The Knave - Angels Camp, John Muir, scorching, San Leandro Triangle, bicycle history

Knave Scorching Prohibited Excuse Our Dust San Leandro Triangle Sun, Jan 17, 1960 – 76 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, Alameda, California, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

If you've come here to read bike stuff, scroll down to the last two paragraphs, titled "Scorching Prohibited" and "Excuse Our Dust." I've documented the course described in the "Excuse Our Dust" in my earlier post, "San Leandro Triangle." This whole edition of The Knave is worth your time. They usually are. - MF


THE 1887 photo of Angel's Camp reproduced here today will no doubt cause many to recall the newspaper axiom that "a picture is worth a thousand words." We agree with the axiom - in many instances - but being aware of some of the dramatic events said to have transpired on Main St. in Angel's Camp from the time of its 1848 founding to the moment the picture was framed on the big glass plate of the 1887 cameraman, we can't help but wonder. One thing the cameraman couldn't have seen while studying his view finder is the word picture told by Mary Hill Arnold regarding her school days in Angel's Camp in the 1850s. Her story is handed down to us by Edna Bryan Buckbee in "Pioneer Days of Angel's Camp" and records that sometime in the 1850s Mary's Sunday School teacher, Mrs. John A. Jackson, died in childbirth. “Seeing my Sunday School teacher in her coffin with the little dead baby on her breast, and what happened afterward, made an impression I have never been able to forget. As we wended our way up Main St. to the Protestant cemetery to bury her, the line of march was broken by men running and screaming: 'Catch the killer! Catch the murderer!' The men carrying the coffin set it down in the street and joined in the chase. A few moments before, while enraged over a game of ‘monte' the murderer arose from the table and unsheathing his bowie-knife, stabbed a gambler by the name of Smith to the heart. The pursuers soon caught the assassin and, after burying Mrs. Jackson, promptly marched him to Dead Horse Hill and lynched him. The next morning as we children came over the hill trail on our way to school there was a newly made grave under a pine tree, which made us all very sad."

Main Street of Angel's Camp in 1887. Historians say the fire hose was frequently used to wash mud from the street to creek.

Mining Expedition

Historians of the Mother Lode are quick to point out that Angel's Camp was not named for the heavenly host, but instead as an honor to Henry Angel, one of the men who arrived in Calaveras County as a member of the Carson & Robinson Mining Expedition. In all, there were 92 men well armed and equipped; mostly dragoons and discharged teamsters from the command of Major Graham, who had arrived from Mexico, and soldiers of Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson's New York Volunteers. James H. Carson was the leader. In addition to Henry Angel the men included Daniel and John Murphy, Dr. I. C. Isabel, William K. Casement, and Edward Murphy. They arrived in what was to become Calaveras County in July of 1848. Henry Angel prospected the little stream that was to win the name of Angel's Creek. James Carson and his men continued on to a hill three miles distant. We know the hill today as Carson's Hill. They also found Carson's Creek. It was Henry Angel who found Angel's Camp. No roads marked the way in those early days. But among the early arrivals there was John W. Mackay of later Comstock fame. Dr. William A. Kelly came to Angel's to mine in 1849 and after two years at the pick and shovel laid the gold pan aside for the scalpel and medicine case once again. Dr. Kelly was the medico who never billed a patient. When he needed money he would advertise in the Angel's Camp weekly paper. “All persons knowing themselves indebted to the undersigned will please call and settle at least a portion of their indebtedness, as I am very much in need of money,” his ad read. Signed, of course, William A. Kelly, M.D.

Main Street

By the end of 1849 there were 350 residents in Angel's Camp and the community was still growing. At the end of two more years (1851) the business and professional men included Attorney C. E. Young, Drs. J. I. Boon and William A. Kelly; merchants John Peirano, Mathews and Scribner, B. Strauss & Co., Joseph Peirano, Norman Smith, Richard Heckman, E. and G. Stickle. Alexander Love and Michael Cosgrove operated livery stables, Cosgrove in conjunction with a hotel, Love in conjunction with a dairy. Other innkeepers were C. C. Lake and Thomas L. Lindsay. George Nuninger was the town baker, and C. E. Lake the agent for Adams Express Co. Also on the roster were Postmaster Andrew Jackson Crooks, Undertaker J. T. Fletcher, Tavernkeeper J. Barkhorn, Druggist Philip Scribner, and Butchers Ackerman & Strauss. C. C. Lake built the Angel's Hotel on Main Street at Chinatown Road in 1851. The next year the town had its second smallpox epidemic. Famine also threatened in 1852. In early September Myron Hill Reed arrived at Slab Ranch and began writing for Harpers Magazine, the Golden Era and newspapers in Stockton, Sacramento and San Francisco. He has been credited with centering national attention on Angel's Camp almost 10 years before Mark Twain arrived in town. By 1853 the population of Angel's Camp reached 4,500 residents, its wooded slopes now dotted with canvas tents and brush huts covered with roofs of buffalo hide. There were only 10 wooden buildings on Main Street. By 1854 prize fighting and horse racing were favorite sports at Angel's. "Yankee" Sullivan, champion pugilist, often gave exhibitions there. “Mike” Moran, pugilistic wonder of neighboring Murphys Diggins, was trained to box by "Yankee" Sullivan. Moran and Chris Lillie frequently staged wrestling bouts to entertain the miners. This was the year the first public school was opened in a Main Street building owned by Bennager Rasberry. But Bennager Rasberry probably gained more renown from two other events to which his name was attached..

Two Rasberry Desserts

Edna Bryan Buckbee tells the following amusing story about some brandied peaches that Bennager Rasberry sent East for. "Sometime later,” she relates, "he thought them spoiled and dumped them on the hillside. His neighbors had pigs and the pigs found the peaches. That afternoon one of the children looked out the window and noticed the pigs. 'Mr. Brickell,' she called, 'something is wrong with the pigs. They're running around and around, queer like.' At recess a few peaches were still lying on the ground. They were eagerly eaten by the children and it wasn't long before they were laid out on the benches. My sister, Lucretia, was among them I had not been quick enough to get any." Mr. Brickell, the schoolmaster, returned East the following year. This was about the same time that Bennager Rasberry went hunting on the outskirts of Angel's Camp. His ramrod had become jammed and in attempting to shoot it from his gun he aimed at a gray squirrel. The ramrod took an upward, sidelong flight and struck a manzanita bush. When Bennager walked over to retrieve it he found the ramrod imbedded in the roots of the bush. In the roots was a small piece of quartz containing gold. He began digging with the rod and exposed a quartz vein. That afternoon he took out $700 in gold, the next day $2,000, and the third day $7,000. He worked the vein for months at a huge profit.

Flames... and Fame

In June of 1855 Angel's Camp was destroyed by fire. But before the ashes had cooled its pioneers had cleared the foundations for erection of more substantial buildings. Proprietor Lake of the Angel's Hotel put up a one-story stone building. Some of the other buildings were also constructed of stone. Consequently, when a second fire swept the town in 1856, the newly erected stone buildings did much to keep the fire within bounds. In 1857 a second story was added to Angel's Hotel, while Thomas L. Lindsay built the Revere House, an inn that stood where the Hotel Calaveras later stood. About the biggest event of the 1860s in Angel's Camp occurred in the winter of 1864. Snow covered the hills, and Jim Gillis brought Samuel Clemens down from Jackass Hill to visit the folks at Angel's Hotel. Samuel Seabaugh of the San Andreas Independent had written an account in his newspaper about a frog Jim Smiley had trained to jump, hoping to win some wagers. The scheme failed when a New York lad, Pete Stag, loaded Jim's frog with shot. Ross Coons, the inn barkeep, drolled the yarn slowly much to the amusement of Clemens. "It seemed unimportant at the time,” comments Edna Bryan Buckbee, “but it proved to be the nucleus around which unsurpassing fame was built." To this day there are discussions in Angel's Camp as to whether the town brought fame to Mark Twain, or whether Twain heaped fame on Angel's Camp. The 1870s sped by without too much fanfare while the mines and miners were kept busy. It was almost inevitable that the next decade would bring more stirring events, and it did. It was in 1880 that the James Rolleri family located at Reynolds Ferry, a stage station on the Calaveras side of the Stanislaus River where a ferry was operated to transport John H. Shine's Sonora-to-Milton stages across the river.

Black Bart

Four years passed, and all went well. Then, in 1884, Black Bart (Charles E. Bolton) appeared on the scene and sought accommodations of the Rolleri family at Reynolds Ferry. The morning after his departure the westbound stage was held up and robbed at Funck Hill. "Reasin McConnell was handling the reins that morning,” Mrs. Buckbee relates, "and beside him on the box was James Rolleri Jr., who was taking a ride to a spot where he intended to hunt deer. The youth found the spot he wanted and departed, taking a shortcut and crossing over the hill. That's how he happened to come upon the holdup so unexpectedly. As he came in view, armed with a rifle, the road knight leaped back upon the bank and fled through the thick chapparal. Reasin McConnell, leaving the stage in young Rolleri's charge and taking Jimmy's weapon, pursued the robber. In his flight Black Bart lost a linen cuff that bore a telltale laundry mark. That's how the famous Black Bart was trailed to San Francisco and captured. That was the same year that Myron Reed Hill wrote in one edition of his Mountain Echo that "we have no blood and thunder news to report this week. Only five men were killed here within the past six days ... scarcely worth note." Four more years were to pass before Mrs. James Rolleri, now a widow, was persuaded to move to Angel's Camp and manage the Calaveras Hotel. She conducted the small restaurant and rooming house there for 39 years. Grandma Rolleri died at Angel's Camp on June 10, 1927.

A Wilderness Walk

The Qnave: [sic] Some years ago I drove over the Pacheco Pass road from Gilroy to Los Banos. It was rough, rugged, twisting and tiresome. Last September, after a rain, I crossed over the road again and found it gentle with sweeping curves. This was the Pass that John Muir and his English friend, Chilwell, used on their way to Yosemite in March of 1868. Muir met Chilwell on shipboard from Panama to San Francisco and they planned the trip together. In later years Muir described their walk up the Santa Clara Valley and over the Pass in glowing terms: "The sky was cloudless ... the whole valley a lake of light ... the atmosphere spicy and exhilarating ... the foothills covered with flowers in cloud-shaped companies.” The Pacheco Pass hills "resounded with crystal waters and the loud shouts of quail ... the meadows banked with violets, ferns, penstemons, mint and lilies ..." From the top of the Pass they beheld the "glorious Sierra" along the distant horizon, and in between lay the great San Joaquin plain, "a vast flower garden ... like a lake of gold.” As they waded out into the valley Muir declared that at every step the foot pressed down a hundred little flowers. It was a wonderland of fragrance and beauty. They crossed the San Joaquin River at Hills Ferry and climbed over the foothills toward the Yosemite by way of Snelling and Coulterville. At a wayside store they laid in supplies and, being warned that the bears in Yosemite were dangerous, bought a shotgun. They camped at Crane Flat by an empty cabin. Chilwell suggested they try out the gun. He tacked a piece of paper on the cabin and went inside while Muir fired the gun, aiming at the paper. In moment Chilwell came screaming forth. "Scotie, you shot me,” he shouted. Foolishly, he had stood back of the target and the pellets pierced the, half-inch boards to enter his skin through two coats, two shirts and his underwear. Muir consoled him while picking out the pellets from his skin with a pocket knife. From the hill-top they beheld the deep Yosemite Valley and Bridal Veil Falls, which they guessed were about 70 feet high. Imagine their surprise, on reaching, Bridal Veil, to find them at least 600 feet high. For weeks they roamed about the Valley marveling at the stupendous walls and waterfalls. As their supplies diminished they climbed over the ridges to Galen Clark's Wawona Camp, where that friendly mountaineer refreshed them and sent them on down to the Snelling farmlands to work in the harvests. Chilwell tired of their meatless diet; Muir wouldn't shoot any creature, and Chilwell couldn't hit anything with the gun. One day Muir exclaimed, "There's an owl on that post. Shoot him and make yourself some soup." Chilwell bagged the bird and dined on him, begging Muir "Don't you tell anybody as 'ow I 'ad a Hoel for dinner." Their wilderness walk done they soon afterwards went separate ways.

- John W. Winkley.

Scorching Prohibited

The "Touring Guide and Road Book” put out by the California Associated Cycling Club in 1898 warned their members that "while city, town and county authorities could not make rules in violation of the 1898 general laws, they had the power to prescribe rules and regulations governing the use of their highways. These regulations must be strictly observed,” the guide book instructed. Here are the rules that were posted in Oakland and some of our neighboring communities. In Oakland "sidewalk riding prohibited between sundown and 1 a.m. When permitted, under terms of the ordinance, riders, upon meeting pedestrians, must give up the entire width of the cement portion of the walk or else dismount; must use lighted lamps after sundown and sound bell or whistle before reaching and while traversing street crossings; must turn to the right on passing any other wheel or vehicle, and keep to the right of the center line of the street." In Alameda: "Wheels must be provided with lighted lamps at night. Sidewalk riding prohibited." San Francisco's hills accounted for an additional rule. One section of their law read: "No person shall ride or drive a bicycle, bicycle tandem or other vehicle or machine of a similar character upon or along any public street or highway unless the feet of the person so riding or driving shall be kept on the pedals of the machine at all times while the machine is in motion - the practice of scorching or coasting being hereby inhibited. ..."

Excuse Our Dust

See San Leandro Triangle - MF

Not only were “Consuls” set up in cities and towns throughout California by the C.A.C.C., according to the 1898 guide book, but special surveyed courses were "laid out.” Here is a description of a five-mile course designated "High Street." "Starting at High St. on San Leandro Road through to San Leandro, finishing on Haywards Ave. at a point near Maude Ave., finishing point marked on the fence by three nails driven in the form of a triangle.” There were two 10-mile courses. The straight away started "on San Leandro Road at High St. straight away through San Leandro along Haywards Ave. to Haywards, finishing at the corner of A St." A triangle course started on San Lorenzo Road at a point about 100 yards south of the railroad crossing (between San Lorenzo and Tank corner), thence on San Lorenzo Road to Hepburn St. in San Leandro, thence through Hepburn St. to the Haywards Road, to Ashland Junction, to San Lorenzo, and thence to a point 88 feet southeasterly from the intersection of the easterly line of Parrott St. in San Lorenzo with the center line of the road to San Leandro - said finishing point being the regular finish of the C.A.C.C. 25-mile course. Which brings us to the 25-mile course: "Starting at a point on the main County Road from Oakland to San Leandro, 153 feet south from Ward St.; thence along said County Road (over the course commonly known as the San Leandro Triangle), to Ashland Junction, to San Lorenzo Road (Tank), to Saunders St. (San Leandro); thence through Saunders St. to main County Road, to Ashland Junction, to San Lorenzo Road (Tank), to Saunders St. (San Leandro), thence through Saunders St. to Ashland Junction, to San Lorenzo Road (Tank), and finish at a point 88 feet southeasterly from the intersection of the easterly line of Parrott St. in San Leandro with the center line of the San Lorenzo Road. (The finish is marked on a tree on the edge of the sidewalk on the north side of said road.)"

--THE KNAVE.