A year and change after the 1906 earthquake, Santa Rosa finally doled out the last of the relief money donated to help the needy, which was mostly spent on anything but - at least, until civic leaders were shamed into providing aid after a vigorous debate in the newspapers.
The remaining funds were used to buy a tombstone and concrete cap for the "Graves of the Unknown Dead," which still can be seen at the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery by the Franklin Ave. gate. It's really nice work, and should be; there was $11,000 remaining in the relief fund when it was last mentioned in the papers four months earlier. Hopefully some of that huge chunk of money (worth at least a quarter-million today) was used for late claims from those seriously injured and it didn't all end up as a windfall for the the marble and granite works.
The other spending item on the same City Council agenda also raises questions. There the city paid $1,500 for loss of a horse and injuries to the driver from the collapse of a bridge (I don't have additional details about the incident, sorry). The payout was generous, and the newspapers were profuse in extemporaneous praise of the company awarded damages. Was it because of intimidation or cronyism? The Lee Brothers, whose horses and wagons had a monopoly on local commercial transportation, were a powerful force in town. Their drayage company had sparked Santa Rosa's first labor crisis in early 1906 by refusing to negotiate with the local union, and had it not been for the earthquake, Santa Rosa would have likely faced a paralyzing general strike.
CITY COUNCIL MAKES AWARDS
Determine to Mark Graves of Unknown Dead
The city council held a meeting on Tuesday evening and disposed of several matters that have been before the council in executive session for some week past. The sum of $1000 was awarded Jack Walters for injuries sustained in the falling of the island bridge. The people will remember the accident there, as Walters was crossing the structure with a heavy oil wagon. He was injured, and since the accident has been unable to work. Walters' injuries incurred a bill of about three hundred dollars for medical attendance. He has threatened the city with a suit for damages.
The firm of Lee Bros. & Co. was awarded $500 for the death of their horse, which was killed in the accident, the injury to the other animals and the damages to their wagon. The actual loss to this firm through the accident was $800 and the sum allowed them does not compensate for their damage. Lee Bros. & Co. never considered bringing a suit for damages against the city, for they have the interest of Santa Rosa too much at heart to think of such action, and realize that at the proper time the council would do what the members believed was just under the circumstances. This firm has done a great work in the upbuilding of the city and at the time of the great disaster gave their teams and men freely in the cause of relieving distries [sic] and hauling provisions for the stricken people. In doing this they gave the gratuitous work of relief preference over all their orders.
The council has determined to set aside the remainder of the relief fund for providing a monument to be inscribed "Graves of the Unknown Dead" in the local cemetery, and for placing a suitable coping around the graves. They contain the remains of victims of the earthquake who were unidentified. The special relief committee of the council has been discharged.- Santa Rosa Republican, May 29, 1907
R.I.P. Mrs. Cnopius, victim #77 (at least) of the 1906 Santa Rosa Earthquake. She died two years and two months after the disaster, but it was not completely unexpected. In the very first report after the quake, the April 18 Santa Rosa Republican noted that she was "believed to be fatally hurt." Three days later, the Democrat-Republican gave her a slight upgrade: "Mrs. L. C. Cnopius, believed to have been fatally injured, is improving nicely." Well, she wasn't; she never recovered from her unknown injuries and shock, dying in a well-respected San Francisco hospital, "Adler's Sanitarium."
The 1906 earthquake "body count" overview has been updated to include her, as have the spreadsheet and PDF files.
DEATH FOLLOWS A LONG INVALIDISM
Passing of Mrs. Lewis C. Cnopius Deeply Regretted By a Very Large Circle of Friends
After many, weary months of invalidism, hopeful till the last that there would be a return of the depleted strength, Mrs. Lewis C. Cnopius passed to her eternal rest at two o'clock on Sunday morning. Her death has occasioned general regret among a very large circle of friends in this city, and throughout the state who knew her and esteemed her for her many kindly traits of character and the genuineness of her friendship. Mrs. Cnopius never really rallied her full strength after the terrible shock of the earthquake disaster in this city. Change of climate combined with the best medical attention were given her in the hope that thay would prove beneficial. She improved and right up to the time of her death she was apparently getting better. Towards the end she took a sudden change for the worse and sank... Mrs. Cnopius died in Adler's Sanitarium in San Francisco, where she had been undergoing treatment.
[..]- Press Democrat, June 23, 1908
Spitters beware: A new state law made spitting on the sidewalk - or anywhere else - a misdemeanor in 1907. Press Democrat editor Ernest L. Finley, quite the stickler to the law when it came to clean sidewalks, made sure readers were fully informed immediately about California penal code §372a.
Any item about expectoration is another welcome opportunity to plug my all-time favorite story, about the 1905 Santa Rosa motorist who was given a speeding ticket, then a few days later forced the selfsame cop to arrest himself for spitting on the sidewalk. At night. And during a downpour.
It might be just as well for some people to remember that it is now a state prison offense, punishable by both fine and imprisonment, to discharge mucus from the nose or mouth or spit upon any sidewalk of any public street or highway, or upon any part of any public building or railroad train, streetcar, stage, ferryboat, steamboat, or other vessel or vehicle used for the transportation of the public.
This is a law that should be rigidly enforced, for expectoration in public places is not only unhealthful but also disgusting in the extreme.
One of the most nauseating thing in the world is to have a man come into a street car or public office and spit slimy rings all around himself on the floor. No man of any culture or refinement would do such a thing, of course, and some of those who do would doubtless be considerably surprised if told they do not possess even the first instincts of a gentleman. Yet the following is as true today as it was when it was first written:
"The man who expectorates on the floor need never expect to rate as a gentleman."- Press Democrat editorial, April 2, 1907
Good news, everybody: Less than a year after the 1906 earthquake, downtown Santa Rosa was in great shape. The Press Democrat reported shoppers were filling the streets on Saturday night, just like the "good old times" before the disaster.
Bad news, everybody: downtown Santa Rosa was still a wreck, with piles of building materials blocking the streets - which were also in shameful condition, having no repairs since the earthquake. This dismal item appeared in the Press Democrat two months after that jolly portrait above.
It seems hard to reconcile these descriptions being from the same town, much less the same few short blocks of Fourth Street. A thesis could be written just about these little items; was the optimistic article intended for distribution to tourists and business investors? Was there a political reason to finally mention the lousy street conditions in print? Is there anything truly contradictory between the two stories? Such a good example of how even a simple historical picture slips in and out of focus.
MORE LIKE THE GOOD OLD TIMES
Fourth Street Presented a Busy Scene on Saturday as in the Days Before the Great Disaster
Fourth street took on its old time hustle and activity Saturday, and all day the sidewalks were thronged with pedestrians, while vehicles were constantly going here and there up and down the street.
Saturday night the main business thoroughfare presented an animated scene. It was the first really fine night for many weeks, at least since many of the firms moved back into their handsome new stores. The well lighted windows and stores, with their splendid stocks of goods, attracted everybody.
From several of the business men a reporter learned on Saturday night that the day had been a record breaker for business. At the present time and ever since trade revived immediately following the disaster almost a year ago, business in Santa Rosa has been on the increase. Outside business is being attracted here, too.- Press Democrat, March 31, 1907
The time has come when Fourth street should be repaired without further delay. Almost a year and a half has elapsed since the earthquake and fire, and yet practically nothing has been done to remove the evidences of the disaster manifested by the condition of the roadway along the city's principal thoroughfare. It is not necessary to wait until all the business [illegible microfilm] fronting on Fourth street have been rebuilt before taking up this [illegible]. There is plenty of [illegible] on hand, and as the building material is removed from in front of the new structures the street should be put in proper condition at once. The municipality should keep fully [illegible] with the great work of rebuilding in this respect, and every day that Fourth street is allowed to remain in its present condition is just one more day lost.- Press Democrat editorial, July 2, 1907
Santa Rosa had in 1907 a nice Carnegie public library, a popular skating rink and swimming pool (in winter, a floor was placed over the pool and it became a dance hall), and a couple of small theatres. But it didn't have a single public park.
The closest thing they had was Grace Brother's park at the corner of Fourth St. and McDonald Ave, a place where Santa Rosa had celebrated since before the Civil War. But it was privately owned so it wasn't always open, and by 1907, it was looking seedy; "buildings vacant, old, and dilapidated" was the note on the fire map produced the following year. Santa Rosa also had a ball field or two, including "Recreation Park" (location unknown to me) which appears to have been just a vacant lot; the Rose Parade that year marched around the field because the downtown streets were still clogged with post-quake building materials. Both were far short of what the town wanted.
In February of that year, PD gossip columnist Dorothy Anne took a break from her usual format (announcing weddings, reporting on ladies' club tea parties, and settling personal scores) to ask eighteen prominent women what they'd like to see in a town park. The answers were thoughtful and offer rare descriptions of what Santa Rosa really looked like in 1907.
Several proposed a park focused on Santa Rosa Creek, similar to the design that architect William H. Willcox had sketched out a year earlier, with a little dam that would allow swimming and boating. Alas, the Creek was apparently quite a mess in 1907, described below as a dumping ground that would require a great deal of cleanup. Later in the year, the local power company would be charged with releasing some sort of fish-killing effluent.
Another idea mentioned often was doing something with the old campus of the Pacific Methodist College, now the site of Santa Rosa Middle School, between E Street and Brookwood Avenue. It might have made a nice, park, albeit flat and square-ish. One woman suggested that an ersatz stream could be added (perhaps by not fixing a few of the town's perpetually leaking water mains).
Among the surprises were a couple of suggestions to use the old Ridgway property, which would later become the Santa Rosa High School grounds. Two women also thought outside the box and wanted the new courthouse to be built somewhere else, so the center of downtown could become the park.
Of great personal interest was the comment from Mattie Oates that she wanted roses and Virginia creeper to "run in profusion over the trees." The Virginia creeper vine still climbs the trees around her old home, and turns a brilliant scarlet in the autumn, as shown here on the great oak behind Comstock House. We didn't know that this was a heritage plant dating back to her garden.
Most fun of all the responses were the snippy remarks of Mrs. T. J. Geary, wife of the city attorney who had told the City Council that the rich were entitled to more water because they paid more taxes). Mrs. Geary snorted, "Don't I think Santa Rosa ought to have a park? Don't I think we all ought to have diamond earrings? While fully appreciating their beauty and desirability, I think our needs should be well supplied before indulging in luxuries, When our streets, water supply, and sewers are all improved it will be time enough to talk park." Cripes, lady, sorry to have asked.
A selection of the replies from that February 24, 1907 Press Democrat:
 | Mrs. William Martin: "It seems to me that nature has pointed out the most appropriate spot for a city park. Cleanse and dam up the naturally pretty stream running through the town, lay out the banks tastefully, and tract on either side and you will have one of the most beautiful and central places of recreation possible. It seems a pity that a stream which might be made so attractive should be used as a dumping place for rubbish." |
| Mrs. C. D. Barnett: "In my opinion the best location for a park would be along the Santa Rosa creek, if it were not too mammoth an undertaking to remove the objectionable features. With these taken away the place could be transformed into an ideal park with all the natural beauty which it affords. However, there would be so much to undo before anything positive could be accomplished that it seems hardly practical for Santa Rosa to undertake in the near future. My second choice would be the old College ground, affording as it would seem the best natural facilities for transformation into a park. The grand old trees, the creek bed, where an artificial stream could be directed, the broad stretch of grass, and other natural advantages present wonderful opportunities for a city park which would fulfill all the needs and requirements of such a public improvement." |
| Mrs. Judge Seawell: "My ideas are so extravagant I am afraid to give them to you. I would like to see the Ridgway tract north of town bordering on Healdsburg avenue, made into a park. With drivers through broad lawns, bordered by varicolored flower beds, with fountains and statuary, I think we would have the ideal park of the state." |
| Mrs. E. F. Woodward: "I should like to see two parks, one on each side of the town. The College grounds at the east side is most preferable, and the block bordering Seventh, between A and Washington street at the west side." |
| Mrs. W. D. Reynolds: "I would prefer several small parks scattered [illegible microfilm] the triangle formed by Mendocino avenue, tenth, and Joe Davis streets would be a desirable location for one; the triangle at the corner of College avenue and Fourth street, another. I would like to see the new court house put on the Grand hotel site and utilize the court house square for park purposes." |
| Miss Adelaide Elliott: "Our beautiful new Santa Rosa needs a beautiful new park. We can have it by adopting the fine plan of Mr. Willcox to improve Santa Rosa creek from E street to Main. I agree with him that this is decidedly our most desirable location. Nature has done wonders for us there. Trees, vines, a winding stream that could easily be dammed to hold water enough to make boating ideal on summer evenings...All visitors to Santa Rosa wish to see the home and grounds of our eminent and esteemed friend and townsman, Mr. Luther Burbank. It would be greatly to our credit and satisfaction if we were able to take these strangers through a part of town of which we could be proud instead of being ashamed..." |
| Mrs. John S. Taylor: "...[G]ive us back our plaza. No other place can combine utility and convenience with beautiful effect, as could the plaza, used as originally intended as a public park. All large cities have their breathing spaces, lungs, so to speak, in the crowded business sections. We can never aspire to metropolitan effects without city parks." |
| Mrs. T. A. Proctor: "...[T]he only place to my idea is Mr. Ridgway's field of lively oak trees on the Healdsburg road, already a natural park. But, oh! I am afraid I am like the boy who asked for the man in the moon to play with." |
| Mrs. James W. Oates: "Make parks of the banks of all the creeks near the city; letting roses and Virginia creeper run in profusion over the trees; placing seats beneath the shade of the latter; and keeping the streams of water free from refuse." |
The Santa Rosa that emerged after the 1906 earthquake was certainly a more modern-looking place, but in those new downtown buildings were businesses with old Victorian-era attitudes; if you were a woman, there were fully three dozen places that you could not enter.
Saloons and cigar shops were off-limits to women, who could be arrested for entering a bar for any reason. The barkeep could also lose his license for admitting a woman, or even on hearsay that he had done such a terrible thing, as happened in the "Call No. 2 Saloon," on West Third Street, mentioned in the Saloon Town article. In one of the incidents described below, a roadhouse on the road to Sonoma was closed after a complaint that a party of 4-5 men and women were allowed to drink together and cuss.
VIOLATED A CITY ORDINANCE
Wednesday night about half-past 10 o'clock Police Officer Lindley arrested a woman whom he noticed leaving McKee & Morrison's saloon on Fifth street. Under the ordinance no woman or minors are allowed to frequent a saloon. The woman was taken to the police station and put up twenty dollars bail for her appearance before Police Judge Bagley. She claims to have been in the saloon for the purpose of getting some washing.- Press Democrat, June 20, 1907
MEN CARRY WOMEN INTO SALOON ON SONOMA ROAD
Lively Time Following Auto Trip to Resort at Melitta
On the evening of May 18 last, there must have been a taste of "high life" out at M. F. Wilson's saloon on the Sonoma road to Melitta according to the complaint made to the Board of Supervisors and filed in the office of the County Clerk on Monday morning.
Among other things on that memorable night an automobile drove up to the saloon and it contained two or three women and two men. The language used was not parlor talk or credible to persons having any regard for personal decency, according to the allegations made in the complaint. More than this the women were lifted onto the shoulders of their male companions and were carried into the saloon. Inside the saloon it is alleged the obscenity was kept up.
Other lewd conduct is set forth in the complaint...accompanying the complaint is a largely signed petition asking the Supervisors to revoke the liquor license held by Wilson.- Press Democrat, July 2, 1907
REVOKE LICENSE OF ROADHOUSE
Supervisors Hear Much Evidence on Both Sides of Case and After Argument Take Unanimous Action
The Supervisors spent all of Wednesday in hearing evidence on the question of the revocation of the liquor license of M. F. Wilson, who operates a roadhouse near Melitta station. After the evidence was all in and arguments had been made the board by unanimous vote revoked the license.
[..]
...The allegations of the petitioners charged the roadhouse with being noisy, boisterous, disorderly and disreputable place was strenuously denied by all the witnesses for the defendant. The allegation made against the place charged that women were carried into the place on July 4 by men and that decent people in the neighborhood were subjected to insulting scenes and language by the patrons of the house.- Press Democrat, July 11, 1907
Santa Rosa was quite the saloon town in the early 20th century, with 30 bars (or so) downtown, mostly on Fourth St. between Railroad Square and Courthouse Square. It was also a smoker's paradise, with about a half dozen tobacco stores along the same route. And in each bar, each smoke shop, were slot machines where a guy could plunk in a nickel and gamble for cigars.
Discussed here earlier was a loopy 1906 court ruling that declared a slot machine was a "banking device" as long as the payout was in cigars, beer, gum, or anything but cash. The item transcribed below provides details of the "house rules" that prevailed in Santa Rosa, showing clearly that the barkeep or smoke shop owner had an active hands-on role similar to a casino dealer, allowing a gambler to ask the proprietor for double-down bets. That's a big difference from passively having a machine on the side of the counter.
Card gambling in the cigar shops was also common, judging from a long debate in 1907 about whether tables should be banned in Healdsburg, but nothing specific about poker games appeared in the papers about Santa Rosa. But after the quake rebuilding settled down, it was likely still somewhat a "wide-open town," as earlier revealed by a 1905 exposé in the Santa Rosa Republican.
REDUCE ODDS ON SLOT MACHINES
After Today Local Cigar Dealers Will No Longer Pay on Queens, or Allow Drawing to Straights or Flushes--The Reason Why
In anticipation of the proposed license on slot machines, a new schedule goes into effect at the cigar stores tomorrow. No more will two Queens be good for a rope [cigar], and after today drawing to straights and flushes will be a thing of the past. It is the same old story--the "consumer pays the tax." The city has decided to license the slot machines, and the odds are to be changed so that the dear public will pay the license fee.
Although the printed schedule on the face of the machines only calls for payment when a pair of Kings or better appears, it has been the local custom to pay on the appearance of Queens. At one time, before the shake, the local dealers even paid on Jacks. It has also been the vogue here to allow customers who had made a play and secured all but one of a straight or flush to "draw" to the same upon payment of an extra nickel. Thus, if a customer who had four clubs and wanted a fifth should elect to pay for the privilege he was allowed to try again, the appearance of a club in the designated spot on the second turn being held to complete the flush and being regarded as equivalent to having drawn all five clubs on the first play. But the dealers say they are "too much loser" to keep this up, now that each machine is to be taxed $5 per quarter by the municipality. The regular printed schedule is to apply from now on.- Press Democrat, March 10, 1907