I See by the Papers...

Santa Rosa made national news in the days after Christmas, 1894. Hundreds of newspapers nationwide, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to the Wah-shah-she News in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, ran a wire story that began this way:

Santa Rosa, Cal., Dec. 28.—Santa Rosa had the biggest sensation in its history today. The county treasury was robbed of nearly $8000 and County Treasurer Stofen was left insensible in the vault to suffocate by the robbers, who locked the door of the vault on him. The robbery occurred about 9 o'clock this morning, but was not discovered until about 5 o'clock this afternoon. All this time Treasurer Stofen lay on the floor of tbe vault gasping for breath, fearing every moment during conscious intervals would be his last.

Stofen told reporters the next day that he had opened his office at the county courthouse as usual on Dec. 28 and was bringing coin trays out of the vault (it was 1894, remember, and "money" meant gold and silver coins, not greenback dollars). Suddenly there was a man in front of him holding a large dagger. "Drop that money," he ordered. The 58 year-old Stofen put the tray on the table and either was struck on the head or fainted. The next thing he knew was waking up to discover he was locked in the vault.

"I pounded on the door, but of course no one could hear me," he told reporters. He knew there was a faint draught at the bottom of the door and lay with his face near it. He passed out again.

Meanwhile, his two kids stop by at noon to drop off his lunch. Not finding dad in the office and the door locked, they hung around waiting for him. A man from San Francisco wanted to make a payment and was annoyed to find the office closed, as he did not want to make another trip to Santa Rosa. The sheriff - whose office was next door - suggested he give the money to Stofen's 18 year-old daughter which he did, since it's 1894 and you can trust a teenager you don't know with making cash deposits and I wish we were all living back then.

In the middle of the afternoon Mrs. Stofen drops by the office after a day trip to Cloverdale. Finding his lunch outside the door, she goes home, fearing he might be ill. Not finding him there either, she rushes back to the courthouse and learns no one had seen him since morning. She has the janitor open the door and finds the office in disarray. "Then I screamed and immediately heard knocks coming from the vault," she told the SF Examiner.

She tries the combination of the vault, since it's 1894, of course the wife of the country treasurer knows the combination and is the only other person who does. It doesn't work. She tries again, and this time the door opens. “When we got Mr. Stofen out,” the janitor told the Sonoma Democrat, “he looked pale and much prostrated. The meeting between Mr. and Mrs. Stofen was one of the most painful things I ever saw in all my life.”



The rest of this article can be read at the SantaRosaHistory.com website. Because of recurring problems with the Blogger platform, I am no longer wasting my time formatting and posting complete articles here. I will continue to create stubs for the sake of continuity, but will be publishing full articles only at SantaRosaHistory.com.