EARLY DAYS IN OAKLAND.
Some of the Pioneers and Their Achievements.
A Hunting Ground for the San Franciscans Oak Forests, Blooming Fields Squatters' Controversies The Peralta Titles Carpentier's Claim to the Water Front Famous Duels, &c., &c.
Americanized California is not old enough to have produced any native citizen who has attained to gray hairs, the "lean and slippered pantaloon," the sixth age, and retired from the lists with chaplets of regard for services done to his State or city, with troops of friends to attend his retiracy and cheer his remnant of honored life. There are not a few veterans, hoary and beat, who may be called the early State's "gray fathers," lingering in picturesque old age, who can relate the whole history of California since the "conquest" as within their still distinct remembrance. These men came to the coast when the Mexican Government still held sway over these fair plains, its subjects living in adobe dwellings, enjoying the bland air, content with the products of a most generous soil yielding its fruits with the slightest solicitation, lords of a land in whose bosom was the wealth of the Indies, unconscious of thus much of the rich heritage that Cortez had given to Spain, incredulous of fortune, unwearied by labor, secure in their possessions, the outside world as blank to them as the wide Pacific which washed these peaceful shores. The thousands who throng our streets and make city and State what they now are, a busy mart of trade, abounding in all the arts and parts that make thrifty commerce, trade, manufactures, agriculture, know little of the men and scenes of former days in this beautiful place, where winter is unknown, where flowers bloom perpetually, and the "melancholy days" never come as they come to dwellers under stormy Eastern skies. It is fit and proper that the men who have made history for California should inscribe their recollections upon the written page, to be in future times rehearsed by the generations which shall see our puissant city grown to a metropolis, hamlets become great towns, the wilderness blooming gardens, mountains covered with palaces and mansions, plains inhabited by opulent merchants and farmers enriched by labors which bring luxury and comfort to the "rest of mankind," and fill the land with plenty;
"Whose flocks and her is the hills adorn, Whose valleys smile with waving corn."
To gather some of the fallen leaves of memory and local history for the edification of the present generation and peradventure preserve some of them for future use and benefit, we have indulged a curious interest in past events, and prompted some of those who were earliest to establish homes on this eastern shore of the bay, and who are still hale men, with intellects in full vigor, and memories unbroken, to relate instances of the still recent past. Among the elders of this young city, retaining the dwellings first erected amid groves and gardens that embellish the cherished homestead and cheer with perfumed shade and sheen the hours of repose, is Supervisor
An honored citizen, who has well earned the respect and deserves the esteem of compatriots and fellow citizens. A reporter for THE TRIBUNE interviewed Mr. Fallon a few evenings since, at his residence on Seventh and Oak streets, and found him ready to give the chief incidents of local history, from the beginnings of a town in the oak forest known as the Peralta rancho. Mr. Fallon has attained to three score and ten, with physical force somewhat abated, but still erect, vigorous in mind and body, capable of labor, strongly as ever interested in public affairs, and filling the important office of Supervisor of this county.
By way of introducing the subject of the interview, Mr. Fallon was asked when he first came to this coast. He said:
"I came here in 1849, on the first steamboat that sailed from Panama to San Francisco."
"Did you find a great crowd of passengers on board?"
"Yes, the boat was full; a great many took passage at Panama, who had come across the isthmus, and we stopped everywhere along the coast to obtain fuel for the engines. We were without coal three or four days, and wooded up at all points between Panama and here. Put in at Acapulco and Mazatlan. We were glad when we finally reached this harbor in safety."
How long did you remain here then?"
"About two weeks, I think. I then went up the river to what were called the
Southern Mines, and remained there some time; opened a store, with Nelson
Taylor as a partner. Then I came back to San Francisco for goods I had shipped
around the Horn before I left New York."
"Was it at that time you were
asked to become Chief of Police in San Francisco?" "While in the town I met a
gentleman who asked me if my name was Fallon, I subsequently learned that this
was Beza Simmons, now dead. He asked if I would like the position of Chief of Police, saying that Colonel Stevenson had spoken of me as having had some
experience in the police department of New York city. I said that it would be
impossible for me to take the position then, as I had business in the mines,
and had a partner awaiting my return with goods. The mines were placer mines
at Jamestown, Tuolumne county, and Peck Cutrell was interested with us. We put
up a tent first, and then a shanty, to establish a right to the grounds, and
began business. There was nothing of Stockton then; merely a landing place for
vessels coming up the river with supplies. While in San Francisco I was told
that the Ayuntamiento had heard of me as having had experience in police
affairs, and the population of the city being largely made up of rough young
men with adventurous spirits, excited by the discoveries of gold, needed a
strong and experienced hand to keep them in control. Many of them were of the
cowboy class, the worst deserting whalemen coming from all parts of the world.
They were not men of evil principles, naturally, but felt the excitement of
the times, and enjoyed the lack of restraint in a town where there was no
social organization nor adequate legal control. Outside of this looseness of
moral forces at the time, they were good fellows."
"Did you take charge of the police?"
"Not directly. I returned to the mines, consulted with my partner, and agreed that it would be necessary for one of us to remain in the city to make purchases for the store, and I returned and accepted the office, the Ayuntamiento having met and appointed me Chief of Police. The local Spanish laws were then administered by the Americans. There was an alcalde, prefect, etc. General Geary, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania, was alcalde. I retained the office until the new Constitution went into effect, with a city charter for San Francisco, and was then appointed Marshal. I had been elected to the State Constitutional Convention from Jamestown, but did not attend, as I had my hands full to preserve order in the city. I served two years as Marshal, or until the organization of the first Vigilance Committee, which I opposed, and Mr. Crozier was elected. I think he died in Texas.
RETURNED TO NEW YORK.
I returned to New York in 1850 and found my family ready to come out here with me, so I came back and continued business in San Francisco until the great fire burned me out.
FIRST VISIT TO OAKLAND.
About 1852, I sailed across the bay to Oakland, then Contra Costa, and found a wilderness, albeit a lovely one, abounding with evergreen oaks, open spaces covered with grass and natural flowers of a thousand kinds, and very attractive. There were some fifty squatters here, in tents and shanties, holding their 160 acres as homesteaders. It was a variable population, here to-day and gone to-morrow. There was no regular ferry. Sloops and skiffs were used in crossing the bay. Among the foremost men of that time were H. W. Carpentier, Edson Adams and Andrew Moon, who had squatted on what they assumed to be Government land. I bought a contract for a tract of land from the Peraltas, held by one Harper, who had put up a tent on the ground. Harper was a drinking man, and Carpentier and his party took advantage of Harper's absence, and burned the tent, squatting on the land, 160 acres, and holding it for the time. I bought 17 acres of land where this house (cor Oak and Seventh) now stands and held it.
BUILDS A DWELLING.
There were no houses larger than shanties then to be seen. In 1850 I began to build. The squatters threatened to burn my lumber, claiming that they had preempted the land, but they did not do it, When the title of the Peralta's was adjudicated, my deed was validated. Harper's land was subsequently held by Col. Heath and Ned Cohee. I built in the style of a Long Island farm house, which suited my ideas. My family came over when the first floor was laid; my business was in other places, and when I returned, I found that my people had been
SCARED OUT OF THE HOUSE
By the belligerant squatters. To buy off their opposition I paid $1,000. Carpentier about this time conceived the idea of getting possession of the whole water front, and with that in view went to the Legislature and got a bill thro', giving him control for a term of years of the whole water front, then in use for landing places, agreeing to construct wharves, build a school house and improve streets. He fulfilled these conditions in part; put out a wharf at the foot of Broadway, built a small school house (since a negro church; and still in existence), and bridged the estuary.. He probably expended $1,000. That was all the title of Carpentier to the water front, and he even claimed to own my submerged land. I had taken precautions, however, to secure my title to the land so that no one could get between me and the water."
OFFICES IN ALAMEDA.
"What offices have you held in this county, Mr. Fallon?"
"I was elected Supervisor twenty years ago, on about 1860, and refused a renomination, because I was promised the Wardenship of the State Prison. I did not get that appointment, however, and declined the Commissaryship, which was offered me. In 1882 I was re-elected Supervisor, and am serving my second year."
TRICKS UPON SPANIARDS.
"One piece of native forest was called 'Hardy's woods,' from the owner, who is still living in Oakland, and is an older man than I am. In those days," continued Mr. Fallon, "the Spanish settlers continued their old custom of riding over the country on horseback, reaching a corral they turned in their horse, took another from the herd, and rode on. This they repeated until they had made their circuit, when they took up their own horse and turned in the one taken from corral. Taking advantage of this lawlessness, as regarded under our stricter laws, Spaniards owning land were arrested and sent to prison for horse-stealing; and when in durance, they were approached by men who coveted their land, and induced for the sake of a pardon to sign deeds conveying their lands. In this crafty way some good property was acquired after the Spanish titles were sustained by the land commission."
DUELING GROUND.
"Were there not some famous duels fought on this ground?"
"I remember only two. One of these was the duel between David C. Broderick and Judge Smith, in which neither was hurt. Young Kewen and Colonel Somebody, whose name I can't recall, are said to have fought here, also. Frank Lemmon and Will Hicks Graham had arranged to come over and fight. I stopped Graham, who pleaded earnestly to be all wed to go over, as if he failed he would be charged with showing the white feather and having sought arrest. I held him, and the other was afterwards arrested also. I think they got over afterwards and had their 'satisfaction.' Lemmon, I think, was shot in the war at Battle Mountain."
FIRST BUSINESS
HOUSES.
"Who opened the first store and hotel here?"
"Mr. Burrell built the first hotel, on Second street; he still lives here. Samuel Robinson opened the first store on Second and Broadway."
"Who were the earliest city officials?"
"Dr. Yard was the first Postmaster, and held the office twenty years, with a slight intermission. He was succeeded by Mr. Benton; then came Mr. Marcellus, and now Mr. Dargie, only four postmasters in thirty years.
"I have seen Oakland when it was a ranch covered with
forest trees and where cattle roamed at will, and have witnessed its
growth to a town of nearly fifty thousand inhabitants, abounding in that makes
a city attractive and renowned."
This ended the interview with
our esteemed fellow citizen who had given the reporter hints which he may
improve in a future article.
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