I've left out the first few paragraphs, which are current events of December, 1928. You can read them in the clipping at the bottom of this page. - MF
Lotta's Fountain
A great stir has been occasioned by the proposal to remove Lotta's Fountain and it remains to be seen what will be done. Those who hold the story of the fountain and its donor dear, and would keep in their city those precious reminders of the past, find it difficult to approach this argument with even temper. On both sides - letters from the public and editorials in our papers - one finds more of sentiment and eloquence than fact. It is true that as art is judged, the fountain is not momentous. Recalling the fact that, it was patched up in an effort at "beautification," it is not as it was when Lotta bestowed it upon the city of her heart. We who are for preserving the reminder, must admit that, and concede, too, that the city has not done its full duty toward making the fountain surroundings presentable. One may find there boxes and papers, the clutter of the street, and every appearance of disorder. If it is an impediment to traffic, it is made more so by the throng of newsboys who use it as a base of operations. There is a call, perhaps, for those who would keep the relic and its memories, to ask that the surrounding base be made smaller, the loafing and gathering area reduced, and the pillar stand as a division marker for traffic. It might be saved and serve a purpose - but a modern world, sooner or later, will tear it down unless its friends use all the arguments at their disposal.
A Mystery
The KNAVE: Once a great mystery baffled the public of West Berkeley. Two barrels of whisky had been delivered to the station agent at West Berkeley, and he stored them in the freight house. The consignee had not called for them, but when be did so the station agent found they were fastened to the floor and were empty. The railroad detectives were called, and upon questioning several persons who had been seen around the depot at late and unusual hours, they learned that two of the prominent boys in town had been on a prolonged "souse.” It was learned that they had not worked for several weeks and that they were not in a position to finance a jamboree of the kind in which they had lately indulged. The detectives upon examining the outside of the freight house found holes bored in the wall, near where the barrels had reposed, and traced two large rubber garden hoses connected with the barrels to a house occupied by the two suspects. They confessed, but what became of the case I cannot now remember. West Berkeley was once an art center. Just north of the old depot lived one Wells, a sculptor. He used his back yard and the basement of his two story frame dwelling as his studio. He came into fame by being awarded the contract to create a statue of "Justice” for the top of the dome of the New City Hall, San Francisco. This work of art was modeled in Mr. Wells' back yard from plaster of Paris, and was cast by Vincent Kingwell, at his brass and metal foundry on First street near Mission street, San Francisco, It was made of a white metal, and the West Berkeleyans were proud of the work of their noted artist. The statue was pulled down after 1903 and was reduced to its original form, base metal, and West Berkeley's fame as an artistic center perished with it. Later a linseed oil factory was established, and shortly thereafter a large furniture factory was erected, and the local trains proceeded about a mile above the old depot to the new station near the furniture factory. This caused much chagrin to the West, Berkeleyans. The furniture factory proved a bloomer but the linseed oil works is still going. A bathing beach was started on a sandy stretch near the furniture factory later on. Digging in the soft mud, when the tide was out, for clams, was a favorite sport of the citizens, and many clam chowder parties were given. Stockyards was a lively place. Occasionally a long-horned Texas steer would get loose in the slaughter houses and chase all and sundry to places of safety. The slaughtering of the animals was all done by hand, and was primitive in the extreme. The butchers were a lot of hardy men, and great eaters, saving for themselves choice pieces of meat, especially the skirt steaks for which they had a great liking, while sweetbreads were not scoffed at. French George, a sheep butcher, was the village clock. He told the time by the arrival and departure of the passenger trains, or the coming and going of the trains through the place. Around Christmas beef sides and whole sheep were decorated with wouderful designs cut in the flesh, and polished up with isinglass. The champion decorator of the meat was Old Nick Comellev. His work was that of an artist. He was called Old Nick to distinguish liim from a nephew, who was known as Young Nick.
Shellmound Junction
At Shellmound Junction, where the race track was afterward built was a farm. The farmers lived in a two story frame building, around which were a few decrepit fruit trees, bent all out of shape by the prevailing westerly winds of the summer. At West Berkeley, during the time the westerly winds were blowing, persons susceptible of taking poison oak would not go out of their houses, or places where they worked. If they did they would become infected with the poison, for the winds blowing over the Sausalito hills carried the pollen of the plant with it, and caused the infection. The Ferry Building, San Francisco, was a long frame shed. In large letters along the eaves of the shed were painted the names of the various cities reached by the C. P. R. Co., such: New York, etc. A large bell hung from a scaffold in front of the building, and five minutes before the departure of the ferry boat, a bell-ringer would give the alarm. The saloons, barber shops and restaurants would be soon empty for the crowd would make haste to catch the boat. Two places on the waterfront stay in my mind, Phil. Cohen's barber shop, about where the Fish restaurant now is, and “The Alameda Cafe,” which is the oldest establishment in existence today on the waterfront. It was the popular eating place. East street is now called the Embarcadero, and in the days I write about it was known as the Bulkhead. The shell mounds have disappeared; a few of the old houses and factories around Berkeley still survive the march of time and progress; in the short space of a few years a village has become a great and thriving community, and these few crude and inexact memories of Berkeley's early beginnings will always remain with me as part of my delightful visits and vacations upon the then far away Contra Costa. -Albert P. Wheelan.
Maggie Moore's Brother-in-Law
When Mott Riehm, 92, died at Virginia City the other day men were reminded he was a brother-in-law of Maggie Moore, famous actress of the early days. He spent 63 years in Nevada, nearly all of them in Virginia City and the Comstock region. A native of Chicago, he came west as a young man, stopping for a time in California. Lured to Nevada by the mining excitement at Virginia City, his first employment in that section was as a foundryman at Silver City. He later went to Virginia City and for years was foreman of the old Fulton foundry on the Divide. He was an expert moulder and his services were in demand in the days when castings for the Comstock mines and mills were made in that camp. With the closing of the foundries he remained in Virginia City and in late years bad served as watchman in the mines and for the public school buildings, holding an appointment as deputy sheriff. He had been a member of the Divide hose-company since pioneer days. His sister-in-law, Maggie Moore, was a frequent visitor to the Comstock in the old days and played at Piper's opera house, where she was a favorite.
Frank M. Pebbles
His pietures bang in some of America's famous galleries and his memory lingers in many of the meeting places of the world. Our Bohemian Club knew Frank Pebbles in the days when his brush was limning the lines of noted men and women - for he was a painter for more than fifty of his eighty-nine years. In 1875 when General Grant came to California on his trip around the world, Pebbles painted his portrait. So did he paint Robert G. Ingersoll, Premier Laurier of Canada, and Walter Q. Greshman, Secretary of State under Cleveland. There were many others and it is said that the best of his work was done in his studio on Montgomery street between 1875 and 1880. After that latter year he returned to Chicago to remain away until the Exposition of 1915, when he came here to visit and decided to stay, making his home in Alameda. Down in the Monterey Peninsula he had wide acquaintance for it was his habit, until a few years ago, to make annual painting pilgrimages to the blue waters, the white dunes and the wind-blown cypresses.
Southwest's Apostle
Charles F. Lummis who died a week ago at Los Angeles, will be remembered by the country for his interest in the Southwest and the Indian. Of course he was not the first to travel through Arizona and New Mexico and become enthusiastic, nor was be the first to write glowing impressions. But out of his deep love of the desert lands and his skill as writer and journalist, he did write in a way to attract wide attention to that part of the country. Incidentally it was there be found incentive to become a distinguished scholar, it is there he became a poet and a student of the folklore of the Indian tribes. His first book was "The Man Who Married the Moon," Pueblo folk stories something over thirty years ago, and twenty years ago he established the Southwest Museum at Los Angeles, a center of Indian archeological studies. With Lummis it was a mission to awaken the people of New Mexico, Arizona and California to the glories of their past and countryside and he died with the knowledge he had succeeded. Associated largely with the Southwest, he was a familiar figure in this city because of his friendship with some of our older writers. Ina Coolbrith was a particular friend, the two sharing views on poetry and in their aversion to the tricks and manners of the newer poets. Indeed, Lummis held his membership in the California Writers' Club at Berkeley and appeared there on many occasions.
Prohibition and Indians
“Most of them are very old or very young." This is the explanation given by an Indian at Reno when asked why it is more of his fellows are brought in for drunkenness than before prohibition. The old ones have the habit and the young ones find it easy to get the liquor. According to the Nevada State Journal, a real problem is presented with the advent of the bootlegger. In the old days a man who sold liquor to an Indian was pursued alike by wets and drys and it was not long before he was locked up as a prisoner of Uncle Sam. Now, for some reason, it appears a less risky business to furnish the Red Man with whisky. To the bootlegger, he is just one more customer.
May Save Mining Camp
There is an opportunity in California - and one which neglected will soon pass - to save for posterity a typical mining camp. Here and there old structures have been purchased by men or communities with the intent to keep them intact, but where is the village of the fifties ready to be caught and kept for the future Californians? One of the best answers is: Columbia. Not long ago a representative of our State Department of Natural Resources visited this historic town to ascertain whether it would be possible to set aside a section of the street and the buildings which had part in the mining story as a state park or monument. The idea is one to find favor for there are few of us who do not notice with regret the passing of the ghost cities, the decay of the old buildings and their replacement by modern stores and gas stations. Columbia has a row of them, express company, bank, stores and saloon. Some of them are half destroyed; some stand as they were, but the whole could be restored and made to speak in present and future of the California mining days.
Some School Talk
When William John Cooper, State Superintendent of Schools, announced, following the defeat of Number Six on the ballot, that he would retire from office, discussion as to his successor started in a number of places. Now that it is hinted that the Superintendent is considering the possibilities of getting many of those things he wished to get by Number Six, in other ways, and is being urged to stay by his desk, a part of the speculation is marking time. Among the first to be mentioned was Miss Helen Heffernan, of Berkeley, now superintendent of rural education, despite the fact that she has an objection to holding an elective office. Lawrence Chenoweth, Bakersfield; William E. Givens, Oakland; Walter R. Hepner, San Diego, and Walter L. Bachrodt, San Jose, are others whose names come into the discussion. If Cooper resigns and the Governor appoints a successor, the term will last only until the election in two years.
Edward J. Connolly
Back in the days when Edna May was playing in "The Belle of New York,” Edward J. Connelly played opposite. He was later with Fritzi Sheff, Nazimova and others, and called his closest friend Frank Currier, stage celebrity who died a few months ago. When Counelly passed away in the South a few days ago, it was recalled that he stepped from Charles Dana's New York Sun office to the stage. He was an actor who held the highest regard for his profession and one who, with some reluctance, went over to the movies because in his advanced years they offered his those character roles for which he was fitted. In 1912 he went to Hollywood and not long after his friends saw him on the screen with Mary Pickford in "The Good Little Devil.” So was he in The Four Horsemen” and a long string of features. At 71 he died holder of the record for continuous service as an actor in any picture studio.
San Antonio
The friend of the old railroad days recalls East Oakland when it was known as San Antonio and later as Brooklyn. Ferry passenger service was extended to San Antonio, a trestle carrying the tracks from Oak street to Clinton station. The tides used to ebb and flow over the intermediate land, hence the trestle carrying the tracks from Oak street to street as a roadway was a sight to be remembered, considering it was the outlet from Oakland eastward. Finally a track was laid from where Melrose now is, to San Antonio, and arrangements were made to transfer the passenger train service from the Alameda ferry connection to that of Oakland (over the Seventh street track) and thereafter the Oakland ferry route was the Overland route. On January 1, 1870, the headquarters of the division superintendent was permanently located in Oakland. During that year the track from San Antonio along what is now First street was laid, and a depot erected at the foot of Market street. However, this line was not operated until January, 1871, when the Oakland Long Wharf was completed, the Western Pacific train service having continued on Seventh street up to that time. January 15, 1871, the Oakland Long Wharf was occupied for train service, and then it was that the freight train service was abandoned at Alameda and brought to Oakland Long Wharf.
Some Early Ferries
On the opening of the service from San Francisco via Alameda, freight was handled on an old steamer called the Oakland. It carried four freight cars. The freight terminal in San Francisco was at Second St. near the Pacific Mail Steamship Docks. A car transfer steamer called the Thoroughfare with double tracks, accommodated fourteen freight cars and had corrals on the sides for conveyance of live stock. About this time the Central Pacific Company got control of the Oakland and Alameda ferries and railroad connections, and the line terminating at Hayward was abandoned. The California Navigation Company was taken over by the Central Pacific, and the three steamers of that company were put out of commission. The Chrysopolis was made into a double end ferry boat and renamed the Oakland (still in commission). The Capital was also made into a ferry boat for the Creek route, and the Yosemite was changed to take the place of the New World on the Vallejo (California Pacific) run, the Central Pacific having got control of the California Pacific. The Yosemite finally wound up its career on Puget Sound. The demands of business called for a better arrangement of traffic between Alameda and San Francisco, and a railroad track was built from Alameda across the marsh lands, from the West end of Alameda, and brought across the Creek on a bridge in line with Alice street, Oakland, up Alice street to Sixth street where it curved across the Plaza, and connected with the Seventh street line at or near Webster street. When this was effected it was in order to double track the Seventh street line, abandon the old Alameda ferry service and bring the steamer Alameda to run with the El Capitan on the Oakland route. The old Alameda wharf or pier was rented to a lumber company and finally abandoned.
Moss Landing Battle
Among the many who are watching to see what becomes of the case of Joe Parente, Ellis street tailor who was arrested as bootlegger aud rum runner, jumped his bond, and has not been brought back, are the people of the Salinas district where there are memories of a battle in which one officer was killed and three men were wounded. That Moss Landing battle has never been explained. One tale gives leadership of the rum-running gang to this man, another to that, but the demand remains, where Deputy Sheriff N. H. Rader was well liked, that each clue be investigated. Who led the Moss Landing forces ? At Salinas much is being made of this latest arrest, not with the allegation that Parente, was implicated but because he is charged with being the bootlegger leader of this section at the time of the skirmish. The battle took place three and a half years ago and as yet the many questions it brought out have not been answered.
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