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THE CROOK WHO CAME FOR PETALUMA’S OIL

His name was James Dalzell Brown. Should you dig up your great-grandparents (and please do not do so simply on my account) and asked them who the “bank wrecker” was, they would not have hesitated to spit out his name. Had they lived in Petaluma around 1910, there might have been some cussing along with actual spit.

Before plunging forward, a short prologue and apology: This is part II of the previous article, “DREAMS OF AN EMPIRE OF OIL” which covered Petaluma’s ill-fated oil and gas boom through part of 1910. Players introduced there are discussed in greater depth below, so Gentle Reader might wish to review it before continuing (the article’s not that long).

This article, however, is very long and I do apologize for that. But this is an incredible story which has never been told, even though Brown was a criminal with plans extraordinaire. (Honestly, I don’t understand why there hasn’t been a book, movie or documentary mini-series about this guy and his gang of pirates.) To make this easier to read in more than one sitting there’s an option of hopping past the Petaluma oil saga and going directly to the part about Brown’s crazy schemes.

The takeaway from this story should be that Petaluma was lucky it didn’t become the West Coast hub for oil and natural gas in 1909. Undoubtedly Brown and his boys would have exploited the town and anyone who mistakenly trusted them – and we know they would’ve done so because a pair of them did manage to scam a few Petaluma residents, as you’ll discover at the end of this article.

So let’s now pick up where part I ended: In 1910 Petaluma’s elation over striking oil began to crumple in September after the town’s papers printed a letter from the State Mining Bureau. Cassius Webb, acting as the attorney for Ramona Oil, asked them how much the oil field was worth so Consolidated Oil could start paying dividends within a couple of months.

The Bureau’s response was brutal. First, it was their view there was “little or no chance” of hitting large quantities of oil. Some of the company’s expectations were “entirely ridiculous” and “it would require considerable time to put the property in paying condition.” Webb’s claims seemed “intended to deceive the most ignorant” and it was the Bureau’s opinion the project had “all the earmarks of deliberate fraud.”

Needless to say, the letter “created a great sensation” in Petaluma, according to the Argus. It was “about the worst blow yet delivered at the men who have staked their reputations and their money on finding oil in paying quantities in this vicinity.”

General Manager John Frank told the newspaper everything was going according to plan. “The English stockholders have every confidence in the success of our development work” because he was a bonafide oil expert; Consolidated Oil respected him so much he was given the pick of any oil fields around the state and he chose the one near Petaluma as having the best prospects. The state Bureau had not visited the site and didn’t know what they were talking about.

As for the stockholders in the Ramona and Bonita Oil companies, not to worry: Their old shares were to be traded in one-for-one with stock in Consolidated Oil, which was then listed at $2.50 per share (over eighty bucks today). Everything was going to work out just fine.

Everything did not work out just fine.

About four months later, John Frank published an extraordinary open letter to Ramona stockholders. The big reveal: All work was shut down. He and the drilling supervisor were no longer allowed on the premises. Stockholders had probably lost their entire investment. And the man secretly behind the curtain the whole time was the infamous J. Dalzell Brown. At that news, you can bet a squawk of horror resounded throughout the Petaluma valley.

THE RISE AND FALL OF PETALUMA’S 1908-1910 OIL BOOM

We’ll begin by looking at John W. Frank, who was considerably less than he claimed to be. Born in 1865, he stated on the 1910 census he was an “oil locator;” ten years before that, he was simply a miner. He made a big splash in Bay Area papers in 1905 by announcing he had invented a device that could find shipwrecks which was patented (it couldn’t and it wasn’t).

Over the next few years Mr. Frank can be spotted in newspapers and trade magazines posing as an expert in finding oil. He boasted of finding oil in Nevada, Washington, California, Texas and Canada. To investors in Colorado Springs he promised his track record was perfect – all of his finds had resulted in productive wells. Oddly, he never named any specific examples.

In 1907 Frank became acquainted with Dalzell Brown and his cronies: Norton C. Wells, Charles Gregg and Dalzell’s son, Thomas.1 (More about this group in the following section.) Gregg had been contacted by the penny-ante Petaluma Oil and Development Company which had an oil lease on the Ducker ranch that looked promising, but was unable to raise capital to do actual drilling.

Together Frank, Brown, Wells and Gregg formed the Ramona Oil Company although Brown’s name was not made public. They made a deal with Petaluma O&D which still held the Ducker lease; Ramona would take over the prospecting work and any profits would be split evenly between the companies.

Dalzell Brown was expected to underwrite the operation even though officially he was broke, with a conga line of prosecutors and plaintiffs queued up to sue him for various financial misdeeds. Brown told his partners he would dip into $30,000 in securities which were kept under his wife’s name. It’s unclear how much money he actually put in to support day-to-day operations, and wording in Frank’s letter to shareholders suggests it was little or even nothing at all. But through a separate company set up by Brown and his son, he owned all the equipment including the very expensive drilling rig and the mighty one horsepower (!) motor that powered everything.

jdbmug(RIGHT: J. Dalzell Brown 1908 San Quentin mug shots)

The other tiny little difficulty – just an annoyance, really – was that Brown was in San Quentin at the time for embezzlement. Frank was the conduit between the Ramona partners and prisoner #22849, both via prison visits and correspondence. A letter to him was later used as evidence in a lawsuit: “On my release it is my intention to devote my entire time and energy to the oil business, and I join with you in the wish and hope that we may make lots of ‘easy clean money’ together. J. D. B.”

Brown soon discovered there would be no “easy clean money” flowing from the Petaluma oilfield. Soon after constructing the Ramona well derrick they were already running out of funds. Brown agreed to keep work going by directly investing $5,000 in exchange for another 100,000 shares of stock. Brown was now the major stockholder with 200k shares, as he already had 100,000 in “promotion stock”.2

Prospects began to look up in 1909. John Frank was selling lots of stock (which was likely his true forté instead of finding oil) and the Ramona well hit a strong pocket of natural gas, which made folks in Petaluma giddy because it was assumed the gas would be piped to town and lead to expansive growth. They began drilling the Bonita well and formed the Bonita Oil Co. which meant a million more stock shares for Frank to peddle.

The Bonita well also struck natural gas but soon caved in, and the Ramona well likewise collapsed.3 Dalzell Brown was now released from prison and living in Los Angeles, where he summoned Frank to discuss what was to be done. Brown wanted to close the companies down and walk away.

“What do you intend to do with our stockholders who have put up their money in good faith?” Frank asked, according to his open letter to Ramona stockholders. He replied, “they can as well afford to lose their money as I can lose mine” (paraphrased by Frank) and wished somebody would buy him out.

Frank revealed he had the power to sign contracts on behalf of an English syndicate (a couple of years earlier, he had looked over some land in West Virginia for Consolidated Oil). Brown asked, “Well, why don’t you get them to take it over?”

Over the following months Frank worked out a deal between his partners and Consolidated, which was already planning to invest $30M in California oil projects (about a billion dollars in today’s value).4 Frank and the others would continue working at the site.

jdbconsolidatedIt was agreed Ramona and Bonita company stockholders would swap their shares for the equivalent number of Consolidated Oil Fields of California shares, which were then being sold in London for ten shillings, about 10x the value of the old Ramona and Bonita stock.5 Quite a payday! To protect those investors – particularly since there was still no proof the oilfield would be productive and it was unclear if the gas wells could be brought back online – all the partners also agreed to return their enormous stash of promotion stock.

Less than four months after that deal was made a new well struck oil. As described in part I, in Petaluma limitless joy abounded. Even a skeptical report from the State Mining Bureau couldn’t dampen everyone’s high spirits.

Enter chaos agent J. Dalzell Brown.

Brown went back on his word to return those 100,000 promotion shares, which put him first in line to receive Consolidated stock worth nearly a quarter million dollars. According to Frank’s letter to stockholders, Brown was paid in full. (Don’t forget he still had those additional 100k shares of regular stock mentioned above).

Recall, too, he had a side business that actually owned the drilling equipment. Once Consolidated entered the picture he agreed to let the company use his gear for three months free, but after that he wanted $15/day rent or them to buy it for $4,500. After the oil was found Frank received an urgent telegram from Consolidated: Brown had shown up in London and demanded full payment for the rig – what should they do? Frank told them not to pay Brown, that the valuable drill would be returned to Brown’s company.

At about the same time, an item appeared in a widely-read UK petroleum newsletter that “created dissension” among English stockholders according to Frank, but no further details can be found. Later a trade magazine commented there were “…damaging reports that have been published concerning the properties of the company and the statements that have been made about them…in order to allay the fears of the stockholders an extraordinary general meeting was held at the office in London…”

We can guess at two possible reasons for such a kerfuffle: It was discovered that A) an internationally known criminal was at the center of the deal, or B) there were viable rumors that Frank or someone else had “salted” the well which appeared to strike oil. Frank acknowledged there were whispers in an interview with the Argus: “Some people have gone so far as to express the belief that we salted this well…” True or no, the suspicion became part of the common view, and ten years later the Ansonia Oil Co. brought it up during a public meeting in Petaluma to assuage concerns about their honesty.

Then at the beginning of 1911, the Ramona Oil Co. sued Consolidated Oil Fields of California along with several individuals, including Frank. (At that point Ramona directors were down to just Brown, his son and Norton C. Wells.) As the suit was filed in England I’m unable to find the complaint; it doesn’t appear to be described in any newspaper or journal available on the internet, but presumably it must not have been much more than a nuisance suit to the huge British firm. At the same time Frank and the others were locked out of the oilfield.

And thus endeth Petaluma’s first oil venture. After that squirmy meeting with stockholders Consolidated never mentioned the project again. Frank headed to British Columbia (about which more will be told in the next chapter) but came back here to testify against Brown in bank fraud prosecutions in San Francisco.

The rest of 1911 was consumed with legal actions against Brown to sell off his equipment at sheriff’s auctions for debts. Superintendent K. V. McDonald hadn’t been paid for months and wanted over $1,000 for labor. Frank said he was owed $600 in commissions for selling stock. A delivery man named H. H. Kercheval filed for $167. More attachments were claimed for the pumps, the horsepower engine, pipes and boilers. Brown did not contest any of that; at the time he was reportedly running a cemetery association somewhere in Los Angeles.

Superintendent McDonald ended up buying the fabled Ducker oil lease for all of $90.

Petalumans of a vintage age might recall there were indeed productive oil wells operated by Shell Oil east of Petaluma. Those projects began several years after the events described here and did not involve any of the same companies or people. Researchers interested in exploring that history should seek out references to the Ansonia Oil Co. between 1921 and 1928.

THE NOTORIOUS MR. BROWN AND HIS DEN OF THIEVES

Until late in 1907, J. Dalzell Brown had it all…and then some.

He didn’t see himself as a grifter. He thought of himself as a savvy businessman who recognized great risk can yield great rewards. Nor did his accomplices view themselves as cheats, liars or dupes; they thought they were smart guys who would enrich themselves by following his road to riches. And he certainly didn’t set out to screw over Petaluma in particular. To him, Petaluma and Santa Rosa were just podunk farm towns he passed through while he and his wife were being chauffeured farther up north.

Brown was born in Scotland in 1864, met his wife Harriet Skimmings in Halifax and the two moved to San Francisco in 1886. Four years later, he’s named as the manager and treasurer of the California Safe Deposit & Trust Co. There he brushed elbows with Isaac G. Wickersham, a company director and famed Petaluma banker – the first of many from Sonoma County who would cross his path.

jdbrailroadAround the turn of the century he was a founder of two short railroad lines.6 In 1903 both were acquired by a brand-new company called the Western Pacific Railway with Brown as the treasurer. It soon became clear that railroad was intended to be part of a transcontinental line.

Gentle Reader may be thinking right now, “gosh, ol’ Dalzell sure had a lot on his plate, being the treasurer of a railroad with big ambitions as well as the VP/manager of a major San Francisco bank!” Welp, sir, the fun’s just getting started. J. Dalzell Brown wanted to turn Latin America into his personal fiefdom – or something like it.

“Brown had visions of vast South American estates with himself as the greatest grandee of the western hemisphere,” reported the San Francisco Call in a widely reprinted feature story. “[H]e had persuaded many leaders in the Central and South American countries to deposit their money in his bank. He succeeded in gaining their friendship, and among the names of the depositors will be found those of several hundred Latin Americans.”

Counted among them was John Moisant, an American who owned a coffee plantation in El Salvador. His profile is worth a detour; Moisant tried to overthrow the country’s junta and learned to fly so he could attack Salvadoran troops by air. He returned to this country and became a major aviation pioneer around 1910, nearly as famous as the Wright brothers.

Comparisons to King Leopold and the Congo were easily made as Brown considered buying Moisant’s plantation for his base of operations to monopolize rubber, banana and timber interests. He convinced San Francisco investors to buy stock in some of these plantations and gained credibility by being appointed Uruguay’s consul for San Francisco.

Was he seriously planning to swoop into South America and take over whole sections of its economy? Hard to say, yet it’s very believable he wanted to be the U.S. banker for wealthy South Americans and their governments. But he never traveled further than Mexico in his life, so he didn’t build the personal relationships to pull off such a stunt. And besides, at the same time he was busy building an empire of another sort in Lake County.

As discussed here some time ago, Lake county was then promoted as the “Switzerland of America” with tens of thousands of visitors drawn to its mineral spring resorts and spending weeks there every summer. Boosters were certain the place had unlimited potential if there only were some way to easily reach it; as it was, the only way to get there was via teeth-rattling roads. A series of proposals were floated to construct a railroad or even an electric trolley from Santa Rosa but none advanced very far.

Brown owned about three miles of Clear Lake frontage, riding on the coattails of a developer who had bought up 35,000 acres around the lake. The plan was that hotel resorts would dot the shoreline, visitors would step off that future train/trolley at Lower Lake or Lakeport and take a water taxi to wherever they were staying. They also intended to construct an 84 mile boulevard around the entire lake and reforest the area by having the state forester plant 200,000 native and ornamental trees (they ended up with several hundred blue gum eucalyptus).

J. Dalzell Brown's Clear Lake mansion c. 1930
J. Dalzell Brown’s Clear Lake mansion c. 1930

As an early investor Brown also bought the Lakeport hotel and gave it a first-class remodeling, all the better to convince other investors to build those resorts. Brown built a luxurious concrete mansion on his property in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Although he didn’t finish it before he went broke, it was quite the showcase and the town of Nice grew up around it in 1920s. It still exists and today is an upscale hotel.

The Clear Lake project began in 1906, which was Brown’s halcyon year. In the wake of the 1906 earthquake the mayor of San Francisco appointed him to the Committee of Fifty, which was supposed to guide the city through the crisis – a clear signal the movers ‘n’ shakers considered him a trustworthy man of good judgement. Also that year his bank acquired the Union National Bank on behalf of the Western Pacific Railway to handle all their financial needs. This was an old and highly esteemed bank with a reputation for being cautious.

In his mid-forties, J. Dalzell Brown might have coasted into the footnotes of history books as a distinguished banking tycoon – the vice president of two major banks, treasurer of a railroad expected of great things, a land developer with 3,000 acres of prime real estate, plus whatever he was up to in South America. Life was sweet. Then came the 1907 bank panic.

Read that two-part series for background if desired (don’t miss the part where a U.S. Senator believed someone was trying to kill him while on the Senate floor) but in brief, the banking system truly was on the edge of collapse. Most of the crisis took place in the middle of October and was contained to the East Coast and Wall Street; by the time California was impacted there were measures in place to shore up the system. Still, the governor declared a “bank holiday” for most of November and the state legislature stretched it to Christmas, all on a day-to-day basis. Few financial institutions in the Bay Area took advantage of the optional closures, preferring to stay open as a sign of confidence and solvency.

Two financial institution that did pause operations were Brown’s California Safe Deposit and Trust Company (let’s shorten that to CSD&T from here out) and Union National Bank. Nearly every day that November a San Francisco reporter would ask about the status and he always said things were going swell, that a big deposit was on its way from New York, that his staff was collecting on loans, not to worry.

Come December, all was not going so well. State Bank Commissioners demanded a clear statement of CSD&T’s status. The board at Union National announced they would need to reorganize the bank; Brown was out as VP, and they were taking back his shares. After articles began to appear about CSD&T possibly raiding a famous trust fund, there were rumors he might be planning to leave the country.

On Dec. 8, he and the bank’s attorney/fellow VP Walter J. Bartnett were arrested for embezzlement of the $205,000 Colton estate. Longtime readers might recall the trial over the Colton money was an important part of Santa Rosa history.7

CSD&T would not be reopening. For the rest of the year and into 1908, the Dalzell Brown scandal(s) dominated San Francisco newspapers – entire pages were devoted to new news, old news, quotes from victims, lawyers, banking experts and politicians. The story took off, in part, because the bank had billed itself as a place for customers with small accounts; blue collar laborers and office workers. There were over twelve thousand account holders and a third were women.

Much was also made of the legal gunfighters they hired: Brown’s lawyer was famed criminal defense attorney Hiram Johnson, who would become California governor in 1911. The attorney for co-defendant Bartnett was Santa Rosa’s Thomas Geary. But what really had newspapers flying off the racks was the reveal that Brown and other bank executives had been making investment decisions based on the advice of psychics.

When that angle of the story surfaced, CSD&T President David F. Walker and the other executives vehemently denied it was true, but later they admitted in Grand Jury testimony that yes, they had been holding seances together at their homes (they still insisted no banking advice was taken) and individually at the parlors of spiritualists Mrs. J. J. Whitney and Molly Smith.

Carrie Whitney was the grand doyenne of San Francisco’s clairvoyants, having advertised herself as a medium in classified ads since 1884.8 The San Francisco Examiner sent a reporter to ask about her dealings with the bankers, although her voluble parrot, Polly, was quoted almost as much as the woman being interviewed:

“…As long ago as last May my spirit control warned me that something was wrong with the California Safe Deposit and Trust Company…”

“Put me to bed and cover me up!” muttered Poll.

“For months Mr. Brown has been greatly worried” –

“One!” exclaimed Polly.

“for he knew the end was in sight” –

“Two, three!” counted Poll with uncanny correctness.

“and that the reckless misuse he and Mr. Walker and Mr. Bartnett had made of depositors’ funds would wreck the bank. Oh, it is easy to ride in automobiles and build mansions on an island with other folks money! Three true believers in spiritualism, such as they are, knew that punishment was certain if they failed to follow honest advice from friends in the spirit land…”

As the reporter left, the newspaper gave Polly the last word: “‘Ha! ha!’ came from the window, with unholy mirth. ‘Good-bye, good-bye, you lobster!'” The Examiner accompanied the piece with a funny cartoon of Brown standing on tippy-toes feeding a coin into a slot on the parrot’s cage as if it were a vending machine or Mechanical Turk.

jdbpolly(RIGHT: Illustration from the December 10, 1907 San Francisco Examiner)

Brown insisted he took not one dollar for himself, and that’s literally true – but he was a bank robber just the same. Without crawling too deeply into the weeds, he handed out “loans” that were, in essence, gifts; he swapped worthless CSD&T or Western Pacific stock for cash, or used it as collateral for real loans from other banks; he recorded fake loans to shell companies to coverup “overdrafts” which were really stolen funds; he had the books cooked to hide millions of dollars that were missing.

These were staggering financial crimes. Other CSD&T directors had not been as discreet as Brown and over $2,000,000 in 1907 dollars went to executives. Bank President Walker gave himself loans worth $750k ($24M in modern dollars) and the Treadwell brothers funneled even more than that into stock trades in companies controlled by Brown.

Here’s a few of my favorite examples of other deals:

*
  Much – or maybe all – of the ambitious Lake County project was financed through Brown’s bank. He gave the company, and the developer personally, unsecured loans worth over $3.5M today
*
  The state bank commissioner who examined and approved the CSD&T books at the end of 1906 walked away with a loan equivalent now to three-quarters of a million dollars
*
  Former San Francisco Supervisor Charles Wesley Reed getting a $30k (now $1M) loan using four hundred mules as collateral. One editor quipped the mules must be compounding quarterly

Brown and his band of financial pirates knew full well this was a Ponzi Scheme and spent much effort to keep CSD&T afloat. Union National Bank was in trouble because its VP (Brown) had paid cash for lots of CSD&T stock from its vice president (Brown). Bartnett took the securities from the Colton estate to New York City and sold them at a discount, all to prop up CSD&T. While he was on the East Coast illegally peddling these stocks he communicated with Brown and the others via telegrams written in a code they dreamed up before he left. I’m sure honest bankers do this sort of thing all the time.

The scandal stayed on the front pages because no one was quite sure how much money had been stolen. The accounting was a joke; some entries were made fraudulent by crude means, such as adding a “1” to the left side of a number or changing a “3” into an “8”. Some debts and liabilities weren’t recorded at all.

Prosecutors began negotiating with Brown to turn state’s witness against his old chum, Walter Bartnett. In exchange he pleaded guilty to only embezzling $65k from a public utility and received an 18 month sentence, of which he served fifteen. (Once at San Quentin, he was given the apt prison monicker “Razzle Dazzle.”)

His Grand Jury testimony didn’t amount to much, and he divulged no treasure maps. It was reported he gave Bartnett control “at the command of the syndicate of astral bankers” and explained the codes Bartnett used in the telegrams. The press was mostly captivated that he was brought to court from prison with his “shaven head hidden under a luxurious brown wig.”

San Francisco Examiner, December 9, 19
San Francisco Examiner, December 9, 1907

So here’s the Executive Summary: J. Dalzell Brown was a crime boss. He assembled a team of rogues who obediently followed him through five companies (three railroad, two banking) where Brown was always the treasurer. As directors the only stockholders they cared about were themselves, allowing Brown to plunder those companies of assets – some of which were used to enrich themselves with gifts of fortunes disguised as “loans.”

From 1898 to 1908 Brown’s gang was mainly Walter J. Bartnett and Treadwell brothers John and James. Bartnett was usually the front man for the companies, acting as president; the Treadwells were heirs to a famous Alaskan gold mine and their stock shares were often used as securities when Brown got involved with a new company. The three of them undoubtedly would have reprised those roles for the Ramona and Bonita oil companies, had not they been under indictment at the time for acts of fraud committed while they were directors of the banks controlled by Brown.9

In their place, Brown tapped new players to be the public face of the Petaluma oil ventures: Norton C. Wells, Charles Gregg and Cassius Webb, who were introduced in part I. None of them were who they said to be.

Gregg replaced Bartnett as Brown’s front man, named president for Ramona and Bonita and VP for another Petaluma oil operation. Although the Petaluma Argus had reported “it is an open secret that Mr. Gregg…is in reality the chief of the fuel department of the Western Pacific Railway Company” he had no connection with the railroad. It later came out that Gregg was a San Francisco crony of Brown, who had transferred to him 1,000 shares of the railroad’s stock as he was about to begin his prison sentence – stock, which by the way, actually belonged to Brown’s wife, Harriet.10

Norton C. Wells was the other man named as an owner of the Bonita and Ramona oil companies, as well as both project manager and a “heavy stockholder.” He was directly involved in the California Safe Deposit & Trust fraud as branch manager of the Fillmore office, which is where many of the phony loans were issued. The San Francisco papers noted prosecutors briefly considered indicting him alongside Bartnett and the Treadwells.

Of all the characters involved in the Petaluma oil saga, Cassius M. Webb was the only one who had any actual experience in the business. Yet it’s a mystery why he told our local newspapers he was the lawyer for Ramona and Bonita Oil, since no evidence can be found that he was an attorney at all. Elsewhere he was called a “promoter,” “western mining expert,” and that great catchall for any fellow who didn’t have a real job, a “capitalist.” In the 1900 and 1910 census reports he identified himself as a mining engineer. He apparently was brought into the Petaluma oil because he was a “lifelong friend” of Gregg.

Yes, we were lucky that Brown and his slippery trio didn’t hit oil here and use it to start another stock scam, but that doesn’t mean Petaluma came away unharmed.

At the exact same time the Consolidated deal was in a nose dive, Webb and Gregg were being sued in Kern county for fraud, having sold an oilfield that was later discovered to have been obviously salted. The suit was dropped, apparently because the company didn’t want to risk looking like idiots – bad publicity and a stockholder backlash would likely follow should it become widely known they were so easily swindled. The Petaluma Argus remarked the news about the suit caused “a genuine sensation” because the Webbs lived in town and “quite a number of local people have purchased the stock in question.”11 Soon thereafter Webb and his wife moved to the East Coast.

 

NEXT: NEVER TRUST A DOODLEBUG
 


1 John W. Frank testimony reported in the Petaluma Daily Courier, December 22, 1911

2 “Promotion stock” was a term back then for shares awarded to company principals and key employees in lieu of salary or other payment. It was notoriously misused in oil company scams because the shares could be flipped immediately, leading many businesses that were seeking to appear legitimate to prominently advertise they had “no promotion stock.”

3 In his letter to Ramona stockholders, John Frank said he and superintendent McDonald were later able to reactivate the Ramona well to its original capacity.

4 Petaluma Argus, April 28 1910

5 In 1910, ten shillings was worth $2.43. Par value of Ramona and Bonita stock was 25¢ at the time. (Converting from 1910 to today’s values, 10s would now be worth the equivalent of about $70, and 25¢ would be worth over eight dollars.)
6 The Alameda & San Joaquin Railroad was incorporated in 1898 and the Stockton & Beckwith Pass Railroad, 1902.

7 As detailed here previously, a high-profile court case brought by Ellen Colton, the widow of a railroad exec, was such a political hot potato no court in San Francisco would touch it. The bench trial was moved here and lasted almost two years between 1883-4, bringing so much cash into town it spurred a downtown building boom. The Athenaeum, which was the second largest theater in the state, and new 2-3 story brick buildings on Fourth Street made us look like a proper Victorian America town, although most of those masonry buildings would crumble in the Great Earthquake.
6 At the time of Brown’s thievery, all papers had a classified ad section for clairvoyants, spiritualists, palm readers, etc. My personal favorites from 1907 were “Ora the Wonder” and “Byron Stanley, A Man of Strange Power.”

9 Bartnett was found guilty in 1908 of misappropriation and embezzlement of securities; he was sentenced to ten years but his conviction was overturned on appeal. James Treadwell was indicted on multiple charges of complicity with Brown and Bartnett but was acquitted in 1909 by a jury.

10 Affidavit of Benjamin A. Judd, February 1909 and San Francisco Examiner, November 6 1910

11 Petaluma Argus, December 24 and December 28 1910

 

Title image: The oil derrick shown is unidentified, but it’s probably the Ramona well. Photo courtesy Petaluma Historical Library & Museum

 

sources
I am returning you herewith papers in the matter of the Consolidated Oil Fields of California, Limited.

I am sorry that I cannot tell you more as to the actual value of this property, but our work has not, so far, taken us into this district, and the writer is not personally familiar with the ground. A Bureau representative, however, who is thoroughly familiar with the field, says that while the territory shows some indications of oil, the geological structure is very much broken, and there is little or no chance for any extended field or large production.

Some of the statements made in the report of Cassius M. Webb appear to be true; others are entirely ridiculous. I believe that the possible output of the Ramona gas well is greatly exaggerated, and doubt whether it has any commercial value. As to the producing power of the Bonita well, we have no information, but I can see no reason why this well should not be pumping if actually a producer. As to the land being proven, this of course, is absurd. The value of any part of this territory is highly doubtful.

It is a fact that the property is well located, and if it should prove to be oil land would be of considerable value, but at present is a rank wild-cat, and as such is greatly overcapitalized. Such statements as that of Mr. Webb that the property could be put on a dividend paying basis in sixty days, if it were possible to secure a drilling rig, can be intended to deceive the most ignorant. Complete rigs can at any time be had on telegraphic order at four points in the state, and even if every well they drill should prove successful, it would require considerable time to put the property in paying condition. The statement made in both the report and the advertisement bear all the earmarks of deliberate fraud. Very truly yours, PAUL W. PRUTZMAN, Field Assistant California State Mining Bureau.

– Petaluma Argus, September 10 1910

 

ENGLISHMEN COMING HERE

The publication exclusively in the Argus on Saturday of the article from the San Francisco News Letter relative to the local Oil Fields, in which the last named publication branded the local fields as valueless and the Consolidated Oil Fields of California as a “rank scheme” created a great sensation in this city. There had been much speculation and so many rumors in circulation as to the authenticity of the oil strike that the article in question, having the backing of the State Mining bureau, proved to be about the worst blow yet delivered at the men who have staked their reputations and their money on finding oil in paying quantities in this vicinity.

General Manager Frank of the Consolidated Oil Fields of California, Limited, was in the city on Sunday and sought an interview with the Argus. Mr. Frank was not in the least perturbed by the publication of the article in the News Letter. His only regret was that the author of the article did not seek definite information, such as could have been secured by a visit to the local fields, before branding his company a “wild cat” scheme and the local oil fields as barren in so far as oil in quantities is concerned.

Both Mr. Gardner and Mr. Prutzman, the former declaring that “this is about the rankest fraud yet,” are without definite information upon which to base their conclusions. Neither has visited the local fields and they appear to have “jumped” at their conclusions.

Mr. Frank informed the Argus that, regardless of the criticism of the people and the press, the work of exploiting the local fields will continue. He was one of the first experts to visit this field and has from the first been convinced that oil of high grade would be found here. He is now more than ever convinced that such is the case by reason of the strike in the present well and expresses the belief that before many days his opinion will be further substantiated by the development of the well.

Opinions of scientists differ as to the nature of the local fields. Some of the state mining bureau experts declare that the field is so broken that it is not possible for large deposits of oil to exist in it. Others declare that the contrary is true and that the indications are more favorable here than in any other part of the state for finding oil in large quantities. Mr. Frank is of the latter class and is backing his judgement.

At the time the English Syndicate was formed the officers of the company gave Mr. Frank his choice of fields, either in northern or central California. Mr. Frank chose the local fields for development by English capital because he believed the prospects here were better than anywhere else. The result is that the company has undertaken to develop the local fields and will continue to do so until oil in paying quantities is found in other wells than the one now being drilled and which is already in oil.

“Some people have gone so far,” said Mr. Frank, “as to express the belief that we salted this well – that we poured the oil down the pipe. Why, I would like to know, should we do such a thing? Our company has no stock for sale. We are not selling stock either here or in London. We have nothing to unload. The English stockholders have every confidence in the success of our development work. There is no reason under the Heavens why we should resort to any tricks in the prosecution of the work of developing the Petaluma fields and we have not done so.”

The stock of the Consolidated Oil Fields of California, Limited, is listed on the London Stock Market at par, $2.50 per share. It is thereby given a standing with other and similar stocks that speaks well for the standing, of the promoters over on the other side of the pond. The president of the company is now enroute to California and, with Major West, will probably visit this city during the present month. By that time Mr. Frank hopes to have the new well on the pump and producing at the least several hundred barrels dally. All the holders of Ramona and Bonita stock have been protected by the new company. Mr. Frank has issued $206,000 of stock in the English syndicate in exchange for an equal amount of stock in the old companies. Additional proof of the genuineness of the oil strike here is shown by the fact that Mr. M’Donald and Mr. Travis just recently refused to dispose of their lease of the Miller ranch for a large sum of money. These men are in a position to know the value of the local fields. During the past few days a number of leases in the local fields have been sold to local people who every confidence in the future of this section as an oil producer.

[..]

– Petaluma Argus, September 12 1910

 

WESTERN PACIFIC STOCK IS DIVIDED
Startling Testimony Is Given Against Directors of Defunct Bank.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec, 23. J. W. Frank, an oil expert of Oakland, made a startling disclosure yesterday at the examination being conducted by Attorney Samuel Rosenheim in the suit for accounting brought by the depositors of the wrecked California Safe Deposit and Trust company against the directors of that institution. Frank gave direct evidence of the division of 50,000 shares of Western Pacific stock among four of the bank directors.

This information, which Rosenheim only recently learned of, came as a complete surprise to Attorneys James A. Cooper and Frank H. Powers, representing several of the directors.

This was shown on the cross-examination where Cooper, who is the attorney representing Defendant Bartnett in this action, asked Frank if Brown had told him how many shares Hiram Johnson had received of the Western Pacific in the division of those securities. The witness replied that he had not been told by any one that Johnson had been given any shares.

Continuing his testimony, Frank said that on the trip to Mexico, which concerned an oil venture at Mazatlan, J. Dalzell Brown said that for the terminal facilities at Oakland the Western Pacific put up 50,000 shares of stock. This stock was divided into four equal portions of 12,500 shares, and Bartnett. Dalzell Brown, James Treadwell and John Treadwell shared it among themselves.

RELATES DEALINGS.

Frank related his dealings with C. W. Gregg in trying to negotiate a loan on 1000 shares of Western Pacific stock to get funds to develop oil properties in Petaluma and Pleasanton. Frank was in Denver at the time, and letters and telegrams that passed were read. Finally Frank went to Red Bluff, where the 1000 shares of Western Pacific stock reached him by express. The stock was then worth about $25,000 or $30,000. Frank tried to get a loan of $15,000 from W. R. Cahoone of the Bank of Tehama at Red Bluff. After considering the proposition. Cahoone finally declined to make the loan, on the ground that the stock was not listed on the Stock Exchange. The stock he offered for a loan, witness testified, belonged to Brown.

Subsequently a letter was received from J. Dalzell Brown saying that Mrs. Brown had put up securities to the value of $30,000 to promote the oil schemes. In a postscript to this typewritten letter Brown, who was then under sentence of imprisonment, in a hand which bore evidence of writers’ cramp, had written with the pen: “On my release it is my intention to devote my entire time and energy to the oil business, and I join with you in the wish and hope that we may make lots of ‘easy clean money’ together. J. D. B.”

– Oakland Tribune, December 23, 1911

 

BANK WRECKER WOULD BE KING
Aim of Dalzell Brown Alleged to Be Rulership of Opera Bouffe Principality.
Secret of His Desire to Be Consul for Uruguay Explained – Frenzied financier Sought Station as Grandee of Latin America

San Francisco – Last week the Republic of Uruguay appointed as its consul in San Francisco Dalzell Brown the frenzied financier who is supposed to be responsible for the wrecking of the California Safe Deposit and Trust Company. The secret of Brown’s desire to represent Uruguay in San Francisco was explained when a former associate of the banker asserted that Brown had visions of vast South American estates with himself as the greatest grandee of the western hemisphere. In fact, Brown already had made some progress toward the realization of his dream for he had persuaded many leaders in the Central and South American countries to deposit their money in his bank. He succeeded in gaining their friendship, and among the names of the depositors will be found those of several hundred Latin Americans. Among them was Juan Moisant, the well-known plantation owner of Salvador, who between the Central American government and Dalzell Brown has lost during the past six months the greater part of his immense fortune.

Brown sent alluring notices to all the representatives of the Central and South American countries in San Francisco and through them had gained many clients for his bank. Brown finally conceived the idea that he could achieve better results if he himself were duly accredited as the consul for Uruguay at this port. Uruguay is small and not very particular, and Brown got the job. He didn’t get it soon enough, however, to put it to any use in furthering his plans for the vast empire of which he dreamed.

Brown gained most of his knowledge of South and Central America from the comic operas where gracious promoters merge a couple of republics, purchase the army, double the capital stock and float the concern in Wall street. Brown had planned an empire of the sort that King Leopold of Belgium created in the Congo. He had figured it all out – how the rubber, the bananas and timber interests would yield him a revenue which would make possible a mansion that would make the Lakeport residence look like a porter’s lodge.

Brown showed great interest in the Moisant plantations at Santa Emilia, and had given some consideration to their purchase. With this as a base he proposed to extend his holdings until they formed a domain without rival on the globe.

In his office Brown kept a number of maps of the tropical countries, and these were among the effects seized by the corps of detectives who forced his desk at the bank building. One of them was of a rubber plantation which has secured a number of stockholders in San Francisco.

Some of literature dealt with sugar plantations but no matter what the enterprise Brown was always sure, as was Colonel Sellers, that there were “millions in it.”

– San Francisco Call, December 26 1907

 

The Central Counties Land Company Bubble

Of all the paper projects and promotion schemes which had after repeated failures made Lake county water development and railroads a byword, probably the most sensational was that of the Central Counties Land Company, which absorbed the county’s interest in 1906 and 1907. This was one of the activities of J. Dalzell Brown, who was sentenced in April, 1908, to San Quentin penitentiary for eighteen months for his part in wrecking the California Safe Deposit and Trust Co. Lake county people received much of the money of the depositors in that wrecked institution.

The most widely advertised part of the Central Counties Land Company’s project was the construction of a boulevard entirely around the circumference of Clear lake, a distance of eighty miles. One unit of this, a 2000-foot wooden trestle bridge across an arm of the northern end of the lake, was completed in September, 1907, at a cost of $12,000. Brown had a splendid concrete mansion built on the northeast shore at a cost of $60,000. The Hotel Benvenue in Lakeport was bought and luxuriously furnished, principally for the use of Brown and his associates when in the town. Underlying these frills was the plan to acquire the lake waters for power and irrigation purposes…

– History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California, 1914, pg. 148

 

COMMISSIONER BLAMED FOR BANK FAILURE
Prosecution in Brown-Dalzell Case Flays Book Inspector.
CARELESSNESS IS ALLEGED
Commissioner Dunsmoor Could Have Averted Crash.
DID NOT REQUIRE THE OATH
New Developments in Failure of California Safe Deposit and Trust Co.

Hearst News Service

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8. — Former Bank Commissioner Charles Dunsmoor was flayed today by Prosecutor Cook and Herman Silver, president of the bank commission, who declared that the failure of the California Safe Deposit and Trust Company might have been averted if he had performed his duty when he made an examination of the books of the wrecked bank with Commissioner Currier in December, 1906.

According to Prosecutor Cook, the carelessness of Dunsmoor is alone responsible for the failure of the District Attorney’s office to have indicted for perjury John Dalzell Robertson [foster brother of J. Dalzell Brown], secretary of the bank, who fled from the city immediately after the failure.

“When Dunsmoor made his examination of the bank with Commissioner Currier he made no effort to have Robertson swear that the entries which appeared on the books were authentic,” said Cook. “Dunsmoor and Currier counted the cash in the bank on the afternoon of December 3. The books were falsified over night and Dunsmoor and Currier drew up their report on the following day. They dated their report December 4 and made no effort to put the customary oath to Robertson until December 6. Robertson then swore that he was willing to answer truthfully any questions that would be put to him. No questions were put, for the report had been already drawn up and signed by Dunsmoor. The whole thing was farcical. Robertson should have been sworn before the examination of the bank began. As it is, the carelessness of Dunsmoor. who was in charge of the examination, will prevent us from indicting Robertson for perjury.”

The customary oath administered to officers when a bank is examined pledges them to answer all questions concerning the character and value of its assets and the amount of its liabilities.

“I will in no respect misrepresent or conceal anything relative to the true condition of the bank” part of the oath reads.

As Robertson did not take this oath until after the examination of the bank was completed however, its entire value was negated.

Prior to sending his resignation as president of the bank commission to Governor Gillett, Silver called on Prosecutor Cook and declared that the report on the condition of the bank signed by Dunsmoor in 1906 showed that the attention of the Governor should have been immediately attracted to it.

With deposits aggregating $7,765,000, the report showed that the bank had only $169,174.06 of cash on hand.

“This showing was enough to indicate that the persons associated in the management of the bank were treading on very dangerous ground,” said Silver. “I cannot understand why the Governor’s attention was not called to the bank at this time. The carelessness of Dunsmoor appears inexcusable.”

Examination of th© secret correspondence recovered from the vaults of the bank by Prosecutor Cook has resulted in the additional disclosure that all of the larger loans made to the corporations dominated by James Treadwell were mythical. According to Cook the money never left the bank and the loans were entered on the books to cover overdrafts and to inflate the paper showing of the assets of the institution.

Cook’s examination of the accounts of the hank disclose the fact that over $2,000,000 of the depositors’ money was personally loaned to Bartnett, Brown, Treadwell and other executive officers of the company on mythical security.

The Carnegie Brick and Pottery Company is listed for a loan of $150,000 on October 28. The El Dorado Lumber Company has a loan of $250,000 entered against its name on the same date. Another loan of $200,000 is represented on the books of the bank as having been advanced to the San Francisco and San Joaquin Coal Company.

“None of this money ever left the bank,” said Prosecutor Cook. “The loans were fictitious so far as the companies were concerned and were entered on the books of the bank merely to cover up overdrafts of the executive officers.”

Brown, Bartnett and Treadwell appeared before Superior Judge Dunne this morning to answer the indictments returned against them by the Grand Jury. The proceedings took up half an hour, which was given almost entirely to the reading of the bills. By the consent of the prosecution and the defense the cases of Brown and Bartnett were continued until January 16 for argument and that of Treadwell until January 15.

– San Jose Times Star, January 9 1908

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DREAMS OF AN EMPIRE OF OIL

It cut through the summer night like a star fallen to earth, its blue-white flame casting deep unnatural shadows for miles. “I have lived in Petaluma for forty-five years. It was the grandest thing I ever saw,” said Frank Lippitt.

“Put me down as saying we are just on the verge of a new era of prosperity,” Richard Skinner told the Petaluma Morning Courier. “The striking of gas will put Petaluma before the world as the ideal manufacturing center.” Forget the eggs, forget the chickens; soon there will be oil rigs on every farm and field and everyone in town will be as rich as the McNears. Richer.

This is the first of three articles on the Sonoma County speculation oil boom in the early 20th century. Although this installment covers just a single oil field near Petaluma, during those years petroleum prospecting companies were sprouting overnight with their “experts” rushing everywhere, signing oil leases on lands from Occidental to Bennett Valley to Two Rock. So also forget the hops and the grapes, the dairies and the orchards – no more Redwood Empire but rather an Empire of Oil.

But these particular stories are really not about the search for oil. They are about stock swindles and fraud scams – crimes which not only occurred here, but apparently were endemic to oil prospecting all over the country at the time. Then there are related mysteries about how much the local bigwigs and newspaper editors knew about what was really going on and chose to keep quiet. As found below, the Petaluma Daily Morning Courier seemed particularly eager to keep a lid on news that may have raised eyebrows.

Andy Ducker and his family had a 363 acre sheep ranch three-quarters of a mile east of (what’s now) Petaluma Adobe State Park. It was never explained what set the wheels in motion but we can assume in 1907 Andy told someone about the thick black gunk seeping out of the ground in a few places. In August a man named Larimore showed up and he signed a lease to allow drilling on part of his property. If they didn’t strike oil at least he’d get a free water well out of the deal, the 68 year-old rancher said.

Within weeks, prospects were starting to look like a sure thing. “At a depth of only about sixty feet the men have come across strong indications of oil,” wrote the Argus. “Blue soil, which has a strong petroleum smell is being brought up by the auger and there is such a flow of gas that one man was put out of commission on Tuesday.”

With the test drilling over, the project went on hiatus to raise money for purchasing gear and staffing up, so Larimore and others formed the Petaluma Oil and Development Company.* It would control the project on Andy’s farm and another place nearby as well as selling stock. There were 100,000 shares available at one dollar apiece.

Almost a year passed before work resumed on the Ducker farm, but there was much going on behind closed doors. In fact, this is like the point in a good mystery story that Gentle Reader will return to at the end and groan, “aha! the clues were there all along!” To make that easier, I’m highlighting certain names in the following paragraphs. (Spoiler alert: None of them were who they were said to be.)

Unable to woo a sufficient number of Sonoma County investors, Larimore went to the East Coast to pitch a deal. There he met Charles Gregg.

In April 1908 the Morning Courier printed, “An eastern oil syndicate has purchased a controlling interest in the Petaluma Oil and Development Company…” The very next day, the same paper quoted a director of the company denying it. But the Petaluma Argus (which had a different editor and publisher than the Morning Courier) wrote a few weeks later, “…It is an open secret that Mr. Gregg, to whom has been assigned an undivided one-half interest in the lease holdings of the company in [the Ducker ranch] is in reality the chief of the fuel department of the Western Pacific Railway Company, and is representing that company in his dealings here…”

The headline on that Argus story was “WESTERN PACIFIC BUYS OIL LEASES AND WILL BORE WELLS NEAR TOWN”. And again, the Morning Courier said it wasn’t true: “The Western Pacific is in no way connected with the company which is to operate [here]…” It certainly made sense for Western Pacific to invest in oil drilling; the railroad’s California operations were in a bind because they had to buy all their oil from other companies, namely Southern Pacific or Standard Oil.

Although drilling had yet to begin by September, Gregg showed up in Petaluma accompanied by a San Francisco banker named Norton C. Wells who, like Gregg, did not appear to have any experience in the oil business. Together they formed the Ramona Oil Company, with Wells as manager and Gregg as VP. The titular president was a very well-known and respected Southern California oilman who may not have ever visited this area. Within a few months he “retired” and Gregg became the head man.

Ramona Oil subleased half of the property controlled by Petaluma Oil & Development and took control of the project, buying all equipment and contracting Petaluma O&D to do the labor. Any profits were to be split fifty-fifty.

The Petaluma Home Oil Company was among the oil prospecting operations formed near Petaluma in 1909 (Charles Gregg was also VP of this company) and only existed for eight months. This well, which was five miles south of town on the Petaluma creek, did not strike oil or natural gas. Image courtesy Petaluma Historical Library & Museum
The Petaluma Home Oil Company was among the oil prospecting operations formed near Petaluma in 1909 (Charles Gregg was also VP of this company) and only existed for eight months. This well, which was five miles south of town on the Petaluma creek, did not strike oil or natural gas. Image courtesy Petaluma Historical Library & Museum

As boring continued into 1909, the real action was taking place at the county clerk’s office. Besides Ramona and Petaluma O&D, there was now the Petaluma Home Oil Company, the Robinson Creek Oil Development Co. and a half-dozen more new companies. The Argus reported one speculator had 6,000+ acres under lease. “All that can be heard on the streets now is oil and gas and a man who is on the inside, informed an Argus reporter on Wednesday that inside of a year there will be a forest of derricks around Petaluma and that numerous oil wells will be sunk.” And that was all before everyone suddenly went nuts.

On August third the Argus presented a huge, war-is-declared banner headline: “STRUCK A BIG FLOW OF NATURAL GAS”. At about 800 feet Ramona hit a reservoir with enough pressure to blow some equipment a hundred feet in the air. This had actually happened sometime in late spring and the crew was completely unprepared to handle it; the high-pressure gas which was blasting from the well was apparently only partially contained for weeks until a special device arrived from Texas to cap it. Ramona asked the local papers for a news blackout until it was installed, but it was the talk of the town that something big was afoot.

The Morning Courier reported, “Petaluma is teeming with rumors concerning the oil situation on Sonoma countains [sic] and the Ramona and Petaluma Oil Companies but no one really knows anything except the oil men themselves and they are positively non committal. One thing is certain – every day or two a Ramona official pops quietly into town, accompanied by a stranger and just as quietly pops out again…”

After the well was capped the editor of the Argus was invited to the site for a demonstration:

…When this valve was opened and the gas allowed to escape, the writer was standing a few feet away. An instant later he was some fifteen feet away and had his hands over his ears to shut out the noise, which was deafening. The gas escaped from the two-inch pipe with a rush and a roar that was not only deafening but astounding. Nothing could be seen except an occasional misty vapor that was gone immediately, and there was very little odor. Little pieces of wood dropped at the pipe outlet would be instantly caught up and carried through the air a hundred feet or more. The gas was permitted to escape for some minutes during which period of time roar and rush of the mysterious pressure seemed to grow greater rather than to diminish. When the valve was closed, the quiet of the open country was welcome to overtaxed ear drums.

Unlike the Morning Courier, the Argus wasn’t a cheerleader for the project until then: “We must confess that we have all been somewhat skeptical as to the quantity and quality of gas in the Ramona company’s Ducker ranch…” but now the paper was all in. The well could supply enough gas for a city 10x the size of Petaluma, the paper boasted, and a pipeline must be built immediately. “This means a vastly ‘Greater Petaluma’ in a very short space of time.”

A week later, Ramona announced they were going to ignite the gas flow for an evening public demonstration. “When the news became generally known on the streets Wednesday the first thing people spoke of was where they would go to watch the spectacle,” reported the enthusiastic Argus. The next night up to 300 people were at Andy Ducker’s farm to watch the show. Others in Petaluma saw the flame from their porches and windows as far away as D street.

“Oil, oil, oil, is all that can be heard on the streets of this city at the present time, and everyone is enthused over the prospects of striking big ‘gushers’ in this vicinity,” the Argus remarked afterwards, adding “the all prevailing question is ‘Have you any oil stock?'”

Ramona stock was in short supply, but by the end of the month there was a new corporation: Bonita Oil Co. with $1 million in shares at 25¢ each. It would drill on a nearby ranch (Patocchi’s) but Gregg was the head of this operation, too, and Norton C. Wells was called a “heavy stockholder” in both Bonita and Ramona. By the end of 1909 a strong supply of natural gas was also struck in the Bonita well.

Although little actual news developed over the following months both the Courier and Argus kept readers whipped up with a steady flow of oil-related hype. The Ramona well was using its own gas to supply power to a steam engine used for drilling as well as cooking in the work shed! A “flying machine” was spotted and it might have been an oil prospector! A man knocked on Andy Ducker’s door at 10 o’clock at night and wanted to buy his entire property! The Courier remarked, “many new faces are seen on the streets and at the hotels, the owners of said faces being bent on getting in on any oil boom which may suddenly spring up.” One name that started being mentioned in association with Gregg and the Ramona well was John W. Frank, who supposedly had located potential well sites on other ranches. But as we’ll learn in the next chapter, Frank had actually been involved since the beginning.

Come 1910, however, things began happening fast. Both the Ramona and Bonita Oil Companies were sold to an English syndicate, Consolidated Oil Fields of California Ltd. The general manager of all these projects was now J. W. Frank.

There was bad news: In May, a massive wind storm destroyed all the derricks and sheds, setting drilling work back many weeks and costing many thousands, which today would be many hundreds of thousands.

There was good news – no, great news: In early summer a new well on the Ducker ranch finally struck oil.

John Frank managed the announcement like a master showman. Scores of investors, bankers, reporters and state officials were personally invited to come up here on August 15, although no one knew for sure what was to be revealed. Not even Andy Ducker knew exactly what was afoot until he was told to get into a big Buick that pulled up to his farmhouse.

As the group walked towards the new well, pools of oil were seen seeping out of the ground and the acrid stink of petroleum grew stronger. Superintendent McDonald explained the oil sands on the ranch were particularly deep, which was associated with fine quality oil. Once they reached the derrick and a four-inch pipe was lowered into the borehole and when it was pulled up, the pipe was thickly coated in oil.

Cassius M. Webb, the lawyer for Ramona Oil was standing too close and got splattered with the gunk yet could not keep from smiling. It was agreed by all there was indeed oil “in paying quantities” but there was some disagreement as to how much it would produce, with estimates ranging 200-400 barrels per day. Either number would be perfectly fine.

Word spread like lightning once the group returned to town. “The community is stirred up to a high pitch and crowds are swarming that way,” reported the San Francisco Call. They brought buckets and five gallon cans which they dipped into the trench holding the overflow, then at home transferred their liquid gold into bottles and fruit jars to show off as souvenirs.

The euphoria lasted less than a month. A discouraging report from the State Mining Bureau about the oil well was waved off by the Petaluma papers as being no more than an opinion.

But then came the shocker: The Ramona and Bonita oil companies – those sure-fire investments who had locals clamoring to buy stock shares at any price – were secretly controlled by a man who was about to screw over everyone connected with the projects, including investors. And this fellow was no ordinary sleazy businessman: He was an infamous swindler whose financial crimes made him the last man anyone in America would trust with a single penny.

 

NEXT: THE CROOK WHO CAME FOR PETALUMA’S OIL

 


* There was a previous corporation also called the Petaluma Oil and Development Company, which was formed in 1901 with different board members; that business was dissolved in 1906.

 

Image courtesy Petaluma Historical Library & Museum
Image courtesy Petaluma Historical Library & Museum

  

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WILL BORE FOR OIL

John M. Larimore, representing a syndicate has secured a lease of a portion of the Andy Ducker ranch and bore for oil. The gentleman is also negotiating for a lease of one hundred acres on the Murphy ranch.

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, August 23 1907

 

On Saturday articles of incorporation of the Petaluma Oil Development Company were filed with the County Clerk by Lippitt & Lippitt attorneys for the corporation. The new company is incorporated to mine for oil, petroleum, gas, gypsum, asphalt and like-products and the capital stock is $100,000 divided into 100,000 shares at one dollar per share. The directors are J. W. Larimore. J. W. King, J. H. Mossi, J. J. Lopus and G. L. Barry. As is well known the company has a lease on portions of the Ducker and Murphy ranches east of town and some time ago began boring for oil and already have most excellent prospects and feel confident of success. Mr. Larimore, the head of the new company is one of the best oil experts on the coast and gave up a very lucrative position in order to devote his entire attention to the local project. He is confident that there is an abundance of oil here.

– Petaluma Argus, October 26 1907

 

An eastern oil syndicate has purchased a controlling interest in the Petaluma Oil and Development Company, whose plant is located in Vallejo township near this city. Mr. Smith, one of the new stockholders was here on Sunday looking over the plant. The gentleman is an oil expert and is confident that the yield of oil will be rich. He wanted to lease all the Andy Ducker ranch to bore for oil, but Mr. Ducker did not wish to lease any more of his farm. The new concern will put the work through and will at once begin operations.

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, April 15 1908

 

WESTERN PACIFIC BUYS OIL LEASES AND WILL BORE WELLS NEAR TOWN

…It is an open secret that Mr. Gregg, to whom has been assigned an undivided one-half interest in the lease holdings of the company in [the Ducker ranch] is in reality the chief of the fuel department of the Western Pacific Railway Company, and is representing that company in his dealings here. The Western Pacific must have its own oil land in California if it can get them at any price for at present the oil industry including the wells, tanks, pipe lines, cars, etc. are controlled either by the Southern Pacific or the Standard Oil Company.

– Petaluma Argus, July 30 1908

 

The oil company which recently leased a part of the Petaluma Oil and Development Company’s land near this city will begin to drill for oil in a few weeks. The company organised in San Francisco this week and is composed of prominent oil men who have oil interests throughout the state. Messrs. Gregg and Wells who are members of the new company were in Petaluma Thursday on business in connection with the Petaluma interests…The Western Pacific is in no way connected with the company which is to operate despite the erroneous published report given out some time ago.

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, September 18 1908

 

TWO DIFFERENT COMPANIES

The Petaluma Oil and Development Company and the Ramona Oil Company are two different companies. The Petaluma Oil and Development Company first leased the land which is to be operated by the Ramona Co. They have been working on the proposition for over two years.

It was through the efforts of the Petaluma Oil and Development Company that the Ramona people leased a part of the land.

The Petaluma Company had experts at work on the property paying them $70 a day. It was found the sand contained 14½ per cent of oil, the oil being 16 1-8 gravity at 6 feet deep. The local company went to Petaluma people in an endeavor to have them take up the matter but they refused, then they went elsewhere and finally interested C. W. Gregg of New York who came out and took up the matter. After he had his own experts try the ground he consulted the Petaluma company and finally they leased half of their lease to the gentleman and sold him the machinery and equipments for less than one half of what the instruments originally cost them. Mr. Gregg then organized a company which are now working on the same spot where the Petaluma Oil and Development Company placed their derrick. The Petaluma Oil and Development Company still retain half of the land and are independent of the new company but are working in conjunction.
– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, October 9 1908

 

OIL AND GAS RUMORS FILL THE AIR

Petaluma is teeming with rumors concerning the oil situation on Sonoma countains [sic] and the Ramona and Petaluma Oil Companies but no one really knows anything except the oil men themselves and they are positively non committal. One thing is certain – every day or two a Ramona official pops quietly into town, accompanied by a stranger and just as quietly pops out again,

One other fact is certain, there is no Ramona oil stock for sale. One man in Petaluma – and he, by the way, is not in the confidence of the Ramona Oil Company management – has been trying for some time now to buy stock and has offered as high as two dollars a share but without success.

People generally believe that the oil men know that they have a good thing…

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, July 23 1909

 

All that can be heard on the streets now is oil and gas and a man who is on the inside, informed an Argus reporter on Wednesday that inside of a year there will be a forest of derricks around Petaluma and that numerous oil wells will be sunk. Already practically all ot the available land from Reclamation to Penngrove has been bonded and one local citizen representing large interests has over 6000 acres under his control.

In addition to the Ramona Oil Co., Petaluma Oil & Development Co., Petaluma Home Oil Co. and the Robinson Creek Oil Development half a dozen companies are being organized to work on lands on all sides of this city.

Farmers in some instances have joined forces, pooled their lands and will work on the co-operative plan, Others are organizing for the purpose of leasing with better results. Already the country is full of oil prospectors and it looks as if Petaluma is on the verge of a big oil excitement…

– Petaluma Argus, August 4 1909

 

WILL LIGHT THE GAS OF RAMONA OIL WELL

On Thursday the residents of Petaluma and vicinity for miles around will witness a spectacle which those who have never been in the oil fields have never seen. For on that evening the great flow of natural gas which has been tapped by the Ramona Oil Co. at its well on the Ducker ranch will be lighted and a great column of burning gas allowed to burn for several hours. It has been the intention of the company to light the gas and show the people of Petaluma what a supply they have for some time past but the event was postponed until the necessary appliances could be made ready.

The gas will shoot up through a one-inch pipe to a height of twenty feet above the derrick, or about one hundred feet from the ground. On the main pipe above the derrick there are three cross arms, all of which including the main pipe, are perforated and through these perforations the burning gas will shoot forth. On account of the great pressure of gas the flame will be an enormous one and the light will be intense. The sight will be one which everyone should see, and when the news became generally known on the streets Wednesday the first thing people spoke of was where they would go to watch the spectacle…

– Petaluma Argus, August 11 1909

 

HUNDREDS VIEW FIRST ILLUMINATION OF GAS WELL. BUSINESS MEN EXPRESS VIEWS

The illumination of the Ramona Oil Company’s gas well on Thursday night was a grand success.

A few persons seemed to be disappointed that the big torch did not flame up into the air 100 or 150 feet.

In regard to this it may be said that the apparatus was not rigged for such a display but that with the right sort of rigging such an effect could doubtless be compassed.

Some fifty automobiles were on thr ground together with 250 or 300 people and a great number viewed the fireworks from their homes.

In regard to the display F. K. Lippitt said: “I have lived in Petaluma for forty-five years. It was the grandest thing I ever saw.”

[15 other comments, including:]

Robert Woods: “We saw the illumination from the City Hall. It showed up good. It’s a great thing for Petaluma.”

Coroner Frank L. Blackburn said: “I can’t tell gas from gasoline. I got ‘burned’ several years ago with oil stock, but for Petaluma generally, and the investors especially, I hope proves an everlasting gusher. It takes just such gambles as this proposition to prove a community’s wealth.”

R. M. Skinner said: “Put me down as saying we are just on the verge of a new era of prosperity. The striking of gas will put Petaluma before the world as the ideal manufacturing center.”

George P. McNear: “It looked fine.”

– Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, August 13 1909

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WHO’S THE APRIL FOOL?

Whatever else is in your family history, you can count on this: Your great (-great?) -grandpa probably was a wild little terrorist.

Several articles have appeared here earlier describing the bedlam of Hallowe’en in the years around 1900-1910, as boys prowled the streets in search of opportunities to inflict damage. Most common was removing front yard gates (sawing them off, if necessary) and hiding them some distance away. Other popular vandalisms included throwing paint on buildings, trampling gardens and dismantling a wagon or buggy. One year the Santa Rosa Republican suggested “parental floggings” and Petaluma had “special officers in plain clothes and bicycle police” on patrol. Still, it was worse in other places and some newspapers took to printing tallies of Hallowe’en deaths, which were usually caused by pranksters being shot as prowlers.

Hallowe’en tricks like gate stealing began appearing in the papers in the mid 1890s, but before that Hallowe’en hooliganism was rare; Oct. 31 was all about parties, costumed or not, and there was often dancing as most of these soirées were for young adults. Kids apparently kept to themselves after dark, whispering frightful stories about haunted places and divining their futures with Hallowe’en charms. (“…if you swallow a thimbleful of salt repeat a verse of poetry and go backward into bed, you will see your fate.” – Petaluma Courier, Oct. 29, 1884.)

But these kids in late Victorian America weren’t any better behaved than the ones who followed – they were probably worse. The only difference was that they conducted their mayhem on April Fool’s Day instead.

San Francisco Call, April 2, 1900

 

 

The worst was probably on April 1 in 1897, when about twenty boys ransacked Santa Rosa High School, trashing furniture and lab equipment. They were caught only because they were stupid enough to ring the school bell, drawing the attention of police.

The Petaluma Argus wrote in 1884 that “a mob of young hoodlums” with boys as young as eight were roaming the streets, ripping off front gates, trampling flowers and terrifying residents with tic-tac noisemakers (a homemade gizmo described in depth in one of the earlier Hallowe’en items). The town was being held under siege by its own children: “…A house cannot be left vacant for a short time without having number of windows broken out by boys, and during the fruit season trees are broken and fruit destroyed through pure deviltry.”

In the same issue Carrie Carlton, the Sonoma Democrat’s correspondent in Petaluma, wrote that April 2 was “the day that the Petaluma small boy feels the bad effects of late hours, having sat up until midnight or thereabouts trying to accomplish the big job of unhinging all the gates in town and piling them up promiscuously where least likely to be found; the day that lone women may be seen walking forlornly through the streets looking for that which is lost and cannot be found…”

Most of the April Fool jokes popular back then are still familiar. The victim is tricked into eating soap/something else that tastes foul (or inhaling something that causes a sneeze). A prank letter lures victims into an embarrassing comedy of errors. Coins are glued to sidewalks, or a dollar bill is tied to a string. A load of manure is ordered to be delivered to the victim’s home. A pat on the back means the victim now wears a sign reading, “kick me” (or worse). There is a frightening surprise – an exploding cigar, a mouse in the sugar bowl.

Some of the old tricks are long out of fashion. A passerby is asked to help by picking up a package, unaware that the box is attached to a fire hydrant or other immovable object. As it was apparently the habit back then to kick hats lying on the sidewalk, jokesters put bricks underneath. And in the horse and buggy days it was considered funny to con a victim into running a time-wasting errand. The latter probably faded in popularity after it was widely reported in 1886 that a guy named Tom Rogers sent a message to the doctor in Kaufman, Texas concerning a woman gravely ill three miles out in the country. The doctor made the trip and discovered he hadn’t been called. Boiling with rage over the stupid prank, he returned to town and viciously stabbed Rogers to death.

April Fool’s Day wasn’t limited to kids, although the age cutoff for gate theft and noisemaking seemed to be about 18. Most famous among the local grownup pranksters was “Doc” Cozad, who once phoned lots of men and told them to don their best suit and rush to the Press Democrat office because the paper wanted photos of prominent citizens. (For April Fool’s Day in 1907 the tables were turned when some of Santa Rosa’s movers-and-shakers surprised him with a perfectly choreographed prank).

What’s surprising is how often adults seemed to attempt actual crimes only to claim, “April Fool!” when caught, like the fellow in Philadelphia who was interrupted during an armed robbery and claimed he was just kidding. On April 1, 1876, a man went to the Santa Rosa Bank to deposit a roll of $20 silver coins in a wrapper from the Savings Bank of Santa Rosa. When the roll was weighed it was found to be slightly lighter than expected, so it was unwrapped and revealed to be simply an iron bar. “Serious results might have followed this very trick,” commented the Sonoma Democrat. In 1910 two autos in Santa Rosa were stolen and driven away for joy rides. Although the cars weren’t returned until one of them got stuck on a country road and had to be towed back to town, “a visit to the police station was threatened, but nothing came of it,” according to the Press Democrat. Try any of those stunts today and see if the “hey, it was just April Fool!” excuse still works.

Hallowe’en and April Fool’s Day switched places as the most riotous children’s holidays near the turn of the century, and April 1 mostly settled down to being more of an excuse for a party or dance – although I’ll bet guests sometimes eyed the refreshments suspiciously, wondering if the eclairs might actually be filled with soap. Aside from ads for such get-togethers, the newspapers most often declared the day passed without incident except for “usual” April Fool pranks.

Likely the last truly original trick happened in 1932 when an Argus-Courier staff writer received an important call. He dutifully took notes and at the appointed time, used a handkerchief to cover his desk telephone and sat back, patiently waiting for the phone company to blow all the dust out of the line.

San Francisco Call, April 2, 1901

 

 

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April Fool. —Everybody was on the look-out on Saturday last, April fool’s day, to victimize any person or persons that came within their jurisdiction. Several very good jokes were perpetrated, the best one of which was the sending of a number of parties to the stable of James P. Clark to see a certain blooded animal which bad been lately imported here. Jim showed the “thoroughbred” to all who applied, and the joke was fully appreciated.

– Sonoma Democrat, April 8 1871
 An April Fool Joke.

All Fools’ Day came as usual and was numbered in the past. Many pranks were played on unsuspecting individuals and which were innocent in their character, but one person whose name has not yet been called to mind, thought to take advantage of an innocent custom and turn an honest penny at the time of creating merriment by the joke. So the said unknown individual procured a bar of iron of the dimensions of a twenty-dollar silver roll and wrapped the same carefully and neatly up in a paper having the card of the Savings Bank of Santa Rosa upon it, and passed it in to the cashier of that institution, who in turn passed it to Mr. Prindle and he to Mr. Gray, and he to Mr. Hopper. Mr. Hopper took it to the Santa Rosa Bank to deposit it when it was placed upon the scales and found to be some two or three dollars light. Then Mr. Hopper unrolled the paper and the bar of iron was exposed to open day, and Hopper was hopping mad. Mr. Gray returned it to the Savings Bank, and there the joke ended. This is carrying a joke rather beyond the limits, and serious results might have followed this very trick.

– Sonoma Democrat, April 8 1876

About one o’clock Sunday morning the fire bell commenced ringing, causing the few people who were awake at that hour to hurry out in the streets in order to ascertain where the fire was. The bell had only rung a few times, however, when it suddenly ceased, and a conviction slowly dawned upon the minds of the alarmed ones that they had been sold. “April fool!”

– Sonoma Democrat, April 7 1883
Carrie Carlton’s Letter. Petaluma, April 1st.

The day that the Petaluma small boy feels the bad effects of late hours, having sat up until midnight or thereabouts trying to accomplish the big job of unhinging all the gates in town and piling them up promiscuously where least likely to be found; the day that lone women may be seen walking forlornly through the streets looking for that which is lost and cannot be found; the day that the principal of our public schools generally gets the biggest dose of April Fool! And just here we are reminded by the presentation of another of those ominous little notes that have been fluttering down upon us all the morning, that it is the day in which you are immensely fooled as to the amount of money you owe people…

– Sonoma Democrat, April 5 1884
Malicious Mischief.

It has been the habit for several years past, in this city, on the eve of April 1st for a mob of young hoodlums to parade through the principal residence streets and commit misdemeanors that should not be allowed to go unpunished. On Monday evening last a large number of boys, ranging from eight years up to eighteen, were out until a late hour taking gates from their hinges and carrying them several blocks from where they belonged. They also rang door bells, played tic-tac and similar tricks. There is nothing funny or smart in any of these April fool jokes and this sort of nonsense has been allowed to go unpunished so long that the boys pay no regard to personal rights or property of others. No one objects to boys having all the fun they want so long as they confine themselves to harmless sports, but when a band of young hoodlums go around unhinging gates, tramping through flower gardens and indulging in like malicious mischief it is time that they be stopped. There is certainly a law against this sort of mischief and it should be enforced. It would be a very salutary lesson if a few of the boys engaged in this business were arrested and fined. If parents will allow their children to run around at night and indulge in all sorts of mischief unrebuked, it would be fitting for the City Marshal to attend to that branch of precocious youths’ educations. A house cannot be left vacant for a short time without having number of windows broken out by boys, and during the fruit season trees are broken and fruit destroyed through pure deviltry. It is a poor protection to persons trying to beautify their premises to allow every small boy in town to steal gates and carry them away and tramp among the flowers like a wild animal. There was once an ordinance in this city compelling boys under eighteen years of age to keep off of the street after eight o’clock, evening, but it must have been repealed as the boys are out in full force every night long after that hour.

– Petaluma Weekly Argus, April 5, 1884

“April fool’s” day was an inglorious one for many. It was from morning till night that people could be seen doing decoy errands or carrying attractive placards on their backs. These idiotic jokes might have provoked a little fun in the days of the royal jester, but in this age of civilization it is amazing how many unhung sots there are who made themselves conspicuous figures on the first of the month by their silly, chestnutty and daft perpetrations.

– Healdsburg Tribune, April 4 1895
SOME WERE WISE OTHERS FOOLISH
SOME APRIL FOOL JOKES HAVE BEEN PERPETRATED ON THE UNWARY
Many Citizens Saw to it That Their Front Gates Were Moved to a Place of Safety

On Thursday evening many citizens mindful of the coming of the April fool joker removed the front gates leading into their yards to a place of safety until the time when the old time declaration, “April Fool’s Day is past,” etc., should arrive and the danger of molestation should have passed. Others forgot the advent of the joker and in consequence they may find their gate in somebody elses back yard.

Early Thursday evening some jokers must have been at work in the vicinity of the High School building, judging from the appearance of a buggy on the porch over the basement entrance to the building. No one seemed to know how it got there.

A well known citizen on Humboldt street chancing to go into his yard for a moonlight stroll discovered that had unawares become a florist. On the front lawn a sign had been reared bearing the legend, “Pansies for Sale.”

At Fifth and Humboldt streets some one found a chair suspended from a pole.

On Humboldt one of the street cars left outside the barn was propelled by hand power at a quicker clip down the track that the equine strength usually forming the motive power could have done.

A great many people and the officers on the outside beats kept on the lookout for the enacting of jokes which partook of too serious an aspect. It is reasonable to suggest that after the first few moments after the discovery of a missing gate or what not, the discomfiture of feelings will give way to the realization that “boys will be boys.”

– Press Democrat, April 1 1904

The usual trick April fool packages decorated the sidewalks in the business streets on Thursday and quite a number of local people “bit.” The brick in the hat was also very much in evidence.

– Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 1, 1909

A well known local man ate some soap on Monday under the impression it was candy. Another man tried in vain to talk through the telephone which had been doctored up so that he could not get central. Numerous other pranks were played.

– Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 1, 1909
APRIL FOOL JOKE TURNS ON JOKER

Some time last night two automobiles were found to be missing by their respective owners. A hunt was made for the machines. It transpired that after all the supposed theft was an April fool joke. Two jubilant youths took the cars for the joke of the thing, invited friends to accompany them and drive out into the country. The joke was turned on one of them, at least. His machine “got stuck” out on the Sonoma road, and a telephone message had to be sent to town for some one to come out and haul the car in. At first a visit to the police station was threatened, but nothing came of it.

– Press Democrat, April 2 1910
POLICE HAVE ORDERS TO ARREST DISTURBERS

Chief of Police Boyes has issued orders to his officers to see that the law is strictly obeyed in regards to the interference of private property particularly on April Fool’s eve. The practice of past years in removing gates, etc., will not be tolerated and the police department wish the public to take heed to this warning as it will he strictly enforced. A great many complaints have been received regarding this practice and the officers are going to put a stop to it.

– Press Democrat, March 30 1917

 

 

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