557 West Second South SLC Utah

 

James Hegney's West Side Drug Store

557 West Second South, SLC Utah

Jim Hegney had built a business complex on the northeast portion of his property on Second South containing four addresses. All were wooden one-story businesses except the 559 West address which was an attached wooden two-story building. The complex was about 90 feet long, fronting Second South and 26 feet deep and built probably in 1894.  A notice of the “dissolution of partnership” between James Hegney and S. H. Willard “in the business known as the West Side Drug Co.” was published in January 1895.

In July 1896 a wanted advertisement was placed for a “Druggist At West Side Drug Store 557 West Second So. Must be a single man.” It was placed in local papers by Jim Hegney after a scandal occurred in  late February at his drug store.

A Blotched Abortion

Dr. William B McCoy, [1863-1905] had an office on the second floor of the West Side Drug Store. In October 1896 he was tried and convicted on a charge of performing an abortion on a young unmarried woman named Eveline Bonnett who later died from the procedure.

Dr. McCoy was a 33-year-old married man who came to Utah in 1891 from California. His residence was at 528 West Second South on the northside of the street in Block 64. He had just passed his medical examination in 1894 but was convicted in of performing an abortion, solely on the testimony of a young man named Francis J Collins “a drug store clerk at Hegney’s Drug Store”.

Francis “Frank” Collins was born in San Francisco, California about 1875. He had his own checkered past. In 1891, at either 16 or 17 years old, he eloped to San Rafael, California although he was “not of legal age and told a little fib in order to get the license.” In January 1895, Collins was sued by his wife on grounds of “infidelity and cruelty.”  She demanded $50 a month in alimony and “swore that her husband was the sole proprietor of a drug store at 215 Mason Street [San Francisco] from which he derived an income of not less than $150 a month. Young Collins denied that he owned the drug store but insisted that it was the property of his father by who he was employed as a clerk.”

At a court hearing, “young Collins in order to evade responsibility for his wife’s support made an affidavit that he is not 21 years of age. [1874]. Counsel for his wife however showed that Collins had registered to vote in Alameda County in the last election in 1894 and had “declared himself over 21 years of age.” When confronted with the evidence by his wife’s attorney, Collins “turned red” but still “insisted that he was underage which amounted to a confession that in making his affidavit of registration, he committed perjury.”

In the divorce court Collins was ordered to pay his wife $25 a month in alimony but having failed to do so, he found himself back in court in April 1895.  “F. J. Collins, a young man who was recently divorced from his wife was ordered a month ago to pay. He has not paid anything. In Department 3 of the Superior Court yesterday, he testified that he is working for his father and that he is clothed, fed, and boarded as his compensation but received no salary.”

The Superior Court ruled that “This young man has the ability to earn money sufficient to pay alimony and must either do it or go to jail.”

Collins most likely left California for Salt Lake City to avoid paying alimony. A month after he came to Utah, he was joined by “Lottie Stanfield”, who also came from San Francisco and that they lived to together as man and wife. Lottie Stanfield died in August 1895 and “was buried under the name Lottie Collin although they were never legally wed.” Interestingly, Collins, in court later, refused to answer how Stanfield died “on the grounds it might incriminate himself.” She was buried in a pauper grave.

After arriving in Salt Lake City Frank Collins soon found employment at Jim Hegney’s West Side Drug Store and claimed while he worked there he  was “well acquainted with Dr. McCoy who usually was in the store several times every day.”

Eveline Bonnett [1876-1896] “a beautiful and charming maiden of Provo City, not yet reached twenty,” took the train to Salt Lake City accompanied by two men, “her lover” Frank J Carter, and saloon keeper Sim M Duggins. On February 17, she was said to have been “in the bloom of health, and to all outward appearances happy and content in the knowledge of a true and devoted love, soon to be joined in holy wedlock to that love,” when she left Provo.

When Eveline Bonnett went to Salt Lake with Duggins and Carter in February 1896, the Bonnett family believed it was to “make arrangements” for her wedding to Frank Carter, and “in fact that impression” was given to them. Evidence suggests however the trio went to Salt Lake City to seek a physician willing to do an abortion after an attempt to find one in Provo failed.

A Dr. Simmons of Provo, Utah testified that “Frank Carter on the 15^th of February” came to his office “to see him in behalf of a third party.” Carter explained to Dr. Simmons “there was a young lady in Springville who was in a delicate way” and Carter wanted Dr. Simmons to “perform an operation on her. Carter said the pay would be all right” When asked if he had any further conversations with Carter, Dr. Simmons said, “No; only I refused to do it.” When asked “what was the operation referred to? Dr. Simmons answered “I understood that it was to be an abortion.” 

Simmons sated that Carter came to him and asked him to commit an abortion on a young lady at Springville, and he declined. Carter did not offer him any money, but said the pay would be all right. Thus about the middle of February. The interview  lasted but a few moments.  The witness wife was in an adjoining room, and like most women, she was curious an peered through a partially open door and listened to the conversation.

Dr. Simmons stated that he had been the Carter family physician for years and had known Frank Carter since the time he was a very small child. He had treated the young man for heart trouble. About a year ago he was carried into his office having fallen in the street in a helpless condition on account  of the weakness of that organ.

 Eveline Bonnett was the daughter of an Italian farmer named James Bonnett who had immigrated to America in 1855. Eveline Bonnett was the eighth child of eleven Bonnett children. She grew up in Provo and was looking forward to marriage with Frank Carter when she became a victim of a botched abortion and died of peritonitis.

Sim Duggins went with Frank Carter and Eveline Bonnett to Salt Lake City, not only because he was their friend, he also may have been the one to have impregnated Bonnett. It was speculated that Carter and Duggins went to Salt Lake with Bonnett to arranged for an abortion as that Carter wouldn’t marry her if she was carrying Duggin’s child. A Salt Lake Deputy Sheriff Thomas Fowler testified in court that when he went to see Frank Carter after Eveline Carter had died, Fowler suggested that Carter be prepared for bonds “as a complaint had been filed against him.” Fowler claimed that on that occasion, Carter said to him regarding Bonnett’s pregnancy, “The fact is, I would have married the girl, but I knew I was no more to blame than some others,”

Frank J Carter [1871-1946] who was “supposed to have been the cause of Eveline Bonnet’s condition,” worked as a bartender at the Diamond Saloon in Provo for  Sim Duggins.  Carter and Duggins were partners of sorts as that in June 1895 Carter had purchased Duggins Saloon according to a Provo Newspaper.

“Mr. Frank Carter, popular bartender for S.M. Duggins heretofore proprietor of the Diamond Saloon, has now purchased Mr. Duggins’ business . Frank is well liked by all the boys and will for a surety corral their trade and increase the business of the saloon.”

However, the real reason for the transaction between Carter and Duggins was that Duggins had been convicted of adultery and sentenced to nine months in the state penitentiary in Sugar House.

Sims Duggins [1861-1927], “the big burly saloon-keeper of Provo”, had numerous arrests for allowing “faro card” gambling at his Diamond Saloon and had even been arrested for “cohabitation” and “adultery”. An article from the Wasatch Wave claimed that “it was during the prohibition days of Provo that Sim Duggins amassed the greatest portion of his wealth running a drug store. When Provo threw off her prohibition robe then Duggins threw off his mask under which he had been accumulating the needful – drug store- and went into the saloon business  in its true light. People will have liquor, prohibition or no prohibition.”

“S.M. Duggins, proprietor of the Diamond Saloon of Provo, was arrested on a charge of unlawful cohabitation by Deputy Monihan at the White House [hotel] in Salt Lake City and was taken before Commissioner Hills at Provo, yesterday. The defendant waived preliminary examination and bonds were fixed at $1000.The woman with whom the crime is alleged to have been committed is Miss Oldfield of American Fork, where Mr. Duggins has been noticed to pay periodical visits for some time past. She is now at the Roberts House.”

Duggins was indicted in February 1891 by a Provo Grand Jury on the charge of adultery as that he was a married man. “The offense is alleged to have been committed two months since at the White House, Salt Lake City with Miss Jane D. Oldfield of American Fork.”

About the same time, Duggins was also convicted on the gambling charge. “The Court said he had been informed that the defendant had been in court before on a similar charge. It is a terrible crime, one of the wickedest acts and most demoralizing to society, that enticing young men into gambling houses. The sentence of the court was that he would pay a fine of  $200 and be imprisoned in the county  jail for one month and pay the costs of the prosecution.”

In June 1895 Frank Carter purchased Duggins’ Saloon according to a Provo Newspaper. “Mr. Frank Carter, popular bartender for S.M. Duggins heretofore proprietor of the Diamond Saloon, has now purchased Mr. Duggins’ business . Frank is well liked by all the boys and will for a surety corral their trade and increase the business of the saloon.”

The reason for the transaction was that Duggins’ appeal of his conviction of adultery failed that June. The Utah Supreme Court has “handed down its decision in the appeal of S.M. Duggins of this city, convicted of adultery. Sim must spend nine months in the penitentiary.”

On the strength  of a “large petition, signed by many prominent citizens, including the mayor and prosecuting attorney, and other officials, he was pardoned.  And there are those who say but for that petition Eveline Bonnett would today be a happy, virtuous girl, alive and well, instead of the murdered victim of lustful crime, lying in an untimely grave.”

A newspaper announcement stated, “Utah Offender Pardon. Washington Oct. 29- The President has pardoned S.M. Duggins, sentenced in Utah to nine months imprisonment for adultery.” Why he was pardoned was not explained but he was released immediately. “A pardon for S.M. Duggins reached Salt Lake yesterday and he was at once liberated from the penitentiary. The first train brought Mr. Duggins to Provo, and he is now busy looking up his business affairs.”

A Provo newspaper suggested that his pardon “was part of a well laid scheme of politicians, which scheme was successful, and secured the services of Duggins for the help of the Democratic ticket.”

In January 1896, Eveline Bonnett was seen at the Diamond Saloon late at night by a witness who testified later that he saw Sim Duggins and Bonnett together dressed only in their underwear. William O’Neil referred to as “a colored man who keeps a restaurant next to Duggins saloon,” reported that Duggins came into his place “about 1 a.m. and ordered two suppers, directing him to bring the refreshments to Duggins door and  leave them.”

This he did this “but afterwards looked through the window and saw Duggins and Miss Bonnett both partially undressed.”

“William O’Neil, colored, proprietor of a Provo Restaurant, was next called. O’Neil stated about six weeks ago he saw Duggins and Eveline Bonnett in the Duggins saloon in Provo. O’Neil received an order of two suppers, which he fixed and took them to the saloon. He rapped on the door and Duggins appeared and took the waiter. O’Neil looked through the door and saw some girl washing at a sink behind the bar, and she dodged back when she saw him. O’Neil being curious went to a window and looked in and saw Eveline Bonnett behind the bar washing. Duggins walked up and stood beside her.”

When asked “How were they dressed?  O’Neil replied, “She was either in her night gown or chemise, while Duggins was in his underclothes.”

A clerk of the White House hotel also testified that he saw Carter, Duggins, and Bonnett together on several occasions registered at the hotel. On February 6, Duggins and Carter registered at the hotel, and a week later on February 13, Duggins, Carter and Bonnett came and stayed overnight, “the men occupied one room and Miss Bonnett another, the door between them being locked.”

Upon arriving in Salt Lake, Carter and Duggins placed Bonnett in a “dingy looking little room in one side of a double house, the residence of Mrs. Mary Massie [1861-1919] Mrs. Massie was the widow of Abraham Massie and  lived at 276 South First West with her young daughter, Maude. Mrs. Massie testified later that Bonnett told her that her name was “Mrs. Condon” and that her “husband was a miner in Mercur.”

Maude Massie the daughter of Mrs. Massie stated that upon returning from school on February 18, she found “Duggins, Carter and Miss Bonnett there waiting for her mother. The men left soon after Mrs. Massie arrived and Bonnett remained.” She said she did not see Carter and Duggins after the first visit.  The men had left her there while they went to inquire where they might find a physician willing to do the procedure.

Carter and Duggins evidently met with a physician named Dr. Harry Seymour Hicks [1863-1896] who was also acquainted with Dr. McCoy. Dr. Hicks had consumption and may have been too ill to perform the operation himself and recommended Dr. McCoy.

Dr. Hicks introduced Dr. McCoy to Sim Duggins and Frank Carter at the Onyx bank saloon where the men arranged to have McCoy “perform the abortion for $50.”

 She was very sick and sent for William McCoy about February 26 a week after she came. 

Eveline Bonnett went to the West Side Drug Store to meet with Dr. McCoy who said that when she came to his office, she “said her name was Mrs. Condon, her husband being a miner at work in Mercur.” This was the pseudonym she used with Mrs. Massie also. Bonnett came to Dr. McCoy’s office according to witnesses on three consecutive days in late February. McCoy said she “complained of great pain” and believed that she may have already tried a blotched abortion either self induced or with the help of a doctor named McCurtain. 

On the third visit, Dr. McCoy said, “he used a spectrum to make an investigation, but the instrument was so painful that she made several outcries and was unable to receive treatment.”

Frank Collins, the “drug clerk at Hegney’s drug store,” stated on the “last day that Bonnett visited, he heard noises from the office as of persons struggling and rolling on the floor and also heard the screams of the woman. When she left, she looked pale and appeared to be suffering great pain. McCoy came down in a very excited state, his hair was disheveled, he had a scratch on his face, and his collar and necktie disarranged. He looked like he had been having a scrap.”

Bonnett returned Mrs. Mary Massie where she suffered in great pain for several days.  Mrs. Massie “gave no satisfactory explanation of why the girl was brought to her house and spoke as if only she was slightly acquainted with her. The widow testified that before the young woman died “her temperature very high and I fear blood poisoning.  She sent her daughter to fetch Dr. McCoy to attend her.

Frank Carter called Bonnett’s brother James to come up from Provo to be with Eveline on Saturday February 29^th.  He was met by Carter who said that “Eveline was very ill. Just before reaching the place, he said she’s in a pretty hard place and I want you to look over it.”

He said a half an hour after arriving at the “hovel” he met with Dr. McCoy and Dr. Frank Noyes  who had been called in from Provo. 

Dr. Frank Noyes said he hurriedly came to Salt Lake on “summons from Mr. Carter” on February 29, the day before Bonnett’s death, but “did not know her before he saw her at Mrs. Massie’s, when then he recognized her as a Provo girl.”

On the evening of his arrival in Salt Lake, he said he met with Dr. McCoy at the White House Hotel and “had a consultation regarding Bonnett” and after found her as Dr. McCoy had described. Dr. Noyes said that Dr. McCoy told him that when the girl had called on him first, she stated that she was a married woman. Dr. McCoy said he found her suffering from an attempt at abortion made by herself. 

At Mrs. Massie’s home, Dr. Noyes “found Miss Bonnett dying, plainly with peritonitis, which means inflammation of the bowls. This might be cause by forty different things, the doctor says, including abortion.”

Frank Carter also called Eveline Bonnett’s brother David Bonnett to come to Salt Lake to attend to his sister. Upon arriving at Mrs. Massie’s place, Dr. McCoy told Bonnett that other physicians could be called in, but Dr. Noyes advised him that his sister was dying and “it would be no use.”

Dr. Noyes did what he could to alleviate Eveline Bonnet’s suffering “but was satisfied she could not recover.”

David Bonnett was later asked what the sister said to him on her death bed, and he said it was “I have done wrong Dave. Ask father to forgive me.”  He also stated that his sister “was very weak, and it was difficult for hold her attention.” Then she said, “I believe I am going to die. If I do due promise to take me to your place.”

While Dr. Noyes administered an injection of morphine, David Bonnett and Frank Carter left “to find her another place because she didn’t even have a pauper’s bed.”  While together, Frank Carter told David Bonnett that his sister and he had come up to Salt Lake to arrange for getting married and Bonnett remarked later “I had such confidence in that boy that I believed him.”

 David Bonnett and Frank Carter in the West Side drug store when Dr. Mccoy joined them and announced that the girl “was dead and had tied her jaws.”  David  Bonnett inquired “where he could get an undertaker and Dr. McCoy answered that he did not supply undertakers.”

Eveline Bonnett died on 1 March 1896, saying “I have done wrong and want to be forgiven.” She died. Eveline Bonnet’s hands “were clasped in death, her face shrunken, and the body gave every evidence that death had been horrible and painful agony.”

 The Provo Journal wrote Bonnett was “found dying in squalor ad filfth wretching in agony upon he hard floor of a wretched hovel in the slums of Salt Lake, without asmuch as a cot to rest her weary bones.

Dr. Noyes testified that Dr. McCoy, the physician in attendance, and he “consulted on the case as to treatment” and when death occurred Dr. McCoy made out the death certificate specifying the cause of death as “peritonitis induced by Entri Metrites which latter in plain English means inflammation of the womb and intestines.” Dr. Noyes said he refused to sign the death certificate as he “not having been connected with the case early enough to know positively without an autopsy what induced the peritonitis.”

 

Dr. McCoy and Dr. Hicks came to the drug store arm in arm and I said “You had better be fixing up a defense for yourselves. That is just what we are doing

 

Eveline Bonnett’s funeral was held days after her death but it was suspicious due to rumors in Utah County. “The family had suspicions from the first which, in their great grief, they hardly dared whisper even to each other.”

Utah County Investigators went to Salt Lake City and interviewed those who were associated with her death. Mrs. Massie was questioned as was Dr. McCoy.

Dr. McCoy when questioned said he had attended Eveline Bonnett and that she  died at Mrs. Massie’s from peritonitis. “The doctor also said that the girl called Mrs. Massie ‘Auntie’ and he inferred that they were relatives. He never had patients at Mrs. Massie’s before . A little girl called him to attend the patient. The day before she died Dr. Noyes of Provo had been in consultation with him and visited the girl. He also consulted with Dr. Hicks about the case.”

He told investigators that Bonnett’s  “was a very complicated case and that no autopsy was performed” at the time as that the undertaker had “suggested the family wouldn’t permit one.” 

He was asked “Was there any evidence that would lead you to believe than an abortion had been attempted.” Dr. McCoy replied, “From what the girl told me, I inferred that she had attempted one upon herself. There was no evidence of the violent use of instruments nor arsenic poisoning.”

“Dr. McCoy spoke with great hesitancy and evident reluctant, although he said he would probably be more explicit if he were on the witness stand, and he did not wish to say anything that might reflect upon the dead girl or her relatives.”

Returning to Provo, the investigators determined, “enough was learned at Salt Lake to warrant the uncovering of the body” and Bonnett’s body was exhumed. A “postmortem” autopsy then “disclosed ample evidence of a criminal operation” and that Bonnett “had died as the result of an unsuccessful attempt at abortion.”

Dr. Samuel.H Allen a “member of the state board of mecical examiner” of Utah Coounty examined Evelien Bonnett’s body held at the Berg Mortuary. When later asked “Were there conditions of which you speak evidence of an abortion?” He answered “I would say that an abortion had been committed. The cause of death was pelvic peritonitis or septicemia.” He stated the pelvis peritonitis was “due to poisoning after the decomposing of the after birth.” Agreed that it was blood poisoning

Allen made a reference to a puncture found in a private part of the deceased body and Allen sai it might possibly be self inflicted, though such a proceeding would be very painful.

Dr. W. Fred Taylor who had assisted Dr. Allen with the autopsy stated there were unquestionable evidence of approaching motherhood and of an abortion having been committed> There were just two ways in which the wound previously referred go could have been inflicted, in the ordinary way and by the undertaker while embalming.

 

The womb had been lascerated with instuemnts and part of the placneta was left to fester and decay and to cause te poor victim of fiendish lust to die a most agonizing , most tortuous death.”

            Eveline Bonnett’s father, James Bonnett, swore out a complaint charging Sim M. Duggins, Frank Carter, William McCoy, Dr. Noyes, and Mrs, Massie  “on or about February 27, unlawfully did and upon the person of one Eveline Bonnett, feloniously and of their malice aforethought, force, threat, and strike a certain instrument which they, the said Duggins, Carter, McCoy, Noyes and Massie then and there held in their right hand, into the person and body of said Eveline Bonnett, who was then and there enceinte [pregnant], with the criminal thereby to cause and produce, without legal justification, upon the said Eveline Bonnett certain mortal bruises, wounds and lacerations and creating in the said E. Bonnett a mortal sickness and feebleness of body she, the said  E. Bonnett did then and there languish and thence continued to languish until on or about the 1^st day of March 1896, when the E. Bonnett did there and then die, and so the said Duggins, Carter, McCoy, Noyes and Massie did in manner and form aforesaid feloniously , unlawfully and of their deliberate premediated malice and aforethought  kill and murder the said E. Bonnett.”

The girl’s father was said to have been “heartbroken and when making the complaint could not control his feelings but wept like a child.”  A newspaper account wrote that “the Bonnetts are Italian, and the three brothers of the deceased girl were eager for vengeance. They openly stated the Bonnett family would be extinct before the responsible ones should escape the fate they deserve.”

Dr. McCoy and Mrs. Massie were arrested in Salt Lake and charged with first degree murder. Carter, Duggins, and Dr. Noyes were arrested in Provo and brought to Salt Lake to be held in jail until a hearing.

“Of the Provo parties, for whose arrest warrants were issued, Frank Carter is the man who is alleged to have been responsible for the Bonnett girl’s condition, and Dr, Noyes is the physician who was in consultation with Dr. McCoy in the case  a day or two before the girl died. The part of S.M. Duggins plays in the matter is not yet apparent. He is a saloonkeeper at Provo and does not bear the best kind of a reputation. In fact, he has served a term on the penitentiary. It is suspected that the criminal operation, if one was procured, was attempted at Provo before the girl came to Salt Lake. The complaints against all five are the same, and charged them with attempting to procure an abortion upon the girl by means of instruments, thereby causing her death.”

On 11 March 1896 “The case of William McCoy, S.M. Duggins, Frank Carter and Mrs. Mary Massie, charged with the murder of Eveline Bonnett came before Justice Harvey . The Little court room was filled with curious people leaving barely room for those interested in the case. At the preliminary hearing Dr. Noyes, whose “reputation was so high that no blemish had ever attached it”, was discharged from the complaint.

At the preliminary hearing charges against Mrs. Massie of her involvement with the death of Eveline Bonnett were discharged.  The attorney for Dr. McCoy, Frank Carter, and Sim Duggins asked for the charges against them be dismissed also. Counsel claimed that “in the first place that it had not been proved that a crime has been committed as was alleged.” He did not dispute that an abortion had been performed but he said that “it was not proven who did it and it was not shown that it was not done in order to save the life of Eveline Bonnett in which case it was no crime.”

The court overruled the motion of dismissal and fixed bail for Duggins and Carter at $5000 each and $3000 for Dr. McCoy. Carter and Duggins secured bonds to be released from prison as had Dr. McCoy.  Jim Hegney was a surety for half of Dr. McCoy’s bond.

When Sim Duggins returned to Provo from his court appearance in Salt Lake he was greeted by angry citizens as “the case has been upon the tongue of all both day and night.. No other matter has been talked of so much in so short a time in Provo for years.”

“The feeling of disdain here seems to be centered and cluster most around  about Duggins, probably because of his past career, and the many stories that have been circulating about him for years.”

On 16 March 1896, “reaching Provo on the morning train today with his wife from Salt Lake City, S.M. Duggins found himself face to face with a whole city full of indignant people. Learned that all the has been said in the newspapers of the deep feeling of indignation against him and his place of business.”

 

 

 Learned also of the petition being signed by many asking the council to refuse a license to the Diamond Saloon of which he is the reported owner and of the indignation meeting of ladies in the First, Third and Fourth ecclesiastical wards to be held this afternoon.”

The Salt Lake Tribune reported “the ladies of Provo are taking an indignant interest in the crusade for purity in that city that has been stirred by the death of Miss Bonnett,”

The “populous” demanded that the building owned by Duggins “not be used as a saloon by anybody for the reason that the interior is so cut up into secret compartments that the officers of the law cannot get into them and put a stop to any immoral or illegal practices that may be carried on or attempted in them.” 

The petition by residence of Provo demanded the city close Duggin’s saloon due to the notoriety of the death of Eveline Bonnett. “Whereas the late proprietors S.M. Duggins, et all, of the Diamond Saloon are held to answer for the murder of one of the girls of this city and that it is generally believed that the said proprietor brought this girl to her degradation and ruin at said Diamond Saloon and whereas we believe that an institution such as the above bodes evil and destruction to the home, ruination to our sons and daughters, demoralizes society and spreads desolation over the entire land; Resolved that we, the wives mothers, sisters and daughters of the citizens of the Fourth ward in mass meeting assembled do hereby petition your honorable body, not only to refuse to grant further license to any saloon for the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage in Provo City. And further be it resolved that we women of the Fourth Ward pledge ourselves to reuse to sustain by our votes men, who knowingly, grant licenses to immoral and disreputable places.”

Duggins “at once ordered his place of business closed and communicated that he had done so to Provo’s mayor and city council.” The license for the Diamond Saloon had expired on February 24 and an application for a license renewal had been filed by Frank Carter. However, because of the notoriety the Bonnett case had elicited, the name of W.A. Wilson was substituted for Carter’s. Duggins feared a boycott of other his property that “belonged to his wife” claiming those businesses were all she had “to depend upon to support herself and family.

The Diamond Saloon after it was closed was relicensed as the became the Occidental Saloon as that Duggins was to be “connected in any way to the business” although title to the property is in Mrs. Duggins , and that the went will go to her to pay taxes and support herself and family.’
 “Duggins himself is not feel, and he realized he could do nothing in his particular line of business in Provo or vicinity with the feeling of the public against ho, as bitetr as it is.

In April 1896 only Dr. McCoy, Frank Carter and Sims Duggins were indicted for the murder of Eveline Bonnett by procuring a miscarriage. Dr. Harry Seymour Hicks [1863-1896] was also indicted in April, but in May 1896 he had passed away from his battle with consumption on the day he was to marry his fiancé .

            All charges against those in James Bonnett’s initial complaint were dropped except for Dr. William McCoy, Sim Duggins, and Frank Carter. The three men asked to be tried separately and Dr. McCoy was tried first for contributing to the death of Eveline Bonnett in October 1896.  As that a charge of murder could not be proven against Dr. McCoy he was tried for “malpractice” which contributed to the death of Bonnett by assisting in an abortion.

 “The prosecution sprung two surprised on the defense  by placing Drug Store Clerk, F. J. Collins, who it was supposed had left the state for good, on the stand and in making Sim Duggins, who was indicted with McCoy , their witnesses.”

Charges against Sim Duggins were eventually dismissed by the prosecution as that the state wanted him as a witness against Dr. McCoy. “Sim Duggins turned State’s evidence and the case against him, in which he was implicated with Dr. MCoy, Frank Carter, and Dr. Hicks were dismissed”

Mrs. Massey and Dr. Noyes were also called to testify by the prosecution against the defendant as those charges against them were also dismissed.

It was commented on in newspapers that Duggins made a “very poor witness” for the prosecution as he said that his only involvement in the case was his coming to Salt Lake with Carter and Bonnett.

The Provo paper commented, “the release of Sim Duggins in the famous Bonnett abortion case , on the plea of State;s evidence, has a queer look to it. He certainly said nothing that would warrant his release, as payment ofr his testimony.”

Mrs. Betty Smith, “a buxom-looking woman”, who lived in the same building where the West Side Drug Store was located. Although she was an “unwilling” witness, she said she saw a young girl going into McCoy’s office several days in February “whom she identified from a photograph as Eveline Bonnett.” She stated, “she heard the girl scream while she was in the doctor’s office.”

Dr. McCoy acted agitated and said to Mrs. Smith, “You have been watching my patient” which she denied just stating she came as she “she heard her scream.” Mrs. Smith claimed that Dr. McCoy had told her that the patient screamed as that he had been “pulling teeth for her.”

It was brought out that Mrs. Smith had approached Dr. McCoy after learning of his arrest and the death of Bonnett. She told Dr. McCoy that if he would pay her expenses, she would leave town. Dr. McCoy said he had no money, emptying his pockets showing her but five cents, and “also told her if she attempted to leave town, he would bring her back.”

When James Hegney, as owner of the West Side Drug Store was called to testify, he said he was present in the West Side drug store when Mrs. Smith demanded money from McCoy. Hegney said “she wanted money to go to St. Louis or she would testify” for the prosecution. 

Jim Hegney admitted that he, at one time, was the surety on Dr. McCoy bond and had put up $1500. Hegney said he withdrew from the bond “not because he thought McCoy guilty but that his wife objected to his being a surety in as large an amount.”

When coming downstairs after leaving the courtroom, Hegney claimed he heard Francis J Collins, his former clerk, say referring to Dr. McCoy “I know damn well he is innocent.” 

            Nevertheless, the most damaging testimony against Dr. McCoy was from Collins the former clerk in the West Side Drug Store. Collins had left Utah  but was brought from Denver, Colorado at the state’s expense to relate what he knew of Dr. McCoy’s relation to Eveline Bonnett.

Collins testified that he heard Dr. McCoy say that Duggins and Carter had come to Salt Lake to arranged for an abortion for Bonnett and offered Dr. McCoy $50 for the procedure.

Collins claimed that he “went down to the West Side drug store on the Sunday [1 March] Harry Hynds shot Dinwoodey.” He said he heard Dr. McCoy, referring to his own predicament “I might get into trouble myself before tonight.”   Collins said when he asked how Dr. McCoy how his patient was faring, meaning Eveline Bonnett, he stated Dr. McCoy had said “I’m afraid the damn bitch is going to die.”

After Eveline Bonnett died that night, Collins stated that Dr. McCoy and Dr. Hicks came into the drug store “arm in arm” and after learning that Bonnett had died, Collins said to the men, “You had better be fixing up a defense for yourselves.” He said Dr. McCoy replied, “That’s what we are doing.”

            Collins related to the jury that he “went to see McCoy after he was in jail,” bringing him “cigars” newspapers as that Dr. McCoy had “held him in close personal regard.” On one such visitations Collins claimed that Dr. McCoy told him “to tell Dr. Hicks to deny the fact that Hicks introduced him to Duggins and Carter at the Onyx Bank Saloon.”

            When Detective Edward A Franks  testified, he stated that Collin told him that he ought to be able to make some money out of the Bonnett case and that Evelyn Bonnett had told her brother James that a Dr. McCurtin had operated with instruments on her.

When Dr. McCoy testified on his behalf he said, “I was first introduced to Mr. Carter at Mrs. Massie’s house but I did not know that Bonnett was not a married woman at the time. The last words I head Miss Bonnett say were: I have done wrong and want to be forgiven. Her brother heard this statement.”

McCoy declared that Francis Collins had “falsified” when he testified that he swore saying “Damn Bitch”. He asserted, “I never used such language in reference to Miss Bonnett nor any other person at any time of replace. Mr. Collins falsified in all these matters.”

When asked “Did you ever perform an abortion upon the person of Eveline Bonnett, “ Dr. Mc Coy replied, “No sir.” He reiterated that Bonnett died “of peritonitis, inflammation of the bowels and womb.” When  asked if there were any evidence of an abortion, the doctor answered Bonnett may have “attempted one on herself” but there were “no evidence of the violent use of instruments nor arsenic poisoning.”

            The empaneled Jurists found Dr. McCoy guilty, convicting him “of the crime of procuring an abortion.”  At the sentencing, the “wife of the defendant was in court and occupied a seat beside him” while the arguments were big made regarding an appeal. “McCoy was very cool in his bearing and seemed resigned to his fate.”

The court sentenced McCoy “ to be imprisoned for a period of eight years in the state’s prison.  The Salt Lake Herald Republican wrote “the case of the Bonnett girl was a very sad one. She seems to have been the victim of about as bad a lot of men as ever went unhung, and it is a matter of great regret that some who were connected with it were allowed to go Scot free. Again, we say the conviction of McCoy is a matter of congratulations.”

The Provo’s Daily Enquirer wrote; “The verdict of guilty in the Dr. McCoy case, wherein he was found guilty of committing abortion on a Provo girl, will have a good effect, we hope, on the community at large. There has been too  much malpractice in the past in Utah, and an example made of a doctor or two will clear the quack butchers out of the State.”

            Frank Carter was never tried for his part in the Bonnett tragedy. In January 1897, the “murder charges of “William McCoy and Frank Carter was dismissed,” as that Dr. McCoy was already serving a sentence in the state penitentiary.”

            “County attorney Van Cott secured an order of court yesterday [25 Jan 1897] in which Dr. William McCoy and Frank Carter were charged with murder, and Frank Carter and others were charged with procuring a criminal operation upon the person of Eyelyn Bonnett, now deceased”

“Dr. McCoy, who performed the operation is now serving an eight-years’ sentence in the State prison and Miss Bonnett’s wrongs have been at least have been avenged  to that extent. Having elected to try McCoy for performing the criminal action, and secured a conviction, the prosecution could not now try him for murder, and in the case of Carter, Mr. Van Cott did not believe that the evidence would warrant him in placing that individual on trial.”

As the matter now stands, McCoy, who was the tool of the gang that brought about Miss Bonnett’s destruction, is the only one who will suffer imprisonment for his villainy.”

            As that Dr. William McCoy was convicted primarily on the testimony of Francis J Collins, he was paroled in May 1899 when affidavits were presented showing that Collins, before the trial, had stated his belief that “McCoy had had nothing to do with the case” and may have perjured himself. Also petitions that had been signed by “several hundred residents of Piute county were Dr. McCoy lived prior” were presented to the Board “calling for his release.”

            In December 1899 Dr. McCoy received a full pardon and he went back to work at the West Side Drug Store where a Robert Heath now was the drug clerk. 

The 1900 federal census listed William McCoy as a 37-year-old physician, married and living at 315 West Second South. He and his wife Lizzie had married in 1887 and had one child, who was not living as of 1900. Three other couples roomed at this same address.

By 1901 Dr. McCoy and his wife had moved to a house at 113 South  Fifth [Sixth] West located in block 64. A newspaper account stated that while at this home, “Mrs. McCoy was awakened shortly after 1 o’clock by unseemly noise, horrified by the sight of a dark form engaged in trying to reach the doctor’s trousers which reposed on a chair near the window.” The burglar had torn a screen off the window but fled after Dr. McCoy was wakened by his wife. The would-be thief escaped and left only “enormous footprints” as evidence of the attempted burglary.

The following year it was reported that Dr. William B McCoy had an exciting struggle and received a severe knife wound during an encounter with three young holdups on Second South, Salt Lake about 9:30 Sunday night. Nothing more of the encounter was printed.

            Dr. McCoy died in Marysvale, Piute  County at the age of 42 on 5 June 1905, only 11 days after having left Salt Lake City. His death certificate stated he died of “acute alcoholism.”

            An obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune read, “Sudden Death of Salt Laker Occurs at Marysvale. Dr. William B McCoy who lived at 113 South Fifth West died very suddenly yesterday morning at Marysvale, Utah. Only meager details of his unexpected death are obtainable. He had been in very poor heath for some time and about ten days ago he went to Marysvale with the view of re-establishing his practice, having lived there a number of years ago.”

Early yesterday morning his wife received a telegram announcing that he was dying, which was followed by another in a few hours that he was dead. His body will reach the city this evening in charge of Undertaker [Eber W] Hall and so far as now known, the funeral will take place at the undertaker’s parlor at 2 o’clock Thursday.”

            Dr. McCoy had been a resident of this city for some years and had a great many friends. He was a son of Mr. Henson McCoy who died in Oregon some two or three years ago. The doctor was born in Oregon and raised in California. He leaves a wife but no children. He was 42 years of age.”

            William B McCoy was buried in an unmarked grave in Section “4-4-4-West” of the Salt Lake City Cemetery according to Sexton Records.

 

Changing Demographics of Blocks 63 and 64

West Second South Streets and Blocks 63 and 64 of

Changing Demographics: 

PART ONE

Chapter One

The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad 

D & R G Engine

            In 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad bought up four city Blocks, 35, 36, 37, and 38, containing 40 acres, to build a passenger and freight depot.

The rail yards increased the land values of the west side of Salt Lake City which at the time reached from West Temple as far as to the Jordan River. The land was considered cheap, marshy, and was being considered a distance from the downtown business district and from the residences of the east side of the city.

The new Denver and Rio Grande railway’s freight and passenger hub was built in Block 37 in what was the Fifth [Sixth] West but today Sixth West between Second South and Third South. The train yards extended from Fourth South to South Temple and west between Sixth West to Eight West. The main track line ran along Seventh West Street which then divided the west side of the city from downtown and from the more affluent eastern half of the city.

Denver and Rio Grande Western rail yards brought in hundreds of workers to lay tracks and build repair shops to the area. There were machine shops, boiler shops, and a tall smokestack “that attracted “unusual attention” as it was constructed in “excellent style”. The smokestack was constructed “within an eighth of an inch of a direct line of the incline from the base to the top, tapering from a square of twelve to six feet.

An advertisement from 1881 several parcels of land listed as being close to the Denver and Rio Grande depot: “Another Building Lot 10 x 10 rods [165 feet by 165 feet], close to Main, on Second South Street and on the road to Denver and Rio Grande depot” being sold for $1750.  Another lot of 5 x 10 rods “close to Main, on Second South Street and on the road to Denver and Rio Grande depot” was being sold for $900.  Still another “half lot, 5^th Ward, near railroad” was being offered for $600.  City Blocks 63 and 64 were considered in the Fifth Ward.

The residents of the “south-western portion of the city in 1882 asked that the water mains be extended along certain designated streets to Denver and Rio Grande Depot, corner of Third South and Sixth West Streets Henry wood, superintendent of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway started that the railway would “would provide the means required to make up three-fourths of the entire expense.

D & R G Caboose

On 1 August 1882 a new streetcar track was proposed to connect a “number of hotels with the Denver and Rio Grande Depot” from Main Street at the Clift House hotel then west along Third South to the southwest corner of the Rio Grande depot where it will turn north [Fifth West] running thence one Block farther [Second South] in that direction, and thus connecting the temporary depot of the narrow-gauge road. The reason for doing this “that were it to come east along Second South Street it would pass but one hotel, namely the White House; whereas by first going south a Block then coming east along Third South Street it will pass the Clift, Walker, and white House Hotels; and passengers desiring to go to the Laley House and Continental Hotel will be given transfer at Jennings corners. Besides by going the route determined on, the cars will pass the freight and other departments of the Denver and Rio Grande and will be a much greater convenience to the people living in that direction and to persons who reside over Jordan.”

At this same time the company of Elias Morris and George Romney jointly had been awarded the contract to build the Denver and Rio Grande depot.  When the workmen were “scraping and grading” the location for the depot, “they turned up a number of bones” of three human beings. The skeletons were fairly well preserved and “the discovery created a little excitement for a time. The bones are doubtless those of Indians, any number of which are found around on these places. Quite a number of Indian bones were unearthed when the grade was being made on the present Utah Central grounds many years ago.”

Towards the end of August 1882, it was reported “Work on the Denver and Rio Grande depot here is progressing rapidly” and the “new streetcar line from the D. & R.G. depot to the center of town is progressing nicely.”  The streetcar line down Third South was finished and completed by September 7 as it was announced that the streetcar line was “opened for business.”

D & R G Passenger Depot Fifth [Sixth] West

The construction of the Denver and Rio Grande depot faced more challenges as reported in April 1883, “a large force of men were put to work at the Denver and Rio Grande passenger depot, and it is the determination of the officials of the road to push the structure ahead with all possible haste. It is now determined to locate the depot at a different place, that is not so near the street as at first intended. The change is made for the reason that it will add to the convenience of passengers and the public generally, as well as the company.”

Another issue the Denver and Rio Grande train yards had to deal with in April 1883 was the number of loose cows in the vicinity. “The police were about the Sixteenth Ward investigating the matter of cows running loose about the Denver and Rio Grande depot and have been very annoying. On Friday a cow in the Sixteenth Ward was running on the track with a Denver and Rio Grande gravel train that was running along. A collision resulted and the cow was fatally damaged. Five cows were arrested and marched to the estray pound, where they will be held in durance vile until their owners take them out. This ought to be a warning, especially as the police will keep making arrests as long as cows run loose on the streets.” The Sixteenth Ward was bounded on the south, by South Temple and the Fifteenth Ward.

D & R G Passenger Depot 

In September 1884 a petition from the Denver and Rio Grande director, W.H. Bancroft, and twenty-two other prominent businessmen asked that Second South Street from Second [Third] West Street to the Denver and Rio Grande be graded. The request was referred to the Salt Lake Committee on Streets and alleys. Not until March 1885 did the Committee of Streets and Alleys recommended that the offer of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad company’s willingness to lay the necessary track and transport the gravel surrounding Block 63 “providing the city would load and unload and spread be adopted.

Block 63’s development from its rural beginnings was noted in newspapers in 1885. One wrote “Any person passing the Denver and Rio Grande depot will be caused to note the beautifying of the surroundings. There is no mistaking the enterprise of the managers of the Denver and Rio Grande spent every dollar it can to enhance the comfort of the traveling public or improve the appearance of their road. At present, the frog-ponds about the depot are being filled with soil, trees planted, walks graded, the park completed, and everything dressed in spring style. “

In 1889 the original Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway became simple the Rio Grande Western Railway in 1889 as part of a plan to upgrade the line from narrow gauge to standard gauge, and the company built several branch lines in Utah to reach lucrative coal fields near Helper and Price Utah.

As Salt Lake City became a hub of railway lines in the 1880’s, as that they were all constructed on the west side of the city, laborers brought in as construction crews to lay tracks, and “railroaders” working as engineers, firemen, brakemen, came in droves and settled primarily by the train yards. Many of the skilled engine operators were non-Mormons, having worked in the Midwest before moving to Salt Lake.

D & R G Train Yards and Smoke Stack

PART TWO 

Chapter Two 

Chinese Immigrants to Utah

The Chinese were a group of foreign workers in Utah, although not nearly as prolific as Europeans due to racial prejudices of the times.  The building of the western portion of the intercontinental railroads had brought Asian laborers by the thousands to the United States. However, in the 1870’s many European Americans had come to view the influx of the Chinese as a “yellow peril.”

The Chinese railroad workers became seen as a threat to the white working class by driving down wages. The United State Congress passed a series of Chinese exclusion acts in the late Nineteenth Century to “placate worker demands”, the legislation was also meant to “assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white racial purity.” Working class conflicts in the West often turned “racial.” The massacre of Chinese colonies occurred in several western towns in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century, specifically in Rock Springs Wyoming.

            To curtail the growth of the Chinese population in America, the Page Act of 1875 was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States. It “effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders.” The Page Act limited the growth of Chinese families as that only Chinese women, who had immigrated prior to 1875, were able to become wives and mothers of American-Chinese children.

Anti-miscegenation laws prevented marriages between Whites, Asians, and People of Color.  As in many western communities, most of the Utah Chinese population was made up of single men, many who returned to China to marry.

The Salt Lake Herald Republican published a blurb dated 8 Jan 1890 about an attempt by a Chinese man to marry outside his ethnicity. “A high-muck-amuck Chinaman made an application to County Clerk Hamer for a license to wed a white woman. He didn’t get the license.”

Seven years after the Page Act, the “Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882” suspended all Chinese immigration for a period of ten years. The law declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. The Act read in part “The coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof”.

Chinese Americans, who were already in the country, challenged the constitutionality of the legislation, but their efforts failed. Chinese Americans, however, did achieve the right to testify in court cases after suing. An 1882 appellate court’s decision stated that “non-Christians” had the right to testify in a trial.  

            Still, ten years after the Chinese Exclusion Act, the “Geary Act of 1892” extended the ban on Chinese immigration for an additional ten years. It also required Chinese residents to carry certificates of residency. Immigrants who were caught not carrying the certificates were sentenced to “hard labor and deportation.” Bail for an arrestee was only an option if the accused were vouched for by a “credible white witness.”

The United States Supreme Court in 1893 upheld the Geary Act in the case of “Fong Yue Ting v. United States. In 1902 a ban on Chinese immigration was made permanent and thus the Chinese population in the United States sharply declined. Chinese immigrants and their American-born families even remained ineligible for United States citizenship until 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act.

In Salt Lake City anti-Chinese sentiment was evident in an newspaper article from July 1893 “Labor Demonstration Workingmen propose to Boycott Employers of Chinese”

  James Terry a representative of the cooks and waiter’s union argued at a mass meeting  that “the Chinese are every day usurping the places of white men because they can work for starvation wages and it is now time that the laboring men rose up against them or they will find themselves driven out of some fields of labor. Any place which will employ a Chinaman should be boycotted with the utmost rigor.”

Jim Hegney proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel on Fifth [Sixth] West was singled out as someone who “used to employ Chinamen and will do again if he gets a chance.”  Terry went on to say that “the workingmen should hunt out every place which employs a Chinaman, and when he finds such a place, refuse it his patronage thereafter. Then the man who runs it will soon feel the lost in his pocketbook and will be glad to let the yellow workers go. When all avenues of labor are closed the Chinese will be forced to leave the country and will thus give us relief.”   

Plum Alley SLC 

        

The Chinese Community on West Second South Street

The first Chinese arrived in Salt Lake City in 1866, according to a chronology found in the 1867 city directory. There were not enough labor in Utah for jobs needed to build the railroads and thousands of Chinese were brought to Utah to work laying tracks usually under Irish section bosses and workers. However, because so many Chinese were used to build the Central Pacific railroad, there was a sizeable Asian community already in Utah, and in other surrounding western States.

Many of the more enterprising Chinese eventually opened laundries and noodle houses behind Commercial Street and State Street in a dingy section of Salt Lake City called Plum Alley, a 23-foot-wide street located in Block 70. This location was once called “Chinatown”. The Chinese who lived and worked in this area of Salt Lake City were referred to as being part of the “Chinese Colony” and not as a “community.”  This implied that the Asians were not recognized truly as part of Salt Lake City’s society.

There was a sizable Chinese population in Salt Lake City, at one time during the late 19th Century, until the United States’ 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese men. Seven years earlier, in 1875, the Page Act, had banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States in order not to increase the population of Asians living in America.

Newspaper accounts are filled with stories of Chinese being arrested for gambling, peddling without a license, and operating Opium dens. The Chinese were disparagingly referenced in newspaper accounts as “Mongolian”, “almond eyed”, “Coolies”, “heathens”, “godless” and “Celestials”.  The term Celestials was a Nineteenth Century antiquated term for Chinese people as that one of the former names for China was the Celestial Empire.

It is difficult to identify the Chinese living in Utah during the late Nineteenth Century due to the dismissal attitude when referring to them in newspaper accounts. Names were not always accurate and often used disparagingly. Rarely were they ever included in city directories.

By the 1890s, West Second South had become ethnically diverse as that Salt Lake City had strict laws regarding where nonwhites could live. The ethnic population of Salt Lake City at the time was primarily made up of northern Europeans, such as Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, and Irish. The few People of Color residing in Salt Lake were confined to seedy rooming houses, living in or above livery stables, or in houses of ill repute usually on Commercial Street, Franklin Avenue, and West Second South.

Chapter Three 

Ah Jack: Railroad Agent

There was a Chinese man named Ah Jack who died in 1886. He was a prominent railroad agent for the Rio Grande Western. Newspaper accounts mentioned how his body was shipped from Utah to California. He should not be confused with “Ah Ge” also nicknamed “Ah Jack”.

“The Dead Chinaman. The body of Ah Jack, the Chinaman who died suddenly Thursday night, was prepared for shipment to Sacramento, yesterday. It will be sent to Sim Kow Kee, 221 ½ J Street, Sacramento, who will attend to the burial of it by the company of which the deceased was a member. The statement that the dead heathen was in the employ of Remington and Johnson was not strictly correct; he was a working for the D. & R.G.  and had charge of all the Chinamen on that company’s line from Kyune to the Colorado line but transacted all his supply business with the form named. Mr. Remington spoke very highly of the dead celestial, stating that he was respected by all who knew him; was strictly honest in all his dealings, intelligent and industrious, and at one time worth the sum of 30,000; was heavily interested in a timber camp at Truckee, and was otherwise engaged in enterprises which yield him handsome renumerations. A nephew of Ah Jack stated yesterday that the body would be accompanied by four or five of his countrymen.”

Ah Jack’s Cortege Sent off to Joss to the Strains of a Rattling Quickstep. The Opera House band, marking a trail sweat in the center of Main Street, bursting their cheeks in the rendition of a lively quickstep, and followed by a dozen wagon loads of heathen Chinese formed the attraction of yesterday afternoon. It was the funeral cortege of Ah Jack who lay in the hearse next to the band, and whose soul was supposed to be keeping time in a Polka Step on the way to Joss to the lively strains of Olsen’s trumpeters.

Seventy-five or a hundred Chinese one or two with white bands around their heads, an any number with colored ribbons wound their arms, filled the wagons and one grave looking duffer who came immediately behind Ah Jack flung myriads of small pieces of paper punctured with some cabalistic signs to the hordes of small boys who trooped after the wagon

Arrived at the D. & R.G. depot Ah Jack’s remains were transferred to an ice box and were soon zipping gaily away in the direction of China while his brother heathens tore madly back at the suds and hot irons [laundries] they had temporarily abandoned.

The band looked fagged out as it came up the street on its retreat from the depot. The heathens would not allow it breathing space – it had contracted to furnish the music for so much and the money was not earned of there was the slightest cessation of the horns and drums.”

W.H. Remington administrator of the estate of Ah jack filed an inventory of with the county showing that his estate was worth $913.

Chapter Four 

Ah Ge aka “Ah Jack”: King of the Utah Chinese Colony”

One of the more important Chinese entrepreneurs living in Utah during the late 19th Century was a man named “Ah Ge”, known better as “Ah Jack- King of the Utah Chinese Colony.” Ah Jack resided on Fifth [Sixth] West [now Sixth West] just across from the Denver and Rio Grande Western Depot, behind and south of Jim Hegney’s Albany Hotel in Block 63. While his primary residence was near the Albany Hotel, most of his dealings were with the Chinese community of Plum Alley downtown Salt Lake City. 

A Salt Lake Times article from 26 August 1891, called “A War in Chinatown”, first mentioned Ah Jack’s involvement in a ruckus, regarding a long-standing feud among the Chinese. The Times reported the cause of the quarrel “was the refusal of one of the colony to subscribe what was expected of him that aroused the dogs of war.”  A Chinese individual evidently refused to donate to a famine relief fund for China and was “cut” for his refusal.

The article stated, “Two celestials, who were subsequently stated as Hop Lee and Ah Jack”, were arrested but after spending a night in jail they were released without out any charges filed against them.

A Salt Lake Tribune article from the same day, gave a more detailed account on why the pair were arrested in the first place. “Hop Lee and Ah jack, “inmates of a Chinese joint on Commercial Street” were arrested on the suspicion of being involved in a “cutting affray in the joint”.  However, because no trace of the man “said to be cut” could be found, the police were “compelled to turn the heathens lose.”

Little is known about Ah Jack as the Polk Directories in the 19th Century did not list racial minorities. What is known about him comes mainly from a Salt Lake Herald Republican newspaper article from 1894 entitled “Chinese Sunday Banquet” where he hosted a banquet to celebrate the Chinese New Year’s for officials of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. He was the “disbursing agent for the Chinese laborers employed in the desert sections of the line.” This made him a powerful and influential man in the Chinese community.

The article was printed 12 February 1894, and the only reason the event made the newspaper was that Ah Jack had invited a Herald reporter as one of his guests. The newspaper man described in detail a lavished banquet provided by the Chinese businessman to many of the notables of the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad. 

In the February 1894 the Herald’s banquet article called “Ah Jack Gives His Salt Lake Friends a Good Dinner”, the reporter described the exotic meal and many of them who attended said to have been a dozen. He also represented an image of Ah Jack’s residence.  “The house is a boarded structure, a story and a half high in the rear of the small store buildings on Second South near the Albany Hotel.”

2 February 1894 Salt Lake Herald-Republican “Chinese Sunday Banquet-Ah Jack Gives His Salt Lake Friends Good Dinner -Yesterday was the last day of the Chinese New Year festival season and it was fitly celebrated by Ah Ge better known as Ah Jack the king of the Utah Chinese Colony. Jack is the disbursing agent of the Rio Grande Western for the Chinese laborers employed in the desert sections of the line. He is wealthy having accumulated a large amount of money in the transactions of the Chinese of Salt Lake whose business affairs are entrusted to him. Jack is a shrewd and intelligent Mongolian who has mastered the ‘Melican’ language and business methods. His house is a boarded structure of a story and a half high in the rear of the small store buildings on Second South near the Albany Hotel.”

“Jack invited a number of his American friends to come and dine with him yesterday. The popular Mongolian is in the habit of annually banqueting his friends of the paler race and yesterday dozen of the latter accepted Jack’s invitation to see just what kind of victuals Chinese subsist on. Around the table sat Messrs. Holtzheimer, “Shad” Smith, Bourget, and other Rio Grande Western men, Ben X. Smith and the Herald representative.”

“The array of dishes that the hungry crowd sat down to was a marvel to the uninitiated. There were four American dishes, turkey, chicken, roast pig, and duck besides an American drink, champagne. There were three kinds of Chinese whiskey anyone of which was enough to make an ordinary man hilarious but when all are mixed the combination would tangle the feet of the most pronounced toper [excessive drinker]. China tea finished the menu of drinks.”

“Each guest was provided with black chop sticks a foot in length. With these he ate the food placed before him. The variety of dishes was an endless surprise to the guest present and as one course after another was served, they began to wonder “what next?”. There were desiccated shrimps, pickle amoy cabbage, delicate little tubers, or biter cucumbers, dried devil fish, awabi clams from Japan and other dishes for which there are no names in English. Besides there were preserved eggs and ginger, pickled cock’s combs, sliced water chestnuts, liver, Chinese mushrooms, yam, ma-tai bird nests, oysters, seaweed, and rice the latter coming last.”

“After partaking of the twenty courses in the above bill of fare, the guest drank Ah Jack’s good health and taking an after-dinner cigar and chatting pleasantly for a while, the party dispersed with many compliments for Ah Jack.”

“Jack now has a wife and children in China but will leave next month for China to buy another wife his present spouse having lost her attractiveness for him.”

The newspaper’s piece ended with an antidotal comment by the reporter, letting the reader know that Ah Jack practiced the “oriental custom” of polygamy which was probably a snide observation against the Mormon’s so called un-civilized practice of the same.

The last known mention of Ah Jack, the railroad agent, was in a Salt Lake Tribune report dated 5 May 1894. “Ah Jack, the head Celestial of those Chinamen working on the Rio Grande Western railway, left last night for a trip to China.”

Ah Jack returned to the United States but not to Utah. In an April 1899 article, “Ah Jack is located in Seattle Washington where complaints were made over his role as a local Chinese interpreter. At a mass-meeting of Chinese Merchants and citizens they made a formal demand to the Chinese Consul that “ah Jack or Chin Jack” be removed as an immigration interpreter.  He was accused of providing false affidavits to secure deportation of Chinese and that he was a menace to his countrymen in the Puget Sound district.

Chapter Five

Wah Lee: Laundryman on West Second South

The 1891 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed Wah Lee, a Chinese laundryman as operating a laundry at 563 West Second South.  Of the Twenty-three laundries listed in the city directory all but five were Chinese businesses.

 The 1892 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed Wah Lee as doing business at 565 West Second South Street.  He was again listed as having a laundry at the same address in 1893 and 1894.

In 1892 Wah Lee, was doing business near the Rio Grande Western depot. He was arrested for violating the fire ordinance. “His offense consists in maintaining three stovepipes, thus jeopardizing many valuable buildings in the vicinity.”

Wah Lee was in court again in September 1894 charged with assaulting a youth named Willie Swinger who with other youths had been throwing rocks at his house. William Swinger was nearly 13-year-old at the time.

“Wah Lee a native of the flowery kingdom was arrested near the Rio Grande depot yesterday by Sergeant Wire upon the charge of having beaten a young lad named Willie Swinger in an unmerciful manner by kicking him in the ribs and jumping on him when down.”

 “The defendant appeared before Justice Smith at the afternoon session of court and stated that he had been annoyed for some time past by Swinger and other boys who persisted in throwing rocks at his shack. He further claimed that he caught the boy in the act yesterday and chased him but never beat him as alleged.”

“A number of small boys testified that another boy whose name they did not know but admitted on cross examination that was Johnnie Thomas who threw the rock.”

 “After giving the boys a sound lecture on the results of telling an untruth whether upon oath or not, Justice Smith imposed a fine of $5. Wah promptly paid the fine.”

Nearly a month later Wah Lee’s laundry was robbed by a young man named William Leatham which led to the discover of Leatham in bed with Lena Carter, and Hugh McKernan at the Albany Hotel.

The 1901 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed a Wah Lee operating a laundry at 172 East Second South that was once operated by Sam Hop. Whether this was the same man or not is unknown.

The 1910 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City also listed a Wah Lee as operating a laundry at 16 Commercial Street.

Chapter Six

Hop Lee

Another Chinese man named Hop Lee may or may not have been the same individual who had been arrested in 1891. The 1891 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed Hope Lee’s laundry at 62 South West Temple. The 1892 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed a Hop Lee as operating a laundry at 58 South West Temple.

A news report from October 1896 mentioned how an older man named Hop Lee while waiting at the Rio Grande Depot was being harassed by a young white man. The man demanded to see Hop Lee’s ticket and asked how much money he had until another man, a “burly bystander”, interred. The second man told the man harassing Hop Lee to “Just leave that poor Chinaman alone… he probably earned that with more sweat than some people ever lost in their entire lives.”

            The reporter who had witnessed the exchange, wrote “Hop Lee sat in the waiting room at the Rio Grande Western depot the other night with a look of serene content on his face. He had not been smoking opium which operation is usually the cause of Mongolian self-satisfaction nor was he a heavy winner at Plum Alley fan-tan. He was simply smiling at the thought of a trip he was about to take to the sunny tea-laden atmosphere of China, where he would meet his wife and family.”

 

Chapter Seven 

Chinese Employees of James Hegney

In the Spring of 1899, two Chinese kitchen employees, who worked for Jim Hegney at the Albany Hotel, found themselves in trouble with the law. Charley Hong and Lee Ong were accused of giving alcohol to a Native American, referred to as “Indian Jim”.  Selling or giving alcohol to Native Americans was at the time illegal.

Charley Hong was described in news accounts as being “slick and clean” and that “being a cook”, he was “an important Chinese.”  Lee Ong, on the other hand, was simply described as being “rough, and like an ordinary coolie in appearance”.

The newspaper report of the arrest and trial of the two Asian men and the Native American were filled with many egregious and disparaging racial comments, which was very typical of the time. “Indian Jim” was disparaged by reporters who called him “a very dirty old Indian” and “fat and lazy.”

The Chinese workers and Indian Jim appeared before Judge John B. Timmony, in the city’s police court with a contingency of Native American women and other Chinese spectators to witness the proceedings.  

In 1899 the Salt Lake Herald Republican reported: “Timmony's Monday Show-Several squaws and Chinamen presented themselves in court to see what would happen to Charley Hong and Lee Ong, two Chinamen, who were at the Albany Hotel.” They were charged with providing liquor to Indian Jim and entered a plea of not guilty.

The reporter covering court news for the Herald also wrote, “Several squaws and Chinamen presented themselves in court to see what would happen to Charley Hong and Lee Ong, two Chinamen, who work at the Albany Hotel.” The court reporter added “the audience was as varied as the performance for in addition to the regular police court habitués, a dozen or more Celestials from Plum Alley were present to hear the trial of their two friends.”

A Salt Lake Tribune correspondent wrote, “With smiles that were very childlike and bland, Lee Ong and Charley Hong walked into the police court, yesterday afternoon, cast contemptuous looks at big, fat, lazy Indian Jim who had alleged they sold him the firewater that caused his arrested, on Sunday, and sat down in a corner.”

“The heathens are in the employ of James Hegney of the Albany Hotel and nearly all help were on hand to testify for the fellows with the almond eyes. The case however went over.”

“There was an episode though not down on the bills. Annie [Olivia] Jackson, the nine-year-old daughter of C.M. Jackson, is one of the witnesses for the prosecution and was observed to be crying bitterly.

Chief Hilton’s [Thomas A. Hilton] attention was called to the fact and Annie said she was afraid to tell the court what she saw. Asked why, the child said Mrs. Hegney told her if she went on the stand and testified against the Chinamen, they would undoubtedly do her an injury. She was assured that no harm could come to her if she told the truth.”

The girl said that “she saw one of the Chinese give Jim a bottle when he came to the kitchen door and said he received the bottle.”

Eliza Hegney, her daughter, and a waitress swore that the Native American “didn’t get any whiskey. They said that he had come there drunk and asked for something to eat as other Indians had done.”

The Salt Lake Herald Republican coverage of the court hearing only varied in some of the details: “There was a varied entertainment in Judge Timmony’s court yesterday afternoon and the audience was as varied as the performance for in addition to the regular police court habitués, a dozen or more Celestials [Chinese] from Plum Alley were present to hear the trial of their two friends.”

“Then the feature of the day’s proceedings was introduced. Lee Ong and Charley Hong were arrested by Officer Pare for having sold firewater to Indian Jim, a very dirty old Indian.”

“Hong and Ong are, respectively, cook and dishwater at the Albany Hotel near the Rio Grande depot. Hong was slick and clean while Ong was rough and like an ordinary coolie in appearance. Hong being a cook is an important Chinese.”

“Little Olivia Jackson, [Annie in the Tribune story] a neighbor’s child, said that she saw one of the Chinese give Jim a bottle when he came to the kitchen door and said he received the bottle.”

“But Mrs. Hegney, her daughter, and the waitress swore that Jim didn’t get any whiskey. They said that he had come there drunk and asked for something to eat as other Indians had done. So said Hong, who spoke very good English.”

“But Lee Ong who didn’t understand English quite as well began to rattle off the whole story just as soon as he was asked what his position was. He insisted that the Indian was drunk before he was asked. In fact, that was his answer to almost every question.”

            Judge John B. Timmony ruled, “I guess that Jim acquired his jag before he arrived.”  Jag being an old fashion term for a state intoxication usually induced by liquor. Judge Timmony ruled for an acquittal of the Chinese employees and dismissed the case. The court reporter, commenting on the final proceedings, wrote, “Ong, Hong, and the Hegney family walked out with beaming countenances. Poor Jim slunk away probably to get drunk over his defeat.”

PART THREE

Chapter  Eight

The Irish Immigrants to Fifth [Sixth] West Block 63

The Denver and Rio Grande Railway company required extensive cheap labor to build the Railway yards in Block 37, and labor laying tracks in Utah. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 thus created a demand for cheap foreign labor from elsewhere, mostly from Southern Europe and Ireland.

One of the earliest demographic changes to Block 63 was the influx of the Irish, either as immigrants or first-generation Americans. They came to work specifically on the railroads at the Union Pacific rail yards and then the Denver and Rio Grande Western yards.  As the railroad tracks hemmed in much of the Fifteenth Ward and brought in a foreign element, the old-time settlers relocated either further west of the Rio Grande Western depot near the Jordan river or to homes on the eastside.

The Irish workers and their families then were the first minority to transform the character of Blocks 63 and 64 in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The 1880’s are replete with stories of Irish laborers and entrepreneurs who inhabited Blocks 63 and 64 as they came in droves to work for the railroads and create businesses catering to the needs of workers.

The Irish railway workers soon were replacing the old Mormon polygamist families in the Rio Grande District, even establishing a Catholic Church named St. Patrick. The established population of Utah felt the idea of  thousands of “unassimilable” foreigners”  was troublesome. Among Mormons as well as Protestants, these new arrivals, many of whom were Catholics, were seen as “ideologically unfit for participation in American democracy.”

Two Irish-Americas, James Hegney and John Sullivan came to dominate property in blocks 63 and 64. They were both active in promoting the anti-Mormon Liberal Party and promoting the causes of the working class of the Rio Grande District of Salt Lake City. Much of James Hegney’s wealth came from investing in land on the western outskirts of Salt Lake City near the Rio Grande Depot while John Sullivan operated two hostelries.

Chapter Nine 

James Hegney 1843-1907

For nearly 20 years the northwest corner of Block 54, today’s Sixth West Second South, was identified with an influential Irish American business man named James Hegney or “Jim” as he was known to his family and friends. He was instrumental in the development of Second South between Fifth [Sixth] West and Sixth [Seventh] West.

He was the proprietor of the Rio Grande and Albany Hotels from at least 1885 until his death in 1907.  Hegney also owned land on Seventh West on which the “Kozy Bar” was built. This bar would, in the 1980’s, become the second incarnation of the premier gay dance club known as The Sun. It was interesting to note that Jim Hegney owned properties which would later become two gay clubs, the In Between and the Sun. The Sun Club was destroyed from the Salt Lake tornado of 1999 and the building was demolished.

            Jim Hegney was also involved in local progressive politics, fraternal organizations that promoted Catholic unity, as that he was a devout Roman Catholic, as were his Irish parents. However, when he married in 1885, he married a widowed woman from a Mormon family of English converts.

            Prior to operating the Albany Hotel, Jim Hegney was the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel that was built in the 1880’s. The Albany Hotel was built circa 1890 which also contained the “Hegney Saloon”.  He also owned a drug store.

Early Beginnings

            Jim Hegney came to Utah from Ohio between 1880 and 1885.  As that Mormons dominated the downtown and eastern portion of the city, Jim Hegney went to the western outskirts of the city to make his fortune. The majority of Hegney’s businesses were on what was now the corner of Second South and Sixth West also though he owned property as far west as Seventh West.

            Jim Hegney’s parents were both Irish Immigrants, and more than likely, they were hard scrabble, great potato famine refugees.  They made their way to Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio where Jim was born 29 Apr 1843.

            During the American Civil War, when he was 21 years old, Hegney enlisted in the Union Navy in which he served from 1864 until 1865. A pension record showed that Jim had the rank of “Landsman”, the lowest rank of the United States Navy in the 19th Century. The rank was given to new recruits with little or no experience at sea and they performed menial and unskilled work aboard ship.

            After the Civil War ended, Hegney returned to Ohio to live with his widowed mother and his siblings. The next fifteen years of his life are a mystery, however, the 1880 United States census showed that Hegney was living with his mother and his other siblings in the town of Oxford, in Erie County, Ohio. In that year he was 34 years old, unmarried, and working as a farm laborer.

            Sometime between 1880 and 1885 Jim Hegney headed west, bringing with him his mother and some of his brothers. He settled in the outskirts of Salt Lake City and amassed a small fortune probably in mining and as a land speculator.

            Hegney’s motivation to move west to Utah Territory was unknown but it must have been for economic opportunities. He was a Catholic at a time when Utah Territory was controlled by a Theocratic Mormon polygamists’ oligarchy. In the 1880’s, mining and railroad work were the main source of employment for “gentiles” as non-Mormons were called in the 19th Century.   

             Brigham Young had discouraged the Saints not to engage in mining fearing the corrupting and temporary life of mining camps. This provided an economic incentive for "gentiles" to exploit Utah's mineral riches.

The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Depot

            Part of Jim Hegney’s wealth probably came from investing in land on the western outskirts of Salt Lake City, where in 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad bought up 4 city Blocks, containing 40 acres, to build a passenger and freight depot and rail yards.

             At that time the west side of the city reached from West Temple as far as the Jordan River and was sparsely populated with small farms and shop keepers. The land was considered cheap as being a distance from downtown and the residences of the east side of the valley.

            The new Denver and Rio Grande railway’s freight and passenger hub was built on what was today Sixth West between Second South and Third South. The train yards extended from Fourth South to South Temple and west between Sixth West to Eight West. The main track line ran along Seventh West Street which then divided the west side of the city from downtown and the more affluent eastern half of the city. The location brought in hundreds of workers to lay tracks and build repair shops to the area.

            Whether Jim Hegney had already acquired property at Sixth West between Second South and Third, when the train depot was being developed, is not known without an extensive Title Property search. However, his proximity to the depot made his hotel a favorite for travelers making their connections in Salt Lake.

For whatever the reason that brought Jim Hegney to Utah, by 1885 he was financially well off enough to marry. As a middle-aged man he married a Mormon widow with a child of her own.  He then became the proprietor of a modest establishment named “The Rio Grande Hotel,” which was located directly across from the recently built Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Road’s passenger depot.

The Rio Grande Hotel and Saloon

The Rio Grande Hotel was located at 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West and contained a restaurant as well. Adjacent to the hotel was a saloon for thirsty guests and railroad men.

There were several hotels near depots of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado that were also named “the Denver & Rio Grande Hotel.” It is uncertain whether the company built these establishments for travelers and had proprietors managing them or whether they were built by entrepreneur businessmen seeking to capitalize on the need for lodging for travelers.

The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed that the hotel was a large two-story wooden structure with an office, restaurant, and kitchen on the first floor and lodgings on the second. The hotel seemed to be a series of wooden buildings at that time with two separate one story buildings containing more hotel rooms and a hotel office.  A separate two-story brick saloon, a few yards to the south of the hotel was being built that contained sleeping rooms on the second floor.  This may have been replacing the precious saloon that existed at 227 South Fifth [Sixth] West.

The 1884 Salt Lake City directory listed the Rio Grande Saloon at 227 South Fifth [Sixth] West and as the publication had to have been printed in 1883, the saloon and probably the hotel had to have been built before 1884.  

The Rio Grande Hotel, built before 1884 on Fifth [Sixth] West on Block 63 was mentioned in an advertisement that listed “a No. 1 pool table, almost new, and some household goods for sale for a few days only at the Denver & Rio Grande Hotel. Apply at the hotel near the Depot.” 

In July 1885 Jim Hegney was granted a license to sell liquor. It was the first mention of Hegney in Salt Lake newspapers. Later a newspaper mentioned the “opening of the Rio Grande Hotel” in August 1885 which probably meant it was under new management. “There will be Ball and Supper at the Rio Grande Hotel opposite the depot tonight.”  

In October 1885 Jim Hegney was mentioned as the “proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel and Saloon” when he was granted by the city a renewal of his liquor licenses.

Jim Hegney was also, according to the directory, the owner of a General Store located next to the hotel at 237 South Fifth [Sixth] West. His primary residence, in that year, for his young family was within the Rio Grande Hotel.

In July 1887 Jim Hegney’s was an agent of the California Wine Company and he was granted a retail liquor license. The California Wine Company was a manufacturer of malt liquor according to a license granted in January 1885.

In January 1886 a fire broke out in one of the upper rooms of the Rio Grande Hotel. “The stove pipe came too near to the woodwork and the red-hot pipe caught fire with the ceiling and roof. Luckily the blaze was discovered in time and was put out with buckets of water. The fire department arrived on the spot too late for the services to be required.”

A newspaper article, printed in the Salt Lake Tribune from April 1886, mentioned a burglary at the Rio Grande Hotel and that Hegney was the proprietor. 

The hotel was so well known that by April 1887 enquiries for railroad employment was handled at the Rio Grande Hotel. “Wanted twenty-five or Thirty men to work on the Ogden and Syracuse Railway Wages $1.75 to $2.50 Apply at the Rio Grande Hotel.

The proximity of the Rio Grande hotel to the Rio Grande passenger depot and freight yards was lucrative for Hegney. In June 1887 Jim Hegney became the sole owner of the south half of Lot 4, Block 63 Plat A and by 1891 owned the north half as well. The property consisted of 10 rods [165 feet] by 10 rods.

Jim Hegney is not found in the Salt Lake City Directory as the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel until 1888 “opposite of the D. & R.G. Depot” and he was still listed as the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel in the 1892 directory. His brothers Patrick and Joseph Hegney were also residing.

An advertisement from 1888 mentioned the Rio Grande Hotel “opposite D & R G James Hegney Proprietor Terms $1.00 & $1.25 per Day Special rates by the Week Single Meals 25 cents Bar and Billiard Room in Connection Street Cars Start from the Door Every Ten Minutes Furnished rooms, Restaurant and Barber Shop South of Hotel.”

Jim Hegney also sold ice cream according to Salt Lake Herald Republican’s article from August 1888, “Bad Boys in Trouble-On Monday night [6 August 1888] Fred Tremayne, Thomas Headen, Harvey Gilbert, Chas. O’Connor, Thomas Croft and two other boys went to Hegeney’s ice cream saloon near the D & RG depot and ordered cream. While the waiter was attending to the wants of some other parties, the boys opened the cash drawer and helped themselves to about $6. They were just rushing out of the place when the attendant came back, and all of the boys except Croft were caught. Upon being taken to the police station, the boys admitted that they had committed a number of thefts recently.”

Jim Hegney was a trusted saloon keeper. He said that his saloon was largely frequented by workingmen, and it generally was ‘the custom’  when one man had money for him to show his liberality by treating those who were son t so ‘flush’. Often men would have Hegeny hold some of their money so it wouldn’t all get used up. 

The 1891 City directory still listed James Hegney as the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel located at 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West.  An article from May 1891 stated that James Hegney was negotiating for a lot on Third [Fourth] West Street between South Temp[le and third South Streets, for the purpose of erecting a $10,000 hotel and business block. This location is on the Union Pacific.”

Solved Robbery March 1886

James Hegney “proprietor of the Denver and Rio Grande Hotel” was mentioned in an article regarding a robbery of a gun store of Thomas Carter. Hold told the police that he “had track of at least some of the property stolen from that establishment.”

It appears that a couple of men had been rooming together at the hotel and when the chambermaid appeared to clean up the room, they told her that they did not want it cleaned, “that it would do very well as it was.” Accordingly, this “aroused the suspicion of Mr. Hegney and a search made by that gentleman revealed the presence of the stolen property. The police went to the hotel and obtained possession of forty-five pistols, one dozen pairs of opera glasses, a large lot of meerschaum goods [tobacco pipes] and the wolf skin robe. Everything a recovered except for a valuable pistol.”

It was reported the two men who had occupied the rooms at the hotel were “seen going South and a number of officers were immediately sent” but “returned without any prisoners.”

However, two brothers, George and Charles Meakins, and a man named Arthur Lewis were arrested. “George Meakins who is minus one hand and wears earrings is a married man and lives at 111 West Temple Street. In addition to the place “where his wife resides, he has a room at a house one block for the Denver and Rio Grande depot and at this room were found a couple of guns, belts of cartridges etc.”

George Meakin was a suspect because “he made a special pet of the dog at the Carter Store, paying “Jack” a great deal of attention every time he came into the store.” The evidence against Meakins did not “appear very strong and mainly circumstantial’ therefore “a couple of days later the Meakins and Lewis were released not have sufficient evidence to hold them.”

1888 The Sad Affair of Mrs. Bagley and Child

Also, in March 1886 Jim Hegney was mentioned in the Salt Lake Herald Republican’s report regarding a legal dispute over the custody of a child living with one of his employees. “Novel and Peculiar Story of a Mother’s Regard for Her Offspring, and a Stranger’s Love for it.”

 The article was about a woman named Laura Olmstead “the wife of F.S. Olmstead” from Shoshone, Idaho “arriving in Salt Lake City to reclaim a twenty-month-old infant named Myrtle Maud “Gertie” Young.” Mrs. Olmstead claimed that the baby was “stolen” from her by “Martha Jones sometimes called Martha Bagley”.  Martha Jones-Bagley was employed by James Hegney and lived at the Rio Grande Hotel.

Both women claimed the infant. Laura Olmstead was the child’ birth mother while as Martha Jones-Bagley believed that she had adoption papers to show that Olmstead “had relinquished the infant to her and only wanted her back because their two husbands were quarreling.” 

James Hegney retained a lawyer to “represent Mrs. Bagley’s interest” and appeared in Judge Charles Zane’s court in behalf of her.  Martha Jones-Bagley claimed that the child was given to her by Laura Olmstead and had “cared for it almost since its birth.”

 “The child itself, a bright looking little girl was held by its adopted mother during the proceedings and did not appear to recognize its real mother.”

As that the “adoption papers were left in Idaho” the hearing “was held up for a couple of days until they could be procured and Hegney signed a $500 bond that Mrs. Bagley would produce the child to the court”

When the adoption papers finally arrived, they were drawn up in a way as to be not binding and legal by the attorneys Martha Jone-Bagney had hired in Idaho. The court “awarded the child to Laura Olmstead and Martha Jones-Bagley could “not contest the case in court as she had no papers that the child was legally relinquished.” “Mrs. Bagley was greatly affected at having to give up the baby on which she has bestowed a mother’s care during the twenty months of its existence and had come to regard it as her own.”

A reporter moved by the court proceedings wrote, “One of the most touching sights ever witnessed in the court room and certainly one of the most trying which Judge Zane has yet been called upon to give judgment was that of the Bagley- Olmstead habeas corpus case which came up yesterday morning. Mrs. Bagley with the child she had so long cherished under the belief that it was legally hers by adoption, sat with an anxious countenance holding the little girl on her lap.”

“The real mother, handsome, cool and collected, sat near her husband, apparently confident as to the outcome of the case. Nor was she mistaken.”

“Major Woods stated in court as soon as order was called at he had examined the adoption papers held by Mrs. Bagley, and he found them worthless; the law required that when a child is adopted all parties must go before a probate Judge and certify to the facts. This had not been done and he was reluctantly compelled to withdraw from the case.”

“The judge had but one duty to perform, that of ordering the child to be given to its mother. Mrs. Bagley went out of the court room with the child in her arms and could hardly bring herself to relinquish it. She finally gave it up, however, and it was taken to the walker House.”

“An hour later Mrs. Bagley sat, apparently utterly despairing, wringing her hands and bitterly weeping in the attorney’s office; her case is one deserving of the utmost sympathy.”

“The child appears contended with its mother and will be taken back to Idaho today. It was the cynosure [center of attention] of many eyes as it was brought down to the dining room of the hotel yesterday when the clerk said, “It didn’t appear to be ailing much, for it later a most hearty meal.”

“Mrs. Bagley says the Shoshone lawyers who made out the papers of adoption and who assured her that no one could ever disturb her in the possession of the child, are Dingley and Brown.”

Hegney and the Odd Fellows Lodge

Jim Hegney was an active member of the West Second South business community and built bonds with other local businessmen. He was a member of the city Chamber of Commerce and in May 1887 “James Hegney of the Rio Grande Hotel subscribed $25 to the advertising fund. The subscription was unsolicited, and Mr. H. expressed his willingness to subscribe $500 towards the erection of a Chamber of Commerce building in this city.

One of the primary ways he accomplished strengthening business ties was by becoming a member of the Odd Fellows’ Lodge.  While the Catholic Church prohibited practicing Catholics from joining fraternities, Jim Hegney must have seen the benefit of contributing to a "Christian fraternal organization" that met weekly in order to "create a stronger brotherhood among its members, as well as to do good in the community".

            Money collected from dues and fundraisers from Fraternal Orders took care of members when sickness and or death occurred in a time where there were no governmental safety nets.

An article dated from August 1887 showed that Jim had donated “fifty cigars” to the International Order of Odd Fellows for a fundraising excursion.

Chapter Ten 

Trouble with the Law

In December 1886, James Hegney and “ Jones “was charged with selling liquor on Sunday. Hegney’s attorney moved to dismissed the case because “the case had no positive facts” and “the complaint upon its face was not sufficient to authorize the issuing of a warrant “as it was simply sworn to on information and belief.”  The judge disagreed and a trial was held on the last day of 1886

“On One Man’s Testimony. Hegeney and Jones are Held to Await the Grand Jury’s Action.  The case against Hegeney and Jones, charged with selling liquor on Sunday, came up before Judge Pyper, yesterday [31 December 1886] at 2 o’clock. When the arguments on the motion to dismiss were concluded, Judge Pyper promptly overruled the motion, and a demurer to the complaint entered fared singularly. The prosecution then opened by the introduction of a young fellow, 18 years of age, who said his name was William Moore. He was employed by the D. & R. G. Railway Company and boarded at Hegeny’s Hotel. He said he had asked Hegeney for a Christmas present, and the latter had told him to go and get what he wanted at the bar. He and a young man named Tate went into the saloon. Witness said: “I took a cigar and Tate took a glass of soda-water; I did not drink any gin, brandy, rum, wine, whiskey or any kind of intoxicating liquor in that day at that place.”

George Tate- Lived at 207 South First East Street [State Street]; was in the Hegeney ‘s saloon on Sunday with Moore and Tommy Daniels; we went there together; Daniels called to Moore and myself, and asked us where we were going; we told him we were going across to the saloon; what did we go there for? We went to get a drink- what most people go there for; I took soda water; I do not know what the others drank; the soda water was not paid for; I do not know what Daniels and Moore drank.

Thomas Daniels, a watchman at the D.&R.G. – Jones is barkeeper for Hegeney; was in the saloon on Sunday; I got drunk on rum and paid for it on Monday morning; went with Moore and Tate; the former took a cigar and the later took soda water; I know rum Is intoxicating, but I have never drank enough to get drunk on.

D.S. Heitsman took the chair with a grin and his mild blue eyes sparked as he faced the fierce frown of Ferguson.  I went into Hegeney’s saloon with a young man; Hegeney let us in; we went in, braced up to the bar, and got a drink of ginger ale; I believe my partner took sarsaparilla; I did not drink anything intoxicating.

Heber Christianson- Am a hack driver; was in Hegeney’s saloon last Sunday; went in with Heitsman and some others; don’t know who let us in; I drank sarsaparilla.

Dr. Clinton was called- Am a physician; rum is intoxicating.

A lengthy argument then ensured and at the conclusion Judge Pyper decided that there was sufficient cause to believe the defendants guilty as charge and he would hold both to await the action of the grand jury. Bonds were placed at $300. They were furnished and the defendants allowed to depart.”

The Salt Lake Herald Republican wrote The holding of Hegeney and Jones to await the action of the Grand Jury, under the evidence brought out, had created quite a flurry in the ranks of the liquor dealers who sell or otherwise dispose of the ardent on the Sabbath day.”

In February 1887 the Grand Jury informed the District Attorney of the Third District Court that they ignored the charges against Hegeney and Jones for selling liquor of Sunday.

Thomas Daniels’s testimony must have made him unpopular among the friends of Jim Hegney as that in March 1887 he was threatened and attacked.

In The Police Court. Thomas Daniels Again Battered- Some of His Assailants In Custody. There seems to be a regular conspiracy among the ‘Toughs’ who congregate around the D&RG depot to do away with watchman Thomas Daniels. After Peter Newell, the ex-brakeman who battered Daniels on Sunday night [27 March 1887], was released on bail he made several threats that he would kill the watchman, and an occurrence at a saloon opposite the depot last night [28 March 1887]  indicates an attempt to put the threat into execution. It is well known that quite a number of the parties referred as being anxious to get rid of Daniels  witnessed the first assault upon him and encouraged his assailants. It is asserted that several brakemen on the road are also connected with the gang.

Last evening Mr. Daniels was on the lookout for some men that were wanted by the officers and went into a saloon to wee whether any of them were there. When he got inside James Hegeney, the proprietor, called him into another room. Daniels went and when there was accosted by Robert McIntosh, an ex-brakeman, who wanted him to take a drink. Daniels refused, and McIntosh attempted to drag him up to the bar.  A scuffle ensued and Hegeney left the room, that he might not be a witness.’ While the struggle was going om the crowd in the saloon went outside, and when Daniels freed himself and got out he was assaulted by another of the gang Thomas Armstrong.

In the melee he was badly bruised by being kicked ad beaten by both assailants. The police were called and when they arrived a few minutes later, all of the crowd but McIntosh had left. He was arrested and lodged in jail on a charge of assault and battery. This morning three of his friends, Peter Newell, T.J. Martin, and Thomas Armstrong appeared as witnesses in his behalf, where they were recognized as members of the gang which nearly used Daniels up. Newell was arrested for threatening the watchman’s life and Armstrong was held for assault and battery. All of the charges will be examined before Judge Pyper, when it is probable that interesting developments will be made implicating still others in the attack on the watchman.”

A brief mention in the Salt Lake Herald Republican from April 1889 Jim Hegney was back in police court where he paid a $10 fine “for battery F.F. Raymond.”  Raymond was the proprietor of the Colorado Saloon just south of Hegney’s saloon.

According to 1893 Polk Directory James Hegney was the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel at 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West and a saloon at 578 West Second South. He was residing at 223 South Fifth [Sixth] West. His brother Patrick was boarding at 221 south as a laborer.

It may have been at this time that Jim Hegney obtained complete management of the Albany Hotel and Saloon as that he was charged with allowing illegal gambling to take place in his saloon according to court records from 1892. He was charged with “conducting a game of chance”. He probably had allowed card games to be played in his saloon and whether he was convicted or paid a fine was not known.

In April 1892 the question of allowing Barber shops to be open on Sunday was discussed in the Salt Lake City council. “The barbers are determined to make a most earnest fight against being forced to work on Sunday and feel encouraged over the action of the council when the petition of Jim Hegney and others, endorsing the action of the council in rescinding the ordinance and asking the no reconsideration be given was laid on the table indefinitely.

July 1892 police raid for violation of the Sunday ordinance included James Hegney. He pleaded guilty and fined $15.

On 25 January 1893, Jim Hegney was called to be appear in city police court, but he did not attend. Instead, he had was attorney plead not guilty for him. The newspaper account of the case stated that Hegney had been “indicted almost a year ago on the charge of conducting gambling houses.”

                        A month later, 20 February 1893, Hegney appeared in Judge Charles Zane’s court to answer a charge of “conducting a game of chance.” No details of whether he found guilty or not was in the article. If guilty he would have paid a fine. It was doubtful he served any jail time having the means to pay a fine.

            The charge, of conducting a “gambling house”, didn’t seem to hurt Hegney’s reputation any, as in that same year he was a member of a committee called “the Business Men’s Association”. The purpose of the association was to raise funds for a copper smelting plant in north Salt Lake. As the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel he was said to have raised $75 from other Second South Street business owners for the cause. In November 1893 a “renewal of retail liquor license for three months” was granted to “James Hegney Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West

Chapter Eleven 

Hegney and Politics

            Jim Hegney was also a leading political figure in his Salt Lake City Second Precinct and was instrumental in organizing the “Liberal Party”, known then also as the anti-Mormon Party. The Utah Liberal Party was part of a progressive movement within the city and state. 

The Liberal Party was formed in 1870 to oppose Mormon domination of local politics via the People's Party. Though vastly outnumbered, the Liberal Party offered an opposing voice in Salt Lake City and won several local elections. The Liberal Party while controlling City Hall, also constructed the city's first sewer systems, constructed the expensive joint Salt Lake City and County Building, and established Liberty Park.

The political district of the Fifteenth Ward contained most of area between First South and Third South Streets, west of Second [Third] West to the Jordan River. The Fifteenth Ward contained most of the “Rio Grande District” and was considered “the banner ward of the Liberal Party.”

James Hegney was elected a delegate to the Liberal Party from the Fifteenth Ward and was a member of the executive committee as well as businessmen Harry F. Evans, L.C. Johnson and J.J. Corum.

 The Salt Lake Herald Republican was one of the main critics of the Liberal Party and disparaged it at every opportunity. It wrote concerning one election in which the Liberal Party prevailed, “Only 126 votes were cast and how many were legitimate may well be imagine.” The Herald regularly attacked the Liberal party and sometimes Jim Hegney’s Rio Grande Saloon. The registering of the Rio Grande District’s itinerant men, without legitimate addresses, was one of the Herald’s main complaints.

“To one unacquainted with Liberal tactics, there is nothing peculiar about it, but to one who has watched the course of the Liberal gang in Salt Lake, the conviction us found upon him that the last sentence should read this way:

It is important that you fill out all the blanks on the coupon carefully and especially give is the addresses of all men in your ten who are out of town or will be on election day, so we can get some saloon bums from the dens near the Rio Grande Wester to vote in their stead.”

However, the polls will be carefully watched on election day and the toughs from Hegeney’s and other resorts will have a warm reception.”

Again, the Herald accused Jim Hegney of participating in election fraud in favor of the Liberal Party. When the “hobos in City Creek” were registered to vote for a Liberal Party candidate, the Herald suggested it was done under the “direction of H. F Taylor, a politician who graduated from Hegney’s Rio Grande saloon”, which was one of the centers of operations for the Liberal Party.

As a member of the Liberal Party that opposed Mormon domination of local politics, Jim Hegney was also supportive of the progressive labor movement.  In October 1885 an article on the Liberal Party mentioned a rally held in front of Jim Hegney’s hotel. “The out of the way place in front of the Denver and Rio Grande hotel on Fifth [Sixth] West Street, selected for the meeting and the insufficient publicity given the announcement, were among the chief causes which combined to prevent the assembling of more than a small size audience to listen to Messrs. J Allan Evans and L. E. Odinga give their views regarding the issue between capital and labor, or ‘Why the Workingmen are Poor.”

“A Labor Meeting had a slim attendance in front of the Denver and Rio Grande Hotel opposite the D.& R. G. depot. About fifty people assembled in the evening and “most, if not all of who attended, outside of the small boys, were either residents of the immediate locality or members of the organization known as the Knights of Labor.”

J Allan Evans spoke of the “recent massacre of the Chinese at Rock Springs and other places, and people who employed them should be charged,” and “talked about the present hard times”, and of “the enemies of the working man.” 

L. E. Odinga “asserted the gulf between the rich man and the poor man was widening every day.” Odinga claimed that the “millionaire has no more regard for the poor in his employ than he has for the fleas that infest his dogs.” He continued by saying “Poverty is the author of crime, of disease, of misery, and distress of every description” and predicted a “clash between labor and capital is coming”. The pair asked all listeners to join the Knights of Labor movement for better wages and working conditions.

The Salt Lake Herald Republican reported in August 1890 that the” Liberal Party was meeting at the Rio Grande hotel, which had degenerated into a sort of free beer hurrah.” It was suggesting that free beer was the impetus for local support for the party.

Again, in August 1891 there was a report of “five rousing Liberal meetings” held in the city including one on Fifth [Sixth] West. “Jim Hegney of the Rio Grande Hotel, an old-time worker, decided to give a celebration on the eve of victory. There’s no half measure about Jim and he gave the party a grand send-off. The front of his place was decorated with the American Flag, which in former years had often been torn from its mast by the church fanatics, but which waved peacefully but majestically last night over a vivid scene. Banners and bunting of the American colors, streamers, Japanese Lanterns, and Roman candles were around the building in tasteful order by the hoist while the youthful population made the foundations of the church and Temple shake with cannon and skyrockets.”

One newspaper reporter commented, “At the Rio Grande Western Railroad it was the greatest night around the railroad works they ever had.  The meeting was made up, as it was intended, of railroad men but there were a good many workingmen and others from the city to assist. Altogether the attendance was one of the largest open-air demonstrations yet held and was a fitting close to the battle.”

The Liberal Party was able to sweep into power in Salt Lake City in 1890 with the help of the Second Precinct and the Fifteenth Ward however their influenced waned after a major statewide defeat in 1893.

James Hegney and a man named T.A. Davis were sureties for a $1000 bond for William J. Allen “the alleged ballot box stuffer” charged with a felony for tampering with ballot papers at the last school election. Judge O.W. Powers was his attorney and Allen did not appear at his hearing. The bond was forfeited unless Allen returned from Washington state.

In May 1891 a call for a political meeting was reported by the Salt Lake Herald Republican, organized by “O.W. Powers, A.L. Williams, James Hegeney [SIC] two tribune reporters and thirty-five equally reputable citizens.”  The meeting “filed the seating capacity of the Federal court room, with nearly a hundred standing in the aisle. The capacity of the Federal Court room is thirty-six benches, seating eight each, or 288, giving a total of 388.”

The purpose of the meeting was to seek a political alliance between the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party. Judges Robert N Baskin and O.W. Powers stated, “that in a meeting of Liberal-Democrats no better name could be suggested.” Judge Baskin stated “The Republican Party has been organized by the priesthood patting them on the back. The Object of the Liberal Party at the beginning was to overturn theocracy. One of the great objects was the Americanization of this territory.”

At the July 1891 Liberal Party caucus of the Fifteenth Ward “178 Liberal were present” At the caucus James Hegney was on a “committee of five” to select names to be voted as delegates to the precinct convention. Twenty-eight men were elected including Harry F Evans, John Sullivan, Joseph J Duckworth and James Hegney, all having businesses on blocks 63 and 64. 

Liberal Party rallies were held at the Salt Lake Theater and Rio Grande Hotel after the caucus and were said to have been “overwhelmingly successes, the theater being packed as never before and a vast sea of humanity being at the Rio Grande Hotel Meeting.”

The rally at the hotel, presided over by Theodore Burmester with the “Liberal Drum Corps” present. “The Ryan Drum Corps was in full uniform and did good service.”

“The railroad boys will have an opportunity of listening to some good Liberal doctrine at the Rio Grande Hotel tonight. Judge [O.W.] Powers will be there during the course of the evening, before he arrives Mr. Burmester who will preside. The railroad boys have a reputation for always making their guests welcome and this occasion will prove no exception.”

“The Liberal meeting in front of the Denver and Rio Grande Hotel last evening was a rousing and enthusiastic affair. Henry Buhring and his usual enterprise and patriotism had prepared a nice stand for the speakers and otherwise made it pleasant for them. The James Hegney and Mr. Taylor had been thoughtful in having the Rio Grande Western shops and passenger depot brightly illuminated for the occasion’.

            Henry Buhring was the proprietor of the Denver Beer Hall located on the corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West just north of the Rio Grande Hotel.

            By 1893 the Liberal Party’s primaries for the Fifteenth Ward in District 2, were being held at Jim Hegney’s Albany Hotel.  A Salt Lake Herald Republican newspaper article, dated 28 October 1893, reported on Hegney’s financial and political status, by quoting his associates. One stated, “I don’t wonder that Jim Hegney clings to the rotten hulk of the Liberal Party, said a gentleman who claimed to know what he’s talking about. When Hegney came he was as poor as the proverbial church mouse. During his residence in Salt Lake, he has accumulated about $100,000. Only a few days ago he purchased real estate and buildings valued at $75,000.”

A Salt Lake Tribune article called “Liberals of Two Precincts” dated 3 November 1893 reported “The Albany Hotel was altogether too small for the comfortable accommodation of the rousing Liberal meeting held there last night. The old reliable Fifteenth Ward turned out in mass and the orators of the event were received with old time enthusiasm.”

During the 1893 election the Salt Lake Herald Republican wrote again of alleged voter fraud claiming “Liberal Crowd tried their old game of running in illegal voters which was nipped in the bud by the corps of active deputy marshals. Arrest of a gang of three One of the men was John Noonan gave address of 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West Street no one prosecuted and turned loose.” That address was the location of the Rio Grande Hotel.

            However, after the “rousing defeat” on the Liberal Party in the November election of 1893, Hegney then became a Democrat. A Salt Lake Herald Republican’s article, dated 27 December 1893, declared, “On Friday evening there will be a-rousing Democratic rally at the Exposition Building and another at Hegney’s hall adjoining the Albany Hotel.”

Hegney and the Democratic Party

On 30 December 1891  the first meeting of the Young Men’s Democratic Club of Salt Lake City was held at the “Democratic headquarters of the Fifteenth ward 221 South  Fifth [Sixth] Street” which was the address of the Rio Grande Hotel. The club commenced with a membership of 150 “and a prospect which amounts almost to a certainty that in a week it will number 450 and will become a great political power in the city. Quite a number of railroad men belong to its ranks.”

            In January 1892 the Young Men’s Democratic Club held a large meeting at the Rio Grande Hotel. When party secretary N.A. Parks spoke he “made a hit of the evening when he said; ‘Keep your eye on Hegney.’ The registrations and boarding house changes must be watched.” He was inferring the registration of voters at Hegney’s boarding house who were not legal voting residents. “the Democratic drum corps was out and although the adjoining house was partly filled by Liberals, yet the “doing ups” process was not a success.”

Chapter Twelve 

Death Notices of People Residing at the Rio Grande Hotel

“At the Rio Grande Hotel in this city on the evening of February 1^st, [1891] John McDonald, age 23, died. Deceased was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and has been a resident of Salt Lake but a short time. The funeral services were held yesterday afternoon in the parlors of the hotel, Rev. Mr. Arnold of the Presbyterian Church officiating. Mr. and Mrs. James Hegney of the Rio Grande were untiring in their efforts to administer proper care to the deceased during his short illness.”

“Charles McKeague, age 51 died 29 April 1894 at No. 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West after an illness of about a month of asthma. The deceased has been for years the head bookkeeper for James Hegney.” An advertisement was place regarding his funeral in the Salt Lake Herald Republican by John F Collins, President of the Irish American Society; “Irish Americans Attention! The members of the Irish American society are requested to meet at the Rio Grande hotel at 9 a.m. today to attend the funeral of our late brother, Charles McKeague.” Actually, Charles Stewart McKeague was a native of Scotland although his wife was Irish. She continued to reside at the Rio Grande after her husband’s death. McKeague was buried in Mount Calvary the Catholic Cemetery.

Civic Improvement Committees

In August 1891, James Hegney and others asked that a sidewalk be constructed on the north side of Second South from Fifth [Sixth] West to Seventh West where there had been none. In October the sidewalk was approved by the city.

He also was on a committee that asked the Salt Lake City council for an “abatement of a nuisance in the shape of a pool of stagnant water on Second south between Fifth and Sixth West.”  

James Hegney was on the “Rio Grande and Union Pacific Boulevard committee” in February 1893. The boulevard committee made up of the Business Men’s association met at the Knutsen Hotel in downtown “to recommend a boulevard as far as possible to connect the differ parks and public grounds.” Hegney was instrumental in securing donations for the project from businessmen from the Rio Grande District. He donated $50 himself,  with a total of $75 from others.

Chapter Thirteen

The Albany Hotel and Saloon

It was announced in November 1889 newspapers that the Rio Grande Hotel was to be “removed and a commodious brick erected in its stead early in the spring.” Charles L Hannamann and wife had sold  to William Burke, John  J Daly and Louis F Kullak  a parcel of 192 feet by 165 on lot 5 block 63  “opposite east of Rio Grande Western depot plat A for $26,730”

It was announced in August 1890 that the “Carroll and Kern” architect firm  “closed a contract with Mr. Brown of Ogden for erecting the Daly, Burk and Kullak building” on Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West. The building was a  two story high building, 165 feet by 50 feet. “The contract price is $18,000. It will contain a large lodging house and nine stores.” 

In September 1890 the eight-inch wide, two story brick wall “recently built as the south wall of the Kullak and Daly building, corner of Second south and Fifth [Sixth] West streets, fell over Friday night onto the Hegney’s Rio Grande Hotel.” Only three feet separated the two structures.

“It smashed in the roof and descended on the bed of one of the hired girls like a Kansas cyclone. Fortunately, she tumbled over onto the floor ere the weight of the full weight of the timbers came onto the bed and escaped uninjured except for her wits. Mr. Hegney says that had the other girls been in bed they would have been killed. Mr. Hegney thinks the building Inspector ought to look over many of the buildings now going up, as they bear watching.”

The loss amounted to about $3,200, with Kullak, Burke, and Daly “footing the bills.” When the hotel complex was built the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showed that it was a wooden structure, and only the south wall that had fallen was rebuilt with brick.

The Salt Lake Herald carried an article dated 6 February 1891 about the newly constructed complex on the northwest corner of Block 63. “The building erected by John J. Daly, William Burke, and L.F. Kullak on the corner of Second South and Fifth East [sic actually West] , and known as the Albany, is the center of a trading quarter, being the scene of none stores, in which a person can buy anything from a sheet of paper to a barrel of whiskey and a coffin. There is a drug, furniture, grocery, clothing, jewelry, and stationary store and two wholesale liquor stores in the one building. Quite an emporium.”

The Albany Hotel, built on the northwest corner of Lot Five Block 63 Plat A was at the intersection of Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West. It was constructed by 1890 for it to have been included in the 1891 Polk Directory.

The 1898 Sanborn map showed that the complex ten addresses for this building: 511, 513, 515, 517 519, 521, and 523 South all fronting Fifth [Sixth West] and 595, 597, and 599 West fronting Second West. The Second West addresses were all entrances to the Albany Saloon, hotel, and offices.

“The Albany Hotel”, was named most likely, after the premier Albany Hotel located in Denver which had an excellent national reputation for accommodations for travelers. The Albany Hotel, as described on the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, was built just three feet north of Hegney’s old hostelry at 521 South Fifth [Sixth] West.

An advertisement for the Albany Hotel located at 597 West Second South was placed in the Polk Directory under the category of “Lodging House.”  It read “Open day and Night; Everything New and Neat. Albany Hotel-Opposite Rio Grande Western Depot. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Special rates by the week; Meals 25 dents. Cor. Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South Streets Salt Lake City. Henry Bridgeford, Manager.” 

The 1892 Polk Directory listed Jesse P Osborne as the manager of the Albany Hotel. A newspaper account from May 1892 mentioned that “Matt Murphy, a railroad man who rooms at the Albany Hotel, was “arrested last night for stealing a horse and buggy belonging to William White of the Z.C.M.I. It was a drunken freak, and in consequence a bold one. The outfit was hitched to a post in front of Wonderland while White and his family was visiting and without hesitation Murphy cut the rope with a knife, jumped into the buggy and drove to the Albany House where he left it.”

Another article from September 1892 mentioned a burglary at the hotel. “The Albany Hotel at the corner of Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South Street was broken into by burglars at an early hour this morning. The different apartments were thoroughly ransacked by the thieves who pried open the combination money till and secured $40 in cash after which they took their departure unobserved.” 

“A gentleman who resides in that part of the city said that citizens in that district were completely at the mercy of crooks. He thought something should be done to give them protection at once.”

In October 1892 a notice of “John F Craig vs. W.S. Patrick” was placed in regard to the “dissolution of partnership and accounting of the business connected with the management and lease of the Albany hotel and asking for a receiver.” According to 1893 Polk Directory John F Craig was the proprietor of the Albany Hotel. However probably in that year Jim Hegney acquired the larger more accommodating hostelry adjacent to his Rio Grande Hotel.

In August 1893, it seemed that someone had deliberately attempted to burn the Albany Hotel down. Small fires were set in the kitchen and an upstairs storeroom but were quickly discovered in time to be put out without much damage. An article said there was only about $10 worth of damage and that the building and furnishings were well insured.

            Articles in both the Salt Lake Herald Republican and the Salt Lake Tribune featured reports regarding the fire set at the hotel. However, The Tribune contained more details about the fire in an August 19 articles d; “A Base Attempt. “A firebug made a dastardly attempt last night at 10:30 o’clock to destroy the Albany Hotel building on Fifth [Sixth] West] between Second and Third South. It was first in the restaurant on the ground floor then in a storeroom in the second story. Both blazes were extinguished with buckets of water by the people about the house."

            "Before the fire was discovered, a man was seen to rush hurried down by the rear stairway from the second story, and a roomer, who followed him, discovered the blaze in a rear room of the restaurant."

            "The loss will not exceed $10. The building was owned by Burke & Daly and was valued at $13,000. The lodging house furniture owned by Henry Lyne was insured for $1000 and the restaurant owned by Mrs. Van Gilder for $325."

Jim Hegney purchased the northwest corner of Lot 5 in block 63 consisting of 10 rods [165 feet] along Fifth [Sixth] South and 12 rods [198 feet] along Second South and in September 1893 he took out a mortgage from the “Salt Lake Real Estate NS Investment Company” for $27,000 to buy the Albany Hotel.

A September 1893 an article reported that “James Hegney is evidently not afraid to put money into real estate in this city. A deed was put on record at the County Recorder’s office yesterday from the Salt Lake Real Estate and Investment Company and John J Daly to James Hegney for $27,000.” 

The 1894 Polk Directory listed James Hegney now as the proprietor of the Albany Hotel at 595 West. The directory stated that John F Craig had moved to Walla, Walla Washington.  The Rio Grande Hotel was not listed in the directory at all in the directory as a hotel.

Lawsuit Hegney vs. the State Insurance Board

            At the end of the 19th Century Jim Hegney was next found suing the State Insurance Board because five different insurance company denied him property insurance; even after he had paid one, but the policy was later rescinded. He complained that his property, being on the west side of town, was being discriminated against.

            The Salt Lake Herald Republican reported on 17 April 1898 in a feature titled “May Sue the Board James Hegney was denied property insurance,” that one of the reasons Hegney was denied insurance was probably due to the high crime rate that occurred in the Rio Grande Depot proximity. Certainly, the demographics of the area were changing, and the city provided little police oversight.

Chapter Fourteen 

The 1900 Federal Census

          James Hegney’s family of a wife and seven children lived at the address of 595 West Second South according to the 1900 federal census. His household also included two Chinese cooks, a bartender, two housekeepers, a hotel clerk, and forty lodgers.  His occupation was given as a ‘hotel keeper” of the Albany Hotel.   

    At the turn of the Century, James Hegney was enumerated on 7 June 1900 in District 25 of the Second Precinct of Salt Lake City. His residence was given as 595 West Second South in Salt Lake City. He stated he was born in April 1845 in Ohio to Irish parents. His wife Eliza [nee’ Grundy] was born November 1856 in Utah to English parents. His occupation was given as Hotel Keeper. In his household were listed 5 daughters and two sons.

            The other residents of the Albany Hotel were also enumerated in the 1900 United States Census. Jim Hegney employed two Swedish women in their mid-twenties, as “hotel servants”, a fifty-year-old Scotsman as his hotel clerk, a thirty-nine year old Irish American as a bartender, and two Chinese men in their forties as hotel cooks.

            Forty men roomed at the hotel; all but five were single men ranging in age from twenty-three years to sixty-three old. Thirteen of the men were in their twenties, eight were in their thirties, ten were over forty years old, seven were in their fifties, and two were over sixty years old.

A Rise of Crime in the Neighborhood

            The last remaining years of Jim Hegney’s life, he saw his neighborhood change as the old Mormon shop keepers and businesses moved away, replaced by a “foreign element” of recent Southern European immigrants many of whom were unable to speak English.

In a 22 January 1903 Salt Lake Tribune article called “Burglary on West”, the paper reported on a break-in at his hotel and drug store. Hegney was quoted in the account of complaining of the lack patrolmen after midnight on the west side of Salt Lake City.

            “James Hegney, owner of the Albany Hotel and the West Side Drug Store, had a visitation from thieves early yesterday morning. The rear of the hotel and one of the drug store windows were entered by the looters who secured about $140 worth of good.'"

            "Nothing was known of the matter until Mr. Hegney made the discovery late last night that about $40 worth of articles from the store were missing. Then he made a search and learned that the window glass in the side of the building had been cut away. No disturbance was made by the burglars in their operations."

            "Mr. Hegney says that from the rear of the hotel he missed three bundles of goods. In one of them being a very valuable gun that he prized highly. Many carpenter tools from the same place were stolen. All the articles aggregating about $100 which together with the stuff taken from the drug store brings his loss up to about $140."

            "Mr. Hegney speaks very bitterly of the lack of police protection in the neighborhood of the Rio Grande Western depot. 'It’s an outrage,' he said, 'that we can’t have an officer out here at night, just as other portions of the city have. It was always dangerous for residents in this part of the city. Robberies occur very frequently in this quarter and holdups are even more frequent. I think it was about time we were given a little more protection from thieves.”

In August 1903, the acting Chief of Police, Joseph E. Burbridge, sent communications to the council committee on Police and Prison recommending that the liquor license of the Albany Hotel and bar be revoked. James Hegney’s bartender George Westfield had been fined $50 for violation of the liquor ordinance prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sunday and had been fined $50.  Hegney had to appear before the committee to show why his license should not be revoked.

Two masks men held of the Albany saloon in January 1905 only absconding with $4 of $5  from the cash register.  George Blundell was the bartender and he and three other men in the saloon were lined up against the wall and searched “but they had very little money.”  The robbers were “slender and well dressed.”  The 1907 Polk Directory stated that Blundell moved off to Boise, Idaho.

Chapter Fifteen

Jim Hegney's Death

The Albany Hotel was Jim Hegney residence for 17 years until his death in 1907. Towards the end of his life he witnessed the change of his “lodgers” from being a “respectable” cliental to a more rougher and more indigent one. He must have also been dismayed at seeing the property values of the area declined as the demographics changed with the influx of “foreigners” primarily from Southern Europe and the Near Middle East.

In February 1907, Jim Hegney passed away from a type of kidney disease while residing in the Albany Hotel. His death was noted in both the Salt Lake Telegram and the Salt Lake Herald Republican newspapers. 

28 Feb 1907 Salt Lake Telegram: “James E. Hegney, owner of the Albany hotel and an old resident of this city, died yesterday afternoon at the age of 63 years. For a number of years, he had conducted the Albany hotel at the corner of Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South streets which has been the stopping place for nearly all the railroad men who had to layover in this city. The deceased leaves a widow, five daughters and two sons. The funeral will be held from St. Mary's cathedral at 9:30 o'clock Friday morning. He died of Bright Disease. The genial host enjoyed a wide acquaintance, and his business adventures in Salt Lake the past 25 years proved successful and he left a neat fortune to his family."

28 February 1907 Salt Lake Herald Republican: “James Hegney Passes Away- Kept Albany Hotel and was known everywhere as the Railroad Man’s Friend. ACCUMULATED A FORTUNE- WIDOW AND FIVE CHILDREN SURVIVE HIM- In the death of James Hegney of Salt Lake, proprietor of the Albany Hotel, Railroad men of the intermountain country have lost a friend of a quarter of a century. Not an engineer, fireman, conductor or brakie, freight and passenger alike, running on the long roads that stretch from Salt Lake, but knew and loved “Jim” Hegney.  The Albany was the railroad’s man’s hangout when in town, and the old man behind the counter knew them."

            "The hotel man died at the age of 65 at his home at 575 West Second South. He died wealthy, the greater portion of his wealth being in real estate."

            "A widow, five daughters, three of whom are married and two sons survive him. The younger two daughter are Maida and Gladys. The two sons are James and Charles and the three married daughters are Mrs. Thomas Lamplugh, Mrs. Frank Conrad, and Mrs. Thomas Charlton.”

The funeral will be held from St. Mary’s Cathedral Friday morning. A high requiem mass will be celebrated by Father Curran. Father Kelly and old friends of the deceased will preach the funeral sermon. Interment will be in Mount Calvary.”

Hegney was given a Catholic Mass and  then buried in the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery located at 275 North U Street (1252 East) in Salt Lake City.

After the death of James Hegney, his family moved out of the hotel and his estate leased the building to a series of Greek “proprietors”. The once prestigious Albany Hotel eventually became a ‘rooming house’ for the mostly single Greek men who emigrated to Salt Lake City during the first decades of the Twentieth Century.

Hegney Descendants

James Hegney only had the two sons, James Edward Hegney and Charles Francis Hegney. Hegney’s three daughters, were Mrs. Sophia Conrad, Mrs. Maida Quinlin, and Mrs. Gladys Peterson. Additionally he had two step daughters Mrs. Eudora Lamplugh, and Mrs. Mary Charlton.

James E. Hegney died in 1910 of acute Peritonitis at the age of 23 while he was a student at the University of Utah.  James Hegney’s only surviving son, Charles Francis Hegney, married, separated, but did not divorced as they were a Catholics family. They also never had children.

Charles Hegney continued to manage the family’s property on Second South after his mother died in 1925. He still had property interest in the old Albany Hotel building as that in April 1949, he paid $1675 for a building permit to install a new ceiling in the establishment. Tragically Charles Hegney committed suicide in 1951 by shooting himself while living at the Congress Hotel in Salt Lake City.

James Hegney’s eldest daughter, Sophia Hegney married Winfield Franklin Conrad and had two sons, James Franklin and Jacob. However Jacob died of smallpox as an infant. The surviving son “Jim” Conrad became a professional baseball player for the Coal League before later becoming the owner of the Kozy Korner Tavern, located on the property that his grandfather had owned at 700 West and Second South.

The middle daughter, Maida Hegney, also called “Mary”, was married three times but only had children by her first husband Thomas Russell Sprunt. She had the two children named James Hegney Sprunt and Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Sprunt.

Maida and Thomas Russell Sprunt were divorced by 1930. She then married twice more.  Her second husband was Arthur Pachkofsky, a soldier in the U.S. Army at Fort Douglas. He died a year after they were married from a truck rollover accident in Cedar City.

In September 1940, Mary married for the third time, James J Quinlin. She died, however, a few months later while visiting Los Angeles. She died of pneumonia at the age of 48. Her two children then inherited their mother’s shares of the estate left by James Hegney.

The youngest daughter of James Hegney, Gladys Hegney, married Oscar T. Peterson but she also had no children either. She died in 1961 at the age of 66.

The only surviving grandchildren of James Hegney, and his heirs therefore, were James Franklin Conrad, Mary Elizabeth Sprunt, and James Hegney Sprunt. 

Chapter Sixteen 

John  Sullivan 1835-1920

A biography of John Sullivan was provided by a descendant of his as told by a Margaret Connelly who grew up next door to her Sullivan grandparents  and “possibly heard her grandfather’s drunken boast from time to time of “ I’M JOHN L. SULLIVAN AND I CAN LICK ANY MAN  IN THE WORLD! His name was actually John C. Sullivan, but at his saloon or when he came home to his daughter’s house in Salt Lake City after a night of drinking, he would often loudly imitate the boast of the great John L.   In the early 1900s, John C. was aging, but his swagger, with his big hands and broad shoulders from decades of swinging a sledgehammer on the frontier easily gave the impression that the man did know how to fight.”

Margaret Connelly repeatedly re-told the story of her grandparents to her children, and they to their children “more than one hundred years later.”     

An immigrant from famine ravished Ireland, John C. hailed from the town KiImallock, County Limerick.  He arrives in New York by ship in 1850.  Irish immigrants fill the city, but 15 year old John has instructions to make his way to the station and get on a train for Chicago. “

“ Arriving there, he goes to the Burlington rail yards seeking work.  Railroad building is occurring all over rural Illinois as pioneer farming communities want to get their crops to markets in the big cities.”    

 Employed by one of the many railroad gangs operating throughout southwest Illinois, young John C. likely spent his days moving rock and carrying iron rails along with a rugged crew of other mostly Irish immigrants.  At night he sleeps on the ground.”   

In the small town of Galesburg, Illinois, only about 30 miles from the Mississippi River, John Sullivan is acquainted with Michael Carey, another Irish worker for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Rail Road.  Galesburg is the hub for the new C.B. & Q. R.R. or simply called the “Q” by those who knew it well.  John and Mike were becoming railroad veterans.”   

 In 1858, Mike Carey’s younger sister Catherine arrives in Galesburg from County Mayo, Ireland.  The men are often away laying track somewhere in Illinois or Iowa, but on August 8, 1862 John Sullivan, age 27, and Catherine (Kate) Carey, age 19, are married in Galesburg.  John and Kate’s first child, John W. Sullivan is born in October of 1863.”

“In December 1863, the new Union Pacific Railroad (U.P.) breaks ground in Omaha, Nebraska Territory, for the Transcontinental Railway.  

Now working for the Union Pacific railroad, John Sullivan is not home very often over the next few years as the U.P. builds westward.  Working 12 hours a day, the laborers develop muscles like steel.  They sleep on the ground in rough tent camps.  Whisky is plentiful at night and fighting is common.   Big John can take care of himself with his fists.”

 In early 1868, the Transcontinental Railroad is nearly complete when John Sullivan returns home to Galesburg to work for the “Q” again.    John and Kate’s first daughter Catherine Agnes (little Katie) is born on November 16, 1868.  The children come steadily now.  Mary is born in 1871, Anna in November, 1873.  Elizabeth (Libbie) is born on April 16, 1875.  Their 2nd son Michael Henry (Mike) arrives on October 20, 1876.  The youngest, Margaret (Maggie) is born in July of 1878.  As the family grows, the Sullivans need to move from home to home, always staying within a short walking distance of the Galesburg train depot.    A year after Maggie’s birth, John is offered a job as a ‘Section boss’ with the Union Pacific.  It is more money, but the position is in western Wyoming. As a foreman, he can bring his family with him.“John knows that it is a dreary outpost, but Kate wants to keep the family together.   They start packing.”

“Early one morning a horse drawn wagon carries the kids and baggage to the nearby Galesburg depot to be loaded onto a train for Rock Island, Illinois, just north along the Mississippi River.  At the Rock Island terminus they transfer everything to another train going west.  John passes the time talking with the firemen tending the locomotive boiler.  Kate spreads blankets and cushions on the hard wooden benches and gets the children comfortable, feeding them with the food that she has packed in baskets.  Through windows the Sullivans watch the sights of the Prairie they are passing through while John regales them with stories of buffalo, Indians, and his many adventures out here a decade earlier; building the road they now ride upon.”  

“After 3 days they arrive in the tiny frontier town of Piedmont, Wyoming.    Compared to Galesburg with its wide avenues, storefronts, churches, and a college, the sight of Piedmont must have been a shock to John’s family.  Counting themselves, there are only 41 households in Piedmont, Wyoming in 1880.” 

“Most are immigrants from Italy, China, or Scotland.  Not so many Irish as there were in Illinois.  The town has one store, two saloons, and two cemeteries.  There is a single schoolhouse, a telegraph office, the train depot, and lots of smelly charcoal kilns for making railroad ties.    In Piedmont, the Sullivans board several of the Chinese workers on John’s gang.  Boarders help cover the Sullivan’s living expenses and they save most of John’s pay.  There is not much to buy in Piedmont anyway.   John learns about the profit in running a boarding house.  

 The Sullivans stay in Piedmont for several years.  The family becomes smaller.  Their daughter Mary dies (cause unknown).  Their oldest son John W. is a railroad man himself now, working on a faraway rail section in Iowa.     Kate worries about their other daughters growing up in such a god-forsaken place, far from any suitable husbands.  They all miss the Irish community back in Illinois.  John sends feelers up and down the rail lines about other jobs. 

 In 1886, John Sullivan gets offered a job as a ‘Section Boss’ for the Denver & Rio Grande Western (RGW) railroad, recently based in the capital of Utah.  Salt Lake City is the largest city between Chicago and San Francisco.  It is a modern town of broad avenues lined with trees fed by running water diverted from mountain creeks for this purpose.  There is a municipal sewer system.  Shopping is plentiful, schools are good, and churches of all persuasion are located there.   

The Sullivans can’t get there fast enough.   John resigns from the Union Pacific.   There is little to pack.  Leaving behind one grave in the cemetery, the family boards a train and is settling into a Salt Lake apartment in a matter of days. 

 When John Sullivan meets Peter J. Connolly at the Salt Lake City railroad yards, he likes him immediately.   Peter is Ireland born, an experienced mechanic for the RGW, and a young bachelor.  In 1886, at the age of 26, Peter leaves home for Salt Lake City where he finds a job with the RGW as a machinist.  There he soon meets John Sullivan, an Irish railroad foreman, and is invited to supper to meet John’s daughter Catherine.   Peter Joseph Connolly and Catherine Agnes Sullivan are married in grand style the following year on December 28th 1887.   

When John tells Kate about the young man, she urges her husband to bring the younger man to Sunday dinner soon.  Their eldest daughter Catherine Agnes is 18.  Kate gets busy mending a dress for Catherine. 

Chapter Seventeen 

The Sullivan House 263 South Fifth [Sixth] West 

John Sullivan proprietor.

    Salt Lake City in the late 1880s had a large Irish community that followed the railroads west.  The Sullivans are content here, but John Sullivan notices that there is a housing shortage for many of his rail yard laborers.  In 1889, John makes a big decision to retire from his railroad job after 40 years of manual labor, and buy a large building located at 263 South 5th St. West with the money saved during the Piedmont years.   John renames the building, Sullivan House.”

In October 1889 Sullivan placed the following advertisement in the Salt Lake Tribune, “Mr. John Sullivan an old employee of the Denver and Rio Grande railway, has opened the Sullivan House opposite the Rio Grande depot which for clean beds and square meals cannot be surpassed. In connection with the hotel is the Bar where the finest of Wines, Liquor, and Cigars are dispense by the genial proprietor John Sullivan.”

The Sullivan House was also used as a location to recruit men to work as a want ad from November 1889 read “Wanted –Fifty Men For D & R G railway; $2.25 to $3 per day. Be at the Sullivan House, opposite D & R.G. depot this Sunday Morning at 8:30.”

Actually John Sullivan may have built the Sullivan House rather than bought it. A newspaper article dated 1 January 1890 showed that “John Sullivan of Fifth [Sixth] West between 3^rd and 4^th South took out a building permit for a two story frame house for $4500 and also a permit later for $200 in “improvements at 263 South Fifth [Sixth] West. The 1890 Salt Lake City Directory listed John Sullivan as the proprietor of the Sullivan House at 263 South Fifth [Sixth] West and Patrick J Sullivan as the saloon keeper Saloon located at 257 South. Patrick Sullivan resided at the same address. 

 A list of businesses and homes being constructed by the Carroll and Kerns Company in October 1890 listed “J Sullivan, boarding House at $9,000 and “John Sullivan, hotel $13,000.

In November 1890, 63 year old George Snow was found lying in a helpless condition at the corner of Third [Fourth] West and Fifth South Street in front of the Salt Lake Meat Co.’s office, [actually Fifth west and Third South] apparently in a fit. He was immediately taken to the Sullivan House to be cared for where he expired in ten minutes. The deceased was a resident of this city since 1851 and was a habitual drunkard for many years.”

“His boarding house easily attracts many tenants.  Business is so good that in 1891 he buys another hotel at 101 South 4th West called Nevada Place.   About the same time, John opens a saloon next door to Sullivan House.   John and Kate move their home into Nevada Place.  Each of their adult unmarried children; Mike, Libby, Anne, and Maggie has their own apartment at Nevada Place. 

1891 2 houses one half Block from Denver and Rio Grande Depot Flowing well and nicely furnished  Apply J. Sullivan at Sullivan House 263 South Fifth [Sixth] West

James Hegney and John Sullivan both being Irish hotel proprietors also engaged in sporting events. In 1891 it was announced that “The Sullivan House baseball nine hearing so much of the ability of the Hegney nine challenged them to play a game of ball on Sunday 2^nd May 1891 Address Gerald Irvine captain.

Chapter Eighteen

John Sullivan and the Liberal Party

In February 1890 the Liberal Party asked for a show of support against the Mormon People Party by asking residents to light up their houses. The Glorious Illumination. Whose says this is not a Liberal City/ Any party who rode about town last night as did not a few citizens, and saw the illuminations of Liberal houses and is not convinced that Salt Lake is Gentile by 1000 majority, has dwarfed powers of observations. Why a dealer in illuminating plant claims that in round numbers 25,000 Japanese lanterns were hung last evening to say nothing of other decorations and fireworks.”  The paper printed a list of homes and businesses that were illuminated which included the “Sullivan House near D & R G depot”

The Sullivan House and the Rio Grande Hotel were hot spots for the Liberal Party and were harassed for their political views. In February 1890  “Eight policemen are constantly parading the streets between the John Sullivan’s House, Hegney’s saloon, Johnson’s saloon, and P.J. Sullivan’s establishment. They are there for the purpose of catching men asleep or loafing around when they run them in to the jug for vagrancy and this prevent the casting of that many probable Liberal votes.”

            In May 1890 the “Irish American Association” gave a “grand ball in honor of General P. E. Connor’s 70^th birthday on St. Patrick day. Both  James Hegney proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel and “John S. Sullivan” of the Sullivan House were  members.

In early August 1890 the Liberal Party held a large rally on Fifth [Sixth] West to engage the railroad workers of the Rio  Grande Western railway yards. “It was the greatest night around the railroad works they ever had. Such enthusiasm, such a crowd and such excitement made the old timers rub their eyes. And the corrugations of wit and humor, the telling sentences of the speakers, made them shout themselves horse. The music and the fireworks, the decorations and the great interest taken by all made the hearts of the leaders glad.”

Both Jim Hegney and John Sullivan were in full support of the Liberal Party. “Jim Hegney of the Rio Grande Hotel, an old time worker, decided to give a celebration on the eve of victory. There are no half measures about Jim, and he gave the party a grand send 0ff. The front of his place was decorated with the American Flag, which in former years had been often torn from its mast by church fanatics, but waved peacefully but majestically last night over the vivid scene. Banners and bunting of the American colors, streamers, Japanese lanterns, and Roman candles were placed around the building in tasteful  order by the host, with the youthful population made the foundation of the church and Temple shake with cannon and skyrockets.”

“John Sullivan, of the Sullivan House, a veteran of the fight desired to show his appreciation of the Liberal Party and had arranged for a grand send off. His place was beautifully decorated also.”

           

December 1891 William Harrison and George Johnson who yesterday uninvited wooed Morpheus  in Sullivan’s boarding house at the Utah and Nevada depot were arrested by Officers Heath and Shannon and booked on charges of trespass.

1892  Thomas Byrne was arrested yesterday by Officers Danner on a charge of petit larceny. The offense was committed July 15, 1891 on which date Byrne stole a quantity of clothing from the Nevada House at the Utah and Nevada Depot belong to Ed Dempsey.

In 1893 John Sullivan assigned the lease for the Sullivan House over to his wife Catherine who a few months later assigned the lease to James Morey for $700.

In July 1893 a 45 year old man named “Poney” Anderson, a roustabout at the Sullivan house, near the Rio Grande Western Depot  for several years, committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart.  Shortly before 6 O’clock Anderson was seen by a waitress Emma Ellis  girl in the kitchen of the hotel with a bread knife , the long blade ground down until quite narrow. At 6 Ed Norton one of the employees opened the kitchen door to the outside and saw Anderson lying on the ground in the rear of the Sullivan House , his breast covered with blood and in  dying condition. Anderson was about 45 years of age and resided for a number of years in Salt Lake. Officer Siegius who formerly had the Rio Grande Beat was well acquainted with the decease . Anderson told the officer he was of Irish decent and lived in the South until after the war serving as a private in the Confederate Army. He was unmarried and had no relatives  on this part of the country and never spoke of his family to anyone. “Drink was the cause of the crime.”

5 Sept  1893 This morning at 2 the engines at the Rio Grande western began to shriek out an alarm of fire and soon the bells of the city hall were adding their clangor to the alarming sounds. The sky in the west was lighted up with a glare that looked as though some big blaze was on. The fire though was confined to three one-story frame shacks near the Sullivan House of Fifth Street. One was occupied as a dwelling by John E Stone, whose goods were unceremoniously piled in the street, another by the grocery store of Ben Smith, and the third was unoccupied. The lost will not reach $1,500, all uninsured.

October 1893 John Sullivan was placed on trial, charged that he and others had been guilty of  participating in a riot from  May 20^th 1893, by throwing stone  at a house where Charles Croft’s family lived but owned by Mathew Gardner of Eureka, Utah.  Sullivan was reported to have lived about fifty feet from the Croft’s house.

In May the windows in the Croft’s residence had been broken out while occupants were away and upon the Crofts return a crowd was gathered in front of his residence telling to him that he had to move out. The Crofts family became frightened at these threats and moved away.

At the October trial, Charles Croft testified in court that John Sullivan “often threw stones at him when going to and from the house”, and “once had shaken his fist at him declaring he would kill him.” He claimed that Sullivan had “encouraged small boys to throw stones” at him also. 

Deputy Sheriff Scott testified that he heard a disturbance in the vicinity of the Rio Grande Western Depot and when he went there, he saw a crowd gathered near the residence of Charles Croft.  He said he witnessed Sullivan among the crowd that was . calling out “scab” and yelling so loudly that the noise could be heard for Blocks away. Scott testified he heard Sullivan yell that “no scab would be allowed to live in that house.”  Another lawman, policeman Lewis said that  he heard Sullivan call scab but saw him commit no violence.

Mrs. Jacobs was near Sullivan’s house on that day and said he might have  called “scab” but was sure he took no part in the violent demonstrations.  She  was one on the indicted rioters \Sullivan testified that he heard a noise on the evening of May 20^th and stepped out to hear the noise. Officer Henroild ordered him indoors and he went in his house and never came out gain that evening.

            Mrs. Sarah Quinn testified that when Officer Henrold ordered Sullivan in he had never come out of the house again.

October 1893 A Salt Lake Herald Republican’s report on “More Liberal Crookedness” was published claiming “The registration methods of the Liberals, which are being brought to light, show a condition of things which would put the political healers of the “slums” wards of New York to blush.”  The reported that men had been registered in the Second Precinct on vacant lots and at defunct saloons, “whose doors have not been open for a half a year. Others registered at homes of prostitution, where their terms of residence have been of such very brief duration that it is doubtful if they could find their way back again after dark.

There are seventy-one men registered on Fifth [Sixth] West street, not one of whom has been in the city for several months and some of whom have been away for over one year.  Here are a few of them

Henry Lynds registered at 275 Fifth [Sixth] West could not be found, Mike Shea registered at 227 Fifth [Sixth] West Street could not be found. The number 227 is that of Jim Hegney’s old saloon which has been closed for about six months. Pat Cleary and a half dozen others are registered at the Sullivan House 263 Fifth [Sixth] West street. It was ascertained that these men who were some of the regular Liberal floaters, have not been living in the city for several months  but ere last heard from at a Park City.

Chapter Nineteen 

The Nevada House

In 1894 an article was printed regarding the Nevada House without mentioning Sullivan’s name. “Late Friday night, the proprietor of the Nevada House complained at headquarters that W.H. Patton, a horseman, had been boarding and lodging with him since December 23[1893] and was in arrears some $40. Not having enough money with which to liquidate and being out of work, Patton purchases a scalper’s ticket for Missouri, and intended to leave for the east yesterday morning. He was arrested however, on the charge of obtaining board under false pretenses and at the morning session  of the court was arraigned. The hotel man was adverse to a criminal prosecution and stated it was the money he wanted and not his debtor’s liberty. Patton was given his ticket and discharged.” 

“W. H Patton, a young man who claims to be a farmer, has been boarding at the Nevada House on West South temple street for forty days, his bill amounting to $20 yesterday.  He concluded to levant and accordingly packed his grip, purchased a railroad ticket to Craig, Mo., and ‘prepared to depart by the light of the moon/ His landlord was vigilant, however, and with the aid of a bluecoat landed him in the presence of Chief Pratt, who initiated him into the mysteries of criminal jurisprudence, confiscated his ticket, and turned him lose with the admonition to appear in the Police Court this morning at 10 o’clock.”

February 1894 A case of sickness and destitution was brought to light yesterday in a family residing near the corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth]  west. Those familiar with the facts state that the case is one which should appeal to the charitably inclined, and those who desire to assist can learn the particulars at the Sullivan House.

“Running two boarding houses, with lots of friends at the railroad, John C. Sullivan meets many Irish workers living in town.  He likes a hard-working RGW traffic clerk, a young bachelor who lives nearby at 546 W. 3rd South St. and is supporting his widowed Irish mother.  Andy Cronin is just a few years older than John’s daughter Elizabeth (Libbie).

The financial Panic of 1894 must have effected John Sullivan was that he delinquent paying his County taxes.  Lien of $64  was placed on the Sullivan House in March 1894 and in December 1894 he was delinquent for improvements on Lot Three for $66. In 1895 Butterworth sued John Sullivan and Catherine Sullivan to recover $292 for rent due and restitution of premises

Chapter Twenty

The Old Sullivan House

What interest John  Sullivan still had in hotel on Fifth [Sixth} West is  undetermined as  the family was residing at the Nevada House in Block 64. The hotel was still being used for politcal purposes. An article from October 1895 stated, the  "James Glendenning Marching Club" was organized in the Fifteenth Ward last night with seventy-five members.  A cordial invitation is extended to all residences of the Second Precinct to join. Headquarters at the old Sullivan House Fifth [Sixth] West street between Second and Third South." 

 The "West Side Republicans" of the Second Precinct  were to "report at West Side Headquarters (Old Sullivan House) at 7 pm to George Dean for a ratification of the Republican city ticket. "The West Side Republicans boys have their final rally tonight at the Sullivan House at 265 South Fifth [Sixth] West. Hon. George W Moyer and other speakers to be in attendance and there will be good music. He said the “Democratic fear of the priesthood in Utah was akin to the terror that once actuated the brethren in an Indiana town who quit their church in a body because he was talking Republican doctrine." 

County records show that during April 1898, John Sullivan lost his boarding house on Fifth [Sixth] to the county for back taxes. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map listed the Sullivan House as a two story wooden frame “boarding and lodging” structure connected to the brick two story structure at 265 West of which the first floor was a wagon house [livery]. Behind this building was the western alley that encircles the homes on Denver Street.

During July 1900 Mrs. Alice Butterworth wife of Edmund, was able to acquire the hotel by a Quit Claim Deed from the county for $50. 

Suicide of Jack C. Howard [1864-1900]

In January 1900 Jack C Howard, a gambler and ex railroader, committed suicide at the “old

Sullivan House, 263 South Fifth [Sixth] West Street” evidently from “the effects of laudanum self administered.  Several boarders at the Sullivan house said they had seen Howard in the hotel office and one man concerned about Howard looked in on him and found him unresponsive “in a dingy little room.”  Police Officer Fitzmaurice was called  to the hotel and he investigated “rumors that an Italian  youth named Patrick Marine had seen two men “sandbag” Howard but  the “rumors proved groundless.”

Martin Wilman, a boarder at the hotel, went for Dr. William McCoy, whose office was at the West Side Drug store around the corner on Second South to attend the “sick man.” After being called to the scene Dr. McCoy recognized that “the man was dying.”  Howard was able to tell Dr. McCoy that he had taken opium drug twelve hours before being at the hotel and he “fought against all efforts to save him,” by the doctor. Dr. McCoy testified at the inquest that is a physican from the Board of Health would have come when summoned five hours earlier the man's life could have been saved. 

Howard had written a suicide note blaming a man name Bill Donovan as being responsible for Howard taking his life however the police could not identify any one by that name. He had only been married five months when he committed suicide. His wife, just a week before, had given birth a baby fathered by another man. Howard acknowledged the child was not his own, but he had “treated his wife with affection.”  

The 1900 federal census listed 42 year old Olivia Knox as the “housekeeper of the Sullivan Hotel at 263 South Fifth [Sixth] West. She stated she was married for 18 year without any children and a native of Maryland. There are fourteen individual enumerated at this address besides Mrs. Knox. Of the four females, one was a 36 year old single woman listed as a servant,  as was a 17 year old female. One of the females was a married woman with a small son and the other was a 22 year single woman. No occupation given but of German parentages.

The only family residing at the hotel according to the census was that of 22 year old Jasper Shotwell. He was a day laborer and he and his wife had been married six years with a 4 year old son. However all the rest of the lodgers were single males the oldest being 48 year old and the youngest 24. All of these single men were non native Utahns. Occupations were given as day laborers, stock tender, carpenter, machinist, attorney at law Rail road laborer, Boilermaker, and stable boss. 

After leaving the Nevada House, John Sullivan managed to buy two homes next to each other at 839 and 843 Pierpont Street. Here his daughter  Catherine Agnes Connolly lives with her husband and children in one home.   John Sullivan’s wife Kate Sullivan passed away in 1913.

"Mrs. Catherine Carey Sullivan died Sunday [28 December 1913] at 12:30 at the family residence at 331 Piermont street after being confined to her home for three months with hip trouble. She is survived by her husband John Sullivan, well known, and one of the oldest railroad men in Salt Lake City. Six children also survive. They are: Mrs. Andrew Cronin, wife of the local freight agent of the Denver & Rio Grande; Mrs. Kate Connelley, Miss Anna Sullivan and Michael Sullivan of this city; Mrs Edward Norton pf Butte Montana, and Mrs. William Mullins of Seattle. Funeral services will be held in St. Mary’s cathedral at a date to be announced later.”

 and eventually, the aging John C. Sullivan went to live with his daughter Libbie Cronin and her family at 653 Conway Court.    He lived there until his death, caused by bronchial pneumonia in 1920.  He was approximately 85 years old.

Chapter Twenty-One

Andrew “Andy “Joseph Cronin [1871-1939] 

Andy  Cronin was a first generation American of Irish decent. He was a Clerk for the Rio Grande and Western Rail Way. Andy Cronin’s Irish born father, John D. Cronin, immigrated to Pennsylvanian in 1848 during the Irish Potato Famine and Andy was one of 15 children.  After his father died and not wanting to work in the Pennsylvania mines, Andy Cronin and several of his other siblings moved out west to Salt Lake City in search of better jobs.  In the late 1880s and into the 1890s an influx of Irish immigrants came to work in Salt Lake City for the Union Pacific and Rio Grande Western Railways. They began to dominate the demographics of Block 63 and 64 by the 1890’s.

Cronin obtained a steady job as a traffic clerk with the Rio Grande Western in 1893. He Cronin was living with two brothers and his mother on Third South in Block 63 within walking distance of his work and in 1898 he married Elizabeth “Libbie” Sullivan the daughter of John Sullivan proprietor of the Sullivan House hotel and the Nevada House Hotel. They were married at St Patrick’s Catholic Church on Fourth [Fifth] West and 417 South in 1889. 

Three years later St. Patrick acquired a lot with a brick cottage and a framed building which was converted to the chapel and opened on October 16, 1892. The parish’s first pastor was Fr. Denis Kiley.  This site was sold in 1907 to the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad and property for a new church was acquired on 400 south in 1914.

Andrew J Cronin  and others nearby neighbors of the Salt Lake Meat Compnay located on the cornern of   Fifth [Sixth West] and Third South  in December 1893 complained to city hall that the business “had converted their place of business into a bone-boiling establishment and that an unbearable stench permeates the atmosphere in the vicinity. Hence the petitioners asked that the same be abated referred to Sanitary Committee.”  The outcome of the petition was not recorded however the Salt Lake Meat Company continued its operations for the rest of the decade. 

Andrew Joseph Cronin moved his family into a duplex at 544 West Third South for a shot while after the Priday Family moved away. .

Chapter Twenty-Two

544 West Third South 

In 1894 Charles James Priday’s was listed in the Salt Lake City directory at this residence where he had just moved from Sixth East. He and his family had immigrated in 1882 from England.  His occupation was listed as a stonecutter. The family would later  move to 466 West Third South

            While living on Third South,  his daughter Louise, a "handsome woman rather petite in figure,
very neat and trim and dresses well” married a young Scotsman named John H Hamilton [1870-1897] on Thanksgiving Day. “ A quiet wedding took place at Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Priday’s 544 West Third South, Thanksgiving evening, when their daughter Miss Lou M Priday was married to John H Hamilton. The bride was dressed in a pretty dress of cream silk with a bouquet of white roses, gloves and slippers to match. After the cere,mony was over a dainty supper was served, the room and table being handsomely decorated with chrysanthemums, carnations, and roses. The bride and bride groom received congratulations from their many friends. The presents were numerous and handsome.”

John Hamilton 

            Two and a half years later in 1897, Hamilton laid “dead at the morgue with a bullet through the heart” and so commenced one of “the most important criminal cases during the year”. The murder trial was “One of the Most Noted ever Tried in Utah” even though the “Hamiltons were not people of great prominence.” However murder and sex always is a sensational news item.

"Pretty Lou Hamilton" was tried for the murder of her handsome husband who was shot dead in the front yard of her sister’s home.  The Salt Lake City newspaper printed volumes on the killing that involved “quite an attractive and refined looking woman” and “a sober, industrious young man” with lurid details of adultery.

            Newspapers reported that John Hamilton was “employed as a driver for the Troy Steam laundry" where he “was very well spoken of by his associates” and  “bore excellent  character.” 

One evening, coming home from his night job unexpectedly, Hamilton  found that his wife not at home. He became suspicious of her and discovered that she was having an affair with a “prominent young merchant named W. Charles Pavey. John Hamilton began the process of suing Pavey naming him as the "correspondant" in the divorce proceedings against his wife. 

Charles Pavey  was a Canadian who moved to Salt Lake from California and owned a company that made “wooden and willow ware.” “All the apple baskets stamped W C P come from Pavey and Company and command the highest price,” reported an article about Pavey.  At the trial of Lou Hamilton, Pavey denied the affair and he had moved away by June 1898 to Santa Rosa, California.  

The Hamiltons, in April 1897, lived at 857 West Fourth South and after discovering his wife’s infidelity Hamilton went to his father in law home at 544 West Third South where his wife was staying after their break up and “took the initiatory steps towards procuring a divorce.”

A few days later, John Hamilton at night “rode up on his bicycle to call upon his wife staying at her sister and brother-in-law Thomas Seddon’s home at 229 West First Street.  John Hamilton quarreled with his wife at the time, although Seddon claimed the couple had a “pleasant conversation” and that they had not quarrel. Nearby neighbors however said they “heard loud voices of people quarreling. ”

During the quarrel, John Hamilton alegedly struck his wife in the mouth as that she had retrieved a revolver.  “Directly after the front door was closed behind him, the neighbors were startled by the report of six shots fired in rapid succession and immediately afterwards Hamilton’s dead body was found shot through the heart on the lawn in front of the house. A 32-caliber revolver was still warm and spent of powder. Death must have been instantaneous. It was quite dark and no one saw shots fired.”

The police officers were called police immediately and arrived to find Hamilton dead and Lou Hamilton was arrested and taken to police headquarters on First South and State Street. There she claimed during the questioning that Hamilton had committed suicide. She stated “the interview between her and her husband were exceedingly pleasant. He was quite jolly," and said to the police "I had no idea that he had any notion of shooting himself when he left me.”  The police detectives however noticed that her lip was "quite swollen" and asked what  hahadcaused it. She answered that it was the result of a “love tap” that her husband gave her at parting.”

When the coroner examined the corpse, it was stated the “position of the wound lead to a strong belief that the man did not kill himself”. However  the police officers in charge of the investigation due to Lou Hamilton's statements were inclined to “think he committed suicide.” The relatives of John Hamiltons disputed the suicide notion and stated that Lou Hamilton had threatened to kill him.

            Enough evidence was produced by various witnesses that Lou Hamilton was charged with the murder of her husband and she went to trial in October 1897. Lou Hamilton claimed that she and her husband had grappled with the gun and “the weapon was discharged several times in the struggle and one of the shots inflicted a mortal wound.”  

As that Lou Hamilton was “quite an attractive and refined looking woman and until the scandal attending the tragedy, nothing against her character was known,”  the all male jury, hesitant to convict a woman,  "acquitted her of the shooting of her husband  as murder."

Mrs. Hamilton went back to live with her parents who had moved away from 544 West Third South and in 1909 she even remarried while living in Chicago, Illinois

            After the Priday family moved away, Andy Cronin moved his family into this residence for a short while.  The 1900 federal census enumerate the family of Arthur Chiverall. He was an immigrant from England and employed as a rail road car painter. 

 Andy Cronin's widow mother Ann was residing at 534 West Third South in 1899 along with her son George W Cronin [1876-1902],  a machinist for the Rio Grande Western Railway and two women Katherina Cronin [1867-1950] a clerk for the Davis Shoe Company,  and Marion Cronin [1879-1906] who died of tuberculosis after she married.

    The 1900 federal census listed 68 year old  Ann Cronin, as the head of a household that included her son Thomas F. Cronin’s family and son-in-law Budd Matthews’ family at 536 West Third South. Thomas Cronin was listed as a gold ore miner and Mathews was a locomotive engineer.  the proprietor of the Oasis Saloon. She was still living there in 1902 but her son had moved out.   She died in 1912 at the age of 82.   

    In May 1901 a horse belonging to the Salt Lake Hardware Company bolted and “ran north on Fourth [Fifth] West and took to the sidewalk, near second South. Mrs. Andrew J. Cronin of 6 Carter terrace was walking along there with a baby carriage containing her little daughter, about two years of age. Mrs. Cronin saw the horse dragging the front wheel of the wagon, tearing up the sidewalk and picking up baby out of the carriage attempted to escape. She was not quick enough to get out of the way of the animal however and was hurled against a tree as the horse dashed past, the shock bruising her considerably and rendering her unconscious for quite a while, although her baby was not hurt at all.

The accident occurred in front of the residence of Doctor Thomas H. Hazel and “Mrs. Cronin was taken there and treated by the doctor. She recovered later in the afternoon and was able to be taken to her home.” The horse was captured before he could do any further damage. 

By 1906 Andy Cronin left Salt Lake City for Ogden when he became the general agent of the Rio Grande Western traffic department. “Andy Cronin was made a railroad man on the Rio Grande. At the same time he has been a mixer with the public and from his own personality he has been in the habit of securing business for the road, even when he occupied the position of clerk. He will be a valuable addition to the Ogden railroad colony and come here with the endorsement of the entire aggregation of the traffic men of the west."

Andy Cronin rose to become chief clerk and traffic manager of the freight department at the Rio Grande Western.  However in his later years he suffers from poor health, and retired in 1938 from the railroad.

Andrew J Cronin 65, former assistant traffic manager of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad ded at his home 763 East Third South street yesterday [28 April 1939] afternoon at 3:45. Although the immediate cause of death was pneumonia, Mr. Cronin had been suffering for more than three years from a heart ailment. His funeral has been tentatively arranged for Tuesday in the Cathedral of the Madeleine of which he was a prominent parishioner.

Mr. Cronin literally grew up with the railroad, rising from Clerk to assistant traffic manager. Born July 25, 1873, in Wilkes-Barre, Penn, he came west to Pueblo Colo in 1883 with his parents John and Anna Cronin. He began working for te old Rio Grande Western railroad in Salt Lake at the age of 17 and in 1906 after the company had merged with the Denver and Rio Grande, became general agent at Ogden for the combined roads.

Three years later, Mr. Cronin returned Salt Lake as joint agent for the D &RG W and Western Pacific Railroads. In 1925 he was appointed assistant freight and passenger agent for the D & RGW and became assistant traffic manager in 1929. Ill health forced him to take a leave of absence in 1936.

“In June 1938 the veteran railroader retired completely due o his declining health.

Mr. Cronin was active in civic affairs, being a former member of the Chamber of Commerce board of governors and served on numerous committees. He was also an active member of the Rotary Knights of Columbus ad the Alta Club.

            He was buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery. 

Andy Cronin’s brother George W. Cronin [1876-1902] also lived at this address and was employed as a “car checker” for the Rio Grande Western for many years before working for the Salt lake and Ogden Railway Company. In 1896 George Cronin offered a reward for the return of a Bay Mare that was either stolen or had strayed. He died of typhoid bronchial pneumonia leaving behind a wife and two children. His funeral was held at the home of his mother Ann Cronin who was now residing at 528 West Third South. 

PART FOUR

Chapter Twenty-Three

Italian Immigrants to Fifth [Sixth] West

Italian immigrants in the Nineteenth Century resided on the west side the Denver and Rio Grande Depot in blocks 63, 64, and 46 of Salt Lake City where a cluster of shops and businesses existed that catered to the small Italian community.

The St. Patrick Catholic Parish was established in 1892 for the proliferation of Irish and Italian Catholics on the west side of Salt Lake City. Roman Catholic Bishop Lawrence Scanlan  purchased land on the northwest corner of block 44 at Fourth South and Fourth [Fifth] West 417 South Fourth [Fifth] West, and 417 South in 1889. Three years later he acquired “a lot with a brick cottage and a framed building which was converted to the Saint Patrick Parish church and opened it for services 16 October 1892. The church was established to meet the needs of the Irish and Italian Catholics living on the Westside of Salt Lake City. The parish’s first pastor was Father Denis Kiley.In 1907 the land was sold to San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad and property for a new church was acquired on 1040 west 400 south in 1914

Utah did not attract Italians in large numbers. The first noticeable number of foreign-born Italians in Utah appeared in 1870 and totaled only seventy-four. The development and expansion of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in the 1880s was a catalyst to the state’s coal mining industry which brought a wave of Italian immigrants to Utah for its labor opportunities in mining and railroading.

The Benites Saloon

 One of the first mention of Italian businessmen in Salt Lake was in newspaper accounts of the Benites Saloon. In January 1885 Louis Benites, a 50 year old Mexican of Spanish parentage sold  his “infamous bar” to Italians John [Giovanni] Pistoni and James Arigona. The saloon, referred to as an “inferno on Second South Street near Commercial Street, was the scene of constant police raids due to fighting and various forms of vice.

Louis Benites gave up ownership of the saloon, “succeeded by two Italians”, who eventually had their place shut down by Salt Lake authorities as a nuisance for the constant fights between drunken Camp Douglas soldiers within the place and other bawdy behavior allowed in the place

In March 1885 the place was raided again and Louis Benites stated that while the saloon still carried his name he had no affiliation with it.  “The notorious place on second south Street called Benites’s is run by Italians. Mr. Benites states that he has had nothing to do with the saloon for over two months and like it known.”

Betty Wilson and Emily Passey were mentioned in March 1885 as being drunk in a ‘Notorious” saloon called Benites near Second South and Commercial Street. The bar was mention several times as being an “Infernal den”

March 1885 “WIPE IT OUT. The Infernal Den on Second South Again Boiling. – That riotous den of infamy and iniquity known as Benites’ now presided over by a couple of Italians, was again the scene of a drunken row yesterday which seems to have been prolonged throughout the entire day. The police made a descent upon the place an found the room filled with a half dozen bleeding and drunken soldiers , two women helplessly drunk, and a number of others not so much so. There was yelling, screaming, profanity and general confusion, and the police diving into the midst of it, brought out the two women, Mrs. Passey and Betty Wilson, and bore  them screaming to jail. One of the proprietors of the place, a burly young Italians named  John Pistoni, objected to the fair ones being borne away captive and tried to interfere. He was thereupon promptly made to bear them company and a charge was entered against him for keeping a disorderly house and interfering with officers in the discharge of their duty.

It is sincerely to be hoped that Judge Spiers will deal out to this fellow Pistoni the full rigor of the law. Under the statutes; we believed, he may be fined $300 and imprisoned six months.

We direct the attention of Mayor Sharp to the frequency of bawdy rows, fights, capture of thieves, and assignations for which this place is noted. We have had occasion so often to refer to these events, and every pay day at Camp Douglas witnesses so regular a recurrence of them that we feel the matter should not be longer tolerated. People thereabouts say that no lady cam pass that locality without being exposed to insult. The respectable dealers adjoining complained yesterday to a Herald reporter that their trade had been terribly damaged by the proximity of the nuisance. We believe it could be made so uncomfortably warm for this class of houses in Salt Lake and we have one or two of them that they could not possibly secure bondmen for their licenses, and if rigorously followed up the evil could easily b wiped out. Will the authorities agree with the Herald? 

Italian Sterotypes

Italians in press coverage from this period “left readers with a more intensified, stereotyped image of the Italian immigrant as a bloodthirsty, nonwhite, stiletto-in-hand villain.”

The ethnic slur “dago” was used to reference anyone from southern Europe speaking Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian. In September 1889  newspapers wrote “Rumors of a desperate fight came from Price canyon where a gang of men are at work broadening the Rio Grande gauge. The row occurred between Dagoes and Italians, one of the former drawing a gin and shooting two Italians one of whom died almost instantly. An attempt was made to capture the murder but he Dagoes rallied around and prevented the onslaught. The wounded man was brought to the city last night and deputies stated for the scene.” 

An article from May 1883 revealed that “foreign laborers”, other than the Chinese were being employed by the Denver and Rio Grande Railway company.  “On Sunday afternoon a row occurred at the Denver and Rio Grande depot among some Italian workmen there, which resulted very disastrously for one. As near as can be learned  they had all been drinking, and naturally enough a dispute which arose ended in a very serious quarrel, in which two set upon one, and beat and abused him brutally."

"Not only did they cut him with their knives, but beat him with a brick, jumped upon his stomach and his back, and one of dastardly assailants seized his ear between his teeth and bit it clean off. When he complained to the police he was a sorry plight, and on Monday his head and face were swollen and his face scratched badly. The accused were both locked up. One afterward left $50 for his appearance  the other was locked up to wait the hearing.”

As with the Chinese and Irish immigrants before them, the Italians were often disparaged for being “foreign” and for taking work opportunities from native born Americans. “In reference to non-foreign miners who wanted work, an editorial in the Deseret Evening News stated: ‘And if English speaking men come forward in sufficient numbers, they will not be required to labor in company with foreigners of the class that has become obnoxious and objectionable.”

The Italians were especially scorned when they were seen as instrumental in organizing unions and striking in Utah’s mining industry. The Deseret News wrote, “The fact is indisputable that among the strikers are many red-handed anarchists who respect no law and feel it a sort of religious duty to exterminate and destroy all opponents…So long as this class has a respected voice in the strikers councils the presence of the militia will be necessary to prevent a reign of terror.”

Utah’s “foreigners” were especially distrusted after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 by an Anarchist of Polish descent. “No Anarachists Here- What Happened to Man Who Tried to Preach Anarchy. Not a man could be found in Salt Lake yesterday who would admit that he holds anarchist views, although it is an open secret that members of the order are or have been , identified with Salt Lake City’s population." President Charles Bonetti of the Italian Society reassured  that "so far as he knows, there are no anarchists among the Italian population of the town. If there are any they have escaped his observation."

"The last attempt made to preach anarchism in Salt Lake was about one and a half years ago, when a stranger from Chicago secured a room over the Council saloon on the pretext of talking socialism and wound up his address with an anarchiosy discourse, in the midst of which he was halted by the protest of Mr. Bonetti. On this occasionthere was almost a riot but the speaker was forced to quit at the point of a revolver. Several soialists who have been known to express anarchistic views were seen last night, but they all declared that they had no sympathy with the reds, and denounced the attempt to assinate the president.” 

The fear of the Italians' political views may have actually been the catalyst for the prevasive Greek migration to West Second South in the early Twentieth Century by mining and railroad industrialists.

The Italian Colony 

While the majority of Italian immigrants to Salt Lake City, at first, were single men, many Italians later brought their wives and family from Italy and settled in “the Italian Colony” on Fifth [Sixth] just south of Third South within Block 46. By 1900, of the 170 Italians who resided in Salt Lake Count , 102 of them lived in Salt Lake City mainly on the west side.

 The center of Italian settlement was within the Denver and Rio Grande District of Salt Lake City, with it’s cheap residential and boardinghouses on the west side of the city. The lack of a mining camp atmosphere differentiated Salt Lake City from other Italian localities, as that Italian immigrants living in the city were employed mostly by the Union Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads.

Numerous Italian immigrants “had been apprenticed in various trades in the old country, and once an economic base had been achieved, they left the mines or railroads and embarked upon their craft. This was particularly evident in Salt Lake City and Ogden where shoe shops and tailor shops, as well as grocery stores and taverns, sprang up in Italian residential areas.”

 “During this period, a Little Italy neighborhood popped up on the west side of Salt Lake City, near the Rio Grande Station.” Italians entrepreneurs owned saloons, tailor shops, barber shops, shoe making shops and grocery stores sold Italian foods.

In Salt Lake the Italian immigrants kept aspects of the Old world with which they were most familiar. “Language, customs, basic religious beliefs, family life, and food were important. Numerous reports reveal how customs such as boccie (played on courts in Helper, Bingham, and Salt Lake); the art of wine-making83 and sausage-making; and nightly promenades by husband, wife, and family, as well as frequent visits to homes of friends and relatives characterized early Italian life. The Italian community also had midwives and folk cures.”

Charles Bonetti and Antonio Jachetta

A man named Charles Bonetti born 1850 in Palermo, Italy “ a well known First South Street business man” was often employed by the courts as an interpreter for witnesses “unable to speak any language but Italian.” He was principally known as a barber with a shop at 56 west First street but was alos the proprietor of The Council Saloon at 8 East First south. Bonetti had married an English woman  by 1875 in New York and came to Utah between 1880 and 1890.

Bonetti was one of the founders of the “Societa Italiana Christoforo Columbo di Mutuo Soccorso e Beneficenza” in May 1897. The society was founded to “aid its members and their families in case of sickness, accident or death by funds raised by assessments and contributions.” Bonetti was its president and there were 42 signatuires to the article of Incorporation.

Bonetti was accused in 1899 of interfering in a criminal case involving a feud among some Italian women. “Bonetti Denies Charge. He says He Didn’t Try to Bribe Mrs. Rosa. Chares Bonetti , president of the Italian Association , is emphatic in his denial that he attempted to bride Mrs. Filmena Rosa in connection with the recent trouble among teh Italians near the Rio Grande Western depot. As is usual in all such cases he says that Italians who speak imperfect English come to him for advice and he advised them to settle matter out of court if they could.

Bonetti’s influence within the Italian community waned in 1901 after it was reported that he made some disparaging remarks about his fellow countrymen.

“Hot Italian Feud Rages In Salt Lake- Leader Bonetti Denounced by His Countrymen. Held A Mass Meeting- Hissed Republican Candidate For Consul.

Charles Bonetti, the most prominent Italian in the state, the man who voted all the votable Italians of Utah for McKinley, and who is endorsed by the state committee for a diplomatic appointment is in sore trouble. Last night 117 Italians met in a little room on the west side and denounced Mr. Bonetti as a traitor to his countrymen and a dishonest man. The Excitemnt  as this meeting was most intense and although all the speeches were made in the Italian language, the hisses, groans and shuffling of feet every time the name of Bonetti was mentioned expressed the sentiment of those present.”

“The cause of this excitement among the Italians of the city is simple. Some time since a house was searched by the police on the west side of the city. The filth of the place was horrible and thirty-eight Italians were crowded in one small house.

Bonetti took the occasion to denounce the Italians found in this condition as unfit to be admitted into American citizen. The following day he apologized  as he said his life was in danger from some of those he styled low-grade Italians.  The apology does not seem to have satisfied his offended countrymen and the meeting last night is the result up to date.

“Bonetti’s reign was over. Antonio Jachetto, who acted as chairman of the meeting was the leader of the insurgents.”  Mr. Bonetti should be ashamed of himself for speaking of the Italians the way he has for he knows it is untrue and we want the American people to know that he is not an honest man.”

“Bonetti Again Denounced. Italians Hotly Reject His Overtures for Peace. There was another warm meeting of the Italians last night and once again was Charles Bonetti denounced in unmeasured terms for his criticism of some of his countrymen several days ago. Letters were read from Bonetti, in which he had apologized for P Vincelli and L Mastrianna for his utterances and asked them not to pay any attention to what they had read in the papers, as he was truly sorry.

But these had no effect and a series of red-hot resolutions followed, being adopted unanimously. They were to the effect that while the Italians had bitterly denounced Bonetti, he deserved all that had been said about him, both publicly and privately, that he was anything save a representative of the Italian race in this state, that he posed falsely when he set himself up as the idol of the Italians, and that they simply laughed at his pretentions. The resolution closed by assuring Bonetti that he would never get a Consulship as his ‘bad talk’ about the Italians had killed him politically, and that he had better conclude to remain here, even if the Italians had no desire to further associate with him.”

“In the past we have patronized Mr. Bonetti’s saloon and barber shop; we thought he was an honest man. But now that he has acted this way we will patronize him no longer. He lost our trade by the way he has acted.”

Mr. Bonetti has professed to be in fear of bodily harm ever since this controversy started and yet he shows no disposition to back down  from the position he took when he issued his apology.

“You can say for me he said last night when seen after the meeting, “that I never said I was a leader of the Italian people in this city or state, but I am now and have been considered leader by the Italians in the city, county and state.

Most if those Italians present at the meeting come from Calibria in Italy and are of the lower class. They have often come to me for help, as they could neither read nor write; I have given them assistance whenever they came for it. I will wager $1,000 that there were not twenty-five American citizens among the 117 in the meeting. As for my being an honest man, I shall let my record speak for me.

M. Bonetti then gave a sketch of his life from the time he was born in Palermo down to the present. He was very much excited. When the boycott was mentioned, he said:

“Let them boycott me if they wish, hah! I don’t live among dagoes. There was not a decent man in the whole 117 of them. They don’t belong to my class. I have helped them and this is the way they treat me in return.”

A boycott of Charles Bonetti’s businesses however eventually led to him filing for bankruptcy in 1905 and moving to Pendleton, Oregon.

Antonio Jachetta immigrated at the age of 24 from in Italy in 1890 and was reportedly in Utah by 1900 when he was mentioned as helping with the funeral expenses of four Italians killed in the Scofield Mine disaster. He became a managing director of the Utah-Italian bank at 596 West Second South, and was "one of the most influential Italians in Utah" when in 1907 he was "notified by the Italian consul at Denver that he has been appointed Italian-vice-consul at Salt Lake City." Not much more is known of him except that he married in 1908 and became a naturalized citizen in September 1908 . He was a member of Salt Lake's Chamber of Commerce and a member of the "Commercial Club" Sometime after 1910 he returned to Italy where he was residing in Grimaldi in 1923 when he was seeking help with a passport to return to Utah.    

1897-1900 “MAD” MOTHER MARTELL

       Mother Martell” was a major “colorful character” who lived in the Rio Grande Western Depot area. She was written about extensively in various newspapers in the 1890’s and early 1900s regarding her high jinx while inebriated. Reporters were familiar with her and found her antics “good copy” and often did not bother to accurately portray her for the sake of an amusing story.  She is another colorful phantom from a period of Salt Lake City’s raucous history that has long been forgotten.

     “Mother Martell”, as she was referred to, was an Irish woman, notorious in her neighborhood; between Third South and Fourth South, today’s Sixth West which in her time  was Fifth West.  The area was then considered Salt Lake City’s “Italian Colony.” Although her “consort” James Martello was an Italian immigrant fruit peddler,  she evidently has a disdain for the Italians and they for her.

 Background Information

    “Mother Martell” was also identified  in various newspaper accounts over the years between 1897 and 1900 as “Maggie Martell, Maggie Martello, Mrs. Paulo Martel, Mrs. Martelli, and Marguerite Angelica Martelline”. In the 1900 federal census, however, she was enumerated as Margrett Martello living with her sister “Annie McGurck”. In the next household in the rear of the residence was James Martello an Italian who was said to have been husband to both sisters.

Maggie and her sister Annie were born in Ireland and her sister’s death certificate stated that she was born in Dublin, Ireland the daughter of Michael McGordon. The informant on her death certificate was her husband “James Martell” so how accurate the information was is unknown. Her birth year that was given, 1875, was not accurate by other accounts.

“James Martell”  was a Neapolitan Italian named Gennaro Martello who immigrated to New York City in 1890 at the age of 34 [1856]. He sailed in steerage on the ship Neustria and gave his occupation as “agriculture worker.” In a marriage record to his third wife, Martello stated that his birth date was 8 December 1856 and was the son of “Comello Martelli” and “A. Paccarsoca.”

 Why Gennaro Martello went west to Salt Lake City is unknown but by 1893 an unclaimed letter for “M Gimaro Martello” was listed in a city newspaper. Two years later on 20 December 1895 a marriage record is recorded in Salt Lake City for “James Martello”,  age 40 [1855] and  “Annie McGuirk”,  age 29 [1866].

This record raises many questions about the “marital” relationship of Maggie and Annie, the two sisters, to Gennaro Martello as that an incident in 1897 listed Maggie as Mrs. M. Martello and “Genuaro Martello” as her husband. Another as well in an 1898 incident named Maggie as the spouse of “Jennaro Martello” and “Mrs. McGuirk” as her sister wife of a Michael McGuirk. These individuals were Catholics and not Mormons so “plural marriage” would not have been involved in these living arrangements.

The 1900 Federal census, taken on June 6 and 7, showed “Margrett Martello” as living at a house she rented at 371 South Fifth West [Sixth West] in the Second Precinct and Second Ward of Salt Lake City. She was enumerated as the head of household 100 in that neighborhood directly across from the Rio Grande Depot. She gave her age as 42 years old born in June 1857 in Ireland as were her parents.  She said she was a “widow” and mother of six children, none of them living. If indeed she had six children by a previous marriage,  who had died, that may explain her alcoholism

Residing in Margrett Martello’s household was her sister “Annie McGurck” age 31 years, born in March 1869, also in Ireland. She stated that she had been married for four years [1896] but had no children. Neither Margrett nor Annie listed the year they immigrated to America. Margrett Martello did not list an occupation although Annie McGurck stated she was a “peddler”.

Enumerated next in household  101 was “James Martello”. He was listed as residing in the rear of 371 South Fifth West. His age was given as 50 years old born January 1850 in Italy. His occupation was given as a “day laborer” and was listed as “married” for 17 years [1883]. He said he had immigrated to America in 1883. If he was married in 1883, at the age of 27,  the marriage would have been in Italy.

Also included in James Martello’s household were five Italian boarders; Frank Gert age 48 and his 12 year old son Toni Gert,  both had  immigrated in 1900, Joseph Paglingo age 45, a single man immigrated in 1895, Joseph Paglinsso age 32,  single, immigrated in 1898, and a 21 year old single man named Joseph Aiella who migrated in 1897. They were all listed as “day laborers”.

1897 Harassed and Abused Fruit Peddlers

In June 1897 “Mrs. M Martello, a fruit vendor” filed a complaint against a couple of youths “for disturbing the peace”. “Old Martello and his wife have been in trouble a good deal recently by mischievous boys annoying them in various ways.”

 Warrants for the arrest of two youths named Bill Smith and James Cook were issued from Justice Sommer’ Police Court and they were arrested. “The youths were let go with a severe reprimand from Judge Sommer.”

However a few days later Bill Smith’s brother Robert “Bob” Smith who lived “near Fifth West and Third South streets” was also arrested on a complaint of Mrs. Martello,  for having beat and abused her husband” and having thrown him into “the water ditch”. It was reported on 9 June 1897 by the Salt Lake Herald that Robert Smith had a hearing before Justice Sommer on the charge of assault and battery  “alleged to have been committed on Genuaro Martello.” 

  The Salt Lake Tribune reported an account of the incident “Bob Smith was yesterday fined $30 by Justice Sommer for assaulting an Italian named Martello. The complaining witness speaks English very imperfectly. He testified that a crowd of boys, of which Smith is one, have made his life a burden for some time by their persecutions.  He stated that Smith knocked him down and pushed him into a ditch in the vicinity of 361 South Fifth West Street on Sunday last. Smith took an appeal from the sentence of the court.”

1898 The Near Lynching of Maggie Martello

 The Polk Directory for 1898 listed “Jennaro Martello” as a peddler,  residing at 371 South Fifth West in Salt Lake City . In June 1898 the Salt Lake Herald reported “Mrs. Martell” was arrested on charges of being drunk and disturbing the peace.” This was the first account of the many incidents of Maggie Martello being in trouble with the law due to her erratic behavior while inebriated.

 The Martello family evidently was very notorious in the Italian section of town between Third and Fourth South across from the Rio Grande Western rail yard. People residing in the neighborhood said “that quarrels between Martello and his wife are frequent and noisy, and that they make both day and night hideous with their curses and yells.”

On the Fourth of July, 1898 the couple had such a row where Jennaro Martello even tried to murder his wife by hanging her from a trolley pole while they were both inebriated. The assault on Maggie Martello was so sensational that it was reported as headlines in all the local papers.

The Salt Lake Tribune led off  the sensational report writing in bold letters “Rope Around Her Neck- Mrs. Martello Feared She Would be Hanged. Her Husband was Enraged. Neighbors Interfered and a Rapid Transit Pole was Cheated of Its Chance to Become a Gallows- Scene Resulted from a Domestic Quarrel Over a Glass of Beer- The Husband Spent the Fourth Away from Home but Returned in the evening- Story of the Affair.”

The Salt Lake Herald featured the headline “Assaulted His Wife. How Joe Montello ended an All Night Spree- Dragged his Spouse With a Rope and Held Rescuers at Bay With a Gun.”

 The two newspapers had definitely different takes on the event with the Tribune reporter treating the occurrence with jocularity while the Herald took a more sinister view of the incident.

 The Herald published “Had Joe Martello pursued to the limit his satanic inclinations early yesterday morning, he would have murdered his spouse.”  The Tribune interviewed a neighbors who was irritated by the quarrelsome antics of the couple. The neighbor, who had lived near the Martellos for three years, was quoted saying, “we let him hanga de woman; den we hanga de man.”

The Tribune reporter also wrote that “Jennaro Martello, an Italian peddler residing at No. 371 South Fifth West street, is alleged to have celebrated the glorious Fourth yesterday, by attempting to hang his wife to a Rapid Transit trolley pole. Neighbors interfered, however, and the impromptu lynching was indefinitely postponed.’

 Neighbors of the “Italian quarter of Fifth West street, just below Third South” stated that the Martellos had participated in a spree, drinking “bad whiskey” and had caroused all Sunday night. The trouble leading up to the incident began at 5 in the morning when Jennaro Martello encountered his wife  Maggie “returning from a saloon where she had been to purchase a glass of beer.” He ordered her to get into the house and “be quick about it.”

Maggie Martello objected to his demand and “trouble ensured”. The Tribune reported that “During the melee Martello was struck on the head with a rock hurled at him by his angry wife.” However the Herald wrote “Just what angered Martello is not known, but at 5 o’clock yesterday morning the yard crew at the Rio Grande Western depot was attracted by the shrieks of a woman.”

 Martello, who was intoxicated, was “so enraged” that “he procured a rope and throwing it about the woman’s neck began dragging her toward a trolley pole with the frenzied declaration that he would hang her. She screamed lustily.”

Across the street, a Rio Grande Western engineer and fireman, were attracted by Maggie Martello’s cries for help. “The railroaders saw Martello dragging his wife with a rope around her body, towards a telephone pole. When they attempted to “interfere”, Martello “kept the rescuers at bay with a gun. The men gazed into the “muzzle of a six-shooter in the hands of the enraged husband” who “declared that no one would prevent him from hanging his better half. The railroad men “decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and returned to their engine.”

 The shrieks and cries of Maggie Martello alerted her neighbors who did interfered and notified the police.  “It was during the early hours of the forenoon that word reached the Police department to the effect that war had been declared in the Martello family, and that serious trouble was imminent.” Officer O.P. Pratt “was at once dispatched to the scene of the uprising.”

Martello “was drunk when he conceived the idea of ridding himself marital woes, ” and had a rope around his wife’s  neck and was dragging her to street car pole “the proposed scene of execution.”  However with the law being notified, Martello “becoming alarmed” desisted in his attempts to hang his drunken wife and when Officer Pratt arrived at the scene, “Jennaro Martello had disappeared”. “Martello had decamped, and the neighbors said the Mrs. Martello’s sister had gone with him.”

 “Being balked in the attempt to wreck summary vengeance on his better-half, Martello jumped into his vegetable wagon, and with his wife’s sister, Mrs. Michael McGurk by his side, cut a hot pace towards the west side of the Jordan, where the officers searched for him in vain.”

 Officer O.P. Pratt then visited the Martello household and viewed that Maggie Martello “was still very drunk. She exhibited on her face and neck her husband’s brutal treatment.” Later Martello and “Mrs. McGurk” returned home, in the evening after sobering up.  When reporters wanted to talk with Maggie Martello it was reported “Mrs. Martello could not be seen, her sister being authority for the statement that she was sick in bed.”

 However reporters wrote that Annie McGurk, “who seemed but little alarmed about her brother-in law’s conduct, stated that it was only a light family fight, and that Martello was a very good man who worked hard from early in the morning until late at night trying to earn a living.” Gennaro Martello declared in a statement “that the trouble was one the result of a little family jar.”

 Officer O.P. Pratt returned to the residence and arrested Gennaro Martell, “the Italian” on a warrant charging him with battery. He was “lodged in the city jail” however he was able to “put up $25 bail and was released.”

On 6 July 1898 Martello, who was “restrained from hanging his spouse to a street car pole in Salt Lake City” appeared before Judge John B. Timmony [1846-1901] on the charge of battery. Maggie Martello, however, “made an earnest plea in his behalf, and stated her dependence upon her husband for a livelihood” and refused to testify against him. Where upon, Judge Timmony decided to dismiss the case and Maggie Martello’s complaint against her husband for battery was discharged.

 1899 Maggie Martello Goes to Jail

The 1899 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed “Gennaro Martello, laborer” as residing at 373 South Fifth West. However neither Maggie Martello or Annie McGuirk are listed.

In June 1899 the Salt Lake Herald-Republican published an article again featuring Maggie Martello. The byline read “ FOUGHT THE POLICE  Drunken Woman’s Desperate Struggle With Officers KICKED BIT AND CURSED HOWLING SPECTACLE THAT SHOCKED THE PUBLIC-Mrs. Martell Rode In the Patrol Wagon With An Officer Sitting On Her and Her Feet Sticking Up In the Air- Kicked the Driver-A Lively Time.”

 The reporter who detailed the event misidentified her as “Mrs. Paulo Martell”and wrote “who is Irish notwithstanding her name.” He wrote about Maggie Martello’s arrest for being “wildly drunk” saying she “ caused more excitement for the police department yesterday afternoon than it has known for many more serious offenses.”

“The lady is not unknown to the police for Chief Hilton [Thomas A. Hilton] said that she had been up once or twice before and that many complaints concerning her wild actions, when in her cups, have been received at the station.”

During the early part of May 1899, a report was made to the police department that Maggie Martello  “was running about the neighborhood with a knife trying to carve up the Italians who live about her. But before a police officer arrived on the scene she had become quiet.”

On May 28, “there came to the police station a report that Mrs.  Martell was again on a rampage and was chasing the inhabitants of the Italian colony about the streets.” Police Officer Charles A. Sperry and a patrol wagon was sent “to see about the difficulty. The lady was calm enough when he arrived.”

“Come outside,” Sperry coaxingly said to Maggie Martello. “There’s a man who wants to speak to you out here.” “With such and other sweet words he persuaded her to get into the wagon for she thought that she was to be taken for a drive.”

 Just as the driver was about to start back, Martello cried out for her hat. “As it was given to her, she seemed to realize that she was bound for the police station. Throwing her hat out in the mud, she tried to jump. Officer Sperry was too quick. He grabbed the enraged woman and threw her down into the bottom of the wagon. She struggled and fought as if mad.”

Maggie Martello fought her arrest “from her home on South Fifth West street all the way to the police station. She fought with her fists her feet and her mouth for she kicked bit and scratched.”

  The police wagon driver “whipped up the horses and they dashed up Fifth West and then up Second South.” Office Sperry “knelt upon the lady and held her arms so that she could not scratch him. “Oh you murtherin [expletive]----,” she cried out.” Then she tried to bite but he put her coat in her mouth and held it there.”

 Onward  the wagon dashed “but Mrs. Martell did not succumb.” She still had the use of her feet and she kicked the driver in the back “nearly knocking him from his seat.”

“Above the clash and clatter of the horses hoofs her wild oaths rang out and startled persons on the sidewalk. As she tried again and again to kick, her feet flew up in the air exhibiting several inches of loud white and black hose.” “But Mrs. Martell did not care for that; modesty was to her an unknown quantity at that time. Liberty it was that she wanted.”

 “ The small boys on the street howled in derision. People stopped to look and women blushed to see one of their sex in such a predicament. But Mrs. Martell did not care. She swore and kicked and scratched until she reached the station.”

 Maggie Martello continued her fury and it took Officer Sperry and another man to put her in the jail. “The other female denizens of that place ran and screamed for Mrs. Martell had become a wild tigress, anxious to fight anything or anybody. When left alone, she vented her energy upon a tub in the room where they put female drunks.”

  After calming down that evening, “from her prison cell last night shrouded in gloom there came a plaintive melody as from a heartbroken mother. Soft and low the notes were, wafted through the iron bars into the grim street below and all who heard bowed reverently as they tarried on their way to listen.” She sang: She’s the only girl I love.  She’s got a face like a horse and buggy. She’s the only girl I love. Oh fireman save my child!”

The song Maggie Martello was singing was a ditty called “No More Booze”  and the lyrics were “There was a little man and he had a little can And he used to rush the growler, He went to the saloon, on a Sunday afternoon, And you ought to hear the bartender holler:  No more booze, no more booze, No more booze on Sunday, No more booze, no more booze, Got to get your can filled Monday. She's the only girl I love, With a face like a horse and buggy, Leaning up against the lake, O fireman save my child! The chambermaid came to my door, "Get up, you lazy sinner! We need those sheets for table cloths, And its almost time for dinner."

By the time Maggie Martello appeared in Judge John B. Timmony’s court for a hearing, she had sobered up.  “Saintly Mrs. Martell, whose conflict with the dazzling wine, led to such painful circumstances Saturday last, sobbingly pleaded guilty to the charge.

Judge Timmony said to her, “Mrs. Martell, you made life a burden to almost everybody in your neighborhood. Your conduct has been very bad. You even tried to eat officer Sperry. You’ll get fifteen days for that alone.” After the sentence was passed, “In silence she followed the jailer from the court room casting backward upon those familiar surroundings one glance, perhaps the last for fifteen days.”

 After Maggie Martell was released from jail, at the end of July 1899, she found herself once again appearing before Judge  Timmony. “The impresarios, otherwise called policemen, were able to gather in but one offender during the twenty-four hours ending at noon yesterday. Mrs.  Martelli, a lady of Irish extraction, who married an Italian.  Mrs. Martelli had endeavored to drown her sorrows in the foaming can, and succeeded only too well. It took Sergt. Brown and the patrol wagon to properly land her.”

 Judge John B. Timmony must have been disgusted when he looked at the  assembled multitude” and saw Maggie Martello was in court again. “Mrs. Martinelli?’ There was no answer.  ‘Let the bail be forfeited.’ That ends the docket if your honor please.”

 Raising Hell With Her Sister

 Maggie Martello went on another bender in November which involved the police being called out to her home when her sister, Annie McGuirk, hurried to the police station to say that Maggie was trying to burn down their residence.

The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News which reported on the uproar at the Martello’s residence wrote in totally different styles. The Deseret News reported the incident in an almost comical banter while the Tribune tried to remain more objective.

 The Tribune wrote that Annie McGuirk tearfully appeared before the disk sergeant at police headquarters and with a “faltering voice” lamented  “My sister is raising h--- [hell]. She is trying to burn up the house, break the furniture, and she won’t let me and the old man in to get a cup of tea and ---- [expletives]and ---- [expletives]. ” She implored the sergeant, “Send an officer down”.

The Deseret News writing of the incident stated, “Mrs. Martell indulged in a real good time at the family mansion near the Rio Grande Western depot Monday night, so much so that a lady arrived post haste at police headquarters and demurely imparted the information that “My sister is raising Cain” only she did not say Cain.”

 “Officer Fitzmaurice was dispatched to the Martell domicile near the Rio Grande depot and he found that the sister had not misrepresented the matters.” The account in the Deseret News reported “Officer Fitz Maurice went post haste to the scene and found the messenger of peace had been very conservative in her estimate of her sister’s capabilities.”

“Seraphic Mother Martell defied the “blanket-blank” limbs of the law to enter the domains. When Fitzmaurice finally stormed the citadel and beat down the portcullis, he found that Mother Martell had wrecked the furniture and proceeded to light a pile of newspapers in the center of the reception salon.”

  The Tribune referred to Maggie Martello as “The human hurricane”  when reporting that she  was arrested, brought to the city jail, and locked up on the charge of disturbing the peace and drunkenness.

 The Deseret News reported, “The lady with the extensive vocabulary then took a ride behind a pair of spanking horses with a kind policeman on the step, to keep her from falling out, and a body guard of honor, composed of all the tousle-headed ragamuffins in town, whooping through the mud in the rear.”

 “When the charges of disturbing the peace and drunkenness were read, Mrs. Martell winked her discolored optics and nodded her head. Drunkenness $10; disturbing the peace $30 or 30 days was her portion.”

 Jail Time in December 1899

Maggie Martello evidently went to jail instead of having the fine paid and spent much of the month of December incarcerated. Two Salt Lake Tribune articles were written about her while she was in the city jail. One dated December 12, had the byline “Mother Martell was Sassy.”

Two women missionaries from Pennsylvania had received permission to speak to prisoners in the Salt lake City jail and had an encounter with Maggie Martello. “Old Mother Martell is another inmate of the city Bastille who is apparently beyond the reach of Christianity or anything outside of a Mauser rifle.”

“As the good women who approached her cell yesterday caught sight of her, she and other women inmates were playing cards. “Won’t you kindly pass those cards to me?” she was asked. “How many do you want to fill?” she replied. I want them all. You should not be found with such things in your possession. Give them to me.”

“But they aren’t mine to give, said the prisoner. They belongs to the jail, an’ sure I’ve no more right to give the cards to you than I have the right to rip up the beds. No”

“And Mrs. Martell was firm. Prayers and tears fell like water upon a duck’s back, as the good ladies emerged from the jail. Mother Martell appeared at the window and smiled derisively.”

 “Prayer is lost on such as them remarked old Martin Peterson, as he carried in the coal.”

 A more serious account was published December 15 regarding a smallpox outbreak in Salt Lake City. A man who was diagnosed with the disease was quarantined in the Chief of Police’s office to keep the contagion down until other accommodations could be found. Maggie Martello was sent to disinfect the police chief’s office.

“More Cleansing Done- Mrs. Martell, who is serving a term in the city jail, was permitted to scrub the woodwork in the office of the Chief of Police yesterday. Corrosive sublimate was one of the disinfectants used, and by the time she had gone over all the chairs and other woodwork, Mrs. Martell’s alleged gold rings had all taken on a silver hue and her alleged diamond had melted like sugar in hot water. Jailer Kimball spent most of the afternoon in an endeavor to bring the gold that had faded but will have to continue his labors today.”

 The Deseret News reported on December 18, that Maggie Martello was a ‘trustee’ or an inmate who performed a number of duties, without pay like mopping  floors, doing the laundry, and taking out trash.

“Mother Martell, a trustee at the city jail, almost created a panic among the officers this morning by rushing into the office and screaming, “Come quick, Oh come, two men are fighting out there; he can’t manage him, Oh!!”

 “Detective [George Augustus Sheets 1864-1932] Sheets and Officer Sperry proceeded with due haste to the rear of the old station. There stretched upon his back lay James Brown, a railroad employee. Above him towered the form of Officer Lincoln, in the attitude of the victor. Brown was drunk. The officers propped him up against the jailhouse but it was no use. James couldn’t stand and he was dragged into the rooms set aside for inebriates.”

Maggie Martello was released from jail on December 19, after serving 30 days locked up, and she proceeded to get drunk again. The Salt Lake Tribune’s account of her re-arrest stated “Again in Limbo Mother Martell goes on a ‘tear’ and breaks into jail again.”

On December 24, the Salt Lake Herald reported, “Mother Martell Again. Mother Martell went on a rampage last night, following an old precedent, and tried to beat her sister into jelly. She was full of bad whiskey and was brought from her home on the west side by Officer Fitzmaurice and locked up for disturbing the peace.”

The Salt Lake Tribune wrote rather sardonically, “Mother Martell was released from the city jail Tuesday after serving a long sentence for drunkenness and disturbing the peace. She got along so swimmingly, that officer Fitzmaurice finally had to interfere with her fun and re-incarcerate her in the old city jail.”

 Evidently on December 23, Maggie Martello went out “to celebrate her release and Christmas at one and the same time” and upon coming home assaulted her sister Annie McGuirk. The sister again went to the police headquarters and complained that her life was in danger from her abusive sister. The Tribune wrote, “Mrs. Martell, it seems, has a mania for beating her sister.”

 “Officer Fitzmaurice proceeded at once to the Martell domicile near the Rio Grande depot. The old woman was making night hideous when the officer arrived, and as he entered the door, a whirl wind of epithets were cast at him.” “With some difficulty, the officer subdued her and was taken back to the bleak drunk house, where she shrieked until completely exhausted.”

Maggie Martello spent Christmas 1899 in the drunk tank before appearing on December 26, in police court.  The charges against her were for disturbing the peace and being drunk. “Not guilty, said she.”

Officer Fitzmaurice related the circumstances of her arrest, and how she “was screaming, and creating an unearthly din.” “To these statements Mrs. Martell enters a most emphatic denial and swore that the arresting officer pulled her ear.”

 “He pulled the ring out of my ear, so he did,” she said, “and how he can say what he did is more than I can tell; don’t you believe ‘im judge, he is a liar.” “Maggie’s oratory was given full swing for a time and she said Fitzmaurice was a liar.”

The judge, however, failed to see “eye-to-eye with her”. “I’ll take the officer’s word for it and on the charges you will be sent up for fifty days.”

 “Maggie afterward confided to Jailer Kimball that as soon as she got loose she would use Fitzmaurice for mince pie.”

On December 27, a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune tried to write an article on Maggie Martello’s background that was full of misinformation. He wrote, “Among the rarest specimens of bric-a-brac was Maggie Martell. In sunny Italy she was known as Marguerite Angelica Martelline, but when she reached New York she was told that the railroads were liable to make her pay excess charges on her name, so she abbreviated it to Maggie Martell. Down in her neighborhood the boys now refer to her as “Just Mag”.

None of this was accurate as that Maggie Martello was born in Ireland and her name was never Marguerite Angelica Martelline.” She never lived in Italy but had married or was in a common law marriage with an Italian named Gennaro Martello.

 The rest of the feature on her was more accurate; “Margie is not unknown to the police. When she starts out and raises trouble, they so not need a map of the Rio Grande Western district and a searchlight to find her. There are cases on record when she has located the police.”

“Maggie did this on Sunday. Officer Fitzmaurice said she was not only drunk, but has jabbed a big hole into the peace and quiet of the section known as the Sixth Ward, besides threatening to murder several people.”

While Maggie Martello was serving her sentence in the city jail, on 10 January 1900, she was reported as “dangerously ill.”

 1900 Maggie Martello and Frank Ruga

                        Maggie Martello must have recovered from her illness as she is found in the news again in May 1900 quarreling with a young Italian man named Frank Ruga [1879-1978] .  Ruga was an immigrant who came to America as a child in 1888 with his father. In 1900 he was working as a section hand for the railroad. The 1899 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City listed him as residing at the rear of 654 West Fourth South near the Rio Grande Western rail yard. Neither he or the Martellos are listed in the 1900 Polk Directory but they are found in the 1900 Federal Census taken in June.

In May 1900, “Mrs. Maggie Martell otherwise known as Mother Martell”, “who has loomed up on the police horizon as an offender on various occasions,” went before Judge John B. Timmony and swore out a complaint against Frank Ruga charging him with assault and battery.

Maggie Martello claimed that Ruga “gave her a cowardly and severe beating” with the handle of a broom. “In proof of her statement she exhibited a number of bruises.” She also swore that the assault was entirely unprovoked that she was merely passing along near her home on Fifth West, when Ruga “suddenly pounced upon her and gave her a beating.” 

Frank Ruga was arrested however he complained that “Mother Martell” was the assaulter not he. Ruga claimed that when he passed Maggie Martello  in a vacant lot on “Third South and Fifth West in a vacant lot, she yelled at him, calling him a “---- [expletive] , ---- [expletive] dago, etc. etc.”

 “Ruga told her he did not want any trouble, but Maggie was determined she would and seizing a broom stick made a rush for him. Ruga gabbed possession of the stick and whacked Mrs. Martell on the head with it, which put a sudden end to the trouble for that night.”

When Frank Ruga appeared in Police Court, the case of assault and battery brought “by the noted Mrs. Maggie Martell” was dismissed by Judge Timmony as that the accuser failed to show up.

  In late July  Maggie Martello arrested again and “returned to her quarters at the city jail under escort of Officer Fitzmaurice”. Maggie had been  “engaged in her old-time version of disturbing the neighborhood and drinking much bad whiskey.”

 She appeared in Police Court for raising “a racket” at James Hegney’s Albany Hotel”. In court Maggie Martello admitted that she had been drunk and she was given the alternative of paying $25 or serving twenty-five days in the city jail. She chose the time penalty.

After July 1900, no more information regarding the fate of Maggie Martello is found in Salt Lake City Newspapers. In 1900 she was 42 years old. She must have reconciled with her sister Annie as they were living together according to the federal census. She and Gennaro Martello  must have been estranged however, as Maggie Martello had listed herself as a widow although he stated he was married.

It is unknown when Maggie Martello died as a death record for her cannot be located. She probably was buried in a pauper’s grave in the city’s Catholic Cemetery.

 James Martello and Annie McGuirk

While Maggie Martello does not show up in newspaper accounts after 1900, Gennaro Martello and Annie McGuirk are in several articles. Also Martello began going by the name “James or Jim” and his surname was sometimes spelled as “Martelli.”

The 1901 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City showed that “James Martelli” had moved from 371 South and was residing at 359 South Fifth West. He was listed as a “laborer. He was not listed in the 1902 and 1903 directories but he was found in a December 1904 Deseret News article.

“Jim Martello Discharged- Jim Martello, Italian, who has been confined at the county jail for several weeks past; awaiting trial on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon, has been discharged, as there was insufficient evidence forthcoming to take the case to trial in the Second District. Martello was charged with having threatened the life of a woman with whom he was keeping company at Mariotts settlement.”

In June 1906 Annie McGuirk was referred to as the wife of James Martello in a series of newspaper article detailing an accident where they were involved in a collision with a train on Second South Street. They were referred to as an “Aged Couple” although he was only 49 years old and she was about 37 years old.

 The Inter-Mountain Republican newspaper reported “Wagon Smashed, Couple Escapes. Mr. and Mrs. James Martello have Miraculous Escape From Death. Engine Runs Them Down- Both are thrown under demolished Vehicle and Locomotive Stops a Few Feet Away.”

 Between 1901 and 1906 James Martello had bought a small vegetable farm near 2100 South and Redwood Road, an area then known as the Brighton addition. He was living with Annie McGuirk when they were coming into the city with a wagon load of produce “which they were going to sell.”

 “Mr. and Mrs. Martello were on their way to the city with a load of provisions”, at 9 in the morning when the accident involving a Rio Grande train occurred on Second South and today’s Seventh West.

 “They were driving into town along Second South in a small wagon loaded with products from their farm on Twelfth South [now 2100 South]. Upon reaching Sixth West [now Seventh West] on Second South the strangers were stopped by a flagman at the crossing. Several engines were switching back and forth over the street. In attempting to cross the rails after a train had passed the wagon was struck by a train.

The couple was stopped on Second South at the railroad crossing by a flag man to let a switch engine pass. Martello must have thought it was clear and proceeded across the tracks when his wagon was struck by a  Pullman Coach leaving the Rio Grande Station.

 “Bearing rapidly down upon them as they were seated in their market wagon early Thursday morning, a Pullman coach, forming part of a Rio Grande train at the passenger depot, crashed into a vehicle occupied by James Martello, an aged farmer living near Brighton, and his wife, throwing them underneath, injuring both, wounding the horses, and destroying the wagon.”

“The responsibility for the accident is not fixed at this time. It is asserted by witnesses that Mr. Martello had stopped his wagon by the direction of the flagman and that as some as the cars had passed he again started his team across the tracks. Whether the flagman advised him that the tracks were clear has not been learned, but it was very soon after the wagon started that it was struck by the engine.”

The Martello’s wagon was demolished and “the horses were badly injured.” “Their produce was scattered over an acre or more of ground and their stock completely ruined.”

Martello  and “his wife” were thrown out of the smashed wagon and were within feet of being ran over by the stopped train. “Just in time to prevent the engine from passing over their bodies, the engineer brought it to a stop, only a few feet from the man and his wife.”

 “Many persons witnessed the accident and at once went to the assistance of the unfortunates.” “Bystanders went to the assistance of the injured man and woman” and extricated them from the wreckage. They were lifted from the tracks and made as comfortable as possible until the arrival of an ambulance in which they were taken to St. Mark’s Hospital.

At St. Mark’s hospital, “Mrs. Martello was found severely injured suffering great pain. Her right arm was broken in two places below the elbow. Numerous bruises are on her body. The physicians at the hospital thought at first she had sustained internal injuries. It was found that the woman had sustained a compound fracture of the right arm and serious bruises. It will probably be two months, however, before Mrs. Martello can leave the hospital, as she suffered a fracture of both an arm and a leg, and was more seriously injured than was at first reported.” Mr. Martello was only slightly bruised. “Aside from the shock the man was hurt but little.”

In September 1906 “James M. Martello and Ann Martello his wife”, filed  a lawsuit against the Rio Grande Western railway company in the Third District Court “to collect damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained at the hands of the defendants’ company.”

Martello sued for $1500 saying that he was thrown out of his produce wagon, “receiving severe bruises on the legs and ankles”. “Mrs. Martello sues for $5000 and alleges that she was riding with her husband at the time the wagon was struck by the train and was thrown out and sustained a fractured right arm in two places and her collar bone broken.”

The “actions of James Martello and Ann Martello for $1,500 and $5,000, respectively, for personal injuries received on the Rio Grande Western suit  was dismissed by Third District Court  Judge T.D Lewis in May 1908.

 The Last Information on the Martellos

James and Annie Martello are listed in the 1910 federal census under the last name of “Odell”. He gave his age as 55 years, a native of Italy and residing in the Brighton Precinct. He stated he immigrated to America in 1885 but his naturalization status was still listed as “Alien”. James Martello gave his occupation as a general farmer and that he owned his farm free from a mortgage.

His wife Annie “Odell’s age was listed as 45 years [1865] but her birthplace was given as Italy also. Her year of immigration was given the same as James and she too was listed as an “alien.” In the census, they said they had been married for ten years and that she had no children. It also stated that their marriage was their first.

 James Martello is not listed again in the Polk Directory until 1912 when he was listed as “James Martellie”, a farmer, residing at West Twelve South Brighton which was near 2100 South and Redwood Road today.

The 1920 federal census was a bit more accurate. James and Annie Martello were still enumerated in Brighton at “Buena Vista Station Scattered on Alkali Flats” where  James Martello still was a farmer. He gave his age as 63 years old [1857] and immigrated in 1890. His farm had a mortgage on it compared to the 1910 census.

His wife Annie Martello age was given as “unknown” which was unusual but she was said to have been born in Ireland and immigrated in 1896. This conflicts with the marriage record of 1895 that was recorded in Salt Lake City.

In 1910 James Martello said he could read and write however the 1920 census he was listed as unable to do so. Both James and Annie Martello still were listed as resident aliens.

Annie Martello was the only one, of her sister and husband, who had a death certificate filed with the state of Utah. She died in June 1922 at the age of 47 according to her death certificate, but she was probably at least five years older, maybe even ten.

 Her death certificate gave her name as “Anna Martell” born 1875  in Dublin, Ireland. Her father’s name was given as Michael McGordon. She died on the Brighton farm, one and ½ miles west of Redwood Road on 21st South of “natural causes”.

 Her husband, James Martello, was the informant and he said she lived in city 27 years [1895].  She was buried in the Catholic cemetery of  Mount Calvary in Salt Lake City but no marker was placed on her grave.

 A year later, in September 1923, under the name “Genaro Martelli” the widower James Martello  married again, in Salt Lake City, at the age of 68 [1855]. He married a 60 year old Scottish widow named Rebecca Noble Dewey . 

James and Rebecca Martello were married for only four years when his wife died in September 1927 at the age of 66 years [1861]  Her death record said she died at Twenty-first South and Twenty-first  West which would have been the Brighton farm. She was buried in her family’s plot in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

The last record for James Martello was found in the 1928 Polk Directory for Salt Lake City under the names “James Marthello, still residing in the Brighton area as a farmer.  He is not found in the 1930 federal census of Utah and probably died sometime between 1928 and 1930. He may have been buried also in Salt Lake City’s Catholic Cemetery but no record has been found for where he was interred.

Some Italian Families of Block 63 and 64

 While only one Italian family was listed as living on West Second South Street according to the 1900 census, more were listed on Fifth [Sixth] West  as the “Italian Colony,” located primarily between Second and Fourth South. Located at 563 West Second South, was the James Andrew Lombardi’s family consisting of himself, his wife and three children. Lombardi was an Italian Grocer however he left Second South by 1903 and moved to Thistle, Utah where by 1905 he operated a Saloon there for many years.

 The 1900 federal census enumerated several Italian families residing on Fifth [Sixth] West between Second and Third South across from the Denver & Rio Grande Depot. Biagio [Biaggio] Falcone at 219 South Fifth [Sixth] West was the head of a household consisting of his cousin, his cousin’s wife and four boarders. Falcone, and his relatives were Italian immigrants coming to the United States in 1889. Falcone was a 30 year old single man who was a grocer. His cousin Ranazio Falcone was 34 years old and was a day laborer. His wife and he had only been married 2 years. Biaggio Falcone would marry shortly after this census was taken.

            The boarders living at this address were all native Americans, except one had German parentage and another had English parents. Three were probably employed at the railyards as machinists and a boiler maker while one said he was a farmer. 

The Marine Family

            The city directory listed Raphael Marine [1833-1909], also known as Ralph, as living in Salt Lake City as early at 1891.  The 1900 federal census showed him as a  60 year old railroad laborer named Raphael Marine, residing with his 53 year old wife Lucia [Lucy], and his two sons Michael, age 22, and 19 years old Patric. The family resided at 253 South Fifth [Sixth] West for over a decade. His occupation and those of his sons were given as ‘laborers’, most likely employed in the Denver & Rio Grande freight yards. A third son, Eugene H Marine, was a shoe maker and was married living on First South. Raphael and Lucia stated they immigrated in 1888, however their sons Michael and Patrick were said not to have emigrated from Italy until 1890.  

    Patrick was about ten years old when he attended school in 1892 and with the completion of the Franklin School in 1893 was among it's first class. Patrick "graduated" in 1896. Undoubted his brother Mike also attended the school and may have been only a handful of Italian children in the school. In 1892 Pat had “a severe attack of typhoid fever” which gave him health issues for the rest of his life.  

Ralph Marine’s two sons Mike and Patrick had forms of epilepsy that sometimes caused them to demonstrate violent behavior at home and strike out at harassment by local boys.  Patrick appeared to be the one most often harassed which would end up with him attacking his tormentors; from which he’d be charged with assault and battery.

            Due to the family being harassed by neighborhood youths, the Marine Family found themselves in many newspaper articles and especially in a highly publicized lawsuit against Utah due to charges of cruelty to their son Mike Marine while he was in the custody of the State Mental Hospital at Provo.

In November 1899  Patrick Marine’s older brother Eugene Marine wrote to the Salt Lake Tribune complaining of the tormenting of Patrick. The paper printed, “A relative of Patrick Marine, an unfortunate youth who resides on the West Side, complained to Police Court Clerk Diehl yesterday morning that the youngsters of the Fifteenth Ward were continually teasing young Marine until that youth would become enraged and fall to a fit. He asked if there was no way to stop such proceedings and said if there were not the Marines would have to leave the city.”  Apparently this was in response to 18 year old Patrick being arrested.

            Patrick appeared in Judge Timmony’s Police Court charged with assaulting a 12 year old boy named Edward Folsom who along with his gang of friends had been taunting him. One newspaper reported, “Patrick Marine was the first on the linoleum and the charge against him was assault and battery. Patrick did not appear to be of more than average intelligence. Edward Folsom, a lad of 12, alleged that Marine had struck him with a club. Folsom’s story was moistened with tears and so copious were they  that Officer Randolph looked carefully around for a bucket in which to corral the humidity. Young Folsom said the defendant had been given no cause for the assault and battery in this he was corroborated by Arthur Eardley.” Early was a 14 year old boy who was part of the gang of boys taunting Patrick.

“On his own behalf Marine said he had assaulted the lad. His reasons were: First- He had been called “Old Wienerwurst”; Second- The lads had referred to him as “hot tamale”; Third The gang of which Folsom was alleged to be the leader had suggested that, there was a tone of sarcasm running through it, that he would not look good to them if he was converted into a chicken sandwich; Fourth- There had been doubts expressed whether he would even make a god meat pie; Fifth- It had been resolved by the kids assembled that he was merely a hamburger steak preserved in an injection of formaldehyde.  Then he got angry and trouble began. The trouble will be over fifteen days from date.”

            A more detail account in another newspaper published, “Patrick Marine who is a regular butt for the mischievous boys’ pranks, pleaded not guilty before Judge Timmony in the police court this afternoon to the charge of assault and battery upon the person of Edward Folsom. The aggrieved youngster gave his testimony amid sobs. He said he was not doing anything to Marine when the young man chased him, knocked him down and proceeded to beat him with a club. Witness said he didn’t see the club in question but a Mr. Kelly who saw the affair said so. Arthur Early a 14-year old boy corroborated the testimony of the previous witness. In defense Pat Marine said the boys called him a Franklin Steamer, a Hot Tamale and another name which would not look well to print. The court fixed the penalty at $15 or fifteen days.”

            The term hot tamale was considered an insult as then it meant a comical person and Franklin Steamer most likely referred to the Franklin School which was the neighborhood school in the Fifteenth Ward. Contrary to the reporter who described Patrick as having the appearance of average intelligence he was described by the principal of the school as “one of the bright boys of the Franklin School having graduated from that institution with high honors.”

The Salt Lake Herald reported in February 1902 that Ralph Marine tried to have his two sons Michael and Patrick committed to the mental hospital in order to cure their bouts of mania. “Two cases of insanity in one family came to light yesterday when Raffael Marine, a laboring man, appeared before County Clerk James and swore to information against his two sons Michael Marine ages 22 and Patrick Marine age 20. The older of the two young men has been a victim of epilepsy for several years and now his brother is afflicted in the same way. Both were reported violent and dangerous to themselves as well as others. They were taken in charge by the sheriff and lodged in jail pending a  hearing today.”

After being examined by the county clerk and two doctors, H. N. Mayo and A.C. Young,  the boys were discharged. “They had been informed against by their father. It was not believed that their condition warranted a commitment and after a lecture by the county attorney as to their future conduct they were allowed to depart.

 In August Michael Marine's mother "swore to a complaint in the county clerk’s office charging her son Michael Marine with insanity. The young man resides at 253 South Fifth West Street. He will be given an examination tomorrow afternoon." 

Michael was locked up in the padded cell at the county jail "in an insane condition. The arrest was made at the request of relatives. Marine has been in the same condition several times before. His hearing is set for this afternoon, [August 19]. It was determined that Michael Marine's illness warranted his admittance to the state mental hospital." “The unfortunate man has been subject to epileptic fits for sometime past, and the class of his insanity is designated as epileptic mania.”

 Taken to Provo- Michael Marine on recommendation of Drs. Young and Mayo was yesterday [August 19] committed to the insane asylum at Provo by County Clerk James. The unfortunate man, who is an Italian, and only 20 years of age, lived with his mother, Mrs. Lucy Marine, at 253 South Fifth West street. He has been a sufferer from epileptic fits which recently affected his mind to such a degree that the mother swore out a warrant  for her son’s commitment. The Insane man was taken to Provo last night."  Another report stated he was transferred to Provo on August 20.  "Sheriff Naylor took Michael Marine to the insane asylum at Provo this morning. Marine had been tried for this reason on two former occasions but it is his first trip to Provo."  

Patrick was in court again in January 1903 for assault against 17 year old William C Holding, the son of the  electrician Ephraim G Holding who lived at 164 South Fourth [Fifth] West in Block 64. “Patrick Marine, an ill favored youth of some twenty summers appeared before Judge Tanner in the city court yesterday [January 30] to answer a charge of battery preferred by a youth named Will Holding, who admits to 16 years. Marine was charged with striking Holding with a tack hammer and pistol held in his hand. Pat pleaded guilty to assault but before the judge could sentence him, someone among the spectators shouted, “Wait a minute” and into the presence of the court staggered a man who was carrying a stone which weighed at least a hundred pounds. “Please your honor, said the newcomer, “dat boy Holding did from my brudder’s head dis rock bounce off and he is not guilty” The brother who appeared in court was Eugene Marine as that Michael Marine was committed to the state mental hospital in Provo at the time.

The judge said he would hear Assistant  City attorney Schulder tell the story. "It seems Holding with two other boys was walking down the street when one of them brushed against the pugnacious Patrick who swung his left to the face pf one of the smaller boys and then fled. He was pursued by the three boys and finally he ran into his brother’s shoe shop, from which he emerged with a hammer on one hand and a pistol in the other. He advanced to do battle with  the Holden boy pecked him on the head with the rock which\ was exhibited in court."

"Judge Tanner fined the defendant $10 and the latter at once asked the judge to take it back as he was sorry he pleaded guilty. It was to no avail for he was marched off to jail and the brother jabbered excitedly for a minute before he could be quieted. The question which was before the court after it had adjourned  was “How can a man with the name Patrick Marine have a Dutchman for a brother?’" A Dutchman was slang for someone using profanity. 

 Michael Marine was released from state custody in May after his parents learned that allegedly he was mistreated while at the institution. The family obtained a lawyer to secure his release.  On May 16, five major Utah newspapers, the Salt Lake Herald, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Salt Lake Telegraph, the Deseret News and the Ogden Standard, all carried headlines regarding the accusations made by Michael Marine. They all essentially carried the basic lengthy story as found in the Salt Lake Telegram.

The Salt Lake Telegram ran a front page headline on 16 May 1903 alleging  “Story of Cruelty To Insane Patient At State Mental Hospital Will Be Sifted To the Bottom Says Gov Wells. Michael Marine Declares  He Was Brutally Beaten by Guards; Denial Is Made by Superintendent Hardy.” Governor Heber M. Wells told the newspaper, “The atmosphere of the institution is one of humanity and is tended to uplift the patients. While I take absolutely no stock in the story told by Marine, I shall investigate it fully just the same, from an absolutely disinterested standpoint.”

"Michael Marine, a young Italian epileptic, who was recently committed to the State Mental Hospital at Provo, and who was released from the institution  by Judge Booth yesterday on a $100 bond, had made a statement in which he alleges that he was treated with barbarous cruelly by two of he attendants while confined in the asylum. Marine who is apparently rational, and who talks clearly, is at the home of his father Raphael Marine 253 South Fifth West street.

Says He Was Abused-Marine says that while he was a epileptic, he was harmless, and never attacked anyone at any time. He declares that while in the asylum, a guard had him at work in one of the wards. The attendant George Gatherum began to abuse him, after which he struck Marine. The patient struck back, so he declares and when the fight became spirited, Gatherum was reinforced by another guard.”

 Was placed in a Straitjacket-Then he declares he was struck with something and was rendered insensible. When he revived, he says he in a straitjacket. His arms were so tightly tied that blood could not circulate. Marine asserts he was locked in his cell and was not allowed to go outside the door. He was given insufficient quantity of food and he says he became so weak that he could scarcely walk. Marine adds that he was triced [hauled]  up by the finger  an forced to stand for hours. The fingers were tied with thongs that cut into the flesh and he was straitjacketed for a week after which he says he does not remember what happed until the jacket was removed.

Clubbed and Knocked Down- Marine says he was beaten with a club several times and knocked down frequently by blows on the head and body given by attendants armed with clubs. He also says his parents were not allowed to see him and he had no means of notifying friends of his condition.

Marine’s case has been put in the hands of Attorney A. B. Irvine for investigation and Dr. W. F. Beer examined the young man yesterday afternoon at his office. His body was found to be covered with bruises ad lacerations, his hands cut and his eyes bloodshot. There is one cut on his arm and a deep long one o his back. His lower limbs are covered with a peculiar rash.

Medical Superintendent Hardy made a statement last night concerning the case in which he said: When Marine’s father called to see him the patient was suffering from epileptic mania, following convulsions and I explained that it would do no good to see him as he could not talk to or recognize his father, who was invited to come again and left apparently well satisfied. About two weeks later Marine’s mother called, but the patient was again suffering from mania and she could not see him. Learning that she believed him dead, Marine was brought down to her.

Wounds Were Self Inflicted-There were sores on his hand and face which were self-inflicted by scratching and she made a remark about him having quarreled with someone.  Dr, Hardy emphatically denies that Marine was ever beaten or treated cruelly. One night Marine attacked Gatherum, the attendant and hit him on the head, inflicting a serious scalp wound. Gatherum had to use force to get away form Marine and called another attendant to assist him. In the struggle the lantern carried by the attendant fell and was broken, and Marine cut himself on the fragments. The next morning Dr. Hardy says Marine went into convulsions and in falling struck his head on a wash stand inflicting severe bruises.

No Straitjacket Used.-Dr. Hardy asserts that a straitjacket is noy used at the asylum. The nearest approach to one is a long sleeved jacket oof denim which is used when the hands of the patient must be tied. The sleeves are tied at the sides or back. The hanging by the thumbs the doctor thinks almost too ridiculous to merit a denial and of course he says was not true, the management of the patients being conducted strictly upon humanitarian lines. He also said that Sheriff Harmon and County Attorney Page had investigated the case and were satisfied that the charges of cruelty were not based upon tangible grounds. Sheriff Harmon corroborates Dr. Hardy statements."

Governor Wells when informed of the accusations made against the State Mental hospital called for a thoroughly investigation of Marine's accusations although he admitted he gave no credence to the allegations. 

Attorney A. B. Irvine who has charge of the case for Michael Marine was emphatic that the charges of cruelty were not against the State Mental Hospital but the attendants whom Michael Marine called the cruelest in the world.

    The State Board of Insanity met for an official investigation of Marine’s allegations. A Board of Inquiry was made up of Gov. Heber M Wells, C.S. Tingey and J D Dixon, associated with Secretary DeMoisy, Attorney General Breeden and A.B. Irvine to investigate Marine's allegations. They met with Michael Marine to examine his body for bruises and contusions prior to calling people to testify. Gov. Wells opened the investigation by request Eugene Marine to state the charges of Michael the complaining witness as rhat Michael "was sick and unable to attend.

Eugene said "his brother was sent to the asylum by physicians to be cured of a nervous disease similar to epilepsy. The brother was not insane he declared but was a nervous wreck and very quarrelsome." He added, “all went well for a time after his arrival at the hospital, but he complained in a few days to Rocco Rita, an Italian farmer living near the hospital, that he was being abused and wanted to go home." Michael’s brother Eugene Marine testified that the “bruises his brother bore could not have been self-inflicted.” He “told of the refusal upon two occasions to allow the boy to be seen by his parents.” 

Rita notified Marine’s father Ralph and "he went to Provo to see his son but was informed by Dr. Hardy that young man was too sick to be seen. Eugene went with his mother a week later and they were informed they could not see Michael. They  left "returning later and after waiting for some time he was brought to the office."

 Eugene Marine said his brother "had a gash across his forehead, his eyes were blackened, bloodshot and swollen and his jaws swollen. They began to tallk to him in Italian and the attendants demanded that they speak English so they could understand. They were permitted to talk to him for about five minutes. They returned to Salt Lake but came back to Provo a couple of days after and produced a bond and an order of the court for Michael’s release."

 Eugene Marine said" that after the boy got home he was examined by a physician and it was found that besides the wounds on his head there was a bad wound in the small of his back, and there were wounds and bruises on his forearms an lower limbs also abrasions of the skin on his elbows, and cuts on two fingers of each hand, reaching to the bone. The boy claimed to have been tied up in a jacket for more than a week."

Dr. W. F Beer, who had examined Michael on behalf of his parents, was called to testify and he  "expressed the opinion that the bruises on his arms and back had been made by the ropes of a strait jacket.” The doctor did not believe the cuts on the  Michael’s fingers “had been made by glass but by chafing of ropes.” 

The hospital’s assistant medical superintendent, Dr. Daniel H. Calder, when he testified, said he too  that he found bruises on Michael’s “limbs” but alleged that Marine “admitted he made the by scratching.” Dr. Calder said he  did not examine the bruises on Michael’s back, of which he claimed, “may have been caused by the knot in the back” of the restraining “blouse.’ 

The blue denim blouse was produced before the inquiry court without ropes or strings. The sleeves of the “blouse extended “into long strips that might be tired behind the back. Superintendent Milton H Hardy testified that Marine was unruly and “had certain habits that necessitated his wearing the jacket to prevent harming himself.”  

The three attendants who subdued Michael Marine were called to testify as the charge of cruelity was against them.  Andrew Andrews who was the" ward attendant for the section where Michael Marine was housed" testified that every attendant “was given Marine and he was never mistreated.” 

George Gatherum admitted putting Marine in a restraining “blouse to prevent injuring himself” and denied all charges of cruelty. Gatherum testified that the touble began when “ the mania came on Marine on the night of April 29^th when he was asleep in the corridor."  Gatherum tesified that "while he was preparing a bed for Marine in a safety room, the patient attacked him breaking the lantern globe" and beating him over the head with it. In self protection Gatherum hit Marine on the jaw with his fist. They grappled and the patient bit him on the forearm. He called for help and struck Marine a second time on the jaw."

"Thy were in total darkness" but attendant James C. Knudson [Knutsoon] "who was sleeping in a room near by came immediately to Gatherum’s assistance and the two together overpowered Marine and threw him on the floor." By this time a third attendant Nathaniel M. Goodrich  "had appeared with a light and assisted holding Marine until he could be placed in a blouse."

Gathering testified  "further that no unnecessary force was used but that they put the patient immediately to bed.  Gatherum stated that Maine fell on a washstand and sustained a bad wound on the forehead while in convulsions. "  He could however not account for the wounds on Marine’s arms and denied having struck Marine more than twice. He thought Marine’s fingers were cut by the glass from the broken lantern globe"

 James C. Knutson the attendant who came to Gatherum’s rescue, said "that the two were scuffling on the floor when he arrived, but did not see Gatherum strike the patient. The witness had noticed a wound on Marine’s finger the next day. He thought it had been made by coming in contact with glass on the floor.  Witness stated that Marine had the bouse on only two or three times, and not longer than a day or two at a time. Then it was to keep from hurting himself. He had seen Marine have a convulsion on May 1 and heard him fall. He found him with a cut on his forehead which he thought had been caused by striking the washstand."

Nathaniel Goodrich corroborated Gatherum and Knutson's  version of the fight. However  “Rocco Rita” testified that Gatherum had told him, “the relatives of Marine had better get him out of the asylum or he would die.”  Rita even claimed to have seen a patient struck with a club by an attendant months ago but did not know the individuals. Rita was a native of Italy who owned “several pieces of good farming land about two miles north of Utah State Hospital. 

Dr. Milton H. Hardy,  Superintendent and the guards at asylum were called to testify they  alleged  that Marine being an epileptic possed "delusions of persecution."  Dr. Hardy was the brotherin law of Utah Senator Reed Smoot and had been one of two assistants to Dr. Karl G. Maeser as part of the first faculty of Brigham Young Academy.

 Dr. Hardy testified that "Marine was an insane epileptic with customary delusions of persecution and abuse."  Hardy claimed a strait jacket had never been used at the asylum and produced the blouse made out of blue denim that was used to restrain Marine. As to why the parents of Michael were refused permission to see their son ne said it was  a simple misunderstanding as that  "the young man had been in convulsions and was still in a semi-lucid state." 

Superintendent Hardy retorted, “No effort was made to keep the parents from seeing the boy.” That it was all a “misunderstanding” as that when Ralph Marine was turned away from seeing his son, Michael was “confined in a safety room.” Dr Hardy stated that "had they insisted upon it they could have seen him." As for why Lucia Marine the mother had been kept waiting for two hours before she was allowed to see her son for five minutes, Dr. Hardy said it was "because she called when the patients were at dinner."

On June 1^st  the State Board of Insanity's inquiry  ruled that the charges brought by Marine were unfounded. “That the testimony relating to the difficulty between Nightwatchman Gatherum and Mr. Marine shows conclusively that the violence used by Gatherum was justifiable and clearly in self-defense.” 

"Evidence at the Court of Inquiry  was gathered" to show Marine had “been unruly” and that he had attacked George Gatherum the night attendant. It was also testified by attendants that Marine “had injured himself”,  although it was admitted that Gatherum struck Marine “with his hand during the scuffle.” 

"That the restraint to which Marine was subjected was not a punishment but was necessary to protect him from carrying into effect his disordered fancies regarding his treatment of the eruptions with which he was afflicted. That the cut on Marine’s head and also the bruise on his eye were caused by his falling against a washstand while in one of the convulsions to which he was subject."

"That at no time, while a patient in the hospital was Marine cruelly treated or abuse.”

 Michael Marine was in trouble again in  January 1904 when he was arrested by Salt Lake County Sheriff Frank Emery. Marine was said to "have threatened his father, brother or any officer who tried to arrest him. He made no attempt to assault Sheriff Emery, however." 

"Warrant issued for arrest of Mike Marine on charges of threatening to kill his father and brother. Yesterday Marine became violent arrested by Sheriff  Emery went on the warpath against members of his family. After inspiring fear in the hearts of his family and he neighbors in the vicinity, Marine declared that he would never be taken alive and would protest his arrest to the bitter end. Sheriff Emery secured a warrant and personally undertook the hazardous task of taking into custody the belligerent Marine. The latter was located yesterday afternoon but to the sheriff’s surprise, offered no resistance and submitted quietly to being taken to jail.”

 "Since the time of his release, [May 1903]  his father and brother on two different occasions have had him brought before the proper officials for examination as to his sanity. Although the young man appears to perfectly harmless, his relatives say that he becomes violent and the fear violence."

Michaeel was recommitted to Provo in April but by December he was ordered released from the State Mental Hospital. "His relatives put up a bond of $400 and promised to care for him. This is the second time that  the unfortunate man has been released from the hospital."

It was reported in February 1904 ,  “Aged Woman Struck By Young Hoodlums” Mrs. Marine the aged mother of E. H. Marine, the well know West Second South street business man has been subjected to several outrages at the hand so young rowdies. On three occasions Mrs. Marine who is very old and can hardly walk, has been hit in the face by wet snowballs thrown by a gang of young hoodlums who are said to make their headquarters in the vicinity of Seventh [Eight] West and Second South Street. Mr. Marine has complained to the police but says he can get no satisfaction from them. There is a great deal of indignation by residents of the west end over the actions of the crowd of rowdies."

Eugene Marine's shoe store was located at 402 West Second South at the time and Franklin School was the so called headquarters. 

 Later in March 1904 Patrick Marine died,. The Deseret News reporting, “Bight High School Boy Succumbs to a Complication of troubles. A young Italian named Patrick Marine son of Roff and Lucia Marine of this city died yesterday [20 March] at 10:30 at Holy Cross hospital. His death was superinduced by an operation for an abscess in the head brought on by with other ailments from a severe attack of typhoid fever some 12 years ago [1892]. The deceased was one of the bright boys of the Franklin School having graduated from that institution with high honors. He had entered the high school where his physical condition impaired his intellect and his parents had him placed in the hospital in the hope of his recovery. He was 24 years of age. Funeral services will be held in the St. Patrick’s church tomorrow morning  at 10’oclock and the internment will e at the Calvary cemetery.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported "Patrick Marine the young Italian whose alleged maltreatment at the State mental hospital attracted much attention last year died yesterday  at the Holy Cross hospital from a  complication of diseases."  The paper confused Patrick with his brother Michael. "He was a brother of E. H. Marine and was for several years a student at the Franklin School. Prof. Hallock, the principal says of him: Patrick Marine entered this school in 1892 and graduated in 1896. He did most excellent work until his ailment began to cloud his bright mind and was one of our most promising scholars. He entered the high school but discontinued upon the advice of his physician. The young man was 24 years of age."

 The Intermountain Catholic paper wrote of  his death, "The funeral services over the late Patrick were held last Monday from St. Patrick’s church . Mass was celebrated at 10’oclock by rev. Father Curran, who preached the funeral service. The sympathy of a legion of friends is extended to the bereaved family. The deceased was a bright clever young man, gifted with many good qualities, but the last few years of his life were shadowed by constant illness, and death was to him a blessed relief. May he rest in peace.”

The Salt Lake Herald printed a notice from the family, saying "The parents and brother of the late Patrick Marine desire to think the many friends who so kindly assisted them in their bereavement and loss."

Michael Marine was arrested again in April 1904

 Almost three years after Patrick Marine died, his brother Michael died from injures after being ran over by a train engine. He was living with his his parents at 253 South Fifth west. " Michael Marine 25 years old died at St. Marks hospital at 12:30 o’clock this morning [26 March] as the result of injuries received by being run over by a Rio Grande engine on Second South Street next Sixth [Seventh] West, shortly after 8 o’clock last night. So far as can be learned the man lay a long time after he had been injured before he was discovered by E. Magney, Luke Shaw and Lewis Kohler, car repairers, who heard a man groaning and went to his assistance."

"They found Marine lying between tracks covered with blood. As tenderly as possible they picked him up and carried him to the baggage room where it was discovered that both legs had been cut off below the knees and the right arm severed near the elbow. The injured man lay in the baggage room for nearly three quarters of an hour before medical assistance arrived. He suffered intense agony and begged those present to kill him to put him out of his misery."

"Finally Dr. Warren Benjamin was quickly notified and he responded quickly. He at once ordered the injured man taken to St. Mark’s hospital where everything possible was done for him but he died a few houses after  reaching the hospital. The mother and father were with him when the end came."

Michael Marine came to this country many years ago with his parents and other members of the family. About six years ago he was taken in charge by the officers and examined for his sanity. He was declared insane and committed to the State Mental Hospital in Provo. After being in that institution for about a year he was discharged as cured . Later he was recommitted to the mental hospital and after spending several months  there was again discharged. Since his second discharge he has lived with his parents near the Rio Grande depot."

"His brother E. H. Marine made the following statement this morning: 'Michael was not insane at the time of the accident last night nor had he been for some time. We sent to Naples, Italy, some time ago, for medicine put up by a noted doctor of that city. Since my brother has been taking the medicine, he had no symptoms of insanity."

"He left the house about 8 o’clock last night, telling mother that he was going to visit an uncle who lives on Seventh [Eighth] West Street. That was the last that any of us saw of him until we saw him at the hospital several hours later. I am satisfied that he was struck by an engine and run over. It is horrible to think of that time that he must have lain on that track after being struck before he was found, and it is worse to think of the delay before medical aid was secured. I think the whole matter should be thoroughly investigated by the proper officers."

"The funeral of the unfortunate man will be held from St. Patrick’s church, corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and Third South, Thursday morning at 10 o’clock. County Attorney William Hanson and Coroner Dana T Smith had not decided early this morning whether an inquest will be necessary."

 The old couple continued to live on Pierpont Street west of the playground the Franklin School from which they were harassed by rowdy students there. In November 1908 the Salt Lake Herald reported “Italian Says He Is Persecuted By Pupils of Franklin School. Since opening of the school this fall there has been a battle raging between children of the Franklin school and an aged Italian named Marine, who owns a little home adjoining the school on the west. Several stories come from the battlefield as who is at fault, if anybody, and what the exact fault is,  if any. Marine declares the boys throw rocks at him and annoy him in many other ways. F. M Poulson, principal of the Franklin School says that the boys do not annoy, but the trouble is with Marine, who cares but little for the children."

"Friday afternoon E H Marine, a  son of the old man in question reported to Superintendent Christensen that the boys at the school had again been throwing rocks. Marine reported that a large rock struck his father on the head, inflicting serious injury. He also reported that four or five windows had been broken. A strong protest was also made by Marine that the school board had filled in the grounds raising the school property several feet above that of Marine’s. Superintendent Christensen immediately called Mr. Poulson and ordered an investigation of the affair. Mr. Poulson reported that he was unable to find any injury on the old man or any windows broken."

"Mr. Marine declares that since the opening of the school the boys, morning, recess, noon hour and in the evening after school spent the greater part of their time in annoying his father. He alleges that his father is the object of their continual abuse and no act too low for the boys to commit against the old man. He says that it is the one joy of the boys in the neighborhood to find some new way in which to displeasure his father and are at all times heaping their slander and abuse on him." Eugene Maurine resided  at 759 West Second South just to the east of Franklin School  

"From the board of education and the school principal comes another story. Superintendent Christensen said last evening that the complaints of Marine were made only because he wanted to dispose of his property to the school board and he hoped this would be a means to force them to buy the ground. He says he is sure the old man is not being hurt by the boys and it is the opinion that Marine and his wife are always the first to start the battle."

"Mr. Poulson said last evening he had ordered the children at school not to annoy the old couple. He also said he had told Marine and his wife it would be best if they remain in their house during the time the children were at play for a short while until they cease to think of annoying them. Marine refuses to stay in the house and the war between him and the children continue. The juvenile court has received several complaints regarding the children at the school as yet nothing has been done. Guardello Brown said last evening he had ordered a man to investigate the trouble. He has not however received any report about the matter."  Brown was the chief probatin officer of the juvenile court. 

Raffaele Marine died in 1909 of kidney failure. His his death certificate stated he was about 76 years old but in the 1900 federal census he is listed as 60 years old. His wife died in 1915 of pneumonia. He and his wife are buried in the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery according to their death certificates.

The family's survicing son Eugene Marine wrote several letter to the Salt Lake Telegram chiding them for their disparaging reporting on Italians.  In 1914 he wrote, "My dear Telegram I have on occasion to answer on your so called people editorial idea this much; What the so called dago can do in one minute that takes the Yankee gringos, Swede, Dutch, can do in fifty years, so called in this country, white people or white slaves. The Italians people, sons of Rome, do not work cheap, as you have demonstrating on your editorial page or pages. In this fact we, the first white people in the world, who has opened your door of civilization, we invite you and your nobility to go and see that Mr. D’Annunzio has to show to you while there chewing your gum. Truly Yours  E. H. Marine."

Marine was referring to Gabrielle D'Annuzion's motion picture "Cabiria" which played at the Utah Theater. The movie about ancient Rome was featured as  “The World’s Most Stupendous Photo Spectacle  Accompanied by Orchestra of 30 Pieces and Chorus of 20." Salt Lake City was only one of four wester cities where the movie was shown.

In another Letter Editor of the Telegram and to a Mr. Champion, he wrote: It is a fact that we Italians do work a great deal. It is due to stem and is not a disgrace for us to do so. In order to keep wife and children from starving to death, it s a blessing to work in such a manner  and we thank God for it. It is better to work for cheap wages than to be ‘bumming’ around and ‘mooching.’ For some of us have to work for our very lives, while others work for $3000 a week. That is more money than you and I can make in five years, Mr. Cameron."

When you call the Italians “Dago” you are not using the correct name. In Latin they call us ‘Deos’ -that means ‘God.” In Spanish they call us “Don Diego.’ In Mexico we are ‘Don Dago’-the last instance being only a Spanish dialect.

"Mr. Cameron don’t; worry about us. We know better, in that we know what we do. At all times keep your head cool. To be so sorry does not do you any good. Of course we will forgive such people. For the reason that the world is full of prejudices, ignorance and savage disposition, yet it is shown that in this country where culture and civilization stand by us we can learn better modes of living every day in this great country of America. This is my answer to Mr. Cameron’s Editorial to the People. I thank you very much Yours Truly E H Marine"

Raffelle “Ralph” Mauro [1860-1931] 

 “Ralph” Mauro was living in Salt Lake City as early as 1888 and for many years was business owner of a saloon and grocery story on West Second South. He moved from Salt Lake City in 1928 to San Francisco but had retired to Utah a month before he died at his daughter’s home in the city.

The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed a two story brick dwelling with a long one story wooden front porch and two wooden additions in the rear.  Being the additions was a one story brick cellar.

1890 Girl to do Kitchen work  No washing Good wages

Raffelo Meuro [1860-1931], an Italian immigrant laborer, was in Salt Lake City by 1891 when his name was on a list of unclaimed letters left in the post office. From 1894 through1896-Raffelo Meuro was listed at this address 156 South Fourth [Fifth] West as car repairer for the Rio Grande Western Railway. He moved from this address in 1897 to the small brick home at 154 South.

The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed a small brick dwelling that was vacant which in 1898 was given the address of 154 South twelve feet north of 156 South.

The 1897Polk directory listed “Raffaello”  Mauro  at this address as a Carpenter. He must have left his former residence when Silas Rall moved in. 

1898 “Raffale Mauro” was residing  at this address 154 South Fourth [Fifth] West along with his 16 year old son John Mauro. The 1900 federal census showed that he had moved away to Scofield in Carbon County where he was working as Railroad car repairer. He stated that he immigrated in 1887 followed by his wife and son in 1889.

The family may have moved away from Salt Lake after June 1899 due to Mrs. Catherine Mauro having legal troubles. In an article “Women and Revolvers Cause Excitement  Near Rio Grande Depot” Mrs. Mauro and Mrs. Mary Cannella were placed in jail after Mrs. Filomena Rose charged that Canella fired a Gun at her while Canella claimed the gun with off accidently .

 “The Women Belong to the Italian Colony and Have Not been friends.” 

Mrs. Mauro was in the house at the time of the shooting. When Cannella was asked what she and the other woman were doing with the guns, she said they had the weapons to protect themselves. In default of a $750 bail the women went to jail. Charles Bonita was formerly a barber at 56 West First South but is now running the Council Saloon. He is said to be a leader among the Italian residents who look to him for counsel in nearly every matter pertaining to the colony and was an interpreter.”

At the close of Mrs. Mauro’s trial Mrs. Rosa was put on the stand and said that Bonetti sent for her to come to his saloon being escorted into a private room. There she claims Bonetti in the presence of an attorney offered her $35 of the privilege of going to any store in town an getting the best clothes she could find and he would  pay for them if she would say on the witness stand that Mrs. Mauro did not have a pistol and that Mrs. Cannello did n shoot at her.”

The case of the state vs., Ms. Catherina Mauro whose true name is Argera before Judge Timmony . Mrs. Mauro was accused of brandishing a pistol and threatening to shoot Mrs. Mary Rosa of 564 West Fourth South street during a fracas .

Mrs. Rosa’s story was that Mrs. Canello shot point blank at her with a revolver while she was passing Cannello home. Mrs. Mauro was also there and pointed a pistol at Mrs. Rosa telling her if she didn’t get away from the house she would shoot. When Canello fired, Mrs. Rosa threw a rock and ran

Mrs. Mauro had gone around the neighborhood in search of a pistol procuring one at Tony Appelos

John Joseph 356 West Third South was an eye witness. Ernest Love and Lawrence Milk two little boys saw from a distance and bore out Mrs. Rosa’s story. The two pistols were found at the Mauro’ residence and

Canello and Mauro claimed that Mrs. Rosa in passing the house threw some rocks at the parties and in other ways made herself obnoxious and that it was necessary to make her desist a claim of great provocation

Judge Timmony ruled that there may have been provocation and in the face of evidence, conflicting as it was, he did not feel disposed to impose any fine or punishment but would discharge the defendant. Mrs. Cannello remained in the sheriff custody.

Catarino Mauro died May 13 1901 in Salt Lake City of septicemia  at the age 41. “Ralph Mauro remarried in 1902 to Maggie McNellis. She must have died shortly after the census was taken as he remarried in 1902.

The 1900 federal census listed the family of James Grahams [Garham] at this address 

 At 503 West the Railroad Club beer parlor replaced joseph Grisolieo’s beer parlor when he became partners with Antonio Pignanelli.  Anchoring the corner of 200 South and 400 West [500 west] was 50 year old Italian, Thomas Campanaro’s grocery store at 501 West

           At the corner of Second South and 400 West [500 West] there was Tony Blanch’s Soft Drink establishment at 505 West and Thomas Campanaro’s Grocery store at 501 West. The 1930 Census stated that Tom Campanaro was an 39 year old Italian who emigrated in 1919 and was the owner of a grocery store.

After world war II the Polk City Directory listed 25 addresses but only 3 of these were vacant. Gone however was Campanaro’s grocery store at 501 West.  The railroad Club bar at 503 was now solely owned by Anthony Pignanelli. 

Anchoring the corner of 200 South and 500 west at 501 West was a grocery store owned by an Italian named Thomas Campanaro [1890-1965]. He was in Salt Lake City as early as 1916 when he was married. By 1920 he had moved his grocery store to 501 West South where he remained in business for over twenty years. He and his wife Grace lived much of their lives at 318 South 400 West [500 West] just a block and a half from their store located on the corner of 200 South and 500 West.

In 1921 Campanaro became a United States citizen but during Prohibition and the short lived Utah prohibition of the selling of cigarettes, he was in trouble with the law. In February 1923 he was arrested along with other shop keepers after Salt Lake City police raided several businesses on “Cigaret Complaints.”

A more serious charge came in June 1923 when he and fellow Italian Anthony Ferro were arrested after raids on their residences by deputy sheriffs who confiscated “two truckloads” of imported wine. Campanaro was “accused of possession of liquor, attempted bribery of the deputies who raided his residence and theft of gas by tampering with the gas meter”.  

However in court it was stated “that no bribe had been offered on behalf of the accused. It was said that they were lacking in expression in English and that the money was tendered to pay a fine should one be imposed.”

It was also that claimed,  “there was no merit in the prosecution in that both the accused men declare that the liquor seized was obtained by them prior to the prohibition law becoming effective. The liquor seized for the most part consisted of imported wines.”

Actually Tom Campanaro was an active member of the Italian community, having helped in the 1918 War Relief fund for Italy and in 1925 he was elected vice-president of the Italian-American Club for many years. Also in the 1930’s he sponsored in the fund raisers and galas for the orphans of St. Anne’s Catholic Orphanage on 21^st South. Tom Campanaro and his wife Grace were childless themselves.

An article from 1930, titled “S. L. Merchant to Visit His Old Home in Italy”, it mentioned that “Tom Campanaro, local merchant and prominent in the Italian colony of Salt Lake”, sailed from New York  back to Calico, Italy, “his birthplace” to visit his mother and other relatives. The article mentioned that “He has been a resident of Salt Lake twenty-two years” but actually he had been for much longer.  Benito Mussolini had established a fascist dictatorship in 1922 in Italy.

The Campanaro Grocery Store was robbed in December 1936 according to the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. “BANDITS BIND, ROB SALT  LAKE GROCER Two armed men entered Tom Campanaro's grocery at 501 West Second South street shortly after afternoon Friday,  bound him, threatened  to blow his brains out and escaped with $12. Campanaro told police he was sitting in the rear of the store when the two men entered. As he arose to meet them, they pulled out revolvers and ordered the proprietor into a backroom. They tied his hands and feet and while one bandit cut telephone wires the other rifled the cash register. Campanaro described them as both about 35 years old five, feet six inches in height, and wearing overcoats.

When Campanaro gave up his grocery store sometime after 1942, he worked at the Capri Restaurant, that he and his wife owned along with a business partner named Joseph Vincent Sicillanio. The restaurant was located at 121 South West Temple and was quite successful.   Tom Campanaro died at the age of 74 and is buried in the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

            After the site was vacated Antonio Pignanelli moved his Railroad Club Tavern into the space about 1948.

April 1946 Travis Washington age 37 Negro charged with murder in the first degree murdered Robert Johnson Jr  57 He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

April 1946 An Indian woman 26 years old was arrested at 562 ½ after a soldier’s complaint that he contracted a veneral “communicable” disease from her.

Several of the 14 arrested at 560 West tested positive for veneral disease.

 Franklin School was the elementary school that served the children westside population of what as once known as the Fifteen Ward in the Second Precinct of Salt Lake City. The building was located at the corner of Seventh [Eight] West and Second South which was later given the address of 809 West Second South.

It was built in 1892 at a cost of $29,000 in the “new style of school architecture, two stories and a basement, the latter being 10 feet in the clear and the stores 14 feet high each; and the attic is to be arranged that a 28 x 40 feet hall can be finished there. The size of the building is 90 x 90 , buff brick and red sandstone trimmings, containing ten classrooms six 32 x 25, two 27 x 29, and two 26 x 30, each room having two cloakrooms. Then there is the principal’s room and two recital rooms. The closets [toilets] will be of the ‘dry’ variety, the contents being disposed of by cremation and the heating will be by furnace.”

Each classroom was designed to contain fifty-five pupils however on open day 10 April 1893 it was already overcrowded. Franklin School House It Is to Be Opened With a Rush of Pupils This Morning. Six Hundred to be on Hand.”

“The new Franklin school southwest corner of Second South and Seventh West will be opened this morning. It is a fine ten room building and will seat comfortably about 550 pupils; but probably all of 600 will have to be crowded in. The structure is red brick with dark stone sills and caps.”

“Two of the classrooms are in the basement so called but this basement is altogether above ground and the two school there are healthy and convenient as any. First floor has four large classrooms, one in each corner and there is a spacious hall all being approached by  broad stairways   Each classroom has two commodious children’s hat and coat rooms one each for boys and girls. East of the hall is the library and a recital room. The finish of the building is of Georgia pine and presents an exceedingly handsome appearance.

The first principal of the school was Prof. Edwin S. Hallock [1854-1934] and the school employed ten teachers. “He will be assisted by the teachers who have been in charge with him at the Armstrong building, the Westminster Church rooms and the Whitney building which the Salt Lake School district had leased until Franklin was built at the total cost of  $47,293.91. The site was purchased for $9,925 and the building cost $30,990 to construct. Principal Hallock’s salary was $1,362.50 per annum. There were two “beginning”, now kindergarten, teachers Barbara Hoffer and Emma Porter. Hoffer’s annual salary was $243.7 while Emma Porter was $211.25. There were also two First Grade teachers, Mary Dysart  and Mary A Cauffield. Dysart was the highest paid teacher at  $808.75 per annum and Cauffield made $262.50. The Second Grade teacher Mrs. Flora R Irwin made the same salary as Cauffield, $262.50. The Third Grade teacher was Miss Gertrude Dull  who taught 50 students and the Fourth Grade teacher Mollie Hull. Mary E. Berkely taught a combine class of Fourth and Fifth Grades and made $281.51 per annum. Katie Dean taught a combine class of Fifth and Sixth Grades, and made $255.50. Ida B Woodworth taught a combine class of Sixth and Seventh Grades at $281 per annum.  By 1898 only Mary Berkely and Barbara Hoffer remained from the original teachers.

Ella Dukes was an assistant principal and was paid $490 per annum and Thomas Jones was employed as the janitor at $510 a year.

As that the school was built adjacent to the main tracks of the Rio Grande Western railway, the company “was instructed to place a flag man at the railway crossing on Second South and Sixth [Seventh] West  streets to protect pupils of the Franklin school and other pedestrians at the company’s expense.”

As the demographics of the Fifteenth Ward changed dramatically in the early 1900’s Franklin school enrolled nearly all the children of immigrants who came to work for the railroads and smelters. Mormon families moved further west into what is now known as Poplar Grove away from the Rio Grande District. A new school Riverside at Sixth South and Eighth [Nineth] West was built but be being completed “ the district sent to Franklin school” and the building was “crowded to the utmost. Seats were arranged in the corridors to accommodate the larger pupils while the lower grades and beginners had to be sent home until the new building is completed.”

The site of the old Franklin School lay in the path of the proposed construction of the Interstate Highway system that would divide the city in half. The Utah State Highway Department proposed to buy the property and eventually demolish the school. Franklin School stood on Second South until 1960 while a new school was being built at 1100 West Fourth South in 1958 that was also named Franklin. At the time of the purchase of the building, “631 students were in class there,”  nearly the same as when it first opened in 1893. The building was condemned in April 1960.

However before those plans to demolish the school were made, in February 1951 the Salt Lake City School District authorized the “Remodeling of the 59 year old Franklin School.” The project was authorized by the School Board  and Dr. M Lynn Bennion the district’s superintendent.  He told that “work would begin soon but that only one room could be remodeled at a time as long as school was in session.  Modernization to continue through summer”

However it was nearly two years before the remodeling was completed in January 1953. It was reported, “A dozen or so such buildings constructed near the turn of the century will lend themselves well to interior remodeling. They are sound, roomy and can be made comfortable, safe and pleasant to a far better degree than those put up in the 1920’s when builders made the mistake of “pinching too much”.

In April 1960 the Utah State Highway Department acquired the property for the new downtown Interstate system. The building was “immediately west of Interstate Highway 15 between two ramps which connect I-15 and I-80 which proceeds westward on 2nd South. At first the old school had been suggested to house a police station temporally but when it proved impractical a material laboratory and sign shop for Highway department was placed in the building instead.   

“Title to the property was acquired by the highway department from the Salt Lake City School board after a long and bitter dispute to its value.” In 1962 a Third District Court jury “required the state to pay $425,000 to the Salt Lake School District  for Franklin School. The state offered up to $350,000, the school district had asked for $550,000.”

In March 1965 the “old building now virtually surrounded by freeways” was razed by “heavy equipment” that  battered “down the front of the old Franklin School.”

In September 1960, a man named  Carl B Craig who had attended the old Franklin School “back in the early years of the century” composed the following verses.

 “Oh Franklin, dear Franklin, the school of my youth,

Where I was instructed in wisdom and truth

With Pleasure I welcome those thoughts dim with age

That pass in review on my memory’s page.

Though kaleidoscopic , still they are a part’

Oh that youthful life’s dream that lies in my heart.

And whenever I think of those glad days of yore

I long to go back to my childhood once more.