Knave - Morcom Rose Garden - Ghost Town Tour - My Aunt Maxine - Unscheduled Derby - Oakland Tribune, 10 May 1964

OAKLAND is faced with a mingling of anniversaries today. It's Mother's Day - the 50th since President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the event a national observance in 1914. In addition, today marks the observance of Oakland's 30th annual Rose Sunday - an event recognized here since 1934 when Oakland's magnificent municipal Rose Garden was dedicated. Even this doesn't halt the parade. The combined Mothers Day Rose Sunday ceremonies slated for 2 p.m. at the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses will mark the 11th year that Oakland has honored its Mother of the Year - a program that began here in 1954. So there you have it: Mother's Day, Rose Sunday, and Mother of the Year. Very definitely, in Oakland today the roses are for Mother. And that's the way it should be. But we've been looking at the history of Oakland's outstanding municipal rose center and find that 30 years ago there just weren't roses in that area of Linda Vista Park. Or, if there did happen to be a rose or two, they were insignificant compared to the display there today. On May 13, 1934, the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden was formally dedicated by the Board of Park Directors to all Oakland residents. For some years previous the Oakland Businessmen's Garden Club had dreamed of having a garden in this area where many varieties of roses could be displayed adequately so everyone could enjoy their beauty. Work on the Rose Garden in Linda Vista Park began in June, 1932 — the original plan being the design of Arthur Cobbledick, Oakland landscape architect. The first roses were planted in the garden on Jan. 27, 1933, by Mayor Fred N. Morcom, President Homer Bryan of the Park Directors, Dr. Charles V. Covell of the American Rose Society, and B. S. Hubbard of the Businessmen's Garden Club.

There were no roses in this hollow of Linda Vista Park when Oakland began its construction of a Rose Garden in 1933

THE FIRST Rose Sunday was held May 13, 1934 under the joint sponsorship of the Oakland Junior Chamber of Commerce and Oakland Park Directors. At this ceremony a committee headed by the late Harold C. Holmes Jr. presented to the City of Oakland on behalf of the Businessmen's Garden Club, East Bay Rose Society, and Park Directors, a plaque which continues to mark the entrance to what has since become the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses. That's the official name now. But in the beginning, it was the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden, Linda Vista Park. It contains eight acres and is located on Jean Street just west of Grand Avenue a short distance from the Grand Avenue business district. The land was purchased by the City of Oakland in 1915 from J. P. Gafliardo. [Gagliardo] On May 9, 1954, the 20th anniversary of the Rose Garden, the Rose Garden was dedicated to Mayor Fred N. Morcom (1931-33) during whose term the creation and development of the garden took place. But it wasn't until 1960 that the beautiful garden was named for Mayor Morcom. It was in that year that it was named the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses, and the name Oakland Municipal Rose Garden was discarded. More than 8,000 rose bushes are now included, including 400 varieties of roses. Arthur Cobbledick, its designer, was the son of Col. James Cobbledick, a pioneer member and co-founder of the Oakland Businessmen's Garden Club.

TODAY'S cascades of water and song in the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses will thus be somewhat of a special tribute to Mother, the colorful roses, and our 1964 Mother of the Year. Mayor John C. Houlihan will present the award to the Mother selected by the Oakland Junior Chamber of Commerce in a city-wide competition. Co-sponsors of the program are the Oakland Park Commission and the East Bay Rose Society. In a prelude, a bench established in memory of two previous Mothers of the Year will be dedicated. The bench was donated by the eight remaining previous recipients of the award as a tribute to Mrs. Albert C. Glatze, 1957 winner, and Mrs. Frank H. Martin, last year's honored mother. Songs will be by the Temple Choir of the First United Presbyterian Church of Oakland directed by Newton H. Pashley. Honor will also be paid landscape architect Cobbledick who designed the amphitheater. There will be other features, including the presentation of corsages to the oldest mother present and the mother accompanied by the most children of her own. The rose garden's regular staff - George Shiraki, head rosarian, and Easte Pezzatti, [Easter Pezzatti] Ben Parodi and John Lambert will be on duty all day to answer questions on rose culture.

Ghost Town Tour

THE KNAVE: On a recent Saturday about 60 Walnut Creek residents joined me on an all-day ghost town our down highway 132 through Modesto to LaGrange and south to Snelling then east to Merced Falls. We followed a winding road to old Hornitos and went east from there to Mt. Bullion and Bear Valley. Our homeward journey took us to Coulterville. The hills and fields were green and wildflowers were everywhere. Our first exploratory stop was at old Merced Falls on the Merced River, once a gold mining community and later a prosperous lumber town. I remember it as a place of several thousand inhabitants with well-built houses, stores and mills. Now it lies bare and waste, only a few broken stone walls remaining. I could hardly believe my eyes. What a lonely site. We hurried on to Hornitos. The name means "Little Oven," which refers to the oval grave tops in the cemetery on a nearby hill. Hornitos was one of the wildest towns of the Mother Lode. “They were a tough lot ... reverenced nothing but money, cards and wine ... blood was on nearly every doorstep," old records report. The Hornitos Hotel once housed President U. S. Grant. The Campodomico Dance Hall (long disappeared) often entertained the lawless Joaquin Murieta, who in danger, would escape by tunnel to the creekbed below. On the main street are the ruins of the Ghiradelli store, one of the first in town. On an upper street is the old jail, built of large blocks of cut stone. There is a story of children teasing an old miner who, to scare them away, shot over their heads. The bullet hit a rock and bounced back, striking a small child. The tot screamed in terror. It was only a tiny bruise but the mob put the old miner in the stone jail. That night, at the little barred window, men came to offer him food. When he reached his hand for it, they caught his arm and slipped a rope around his neck and sawed off his head. They were a brutal lot, though some among them were decent. In nearby Quartzburg lived Colonel Thorn, noble southern gentleman who set his slaves free when he arrived here in free country. They loved him and served him in after days just the same. His grave is surrounded by a thick stone wall. After lunch we drove to Mt. Bullion, named for Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri, father of Jessie Fremont, wife of John Charles Fremont. Fremont owned 44,500 acres of Mariposa County in the gold days. The Fremont home was in Bear Valley where Jessie, during Fremont's long absences, bought up old cabins and had them put together in remarkable fine comfort and appearance. All have disappeared. Only ruins are about.

- John W. Winkley

My Aunt Maxine

JESSIE DERMOT came to Oakland with her head high just as the Gay 90s were approaching. She was not yet 21 but had already undergone a bitter experience with marriage, followed by the death of her mother in Rockland, Maine. Now, her father Captain Tom Dermot was remarried. He and his new bride had a new home in Oakland at 1756 Ninth Avenue, within the very shadows of the huge F. M. "Borax" Smith home known as Arbor Villa. There should be Oaklanders living today who remember the disillusioned Jessie Dermot, even though her stay here was brief. She left before the year 1890 was out, returning to New York City where she soon rose to fame as the beautiful Maxine Elliott, theatrical star and idol of millions. More than likely our Oaklanders of that day will better recall May Gertrude Dermot, Maxine's little sister, who studied singing here and later graduated from Oakland High School. May Gertrude went on to become almost equally as famous on the stage. She became Gertrude Elliott, and later the wife of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, renowned British actor. All of these events and many more return lifelike in Diana Forbes-Robertson's lively story of "My Aunt Maxine" just published ($7.50) by the Viking Press of New York City. The author is the youngest daughter of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson and of Maxine Elliott's sister, Gertrude. Diana was born in England, where she attended the Heathfield School, chosen by Aunt Maxine for its reputation in the social world. She married Vincent Sheean in 1935 and now lives in New York City as an American citizen. She previously authored two works of nonfiction and one novel before tackling research on her Aunt Maxine. This last task brought her to Oakland a little more than a year ago to search out her family's background here - a search that began in Rockland, Maine, the birthplace of both Jessie and Diana's mother, Gertrude.

HERE is a most fascinating story about the woman whom King Edward VII of England called "the most beautiful woman in the world." Maxine Elliott's life began in Rockland, Maine, a few years after the end of the Civil War and ended in the south of France in the early months of World War II. But to Diana Forbes-Robertson, her niece, she was just plain Auntie Dettie, an old bridge-playing aunt to be feared and avoided. It was not until 20 years after Maxine Elliott's death that the author set out to discover the resemblance between Aunt Dettie and the woman who had captured the world with her beauty and charm. She follows Jessie Dermot from Maine to New York and even to Oakland. After departing from here in 1890 she studied under Dion Boucicault and between the two of them they invented the name Maxine Elliott. Her stage debut was in "The Middleman" by Henry Arthur Jones on Nov. 10, 1890, the first play of E. S. Willard's repertory. But Maxine's career began its upward climb with her marriage to the comedian Nat C. Goodwin and their Broadway successes together, reaching a peak in 1903 when she became a star in her own right. The culmination was in 1920 when she removed her makeup and for the last time returned to England, her second home. Her marriage to Goodwin ended in divorce, but it was with him that she went to England and discovered her heart was not in the theater but in finding a top place in English society. She made her home in the English countryside, the meeting place of British government leaders. The purpose was to have fun. Wit was the order of the day. Maxine was the constant companion of King Edward VII and Tony Wilding, but after two unsuccessful marriages she never again would commit herself to a man. It was an age when women were expected to look beautiful, but gracefully recede into the background. Maxine Elliott had actively sought and independently achieved her goals.

MAXINE and Gertrude Elliott are not the only interesting characters in this lively biography. Captain Dermot, the father of these two girls and four other children, is listed in the Oakland City Directory of those early Oakland years as a Master Mariner. He was a sea captain and a good one. However, it is the origin of this man who fathered the beautiful Maxine - the girl who held England and America captives of her charm - that intrigues us. Tom Dermot, the Diana Forbes-Robertson yarn tells us, had been befriended by a New England sea captain named David Ames. Captain Ames, it turned out, was from Thomaston, the name of the original settlement in Maine from which Rockland had developed. Mrs. Lucy Frye Ames, stepping ashore from her husbands vessel in Liverpool one day saw a fight on the docks between two boys - Liverpool "dock rats." She proceeded to break it up with her parasol. One boy fled, the other stood and defied her. The name of this last lad was Tom MacDermott. [Thomas McDermott] Mrs. Ames admonished him to go home to his mother, and was told he had neither mother nor home. She next discovered he had been sleeping in an old molasses hogshead lined with paper and straw for warmth. That turned her to Captain Ames whom she persuaded to take him on as a cabin boy. This the captain did, and before they arrived in America he had talked Tom into dropping the "Mac" part of his name as well as the last "t" of MacDermott. Captain and Mrs. Ames had recently lost several children and Tom filled emotional needs. Captain Ames stood bond for him on arrival in Rockland. He took Tom home to the Ames mansion on Rockland's Middle Street, the most elegant avenue in the town. "The Ames family must have known the details of Tom's past," Diana Forbes-Robertson tells us, "but it was not transmitted. All that is known of his Irish beginnings is that he was born in County Galway on Dec. 18, 1937, [That should probably be 1837.] a member of the big MacDermott clan centering in Roscommon but spilling over into Galway and Mayo. He could have been the child of a peasant, or related to gentry equally impoverished and dispossessed of their ancestral home at Loch Key. Those were the days of the great potato famine in Ireland." The second wife of Captain Thomas Dermot was a childhood sweetheart of his. After the loss of his first wife he sought out Isabelle Paine, a widow school teacher of 42 then teaching at Stockton, in San Joaquin County. They bought the home in Oakland shortly after their marriage.

There are some interesting genealogical clues (one, two) in here, that I find scattered around the familysearch.org and ancestry.com databases, but family trees don't perfectly line up, or include the same story as in this article. I'll share this with the family tree collaborators. - MF

Unscheduled Derby

A FEW weeks ago when Oakland was breaking ground for its new museum, Albert E. Norman sketched for the Knave a history of the two blocks to be occupied by the new multi - million dollar structure. He mentioned Phillips and Leisz grocery that eventually wound up at 12th and Webster Streets. Now comes Robert Howden of Clifton Street to tell us more about these early day grocers. "They not only sold groceries," he reports, “but did a thriving business in fresh vegetables, fruit and poultry. Their store was a part of the old Produce Exchange Block where Cochran and Celli now have their auto agency. The poultry department on the Webster Street side was presided over by a Chinese butcher who had lost all compassion for the fowl that faced his hatchet. His blood-spattered domain was a constant source of amazement to us kids. The speed with which he snagged a chicken from a crate to whack off its head and toss its carcass into a barrel fascinated us. He would chase us away, but we soon filtered back, hoping one of the doomed birds would escape his grasp. This happened very infrequently, but I never forgot the thrill of the commotion that followed. Half flying, half running, the chicken would take off with incredible speed in any direction that presented an opening between men, horses and wagons. The drivers would halt loading their rigs and enjoy the fun, shouting instructions as to the course taken by the phantom chicken when last seen. The pursuer, bloody apron flying, tried to close the gap and overtake his quarry. Sometimes bets were made on the outcome of this chicken steeplechase. And sometimes the puffing Chinese would return triumphantly with the limp fowl, its neck thoroughly wrung. Even if the chicken escaped the executioner, odds were overwhelming against a clean getaway. If it outran the oriental fury at its tail, it was almost certain to be captured in the backyard of an unscrupulous citizen with a cheap dinner in mind. In this event, the return of the executioner was a somber march ..."

-THE KNAVE

Knave - Morcom Rose Garden 10 May 1964, Sun Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com