Knave - Tom Carroll - Robin Lampson - Friends of Bancroft Library - Gifts and Taxes - Oakland Tribune, 03 May 1964

LEGEND clings to Tom  Carroll like rhododendrons to a garden show. The problem today is to separate the legend from fact. Facts alone make Tom Carroll a remarkable man. For 32 years (1898 to 1930) he was constable of Brooklyn Township, that vast area east of Lake Merritt frequently called East Oakland, but in Tom's heydey perhaps it was better known as the Seventh Ward. [Brooklyn at oaklandwiki.org]

Map number two
(Alameda County farm
map. Published by
Thompson & West,
Oakland, Cal., 1878)

In 1858 Tom was brought to Fruitvale from Wisconsin by his parents as a boy of five years. There he grew up in Fruitvale's first two-story frame house, a dwelling erected by his father on the family's 250 acres. The house still stands at 2921 East 27th Street. Young Tom Carroll attended Fruitvale's first public school and romped in the fields and along the banks of Sausal Creek. Then, all of a sudden Tom grew up to be a young man. In the summer he would go to Nevada County and work for his father who mined on the Yuba River near Washington City. His father complained that all Tom did was eat and sleep. In one letter to Tom's mother the elder Carroll tells that Tom was supposed to stand watch on the sluice boxes so the workmen wouldn't steal the gold at night. Instead of guarding the boxes he fixed a bed up on a scaffolding across some rafters and went to sleep. “Luckily," wrote the father, “nobody came around that night.” Tom was paid $3 per day and sent his money home to his mother via Wells Fargo.

Map of Oakland,
Alameda and Vicinity,
Showing Plan of
Streets as Opened
and Proposed, Compiled
from the most
Reliable Public & Private
Surveys, Published by
M.G. King C.E., 1876

When camp supplies ran low he would walk to Nevada City, a distance of 35 miles. Despite such hikes he soon weighed 240 pounds and stood six feet, six inches tall. His size undoubtedly had a lot to do with his athletic prowess. Even as a youngster he possessed a powerful and splendid physique; a tower of strength that cast a shadow on events to come. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 he was judged the third strongest man in the world. At one time he held the world's record as weight lifter and hammer thrower as well as a shotput. There are those who tell of his slinging an eight-pound hammer across the estuary. Ed Kramer, whose boyhood was spent on Kramer Hill as a near neighbor of the Carrolls, says he witnessed big Tom hurling a 56-pound hammer through the basement wall of the Johnson home several houses distant from the Carroll backyard.

Knave - Oakland Museums - Kellersberger map - Historic real estate - Feather River - Oakland Tribune, 23 Feb 1964

KNAVE

A SPADEFUL of earth will be turned in Oakland tomorrow that is going to make a big difference in the cultural life of your children, your grandchildren, and all children down through the ages. The spadeful of earth to which we refer will mark the groundbreaking for Oakland's new multimillion dollar Museum that will occupy a two-block area stretching from 12th to 10th Streets, and from Oak to Fallon Streets. After the groundbreaking exercises all the dignitaries and their guests will move on to a champagne luncheon in Jack London Square, but we would prefer to linger behind for a moment and chat with Mrs. Henrietta Perry, curator of the Public Museum now housed in the towering Victorian mansion just "up the street" a block or two from the groundbreaking ceremony - at 1426 Oak Street, to be exact. The present but old Public Museum is one of three Oakland museums that will be quartered in the new Oakland Museum when completed about two years from now. The ancient quarters at 1426 Oak Street have been used by our Public Museum since 1910. The other two museums that will enjoy the new multimillion dollar structure are the Oakland Art Museum, founded in 1916, and the Snow Museum of natural history established in 1922. Paul Mills is director of the Art Museum, and Nadine S. Latham [Nydine Snow Latham was her name. - MF] in charge at the museum housing Henry A. Snow's African and Arctic trophies. Awaiting completion of the new quarters, Curator Paul Mills surveys his gallery's special field of California art, from 18th century explorers and the missions through Gold Rush illustrations, landscape paintings, and on through the development of modern art; an endeavor Oaklanders will be extremely proud of one of these days. But to Mrs. Henrietta Perry falls the important task of trying to halt the continued destruction of California history.

Knave: Goodwill - Placerville - Amador County - Steam navigation on the Feather River - Oakland memories - Sun Oakland Tribune, 31 May 1964

KNAVE 

IT WAS just 30 years ago that Dr: Frank Porter Flegal crossed the bay to Oakland from San Francisco to organize the Goodwill Industries of Oakland. It was the second year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first administration and every effort was being made to halt the economic depression that had been gripping the nation since the closing days of the 1920s. Without delay Dr. Flegal set up headquarters in some empty storerooms at Sixth and Washington Streets and asked for volunteers to help his benevolent cause, aiding the unemployed and distressed. "It's not charity they want, but a chance," was his plea. Public spirited men volunteered their services and became the initial directors of Goodwill Industries here. Now, as Goodwill Industries celebrate their 30th anniversary year, they look back to the depression-born program where food and clothing were the important elements of just keeping men alive. "Soup kitchen," most people called it. In 1934 alone they served over 2,670 meals. Along side the "soup kitchen" was the Goodwill chapel with its famous sanctuary mural painted by an artist who came to Goodwill desperately needing help. Over the past 30 years the landscape has changed. Where Goodwill was then located a Freeway skirts the city. To make room for progress Goodwill moved to 212 Ninth Street where the program now meets the communities' great and critical needs, such as training handicapped men and women for eventual employment in private industry and business. Persons of all ages, races and creeds frequently help. One of Goodwill's chief appeals has been for used clothing, furniture and home appliances so handicapped clients might repair, renovate and refurbish these items for resale. Such have been the turn of events that have turned a "soup kitchen” into a "job training" center - turning men into taxpayers rather than having them a burden on taxpayers.

Tales of Meteors, Baskets, Troops Round Off Indian Claim Hearing - Oakland Tribune, 07 Jul 1954

Tales Of Meteors, Baskets, Troops Round Off Indian Claim Hearing

BERKELEY, July 7. - Baskets, meteors and the U.S. Army figured in the last day of testimony in the three-week-long hearing before the United States Indian Claims Commission, meeting at the University of California.

See also Indian Claims Commission Awards Over $38.5 M to Indian Tribes in 1964

As final witness before the congressionally established court, Dr. Samuel A. Barrett, 75-year-old native Californian, retired director of the famed Milwaukee Museum of Natural History and presently a research associate at the U. C. Museum of Anthropology, outlined the manner in which white man's barbarism dispossessed the Indian of his native lands.

ABORIGINE RELICS TO BE SEEN TODAY - The San Francisco Call, 24 Mar 1912

ABORIGINE RELICS TO BE SEEN TODAY

Treasures Exhibited by Museum at Affiliated Colleges; Ishi to Entertain

A new collection of relics of prehistoric inhabitants of the bay region, consisting of buried skeletons, fireplaces, parts of hut floors, and implements of various kinds excavated from shell mounds found near the shores of San Francisco bay, will be opened today in the exhibit room of the California Museum of Anthropology at the Affiliated colleges.

UNEARTHED AN ANCIENT TOMB - The San Francisco Call, 25 Aug 1896

UNEARTHED AN ANCIENT TOMB

An Interesting Discovery at the Oakland Race Track.

QUEER INDIAN SKULLS.

Their Remarkable Formation Interests Professor Meriam of Berkeley.

ONE THOUSAND YEARS OLD.

President Williams' Museum of Ancient Anatomy at the California Jockey Club.

The Oakland racetrack is at the present moment a happy hunting ground for enthusiastic archeologists, a state of affairs directly due to a most important discovery recently made in that locality. This is nothing less than an unusually fruitful specimen of what is commonly termed the shell-mound or kitchen midden, now generally admitted to be the burial ground of presumably autochthorous Indian tribes long ago extinct. Mounds of this description have frequently been found in many parts of California, and in fact all along the Pacific Coast, but in this particular instance the discovery referred to is of such a character as to suggest to the eye of an expert much greater antiquity than the average type.

VILLAGES ON BAY FOR 4000 YEARS - Oakland Tribune, 06 Apr 1912

VILLAGES ON BAY FOR 4000 YEARS

Life of Pioneer Shown in the Collection Assembled by U. C. Investigators.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, April 6. - That villages have clustered about the shores of San Francisco bay for at least 4000 years is declared by the anthropologists of the University of California. To show the ways of life of these pioneer Californians, the university has assembled in the revolving exhibit room in the museum of anthropology (at the Affiliated Colleges on Parnassus avenue, San Francisco), a collection of the "Bedrocks of California History."

Shell Mound Traces Indians For 1000 Years - Oakland Tribune, 02 Dec 1926

Shell Mound Traces Indians For 1000 Years

BERKELEY, Dec. 2. - When the Danes were making their last desperate attempt to capture the British Isles in the tenth century, tribes of Indians were camping in Emeryville, living on shellfish, sea and land animals that abounded there, and scattering bones and shells along the bay shore on what is now Shellmound park.

Where was the Ellis Landing shellmound?

This is from page 49 of THE ELLIS LANDING SHELLMOUND by N. C. NELSON, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 357-426, Pls. 36-50 April 21, 1910

Many Puzzles in Bay Indian Life - Oakland Tribune, 29 Nov 1970

Many Puzzles in Bay Indian Life

Much of what we know about how the Bay Area Indians lived in prehistoric times comes from the fragmentary notes of early explorers from Europe, such as Sir Francis Drake.

More detailed ethnographic information began to be collected from Indian survivors late in the last century, but by then groups had been scattered and intermixed for almost a century. Their memories and practices were probably substantially different from the lifestyle of their ancestors.

Historians may never agree on just where Drake came ashore in this area, but the reports from his crew that remain make it clear he must have landed in Marin County, at a place that looks like Drake's Bay.

It was June of 1579. He was greeted by Indians who performed a ceremony that Drake interpreted as turning over their country to him and England's Queen Elizabeth.

However, from the descriptions left by Drake's chroniclers, anthropologists know that the Indians were performing something akin to the "Kuksu," or ghost ceremony. They apparently regarded Drake and his men as the returned spirits of the dead, whom it was necessary to appease.