OAKLAND MAN TELLS OF DAYS OF PIONEERS - San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco, California • Sun, Jan 1, 1922 Page 1
OAKLAND MAN TELLS OF DAYS OF PIONEERS
Story of Hanging Woman in Downieville for Killing Man Recalled
OAKLAND, Dec. 31. With a mind that is still clear enough to recall dates and details of events occurring more than seventy years ago, William McDonald of 4670 Edgewood avenue, will celebrate the ninety-sixth anniversary of his birth next Thursday with friends and relatives in attendance.
McDonald will have many an interesting tale to tell and retell, but none more engrossing than the story of the lynching of a woman at Downieville, which he witnessed in. 1851, "in the days of old, the days of gold." This was probably the only time in the history of California that a woman, paid the supreme penalty at the hands of a mob for murder.
At Thursday's birthday party the man of 96 will tell with great regard for facts and dates how this woman, a Mexican, was hanged by the neck until she was dead for the slaying of a man she said had insulted her.
WITNESS OF KILLING
It was early one morning on the Fourth of July of 1851, when Downieville was a roaring mining camp, filled with wealth and reckless human characters. McDonald, now nearing the century mark, was a youth of 26, and had as his companion one William Ivy, another aged pioneer, who died not long ago at San Leandro. He and Ivy were passing the cabin of the Mexican woman and saw a man named Cannon at her door arguing with her. The woman asserted she had been insulted. Cannon was denying the charge. Suddenly a knife flashed and Cannon fell to the ground stabbed to the heart. Ivy and McDonald took him to the nearest physician, but it was too late.
WOMAN DIES BRAVELY
"A jury was then selected from the ranks of the mob and the woman was given a quick trial. The verdict was "guilty," and the sentence was death. They took her to a narrow footbridge, made her stand on a small plank, then kicked the plank from beneath her feet, leaving her dangling in the noose. McDonald vividly remembers her youth and beauty, and the fact that she wore a large Panama hat, which she smilingly handed to a bystander as the rope, was adjusted.
"She was brave," said McDonald "we all had to give her credit for that."
It seems the hanging was not a distinguished success, and a cursory examination revealed that the woman's neck had not been broken by the drop, thus amateurishly executed. However, the hardy mountaineers were determined to go through with their program to the grim limit and no one tried to resuscitate her. She died after being cut down.
FIGHT IN SACRAMENTO
McDonald came to California in August of 1850 after a perilous journey across the plains from Illinois. One of his first adventures was in Sacramento, where he witnessed a sharp battle between the squatters and the land speculators. K street and Fourth street were then the principal streets of the struggling early Sacramento, he says, and it was at this corner that the squatters and the speculators dame to grips.
Led by a man named Riley, the squatters charged the speculators and for a time controlled the field. but were soon worsted and driven to cover outside the city. McDonald saw many persons shot, among them the Mayor of the city, who was wounded in the arm.
In the next two years McDonald made a fortune in placer mining and went back to Illinois, where he met the girl who was waiting for him and they were married. She died a few years ago, after they had lived together for sixty years. Though he lacks but four years of being 100, McDonald is still hale and hearty. He sees clearly without glasses and hears all ordinary conversations. He sic memory for dates is exact and he can give a clear picture of matters which came under his observation more than seventy years ago.
He lives now with his daughter, Mrs. S. L. Ayre, at the Edgewood avenue house, and each year entertains as many of his descendants as may happen to be in this region.
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