1907

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

Read More

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

Read More

THE EDITOR’S DRUNKEN MUSE

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Press Democrat editor Ernest Finley loved drunks, and if the tippler was also a hobo, so much the better.

Finley could write prose worthy of Mark Twain when the spirit moved him, and could sketch a memorable little portrait from just a routine court appearance (while likely inventing all the dialog in the scene). But Finley’s favorite muse was “Tennessee Bill,” a hobo with a window-rattling yell who also had a penchant for tearing off his clothes and setting fire to them. More of Finley’s poetics over the skunk-drunk can be found in the 1906 papers.

WAS WELL OFF BUT FORGOT

“Look here, Judge,” You let me go this time and I promise you I will not take a single drink. If I do and am brought before you again, you just give me the limit, six months, and I will not blame anybody but myself.”

So said Joe Fenton, an old offender to Judge Bagley on Tuesday morning shortly after his release from jail, where he had been doing time for over indulgence in liquor, when he was again presented before the magistrate.

“Very well,” said the magistrate. “Now, remember, you have made a bargain.”

Wednesday morning Fenton was picked up again, drunk and incapable. He was hauled before the police judge again, having been brought to court in the patrol wagon. Asked to explain the why and the wherefore, he said:

“Judge, I just took one drink.”

“That’s one more than you said you would. You told me to give you the limit. But sixty days.”

“All right sir.”

And Joe was taken over once more.

– Press Democrat, September 5, 1907
OLD JOKE THAT DID NOT WORK
“Tennessee Bill” Jailed in a Northern Calaboose, Burns His Clothes–Widely Known Specimen of Genus Hobo

William Cornelius Tennessee Goforth, familiarly known to all the officers of California from San Diego to Siskiyou and from the Sierras to the sea as “Tennessee Bill,” will probably drop into town in a day or two.

This noted specie of the genus hobo has been spending a few days of enforced retirement in the jail at Ukiah. The other day the people of that quiet Mendocino town were terrified by a series of most ungodly yells, and when the town marshal and the available police force investigated they found that the possessor of the powerful lung blast was none other than “Tennessee Bill.”

Bill was quickly gathered in and when taken before the magistrate was given a term in jail. It was necessary to prescribe a bath for Bill at Bastille soon after his arrival there. Then he tried on the same old joke he worked when he was last a guest at the county jail on Third street in this city. He watched an opportunity while the bath was being prepared and shoved all the old clothes he was wearing through the [illegible microfilm] as the flames preyed upon them. He reckoned without a realization that two can play a joke. Consequently instead of being passed out a brand new suit of overalls he was ordered at the conclusion of his ablutions to proceed to his cell and remain there wrapped in the folds of a blanket. Bill had to submit with all the grace he could commit under the circumstances in the long run, however he will win only when he is liberated he will get the clothes all right.

– Press Democrat, September 7, 1907
BUSY DAY IN THE POLICE CIRCLES
Hop Pickers Indulge Too Freely– “Tennessee Bill” Once More an Inhabitant of County Jail

There was something doing in police circles yesterday afternoon and Fourth street was kept alive with the jingle of the bell of the patrol wagon.

Half a dozen men, from the hop yards, celebrating the fact that they had been paid off, took a little too much hop brew aboard, and were overcome. Three of them required the assistance of the patrol wagon to reach a cool spot in the police station. Three of them were walked there. Police Officer Lindley was the arresting officer in each case.

Some time during the afternoon there was a lusty use of lung power and in response Constable Sam Gilliam hurried to Third street. Some how or other, the shouts seemed sort of familiar to the officer. It was none other than William Cornelius Tennessee Goforth, more familiarly known as “Tennessee Bill.” Bill went over to the county jail for fifteen days and thanked Justice Atchinson for the rest given. Bill finds the jails throughout the state the best homes he knows. He has been there often enough.

– Press Democrat, September 21, 1907

Read More