earthquake 1906

THE YEAR THE 1906 EARTHQUAKE ENDED

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

It took about 3½ years, but the dust of the 1906 Santa Rosa earthquake finally settled in late 1909, with symbolic milestones and the ending of legal disputes (mostly).


* There was finally victory in the earthquake insurance wars, after Superior Court Judge Seawell denied the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company a new trial. Poor Frank Loomis only wanted a thousand bucks for his losses in the disaster but he was among a handful of Santa Rosa businessmen who had the misfortune to be insured by Connecticut Fire, which refused every claim because of a policy loophole. The Loomis case was the last to be heard by Sonoma County Superior Court, and his was also apparently the very last of the earthquake suits to be settled. The insurance company appealed the judge’s denial of a new trial, and the matter wasn’t finally, finally resolved until June, 1911, five years and two months after the quake. That’s too bad for Mr. Loomis, but the appeal preserved valuable transcripts of the court testimony with first-hand accounts of the immediate aftermath of the quake. For completeness’ sake and to aid future researchers, here are links to decisions and testimony in the Davis case (settled by the State Supreme Court in 1910, with background discussed here); the Fountain case (settled by the Appeals Court in 1910); and the Moodey case (settled by the State Supreme Court in 1911, with background discussed here and the full Appellate Court decision found in the April 21, 1910 Press Democrat).

* Santa Rosa was getting an attaboy from the Southern Pacific railway, publisher of the nationally-read travel magazine “The Sunset.” Within weeks of the disaster, the popular journal had published a special San Francisco issue spinning a revisionist version of events and claiming the scary earthquake did little damage compared to the fires, a PR campaign that successfully kept the trains filled with tourists. Here the local Chamber of Commerce issued a press release a few months after the quake claiming that Santa Rosa was back to normal, which was a pack of lies. Now that the place was truly pretty much put back to right, the magazine wanted a statistic on building permits. And the numbers were indeed impressive: Over 1,000 permits since the quake.

* A beautiful new county courthouse again dominated Santa Rosa and was nearly finished, but not without controversy. The grand jury complained that the final price was about 45 percent over the contract bid, forcing District Attorney Lea to investigate and report that no, there was no graft or fraud behind the cost overruns, and yes, all that marble and scagliola was more expensive than expected. Hey, once they changed the design from ceramic floor tiles to marble mosaic flooring, naturally they just had to change the plain ol’ flat ceiling into a vaulted ceiling that cost about three thousand dollars more – right?

If the new courthouse was a potent symbol of the future, the temporary courthouse was an unpleasant reminder of the post-quake disarray, and the city was eager to have it torn down as soon as everyone was moved out. There are no photographs of the place (that I know of) but it certainly wasn’t much to look at; from the outside it must have resembled a large farm implement shed with its corrugated iron roof. Together, the temporary courthouse and recorder’s office matched the footprint of today’s U.S. Bank building on the 3rd street side of Old Courthouse Square. It was sold for $576 to a man who wanted to build a large barn in Rincon Valley.

* The strange matter of the Peacock inheritance at last was resolved in 1909 (legal discussion here). Briefly, Mr. and Mrs. William Peacock died together in the collapse of a Santa Rosa hotel during the earthquake but they left separate wills, where each made their spouse first heir. Thus even if they died together, it had to be determined which Peacock died last, as that was the will that would prevail. There was not a great fortune involved but the money was split up differently among their children. The state inheritance tax appraiser declared Mr. Peacock died last, but goddess knows how he made that determination.

Without swimming deep into genealogical waters, it’s impossible to determine who got what. In the 1907 reporting there are two children; in the 1909 story below there are three. The earlier Press Democrat article names Mrs. Ada Baptiste as the wife’s daughter by a previous marriage, and here the PD states she is the husband’s prior daughter. That both Peacocks had children from a previous marriage is just part of the confusion; Mrs. Peacock was the sister of the first Mrs. Peacock, which meant that the two (three?) girls were simultaneously cousins, aunts or nieces.

(RIGHT: Postcard of the entrance hall of the palatial Sonoma County Court House. Note the elaborate compass rose inlayed in the marble floor. TAP or CLICK to enlarge)

ONE THOUSAND BUILDING PERMITS SINCE QUAKE

At the request of the Southern Pacific Company Building Inspector F. E. Cherry has furnished it with figures showing the number of building permits issued since the earthquake of April 18th, 1906. The railroad company intends to use this data for advertising purposes. In Mr. Cherry’s report it shows that during the year 1906 after the April disaster, there were 322 permits issued and aggregated $759,745. In 1907 there were 300 permits and the value of the buildings was $300,000. In the two following years 891 and 200 permits were granted, making in all 1011 permits issued since the earthquake.

– Santa Rosa Republican, November 9, 1909
DO YOU WANT TO BUY A COURT HOUSE

Do you want to buy a Courthouse? If you do, send in your bid right away to the Board of Supervisors. Tomorrow they are to open bids for the old building, with the natural redwood finish, which has done duty as an administration building sine the disaster of 1906.  There is all kinds of wood in the building. Of course, it will not be vacated right away for in the new building there is quite a little fixing to be done yet.

– Press Democrat, November 3, 1909

OLD COURTHOUSE IS SOLD HERE FOR $576
Several Bids Received by the Board of Supervisors Wednesday and G. H. Wymore is the Purchaser

The old courthouse, the temporary structure at present occupied by the county officers, was sold by the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday to Geo. H. Wymore for $576. He was the highest bidder.

Bids were opened Wednesday morning and were as follows…

When the old courthouse is vacated for the new Sonoma County Courthouse, Wymore will tear it down. He will have a big pile of lumber. He will use it to build a large barn on the Wymore place in Rincon Valley.

– Press Democrat, November 4, 1909
DECIDES WIFE WAS THE FIRST TO DIE
Ruling In the Case of Contractor and Mrs. William Peacock Who Were Killed Here in April, 1906

Judicially it has been determined that Mrs. Matilda F. Peacock died prior to her husband, William Peacock, a building contractor, both of whom lost their lives in the destruction of the old Occidental hotel in Santa Rosa on April 18, 1906. This determination is reached by the State’s inheritance tax appraiser, who Wednesday filed his report with the county clerk in San Francisco.

On this conclusion of the law Ada Baptist, a daughter of the husband, will receive $4,224.93; Ida Miller, another daughter, $2,793.64, and Margarite Miller, a third daughter, $2,791.64. The relatives of the wife will receive nothing.

Peacock at the time of the disaster was engaged in the construction of a building in Santa Rosa. A few days before the date of their deaths Mrs. Peacock went to Santa Rosa to visit her husband. She was with him in their rooms when the hotel was destroyed.

It has heretofore been a question as to which of the couple died first. Both left wills leaving their estates to one another. The husband left property valued at $21,436 and the wife $8,004.50. If the husband died first then the wife would have inherited his estate and her heirs would come in for their share of the total estate. If the wife died first, then the husband would receive her estate and only his heirs would get the benefits of the joint estates.

The investigation of the appraiser shows that Mrs. Peacock was the first to pass away, and therefore her husband received her estate and his daughters participate in the benefits.

–  Press Democrat, November 19, 1909

NEW SUIT IS DENIED
Connecticut Fire Insurance Co.’s Motion Denied

Judge Emmet Seawell filed his decision in the case of F. C. Loomis vs. the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, Thursday afternoon in which he denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial.

The case in question is one arising over the payment of a fire insurance policy covering the goods of Frank C. Loomis, and destroyed at the time of the earthquake and fire on April 18, 1906. The policy in question contained a nullifying clase whereby the policy was to become void if the building should fall before the goods caught fire. Under this clause the insurance company refused to pay the fire loss of one thousand dollars, the amount of the policy, claiming the goods were damaged before the fire reached them.

The case was tried in the superior court before a jury which found for the plaintiff. Several other cases have been tried in the courts of this county founded on the same insurance clause and have been appealed to the higher courts of the state which have upheld the decisions of the local Judges.

Following the decisions of the local court in the other cases tried and the decisions of the Appellate courts, which maintain that the burden of proof lies with the defendant to prove that the fire didn’t start simultaneous with the falling of the building or even before. The motion for a new trial was denied.

– Santa Rosa Republican, August 19, 1909

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“XMAS SR ’06” REVIEW: OPPORTUNITY MISSED

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

A well-written Christmas story is a treasure to find, and the Press Democrat’s historical fiction serial, “XMAS SR 06” fulfills that promise.  Each of the seven chapters was created by a different author, and the good news is that the overall writing is excellent, sometimes great. I’ve reread a couple of the more well-turned chapters with envy of the author’s talents with word and phrase.

Less successful was its presentation as a serial. With each chapter constrained to about 1,200 words, plot trumps prose; writers had to begin by resolving the situation from the previous chapter and finish with a setup for the next. That doesn’t leave much room to stretch out and explore a character or subplot. “XMAS SR ’06” suffers because of this, and I would not have enjoyed the series as much if not for finding the extended version of chapter three on the author’s blog. It’s almost three times longer than the printed version and puts flesh on the character’s otherwise thin bones; definitely read it instead of the abbreviation that appeared in the paper and on its web site.

The other significant problem is that “XMAS SR ’06” is supposed to be set in 1906 Santa Rosa, yet there’s very little there there – and for that matter, there’s scant little then there. Change just a few words in each chapter and the story could have taken place after the 1940 London Blitz or the 1864 sacking of Atlanta. The historical aspect of most of the writing comes across as if the authors were playing a game of Mad Libs: Reach into the hat and pull out the name of an old patent medicine, a quaint bit of slang and a name of something or a place associated with Santa Rosa. See you 1,200 words later.

Then there are the factual mistakes. The worst clinker is in chapter one, when the main character walks down Fourth street and comments on the missing courthouse: “I’d passed it 100 times since April, but still I couldn’t get used to seeing that big empty lot.” Surprise! The wreckage of courthouse was still there at the time of the story. Only a few weeks earlier, on Nov. 17, the city had finally awarded the contract to demolish the ruins, and it wasn’t until May, 1907, before the lot was cleared of the last shrubbery. And even when the authors got it right, they got it wrong. A plot point concerns a newspaper ad for an unbreakable doll that was “torn from Grandpa’s precious Press Democrat.” Just such an advertisement really did appear – but only in the rival Santa Rosa Republican, which presumably didn’t meet his standards of preciousness.

(RIGHT: Advertisement from the December 6, 1906 Santa Rosa Republican)

I could quibble further (much, much further), but I’m sure the authors would argue that they had artistic license to write as they please. I completely agree with that. But if it’s called “historical” fiction, it should have more than a homeopathic droplet of true, historical elements. Otherwise, what’s the point? Turn 1906 Santa Rosa into a fishing village and after the earthquake hits, have seagulls attack townspeople. Everyone pecked to death becomes a zombie (wait! a swordfighting zombie!) until Luther Burbank battles the army of the undead with the enchanted silver spade given to him by the king of the garden gnomes.

Because the factual history of Santa Rosa’s 1906 Christmas wasn’t incorporated into the story, everybody lost. Readers missed a rare opportunity to learn something about the town; the writers lost the chance to tell a better tale. If that little girl was morose from passing by an empty lot, for example, imagine how awful she would have felt about scuffling along next to the hulking shambles of the old courthouse – a depressing reminder of the earthquake that stubbornly couldn’t be ignored and wouldn’t be wished away. The writers even had the chance to describe exactly what it was like downtown that month. At a city council meeting the Fire Chief complained about “dangerous holes and planks across sidewalks, projections from buildings and piles of materials on sidewalks.” In other words, the characters would have been Christmas shopping in the middle of a busy and hazardous construction zone. That’s a colorful detail worth a mention, right?

But saddest of all, those who outlined the plot for “XMAS SR ’06” overlooked real events that would have transformed the story into something far more interesting. That same month, Santa Rosa was hotly divided over what to do with the $60,000 that had accumulated in the earthquake relief fund. The popular consensus was that it should be distributed to victims and their survivors, which is surely what donors intended. On the other side was a faction arguing it should be used for the betterment of the town, such as putting it into the Building Fund to pay for the new courthouse. Leading those who wanted to grab the money for city hall was the Press Democrat, which took the position that individuals harmed by the disaster were no longer in distress, so they didn’t deserve anything: “Those who suffered injury are in no need of assistance and those who suffered not at all are really better off than they ever were before,” PD editor Ernest Finley argued, Scrooge-like. Only after a bitter fight was it agreed that the money should go to those who suffered.

For the characters of “XMAS SR ’06,” the outcome of that decision could have been life-changing. If the money were to go to the victims and survivors, the motherless children and widower father stood to be awarded many hundreds, even a few thousand dollars – enough money to restart their pre-quake business and resume something like a normal family life. A happy ending (somewhat). Without the money, the family would continue plodding along its mournful, directionless path. You can bet everyone in the story would have followed every daily turn in the debate with avid and nervous interest as their fates were being decided.

And, of course, it would also have been fun to explore Grandpa’s conflicted relationship with his “precious Press Democrat” once he realized the newspaper wanted to screw over his family. That could have been a chapter in itself: “ANGRY GRANDPA CANCELS HIS PRESS DEMOCRAT SUBSCRIPTION.” I can’t imagine why that wasn’t part of the “XMAS SR ’06” story.

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GIMME SOME OF THAT FREE EARTHQUAKE MONEY (UPDATED)

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

The 1906 Santa Rosa Earthquake brought out the best in our own townspeople, but it also attracted some nasty scoundrels.

A common theme in the first-hand accounts of the quake was the unflinching heroism of Santa Rosans as they struggled to rescue victims while simultaneously preventing the town from burning away. Press Democrat city editor Herbert Slater summarized that day well: “No one hesitated. With senses beclouded with the horror of the situation, men realized there was no time for delay. Delay meant death; death from the smothering dust; death from the cruel weight of beams, planks and stone; and worse than all, death from the cruel flames which were already bursting forth from piles of debris from fallen and partially fallen buildings.”

Less mentioned were the crime incidents. In the days following, when many families were camping on their lawns in fear of aftershocks, some helpful strangers volunteered to lend a hand in rescuing precious items from their homes; the valuables were saved from imminent danger, although never seen again. There was a clerk who cashed in his employer’s insurance policy and disappeared with the money. And who can forget the charming “Dr. C. C. Crandall,” who posed as a doctor at the hospital in order to swipe stuff from the nurses and injured.

Not a criminal that day, but the creme de la cad had to be James Byrd, a pressman for the Press Democrat. The day before the earthquake, he asked his colleague Milo Fish to take his shift so that he could go to Oakland.  When the disaster struck, Fish was running through the outside door just as the brick wall collapsed. He was pulled from the rubble alive but soon died at home, surrounded by his wife and six children. (To its credit, the PD trained his widow to be a linotype operator and she supported her family in the following years by working part time for the newspaper.)

Even though another man died in Byrd’s place and he was uninjured, he had the remarkable gall to demand a share of the Typographical Union’s disaster relief fund. The Press Democrat informed the union that his claim was bogus. “This was refused him and he created some disturbance,” the San Francisco Call reported, going on to remark that “His behavior during his residence here was generally considered bad.” The PD also told the union that he had worked at the newspaper under the assumed name of Boyd. He gave no reason for using an alias, although it came out later that apparently he had abandoned a wife and two children in another state.

Denied his wrongful share of the earthquake money (and probably booted from the union), Byrd took a job as a clerk in a Memphis shoe store. There he killed a co-worker in 1907 after an argument about a ball game wager. He later claimed he only conked the man with a shoe stretcher after he was attacked with a knife.

Now calling himself James W. Robinson, he drifted around the country for a couple of years before settling in Colorado, where he married again (his second wife, Mrs. “Boyd,” died in Santa Rosa before the earthquake). While honeymooning in Denver, he had the bad luck of being recognized by someone from Memphis. He was arrested and confessed his crime, and over the next few days the tale of his sordid odyssey spilled out in newspapers across the country.

Thus ends the narrative of James Byrd/Boyd/Robinson, murderer and scoundrel supreme. Thus start the unanswerable questions.

 All we know is what emerged from a widely reprinted wire service story that was cobbled together from various sources the day after his confession. A Denver paper reported the arrest; the Press Democrat contributed the bad-character anecdote; Memphis newspapers filled in the backstory of the murder and alleged bigamy.

But there the story hits a brick wall. We don’t know what happened when he was brought before a court of law, whether he was sentenced to many years in jail or a very few.  Tennessee prison records have not been computerized, and apparently not even microfilmed. All that we can say for certain is that he wasn’t executed for the crime (at least, not under any of the names mentioned). He might have even been acquitted by a jury on a self-defense plea. Those answers, however, are buried in century-old court records, probably never to see the light of a digitizing scanner.

That’s the moral of this fable; it demonstrates that the oceans of information available via the Internet are vast but not deep. There are now somewhere around eight million newspaper pages scanned and available from either the Library of Congress or commercial services – but there is not a single digitized  newspaper which tells us the outcome of Mr. Byrd’s fate. The Tennessee State Library has large holdings of newspapers on microfilm but does not loan material out of state, and its own digitization project has focused narrowly on the Civil War era. Chances are slim to none that the outcome of this story will be told unless someone wants to waltz down to Tennessee.

This is also a cautionary warning for those who subscribe to Internet database services with grand hopes of sherlocking ancestral trails. Mr. Byrd/Boyd/Robinson (and possibly Anderson, as he was named in the 1909 PD article) can’t be found in any U.S. census. Or at least, not pinned with any confidence; James Byrd  –  if that’s who he actually was – was a rather common name for a boy born presumably in the 1880s.

And was James Question-Mark a single person – or two, or three? All we’re left with is what we see by the papers, however (in)accurate that may be. Certainly any reasonably competent defense lawyer could have easily picked apart the other damning evidence that was presented to the public. The wire service story reported only that “it is not improbable” that the man being held for killing a shoe clerk was the same J. L. Byrd who ran out on his wife years earlier. The Press Democrat cautiously stated that “it is believed”  that the man known here as Boyd was the same guy. It’s quite possible that the man being held for that shoe clerk’s death had nothing to do with the greedy chowderhead who tried to rip off the union in Santa Rosa, or the long-missing wayward husband and father.

Whether or not the  Santa Rosa version of J. L. Byrd was the same person, seeking undeserved relief money in that manner makes him one of the 1906 earthquake’s few true villains. One wonders why the story didn’t come out until three years later, and what else was kept quiet at the time.

(UPDATE: In a surprising twist, Boyd paid a friendly visit to the Press Democrat offices in 1911, which implies he had no connection to the Memphis crime and his use of a false name was probably more innocent than the PD implied. Read update here.)

IS FORMER SANTA ROSAN A MURDERER?
Arrest of J. L. Byrd at Denver Who Confesses to Crime, Recalls How a Man With the Same Name Escaped Death Here in Great Disaster

Denver, July 23.–James Anderson, who was arrested here yesterday on the suspicion of being J. L. Byrd, wanted in Memphis, Tenn., for the murder of Joseph Black, a shoe dealer of that city, for whom Byrd formerly worked, this morning confessed to the police that he was the murderer. Byrd was married two weeks ago at Colorado Springs, and with his bride was spending his honeymoon in Denver. Anderson formerly worked in San Francisco.

(It is believed Byrd was an employee of the Press Democrat as night pressman up to the time of the fire, under the name of Boyd. The night of the disaster he had secured Milo S. Fish to work for him in running off the paper so he could take his little son to Oakland and send him to his grandparents in Texas, his wife having died a few weeks previously in this city. Mr. Fish was crushed to death under the falling walls of the building, while Byrd was safe in Oakland. Later Byrd returned here, secured his Typographical Union travelling card and went elsewhere. When he heard that funds had been sent here for the members of the union, he wrote back and demanded his share, but was refused any part in the fund, as he was not a sufferer by the disaster, had gone elsewhere and was working at regular wages. Byrd never gave any reason why he went under an assumed name here to those who knew the fact, but requested that it not be made known, and it never was until after he left town, when the fact was given to the union officers.–Ed.)

– Press Democrat, July 24, 1909

SLAYER CONFESSES AT BRIDE’S BEHEST
Former Indiana Girl Makes Husband Admit Murder.
HE CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE
J. L. Byrd, Arrested in Denver Soon After Wedding, Tells of Killing Fellow Clerk in Memphis Store.

Denver, Col., July 24.–James W. Robinson, who was arrested here Thursday on suspicion of being J. L. Byrd, wanted in Memphis, Tenn., for the murder of Joseph Black, a shoe dealer of that city, yesterday confessed that he was the murderer.

Byrd was married two weeks ago at Colorado Springs and with his bride was enjoying his honeymoon at Denver. The prisoner’s wife, Elsie Syms Robinson, came to Denver with her parents from Terre Haute, Ind.

Bride Tells Him to Speak

Robinson’s confession followed a talk with Chief of Police Armstrong in the latter’s office. Robinson’s bride of two weeks, who was present, finally interrupted.

“Jimmie, if you are the man, tell them,” she said. “It will make no difference to me, because I will stick by you no matter what the circumstances.”

There was silence for a moment. Then Robinson, white and shaking, owned up.

“Chief,” he said, “I am the man you want. I killed Black because I thought my life was in danger. We engaged in an argument over a baseball bet and he started toward me with an open knife in his hand.

“I seized the only weapon at hand, a shoe stretcher, and struck him over the head with it. I did not mean to kill him. I didn’t tell you before on account of my wife.”

Byrd added that Black previously had insulted him several times.

Wishes He Hadn’t Fled.

“For two years I have been wishing that I’d never left home,” he said, “and now that I’ve been caught and told my story, I am happy and will go back there and clear up everything and commence to live right.”

Robinson said that in a panic of fear after his fatal encounter with Black he went to Texas, stayed there a few days, then came to Colorado later going to San Francisco and Seattle and returning to Colorado where he secured employment.

Charge Against Prisoner.

Memphis, Tenn., July 24.–J. L. Byrd, who is under arrest at Denver, Col., is wanted here for the murder of Joseph Black, who was killed July 8, 1907, at No. 4 North Main street, where both Black and Byrd were employed as shoe clerks. It is alleged that Byrd struck Black in the head with a blunt instrument following an altercation over a trivial matter. He escaped immediately after the fight and successfully evaded police until recognized in Denver by E. A. Collins of this city.

Should a dispatch from Covington, Tenn., prove correct, it is not improbable that Byrd is answerable the charge of bigamy. According to the Covington dispatch the man’s wife and two children reside with her father near Covington, and so far as can be ascertained, neither party has obtained a divorce.

– Logansport [Indiana] Semi-Weekly Reporter, July 27, 1909

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