1909

BABY TO BE GIVEN AWAY TODAY

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Want to take home a 7-month-old baby? Come on down to the Salvation Army, where little George will be handed over to someone as an “interesting feature of the afternoon’s services.” Thus was apparently the fate of infants unwanted or parentless in 1909 Santa Rosa; the Lytton Springs Orphanage, which was likewise operated by the Salvation Army, did not accept youngsters under school age.

The spring of 1909 was the season for orphaned children: A few weeks earlier, a family of seven kids found themselves alone when their widowed mother Ida May Rice died. The day after her funeral, the court named as guardian the local probation officer, who promptly said that all of the children had been placed in homes. The Assistant District Attorney complemented his swift work was done “without any expense in the county.”

It would not be cynical to presume unhappy fates awaited the Rice children; this was the era when orphans were still taken into homes to work as domestic servants or farm laborers, and three of these children were in their early teens, a prime age for such exploitation. Happily, the 1910 census shows that five of the children were adopted by Myron and Eva Goodsell of Janesville, Wisconsin, who were presumably relatives. What happened to the eldest daughter, 17 year-old Nellie, or the newborn is unknown. Hopefully the latter didn’t end up as another Salvation Army door prize.

Ida May, with her husband Charles Rice, are buried in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, Eastern Half Circle 36.

BABY WILL BE GIVEN AWAY SUNDAY

The services at the Salvation Army on Sunday will be conducted by Major Willis of San Francisco. Special subjects will be dealt with at each meeting. An interesting feature of the afternoon’s services will be the giving away of a baby boy, by name of George. George is seven months old, weighs 22 pounds. The public is invited to come.

– Press Democrat, May 22, 1909

DEATH CALLS MRS. RICE
Leaves Six Children Orphans to Face the World

Mrs. Ida May Rice passed away on Friday morning at her home on Charles street, leaving several children, among them a new born babe, to mourn her loss. Mrs. Rice succumbed to double pleuro-pneumonia, and everything possible to medical science was done to save precious life to the family. She sank steadily and her spirit was transferred to the better land, leaving the motherless and fatherless children.

Mrs. Rice had resided at 740 Charles street, the place where the Angel Death found her, for the past five years. She was a woman devoted to her family, of lovable disposition, and endeared herself to all with whom she came in contact. Her husband succumbed last autumn and left her a widow. There are six children in the family. Rev. Leander Turney, pastor of the Baptist church, will officiate at the funeral.

– Santa Rosa Republican, March 19, 1909

HOMES ARE FOUND FOR SIX CHILDREN
Probation Officer Plover’s Good Work in Behalf of the Poor Rice Orphans

The six little orphan children left by the late Mrs. Rice , who was buried on Monday afternoon, have been found homes by Probation Officer J. P. Plover. This is good news for many people who were attracted to the case by the sad details connected with the death of the mother, preceded as it was by that of the father a short time ago.

Probation Officer Plover was named guardian of DeWain Rice, et al., by Judge Seawell yesterday morning. After this was done Assistant District Attorney Hoyle told a Press Democrat representative of the home finding.

“That’s a pretty good piece of work on the part of Mr. Plover in itself,” said the Assistant District Attorney. “He has found homes for those six Rice children without any expense in the county.”

– Press Democrat, March 24, 1909

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CALLING ALL CROOKS

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

As Santa Rosa closes streets and girds to manage a flood of visitors for a bike race, it should be remembered that the town handled three or four Big Events like this every year a century ago.

There was usually the Rose Carnival in the spring followed by the Fourth of July, both with parades and grand floats. Then there were the races – horses before 1908, then mostly autos afterwards. On election nights there were bonfires (immense pyres really) in the streets with impromptu parades for the victors, complete with marching bands. And sometime during every year there was a circus or other touring entertainment that drew most of the town’s population along with those from the surrounding villages and farms. In the age before television, radio and real movies, enjoying an event with your neighbors was a memorable thing.

Call me Mr. Cynic, but whenever I read that ‘everybody and her brother’ attended a Big Event, I’ve wondered: Why weren’t burglars busy ransacking their neighborhoods of darkened homes? Where were the pickpockets drifting through packed crowds with their agile fingers? Reports of crimes like these were mainstays of the San Francisco and Oakland newspapers. Petty thievery was not uncommon locally, but more often it was opportunistic misbehavior of juvenile “incorrigibles” – stolen chickens, bicycles and the like.

But the 1909 California Grand Prize Race drew a huge audience from the Bay Area, and apparently their criminal underclass leeched along with them. The event was a more tempting target because it wasn’t just a celebrated cross-country auto race; Fourth street was closed off for a carnival sideshow to promote AYPE (the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition about to start in Seattle), and Santa Rosa held the Rose Carnival the previous day, which included an illuminated parade that evening. All of downtown was filled with crowds packed tight as pickles, the only lighting coming from festive Japanese lanterns and the feeble wattage that fell out of store windows. Pickpocket paradise.

And sure enough, a gang of five pickpockets was nabbed – yet incredibly, not prosecuted and just sent out of town on the train. Homes on Mendocino Avenue and North Street were robbed, the burglars taking jewelry and a large sum of cash. And, as the Press Democrat remarked, “there may be others.” As the items stolen were so valuable, it’s hard to imagine that the thieves were kids, or that these were the only homes hit.

Still, it was a swell day for Santa Rosa, and for a while everyone stepped out of small town life to enjoy the thrill of living in a big city. Those robbed that weekend enjoyed the city life thrill to the fullest.

PICKPOCKETS ARE UNDER ARREST 
Detectives Taylor, McPhee and Green Assist Local Police on Rose Carnival Day

The police made six arrests Saturday and Saturday night of pickpockets and men under suspicion. In the case of two, the goods was [sic] found on them. There was reported to the police during a half dozen cases of work by the light-fingered gentry, and the officers kept a close watch as the throngs moved up and down the streets during the evening.

To aid the local police officers keep their eyes on strangers of the light-fingered variety wandering into town on Rose Carnival day Detective McPhee and Detective Taylor of San Francisco, and Detective Green of Oakland, were in this city on Saturday.

Detective Taylor had not been long in town before he recognized a gang of five pickpockets from the metropolis. They were just commencing to work in a dense crowd of people. Taylor watched them and one of their number caught sight of the officer and ran off. This gang were [sic] sent out of town on the afternoon train.

– Press Democrat, May 8, 1909

BURGLARS AT WORK HERE LAST NIGHT 
Residences of Frank D. McGregor and F. H. Hankel Entered and Articles of Value Taken

Burglars operated in Santa Rosa Saturday night while people were downtown participating in the festivities of the closing hours of the rose carnival.

Up to midnight at least two citizens had reported at police headquarters that their residences had been burglarized and money and articles of value stolen. There may be others.

When Mrs. Frank D. McGregor and Miss Mabel McGregor returned to their home on North street they discovered that burglars had preceded them. Two gold watches and jewelry belonging to the ladies, some of the articles keepsakes, were found to be missing. They telephoned Mr. McGregor at the Fifth street stables, and he communicated with the police.

Another thief entered the residence of F. H. Hankel on Mendocino street, and stole ninety dollars in cash from that home.

– Press Democrat, May 8, 1909

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AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

The Hatfields and McCoys had nothing on the Johnsons and Vallencias, who were feuding up a storm in  Santa Rosa.

We don’t know when the war began between the neighbors, but it’s likely that their 1909 court appearances were only the latest salvos in a marathon battle, which escalated after Mr. Johnson asked for an arrest warrant against  Louis Vallencia. The charge was unusual, maybe even unprecedented in the local court; he wanted Vallencia arrested for elder abuse upon his own father. The Santa Rosa Republican reporter seemed sympathetic: “The elder Vallencia is an aged and helpless man. He would not of his own account take any legal action against his son, consequently the neighbors at length took the matter up.”

A week later, both families were in court. Johnson wanted additional charges filed against Louis’ brother for storming to his house where he “delivered himself of much unseemly language in the presence of the Johnson family.” Still in 1909, using “vulgar and profane language in the presence of women and children” was considered a more serious offense than even child abuse or animal cruelty.

Then Louis Vallencia had his say. He called Johnson “a particular kind” of liar, and “volunteered to beat him up.”

Not to be outdone, Vallencia had scraped together his own list of offenses: Johnson had people camping in a  wagon in front of Vallencia’s house; Johnson’s young son was working at a shoeshine stand and doing janitorial work in saloons. “This latter, contended Vallencia, was apt to imbue the young man with a desire for intoxicants, and hence was, on the parent’s part, an offense against the peace and dignity of the State of California, as well as of the immediate community in which Vallencia lived.”

The newspaper observed, “[Vallencia] had several other complaints, which for reasons not altogether of space and relevancy are omitted here.”

The exasperated sigh of Judge Atchinson can be heard in the final (?) ruling on the squabble: “The court dismissed the parties with the admonition that they use every effort to have peace prevail in their neighborhood.”

SOME UGLY BATTERY CASES COME UP

[..]

At  the instance of J. W. Johnson, a neighbor, a warrant was issued on Monday for Louis Vallencia’s arrest on the charge of battery. Johnson states that Vallencia had been in the habit of beating his (the defendant’s) father, and mistreating him continually. The elder Vallencia is an aged and helpless man. He would not of his own account take any legal action against his son, consequently the neighbors at length took the matter up.

– Santa Rosa Republican, August 16, 1909
NEIGHBORS ARE IN TROUBLE

W. H. Johnson, who swore out a warrant of arrest some days ago for Louis Vallencia for cruelty to his–the latter’s–father, appeared in the Justice court Monday morning with some more charges. It appeared that the brother of Vallencia had not taken kindly to the issuing of the warrant, and Sunday he appeared in front of Johnson’s house and delivered himself of much unseemly language in the presence of the Johnson family. Vallencia, who accompanied his accuser into court, denied the charges, and he called the other a liar, a particular kind of one, and volunteered to beat him up, which he was not permitted by the court to do, however.

He further stated that he had various grievances against Johnson: the first, that the latter had a camping wagon in front of the Vallencia premises, which same, by virture of its inmates building nightly fires about it, was, in his opinion, highly conducive to setting said premises aflame; second, Johnson’s son was engaged in running a bootblack stand while still of school age; and third, but not least, for he had several other complaints, which for reasons not altogether of space and relevancy are omitted here, this son of his neighbor was in the habit of being hired by saloon men to clean out their barrooms. This latter, contended Vallencia, was apt to imbue the young man with a desire for intoxicants, and hence was, on the parent’s part, an offense against the peace and dignity of the State of California, as well as of the immediate community in which Vallencia lived.

The court dismissed the parties with the admonition that they use every effort to have peace prevail in their neighborhood.

– Santa Rosa Republican, August 23, 1909

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