there were many subscribers not familiar with the attending circumstance, that received it in sober earnestness, to whom we will now say that it was a hoax which we supposed all would fathom and appreciate at once, thoughtlessly not considering their unfamiliarity with the surroundings. Hence this explanation.

– Sonoma Democrat, June 10 1882

 

“A Disgrace to the County.”

That’s what the Petaluma Courier says, and then continues; “The last Grand Jury that met at Santa Rosa, like many of its predecessors, condemned the old pile of ruins, commonly known as the County Court House. It has become from old age a rickety and unsightly man-trap, and the county officers and courts when in session, live in constant fear of an earthquake. It would take but a slight shock to level its rotten and unsightly walls to the ground. Sonoma is one of the largest and best agricultural counties in the State. It has greater resources than any of its neighbors, and its public buildings should be commensurate with its growth and prosperity. While Marin, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties all have court-houses that would be creditable to any county, old Sonoma has an ugly mass of brick and mortar that would not make a decent barn for a well regulated farm. No wonder the Goddess of Justice in her humiliation dismembered and mutilated herself and then fell prone to the ground. Our citizens from all parts of the county feel ashamed of the old rookery, and look forward with real pleasure to the day when a building worthy of the good county of Sonoma shall occupy its place. The sooner the good work commences the better.” Just what we think about it, neighbor, and as you say, so we reiterate: “The sooner the good work commences the better.”

– Sonoma Democrat, June 17 1882

 

That Horrible Discovery.

Referring to a local recently published in this paper, which though it bore upon its face plainly the impress of a hoax seems to have created a sensation with some careless readers, the editor of the Sutter Farmer, who was formerly a resident of this county says:

Santa Rosa is graced by the most rickety and ram shackley old shebang in Christendom, and calls it a court house. This building is so ancient that when an excited lawyer addresses a jury with any degree of vehemence, he is at once toned down by the Court, who reminds him that the safety of the Court and all the audience depends upon his restraining his emotions, as he is liable to shake the edifice down. But to our explanation. In the dim twilight of California history, about the time of the renaissance, some genius advanced the idea that it would be a credit to Sonoma county to adorn the cupola of the court house with a statue of the goddess Justice. Accordingly a huge block of native redwood was quarried from the primeval forest, and under the manipulations of a local artist, who had spent the best years of his life in carving figure heads for ships, the form divine was modeled, and soon graced the dome of the temple of Justice. It was a remarkable figure. The Chinese emigrants always bowed before it, thinking it to be the god of thunder and lightning, and doubtless often wondered how a gleam of oriental art ever penetrated that benighted region. Time rolled away, and cautious architects fearing that the weight of this image would cause the court house to collapse, it was indicted by an intelligent grand jury and ordered banished to the woodshed, where it was finally discovered by a Democrat reporter, who told the story as detailed above.

– Sonoma Democrat, June 29 1882

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JOHN WILKES BOOTH OF FORESTVILLE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

John Wilkes Booth escaped after assassinating Lincoln and spent his last 25 years living comfortably in Forestville. Believe it or …no, don’t believe it. Not a chance it’s true. But many locals were convinced he really was hiding there and were eager to shield him.

The tale of Thomas Jerome, the man supposed to be Booth, has more angles than a funhouse mirror. A superficial writer could look at the funny side of it all, as if today the denizens of a trailer park convinced themselves an elderly newcomer was actually Elvis. Or it could be viewed as an interesting 150 year-old conspiracy theory which won’t go away – the History Channel and other cable shows have produced sensationalized “Booth Escaped” programs in recent years. But peer deeper at the story and it reveals how strongly our ancestors clung to every awfulness the Confederacy represented, even decades after the Civil War. And that side of the story is a revealing insight which doesn’t appear in our Sonoma county history books.

In the decades after the assassination there was no shortage of men who were whispered to be Booth. The most famous one died in 1903; a friend not only wrote a book about his supposed confession, but afterwards had the presumed J.W.B. mummified – remains which were later dragged around Midwestern carnival sideshows for decades. Other Booth sightings had him in England, Brazil, Italy, Mexico and every other continent except Antartica. He supposedly turned up in China where he fought for the emperor; he became a famous Episcopalian minster preaching all over the South under a different name. A guy in Missouri contacted the predecessor to the FBI in 1922 because he was certain his 80-something neighbor either was Booth or knew where the hideout was.1

In 1937 Izola Forrester, a prolific newspaper and magazine journalist as well as a pioneer screenwriter, wrote “This One Mad Act: The Unknown Story of John Wilkes Booth and His Family” where she claimed Booth escaped, hiding in Southern California before heading to Asia and dying in India. What makes her book particularly interesting is that she claimed to be Booth’s granddaughter. Spoiler alert: That’s very unlikely.2

Historians point out that Forrester’s book is filled with errors and misconceptions regarding the assassination and the Booth family, but what interests us in Sonoma county is her section about a Booth look-alike who had lived in Forestville. This part of her book is mostly oral history, as she is not straining to prove Thomas Jerome fits into her elaborate conspiracy theory. The majority of mistakes there are probably due to the faulty memories of her interviewees who were recalling a man who had died some forty years earlier.

Here she mainly interviewed Elisha Shortridge who was close to 90 at the time, living in a log cabin somewhere deep in the redwoods outside Forestville. He was a fascinating character; he had a Zelig-like quality to pop up at some of the most interesting local events in the 1880s and 1890s. I’ll certainly be writing about him again, and soon; watch for the story of the Wirt Travis murder.

“Pioneer” Shortridge (as he seemed to be universally called) didn’t need much encouragement to talk about Thomas Jerome. “Yes, I knew him,” he told Forrester. “He came into the valley in 1870. You mean the feller they say shot Lincoln, don’t you?”

“…From the first time he showed up, we all noticed his resemblance to the man who had shot Lincoln, and it was whispered about he was actually Booth himself. I’ve seen him often. Talked to him over and over again, and I can remember just how he looked. He was very handsome, and sort of stately, and he wore good clothes. Always looked dressed up, and he had big black eyes, and wavy black hair off a high forehead. When he did drink, he drank hard. He’d seem to stand up just so long, then he’d have to get away from up here. He liked to ride horseback, and he’d go away down to San Francisco by himself, and stay by himself for a few days, but he always came back. He could talk to you on anything you wanted to know. Didn’t mind saying he’d been an actor once. He was a fine man, and everyone liked and respected him, but we all thought he was Booth just the same…

When she showed him a photograph of Booth, Shortridge replied, “if I was shown those pictures off-hand, and asked who that man was, I’d say I used to know him up here, and his name was Tom Jerome. Looks just like he did when he first came up. Wore his hair and moustache the same way, same eyes, same air about him. Same man, I’d say, only younger.”

Forrester also interviewed the son of William Clarke, the man who undoubtedly knew Jerome better than anyone else. He recalled hearing Jerome read or recite Shakespeare and poetry. Shown photographs of Booth, the younger Clarke said “Mr. Jerome might have sat for any of them.”

“…I’ve heard the talk about him, and he did look exactly like Booth, but he never claimed to be him. There was a mystery around him that no one, not even my father, could solve. He had plenty of money, and was always well dressed, and he looked distinguished… My father was the only person he talked much with, and he died in our home.”

Clarke (or someone) showed Forrester a picture of Thomas Jerome taken in the early 1880s. She agreed he was a dead ringer, if you account for a few extra pounds added over the 15+ years that had passed since Booth’s last portraits. “[It] might well have been his likeness, far more so in resemblance than any other persons who have claimed to have been Booth…when I left Forestville I almost believed they belonged to the same person.”

As mentioned earlier, the flaw in Izola Forrester’s book was that her historical research skills were weak. Had she done a little digging, there was more to learn about Tom Jerome.

He was supposedly about the same age as Booth, although we can’t be sure – I can find nothing about him before he appeared in California in 1868, working as a photographer in Eureka. He claimed variously to be from Alabama or Virginia.

He was still a photographer when he appeared in Sonoma county in 1870 living near the Russian River, but by the next year he stated he was an artist. This is how he identified himself in the voter rolls for the next 17 years, changing his occupation more specifically to painter in 1888. He was described as being 5′ 9″ tall, dark complexion with dark eyes and “arms both crooked”, whatever that meant.

In a nutshell then, here is the recipe for a John Wilkes Booth: Take one (1) Southerner with dark hair born in the mid-1830s, stir in enough education to be well-spoken and enough vanity to be well dressed, add a dollop of mystery (dark past preferred) and mix well. Serve in any community still hot over the Confederate cause and where people thought it was cool to harbor the man who might have killed Lincoln.

And in 1870 California, Santa Rosa and its surrounding region was just such a place. “There wasn’t anyone who’d ever have given him away up here,” Elisha Shortridge said.

When Thomas Jerome came to Sonoma county he stayed with the Myers, according to Shortridge, and a few years later Jerome married one of their seven girls. Dillon Preston Myers was likely happy to approve of his daughter’s wedding to an ersatz Booth and “unreconstructed rebel” – according to Shortridge, Myers was a well-known “Secesh.”3

Shortridge continued:

California was full of them in those days,” he stated reflectively. “They all stuck together, had their own meeting and drinking places and their own ways. Feelings ran mighty high up here in war time, and long afterwards. Folks were divided in sentiment even when Jerome came up and he belonged to the ‘Secesh’ sympathizers…in those days and in my time up here, there was something bigger and mightier in this land that the law or government; something that bound men together in a tie of secret brotherhood stronger than family or country, even to the death. It stretched everywhere. You couldn’t get away from it even if you wanted to. I ain’t saying anything, mind, against it. It was all around this part of the country, and it was ‘Secesh…'”

Forrester asked if he was referring to the Knights of the Golden Circle, the most prominent of the Confederate secret societies which were the direct ancestors of the Ku Klux Klan. In California during the Civil War the group encouraged sedition, including training militia groups that went to fight for the South in the Civil War. The KGC’s propaganda efforts undermined Union support in the West (Santa Rosa’s weekly Sonoma Democrat was long rumored to be financed by KGC backers) and was involved in an attempt to split off Southern California into a separate, slave-holding state. Immediately after Lincoln’s assassination it was presumed the KGC was behind it, and that John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators were part of it.

Shortridge confirmed the KGC was active in Sonoma county during the war and remained a presence afterwards:

“That’s what they called themselves, but there was more to it than the name. You never knew who belonged to it, and who didn’t, but it held the Southerners together. There were plenty of them up here. Even by the time Jerome came to live up here, the sentiment still burned low and deep like that fire there. Southerners and Northeners hated each other for years and years after Lincoln was shot. All you had to do was start an argument on slavery or States’ rights, and the war was on again.”

Even those who didn’t believe Tom Jerome was secretly Booth assumed he had some sort of high-status position during the war. Shortridge said, “It was generally believed that he had been in the Confederate Army, as a spy. But nobody asked him questions. You couldn’t take liberties with him. He was friendly enough, but stand-offish, very dignified and usually alone.”

Clarke’s son told Forrester almost the same thing: “No one ever took any liberties with him, or called him anything but ‘Mr. Jerome.’ He made no explanations about himself, but people believed he had been in the Secret Service of the South, and was an unreconstructed rebel who wouldn’t take the oath of allegiance to the North.”

The Jeromes had two children; the older daughter apparently didn’t want to talk about her father but her younger sister remembered him as austere and mysterious. She said he had been an actor, knew Booth when both were young and had “doubled” for him, but would not say exactly what that meant. She also mentioned the Confederate Secret Service, which suggests some (or all) of what she knew spilled out from the echo chamber.

However swashbuckling his past, his life in Sonoma county came to center upon relationships with the Myers family in Windsor and the Clarkes of Forestville.

He married Ida Myers in 1874, and a year later daughter Frances was born. The second girl, Edith, came along in 1880, the same year Ida died of TB. After that the Myers raised their grandchild Frances and Edith was sent to live with the Clarke family.

Art dealers tell me there are no records of Thomas Jerome paintings, so it’s doubtful he was good enough to make his living by the paintbrush. According to local newspapers he was a partner in a Windsor grocery store in the early 1870s and converted a Forestville saloon into a store in 1880. His friend William Clarke was Forestville’s Postmaster for most of the 1880s-90s and Jerome became his deputy PM in 1890. After that he no longer identified himself as an artist but a “clerk.”

Thomas Jerome’s death is as vague as his origin. Although he supposedly died at the Clarke home there is no Sonoma county death certificate for him, nor any newspaper obituary that can be found. The cemetery records list only that he died sometime in November 1894.

Izola Forrester believed she solved the puzzle after daughter Frances gave her the address of cousins in Philadelphia. Forrester contacted them and was told that yes, their uncle Thomas McGittigan was a Confederate sympathizer and believed to have gone to California, where he disappeared. But either the Philly cousins were out of touch with their own family or Forrester misunderstood what she was told. There was indeed a McGittigan generally matching the profile but he was an Irish immigrant who became a Union soldier, then spent the rest of his life around Philadelphia. A photo of McGittigan as a youth convinced Forrester he was neither Booth nor Jerome. As the Myers family came from Pennsylvania, perhaps Izola was confused by something Frances said concerning the other side of her family tree.

Frances Jerome’s family remained here and flourished; there are now great-great-great and 4-g grandchildren in West county, but the family only knows about the Booth story through Forrester’s retelling. That probably isn’t surprising, as Frances said “it would kill me” if it were proven she was the child of John Wilkes Booth, so it wasn’t a story she herself would have passed down. To some people, treason and murder are not points of pride. Imagine that.

Photo of Thomas Jerome grave marker: FindAGrave.com

 


1 The Booth-escaped conspiracy theories were collected in The Great American Myth by George S. Bryan, 1940. A Rolling Stone overview of the conspiracy stories commented, “author George S. Bryan made it clear that Booth was a favorite of the nut theorists.”

2 Following the assassination, women came forward claiming they were John Wilkes Booth’s wife and/or mother of his children. The Booth family dismissed these women as pretenders, and brother Edwin later said there were “twenty [widows] that wrote to me just after John’s death.” One of them, however, Izola Mills, had two children that she convinced a grown daughter of brother Junius were fathered by John Wilkes. Rose Booth generously supported Mills and her children whom she treated as if they were her own. It has since come out that Izola Mills was simultaneously drawing a U.S. Navy pension for the children claiming their father was her deceased husband. And as John Wilkes was performing hundreds of miles away when Izola Forrester’s mother was conceived, it is very unlikely he was the father. The only link between Forrester and the Booth family was Rose Booth’s willingness to accept her grandmother’s doubtful claims. Source: The Forgotten Daughter – Rosalie Ann Booth

3 Forrester refers to him as “Dr. Myers” which is clearly an error, as he was a farmer and contractor of some sort. My bet is she wrote “DP Myers” in her notes and when writing it up later, misread the “P” for an “R.” On the rare occasions when he was mentioned in the newspapers during his lifetime he was always called, “D. P. Myers.”

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