I See by the Papers...

Read enough of the old newspapers and turn of the century Santa Rosa can seem nearly idyllic, as if it were the next cute little town down the line from River City in "The Music Man." Life here followed a comfortable routine of church socials, women's club meetings, and appearances of third-string vaudeville acts, the bucolic pace interrupted only by the occasional gruesome accident or runaway horse. It's the pleasant, yet numbing, sameness of each day's news that makes the first item below such a slap in the face.

Much has been written about America's shameful past of anti-Chinese bigotry, which was rooted in the Long Depression of the 1870s. The 19th century excuses for discriminating against the Chinese immigrants mirror exactly the anti-Latino immigrant bias of today: they were scapegoated for "taking jobs away" from citizens, accused of not wanting to assimilate into American society, and viewed with suspicion for having close ties to their homeland. Prejudice became law with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which put a cap on immigration of 105 Chinese annually (down from about 30,000/year) and blocked any Chinese already here from becoming citizens.

In 1886 Sonoma County, racial discrimination became civic duty. An Anti-Chinese League formed in Santa Rosa vowing to "rid themselves of the Chinese evil," and a banner hung over the Mendocino/ Fourth Street intersection: "THE CHINESE MUST GO. WE MEAN STRICTLY BUSINESS." (MORE on the history of Santa Rosa's Chinese community.) Contributing to the highly-charged atmosphere that year were the murders of Jesse C. Wickersham and his wife, members of a prominent Petaluma family. The only suspect identified was the couple's Chinese cook, Ah Tai; although no motive was ever presented, he was presumed guilty because he was missing. (A man identified as Ah Tai is arrested in Hong Kong a few weeks later, and allegedly hanged himself in his cell. Jailhouse "suicides" by Chinese were not rare; in 1900, the Press Democrat reported an inmate hung himself with his own queue.)

By 1904, the local newspapers routinely portrayed the Chinese as a troublesome, often criminal, underclass. Alleged crimes were reported prominently; in June, Ah Sam is arrested for filching 15 cents of potatoes. Ah Wing, who "misbehaved" in February, is in trouble again six weeks later for harassing the same woman, and the front page Santa Rosa Republican story about this "heap bad Chinaman" reveals that the woman didn't press charges in the earlier incident, which it turns out, was actually just an invitation to the theatre. Wing is arrested on a concealed weapons charge, which was a misdemeanor at the time, with a $10 - 20 fine.

Bigotry in the Press Democrat was active, not only passive. While 20th century owner/editor Ernest Finley is (rightly) considered less than a Neanderthal than predecessor Thomas Thompson, Finley still disgraced himself by bashing the Chinese minority in a racist 1904 screed. And the news item below wasn't even the most hateful thing published in the newspaper that year; scholars of anti-Chinese bigotry are directed to the Oct. 14 edition for that nugget of filth.

CHINAMAN SAID TO HAVE MISBEHAVED
CHARGED WITH HAVING MADE LOVE TO A WHITE GIRL UNASKED
Arrested and Put Up a Cash Bail of Fifty Dollars for His Appearance in Court This Morning

On Wednesday morning Constable Sam Gilliam and Police Officer Boyes arrested a Chinaman named Wing something or other, charging him with disturbing the peace. It is charged that the Celestial when he delivered the washing at a residence in this city insulted the young woman who answered the door and attempted to make love to her. It is said that he even went so far as to try to hug the girl. Anyway his behavior was very distasteful to her. A complaint was sworn out to Justice Atchinson's court and the defendant was allowed his liberty on putting up a cash bail bond of fifty dollars.

- Press Democrat, February 18, 1904

BREWER AND THE CHINESE

In a speech delivered recently in Milwaukee, Justice David J. Brewer of the United States Supreme Court expressed himself upon the subject of Chinese exclusion in a manner that has occasioned some comment, particularly among Pacific Coast residents who have noted a close range the results of the unrestricted immigration for which the distinguished jurist pleads.. Among other things, Justice Brewer said:

"I think that the time will come when the people of the United States will look back to the barbarous laws excluding the Chinese as citizens of Massachusetts now look back to the hanging of the witches. America is the great composite photographer of nations, with a duty to take all the various races of the earth and all the various elements of those nations and put them all on the canvas to make one picture, one race."

This line of argument is so incongrous that it can only be accounted for upon the grounds of the distinguished speaker's lack of familiarity with the subject he attempts to [illegible damaged microfilm] ever given for the exclusion of the Chinese from our shores is that they never assimilate, and that such is a fact all in any way familiar with their habits and customs must admit. If Justice Brewer will come to San Francisco he will find a large number of adult Chinese who were born in this country, and who have had every opportunity of becoming American citizens in fact as well as in name. Yet all have retained the customs, laws and manners of the time of Confucius. They dress exactly as their ancestors did 3,000 years ago, enjoy precisely the same amusements, worship the gods and idols of their forefathers and only die happy in the knowledge that their bones will find a last resting place in the Chinese soil. They are in our country but are no part of it, nor have they any desire to become such, and they tolerate our peculiarities only because it is necessary to the accomplishment of the ends they desire, which is the accumulation of sufficient wealth to enable them to return to China and end their days in affluence. To the other arguments in support of excluding the Chinese -- their immorality, proneness to loathsome diseases and above all the way they undermine and drive out the white laborer -- it is perhaps not necessary here to defer, but in view of the above facts question that naturally suggests itself is why Justice Brewer should compare the exclusion of an undesirable and permanently alien population in practice that was based entirely upon superstition and ignorance.

- Press Democrat, July 29, 1904

August, 1904 and work is underway. Note again that architect Brainerd Jones isn't mentioned. The Santa Rosa Republican ran a nearly identical item the same day, but added this closing paragraph: "'There will not be a parlor in the whole house and there will not be a room in which I can't smoke,' the Judge has frequently remarked to friends."

TO ERECT FINE HOME

Attorney Oates Lets the Contract For Colonial Residence

Attorney James W. Oates has let the contract for the handsome residence he will erect at Healdsburg avenue and Benton streets to Williamson & McKenzie, and men are at work preparing the lot preparatory to the erection of the house. Mr. Oates owns four large lots on Healdsburg avenue adjoining Walter S. Davis' home, and they will be taken up by the residence and the grounds. The house will stand in the centre of the property. It will be built colonial style, and will be arranged very picturesquely. It will cost several thousand dollars, and nothing that money and taste can provide will be omitted in making it a comfortable and attractive home.

- Press Democrat news item, August 26, 1904

1904 was surely a taxing year for James Wyatt Oates. Now 54 and still alone at his law practice that sometimes called him out of town several times a month, Oates was also one of fifteen men appointed to draft the new Santa Rosa City charter. The family also moved that year and was involved in the planning stages for their grand house. No surprise that the Press Democrat reported in August that Oates was taking a "well-earned vacation" (a comment probably made by Wyatt or wife Mattie when providing the item to the newspaper).

Several items of interest appeared in the PD that summer. Already reported here was that Oates sold their home on Tenth Street to Mr. and Mrs. Mark McDonald Jr. (Junior would later inherit and return to the Mableton mansion). The Oates family moved a few blocks west to a house at the intersection of Tenth and Mendocino, where the newspaper described a tea party Mattie held in August. The vacation item also mentions Mrs. Solomon, so we can assume that his mother-in-law was living with the couple even before their new home was built. Most interesting, however, are the two references to Miss Anna May Bell, who is presumably Anna May Dunlap as a child. Eleven years from then, Anna May would be watching over Oates as he died of double pneumonia, following a visit to her in Los Angeles. Much later in 1950 she would make an unusual donation to the city in remembrance of Oates, 35 years after his death.

Attorney James W. Oates, accompanied by Mrs. Oates, Mrs. Solomon, and Miss Anna May Bell, leave today for San Francisco where they will spend a few days, and where Mr. Oates will enjoy a well-earned vacation.

- Press Democrat "Personal Mention," August 17, 1904

SHASTA DAISIES ADORNED PARLORS
PRETTY SOCIAL FUNCTION AT THE OATES RESIDENCE ON MENDOCINO STREET
Tea in Honor of Mrs. Bell and Miss Anna Bell of Visalia Given by Mrs. Oates--Forty Guests Present

Shasta daisies in the reception rooms and red the color of the effective decorations in the dining room made the interior of the Oates residence at Tenth and Mendocino streets very pretty for a charming social function which took place there yesterday afternoon.

Mrs. James W. Oates entertained informally and very delightfully about forty lady friends at a tea given in honor of Mrs. Bell and her daughter, Miss Anna May Bell, of Visalia. Miss Bell has been Mrs. Oates guest here for several weeks. The guests admired the daisies and the decorations very much. The tea tables were tastefully arranged.

- Press Democrat news item, August 27, 1904

There was no more colorful figure in 1904 Santa Rosa than "Tennessee Bill," a well-known loquacious drunk who popped up in the spring and again in midsummer. The Press Democrat so loved reporting on Bill that they even lifted an entire story from the rival Petaluma Argus. Writing about the man seemed to bring out the poet in PD editor Finley: "Bill's distances are uncertain" is a turn of phrase worthy of Yeats.

Asked why he started a fire in his cell, "he answered that it needed fumigation and took it upon himself to accomplish the deed," according to the Santa Rosa Republican, July 29.

Believes it HimselfWilliam Charles Cornelius Tennessee Goforth, more briefly "Tennessee Bill," was in town yesterday and left on the afternoon train for somewhere. Bill's distances are uncertain, as he is arrested in almost every town he visits on a charge of vagrancy or of intoxication. In almost every city in the State that he visits he has his "old mother buried out in the cemetery." Bill has told this story so many times that he believes it himself. He told the same story ever again here yesterday. Not long since an exchange told how he had "a mother buried" in a cemetery in southern California. He tells a similar yarn when he reaches Petaluma, Sonoma, or wherever he lands and can find an ear to pour in his troubles. His tale of woe usually terminates with "I was just about to ask you to give me a quarter. I have not had a bite to eat all day and -- you know old Bill." Yes everybody knows him.

- Press Democrat, July 27, 1904

TENNESSEE BILL AGAIN
Sets Fire to the City Jail in Petaluma and Burns His ClothingWhen Tennessee Bill left Santa Rosa on Wednesday afternoon he told people at the depot that he was going to San Francisco and the south. Instead he jumped off at Petaluma and next morning landed in jail as usual, having taken too much liquor aboard, a failing that Bill encourages. Shortly after he was incarcerated he started a fire in the jail and destroyed the meagre furnishings and his own clothes. The Argus describes the conflagration as follows:

"At noon on Thursday William Cornelius Goforth, Esq., more commonly called "Tennessee Bill," was arrested by Constable Sullivan on a charge of being drunk and was locked up in the city prison to sober up. At 2:30 persons passing the city hall noticed heavy volumes of smoke issuing from the windows of the city prison in the basement of the city hall building. Assistant Fire Chief Myers was passing at the time and he notified Marshal Collins who was upstairs in his office. The jail door was hurridly [sic] opened and the entire jail was found filled with smoke while Tennessee without a stitch of clothing on, was dancing around a big fire in the west corridor. Every blanket in the jail, mattresses, brooms, etc., were consumed and all of Tennessee's clothing, including his shoes. Hose Co. No. 3 is stationed in the building and two length of hose were quickly taken from the cart and attached to the hydrant in front of the building, and Messrs. Collins, Myers, L.L. Goss and Frost flooded the place and extinguished the fire. Tennessee persisted in getting in the way and was struck by the stream and spun around like a top. He touched the ceiling a couple of times, was buffetted around like a frog in a puddle and finally had to swim out. A number of ladies were attracted by the excitement and went to the jail door but did not stay long. Tennessee's vocabulary is not all parlor tongue."

- Press Democrat, July 30, 1904